#Tumour Day

[coldarena]

hate to see a crazy bitch get domesticated

[pushing500]

The brothers are going to be. So. Upset. When they get back and find out what's happened, right?

Sure, they'd be upset and more than a little angry and frustrated, but not for very long. It's not Alistair's fault he's a shit babysitter, and the Jones Boys can never be mad at Ivy for too long. She'll probably be comforted with chocolate, hugs, and her cat.

Mechi and Kwahu will probably vow not to leave the colony again without calling XiaoLiang, Flapjack, Melissa, or someone else to watch Ivy first. Or they'll wait until Alistair awakens.

[blood-orange-juice]

Ok, Childe as a wuxia/xianxia trope. It's honestly a bit embarrassing how well this fits.

(blame @a-yarn-of-purple-prose for this post and if anyone here is a wuxia fan feel free to correct me, I'm new to the genre)

Wuxia is a Chinese martial arts fantasy genre you are all familiar with. An adjacent genre is called xianxia, "immortal heroes", it ramps all the fantasy elements up to eleven and skews tropes a bit (we'll get back to that).

A common trope is some kind of unorthodox school/sect or technique, allowing to achieve greater power without the usual decades of training. It could be straight-out evil or just revolving around chaos.

Such a martial school is usually called an evil/demonic sect (sect is more like a clan in that setting, not the modern concept of sect) and their techniques tend to drive practitioners to insanity. Either because they are inherently corrupting or because getting too much power without growing as a person is really not the best thing for your mental health. They are also often cast from hp points.

And then there's the archetype of a demonic sect heir. The best pupil or simply someone who has inherited a lost art. Proud, always greedy for more strength, often noble in some weird way.

*points to our calamity of a boy*

Common elements of such stories include:

Falling into some weird realm or meeting a weird person who teaches the hero a Forbidden Technique

Learning a technique too quickly through some sort of magic/alchemy/memory manipulation

Some people are so singular in their pursuit they become insane (走火入魔)

Ambition bad, loyalty and family good

Conflicting loyalties, generally a conflict between a chosen path and personal weaknesses/attachments (could be both ego and familal love, and this is more of a xianxia trope)

Fits like a horoscope so far but wait.

There's a very interesting case of Korean murim genre (their version of wuxia) where sects are less varied (I recommend this post for a basic introduction) and we get three paths:

Justice/Righteous/Orthodox/Light — theoretically they keep the Evil Faction at bay, and protect innocent people, but usually are corrupt to the core

Evil/Unorthodox/Dark — these try gaining as much power as possible and attempt ruling the whole world

Demonic Cult — usually dont take part in evil and justice battles, follow their own code of conduct based on their religion, value strength above all else.

(I'm sure there's a similar distinction in wuxia too, I just can't find it in the deluge of lore)

"Demonic" is closer to "pagan" or "heathen" than Christian idea of demonic here, their beliefs are often based on Zoroastrianism and worshipping a sacred flame. Do you remember all the Persian themes used for Khaenri'ah? And Surtalogi being the flame on Surtr's sword in Norse mythology. I also had the impression that Genshin gnostic references are based on the Zoroastrian-flavoured branch of Gnosticism.

In murim the trope of demonic sect heir is called "heavenly demon" (I believe, a more correct translation would be "supreme heathen"), they are utterly badass, live for the glory of battle, seem more like forces of nature and follow a very strict honour code often conflicting with normal human ethics.

(do I need to spell it out)

TvTropes also says this about Korean stories:

(do I need to spell it out pt.2)

I'm not sure why a Chinese studio would focus on the Korean version of this trope but I'm sure something like this exists in China as well or maybe there's a popular manhwa that inspired authors.

Xianxia extends the fantastic element further, focusing on Taoist concepts and practices and adding all kinds of magical realms (celestial, demonic, etc) and magical beings and making immortality achievable. I still need to read more about it but if I understand that right, demonic heir trope turns into a demon prince in this case. An actual visitor from the demon realm or a practitioner who achieved immortality through dubious means.

These are fae-coded in a way very similar to Childe and have a certain nonchalance towards things most humans would consider traumatic. They are simply not bothered by them, having a different set of morals or faring from a realm that is much worse.

Our boy isn't that (he's still very much human) but he's aesthetically coded like one, same as Scaramouche is yokai-coded, despite not being a yokai.

