#but i do got biologist friends. i have done my research because i have the big autistic

[lyxthen]

Call me a pessimist, but I don't think we will ever be able to return axolotls to their natural range. As far as I am aware, there are no axolotls left in the wild.

They are native to this one place, the lakes of Texcoco, and Xochimilco, here in Mexico. Now, most of these lakes were drained when the Spanish colonized Tenochtitlan and founded Mexico City, which is why the city floods so horribly. There should be lakes there. What *is* left of the lakes is very contaminated because of city activity.

While there have been many conservation efforts, as long as Mexico City is there I doubt the wild axolotl population will ever recover, or be able to exist independently from human intervention. There is a common misconception about pet axolotls being taken away from the wild, which is completely baseless. While a lot of exotic pets (mammals and birds) are in fact taken from the wild, reptiles and amphibians are more likely not. Axolotls have a long history of being bred in captivity, and lab and pet axolotls are the only reason the species still exist.

Owning an axolotls is akin to owning other fresh water fish, in the sense that it *is* very tricky, but by no means impossible for your average person (assuming they have money for pets at all, that is). I wouldn't recommend getting an exotic species without doing the proper research, and this is not me saying you should get one. But it makes me sad when people say owning axolotls as pets is somehow immoral or animal abuse. It can be, if you are a shitty owner, but that is true for any animal.

These are not monkeys. These are not parrots, or wild cats or canids, or non-ferret mustelids. They are not being taken from the wild to be sold as pets, for fucks sake, they are pink and neon green.

And there is plenty of research on how to properly care for these animals! Because we have been doing so for decades! It is alright to have one. I promise.

[ninadove]

fav french media? (films, books, shows, games etc)

OH I LOVE THIS QUESTION THANK YOU SO MUCH 💖

I’m sure I’ll forget a lot of things and smack my own forehead in shame afterwards, but this is what comes to mind right away:

Literature:

Anything ever written by Victor Hugo is a masterpiece. This dude was a terrible human being, but he sure knew how to write, and he contributed to major changes in the social conscience of his contemporaries on many important topics (including but not limited to the death penalty and child labour). To give you a taste, here is my favourite poem ever, which he wrote, because of course he did.

My favourite piece of literature across all categories, though, is and forever will be Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand — the story of a man who convinced himself his unusually long nose makes him monstruous. The concept sounds so silly, I know, but this play is a masterpiece and a wonderful love letter to the French language.

Which brings me to my favourite comic series: De Cape et de Crocs by Alain Ayroles and Jean-Luc Masbou! Basically a twelve-volume-long fix-it fic, disguised as a tribute to French literature. Also, a beautiful bromance.

Visual arts:

Basically everyone in France can quote at least one line from Kaamelott, a comedic (?) series derived from the Arthurian legend. It is so well researched and hilarious — until it isn’t.

I’m sure there’s like, a very obvious movie choice that will come back to me in a minute, but I was raised on Disney and Scooby-Doo, so these are clogging my brain at the moment. Just give it time.

When I was very young, I would watch TV at my grandparents’ and enjoy Les Hydronautes, an animated series about an extraterrestrial explorer documenting the Earth’s marine wildlife in an effort to learn how to better protect her own planet (Aka There Are Many Benefits To Being A Marine Biologist: The Series), as well as C’est pas sorcier, a series of very fun documentaries on a plethora of subjects, from lavender farming to volcanic eruptions.

Obviously, Miraculous gets a place on the list too! 🐞🐈‍⬛

EDIT BECAUSE I FORGOT: Fantomette the animated series! This show is single-handedly responsible for my taste for smart women with amazing hair who ride motorbikes and kick ass. It even had Egytpology as a key part of the plot.

Music:

For me Formidable by Charles Aznavour is a classic, a very cute song, and a great place to start if you want to learn French!

A few other favourites include Fanny Ardant et moi by Vincent Delerm, Le Dîner by Bénabar (extremely funny to listen to while thinking about the Diamonds’ Dance) and J’ai cherché by Amir (This one is… Borderline when it comes to grammar, but cute enough that I grin and bear it. Also, it got us an honourable ranking at the Eurovision a while back, which is rare enough to be celebrated).

ALSO. I complain too much about bad translations and poor writing (see previous bullet point) not to show you kids how it’s done with Je vole from Aladdin (a genius play on words which delves into the two significations of the verb “voler”: to fly or to steal).

Video games:

Long ago, before I discovered the wonderful world of Nintendo, I would wait patiently every month for the new issue of Toboclic. This game had everything: cute animal mascots, stories, mini-games, arts-and-crafts suggestions, catchy songs, interactive documentaries… I’m sure my parents still have the CDs somewhere, but they probably don’t run anymore, which is a shame. I miss my friends.

Thank you so much for the ask, this was so fun to write!

@dragongutsixofficial please do this too so we can compare notes! 👀💖

[ofsunnydays-and-moonlitnights]

Another great day of saving the sharks

Intro Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 <- You are Here

Chapter 3: A Neon glow

It’s Kai, your boss, your supervisor and team leader. 

You wipe the grogginess off your face, clear your throat and answer.

“Hey, Kai… Is everything alright?” 

“I know I’ve probably just woken you up, but we have a situation. Your Solar is ok, it's kind of related but different, would you come into work?”

You scratch the back of your neck. “Yeah sure I can be there in twenty.” 

“Thanks, and sorry.” he ends the call. 

You sigh. At least you got seven hours of sleep. 

You arrive at the Aquariums and Kai is waiting for you outside. 

“Thanks for coming, especially after the day and night you’ve had.” 

“It’s ok, what was so urgent?” 

He leads you to the back rather than through the front. “We got a call from this lady who lives in a fishing village on the other side of the island.” 

You know the island he’s talking about, they’re not very friendly with the Mers. It's the one off the shore from the cove you’re currently looking over, if you squint you could see it from here on a clear day. It was unfortunately cloudy today. 

“About?” you ask. 

“She said there's a Luna that comes out at dusk right at fishing prime time, the fishermen find it annoying and they’re so fed up they said next time they see him they’re going to kill him.”

You gasp. “We can’t let that happen.”

Kai nods. “If we leave now we might get there before them, we could relocate him or…” 

“You want me there to befriend him so our Solar has a friend?”

“It would definitely make your job easier.” 

You nod… “Wait, what do you mean by that?” 

He gives you a knowing side-eye and there's a pause before he keeps walking. “Your second wetsuit was wet and you have a rash that looks very much like the one someone might get from exposure to fish medicine,” he says matter of factly.

You’re lost for words but only for a second… “How do you know so much?”

He stops walking as you finish your journey around the building.

“Go suit up, we got your suit washed and dried.” 

You head in the back door baffled. You suit up and head to the boat. 

“No one else is joining us?” 

He shakes his head as he starts to unmoor the boat. “They’re setting up the big tank for the Celestials, there’s a lot of work to be done.”

You step in as he undoes the last rope. 

“You all set,” he asks.

“Yep.” 

He starts the engine and you set off, it’ll take a few hours to get there.

A moment of silence is shared between you both as you admire the ocean. 

“You can still back out, you know.” he casually states. 

“Why would I? How could I?” 

He sighs. “It’s dangerous, I know what they’re like.” 

“And how do you know so much?” 

“Hey, I was already a certified marine biologist and Celestial researcher before you even started college.” 

“You make it sound like you’re miles older than me, it’s only what? five years?”

“Yeah, but you can learn a lot in five years…” 

“I’m sure but that's not what this is is it? tell me the real reason you know so much about all this. And tell me, why do you keep checking I’m ok with this project?”

He sighs… “I used to work at Fazbear Zoo and aquariums.” 

You look over at him. “What? No way… I never knew.” 

“I never told any of the team. I was only a junior there but I knew the girl, and the guy who died was our team leader.” 

“I’m so sorry.” 

“Don’t be.” he lets out a faint chuckle. “The guy was an asshole. I wasn’t there on the day it happened but I know for sure he probably yelled at Charlotte over something silly again. Might have even threatened to fire her again.” 

“And you stuck to marine biology and studying celestials?”

He nods. “It’s not their fault we don’t understand them, also not their fault a jerk and an idiot made himself a target.”

“But still…” 

He shrugs. 

“So… How did you end up with Cove?”

“The owner offered me a job, he didn’t care where my last job was, well actually he kind of did but because he was interested in their work. He’s the main reason you can start your research, Henry vouched for you.” 

“He did?” 

Kai just nods. 

“Oh I have a question.” you giggle. “Did they really have a singing bear?” 

He laughs. “Kind of yeah. It was mostly a gimmick but Freddy the Bear could sing, not like how we think of singing, but yeah kind of.” 

The rest of the ride was pretty chill, you mostly had a catch-up. Kai may have been your boss but he always made sure to be friends with all his team, maybe his past experience affected that but he was overall just a good guy, he gave you mom friend vibes. 

Soon enough the sun was setting and you reached the other side of the island you passed the village. The lady had let Kai know where the fisherman usually encountered the ‘Sea-monster’. As you got closer you started getting the gear ready, you slipped your knife into the pocket on your belt, and your torch. You then started getting two oxygen tanks ready just as you heard a commotion. 

“JUST DIE YOU DASTARDLY SEA  MONSTER.” one of the fishermen yelled. 

You looked over as the boat was still getting closer, in a net hanging out of their boat, scribbling and scratching all limbs akimbo was a luna, dark scales with a slight glow to them in the low light. He roared.  As they poked at his tough scales with fishing harpoons. 

“HEY!” You yelled. 

Your boat being a retired Coast Guard boat had lights and Kai made sure to put them on. It definitely spooked the fisherman. 

“He steals our fish and terrorises our village.” one barks back. But the other had let go of the net in panic and the sea monster began to sink. 

Kai had grabbed the megaphone and was negotiating with them, something about relocation, letting you know if any more sea monsters bothered them, you couldn’t really hear them over your newest bad decision. You jumped head-first into the water. You hadn’t even grabbed goggles or anything. You could just about see him through the blur of the ocean. The saltwater now stinging your eyes as you swam as fast as you could. His glow was more vivid the deeper he sunk. You caught up, cutting away at the net as best you could and lifting him by his underarms. As buoyant as a shark might be, he was still heavy and you felt like you were getting nowhere. No matter how fast you kicked your legs you were barely keeping yourself from sinking, and you were struggling for air. 

Bubbles in the distance caught your eye and the next thing you know, both you and the Luna were hoisted up onto the boat. 

You gasped for air for a moment catching your breath. 

“You’re so reckless.” he chuckles. 

“Is he ok?” You scrambled up and quickly tended to the luna. Kai handed you a first aid kit. You patched your fishy friend up as best you could before Kai helped you hoist him into the tank. 

“What happened with the fishermen?” you quired.

Kai set the boat back up to return, the sky now turning dark. “They skedaddled while I was fishing you out.” he sighed. 

“I’m sorry, I just…”

“I know.”

You look over the mer in front of you. He was all black with a blue glow to him. 

“Would you say he’s a lantern shark? He’s a bit big but…” 

“His scales and glow say so… he’s much bigger than usual, he could be a kitefin shark.” 

“I think you’re right.” you nod looking back at him he was much scrawnier than the Lemon shark back at the aquarium, and his glow, it was fascinating, it’s not every day you get to see a bioluminescent shark, nevermind a Mer one. 

“I think I’ll call him Neo, short for neon.” 

“Sounds good.” Kai hums mostly concentrating on driving the boat in the dark.

You over at Neo, you hope his injuries heal, he had a few bad ones, you even had to sew one up. Other than his cuts on his tail and net burn he seemed alright, nothing vital was hit, but he’d lost quite a bit of blood. His eyes slowly opened revealing a red glow to his pupils typical of lunas. 

“You’re safe… just sleep,” you whispered softly. 

He brought his hand up to you but it quickly fell, his claw leaving a scratch on your face. 

“Do I need to tranq him?” 

“No,” you call back. “The pure exhaustion and the small amount of anaesthetic I gave him should do the trick.” 

[trash-can-sam]

Ive finally made a sandrock OC (KIND OF) I havent just stolen the design of and put somewhere else. and I really want to talk about her. So here she is.

I wanted to give some lore to this character Qi mentions 3 times

AND now shes in my brain, so Ill say some things about her:

She wanted to be a biologist but ended up going into the same type of research job Qi's in because it paid more

Qi and Bugs went to college together and ended up working pretty closely on a few projects, maybe even had internships/jobs at the same place for a while before Qi moved to Sandrock.

She got the nickname Bugs because she would always pick up random bugs in elementry school and the name just kind of stuck. She prefers it to her actual name (which I have not thought of yet because names are hard)

Qi says that they are rivals, but I dont think thats actually true given how much they talk. I think its a lot more like a one sided rivalry where Qi has decided shes his rival and she just kinda plays along because its fun, but theyre actually just friends (not that Qi would admit that, but Bugs refers to and thinks of him as a friend)

Although she still works in Vega 5, she doesnt particularly love it there. To her, she just has nowhere else to go and the pay and lifestyle of Vega 5 is too much to resist, especially for someone wihtout that many goals.

Qi managed to get her into Gungham and so they have amazing conversations that only come from ADHD-Autism friendships where both people have the same hyperfixation. (I speak from experience when I say its the best thing)

She visits sandrock sometimes because she doesnt know where else to go when she has stacked up vacation days.

She gets very annoyed whenever people dont know what they're talking about, hence her friendship with Qi not really being an issue, because both of them are like this and they both thrive off of each others intellectual energy.

ALSO. Some things about her personal relationships to people in Sandrock:

Her and Grace are dating, mostly because I want Grace to have a girlfriend so bad (I am so starved for sapphic relationships you dont understand). They have been rotating in my brain SO MUCH, so I'll talk about them. This is largely because it would be SO FUNNY.

Their relationship started because Bugs would regularly visit Sandrock, so she would see Grace a lot. Since the Blue Moon Saloon isnt really that busy, they would talk to eachother quite a bit. After a few trips of both of them talking, Bugs decides it would be funny to mess with Qi whenever her and Qi eat dinner later that night, and she thinks the funniest way to do that is by Grace hitting on her at this dinner. Make it real awkward for Qi. I plan on making a comic for this actually SO we will see if it actually gets done. If it does it will be so funny you dont even know (it definetly will not be thats the brainrot talking.)

After that, they meet up outside the Blue Moon Saloon to toast to their success of making Qi extremely confused, they walk around sandrock and sit at the oasis a while. Nothing happens that night, but they both come away from it as deeper friends and a little crush. Not in like, a way that is that noticable, or a way either of them intend on pursuing, but a way that definelty exists. Neither of them are stupid, and both of them tend to do a good amount of introspection, so they both pick up on this and it changes the dynamic a little, but in a good way.

