#bug planet is the current timeline

[dustedmagazine]

Euglossine — Bug Planet is the Current Timeline (Hausu Mountain)

Bug Planet Is the Current Timeline by Euglossine

Bug Planet is the Current Timeline is as profuse and diverse as the title suggests. Named for the adjective related to orchid bees, Euglossine AKA Gainesville musician Tristan Whitehall, adds guitar, bass, piano and flute to his synthesizers and drum machines, cross-pollinating jazz fusion, acoustic ambience, drum ‘n’ bass and illbient atmospherics into intricate micro-suites. Whitehall’s juxtapositions of clarity and murk ricochet his music along a spectrum from organic warmth to alien abstraction. His tracks are full of unexpected twists and changes in perspective. It’s like walking through a forest, full of life seen and unseen. There’s a path, carefully laid out, but in service to the environment rather than the visitor. Whitehall leads the listener through thickets of thorny beats into clearings of smooth bass and guitar runs, restless buzzing, the hum and rustle of tiny creatures in the loam of the forest floor and shafts of warmth through the avian rich canopy.

On “Rain People” the glossy keys and guitar riff struggle to maintain a foothold under a barrage of stuttering beats and bursting bubbles of synth. When it feels like it’s about to dissolve into its contradictory elements, a balance emerges. It’s a thread that runs through the record. “Ice Gel” begins like one of those big 1980s air grabbers, the foreboding build then Euglossine transforms not into hyperbolic emoting but a playful ping-ponging, Sabres of Paradise like IDM. In contrast “Mindgame” is straight ahead drum ‘n’ bass over synths that manage to both squiggle and surge. “Heavy Pink Glow vs Pink Dot” builds like a red sky morning,  with radiating synths over a wandering bass riff, awakening a busy daytime chatter of percussion and lively glitch.

The sound design throughout is impressive. Whitehall subtle manipulation of clarity, levels, balance and mix are key to his subversions and his percussion programming provides a structure resilient enough to accommodate those twists and turns. Crisp hi-hats and snares, cavernous kick drums and complex beats emerge from the undergrowth and then fade. The live instruments woven into the mix add warmth and balance. As he dances across genres, Whitehall makes Bug Planet is the Current Timeline a delightfully unpredictable joy of a record.

Andrew Forell

[geneticdriftwood]

I just finished reading green arrow 2023 and I’m thinking about a pre-nu52 dickroy au set shortly after bruce returns to life and dick goes back to being nightwing, but with lian’s current backstory mixed in. the timeline is pretty much standard pre-boot canon, with the major exception that lian “died” like a month before bruce did, and then got yoinked around through time and space, eventually landing in gotham.

so at the time the story starts, she’s ~14 and running around alleytown doing vigilante stuff as cheshire cat, and befriends damian, who’s ~12-13 and struggling to adjust to life with bruce back. they end up working an investigation together (damian doesn’t tell anyone about this) and end up accidentally teleported to a secret base on a distant planet. cue wacky home alone style alien base sabotage hijinks! but they’re gonna need to get home eventually, so they hack some comms to send a coded message back to dick where damians like “richard come pick me up also btw im here with lian she has blue hair and says she’s your niece”.

meanwhile dick is struggling to figure out how to be himself again now that bruce is back, and is still helping out too much in gotham while repressing his conflicted feelings about everything. he and roy aren’t really talking, because a month after roy’s daughter died, dick dropped everything and got sucked into gotham as batman and wasn’t there for roy at all. and there were reasons for that! bruce was dead! but roy did everything to be there for dick when donna died, and this is part of a pattern of dick’s, and there’s a lot of hurt and they haven’t talked about it at all.

but suddenly lian is alive and with damian on an alien planet! naturally dick and roy go on a rescue mission road trip (kory helps with space stuff), and in the process are forced to actually work through all their many years of built up issues. so they’re having vicious arguments and opening up about grief and working through painful memories, all while fighting their way through an alien jungle full of giant carnivorous bugs or something. and we cut between that and little cameos of lian and damian doing fun spykids-but-with-aliens antics! (and eventually we get a happy ending where dick commits to choosing roy & lian & damian & himself over bruce & gotham.)

[dr-futbol-blog]

Instinct, Pt. 5

Next, Sheppard has returned to Atlantis where Teyla and McKay have stayed behind in the cave. It is not clear whether Ronon had accompanied him to Atlantis or had just walked with him to the gate and waited for him on the planet. Sheppard is in the infirmary discussing their discovery with Weir and Beckett. He is wearing only a t-shirt and is sitting with his legs spread wide on either side of one of examination tables. This suggests that Beckett may have just finished examining him for something or that, just like SG-1 did after every mission, it was customary for them to always undergo a check-up when they returned from off-world missions but that we have merely never got to see this. This implies that Sheppard had been in the infirmary with Beckett, and they had later been joined there by Weir who is currently trying to get a grasp of the situation.

Weir: A drug that allows the wraith to survive without feeding? Sheppard: That's what he said. Weir: Is such a thing even possible?

Let us first note the fact that Beckett is leaning back against a wall and Sheppard is sitting directly across from him. This is to say that Sheppard either has chosen to position himself directly across from Beckett or has remained there following his examination. While Weir is closer to him, Weir has nothing to do with why he has chosen to sit like this, and in fact all through this scene we can see Sheppard blocking his crotch from her like we have seen him do many times in the past. Weir is not between the two men but is pacing to the side of them.

Sheppard's legs are open for Beckett and while he blocks his crotch from Weir throughout the entire scene, he does not do it to Beckett. And given that Beckett is one of the people carrying the authentic version of the Ancient gene, it makes sense for both Beckett and Sheppard to feel some kind of magnetism between them even if they have never felt any actual sexual attraction toward each other. This is explained by the assortative mating strategy of the Ancients, where Sheppard's need to block his crotch from Weir (and women in positions of authority in general) has another explanation to which I will return with Epiphany (S02E12). Important here is that both behaviours are consistent with what we know about Sheppard's character. The most vulnerable part of Sheppard's anatomy is not open to Weir, and it never has been. He also attempts to keep eye contact mostly with Beckett.

Beckett: We don't know enough about wraith physiology to say for certain, although I must admit it's intriguing that this Doctor Zaddik claims the wraith survived on normal food for a time. Sheppard: Why? Beckett: Well, if he's telling the truth, it might be the answer to a very puzzling question. Right now, our best guess is that the wraith evolved from the iratus bug.

Again, Sheppard is not leaning toward Weir here, he is blocking her off from his most vulnerable parts. And while the focus of his attention is on Beckett and he is seated directly across from him, Sheppard is also not mirroring Beckett, as he is not attracted to him. Throughout this scene Sheppard is not mirroring either of them, as they simply do not have a similar effect on his body as McKay does. It should also be noted that Beckett himself seems to feel the need to keep his arms crossed as a protective barrier, possibly triggered by the openness of Sheppard's body language toward him. It is really quite fascinating how their bodies can let us in on interpersonal dynamics at play here. The dialogue, on the other hand, is exposition setting up what happens to Sheppard in the following episode.

Sheppard: Like the one that attached itself to my neck a year ago? Beckett: That's right. Sheppard: I hate those bugs. Beckett: Trust me, I know.

Regarding the timeline, given that they had spent three months on Earth between The Siege (S02E01) and The Intruder (S02E02), if the events of 38 Minutes (S01E04) had taken place a year before this episode, it would lend credence to the suggestion that the episode should be placed between The Eye (S01E11) and The Defiant One (S01E12). It would make more sense there, what with the iratus bug symbolizing Sheppard's anguish over almost having gotten McKay (and Weir) killed during the Genii siege. And this would fit thematically with Sheppard's current anguish causing him to actually start transforming into the bug in Conversion (S02E08). The iratus bug symbolizes Sheppard's internal pain, it makes it manifest to the audience. This timeline would also place Sheppard's attempt at kissing Teyla around the anniversary of his first kiss with McKay, but we will return to that with the next episode.

It had been during this time that Sheppard had desperately been trying to put some distance between himself and McKay. He had tried flirting with a nurse in front of McKay to make McKay think that he was not interested, that he was actually into easy women and not someone McKay wanted to fall for. Sheppard had even flirted with Weir for a hot minute just to try and make McKay understand that it was a really bad idea to get attached to someone that gets everyone he loves killed. Sheppard had been desperate to push McKay away from him and the more he tried, the more McKay seemed to want to get close to him. He had been in a world of pain when the bug was sucking the life out of him and there McKay had been, trying to save his life. He had tried so goddamn hard to make McKay see that he was bad news, and he had just kept on saving his life. No, McKay had never been the problem. He was a damn child, is what Sheppard was.

