#But that mostly applies to corals specifically

[meowmeowuchiha]

Consider: the sea anemones are attached to reefs and need to be in the ocean or they’ll die

Consider: the edo tensei Nidaime Mizukage could summon a clam in the middle of a goddamn desert and it was fine

Along with

Kisame has been shown to summon sharks on dry land, and the sharks are essentially in a mobile water prison

As well as

The summons in Naruto are canonically capable of incredibly bullshit things that ignore literally anything the actual animal is capable of

[civetfish]

Was gonna wait to post this outside of ko-fi until I posted the corresponding part of my fic BUT since that's on hold for a hot second I might as well do it now!

So much yapping under the cut because I can't help myself lol (Mostly just a stream of consciousness, so its kind of a word salad)

I like to think that colors can change in brightness, mix with others, and appear in certain areas/patterns to give a bit of complexity to the use of colors for communication.

Top left is pretty straightforward- yellow is fear. It's the full body "puffed up cat" kind of fear where it's the ony emotion being processed. A lingering anxiousness would be shown more like a general yellow centered around the chest, while the rest of their body remains the same color. Feelings like a slight nervousness (Like handling a delicate object with big crab-claws, for example) would be shown through a "rippling" wave of yellow overtop of whatever colors are already present, originating from the chest or hands. ((link) this is pretty close to what I imagine (If the link doesn't work, skip to about 2:10) Spooky ocean warning! though if you're seeing this post in the first place I assume you're probably fine with it )

Green is analytical - He does this a few times in-game, and it's what makes the most sense to me. I also like to think it's the reasoning behind a lot of the Architect's... well, architecture. Green is a really predominant color in all of the architect structures / data hubs / machines / etc., so in cultural sense it would make sense for the Architects to be using the color representing their core values. The light blue around his sides is amusement/joy. (I put a little bit of this into my first chapter iirc) This is also based pretty closely to what we see in-game. (I.e. the little wave he does back at Robin, it's silly and playful and I love it sm)

The gray/dull tones (bottom left) are just that- the "muting/dulling" of whatever color it's applied to. The Architect who kind of killed his entire species is a little depressed if you can believe it! A muted blue (indigo, rather than light blue) would be melancholy, and the yellow tint in there is stress/dread. A completely dim gray Architect is basically completely numb, which is distinct from the typical "resting color" that Architects have when not feeling any emotion in particular at a given moment.

Dark blue (Or indigo, bottom right) is sadness. It could also be read as a sense of longing or wistfulnes, or a lot of other nuanced feelings depending on other colors or context clues.

And of course magenta (bottom middle) and that coral-ish color are love, more or less. It's a sense of fondness and deep affection, though Al-an himself is probably under the impression it's more like a loyalty and protectiveness; I don't think he has any real experience with love considering what we know about the network.

The coral color in the center of his chest is something I'll dive into more when I get that chapter out, but I think of it as a flush/heat, like an Architect blush. Orange is added to colors to increase the intensity of the emotion underneath, such as the inclusion with magenta to mean flustered or to red to mean a more heated rage. An embarassed architect would be fully orange, possibly leaning a bit towards pink, red or yellow depending on the specific situation.

For an "emotionless peak of innovation and efficiency" I am determined to shove SO many feelings into this shrimp horse. This stream of word spaghetti will eventually get rewritten into a basic color code.

[thesimscurator]

Growing Together Update is Now Live!

The Growing Together update for my Career World save file is now live! Go to the original post to download it. I have updated all links in previous posts to redirect to the main save file post, so for future updates I only have to change the links in one place.

I'm sure you're interested to hear what's new, but first:

IMPORTANT: This iteration of the save file uses the updated version of Zerbu’s “More Icons” mod found on CurseForge, the new official hosting platform for sims mods. If you have the old version of the mod downloaded from Zerbu’s website, you will need to update to the one from Curseforge in order to avoid some icons appearing as placeholder llamacorns.

Now, on to what’s new:

Firstly, dang! That was a mammoth update! Not much of it will be immediately visible when you load up the save, because the features that came with Growing Together (and consequently, the content of this update) was mostly focused on the sims themselves rather than obvious things like architecture. But so much has changed for the sims! Here’s a rundown of all the stuff I did with every single household and sim in the save file:

Skin Details, Tooth Variety, and Medical Wearables: It didn’t seem fair to me that the only sims who get to look detailed and realistic should be the ones who shipped with Growing Together, so I went back and added freckles, moles, birthmarks, body scars, and stretch marks to all the previously-existing sims in patterns that I thought looked good and made sense (for example, the Ocean Lovers household has a number of body scars and bite marks from encounters with coral, sharks, and other sea life). Plus, I took the opportunity to add some tooth variety into the game. We have so many awesome, unique smiles available (especially with all the new child-specific ones introduced in this pack), that I thought it was a little silly to leave everyone who was made before tooth variety was introduced with the same perfectly-straight, perfectly-uniform teeth. And, with the new introduction of things like medical wearables and gender affirming wear, I have scattered a few of these new features around in ways that I thought made sense.

Deepened Personality: I have given every sim the new preferences about what kinds of sims and interactions they like or dislike, so now the compatability system will genuinely apply to everyone! By default, all the new pack did was randomize one preference per pre-existing sim, but with this update, all townies and existing playables have extensive preferences that will affect their compatability with others. Also, Growing Together’s new dynamic personality system inspired me to utilize several other in-game methods for deepening sims’ personalities that I had previously ignored. Alongside lifestyles, all pre-made sims now also have carefully selected bonus traits from the reward store (so you may hear some great stories or get some great kisses if you interact with the right sims!) and appropriate fears (loner sims tend to be afraid of crowded places, jealous sims are afraid of being cheated on, paranoid sims are afraid of nearly everything, etc.).

Family Dynamics and Family Photos: I have set family dynamics for all sims who are related to one another, including those who live in different households—plus I added a few family ties to the game (more on that below). I was also inspired by the new photo frames to take and display family photos for most households, some of which were helpfully supplied for me by the new Basement Treasures Kit. In many cases, this involved reverse engineering wedding photos for married couples, so enjoy the visual parade of all the different wedding venues available in this save file! The only married couples I did not do this for were those whose storylines had them getting married at much younger ages I didn’t feel like I could fudge—Blossom and Mary Greenberg, for example, are elders with an adult son, so I felt like they would have looked too different in their long-ago wedding photo for me to manage. In other cases, though, a simple one-outfit change in haircut and makeup did wonders to make the sims seem younger—the mohawk-and-mullet punk ironic anti-wedding of the younger Cletus and Faye Harris is a particular standout.

Career Outfits: In between the last update and this one, I was made aware that there is a cheat to modify career outfits! As this is a career-focused save file and I had to modify every single sim for this update anyway, I have fixed the randomly spawned career outfits that are an unfortunate side effect of choosing to go to rabbithole work in some work-from-home careers, and also made some sims’ career outfits more personal and specific. For example: now, instead of every single athlete going to work in a soccer/football uniform even if they are—say—a swimmer, they will be dressed in the appropriate gear for the specific sport they play. Sadly, the modify career outfit feature does not stick in the case of part-time careers for some reason, even though it does in the case of full-time careers. So despite my best efforts to get my elderly daycare workers to have a little dignity, they still go to work in a youth-culture hoodie and a backwards baseball cap. Sigh.

Population Characteristics: I had previously put plenty of thought into making the worlds different by doing world traits/challenges and careful N.A.P. selections, but other than giving everyone in Sulani a tan, I hadn’t really given unifying characteristics to their populations. Growing Together inspired me to do more of that by including “gossip” as one of the conversation topics a sim can like, which I thought paired excellently with Henford-on-Bagley’s reputation as a place with especially gossipy sims. So nearly all the residents of Henford-on-Bagley (including the special NPCs) now like gossip, the only exception being recent transplant Cecelia Kang, who hasn’t really learned the culture yet. Then, it occurred to me that I could do things like that for other populations, as well—some using the new features, and others using features already in the game that I hadn’t previously utilized fully. So without further ado, here are some of the new population characteristics:

Longtime residents of especially hot climates (Oasis Springs, Sulani, and StrangerVille) all have the “Heat Acclimation” rewards store trait. The only people in these areas who don’t are recent immigrants (the numerous recent college grads and retirees who flock to Oasis Springs, for example). Similarly, longtime residents of colder climates (Windenburg/Forgotten Hollow, Henford-on-Bagley, and Mt. Komorebi/Glimmerbrook) all have “Cold Acclimation.” The more serious forms of these traits I have reserved for occults—vampires are iceproof while mermaids are heatproof.

Tans for StrangerVille! Previously, only inhabitants of Sulani had tans. Now the sun has also kissed the desert-dwelling people of the rocks; though in a different way. While islanders pretty much all have tan lines corresponding to their swimwear, StrangerVillians mostly got incidental tans while working outside or in hot weather wear. Residents of StrangerVille also fall into one of two categories: the infected and the not infected. The not infected have developed an understandable fear of plants.

Brindleton Bay locals tend to like Pet Enthusiasts.

Del Sol Valley culture is known to reward Egotistical Sims with fame, so they must, on some level, like them.

Sulani already has a close-knit community feel with a drop-in culture (your neighbors will sometimes bring you extra food, etc.), so I decided to lean into this by making every sim in Ohan’ali Town a keyholder for every other household (except that the Fishy Roommates household don’t participate in this tradition—it’s part of what makes them fishy). So now, if you’re playing one of the pre-made Sulani families, your neighbors will pop by for impromptu game nights and other unplanned get-togethers. Plus, since Sulani is somewhat plagued by pirate ghosts from old shipwrecks, quite a few of the island locals are afraid of ghosts.

Evergreen Harbor/Moonwood Mill loves a Nature Enthusiast. They’ve seen first-hand the consequences of trashing nature, and they suck. Anyone whose life’s project is to restore and enjoy nature will be welcomed with open arms.

Mt. Komorebi/Glimmerbrook culture is unique, beautiful, rich, deep, and—as much as we might hate to admit it—judgy. Just about everyone in the mountain community, unless they have the “Self-Assured” trait or aren’t from the area originally, has a fear of being judged. Standards are high here, and the sims of this population expect themselves to live up to them. Since Mt. Komorebi is also a major sports tourism hub, the locals tend to like High Energy Sims—except for Shigeru Nishidake, who thinks all these damn tourists are ruining the place.

The residents of Henford-on-Bagley love to gossip.

Tartosa is understandably invested in making Romance Enthusiasts feel welcome, and most of the locals agree that love in all its forms (affection, flirtation, and physical intimacy) is a beautiful thing.

Copperdale prides itself on being a welcoming place for teens, and teens are notoriously out-of-control emotionally. The many teachers and staff who live here and serve as house monitors for Copperdale Boarding Academy understand, and are happy to relate closely to Pessimistic Sims and Emotional Decision-Makers.

Whew! That was a lot! The one thing I didn’t do for all sims (even though I wanted to) was adjust milestones. There was a bug in the game for the majority of time I was working on this update which reset milestones every time you switched households—which I obviously had to do a lot in order to do this update. The bug is fixed now, but wasn’t fixed in time for me to make that part of this go-around. Next time a pack adds features that require me to update every single household, I might make milestones a part of that update.

Now, other new stuff that doesn’t apply across the board:

San Sequoia Makeover: Growing Together did not come with any new careers, and the area (being primarily a suburb) screams residential, not industry. So, instead of wracking my brain for what careers could be particular to San Sequoia, I have decided to treat the new world as the suburb right at the doorstep of San Myshuno—or in other words, make it part of San Myshuno for the purposes of my design choices, plus the Career Challenge and its residency rules. However, I did manage to sneak a few active work spaces into my revamp of the world:

If you make it high enough in the Babysitting part-time career and become a Daycare Worker, there is now an active version of The Munchkin Menagerie’s Holding Hands Daycare Center (“The Munchkin Menagerie” for short)! Doing an active workday there is slightly tricky, but can be done. Since infants and toddlers can’t be added to clubs, the associated club is for the daycare workers only, and mostly exists so that you can lock and unlock doors to keep your charges in specific areas at different times throughout the day. There is also no “take care of kids” club activity, so while the other members of the club will cook, clean, and repair things, the actual childcare part is completely up to your active sim. In order to get the kids to the lot, you will have to take the time to go around and introduce yourself to all the infants and toddlers you want to watch during your active workday (Elinor Sullivan starts as a daycare worker who already knows a bunch, if you want to just dive right in with her). Then you just head to the daycare center with those sims (or choose “invite to hangout at current lot” from the relationship panel once you’re there) and viola! You can have an active workday caring for infants and toddlers. There is, unfortunately, no way to send them home from a community lot, so just leave when you’re done for the day—the other daycare workers will see them safely home. The lot type for the daycare center is set to Community Space, mainly because this lot type spawns the least randos while still allowing club gatherings. I don’t recommend changing it to any of the other built-in venue types unless you want it overrun with community members who really have no business being there.

Yoga instructors have great spaces to teach both indoors at the rec center and outdoors in Gilbert Gardens. Just throw the portable instructor’s mat in your inventory, pick a beautiful spot, and you’re off!

Professional Athletes who specialize in basketball now have an indoor court at the rec center (in addition to the various outdoor courts they already had in San Myshuno proper).

Painters and Freelance Artists who have the ability to mentor may enjoy going to the rec center to “teach an art class” by mentoring the sims who show up to do art. Musicians and Personal Trainers can also do this (though it won’t help with the “mentor sims at a gym” work task, since the rec center does not count as a gym).

Street artists can hawk their paintings at the art sales wall I have added by the standing piano in Anchorpoint Wharf.

Buskers now have a busking station on the formerly-useless dock area in Hopewell Hills. Plus I added a kids’ lemonade stand (functional for drinking lemonade, though not for selling), some counters with an ice cream maker, a table you can actually sit at, a meditation stool, a yoga mat, and an art easel, so there’s actually, you know, a reason to go there.

A credits map for San Sequoia will be going up within the next few days.

New Clubs: I added a bunch of new clubs, mostly community classes at the Rec Center, but also some that were simply inspired by Growing Together and the infant update, particularly the New Parents’ Support Group. Go check them out!

