#actually that's. probably overestimating it

[she-posts-nerdy-stuff]

Hi @cosmicluci thanks so much for this comment; I have thoughts, so I decided it would be easier to reply to this in a reblog so I’m not breaking it into loads of individual replies :)

I'm actually so glad someone asked more about this bc I wanna talk about it lol

Okay so we're all on the same page, this is the quote from the scene: The grave of the Countess Mircalla was opened; and the General and my father recognized each his perfidious and beautiful guest, in the face now disclosed to view. The features, though a hundred and fifty years had passed since her funeral, were tinted with the warmth of life. Her eyes were open; no cadaverous smell exhaled from the coffin. The two medical men, one officially present, the other on the part of the promoter of the inquiry, attested the marvelous fact that there was a faint but appreciable respiration, and a corresponding action of the heart. The limbs were perfectly flexible, the flesh elastic; and the leaden coffin floated with blood, in which to a depth of seven inches, the body lay immersed.

(Sourced from Project Gutenberg bc I read it on audiobook)

And a quick note in case anyone is unfamiliar: the lore in Carmilla is that vampires can be bound by strange, differing stipulations, and in this vampire's case she's bound by only ever being able to use her real name or an anagram of her real name. Her og human name was Mircalla and she went by the name Carmilla when we saw her during the novel.

What particularly caught me about this passage was that I just found it almost funny in how jarring this description is, having so much detail about Carmilla's body and then being like 'oh, also she was lying in SEVENTEEN AND A HALF CENTIMETRES OF BLOOD' it really caught me off guard lol.

There's nothing in this description that discounts the possibility of a little pillow specifically, but unless they scooped her out of the coffin to check her heartbeat and respiration then this probably isn't possible - oooo unless maybe they took a pulse from her throat and tracked breathing from her nose and/or mouth?

The potential buoyancy is intriguing me so I'm going to do some research into that rn -

Blood is denser than water, but minimally. According to Drology, which was the first site that came up when I searched for this, blood is approximately 1.06 g/ml, whilst water is approximately 1 g/ml.

I have found a buoyancy calculator online and am about to do some maths (why am I this invested in this? no-one knows)

According to purecremation.co.uk, the average coffin size is 60cm wide and 200 to 210cm long; let's call that 60 cm x 205 cm, which is 24 inches x 82 inches or thereabouts. So the volume of blood in the coffin was 60 x 205 x 17.5 = 215,210 cubic cm, or 0.215250 cubic metres.

Carmilla was written in 1872. We can assume Carmilla is originally from Austria (when alive) based on the context added late on in the novel about how she became a vampire, and she is also described as appearing approximately similar in age to Laura, who is 19. I have been researching this for a while now and I cannot find anything definitive on the average mass of twenty year old women in Austria in the 1870s, but I've probably already overestimated the size of her coffin because people used to be on average shorter than they are now so let's jsut assume there will be small discrepancies in this research. I found the current average mass of an Austrian woman between 18-25 was reported to be 68.1 kg, which means that she would displace 0.0681 cubic metres of volume when she lay in that volume of water or 0.0667 cubic metres of blood if she lay in blood.

The buoyancy calculator asks for the following details: the fluid type from a drop down list, the volume of displaced liquid, the mass of displaced fluid, and the gravitational acceleration (pre-set at 9.81 m/s-1). It doesn't have a blood setting, weirdly enough, but starting with if she were in water ->

A displaced mass of 68.1 kg means a buoyant force of 667.8 Newtons.

There may not be a blood setting, but you CAN manually enter a fluid density so if we change that to our 1.06 g/ml ->

the buoyant force is still equal to 667.8 N.

I have to assume there would be some differences if the number weren't rounded, but I don't think a large enough difference to account for Carmilla floating.

