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chrysalisim · 6 years

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SEASONS TAG

I was tagged by @pxelbutterflies -thanks kimmy!

1. which season are you going to play with first?

well. i would love to see fall first, but my story is still taking place in late august/early september-ish.....so i might have to see summer first.

2. from what you’ve seen in the trailer, what are you most excited about?

holidays!!! i’m so excited for (what looked like) new years! i love holiday decorations. it’s not in the trailer, but custom holidays sounds fun!

3. what’s your favourite season irl?

F A L L. Not the beginning of fall, when it still feels like summer, but I mean actual fall. When it’s a little windy and it’s just starting to get cold.

4. what’s your favourite flower/plant?

this sounds basic, but i love roses and sunflowers. i also have some succulents that i have somehow kept alive. am i a plant mom yet

5. are you going to create a new sim/family or are you going to keep your current household?

keep the same household! i’m going to probably experience seasons for the first time with winnie & co., but i have a personal save that I’ve had since 2014 when i first got ts4.....i’m only on gen 4 of that family, but i jump in between like 20 households at this point. this is a story for another time. anyways, i’ll probably play more with the features of seasons in that save!

6. what would you like to see in this new add-on that we haven’t seen yet?

hmm.....i’m not sure i can really think of anything else, except maybe how weather will affect occult sims? pets? i’m not too sure...OH, will sims be more susceptible to illness in certain seasons/weather?

7. how do you feel about not having a new neighbourhood?

i’m fine with it. i don’t think seasons in ts3 came with a new world.......i dont remember though. i dont think you can really make a “themed” world for seasons. san myshuno was specifically crafted for city living because of apartments, festivals, etc. brindleton bay was specifically crafted for pets to be a small town, home-y place. i dont think you could do that with seasons, especially when half of them are complete opposites (summer/winter, spring/fall).

8. snow, rain, sun or wind?

depends on the temperature and where i am. if its not too hot, i like the sunshine! if i’m in my room, R A I N

9. favourite refreshing drink in summer?

there’s a place by my university famous for lemonade and their vanilla and peach flavors are the bomb.

10. favourite hot drink in winter?

hot chocolate or coffee! i’m not a big tea drinker, mostly just when i’m sick.

11. walk through the forest or by the beach?

dependent on where the forest is/how dense. being in the middle of the woods would freak me out, so i’d say beach!

12. swimming pool or ocean?

swimming pool for swimming, ocean for just relaxing.

13. where would you like to travel if you could leave right now for a week?

I want to go to Italy so badly, it’s beautiful and i’ve heard the people are so nice

14. how is the weather today?

G R O S S. it’s been so hot, and it’s been raining on and off so the humidity is through the roof. this is by far my least favorite weather.

15. what new traits would you like to see in the new add-on?

oooooo i don’t know.....maybe a new take on the loves the heat/cold traits we got in ts3....maybe a trait that marks your sims as “easily burned” if they stay outside too long in the summer!

16. do you like to play with supernatural creatures like vampires and aliens? and if so, would you like to have witches/fairies/elves?

unfortunately, no, not really - my gameplay is more realistically centered.

17. what is your favourite thing to do during winter?

we have a fireplace in my home so i like sitting in the living room with a hot drink and either a good book or a good tv show!

18. …during spring?

uh. i’m not sure...hike, maybe? OH WAIT there’s a big grassy lawn at my university and it’s nice to sit there on a blanket and study or play with dogs or smth.

19. …during summer?

um, NOTHING because I H A T E hot weather. hate it. i guess i like swimming because then im shielded from the hot fiery hell outside

20. …during autumn?

hammocking!

21. have you already pre-ordered seasons? and if you haven’t, are you going to pre-order it or wait until it comes out?

no. i’ll wait for it to come out and then in a few weeks the physical copy will prob be on sale at target. ive gotten every expansion for $20 at target like a month after they come out. patience

22. in which neighbourhood are you going to play first with seasons?

probably san myshuno

23. do you listen to music while playing? and if so, what are your favourite songs to play to?

no, i don’t! i usually have my tv on in the background though

24. what’s your favourite thing to do in the sims? creating sims, building, etc?

creating sims! which sucks because i create so many i want to play with but i refuse to make any new saves outside of my story and my first save, so i dont usually get to incorporate them!