New Connections: Since family reunions are a new thing with Growing Together, and they’re frankly more fun to play if your sims have big extended families spread across several households, I have linked some of the pre-existing Maxis families with new family relationships for this version of the save file. I finally put something together: Spencer is the last name of Dennis Kim’s ex-wife (Alice Spencer-Kim’s mother) and also of Francine Spencer, matriarch of the Harris family—plus Francine Spencer and Alice Spencer-Kim have very similar body types and facial structures. So I decided to make Francine Spencer into the missing ex-wife/mother, meaning that the “Multigenerational Family” household in Newcrest and the “Food Salvagers” household in Evergreen Harbor are now estranged branches of the same family. And then I thought: why stop there? Francine Spencer also looks a great deal like Jaques Villareal, and their sons (Cletus Harris and Hugo Villareal, respectively) are the spitting image of one another. So I also made Francine Spencer and Jaques Villareal siblings (I presume half, since their surnames and native languages are different), so now the “Retired Mob Boss & Kids” household in Tartosa is also in the mix. Will all these disparate branches of Francine Spencer’s broken family reunite at a family reunion one day, allowing long-lost siblings and cousins to finally meet? Up to you!

A New Sim: Sunny Retirement Village in Oasis Springs has a new resident! Sebastian Michaelson, father of Celeste Michaelson, has moved into one of the nice trailers alongside Blossom and Mary Greenburg, who have connected over their families’ respective adoption stories.

A New Occult: I realized there was one playable occult type I forgot to include in previous versions of the save file: servo! So I had Cameron Fletcher make one for the FutureSim Employees household. Mr. Roboto is now the official service bot for the whole employee housing complex.

Updates to Public Areas: A few places have been updated with new features and gameplay items that came with Growing Together:

SimCinema City in downtown Del Sol Valley has some new competition! A new, modern movie theater has sprung up at the end of Starlight Boulevard for the sims who would rather be transported to an alternate dimension by new releases than enjoy classic movies in a quaint golden age relic. They have to participate in a scavenger hunt to get in, though (the place has hipster speakeasy pretensions), so you may see them wandering off in random directions before the movie starts.

The Mesa National Park Museum of Natural History in StrangerVille finally clued in that the only people coming to see its cheesy dinosaur displays were families with children who were obsessed with dinosaurs, so it decided to embrace its key clientele by re-branding as a children’s museum! There are now kid-specific activities on every floor, including a stunning interactive fake tree display with treehouse that is now the centerpiece of the museum. Younger siblings are welcome, as well, with new high chairs in the cafe, changing tables and toddler potties in the bathroom, a special nap and play space in what used to be the children’s corner, and of course a toddler jungle gym outside on which to play space explorer. This place might have been boring before, but it’s now the primo family destination in StrangerVille!

Conifer Station, Evergreen Harbor’s steampunk downtown area, had—against all the soundest advice—tried to turn an old water treatment plant into a library, insisting that books and water could exist side-by-side. Not so. A serious mold epidemic destroyed the entire collection. So, the residents of Conifer Station have decided to admit defeat and leave the book business to the much better equipped library just up the mountain in Moonwood Mill. For the next incarnation of the waterworks, they decided to embrace the water instead of fighting it and turned the place into an indoor water park celebrating the Sound’s beloved and iconic orca population. Of course, that comes with its own drawbacks, and the number of people who have become ill after playing there has created serious community demand for someone to come up with a plan to address contamination in the water supply…

The massive children’s space in the Uptown Branch Library has been updated to be more infant-friendly. Play mats, new changing tables in the bathrooms, and “Reading is fun!” decals abound!

A New Season: All this updating took me straight into the middle of winter, so since the save file now starts in the middle of winter I have updated some of the variable lots to their winter variants accordingly. If you go to a variable lot (or prom) and find yourself overwhelmed with paper snowflakes, that’s why. All are easy to change back once the season changes; just vote the variable lots into the state you prefer and download your preferred prom off the gallery using the hashtag #careerworld.

Have fun with the new update! I think it adds a lot of depth, and I hope you’ll enjoy!

[quirkwizard]

What are 5 to 10 Quirks that would be good for characters based on the Support category in Overwatch? Doesn't need to necessarily be Healing, could also be improving Ally abilities or making conditions better for Allies, like that Love Quirk does.

I’ve briefly talked about other support Quirks before, but I could talk about a few more. For the sake of this, I’m focusing more on mostly supportive abilities with high reliability. For example, “Doorway” can be super useful in support, but that’s not exactly the main draw of it. “Tearjerker” is a super powerful healing ability, but it has a very specific condition to activate.

Sun Kissed: If we’re talking about pure healing abilities, this is probably one of the stronger ones and more reliable ones. All the user needs is sunlight to fuel the power and they can fix there allies up without an issue.

Pixies: This works as a support it two different, but helpful ways. One is by making attacks easier to land by attracting attention to the target and the second is by letting the user know about the general condition of their allies.

Reef: This works to be defend allies and help them get around, spreading out coral in order to block attacks before they can hit someone or massively alter the terrain of the battlefield to give their allies the advantage.

Toxicant: This one is a lot more niche in support, but really good to have around when you need it. Since it works on any kind of toxics, the user can undo infections and other foreign bodies from someone.

Blood Flow: With but a single poke, the user can empower their allies in a variety of short lived ways, like making them faster or making them stronger. If nothing else, it can work to disable enemies before they attack.

Ambiance: Not only can the user survey a wide area around them, letting them map out an area before, but can also help the user keep up with what their enemies are doing, letting them protect their allies from attacks before they even happen by keeping track of any would be opponents.

Branch Off: This works great in helping people stay calm and improve their decision making abilities. I know that seems like basic ability, but in a stressful world of superpowers where life or death decisions happen every day, helping your friends stay focused can be a life saver.

Fruition: This one can help both on and off the battlefield as it can cover a lot of the support options a hero may need. Either the user can help restore stamina after a fight or they can empower their allies with stronger fruits, giving them massive physical boosts when they need them.

Fix Up: This works as a more rescue oriented support tool, but it can help to clean up the battlefield and make it easier to fight on by undoing damages, making it less risky for their allies to fight. It can even be used to make repairs in the middle of a fight like with support equipment or costumes.

Concocted: As I mentioned before, this is a lot like a support oriented “Manifest”, taking whatever the user eats and turning those into potions they can use. It’s probably the most varied in terms of what the user can apply, from temporary enhancements for a fight to drinks to help them heal up.

[darkx-the-dragon-kn1ght]

Chapter 11- Part 1

So, this is where we left off- everything looks perfectly normal right now, yeah? Well, random little tangent here, let’s just take a look at the Trainer card, for no particular reason-

Oh? What is that I see? A different name for the player avatar? No longer my name, but the name I gave to the character?

Yeah, so- as alluded to in the last chapter, I was really itching to change the in-game name to…well, Xera’s name. And with some information given to me by a reader (information that I was able to confirm for myself with a quick Google search), I was able to figure out a way to do exactly that! Xera’s name is now real, and will remain that way for the rest of the game! How did I do this?

…I don’t think I’m legally allowed to say, just look it up for yourselves.

There is one caveat to this, though. Apparently, changing the name in this way doesn’t change the OT tags on the Pokémon that were caught beforehand. For example, Riptide:

But I think the name change will apply to all Pokémon caught after the change? Not that it matters much to me either way- I don’t typically pay attention to the OT tags unless they’re specifically something different in an interesting way (like whatever Bloom’s deal with Sweet Co. is).

Anyways, now let’s get into my plan for this session. This part is going to be mostly housekeeping things- wrapping up some sidequests and events in Obsidia and Coral Wards before we head into Onyx Ward. You know all that stuff I did in Peridot Ward before challenging Julia? Same situation here- and just like last time, I did some looking-into with the events and such, but once again, only enough to have a basic understanding of what to do. Besides, some of them I was already well aware of- for example, the Egg!

As you can see, I’ve put Prong in the Box for the time being to have the Egg in the party. Without a Pokémon with Flame Body (or other such Abilities that can speed up the hatching process), we’ll be going the full Egg cycle for this- and since I don’t know what Pokémon this will be, I don’t know how many steps this will take, so it’s better to be safe than sorry and have it in the party while we walk around.

So now, the most obvious quests to take care of are the two trades- the Nosepass and the “tablecloth.” And that means we need Sentret/Furret and Patrat/Watchog!

Hello again, Obsidia Park. A newly-opened area with some newly-available Pokémon- including one we need right now!

Boom, Sentret! This’ll be easy enough with Whiskers- Disarming Voice to lower its health, put to sleep, then profit.

“Scout” seemed too obvious, so “Watcher” felt like a fitting alternative.

Next up, Patrat, and like I said in the past, I already know where to find one.

Welcome back to Opal Ward! C’MERE-

It’s an early-game rodent Pokémon, only Lv. 4, and with Sleep- I don’t even think we need to lower its HP for this to work.

Huh- I never noticed that Sentret and Patrat have the same category. Well, now I definitely can’t name this guy “Scout” either.

There we go, “Vigil” works just as nicely!

So now, the party looks like this:

And now, since we still have a surplus of Exp. Candies, we can speedrun leveling these two up to evolution!

Long girl!!

And tall bo- actually, I thought Watchog was taller than that, hm.

Well, regardless, let’s get to trading! First, let’s go back to the one house to trade Watcher-

Oh, it was a Castform! I knew it! …Wait, Castform still doesn’t look like a tablecloth in any of its form, it always has like a…cloud-like appearance to it.

No worries, Xera will appreciate it more than you ever did- but at least she and her dad gave it a good name, “Meteo.”

And of course, PokéDex entry, for the fun of it-

Next

[firstlong]

Coral cactus

Keep the soil mostly saturated for the first month, before following the phrase 'drenches between droughts' again. Alternatively, if only the base begins to rot, remove the scion (coloured top) and place it a quarter into a fresh batch of 'Cactus' labelled compost. If the base of the plant ( Euphorbia lactea) begins to rot as well, discard the whole specimen. If the roots sport a yellow tinge, you're good to go, but if they're brown and mushy, action must be taken immediately. Take the plant out of the pot and inspect the roots as they'll tell a lot about the plant's wellbeing. If the coloured top begins to brown and rot, it's most likely to do with too saturated soil or waterlogged conditions. Although a 'Houseplant' fertiliser will still do the job, we'd recommend using a specific 'Cactus' labelled feed as it'll support the vital thirteen nutrients that this species will need to grow. This is not a necessity however, a quick hose down from time to time will hydrate the leaves and wash away dust or potential pests.įertilise every two months during the growing period and every three months in the autumn & winter during its dormancy period. The differences between under and over-watering can be very similar, with a rotten root ball being the obvious difference. Over-watering symptoms include a weakened or rotten stem, no new growth, yellowing lower leaves and eventual plant death. Remember, the brighter the location, the more watering you'll need to do. These issues are usually caused by too much light/heat or forgetfulness. Under-watering symptoms include shrivelled or leggy leaves, yellowing, little to no growth and dry, crispy patches forming on the leaf edges. Allow all of the soil to thoroughly dry out in between waters in the growing period, reducing this even further in the autumn and winter. Not only will continuous soil moisture ruin their root systems, but it'll also increase the risk of 'basal rot' which essentially will destroy the plant from its centre. The ukhouseplants saying of 'drenches between droughts' strongly applies to Coral Cacti. The maximum amount of sunlight for this plant is around four hours a day. Remember to keep the specimen well hydrated during this period, and always abort the experiment if it shows signs of sun-scorch. The plant will slowly decease the production of chlorophyll, which in turn will reduce the risk of bleaching and sun-scorch. Each week, increase the amount of light by an hour, starting with just an hour of morning sunlight to gain its momentum. If you have recently bought your Coral Cacti, it can be trained to tolerate harsher levels of sunlight than most houseplants, by gently increasing the number of hours in the sun over the oncoming month. Due to the species' intolerance to low light, avoid placing one in areas where a newspaper can’t be read without the use of artificial light. A few hours of off-peak sunlight will be highly beneficial for the plant, as it’ll significantly reduce the risk of over-watering and root rot. Keep an eye out for Mealybugs & Scale that'll hide in the plant's cubbyholes.Īs mentioned above, Coral Cacti are best located in a bright location that boasts high temperatures in the spring and summer.Repot every three to four years during the spring, using a 'Cactus & Succulent' labelled potting mix.Fertilise every two or three months using either a 'Cactus' or 'Houseplant' labelled feed.Coral Cacti must endure periods of droughts between waters - if you're stuck with when to water it, think of the ukhouseplants ' phrase of 'Drenches Between Droughts'.Those bought in winter are okay to be placed in all-day sunlight as the natural rays are weaker during the shorter days. Recently purchased specimens may need to build up their tolerance and exposure to the sun over the course of the next eight weeks, if it's been purchased in the summer.Exposure to either morning or evening sunlight is key for good, quality growth.Need the answer to a specific plant query? Book a 1-to-1 video call with Joe Bagley, the website's friendly author, to overcome and address your niggling problem! Available on iMessage, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger & more. Origins, Temperature, Propagation, Repotting & Toxicity.Location, Water, Humidity & Fertilisation.This product is actually grafted, with the coloured top being a crested Opuntia and the rootstock (or basal plant) being a Euphorbia lactea or Selenicereus undatus.

[tarotnoob]

PAC: Pick a Jungkookie - What’s your karma lookin’ like?

Happy birthdaaay, JK! 

So, I’d like to look at the story of your karma, whether it’s about upcoming abundance or maybe past life stuff or bad karma, who knows. Please pick a Jungkook and scroll to your pile :)

Pile 1

So, in terms of karma, I see a lot of things coming your way in the future, but it appears that first there’s some sort of “test” you may have to pass regarding a decision. I think it could be about work or studies, but I think it’s more spiritual as a lot of these cards are about confidence, boldness, being independent financially, having a glow-up (physical/spiritual). I do feel like you’re super busy now or juggling a lot of stuff that could be a bit stressful, you might be wondering if you’re good enough for something that you’re trying to get into or applying for. But, I think once this personal issue calms down and gets resolved or you make some type of decision, you’re going to feel a lot more confident.

