#also i have no functioning brain cells so if this doesn't make sense... you know why

[foldingfittedsheets]

Hey! If you don't mind sharing, I'd be interested to hear more about your chronic illness diagnosis journey (I also get that it can be a private thing!).

I've been struggling for the last 5 or so years with chronic fatigue, muscle weakness, muscle pain and brain fog, and my doctors have checked a bunch of different things. EBV, thyroid, vitamin D, "are you sure you're not just depressed" and they've now gone for ME/CFS. A part of that just doesn't feel right to me because I feel like they should have done more tests or walked me through alternatives before settling! Especially because it fluctuates so much. Sometimes I can't leave the house, sometimes I have to borrow a wheelchair if I'm in a shop, sometimes I can walk 5000 steps??

Love and support for you and your gluten free adventure - potatoes, rice and polenta tend to be pretty good for me when I want something bready! (Doesn't quite hit the spot as well as buttered toast does though...)

My decline was really painfully gradual. I didn’t realize why things were getting so much harder. It manifested first with friction between my beloved because they were frustrated I was always too tired to run little errands myself. I went to the doctor and talked about my fatigue but was assured I was fine. I went on Chinese herbs and they buoyed up my reserves so I could keep functioning.

That went on for months, just getting more and more tired. I’d wake up sobbing because I wasn’t any more rested than I’d gone to bed. I went to a new doctor at that point. I got diagnosed with anemia until my blood work came back normal and then I was told I was fine.

Then I started fainting. My hair was falling out. I went to a different doctor. She ran my blood. I got told I was fine, but that maybe I had a food allergy. She slapped me with a full elimination diet that broke my spirit. I did feel some minor improvement but I wasn’t healthy by any means.

Finally, my good friend who is a doctor said that’s enough. She was in a different state but she was furious that I wasn’t getting any help. She ran my blood on a bunch of different ailment tests that were less well known. She tested for antibodies to EBV. If you have over 20 they consider you to have an active infection.

I had over 700 which is when they stop bothering to count.

I was so chock full of virus I was pound for pound virus by that point.

Then came the hard part. Knowing you’re bursting at the seams with a virus doesn’t make it easy to treat. The virus was living in me, in my cells. Too much of the medication and my body would start siccing it’s defenses against its own tissue.

I went on a bonanza of supplements. There was syrups to boost energy, pills to increase my immune system, antivirals, iron and vitamin D because those were kinda low. It was a three times a day regime of medicines.

My initial dose of antiviral was too high. I experienced a pain unlike what any mortal should bear as a result, dropping to the ground to writhe in agony when it hit. My dosage got lowered and my progress crept along.

I started school sometime in there and barely kept my head afloat above coursework. My stress load from school correlated to how much energy I had and I longed to finish my degree and just prioritize feeling better.

Then things got worse. My original doctor friend let her prescription rights for my state lapse, it didn’t make financial sense to keep them. A different friend from yet another state wrote my antivirals for a while but eventually I needed a new doctor.

I found another, this time a naturopathic doctor like my friends, hoping I’d keep receiving good care in that scope of practice. I didn’t. I had the most painful blood draw of my life in her office, writhing in agony, then didn’t hear back from her. I got ghosted by my doctor. When I pestered her for results she wrote me a script for antivirals but that was all.

I’d find out about eight months later when my health was declining and my friends demanded to see my blood work that my iron had been dangerously low but she hadn’t bothered to tell me. I got on iron supplements and staggered along.

Through precision time management I could budget my functional time into schoolwork then collapse to recuperate. It was working, but barely.

When my scrip on antivirals ran out I hunted once again for a doctor. This time I’d realized that any good care I’d gotten was when I’d made a personal connection with the doctor, a rare privilege not many people got. So I sought out a friend of a friend, someone I’d seen on occasion in the doctory social circle.

I have never been more happy with a doctor. She tested my viral numbers and pronounced herself satisfied that it was in check but was suspicious that although my thyroid numbers always looked normal that something was going on there. She ran more tests and lo. A thyroid imbalance.

Around that time I’d sunk into needing the chair. I stopped functioning, it was almost as bad as my first collapse. And yet again the fun part of getting my thyroid in balance was a delicate balance of making sure I wasn’t taking too much and hurting myself.

That balancing act took about a year to stabilize. I was still so weak from years of fatigue and inactivity. An able bodied person cannot imagine how hard it is to build up from ground zero on all your muscles. And the worst part was any time I felt tired I was terrified I was going to slip back down into the depths of exhaustion.

Then my beloved and I got Wyvern the puppy. And before we realized we had both somehow developed allergies to dogs and had to break our hearts giving him up, he saved me the last time.

Potty training meant I had to get up every two hours to take him out. I didn’t have to walk far but I had to do it consistently. Every single day I’d go to bed aching in every muscle, terrified to wake up. But every day I woke up with energy and was able to do it again.

It was like puppy boot camp, and I was able to go longer and farther every walk. By the time we realized we couldn’t keep him I was mobile again, I hadn’t needed my chair at all. When we said goodbye to him I promised I wouldn’t lose the progress he helped me make.

Now I finally, for the first time in six years, feel healthy again. I can go on long walks, I can run little errands for my beloved, I can fill my days with activity and wake up to do it again the next day. It’s the most amazing thing.

I hope you can stumble upon a doctor who can listen to you and help you. I know how hard things can get, but sometimes they can get better.

[littledreamling]

Something that's been rotating in my mind like pastas in a microwave lately is : how does Hob's brain, and particularly his memory, works with his elongated life ?

this is prompted by one of your latest reblogs regarding Hob's memory, the fact that's you're actually a student of science, and because I'm pretty sure you wrote or reblogged material for an AU in which Hob became a neurosurgeon instead of a History professor in modern days, which leads him to study people suffering of the sleepy sickness, which in turns leads him to Dream's identity, or something, but I cannot find it again on your blog and maybe I'm mistaken and this sounds completely out of the blue, apologies

Because, correct me if I'm mistaken but our brains aren't fully developed until ~30 years old, which is why it's easier to learn during this period of our lives. But then it retains a considerable plasticity and we may reprogram entire neural pathways for purpose they weren't initially generated to fulfill still (like when someone goes blind and they develop extremely acute hearing or sense of touch because the part of their brain previously alloted to vision has been reprogrammed for hearing/touch instead). Right ?

Which means Hob's brain and memory is functioning just as fine as any 33 years-old's, since he is sparred the decay of his grey cells. But also ... Hob's brain, and memory is, ultimately, finite. There's only so much grey matter his skull can hold !!

He has probably started establishing sorts of "well-memorising" rituals at one point in his life, to make sure not to forget certain precious memories ... and it's probably a non-negligible reason why he got into History too !! He gets to make a living out of churning and reflecting on the past and keeping it vivid.

But there are also parts of his brain, memories and skills that necessarily get overwritten by new memories and skills ? And of course, our brains aren't like hard drives, entire sections of his memory wouldn't suddenly be wiped out. Some memories and skills would simply wither away at the outskirt of his brain, rustying until they get vacuumed into oblivion ... but what do I know about how amnesia work ?? I'm just a Japanese undergraduate and a librarian who writes !!

But combining that with a warped sense of time passing ... Hob used to be excellent on horseback. Of course, he's ridden more horses than any rider throughout his life as a soldat and a bandit, and later as a knight. Sure his title was honorary, and he was no longer a warrior then, but one didn't carve out a niche in England's nobility for themselves, let alone hosted the Queen, without virtosity in horseback fox-hunting.

Then time passes, centuries come and go, and it's been a small eternity since Hob last rode a horse. And he misses it, but he's a busy man, and one does business much more easily inside of a coach than on a horse's back. Plus it's fine, riding a horse is like riding a bike, one simply doesn't forget how to once they've learnt it. Speaking of which, bikes are fantastic !! Such elaborate mechanic would have looked like witchcraft to actually-33-years-old-Hob and yet, it's one about anyone can afford in these days and age ...

Before he realises, centuries have passed without riding a horse. And then Hob finds himself invited to monitor a Renaissance Fair as an historian, and there is jousting on the program, and he somehow finds himself arguing with the knight-wanabees over the inaccuracy of their horses' harnessing, and all they can respond is that historically-accurate harnessing wouldn't be safe for them to ride with, and Hob finds himself oddly riled up by this, and he might not say it, but he thinks loud that "Ah ! Back in my days, people didn't need all of that frill, because we knew how to ride horses," as he climbs on one, intending on demonstrating the ease of today's riders ... and almost breaks his arm in his fall upon a few steps from his mount.

Hob Gadling might know how to ride a bike nowadays, but no longer a horse ...

Uh I might have wandered off a bit here, but my point is, for all the enthusiasm Hob carry with him throughout his immortality, an abundance of oblivion for an abundance of novelty and experiences is a price of which payment he cannot escape.

And that is quite dampening ... but I had to inflict this upon you because I want to hear your thoughts on it Ꮚ•ꈊ•Ꮚ

I’m actually screaming and crying about this, you have no idea. I’m going to try to keep this short because I have about four projects due tomorrow so I can’t devote an hour to pouring my heart and soul into this ask like I want to but this is actually making me go feral!!

First and foremost, I should say that… we don’t really know how memory works in the first place, even in regular humans. I mean yeah, we understand that memories go to short term and then get transported to long term, and there’s a whole lot that goes into that, but it’s kind of a squiggly, imprecise method (and I’m sure there are others who could offer far more insight than me, and I’d love to hear it!) so comparing Hob’s memory to ours is a little difficult, to say the least. But let’s for the moment, assume that his memory works the same way: he can only hold so much information in his brain. You’re absolutely correct about the brain’s plasticity and the fact that Hob would’ve been given his immortality pretty much at the height of his brain’s functioning power (as long as you subscribe to the headcanon that he was ~30-35 at the time of his and Dream’s first meeting) so yeah, he’d have a pretty good memory! But like you said, not infinite. He’s only human, after all, and this is where I blacked out and my angst brain took off in leaps and bounds (sorry @levi1088 for spamming you out of the blue and also making you sad, I’m about to do it again) because thinking about Hob’s memory, about what he’s lived through and lost and forgotten will always make me feel like my ribs are being ripped from my chest, so I’m going to endeavor to make you feel the same way because I’m evil like that

I can’t even begin to fathom all of the things Hob has forgotten over the centuries. Names, places, skills, scents. He always told himself that he’d never forget the sound of a blade being unsheathed or the gasp of air that a man makes when his lungs have been punctured, but he eventually does. When he watches period war movies, he criticizes the sound effects, claiming inaccuracy, but he also can’t remember what it really sounded like, only that it didn’t sound like that. He told himself he’d never forget his sisters’ names, but he forgot them long before he learned his letters (working at a printing press doesn’t necessarily mean he knew the words he was printing, especially because the majority of what he would’ve printed would’ve been in Latin, not English) and with no records, their very existence has disappeared into smoke and grave dirt. Can you imagine the moment when he realized he couldn’t remember his mother’s face? Or Eleanor’s? Or Robyn’s? When he realized he could no longer remember the scent of his childhood home or the sound of his father’s laugh?

