#US delta variant

[seasons-greetings-pkmn]

Do regional variants have anything to do with Delta typing, or are they something unrelated?

As far as current research goes, they are unrelated. Regional variants happen when a species adapts to a new environment.

Delta Pokemon, based on current research, seem to happen due to a large influx of different Type energy to an Egg before hatching. Delta Pokemon can breed true with the help of an Everstone, but their existance isn't due to environmental adaptation.

It's also possible for a large influx of Type energy to cause the birth of a different regional variant than normal. There are ongoing studies on how Type energy can mimic environmental factors and influence the birth of regional variants, but Type energy influence is not inherently tied to regional variants the way it is to Delta Pokemon.

In that vein, Nat Shadow Pokemon are a form of Delta Pokemon. It's actually especially interesting because it can induce Delta typing in Pokemon that have already hatched, which is an atypical phenomenon.

Mira, my Mightyena, may actually be a regional variant. I'll find out when I do my planned breeding project with her, because if she's a regional variant as I expect, that will be immediately obvious in the typing of her offspring. She has minor appearence differences from a normal shiny Mightyena, which could be an indicator of a new bloodline variation of the Mightyena species.

[iicraft505]

throat hurting is one of the worst symptoms end my suffering

[memoryoflooping]

my verdict on pfq is that this sucks so fucking bad. i made my account in 2020 and only now i can say i'm having fun bc i can shiny hunt and stuff way more effectively. doing stuff like tr as a solo player sucked so fucking bad (three months ago i was on dragon tr and i couldn't fucking shiny or albino hunt. i couldn't hunt until fucking july), and i don't even wanna hunt the cool specials bc w the revamps they will just. completely change the fucking colors, so if you liked a albino or melan the way it was you might as well die. do not even get me started on this shelter systemmmm bc like wym "The Shelter should remain an incredibly inefficient way to find Exclusives/Variants, whether that be for initially Dexing them, or for breeding extras to adopt through there" like how the fuck do you hunt them then?????

[reasonsforhope]

I'm sorry I'm sending so many asks. I've been struggling like this for a year now, and it's barely gotten easier, but you've often been a good help with my anxiety. I really appreciate everything you do. It's hard to have hope.

I've had a really bad moment again recently. I have to be honest, the worst thing, that makes me the most anxious out of everything else, is COVID. Because it feels like nobody is paying attention, and that there is no good news. There is never any good news. COVID is always the catalyst for the worst of my anxious slumps. It's really bad. COVID is very, very scary. If you somehow have anything for that, I'd be thankful. Often I've only been able to set my heart on nasal vaccines, or next gen vaccines in general, but they're not going fast enough whatsoever.

I'm sorry, again. I don't want to try and treat you like a therapist. I just trust you. If this is too overwhelming, you can just delete it, but if you do, I'd like to know. Just so I'm not waiting for it to be answered.

I just ravaged through someone's doomy collapse blog, again, after stumbling on it in my rising anxiousness, and it was not good. I think I'm clearly too open-minded of a person to some degree, and I feel so pulled around by information that I see. I don't want to be placated, out of the loop, or lied to, but I don't want to feel hopelessly depressed. Everything is too complex. I feel like I've been through this maze, top to bottom, over and over again, and again. I just wish I knew how much truth their words held, or anyone else's words held.

And I wish we were all masking, at the very least. I'm holding myself back from swearing. I don't know if you'd have a good way to counteract general "collapse" thoughts, either. But that's also a thing.

<3 I'm touched by your trust.

I just found some good news about COVID - the first genuinely good covid-related news article I've seen in a while, instead of all of the "ah but young abled people are fine!" bs - and remembered this ask.

"As new varieties of the coronavirus took center stage during the COVID-19 pandemic, the odds of developing long COVID dropped. Those who were vaccinated against the virus saw the biggest plunge over time.

For every 1,000 unvaccinated people, 104 developed long COVID up to one year after an infection during the pre-delta phase of the pandemic. That fell to 95 per 1,000 during the delta variant’s era and 78 during omicron’s reign. Among vaccinated people, just 53 out of 1,000 developed long COVID up to a year after infection during delta and only 35 during omicron, researchers report July 17 [2024] in the New England Journal of Medicine.

The study of U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Health Care System data looked at people who had a COVID infection from March of 2020 — the month the pandemic began — to the end of January in 2022. The researchers, from the Veterans Affairs St. Louis Health Care System, compared the rates of long COVID during three phases of the pandemic among those who had and had not gotten vaccinated...

A comparison of omicron infections with infections from prior eras found that 72 percent of the drop in the long COVID rate during omicron was attributable to vaccines. The remainder was due to changes in the virus and improvements in medical care and the use of antiviral treatments during the omicron phase.

Even with the steep decline in the occurrence of long COVID for vaccinated people, there is still a risk, the researchers write. With “the large numbers of ongoing new infections and reinfections, and the poor uptake of vaccination,” they continue, this “may translate into a high number of persons” with long COVID."

-via ScienceNews, July 17, 2024

--

Masking continues to be important. The virus continues to be a problem. But especially given the decline in masking, I'm really encouraged to see this news. Because long covid IS scary. And I'll take any good news on this front that I can get.

