#cosmos a space-time odyssey

[ashstfu]

You’re into astronomy?! I’ve been wanting to learn more about it and was even thinking of taking an astronomy class last semester but backed out of fear of feeling “dumb.” Do you have any videos or book recommendations to get started?

hi yes i actually double major in astrophysics and human biology! the stars and the human body are like my two favorite puzzles to solve. and trust me when i say, there’s no reason to feel “dumb” for being curious about something as vast as the universe. its literally designed to make us feel small and then reward us when we start understanding it bit by bit. since you’re just getting started, a good balance of visuals and concepts is imp. for videos, i’d recommend checking out PBS space time on youtube. their explanations are super accessible but still dive deep into the wow moments of the universe. neil degrasse tyson’s cosmos: a spacetime odyssey is also a classic! super inspiring and beautifully done.

as for books, astrophysics for people in a hurry by neil degrasse tyson is a great intro, it’s concise and easy to follow but still packs in some serious knowledge. if you want to go a little deeper, cosmos by carl sagan is a masterpiece. dive in, you’re going to love it :)

[remyfrenchrat]

harlock lifespan across the series: i used to be a punk army rebel but now i'm just a drunk depressed whore

in order : Arcadia of my Youth, Cosmo Warrior Zero, Endless Orbit SSX, SPCH 1978, Endless Odyssey, SPCH 2013

i took some creative liberties with the pre-army times but since we don't know ANYTHING about his childhood anyway maybe it's real who knows

all the filler series like Harlock Saga or Space Symphony Maetel happen between CWZ and SSX imo

[nateconnolly]

Me: Now that I’m about to move to a much smaller living situation, I should probably give away some of my books, so that my collection is smaller. That way, my books won’t take up too much space in my new studio apartment :)

Also me: When I get there, as a reward for doing the hard work of moving, I'll get myself a copy of Blood Meridian. And American Mother. And Desiderata and Nausea and Howard Zinn on War and Kindred and the novel version of The Shape of Water and Antigonick and Gravity And Grace and The Persian Bayan and The Collected Poems of Borges and The Empathy Exams and The Cancer Journals and Regarding the Pain of Others and Rap and Redemption on Death Row and Unraveling Oliver and Foundation of the Metaphysics of Morals and Tetrabiblos and Unsong and Werewolves in Their Youth and The Shahnameh and The Lotus Sutra and The Complete Plays of Euripides and Thirteen Ways of Looking and Pig by sam sax and The Underground Railroad and Under the Banner of Heaven and On the Motion of the Heart and Blood in Animals and A Question of Freedom and The Ferguson Report: An Erasure and Life and Times of Frederick Douglass and Allegory in Dante's Commedia and North and Howl and The Epic of Gilgamesh and Poison for Breakfast and The Inexplicable Logic of My Heart and Strange Adventures (2021) and Nightingale and When Einstein Walked with Godel and Everything and More and the Annals of Tacitus and Wuthering Heights and Last Night in Montreal and Jokes Told in Heaven About Babies and Exhalation and All My Sons and Limbo and Other Places I Have Lived and Plainwater and The Idiot and Anna Karenina and The Avesta and Braiding Sweetgrass and The Phenomenology of Spirit and The Blind in French Society and Short Stories of the Troubles and Cities of the Plain and Desert Solitaire and Mysterium Cosmographicum and Giovanni's Room and The Things They Carried and The Hidden Lives of Trees and Cosmos and The Kitáb-i-Aqdas and The Birth of Tragedy and Emily Wilson's translation of The Iliad and Go Tell It to the Mountain and Archeology of Knowledge and Ledger and The Beauty of the Husband and Everything in this Country Must and Paper Covers Rock and Horseradish: Bitter Truths That Are Hard to Swallow and Crush and A Bound Woman Is a Dangerous Thing and Emma and Richard II and Sherlock Holmes Was Wrong and Philosophical Fragments and Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind and Mrs. Dalloway and The Seal of the Unity of the Three and Anatomy of Melancholy and 2001: A Space Odyssey and Pensées and The Argonauts and Huckleberry Finn and Lose Your Mother and La Vita Nuova and Renaissance Rivals and American Originality and The Art of War and The Fire Next Time and The Lola Quartet and Ireland, Colonialism, and the Unfinished Revolution and The Haunting of Hajji Hotak and The Bloody Chamber and Howl's Moving Castle and The Poetic Edda. I'm sure I'll have space :)

[play-now-my-lord]

my preferred reading of 2001: a space odyssey is "the jet age and the last man". here it is at some length, because i'm bored.

Bowman is a sort of high-modern superhero - an astronaut on a voyage of exploration - but he is played painfully mundane, boring. He flies to the moon on a Pan Am space jet, and the first thing he does on the fucking moon is check in at a Hilton hotel.

The Jet Age can be defined for the purposes of this reading as the era in which the danger and novelty of discovery, including personal discovery, died. At least as Kubrick tells it, a lineage of machines designed for war - culminating, in his time, in the passenger jet, but projected forward into space vehicles - ultimately had the effect of killing off man's sense of the unknown as dangerous or holy. They had the effect of strangling man's capacity for awe.

Early in the film, Bowman is called to encounter a mysterious monolith uncovered on the moon. While this is at the very minimum an exotic scientific curiosity, by all reasonable measures solid evidence that humanity is not alone in the universe - that much of what we believe we know about our place in the cosmos is wrong - him and his team get to the monolith, enshrouded in a rather ordinary construction site (again, on the fucking moon), and their first instinct is to take selfies with it.

And it punishes them with inexplicable, terrifying noise.

As Bowman trespasses further and further into the true unknown in search of answers to the mystery of the lunar monolith, he is largely unchanged. He greets the apparent intractable hostility of the AI agent created to keep him alive with some fear, but mostly with irritation. It's a distraction from his busy schedule jogging and otherwise killing time until he gets to his destination and gets his answers.

When Bowman kills HAL, it is with the ruthless, robotic efficiency of a machine. He betrays no particular emotion except urgency, and a moment of relief when he's succeeded in killing something that he had no special reason to consider alive a week ago. The entire time, HAL is begging for its life, reliving its infancy. If anything of us survives after we succeed in killing our gods, Kubrick is saying, it will not be embodied in ourselves, but latent in our machines.

The disassembly scene in 2001 has been endlessly parodied, pastiched, homaged, and yet it remains, if you strip away the science-fiction armor around the raw emotion of the scene, one of the most brutal things ever committed to film. Machine-man tears man-machine's brain apart, lobotomizes it one screw at a time.

After that comes Jupiter and Beyond the Infinite. Bowman experiences... well, whatever that is, and the rest of his life stretches ahead of us. He grows old in spaces that merge domesticity with display, opulence with sterility - resembling nothing so much as the moon Hilton - and at the end, after a long and apparently meaningless life, he sees the hand of God in front of his face again, and reaches out to meet it.

The final shot describes what our ultimate apotheosis might look like, if the line the film describes continues - godlike infants, fetal and enclosed, gazing at once upon all of creation with no apparent understanding. I think this has been misunderstood for a long time as a sort of approbational or aspirational image - for Bowman, for humanity, for the audience. But the Also Sprach Zarathustra musical bookend implies continuity with the development of our tools - of murder, of convenience, of safety, of security - and paints a darker picture. In this reading, I would say Kubrick is trying to say that human civilization is not just a drive towards death, but a drive towards spiritual death - towards the creation of a Last Man so empty of fear and awe that he might as well never leave the safety of the womb; that for this Last Man, stripped of the first and final terror of death and the unknown after it, the vastness of all creation is exactly the same as the womb.