If there has been any kind of issues it might also have to do with relationships or friendship circles. I think part of the good karma coming in for this pile is a much better social circle. Coral’s wisdom, friends, and healing all have this vibe of a soul tribe, and finding healing through making certain connections with others. Coral’s wisdom makes me think of a community of coral growing together and being connected, but that card is also about protecting valuable resources and how harvesting coral can mess up the ecosystem - so it’s like there’s this deeper message with the “you are good enough” that you deserve to be a part of whatever it is that you are trying to work your way up to. Maybe the personal issue revolves around not feeling like you belong or deserve it.

Besides finding healing through connections with people who may have shared similar experiences (of healing), I think any good karma coming your way is coming from the time you’ve put into healing yourself, trying to do the inner work, trying to put yourself back together, trying to build up a sense of self-worth. The two of pentacles makes me feel it’s been kind of an up and down situation where you put effort in and then maybe you slip back into thinking negatively - so perhaps some advice is to make sure you’re surrounding yourself with high-level, charismatic or inspiring friends who hype you up and make you feel good about yourself. I definitely see you as having other friends who have interest in spirituality and you’ll receive a lot of healing through having conversations with those types of friends. Once you get past that hurdle of not quite feeling like you’re there in terms of self confidence, there are big things available to you, especially if you are in some type of creative field. Or, maybe some of you do some kind of performance art like theater or music, because it’s like you have big dreams of doing something in the “light” - but there’s just this topsy turvy thing going on with your confidence...

Anyway, since we’re talking about karma, I think as you gain more confidence in yourself, you will be attracting friends and connections that will end up being extremely important, may even open up other opportunities for you, but mostly I see a support system coming in for you and you become as integral to them as they are to you where if one of you leaves, it’s like the whole balance gets thrown off... and this could also mean something to someone else in a specific way because in these oracle cards I have an image of... someone who is important to some type of community and if they were to leave or go missing, that it would upset a lot of things. Like, to me that could maybe be for a couple of you if you’ve had severe depression and need to hear a message validating that your life on this earth is meaningful and if you disappear, then things ARE going to fall apart in the same way that if someone comes in and steals a bunch of coral, it affects that whole community in the ocean, there’s a ripple effect. That analogy could probably fit in a couple ways for people who aren’t feeling like they belong or deserve something when, in fact, they do - or maybe the story of your karma in this lifetime is to realize the value of your life, and that everyone has a reason for being here; so a life lesson about learning the value of... your self worth. There are some 2′s here so this could be a warning about karmic relationships, as well, where you might have to learn about boundaries and how to respect yourself, put yourself first, being careful about who you let into your social circle, life lessons that come through bad friendships, etc... It’s like there’s a point where you’re uncertain or not on that path and then after that event, you might have to heal and rebuild yourself and teach yourself self worth.... 

---

Pile 2

This gives me the impression of someone who’s been “struggling” or working on something for a long time and been forced to be very strong. You might be reprogramming a way of thinking or communicating, too. This could be about someone who’s been trying to learn how to speak up for themselves. But, with hope, endurance and resilient - these are all pretty similar and about motivating someone toward a goal or journey, and probably one that’s been pretty long. Especially with the six of cups and Temperance here. This could be an issue you’ve had to work on since childhood, it could also have to deal with home life.

I get the feeling you haven’t quite reached your end goal, whatever that may be. For some of you life may have felt like you were constantly having to swim against a current, maybe there were lots of obstacles in your way to something you wanted. Maybe things you’ve tried haven’t worked out and, it seems to me, that you did try to keep going despite all of that. In terms of your reward for being persistent and enduring... - like pile 1, I see attracting better relationships. I don’t know if it will call in a soulmate, but Endurance and the Gemini card feel connected to me since it looks like two twins. But sure for some of you this could all add up to you receiving the soulmate you’ve always wanted and waiting for that right person. I guess good karma could result in that ideal relationship. It also feels like someone trying to overcome severe social anxieties, too? But I think with the hope card, she can see the rainbow in the distance and maybe she’s waiting for the people on that ship to come in so she can meet a new person or maybe someone’s goal will involve taking off to new destinations. It does have a bit of energy of Pile 1 as I also thought their karma involved building a network of important people, but that was more a community or a friend group and this could have more romantic undertones, which is often the case with pile 2 since 2 is the number of relationships.

In terms of the story from the tarot... it looks like some healing from a past event in which you might have had to stand your ground or defend yourself, possibly while living at home or maybe a karmic relationship. Something about this past situation would have been poisonous, maybe you felt before that you weren’t allowed to say what you thought or maybe you didn’t know how to say something... when I see the vampires even though it’s four of wands, they could have been people who drained you of your energy, made you feel defensive - but for the most part I feel this is well within the past...

Even though my impression really is more of some type of soulmate, it could also be the rewards of your effort regarding any goal, especially if you have an interest in writing or psychology... any fields that have to do with communication or careers associated with Gemini. I don’t see a lot to indicate here this is about careers, though... there may be advice in here to urge you that if you need to heal something from your past and the best way to do that would be through writing, journaling, talking to someone about it. New Moon is about the start of a new cycle, so I feel like “communication is key” might be relevant advice for anything going on right now that involves having to put a lot of energy into it - anything where it feels like you have been working on this for AAAAGES... and I think the end game is within sight... so perhaps getting to the finish line will involve some type of communication or an adjustment to the way you’re thinking in case you were considering giving up or losing hope. I can tell you’ve been waiting for a while... keep hope, stay strong...

---

Pile 3

Pretty straightforward. I think sacrifice and south node and waning moon all talk about the things from the past that you need to let go of in order to move forward and then once you let go of it, never looking back. Abundance and the return of aphrodite feel like getting the Empress twice, so I do see abundance coming in the form of money, physical glow ups/beauty, the birth of creative endeavors, children and a family if you want that, love in general - more of a life with a sense of peace, too. This might be the only pile I’ve felt like we could talk about past life because I also see the mention of “roots” and the past and maybe there are some issues about generational curses... 

It’s fun that aphrodite has a key and the treasure is in a chest, so I suppose there’s some type of “key” you’ll have to find in order to release all of this abundance, but like I said, seems about letting go of past attachments that you’ve outgrown.

And the tarot also contains Empress, haha, so there’s a lot of abundance coming for this pile, especially when it comes to emotional happiness since you have the 10 of cups, also can indicate love and family as being part of that package. King of Cups just makes me imagine someone who’s at the point where they’re completely in control of their emotional state, they feel good about themselves, have a healthy amount of self worth, having a really healthy body image, feeling comfortable in your own skin and who you are.

I also see with south node and making sure to push yourself out of your comfort zone. To be honest, this is a pretty typical spiritual pile of someone who finds alignment and goes on that spiritual path that eventually leads to a healthy inner balance and then when you start feeling good about yourself and stop focusing on things from the past, you start manifesting everything you want - love, money, happiness. And also maybe focus on your root chakra, keep yourself grounded in the present. And yeah it’s possible you brought karma with you from a previous life, which - if you work through it in this one - looks like you’re going to hit the jackpot x 3. And you should be - if you aren’t already - be seeing yourself manifesting things already!

[elaho]

Hale’s Hair- Guest and Festival Edition

More hair! :D

This time, I decided to play around with Hale’s hair for more formal occasions, such as visiting other nations or festivals in the water village.

Some important info: Due to Island Law (“The Law of Elemental Separation”), no one can wear less than 60% of their elementally associated colour; because of this, guest outfits and accessories are limited compared to what other village members might wear at the same event or festivals. However, there is still a degree of flexibility with this depending on the specific elemental-religious beliefs of each nation.

Top Row (from left to right):

Earth Village: Generally strict when it comes to the Law, colours in the Earth Village mostly stay in the monochromatic range with some chroma variations (ex. deep blue to light turquoise). Here, Hale’s hair is highly perfumed, styled, and decorated the way a water-villager would be as an honoured guest of the noble class. A quartz tiara points to the earth above (stalagmites); gem/crystal hair casings point to the ground below (stalactites), and glowing threads for the water than runs through the earth.

Stone Village: More practical in nature (and flexible when it comes to colour), the stone village focuses more on function than form. Because of this, hair styling isn’t considered super important to Stone-Aesthetic, and visitors like Hale would be given a multi-functional blanket-shawl instead. During the day, the shawl acts as a veil to keep the head cool and face out of the sun, and at night is wrapped as a cloak to keep the body warm. Gold chains are worn during festivals and special occasions, but stone pendants and headband are always worn to help keep the shawl in place.

Ice Village: Generally unconcerned with visitor range of colour, the only condition of the Ice Village is guests must not wear any kind of white, grey, and any other neutral/natural tones in their territory. This is because (according to ice village belief) visitors are more susceptible to getting lost, injured, or preyed upon within the region, and to make it easier to find/ keep track of/retrieve them, all clothing within the ice village’s territory must be as bright or fluorescent as possible.

Air Village: The most culturally inclusive of all the island nations, the Air Village believes than ‘all nations breathe the same air’, and their practices are generally open to everyone on the island. Most events, activities, and celebrations can be attended by anyone, and it’s very common to see air villagers decorate their friends’ hair with Air-Style beads, braids, and twists (with the exception of military and high rank/class styles). Face painting styles are also freely shared, although the Laws regarding colour balance sometimes impacts the application.

Fire Village: Formal and traditional, the Laws surrounding colour is strictly held by the Fire Village, though some exceptions are made for practical reasons. Here, Hale’s hair is in the traditional ‘shield style’ (three dreadlocks pulled back off the face), decorated with old blue electrical cables. Her forehead bears the ‘Heat-Shield Sigil’, a magical sign representing protection from extreme heat (more on this later). To compensate for the red colour of the sigil, blue makeup and face paint is applied around the eyes to balance the colour ratio. Bottom Row (from left to right):

Hair Flower: A simple flower behind the ear. This is worn during casual events or light festivals and receiving one (as a guest) is a sign of warmth and friendship among the water villagers. Flower types vary depending on each region (more on this later), but each water villager will wear the same kind of flower at events.

Mask: Masks have a different meaning and purpose in this project, and the design of Hale’s mask needed to change to better suit this (and because of Lego’s copyright on the original). On the island there are several different masks for various purposes (religious, historical, ceremonial, battle, everyday, PPE, etc.), but this one is Hale’s personal mask that she would wear for everything. It has no pre-designated power and no prehistoric (pre-island) significance, it merely represents Hale as a person. When worn, the mask magically ‘connects’ with the bio-mechanism within her body and self-suspends on the face, glowing with a yellow-white light. (More on this later.)

High Festival Hair: For very special celebrations or high festivals, water villagers will adorn themselves with all different kinds of aquatic décor. Pearls, shells, corals, seaweeds, grasses, braids, and blue lipstick/makeup are all very common, but shell tiaras are the most treasured accessory of any Toronaiga (‘water villager’). Here, Hale’s hair is worn up with a wrapped braid and shell tiara. On the back of the tiara is a long macramé and seaweed veil, meant to imitate and represent long flowing hair-- and the wearer’s connection to the water.

Sports Competition Hair: Unlike the ‘Sports Practice Style’, Hale’s front hair pieces are braided and connected to each other behind the neck, not loose in front. During practice, long flowing pieces hair serve as a ‘necessary distraction’ to help players learn focus and flexibility in less-than-perfect conditions (hair getting in the face, mouth, etc.) But, during competition, this helps keep hair out of the way so players can have heightened game focus. Both hairstyle and face paint designs are used to represent the individual and their connections within the team/tribe, boosting morale during competitions.

[sanstropfremir]

ok this took way longer than i expected because i got sidetracked looking at paintings and reading poetry and just admiring the mv, but it's finally finished!! let's talk about

higher

✨

i'm going to draw your attention to a few things.

firstly, these verses from rime of the ancient mariner by samuel taylor coleridge, published 1834:

The harbour-bay was clear as glass,

So smoothly it was strewn!

And on the bay the moonlight lay,

And the shadow of the Moon.

The rock shone bright, the kirk no less,

That stands above the rock:

The moonlight steeped in silentness

The steady weathercock.

And the bay was white with silent light,

Till rising from the same,

Full many shapes, that shadows were,

In crimson colours came.

A little distance from the prow

Those crimson shadows were:

I turned my eyes upon the deck—

Oh, Christ! what saw I there!

Each corse lay flat, lifeless and flat,

And, by the holy rood!

A man all light, a seraph-man,

On every corse there stood.

This seraph-band, each waved his hand:

It was a heavenly sight!

They stood as signals to the land,

Each one a lovely light;

This seraph-band, each waved his hand,

No voice did they impart—

No voice; but oh! the silence sank

Like music on my heart.

secondly, this ivan aivazovsky painting, chaos (the creation), c. 1841:

and thirdly, the memorial of percy shelley, who drowned in a boating accident at age 29, in 1822:

there's a common conflation between the romantic and the pastoral in the general cultural consensus because the pastoral a) has been around as an art term longer than romantic, and b) romanticism does use some similar imagery. but there is a key difference: the pastoral is specfically an idealization of 'the simple shepherding life,' often for high class and urban audiences who have no conception of the details of this life includes. one of the more famous examples is christopher marlowe's a passionate shepherd to his love, published in 1599:

Come live with me and be my love,

And we will all the pleasures prove,

That Valleys, groves, hills, and fields,

Woods, or steepy mountain yields.

And we will sit upon the Rocks,

Seeing the Shepherds feed their flocks,

By shallow Rivers to whose falls

Melodious birds sing Madrigals.

And I will make thee beds of Roses

And a thousand fragrant posies,

A cap of flowers, and a kirtle

Embroidered all with leaves of Myrtle;

A gown made of the finest wool

Which from our pretty Lambs we pull;

Fair lined slippers for the cold,

With buckles of the purest gold;

A belt of straw and Ivy buds,

With Coral clasps and Amber studs:

And if these pleasures may thee move,

Come live with me, and be my love.

