#But either I have a really poor knowledge of human anatomy (possible)

[thunderboltfire]

Making a furious horse head in Scupltris: Easy, soothing, non-problematic

Trying to make a smiling human head in ZBrush: Ohno oh no oh no, where’s everything? What am I doing? Why does it looks so WEIRD?

[cozycryptidcorner]

The Mad Prince, Chapter Eight

“There will be some changes to your schedule. And you will be assigned a food taster, in case of poison. A full security detail will have to accompany you should you need to visit a public level, for whatever reason.”

You feel like barfing again as Elias recites a rather long, very detailed list about how your seriously your safety is going to be taken. Still, though, you sit on the provided chair, arms on the prince’s desk, as the assistant continues. Everything seems... too dark, suddenly, a dull, throbbing pain beginning to pinch on the inside of your skull. You know that breathing a word of complaint might put you on that psychopath’s medical table again, so you bear it, silently, looking over the provided datapad with feigned interest.

“Is this to your satisfaction, your highness?”

You realize that Elias is speaking to you, not the prince, so you swallow and offer up a nod. “Yeah, it looks good to me.”

He then turns to the prince, offering the same treatment. “Does this satisfy you, your grace?”

“I will look over it in more detail later,” the prince says calmly, “and you will reevaluate some of the steps.”

“Of course, sire.” Elias, at least, looks mildly relieved that he’s not about to end up on the platter in the dining area, “I will inform the head of security.”

“You are dismissed.” The prince looks back at you as his assistant leaves, arms crossed.

You don’t really know where to go from there, so you decide to take it a couple of steps at a time. All your things are being scanned for any remedial poisons and toxins, so the guns you brought are about to be found. Fun stuff. Oh, and some other… more scandalous things, you know, the stuff that you’ve been using in the absence of a partner. That’s going to be super fun to explain. You’re not quite sure which one is going to be more embarrassing to deal with, the laser technology or the vibrators. It’s a close call. And this is a new sensation, too, because you’ve never been super shy about either of those. In the very small amount of instances where either someone went through your stuff, or you had to send your bag through a security scan, you shrugged off the phallic shapes and dared someone to say something about it.

“Cool,” you say, mostly to yourself, “cool, cool, cool, cool.”

“I understand that this isn’t ideal,” the prince says, “and for that, I apologize.”

“Not your fault,” you say, trying to be understanding but allowing the full implications of this situation set in, “but thanks.”

“Is there anything I can have fetched for you?” The prince squeezes his hands together, his knuckles going a shade paler from his grip. “Books? Projects?”

“I want to take a nap.” The headache is spreading now, and all you would like to do is lay down and forget about existing for a little while.

“Of course, is there anything you’d like to sleep in, or are you fine now?”

“Blankets would be nice,” You say, already partly onto the bed. There aren’t any for you to wrap yourself up in, and you’d like to make yourself into a burrito to sleep.

True to his word, the prince orders some blankets up, and you have your pick of all the different materials the royal laundry has to offer. Large, thin, thick, fluffy, light, heavy. You grab the one that will provide the most comfort and roll yourself up, laying your head down on a pillow and closing your eyes. The sleep, at least, is like a sweet relief against the day’s worries, like a blissful blackout. When you wake, everything pitch dark, you have to blink to realize your eyes aren’t still closed. You also don’t sense an enormous, foreboding weight on the other side of the mattress, either, so you’re alone.

Hesitantly, you step out of the bed, feeling the ground for obstacles, and try to find your way out. Unfortunately, your shin crashes into something rather hard, so a string of curse words are out of your mouth before you can even stop the urge. When you take a second to breathe, you hear the skittering of pointed legs against the stone floor, and the lights turn on to a dim setting, the prince peeking his head through the door.

“You’re up,” he notices.

“What time is it? Already night?” You’re nowhere near the door and had been aiming for it in a slightly adjacent trajectory. Even if you hadn’t run into some sort of decorative statue, you would have then planted face-first into the wall only a moment later.

“It’s morning,” the prince says, “you slept through the rest of the day and through the night.”

“Incredible.” You say, somehow feeling thoroughly exhausted.

“I could turn the lights back off and let you go back to sleep? Oh, and there’s a lantern sensor on the table on your side of the bed, just touch the pad if you need to see.”

“I’m good, I probably need to face the day anyway.” You yawn, scratching your arm.

“Well,” his expression turns a tad hesitant, “your things are here, fully inspected by my security staff.”

That wakes you up as efficiently as getting a bucket of ice water dumped over your head. “Cool, that’s great. I’ll put on some clothes that actually fit me, then.”

“There’s also the matter of…” his voice trails off before he tries starting the sentence again. “Some of your things are considered contraband here.”

“I know.” Emit an aura of confidence. “But you know how I like having my safety in my own hands, so the guns stay.”

“That is acceptable, though you are aware that the outer shell of a drider is tough enough to take two or even three shots from your strongest rifle and still be able to fight?”

“Yeah?” You aren’t stupid. “The guns were there before you offered to teach me the fancy knife work.”

“I see.” He hesitates again, and you can see precisely what he wants to ask, but you let him flounder around because you hope that he will just choose not to bring it up. Oh, but no such luck, because he cocks his head and adds, “there is also something else found that I am, well, curious about.”

“Hm?” You ask, arching your eyebrows, hands on your hips.

“Several intriguingly shaped objects that seem to serve no function but to… well…”

A part of you enjoys watching him squirm, despite your own embarrassment. “Oh, did you not get the memo that humans tend to be creatures of sexual nature?”

“I…” he suddenly looks like he regrets bringing the subject up, “-did, but I suppose that I hadn’t realized that it was so... ferocious.”

“Well,” you stand on the tips of your toes to pat him on the shoulder, “I’ll spare you the more lewd details, doesn’t look like you can stomach it at the moment. Where did you say my stuff was?”

“Set against the front door.”

“Neat, thanks.”

It’s clear as day when you open your bags that they’ve been rifled through with great liberty. Still, after going through everything twice, you’re satisfied that all your stuff is still there, so you spin around and let out a muted sigh. “Any place I can put these?”

“My closet would be acceptable,” the prince says, working on something at his desk. His face seems… darker? More saturated? You wonder… could he be flushed? Is this what a flustered drider looks like?

You try not to laugh too loudly as you go to put your things away, organizing what you have among the prince’s clothes and accessories. Now that you have a moment, you figure you can go through his clothing just as a sort of preliminary investigation of what the prince (or the person who dresses him, at least) thinks is fashionable. Lots and lots of fluttery, light fabrics, robes, and tunics made to be seen by the careful eyes of a predator. You run your fingers over silky and scratchy threads, marveling at the textures, pulling some of the drapery out, so see how it falls back in place.

There aren’t really any sort of shoes, but there are a vast amount of accessories. Jewelry, for one, though you’ve never seen the prince wear anything more than rings and claws, but there are nose rings, earrings, necklaces, crowns, you name it, he has it, in black, silver, and even white. Now there’s a color you didn’t think you would see since you left the Starward Matchmaker™ ship. An older instinct inside of you wants to reach out and snatch at the metal and gemstones, and it’s something you have to actively fight against because you’re fingers always want to grab first, ask questions later.

Calmly, you turn around to gather up clothes to get into. By the time you’re changed, there’s already food sitting on the table for you to eat, so you hop right onto the human-sized chair across from the prince, who is already settled in his place. Oh, the spread is downright beautiful, a collection of foods both familiar and not, you’re so stupidly hungry that you go through a whole helping before you even taste anything. No one tells you that on top of being tired all the time from the extra gravity, you also end up being fucking famished because you’re exerting yourself more than usual. Your poor body’s burning calories up the wazoo as it struggles to adjust.

“About the doctor’s appointments,” the prince says, poking at his own food, “there aren’t many doctors with as much intimate knowledge on human anatomy as Doctor Nisesh.”

You look at him, but don’t say anything back.

“There is, however, a drow medical professional willing to become your doctor, if that suits you?”

You offer a nod.

He lets out a breath, as though he was expecting more of an argument, for whatever reason. “Well, I will send word. I’d like for you to have a preliminary exam as soon as possible, today, even, unless you have other plans?”

“Oh, hold on, let me look at my schedule.” You pull out your datapad’s calendar, which is decidedly empty. “Nope, looks like I can squeeze it in.”

“Excellent.” He seems pleased, at least, and you aren’t sure if its because you aren’t putting up a fight or he found your joke amusing. “I hope you will forgive me, but I will be in meetings for most of the day, there are some things I have been putting aside in lieu of, well, your arrival. Elias and another guard will escort you to and from my family’s private clinic.”

“Ooo, a whole clinic just for you and your family? I’m always so used to having to share those medical offices with everyone else in the area who needed them! I feel so darn special already.” Internally, you berate yourself for being just a wee bit too sarcastic, but he doesn’t seem at all bothered by your classy snark. Still, you try to dial it back significantly, even though you feel ridiculously cranky.

True to the prince’s word, Elias shows up a little bit later, his black uniform crisp and sharp in the dim light, shadowed by some kind of similarly uniformed drow, gun strapped to their hip. You’re already dressed, so you shove your datapad in your back pocket, say goodbye to the prince, and follow the assistant out into the halls. This floor’s decorations are significantly more rustic than the one above, like the prince’s room itself, with objects and statues you are sure probably date back a couple hundred or so generations. You’re very careful to keep your hands at your sides, afraid that you might accidentally move too weird and knock a millennia-old artifact onto the floor.

There are keys to the elevators, or, at least, for this level, which you suppose makes sense. It’s the same with stations and the like, the restricted areas kept under a keycode, but surely there has to be some sort of stairwell or tunnel that these people can use in the case of emergency. You would think, anyway. Lolth wasn’t always so technologically advanced, so they must like a tunnel system, maybe even air vents that go straight up to the surface dug when the atmosphere on this hellish planet was still breathable.

“Pardon me for asking, your grace, but your maid reported that you request that you speak to her in a plainer tone.” Elias breaks the ice, surprisingly. You thought that you might have to suffer the ride in stifling propriety.

“You can say ‘my bodyguard,’ it’s ok,” you say, unable to reel the retort in before it left your mouth. “And yes, I did. The constant respect got on my nerves, so I asked to be demoted to just ‘ma’am,’ if the titles are all that necessary.”

“I see,” Elias nods like he understands, “would you appreciate it if I did the same?”

It’s like a breath of fresh air, being spoken to like you’re on the same level, but you approach the offer with great trepidation. After all, this is the prince’spersonal assistant, the two of them might be colluding over the little bet you made. “I would, actually, if you don’t mind my, um, lack of formality. I know it bothers some of the staff.”

“My purpose here is to make you feel welcome, so if I must hold back a margin of bureaucratic language, then that is a sacrifice I’m sure the keias will understand.”

“Well, then, that sounds good to me, so long as you don’t get in trouble for it.”

An uncomfortable silence threatens to befall the elevator pod, but you’re saved by the doors opening. Elias exits first, and you get a decent view of the intricate, smooth braids his white hair is done up in. The twists are stiff, the kind that comes with an inordinate amount of product clinging to the strands, though the rest of his hair spill out like a frothing waterfall. The intricate hairstyles, especially from the staff, are just one of the ways everything is different from what you’re used to. With shorter hair comes efficiency, or, at least, the appearance of it, so most people you know have, at the very most, have shoulder-length cuts.

The guard stays behind you, as though watching for any attacks that might dare aim for your back. You aren’t one hundred percent positive, what with the assassination attempt and all, but you don’t really peg the driders as a people who would pull such a disgraceful maneuver, drows, though? You’re not so sure about them. Humanity is known for discriminating against their own on the basis of faked biology, so you aren’t exactly blown away and scandalized by the fact some other species does it as well, it’s just… well, eerie it to actually see it in action. Human slaves rebelled. You would think that the drow are doing the same, only everything nasty about the world is probably carefully shifted away from your view.

You’re on the same floor as the garden, so this must be where all the extra stuff besides living and eating quarters must be, a sort of recreational deck, you guess. Kind of like the space cruiser. The station is close by, and the ride to the clinic was rather peaceful. While you try asking Elias questions about himself, his life, the prince, and the prince’s family, he reacts… very dodgy, and the longest answers he gives are oh so very clearly scripted. You’re not stupid.

“You can just say that you’re not at liberty to talk about those things, it will be less obvious.”

Elias looks over at you again, his face tight with carefully restrained emotion. “I apologize. There are things that I would think would be better coming from the keias directly, rather than from me.”

“Alright.” You hold your hands up in mock surrender. “I’m sorry for poking at you.”

The rest of the ride continues in silence. You’re almost relieved that you can stand and walk out of the station, a small one, much like the one from the palace, with no other people present. It must be some kind of private platform, which honestly makes sense. The clinic looks familiar, but given the fact you spent the last time you were here in a drugged up like a sick dog, you can’t really say that you’d be able to find your way around. Before you can even look over to Elias for a pointer on which sliding door to enter through, someone wearing a lab coat steps out.

“Ah! My human patient,” an elderly drow female, her hair silver, “welcome, welcome. I am Doctor Eidel, I was told I would be expecting you today.”

With all the cold, distant reactions from everyone else you’ve met, having such a legitimately warm greeting puts you at ease, despite the very real possibility of a fucking war criminal lurking in around in the brightly decorated halls. “Thank you, hi.”

“Well, I’ve got the file the Starward Matchmakers sent out, so why don’t we step aside in one of the rooms and begin? Would you be comfortable with your party remaining present or waiting just out in the hall?”

The fact you even get a choice fills you with more relief than you can possibly describe. Turning to Elias and the guard, you say, “sorry, I know we’ve been bonding, but I don’t think we’re on the level of you seeing me naked quite yet. Not even-” the prince has that privilege, yet, you don’t say, because that might be going just a tad bit far. “I mean, I’d just appreciate the privacy.”

Absolutely no fight from either of them, probably just as equally opposed to the idea, so you follow the doctor into a room. She hands you a loose hospital gown for you to change into, and leaves you alone. All very basic doctor stuff, with no threats of experimentation and disembowelment. Boy howdy are you glad to have changed medical professionals, huh. The checkup is just like any other you’ve undergone, the doctor quick to look over just the basic health things, then goes over anything else you might be ‘concerned’ with.

“Alright, we’ve got some basic painkillers for your headaches, though it’s not going to be a permanent solution.” Doctor Eidel writes something on her datapad with a white electric pen.

“Are there any... ‘permanent solutions’ in the making?” You can’t imagine having to deal with this forever… though the idea of even being on one planet for the rest of your life gives you a heavy bout of vertigo.

“I’m afraid it’s just a simple matter of biology.” She sets aside the clipboard. “If you were born here, perhaps, it wouldn’t be such a large issue. But since you grew up in a place with smaller gravity- a mining station, correct?”

“Yes,” you say, your voice slightly smaller.

“My suggestion would be that you are going to have to take breaks from the gravity as to not strain your body. Every couple of cycles, you will need to spend, at the very least, equal time back in an area with the same force of gravity as what you are used to. The keias has been trying to find some other fix that would keep you here, on this planet, but I’m afraid that the simplest solution is often the best.”

Again, that feeling of entrapment creeping into your bones. “I- I see, thank you so much for your honesty.”

Again, she picks up her datapad and electric pen, scribbling something else done. “Well, following on the note of honesty, the queen wants a genetic compatibility and fertility test done on you.”

“But- um, I thought the Starward Matchmakers™ do some sort of similar test?” A bolt of panic runs through your spine.

“They do a basic overview, which is as good as a guessing game. However, given the sudden paleness of your skin, I will just pretend that I haven’t seen the message until after you leave.”

Relief numbs your panic, and you let out a breath. “Thank you, yes, I don’t really want you digging around up there right now.”

“Don’t thank me yet,” she takes her gloves off, “there’s only a certain amount of things you can avoid before she gets demanding. I’d suggest you talk to the keias so you can hide behind him.”

Well, given the earlier conversation involving dildos and the way he behaved, you aren’t sure he would be a whole lot of help in that regard, but you suppose you might have to give it a try. “Alright.”

