#_so

[densewentz]

me: yeah i've been playing some tv in the background the whole day to try and calm down my anxiety friend: oh? what show? me: the x-files friend: is that... working? me: listen

[kaito-cafe]

blue flavour ice-cream please

blue flavour ice cream just for you!!

[theomenroom]

exocolonist stuff about the green forever ending and the shimmer

Lum's bioweapon works because there's a fundamental weakness in vertumnan ecology because it isn't actually a wild ecosystem. it's a Garden in facsimile of the ecosystem before the Convergent Domain rose, and the Gardeners run their overlay on everything, and the Gardeners have spent 20,000 years alone on a planet without anyone even capable of conceptualizing a deliberate attack. Sym all but tells us as much, that Vertumna's ecosystem is all one thing that reconnects every Pollen and Glow in a way that real-world ecosystems aren't.

And it is Lum's bioweapon. Instance may have developed it and used Tangent to help, who in turn used Sol, and Instance was almost certainly doing bioweapons research before the Heliopause landed (certainly, Tangent says some unhinged things about their research that foreshadow the bioweapon from an early age), but Instance had more reason than ego to be against deploying this particular bioweapon.

Instance is such a complicated character, really. If you try to convince her to support Marz's bid by saying that Lum's war on nature is stupid, she says she supports it, even if she thinks Lum is an idiot and "war" isn't the right way of understanding what she wants to do. She almost certainly is in favor of deploying bioweapons targeted against species they want to remove (again, I'm nearly certain she's been researching bioweapons at least as far back as when they were researching the Shimmer); she opposes this particular bioweapon because it's too indiscriminate for her tastes, perhaps, and a bit because Lum is calling the shots and she has reasons to hate him personally.

I think it's likely she was dragging her heels, too. There's an event if you assist the governor where you can (with very high Organizing) eavesdrop on her trying to control the access levels granted to nameless Helio scientists assigned to her department (there's a whole essay in how the Helios are treated by the narrative as a mostly-nameless mass right up until the narrative needs them), where Sol speculates that she's trying to keep them from uncovering the engineered plague, if they know about it, and that doesn't make sense on its face (or several other levels). Researchers who spent 20 years conducting research in a military environment would know how to act when someone in the lab next to you is working on a classified project. She's not scared they'd find out that she's working on a bioweapon for Lum, she's scared they'd find out she's not doing her best work.

(and if the Heliopause did have a bunch of "earth's top researchers" on it, why is it that under no circumstances can Lum put one of them in the second engineer job over an eighteen-year-old? she's a prodigy but earth has a huge population to draw top researchers from)

It's unlikely that the pre-Gardener vertumnan ecology had the same symbiotes as the current one does. It doesn't sound evolutionarily advantageous. It reminds me of how a cultivar of bananas have gone extinct, wiped out by disease, because that entire cultivar were clones, so they had exactly identical immune systems, so one parasite just swept through them. I am not a biologist, but parasite resistance is heavily-speculated as a driver for sexual reproduction according to wikipedia. There are pretty strong evolutionary pressures against being uniformly susceptible to the exact same parasites across a population.

So I kinda have to conclude that the Shimmer isn't a natural phenomenon. It's a fungal technology, part of the Gardeners. It's the way it is because they are the way they are.

[silverlininghills]

decided to do an updated pilots song ranking before clancy drops ^-^ 3 guesses what my favourite album is lol

[toobusyoverthinking]

It is so cool, and affirming, and beautiful, and sad, to watch those kids be kids and be so unabashed and comfortable in public, and realizing that all kids should feel as free but a lot of them probably have been inculcated with much greater fear of the world (and of their parents).

[gouinisme]

my tummy hurt

[takaraphoenix]

I'M GONNA HEAD TO BED. IT IS SUPER RUDE FOR ONE PIECE TO DROP. I HAVE WORK TOMORROW.