It's especially encouraging because it shows how much staying on top of your vaccinations really does matter and really can prevent long covid.

I'm also really hopeful (though I don't have a related background and have no idea how realistic my hopes are) that this trend has been continuing past the end of the study (2022).

[covid-safer-hotties]

New COVID Variant XEC May Outpace Others This Fall - Published Sept 18, 2024

"The virus is always going to be mutating away from what it was in order to get more efficient at infecting individuals," Adalja said. "So I think this really highlights the fact that a universal COVID vaccine, or some vaccine with different technologies, perhaps a nasal vaccine and using mucosal immunity, all of those things are important."

What if, get this, we prevented covid cases by improving ventilation, mandating air filtration, and wearing masks in public? Wouldn't that accomplish the same goal right now? Every mutation takes us further away from the current scientific fantasy of a universal covid vaccine. We have to stop cases to make this dream a reality.

by Sophie Putka

The new COVID-19 variant XEC may overtake others in circulation to become dominant in the coming months, experts said, but will not prompt a meaningful change in symptoms or vaccine response.

So far, the CDC's variant proportions tracker has not registered enough cases of XEC in the U.S. to report it. (The agency's projected estimates for the 2 weeks ending in September 14 currently show KP.3.1.1 and KP.2.3 as the leading variants, with 52.7% and 12.2% of national cases, respectively.) Another estimate using data from the variant tracker GISAID has XEC at 1.11% of U.S. cases as of September 15, with around 48 sequences reported.

First detected in Germany in June, it's been found mostly in Central Europe, representing 10% of cases, according to the U.K.'s Science Media Centre.

"XEC represents a fairly minor evolution relative to the SARS-CoV-2 diversity currently in circulation, and is not a highly derived novel variant such as those that were granted Greek letters," like Alpha, Delta, and Omicron, Francois Balloux, PhD, a computational biologist at University College London and director of the UCL Genetics Institute, said in a Science Media Centre statement.

Experts noted that while XEC may have a small advantage in transmission, available vaccines are still likely to provide protection from serious illness.

XEC is a "recombinant variant of some of the other Omicron lineages that have been around for a while, and it does appear to be more immune evasive, giving it a transmissibility advantage in the population with the immunity that it has," Amesh Adalja, MD, of the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security in Baltimore, told MedPage Today. "But it doesn't really change anything, just like the last variant didn't change anything, or the one before that, one before that, or the one before that."

Currently available COVID vaccines target slightly different subvariants. The updated mRNA shots aimed at KP.2 from Pfizer-BioNTech (Comirnaty) and Moderna (Spikevax), as well as Novavax's vaccine targeting the JN.1 variant lineage, are still protective against the most serious consequences of COVID infections, experts said.

"If this becomes a dominant variant, it will decrease the efficacy against infection of the updated vaccines, but the updated vaccines will still be durable against severe disease [and] hospitalization, and that's what is really the primary function of our current, first-generation COVID vaccines," Adalja said.

Still, he emphasized, the rapid mutation of the virus underscores a need for a different kind of vaccine than those currently available if the goal is to protect against infection rather than just severe disease.

"The virus is always going to be mutating away from what it was in order to get more efficient at infecting individuals," Adalja said. "So I think this really highlights the fact that a universal COVID vaccine, or some vaccine with different technologies, perhaps a nasal vaccine and using mucosal immunity, all of those things are important."

[thelampisaflashlight]

The ghouls, but specifically stuff about the water/water hybrids ghouls. Let's go.

-Due to the instability of his vessel, Water, the first ghoul to hold the bass position in the band, was destroyed by his own magic, and thus returned to the pit.

His successor, Lake, and Lake's subsequent replacement, River, also succumbed to this same issue, but, after an unfortunate amount of trial and error, the ministry was able to create their first viable water ghoul; Delta.

However, until Mist's summoning not long after, the ministry could not confirm whether or not they truly fixed the issue or not, as Delta was a hybrid, leading to the false conclusion that his quintessence magic kept him from succumbing to his water side.

-It's largely Delta's fault that there's a tradition of "bullying the new guy" among the band ghouls, generally speaking, but especially in regards to new water ghouls.

Delta teased Mist, Mist teased Dew... and then Delta decided to tease Dew, too.

Rain managed to escape this particular hazing ritual largely because Delta enjoyed teasing Dew more than him, and because Dew elected to go the, "I don't want to talk to you." route instead.

-Since leaving the band, Delta has been more in-tune with his quintessence side, and so he has taken up a position in the abbey's infirmary as part of the medical staff.

This is the only place where his antics involving Dew/teasing him are strictly not allowed, a rule which he respects due to his want to retain his job.

He also does not use any of Dew's -or anyone's- health information in his jokes, as even he thinks that would be crossing a line.

-Mist and Rain are saltwater variant ghouls, whereas Delta and Dew are freshwater, with their secondary subcategories...

Mist-Abyssopelagic Zone (The Abyss) variant, Rain-Mesopelagic Zone (The Twilight Zone) variant, Dew-Tundra/Plains Hybrid variant, Delta-Wetland/Temperate Forest Hybrid variant.

...This basically means they're all water, but their relationship with it is very different.

