#but lots of species that consider themselves superior like to keep them as pets

[starrspice]

So humans are considered unintelligent and semi-primitive by the other extra-terrestrials, but how technologically advanced are we actually? Is it more modern day-esque technology or have we invented, like, flying cars and the cure to cancer and all that?

It's pretty close to modern tech. Maybe a couple of decades more advanced but nothing quite like flying cars

Honestly it's pretty accurate to say humans are of average intelligence compared to most species out there and they're pretty well off technology wise given the resources available to them on Earth

The "humans are stupid" thing is really more of a prejudice and stereotype given to any species that's considered to not be ready for intergalactic induction

Humans are mostly barred off because they can't be trusted not to blast or dissect any extra terrestrial that arrives on earth

[youarejesting]

Sly like a... ? Part 6

[Master list] [Sly Master List] Beta: n/a (at the moment) Rating: All Pairing: Hybrid!BTS x FailedHybrid!Reader Genre: Hybrid au, fluff, action, adventure, angst, drama, slice of life. Some marked chapters will contain mature/smut scenes, BUT they will not have plot in those scenes and are 100% skippable without losing your place in the story. Words: 1.8k

Summary: Human’s strive to be better, faster and stronger looking to animal DNA. Thus Hybrids are born. As the rise for designer and Pedigree Hybrids increase, so do the failed attempts. There is one species scientists are unsuccessful in creating, but, folklore says they have been here all along, hiding and blending in with the humans for many millennia. How clever they are.

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There had been a moment when Taehyung seemed almost reluctant to leave, as if he was having fun with the hybrids around his age and you couldn’t blame him. He had spent his life with older people who didn’t really do anything particularly thrilling. 

But the night ended without any fights from any of the hybrids so you considered that a bonus. They were slowly becoming more accustomed to the other presence and though there were a few small shoves, hisses or choice words, all in all they were being polite.

Sitting at the dining table talking with Jimin about your plan tomorrow at the shopping centre, he was very close, you knew it was a dominance thing, that he knew you the longest and he was unintentionally rubbing it in the other hybrid’s faces. Seeing Jungkook’s eyes barely staying awake you wished him good night with a hug and told him to get some sleep. 

Yoongi was slinking around looking like he wanted to say or ask something but waiting for you to be alone. Seokjin and Namjoon both headed off to bed and Jimin reached over taking your hand. “How are you feeling?” he asked, his brows creasing in the same concern that laced his words, “you keep making sure we are okay, that no one has asked you?”

“I’m good,” you admitted with a smile, “how are you taking this?”

“You know I am used to it, we grew up in hybrid homes just like this one,” Jimin laughed, “gives me a bit of nostalgia.”

“The only thing that is unsettling at the moment is the smell of the carpet, it is driving me mental?” you laughed, “that bleach not only burns it just makes the place feel empty.”

“I know what you mean, but if you would like I can scent the house?” he wiggled his eyebrows. “like we used to?”

“Jimin we were children running around naked was okay back then now it would be weird,” you scoffed, pushing him away, “go to bed.”

“You want to sleep in my room?” he pouted, “there is no need to be a martyr”

“Thanks but, I am going to stay up a little later and work out some things.” Jimin walked into the hall eyeing the older hybrid and gave a deliberate, let me know if you need anything spiel.

“Hey Yoongi, is something wrong?” you smiled patting the seat beside you, he hesitantly sat on the seat keeping his distance. He seemed to mull over his thoughts and choose his words carefully before he attempted to speak.

“When I was in University the first time, I was studying psychology, I wanted to help young hybrids,” you repressed a squeal he was opening up and you were so proud, “I was wondering, if there is a chance I could continue that course? I still want to help other hybrids like myself.”

“Of course, that is perfect, I can get you ready I will get your folders and work transferred over and we can have you started in no time, they might ask you to do an entrance exam so if you don’t mind I can give you a little refresher with the other boys and then you will be all set, all the Uni classes are online, so you don’t have to worry about transport and it’s all paid for so money isn’t an option either.”

“I don’t like free things” he played with his sleeves, “I much rather get things on my own”

“Well, if you would like I can give you pocket money everyday and you can save it so that you don’t feel helpless. Let’s say accompanying me grocery shopping, I could wash up the dishes and you could dry and little things like that and I can give you... uh, fifty dollars a week,” 

“That is too much,” He said, shaking his head, “not when you are also paying room and board. That is way too much and I don’t want to take more of your money”

“It’s not my money, you forget, I am living free here as well,” you laughed, standing up and holding out your hand. He took it and you walked him to his room, “please don’t stress Yoongi, I promise you I am not as scary as I look, you are safe and I want you to feel safe and if that means you have a little money box under your bed than let’s do it”

Yoongi laughed, “You aren’t scary at all”

“I don’t know if you had seen her dancing this evening, that was scary,” Hoseok called from his room. He was a very easy going guy, he liked to hear the others better so he left the door open. It must be hard coming from the country with night noises and lots of hybrids snoring to a place that is genuinely quiet with the occasional sound of a car and his own room.

“Alright Yoongi time for bed, I am here now so I hope you like being tucked in?” you walked him to his bed and pulled the blankets up to his chin and you could hear the purs as you pet his head.

“I want to be tucked in too,” Jungkook wined down the end of the hall, and you froze as the chorus of me too filled the hall. Rolling your eyes you stood up pressing a kiss to Yoongi’s forehead and stepping out.

“Fine, let me start with Jin, you want to be tucked in?” You grinned and the oldest hybrid nodded vigorously from his bed. You made the rounds and visited every room, Namjoon announced he was already tucked in and would accept a good night. He was acting proud but you thought to try anyway. “your blankets are askew, let me help, you can’t be tucked in if your blanket is all wonky”

The excuse worked and he purred deep in his chest as you pet his head and kissed his forehead. Hoseok made you laugh and requested multiple kisses but received a “Don’t be greedy,” from his neighbor Jimin.

Jimin gave you his signature eye smile that you just knew was there even without your superior night vision. You thought about it and a lot of the hybrids in the house were nocturnal giving reason to their late bedtimes and keen senses in the dark. You weren’t too sure about Hoseok and Taehyung so that would be something to google before bed.

Stepping up to Jimin’s bed he grinned, “Tuck me in,” he declared his arms out as if he was getting a hug. 

“Okay but you have to lay down and stop squirming,” you reprimanded, making him still long enough to tuck him in placing a kiss on his forehead with a pat, his hands holding his tail as he always did when he slept. “You still hold your tail when you sleep”

He blushed and turned away, “I dunno it’s comfy”

“It’s cute, have a good night” you walked on to the last room where Jungkook was standing at his door obviously having gotten impatient. You walked him to his bed and sat beside him as he got comfortable.

“y/n, I love being here and I don’t want you to give me up but, I miss my family, I barely remember anything about my mother I can’t even remember what she looked like, all I remember is she smelt like clean cotton and sunny days” He said a few tears in his eyes. 

Wiping his eyes he sniffed, “I wanted to be cool for you, but I am just a big baby” he whined, “Can you stay with me until I fall asleep, sing me a song or tell me a story?”

“Alright, get comfortable and I will tell you a story koo” tucking him in you opened your mouth when he grabbed your hand, “Is something wrong?”

“You have to give me a goodnight kiss too, while I am awake or I won’t feel it” he gave a big cheeky grin and you laughed brushing his bangs to the side and pressing a small kiss on his forehead. “Alright I am ready”

“This was a story that I was told when I was young,” you shuffled onto the bed more, “in japan there are monsters and mythical creatures called yokai…”

“Yokai were sometimes even gods they could be good and they could be bad, the kitsune was a yokai, they said when a fox grew to a certain age they would be able to transform into humans” Felix spoke cleaning some of the toys off your bed.

“Like Hybrids!” You giggled, jumping on your bed, your stuffed toy under your arm, Felix tackled you onto your pillow and grinned, tucking you in and switching off the light. He reached over to turn on a small night light. “Or like the other story where they peel off their skin?”

“Alright, I admit it was a mistake to tell you that, are you still having nightmares?” he sighed rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly. “I still haven’t been let off babysitting duty because of that, the earful Astrid gave me”

You laughed at his dramatic shiver, she wasn’t that scary, but Felix always seemed to think so. “If you know so many stories about fox hybrids then why did they make me, if they were already out there?”

“That is the thing little Kit, they aren’t hybrids” his smile was big and his eyes gleamed mischievously. “They are huli jing, kitsune and kumiho, they aren’t hybrids. These are special beings; foxes with the ability to transform into humans, they are special.” 

“If they can disguise themselves as humans how do you know they exist, have you seen one?” you were ever curious to know more about fox related things it made you feel like you were getting to know more about yourself and why you did the things you do”

“Humans can’t see them unless they wish to show themselves to them first, but they can see each other, they can’t hide from one another,” he hummed

“Are you a fox person Felix?” the memory of the other night in your head when you thought you saw two tails and some ears attached to him.

