#annelid asks

[echoing--stars]

Worm.

Give me more SDV AU I swear to god-

Ask and you shall receive!

The inside was just as lovingly built as the outside, exposed wood and beams supporting a tall ceiling. Tools hung on the wall and in one corner, a large statue of an unfamiliar bird. Rowan was hit instantly with the scent of fresh sawdust, sap, and a bit of wood smoke. Someone popped up from behind the counter — a well built man with brown, fluffy hair covered in wood shavings and a friendly smile. “Time! And you must be the new farmer. I’m Sky, it’s nice to meet you!” He reached out a hand for a shake. Sky’s hands were calloused, likely from years of woodwork, and his grip was firm. “I am in no way a farmer, but it’s nice to meet you as well. I’m Rowan.” Sky’s grin didn’t falter. After letting go of Rowan’s hand, he brushed the front of his clothes as if that was enough to clean off the saw dust covering him. “Well, you moved out to the old farrm west of town, didn’t you?” Rowan nodded. “My great uncle’s, yes.” “You live on a farm, old or not. That’s enough for me. Now what can I do for you?” Time stepped forward then, nearly making Rowan jump when he spoke up. “The old farmhouse needs some work, and an inspection to make sure it’s safe to live in. A beam in the bedroom fell while I was there this morning.” Sky’s eyes widened, and he looked over at Rowan. “You weren’t…” he shook his head. “I guess if you were in there you wouldn’t be here now. Glad you’re okay.” Sky walked out from behind the counter and into the room adjacent to the one they were in. Rowan waited, unsure if he should follow, and took the chance to look around the shop more. It wasn’t just woodworking tools displayed on the walls. There was also a sword — meticulously polished and devastatingly sharp. An unstrung bow and a quiver of arrows. Blueprints and designs tacked up on the walls. “Sky's passion is woodworking, but he’s also a world-class fighter,” Time told him. He was looking at the sword with an unreadable expression. Before Rowan could ask, there was a shout of “Groose!” from somewhere else in the house. Rowan raised an eyebrow, and Time smiled. “Sky’s business partner. Sometimes it’s a wonder how they can work together with how much they get on each other’s nerves.” Rowan chose to ignore the crashing sound from the other room while Time went over to examine the carved wooden bird. It was only a minute later when Sky returned, a leather work bag thrown over his shoulder and a slight scowl on his face. His expression lifted slightly when he looked back over at Rowan.

[jacksprostate]

Would the worm be okay? 🥺

Short answer: it's complicated but probably not.

Long answer:

You may have heard that if you cut a worm in half that it will survive, or even become two worms. Unfortunately that degree of regeneration is associated with flatworms, not earthworms. Earthworms belong to the Annelida phylum and have an internal body cavity just like ours, called a coelom! This makes things more complex. The flatworm, while a very cool creature, has less specialized organs and internal cavities (by which I mean it has no body cavity and no circulatory or respiratory organs) which makes it a little easier to pull off the surviving being cut in half thing.

But earthworms actually can survive being cut in half, sometimes!

It depends on the circumstance.

Behold:

Pretty much all the important organs in an earthworm are in the front half, before the clitellum. If you let the worm keep some segments after the clitellum, a worm cut in half occasionally will reform an anus and keep chugging along. It's the least complex part of the body so it's most easy to recreate. It's a really cool feat, made possible because their later segments are all essentially identical copies! It's not something a highly tagmatized (aka, animal with segments that get combined together for Complexity, think like the three segments of an ant) animal could really pull off, like most insects and chordates (yes, you are a segmented, highly tagmatized animal).

But.

Our worm was not cut in half.

It was essentially crushed :(

This means the internal damage was done and the body cavity collapsed, but the 'dead' parts are still attached. If you could regrow a leg, it would be a bit difficult if all the dead old leg was still attached, no?

So while I can't find anything specific about earthworm's ass regenerative abilities in the case of crushing, I do expect the outlook would be rough, especially considering surviving in the case of cutting is still pretty low odds.

Additionally, she pulls on the earthworm by its ends, which probably put significant pressure on the head, where all the very important organs are.

So. Pretty much almost certainly not :(

[fishyfishyfishtimes]

I just wanted to say that your blog brings me so much joy! I often see a funky fish/aquatic life post on here and just nod my head in agreement or just feel joy about the beauty of all creatures and it's almost always a post reblogged/posted by you! Even animals that I would've considered 'scary' before... now I just look at the worms etc and feel excitement (because your passion is contagious), thanks! <3

This is such a nice thing to say, thank you thank you very much!! I’m glad that the enthusiasm sticks because it really is just so fun to discover new creatures and learn about them! :D I used to have many more “prejudices” against undesirable organisms when I was a teen, but I’ve been slowly unlearning them and tried to replace them with curiosity instead, just thinking about how insane it is that all these creatures exist and that they exist the way they do and behave the way they do and how their experiences are so different from ours yet we all came from the very same origins. It’s working quite nicely! The world is so full of interesting and surprising creatures and there’s always so much to find and discover and wonder about!!! Nature is a beautiful cocktail of millions of years of evolution with billions of organisms to unearth (sometimes literally)!!

Not to go on a tangent (I will) but I think being in an environment where no creature is too unsightly or somehow horrible for being alive but is instead interesting and valued really aids in that. I was always a fish-and-arthropods-loving girl, but in my time at my uni I’ve learned to appreciate many more organisms a whole lot more thanks to passionate lecturers and fellow classmates! I never knew I’d come to love and appreciate parasites, for example, but one of my professors is so passionate about aquatic parasites specifically that it was just way too contagious! Sharing passion is the best ever and I won’t stop any time soon >:DD

[thatmooncake]

fren 🪱

Fren! 💖

[dragiani2]

GRAH IM SO LATE TO IT BUT IM ASKING ABOUT THE BIOLOGY OF YOUR GORE FOUR DRAWING BECAUSE YOUR ART IS SO GOOD AND IM SO DANG CURIOUS!!!!!!!!!💥💥💥

HOLY FUCKING SHIT HI I'M A HUGE FAN OF THE SPECULATIVE BEHAVIOR AND BIOLOGY STUFF YOU'RE DOING!!!!