Notice how Weir turns back to look at Sheppard when he mentions the episode with the bug, and Sheppard does not return her gaze. He keeps looking at Beckett while Weir is looking at him, not intending to rehash those memories with her. He then turns his face completely away from her, looking down and to the side as he accesses the visceral memory that he would rather not remember. But it is not something that he can easily forget. And he had not been hankering for a history lesson on them, either.

Beckett: We speculated that they evolved into the wraith when they began to take on the characteristics of the humans they were feeding on. Now, there are many aspects of human physiology that are quite useful: bipedal motion, opposable thumbs, large brain capacity... but the human digestive system serves no purpose in the adult wraith. So why have one at all?

Taking on the characteristics of the humans they were feeding on is an interesting turn of phrase, especially as we have seen how Sheppard and McKay have influenced each other, how being around one another has changed them. They have both taken on some of the characteristics of the other. And they too have been feeding on each other, after a fashion. Sheppard looks down as Beckett mentions the wraith feeding on humans, looking disgusted. He has not only seen the husks of people the wraith have fed on but is one of probably very few people that have lived after having witnessed the actual process of wraiths feeding. Seeing the state of Colonel Sumner after he had been fed upon is something that he is also never going to forget, and Beckett is just re-opening all manner of old wounds here.

Weir: Because they eat normal food when they're young? Beckett: Exactly! Then at some point, they lose the ability to sustain themselves with that food. Sheppard: So it's a teenage thing? Pimples, rebellion, life-sucking?

Having this change occur in teenage wraiths, their hunger becoming overpowering as they reach maturity, they are made into an allegory of the sexual urges that overpower humans during their hormonal teenage years. And discovering that one is different during this time, having urges that may be shunned or even forbidden, forcing the adolescent to hide their desires can make the hunger grow even stronger. While Sheppard is being general here, he is also referring to his own teenage 'thing.' We can tell by how he takes a cautious look at Weir before mentioning this, as though he is not quite sure he even wants to make the comment with her standing there. Yes, they have all had their awkward teenage phase but struggling with a non-normative sexuality in the social environment in which he was brought up seems not to have been very easy. It is not a time that he is glad to remember.

Beckett: Something like that! The question is, what causes it? If it's due to some chemical deficiency, like a diabetic's inability to process sugar, then it's possible it may be addressed with some kind of drug.

Likely because Sheppard mentioned the word 'sucking,' Weir seems to be not quite sure if Sheppard was making a gay joke or not. Pimples, rebellion and life-sucking could be used to describe the adolescent experience of gay youth. And given that Weir is under the impression that Sheppard is gay-gay and hence has obviously lived the troubled teenage of a youth struggling with his identity, Weir's smile is meant to let him know that she understands, she is sympathetic. Weir seems determined to be the best ally she can be.

Weir: Zaddik could be telling the truth. Beckett: I'd like to go to the planet and check into it. Weir: Is that really necessary? I'm sure we could get a sample, bring it back here for you to analyze?

While Sheppard has not been so much avoiding looking at Weir as he has just not been looking at her, he does finally give her a look, seeming pensive, as she says the name of Zaddik, which may just be caused by the fact that it is a strange combination of sounds that draws his attention. He also makes the minutest move to turn his head toward Weir as she keeps looking back at him, to acknowledge her. Sheppard also closes his eyes and lifts his brow as Weir makes promises on his behalf, seemingly communicating "Yeah, sure, what ever" or something of that nature. He is staying remarkably still throughout this discussion and, again, it is not because he is trying to keep from doing anything. He is not making a performance of anything here. This is John Sheppard on neutral.

Beckett: It's not just the drug I'm interested in! This young wraith could be very important for our research. Sheppard: What research? Beckett: We're working on a retrovirus that would alter wraith DNA...

Beckett has taken a step closer to Sheppard and here you can see how they are facing each other and Weir is barely between them. Sheppard's attention is on Beckett. And just as soon as Beckett says the word 'research,' Sheppard is triggered, sounding a little testy. He is really not in the mood to be baby-sitting anyone's research, not after himself and McKay had just blown up an entire solar system in the pursuit of scientific research. And Sheppard sounds tired, here. He sounds exhausted. It might well be that he did not get a full night's sleep the previous night, for what ever reason.

Beckett: ...essentially stripping out the iratus bug elements of the genetic code and leaving only the human aspects behind. Sheppard: A drug that turns wraith into humans? Beckett: Effectively, yes!

Sheppard is clearly not sure what he is supposed to think about this. They had been dabbling with some weapons of mass destruction in the form of drugs during Poisoning the Well (S01E07), which had ended very badly for the natives of the planet that had invented the drug. Obviously Beckett had been continuing the research and being that they were so far from Earth and anyone enforcing the Geneva Convention, there was not really anyone looking over his shoulder about this. It seems like he needed to be more aware of what was happening in the city. Maybe he had not been paying enough attention lately. Maybe he had had other things on his mind.

Beckett: But so far we haven't had much success, partly because we lacked the living tissue and blood samples we need to test it. Weir: You think this... girl would be willing to provide them? Beckett: Look, I realize we can't bring her back to Atlantis but I could take the retrovirus and equipment necessary for the analysis with me to the planet. A few days with a cooperative test subject could be worth months of theoretical research. Elizabeth, I don't have to tell you how important this could be for us.

Sheppard again looks disgusted, especially at the mention of blood samples. Now, Sheppard shrugs as Weir asks him a question and this is the second time that he merely gestures instead of bothering to answer her. This is probably because he seems tired and does not want to was effort answering in words where pulling a face might suffice. McKay would be able to read him perfectly, we saw that this right here is how he communicates with McKay when no one is around to see them. But we cannot be sure how well others are able to read things right off of him. Theirs is the bond that is deeper than words.

What is really noticeable here is the difference in his level of enthusiasm as compared with the previous episode. Beckett is doing essentially the same thing as McKay had, he is trying to sell an idea to be able to conduct his research and to get the go-ahead from Weir. Sheppard's reaction to Beckett doing this is basically a shrug. He does not care either way. If they want him to take Beckett to the planet, he will take Beckett to the planet but if Weir does not want him to do that, it is no skin off his back. This is not personal to him. Here we see what Sheppard would be like if McKay did not manage to play him like a fiddle without any conscious effort. Here we see what Sheppard is like when someone is just a colleague to him.

Weir: Is she dangerous? Sheppard: She's a wraith! Although... I have to admit, she does seem a little different.

This too is contrasted with the previous episode. Weir had asked Sheppard whether McKay would be able to guarantee that what had happened would not happen again, and Sheppard told her that no one would be able to do that. He was making McKay's case for him, and she trusted his judgement. She still seems to trust his judgement since they all had collectively agreed that the whole shebang had been McKay's fault. It is also curious that Sheppard's visceral reaction is to call her dangerous because she is a wraith, and yet he had left both McKay and Teyla with her. He must not have thought that she was that dangerous, or he never would have done that, not to either of them. But note also the use of the phrase "a little different," a euphemism that Sheppard used of himself in Hot Zone (S01E13). He sees things a little different. He too is a little different. And he was a little different as a teenager too.

Back in the cave, McKay and Teyla are watching the old man and the wraith play apothecary, and McKay has his hands crossed defensively as he watches on. He does not seem sure himself whether he is more upset by the wraith pretending to be people or by this sham passing on as a science for them. His silent judgement of what they are doing is very loud.

It is curious that Sheppard had decided to divide them up the way he had. We saw him on Atlantis, and Ronon had come with him at least a part of the way. He had left both McKay and Teyla with these potentially dangerous strangers. He could never have left either McKay or Teyla with them alone, and it is likely he had removed Ronon from the situation because he probably felt like Ronon would be most in danger of escalating the situation needlessly. None of them love the wraith but their race through the forest had reminded him that Ronon would not necessarily be able to use rational thinking when it comes to the wraith. And had he left Ronon either with McKay or Teyla, neither of them would have been able to stop him if it came to that.

So this arrangement was probably the least worst call he could make, feeling like they needed to keep an eye on these people regardless. But leaving McKay into the proverbial lion's den does seem uncharacteristic of him, and this may be an attempt by Sheppard to deal with his obvious issues when it comes to protecting McKay. Even though he is trying to trust McKay to be able to handle himself, he was also placing a lot of trust on Teyla here. But from McKay's perspective, this had been just another case of Sheppard choosing to leave him behind, not wanting to be with him. These things were starting to add up for him.

McKay: Seriously. Have you ever seen anything like this before? Teyla: No, I have not.

McKay looks horrified as he watches on, and a part of it may be because this wraith seems to have a more loving father than he did. Clearly they care about each other, and the old man seems to be instructing the girl patiently in a way that he wished either of his parents, or any other adult for that matter, would have done for him as a child. McKay's question, "Have you ever seen anything like this before?" is not just about the fact that they are looking at Masterpiece theatre with a wraith but also the fact that, based on his experience, kind and patient parents like that just didn't exist, not in the real world.

