#So species distribution is probably weird

[therantingsage]

Side characters refs for Finders Keepers! One death bird and two ordinary mortals.

[angsttronaut]

A story about a prion disease apocalypse could be so fucked up fun.

Perhaps the disease has been spreading for a while, but appeared to not harm humans like CWD, or it's an entirely new one that a cow just developed one day. It can spread through their waste, their spit, their blood. Quite a few animals have already been infected by the time the first few enter the human food chain.

It's another while before the new prion disease is noticed; people aren't getting sick, and it takes a while before infected animals show symptoms. Eventually the weird symptoms are noticed, and the new disease is found, but it's already too late. It's spread so far that it proves very difficult to stamp out no matter how many infected animals get destroyed, and every day it isn't wiped out means more humans coming into contact with the prions. Although right now, no-one knows for sure if it can even jump the species barrier.

A few years later, it starts. A few people with mysterious and deadly neurological issues here and there, who's autospies reveal their brains have been turned to sponge. The numbers slowly climb upwards with each year. It's still spreading in farm animals.

Efforts to resist the disease increase; there isn't any treatment, but there are better tests. Through these it's discovered that not only are carrier animals that can spread the disease everywhere, but an eyewatering percentage of the population harbour the abnormal prions too- spreading not just through tainted food at this point, but also blood transfusions and surgical instruments. Even the water in the worst affected places isn't safe any more. Reassurances that not everyone will develop the prion disease are no comfort for many.

Every year the numbers climb. It goes from a very rare illness, to an unusual one, to one that's so common that you probably know someone who got killed by it. Attempts at a cure all fail, no matter how promising they seem. A suffocating cloak of dread falls over the world, even as many people try to ignore it and go about their daily lives. It isn't uncommon now to see someone with obvious symptoms who is in denial. Not that confronting their death head on would help; healthcare is underfunded and overwhelmed, they would be waiting months for anything that might alleviate their suffering.

The collapse begins a decade into the pandemic. People are dying left, right and centre, even children who weren't born when it first began to spread; it might have spread to them in the womb, but there are so few scientists left and they're so focused on finding a cure that not much research is done. Take a walk in a city and you'll see dozens of empty buildings and massive queues by the hospitals. Walk in the countryside and you'll probably see a half dead animal wracked with spasms. Mammals have become rarer; even dogs and cats are a bit unusual to see. Anything that hasn't reduced in numbers is studied intently to discover its secrets, all to no avail.

Infrastructure begins break down; there aren't many people left to maintain it, and a lot of them aren't well. Medical care is borderline impossible to get because there's so many people and so few living doctors and nurses; more and more people are dying of curable afflictions without ever being seen. Food is scarce because animal products are off the menu and it's nigh impossible to transport and grow food when so many people have died. Costs shoot up, and people protest because no-one can afford the prices- especially when not that many people work any more, being too ill to work or having to care for their ill loved ones. The only thing that gets cheaper is housing.

Protesting does help, and resources are more evenly distributed in the last few years. But there's still nothing that can be done for the illness, and the sick are actually dying faster because some places now have no medical staff. Medicines get scarce as manufacturing plants shut down for want of staff. Whole regions lose their electricity as the final workers are forced to turn off the grid lest the power plant cause a disaster once the prion disease has killed them. Governments can't fill the empty seats in their parliaments, and high voter turnout amounts to thousands of people casting their ballots. Quite a few governments just throw in the towel at that point. In places with newspapers, it isn't uncommon for them to run emotional stories about people from areas so badly hit that they thought they could be the last living people.

Eventually things begin to level out. A couple of people were lucky enough to never be exposed, or to have some resistance. It's the same for other mammals, although they're scarce and many are extinct. Most areas are forced into subsistence farming on poisoned land, without the help of domesticated animals. Most strive to rebuild, but to some it seems like the final, tortured days before the end.

[cosmicseapop]

Aqw’s Structure of Existence Theory Pt2

Upper Planes dont have a better name

Funny enough this is the more simpler one to explain, despite having only a bit of info on them. 

True gods that are also considered alien to Lore if Fimbul calling the Hero an interloper holds any weight. They can influence existence as a whole through their domains depending on what it is, either through their power alone or through their followers (ie Infamy and doom spirits). Their realms on different planes of existence and can’t easily be accessed unless a god is the one opening the way, but another god could block access (Malgor keeping the Hero out of the Timestream for a bit). 

With the exception of EDoT and Adimonde, all of the gods are considered dead and mostly forgotten. EDoT for obvious reasons and Adimonde for some other reason that hasn’t been shown yet (probably from just chilling in his realm or a special Fiend Shard). Adimonde could also be dead since we’ve been shown them as a floating mask, and they just manage to escape being tripped in the Mana Core. The OWO isn’t completely forgotten since the Mysterious Stranger still remembers Infamy (if they’re the god of Doom, but thats all but confirmed at this point) and their goal, so there’s probably others factions that would remember the other gods either on Lore or in space.

There had to be some sort of council or a criteria to determine who to ascend to godhood pre Reset. Also there’s issue of how the power is distributed, like is it taken from the original god, is it formed from the newly made concept and needs to grow in strength, or is it from worship of followers. Kathool did seem to get a boost in power from their ascension but the Hero didn’t seem to be affected (tho thats probably because they had so much power to begin with, it was more like a drop in the bucket), and quickly gained followers that could increase their range of influence. The fallout of that will definitely come last after things with OWO is settled, when everyone isn’t threatened with getting snapped for existing without OWO’s approval.

Infamy and Adimonde most likely weren’t ascended by another gods, so there has to be a way for them to ascend by themselves if they didn’t just show up out of nowhere in the beginning of everything — probably by killing and taking the godhood from a god since their goals boils down to conquest. Law and Tranquil are more difficult to determine how they got their godhood, but Law feels like they had it from the beginning and Tranquil would have gotten theirs through diplomatic means or worship. EDoT most like was born with their pre Reset power since time one of the more fundamental concept for the universe. 

Kathool would be a minor god of sorts, if only because of the Hero tying them to their existence. They were ascended the same way that OWO would ascend other gods, but with the small changing of wording got placed under the Hero’s control by tying them to their existence. There’s probably going to be a way around or getting out of being tied to the Hero’s existence to be a proper god, but probably a problem for another story arc.

Malgor and the other Speakers would also be demigods of sorts, not ascended to godhood but being born with divinity that allowed them access to the Timestream and the ability to control it. 

