#WASP-17 b

[netmassimo]

An article published in "The Astrophysical Journal Letters" reports a study of the exoplanet WASP-17 b that includes the detection of quartz in this hot Jupiter's atmosphere. A team of researchers used the James Webb Space Telescope to detect the subtle effects of quartz crystals, nanoparticles dispersed in the very hot atmosphere of WASP-17 b, which received the official name Ditsö̀ in early 2020.

[bigglesworld]

Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress. With WASP pilots in attendence. Florida

[thecreaturecodex]

Xiangliu

Image © deviantArt user YunaXD, accessed at her gallery here

[Sponsored by @coldbloodassassin. The xiangliu appears in Guideways through Mountains and Seas as an individual, Xiangliu, who is the minister of the malevolent water god Gonggong. I did consider making it a native or even extraplanar outsider because of that, but ended up going with aberration to stress its connection to nagas. Not that nagas are very aberrant as far as aberrations go...]

Xiangliu CR 14 NE Aberration This creature is an oversized serpent with nine heads and slime coating its scales. Its heads are disturbingly humanoid, but still bear fangs and forked tongues.

Xianglius are sadistic water serpents that delight in spreading disease and stagnant water. They are native to swampy lands, and fight violently against any attempt to drain such swamps or make them suitable for cultivation. Nearby fields are likely to be subject to their attacks, including flooded crops, summoned clouds of malarial mosquitoes and fouling wells and springs. Xianglius sometimes find allegiances with evil druids, daemons of pestilence and famine, or even gods of water who are hostile to civilization.

A xiangliu rarely hesitates to fight. Their bites are not fully venomous, but carry a foul slime that renders creatures bitten weak and queasy. They can spit jets of water with lethal force, and often split their attacks, biting creatures up close while barraging enemies that are more distant. Fighting a xiangliu is often quite frustrating, as the monsters create moats of mud and water to slow anyone approaching on foot, and can manipulate water to isolate and capsize boats. Wise adventurers approach a xiangliu’s lair from the air.

Despite their nine heads, a xiangliu has only one personality; peevish, cruel and sadistic. They are notorious gluttons; one legend is that they have nine heads in order to eat nine different meals at the same time. A xiangliu grows to about twenty feet long. Their lifespans are measured in centuries.

Xiangliu              CR 14 XP 38,400 NE Large aberration (aquatic) Init +6; Senses all around vision,darkvision 60 ft., Perception +22, scent

Defense AC 29, touch 15, flat-footed 23 (-1 size, +6 Dex, +14 natural) hp 190 (20d8+100) Fort +13, Ref +15, Will +16 DR 10/magic; Immune acid, disease, poison, sickness and nausea effects; SR 25

Offense Speed 30 ft., swim 40 ft. Melee 9 bites +20 (1d6+4 plus sickening slime) Ranged 9 water jets +20 (1d8 bludgeoning plus push) Space 10 ft.; Reach 10 ft. Special Attacks combined arms, mud wave, push (5 ft.) Spell-like Abilities CL 15th, concentration +20 (+24 casting defensively) At will—contagion (DC 18), putrefy food and drink 3/day—control water, insect plague 1/day—plague storm (DC 21), transmute rock to mud

Statistics Str 19, Dex 23, Con 20, Int 18, Wis 19, Cha 20 Base Atk +15; CMB +20; CMD 36 (cannot be tripped) Feats Blind Fight,Combat Casting, Combat Reflexes (B),Deadly Aim, Great Fortitude, Improved Critical (bite), Lightning Reflexes, Point Blank Shot, Precise Shot, Skill Focus (Stealth), Weapon Finesse Skills Acrobatics +22, Climb +20, Heal +18, Intimidate +21, Knowledge (arcana, geography) +18, Knowledge (nature) +20, Perception +22, Sense Motive +17, Spellcraft +20, Stealth +24, Swim +28; Racial Modifiers +2 Perception Languages Aquan, Common, Draconic SQ amphibious, improved swamp stride, multiheaded reflexes

Ecology Environment any swamps and aquatic Organization solitary Treasure standard