She may have been lighter than this, but she also may have been in a small coffin so that would mean a lower volume of blood to float on. We also have to consider that maybe there was just some weird vampire shit going on

I feel like another relevant question should be how did it not smell bad if there was a 7 inch deep pool of blood in there. I also can't remember if there was any kind of explanation for why Carmilla didn't wake up and/or put up any kind of fight during this scene and her ultimate destruction, so that's potentially also a relevant discussion

ALSO - I am not a physicist, I'm a literature-obsessed biologist, so if I am completely incorrect about buoyancy someone please correct me.

Anyway, it's just a book, I know, and a fantasy book at that, but this was fun and interesting to me. There's no hate to Carmilla here btw, if anything this has made me look even more fondly on it bc I had fun :)

Welcoming more thoughts and theories on this!

Read Carmilla today and was describing to my best friend the scene where they open the coffin and find Carmilla lying in 7 inches of blood, both of us very confused how an entire 7 inches of blood was lying in this coffin

Now we’re British so we did some quick maths and determined that 7 inches is ~17.5cm and that sounds insane so I went to find my tape measure; I couldn’t find it but I found a 4 inch/10 cm ruler

My friend lay on their back on the floor of our living room whilst I measure them with this ruler and we have determined, especially since Carmilla is described as “slender”, that if she was lying in an entire 7 inches of blood that the only thing that would be visible would be the top of her nose

This was a scientific experiment

[running-in-the-dark]

I spent 2 hours watching librarians and night court, then I spent 7 hours painting (guess who), then I go to bed and look at pictures on my phone (and 95% of them are of the same person).

anyway isn't it crazy that I can't stop thinking about him? 🤷

[prolibytherium]

Would kill to read animal POV fiction that has the animal POV’s interaction with humans be like, semi realistic to the level of caution most predators take with large prey and/or competitors (including humans).

Like instead of the usual - “the human is such a weak, pathetic creature... so slow, no claws, blunt teeth… completely helpless without its 'Fire Sticks'. how is it the master of the earth?” type crap it’s like, the bear protagonist or whatever approaches some dude who spreads their arms and yells and the bear is like “FUUUUUUUUCK THAT THING JUST GOT HUGE. IT'S LARGE AND MAKING NOISES. HOLY FUCK.”

[neverpathia]

fuck you, I like you [un-cheateds my cheated]

YEAH. THIS IS THE SAME GUY AS THIS.

RAZOR. RAZOR WHEN I GET YOU WHEN I FUCKING GET YOU-

at this point I don't know if cheated or thorn is the wife in the relationship. cheathorn yuri fuck it

also you might be wondering why his wings are open here when I don't normally draw the voices like that. well the thing about the right eye being covered is kinda meant to symbolise how their perspectives are always limited by what they are. the wings are shaped in relation to the voices' beings and their beliefs, right? and it is this very thing that clouds their judgement, and prevents them from seeing what is truly right. in the end they can only see what's left behind for them, so their left eyes remain visible.

but 1. I wanted to show off cheated's freaky ass eye socket

2. he's not 'cheated' yet there. he's just a dude.

[bidisaster-peanut-romano]

Throughout the entire game, who do you think are some of the most underrated or under-appreciated characters?

stumbling into the askbox whyyy hello there!!! it had been a while!!

OKAY SO. let's start from one fact: every. single. character has something special about them. so like the easy answer is... anyone, lmao. truth be told we (the whole community) has been around for llke, 18 years (WOAH) and some sides are completely unexplored. even just from the idea that... have you guys ever noticed how little content there is around about nerds and jocks, for exmple? and i don't only mean art but also writing, analysis, metas, thoughts and such. not to mention the townies, the townies, when, having some of them been given some actually adult attributes, there would be a lot to unpack.

i feel like this is a) mostly for the nerds, that the rightful fisgust for the horrible thing they did to mandy discourages a lot from engaging with them as characters too, and b) because they are quite overshadowed by the fan favorite preps and greasers. which, i mean, very legit. but i think that they do have a lot of potential, again, in terms of characterization and themes, and i feel like we are collectively missing out on a lot.