25. what’s your favourite kit/pack/add-on?

hmmmm. any pack? or just game or stuff packs? expansions, city living and pets. game pack.....i think parenthood. and stuff packs....laundry day and bowling i think have my favorite cas and build/buy things

26. and finally, what add-on/pack would you like to see next?

oooooooooooooh boy. ummm i don’t know actually! university would be nice, but i think i want a tropical themed add-on more than anything! i want my sims at the actual beach. the bay is nice, but i want an island paradise kind of deal!

im sure everyone has prob done one of these by now so pls forgive me if i tag you and youve already done it.... ill tag @maxismademedoit @ali3npixls @psychoxmachia and @whiisker

#tag games #nonsims #saviorhide

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xfanfics · 4 years

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Destiel Fic Rec List Part 6

Last Updated in October 2014. Posted in May 2020 for posterity. Listed in no particular order - the total rec list will have ~250 fics. Header graphic used with permission.

This part of the list contains: 38 fics.

Other Destiel Rec Lists: [1]. [2]. [3]. [4]. [5]. [6]. [7].

Hunting for Faith ❤ by riseofthefallenone E | 270k | AU, reverse!verse, priest cas, angel dean

It starts a few days earlier. Castiel first notices it in the middle of the night when the dreams of fire and screams have kept him awake. He’s kneeling before the altar, praying, when the glass in the windows start to shake, the very air vibrating around him. Castiel is on his feet and reaching for the gun tucked into the back of his pants as the shutters over the windows start to rattle.

Angel!dean will always have a special place in my heart, and as always, I love riseofthefallenone's characterization and writing. Complete with lovely art by pappcave.

Sporty High School AU by triedunture E | 18k | Hot, Fluff, High School AU

Cas is on the high school swim team and Dean Winchester is the super-attractive, too-cool-for-him lacrosse player. They're both practicing late one cold autumn night, and Dean succumbs to exhaustion. It's up to Cas to help him.

Real Slick Dean by trilliath E | 28k | Hot, AU, a/b/o, fuck or die

There's a new alpha enhancer drug "Rutter" on the streets that gets used at "exclusive parties" for the worst purposes. Detective Castiel Novak and his partner Balthazar work hard to put a stop to it and other sex crimes in their work as Special Victim's top detectives. Ellen Harvelle's Roadhouse is both a bar and a refuge for unmated Omegas. The Roadhouse gives Omegas the opportunity have their heats in peace and, if they so desire, even sell an 'exclusive supply of high-grade slick for the unmated Alpha on the go!'. Castiel is just such an Alpha, career oriented and having no time for casual sex or potential mates. He's a regular customer who only buys donor D347's slick. He's also a family friend and advocate who helps Omegas in need get connected with Ellen. It's all fine until one night after a difficult bust he brings Ellen a new Omega about to have her first heat. What Alpha Castiel doesn't realize is that he's been over-dosed with Rutter during the fight and is about to go into a rut so bad he may die. And if that weren't enough to kill him, the embarrassment he's about to feel will, because he's about to meet donor D347 face to face and neither of them are prepared for what's going to happen.

friendzone by kaiifayce M | 7k

“A date?! Like, with a real, breathing human being?” Dean sputters as wipes his mouth with his sleeve. Cas frowns, eyebrows knitting and his head cocking to the side slightly in his typical manner. “No, Dean, with one of the dissection frogs in the Biology lab,” he deadpans.

The Sentinel Crossover 'Verse by melonbutterfly E | 13k | Hot, AU, Sentinel/Guide Bonding

Wherein Castiel is a Guide and Dean is a Sentinel.

Dean Doesn't Listen to Eurythmics by Scaramouche E | 2k | Canon!Verse, First Time

Dean and Castiel share a bed. It starts out platonic, and then becomes something else.

Stitches by askance T | 23k | post s7, h/c, Fluff,

Castiel survived Leviathan--but only barely. Vessel mauled and eyes destroyed, Cas is barely clinging to what's left of his grace when Dean finds him naked and alone on the reservoir's edge; in a panic, Dean brings him home to the cabin where he and Sam have been holed up off the grid. What follows is the slow process of the angel's recovery and the unexpected changes that come with his being blind, and in the three months this takes, their little family slowly begins to patch itself back together in forgiveness, love, and darkness.

