#4-3 field ratio

[bsaka7]

in positive vaguely women's sports news... the sign up for my summer frisbee league is open NEXT WEEK!

[deathworlders-of-e24]

We finally did it. We slipped the surly bonds of Earth to step among the stars. It took over two decades of research, billions of dollars of taxpayers money, and almost every country on the planet working in tandem, but after the International Space Coalition was founded it was almost effortless.

Faster than Light travel was accomplished almost on accident. Just the right ratios of radioactive material and an ‘ever so slight’ gravitational anomaly generator was all it took. To keep the population safe from any possible drawbacks, the first launch of the FTL drive, or Warp, was conducted at Tranquility Base on the moon. Either that was minimum safe distance or there wasn’t any, so it was decided to just roll the dice. The Angel was built there, the ship that would go further than any before it. The drive was set for Alpha Centauri, the big red button was pressed, and off they went, 300 crew members, going faster than anyone else in the history of mankind.

After 4 months, 319 ‘people’ came back. The extra 19 individuals wore special thermal suits to keep their body temperatures stable, and each had scaled skin with varying hues of greens and grays, with elongated prehensile tails. Their eyes were almost solid black, save for some red around the edges. Their hands were like a chameleon’s with only 3 fingers each. If it hadn’t been for a heads up from the Angel’s captain, the first words out of the welcoming party mouth would’ve been “they’re lizards!” Honestly the only thing they had in common with us was that they were bipedal.

Apparently the people of the ‘Alpha System’ as we called it, the Quintins, were just as surprised to see us as we were them. 2 ambassadors, 7 scientists, 10 military escorts, and a partridge in a pear tree came with them back to Earth. They just had to see it, after hearing stories of home from the crew aboard The Angel. They had to see how a world so full of dangers, from predators to the sheer deadly climates, could have allowed such a species as humans to exist let alone thrive and advance far enough to get off the ground.

The surprises didn’t stop there either, as if finding out WE ARE NOT ALONE wasn’t a big enough shock to the human race. The Quintins weren’t the only species out there, they were in fact only one people in a collective, a Grand Assembly of Intelligent Lifeforms (it sounded longer in Quin tongue but they brought auto translators) or The GAIL, and the Human race was immediately eligible for probational membership. Developing the WARP capabilities was what sealed it. Faster than Light travel was the first prerequisite for joining the GAIL. The second was a planetary inspection, and since the Quintins were our first contact, who better? It was time to meet the neighbors for the human race.

That was 50 years ago. Now the Human Race were full fledged members of The GAIL, and the International Space Coalition was renamed into simply the Terran Academy, putting out graduates of every field imaginable. We had an entire fleet of WARP enabled ships, spreading human explorers into the depths of space.

The only problem these days were the rumors. 50 years of interaction with alien species had made one thing clear to the rest of the universe at large:

Their planet is completely unstable

Their bodies are unimaginably fragile while simultaneously unbreakable

They claim not to have a hive mind but nobody believes that for a second

They seem to ‘pack bond’ outside their own species

They’ll eat anything (maybe even you)

The Humans make no sense

THE HUMANS ARE DEATHWORLDERS!

AND HERE THEY COME!

(This will be an account of various humans and their travels through the known universe. Earth, also known as E24, is a terrifying deathworld. This should be fun)

[fatuismooches]

Your brain for Star Rail!Dottore omg...

I always think he would've been like Ruan Mei, only more extreme... he's will be pathless at first but if he's under genius society then he'd follow nous...Meta/game play wise he'd be 5 star Ice Nihility or Erudition DPS who focus on break and freeze team (So his good team would have Ruan mei on it because they're both my fav).

Also, since Star Rail doesn't have designated weapons, creative liberties could be taken, no?? (Ratio did use a chalk and a book as weapons, so there's many possibilities for him. Hmmm, Dottore fighting with syringes, or chainsaw, or surgery knife would be nice lololol

His lightcone could be of like Boothill's but instead it's just the creations his segments on a lab (does he still need segments in this universe?we'll never know) and his splash art would be so cool if it were lab centric since most star rail splash art focuses more on scenery.

His phone case....it would be plain boring black-grey-blue color that probablyhave blood splatter on it...and his expression when looking at phone could've be like welt. His texts would consist of talking about how expensive it is the equipment to do experiments these days, or asking the trailblazer to hear his new experiments or just him complaining. And when he visits the astral express, he'd be curious about Pom-Pom and the machinery of the astral express.

If Dottore were ever be a genius society member and got invited to simulated universe collab he would get his own Occurrence and Curio (There's this one curio in divergent universe, a new endgame mode which was a syringe that cause you to go auto for the rest of the game and i thought it was funny lol) I think Dottore's Occurrence would be "The Wise Doctor" and it would give you options something along the lines : You are approached by a figure, a charming doctor who need a volunteer for his bext experiment "Are you willing to help this doctor's experiment" And the choices are :

1. Give in and help the doctor (Your party lose 50% of their HP and given one blessing of 2 star rarity)

2. Refuse the doctor (You will lose 99% of your HP and gain a negative curio)

His curio will either be his mask or the wise doctor's pinion with effects, including: Whenever you enter a domain (up to 3 domains), you lose 10% of your HP. After the curio is destroyed, you will lose 1 Blessing of 3 star rarity. (I THINK his curios will mostly have negative effects, lol)

This is a different section if he's with fragile!reader:

1. Dottore definitely would make an appearance in their lightcone and splash art, maybe them running in the field of flowers whilst dottore follow close behind??? Or maybe them dancing with dottore...that would be cute...

2. Since there's phones and all I really agree with what you said dottore does not care for his phone!! It's reader who teaches him how to use camera and messaging apps and teases how he's a genius but have a hard time keeping up with phone technologies lol

3. If they're playable, meta wise they will have harmony path, wind or ice...their kit would go well with Dottore maybe increasing weakness break efficiency or atk% (kinda like Ruan Mei lol) I would want to make their kit to focus on frozen enemies only but that would make them niche in meta ?? AND THEIR EIDOLONS....oof I imagine if they still have their sickness here it would be them in their comatose state while looking very troubled (like a nightmare) :( but in this happy universe they're just smilling peacefully!!

4. Would see them as the type to be traveling around the cosmos. They love collecting trinkets and gifts from their visit!! Also, they would be a big fan of Robin, me thinks... dragging Dottore to her concerts or just blasting her song in his lab.

5. They would!! Love!! Pom Pom!!! They would much want to take Pom Pom home.

Overall, they're just happy in this universe living their lives to their where they don't have to suffer :((

I have been having the biggest star rail dottore brain rot ever!!! I hope you don't mind me writing it out here!!

(x) YES. He would definitely be more extreme than Ruan Mei (who is also one of my top favs, her and Reader would be besties because I said so! I'm sure Trailblazer would make some catcakes of you and Dottore, which you happily take off their hands. Dottore is unsure of how to feel with the two things constantly stacked on each other and staring at him...)

