#egg apparatus

[whats-in-a-sentence]

The egg cell (the female gamete that combines with a sperm cell to form the zygote) and the two synergid cells are located at the micropylar end of the embryo sac and are collectively referred to as the egg apparatus (Figure 21.9).

"Plant Physiology and Development" int'l 6e - Taiz, L., Zeiger, E., Møller, I.M., Murphy, A.

[creationtainted]

@countlessrealities said: ✏️ + Adam & Alastor, bc these two need to start interacting ffs

Alastor: "Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge" - Charles Darwin

"What the fuck? 'Begets' isn't a word. Stop trying to make up words, fuckface."

Shakespearian sounding-ass... Why is it that he can't seem to leave his room without getting interrupted by someone or something? He's been a homebody for long enough—for as disgusting and horrific as Hell is, Adam has to be able to leave sometime. He's been making more and more of an effort lately, especially now that he has a convenient way to cart Hesta around with him.

At that current moment, he happens to be standing in line, one hand absently resting against his torso—something he'll explain away as just trying to quell hunger pangs, if asked—waiting for the chance to order up some lunch. Go figure, he gets ambushed by the Edgelord himself. He'd really been trying to avoid dealing with him, for as much as he appreciated the gossip with Vaggie.

"You would be trying to shoehorn Charles Darwin into a conversation. That freak ate all kinds of weird shit, too." Not that that's particularly relevant, but the connection is undeniable. "Can we cut to the chase here already? What do you want?"

[feltpool]

Thinly sliced

Suspension of disbelief is one thing

But the backlit egg slicer is really making it hard to take this scene seriously

The light draws the eye

How am I supposed to focus when I have tupperware staring at me from the light fittings every time the camera angle changes?

[liber-what-ia]

I have proof. This is how a standard German drawer looks like (this is like a secondary drawer where all things that aren't used daily are stored, the other main drawers are of course perfectly arranged).

Yes, there's a mallet. No, it doesn't open fully due to how packed it is.

[felassan]

PC Gamer interview with Mark Meer: 'I'm afraid you'll be forced to encounter me as Niftu Cal and Blasto and any vorcha you run into'

Mark Meer is a fan of Jennifer Hale too.

Excerpts:

""I occasionally get told by people, 'Oh, I've never played female Commander Shepard. I only play you.' And I'm like, why are you denying yourself the excellent performance of Jennifer Hale?" Meer says. "That's the thing about Mass Effect, it has so much replayability. I certainly don't mind though, if people are like, 'No, I just play Jennifer as Commander Shepard,' because I'm afraid you'll be forced to encounter me as Niftu Cal and Blasto and any vorcha you run into and various other things in the game." Before he was cast as Shepard, Meer was hired by BioWare to come up with soundsets for the alien species, which he describes as the audio equivalent of concept art. "Laying down what a typical krogan would sound like, a typical turian, that sort of thing." He not only ended up playing a bunch of different alien characters, he's the one responsible for ideas like the asthmatic inhalations of the volus—those heavy-breathing, wombly little guys in gas masks.  "Not rocket science," he says. "Obviously they're wearing some kind of breathing apparatus so I threw in that wheeze sort of sound. There are some alien races that I ended up playing all of, for example, the vorcha. I think I'm almost all of the hanar and have played a number of volus, I think I've done at least a few elcor and batarians certainly. So yes, I'm sprinkled throughout the games in a variety of roles." One of the most memorable of these is Niftu Cal, the drugged-up little guy who gets so high he thinks he's become a biotic god. "That was a lot of fun," Meer says, "and perhaps lesser well known but equally important, the pizza volus. And speaking of hanar I got to play Blasto, who is in some ways one of my favorite characters—no offense to Commander Shepard. But Blasto was a lot of fun, especially because it started as an audio in-joke." Blasto is a parody of action movie heroes like Dirty Harry and James Bond who you first hear about in ads as you're exploring Mass Effect 2. "Jennifer Hale played an elcor in that," Meer says. "She's playing the sister of Blasto's partner Bubin, who Blasto winds up having an affair with. Embedded as an audio easter egg is both commander Shepards having an affair—as a hanar and an elcor." Even before Jennifer Hale was cast, he was an admirer of her work as Bastila Shan in Knights of the Old Republic, and in various cartoons. "I'm a big comic fan," he says, "so I was a big fan of Justice League Unlimited and the old Batman animated series. I'd loved her work as Zatanna and she was the go-to Giganta and Killer Frost for the Justice League stuff.""

[source]

[niconebula]

I’m currently writing a college essay on the representation of Witches (and all Magical Girls) in Madoka Magica; I don’t know if I will be able to include this within the limits of the project so I wanted to share to Tumblr instead. It does not seem to be widely understood how much yonic imagery there is in the series and how important that is to the intended message.

For starters Kyubey is a walking uterus. The name of his species is literally Incubator (an enclosed apparatus providing a controlled environment for the care and protection of premature or unusually small babies; an apparatus used to hatch eggs or grow microorganisms under controlled conditions). He creates egg-shaped Soul Gems, and deposits the Grief Seeds back into his little receptacle. Why does he have such a weird design with two sets of ears? The lower ‘ears’ with the separated ends are actually modelled off of what Fallopian Tubes look like.