His memory isn’t any better than ours! And I’d like to comfort you (and myself) by saying that Dream could conjure up those things in the Dreaming, but he can only draw from memory; once Hob no longer remembers it, it’s gone forever. AND THEN!! The warping of memories!! Every time you remember something, it gets rewritten in your mind, so even if Hob remembered every detail about his life (which we’ve already established that he doesn’t), he probably only thinks he does, because those early memories have been warped beyond belief. And he can’t go back and check because his parents were nobodies, his siblings all died in the plague, his friends died in war. None of them got portraits painted of them, none of them could afford the paper to keep diaries or sketchbooks. There’s absolutely no record of his childhood or home town or family or friends; he’s well and truly the only one left and god, doesn’t that just kill you?

But then (because I’m an incurable optimist and as much as I love angst, I love happy endings too) there’s always a silver lining. Hob is immortal. He’s lost everything. Every single item, every possession, every name, every single person except for one has been lost. He’s had six hundred years to come to terms with the fact that he will inevitably lose everything he currently has and that has to be okay. It has to be, because what other option does he have? He can’t be sentimental with objects because the constant sense of temporariness of every aspect of his life would drive him insane. Delirium would probably take up permanent residence at his flat if he constantly worried about everything he had lost over the course of his long life.

And I have to believe that this applies for memories, too. Hob strikes me as the type to let those kind of things roll off his shoulders like water. There’s nothing he can do about it, so why bother worrying about it? He lives his entire life in a completely transitory state; his memories are the least of his concern (as someone with pretty severe memory problems, this is a mindset that I have been forced to adopt because I, too, would drive myself absolutely insane trying to remember everything I had forgotten. If it’s important, it’ll come back to me, and if it doesn’t, someone will remind me. If neither of those happen, it’s usually none of my concern and 99% of the time, it never comes up again). And like, yeah, it sucks that he can’t remember his mother or his friends or his house, and he mourned those losses when they happened, but he’s constantly replacing those memories with new ones. He’s so invested and intrigued with the world around him and he’s always gaining new experiences; his memories come and go like the tides and he no longer gets upset at the loss of them, or at least, he no longer holds onto that mourning for longer than the emotion warrants; he grieves their absence and then he moves on.

Additionally, his memory might be finite, but the life lessons he’s learned and carried from one lifetime to the next are not. He doesn’t have to remember where he learned how to pick pockets to remember that he knows how to do it, if that makes sense. Some things transcend memory.

This might be a convoluted analogy, but I like to think of memory as a window looking into anroom with a timeline on the opposite wall. Wach person has a window to look through and they can only see the section of the timeline that corresponds to their life. The window can never get bigger, not for anyone. You can only hold a lifetime’s worth of memories. And the same goes for Hob; his window doesn’t stretch or expand any larger than anyone else’s, but it moves when no one else’s does. His window has the ability to slide along the wall, constantly replacing the memories that disappear from view with new ones. We’re all stuck with the lifetime we have, with the memories that we can create in the 70-90 years that we have (if we’re lucky). We all have our window, it’s just that Hob has the ability to shift his window to a new perspective, a new era of time, a new life. And I think he would think that was pretty cool

[gothibara]

Okay, so related to that one post abt somebody with plant powers not really being able to control ibara, how DO you think she sees the world?? Like to be honest i live your interpretation of her quirk and could read a whole book on it. You said it was kinda translated right? so how would she expreince her senses then??

Haha, thats a really good question! Ive actually been reading a book on plant perception lately (What A Plant Knows, by Daniel Chamovitz) so while i cant say i definitely know everything, its helped put things into perspective. also for the sake of Not Being Buzzkills obviously horikoshi didnt think abt this its just hc im using canon to supplement and draw conclusions dont be silly

also um. im putting this under a cut because it really is a book's worth of meta. i got really excited.

But i think, from how we see Ibara, a large part of it is going to be filtered through religious experiences+delusions. It already seems like how she talks and understands thing is subconsciously put through this filter (i dont think shes calling shishida "apocalypse beast" out of spite or to be inflammatory-- there is religious theory that the beast of gevaudan may have been god-sent, albeit this theory is rare and far from widely accepted. Ibara doesnt seem to follow any specific doctrine, though, and i really think parts of it are just kinda her brain drawing connections in line with her deeply personal beliefs as opposed to dogma. To her it may just be that she believes theyre saying the same thing in essence, while he does not)

But on the topic of sensory experiences specifically, I would also say that Ibara is experiencing exponentially higher levels of sensory input than most people, so i cant blame her for being a space cadet. And while the fainting is an anime-only gag presumably to show her delicate sensibilities or whatever i personally am choosing to interpret it as an incredibly reasonable consequence of her brain hitting the limit. Like cut the cameras im OUT!!! It's documented frequently in the history of religious ecstasy and other spiritual experiences, so adding an assload of input i can imagine only heightens your chance.

And so onto your question about how that manifests-- its hard to say! But i have a few ideas.

Firstly, i think we should address what the plant is perceiving, and how. In a base function, we can say that they respond to stimuli in certain forms (light, sound, smell, balance, touch, etc) which loosely correlates with our own senses. They differ in the organs used, though, but Ibara having a centralized animal brain both simplifies and complicates it.

Plants don't "see" pictures-- they have sensory cells dedicated to seeing both light and different wavelengths of light (which helps control their circadian cycle and even flowing schedule! Even a small disruption of flashing a certain color light during the night can allow farmers to delay or change when certain plants flower), but these arent rods and cones connected to an optical nerve connected to a brain. But at the same time, they... ARE connected to a brain.

I think for Ibara, plant sight is like a murky, back-of the mind addition to her normal range of vision. It's not a picture the same way her Eyes work, but she knows intuitively theres light, shadow, and colors around her, and can focus in on it a little more if she tries. Details and motion that doesn't block light wouldnt be part of it-- the plant can only see what blocks light covering it or reflects light onto it. Ever-periphery flashes of shadowy shapes and colors. (and conversely: i think the prayer pose, with eyes closed and hands clasped makes it easier to focus on the information filtering through)

sound is also different-- while the studies about plant growth and music are bunk, plants do react to sound. the mechanics of it are still heavily under-explored, but we know they do, just so long as its sound that may be relevant to a plant, like running water or insects chewing. I don't think Ibara could do what Hawks does-- where he can focus in on sounds through his wings and hear conversations. The vines aren't a dedicated sensory organ, they just communicate signals back that are of relevance. She may KNOW there's sound somewhere, but it's background noise until it's something that triggers a response. The question is really what would be deemed important enough to do so.

See, the thing with plants is that they don't have emotions, or even a centralized brain, as we've established. Animals can and do. humans especially. Things deemed important by a person can be important for a variety of reasons, beyond just survival. While Ibara uses the vines as an extension of her limbs, it doesn't change the built in systems of stimuli response the plant has, but the plant isn't a brain in the sense that it will decide anything. So the question of What Ibara Hears from the plant is an interesting one. Personally, I don't think she hears the sounds "as is". Ibara doesn't HEAR insects chewing, because the cells are communicating a stimulus and response, so it would be an interpretation of the response. Sort of a plato's cave issue-- I think ibara may say she "hears omens of danger" or "tidings of great joy", but it's not like she's being told a Coherent Thought By The Vines. it's sound of water = good = we are safe and can find safety + an avidly catholic teenager = the angels bring tidings of joy. it's thing she "hears" but doesnt hear because its never actually touching her own aural organs or nerves. She may not be able to pinpoint what the sound itself is, just what it evokes or what her brain fills the gap in as, like talking.

Taste and smell are both something plants do, but defined slightly differently, as we associate these things with specific nerves in the human body that plants Dont Have. to define it the way my book does, we're going to say "taste is the reception of chemical signals through touch" and "smell is the reception of chemical signals dispersed through the air". and plants do taste, and taste one another-- many parasitic plants show preference for certain species, like the dodder vine. other vines, especially those that climb, will avoid climbing their own species because they know that the support is unstable. this is something they figure out by the chemicals they release onto their surface. This is something that would really be tightened up by ibara having an actual real world plant on her head but trust me trying to find anything that matches is a mess. more on that in a bit. but we know, in theory, she can "taste" other plants, and maybe even other type of similar compounds through these vines, which i think would then also manifest in at least a vague idea of a taste in her mouth-- once again, platos cave of sensation, although honestly its probably a bit more in line with what the actual thing would taste like. (tomatoes, for example). this taste may also correlate with a signal that associates emotionally, but ill touch on that in the pain part of this.

Smell is similar- once again, just detected through the air instead of touch. (The smell of cut grass? An airborne danger signal. Ibara probably can't stand being around freshly-cut lawns, it must feel like a giant panic attack. How this would manifest? Not sure! The smell of blood? As a sound instead? It's hard to say what could compare to the scope of fear that kind of flood would cause). I won't go into depth since it's the same as above, but I would also like to add carbon dioxide as a mention. Plants can detect levels of CO2 (and it can decide how they photosynthesize!) in the air, and I think because for Ibara, photosynthesis has to be accelerated (due to the faster growth and usage of energy being more akin to that of an animal instead of a plant) and she and the plant share an exchange of signals and nutrients.

I'm going to diverge briefly into the realm of digestion and nutrition. Firstly because I love it. Secondly because it will circle back to our carbon dioxide talk.

