#esoteric biology jokes | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

Visit Blog

Explore Tumblr blogs with no restrictions, modern design and the best experience.

Fun Fact

Premium Tumblr themes are available from anywhere between $9 to $49.

#esoteric biology jokes

gallifreyinstituteforlearning · 4 months

Note

I'm sorry if this has been asked before, but what is the full extent of a Gallifreyan's psychic abilities? I know they have basic telepathy and telekinesis. Could they have “Jedi-like” powers if they really wanted?

On a side note, do the "Powers of Creation" and the Master's lighting/electricity powers count as psychic abilities? If not, what are they?

Gallifreyan Psychic Abilities

🧠 Gallifreyan Psychic Abilities

Telepathy: Every Gallifreyan possesses these abilities to some extent, though most are low-level telepaths. They can communicate mind-to-mind, especially with other Gallifreyans.

Telepathic Signature Recognition: Each Gallifreyan has a unique psycho-kinetic signature, enabling them to recognise each other even in different bodies.

Psychic Bridge/Entrelacement Formation: They can establish intense telepathic links, known as Psychic Bridges or entrelacement, with other Gallifreyans, transferring large amounts of information and emotions in a short amount of time.

Hypnotism and Memory Manipulation: They can hypnotise others and block, alter, erase, or implant memories. This is enhanced by intense eye contact. So if a Gallifreyan is closing their eyes while reading your mind, they're respecting your boundaries and signalling they're (probably) not trying to rearrange your mind.

Astral Projection: Advanced Gallifreyans can project their minds through the Astral Vortex over vast distances and through time. This form of psychic ability is particularly strong when contacting different incarnations of themselves.

Soul Catching: A way more esoteric ability is to absorb memories from a dying Gallifreyan, preserving their experiences and knowledge, which is useful for plot, I'm sure.

🚫 Limitations and Extended Abilities

No Telekinesis: Typically, Gallifreyans don't possess strong telekinesis as part of their standard psychic skill set, only minor telekinesis for moving tiny objects, such as pieces in board games. However, specific instances demonstrate that under certain conditions, they can manifest proper telekinetic abilities:

Caleera: Caleera, a Time Lord Academy student, had profound psychic abilities that included telekinesis. Her case was so unique that it was 'controlled' via medical intervention.

The Tenth Doctor: The Tenth Doctor showed some telekinetic ability when he channelled the collective psychic energy of Earth.

Jedi-like Powers: While their psychic abilities are pretty darn impressive, it's a stretch to say they could do Jedi powers on the hoof. Gallifreyan telekinesis isn't about lifting starships or blasting you with the Force into a wall. These abilities, while powerful, are exceptional. They require specific circumstances or an inherent level of talent that's not common among Gallifreyans.

✨Powers of Creation and The Master’s Thor-like Thang

Powers of Creation: This is likely not a psychic ability but an advanced manipulation of physics and cosmic laws. It's more about an in-depth understanding of the universe and an ability to manipulate its fundamental aspects rather than anything psionic.

The Master's Abilities: The lightning/electricity powers of the Master likely resulted from his botched regeneration process, where excess artron energy was harnessed as a weapon. This is different from typical psychic powers and more related to a 'whoopsie' in the regeneration process.

Hope that helped! 😃

→🫀Gallifreyan Anatomy and Physiology Guide (WIP) →⚕️Gallifreyan Emergency Medicine/Monitoring Guides →📝Source list (WIP)

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

》📫Got a question / submission? 》😆Jokes |🫀Biology |🗨️Language |🕰️Throwbacks |🤓Facts 》📚Complete list of Q+A 》📜Masterpost If you like what GIL does, please consider buying a coffee or tipping below to help make future projects, including complete biology and language guides.

#doctor who #gil #gallifrey institute for learning #dr who #dw eu #gallifrey #gallifreyan biology #gil biology #gallifreyans #ask answered

79 notes · View notes

brightlotusmoon · 5 years

Text

Respecting TMNT Michelangelo

The Fandom: LOL Mikey doesn't do science and knowledge, he just reads comics and plays games, what does he know about esoteric stuff?