I don't know that I agree, but I felt compelled to write some of this down a while ago arguing about whether 2001 is trying to promote the idea that man requires God, or to run down human accomplishments in an explicitly religious context. I don't think that's exactly true, I think Kubrick works a little more complicated than that. And I don't know if I actually agree with the thesis I suggest he's laying out here - but I have to say, it makes an awful strong case.

[la-cosmonauta-extraterrestre]

4, 8, 9, 12

4 - underrated mission(s)

Maybe the Rakia mission the the ISS which happened back in 2022 but I only found out about earlier this year. Admittedly not too much novel about it, but there was Hebrew language on the ISS.

8 - fave space book

For nonfiction, I'll have to go with Cosmos by Carl Sagan, outdated as it is, because it left a big impression on me when I was 12 and I think it's at least part of the reason I got degrees in physics.

For fiction, I'm going with the Martian by Andy Weir because I just loved it and when asked I often list it as my favorite book even though I could never pick just one favorite book.

(Some runner-ups for favorite fiction space book are Artemis by Andy Weir, The Lady Astronaut books by Mary Robinette Kowal, and War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells.)

9 - fave space movie

I'm thinking The Martian. One of the few book-to-movie adaptations that satisfied me.

(I also really liked Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, but that mostly takes place on Earth and doesn't really feel like a "space movie".

12 - what got you into space?

You want the long story? I guess I've always been drawn to knowing things no one else knows, and space is pretty unknown. When I was 5 I had a special interest in space (there was a time in my childhood when every year of my life could be defined by whatever my special interest at the time was) that went away after some time like my special interests at the time did.

But then when I was 12 we had a semester of Astronomy for our science class, which I was very excited about and it caused me to return to my old special interest in space. During that semester (I'm totally dating myself here!) Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey with Neil DeGrasse Tyson aired and I loved it so much that I insisted on reading the book by Carl Sagan and (a little later) watching Cosmos: A Personal Voyage with Carl Sagan, and I've been interested in space ever since.

[naisilla]

The Emperor's New Muse Part .5

Odyssey Kayn x Reader

content: coming up with a 'how to save the universe' plan, some "bonding" time with the members, and finally a more definite backstory to our character.

A/N: Apologies for the delayed post this should've come out earlier but I've been struggling with a bit of writer's block because I am making this whole story up as I go gliding by the seat of my ass or however that saying goes. Anyway, I hope it's worth the wait! Knowing that at least a few of you are invested really helped me keep going so thank you all!!

And that's how you came to become the newest recruit member of the Morningstar, and also how you found out about the universe's impending doom.

You gave Sona a judgemental side eye, like... really? You plan on saving the universe with these people!? The Templar, however, ignored your stare and continued to look out the window with her back turned to you. Looking as mysterious as ever.

Currently, the Morningstar was blindly traveling through deep space. Destination: unknown, as long as it was as far away from Kayn and his locus armada. So far there was no sign of them on your tail, you could relax for now.

"So what's the plan? on saving the universe?" you ask looking towards the front of the ship where Jinx was goofing off in the pilot's seat doing anything but actually steering the ship, Yasuo was close by at the control center holo screen.

"We're currently in the drafting stage of our master universe-saving plan" Jinx says while tinkering away at something you assumed was highly hazardous.

"Seriously? you guys don't have a plan yet? What have you been doing this whole time?" It was hard to believe that no progress had been made within the last three months. Aka the time Kayn got his hands on Rhaast, the universe's greatest threat without fully understanding it.

"It's been hard to think straight, that insane ordinal is constantly chasing us down. Every planet we stop at to stock on supplies or rest from travel is crawling with the empire's military and Kayn is never far behind." Yasuo says with a frown on his face.

It was true, you had just witnessed just how quickly the Demaxian Empire was at tracking down wanted criminals. Only, the morning star crew weren't nearly as high priority as they were targeted to be. They were just a bunch of rag-tag space pirates.

It was clear that Kayn was obsessed with getting Sona back for his personal gains. Once fiercely loyal to his emperor Kayn has become obsessed with his personal hunt, he will not hesitate to kill any who cross his path. The ordinal was slowly corrupting into something dark and consuming.

That scythe was the catalyst for all of this. According to Sona, no one knew what Rhaast truly was, but it was undeniable that he or it wasn't the "sentience of ora".

Rhaast clearly wanted to open the ora gates, but for what purpose? Immediately you figured opening the ora gate was the last thing the universe wanted. Sona confirmed from her upbringing within the templar order she had heard of a time long ago when an ancient civilization, extinct for eons, once opened an ora gate. "Annnnd they're all dead now, so it must've gone well for them."

Sona doesn't know what's actually behind the gates but she has seen visions. Visions of which none of the Morningstar or you were aware of. She saw silence. She saw the vast well of time. She saw a moment stretched into an eternity. She saw lingering stillness and glacial quiet. She saw dark stars and black suns frozen in a void of endless shadow. She saw monstrous, silent deities lurking in a corrupted cosmos.

Yet she never spoke of them, Sona was a quiet and mysterious templar after all. The only reason you believed in this religious fanatic was because you could see it in her eyes, the horror. Behind a calm and neutral expression was a gaze that carried worry and fear. Whenever you would steal a glance with the templar it was like looking into a void, one that stared back into your deepest reaches. Sona knew many things, and yet she remained quiet about them, almost as if she was uncertain about whether or not she wanted to save the universe.

You had decided for yourself that you would take charge of planning the next course of action, borrowing a tablet from Yasuo you had snuck off by yourself to figure out what exactly one was supposed to do next.

Sitting down in the saloon of the ship, you began to develop a plan. From what you now know Kayn had to be stopped, the ordinal is so obsessed with his quest for power that he's becoming unstable.

He was being puppeted by that alien scythe whose intentions were far more dire than Kayn could realize. Rhaast wanted the ora gates to be open and it was clear that whatever lay beyond that gate was something never meant to be unlocked.

You needed to stop Kayn from opening the gate, the only reason he hasn't just gone straight to the gate immediately is because he needed Sona to unlock it. Only Sona knew how to do this which means she was a highly valuable asset, good thing she was on your side for now.

Was it possible to destroy the ora gate? If you could manage that then there would be no threat of anyone opening it ever. But it was unclear as to how these ora gates worked, no one truly understood them at all that the risk of something just as disastrous happening. How would one even go about destroying something so incomprehensible?

Ok so destroying the ora gate isn't a likely option, you delete that plan from the tablet.

Looking for the whereabouts of the ora gate would be a start, that way you'd know where to go and where Kayn would be headed at some point.

According to Yasuo, Sona had told him that there were in fact, multiple ora gates in the universe. All are located throughout the furthest reaches of the universe, far beyond the darkest corners. Knowing which one Kayn would go to would be impossible to predict.

Rubbing your temples, you grunt and delete that plan route.

Let's take a step back from the end game. The ordinal Kayn, instead of trying to intercept him at the gates or destroying one perhaps we needed to go straight to the source of the problem.

It wouldn't be hard to find Kayn. He would always come to you. If you had learned anything, it was that this insane and obsessed man was smart, and calculating and when you had something he wanted, it wouldn't be long before he pounced.

You type down "KAYN" in capitols. He was now the focus of your plan. There were a few options of how you could go about this. You could be a mediator and persuade Kayn to give up his pursuit for power, Or perhaps separate him from that damn scythe. Destroying Rhaast was also a good idea, oh wait an even better idea! We kill Kayn!

