#both species already think poorly of the other

[gallusrostromegalus]

My Brain, for no goddamn reason: You know what would be funny? Me, up too early to drop my car off for maintainence: what? Brain: What if Wookiees and Kaminoans shared a recent common ancestor? Me: ... Me: *rapid mental theoretical xenobiology montage* Me: LOL. LMAO.

#both species already think poorly of the other #learning they share an ancestor is bad enough #learning that that ancestor looks like a stretched out Mad Max Extra with the galaxy's most magnificent mowhawk sends both into FITS #there's probably canon that directly contradicts this #but I don't care

[reasonsforhope]

[Warning: Graphic (some very graphic) shark-fishing pictures at the link.]

"Suhardi isn’t your average snorkeling guide. Born on the Indonesian island of Lombok, he’s spent his life on water. While he now seeks out sharks for the enjoyment of tourists, he once hunted sharks to help earn money to feed his family and educate his two children.

Suhardi was a fisherman for more than 20 years. He first started fishing working on his parents’ boat, but was then asked to join the crew of a shark boat where he was told he could earn a lot of money. Back on deck, he looks embarrassed to divulge what a meager wage it was, but finally confesses he earned around $50 for up to a month at sea.

Now he and 12 other former shark fishermen are part of The Dorsal Effect, an ecotourism company that helps ex-shark hunters find a new vocation. Each week, the team takes groups of tourists, schoolchildren and university students to off-the-grid locations and guides them around pristine reefs. Each trip is designed to take guests on an exploratory journey of both the shark trade and marine conservation through the eyes of the Sasak people of Lombok.

Lombok is a hotspot for marine diversity, sitting just east of the Wallace Line, a biogeographical boundary separating Asia and Australia and their respective fauna. Pristine coral gardens and around 80 species of sharks can be found in its waters. The island is also part of the world’s largest shark-fishing nation. Only the whale shark (Rhincondon typus) is protected in Indonesia; all other sharks can be legally caught.

The Dorsal Effect first launched in 2013, a year after Suhardi met Singaporean ecologist Kathy Xu, who had traveled to Lombok to find out more about the shark trade. The diminutive but quietly determined Xu wanted to protect sharks, but because she knew shark fishing was poorly paid and dangerous, she wanted to hear the fishermen’s stories too. They told her how once they could fish for sharks close to shore, but now with the shark population dropping, the fishermen said they needed to travel farther out to sea, only to come home with a relatively poor catch. The reduced catch also meant reduced pay, so they often couldn’t cover their costs...

Yet, when Xu asked why fishers didn’t seek out another trade, she learned they didn’t want to be separated from the sea. They saw it as part of their heritage.

But as they spoke longer, the shark fishermen talked about the coral gardens that could be found under the waves, ones that only they knew about. Inspired by a whale shark diving trip she’d taken with scientists on the Great Barrier Reef, Xu had an idea. “If such spots exist,” she recalls telling the fishers, “I could take tourists out with you and pay you more than you earned shark fishing”.

At first, Xu guided the former shark fishermen on how to become eco-friendly tour operators. They dropped anchor away from the reef, served guests plant-based dishes, and made sure all trash was taken back to shore. But then Xu saw that something special was happening: The former fishermen had started to take the guest experience into their own hands, making sure tourists felt at home. Suhardi painted “Welcome” in large letters over the front of his boat, fitted green baize to the top deck for outdoor seating, and hung curtains in the cabin so his guests could enjoy some shade.

Suhardi has already bought a new boat with his earnings from snorkeling trips. “Every day is my best day,” laughs Suhardi, whose smile always travels from his mouth to his eyes.

While they were receiving tourists from across the globe, there was another group that Xu wanted to reach out to. “I think it was the teacher in me who felt impassioned about influencing the young,” she says. She reached out to schools and created a five-day program that would help students understand the shark trade and local conservation efforts. During the program, paid for by the school and students, participants would not only meet the ex-shark fishermen so they could ask them about their lives, but also hear from NGOs such as the Wildlife Conservation Society about their efforts to slow the trade. The Dorsal Effect also hired marine biologists to host nightly lectures and help the students with their field surveys...

The students were faced with the realities of the fishing trade, but they were also encouraged to take a balanced view by The Dorsal Effect team. The villagers weren’t just taking the fins, and throwing away the rest of the shark; they processed every piece of the animal. While they did sell the meat and fins to buyers at the market, they also sold the teeth to jewelers, and the remains for pet food.

The Dorsal Effect also takes students on an excursion to the fishermen’s village, a small island that lies off the coast of Lombok. Marine biologist Bryan Ng Sai Lin, who was hired by The Dorsal Effect team, says that on one trip with students he was surprised by how quickly the young people understood the situation. “One of them said it’s good to think about conservation, but at the same time these people don’t really have any other choice,” Lin says....

Conservation scientist Hollie Booth of Save Our Seas, which does not work directly with The Dorsal Effect, says the need to provide legal profitable alternatives to shark fishing is critical: “We are never going to solve biodiversity and environment issues unless we think about incentives and take local people’s needs into account. These kinds of programs are really important.”"

-via Mongabay, December 15, 2023

#shark #sharks #fish #marine biology #marine animals #sea creatures #fishing #marine life #marine conservation #endangered species #overfishing #indonesia #lombok #school #field trip #ocean #pacific ocean #biodiversity #conservation #environmentalism #fishermen #scuba #scubadiving #underwater #diving #coral reef #ocean life #good news #hope

[bugboioli23]

Swerve x Human!Reader

Disclaimer: I haven't written fic for a few years so my skills are gonna be a bit shit to be honest, any criticism is welcome and id love to hear what you guys think 💚

THIS IS 18+ - size difference, valveplug, oral sex, fingerfucking, doggy style, riding - 2911 words - AFAB reader but no pronouns are used

You and Swerve had been friends since you stepped foot on the Lost Light. Something about his chatterbox personality and sitcom-like humor had you beaming whenever you were around him. The best nights were spent perched on the edge of the bar counter, rambling for hours on end with Swerve. Tonight was one of those nights. It was after the doors had closed, the bar empty and silent aside from the laughter ricocheting from the both of you. 

“Really?!” You yelped, eyes wide in surprise as you stared at the grinning minibot.

“I'm telling you! You wouldn't believe the amount of mechs who come by here asking for you!” Swerve replied with a chuckle, shaking his helm in shared disbelief. “Not only that but they actually think they could frag you! I'm probably one of the few bots on here who could frag you full sized.” Swerve paused, face freezing for a second as he quickly backtracked on his statement. “I mean- not that we would- NOT THAT I WOULDN'T WANT TO- I'm sure you’d make a lovely frag- NOT LIKE THAT- I JUST MEANT- im sorry- ” Swerve seemed to shrink in on himself as he continued to mumble to himself anxiously.

Your face burned red at the idea. The thought of a bot being stuffed between your folds, trembling at the foreign sensation of the wet flesh of your cunt. You wondered about the anatomy that laid hidden under the panels of your metallic friends. How similar are you compared to them? Just how compatible are your species? You already had gotten an enlightening talk from Brainstorm about Cybertronian anatomy after you explained human anatomy to him. (For his holoforms of course. No other reason.) You knew what you could take, but the fresh reality that this could happen left blood rushing south. 

“Uhm…  ____? You good? I hope I didn’t make you uncomfortable or anything. I should’ve kept my mouth shut, I’m sorry.” Swerve looked at you apologetically. His light pout and the puppy eyes you could barely see behind his visor brought forth images that made warmth surge through your body once more. How would Swerve act if you asked him to fuck you? He seemed like the type of Cybertronian who wouldn’t mind a little experimenting with humans. He seemed like the type to whimper; the type to beg. 

Heat flushed through your face as reality caught back up to you. You flashed him a bright smile and waved your hand dismissively.

“Don’t worry about me, I’m alright. Just thinking.” You glanced at Swerve, who looked unconvinced. “Hey, weren’t you and Blurr going to open a bar before you came here?” You asked out of nowhere, hoping to turn his attention onto something else. It seemed to work because he was already telling you about how Blurr was secretly his best friend. While the bartender was distracted, you let your thoughts turn back to the ideas at hand. You found Swerve to be adorable, the way he seemed to always work with a smile despite people talking poorly about him. His fascination with your species’ tv and music and how he would light up when you offered another film for movie nights. After tonight’s conversation, you decided it’s now or never to shoot your shot with him.

“Swerve?” You looked him up and down with a smile, interjecting his speech on Blurr’s latest record break. “Do you think fragging a human would be possible?” You spoke sweetly, letting your voice fall an octave to emphasize your intentions. 

“Uhm, wouldn't Ratchet be better at answering that than I would?” Swerve thought he was hearing things. In his mind there was no possible way that you just asked what you had asked. His head must've made that up. It had to be some kind of self inflicted auditory hallucination. The way you smiled softly and rested a hand on his arm before leaning closer must also be a trick of the optics.

“Swerve, darling. I asked you for a reason.” You replied coyly, glancing up at him with an endearing grin. He felt his intake hitch and a sliver of charge run down his frame. 

“Oh.” He choked out, face tinted with the rush of energon. His cooling fans kicked on with just the mere suggestion of what tonight could entail. “I- I suppose we could- figure it out…” He grinned shyly.