(I'm majoring in environmental science at the moment and plan to do a masters/phd in entomology I fucking love biology and shit man)

okay so first of all what I'm most excited about :]

(sorry for the shitty image quality I'm on my laptop so I had to do this in paint)

I'm going to explain stuff in case someone reading doesn't know what something is.

The area circled in red is a hydrostatic skeleton!! A hydrostatic skeleton is basically just a fluid filled cavity that acts as structural support for muscles and organs. Annelids, Platyhelminthes, and even Echinoderms have hydrostatic skeletons!

The bright blue ring I'm pointing to with green arrows are hearts! They're modeled after a worm's! hehehegahha he's such an invertebrate i swear

As for the brightly colored circles, that's really just based on that one cross section we got of Four when he was trying to eliminate Spongey in BFB 16. Realistically that would be muscles and more organs but I ain't drawing all that.

I didn't add this in but I also kind of have an idea that algebraliens breathe through spiracles just like insects, but theirs have evolved/developed way further and have become very efficient. (spiracles are the least efficient respiratory system irl)

I don't actually think his intestines would have growths like this (think of how little purpose they would serve, and hell they could probably puncture his other organs) but I wanted to pay tribute to the exit lol. I actually think he probably has a specialized organ for the pocket dimension that would rest somewhere in his abdomen. I think it would branch off from his throat much like how the windpipe does! So he does have an actual stomach, he just chooses where stuff goes!

So yeah that's my biology shit!! Abhinaoaju I've been debating starting my own algebralien speculative biology project but idk

[drawingducktalesducks]

Lena: It’s been three hours.

Violet: Ten minutes.

Lena: anything could’ve happened in three hours

Violet: Far fewer things can occur in ten minutes and she was in no danger when last you spoke.

Lena: what if she’s hurt and can’t call?

Violet: Webbigail spent a summer learning how to operate most motorized vehicles with her hands tied behind her back I’m sure she could manage a text.

Lena: what if she’s unconscious

Violet: The others are with her and will not leave her behind.

Lena: what if she’s-

Violet: Lena. Do not make yourself cry.

Lena: …

Lena: That’s it. I’m going.  

Violet: With what magic? You've worn yourself down worrying. You can’t even levi-

Lena: Screw levitation, I’ll go by shadow-

Violet: Don’t be absurd.

Lena: It’s been four fours!

Violet: Fif. Teen. Minutes.

Lena: How are you not panicking!? She said she’d check in! She’s not checking in!!!

Violet: Oh for Woodchuck’s sake-

Lena: WAITwaitwait! A text!

Violet: And?

Lena: It’s her!

Violet: Tell her I will be seeking damages.

Lena: …. Huh.

Violet: …. Why “huh”. What does “huh” indicate?

Lena: She just sent the word “would”

Violet: What.

Lena: Would.

Violet: Why.

Lena: The heck are you asking me for. Do I look like I’m standing there next to her?

Violet: A new text. What does this one say?

Lena: “You”

Violet:  

Violet: It appears she is, unable to write the words out quickly. And yet they do not seem urgent.

Lena: Maybe she’s…. multitasking?

Violet: Read them as they appear.

Lena: Uh, “Would you…. still… love-” ok what the heck

Violet: Go on.

Lena: She hit her head I SWEAR if she hit her head on something I’m gonna kill moneybags-

Violet: You owe me the rest of the texts Lena, I’ve been sitting with you for four hours-

Lena: HA! Told you!

Violet: -four hours since Webbigail left, during which you have been insufferable whenever she stopped texting for more than five minutes, now if you would PLEASE.

Lena: Fine, fine…

Lena: “Would. You. Still. Love…. Erm, m-me.. if. I. Was. A…”

Lena:

Lena: Worm?

Violet:

Lena:

Violet: Baffling. The answer is obvious.

Lena: Yeah..

Lena: Vi, I’m gonna need some transformation magic stat.

Violet: I suppose that will likely be the most expedient solution to her apparent “worm” situation.

Lena: What? No.

Violet: No?

Lena: It’s for me, not her.

Violet: … what.

Lena: Look, this is Webby we’re talking about. What if she wished to be a worm? Or volunteered for it? What if she got turned into one and found out she likes all the wiggling and dirt and stuff? It’s not like the text is ASKING for her to get turned back.

Violet: And your reaction to that possibility is…?

Lena: Go be worms with her, what else.

Violet: What else indeed.

Lena: You think it matters what kind of worm I turn into? I don’t wanna like, pick an earth worm, and then find out she’s some kind of swimming, water-breathing, sea worm thing…

Violet: I’m sure you two would make it work somehow, worm-eo and annelid-ette.

[tinknevertalks]

Hi! For the kiss prompt game: Helen/Abby + 28? :)

Eeeeeee! Helen/Abby! *Happy wiggles* OK, this is (newly) established relationship sometime after season 4. There is talk of scars in this (as the prompt is a kiss over a scar), and mention of a c-section (I have Helen headcanons that I will not part with), but other than that enjoy some soft, fluffy, cuddles and kisses. XD (Thank you so much for the prompt!)

--

Breakfast in Bed?

--

They were indulging in a spot of lounging in bed, the morning sunbeams filtered by the intricate lace curtains Abby insisted on hanging. Didn't matter for a moment that the light wasn't starlight but the soft Praxian light they'd all grown accustomed to. “It feels cold without them,” she’d admitted one night, curled around Helen like a vine.

Right now, however, in the morning light, Abby was taking her sweet time brushing her fingers over Helen’s skin. “Where’d this come from?” she asked, tracing a faint white scar across Helen’s upper abdomen, close to her rib cage.

“That would be the patient without inhibitions, thinking I wanted to mate with her partner,” she replied, shuddering. “Her partner was objectionable, but there's someone for everyone I suppose.”

Abby hummed, stroked it one last time, then let her fingers meander. “And this one?” she asked, brushing the underside of Helen’s lower abdomen.

“Far less exciting, I'm afraid.” She smiled as Abby tilted her head, curiosity all over her face. “Ashley was delivered by caesarean section.”

“Oh…” Abby's fingernails scraped gently against the faded scar, tickling Helen ever so slightly. Squirming under her touch, Helen curled around Abby, kissing the crown of her head.

“You sound confused.”

