#Black Holes the Stars and You

[senorboombastic]

Live Review: A. Savage at YES in Manchester 08 February 2024

Words: Andy Hughes On Thursday evening, with a bitter, ice-cold wind cutting through every layer, I’d never wanted to get off the streets and into the Pink Room at YES more. Amazingly – given our penchant for live outings throughout the 12 months that make up any year – the A. Savage show in Manchester would end up being my first of 2024. Rather fittingly though, half of the live players for…

[roridomyces]

Triptych

[wayward-banana]

ring ring it's a difficult gun to draw calling

[amnhnyc]

How do we discover new types of objects in space? One way is to invent new kinds of telescopes. Join Museum Curator Michael Shara on an exploration of evolving telescope technologies, the most powerful telescopes ever built, and how the future of stargazing might already be in your pocket.

Along the way, learn about the “wild and crazy” things stars do through Shara’s research into novas (stellar explosions that often repeat over time) and supernovas (the explosive deaths of stars).

[eigenraptor]

very very dramatic depiction of what it's like to loop back in ISAT

(source for time dilation)

[rhysdoesstuff]

Space is actually really cool guys

[bonefall]

(dif anon) So is Ashfur grooming Shadowsight a plotline you would keep/rework in BB? I'm not so keen on the way canon used it to retcon his epilepsy, but I do think a plotline examining how clerics can be vulnerable to abuse from StarClan spirits is kinda compelling

Shadowsight's epilepsy is staying in BB, the Erins can try and take it away again over my dead body

Yes, that's staying and BB!StarClan was reworked with unfairness in mind.

This time around, I'm considering the idea that Ashfur didn't work completely alone. After the events of Squirrelflight’s Horror, Silverpelt's divisons are starting to crackle the stars.

Skystar and the other more traditional spirits are losing patience with the peace that Fire Alone brings, and the ways that the code has been bent.

They feel that honor is being lost in their descendants.

Even angels disrespect the collective; see how Skypelt has its own heaven? With a demon in its midst? There is blasphemy even in the skies.

Firestar and the more modern pantheon are ferociously defensive of the choices of the living. StarClan exists for them; not the other way around.

Meanwhile, Mousefur has gone missing. Others start to blink out, too. This is causing panic... and Ashfur keeps it quiet that he's the only one who knows where they've gone.

The angels that plan action probably were a small group to begin with, radical spirits. Skystar and Ashfur are two of them, and Ash is the "youngest." So when he comes down to the mortal plane and betrays them, very few other angels knew what had happened.

(I might even have a few angels be doing the various supernatural things in that first book, but slowly, Ashfur is wittling down their numbers until it's just him.)

I'm still working out specifics, but the other angels that Ashfur has consumed are giving him a massive power boost. He can use this to jump between planes freely, and he's able to do some whacky things like weave dreams and pull nightmares out of the Dark Forest.

The most important unique power he has, which he can do ALL on his own once he's absorbed enough starpower, is blast Shadowpaw with a bolt of lightning. The electric current runs through Shadowpaw's brand new scar, giving him a connection to StarClan like he's a little radio tower.

Thing is... when StarClan is blocked off, the only signal he receives is Ashfur's.

So, Shadowpaw.

From the time he was very young, Shadowkit has had an unhealthy relationship to life and death

He watched a lot of cats die before he was old enough to really understand it, and the only one who came back was Heartstar.

His epilepsy was so severe it would have been terminal. He was prepared to die as a kit.

Tawnypelt took him to the Tribe to learn more about treatments, bringing back a method of refining chamomile to manage the convulsions.

When people come back from death, it was to serve "a purpose."

He feels like he needs to be special, like he needs to find the great meaning in his life. The reason why he's still here.

In BB, there can be guardian angels. Cats you knew in life who decide to watch out for you in the afterlife. Moleflight is Jayfeather's, Shrewface is Squirrelflight’s. Ashfur poses as Shadowpaw's.

THAT is how I plan to address my criticism. Ashfur DOES build a very personal, trusting relationship with Shadowpaw, pretending to be the one who's here to give him the destiny he craves. Pretending like he's someone looking out for him.

I actually LIKE how desperate the situation was in-canon and I want to stress how none of this was Shadow's fault, so I also plan to keep that they had very little choice. Shadowpaw trusts his angel completely, and Ashfur coaches him on saying all the right things.