Me: So, through comics, video game lore, and pop culture, Michelangelo has absorbed knowledge about various sciences including psychology, astrophysics, chemistry, neurology, medicine, and biology, has dutifully studied folk tales and mythologies, can quote Shakespeare and Tolkien as appropriate jokes, and has studied enough on quantum energy to quietly increase his spiritual ninja powers to match Master Splinter, secretly reading his family's chi and aura energy as well as his environment while keeping up his goofball appearance because if they realized his skills they would expect so much more and he's scared of having too much responsibility over the lives of his team, which is a double edged sword since he would already be responsible for the upkeep of their well being and good humor.

Fandom: Haha, he talks in slang and flirts with all the girls and acts stupid.

Me: He tries his own type of meditation for his confirmed ADHD and it can be hard to grasp concepts quickly, and his slang might as well be vocal stimming, echolalia. He feels weird enough being a mutant turtle, he feels even weirder being a pansexual mutant turtle and he tries to compensate.

Fandom: He acts way too happy and silly all the time.

Me: So did Robin Williams.

I blame David Wise and Peter Laird. They made their writers keep Mikey from getting too angsty. In 2003 he almost had Don's mutation arc, and his greatest desire would have been an amusement park. He boasted about being Battle Nexus Champion because it was basically all he had. 1987 turned him into a surfer stoner stereotype because Wise told me he preferred the character that way.

Tagging @ulisabarbic-blog (ThickerThanLove on FF and AO3) because she's the one who reminded me of those initial 2003 script ideas. And the way she writes Empathic Therapist Mikey for 1987 and 2003 is inspiring and beautiful.

256 notes · View notes

phinnsyreads · 5 years

Audio

Interview Log 026-01

Interview with ████ █████, former principal at SCP-026.

Agent ██████: Thank you for your time, Mr. █████.

█████: Not at all. If there's one thing I have plenty of these days, it's time.

Agent ██████: So, let's get down to business. You were principal of [REDACTED] back in [REDACTED], is that correct?

█████: Yes, that's right.

Agent ██████: What can you tell us about that?

█████: Well, you've heard the stories, I'm sure. Folks say it was haunted. I don't know about that, but things did seem strange towards the end.

Agent ██████: Tell me about them.

█████: Let's see, there were the stairs, of course. You've heard about that, right? People would count fifteen coming up and sixteen coming back down. I'm sure there was a trick to it, like an optical illusion, but I never could figure it out. And we had a history book that turned up completely blank. [Pauses] I suppose these seem rather tame. But you know how it is. Little things add up. People tell stories.

Agent ██████: Tell me about the dreams.

█████: The dreams? Oh, yes. People were complaining about nightmares. Mostly students, but a few of the staff as well. It was always about school never ending. We joked about it at first, but more people talked about it. I didn't put much credence into it, but, well, when we found the blueprints didn't match up with the school, it seemed easier just to move to a new building. The schoolhouse was old, anyway, and we wanted a fresh start. And, just like that, things seemed to settle back to normal.

Agent ██████: I see. Is there anything else you'd like to add?

█████: Hmm. [Pauses] It's not really much, but maybe it will make a nice footnote in that book you're writing. I still sometimes have dreams about being in my office, back at the old schoolhouse. Sometimes I'm doing paperwork, sometimes I'm talking to someone, but it's always back behind the desk, just like old times. But gradually, I notice something's a bit off. The bell's ringing, but I don't hear anyone in the hallway. No students hurrying in or out of the classroom, no chatter, no footsteps, nothing but the bell. And it doesn't stop. The crazy thing is that I never notice it's a dream until then. I've been retired for ten years, but until I notice the bell, I think everything's normal. Crazy, isn't it?

Agent ██████: I think it's very interesting. Thank you very much. If you think of anything else, don't hesitate to give me a call.

█████: Any time.

Item #: SCP-026

Object Class: Euclid

Special Containment Procedures: SCP-026 is to remain securely locked and boarded up at all times when there is no research ongoing. Alarms are set to alert the Foundation in case of entry by civilians or other agencies.

Description: SCP-026 is a three (3) story public school building built in ████. It has two (2) wings connected to a central foyer. It was declared condemned in ████ after it was found the floor plan didn't match up to the building's blueprints (see Interview Log 026-01). It came to the Foundation's attention after several disappearances in the area were linked to visits to the abandoned building.