Special Abilities Combined Arms (Ex) When using a full attack action, a xiangliu can divide its nine attacks up between bites and water jets. Improved Swamp Stride (Su) A xiangliu can move without penalty through natural or magically manipulated mud, water, or vegetation native to swamp environments. Insect Plague (Sp) When a xiangliu uses its insect plague spell-like ability, it summons mosquito swarms instead of wasp swarms. Mud Wave (Su) As a standard action, a xiangliu can create a burst of mud and water in a twenty foot radius centered on itself. All creatures in the area take 14d6 points of bludgeoning damage and are knocked prone. A DC 25 Reflex save halves the damage and negates the prone effect. The area affected by the mud wave becomes difficult terrain for the next minute. A xiangliu can use this ability three times per day, but must wait 1d4 rounds between uses. The save DC is Charisma based. Multiheaded Reflexes (Ex) A xiangliu gains Combat Reflexes as a bonus feat. It can make as many attacks of opportunity in a round as it has heads. Sickening Slime (Ex) A creature bitten by a xiangliu must succeed a DC 25 Fortitude save or be sickened for 1 round. Failing additional saves increases the duration of the sickened effect by 1 round per save failed. The save DC is Constitution based. Water Jet (Su) A xiangliu can spit water from one of its mouths as a standard action, and up to all nine as a full attack. Treat each water jet as a ranged attack from a projectile weapon with a range increment of 20 feet. Attacks with water jets do not provoke attacks of opportunity. A creature struck by a water jet takes 1d8 points of bludgeoning damage and is exposed to the xiangliu’s push attack.

[john-cleven]

Under the Same Sky (You and I)

“Come on, Buck, keep pace with us,” John mutters as he watches the squadron flying behind them. He knows he has to stay calm, has to stay focused, but the farther they creep into Kraut territory, the more John’s thoughts veer helplessly towards Gale. 

It’s not long before they��re ambushed by fighter pilots - far too many to count. They swarm the air like viscous wasps, intentions coated with violence. John can practically taste their hunger to kill as they surround the American planes. The Germans slip in from all sides, tearing apart formations with their high velocity bullets like the flying fortresses are made of paper mache. 

Amidst the assault, John hears Gale’s name through the comms. Alert and anxious, he swivels around to peer out the window of the B-17, searching. John’s heart jolts into his throat. Gale’s fort has been hit. Agitation and concern electrify the ends of his nerves, lighting him up from the inside out. Gale’s fort has been hit. 

Without thinking, John scrambles towards the back of the plane, fingers itching with murder. Fear and fury rampage against each other within his veins, clouding his mind. He pushes Murph aside and grips the machine gun with trembling hands. Red spots swim in his vision as he targets the Luftwaffe, soul salivating for their demise. He mercilessly fires upon the enemy fighter pilots, outraged that they continue to target Gale. How fucking dare they. 

Carnage surrounds them as they fly through the flak. B-17s erupt in massive clouds of smoke and fire. Crews leap from their wounded planes, desperate to survive. Airmen swing from parachutes, vulnerable to the bullets whizzing through the air. Bodies explode and break apart in bursts of crimson as they slam against forts, unable to change their trajectory, unable to avoid such gruesome, gory deaths. 

Time slows to a crawl as John ceaselessly fires the machine gun. He’s hyper focused, consumed by a burning revenge, consumed by a primal urgency to protect Gale’s fort from the German fighters that circle them like starving sharks in blood-infested waters. 

Finally, the Luftwaffe retreat, fuel running too low to continue their deadly hunt. John pries his quivering hands from the smoking machine gun in front of him and collapses to the floor. He tries to blink away the red clouding his vision as his lungs heave for air. They manage to drop their bombs on the factory, a successful mission. Still, John cannot swallow down the dread that has infected his body. Cannot tear his distressed thoughts away from Gale.

 “Is Cleven’s fort still with us?” he asks, eyes glued to the blue sky around them, as if Gale’s plane might emerge from the clouds at any moment, safe and sound. 

“They’re beat to shit and trailing way behind, but they’re still with us.” Intense relief causes John to nearly go boneless. He closes his eyes briefly and repeats the words in his mind. Gale is okay. Gale is still with them. 

Miraculously, they land in Africa. As soon as John’s feet hit the ground, he turns to wait for his friend. He watches the distant sky with intense focus, feeling suspended in that singular moment. Dread and hope clash against each other, sending the electrical currents in John’s brain into overdrive. He feels himself nearly shaking apart, feels himself nearing the edge of a precipice – because it’s all or nothing. 

Finally, Gale’s plane glides into view. At last, John’s heart has returned to him. He rushes to a jeep, blood pounding through his veins. He has to see him, has to make sure he’s okay. When John pulls up, Gale is helping his injured crew from the torn apart fortress. He leaps out of the jeep, barking out orders to help the wounded, then watches Gale carefully from a few feet away. He’s banged up, but John doesn’t notice any severe wounds. He clenches his fists and keeps his distance as he drinks Gale in with hungry eyes, all too aware that they are not alone. 

“I don’t know how you flew that thing all the way to Africa, but you couldn’t make the runway,” John says, feeling like he might collapse when Gale finally makes eye contact with him. God, he is so beautiful. John can’t help the affectionate smile that blooms on his face as he forces himself to not reach out for the other man. “It’s right there.” 

Gale doesn’t reply and walks a few steps away, looking for the rest of his crew. John follows after him, like a moth to a flame, but his heart drops when he sees the body the other men are carrying. 

“Who is it?” He asks quietly, eyes glued to the mutilated corpse of the airman. 