Mist's water magic is survival/instinct based, meaning it is used predominantly for hunting, whereas Rain's is used more so for camouflaging him, allowing him to glamour himself more readily than others.

Since Delta and Dew are hybrids, their magic is a bit more specific in terms of which form they have the most control of it in.

Delta can only manipulate freshwater containing dirt and debris, meaning he's good at removing impurities from water and cleaning it/cleansing wounds, which makes him an excellent addition to the medical staff.

And Dew can... Dew can make ice? Act like a humidifier?

...Yeah, he kind of got the short end of the stick on that one.

And lastly;

-The water ghouls all have a pact that if anyone messes with one of them, then they're all obligated to jump said person, no further questions asked.

One witness to such an event heard the "victim" shouting, "THE BITCHES HAVE UNIONIZED!" and indeed, indeed they had.

[mengjue]

What's Happening in China? The November 2022 Protests

Hello! I know that there's so much going on in the world right now, so not everyone may be aware of what is happening in China right now. I thought that I would try to write a brief explainer, because the current wave of protests is truly unprecedented in the past 30+ years, and there is a lot of fear over what may happen next. For context, I'm doing this as someone who has a PhD in Asian Studies specialising in contemporary Chinese politics, so I don't know everything but I have researched China for many years.

I'll post some decent links at the end along with some China specialists & journalists I follow on Twitter (yeah I know, but it's still the place for the stuff at the moment). Here are the bullet points for those who just want a brief update:

Xi Jinping's government is still enacting a strict Zero Covid policy enforced by state surveillance and strict lockdowns.

On 24 November a fire in an apartment in Urumqi, Xinjiang province, killed 10. Many blamed strict quarantine policies on preventing evacuation.

Protests followed and have since spread nationwide.

Protesters are taking steps not seen since Tiananmen in 1989, including public chants for Xi and the CCP to step down.

Everyone is currently unsure how the government will respond.

More in-depth discussion and links under the cut:

First a caveat: this is my own analysis/explanation as a Chinese politics specialist. I will include links to read further from other experts and journalists. Also, this will be quite long, so sorry about that!

China's (aka Xi Jinping's) Covid Policy:

The first and most important context: Xi has committed to a strict Zero Covid policy in China, and has refused to change course. Now, other countries have had similar approaches and they undoubtedly saved lives - I was fortunate to live in New Zealand until this year, and Prime Minister Ardern's Zero Covid approach in 2020-2021 helped protect many. The difference is in the style/scope of enforcement, the use of vaccines, and the variant at play. China has stepped up its control on public life over the past 10 years, and has used this to enforce strict quarantine measures without full regard to the impact on people's lives - stories of people not getting food were common. Quarantine has also become a feared situation, as China moves people to facilities often little better than prisons and allegedly without much protection from catching Covid within. A personal friend in Zhengzhou went through national, then provincial, then local quarantines when moving back from NZ, and she has since done her best to avoid going back for her own mental and physical health. Xi has also committed China to its two home-grown vaccines, Sinovac and Sinopharm, both of which have low/dubious efficacy and are considered ineffective against new variants. Finally, with delta and then omicron most of the Zero-Covid countries have modified their approach due to the inability to maintain zero cases. China remains the only country still enacting whole-city eradication lockdowns, and they have become more frequent to the point that several are happening at any given time. The result is a population that is incredibly frustrated and losing hope amidst endless lockdowns and perceived ineffectiveness to address the pandemic.

Other Issues at Play:

Beyond the Covid situation, China is also wrestling with the continued slowdown in its economic growth. While its economic rise and annual GDP growth was nigh meteoric from the 80s to the 00s, it has been slowing over the past ten years, and the government is attempting to manage the transition away from an export-oriented economy to a more fully developed one. However, things are still uncertain, and Covid has taken its toll as it has elsewhere the past couple of years. Youth unemployment in particular is reaching new highs at around 20%, and Xi largely ignored this in his speech at the Party Congress in October (where he entered an unprecedented third term). As a result of the perceived uselessness of China's harsh work culture and its failure to result in a better life, many young Chinese have been promoting 躺平 tǎng píng or "lying flat", aka doing the bare minimum just to get by (similar to the English "quiet quitting"). The combination of economic issues and a botched Covid approach is important, as these directly affect the lives of ordinary middle-class Chinese, and historical it has only been when this occurred that mass movements really took off. The most famous, Tiananmen in 1989, followed China's opening up economic reforms and the dismantling of many economic safety nets allowing for growing inequality. While movements in China often grow to include other topics, having a foundation in something negatively impacting the average Han Chinese person's livelihood is important.

The Spark - 24 Nov 2022 Urumqi Apartment Fire:

The current protests were sparked by a recent fire that broke out in a flat in Urumqi, capital of the Xinjiang province. (This is the same Xinjiang that is home to the Uighur people, against whom China has enacted a campaign of genocide and cultural destruction.) The fire occurred in the evening and resulted in 10 deaths, which many online blamed on the strict lockdown measures imposed by officials, who prevented people from leaving their homes. It even resulted in a rare public apology by city officials. However, with anger being so high nationwide, in addition to many smaller protests that have occurred over the past two years, this incident has ignited a nationwide movement.