I also love how unique HSR weapons are - it could quite literally be ANYTHING. I've always imagined Dottore using syringes, for his skill, he'd switch the size, fluid, and quantity of it for an enhanced attack, the mysterious liquid inside anyone's guess. I'm not sure if he could have segments in HSR, just because he was only able to create the segments thanks to having a very good test subject (Scaramouche) so he would need to somehow have an equally good experimentation partner in this universe. If he did though, it'd be amazing - he'd get so much done by sending his other selves to different planets...

His lightcone would be similar to Natasha's - a doctor helping their patient, except in his case, the "doctor" will be doing the opposite. His blood-red eyes would pair well with the blood stains on his hands. For a soft route, Dottore falling asleep on his desk and Reader placing a blanket over him. For an angsty route, Reader being injured and he has to hold your dying body. (Poor Pom-Pom... they'd hide behind a crew member the whole time, in fear Dottore might snatch them up for some experimenting... Even more, they would NOT be amused with you trying to constantly pet them.) And yes! I feel like besides his negative curios, they would be high risk, high reward - you're going to have to prove yourself to him if you want his help!

If you want to be soft, Reader's lightcone would be them flustered as another pair of hands (Dottore) place a carefully woven flower crown on their head. If you want to be angsty, it would be them sickly laying in a bed as Dottore scrambles to do anything to keep them stable. Reader and Dottore's E6 would be like Hanya's and Xueyi's - they hold hands with each other! Except they would be more intimate with each other, they would bring each other's hands closer to their lips for a small kiss. Or perhaps they would have a hand over each other's hearts.

You steal Dottore's phone often. You have like... a dozen games installed on his phone, and although his phone is always on Do Not Disturb, sometimes he scrolls through and just sees tons of notifications from random apps... he texts you as to what the hell you did with his phone and you just beg him to log on and do your dailies. He leaves you on read.

You would love traveling about too. (Kind of like Himeko - she was unable to fulfill her wishes in HI3 but now she can!!) You bring back so many items that you have to use Dottore's storage rooms to fit them all (he's not amused.) You probably even got a Warp Trotter as a pet somehow... OMG AND YOU'RE SO RIGHT ABOUT ROBIN... you have her playlist blasting during research time and he's just... not amused once again!! Reader falls back dramatically into Dottore's arms once they meet her...

I love the pookies dearly...

[lostlegendaerie]

Veritas Ratio and Autistic Representation

Chances are you know autistic people in your life; autism itself is a fairly recently coined term, dating back to 1911, and can encompass a wide variety of symptoms and eccentricities which have existed since the dawn of humankind. (The 'fey-touched' child or changeling in European lore shares a lot of traits with autistic children.) Autism is a spectrum, encompassing and overlapping a lot with ADHD and other neurological disorders. There are probably millions of people out there, especially from older generations, who are on the spectrum and have no idea. I did not even get my diagnosis until I was 27.

So it is entirely possible that the creators of Veritas Ratio from Honkai: Star Rail did not intend to write him as autistic and based him on people they knew in their own lives, who, diagnosed or not, are on the autistic spectrum. However, the point of this piece is to talk about the ways in which Veritas Ratio is good autistic representation (in my opinion as a autistic person), and how people who want to write characters like this can take a page out of Honkai's book in their own work.

1) SPECIAL INTEREST. Ratio shows a *staggering* amount of dedication to the pursuit of knowledge and his quest to cure the world of ignorance. This quest of his tends to supersede everything else in his life, with no mention of any friends, family connections or romantic partners in his character story. (Said as a Ratiorine shipper - not sinking any 'ships, here) His dedication to education started early, with reading college undergraduate education levels while still in middle school - seven or so years ahead of his peers. Autism is considered a disability, yes, but it does not exclude you from being smart, and the fixation on your chosen topic(s) can be extremely useful in motivating you to reach the top of your field. His path being The Hunt also outlines this dedication; he is seeking his target without rest or distraction.

2) SENSORY ISSUES. Ratio very explicitly can become distracted and disgusted by the feeling of dirt or sweat on his skin, something that tends to be more prevalent with specific clothing textures but absolutely can manifest in a need to feel clean. He also can apparently become very irritated and overwhelmed by lights and sounds, and wears his plaster mask as a way to deaden and deafen the amount of sensory input that he receives. This allows him to think better, and is a fantastic example of what it feels like to suffer from sensory overload. (If you find yourself getting stressed in crowds, try bringing earplugs and putting them in the next time you're in a noisy restaurant and see if doesn't help you out.)

3) STRONG SENSE OF MORALITY. Autistic people tend to suffer from a somewhat black-and-white feeling of right and wrong, and can hold themselves and other people to an extremely strict moral code. This does not mean that they are always correct in what they believe is right and wrong, but it means that they can be extremely passionate about following those rules. Ratio's beef with the Genius Society and their selectivity is indicative of his unwavering passion towards sharing knowledge with the masses, but the tactless way in which he wishes to cure ignorance bleeds into our fourth point.

4) DIFFICULTY WITH SOCIAL CUES. In one of his earlier conversations with Aventurine (where he is clearly irritated at how careless Aventurine seems to be about their entire mission), Ratio inadvertently insults Aventurine's his lack of education and parents. He apologizes afterwards, stating he did not intend to come across that way, but he maintains the same imperious tone of voice. Autistic people often, but not always, struggle with social cues and can often be considered rude when we are trying to be direct and easily understood; and we can especially struggle with understanding sarcasm or sounding sarcastic when we intend to be sincere.

With my reasons for believing Ratio to be Autistic coded firmly established, let's move onto why I think he is good representation. The two most important parts of representation, in my lived experience as an Autistic person, are RELATABILITY and EMPATHY.

Ratio exhibits some of the same mentalities and symptoms I've had, such as being misunderstood and accidentally offending people and becoming extremely stressed in large crowds due to overstimulation, so he checks off the first box. But the way that the other characters in the game respect him and do not ridicule him for his eccentricities marks the second. Whether in marketing material or in character dialogue options, Ratio's love of baths, his plaster bust, and his ceaseless drive to educate other people (whether they need it or not) are seen as charming and generally positive, and those attributes are not constantly brought up (and mocked) in his interactions and dialogue with other characters. Aventurine doesn't constantly ask Ratio if he needs to leave the Dream to take a bath, and the TB's text conversations with him allow you to engage with his special interests such as his requests for problems to solve and debates to wage against you. He is canonically seen and respected as a brilliant individual, and not reduced to a joke or viewed as comic relief (e.g. Sampo, who almost exclusively is given negative dialogue options for the player to use when interacting with him and who almost every character in the story openly despises.)

Some of you are going to disagree with me in the comments (which is fine, it's my opinion), but for the few of you who read this all the way through, thank you. I hope that this helps you view Ratio and Autistic people overall in a new light, and I am excited to see where else we go from here with him and the rest of the cast!

[fred-the-dinosaur]

BRING IT BACK

Hmm so this is the 3rd time in about two weeks I've seen something artsy and new filmed in 4:3 - wonder where that's coming from...