As time goes on, Bugs makes more and more visits to Sandrock, to see Qi of course, but the reason increasingly becomes to see Grace as well. They both flirt with eachother a bit here and there, until Grace asks her out on a date and it ends up becoming a thing. Still thinking of details there BUT! They will be thought of, dont worry.

NOW, For what this relationship means for them both and their similarities and a couple differences:

For both of them, this is the first romantic relationship they have had that really feels like the other person can keep up with them. Both of them are super smart, and they both sort of have unfollowed dreams.

They are also both workaholics discontent with the circumstances they're in, and I feel like they bond a lot over that.

BOTH OF THEM ARE VERY SILLY. Grace, especially if youre dating her, uses a lot of very silly language. Like whenever youre dating, her greeting is "Hey good lookin, what ya got cookin?" She has many many silly lines and I would reccomend reading her dialogue page if you havent already read it all the way through like 3 times. Bottom line is, shes goofy. And Bugs is also goofy. Not in exactly the same way, but like she calls Qi a chatty cathy, thats goofy. AND SOMETHING GRACE WOULD DO IF HER AND QI WERE FRIENDS IN THAT WAY. They would be a very annoying couple and I find that extremely funny especially in the context of them spending a good amount of time with Qi, who probably doesnt pick up on it half the time.

Both of them are the type to distract from their inner turmoil with humor. If you have gone on a playdate with grace or read her entire dialogue page, you would know she does this a non-zero amount of times, quite commonly in fact. Bugs does the same type of thing, but she does tend to talk a lot less than Grace.

Bugs is an introvert unlike Grace, but she can read people surprisingly well. Not anywhere near as well as Grace, of course, but still pretty well.

Both have jobs that end up with them being relatively isolated from personal connections. For Bugs, shes working in a team with a lot of people she doesnt really like, for Grace, she has to keep quiet about her job for the most part. This leads to them having an interesting dynamic in which both of them dont really know how to navigate personal, unguarded relationships super well. Bugs hasnt had any close friends in a long time, and Grace cant turn off her agent brain, oftentimes getting a lot more from Bugs than Bugs would want her to. I have a real thing for relationships where one person is quite guarded and the other person can read them super well, and Bugs and Grace fit this dynamic very well in both directions. Bugs tends to read Grace more than she expects too, not by a crazy amount or anything, but she does catch Grace offguard occasionally, just because Grace tends to drop it more often without realizing it around Bugs.

They have the same sort of (aspiring) archeolegist and researcher dynamic Grace and Qi have (That I touched on here) but romantic so. I think thats fun personally, because its a cool sort of combining of forces. It also hits a bit different from Grace's and Qi's simply because Bugs is a lot more like Grace personality wise.

A couple other relationships in sandrock:

Her and Zeke get along. She visits Zeke sometimes, because of her interest in biology. And I just think they would get along. Not just because she likes plants but I also think she would appricate how Zeke is very knowlegable on what he does as well as desert farming in general.

She doesnt like the church very much (for the innate ideological differences that come with being a researcher), but she still has a laugh with Dan-Bi occasionally.

I like the idea of her getting along with Fang a bit. I think she has at least looked at some of what she uses to make medicine and is like "oh wow thats genius!"

I think she would have a very fun time messing with Yan (because Yan is literally so funny idc what anyone else says I love him so much) I dont think she would like him, but I think she would have fun talking to him every now and then just to prod him (which Yan ofc doesnt notice) for goofs.

I love the idea of her getting along with Unsuur. I cannot explain why. But I think they would be drinking buddies.

Some design notes and how she dresses when shes not in a lab coat:

I had to give her a long lab coat because thats a demographic severely underepresented in sandrock

Her shirt color is pretty similar to Qi's undershirt, it just felt like it fit. Its also half untucked like Qi's, but Bugs does it because she thinks it looks good while Qi does it because hes tired. I dont really know how to draw that sort of distinction, but just know that its there.

Her belt buckle is gold while Qis is silver

Her hairtie is dark blue, Qis tie is light blue. Theres not a whole lot to that I just thought it was neat personally.

Her fashion sense tends to be pretty casual, usually hoodies and shorts while shes in her apartment and pretty normal streetwear outside of it. I dont think that she wears as many belts as the average Sandrock or Portia citizen. Since we havent been to Vega 5, I cant say for sure what the normal fashion sense is like, but based off of Qi and Petra, who are more like the average Vega 5er, and what is known about the culture, I assume regular dress tends to be more busniess casual-formal. I dont count Merlin, who was so eccentric she got kicked out of Vega 5, Or Mint, who seems overly casual, in this assesment. However, Bugs dresses in whatever is slightly more casual than the normal Vega 5 streetwear. Not as casual as Mint, but definetly not formal. She's kind of done with Vega 5's general busniess culture, not done enough to leave, but done enough that she doesnt really care what she wears off the clock if that makes sense.

That is all for my unhinged ramblings. I have a lot of ideas about her and maybe I will actually do something with those, so I thought I should introduce her.

[helpimhyperfixating]

Sneak Attack In Morioh - Jotaro x Reader

Word Count: 1767

The Speedwagon Foundation had silently snuck you into Morioh on the same boat as Mr. Joestar. The only difference was no one was awaiting your arrival. Spending the entire time in the hull, you waited and bided your time until you could silently and unnoticeably slip off board and into Morioh.

There was something going on in S-city and since Morioh was located not too far from it, you had been put on the same boat, only to travel to S-city at night.

That was the plan at least.

Slipping from the hull onto the deck, you looked over the docks, only to freeze in your steps. The one person you didn't want to encounter in your trip through Morioh was standing right there, looking out at sea.

Jotaro Kujo, your longtime friend.

You and him had been through hell and back together. First in high school, then fighting DIO, then college and other roaming Stand users; you went through it all with him. So, if he knew you were here and where you were going, he would either try to stop you, or want to come with you. Neither were a viable option at the moment. If he were to spot you, his stubbornness and persuasive abilities would certainly mean your stealth mission would end. And so you immediately brought out your Stand, manipulating the light and making yourself invisible.

You knew Jotaro knew your Stand better than anyone else. Almost as well as you did. So you knew you had to hightail it out of there before he figured out you were there, despite the fact that you were near invisible to the naked eye.

With a quick move you hopped off the boat and stayed low as you ran, making near to no noise as you got out of there, Jotaro never moving from his spot by the water.

- - - -

Running through the streets, you looked behind yourself only to barrel straight into someone.

The sudden impact caused you to lose concentration and your Stand dissipated, fading back into your body after releasing the invisibility.

"Ow." You whined childishly as you had landed harshly on your butt. Looking up, you saw a man with green hair and stylish clothing. His face held an expression of shock before it turned more serious, glaring at you - or more precisely, where your Stand had been.

Immediately getting up you looked at him with slightly widened eyes. He was most definitely a Stand user.

Taking note of his stance, you jumped into a defensive pose. And you were right to, for not even a second later, the man jumped forward.

"Heaven's Door!"

A Stand popped out from him but you were faster. Jumping backwards, you vaulted onto your hands and pushed yourself as far away as possible, summoning your Stand to send a glare of light at him and blind him so you could run away.

You had no time for this right now, if you weren't at the train station in 4 minutes you'd miss the train and have to wait until the morning for another, meaning missing your target and also being at risk of being discovered by those in Morioh. And so you booked it.

- - - -

Eight hours. That was all it took for you to complete the mission you were given. Someone had stolen important research from the Speedwagon Foundation and you were tasked with bringing it back. When you arrived at the scene, relief washed over you to see they had not been able to crack the lock of the briefcase where the information was in yet.

Getting only minimal injuries, mainly a knife cut on your arm from one of the scientists when you first took hold of the briefcase, you got out of there in record time without setting off any further alarms or causing more uproar.

All in all, a mission well done.

And now here you were, handing the briefcase over to the people of the Speedwagon Foundation on the boat.

"Thank you, Miss L/N. We are departing in about an hour."

"That's alright. I think I'm going to stay here in Morioh though, you never know when you might need an extra ally. So I'm going to stay here and help Dr. Kujo."

"Very well. Stay safe."

"You too!" You waved at the man before sprinting away from the docks.

It was now about 9AM and you figured it was about time to visit your friend. A perfect plan then came into your mind. This man had never been scared or surprised. No matter what you tried, everything failed. But now? He had no clue you were here. This time it should work! Right?

Using your Stand to turn yourself invisible again, you walked into the town, only to see the green-haired man again. He was talking to a kid with a pompadour while looking very disgusted.

Curious, you snuck closer.

"I need Mr. Kujo's phone number." Holy shit you hit the Jackpot. "I encountered a Stand user last night but she disappeared almost immediately. She has to be on the loose here somewhere." Ah, that's less fortunate.

"Why don't I phone him and we can meet up."

"Oi, Josuke!"

Two boys came running up to the pair you were observing, one of them very short while the other had scars over his face.

This was getting very busy now so you moved back a little bit. Letting them all do their thing. The one named Josuke phoned Jotaro and you saw him nod a few times before hanging up and motioning the others to follow.

Taking that as your que, you silently moved along, staying far enough away to not let any possible sound you made be noticed, but close enough that you wouldn't lose them. You didn't concern yourself with their conversation because it wasn't really your business, and if they were talking about you being enemy? Well then that would have to do for now. That misconception would hopefully be cleared up soon.

Following them for twenty minutes, you reached a hill and all the way at the top, you could already see your target waiting there.

Making sure you stayed behind the small group of boys you had been following, you hid completely from his view to make sure he really wouldn't spot you. There were very few signs how you could see where you were when invisible, but Jotaro knew them all. So, hiding was your best bet.

As you approached though, you could feel the maniacal grin growing on your face. You were on a hill. It was prime material to jump him and push him down it. Now that had to surprise him for sure, right?

Just then, they all congregated and you focused back on the here and now.

After sharing a few greetings, the green haired man got straight to the point. "Last night I encountered a Stand user. They bumped into me and I saw their Stand. When I tried to use Heaven's Door they somehow were fast enough to jump back and escape my range before blinding me and disappearing."

"They anticipated Heaven's Door?" The short one spoke up while you walked a little backwards, positioning yourself there where you could perfectly have a running start at the man in white. There was a gap between the green haired man and the one named Josuke for some reason but it provided you with a perfect path right towards your target.

"They must have. So it is safe to bet they know of our abilities. And now they're just roaming around, somewhere out there."

"Rohan." Jotaro interjected and you quickly got in a stance, ready to go. "You said they blinded you and disappeared? How?"

Knowing that if you didn't hurry you'd be exposed, you ran.

"Indeed. There was a glare of light and-" Whatever Rohan was about to say was interrupted when Jotaro suddenly flew backwards, the exact Stand user they had been talking about appearing out of thin air, having tackled the marine biologist.

Jotaro let out a noise of surprise, summoning Star Platinum and using the World mid-air before looking down to see you, a giddy yet evil grin on your face.

The utter surprise at seeing you actually here caused him to have no time left to do anything else so when time started moving again, he just fell down, making contact with the hill as he started rolling down it together with you.

"Mr. Jotaro!"

"Mr. Kujo!"

"Ah!"

Several shouts of surprise rang out as the two of you barrelled down the hill but you quickly came to a stop, you on top of Jotaro and laughing while Jotaro was on the bottom still a little stunned.

Quickly sitting up so you were sitting on his stomach, you pumped your fists in the air, shouting. "Fucking gottem!!!"

The Duwang, who had been running down the hill to reach the two of you, stopped in their tracks, seeing such a dumb yet lighthearted display.

They were even more surprised when Star Platinum appeared and lightly pushed you to the side, causing you to face plant in the grass while Jotaro stood up, completely unharmed.

"Oi, Jotaro that was mean!" You said as you lifted your face from the grass.

"It's your own fault." Was all he said back as he dusted himself off before looking over his back at his coat and sighing loudly. "You ruined my coat."

"Hehe, sorry. But hey, admit it, I got you! Surprised to see me here?" You waggled your eyebrows.

"Consider me confounded." He deadpanned and you pouted. "Josuke, do you mind?" He turned to the pompadour kid and said kid seemed to snap out of his stupor, stepping forward and bringing out his Stand for Jotaro, never really taking his surprised eyes off of you.

You watched the Stand remove all the green grass stains from his coat and softly 'ooh'ed at it, in awe by the Stand.

"Alright, who are you?" Rohan then glared at you and you squeaked a little at the hostility in his look.

"This is Y/N L/N, an old friend of mine." Jotaro introduced you, motioning his hand to you.

Slyly smiling to yourself, you grabbed onto his hand, making him turn his head to face you and sigh, getting your meaning as he pulled you up from the ground without any visible effort.

"Friend?!" Josuke exclaimed in shock while you let go of Jotaro's hand, dusting yourself off.

"Why are you here, Y/N?"

[corysmiles]

Does Wilbur ever start giving Tommy puzzles to do? I've seen videos of marine biologists putting tiny octopus in jars and watching them unscrew them from the inside.

After a while he realizes just how smart Tommy is and starts bringing him more 'puzzles' to escape, but he's actually teaching him to escape live traps other scientists are trying to use.

-Zeetle

A New Puzzle

————————

Octotommy au

Notes: hey first writing for the new AU!! I love the idea of Wilbur getting puzzles for Tommy and the mer getting so excited every time he solves one. (And I also love the angstier idea of Wilbur teaching Tommy to escape traps) Thank you so much for the ask zeetle my beloved :] 💙

————————

“Tommy come out, Ive got a new puzzle for you.”

Wilbur waited impatiently, the plastic fins on his feet getting pulled back and forth by the icy current as he floated- a reminder that he couldn’t stay long. Meanwhile, his eyes stared intently at the giant rock formation poking up from the sand below- The same rock formation he’d visited every day for months since finding Tommy.

It was a couple months ago that he had found the tiny octopus mer. He’d been setting out traps for crabs, and when he came back that same day one trap was missing. He’d searched around the reef for almost an hour before he spotted the shiny metal bars peeking out of a pile of worn rocks. He’d reached his hand in without second though, but what he grabbed onto wasn’t the hard metal he was anticipating, instead it was soft and squishy.

It was the first time he’d ever met Tommy, and although the octopus mer was nervous he seemed to love being in Wilbur’s hands. Day by day Wilbur came back to take notes on the fascinating creature. He’d never seen anything like Tommy, and although he loved learning more about him he couldn’t he’ll but become fond of his heart laughs and wild personality.

Only a month in the visits started to feel more like visiting a friend then doing research.

“Come on Tom,” Wilbur called out again impatiently, “It’s just me.”

The water was freezing already even though it was only early August, and even with a full wetsuit he felt his skin crawling with goose bumps.

