#but it turned itself around

[stormyboi7]

You ever sneeze so hard you redesign yourself?

Anywho,

BIG ANNOUNCEMENT TIME:

Stormy is no longer a Star Wars character! He’s still called Stormy the *Stormtrooper*— I legitimately don’t think I can call him anything else— but he’s no longer associated with Star Wars whatsoever.

Really, this has been a long time coming. I’ve never really thought of Stormy as a Star Wars OC, y’know?

With everything I want to do with the series and the character, I figured it would make the most sense to divorce him from Star Wars entirely, and let Stormy be Stormy.

Like I said, he’s still going to be called a Stormtrooper, for lore reasons that will be explained at a later date (likely, whenever I release the new version of Book 1!). Just know he’s NOT a Star Wars Stormtrooper anymore.

For now, I figured I’d go ahead and drop his redesign, since this is something I’ve spent a lot of time and effort remaking! Cheers!

[halorvic]

The danger is clear and present: COVID isn’t merely a respiratory illness; it’s a multi-dimensional threat impacting brain function, attacking almost all of the body’s organs, producing elevated risks of all kinds, and weakening our ability to fight off other diseases. Reinfections are thought to produce cumulative risks, and Long COVID is on the rise. Unfortunately, Long COVID is now being considered a long-term chronic illness — something many people will never fully recover from. Dr. Phillip Alvelda, a former program manager in DARPA’s Biological Technologies Office that pioneered the synthetic biology industry and the development of mRNA vaccine technology, is the founder of Medio Labs, a COVID diagnostic testing company. He has stepped forward as a strong critic of government COVID management, accusing health agencies of inadequacy and even deception. Alvelda is pushing for accountability and immediate action to tackle Long COVID and fend off future pandemics with stronger public health strategies. Contrary to public belief, he warns, COVID is not like the flu. New variants evolve much faster, making annual shots inadequate. He believes that if things continue as they are, with new COVID variants emerging and reinfections happening rapidly, the majority of Americans may eventually grapple with some form of Long COVID. Let’s repeat that: At the current rate of infection, most Americans may get Long COVID.

[...]

LP: A recent JAMA study found that US adults with Long COVID are more prone to depression and anxiety – and they’re struggling to afford treatment. Given the virus’s impact on the brain, I guess the link to mental health issues isn’t surprising. PA: There are all kinds of weird things going on that could be related to COVID’s cognitive effects. I’ll give you an example. We’ve noticed since the start of the pandemic that accidents are increasing. A report published by TRIP, a transportation research nonprofit, found that traffic fatalities in California increased by 22% from 2019 to 2022. They also found the likelihood of being killed in a traffic crash increased by 28% over that period. Other data, like studies from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, came to similar conclusions, reporting that traffic fatalities hit a 16-year high across the country in 2021. The TRIP report also looked at traffic fatalities on a national level and found that traffic fatalities increased by 19%. LP: What role might COVID play? PA: Research points to the various ways COVID attacks the brain. Some people who have been infected have suffered motor control damage, and that could be a factor in car crashes. News is beginning to emerge about other ways COVID impacts driving. For example, in Ireland, a driver’s COVID-related brain fog was linked to a crash that killed an elderly couple. Damage from COVID could be affecting people who are flying our planes, too. We’ve had pilots that had to quit because they couldn’t control the airplanes anymore. We know that medical events among U.S. military pilots were shown to have risen over 1,700% from 2019 to 2022, which the Pentagon attributes to the virus.

[...]

LP: You’ve criticized the track record of the CDC and the WHO – particularly their stubborn denial that COVID is airborne. PA: They knew the dangers of airborne transmission but refused to admit it for too long. They were warned repeatedly by scientists who studied aerosols. They instituted protections for themselves and for their kids against airborne transmission, but they didn’t tell the rest of us to do that.

[...]