“That’s a good mech.” You purred, wide grin never faltering as you hopped down from the counter. You sauntered out of the bar with a new sense of confidence, only pausing to gesture to him to follow before the doors closed behind you. Swerve had to take a minute to collect his thoughts before practically sprinting after you.

Your habsuite was uniquely modified for your species. Instead of a hard metal berth, you had a cushy soft bed adorned with a mass of plushies, pillows and blankets. Soft lighting glowed from lower points in the room instead of one harsh light from above. It had your special charm to it, and Swerve wanted to spend every moment he could in there with you. 

“So,” You started plopping yourself down on the edge of your bed, patting the spot next to you, “I’m going to skip all the pleasantries here, I want you to fuck me.”

Swerve let out a whine, feeling a surge of arousal flooding through his systems. His spike pressurized quickly, becoming heavy behind his panels with an embarrassingly loud thud. “Did you have to be so bold about it?” He hissed through clenched dentae as you gazed at him with desire. 

“I think it’s more fun to watch your reactions.” You hummed contentedly before climbing into his lap, “Can I kiss you? Would that be okay?” You spoke softly, but your eyes never left his face. Swerve nodded hastily, servos hovering above your body anxiously. His intake opened to start a flood of questions but you cut him off with a kiss, exploring the foreign texture of his pliable metallic face. The strange rubbery feeling of his glossa felt wonderfly new against the soft muscle of your tongue. You let out a soft noise of pleasure against his mouth before you were interrupted by a snap of panels retracting and an enticing pressure laying heavy on your thigh. 

“Oh- Slag, sorry I- you’re so- I wasn’t able to-,” Swerve began, but you pressed a finger to his lips as you looked down to study the new part of him. It was about 8 inches long, the red tip of it already leaking prefluids. It was mostly white, with a stripe of red along the underside decorated with biolights which pulsed needily. You trailed your hand lightly along the length, your fingers barely unable to touch around the girth of it. You looked back up at Swerve who was hiding behind his servos, face tinted pink with energon. 

“Listen… I know I’m not as big as other bots but please… don’t stop whatever you were planning to do.” Swerve mumbled shyly, peeking at you between his digits.

“Oh, hun. You don’t have to worry about anything. You’ve got more than enough for me to enjoy.” You smiled, sliding off his lap to kneel between his legs. “May I?” You asked, wanting to explore his anatomy further. 

He let out a shaky exvent with a nod and you ran your fingers along the grooves and panels of the Cybertronian anatomy. It wasn’t until you had gotten eye level with his spike that you had noticed his valve. It was dripping with transfluid and the hooded node was glowing a beautiful blue. You looked up at him from your position, eyes full of lust. 

“Change of plans. Lean back for me, I’ve gotta taste you.” You purred, firmly pushing against his midsection lightly as he rested his back against the wall of pillows. You gently pushed his thighs open and trailed two fingers against the slick folds of his valve, coating your fingers in the sticky substance. You studied your digits before popping them into your mouth. The pink fluid was metallic and sour, but addicting in a strange way. You wanted more. Spreading his folds with one hand, you delved into his valve. Swerve watched, entranced by the way you slid the flat of your tongue against him. The sensation made him let out soft groans, which encouraged you more. You took your other hand and gently circled his anterior node, ghosting the edges of it teasingly. Your tongue dove into his entrance and you felt the inner calipers twitch and throb with need. 

“Oh frag… you’re good a-at this. I’m- hnghh… I don’t have enough stamina for t-this!” Swerve whined as you moved the hand separating his folds and you backed away from his plush valve.

“Don’t worry, you are doing so good. Just lie back and let me take care of you, okay?” You cooed and went back to lapping at the transfluid that fell from his folds. One hand finally gave his anterior node pressure while your other hand went up to stroke at his spike lazily. The result of your combined actions had Swerve clawing at the sheets, his intake falling open as he gasped and mewled out so many words you couldn’t tell what he was saying until it was too late. 

Warm fluid gushed over your face as he overloaded while you were still tongue deep in his valve. His spike throbbed in your hand as you felt more transfluid land in your hair and shoulder. 

“FRAG- Ah- hah…!” Swerve whined as his frame trembled through the aftershocks. “Oh slag im so sorry!” His visor came back online just in time to witness your mouth and jaw covered in dripping pink fluids.

You licked your lips and wiped your face with your shirt before taking it off and tossing it aside. “Hey.. hey no worries. It’s okay. You’re okay.” You kissed his cheek, patting his thigh softly. “You did amazing. I’m so glad I could make you feel good.” 

Swerve let out another high whine, seeing your chest bare before him. He slowly raised his servos to graze the flesh around your nipples. You sighed softly and raised your hands to press his servos more firmly to your skin. Swerve was still panting from his previous overload but he leaned in to press his lips gently against your sternum. His servos wandered up to press and massage at your nipples, circling them like you did to his node earlier. Your back arched, pushing your chest further into his servos as your mouth fell open softly. Swerve looked up at you, visor glowing with excitement and awe. “You’re stunning. I mean- frag, look at you, coated with my overload. Mine…” He breathed out, eyes trailing down your body to rest at your pants. He seemed to swallow before shakily continuing. “D-Do you still want me t-to..you know.. t-”

“I still want you to fuck me, Swerve.” You finished for him, moving your hands to swiftly undo the buttons of your pants, pulling off your undergarments at the same time and tossing them behind you. You grabbed onto his wrist and guided his fingers up towards your wet folds. Swerve got the hint and gently worked one finger into the tight heat of your cunt. He could feel the gentle pulse and pull of your walls around his digit, and he could barely imagine what it would feel like around his spike. After he felt you loosen up a bit, he slid in a second digit. You let out a gasp and a soft groan at the stretch, knowing that this was just the beginning if you wanted to be prepared to take his spike. 

Swerve gently curled and flexed his digits, exploring your sex thoroughly as his processor worked overtime to memorize which movements felt the best for you. His audials turned to max sensitivity to be sure he could hear every whine and murmur of praise that fell from your lips. He could feel the second rush of energon repressurising his spike the more he pumped his digits into you. You glanced down between the both of you to smirk at his array before leaning in and pressing another kiss to his jaw.

“Awh, look at you,” You cooed, lifting your hips up to grind the tip of his spike against your clit. Swerve let out a strained whine as his hips bucked up involuntarily. Your smirk only grew. “You’re such a pretty mech for me.”

“Hnf s-stop…” Swerve whispered bashfully, turning his helm away as energon rushed to his faceplates once more.

“I mean it.” You continued, slowly easing yourself down on his spike as you guided his gaze to meet yours. Swerve’s intake fell open and his spinal struts arched as your body enveloped his length. His servos flew to your hips when he finally bottomed out inside you. The heat of your cunt pressed upon every sensor and node on his spike with such certainty that he could barely concentrate on your words. 

“Hhoh fraggghh, how are you s-so- so-ooHHFRAG-” Swerve had started to speak but you decided that now was the time to lift your hips and slam yourself back down. You started to ride the mech like an animal, your hips popping up halfway only to quickly push him back inside. Swerve let out a chorus of moans and yelps as his servos twitched against the soft plush of your thighs, squeezing every now and then to ground himself. It wasn’t until your legs started to burn that you were reminded of something. You quickly stopped your movements and grinned down at Swerve as he abruptly gasped and looked at you with a beautiful expression of desperation. 

“Wh-why- why’dya stop?” Swerve asked, his speech slurred from the sudden absence of pleasure.

“Sorry, but I just remembered that you’re the one who’s supposed to be fucking me.” You pulled yourself off of his spike and he let out a pathetic mewl at the loss of your body. His pout was quickly wiped from his face when he witnessed you getting down on all fours and slyly shaking your hips at him. You turned to smirk over your shoulder at him as he gawked at you. Not another second had passed before Swerve was on top of you, his spike easily finding its way back into your slick folds. He started pounding into you, the weight of his body pressing down nicely on your back as he mounted you.

“Mnh, there you go, good boy Swerve.” You moaned out as his spike pistoned in and out of you, shoving your body into the mattress. Swerve was brought to a mindless ramble as your pussy sucked him in deeper and tightened around him.

“Ahfraggingprimusyouretight-“ Swerve whimpered as you clenched around him harder. Your body trembled as you felt his spike throb inside you. Swerve hovered over you, intertwining his servos over your fingers as he thrust into you rapidly. “F-Frag, ____ I’m not gonna l-last much longer-“

“Good, keep going. I want you to fill me with your transfluid. Overload in me like the good mech you are.” You grinned against the mattress, turning to look at him smugly, reaching down between your legs to rub at your clit. Swerve leaned down to mewl and whine against the back of your neck as he chased his own pleasure, pushing your hips further up with every pump of his hips. 

“Fuck, Swerve- I’m-!“ You felt your eyes roll back at the drag of his thickness against your walls and you let out a filthy moan as you hit your climax. You felt the slick of your cum coat his panels as your sex tightened  around him. The whimper that left his vocalizer was angelic as he let his spike empty itself within you. Thick ropes of transfluid coated your insides, the warm sensation of sheer fullness bringing you back down from your high. Your body continued to pulse around his spike, milking him of the last of his overload as he gave a few final lazy thrusts. 

The two of you lay there panting for a while before he slowly pulled out of you, watching in awe as his cum started to slide down your thighs. You slowly turned and sat up, feeling your combined fluids seeping out of you and onto the sheets. 