Abby blushed. “I thought c-section scars were bigger... A whole baby comes out of there!” They laughed together, rolling so Helen could touch Abby's skin as she laid back, saying, “My sister has kids, super cute, but…” Her voice trailed off. Helen laid her head on her stomach, intertwining her fingers with Abby's, her thumb stroking softly. “Giving your whole body to grow a person? Your internal organs moving around, and maybe even dying? You, Doctor Magnus,” she added, coming out of her reverie and tugging Helen’s hand to her lips, “are amazing.”

“Hardly,” she murmured with a smile to Abby’s belly button, “but thank you, nevertheless.” 

Calmness enveloped them, Abby’s fingers in Helen’s hair, Helen’s index finger running along the hem of Abby’s rucked up pyjama top. Helen felt rather than heard the held breath as she found the scar from the annelid. Moving closer, watching Abby’s chest going from still to almost hyperventilating, Helen pushed the hem up onto Abby’s ribcage. “N-- He-- Oh!”

Helen kissed across the scar with butterfly soft lips. “Stop squirming, Miss Corrigan,” she commanded gently, smiling. “You, my dear, are wonderful.” Each word was punctuated with a kiss. Trailing her kisses upwards, Helen caught Abby’s lips with her own, pliant and hungry and oh so welcoming. Planting her knees on each side of Abby, she cradled her face in her hands. Eyebrow raised, she asked, “Shall we have breakfast in bed?”

[lazlolullaby]

the body, the mind, the heart, and the breath of Kur (The Secret Saturdays fanon)

hey you know that Artifact that Argost couped and killed a King of Kumari Kandem for? The Amulet with the Breath of Kur that was just used for unlocking the Tomb of Kur and nothing else?

...I'm gonna weave so much headcanon Lore about that.

Spoilers for the two major plot twists of the Secret Saturdays.

TL;DR Kur was split into several pieces. The Breath, which was an attempt to Kill Kur that didn't completely work. Then the Sumerians and Lemurians making a plan to actually separate and destroy Kur, splitting them into parts; The Body, aka Big Red that was buried in Antarctica, the Mind, that the Lemurians took to the Himalayas, And finally the Heart in the Kur Stone.

First Kur was an immortal God that created and controlled the cryptids. It's not clear what Kur was actually like, if he was unfair or just acting as a warrior king would. But some cryptids and humanity rebelled; they tried to steal the Breath of Kur and store it in an Amulet. So he'd stop breathing and die, or would have to negotiate for his own ability to breathe and talk back. The first body of Kur dies. People think that Kur is really dead and start to prepare a tomb.

But you don't kill Gods that easily. Kur is now a spirit that latches on to his cryptid progeny, controlling their bodies and minds, hopping around to whoever he can. Kur is pissed and decides. "Fine. You think I'm bad? I'll be bad." And gathers enough resources and energy to make a large cryptid to lay waste to the people that killed him. It's about this time that the Kur Detector artifact is created - to find Kur with whatever body he was in.

The Big Red cryptid is created, and Kur digs himself fully in, not expecting anyone to want to fight him.

So. Of course they fought. Of course they split Kur from his new body, and decided to seal Kur's spirit into a funerary tablet to bury in his Tomb, aka the Kur Stone.

Kur, of course, is still very manipulative and convinces some arrogant Lemurians to keep him closer in their Himalayan mountain range city. They split Kur again. Kur's mind is hidden in burial jewelry - a clunky necklace that "didn't fit his style".

The plan changes. The Tombkeepers believe that Kur has finally gone mad from defeat, only acting on instinct and is incapable of being reasoned with. They don't know the mind was removed, and now all that's left is just the core of Kur. The Heart.

To prevent anyone from taking control of their insane God, they layer the Tomb with traps and security measures, then use Kur's madness to scatter the keys beyond where any one person could travel in one lifetime.

Kur is just chilling at this point, every so often checking on his cryptid kids. He can't directly communicate or influence them unless they touch the jewelry, but it's fine. It's peaceful, no one prays to him, expects any favors or demands power.

Hundreds of years pass. The Lemurians either decline on their own or Kur stirs the pot, probably both.

Argost, being a Yeti of the Himalayas, and bored as hell even with killing people and taking their stuff, goes exploring. He finds the Lemurian ruins and the necklace.

Kur doesn't explain that he's Cryptid God, just that he's an ancient spirit who's seen the rise and fall of Kur. Kur imparts wisdom; mostly his knowledge of bug cryptids, trying to bait Argost into getting a Devonian annelid to swap into a better piece of jewelry - the Blue Tiger just received some gorgeous jade hair pins and he's feeling jealous.

Argost goes for a hunt, but can't enjoy it because Kur could control him - Argost wants to be the one in control. So he asks the spirit for a mask that could block Kur's senses - prevent cryptids and humans from seeing him as a Yeti. Then the jewelry is tucked away in Argost's cave. Argost uses his Cryptid Bug knowledge to make prosthetic scorpion legs for Baron Finster.

The Kur Stone is dug up. Kur's mind does register it as a large wave of energy coursing through his cryptid kids. Zak absorbed the Heart of Kur, being an empty body with no mind yet. Kur's Heart is entrenched in Zak and to remove the Heart would kill Zak.

Events of the show happen. Kur's mind can see when Zak draws on his powers, but any kind of thoughts are blocked to him - this changes slightly after "Ghost in the Machine" where Zak was mixed and split with Fisk and Komodo. Kur's mind also influenced Fiskerton to pick Antarctica, where Big Red was buried.

Because Big Red was the Created Body that Kur used, the energy was hanging around and Zak absorbed it, boosting his powers. Kur's mind can see more of what's going on, and influenced Zak in the 2nd season premiere. Kur said they were in Hong Kong. The Nagas were actually in New York. And there's not much Kur's mind can do about the War of the Cryptids.

...now if, post series if someone were to go through Argost's cave...and Zak happened to touch that burial necklace...that would be fun.