Thankfully, he didn’t have to wait much longer before a flash of red peaked out from a behind a nearby rock.

Wilbur watched with amusement as small tentacles flicked towards him. They curled around the water a bit, and Wilbur couldn’t help the warm feeling in his chest when he realizes the tentacles were searching for his hand.

Slowly he nudged his fingers forward and as soon as one of the tentacles brushed against it they all wrapped around his hand like a glove.

The small mer’s face beamed with joy as he smiled up at the researcher, “New puzzle?”

“Yep, a couple of them actually” Wilbur chuckled, “Took you long enough.”

Tommy huffed and tightened his tentacles around Wilbur’s arms, “I was sleeping dickhead. You came so early today.”

“Its noon,” Wilbur cocked his eyebrow in amusement.

The mer’s tentacles flashed bright red for a moment before settling back to their natural maroon state.

“You stupid humans and your stupid time,” Tommy grumbled, “I was still sleeping, so it was early.”

Wilbur laughed and brushed the tips of his fingers over Tommy’s head in the way he knew the mer adored. Immediately, the tentacles around his wrist turned pale pink as the mer’s head pushed its way into his hand.

“You’re so clingy,” Wilbur smirked earning another groan from the tiny octopus, “Now come on, let go. Gotta do the puzzles before I freeze to death.”

Reluctantly, Tommy wriggled against his hand before forcing his tentacles off one by one. The sudden lack of warmth shocked the researcher a bit, but he knew this had to be done… Even if Wilbur couldn’t help the smile that reached his face every time Tommy instinctively tried to curl back around his hand.

“Alright Tommy I’ve brought you one new one, and it’s important that you figure it out okay?”

The mer just shrugged and lazily floated around Wilbur’s head, his tentacles pulsing under him to keep him up, “Yeah yeah, hand it over.”

Wilbur smiled at the young mer’s enthusiasm and dug through his bag until his hands met a sharp piece of metal. Even the feeling of it against his skin made him feel queasy.

“Alright just- I need you to go inside of it okay,” Wilbur stuttered nervously, “I just need to see if you can get out.”

Slowly he pulled out the “puzzle” from his bag and carefully watched the mer’s expression. Tommy looked curious and a little unsure, but not afraid. And his tentacles stayed at their natural shade of maroon.

Wilbur wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or not.

The “puzzle” was actually a trap: one of the newest models the lab was using to catch more elusive specimens. And with all the talk about Tommy going around, he worried theyd start using it to hunt after the little mer. He new he’d get fired if they ever found out what he was doing, but he’d already failed his job by not bringing in the new creature he’d discovered.

What more harm could be done by teaching Tommy how to escape from his colleagues.

Tommy swam circles around the cage before letting his torso drift inside. Even though Wilbur knew what would happen, he still flinched when the sharp metal bars contracted around the mer.

“Woah shit,” Tommy laughed nervously as he tried to push the tight bars off of him, “Seems kinda dangerous for a puzzle yeah?”

Wilbur hummed, only paying attention to whether or not Tommy was hurt. The bars dug into his skin but it didn’t seem to draw any blood which was good.

Tommy stuck his tongue out in concentration as he slowly guided his tentacles through the metal bars. Each one prodded around against the container until they landed on a small metal latch.

“Too easy Wilbur,” Tommy grinned, and within seconds he’d broken the latch open.

Relief flooded through Wilbur’s body as he felt the mer wrap around his hand again, and this time Wilbur didn’t hesitate in giving him the head rubs he desired.

“Good job,” Wilbur hummed, “Fantastic.”

Tommy almost purred at the touch as Wilbur’s fingers scratched right above his ears. He swore the researcher’s hands were magic because he’d do anything to make him stay there in the water. But sadly, the human looked like he was half-frozen, and by the feeling of his icy skin Tommy didn’t think he could stay much longer.

“Alright,” Wilbur whispered after a few minutes, “I’m going to freeze to death if I stay any longer. I’ll see you again soon though. Maybe tomorrow. Be careful.”

Tommy deflated and wrapped himself tighter around Wilbur’s hand earning a small laugh form the researcher, “I’m always careful, who do you think I am?”

Wilbur stared fondly at the mer and gently pried him off of his hand, “I think you’re you Tommy. And I know you think you’re invincible. So be careful.”

The mer just pouted at the human’s scolding. He’d gone years without ever being caught (except for by Wilbur), so he didn’t understand why Wilbur was so paranoid. There was no way he’d be discovered again.

It was only when the same “puzzles” from that night started to pop up all over the reef that Tommy realized maybe Wilbur had a point…

[ruthlesslistener]

just saw you in the reblogs of a post saying you were an evolutionary biologist! Im looking to become one myself so I was wondering! how did you get on that career path? what was ur education like? things like that!

Hey, hello! I'm glad to see that you're interested in evolutionary biology! First and foremost though, I'd like to clear something up and say that I don't actually have my degree yet, I just have a lot of experience working with that sort of topic and am currently pursuing a PHD in it. I'm getting my Associate's Degree for Transfer in Biology in the spring, after which I will be transferring from the community college that I got my undergraduate requirements done in to a university to focus on my major. I can tell you what I did to get an Associate's Degree in Biology, however, as the undergrad requirements are arguably a lot harder than the actual master's degree programs (which I know about because my mother is getting a master's degree in ecology atm).

Okay, so when I applied to college, I already knew that I wanted to pursue evolutionary biology/behavioral ecology. It's been one of my special interests since I was very small, and is pretty much the only career path that I've ever desired. With that in mind, I contacted one of the counselors in my school to help set up an education plan for a biology degree, which involved the following classes:

MATH:

Beginning/Intermediate Algebra

College Algebra

Trigonometry/Geometry

Elementary Statistics

Statistics for Science Majors

Calculus/Analytic Geometry 1

Calculus/Analytic Geometry 2

Calculus/Analytic Geometry 3

PHYSICS (basically math but more stupidly complex):

General Physics

Principles of Physics 1

Principles of Physics 2

Principles of Physics 3 (why am i even fucking taking these courses i'm a behavior/genetics major)

SCIENCES (lecture + lab included as one):

Fundamentals of Chemistry

General Chemistry 1

General Chemistry 2

General Chemistry 3

Organic Chemistry 1

Organic Chemistry 2

Foundations of Biology 1 (note: I passed AP Bio with a 4 in high school so I skipped some requirements)

Foundations of Biology 2

Introduction to Sociology

Sociology

-Was supposed to take biochem 1 and 2 but luckily managed to avoid that with a loophole in the requirements of one of the UCs

Earth's Dynamic Environment (Geology)/An Ecology Course of your Choice

Animal Behavior (not required but recommended for my major)

Psychology (completed in high school)

Learning/Behavior Modification

LITERATURE/GEN (for padding out the fluff):

English Composition

Literacy/Adult Basic Education

Queer Cinema

Some kind of language course (I did ASL)

Graphics/Media: Multicultural

Philosophy: Critical Thinking

World History (passed in high school AP World History with a 4)

History of the United States (passed in high school AP United States History with a 5)

//END

All I have left to do is Physics 3 and Calc 3 this spring and then I'm elegable for my Associate's Degree. Your college/university might demand more prerequisites from you before you even think about touching something more complicated, but those are all the classes that I had to take to get myself on a path for a degree in biological sciences! In addition to that, I've also done extensive work volunteering for conservancy agencies around my area, had a job in the chem labs for a bit, and worked on field studies for STEM majors that my college posted to help bump up the 6 B's tarnishing my record, focusing on stuff that involved capturing specimens for genetic sequencing. While a great deal of universities will turn up their noses at anything less than a 3.75 GPA, I've also heard of 4.0 or above students being turned down because of their lack of hands-on experience, so try to squeeze in as much research, volunteer opportunities, or internships as you can between classes. Having a well-rounded record with lots of hands-on experience will greatly help your chances in getting in, and being friends with someone in upper level courses that can bring you into master's programs as an observer (like I do with my mom) will be great for reminding you why the fuck you're slogging through so much mathematical bullshit when all you really want to do is work with animals

Good luck! And remember that as long as you work hard enough, you can get through it. It also probably won't take you 4 years to finish your prereqs like it did for me, because my autism/ADHD/dyscalcula weighed me down. It's doable, it's just a lot to get through before you can start to focus on your major :)

[mvrtaiswriting]

Your writing is so beautifully done! I feel like you really capture your characters’ personalities. Would you consider writing a scenario where reader was part of the Crusaders and is reconnecting with part4!Jotaro after his recent divorce. It’s awkward dating at first, but Joot’s heart melts every time he sees reader and Jolyne getting along so well.

Are you even real? - Jotaro Kujo.

HELLO HELLO HELLO and thank you so much for waiting so long! Writer’s block has been a pain BUT this one actually carried me away and helped me get through it.. so thank you for requesting it! Gotta say it: timeline of jojo’s event is not accurate, but it does include everything you asked for!! I don’t wanna bother you anymore so please enjoy! I hope this meets your expectations!! 

Neutral reader x Jotaro Kujoh.

Jojo’s bizzare adventures: Diamond Is Unbreakable & Stardust Crusaders

Timeline of Jojo’s events (mostly jotaro’s fatherhood) is a bit bizzare

SFW

Trigger warning: usual jojo’s violence

Words Count: 2631

Song suggestion: Are you even real? by James Blake

Hi! Are you a new reader? Check my masterlist for more content!

Please feel free to reblog or leave a comment :) help me support my art (it’s free!),

© bearing in mind everything I post/write is my intellectual property so please don’t steal/copy and paste and post it as yours.

Jotaro was about to throw what would have been his last punch to Kira when he was interrupted by the manifestation of a familiar stand. Was he hallucinating? Did he lose too much blood to imagine things now? While he asked himself this questions, resting his back against the wall trying to preserve the few energies he had left in his body, he looked around looking for the owner of the stand that just came to his rescue. His eyes scanned meticulously the area; he was sure you weren’t far – of course, if all of it just wasn’t a massive joke made by his tired mind.

But you were there – you were really there. And you were beating up Kira so bad, making it look so easy. He widened his eyes open, forcing himself to remain conscious. Josuke would have arrived in matters of minutes and he would have cured all of his injuries.

Jotaro closed his eyes, and the next thing he saw was you and Josuke leaning over him. You smiled when you noticed he was regained energy and health, looking into his beautiful aquamarine eyes for some seconds. You really missed them, you missed him.

“Getting old?” you said laughing, offering him a hand to help him stand up. He shook his head while a soft, almost imperceptible smile formed on his lips as he fixed his hat onto his head as per usual.

“What are you doing here?” he said, opening his arms and implicitly inviting you into a hug.

You smiled, hugging him tight. You guys hadn’t seen each other in so long, and being in each other’s arms just felt like coming home.

“Guess this is your way to say ‘thank you for saving my ass, nice to see you again!’” you said laughing.

Behind you, Josuke’s and his friends’ all had riddled expressions on their faces. Seeing Jotaro so outgoing surely was something unexpected – so much that Kira running away didn’t seem to matter at all.

Jotaro nodded at your words, breaking up from the hug and taking a good minute to look at you. He still was much taller than you, and you didn’t seem to have aged a bit. You were as beautiful as he remembered you. What he didn’t remember was all the complicated, little emotions he felt every time he was next to you that were now coming back to surface. You always held a special place in his heart. You two always shared a particular bond that never got the chance to really develop. During the crusaders days, you were too busy fighting and looking for Dio to get involved into emotional relationships; and following the final battle, after losing Kakyion, Avdol and Iggy, Jotaro didn’t think it was appropriate to actually confess you his feelings. All of you were mourning the deaths of your companions, and although Kakyion would have encouraged Jotaro to actually tell you about how he felt, in that moment, it just didn’t feel right. So he let you go, and everyone just returned to their own lives. He had moved on since then or at least he tried to do so; he was now a father with a failed marriage, but he never really forgot you. Afterall, no one ever forgets their first love.

“Joseph called me a week ago. I’m sorry I came late but it was the best I could do!” You answered Jotaro’s previous question. “He told me you guys needed a hand and that my degree in criminology would have been useful. He explained everything to me and.. here I am!” you continued.

Jotaro’s expression seemed surprised. He didn’t know his grandfather was still in contact with you. At first, he started to ask himself why didn’t Joseph tell him years before. He could have had a chance with you – he would have followed you wherever you were. His jiji knew what he felt towards you, how could he just stay silent? Those questions were quickly followed by doubts: what was Joseph planning? Did he call you because they really needed you there or because he was just trying to help Jotaro overcome his divorce and find someone to help him with Jolyne? All these doubts clouded Jotaro’s mind, leaving him silent.

After you were introduced to everyone, you and the rest of the guys went to a coffee bar to discuss how  investigations would have been organised and what methods would have been more successful in finding Kira’s new identity.

Jotaro kept his eyes locked on you while you professionally explained to Rohan, Koichi and the rest of the boys what to do. A part of him was busy studying every little detail of your face. How you still did the same facial expression you did 10 years before, how your smile still managed to lighten up everything around you. It was so strange how much time passed by, how many things changed during these years; yet  things stayed the same between the two of you. He still felt the same way he did when he was just a boy, you guys still related to each other the same way you did when you travelled around the world.

Jotaro’s posture was much more relaxed now that you were around. His face had a more relaxed expression, and you gladly found out that he became a bit more talkative than he was in his younger days.

Joseph found you a room in the same Hotel where him and Jotaro where staying in while in Morio-cho, leading the two of you to spend an incredible amount of time together.

As time passed, you and Jotaro grew closer and closer. You quickly learned about his love life and that he became a marine biologist, something you would have never expected from him. He was very curious about your life too: he was eager to know what happened to you during those years – he wasn’t able to find you when he tried, and now that you were right in front of him, he wanted to make the best out of the time he got to spend with you. He wanted to know if the person he always loved was taken, and what happened to them during all that time. However, he never directly asked you any private question. He learned that you had an important relationship at a certain point, which broke your heart and made you afraid of love, but only because you and Joseph talked about it.

He thought it was ironic; he had a similar experience.

Searching for Kira’s new identity was tiring. You were all doing your best, and were using every resource you could. You in particular were really involved with the whole research project– it was the main reason why you were there. Every time there were news, whether they were minor or not, you were always the first one to be notified.

You were busy examining some of your notes and the pictures Rohan took when Jotaro knocked on your door. You sent your stand over to open the door, focusing on your studies. It was only when you smelled Jotaro’s sweet perfume filling the room that you finally lifted your eyes up from the books and the various pics in front of you. You greeted Jotaro with a weak smile, as he sat down next to you.

“Thought you could use some coffee.” He said, leaving a fuming cup in front of you.

You thanked him, and proceeded to take a long sip from the cup.