“I am just Felix and you young lady are up past your bedtime. So lay still so I can tell the story.”

“The fox breathed fire burning the forest and when their emotions calmed they saw the town destroyed and the woman the fox man had loved had died from the flames along with her new husband” you whispered, Jungkook’s little snores were cute and you readjusted the blanket and gave him another kiss on the forehead before retreating to the living room couch.

A thought passed by about perhaps using Taehyung’s room but you thought it was best to not invade his privacy, that was his safe place and your scent would ruin that. The thought didn’t last long as you were soon out cold from exhaustion.

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[starr-fall-knight-rise]

HASO, “Thoughts on Humans.”

QUESTION: Alright guys, I am asking for more ideas. I want you guys to send me questions and ideas about anything and everything you can think of. I am having a hard time coming up with things to write about, and I thought maybe it would be time to address your questions or interests about the universe that I have built so hopefully I can hash out some more interesting lore and what not, plus I would also hope that this will give me some ideas for good story arcs in the future as I seem to have hit a slump.

Would appreciate the help, thanks :)

The Texraki hurried down the hallway, their tails brushing against the ground as they moved towards the shuttle hanger. Stepping in the room, they paused, hardly expecting to see the Finnari huddled together in the center of the room.

They paused and then slowly inched forward.

“What are you doing here/” 

The Finnari lifted their blue/green scaled heads hands pressing together nervously, “We…. we were just waiting for the humans to return. We heard that something had happened down there and we were just waiting to make sure everyone was all right. Dr. Adric wants us to keep him updated.”

The Tesraki looked on to the FInnari with some measure of superiority. OT them the Finnari on the ship were nothing more than glorified pets for humans. THey didn’t seem to do anything useful other than offer hugs, which the Tesraki themselves didn’t see as particularly useful. Other humans claimed that they performed a very important function for the psych department aboard the ship, and that a few of them were particularly tech savvy, but the Tesraki had never seen them perform outside of a protective huddle, and so weren’t entirely sure that they had any use at all.

The Finnari for their part didn’t really understand the Tesraki use aboard the ship. Of course they knew what money was, theoretically, but had never bothered to use it considering their economic system was more about the trading of goods and services. In this way they sort of saw the Tesraki as greedy and overly involved in imaginative pursuits, especially once they were told that the Credit wasn’t actually supported by any ‘actual’ valuable metal.

They certainly did not expect to be joined a moment later as a small troop of rolling fluff entered the room from the left, and a black carapaced, bright winged burg entered on the right. They all stopped to stare at each other, the group of them never having been in a room together all at once.

The Celzex leader eyed them with some measure of suspicion and contempt, and the terasaki did the same back.

To everyone’s surprise, the burg stepped back as if trying to avoid getting into confrontation with the group of them.

Out of all the burg any of them had ever known, this particular male of the species did not much like conflict.

The Tesraki would have said something rather snide to the small rolling balls of fluff, if they weren’t quite sure that the little creatures could blast their entire solar system to dust. That was the thing, the Celzex acted all noble and powerful, but when it came right down to it they were no better than dust bunnies, easily punted across the room with a single blow. The only reason no one liked to piss them off was because of their powerful planet-destroying weapons.

In all truth they were generally just assholes. Small fluffy assholes, but assholes none the less.

The three groups of aliens stood together staring at each other with some measure of trepidation and annoyance.

Until, surprisingly, it was the burg who broke the silence, “A pleasure to see you all in the same place.” He turned to look at the Tesraki, his buggish eyes glittering in the light overhead, “You take care of the ship’s finances don’t you?”

Upon hearing the word finances, the Tesraki relaxed just a little. They were always willing to answer those sort of questions.

The Celzex remained rather sullen, but the burg pressed on, “how has that been going for you?”

The Tesraki snorted, there was certainly a lot to tell. Humans at their core were, generally, quite horrible with money.

Yes of course there were some humans who had proven themselves to be rather savvy, when it came to business, humans were just as accomplished in the world of economics as the Tesraki were on some measures, but that was only when talking about a very small majority of humans, a small majority of humans that certainly did not live on THIS ship. The Admiral himself was close to hopeless when it came to the management of money. Sure he knew how to save it, and to some extent, put it in the right places, but he hardly cared about it enough to get really creative like what was needed on a ship like this.

Humans liked to ignore extraneous and useless spending on parts and things that were not used or needed. Looking through their books, it was a total mess, and searching through their inventory proved stacks and stacks of things that they did not need, had never used, and weren’t likely to ever use ever, which could be cut  to save money for more important things, like better, and longer lasting parts for the ship.

It wasn’t all that hard, at least the Tesraki thought.

The Celzex listened with very little interest, only really paying attention because they were in the same vicinity. They did not really care about money one way or the other. If the Celzex wanted something, they would build it themselves. Of course they had to dabble in economics occasionally just because materials cost money, but it was generally something they only did grudgingly and with great and everlasting annoyance. To see and entier species that was dedicated to it was…. Surprising to say the least.

The Finnari on the other hand listened in fascination. They certainly through the  Tesraki had their priorities backwards, Money was cold and hard and didn’t really exist if one stopped and took the time to think about. It was sort of just an imaginary thing that everyone had gotten together and agreed on once upon a time. If everyone stopped agreeing on it and suddenly pretended it had no value, than the entire economy would collapse. The Finnari preferred to think about real things, and that being the people and the other aliens around them. But they were willing to listen since the Tesraki thought it was important, and the Finnari believed that it was always important to listen to someone when they were talking about things that were important to them.

The Burg, quietly sitting to the side and listening to the conversation found it all to be very interesting. What they did not know, what none of them knew was that they were connecting on the fundamental differences of their belief systems, belief systems that were almost religious in nature 

Out of sheer politeness, and a fear towards what the Celzex might do if they were offended, the Tesraki asked the Celzex how they were getting on with their work on the ship. In all reality, no one was really sure what the Celzex spent their days doing anyway.

They were about to find out as they received a very pompous lecture about how they had been maintaining and working on the weapons systems. Turns out that they spent most of their days crawling through the inner bowels of the ship and working on it from the inside out. The Tesraki shivered upon thinking of such a thing, but they supposed that to something as small as a Celzex none of that would really have been a problem.

“Humans are a dangerous creature to work beside, they are neither very good at making or maintaining their things.” The Celzex began, “sure they can make things that reach the desired end result, and do the things they are supposed to do, but most of the time you have to maintain them for years after because one wrong move could cause the thing to catch fire or blow up….. don’ t you find it strange and disconcerting that that is the end result of a lot of human technology. Take care of it, and maintain it because if even the littlest thing goes wrong it will probably catch fire or explode.” The Tesraki shook their heads sadly ears flopping about wildly, “The humans don’t know how to make things properly. They make things that have the desired effect, but in the hardest and most difficult to maintain way possible, and then when things start to fall apart, instead of replacing them with something better, they often just use a lot of sticky adhesive to put it back together until it inevitably breaks again.”

“I feel like that is an excellent metaphor to their personal lives.” A Finnari added, and the group turned to look at them as they shrugged, “I don’t think I have eer met a human who didn’t have something fundamentally wrong with the way they think or feel. Sure there are some humans who have something structurally or hormonally wrong with their brain which makes them perpetually nervous or upset, but even just regular humans have some serious issues they need to work through. There are humans who think that they cannot go to anyone for help, there are humans who think that no one cares about what they have to say, there are humans who think that there are certain topic they cannot talk about because no one would care if they did. Humans are all broken inside holding themselves together with thread and twine and poor coping skills. I think I have met maybe one human who seemed fully functional….. I think their inner lives and their interests and their diversity from each other is so complex that no one human can really go to any other human for perfect advise because they are so different.”

It was an interesting concept, and one that seemed true enough, they had all met humans and knew how strange they could be at times, and about different things.

In truth the burg who sat with them was beginning to notice a pattern.

His voice was quiet when he spoke, and the other aliens turned to look at him with some measure of curiosity. Not many of them had ever heard him speak, and he spent much of his days in the chapel, where none of them had any real reason to go, “I believe, perhaps that, humanity at its core seems to be second best at everything…. Have you noticed that?” The group frowned gathering around in confusion, “I meant think about it. Humanity is very accomplished with their money, but at the same time they are hardly equal to the Tesraki. Humans are good at fighting, but not in the way that Drev are. Humans are functional in both their machines and their minds,but in both cases they have to hold their function together with 

Lots of effort. Humans do not have the monopoly on a single thing, but on everything.”

They looked at him with a measure of interest.

“I think you will find that, spiritually, humans are the same. They aren’t as dedicated to their values and beliefs as the Burg, but no human can escape some sort of belief, even if it is an economic system, or a government or the lack of belief. Humans can’t even NOT believe without making it a system of belief.”

“Second best at everything…. That seems like a better deal than you make it out to be.”