The Feline Perspective of a Guilty Conscience by almaasi E | 51k | Fluff, Canon!verse, post s8, cat dean

A few days ago, the angels were cast out of Heaven. Castiel believes it’s all his fault, and now he’s almost out of power, too. But that’s unimportant - Sam is dying, and Dean needs Cas to fix him before it’s too late. Cas’ selfless last efforts to save Sam backfire in the most unexpected way: Dean transforms into a cat. It seems like he’ll be stuck like that, and all Castiel can do is blame himself. The days pass without any clues on how to fix their predicament, and when Sam starts getting sick again, with Dean out for the count, Castiel realises that he’s the only one who can save Sam.

Foxfire Blossom ❤ by almaasi E | 283k | AU, infidelity,Hot, Angst, Fluff,

On a narrow lane, right at the edge of San Francisco city, there is a boutique flower shop with a single employee named Dean. The place is Dean’s world; it’s tiny, filled with bright colour and sensational beauty, and it’s the only sanctuary he ever finds amidst the commotion of his new life. Then, there’s Castiel. From the first time he steps into the shop, Castiel can’t help but become deeply enchanted by what’s inside. However, it’s not just the flowers that keep him coming back - with each visit he makes, he grows fonder of the bespectacled florist, learning Dean’s hands and his laughter as Dean shows him how to romance a woman. There is nothing either of them can do to keep from falling in love, despite Castiel’s path already being paved, cemented, and thoroughly set in stone: he is supposed to marry Daphne. It becomes clear that they all have their vices, addictions. Castiel has kept things from Dean... and maybe Dean has a few secrets, too. What with all the lying, cheating, and dauntless emotional vulnerability, they may as well be living in a soap opera.

First reaction: this fic is long. Make sure to space out your reading of it or you will die. I have a soft spot for cuddly/affectionate/softie!dean, and Almaasi delivers perfectly as usual. The infidelity gave me pause, as Cas is cheating on a significant other for a long period of time. I didn't like the ending very much because it seemed out of nowhere/random, but overall, I really liked it.

This is All Life Really Means ❤ by gedry E | 90k | Fluff, Angel/Demon AU, sam/gabriel, wing!kink, h/c

The highly arranged marriage between the angels and the demon providences requires some adjusting on the parts of their highly trained security details. Needless to say the members of said details are less than happy about their new arrangements.

Ugh how I love this fic. Gedry is my go to for long fluff, and this fic is perfect for it. Includes hate-to-love, schmoop, and *whispers* tail!kink.

Going Forward ❤ by gedry E | ? | Hot, Fluff, Angel AU, wing!kink, h/c

For cloudyjenn who wanted Dean with wings and Cas showing how to use them. Cas agrees to represent the angels as part of a social experiment to help them share a greater understand with the human population. He’s not prepared for who he has to live with for the next thirty days.

I LOVE gedry's AUs. This is filled with lovely wing!kink and pining. Mmmm yes.

Play It All Night Long ❤ by janie_tangerine E | 43k | AU

The rom-com-ish one where Dean hosts a late night radio show, Castiel is a regular listener of his who starts calling one day and ends up calling more often than not and Dean finds himself liking it. This, until one day Castiel calls for not exactly petty reasons (just before Dean’s brother Sam is visiting with his girlfriend for spring break) and things get very, very crowdy at his place. He also doesn’t know it’s just the beginning of it. Also features Gabriel, Chuck, Andy, the Roadhouse crew and a huge amount of music quoted. Especially Bob Dylan.

The one where Cas falls for Dean before they ever meet. Sweet.

Lovingly Crafted and Tenderly Packaged ❤ by janie-tangerine E | 17k | AU, artist!Cas

wherein Castiel owns a self-run t-shirts printing business for which he also makes custom orders, Dean orders Castiel's shirts online after Sam gets him a customized one and their romance is based on nonexistent boundaries. And where Balthazar owns the sex shop in front of Castiel's store and won't mind his own business.

Such an inventive AU. Meddling!Balthazar who runs a sex-shop and all.