“Ah… that was… let me get you a towel.” Swerve gasped, stepping to the closet to grab a towel to wipe you down with, wetting it with warm water before gently cleaning you. He lifted and placed you on the other side of the bed, putting the used towel over the wet spot after cleaning and closing his panels. 

You stared at the red and white mech with unveiled adoration as he finally sat next to you again. You leaned in and peppered his face with kisses as he gently rubbed your thigh. 

“Swerve, you do know how to keep your mouth shut about some things, right?” You murmured sleepily, hoping the bartender could keep his mouth shut for at least a week or two before word got out that the human is a mechfucker.

“Uhuh, yeah. Definitely.” Swerve nodded with determination. You sighed with a small smile, already accepting that your next appearance in the bar would not be the same after this.

#transformers #mtmte #valveplug #self insert #swerve #transformers x reader #swerve transformers #buggyboi draws #buggyboi writes #swerve x reader #hes so babygirl #i wanna treat him well #transformers x human

[lightshiningforth]

One thing that bothers me about Discovery is that it takes the grimmest possible view of Vulcan culture in general and Spock's family in particular, in ways that I don't think are justified by prior Star Trek series.

On the one hand, I think there's absolutely room in the Star Trek canon to portray a flawed, xenophobic Vulcan society. It's right there in front of you, starting in the original series. We all know that Spock grew up being bullied for being half human and not Vulcan enough. Dr. Miranda Jones is a human who studied on Vulcan and also has a complex about not being Vulcan enough (S3.E5 "Is there in Truth No Beauty?"). The inherent hypocrisy of Vulcans proclaiming that they value "infinite diversity in infinite combinations" while treating atypical members of their society poorly is absolutely worth exploring.

On the other hand, Discovery takes the portrayal of Vulcan callousness to the absolute extreme. Why on earth would Michael and her Vulcan classmates be contained in isolated orbs at school, practicing rapid-fire rote memorization? Vulcans aren't just computers who spit out facts and figures; that's a stereotype other species apply to them. Vulcans like to philosophize, to debate. Vulcans sincerely value the arts, music in particular. Spock even refers to dances that young Vulcans are taught in preschool (S3.E14 "Whom Gods Destroy"). None of those things are compatible with an education style that keeps kids isolated and interacting with no one, neither peers nor teachers.

Further, I don't for a second believe that Sarek would squash and deny Spock and Amanda their humanity. Yes, he has a complex about it and insists consistently that Spock is a Vulcan and must be treated as a Vulcan and yadda yadda yadda. BUT. Though he and Amanda choose to raise Spock on Vulcan ideals, Sarek is someone who clearly values human ways. He likes when Amanda and Perrin show him their human affection. He values human music, and is moved by it! And Spock, whose education was heavily influenced by Sarek, is fully versed in human history and literature. Often more so than the full, raised-on-Earth humans he serves with. He has read Byron and Shakespeare. He has detailed knowledge of wars, of governments, of even niche gunfights in the ancient American frontier (S3.E6 "Spectre of the Gun"). Sarek also relies without question on Spock's human friends to save his son's life, entrusting them with the most intimate of Vulcan rituals after assuming that Spock had already done the same. And their big father-son conflict? Sarek wants his son, of whom he is very proud, to contribute his talents to Vulcan society via the Vulcan Science Academy and stay close to home rather than going off into space and joining an organization with more military power than Sarek approves of. That's it.

All that is to say, there's no damn way that Sarek would "forbid" Amanda from exposing Spock to human literature and ideas. She would have read Alice in Wonderland to both her kids and he would have pretended not to be interested from another room while secretly being gripped by the story.

#star trek #star trek tos #star trek discovery #listen sarek is not a perfect parent #far from it #it's absolutely true that he values vulcan ideals over human ones #and prioritizes spock's vulcan side over his human one #and holds spock to impossible standards and gives him an identity complex #HOWEVER #a) sarek believes that humans and vulcans can and should coexist and values humanity in his personal and professional life #b) amanda ALSO chooses to raise spock as vulcan! she's not an oppressed wilting flower! #she tells kirk in S2.E10 “Journey to Babel” that the vulcan way is “a better way than ours” #yes she gets frustrated with spock for not showing human emotion but that is a consequence of HER parenting as well as sarek's

[fahbev]

Babs, Bruce and Danny in my dpxdc merfolk au!!!

argh, plz excuse the poorly edited photo lmao- lost a lot of detail TvT

Babs has her info Here. But this is her design! I’m not actually entirely sure if any of these designs are final, i might tweak them, but here she is! I gave her necklaces.

Bruce is based on a leatherback sea turtle! The spots aren’t actually super accurate to a leatherback’s underside, but if you look at it a little harder... you may find a fun little easter egg. It’s subtle... or at least i tried to make it that way. (If people don’t get it i’ll explain in a rb lol) Did you know that leatherback sea turtles can be up to 880 pounds? Idk what that is in metric but that’s roughly 7 and a half Bahfevs. They’re also much more triangular/less round than other turtles, so I reflected that in his design. And ofc, Bruce and Damian are both sea turtles bc they’re related. But they’re different sea turtle species so it doesn’t make much sense. Who gives a flip. What’s Talia, you ask? To that I say: 🤷‍♀️

(Side note: apparently, I’ve conditioned myself so I can’t draw nuetral expressions. It’s gotta have some emotion or else it looks wrong, and it feels natural to always have something going on there. So... drawing Stoic McStoicface here was a pain in the penis. He kinda has an expression anyway lol)

Danny is based on a ghost knife fish! I’ll be honest, i didn’t even know these existed until I looked up “ghost fish” in the hopes of finding something thematic. But then... omg! They’re black with little white accents? Like Danny’s design? And they have cool, funky bodies? AND they produce electricity!?? That’s so FKING COOL! I’ll have to do more research, but so far i’m pretty sure they don’t produce enough electricity to hurt someone. They are related to electric eels though! I first learned that electric eels were knife fish and not true eels when I was researching the moray eel for Duke. Funny how that connects!

Danny’s story under the cut!

Heehoo!

Okay so basically: Danny went diving to gather pearls because he wanted to make his parents happy/proud. While he was diving, His foot got caught in a rock and he couldn’t get it out. He panicked and he begged— to who? God, maybe? The universe, or the ocean? Maybe just begging fate or any higher power that could be out there, he doesn’t know. His only prayer was “Don’t let me drown!”. Unbeknownst to him, one of the pearls he’d grabbed was a magic, wish granting pearl. They’re rare enough that humans don’t even have legends of them... but the merfolk do ;).

The pearl took his very non-specific wish and decided to give him a tail and gills. He swam back up in a panic, and saw his new tail. Of course, this is a very horrifying thing to happen. But in less than a minute... it was already starting to dry off. As it dried, it turned back into skin.

Now, Danny has to be extremely careful not to get his legs or hair wet when he’s near people, because he’ll turn back into a merboy.

i... probably should have given him a shirt? He’d be wearing it, right? But i also did need to see what I was doing with that fin thing lol. I mean, a shirt would get annoying with that fin- he’d probably take it off. Tbh he’d probably have it off when swimming in general? Idk.

So: funny thing that happened when I was drawing Danny:

A first grader came up to me while I had it open on my desk, and she was like:

“Oh my god, that’s so good! Like, how did you even draw that?”

so I was like: “Oh thank you! ❤️”

And I think she asked again “How did you even draw that?”

so I was a little confused on how to answer, so I said:

“Well, I used my pencil...” and held up my pencil—

and then she got distracted by a spinny chair.

She’s so precious omg 🥰

#barbara gordon #danny fenton #danny phantom #dpxdc #bruce wayne #literally forgot his name there for a sec #art #my art #btw i have all the posts for this au tagged under #dpxdc merfolk au #so once you’ve scrolled through it you don’t need to go hunting for any that maybe didn’t get tagged #they’re all there #Leatherback sea turtle #leatherback turtle #ghost knife fish #knifefish? #is it one word or two?? #merfolk au #merfolk #merpeople #mermaid #merman

[valerieisunavailable]

Slender Brother Headcanons

These can be varied and everyone has their different opinions, but this is what vibes I get from him so--

Slender:

- Slender is blind. Sort of. While he can’t see you physically, he can see you very clearly with his mind (if that makes sense?) Like he knows where you're at and what your facial expressions are, your movements, etc., but with his mind. But nobody knows this except his brothers. (I also think this would be interesting for fanfics too)

- He does change his ties from time to time, but he rarely ever does it hardly anyone notices. He also has different colored suits, grey and dark dark blue (to wear it almost looks black). But only wears them on occasion.

- I feel like while yes, he does speak English, he can also speak Slavic languages too. (Oh to hear him speaking Russian, truly my favorite language. прекрасный. I also think it’s hilarious that people have added that he can speak German because of him constantly working and getting things done.)

- While he may seem cold-hearted, that’s not entirely the case. While he may think that he’s superior humans for obvious reasons, this doesn’t mean he necessarily despises them. Humans have done a lot of awful things, but have also made a lot of great accomplishments. They’re very creative and wise and have made various arts and literatures, And how can a bookworm hate the authors? Many of his pastas have suggested ideas to him about a multitude of things that have surprised him and consider other options.