The Protests and Their Significance:

The protests that have broken out over the past couple of days representing the largest and most significant challenge to the leadership since the 1989 Tiananmen movement. Similar to that movement, these protests have occurred at universities and cities across the country, with many students taking part openly. This scale is almost unseen in China, particularly for an anti-government protest. Other than Tiananmen in 1989, the most widespread movements that have occurred have been incidents such as the protest of the 1999 Belgrade bombings or the 2005 and then 2012 anti-Japanese protests, all of which were about anger toward a foreign country.

Beyond the scale the protests are hugely significant in their message as well. Protesters are publicly shouting the phrases "习近平下台 Xí Jìnpíng xiàtái!" and "共产党 下台 Gòngchǎndǎng xiàtái!", which mean "Xi Jinping, step down/resign!" and "CCP, step down/resign!" respectively. To shout a direct slogan for the government to resign is unheard of in China, particularly as Xi has tightened control of civil society. And people are doing this across the country in the thousands, openly and in front of police. This is a major challenge for a leader and party who have prioritised regime stability as a core interest for the majority of their history.

Looking Ahead:

Right now, as of 15:00 Australian Eastern time on Monday, 28 November 2022, the protests are only in their first couple of days and we are unsure as to how the government will respond. Police have already been seen beating protesters and journalists and dragging them away in vehicles. However, in many cases the protests have largely been monitored by police but still permitted to occur. There seems to be uncertainty as to how they want to respond just yet, and as such no unified approach.

Many potential outcomes exist, and I would warn everyone to be careful in overplaying what can be achieved. Most experts I have read are not really expecting this to result in Xi's resignation or regime change - these things are possible, surely, but it is a major task to achieve and the unity & scale of the protest movement remains to be fully seen. The government may retaliate with a hard crackdown as it has done with Tiananmen and other protests throughout the years. It may also quietly revamp some policies without publicly admitting a change in order to both pacify protesters and save face. The CCP often uses mixed tactics, both coopting and suppressing protest movements over the years depending on the situation. Changing from Zero Covid may prove more challenging though, given how much Xi has staked his political reputation on enforcing it.

What is important for everyone online, especially those of us abroad, is to watch out for the misinformation campaign the government will launch to counter these protests. Already twitter is reportedly seeing hundreds of Chinese bot accounts mass post escort advertisements using various city names in order to drown out protest results in the site's search engine. Chinese officials will also likely invoke the standard narrative of Western influence and CIA tactics as the reason behind the protests, as they did during the Hong Kong protests.

Finally, there will be a new surge of misinformation and bad takes from tankies, or leftists who uncritically support authoritarian regimes so long as they are anti-US. An infamous one, the Qiao Collective, has already worked to shift the narrative away from the protests and onto debating the merits of Zero Covid. This is largely similar to pro-Putin leftists attempting the justify his invasion of Ukraine. Always remember that the same values that you use to criticise Western countries should be used to criticise authoritarian regimes as well - opposing US militarism and racism, for example, is not incompatible with opposing China's acts of genocide and state suppression. If you want further info (and some good sardonic humour) on the absurd takes and misinfo from pro-China tankies, I would recommend checking out Brian Hioe in the links below.

Finally, keep in mind that this is a grass-roots protest made by people in China, who are putting their own lives at risk to demonstrate openly like this. There have already been so many acts of bravery by those who just want a better future for themselves and their country, and it is belittling and disingenuous to wave away everything they are doing as being just a "Western front" or a few "fringe extremists".

Links:

BBC live coverage page with links to analysis and articles

ABC (Australia) analysis

South China Morning Post analysis

Experts & Journalists to Check Out:

Brian Hioe - Journalist & China writer, New Bloom Magazine

Bonnie Glaser - China scholar, German Marshall Fund

Vicky Xu - Journalist & researcher, Australian Strategic Policy Institute

Stephen McDonnell - Journalist, BBC

M Taylor Fravel - China scholar, MIT

New Zealand Contemporary China Research Centre - NZ's hub of China scholarship (I was fortunate to attend their conferences during my PhD there, they do great work!)

If you've reached the end I hope this helps with understanding what's going on right now! A lot of us who know friends and whanau in China are worried for their safety, so please spread the word and let's hope that there is something of a positive outcome ahead.

[howlsofbloodhounds]

What do you think happened during/after the fight Delta had with his Gaster(in the Final Ep. 1). What are your headcanons for it?

Apologies for the delay in response, I needed to both gain energy/motivation to reply and also to go rewatch Ultra/Vitaltale to refresh my memories.

And also the way the videos were sorted on creator’s YT channel was confusing my brain for some reason, so I just scrolled through their entire channel in order to find every piece on the AUs & put it into separate chronological order in a playlist of my own. Then I tried to rewatch all of it.

Which was hard, because I kept getting distracted and my attention kept drifting away. I will probably try to rewatch again soon, when I am capable of actually retaining the information in my mind accurately.

(Random side note because the thought just occurred to me; I find it very interesting how both Doggo and Papyrus demonstrate bravery when facing up against the unknown threat in Vitaltale Episode 1.4.