[the-lonelyshepherd]

opinion on mud skippers?

omg mudskippers….. 

okay everyone thinks they’re silly and they are !!!! but they’re acc so so interesting and important they’re so cool

so first off they’re like masters of adaptation. they’re amphibious fish - fish that can live on land and water (there are different types of mudskippers that live at different ratios of land/water )

and they use their modified pectoral fins to get around on land. Their eyes are also super cool - the giant cute eyes ykyk are actually super useful bc they can move independently from each other which gives mudskippers a HUGE basically 360 field of vision.

they also have a really high ammonia tolerance relative to most fish which is super duper interesting (it’s to help them survive the conditions of the intertidal zone where they live).

mudskippers use an ammonia excretion process in which they basically remove ammonia through their gills, as well has having low membrane permeability for ammonia, which means ammonia doesn’t get through their skin as easily as other fish. Fish also usually produce a lot of ammonia themselves, but mudskippers have the ability to slow down their own ammonia production when under high ammonia exposure to further protect themselves which is SO fascinating.

This, along with high disease tolerance and very water retaining skin that allows them to stay on land for relatively long periods of time, allows them to be amphibious fish. 

but the main thing that actually allows them to be amphibious is their limbs - the adapted pectoral fins that let them skip around (where the name comes from)! they’re a big subject of scientific discussion because they help in the study evolutionary processes and the mechanisms behind species diversification - by studying different species of mudskippers (some more terrestrial than others) we’ve been able to learn a lot about how organisms adapt and evolve to transition from marine to amphibious to terrestrial. theyre like a HUGE part of evolution research its so so cool i read a really good study on it.

among like… less sciency talk bc i got a little too into it. so it’s fun fact time.

1)they’re just SILLYYYY. 

2)they climb trees. 

3)they fight each other all the time (full of hate). 

4)their silly puffed up cheeks are actually them using their gill chambers that are full of water to breathe air. 

5)they’re actually not great swimmers and can literally drown.  

6) theyre SO COOL LOOKING. like.... the colors.... the fins.... so fun

7) they fight crabs (one of their main food sources)

overall? my opinion on mudskippers? very Good. i like them. idk if you can tell.

also this video (flash warning)

credit to easycheeseo on tiktik. and also @midnightvstheworld who sent it to me

[chirpthingz]

my "essay" on why I don't think kian's plan would amount to anything:

with sources!

spoilers for desconjuracao ep. 20 & calamidade below

my problem with kian's plan isn't that i think it wouldn't work, i just don't think he's capable of achieving it. now, just as a refresher:

kian's plan is referred to as the calamity. his goal is to sever the connection between reality and the other side, destroying it. to achieve this, he must kill anyone with knowledge of the paranormal and destroy the relics. (source)

this is a perfectly reasonable plan that, based on how the other side functions, could work. (source). if i remember correctly, cellbit even confirmed it would work (i can't remember where i heard this, so i may be wrong). and on that note, kian is insanely powerful. he is:

immortal, can move shit with his mind (to an extent), can teleport pretty much anywhere he wants, has a decent amount of followers, can weaken rituals in an area, and has two rituals that essentially insta-kill someone (as far as we are aware), is scarily clever, knows everything about the other side, is 4000+ years old (technically), cannot be caught by surprise, and possesses superhuman strength + agility. (source)

at a first glance, he seems more than capable. he has the highest marcado (player) kill count (5) in the series, and is referred to as the damn god of knowledge by his followers. (source).

but he is not a god, he is not a relic, and there are factors i feel he has not considered.

The amount of people he would have to kill is too high.

kian intends to kill everyone with knowledge of the paranormal. of known living characters, this includes 18 player characters, 4 relics, 25 ordem agentes (not including pcs), 5 members of the leone family (excluding carina), 8 hell hunters, 17 members of the obscurite (excluding yuki & dominic), 1 escripta (not including gal), 6 known ordem prisoners, 1 colosseum employee, cassiano/hugo/eduarda/tim, the 15 surviving members of tipora (excluding amelie & oliver), 2 panacea employees, emilia, donisvaldo (don), mandy/vicente, and a number of npcs whose whereabouts are unknown. this adds up to at least 109 relevant characters. (source). of course, this is not counting the amount of people we don't know about. think about all the other organizations & governments out there. think about how many odd groups like os cinco are out there. think about the mask sect, the host production, the luzidios. furthermore, it is not unreasonable to assume the population of the world that ordem is set in is similar to ours. currently, we are sitting at nearly 8 billion. any amount of those 8 billion could have some knowledge about the paranormal. without a doubt, those people amount to at least a couple hundred thousands. even if we were to even out the playing field and pretend that kian's escriptas were still alive, the ratio of escriptas to people he needs to kill is maddening.

2. Kian is not all-knowing.

"kian sabe, kian sabe-" no he doesn't. he knows about the other side, but that only gets him so far. he could not locate the order base (source) (it is important to note that the order had the help of a relic in hiding themselves) nor stop them when they arrived in italy, he had to rely on clarissa. (source). furthermore, he had no idea about god's diary- the one thing that could stop him. (source). the world is enormous. to be as brief as possible: there is too much ground for him to cover. he can also not account for recorded information. there is no feasible way he can look through every archive, every website, every library, etc. information about the paranormal will survive and he might never know about it. on that note, he cannot possible know where all of his targets are at once, and he cannot get to all of them fast enough before some of them realize they need to hide. this brings me to my next point.

3. It would take him too long to accomplish his goal.

kian is currently immortal. (source). he has all the time in the world. no rush, right? wrong. thinking back to the insanely large amount of people he needs to kill, which assumedly totals up to at least hundreds of thousands of people. it would take him ages to kill them all. even if he did have escriptas helping him, it would take multiple decades at a minimum. the longer he takes, the more time someone else has to stumble upon the paranormal. the number of people he needs to kill is not a fixed rate, it is constantly increasing. if we take into account the rapid spread of news and information because of digital spaces, it's not unreasonable to think that it's increasingly rapidly. this also gives other people more time to figure out how to stop him, which is obviously dangerous to his cause. he cannot reasonable kill people at a fast enough rate to make rapid progress, at least not if he wants to prevent my next point from becoming true

4. Enacting his plan would weaken the membrane.

the membrane that separates reality from the other side can be weakened by fear. entities from the other side use this fear as a bride to physically manifest in reality. (source). kian does not have the time (as explained above), nor the money, nor the resources to ensure every death is untraceable. the amount of people he needs to kill will draw attention, especially when it isn't unreasonable to think that government officials are aware of the paranormal to an extent (for example, verissimo himself comments that the order is partially supported by political allies). it's also important to note the sheer amount of people that will die. to an outside perspective, large amounts of people globally will die or go missing with little public explanations or connections. this will undoubtedly cause mass panic. panicked people become paranoid, and then scared, and then the membrane begins to weaken. this means more opportunities for the other side to manifest into reality, therefore making more people aware of the paranormal. it is completely unavoidable, and (from his perspective) frustratingly counter-active to his plan.