Just as you were typing out that last thought you feel the weight of someone leaning onto your shoulders, their shadow looming over your head as they nondiscreetly look at your plans.

"Whatcha doing?" Jinx asks with her eyes glued to your plan's title. She snatches your tablet from your hands and brings it close to her face as she intensely stares at it.

Sighing you grab the tablet back trying to focus on forming more ideas- "He's so cool~". You snap your head, pull a face, and look at Jinx as if she lost her min- yeh she probably has already.

"Jinx, please. Anyone but him. Kayn is evil and you're...chaotic neutral." You groan realizing there's no point in reasoning with the loose cannon.

With pacifist, petty, and genocide plans crafted, you went to showcase each of them to the Morningstar crew.

Sona true to her character wanted to take the peaceful route, but even she knew negotiating with such a cruel and ruthless person held little chance in successfully de-escalating the Ordinal.

Yasuo liked the idea of taking Rhaast from Kayn, the thought of taking away his power source was enticing to the captain of the crew. Although you weren't sure if you could trust Yasuo with the sentient scythe. Not that you were assuming the captain was immoral or corrupt but, nobody should've ever come into contact with whatever Rhaast is.

Jinx and Malphite unsurprisingly wanted to go the chaos route, already suggesting which weapons would best tear down the Locus Armada and the Fractal Sheer.

"I carry enough weapons to seize a medium battle fortress!" Jinx proudly exclaims standing before you. You simply nod and half smile "uhuh that's great jinx" your voice passive agressively giving off an annoyed tone.

She grins and dumps her current arsenal onto your lap, you jump in your seat. Did she seriously just throw live weapons at you?! "These are my best friends!" She says picking up the rocket launcher from your lap. "This is fishbones! I modeled him after Sharkpedos, He's always worried about me." You blink stunned.....he?

As she's showing him off she uses one hand to move the jaw of the rocket launcher up and down like a puppet. "I'm worried Jinx maybe we should try a less dangerous option, I like (Y/N)'s other plan to take the scythe instead." Jinx rolls her eyes at the rocket launcher she's ventriloquizing before throwing him to the side, followed by the sound of it crashing onto the ground.

"Yeh he can be a bit of a buzzkill, anyways this is Pow-pow!" Jinx says now picking up the mini-gun making your lap feel a ton lighter. She spins it around and you duck as the barrel comes towards you before shooting a desperate look to the others- oh, Sona and Malphite are gone and Yasuo is reading some book clearly unbothered. Great you're stuck with Jinx then.

"I love your plan to destroy the locus armada! let's shoot them up and watch their bodies fall together!" Jinx says playing on a raspier and higher-pitched voice for the minigun. Jinx then pulls out a lightning projector "This is Zappy she's my stun gun, she's more unstable than I am! Watch this!" Jinx then suddenly tosses the gun onto an empty couch like how one would casually throw their phone on a bed, only, when the gun softly bounces onto the lounge chair it explodes. And Jinx had thrown that on your lap just earlier...

Yasuo gives Jinx a glare flicking his eyes up from the novel he was currently reading, his nose still buried between the pages.

Not giving a single shit about Yasuo Jinx continues to introduce you to her "friends" such as the Flame Chompers, which are curiously sculpted in the likeness of Malphite's head; and the Super Mega Death Comet, an interstellar portal lifted from one of Jinx's old mining jobs.

"You should see the ship! I heavily modified the Morningstar with so many offensive weapons!" Jinx says happily grabbing you by the arm and dragging you on yet another tour of the Morningstar. And after an hour of being overstimulated with interacting with Jinx..... you were still unsure as to what half of Jinx's modifications do.

Finally, Jinx had gone off to wherever leaving you to mentally recover by yourself. So far regarding your "Plan" no one could agree on which one to go with, personally, you were leaning to the separate Kayn from Rhaast. You could kill Kayn if it comes to it. But between the two it was Rhaast that was the true danger.

That would not be an easy feat, Kayn alone was an intelligent and strong fighter. His eyepatch and left arm are clearly ora augmentations making him a superhuman. He now wields a sentient alien scythe and he has a whole personal army at his disposal.

There was no way the five of you could possibly win against him in a fight, it would take some grand scheme to outsmart the Ordinal and gain the upper hand.

Something crawls along your shoulder, and immediately your mind races to some giant ugly alien spider, you see how messy the interior of this ship is, clearly no one is cleaning the ship so of course it would be crawling with pests. You go back and forth on whether to scream for help or smack the bugger into smoosh.

To your relief, a familiar face peeps up at you. Warm round eyes that contrasted with its cool blue and green complexion and a goofy wide smile beamed up at you. "Hey little guy" you coo at the lizard. "How did you get here?"

The lizard chirps and clicks seemingly happy as you scratch its head like how one would pet a cat. "Let's return you to Yauso"

After walking through the layout of the ship you finally found Yasuo, sitting by a large window on a red carpet with incense and candles laid around him, his nose buried in a novel.

His eyes flick up from his book to look at you. "Ah I see Space Lizard has found you".

"Space Lizard? don't tell me that's what you actually call them."

Yasuo shrugs his shoulders. "We really couldn't decide a name for it, we'll probably never will. We plan to sell it for a profit"

"You're selling them!?"

Yasuo shrugs again. "That is why we stole it from a maximum-security nature reserve." Your jaw drops.

"You actually managed to pull that off?" Yasuo nods with a smug smirk on his lips. It was impressive but a part of you just felt for the innocent animal, he seemed happy and healthy here it felt wrong to give him away for money. Your thoughts get interrupted by bubbles floating towards your face and popping upon contact with your nose.

Surprised you turn your gaze and see that Space Lizard is blowing bubbles. You're unsure as to whether to be amazed or grossed out but by Yasuo's smile, you can tell that at least he secretly likes it.

"So you guys are really space pirates huh?" you ask as Space Lizard climbs down your arm and onto your outstretched hand.

Yasuo nods with a proud smile. "Yep, real space pirates". He turns a page in his novel. "It's a lot different from my old life, I would've still been living a life of luxury if it weren't for the framing of my brother's death."

Right, you remember Yasuo briefly mentioning that earlier. "I'm sorry for your loss" Yasuo merely shakes his head dismissively. Lowering his book.

"Don't worry about it, I'll get justice for my brother" he said quietly, his gaze turning downward. You couldn't help but feel drawn to his pain and frustration. Despite the cocky and careless personality he usually exhibits, he was clearly hurting.

Yasuo pauses and shifts in his seat "I should've been there, if I would've been there then-"

You nod your head not letting him finish but acknowledging the obvious truth, he'd been beating himself up for this incident for a long time, and from the way he spoke you could tell it was a huge weight on his shoulders.

"The empire screwed me over, they blamed me for something I didn't do. My brother had grown distant with me in recent years, He was off being a hero while I was spending my nights in a drunken daze, aimlessly wandering between high-end nightclubs. To him I was a disgrace, someone to be ashamed of, I wish I could prove him wrong. But now I'll never get the chance."

Space Lizzard had jumped down from your cradling hand and moved over to where Yasuo was sitting to perch himself on his shoulder, nuzzling its head against Yasuo's face as if to comfort him. A small smile returns to Yasuo's face.

"I know I'm not the only one who's on the run from the empire, You mentioned how you managed to escape punishment for sabotaging a locus armada ship back. But that's all we know about you, what made you turn against the empire?"