Theres possible identities for 2/3 gods we do talk to in OWO. Infamy is all but confirmed in game to be the God of Doom — them taking such offense to Gravelyn and Sepulchure ruling the Shadowscythe Empire, stating the shadows came from their throat (weird way of saying creating them), and Gravelyn’s wound being confirmed to be Doom. Law is probably the God of the Creatioux Dragons (maybe the Decadere Dragons too since they’re part of the same species of Void Dragons) — mostly because dragon face mask shape but also since their views regarding Chaos aligns with what the Creatioux’s view is on the Decadere’s use of Entropy from DF. Tranquil is a bit hard to figure out, mostly due to that it was stated in the merge quest for the Mana Core that they were part of a pair with someone else (neither Law or Infamy tho, probably another god that didn’t get the position of being the mouth piece of OWO). It also worth pointing out that these three feel like the representation of the other main games’ timelines that were merged into Aqw’s, and their identities are probably tied to things that hold importance to the stories — Infamy for Mechquest, Law for Dragonfable, and Tranquil for Adventure Quest.

It's also worth pointing out that once someone becomes a god, that position cant be taken away, and the only way to remove them is through killing them — ie Nulgath wanting to usurp Adimonde as Fiend God. Silencing is more a less permanent solution (and a whole other theory post) that still keeps the god alive enough so that they’re not a problem anymore but don’t get rid of their domain or disrupt their influence on the universe. This probably why OWO hasn’t straight up killed Einsolf since there power would mostly go to one person rather than spitting it up between all the dead gods, then that god would be put to sleep/killed and that devolves into a cycle of infighting until there’s not enough gods left to keep that one down and they all get killed.

Another speculation, but gods don’t seem to be by the powers of other gods, or at least not like how it affects mortals. The OWO are aware of the EDoT’s death and the Reset that came of it and seem to be aware of the cycles Malgor went through and the outcomes of it (probably how they know about the 3 threats but not knowing who they are if they aren’t lying about that). Which is good thing since the Hero can become the Champion of Doom, something thats toootally going to work out well and couldn’t go wrong at all what so ever /s. 

Space as an element 

This is on here solely for the fact that the dragon egg in the Mirror Realm hasn’t been mention in years and thats thing is technically the counterpart to one of the most powerful being in the universe. And with space being set as the counterpart to time in the game, Space Dragon God. 

A fun headcanon I have is they play a similar role to the EDoT and the Reset and created the Mirror Realm indirectly — either by just existing or dying in the past. 

Mana Core

Just as confusing as the Elemental Planes 

A realm that was created from the Reset and condensation of timelines and universes, and an 'Avatar’ that was immediately put in baby jail for just existing. 

Contrary to the Elemental Avatars probably just being Champions that raised to the position, Einsof sees more like the personification of the Mana Core. Calling him an Avatar is probably easier to explain or its current way of trying to make sense of him (since the creation of the Elemental Avatars hasn’t been explained yet). It's literally taking all of OWO to keep him asleep and will start waking up if any three of them lose focus, while they were ably to Silence Neso with ease — seems a bit of an understatement and insult to compare him to the regular Avatars. 

It feels like Einsof is more the god of all creation than Mana with how powerful he should be (being the personification of mana in a universe that thrives because of mana would do that) and would be above the Hero in terms of power, even with all the stolen power and authority from OWO. There’s also a good chance that actually kill him would also lead to all of existence ending if someone doesn’t take that mantle, probably similar to the Mana Affliction but on a wider and more devastating scale. That’s probably what happened in the Ultra!Malgor timeline, with the Hero taking Einsof’s authority over Mana after killing him.

A fun headcanon of mine is the reason Einsof is basically a child in terms of god years is the fact that he’s technically the embodiment of how old the timeline is, since Aqw’s is technically fairly new.

[timberwind]

here's a feature that the more advanced digital radio cloaks could have (besides improved range, encryption, multi-channel support, and custom connection graphs with tuned delays and stuff) a loss of signal script. the user could set up custom loss of signal scripts for their individual members and then in the event of an unexpected disconnect it could help keep the singleton calm and keep them from behaving unsafely. an extremely simple one that just plays back or loops prerecorded mindsound would probably be a lot better than nothing. a particularly clever tine might set up a repeating mantra of instructions with gaps between for responses from the singleton that are intended to be replayed later (so the recording behaves like drum memory does in some early computer architectures). more advanced ones could set up the singleton with the virtual computer interface tine as a sort of odd duo. if you go to advanced it might end up being like *connection dropped, emulating all other members* and then the pack has to do a git merge when the singleton regains connection (probably the emulated members stick around as log file like things that can be interacted with but tend not to chime in of their own accord without something important to say). there's a certain tipping point in technology where the interesting stories can happen and i think it's usually right around the development of new capabilities. (although, imagine a multiplanetary choir in the mid beyond linked by ultrawave - their navy could be frighteningly competent for the depth, especially if they found good solutions to the routing problem of distributed computation)

Oh I love this! There's room here for some really good characterization - a lost tine in the Beyond dealing with a partially-emulated sense of self, an old pack maintaining a "thought cabinet" of emulated past members and passing it on to offspring... I definitely agree also about crossing technological tipping points and all the rapid change that can cause being being a really fun story topic - a tine-human expedition from the top of the Slow Zone into the Beyond in a flotilla of ramscoop ships, or a first colony Out There... these could be good story hooks for some fic I think.

(Brief fill-in for those who haven't read the books: tines are a species where each "individual" is the gestalt of a pack of three to eight sort of wolflike creatures, each critter's on-its-own-nonsentient thought combining into a conscious whole by a kind of distributed ultrasound 'telepathy'. A choir is what happens when lots more tines than can form a discrete individual pack live together - they form a shifting and disorganized morass of thought that is... sort of alien to both discrete packs and humans.)

I have found myself thinking about how intelligent choirs in the beyond would act too... I suppose you can imagine lots of different ways it could go. I like to think you could get some kind of prosperous coexistence, possibly even with packs sometimes choosing to temporarily dissolve themselves into choirs as a sabbatical, or to assist with some great task, and coming back with new insights (and sometimes coming back very much changed by the experience). Sort of a little bit like the Pattern Jugglers from Revelation Space, maybe. Perhaps, if what Johanna says in Children of the Sky about the way the choir on the raft conceptualizes things continues to hold true, sentient choirs shoot off into modes of consciousness that are undoubtedly sentient but also still weird to us - like the Powers in miniature.

Of course, a fun sort of horror take on it would be a sort of hard-takeoff choir coming into existence accidentally, like a version of the Blight just for tines. The last remaining individual pack on a first expedition to the far Beyond/low Transcend, cowering in a corridor on a hab orbiting a cold red star... feeling the call, no, the demand of its reconstituted peers, the overwhelmingly more powerful consequence of a sudden relaxation on limits on just how complex and distributed a mind can be...