The Shepherds’ Swains shall dance and sing

For thy delight each May-morning:

If these delights thy mind may move,

Then live with me, and be my love.

whereas romanticism is a more pointedly specific movement that was active from around 1800 to 1850, primarily focused on intense emotion and catharsis as the primary experiential output of an artwork. which most prominently manifested in a deep fascination and glorification of the natural environment and historical nostalgia. the movement sprung from the german sturm und drang (literally storm and drive/stress) period of the late 1760s to early 1780s, which was a direct reaction to rationalism and enlightenment. romanticism had similar impulses; it was also a revival of medievalism and a reaction against the looming urban sprawl and mechanization of the industrial revolution. a typical romantic poem from one of the originators of the english movment william wordsworth, composed upon westminster bridge, september 3, 1802, originally published 1807:

Earth has not any thing to show more fair:

Dull would he be of soul who could pass by

A sight so touching in its majesty:

This City now doth, like a garment, wear

The beauty of the morning; silent, bare,

Ships, towers, domes, theatres, and temples lie

Open unto the fields, and to the sky;

All bright and glittering in the smokeless air.

Never did sun more beautifully steep

In his first splendour, valley, rock, or hill;

Ne'er saw I, never felt, a calm so deep!

The river glideth at his own sweet will:

Dear God! the very houses seem asleep;

And all that mighty heart is lying still!

this romantic fascination with nature was underpinned by the philosophy of the sublime, generally agreed to be first treatised by edmund burke in 1756, the theory was also written about by kant and hegel. in the simplest of terms, the sublime is a quality of greatness beyond calculation, imitation, and human comprehension. the sublime is twofold; the greatness of the ocean is beautiful, but its power is also terrifying, and the experience of the sublime is to feel those two at once. to be in awe and also to be horrified of its ability to sink ships and drown a life in a tempermental change of tide.

let's take a quick detour to talk about

clothing

in the present day we have become much more lax thanks to the aesthetic movement in the late nineteenth century, but back in the early victorian period there are still highly structured rules about when and what clothing one can wear in public. and the clothing itself is also highly structured. anyone with a passing understanding of the victorian era knows about the whole flashing of the ankle thing and corsets galore, and it is true that the general day to day garments cover a lot of area. for men in particular, this manifests in no less than three layers in public at all times: shirt, waistcoat, and suit jacket, with a coat or mantle overtop in colder temperatures. this also includes a variation of a neck tie (depending on what year), hat, gloves, and any other decided upon accessories (this can also include a corset and other padded structural underpinnings). an important tangent to mention here is that this is the uniform of the upper classes, although the rules do apply to the lower classes if they wanted to appear 'sophisticated.' the working man's uniform was also shirt, waistcoat, trousers, but the difference here is in the textiles themselves; the colours tended to be much more drab, with less complicated patterns. obviously due to the price fabric itself, but also due to the labour of laundry. an indicator of class here is the white shirt itself and its pristine implications. (there is a longer conversation here about the invention of neckties and detachable collars and cuffs, but that's for another day). the silhouettes are very important to note here in the higher mv, as they are directly referential to the 'romantic poet' archetype of loose shirt and tight pants that we see in popular culture. but as i've just said, the reality is that men of the era were not dressed like this out in public. this look is essentially underwear; the implications are salacious. so where did this come from? well, we can blame it mostly on lord byron, who by all accounts was the first western 'rockstar.' notoriously called 'mad, bad and dangerous to know' by lady caroline lamb (a married women he publically had an affair with), byron was openly bisexual and deeply hedonistic with a lot of questionable habits, but his poetry was so popular that he was known to have women following him in the street and gathering in large quanities to see him at salons. and this was close to three decades before lizstomania. his close friends and contemporaries included percy and mary shelley, with whom he lived with abroad in italy for some time (this living arrangement resulted in the writing of both frankenstein and john polidori's the vampyre). byron's reputation was so eclipsing that the image of the lush poet lazing in his undergarments has become its own genre of romantic, slightly removed from the movement byron was writing in. it's also worth it to point out that there are no official portraits of byron dressed like this from the time. the visual assumption is somewhat apochryphal. now let's get into some specifics. a.c.e is not unfamiliar to this silhouette; as previously mentioned in this post i wrote about their styling, the boxy loose upper and fitted lower is their general mode for their styling because of its emphasis on legs. cactus was the most extreme example of this, and to prove my point, this specific silhouette is extremely common in classical ballet:

1. vaslav nijinsky, giselle, 1911 2. nehemiah kish, george balanchine's ballo della regina, 2011/12

higher fits very neatly into this same category: we have an emphasis on the legs through tightly fitted garments and also through light reflective textile, as well as a secondary emphasis on arm and shoulder movements with looser fit shirts. plus, the shirts are made from fabrics that have good drape and flow, and mimic the visual effects of water:

there are also several instances of scale patterning and wetlook hair styles, further elabourating on the siren theme. and the jewelry is the same, purposefully cut clear stones for oceanic sparkle or pearls, the gem directly born from water, as highlighting accents to specific parts of the body - namely eyes, hands, and torso:

the body jewelry also serves a double purpose in addition to being sparkly; it gives a semblance of shape to their torsos so their movements aren't totally lost in the shroud of their shirts, and it also invokes some of that salacious element that us as a modern audience doesn't necessarily perceive in the same way when we see a man wearing only a shirt. all of these points are especially prominent in the stage costuming. concerning the veils, these are an aesthetic choice following the theme of depicting water without actually using water. the song has a very breathless quality to it, and the lyrics directly make reference to water and breathlessness, so it only makes sense to have a physical manifestation of struggling to breathe.

now let's talk about

mise-en-scène

unlike most kpop mvs, I would argue that higher is not a spectacle in what we normally see spectacle to be. the overwhelming visual saturation of goblin (and the goblin remix) is more in line with what we expect, but how do you follow that, top it? the answer is that you don't. you aim for something with a completely different feel, which is exact what they did with higher.

the performing arts did not escape romanticism. the very start of the movement, sturm und drang, is actually named from a specific play written by friedrich maximilian klinger that premiered in 1777. the plays of the brief period are characterized by extreme and passionate emotions, and were siblings to one of the most famous genres of theatre, the melodrama. meant to appeal directly to the emotions of the audience using sensationalist plots and stock characters, the melodrama was the predominent form of entertainment in victorian england and gradually developed a specific form of its own. in this period we also start to see the development of 'stagecraft' into the recognizable form that it takes today. footlights, limelight/spotlighting, the separation of house and stage lighting, fly galleries, elevator platform mechanics, and the first (purported) western use of rear projection are all innovations of the late 18th and 19th centuries, as melodramas were known to have very intricate and spectacular stagings. and to go along with these stagecraft mechanics we see the rise in designated stage crews, which were predominantly off-duty sailors looking to make money. the rope systems that made up the fly galleries were very similar to that on ships, and much of the terminology and supersitions crossed over: this is the origin of the term 'rigging' being used for suspending set elements, and also the origin of the 'don't whistle in a theatre' superstition. as sailors communicated with whistle patterns on ships, the same system was adopted for changing scenery, and therefore whistling a random pattern could potentially drop a setpiece on an unsuspecting victim.

so with all this backstory out of the way, what is the very first full location we see? a stage, complete with forced perspective via the painted fabric legs (the side panels) and borders (the wavy upper panels). we even have a flat painted backdrop with a projection screen and hanging overhead lamps. there's also a second interior set, a desk in what looks to be a study of some kind. bit self explanatory on this one, taking the poet notion on the nose.

the locations have a bit of an obtuse arc, but it's there when you look for it. it starts interior spaces, where the ideas of sublime attempted to be recreated for the viewer. then it moves to transitory spaces; portions of nature isolated from a whole environment, interjections of human architecture into natural spaces:

(the white hut structure in the greenhouse is reminiscent of a skene (literally hut/tent), which is the structure at the back of the stage in ancient greek theatre used for the actors to change their masks and costumes. it was originally temporary, but slowly transformed into permanent stage architecture)

and then finally outdoors, into the sublime itself:

jwm turner, crossing the bridge, 1815

lastly,

lighting

there's a very clear lighting pattern here, primarily in light and dark. the base colour story is fairly simple complementary pairs; there's a lot of purple/red and green, and blue and yellow/amber, with everything relatively on the same tonal level. there are deliberate interjections of heavily saturated red for specific effect. there are also, most notably, a 'dark' version of all the sets. obviously as a reference to the eclipse that we see in the mv and in the concept photo series, but also as a reference to that darker undercurrent of the sublime, the upsetting, the uncanny, and the terrifying:

And the bay was white with silent light/Till rising from the same/Full many shapes, that shadows were/In crimson colours came.

[luciatraskwrites]

GUIDE TO EARLY-TO-MID 20TH CENTURY DECADES OF MAKEUP

so you’re writing historical fiction of any subgenre? great! if your characters are folk who like to get all dolled up, here’s a handy dandy guide about the beauty standards from the 1900s to the 1950s for you all! 

(note: this was inspired by @inky-duchess​’s post on makeup from earlier centuries! please check their blog out, they’ve got quite a bit of helpful information!)

(additional note: these are mostly western/american/european beauty standards and makeup! i don’t know enough about different cultures or regions of the time periods to say anything about them - i will emphasize that a lot of latine countries, specifically in the 40s and 50s, were heavily influenced by western standards of beauty, though, thanks to the good neighbor policy of the early 40s)

1900s

the “natural beauty” trend of the century prior was still very prominent - wearing noticeable amounts of makeup was considered very garish

you’d powder your face for a clear complexion, though

rouge, too, was big! applied on the cheeks and maybe on the lips

no mascara, but i’ve heard that some women would rub burnt matchsticks on their eyelids to darken them.

1910s

while most women still clung to the very natural look of the decade prior, more prominent makeup quickly became trendy.

very dark, smudgy eyeshadow was common

...as were dark lips that followed the natural shape of the lip.

1920s 

the roaring 20s was when cosmetics really started to take off.

many would use powder on their skin

eyebrows that sloped down were quite common

very, very dark eye makeup with smudgy eyes to give the effect of sloping downward

a bit of rouge, too

and finally, very small lips with a very sharp cupid’s bow - lipstick was typically red.

1930s 

like prior decades, you’d powder your skin

VERY thin, high-arched eyebrows

neutral-colored eye makeup, like pale cream or lilac

very prominent eyelashes

a more natural-shaped, glossy red lipstick

1940s

while some in areas like britain used things like beets to color their lips and cheeks, in other areas makeup wasn’t rationed

slightly thicker arched brows were the trend

very neutral-colored eyeshadow 

eyeliner wasn’t popular until the very end of the 40s, and even then it was just across the top lid

mascara was used, too, but only on the top lid

a very prominent blush/rouge

big, matte red lips were trendy, too - this was known as “the crawford smear”, named for hollywood actress joan crawford’s distinctive lip shape

1950s

very thick, very dark eyebrows

more brightly colored eyeshadows were used - in light blues, lilacs, pinks, the like

this was when the cat-eye eyeliner emerged as a trend

also attention was spent on long, prominent eyelashes

the blush was toned down compared to the decade prior, though

lipstick followed the natural shape of the lip, while red was a very common color, other matte shades were common too: coral and pink

[sxveme-2]

blueberry pancakes // bucky barnes

MASTERLIST

Description: A single mother. Juggling being a mom, a full time pediatrician, and a difficult ex who believed now would be the best time to finally be a father. A soldier ripped out of time. Ex-assassin turned superhero. Learning how to balance a new domestic life with handling demons of his past, while facing the trials of the future. a love story began over something as simple as chocolate chip pancakes with hidden blueberries.

Disclaimer: I do not own any original Marvel characters! All canon plots and canon characters belong to Marvel Comics and Marvel Studios. This is an original work. You may not publish it anywhere else

Status: Edited

Note: Takes place after endgame. I have elected to ignore Tony's death and Steve's leaving. Did not happen. Quick Reminder! My works are only published here, AO3 and on Wattpad, thank you.

Chapter Thirteen: The One With the Aftermath

Warnings: N/A

Word Count: 1937

    "He did what!?" Gen and Rose's high-pitched squeals vibrated through the cellphone, resulting in Lily dropping it from her hands in surprise. Lily had broken the news to the two about the actions taken by Mr. James Buchanan Barnes just hours before in her kitchen. The way his calloused hand and cool prosthetic rested against her pale cheeks, holding her face as though it were a fine piece of china that would break if he applied too much pressure. Followed by the pressing of his petal-soft lips to her own, creating undeniable friction between the two not even Lily's deflective tendencies could deny. All over a cup of coffee.

"Okay woah, let's relax there," Lily sighed while finishing zipping up the flower-patterned muted coral skirt she had slid on above her white lace tank top. Her hand gripped onto a cropped red cardigan that hit just below the waist of the high-cut skirt. A cute and simple outfit that encompassed the true aesthetic of Lily Osborne. One that the girls on the phone disapproved of. Speaking of which, "It was just a kiss...it doesn't mean anything, right?"

Two conflicting parts of Lily seemed to have been raging war in her mind. On one hand, she prayed and hoped that the kiss meant nothing to him. That it was simply a heat of the moment sort of thing. The tension and adrenaline of the night had welled to a head in Bucky and he made an impulsive decision that didn't mean anything. It was just a kiss. Nothing more. Nothing less. But on the other hand, Lily secretly wished that the kiss was out of some sort of romantic feeling. That he had kissed her because the slight crush that Lily had on the man out of time was reciprocated. And that he felt the same way that she did. But honestly, she wouldn't believe that if someone wrote it in the sky out of the smoke from a plane. Mostly because she herself didn't believe it was even remotely possible. A guy like that liking a girl like her? It was a cliche trope but she never thought in her wildest dreams he would even look at her in a way like that.

"You should totally ask him," Rose chimed in, seemingly shooing someone away. Lily had figured the two were sitting in the kitchen at Gen's cafe, munching on pastries as they awaited even more juicy gossip from Lily. But they would be sadly disappointed because the kiss was really the only news that Lily had. But it wouldn't stop them from hoping, "He seems like an honest guy. He already kissed you and you kissed back, what's the worst that could happen?"

After a few more minutes of back and forth between the three girls, Lily hung up her phone to focus on fixing the mop of golden hair atop her head. It was only 9 o'clock in the morning, and after the events that had transpired the night before, Lily didn't expect to see Hunter come in to her room or down to the main floor for another while. Bucky, however, Lily didn't know if he was wandering around her home, or if he had taken off somehow. If the avengers sent someone to pick him up or something. But, after leaving the soft curls be and dancing across her shoulders, Lily would soon come to learn that answer to her confusion before.