naturally, we do not know the true extent of kian's strength. up to this point, he really has not made any attempts of truly trying to enact his plan; instead he focuses on stopping the people in his way (which, if he continues to focus on such matters, he will never get around to actually bringing about the calamity).

there is also the argument that he may have access to relics. this is addressed by the magistrate in calamity episode 8:

the magistrate informs equipe abutres that if the mask of despair (relic of knowledge) were to be destroyed, kian would possibly control destiny itself. (source).

it can only be assumed that similar consequences would occur should the other relics be destroyed. however, for him to actually destroy the relics, he would have to acquire them first. this is where I believe he meets a significant wall.

the relics do not appear to get along. or at the very least, their differences drive them apart. (source). this does not mean they cannot make agreements. the devil and the host appeared to have no problems with each other in the ordo calamitas base, and the host and magistrate let equipe abutres decide who to side with even though they knew it would end in one of their "deaths" (even if they argued about it the entire time).

most importantly, they all desired to stop kian. this is because, very obviously, they do not want to be barred from reality. and even more importantly, they are very, very powerful.

but the relics of knowledge and energy do not have wielders, leaving it up to the god of death and the devil (unless someone decides to become the new magistrate or host), which brings me to my final topic.

the devil and the god of death are not going to help kian. the strongest counter-argument to this entire essay is that with the help of the devil, kian could easily realize the calamity. with the devil appearing to offer a pact to an imprisoned kian, this reality doesn't seem to far away. yet, there is no logical sense behind this idea. the devil can only lose if kian accomplishes his goal, and kian will not stop until he has destroyed all the relics. they may temporarily work together, but it is a fragile alliance. at some point, the devil must try to stop him. the god of death has only appeared twice, both under circumstances in which his domains were threatened. even if he chooses to ignore the calamity, eventually kian is going to encroach on his territory. the god of death will be forced to intervene.

i, chirp, assume the two would not get along super well, but the magistrate and host have shown us that relics can come together for a cause they both believe in. it is impossible to know if they will both be able to come together in such a way, but the chance is not zero!

in summary: under all that power and immortality, kian is flesh and bone like the rest of us. 4000 years has not softened his pride, and it will probably take 4000 more for his plan to amount to anything.

----

you made it to end!! sorry i am such a yapper lmao, but i've been thinking about this for like two days straight. this essay isn't meant to start any heated arguments, it's all very lighthearted, but i do want to hear your opinions. if i got some information wrong, please forgive me; youtube auto-translated subtitles can only get me so far, and i've only seen calamidade once.

KIAN BROXA.

[merlyn-bane]

i rarely come up with anakin-centric fix-its because i,,,,dont like anakin, but consider:

they should've put him on the créchemaster track, and early

no no, hear me out. i have a list

1. constant exposure to the Warm Fuzzies

2. it's hard to feel isolated from and distrusted by your people when they've literally got you caring for the most vulnerable among you

3. sorry sir chancellor sir i cannot visit you on account of I Have So Many Diapers To Change

3½. no time for Secret Marriages either

4. it would also humble him. hey chosen one you've got spit-up on your tunics. also children will absolutely ratio you entirely unprovoked. it would be good for him

5. literally who would understand letting go better than the jedi that have to watch all of their babies grow up (into somewhat bigger babies) and leave the safety of the créche to go be padawans in the field. the strength of créchemasters is unrivaled

[evidence-based-activism]

For the anon who sent an ask about "masculine" and "feminine" traits: I am not going to post your actual ask, mostly because you sent me an over 500 word ask that essentially repeated the exact same sentiments half a dozen times. Instead I will just respond to your claims here.

Your assertion: While some masculine/feminine traits are shaped by culture, most/many are the result of some underlying biological process.

You make this assertion several times, but provide absolutely no evidence to support it. (I will address your specific examples in a moment, but un-sourced examples are not evidence; they're just more assertions.)

While there are some biological differences between men and women, we have no strong evidence that men and women have "different" brains or that any possible differences are correlated with/cause behavioral differences. I'd then ask, if the physical organ associated with behavior (the brain) demonstrates no reliable, significant differences between the sexes, where would the biological differences you claim underlie differences in men's and women's behavior be located?

Your assertion: men are physically stronger than women.

Yes, this is true. On average, males people are physically stronger than female people [1].

This, however, is not a behavioral trait. Men are physically stronger due to real differences in lean muscle mass and fat mass, height, and other physical variables [2].

I'm really not at all sure why you chose this as an example of a "masculine trait" ... it has no bearing on behavioral differences (whether culturally or biological determined) at all.

Your assertion: women are biologically predisposed to be more caring/nurturing. (Rooted in evolutionary biology, because women are the primary caretakers of children, and must therefore be nurturing to be good mothers.)

There is so very much I can say about this. Is the implication here that men are biologically predestined to be bad fathers? Why do you think "evolution" determined male humans would not be as involved with children, when plenty of other male animals are involved with offspring? (And plenty of female animals are not involved?)

However, my biggest point here, is that this is an example of a post hoc fallacy. In other words, "It Ain’t Necessarily So" [3, 4]. This is a fairly common, and unfortunate, fallacy in (popular) evolutionary psychology. (And, to a degree, within the legitimate field as well.)

To try and illustrate this, I ask you: If the opposite outcome had come about, could we also claim that this outcome was "rooted in evolutionary biology"?

The answer is, here, is yes. Consider the following thought experiment:

In some alternate timeline/reality/etc. human's evolutionary ancestors were able to maximize their reproductive success (i.e., increase the survival of both their already-born and yet-to-be-born offspring) by dividing child-care responsibilities into two phases. The first phase, gestating and birthing the offspring was – as a result of biology – entirely the domain of the female ancestor. Most likely, any offspring would remain with the mother for a period of time, to allow for frequent breastfeeding of the infant. However, following this phase, when the child was either weaned or breastfeeding less frequently, the male ancestor took primary responsibility for the child. This division of labor maximized the amount of care provided to any single child, as the father provided continuing resources to older children, while the mother cared for newborns and current pregnancies. Given the frequency of pregnancies at this time and the higher infant mortality ratio, such care was absolutely essential optimizing all offspring's chances of survival, thereby ensuring the propagation of genetic material. As a result, this behavior – women caring primarily for only the youngest children and men for older children – has been embedded into our species' very genetic code.

Okay, so ... obviously this is not what actually happened in history, but this should showcase the primary problem with your "evolutionary biology" argument. It is hypothetically possible to explain almost any trait or behavior in this way; you simply have to come up with a vaguely plausible-sounding series of events. The issue is that these theories are not falsifiable and cannot be used for prediction (at least not in any reasonable time frame).

So, I ask you ... why are women the primary caretaker of children? Why wouldn't (male) caring/nurturing play a role in (female) mate selection? Where is the evidence that this is a biological trait rather than a social one?

Your assertion: women do not have to be feminine and men do not have to be masculine.

Great, yes, we agree on this.

Your assertion: (and your conclusion) feminine and masculine traits were not just "made up".