LP: How would you grade Biden on how he’s handled the pandemic? PA: I’d give him an F. In some ways, he fails worse than Trump because more people have actually died from COVID on his watch than on Trump’s, though blame has to be shared with Republican governors and legislators who picked ideological fights opposing things like responsible masking, testing, vaccination, and ventilation improvements for partisan reasons. Biden’s administration has continued to promote the false idea that the vaccine is all that is needed, perpetuating the notion that the pandemic is over and you don’t need to do anything about it. Biden stopped the funding for surveillance and he stopped the funding for renewing vaccine advancement research. Trump allowed 400,000 people to die unnecessarily. The Biden administration policies have allowed more than 800,000 to 900,000 and counting.

[...]

LP: The situation with bird flu is certainly getting more concerning with the CDC confirming that a third person in the U.S. has tested positive after being exposed to infected cows. PA: Unfortunately, we’re repeating many of the same mistakes because we now know that the bird flu has made the jump to several species. The most important one now, of course, is the dairy cows. The dairy farmers have been refusing to let the government come in and inspect and test the cows. A team from Ohio State tested milk from a supermarket and found that 50% of the milk they tested was positive for bird flu viral particles.

[...]

PA: There’s a serious risk now in allowing the virus to freely evolve within the cow population. Each cow acts as a breeding ground for countless genetic mutations, potentially leading to strains capable of jumping to other species. If any of those countless genetic experiments within each cow prove successful in developing a strain transmissible to humans, we could face another pandemic – only this one could have a 58% death rate. Did you see the movie “Contagion?” It was remarkably accurate in its apocalyptic nature. And that virus only had a 20% death rate. If the bird flu makes the jump to human-to-human transition with even half of its current lethality, that would be disastrous.

[focsle]

What I’ve been thinking a lot about lately is the idea that…even in times of turmoil and uncertainty and fear, the people you’re connected to, and the community you build, and the people who are out there always trying to make things a little better, a little warmer, a little safer, the people who are fighting for and striving for security and joy and levity and agency and all the things that can make our lives richer and happier…those things don’t just vanish overnight. That even when it feels like the world is shaking apart, those people are still there. And that bit of hope, on the most micro of scales, of who you’re connecting to and finding happiness and safety with, and who you’re helping is…such a more productive driver than despair. Even though there are so many reasons to despair. But the people who are always pushing for a better life for everyone, your people, you yourself in being that person for someone, are still there. And I think that’s what matters.

[gummi-ships]

Kingdom Hearts 2 - Shadow Stalker & Dark Thorn

[sukibenders]

Some fans: Eloise is such a fake feminist, doesn't she see how some girls and women enjoy marriage? Doesn't she see how her privileges give her luxuries others don't? She's so selfish. She doesn't even use her words to support other women!

Also same fans: I wish Eloise would stop talking, like her speaking about feminism at every turn is getting old. Can't she just be quiet and let everyone enjoy the fun? Like yeah talking about women's lack of personhood without a male figure in society, or how they can't go to university, or how sometimes they marry men who will only hurt them but need to for their status is sad to see, but THE ROMANCE-

[raventrigonsdaughter]

For reference about what i said about Enid's werewolf height the other day, this is how crazy her size is in wednesday's description in the novel and i hope SO MUCH they never change it cause it's both fun and funny as fuck

Example 1:

Example 2:

Example 3:

And now the side by side with my favorite werewolves one of them having until now the title of biggest werewolf

PLEASE NETFLIX THIS IS SO FUCKING FUNNY IT OPENS SO MANY POSSIBILITIES, KEEP IT, like, bring it into the show, also because the novelization as many others more likely than not was based on the show's early development and then still got approved in the end means that despite the weird ass golden retriver we got they were probably really going for a horror inducing werewolf in the finale, in the final side by side specifically if she was on all fours like in the show she would still be around Van Helsing's own height, this is insane, can my fellow werewolf nerds come talk about this we got a gold mine here on teenage show territory and i need more

[puppyeared]

i feel like im not making any sense but does anyone else feel like there are stories that let u run with them and ones that spell everything out for you

[carouselcometh]

The Glass Coffin Mocktail! In honor of my most beloved and favorite Saw trap 5ever :)

[viperra1]

today i had no power in my building so i went ransacking through all my art supplies and found my stash of sculpting clay. here's my boy!!!!!!!

this photo is cringe af but i really want to show my boy with his 8 CHA ahh expression (this was still a wip)

[priscirat]

the moon got a shine of her own

[seriousbrat]