Also I would really like to chat in realtime about tine worldbuilding with you sometime, anon! My direct messages are always open if you'd like to drop in. No pressure if not, of course.

[sinosauropteryx--prima]

National Fossil: Peru

We‘re continuing our travels through South America and the next stop is Peru.

Once again, you get to vote on which one should represent the nation. As always, it could be a fossil that is just exceptionally well preserved and beautiful, had a huge impact on paleontology and our knowledge of the past, is very common/representative of the area, is beloved and famous in the public eye, is just a very unique and interesting find, or has any other justification.

Perucetus: The first contestant has just been described earlier this year. Named after its home country, the giant whale made headlines because it might be the heaviest animal that ever lived, even surpassing the modern blue whale (just keep in mind that this is still very much up for debate as Perucetus‘ estimated size range spans from “just“ 85 t to well over 300 t; Art by Adam Works)

Livyatan: In case one giant whale is not enough, Peru also offers you Livyatan, named after the biblical monster. It was first discovered in Peru, where it lived about 30 million years after Perucetus. It was similar in size to its modern cousin, the sperm whale. (Art by Balasz Petheo)

Megalodon: It seems to be an unspoken rule of paleo that you cannot mention Livyatan without pointing out that they shared a habitat and directly competed with megalodon, fighting brutal battles to the death (honestly, they were probably both chill and just stayed out of each others way, but whatever…). Since it had a global distribution, picking megalodon as a National Fossil might be a bit controversial - on the other hand: There have been fossils found in Peru and no other country has claimed the giant shark yet, so this is your chance to call dibs on the famed movie monster.

Inkayacu: Next up is a cute penguin! Well, cute might be the wrong word considering it was almost as tall as me. Inkayacu lived about 35 million years ago during the Eocene (btw great time to be a giant penguin) and is known from very well preserved fossils, including feathers. From the material researcher could even tell its coloration and unlike its modern relatives, Inkayacu was reddish-brown and grey. (Art by Ripley Cook)

Thalassocnus: Ground sloths are among the most iconic prehistoric South American fauna, and this one is not just your regular weird giant ground sloth - it was a semi-aquatic giant ground sloth! There are multiple species of these guys known, all from slightly different ages. They show very well how they transitioned to a more aquatic lifestyle over time, making them a great example for evolution in progress. (Art by Mark Witton)

Macrauchenia: Lastly we have the “long llama“ as the name translates. Since today llamas (well, vicunas, but same difference) are Perus national animal, I wanted to give an option that resembles them. Macrauchenia actually belongs to a now extinct line of hoofed mammals that lived in South America back when the continent was still separated from all other land masses. While they weren‘t too closely related to our modern camels and llamas, they probably filled a similar niche. (Art by Olga Kobrina)

[loominggaia]

I MUST know more about minotaur milk. How is it made? How is it harvested? Who is buying this? Is it weird to drink it? Can it come from male minotaurs? Is it really good for you? What does it taste like? Is it expensive? Is it the same as cow's milk? Sorry for all the questions I just have to know lmfao.

Don't worry, those are all great questions!

How is it made/harvested?

There are private companies that run minotaur-milking facilities. And no, it's not like some weird porno thing...I imagine it's similar to a blood donation clinic. Eligible minotaurs go in at their leisure, get tested for disease, then get hooked up to a milking device and chill until they're done. They're probably paid depending on the amount of milk produced. Minotaurs naturally over-produce milk and often don't know what to do with it, so earning a few bucks to get rid of it is win/win.

Who is buying this?

The biggest consumers are actually orphaned babies. Minotaur milk is unique because it's a "universal milk", meaning it's well tolerated by all peoples. Even baby gorgons and cecaelia can use it as a food source, despite being non-mammalian species. It is also well tolerated by sick and elderly adults.

Hospitals, orphanages, and nursing homes buy a lot of minotaur milk. But it's also sold in stores and pharmacies to the general public. In some regions it's marketed as a "health drink", and some dishonest companies claim it can do all kinds of things it really can't (like build muscle instantly, increase sex drive, cure diseases, reverse hair loss etc.) In other regions, it's marketed as a protein supplement or just a regular beverage.

Is it weird to drink it?

This really depends on the culture. There are some cultures that wouldn't dare drink this stuff, even if their life depended on it. There are others who don't think twice about it, it's just a normal drink like any other. There are some cultures that consider it weird unless it's for medical purposes. It's highly individual, everyone has their own opinion.

Can it come from male minotaurs?

I guess technically, some male minotaurs may be able to lactate. But this is not the norm, and they wouldn't be able to produce enough to sell. Nor do I think the milking clinics would accept males anyway. Everything on the market comes from females only.

Is it really good for you?

Minotaur milk is very dense in calories and fat. If you're already overweight, it's not something you should consume. But if you're trying to gain weight or recover from an illness, then yes, it's quite helpful. Hospitals give malnourished babies minotaur milk instead of their native species' milk because it fattens them up quickly. It's dense enough to feed even heavyweight species like ogres and centaurs.

Of course, its nutritional value also depends on the health of the minotaur who donated it. Healthier minotaurs produce healthier milk. These clinics will not accept any random crackhead minotaur who stumbles through the door...I imagine there must be some quality assurance in place.

What does it taste like?

Probably very neutral? Nobody is drinking it for the taste, I'll tell you that. It's consumed mainly for its health benefits, real or perceived.

Is it expensive?

It can be cheap or expensive, depending on many factors. Current supply and demand, shipping distance, the company distributing it, the store selling it, etc.

Is it the same as cow's milk?

No, I think it's quite different. Cow's milk is poorly tolerated by many people across all species. Meanwhile, even the lactose-intolerant can drink minotaur's milk without problems. Cow's milk probably tastes better though!

That concludes the lesson. Congratulations, you are now a qualified Minotaur Mommy Milker(tm)! Here is your totally real and legit certificate:

*

Questions/Comments?

Lore Masterpost

Read the Series

[amber-tortoiseshell]

hello!

this is probably a weird question but is there a name for the base colour of a black tabby? they look a little bit brown-ish imo. and how are the markings formed? do they like "retreat" to that shape or they're forming in that way? ... is a black tabby essencially black?

thank you for answering!

Hello and thank you for the ask! 😻

I don't think there's an official name... the background is the agouti area of the pattern, so maybe black agouti or brown agouti?

I remember reading an article about the development of the tabby patterns, let me look it up for you... Here it is. To summerizes the relevant findings:

Approximately 16 days later at stage 16 (analogous to mouse E15), before epidermal differentiation and hair follicle morphogenesis, we noticed that the epidermis is organized into alternating regions that are either “thick” or “thin”.