- He has a caseload of all the pastas. Their backstory, mental illnesses, etc. He keeps this in mind always, even adding personal notes of how they respond in certain situations and ways to modify their behaviors if need be.

- If your ever finding feelings for him, trust me, he already knew before you thought of ways to show your affection or appreciation. He’s just waiting to see what things you’ll come up with, rather he’s interested or not. Your doing tons of research on his species and general and getting into chemicals naturally in the body and how their brains and organs work. But Offender is already helping you with that because he thinks it’s funny and wondering if you can actually pull it off. Trender is in the background criticizing both of you.

Splendor:

- Splendor is the way he is because he had more attachment to his mom. The others were ridiculed and tried to be forced into the mold their father were giving them. But his father seemed to give up rather early on Splendor for being too light-hearted. This also explains his rather child-like behavior. But Slender especially was forced into the mold to become successful. That doesn’t mean he isn’t jealous or doesn’t feel guilty at times. Whenever their father does come over, while he still complains at Slender, he mostly compliments him and says to him and the others that they should have done better and that they’re an embarrassment to the family name. This has lead up to multiple family fights and Offender and Trender standing up for Splendor when it does happen.

- Despite him acting happy, he is very insecure and causes him to very poorly bottle up his emotions. He tries to do what is expected of him but it never works out. He stands out more than anything and he’ll often isolate himself.

- Splendor is more lenient on humans because of how empathetic he is. Especially with getting to know some of the pastas’ backstories, he feels deeply connected with them because of what he’s been through, and what they’ve been through are as bad if not worse than what he’s had to deal with.

- Even though he generally wears the multi-color polka dotted suit and hat, that is not all that’s in his wardrobe. Oh no. He has the flamboyant hot-pink suit, he has purple suits, red suits, suits of all colors and suits with different polka-dot patterns. Not to count the amount of props and accessories he has for the suits alone-- I’m talking stop-watch clocks and everything.

- This man is also so fucking oblivious. Compliment all you want, but if your trying to show that your actually falling for the doofus, your going to have to be WAY more flirty than that. Why do you think Offender has all these extravagant ways to embarrass him? Because what your doing didn’t work for him in the first place.

Trender:

- Remember this dude is canonically gay. But that doesn’t necessarily mean he would be the dom in the situation either. While his general attitude is very intimidating, during sexual things he’s the more submissive guy. But that doesn’t me he won’t still complain or argue about things ya’ll should. And don’t think he isn’t kinky either. Some things I imagine him saying lol:

“In that position? Really? No offense, but I thought you’d be more creative.”

“Could you maybe go a little bit faster? Seriously this is kind of embarrassing.”

“ No no NO WRONG HOLE WRONG--” (They have more than two *wink*)

Then there’s just the random thoughts during intercourse:

“Do you think Kylie Jenner ever did it like this?”

“What kind of things would you think the Kardashians are into?”

- While he’s big in fashion design and will wear extravagant clothes from time to time, he does prefer more simple and cozy styles of clothing. Sometimes he likes to sit back and relax with some coffee too, you know.

- Catches onto things that others might not. These can be things that are very obvious to things that are complex and easy to miss.

- Despite being a fashion designer, he is afraid of needles. And tattoos. Anything with needles.

Offender:

- Acts like he doesn't care. He does.

- Despite being a sex addict and alcoholic, he does try to make those close to him happy.

- Has a bunch of scratch marks from gardening.

- Has, on multiple occasions, tried to get Slender drunk or high by putting things in his coffee or food. It has also, worked on multiple occasions.

- Has had multiple relationships with the pastas. Most of them have failed.

- A male stripper

- Will try any of Trender's outfits, including feminine ones. And any sexy clothes.

#creepypasta headcanon #slender brothers #creeepypasta #slender #offenderman #splendorman #trenderman

[jojotranslates]

Fansubs released for Bamse (1972-1981)

So a little while ago, @the-best-fictional-turtle held a tournament about fictional turtles. Skalman, one of the central protagonists from Swedish children's comic Bamse, somehow made it in. On my sideblog, I joked that I'd translate every single comic in the franchise's 57-year long history if he won. And well... He actually won!

While I genuinely can't translate the whole comic as promised, the creator's animated shorts made in the 70's and 80's have now been subbed. These shorts are missing a lot of the modern cast, and the comic's strong educational tone is not as apparent here. But if you like funny little animals going on funny little adventures with some bonkers sound effects you may enjoy it!

The series is legally available on SVT Play for free*: here's a very basic guide on how to use the site if you don't know Swedish.

That being said, I'm going to do something different than usual. Characters are often named after their species and/or character traits in this series... So this time I would like to provide two versions of the subs:

With no localised names (on Dropbox) - ready!

With localised names (OSS, Subscene, & Dropbox) & other corrections if necessary - eventually

Under the read more there is more info on what exactly I plan to localise and how well (or poorly) I'm doing with those plans.

Happy watching!

Like I said I can't localise the whole franchise, but I still want to leave some doors open for the future when picking names.

So:

First I have to address Vargen. You'll notice that he gets called "the wolf" even in the un-localised version. This is because, according to his backstory, he doesn't have a proper name. His caretakers just called him "vargen"/"the wolf" despite being wolves themselves. So just in case I decide to translate the stories detailing this backstory one day, I couldn't give him a name either. sorry wolf :(

Bamse is a tough one, and I'm leaning toward not localising it. Even the official localisation gave up and just called him "Bamsy"! For comparison, the word "bamse" in Swedish is usually an adjective meaning "big", and occasionally a noun referring to a bear. So even though Bamse is a fairly small bear, it fits him well... I guess Teddy would have been a decent name for him, but there is a comic typically considered the "prototype version" of Bamse which features a similar protagonist already called Teddy. And later in this series, Bamse actually has a son called Teddy... So no dupes allowed.

Lille Skutt -> Good grief. The official localisation called him Little Frisky. But in the original both he and his son are named after terms related to jumping, so I would prefer to save that theming for later. Hopper always sounds nice, so Little Hopper... Then his child could remain "Mini-Hopp" (with or without that extra p). But their names become too similar then? I'm still frantically looking through naming sites and can't find anything useful... of course the anxious little guy would cause me the most stress trying to think of a name for him EDIT: A simpler alternative would just be Little Jump... Thinking I might settle for that for now.

Skalman -> Shellback. Taken from the official English localisation, which actually called him Professor Shellback. I'll cut the Professor to save space in the subs/speech bubbles. (For comparison, his original name means Shell man.)

There are a number of side characters with a "human" first name and species as their last names, i.e. Mickelina Räv and her parents (foxes), Ola Grävling (racoon badger sorry), Annika Anka (duck)... I'll probably just translate the species and leave the names alone. (Nina Kanin didn't show up in these shorts but might be an issue later, since her name is supposed to be a palindrome as well as a reference to her being a rabbit...)

#Bamse #Sweblr #Fansub #Long post #''Why don't you upload the non-localised version to those other sites as well?'' I just dislike uploading a thing twice to the same place #Also: have I spent more time just drafting this post than watching the show? Possibly. This is even harder than I thought it'd be #Svenska #A lot of people voting for Skalman in the tournament were like ''he taught me to relax'' but clearly I didn't listen as a kid #For the record I scheduled this to post when I am at an event so if you have any questions/complaints... be patient #Fansubbing

[meteor752]

The DL kids on Empires part 2: Hermitcraft

The videos came out like five minutes ago, I’m watching Jimmy POV as I’m writing this, god I’m speedrunning

So anyways, the hermits arrive! I think that maybe six months after the DL kids show up does the rift spit them out, so when they do the kids have all settled in to their routines

So when the Hermits arrived to the server, Liana was in the Museum reading up, Wes was deep into the mines of Gobland, Johnny was herding cows a bit away from Tumble Town, and Gertrude and Novo were on a date close to spawn. Only Jekiv and Jassy were in an empire when it happened, The Eversea and Evermoore respectively.

So yeah, fricking no one was prepared.

Jassy and Jekiv were very shaken up upon seeing Cleo and Tango, but both chose to not mention anything about the life servers. None of their parents from Empires had recognized them, so there was a slim chance that the hermits would. Lo and behold, they didn’t. Cleo and Tango were directly introduced to Jassy and Jekiv, and they showed no signs of recognition. Jassy did ask what other Hermits had joined though, and sadly her dad weren’t once of them.

Johnny’s cowboy antics are interrupted by his dads familiar piercing scream, so he abandoned the cows and rode back into town, where he saw Grian perching on Jimmy’s shoulders like a gremlin bird, cackling, while the sheriff tried to shake him off to the best of his ability.

Yeah it was a very ??????? moment, but Johnny knew enough about both Grian and Liana to not get in the way when they felt like being pesky birds, so he just climbed down and stood on the ready, trying not to drag any attention to himself because that’s a conversation he did not feel like having right then and there.

....aaaaat least until Tango showed up, where he literally flung himself like a god damn cat at him, knocking them both to the ground.

So yeah, graceful.

He explained it off as he was just ‘Glad to see another of his species’, since both Scar and Grian were there and he figured it wasn’t his place to reveal what was actually going on.

As soon as everyone but Tango and Jimmy left to check on the rift, he did tell them what was up, even though Jimmy had already kinda figured it out.

So yeah, Jimmy and Tango who’d met briefly a few times are now sharing custody of a child.