So. When people say Childe's arc is a reference to Journey to the West, it's not entirely untrue, JttW is the classic of xianxia genre and Childe does belong to the same genre. He, however, is not Sun Wukong but a different, darker trope.

This also explains why he has that "shonen anime protag but not quite" vibe. Shonen was heavily influenced by wuxia but this trope never quite made it to anime or maybe never became popular enough. It's not a deconstruction, it's a different story. Or perhaps a deconstruction of that different story.

[melrosing]

thiiiink we might be in the last stage of my dad’s cancer journey and im feeling

[bpod-bpod]

Seeing Progress

Glioblastoma (GBM) is the most intractable and fatal type of brain tumour and models to aid study towards better treatment are urgently needed. Here, a genetically-relevant zebrafish model of aggressive human GBM which, thanks to the transparency of the developing fish body, enables live imaging and presents a means of high-throughput genetic and molecular manipulations towards therapeutic discovery

Read the published research article here

Today – 17th July 2024 – is Glioblastoma Awareness Day

Read here about the OurBrainBank initiative, the research and data collection community with a mission to turn GBM from terminal to treatable

Image from work by Alex Weiss and colleagues

Developmental and Stem Cell Biology Program, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Canada

Image originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Published in eLife (reviewed reprint), July 2024

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[metalchairz]

Happy 10/25! I very sketchily drew some random points during Cascade. Let me know if you have a favourite :^)

First, the Heir of Breath creating the Scratch on the Beat Mesa. Second, Exile-era Earth with the control modules set to explode, Red Miles in the background. Third, Bec Jack Noir overlooking Jade’s questbed as he is about to lay her to rest there on LOFAF. Fourth, Dave and Rose in the core of Derse’s moon, deploying the Tumour. Fifth, Peregrine Mendicant discovering the Ring while dragging a fatally injuries Wayward Vagabond. Lastly, the enlarged Fenestrated Window (or Fourth Wall) that the Witch of Space is preparing to launch a Prospitian Battleship through.

[glorious-blackout]

Only have two shifts remaining in my Emergency Medicine block and I honestly don't think I've ever been sadder about the prospect of finishing a work placement 😢

[silverislander]

actually i am going to elaborate on that psychoanalyzing blorbo post from days ago lol. long story short i've been trying since abt september to kind of start getting my shit together, maybe get into some kind of club or hobby that will help me work on my anxiety, maybe do some bucket list kind of stuff i've been putting off. and then last month mom got diagnosed w breast cancer

my Consistent response to things going wrong in my life is avoidance, isolating myself and trying to repress shit, so i gave up on all of those plans immediately bc i felt like it would put strain on my family and i started trying my best to focus on literally anything else bc i have shit to do + people/a job that needs me + i really couldn't face the reality of it right away

and that news came literally days after act 1 aired. so watching caitlyn then go on to try to repress any and all of her emotions/wants in favour of trying to be the person she believes everyone around her wants her to be and seeing exactly how badly that fucks up her life. felt extremely fucking pointed let me fucking tell you

[carrotcakecrumble]

i want socialism and a systematic dismantling of the patriarchy and a sugar cube mounted on my wall that I am able to nibble at my leisure and those are my campaign policies mr president prime minister sir !

[music-for-fuckers]

[theladyrebecca2]

When you receive good news and the weight of the world falls from your shoulders…

[normalcannibalism]

my brain is not good rn

[pushing500]

I really want to see Henry's (the little hussar) reaction to the fact, he has the exact same name as a eldritch-tumor hand tentacle attached to a tiny girl. I think he would be a little bit offended.

I think Henry might be a teeny bit overprotective of his name, yeah. He maybe wouldn't mind if someone named a baby after him, or maaaybe even a beloved pet, but a horrible squirming eldritch flesh whip?? No thank you!!

Fortunately, Andy can help him simmer down if the thought gets him too riled up and his Hussar's hyper-aggressive gene starts to kick in...

[artielotl]

sometimes i love healthy anxiety because i find such creative ways to link symptoms together

[cyanocoraxx]

baby girl forever

[bingsoo-jung]

You know what infuriates me from classicists? When people talk about the inheritance of the Greek and Latin literary and theatre traditions they always jump to the ascetic halls of European universities, and fucking cut out the Persians and Arabics and Andalusian Spain and literally all of the Islamic world. Like no! The French didn’t invent courtly fucking love you buffoons! They don’t have shit on Ibn Sina’s Treatise on Love, you just are cowards who didn’t read it.