“Well then, I’ll leave you to get dressed and order that medication. Don’t bother waiting, I’m sure there are a thousand security measures to get through before you so much as see a pill, so they’ll just be sent up to where you’re staying.” She taps her forehead with the back of her pen. “I’ll also give the prince a very mild suggestion that you get a couple of trips up into a neighboring moon resort in the near future, so your bones to catch a break.”

“Got it, thank you so much.” You mean it, too, this was probably the most candid conversation you’ve had since you got here. Once your clothes are back on, you leave as the doctor instructed, finding Elias and the security guard waiting out in the hall for you to emerge. You give neither of them any updates on your health, it’s not like it’s any of their business, anyway, so you’re rather silent as you get back in the car of the train and try to chill.

As you arrive back in the palace, stepping out of the car and into the courtyard area. Calmly, you look over at Elias as two other figures approach, large and terrifyingly quick, because you are still new to the whole drider royalty thing, and you aren’t sure how you’re supposed to handle this. Politely? Snarkily? Honestly, you’re in the mood for the latter, so you cross your arms in preparation for dealing with some ridiculous bullshit. You recognize one of them, the vice-marshal, he’s the one who gave you that shakedown when you first arrived. Little does he know that without the Starward Matchmaker™ representative to witness your transgressions, you suddenly feel an absolute lack of fear towards him.

“Well, well, well,” he drawls, looking you over, “you seem to be taking the gravity well.”

“Yeah!” You change your voice to the perkiest, sweetest customer service tone you can muster. “Doc says I’m doing pretty well, how super is that?”

“Super,” he echoes, clearly disgusted by the word in itself. “Now, don’t take this the wrong way, little lady, but my wife and I were rather worried when we heard about the security upgrades. A kidnapping attempt, perhaps? Or even worse, an assassination?”

Elias decides to step in, “a thousand apologies, vice-marshal,” damn, you’re getting some deja vu, you wonder how many times he has to say that every day, “but I’m afraid I must escort our lady back to the keias.”

” Of course,” the vice-marshal waves his hand in Elias’ general direction, “wouldn’t want Aksanoskeias getting all worried, now. He might wonder if his new fiance is dead, like the other one.”

[deer-hearted]

My Reader OC

SO as I decided to post here my Pyre drawings too, I found out that they mostly feature my own version of the Reader, and. Well. Maybe someone would want an explanation of what exactly she is??

Warning: a fuckton of text. I roleplayed as her a lot, and thus have a whole bunch of thoughts and headcanons.

So here she is, my Reader OC!

She's a young human female (she/her), and her name is Agnia ("pure", "holy", a name close to Agnes). She's born under the sign of Geminian ("Star of the First Empress. Those born under it seek knowledge and new experiences.") and has a wit almost as keen as she herself is stubborn. 

She has a very unhealthy pale skin, magenta hair (braided first, then cut to a shoulder-length) and light-green eyes. She’s not very feminine and can’t be considered beautiful by most people, as she has quite special facial traits. And most of the time she has either tired or a judging look. She likes to wear loose comfortable clothing and rarely accesorises. 

Biography: crippled scholar. She has a very rare marble bone disease (osteopetrosis) which is inborn and has resulted in anemia and thoracic scoliosis (right shoulder is higher than the left). Due to this fact she was a stranger to other kids in her childhood, as she couldn't play with them, she grew up pretty lonely but also attached to her parents and self-sufficient. She studied the world with the help of the books she inherited from her father and through her own experiments she conducted at home. When she was banished to the Downside, she broke her leg and had some more injuries and wasn't able to walk at first, but has recovered well since. And also I hc that all Readers experience mild headaches from time to time due to their expanding psychic abilities, but in her case they become severe migraines.

The reason for participation in Rites: she just wants to free her friends. Actually, as she didn't have friends or even close pals back in the Commonwealth, the Nightwings became her first and only friends, as well as other people Nightwings are friends with (the Fate, for example). She was kinda aloof at first, but the first trio (Hedwyn, Rukey and Jodi) has shown her kindness and she took faith in them. The only person she doesn't like is Volfred, because she sees him as the intruder in her "family", and as he's stiff with her, she's stiff with him back and doesn't really approve and/or want to participate in his revolution schemes. She also is quite neutral to Archjustice, though she finds him rather annoying and arrogant, and has a stable mutual respectful relationship with Oralech.

What she would want to do if she was free? She'd want to travel the world as much as possible and uncover every single one of its secrets. And she'd also like to attend a college, or maybe just a simple real school (she's self-taught, so she doesn't know what it's like). But she never got any of that. Nightwings lost to True Nightwings in the Liberation Rite, and when she called Oralech on a tet-a-tet talk to ease his relationship with Volfred and Nightwings (and because she liked him) he decided to throw his freedom on her - and she threw it back angrily. So Oralech returned to Commonwealth and she stayed. And when everybody decided to finally part ways, she stayed with Bertruda as an apprentice so she finally would be able to actually learn from her, study the special properties of the Downside and learn how to make talismans. She also tries to study Downside's night sky and create a star chart with predictions of when will the next cycle of Rites begin and how long will it be. Surely, as she stays, her anatomy changes into one of a demon, but it surprisingly eases her pain and her state and actually allows her to become healthier and live longer (but will her life be really happy or miserable? who knows).

Personality: she's a proud one, a smart one, and she also doesn't like it when others offer her a special treatment by any means (even if it's just because they care or like her a lot, she suspects that the cause is her disability). She likes to think that she can do everything by herself and is slowly learning the ways of teamwork. She also has a great deal of patience, but can snap at you pretty hard when she can't bear it anymore. It's pretty hard for her to relax because she's used to thinking that the world's all hard work and no play, and she prefers reading to any merrier activity, and humour is kind of an alien thing for her, but she's getting to it too, though she's still pretty introverted.

She takes the idea of someone being in position high enough to evaluate others and judge them quite painfully due to her own condition and other judging her her whole life (which made her an excile one day, duh). So she doesn't like to think of her as of the Leader of the Nightwings, more of a friendly advisor. So when the Rites are over, she silently blames herself for not being able to liberate everybody - and thus for making wrong choices. She has a horrible panic attack when she discovers she's probably supposed to become the next Archjustice and has repeating nightmares since. This is the one and only time she egoistically truly wants the Volfred's Plan to succeed. And, well, she's glad it did.

Love life: with all that she finds a soulmate in Oralech, a union that is pretty harsh in the beginning (though she never thinks of him badly even after his boldest of moves) but gets better at the end. They didn't talk much during the course of the game, but I believe they have a great mutual respect and are very polite and attentive to each other if they happen to have a short conversation before or after the Rites. When Oralech's gone, she realises that she actually likes him and would be glad to talk to him again sometime (at least). So they establish a connection through mail and send a ton of potentially love letters to each other when Oralech excels his writing skills. He even suggests to descend to the Downside to join her at some point, but she gets angry and tells him to embrace his freedom and that if he ever tries to do this she won't ever want to talk to him or see him again. And she means that.

( I like this pairing with my own life and got my girlfriend to roleplay it with me. Together we did a great job at writing some slowburn AU where both Oralech and the Reader unexpectedly find themselves in another universe after they parted ways. Together they explore the strange half-fantasy, half-scifi world, temporarily become pirates, servants to local gods and whatnot. And started a relationship, obviously. )

Also her favourite flower is magnolia (she saw the trees growing on the embankment and liked them a lot but never got close enough) and her favourite food is jam-stuffed buns (they were too expensive for her or her poor enough family to buy on a regular basis, but she enjoyed them nevertheless). :>

[wolffyluna]

TMA Liveblog: Up to Ep 57

NB: For the past few days, I have been travelling with minimal access to my laptop. I’m back home now, and so can actually type this on a keyboard! But I have an unusual amount of episodes to ‘liveblog,’ and it’s been an unusually long time since I listened to some of them. If there’s any really obvious things that I missed, that’s probably why.

Crusader: Another Gertrude episode! And another Archive, apparently? I’m not super confident about Jon’s assertion that there seems to be an unbroken chain of Archives. A thing in the 1100s and a thing in the 1800-2000s does not an unbroken chain make. (Though it does make me wonder about the geographical distribution of Archives. Like, is there one for the whole world, or are there more than one at once? How do oral cultures deal with the need for an Archive?)

A feeling of being watched seems to be linked/associated with Archives. So, that’s a bit worrying. Though maybe less worrying than it being attached to archivists, I guess?

I have mixed feelings about Gertrude blowing up the Alexandria Archive. On the one hand, all that knowledge, gone! It could have been useful! It could also have been infohazardous! (But there’s only one way to find out!)

Still Life: I really like the tax assessor. I simultaneously want him to show up again because I love his personality, and don’t want him to show up again, because I know what happens to recurring characters! But I like him. I have a soft spot for tax assessors in general, and I like how open minded he is.

The anglerfish showed up again! I wonder if it’s the same sort of thing as Not Sasha and The Anatomy Students*? All of those things mimic humans imperfectly.

Also, I’ve started to notice a pattern: people keep mentioning they should have run away, shouldn’t have investigated-- but they investigated anyway. And there’s two possible explanations. There’s the Doylist one, that a story where people ran away at the first hint of the supernatural would be boring. But there’s also the Watsonian one, where something is compelling them to investigate. I’m worried about the Watsonian one.

...why is Gertrude removing the eyes from her books? That’s a little concerning.

Pest Control: Poor Jon. I want to just let him debunk obviously false things forever.

I have a theory about the cosmology. So, Jane Prentiss and Amhurst are definitely very similar. Association with disease and vermin, go up like a torch, etc. But they are also obviously very different things. With Jane, the insects and disease go hand in hand in a way that is not true of Amhurst. I wonder if there’s some sort of aspect thing going on? Like, how Barbie-as-skater and Barbie-as-baby-doctor are both aspects of Barbie, I wonder if there if Disease-as-Jane-Prentiss and Disease-as-John-Amhurst is what’s going on here. (It’d also fit with some of what Michael said? ‘Michael is one aspect of a larger thing’ fits with a lot of his comments about hands not owning stomachs, etc.)

Also, Lightless Flame and Disease really do not get along, do they? Both on a ‘directly fighting each other’ and ‘metaphyisically opposed’** level. Also, I think the landlord was a cultist? Maybe? I’m lost.

Children of the Night: (Trevor describing his hunting of vampires like an addiction)(Me accidentally getting spoiled in ways I can’t describe, lest I spoil others, but in ways that give that statement Implications) Hmmm...

Also, there are people filled with spiders. For reasons. ?????

Jon’s blow up with Martin is... ouch. Ouch. At least it ended well, and It Isn’t Paranoia If They Are Actually Out To Get You... but ouch. I feel sorry for all involved***. (Also, I’m a little ??? at Elias’ hiring methods, because parapsychology sounds incredibly fake.)

Personal Space: So, making it so someone can’t perceive the Earth, and has food that never runs out is certainly... something different. I didn’t realise that was on the table, but apparently it is on the table.

And it was a Fairchilds (associated with Weird Infini-Spaces), Lukases (associated with... something? Human sacrifice, maybe?) and Optic Solutions co-production. Optic Solutions is especially concerning, because it’s definitely associated with Being Watched (a thing which I am now going to call Eyes McGee, because apparently everything is personified and the name amuses me), and Ny-Alesund, which I had pegged as associated with The Thing That Hates Lightbulbs. So either I haven’t pegged ‘who’ ‘owns’ what right, or that was at least a three way team up? Aaaaargh?

Not Sasha does not want to be recorded (wants to avoid people noticing the difference in the voices? Wants to avoid Jon sneakily doing the laptop-vs-tape validation trick? just doesn’t want her boss recording her like a creep?) and is messing with the Hilltop Road cases specifically. Messing with the Hilltop Road cases is giving me pause: the other statements she messed with had original Sasha’s voice on them, but I’m pretty sure that’s not the case with Hilltop Road. Also, Not Sasha seems to be associated with Spiders (she came from the table, as far as I can tell?), but Hilltop appeared to be a Lightless Flame and Eyes McGee co-production? Why would she care? I’m confused.

*Would also be a good name for a band.

**I don’t know how to describe it coherently. But the fact that Prentiss and Amhurst went up like kindling seems important, you know? Like ‘holy things hurt vampires’ is important in other universes.

***I can’t quite tell which is worse, being Jon or being around Jon right now. And while in general, being is worse than being around, in this case it’s a close race, you know? It probably suck way worse to be Jon, but it also certainly sucks to have a boss that is probably stalking you and definitely erratically blowing up at you.

[raendown]

Plot bunny bit me so I popped out a second story for yesterday’s prompts.  @madatobiweek Day 2 prompt: Blind Tobirama

Pairing: MadaraTobirama Word count: 1835 Rated: G Summary: Madara helps Tobirama try something new and the results aren't at all what either of them expected.

Follow the link or read it under the cut!

KO-FI and commission info in the header!

Love At A Glance

“Are you ready?”

“Is it possible for one to ready oneself for such an experience?”

He could feel Madara glaring at him just as the man always did and it added a flavor of normalcy that immediately calmed him, loosening the muscles he hadn’t realized were tensed in his shoulders. Surprisingly gentle hands brushed under the sides of his jaw and traced the edges of his tattoos where they disappeared under his collar.

“Don’t be snarky,” Madara scolded him. “I’m being very nice to you right now.”

“Noted. I suppose I shall be appropriately grateful afterwards – if you make a good showing of yourself.”

“Are you disparaging my skills?”

Tobirama snorted. “Let me experience them first; I’ll disparage them afterwards.”

He grinned at the sound of teeth grinding together in frustration. Even after several years together there was no better fun to be had than winding his husband up and listening to the many varied expressions of irritation. Madara was far and away the most expressive person he’d ever met other than his own brother. It was the freedom of those emotions that drew Tobirama to him initially, the way his outside perfectly reflected his inside where chakra always told the truth.

Most people thought it must be easy to lie to a blind man. Those people always seemed to forget Tobirama’s deep connection to the chakra networks running through every living thing, the way he could listen as no one else could because he didn’t have whole other source of input to confuse his idea of the truth. He loved his partner first for never trying to conceal his own emotions and second for the sheer beauty of how well he resonated with his own chakra. Lies will wear on a person, Tobirama had found, and after years and decades of lying as all shinobi do he found there were very few who maintained harmony with their own chakra as time marched on.

His husband would be a powerful man long after everyone else’s chakra began failing them, a symptom widely attributed to old age.

“Are you paying attention to me?” Madara demanded.

“No,” he admitted blandly. “I’m distracting myself with disgustingly sappy thoughts and a little bit of chakra theory.”

“Of course you are. Well stop. I need you to hear me.”

“Yes dear.”

Madara huffed but his fingers remained gentle in their hold. “It’s important that you don’t move because a single shift in the wrong direction could break the flow and I want the transition in and out to be as seamless as possible. What I’m giving you is no more than a memory so you won’t be able to interact or change anything. There will be movement but if you focus in the center–”

“You,” Tobirama interrupted him.

“Indeed, me. I will be in the center.”

Nodding slowly, Tobirama took a deep breath. “Anything else?”

“I think we’ve covered everything else a hundred times but if you forget everything else just remember that I can still hear you and I can stop anytime you want me to.”

“Okay.” The fingers cupping his jaw stroked him one more time and he smiled warmly.

“Ready?”

“Yes.”

It felt like an invasion, albeit a gentle and welcome one. By the descriptions he’d heard from many people he thought it might be compared to the sensation of having a genjutsu cast when you know it’s coming. Madara’s chakra poured out from where he knew the man’s eyes were, the Mangekyo Sharingan formation spinning wildly, and Tobirama experienced it only through his internal senses as waves of his husband’s presence sank in to his own ocular nerves and then-

And then.

He was going to be seasick. Tobirama squeezed his eyes shut tight but it made no difference, as Madara had promised it wouldn’t, for the vision around him did not stop moving. Nothing made sense. The world was a mix and all too much and he wasn’t sure whether the movement was the problem but he wanted it to stop.

More than that, though, he wanted it never to end. He understood so little but Tobirama forced his poor confused mind to focus and to memorize in a way he’d never had to before, as many details as possible filed away to keep as precious treasures from this day forward. This was a gift he could never possibly repay. Surely nothing he could ever dream of would mean as much as what Madara had offered so freely, an offhand idea over dinner one night now made glorious and terrible reality.