(Funny diagram but. It’s true! I’ll come back to this point at the end).

So then take this scene (thank god someone reuploaded it to YouTube):

“And you think a shit-for-brains hoe is going to be making that much in ten years? That body ain’t gonna last forever, you know.” “And then you dump ‘em, and they get all whiny!”

These two men are talking about the short term relationships they have with women, using them for their bodies and treating them like shit, and then dumping them immediately after - not understanding or caring as to how this upsets them.

It consistently baffles me how many people will completely throw out feminist readings of Madoka Magica. ‘Readings’ shouldn’t even be used - this is the main text of the goddamn show! You are free to argue that it failed at its message, or that the application was problematic, but for this scene in particular to fly over your head makes me discount opinions immediately.

Anyway, where have we heard this rhetoric before? “That body ain’t gonna last forever” - a young Magical Girl is always destined to turn into the Wicked Witch. “When you dump em’, they get all whiny!” - it is a Magical Girl at the peak of her despair who turns into a Witch, and Kyubey cannot and does not care for their human emotion.

The men cycle through their ‘hoes’ like Kyubey cycles through Magical Girls to get whatever his species supposedly needs to continue the universe.

I’m going to cut a break here for TW discussions of metaphorical rape and pregnancy involving minors, but this portion of the post is important.

Kyubey completely violates the concept of informed consent when he creates his magical girls - though he always argues that he did ask, and it’s in fact their fault (as fourteen year old girls) to not ask further questions.

Taking his form as a uterus alongside the yonic imagery of the show, it is implied that Kyubey has in some way ‘raped’ the girls. This is most evident in Sayaka’s arc; her insistence that becoming a Magical Girl has made her spoiled and that Kyousuke wouldn’t want to even kiss a girl like her.

Their transformations into witches further the idea that they have been ‘spoiled’, but also symbolize their transformation into adult women. Women who are ‘too adult’, and whose bodies are no longer attractive or useful to create babies anymore.

Goddess Madoka is even depicted as pregnant in the full Magia ending.

I feel like you could reason within all this symbolism that there’s a metaphor for specifically the coerced pregnancy and mothership of women. Something often considered the ‘ideal state’ for women and as you will see many conservatives argue, the necessary thing to continue society. In their minds, the subjugation of anyone they assign as women to these roles is necessary for society as they know it to continue for the imaginary people of the future who do not even exist yet.

Kyubey refers to the Magical Girls as cattle. He is there to help incubate and hatch the witch, and then throw the magical girl to the dust afterwards as she dies no longer useful. These girls are sacrifices to a far-off future that Kyubey promises them, he tells them that if no Magical Girls existed to hatch into Witches, humanity would not last long enough to see itself to the stars.

The incubator and his design, the soul gems and grief seeds, the pregnant madoka, the discussions about men liking their eggs a particular way by their homeroom teacher, it’s all very consistent. I’m not sure if my prospective readers have ever considered this within Madoka Magica - but try seeing it from this angle.

I didn’t find a way to work this into the post, but in addition: take the ancient myth of the wandering womb. This was the belief that so called over-emotional women were suffering from a condition where their uterus was moving in ways all across their bodies. It morphed into the more modern usage of female hysteria; hysteria coming from hystera- the Greek word for uterus. Kyubey thinks of the girls as constantly overreacting and overemotional. Hysterical.

[weirdmarioenemies]

Name: Binoculars

Debut: Super Mario 3D Land

Wow! What a large and crisp render of Binoculars. This is more than a lot of enemies get. And it's all for Binoculars!

It is nice to see binoculars as an installed apparatus for public use. It reminds me of those binoculars that are sometimes at parks or zoos where you can put in a quarter and get a limited amount of time to look at ducks more closely. Let's look!

Wow! There's a North American Ruddy Duck! in this pond! That's my favorite duck! The blue of the male's bill is probably my favorite color, and they are so cute, especially with their funny proportions. Their head looks too small for their body, but their feet look too BIG for the rest of them! Their feet are large and further back on their body because they are divers who swim down to find food, unlike the dabbling ducks, which keep their butts above the water while foraging. Oops! I forgot that this is a Mario Post and that we aren't actually watching ducks at a pond!

Anyway I just found out those kinds of binoculars are called Tower Viewers. More like Quacker Viewers. Ok on to Mario for real now! Mario, sadly, does not view ducks with these binoculars. They are free, however, which is nice! I'm glad there are ways for everyone to enjoy the Mushroom Kingdom's landscapes at a distance and at no costs. In fact, Mario is sometimes rewarded for using them, as a Toad will throw him a Star Medal upon being seen! A Toad who really wants to bee looked at and goes HAH BAH.

Mario can also see a UFO through the binoculars sometimes! This is often brought up as a Creepy Easter Egg despite the fact that aliens have been present in this franchise since 1989!

With all that about the 3D Land binoculars out of the way, I am really here to say that the binoculars in Odyssey are BETTER. They look like ROB, and overall are a Funny Robot, so they are obviously better by default! They even move around on their own as if they are looking around, and they are really so good at looking, since they are binoculars. I think the binoculars themselves are bird enthusiasts and watch them in delight constantly!