[neopronouns]

inbox check; current request count is 110

genders:

genderharpine: fluid between binary male, binary female, abinary, unaligned, aporine, liaspec, outherine, and genderless genders

+ libraharpine

gender related to the queer liberation library

transgender in a vampire way

being agender in the way dogs, angels, and stars lack gender

being a man in the way baking, emotional warmth, and the gem rose quartz are masculine

gender related to 2000s webseries

being androgynous in the way neo and trinity ('the matrix') are

+ bigender and manwoman versions

being masculine in the way trinity ('the matrix') is

+ feminine version

+ gnc version

+ rosboy and azurgirl versions

being feminine in the way neo ('the matrix') is

+ masculine version

+ gnc version

+ rosboy and azurgirl versions

gender related to 'the matrix' characters' outfits and their aesthetics

aespacoric

yabujincoric

2010s internet aesthetigender

being a tomboy in the way konata izumi from 'lucky star' is

+ azurgirl and girlboy versions

gender (not inherently feminine or girl-aligned) related to early 2000s anime girls (actual anime characters and drawings of anime girls

gender related to insects and other invertebrates generally considered bugs/similar to bugs (arachnids, gastropods, annelids, isopods, myriapods, etc.)

troy (trans boy) flag

gender related to 'bad apple'

gender related to the 'bad apple' video

'bad apple' gendercreation

neutral techrobai gender

nonbinary techrobai gender

gender tied to the video 'you're on the fastest available route' from local 58

gender related to/that can best be described by off's artstyle

being genderless yet masc-aligned/leaning/presenting in the way the batter is

gender related to zacharie from 'off'

gender related to the quote 'bis vincit, que se vincet in victoria' in the context of zacharie and 'off'

gender related to the appearance of burnt elsens

boisvert comfic

off comfic

rap genreic

hip hop genreic

aureth related to super mario bros wonder

aureth related to the wonder flowers from super mario bros wonder

fossilogender + abimegender

abyssgender + diggender

gender related to being butch in a 'handsome woman' way and related to sapphic attraction

term for when one's femininity is inherently nonhuman

being trans in a transhumanist sense

gender related to being a dogboy who meows

+ versions where one stims by meowing

orientations/amory/etc.:

term for older twinks/those who would be considered twinks if not for their age

+ similar term for older bats

term for being a bat and a cub

being placiosexual due to gender dysphoria

undisclosed sexuality flag

flag for thornspec (coined by anon in ask)

platonifamilial flag

acrialloaro (acrisexual allosexual aromantic) flag

denplatonic flag

futch/butch/femme ansubjattractions

being butch4femme through the lens of bisexuality

being butch4femme through the lens of being mlm

enbian + veldian + darcian term

diamoric + veldian + darcian term

dogboy x dogboy flag

t4t + nd4nd

mad pride/plural/disability/etc.:

term for non-plural folks with dissociative disorders who feel that they and their body are separate things, like being the 'host' of the body without a system

aphonia flag

mondini dysplasia flag

onychophagia flag

aldernic/vesil/perspesque/etc.:

cowperspesque flag

dpdr vesil

aldernic term for a body one can physically leave and come back to

'bad apple' vesil

aldernic term for boisvert's artstyle/characters

alterhuman/nonhuman/etc.:

alt spacekin flag

paswg angel kin flag

evangelion angel kin flag

acnh bob kin flag

uncategorized/multicategory terms:

trel flag

being a straight girl in a gay girl way

being a straight girl in a gay boy way

term for when one considers their gender and sex components of the same identity, mixes them together, considers them the same thing (even if they don't match in a traditional sense), sees them as intertwined, or otherwise doesn't split their gender and sex into different categories

[f slur]-leaning and [d slur]-leaning flags

bisexual identity intrinsically connected to one's femme identity

mlm identity intrinsically connected to one's femme identity

edits/alt flags/combo flags/etc.:

omniromantic androsexual flag

transmasculine nonbinary flag that keeps the original colors of both flags

pathetic babygirl flag

loser babygirl flag

malewife babygirl flag

alt singlet, median, and plural flags

trans man turigirl flag

median system jake english icons

xenine-presenting casualic flag

transpolyamorous redesign

bigender mlm flag (two versions)

pokemon teams (currently posting these immediately instead of queueing them):

cocajimmycola's twink flag

anotbinary woman

faux[d slur]

girlflux

womanfluix/girlfluix

interbigender

retrosette

red and purple aceflux flag

rosgirl

bellusromantic

infideimagender (bluer version)

oracrystular w/multiple psychic types

zombiegender

[the-hilda-librarians-wife]

Fireflies Over The Wall - Chapter 5

Relationship: The Bell Keeper & Meiri (Original character)

Summary: "The troll brought with herself, every night without a fault, a baby.

Every night, she placed it upon the grass, and pointed upwards, showing her baby the stars and constellations. Showing her baby the fireflies.

Holding it tight. Cuddling with it. Making sure it saw the beauty the world had to offer. He had never considered himself a sentimental man. Yet this image, for some reason, never failed to make him return home feeling something gaping and void inside of himself.

Every one of his former coworkers must have returned to their families.

Who would Edmund return to when he could work no more?

What would give him a reason to get out of bed when the fireflies were no longer enough?"

An OC's origin story as well as a Bell Keeper character study, because this character is much more fascinating than I'd been giving him credit for.

Notes: Title from "King And Lionheart" by Of Monsters and Men

Was supposed to post this chapter yesterday, but unfortunately I was stopped by chaotic week at college reasons. Woopsie

Chapter title: You're a king and I'm your lionheart

Read it on ao3

Meiri was the type of person that had a hard time showing interest in things that didn’t, well, interest her. She was just too genuine to feign paying attention to something. Which made it even more special when she did try to engage him in conversation about topics surrounding his life by doing so. It meant she was doing a great deal of effort to reach out. She tried it sometimes with books she saw on his house, or by asking him to expand upon a comment he made about his day. That afternoon in particular, though, they ended up talking about his job. Unfortunately, that also meant acknowledging the baggage that came with it.

“I just don’t get it!” She said, looking at him with the futile hope that he would get it. “Why did the town get built somewhere where there were already people living?”

After a sigh, he raised his eyes from the checkers board to her with a small smile. Meiri was the first time he’d ever had a child in his life aside from when he’d been one himself, and Edmund was finding that the reputation children had for being so much more decent wasn’t for nothing. He didn’t think he’d ever heard a single adult refer to trolls as ‘people’, despite having seen them show more than enough conscience to be considered rational beings.

“That’s a whole can of worms you don’t wanna open, kid.” And it was something she should know, it was a reflection she should make, but she was still so very young. It was good that her heart already told her something was wrong; that meant she had more awareness than he’d had at her age. But it was something that he thought for now should grow on her own. When she was older, maybe, if he was still around in her life, he could give her a piece of his mind on the matter. She tilted her head to the side.