“Norman Smith, radio operator,” Gale replies, voice husky with sorrow and regret. John swallows down the bile that rises in his throat. Even though he knows that Gale is still reeling from the loss, John can’t help but to imagine the roles reversed. What if that had been Gale, blown apart? What if John never saw him again? 

“I lost four forts,” Gale says, tearing him away from his spiraling thoughts. John watches as the blonde aimlessly wanders away from the plane, eyes empty. 

John turns after him, trailing behind, “I know.”

John can see that Gale is drowning in his grief, still shocked from the bloodshed he’d barely managed to escape. He glances back at the few men left that are still checking on the plane, irritated that they aren’t gone. His fingers itch with the need to touch Gale, to feel his heart beating beneath his palm. He wants to hold him and comfort him, wants to climb inside his skin and live there forever. But not yet. 

“We’re gonna get through this. Come on, don’t stop believing that,” John says, trying to pull Gale back to him, away from that battle where Gale can only re-experience the demise and suffering of his squadron, of his men, of his friends. 

“Sure, Bucky,” Gale says, but John can tell he doesn’t believe it. 

Gale turns towards the setting sun, blue eyes dimmed and distant. John glances backwards one more time and breathes a sigh of relief when he notices they're finally alone. He reaches out his hand and twines his fingers through Gale’s. The man beside him barely twitches, still staring out towards the mountains that have begun to shroud the sun. John tugs Gale around to face him and places a gentle hand on his injured cheek. Gale stares at him, eyes still glazed over with anguish. John slowly presses forward to lean his forehead against Gale’s and strokes his jaw with his thumb. 

“It’s you and me, Buck,” he whispers, his love for this man spilling out from every pore on his body. 

He hopes that Gale knows that John would do anything for him, go anywhere for him. Without Gale, there’s no life worth living. John has been completely and utterly bewitched by the man in front of him since the moment they met. For John, there can be no one else. He patiently waits for Gale to see him, to come back to him. Finally, Gale’s eyes focus and he squeezes John’s hand that’s still linked with his. 

“You and me,” he softly repeats, eyes fluttering closed as John tilts his head and presses his lips firmly against Gale’s. 

[mercurygray]

HBOWW2 Rewatch: June-August 1943

Since Week 2's episodes really only take us through 3 months of 1943 there's not a lot of big picture stuff to get caught up on.

But man, oh man, are there some big things happening elsewhere.

June: The Zoot Suit Riots take place in Los Angeles when a group of sailors on leave get into a fight with Mexican American youth near the waterfront, leading to retaliatory action from many more sailors and soldiers in the following days. The riots last ten days, and are only stopped when the Army and Navy declare L.A. off limits to military personnel. (This is not the only race-related act of violence this month, but it is certainly the most well known.)

Charles de Gaulle and Henri Giraud are named co-presidents of the French Committee of National Liberation. This institution would challenge the legitimacy of the Vichy government and provide a unifying force for French forces abroad and at home. It will also function as a provisional government in Algeria, which has recently been liberated during the North Africa campaign.

The Tuskegee Airmen have their first encounter with the Luftwaffe as six P-40 Warhawks are attacked over the island of Pantelleria by 12 German Focke-Wulf 190 fighters. Pantelleria has recently surrendered and will serve as a jumping off point for the invasion of Sicily, which begins in July. (Lieutenant General Carl Spaatz is currently serving as the head of Mediterranean Air Force Command.)

The invasion of Sicily starts on July 9th as a combined US, British and Canadian force lands at points around the island, starting a month-long race by General Patton's forces to move from Licata in the south to Messina in the north in an effort to catch the Germans before they can evacuate to the mainland. (Sadly, most of the Germans do make it off the island.) Both this campaign, and the North Africa campaign that preceded it, are launched to redirect resources away from the Eastern Front - a move that largely succeeds.

Speaking of the Eastern Front, the battle of Kursk begins on July 9. It is the single largest battle in the history of warfare, and is a turning point for the entire European war. The use of air support in what is largely a tank battle leads to one of the single costliest days of aerial combat.

On July 19, Allied Air Forces bomb Rome, which leads, in some large part, to the resignation of Mussolini as Prime Minister on July 25th, ending a 17 year dictatorship.

On July 27th and 28th, the RAF bomb Hamburg. High winds and drought conditions lead to the greatest single-day loss of life in wartime as more than 30,000 city residents burn to death after bombs set the entire town aflame.

Also in June, the new town of Oak Ridge, Tennesee, which will house workers for the Manhattan Project, officially receives its first residents, and "Comin' in on a Wing and a Prayer" by The Song Spinners tops the Billboard singles chart.