(highlighting from me)

These "thick' and "thin" regions will become the background and the markings. They are already there from the very moment the skin starts to form!

As for your last question - well, it depends on your essentials, i guess. (Sorry! 😸) The original cat coloration as seen in all wildcat species is the black tabby. Black is essentially a black tabby with all the hairs completely colored. Black tabby is essentially black with less pigmentation on some hairs. As you wish. (And the same way blue is essentially black with uneven pigment distribution in the hairs; seal point is essentially black with reduced pigmentation on the body but not the extremities; white is essentially something not white with a critical failure in the pigment production. This way of thinking has its advantages and maybe can help to understand the processes, but i'm not sure it really describes the colors as such well.)

[dateamonster]

actually since its on my mind now im gonna give u another big loredump. this is how angelique gets kicked out of angel school.

to start, a little background info. while celestial and angel are terms used interchangeably, celestial refers more to what angels are as a like species and angel is more like. a career? except not really its more like a career if that career were the only career. its like if humankind was split into like kids and accountants, and if you grew to adulthood and didnt become an accountant youre like not even rly recognized as a person. youre some other weird Thing the other normal accountants dont even have a word for. does that make sense? well moving on.

so the main purpose of young celestials' schooling is to guide them into full-fledged angelhood and help them earn their wings. wings show up usually in like late adolescence to young adulthood upon the completion of some kind of significant life event or milestone. think mlp cutie marks except theyre all functionally the same one. you may be sensing a theme.

new babby angels for the most part kinda just pop into existence, but angels can also be born the ya know traditional way, and angels can procreate with non-angels. the result of an angel and mortal union is a naphal or nephel (plural: nephilim). nephilim are actually a good deal more powerful than your standard angel, possibly due to the fact that theyre not limited by the compulsion towards Goodness that angels are generally beholden to. unlike full celestials who only gain access to the full range of their angelic abilities upon maturation, nephilim are able to access their powers from adolescence onward, but also have a much harder time controlling them, and are broadly stigmatized as dangerous, uncivilized, and impure as a result.

despite this, nephilim are welcome (at least in the most surface level way) and in fact strongly encouraged to integrate into angelic society in the event that their celestial heritage makes them unable to blend in with human society. nephel kids who graduate from an angel institution (and earn their wings, something which a lot of kids experience upon graduation anyway) are even granted honorary full angel status and any trace of their former human heritage is completely erased ^_^ yayy

this is a lot of very rambly worldbuilding but i feel like the context is important.

so back in angel school angelique was a pretty popular kid. top of her class, an exemplary angel in the making, you know the drill. one day by chance she catches a classmate stealing the answers for an upcoming test. the classmate in question is a nephel kid named quinn who was raised human for the first thirteen years of their life before their powers started coming in and they were forced to transfer. as you might have guessed, its not been an easy transition for quinn, and distributing these answers to a few less than studious young celestials is meant to serve as payment for their protection from the pretty much constant bullying.

at first ange doesnt care why theyre doing it, its wrong! but.. quinn points out that she doesnt know what its like. shes the star student, the headmistress' daughter for goodness sakes. theyve been dealt a very different hand.

before angelique can think too much on that though, a teacher walks in and the two of them get busted fighting over the answers. in the heat of the moment angelique takes the fall, protecting quinn. because after all theyre right, the punishment she stands to receive is probably going to be much lighter than what quinn stands to face, right? theres no way the headmistress would punish her own daughter too severely, especially once she explains that she was only trying to do what was right, as always!

angelique doesnt get to explain. angelique gets expelled.

[augustheart]

hey theres a weird dragon in my backyard. its very long and uhhh green. seems harmless but i think its scaring my dog

You have a couple options here, depending on the number of wings and where you live. My specialty is North American dragons, so I'm going to approach it from that perspective, but I can try my best to identify ones from other countries if necessary. Please let me know if you need me to give you options for elsewhere in the world! Just know they may not be as accurate.

Zero wings: you've got a wyrm! There are a few wyrm species in North America that fit the bill--given your description of "very long" it's probably not one of the Microdraco wyrms, of which the Clark's Wyrm--Microdraco clarkii--is the most common in urban areas but only grows to about 40". It's possible it's one of the Crassidraconis wyrms, too, with the Musk Wyrm (Crassidraconis odorus) and the Ring-necked Wyrm (Crassidraconis picticollis) being the most frequent yard visitors.

If they have visible "wing buds" (bumps on the shoulders where they once had wings; a LOT of people think that true dragons evolved from wyrms, but skeletal evidence shows this isn't true!) then they're definitely Crassidraconis! Both genera have venom, with Crassidraconis being rear-fanged venomous like some snake species and Microdraco being front-fanged, so keep your dog away, but they're more likely to flee. Call animal control if it doesn't move on within a day or so.

Two wings: you've got an American Knucker, Echinodraco limosus! They're entirely unrelated to the European Knucker they're named after, and don't even share a genus (European Knuckers are Eurodraco odorus), but because of their similar habitat European colonists named them after them. They're pretty widely distributed throughout North America, with a high concentration in any wetland. They're much longer than any (North American) wyrm species, and I'd exercise much more caution around them. While they aren't venomous, they are large and bold enough to take pets and in some cases even small or weak livestock. Definitely a job for animal control, even if you think it's a juvenile. If you look them up online, most of the photos appear to show brown individuals, but green is a common color and even greener individuals will appear brownish due to the mud they're typically coated in.

[talenlee]

Pokemon Choose Expressive Identities (To F*ck)

Since we’ve already established well and thoroughly that the nature of the creatures we call Pokemon is one where there’s an intentionality and a sapience to their reality that breaks a lot of the conventional rules and assumption of a modern realistic understanding of evolution, and therefore that evolution as a form of genetic distribution across a population based on reproductive fitness and —

oh yeah we’re talking about Pokemon and bodies and the fundamental relationship to society and bodies but it’s all filtered through, again, Pokemon bodies, and we’re going to talk about the ones that people draw porn of, so like, get out that’s got nothing for you —

Anyway, we know that Pokemon make choices about their evolution. We know that Pokemon aren’t evolving based on breeding and genes, and the entire course of evolution in the context of the universe is a byproduct of intelligent design. And now, thanks to the Paradox Pokemon and Fossil Pokemon, we have an idea of what Pokemon are like over time and how they change and relate to the world they’re in. When there are no people around, the Pokemon become less People-y. When the environment is very standardised, the Pokemon all converge on a specific thing to maximise that thing.