They had agreed beforehand on something short but a handful of seconds felt like forever in both the best and worst ways before finally Madara's voice whispered soothingly that it was all going away. Relief swept through him when the vision faded and his world returned to the same darkness he had lived in for more than thirty years, something bittersweet clinging to the edges of him as he fought to recall the details he didn’t even understand. Fingers combed through his hair and touched his face and he realized he was crying.

“Are you alright?” Madara asked. He nodded. “What was it like?”

“Terrifying,” he admitted.

Not the answer his partner was expecting, judging by the startled hum. “It wasn’t anything bad.”

“I didn’t understand it. My mind didn’t…doesn’t know how to process any of that. You know I was born blind so I’ve never seen color and I’ve never seen movement and I know–” Tobirama stopped the flow of words when he realized it wasn’t only his words that had begun to shake. His body was trembling like a leaf.

“Come here.” Madara gathered him close and continued to comb through his hair, waiting patiently until he was able to continue speaking.

“I know that it was you but I don’t…know…what that means. The shapes meant nothing because I’ve never seen a human with my eyes before. And it’s so bright! How do you concentrate when the world is so bright? With so many colors!” Tobirama forced himself to draw another breath. “Is that color? How many colors were there? W-what ones? Your hair…is…black?” He thought he could remember someone mentioning that once, something not many people would describe out loud when most could tell with a single glance.

A rustle and a brief kiss were his answer. “Yes, my hair is black. Can you guess what you were seeing or would you like me to tell you? I gave you a few hints when I decided on the memory but…”

“No, I wanted to guess. There was a lot of the same color I think. And it was moving. Another color through it? And I know that was you in the center so all of that color was…hair. Your hair. Were you brushing your hair?”

“Yes.” Only one word but it sounded like a floodgate. Madara's chakra wavered and suddenly Tobirama was aware that he wasn’t the only one overwhelmed with emotion.

Unsure of what else to say, he said the truth. “You’re beautiful.”

“How can you say that when you just said you didn’t even really understand? You don’t have any comparisons!”

“I don’t need to understand.” And coming from him that was saying a lot. Tobirama reached up to brush at the hair he had just seen for the first time, the beloved face he’d never known until today. “It was you. That’s all I need. I don’t…I don’t think I want to do this again. If the only thing these eyes ever see is your face then I’m fine with that. Vision is a little terrifying when I’ve gone so long without it. It’s just not a part of my world.”

“Well there’s no need to be so sappy about it,” Madara grumbled and he gave a shaky laugh.

Out of all the many possible outcomes to having his husband’s unique Mangekyo pattern grant him a brief moment of sight in the form of a shared memory, he never would have expected to find himself so viscerally terrified. Now that he was taking a few moments to calm down he thought it was probably an instinctive reaction to his brain being inundated with so much information that it simply wasn’t trained or even equipped to process. He’d meant what he said, he didn’t think he would ever want to repeat this, but he was glad that they’d done it. Knowing Madara's face was an experience he could never regret.

And more than that it was something that would have stayed in the back of his mind for the rest of his days, a small niggling wonder forever pulling at his curiosity. What was it like to see? From the moment Madara mentioned that he thought his own Mangekyo could help Tobirama experience what the rest of the world lived with every day he was helpless to do anything but accept that gilded offer lest his own imagination spiral out of control.

“Thank you,” he said after a few minutes of simply holding each other.  

“Don’t thank me for scaring you,” Madara grunted.

“Would you prefer I be angry?”

“It would feel a bit more normal,” His husband admitted.

Tobirama couldn’t stop himself from chuckling. “Ah, right then. How dare you be the most important part of my life and make every day together a gift? I demand recompense.”

Listening to Madara splutter indignantly and shout at him for ‘doing anger wrong’ Tobirama breathed out the last of the tension in his body. In his mind he brought up the confusing image that had been granted to him for such a brief time and tried his best to recall the details. Not much about it made sense to him even if he did know intellectually which parts corresponded with his knowledge of human anatomy. He still tried his best because that was his husband. For the first time in his life he had a face for the name, so to speak, and Madara's face was the only one he had ever seen. Would ever see. That was special in ways he couldn’t hope to put in to words.

Doing his best to hold that image in his mind as he lifted his face more towards his partner’s, Tobirama decided that the room was indeed getting a little too sappy and, of course, the best way to break the tension would always be to get Madara riled up again. He’d known the man long enough to know how to do it with two simple sentences.

“I’m glad you didn’t insist on showing me my own face. I’d have gone doubly blind, I’m sure.”

Madara's enraged shrieking that he was beautiful and perfect and not allowed to saying anything against that was music to his ears. As long as he had his hearing and his sensing, able to feel the sincerity of his husband’s emotions, Tobirama was just fine with his lot in life.  

[janeykath318]

Five Times Jim Lost Clothing In the Line Of Duty

[worryinglyinnocent]

Star Force: A Guide To Rumplurians - Part Two of... Who Knows!

Part One, exploring the Rumplurian religion, can be found here

BEFORE WE BEGIN:

====

Rumplurians are a fictional race of aliens found in a fictional TV show, Star Force, as mentioned in my rumbelle fic Friendships and Fandoms, an AU in which the various Once Upon A Time characters were the cast and crew of this fictional TV show. Gold played the Rumplurian chief medical officer, Dr Stiltskin, and Belle was his make-up artist (and also stood in as Stiltskin’s human wife, Lacey, when the actress due to play her had to pull out).

Friendships and Fandoms can be read here and @licieoic and I also wrote a few Star Force screenplays which can be read here.

====

You can all blame @woodelf68 and @ripperblackstaff for this. Thanks to them, I spent a ridiculous amount of time thinking about alien anatomy and reproduction and now, well, this happened. 

I need to thank @hedwighood and licieoic for some of the headcanons herein. Licie, I dunno, this might be useful for future Star Force episodes?

Anyway...

Are you all excited to learn more about scaly alien dicks?

I’m gonna take that as a solid yes! Without further ado let’s begin our second lesson in Rumplurians... anatomy and reproduction! As you’ve probably guessed, this post is not safe for work!

Disclaimer: Before we begin I’d like to remind you that this is all completely made up. No similarity to any actual aliens (or any aliens from other franchises like Star Trek etc) is intended. 

I’d really love to illustrate this essay with some naked Rumplurians but 

a) I’m bad at drawing

b) I’m even worse at drawing scaly alien dicks

c) I don’t have a scanner to upload said terrible pictures of scaly alien dicks

So you’re going to have to settle for some suggestive gifs and using your imaginations. 

*puts on David Attenborough documentary style voice*

To all intents and purposes, the Rumplurian doesn’t look all that different to the human, with the exception of the scales. When you look a little bit closer however... 

(I’m sorry I’m having way too much fun with this.)

Rumplurians are scaled all over. Yes, all over. They have no body hair, apart from that on their heads. (And eyebrows, because no eyebrows just looks... weird. We’re not quite sure where the eyebrows and head hair came from, but we think it’s the result of intermarriage with hairy races earlier on in the evolution chain.)

Their scales are not the same texture all over. The scales are generally smooth but will give a slightly rougher texture if rubbed in the wrong direction, with much smoother scales on the palms and soles (necessary for grip) and genitalia (necessary for enjoyable sexual encounters). 

Like a lot of scaled creatures, Rumplurians do shed, generally once a year. They don’t shed their skin all at once like snakes, that would just be creepy.

[Sheesh, I now have visions of Stiltskin shedding his skin on board Aurora while they were stranded and hiding it somewhere for Hook to find and freak out. Onwards because that’s just gross!]

The scales flake off individually, usually a good scrub in the shower with a loofah will get them all off. Their scales get greyer when they’re about to shed and are very itchy, so most Rumplurians like to slough off the shedding scales as quickly as possible. The new scales beneath are very sensitive for the first day after shedding. On the Rumplurian homeworld, it was perfectly acceptable to take sick days when shedding. 

Lacey particularly enjoys having fun with Stiltskin when he’s shedding. Many a happy shower has been shared.

Rumplurian skin is tougher than human skin and it takes slightly more force to puncture it; they tend to heal from scrapes and abrasions slightly quicker. Likewise, Rumplurian finger and toenails are much harder and more claw like. They’re fast-growing and naturally grow into points, and need regular filing, but they don’t like paring them right down like humans do their fingernails because the claws are a part of them and due to the way the nerves work, it can be painful to cut them too short. Mostly they file the tips to make sure they’re not sharp. 

(As has been mentioned in previous Star Force smut fics, Stiltskin keeps his index and middle claws clipped short. This is both for practicality and hygiene when performing complex operations and for Lacey, whose soft human insidey bits would not enjoy being accidentally scratched, and whose soft human insidey bits he likes putting his fingers into...)

(No, Rumplurian women do not have scaly vaginas but their inner walls are a lot tougher.)

(I cannot believe I just wrote the phrase ‘scaly vaginas’. Twice.)

Ahem. Onwards!

Since we’ve already veered into incredibly not safe for work territory, let’s stay here in the gutter! 

Rumplurians have long tongues (not like, chameleon long and prehensile, but longer than a human’s and more dexterous) and are very enthusiastic givers and receivers of oral sex. 

They aren’t cold blooded, they don’t need to sit under heat lamps of a morning to get them going, but their internal thermostat is set lower than a human’s and they come from a very warm planet. If they get too cold, they get sluggish. Which is the opposite of most humans, who get lethargic when it’s too warm. 

Lower core body temperature means... Yes, Licie, Stiltskin has internal balls. Rumplurian testes are kept in a kind of pouch inside the body, nice and protected from being kicked by... anything that might want to kick a Rumplurian dude in the nackers. However, the balls do drop down out of the pouch and hang down beneath the scaly alien dick in a human-like fashion (although they tend to be smaller than humans’ balls) when said Rumplurian is sufficiently aroused. The balls think “aha! time to make baby Rumplurians! let’s get to work, fellas!” and are very eager to get in on the action. So if you really want to successfully kick a Rumplurian in the nackers, wait till he has an erection first. 

*Worry has to go and take a break before she dies of either embarrassment and laughter.*

YES! ONWARDS! LET’S GET TO THE END OF THIS ESSAY BEFORE I DIE OF SHAME!  

Since we’ve got the lowdown on the downstairs bits, let’s move on to the act itself. Good grief, what am I writing here? *Worry takes a moment to question her life choices.*

Ahem. 

As you all know from my Star Force smutty fics (they’re on my masterlist somewhere), Rumplurian Baby Making is not all that different to Human Baby Making. Don’t worry, we’ll get onto the actual babies in a minute. Woodelf mentioned refactory periods and I spent way too much time thinking about them, so I’m going to talk about them. If a Rumplurian guy keeps receiving stimuli after having an orgasm he can be ready to go again fairly quickly - quicker than a human. However, if there’s kissing and cuddling and getting breath back time afterwards and his balls draw back up inside, then it will take him longer to get ready to go again - longer than a human. Rumplurian balls need time to recharge, dammit! 

And now for the Baby Making.

Rumplurian ladies don’t ovulate anywhere near as frequently as human women, generally only about twice or three times a year. They get super horny around this time because they don’t have as much opportunity for conception, but they don’t go mad, like animals in heat do. 

They also don’t menstruate because their womb is constructed differently. If conception is successful, then they’ll start to build up a shell like substance around the baby that grows with it. A full-blood Rumplurian pregnancy lasts five months, the babies are much smaller than human babies when born. When it’s time for birth, the shell shatters and the baby is born in a pretty much human way, although covered in pieces of shell. The rest of the broken shell is delivered as afterbirth, like a human placenta. 

Stiltskin can’t tell when Lacey ovulates, possibly because she doesn’t get as super horny as a Rumplurian lady would. He was amazed to find out that she does it once a month and to be frank he’s incredibly grateful for birth control methods. 

Half-Rumplurian babies are different and depend on DNA, each case is different. They follow gestation and pregnancy patterns of the mother carrying them, so Stiltskin and Lacey’s babies grew and were delivered in a human way, but a Rumplurian lady carrying a baby sired by a human father would have a five month shell pregnancy. 

Rumplurian ladies do breastfeed but their milk is very different to human breastmilk which can cause problems in mixed-race babies. Stiltskin and Lacey’s son Bae was fine with Lacey’s breast milk and it’s generally accepted that the human DNA in him is dominant. Their daughter Nim, however, rejected Lacey’s milk and also rejected Rumplurian formula. They tried a compromise whereby Lacey would express her milk and mix it with formula to create a mashup, but again that didn’t take and poor Lacey was frantic. 

Their Rumplurian friend, Dr Morgana, came up with the solution of giving Lacey some Rumplurian hormone supplements, which did the trick, giving her milk just enough Rumplurian hormones for Nim to be happy with, and my word, once she was happy with it, she was a greedy little girl. Lacey was so relieved!

The supplements made Lacey’s skin very dry and itchy as a side effect (since they’re designed for people with scales), but it was worth it for Nim, and Stiltskin helped by rubbing cream in all over... 

Right, I think I’ve exhausted my knowledge of Rumplurian Bits and Rumplurian Babies. If you have any questions, fire away! If you want to add your own headcanons, go ahead! If you want to write fic based on Star Force, feel free (just tag me in it because I wanna read it)!

If you think I should go away and think very hard about my life choices, don’t worry, I agree!

*Worry hits post and shakes her head*

[starsofmirkwood]

I would love to read your story about not being able to disappoint the sun, it sounds interesting :) Hope you have a wonderful day!

Thank you sweetie!!

I wrote this in my Junior year of high school, when I was taking a creative writing class. Our prompt was to write a story with an epiphany in it, so I decided to write mine about the idea of cosmic indifference, and how it could be perceived as comforting, from the perspective of an utterly miserable teenage boy. I don’t remember what I titled it, so… I’m open to suggestions! :)

…

It was drizzling. The sky was a frozen grey, and the wind came and went in halfhearted swirls. It was a lifeless day, a day to stay inside and avoid people. The kind that numbed you, made you feel just as dull as the thick clouds, as cold as the rain. Sam shut his eyes as he took a long breath.

He had never been a morning person. Not on mornings like these. Being awake was better than sleep, at this point. Third night in a row of restlessness. He didn’t feel tired. The air stinging his ears woke him up. He wished he had a hat, and maybe some coffee. He hated coffee. He tugged his jacket tighter around himself and tried dodging the rain as he shuffled to class.

Sam slung his backpack under his table and brushed the rain from his shoulders, shaking as he felt a drop of water run from his soaked hair down his forehead and into his eye. Blinking furiously, he pushed his hair out of his face. He was freezing.

Art class. He liked it a bit. He could draw well enough to capture the beauty in things. His classmates told him he was amazing. Ms. Earley said he had a gift. For him, it wasn’t good or bad. It was relaxing, watching his hand create things. It was a way of getting his feelings out without anyone knowing. A hiding place.

Today he painted. Ignoring the instructions to compose scenery, he sketched a face. Nobody he knew. Dark hair and a sharp nose. A man’s face. Intelligent eyes. The whole thing was done in watery shades of blues and greens. Sam was satisfied. He signed his name in ink, and turned it in. He got a frown from Ms. Earley for dismissing the assignment. He left the room 6 minutes early. He wouldn’t get in trouble. Never did. If anyone asked, Ms. Earley would tell them he was in the bathroom.

The hallway was quiet. Six minutes of peace. He did end up in the bathroom, grabbing a wad of paper towels to wipe some of the water from his hair. It was mostly dry now, but the clinging dampness felt stifling. Sam caught his reflection in the mirror. He looked pale. Was he sick? He needed sleep. Dark circles framed his eyes. His hair was wild, frizzy with moisture and curled into awkward waves in places. He looked a mess.

He smoothed his hair down with a yawn. He didn’t want to be here. Or anywhere. Restlessness crept back up. Always. God, he didn’t want to be here.

Splashing some water on his face, Sam took a long breath that came out dangerously close to a sob. He stared at his reflection. He didn’t recognize the stranger there. The clothes were his, but the boy wearing them… he looked defeated. Sam turned away. He was tired.