Ibara's vines are, as we see, leafless. This is quite relevant. Leaves, as most people know, are responsible for the majority of photosynthesis. While chlorophyll in any parts of the plant can photosynthesize, leaves are by far the most effective way thanks to the broad surface area and certain specializations. Leafless plants (especially in the case of vines) tend to be parasitic. Plants that evolve photosynthetically-inefficient leaves tend to be carnivorous, which I would like to explore a little.

A plant is defined as carnivorous if, typically, it shows a form majorly inclined towards having prey-trapping mechanisms, and receives a substantial amount of nutrition from doing so. They tend to grow in areas that have high sunlight and water levels, but with incredibly nutritionally deficient soil. Nutrients like nitrogen, phosphorous, and proteins, which are found in meat (bugs included)

Now, Ibara's vines don't have visible roots, so I think it's safe to assume the root system is within her body, and goes deep below the surface. Water, nutrients, and neurological signals all need to be shared; and so I think her entire body is connected to this root system. Ergo, all the nutrition the plant gets that isn't photosynthesized comes from what Ibara digests-- which is also why I don't personally subscribe to the vegan or vegetarian Ibara headcanon-- because nitrogen and phosphorous are INTEGRAL to stem growth, and baby, she's all stem. In fact, I think she probably loves meat-- second only to bread, which provides long-term energy in the form of complex sugars. I personally think Ibara would dislike sweets in the traditional sense of candy and desserts outside of winter-induced cravings from a drop in photosynthesis, but that would be because the sugars her vines produce for her already maintain a decent level of homeostasis, so it would cause her blood sugar to spike and make her feel ill. Conversely, bread breaks down and is stored much more long term, so it would both benefit her and the plant, which is inefficient at photosynthesis compared to a plant of the same size with leaves, and would need a boost given how much energy it uses to grow, detach, and move.

I know this girl can put away a MEALLLL after training. Yaomomo style.

I think you could argue Ibara (and her quirk) qualifies as a carnivorous plant. Her vines lack leaves and instead have developed extensive thorns (which can be a type of modified stem-- its complicated and varies plant to plant), and we never see them branch off of each other, so they may not even be capable of developing stems. She also doesn't appear to have any flowering mechanism (nor does she need one!), although I will say I'm a sucker for the idea of Ibara having psuedo-blossoms that aren't functional flowers, but rather an indicator of health. Either way, the heavy focus on the vines for strength, complex movement, and grasping through pointed extrusions makes me think you could convincingly argue that they are the "trapping mechanism", which is a requirement for carnivorous plants.

So, once again, we've established that there's a complex nutrient exchange both from Ibara to the vines, but from the vines to Ibara. And because of this, I think there's an added level of complexity to her digestive system-- specifically regarding the stomach's direct connection to the brain. Just like her own nutritional needs can trigger certain responses like in any person, but the plant probably has the same access to these hormone signals. Things like craving sugar and being irritable in winter because of the inability to produce her own as much, but also conversely, I think the plant can trigger a digestive response to prepare for the influx of sugar being photosynthesized. A "heads up, we're about to start sending this your way" to help maintain proper levels.

So, back to carbon dioxide finally. When plants detect higher carbon dioxide levels in the air, they may photosynthesize more. This may result, in my opinion, to "phantom smells" and a trigger to the digestive system, resembling how our own mouth waters when we smell food. Whether it's just an ambiguous food smell or one specifically (maybe bread?) to Ibara I'm not sure, but what I'm saying is that if Bakugou's explosions over the course of an hour can produce about the same amount of carbon dioxide as an entire person throughout one day, she probably thinks he smells fucking delicious and for no reason why. It's funny to me.

Ok! On to touch. I think it's obvious that Ibara's vines react to touch and that's transmitted to her, given how she knows that she's found someone and is pulling them out in JTA. Plants definitely can feel touch, and respond, but I'd like to note that plants can't feel pain. They don't have the ability to feel pain. They can react to adverse touch, certainly-- for example, grass releasing their smell when cut, but they don't feel pain. It's solely for survival, and feeling pain isn't really important for a relatively stationary being. Nor do they really have the factor of emotional association with pain that typically is bundled together. But in the case of Ibara; who, once again, has the burden of the complex mammalian brain... maybe she does feel pain, even if it's not "real"! It likely has to do with whether she has the expectation of and emotional association of fear/pain/etc, so simply cutting away the vines aren't likely to make her hurt. But I don't think phantom pain is out of the question, especially for someone already as high-strung as Ibara and who has so many wires crossing at so many times because of the nuance of the signals transmitted from cell to cell.

And related to touch... a fascinating and storied study in plants includes gravitropism and proprioception, or-- balance and how they know what's up and what's down! People have incredibly complex proprioception systems (most people know about the inner ear, but it goes far deeper than that!), and plants, too, make use of this ability. In fact, it's integral for plant growth.

Plants have two main mechanisms for gravity sensing. The root caps, and then in the stems, the endodermis (which is also responsible for osmosis in cells, sorta) both have genes that develop statoliths, similar to the otoliths we have in the inner ear. These statoliths tell the plant which way gravity is pulling. The root caps make roots grow down, the endodermis makes the shoots grow up.

I think for Ibara, her vines have become an extension of her own balance and ability to know where she is in space. Losing all of them suddenly would result in something similar to a damaged ACL-- having to readjust and being wobbly for a while. Not only that, but I think quirks that impact someone's sense of balance would seriously waste Ibara. While Ibara does move her vines in more ways than up and down, the ability to tell what's what still relies on the individual cells in the stems and roots. While Ibara would still be able to produce the growth hormone and self-amputating mechanisms that detach her vines (i have to look more into this, honestly-- autotomy has only been recorded in one type of plant, and even with abscission ibara's vines dont follow typical patterns. smh my head.), there would be little if any control over the movement, especially if the balance reduction hits the endodermis in more ways than one, because that would impair the hydrolic movement that causes movement in plants.... Either way, Ibara's quirk would be rendered functionally useless. Deidoro Sakaki has this one. And in my opinion, with Uraraka's quirk, they would grow, but wouldn't show proper gravitropic bending, and so may also be impaired in their ability to perform actions.

And I think a complete removal of Ibara's vines would honestly feel like... overwhelmingly suffocating? Imagine having so much of the senses you're used to having cut off, it's probably incredibly jarring and upsetting. I don't think she would prefer it to the every day life she lives, because it seems like she's generally not that impeded by her own world view and strict standards, even if others oppose it (OCD queen lets go #1).

So...as a TLDR; I think Ibara experiences normal human sensory input, she just has another layer that bleeds into it. While I often refer to the plant separately in the above, that's solely for clarity of biological mechanic explanations-- they're one and the same, the same way we started reproducing mitochondria despite their likely beginning as a different organism. She may see things that aren't there (like in the case of warning signals from other plants, or in her mental translation of all sorts of things), "hear" things in her mind, smell or taste or even feel pain... while the mechanics aren't the "real" ones we associate with the senses in question, she's still reacting to stimuli she is receiving, and I think she's learned to adapt to it. It's hard to explain, because it almost has a sort of eldritch feel... but really, Ibara is Ibara, she's a bit stubborn and translates everything into her world view, and so that determinative personality probably helps streamline the constant influx of information. Angels, music, emotions, memories-- those are things she assigns to the experiences, but they are no less validated by the biological machinations behind them. Human survival also relies on our ability to feel and the more complex machinations of the brain, the social advantages of more refined expressions and speech, and Ibara's just as human as her classmates, and her quirk ultimately is another part of that, even if we know the individual cells of the plant are without that same neurological function.

[als145]

I know I'm recycling a post ♻️ but it is extremely important and this topic really needs to be discussed!! And must I remind you this information will likely remain the same.

Today, on October 27th, 2024, I hit my 5th month with ALS. This is not a post to scare the untrained reader but it is a post to raise awareness and open the eyes of others.

I'm about to drop some cold, hard, and daunting facts that you need to be prepared for. Keep your eyes open and your attention focused!

And I must mind you, this is a long read, so keep your brain active!

Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) is a fatal type of motor neuron disease. It causes progressive degeneration of nerve cells in the spinal cord and brain. It's often called Lou Gehrig's disease after a famous baseball player who died from the disease. ALS is one of the most devastating types of disorders that affect nerve and muscle function ALS doesn't affect the senses (such as seeing or hearing). It also usually doesn't affect mental functioning. It isn't contagious. Currently, there is no cure for this disease. ALS most often affects people between the ages of 40 and 70 (I got diagnosed when I was 73), but it can occur at a younger age. It affects people of all races and ethnic groups. There are two main types of ALS: sporadic - this is the most common form of ALS in the US, making up 90% of cases. These cases occur randomly without any known genetic cause or family history of ALS. The second form of ALS is Familial this is an inherited form of ALS that affects a small number of people but many recent genetic discoveries suggest hereditary forms of ALS are more common than previously thought I have sporadic since none of my family members or past generations in my family had ALS.. now with all the info out of the way I will say the basics it takes all your function/ life generally within 5 or 4 years but some people with ALS outlive those odds! This is wonderful for people with ALS. I lose 0.1% strength in my arms every month. I live with ALS, and the more drastic numbers start declining months in. Every three months you live with ALS, you lose 1% of your head strength! It's not fun. Another thing that prolongs my life is how lengthy the process is for me to lose my breathing ability! Which I am so extremely grateful for! Every five months someone lives with ALS they lose 1% of breathing! For me, I have 9%, so it Will take a little longer for me to lose my breathing!

After all that information I would like to tell my progress and what I was like at the beginning of my diagnosis

I got diagnosed with ALS, or Lou Gehrig's disease, at 73 years old on May 27th of 2024, and since then, I've lost a lot of my strength and my total body percentage!

In the beginning, I was

-3.5% arms

-10% breathing 🫁

-5% head

-0% core and legs since I am a C3 incomplete and a C4-C5-T1-T10 complete Quadriplegic ♿

My entire body strength was 8.5%, which the average body percentage my doctor measures is 200%, so I was already way off the average percentage, but will you believe me when I say that my body strength is only going to continue to dip?