[krakenartificer]

Best part of being an adult is that is most cases, there's nothing anyone can do to stop you. They'll glare at you for being socially unacceptable, but they can't take away your dessert or ground you or take away your GameBoy or anything. All they can do is glare at you, and you grin back, and that makes them even more upset but there's still nothing they can do about it!

At a park one evening, we stopped at the top of a big hill and I asked my spouse if they wanted to run down it, and they did, so I waited at the top while they ran down the hill as fast as they could, just like a couple of kids were doing. And the little girl looked back at me like "Oh no! Is e going to get in trouble for having fun while looking lik ea grown-up?!?" and I grinned at her, and she looked so happy!

So yeah. Don't, like, take away swings from little kids or anything. But use playgrounds, roll down hills, jump in puddles ... There's nothing the judgy assholes can do to stop you, and the more of us that do it the more socially acceptable it will be

the worst part about being an adult is thay its no longer socially acceptable to just roll down a really big hill and then run back up it and roll back down again. "oh is this a syphilis metaphor" passerby would ask. "is this for a tick tock". no i just wanna come home covered in dirt and scratches and bask in the the solace of childlike mirth

[twst-kumi]

Weeping Maiden [ACT II]

My tablet died recently, so there will be no art to go along with it.

[Act II] CHAPTER 2

The fight against Leona was strangely faster. Unlike the fight against Riddle, Yuu was more willing to beat him up. It was almost like he had a personality switch. Ace and Deuce were the most confused of his changes. They felt like he was supposed to be aloof. Somehow they were sure he was like that. 

“_So what about my sister? Who did you say you were keeping? Huh?”

Leona’s blot was gone, and the fight was finished but Yuu didn't let go of the Lion Prince. He looked thin but he sure was strong. 

Yuu's overprotective drive was strong. He didn't let Leona go, punching him again and again. It was [Name] who stopped them, or at least tried. 

“_Yuu, it's okay. Let's stop now…”

She grabbed his arms to pull him away. Pulling his arm back, Yuu accidentally jabbed her nose. Both siblings didn't move an inch as they looked at each other for a minute. 

“_It wasn't on purpose…. Don't cry!”

Without missing a beat, the young girl teared up. Yuu hated it, when she cried like that. It made him panic and lose his cool. He wiped her tears while trying to quell her.

If Vil didn't know about Yuu’s twisted attachment to her, he would have thought they were normal siblings. 

Ace and the others looked at them a little confused. Yuu and the pretty girl seemed close. The black-haired young man pulled her in his arms in an attempt to get her to stop. Leona groaned painfully as he rubbed his jaw. He didn't think the herbivore could hit that hard. 

“_ I'm so happy! Do you know how worr-!

_ What the hell are you doing here?”

[Name] was startled by Yuu’s harsh tones. She looked at him to see the horrified look on his face. 

“_ What do you mean? I should be the one to ask that. I searched for you everywhere!

_ You shouldn't be in this world. It wasn't in the deal!

_ What deal?

_ That's none of your business. What about your careers? You should return home instead of -!”

Yuu stopped in the middle of his words as he felt the sting of her slap on his cheek. She looked at him hurt. 

“_ None of my business? You disappeared for 3 years. 3 fucking years!

_ That’s not-! What do you mean 3 years?”

Yuu asked, confused, he was 16 years, and she should be 13 years old. His little sister was 3 years younger than him. Looking more carefully, she looked different from what he remembered and it made him even more worried. It was strange he was sure it had been a few months. Unless…

Yuu couldn't help but feel a long shiver going down his spine. 

[Name] sniffed while trying to wipe her tears off. She glared at him. Yuu grimaced before pulling her into his arms. He had many questions but pushed it back wanting to only focus on the moment. His lovely sister was there with him. Although he didn't know why they still sent her into this world, he felt reassured to have her near. 

Yuu never noticed how dependent he was on his sister until he lost his only link to her. His eyes closed, and he took a deep breath in the familiar scent. It was the same smell, warmth, and child he used to hug tightly. 

“_What is happening?”