Next class was biology. It fascinated Sam, oddly. All the pretty miracles of nature and the cycles of everything. Ordered, yet chaotic. Not as nice as anatomy would be, but intriguing. Life and how it works. Death. It was all the same. Fascinating.

Watched a video in class. Something about the Sonoran Desert. Sam didn’t take notes. He doodled a saguaro cactus, thinking about humanity, and how it doesn’t matter how tall and strong you are, or how much you surround yourself in protection and spines, when a storm hits, man and cactus alike are capable of falling.

Literature class. Tolerable on good days. Today was not a good day. No days were. Sam endured it anyway, on the basis that it really was something worth learning. Many things were. Most things weren’t.

Sam picked up his copy of Lord of the Flies, opened it to a random page. He had loved the book. It was fast paced, gripping, more beast than boy. Spoke volumes about the human race without saying a word.

The corners of the paperback were getting bent, and one page was folded at an odd angle. He had dropped the book once, and it had landed in such a way that had damaged it. It was funny, in a demented sort of way.

Sam drummed his fingers on his keyboard. An essay about the theme of the book. Due next Tuesday. Sam didn’t know where to start. The theme. Which one? There were many possibilities. Good and evil, civilization and savagery, rules and discord, knowledge and fear and power and wisdom, Ralph and Jack and Simon and Roger and Piggy and it was overwhelming. Sam typed what he knew. Man is inherently evil. Every man. Primitive and unholy. He didn’t need the book to tell him. Jack Merridew. Anarchy and chaos. Order and laws keep people from savagery. That’s what the book said. Sam rather liked Jack. Something about his untamable aberrance appealed to him, reminded him, terrifyingly, thrillingly, of himself.

The printer whirred and beeped as his essay came through. It smelled like ink and stale paper. He proofread his work, for a third time, this time on a physical copy, and decided that his words were sufficiently eloquent and precise, he stapled the papers together with a twang, and tucked the essay into the folder on Mr. Tennyson’s desk.

Ignoring the keyboard clicks and off-topic ramblings of his classmates, Sam spent the rest of the time reading a new book from the library. It was fiction, although Sam preferred fact, but it was entertaining enough to pass the time. About the future and space and war and all those useless distractions. A means of worthwhile escapism, rarely found.

Math was next. Well, Sam loved math. It was the one class he looked forward to, even though his excitement had been rather depleted lately. His teacher loved him. Called on him to solve problems, write out the answer on the board. It wasn’t a chore. Numbers and patterns spiraling to infinity filled his head, and were a thing of beauty to him. Fibonacci’s sequence, algorithms like Turing’s, number theories, abstractions and differentials made sense to him and connected in his head so perfectly, like universal strings inside his mind. A bit too complex for simple geometry, but he smugly enjoyed being smarter than his classmates. It made the loneliness easier to bear.

Today, Mr. Murphy’s lesson was on the area of cones and pyramids and frustums, and Sam already knew all this. He tried to pay attention anyway, because he sort of liked the old man, even if he was a bit too kind and gave the class far too much leniency. Sam personally rooted for him to grow a backbone and actually stand up for himself, but he never mentioned it, figuring a man who couldn’t even trim his ear hair probably wasn’t going to be teaching much longer anyway.

Mr. Murphy didn’t call on him that day, so Sam rotated between doing his homework and taking notes. He only bothered with either because he got a grade for it, and what little motivation he had left pushed him through it. It was just mathematics. Nothing unbearable, he told himself.

Study hall was the worst time of day. Hideously dull, eternally a waste of Sam’s time. He’d played at deductions for a while. Boring after the first three days. Nothing stimulating, nothing more than bland, unexceptional people. Some were less tedious than others.

There was Eliza, the awkward girl with acne on her forehead and thoroughly good intentions. She smiled at Sam occasionally, and probably would have sat with him from time to time if he didn’t make it abundantly clear that he didn’t care for company. She wasn’t stupid. She wasn’t particularly smart either, but what she lacked in communicative aptitude she more than made up for in altruism and quiet observation.

Laurel was Eliza’s opposite in nearly every way, Sam had decided. Confident, charming, and brilliant, Sam admired her. She was shallow, but intimate. She wouldn’t say much that wasn’t entirely superficial, but the way she carried herself, the smiles she’d give out so freely, and the way she’d speak so softly you’d have to lean close to hear her, made it feel like she was a close friend, or a lover. But she was clever, and radiated femininity, and although Sam had never talked to her, he could sense her intelligence in the knowing depth her eyes held when her gaze met his.

A boy, Jeremy, had been in Sam’s history class last year. They’d been partners for a project. They weren’t friends, but the taller boy had been kind to Sam, although Sam had done most of the work for the project. They’d both received good grades, and hadn’t spoken since.

There were the typical workaholic kids, furiously scribbling words onto wrinkled lined paper, textbooks open and creased from use. Other kids cared much less, a category Sam was tempted to fall into, but he made good grades regardless. Music blared from one back corner of the room, where a group of assholes refused to put in headphones and valued their short-lived, unsatisfying pleasure over the needs of other people who wanted nothing more than to finish the assignment they hadn’t had time to do last night.

Sam occupied himself with looking out a window. It was raining harder now, and the dimness outside gave way to a ghostly, barely-there reflection on the pane of glass, and Sam stared into the poor imitation of his eyes. He blinked tiredly and tried not to think. He distracted himself from his thoughts with other thoughts. It was bitter and funny, how that played out. It never worked.

Sam dodged and wove his way through the whirling chaos of students in a too-small hallway, shifting and ducking when those prone to being inconsiderate made sudden stops or decided to walk slowly, and in groups.

He still had one class left, but the unsated, miserable part of himself, the foremost part, couldn’t take it. Thinking about any more pressure in his day made his eyes water in anxiety, and his fingers shook a bit. He ducked into the bathroom for a second time in the day, and was surprised that he wasn’t alone.

He coughed as he stumbled into the hazy air, blinking smoke from his eyes and clutching a sleeved fist over his mouth and nose. Another boy was standing by the sink, flicking ash onto the counter carelessly. He had thick hair that fell across his eyes, high eyebrows, and long, bony arms. He turned his noble head lazily to watch Sam, and he must have sensed that Sam was on the verge of breaking down, because he smiled at him. It wasn’t a kind smile, and didn’t reach his eyes. It was akin to sympathy. Pitying. But he reached into his pocket and fished out his box of cigarettes and held it out to Sam anyway.

Sam looked from his eyes to the box and back. He’d never smoked, and never intended to, but when the boy shook the box, threatening to put it away, Sam grabbed one and stuck it between his teeth. Without a word, the boy lit it for him, and Sam took a long breath, and barely managed to swallow his coughing fit. He exhaled in a thick grey puff that made his eyes sting and his throat hurt. He loved it.

A few minutes passed in blissful silence as the two smoked. A time came when Sam turned his head and found the other boy was gone. He didn’t know how long it had been. A smoke alarm went off in a piercing wail, and Sam realized why the boy had left. He took his still burning cigarette and held it against the wood of the counter until it burned a small black spot, growing bigger and bigger until it caught fire, and the fire spread. Sam slipped out of the bathroom door soundlessly and unnoticed, smooth as the cloud of smoke that trailed with him.

…

The night was quiet. Once everyone had gotten over the hype and the hysteria of the school’s fire had died out, it was like the silence after a thunderstorm subsides. The school hadn’t been badly damaged. They had put the fire out before it could spread farther than the bathroom, and no one had been injured. Sam wanted to be glad about that, but he found himself unable to fully care.

Time ticked on in slow hours, and Sam spent it sitting out on his rooftop. It was cool outside. Not so cold as to be painful, but enough that Sam’s breath fogged in front of his mouth, and the slight wind had stolen the color and feeling from his cheeks and fingers. It had stopped raining, and only a few thin wisps of clouds hung in the sky, trailing across the softly glowing moon.

He’d climbed out his bedroom window, wrapping himself in a thick blanket to fight the clinging dampness. From there, facing away from the small road that ran by his house, he had an unmarred view of the sky that stretched above the the trees with leaves clinging to the topmost branches, above the houses that dotted the gentle slope of the land, above everything.

The stars seemed so small, and so far away, like tiny specks of light against a shadow-painted sky. They had always been beautiful to Sam, lovely in their cold, wavering light, but always shining.

Sam thought about how the stars were perhaps the only thing that remained constant. Even though they were constantly changing and drifting and burning away into oblivion, to a human perspective, they were immortal. They were untouchable, throughout time, and while the planet would spin on and on in chaos and entropy, the stars would never die.

The stars were a vast reminder to Sam that while there are limits on life, the universe does not care about people or pain or the trivialities of existence. It didn’t care care about English essays or loneliness or boys who smoked in school bathrooms. In the grand play of everything, Sam didn’t matter. He was small among that which was infinite, and when he was gone, the universe would not miss him.

Sam felt a stillness come over him, and he was calm. He closed his eyes for what seemed to be forever, and when he opened them, he smiled. He was at ease for the first time in a long while, and the tumult in his mind had subsided, at least for a moment, and it was freeing, and Sam felt as though he would be alright.

[sweetest--melody]

PICS OF ALL THE OTHER CHARACTERS!! gw2 sounds so interesting and if there's plant people I'm very interested!!

This is gonna be a very long one so here goes.

OH SHIT I TRIED AS HARD AS I COULD TO GET THEM ALL IN HERE BEFORE I HAD TO LEAVE BUT THIS IS ALL I COULD GET SO UH SEND ME ANOTHER ASK ASKING FOR PART TWO SO I HAVE A REMINDER

In chronological order of when they were made:

Elequa - Sylvari - F - Thief (Daredevil)

(I should’ve taken a better full-body but whatever if you want a better one just ask) Elequa is a free spirit of a Sylvari. Where adventure goes, she goes. A seeker of knowledge and experience, Elequa follows one of Ventari’s teachings closest to heart: “From the smallest blade of grass to the largest mountain, where life goes—so, too, should you.” She met Caryopterys in Sparkfly Fen, and - attracted to her caring personality - the two fell in love almost immediately. After some time traveling together, Elequa heard whisperings of the possible origin of Sylvari being found in the heart of the Maguuma Jungle. She went on to discover these secrets on her own, Cary electing to stay behind. She hasn’t been seen back in Tyria since, but there have been rumors surrounding a lone Sylvari wandering the jungle, leaving nothing but death in her path.

Melody Grillo - Human - F - Mesmer (Chronomancer)

Melody Grillo hails from Orr. A devotee of the goddess Lyssa and incredibly gifted Mesmer, Melody thrives on deceiving others to get what she wants. She is well over 200 years old, having escaped the doomed kingdom just before its fall, and uses her magic to keep herself alive and youthful. What we see here is her true form, how she actually looks, but nobody else sees her this way. With the use of her illusion magic, she disguises herself as the perfect object of someone’s affection - perfect size, shape, color, even sex - to trick them into giving her anything she needs. She has no interest in power or money, she just has fun tricking people, and free stuff is free stuff in her mind. And she does secretly like the attention, with some issues of self-esteem and identity. Being a different person every day for 200 years can take a toll on your mind. Most frequently found in Lion’s Arch.

Vivvi Virant - Asura - F - Warrior (Berserker)

Vivvi Virant is an anomaly of an Asura. With no interest in magic or technology, Vivvi is a soldier at heart with incredible energy. She never graduated from any college in Rata Sum, not because of a lack of knowledge but a lack of interest in anything being taught. She puts her knowledge, instead, toward biology and anatomy. Vivvi spends most of her time either training with a large Charr she befriended that she affectionately calls “Coach”, or dissecting (or fighting. Really just fighting and taking the organs) and studying the various monsters found around Tyria. Most commonly found in the Silverwastes.

??? (ingame Eno Corella) - Human? - M? - Engineer

This man has no name. This man has no face. He does not speak, he does not feel. He only destroys and kills. Any time this man appears, all around him die, except for one. Elequa has multiple run-ins with him in the Maguuma Jungle, but every time she is completely frozen in fear, only able to watch him kill and destroy until he and she and the only ones standing. He then just leaves and seemingly disappears.

Caryopterys - Sylvari - F - Ranger (Druid)

Caryopterys - or Cary for short - is a very kind-hearted Sylvari, moved by the notion that everything has a right to grow. She is a healer with an intense affinity for animals and nature. She spent the first year or so of her life tending to the Sylvan Hounds in the Grove, until she heard of the poor wildlife tainted by the horrors of Zhaitan’s influence in Sparkfly Fen. The next few years of her life were there, learning how to fight and heal, and rehabilitating the animals there, creating a small refuge away from the Risen and their corruption. It was there that she met Elequa. She was inspired by Elequa’s wanderlust, realizing that she can’t spend her whole life hiding away from the world. Her help would be more useful and welcome when spread. After all, everything has a right to grow, including her. Cary quickly fell in love with Elequa and they became traveling partners, experiencing the wonders of Tyria together. However, when the time came to go to Maguuma, Cary was seized by a great fear, both for Elequa’s life and her own. She pleaded Elequa not to go, and refused to even go near the jungle, but it was no use. She still blames herself to this day. Most commonly found in the Grove and Caledon Forest.

[cutefruitundies]

I Get Paid to Have Pelvic Exams So Yours Will Be Better

By Alithea Howes Originally printed on Rewire.News

My pelvic exam proceeds as normal. Well, sort of. I use a small mirror to watch the doctor’s hands as she examines me. I give her the speculum and squirt it with lube I brought from home. When she finishes, I thank her and smile. Then I get ready for the next one.

“How was that?” The instructor proctoring her test asks me.

“Pretty good,” I say. “She needs to put more posterior pressure on the speculum when she opens it. That’ll be a bit more comfortable for the patient.”

I go to the OB-GYN like it’s my job—because it is.

As a gynecological teaching associate (GTA), my job is to teach medical students, registered nurses, and sexual assault nurse examiners (who collect evidence and care for survivors) how to conduct breast and pelvic exams in the most comfortable and empowering way possible. I act as the patient, but also a teacher, so a student can practice and get feedback in real time.

I heard about this job at a storytelling show. Most of the GTAs I work with have some medical training, mostly as doulas. I had no medical background, but I wasn’t afraid of public speaking or being naked in front of strangers, so I decided to look into it. I took a month-long training course that consisted of learning the techniques ourselves and a script about the best ways to interact with and educate patients. Soon I was on the road, teaching students all over New Jersey and New York.

A class usually has three to five students. I talk through each procedure, then the students practice on me. If it’s a more complicated or sensitive procedure, like any part of the pelvic component, I talk them through it as they go, watching their progress in a hand mirror. The students watch each other practice the exam so they can see and hear the instructions as each student goes through it. The visual and aural repetition, combined with the actual practice, helps the student retain the knowledge.

Sometimes a school will have GTAs come back a month or so later and act as patients to test the students on what they’ve learned. In those sessions, we save our feedback for after the exam, only stopping the students if they’re about to hurt us.

The teacher writes down my comments on the test, and we wait for the next student to be ready.

“I wish we’d had you guys back when I was a student,” he says to make small talk.

“Yeah, it’s still not as common a program as I’d like,” I admit. A 2016 survey of almost 100 medical schools found that more than 70 percent of those institutions used GTAs to teach pelvic or breast exams. “I don’t know how you would teach this without a GTA.”

“Usually we just practice on patients who are unconscious after surgery.” He says it so casually. Like it’s not the creepiest thing I have ever heard. I wonder how often this happens. There is not good data on this practice, but some medical schools have stopped doing exams on people who aren’t awake or without specific prior consent.

When I manage to speak again, I ask, “Do they get the patient’s consent for that?!”

“I’m sure it’s in the paperwork somewhere,” he says, shrugging. Never before have I been so compelled to read the fine print.

It’s not clear why GTA programs aren’t used in every school. But one reason is likely cost: Hiring someone and paying them per student is certainly more expensive than the alternatives. An anesthetized patient costs nothing. Some schools encourage their female students to let their peers practice on them, again at no cost to the school. But performing exams on unconscious patients or asking students to volunteer their bodies is ethically questionable.