Inevitable Homoeroticism in Spanish Romantic Heroes by prosopopeya E | 41k | Teacher AU

Dean is a grad student studying for his MA in Spanish literature, and he’s pretty content with his sexuality as it is -- that is, fairly undefined and also secret. His attraction to Castiel, a professor to the undergrads, doesn't seem like a big deal until it becomes a very big deal, and Dean scrambles to keep his head above water.

Start Quoting Shakespere and We're Done by pyrebi T | 15k | Fluff, AU, Sam/Gabriel

In which Dean has the hots for a librarian named Cas, Cas may or may not have the hots for a mechanic named Dean, and Gabriel joins Sam in the peanut gallery in the hopes that he might just get to do a horizontal tango of his own.

Summer Vacations Suck ❤ by ratherbehere E | 4k | Hot, Highschool AU, underage, BDSM, sub!dean, pwp, kink

Summer vacations suck, and Cas seems bent on making it awkward for Dean.

This is one of my go to pwp reads. It's just hot okay.

Have Love, Will Travel by squeemonster E | 94k | AU, writer cas, stripper dean, agoraphobia

Castiel Novak is a reclusive writer with a childhood so tragic it's left him terrified to leave his home—until his overbearing brother, Gabriel, drags him out for a night on the town full of booze and strip clubs, and he encounters Dean Winchester, a mesmerizing and mysterious stripper with secrets of his own. Both men find themselves inexplicably drawn to each other, and soon Dean's private dances for Castiel become much more, as both men confess their troubles and find solace in each other's company. But neither can seem to find the courage to take their relationship further than the intimacy of the club's VIP Room—and just when Dean's own brother gives him the excuse he needs to finally admit his feelings, Dean discovers something that brings it all crumbling down. Will they find a way past their demons and their trust issues, and back to each other?

The Story of You and Me by the_digglerv E | 51k | Fluff, Post s8, Amnesia

Dean wakes up in bed next to a very human Castiel, and a journal in his own handwriting that tells him it’s two years in the future. The house looks a lot like Bobby’s, and Sam lives there too… He just can’t remember how they got from angels falling in the sky – to comfortable domesticity. While there is much in the journal Dean doesn’t remember, there is much of their story he’s always known. And as he settles into the routine of his new life and relationship with Castiel, it quickly becomes something he doesn’t know how to live without.

Dean Winchester, Straight Shooter ❤ by triedunture E | 15k | Hot, Pornstar AU

Dean Winchester, star of StraightShooter.com, is a gay-for-pay porn star with a huge following. Cas Novak signs on to do a scene with him, even though he dislikes "straight" porn stars on principle. But Dean is more complicated than he first appears, and after inadvertently learning his secrets, Cas finds himself falling for him.

Ugh yes pornstar!AUs. This one is especially...good.

Peanut Butter-Pumpkin Wedding Cake by sparseparsley E | 30k | Hot, AU

Dean is a waiter in a strip club to put his kid brother through school. Castiel is dragged to the club as a part of his sister Anna's bachelorette party. Dean and Cas hit it off, but Dean thinks Cas is the one marrying Anna.

Easy Now, With My Heart ❤ by mcpadalackles E | 49k | Hot, Teacher AU, Writer Cas

Dean Winchester is a kindergarten teacher. Castiel Milton is a writer slash works-in-a-coffee-shop. He also happens to be the extremely hot one-night stand that Dean never intended to see again other than in his own fantasies (he’s classy like that). But suddenly Cas is everywhere and Dean is convinced that Fate is out to get him. And maybe they do this thing backwards, but that doesn’t have to mean they can’t make it in the end, right?

I love how Dean and Cas decide to take it slow after they've already had sex. Lots of UST.

Don't Walk On By by Virtualpersonal & Brimstonegoldv E | 60k | Pretty Woman AU, Wing!kink, escort dean,

Dean works several jobs in order to pay for medical care for Sam who has been severely injured. The day he meets Castiel, Dean's luck changes, though it is debatable whether it is for the better or for the worse. Castiel is an angel who has been cut-off from heaven to live with Man for a hundred years. Trying to right a wrong, he accidentally hires Dean as his rent-a-boy and learns a thing or two about being human.