I was already weak and as shriveled as you could get but only to think it could absolutely get worse

On the first month of my diagnosis, I was (June 27th, 2024)

-3.4% arms

-10% breathing 🫁

-5% head

So I lost a bit of my arm but nothing major

At this moment and time, my body strength was 8.4%, so I was still very stable and was only losing my arms at this time, but obviously, that was four months ago, so you could tell I was only going to lose more.

On the second month of my diagnosis, (July 27th, 2024)

-3.3% arms

-10% breathing 🫁

-5% head

So again I didn't lose much

And by this time again, I hadn't lost a significant amount of body strength. The only strength I had lost was another arm percent. My head was looking as strong as it was last month! So my body percentage was resting at 8.3%!

On my third month of diagnosis, I was (August 27th, 2024)

-3.2% arms

-10% breathing 🫁

-4% head

Now this is the month where my body percentage took a huge dip! As in, like very big because a percent of my body percentage going away is huge and drastic! I'm below double digits here, which is not good, and my going lower was also not good! My body percentage was now resting at 7.2%! Which, mind you, is not good!

So this time I had lost much more strength! Taking 1% off my body strength is a lot!

On my fourth month since being diagnosed, I was (September 27th, 2024)

-3.1% arms

-10% breathing 🫁

-4% head

My body strength had almost remained the same, but it only went down a tad bit, which is amazing! Those two months where I'm not losing breathing or losing head are the most blissful months as I can finally relax without my head taking a drastic dip or my breathing

But now This leads me to this month.

Today it's October 27th meaning my ALS wants to act up again and make me lose more strength and while it's still revolving in my body it's now affecting my lungs, you see every 5 months in my case I lose a % of breathing and many know I don't have the most superior lungs, there rather between a wheezing asthmatic breath or just completely giving out, now I'm not saying I'm not grateful to have my 10% lungs but I am fearful of the fact I'm losing that 10% every five months I live with ALS I get this dreading anxiety every appointment that comes up because I know I'm going to get 1% less than I did in those previous months it's always a dreading feeling and It's always so hard to accept the fact I am losing and to see the months of my life being taken off just because I missed a week of my ALS medications which I've sadly come close to! And I've always slightly panicked as I thought it would be another month of my life taken away. It's always scary and hard to accept the fact I am living with ALS and it's not fun but I do it and I am extremely grateful for all the support I receive from my wife, my husband and friends!

Now with that out of the way…

Many months are not so crucial until you hit another 3 or 5 months! This disease is a (excuse my French) shitty one at best but I won't let that stop me from living my best life! You will not defeat me ALS.

(Yes the last photo is my beautiful wife 💓)

[wildfire317s-oc-box]

Demon slayer Theory:

What if the reason why demons are the way they are is because the overwhelming majority of them choose not to sleep because they think they don't need to? Think about it, because of their physiology they do not need to sleep in order to regain energy because Muzan's blood cells keeps their immune system, endurance, stamina and general physical healing in check which is part of what sleep does; BUT that is not all it does. Sleep also aids in mental health and hormone production, this is why a nap usually helps whenever someone is in a bad mood or having a bad day for whatever reason. And what usually happens when someone doesn't get enough/any sleep for an extended period of time? They become irritable slowly losing their ability to regulate their emotions, it affects their ability to remember things and their mental illnesses (if they have any; which most if not all of the demons shown certainly seem like they do) start to act up worse than normal and can even somewhat alter someones personality. Adrenaline: something that the body produces naturally as a method to aid in various types of survival, also triggers in the event of long term sleep deprivation and during such it kicks in after 24 hours without sleep. It also effects ones blood pressure, effects ones blood sugar, effects ones heart rate, improves the senses, increases ones alertness and decreases ones sensitivity to pain which would also aid in a demon's pre-existing abilities. Now for a human that is obviously not immortal, total sleep deprivation is deadly after a while but demons are immortal so I wonder how much more the lack of sleep and probably very heavy doses of adrenaline their bodies produce due to the lack of sleep, near constant fighting and hunting actually effects why they are the way they are. Perhaps this is why Nezuko is usually pretty neutral because she is usually sleeping and gets the energy from doing so that other demons get from eating. I would wonder if perhaps this is why Enmu (whose entire thing is sleeping and messing with sleep and if I recall hearing correctly occasionally does sleep just for shits and giggles) is comparatively in better control of his emotions than the other moons who are actually able to emote (i am looking very pointedly at you, douma) but there are other factors that generally make it hard to tell. But it makes me wonder; What would happen if at some point all of the demons just took a freaking nap?? Or even had a normal nocturnal sleep schedule??? Also I wonder how likely it is that Muzan told them they would be fine without sleep and they didn't need it to control them? Because while it was known for thousands of years that sleep is important for energy by the time demon slayer started, it was only being newly tested whether or not it was important for cognitive brain function around midway through demon slayer so none of the demons would have known better enough to even question what he said (except maybe Enmu because of his past as a human who would not have questioned him anyway because hes a freaking simp) and maybe Muzan didn't know either but with him having multiple brains, being alive for as long if not longer than humans knowing sleep was actually important, and being a huge science nerd I would not put it past him to figure it out much earlier...Maybe all of the demons would finally realize all of the BS Muzan is pulling and actually do something about it? Or maybe they would be more effective at what they do?

[illarian-rambling]

Hiiiii 🫶 I am so intrigued by Mashal in the best way. If I may, can I ask for an info dump on his ~workings~? Like his systems, what they effect, what happens if something goes wrong? Does he require special upkeep?

You have the wildest, most creative OCs I cannot stress that enough.

Eeee, Sable you make my day <333

To preface, I don't know shit or fuck about mechanical stuff. Changing a car tire is about the upper limit of my expertise. So anything I say about Mashal's hardware came probably exclusively from a google search or some basic assumptions about how pressure works.

But let's start with the basics! Mashal's mind (maybe soul?) is contained within his heart rune. This is a piece of glass tubing arranged into a rough figure-eight shaped rune. An alchemical slurry of brain matter, sorcerous enzymes, and a certain species of magically mutated bacteria flow through this tubing in a constantly circulating closed circuit. All of this is contained in a little box in the center of his chest. Really, this heart rune is all that Mashal is. His metallic body can take all sort of damage, but the heart rune is self-contained, so as long as it remains undamaged, he'll live. Aside from actually breaking the rune, one of the few things Mashal is susceptible to is high temperatures, as the cells will start to denature. Cold, he tolerates a little easier, but excessive heat will kill him or at least fry his brain a bit. He tends to get kind of loopy once the outside temp hits around 110°F. Astra is working on a cooling system to solve this problem, however, it's pretty difficult to introduce new runes to the casing of his heart rune when she barely knows how the heart rune works.

His heart rune is connected to a central hydraulic pump by way of some linkage runes (these are more traditionally etched runes. Actually, his heart rune with its alchemical tubing is really weird so far as magic goes.) That central hydraulic pump powers the rest of his body by not only fluid mechanics, but also by using the presence of hydraulic fluid as an activation condition for even more runes, mainly sensory and gravitation. The gravitation specifically makes him a bit lighter, so his mechanical bits don't have to work as hard. Gravitation runes also keep his central hydraulic pump constantly moving without the need for an outside fuel source.

On to upkeep! Mashal has bigger fish to fry over the course of the couple of months the Mortal God series takes place in, so he's not the best about this, but he does need a good deal of upkeep to function. Fluid quality is a big one, since unwanted precipitates in the hydraulic fluid can scratch runes and make them unusable. This is one area Astra has to help him in, as for a full oil change, he'll essentially be disconnected from his body. Any other maintenance that has to be done on a hydraulic system, he probably has to do a few times a year. The only major difference is that he also has to re-etch all his runes once a year or so, just to make sure there are no cracks or rust that might interrupt the shape. Thankfully, his heart rune is designed to function indefinitely without interference, so he doesn't have to mess with that one too much.

As for if something goes wrong, that sort of depends on the something. I already mentioned the heat thing, but if he's low on hydraulic fluid, his movements will be sluggish and he'll have blackout moments where his vision and hearing cuts out. Actually, now that I mention senses, Mashal really only has hearing and sight. He's got a rudimentary pressure sensor so he doesn't crush everything he grabs, but that doesn't do anything for texture or tactile sensation. Astra built him a rudimentary temperature sensor, but that's more like a little HUD that tells him how hot an object he's touching is. He can't feel pain or exhaustion, though his mind remembers being human enough that he can feel phantom pain.

As for how Mashal feels about this... He honestly really hates doing upkeep on his body. It feels like admitting he'll be stuck in it forever, and he doesn't like to think about being a machine if he doesn't have to. He's perturbed also by the fact that, if he does proper upkeep, he's effectively immortal, at least in terms of aging. Thankfully, Astra's always there to talk him through things. She's incredibly adamant about keeping him in good working order and takes pride in teaching him how to do his own repairs. She also does frequently try to talk him into letting her do crazy mods on him, like a retractable sword arm or hidden recorder or built-in heelies. So far, only the sword arm has made it in, but she'll keep trying.

Ok I think this has gotten long enough, mayhaps, but please let me know if you have any questions! And thanks so much for the ask :)

[smalife1234]

Hey everyone! As most of you know I got diagnosed with ALS on May 27th! Today is my third month with ALS which will be the worst so far! In the third month, I will lose the most I've ever lost! Before telling you all this crap you might not know I'll tell you all the logistics of it all! Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) is a fatal type of motor neuron disease. It causes progressive degeneration of nerve cells in the spinal cord and brain. It's often called Lou Gehrig's disease after a famous baseball player who died from the disease. ALS is one of the most devastating types of disorders that affect nerve and muscle function ALS doesn't affect the senses (such as seeing or hearing). It also usually doesn't affect mental functioning. It isn't contagious. Currently, there is no cure for this disease. ALS most often affects people between the ages of 40 and 70 (I got diagnosed when I was 73), but it can occur at a younger age. It affects people of all races and ethnic groups. There are two main types of ALS: sporadic - this is the most common form of ALS in the US, making up 90% of cases. These cases occur randomly without any known genetic cause or family history of ALS. The second form of ALS is Familial this is an inherited form of ALS that affects a small number of people but many recent genetic discoveries suggest hereditary forms of ALS are more common than previously thought I have sporadic since none of my family members or past generations in my family had ALS.. now with all the info out of the way I will say the basics it takes all your function/ life generally within 5 or 4 years but some people with ALS outlive those odds! This is wonderful for people with ALS. I lose 0.1% strength in my arms every month. I live with ALS, and the more drastic numbers start declining months in. Every three months you live with ALS, you lose 1% of your head strength! I only have five, so that will go away quickly, like in 1 year and 3 months! It's not fun. Another thing that prolongs my life is how lengthy the process is for me to lose my breathing ability! Which I am so extremely grateful for! Every five months someone lives with ALS they lose 1% of breathing! For me, I have 10%, so it Will take a little longer for me to lose my breathing, so I wanted to say after this huge rant (which I apologize for)! I'm losing more than I've ever lost before! I'm losing 1% of my head and 0.1% of my arms, so my body strength will take a huge dip! Which is not good but I'm grateful for being on my third month with ALS! It will be a hell of a battle but I will take any battle! Thanks for reading! Now please rest your eyes. You've had enough reading for today!