I don't think that, as you said, "some person one day just made them up", but I do think that these traits were socially constructed. And I haven't found or received any convincing evidence that would suggest otherwise.

References under the cut:

Bohannon, R. W., Wang, Y. C., Yen, S. C., & Grogan, K. A. (2019). Handgrip strength: a comparison of values obtained from the NHANES and NIH Toolbox studies. The American Journal of Occupational Therapy, 73(2), 7302205080p1-7302205080p9.

Bishop, P., Cureton, K., & Collins, M. (1987). Sex difference in muscular strength in equally-trained men and women. Ergonomics, 30(4), 675-687.

Gottlieb, Anthony. “It Ain’t Necessarily So.” The New Yorker, 10 Sept. 2012. www.newyorker.com, https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2012/09/17/it-aint-necessarily-so.

Smith, R. J. (2016). Explanations for adaptations, just‐so stories, and limitations on evidence in evolutionary biology. Evolutionary Anthropology: Issues, News, and Reviews, 25(6), 276-287.

[kaphzzz]

Do you use photoshop to edit your pictures? Their so crisp and clean and I just got 4k res on my pc.

If so, can you maaayyybbee give us a brief tutorial on how you enhance these for previews for tumblr. Because they always come out so clean even in the preview images.

hiii!!! omg sorry almost didnt see this! congrats on getting 4K!!! it's truly life changing *tears up*. and thanks for such a high compliment 🥹🥹🥹

i do edit my photos yes, but i don't do it in photoshop, but rather in mobile apps so i can just do it during time i cant do other stuff like on the subway so, yes, i can give a tutorial, but it's going to be general steps and guidelines :) sorry i can't give anything like photoshop specific! and i know you're only asking for editing advice but i'll go over the whole process for anyone else who wants to read this as well, so please bear with me. (and please don't take my advice too seriously, i'm only an amateur hobbyist too)

1. The base photo

So firstly, I think it's important that the base picture itself looks good when you capture it in game. With a good photo straight out of the game you can avoid a lot of further editing down the line.

One common mistake I see a lot is that the field of view will be left unadjusted to the default value, which is good for landscape shots, but for portraits it will have a wonky fisheye effect. For portraits you'd typically want to zoom in a lot so the character doesn't look super thin and distorted. In photo mode this is the "lens" option, I typically just zoom in to the max, and tweak what fits into the frame with the freecam. Here's a pic with good FOV for a zoomed in character shot vs. one with the default FOV (his whole face is skewed, as well as pupper):

Also, the in game environment is important for setting up a good shot. You'd typically want some kind of light vs. dark contrast to make your subject pop out, especially against any background. I like to use Rampage Trainer to tweak the in game time and weather and freeze them for better lighting and atmosphere, and sometimes spawn an extra light source but that's a rare case. For example, okay vs. not very okay lighting that's impossible to salvage even with editing:

I also like to blur the background and foreground in the game, with either the focus tab of photo mode or with depth of field reshade presets, because it's a big hassle to blur those during editing. It's quite subtle most of the time but really helps focus the shot on your character, especially if the background is so messy it can swallow your main subject (trees, I'm looking at you).

The photos in this section aren't edited; my point is that with good lighting, composition etc in game, your base vanilla photo can already look pretty good :D This is RDR2 after all.

2. Cropping

I typically crop my images at 3/4 or 2/3 ratio, depending on what looks better. But I think a general rule of thumb is that you want to crop your image so that the contents look balanced; I don't know how to explain this in concrete terms... Basically the same way centering your subject or cropping it by the rule of thirds serves to balance an image. All these pics are more or less 'balanced' in different ways, even though they're not straight smack centered. It's an eyeing process but I think with time it will be easier to tell how to balance your photo...

3. Editing

So! Editing!

Editing I think is just a lot of fine tuning based on what you have with the base image. Me personally, I used to do a lot of colour and lighting editing, but more recently since figuring out that you can just make your base image look good right out of the game, the editing has become a lot lighter. The game can definitely do the heavy lifting, but still editing is important.

I'll demonstrate with two images (hello my babygorls *kissy noises*):

So these two images obviously need some work. Firstly, I'll tweak the lighting, so that dark and light areas aren't too extreme, and also improve the definition/contrast, not too much, but just enough so that the subject is more defined. For Arthur's image the lighting is too murky so I used RGB curves to sort it out a bit.

Then I will colour grade it a little by tuning the warmth and the tone (not touching filters yet). For Charles, it's at night so I've made the tone a little colder for the blue, and for Arthur a little warmer, as well as some custom light patches just to make his face stand out a little more against the background. Some other mild adjustments.

Then if I think the background is still too attention stealing I'll blur it out a bit more. Again, I try to just blur it enough in game, since manually blurring is faulty and annoying.

Then if I think overall the lighting and colour is fine, I'll go through the filters the app offers to see if I can improve it a little more. Since I focus on portraits (pretty bois how could I not) and not do really cinematic/dramatic scenes I tend to stick to the more natural looking filters that just harmonise the colours a bit more.

And that's pretty much it for the editing.

On a side note, contrast is a good thing, but not limited to contrast in lighting, and not necessarily in lighting either. Contrast can be in the colour of your subject and in the back/foreground, or in the conplexity of your subject and blankness of everything else. I think for especially atmospheric photos you'd actually want less contrast for that softer feeling, and not like super hard silhouettes. So yeah, the editing process depends a lot on the image itself and what kind of emotion I want it to have.

4. Other miscellaneous things that help

Besides using mods to customise lighting and props and character pose etc. to your liking, reshade is definitely also a big help. It has a lot of presets that can help your photo to have better colours or add blur. I don't really have a recommended list since I don't remember how I set up my Reshade, but I think a lot of the most popular or built in ones work really well, just play with it and see what you like.

A mod I sometimes use for colour grading in game is the 'Seasons' mod. I don't like too much green so I often set the season to Autumn for that warmer tone to the grass and trees. The other seasons also have different colour tones so it's good for trying different tones! Without vs. with the mod set to Autumn (ignore the quality on those they are from ages ago):

5. Most importantly! Do what you think suits your visual preferences and taste!

So personally I think this is definitely the most important point! I think while you should look at others' work for inspiration and analyse what they're doing well, you should also definitely always prioritise your own preferences on what you like to see in your own pictures :D I think it's important to just do what you like in the moment instead of worrying about what's necessarily right or wrong, or looks good to others.

For example for me my style changed a lot over the past year and a half, and there was definitely a learning and realisation process along the way but I think my more recent preference isn't necessarily better and how I used to do things wasn't necessarily wrong either, it's just different taste.

Hope this was helpful!! :D

Please ask me if you've got any more questions or would like me to explain anything else <3

[highlander-732b]

BattleTech Gamemode: Hunting Party

This is a gamemode for Classic Battletech I've cooked up. I haven't tested it at all, but here's what I've got so far:

You and your friends are a bunch of nobles with time to waste and money to burn. You are all mechwarrior of the finest quality (dubious?) and you are competing to see who is the best mechwarrior.