“I never said it was a bad deal. I may not be a Rundi, but I know enough to see why humans have become one of the most powerful species in the GA. They are versatile and adaptable, and have the ability to connect with any other race in the galaxy just based on interests alone.”

That left the group of them in strict contemplation for a long moment.

“You…. how do you spend so much time with humans knowing they could kill you at any moment, perhaps on accident.”

“What do you mean?”

“What if a human accidentally sneezed on you. You would die wouldn’t you.”

“A sneeze might require hospitalization, but I doubt it would Kill me, as for what you really mean…. Don’t you worry the same thing?” He turned to look at all of them, “Don’t you ALL worry the same thing.” He glanced over at the Celzex, “You may be able to beat them with superior weapons power, but what if a human accidentally stepped on you, and crushed you to death. They are big enough that that could be a possibility.” Then he turned to look at the Finnari, “And you spend a lot of time with humans, who is to say tha"t one of these days a human will not just crush you to death or break your neck. If they can do it to each other, they can certainly do it to you. Humans are dangerous to all of us, so why are none of us more scared.”

“Well, that is because the humans like us.” one of the FInnari piped up.

The Tesraki nodded, and even the Celzex agreed to some extent.

“You never have to worry about a human once you are friends with them, assuming of course you are friends with stable humans, because once you are part of their pack, they will protect you from anything, even their own kind. Humans don’t just feel loyalty towards their own, they feel loyalty towards anything that has been with them a long time, or anything that shows them kindness. Humans can be loyal to inanimate objects if that object has some sort of value to the human. What we have done is make ourselves valuable to them, a part of their pack, and that is why we aren’t scared…. At least not most of the time.”

This got them into a topic of discussion about the nature of humans and their other strange quirks.

The Celzex painting out first and foremost how the humans seemed to have the need to name everything that they owned even if it did include inanimate objects, the biggest example being the omen.

The Tessraki extolled the virtues of betting and how they wished they had thought of it before it was brought into existence by the humans themselves.

Even the Burg stepped in to discuss some of the more interesting beliefs of the humans, most of which seemed widely unlikely but interesting all the same, and the Finnari were just interested to talk about some of the strange psychological behavior of humans.

Their nesting habits.

How humans tended to like to collect objects and so on and so forth.

It was only later that they even bothered to discuss why they were all here.

Something strange had happened, something strange had happened on the planet below, and they had all, separately come to make sure everything was ok.

It was very strange all told, very strange indeed.

That all of them would care so much for the humans that they would come to check. That was another interesting thing. Humans had the habit of getting under one’s skin and worming their way into ones mind. They could not be ignored, and they would not be forgotten, and no matter how hard you tried, they always seemed to have the ability to get themselves in your head.

Red lights began blinking at the edge of the room, and they all perked up, inching forward to see as human deck hands rushed from the shadows and towards the bay talking on their radios to each other rather frantically as the doors began to slide open with a slow beeping noise. There was as sharp hiss somewhere as the exterior airlock was compressed and then the doors opened up.

The floor rotated to pull the shuttle inward and as soon as it stopped, the doors were flung open and a gurney was pushed onto the deck.

The group of aliens huddled forward together in concern.

Dr Krill was barking orders, and to their surprise, Sunny, the big blue Drev was doing the same.

They hadn’t seen her in a while.

A few humans awkwardly stumbled out of the back looking dazed and confused, led by other humans that looked on the wrong side of shell shocked.

Krill turned and pointed to the Finnari, “You all, come here.”

They scampered over as told, and were immediately paired with one of the confused look humans, ordered to take them back to the medical bay as fast as they could without causing them any sort of agitation.

The Finnari gently took the humans by the hand and began leading them away.

The gurney was covered in a clear plastic bag, acting as a bubble. The last Finnari walked over and perched himself on one of the bed’s crossbars so he could see down to the human inside.

Admiral Vir lay there behind layers of protective plastic, eyes open and glassy. For a horrible moment the Finnari thought he wasn’t breathing, but the slow fogging of his breath against the clear surface was enough to relax the little creature.

He was alive, but he wasn’t doing to well.

The finnari reached forward  resting a hand on the human’s arm through the plastic as the doctors began to wheel them down the hallway.

This is what they had been worried about.

Something happening to their humans 

[deathvalleyqueen]

Full clear on OC asks for Sam! 💋

Thank you my dear... now lets gush about John’s first born and only son shall we???

BASICS

What’s their full name? - Samuel Joseph Seed 

What does their name mean? Why were they named that? -  Well he was going to be named Joseph, after his Uncle...The Father... but his mother was having none of that and switched out the birth certificate forms for the one she had filled out because there was no way in hell Mary Jane was about to let her precious baby boy be named after Joseph... though she allowed his middle name to be Joseph as a way to keep the peace. 

Do they have any nicknames? - SOOOO MANY! Sam - is the most common one and what most people call him. Sammie - What MJ still calls him even as an adult. Bubby - Ellie’s nickname for him as a child, Thing 1 - Sean’s nickname for him as kids. Cousin It - Finn’s nickname for him. Jesus - another Finn nickname. (because he looks like the only image of Jesus they had ever seen) Weasel - Mac gives him this as small child and sticks. 

How old are they? - At the time of New Dawn 24 almost 25 years old.

When’s their birthday? -  October 19th

What’s their zodiac sign/element/birthstone/etc.? Do they believe that holds any significance?

What’s their species/subspecies? Do they have any special/magical abilities? - He’s a Seed... does that count? He has John’s “far too blue” eyes...so like... That could be considered super powers.... 

What “class” do they belong to (for fantasy characters)? If none, what weapon do they favor? - If there was such thing as a Healer Mage class in the FC universe.. .that would probably be Sam’s class because he is exceptionally smart with a real focus in medicine and science/chemistry. If the Collapse wouldn’t have happened he would probably have gone to Med School to become a surgeon. 

APPEARANCE

What do they look like? - Same is the tallest of MJ and John’s kids standing just a hair taller than his father at 5′11. He has long dark brown hair and an impressive beard, both of which he has sported since he was 16 making him often be mistaken for much older than he is. He slight of build and looks to be in far better shape physically than he is actually is. 

Do they have a face claim? - Tom Payne - Specifically as Paul “Jesus” Rovia from TWD

What’s their style like? Clothes, hair, makeup? -  He is a pretty standard guy. He isn’t fancy, mostly because this world doesn’t allow for it. He likes t-shirts, sweaters and jeans. He will wear an old button up shirt if he can find it and has several trench coats he has acquired over the years. His hair is usually down and one the rare occasion that he puts it up, Lily always glares at him and tells him to put his hair down before their mother sees... because with his hair up.. he looks a lot like a young Joseph. 

How do they carry themselves? What’s their default expression? - Sam is a very self assured young man, bordering on the cockiness of John in his youth. He has been painfully aware that he was always one of the more intelligent people in the room from a young age and developed a bit of a superiority complex because of it. He tends to stand with his shoulders back and hands at his side or in his pockets. He is an observer, rarely the person leading the conversation but always watching and passing his judgment.

Do they have any physical ailments or disabilities? - Sam is the only one of MJ and John’s kids to have been born with health issues. He had a medium sized hole in his heart when he was born that eventually required surgery. Though since that surgery had very little issue besides a heart mummer. This however left MJ way over protective of him well into adulthood. 

PERSONALITY

What’s their alignment? Lawful Neutral 

Which one of the 16 Personality Types do they fit into? - INTP

What are their hobbies and interests? Do they have any particular “favorites” (food, books, and so on)? - Sam loves music, he plays piano and guitar. He is much more of a classical music person and as a child spent hours practicing. His favorite books are Animal Farm and Frankenstein. His favorite food as a child was pizza and pasta, as an adult he is happy with whatever he can get but still loves carbs. His favorite item from his childhood he was able to keep was a model plane that John and him made when he was 6. It’s of John’s plane. 

What are they bad at? - Dealing with intense emotions, both their own and other people’s. He never knows how to react and often seems to ‘over react’ with his own emotions. He also can not shoot to save his life. 

What kind of things do they dislike/hate? - Unnecessary cruelty. Onions, Fish and split pea soup.

Do they have any vices/addictions/mental illnesses? - Well... lets just start with he has a lot of childhood trauma... which defiantly manifests it’s self in some pretty well hidden anxiety and depression. He also comes from a long line of people who suffer with various addictions and I could see Sam having again...a very well hidden...drinking problem. Particularly post-ND events. 

What are their goals and motivations? - Their end goal is not peace, as much as an agreement that would allow everyone to function as they need to with in a certain set of rules... IE... he wants to re-establish a ruling body of government on a very small scale in Hope County that would allow for the communities to work together when needed but function independently as they wish as long as they cause no harm to the other communities. This is motivated by his study of history and his belief that because he has studied so much, he has found fault in the old systems and what he will build will be better. 

What are their manners like? Any habits? - He has an odd stillness about him, even as small child. He was the quite one, the better behaved of the twins (easily the most well behaved of all MJ and John’s children). He tends to crack his knuckles when he is nervous or clear his throat when he feels the conversation is getting off topic. 