Whereas Sans, who will eventually absorb the SOUL of Bravery to become the Delta we know, is all for evacuating. Love how this Sans is not naturally brave in the typical way, even should he eventually come around to gaining the bravery soul in Vitaltale as he did in Ultra.)

Anyway. On to the actual question. My mind is a little wonky today so if I get anything wrong or confused about the question feel free to correct me.

So it’s to my understanding that Echo (Ultratale’s Gaster) calls Sans/Delta to the Ruins for a “chat” after Delta’s fight with Cross. Echo has information for Delta—a way to “fix” their mistakes, but he will not tell Delta unless he fights for it.

Delta calls the information “old,” and says he’s going to beat Echo into the ground anyhow. Gives me the impression that he’s possibly more fixated on his current task—protecting AUs—then trying to go back and fix the past.

Because Ultratale was ultimately rebooted into Vitaltale we obviously don’t know for sure how this battle ends and likely never will, but I personally HC that it has multiple endings.

1. Delta loses, Echo doesn’t give him the information. The two go on their separate ways and live their own lives.

2. Delta wins. Echo attempts to tell the information, but Delta stops him. Says he doesn’t want to know and just wants to move on with life. That it’s what Papyrus, Frisk, and the others would want them to do.

3. Delta wins, Echo tells him the information of how to go back and fix it all. Delta refuses.

4. Delta wins, gets the information, and he accepts. Perhaps this information leads into the formation of a variant AU—a reboot, that creates Vitaltale. Chara doesn’t absorb Frisk’s soul and therefore can’t prevent them from Resetting.

(Side note: perhaps, for a character defining moment, in every ending where Delta refuses to hear or accept this information, Echo always furiously protests against this. Maybe Echo is the voice encouraging Delta to go back, to fix it all and “fight for us,” whereas Beta is the voice encouraging Delta to keep moving forward.

Echo cannot let go of the past because he was shattered and wasn’t ready to leave it, but he is was always aware.

Beta never got to truly live either because they were murdered and kept in a jar, but they were not as aware of the world outside the jar and thus is able to move on easier. Because Beta’s life was over before they truly got to live it, whereas Echo/Gaster’s was cut off at its peak.

Delta is in the middle of this. Experienced with life, but still young. His life is just starting—he’s halfway out of that cage—whereas Beta realizes they are free and is just trying to convince Delta to join them, and Echo..the cage is open, he can step out now.

But he spends his time trying to coax Delta and Beta back inside instead, and to help him bring everyone else back in the cage where it’s safe and familiar.)

Delta, now just Sans and perhaps without any memory of the events of Ultratale, manages to convince Frisk to Reset near the end of a Genocide route and be better. However, the Determined Omega!Chara must still Erase this world—the culmination ending exactly as Ultratale did.

Omega!Chara absorbs Frisk’s Soul, prevents them from Resetting and goes on a Genocide to Erase this world once and for all. Sans attempts to prevent it, even by giving characters such as Doggo hints and tips to help them in combat against the unknown threat.

None of it matters. Sans’ attempts do nothing, it ends in Genocide and Sans absorbs the Bravery soul—going on to protect the rest of the Multiverse.

He always fights Cross, he always fights Echo. He’s always given the choice—go back and try again and again, or accept what happened. Be brave, and move on. Do what Doggo and Papyrus did—brave in the face of impossible odds.

Anyway I guess my little HC is basically that Ultratale and Vitaltale are connected in-universe. Vitaltale is the story of how we got to Ultratale, and Delta must choose between the mortifying ordeal of the unknown and living with his mistakes & losses, or the comfort of a past that’ll end horribly in Ultratale; but at least he never lost anyone yet and no mistakes were ever made.

If he chooses to move on, he goes to the Omega Timeline where he meets Color, Epic, Core Frisk, Killer. Grows closer with Beta, Cross, XChara. Adopts a service/therapy dog he names Zorox (which is someone else’s HC, I don’t know if it’s okay or not with being tagged). Lives life, saving and protecting people.

Sans manages to escape the loop of Undertale only to find himself in another due to the rebooting nature of Ultra and Vitaltale. Only this time he has the ability to choose to escape it, he just has to be brave enough to attempt it—even though it seems impossible.

(Also how, despite the way his experiences could understandably lead him to Nihilism, helplessness and the belief that nothing he ever does or says will ever matter or change anything, he learns to be brave enough to keep trying anyway.)

Anyway. Sorry for the long rant that got horribly off topic at points. I had a lot more ideas about this by the time I was done than when I first read the question. Have Delta & Echo being silly and zesty respectively to make up for it:

[nerdiqueen]

hang on I have to rant

if you're not already aware, the five-man band is a literary device used to classify teams of 5 characters. it's what I call an external trope, meaning that you fit the trope to the characters, they don't innately have it.

a:tla has a pretty solid one, and it's well known enough, so I'm gonna use it to show you what I mean

it is comprised of:

the Leader, who directs the group and is usually the main character (aang)

the Lancer, who serves as character foil to the Leader and is often a bad-guy-turned-good or rogue element (zuko)

the Big Guy, who solves physical problems for the team and is frequently a goofball (toph)

the Smart Guy, who solves technical/logistical problems for the team and typically serves as an "idea guy" (sokka)

and the Heart, who solves emotional problems for the team- if there's only one girl, she's probably the Heart (katara)

there are three star wars groups I want to look at: delta squad, domino squad, and clone force 99.