“Why ‘can of worms’?”

“What do you mean?”

“You said ‘a whole can of worms’ as if it’s negative. But worms are actually good for everything around them.”

The change of topic was so drastic that Edmund was left with his mouth hanging open and no idea of what to answer. Then, he rubbed his chin and figured he should just try to explain to her.

“It’s just how the expression goes, kid. It’s supposed to mean it’s a difficult topic or situation, but I don’t know what the origin was. You’re the specialist on insects, anyway.”

She gave him a very level glare. “Worms aren’t insects.”

“Are they from the same family as spiders?”

If she wasn’t so young, Edmund would be afraid she was having a heart attack by the horrified look on her face.

“No. Insects and arachnids are arthropods. Worms are annelids, that’s a whole other phylum!”

“You expect me to know what a phylum is?”

She shrugged, putting the last of her stones inside the board again. “Well, it’s interesting.”

“It is.” He nodded. He even meant it, truth be told. Nature had always interested him, and even though he had never wanted to look too deep into it, hearing her talk about the topics she enjoyed was always a fun time, even if only for her enthusiasm. “But it’s getting late. You should head back to St. Annes before Terry gets worried. Why don’t you tell me more about it the next time you’re here?”

Although reluctantly, she agreed. She knew the way out perfectly well, but he still got up from the table to open the door for her, only closing it when he could see her back no longer.

…......

“Lovely evening, ain’t it?” He said loud enough to startle her, not really worried about it since there were no patrons in the area of the library he had found Kaisa in. 

The woman was at the top of a ladder, shelving some books after a long day taking them out of their places for the people who had needed them. She might just be the one person in the entire town he considered to be more overworked than the remaining bell keepers. Nothing, and he meant nothing could make him understand how come a library that big only had one person working in it. She glared down at him, having almost lost her balance because of the jolt, but it did nothing for him. He was all but immune to glares at this point. 

“Look who remembered they can read.” She slid down the ladder, only her hands hanging onto the rails, with surprising ease for someone who he knew was essentially sedentary. “What can I do for you that made you come all the way from the city limits?”

He shoved his hands in his pockets. “I need a book.”

“Really? In the public library? You need a book? How innovative, Ed.”

Edmund did his best to send her a level stare. Two could play this passive aggressive eye game and he had been training with the best.

“Do you have a book on phylogenetics or not?”

Frowning, Kaisa mouthed the word ‘phylogenetics’ without uttering a sound, looking at him like he was insane.

“Kind of a big word for you, isn’t it, bell?” He was going to flip her off, but she’d already begun walking in front of him, so she wouldn’t properly receive it. “Really is none of my business, but where did you… how… why?”

“You should have finished the sentence at ‘really is none of my business’. It was the wisest thing I’ve ever heard you say.”

He couldn’t see her rolling her eyes, but he knew. Spiritually, it was there. 

“Hm. Can I at least present my hypothesis?”

“Can I stop you?”

“No. The first is you’re trying to date a mad scientist.”

The idea was so ludicrous it made him snort. “Don’t have the time nor the patience for that.”

“Hm. The other is this has something to do with the little girl who showed us her science textbook in the middle of a cafe.”

He remained silent; rookie mistake. Kaisa didn’t stop walking, but she looked back at him with a grin. It was a terrible habit that she’d acquired, walking without seeing where she was going and trusting she knew the library well enough to not end up concussed or toothless. And then she had the audacity to say she didn’t know how come she had so many mysterious bruises on her limbs. 

“Aha!” She pointed accusingly at his chest. Damnit. There was a reason why he avoided mentioning Meiri to her after they met. Kaisa just made such a big thing out of anything. He knew it to be because neither of them had any actually interesting topics to talk about from their own lives, but still. “It does! Are you still talking? That was quite some time ago. Months, I believe.”

“We are and she likes the topic. Can you please just drop it?”

Seeing as he looked actually vexed, Kaisa shrugged and left him be.

Even so, even after they’d found a useful book and gone out to eat something since he was already around, she had kept a satisfied smile on her face during the entire evening.

…......

“Alright, so first there are the domains.” She said as he placed a cup of tea in front of her and sat down on the table. “Then the kingdoms-”

“And then the phylums?”

“Exactly!” She smiled. “In the Animalia kingdom, you have a couple of phylums that aren’t chordates and have very specific characteristics. Then you have the chordata phylum. It contains all the vertebrates! Like, we share a phylum with elephants! Isn’t that weird?”

Edmund smiled with his head resting on his hand, watching with glee as she got excited about the topic.

“Anyway, chordates aren’t as cool to study. The first phylum to evolve was porifera, and that’s, like, just sea sponges. Then cnidaria, which are the jellyfish, anemones, and other sort of alien and threatening looking stuff that lives in the sea. Weird guys. And then next comes the platyhelminthes, and it’s with them that the idea of having a place to put a bunch of your nervous system stuff starts-”

Meiri pointed to her head and kept on going with her speech, telling him about how even if annelida and arthropoda were very close evolutionary speaking (and she did know some very big words for her age, not that it surprised him when it came to something she was passionate about), there were key differences that tore them apart. Annelids didn’t have exoskeletons, to begin with. For his part, Edmund tried to balance not interrupting her with showing interest, mostly allowing her to speak but piping in with an interjection every now and then.

“What I don’t really understand-” He said when she circled back to talking about worms and leeches after having finished her invertebrates infodump with sea stars. “is how worms are different from those nematode creatures. They’re round. They’re slimy. Ain’t it all the same thing?”

He didn’t think he’d ever crack when being ignorant on something she liked would make her glare and when it would make her laugh, but that time it was the latter. “Well, nematodes cause disease, for once.”

“Oh, should we be saying ‘can of nematodes’, then?”

“Ew, that’s so gross!” She chuckled, eyes closing as she did so. “But I suppose that would make more sense. I think in reality it has something to do with their very early stages. They’re very different.”

Edmund nodded. “Right. Something to do with the coelom, whatever the hell that may be.”

Meiri was in the middle of taking a sip of her tea as he said that. When she frowned, her creased eyebrows and confused eyes were all he could see. 

“How do you know that?”

“You don’t know everything about me.” He quipped, but continued before he could earn himself another glare. “I actually looked a bit into it. Didn’t want to be asking you stupid questions.”