Sitting at the birchwood dinner table sat Bucky Barnes and Lily's son plowing down on some frosted flakes while laughing over something. Lily stood on the landing of the stairs, heart growing even larger than it already was. It felt as though the beating organ inside of her may explode at the drop of a hat if she kept staring at the beautiful moment in front of her. A beaming smile on her son’s youthful face and a mirrored one on the stubble-covered and worn face of the Winter Soldier. Neither boy had spotted the blonde staring longingly at them from the staircase, and she prayed silently that they didn't. Instead, she slid her phone out of her skirt pocket and took a quick picture, wanting to relive the moment a million times over if she could.

"Mom!" Hunter exclaimed when Lily's feet hit the bottom of the stairs finally. He shot from his chair and curled his slim arms around the waist of his mother. Lily smiled gently as she bent down to rest a kiss on his forehead before turning to the older man who too seemed to watch in bliss at the interaction. A similar expression to the one Lily wore just moments ago.

"Morning buddy, didn't expect to see you awake right now." the blonde smiled after Hunter released her from his grip and returned to his seat. She bent down to pick up Joey's dish, the dog's ears perking up from the mat in front of the door to the backyard. After she filled up the dog’s food and gave him his morning kisses, Lily found herself sitting at the table across from the brunette man that had stayed in her guest bedroom the night before, "Frosted flakes this morning, hm? I thought these were only for Saturday breakfasts and your birthday?"

"I pulled them out, they were the first thing I saw when I opened the pantry, I hope that's okay." His timid voice radiated across the table towards Lily, causing her eyes to shift from her son over to the rugged man that sat across from her at the table. A faint grin spread along her slightly puffed features caused by her morning rise. For a second, their eyes met and the world melted away as it always seemed to do when they met iris's. Something that Lily was sure she wouldn't be able to get used to.

-----

Not too long after all three had completed their breakfast, Lily had to excuse herself. She had a duty to call her lawyer today and set up a review of her and Scott's custody agreement. There was no way in hell after that stunt occurred, Scott would be keeping partial custody of their son. He left Hunter home alone with a clearly lousy babysitter, as well as he had lied to mary about who her child was left in the hands of. Everything about the situation was already unnerving for Lily. One part in particular that just stuck in her mind like it had been superglued, was the fact Hunter had said that the person attempting to break into Scott's apartment, or at least get his attention, was there specifically for Scott. Not just to play a heinous joke or commit a petty crime. No, they were looking for Scott Harvey specifically. And that one part did not sit well with Lily.

But instead, she had a New York-level lawyer to handle.

"Lily! it's been ages since you've called. what can I do for you today love?" the man's raspy voice echoed through the phone she held to her ear.

Carter Evanson was the man that helped Lily through the roughest parts of her divorce. Kept her sane through the entire process alongside Rose and Gen. She had been so thankful for his kind words of encouragement as she would recount the numerous emotional trauma stories she had faced in her marriage to Scott. How he hadn't touched her in ages. How whenever he came home he was drunk and always smelled of another woman's perfume. But Lily never decided to look further into these things back then. He had made her believe that nothing she did would ever make her good enough. He was the best she would get. No other man would want a woman who already had a kid and a divorce under her belt. Scott Harvey had manipulated Lily into believing she was less worthy of just about anything in the world, and she continued to believe it to this day.

But Carter's kind voice created a sense of comfort throughout the whole divorce process. Always encouraging her and remind her how good of an idea this was. That everything would work out for her. How she was strong enough to get through it without chickening out like she always seemed to do. Whether it was his warm and energetic voice that would constantly play in the back of her mind when sitting down at Scott's lawyer’s table, writing out their custody agreement as well as their splitting of assets. And because of him, the divorce became final and the majority of assets and custody landed in the a-line skirt-covered lap of Lily Osborne.

"Hey Carter, I need to set up an appointment with Scott to redo the entire custody agreement. Something happened and Hunter cannot go back there- oh I'm getting another call," Lily continued, clearing her throat after placing the lawyer on hold and answering the call, "Doctor Lily Osborne."

"Ms. Osborne? This is sergeant Harrison, we just interviewed the man who attempted to break into your ex-husband's apartment last night and uh...we need you to come into the station. Right now if possible." the police officer explained, his voice reverberating through the front of her mind, setting off her heart into a mile a minute race.

-----

Arriving at the LAPD station, or more specifically, the 88th precinct, Lily rushed through and up the elevator and up towards where they had instructed Lily to go. She had to apparently see the culprit, so after convincing Bucky to watch the young boy that is Hunter Osborne, she arrived at the precinct in a rush. The moment she heard the elevator ding, she ran out in a rush and past the small gate that blocked off the desks from the public. She saw the Sergeant she spoke to on the phone and let her ballet flat-clad feet rush forward.

"Ms. Osborne, thank you for getting here so fast." the large man sighed, neck-craning down to look at the small blonde that had rushed through, "here, come with me." Sergeant Harrison sighed softly while leading the young doctor towards the interview room.

He walked her through the doors that kept them separate from the criminal that sat in front of the two-way mirror. The moment that Lily spotted the man in front of her, the young girl had to furrow her eyebrows together. The mop of blonde hair atop the man’s head screamed at Lily in a violent signal that there was something very wrong here. The way his shoulder slouched and the fact that she was unable to see his face because of his hunched posture. She figured he was too embarrassed or ashamed to even look at himself in the mirror that the police officer and Lily looked through. But his body type, his hair, the bracelet that sat on his hand looked so familiar to Lily.

"Alright sir please state your name quickly so we can get this show started." a woman's voice sighed as she entered the room that was blocked off from Lily's presence. She was a breathtaking beauty and it almost took Lily back before she reminded herself that was not exactly what she was here for. To be honest, she wasn't 100% sure why she was actually here.

A screeching behind her caught the blonde’s attention. The Sergeant that had brought her in had pushed a chair up behind her, gesturing her to sit. Saying a quick remark about how she may need to with what she was about to learn. It caused her heart to set off into such a quick beat that she was worried it may explode inside of her chest. Whatever was about to happen clearly wasn't good news for Lily. So she sat and waited. And almost threw up.

"My name is Cedar Osborne."

[andy-the-8th]

Summer Research

Part 7 of Creatures That Defy Logic

Read on AO3

Jess is mapping and navigating the reefs on the coasts. John is navigating how to be a better father.

Contains a direct homage one of the most intense scenes in Moonlight (2016)

cw: homophobia, homophobic slurs, bullying, minor violence

Salty spray kicked up against the rocks, splashing with the breaking waves in the warm June sunlight. It was only late morning, but Jess had already been out at the coast for several hours.

Ever since getting past his fear of swimming (mostly), he'd realized his exploration and study of the local reefs and waters had entirely new unlocked potential. He couldn't properly dive yet - scuba was expensive and dangerous, nevermind he was probably too young - but there was plenty you could see with a snorkel in the clear shallow waters around Mahone Bay.

Jess had spent much of the last few weeks working on one stretch of coastline, on the opposite end of the harbor from where the Griffins lived. It was only a half hour bike ride from the marina, but far enough that there was rarely any significant boat activity.

From his searches at the library, Jess knew that there were very generalized maps of the offshore waters nearby - mostly just marking depths for the benefit of fishing and boating, the better to not get run aground.

However, no one had ever mapped the different micro-ecosystems, the biological landscape of the waters. Jess had decided to make this his ongoing personal research project for the summer.

Days started early, just after sunrise - temperature checks of the water and air, confirming locations with latitude and longitude. Surveys of the tide pools, updated with proper location data: tracking all species identified, recording numbers.

Once the sun was up, he'd swim out to the shallows. There were plenty of rock reefs, kelp forests, and flats within comfortable swimming range of the beach - California didn't have a lot in the ways of coral, on account of the cold open ocean currents, but what species it did have were in the southern part of the state, right where Mahone was situated on the coast. Jess had marked out 50 ft lengths of beach into specific zones, then gridded out 50 ft from the shore, 100, 150, 200 - he didn't swim out much past 200. Every day he'd pick a zone, head out with waterproof clipboard, spend the morning swimming down and resurfacing, noting everything he saw.

The rest of the afternoon he'd spend going over field guides from the library, trying to match up his observations with species he could name and identify. He'd fill it in on his data grid, another little patch of ocean, a little bit more closely explored.

This was not a terribly efficient system of research.

Still, it certainly was good practice field work, good exercise, and a good way for Jess to throw himself at his passions and not think too hard about people for a while.

That was the best part of the work - Jess didn't get lonely doing it. Marine biology had always been his main interest, but he'd spent 13 years unable to go past the tide pools for any in-person field observations. There was SO much lost time to make up.

Jess was dutiful with keeping records of his research, carefully sorted in folders in his room, labeled spiral notebooks, Xeroxed maps from the library, hand-drawn data tables and grids. His dad had asked after the first week or so if he was doing some kind of summer extra credit project, a bit surprised at how much literature Jess seemed to be producing.

Of course, he wasn't - Jess did all this on his own, like any responsible aspiring scientist. The work was its own reward.

John had kept his distance the first few weeks of the summer - Jess could tell how sorry he was for what happened. In his own way,  Jess had tried to show that he'd forgiven him the last day or two - they'd never been particularly talkative, but at least Jess stopped purposefully not talking to him. He wasn't sure if his dad had picked up on that yet.

Jess thought of that as he was putting his charts and books into his bag. It was still the early in the day, but he'd decided to cut field work short today in favor of heading to the library. He had stayed out on the shore a bit to dry in the air before pedaling home. Jess usually swam with a long sleeve swim shirt, mostly to prevent sunburn and maintain body heat in the early morning water, but it meant not drying out quite as quickly. He'd have to change before going to the library.

The ride back to the marina felt a little longer than usual from the sun and heat beating down - Jess didn't normally make the trip in the middle of the day. Veering off the smooth road onto the crushed gravel of the marina, he quickly rolled to a stop under the overhang just outside the shed door next to the workshop, into the shade, before hurrying up the metal steps along the side of the building to the apartment.

The space wasn't large - really just one area for a living room/kitchen, two bedrooms, and one small bathroom at the end of the hall. The walls of the living room were mostly for maps, fishing photographs, an odd nautical salvaged antique here or there. There was a little mantle, more of a shelf (given that there was no fireplace) along the wall, with a small row of photos in frames.

Jess's school photos from the last few years. A picture of John's parents in front of the marina when it just was one workshop and shack. A photo of Jess's mother and father on their wedding day at the far end.

Jess hadn't ever known his mom - Evy, as his dad would refer to her when reminiscing. She had passed away before he was 2 year years old. In a way, it also meant he didn't really miss her either - like it or not, he'd only ever known life with just John.

He walked quickly down the hall to his room, changed into dry clothes, hung his swim shirt and towel out the sill of the small window overlooking the boat yard to dry in the sun. Carefully took the books out of his bag, swapped out the ones from his desk due back at the library, catalogued his notes. The whole process took only 15 minutes or so, and he was headed back down the outside steps to his bike.

"Where you headed, Jess?"

Even growing up with him had never quite gotten rid of the surprise when John would speak unexpectedly from his small dark study in the shed, surrounded by all his nets, salvaging gear, mermaid memorabilia. Jess jumped a bit at the sound.

"Oh uh, just going to the library, switch out some books."

"Do you, uh, want a ride? I was going to drive into town this afternoo-"

"No Dad, it's OK. I'll just go on my own."

Jess strapped on his helmet, grabbed the handlebars, starting walking his bike toward the road, out into the sun, leaving his father in the shade.

"Jess, can we tal-"

"I don't really want to talk about it. I know. I know you didn't mean any harm. I forgive you for that, or whatever. I don't want to have to go over it again."

Jess never really spoke back to his father like that. He paused, nervous, realizing how gruff he might have sounded.

John didn't really move or say anything for a second. Jess wondered if he might actually get mad at him right then.

He didn't. John breathed in and out heavily, eyes fixed on the floor, then looked up at his son.

"Thank you Jess. Thank you for forgiving me."

Immediately awkward but not wanting to ruin the moment, Jess shakily nodded and half-smiled. "You're welcome."

"You sure you don't want a ride into town?"

"No Dad, I'm fine."

He pushed himself onto the bike, kicked off the gravel, and pedaled out of the marina.

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

"Back again Mr. Wheatley?"

The lady behind the front desk at Mahone Bay's small library had a pretty good memory for faces as it was, and Jess had been coming by at least once a week for the last couple years.

"Yes Ms. Mullins, just returning some books." Jess put the small stack on the counter, helpfully handing her each one to sign it back in, then stamping his library card. The library had just gotten a computer last year, but most of the checkout systems were done on paper, especially for reference texts and maps.

"So what are you studying these days? Still mapping the reefs on the south shore?"

"Yup! Plenty more beach still to go, and that's just documenting what I can see this time of year!"

By now Ms. Mullins looked forward to Jess's visits; he was always so polite, so eager to talk about what he was studying. It was a nice break from most of the teen boys one might encounter as a front desk library lady.

The door slid open behind them, another patron coming into the cool lobby out of the hot sun. A gust of the summer heat followed whoever it was through the door.

"Jess?"

Well, that wasn't a voice he normally heard this time of year.

"Mrs. Nelson?" There was a special weirdness in running into a teacher outside of school, and doubly so in the summer - almost like they were regular humans or something.

"How's your summer going? Did I hear you're doing research again?"

"I am! Continuing some of the topography studies Cody and I started on our project, but now I'm documenting up to 200 ft away from the coast, and moving it to the south side of the harbor! I've been charting all the coral and plants on the reefs, the temperatures, composition of the rocks, any animal species I can find....."

Mrs. Nelson smiled as he continued, impressed but not surprised at how much work Jess had taken on. Sure, his methods were....perhaps imprecise....but his heart was really in it. And his observations could actually be quite useful for studying the shallows around the bay, effectively building a map of all the biomes.

Always a great moment as a teacher to see one of your students applying your subject in the real world - even if they're a 13 year old amateur oceanographer.