The rules:

Bungus enemies spawn endlessly, and attempt to make their way to the centre of the map, which is an assigned hex. This assigned hex should be relatively close to the centre of the map. The centre should be determined as the hex that is intersected by the midpoint bisectors of the length and width of the selected map.

Enemies are default piloting and gunnery (5/4, P/G) with no modifers. They must only consist of introtech units. Most of these enemies should be vehicles, vtols and light 'mechs, with a few mediums and heavies sprinkled in. One or two assaults should appear very rarely.

There should be two enemies per player on the field. New enemies spawn every 3rd turn, and the number that spawn must be equivalent or less to the number of remaining players on the battlefield.

The default turn limit is 12.

The default map size is a Catalyst Game Labs Battlemat. Playrs should start around the centre of this map.

The players are 2/2 P/G and can equip any mech they want. It must be a mech. Players may not attack each other.

Combat Vehicles, Battle Armor and Aerospace assets are invalid. One player is assigned to one mech.

Scoring is determined by adding the total unmodified BV of every enemy successfully killed by that player, and dividing that number by the unmodified cost of their mech. They will obtain a ratio. Whomever's ratio is highest at the end of combat is the winner. A ratio is only considered valid if the controlling player's mech has survived at the end of combat.

Combat is considered ended when:

The objective hex for enemy units is occupied for 3 consecutive turns by enemy forces.

Majority of players declare the game is finished after 12 turns.

All player mechs are either dead (defined by gyro kill, engine kill, headclip or a completely depleted center inner structure) or put into forced retreat.

Mechs in forced retreat may exit off of any map edge, but must move towards the closest map edge.

Retreated mechs are considered to have survived combat.

Other rules:

Force edge is allowed. (allows players to reroll an enemy hit location once per game)

Enemy units are not subject to forced retreat.

A player may concede at any time.

A player may retreat at any time.

Kill credit goes to whomever destroys enemy engine/head/gyro/centre inner structure in that turn order. Ex. If I use a gauss rifle to headshot a mech after my opponent shot that same mech but failed to kill it, I get kill credit, they don't, and I add that enemy to my kill total.

And this is what I have so far. I wrote this at 1am in the morning in a feverish panic.

Yell at me in the comments for fixes and stuff to the rules.

[kuro4thegays]

- Masterlist

Started: 18.6.2024

Updated: 18.6.2024

Total works: 6

Genshin Impact

26. 1. 2024. - Relaxation - Alhaitham x male reader, 2.9k words - You come back from a exhausting expedition in the desert only to find your husband sulking at home...

11. 2. 2024. - Happy birthday to my dearest scribe - Alhaitham x gn!reader, 1.9k words - You and Nahida bake Alhaitham a cake and give him the best birthday morning he could have asked for. Not much more.

14. 3. 2024. - No chocolate, just fruit on White day - Kaveh x male!reader, 3.8k words - You surprise Kaveh on White day, but instead of gifting him chocolate you greet him home with a pile of fruit on the bed, oh, and you're barely clothed.

9. 7. 2024. - Happy birthday to my favorite architect - Kaveh x gn!reader, 1.7k words - Picking sunsettias on a vast field for his birthday, not much more.

Honkai: Star Rail

26. 2. 2024. - Dr. Ratio NSFW alphabet - Veritas Ratio x gn!reader - Originally written with male reader in mind, but there is no mention of genitalia so I think it can work for any gender. I tried to provide both something for top and bottom reader so everyone can get something out of this. The reader is assumed to be in a long term relationship with Veritas.

5. 4. 2024 - Aventurine nsfw drabble - gn!reader x aventurine, 500 words

27. 5. 2024. - Steam - Dr. Ratio x male!reader, 3.2k words - So dr. Ratio is a big fan of baths... Guys, hot take but I think he would be into hot springs. Or in other words, Veritas takes his boyfriend out for a hot spring date with many kisses, massages and just the slightest bit of angst included.

What does freedom look like without you? (1/9)

30. 6. 2024. - What I cannon take - Aventurine x male!reader, 2k words - You open the door to find your work partner, Aventurine, drunk, leaning on the doorway. With a reluctant hand you pull him inside, not knowing that he has things planned for the two of you.

Coming soon...

Thank you for your attention

[loonarii]

my 5 favourite k-pop music videos <3

I love music videos, and in k-pop there are a lot of mildy shitty ones, but there are also some amazing ones that are just as iconic as they are aesthetically pleasing. Obviously budget will come into play here, so big 4 groups will be more prevalent on this list, but I tried to be as fair as possible, within reason. Also, I'm a girl group stan, so don't expect many boy groups. Obviously I will forget some, but maybe I'll make a part two, and you are very welcome to leave your fave mvs in the rbs or comments. This list is in no particular order, lets gaur

1. 'Feel Special' - TWICE (JYP Ent.)

This music video inspired this list, and for good reason. 'Feel Special' is in my opinion, the epitome of Twice, as they stand today. It encapsulates their more mature concept post 'Yes Or Yes', but it doesn't alienate their debut cuter concept, it rather welcomes it with open arms and celebrates it as a part of Twice's history, something their newer releases occasionally struggle with. Visually its a feast, its decadent and lavish, and positively gorgeous. Each member has her own movie-esque set, employing various genres and aesthetics, and then the members unite in the most glittery set ever concieved, the gold contrasting their raspberry and champagne outfits magnificently, while also referencing the group's official colours, as seen on their lightstick. The whole video is cinematic and opulent, and every detail, down to Sana's dip died pink hair, and Nayeon's stunning ginger curls which I wish she would bring back, is flawless. The only gripe I have is Chaeyoung's unblended foundation in her solo scene, but hey, we aren't all be perfect. My favourite scenes in this video are the afor-mentioned glittery golden arches group scene, as well as Jihyo's rainbow vintage television scene, that was surprisingly ahead of its time in terms of its retro aesthetics. It's a must-watch music video for the history books, and it's Twice's best song too - it deserves no less.

2. 'Why Not?' - LOONA (BlockBerry Creative - ew)

Note: If you would like to watch this m/v, please stream it from a non official yt channel, in accordance with the boycott. They will usually be marked with 'Boycott Ver.' in the title or something similar.

Loona has a lot of amazing music videos in their arsenal, but 'Why Not?' goes above and beyond. It's one of the most visually striking music videos I have ever seen, and its grasp on colour, composition, and rhythm is completely unparalleled. It's vibrancy is just gorgeous, full of neon lights and shining metallics. The video exists in a constant state of dichotomy: both cool and warm, metropolitan and pastoral, manmade and fantastical. You would assume this would ruin the video's visual message, but the contrast actually enhances it, as well as furthering the group's lore. it's unafraid to experiment with aspect ratio and camera movement, and along with the subversive editing, the final product is unique as well as timeless. Who cares that the last five scenes were neon and retro-futuristic? It's time for Heejin and Hyunjin's black and white minimalist mildly 1920s suited up dance break with a 4:3 aspect ratio of course! As the song itself says, why not? It's as playful as the song, as well as being visually stunning. My favourite scenes include Choerry's upside down mirror moment with the neon lights, as well as Kim Lip in the field with the funky glowing orbs, and of course the cult circle on the moon scene. Fucking iconic.