Basically we have evidence that Pokemon fundamentally have directed evolution based on their choices. New forms are discovered not as the byproduct of long threads of evolution but rather, Pokemon picking up new ideas and then through morphic resonance share them across the entire species. Or to simplify: Pokemon evolution is about the Pokemon making choices and largely, the rules are communal, not biological.

Take that as read, right?

Pokemon evolve to respond to wants and needs, and in response to emotional states. It’s a one-way thing, it transforms the personality, and it brings to bear new things and capacities that the Pokemon wants access to.

Pokemon forms are therefore based on their impressions and their representations. Pidgeot isn’t fast because it has huge wings, it has huge wings because that’s what it seems like would be necessary to be really fast. It’s all vibes. It’s what they project. Because the actual biology at work here is absolute pissing nonsense, then it’s all about style.

And uhhhh, hey, you know how some Pokemon look like people?

Some Pokemon look like just types of people.

You know the ones, if you’ve been on the internet for a while. Just in the context of the anime, you’ve probably seen Gengar, Meowth and Lucario that hang around and act like people. Like if you found out that a Lucario was working at a fast food place and handled your food your reaction wouldn’t be ‘a dog made my burger’ it’d be ‘oh look, what a little guy.’

And it is this Little Guyness that presents questions as the Pokemon in question behave traits that are like, functionally humanlike, and engage with human behaviours which include companionship. There’s a way that you can be integrated into human society if you represent yourself as being part of it – a Miltank can get up and walk to the store and probably pick up a cart, but it has a very different kind of reaction to the space and is going to be treated differently in the place. Even in the range of bodies humans have, there are bodies that are normative for spaces, and that means that a Pokemon that has a body comparable to a humanlike behaviour, with humanlike expressions, is socially gunna be considered a kind of human.

Even though it’s also a Pokemon.

And there’s extra complexity because of how they communicate with humans. If a Meowth can have a day job or a Gengar can run a store, then you’re dealing with people that effectively get to stand in the place of being normative humans and behave like that. They are people. Weird people, but people. That’s cool! Hypothetically it would mean that in the Pokemon universe, human bodies are seen as less normitive, which means that you know, you’re probably less likely to see fat people dehumanised, or people missing limbs or capacities (like hearing or sight!) as if they’re not humans, in the ways that that’s how society is built. The diversity of body types represented by the shapeshifting linguistically nonoperant monster people that live in society is a potential indicator for the body types of humans that society is set up to interface with.

Super interesting. The social is predicated on its exclusions. So what.

But here’s the thing. Here’s why we’re here. Here’s why we’re trying to not mention Smash Or Pass Buneary. This isn’t about whether or not people should be making Pokemon porn because who the hell cares about my opinions on it and it’s not about whether or not I would smash or pass any given Pokemon, given that I am friends with a number and, y’know, probably would, but no instead it’s about this particular strange example.

This entrepeneur.

This grown ass woman.

Sneasler!

Sneasler is in this category of Pokemon Who Are Clearly A Type Of Person, but it’s not from the main games. You haven’t seen it, probably, unless you’ve bought and played Pokemon Legends: Arceus, which is a time travel story set far in the ancient history of the Pokemon world. That’s where we get things like the in-narrative confirmation that Pokemon choose to get into balls, and the ability to shrink down into a ball is a thing Pokemon do to get in the Balls, not a thing that balls do to Pokemon.

And here, Sneasler is running around, looking extremely like a person…

… and in the modern day, Sneasels don’t evolve into Sneaslers any more.

Which is to say that at some point, in history, Sneaslers decided they didn’t want to be considered as hot as they are any more, and that, that’s fascinating to me. What kind of situation prompts Pokemon to give up an evolutionary line, to decide nope, nope, I’m good, I’m done, we’re not going to use that solution available to us.

Which I think means that Sneasler got bored of being treated like a person.

Check it out on PRESS.exe to see it with images and links!

[starr-fall-knight-rise]

Humans are Weird, “Skin, and the sun”

Thought you guys might have missed some of the more humans are weird related Dr. krill writes a medical report stuff. 

Consider this a PSA from Krill to anyone who happens to possess skin 

https://www.patreon.com/empyreaniris?fan_landing=true

https://starr-fall-knight-rise.tumblr.com/post/182501791735/master-post

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1jzEIdDAB4omdO2JcQVMObfrhLJ5kX4ONmSsLypM1ks0/edit?usp=sharing.\

-

The Intergalactic Journal of Xenomedical Biology 

Author: Dr. Krill

ID# 374622

Status: Revision Phase Not Cleared for Publication

Issues - Informal language

I think by this point my contribution to the scientific community is enough to openly acknowledge that I am the universe’s number one leading nonhuman expert in human biology. I have been told it is presumptive to claim that I probably know more than the humans do, so I have been forced to put in “nonhuman expert” against my will.

Human skin is an object of some interest in the xenobiological community. It should hardly be so interesting, considering that every species in the galaxy has skin to some degree or another, but human skin has some interesting qualities I wish to discuss here. 

Human skin is the soft outer layer most visible on the human body, skin tones on a human can range from almost white to almost black with brown and cream comprising the midtones, though despite the color variations the underlying structure remains the same. Now human skin is known, commonly, to have three layers, in its most simple model, as there are other models discussing the layers within the layers, but for the purpose of this paper, I will be discussing the Epidermis, the dermis and the hypodermis.

The skin in general, but especially the epidermis acts as protective barrier, specifically to keep out germs and bacteria from infecting the inner structures of the body. Now, while it is possible for a human to get a skin infection, the sheer fact that they don’t spend their entire lives infected with all the nasty things that they insist on touching is beyond me. I mean humans put their own fingers in their mouths for architect’s sake, and as you know from my previous paper, “A comprehensive analysis on the human mouth.” The fact that they don’t simply dissolve from flesh eating bacteria is a miracle in itself. 

Furthermore, the outer layer creatures new skin cells at a rapid rate. Do not be surprised, when upon acquiring a human, your living space suddenly becomes more dusty. You will be interested to learn that this is the fault of your human companion who cannot help but shed the entirety of their outer dermal layer every thirty days, so if you have a human, and your ship is dusty, simply know that most of that is dead human skin just floating around, absolutely disgusting. Humans can’t go anywhere without leaving little pieces of themselves behind.

Earth is a planet with an open atmosphere and dynamic cloud cover, which allows sunlight, and thus radiation down through its atmosphere and onto the ground. You would think after a thousand years of evolution human skin would do a bang up job of protecting the human in question from radiation burn.