The building demonstrates spatial anomalies. Its internal space is much greater than the external surface of the building would allow. Hallways display variable length, while stairways have differing numbers of steps going up or down. The number of rooms off the hallways changes each time they are counted. Attempts to reach the far ends of the hallways have met with failure thus far. Entrance through the fire escapes located at the ends of the hallways leads to doors approximately midway down the length of the halls.

EDIT: See Note 026-A

There is considerable graffiti on the interior walls of the school. Most appears typical, including gang signs, names, and street art. However, the graffiti fades and reappears, changing location. Writing on chalkboards and bulletin boards changes in a similar fashion. Subjects typically found range from standard school subjects (mathematics, literature, biology), to more esoteric subjects, such as quantum entanglement, ████████, and eugenics. One researcher reported one board detailing information about SCP-████, but photographic evidence showed only a blank slate. The contents of notepads, books, and pieces of paper have been observed to disappear, only to reappear on surfaces within SCP-026. New writings have appeared, mostly drawn from graffiti or text-books. Note: caution should be exercised in bringing documents onto the grounds of SCP-026. The phrase "The children used to sing" has appeared multiple times in various places throughout the building, but there is currently no explanation for its significance.

A number of unconscious subjects have been found in the building, mostly of high school age, ranging from twelve to eighteen. They are dressed in accordance to the school's dress code, circa ████. Several have been identified as former students or faculty of the school who disappeared after the school shut down (in at least one case, more than ten years after the closure). It is currently unknown how they were transported back into SCP-026. (See Note 026-B)

All attempts to wake the subjects while inside the building have failed. On being removed from the grounds of SCP-026, the subjects wake abruptly. They experience a period of confusion, before dying from extremely rapid dehydration, followed by advanced decomposition. No useful intelligence has been recovered from the subjects to date.

The inability to wake subjects extends to those who fall asleep on the grounds of SCP-026, though the rapid dehydration only seems to affect those who have been found on the grounds of the school. See Incident Report 026-12.

Incident Report 026-12 During a routine security check of SCP-026, Agent Malek was found unconscious by his partner, Agent Jones, in the main foyer. Initial attempts at rousing Agent Malek were ineffective, so he was moved for transportation to Site ██. Upon leaving the grounds of SCP-026, he woke abruptly in a state of agitation. When questioned, he revealed that he had been dreaming of a classroom setting. This dream has been consistent throughout all subjects who have fallen asleep within the grounds of SCP-026.

Note 026-A: Robotic exploration and video feeds have shown that the apparent spatial anomalies are caused by changes in the perceptions of observers, rather than actual spatial phenomena. For this reason, SCP-026 does not require the expertise of Mobile Task Force Rho-8 "Roadside Picnickers" at this time.

UPDATE: Further exploration has shown that some spatial phenomena do occur. See the Exploration Logs for more details.

Exploration Log 026-4 Exploration conducted by Agent ███████

"All right, I'm walking into the lobby. Walls are mostly bare concrete, a little paint here and there. Graffiti everywhere. A few beer bottles, some other trash. Looks like just another abandoned building.

"Okay, I'm making my way up the stairs. More graffiti on the walls. Okay, I'm going into the hallway. The peeling paint is kind of creepy. Looks like some sort of sheet fungus. Reminds me of [REDACTED]. The doors are kind of weird. Some are really close, others are far. Really irregular spacing. Doesn't match up with the blueprint you showed me. Okay, here's a classroom. Pretty empty. Some old desks. Real old, like they had in the thirties. The chalkboard's got a few math problems on it. Looks like trig. Okay, I'm going to check out another room.

"Back in the hallway. Heading to the next room. Desks look more modern in this room. Made from particle board. More posters here. Look to be from the eighties, I'd say. I recognize some of them from when I was a kid. Looks like Latin on the chalkboard. Yes, I'm taking pictures.

"Okay, back in the hallway. Heading to the next room.

[Several minutes of silence]

"There's something really screwy with this place. I could swear the room was just a few feet away, but it feels like I've been walking for hours. Anyway, I'm here.

"We've got sleepers. Three of them, two girls and a boy. They look to be around fourteen, fifteen. They're all wearing the same uniform. Yeah, just like you showed me. Hang on a minute while I take some pictures. At least we can figure out who they are.

"The furniture's pretty old looking, what's left of it. Lot of broken chairs and desks. Nothing on the walls. Chalkboard's… The hell?