[knarme-stray]

'Ipseity' is a word that means the place in space time through which you observe the universe a. k. a. where your consciousness occurs.

As human beings we can easily conclude that a dog certainly has that within. We even know enough about dogs to be able to imagine how theirs looks/feels like. We know which colors they see and don't see. We know their sense of smell and hearing are waaayyy better than ours and that another dog's piss tells them all kinds of facts about another dog. Besides that they very obviously love their buddies and get happy and sad etc. It's easy to try to imagine what it might feel like to experience space time through the ipseity within a dog.

Same goes for any animal really. Doesn't even have to be vertebrates. Did you know leeches get oxytocin from huddling together with other leeches? Also they have a skin through which they feel their environment etc. and their nervous systems are made up from the same basic parts as ours etc. so it's not that hard to imagine being a leech either.

Now if we go to other carbon based lifeforms beyond Animalia, we have fungi and plants that also respond and adapt to their environments and also communicate through chemical signals. Plants can tell other plants about animals that are eating them so the other plants prepare foul tasting or poisonous chemicals to repel the threat etc. Now, plants don't have nervous systems like ours but they have other ways of taking information from their environment through their various senses (light, moisture, response to damage etc.) so again... You may somehow be able to imagine being a plant. Turning myself to where the light comes from, absorbing water and nutrients out of a leaf of mine I'm killing so I can survive scarce times in terms of water etc. Plant intelligence is very obvious.

Now we go to individual single celled organisms, including the ones we consist of ourselves. They too take in plenty of information, adapt and respond to said information and communicate. They make choices. Animal cells know things they aren't "supposed" to know, even. There was an experiment where a dog's heart artery was replaced with a piece of its intestine. In a few months the intestinal cells of this neo-artery had been replaced by regular blood vessel cells. Somehow the body knew to do this, even in an animal in which's evolutionary history these types of surgeries don't do themselves.

Thinking of both this and what I know about the diverse and complex cell organs a mere single cell possesses, just doing their thing all day in my body, hit me with... Yeah, who am I to say there isn't an 'ipseity' within every cell as well.

The intelligence of every cell forms the collective intelligences of each organ we have. Together all those organs form the collective intelligence of our entire bodies. Besides just our very young biggie frontal lobes, there are much older intelligences we consist of, ones that have had hundreds of millions of years to develop.

Even our brains seem to be more than just one intelligence within. There is so much going on in our brains we aren't 24/7 consciously aware of but that is still very important to how we function. The Hindu concept of Third Eye didn't come out of nowhere and it makes all the sense even anatomically.

Now... Every cell in my body just does its job. They observe and process the universe around them from their own POV, with the senses and locations available to them.

What if I myself am also like a little cell to another, bigger conscious being? Such beings could be anything. The biosphere of Earth as a whole. Even Earth as a whole because its weather and geology are interactive processes together with the biosphere, and shape one another.

Maybe every social community I'm a part of is also a conscious living being that the people in it are organs of.

Maybe every country as a political entity is also a conscious being.

What if consciousness is simply a natural consequence of space and time, inherent to having those things?

What if there is a consciousness everywhere that there is a changing process of information? (A. k. a. space and time, those laws of physics doing their thing...)

I used to try to think about this. At what point does "just information" become an "information processing system"? The latter is what I used to think creates consciousness. So I figured, consciousness must be a spectrum then, because you'll have different levels of complexity in those things.

The problem with this idea is that it's still placing everything in the universe into an anthropocentric hierarchy. Spectrum of... Brains or thinking...? Would that place plants below animals, and some animals above others, without considering the unique abilities and properties of them all? Who am I to say that a whole planet with its geology and weather can't also be a conscious being or even a lifeform in and on itself?

Who am I to say that a conscious being has to even be a solid piece of matter? I actually once conceptualized the contrary in some of my fictional writing, where I described the collective identity of a colonial empire as an abstract, invisible lifeform that has different organs to it. The character I was writing was a soldier of such an empire, and therefore, it was a part of the teeth of it. I conceptualized the collective consciousness of this colonial empire as the closest thing to the god its religion worships.

I sometimes feel that characters I create are lifeforms of their own as well. They grow. They grow in ways that I do not dictate by conscious choice. I often talk about "discovering my characters" when I write them. They have a consciousness. Brains of people who generate OCs are powerful enough to generate new little consciusnesses. This isn't even surprising given that even people themselves can be plural / systems.

We all live in this infinitely complex web of collective consciousnesses that don't even have clear bounds between one another. Think about how much of our intuition is just us using the best of the multiple ancient intelligences of all the organs and cells in our bodies. By being aware of what I say here we can actually be better at taking in and using information.

At my worst times with no answers, I have often discovered that my body knows everything. I ask my body and I get an answer to how to heal from personal crises. I ask what would it feel like to have this pain healed, to be at peace? I visualize the feeling because my body shows me. Then I start making a list of things that feed that good feeling for me and envisioning how must I develop my self-identity and relational skills to be at peace. I don't need a therapist when I have my gut and literally every other organ. Ik it might not work for everyone but it works for me.

Think about how many spiritual traditions came to the conclusion that everything is alive or has spirit inside. The way 'God is in everything' in Abrahamic religions, Brahman in Hinduism and animist concepts of many indigenous religions, Shintoism and precolonial Finno-Ugric religions etc . I think it's a result of people asking the question all over again, of how do you define consciousness. These concepts tie together.

I'm just excited that I consist of multiple intelligences. Every cell. Cells as a collective forming organs. My organs forming this whole body. There is immense potential to learning more from my body. When I speak of this, I get chills, I feel it physically that my body knows I speak of it. My cells get the regognition because obviously, there is a loooong history of all these intelligences working together as one. I can tell my cells things but they can also tell me things. I'm just a brain that think it's special.

Allright, but guess what else is exciting? That I'm only a little cell or an organ within some bigger lifeform. I'm of this planet. I'm of every community I belong in. Maybe the whole universe itself is a massive lifeform and all the things in it are life within life.

We get way too hung-up on "aliens" that are either very human-centric, animal-centric or just... You know, resembling these carbon and water based life forms at home. Because we want so badly to see something similiar. What if we're missing out by not realizing how exciting it is that we are surrounded by physical and non-physical conscious beings / entities that can also be extremely different from ourselves?

Here, at last, is the most exciting part of all. You may think it doesn't make a difference what kind of intention and energy towards people and life you choose internally, in your own head, as long as you just formally perform the 'correct manners'.

It does make a difference because the whole universe, other people and animals are highly sensitive to the little signals you communicate without thinking about it. Every cell in your body contributes to saying something to your surroundings. Dogs and horses are very skilled at this, as they pick up on bad intentions faster than humans do. We process way more information and use way more information than just what someone formally said to us. We can see things coming because we pick up on the smaller stuff. Some of it is harder to put into words, because it consists of these micro-observations we take in without thinking of it. But our brains and bodies do work with that info.

Why is this exciting to me? It means that making transformative art, loading my approach to people and life with peaceful (but firm boundaries having) intentions can transform my whole life. It means I can communicate in big and small ways to the universe what I want to find, and it may come to me. There are many terrible things I have no control over, for sure, but I can still transform my own self and my own life in many ways that'll bring love, joy, peace and good connections that can truly impact the outcome of my life on the longer run.

One last thing is, we don't know every way that information comes to us or goes out of us to elsewhere. There is an exciting mystery about it. I once wrote song lyrics to myself about something personal, aligned with feeling like I'm scary and and almost cannibalistic entity on Earth because of what role my society plays in the bigger picture and how all within me is grown from it. It was a really hard piece of lyrics, visceral and brutal! Something cleared inside of me when I wrote and processed it, because.... That day so many random people outside approached me and had a friendly talk. I felt like the universe was showing me I'm not scary. It was showing me what I yearn to have, - to become a part of the family of humanity and earth, to pursue a fraction of a world where all people are free under the abundant sun.

I was being shown hope that building something good is possible. I was being reminded by the universe that all living beings are a process, they all transform. I may be born from a cannibalistic societal model, but there is more to me than only that and I have the choice of growing those better parts. Also, what helps is knowing, we're stuck in houses like these together. We can transform them.

If you read this far, thanks for reading my weirdo ramblings. I really felt like sharing.