What Falls For Love by bravest E | 51k | AU, reverse!verse

An angel of the lord going by the human name of Dean is told to make contact with his current charge, Castiel, on Heaven's list of prophets-to-be. Castiel is swept up in a war waged by angels and demons, and both the angel playing human and the human playing prophet learn things are never as simple as they seem.

the inexhaustible silence of houses by Askance T | 31k | Angst, Horror

Almost two years after the world doesn't end, Castiel falls from grace—and loses his voice in the process. It is the impetus for confession and change; before long, he is settling into a loving relationship with Dean, the Winchesters are tired, and hunting for a place to land has taken precedence to hunting anything else. Dean and Castiel fall in love with the strange little house on the end of Swallowtail Drive, and for a little while life is as it should be—sweet, affectionate, and beginning afresh. But more and more Castiel sees and hears things in the house that beg the question of whether or not a place itself can be alive. The walls and rooms seem to shift and grow and breathe, and one night, Dean comes home from a hunt changed in a way that Castiel cannot explain. In the months that follow, their domestic bliss takes turns for the dark and sour, and the confusion of their circumstances will ultimately test everything Castiel knows about the man he loves, and everything he believes to be true.

Roots by AnythingToasted E | 38k | Angst, Fluff,

After the apocalypse, Dean, Sam and Castiel settle into a gentler life, and Dean starts to make peace with the things that plagued him before 2009. Tentatively, carefully, he starts getting better. But something lives in the woods, in the house; something calls to him in his dreams that crosses the lines between waking and sleep. Whilst trying to reconcile himself with himself, Dean finds himself wondering if the things he’s managed to build are really slipping away, or if the whole thing is just in his head.

Get Inside My Soul by angelivenantium M | 84k | Angst, Fluff, Highschool AU, Hipster Cas

There’s something about Castiel that just makes Dean want him. Well, not even want; he needs to have him. He’s not sure if it’s the weird, often oversized sweaters or his thin wrists or that black, messy hair that make him tick, but he’s pretty sure the main thing is his eyes, that, unfortunately, never look at him twice. And Dean is freaking popular, everybody looks at him twice. Dean transferred to this school three years ago and is now a senior, and he’s been secretly ogling Castiel ever since. This distant yearning might have worked in the past years, but now it was just four months until he would graduate and leave this school forever, so he had woken up this morning and decided that fuck it, he wasn’t some 12-yearold girl; if he wanted something he would make sure he got it, even if that something was a rude hipster kid who didn't even notice his existence. End of story.

Let Your Grace Guide You by angel_kink E | 24k | post s5, wing!kink

After Castiel heals Dean at Stull, the hunter finds himself with unexpected abilities. He becomes determined to use his newfound powers, with Castiel’s guidance, to rescue Sam from the cage. In order to ensure that their venture to Hell is successful, they are forced to team up with Crowley, who has his own agenda regarding what’s locked up in the pits of Hell. During the course of their alliance, secrets come out, feelings bubble to the surface, and Dean finds himself once again facing an impossibly dangerous situation in an effort to save his brother.

Player 2 is Ready by AlreadyPainfullyGone E | 25k | Hot, Highschool AU, Underage, BDSM

AU in which Dean and Cas meet in an online, multiplayer game. Both of them are hiding who they really are - Castiel, ashamed of being so small and yet still a dominant, and Dean, who always gets taken for a top, but who is actually submissive. Little do they know, they live in the same town, they're just at different schools.

Come Carpe Diem, Baby by a_carnal_mink E | 9k | canon!verse, wing!kink, Hot,

"I am the only being in all Creation who has cradled your soul in my hands. I know you. I know you are complete. Because I know you completely.

300 Things ❤ by cautionzombies E | 76k | College AU

Dean's life at twenty-four makes him feel like he's forty—he works two jobs to help pay bills for his house and put his genius little brother through private school, and has spent six years (on and off, let's be honest) working on his mechanical engineering degree at KU. With so much of his life devoted to his family, Dean has little time in his schedule for class and no time for social interaction. Then, while getting his classes together for the fall, he finds himself in a do-or-die situation: He must take his last literature class now, his spring already filled with those left for his major...except that none of the English classes will fit his schedule. This is how Dean grovels and begs Dr. Castiel Milton to make a special arrangement for him, and Dr. Milton does.