Some medical schools take other approaches. Cadavers are useful for a large number of lessons across different medical specialities, so many schools use dead bodies. The practice of using corpses for teaching future doctors goes back to the earliest days of medicine. That demand once fueled the rise of “resurrection men,” who robbed graves for bodies (often those of poor or marginalized people) during the 19th century.

Today, latex models are also an option. In theory, a latex model is a one-time expense—a good investment. But in practice, the models are not as elastic as an actual vagina and tend to break if you insert a speculum correctly. So the student either breaks the model (incurring more costs) or learns to insert a speculum in a way that is painful for an actual person. So if you’re wondering why your gynecologist keeps hurting you, it may be because they’ve never heard someone say “ouch” before. Or they’ve never had someone tell them that this exam isn’t painful if done correctly.

There’s also a stigma around paying women for doing work with their bodies. Some people have argued that GTAs are sex workers (in previous times, sex workers were used to teach exams) and therefore should not be hired by medical institutions. Sex work can mean a lot of things, but the barebones definition of sex work is making money by actively working to turn someone on. I’m in a hospital gown under fluorescent lights. I usually don’t even brush my hair or wear makeup. I’m using clinical terms. If someone is getting turned on, it’s through no fault of mine. And even if you want to ignore my experience and say that this is sex work, what does that say about using unpaid students or unconscious patients?

Becoming a GTA has taught me a lot about my body. I learned that when I’m having sex and it feels like I’m getting hit in the belly, my partner is hitting my cervix and I should probably change positions if I want that to stop. I’ve learned where my urethra is and that I don’t want anything to come into contact with it.

But what matters to me more is the information I can give my students. I’ve taught countless women—medical professionals themselves—what Kegel muscles are and why you need to exercise them regularly. No one has admitted to this, but I’m quite sure I’ve shown a great many people where a clitoris is and how to find it. (Hint: Just push back the clitoral hood. It’s that easy.)

Most importantly, I’ve reminded my students that their patients are human, have feelings and histories, and want to know what’s going on with their body. Too many times, I’ve been to a doctor and had them judge my life choices or make me feel bad for being sick. Or they’ve written me a prescription without telling me what was wrong with me or how I could prevent it from happening again.

When I teach my students, I tell them how to talk to their patients. I tell them what words to avoid so that they don’t accidentally make their patients uncomfortable (for example, no one wants to hear “spread your legs” in this context.) I tell them how to educate their patients about their bodies so they can know what everything looks and feels like when it’s healthy and better identify problems when they arise.

And your health-care providers need this instruction. In many cases, practicing with a GTA is the first time they’ve done this procedure with a live patient. Medical students—often nervous, overworked, and exhausted—sometimes pass out during a GTA session.

Luckily, the only student to faint during my “exam” was uninjured; she just needed to sit down for a while and have some water. After the class, she stayed behind to thank me for the work I was doing.

“I had a really bad experience when I was a teenager,” she explained.

“That’s why I had to leave the room. I don’t know what the doctor did wrong, but it hurt so much, I’ve never been back. I know it’s important for my health,” she said. Her voice trailed off in shame. This was a future doctor who was afraid to go to the doctor.

“Well, would you like to take home a speculum?” I offered, grabbing my bag of disposables. “That way, you can practice it at home when you’re comfortable. And maybe that can take some of the fear away.”

“I can’t.” Her voice faltered, but she forced the words out. “I’ve never …  touched myself. Down there. I was so worried I would hurt myself like the doctor did.”

I was horrified into silence for a moment. One moment of negligence, something her doctor probably didn’t even remember, had affected this woman so negatively that she was afraid to touch her own body. I finally managed to say, “During an exam, most discomfort comes from making contact with the urethra, so make sure to avoid that.”

“I wasn’t here when you showed us where everything is.” She seemed scared, but asked, “Could you show me?”

I got back on the table. I showed her where she could find the clitoris, urethra, and the entrance to the vagina. I told her that the urethra is sensitive to pressure and probably the source of the pain she felt during her exam. I suggested she give herself some time with a hand mirror to get to know her body.

I will never forget the relief she showed just seeing and understanding actual female anatomy. Moments like that are the main reason that I do my job. Though students are learning, they’re usually very attentive and want to follow instructions to the letter. The work is physically demanding, but not as much as you may think. I only average about two classes a week, and having a job that helps people is worth a little soreness to me. As part-time jobs go, that’s pretty great.

I teach hundreds of medical professionals a year, and that helps the countless people they will see in their careers. The students I’ve met in my years of work have been so kind. They are so concerned with hurting me, so afraid of doing something wrong. I can’t imagine how nerve-racking it would be to try to perform a pelvic exam on an actual patient, having only seen a video of how to do it or only practiced on a disembodied latex vagina. My students are all so grateful for the opportunity to learn from me and to practice on an actual person. And I am incredibly grateful to have the opportunity to teach them.

I hope that someday every university will realize that it needs a GTA program. And that if you’re going to learn about the human body, it’s often best to learn on an actual human body. Preferably one that’s alive.

Original article:

https://rewire.news/article/2017/08/21/get-paid-pelvic-exams/

[omfgthursday-blog1]

Contacts - What Are They Really ?

undefined MY SPOUSE AND I'm cynical together with some ebook promising in completion that the antiquity together with man interior 300 pages or fewer, but MY SPOUSE AND I myself usually do not beverage any from the 6 drinks this ebook discusses. this manner, learning that the history worth-mentioning drinks neglected to sound promptly appealing. As that the publication facets outside from the launch, after just in order to atmosphere, liquid could be your many crucial substance in order to person's strategic. Even the availableness of plain water in addition to other drinking places have "restricted in addition to guided human kind's advancement" in addition to "have ongoing into state history". 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Tom Standage's different publication invites you personally see the ground at that a complete new light: throughout that the glass of a beverage. Starting whilst using the sunrise using culture, also acquiring us through modern afternoon "beverage globalization" this publication is ordinarily an exemplary refresher training class on globe history utilizing page instantly after page using Details into the individual comprehension. Mankind's earliest civilizations where started onto un-wanted cereal output, substantially that has been brewed. Historical evening beers were high indoors vitamin-B, that the vitamin sooner just reached through steak. This enabled individuals into concentrate their own daily diet efforts much more on cereals, effortlessly ushering from the transition during huntergatherers in order to farmers. Additionally, because first beers were boiled (to shift more peppers to sugars), that the beer become somewhat safer into consume than waters. This considerable advancement within Life Style "Free-D an Inferior percent from the inhabitants from the requirement to succeed in that the areas, and awarded the success of technical priest, supervisors, scribes, in Addition to craftsmen. " maybe not alone did ale nourish humanity's earliest civilizations, but at a excellent number of manners, made them possible. 1168 Novel Check: a Brief History from the World interior 6 Contacts or Glasses Wine, another drink from the publication, played a main role from the thriving Greek in addition to Roman civilizations. As wine did not originate from the Mediterranean, the Greek's appetite with this beverage opened at club penguin vast sea borne commerce, which disperse their own idea, politicsand mathematics in addition to literature anyplace, also still underpins current Western concept. 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Efforts in order to boil the previous 10, 000 years have led in either shallow novels with maybe not much thickness, or exemplary text-book exactly like tombs manner overly inaccessible into the casual audience. Thankfully, A Background from the World indoors 6 rebounds simply by Tom Standage succeeds whereby the others consist of failed. Standage's ebook will not which by forfeiting the width of this potential subject to get a celebrated thickness in addition to focus. As an alternative using trying in completion that the total history with person, this ebook spot lights one issue, S O beverages, and takes that the reader to get a travel via period to look at the way his topic interweaves yesteryear from. Standage can be that a beautiful author, blending his light-hearted personality using out standing historical informed perhaps not on the niche of food and beverage, but at the duration of. Much like just about most the drinks reviewed at A Background from the World interior 6 rebounds, cocacola become originally invented such as a medi cal ingest. being an alternate to psychologist to the struggle, cocacola proceeded on full good thing about this rough times the theory found yet again in, obtaining earth from the melancholy, and travel along side our troops to WWII, becoming a world phenomenon. in accord with this ebook, cocacola still makes up about "around 40 percentage away liquid ingestion" in these times. Despite my private today constructive opinion of this publication, I have to acknowledge that while I original found A Background from the World interior 6 rebounds, used to do not expect to enjoy it. Perhaps not only'm} MY SPOUSE AND I'm cynical together with some ebook promising in completion that the antiquity together with man interior 300 pages or fewer, but MY SPOUSE AND I myself usually do not beverage any from the 6 drinks this ebook discusses. this manner, learning that the history worth-mentioning drinks neglected to sound promptly appealing. As that the publication facets outside from the launch, after just in order to atmosphere, liquid could be your many crucial substance in order to person's strategic. Even the availableness of plain water in addition to other drinking places have "restricted in addition to guided human kind's advancement" in addition to "have ongoing into state history". At the duration of time, beverages have achieved more in comparison to quenched that the appetite; they've already been utilised since stock markets, drugs, and in addition to at spiritual rites. they've functioned since symbols together with riches in addition to power, in addition to tools in order to appease that the poor in addition to down trodden. though that the release of teas back plenty of years, it neglected to carry store upon developed civilization before this mid-seventeenth 100 years. Once put up since England's national beverage, the importing with tea through earliest China and India reasoned in commerce in addition to industrialization on an unparalleled scope. This asymmetry of energy had a sizable, far reaching influence on British money policy, also finally led into the liberty of the state. Your fourth beverage presented this a publication is going to undoubtedly be java. Due to its anabolic influence on the thoughts, java readily became that the beverage together with intelligence in addition to industry. Replacing taverns for why complex assembly location, the Coffee House "headed into the institution together with scientific societies along with loan firms, the foundation together with papers, in Addition to supplied abundant surface to get advanced notion, especially at Italy. " A Background from the World indoors 6 rebounds keeps growing to recount that the complicated sway coffee houses had on Victorian manner of life, moving so far as to devote that a complete chapter in order to exactly what that the publication calls or message "The coffee-house Internet". Key Phrases: Article Entire Human Anatomy:}

[emulatingrizal-blog]

Why Schools Need Sex Education

by: DERILO, Mary Abigail - 2015-03180

Following the significant rise in the number of teenage pregnancies in Western countries in the 1960s and the outbreak of AIDS/HIV epidemic in Africa, public health practitioners deemed it fit that the whole subject of reproduction should be taught to students in order to alleviate the aforementioned health issues. Sex education specifically tackles on sexual anatomy, reproduction, reproductive health, sexual activity, reproductive rights, contraception, and even sexual abstinence. It also promotes a judgement-free and mature avenue for students to learn and talk about sex. Unfortunately, ever since the conceptualization of the idea that sex education should be included in the school curricula, it has spurred a great deal of criticisms. It was no surprise that it came from concerned parents especially the conservatives, who are not all necessarily bound by religion. These people still think that sex education only talks about intercourse itself and that doing so encourages it, which is not the case.

In an online article entitled “Why Schools Don’t Need Sex Ed” by Yoni Goldstein of The Huffington Post Canada, 1 he presents a different argument.  From his own background of being educated in private religious schools that did not offer classes for sex ed., he writes that he found about sex anyway without having anyone else explain it to him. Kids learn about sex anyway through their peers in school or through the internet (which includes pornography) or through other means, so having a subject that talks specifically about sex is just unnecessary. He adds that the lack of education about sex “will hardly matter at all with regards to the crux of sex—which relates to emotion, not anatomy, and so cannot be taught but must be experienced.” He also points out that it should be the parents’ job to educate their children about the birds and the bees accordingly to their beliefs; the parents are the only people who are reasonably qualified to have this conversation with their own kids.

While Goldstein made fair points in his article, it cannot be ignored that they were baseless and not inclusive. Firstly, he thinks that sex education only tackles the process of intercourse itself. It is not a surprising first thought for someone who was not educated in the terms of it. But yes, as I’ve said, sex education is more than sex. Also, I can relate to him about being educated in a private religious institution, and he is telling the truth about sex not being talked about within the four walls of the classroom. I still found out about what happens in sex through other means, but it took me a long time to figure out the truths and myths behind it. Unfortunately, there are people out there who are not fortunate enough to have found out about these things before they actually engaged in sex. I have had professors tell us of teenage mothers in public hospitals who thought that if they had sex in a standing position they would not get pregnant, and the culprit of this is lack of education about the anatomy of the reproductive system, which should have been discussed in detail either in human biology or sex ed. Another point I’d like to make is how he completely downplayed the idea that one can learn about sex merely through the internet or through peers. It’s true that one can gather information from such sources, but I think we can all agree that not everyone has access to the internet and misinformation can happen in conversations among friends.

Goldstein also mentioned that it should be the parents’ job to discuss such delicate matters with their children, and I agree with him. But are parents really doing something about it? And are teenagers asking them about it? In a multi-site study in the United States among African American mothers and their 9- to 12-year-old children found that over 70% of mothers reported talking to their child about sex topics.2 The findings are promising, and it seems like parents are doing their jobs educating their progeny about sex after all, but such is not the case for all communities and countries.  In a cross-sectional community study in Singapore in 2012, however, researchers tried to find out if parents really do talk to their children about sexual health. The findings showed that a majority (>80%) of the respondents answered that they have considered talking about it with their kids but only about 60% felt comfortable in doing so, which led to a lower frequency of caregiver-child sexuality communication (>50%).3 In a similar study conducted in Africa, only 27% of adolescents reported having had parent-child sexuality communication.4 In the Philippines, a country bound by Catholicism from its roots, parents do not generally talk about sex with their children because it’s considered taboo. From my personal experience, my parents never talked to me about sexual health when I was younger, and to be honest I no longer see it fit that I attempt to open the conversation now that I’m well-versed in reproductive health. I have also asked my peers if they experienced that same thing with their parents, and they all said yes. It cannot be denied that there are still countries and communities out there that still live in the illusion that the topic of sex is better left in the dark. Setting aside the fact that some parents don’t ever talk about sex with their children, let’s move on to the parents who do. While it is a great feat and all, it cannot be determined if the information they are imparting is always true unless they are involved in the health sciences. Moreover, they could be missing out on telling their kids important things such as consent, which could easily be covered by sex education.

The second issue I’d like to address is the discussion and the incorporation of human anatomy into sexual health. A cross-sectional study was conducted in 2009 in India where the researchers attempted to identify the reproductive health issues of adolescents.5 Both male and female respondents were asked about the changes boys and girls undergo as they hit puberty such as facial hair growth and increase in height among men, and growth in breasts and hip circumference among women. A majority of the respondents were able to answer correctly about the body changes of their own and the opposite sex, which indicates that the students there are aware and are well-educated of their reproductive health. In a separate study in the Philippines, however, less than one-quarter (23%) of adolescent women correctly identified a woman’s fertile period.6 The subject of knowing the woman’s fertile period is crucial whether she is planning to conceive or not, and the lack of such knowledge often results in accidental pregnancies, which is common among teenage pregnancies. Therefore, proper education of the human anatomy in sex education can help reduce teenage pregnancies. It can also avoid misinformation, which breeds sexist ideas. An example is when a guy named Ryan Williams posted online that tampons are a “luxury item” and said if a woman "cannot hold in her period until she gets to a toilet" then it is her problem, not the taxpayers’.7   

Contraception is another topic that is important in the discussion of sexual health. In the Philippines where the concept is still very much delicate, contraceptive methods are discouraged by the Church because it downplays the sacredness of sex, and it gives the idea that people can have sex all the time without thinking the consequences of their actions. In my experience in my Catholic high school, contraception was heavily demonized as it was considered “immoral”. But that is not the case in the medical field; contraception is encouraged to let people have sex safely without spreading diseases and to prevent accidental pregnancies. Unfortunately some people are still uninformed of contraception. In the study conducted in the Vadodara district in India, only 31% of the males and 33% of the female subjects mentioned they heard of contraception, which is pretty low.8 But with the implementation of comprehensive sex education, contraception can be discussed in full detail, as well as other methods besides the usage of condoms. It can also help end the stigma surrounding contraception, which can help countries in making contraceptives more accessible.Lastly, sexually-transmitted infections (STIs) need to be discussed in connection with contraception in order to prevent its further spread. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), more than 1 million STIs are acquired everyday worldwide, and one of the effective interventions to this health issue is comprehensive sexual education.9 While there are some areas in the world that are more afflicted with STIs, the key to prevent the rise of an epidemic is to educate people about the truths about it, and it can only be possible through sex ed. In a research article conducted among secondary school students in South Western Nigeria, researchers found that only 6.9% of the respondents had good knowledge about STIs; the rest of the subjects only had fair to poor knowledge.10 In a similar study in Malaysia where a considerable number of the respondents were sexually active, not more than 16.1% of them could name a common STI nor give its signs and symptoms.11 From these studies it is evident that sex education is needed to aid these problems so that people can be more aware and be encouraged to engage in safe sex.           