“How is it going?” he asked.

You sighed, running an hand through your hair as if that gesture could help you reorganise your thoughts. You explained everything to him, ranting a bit about how stressing the whole situation felt. Every time you thought you got closer to finding Kira, something happened that forced you to start all over again. He wasn’t like every other serial killer you studied about; he was always a step ahead of everyone.

Jotaro listened carefully to your words, nodding sometimes to let you know that he was really paying attention to what you were saying. Once you finished, he looked a bit perplexed and offered you his insight regarding the whole situations. You trusted his words more than anyone else’s – you knew he had great analytical skills, you would have trusted him with your life. Something you already did in the past.

The two of you spent the night together, smoking some cigarettes while discussing about every possibility regarding Kira’s escape. He sat exactly next to you on the sofa, reading some documents given to you by the Speedwagon foundation when you tiredly rested your head on his shoulder.

This gesture made his muscles contract for a second, catching him out of guard. He turned to look at you, your eyes almost closed because of your tiredness. Without saying a word, Jotaro leaned his lips against your head, leaving a soft kiss on it before continuing reading his documents as if nothing happened. It wasn’t long until you fell asleep. When Jotaro noticed it, he wasn’t sure about moving. He didn’t want to wake you up, but he knew that wasn’t the most comfortable position for you to sleep in. He slowly lied on the sofa, letting you rest your head on his chest. He put his white coat on you, deciding to stay there for the night.

You woke up next to him the following morning, your bodies completely intertwined. You were confused, as you didn’t remember falling asleep. Also, you didn’t really want to bother Jotaro this much, and immediately felt bad about it. You slowly got up, leaving the beautiful man sleep on the sofa of your hotel room. After a quick shower, you headed towards the hotel’s canteen to buy some breakfast for both of you.

When you finally returned to your room, you saw Jotaro stretching up, standing tall in the middle of the room. “Morning” he whispered in a low, raspy voice.

Smiling as if you were a teenager in love, you replied and offered him a donut.

“I’m sorry for yesterday. You could have woken me up.” You said shyly, doing your best to avoid eye contact.

He hinted a small laugh, messing your hair with his hand.

“No need to apologise, silly. It’s fine, I fell asleep too.”

-

Days passed by, and you knew you were getting closer to find out Kira’s identity. Your days however, weren’t made up solely by studies, researches or fight. Most of the time you found yourself spending time with the Joestar’s family: you would usually have dinner with Josuke, Jotaro, Joseph and Josuke’s mum, spending quality time together and hearing funny anecdotes from Josuke and Joseph. You also had the chance to meet Jolyne a few times; Jotaro drove you out of city because he really cared about letting the two of you meet. And it was a good thing: you and jolyne relly got along with each other, almost as if you had been friends in a previous lifetime.

Although Jotaro was never vocal about it, he was important to him to see how  along you got with his family. He loved seeing you playing with Jolyne, and he knew how much you appreciated and respected Joseph. It was also nice to see you getting along with Josuke – both of you had a lively personality, and he grew affectionate towards you really quickly. Sometimes, Jotaro would find your bond a bit irritating – but he knew Josuke was only a 14 y/o boy. He was also conscious about how irrationally jealous he could become, so he never really spoke about it.

As time passed, Jotaro became more and more aware of his feelings towards you. He never forgot you and now every emotion he felt in the past was simply coming back.

 The two of you spent an awful amount of time together, always finding new excuses to do so. Whether it was to investigate over Kira, training to prepare for the final battle or simply visiting some new places, there wasn’t a moment when you weren’t with him; and although he felt incredible bad for thinking about it, Jotaro hoped to find Kira as late as possible.

He needed more time; more time to fully understand what was going on inside his mind and his heart, more time to find the right words to explain everything to you, more time to understand whether his feelings were reciprocated or not.

It was during the final battle with Kira that he finally had the responses he needed.

Seeing you covered in blood made his heart beat incredibly fast. For minutes that felt like an eternity he did not know what to do, how to act - something which was very unusual for him. Jotaro had always been the kind of person to think rapidly, without letting his emotions overwhelm him. But this time it was different. He left you and Josuke fighting alone against Kira for too much time and now the both of you were in danger. It was something he already experience before in Egypt, and he wasn’t willing to lose anyone else.  You kept one of Josuke’s arms around your shoulders to help him standing, the young boy still towering you even if his figure was arched over you. Both of you were covered in blood and with various injuries over your bodies. You were still able to stand on your feet, looking angrily at Kira who was grinning in response. Your breath was heavy and you didn’t have much strength left in your body, but when you saw Jotaro, you knew you had to hold on.

You gave him a quick look, his face covered with worry and fear. “I’ll cover your back but you'll have to be quick.” you said, summoning your powerful Stand once again. Jotaro understood your plan, and without losing anymore time he started walking towards you, becoming close enough to use Star Platinum against your enemy.

“Star Platinum. The World!” he said, stopping time and letting Kira have a taste of Star Platinum’s punches.

Before he let time flow again, he gently picked your body up in his arms and stepped far enough from the explosion Killer Queen would have caused moments later. Shielding you with his own body, time started to flow again. You looked at him smiling, gratefully crouching yourself onto his chest, trying your best to recover some energie and enjoying the warmth of his body.

“Thanks for always being my hero.”

Jotaro couldn’t help but smile hearing those words, shaking his head in response.

“I just returned you a favour.”, he added.

-

Two weeks passed by since the defeat of Yoshikage Kira.

You and Jotaro decided to stay in Morio-cho a bit longer than what you originally planned. The time spent together allowed you to discuss your mutual feelings and, after a long night of passion and love, you started dating.

It was awkward at first. You and Jotaro never really officialised your relationship; you just let things between you evolve naturally, preferring a physical love language over words – what united the two of you wasn’t something that could have been easily described. However, he eventually confessed you that he had loved you since your trip in Egypt, receiving a: “I did too, idiot.” in response.

As time went by, you and Jolyne managed to build a strong, beautiful bond – so much, she’d start to refer to you as a parental figure and nothing less. Jotaro loved seeing the two of you together; you were the people he loved the most, and he was happy his little daughter liked you as much as he always did.

[daydreamingnightowl]

𝗔𝗻𝗶𝗺𝗮𝗹 𝗚𝗲𝗲𝗸𝘀. 𝗝𝗼𝘁𝗮𝗿𝗼 𝗞𝘂𝗷𝗼 𝘅 𝗥𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿

notes: ahhhh this is my first work here! i cant get this idea out of my head. i love ocean man so much, he needs a lot of luv 😔

i did some research about the animals mentioned here! still, please correct me if im wrong. heads up: i made Jolyne a natural born stand user for this headcannon (and she's 7 years old here) and the reader is her biological mom

i hope you enjoy this!

warnings: curse words, mention of syringe, spiders, and baby making?

-you, a veterinarian and Jotaro, a marine biologist? you best believe Jolyne would be flexing her parents to her friends all the time

-the day she asked what your jobs were, her eyes lit up like a christmas tree

-oh man, you and Jotaro would go berserk whenever she would have a homework about animals

-it's pretty funny actually, because at one point yall fighting about which animal is the strongest

-Jolyne: mooom, daaad, i have to get this done asap

-when you go to zoos and aquariums, both you and Jotaro would be saying facts about the animals you see

-Jolyne: mom? dad? what's that weird looking fish?

-Jotaro: that's a sunfish

-Jolyne: it's ugly. i'm gonna call it: ugly pancake

-you laughed loud enough to earn weird looks from the people around you

-sometimes you bring her to your clinic!

-you always remind her that when a patient comes in, she should ask the pet owner before touching their pet

-she squirms everytime she sees you with a syringe

-her anti-rabies shots are always updated!

-oh, and her room is decorated with animals and marine life

-you blame Jotaro for it. he started it. he convinced you into decorating it too. Jolyne doesn't mind at all. in fact, she loves it!

-one time during dinner, she suddenly said "mom, dad, i want a tarantula!"

-Jotaro and you werent surprised. her stand is probably the reason why she wants to own one.

-you: Jolyne, are you sure? i think you should wait til your birthday.

-Jolyne: yay! it's my birthday next month!

-you: ᵒʰ ᶠᵘᶜᵏ

-Jotaro: yare yare daze. fine.

-yall ended up getting her a female greenbottle blue tarantula.

-you don't let her touch it too much, as it's still not familiar with its environment. most of the time Jotaro or Star Platinum handles it for her

-speaking of owning pets...

-yes, you all have pets of your own

-you have a (favorite domestic pet)

-Joot has different kinds of fish. he has two 50 gallon aquariums: a saltwater and a freshwater. it's all in your shared home office (that Jolyne frequently visits)

-she does her homework there sometimes

-he keeps Jolyne's drawings in a locked drawer. (don't tease him or talk about it or else he'll get all cute and pout all day)

-Jotaro wanted a pond after you got married but you decided against it since you were already pregnant with Jolyne. gotta make the house kid-safe.

-maybe you wouldn't be so against it when Jolyne is old enough

-(or you know, if yall done making babies)

𝗕𝗢𝗡𝗨𝗦:

9:32 PM

-Jolyne: (crying)

-you: oh no, babygirl, why are you crying?

-Jotaro: what's wrong? who made you cry i'm gonna beat them up

-Jolyne: my tarantula is missing

-Jotaro: oh

-Jotaro: yare yare. not even a day passes, and she's missing already

-(Star Platinum comes out instantly)

-you: we'll help you find her, okay?

10:36 PM

-you: we can't find her, Jolyne. i'm sorry

-Jotaro: we'll look again tomorrow. go to sleep

-you: we already blocked every opening. she wouldn't be able to get too far from us

-Jolyne: okay :(

-(seeing her sad while going to bed broke your heart)

12:41 AM

-you: goodnight, Jotaro

-Jotaro: night, y/n

-...

-you: Jotaro, cut it out

-Jotaro: huh?

-you: stop tickling my hands, aren't you sleepy?

-Jotaro: but i'm not doing anything

-you: then tell Star Platinum to stop

-Jotaro: he isn't out. what are you talking about?

-you: (opens eyes)

-you: MOTHERFU--

(cue roundabout)

[bae-science]

it’s t-t-t-t-time for another newt bae-science fic rec extravabonanza! same rules, same boys, same bullshit! let’s get into it:

a beginning; a second chance by @dykesword

other newt and i have a long and intricate ritualistic battle to become the alpha newt, but i gotta give credit where it’s due. if you like to annotate your books for fun, this fic will give you a looooong comment you’ll want to write, and for good reason! there’s a lot of really well done metaphor and character detail in here, while still keeping a very soft, melancholy but with a hopeful edge tone. and also, like, the care and detail in which newt’s mental state in the aftermath of the precursors’ abuse is depicted is so so good, and delightful to read

husbandly duties by @kingeiszler

i am soooo biased with this one bc technically it was made for me but GODDAMN it’s good. this shit has everything: gottlieb trio sibling dynamics, vanessa in giant femme earrings, hermann yearning, newt and karla infodumping together, newt’s terrible and accurate gaydar, gay crime, the newmann dynamic and why it works boiled down to its bare essentials, pride and prejudice glasses touch, and neon green acrylics. required reading for the vanessaverse

Say That Again by @robertfrobisherslover

WOOF. if you like mutual pining and lack of communication from men with rocks for their emotional processing centers, and guncle (gay uncle) newt and hermann and KILLER artsy sex scenes, and themes of words unsaid in a story about LANGUAGE..... oogoogogoogouhufug. the writing style is clear and well paced, i LOVE little mako’s scene she’s such a cutie, and there’s like. a line. that’s a play on the whole “it’s always been you” trope. that lives in my mind rent free forever.

speak right to my heart without saying a word by @thekaidonovskys

i’m just gonna paste the comment i left on it here, because that sums up what is so absolutely incredible about this fic the best:

so sometimes you stumble on a piece of fiction that you add to your little collection of stuff you would show a person if you wanted them to understand a part of you that you can't quite explain eloquently, or it would take too long, etc etc, and i've never really found something like that for my autism until now, which, like, poggers. and i'll be as straight up as i can while still being the biggest lesbian in the great state of ohio (not a hard feat but alan invented computers so i love continuing on the autistic tradition of being a living miracle), the chameleon effect hit me like a mack truck. catholic school in the deep south is the most potent and effective form of ABA therapy imaginable :/. so sometimes i wonder what i would be like if i didn't have such a strong ability to pass, and here's where we finally get to the part of this comment where i just vomit compliments at you: you nailed it. you got it. i don't know if you're on the spectrum, but either way, well fucking done. trauma therapy research talks a lot about healing fantasies, which are fantasies, usually in the form of daydreams, that abused/neglected/traumatized/etc people create that directly address a struggle they have and take the form of a scenario in which that struggle is helped in some way. it could be an abusive parent repenting and showering them with the love they never had, or someone finding them during a panic attack and somehow knowing how best to comfort them without having to ask, or being intimate with someone and having a scar or physical deformity they've been shamed for be given attention and care. and i think you have created the ultimate perfect healing fantasy for autistic people, or at least those with """"high functioning"""" autism. it has a character who is visibly and undeniably on the spectrum having the pain and trauma going through life like that causes being acknowledged and validated, they are purposefully paid attention to because person b genuinely likes them and wants to understand and respect who they are and how they function in the world, and thus get The Mortifying Ordeal of Being Known as well as the eventual rewards of being loved, person b makes a genuine effort to help teach them social skills in a way they can understand and learn through and is there for them when these skills are being practiced, their space and boundaries are respected but they aren't infantilized or thought of as an emotionless robot, and they receive love and comfort on their own terms not despite of but because of who they are, even specifically being asked not to change the way they are because that way is lovable. they are openly desired. writing is my fucking JOB and it's still difficult to put into words how much you got 100000% right about the dream with this fic. i have been in the EXACT and i mean EXACT same situation as hermann when he asked newt if it was his personality itself that made people not like him, because i deadass made a spreadsheet of all my personality attributes i thought could be preventing me from making friends in college, and then asked my fellow nd friend to see if there was anything i was missing. so i guess what i'm trying to say is that this amazing, and i'm bookmarking it and putting it on my next fic rec post, and maybe one day way way in the future if i ever get a partner i want to explain the whole autism thing to, i'm gonna have them read this.

The Facts With Newton Geiszler, PhD by what_alchemy (NSFW)

storytime: i read this fic a few years ago, completely forgot the title and author, and ended up thinking about the part where hermann admits to having fucked a trailer hitch when he was a teenager, at least once a week. last november, i say to my friend samara on twitter, head of the BSHCU (buttslut hermann cinematic universe), hey this seems like something you’d have read, do you remember a fic where... and samara says FUCK i do know what you’re talking about lemme find it. so if the fact that i have been looking for this fic for like, two years, and that it contains a moment so iconic all i had to say is, “hermann says he fucked a trailer hitch” and she IMMEDIATELY knew what i was talking about, does not convince you to read this... go back to catholic school i guess.