What are they most afraid of? - Not being able to do enough. He sees what happened because of his father, his family.. his mother’s family. Sam feels (like all the kids do in some way) responsible for fixing the mess that the Seeds created in Hope County. 

BACKGROUND

Where were they born? What was their childhood like? - He was born with his sister Lilith at the birthing center in Hope County (but both he and Lily were sent to a much bigger hospital shortly after they were born because the small hospital couldn’t handle them being 8 weeks early). Their childhood before the collapse was filled with pockets of really happy times mixed with stretches of chaos. Both he and Lily vividly remember The Project at Eden’s Gate and the events of the Reaping. Both he and Lily were present for the attempted arrest of Joseph. After the collapse it was still difficult in the bunker as both his parents struggled with believed loss of Jacob, Ellie and worst of all Grace. Once they left the bunker things settled into a new normal. He is very close with Lily and Rose, as well as his Uncle Mac. He is close with both of his parents but is resentful on some level of their preoccupation with losing Grace.  

What’s their family like? - A hot mess... but the core they are very tight knit. Sam is more ready to trust a member of his immediate family than anyone else. 

What factions or organizations are they a part of? What ranks and titles do they hold? - He and Lily were called “The First of the Children of New Eden” within the Project as small children and as an adult he holds the role of the “doctor” in the community John calls “Redemption” but really Sam is main intelligence gatherer as people are very disarmed by him because of his ability to help the sick. 

How do they fit into their “story”? - Sam is Ethan’s foil for lack of a better way of putting. Ethan is grasping for power, while Sam wants nothing do with holding an position at all within New Eden. He has no desire to fulfill any of the role that The Father saw him. He is easily the one most suited to lead, but has no desire what so ever to lead anyone or be any manner of spiritual leader to people. 

Where do they currently live? What’s their place like?

How do they eventually die? - He dies of a sudden heart attack while speaking to a group of people gathered in New Eden (preaching basically) at the age of 36. He dies before both his parents and all three of his sisters. 

RELATIONSHIPS

Do they have any friends? Would they consider anyone to be their best friend? - His best friend is easily Lily, because they are twins. Their relationship is just on a different level than other peoples. They understand each other often with just glances and small changes in expression. He also becomes close with Finn, both sharing a bit of a sarcastic and witty sense of humor. 

What’s their friend group like? What role do they play in it?

What’s their love life like? (See also: ship question meme.) Do they have any kids? - Well.. not really. He spends most of his time with his sisters during the story and I never really thought of him in romantic terms...at all. I could see him having kids one day, either “adopting” or by natural means... either or. 

Who do they look up to? Who do they trust? - Really the person Sam looks up to the most is Mac. He respects Mac’s ability to pragmatic about difficult choices and always put the others before his own benefit. Mac had a big hand in raising Sam, so this really comes as no surprise. As far as people he trusts, he trusts his family... his sisters (including Grace), his uncles, Rachel/Faith, Ellie,... pretty much everyone but Joseph and Ethan that share DNA with him. 

Who do they hate? Do they have any enemies? - Joseph, mostly because he puts the full blame on what happened with the collapse and the events the happened in his life right before squarely on Joseph’s shoulders. This by proxy extends to Ethan...

Do they have any pets? - As a child he had several, Boomer and Salem even made it to the bunker with them (thank you Sean and Faith) but since then he never really kept bets.

Are they good with kids? Animals? - Yes to both.

FUN FACTS

Which tropes do they fit? Which archetypes? - The Dutiful Son , Looks Like Jesus/Hippie Jesus  (that one goes without saying right?), The Spymaster & Big Brother Instinct 

Do they play any instruments? Sports? - He plays Piano and he was never much for sports. 

What are some items they always carry?- A knife, a small black notebook and a pen.

Do they collect anything? - Books.

What position do they sleep in? - On his stomach mostly with the pillow over his head rather than under his head.

Which emoji would they use the most? - The eyes emoji

What languages do they speak? - English

What’s their favorite expletive? - Fuck

What’s their favorite candle scent? - Probably like Pine...

What songs remind you of them? - Loosing My Religion - R.E.M

Which animal would you say represents them? - The Raven

What stereotypical high school clique would they fit into? - The Weird kids that don’t fit in with any other group who is kinda metal head looking but gets straight A’s. 

What would their favorite ride at an amusement park be? - Bumper Cars (he actually gets to go once as a child)

Do they believe in aliens? Ghosts? Reincarnation or something else? - For someone who grew up in such a superstitious home, if Sam doesn’t have evidence for it... he doesn’t believe. 

Do they follow any religions/gods? Do they celebrate holidays? - Again, for someone who grew up in such an intensely religious home, he lost all connection to PEG or even conventional Christian beliefs by the time he is an adult he declares he is in Atheist. He does preach about keeping a very personal set of morals that you should adhere to but, not the belief there is an all knowing deity. 

Which Deadly Sin do they most correspond to? Which Heavenly Virtue? - Pride 

If you had to choose one tarot card to represent them, which would it be? - The Hierphant 

[horsepriest]

I did this meme for Adelie on a whim and to link to her Refsheet page. There is hints towards spoilers for "The Moonlit Path" but none for "A Glimpse Beyond the Illusion."

There is some content warning of general malice and mentions of murder.

Elite Adelie

Basic stats:

Name: Elite Adelie

Gender/Pronouns: Agender she/her

Height: 8 ft with crown

Species: Other-Merged Hirudian Elite

Domain: The Firmament

Sexuality: Undefined

Romance: Undefined

Birthday: Dec. 12

Age: 260

Occupation: She is the Hirudian Elite that oversees all efforts outside of the sphere of Hirud and Light's Landing. Her wing of the military goes off-world to other planets to reap their resources. Her civilian forces mine the asteroid belts and guard them heavily. With her lab nestled in space rock, she is close enough to oversee the extraction processes. However, there is a large facility of hangars on Hirud that is incorporated into her domain. She occupies her time mostly with her experiments with the Other, sapient alien species, and her Liberated.

Weapons: Like all other Elites: innate control of the parasite in nearly every form. This includes her own, the metal plates that form the shell of her body can be molded into weapons she can control tele-empathically. She can, and does, use the Liberated parasite to force Liberated to fight for her- even if they don't want to.

Personality: Aloof, haughty, fickle. Adelie is the highest rank within the Great Hirudian Empire and she knows it. All other beings are below her, beasts or ooze. Adelie likes total control and will do whatever is needed to gain it (even ally with another Elite). Even her experiments are Liberated. She "loves" her experiments, like a person does with pets. This includes her Warlord Gresham. She has raised him from a kit. She indulged his worst impulses and encouraged him to follow through with them. She rewards him for his malice- in a way, she finds it cute.

OC Question Meme

1. How easy is it to make them angry? Do they show their anger or hide it? Extremely easy. Adelie likes everything to be exact to her mysterious specifications and she becomes irritated by anything that does not meet those specifications. Due to the immobility of her face and lack of vocal voice, it is difficult to see or hear her emotions, but it is easy to feel them due to her tele-empathy. She may kill you or take over your Liberation to do her bidding regardless. (In the case of Gresham, she loans him out to other Elites as she knows that is what hurts him most).

2. Do they believe in soulmates? Maybe she did, before becoming an Elite and essentially immortal. Her understanding of companionship has been twisted by her access to extreme power and merging with the Parasite. It has made her manipulative and view others as pawns, beasts, or ooze. Other influence has further twisted her view of the world causing her to lose touch with feelings. The closest thing she feels to “love” is akin to a human’s love for pets, including all the horrible aspects that crops up (breeding for specific traits for aesthetics/the hell of it to the detriment of the being’s health). Gresham is the perfect example of this.

3. Do they have any pet peeves? Disobedience. Disorderliness. Chaos. Anything that is outside of her expectations. While she is familiar with the drawbacks of many of her monsters (such as drool or blood in unsightly places), she prefers sterility. For Gresham, she just holds his jaw shut in her presence. Most others are stored in appropriately sized glass terrariums or aquariums for observation.

4. Do they have a happy place? Somewhere to go to in their heads when they need to relax? Adelie probably does not feel happiness in the same way a mortal could. Such a long life and access to such power and information leaves Elites numb to most emotions. She passively watches her newest experiments when she needs a distraction. She does this by passively accessing the Hirudian collective conscious to access the Parasite’s hivemind (not HiveMind) to watch through janitorial swarms.

5. At what stage of their life were they the happiest? Probably right before Ascension. The process requires being entirely in tune with one’s parasite and exerting one’s will beyond the parasite’s needs. It requires a lot of stubbornness and ambition—typically one ascends when they are at their most powerful, confident, and sure of themselves and thus, typically at their happiest.