The older Clerics are suspicious, but... what else can they do?

Also, instead of framing this all as something Shadowpaw needs to "atone" for, I'm going to make certain cats unfairly scapegoat him for bringing the Impostor into the forest. Shadowpaw himself agrees with them, blaming himself, but he has to learn it wasn't his fault.

He DIDN'T let anyone down by failing to live up to great expectations, and there's no way he could have known that Ashfur was using him. This never happened before, he always made the choice he thought was right and tried to make up for harm done, and he's not responsible for what his abuser made him do.

I actually want to have him figure out some of this by talking to DF demons, towards the end. Cats faaaar more responsible for what they did in life than him.

Ravenwing in particular, who was also mislead by a rogue StarClan spirit, but... ultimately decided that if StarClan was right in their judgement.

He was told (by Birchface, but he still doesn't know who it was in particular) to make three kittens unsafe by revealing their parentage. His choice killed three innocent children, and lead to the Queen’s Rights.

And StarClan was furious that he'd ever believe they'd want something so CRUEL.

And even if they DID want something so cruel... "Then they wouldn't have been ancestors worth following. And that's why I believe it's right that I'm here."

As a Cleric, he had authority on their behalf. And if they would misuse it through him, he wishes he could have just given it right back.

And Shadowsight's lightbulb goes Ding!

The very last thing Ashfur does in TBC, when the jig is up and he's about to be killed by the Lights in the Mist and a bunch of Demons who have come to defend their home, is swallow a Founder-- Skystar.

He takes the level of a true god, and reaches a nearly undefeatable level of power. Instead of black water, he's so large, malicious, and has a gravitational pull so massive it starts destroying the afterlife. It shatters the purgatory (Meadow of Young Stars) into floating cosmic fragments, and Heaven and Hell are set to collide.

Shadowsight confronts Ashfur, politely explaining that he's, well... done a lot of thinking, and, he doesn't really want what he gave him. "You can, uh, have this back!"

And blasts the lightning from his scar right back at him, like a chain, holding the screeching eldrich horror in place. Every ally he's made, here in the DF, come down from StarClan, and as Lights in the Mist, jump to his side. They can't hold down Ashfur, but they can hold SHADOWSIGHT

While they're all supporting him, Bristlefrost sees the one chance to get rid of him, once and for all. A clear shot. She bolts, pounces, and SHOOTS right into Ashfur like a falling star, knocking them both off the edge of the heaven he destroyed, burning up in orbit with a monster a hundred times her size.

And after that, Shadowsight has to go home and live with this.

He gave up the very connection that made him so special, and now he has to go back to being a Cleric without StarClan.

but the other Clerics accept this. They have to. They were all complicit in the choices that allowed the Impostor to rise.

What Shadowsight learns is... everyone was part of this. From those who made the follies with him, to the supporters and rebels against the impostor, to those who helped him realize his worth, to Bristlefrost who ultimately killed Ashfur.

He is valuable because living is valuable.

Everyone, and everything, matters. All cats have a role to play, and he was never alone.

I want to close him out in BB!TBC on a tea scene that parallels the various points in his life. Others used to prepare his chamomile treatments FOR him, in careful doses, because it is a very serious medicine. Now, at the end, he's the one brewing it.

A fully fledged Cleric, who realizes he's never been alone. Cats who love him were around him the whole time, making his medicine, and they'll love him even after he's given up his powerful gift. So now he's at the stage in his life where HE can make that medicine, share his wisdom with others, and find fulfillment in the skills he's acquired over a hard life brightening.

[starflungwaddledee]

oc ask meme time hi

i am SO SO sure someone's asked this already but in the small chance no one has... i am so curious: 🥀 (Wilted Rose) - Do they have a Soul form? What would it look and act like? How much control over themselves do they have? Is it still possible to save them, or are they too far gone?

additionally 🛡️💜🕸️< any of these if you'd like!