These binoculars even have LORE as seen in the art book, and shared by Suppermariobroth! They are made by the same company as the 3D Land binoculars, and are an older model not capable of stereoscopic 3D! They were installed by the sightseeing company for onsite investigation, and someone has to come and collect the logs from the devices every so often. I seriously love this all sooo much! It is so cute and wonderful that they put this much thought into humble little Binoculars! BinocuLORE!

I would now like to talk about just how these binoculars work! Upon being Captured, they shoot up using spray propulsion (not jet propulsion!!!) and let Mario scope out the area from the sky! Mario got extremely lucky that he happened across these specific binoculars when he happened to have the ability to Capture them, because anyone else using this would be in extreme danger. Please hang on tight!

Binoculars most recently appear in Super Nintendo World, where they are now real! They use the 3D Land design, which makes sense knowing it is canonically the modern design. You can even look at certain things to get little rewards just like in the game! Super Mario in real life! Wa Who!

[bethanythebogwitch]

Wet Beast Wednesday: California Sheephead Wrasse

A lot of people through history and the modern day have an overly simplistic view about sex, both in the sense of biological sex (that is, what gametes something produces) and sex as in the act of mating. A lot of people think that sex is just a strict binary between males and females, but nature is far more diverse and varied than that (even in humans. Intersex people do exist after all). Today I'm showcasing one of the animals that completely goes against the alleged sex binary: the California Sheephead Wrasse. And yes, this is a pride post.

(Image: a male California Sheephead Wrasse in a tank in the Monterey Bay Aquarium. It is a large fish with a bulbous head. The head and tail are black, midsection is pink, and the belly and chin are white. End ID)

The California Sheephead (Semicossyphus pulcher) is a large fish in the Wrasse family of Labridae. They are sexually dimorphic, with the males and females appearing distinct from each other in size, shape, and color. Males are larger than females, reaching up to 91 cm (3 ft) and 16 kg (35 lbs), though there is quite a bit of size variation based on food availability. They have flatter faces than females thanks to a bulbous bump on the forehead. This lump is the namesake of the fish, since it allegedly make it look like it has a sheep's head. I personally don't see it at all. Males have black heads and tails with a white chin and underbelly and pink midsection Females are smaller and colored silvery to a dull pink all over except for their white chins and underbellies. There isn't really a maximum size or weight for females for reasons I'll get into later. The fish have large canine teeth that protrude from the mouth and modified throat bones that form a grinding apparatus called the throat plate.

(Image: a female California Sheephead. It has a less bulbous head than the male and is a pale pink all over, except for the white belly and chin. End ID)

Sheepheads, like many wrasses, are sequential hermaphrodites. A sequential hermaphrodite can transition between sexes during its life (as opposed to a simultaneous hermaphrodite, who can produce both sperm and eggs at the same time). Every California Sheephead is born female and some will become male later in life, making them protogynous. Protogyny is the most common form of hermaphroditism in fish, with over 75% of known sequentially hermaphroditic fish species being protogynous. This transition is a one-way process, males will not turn back into females. The transition is triggered by a number of factors, primarily size and the local availability of males. If there are not enough males in the area, the largest female will transition to male to fill the role. This transition takes between 2 weeks and a few months depending on availability of food and other conditions (temperature seems to play a role) and the fish will be capable of producing sperm before fully assuming the male morphology.

(Image a male and female Sheephead swimming next to each other. The female is roughly half the size of the male. End ID)

During mating season (July-September), males will pick a territory and claim all nearby females as mates. A younger male without a territory may challenge an alpha male to try to claim his territory. These fights are often resolved with threat posturing, but if neither male backs down, they will fight with biting and raking teeth against the opponent. During mating season, females will release batches of 375,000 eggs almost daily for males to fertilize. During this time, the alpha male will patrol his territory to mate as much as possible while chasing off smaller males who may attempt to sneakily fertilize some of his female's eggs. The larvae are planktonic for their first 34-78 days, and will sink as they grow. Juveniles have a different coloration to the adults. They are orange, with a white stripe running down the body and dark spots on the fins. The average maximum age of a California Sheephead is 21 years, but the oldest individual on record was 53 at the time of capture.

(Image: a juvenile Sheephead. It is a small, orange fish with a white stripe running from eye to tail and black spots on the pelvic, anal, dorsal, and tail fins. End ID)

The California Sheephead lives on rocky reefs and kelp forests from southern California to the Baja peninsula and Gulf of California. They prefer shallow water between 3 and 30 meters (10 - 100 ft) deep, though males will occasionally venture deeper. Sheepheads are predators that hunt hard-bodies invertebrates including urchins, shelled molluscs, and crabs. Juveniles hunt smaller prey such as sponges, bryozoans, and barnacles. The protruding canines give the fish a better grip when trying to pry food off of rocks. They crush the hard shells of the prey with sharp teeth before swallowing. The shells are then further ground down by the throat plates. Smaller individuals have been known to break open urchins too large to bit by picking them up and hammering them into rocks. Sheepheads play an important role in kelp forest ecosystems by keeping urchin populations down. Urchins eat kelp and without predators keeping their numbers in check, can reduce kelp forests to urchin barrens. Sheepheads are known to have a high site fidelity, meaning they will return to the same places over and over. They will maintains a sleeping spot (usually a crevice they can hide in or rock they can hide under) and return to the same places to hunt. They are diurnal and return to their sleeping spots at night to avoid predators.