Teyla: She's unlike any wraith I've ever encountered. McKay: What if it's all an act? Teyla: If she were a killer, why would he protect her?

Now, McKay seems to hit the nail on the head. He arrives at the truth of the matter, having observed them and their interaction but for a little while. This may be due to his childhood environment, the toxic environment of his own home having caused him to develop a hypervigilance when it comes to the dynamics between children and their parents. McKay may not be good at reading people generally but he may be excellent at sensing threatening things in a domestic environment. And yet, it is not made clear which one McKay is referring to, here. Whether he suspects that she is an act or that he is the act. Teyla interprets him as meaning that the wraith is acting, but there is also the chance that McKay meant the old man. What if the kind parent act is an act?

McKay: Maybe the act's for his benefit, too? Teyla: They live here together, Rodney. If she were like other wraith, he would be her first victim.

And again McKay is right. It is out of love that the young wraith had been trying to spare her surrogate father from the horrible truth of her uncontrollable animal urges and the fact that the potion was useless in controlling them. She was acting, for his benefit. And what is more, this is something that we have seen Sheppard do as well. He has frequently acted this way, having convinced himself that what he was doing was also for McKay's benefit, that he was doing it out of love and to spare him from the truth. Where it is unclear whether McKay has ever been the wiser on Sheppard doing this, it seems like he can at least understand the need to do it. It is also interesting that Teyla's line about him being the first victim since they live together is interrupted by Sheppard contacting her via the earpiece with the words "This is Sheppard". This lampshades the fact that Sheppard is either like the wraith, or is the first victim of someone with whom he has lived together.

Sheppard: Teyla, this is Sheppard. Teyla: Go ahead.

For some reason, Sheppard contacts Teyla and not McKay. We saw him try to get some distance between himself and McKay just before he had left for Atlantis. And while Sheppard cannot see McKay's face, we can see how hurt he is by the fact that he chose to contact her and not him, or even them. McKay sighs, resigned. Because for McKay, not being chosen is what hurts him the most. Sheppard leaving him here on the planet, inside a dank cave, with Teyla already made him feel like Sheppard had chosen to leave him behind. And now, he chose to contact Teyla instead of him which meant that he just did not care about him. We can see from the downward curve of McKay's mouth just how hurtful this is to him.

And yet Sheppard's motivation may be to safeguard McKay with this, as per usual. His policy is never to let hostiles know how much McKay means to him, lest they be able to use it against them. And by contacting Teyla, he is actually able to get a better sitrep on how McKay is doing than if he had hailed McKay himself. But because it is never spoken out loud, because he has never explained this to McKay, he has no way of understanding what Sheppard does in these moments. Sheppard not seeming to care about McKay is an act, and it is an act for his benefit too. What Sheppard fails to realize is that McKay does not understand why he does things the way he does because he has no frame of reference for this. His experience of most people is that they do not particularly enjoy his company or seek it out, and hence interpreting Sheppard as simply trying to avoid him makes sense to him. It is to be expected.

Sheppard: Just got back with Beckett. Ronon's gonna take him up to the cave, I'm gonna check in with the villagers. Teyla: What are you going to tell them? Sheppard: I'm still working on that.

Sheppard touches Beckett as he takes off, pats him on the chest over his tac vest. This may be due to that magnetic pull between carriers of the Ancient gene, to be sure. He did seem extremely focused on Beckett back in the infirmary. While Sheppard may find Beckett attractive, he is however not attracted to him. That isn't what this is about. While Beckett being McKay's best friend may have something to do with it, the bigger part here is that dressed the way he is and not carrying any weapons beyond the handgun in a holster, Beckett resembles McKay. And given the gene, Beckett probably resembles McKay to him much more than we can appreciate, as it isn't just the outward appearance but the feel of him.

And so, as he takes off, Sheppard pats the man's chest without thinking about it, without any conscious thought on his part. It is simply what he felt like doing, taking off. Because this is probably something that he frequently does to McKay that we simply do not get to see because they cannot be seen doing it in public. Like we saw earlier with the smack to his head, Sheppard cannot keep his hands off of McKay however much he tries.

Continued in Pt. 6

[autumnalfallingleaves]

Since I’m currently in a Star Wars phase, I was thinking…. How about a WondLa trilogy AU set in the Star Wars universe?

:D!!!!

It wouldn't be me if I didn't have a crossover or a couple for things I'm currently interested in, so I absolutely have a few, lmao.

I've been thinking of a post-WondLa canon SW AU wherein SW isn't in our past; rather, it's in the future and is currently set in the Prequels/Clone Wars era (my favorite :) ). I'm fudging with both canons a bit and putting WondLa several millenniums ahead of where it is in canon to fit in with the SW timeline and also saying that the galaxy is not far, far away. It's the Milky Way. SW humans are from the humans that abandoned Earth via the Dynasty Corporation and affiliated and just. Never came back.

(Continued under the cut because this got long lol)

It's been three or so years since the Battle of Solas, so Eva is around 16. My thinking is that Orbona is out in Wild Space, so it's been lost to charts and maps for a while, thus explaining why the people of SW don't know that the human home planet still exists, or even that there is a human home planet. During the War, the disaster trio (Anakin, Obi-Wan, Ahsoka) end up crash-landing on Orbona on the salt flat near Lacus and find themselves trekking from the now-broken Twilight to what they can see as the nearest civilization, which seems to be a mix of species, most of which-- barring humans-- the Jedi have never seen before. Let's say, for consistency's sake, that the aliens who ended up colonizing Earth/Orbona where from farther out, potentially the galaxy Ezra ended up in, so they're not present in the SW galaxy. Thus, the Jedi can't understand them. They, of course, manage to encounter Eva and co. and, since the humans speak Basic (or English, as the humans of Orbona know it), manage to get a rundown of where they are. (Obi-Wan's nerdy ass is incredibly excited to learn that Orbona/Earth is the planet of human origin. Think of the fossil records.)

And thus, through a series of shenanigans, Orbona is introduced to the larger galactic stage. A selection of beings from Orbona is chosen to go to Coruscant in order to present their planet to the Senate. This includes Eva, Vanpa, Rovender, and maybe Huxley? And others. Redimus is protection.

The Jedi have no idea what to make of Eva. She's extremely strong in the Living Force, but it presents itself in a way none of them have ever seen. I think she and Yoda would get along very well, to the horror of everyone else. She and Anakin would also eat bugs together.

One of the things I've been thinking about the most for this is Eva and the clones, because she, herself is also a clone, just of someone else. I can imagine they bond over that fact as well as personhood and being a second-class citizen in a place that doesn't really care for you. (Say what you want about New Attica, but Eva's status as a clone and her unique experiences were totally brushed over by the Atticans and I don't think she was super happy about that.) I think the vod'e would hear that Eva is still using her designation as her name (Earth in Vitro Alpha, ninth generation) and encourage her to find a name for herself, if she wants to. Eva Nine thus becomes Evelyn "Eva" Kitt :)

This somehow leads to Palps getting outed and ousted because I am all about fix-its in this house.

Other ideas I've had are SW characters in the WondLa setting, which I think is also very fun, but I've thought less about. For instance, the "Eva" would likely be either be Ezra or Omega due to the "naive little kid sees the world, grows up, and develops some pretty serious skills while also finding a family" thing. Ezra works thanks in part to already having similar powers and his relationship with his mentor/dad figure is similar to Eva's. Omega also works because of weird-little-girl-ness, vibes, being a clone, and a similar arc of losing a loved one and having to learn how to move on, though, in this AU, I feel like the person she loses- her caretaker- would have to be Nala Se and not a brother. (You can also insert Batcher in as Otto quite nicely. Maybe Ezra could get a Loth-Wolf?) Hunter is the Rovender, though I'd make it so he had a falling-out with his brothers instead of them being dead and that's why he left.

This also means that it's easy to insert Emerie as the Eva Eight figure, but also means that, in order for Ezra to work, there'd also have to be a bunch of Ezra clones running around. Lmao.

[ask-the-achs]

New subject contained.

It is infact a species.

ALIEN SPECIES FOUND ADAPTOR ANTS

These ants are a special kind of insects that are capable of a kind of evolution I will refer to as 'Generational Upgrades' their version of evolution involves them eating the most of the biggest things around to grow features of the things they ate. Their end goals are to create Queen ants to spread them around the galaxy. According to Paradox they are only three planets but I have seen recordings of them existing on at least six other planets. They are an organized unit. Like earth's ants they are a society based around drones and workers to build the hives and guards to protect the queen who can have up to 80 kids in a single egg laying session. These queens will eat anything and everything that is within 600meters of their hives. In an odd turn of events half the hive is awake during the day the other half are awake durning the night. The queen however I've noticed never seem to sleep a set time. They sleep when overworked.