Feeling Blue by TempusPetrichor

fics where newt goes back to work as a biologist, especially a xenobiologist, post pru are really interesting, and usually have something neat to say about recovery, how it isn’t linear, how it often involves us returning to things we love for comfort, etc. this one sure does! some good emotional and physical h/c, LOVE the use of the ghost drift, and it’s always fun to see post pru fics use dialogue very obviously taken from dbt, trauma-specific therapeutical texts, and anything that shows the author has experience with, or did their research on, ptsd therapies.

You’re Everyone That Ever Cared by KlavierWrites

you know a fic is good when it’s an only 9k slowburn and still manages to reach infinite regress levels of are you fucking KIDDING GO TO THERAPY. newt “acts of service” geiszler may have a little misplaced misogyny due to his broken woman-centric gaydar. as a treat. the fucking. post-drift scene where hermann subtextually screams “LOOK IN OUR BRAINS YOU FUCK I’M IN LOVE WITH YOU I JUST HAVE AUTISM AND CAREER IN STEM DISORDER” is soooooo. god just hermann in general in that scene is great. if you like classic mid 2010s era newmann, ghost drift romance, and good ole mutual pining, this is a treat.

Baby, You're Hotter than my Bunsen Burner by SkySongMA

moronosexual hermann representation is something that can actually be so personal

Times of Stress by RadioMoth

the boys are processinggggggg. man what a good, quick and powerful punch to the gut. if you like post-pr1 catharsis and physical h/c, AND are the one friend that likes to comment at the end of the movie that hey newt got beat the fuck UP, check this one out.

black tea by @faggotcas

okay first of all, god fucking tier url, lee. second of all, food as a love language is my SHIT. i love the very slow relationship development here, where you see them making a genuine effort to get along and that in turn leading to feelings reigniting. it’s such a sweet little moment of a fic, with a nice atmosphere and tone to fit it

now here’s the part where i usually drop my latest fic, but i haven’t written one this month because i’ve been busy launching an audio drama! you can find it here, it’ll be right up your alley if you like cryptids and gay scientists and enemies to lovers and good ole americana, but since this is a newmann post, i’m gonna recommend the pacific rim audio drama duology i did a while back! part one is called conversations from the brink, and it’s a little slice of the pr3 we better fucking get from streaming that godawful looking anime. love and lesbians to everyone ❤️

[se0kie]

chapter 4: the boundless ocean

pairing: taehyung x reader

genre: fluff, eventual smut, ANGST (whoo boy)

tags/warnings: some talks of mortality, otherwise nothing much

greek gods au, poseidon!taehyung, marinebiologist!reader

summary: it’s difficult being a god. what with all the immortality, the decades bleeding into each other and losing every human being you come to care about. and taehyung’s lived, or whatever it is gods do, for a very, very long time. he thinks he needs help but the fates are being the mysterious, useless hags they’ve always been. how can a conservatory and it’s passionate, fiery owner possibly help him. turns out Y/N is the only mortal he’s met who’s ready to challenge him head on. of course it’s not like she knows her new intern is the king of the sea, maker of horses, the earthshaker, poseidon himself after all.

previous <> next ; series masterlist

It’s next to chaos at Hamdeok beach.

The day after the male turtles returned to the shallow waters you made sure to have every worker and volunteer of the Blue Side Marine Conservation on your property and spread around the shore keeping an eye out for the slightest activity. Taehyung had successfully survived two whole weeks with you and your gang of flaky friends.

His job for now had mainly been running around passing on information about the temperatures of the water and the sand, sodium levels in the seawater and clearing any boats away from coming close to the shallow end of the ocean.

Although he didn’t really need to remember the results you passed onto him.

He knew the exact temperatures of the sea, he could feel the number as soon as he reached the thought, he could taste the brine on his tongue as he conjured the digits for sodium levels and the boats... well let’s just say all he had to do to take care of the boats was swish the waves in the opposite direction.

Hoseok, you and Jungkook were keeping lookout at the rocks far out into the water, close enough to shore but distant enough to keep track of the dozen or so male turtles floating lazily in anticipation of their mates.

Taehyung would never admit this to his fellow Olympians but he was having fun here. He got to spend time with the sea as a regular mortal instead of solving disputes between whales and sharks. He would occasionally accompany Hoseok out to the deep waters to observe the coral reefs, even diving in sometimes if Hobi deemed it appropriate.

He had grown to like your two friends, Hoseok was a breath of fresh air from the dripping Nereids and his annoying brothers. Although he did remind Taehyung of his nephew, Apollo. Both of them positively radiated the sun’s energy. He would have to ask the god of archery about his mortal consorts, Hobi could very well be a demigod born of the fickle Olympian.

Jungkook was what he would’ve imagined all young adults were on earth, were he not an incredibly innocent and loving person. He had never met anyone as nice and helpful as Jungkook. He seemed like the paler photocopy of his sister, Hestia. They were both just so sickeningly likeable.

And then there was you.

Taehyung can clearly see you sitting on the largest rock, your knees pulled close to your chest as you stared diligently out at the horizon, then turned your head back again to catch sight of the green turtles poking their heads out of the surface of the water to breathe; and then diving back in with a small splash. Jungkook is writing in the journal that contains notes, statistics and other data regarding the nesting project.

Hoseok has his arms spread out behind him, soaking in the gentle sunrays as he hums a little tune. Taehyung settles down on the soft sand, tucking his legs crossed as he observes the trio on the rock.

He can almost feel your anxiety radiating off of you in waves, you seem to be especially sensitive about this nesting period. Subconsciously, he starts humming along to the tune Hobi is singing far away from him. The sweet melody filling his ears as he concentrates on the area you’re in. He can see the rush of the wind coming towards you, dangerously close to toppling your research material and snack basket into the water.

But quick as a sailfish, Taehyung flicks his wrist and the gust of air flows over the group’s heads.

He sits there in the sand patiently waiting for the female turtles to arrive along with you, he can see the enthusiasm slowly drain from your expression as a faint frown brushes over your brows. You’re disappointed, he can see it clear as day.

The office had received a call from the small group of professors sailing in the waters surrounding Jeju, they were the ones who had notified your team about the male turtles closing into the coast, how the females would follow close behind. But it seemed that the others were late, or even worse, lost or attacked by predators.

Professor Kim Namjoon and his husband had been so sure that the turtles would reach the nesting site in the mere matter of a day or two that you had made it your mission to overlook the mating process. You were beginning to look a little crazy to Taehyung, but he could stomach it.

He had seen far worse.

And you were now looking close to tears as the sun was setting gently into the waters and the seagulls were picking at the fish they had caught, Taehyung closed his eyes and looked for the group of distressed reptiles in the ocean surrounding the island.

He could see them clearly in his mind, the turtles were swimming hard but unfortunately the current was flowing in the direction opposite their destination. He breathed in slowly and coaxed the water to let the tired group make their way back to the coast where they had been born. He could tell these turtles were returning to the beach they had hatched in. Perks of being the literal god of the sea, huh?

He helped the animals swim back, letting the current slightly carry their bodies. When he opened his eyes again it felt like Zeus had knocked the air out of his lungs.

Because there you were, absolutely beaming at the sea. Hair caressing your face with the breeze as the orange sun glowed behind your head, making it look like you wore a halo. Your face was lit up by the rays of the sunset but not as much as by the dazzling smile you wore. You were softly laughing as you watched familiar green shells bobbing away in the clear, blue water.

A triangular head poked out, nose pointing straight at you as if trying to say hello. And if anyone was paying attention to the small, overwhelmed woman on the rock instead of the turtles, they would’ve caught how your cheeks glistened with silently shed tears.

Taehyung was paying attention.

You and your newly befriended intern were walking along the shore, both on your lunch break, four weeks after the mating season had gotten over. The pregnant turtles would arrive any time soon to lay their eggs at the beach.

You were constantly on edge, anxious about the delicate situation but excited for the opportunities your little conservation would come across if the nesting season passed successfully.

“So how did you and Hobi manage to open up Blue Side? You’re both far too young to have done it all by yourself,” Taehyung voices from beside you. He wasn’t very chatty, not usually. But he had his moments when he would ask questions you had never been asked before, or take interest in the mundane routine of your life.

You release a puff of air, flashes of your past running through your mind as you lazily pick at one to answer, “Well, you know we’re a nonprofit organisation. But we had financial backing from Hobi’s parents, and my dad. Mr. and Mrs. Jung are both professors at the Stanford University. My dad used to be a research biologist, he’s a visiting lecturer now.”

You look up at your companion, softly kicking sand with your toe. You catch him looking at you with a peculiar smile painting his face, you reach out and brush the sun bleached strands of hair out of his eyes as you catch yourself squinting at the scene just behind him.

It’s a man you recognise from somewhere, his hand emptying a plastic bag full of trash into the foamy waves of the ocean. It clicks in your head and you know why he seems familiar. You shriek with sudden irritation, “YOU!”

You stomp the few meters towards the man, who now resembles a deer caught in headlights. Although it looks like you’d rather just run him over.

“What is the matter with you?!” It’s more of an accusation than a question. You don’t give the offender any time to retort when you’re flying off on one of your passionate rants.

“Do you have any idea what you’re doing? Green sea turtles, almost extinct by the way, just mated here in these exact waters a month ago, they’re gonna be back to lay their eggs any day now. You have any semblance of coherent thought to know how delicate they are and how trash in the ocean can literally suffocate them?!” you take a breath as you really look at the man’s red face.

You continue mercilessly, “Eighty percent of marine debris is plastic, the mass of plastic in the oceans are as high as one hundred million tonnes. You hear that? One hundred million. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is twenty times the size of Texas. You’re killing the planet, the animals and yourself. Have some empathy for your home,” you finish off with disgust lacing your tone.

The severely embarrassed man was quietly leaving with his bag of rubbish as you stared holes into his back, crossing your arms across your chest as you blew the strands of hair hanging in your eyes. You can feel Taehyung’s gaze on you, but you can’t find it in yourself to turn to him. The god is looking at you with fascination, never has he met a woman quite like you. A violent blush is staining your cheeks as you feel your face heat up under his intense scrutiny.

“Why do you always do that?” you hear his deep baritone ask.

You still refuse to look at him but respond anyway, “What do you mean ‘always do that’? Do what?”

“I don’t know? Why are you always so passionate about the sea? It’s not just the sea either, the fish and the plants and everything underwater,” he’s still looking at you as he says, “You want to protect it all so badly. Why?”

You sigh as you finally turn your head to look at him, the pink glow of the sunset makes him look even more ethereal than he does on the regular. You sweep your eyes over his face several times, taking in his features as you carefully sort the words building in your throat.

Your gaze drops to the ground where the littlest of waves are kissing your toes, the smell of the ocean thick as you feel the wet sand under your feet.

“Because,” you begin.

“Because what?” he retorts.

You look back at him intensely, your eyes burn with the light of the dipping sun but Taehyung doesn’t think it’s on purpose. Your eyes just look like that whenever you talk of things you’re passionate about. He’s noticed that since he’s met you.

“Because!” you huff. “It’s my job. It’s my job to protect the sea.”

Taehyung scoffs at your reply, it’s lame and you know it but being vulnerable has always been difficult for you. “Yes, it may be your job but nobody expects you to do it 24/7. You’re always scolding people who litter, always picking up trash you catch in the waves. Hell, you’re always hanging out with the fisherman to make sure they’re using the right methods while out at sea and not overfishing.”

He presses on, “Tell me, Y/N, what’s it all about?” Only this time his voice is softer and infinitely more intimate.

“I want to do all of that. I love the sea, that’s the short answer. But the sea is all we know,” you reply with a breath. “Air, water, earth. It will all remain even if we die out. And if I could help save even a few inches of the ocean, just a handful of fish in my measly lifetime I will live on as the sea.” You say sincerely as you turn your eyes up to catch a glimpse of Taehyung’s reaction.

He’s looking at you with emotion you don’t recognise, a peculiar tilt of his lips and eyebrows slightly furrowed as if he’s doing a tricky math problem. You speak softly, your voice dropping to a low whisper now that you’re both standing closer than before, “My work, my achievements, my life. It’ll all be immortalised in the waves.”

Internally, the sea god thinks of what a wonderful woman you are. He has never met a mortal as selfless or as loving as you. You have so much love to give that it bursts out of the seams of your heart and splashes everything around you in golden hues.

“You, me, Jungkook. We’re all just mere human beings, Taehyung. The ocean and the sky? They’re what truly matters in this universe. I live my life for the ocean and its creatures so that years and years after I’m dead I’ll still be floating in the waves,” you tell him honestly, wondering how did you let a man you’ve only known for a month or a half hear your most personal truth.

But you know that if anyone deserves to know something like this about you, it has to be Kim Taehyung.

More minutes of comfortable silence follow, the hypnotic slosh of the waves pulling the stress and anxiety out of your mind. You and Taehyung face each other in front of the now barely visible sun, and the glittering horizon.

He says after a long minute of gentle breathing, “Y/N?”

“Hmm?”

“I like you,” he confesses, not a hint of hesitation or embarrassment laces his voice. Just sheer declaration.

Your cheeks flare up once again, something that seems to be happening increasingly ever since the new intern arrived. You somehow manage to keep your cool as you say, “It’s only been a few weeks, Taehyung. How can you know if you like someone if you’ve barely even met them?”

“Weeks, months, 400 years. It doesn’t matter. It’s all the same to me. Time doesn’t determine emotions, Y/N.” Taehyung says wisely, the young and carefree looking boy doesn’t talk like the many kids his age.

You smile sweetly... at him? For him? You don’t know, but you smile instead of affirming his confession.

“Sure Kim, but you still gotta clean the aquariums.”

taglist: @a-kookie-with-my-tae @btsxdoll @taffyteffy @aesthetewriter @happyhrsme @yoongifiess

[brooklynislandgirl]

Beth and UARF!Billy - ❤♡❥ღ💕💘💝💓💌💟💙💚💜💛

Heart-Eyes || -

Five A.M.

Beth’s barely awake as she comes into the office, coffee in hand, only to come face to face with the widest grin she has ever seen on Hal Gates’ face. Dark eyes dancing, he relieves her of her thermos cup, takes both her arms in his hands, and swing-dances her around the cramped space where they work.

“We’ve done it, girl!”

Though abjectly confused, Beth can’t help but grin in return. “Wha’ve we done?” She wants to be just as thrilled, wants to share in the old man’s joy. “We’ve got data on white pointer mating! I’m running the compile now, we should be able to parse it and watch the video footage within an hour or two!”