And in fact it does a bang up job. In the same way your granny makes a banging noise as she falls down the stairs. Human skin is absolutely shit at resisting stellar radiation. Now don’t you dare ask a human about this, because you are bound to hear a crock of bullshit come out of their mouths like, “Oh I don’t burn, I tan!” or “My skin is too dark to burn, so I’m good.” 

All bullshit.

Human skin does indeed contain melanin, which is the structure that allows for skin color and tanning. On different parts of earth, different levels of light are allowed through the atmosphere, and over the years this has caused a varying degree of melanin to be distributed throughout the human population. Humans with ancestry that hails from the north, where effects of sunlight are lessened will have naturally pale skin, while humans with ancestry more towards the equator will have darker skin, which is an adaptive response to varying degrees of sunlight.

However, dark skin still does a shit job at protecting from the sun. Yeah sure pale skin is shittier, but shitty and shitteir are pedantic when it comes to the possibility of skin cancer. Research suggests that darker skin humans have a natural SPF (sun protection factor) of 13, while fair skinned people might have half of that.

This may seem like a boon, however, human experts recommend an SPF of at least 30 which is TWICE the amount of natural SPF provided by higher melanin content. But try telling that to a human! You can scream at the top of your lungs all day and the bastards will just insist that they will get a tan instead. Its this diabolical human belief that they are somehow IMMUNE TO THE SUN!!!!? So please, if you must, grab your human and marinade them in sunscreen, no matter how much melanin they happen to possess.

Because of the erroneous belief that darker skin is effective at blocking out UV radiation, Darker skinned humans may be more likely to die of skin cancer than light skinned humans. Light skinned humans are more aware of the dangers, due to their natural proclivity for burning instead of tanning, and the visibility of dermal abnormalities like moles, or freckles. In many cases cancer on darker skinned humans is caught later because of the erroneous belief by both civilians AND medical professionals in some cases, that darker skinned people are not susceptible to skin cancer.

So I don’t care if your human insists they either don’t like or don’t need sunscreen. TO BAD! They are WRONG! And they deserve to be SMACKED. Even a SINGLE sunburn can increase a human’s chance of getting cancer by FIFTY PERCENT. A SINGLE sunburn. Never in my life have I ever met a human who didn’t have at least TWO OR MORE sunburns.

The “I don’t get burned I just tan.” humans are FULL OF SHIT, “Tanning comes as a direct result of SUN DAMAGE. I don’t care how pretty it looks, it is NOT good for you. I had a light skinned human once who fell asleep in the sun and the skin BLISTERED. That is a SECOND degree burn from RADIATION. 

Humans can get SUN POISONING.

MMMmmmmm

The worst part about all this is I can’t even lock the humans under a rock somewhere because humans NEED sunlight in order to get their vitamin D, and without Vitamin D, they could be tired, sore, weak, and may fall into heavy depression. In fact some humans become depressed in seasonal cycles where the sun may not provide them with ENOUGH light.

So apparently humans are INCAPABLE of being happy without getting to stand in the CANCER RAY

I have been stuck with these monstrosities for almost a decade now a decade! And I thought maybe at some point in my life humans would stop making me angry, but it just keeps getting worse!

[transgenderer]

i feel like...ethics (or consequentialism, im not gonna pretend to have any idea what non consequentialist ethics "should" be) should be considered primarily in terms of "what should i do" rather than "how should i feel". you have no moral duty to feel sad about the world being bad, and arguably a soft moral imperative to NOT feel sad about the world being bad (after all, your happiness gets added into the great integral in the sky just as much as anyone else's). thinking about ethics is good (ethically) insofar as it leads you to make better choices. beyond that, it should be recreational (it can be recreational! i *like* thinking about ethics).

anyway so for example being sad about the endless suffering of all the biospheres outside our light cone is very silly. but also, this generalizes. wild animal suffering is, imo, bad, its a huge negative term in that grand integral. but also...i, at least, rate my ability to have a positive effect on wild animal suffering at basically 0. not so much because i cant do anything, obviously you could do lots of stuff that would affect the lives of animals, but because my ability to estimate whether these would be net-positive or net-negative is basically non-existent. if you feel you have a good sense of how anyone could possibly go about measuring the happiness of animals in general, especially wrt summing/comparing unlike species, then...idk, maybe you SHOULD worry about animal ethics, except that i think such certainty, or even like tiny shred of certainty, is probably wrong

anyway, because of this, i dont worry about wild animal ethics. however, the lives of most farmed animals are so comically terrible that the idea that they would be better off not existing in the first place seems pretty obvious. to this end, i dont eat their meat, because i feel like that puts some measurable decrease on the amount produced, or at least a lot of people doing it does, in a weird distributed game theory way, such that when you add it all up and then divide out my portion the result is not nothing. this is maybe bullshit.

[lycomorpha]

Eivor’s herbarium P2: white clover (completed)

'Forage for cattle & beloved by bees - do only they & I notice it’s fragrance? For so humble a plant it’s potent perfume is a marvel. I took some to Randvi & we shared its sweet scent...’

Finally completed the next page in Eivor’s Herbarium - white clover. (Cover page is here, P1 on on the Ravensthorpe marker oak is here)

I wanted the text to reference Randvi and kinda trail off without saying too much... This is one of the first plants Eivor might encounter on arrival in Ravensthorpe, after all. It’s pretty much everywhere in and around the longhouse, settlement, riverbanks, etc.

I was extremely slow to draw the writing on this. After a long gap without working on this, and current chronic pain problems affecting my hands... I was kiiinda irrationally terrified about fucking it up. The writing isn’t even twiddly or exciting - Eivor is a busy vikingr & a botanical hobby is one thing, calligraphy is another. Anyway it’s done. Whew!

Now... Which plant do I do for the next page - the journey to Grantebridge? I have Silver Birch ready to go, maybe that?

Recap: White clover (Trifolium repens)

This small plant is easy to overlook. It has a really amazing scent, but not many ppl notice it, since it’s very close to the ground. There’s a species of moth - the marbled clover - that feeds on it, which I’ve drawn for something else I’m making. A zine about moths of Ravensthorpe - species that Randvi might see drawn to the light while she’s up late working at the alliance table.

This clover is grown as a forage crop for grazing animals, with a long history of agricultural cultivation. It’s super common in pretty much any grassy area here in the UK…

…including in my back yard like this plant.

The individual flowers within each flower head look similar to pea flowers - because it’s a legume (same family as beans and peas.) Probably the only thing I remember about them from biology class is that legumes fix nitrogen via nodules on their roots that contain symbiotic bacteria. Because they add nitrogen to the soil, they reduce the need for fertiliser and improve grazing pastures. So that’s why they’ve historically been an essential crop.