6. At what stage of their life were they the least happy? Probably around when she realized that she required the starlight to live initially. Prior to infection, Hirudians are your typical organic-based organism, they don’t naturally require sunlight to function. It is a common frustration when becoming speakers to learn how to be purely diurnal and not require assistance with getting home before the star sets. It is a typical time of mourning of their lives that they have “lost” in the dawning of the new life they face (like many great shifts in life). Perhaps this is what spurred Adelie to become the Star Shunner? It is much easier to protect oneself from the light, than it is to require it.

7. At a bar/tavern/pub are they more likely to buy someone a drink, or have someone buy them a drink?

Adelie is more likely to buy someone else a drink. She cannot drink anymore and lacks a mouth. As for interplanetary negotiations, an expensive drink and hospitality goes a long way. Despite Adelie’s beliefs of her superiority, she knows you catch far, far, far more flies with honey. Or champagne.

8. Have they ever broken any bones? If yes, how?

Ascension is a bloody violent process where the mechanical form tears through the flesh then crushes the organic body under its metal weight. Deep in Adelie’s core, her organic body remains, crushed and unrecognizable by every means. Yet, it is still alive. It will still live long after her “ending” as well.

9. Do they have any memories/experiences they would rather forget? Not really. She does have the ability to remove harmful memories as needed. Also, her long life has numbed her to most of her memories and feelings.

10. What is their favourite memory from their childhood? Her long life has numbed her to most of her memories and feelings.

11. Do they have a “type” they are usually attracted to? Bestial, mutated, and as changed from their natural form as possible. She tends to pick larger specimens, breeding them into a much larger form if needed (usually artificially except for Vactyr).

12. Do they have any favourite possessions? Probably Gresham. He is her show pony, a prime example of her skill in bioengineering and in raising a horribly loyal war machine. He is a monstrous titan that is wrapped around the smallest finger of her smallest hand; he is utterly under her control under his own will—Liberation is just a cherry on top.

13. Do they have any tattoos? If no, would they ever consider getting one? At her present form, she is incapable of receiving tattoos. Not that she would want one anyways.

14. Do they have any piercings? If no, would they ever consider getting one? At her present form, she is incapable of having a piercing. Not that she would want one anyways.

15. What is their dream house like? They already live in it. An isolated asteroid containing all her active experiments and a handful of personal servants to assist her.

16. What is something about them that people would not expect just by looking at them? She is a lot more reactive emotionally than she looks, and her mind is a lot more active than she seems. Adelie is focused on her experiments far away while also handling matters requiring her attention.

17. How good are they at choosing gifts for others? In terms of impressing a potential business partner, she is exceptionally good at selecting things to do and give that feel extravagant and luxurious. However, for those she “cares” about, the gifts are not quite gifts. She will only give something that will benefit her. For instance, she rewards Gresham with the opportunity to torture others to his content for being a good Warlord.

18. Do they have a certain skill that they are particularly proud of? She can survive in the dark, unlike the rest of the infected Hirudians. She can somewhat controlthe Other, as much as one can at least. Her military wing is also running tightly and without direct need of her control; much unlike the crust, which is a mess and is out of control. (Adelie and Argiope have some tension between them)

19. How would a stranger they just met describe them? Intimidating, ethereal, alien. Interacting with an Elite is much like interacting with a biblical angel. Only, they are okay with you being afraid.

20. How would a close friend they have known for a long time describe them? Stuck up, aloof, perfectionist, a bitch, etc. The other Elites do not like her, but honestly, the Elites do not like each other overall.

21. Do they have any personal insecurities? Not really. She is comfortable in the fact that her minions will not revolt and issues in the home world do not bother her much at all.

22. What is their highest physical stat? (Strength, stamina, defense, speed, etc.) and their highest non-physical stat? (Intelligence, perception, charisma, luck, etc.)? Physical: Stamina. She is a machine infused with the mysteries of the universe- there is not anything that could stop her if she really wanted something. Non-physical: intelligence.

23. How would they react to finding out someone lied to them, even if it were for their own safety/well-being? She would get the truth out of you. Lying shows too much free will and that will not do.

24. Do they prefer cold weather or warm weather? Adelie does not really mind any temperature but keeps her lab cold.

25. How easy is it for them to say, “I love you”? Easy, too easy. It is as sincere as an abusive pet parent saying I love you to their pet though.

26. How easy is it for them to tell someone about their worries? Others would be able to feel her worries around her, there would not be really any question of what is bothering her. Adelie probably talks to herself in her lab.

27. Have they ever witnessed someone die? She has killed people in unique and messed up ways. So yes.

28. Are they ticklish? No.

29. How high/low is their pain tolerance? Exceedingly high. She is a machine at this point.

30. Is there something they secretly wish they could do but are too afraid to? Probably take a vacation. Adelie is a bit of an introvert and the Hirudian collective consciousness is probably low-key torture.

31. Are they a messy eater or a neat eater? Adelie is currently incapable of eating like an organic being. Mysteries of how Elites consume resources has not been determined yet, but Adelie is probably neat with the process.

32. What moment of their life made them feel most unloved? As she is so detached from every other being, Adelie probably does not feel very loved as is. Everything around her is either working against her or is a servant of hers. Not that she cares.

33. What moment of their made them feel most loved? If she paid attention, it would be in how Gresham adores her and cares for her. But she does not care.

34. Which of the senses would they hate to lose the most: vision, hearing, smell, taste, or touch? I have good authority to say that she will probably hate it when she loses pretty much everything.

35. Are they good at small talk? Adelie does not engage in small talk; she will steer such conversations back to important matters.

36. If they could ask anyone one question and get the absolute truth, who and what would they ask? She would ask the “powers that be” if her trust in the Other will betray her someday.

37. If they had the chance, would they prefer to travel to the past or to the future? If she knew what is in her future, she would go into the past.

38. Who had the biggest impact in their life, both positive and negative?

A mix of the parasite and the Other. She became an Elite due to the parasite and became more powerful through merging with the Other.

39. Would they rather life a life always surrounded by people, or always alone? Always alone.

40. Is there anyone or anything that immediately instills fear in them? There is a moment in the story she feels terror for the first time since she became an Elite—It’s when Gresham chooses to stay with her.

[theramseyloft]

Pigeon domestication: Feral Pigeons are not wildlife.

There were some inaccuracies in the first post on this topic, so I’m making a new one. A second edition, if you will.

One of my followers once asked me why it was that pigeons in wildlife rehab should be held when other animals should be handled as little as possible.

I misunderstood the crap out of her question! And it took three posts to realize I had!

Injured or orphaned Wildlife in a rehab center need to be handled as little as possible to avoid imprinting onto humans. They need to be able to survive on their own, and developing the habit of asking humans for hand outs will lead it to becoming malnourished at best and get it killed for being a nuisance at worst.

Mammals in particular may be killed on approach as fearless approach of humans by a wild animal is one of the warning signs that it might have rabies, which requires brain tissue to test for.

Pigeons are not wild animals. On principal, imprinting avoidance should not apply to them.

Furthermore, it causes them a lot of harm.

Pigeons are intensely social birds! Nestlings suffer from touch starvation as intensely as a human infant and can be mentally stunted or even out right stress to death from lack of interaction.

More urgently: We are simply not capable of teaching a domestic pigeon peep to survive in the wild.

Pigeons are social and observational learners, with cognition equivalent to a human 5 year old. Like human children, pigeon squeakers are TAUGHT how to be pigeons. 

Their social structure is VERY human like! Their father takes them out on foraging trips (because mom either has or is getting ready to lay the next clutch) and teaches them where to find food, water, and nest materials, what to eat, where to shelter, and how to interact with other pigeons. How and when to defer to the status of older established flock mates to avoid a fight and how and when to stick up for themselves to make sure they get their fair share of resources.

Songbirds and nearly all other columbids kick their kids out as soon as they are self feeding and they either make it or they don’t. Their parents will chase them out if they come back.

Feral Pigeons only leave their families if the flock has grown too large for local resources to support. 

Truthfully, orphaned feral pigeons do not belong in wildlife rehab at all. Pet shelters should be set up for them. 

Feral Pigeons are not wild animals. Imprinting avoidance should not apply to them any more than it should apply to an orphaned puppy.

Feral puppies don’t get raised among fox kits or coyote or wolf pups at a wildlife rehab and sent out for release “into the wild”.

Seriously. Take a moment to consider the following scenario:

A shelter gets an orphaned or injured puppy. They bottle feed it until it can reliably feed itself, heal it’s injuries, and clean out its parasites.

And then they return that just weaned, newly healthy puppy to the alley from whence it came.

How many of you, of you actually saw this happen, or heard the plan for the puppy’s release, would not be INSTANTLY concerned for its well being?

How many of your guts just clenched at the thoughts that flooded your minds of it getting hit by a car? Going hungry enough to have to eat garbage? Getting into something poisonous or sharp? Dying because it was left alone with no shelter or resources in a hostile environment?

How many of you, upon hearing that that puppy was going back into the street, would protest that it needs a home? That it’s a pet? That it’s helpless? That it’s most likely to die if it’s released?