Accusing people, some of whom incidentally are likely LGBT themselves, of not viewing wol///fstar as canon because they "can't read queer-coding" is the cope of the century and borders on delusional. it's also condescending and disrespectful- why is your personal analysis of a work of fiction more valid than anyone else's, particularly when that analysis is almost certainly driven by confirmation bias? Have you asked yourself whether the "signs" you think you're reading in the text are actually there or whether you just want them to be? It's fine to want them to be and to add two and two and get six, personally I've done that with many works of fiction and I will continue to do so, but objectively there's no evidence that holds up to the slightest bit of scrutiny that jkr actually intended Sirius and Remus to secretly be in love.

Leaving aside the fact for now that this is JKR we're talking about and all that entails, it honestly verges on conspiracy-brained at times. Besides that, using homophobic stereotypes as "evidence" is, to put it plainly, shit. Some of these stereotypes might seem fairly innocuous yet still manage to be offensive (e.g. "tonks is queer-coded because she has short hair/is cool/has this personality trait or physical characteristic) but others honestly cross a line. Think for a moment about the logical leap you're making when you claim that werewolves being an allegory for stigmatised illnesses like AIDS is proof that R is gay. What equivalence is being drawn here? worth thinking about

I just want to say this is a work of children's literature and we're all free to interpret whatever we want and make up whatever silly things that we want with it. But you're not smarter or more special than anyone else because you think there's a gay way to look or speak or act, or for seriously believing that JKR created some kind of mad convoluted mental backflip conspiracy to specifically fuck with what was at the time a fringe element of online fandom that she likely wasn't even aware of. Apply Occam's razor here and go with the simplest explanation, which is that JKR, a heterosexual woman, wrote a children's book in the 90s with a majority heterosexual pairings and one token gay character. From there, do whatever you want. The end

[see-arcane]

I was reminiscing on some anime vampires, and now that I think about it Alucard Hellsing gets so much funnier, and pathetic when I realized that this mighty as Fuck all powerful bullet hell back to back vampire will ALWAYS be salty that neither Mina nor Jonathan wanted to be in his little polycule.

He can wave the guns, and monologue all he wants but we know the truth, and the fact (at least considering the novel) that if Mina came back to life as a plot point she would have killed him point blank.

Also the bar is in the fucking ground for adaptations when this ever loving edgy trash thing managed to respect both Mina, and Jonathan's romance in a single fucking flashback panel in the manga than the majority of them.

Right on every count (longest sigh)

It says something that a manga absolutely drowning in aggro blood and guts, overpowered Dracula antics, another ~Van Helsing (sorry, Hellsing) is the extra special magic-cool archenemy~ rewrite, mountains of hetero cheesecake and just plain looney tunes treatment of demonic/divine supernatural shoot-em-up madness…

…also features one of the few renditions of a Dracula with something like believable sympathetic character development. Not into an antihero or even an antivillain, but just a tired monster who looks back in bloody tears on a past where he did battle with worthy enemies—heroes—and neither stole them to his side or got to be allowed euthanasia by them.

He’s fun as hell and I love to see him eat some Nazis, but he’s also up there with one of the most depressing versions of Dracula who I can actually buy as being a (developed!) Dracula

[jujuflakes]

Ohhhh boy. I have come with (yet another) Eldritch!Lucifer concept design. It will happen again. Ksnsbef

Inspiration taken from omori/madoka/genshin.

I have so many biblically accurate designs in the drafts bc I just. cannot see Luci with one definite look. Hence the hc that the closer his appearance is to his 'true' form, the more unstable it becomes. my baby would drive quantum physicists mad.

[jojo-schmo]

I made myself a personal playlist with the fnaf songs I like (because wow I’ve missed out on like five years of bangers and need to catch up!!). I thought I would make myself a playlist cover with my precious Helpy bear to inspire even more joy from it!! He stole/borrowed DJ Music Man’s headphones. :3

[doodlejoltik]

my favourite writing device is having an un-Rei-liable narrator

[kivaember]

i just wanted rusty to yell worm

-

Rusty paid little notice to the PCA's System droning over the spaceport's failing network, its feminine voice rasping with static and its syllables stated with clinical flatness. He was more focused on his heart beating rabbit-fast in his chest, uncomfortably hot as his body came down from the adrenaline rush of going toe-to-toe with the PCA's most cutting-edge mech.