Heading into August, Operation Tidal Wave, the bombing of Ploesti, Romania, begins as 177 B-24 bombers attack the oil plant. This will be the first of many, many bombing runs on this target, which is a sigificant source of fuel for the Axis. (And you can't outrun Patton in Sicily or fight tank wars in Russia if you don't have fuel)

The United States Women's Air Service Pilots, or WASPS, is officially formed under the auspices of Jackie Cochran and Nancy Love. The program consolidates 2 previous groups in an attempt to leverage civilian pilots for ferrying duties.

So. It's August of 1943. The Allies are eyeing mainland Italy for their next assault. The Russians are slugging away in Kursk. The 8th Air Force has just gotten through the Regensberg- Schweinfurt raid. September will probably hold much of the same. Or ...will it?

[blurredcolour]

Hi. Thoughts on John Brady with a fellow pilot, WASP.

Love all your writings!!!!

So I have definitely agonized over the historically accurate whereto’s and whyfor’s of this ask, because I’m 100% that writer, but on the advice of my darling @precious-little-scoundrel I am going to do my utmost to answer the heart of this ask without trying to perfectly place this in the historical timeline.

I appreciate your forbearance 😅

Cut for length and slightly suggestive themes

There would certainly be an element of disbelief and astonishment when the pair of you first encounter one another

Perhaps it’s in your uniform at a local watering hole or as you’re delivering a brand new B-17 from the factory to the training field

And let’s be real, the man can hardly contain the stars in his eyes

Because you look utterly lovely and capable in your uniform, whether it’s your flying uniform or dress uniform

The thought of your feminine fingers wrapping around the yoke of an aircraft, commanding a powerful machine - quite frankly it all does something to him

So he coaxes you into a conversation about your training, how you got into flying

And wins you over as he speaks to you without a shred of patronization, there is no male superiority about it. No sense that he views you as some quaint artifact of the unique circumstances of the war.

And you want to eat him whole

Sneak off someplace private and pin him against the wall, kissing him senseless

Clings to you reverently, more than happy to have your capable hands control him, too

[spaceadvances]

Scientists have detected evidence for quartz nanocrystals in the high-altitude clouds of WASP-17 b, a hot Jupiter exoplanet 1,300 light-years from Earth.

Read more: https://rb.gy/hj6yk

[invisibleoctopus]

actually it makes sense for food to make fat ppl to feel better all the time if we're all doing shit like this where we deprive ourselves of food until its impossible not to acknowledge that Yes Im A Human Being Who Needs Sustenance Just Like Skinny People

and ppl who act like fat people just comfort eat all the time should see what its like to not allow yourself to eat until youre so miserable from not eating and you have to rule out every single other thing that could make you feel Not Good just so you can justify putting more calories into your already obese body since obese literally means im eating myself to death thats what the word means :)

it should be illegal for my problems and feeling bad to be able to be solved by me eating OR it should be illegal to make jokes about fat ppl feeling better when we have food

[lokiondisneyplus]

After the climactic release of the historically successful Avengers: Endgame – the 22nd film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the penultimate release in their “Infinity Saga”, the culmination of 11 years of brand-building, the second-highest-grossing film of all time – Marvel decided what the world really needed was more Marvel.

Armed with classic Hollywood hubris – the misguided conviction that the public would never tire of what they were selling – Marvel Studios rolled television production into their main business model, with “Phase Four” delivering more television shows than movies. The effect was a flooding of the market and a dilution of the brand, not to mention the release of the worst MCU movie, Eternals.

Forcing narrative crossovers between television shows and movies had the adverse effect of turning the former into homework and the latter into ads for the former. This practice was an act of artistic self-sabotage, ruining what could’ve been Marvel’s most sublime film, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, by burdening it with a host of tonally-off, studio-obligated B-stories crowbarred in to promote upcoming television titles.

After a run of disappointing films that weighed down once-fun franchises with po-faced gravity – Spider-Man: No Way Home, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 – and a slew of ordinary television shows – The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Moon Knight, She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, Secret Invasion – we’ve officially reached a state of Marvel fatigue, with questions looming around the state of the superhero industrial complex.

It’s in this cultural moment that Loki, the acclaimed solo show for the titular character, arrives for a second season. It doesn’t just have to live up to an inspired first season but also has to push back on all the bad vibes, a difficult task given the heavy presence of Jonathan Majors, the breakout star who was arrested in March on domestic violence charges.The great charm of this season is that it cultivates the feeling that it could head anywhere and be anything. Loki doesn’t just explore free will as a theme, it actually feels as if it artistically possesses it.

The good news is that, whether or not it can be spun as state-of-Marvel narrative correction, season two is a worthy successor. Blessed by the fact its titular character, Tom Hiddleston’s charismatic God of Mischief, remains a slippery figure, Loki is allowed to move forward with no clear lines drawn between good and bad, protagonist and antagonist, hero and villain. Characters hold convictions until they don’t, make choices that will have ramifications, agitate for themselves, then for the greater good, and try to navigate a world whose rules shift beneath their feet.