[ >>> kirby oc ask meme <<< ] fourth time i've been asked this one and i've already buck passed on it, so you know what.... i decided to bite!!!

just for you, because you asked so nicely 💖

🥀 (Wilted Rose) - Do they have a Soul form? What would it look and act like? How much control over themselves do they have? Is it still possible to save them, or are they too far gone?

i think the circumstances for a soul form to happen to her would be near impossible, but not entirely. i think this would be nothing less than a catastrophic printer error. i think it would be bad!! i think it is not supposed to happen, and if it ever did it would be really, really bad. i am not at all confident you'd ever get her back. attacks would not be necessary. i think i'm hardly skilled enough for this and that there should be at least three more rings (i couldn't make it work) and possibly some other things going on, but here's my best estimate:

[zeb-z]

saw someone saying Etoiles death was like a supernova and fuck man.

the death of a star, collapsing in on itself, unable to bear its own weight. this great, unbelievable fallout from its death, a phenomenon that’s colossal, that’s celestial. Etoiles who’s confidence collapses, who’s streak is ruined, because he took on so many codes at once assuming there were no tricks he wasn’t aware of, and lost. the loss of a star can mean the doom of the planets it provides for - Etoiles loss means he can no longer properly protect the island from the codes. no more heat to provide warmth and growth, no more shield to provide protection.

stars die like anything else, but to witness such a thing in this lifetime? it seems like it should be impossible. and yet here we are

[deep-space-netwerk]

Alright, so, black holes right?

Most people have probably seen this astOUNDING image of the black hole at the center of the M87 galaxy - the first real picture of a black hole.

It may look like a blurry orange donut, but you gotta understand, this was and still is a hugely impressive achievement. At a black hole's event horizon, the escape velocity (or the speed at which something has to travel to escape the body's gravitational pull) is faster than the speed of light. By definition a black hole cannot be directly observed. Imaging the shadow of M87* required using eight ground-based radio telescopes all over the world, working together as an interferometer - or as though they were one single telescope the size of the entire planet.

So that's fucking cool in its own right, but how did we know that black holes existed before 2019 when we could actually "see" one? How do we detect something that reflects no light when we DON'T have a simulated telescope the size of Earth? The answer is gravity.

We think that most large galaxies have supermassive black holes at their centers, left over from their chaotic infancies when hundreds of thousands of early stars collided and then collapsed, and then kept colliding. To give you an idea of what we mean by "supermassive", the black hole at the center of the Milky Way, Sagittarius A* (pronounced "A-star"), is about 4 million times the mass of our sun. And that's SMALL.

So while black holes aren't the horrible all-consuming reality-guzzling unmakers of creation that science fiction likes to paint them as - we aren't in any danger whatsoever from Sagittarius A*, now or ever - they CAN get big enough to really throw things around. So we looked for objects moving under the influence of . . . nothing.

This gif is a years-long timelapse of stars orbiting something in a seemingly-empty region of space the center of the Milky Way, the approximate location marked with a red plus sign.

That something is Sag A*. It's an invisible behemoth, made of the extraordinarily dense remains of the birth of our galaxy, juggling entire solar systems the way Jupiter flings asteroids. And for so long, we couldn't even see it.

This shit makes me go fucking crazy. Imagine what else is out there that we don't understand just because we don't have the tools to even know it exists! Not just in space, in any field of scientific study!

It wasn't until the 1990s that we started realizing trees talk to each other, and now we know there's fungal mycelium networks that connect trees across entire continents. Just THIS YEAR we discovered an entirely new ecosystem underneath the hydrothermal vents in the deepest parts of the ocean floor. For most of human history, the existence of planets around other stars was highly debated, and now we've confirmed over 5 thousand of them. We even know what some of their atmospheres are made of!

There's a saying that "the more you know, the more you know you'll never know", and I feel like there's never been a time in history when that's been more true. And it's almost comforting, y'know? The universe is so vast, it feels correct that we shouldn't be able to understand all of its intricacies.

Reality is stranger than fiction, and the reality is there's stuff out there that we don't even have the words to begin to describe. Until we do! And our reward is even more questions!

[hum--hallelujah]

actually we're going to talk about Folie more because it makes me frickin insane that the two songs that took lyrics from to you unfinished are Coffee's For Closers and w.a.m.s. and in both cases the words are twisted to make them so incredibly painful. because to you is basically to my reading a huge love letter to the band's through all their ups and downs, "all us believers still believe every time we sing "two more weeks'," "you put my head in such a flurry," "send my love, to everyone above" etc etc etc and then not only does CFC take "preaching electric to a microphone stand" and pair it with the words I will never believe in anything again, but w.a.m.s. pulls "worry worry you put my head in such a flurry/ freckle freckle what makes you so special" from the heart of a poem about a band that is also a family and then IMMEDIATELY AFTERWARD says I'm gonna leave you, I'm gonna teach you how we're all alone. everything about the spirit of to you unfinished is flipped on its head, recontextualized and handed back poisoned. Folie is almost a breakup album and What A Catch, Donnie sounds like a farewell going into a hiatus that no one knew if they'd come off of. the way to you unfinished fits in feels almost like the same sentiment behind I Don't Care, lyrics taken and twisted around and pointed back, extra sharp, extra venomous, without concern for the harm caused. Pete going down with the ship, maybe. my love and hate for you are infinite, etc etc etc. do you get what I'm saying here?? *shaking you* do you get it?!