first is domino squad, as they fit this trope the easiest.

fives is the Leader, the most strategizing one in the group

droidbait is the Lancer, far less cautious and more prone to injury than the others (the foil to fives' effectiveness)

hevy is the Big Guy, serving the oh-so-common "big gun demolitions expert" variant

echo is the Smart Guy, in the "guys, come on, stick to the PLAN" variant

cutup is the Heart, lightening the mood with jokes (hence the name)

the first to die is droidbait, leaving echo to serve as fives' foil, which allows us to see that fives is probably the most prototypical clone of the bunch. then hevy sacrifices himself, and cutup gets eaten, leaving only fives and echo until the Citadel arc which I haven't yet seen.

then we have delta squad. the thing about delta squad is that there are four of them, and while the four-man band is a thing, they make this perfect incomplete five-man band that I think is really really tasty.

boss (player character) is the Leader, guiding the team

sev is the Lancer, playing the "snarky rogue" archetype

scorch is the Big Guy, again the "big gun demolitions" variant- but with the added flavor of being very by-the-book (which we see the consequences of when he aligns with not only the empire but doctor hemlock himself in tbb)

fixer is the Smart Guy, tech expert

notice anything?

there's no Heart.

and that works. these are clone commandos- meant to be the most effective troops the republic has. they almost never interact socially outside of their squad, and when they do it's kept pretty professional.

we see that again in clone force 99, or as they call themselves, the bad batch

hunter is the Leader, his enhanced senses leaving him the most generalist of the batch (and also he's technically their sergeant)

crosshair is the Lancer, a "silent, ruthless efficiency" type

wrecker is the Big Guy, "big gun demolitions" variant yet again (I told you it was common) in the goofball flavor

tech is the Smart Guy, btw he's really well done and it never feels like he just "knows because he's smart" you can always tell how he figures things out

again, there's no Heart. but wait.

in the Bad Batch arc in clone wars, they pick up another member- echo. we don't see much of echo's interaction with the batch in that arc, but when we come back, echo is solidly in a sort of almost-but-not-quite Heart role. and then.

omega shows up in the "sixth ranger" role, there to shake up the group dynamic. throughout season one, we see omega slowly take over echo's role as Heart- and as this happens, it becomes clear that that was the role he was playing, as he talks hunter through how to best take care of omega. but omega, tagalong kid as she is, is much, much more suited to the Heart role than echo, and she takes his place- which allows echo to run off and have his own adventures with rex throughout seasons two and three, WHICH WORKS because echo is a regular clone who joined the batch later in life and thus isn't quite the same as the others, but omega is a deviant clone just like them!

[ask-meowscarada]

Fenne: "Woa! Your markings changed when you used that water type move, did something happen when you did it?"

(From @askfenne !!)

( Context 1, 2)

(( Here's a bit of trivia about Charade's type changes!

For those who don't know, Meowscarada's flower when in bloom bears resemblance to a pomegranate, which you can read more about on Bulbapedia. The meaning behind the flower in the base design is what inspired me to have her flower change based on her type!

As a Water-type, her flower is based on a white water lily. The bulb is replaced by a lily pad. The idea to change her cape (for all forms, but especially this one) was inspired by these Meowscarada variants by mykocalico!

As a Fairy-type, her flower is based on a pink shrub rose. While I can't find an exact name for the species, these roses are called "The Fairy" by some gardeners (it's also a plant in Stardew Valley). I think the design for the bulb was based on a generic flower bulb, but I can't remember (I'll update this post if I figure it out)!

As a Dark-type, her flower is based on the genus datura, one of several plants commonly known as moonflowers. Not only does this beautiful flower bloom at night, but their poisonous properties have led them to be commonly associated with witchcraft! The bulb is based on the datura's seed pod.

If Charade becomes a pure Grass-type through her ability, her appearance is the same as her default. (Don't fix what ain't broke, right?)

I've always loved the idea of weird type changes, like with Delta species and Tera types, so I'm glad I get to play around with it in a milder form! Then there are, of course, the Hidden Types of this blog... Maybe some day I'll come up with more hypothetical Protean type changes for moves like Thunder Punch or Triple Axel. ))

[faun-the-hound]

I've decided today that I'm (eventually) gonna actually write a rewrite/AU of Minecraft Diaries, does not yet have a title. I have many thoughts about the Shadow Knights specifically, so here's the most basic form of the Lore I've made up for them so far:

Shadow Knights reside in the depths of The Nether in a highly fortified mountain-like structure known as the Empty Palace in the middle of a lava lake, made up of blackstone spires and basalt deltas, carved out into hallways, rooms and windows.

There are two variants: Soldiers, the most common, they form squadrons under the orders of a Commander, the other rank, of which there are few. There are a total of around two-three hundred Shadow Knights in the Nether still loyal to their King/Lord.

Soldiers have two forms- human, where they look human (obviously) and the Shadow Form, which is used when raiding villages, fighting, or just causing carnage in general.