Novo and Gertrude found out by their picnic being interrupted by Scar and Grian, from out of nowhere might I add, and when they found out that the hermits had gone through the rift they both scattered to find their parents.

Gertrude found nothing, of course, and she was a sad pupper.

But going to Chromia, Novo saw the most strange sight. His mom and dad, acting civil towards each other?? Having a conversation?? His mom dressed in GREEN??

He was shaken to the core!

Unnerved by it, he set off to the Olipeligo as it’s far enough away so no one would stumble upon it by accident, and he sat in a tree and poorly strummed his lyre while waiting for Oli to return.

Until his fricking mom showed up.

Now, growing up Novo never had a bad relationship with his mom. Sure, she wasn’t the best influence in the world, but the two got along great in their madness. But after their death, the bitterness had started to sink in with Novo. Both of his parents had neglected him in favor of harming each other, making him witness things he’d never want to witness. It sorta fucks with your head to see your mom’s arm nearly he cut off in front of you by an ax crit from your dad.

So while a small part of him wanted to run up to her and lay safe in her arms, a bigger part of him despised her for fucking him up so badly.

So he stayed in the tree, out of sight, choosing to just watch what she would do.

It got boring quickly.

But then Oli showed up, and offered her a place in his small empire, which Novo would not accept, so he jumped out of the tree and voiced his opinion about it.

Unfortunately his opinion was inapprehensible because of his accent, so to Pearl this tiny boy with crazy hair and running makeup just appeared out of nowhere and started shouting gibberish at her and this bard.

Oli didn’t fully understand what Novo was saying either, only the other kids and Sausage for some reason could understand him, but he picked up on the vibes well enough.

So yeah Pearl took off, shaken to her core, and Novo was left all grumpy

Wes stayed in the mines for a while, and didn’t interact with any of the hermits for a good while because he hates meeting new people, and Liana avoided them like pest because she’s afraid of confrontation.

So yeah, first day went great!

As time went on, things calmed down. The hermits just accepted that in this place there were the emperors, and these strange children who also came through the rift, but also did not wish to return back. The kids all had a talk and decided to not tell the hermits about what was happening for the time being, as they were all kind of settling in and also most of them are kinda iffy about their parents.

Twenty years of abandonment will do that to ya

That is, at least, until Scar and Liana meet, which you can read about here :)

So basically, now that both Scar and Grian knows, and some time has passed, and both BDubs and Ren has also joined, the kids decide that alright it’s time to let them know what’s up

So Jekiv tells Cleo, which is a very awkward conversation, but you know Joe got very happy about now being an uncle

Novo spends a good seven minutes getting the message across to his mom, which turns into a game of charades as she has no idea what he’s saying. She visits him occasionally, but for the most part he doesn’t want anything to do with her.

Wes doesn’t tell either of his dads, but Impulse figures it out anyways. He confronts him about it casually, and Wes avoids him for a solid three weeks after it.

Then, Wes tells BDubs, who is a self proclaimed god. BDubs kind of immediately reverts back to beauty pageant mom, wanting to show to everyone that his son is the best and have him pulled into his sun cult, so Wes stays underground even more than usual. He’s often joined by Impulse though, and the two does manage to form a bond of sort

The night after Ren joins is a full moon. Gertrude is too caught up in the preparations for her transformation to contact him, but when they both do transform, the kids are stuck with not only keeping Gertrude away from all the empires, but also from the other feral werewolf who will go on the attack on sight.

Half the server are pulled into keeping the two apart, some distracting Weretrude while some keep Weren entertained. This is also how Katherine finds out that the werewolf she’s been hunting is her own pupil

So when the moon lowers and the sun rises, everyone is left fricking exhausted.

In the healing place (Maybe like Shelby’s or something) Ren and Gertrude are put to recover from their long nights, and Gertrude have plenty of time to explain what’s going on and who she is.

Ren is ecstatic to have a kid, and he tells her all about what’s been going on on Hermitcraft, and Gertrude compares it to the stories he told her about Dogwarts and The Red King, the the two are just excited puppies

And yeah, that’s the first meetings.

Gertrude is the only one to contribute to Hermitopia, since she’s the only redstoner, and like half the kids are afraid it’s gonna collapse if they as much as touch it.

Jassy seeks out BDubs a lot to hear about what’s been going on with Etho, and BDubs being BDubs he talks her ears off about him.

Wes and Jassy start to suspect that they might be step siblings

When the sculk starts spreading across the server, it has mixed reactions with the kids.

Liana fucking hates it, everything to do with sculks and wardens scares her, but she still assists Pixl in the removal of it. It gives her major creeps though

Johnny kind of likes it. He’s always had a strange connection with Wardens and the sculk, so he kinda vibes with it. Plus, the Wardens in the deep dark don’t care that it’s being spread, so who cares!

The others reactions vary from ew, to why, to whatever. These kids have been through a lot

And then…Grumbot. The mysterious robot figure appears in Hermittopia after a few months, seemingly sleeping considering the closed eyes.

And when asking about it, Grian reveals that he is his and Mumbo’s son!

So….Liana has a brother now

And she tries. She really tries to bond with Grumbot when he goes online. She sits for hours on his palm chatting, she tries to learn more about him, she tells him about Scar and asks about Mumbo.

Because Jassy and Hermes has such a close bond. Jassy is always carrying the little guy around, either on her hip or on top of her shoulders, and Jassy encourages her to get something similar with Grumbot.

Buuuut, Grumbot is kind of evil, is obsessed with Mumbo, sorta hates Scar since he won the mayor election, and does not care at all about Liana.

So yeah, what a bust.

But then the rift reopens, and the kids are faced with a dilemma.

Because some of them would love to move to Hermitcraft, a dream they’ve had for years, while some would much rather stay on Empires.

And…they’ve never been separated before.

Liana, Jassy, and Wes are very interested in joining the Hermits, while Jekiv, Novo, and Gertrude would rather not. Johnny is torn, he wants to be with both of his dads! He just…can’t.

So when the Hermits stand by the rift, six months after they arrived, trying to leave while the Emperors fight them off, the kids are divided, Johnny choosing to side with Empires since Tango isn’t present.

But the Hermits slip through, Liana Wes and Jassy with them without even thinking, and the other four are left behind.

The Emperors choose to follow along though, but the divide between the kids has already formed, and it will only grow with time…

So! That’s that! Well I’m not completely done yet, the Empires X Hermitcraft story line need to finish first then I’ll post the last update of the arc.

Because yes, we’ve got story arcs for these little bastards now.

Does anyone even care? Well I do and that’s what matters

Anyways, byeeeeeee

#double life smp #dlsmp #empires season 2 #empires x hermitcraft #Hermitcraft #dlsmp fankids #dlsmp children #double life fankids #liana no last name given #wes double sv #Jekiv Inthelittlewood #Johnathan ‘Johnny’ Tek #Jassy smallishbeans #novo major-moon #gertrude statz dignity dawg #Scarian #Ethubs #Smalletho #Boat Boys #Team Rancher #RenB #Grumbot #Not tagging everyone

[anna-dreamer]

I just finished rewatching The Good Place. I have some (possibly poorly structured) thoughts on the afterlife.

I think the natural resentment i share with some human characters in the Legendarium for the phrasing “The Gift of Men” comes from the fact that humans are generally depicted from an outsider’s point of view. One might gleefully agree that finality of one’s existence is truly a gift, but not when it’s coming from a privileged immortal being who has likely lived in Paradise and ‘dares’ to imply we got the better deal. (Now, i do know that there was an intention to make what we know as Silmarillion into a Numenorian narrative but as this amazing article by @dawnfelagund proves this intention was never realized.)

When it comes to the way afterlife works in the Legendarium we are faced with a sad reality. Neither Elves nor Humans age given a pleasant lot. And dwarven afterlife is just vague as heck, not forgetting their rather sad origin as step-children (ewww, Eru!). Elves are fully of Arda, they can never leave, they are trapped in a cycle of life and rebirth, and life itself wears them greatly, as, it seems, they fade along with the world which every moment becomes darker and darker. Humans, on the other hand, lead a short life usually full of pain and hardship, and for all their toil and effort they get first crippling old age and then a final death which takes them away so their loved ones never see them again. 

So Elves can argue that final death is a pretty neat gift, a blessing even, while Humans might argue that eternal life in an abled body with as much time as you wish to spend with you loved ones in a damn good deal, dude! The sad thing is they can never shape their destinies the way both arguing parties would be happy with because of the nature of the world they’re in. They are ALL trapped. There is no way out. 

This is what i love about The Good Place. Let’s just imagine for a moment that we are not trapped. That our afterlife can be something else than a soulless machine that sorts you out depending on who you were on earth. Let’s imagine we can change that. (Can anybody write a crossover with Luthien hacking the system from the inside??? I will be down with Namo the TV show addict.) I have little faith in Mandos and even less faith in actual Valinor that feels like just another prison you enter after you’ve spend a lot of time in a place that was designed more likely to “fix" you, not to heal you proper. Valinor is isolated. Nothing happens there. No way in for those Humans you miss. No way out for those Elves who are sick of it. If you die, you just end up back there. If you go on living, you life loses all the flavour. All the commotion is back where the mortals are. 