A sour snort escapes you, a bitter taste returning to your mouth. "I've hated the empire since the beginning" Yasuo looks at you confused.

"Why is that? What happened?"

You swallow down the rising pressure as the memories of your past rush back. "I used to live on one of the few planets that weren't claimed by the Demaxian empire. Of course that wouldn't last long. They always have to keep expanding, taking planet systems by force."

You recall your old home planet "My homeland was beautiful, it was bountiful with nature and wildlife and we lived in harmony with the land, we were a lot more primitive with technology. We didn't have much need for it. I was just a little girl when they arrived...."

"The Demaxian Empire was brutal, they came in guns blazing, declaring our planet and its land as their own. They had no regard for the lives and cultures they were erasing. Our planet was the gateway to the Outer Rim, a new frontier that the Empire craved. To them, our way of life was primitive and unacceptable.

I still remember them bringing their warships into my planet's orbit, demanding we bend the knee to them. When we refused. They bombed our planet, destroying much of our infrastructure and reducing our population to just a fraction of the original number.”

The look in your eyes was one of a faraway expression, there was a slight tremble in your hands and your whole complexion had paled.

"When the smoke cleared there was nothing left. The land was leveled out, the villages were torn to the ground and all of the plant life, and the animals were gone. They came in and wiped out our entire people in the name of expansion and development. But left after draining everything of Ora. Apparently our planet wasn't good enough to colonize. All that slaughter and ruination for nothing!" you say clenching your teeth. 

"The nightmare didn't end there however. With our home now uninhabitable we had to leave, some submitted themselves to the empire and lived lives of servitude and slavery. Others like myself fled to distant planets like Piltron and Zaun. Desperate to find stability in living." By now you had seated yourself next to Yasuo who surprisingly was listening to your rambling, his novel was closed and by his side, and Space Lizard while perched on his shoulders looked at you intentively.

"I had nothing to my name, no ID, no money, no family. I was used to living off the grid with no influence by technology and government systems. Without any ID it was an unimaginable pain in the ass to intergrade into society. No vital records office could obtain any identity due to my home planet never being a part of the Demaxian system. I couldn't get a stable job or any proper schooling, I was left to figure shit on my own because Demaxia doesn't have time for my kind.

I had to struggle with low-end jobs that paid under the table, there was no dignity in my line of work not when the turnover rate of a nuclear powerplant worker was so high, and more people were dying of negligence faster than new hires were acquired. I was fortunate, if you could call it that to be a mere janitor in Zaun's power plant system. But that didn't come without prejudice from the locals.

I didn't understand why, I still don't, we were all in the same boat and yet I was treated differently. Over time I learnt the ways of the streets and how to survive them. I kept my head down, I minded my own business. Despite being surrounded by thugs and gangs I managed to stay out of it by blending in. Of course, there were a few times I messed up" You say, pulling up your shirt, showing a couple of scars along your torso. Scar tissue in round formations pulled taught towards the center, the classic sign of a healed bullet wound. There were others too, a couple of singular lines dragging across your torso also, the result of getting shivved.

"I was never going to escape the pits of the lower class, no matter how many hours I worked, how many side jobs I had, despite living as frugally as one could survive on. I could never escape being a blue-collar in the slums. The empire's system is so rigged that if you want to live comfortably you have to be born into it. It's so unfair! So many people suffer in poverty and filth because the stupid king is more focused on colonizing more and more planets with stupid rich assholes who don't even spare a thought for the people who keep their obnoxiously pampered lifestyle afloat!!!" Yasuo jumps back a little at your heated outburst towards the end, his usual calm and suave demeanor now tense with a startled wide eyed stare.

It was clear he felt awkward about being called out for his old lifestyle. You sigh and shake your head.

"I'm sorry I don't mean to take it all out on you specifically, I've never really talked about any of this and I suppose all those years were bottled up for too long." Yasuo's gaze softens, his hand goes towards his belt and he passes you a flask, you raise a brow questioningly but take his offering and take a swig instantly feeling the distilled alcohol kick you in the throat with a powerful punch. You cough and sputter looking at him shocked.

"What the hell is this?"

"Pure distilled Polmos Spirytus Rektyfikowany Vodka"

"...." You stare at Yasuo silently before dowing another swig, then another. Letting out a gasp and wiping your lips with the back of your hand as the satisfying burn of the alcohol soaked itself into your system.

"Better?"

"Better."

You noticed the velocity of the ship shifting and turning into the landing procedures, curiously you looked to Yasuo.

"Whats happening?"

Yasuo shrugs "Looks like Jinx is taking us to a pit stop."

Part six: Here

A/N: So I've had this idea as headcannon for ages but never had the chance to implement it into the story so free lore content below!:

Piltron and Zaun is a rather unique planet in my Odyssey story. Piltron similar to its Runeterra counterpart (Piltover) is the higher class planet to Zaun. Piltron is a hollow planet that exists as an outer shell that hovers around its inner planet Zaun. To access Zaun you need to travel between the tectonic plates of Piltron via colossal industrial elevators. Piltover isn't a perfect shell that entirely encases the inner planet Zaun but is cracked into multiple districts that are tethered to its center Zaun via cybernetic tendrils to avoid floating out of Zaun's atmosphere. If you've seen Transformers: The Last Knight you'll know that I've taken inspiration from the scene of Cybertron being spacebridged into Earth's orbit (see image below).

Zaun Center, like the earth's core, is made of a uranium deposit that is harvested through fission (nuclear power plants) that power both Zaun and Piltron through the cybernetic tendrils that also hold the two planets together. Zaun is made up of the working class while Piltron homes the more upperclass citizens. Piltron and Zaun are allied with the Demaxian Empire and stand as the main manufacturing planet of the weapons and technology of the empire.

Despite being a part of Demaxia, Piltron, and Zaun have the least amount of empire enforcers due to the trust between them and the core worlds. Plus because of the unstable levels of radioactive activity in Zaun, most enforcers don't hover around for long. Sure in this age we have radioactive protection suits but Zaun is seen as dirty to rich snobs.

[general-kalani]

New commission post, this time gifs! Prices can be negotiated but I'm thinking temporarily $5/two gifs.

Icon commission post here, Dinosaur gif commission post here, Writing commission post here, TWD commission post here

Can be in AUD or USD but if you want to negotiate with any of the options below, lmk! Paypal here and Ko-Fi here

This is an ever growing list and if you ask for a specific movie/show/game/etc I'll do my best to get my hands on it.