[jadedaegis]

Type III Stars, Metyr, and How Fkcugni COOL it is to see Fantasy allude to such technical knowledge *swoons*

SO LIKE I AM A HUGE SPACE/ PHYSICS NERD

So, I noticed a sort of "theme" to the progression of Elden Ring's "Shooting Stars" that mirrors how star formation is... well, a thing!! Metyr has lost touch with the Greater Will because Type III Stars have lifespans of "Only Millions of Years!" The microcosm is the most literal definition of the words you can get- a micro-cosmic space.

A Singularity. So!

In the great scheme of things the Type I stars would most likely be the Fallingstar Beasts you find throughout the Lands Between; Type II Stars would be entities like the two Astels and the Elden Beast! Entities that have lived long enough to start really mixing things up. And then we have Metyr. The oldest star- a powerful direct offshoot of the Gravity of Greater Will- ordered and told what to do by gravity until that gravity went inward and disappeared, pulling Metyr's focus inwards. After all, if you travel infinite distance over the infinite space-time surrounding a singularity you could "get to it," ...but you can't. Metyr looks to a ceaseless void, as she was broken; collapsed through unknown means into an indiscernible cosmic white noise. The information that could be gleaned by the Greater Will is simply erased by the inherent rot of the Lands Between, and an infinite space-time firewall stops it from recycling.

Not even Erdtree Burials truly recycle.

[cosmical-flowers]

I woke up with my messy blonde hair spread out across the pillows. As I began to wake up, I looked over at my phone and realized I had to get ready for school. I looked at my petite figure through the mirror as I put my hair up into a messy bun. I wore a lazy casual outfit, just a t shirt and some jeans. As I walked downstairs to get breakfast, my mom was sitting in the kitchen. She dosen’t sit down there often, heading outside to talk to her friends, but when she does she doesn’t even notice me. She outs down her phone and looks at me harshly.

“Hey brat, dont worry about eating breakfast here anymore and wasting my money. I sold you because I needed more cash for my gambling addiction.” She said, her words cutting through me. What? That can’t be real, isnt that illegal???

“To who…?” I ask with a worried look. I hold my bag more tightly as she looked at her phone again.

“I dunno, some idol group named Trickstar. Pack your shit already!” She yelled at me, pointing back to my room. I scurried up the stairs and I began to realize her words. Trickstar…? No, it can’t be. They’re a famous idol group and im just a teenage girl. This can’t be real, no it cant! As I pace around with my thoughts, I heard the door open. I look from the staircase to see who it is. It’s Subaru Akehoshi.

[drowningparty]

I wasn’t pulled out to be stuck in some mortal flesh or against my will, I slipped out of that prison. And now, I am able to play all the keys. It made me… special. In a way, I’m like you, Artie! An anomaly!

Malevolent, Intermezzo.

[discordiansamba]

imagine. You're Kolivan. One of your best agents went on a mission years ago to infiltrate Zarkon's effort to find the rest of the lions, and never reported back. You assume that she's dead. Tragic, but it happens in your line of work.

Only it turns out she's not dead. She returns to base two years later- only she has an alien child in tow. She tells you that after being stranded on a planet called 'Earth', she fell in love with one of the people living there- a widowed father with a child from his previous marriage. He helped her locate the blue lion, and she grew close to both father and son.

The father, tragically, died preventing a second wave of Galra scouts from finding the blue lion. He made her vow to raise his son in his stead. So now here she is, with an alien child she is honorbound to raise. You can't possibly say no to that.

You really, really want to say no to that.

Years later, that same child turns out to be the red paladin. You feel yourself getting a headache.

That's the plot of the 'fully human Keith is raised by the Blade of Marmora anyways' AU.

[mamawasatesttube]

<- experiencing shrimp emotions (listening to the return of the king ost: battle of the pelennor fields)