and there's also the fact that, even with the fan-favorites, there is so little tapping into the more serious and sometimes mature aspects. i wouldn't say christy is neglected by the fandom, but it's not often that i read someone talking about her repressed anger that explodes whenever she feels too much, that heirloom of her father that of curse she doesn't have, she isn't a problem boy like her brother, what do you mean with that, i could use this tie to strangle you goddammit! or vance, that we all love as the sunshine jokester of the greaser and heartbreaker queer icon, but how come none of us ever mention him having a canonical addiction, and what if his messy dating habits have to do with that, too? what if he's running from something inside himself, rushing to next best thing just so he can feel something?

but this is just me rambling as an introduction oops. so, just trying to list a couple of my favorites:

thad carlson (& dan wilson) (putting them together bc they're intrinsecally connected and while i do stand by the fact that he's wildly underappreciated in the fandom i would hit dan in the face with a brick): i would lterally give my first born for these two. they are what they actually wanted to write when they wrote about cain and abel. i'm not sure what is the exact reason why they have different last names, and i don't wanna enter headcanon territory here. what it does unavoidably indicate, though, is that they were doomed from the start. like it was written in their names. so, picture this: they were in the nerds together. they suffered the bullying, the abuse together. the humiliation tasted like blood in their mouths and shone like the stars they'd see with their heads smashed in a locker, but at least they knew their brother would've been there to hold them. there's something very visceral about suffering together with a brother. like the blood they share creates somewhat of a shell, one that can protect them from what is outside, that can give them the comfort that they will never be alone. whether they like it or not, their brother will forever be with them; it's inside them. except that thad had the rage of a wounded animal; dan had the fear of a small prey. so, while thad kept standing tall and proud and chin high against his bullies, dan started training and morphing until he could be accepted in the jocks. dan wasn't the bullied anymore. he was the bully. while his brother was still on the other side of the war- the side of the eternal losers, that is. the side that, no matter how many battles they will win, they will always be at a disadvantage. so thad has got all the hurt of having been betrayed by a half of himself, like the phantom pain of a lost limb. and the hurt makes him angrier and angrier and when he wants to take revenge on the jocks his brother is the first target he wants, because, see, he is the victim, his brother is cain who has killed abel. but also dan has got his head on backwards to look out for enemies and for anyone who might uncover him as the fraud he is, the way he just thought- they are just bullying me for what i am, so what if i become someone different? except that it's not like he didn't feel like a loser anymore, he just feels like a loser with a football sweater. so at that point you look at the direction of that violence, at where the anger and the resentment lies, and you stop there and wonder. who's cain there? who's gonna be the victim, who the executioner? like nathaniel orion said, "i want to kill him sometimes. i think sometimes he wants to die". i love them ur honor.

otto tyler: i have no literal idea why there is so so so little about him. admittedly, content about townies is in gnereal harder to track down, since they have... no last names.... for the most part. but the otto tag is absolutely desolated. this boy is what you'd call too angry to be this young. his first response to anything is extreme violence and fantasies of it. playing his audios you will be met with die, kill, die, kill, kill, die, die. and all of his vitriol is poured on the school, like they have all come together specifically to hunt him down. and he's been canonically hospitalized, as well; when you walk in the asylum for the first time (galloway away i believe) he tells you not to "anger the watcher"- but who is this watcher? the composition of the scene seems to implies it is the statue in the courtyard; the most coherent correspondence would be the orderlies you will have to avoid as you walk past them; maybe otto himself has just been told not to anger the watcher by the people who are supposed to take care of him, but that are just playing with his mind to make him too afraid not to behave. which, incidentally, doesn't sound too different from what he might have suffered at school. otto will ask you if you have ever punched a wall. he will swear he hates everyone in the school, that everyone in the school hated him, he will threaten to destroy it. otto is a landmine, he's an unstable kid who just needed some ground to stand on, and instead they placed him all alone on a shaking earth. all is anger is desperation, it's having spent too much time without a support system, too much time bound -to a chair, in a cell, in a straitjacket- surrounded by people who couldn't understand him. who stifled his expression instead of channeling all the feelings he had all the time, exploding and intense in an overwhelming and violent way. i like to think of him as an artist. he mentions tattoos; i like to imagine he's learning to do them himself. that he's finding that as an outlet for his expression. and yeah overall. i am a lot fond of otto, and i think he would have a lot to say.