"That's really great Jess!"

Jess had finished, a bit breathless after giving what he'd thought was a concise and quick review of his work. He was a tinge self-conscious at how much he'd spoken in such a quick burst - Sam had advised him to tone it down a bit. Then again, Mrs. Nelson was a biology teacher, and she clearly didn't show any signs of being bored or annoyed.

"Would you be interested in bringing in your research at the end of the summer? Not as homework of course, just to share your findings. You could maybe even present it for my next year's biology class if you want?"

Jess lit up like a lighthouse at that.

"Oh I'd love to! That'd be great!"

Mrs. Nelson smiled again. "Well, I won't keep you from your work any longer. Good luck! Always a great day for science." She often ended class with that little adage.

"Always a great day for science" Jess agreed, as she walked past him into the library.

"Will that be everything today dear?" Ms. Mullins was looking over the desk at him, the last book checked in and moved to the cart for re-shelving.

Jess had gotten distracted, dizzingly pre-planning how he might present his research to next year's class. "Oh, yeah. Thank you ma'am, I'll see you next week." He turned back to the automatic doors, the warm air hitting again as he stepped outside, walked down the sidewalk to the bike rack.

The library was right on the main strip in town - Mahone Bay wasn't big, so most of the usual staples were all on one or two main streets. The library sat across from the post office and a coffee shop adjoining it next door; on one side was the town hall, on the other another line of shops - tourist traps, small bookstores and craft places, small restaurants and cafes. Apartments over top of them.

Jess was just about done unchaining his bike and putting on his helmet when he caught a shadow of someone walking toward him on the sidewalk - too late.

"Ugh, watch it!" Jess started to get up to apologize to whoever it was who half-tripped over him. He looked up to see three unfortunately familiar faces.

"Oh great. How's it going Josh, summer OK?" Of course luck would have it that Sean Marshall would almost trip over him in front of the library. His voice hadn't lost any of the disdain from the last time they'd spoken - when Sean had been pretty unambiguously about to beat Jess up pretty bad.

"I-I'm sorry Sean. I didn't see you, I...." Jess stammered, surprised and more than a little shaken to see Sean again. He didn't know the other two other than that they were other swim team guys - also familiar from the last day of school as part of Sean's hangers-on crowd.

"Yeah, you should be."

"OK, I'm sorry, I am," Jess just wanted to leave now. He wanted to be away from these guys and away from whatever this might lead to.

Sean got quiet again as Jess started to get on his bike up the hill to head off. "Learned not to talk back to me, huh smartass?"

Jess knew this was an attempt to bait him. He knew he shouldn't say anything, but then again, not saying anything was equally giving Sean what he wanted.

Annoying how these bullying asshole types always created these Catch-22 situations.

"I guess I just don't really have anything to say to you right now."

If it wasn't for the proximity it brought him to physical harm, Jess would find that look of insulted surprise in Sean's eyes incredibly funny. At least he didn't give him the last word.

"Oh you'll be sorry now, no one speaks to me like that, you little fucking fag," Sean growled, starting toward Jess - it would only be seconds for him to cover the couple meters between where the three had been standing and where Jess was on his bike a bit up the sidewalk.

The library doors slid open again right as the words left his lips - Mrs. Nelson had apparently finished whatever she needed to do at the library and serendipity had her emerge right at that second.

She may only technically only hold authority in school, but a teacher being directly in sight was enough to defuse most bullies away from outright violence.

"Mr. Marshall, good to see you." Mrs. Nelson definitely didn't sound happy to see him. She was definitely using The Teacher Voice here. "Was there some problem?"

Just like before, Sean wiped away his more dangerous side effortlessly, unnervingly cool and charming in an instant. "No Mrs. Nelson, no problem. Just getting a chance to catch up with Josh."

In the back of his mind Jess wondered if all these swim team people called him Josh on purpose, or if it was a genuine mistake - not the most pressing matter at hand though.

Mrs. Nelson was looking at him pointedly now, then back at Sean. "OK then. Stay out of trouble boys. Jess, I'll see you later then?"

That was a confusing statement: she hadn't said anything about reviewing his research today.

Unless she was making it clear to Sean and the others that he would be missed, should he not get home safe today. That made Jess shudder to think about.

"Uh, OK, definitely! Thanks Mrs. Nelson!"

She sent another tough glare at the other three, and stood by the outside of the building til they moved along. Sean turned back and sneered at Jess, a dangerous glint in his eyes - he wasn't going to forget this.

Mrs. Nelson quickly walked up the sidewalk once the other three boys were out of sight down the hill, stopping right in front of where Jess was still poised on his bike.

"Jess, is there anything you need help with? Anything you want me to know here?" He'd heard that same line from teachers before - teachers knowing something was going on, but knowing they lacked proof unless a student actually told them something. He knew she did genuinely want to help.

Unfortunately, he also knew how it usually went when you tried to report bullying.

"Kids will be kids." "Boys will be boys." "They'll sort it out."

"No Mrs. Nelson, I'm fine." Jess started to get on moving, pointing his bike up the road to head home. Jess saw in her face that she knew he wasn't telling her everything.

"OK. If you're ever not, please don't be afraid to tell someone." Jess knew she really did care. But he also knew teachers could only do so much.

"Really, I'm OK. It was nice to see you, have a good rest of your summer" Jess tried to smile and sound confident as he turned and pedaled off.

Mrs. Nelson straightened up as Jess went over the hill and out of sight. Another one scared to ask for help. God, if she ever caught that Sean Marshall red handed. Fullest extent of suspension possible, swim champion or not. If only they weren't going to be in the high school next year, away from where she'd be around.

Still, she could tell Jess was tougher than most people would give him credit for. She hoped that would always be enough.

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

Whether it was smart to do so or not, Jess took the long way home. Much of the afternoon heat had dissipated by the time he saw the marina coming up on the road - of course it would be light past 8 at night this time of year, but the sun was past its zenith for the day. He sped through the shadows of the boat masts and antennae crisscrossing along the gravel, turned and rolled to a stop under the overhang, put his bike just inside the shed door and hung his helmet on the handlebar. He was half-wondering if his dad would still be in his study from earlier today.

He wasn't, and from what Jess could tell once he got upstairs, he wasn't home at all. Jess wasn't surprised - it was still early in the day all things considered, and he often worked late out at the docks. Even if it was just outside the walls of the apartment, he was still at work, busy fixing up whatever boat pieces or engines the fishermen had brought in, sorting through whatever salvage he'd trawled up earlier that week.

Jess went in his room and closed the door, leaving the lights off, window open to try to get some cool sea air inside. He picked up the shirt and towel off the sill, hung them over the chair in front of his small desk. He laid back on the bed and stared at the ceiling, took off his glasses, let the world go blurry.

He really wasn't a stranger to bullies, but there was something more cutting about his last two run-ins with Sean Marshall. Most prominently, he knew at least something about Cody - in more ways than one, that could be used to hurt Jess in a way other bullies never could. What if Sean ever worked out what really happened? What if he told anyone else? What if what he'd said about Cody not caring about Jess had any truth in it?

There was something else though. Jess hadn't let himself look it up, even though he definitely wanted to. He wanted to know what it was that Sean had been calling him. Why it stung so strangely, even without knowing the definition.

Just from context though, he knew that it wasn't something he could ask a teacher, or a librarian. And definitely not something to type into a computer's search engine.

A shuffle and the sound of the door closing outside his room let Jess know his dad had come in. Jess sat up, rubbed his eyes, and put his glasses back on. The sun had gone down while he'd been lying there, thoughts writhing around his mind. He got up and opened the door to his room, softly padded down the hall to the small living room.

"Oh hey Jess." John was taking his boots off, putting them under where he'd already hung up his work overshirt on the little wall hooks next to the door. "How was the library?"

Words caught in Jess's throat, worse than he'd expected. "It was fine Dad. Dropped off my books. I ran into Mrs. Nelson too."

John mentally chided himself for not remembering who that was. After a second, it was clear Jess hadn't really expected him to either.

"She said I can bring her my research from mapping the south shore reefs at the start of next school year. Maybe even present it to the next year's biology class."

John smiled at that, moving past the pause a line ago. "Oh that's great! That's real good, gettin' to show off all the hard work you've been doin'."

"Yeah Dad, it'll be great." Jess finished quietly, like he was closing the door on talking any more right now. It was a familiar enough cadence to their discussions. Not exactly uncomfortable most of the time. John still got the sense there was something else Jess wanted to say, or didn't want to say, or....something. He couldn't pin it but he knew that Jess wasn't closing the conversation because he didn't have more to say.

"So I uh, smoked some sea bass for dinner." They didn't always eat together at the table, but when John had a particularly good catch he tried to make the time for it. Jess brightened a bit at that - sea bass was one of his favorites, with a mildly sweet flavor and less of a fishy aftertaste.

"Oh great! I'll, um, I'll get some plates out?" Jess said this quickly walking to the small cabinet over the stove, putting two old porcelain plates on the table. Smiling for a second at the dramatic mermaid designs etched into the old china.

John got the fish out of the fridge and heated it on the gas stove while Jess cut up potatoes to fry on the side. They worked mostly silently, only a word here or there - could you pass the seasoning, can I use that dishtowel - that sort of thing.

Still not whatever John could tell that his son was avoiding.

They didn't say grace or anything, but did take a moment of pause after both sitting down, fish and fries laid out on each plate, opposite ends of the short table.

John could see Jess making small looks up at him between bites, like he was trying to hide it. He knew not to push him. His mind could come up with a dozen things Jess could want to say to him, especially after the brief outburst earlier that day. A dozen things John had already known he'd done wrong, a dozen things he wanted to make better or make up for if he knew how. He felt like he was prepared for anything Jess could be about to say -

"Dad," Jess started hesitantly. His voice was soft. Almost scared.

John let a full beat pass, swallowing his own anxiety, ready to talk about whatever Jess was about to bring up.

Jess looked down at his plate, his voice only hair above a whisper. "What does 'faggot' mean?"

John could feel his own eyes widen, his own face freeze in shock. Of all the things he was ready for Jess to say, that was definitely not one of them. What was he even supposed to say to this?"

"Jess, uh, um...." he stammered to find words, trying to sound more confident than he really was. He hoped Jess wouldn't notice, or would forgive him that too if he did. Controlling his tone, he tried to sound caring and firm, but not accusatory. It still came out rougher than he'd wanted it to. "Jess, where did you hear that word?"

He could hear Jess breathe and shudder nervously at the other end of the table. Only a few feet apart in their small kitchen, he still felt both miles away and uncomfortably, vulnerably close.

"I don't know, uh...nowhere....just, um....someone at school."

"Did someone call you that Jess?" He couldn't keep the roughness out of that line.

"No." He said it too quickly, but John wasn't going to call him on the lie. He knew Jess kept things from him, especially when it came to his social problems. There were only so many times any kid could realistically "fall off a bike." There were only so many ways to "accidentally" break one's glasses.

"Well then." John breathed heavily again. Whatever he said now, he knew it might well be one of the most critical moments in his relationship with his son.

"Faggot, uh. Well, in British, it just means a pile of sticks." He tried to make it sound humorous, to push back against the stifling unease between them. Jess gave a compulsory half smile that vanished almost before John could see it.

"But um. It means, well.....it's something people say to hurt someone. To make them feel awful about themselves."

"OK, but what does it mean." Frustrated, Jess could tell he was talking around something. It hurt to see that his son clearly already knew that the word was meant to be hurtful.

John paused again, making every effort to even and soften his voice, to bury the rage he felt at whoever had brought his Jess to this point. To the cusp of crying out of frustration at his own kitchen table.

"It's a way to negatively call a man a homosexual." That was about as even and measured as he could have put that. Jess didn't look up from his lap, but he could see that his son's shoulders relaxed just a little bit.

"Oh."

Jess felt himself breathe out at that. Well, at least there was the answer.

"Jess, do you know what that -"

"Yeah, Dad, I know....I know what that means." Jess couldn't keep the lie out of his voice on that last part though. Sure, he could reason through the word's meaning - he knew enough Latin for that.

"Is that....even possible?" he asked in a hushed uptalk, looking up at John from behind his glasses.

"Is what possible Jess?"

"Homosexual, that means, um....." Jess wasn't exactly sure what meaning to go with. Having the same sets of sex chromosomes? Having offspring from two organisms of the same sex?

John paused, realizing Jess actually didn't know this one. On one hand, in the back of his mind John was at least a little glad his son hadn't had to learn this from someone else too - that there was a bit of innocence to grownup things left in him. On the other hand, he had to answer this truthfully. Some parenting conversations are never easy.

"Jess, you know how boys like to date and get married to girls?"

"Of course" Jess's cheeks flushed, surprised and embarrassed by wherever this was going. The space between them twisted taut, made the kitchen feel almost suffocating, but he had to get this right.

"Well, sometimes, um. Boys like other boys that way. Or girls like other girls too, I guess." John was trying to keep it as age-appropriate and neutral as he could. He watched Jess carefully, watched as he had turned his eyes nervously back to his plate.

The silence hung in the air. No change to the crushing, nervous energy in the room.

His voice still quiet, but almost thick with anxiety - hopefully not tears, John prayed - Jess spoke still looking down.

"Is that bad?"

In the split second after he said it, John's brain again whirred through possible explanations, outcomes, everything, knowing he had to get this right -to not think about politics, or society, or Jesus, or AIDS - not think about what Jess might be about to tell him, or might be about to realize. Just to be the best father he could to the small scared boy in front of him.

"No Jess. That's not bad."

They both exhaled - the air in the room felt just a bit more breathable. "It's different. It's not that common. But it's not bad."

Jess looked up then, breathed in and out, in and out, calming down. "OK. Thanks for explaining Dad." He closed in the same way he'd done other conversations - times when John had asked about a black eye, a broken glasses lens, a missing shoe. Times Jess thought he had gotten as much support from his father as he was going to.

"Jess." John said it gently but emphatically. His son looked up at him, surprised.

"No matter what you might hear, I want you to always remember: no one has the right to make anyone feel bad about themselves for being different. In any way."

John let the silence hang after that. He had to make sure Jess knew that.