*Five samples have been found and examined.*

Sample one: a collection of twenty ants. These ants are bright green as they live in areas with thick foliage autopsies have shown that they eat nothing but the poisonous plants and leaves around their nest. They also seem to have the ability to utilize photosynthesis. They are still aggressive to any non insect in their habitat.

Sample two:a pair of ants with a considerable amount of fuzz and wings. In several investigations around their hives they seem to have been eating bats for a long while. They in an odd turn haven't eaten enough to gain their Echolocation.

Sample three:a group of 10 ants that have grown fins and gills. It seems they have been eating fishes sharks and eels as evident by their abilities to sense electricity and emit that same electricity.

Sample four:a singular ant that had broken out of a cage only to be found and broken into 3 peices by Paradox. This ant shown signs of being the result of ants eating horses with its legs and teeth as proof with more autopsies showing he had the stomach and lungs of a cow in his horse half.

Sample 5:one of the queens of the hives who is currently clamped to a metal table. This is due to her constantly trying to escape and take out the staff. She is a vaguely humanoid woman with a translucent abdomen and a large stinger. In an odd turn of events she seems to hate another queen anomaly. The large bug chimera known as THE QUEEN. The smaller queen refers to herself as Empress Daikuri study has shown Daikuri is a empress who went missing on her 19th birthday 300 (due our timelines distortion of time as a whole it should be at least 150 years from modern time.)

Threat leavel:APOCALYPTIC

Cell information:The empress is kept in a small cell that is 3ft by 3ft that has several night vision and motion tracking cameras and robots as the cell is completely black out with no source of light coming in or out of the cell. The metal bed is in fact the very back wall of her cell while her every other wall and the Celing lined with inceneray round carrying turrets to put her down if she ever gets off the wall.

-Sunblood.

[besidesitstoowarm]

"Turn Left" thoughts

yeah, sorry, i still don't get the appeal of this one. i'm probably biased because i'm currently relistening to the adventure zone "the eleventh hour" which does have my favorite usage of the "what could've been" situation that happened in this one (and listening to the destruction of phandolin is very emotionally impactful). this one? idk. yep, a lotta bad stuff would happen if the doctor died. i could've told you that

i guess the only thing it established was donna's importance? but honestly we kind of already knew that, the doctor's "there's too many coincidences around you" moment was really just saying it out loud. i guess we know now that she's the most important woman in all of creation but this felt like quite the scenario for her to learn that. this was basically this season's "utopia" i guess where it isn't part of the finale but introduces elements that lead us into it. the difference is that the story of "utopia" on its own is really interesting to me, the characters memorable, the setting unique. this was just. wow living in england sucks when the doctor isn't there. yeah i know

so we open on a planet that makes me want to do this

because it feels just so fucking racist. gotta be up there with that episode of sherlock

so here's a brief rundown on all the shit that sucks once the doctor dies. "bad wolf" theme plays over his dead body and rose briefly appears to talk to donna. the hospital goes to the moon and both martha and sarah jane die there. rose warns donna to get out of london next christmas and wilf has his iconic "no i shan't it's christmas" moment as the titanic explodes the entire city and they have to move to leeds. radiation covers the whole south of england. the bees are still disappearing. torchwood team blows up the sontaran ship but dies in the process. rose tells donna she's the most important woman in creation. "england for the english" and immigrants are put into labor camps, which makes wilf cry. all the stars are going out

rose takes donna to... unit? i didn't pay attention sorry. the tardis is there and donna has a creepy beetle on her back and catherine tate's acting is so good this scene. she thinks the bug is what's making her seem important but rose insists they're separate entities and that donna's specialness has been apparent since the day she was born. she's been dead since the beginning i've been SAYING

the music cue over donna deciding to help rose switch universes is very familiar but i can't remember what it is, it plays at the end of "journey's end" or "the end of time" i'm sure of it. foreshadowing again. donna goes back in time and kills herself to cause a traffic jam so that her other self, in the regular timeline, turns left the way she should have. rose whispers two words to donna to pass on to the doctor which are, naturally, "bad wolf" and when she tells them to him, he flips the fuck out and says they mean "the end of the universe"

yeah this felt like it was necessary to set up "stolen earth" but i really couldn't have cared less about it, tbh. i have no real beef with it, it just felt... 90% unnecessary. it tells us something we already could have guessed easily so that it can shoehorn in the information that donna is super important to saving every universe. i'm glad we have that information now let's let something happen

[megers67]

Does anyone else look at those "what would happen if you suddenly showed up in the last show/movie/book/game you saw/read/played?" questions and take them way too fucking seriously? Because whenever I see one of those, I have to consider the following:

Am I appearing as myself as I currently am, with all of my current knowledge and skills? Because my skills are not so much geared towards wilderness survival, first-off. Also if I show up as my current human self, I won't necessarily have any cool powers or be any cool fantasy race. That can stick out a lot more in some fiction settings. Also, let's face it. If you're going in as yourself, you're not going in as the cool version of yourself. You're going in as YOU. You don't come pre-loaded with friendships with the cool peeps. I read one answer where the guy said he couldn't wait to hang out with Scully and Mulder every week. No dude. You're going to be in a random boring town and live a normal life 99% of the time until SOMETHING happens to the town. That MAY be you (in which case you may just be dead from whatever it is) or if you live, you're what? A witness they interview while they're there, they do their thing, then leave and you have the rest of your boring-ass life ahead of you.

Do I have anything with me? Not like it would matter much. Phone? Not gonna necessarily have service. Even if it does, your phone number isn't going to magically be available. If I show up in the Marvel universe, do you think my number is going to be magically off limits waiting for me to arrive? No! I don't exist in that place! Why would they expect me? Same thing with my social security, bank accounts, home, job, proof of any qualifications I have, friends, family, etc! Best I can hope for is that I'm at least clothed. I don't sleep with all my clothes on so that will suck if I'm taken in my sleep.

Where do I show up? Showing up in a town? Pretty alright, I guess depending on if I'm in a human town or not. In the wilderness? Well I'm pretty fucked.

When do I show up? This especially pertains to both timeline stuff, like Lord of the Rings with all that history to sort through and what point of the plot am I at. It also is important to know HOW to figure out when I am. Like, I don't want to be on a random field right before a battle starts because I would be dead like... immediately.

How much will I affect plot? If I show up at any time before the end of the story, what kind of affect do I have? This may sound like "Finally! A chance to hang out with all the cool main characters and help!" NO IT ISN'T. Do you know how many stories only have a good ending by chance? Like not that the main characters are pointless, but by chance in that random things happen to the main character that allow them to react or get the opportunity for something that ends up helping. Another Lord of the Rings example, what kind of chance was it that Bilbo fell in just the right place and time to find Gollum without any of the rest of his OWN party there to help him, allowing him to get THE RING. The one ring in the whole entire world that actually means anything. If you being there fucks that up? Well shit's fucked and you're all gonna die. Because how are YOU going to know the exact hole he fell into? How many other holes are there in that area? How many other places does that lead to? Stakes are high in a lot of adventure stories which means more opportunities to fuck it up for everyone!

Disease? Bet nobody thinks about this one. What the hell kind of germs do they have there?? Will my immune system be compatible enough to function normally? What if I'm in Star Trek and I'm not only needing to contend with a couple of centuries of germ evolution, but also contact with TONS of other planets with their own bugs. I'm going to have to be like fucking Bubble Boy until I can get the million vaccines or something I'll need. Though to be fair, I likely have best chance of making that work in a Trek universe as long as I'm somewhere with SOME kind of contact because temporal anomalies and alt universe are established phenomenon that they will actually believe me about. Oh! Speaking of...

Who will believe you/can you keep a secret?? Say you want to actually try your hand at affecting the plot in some way. How the hell are you going to get ANYONE to believe you? Let alone get access to the people who need it without making yourself a huge target, either for the local looney bin or the big bad. You think you can withstand legilimens from Voldemort to NOT tell him that Harry is the owner of the Elder Wand? How would you get Harry to believe you to do anything about it? Hell, do they even speak a language you can communicate with them in? A lot of sci-fi/fantasy stuff don't speak your native language, just a form of "Common" or "Standard" that is conveniently translated for you for the purposes of you understanding the story. Is the work made in a foreign country and you get it subbed/dubbed? Do you really think they will speak YOUR language?

So here is my answer most of the time. Assuming I physically survive long enough to get my bearings on when/where I am, I will use what knowledge I have to get as far as I fucking can from the action. Like specifically avoid the heroes like the plague. I'm in Gondor? Fuck that, I'm going to Bree. Oh this is Marvel? Not going to NYC anytime soon and just stay in middle America and hope I get lucky on the 50/50 coin toss.