She’s floored.

The shock is clear on her face, even her mouth drops open a little. Often bandied about as the Holy Grail of marine biology, great-white mating is known to exist. Despite decades of research into the habits of the species, that particular bit of knowledge has eluded marine biologists.

“Wha...? How?”

“Mate of mine, Crawford down in New Zealand has taken a fisherman’s eye-witness account on our elusive little friends, and shared video. Crawford sent me all of the data.”

“Oh, Hal.”

Dr Gates nods at her eagerly and once again promenades her around some tables, brushing past a stack of hastily shoved aside folders with charts of migration patterns, weather reports, and feeding data. Then, far more carefully, he hands her into a seat and plops down into an office chair, slapping his knees in pleasure and pride.

“Speaking of mating rituals...”

Beth laughs but blushes at the same time, eyes askance. She suddenly knows what he’s going to ask, or at least of whom.

“...And since we have so little to do until all the research is collated and complied...”

“Must we?”

“No finer time, girl.”

She holds her hands up to stave him off until she gets up, crosses the room and takes a sip of her coffee. Not exactly how she wanted to start the day, but there’s no real reason not to humour her mentor.

“Have at, den.”

“Excellent.” Hal Gates really is an inveterate old gossip.

~*~

❤: who is more affectionate in public? in private?

Beth laughs. Okay, so this isn’t really so bad. “I t’ink I gotta say...I’m more affectionate in public. Mos’ of da time, Doctah Manderly... just doesn’t know what t’ do. Very stiff, hands in his pockets or stand at parade rest.”

The last cocktail party had been a half disaster, between trying to get William to mingle with the public attendees and not leave to check on his seals at first opportunity. The one time he surprised her was when he put a hand on the small of her back though the illusion was broken when she found that the six-foot-six man was trying to ultimately hide behind her. No amount of mock-tails were going to spare him any acute discomfort.

“Probably for da best. No offence, but he’s very definitely...ah....British.”

“None taken.” Hal offers her a wink and taps the side of his nose.

“But even behind close doors? He just... lil uptight, I guess. I sometimes wonder if mebbe he’s worried about havin’ an episode, and some affections are difficult when you have a service dog nearly t’ree-quarters ya size intent on doin’ her job, but I’d say he at least tries when it jus’ da two of us. Fingahs in my hair, brush against my arm. Da kine.”

Hal nods, knowing the specifics without having to drag them out of her.

♡: who is the bigger romantic openly? secretly?

"I t’ink,” she begins, carefully considering this one. “Dat anyone who loves da sea so much dat dey would give up a whole life to dedicate demself to it...got a big romantic soul. What is da ocean, if not love an’ life, an’ all dat we dream of in songs an’ poetry? I only t’ink it’s harder for him to express dat because well..”

She makes a dismissive gesture.

It isn’t that he grasps the concepts of language and expression, they’ve certainly entertained passionate arguments, verbal jousts that have filled the air with sign and countersign.

“Romantically speakin’ I jus’ don’ see him as da type dat I’m gonna find outside my window wi’ an ole boom box, playing In Ya Eyes by Petah Gabriel, ya know? But I also don’t believe he wouldn’t t’ink about it. So secretly? Him. Openly, me.”

❥: who is more likely to plan something big for valentine's day?

“Honestly, Hal...I’d have t’ say him. He’s a planner. Wants every detail to be perfect, will second guess himself a hundred times jus’ to make sure dere no wrinkle in the research. Me? Always been da spontaneous kine, except when it came to really wantin’ to work wit’ you.”

Hal pats her lap, his face soft.

ღ: who is more likely to initiate hand-holding in public?

“Again, it would be William. I don’ know wha’ he’s t’inkin’ a lot of da time, if he’s even aware dat I am dere sometimes. An’ I don’ really wanna make a big deal about it, don’ wanna ovahstep. For me, it’s a much more difficult proposition, is like...touch is where I’m most comfortable, outside of typing endless notes or readin’ data.”

She nods toward the words scrolling along the screen. She fully disclosed her disabilities when she applied for the position so thankfully she doesn’t have to explain now. Most of the other people at the facility don’t even really notice. Except for maybe Ben who sees too much and maybe says too little. That’s to be expected though when you gather a bunch of scientists and stick them in one beautiful place.

“You want him to initiate more, don’t you?”

“I would, yeah. But dere always more important kine and so really guess it nevah really matter.”

💕: who is more likely to make huge declarations of love in front of other people?

“Fair question an’ I guess dat would be me. We...we agreed not to make a big t’ing about any of dis, you know how quirky everyone here is, an’ in case it doesn’t work out, we don’ want da kine t’ get weird. Especially wi’ James an’ Miranda. So if somet’ing like dis were t’ happen it’s probably because he push all my buttons an’ my tempah got da best of me, right? Could see it happenin’ over breakfast. On da beach. Mebbe by da pools.”

Which is why she tries so hard to keep her passions in check. She doesn’t want to blurt out anything that can’t be taken back.

💘: who developed a crush on the other first?

“Couldn’t say,” and in those two words it is the breadth and depth of her honesty. Beth doesn’t have crushes in the same way most people do. She’s never seen anyone and instantly found herself immersed in fantasies, desires, a desperate need to be around them. She might find someone intellectually stimulating and enjoy the conversation. She might notice that something about them calls to her artist’s eye and be aesthetically pleasing in its symmetry, someone might make her laugh but she doesn’t dwell. And by the time there is the first inkling that she might want more out of a situation or relationship, she’s already become close friends. Or she watches as that object of her affection drifts beyond reach and she tells herself she’s happy because they clearly needed something more than she’s even capable of giving.

And sometimes, Beth wonders if she isn’t really broken or damaged in some way. Because she can’t even say she ever had a crush on Billy. She doesn’t know that she can say she has any expectations other than they look good together on paper, and it’s been drilled into her since birth that appearances *do* matter. “Mo’beddah you should ask him.” Gates doesn’t say anything, he only nods.

💝: who spends more time (possibly overthinking) what presents to get the other?

“William. For same-same reasons as Valentines Day, an’ da need for everyt’ing to be as exactin’ as he can make it. Like, how hard and how long it take him to find...or more likely, *breed* dem two purple neocardinas in my office?” Shrimp like the two in her tank, deliriously happy and spoiled and free of predators, are rare in size and colour, and yet… there they are. Then there’s the allegorical evidence of his severe and frothing dislike of mass consumption marketing, the complete commercialisation of every secular and religious holiday, the pastiche of feelings tacked on almost like an afterthought.

💓: who initiates most physical contact?

Beth hesitates. That’s slightly more personal than the other questions so far and truth be told she’s a little ashamed of having to answer without specific parameters. But it is a question, and she did agree to answer them with the same honesty as she offers Hal in all their other work and conversations. “I’ve always done well wi’ sensory input dat was based in kine oddah dan auditory. Smell, taste, seeing… but of alla dem, touch has always been important to me. Textures, near imperceptible data processed t’rough skin. An’ I guess dat I use dat wi’ him. Way to express ideas or sensations dat might not come across ordinarily. Enthusiasm, excitement, humour, rage, disappointment. I wan him to feel an’ understand when I don’ have da words in me, or know how to express. A lot of da time, it’s accidental or at least….subconscious.” A beat goes by. “I don’t believe he really cares much for it.”

💌: who is more likely to send cutesy texts to the other?

This one is hard for her to answer because they aren’t really cutesy text people. Most of their days are too filled with very real world drama, service to the greater good, the understanding and conservation of the most vulnerable environments and animals within. There’s weather, there’s reports, there’s an entire litany of experiences that don’t leave much time to play around until well after hours when they can finally seek well deserved liberty. However, Billy does sometimes send her pictures of the seals doing very cute seal things, or Annie shepherding him and his charges with the boss-vibes of the Queen Mother. In the end she only offers her mentor a smile and a shrug.

💟: who spends time reading their zodiac compatibilities?

“Oh absolutely I do. Find da whole pseudo-science of it fascinatin’, especially when da stars are not in da same position as dey were when it was invented an’ da psychological impact it has on our species is jus’ totally wild, you know?”

Beth knows that she’s the textbook definition of a Cancerian woman, and Billy does a good job providing a counter-argument on being a Libra. Further there’s a bit of an annoyance factor; he thinks junk science ‘belongs in the bottom of the bin with the rest of the rubbish.’ And he has a point, to some extent, even if she doesn’t agree with him. Not everything can be cold facts and numbers. Sometimes a little playfulness was in order and he absolutely needed to be reminded of that.

Hal laughs and shakes his head. “You’re going to do my chart then, aren’t you?” “Wit’out a doubt, Doctah Gates.” She wiggles her brows.

💙: who is more protective?

“I think objectively, I am. You know William’s troubles, and I have to keep them all in mind dough it’s not like he can forget dem, right? Some of his facts aren’t… I’ve consulted with some medical doctors and if we are careful, dere’s a lot he can experience dat he sees out of reach but I don’ like bringing dem up because I don’ want to agitate him. Only can lead t’ problems.” She does wish though that he’d trust her a little more, that he’d let go of some of his well deserved fears. That he’d let himself out of his shell and accept that even with limitations he can do many of the same things as the rest of the group does. But he seems content enough to hang back, ever the observer. And she doesn’t know if it’s her place to try to drag him into things though she might be better at it than anyone else. Miranda has told her as much.

💚: who tends to get sick more often? who is better at taking care of the other?

Hal’s question is really a continuation of the previous one and once again she has to call Billy out on it. Because she’s never really been sick a day in her life, not since early childhood and the culmination of that was the test bite that nearly lost her the leg she keeps tucked away, hidden out of sight whenever possible. “Dat seems a small kine ingenious, he no can help his seizure disorder. An’ I feel like he really ought to have a good psychologist. I t’ink some t’erapy would do him good. Spends too much time in his own head an’ mebbe not enough taking charge of his life. I know he can be afraid of lots of t’ings but it nevah really *has* to be dat way. But I also don’ wanna push him, for same-same reasons I mention before. You can lead a shark to chum but no can make him frenzy, know what I mean?” The analogy is silly. Billy wants so much more than what he feels he has. And a darker current in the back of her mind wonders if they would still be the same if he felt he could reasonably have them. That feels so selfish and toxic and she really has no place casting judgement on him when maybe she’s no better off than he is, only expressing it differently.

💜: who said "i love you" first? or, if neither has said it yet, who is more likely to say it first?

It’s strange how perceptive he is and goes in for the killing bite. The honest truth is that neither one has said it. And neither one likely will. Billy has layers of guilt and trauma, has beliefs that she cannot get a single foothold to try and tear apart. He doesn’t feel deserving of such a finer emotion. And Beth? She has her own reasons. She doesn’t even know if love is a thing that exists or if it’s some fairy-tale people tell themselves to make it easier to get by. She believes in affection, and she believes that people bond the same way packs and pods and herds do. But she feels the concept of love is poisonous. Ruinous in the way it can destroy someone from the inside out. And how any time she’s ever thought she’d felt it, it was ripped out from her grasp. She won’t say it. She won’t hear it.

She doesn’t answer him immediately, but instead gets up and paces away, appearing as though she’s checking on some of the cameras situated around the bay. The wall that she’d left down for Hal goes back up, slamming into place.

“Research from both psychology and neurology fields have found that there are twelve different areas of the brain that light up and work together when two people are attracted to one another, releasing chemicals like dopamine, adrenaline, oxytocin and vasopression. All the symptoms people experience are simply animal-instincts provided to guarantee that we as a species survive by either wanting to mate, or flee.”

💛: who believes in soulmates?

And Gates understands he’s made an error in judgement, though he’d only been trying to be helpful in a meddling kind of way. Anyone at the facility could see that Billy and Beth were two sides of a very quirky but ultimately needed coin. That they’d both changed each other in the two years she’d been a research fellow, and how they’d both blossomed for it. Well, anyone but the two of them. And this had seemed like such a good idea at first, tied into shark mating habits which he’d hoped she’d take better than she is.

Her answers have thus far matched up quite nicely with the boy’s.

Sadly, especially this one. She doesn’t turn to look at him. “There are no such things, Doctor Gates. And even if there were, statistically it would be almost impossible to meet a soul mate. Within the same general age group there are about a half a billion potential companions all over the world. One would have to travel the entirety of the world, every remote pocket of the planet. Secondly, there’s no scientific proof that souls even exist, and enough studies across various disciplines to prove that they don’t. Believing in such nonsense only makes a person unhappy. And all that aside, most mammals are not biologically programmed for monogamy and I doubt human beings are either.” Because if they were, why would anyone leave someone they claimed to love?

[thisismyhell]

Bodyguard (Part 2)

Summary: Reader works with the Avengers as a research Biologist, and receives a worrying text from a toxic ex boyfriend. Loki enlists himself in watching out for reader, and fluff ensues.

Words: 3235

Warnings: mentions of toxic ex / fluff / alcohol 

________________________

When you awoke from your restless sleep, you made your way into the kitchen that poured into the common area. From down the hall you could hear some sort of commotion, though it was hard to tell if it was based in anger or passion. As you rounded the corner, everyone abruptly became silent.

You went to relieve the tension, “morning…”.

Tony looked at you wide eyed. “Why didn’t you tell us! Not that we’re caught off guard of course, but it would have been good to know!”

“What are you talking about?”

Loki chimed in, his eyes gentle, “I may have mentioned to the team that you were having a problem with your ex. And they may have made the point that you shouldn’t feel unsafe on the compound.”

Ahh. So that was it.

“Listen, not that my ex is anyone’s business, but I think I’ll be fine. What were you even yelling about anyway? There’s nothing more to this than a text message”.

Bucky looked at you a tad surprised, “Doll, the guy said he’d meet you here on the compound. That doesn’t nauseate you at all?”

You thought about what he said, and the team could see you go from nonchalant about your situation to looking sick. “Oh fuck, you don’t think he’d actually try to get in here? I mean, we have security. And you’re the Avengers for god’s sake. He can’t just waltz in here as he pleases … can he?"

Loki made his way over to you, taking your hand and moving you to the couch where you both sat down. “Love, there is no realistic way for this man, or any man, to gain access to our property without us knowing about it. We were talking about maybe putting a system in place where someone is always with you, so that you do not have to repeat that uncertainty you had last night in the research building”.

You considered what your friend was saying, and looked up to see the rest of your friends and colleagues seeming more concerned than usual. It seemed a domestic interference warranted more creased eyebrows than an alien invasion.

“I hear what you’re saying. To be fair what scared me last night was you, Loki, but I appreciate the sentiment. Maybe you guys are right. But the last thing I want is for all my friends to see me as some helpless person who can’t defend themselves.”