It’s largely set, once again, in the Time Variance Authority, a comic bureaucratic labyrinth charged with policing multiversal time lines. Offering obvious symbolism at a time when Marvel is struggling to retain coherence in the midst of its “Multiverse Saga”, the TVA prizes the one true “Sacred Timeline”, pruning infinite possibilities back for the sake of cosmic narrative purity.

The TVA is an inspired retrofuturist space steeped in Eastern Bloc mid-century design and early Terry Gilliam films, satirising the pernickety dictums of workplaces and government offices – “limit your lunch break to 17 minutes!” proclaims one poster. From its dated tech – ’70s-style computer monitors, reel-to-reel tape machines, chrome hi-fis – to its curved surfaces, coloured floor tiles and lurid-emerald key lime pie, it’s a rare work of inspired production design by a studio otherwise synonymous with green-screening its way to rush-job eyesores built by an army of non-unionised offshore digital effects artists.

Everything in the TVA looks shabby and neglected, evoking its place as an office lost to time. The plot machinations of season one found an Avengers-adjacent Loki commandeered by the authority – Agent Mobius (Owen Wilson), upper-management Ravonna Renslayer (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) and others – to pursue a variant of himself, Sylvie (Sophia Di Martino), through time and space.

It ended with an explosion of multiversal time lines and revelations about the true history of the TVA: its top-down system of authority a matrix of illusion, its mind-wiped employees existing in a state of suspended limbo, its time line-culling operation seeming a lot like a morally questionable act of mass slaughter.

In the fallout from that climax, season two finds characters questioning whether the TVA is an entity worth preserving or destroying, not to mention the meaning of their own existence and the ramifications of choice. It’s a study of free will and moral responsibility, housed in 45-minute episodes of action-oriented television. Its chief writer, Eric Martin, both lionises liberty and weighs up its gravity, while happily dealing in the all-American fear of governmental oversight.

The collapse of the TVA’s artificial reality – “everything you’ve been doing is wrong and all your gods are dead”, Mobius deadpans in classic Wilson fashion – leads characters to their own convictions. Mobius seeks peaceful resolution. Renslayer seeks to preserve her power and the authority’s agency (“all that matters is order versus chaos”). The once-bellicose B-15 (Wunmi Mosaku) has a moral reawakening. The dogged Dox (Kate Dickie) is more committed than ever to the cause. The weaselly X-5 (Rafael Casal) wants to explore his new-found independence and maybe become a movie star. The oddball tech guy with the on-the-nose name, Ouroboros (Ke Huy Quan), is there to both provide comic relief and to save the day from a temporal calamity that may destroy all worlds, or something to that effect.

Loki’s playful riffing on time means every benign use of the word pops – “it’ll take some time”, “remember that time”, “take your time”, “time to go” – and its first four episodes dance along the Earth’s time line at various points of history – 1868, 1893, 1977, 1982 – with plentiful hijinks, dabbling in genre tropes, meta use of Loki’s skills of illusion and misdirection, and creepy fast-food-franchise sponsored content.

Looming over all is the presence of the big bad of Marvel’s Phase Five, Kang the Conqueror, played still, to this point, by Majors. He’s seen here in two variants: a squirrelly 19th-century nutty professor named Victor Timely and the all-powerful end-of-time figure met at the end of last season, He Who Remains. These twin characters are connected but separate enough that they symbolise the series’ focus on free will. One may be fated to become the other, but does that mean that he – and the future – can’t change?

The great charm of this season is that it cultivates the feeling that it could head anywhere and be anything. Loki doesn’t just explore free will as a theme, it actually feels as if it artistically possesses it. While it may not be enough to combat the waning influence of comic-book screen output, this season does feel like a disarming counterpoint to recent Marvel Studios product. Rather than feeling conscripted or forced, a puzzle piece that exists solely to build a bridge between branded content, Loki remains its own thing: a nimble exploration of big themes in a colourful, comic, oddball package.

This article was first published in the print edition of The Saturday Paper on October 21, 2023 as "Changing times".

[aemiron-main]

why don’t u ever post about patty

?

Hey, anon!

So, I a.) have already posted analyses heavily involving Patty and b.) i have a bunch of drafts about her and i am slow to finish my drafts LMAO like i have. 600 analysis drafts on tumblr total right now (not including stuff thats in my google docs) and lots of them involve Patty/are focused on her.

I post about stuff when I have time- I'm generally a busy guy, I'm currently trying to get two huge ST youtube videos finished while also juggling art stuff, work stuff and other IRL stuff.