[thebraxiatelcollection]

🪰🪲🦋 for the fic rec asks?

bug me for fic recs! ask game (My computer is having issues loading the emojis, so apologises in advance!0) 🦋 Recommend one or three of your own fics! Svalbard - A short Cabin Pressure Fic focusing on Carolyn/Herc on a Christmas vacation to Svalbard with the crew. Paint It Red - Romana teaches Brax that applying make up can be a powerful tool. The Edge of Existence -An AU! version of that scene in Power of the Doctor, but with Brax. Is Brax ready to move onto the final stages of the afterlife? Or is everything as it seems?

Recommend a great fic centered on your favorite character! Oh, I have so many involving Brax! There's so many fantastic works out there. After All, I collected you by @c0rrupt3dsp1r1t It's such an amazing fanfic, and i'm currently doing a re-read of it to catch up.

They've finally set the Collection's timeline straight- or as straight as it'll go. A century ahead of where it should be, but that's fine. Benny's been off with the Doctor again, but Brax isn't keen on it. When another alien infection gets into her head though, there are things she realizes she can't hide from him anymore.

As a relationship between a now technically elderly human woman and the manipulative Time Lord best friend who sort-of-kind-of-didn't-actually ruin her life though, it's bound to be a bit of a rough one, at least at the start. Especially with ghosts of the past, both friend and foe, coming back to haunt them. And a broken piece of magical Gallifreyan ceramic is causing time to unravel- but for the most part that's a separate problem entirely.

Bernice Summerfield has a lot of friends though, both faces old and new. It can't be all bad with them around.0 I'm also going to recommend another one, because I binged read these two so hard last year and i still think about them constantly. It is a Ten/Rose and Brax/Romana-centered fanfic. But it is SO well written. It's not completed and I'm not sure if the author will ever up date part two, but its such a fun ride. They are called Speaking His Language and Reclaiming Gallifrey. by Groovykat. Reclaiming is the sequel, but I highly recommend reading Speaking His Language FIrst. The first one is more centered on Ten/Eight/Rose, but the beginning of Brax/Romana and the Gallifrey gang saving Gallifrey plot in this build up is fantastic.

Summary of Speaking his Language:

When Rose Tyler runs because of an adventure gone awry, she ends up deep inside the TARDIS of another Doctor. He takes off before he realizes he has a stowaway on board and ends up on a planet Rose never thought she'd ever get to see. When he finds his little stowaway, and sees her current state, he finds out that this is not going to be as simple as just taking her back to himself...

...Especially when she's undecided whether or not she wants to go back to him at all.

Recommend a fic that makes you sad (in the best way!!)! Some great angst and/or hurt/comfort!

The one I can think of at the moment is probably Sepelio by @strange-destinations that is a beautiful, deliciously written Hannibal! Bernice Summerfield AU.

A seemingly endless trail of murders and murderers springing up all across Dellah. An insatiable, inexplicable morbid curiosity. An abundance of cold, hungry earth. Ignorance is bliss, as long as you can maintain it.

Sometimes it doesn't matter how good your intentions are.

My brain is too tired to think of any others, but I'm probably missing some!

[tekras-iszovh]

"= obligatorily i make a 4th post. and the situation calls for it. that situation being, the cavity of one of my ships walls, the cameras are telling me that it's normal. it's unusual, i had the ship parked on planet for ages, you would think there would be something. ="

"= case in point, if a story is destroyed, it is not ended, it has simply been removed and torn up but the idea remains, and the characters will continue on their way but simply outside of the current timeline and reality. and for example, this hive of 'earth bee' has begun, developed and ended, but i threw out the book, and there was never a bug infestation chapter in this ship's development. and i don't hear the vibration in the wall anymore, but someone else does, as stories write and rewrite themselves as soon as you get rid of the previous one. ="

"= it's like rewriting the past, it's not time travel. it's like rewriting an easily predictable future. anyways, if you read the top of the post again you will see i never mentioned bugs in the first paragraph, even though just a minute ago i did in fact refer to bug vibrations. in that very paragraph, there, and now gone. ="

"= thematically. from the outside this must seem confusing but you do not know how much sense it makes when you wield it. in other news, my sign is triangular but my love for squares and the number 4 is evident. maybe i should look into pyramids, i wonder if a third dimension is viable to put into the troll sign system. ="

"= feeling permanent and unmoving today. reminds me of a dream where there were a lot of statues. and i still don't know what they were. but they would last forever, like some kind of magic, or maybe a curse. ="

[monkiinart]

Bigass OC questions/infodump for Bios under the cut! I had fun writing these and I hope they give some insight to his character hehe!

What was the biggest challenge (personal, physical, social, anything) your OC faced before the game/story they were created for begins? (cracks knuckles, have a lot of text!) Being kicked out of his prestigious biochemist study set a lot of events in motion for Bios. He’s always kept it a secret from his parents and friends and that alienated him a lot and changed his personality into what it is in current Valorant timeline. Hiding the truth was a lot easier the less he had to lie and that led to his more solitary lifestyle. The reason for being kicked out was him dabbling in the more taboo/weaponry side of biochemistry and that eventually reached the ear of someone in the criminal underground. Some big shot reached out to him, offering him a place and funding to keep researching and developing his weapon projects for his personal gain. All was well until police forces discovered the lab and did a break in. This resulted in a pretty gory slaughter because breaking into a lab with hostile radiante plants isn’t the best place to be!! Bios hastily gathered vials with seeds, important files and a fat stack of cash from his employer meant for the research, set the whole lab ablaze to destroy evidence and just. Disappeared. All the time up until he got hired by VP he’s been hiding out in the Amazon forest for its wide range of flora, far away from prying eyes and his former employer who’s probably not amused by his scientist running off like that.

How would your OC like/prefer to die? Not! His whole motive in life is to elude death. IF he were to pass, it has to do something with his obsession leaving the biggest mark on the planet he could possibly leave.

What is guaranteed to piss your OC off? People who underestimate him. It probably is a result of him getting kicked out of the study and the big shots in the criminal scene that left a mark on his ego. Just being bossed around, belittled, someone making choices for him just pisses him off big time.

What is one thing your OC desperately wants, but can’t have? I don’t think he actively realizes it  much, but his position as a solitary scientist feverishly striving towards his goal 24/7 makes him miss out on a lot of the more lovely life experiences. I think he gets more bothered by this actually being surrounded by people in the VP and forging bonds with them, something he hasn’t done much in his life. I think he has some rare moments of longing for a normal life without being hunted by his grand ambitions and fears.

What are your character's weaknesses? fear of failure,  perfectionism, being suspicious and distant, in battle a bad team player.

What are your character's strengths? extremely stress resistant, good strategist, problem solver, easy talker.

Which one of your OC’s memories makes them smile in private when they recall it? Playing with his sister in the garden when they were kids, searching for frogs, little bugs and everything they could find. Especially the memory of them bringing a big frog into the house very much to the dismay of their mother makes him chuckle to himself.

What sort of recreational activities does your OC engage in? He enjoys swimming, riding his bike, obviously tending to the garden. He’s a simply guy when it somes to hobbies.

What does ‘home’ mean to your OC? His parent’s house and the little village they live in. He still likes to visit them when he’s able to. The nostalgia of his childhood, the cozy village folk who just know him as ‘the little blonde son of (family name here)’’ is comforting and cozy to him. I think outside that, he’d feel at home if he’s at a place where people like him genuinely, accepting his more extreme personality traits too.

What is a skill your OC wishes they had but doesn’t? He’d like to dabble in instruments but his hand motoric isn’t suited for precise movements for that!

How does your OC handle relationships, platonic or otherwise? Do they forge bonds easily, or prefer to not get attached? Bios is an easy talker. You wouldn’t notice he’s a complete whacko scientist until you’d bring up plants. But! He’s been isolated and running from people for so long that he’s bad at forging bonds. He’s just afraid of letting someone in his life and trusting someone and being trusted. I think especially with forging a romantic relationship he’d struggle with finally finding another thing that’s worth living for aside from his projects and balancing both of them. What to prioritize?

If you could pick one song to describe your OC, what would it be? Talking Heads - Psycho Killer for SURE. The melody and vibe of that song are absolutely perfect for Bios! Especially with the bass line in the beginning I can visualize him lazily strolling through alleys and corridors on one of the maps, his plants causing absolute chaos in the background hunting down his targets  whilst he’s enjoying it all from a distance, but closer than you think to deliver the final blow to his target when they’re completely immobilized and helpless.

What’s something other characters will notice first about your character? Probably his length! He’s 190cm/6”3 tall. Also the mint green visor is a striking piece.

What outfit or style of clothing is your character most often seen wearing? His big coat is always glued to his body lolll. If he’s not wearing it he’s mostly seen with wooly, baggy sweaters. Or turtleneck + lab coat.

What would your character wear to a formal gathering such as a wedding? Bios hates being put in very formal clothing or actually being sent to formal events at all. If it’s for something undercover/job related he’d put up with it (grumpily) but aside that, he’ll put on a black turtleneck, nice pants and that’s all you’ll get out of him lol

What kind of transport does your character usually use? Gonna be ultra Dutch for this one and say bike. He just thinks it’s efficient and nice to ride on a sunny day.. That aside, I think he’d own a pretty big jeep or van! 