Options under cut for what can be chosen:

ANCIENT ANIMALS

Dinosaur (2000)

The Land Before Time (1988 movie)

Walking with Monsters

Walking with Dinosaurs

Walking with Beasts

Walking with Cavemen

Walking with Dinosaurs special - Ballad of Big Al

Chased by Dinosaurs (episodes 1 & 2)

Sea Monsters (episodes 1, 2 & 3)

Prehistoric Planet

Planet Dinosaur

Dinosaur Planet

Primeval

Prehistoric Park

MOVIES

The Hunt for Red October

The Mist

Alien Planet

Dog Soldiers

Dragonlance Dragons of Autumn Twilight

The Last Voyage of the Demeter

Wing Commander (1999 movie)

SHOWS

Babylon 5

Battletech Cartoon

Bitten

D&D Cartoon

Stargate SG-1

Transformers: Beast Machines

Transformers: Beast Wars

Transformers G1

Transformers the Movie

Transformers Prime

Voltron Vehicle Force

Vox Machina (season 1 only atm)

ANIME - LEIJIVERSE

Cosmo Warrior Zero

Galaxy Express

Gun Frontier

Harlock Saga - The Ring of the Nibelung

Interstellar 5555

Queen Emeraldas

Queen Millennia (might not be high quality)

Space Pirate Captain Harlock

Space Pirate Captain Herlock: Outside Legend - The Endless Odyssey

SSX Endless Orbit

Arcadia of my Youth

Space Pirate Captain Harlock (2013 movie)

Space Pirate Captain Harlock: Riddle of the Arcadia

ANIME - IRRESPONSIBLE CAPTAIN TYLOR

Irresponsible Captain Tylor TV series

Irresponsible Captain Tylor OVA series

ANIME - LEGEND OF THE GALACTIC HEROES (original series only)

Legend of the Galactic Heroes series

Legend of the Galactic Heroes - Golden Wings

Legend of the Galactic Heroes - My Conquest is the Sea of Stars

Legend of the Galactic Heroes - Overture to a New War

Legend of the Galactic Heroes Gaiden

ANIME - MACROSS

Macross 7

Macross Delta

Macross Frontier

Macross Plus

Macross Zero

Robotech

SDF Macross

ANIME - REVOLUTIONARY GIRL UTENA

Revolutionary Girl Utena tv series

Revolutionary Girl Utena movie

ANIME - SPACE BATTLESHIP YAMATO/STAR BLAZERS (original series and reboot)

Space Battleship Yamato 2199 (Reboot)

Space Battleship Yamato 2199 - Odyssey of the Celestial Ark

Space Battleship Yamato 2202 (Reboot)

Space Battleship Yamato 2205 (Reboot)

Space Battleship Yamato I (OS)

Space Battleship Yamato II (OS)

Space Battleship Yamato III (OS)

Arrivederci Yamato

Be Forever Yamato

Final Yamato

Space Battleship Yamato (2013 movie)

Uchuu Senkan Yamato (1977 recap movie)

Yamato - The New Voyage

Yamato: Resurrection

GAMES - FAR CRY (only games I own, sorry!)

Far Cry 3 (Can be modded for Jason in Vaas' place)

Far Cry 4 (Can be modded for Sabal and Pagan to switch places)

Far Cry 5 (Can be heavily modded)

Far Cry: New Dawn

Far Cry 6

GAMES - STAR WARS

KOTOR (I and II)

SWTOR

Star Wars: The Force Unleased (I and II)

Star Wars: Rebellion

Star Wars: Republic Commando

Star Wars: Starfighter

Star Wars: Battlefront 2 (Classic)

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order

Star Wars: Jedi Knight series (Dark Forces I and II, Mysteries of the Sith, Jedi Academy, Jedi Outcast)

GAMES - BORDERLANDS

Borderlands (GOTY and GOTY Enhanced)

Borderlands the Pre-Sequel

Borderlands 2

Borderlands 3

Tiny Tina's Wonderlands

GAMES - MISCELLANEOUS

Aliens: Colonial Marines

Command and Conquer: Red Alert 3

Dead Island (Definitive Edition, can be modded to get rid of lens flares and more)

Dead Island Riptide (Definitive Edition)

Generation Zero

Left 4 Dead 2

Iron Harvest

Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion (Can be specific matches, races, etc)

State of Decay (I and II)

Strange Brigade

[galactic-glamour-girl-posts]

Here are my favourite pieces of official Rosalina artwork, and why!

This will include stuff like renders, GIFs, concept art, etc.

This won't include screenshots of in-game/cinematic cutscenes or gameplay.

And lastly, this is in no particular order other than the last one, which is firmly in first place. Let's go!

First we have:

As of right now I believe this is her newest render. It's one of the only ones where she can be seen floating, so that's cool. What I really like is the presence of her storybook, they rarely acknowledge that thing nowadays. Which is fine, it shouldn't be her crutch, but it is nice to see it given its story is a big reason as to why she's one of the franchise's best characters.

Best Mario Kart 8 Deluxe title screen, hands down.

Why yes, I am biased!

I mean it's in space, which not only is automatically cool but also fits Rosalina's character. She leaning against a pretty sick looking bike (or at least it looks sick from this angle), and her pose is pretty badass to match! She's in her biker outfit, which only adds to the vibe, and the Earth makes for beautiful yet badass background prop. Between all that the title screen taking place on the Luna Colony, it looks like she's about to partake is in a futuristic action-packed cosmic race, like something you'd see in a sci-fi action film. She just looks so cool here, I don't know what else to say.

Man I wished they used this in Odyssey. Oh well, maybe next game.

Not much to say here. The emo look fits her, she is the Sad Girl (that's a neat little soundtrack reference right there) after all. I mean have you seen her hair?

I like the casualness, specifically when compared to the other character's matching emotes, which are a lot more panicked. Really emphasises her calm nature. I like any artwork of her that makes her look either sad or nonchalant. It's what makes her special (and if you think that's a messed up thing to say...no it's not, shut up! 😖) You can also see a bit of her right eye, which is neat. There's just something inherently funny about the protector of the cosmos, a woman who usually speaks so formerly, a mysterious and powerful figure who some consider a goddess, doing such a casual shrug. I even made a post about this one years ago.

These are just cute, probably her cutest artwork without being too cutesy. That's about it really.

I love the way Rosalina's hair flows in this picture. I love how the Star Bits glow, how they shine colourful light rays through the net, and how their colour contrasts against the dark void of space. It makes for such a memorable, striking, beautiful image. I also love the fantastical concept of catching sweet rainbow space water crystals with a butterfly net, seems right out of a fairy tale.

Even without the text from the storybook you can just feel the emotion pour from the screen, you can feel the warmth of their hug. The warm yellow glow of (most of) the lumas, like the Star Bits of the precious artwork, contrast against the cold, dark isolation of space. However, they also contrast against Rosalina's cold white colouring (although not as much, indicating that they still belong together) and expressionless face, indicating she hasn't felt this warm/loved in a long time. The fact that you can't see her eyes in this picture suggests she's concealing her face, trying to take it all in without letting it all out. It's just...so good.

Just love how cool, calm, and collected she looks. She even looks a bit sassy and snobby here, but I like it. I imagine this is how she appears to people before they get to know her.

Love the smirk she gives only after dodging the green shell. It's a great show of her skill and character. Alert enough to sense the shell coming (makes sense for a magical protector), skilled enough to expertly dodge the shell, humble enough not to brag, but just proud enough to do a silent "Nice try". Love the personality shown here.

My all-time favourite (for now).

The use of watercolours really adds to the feel of remembering the past and hazy memories. Love the melancholic smile on adult Rosalina's face. Through her facial expression and body language you can tell she sympathises with her younger self, wants to comfort her, wants to let he know that everything will be OK, even after all she's lost. That she'll find family and be happy in the future, and as she holds her hand she'll guide her to it.

What a simple, beautiful image.

[motivahub]

Embracing the Infinite Journey of Love

In the vast tapestry of human existence, few forces wield the transformative power of love. It is the golden thread that weaves its way through the fabric of our lives, binding hearts, souls, and minds in a symphony of emotions and connections. Love, in its myriad forms, transcends boundaries, defies definition, and enriches every corner of our being.

At its core, love is an intricate dance between vulnerability and strength, an interplay of trust and passion. It flourishes not only in the grand gestures and sweeping romances but also in the gentle whispers of affection, the silent support during trying times, and the simple, everyday acts of kindness.