3. 'Ditto' (Sides A & B) - NewJeans (Ador)

Note: I have a full review of this song, if you are interested.

Where the other videos on this list are overwhelmingly vibrant or cinematic, 'Ditto' is understated and personal. Arguably one of the most influential k-pop music videos of all time, it breaks every rule of what a music video of this genre looks and feels like, rejecting glamour and high fashion for an unromanticized schoolgirl aesthetic surrounded with melancholy. It's heartfelt and unassumingly tragic, and truly makes the viewer yearn for a time they only half remember. It is one of the most beautiful pieces of cinema I have ever seen, and I am so happy that K-pop stans loved it to death as I did, despite how starkly different it is to most everything in k-pop before it. It does however remind me of f(x)'s '4 Walls' m/v, which isn't a shock as Min Heejin (ew) was their creative director also. It also has vibes of the cult classic (?) Japanese movie 'All About Lily Chou Chou'. It has sparked many trends in the industry, including but not limited to: b-roll interspersions, the typical schoolgirl aesthetic, and the general rejection of the polished, glitzy vibe we expect of k-pop idols. Their impact on trends is notable, but in my opinion, no one has executed this aesthetic to the standard that NewJeans has. The unassuming tragic beauty of 'Ditto' is difficult to put into words, you must go and watch the two music videos for it - they are life changing.

4. 'Kill This Love' - BLACKPINK (YG Ent.)

Say what you will about Blackpink, but they KNOW how to do a music video, and 'Kill This Love' is one of their best; it is beyond extravagant. The sets are huge and striking and insane - Jennie floats on the heads of two enormous swans and all four girls dance in the middle of a huge fucking BEAR TRAP and its ridiculously cool. The fashion and styling is amazing too - my fave looks include Jennie's Lara Croft moment with the braid, Lisa's big ass fur coat from her cereal scene, and Jennie's gorgeous eye makeup from her shopping scene with Lisa. In a word, 'Kill This Love' is extra(vagant). Even the scenes that are conceptually ordinary - Lisa's cereal aisle, Rosé crying in her car - are elevated into the extraordinary. There is no real storyline or through line between the scenes other than their saturated colour palettes and the members themselves, but who cares? The members look like fucking goddesses, the dance looks amazing, and there are MULTIPLE jaw-drop moments throughout the runtime - what more do you want? Where 'Ditto' rejects the typical k-pop visual aesthetics, 'Kill This Love' epitomizes them. If I wanted to explain to western pop stan what k-pop is about, this is the video I would show them first. My favourite scenes include: the group scene with the exploding statues and the bad bitch combat outfits, Rosé caught in the storm with beautiful lighting, and THE BEST SCENE IN A BLACKPINK MUSIC VIDEO EVERRRR... Jisoo's goddess moment with the sun and the reflections. Nobody does music videos quite like Blackpink.

5. 'What Is Love?' - TWICE (JYP Ent.)

This music video is so unbelievably special to me. It doesn't break any boundaries with camera movement, editing, or aspect ratio like 'Why Not?', and it doesn't entirely reinvent the typical k-pop music video like 'Ditto' either, but I think it is one of the best music videos ever because it is so FUN. 'What Is Love' is a music video that is a series of references to iconic movies, most of which being about love, as the title suggests. It harkens back to 'La La Land', 'La Boum', 'Pulp Fiction', 'The Princess Diaries', and many more, with the girls playing the characters, on their fictional discovery of what love truly is. It's so special to me because it reminds me of doing exactly what the girls are doing with my best friends and my big sister - trying to learn what love is from the movies is something almost everyone has experienced, and thus the whole video feels nostalgic both for its references, and for its overall concept. It's fun and lighthearted and a memory of simpler times. Oh, to be a 12 year old obsessed with 'The Princess Diaries' again, to be a tween watching 'Pulp Fiction' with your big sister when it's probably not age appropriate, to be young teen watching 'La La Land' right when it came out. What a time to be alive. That's what 'What Is Love?' is, it's a celebration of life, of growing up, of being just a little naive and knowing it. Iconic, truly.

[mysteryshoptls]

SR Sebek Zigvolt Apprentice Chef Voice Lines

Summon Line: If I am to try my hand at this, then I will succeed with the highest distinction! Even if it happens to be in an unfamiliar field such as cooking.

Groooovy!!: Good, I've done well. In both cooking and martial arts, the fundamentals are what form the basis of improvement!

Home: So this is the official garb of a chef.

Home Idle 1: Linguine, penne, farfalle... There really are a variety of pasta. I wonder which one would be the Young Master's favorite?

Home Idle 2: There are some like Jack who have a strong sense of smell. I should take care and assume that the judging will begin from just one whiff of the aromas coming from the kitchen.

Home Idle 3: The first time I filleted a fish, I basically tore it to shreds to badly that I couldn't even put it on a skewer. I was still fairly inexperienced with knives back then.

Home Idle - Login: I will complete this Master Chef course and master the art of cooking. You would do well to see just how quickly I progress, human!

Home Idle - Groovy: Alright, I followed the recipe and made the dish. The aroma is mouthwatering, if I do say so myself. This time was an undisputable success!

Home Tap 1: The cafeteria's salmon pasta is a fine dish, but... The only issue is that it is only available on the daily rotating menu, so I am only able to eat it occasionally.

Home Tap 2: I used to dislike vegetables that were extremely bitter, but I have now completely overcome that distaste. That is because I am a man who is capable of surpassing all hardships that come my way!

Home Tap 3: Mm!? There is a hole in this soup ladle. Is it defective?

Home Tap 4: I've heard it said that the pasta should be boiled in water with a 1% salt to pasta ratio. I'll quickly measure― Am I supposed to put this much in!?

Home Tap 5: Ack! The pasta isn't splitting apart, and instead it is all in one chunk! I must unstick them without any further delay.

Home Tap - Groovy: Humph, your palate is not bad, for a human. Very well, I shall do you a special favor and fetch you another plate.

Requested by Anonymous.

[alphaketoglutaricacid]

hater moment alert

Cannot stand the girl autism is more acceptable than boy autism bc masking take….i can abide by shitty takes on fictional shit but i cannot let shallow analysis of real issues slide. What the hell is boy autism and girl autism!!! The neat splitting of the complex process of socialization, the ways healthcare works as a system of control that often disregards symptoms of women, the complex way ppl punish the ways ppl diverge from gender roles esp for women, and how diverse of a disease autism is. I know this is a complicated discussion in healthcare bc how we view behaviors differently w gender but dare I say a big reason women (just like poc in america) are underdiagnosed is medical neglect LMAO.