But anyway, here's a list of my current Patty-centric drafts:

1.) Patty Newby vs Patricia Pulling

2.) Miss Mystery vs Mystra from DND

3.) In-Depth Analysis of The Catwalk Scene in TFS

4.) The Anomaly: What's Up With Patty? Why Is Patty The Anomaly? (ft Star Trek and The Matrix)

5.) TFS vs The Matrix and Patty Newby's Parallels to Both Neo and The Oracle

6.) The Resemblance is Uncanny: Patty Newby vs The Uncanny Valley

7.) His Great Shame, The Girl He Stole: Patty Newby, Changelings, Foundlings, and Stolen Children in ST

8.) A Few Steps From The Unexpected Edge: Edges, Mothers in ST, TFS and Patty Newby

9.) The Nurses Are Prisoners Too: S1 Newspapers, Donna Lass, TFS, Patty Newby and Henry's Cipher

10.) Doomed From The Start: Henry and Patty, Cujo, Hal 9000, and The Dark Of The Moon

11.) Then, Out Of Nowhere, He Walked In and It Was Like Something Had Changed (ft The Girl From Nowhere)

12.) Orphans and Small Women: Patty Vs Suzie, Orphan (2009), and NINA Being A Small Woman

13.) Mystery Meat vs Virginia's Meatloaf

14.) Magic Meatball vs Magic 8 Ball

15.) Three To The Right, Four To The Left: Patty vs Terry, Keys and Locks

16.) The World Is Full of Obvious Things Which Nobody By Any Chance Ever Observes: Patty's Sherlock Holmes Coat And Her Weird Connections To The Creel House

17.) It Wouldn't Be Make Believe If You Believe In Me: Believing in ST

18.) Patty vs The Wasp Woman

And im sure there's other drafts in my huge pile that I'm forgetting about right now because there always is! Not to mention all the notes I have re: Patty that I just haven't turned into actual drafts yet (see: TFS vs Nightmare on Elm Street 2 and Patty's parallels there) So, yeah! Those'll be up once they're done, anon!

[netmassimo]

Un articolo pubblicato sulla rivista "The Astrophysical Journal Letters" riporta uno studio dell'esopianeta WASP-17 b che include la rilevazione di quarzo nell'atmosfera di questo gioviano caldo. Un team di ricercatori ha usato il telescopio spaziale James Webb per rilevare i sottili effetti dei cristalli di quarzo, nanoparticelle disperse nell'atmosfera caldissima di WASP-17 b, che ha ricevuto il nome ufficiale Ditsö̀ all'inizio del 2020.

[thecreaturecodex]

Tenukh

"DINOSAPIEN: THE DIGGERS" © deviantArt user Taliesaurus, accessed at his gallery here

[Sponsored by @glarnboudin. These are the antagonists from Dinosapien, a Discovery channel TV show after my time. They have three canon names, and I hate all of them. I've spoken before about my irritation with monsters that swipe names from mythology thoughtlessly. The unktehi is a horned aquatic serpent in Lakota lore, and this is 0 for 3. And since the term "digger" was used as an ethnic slur for a different group of native Americans, the name seems especially tone-deaf. If you're going to be making a TV show with Native terminology (misued), you should at least double check to make sure you're not using any slurs! A scientist character refers to them as "ornithosapiens", I guess because they're ornithischians, but that name should probably go to, you know, birds. I ended up creating my own name rearranging the letters of unktehi.]

Tenukh CR 4 CN Monstrous Humanoid This creature is a bipedal reptile the size of a bison. It is as broad as it is tall, with an armored carapace and a domed head. Its forelimbs end in clawed hands, and it carries a spear.

Tenukhs are cave-dwelling sapient dinosaurs, descended from ankylosaurians. They are insectivorous, and much of their lives revolve around tending to and harvesting colonial insects such as termites, ants, bees and wasps. They supplement these foods with other insects, roots and herbs, especially during the winter in regions where hives go dormant in cold weather. Tenukhs are clannish, xenophobic and territorial, and a creature that disturbs their hives (or worse, steals honey or larvae from them) may be chased to the ends of the earth.

Tenukhs are straight forward combatants. They typically fight in pairs, with one charging headfirst into melee with the other providing backup with a spear. They have short arms, and so have limited reach despite their size, so favor polearms when wielding melee weapons. Tenukhs are fascinated by explosives, and may beg borrow or steal to get them, even if they do not fully understand their use.

The tenukh language is spoken through the nose, as the creatures have complicated, muscular sinuses. They can learn to speak other languages with some effort, and especially intelligent or practiced tenukh may speak Aklo, Common, Dwarven, Goblin, or Undercommon.