It was so quiet for a moment that Edmund thought he’d be able to hear a needle falling to the ground. Meiri’s eyes scanned his face like she couldn’t comprehend what she was being told.

“You… what?”

“Yeah, I got a book.” He got up from his seat with the intention of grabbing it, having left it at his bedside table. “Remember Kaisa? She helped me find something on the matter.”

He climbed up the ladder to the platform that passed for the second floor of the cabin, which was partly walled in around the bathroom, and partly open. It meant he didn't have anything to shield his face from the sun in the morning, seeing as the light from the living room all reached him as soon as it started flooding in, but he was usually up before that blasted star, anyway. And it wasn’t like it made a difference when he was really tired.

When he got back, he found Meiri still staring after him with a befuddled expression. Her focus only shifted passingly when he raised the hand with the book.

“Here.” He set it in front of her at the table. “Due date’s next Thursday, if you want to keep it for a while. Ya could even keep it a couple of days over it, I hardly think Kai would revoke my library card over it, she has much bigger problems right now. Though I suppose you already know all this stuff, ain’t that right, kid?”

When she failed to do anything other than stare at the book for the next ten seconds, he cleared his throat.

“Kid? You alright there?”

“Yeah.” She snapped herself out of whatever mood she’d sunk into, blinking rapidly and not really looking at him. “Yeah, it’s nothing.”

Edmund raised his eyebrows but didn’t comment on her lack of an excuse, nor on how her voice sounded strained. If she wanted to talk about it, she would. With him being off-duty, they spent the rest of their time normally, either talking or cooking or completing chores together, Ed cleaning up the cabin while Meiri did her schoolwork. 

When the time arrived for her to be on her way home before the orphanage started ringing up the cabin’s phone, Edmund opened the door for her as per usual. But this time, she stood in front of him before walking out, looking indecisive for a couple of moments. Then, after a deep breath, she took a step forward and hugged his legs.

Not having expected it, the force of the move made him fall back against the open door which banged on the wall with an ‘oof’, but even after his brain registered what was happening, he wasn’t able to recruit enough neurons to react. He didn’t have time for it, in fact, because after what couldn’t have been more than two seconds, Meiri let go and with her head ducked squeaked a very quick ‘see ya’, before running away.

………

Next time Meiri visited, she wasn’t empty handed.

It wasn’t exactly the first time she’d knocked on the door of his cabin, but it surprised him anyway. Generally she’d be playing near the trees - or on the trees - when he found her and either invited her into his cabin or up the wall. So it still felt different that she’d come directly to him that time.

She stood on the doorway shifting her weight between her feet, probably caught off guard that he had answered her since she (much like he himself) had no way of knowing whether he’d be home or working. Edmund didn’t get past his greeting before she raised both hands towards him, presenting him with an unexpected item.

“Here.” She said, all but shoving a flower crown in his hands. “I made us these.”

No asking him if he liked it. No requesting he put it on. Just stating a fact and looking down at her fidgety hands in a failed attempt to look like she didn’t care. 

“Oh!” He brought the crown closer to his eyes, seeing flowers that ranged from purple to pink to yellow and their intertwining stems. “Thanks, kid. Looks pretty.”

She shrugged, still looking down. 

“Where did you get these flowers?” Edmund asked as he closed the door behind her and began walking to the table, partly to break the silence but mostly because they didn’t look like the type one just finds around. They were much too well kept for that, even if some seemed to be missing a couple of petals from the process of braiding them together.

“Someone’s garden.”

“Meiri!”

“What? They aren’t native plants! They weren’t doing any favors to the soil and the bugs! Maybe they were even causing harm!”

What was the appropriate age, he wondered, to teach someone the difference between morally right and socially right? And was he even the right person to talk to her about it since he sort of wanted to agree with her?

He was about to open his mouth and say that she should have asked for permission anyway, when he noticed that, partly hidden by her never tidy hair on her head, was a crown identical to the one he had received. And only then did he truly assess the situation. She had made these, with the clear intent of giving it as a gift so that they could match. She’d thought of him and planned it and executed it, even if a bit more chaotically than she should have, and she was allowing herself to be open about it to him. 

He took a metaphorical step back.

“Well, whoever you got it from must be a good gardener; got some beautiful plants.”

“May I put it on you?”

The question was hurried, the words merging into one another. But their meaning was understood.

“Sorry?”

“You heard me.” She groaned, giving him a glare but it was a half hearted one. “Yes or no? Don’t make a big deal of it.”

He was absolutely making a big deal of it.

And not only because of the girl in front of him, but also because he hadn’t worn something feminine in <em>so long</em>. Once he wasn’t forced to anymore, he had never put on anything that made him feel awkward in his body.

But he really didn’t feel as if he could possibly feel bad about it if Meiri was matching him.

“Alright.” He leaned down towards her. “Go ahead, please.”

He wore the crown for the rest of the day, both of them letting time get away from them as they went from looking for butterflies outside to listening to music on the radio when the weather began getting colder. The evening set, and they were still discussing what Edmund should have for dinner and judging the songs that came up when the cabin’s phone rang.

It had been from Saint Anne’s, asking him if Meiri was there and asking her to get back, since it was already past her curfew. The girl got on her way, not happy about it but knowing she had no other choice. That night, he hung his crown on one of his coat hangers, figuring that letting them dry was the best way to preserve it, and struggled to fall asleep as he wondered about what it meant that they now knew exactly where to find the girl when she slipped away.

[duskgryphon]

Hey rewrite your oc stuff

responding to this hours later because i uh. took a while to revise this lmao

Okay so! Technically not talking about any specific ocs here, but rather my personal project world. I got sent an ask about bug dragons, so I'll start there I think? After some explanation. Essentially this world is entirely removed  from the concept of Earth and humans. Different galaxy, different planet, different life. It's still in. very early stages so a lot of things are subject to change, a lot of things I'm still working on. Though this is sort of misleading; I've been working on this world, in it's vaguest sense, since late 2016/early 2017 ish. The most recent iteration started I believe around the start of 2021? But I've been giving it a lot more focus in the past couple of months. It's also turned into a partly speculative biology based project. Gaining an interest in specific subjects does that to yah I guess.