“(Y/N), everyone in this room knows that you could kick our asses any day of the week. We just want to put your mind at ease while this issue passes”, Steve made a good point.

“I mean, it would be nice to have someone around during those late nights in the library. Maybe this could be useful. This might just help me get over some procrastination. Alright, I’m in. I’m not happy that this is how I’m getting more one on one time with my friends, but I’ll take it”.

The room was thankful, and you all embraced. What could go wrong?

~~~

“(Y/N)? ARE YOU SURE YOU NEED THIS BOOK FROM ALL THE WAY UP HERE?”

Bucky was getting on your last nerve. You weren’t sure what was so difficult for the man to understand. You told him that you need this book, somehow he knew where it physically was in the library, but didn’t listen to you when you clarified that there was also a free PDF online. It didn’t even register in Bucky’s brain what you had said, the man probably didn’t know what a PDF was. But there you were, staring up at him while he balanced at the very top of a 13 foot ladder. In his left hand was the book, and in the right, he was failing to hold the ladder.

~~~

“I’m going to need a new research partner. I broke this one” you explained to everyone while you all stood around Bucky watching Sam sign his cast.

You looked at Loki, who seemed to be stifling a laugh. “The Winter Soldier seems to have an issue with having arms. James, you only have 1 flesh arm, one. And you have broken it. What are the odds there exactly?”

“Not sure but I know the odds of me kicking your ass are getting higher every second we sit here”. Bucky turned to you, “Doll, I’m sorry I couldn’t help you with that book. I know you had something like a PDF or whatever, but I also know you like the smell of books so I thought maybe I could get that one down for you. Guess not”.

You smiled at him, why did he know about that? You must have mentioned it without thought at some point. You glanced at Loki, who was looking uncomfortable. You sent him a questioning look, and he spoke.

“Darling, I think it would be best if I were to help you this time. I understand we were going in a circle to divvy up each others time, but I am enlisting myself as your next companion”. Hm. Well, you couldn’t complain. This was his idea anyhow, and he seems to want to prove himself, to you? To the team? You weren’t sure, but his attitude is coming off quite persistent.

“Sounds good to me. But I can’t wait around, I have a proposal I need to finish by midnight tonight and thanks to this broken arm, I’m about 7 pages behind schedule. Meet me in the library in a half hour. And bring snacks. I work until I’m done”.

“As you wish”. And with that you went back to the research building, leaving Loki with the rest.

“Well, you think you can handle that, Loki?” asked Sam.

“I always manage”.

~~

You went back to your office to gather some more paperwork and stationary before heading to the library. You looked in the bottom drawer of your desk looking for a book, when you found a bottle of red wine you forgot you had been saving. You had bought the bottle ages ago when your thesis was approved, and were saving it for after you submitted the finished paper. Since you made a big deal about finishing it by midnight now, you tucked it under your arm.

Entering the library you found Loki already sitting comfortably, with an array of snacks on the table in front of him. “You’re late”, he said with a smirk.

“You’re early”. You put down your stuff, and sat at your desk. He looked puzzled, glancing at the spot next to him. “Loki, I know you. If I even try to work beside you I know I will get next to nothing done. And don’t pout”. He smirked again, getting more comfortable. “As you wish”.

You crossed your legs, pushed up your glasses, and gained focus. You had 7 pages of information to concisely interpret. You could do this. You could totally do this super important task with an incredibly handsome and distracting audience. You looked over at him, and he looked back up at you, smiling. “Can you shut up? I’m trying to concentrate here”.

“(Y/N), I haven’t said a word”.

“I know, it’s just. I don’t know. I’m not use to working with others around.”

“What about Bucky?”

“That was different-“

“Why?”

“No – its not different its just, I’m just- I’m putting my headphones on”. You reached for them, but they weren’t on your desk. Dammit, where were they? You began to scramble, when in the corner of your eye you saw them. In Loki’s hand. You begrudgingly walked over, and he held out your headphones to you. You reached out for them, and at the last second he pulled his arm back. Causing you to fall on top of him.

“LOKI!”

“Pet, I apologize but you’re going to have to loosen up. You won’t be able to get any work done if you’re so distracted and uncomfortable”.

“I’m distracted because I have a friend here with me who just tricked me into tripping all over him”.

“I apologize. But is there anything I can do to help you focus?”

You could think of a couple things.

“I have an idea”.

“Anything, love”.

“Why don’t you put on my headphones, that way I won’t feel weird talking to myself while I work”.

“Sure, just tell me how they work”.

After teaching Loki how Bluetooth works, you began to relax and get some work done.

You walked over to get a handful of pretzels that he had brought for the two of you, remembering just how excited you were to pop open that bottle of wine you were keeping from him. If he knew you were holding out on him like this, there would be hell to pay.

Loki looked over at you, and noticed how well you were working. Usually you would notice him out of the corner of your eye and look over to smile at him, but it seemed like you were so deep in focus that you had tunnel vision for the remainder of your paper. You were talking to yourself, though he had no idea what about. He realized just how nice it was to watch someone work, you especially. You had a knack for blowing loose strands of hair from your face without much effort. Squeezing your nose to push your glasses back up so you didn’t have to stop typing or highlighting. He found you mesmerizing, and you seemed to be clueless to it. he didn’t mind. He got to watch you work without distracting you, and you got to finish your work without feeling uncomfortable. It was a win-win.

You were almost done your paper. Somehow, Loki brought a sense of calm to your efforts. Sitting pleasantly nearby, sort of as a guard for your peripheral. You were glad Bucky hadn’t worked out like this. You felt somewhat guilty that you had started this train off with someone other than Loki. Since it was his idea in the first place, and he was the one who was with you to calm you down the first time. But he was here now. And you were thankful.

“Loki?”

He looked over at you, “Yes, love?”

You reached under your desk to retrieve your wine and 2 glasses, ushering him over to you. His eyes went wide at the sight of wine, as they always did, and he gladly stepped over to you, leaning against your desk. “What is the occasion?”

What a stupid question. “Loki, thank you for being with me tonight,” you popped the bottle. “I had this saved for when I was finished paper,” you poured two glasses. “And I want to share it with you once I hit ‘submit’ on my computer”.

He smiled, “you’ve finished? Already?”

You looked at the clock. “Loki, its 11:30. We’ve been here for hours!”

He seemed surprised. He noticed how the time he had spent with you this evening went by like a blink. He was cherishing you paying this much attention to him since you had arrived hours earlier.

“I suppose we have. Submit you work darling, and we will cheers.”

You uploaded you work, and hit submit. You had finalized your paper, bringing an end to months of hard work and late nights. And now you were sharing the final moments of it with your friend. You hadn’t even had a sip of wine yet, but your cheeks were already flushed. And he seemed to notice.

You clinked your glasses, smiling at each other. You were so giddy that you were finally finished. You couldn’t help it, you wrapped your arms around Loki drinking him in after your wine. He smelled of cloves and leather, and you pressed your cheek onto his shoulder. He drank you in, subconsciously smelling your hair as he placed one hand on your neck to complete the embrace.

“Thank you, Loki, for sitting here with me. For everything.”

“Dove, I am always here with you, for you. You needn’t even ask.”

You both pulled away at the same time, looking into each others eyes. It seemed like time had stood still for just a quick moment, just for the two of you to enjoy. When suddenly,

BANG!

Loki immediately put himself in front of you, putting his drink down. You followed. “Loki, what was that?” “I’m not sure. Stay here and I will go look.”

You begrudgingly let him go, letting yourself sit down on the couch he had previously enjoyed. You were worried about what could be happening, but you were also royally pissed that the two of you had been interrupted right there and then. Really? Right now? A noise had to happen and scare the crap out of you right when something magical was about to happen? You centered yourself, and had a sip of your wine. Loki came back into the library, looking like he felt the exact same way that you did. “Nothing. No one is in this building besides us”. “Must have been a ghost” you laughed.

Loki sat beside you and draped his arm on the cushion behind you. “Are you alright?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. It was nothing like you said, so I’m not worried. Thank you for going out to look”. He nodded, picking up his glass and clinking it with yours for the second time, “perhaps we were getting too comfortable”. You looked at him. What did he mean by that? He noticed your questioning look. “That being said, there is not a moment when I am not comfortable with you, (Y/N)”. You gave yourself a moment to feel quant in the silence that fell, but not for too long. Before you could second guess yourself, you leaned into him and gently kissed his cheek. You were too fast to notice, but he was about to lean into your kiss before you pulled away. He missed you immediately.

“So, you’ve finished-“ he said lightly.

“I guess I have, yeah”. You were both staring into each others eyes, waiting for the other to make the next move. “Would you stay here? With me? I- I don’t have anything else to do but, I thought I would have some sort of celebration.”

“Love, I won’t leave unless you make me.”

Good to know.

You both began to relax with more and more wine in your systems. You knew it wasn’t affecting him in the same way that it did you, but he seemed a lot more generous with his communication. He wasn’t holding back with you, not that he ever did. But any time you looked over his shoulder, suspicious of the possibility that another noise would happen, he would shift a little closer to you. You were looking past him for a longer moment than you perhaps intended, and he took your hand in his. The physical touch grounded you in a way that slightly surprised you. This man seemed to be full of surprises.

By now the bottle was empty, and you were almost sitting on top of the god. If you were to get any physically closer.. well that was exactly what you wanted. As you were speaking, a lock of your hair had fallen in your eyesight. Since your reflexes were a tad slower from the wine, it took you a second to register. Loki instead raised his hand to your face, and placed the lock of hair gently behind your ear. His hand lingered on your cheek, and you hoped he couldn’t feel how hot you felt. Your heart was beating pretty fast, and you were worried Loki could hear it, he was so close. You raised your hand to his forearm, rubbing your thumb on his sleeve. He took this as an okay, and started to lean forward, looking down at your lips.

The long day must have made you impatient by now, because you couldn’t wait a second longer. You leaned into him to cut the time in half, and pressed your lips to his. Loki’s eyes opened in surprise, but then drowsily closed once your mouth opened and he took advantage. You moved to sit on his lap and he gladly welcomed you, putting one hand behind your head tangled in your hair, while the other gently grasped your waist. The two of you were getting more and more heated when your phone buzzed, alarming you as you fell off Loki and onto the ground. You jumped back up in surprise to check your phone, just to see a confirmation email that they had received your paper.

Amazing.

Loki reached out to you and helped you stand up in front of him. “Are you alright?”

“Yes, yes I’m alright”. You were both slightly panting, lips swollen and pupils huge. “Would you walk me home?”

Loki smiled and nodded, taking your hand in his as you left the research building. You could collect your things tomorrow.

The walk back to the main building passed in a blink as you crept into the elevator up to your rooms. You had a pretty good amount of floors between now and getting off, and you knew Tony would be hosting a movie night. Loki must have had the same instinct as you did, because as soon as the elevator doors closed, he pushed you against the wall, urging his leg between yours. You let out a small moan, and tugged his hair forward so you could have at least some control. He smirked down at you, and you were making out until the elevator doors dinged and swung open. You both straightened yourselves up, not wanting to explain yourselves to your friends. But, you had to walk past all of them in order to get to your rooms. Loki put his hand on the small of your back, bracing you for what was to possibly come.

As you entered the common area, everyone shouted a big hello. Thank god, they were as pissed drunk as you were hoping.

Nat waved the two of you over, “Soooo…..did you finish it?!”

You nodded and smiled, remembering how hard you had worked and how excited you were to actually be done with it.

“And Loki wasn’t toooooo distractingggg?” she added.

“No, not at all!”

Loki chimed in, “I managed to really help her relax-“, you cut him off with a swift stomp on his foot, shutting him up. Nat was too far gone to notice, thankfully.

You said your goodnights and the two of you walked down the hall, your room coming up first.

“Pet, I had a wonderful time with you this evening”, “me too, Loki”.

You turned around to let yourself in your room, when Loki grabbed the back of your neck, turning you around. He pushed you up against the wall with one hand around your waistt, while the other softly sat around your neck. He moved his hand to make you look up at him, and he drank you in. “You’re so well behaved, pet”. He gave you such a deep kiss that you thought your legs would give out. He pulled away, seeming drunk off his own actions. Loki looked down at you, taking his hands away. You let out a huff, wanting his hands all over you again. “Don’t pout, love. Be a good girl”. And with that he left.

[cancerbiophd]

Did you study the things you studied because you wanted to work in a certain field or because you just liked your subject a lot? For me it's the latter (combined with if I don't go to uni then I have to work age 18 with no tertiary education so nope) and when I see posts about motivation talking about "study to get your dream job!" I just... Get very anxious/panic-y? I have no dream job, I just like biology. I'm scared that'll mean I won't find a job when the time comes either. How did you go about this?

Hello anon!

Ah, the age-old debate. My family was just talking about this yesterday, and we’ve decided that being able to do what you love for a living, aka working your “dream job”, is a huge privilege that not everyone is able to attain. Many jobs in society are not necessarily tasks that anyone “dreams” of doing, but they are essential tasks, and the money it brings in can help a person achieve their personal needs and goals. 

So, instead of looking at your life through the lens of pursuing a “dream job”, I would suggest finding a career path that fulfills these three things:

It’s something that needs to be done

It’s something you don’t mind doing

And it can offer the lifestyle you seek

I’m far more privileged than most that my current career as a cancer biologist is not just something that I don’t mind doing, but something I actually really like. But I don’t love it; cancer biology is not my hobby, and it’s not something I do for fun. It’s my career because it a) needs to be done, b) is something I don’t mind doing for the rest of my employed life bc I have a genuine interest (to the point where I got a PhD in it, so that speaks for itself) and c) it allows me to work the # of hours I want to work and brings in the salary that keeps me alive. 

(Because if money was not an issue, my “dream jobs” would be ornithologist (someone who studies birds) or plant nursery care-taker/gardener)

Here’s another example: my husband has a friend who majored in anthropology in college, but now works at an insurance company. It’s not his “dream job” by any means, nor does it have a lot of relationship to his college major, but what it does offer him is the salary and lifestyle to pursue other things he enjoys in life, like his hobbies. 

So sometimes a job is just a job. It’s just there to bring in money and benefits so you can live your best life. 