YES. I love their relationship dynamic in this, and it's actually quite relatable and personal for me. Sam is fab.

The Prank that Filled the Spank Bank ❤ by BookkBaby E | 41k | Hot, AU, First Time

It starts with a prank war and a chance meeting at the auto shop Dean works at. (Based off of Almaasi's prompt: Castiel records audio pornography. Not professionally, or anything - he writes it and then reads it out, and uploads it free to the world. It’s not Dean’s usual type of porn - at all - but there’s something about Castiel’s gravelly, yet somehow smooth and beautiful voice that keeps him hooked.)

Another Classic. Dean masturbates to Cas's voice, and then when he actually runs into him...well.

PWP: Pie Without Plot by MajorEnglishEsquire & orange_crushed E | 79k | Post s8, Fluff,

He is in the kitchen with flour on his hands and an apron and there is flour on his forehead and cas leans across the counter and wipes it off with his thumb and dean says "thank you" and cas says "you’re welcome" very seriously and later dean makes apple turnovers and he only ruins them a little and sam realizes it’s not a real hunt like four days into it and he lets dean stay undercover for like a week and a half or longer maybe way longer because he is such a good everything

White Winter Hymnal ❤ by newbluemoon E | 24k | Coffee Shop AU

Christmas AU fic. Writer!Dean walks into a café late at night on Christmas Eve, looking for inspiration for his next novel. Instead he finds librarian!Cas.

I love how evocative this fic is, especially Dean's inner dialogue.

Waves by wormstaches M | 54k | Angst, College AU, h/c, Hipster Cas

Dean Winchester is the average guy: football, college, kid brother, nice car, girls and beer; his life is black and white, that is until he meets Castiel Collins: pretentious, slutty, sweater-wearing genius, who won't even take the time to look up at him from his obscure novel while he insults him. And then everything is shades of gray and Dean is drowning.

Till Human Voices Wake Us ❤ by saltandbyrne E | 20k | Hot, AU, tentacles, bottom!dean

In a world of hippogriffs, hydras and flying pygmy elephants, intrepid explorer Dean Winchester was sure he had seen it all. When a monster destroys the only home he's ever known, Dean finds himself falling for his strange rescuer and struggling to face his past.

Tentacle!sex with feelings. My jam, basically.

Grey ❤ by Valyria E | 65k | Angst, Hot, a/b/o

In a world where people don't see in color until they find their true mate, the first thing Dean sees when he pulls himself out of his grave is the blue sky. When Castiel raised him from the Pit, he inadvertently claimed Dean as his mate.

Note: cover art is my work :)

Punch Drunk Love ❤ by highermagic E | 16k | Hot, Highschool AU, Underage

Teenage Human AU. It's a classic boy-likes-straight-boy story. Or possibly boy-likes-not-so-straight-boy story. Castiel can't quite decide. It's a little confusing when your supposedly straight best friend offers to teach you how to kiss.

One of Rowan's more underrated fics. Unbelievably hot.

#destiel #deancas #destiel fic recs #spn #spn fic rec #*#list

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hermanwatts · 5 years

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OTHERSCIENCE STORIES: The Pleistocene Murders, Part 6

[Part 1] …there is another diabolical piece to this puzzle, one the Prosecution had failed to fit to its proper place before.

The Carbon Wars

They began a long time ago, long after the dinosaurs were gone, sometime late in the Autumn of Life. We can’t say just when. The ancient forests were the first heavy casualties, blown or burned down, then crowded out by grasslands when the carbon dioxide level had fallen too low.

In the Spring of Life there was so much Carbon in the atmosphere that animals could not live on the land- they would have suffocated. It wasn’t until sometime around the Cambrian that the CO2 level dropped enough for the air to become breathable. From that time until our time the atmospheric Carbon has been slowly dwindling. What was once plentiful was becoming scarce, a rare resource to struggle over.

What Global Devastation looks like in MS Paint. Notice no Closed Forest shows up in Australia. They were still there, dotted along the coasts, but too small to show at this scale. There were other small refugia around the Mediterranean and elsewhere.