What kind of media would (or does) your character consume? This includes books, tv shows, video games, and movies. Bios doesn't dabble in these too much! Just like Viper, he’d be in the lab most of the time. Especially movies and tv shows feel like a complete waste of time to him. He does enjoy listening to music though.

Does your character have a dream job or life path for themselves? He’s living it! He’s free to experiment and develop his passion projects whilst under VP protection and that’s all he requires. He’ll gladly endure Brimstone’s complaints and motivational speeches about team spirit over having to worry about someone hunting him down every single day.

Does your character have a particular way of talking or acting? Bios has a very sluggish but expressive way to express himself. When he talks he uses gesturing motions a lot! He has a low, calm voice unless something sparks his interest, especially on the battlefield he tends to yell and sometimes even laugh when things go his way.

When does your character feel truly at peace? His personal lab. It’s been his safe space for most of his life! When he’s working on something in there with music playing in the background he’s completely in his element.

Describe any AUs you have for your character/s. Valorant is an AU technically! Bios is originally a FF14 character. But he’s been my muse for 4 years now so I throw him into everything I like. I still struggle not making this Bios too nice. FF14 Bios is just an extremely sweet guy with a sly streak. In Valorant, his sly streak takes up most of his personality, so I’m watching out not making him too soft here lmao (BUT I WANT TOO SO BAD.. BUT ALSO.. UNHINGED SCIENTIST MAN..) I think I love the two sides this Bios has the most. The composed, calm and quite sly Bios who seems completely in control and the Bios who’s interest has been sparked and will do everything to get to his goal. Very fun, very chaotic character. He’s like a cockroach under the kitchen cabinet that u just can’t catch

[ragingbookdragon]

DC Character Insert Guide!

So, I got my second Covid shot yesterday and while I didn’t feel much of the effects then, I’m feeling them today, and I don’t want to write any fics because it’s too much effort and everything in my body hurts.

Instead, I decided to compile a list of all the character inserts I do, just so everyone can have a bit of a better background to them. Let’s start with the Batfamily, then we’ll move to the Superfamily, then Flashfamily, and finally the Lanternfamily.

-Thorne

So, within the Batfamily inserts there are four insert characters: Batmom (Bruce’s wife and mother of the Batfamily), Bat-Aunt (Bruce’s sister), Batsis (Bruce’s daughter, and Batbrother (Bruce’s son).

1. Batmom (Bruce’s wife and mother of the Batfamily) is a model by day and support at night. She stopped being a vigilante after Dick and Bruce’s falling out, preferring to stay at home and focus on raising Jason whilst caring for the family. She was born in Blüdhaven but grew up in Gotham City, eventually getting a job at WE where she quickly worked her way to the position of Bruce’s secretary where she became a valued member of his personal circle.

2. Bat-Aunt (Bruce’s sister) is a billionaire, playgirl, philanthropist by day and depending on which pairing I’m using, she’s either a vigilante by night or support for the Batfamily (non-vigilante). She’s Bruce’s younger sister and no one’s really sure if they’re related by blood but apparently one night, the two siblings sat down to test DNA, received the answers, and never spoke of them again. They’ve been together since they were in diapers—they’re siblings through and through. She is close with Ghost-Maker and Barry Allen.

3. Batsis (Bruce’s daughter) is a writer by day and a spy-network running vigilante by night. She is the oldest sibling of the Batsiblings and takes it upon herself to keep everyone in check when they need it. Because she’s older than most of the sidekicks every major superhero has, she’s not friends like Dick is with his group, so she tends to help out with the JL more. She was born and raised in Gotham City, showing up at Bruce’s doorstep at six years old. She is close with Wally West and Kyle Rayner.

4. Batbrother (Bruce’s son) is a black ops squad leader, designation SPECTRES, who runs missions all over the world that take out terrorist organizations, human trafficking rings, etc. He is the eldest sibling of the Batsiblings, and is typically compared to being a second Bruce, but a much laxer Bruce. He was born in Gotham, but his mother passed during birth, and he was raised in the mountains of Virginia by his maternal grandfather until he was thirteen. During the time, he was taught how to live off the land—which is important because it helps him during the Super Soldier Program. He traveled to Gotham City to Wayne Manor and told Bruce he was his son. After DNA testing, it was proven true. When he’s not on a mission, he’s usually at Wayne Manor bugging the crap out of his family. He is a sexual assault survivor during his time in the military and he advocates for other survivors and also runs personal missions (without his team) to bring justice to those who didn’t receive any. He is close with Kyle Rayner and his younger brother Jason Todd.

Within the Superfamily there are two reader inserts and those are Super-Aunt (Clark’s sister) and Supersis (Clark’s daughter).

1. Super-Aunt (Clark’s sister) is the world’s Superwoman. She lives in Gotham City working for Bruce, so she is technically apart of the Batfamily. She was not raised by the Kents with Clark, as their pods hit one another in the atmosphere and shot off to different locations, hers in Jacksonville, Florida. She and Clark met during a Daily Planet trip to Wayne Enterprises. She is close with Bruce Wayne and Ted Kord—and Booster Gold because you can’t have Blue Beetle without Booster Gold.

2. Supersis (Clark’s daughter) is the world’s Superwoman. She is not Lois Lane’s daughter but considers the woman her mother. She fights with the Young Justice team and when she’s not fighting with them, she’s either at her family home or at Gotham University taking classes. She is close with Tim Drake, Bart Allen, and Jason Todd.

In the Flashfamily there are two reader inserts, and they are Flash-Aunt (Barry’s sister) and Flash-daughter (Barry’s daughter).

1. Flash-Aunt (Barry’s sister) is a Flash like Barry and serves in the Central City Police Department with her brother, but while Barry is a forensic scientist, she is a detective, working their cases so that the two siblings are always on them together—they’re currently gunning for the most solved cases award. She is not the child of Nora Allen, but instead of Henry Allen during the time that he and Nora were getting divorced. When she was born, the mother gave her to Darryl Frye and she and Barry were raised together. She is close with Hal Jordan and Bruce Wayne.

2. Flash-Daughter (Barry’s daughter) was recently introduced with the fic “If We Were Fast Enough”. She is the daughter of Barry Allen in a world where the old Justice League has retired, and their successors have taken up the mantles. Unfortunately, global devastation occurred which was a result of nuclear warfare between countries. During the all-out war on the ruined landscape, she watched every JL member fall along with every Flash. She witnessed the deaths and took their speed (she did not kill them, but merely took their speed to keep it out of the hands of the enemy), making her faster than every speedster. Within the final moments of her world, she harnessed Barry Allen’s speed before he died, making her the fastest speedster alive, even faster than Wally West (just by an inch), and escaped the imploding of her world by traveling to another timeline. After a year, she broke down and told Barry the truth, but he accepted her as his daughter regardless. She works in CCPD as a forensic scientist and is the Lightning Flash when she isn’t working. She is older than most of the sidekicks, around her late twenties, but is close with Jason Todd and Kyle Rayner.

Last but not least, there are two inserts in the Lanternfamily, and they are Lanternsis (Hal’s sister) and Lantern-Daughter (Hal’s daughter).

1. Lanternsis (Hal’s sister) is the daughter of Jessica Jordan but not Martin Jordan. She was born a few years after Martin died, her father isn’t known, and was raised in the family. Because Hal was so determined to join the Air Force and fly, he wasn’t around much as she was growing up, but seeing that no one in the family wanted to talk to Hal, especially her mother and oldest brother, she took it upon herself to have a relationship with him, calling him whenever she could, seeing him when she could. They became very close when she expressed that she herself wanted to join the Navy and become a pilot. Hal taught her everything he knew about flying and she excelled in the Naval flight programs, even at the expense of her relationship with Jessica. When her mother died, she chose an honorable discharge from the military and started working at Ferris Aircraft with Hal. Sometime during Hal’s breakdown as Green Lantern and the destruction of Coast City, the Blue Lantern Power Ring found her, and she became the Blue Lantern of Earth for her undying hope that she and the ones she loved most would be okay. She is close with Barry Allen and the Four Corpsmen.

2. Lantern-Daughter (Hal’s daughter) was introduced with the fic “When The Music’s Not Forgotten”. She is Hal’s daughter, mother is unknown, and currently lives with him in Coast City. She works at a Wayne Enterprises branch in Coast where she met with Jason Todd and started training unbeknownst to her father. During a fight when the truth was revealed, she and Hal had a falling out where she returned home and was met by Sinestro who invited her to join the Sinestro Corps. She agreed and became a Yellow Lantern. All is not lost though; she eventually becomes another Lantern type. She is close with Jason Todd, Wally West, and the Four Corpsmen.