As for finding what jobs there are for biologists, if you’d like to go down that route, I would recommend exploring job websites in your area to see what postings there are for those who majored in Biology. Here are just some jobs that may be available:

Research and development (R&D): Discovery research, preclinical research, bio/pharmaceutical product development, project management, clinical development, regularly affairs, medical affairs

Services: Recruiting, law, venture capital & banking, management consulting

Operations: Bio IT, quality, operations

Commercial Operations: Business development, corporate communications, product support, sales, marketing

You can research some of these positions and see if any pique your interest. And keep in mind that society and technology are always changing, so new fields/jobs are always popping up (eg. artificial intelligence). When I was in college I had no idea the job I’m doing now existed (nor was the exact industry of precision medicine really a thing yet). And even when I was in grad school, I wasn’t doing things that were specifically catered towards landing this position--it just kind of happened “organically” (ie. the timing worked out, my hodgepodge of experiences and interests fit, my boss was an alumnus from my program so I was already pre-vetted in that sense, etc). If you’d like to read more about other people’s career stories that I’ve collected on tumblr, check out this tag. 

I know this doesn’t offer you a straight-out answer, but I do hope it opened a few more doors for you for planning your future. I’m also always available on chat if you’d like to talk some more :) 

[scienceoftheidiot]

So you know what it’s wednesday you’re getting an infodump on Desden’s blindness.

Beware. I’m a biologist. I’m a nerd. And I’m a teacher. You know what’s coming, right ? 

I just reblogged an extremely interesting and great post about writing blind characters that I advise you to go and read now (I haven't finished yet) because it's just full of info and contrary to usual posts like that it's not guilt tripping or anything. I love this post and OP for this. However I've noticed there's a bunch of advices I don't follow myself and I felt like I could expand and why and how I think it's not a bad thing. Here's the first one : don’t make your character blind through an accident. Because drama. 

So yeah. Desden lost his sight due to some kind of accident. Which is thoroughly described by a mysterious bystander’s flashback in chap.3. So that’s not a spoiler. But how can a brick through the head make you blind ? 

Brain. Brains are evil. You know I got a PhD in biology : I am sad to admit I couldn’t go through with my love of neurology because it was competing with my love for bacteria and parasites that can kill you and happily live everywhere. Life’s though. No neuro for me, welcome to viral ecology (viruses are obligatory parasites, sue me). But not only can’t I help being a nerd... I have an uncle in my family who lost part of his vision from a brain haematoma (not due to trauma, but the result and how it works is the same). Who’s also a nerd. (And a PhD in physics cause like that’s what nerds do, right ?) And he explained in details how he lost his vision (and gained back some of it over time) to us.

If you cut blood supply to parts of the brain for long enough, this part will die. Logic. Head trauma can do that and more. So, what happened is that Desden’s visual cortex got cut from blood supply for a relatively long amount of time (he can thank the extremely cold weather of the day it happened, which makes your body turn into “low survival mode”, when the “accident” happened for 1) being still alive and 2) not losing more than most of his sight, some balance, and a bunch of memories). But the brain is a funny little thing and some times it does stuff (not going into the haematoma part, I’m not a doc, it’s long and not very relevant, but it has to be taken into account cause it’s what can make part of the lost sight reappear). So Desden was totally blind for a while, then his brain managed to get some of his sight back. Very little. 

But what and how does he see ? 

See, the brain is constructed so that the visual cortex’s position reflects the visual field you have, except in reverse. Sorry. I’m a teacher. I’m going to add a schema. But in French because I actually work with this (well. Nope. They changed the program but I have old program lessons lying around just in case) and I’m lazy today. Just look at the pretty colours. It shows you what I just explained very badly because I’m used to use schemas, but here’s what you need to understand. 

SOOOO. Basically make most of the colour disappear except for a very small part of blue at the far right of the visual cortex. Meaning that in the end, what Desden can see is an extremely reduced part of peripheral vision. Try to fix your eyes on a point in front of you and describe what is at the far corner of your left eye. Good luck. (and let me tell you I know I have extremely good peripheral vision myself, it’s still composed by what your brain KNOWS is around. From seeing it with the other parts of your field of vision. Because your brain is constantly MAKING UP what you’re seeing from a lot of information including past ones when you didn’t even think about it but your eyes brushed that part. Your senses are fucked up. Deal with it. Your brain is playing tricks on you right now.)

This is why, btw, he’s often described tilting his head on the right. He doesn’t have much control on his eye movement so he tries to get some info on people (mostly light and colours but since his visual memory is fucked up, it’s not very useful)

His eyes move. He just doesn’t really control them. In fact they’re often if not constantly moving because head trauma is often linked to the apparition of a nystagmus, which is a rapid eye movement to the side or up and down - my brother has that, vertical, did you know it existed ? well I do. A friend of my parents has a horizontal one that is a lot more visible. Constantly. She’s not blind, her brain compensates this. Brains are both evil and awesome. Deal with it.

Oh and his eyes are perfectly normal. Even quite pretty, as he describes them himself. He still wears sunglasses because his brain doesn’t like strong light which give him migraines, because it has a hard time processing visual info. 

His eyes also work perfectly (well as perfectly as they did before his accident, which is okay but a little nearsighted) which leads to the only thing that sounds like a superpower that isn’t one : blindsight. If you research it you’ll learn about people who can do absolutely crazy things like catch stuff that’s thrown at them or avoid most obstacles on a path while being totally blind, because BRAINS, AGAIN. Your brain doesn’t only process visual cues through the visual cortex; there’s a slight part in the “primitive brain” or “lizard brain” that does, too. So basically Desden’s body can see stuff but he’s not aware of it consciously. He’s NOT using it and he’s NOT as good as the people I cited above. But for example he has insights he souldn’t have on people’s moods, because his lizard brain picks their faces up. Not always, and it’s often more when someone’s in a VERY bad mood that SHOWS. And since he’s not aware of it he takes that as hints from his other senses. It’s NOT compensating for his blindness - if anything, it’s a silly trick. BUT I AM A NERD, REMEMBER ?

Anyway. Now you know. Desden still lost his vision through an accident which, as said in the reference post i’m refering to (haha) would be bad if it was used for drama but, in fact, I try to avoid most of it because apart from the accident, which is witnessed by someone else who is important to the later plot, nothing from Desden’s life before or after it is described in details. My novel starts 9 years after the accident. He’s got time to get used to being blind. 

*I* know everything that happened in his life, or most of the important things anyway, that lead to the opening of the book, but you will only get scraps of it because it’s not what’s relevant. It’s important for the construction of the character, but what I want to show here is not Desden’s journey through being used to being blind. It’s his journey through accepting his family heritage, which has nothing to do with being blind, and sharing it with the rest of his family while it stayed hidden to them until then because the person who kept this before him was an arsehole. There are a lot of plot points that are linked to Desden’s blindness, including said arsehole arseholery (I be good with words), but it’s not the point of the book. 

Y’all know I’m a Daredevil fan. That’s where I got the idea of a blind character (not only), but now erase that from your mind. Desden doesn’t have any superpower that compensate his blindness. He’s got pretty good hearing because he’s used to use it a lot more than when he was sighted. It’s not better. He loves music, but he’s absolutely tone deaf so forget the blind piano tuner/musician cliché (this is a joke in one of my AUs, in fact)(explanation : in France, which is the country I research for because I’m French and my story takes place in France, the most prominent school for the blind used to primarily teach people to become piano tuners during the 20th century). He’s got a very good nose, but that’s just how it is, and since I’m using my own experience of rediscovering my sense of smell after years of living with smoking people (don’t smoke) (yeah, even you, Desden) I know it’s not superhuman. In fact my own nose is pretty shitty compared to my mom’s. Who is a fucking hunting hound. Anwyay I digress. 

Desden often chases any comment that restrict him to being “the blind guy” by stating stuff he does or likes to do, like “I’m also a good tarot player but no one ever mentions that” or “my brownies are the best ones and I don’t even need to add pot to it”. This is how he feels about it. He’s blind. It’s okay, it’s part of him. But it’s not his sole characteristic. 

I think I’m done here. I haven’t touched on other people’s reaction to him that much, and if you’re interested you can ask questions. Basically remember he’s a 1,98m guy, with broad shoulders, and that’s the first thing you see from him. Also there’s his guide dog Kalinka. 

Lot more things to talk about, not that much time. So if you’re interested in knowing more, poke me, and I might write more about my character. 

Lastly and more importantly : if you see things that you can correct in this post, please do so. As I said, I’m a nerd, but I’m not a neurologist. I’m going the vulgarized version. And I like to be taught things. So if you see mistakes, tell me. 

Peace ! 

[perseusjackson-jasongrace]

College Professor AU

You guys can thank my soulmate for this @nishlicious-01​

Part I, Part II

Masterlist

I missed these losers and this little universe so thanks friend! I hope you guys enjoy!!

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"Listen up," Percy clapped his hands, gathering the attention of his students, "Four of you in the tank at a time. You get fifteen minutes in there and then you're out. For those of you who don't want to dive, they're having a penguin feeding at the same time, or you can just wander around the aquarium. I expect everyone to be at the front entrance by five. If you aren't you're writing an extra credit paper about the benefits of sea plankton."

"Yes Prof!" Was the chorus of replies, cheeky grins plastered to their faces.

He narrowed his eyes at them but before he could summon up a retort a guide walked up to the group.

"Good afternoon everyone," They bubbled, tight, black curls bouncing as they waved, "I'm here to take you to the shark tank diving. Are all of you going to be diving today?"

"Can you guys separate yourself into divers and non-divers?" Percy asked.

They shuffled around a little until there was a small group of five and a bigger group of fifteen.

"We're diving." Katie said, motioning to the rest of the group.

"Alright," The guide smiled, "And you professors?"

He nods, "Yea I am. Doc?"

Jason looked between them, eyebrows scrunched in deliberation.

"Oh come on Prof, when are you ever going to get the opportunity again?" Will Solace egged.

The doctor laughed, "Very persuasive. Alright I'll dive."

"Well isn't this nice!" The guide clapped their hands, brown eyes shining with excitement, "Before we get you into gear, let's go over some rules. Splashing doesn't do much but try not to move suddenly or in big movements. Don't go to the shark let the shark come to you. They are not scary predators but they are still animals and you're invading their space. Don't grab at the fish, they're not toys. If you feel unsafe or uncomfortable please let a primary diver know and they will take you to the top. Any questions?"

When they had covered diving instructions and some minor details the group finally parted. The five who weren't diving promised to stick together and left. The rest followed the guide to the changing rooms where they were handed diving gear and separated into groups of four. The room was abuzz with noise as they all waited near the diving platform. His students chattered with one another, bouncing on their feet and pointing at the fish they could identity in the tank below.

"You ready?" Percy nudged his associate.

"If you had told me this morning I would be diving into a tank of sharks I would have laughed in your face."

"Weird how the day can warp, isn't it?" He laughed.

"I'm excited. Your student, Will I think, was right. It's not very often I get the chance to go shark tank diving."

"But you have been offered?" His green eyes sparkled with mirth.

"You're not the only marine biologist I know." Jason winked.

"Oh?" Surprise covered his face.

"Alright everyone," The guide pulled them altogether, "Who's going first?"

So slowly, group by group they dived into the tank. Percy and Jason were amongst the last to go, Will and Nico with them. Hazel, Leo, Frank, and Katie, the group before them, were just coming back out.

"Oh Nico!" Hazel squealed, "They are so beautiful. It's so peaceful down there."

"I wish I was a fish, who got to live in the great expanse and do nothing but swim and eat." Katie moaned, staring longingly at the tank they had just come out from.

"I suggest you come back in your next life Miss Gardner."

"Oh Prof," She sighed, "I've already committed to coming back as a wild daisy living in a never ending valley."

"The one after that then?" Jason looked at her curiously.

"You're very kind doctor," She pouted, "But that's already been taken up by my promise to become a hummingbird. Aren't they just the most darling things?"

They all burst out laughing.

"Nevermind Katie, whenever a spot opens up you can commit to becoming a creature of the sea." Frank slung his arm around her, and tugged her small frame into his large one.

"Thanks Bear." She hugged him back, "Well you have fun. I'm going to get out of this because my toes are going numb from the cold."

And with that the four disappeared and they were being called to the platform.

"How are we feeling everyone?" The bubbly guide asked.

"Excited!" He smiled.

Nico and Will nodded enthusiastically in agreement. Jason looked more reserved but nodded nonetheless.

"Well, if you never do it again you've done it once." They tilted their head, "Okay we're gonna go in nice and slow. One at a time. June will go first, then each of you, and coming in the back, Holly. I'll be waiting here to help pull you up when you're done."

They all thanked the guide and with the guidance of the primary divers, slowly slipped into the water.

It was cool and still, in a way the ocean never was. He closed his eyes as his head went under and when he opened them again he was in a completely new world.

He opened his mouth to talk and then remembered the oxygen mask he currently wore and thought better of it.

Jason half fell half slid into the tank behind him, and flipped Percy off when he noticed the amusement in his green eyes.

Finally they were all in and able to move freely in the tank. The sharks were magnificent. Gliding through the water like a hot knife to butter. They moved with such ease and grace, Percy wondered how anyone could make an enemy of them. Sharks were the ballerinas of the sea, and dolphins the jazz dancers. It was such a ridiculous thought he couldn't help the giggle that escaped him.

Jason looked at him curiously, seeing the bubbles floating from his mouth but he shook his head and pointed up. Later.

The fish took no notice of them after a few moments of pointed curiosity. And the sharks didn't venture too close, although one did brush up against June. He understood what Hazel had meant by the peaceful. Sound was a foreign concept in this space.

When their fifteen minutes were up, they each received a tap on the shoulder and then swam towards the top of the tank. A hand was already reaching in for them to grab.

Moments later they all stood on the platform once more. The primary divers stayed in as it was feeding time but they couldn't stay to watch. They'd be late for the bus, and Percy did not want to write his own extra credit paper.

"That was," Jason breathed, eyes as blue as the water they just stepped out from, "Incredible."

"Oh Prof!" Will echoed the doctors amazement, "I wish we could do that everyday!"

"You could if you decide to get a job here."

"Wouldn't that be the dream," He sighed, a soft look on his freckled face.

"And you Nico?"

"Sharks were always my favourite animals, this solidifies it."

"Well I'm glad to here your faith is as strong as ever. Now how about we get dressed otherwise all of us will be getting homework."

"Me included?" The neurologist gave a teasing smile.

Percy laughed, "You included Doc."

"I think," Jason said softly, as he tugged on his shoes some minutes later, "If our dates are even half as magical as that we'll be marrying each other before the year is out."

"Dates? Plural?" Luminescent green eyes widened with surprise, and hope.

"I can't imagine only learning you for one." The blonde shrugged.

"Well then Dr Grace," Percy grinned, bright and beautiful, "I suggest you pick a day for the wedding."

And indeed, when December rolled around Jason Grace and Percy Jackson uttered their vows, and a class of students cheered the loudest when they finally, finally, tied the knot.

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Sorry i couldn’t make Jason fall in the tank. After doing some research i realised it’s pretty dangerous to disrupt animals like that, and we weren’t trying to lose any limbs! I hope the end makes up for it?