(This is arguable but it seems that for us readers, who are humans themselves, it is important to see ourselves in stories. Any “alien species” is bound to be judged within our value system, otherwise relating to them would be hard? It is a huge topic for another discussion, and i am sure that people way smarter and way more educated then I am have already written a tone on this subject.)

If simplified, I want Feanor, having gone through the system, meet his seven sons an go, “My darlings! My little boys. I love you so much. I have a million things to talk to you about, but first, I an sorry.” And send them teddy bears and flowers for a millionth time.

Now excuse me, i’m gonna go cry in the corner. 

#the good place #silmarillion #elves #humans #dwarves #Tolkien afterlife #Feanor #Feanorians #don't mind me #i as usual just want my babies to be happy

[magnetarbeam]

Thinking more about my developing ideas for a Kesselian variant of the Tatooine slave culture of popular fanon, and how I hope to use it in the AU where Kyp gets off Kessel early (although he's a bit older) and ends up as a Rogue Squadron pilot.

Fair warning: This probably will make no sense at all without at least a casual understanding of the stuff that's already out there about that fanon.

I'm thinking that in this AU, Kyp's four years older, so he's Gavin's age. The reason he ended up in the mines was that his parents were protesting the destruction of Alderaan, so I could similarly move his ending up there to pretty soon after that, and I'm pretty sure it wouldn't break anything important (Whereas in JAT he's been there eight years by the time Han and Chewie find him in 11 ABY.)

Because my hope is for this to be mainly spun off from X-Wing, there's a payoff I can find in drawing connections between Kyp and other characters who were on Kessel at the same time. Primarily, Lujayne and Inyri Forge.

The idea is that the Forges are acting in the same kind of role as the wise woman who reminds Anakin of his true heritage in the first Double Agent Vader story. They're charged with knowing the stories of the Amavikka, and passing those stories along. In canon, Lujayne mentions having multiple sisters and brothers in her spiel to Corran where she accuses him of thinking less of her because of where she's from and stuff.

I think when Kyp shows up, Lujayne offers the mythical origin story of the Maw, and he hears it. Kyp's ten at this point, so it's not the same as if he was born into it (as Lujayne was), but in a lot of respects one could say he was raised as Amavikka.

The reason why the Maw's origin story is always the first one people hear when they arrive on Kessel is because the Maw is a complete mystery even to people who were brought up with high technology, maybe especially to them. This is an Imperial prison colony, so there would be a lot of people with that kind of upbringing. And those people, who otherwise might dismiss the stories told by the slaves as the pathetic imaginings of poorly educated minds or something like that, are inclined to give them more credit because it's not like they understand this cosmic anomaly any better.

Whether or not Kyp believes the stories - and I think he does, soon enough - he definitely takes heart in one of the most important points of the whole thing:

You own yourself.

Kessel isn't a planet like Tatooine that's been revisited far too often in official Star Wars stories, so there's not an abundance of native/introduced animals that I can use in the myths, nor would there likely be. In FotJ they do talk about some vanishing avian species around the tombs.

Of course, this is related to the version found on Tatooine, so a lot of that would probably cross over.

The fact that they do all their work in total darkness invites so many opportunities for various symbolism. I have yet to have any very distinct ideas for what the stories are.

Anyway, some of the background for this verse is that when they were both on Kessel, Lujayne took a liking to Kyp in particular, and kind of took him under her wing. When she manages to get out, she can't take him as well, so she and Inyri (another relationship I need to flesh out more) do the counterpart to that oath where you mix your own blood with water and sand (does that have a name?) to promise that if Inyri's ever able to escape, she'll get him out with her. This is the context in which Kyp gets out and meets the Rogues.

The local Kessel counterparts to some of the Tatooinian symbolism pose some deep questions. I'm currently thinking that the belief on Kessel is that light is sacred in the perpetual darkness of the mines. Obviously, it's not quite as important as water is in the deserts of Tatooine, but the constant darkness has a huge impact on how they need to develop their senses and stuff. This also means I can make the bogeys have all kinds of meaning.

I don't buy that nobody knew of the energy spiders until JAT.

Most or all of the plot of Wedge's Gamble is probably getting rewritten here anyway. He's not going to join the Rogues until probably towards the end of Krytos Trap, but it is pretty important that he spend a lot of time around some of them before then.

Particularly, I want him and Corran to actually be friends. I don't think that's too hard to believe in this context.

Kyp, at some point: I don't trust Erisi.

Corran: Why not?

Kyp: I don't know. It's just a feeling.

Corran: My father always told me to trust those feelings.

After Corran escapes the Lusankya, Kyp can now share his culture and stuff with him because now Corran's been enslaved.

I have much more to say about this, but I'm sleep-deprived and this is probably going to start being really stupid if I keep going.

#star wars legends #tatooine slave culture #kessel #kyp durron #lujayne forge #corran horn

[icosahedron-music]

About dragons, specially ones with 4 legs and 2 wings such as in the Wings of Fire book series or How to Train Your Dragon movies.

TL;DR : Dragons are a different class than reptiles but evolved from reptiles. They evolved wings first and then evolved front limbs, letting them have 6 limbs.

They have 6 limbs, unlike any other animal, and this had never been evolved in animals before. This bothered me to no end as reptiles don't have this many limbs. I've been trying to wrap my head around this for a while now but I think I've come up with a good enough biological explanation for a make believe fantasy creature:

Dragons have to be their own class, such as mammals, birds, or amphibians. They seem like reptiles, as they'd be most closely related to them, but they have to be their own class, as having a completely different number of limbs is a major difference. At some point in time, dragons and reptiles would've split when a reptile evolved wings of some sort and also another pair of limbs, which I explain after this poorly edited cladogram of the classes:

Dragons being a different class would explain the many different species of dragon in some media, such as the aforementioned Wings of Fire or How to Train Your Dragon.

As to how I think this would happen, I believe that, like I said, some reptile species evolved wings and more limbs and that was the first dragon, but that's not exactly the case. We have seen animals evolve wings from limbs, but never wings out of nowhere, that isn't how evolution works. So I believe that this hypothetical reptile evolves front-limb wings for gliding at first (similar to the draco in concept but a bone structure more like bats perhaps), and eventually they become powerful enough for flight. This reptile would then have experience some environmental pressure that causes it to also need front limbs, so individuals with small beginnings of front limbs would survive. Natural selection, evolution, adaptations, etc, etc. This reptile now has wings that evolved from front limbs and a new pair of front limbs, so it is now a dragon. Essentially, some reptile evolved wings and then evolves the front limbs afterwards.

This seems the most plausible, as we have never seen wings evolve by themselves in animals, they always come from limbs that existed first, which I've already said.

I think that maybe some reptile species population gets geographically isolated in a mountainous region with unstable ground they aren't fit to survive in. The first thing that evolved is wings to fly above the unstable terrain, and then the second thing they evolve is limbs to have stable footing when they do have to land. Evolving wings is more important as it allows them to stay off the ground and save themselves from falls, so this happens first, and then evolving another set of limbs helps them when they inevitably have to land, so both traits evolve in the correct order. This explains why dragons love mountains in media, too. It's the land they're best suited to traverse as they evolved specifically for it.

Sorry this went on a long time and probably repeated several points! If I got anything wrong such as biology terms or spelling mistakes, tell me and I'll fix it! I just needed to get this off of my chest as I finally came up with an answer to this after like a year of thinking about it. No offense to any series with dragons like this!

#wings of fire #never actually read that #how to train your dragon #fantasy taxonomy #dragons #cladogram #taxonomy

[nicklloydnow]

“Someone who sets about to try to grasp the idea of voluntary death, even if only for an hour, even if only flirtatiously and playfully, will only poorly understand society's obtrusive solicitude for his final fate. It has, this society, never troubled itself very much about his existence and what it is like. War is concocted: he will be called up and charged with proving his worth in the midst of blood and iron. Society took his work from him after it raised him for it: now he is unemployed, he is sent packing with alms that he consumes as he consumes himself with them. He gets sick: but unfortunately there are not enough hospital beds, the expensive palliatives are rare and the most expensive of all, a single room, is not made available to him. Not until now, when he wishes to give in to the inclination toward death, when he is no longer willing to offer any resistance to his disgust with being, when dignity and humanity order him to dispose of the matter neatly and to achieve what he one day will have to achieve anyway: to disappear - only now does society behave as if he were its most precious part and surround him with hideous equipment, parading before him the highly repulsive occupational ambition of physicians who can then ascribe his "rescue" to the credit side of their professional account like hunters when they pace off the spot where their game was slaughtered. In their opinion, they have retrieved him from death and they behave like sportsmen who have succeeded in an extraordinary achievement.