"You're not going to believe this, ████. It's got Agent █████████'s notes up there. In her handwriting, even. We're going to have to be really careful what we bring in here.

"Yeah, I've got pictures, don't worry. Okay, I'm going to check one more room, and then I'm out.

"Back in the hallway now. Heading for the next room.

"Another anomaly. I've been going the same direction this entire time, but I'm back at the stairs. Yeah, I'm just going to head down. I've had enough of this place for one day. I'll meet you at the door."

The developed photos revealed [REDACTED]

----

Exploration Log 026-12 Carried out remotely using a robotic drone via video feed. Exploring the first floor hallway.

The hallway appeared in poor condition, with graffiti on the walls. Comparison with previous videos shows the graffiti has changed. Many of the same signs were present, but in different positions. Some seemed new.

Doors were uniformly spaced on the wall. Some were intact, while others were cracked or missing entirely.

First room in the hallway was the girl's bathroom. More graffiti on the walls. Several broken mirrors. A toilet had been removed from the wall entirely and placed in the center of the room. There was a great deal of porcelain and glass on the floor.

The next room over was the boy's bathroom. This was skipped in favor of exploring the classrooms.

The first classroom had no furniture. The chalkboard was broken in two. On one side of the board, there was a set of lines reading "I will not pass notes during cla (sic)." The other side had fragments of a lesson on [REDACTED]. There was one poster on the wall, depicting Helen Keller.

The second classroom was well furnished, with the largest number of intact desks to date, mostly made from wood and steel in a style used in the 1950's. There were two sleepers found that had not been reported in previous sweeps of the building. The first was a male teenager in a student's desk. Comparison with File 026-04 revealed him to be ██████ ███, a former student of the school. He was reported missing ten years after the school closed down, at age twenty-eight. The other was a woman in her mid-thirties sitting behind the teacher's desk. Her identity is still unknown. The chalkboard had a timeline of World War 2, overlaid with an intricate piece of graffiti.

The third classroom had fifteen particle-board desks in various states of disrepair. A map on the back wall was consistent with the sociopolitical conditions of 1974. A bookshelf had collapsed, and spilled a set of encyclopedias onto the floor.

The robot was then guided to the end of the hallway and back to the entrance. There was no sign of spatial anomalies at this time.

----

Exploration Log 026-15 Exploration conducted by Agent █████, accompanied by a robotic drone.

"Okay, I'm in. Lobby looks like it always does. Probably some graffiti drift. Here comes the robot."

The lobby was compared to previous videos. Some differences in the graffiti were noted. Otherwise, no significant changes.

"I'm heading upstairs now. Goddamn, the robot's heavy. How much crap did you load on it? You could've warned me. Gonna rest a second on the second landing. Video coming in all right? Cool, cool."

First set of stairs was navigated without trouble. The second floor hallway appeared similar to the first floor hallway, though with less debris.

"I've caught my breath. Heading up to the third floor. Wish there was a guard rail… Next time, it might be easier to carry the robot and the gear separately, and load it in once it's up. The gear's pretty idiot proof. I think I could probably figure it out. Damn thing must weigh over a hundred pounds. There, on the third floor now. I count… twelve doors. Weird spacing. That last door's got to be at least a hundred yards down. This place is pretty messed up."

Rangefinder showed the hallway was approximately forty-five meters long. Five doors on each side, evenly spaced, with one more door at the end of the hall. Eleven total.

"I'm heading in. There's not as much graffiti up here. A bit of debris. I'm opening one of the doors. Janitor's closet, and, hey, we've got a janitor. He's sleeping standing up. That's new. Male, seems to be in his mid-fifties. Nametag says ‘███████.’ A couple old broomsticks, what's left of a mop… Looks like rats have been nesting in here. They've shredded one of his pantlegs, but looks like they didn't touch the sleeper himself. What? You want samples? Eh, sure. Wouldn't be the weirdest thing I've picked up for this job. Okay, I think that's it."

Comparison with File 026-4 revealed the sleeper to be ████ ████████, former janitor in SCP-026. Later analysis of the rat feces revealed [REDACTED]. Recommended future exploration teams wear biohazard gear.