As well as around the settlement of Ravensthorpe, clover is also seen in-game in grassy areas too. It seems to have a fairly realistic distribution! Below it’s mixed in with other wildflowers in meadows…

…and here it’s scattered around this weird deer-skeleton-bees-nest-honeycomb… thing? (I am as confused as the person in the pic tbh.)

You can also see some white clover on the cover page for Eivor’s herbarium below.

The easiest place to find it in game is right outside the Ravensthorpe longhouse.

[alphynix]

Cambrian Explosion #61: Crustacea – Little Wigglers

We're finally at the end of this series, and to finish off let's look at one of the few types of Cambrian true crustaceans that are known only from fully mature adults: the skaracarids.

These tiny soft-bodied meiofaunal animals are known from late Cambrian areas of "Orsten-type preservation" in Sweden and South China, with a possible additional fragmentary occurrence in Poland – suggesting that they had a global distribution.

Three different species have been described, with Skara anulata from the Swedish Orsten Lagerstätte (~497 million years ago) being the largest of them.

It was still minuscule even as an adult, just 1.5mm long (0.06"), and had an eyeless head with a small protrusion at the front tip that may have been some sort of sensory organ. It had five pairs of appendages on its head and one pair at the front of its body, with most of them bearing long dense spines along their edges, then the rest of its long body was limbless and ended in a forked "tail".

With its spiny limbs it would have been a filter-feeder, probably swimming just above the seafloor and either sifting out suspended particles from the water or brushing along the surface of the sediment to stir up organic matter and microbial biofilms from the mud.

The skaracarids exact evolutionary relationships are uncertain, although they've been proposed to be related to either the copepods or the oligostracan crustaceans, particularly the mystacocarids and the fish lice.

———

There's still a lot of murkiness in the crustaceans' Cambrian fossil record, and disputes over the arthropod evolutionary tree in general, so there's plenty of room for future discoveries to give us some interesting surprises.

And one day, probably not even that far in the the future, everything I've written and illustrated for this series will be just as ridiculously outdated as the bizarre old reconstructions of Hallucigenia and the hypotheses about the Burgess Shale "weird wonders" all representing near-alien "failed" branches of life with no living relatives.

I can't wait to see what weird things we discover next.

———

Nix Illustration | Tumblr | Twitter | Patreon

[thenativetank]

Surf’s Up! Coastal Topminnows for the Home Aquarium

So I’ll level with you - the North American Topminnows (Fundulidae) are a large family of fish, at least for the purposes of this page. There’s over 40 species in it and all are native to North America and there’s a wide range of temperaments, sizes, and water quality requirements. So what’s a Tumblr user to do? I’m going to split it up a bit into some nice edible chunks. Today I’ll be focusing on those species you can find along our Pacific and Atlantic Coasts.

Species

Fundulidae (Topminnows) is one of the 10 families in the order Cyprinodontiformes (Toothcarps) along with Poeciliidae (Livebearers), Cyprinodontidae (Pupfishes), Rivulidae (Rivulines, New World Killifish), and Aplocheilidae (Killifish). There are 3 genera; Fundulus with 39 species, Lucania with 3 species, and Leptolucania with a single species. Below are the species you are likely to find around the coasts of the U.S:

Fundulus confluentus - Marsh Killifish

Fundulus grandis - Gulf Killifish

Fundulus heteroclitus - Mummichog [pictured]

Fundulus jenkinsi - Saltmarsh Topminnow

Fundulus luciae - Spotfin Killifish

Fundulus majalis - Striped Killifish

Fundulus parvipinnis - California Killifish

Fundulus pulvereus - Bayou Killifish

Fundulus similis - Longnose Killifish

Fundulus xenicus - Diamond Killifish

Lucania parva - Rainwater Killifish

There are a few other species which, on weird or rare occasions may be found in the coast, especially where freshwater or brackish bodies of water empty into the ocean. The Banded Killifish (F. diaphanus) is one such case. But the above species are the ones you are more likely to find.

Finding these for sale in your typical aquarium store will probably be difficult. Very few of the Topminnows make it into the trade; the Diamond Killifish is probably the most common. Mummichogs are more sold as laboratory fish, but on very rare cases might be sold in stores. If you want one of the above fish, you will probably need to catch it yourself or special order online.

Conservation Status

Only one species in the above is considered Vulnerable by the IUCN, and that’s the Saltmarsh Topminnow. The rest are considered Least Concerned, overall. Do keep in mind that certain states may have their own designation; research and keep in mind before you do any collecting.

Distribution

In the northern Atlantic, you’re more likely to find Spotfin Killifish, Mummichogs, Striped Killifish, and Rainwater Killifish.

In the southern Atlantic, the local species are the Marsh Killifish, Striped Killifish, Mummichogs, Bayou Killifish, Longnose Killifish, and Rainwater Killifish.

In the gulf of Mexico, you can find the following species: Marsh Killifish, Gulf Killifish, Striped Killifish, Saltmarsh Topminnow, Bayou Killifish, Diamond Killifish, and Rainwater Killifish.

As implied by the name, the California Killifish is the only species found on the Pacific Coast.

Some of these species can be found inland as well, such as the California Killifish, Mummichog, and Gulf Killifish. Though they might make occasional forays into freshwater systems, you’re most likely to find them in brackish or salt water.

Description

Topminnows are, as a whole, elongated fish that usually stay small. At the lowest end are Rainwater and Diamond Killifish that are closest to 1.5 inches, while Striped and Gulf Killifish have been caught around 7 inches - females for both. Any of the above species are unlikely to exceed 3 or 4 inches if caught small and raised in an aquarium setting. Most of the above species are subdued in coloration; many have bars (faint or solid) and/or spots along the body. But a few are also a pretty solid silvery color. As with other Killifish, they do appear to have regional “variants” depending on where they are caught. The Mummichog shown was captured in Virginia.

Taken as a whole, Topminnows are more territorial than aggressive on average. They will push other fish out of their turf but don’t typically continue to chase tankmates once they have fled. Actual aggression does depend a bit, though, on the species. Diamond Killifish and Rainwater Killifish are very mellow and my experience with Mummichogs are that they are usually forgiving of other species. If you have the room, these species all do great given groups of conspecifics (Mummichog originally translates as “going in crowds”) - when found in the wild along a coastline, you can see them group together. But it also depends on tank size. In smaller tanks, a singleton is just fine.

Keep in mind there is a vast gulf between the easier and more difficult species to keep. Mummichogs are tough as rocks and can handle less than stellar conditions for long periods of time (not that you should submit them to this), while Rainwater Killifish and Striped Killifish adapt poorly to captive conditions and get easily banged up during transit. Reports seem to indicate most species are more on the difficult side, but I imagine this is partly a misunderstanding of required conditions, feeding habits, and tankmates, as Diamond Killifish are reported by some to be hard to keep - but a breeze by others.