Heric asked as he came running. When he noticed there was some commotion and the matches were delayed. He immediately looked for [Name]. He was surprised to see her in some random guy's arms. He couldn't help but feel jealous. They had both similar features but also…. Different. Every time he looked at the two, the RSA student surprised himself by having a strange thought. It was almost as if something unnatural pushed him to do something he never wanted.

[Name] looked toward Heric before wiping her tears. The young girl pushed Yuu slightly to look at him. Vil sighed before using a handkerchief to pad her eyes. Her eyes were going to be puffy, and even worse her mascara was getting smeared. 

“_Sorry about that Heric. 

_It’s nothing… But rather who is he?”

He didn’t want to sound like a jealous boyfriend, but his word got out rather abruptly. She wasn’t even his girlfriend. He did have a small crush but it wasn’t to that point yet. 

Yuu couldn’t help but grimace at his tone while his sister just frowned confused. 

“_I’m her brother, Yuu. 

_Ah… I see…”

Heric looked at him a little weirded out. He understands that as a brother he could be overprotective. Even more so since [Name] seemed to attract troublesome people around her. But that stare wasn’t normal. Heric felt a long shiver going down his spine like he was going to die if he took a more step. 

Observing him more, the RSA student was even more suspicious of Yuu. [Name]’s brother was 3 years older, so he should be around 18. That man looked no more than 15, since he is an NRC student he must be 16 at least. 

“_I’m Heric, I’m [Name]’s schoolmate, If you don’t mind me, you look really  young, how old are you?”

The young girl looked at him strangely. As she was going to say something, Yuu interrupted her and answered the question.

“_I’m 16 years old, thank you for taking care of my little sister but it would be better if she stayed with me. She is only 13 after all.

_13???”

Everyone looked at Ruggie whose ears flattened, the hyena coughed a little in his fist.

“_She looks 16, I’m surprised. She looks older.

_I don’t look 16, I AM 16.

_Uh?”

This time it was Yuu’s time to be confused. He was certain she was still 13. 

<previous next>

tag: 

@cocomollo @owodi @illytian @mmysticc-ev0let @oreolover1

[charliemwrites]

I love the idea that the first few times she initiates sexy times, demanding orgasms and exploring him, while Readers on top? Keeper Simon is just. _So Proud_ like shes finally utilizing her Enclosures enrichment to the fullest

Yes exactly!!! He’ll sit nice and still for her to explore to her hearts content. Whether that’s using him to get off or playing with him to the point he’s shaking with restraint. He loves loves LOVES watching her get more comfortable and confident with his body, treating it like it’s yours because it is. He’s here for you, always.

[solarbird]

Did you know that Mastodon and BlueSky users can follow each other, using something called a "bridge"?

I wrote up how up above, at the link.

I'm talking about it here because it looks like Fuckerberg's decision to repeat Musk's successful Twitter experiment with Facebook, Insta, and Threads is going well enough before it even really starts that he's mad about it.

Good.

(If you missed it, Suckerberg basically carved LGBT people and women out of anti-harassment rules, giving the green light for mass abuse campaigns, and said no more fact checking, disinformation is fine, we'll use X's "community notes" system instead. The abuse bot armies will spin up _so fast_, holy shit. But, well, he's gone in on MAGA, so what do you expect?)

Anyway, if you're leaving Facebook or Insta or Threads for Mastodon or BlueSky, and so are your friends, you might want to know that you don't have to lose contact with people who go to the other one. You can just turn on the bridge and then follow each other just the same. It's pretty dang neat, really.

[ravencromwell]

Yesssss, your point re Threads is _excellent! Because even what appears to be a "new" ritual is almost never truly—one need only look at how Christianity borrowed dates of older mythological calendars for their holidays, and even artistic motifs like "The Good Shepherd"—as example.

And OHHHHHHHH, Green and Pleasant is the _perfect coda to this post. _Any! insightful thought I may have about Maktahn religion—and in many ways about Makt itself, the Danes, Holland, what have you,—stands gratefully on the shoulders of that fic. The idea of Makt's "prayer" being entirely active, a raw, desperate act in whatever form or fashion, to summon the magic, would never have occurred to me without the juxtaposition of these lines. "How would you say this word? Galdra."