"Here's a classroom. No, no sleepers. Couple of desks intact, the rest looks pretty bad. Looks like someone took a sledgehammer to the place. No, wait, I stand corrected. Baseball bat. It's leaning against the corner. There's about half a case of beer here, full cans. Looks like they left in a hurry. Hey, get the robot to face the board. There's something I want you to see. Looks like Latin to me. Could be significant. Get someone to translate it, it might be a clue to what's gone down here."

The Latin was found to be a series of sentences showing different conjugations of the verb vendo, to sell. All were found in ███████'s Latin Primer, a textbook formerly used by the school. The baseball bat was aluminum, and analysis of the fingerprints was inconclusive.

"Okay, next classroom. Desks look fairly modern. Eighties, I'd guess. Chalkboard's got a quote from Nicholas Nickleby on it. Yes, I'm sure. It says right there on the board. 'The sun does not shine upon this fair earth to meet frowning eyes, depend upon it.' Nicholas Nickleby, by Charles Dickens. There's an apple on the desk. Looks fresh. I'm tossing it into the drone. Okay, I'm looking out the window. Hey, are you guys still out there? Because I see kids in the schoolyard. I don't see the van, or any of you. Yeah, second classroom on the right. You see me? Weird."

The apple appeared fresh on the video feed. However, when removed from the samples bin, it was in an advanced state of decomposition. The drone's feed through the window showed the Foundation van on the ground, and the research team looking up at the window. No children were seen in the schoolyard.

"Okay, you want me to head down the hallway? All right. Let's see if I actually make it this time. Not holding out any hopes. Walking forward. It looks ten feet to the next door, which would actually put it in the last room, but who's counting?

"I'm still here. It's just farther than it looks. Feels like I've been walking at least a couple of hours. I'm almost there. I'm just going to take a breather. I—Okay, this is wrong. I've stopped moving, but now I'm going backwards. The hallway's moving past me. Shit, I just saw the door move past me. I'm moving forward again. That's better.

"Okay, I'm almost there. One last dash and I should make it. And I'm back with the robot. I knew it wasn't going to work. There's no way to get there, I'm telling you."

The video feed showed the next door was thirty feet away. The total elapsed time from one door to the next was five minutes, in which time Agent █████ meandered toward the end of the hallway. No anomalous activity was observed while he was standing still. When he neared the end of the hallway, Agent █████ turned around and quickly returned to the beginning of the hallway.

"Okay, I hear you. I've got my eyes closed. I'm walking forward. Left, got it. Going straight. Correcting left again. Correcting right now. Okay, this is going a lot faster. Okay, correcting right. Yes, right, I heard you. Goddamnit, I am going right! Okay, left. No it is not the same direction! Look, if you think it's that easy, just send the robot in."

The robot was able to reach the end of the hallway with no problems. Agent █████ attempted to follow, but was unable to keep a straight line to the end of the hallway.

"Just go ahead and send the bot in. I'm not going to try again until we have a better idea what's in there. Something's keeping me out of there. We should figure out what it is before anything else. Look, if you want to know that badly, go yourself or request some Class Ds. I'm not going in. Deal with it."

At this point the robot opened the door and crossed the threshold into another hallway, running perpendicular to the first, thirty meters in length. No doors were visible. A single window was observed but was situated too high for the view outside to be visible. The walls were free of graffiti. The left was a dead-end, while the right terminated in a left-hand turn. The robot turned right into the new hallway. After ten meters, the unit's GPS showed it to be outside the building, though the video feed still showed the hallway. It continued to the end of the hallway, and turned left. Agent █████ was just ahead, at the beginning of the original hallway. Turning the camera behind the robot showed only the stairwell, with no sign of the second hallway. The unit's GPS showed it by Agent █████'s position at this time.

"I see another classroom. I don't see the robot, though. I lost track after it went through the door. What do you mean it's outside? Did it go out through the window? Look, maybe the GPS is screwy. Calm down. What do you mean turn around? What the hell am I—Oh, fuck! Okay, that's enough. I'm calling it off for the day. We can come back after we get some Class Ds in here."

Note 026-B: Several class D personnel exposed to SCP-026 have disappeared from Foundation control, only to reappear inside the anomalous building. The subjects in question had previously complained of dreams identical to those experienced by Agent Malek.

UPDATE: See Interview Log 026-08.

Interview Log 026-08

Dr. █████: "Please have a seat."