(Image: a male Sheephead trying to pick up a sea urchin with tis mouth. End ID)

California Sheephead Wrasses are classified as vulnerable to extinction by the IUCN. Their primary threat is overfishing. The Sheepheads have been commercially fished since the 1800s and their numbers have dropped. The hermaphroditic nature of the species actually makes things worse. Commercial fishers are incentivized to catch the largest fish and the largest Sheepheads are the males and females that are likely to transition to male. Unlike with other species, there aren't small males around to make up for the loss of large males to fishing since the small fish are the females. The loss of males and the largest females (who are the ones most likely to transition to male) means there aren't enough males around during mating season to keep the population high enough. The introduction of marine protected areas and fishing regulations have helped the population recover. The loss of the Sheepheads is a big deal since they're one of the species doing the most to keep the kelp forests healthy by eating urchins. Natural predators of the Sheepheads include sharks, sea lions, and giant sea bass.

(Image: a fisherman holding a male Sheephead on a boat. The large canines of the fish are particularly visible. End ID)

[fishenjoyer1]

Fish of the Day

Happy Thursday, everyone! Today's fish of the day is the Australian lungfish!

The Australian lungfish, or barramunda, known by scientific name Neoceratodus forsteri is one of the 6 surviving lungfishes of the modern world. The other 5 lungfishes are scattered to other sections of the world, one in South America, and the other 4 all living in Africa. As the name implies, this lungfish is endemic to Australia living in South Eastern Queensland, or for those who don't know the general areas of Australia, the upper right corner of the country. Living exclusively in slow moving streams, still waters, and various waterside banks living entirely in freshwater systems. This fish is primarily nocturnal, and almost entirely carnivorous. Its diet consists of: frogs, larvae, bugs, plant material, earthworms, fishes, small invertebrates, and anything else it can catch.  They are primarily bottom dwellers, and prey is caught directly in the mouth and then crushed multiple times, being positioned correctly by a bone called a hydroid apparatus. Australian lungfish have the most primitive of surviving lungfish feeding behaviors.

Australian lungfish are best known for their ability to survive dry seasons. However, unlike African lungfish, which can survive fully in droughts by submerging themselves into  This is done by submerging the body in the mud, and rising to the surface to swallow oxygen into a single dorsal lung. This lung is only supplementary, and the fish prefer to breathe through their 5 gills. Of the six lungfish, the Australian lungfish is the only one to not have two lungs, but rather a fold down the center of the single lung acting as a wall, which blood capillaries run through, allowing gas exchange. Unlike it's African counterparts, the Australian lungfish can not survive total water depletion, (other lungfish survive this by creating a layer of mucus around itself and living there for several years until water returns). Australian lungfish can survive several days out of the water, but can not do so unless it is in a moist environment, usually mud.

Fossil records of lungfish tell us that some of their first fossils can be found from 410 Million years ago, being the closest living relative to the tetrapod. The last shared ancestor between the lungfish and tetrapod was 420 Million year ago. Originally, these animals started as marine creatures, but sometime in the carboniferous the species became freshwater exclusive, around the same time that the last common ancestor to all remaining lungfish lived.  Australian lungfish in particular appear to have split off about 380 million years ago, and have remained virtually unchanged from their ancestors for over 100 million years, giving them the title of living fossils! 

Not only have they remained incredibly similar over the years, they have a long lifespan for individuals as well. A captive Australian lungfish named granddad was shown to live to 108 years (+- 6), with the expected lifespan of wild lungfish surviving at least 20-25 years after they reach sexual maturity. In Australian lungfish, similar to other lungfish species in the world, sexual maturity is reached in males after 17 years, and 22 years in females. Australian lungfish have elaborate courting rituals consisting of three distinct phases. The first phase is searching, where the lungfish will breathe loudly, making mating calls with its single lung. The second is called "follow the leader" where males will attempt to entice a female by nudging and rubbing snouts with her, often at the same time as competitors. The last stage is where two lungfish will descend to lay and fertilize eggs, females producing 2 eggs per spawning season. After breeding, the eggs are left to sink in the vegetation, as Australian lungfish do not nest or care for their young. This is unlike all other lungfish species.

Have a wonderful Thursday, everyone!

[addicted2wasps]

Did you know that male wasps cannot sting? Males of any Hymenopteran don't have stingers for that matter. There are some male wasps that have what is called a Pseudostinger (like Myzinum, Thynnidae) or sharp genital spines (like Anterhynchium, Eumeninae), but neither deliver venom. A stinger is a modified ovipositor, which is an egg-laying apparatus that only females have. Here, I am holding a male Vespula, I think a very xanthic V. flavopilosa, or V. germanica, which was subsequently released.

[b1asho]

Sundyne fullbody

2nd to last, the big nasty bug lizards!! (Aka sundyne, if you dont want to get kicked across the room)

Here's the evil exposition dump:

Sundyne are under the Cerest label umbrella with Dorest and Rox, but are genetically distinct enough that they aren’t really the same thing.