While opposing sex education stems from the concern that morality and values will be lost in the process, promoting it can actually save lives. With its implementation in schools, students will be correctly informed about their reproductive systems, contraception, and STIs, and in the long run health issues regarding sexuality can be reduced. Additionally, it can aid in the proper implementation of health laws that will gain the support of a population that would have been properly educated. So why oppose it if it’s only going to be for the betterment of the rest of the world?

Bibliography

1.      Goldstein, Yoni. “Why Schools Don't Need Sex Ed.” HuffPost Canada, HuffPost, 14 Nov. 2012, www.huffingtonpost.ca/yoni-goldstein/sex-ed-school_b_1882841.html.

2.      Miller, Kim S., et al. “Barriers and Facilitators to Maternal Communication with Preadolescents about Age-Relevant Sexual Topics.” AIDS and Behavior, vol. 13, no. 2, June 2007, pp. 365–374., doi:10.1007/s10461-007-9324-6.

3.      Hu, Yun, et al. “Do Parents Talk to Their Adolescent Children about Sex?—Findings from a Community Survey in Singapore.” Annals, Academy of Medicine, Singapore, vol. 41, no. 6, June 2012, pp. 46–239., www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22821244.

4.      Kawai, K, et al. “Parents' and teachers' communication about HIV and sex in relation to the timing of sexual initiation among young adolescents in Tanzania.” Scandinavian Journal of Public Health, vol. 36, no. 8, Nov. 2008, pp. 88–879.,doi: 10.1177/1403494808094243.

5.      Kotecha, P V, et al. “Reproductive health awareness among urban school going adolescents in Vadodara city.” Indian Journal of Psychiatry, vol. 54, no. 4, Oct. 2012, pp. 344–348., doi:10.4103/0019-5545.104821.

6.      “Sexual and Reproductive Health of Young Women in the Philippines: 2013 Data Update.” Guttmacher Institute, 27 July 2016, www.guttmacher.org/fact-sheet/sexual-and-reproductive-health-young-women-philippines-2013-data-update#2.

7.      Reader, Kim, and Rachel Bishop. “Pro-Tampon Tax 'meninist' says women should "control their bladders".” Mirror, 19 Oct. 2016, www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/teenage-meninist-sparks-fury-anti-9067035.

8.      Kotecha, P V, et al. “Reproductive health awareness among rural school going adolescents of Vadodara district.” Indian Journal of Sexually Transmitted Diseases and AIDS, vol. 30, no. 2, July 2009, pp. 94–99., doi:10.4103/0253-7184.62765.

9.     “Sexually transmitted infections (STIs).” World Health Organization, World Health Organization, www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs110/en/.

10.     E. O. Amu and P. T. Adegun, “Awareness and Knowledge of Sexually Transmitted Infections among Secondary School Adolescents in Ado Ekiti, South Western Nigeria,” Hindawi Journal of Sexually Transmitted Diseases, vol. 2015, Article ID 260126, 7 pages., doi:10.1155/2015/2601262.     

11.     Anwar, Mudassir et al. “Awareness of School Students on Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs) and Their Sexual Behavior: A Cross-Sectional Study Conducted in Pulau Pinang, Malaysia.” BMC Public Health 10 (2010): 47. PMC. Web. 5 Nov. 2017.

[comicteaparty]

August 10th, 2017 CTP Archive

The archive for the Comic Tea Party chat that occurred on August 10th, 2017, from 5PM - 7PM PDT.  The chat focused on ABDUCTED by Mike Battle.

Featured Comment:

Chat:

RebelVampire

Good day everyone~! This week’s Comic Tea Party is now officially beginning. Today we are discussing ABDUCTED by Mike Battle~! (https://tapas.io/series/abducted) For those new to CTP, discussions about the comic are freeform, so please feel free to bring up whatever you wish. However, every 30 minutes I will be dropping in a discussion question to help those who would like a prompt. These questions are totally OPTIONAL to answer so pay them no mind if you wish~! Remember, constructive criticism is allowed, but the primary focus here is to have fun and appreciate the amazing comics that the community makes~! Each chat a top comment will be picked and featured on an ad for this chat, so let’s have a great discussion~! With that said, let us begin with this first question~!

QUESTION 1. What is your favorite scene in the comic so far and why?

Novasiri

My favorite, by far, was when Asher utilised his own powers to trick Zelek in their battle by crushing a bolder into dust to blind them.. and then punch him right in the brain case.(edited)

RebelVampire

lol honestly that moment made me cringe a bit. mostly the brain case punched cause my mind was overwhelmed by the amount of brain damage that mustve caused. i shed a tear on the inside of my heart

Novasiri

Hahahahaha. XD

At least Asher hurt his hand in the process, poor fella not being used to combat n' all.

Princess Emma of Potatoes

I really like the recent scenes with Shea

DracoPlato

I liked when he was wearing the cherry hat

Novasiri

XD

RebelVampire

yeah ive really like shea as a character so far cause shes so spunky. albeit i also like that you can kind of see why that one fellow was bitching about her recklessness. and i just appreciate the character wasnt bitching for no reason. like theres legit reasons for why hes complaining

DracoPlato

yeah i've liked shea a lot too

if not just because her colors really balance well with the others visually, lol(edited)

Novasiri

She's a real breath of fresh air between Cairo's snark, and Asher's more timid nature.

FONCreator

Oh shoot were starting today cool!

And yee

Novasiri

Yup!

FONCreator

Shea's a cool character so far

I'm really proud that Mikey's improving on his art

The progress is amazing

Novasiri

Mhmm, looking from the first few pages to now has been a drastic and amazing improvement in both art but also those gorgeous backgrounds.

FONCreator

ye

Novasiri

Tho maybe I'm bias cause I love galaxies, and space... Haaa.(edited)

DracoPlato

yeah his art has improved a ton since the beginning

mathtans

I have to echo Novasiri's scene. Not so much the brain punch, but that he was able to use his 'crush' technique to clever effect. That whole "turning a disadvantage into an advantage" deal.

Princess Emma of Potatoes

The art improvement is sick

DracoPlato

but i don't find the early chapters visually unappealing either

mathtans

I'm impressed he can keep up the colour aspect. o.o

Novasiri

Mhmm.

CairosImporters

Hello everyone! I'm going to try to participate although I'm still at work. I'd love to get some constructive criticism on how to make the story better if you have any

FONCreator

YOOOOO MIKEY

Novasiri

Heya dude!

FONCreator

WELCOME TO DISCORD MAN

DracoPlato

Hiiiiii~!

CairosImporters

HI!!!

DracoPlato

just read it all to current, you have great visual story telling skills~!

super easy to get through

RebelVampire

yeah theres a good balance of dialogue amount too with the visuals

mathtans

Regarding the story, I like how everything's got links... like the stuff with Fin was linked to the bullying, the stuff with Shea is linked to the GameDude... it doesn't feel like filler.

I think skipping forward a few weeks was the right call.

FONCreator

Yeah

Timeskips are a life saver

if done right

in which case you did right by it

Also, so far the story feels very easy to jump into

DracoPlato

yeah it does

mathtans

I admit I'm wondering a little about what happened to the bully. They didn't even try to go back for him.

FONCreator

Yeah here's hoping he comes back somewhere

mathtans

Like, I know he was taken by the mystery guy, but they don't seem too concerned.

He's still a link to Earth.

DracoPlato

i did wonder why they didn't go back to the kidnappers in a secretive way since they obviously knew where earth was and were a link

Queen Brave Hikari of Memes

A-Am I late?!

RebelVampire

well yeah would you be concerned if your bully was in trouble? XD like guy tormented asher so i doubt hes high on the list of ppl he ever wants to see again

FONCreator

naaah Queen

RebelVampire

theres never a late in ctp

everyone always arrives on time exactly when they mean to

DracoPlato

also if the kidnappers were in that area and knew where earth was wouldn't other aliens in that area also know

Queen Brave Hikari of Memes

awesome, just q1

mathtans

Oh, I'm not saying it was out of character! Just, if they're looking for leads on Earth, the bully and bully aliens are one method.

DracoPlato

it seemed abnormal to me that nobody else in the surrounding area would know if they knew

mathtans

Draco: It's possible they didn't know it was "Earth", just that it was some planet they were paid to go and get the guy from.

DracoPlato

perhaps, or that earth itself has a different name to others

RebelVampire

well where did the kidnappers even take them? they might not have been in the area when asher finally woke up

DracoPlato

i also wondered why there isn't a galaxy map since it seemed like there would be if there's magazines and stuff

FONCreator

Yeah could be named differently

Queen Brave Hikari of Memes

So far I liked when Asher had a real battle after had crushed on that planet with the alien plant thing, and had to fight with alien shark (Im so bad at names Im sorry RIP)

DracoPlato

the kidnappers themselves would have known where they beamed him from tho

FONCreator

or Earth is just that obscere of a planet

DracoPlato

so they're definitely a lead

mathtans

I'm bad with names too, Brave! No worries. Last week that generated a new nickname.

RebelVampire

theyre a lead but i personally would not want to go chase that lead. lest wind up kidnapped again.

Princess Emma of Potatoes

I just assumed that Earth was an obscure planet

DracoPlato

but he made fast work of the guards there with no prior experience in fighting or his powers

so why should he be afraid of them

mathtans

Emma: Yeah. We barely even have space flight.

RebelVampire

because he lacks confidence

DracoPlato

but he always pulled through when needed

so him lacking confidence isn't a great excuse

mathtans

I'm not saying the whole story needs to be about returning to Earth either, I like the exploration. Just, seemed like there were some leads they didn't follow/mention.

FONCreator

Yeah for all we know, the Solar System is an obscure of mythic system

It's like that old rusty gas station in comparison to other planets

you know it when you see it but it's a dime a dozen and in the middle of no where

mathtans

Draco: Part of the reason he got to them was because they didn't know he was an esper. Now that they know, they might be ready for him.

DracoPlato

perhaps but they could also plan better for an attack if they went back

to me it just seemed strange they completely dropped the idea of the kidnappers as a lead is all

mathtans

Not disagreeing. I like arguing both sides somehow.

DracoPlato

especially with as large as the universe is it seems a poor choice to not pursue that

on their part

RebelVampire

well do they even know where the kidnappers are? like finding a bunch of random kidnappers sounds equally as hard as finding earth

FONCreator

Could be a lot of black markets as well

mathtans

Is it the universe or the galaxy? I don't remember, but that's kind of important.

DracoPlato

i think cairo can navigate well enough he would have some idea, based on the business he's in(edited)

FONCreator

yeah

RebelVampire

but even just the galaxy is ginormous.

there are 100 billion star systems

DracoPlato

how does he find his clients then by that argument, lol

mathtans

True. Just, in terms of mapping.

Message boards.

RebelVampire

well this is the whole point. cairo needs coordinates, names, or other map like features to navigate. so if he knows where planets are, of course he can find clients.

but its not like the kidnappers are on a map mathtans

"Siri, please direct me to kidnappers."

DracoPlato

he would have probably known the area they were in tho, and if he knew the anatomy of the guard he would probably know their species and planet they're from

since he knew where the guard was hit was his reproductive organs

which shows knowledge of that species

FONCreator

I wonder how Cairo would react to seeing a minature version of his species on earth?

mathtans

They could be a rogue faction. But there is that. Maybe he sent a message, but it takes time to get a response across light years?

Cairo might like the Sphinx.

FONCreator

XD His ego would probably be out of this world if he finds out humans worshipped cat headed gods at one point

RebelVampire

but this is making an assumption that the kidnappers are anywhere near their home planet, or that their home planet would randomly know where some criminals were. and even if cairo knows "the area" space is unbelievably huge.

mathtans

I wonder if Cairo's name is a shoutout to Egypt.

FONCreator

Would be cool if it is

Queen Brave Hikari of Memes

What if kidnappers have one base close of earth, and where was Asher was to send them probably to another planet to be sold or experimentation

FONCreator

And hey Mharz

mathtans

(Not in universe, obv.)

FONCreator

And that would be interesting

Mharz of Angels & Punchy Ladies

i didn't get to read through

mathtans

You read some!

Queen Brave Hikari of Memes

rip

FONCreator

IF Earth is that obscure, makes sense to have the base in the solar system

DracoPlato

it took my 30 minutes mharz, you can do it

Mharz of Angels & Punchy Ladies

wow

30 minutes

RebelVampire

QUESTION 2. Despite being stranded in space, Asher has a friend in Cairo. However, besides him being an intergalactic smuggler, we know little about Cairo. What do you think happened in Cairo’s life to turn him to a life of crime? How does one even become wanted in twenty thousand star systems? Additionally, will he and Asher stay together or will Cairo’s loyalty eventually run out?

FONCreator

It ain't long

Queen Brave Hikari of Memes

W-What if Mike is thinking in the 51 area and such

mathtans

I'm a slow reader, it took me longer than that. -. .-

FONCreator

Hmmmm

Queen Brave Hikari of Memes

dat question

I would dare to say Cairo had a rough life, most criminals had difficult lives with not much to eat or money, so they try to look for the best choice in front of them

FONCreator

well, I think that depending on the situation, Ash and Cairos might end up continuing their travels, or, Cairos decides to visit often

mathtans

It might be interesting if Asher and Cairo have a falling-out, but not just yet, I think. I wonder what Cairo's life span is, a little.

DracoPlato

i think their friendship will be tested but i don't think they'll be forever fallen out

FONCreator

And yeah, maybe Cairos' species could be scavengers

mathtans

Maybe his parents were also in the business.

Mharz of Angels & Punchy Ladies

I'm a very slow reader

FONCreator

isfinemhar

Mharz of Angels & Punchy Ladies

becos I try to understand everything

Queen Brave Hikari of Memes

am I the only one who thinks like "Cairo is a good friend of Asher, he'll take care of him" and there's a small part saying "Cairo needs Asher's sper powers to survive"

DracoPlato

cairo is a cat tho, so of course he's in a shady business

Mharz of Angels & Punchy Ladies

LOL

mathtans

Me too, Mharz. ^^

Mharz of Angels & Punchy Ladies

hey cat's gotta do anything they can to survive

FONCreator

ye

Mharz of Angels & Punchy Ladies

stray cats that is

mathtans

Brave: Good point. Esper powers are handy when running from the law.

FONCreator

Yeah, and they ain't common, but not too rare

There are other espers

Queen Brave Hikari of Memes

Tho that smol theory falls considering Asher has not much control on it yet

FONCreator

need protection from them

mathtans

I thought that was a great explanation of esper too!

FONCreator

true true

Queen Brave Hikari of Memes

PHENY

FONCreator

OH YO PHEN

Phenylketonurics

OH question of the best green cat in comics, man!! I have always wondered why Cairo ended up as a rouge smuggler~ It's almost like it's in his blood~

YO YO!!!

mathtans

Actually, when I first started reading, I thought Asher's esper powers were due to him being Abducted years ago, and they did experiments on him, giving him the power. Then he didn't expect the abduction and the power was common, so I was all, oh. But THEN the mystery guy seemed to want Asher, so I dunno no more.

Queen Brave Hikari of Memes

There's a phrase that Cairo said while talking with Asher, saying that he doesn't have many friends anyway, so I would like to think Cairo is at least, with ASHER, honest

FONCreator

Yeah

Queen Brave Hikari of Memes

but still something bothers me, somewhere

RebelVampire

honestly from the start ive felt like cairo is just using asher. so i definitely think theres going to have to be a small falling out at some point. but i dont think its anything hardcore forever cause i mean, cairo is sticking with him despite everything.