What would your reaction be if that rehab brushed all of those aside by pointing out that there are adult strays eating garbage and dodging cars, and they’re fine?

How many of you would get upset? How many would protest that those strays aren’t healthy? That they are skinny, full of parasites, visibly sick, and limping from old wounds?

How would you react if that rehabber looked you dead in the eye and said “Those are wolves and they should be free.”

What if, at all shelters, only purebred puppies, or puppies with obvious fancy traits were put up for open adoption, and all mutts were “released” back onto the street, with all offers to adopt them turned down because they were born outside? What if you could only request to take home a mutt puppy if it lost the use of a limb and was deemed unreleasable?

This happens to pigeons every day, and they are no less domesticated than dogs are.

Dogs have been traveling with humans since the time when there were several species of human!

But pigeons have been with us since our settlements became permanent, and that relationship is nothing to sneeze at!

Do you know why doves have the religeous significance they do?

Because of the Wild Rock Dove, which is to domestic pigeons what the wolf is to domestic dogs.

Rock Doves are cliff nesters native to Turkey, India, the northernmost coast of Africa and southern Europe, who live only in very specific locations: Seaside cliffs on the edge of deserts.

They are grain eaters that need to drink a certain amount of fresh water every day.

If you were lost in the desert, finding a Rock Dove would save your life, if you could keep it in sight. 

During the day, it would lead you to water because it can’t go a day with out. 

At night, it would lead you back to safe, habitable shelter. After all, if there are predators or noxious gas in abundance, the Rock Doves couldn’t live there either.

It’s true that pigeons were initially domesticated for meat, but the Rock Dove’s bond to a specific home site and the unerring navigation that returned them reliably to it every night lead them to being domesticated more like dogs than any other livestock.

Pigeon holes are really easy to make. It’s just an even opening in a mud or stone wall deep enough for a fully grown bird to be completely sheltered and wide enough for two pigeons to build their nest and raise two peeps in.

Babies could be collected from the wild at around two weeks of age, feathered enough to thermoregulate and just starting to wean from pigeon milk to seed. At this age, they could be moved into the man made pigeon holes and hand fed until they could feed themselves.

It would be three to four weeks before they began to be really capable of flight, so the man made dovecote became the Home site onto which the babies imprinted to just as much as their handler.

If the keepers were smart, they brought home a group of babies, because rock doves are social with a cooperative family structure.

If taken at the right ages, that group formed a mini flock, just big enough to watch each others backs and their surroundings on foraging trips farther and farther afield. 

When pigeons take mates from another flock, the pair decides which family to join based on the security of the nest site and availability of resources, so pigeons from a man made dovecote always had the advantage of superior security. New mates came home with the tamed peeps and learned by observation that the human care takers were harmless protectors.

If the farmer was smart, they’d only harvest meat or eggs sparingly and at night so that the pigeons would not associate the human with being preyed upon.

Because pigeons could go out and forage for themselves and be trusted to return, the farmer didn’t have to feed them, and a person could not be too poor to own pigeons.

Not only were they live stock that fed themselves and brought more birds back with them, the guano of a well fed pigeon is one of the most nutritious fertilizers on earth!

If you want crops to grow in a desert landscape, moist pigeon guano worked into the ground will work wonders!

Pigeon guano eventually became so highly prized that people who could afford to hired armed guards to protect their cote!

We kinda ALWAYS knew about pigeon navigation, but the Greeks and Romans wrote a LOT about their use as messengers.

Messengers were not just any domestic pigeon! Speed and navigational accuracy were the traits their lines were selected for exclusively, so these were expensive specialty birds, especially beloved by the well-to-do and the military.

Every fort and palace had a cote for messenger pigeons so that they could recieve the most urgent of messages in situations where a human runner was just not fast enough.

Royal emissaries and platoons of soldiers out on a mission were sent with a supply of birds from that palace or fort so that if they needed to get a message out, they could send it by the fastest carrier over the straightest path.

Pigeons continued to be used in the messenger capacity until only about 50 years ago. 

During this time when every one depended on them for swift communication, EVERY ONE loved and revered pigeons!

Their diversity so inspired Charles Darwin that he did a TON of his genetics research using them as models! And pigeons were so beloved by Victorian England that his editors tried to twist his arm to write a book entirely about pigeons instead of what became the Origin of Species!

When Eugenics began to fascinate the European well to do and dog shows came to be, pigeon varieties also blossomed! 

There were pigeons all over the world at this point, and different regions had so many different ideas of what shape and color and pattern made a beautiful Pigeon! While some valued the appearance, others valued a unique areal performance or a more musical singing voice.

There are at least as many distinct breeds of pigeon now as there are of dog! I have heard that there are more, possibly even considerably more, but I don’t know enough about dog breed diversity to say for certain whether or not those assessments are accurate.

We have taken pigeons EVERYWHERE with us! And when we loved and took care of them, everybody benefited.

But about 50 years ago was when technology caught up with and surpassed the speed of pigeon borne messages, and pigeons were slower with more expensive upkeep.

As previously stated, the military were not the only people who loved pigeons.

But a LOT of the people who kept them after the military phased them out in the US were immigrants and people of color. 

It was a status symbol not to need gardens or farms or livestock, so pigeon coops became associated largely with poor neighboorhoods and immigrants. 

As pigeons fell out of favor, and more and more ferals started living on the closest thing to a comfortable environment: Buildings. 

As they were fed by fewer and fewer people and had access to less and less grain, it became more common to see the white streaked splatters of the pure uric acid that pigeons excrete on an empty stomach.

Uric acid eats stone, concrete, asphalt, and especially metal.

Feral Pigeons thus became linked to property damage, and the smear campaign that coined the description “Rats with wings” ( http://www.audubon.org/news/the-origins-our-misguided-hatred-pigeons ) and linked them with filth and disease was the final blow to the public’s esteem for this animal that has been our partner and companion through THOUSANDS of years of history.

That description of pigeons was all it took to turn thousands of years of adoration and respect into knee jerk revulsion. 

Add the fact that domestication favors year round reproduction, and 50 years later, the feral population of pigeons is staggering. 

Millions are spent to kill them off and drive them out using everything from poison to spikes to nets, tar, traps, and fines levied on the kind souls that recognize their hunger and feed them.

The Street Pigeon Project spearheaded in Germany has found that the most effective way to decrease the feral population and minimize the damage they cause to buildings is to, get this: Take FUCKING CARE OF THEM!!!

They built a big, comfortable rooftop loft with lots of nesting spaces, provided a good mix or grain, seed, legumes, and calcuim, and swapped out the eggs with fakes.

The unrestrained, non-coerced feral pigeons spent 80% of their time in that loft, only leaving to stretch their wings.

It was more comfortable than the awnings, eves, attics, and signs that had been the best nesting grounds available, so they left! 

With no need to range out to look for food, they didn’t go very far.

On full bellies, with good food, their poo wasn’t just pure uric acid anymore!

With eggs swapped out as they were found, reproduction decreased by 95%!

And the best part? It cost SO much less to house and feed the ferals than it did to try to exterminate them!

That’s not even scratching the surface of the OTHER benefits that could be extended from that project!

Pigeon eggs are edible! Even if the thought squicks out people and they can’t be regulated, animals can eat pigeon eggs too. They could be donated to wild life rehabs and animal shelters.

A street pigeon project could partner with community gardens to clean the lofts and keep the fertilizer they gather. THEY could also use the eggs to compost!

Cleaning the loft could also count as community service!

Pigeons did not invade cities. We abandoned them there, after they helped us coordinate building and connecting them.

They are, in every sense of the words, abandoned, forgotten sky puppies.

And they deserve to be treated with the same concern and compassion as every other lost pet.

Adult ferals would be more hurt than helped by capture, but they should have the option of a safe place to go to be fed and cared for, and weaned babies deserve to go to loving homes.

I know there are too many to home right now and that isn’t feasible for rehabs that get hundreds of them, but where rehoming isn’t an option, they should at LEAST be acclimated in a group with supplemental feeding until they find their way in the world.

Pigeons were made what they are by us. They were abandoned by us. 

Everything we complain about regarding pigeons are traits WE intentionally bred into them! And we inexplicably treat *them* like the invaders after abandoning them the second they were no longer deemed useful. 

We even forgot that the pidge we see every day on the street are domesticated birds! 

They are literally stray dogs with wings!

It’s time we remember that relationship and remind other people.

And please, please… be kind to the Sky Puppies. 

They deserve to be loved again.