It’s a commonly held theory among other species that they’re some kind of artificially created Cerest offshoot that went wrong and overtook their creators, but that’s crazy talk and bringing that up around a trad Sundyne is a great way to get snapped at.

They share some things with their Drecu cousins and I would suggest reading their stuff to get the general vibe, but the gist is that Sundyne also have serviceable but poor temperature regulation, their eyes aren’t spherical and are housed in bony cones in their heads, they can see colors that we can’t, they lay eggs and have a similar life stage development cycle,they have extremely sensitive antennas, and they have a mix of endo and exoskeleton/shell.

Their differences are a lot more distinct (obviously) Sundyne are obligate carnivores, for one, and have a lot harder time processing plant matter than Drecu. Their lower mandibles and beak are very sharp and are used to both tear into and hold prey.

When their mouth is closed, these two are pressed together tightly by internal muscles. Along with their little bit of lip and their other mouthparts that fold closely along their face, it gives the impression of their jaw being more like ours (especially when I stylize it and remove all detail >: ) ).

Those internal grabbies are about as strong as a human thumb, and are used to make speaking noises by vibrating them together along with the apparatus in their throat. Those also help to hold/maneuver food without opening the mouth too much (which they see as a threat)

Another difference in their mouth is their tongue, which is housed in a hole along their lower jaw, and its length retracts down their throat.

They use it to strip meat from bone and lick yummy goop out of shell and bone holes.

Their huge eyes function much better at night, and they usually keep them lidded to avoid sensory overload or looking like theyre upset (again, their eyes aren't full spheres in there, and instead are more like weird cylinders that taper as they go back in the skull.)

Like Dorest, all 6 of their fingers on their main hands are separated, though now they are all much larger and longer (at least on this top pair of arms).

Only the claws on their larger top arms are retractable, operating by sliding in and out of a pocket of endoskeleton in their end knuckle.

The smaller bottom arms have a thumb claw like Rox, and none of the shorter and duller on the other fingers are retractable.

Also like Rox, they have a special claw on their foot for kicking stuff, though theirs is much more pronounced and mobile (their other toes are relatively short and also have retractable claws.)

Male Sundyne also have a third pair of 'limbs' that are actually gonopods that fold on their back that they use to carry eggs, another indicator that their genus as a whole may have once had 8 limbs that have since fused or retracted.

Speaking of male, sundyne are not hermaphroditic, with *adults* being distinctly male or female. It's impossible to tell until the first molt after pupation, though.

Sundyne dimorphism is based on this sex difference and it decides their service role in their familial/ societal clans (rather than with Drecu, whose role in the colony decides their sexual role)

Their family units tend to be single dominant reproductive male and female pair, their children, and nonreproductive members.

Traditionally, that dominant pair is decided by whichever is the strongest female and whichever male catches her attention, but modernly and in higher classes there is a lot more linking of clans and inter/extra political and legislative to consider.

The dominant male and female are monogamously bonded, but often switch their single partners a lot for politics etc (though long-held bonds are seen as better) nonreproductive members can have multiple partners and do, but the privilege of eggs is only for that special pair bond.

The closest thing from earth i can say is they're structured a bit like a lion pride or meerkats, though females are the ones who defend the territory while males hunt and rear children once the eggs have been laid/hatched (which is where Rox and Dorest got their child raising roles from)

In any clan, females outnumber males because at a certain age most males are meant to leave and go join another clan. Because of this, the nonreproductive females often assist with resource gathering/some ither male roles (though they're given their own pronoun for this since males are their own special thing)

Males are smaller in height and sleeker, and have more markings on their face/ body (while they look very flashy to us, it helps break up their shape to their colorblind prey).

They also retain one more set of limbs than females: gonopods like Drecu on their back that also help hold their females eggs in place (once the female is ready to lay them, they give them to the male with an ovipositor) .

Females are much larger and more muscular, with fewer markings but often more impressuve crowns of horns. They also don’t have the same external genitalia structure.

The horn things on a female will drop and regrow more based on hormone signals from their social status and/or their environment. On a male, they will not (but they do keep growing constantly)

I keep saying "things" on their head because they're structured sort of like horns but not quite.

Theyre more or less hollow/spongy bone on the inside with a thin sheath covering , more or less permanent, and sort of vascularized and growing for the whole year. BUT they can branch, don’t have a single living core, and they can drop and regrow if damaged enough by the root (kind of just a spongy thing growing out of a bone shoot idk).

Horn damage on a male is seen as extremely unattractive and disgraceful (the long continually grown unbranched ones are the beauty standard since it exemplifies how precious they are)

Females use them a lot more for combat, territoriality, and social status (whereas males use them for defense and social status) so they get cracked more often. If this happens, theyll regrow with some deformation around the sheath. If they get access to a better food source, they’ll also drop and then regrow better and stronger (but smooth and with no tines). For the few reproductive females, they will shed and regrow bigger/stronger horn things with more branches yearly the longer they’re the dominant female as a status symbol. Any horn branches are looked at very favorably on females, but the crooked/unnatural spurs and bumps caused by damage is looked at as a low status symbol since the only reason they’d still have it is if they aren’t dominant enough to get the signals to drop and regrow them the right way.