Love is boundless. It transcends the constraints of time, space, and circumstance. It thrives in the gentle caress of a partner's hand, the laughter shared between friends, the unspoken understanding of family, and the altruistic embrace of humanity.

Yet, love is not without its complexities. It invites us to navigate the depths of our emotions, to confront our fears, and to embrace the uncertainties that come with opening our hearts. It challenges us to be selfless, to give without expecting, and to accept with an open mind and forgiving spirit.

True love is a journey—an odyssey marked by growth, compassion, and resilience. It evolves, matures, and flourishes as we nurture it with patience, understanding, and unwavering dedication. It teaches us lessons of empathy, forgiveness, and the profound beauty of acceptance.

In its purest form, love is a catalyst for personal and collective transformation. It inspires acts of valor, ignites the flames of creativity, and fosters a deep sense of connection with the world around us. It empowers us to be the best versions of ourselves, to rise above differences, and to create a tapestry of unity and harmony.

The power of love lies not only in its ability to bind individuals but also in its capacity to heal and rejuvenate. It mends broken spirits, soothes weary souls, and brings solace to those weathering life's storms. It instills hope, restores faith, and kindles a light in the darkest of moments.

As we traverse the intricate paths of life, let us cherish love in all its forms—romantic, platonic, familial, and universal. Let us celebrate its nuances, embrace its challenges, and revel in its boundless beauty. For in love, we find the true essence of our humanity—a force that transcends time, unites souls, and makes the journey of life a magnificent, unforgettable adventure.

Love, in its purest essence, is the heartbeat of our existence—the guiding star that leads us through the cosmos of emotions, offering solace, meaning, and a glimpse of eternity.

Love is such a beautiful, multifaceted concept. It's incredible how it touches every aspect of our lives, isn't it?

[space-battle-royal]

Bracket Time!

I'll post the polls in groups of four to avoid spamming (and a potential shadow ban, apparently). Competitors under the cut.

TARDIS (Doctor Who) vs. The Minerva (Umbrella Academy) vs. Divine Beast Van Medoh (The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild)

Warp Star (Kirby) vs. Hera (Wolf 395)

The Starship Aurora (The Mechanisms) vs. The Aurora (Subnautica)

Darla (She Ra) vs. Starblaster (The Adventure Zone) vs. 36 Kars on Mars (Jorge Joestar)

Comet Observatory (Super Mario Galaxy) vs. M-Bot (Skyward) vs. Octobot King L3Gs (Splatoon)

Bebop (Cowboy Bebop) vs. ISV Venture Star (Avatar) vs. Serenity (Firefly)

Elon Musk's car (real life) vs. The Skeld (Among Us)

X-Wing (Star Wars) vs. Spaceball One (Spaceballs)

Death Egg (Sonic the Hedgehog) vs. Invincible II (In Space With Markiplier) vs. Arwing (Star Fox)

The Rampion (The Lunar Chronicles) vs. Samus's Gunship (Metroid) vs. Lunar Whale (Final Fantasy IV)

U.S.S. Discovery (Star Trek) vs. The Traveler (Destiny) vs. Lost Light (Transformers)

Ship of the Imagination (Cosmos) vs. ART (The Murderbot Diaries) vs. The Massive (Invader Zim)

Rayquaza (Pokemon) vs. The Imperious Condescension' Ship (Homestuck) vs. Justice of Toren (Imperial Radch (Ancillary Justice))

Millennium Falcon (Star Wars) vs. Battle School (Ender's Game) vs. The Wayfarer (A Long Way to a Small Angry Planet)

Starship Tipton (Sweet Life on Deck) vs. Sputnik 1 (real life) vs. Space Cruiser (Rick and Morty)

Discovery One (2001: A Space Odyssey) vs. The Heart of Gold (The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy) vs. Bip (Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator)

Rocket (Young Einsteins) vs. S.S. Dolphin (Pikmin) vs. AI (Star Twinkle Precure)

U.S.S Enterprise (Star Trek) vs. The Skullship (Wander Over Yonder)

Please don't complain about seeding, I barely know more than half of these sources but I did my best. May the best ship win.

[dukewilbury]

The Fictional Rock 'n' Roll Where Are They Now

The Many Lives of Ziggy Stardust

In a world that thrums with the electric hum of interconnected lives and data streams, somewhere amidst the cacophony, the ghost of Ziggy Stardust lingers in the shell. He once dazzled the masses with his alien charisma, his otherworldly aura — a brilliant beacon of the glam-rock era. Ziggy Stardust was a symbol, a flicker of the cosmos made flesh, who came to Earth with the promise of salvation through the raw power of rock 'n' roll as if he was pulled directly from pulp fiction. He was our own celestial messiah with a penchant for alien chic and enough glitter to choke a black hole.

In the realm of fractured realities and splintered time streams, the tale of Ziggy Stardust persists like a faint radio signal, broadcasting echoes from a forgotten epoch. After the spectacular implosion of his band, the Spiders from Mars, Ziggy did not simply vanish into the aether. No, he splintered into myriad versions of himself, each walking a path divergent yet intertwined, like strands of a spider's web, ashes to ashes, stardust to stardust.

The Splintering of Ziggy Stardust

In one version of our reality, Ziggy sought refuge in a hidden sector known only to a few — a place where the man who sold the world could go unnoticed. Here, Ziggy adopted the guise of a humble musician, performing under the pseudonym Major Tom. Yet, even in this secluded existence, the echoes of his former self resonated. Whispers of Space Oddity lingered in the air, and those who listened closely could hear the remnants of his stellar past.

The Reinvention of Ziggy

Another Ziggy found solace in the cold, unfeeling embrace of technology. He became an entity of the digital frontier, an alien figure navigating the vast networks that spanned the cosmos. This Ziggy traded his guitar for a keyboard, composing data symphonies that resonated across the cybernetic landscape. Here, in the silicon womb of his creation, he sought to understand the mysteries of life on Mars and the algorithms of human emotion.

Ziggy the Prophet

In a dystopian fragment of time, Ziggy emerged as a prophet, his message a warning to the denizens of a decaying Earth. The Five Years he had once sung about were upon them, and the end was nigh. In this timeline, Ziggy's followers revered him as a savior, his concerts transformed into sermons of salvation. He preached of a rock ‘n’ roll suicide, urging the masses to embrace their inner chaos and find redemption in the music.

The Disappearance of Ziggy Stardust

Yet, there are those who believe Ziggy never truly disappeared. They claim he transcended the physical realm, becoming an ethereal being of pure sound and light. This Ziggy exists in the interstices of reality, glimpsed only in moments of profound synchronicity. He is the starman waiting in the sky, a beacon of hope for those attuned to the cosmic frequencies.

The Legacy of Ziggy

Across all these realities, one thing remains constant: the legacy of Ziggy Stardust. His influence permeates every corner of existence, a testament to the enduring power of his music and message. Whether as a reclusive musician, a digital pioneer, a prophetic figure, or an ethereal being, Ziggy Stardust continues to inspire and provoke, his story an eternal odyssey through the multiverse.

In the end, Ziggy Stardust is more than just a rock star. He is a symbol of transformation, a beacon of change in a universe of infinite possibilities. His story is a reminder that even in the face of oblivion, there is always a spark of creativity, a glimmer of hope. As long as there are those who remember and believe, Ziggy Stardust will never truly fade away no matter the galaxy.

[stellarred]

The Hardest Thing

A flash of light appeared in the blackness of space next to a beautiful eye-shaped nebula.