The destroying started off a little here and there, as a patchwork of open meadows surrounded by trees. Some places became better suited for grass sooner than other places. A place with enough water, light, and warmth was still congenial for trees.

By the time of the Ice Ages- the Pleistocene Epoch- vast regions had regressed to grass, desert, steppe, tundra, and, of course, ice. The forested areas shrunk to the smallest amount of occupied land since forests were Invented, hundreds of millions of years earlier. Large areas on all the continents had converted to C4 grasslands and scrub lands. It was the time of their greatest range.

Generalized growth rates of C3 and C4 plants. Red double arrow is the C3-C4 growth-rate difference during the last Ice Age, at 180 ppm CO2. C3 plants stop growing (i.e. die) at 100 ppm; C4 plants stop at 20 ppm. Green band is the increase due to artificial CO2 emissions, from 280 ppm ca. 1900 to 400 ppm in 2016. When the CO2 concentration reaches over 800 ppm, C3 plants have the advantage (green arrow).

During this most recent Ice Age, the average atmospheric CO2 concentration dropped to about 180 ppm (parts per million parts of air), the lowest level in the history of the Earth. As the ice sheets built up, the ocean level dropped, reducing the evaporation surface area that produces rain, so the global climate was also drier as well as colder.

Not very many plants went extinct, another curiosity, another clue. But a plant doesn’t need to go extinct in order for the animals that depend on it to go extinct. It only has to slow down its growth rate enough to become an untenable food source. The sizing problem of an herbivore, together with the poor climate, explains a great deal of the problem but is still too general.

But there is another diabolical piece or two to this puzzle. At low CO2 levels, C3 plants are competing, with major disadvantages, against C4 plants. C4 plants have other advantages over C3 plants- they are more efficient with water use and better adapted to drier conditions. They have a disadvantage of needing more energy to run their kind of photosynthesis but that can’t help the C3 plant compete if the CO2 level is too low. All year round a C3 plant in a field of C4 grasses is going to be relatively starved of CO2 because of the local vacuum-cleaner nozzle effect. That effect becomes more pronounced at lower concentration levels and in still or slowly-moving air near the ground.

It turns out that there is a marvelous way to tell the two types of plants apart, and to tell which kind of plant the animal ate. There are two main types of stable Carbon that come into play here- the standard Carbon-12 and a rare Carbon-13. This ratio doesn’t depend on radioactive decay or on any other dating games; the two Carbon isotopes are both stable. It turns out the C3 and C4 plants take up these two isotopes at different concentrations from each other. The animal that eats the plant then inherits the particular ratio for that type of plant. So even extinct animals can be shown to be either C3 or C4 plant eaters, by the ratio of the two Carbons in their bones. From this Carbon ratio we can tell what kinds of plants were growing where during the Ice Age.

The Pleistocene Murders began in Australia, the most desolate continent this side of Antarctica. “There are two distinct peaks of isotopic enrichment in the higher plant leaf wax biomarkers. These two peaks coincide with the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM; 21 ka) and the Younger Dryas (YD; 11.4 ka) and represent maximum increases in C4 grasses relative to C3 plants. Relative increases in C4 grasses during the LGM in other parts of the tropics (i.e., Sacred Lake, Mt. Kenya) have been attributed to the competitive advantage of C4 plants relative to C3 plants under reduced atmospheric pCO2 and is likely the cause for C4 expansion in northern Australia.”

How the Iconic Acacia Tree Got its Shape. The average CO2 level at the trunk is too low to support C3 photosynthesis because the C4 grass is vacuuming it out of the air. No branches or leaves can grow there, so the tree has to put all of its leaves up as high and wide as possible. PPM numbers are hypothetical. The vulture is just there for show.

Imagine a huge expanse of C4 grassland with one C3 plant in the middle of it, with CO2 at 180 ppm. As air slowly moves across the plain, the C4 grass is vacuuming the CO2 out of it, even down to 20 ppm locally. As long as that air isn’t mixing too much with the air overhead, the CO2 concentration will fall with the distance the air travels. Once it falls from 180 to about 120 ppm locally, C3 plants will stop growing altogether. If an animal eats that plant, the plant will not be able to grow back.