As for their life cycle, its a lot like Drecu. Egg, little gloopy grub thing, bigger goopy grub thing, prepupa, chrysalis, juvenile adult stage.

However, during pupation adults can’t ‘choose’ the final form of their offspring like Dorest and Rox can. Males are considerably more favored because they leave their home clan to build ties and status in other clans, ultimately expanding the influence of the family and more freely rising in the ranks (they leave, marry in with a female of equal or greater status, and can move up by taking out other males there. a female doesn’t typically leave their birth clan, and could never become the dominant female of their own clan because incest and patricide taboo, and the only way they’d be able to in another clan is if they enter as a nonreproductive and maybe get lucky enough that the dominant female falls out of favor so you can yake her place)

If they had the chance most clans would cull many of the females in their clutches, but since they can’t tell the difference until the age where their kids are legally considered people, it’s harder to do that.

Succession rites for females follow a matriline from the dominant female, but they have their own internal pecking order established through literal and social pecking. If you’re a better fighter or just smarter/more useful, you’ll have a higher status. But if you were born in that clan, you'll never be the dominant female unless the male gets taken out of the equation too, making an opening for a new leader.

Males get their initial status from their pair with a female upon entry to a new clan, but they can actually move up to the dominant position by killing or otherwise removing the previous male. After this, they can choose a new female.

Their biological roles of hunter/nurturer for male and protector/fighter for female translates to their modern sociopolitical roles pretty literally. Males hold power as lawmakers, media makers, educators, and leaders due to their more 'intellectual' domestic role and ability to bridge clans in alliances.

. Though they are physically superior, females become the males protection once they are paired. They hold power within a clan and often in the military or as lower government officials, but outside of the clan their reach is pretty much carrying out and enforcing the orders of their male.

Their dynamic is like a sword and its wielder, or a speaker and their voice, though it is also referenced in their own culture as a male/female pair being “the sun and its moon.” They also take great pride in this binary, seeing it as something that sets them apart/ male and female completing each other to form the perfect whole.

Straying from this is a one way ticket to being either kicked out of the clan, jailed, or killed depending on where you are and who you’re dealing with.

They will enforce it onto any other species they meet (which is part of why Dorest and Rox are rigidly separated by a gender role along with their biological role in the colony, even though they are both sexes)

Sundyne clans are at the tippy top of Cerest society’s order (wirh Seru being the tippy top of the Sundyne exclusive caste, represented by a circle). They oversee their Drecu colonies and use their resources and manpower to expand their territory. This hierarchy is deeply entrenched, with any Drecu within a trad Sundyne structure believing that the Seru are immaculate and powerful beings.

Another conspiracy theory is that back in the early days of Sundyne development they probably preyed on Drecu and infiltrated their colonies through pheromone manipulation, overtaking that territory for their clan. The pheromone thing allows them to influence the general emotions of Cerest around them and give loose instructions, and to stop the instinctive swarm swarm swarm kill kill kill responses Drecu get when they see them (To Drecu, Sundyne look like creepy elongated nightmare versions of themselves, and though this response has largely been bred out most Dorest and Rox still feel an uncanny effect from looking at them. ) again, that's crazy talk though and never happened.

One more to go, and its the funny parasite worm ones

[sleepy12ftpanda]

During the events of Sonic Frontiers, Gerald Robotnik comes back from the dead through a fail-safe in the Arc that transplants his preserved brain into the body of one of his mutant creations a set number of years after G.U.N.'s siege, thus eluding the gaze of both the government and Black Arms by having secretly turned his old body into a cyborg decoy that operated remotely from a mind actually plugged into the colony's super computer.

He would've done the same for Maria hadn't her body been too frail for the process, so instead he had made a copy of her mind essentially saved on a flash drive as the dormant black box of an AI powerful enough to store her memories and personality but without the apparatus to give them life.

Now in the future, knowing his grandson to be too brash and selfish to aid him, he lurks in the shadows of the Egg Empire working tirelessly for the day when his hand creates the means to revive the girl.

That was at least, until he learned of Sage.

He now plots against his own family, seeking to install his granddaughter as a virus into Sage's AI before the power supply of Maria's backup drive runs out and she's lost forever, sacrificing one child for the other's salvation.

[krmy2386]

Stupid Jar Opener

Bradley “Rooster” Bradshaw x reader

PLEASE DON’T STEAL!!!

Be kind😅 I wrote this in about 20 minutes…

I have had NO MOTIVATION recently… this is my attempt to get back to it❤️.

Rooster woke up with the biggest smile on his face. He had been gone for almost three months on a deployment. He came home to his cozy house and his beautiful wife.

Rooster reached to feel for Y/N and was met with the cold bed. He smirked. Though he wished to hold on to her for a little bit longer this morning. He knew where she was. He knew that despite being separated for months, she wanted to keep their home as normal as possible for him. And on Saturdays, Y/N would wake up, start coffee and start to make breakfast.