mr. wiggins: look, this guy is super unlucky. he's the only teacher with no class minigame; he's only ever walking around, and if you saw him you probably mistook him for the more familiar mr. matthews. but believe me when i tell you he's a real one. example 1: when someone snithces to him, he says something along the lines of "thank you, but i will never be able to trust you again". BRO. let me tell you, in 1968 this guy was OUT on his college campus and he was MARCHING and RIOTING with workers and students. he even mentions having spent a night or two in JAIL. he will walk into class and say the nastiest things about reagan while he keeps saying that as a teacher he will have to be politically neutral as if he didn't just have a fight with hattrick about socialism.

[mantisgodsdomain]

the house is established vi and tsm2 vi play a board game together who do you think is winning

The House Is Established Vi has approximately fifty seven years of experience in cheating at games and approximately zero years of experience with board games but it's very good at catching on to new things and will be DELIGHTED to play something new after a century of almost nothing being new so it mostly depends on how quickly tsm2 Vi can catch on to its sleight of hand and start cheating back

[betweenblackberrybranches]

Here is a concept "painted on Sun" just a cutie

Yea im a bit absent rn i just feel a lil overwhelmed and not so good so i will be talking and interacting less for a while... dw about me tho its all fine

[ph-cutie]

Ive been digging through one of my favorite conversations in this game (number 605 on the disco explorer, when you talk to evrart after completing the Find Solution to Strike Deadlock task and making joyce leave prematurely) and i noticed this line

its regular evrart stuff but due to the context it got me thinking... why does he keep up the We're Friends act so late into his game? by that point hes open to saying the hardies would fuck up anything important, admitting he was using you to scare joyce, going on that weird rant about alcohol and generally being an unabashed cunt for lack of more evocative wording. youd expect a character like him (npc that uses the player character for personal gain and admits to it once theyve succeeded) to also gloat they never cared for you but hes in the unusual position where he solemnly admits he *did* use you but yet continues to sweettalk you, even interrupting himself to do so (this is also shown towards the end of the conversation with his whole "i knew a disco cop like you couldnt resist" spiel). is it force of habit? does he care for harrys emotional state at least slightly? i dont have a conclusion i just thought it was a little interesting

[isdalinarhot]

thinking about the post i saw in like 2022 that was written pre rhythm of war that was like based on shallan in oathbringer the next phase of her arc is she is going to become an alcoholic! its gonna be so hard for adolin! which. okay first off it would be harder for shallan (stuck with herself no matter what) than for adolin (can have jasnah get them divorced and subsequently walk out of her life literally the second shit gets rough) regardless of past trauma or whatever. second off i have no fucking idea why that post was on my dash in 2022 two full years after rhythm of war where we have a 1.5 year time gap that reveals that veil drinks socially and on missions and whatever but its really not any more dangerous concerning or unhealthy than what is socially acceptable for people in their early 20s to do (which is to say, it's probably on a medical level considered Drinking Too Much, but it's not, like, ruining her life or whatever). like we know shes doing fine. especially when you compare it to dalinar at the same age being like wine is the only thing that makes me feel even close to as alive as battle does, wine makes me not feel so shameful about having a crush on navani, i was drunk during the important war meeting so i dont have a fuckass clue what our mission today is, shit like that. anyway, it just kinda pissed me off to see people being like the worst consequence of a female character suffering and going through it would be that it would upset her husband. but now that we are 1/10th of the way through kowt and there is even less indication that this will in any way be a part of her character arc its just funny. predictions that went nowhere.