At the same time, the animals that eat the C3 plants, which also includes ruminant grazers that can eat both kinds, are preferentially removing the C3 varieties, which cannot grow back as fast as C4 plants. This opens up more growing area for the C4 grasses, shrubs, and what we call weeds for good reason.

As the CO2 levels drop in the summer, the relative C4 growing advantage increases. If the average in the record is 180 ppm, it might have been dropping to 170 ppm in late summer just from this cause. A summertime drop to 170 ppm globally implies an even greater drop locally, amplifying the already tremendous advantage that the C4 plants have. This is when many animals are eating the most to store up for winter. If the animal doesn’t get enough food during this crucial time, it will die before the following spring.

The Irish Giant Deer, which ranged across much of Eurasia, illustrates. Their well-preserved bodies are found in the peat bogs of Ireland, where it is apparent that these animals died of starvation during the winter. Although their emaciated bog bodies aren’t looking so great these days, at least their story is well fleshed out.

As C4 plants became more prevalent, other animals that were C3 grazers tried to make the switch with varying levels of success. Some of them became hindgut ruminants, a sort of halfway measure. These and others ate both kinds of plants. Towards the end, some of these different herbivores were competing with each other by eating from the same dwindling food supply.

“…the whimsical-looking blue [grama] grass, shaped like a tufted toothbrush, is the historical favourite of the enormous bison.”

There is another little diabolical piece here. After the C4 plants had crowded out the C3 trees and grasses, and formed their own vast empires of grass, they now had to compete with each other. The same vacuum-cleaner effect slowed down the growth rate of these plants, not as severely as the C3 case, but just enough so that the larger C4 grazers could not get enough to eat in their limited ranges. The bigger ones, as the story of the Bison tells, would go extinct first. “Blue Grama is a widespread, long-lived, warm season, C4 perennial grass native to North America. It… accounts for most of the net primary productivity in the shortgrass prairie of the central and southern Great Plains. Plant height at maturity ranges from 15-30 centimeters.”

Another curious item. Although C4 photosynthesis has spread all across the continents, it only appears in grasses and other short plants, never more than a few meters tall.

Millions of years gone by and it has failed to ascend very far into the space above.

The majestic animals that wish to eat these kinds of plants must bow down.

There were hundreds of species that went extinct, thousands that survived, and each one has a story to tell. There are big C3-browsing animals that survived as well as small grazers that went extinct, so the match is good, but not perfect. The giraffes are big C3-browsers but they have the distinguished advantage of being able to eat from the tops of the C3 trees, where no other animal can reach. Even so, several of these species also became extinct.

Most of the herbivores that died were either C3 browsers, C3 grazers, or giant C4 grazers. Their chief predators ran out of prey, so they had to go as well. The mystery of the Pleistocene Murders is solved by this, with caveats and exceptions.

We see a potential repeat of the ancient Oxygen Wars which gave us our Oxygen atmosphere. At low CO2, C4 plants are the mortal enemies of C3 plants. The terrible CO2-vacuum weapon of C4 photosynthesis would assure their globalist victory and the annihilation of C3 plants and all that depend on them. If the unknown geological Carbon sources were to shut off completely, the remaining C4 land plants would then be at war with each other, struggling over the last available atoms of Carbon.

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There is more to C4 photosynthesis than simply a different chemical or metabolic pathway. It has distinctive architectural features about it, in the way the cells are arranged in rings, or wreaths, and in the layout of the core C4 photosynthetic process itself. With the older C3 process, both carbon-dioxide and oxygen molecules are presented to the engines of fixation, which only need the Carbon. The Oxygen then has to be sorted out and turned away after it has already gummed up the works, a sloppy process. The great advance of C4 was to solve this problem by coming in and bolting on a kind of airlock, a parlour if you will, where the Carbon is first welcomed in and the Oxygen is turned away at the door. The Carbon is then ushered to the inner sanctum where C3 fixation will be done. You may think of it as the same function performed by the butler receiving visitors to the great house.

Very selective. Very discriminating.

Prosecution requests the Court find the Perps, along with their Means and Opportunity, have been identified beyond a reasonable doubt. Court will examine Motive before passing Judgment… [Part 7]

OTHERSCIENCE STORIES: The Pleistocene Murders, Part 6 published first on https://sixchexus.weebly.com/

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