DracoPlato

i wondered if his mother has something to do with it cause of one of the covers where what is presumably her has the esper eyes

Queen Brave Hikari of Memes

I need more proofs to trust Cairo LOL

FONCreator

OH

That could be true

And fun if its true

Phenylketonurics

(trying to catch up on everyone's thoughts on Abducted so far... Cairo's character seems directly influenced as something from his society he's not welcome in....or that he doesn't feel comfortable with)

mathtans

I've felt like Cairo was using him at first, but that maybe he's legit getting close to him since he helped get the ship back and everything.

FONCreator

I think Mike even said Cairo died his fur

so maybe

he's like a rebel on his homeworld

Phenylketonurics

YES THAT'S RIGHT!

mathtans

That was Q&A though, maybe not canon.

FONCreator

true XD

Queen Brave Hikari of Memes

There's a possibility that Cairo WAS using Asher, but later gets so along with him and gets some bro affection, but Asher won't listen at first

so break up for a bit, for development

mathtans

Shea might make them confront that aspect of the relationship.

Phenylketonurics

I agree, it really feels like Asher was kind of someone he was gonna profit from and then ended up MAJORLY pitying... and then just started liking him, haha^^

FONCreator

Ye

Like Yandu and Quil

Phenylketonurics

Shea could definitely put some questioning to their friendship, whoa

Queen Brave Hikari of Memes

Shea could get on Asher's side since he protected her videogame, and that's important for her

good move Asher

top 10 best way to get a waifu

mathtans

I wonder if they'll end up as a bigger crew later on.

Phenylketonurics

I was gonna say!! It seems like Cairo would like Shea since she's a fellow rebel but... EH, they could end up butting heads a lot

Mharz of Angels & Punchy Ladies

asher does have a pretty useful powers so it's possible

mathtans

Yeah, Shea's a bit "in the moment" whereas Cairo strategizes first.

Queen Brave Hikari of Memes

This comic makes me remember old tv series about space, so I tend to think they could get a big group of space friends XD

FONCreator

Oh yee

Phenylketonurics

GROUP OF SPACE FRIENDS YES PLEASE

RebelVampire

yeah i think eventually cairo and shea would bump heads. cause she has not listening issues

FONCreator

Shea could be a space friend

Phenylketonurics

That's right, that's right~! She's her own just as Cairo is his own -- they both have issues with authority figures, ohoh

*Shea's aaa

mathtans

She's Shea. ^.^

Phenylketonurics

Heh, it worked even with the typo I guess!

BUT YEAH, Cairo's the lead due to his strategising ability, he's GOOD at that (which made me skeptical at first!)

mathtans

Anyone else wondering about Mystery Guy who sicced the kidnappers on Asher? I'm wondering about that. Maybe he gets another crack at Asher and the misfits all have to go and save him, repayment for all he's done for them.

FONCreator

I have a feeling he's gonna be back

may be the big bad

Phenylketonurics

.... hm, very vaguely... aa, I can't quite remember him.

mathtans

Maybe he's linked to the amusement park company?

Queen Brave Hikari of Memes

maybe a sub boss

mathtans

He has the bully. Bully could be powered up into sub boss too.

RebelVampire

i doubt hes linked to the amusement park company. since the villain of that arc is clearly the dessert looking ceo bro

mathtans

Just, maybe he has stock in the company. ^.^

Not a direct link.

RebelVampire

well then that is possible.

gotta invest in them cool cherry hats

Mharz of Angels & Punchy Ladies

I think Cairo is nice

I mean he could've just left Asher to be eaten by plant

sorry was reading on the spot

FONCreator

isfine

Queen Brave Hikari of Memes

I totally think the bully can be back powered up, and will be besides a physical battle, and emotional one for Asher getting the worst part

Phenylketonurics

Yes yes, he really is like... ultimately a good guy. IT EVEN SEEMED like he was just gonna bail on Asher but he didn't! Cairo's morally chaotic but... he's still got morals~

mathtans

It's true. Can't all be self-servingness, he did fine without Asher too. (Well... not that fine... he got caught by kidnappers...)

Maybe the bully joins forces with Fin!

Mharz of Angels & Punchy Ladies

LOL

RebelVampire

i wonder how cairo got kidnapped by the kidnappers

considering he was pretty good at evading the police

mathtans

Taking a cat nap?

RebelVampire

was he taking a cat nap and woke up and was like "well this is my life now"

Phenylketonurics

CAT NAP JOKES OOOHOO

Mharz of Angels & Punchy Ladies

awwwwww.... he's friends with kitty

FONCreator

caaaat

Mharz of Angels & Punchy Ladies

well kinda

FONCreator

XD

Queen Brave Hikari of Memes

that's the part I was talking about XD

mathtans

Maybe someone sold Cairo out last time. That's why he feels he has no friends.

Queen Brave Hikari of Memes

What if he was sold when he was a baby cause parents were poor

mathtans

"Just deliver this to these people." "Oka-- yoink HEY"

Queen Brave Hikari of Memes

and Cairo did is best to survive

RebelVampire

oh maybe thats how cairo got kidnapped. someone hired him to smuggle something to them and they just kept cairo

Mharz of Angels & Punchy Ladies

sharky's mad LOL

nah Cairo delivered hot sauce in the wrong address

Phenylketonurics

Nooo, wait, yeah, Cairo's the product of his own game, that would be so mad!!

mathtans

I feel bad for Sharky! I hope they can make amends.

Dude needs to relax more.

Mharz of Angels & Punchy Ladies

he so sensitive

XD

RebelVampire

i want asher and fin to bond

become best bros

FONCreator

Broshark eys

Mharz of Angels & Punchy Ladies

LOL

FONCreator

*yes

Queen Brave Hikari of Memes

he has the potential

yis

mathtans

Maybe they meet on Galaxy Tinder.

Mharz of Angels & Punchy Ladies

damn

Princess Emma of Potatoes

Pfffft

FONCreator

xDD

RebelVampire

granted they probably cant become best bros. i dont forsee fin leaving the police and i imagine asher is now also a wanted fugitive

mathtans

I could see Finn leaving the police. They're all such jerks to him. He needs a job he can enjoy. Like short order cook or something.

Mharz of Angels & Punchy Ladies

I get the feeling tho Cairo doesn't want Asher to return home

mathtans

It doesn't matter if he has hot sauce on him then. He's prepping foods.

Mharz of Angels & Punchy Ladies

I mean he can get coordinates like this.

RebelVampire

idk if that was him getting coordinates so much as it seemed like it was like a gatekeeping checkpoint sort of deal

FONCreator

Yeah

Mharz of Angels & Punchy Ladies

hmmm

it did said "requested destination"

and the next page he said change of plans

RebelVampire

the checkpoint could be covering several locations tho

cause its space

mathtans

He might not know where the place is. Just what it's called. No one knows what Earth is called.

Mharz of Angels & Punchy Ladies

good point

we'll never know I guess

mathtans

To sum up, Suspicious Cairo is Suspicious, but maybe he's had a bad past and he probably cares for Asher at least a little. Just maybe not enough to change his routines.

Queen Brave Hikari of Memes

maybe there's no coordinates about Earth cause they think Planet Earth is shit

FONCreator

He even said that they had to have the coordinates before entering a jump gate

RebelVampire

what would make me laugh is if cairo didnt have a bad past. just became a smuggler cause why not. being a fugitive is fun?

mathtans

"The test I took on career day said smuggler."

Queen Brave Hikari of Memes

>Inb4 Cairo is super rich

FONCreator

XD

RebelVampire

well cairo gotta be getting paid well for smuggling

and he clearly aint investing it into his ship

mathtans

Point. Wonder what fuel costs.

FONCreator

What kind of fuel even?

Mharz of Angels & Punchy Ladies

awww little Asher's falling in love

XD

mathtans

Those cubes that Asher blew up in the first Arc.

Queen Brave Hikari of Memes

I wonder if we'll ever get some scenes of Cairo licking himself like any cat does

totally relevant

FONCreator

xDD

I bet he does

RebelVampire

well thanks for that imagery brave

Queen Brave Hikari of Memes

RIP

h-he could just lick his paws

Mharz of Angels & Punchy Ladies

copyright-friendly gameboy

FONCreator

XDD

Queen Brave Hikari of Memes

Good thing Asher is not allergic to cats

RebelVampire

QUESTION 3. At the end of Chapter 2, we learn of Dr. Niel and how he’s behind Asher’s abduction. Who is Dr. Niel and why would he specifically target Asher? What was this experiment that succeeded? Speaking of which, what sort of tests do you think Travis the bully will be subjected to?

mathtans

I wonder, Game Dude existence implies that someone's visited Earth in the last 20 years, right? (30 years?)

Queen Brave Hikari of Memes

Maybe the experiment is about giving to erhh.... let's call everyone as creatures, esper powers in an artificial way. Like there are ones natural born with that ability, but too uncommon

Mharz of Angels & Punchy Ladies

I don't think I can take this ice cream seriously

mathtans

Right, Mystery Guy is Dr. Niel. I still think he somehow got Asher the esper powers. Like, there are some races (Finn's) which aren't supposed to have 'em. And we don't know where humans rank there.

Queen Brave Hikari of Memes

so artificially they could get an army

FONCreator

Dr. Niel probably wants to study espers, maybe mass produce them

mathtans

I'm on wavelength with Brave again.

Queen Brave Hikari of Memes

yis

Mharz of Angels & Punchy Ladies

Asher's mom seems to have it too

it might be inherited

Queen Brave Hikari of Memes

there are too many species, more than one might be in belic conflict with eachother(edited)

RebelVampire

well assuming were following our timeline, the gameboy advanced game dude pro wouldve come out in 2001

mathtans

Alternate theory: Asher's wife used to be married to Dr. Niel, and she ran away to Earth and remarried. He's ticked off, and wants the kid back. Maybe there's even secrets in his head.

Queen Brave Hikari of Memes

true, what if humans can be espers but need some kind of trigger, so Dr Niel is investigating about it in order to later massproduce more

mathtans

RebelV: Thanks, I'm bad for history.

FONCreator

*Asher's mom

And yeah

Mharz of Angels & Punchy Ladies

oooh good one math

FONCreator

That seems to be his game

mathtans

FONCreator: Derp. Yes, thanks.

Queen Brave Hikari of Memes

that could be true

then Asher's dad could be in danger at some point?

FONCreator

true true

Queen Brave Hikari of Memes

unless he's not really his dad

mathtans

Could be!

FONCreator

Oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooh

thats even better

Queen Brave Hikari of Memes

Dr Niel got cucked

RIP

FONCreator

That could be possible

his mom may not even be human

RebelVampire

i wonder if dr. niel is an alien or if hes human

FONCreator

thats also a good question

mathtans

Maybe Asher's mom fled there with Asher when he was a tiny baby. Married, and so his Dad grew up considering Asher his son.

FONCreator

Yeh

Queen Brave Hikari of Memes

I have two theories, a species that look similar to human except few difference besides technology or, a species that can change their shape

FONCreator

Yeah I mean

there's some humanoid species

Maybe there's other more so humanoid species

Shea's one of them

mathtans

It's true that not a lot of the other species we've seen have looked very human.

Why would Dr. Niel bother to look human if he wasn't human?

Queen Brave Hikari of Memes

Reading about UFO and similar stuff there are species that look exactly like humans, that's why I said it, besides the gray ones and such

Mharz of Angels & Punchy Ladies

would love to see Asher's mom, if she's still alive that is

mathtans

There's gotta be more intimidating species.

RebelVampire

im really curious about the fact no one seems to care about asher's humanness. in the sense that no one is really like "hey this dude is weird what species is he"

Queen Brave Hikari of Memes

I wonder what happened to her

Mharz of Angels & Punchy Ladies

they just thought he's alien in general

FONCreator

Maybe because there's a species that's very similar to humans

Queen Brave Hikari of Memes

yis

mathtans

RebelV: That's a good point. Maybe they figure he's Cario's pet or something.

Mharz of Angels & Punchy Ladies

LOL

mathtans

I suppose narratively it's also so that they can't use it as a key to Earth. Like, if someone says "ooh, I haven't seen a species like you since I was in sector ZZ-PluralZ-Alpha, it's a bit of a giveaway.

RebelVampire

im sure thats some of the reason

FONCreator

yeah

RebelVampire

but it still implies theres other more humanoid species OR that ppl have seen humans every once in a while.

Mharz of Angels & Punchy Ladies

I caught up!

FONCreator

noicee

RebelVampire

granted if ppl assumed he was cairo's pet thatd be hilarious

congrats mharz

to be fair tho

Mharz of Angels & Punchy Ladies

yay!

RebelVampire

there could also be an implication that there are so many species in the galaxy seeing a new one isnt surprising

just a normal tuesday

Mharz of Angels & Punchy Ladies

yeah

mathtans

There's that.

FONCreator

ye

Mharz of Angels & Punchy Ladies

I mean they see people look different from them all the time

mathtans

Except what's a Tuesday? I liked that bit where Asher was trying to figure out how long he'd actually been gone and was all, whelp, not sure.

RebelVampire

didnt he also say hes like in his 70s according to space time? XD

FONCreator

xDD

Ash is old as fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu

RebelVampire

what if cairo is younger than asher. physically of course not mentally

FONCreator

might grow like a cat

Mharz of Angels & Punchy Ladies

hard to say

Queen Brave Hikari of Memes

How does age in cats works

similar to dogs?

FONCreator

same as dogs ye

Queen Brave Hikari of Memes

oh

Mharz of Angels & Punchy Ladies

15-20 years

mathtans

Maybe Asher's an elder God inside a kid body. That's why Neils wants him.

Mharz of Angels & Punchy Ladies

their life span that is

RebelVampire

actually its a bit diff from dogs cause cats live longer lifespans on average. so theres a bit of discrepancy. but its close enough

Mharz of Angels & Punchy Ladies

ooh the he's the most powerful almighty being trope?(edited)

mathtans

Or he's just really old.

Queen Brave Hikari of Memes

I see never had a cat so Idk

FONCreator

xDD

I do

*i have two rn

Queen Brave Hikari of Memes

Cairo is very old He'll die soon Prepare to feels(edited)

my mind is a mess sorry XD(edited)

Mharz of Angels & Punchy Ladies

suddenly turns to drama

mathtans

Ok, silly theory is silly. I wonder how old Shea is relative to Asher though.

Mharz of Angels & Punchy Ladies

huh

FONCreator

good question

Queen Brave Hikari of Memes

She's probably closer to Asher in age

Mharz of Angels & Punchy Ladies

I feel like Shea is inspired from the Avatar movie

Queen Brave Hikari of Memes

maybe a bit younger since she's so impulsive

Mharz of Angels & Punchy Ladies

she might be older tho just slow to mature

mathtans

Like Cairo. ^.^

FONCreator

yeah

Queen Brave Hikari of Memes

everyone are older except Asher

Asher is surrounded by old people

Mharz of Angels & Punchy Ladies

yeah

RebelVampire

really? shea reminded me more of a mix between the asari from mass effect and the one tentacle head species in star wars whose names i cant think of

mathtans

Asher needs a small pet to care for, to teach him the ways of old people.

Mharz of Angels & Punchy Ladies

aliens normally has longer life span than flimsy humans

Queen Brave Hikari of Memes

or shorter, anything could go

RebelVampire

normally tho XD doesnt have to be

Queen Brave Hikari of Memes

maybe even a species who have life close to eternal

RebelVampire

i hope its cairo. that way cairo can live forever

and that would explain how someone becomes wanted in 20,000 systems XD

Queen Brave Hikari of Memes

I want Asher to have an alien pet to take care of and hug during nights

FONCreator

yee

Phenylketonurics

Cairo~! Cats have nine lives on earth, how long is his alien cat life??

FONCreator

like an alien worm

Queen Brave Hikari of Memes

an alien baby that cries

Cairo lives for 900 years

lololol

mathtans

That's what makes Finn like Asher, the way Asher cares for the smol alien baby.