[nebris]

Her Prophet Speaks: Transhumanist Matriarchy

~I was watching this gorgeous video of our Sun and being who I am and doing what I do, my aesthetic thoughts were secondary to my...well, let's call them my Pragmatic Thoughts. For all its undeniable beauty, as I watched gossamer tendrils of 'star light' dance off the Sun's radiant body, I was all too aware that if one of them glanced against our Pale Blue Dot for even a few seconds, most if not all life would be instantly seared from its surface. Maybe that was foremost in my mind because I was two hundred or so pages into Neal Stephenson's SEVENEVES at the time. [Spoiler: The Moon blows up] But I likely would have thought the above anyway. I am usual aware of how fragile life is here on the Pale Blue Dot and of how deadly and violent the Universe truly is and because of that reality, it is crucial that we as a species get a substantial number of ourselves Off Planet ASAP if we wish to survive. From that point of view Deep Green politics are Pure Suicide in that they reject the entire idea of Technological Civilization. And I would say to those ecologically minded folks who say we have to 'clean up the Earth first', “It is a highly dangerous assumption to think we have time to wait for that.” Besides, going Off Planet is an essential part of 'cleaning up Earth'. The primary caveat to all of this is that it has been shown that we Baseline Humans do not do very well in Space. In zero gravity we lose bone and muscle mass and 'bad things' happen our internal organs. And we know that the raw radiation of Space is harmful as well. We just do not yet know how harmful it will be over the long term. I use the term Baseline Humans because we are now at a place were we can actively modify ourselves. But we Homo Sapiens Sapiens are only 'baseline' because of that scientific 'baseline'. Homo Sapiens Idaltu [our now extinct direct ancestors], Homo Neanderthalensis and Denisova Hominins were just as 'human' we are. And there may well have been a few subspecies before them who were also 'just as human'. But they are gone and we are here. ...which brings us to Transhumanism. First we need to redefine one term... Cyborg: this word has been misused by The Terminator franchise. 'Terminators' are NOT Cyborgs, they are Androids, aka Humanoid Robots. It's something of a pet peev of mine. A real Cyborg [Cybernetic Organism] is a human who has been augmented with Cybernetic elements. They walk among us already. Someone with a pace-maker and/or Cochlear implants is technically already a Cyborg, albeit more with a small 'c'. When we talk about brain controlled artificial limbs - something that is also already happening - then one is moving into capital 'C' Cyborg territory. The Transhumanist Cyborg will be a far more extensively modified human. This would include an on-board computer to monitor and maintain all the systems said human contains. It would probably be about the size of a credit card and be placed just under the skin. Ultimately these systems would include, though not be limited to; ~a carbon fiber reinforced bone structure to maximize strength and protect from impacts, ~cerebral implants [Neural Nanonics] to maximize cognition and perception, download information directly and communicate via 'cyber-telepathy', ~micro-electronic contact lenses that allow the eyes to see the entire light spectrum and which contain both macro and micro focusing elements, information screens and measuring elements, ~a subcutaneous microfiber mesh to prevent puncture woulds, maintain level body temperature in extreme environments and promote rapid healing, ~millions of nanobots, microscopic robots that permeate all of the body's tissues and fluids and constantly monitor and repair all tissues and organs using a regular infusing of raw stem cells. For certain situations, limbs could be replaced by fully mechanical prosthesis, but those would be special cases, such as loss of a limb, but eventually organic limbs could be regrown. In other special cases, various organs, such as eyes and lungs, could be replaced by fully mechanical prosthesis in order to operate in highly extreme environments, with the possibility of having them replaced with organics [wetware] when the individual returns to a human friendly locale. Obviously, that crosses over into Genetic Engineering, which is in some ways the 'other half' of Transhumanist development and, in my view, the more important one. Cybernetics are really just “Enhancements” of the Baseline Human form. Genetics are how we begin to move beyond the fundamentals of Baseline Humanity. This is where people start getting frightened because we will in fact be designing and breeding the species that is going to replace us. That brings up all manner of existential terror, visions of remorseless Supermen on a crusade to exterminate the Baseline Humans. But the truth is they are our descendants, our Children...and do we not always want our Children to do better than us, to BE better than us? The human genome has been fully mapped, though there is much we do not yet understand. But we are learning more everyday, even in the face of the above terrified opposition. Though many Baselines scream, “We cannot play God!” that is what we have always done. It is hardwired into out basic nature. [I will address the Metaphysics of this later] One of the things we have learned is how mutable our DNA actually is. It seems that powerful events in early childhood can cause chemical and hormonal surges that can quite literally change the structure of our DNA, changes that we can pass on to our children. Most of that work has focused on trauma for obvious reasons; it is the easiest to track. But it is also highly probably that an intensely positive childhood can do the same. However, this process can also be effected by direct manipulation of our DNA, removing negative inhibiting traits, disease causing genes and adding/augmenting genetic inclinations. Raise such Enhanced children in a positive and supportive environment – we require both Nature and Nurture – and the possibilities are endless. Genetic Engineering can be used to increase muscle and bone density to create greater strength and endurance, to improve organ function...including brain function, to retard and reverse aging – one day even prevent it all together once a certain state of being has been achieved – to strengthen the entire human organism across the board so that we can survive and prosper in almost any environment. On a less esoteric level, we need to do this. The Race needs to become spacefaring because the surface of a planet is a dangerous place to live and all the evidence shows that Baseline Humans do not do well in space. So this is a matter of the long term Survival of the Race. As one looks deeper into the Transhumanist Community, you will find that it is largely dominated by Western Middle Class White Beta Males, a significant number of them twenty/thirty-somethings who are Atheist, Libertarian, personally awkward and who cannot wait to upload their minds into a box to escape that awkwardness. I have no time for them as they are an evolutionary dead end. Mind uploading should be a Final Option, not a primary one. In parallel with this is the most profound contradiction of their Transhumanism; that for a group that is almost uniformly Atheist, it has a near fanatic desire to create itself a God in the form of an AI, which will then 'transform Earth into a Deathless Paradise'. Maybe this accounts for the community's distinct aversion to Metaphysical study, for such would quickly lay bare its clearly Judeo-Christian underpinnings. For a whole set of reasons, both practical/mundane and esoteric/Metaphysical, I am firmly convinced that the Future of The Race lays with Enhanced Females, in effect Cyborg Amazons. Their enhancements would allow them to reproduce with each other – which would produce only daughters – and so leave Baseline Males, and all of their inherent instability, far behind. And said enhancements would also make carrying a child to term and childbirth itself a far easier and safer process that it is naturally. Some advocate that we totally transfer human reproduction to entirely artificial means, e.g. Uterine Replicators. But that is heading in the same direction as Mind Uploading and is the path to becoming non-humans instead of Superior Humans. With the pain and difficulty of bearing children removed, what is left is the Primal Bond and that is what will keep us Human no matter how advanced we become. Those are the basic tenets of Transhumanism I see them. There are however many other aspects, a whole world remodeled to support these Superior Humans, what we presently call The Internet of Things, all the myriad machinery of Modern Civilization networked together and at the beck and call of each human's on-board cybernetics. And then there is the requirement of creating Homo Servitus, which is also the title of the following short essay; “The need for a reliable Labor Force is one of the oldest and most difficult issues of human civilization. The harsh truth is that we Baseline Humans are too varied, too impulsive, too inconsistent and always dissatisfied with something. To create order among us eventually requires lies and coercion and as such leads to Tyranny, which damages the Oppressor as much as the Oppressed by brutalizing both. Better then to turn the Means of Production to the production of Workers themselves, a genetically engineered Servitor Class, beings who are happy with their lot and take pleasure from performing their duties. Such beings would have simple needs, requiring only humane treatment and modest comfort beyond their Purpose as Workers to make their lives pleasurable. Many of you will react with horror at this entire line of thinking. Yet consider this; the device upon which you are reading these words requires a number of Rare Earths to function. Many of those elements are mined in the Congo by people who are essentially slaves, most of them war refugees and quite a few survivors of War Rape. Their lives are a daily regime of brutality and for most their only escape is death. I'm sure you're horrified by that as well, but you're not going give up your device, are you? The technologies necessary to create Homo Servitus are already under development. The parsing of genes that guide certain behavioral tendencies. Cloning from ordinary human cells. Uterine Replicators. Cerebral implants to guide and control behavior. Many of the various members of this Servitor Class would be designed and grown with their specific tasks in mind. A small number would be more generalized servants. But they would all be grown, which is their major advantage over robots. Robots require complex engineering and lots of raw materials. This type of biological Servitor Class also avoids the existential danger of creating independent and mobile AIs. On the other end of the scale, we need to evolve a type of Homo Superior..but that's a tale for another time. Either way, we Baseline Humans will soon need to move off the stage before we wreck the whole place.” Given that I envision the idea Homo Superior as Cyborg Amazons, the DNA to be used for Homo Servitus would be that of Baseline Males. And there will even be some Baseline Males who will happily volunteer to undergo transformation into some types of Servitors, much in the fashion of submissive Males who wish to be Collared by Female Dominants today. This then is my view of the optimal form of Transhumanism, a Transhumanist Matriarchy. It should be noted that many in the Transhumanist community seem share a certain outlook, the admirable view that Transhumanism will succeed by pure reason and logic alone. But the vast majority of Baseline Humans are *not* reasonable nor logical. As a species we tend to automatically view Change as Loss, are largely superstitious, fear driven and more often than not act with a violent irrationality upon anything we perceive as threatening whatever little epistemological ghetto we happen to live in. Something like Transhumanism is utterly terrifying to most Baseline Humans as they quite accurately see it as heralding the end of their line. That is a profound existential threat that I guarantee will be meet with an extreme and brutal reaction. To deny this reality is suicidal foolishness. This is a Struggle for The Future. Such is not for the faint of heart nor the weak willed. We in the Transhumanist community have a double challenge, that of upgrading and improving The Race while simultaneously fighting off those who wish to maintain the status quo. At certain points that will require the use of Violent Force. I repeat, 'To deny this reality is suicidal foolishness.' Many in the Transhumanist community will find this a repugnant paradigm and reject it. I suspect no small number of those will have an unpleasant fate upon actually encountering said paradigm. The more bloody minded of us will carry on and do our best to defend those with that more 'enlightened' world view from the brutal ugliness of the real unenlightened world Something to keep in mind; that those who want the species to remain just as it is vastly outnumber us, their 'reality' is already in place and no small number of them will be quite happy to kill us in order to stop our work.