Tenukh   CR 4 XP 1,200 CN Large monstrous humanoid Init +4; Senses darkvision 60 ft., Perception +8, scent Defense AC 17, touch 9, flat-footed 17 (-1 size, +8 natural) hp 37 (5d10+10) Fort +5, Ref +4, Will +6 Resist acid 10 Defensive Abilities fortification (50%); Weakness light blindness Offense Speed 30 ft., burrow 10 ft. Melee masterwork longspear +8 (2d6+4/x3), slam +2 (1d8+1) or 2 claws +7 (1d6+3), slam +7 (1d8+3) Ranged chakram +4 (2d6+4) Space 10 ft.; Reach 5 ft. (10 ft. with longspear) Special Attacks powerful charge (slam, 2d8+4 plus stun), stun Statistics Str 16, Dex 10, Con 15, Int 8, Wis 15, Cha 9 Base Atk +5; CMB +9; CMD 29 (33 vs. bull rush, overrun, trip) Feats Great Fortitude, Improved Initiative, Intimidating Prowess, Martial Weapon Proficiency (chakram) (B) Skills Climb +9, Knowledge (dungeoneering) +2, Intimidate +8, Perception +8, Survival +8 Languages Tenukh Ecology Environment underground Organization solitary, pair or clan (3-12) Treasure standard (masterwork longspear, 3 chakram, other treasure) Special Attacks Stun (Ex) A creature struck by a tenukh’s slam attack on a powerful charge or a critical hit must succeed a DC 15 Fortitude save or be stunned for 1 round. The save DC is Strength based.

[tokuvivor]

3, 7, and 17 for the question asks :]

3. 3 films you could watch for the rest of your life and not get bored of?

(Copied from my answer to Goldie)

My Cousin Vinny (1992)-Comedy classic, endlessly quotable.

Coco (2017)-I could go a bunch of different routes for this question in terms of Disney films, but this one’s just sticking out to me right now.

Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009)-Probably one of the best adaptations of a children’s book to the big screen. Also, it has George Clooney and Bill Murray growling animalistically at each other.

7. What scares you the most and why?

Probably flying, stinging insects like wasps or hornets, because A: getting stung hurts, and B: their size makes it so damn hard to suss out where they are.

17. Name 3 things that make you happy.

Cooking for myself, listening to music (especially my own playlists), and running.

[mercurygray]

In case I needed more reasons to love him:

[John] Egan got back to the USA and stayed on in the Air Force. Late in 1945 he married Josephine Pitz who had been a pilot with WASP assigned to New Castle AFB ferrying B-17s, PT-19s and C-47s. -American Air Museum in Britain

!! He married a fellow pilot!

Anyway, you can see a bunch of pictures of Jo, as she was labeled in some photographs, during her training at Sweetwater Field and her wartime service here at the Women's Air Force Service Pilots Official Archive at Texas Women's University.

(so where's HER miniseries, Hanks?)

[sagesilentfire]

I FINISHED A SKETCHBOOK! Every page is drawn upon. It only took me... eight years. Wow. I only started working on it in earnest about six months ago, though, so... yeah. 

TO CELEBRATE: I want to take one of these sketches and develop it into a full rendered digital painting. I will make a fun little quiz and we'll narrow it down to one drawing. Quiz and logistics coming later, but will be posted here.

A lot of this is me figuring out designs for characters I haven't even written about yet, so look out for that. I'll elaborate one every sketch if you're interested, so keep reading if you want to know who's who. The sketches are generally in reverse chronological order from top to bottom.

1. Alice, a new character in Star and Marcie and the Forces of Evil, my latest project. She's fighting. She's a fighter. She's a love interest, but I hope I make her interesting on her own.

2. Cinder, wearing a shirt Kowari and Kultarr got for her. He will never take it off.

3. Various faces for Iako, a character in my next project that I'm 90% sure on the design for. She lives in a world of kitsunes who accidentally got addicted to gaining their nine tails through murder. Also magic powers are cursed. Iako wants to make magic better, so she goes on a trip to a mysterious island that holds the key to ending the curses... and their lives. Also it's based on the original premise of Lightlark. Hehe. Prologue can be found here. It's part 2.

4. lorge Sílthéy and small derg. 

5. Practicing SilkWings and playing around with dragon faces, plus their defining attributes.

6. ANCIENT Sílthéy expression practice. This is years before the eye redesign, but you can still get the essence of her character and how she's born out of my religious trauma.

7. ANCIENT Sílthéy expression practice cont.

8. SilkWing practice with face shapes.

9. Alice fullbody. My second drawing of her, getting her design down.

10. a. Evelyn, the protag of a story I'd like to tell someday. I can't say much more than that, except that it's a tragedy of epic proportions. b. Human Sílthéy

11. Alice and Shinjai. Shinjai is a main character in SAMATFOE, and she and Alice have an almost-thing going. 

12. Iako and a still unnamed... side character? They're studying the book Iako gets in the prologue.

13. This is [NAME REDACTED]. They're from a universe inspired by Star Wars, but if it was animated and also deeply weird. [NAME REDACTED] is [TOP SECRET INFORMATION]

14. First drawing of Alice. Figuring out her cheekmarks, and what I wanted to keep in her show design (she's based on a one-off background character).