No doubt, there's something funny about this. I mean on the one hand the cold indifference society displays toward individual human beings and its heated-up care for one of them who wants to step voluntarily out of association with the living. Is each person its property? Here and there I have already rejected by implication the demand society makes on those ready for death. Here the question needs to be asked once again and then answered: To whom does a human being belong?” (pages 93, 94)

“It has to be said right away that the claim of religion on the individual human being, as soon as we establish the relationship to voluntary death, is of the same nature as the demand of society: neither the latter nor the former permit one the freedom to decide how to deal with what one possesses in fact and law. Both demand of individuals (and just think here of Kant who, as a consequence of his categorical idea of duty, rejected voluntary death just as much as any little village pastor or great theologian) that they relinquish their freedom of choice: not voluntarily, but in obedience to a duty to God or to humanity. The religious hold on human beings is nothing other than the expression of a hold that is social and, if in former times the churches denied Christian burial to suicides, their actions were no different from those of primitive tribes for whom the cadaver of a suicide is in possession of something unclean that has to be removed from the living as quickly as possible in order to stave off evil spirits. But even those social units that tolerate suicide, and under circumstances even make it a duty, such as the more tightly knit social organization of the Japanese warrior caste, understand it as a social phenomenon and interpret it in the sense of preserving the species or the continuation of the social organization in question. As far as I can see, voluntary death - with the quantitatively negligible exceptions of philosophical schools or philosophizing individuals (Epicurus, Seneca, Diderot) - is nowhere recognized for what it is: a precisely free and voluntary death and a highly individual matter that, to be sure, is never carried out without social reference, with which however and finally human beings are alone with themselves, before which society has to be silent.” (pages 96, 97)

#amery #améry #jean améry #suicide #voluntary #death #kant #society #god #aushwitz #holocaust

[bisonofyesterday]

Attention freaks, it’s me, Bison the Great, half of you following me probably only know me from Monument Mythos fanart, the other half know me from discord, but unbeknownst to most people I'm actually pretty fascinated with the ancient and archaic history of humanity! As it happens, they made a whole show about this, Genndy Tartakovsky’s Primal wrapped up its second season about 4-ish weeks ago to much deserved tumultuous fanfare and much less-deserved angst over its finale (which I won’t be getting into), but my main point is that it just won’t leave my head! Such a fantastic show both in animation and story, I've been deep-diving into surface-level videos and articles about the olden days of our species ever since the show’s ending and I thought “Say! Why not post a couple poorly done first-thought essays to Tumblr dot com about Primal Season 2 specifically!”, at the very least I hope these next couple posts provoke your thought glands the same way the show did for me!

First order of business is the show’s beginning, essentially its first three episodes, Sea of Despair, Shadow of Fate, and Dawn of Man (lot of Ofs here). Many folks, fans included, lamented the major lack of prehistoric fauna within season 2 compared to season 1, I get this sentiment entirely, but I think it’s a bit of a short-sighted critique, for I believe the lack of dinosaurs and other creatures is intentional. Primal Season 2 turns its setting of inaccurate savage creatures into one of inaccurate human history, essentially uplifting the Primal aspects of it to a new level, and this is not just thrown in overnight either, the first three episodes do a fantastic job at nudging us into a world that not even Spear and Fang are familiar with, let’s look at Sea of Despair, which I've come to think of as season 1′s last hurrah in a sense. Spear and Fang, immediately after the end of season 1, build a raft to go save the former-slave-turned-slave-again Mira from her captors.

This episode has all the Primal stops, hunting for food, unreasonably antagonistic wildlife, some funny moments, the works, which is saying something as the entire episode takes place in the middle of a goddamn ocean. Our heroes are already in a life-threatening situation before they even reach land, but more interesting is our selection of baddies.

Our first evil-doer, if you can even call them that, is the star of a moment I personally find hilarious, whales. Spear and Fang, being a caveman and a dinosaur respectively, have most likely never seen a whale before, so the sight of these titans TERRIFIES them, of course the whale does nothing to them, but it’s a nice bit of brevity and realism, as well as arguably sets up the task to come, more on that in a bit.

Now to someone that does a lot more evil (the crime of Living), we come to a giant turtle! Most likely an archelon from the size, a species from the late cretaceous and also the largest turtle to have ever lived. Our poor turt friend becomes the prey of two angry carnivores, but it also has some fight in it, as it tries to kill Spear after Spear tried killing it, eventually our duo wins however, by how else? Working together, Spear forces the thing to breach near the boat and Fang kills it instantly with a bite to the neck.

The next few creatures solidify my point here much better, as Spear and Fang (after eating THE ENTIRE TURTLE) meet some flying fish and a dunkleosteus, only to be immediately threatened by what the Primal Wikia tells me is a ornithocheirus and a MEGALODON!

Look at the picture here, notice all these little things and details, these are, in-fact, accurate reconstructions! Sure they might be exaggerated in some ways (dunkleosteus is kinda shrinkwrapped and has a weirdly long lower jaw), but notice the skin over dunkleosteus’s armored skull, the proto-feathers on ornithocheirus, megalodon! Uh, being a giant shark.

This isn’t the first time Primal’s been weirdly accurate, in season 1′s The Night Feeder, the smilodon is accurately stocky, and I'm sure there’s other moments as well. What I find fascinating here however is the fact that they chose to leave our main characters’ homeland with these creatures in this manner, this along with the next episode are going to be the last times fauna has a major antagonistic position in Primal, so why not go with all the shots? Hunting creatures, fighting creatures, and a titan the main characters seem hopeless to fight against. Side-note, it’s always annoyed me how people dismiss Primal as just dumb fun when bringing up its scientific department, while yes, stuff like Fang’s wrists and Terror Under The Blood Moon’s featherless raptors are woefully inaccurate, as are some blatantly fictional creatures before and later on (the saber-toothed wolves in A Cold Death, the man-bats and the giant spider in Terror Under The Blood Moon, the giant vultures in Vidarr, they’re NOT argentavis), but to write off the ENTIRE SHOW has having nothing of scientific substance in it it is a bit absent-minded I think, though of course I'm not saying it’s actually secretly scientific genius either.

After defeating the mega shark, Spear and Fang are washed ashore on a new land, which immediately segues us into the next episode, Shadow of Fate, ominous title! I want to clarify here that I’m NOT trying to recap episodes word-for-word here, only to point out moments that help my greater point. And with saying that, the count of prehistoric creatures is EVEN LESS in Shadow of Fate, ultimately relegated to a poor arsinoitherium and a male t-rex that the fandom has affectionately named Red.

The REAL stars of this episode are, instead, a Celtic tribe! Of humans! They speak Gallic so I guess they’re French. The tribe has recently taken in Spear, who has also just awoken deeply confused, Spear’s never dealt with another person before, he’s only dealt with things either below/the same as his own level or with Mira, and with Mira he witnessed personally the kind of things a whole group of smart-people could do to innocent smart-people, so naturally our hero is terrified of the implications of his current state in this new, weird place.

The Celts aren’t bad though, in-fact, they’re much better off than Spear, being kinda bronze-age, the technology level of Primal season 2 is something I’ll get into in another post, point is, in the times of the Roman Empire, the Celtic Tribes were spoken of as savage barbarians, here however, Spear is the barbarian, note how the Celts have buildings, agriculture, how they ornately decorate their bodies and clothing, compare this to Spear, who in this scene is depicted as a scared animal backed into a corner.

A continuation of Primal’s “unprimaling”, Spear is disconnected from his animal buddy, who’s attitude is the only attitude he’s ever truly known, individuals fighting for their survival all the time and following where the food is, he has NO idea what to do against an established tribe with an army, a doctor, and a leader, and thankfully he doesn’t get to find out right now, as the Celtic Chieftain calms down the situation and Spear.

Meanwhile with Fang, she and Red have been hanging out, being lovey dovey, doing what it is that animals do, they even go hunting! Unfortunate for everyone involved however, it’s a hunting trip into the Celtic Tribe village and a battle erupts. Note here that Red doesn’t seem to comprehend that Fang cares for a person, neither does Spear comprehend Fang’s love for Red until it’s too late. Red, a being from a different walk of life and time, much like Spear and Fang, is killed in the whole scuffle, Shadow of Fate ending with Spear solemnly leaving the Celtic Tribe to be with his grieving friend. Goodbye Red, you were truly a complicated end to the animalistic antagonist of Primal, much more thought-provoking than the megalodon anyways.

When I say “unprimaling”. I do not mean Primal has lost the focus it had in season 1, far from it, the things that happen in these episodes are in-fact an evolution or at least a spin on season 1′s formula, just now set in a place dominated by, compared to Spear, much more advanced humans, instead of very angry animals and monsters, Primal isn’t being un-Primal’d, it’s still Primal, but it’s being unprimaled, as in lifted up out of the land of beasts Spear and Fang hail from, Spear has to deal with people who bypassed where he is loooong ago, and this is nowhere better shown than in Dawn of Man, a truly fitting title.

In this episode, Spear’s hanging out with a still grieving Fang, thankfully their relationship hasn’t been strained at all despite the village fight, but that’s unimportant information at the moment. They find a cave and rest there for the time being, and Spear decides to do some exploring both inside and outside the cave, where he finds remnants of an ancient people, people like him.

Throughout the episode, Spear imagines how these people could’ve functioned, how they were so like him as they lived alongside ancient beasts of their own, bison latifrons, Irish elk, pterosaurs, theropods, hunted by and battled with prehistoric people, primal people.

Spear’s kinda lonely if you didn’t pick up on that.

At night, Spear even tries to worship the moon, the same religion he observed the much more advanced Mira practicing, but it doesn’t give him anything, he doesn’t know what to do with it, all of the things these folks do now either confuse or scare him, they’re not like those old people, who lived a much simpler, albeit a much more dangerous life, Spear’s just kind of a lost soul now even next to his best friend. And speaking of being scared of the new generation, Spear and Fang are happened upon by what they quickly realize are Mira’s captors...