[bayofbalar]

Book Review: The Three-Body Problem

Title: The Three-Body Problem

Author: Cixin Liu

Date Finished: 17-01-2022

Rating: 4.5/5

The Three-Body Problem is a first-contact sci-fi novel situated in modern-day (or near-future) China. Its events are strongly influenced by recent Chinese history, particularly the Cultural Revolution. It features two main storylines, one situated during the Cultural Revolution and one during the current time. The two timelines (and the main character per storyline) slowly start merging together throughout the course of the book. I’d say it rates at least a 4 on the Mohs Scale of Science-Fiction Hardness, possibly higher? (The astro- and quantum physics in this book is fairly complicated and I have probably not even a layman’s understanding of it, so it’s hard to spot any mistakes, simplifications, or artistic licenses in its presentation.) So, this book is not suited for those people who tend to prefer the space opera type of sci-fi.

Despite my lack of understanding, I quite enjoyed the sciencey-ness of this book. I have been on a bit of a physics kick lately, and it was neat to see various theories turn up in which I had been interested. The title refers to a semi-unsolvable mathematical problem, and on top of that it features things like the Kardashev Scale, the Fermi Paradox and the Dark Forest theory (which, considering the title, the next novel in this trilogy will probably expand upon), and some truly weird proton dimensional stuff that I can’t even begin to explain but makes perfect sense within the novel.

I also quite enjoyed the alien civilization in this book. Unlike what is often the case, the aliens here are not mindlessly evil. They are definitely antagonists and ‘big bads’, but they have a good reason for that. Their planet is part of a three-body system, and is likely to get sucked into one of three stars due to the chaotic orbits the bodies are in. They therefore need to find a new, habitable planet, and soon. Due to various reasons, as explained in the book, they feel the need to destroy Earth’s civlilsation to be able to live here. They have rather a ‘first strike’-mentality, if you will. On top of all this, they are vastly technologically advanced, and literally consider humanity as “bugs”. They are really interesting, and definitely the most frightening aliens I have come across in sci-fi to date.

What kept me from giving this book a 5-star rating are some minor issues. If the rest of the book weren’t so good, I’d consider these major offenses... but the rest of the book is that good, and so here we are.

Some plot lines end up being a little anticlimactic. For example, the reason the scientists committed suicide. On top of that, other plot twists were slightly too convenient? See that whole nanomaterial thing near the end of the novel. The pacing is a little bit inconsistent here and there, I think. And lastly, there are moments when the book gets a tiny bit infodump-y. But infodumping is somewhat inherent to speculative fiction, imo, and I don’t personally mind it as much.

But as mentioned, these are minor gripes, for my not inconsiderate standards. (I mean, I’m not exactly fond of aliens/first-contact sci-fi, but this novel quickly jumped up to one of my favourite sci-fi’s I’ve read thus far!)

[warcraftish]

I mean, there are sort of like... hints? towards it in vanilla, at least.

Like there are more of the darker skinned NPCs in Darkshire than average, and that one 'Sira von'Indi' which is a bit indicative, and so on.

There are the Wastewanders, who were around even in Tanaris.

I think like, Tumblr fandom has a tendency to lean into woke/lefty discourse as a reflex in a dumb way if we're supposed to be crediting Azeroth as like, a place that is a scaled model of a 'real' Earth-type planet/alternate Earth with real Earth-like timelines. People take the racial coding of orcs and later trolls as like, the only thing about those races, take a moral stance about it because that's the zeitgeist, and then just never consider the possibility of there being back-and-forth warfare going over maybe literal millenia.

For example: why is Kalimdor so relatively bereft of life compared to the Eastern Kingdoms? The goblins don't have much lore except that they wound up enslaving the trolls in a reversal because of Kaja'mite, so... maybe when they moved into or built Gadgetzan, it was after a long war with the Wastewanders. Or they allied with them and succeeded in pushing back against the Farraki, but then they turned on each other and the goblins are currently "winning" in the area at the start of vanilla, with Arab-coded humans and very slightly North African-coded trolls and evil bugs all in play. Plus in vanilla, Ul'dum was right there, so maybe there were originally Middle-Eastern-ish or African-ish dwarves or even some kind of dwarf-earthen middle stage who themselves were wiped out with the arrival of the Farraki. Or even the Aqir! There's a lot of time for situations that involve like, migration and adaptation and all of that.

The trolls wanted to genocide the Aqir... and failed.

Azshara's Kaldorei empire wanted to genocide the trolls... and failed.

The various troll empires in vanilla are in decline but also revving up for a comeback. Presumably they haven't just been chilling there, the whole time.

Plus there's all the unfortunate stuff like:

I mean these dudes are mostly just in-jokes (there's the one that's just Lemmy), but also, welp. They're canon. So.

Malding again about the implications of Vikings being the first humans on Azeroth. And how Azeroth humans have no ethnicities, just nations. And how all of these nations are euro-coded despite their 90s cartoon diversity.

[kimberlyannharts]

A whole new author, a whole new story, a whole new universe!  It’s Power Rangers Universe #1!

so this won’t be as funny as usual bc with how much information this book is dispensing at once, to keep all these characters and timelines and locations straight i’m gonna flat-out just describe what’s happening and label the characters.  so first of all:

- the preview with Morphinaut getting trapped by The Nowhere King in the Space Between The Rift happened 584 years ago in whatever this current timeline’s past.  584 seems a little random but at least it’s a break from the 10,000 year guideline the comic has been using for ages.

- Ori (or Orisonth) is the blue ranger.  they use they/them pronouns, which is nice since the other they/them pronoun user in the comics was Xi and they’re fucking DEAD

- Bara Blue is Kartor, Ori’s brother(?).  Redhead Cate Blanchett is Vivali, the red ranger’s mother.  they’re evacuating off of this 0117 planet through their Master Arch.  there are apparently lots of Master Arches and lots of Morphin Master colonies across the galaxies. and Ori DOES call their race “Morphin Masters” btw, it’s not just a title for a select few now, which feels a little presumptuous to me, but whatever.  Vivali has another daughter named Sastra who apparently died in one of these evacuations, so everything is already going fine

the guy in yellow is Phiro, and he apparently has a pet alien dinosaur named Whendi, as you do.  the girl in red is Rhian and she got hairstyle tips from Ranger Slayer, because she’s always the blueprint

...i am totally honest i’m not sure if Telosi is supposed to be a guy or girl but either way they’re the person in green, and they’re angry because they haven’t gotten a call from Xev, who i ASSUME will be a guy in black.  because we gotta have our green/black pairs, baby!!!!!!!  also i like Telosi’s mom’s design.  why does this book have more of the rangers’ family than the past year of the main series.

- Aleia is the girl in pink and she’s proving that blue/pink pairs are forever superior

- friends :)

- MMPR: the Heart of a Master has the power to completely rewrite reality 

- here: hand me your Heart of a Master, the toaster barely singed the bread

- well THOSE sure look familiar

- sailor’s at the harbor, he’s come with a SHIP!!!!!!!!!!!

 - the Nowhere King (yes, i know it’s most likely Dark Specter) turned all the people on that planet (Namize, the planet they lost contact with) into lava monster things?  or attacked them with lava monster things?  i’m not sure.  but i gotta admit: they’re kinda sexy

  - Rhian “it was pragmatic to leave the innocent people to die to lava monsters” is bugging me a little but that’s red rangers for you.  meanwhile they better confirm Telosi and Xev’s relationship soon before i start shipping them  

- do you ever just want to get to the damn airport but your sibling insists on helping the random astronaut dude stuck in the sky

- fr though this is a really nice scene but i’m already taking bets on Kartor dying 

- it sucks their planet is getting attacked by The Nowhere King but at least the sexy white boy is here now

- but anyway WHERE’S WHENDI?

[bimboficationblues]

mx. what’s up with bionacles? What is the lore? What do they want from me? Why do bionacles?

Bionicle lore is told through a series of books written almost exclusively by Greg Farshtey, with a few by Cathy Hapka. (There are also movies and comics but they follow the books.) 

It’s initially presented as a dualist, cosmological battle between good and evil. This plays out in the context of one island populated by biomechanical life who represent various elements (fire, water, air, ice, stone, earth). But eventually the narrative escalates to interplanetary teleportation by way of diabolus ex machina, repeated mutations of the central characters, and a side-story where assorted villains from previous arcs assemble into a Suicide Squad and attempt to capture a historical war criminal.

Okay, so this is the basic plotline: 

Essentially, Mata Nui (who is also known as “the Great Spirit” and is kinda like God) is asleep. His “brother” Makuta (who is initially presented as being like, the Robot Devil but later revealed to be more like a robo-dictator or supervillain) is making a ruckus on the island by corrupting the local wildlife into attacking the local civilian population (called Matoran).