FONCreator

ye

Phenylketonurics

Ahaha~!! AND AN ALIEN PET FOR ASHER Ohohooo, Finn would totally warm up to Asher if he saw him taking care of an earth goldfish, hahah^^

Mharz of Angels & Punchy Ladies

LOL

Queen Brave Hikari of Memes

Asher is pretty much a nice boy, he could take care of one

I just want to see Asher doing cute things

FONCreator

He a brave boi

Queen Brave Hikari of Memes

at least for a whiel

brave boi

mathtans

He can stand up to people now. And crush rocks.

Queen Brave Hikari of Memes

he can't talk to others yet, needs more confidence

mathtans

Actually, if he had a small plant to care for, he could practice his esper powers without crushing it.

FONCreator

ye

RebelVampire

asher can get a good career of rock crushing.

Mharz of Angels & Punchy Ladies

legit rock crushing

can produce gravel if he wants

Queen Brave Hikari of Memes

Hero name: Rock Crusher

Mharz of Angels & Punchy Ladies

who needs machines if you can crush them yourselves

RebelVampire

"Do you need rocks crushed? Gravel mixed? Come on down to Asher's Rock Crushing Emporium!"

Phenylketonurics

Asphalt Asher

FONCreator

Ash is the Brain and Brawn for Cairo

Mharz of Angels & Punchy Ladies

no machines just magical telekinetic powers

Queen Brave Hikari of Memes

Asher is cute, CUTE

Mharz of Angels & Punchy Ladies

LOL

FONCreator

yeee

mathtans

Chocolate crush.

Mharz of Angels & Punchy Ladies

at least he can fight even if he's a cry baby

okay not exactly cry baby

Queen Brave Hikari of Memes

he needs to learn to fight people verbally

FONCreator

ishipit

Queen Brave Hikari of Memes

wait what, which ship

mathtans

"Do you bite your thumb at me, sir?"

Mharz of Angels & Punchy Ladies

better than characters who only talks but has no bite

eh

Queen Brave Hikari of Memes

I need to know

mathtans

Ship Asher with Rock Crushing.

FONCreator

ash and hikari

Queen Brave Hikari of Memes

omg 2 ships in a short time

Asher x Rocks, and Hikari

Wonders if we'll see Cairo's planet at some point

FONCreator

caaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaatsssssssssssssssss

Mharz of Angels & Punchy Ladies

LOOOL

RebelVampire

caaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaatsssssssssssssss

Queen Brave Hikari of Memes

If I don't see Egypcian reference I'll be dissapointed, okno

FONCreator

Planet Felina

xDD

mathtans

I wonder how they'd perform "Cats" the musical. Magical Mister Cairo.

FONCreator

Appease the vacuum gods

Queen Brave Hikari of Memes

THE PUNS ARE HURTING ME OMG

RebelVampire

math no

dont you dare get that song stuck in my head

Queen Brave Hikari of Memes

Imagine the hairballs tho

RebelVampire

welp its too late. this is my life now with songs in my head

QUESTION 4. Asher has one goal in this story: get back home to Earth. However, with so few people unaware of where Earth is, that’s going to be very difficult. Do you think Asher will succeed or will he be stuck in space forever? Even if he does succeed, do you think he’ll be able/willing to stay on Earth? What do you think his homecoming would be like, especially considering his newfound powers?

FONCreator

Mangojerry and a Rumpleteaser

I think he may succeed, but might be hard to stay there

may like staying in space

but if he stays on earth

Queen Brave Hikari of Memes

Same, he might get there, but it won't be peaceful yet, unless he comes back to earth by the end of the comic

FONCreator

FON meets Abducted winks

Queen Brave Hikari of Memes

if it happens during the middle of the comic, something terrible could have happened

mathtans

See, that's the tricky thing about this comic. Since it started on Earth, there's the feeling you have to get back to Earth eventually. At least to see his Dad. I don't think he'll be able to stay there though, like it'd be too dull.

Phenylketonurics

He could succeed, it'll be very hard to readjust himself, though. And he may prefer to stay in touch with the friends he makes from other parts of the universe but... yeah, I think he'd choose to live on earth.

RebelVampire

i really hope he doesnt decide to stay on earth. space so much cooler

Queen Brave Hikari of Memes

also, technically travelling, planet's time passes different than in the space

Phenylketonurics

As for homecoming, wwwoooooww, I can't even imagine that.

Queen Brave Hikari of Memes

Asher could have been lost for years by now(edited)

FONCreator

He may get home and its years in the future

dad could be old or dead

Phenylketonurics

I wonder if it'll be publicised at all or if, to make it easier on him, Cairo would downplay it lots?

Queen Brave Hikari of Memes

People could think he's dead

mathtans

Space very cool. No air in space. Freezing, in fact.

Phenylketonurics

GOHS YOU GUYS saying his family could be dead -- how long has he been away from earth so far???

Queen Brave Hikari of Memes

His dad could have gone insane looking for him

FONCreator

shrugs

Phenylketonurics

I just assumed it was like... a few weeks.

mathtans

There's relativity too though. You move away from Earth fast, then return, and hardly any time has passed for you but more time has passed on Earth. (I think that's how it works?)

Mharz of Angels & Punchy Ladies

oh their perception

can't say the same on earth

RebelVampire

i think one of the Q&As said hes been gone like 6 months

Queen Brave Hikari of Memes

"Abducted people" has said they felt it like for only minutes, but i fact happened way long ago

rip

Phenylketonurics

They travel through wormholes, right? I wonder if time travel is in the equation? Maybe they'll jsut transport him back the day he was ABDUCTED~!

RebelVampire

part of me wonders tho if asher returns to earth, maybe hell be caught by a government for science cause esper powers.(edited)

Queen Brave Hikari of Memes

i throw myself to the theory his dad went insane looking for him, I think he's a good dad who wouldn't rest until find his baby

RebelVampire

cant even spell things

Phenylketonurics

Nice and easy way to transition from being thrown through space and mixed up with so much craziness. And that would make his success in coming home kind of more self-satisfying than anything else.

mathtans

Brave: Maybe he thinks the bully ran away with him. Or maybe there were TV cameras on that street?

Mharz of Angels & Punchy Ladies

poor dad

napples

mathtans

(Hi napples...)

Queen Brave Hikari of Memes

Dad coudl think Asher was kidnapped by people, so yes

he could have taken a travel, looking for him

since police couldn't do anything and gave up

Mharz of Angels & Punchy Ladies

punches everyone he found suspicious

mathtans

Maybe Dr. Neils abducts the dad. So he's not dead or insane, just trapped offworld too.

Queen Brave Hikari of Memes

then Asher returns, and doesn't find his dad at home and gets sad

Phenylketonurics

POOR DAD NOOOO

Queen Brave Hikari of Memes

thinking his dad forgot about him

but dad is looking for him in the other side of the world

and Asher returns to space with Cairo

the adventure continues

breaths in

Phenylketonurics

;o; BRAVE THAT IS SO HEARTWARMING/BREAKING

Queen Brave Hikari of Memes

kill me

xD

FONCreator

yeeeeeeees

Mharz of Angels & Punchy Ladies

hmmm I wonder if that star wars scene in the first pages is foreshadowing?

mathtans

Or maybe Dad knew his wife was an alien all along. When Asher goes missing, he's like, "damn aliens come at last", and he finishes building his rocketship and goes into space after him.

FONCreator

ohyeee

He punches aliens in the face tooo

mathtans

Dad puuuuunch!

RebelVampire

what if his dad really does know about aliens and space tho

mathtans

That's why he taught those self defense techniques. To take out aliens with mobile genitals.

RebelVampire

is like some super cool space ranger

Mharz of Angels & Punchy Ladies

he's a boxing champ he can do it

mathtans

Or Dr Niels comes for him, and Dad punches the Doc out and takes his spaceship.

Queen Brave Hikari of Memes

Daddy appears in a super latex outfit: I CAME HERE FOR MY SON Asher: Dad omg I'm glad to see you and sickened at the same time

FONCreator

yee

mathtans

Hee!

FONCreator

Boxing dad in boxer briefs

RebelVampire

omg dr niel is like "Im here to kidnap you like i kidnapped your son and wait...why are you trying to punch me!?"

mathtans

Thing is, I don't feel like Asher has to necessarily get back to Earth then... but the Dad is a loose end otherwise.

Mharz of Angels & Punchy Ladies

dr niel confessed he's Asher's dad

mathtans

Time travelled from the future.

FONCreator

oh noooooooooooooooooOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Queen Brave Hikari of Memes

Dr Niel is still cucked lol

Mharz of Angels & Punchy Ladies

like I said that star wars playing while Asher was sleeping in the first pages might be foreshadowing of that

FONCreator

truetrue

mathtans

Mharz: OH! I forgot about that. Yes, the "I am your father" thing. (Is Dr. Niels his father??)

Mharz of Angels & Punchy Ladies

they did pick that specific scene between darth vader and luke

RebelVampire

its a possibility. thatd be some cool forshadowing

mathtans

Maybe Asher loses his hand.

Queen Brave Hikari of Memes

Asher, I'm your father

FONCreator

Yeah Mike did

so maybe he did that on purpose

Queen Brave Hikari of Memes

so then Asher will lose an arm?

can we make jokes about being unarmed?

RebelVampire

but to be fair, that is literally the most iconic star wars scene. so it couldve been picked just for the iconicness

Queen Brave Hikari of Memes

I'msorry

mathtans

He's 'armless.

Mharz of Angels & Punchy Ladies

robot arms... he can punch stornter now

ture

true

Mharz of Angels & Punchy Ladies

asher learns falcon punch

mathtans

Or for the "standing up to a bad guy" thing.

In space.

FONCreator

He makes a psychic arm

make it canon Mike

mathtans

I wonder how espers is ranked? Like, on the weight of stuff you can move? On the finesse? Are there tournaments? Seems like it's prevalent enough that there might be tournaments. Maybe Dr. Niels lures Asher out that way, like Robin Hood.

RebelVampire

do they even rank them tho?

FONCreator

There could be a cult too

mathtans

Dunno.

I theorize, not all theories have to be coherent.

Phenylketonurics

Math's theory is a very good theory

Queen Brave Hikari of Memes

it will be fun if one of our theories are true

RebelVampire

well i cant say i wouldnt like to see an esper tournament

cairo can enter him

be like earn us some cash bro

mathtans

I can see it.

Queen Brave Hikari of Memes

omg

FONCreator

yee

Queen Brave Hikari of Memes

yes

mathtans

Be like, "Make a name for youself, people will want to track down Earth for you." "But they might invade." "Details..."

FONCreator

xDD

RebelVampire

cairo makes him an elaborate intro speech where earth is like every other word

mathtans

"Earth makes the best calamari" "Don't tell the squid people that."

CairosImporters

Just finishing up at work. I'm excited to read throu all this

TheVoidchildProject

Late to the Tea Party! I loved Abducted and just wanted to quickly wake up and chime in (4 am over here O_o)!

mathtans

I wonder if there's any aliens out there who don't have bodies? Like, they're just energy or something.

TheVoidchildProject

Cairos!!

Mharz of Angels & Punchy Ladies

Asher ended up enjoying life in space

mathtans

Void: Oooh, good for you, so early!

FONCreator

well the owner of the theme park kinda has no body

Mharz of Angels & Punchy Ladies

and doesn't want to return enymore

Queen Brave Hikari of Memes

Asher makes his own alien family, screw Earth

and dad

Mharz of Angels & Punchy Ladies

with shea

LOL

mathtans

Kinda. But could still be hit. I'm thinking, how do you hit energy beings.

Queen Brave Hikari of Memes

yis

TheVoidchildProject

I was just going to commend all your awesome characters! Not just Asher and Cairo, you know how much I love poor Fin!

FONCreator

The possibilities of "hairstyles" with her species' tendrils

like dreads

TheVoidchildProject

Nothing like creating a muscle shark man who's also a bullying victim! Why didn't I think of that!

Mharz of Angels & Punchy Ladies

lol

mathtans

Finnnnnnnn! I say again, guy needs a new job with better coworkers.

Mharz of Angels & Punchy Ladies

adorable sharky is adorable

RebelVampire

he also needs a new shirt. that would also help

mathtans

It is a clever reversal.

TheVoidchildProject

I'm guessing he could probably put them down, but that's bullying for you! Brawn can't help you there necessarily. And that's why Fin is a great character!

I'm holding out hope that he'll join@the crew once he gets over his beef with Asher...

FONCreator

or at least be a source of intel

Mharz of Angels & Punchy Ladies

finn's just naturally a nice guy... and very sensitive

such precious sharky

Phenylketonurics

Finn definitely needs a new shirt, his pride is shattered without clean clothes~

mathtans

He's not that nice. Talking about locking people up for spilling hot sauce.

FONCreator

Shark's gotta work on his social cue

*cues

mathtans

Another reason he needs a new job, where he can't order stuff like that.

RebelVampire

idk if id call fin a naturally nice guy. nice guys dont beat up ppl who accidentally spill hot sauce on their shirts XD

Phenylketonurics

I WAS GONNA SAY. I'm not keen on him because of how short his temper is! But yeah, it could just be because he's had a tough time so far~

TheVoidchildProject

I'm also very curious what the building is towards with Asher's mum. I'm with ppl that it's probably esper stuff but I didn't necessarily think she was alien and sich.

mathtans

Fin can join the production of "Cats" on Cairo's home planet.

Mharz of Angels & Punchy Ladies

makes shark cats

TheVoidchildProject

Naw, but that short temper is because of the bullying (I'm guessing). He continues to pick on others since he's being picked on.

mathtans

Though it would also work if his coworkers finally respected him, though I'm not sure that'd happen.

Fin stars in the next Sharknado!

Mharz of Angels & Punchy Ladies

LOOOL

RebelVampire

maybe thats how fin and asher become friends. they fake a fight so fin looks like a badass who beat an esper

TheVoidchildProject

Plus, im@a sucker for a "villain" who shares similar traits as the protagonist.

FONCreator

yeeeee

mathtans

RebelV: Ooooh, I like that.

Phenylketonurics

VC, yes, that's what I was guessing, too. He just needs someone to help him curb that quick temper. Build that ego up, make him feel like a superstar. X]

Queen Brave Hikari of Memes

that would be cool twist

then Fin has to capture Asher

but he helps him get out

TheVoidchildProject

For sure Phen. It's a character with room to grow. Just like the main cast. That attention to character design is admirable!

mathtans

Maybe Fin meets the powered-up-bully (from what Doc Niels was doing), and learns how Asher really was bullied all the time.

TheVoidchildProject

makes for all allround more interesting character gallery. ^_^

mathtans

Yeah, good cast.

Phenylketonurics

IT IS, so many cool characters to learn from~! It was really impressive to see Asher's growth alongside Finn's -- I consider Finn an adult and yet Asher was schooling him on empathy, haha^^

RebelVampire

maybe powered up bully bullies fin. thus they have a common bully.

mathtans

Ooh, that's possible too.

TheVoidchildProject

Phew, well I gotta go back to sleep. Glad I at least got to chime in on this one. I might set some alarms for these in the future too! Hooray for Abducted and good night all. ^_^

FONCreator

nice talking to ya

mathtans

Sleep well!

RebelVampire

night~!

Queen Brave Hikari of Memes

night

Phenylketonurics

Have a good night, VC~!! Get lots good z's~

FONCreator

this was fun ^^

Mharz of Angels & Punchy Ladies

yay!

was able to catch up to it

RebelVampire

Unfortunately, the scheduled Comic Tea Party is now complete~! Thank you everyone so much for joining this week’s chat~! That being said, if you would like to continue discussing the comic, we encourage you to do so~! We want to give a big thank you to Mike Battle, as well, for volunteering ABDUCTED for our reading queue. If you liked the comic, please be sure to support Mike Battle’s efforts. If you have questions, concerns, or suggestions about CTP, please feel free to PM me, or e-mail me at RebelVampire@startfaire.com.

With that said, next week’s Comic Tea Party will focus on Centralia 2050 by Michelle. Please use this week to read as much of the comic as you would like. Hope to see you next Thursday (August 17th) from 5PM to 7PM PDT~! Until then~! @Michelle Comic: http://centralia2050.com/