He'd grown too reliant on STEEL HAZE's nimbleness. The 'HC' he had fought had been just as nimble and precise, its feet never touching the ground as the gigantic boosters installed on its shoulders gave the mechanical impression of wings, elegant and authorative when combined with its sleek body.

He wouldn't be surprised if the PCA named those mechs 'Archangels' or something equally pretentious, Rusty thought darkly. Their cold guardians wielding burning blades of plasma, and cutting down the innocent sinners fighting to survive in a scorched eden, condemned for the simple sin of living.

"Tired," Rusty mumbled, realising the caustic poeticness of his own thoughts. He always did find his mind travelling in odd directions after a hard battle. "But at least that should be the end of it."

The PCA's System had finally shut up for once, leaving a ringing silence in its wake. Rusty cast a quick glance over his HUD, seeing nothing but the blinking blue dot of Raven's AC somewhere out of sight. The battlefield they had fought the HCs was a twisted maze of two collapsed warships, debris crafting towering walls of bent metal that threatened to topple over from a too-powerful gust of wind. Rusty's HUD indicated Raven was somewhere slightly elevated. On one of the crashed ships?

He activated their comms, wondering what Raven was up to. Maybe it was a little self-centred to point it out so bluntly, but after a successful shared sortie, Raven usually came gamboling up to him with a muted sort of eagerness. It was odd for him to simply wander off without (figuratively) saying a word.

"Hey, buddy," he said. "What're you-"

The ground trembled minutely, and a few of those towering metal walls shuddered warningly, their shrieks drowning out his words. Rusty tensed, but his HUD didn't indicate an artillery strike or an orbital bombardment. Tectonic activity, maybe? The Central Ice Fields were prone to devastating earthquakes every few years or so. They had caused the earth to swallow up more than a few old cities, the capital included.

Another tremble, more violent, and one metal wall collapsed with a tremendous crash. One of the shipwrecks started to peel apart as well, its broken skeleton causing the already split hill to fall away from the continuous vibrations.

"Buddy, we need to go," Rusty said, keeping his tone calm but threaded with a taut urgency. STEEL HAZE leapt upwards in a boost-assisted jump, and he chanced a glance towards Raven - seeing his AC standing atop of the sturdier shipwreck, staring East-Northeast.

"Buddy," he said again when Raven stayed in place. He made STEEL HAZE hover, a hint of impatience in his voice as the vibrations grew worse: "This place isn't tectonically safe. We need to-"

«Worm.»

What?

Rusty stared at that word blinking across his HUD in open bafflement. He opened his mouth slowly, wondering if the vibrations had Raven mistyped, and asked: "W-"

The ground exploded in a shower of frozen rock and cement, a metallic groan-shriek reverbing through the air in deafening volume. The snow that plumed upwards with the explosion created a brief obscuring haze, but it quickly thinned, revealling something huge- no, massive, towering, jet-black, rusting metal coated in permafrost, its flat head bending low towards them, a great, massive, unearthly-!

"Worm?!" Rusty blurted in disbelief, and was very nearly crushed as a result when said worm promptly bellyflopped at them.

-

Later, far later, after the pang of terror at coming face to, err, face with an ancient C-Weapon capable of squashing him like an ant unintentionally had faded, and a sharper, colder fear at realising the entity was utterly impervious to any and all weaponry, Rusty was forced to sit in a dark meeting room with the other Vespers where they reviewed the Ice Worm's first appearance.

Forced to sit there, and listen to his past-self's high-pitched, comically startled shriek of "woRM?!?!" echo over his combat log's recording, as said worm aimed a deadly bellyflop his way.

He hadn't died, obviously... but it would've been one embarrassing way to die, in retrospect.

"...worm," Pater mumbled under his breath. A muted, not-quite titter rippled through the rest of the Vespers - sans Snail, of course - and Rusty had to fight the urge to sink low in his seat until he disappeared entirely underneath the table.

Would've been even more embarrassing to have 'worm' as his last word, though.