[nyxitycatboy]

barik offtanking forgefire words that mean nothing to anyone following me mewst likely vwv

but i've been consumed with the thought that forgefire, a talent that removes his ultimate's shield and weakens the flamethrower turret that isn't primary benefit, but lets you have two of them that last longer and reduces the cost down to 40% (with the full 100% bar as "extra ammo"), is suited alot better to the off-tank's role than barik's usual/obligate point-tank role by being off of the point, the most contested part of the map, the disadantage of not having the additional shield (and of not getting the shield amplification talent) to allievate pressure is much less of an issue, same going for the disadvantage of the flame-turret being deleted in seconds having flame-turrets gives you greater space control, both in the sense of simply being able to freelyish place one during a fire fight for extra damage, and in the sense of being able to "occupy" more space by leaving one near a support, which can either damage enough to push the 1v1 against a flank in their favor or buy enough time for barik to dash back though both of these things are doable with base barik turrets too, even though those have almost a third of the dps barik's dash is i beleive the mobility tool in the tank class with the best turning/handability (maybe besides ruckus if considering air mobility as a factor), while having much lower distance/duration than the Mobile Front-Lines, which alongside the "create turrets" nature of his kit pushes him into being a more passive off-tank, But accounting for a loadout stacking dash reset duration and shielding, with his closer-range weapon, he would likely be capable of attempting dives And getting out of them in a way more comaprable to ruckus than the other passive-offtanks maybe?

[possumkingluca]

still thinking about the time i did one of those hunger game simulation things with the characters being all the strixhaven student npcs, my strixhaven campaign's party members, and extus narr + one just labeled 'the rest of the oriq' it was actually so goofy because tell me how the oriq immediately set off a bomb killing 4 people INCLUDING THEIR LEADER??? tell me how all the party members died almost immediately except for my character who got tragically betrayed by one of his friends??? tell me how the last two people alive were the biggest fucking nerds in the entire school?? fucking URZMAKTOK and DRAZHOMIR??? tell me how the SOPPING WET CAT of a minotaur that is drazhomir won????? also quentillius died of dysentery on day 1 which is the death he deserves.

[thetruthbetween]

So I had a thought just now and bear with me because it's absolutely not fleshed out at all BUT

Okay so in TNG, one of the things that people make fun of a lot is how Deanna talks about that she feels empathically, right. Like "I feel pain" well great, how about being a touch more specific? Now I always had the theory that the Betazoid languages had like 20+ words for "pain" because it's a highly specific language, and when you have a people who can feel others' emotions, you're gonna end up with a metric fuckton of emotion words that confuse and distress every single non-native speaker

However

I was thinking just now about how I tend to use a lot of metaphors and similes when I'm talking about my emotions, because I'm autistic and I need to express myself as accurately as possible and the words English has for emotions are SO VAGUE that in order to paint an accurate picture, I have to ramble on about my feelings for ages. Unless I use metaphors, which are much faster and based more on vibes than anything else

So to bring this back around to Deanna. It's a thought to consider if the entire reason she used short descriptors of what she felt ("I feel pain" and the like) was because most people are incredibly impatient with long description, even if that description increases accuracy

We see it all the time in TNG with Data getting cut off, sometimes even when he's still giving actively useful information. So maybe Deanna realized that more detail on what she felt wouldn't actually be appreciated. After all, everyone always did seem more interested in things like the where and why of what she felt, so maybe more detail wasn't even necessary

[keydekyie]

and suddenly I'm writing a screenplay about a space station and a grumpy computer and Von Neumann probes. please stand by.

[bibleofficial]

my stomach hurts so bad i’m literally dying

[llycaons]

I also find it really annoying in a postcanon fic where wwx does something against the rules and lwj quotes the rule at him. I just think it's dumb and boring and pointless and doesn't really add anything to any scene and doesn't indicate that lwj has changed at all and it makes him look like a petty asshole. and for all that he's a lot more uptight and strict in canon than in fanon I still think it's a stretch

[asummersday]

ive never once known how to be normal about anything