Commanders have a third form, a Tyrant, which is far more monstrous and feral, hardly resembling a human at all.

Gene and Sasha are both Commanders. Gene's Tyrant is giant and resembles a kraken (it makes sense, trust me) and Sasha's is spider-like.

Four of the five season 1 Knights (Gene, Sasha, Zenix, Vylad and Laurance) died in the overworld, then were brought to the Nether. Vylad died and was reborn as a Knight in the overworld, and Laurance died and was reborn in the Nether, which affects the way they are as Knights.

Killing a Lord/Family member to gain immortality also kills the Shadow Knight's humanity/conscience. It's the breaking point that makes them truly mad, fully loyal to their master.

On that note, Shadow Knights can get their humanity back if it is given and desired. Vylad got hers back from the old woman who told him to give Irene's blessing to Phoenix Drop (who I'm saying is Hyria, don't know if that's canon), and Zenix got his from Aph herself after a whole thing, I'll get into it in a different post (maybe)

anyway, yeah, the Shadow Knights are funky creatures to me. I will continue to shake the jar.

[biscgutz]

Ender man variants (overworld and nether)

Here is the first batch of enderman variants! Ill be giving average block heights and all that ^^

Here is your standard enderman, found in the overworld. About 3-4 blocks tall. They can teleport and are harmed by water

The cave ender, an underground variant of the common ender. 6 blocks tall. Due to exposure to skulk, these enders are blind but have exceptional hearing and smell. Unable to teleport but can teleport other things to them, aka what they hear closest to them. They are not hurt by small amounts of water. Usually docile

The first of the nether variants, The Magma or basalt ender. 4 to 5 blocks tall. Closely resembling ghasts things enders enjoy the hot lava baths of the basalt delta. Unable to teleport but completely immune to fire. They can shoot smaller versions of a ghasts fireballs and are harmed by water.

(inspired by destiny from @pangea-the-enderman​)

Crimson enderman are the largest enderman variant at around 7.5 to 8 blocks tall. These enders are very territorial and are often in disputes with piglins. They are bulkier and stronger then the average ender and can breathe fire. They are immune to all fire damage. They also have a chitinous armor on their body, evolving from being shot at by piglins. They often steal from bastions and are seen wearing makeshift golden armor or using gold swords.

 the last of the first batch, warped enders are the most elusive ender type and are usually drawn out with shiny objects. They are about 6 blocks tall and have a peculiar symbiotic relationship with the warped fungi around them. They are able to mimic any sounds they are familiar with, and often use it to hunt. they are incredibly friendly and like piglins, they trade!

Note- all of these variants are intelligent and have their own types of societies. Please ask me about em ^^

[lunarblogs0671]

FreshMare

Well Well Well, time to welcome my own variant version of "FreshMare". A combonation of Fresh and Nightmare. Although... this is no parasite infected nightmare, no no no.. This is actually an entity all on his self apart from Nightmare and Fresh.. in a way! (art by me)

My variant of FreshMare is actually an entity similarly made like Paperjam, pretty much left over pieces of magic slowly blending and mixing together over time to make this beautiful abomination shown here. -v-

~Lore drop~:

FreshMare(whom he later called himself Knox after growing annoyed from being referred to as 'FreshMare'), was created by the rare happening of Fresh and Nightmare getting into battle. The two powerful skeletons went at it for a long while causing alot of wreckage, despite the now empty plain, former coding of trees torn from their roots, debris scattered everywhere, and plenty of magical mess to be scattered around the plain, such as the tar like substance from nightmare and essence of colorful smoke as well as scattered left behind hosts Fresh used up in battle, as well as one tiny TRUEFRESH parasite spawn was left behind in part of the ruin.

Over time especially during the battle, the magical debris as well as the newly left and born, unknowledged parasite, had molded and mixed together, thus eventually forming a small skeletal figure with small plump tentacles, whom now is referred to as "FreshMare". Although, even during this event, he was left alone.. sadly abandoned and not discovered by his said 'creators'. Left to an empty wreckage of a broken au. Eventually, as years passed, he later grew slowly but surely, lost in thoughts, having already become one with the parasite spawn, as if acting like one person or siblings, wandering the mess of a void, eventually shifting his body and forming clothing best suited and comfortable for him, his tentacles grew larger and heavier over time along with him, dragging behind him or coiling and swaying idly.

One day he managed to open a portal out of this said wrecked void-like plain, which without hesitation he left, practicing this "World Hop" ability, traveling and exploring all the different worlds, AU's. He was able to gain more knowledge of things due to not being able to comprehend, read, or understand most things, but thankfully he is a quick learner, gaining knowledge quicker then most.

He never discovered who his true creators are, or the cause of his existence. All he knows he thinks of whom they are in distain, for abandoning him, leaving him to rot. He hopes one day to meet them just to pummel them into the ground and have them beg for mercy... though he can't think that way now, he doesn't bother about it.. now he wanders numbly, gaining knowledge about everything, visiting and revisiting au's. Becoming more observant.