Kell's brow furrows as he thinks it over. The word is complex, layered in meaning. Galdra means to work, to struggle, to pray, and to bleed all at once. There is no one word in any of Red's languages to encompass it. The closest thing, in terms of both meaning and cultural significance, might be the word spell itself." / "You don't pray so that you can have food, or fire for the winter, or steel to ward your bed?" The way in which Pink articulates the almost fairy dust quality of magic in Arnes set against the grueling effort and pain required to call it in Makt is at the cornerstone of everything I do fannishly, to the point I frequently say to Pink, , only in a quarter in jest, that I should just acknowledge "Green and Pleasant" in the notes on everything I write, because there will be influence even if I can't see it.

Mid-way through art history last semester, I discovered the "Mayan Lintels 24-26". Prior to that moment, my familiarity with blood sacrifice had been a fatal event, meant as act of last resort or immense devotion. But these made me familiar with the idea of less drastic, if equally poignant ritual practices of minor bloodletting.

Which inevitably drew me back to Holland's moment at the stream in ACOL. It's easy to identify this as an idiosyncratic ritual of his own invention, particularly because he says he didn't pray and wouldn't know who to pray to. But as my historian brain thinks more and more of Holland as deeply shaped by culture, because there is always culture even in the apocalypse, rather than creating a revitalized society entirely from whole cloth, I become increasingly fascinated by this as Holland practicing alone what was meant to be congregational. In many an organized religion, action itself is the prayer rather than liturgy. And Vortalis has a fascinating line about "fools waiting for the Someday King to return" as though it's far from uncommon, though not shall we graciously say, not a mainstream view to put a great deal of weight behind the tales.

As we see when Holland describes Alox's runes, to "bind escaping magic" is the paramount way of survival in Makt—Vortalis says they have become a society fearful of any magic they cannot control.

Yet, there is immense power in willingly spilt blood—not just for Antari, but magicians more generally. Look, after all, at Maxim's spell to craft a golem army—one of its requirements was protracted blood loss by the caster.

What a powerful message it would send, in a benighted world, to willingly spill the most precious of your own resources. What better manifested prayer to call the Someday King to incarnate, to prove there were still those willing to buck societal trends, and thus a society worth saving? [To some believers, it might be less about calling to a yet-born magician than calling to magic itself, trying to pour enough back into the land this numinous force might feel safe enough to cease endlessly retreating.) A circle, spilling blood onto barren ground, not for food or shelter, but just to give magic back to the land.

A fairly commonplace ritual, performed on two days of historical significance or the Solstices/equinoxes etc., just after the Cataclysm that has faded into rarity but not quite extinction in an increasing desperate world. Which Holland practices alone on different days (and mayhap in a different place, though it would _also make sense for the site of any larger rituals to be the Silver Wood, given Holland's irritated: 'This is a sacred place' when Vor flicks ash everywhere to goad him.) After all, the greatest source of magic coming into bleed all over your ritual might prove too powerful a temptation for even the best-intentioned folk to have a slice of the bounty. 

[cactus-with-boobs]

youre great and i love your blog

Thank you _so much_

[plushiebi]

I thought the "A" in "fucking a" meant like, "aces" for some reason, like the card suit. So like, I thought it was a sarcastic thing like, "ahhh fucking a(ces), my life is going _so well_ right now." Not sure why or where that thought came from.

love that this convo is ongoing

[insanewaykathy]

A LOST CONVERSATION IN ENDGAME

Admiral Janeway had casually found some time alone with Chakotay in the mess hall.

_Oh, hello, Chakotay... Tell me, are you okay? - she asked with the tenderness of a mother.

_Shouldn’t you be? - he replied, as if he was a little apprehensive and irritated by her maternal tone.

_I meant... “okay” with all this... It’s been hard for some people to digest an Admiral Janeway from the future.