[chasingxfeathers]

long genesis headcanon post -- in the form of discord messages, so these are basically notes.

there's talk about prion disease!

also an immune system disorder. this is a bit more vague and was speculation based on how i think his body would respond to the jenova cells making his body deteriorate. lots of speculation! and just... how things at least have gone on my blog. i know i could include a lot more, and this does fall into an interest of mine so i'm sure there'll be more.

i do not think his friends would have the slightest fucking clue as to what's going on and were likely lied to. like. no they're not gonna know that his has a brain disease, that his body is falling apart & attacking itself. and they're not going to be told that. they were DEFINITELY not told about how genesis was nudged into finding answers for himself. angeal probably lives with a sense of guilt bc he did hurt genesis, and it was pretty bad (which allegedly triggered the body falling apart thing, but shhhh ive changed so much anyway shhh) its a fucking mess. as far as ange and seph are told, gen just…. went off the deep end. left them. abandoned them.

gen's not in a mental state to tell anyone what's going on. it's all happening so fast, the mako and the jenova cells are fighting to keep him functional + somewhat alive but its a fucking disaster. i think like. it progresses prett rapidly (for how they typically would), even with mako and jenova cells in mind. then the fact that he's getting roughed up REAL fucking good like. doesn't help. his body cant really fight off infection/patch up injuries. like. hoo. so ofc he dies.

so genesis dies as a traitor. the villian. someone who abandoned his friends with no reason. who did these awful things for no reason whatsoever.

and when he comes back… he can't talk about it. how do you even begin to talk about that shit show. why talk about it? it changes nothing. he still did those things. he can't even tell them about the flesh eating demon thing, so why would he tell them about the fact that he was dying and his body was doing things that couldn't be stopped? nothing would be changed.

his brain deteriorating is the result of a prion disease. CJD specifically. it genuinely just. happened. very unexpected given his age, and the news was not broken to him gently. it's hard to handle being told you only have a year left to live. being treated like a failure. mocked (maybe not actually mocked jut that's how it feels). Genesis lucks out in anyway. he dies in a few months (three?). i don't have a full timeline established and I'm side eyeing how fast stuff happens in games. I'll get there. his body is also. deteriorating but that is for sure because of the jenova cells. HOWEVER I'm thinking it's a bit of like. his body is attacking itself and the jenova cells. that would've been enough to kill him.

[11:23 PM]so. genesis was always going to die.

[11:23 PM]his immune system becomes virtually nonexistent, blah blah blah

[hyperfixated-homo]

#& 2: ur brain is still working when ur slepeing why did the lines go away

so i read this comment first thing when i woke up and now its been a couple hours and im trying to justify why these imaginary people do the things that i said they do. fun times! /srs

First of all, here's a little infodump.

There are a TON of different neurons in the brain (this source states that the brain has both 100 billion and 86 billion. it probably depends on the person im not too sure actually). I found a couple sources stating that there are three types based on their functions, those being the sensory, motor, and interneurons. I believe that the one thing they have in common is that they're all information messengers, which means that they are mainly used to receive data from other parts of the body.

When the body is asleep, it is very active, but it's in a different way than it is when it's awake. The brain essentially injects some chemicals into itself (melatonin) when it gets dark in order to make you want to sleep, and then when you sleep the brain starts working differently (source).

A couple of notable things that happen when sleeping are that the amygdala, which is the part of the brain mostly used for processing emotions, becomes more active, and the thalamus, responsible for controlling the motor functions, stays active to help send visuals, sounds and other things to other parts of the brain in order to create our dreams.

Interestingly, one of the main things that happen during sleep is that the nervous system gets a chance to relax. This means that the neurons in charge of relaying information to the brain while you're sleeping are less active. However, the neurons that are in charge of things like keep the brain asleep stay active (or probably get even more active, depending on their function).

According to Heathline.com, when you're sleeping:

The brain stores new information and gets rid of toxic waste.

Nerve cells communicate and reorganize, which supports healthy brain function.

The body repairs cells, restores energy, and releases molecules like hormones and proteins.

Obviously, there are also different phases during our sleep cycle in which the brain works differently, three stages and then REM sleep. These different phases are caused by the brain and body being active in different ways while you're sleeping. For example, during phase 3 of the sleep cycle, your body is the most relaxed, and your heartbeat and breathing slow down the most, while in REM sleep the body apparently acts quite similarly to how it does when you're awake.

So, with that all out of the way, I have an updated headcanon! Based a bit better on the science.

In this case, the idea of the neurons being active in Logan's room would probably be a more aesthetic one than anything else. Maybe they'd be active in all the sides rooms, not just his, but it might only be visible in his room. They probably hold different functions based on the side. And I would say that Logan would purposely keep his visible, so that he can observe how Thomas is functioning and make sure that he's alright.

Maybe after Thomas falls asleep, the reason that the lines disappear is because he doesn't need to see the connections between them anymore, leaving it to Roman to come up with some dreams and knowing that the data will be warped by that. So the neurons are still there, they just aren't displaying the information that Logan needs anymore.

Hope that makes sense :)

hc of the day: logan’s room is full of glowing balls, the visual representation of thomas’ brain working. its a massive, connected system of neutrons that move and change with time.

in the night, when thomas is asleep, the lines between these neutrons fade away. they look like stars, when he isn’t thinking too hard.

its logan’s own perfect galaxy

[als145]

Hey everyone! As most of you know I got diagnosed with ALS on May 27th! Today is my third month with ALS which will be the worst so far! In the third month, I will lose the most I've ever lost! Before telling you all this crap you might not know I'll tell you all the logistics of it all! Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) is a fatal type of motor neuron disease. It causes progressive degeneration of nerve cells in the spinal cord and brain. It's often called Lou Gehrig's disease after a famous baseball player who died from the disease. ALS is one of the most devastating types of disorders that affect nerve and muscle function ALS doesn't affect the senses (such as seeing or hearing). It also usually doesn't affect mental functioning. It isn't contagious. Currently, there is no cure for this disease. ALS most often affects people between the ages of 40 and 70 (I got diagnosed when I was 73), but it can occur at a younger age. It affects people of all races and ethnic groups. There are two main types of ALS: sporadic - this is the most common form of ALS in the US, making up 90% of cases. These cases occur randomly without any known genetic cause or family history of ALS. The second form of ALS is Familial this is an inherited form of ALS that affects a small number of people but many recent genetic discoveries suggest hereditary forms of ALS are more common than previously thought I have sporadic since none of my family members or past generations in my family had ALS.. now with all the info out of the way I will say the basics it takes all your function/ life generally within 5 or 4 years but some people with ALS outlive those odds! This is wonderful for people with ALS. I lose 0.1% strength in my arms every month. I live with ALS, and the more drastic numbers start declining months in. Every three months you live with ALS, you lose 1% of your head strength! I only have five, so that will go away quickly, like in 1 year and 3 months! It's not fun. Another thing that prolongs my life is how lengthy the process is for me to lose my breathing ability! Which I am so extremely grateful for! Every five months someone lives with ALS they lose 1% of breathing! For me, I have 10%, so it Will take a little longer for me to lose my breathing, so I wanted to say after this huge rant (which I apologize for)! I'm losing more than I've ever lost before! I'm losing 1% of my head and 0.1% of my arms, so my body strength will take a huge dip! Which is not good but I'm grateful for being on my third month with ALS! It will be a hell of a battle but I will take any battle! Thanks for reading! Now please rest your eyes. You've had enough reading for today!

[infireandash]

who: open starter ( @intheshadowsstarters​ ) location: Harvest Festival - corn maze

There were a few times of the year when it seemed to Mateo like supernatural energy was amplified, if not created. Full moons, fall, spring time for some Faes, to name a few. The Harvest Festival in this town was one of them. It always happened in conjunction with fall, which on its own symbolized the end of a full seasonal cycle, many living things going dormant or dying off altogether, making way for a new life to take form after the dead of Winter. Some years the festival was dangerously close to the harvest full moon: Matty was insatiable then, the energy in the air palpable and wild. Luckily this year was more tame, the moon already in its waning crescent phase, but the energy in this town was still excitable. It was a good time for the supernaturals, and Mateo enjoyed a little festival as much as the next witch and as such she found herself trying something new for once.

The air was crisp out at the corn maze, the sun having long set, and the grass was covered in a very thin layer of dew. She had meant to be joining someone here but after waiting a half hour longer than needed, Mateo found herself undertaking this directional challenge alone, equipped only with a festival loaned flashlight and her wit to guide her. Undeterred by the daunting possibility of getting lost, Mateo walked into that corn maze with a false sense of confidence and a half ass strategy for success. It came as no surprise then, that after a half hour of walking amongst the tall stalk and making turns at random, Mateo was growing increasingly disoriented and confused.  

Occasionally, she had run into other people but her journey had been for the most part alone, and such was the state she was in now: alone and getting hungrier. Her thoughts ran wild, as they often did when she felt cornered, and she reasoned that at the worst she could just burn a hole through the maze to get out. She even thought that if she desperately needed food she could probably make corn on the cob with her bare hands. That last thought made her smile, well aware that she was bordering on insanity, and Matty was so distracted that she lost situational awareness. As such, when she took yet another uncalculated turn, she startled herself at the sight of another person. 

“Jesus f— Crap,” she breathed out, hand shooting up to her now rapidly palpitating heart, “you scared the crap out of me.” Her hand remained on her chest as she looked at this other person, all understanding of how to have a normal human interaction gone out of the window. After probably way too much staring she finally blurted out, “I’m lost.”

[tachvintlogic]

Should Danny age?

Yes. If he's alive.

His regenerative ability likely comes from the same mechanism that lets ghosts dictate their form, taking cues from his human half's shape (since ectoplasm seems pretty malleable while connective tissue is less so). While his human half's cells don't remember that new wound is where an arm used to be and just want to cover it up, his ghost half does and directs healing to restore the arm. Ectoplasm acts as scaffolding for the cells to adhere to as the wound heals. Restored limbs may be made entirely out of ectoplasm initially until his cells repopulate the limb, giving the appearance of being fully healed even when he isn't.

Now, if this gives Danny functional immortality, then it likely prevents his telomeres from degrading, letting his cells create perfect DNA copies without those cells being cancer. Degradation associated with aging doesn't happen, but development related to age shouldn't be affected.

Age related development like puberty, height gain, brain changes, etc. are controlled by hormones. All that stuff theoretically shouldn't be affected as long as his hormone glands are functioning. Danny should age normally and then once he's an adult he just never looks a day over 30.

(I looked for any research papers to see if telomere length affects puberty onset and didn't find anything compelling. Even if it did, he's likely already started puberty so I assume he'll be fine. Even if it is a problem, a doctor could prescribe him puberty hormones. So long as his body functions this is a solvable problem.)

Now what about his ghost half? Could it be stuck at 14? Well... if his human body isn't sent to a pocket dimension or destroyed when he transforms, then no. I see the transformation as his core saturating the body with ectoplasm, so his ghost form can't really deviate that much from his human body. His organs and bones may be more flexible in ghost form, but he still needs to be able to put himself back together when he transforms back. His human half needs to fit inside his ghost form, so they shouldn't age at different rates. In TUE we see that ghosts can change form over time, so the ghost half should be able to age with his human half.