Jess's eyes were a bit shiny behind his glasses as he looked back across the table, and nodded once again, a bit more confident. "Thanks Dad. I won't forget."

"Alright then."

They both finished the rest of dinner without speaking - not an uncomfortable silence. Both of them had to take time to process things when it came to people and emotions rather than mythology and marine biology. They were alike in that way.

Jess was finishing drying off the last dish John had handed to him. John looked at him carefully open the cabinet, carefully put it back, carefully fold the dish towel. So gentle and harmless.

God damn, he couldn't stand to imagine anyone hurting this kid.

Jess turned away from the stove, back toward the hall, toward his room. "Goodnight Dad. Thanks for the sea bass."

"Don't mention it, bud. Goodnight." John watched his son down the hall, start to open his door.

"Jess?"

"Yeah Dad?"

"I love you."

A quiet pause. John didn't move from where he was in the kitchen, hand still on the sponge at the sink. He didn't hear Jess moving at the far end of the apartment - he was still standing with the door to his room half open.

"I love you too, Dad."

John heard the door to Jess's room click closed. He felt his whole body relax as he turned, rinsing off the sponge, wringing it out over the sink.

He heard Jess's door click open. Worry caught in his throat again.

"You alright bud?"

"Yeah Dad, I forgot to brush my teeth." John felt the tension leave again. His Jess. Always so responsible.

END NOTES:

Definitely the heaviest entry in the series so far.

I know it might seem a bit far-fetched that Jess might not know what some things mean at this age, but I can attest that I based that on my own experience - everyone learns about things in their own time and being socially out-of-the-loop, especially pre-Internet, meant kids might not learn about things until later than they might nowadays

I think Mahone Bay is an actual place in Nova Scotia and that that may be where the movie was supposed to be set, but we're going to ignore that - the sealife in the movie much better lines up with California, so that's where this fictional Mahone Bay's going to be - it also might make future crossovers that may or may not be planned a little bit easier to work with.

On a lighter note I think I've also decided that Al Gore's going to win the 2000 election in this universe, and 9/11 and the Iraq invasion are not going to happen. I doubt those will impact the story as it's currently planned but y'know, never hurts to be prepared for such questions.

[urbanteeth]

Emmett’s tattoo: Snake and Flowers pt. 1

I ended up going with a snake and flower tattoo! As much as I loved the octopus tattoo, I think a snake suits him better! This is a list of possible snake species and their symbolism. I’m trying to decide what I want Emmett’s tattoo to be and because I refuse to let my agony over reading How to Read Literature Like a Professor be in vain, I wanted to explore some of the possible meanings of all the options I think would best suit him! Gonna put this under a read more in case anyone’s uncomfy with snake pics! Separated into parts because this got uhhh super fucking long. 

[find the original post here] [general snake symbolism]

Core Traits:

A list of traits that I will be using to determine which snakes best suit my symbolic purposes!

Night Owl — Due to being an insomniac (and also just having an unhealthy relationship with sleep in general), he is more often than not wide awake and active at night.

Avoids Confrontation  —  One thing he absolutely dislikes and is rather bad at is dealing with other people, especially in negative ways and even more so when the topic is himself. This trait mostly stems from the self-deprecating views he has towards himself. When confronted, he tends to retreat as far as he can, both physically and emotionally. When he can’t, he’ll get angry and lash out.

Reclusive — A major core trait is his solitary nature. He is perfectly contented with spending time alone and having to interact with too many people wears him out terribly fast. His reclusive nature also extends to sharing details of his personal life, which is something he tries to avoid whenever possible.

Impersonal —  When in the field, he prefers to keep his distance as long as possible, both physically and emotionally. I don’t mean he’s cold and unfeeling. Rather, he prefers to come at the problem from different angles and keep his options open. The fear of missing something important keeps him constantly afraid of uncertainty.

Persistent — On the other hand, once the facts are laid out and he knows he’s following the right trail, he becomes much more aggressive in his pursuit of an end result. When under pressure (such as if a member of his team gets injured) he can, has, and will resort to becoming physically aggressive.

Curious — This trait is his main driving force. It fuels his hobbies and indulging in his own curiosity brings him satisfaction. A strong need to know makes him a good investigator. On the other side of the coin, he can all too easily let it consume him.

Cunning  — Mostly applied in the field, he is not above using his knowledge as a weapon. A bit of a social chameleon, he will change himself according to who he is interacting with. 

Viper  —

Matching Core Traits:

Typically nocturnal, sluggish compared to other snakes (i.e Gaboon viper prefers to wait for prey to come by)

Quick and lethal bites, can regulate the amount of venom injected, can administer dry bites (no venom at all)

Uses a strike and release technique when hunting, allows for minimal contact with potentially dangerous prey

Able to track down prey using a sense of smell, can identify prey by chemical cues (i.e proteins found in the snake’s own venom)

Solitary

Specific Species:

Western Diamondback Rattlesnake

Mojave Rattlesnake

Merendon Palm-Pit viper

Eastern Racer —

Matching Core Traits:

Curious, have often been seen lifting themselves up to look around their surroundings

Non-venomous and will prefer to flee when threatened

When cornered, will put up a vigorous fight (biting, thrashing, make themselves hard to handle)

Can convincingly mimic the sound of a rattlesnake

Specific Subspecies:

Northern Black Racer

Mexican Racer

Blue Racer

Milk Snake —

Matching Core Traits:

Nocturnal, also crepuscular (active at twilight), prefers cooler, wetter temperatures

Will take on most reasonably sized prey if voracious enough 

Opportunistic, will eat lizards and other snakes and their eggs as well as bird eggs aside from rodents

Non-venomous, but mistaken for a coral or copperhead due to coloring, will also mimic rattlers by shaking their tails

May also consume coral snakes when food is scarce

Specific Subspecies:

Andean Milk Snake

Mexican Milk Snake

Eastern Milk Snake

Black Mamba — 

Matching Core Traits:

While having a reputation as highly aggressive and has been known to attack without warning, this snake is shy by nature and prefers to avoid people

Fastest of the African snake species

Can adapt to a wide range of habitats

When threatened, the snake will move towards its den and can kill anything that stands in its way

Strikes with remarkable accuracy even when moving quickly

Solitary 

King Cobra —

Matching Core Traits:

Shy and prefers to avoid confrontation despite having a fearsome reputation due to the range of its bite

Tracks prey through scent and earth-borne vibrations

Because of its flexible jaws, it can tackle prey larger than its head

Primarily hunts other snakes

Is generally a placid snake, bites are uncommon according to Thailand hospital records

Easily irritated by sudden movements or objects approaching too close

Has a long range and can administer multiple bites in one attack

Forest Cobra —

Matching Core Traits:

Highly adaptable, can be found in various habitats and is considered semi-aquatic

Generalist diet, feeds on various prey animals

Alert and nervous, dangerous bites but they are uncommon, prefers to resort to intimidation first

Long bite range, when cornered it will rush forward towards the aggressor 

Diurnal and nocturnal

TTW Taglist (click here to be added): @cluelessbuttercup​ @dogwrites​ @goldfinvhs​ @tragedyshow​ @tenacious-scripturient​ @diwrites​ @mirror-of-too-many-books​ @isanyonetoknow​ @makealltheboymoosegowahhh​ @waterproof-pages​ @velvetinewitch​ @wreckageofus​ @thewalkingnerdx​ @woodhouse-jay​ @writeouswriter​ @dashy-mcdasher​ @drist-n-dither​

[s4g2webdesign-blog]

Good Web Design

What is Web Design?A Web site is the final output of a Web design. The Web site sits on a Web server where electronic files are stored. The Web site presents the contents and interactive features or interfaces to the end user in the form of Web pages. How the information requested is displayed to the user is par of the Web design process. Additional controls are embedded in order to display more complex media like animations, sounds and other forms.

Whats New? The Clouds of Course!Everybody wants something new from time to time and yet some need a fix of something totally different. In the realm of the internet, that is quite a common occurrence with the many innovations that are always popping up and with all of them, none can be as exciting as the move into the clouds.

The Open Design Community: Free CSS Templates!If youre most people out there who dont know CSS and have no time, or care, on how to do one for your blog, then the next action for you would be to find a place where you can download one for free. Thank goodness that there are a lot of sites out there that give them away for free. The only problem is, that since you were not the one who created it, you will be subject to their designs and whims.

One of the sites that give free CSS of cool web designs is The Open Design Community (TODC). The Open Design Community is a hub for open source website designers from around the world providing thousands of XHTML and CSS based free web design templates available for download. So, please feel free to take a minute or two and browse through the designs that our fabulous designers have submitted and see if one might work for you! And remember they are free!

Bad Web DesignHere are some features that can really mar the over all concept of your web design. It is important to take notice of the most common mistakes web designers commit. You might be able to use some insights into creating an effective web design which might be simple but can invoke your projected image. Backgrounds that are gray in color by default presents so many problems most especially with the pages readability. Avoid color combinations that can render the characters unreadable. Backgrounds are mostly effective when it is left simple and does not interfere with reading. Texts must be readable. Avoid small characters. Keep the links colored blue as much as possible because common users are already used with the color.

DIY Web DesignDo it yourself design projects are proliferating in the internet these days. There are a number of web sites that practically teaches you what to do without hiring a web designer. A do it yourself web site design applies perfectly for young professionals who are just starting to learn stuff in business or trying to reformat the existing business that they are running. DIY web site design offers you total control over the project and over the site that is why its simply gaining popularity. It takes the work out of dealing with consultants, designer, contractor landscaper and the likes. In DIY design, your ideas are sure to be heard and taken careful attention to. You get to express your style and personality. because at the end of the day, it still will be your website, selling your products. This has solved constant problems with web designers who are truly passionate in their work who sometime can get overly sensitive to a small correction or observation of his work. Do it yourself web designing surely saves you money and time and energy.

Benefits of Web 2.0 ApplicationsWeb 2.0 applications are the latest trend in website design . Many Internet companies and users are turning to web 2.0 for its added features. It has also increased functionality. It has brought about a new wave in how sites are to be built, designed and applied hands-on. It makes the users enjoy blogging, download, RSS feeds etc. These developments give added excitement to online experience. It is said that Web 2.0 companies sites get higher ranking in search engines, like Google, yahoo and countless others. Web 2.0 benefits are countless. You can post photos, albums, help guides and maps for planning your travel abroad.

It has radically changed the quality of social interaction worldwide. Blogs proliferate. marketing online costs much less. And it has created networking success stories. Web 2.0 gives you full control over your business while adding smaller but very useful features to it.

Website design is of course not giving the visitors with another plain piece of text. Go as per the old saying "beauty is in the eye of the beholder". Here the beholder is the visitor of the website that you are going to design. So as a skilled website designer you should have mastered all the skills needed to create classy and attractive graphics, colors and shapes placed in perfect balance to catch the eye of the visitor together with drawing his focus to the most important sections of your website. Your job as a website designer is to make use of colors, text and graphics and translate into a visually appealing layout, logo, banner, and button system.

As a professional website designer, you need to chalk out a well-devised approach for creating the website. First, you need to understand the specific business necessities of your client and lay out the basic structure of the website. In order to minimize the cost of the set up, the website designer should be equipped with predefined web templates. Having this feature in your armory, you don't need to go hog-wild with the designs for the reason that you are not designing a website by tinkering.

Internet Marketing (Part 2)

Start a blog. Blogs have now become a favorite for search engines. If you go ahead and launch a blog, link it into your main site, print blocks of information and float RSS feeds. If you do these then most of the search engines can locate you much faster. Design some copies of digital books that you can send out to everyone. You can write for articles or courses online that could be submitted elsewhere. Then, create your own write-up in a manner that you can use them in any possible type of media, whether online or offline.

web designer albuquerque

web designer anaheim

web designer anchorage

web designer ann arbor

web designer arlington

web designer athens

web designer aurora

web designer austin

web designer baltimore

web designer baton rouge

web designer bellevue

web designer birmingham

web designer boise

web designer boulder

web designer Brentwood

web designer brooklyn

web designer buffalo

web designer cambridge

web designer cape coral

web designer charlotte

web designer chattanooga

web designer cincinnati

web designer clearwater

web designer cleveland

web designer colorado springs

web designer columbus

web designer dayton

web designer delray beach

web designer detroit

web designer doral

web designer Dublin

web designer durham

web designer el paso

web designer fargo

web designer fort collins

web designer fort worth

web designer fountain valley

web designer fremont

web designer fresno

web designer frisco

web designer gilbert

web designer glendale

web designer green bay

web designer honolulu

web designer huntsville

[sciencespies]

Vital buffers against climate change are just offshore

https://sciencespies.com/nature/vital-buffers-against-climate-change-are-just-offshore/

Vital buffers against climate change are just offshore

A new study finds that about 31 million people worldwide live in coastal regions that are “highly vulnerable” to future tropical storms and sea-level rise driven by climate change. But in some of those regions, powerful defenses are located just offshore.

Of those 31 million people, about 8.5 million directly benefit from the severe weather-protection of mangroves and coral reefs, key buffers that could help cushion the blow against future tropical storms and rising waters, according to the study published May 29 in the peer-reviewed journal PLOS ONE.

Because the two “natural infrastructures” absorb wave energy, reduce wave heights and provide a host of other environmental benefits, the study findings underscore the need for worldwide conservation and restoration of these natural resources. A particular focus, the authors said, should be placed on the most vulnerable regions, which lack available resources for more expensive protective measures, such as construction of levees or sea walls.

“Simply put, it’s much cheaper to conserve a mangrove than to build a sea wall,” said Northern Illinois University scientist Holly Jones, the study’s lead author.

A 100-meter-wide coastal strip of mangroves can reduce wave heights by as much as two-thirds, previous research has shown. Coral reefs meanwhile buffer wave energy by up to 97% in some contexts, significantly reducing erosion and cutting flood-damage costs in half annually.