[ganymedesclock]

so you've done a lot of posts about galra physiology, what are your theories on galra culture?

I talked a little bit about culture here, mostly in the sense that it seems like galra culture was devastated along with their home planet and it’s something that they rebuilt relying heavily on Zarkon. It’s important to consider that Zarkon has been alive and in control for ten thousand years, and what that means as far as how he’s been able to doctor history and information to suit his agenda. There’s a pretty terrifying propaganda machine and it’s blatantly centered on Zarkon himself.

As funny as Varkon’s poster is- Zarkon is very nearly a god to his people and he’s set it up that way. He’s basically the last fragment of their homeland that they’ve got left and groups like the Blade of Marmora are seemingly staking a lot of their claim to oppose him on having something else- and trying to take that legitimacy away from him (a lot of how Kolivan talks about Zarkon suggests Zarkon is a bane on the name of the galra as a species in Kolivan’s eyes)

A lot of what we’ve heard paints a very bleak, militaristic image. Morvok’s lines in s2e6 echo very closely to what Zarkon says in s1e1 with “weakness” being a disease he intends to wipe from his empire.

But what’s interesting is that Zarkon’s adamant creed of loyalty to no one and nothing besides him and his orders- of domination by superior power, might makes right- seems contrary to the nature of the galra themselves.

Almost everything about the galra suggest that they are, if anything, a hypersocial species. Consider the warden of Beta Traz whose accommodations for his pet were just as extensive as those for his top-profile prisoner, and who would consider it a good day even failing at his mission as long as Laika was okay.

Even Zarkon himself, clearly, was not always the way he is, and remains very close to Haggar for the most part.

So I feel like Zarkon has built up this heavy military culture to try and make his species behave how he thinks they should. At the same time- the, what I would venture to say inherent nature of the galra is that they tend to lean social- and Zarkon isn’t squashing that because he’s simultaneously trying to exploit it. What Ulaz suggests is that most galra look to the empire, and Zarkon, because they want stability.

What we see of this, is people like Sal. It’s made pretty unambiguously clear that Sal has never made someone happy with his food. But, when Hunk takes over cooking- when Sal’s restaurant becomes a hot spot with people eagerly cuing up for a bite- this is something Sal sees as remarkable and amazing- that Hunk is a genius.

My personal headcanon is the pre-sentient or early-sentient ancestors of the galra were pack hunters comparable to wolves or hyena, and probably structured similarly- family units and socialization are matters of utmost importance. A lone galra is a starving galra. And, many years and generations later- that’s the set of instincts that stays with them.

So I like to imagine galra culture basically operates on the idea of loyalty to a set of nested spheres. Family to clan to colony to empire. It’s entirely possible Zarkon has tried to establish himself as a sort of god-ancestor, given his age and connection to the lost galra homeland, which is probably a subject of some mysticism. It’d certainly explain the way Zarkon’s image is almost enshrined in Varkon’s workstation, but also the very personal way Varkon talks to that image.

Other than that… most of what we’ve seen is the fleets, and that both Haggar and Zarkon are people who have zero qualms accumulating resources any way possible. So I’d guess that resources to the civilians are probably rationed to better accommodate Zarkon’s massive military. Frugality might be considered a virtue but it’s more likely that it’s probably just plain a way of life. We don’t know if there’s much of a galra middle class- the mall is within the empire, but, we see almost no galra patrons.

GoLion and Defender Of The Universe- eighties Voltron- depicted lavishly dressed galra aristocrats as spectators for the gladiator ring, and Zarkon himself as very dressed up. 

In contrast, VLD Zarkon wears a cape sometimes and that’s about the only thing he has that isn’t basically rigidly practical, vaguely decorative armor- and we see those same spectator boxes are filled with mostly non-galra civilians, and galra commanders and fleet members. Quite possibly, galra aristocracy is purely military- which might suggest that many of the galra soldiers we encounter become soldiers because they’re at a loss for a lot of other careers.

But of course- there are exceptions. Varkon and Sal tell us there are civilian galra, and probably a fair amount of them. But we see those civilian galra in contexts where they mesh closely with other species, which probably suggests on the civilian level, as opposed to the military level- there’s probably a whole lot of cultural exchange between the galra and other races.

Now, it’s possible, even likely, that Sal and Varkon are the exception, not the rule- that there are more dense galra population centers, and from there we can get a clearer idea of how the average civilian galra lives their life- and of course, we wouldn’t see them because I feel like even a lot of our otherwise callous-seeming antagonist commanders would figuratively blanch at the idea of the deadliest weapon in the galaxy being spotted near a galra population center.

(After all, they assume their way of doing things is just The Way Of The Universe. They aren’t going to expect Voltron to have more restraint than they do)

Even with the idea of major, predominantly-galra areas, I think that there would probably be a lot of exchange from other cultures. Given that most of the nationalism Zarkon seems to inspire is focused on the military, there’s probably a lot of propaganda about that- but I have to wonder how much emphasis is placed on the arts.

In the interest of humanizing the galra- which is probably the context that large-scale civilian galra would be brought up- I’d guess that they probably have a fairly lively culture, albeit one suffering because, as Ulaz points out- the popular sentiment is that Zarkon is keeping them all safe by creating this glorious empire but really Zarkon is only in it for himself and he’s not particularly good at hiding that. I think the only saving grace that keeps Zarkon so high in the public’s esteem is they very rarely actually see him.

Lotor’s whole voiceover in the trailer would suggest that Lotor means business but it also suggests that the empire at large- and either Lotor himself, or he’s simply further selling the idea to an audience who is- is profoundly misled about the actual influence they have on the galaxy.

[moys16]

Effect Of Having Dogs In Our Households

By Christopher Cox

Babies are really cute, and grownups are really fun of playing with them. But no matter how cute they are, most adult are afraid of having them. It could be because of the responsibilities it carries when one becomes a parent. White lab puppies for sale became the best alternative for people who wanted a baby but do not want to carry the heavy obligation of being a parent. Dogs were considered as best friend of men and they have been a very good company ever since the beginning. Indeed, puppies are different from other species of animals. They are closer to the heart of humans and even more interactive compared to others. Having one in your dwelling makes your environment more livelily, actually. It is even safe to say that they are the only creature on earth that is capable of loving unconditionally. They may not be capable of speaking any languages but surely they can communicate effectively in their own unique way. These may be animals but they have a heart superior than human being. It may be true that there are accidents reported involving rabies, but this is actually normal to all kind of mammals. Even fish fights for some reason, even birds sometime have misunderstanding. Dogs became wild too when they feel danger towards themselves. Who could blame them, they do not have the intelligence like us and they only act base on their intuition. Nowadays, acquiring one is not that hard. The sale of such is actually rampant nowadays. You may find a pet store that sells different variety of breeds inside the city. You may also find a seller online through the internet. There are a lot of different ways now to buy and order one. If a person acquires his or her rights from the moment of conception, animals are also entitled to those very same rights. As a matter of fact, all of us are created by God in the same footing. To put it simply, in this world, no one is superior to others and none is inferior. We are all equal in the eyes of God so it follows ordinarily that the right of one is also the right of others. If you wish to have one, please make sure that you are giving them the respect that they deserve. As a result, they will even give you more love that what you expect from them. Cases are even reported in time of calamities and accidents the one who saves the residents are actually their company dogs. Without the need to be said, selling of their kinds is not prohibited absolutely in most places but at least same is being regulated. We have to appreciate the effort of our government in trying to keep their safety one of its priorities. The only thing left is for us to make sure that their kinds will remain available until the next and future generation. Having at least one in our household is really fun. They always bring joy to humans, and they are always there when you need someone to lean on. They are the only living creature that was ever made by God who can give one hundred percent of their love. Human may be the most intelligent one but dogs are the most loving.

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[arnulfowyselaski-blog]

Just how My Canine Taught Me!

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