_I’m fine... but I think it’s been hard for Kathryn.

_Yeah... I think she’s thought about killing me at least three times… - the Admiral joked.

_Don’t worry. Deep down she recognizes that you’re the same person. - he said, laughing shyly.

_Well... We’re not the same person. Some things change a lot...

_While others, they don’t change at all. There you are being selfless again. Going back in time to save people. Risking yourself for others...

_I'm just trying to right old wrongs.

_Well... there are some you might not be able to.

_Really...? Which ones?

_Never mind.

_Am I detecting a sign of hurt?

_No...

_Chakotay... I've known you for a long time... You can talk to me... I'd like to know if I've caused you any harm.

_No... You haven't caused me any harm. I just... it's best not to talk about it.

_You don't trust me?

_You know I do. But it's hard to talk about it.

_Try...

_Why did you tell her? About Seven and me?

_How do you know? I doubt she mentioned it to you...

_No... But Seven did. So I assume you talked to her too.

_I told her because it was important. Because I know she wants to see you happy. And so do I. You're happy, aren't you? How are things with Seven?

_Good. - he said, with a shy half-smile.

_So... That's what matters.

He looked around, apprehensive, and asked:

_Where is Kathryn?

_She's pulling her hair out somewhere on the ship... When I left her, she was pretty pissed off. I thought she'd have more tolerance for hearing the truth about herself.

_You're not being too hard on her, are you?

_Not like she usually is.

_I wanted to ask you a question. But I'm afraid I'm going over the line.

_Chakotay, I'm a 76-year-old lady, I just stole a very valuable artifact from an angry Klingon and went back in time hidden from Starfleet... Limit is a word I don't know anymore.

_That's good... - he said, remembering that years ago, she knew and used that word very well.

_So... How do you think she feels? About my relationship with Seven?

_How do I think? I don't think, I know. I remember exactly. I'm her, have you forgotten? But what good would it do you to know?

_I just want to make sure I'm not making a mistake.

_You're not. - said the Admiral, so vehemently that it hurt Chakotay.

_What happened to the lack of limits? Because I feel like you just put one, right in the middle of the answer.

_I confess I didn't think you'd get this far. But... Let's just say there are certain things it's better not to know, because that could...

_Change the future?

_Exactly.

_Really? You literally came here for that.

_Not in this case. Like I said, it doesn't matter if I'm in your present, or in your future, I just want you to be happy. I know I've never answered that question directly. But I could only say that... There are things that don't change.

_But there are things that change a lot...

_What are you talking about?

_That I'm not sure anymore... I only moved on because you told me to.

_And I think it's been a long time...

_It has... But I did what I could.

_Something tells me it would have been better not to have had this conversation.

_You're still bipolar. - he said with a charming smile.

_Bipolar? You've never told me that openly. - she said, good-naturedly. - Any other confessions?

_Yes... Your food is horrible. - he replied, not sparing his smiling dimples.

_You've never complained about it openly before either.

_It's because I didn't go to our dinners for the food... and I never had the courage to tell you that before.

_That my food was bad?

_No... that I only went to have your company.

O Almirante pareceu derreter-se com aquele comentário. Se havia alguma dúvida de que ela tinha feito a coisa certa ao voltar ao passado, não havia nenhuma agora. _Chakotay... - agora seu olhar não era mais maternal e ele podia ver uma ternura que já vira antes nos olhos de Kathryn - Não sei se isso responde sua pergunta... mas eu também não ia aos nossos jantares pela comida.

_It doesn't answer... but I'm glad to know.

_I'm sorry I didn't give you my best. But life is like that sometimes. And I hope for a better future for all of us. Be happy... do it for this old friend.

He took a deep breath, and in the silence that followed, he finally said:

_You know... I really regret that it's like this. And I'm starting to agree with you... it would have been better not to have had this conversation.

[electronica-1]

_Sos romántica? _Muy... _ A ver, decime una poesía. _No se diga más!