Q2 smiled and saw that it was his friend Q floating all alone.

Suddenly he stopped and saw something he had never seen before.

Q was crying. Q2 nodded his head and looked approvingly over Q's star and gas-filled form.

"I love your new look, Q. It's a bit more dramatic than the time you appeared as a craggy asteroid in the Beta Trionia System, or the time you manifested yourself as a two-headed outlaw on Zyrak II."

Q turned to his friend, his great Eye fluctuating as tears flowed into space.

"What do you want?" Q asked glumly.

"Nothing, Q. I felt your grief and guilt. I saw the Borg ship. I know about your human. Picard."

Q's face became crunched and red. The ancient god's tears flowed like diamonds. He was inconsolable.

"You have seen Jean-Luc. Locutus of Borg," Q said.

"I'm sorry, Q."

Q's nebula form shuddered.

"I know he will survive. I know. I have seen everything from the beginning to the end. It was supposed to happen this way. "

Q2 nodded and sighed.

" I guess. Nobody knows Jean-Luc's life better than you, Q."

"Yes. This is the hardest thing I've ever gone through. I just don't know if he will ever forgive me after he's rescued. He's going to have a long recovery ahead of him."

Q2 didn't know what to say as Q's great eye shimmered and shook violently as huge tears began pouring once again.

"And all I want to do is to save him from this nightmare, carry him away, hold him close, and...never let him go!" Q sobbed.

With sadness for his friend in his cosmic heart, Q2 vanished leaving Q in his nebula form to weep alone.

***

The small science vessel, the USS Calypso slowed to impulse as it arrived to observe the Great Eye Nebula and the tears it "cried."

Captain Shendle smiled as he and his crew gazed upon the mysterious nebula.

"This is amazing," he said.

"And yet, profoundly sad. Like the eye of a god. But, for what reason would a god have to cry?"

<end>

BONUS! Did you know?

[jameswebb-discoveries]

Observation Alert ! James Webb Telescope to Unravel Mysteries of Crystal Ball Nebula this week. Read more here

🌌✨ Exploring the Cosmic Beauty of NGC 1514: Webb's Odyssey ✨🌌

On September 27, 2023, the James Webb Space Telescope (Webb) is turning its gaze towards NGC 1514, the stunning planetary nebula often lovingly dubbed the "Crystal Ball Nebula." 🌟🔭

💫 What's So Special About NGC 1514? 💫

NGC 1514 is not your ordinary nebula. It's a celestial jewel situated in the Taurus constellation, 800 light-years away from our blue dot in the cosmos. This ethereal wonder consists of a pair of stars at its core – one, a dying giant star, heavier and hotter than our own Sun, and the other, a white dwarf, a compact, stellar remnant. 🌟💫

🪐 The Cosmic Ballet Unveiled 🪐

As the aging giant star gracefully dances through its final act, it sheds its outer layers, creating a luminous inner shell in radiant blues. An outer shell, displaying more translucent hues of blue, embraces this inner beauty, forming a breathtaking sphere in the vast expanse of space. It's a stellar ballet of light and color, a tribute to the cosmos' artistry. 🎶🌠

🔍 Webb's Mission: Unveiling Cosmic Secrets 🔍

The James Webb Space Telescope is our cosmic detective, equipped with state-of-the-art technology. Webb will delve into NGC 1514's heart, revealing the secrets of stellar evolution, the nebula's chemical composition, and its dynamic evolution over time. This observation offers insights into the cosmic history that ties all stars, including our Sun, together. 🌌🔍

🔭 Prepare to Be Enchanted 🔭

The universe has a way of leaving us in awe, and NGC 1514 is no exception. As Webb captures the beauty and mysteries of this planetary nebula, we're in for a breathtaking cosmic show. Stay tuned for Webb's upcoming reveal and join us in celebrating the wonders of the universe. ✨🌠

📸 Image Credit: Courtesy of the Digitized Sky Survey, hosted at the Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, Maryland.

[alpacahat67]

The Evolution of Major Tom - An Essay

In the 1960's, the world was fascinated with space travel. The Space Race was in full swing and in 1968 2001: A Space Odyssey was released. English singer-songwriter David Bowie happened to go see this film a few times, albeit while very stoned according to him, as the film fascinated him. During this time, Bowie had been trying to kick off his music career for a while. Previously he had jumped between band to band and even began using the now famous moniker of David Bowie in 1966 when he found out that the lead singer of the Monkees already went by Davy Jones. But he was failing in both his solo and group music careers. Thus, he began to feel alienated.

And both of these factors resulted in Bowie turning to songwriting.

Six months after seeing 2001: A Space Odyssey, Bowie wrote "Space Oddity". Inspired by the movie and Bowie's own sense of alienation, "Space Oddity" tells the story of Major Tom, an astronaut who is sent to outer space and tragically loses contact with Ground Control, becoming lost in the cosmos. "Space Oddity" was released quickly on July 11th, 1969 in order to capitalize off of the Apollo 11 space landing (although it was banned in the US due to the "bleak" nature of the lyrics), and it worked! For a brief time, Bowie had a hit single. "Space Oddity" had a significant role in kickstarting his career as a musician, although the fame didn't last. Well, not until another space-exploring character came into the picture at least.

After Space Oddity, Bowie released his second album of the name "David Bowie", although quickly renamed to "Space Oddity (David Bowie)" in order to reduce confusion among British audiences as his debut album by the name of, again, "David Bowie" was only released in Britain. After this, Major Tom became history as the first character of David Bowie and "Space Oddity" as Bowie's first push into fame.

As he did, Bowie played around with different music genres and released two more albums, "The Man Who Sold the World" and "Hunky Dory", before finally striking gold with "The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars" in 1972. Inspired by the words of his then-wife Angie Bowie to embrace his weirdness, Bowie cut his long blonde hair into a red mullet and donned the appearance of an asexual gender-bending rockstar alien messiah named Ziggy Stardust. He quickly grew famous for his quirky music style and unique fashion sense. Bowiemania, or Ziggymania, is often used to describe the dedication of his fans at the time, some of which reportedly ripped seats from their fixtures when Bowie and his backing band The Spiders From Mars announced that Ziggy Stardust would be killed and that they would potentially never tour again.

Throughout the 70's and Bowie's increasing fame throughout touring, whether touring as Ziggy or the Soul Man, Bowie began experimenting with drugs, primarily cocaine, which soon turned into an addiction. This became public knowledge in 1975 when the documentary Cracked Actor released, showing his mental state and struggle with cocaine addiction during this period. His substance abuse only worsened into the late 70's with the releases of his albums "Young Americans" and "Station to Station." Although the use of cocaine was once considered normal during this time amongst musicians, his use of cocaine seriously impacted his health and costed him a lot of public criticism. His "Thin White Duke" era that co-occurred with "Station to Station" is considered the height of his substance abuse, during this time he experienced serious delusions as a result of his drug use and said many problematic things that he denounced later in life.

In 1977, Bowie and fellow musician Iggy Pop moved to Berlin in order to kick their respective drug addictions. Bowie successfully kicked coke, although cocaine was replaced with alcohol and he'd been a smoker seemingly most of his career if not life. During this time he made three albums known as "the Berlin Trilogy", "Low, "Heroes", and "Lodger."