Agent Walker: "Thank you."

Dr. █████: "Let's get down to business. I understand you're requesting a transfer out of fieldwork. Would you like to talk about that?"

Agent Walker: "I'd rather not."

Dr. █████: "It's your choice. However, I can't approve a transfer without reason."

Agent Walker: "Look, I…" The agent paused here. "You've seen my record. You know I worked on twenty-six, right?"

Dr. █████: "I've read the report."

Agent Walker: "I was there the first time we took one of the sleepers out. A lot of them were adults when they disappeared, but they're kids again when we find them. So, I see this sixteen-year-old boy just kind of shrivel away. I had nightmares that night."

Dr. █████: "You're supposed to report any unusual dreams after contacting a potentially mind-altering phenomenon."

Agent Walker: "It hadn't been declared a mindscrew yet. We just thought it was a weird space thing. We were just watching it until the Picnickers got there. And it was a shock, you know? We weren't expecting anything like that. Anyway, I got over it quick enough. I'd seen worse. I once had a guy melt while I was holding onto him."

Dr. █████: "I see. What happened next?"

Agent Walker: "Nothing, for a while. I went in a couple of times, but didn't see anything too weird. But… Look, I know I should have reported it. But one of my buddies had just been disappeared after getting touched by some weird scip, and I didn't want it to happen to me."

Dr. █████: "You've been affected by an SCP?"

Agent Walker: "I… Yeah. It was a week later. I was dozing in the back of the van, and I started dreaming."

Dr. █████: "Can you describe this dream?"

Agent Walker: "Just like the others. You've read the reports, right?"

Dr. █████: "Pretend that I haven't. For the record, Agent Walker."

Agent Walker: "All right. I'm in a classroom. It's just like one of the ones in 026, but new. Not falling apart. I knew the teacher's name. I knew who was sitting by me, even though I'd never seen most of them before. The bell started ringing, but no one moved. I raised my hand, but the teacher didn't notice. Finally, I tried to leave, but the door wouldn't open. Then I noticed something strange with my hand. It had color. Everything else was black and white. But I felt like I was the one who was… wrong? Out of place? That's when I woke up. The van was leaving. No one else noticed I'd been asleep."

Dr. █████: "And you didn't think to report this?"

Agent Walker: "Like I said, I was scared. And this was before they found Malek. I figured it was just another nightmare. Nothing weird. And after Malek had his dream, well, they didn't do anything with him, so I figured it wasn't a big deal."

Dr. █████: "He was put on observation. You should have been as well, for your own safety and for the safety of others."

Agent Walker: "You paper-pushers think it's all so easy, don't you? Sitting behind a desk all day, you don't know what it's like. Well, things aren't so clear out there. Not when you're the one hunting talking cats in a sewer, or waiting to see if you're the one who's not going to come back this time."

Agent Walker was visibly distressed. It was several minutes before she calmed down enough to continue the interview.

Agent Walker: "Anyway, it wasn't until later that we connected the dreams with the sleepers. Not until they found those Class Ds on the second floor. Still, I thought I might be okay. I wasn't actually inside of twenty-six when I dreamed. I wasn't sure until the dreams started."

Dr. █████: "You're having reoccurances?"

Agent Walker: "Yeah. They started six months ago. It's the same dream. But each time, it takes me a little longer to notice it isn't real. And when I look at my hands, they're a little more gray."

End interview 026-08

Note: Agent Walker has since been given a Class A Amnestic and returned to field work.

====

[The voice of Agent ███████ (Interview Log 026-01) was provided by @phantomancer.] [The voice of Mr. ██████ (Interview Log 026-01) was provided by Breck Wilhite.] [The voice of Agent ███████ (Exploration Log 026-4) was provided by Spera Crinis.] [The voice of Agent █████ (Exploration Log 026-15) was provided by @navox-the-weary.] [The voice of Dr. █████ (Interview Log 026-08) was provided by Brittany Carlton.] [The voice of Agent Walker was provided by @mezzoprime.]

#phinnsy #scp foundation #scp 026 #reading #voiceover #storytelling #sci-fi #horror #urban legend #podcast #fiction #school #foley

5 notes · View notes

raydaug · 7 years

Text

Listening when they Speak

I’m not fan of monster girls. They are an incomprehensible fetish to me, and the fact that pretty much every prominent series that has featured them has been harem schlock hasn’t done much to endear me to the idea.