Around this time, six pods wash up on the beach containing amnesiac elemental warriors called Toa. They don’t really get along but eventually they put aside their differences to fight Makuta and his various minions, master the elements they represent, and collect “Kanohi masks,” which are the little masks that most Bionicles wear and have unique powers like shield-barriers or X-ray vision. At some point they all fall in a vat of goo that allows LEGO to sell redesigns gave them new powers. They mostly fight various brainless, palette-swapped enemies like the Bohrok (bug-bots that curl up into a ball) and Rahkshi (mechanical suits that contain gross worm things). The Toa finally defeat Makuta temporarily with the aid of some plucky civilians and the power of the Mask of Light, as documented in the classic film Bionicle: The Mask of Light.

It’s at this point that the series did a very long loredump through flashback that’s basically Bionicle: Secret Histories. It turns out that within the Bionicle universe, there’s a bunch of different islands out there with all sorts of culture, and the civilians of Mata Nui actually originated on a completely different island called Metru Nui. This flashback basically explains how Makuta forced Mata Nui to fall asleep, called “The Great Cataclysm,” which is basically the driving plot that results in the world as it currently exists in the Bionicle universe.

The set of six Toa who watched over Metru Nui were basically outlaws who fought the Dark Hunters (an organization of bounty hunters and assassins), Vahki (mindless robotic police officers), and the Morbuzakh (a corrupting mind-control plant). At the current point in the timeline, these “Toa Metru” are now the village elders on Mata Nui (the island), because after Makuta caused the Great Cataclysm, the Toa Metru had to help everyone become amnesiac refugees and gave up their powers in the process. This is the plot of Bionicle 2: Legends of Metru Nui.

Okay, so then there’s a little interlude where during the process of transferring the amnesiac refugee citizens of Metru Nui to the new island, they get trapped and mutated into bestial versions of themselves, called the Toa Hordika, by robot spiders who have taken over Metru Nui, and they have to deal with that or whatever. This is Bionicle 3: Web of Shadows, and then the flashback is over.

After the village elders reveal this secret history to the current set of Toa, the heroes form a plan to save Mata Nui (who is dying from oversleep I guess), and the new set of hip, cool Toa in town--ex-Matoran called the “Toa Inika--head out to find “the Mask of Life.” This set of Toa are the reason that people my age associate Bionicle with the All-American Rejects’ “Move Along,” for the record.

Anyway, first they fight the Piraka, who are silly little bounty hunters, and then some idiot drops the Mask of Life in the ocean, so the Toa Inika have to go underwater, where they get mutated (noticing a pattern?). There they fight the Barraki, who are ancient criminal warlords trapped and mutated in an underwater prison called The Pit. This is where shit starts getting buckwild: the preceding two “arcs” are fairly straightforward but then things go really off the rails.

Basically the Toa Inika of Ice, Matoro, canonically dies by disintegration after donning the Mask of Life and sacrificing himself to keep God alive. This eventually results in the Mask of Life becoming like a sentient, embodied entity which hangs around for a while. 

Also, somewhere in the mix it’s revealed that “Makuta” is not a name but a title within a centuries-old secret society of Bastards called “the Brotherhood of Makuta,” which originally were created by Mata Nui to help populate the world with wildlife but eventually began plotting a deicidal coup. 

This society has just launched an invasion of another island called Karda Nui and the original six Toa go to help out, getting another new set of mutations in the process. Everything gets hyped up as like this big final battle…and then the bad guys win, because it turns out that during the moment where the Mask of Life was used to resurrect Mata Nui, Makuta (*sigh*) integrated himself into the Great Spirit’s CPU. The original Makuta destroys all his former allies, takes over the body of Mata Nui, expels the latter’s consciousness, and sends it to another planet called Spherus Magna. Spherus Magna has an entirely different set of problems: it’s a desert planet besieged by monsters and warring tribes, and the main protagonists are bloodsport warriors, but all of that stuff kinda gets chucked aside because Mata Nui shows up and starts mucking around.

It’s at this point that I kinda lost the thread of the narrative but basically all the good guys teleport to this other planet, team up with the locals, and destroy the God-Devil. The end. That’s Bionicles.

[the-dreamer-traveller]

The Theory of Merged Earth

There is stated to be a theory among the scientific community concerning about Earth’s development; a theory that captures my interest. It is said that Earth, during the growing phases of its solar system, there was another planet that was part of the solar system, and it was also a young planet as with Earth at the time. During the early years, these two planets would smash straight into each other, to the point some of the smashed pieces will be flying to outer space while others will be merged into the Earth, as it is all rocks and lava at the time.

The dream, however, has great liberties on how it was being presented.

o----------------------------------------------------------------------o

Peering through the window, the dragoon platoon is preparing to launch a preemptive strike against a rushing space fleet of metallic spaceships, with their fighting jets and futuristic zeppelins sailing through the Earth sky. The sun is already starting to rise, with the glow of its rising dawn light to shine through the entire planet, while the futuristic buildings of the capital and the surrounding plains are now visible. Up high in the sky is another Earth-like planet, a planet of where those invading aliens are coming from.

Both sides of the planets are locked in an eternal conflict that is also the end of their worlds, as they are slowly moving towards each other inch by inch. The fate of both worlds aggravates both of their inhabitants, and they quickly try to solve this by launching a war against each other over domain of their species, to see which would survive after their worlds literally collide and beyond.

This also takes place billions of years ago, back when the solar system is still young. Their names, however, is forever lost in time and space.

The natives of Earth is a sufficiently advance society, as based on what I have gathered from seeing here. Building futuristic buildings and homes, along with a large park with a pool-like installment in the center where various, curved lines are emerging from it, the capital city is placed close to a large and omnipresent plains, where the capital city is placed in the center of a large island in the middle of a giant lake, which is only a few miles deep from the riverbed. Wild animals are frolicking in the grasslands, such as antelopes and long-nosed deer, with such design resembling to their modern (in this dream’s version) counterparts. The military is also sufficiently advance, employing through the seamless use of both magitek (small and lightweight dragons mounted with steel armor plates to protect their vulnerable parts) and science (autopilot with futuristic lances that have a plasma-like blade) technologies for their warfare. These dragoons are facing against their rival, those who belong to the other, approaching planet.

The inhabitants of the other world also employ with the use of advance technology in their invasion against Earth. However, they took a more sci-fi and steampunk approach, using futuristic fighter jets that emit blue flames and large zeppelins that acts as their command centers and long-range war machines. They are all colored in white and grey, in stark contrast with the dragoon platoon’s green, silver and blue. What do they look like is unclear, but I could speculate that they are humanoids, similar to humans.

Both of them are human species, but there can only be one in this particular dream and timeline.

As soon as the war in the skies started to explode with dragons and airships being destroyed, I jump off a window and started to fly around the capital city. Unlike many examples, they are mainly caught off guard by this sudden invasion of the aliens, as there were still civilians down there. For them, it appears to be a normal, if somewhat warm, day when a white zeppelin explodes in the sky and slowly crashes down. The people are panicking and started to from the plaza and possibly out of the city, as the war is starting to rage on and objects might fall down and kill people. Things couldn’t have gotten even worse.

Whoops, I said that.

It turns out that the merging of both worlds is already happening as soon as the war starts, but not like with the classical crashing to each other. Earth’s gravity starts to get very surreal as soon as the planet gets near to it, such as buildings contorts to near-impossible sharp shapes without breaking themselves, columns of water erupting from the ground and snaking around the capital city and gravity (based on the various fragments of dirt and rock rising from above) is getting heavy, as the focus is described as a tug-of-war between Earth and the crashing planet. Knowing that things will get very ugly, I quickly went to fly through the plains, where the antelopes and deer are starting to understand what is happening and quickly tuck their tails to flee.

As soon as I am gaining speed, I am–

o----------------------------------------------------------------------o

With my hood up, I am walking through the wet concrete road in a rainy day.

It was cold and wet, though it being a light rain wouldn’t make me drenched in water. This all takes place within a busy marketplace, where there are some people that are carrying umbrellas or raincoats with them as they went off to do some shopping. I am followed by no one, so I am left in my own thoughts and devices.

Come to think of it, I remember some sort of a vision. It seems to be a world where there is a dogfight while reality starts to go Wonka. It is so surreal, it wouldn’t be out of place from a Final Fantasy entry.

But then here it is, it doesn’t bug me as much as it intrigues me as well as making me thoughtful.

Was it something I made up or a vision of the past?

Then I am surrounded by multiple questions as I keep on thinking of that strange vision.

Was this world just another universe?

If the past is real, then what would have become of us?

Was there really a planet buried deep in Earth?

If the world I am living in is an alternate universe, then what is the original universe look like?

So many questions, but so little answers. I couldn’t keep on guessing on what are the answers that I am coming up with, since I am currently to buy some food in a nearby stall. Boy, was it really makes me hungry to think.