The Scorpion, in reality a Viking clan, filled with Vikings! And they ride cave bears!! Another major example of just how advanced these people are in comparison to Spear, taming untamable animals to be their mounts (I mean, Fang, but Spear and Fang are equals so-). These guys are more advanced than the Celts even, having intricate weaponry and clothing, even shields! Uh, again, I’ll talk about cultures and technology in another post. For now, this is the true end of Primal’s unprimaling, as Spear and Fang defeat the Viking intruders and track their scent back to their village, to Mira’s location, which leads into the next episode and my personal favorite, The Red Mist, but that’s off-topic, just remember that after this point there's never really a major animal villain again when the Vikings introduce a whole new breed of villain to the show.

The beginning of Genndy Tartakovsky’s Primal takes to a slow buildup of tuning out the animalistic side of season 1, giving creatures a final spotlight as antagonists, and into the barbarity of ancient man, mingling with both good and evil tribes. People who, while primitive compared to you or I, are basically aliens to our favorite caveman and dinosaur. Folks on the road to getting where we are today, but who’ve also left a lifestyle like Spear’s behind, Spear is now as much as a living fossil as we thought Fang was to him, and this is accentuated the more season 2 goes on and even in its ending.

Tune in next time where I hope I talk about the cultures and technology of the bronze age/ancient/medieval age world of Primal season 2!

#genndy tartakovsky's primal #bisonprimal #genndy tartakovsky's primal season 2 #primal

[persephoenie]

So my partner and I finally watched Barbie the other day. I had really wanted to see it in the theater, but money has been tight for a while. I was super excited when Barbie come out on Max.

***SPOILERS BELOW***

...

Okay, Hi Barbie! 👋🏻 So, the whole movie made me cry so much. Literally from the opening scene until the "I'm here to see my gynecologist" both me and my partner were stuck to the screen - like velcro.

My partner had lots of commentary, as he always does. And so did I, ofc. But he immediately loved the opening that was a strong nod to 2001: A Space Odyssey. That's one of his favorite movies, so he was very pleased. He also adored all of the movements of the actors - how you can literally picture kids picking the Barbies and Kens up. He also deeply appreciated Margot Robbie's attention to detail for the Barbie 'doll' movements. He rewinded to watch the first scene where Barbie steps out of her heels because he was so amazed. He really resonated with the reflection of the Kens being treated poorly in the 'perfect feminist utopia' and having the Beach Ken not be taken seriously when he tried to express his hurt feelings. He loved the campiness of the 'manly' scenes. He fully backs the creation of a standalone Ken movie where Beach Ken embraces his horse-boy ways and "just becomes a cowboy" (his words lol).

For me, there was so much that resonated throughout the movie. Some highlights: America Ferrera referencing Sisterhood in her monologue at the end of the movie [I literally gasped and said "good for her" - Sisterhood and America's character in it was a huge part of my childhood]; the transition with Margot Robbie having no makeup on - the visual was stunning and we literally rewinded it to watch it again, so cool; as a Barbie fan, seeing ALL of the Barbie variations getting their own actors was really really cool; the whole feel of the movie reminded me of the Barbie movies I grew up watching [like Swan Lake or Rapunzel] idk if that was just me that felt that way though; how the movie didn't shy away from not only acknowledging mortality but getting really honest and dark about it - everybody has complicated feelings about dying, and it's not talked about nearly enough as it should be; the scene in the kitchen with Barbie and Ruth Handler then the scene with Ruth telling Barbie that she made her like her daughter Barbara [oh how I cried].

Something that stuck with me though? When the movie ended, and the credits rolled - I looked to my partner and he was crying. I asked him what was wrong. This is how the conversation went:

Him: "Is this all there is?"

Me: "You mean our existence?"

H: "Yeah..."

M: "Well, it might be. There's no real way for us to know. We're not advanced enough as a species to know the answer to that."

H: "...how are we supposed to live like that?"

M: [I started crying but smiled] "Well for me...laughing feels really, really nice. When I look outside and it's super pretty and bright, I like to look a little longer. Sometimes I get really sad when I think about how this might be all there is, that's probably why I cry so damn much. But you know what? I'm so lucky to be here. In this vast universe...I get to exist here, right now, with you. And remembering that makes everything better."

* We cuddled for like two hours after that, scrolling through Instagram reels of cute animals. Existential crisis diverted for now!

I have so much more to say honestly, but this post is already long. I also just spent 20 minutes of my hour long therapy session talking about Barbie lol

#barbie #existentialism #depression #mental health #movie review #spoilers #barbie spoilers #emotional

[rawwkfingers]

Doctor Who and the Silurians

The science of this serial is absolute rubbish, specifically the Silurian timeline, but I genuinely think this is one of the greatest pieces of science fiction I've seen in a long time

The political plot was actually interesting for once, the questions it asks about human nature, how we treat each other, and how we will react when we do meet aliens are poignant even now. And even a lot of the smaller details like the designs of the Silurians were all fantastic. I definitely see why Moffat felt the need to bring back essentially the same plot for their return in New Who, although with a few more modern changes

This isn't me saying it was perfect; it used the "pacifist leader is killed by warhungry subordinate" trope that Doctor Who uses so often (though that warhungry character than sacrificing his life for the continuation of his species was an excellent twist on the trope) and I wish that we had seen more people desiring peace on both the Silurian and the Human sides. It would have made the moral quandries the plot presented seem more legitimate; as is we only had the Doctor, Liz, and the Silurian leader be on the side of "good"

Also, the story has definitely aged poorly from a modern perspective. The use of a plague to kill humans (and what we now know is an extremely unrealistic response from the government to said plague) is definitely in bad taste after Covid but even worse is the obvious parallels the Human/Silurian conflict has to Palestine. It's less explicit here than it was in the New Who Silurian episode, but it's impossible not to view the Silurians as an allegory for Palestine, which really puts them in a very different light than I think this serial wanted us to view them

That being said, the serial makes it extremely explicit that what Lethbridge-Stewart and the rest of UNIT did was murder on the verge of genocide and I have to give it credit for that

I'm loving Pertwee as the Doctor, although I can already feel that I'm going to be tired of the stories stuck on earth before his time is done. Liz is currently falling into the same traps a lot of previous companions have, surface level awesome but continually put into the "feminine" roles even when she points out that doing secretarial work is literally not her job as a woman with three Master's degrees. Caroline John is a great actress though!

#rawwk on #classic who watch #doctor who and the silurians

[dubhdove156]

Rant/Vent Post:

My twin sister and exception attempted suicide the other day. The last few days have been incredibly stressful, and for the first few nights, no one was sure if she'd pull through. Currently, she's getting more stable and verbally coherent, but she's lost the use of her legs. Clinicians aren't sure yet if that'll ever return.

I have some thoughts on all of this that I can't really share socially or with family right now, so I'm just going to put them here.

First off, the way she attempted was... dramatic. Like, movie main-character dramatic. It wasn't a cry for help, that's already come and gone. This was a genuine attempt and I'm not looking to invalidate that. But she texted everyone highly emotional goodbyes, posted on all of her social media, and the method used just pointed to wanting to go out with a bang for a finale.

On that note, I've made observations my entire life about the people around me that Main Character Syndrome™️ is out of control, not only with this generation, but with generations prior. I also deal with it.

My sister is maybe the biggest weeb I've ever known; she watches anime like it's crack or heroin. It's gotten to the point that she's expressed to me that it's difficult to think of scenarios that aren't in anime format. In other words, her schema and worldview have been almost totally shaped by anime. She's been an anime fan since we were 4ish years old. It's consumed her world.

I think that maybe this was a chunk of why this happened. Not all of the reason, maybe not even a good chunk, but a contributing factor at the very least.

Think of it this way: someone who reads a lot of romance novels and watches a lot of romance movies is shocked by the hard truths of intimate relationships, they're poorly adapted to the reality of relationships, and they've created unrealistic expectations that cannot and never will be met. They'll be left with a void that some author's daydream put there of a world that doesn't exist. Someone who grows up watching DBZ, action movies, badass protagonists, playing video games where the player character is next to immortal, might have their worldview shattered when they can't John Wick their way out of a situation that they started and wind up in the hospital or worse.

In saying this, I'm not saying that anime is the devil. What I'm curious about is to what extent the media we consume affects our worldview, and how much of it is healthy. Media in the form of fiction has been a part of our collective history since we originated. I'm not saying it's inherently negative -- hero stories go as far back as Odysseus and Gilgamesh. It's ingrained in us. But I can't help but shake the feeling that something, culture maybe, shifted at some point (idek how many generations ago) that has led us to this point that I see at least some narcissism in everyone, but especially in the younger generations. It's difficult to find people my own age who aren't competitive; where it feels like this room isn't big enough for the both of us. This is become endemic to our species. We're evidently killing ourselves when reality doesn't and can't meet the expectations set on us by TV shows, movies, video games, animes, etc.

Idk it's just a thought I had.

Side note: recently, while trying to improve my condition, I've become a major fan of media in which the protagonist is just... a dude. Shows where there are multiple protaganists and any might die or fail at any moment. I've especially gotten into playing the Soulsbourne series because it checks me. I've become a major fan of ego-checks, and think we could all use a good ass kick in whatever department we're too proud of ourselves in. This world needs a major dose of humility.