Looking for native companions? Find yourself some peaceful or not-especially-boisterous fish from the same areas. Consider some of our coastal flatfish (like Achirus lineatus or Trinectes maculatus), smaller livebearers (Eastern Mosquitofish or Sailfin Mollies), our native Gobies (Gobiosoma bosc, Gobioides brousenetti), or maybe salt-tolerant Sticklebacks. You might be tempted to keep with Sheepshead Minnows, which also appear in the same range for many of these, but I would only do so in tanks 55 gallons or more (and only with larger species) because the Pupfish are much more pugnacious. The same can be said about our native Stegastes spp. Damselfish. And as always - keep in mind these fish are on the bottom of the food chain and they know it. They are an easy meal for medium-and-larger predatory fish, so keep them separate.

As the name implies, these fish mostly inhabit the top of the tank, searching for floating morsels to eat. They are great hiders if given some floating or tall decor - I personally like tall fake plants as our native seagrasses are delicate/finnicky (and oftentimes protected).

Feeding

For the few species I have tried, these fish seem to be very easy to feed. Dried Foods (flakes and pellets), frozen foods (brine shrimp, mysis shrimp, bloodworms, “marine” mixes), and live foods are all relished. They take to prepared foods right away - they push to be at the front of the chow line no matter what you feed. I’ve caught Mummichogs that began trusting me explicitly after the first offering of food.

A bit of an exception is the Diamond Killifish, which in the wild is omnivorous but grazes on algae and plant life for most of it’s sustenance. In this respect they are very similar to Mollies and should be fed accordingly; use an algae-based prepared food as a base, but supplement with higher protein foods occasionally. I would highly recommend adding them to an existing, established tank which already has sources for them to graze on.

Water Quality

Let’s start with the general traits - these fish all need hard water to do well; ideally at pH 7.5 but as high as 8.5. You will not have success with them in soft water conditions. While you’d think they might like high water movement, given their status as coastal fish, many are found around reedy areas where the water is calmer. I’d use a tank turnover of 6 to 8 times the tank volume per hour (as with many other common fish).

Water temperature is dependent on the species and where they hail from. Most fish in the northern part of the U.S. are fine without a heater, provided the water stays around 65-70 F. Ones in the southern part of the range will need something warmer, 72-77 F is fine for most species, maybe 77-80 F for those caught in the southern parts of Florida.

Brackish Suitability

These fish are brackish water superstars. With one exception (below), each of these are shown as occurring in brackish waters in the wild, and many as also being found in freshwater. Take that with a grain of salt (har har); even those species which are tolerant of long-term freshwater do better in brackish conditions. Most species can tolerate 1.005-1.025 long term, but many do better at 1.010 or higher. When in doubt, bring your hydrometer when collecting!

The only exception is the Longnose Killifish, which Fishbase notes is only found in Marine conditions (somewhat of an oversimplification; I have seen them in brackish waters). I would keep them above 1.015, and ideally closest to 1.020-1.025.

Tank Size

For smaller species, I’d start off with 20 gallons (though I’ve previously noted 10 is fine for a pair of Diamond Killies). The majority of species will be between 3 to 5 inches - these are better kept in 29 gallons (at the low end of this scale) to 55 gallons (the upper end). Bigger is always better, though, which holds doubly true for the Striped Killifish, which is both big and sensitive to poor water conditions. I’d have a hard time suggesting below 75 gallons for those and think 100 is a better starting point.

Breeding

Can be done, sure. Breeding of killifish is well documented, even our native Fundulid ones. At least for some of the species, increasing the water temperature by 5-ish degrees and providing a mop to deposit eggs is often enough. Eggs normally hatch quickly, within a week or two, and there is no parental care following hatching. Look into specific species if you are interested in this.

It’s worth noting that some Fundulus species can interbreed. I’m not sure which of the above can or can’t produce hybrids, but it’s worth keeping in mind if you keep mixed species within a single tank.

Final Thoughts

I love Topminnows of the family Fundulidae and they rank among my favorite native fishes. They are interesting behaviorally, eager eaters, generally peaceful, and locally abundant. I am, however, also aware that many of these fishes are difficult to keep and don’t tolerate captivity too well.

My advice - stick to well known species (Mummichogs and Diamonds), put them in cycled and long established tanks, feed a variety of foods, and put them with peaceful tankmates. Even if you do want to branch out with other species (and who can resist!) I would probably avoid F. majalis.

Sources

Our Native Fishes, John R. Quinn

North American Fishes for the Home Aquarium, David M. Schlesser

(Image Source: me!)

[homestuckexamination]

So, since the kids are related, are the trolls related as well? Are all the trolls on Derse and Prospit respectively related with each other, or are they related in groups of 2/3?

I've mentioned this before, but it's complex and really weird. Basically, the Trolls have four vats in the Ecto-lab, of 6 vials each. This means a total of 24 goo combos. This makes sense, because Trolls' genetic material is apparently different depending on them being with a Red or Black Partner. We don't know whether they are distributed something like, "Every black Prospit material, every red Prospit material" etc, or if they're "3 Prospit, 3 Derse" per vat, so it's impossible to tell what mixes fall into the mixer beneath when the process is activated. The Beta Trolls are clones of themselves so they're all unique and not related to each other, and the Dancestors are the ones made from a genetic slurry mix, so the minimum amount of Trolls each Dancestor would be 'related' to would be 3, and it's likely they'd be related to 6 of the Beta Trolls.

Now here's the kicker: None of this actually matters, because if Ectobiology follows the typical genetic relation of the species it replicates, despite all of this NONE Of them are actually related, not even direct descendency that shares a caste, because Mother Grubs lay so many eggs and there's so many generations of Trolls that it's considered extremely rare and almost unprecedented for two Trolls with the same sign to be alive at the same time, as Vriska mentioned with Mindfang. If we take Hiveswap as a measure of time, let's say both Earth and Alternia are displaced in the past one 'Parental Generation' of Trolls. On Earth, there's actually like, a year or something left until Jade lands. On Alternia, as seen in Pesterquest, HUNDREDS of years have passed between the Friendsim Trolls and the Beta Trolls. This is ONE Generation, Ancestors would be on the level of the Guardians, not Joey, meaning at least the equivalent of two Alternian Generations, and probably even more because Ancestors are basically seen as figures of MYTH on Alternia. So taking aaaall of that into account, it's entirely possible the Dancestors are related to the Beta Trolls in the same way you would be related to like... Genghis Khan.