He tends to act oblivious and is very quiet, but he's very intelligent and will not hesitate to be blunt about anything. He has a sadist mentality but doesn't act on it, tending to make dark or morbid humor. Unlike fresh, he does not have a swear filter and just so happens to not mind swearing and does so himself. He lacks any true emotions, given he hasn't learned or felt true emotions and often fights the fearful and rageful emotions of the parasite, keeping himself docile and at ease till the time comes

(Knox is now open for QNA

Here is also extra art of Delta being forced to babysit a little Paperjam, Enjoy :3

[pandemic-info]

Long-Term Long Covid - by Eric Topol

Unfortunately, what was seen at 6 months largely continues out to 2 years. 

... [New paper at] Nature Medicine addresses what happened 2 years later to nearly 140,000 people who had Covid, compared with almost 6 million people non-infected controls.

... in the non-hospitalized group a substantial proportion— about 30%— of the 80 sequelae, including GI and neurologic, remained significantly elevated. 

... I’d like to point out the data analyzed in this study was enormous, as I tried to capture with one of the supplemental tables below, representative of many others. The authors took on many advanced analytic approaches with weighting, conditional modeling, and sensitivity analyses that I’m not going to review here.

... While this is the first comprehensive and systematic study of Covid at 2 years, it unfortunately is within a highly skewed population. The demographics of nearly 90% men, with a mean age 61 years, is far different than the prototypic person with Long Covid who is more apt to be female and age 30-39 years. Furthermore, to get 2 year follow-up it meant studying a population who had Covid early in the pandemic, before vaccines or the marked evolution of the virus with new variants, including Delta, which was more virulent that the ancestral or Alpha strains that preceded it. So please keep this in mind—the results are important but they may well not be representative of the real world, broader population, of Covid and Long Covid. That’s already a major hole in our knowledge base since there is no other report yet to systematically address a more representative population.

...

Summary

At two years after Covid, there’s a persistent and considerable burden of symptoms and multi-system organ involvement in an important subgroup of people. It’s also unpredictable who will be afflicted with protracted symptoms and new medical diagnoses. While there still is no validated treatment (the Big Miss, as recently reviewed), Long Covid marches on, not just over time for most of those already suffering, but also among newly infected or re-infected individuals — like we are seeing now with increase in cases in the United States and many other countries. The main emphasis here, beyond the enduring and very concerning symptoms and organ dysfunction, is that we are still in the dark. It will take many years to fully know the sequelae of Covid, be it from unforeseen, delayed adverse outcomes like what occurred many years after influenza or polio, or the secondary outcomes of organ systems that are clearly affected, or via promotion of autoimmune conditions or pro-inflammatory pathways, potentially exacerbating risk of atherosclerosis. We’re going to need many more years of careful follow-up to fully understand the ways and extent Covid has hurt us. Meanwhile, beyond the known strategies for prevention of infection, we must consider finding effective ways to treat people who suffer from Long Covid as an urgent and foremost priority.

[boinkingbattlemechs]

Stone Rhino

The Stone Rhino was one of the most remarkable surprises sprung upon the Inner Sphere by the invading Clans. The Inner Sphere code-named the 'Mech Behemoth. It was apparently derived from the Matar, which was also known as "Amaris' Folly".

Developed during the Golden Century as somewhat of a passion project, the Scientist Caste of Clan Smoke Jaguar sought to prove the superiority of the Clans by turning the flawed Matar into a successful design to achieve what the Inner Sphere could not. The resulting 'Mech was christened the Stone Rhino in honor of the nearly indestructible beast native to Eden. Mainly seen in the Clan Smoke Jaguar touman, scattered examples of the Stone Rhino do appear in other Clans even though it was produced in somewhat limited numbers. Because of these low production numbers, most Stone Rhinos in existence are ancient machines with long and storied histories of their combat actions and their quirks in the hangar.

Following the fall of the Smoke Jaguars, Clan Goliath Scorpion's need for new machines to defend their captured Jaguar holdings led them to revisit the Matar's original design specs. They rapidly developed a visually different and powerful "new" 'Mech that was immediately put into production on Tokasha while still using the Stone Rhino name. However, the Scorpions would soon need to scramble to establish new production elsewhere after Clan Hell's Horses captured their Tokasha holdings. This allowed the Horses to produce new variants, and the Horses ultimately established a production line for the 'Mech on Csesztreg following their ejection from the Clan Homeworlds.

Though visually resembling the Matar, the Stone Rhino is ten tons lighter than "Amaris' Folly", marking it an assault-class 'Mech instead of a superheavy design. Despite the reduced weight it achieves a roughly similar damage output through superior Clan weaponry. The design features a Kolibri Delta Series Large Pulse Laser in each arm, a Thunderstroke Series 2B Gauss rifle mounted in each side torso, and an almost superfluous Chi Series Small Pulse Laser located near the cockpit. The Stone Rhino also sports an interesting feature; each arm contains a retractable, shock-absorbing cowl covering the weapon barrels. This allows MechWarriors to use the arms as battering rams without damaging the weaponry.

Similar to its progenitor, the Stone Rhino is a fairly slow design with the addition of Jump Jets barely mitigating the mobility issues over short distances. Eighteen tons of armor provides reasonable protection until the 'Mech becomes a target of priority. Thus, despite bringing awesome firepower to the battlefield, these machines often cannot be used effectively by field commanders because they ultimately cannot afford to lose one.