In conclusion, it only makes sense for Danny to stop aging if the glands and organs responsible for development aren't working, which to me implies his human body's not alive. It could be perfectly preserved or slowly rotting around him, depending on what his gut bacteria are doing. But then he isn't really a half-ghost, is he? He'd be a full ghost piloting his own corpse.

But you know who IS a full ghost piloting his own corpse?

Dan.

[Image Description: A gif of Dark Danny/Dan Phantom transforming into a human disguise that looks exactly like Danny's human form. Danny is standing on the left, and his expression goes from angry to shocked when Dan transforms.]

Dan is a full ghost, no human half to speak of, so how can Dan have a "human" form? It's actually quite simple. I propose that his "human half" is the corpse of his timeline's Danny Fenton. He doesn't look like he's aged a day because he hasn't. I don't think full human Danny could survive for long, so Dan might've stuffed the corpse back in himself (or stuffed himself into the corpse) in an attempt to reclaim it and become half human again, but...

It didn't work. Whether partial or full death, you can't go back.

So Dan has a corpse/dead tissue just... hanging out. Inside his body.

From this we can hypothesize ectoplasm is antibacterial, since TUE's Fenton's gut bacteria didn't start chowing down the moment he expired. This could mean Danny's gut is sterile, and ectoplasm takes their role in digestion. Alternatively, ectoplasm never makes it to the large intestine and his gut bacteria are just fine. Ectoplasm's bactericidal nature is only a problem if anything tries to eat his tissues.

Ectoplasm is also very good at preserving organic tissue, since corpses decompose to some extent without bacterial involvement. It's probably related to Danny's regenerative abilities, so they still work even if his body isn't... well... functioning anymore.

[randomperson339]

Well I always thought about it like the oil stores memories (EX: phyrexians on New phyrexia remember old Phyrexia) but the actual brain does the thinking.

But now that I think about it, I think it's possible that the oil serves more as something like memory in computers, since that would make more sense with the entire "machines" vibe.

And now I'm thinking about it more the wiki says that the Oil has powerstones nanites in it, which could mean a few things. The first I thought of is that, while the nanities do serve some computational role, it's more based around helping the main brain compute than being it's own thing.

Like, the nanities are made to serve under a greater mind, running smaller tasks in the same way one pin might serve in a bigger computer chip. If you take out certain pins, your computer chip stops working because the base 1s and 0s to computer are just gone. That would be the consciousness contained in the brain, which the rest of the oil is based on running. Kinda like deleting system 32 on your computer; it screws everything up to the point of just instant, complete, death.

... yes, I suppose that would also serve to give an explanation as to why the oil became inert after Elesh Norn died (the entire MOM thing was this principle extended out to all of new Phyrexia), if we wanna go that route.

Ignoring that, I think this could also serve as to an explanation as to why Powerstones are so powerful- they're basically little computers that anyone with the right magical know-how, and seeing how computers revolutionized our world, even without the internet, it would make a lot of sense. Probably is contradicted by some old Urza's legacy/Invasion lore tho

Moving on, I don't think the Oil really intentionally keeps it's own memories, but they do keep some old data that was just in there because you need to reference that data to do anything. Kinda like RAM, where it's very easy to recall info from that, but it's also very fragile so it's better to have the brain store long term things (EX: what you're looking for) whereas it's better to have the powerstones in the Oil store shorter-term things (like store the past 5 minutes for some calculation)

There's probably other things that the brain functions as- the CPU for one thing, along with a motherboard and probably also more SSD kind of stuff.

If we're talking about the purely practical applications of how the Oil is used to think, the Oil could serve as more of a GPU than a CPU, where GPUs are more about simple, repetative tasks that you can further break down, whereas CPUs are more brute force(from my understanding, I'm not an engineer like that). So the brain works by brute forcing the problems (which we call "thinking") but the Oil can divide the task of doing (10+10) - (2X3) into two separate bits of powerstone, then throw em together in another part.

And I think this can be extrapolated our further into the structure of the phyrexians system; the foot soilder calls function inputPlan.ask into the oil, the oil transmits the signal back to the higher-up, which then returns the function of walkForward == (3). Which would basically make Phyrexian into a giant computer instead of a giant Wifi router it's instead a giant computer, stretched out a few thousand cubic miles. Though the Wifi thing does have it's own merits, I really should get onto why Phyrexian Oil corrupts.

Which I think is because phyrexian bodies need more stuff going on inside of them to stay alive, because biology and metals don't mix. Like, at all. Yes, even prosthetics/implants So they need a lot of extra systems to make sure the metal doesn't hurt the cells of the body and the cells of the body don't hurt rust/damage the metal- it's a whole thing.

So when the Oil stops being inside a body, it still does the same function it was told to do when it left off- mainly, convert raw matter into phrexian bio-machinery, which includes the necessary organs to make more Oil. Which doesn't have anything better to do, so it continues on making more Phyrexian matter until there's something/someone to tell them what to do (like when they invade a host body)

And that's all I can think of at 12:30 AM. goodnight!

What do you suppose the difference between Phyrexian brains and ichor is, since they both have mnemonic/cognitive purposes?

I have a few crackpot spec bio theories, including that the brain is a primary storage for sensory information and ichor flows through it to pick up memory, and that Phyrexian cognition is in general much more diffuse than humanoids since neural activity happens all throughout the bloodstream.

[smalife1234]

I know I'm recycling a post ♻️ but it is extremely important and this topic really needs to be discussed!! And must I remind you this information will likely remain the same.

Today, on October 27th, 2024, I hit my 5th month with ALS. This is not a post to scare the untrained reader but it is a post to raise awareness and open the eyes of others.

I'm about to drop some cold, hard, and daunting facts that you need to be prepared for. Keep your eyes open and your attention focused!

And I must mind you, this is a long read, so keep your brain active!

Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) is a fatal type of motor neuron disease. It causes progressive degeneration of nerve cells in the spinal cord and brain. It's often called Lou Gehrig's disease after a famous baseball player who died from the disease. ALS is one of the most devastating types of disorders that affect nerve and muscle function ALS doesn't affect the senses (such as seeing or hearing). It also usually doesn't affect mental functioning. It isn't contagious. Currently, there is no cure for this disease. ALS most often affects people between the ages of 40 and 70 (I got diagnosed when I was 73), but it can occur at a younger age. It affects people of all races and ethnic groups. There are two main types of ALS: sporadic - this is the most common form of ALS in the US, making up 90% of cases. These cases occur randomly without any known genetic cause or family history of ALS. The second form of ALS is Familial this is an inherited form of ALS that affects a small number of people but many recent genetic discoveries suggest hereditary forms of ALS are more common than previously thought I have sporadic since none of my family members or past generations in my family had ALS.. now with all the info out of the way I will say the basics it takes all your function/ life generally within 5 or 4 years but some people with ALS outlive those odds! This is wonderful for people with ALS. I lose 0.1% strength in my arms every month. I live with ALS, and the more drastic numbers start declining months in. Every three months you live with ALS, you lose 1% of your head strength! It's not fun. Another thing that prolongs my life is how lengthy the process is for me to lose my breathing ability! Which I am so extremely grateful for! Every five months someone lives with ALS they lose 1% of breathing! For me, I have 9%, so it Will take a little longer for me to lose my breathing!

After all that information I would like to tell my progress and what I was like at the beginning of my diagnosis

I got diagnosed with ALS, or Lou Gehrig's disease, at 73 years old on May 27th of 2024, and since then, I've lost a lot of my strength and my total body percentage!

In the beginning, I was

-3.5% arms

-10% breathing 🫁

-5% head

-0% core and legs since I am a C3 incomplete and a C4-C5-T1-T10 complete Quadriplegic ♿

My entire body strength was 8.5%, which the average body percentage my doctor measures is 200%, so I was already way off the average percentage, but will you believe me when I say that my body strength is only going to continue to dip?

I was already weak and as shriveled as you could get but only to think it could absolutely get worse

On the first month of my diagnosis, I was (June 27th, 2024)

-3.4% arms

-10% breathing 🫁

-5% head

So I lost a bit of my arm but nothing major

At this moment and time, my body strength was 8.4%, so I was still very stable and was only losing my arms at this time, but obviously, that was four months ago, so you could tell I was only going to lose more.

On the second month of my diagnosis, (July 27th, 2024)

-3.3% arms

-10% breathing 🫁

-5% head

So again I didn't lose much

And by this time again, I hadn't lost a significant amount of body strength. The only strength I had lost was another arm percent. My head was looking as strong as it was last month! So my body percentage was resting at 8.3%!

On my third month of diagnosis, I was (August 27th, 2024)

-3.2% arms

-10% breathing 🫁

-4% head

Now this is the month where my body percentage took a huge dip! As in, like very big because a percent of my body percentage going away is huge and drastic! I'm below double digits here, which is not good, and my going lower was also not good! My body percentage was now resting at 7.2%! Which, mind you, is not good!

So this time I had lost much more strength! Taking 1% off my body strength is a lot!

On my fourth month since being diagnosed, I was (September 27th, 2024)

-3.1% arms

-10% breathing 🫁

-4% head

My body strength had almost remained the same, but it only went down a tad bit, which is amazing! Those two months where I'm not losing breathing or losing head are the most blissful months as I can finally relax without my head taking a drastic dip or my breathing

But now This leads me to this month.

Today it's October 27th meaning my ALS wants to act up again and make me lose more strength and while it's still revolving in my body it's now affecting my lungs, you see every 5 months in my case I lose a % of breathing and many know I don't have the most superior lungs, there rather between a wheezing asthmatic breath or just completely giving out, now I'm not saying I'm not grateful to have my 10% lungs but I am fearful of the fact I'm losing that 10% every five months I live with ALS I get this dreading anxiety every appointment that comes up because I know I'm going to get 1% less than I did in those previous months it's always a dreading feeling and It's always so hard to accept the fact I am losing and to see the months of my life being taken off just because I missed a week of my ALS medications which I've sadly come close to! And I've always slightly panicked as I thought it would be another month of my life taken away. It's always scary and hard to accept the fact I am living with ALS and it's not fun but I do it and I am extremely grateful for all the support I receive from my wife, my husband and friends!