This is like an actual pet peeve of mine. Theres so many stupid long held medical myths in the field like the symptoms of heart attacks are different for women vs men w no statistical bearing or were borne out of statistical malpractice (nuanced topic im not gonna fully get into abt how health data is analyzed). We (i hope) are moving away from this stupid biological determinism ohhh diseases present differently in different genders/races/whatevers bc of (biological differences/genetics/epigenetics and ooo this doesnt have anything to do w the long standing beliefs eugenics still has on how we view health ooooo bc eugenics was #cancelled and theres no troubling inheritances from it ) and acknowledging the reason why mortality differences exist are overwhelmingly bc of health inequities. I know behavioral issues are different. But they are often medicalized similarly and demographics are often homogenized when within groups ppls experiences are incredibly diverse. Anyways.

edit: this is not a dont trust the medical system go to a naturopath instead thing. Naturopaths are scammers. I generally think its a good thing medicine has moved to having evidence behind it, but our ways of collecting and executing it can be deeply flawed.

edit: its in bad form to make medical claims without sources and i dont aim to spread medical disinformation. Here are mine and you can draw your own conclusions:

the most commonly cited study on difference on presentation based on gender for heart attacks is the framingham heart study. A more recent cohort is the GRACE (the global reg of acute coronary events). U may look at these stats and go hey some of these proportions in initial disease presentation do look different between the sexes and even is statistically significant. Which is true. But it must be noted that atypical symptoms are common in both men and women (1/4 roughly vs 1/3) which means when assessing for a heart attack, you should be checking for atypical symptoms in both men and women because it occurs often. I dont believe these ratios are clinically actionable, tho some ppl disagree. Now the fact women get advanced heart treatments, get put on standard medications less often than men etc, I think thats much more actionable.

There is also something to be said abt what statistics measure. Which in population studies is: are the prevalence or outcomes of the disease different between these two populations? Which if you theoretically rounded up every man and every women in the US that has had a heart attack (which the populations in these studies are a proxy for) the answer would be: yes. But also if you rounded up everyone in the state of Minnesota vs everyone in the state of Montana, you would also have differences between manifestation of disease in these two states. The question is how large and why—the why is a question stats have a harder time elucidating.

Another question is what is the utility of dividing the groups to compare each other when there are infinite ways you could split groups up. You probably would not argue that there are inherent biological differences between people who live in Minnesota and people who live in Montana, but if you found enough difference, perhaps you could make an argument that there may be a difference in health infrastructure or policy thats driving that gap. But then youd have to further investigate. There is no approach in statistics where you can avoid the responsibility of interpretation. Now how does that get into how sex and or gender is traditionally interpreted in health studies. Well stay tuned to if i still feel like talking abt this. Bc this is complicated.

[gamerbearmira]

hi ( sorry I finally found the ask lol) I love your work and I have a few questions for the giant siren au.

1.what are the giant sirens opinions on humans. Do they lure humans to eat them or like steal their stuff. Maybe that’s how they got the things they wear like chains head bands and tops.

2.what were each one of the families first experience with humans

3.are they’re ages the same as humans or do they live a lot longer in order to develope such growth.

4.what are the sirens biggest rivals? Still humans?

Not a question but I’d like to see or read more about the encanto sea community and other sirens

hehe that’s it for now love your work, def should be a story. I also saw the latest chap with Abuela and the guppies so amazing and wholesome, they’re like Abuelas remedies. Thx again for this story I’m very glad I found it. have a good day /night

WHAT'S UO AND WELCOME❓❗ Glad you could find it. Anyway of course I have answers. Ya girls been into world building lately, lucky for you.

Sirens, at least with the Encanto Island community, do not like humans. It is a well-known and stated fact among the people that humans are dangerous creatures and are out for them.

Guppies are told to never go near ships, it's hammered into their heads. Of course, if a swarm of guppies gets ahold of the ship, the humans should probably stay away from them. They are very smart, and very cunning, and will feign innocence. As for grown sirens, yes, they will lure humans, but nine times out of ten, it's away from the islands. Despite it being covered in thick fog, they still don't let anyone through. And yeah, the chains, flags, anchors, even glass are used by the sirens. They will take them, especially since it's such a rare thing to find.

Alma is very against humans. Her first 'real' experience interacting with them was when Pedro was killed. So.

The triplets were sheltered from humans as guppies, and didn't even really see them until they got older. They had gotten to help scavenge a shipwreck, and a survivor kimda sorta tried to attack them, not even out of malice, it was out of fear. Felíx, when he was first out of his shell, accidentally capsized a boat, and did his best to fix it. Keywords, 'did his best'. Agustin was on the land of the island, and he tried to talk to them, but due to his size ended up scaring them off. Isabela and Dolores ties in with Luisa, they were with a school and they were kind of on like. A field trip with the caretakers of the Grotto and ended up getting to see a fishing ship. Isabela and Dolores didn't like the humans. Luisa didn't see how they were dangerous. Camilo and Mirabel's ties in as well. This was the first guppy incident that implemented the rule of guppy schools not being able to out ratio the caretakers (the ratio is 1 caretaker for every 15 guppies. This was latter changed after the second incident.). They, and the other guppies within the school, raided a ship for all the food they had. This also implemented the feeding schedule for them lmao. Antonio's encounter was similar to Camilo and Mirabel's, just not nearly as severe.

So. They age about the same as humans until they grow out their shells. So like, maybe between 5-9.

They don't stop aging, just age slower. Alma is probably older than you might think. Same with other elders. It's not entirely known how they age, but they stop aging like humans after they leave the shell. They develop similarly I wanna say, especially as guppies considering they're most human-like. Grown sirens biology is like humans, but there are differences.

Yes. It's still humans. It will likely stay humans too.

To humans, giant sirens are considered sea beasts. They think they're meant to be hunted and out down. Hence why sirens live on giant inhabited islands in pods/communities. Their biggest ally are jellyfish. Giant sirens and jellyfish go way back. So poisonous and defensive jellyfish will defend against humans, by instinct. Most the guppy grotto and most shells have some kind of jellyfish near them, typically box jellyfish and moon jellyfish, both for different purposes of course.

And I can most definitely supply more content❗❗ feel free to ask for specific stuff, but here's some stuff I currently have <33

Some drawings RAHHHHH 🦅🦅 First one is the caretakers and their shifts lmao <33 Ignacio and Maria were specifically set to night shift because. They can glow in the dark/provide self sustaining light.

Second is basically what the island would look like. It's far bigger than pictured, and the community itself stretches far beneath the ocean and across the ocean floor. Part of it goes to a trench below the island, for deep sea sirens like Ignacio.

This one is really just a joke but. It guppies are not fed they will eat inanimate objects. Things that aren't meant to be eaten. Whoever's watchin them gotta pull it out of their mouths, because they won't listen if you ask them to spit it out.

Second one is. Just sleeping, because growing out of their shells is surprisingly very tiring, and takes a few weeks.

Dies

No but. The harpoon is freaking huge. Bigger than pretty much any ship

I'll see about writing more once school ends❗❗❗ hope I answered your questions <33

EDIT I FORGOT TO TAG 💀 @cookydray2