So, bug dragons. What are they? "Bug dragon" refers to a large number of species, mainly those that would be classified as athropods and annelids. They aren't technically insects, though they do, in part, replace insects here. Like the aforementioned phylums, they encompass species with and without flight and worm-like species. There are, additionally, a small number of species that make up some of the sophonts in this world. They're uh. currently unnamed, though two have designs that are mostly set in stone? The classification that distinguishes specific species of sophonts from one another is whether or not they're "true" bug dragons. True bug dragons have no capacity to transform, but the other species do. The only species with the capacity to transform are sophonts, since they're the only ones that developed a need for it.

I should also note, coming back to the fact that this is completely removed from Earth, human languages don't exist. It'll take a lot of time and effort for me to get even vague individual constructed languages down, but if anyone is interested in this I'll try to make things as clear as possible. Uh, "bug dragon" is also technically a temporary term, for the previously stated reasons, but I think it's a perfectly viable name for them from a human standpoint, so I'll probably keep referring to them that way.

id: An image depicting various bug dragon sophonts on the left, with text describing what each are on the right. The top one shows a species of winged bug dragon with a long body, six legs, and a tail ending in a stinger. The text reads; "Species of bug dragon with the ability to transform. They come to just over 7 feet." The middle one shows two characters from different species transformed. One of them is shown to stand bipedally, with four sets of arms. The text reads; "Concepts for two bug dragons, both transformed. Their transformation resembles one of the other sophonts, though they keep their insect-like appearances." The bottom one shows one character of a species of true bug dragon, she stands on four legs, with a set of arms hidden under a coat pinned at the neck. She's almost bird-like in shape, and has a tail and what resembles rabbit ears. The text reads; "Species of "true" bug dragon as shown by A'rei's concepts. They come to around 4 feet."

[echoing--stars]

I hope sending you art is ok !! I just wanted to do a lil something for all the lovely stories you create they always make my day and inspire me so much, I hope you have a wonderful day :]

Oh my goodness! It's more than okay! This is absolutely gorgeous and adorable and I've been thinking about it all morning. They look so happy! I love how you did Rowan's hair, you captured the curls so well!

I'm so glad that you enjoy my lil stories! I love writing for Warriors and Rowan so much and it warms my heart that they bring joy to so many people in our little corner of the fandom.

[tangleweave]

For my favourite Flora: What does Groot find repulsive or disgusting?

[ Random Asks / Accepting ]

The inquiry comes as Groot is tilling soil on a world that has no name by the tongues of galactic residents... none have seen fit to colonize the place. Ordinarily that would make it the most perfect haven for him and Beth, save that the flora here have been struggling for survival in the wake of the Snap. The loss of life had not been merely that of creatures with brains and blood, after all. Thanos' universal culling had also vanished half of all floral life. And every world had been affected differently.

Here, there were precious plants whose ecosystem had already been fragile, even without the interference of so-called 'advanced' species coming down to mine (reap) the world's resources. With the Snap of the Titan's fingers, that ecosystem had been sent to the verge of collapse... and it's only been due to three full weeks of stabilization efforts invested by Groot and Beth that those delicate little miracles are beginning to thrive once more.

He looks over at her as she appears to ponder a handful of soil, through which insects and annelids crawl. She appears unbothered by the sight and sensation, but it makes sense to him why she's chosen this moment to ask. And he needs only a moment to consider his reply.

"I am Groot."

<< My progenitor was cast out from his homeworld because he could not stand to see mammals enduring imprisonment and experimentation by order of his peers, and chose to set those captives free. >>

The memories are distorted and fragmented, since this Groot is not the Groot that was exiled. Nevertheless, he drops his head in shame to think of what his prior iteration saw and endured.

"I... am Groot."

<< It was meant to be done in secret, and without any further harm. But matters turned violent... and for his principles, and the sake of those he sought to free, he was forced to raise his branches, and set his growth, against his own. >>

He looks back up at Beth, a sobered gaze in his sap-brandy eyes. "I am Groot."

<< I am revolted by those who would commission harm against others, for nothing more than the sake of curiosity. I am sickened by sadism. Abject cruelty disgusts me. I hate bullies, and I will gladly raise my branches against them. >>

He turns back to tilling the soil. "I am Groot."

<< It is why I so readily joined Steve Rogers' team to confront Thanos on his garden world. I wanted justice. I wanted to help turn everything back. I wanted my family back. For a moment, I was proud to help Carol Danvers restrain him... to deny him the power he had claimed as his destiny. I believed that at last, I could force the ultimate bully to see all his cruelty undone right before his very eyes. With just one more snap of a finger. Or even a twig. >>

He draws a long breath and stares up at the sun for a moment.

"I am Groot."

<< Fate dictated differently. And now we work to undo that cruelty... one leaf, one vine, one fruit at a time. >>

[fishyfishyfishtimes]

I’m not usually the one to ask this, anyone know what these are (not the fish, the little fan-like things)? They were in a saltwater aquarium, I’m thinking they’re some kind of annelid worm

[yibennianyaji]

Rick & Morty Recap: Auto Erotic Assimilation

Wubba Lubba Dub Dub, readers.

The Recap: Rick, Summer, and Morty run into a former lover of Rick’s, a parasitic hive mind named Unity who’s recently taken over an entire planet. Rick rekindles the relationship, leading the two of them into a spiral of destructive behavior with disastrous planet-wide effects.

I spent an inordinate amount of time trying to come up with a buffer for this recap, and it fought me every step of the way. This episode is perfectly competent in terms of technical elements – the Event Horizon riff that introduces Unity is a really nice isolated sequence, the simplicity of the alien designs allows for a lot of individual variation while getting across that they’re all pulled by one puppeteer, and as always the show has a good eye for slipping in licensed music stingers as an extra bit of gut punch – but it all feels terribly beside the point, deliberately held back to give the script a chance to shine. Even the sex shenanigans, which feel like a place where the show could easily cut loose, are left at the edges of the proceedings. We, like Rick, are not allowed an out.

So let’s start with Rick and Unity, in the name of having at least a breath of triumph. Because conceptually, there is a lot about Unity that makes me absurdly happy. It doesn’t have a gender, first of all – both Summer and Rick refer to the collective hivemind as “it” no matter what body it’s possessing at a given moment, and at the very least Summer strikes one as the type to use a being’s proper pronouns (fun fact: “it” is something like “queer” in that it has a history of being used as a slur, but has also been reclaimed by some non-binary people; ask before you use it, basically). And the general tenor of Rick and Unity’s mutual attraction, a queer relationship if ever there was one, is an achievement on the level of one Captain Jack Harkness. And this is going to require a little history, so sit tight.