Now with that out of the way…

Many months are not so crucial until you hit another 3 or 5 months! This disease is a (excuse my French) shitty one at best but I won't let that stop me from living my best life! You will not defeat me ALS.

Img desc #1: an edited thumbnail is seen discussing/ portraying her 5th month with ALS, doc seen on the left of the thumbnail is seen trying all her might to try and move a 3.0% weighted object with red text below saying 3.0% her hands are circled as there is a curved text saying "progression" with text above that saying "5 - month ALS anniversary" beside that text shows doc leaned in her electric wheelchair, with a shocked look on face, besides that is an overlay with doc getting a pulmonary function test, and some text saying "Has my breathing gone down?" This thumbnail portrays a small bit of docs ALS video! Be sure to check that out or just read this post. It pretty much sums up the full 8-minute video!

Img desc #2: shows Doc smiling while wearing a red long-sleeved shirt and black pants. She is seen with a pair of thin metal glasses on her face while sitting in her electric chair.

Img desc #3: doc is seen in a restaurant smiling with a cloth on her lap. She is seen in a red long-sleeved shirt and thin metal glasses on her face. She is sitting in her electric wheelchair.

Img desc #4: shows Doc in a car making a confused face while her head is tipped back in the black headrest of her electric wheelchair. She is wearing a white short-sleeved shirt with black chest straps.

Img desc #5: doc is seen looking shocked and confused as she sits near a building. She is seen wearing a white short-sleeved shirt and blue jeans (not pictured). She has a pair of thin metal glasses on her face, and she is seen in her electric wheelchair.

[ladyhindsight]

You are right. I think she made some characters as OCs for her HP fanfiction and others are "descendants" of her version of book characters. Then she created story she wants to tell, but didn't change characters to fit the story for it to make sense. And we are trapped in bizzare show/tell mess. Because Clare always tell you how the characters are, about their personalities and reactions, but then show them doing something very OOC just because story need it. Characters then look like they re mentally ill and don't even knkw what they are doing. Same with Clave, evil goverment which is evil for the sake of evilness. Clave sound like stupid government with 3 brain cells. I think the separation of Shadowhunters from real world also roots in the HP adaptation. Which is absurd, because separation of muggle and wizard culture doesn't make much sense even in HP.

Clare managed to failed education too. I was so dissapointed with structure of Shadowhunter Academy. It doesn't teach the skills shadowhunters really need. Consider their life. As shadowhunter you need to know law by heart and being able to intrepret it, because you are lawyer, judge and executor of law in one person. We don't see any downworlders to be taken to Alicante for court process (?). Which means crimes are solved by shadowhunters in field or by consensus of institue members. Shadowhunters are also part of Clave, which mean everyone of them participate in leading government and law making. It means shadowhunter needs to be good rhetor, who can costruct and defend argument in Clave meeting. They need to understand law making, learedship and politics to some degree. We don't see any special training for Consuls and Inquisitors. By the way Alec was elected we can assume anybody can be elected, which means you need to be prepared to actually take political function any day. You need to have skills for it, it isn't easy job. Academy don't teach them skills they need.

Thank you, I thought about Alicante a lot. I think it should have public baths too, because it's very sensible to build them. I personally don't like San Gimignano as Alicante, it look old and in ruins. I really liked TV series version of Alicante, it actually looked like city. Jonathan summoned Angel Raziel and he showed over Lake Lyn. Lake Lyn is in Alicante, which mean Alicante have to be somewhere on the First Crusade route.

Thank you for links, I forget Clare stated their real names were Jonathan, David and Abigail. It doesn't make any sense. It would make sense if they chose the names on Crusade/in Jerusalem. I think they had to be some nobles. Common woman wouldn't be betrothed to someone in Constantinopole and traveling with Crusade. Some noble women accompanied their husbands and fathers during Crusades.

I specifically chose Raymond IV. because intereting thing happened on his way to Jerusalem. During Siege of Antioch in 1098, Peter Bartholomew found Holy Lance. Historical records say it was attempt to improve morals of soldiers to break the Siege. But what if it was gift from Raziel to Abigail, Jonathan and David. !I have no idea how they spread on world. I think maybe shadowhunters were part of all the crusades conquering people. It doesn't sound possible to form any unified government without portals and fire messages. It make sense nephilim formed smaller societies with their own ruling government and laws around world. Probably even different myths about their creation.

When First Crusade arrived to Jerusalem, Gerard de Martigues founded military order Knights Hospitaller in 1099. Their main job were providing care for sick and poor pilgrims on their way to Holy Land and provide them with protection. They also ran hospital. Later Knights Hospitaller and Knights Templar became the most dangerous orders of Holy Land. I like to headcanon David and Gerard were friends and David was inpired by Knights Hospitaller to form order of Silent Brothers. In that time military orders were popular and I think it make sense for shadowhunters to start as military order under papal bull of pope Paschal II.. It would be good idea for them to make connections with church and nobles. You can't build city and start operation to save world from demonic invasion without any funding and support.

Being in favor with church mean being in favor with God himself and people wish no more than mercy of Lord. I think having family nephilim family members would be very prestigious thing, holy blood, angelic origin. I think nobles around Europe would crave angelic blood hoping it'll grant them mercy of God. I can see lower nobility and common people offering nephilim their children in hope they will survive drinking from Cup and it grant them better future. Esepcially daughters to be turned as little children to improve their chances on good marriage. It would create ties between nephilim, church and aristocracy, who would fund nephilim's projects, building Alicante, training, food, housing.

Wiki states 1234 is important year for shadowhunters. When I looked at wikipedia what happened in 1234. Pope Gregory IX. called for crusade to Holy Land and it was most succesful crusade since First Crusade. I wonder if the Barons's Crusade have anything to do with nephilim and why it's so important for them? Spreading angel blood in Egypt and maybe establishing community there.

Question is when alliance with Church stoped to be favourable for them. I think the departure from Church started to happen during Western Schism in 1378. It caused departure of Clave to different factions claiming their allegiance to different popes. Departure from Church could be also caused by Demon Plague. We don't know when it happened, but many nephilim died. It's realistic new nephilim maybe want change, reform government to be more independent from Catholic Church. I think total departure might happened during Protestant Reformation in 16th century and Crisis of the Late Middle Ages.

Clave also seem to be inspired by governmment of Roman Repulic, which look like something invented during Renaissance, when classical antiquity was cool again. Nephilim probably continue with their own expeditions to spread angelic blood around world and participated in colonisation. Massive expansion and problems between different nephilim governments probably happened as reaction to Industrial Revolution, because travel became easier and different nephilim factions interacts had problems with each other, their policies and believes.

I wonder if the half-POC characters in TID and TLH are actually products of diplomatic efforts between different factions. Anyway I think 19th century would be politically unstable time and even more after development of portal. Charlotte had very difficult position during her rule. It's interesting to think about her as person who unite Clave but also conqueror (depend on point of view).

This is long, I hope I didn't make any factual mistake. I'm not historian. :D Your analyses of Clare books really help me to imrpove my english and to better understand how to construct sentences. :)

Oh, yeah. Lake Lyn, that tiny little essential detail I forgot. I’ve got to get a grip here. Sorry. 😂

So going back to your previous message, it wouldn’t make sense if Jonathan travelled with Raymond IV or with any other leader for that matter. I checked several maps marking the routes of the First Crusade, and some varied a bit but they mostly were aligned with the map you showed. I overlaid a map of Europe over the map you shared to mark the spot where Idris is located. The scales are a bit off because the two maps didn't align perfectly, but this gives a general idea on the location.

That violet spot is it. So it wouldn’t matter with whom Jonathan travelled, he wouldn’t have been anywhere near Lake Lyn. Or he took a ridiculously long detour.

Shadowhunters have ridiculously simplistic society. There aren’t trades only some of them practice or occupations that require further education. Imagine being a Downworlder and having your fate be decided by some teenagers that maybe know the law enough to execute it. There are many occupations that are essential for keeping a city running. Think about sanitation, food, clothing, architecture, construction, maintenance, any kind of sensible economic system etc. They did rebuild the Gard but there was no mention of anyone holding a skill for building, and I don’t know, having their whole health care ultimately relying on the Silent Brothers doesn’t sound reliable.

How cool would it be that there were families that held some particular trade from the time the city was first built? Like, my family line goes back to the times when Alicante was just some brick building in a forest and the like. That would be one way to make the characters more distinct.

Alicante in the TV show was really great. I haven’t watched that far myself, maybe one day, but I liked this particular shot that I’ve seen around:

Your take on Jonathan and David is really awesome and seriously takes in the historical context of the time. I really love it. It would make more sense that the separation from Catholic Church came on gradually, when changes took place in their operations and societies over time. Right now it’s more like Jonathan became a Nephilim and that was that. There is a major gap in their history right from the beginning and you’ve filled it wonderfully. I really like what you’ve come up with, and it describes the history of the Nephilim already in more detail and credibility, taking into account the historical facts surrounding the Crusades.

I really love the aspect here how their society progresses and moves with the mundane world and is affected by it as well. It doesn’t exist separately and in secret in the beginning, but eventually does become more isolated and forgotten. The changes over time are motivated by events in history and stem from them. Clare could never.

I've been thinking about Abigail and David. Abigail is an Iron Sister, meaning she is immortal. She could still be around! David's wiki page under his status says "Buried in frozen state (presumed)", the source being CoHF. I've been unable to find this part in CoHF and can't remember it, but if he was still alive also (for being immortal too), that would also be cool. I just think that at this point they are such distant historical figures, I don't think I could handle them just making an appearance and talking like the rest of the characters do.

When it comes to TDI and TLH characters, I don’t think Clare ever thought that far or even close to that context. It’ll be interesting to see whether TLH answers any questions relating to this. All in all, it’s just weird that there is this whole angelic race of people with 1000 years’ worth history, and most of it is incredibly vague and nonsensical. I’m not historian either, and I appreciate your dedication to this. And thank you again for your words, you’re showering me with compliments. 🤠