Not to mention that I find them genuinely kind of terrifying. The opening scene of Monster Musume, which features the main character suffocating to death while a lamia coils him in her sleep, awakened fears in my when I watched it that that I didn’t even know I had.

But as is usually the case, there’s nothing inertly wrong with the idea of monster girls, it’s just that the idea hadn’t been put to good use yet. Interviews with Monster Girls (or Demi/Ajin-chan wants to Speak), a manga and now anime, uses the idea of monster girls to great effect to tell stories about living with disability, illness, and other chronic conditions.

This isn’t a new observation or interpretation of the series. In fact, hearing about it was the whole reason I decided to even check it out in the first place. Still, I think it’s something worth talking about, if only to get the word out to more people.

Interviews with Monster Girls is about Takahashi, a high school biology teacher who’s always had an interest in ajin, or demi-humans. Demi-humans are widely known, if exceedingly rare. While they did face prejudice and persecution, society has grown to accommodate them over time. Takahashi tried to do research on demi-humans in college, but was unable to arrange any meetings. Now, there are three demi students and a teacher at his school, marking it as the highest concentration of demi. Takahashi gets to know the demi, helping them navigate school life with their conditions while also sating his own curiosity on the subject matter.

Hikari, the vampire, is the demi featured most prominently through the series. An energetic girl who’s fundamentally good hearted, but who’s need to be the center of attention can sometimes get her into and cause trouble.

Despite her desire to drink blood, Hikari’s day to day life more closely resembles that of someone with diabetes or anemia than it does of a Lord of the Undead. Managing her vampirism on a daily basis mostly involves managing her diet to make sure she’s getting enough iron. Other than her fangs, there’s virtually nothing distinguishing her from a regular human.

Yuki, a yuki-onna, is also outwardly very normal, though her condition is a bit more severe. Her body is perpetually cold, and can occasionally produce ice from bodily fluids. After moving away from her home and support network to go to school, she withdrew from close physical contact to avoid potentially hurting people.

She reads a lot like someone living with chronic diseases, such as HIV. The folk stories about yuki-onna are nearly universally tragic, ending in hurt and sadness. Convinced that she can only end up hurting people, she decides the best thing to do for everyone is to disengage. With some help from Takahashi, she receives some education on her condition and learns that she isn’t a treat to people around her, and is able to go back to living a relatively normal high school life.

The real star of the series, though, is Machi, who upholds Japans fascination with one of the more esoteric fantasy creatures, the dullahan. Machi’s head and body exist independently from one another, though they are still one entity.

Machi’s condition isn’t her primary concern. She and her family have learned that, with come caveats and accommodations, she can live a regular, independent life. Instead, Machi just wants to be accepted socially.

She’s treated nice enough by her classmates, but she can tell that any time that conversation turns to her being a dullahan, her classmates become uncomfortable and try to avoid the topic as much as they can. Instead of ignoring it, Machi wishes that that they could become comfortable enough around her that they could joke about her condition.

When she goes to Takahashi, he explains to her in kind of an incredible scene that she needs to be the one that establishes what is and is not okay for her peers to do. If she demonstrates what kind of jokes are okay to make about her being a dullhan, then her classmates will be more comfortable making jokes themselves.

Unfortuantley, the series falters a bit when it comes to the math teacher and succubus Sakie.

There are two big problems with Sakie. First and possibly the biggest is that, if we want to continue to read this series as a thin metaphor of disability, then succubus are a danger population standing in for a non-dangerous one. Unlike other demi, succubus effect other people directly via their powers of seduction. Direct contact or even enough exposed skin is enough to instill strong lust in someone. Not only that, but they also project erotic dreams when they sleep, meaning that not only does this greatly effect where Sakie can live, but it means that succubus are a problem, socially. The government has even formed a police for dealing specifically with succubus related crimes.

It’s the same problem that The X-Men has. While the intent may be a story about tolerance and acceptance and fighting for equal rights, the fact that the group in question possesses traits that actually make them dangerous to the greater population at large undercuts that theme by making and suspicion and prejudice they face justified because they are actually dangerous.

There are also some uncomfortable undertones with regards to female sexuality. Namely, that it is Sakie’s job to manage other people’s consumption of her sexuality.