Nothing too special, just eggs, bacon and toast. Bradley knew Y/N didn’t have to do this. He knew this wasn’t some kind of prehistoric mindset of women serving. He knew this was her own special way of showing love. Y/N was an incredibly independent person. But there was one thing. Every Saturday, like clock work, Rooster would be woken up by Y/N holding a jar of his favorite jam, pouting.

He knew it drove her crazy that as a strong adult woman, she couldn’t manage to open a jar. Bradley would gladly, and smugly, open it every time. All while silently praying Y/N never caught on to the fact he was secretly tightening it Friday nights before bed.

Bradley knew this was an insane thing to do. But since he was gone so much, he enjoyed feeling needed while he was at home. As he laid there the smile slowly faded from his face. It had been about 20 minutes and there was no Y/N and no jar.

He was about to get up and see is she had run away when the door opened. Bradley looked to the door and smirked, “Jar trouble again?”

Y/N rolled her eyes, “Not this time. Breakfast is ready.” She said sassily as she turned and walked away.

Bradley froze. ‘What?’ Roaster thought. ‘She doesn’t need me to open the jar? That is literally all I am good for around here!’

Bradley quickly got up and rushed to the kitchen. He stared at the table which had not one but three different jars of jams and jellies almost mocking him.

A smiling Y/N handed him a plate and he snapped, “Are you breaking up with me?”

“Bradley we’re married. What are you taking about?” Y/N asked.

“Then what the hell is this?” Bradley said starting to panic.

“Breakfast?” Y/N asked again, even more confused.

“I MEAN THE JARS! How did you open them?” Bradley said almost yelling.

Y/N looked at her husband’s very serious face and then broke into laughter.

She walked to the counter and opened a drawer revealing a plastic apparatus.

“It’s a jar opener.” Y/N said calmly, as if talking to a spooked animal. “I got it so I could still eat while you were gone.”

Bradley looked at the inanimate object and immediately recognized it as the enemy.

“No.” Bradley said, “Get rid of it! Opening jars is literally the only thing you need me for and I will not be replaced by a wannabe can opener!” Bradley was deathly serious.

Y/N, however, was in tears from laughter. She understood where Bradley was coming from and thought this might happen. But never fear, she had a plan.

“Well you two will have to learn to get along. Now eat before it gets cold.” Y/N said and then kissed his cheek.

Bradley pouted and sat down. ‘Now what will happen? She’s going to realize I’m useless around her and leave me!’ He thought.

Y/N could tell by his silence that her loving, but over dramatic, husband probably thought they were as good as divorced.

“Oh! While I’m thinking about it,” Y/N said, getting Rooster’s attention.

“The step-stool broke while you were gone and I haven’t been able to get a new one. Can you please check and change some of the lightbulbs when you get a chance?”

“YES!” Bradley shouted, “Absolutely! In fact I’ll go do that now!” He rushed off leaving half a plate of food.

‘Ha! Take that stupid jar opener!’ He thought to himself.

Y/N shook her head and smiled. She knew it would work.

TAG LIST- Thank you for the encouragement❤️

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[underthestarlight1]

In the Strangest Places

            ‘Just a bit farther’, Steve was sweating, trying to avoid getting his equipment bag caught on any of the twisted metal reaching out from where it had been wrenched in the crash. According to the already recovered passengers of the tour bus, there was still one person unaccounted for. He had been told that they were likely in the last sleeping compartment on the right. There was no way to fit a stretcher through the narrowed aisleway, so he was praying that whoever was still on the bus was mobile enough to try and make their way to at least the doors. He’d carry them if he had to. Luckily, he wasn’t just a paramedic, but also a firefighter so he knew he could carry a patient if they weren’t in critical condition. He was thankful that there was no smoke so he didn’t need use a breathing apparatus. He was almost to the last compartment, so he called out, “Fire Department! Can you hear me? I am coming to get you, just hang on for me.” He could hear some grunts and groans, so at least his patient was conscious. As he reached the compartment, he took a deep breath and immediately his Omega purred. Under the acrid smell of hot metal and burned rubber was a delicious scent of Alpha, sandalwood, sage, and woodsmoke. He counted to three, made sure his scent was calming, and moved the curtain aside.

            Eddie was asleep when his whole world went sideways, literally. He slammed his head against the wall under the small window in his compartment, slamming his left shoulder at the same time, pinning his arm between the bed and the wall as the bus overcorrected and he could feel a bone snap in his forearm. He cried out in pain and briefly blacked out. The next thing he knew, he heard a voice identify themselves as the Fire Department and yell that they were coming for him. He was able to make some small noises that hopefully could help guide his rescuer. After what seemed like hours, but was really just a few moments, he smelled the most delicious scent he had ever come across. It smelled like Cinnamon, crisp apples, and fall leaves. An Omega who smelled like Autumn. He nearly fainted again when the curtain was pulled back to reveal the most handsome man he had ever seen. Chestnut and honey brown hair, big hazel eyes round with concern, lush full lips, and a smattering of beauty marks across his perfect complexion. He was also pretty tall and built for an Omega, his uniform stretching just right across his chest. Eddie had to force himself to try to pay attention to what the man was saying.

            “Can you tell me where you have any pain? We need to get you out of here, but I need to assess you before you can be moved.” Steve was trying to sound steady and professional as his heart was beating out of his chest. The Alpha in front of him was the sexiest person he had ever seen. He had long curly dark hair, big dark chocolate eyes squinted in pain, pale skin, and kissable lips.