“Coral reefs and mangroves serve as cost-efficient buffers against the adverse impacts of climate change, and they already play important roles in protecting human lives and livelihoods, while providing a multitude of biodiversity benefits,” said Jones, who holds a joint appointment at NIU in biological sciences and environmental studies.

advertisement

Her co-authors on the research are Barry Nickel and Erika Zavaleta of the University of California, Santa Cruz; Tanja Srebotnjak of Harvey Mudd College in Claremont, California; and Will Turner, Mariano Gonzalez-Roglich and David G. Hole of Conservation International in Arlington, Virginia.

The ‘most vulnerable’

The study aimed to identify highly vulnerable coastal regions that would benefit most from “ecosystem-based adaptation,” or using conservation, restoration and sustainable management of existing ecosystems to address climate impacts.

Regions meeting study criteria for “highly vulnerable” were within two miles of coastline and scored in the top 10th percentile of the authors’ vulnerability index for being highly exposed to the effects of tropical storms and/or sea-level rise, dense in population and low in “adaptive capacity.” The authors developed the adaptive-capacity measure to take into account economic data, education levels and other factors that play into a region’s ability to adjust to climate variability.

The authors found that 30.9 million people globally live in regions that are most vulnerable to tropical storms and projected sea-level rise.

advertisement

“Our estimate is very conservative,” Jones said. “This population lives in regions in the top 10th percentile for vulnerability. If we apply our model to coastal regions that scored in the top half for vulnerability, the population soars to over 700 million people.”

Highly vulnerable, coastal regions that would benefit the most from the conservation of mangroves and coral reefs span across Central America, the Caribbean, Eastern Africa, Southeast Asia and the South Pacific region. And yet only 38% of mangroves and 11% of coral reefs located along the most vulnerable coastlines are protected, according to the study.

“Protection of mangroves and coral reefs is critical,” said Will Turner, study co-author and senior vice president of global strategies at Conservation International. “They have the potential to save lives, store carbon and support fisheries; the co-benefits they provide are great. At Conservation International, we’re working with local communities, carbon finance, governments and the insurance industry to ensure that generations will benefit from the protection and restoration of these ecosystems.”

The authors noted that many of the world’s coastal zones already bear the brunt of extreme weather. Events such as Hurricane Dorian in the Bahamas and hurricanes Maria, Harvey and Irma in the United States and the Caribbean claimed thousands of lives and generated financial costs running into hundreds of billions of dollars.

Additionally, past research indicates that the loss of lives and assets in coastal zones is likely to increase significantly as a result of demographic and socio-economic trends alone, leading to a doubling or more of hurricane damages by 2100.

U.S. could benefit, too

Coastlines in Florida and the U.S. island territories of Puerto Rico and Guam also stand to benefit from mangrove and coral reef conservation and restoration.

Globally, the densest populations receiving adaptation benefits (people protected per hectare) from mangroves are in India, the United States and Ghana, the study found. The greatest amount of people protected per hectare of coral reefs are in South Africa, Singapore, China and the United States.

More than a billion coastal dwellers worldwide face some degree of vulnerability to climate change. While most coastal regions are outside of tropical zones and aren’t buffered by mangroves or coral reefs, other ecosystems such as wetlands, estuaries and seagrasses provide protective benefits, Jones said.

“The United States is a wealthy country and has more ability to adapt than other countries, but it still could see significant benefits from conservation and restoration of existing natural infrastructure,” Jones said. “Coastal ecosystems reduce the proportion of vulnerable people and infrastructure along exposed U.S. coastlines by around half through their absorption of wave energy.”

The study authors also pointed to other benefits of natural infrastructures, which provide habitats for a host of marine and terrestrial animals and create recreation and tourism opportunities. In the most vulnerable coastal regions alone, mangroves store at least 896 million metric tons of carbon.

“Ensuring the resiliency of mangroves is a win-win-win for people, nature and the climate,” said Dave Hole, co-author of the study and senior director within Conservation International’s Betty and Gordon Moore Center for Science.

“Mangroves store more carbon than any other forest ecosystem on Earth, drawing CO2 down from the atmosphere and storing it for decades, and so helping slow global warming,” he said. “As interest in ecosystem-based adaptation continues to grow, it’s vital that its multiple co-benefits are part of the conversation.”

Next step: site-specific studies

The authors noted that their global study provides “a coarse approximation” of threats and of regions of the world that might benefit most from ecosystem-based adaptation.

Despite mounting interest in ecosystem-based adaptation, implementation has mostly been in the form of site-specific projects. What’s needed next, the authors said, is systematic assessment of the broader potential, analyses of the ways in which ecosystem protection varies from site to site, and further investment in conservation and restoration.

“It’s a relatively new option that’s gaining more traction,” Jones said. “Beyond engineering solutions, there are these ecosystems that have been providing benefits to us for centuries. They’re worthy of our attention and resources.”

#Nature

[ask-de-writer]

GONE TO SEA : World of Sea : Science Fiction : Part 6

GONE TO SEA

by

De Writer (Glen Ten-Eyck)

WORK IN PROGRESS (Word count unknown at this time)

copyright 2018

Writing started 2005

All rights reserved.

Reproduction in any form, physical, electronic or digital is prohibited without the express consent of the author.

//////////////

Copyright fair use rules for Tumblr users

Users of Tumblr.com are specifically granted the following rights.  They may reblog the story provided that all author and copyright information remains intact.  They may use the characters or original characters in my settings for fan fiction, fan art works, cosplay, or fan musical compositions. All sorts of fan art, cosplay, music or fiction is actively encouraged.

///////////////////////

Chapter 03. The Search

Mr. Torres had the meeting chair.  “It is now six months since the ESA 14 left us here.  It is time for public progress reports.

“The first order of business is, unfortunately not a matter of progress. As many of you know, Mister Marcus Angerson has been removed from his post as the Station's School Master.  He was caught violating the Colony Charter's Freedom of Religion and Conscience clause.  The jury in his trial, only hours ago, returned a verdict of guilty of Charter violation.  Along with that he was also found guilty of physical and mental child abuse.

“As we hear the various committee reports, I also want you all to think of persons to nominate for the post of School Master.  That out of the way, let us get on to better things.

“We know that what we need to survive is here on Sea somewhere.  The documentation is clear.  This biosphere can support us, if we can isolate the particular organic compounds that we need.  We have been testing everything, including the coral stones in the shallows.

“Search committee one, free swimming marine animals.  What is your report?”

Tall, lanky and very Polynesian, Hugh Barant stood and consulted his data files.  “The long and short of it is simple.  We haven’t found everything that we need for survival.  

“In the liver of Strong’s shark, that multi-tonne monster with the doubled dorsal fins with a leading edge slashing spine, we have located the entire B complex of vitamins along with so much vitamin A that the liver is toxic.  The meat has enough of most of the vitamins and many minerals that it is a significant source for them.  It tastes good, cooks and even preserves well.  

“We have found one and one source only, so far, for Vitamin C.  The red colored floating weed in the big mats, where all the birds nest, has slightly less than five grams per dried ton.  The problem there is that the mass difference between a fresh batch and a dried one is over fifty to one.  Too much work for too little gain.  We hope to find something with better yields.

“Vitamin D can be produced in sufficient quantities by simply sunbathing.

“Vitamins E and K remain a problem.  They have been found in trace amounts in various organisms.  We have good hope for finding them in significant quantities if we simply keep looking.

“We found significant portions of nearly all of the minerals we need in an assortment of fish as well.  The Skelton’s Sardine has a calcium carbonate/calcium phosphate skeleton and possesses significant amounts of other necessary minerals.  It is another one that tastes reasonably good and packs and stores well.

“The amino acids are the real stumbling block.  We haven’t found any organism that uses either thymine or lysine.  The signatures were spotted from orbit but only erratically.  We know that they’re here, probably in organisms that only surface occasionally.  

“What I can say with some confidence is, they are not coded for in the genetic makeup of any mobile organism tested so far.  The local DNA type of molecule uses a different setup from ours altogether.  The result is proteins that use some different amino acids.  We can eat most of the local animals and plants safely enough, you all know that.  They just won't support us for long.  If we relied only on local resources, we would die of malnutrition with full bellies.

“On a more somber note, Miles Ordman was killed by simply touching a specimen that has since been named the Ordman cod, in his honor.  I am projecting a picture on the screen for you now.  This fish is the single most toxic thing that anyone on my team has ever heard of. Careful remote dissection and sampling has revealed that it is totally infused with a fast acting neurotoxin.  It causes a total collapse of the nervous system, both autonomic and sensory.  The nerves lose the ability to transmit and the patient dies from any of the multiple failures that result.  We have not found an antidote.

“To balance that, we have found something amusing, if not of much value. A genetic analysis of every bird that we have been able to catch verifies that they are fish.  That's right, greatly modified but still fish.  In fact, if our testing methods apply to so different a DNA, it appears that they changed from swimming to flying only a few thousand years ago.  Our best estimate is roughly five to ten thousand years.”  He sat.

Pele Barant, Hugh's wife, represented the Mechanical and Structural Engineering department.  She told the assembled Station management, “First, and most important, my department, working alongside the Organic Chemistry department, has succeeded in repairing the reverse osmosis desalination plant.  We now believe from analysis of the damage to it that it was sabotaged  by a person or persons unknown.  

“As a backup plan, we have built test units for solar distillation.  It appears that solar stills will be able to support the Station's fresh water needs if the desalination plant gets damaged beyond repair in a future event.

“On a better note, we are getting useful amounts of lighter metals directly from the sea water.  The only difficulty lies in the old problem of corrosion.  Aluminum, magnesium and their various alloys will only last for a few years as structural materials, long enough to be useful but not really a good result.  

“We can use replaceable magnesium tabs attached to aluminum structures to protect them from corrosion but the tabs have to be inspected and replaced regularly.  It is also possible to coat structures with resin paints made from local materials.  Like the magnesium tabs, the paints need to be inspected and replaced or touched up an a regular basis.  If they are exposed to sunlight, ultraviolet will degrade most of the coatings fairly swiftly.  It looks like a few years is the best protective life that we can expect, whichever system we use.

“Of the metals that we can extract locally, Titanium is still the only one that is durable.  Besides being available in only small amounts, its high flammability when improperly heated or melted and the near impossibility of extinguishing a titanium fire presents uniquely dangerous working characteristics in the environment of Sea.

“Of local materials, one of the most useful has been the Strong's shark. If the skin is properly dried, it takes a micro-porous structure that is very useful for filters in many applications.  Once cured, it will filter seawater prior to reverse osmosis purification and desalination.  It has another widely useful application as air filters to keep out all of that pesky airborne plankton.  The air that you are breathing now has been filtered by Strong's shark skin.

“We can make a pretty good Concrete in very useful quantities out of the abundant coral sand.  It only has one drawback.  Many organisms on the reefs appear to think that it is a fine snack.  Constant vigilance and repair is necessary for any submerged structure made of it.  

“Paradoxically, the concrete makes fine small boats for many applications.  We can use aluminum alloy mesh for reinforcing and trowel the concrete into the mesh.  Once it sets we can remove it from the form and make another boat just as easily.  We only have to haul them out and dry them off about once a week to prevent the local organisms from damaging the boats.  That does limit the application to smaller boats but we do need a lot of small boats.

“I am sort of walking on the Organic Chemistry team's report with the next item.  The plastic resins that they have figured out work really well in many applications.  Fiberglass is our biggest success story.  We have both small and large boats under construction.  Two of them are planned to be small ships twenty meters long with two masts.  They will all have to be sailing vessels for now.  We still have no access to oil or other materials that we can process for reasonably safe portable fuels.

“If the sailing boats perform as well as we hope, many more can be built.  A mold has already been made for the production of hulls for a twenty five foot, uh, pardon that, 7.62 meter boat.  It is to be equipped for both rowing and sailing.

“The major limit to fiberglass is that all available silicates to make the glass fibers from have to be imported from the moons.  Wotan in particular is a good source.  Every time that the Slowpoke shuttle can be charged for a flight, besides the metal ores that are our primary goal, it brings us a few more tonnes of silicate rocks that will process to glass with better than 90% efficiency.  Some of the volcanic stone that has been found already is glass.  We only have to melt and process it for our needs.”  Pele Barant sat.

Gunther Halin stood to give the report of the Organic Chemistry Department's Bio-safety and Nutrition section.

“Like most of you, we have had mostly good fortune.  Nothing else as deadly as the Ordman cod has turned up.  The majority of the seaweeds are to some degree edible.  We have not found any of them that are poisonous.  The majority of edible seaweed species are not of much use.  Nutritionally they are basically useless.  A few have proved to be quite tasty and some have an assortment of medicinal values.  A table of those properties has been posted to the station's net and will be updated as we get new information.

“In particular, the one that has got the common name of gray weed is not only tasty in salads, it forms a somewhat stiff gelatin-like binder for loose foods if mixed in, pressed and heated gently.  Some few will have a religious objection to its use, so we advise labeling to identify any such products.  

“The medicinal use of the raw gray weed is simple.  It harmlessly and reversibly shuts down the production of eggs in female humans and sperm production in male humans.  It is a great contraceptive.

“Another thing that was a mild disappointment is the common Haggers ammonite. All species have a copper based blood and bodily fluids that have proved to be mildly toxic.  They also possess some fairly toxic venoms that anesthetize the bite or sting location.  As a result, they need careful handling.  Some species have hard, nacreous shells that are pretty and there are some free-swimming ones that have been observed in the multi-tonne size range that have a shell that appears to be a form of cartilage.

“On the plus side, all of the forms of mussel-like shellfish are not only edible, many are quite tasty.  They are easily found and even raised.

“We also have a mildly humorous tale.  The Moreson's eel, a common fish averaging twenty to sixty centimeters long, tested as marginally edible with some useful lipids.  

“The attempt to cook it was, for practical purposes, a disaster.  On frying in a pan, the fish simply came apart into two layers that set on cooling.  The upper layer was stiff oily goo and the lower layer was a hard junk that had all of the bones and those parts of the fins and skin that didn't melt.  We couldn't even scrape or chip it out of the pan.   Trying to boil the fish gave a similar result, with hot water between the layers.  We wound up putting the whole works into recycle.  On a side note, it all tastes ghastly.  We haven't found any use for the fish at all.  Except for ruining pans and pots.”

TO BE CONTINUED

<==PREVIOUS   NEXT==>

Return to the Master Story Index

Return to World of Sea