Luckily, the series doesn’t lean too hard into either of those angles, and even manages to salvage the situation. Twice, Takahashi is exposed to her seductive powers, once by accident while helping her pick up some stuff, and another time deliberately while they were talking about being a succubus. Both times, Takahashi no-sells the seduction, even though he was definitely feeling it.

It draws a clear line between feeling and behavior. Just because Takahashi felt a certain way, and was even made to feel a certain way, doesn’t give him the right to act on that feeling.

I myself caught myself up with the manga, which is a short, breezy read, but the anime airing now so far (which granted is just two episodes) has so far been one of the better adaptations I’ve seen in a while. Unlike something like Kobayashi-san’s Maid Dragon, which is too faithful to be very interesting, the anime adaptation of Interviews with Monster Girls has taken some great artistic license, adding scenes that contribute greatly to the series. Most notably, the first episode adds a scene with Saikie where she explains to Takahashi how he’s overstepping her personal boundaries and tells him to stop, which he does. The worst thing I can say about the anime so far is that it’s an A-1 Pictures joint, with all the included baggage.

It may not be a perfect series, but it’s at least trying something different with what I had previously thought to be a pretty worthless genre. Interviews with Monster Girls is totally worth checking out and I highly recommend it.

#Interviews with Monster Girls #Demi Wants to Speak #ajin-chan wa kataritai #demi-chan wa kataritai #monster girls #disability #disabilties #representation #anime #manga #personal boundaries #handicap

5 notes · View notes

great-and-small · 27 days

Text

All of tumblr right now

#esoteric biology jokes #boops boops #boop #april fools

1K notes · View notes

great-and-small · 2 years

Text

Tarantula: May I have a coke please

Waitress: All we have is Pepsis is that okay?

*Tarantula sweating nervously*: Y-you have what

#hoping there is like one Tarantula Hawk researcher out there to appreciate this one #esoteric biology jokes #Pepsis #tarantula hawk #memes #bugs #bugblr

25K notes · View notes

great-and-small · 4 months

Text

Me: *plays specific song repeatedly for my unborn child in the womb*

Person: Awww that’s lovely, music is so important to a developing baby 😊

Me: haha yeah definitely that’s why I’m doing it totally not so I can use pre-learned acoustic call-and-response as a form of protection against brood parasitism by cuckoo birds 👀

#warning this will not work if mafia hypothesis is in play #birds #animal behavior #brood parasitism #parasitology #esoteric biology jokes

2K notes · View notes

great-and-small · 2 months

Text

When you accidentally type “I’m alated” instead of elated

#esoteric biology jokes #bugs #insect #bugblr

570 notes · View notes

great-and-small · 10 months

Text

Your honor my client has been unjustly maligned and ridiculed by the public on a scale that you and I could never even begin to understand. His very name has been tarnished beyond repair. The scientific evidence has proven his innocence, and yet the slander persists. Anyone in this room who claims to uphold justice and truth should find THIS *points to illustration of Oviraptor fleeing nest with comically oversized egg* disgusting and offensive.

#JusticeForOviraptor #paleontology #funny #biology #raptors #esoteric biology jokes

1K notes · View notes

great-and-small · 9 months

Text

Box turtles must look at other species of turtles and be like y’all are so unhinged

#box turtles #esoteric biology jokes #turtles #unhinged #herpetology #herpblr

808 notes · View notes

great-and-small · 3 months

Text

Why is this animal so cute?

It’s genetic

#esoteric biology jokes #iykyk #common genet

240 notes · View notes

great-and-small · 11 months

Text

I was talking to my mentor the other day and he told me he is currently working on a paper about treponema infections in animals. Since this bacteria often causes afflictions of the teeth and hooves, he told me he was putting a little silhouette of a tooth or a hoof next to the name of each organism on his chart to quickly denote to the reader the primary clinical illness associated with the particular species.

As he was working his way down the chart putting a tooth or hoof next to each species he realized he had included Treponema palladium as an out group on the chart and he had to scrap the silhouette idea entirely

#funny #treponema pallidum is the bacteria responsible for syphilis in humans lmao #esoteric biology jokes

539 notes · View notes

great-and-small · 7 months

Text

I love how you can make memes about whatever you want I like doing obscure turtle name jokes