            Eddie groaned. “I bumped my head a bit, but really, it’s my left arm that is the worst. My shoulder is killing me, and I think I may have broken my arm.”

            “Okay, thanks for telling me. Let me get a spinal collar on you just in case and then I can look over your injuries and get you out of here.” Steve pulled the collar out of his bag and fastened it around his patient’s neck. “My name is Steve, and I am going to take care of you. Make sure you’re okay. What’s your name?” Steve was now pulling out his pen light to check the patient’s pupils.

            “Eddie, my name is Eddie.” Steve hummed a bit and was happy that Eddie could answer. His pupils were equal and reacted to light so that was good too.

            “Do you have any dizziness or blurred vision?”

            “No, just can feel the spot where my head hit.” Eddie used his right hand to touch the tender spot. Steve used the penlight to take a look and didn’t see any blood or cuts. “Okay, looks like you are going to have a bit of a goose egg but there’s no cut. The doc at the ED will likely have to do a more thorough exam, but for now it looks alright.”

            Steve looked at Eddie’s left arm, cradled to his stomach and could see the swelling and the discoloration. “But I think you’re right about the broken arm. Let me immobilize it so we can start to get you out of here.” He pulled out a medical split and started wrapping up the broken arm as gently as possible while emitting his calming pheromones to help the Alpha settle down. One big benefit to being an Omega in his line of work was the ability to use his biology to calm and ease patients. He noticed some of the rigidity leave Eddie’s body and he was glad.

            Once Eddie was taken care of as much as possible Steve started to pack up his gear so he could get Eddie of the bus. “Okay, we can’t fit a stretcher on the bus, do you think you can walk if I support you?”

            Eddie nodded, “Yeah, I think so.”

            Steve grabbed the radio off of his shoulder and let the team outside know to get the stretcher ready for them. He then grabbed Eddie’s right hand to try and maneuver him off the bed when a shock jolted through both men.  They instantly looked into each other’s eyes, knowing what they would find on their wrists. Their soulmarks. Steve turned his wrist without letting Eddie go and saw the outline of an angular electric guitar appearing on the underside of his wrist. Eddie then did the same, seeing a nail bat appearing on his wrist. He looked at Eddie again and saw his eyes bleed into silver, and he knew if he had a mirror his eyes would be gold. They both blinked and Eddie’s eyes were back to dark brown.

            Sitting back on his heels, Steve took a few deep, steadying breaths. He noticed that Eddie was also breathing fast. “So, um. Yeah, that’s surprising. But as much as we definitely need to talk about it, the more pressing issue is getting you off this bus and to the hospital.”

            Eddie just nodded silently, seemingly struck dumb by meeting his soulmate. Steve got back in position to lever Eddie out of the compartment and lifted him up supporting his weight as much as possible, leading him off of the bus. They took it as slowly as possible, and Eddie was starting to feel dizzy, not just from his injuries, but feeling a bit scent drunk from being so close to the Omega. His scent was so soothing, he felt like home, and he didn’t even know the man’s last name.

Find the rest of the fic at https://archiveofourown.org/works/42852684

or at Under_the_Starlight1!

[dingodad]

how big do you think the mother grub was?

so unfathomably big that not even i know... i mean she's gotta be at least big enough that you could realistically enter two different caves at two separated points on alternia's surface and still be able to visit her. so i'm imagining a scale of thousands of kilometers in length.

most of that's just going to be her distended reproductive apparatus, her head and thorax are probably not going to approach gl'bgolyb levels of size (the mother grub skull we see that is like, the size of a dragon egg feels pretty realistic but if that was a past mother grub it was probably not quite as a big as the most modern one). but definitely the scale and layout of her abdomen is something only the jadebloods have the secret maps for

[quitealotofsodapop]

Yeah I don't think Wukong or Macaque would want MK having a kid that way either. Luckily they can tell him the way Wukong did it isnt the only method, just the biological last resort.

Then it becomes less of a question of if he can safely do it and more a question of if he WANTS to. Answer is still reluctantly no, but if it happens, he wouldn't be completely opposed like if it were a Stone Egg baby

Knowing the vast depth of short-sighted chaos MK is capable of; I wouldn't be surprised if he created a Stone Egg on accident.

Like he forgets to eat for a bit too long will working on an art commision and his Stone Monkey body does the equivalent of "Oh gods am I dying? I'm covered in earth [paint} so..." and *pop!* MK does a 1-in-a-Million chance of spontaneously creating a Stone Egg without being buried. Or he falls into a alchemy apparatus while snooping around Lao Tzu's lab that triggers the process. XD

Everyone would be yelling. Pigsy yells at MK for not eating enough. The two monkeys are yelling cus "We warned you bud!!"

Eventually Mei and Sandy manage to calm the room down enough to get MK's opinion on the matter. And MK, even though the Egg was created in a non-ideal circumstance, would likely want to keep it. The parent figures respect his decision.

There's a flash of panic in the Demon Bull household when they hear the news. PIF and DBK believe on reflex that Red is responsible, Red is just left spluttering at the accusations.