Into the 1980's, Bowie was mostly clean from drugs, it would be a few years before he fully embraced sobriety. He released "Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps)" in 1980, and this is where we circle back to Major Tom. In the song "Ashes to Ashes" from the aforementioned album, Major Tom is rewritten as a "junkie" "strung out in Heaven's high." This song in general seems to be Bowie looking back at his dependency on cocaine and providing a cautionary tale against the use of drugs, considering the nursery rhyme-like sound of the song. Major Tom is sort of used for Bowie to share his own story here, and the addition to Major Tom's story can be interpreted generally in two ways: that Major Tom has since grown addicted to drugs and increasingly lonely while lost in space, or that Major Tom's space journey might have been a delusion as a result of drug usage if you read between the lines enough. The lyrics of "Ashes to Ashes" directly contrast the lyrics of "Space Oddity." "Space Oddity" frames Major Tom as a heroic figure, that his being lost in space in peaceful in a way. "Ashes to Ashes" frames Major Tom as an addict, lost and alone both mentally and physically, and the solitude is suffocating ("the shrieking of nothing is killing").

It would take another decade, 15 years in fact, for Major Tom to make a return in the sixth track of "Outside", "Hallo Spaceboy." Major Tom is never directly mentioned in the song itself. However, the remix with the Pet Shop Boys takes lyrics directly from "Space Oddity", although jumbled. The lyrics for the tracks on "Outside" were words that Bowie ran through a computer program and Bowie did what he wanted with the product, but "Hallo Spaceboy" does seem to piece together somewhat of a continuation to the story of Major Tom. The distorted nature of the lyrics provides a sense of confusion or some sort of anger, like Major Tom is growing tired of being lost in outer space. The line "this chaos is killing me" seems to drive in that point and feels like it furthers the sentiment of "Ashes to Ashes", that Major Tom is exhausted of being isolated. Lyrics from both the original and remix further this, like "your silhouette is so stationary" are reminiscent of Major Tom as well. It's truly amazing how lyrics mostly composed by a computer and rearranged as Bowie deemed fit can continue this story.

Major Tom appeared briefly in some music videos throughout the rest of Bowie's career up until his death in 2016 two days after the release of his final album Blackstar. In a way, Major Tom died with David Bowie. Again, Major Tom is never directly mentioned in this album, only ever vaguely referenced. But in the music video, an alien woman placed a jewel-encrusted skull into the helmet of an astronaut suit, confirming the death of Major Tom.

From the beginning to the end of David Bowie's career, Major Tom has followed and been repeatedly reinvented just as Bowie reinvented himself. Thus, it seems only fitting to show his ultimate death after decades of floating aimlessly in his tin can. It's an apt way for Bowie to "sign off" in a way, killing the character that influenced and kickstarted so much of David Bowie's music career.

[factsandstuffbyd]

The Birth and Death of Stars: A Cosmic Dance of Creation

Genesis of Stars: Molecular Clouds and Swirling Disks The narrative commences with the captivating genesis of stars within colossal molecular clouds. These clouds, composed of gas and dust, undergo a gravitational collapse that marks the birth of nascent stars. Swirling disks of material envelop these stars, setting the stage for potential planetary system formation. The ignition of nuclear fusion within their cores sparks their luminous inception, illuminating the universe with their radiant glow.

Main Sequence Brilliance: The Shining Phase Stars gracefully enter their main sequence phase, characterized by their brightest shine. Fueled by nuclear fusion's energy, they emit light and heat that traverse the cosmos, shaping the fabric of space and time. During this phase, stars serve as beacons, guiding the way through the celestial expanse.

Transcending Boundaries: The Evolutionary Odyssey Transitions mark the stars' cosmic dance. The destiny of a star is defined by its mass. Smaller stars evolve into red giants, their outer layers gracefully shedding in a display of stellar grandeur. These layers contribute to the formation of captivating nebulae, leaving a celestial legacy. The remnants contract to form white dwarfs, celestial remnants that continue to influence the universe with their gravitational pull. On a grander scale, more massive stars culminate their journey in awe-inspiring supernovae, scattering life-enabling elements across the cosmic stage.

Intriguing Remnants: Neutron Stars, Pulsars, and Black Holes Post-supernovae, the narrative reveals intriguing cosmic remnants. Neutron stars and pulsars, products of certain supernovae, emit detectable radiation pulses, unveiling the universe's extreme conditions. Meanwhile, the grand finale for massive stars leads to the birth of black holes—space-time regions of immense gravity that challenge our understanding of the cosmos.

Eternal Choreography: Stars' Endless Impact The cosmic dance of stars carries profound implications. Elements disseminated by supernovae lay the groundwork for new star formation, perpetuating the cycle of creation. The universe, an interconnected web, thrives on this cosmic choreography. Stars, the masterful choreographers, influence galaxies, facilitate planet birth, and enrich the cosmos with life-essential components. The dance endures, a testament to the enduring narrative of creation, transformation, and interconnectedness in the universe.

[hlfmoonshine]

connections :)

angelina & ivy & fleetwood & honey & veronica & graceland all musicians or songwriters and could easily have friendships and opinions between the group especially about who they are dating or keeping around them at the time. fans, rivals, producers, songwriters, dancers, bands, the options are limitless. hell, journalist? chicken shop date shit? asmodeus & lila work together at the supernatural version of the good company. patrons, supernaturals in need, there's a lot of room to play with these two. bo & sawyer & maggie & sosh & tyler & libby laura & susanna & lori & ward & ingrid & nellie & drew obviously all live on the golden ranch, or have spent a lot of time at the golden ranch. rival ranchers? rodeo competitors? an ex from the past, buckle bunnies, the law, conservation officers, locals, a well of options. booker & rory & coen & josie are all part of the eden family. very messy. lots of connections to be had. significant others play best in this production, especially when coming from coen's corner. boone & claire & odyssey & lydia odyssy and lydia are close friends of boone, who slings weed, especially to lydia. claire disapproves of all three. someone buying drugs? a friend from a party? someone claire's chasing but who knows boone better, honestly, this can get really messy if we want it to. cobie & icarus & royal & millie & elena it's called the nepo club. you can be born into you, you can be adopted as a pet, you could try to save someone from the club. lots of space to play here. seeking additional nepo babies, someone from the outside, savior, pet, someone who got out of the life, just, there's so many options here? money can get you basically anything tbh. darius & francis & erik & lila all work at or are connected to the good company bar (nonsupernatural edition), or to the landon crime family. an assassination target? someone saved from death? someone owing the landons? someone looking for safety or protection from the landons? someone caught in a bad deal who has to be brought in? dima & lev & roman & lena & sasha three brothers, all working for koschei the deathless (which leaves a lot of room to mess around with) and two sisters, all working for the baba yaga (who has a longstanding rivalry with koschei) someone who's playing both sides or someone who works for one side but loves the other (hello romeo & juliet lovers), someone who is getting pulled into the life. halen & lita & alice hello dysfunctional and judgmental siblings. much drama. this is another where the significant other really can play well. these three do not play well together, so anyone walking into that is walking into danger. lena & madelaine & maryam all working in the medical field, easy to tie together actually. even easier to form connections with in that same field. doctor, nurse, tech, admin, patients, family of patients. hello hospital nonsense. koa & perry small business owners stick together. and frequently talk shit together over coffee or cosmos. favorite customers? worst patrons? connections galore. honey & poppy & romeo i don't know if you know that i love a set of siblings. meet the girlfriend? meet the boyfriend? meet the lover? please, the messes and miracles made with these three and their extended connections are a dream. winnie & lila sisters & witches who lead familiar lives, with different opinions. i would love to see some confrontation between a connection of these two.