15. More Iako drawings. Left out her hair in a, can't remember if it was intentional or not.

16. A dragon from a Wings of Fire inspired sci-fi world.

17. RPG species. They're aliens who are eusocial, and females are split into four "genders"/roles in society. This gender is soldier, distinguished by their massive claws and size. Their job is everything that requires strength.

18. An early Tethalaos, and also an entirely plausible form for them to take.

19. Above mentioned RPG species. This gender is gatherer, distinguished by their small body and delicate hands. 

20. Another dragon from above mentioned Wings of Fire inspired sci-fi.

21, 23-26. More sketches of [NAME REDACTED]. As you might guess, I quite like them. I just think they're neat, and I wanted to get their design down solidly.

22. Wasp friend :D

27. Shinjai's new crown, as seen in the latest chapter of SAMATFOE.

28. Funny Christmas Carol-inspired AU of SAMATFOE that I drew after being bludgeoned over the head with Christmas music for hours in a holiday sale I was working at.

29. Sílthéy being big mad.

30. RainWing. Not sure who this is.

31. Toffee's Mewberty wings.

32. More Evelyn.

33. LunarWings, but in my sci-fi world.

34. Yet another species in my sci-fi world.

35. Star and Marcie from SAMATFOE

36. Espina, a character from an urban-fantasy boarding school story about being bonded to animals people often find disgusting and repulsive. Espina controls wasps.

37. All the they/them nonbinary characters in SAMATFOE at the time of this drawing. From left to right: Nova, Toffee, Necahua, Dr. Edevane, Mayhem and Miette Maizley, Higgs, and of course, Tethalaos. Drawn at a nonbinary people meetup.

38. Sílthéy again

39. The oldest drawing in the book, Darkstalker from before we even knew what he looked like. An old doodle, but it proves how dedicated I was to Darkstalker being a good guy back in the day.

40. A design for an old idea I had of a hollow mountain filled with outcasts from society. Might revisit it, there's enough there to make at least a novella.

41. Toffee fashion sketches.

42. An old drawing of Sílthéy in her Wings of Fire dragon form, a hybrid named Liminal (nicknamed Lin). I'm pretty happy with how it turned out, honestly.

43. Sílthéy even BIGGER mad

44. More from the hollow mountain. The outcasts are protected by these guys, and in exchange they're cleaned and fed.

[hebuiltfive]

I know this is probably often debated and talked about, but trying to work out possible ages for the characters in Thunderbirds Are Go (2015; I haven't dared try for the 60s but, even though I'm sure more is out there for it, it's no less confusing) is an impossibility? Bear with me whilst I go off on a tangent here. This is kind of long.

We know Alan is 18 by the end of the series, but how many years is the series set across? One? Is it 2060 throughout all the episodes? Or does the show end a year, two years, or even three later? They only ever mention Jeff being gone 8 years, so does that mean it's only set in 2060?

Assuming Alan is 18 in 2060, Gordon would tops be 3 years his prior? I can't imagine he'd be any older, because a) he's closest in age to Alan (or so we assume), and b) he has two other brothers who have to fit in before Scott (who apparently was born in 2035 but now I can't remember if I took that from the 60s version?)

From Gordon's assume 'relationship' with Penny, I would put her as no older than Scott, else that's icky? (In my current calculations she'd be 25 to Gordon's 20. Imo that's barely okay, but we move forward for now because:)

That would mean Penny would have been 17 at the time of Jeff's disappearance!! That's all well and good until you remember John say that Jeff had her looking into the Hood before Jeff disappeared. Jeff disappeared in 2052, which would mean she was working for Jeff had at 17? Maybe even 16, depending on how fast he trusted her to look into The Hood. Was it her first ever assignment for IR? But then we know from Legacy that Jeff taught Penny the WASP protocol when she first joined. How long did Jeff know Penny before he 'died'?

Following on from that, (I have so many bug bears, bear with me) where does Brains fit in? Is he closer to Jeff's age (unlikely for many reasons, mainly his character models in both TAG and TOS) or the boys? I picture him older than Scott, only due to his ability to help Jeff build up the organisation and his friendly relationship with Jeff. Maybe in his early 30s at the start of the show?

Last point (for now): Lucy's death. We know Alan barely remembered his dad, even though he disappeared when Al was 10, and we know from Home on the Range that Al can't relate to his brother's talking about playing with their mother, so for Alan to not remember anything about her, he'd have to have been no older than 6? That puts it at 2048? But Jeff disappeared in '52. He set up IR, built everything and had it all up and running (with a decent reputation) in 4 years? I know he's good, but is he that good?

Ugh, this is headache inducing. I thought if I wrote it down and gave myself some creative licence it would make more sense. It hasn't.

Side note: Grandma Tracy being in her 80s and still being a prominent figure in the organisation on occasion? Badass.