First of all, Rick not being straight has been a confirmed thing since s2 premiere year’s Comic Con. In the middle of riffing about what undisclosed facts the audience might want to know about Rick, co-creator and majority of the voice cast Justin Roiland casually dropped the fact that the character is pansexual (that’s being attracted to someone regardless of gender). And while there was some rejoicing and some shrugging and saying “okay, sure,” there was also a surprising amount of pushback within internet discussions. A lot of “oh, he must’ve been joking,” with a fair amount of implicit “why would you assume a character is queer without it being stated, repeated and then signed in triplicate with infant blood.” Which is a whole bag of annelids regarding queerness as punchline and the defaulting of heterosexuality that we don’t have time to get into today; but suffice it to say, this episode put an extremely satisfying sock into those arguments.

And even better than the fact itself is the execution. The designs of Unity’s hosts (something about those atrocious jumpsuits, I think), not to mention the whole “unified species performance” thing, put me in mind of the famous Star Trek TNG episode “The Outcast.” For those of you who may not know or remember, that was the one where Trek thought maybe kinda they’d like to do a metaphor about homosexuality….only to fumble it completely by making the alien an escapee from an agender race who wanted to present as female, and then casting a cis female in the role so that her ensuing relationship with Riker is basically a vanilla flavored heterosexual one pretending to have something to say (and given the fact that the persecuting aliens have a butch vibe, they might’ve even gone into a wholly different wince-worthy territory. I digress).

The point being that Unity does that sci-fi trope of “the metaphorical queer” one better on every level. Harmon’s mentioned a few times that one of the goals in the writers’ room is to take familiar storytelling devices and then break them, and this is a triumph of that mentality. Because Unity does work as a metaphor: its hivemind nature serves as a comparison and contrast to Rick’s warring need to be alone and to subsume himself in others, and a question of whether the need for community outweighs our often stated preference for individuality. It’s just that the metaphor isn’t an excuse to hide some squeamish expectation that in the wide world of the cosmos every relationship would still somehow manage to fall into a relatively modern form of Western binary heterosexuality. Oh, and as a nice topper on the cake Unity is a really charming character, clearly sketched as sweet-natured and ambitious but lovesick even speaking from all those mouths. I hope we see it again someday.

And – I promise we’re almost done, and then we can move onto the suicide stuff you darling monsters – the extra delightful twist of it is how casual the actual sexual preference part of their relationship comes up. One of the great hand-wringing complaints often levied against the inclusion of queer relationships or individuals in popular media is that it seems “forced,” as though every new introduction would by needs hold the frightened viewer’s hand like some special from the 80s. In response, here are Rick and Unity: Rick’s only gendered request regarding partners has to do with his daddy issues audience, he’s fawned over and appreciated by male and female presenting hosts (and the giraffe, which in the spirit of references I couldn’t help reading as a nod to the Jack Harkness/John Hart conversation about the poodle); and neither Morty nor Summer (of course not, they’re modern teenagers) bring gender up at all when confronting Rick about his relationship. There you go. It’s as simple as a character making a passing comment about someone of the same gender, or referencing a past relationship, and then the adventure story moves on. Can we stop pretending it’s some kind of Herculean feat now, MCU?

Okay. Let me just blotch the still dripping tears from my keyboard, and we can continue.

I kid, of course. The bleakness of those final two minutes defies the catharsis of tears. Starting from the fact that you can see the components of the machine while Jerry is rifling through drawers, meaning that this thing was ready to go at a moment’s notice, and ending with that unspeakably agonizing shot where an entire night and ensuing day goes by without a single soul, not even Morty, coming to check on him. Rick might’ve screwed up his relationship with Unity on his own, but nobody deserves that kind of loneliness.

And the worst of it is that there’s really no support network for Rick at this point in the game: Beth is too afraid that he’ll leave to push him to improve, and too caught up in how she’s idolized him over the years to really pry into what makes him tick; Jerry has a massive inferiority complex over the whole affair, and Rick doesn’t have an ounce of respect for him anyway; Morty is well on his way to becoming a less drunk version of Rick (it was somewhere between horrifying and fascinating to watch the B-plot play out as essentially a season 1 adventure with Summer replacing Morty’s role), and is already starting to pull away from his grandpa; Summer is the closest to understanding what makes Rick tick and is willing to engage with him honestly on it, but she also has arguably the fewest emotional walls of the core cast, and frankly any teenager would get dragged right down into the abyss if they tried to hold up Rick’s decades of issues.

The show’s dabbled in nihilistic sentiment before – the show’s most quoted line, after all, is about how our existence is inherently meaningless – but that blow has always been softened by pushing the relationship between the Sanchez/Smith family to the fore. Pulling that away is potentially a very, very powerful tool, playing on our trust that eventually those interpersonal bonds will eventually come back to the fore. And it’s an issue worth exploring, as Beth and Jerry’s argument calls out the fact that Rick often matters more as a catalyst for other people’s revelations than he does as a human being in his own right. This is a lot of trust to ask from an audience that’s put a lot of emotional investment into this dark little world – I have all my digits crossed that it pays off.

So, how will the preview that seems to be about spontaneously appearing wacky sidekicks throw us all into unplumbed depths of despair next episode?

[mt-lowercase-m-derogatory]

I'd like to believe that if there were Gods-given spirit animals, they would all be worm-shaped critters that take several specialists and a full work week to tell apart.

That's the only way the Gods can express what they think of us: making us spend days of our lives figuring out whether our spirit worms are coveted and high-status Deutorostomes like the noble acorn worm (which does NOT look like a penis), respected workers like Annelids, or a Nematode, destined to be part of a strict ascetic order that is not allowed to speak with other Nematode monks. It turns out that half of the population is assigned Nematodes, and the reason why they are sworn to silence is so they don't recognize their majority and the fact that they provide all hard labour. This is also when it becomes clear that the work is a YA dystopia parody.

PS: If your spirit worm is an Acaelomorph, you go straight to jail no questions asked, and honestly you kinda deserve it. Don't @ me over this you know it's true.

a sluge 😔