#food is highly questionable - alien one

[ozzgin]

do Xenomorphs pass the harkness test genuine question

I've seen a reddit thread arguing that they wouldn't, because they view humans as merely food/incubators. In my opinion, it's entirely plausible.

Does this character have human intelligence (or greater)? Depends on the Xenomorph. According to the wiki, "most Xenomorphs appear to possess an intelligence level equivalent to that of a typical primate." This refers mostly to the lower ranks, i.e. the drones or warriors. The Queen, however, is shown to have an advanced social behavior and understanding, much closer to humans. Additionally, there's always the chance of inheriting their host's properties, so a highly intelligent Xenomorph wouldn't be out of the equation. It would be interesting to see how a Deacon or Xenomorph evolved from an Engineer would behave, given it'd have a much more advanced starting point.

Can it talk or otherwise communicate with language? It has been shown that Xenomorphs can at least minimally communicate with each other. It is also hypothesized that they operate under a hive mind controlled telepathically by the Queen. Another snippet from the wiki regarding their communication: "There is evidence that the Xenomorph hive mind also includes a collective memory that passes along even at a genetic level. Through the tests conducted on Ellen Ripley, it is revealed that the memory passed from Ripley onto the new generation of Xenomorphs allows them to read and understand different languages. Events on the LV-426 colony and the USM Auriga show that the species excels at observational learning." Therefore, I believe a Xenomorph who has had the time to observe human behavior would most likely be able to understand certain cues.

Is it of sexual maturity for its species? Absolutely. We're talking about adult Xenomorphs here, the last cycle of their lives.

To summarize:

For 100% ethical certainty, go for a Xenomorph Queen. They're intelligent, can communicate, and are fully developed, sexually mature organisms.

Warrior and Drone Xenomorphs are grey areas, but hey, it's fiction. No one's going to stop you from being lewdly disemboweled by an aggressive Alien.

Facehuggers fail every criteria, so I'll be giving you a side-eye.

Take your hands off the baby Xenomorph,  rampallian! They are for gentle nursing and loving only.

[davenweenie]

I was doing a little rewatch of TWD (as every sane individual does) and here is how I think Lab Rats characters would be like in a zombie apocalypse. God, this is so niche.

Donald Davenport: would not survive, too high maintenance, would lock himself in the lab and eventually run out of food OR would get bit by a walker that sneaks up on him.

Tasha Davenport: probably would adapt eventually but in the way that either Michonne Grimes or Carol Peletier do. They adapt because of the losses they go through.

Douglas Davenport: was born for the apocalypse, would probably be the Daryl Dixon or Rick Grimes in this situation but a lot more relaxed and more talkative.

Leo Dooley: would survive but takes a while to adapt. Definitely the Noah of this storyline (probably because Leo’s actor’s brother played Noah 😭) still very funny, dark humour activated and would be a very important asset to the group. Potentially becomes some type of engineer or builder in the community.

Adam Davenport: part of me wants to say he’d survive easily but at the same time, I feel like he’d get himself killed doing the dumbest shit possible like getting sick from drinking contaminated water or accidentally shooting himself while cleaning a gun. I truly want him to survive but let’s be realistic here.

Bree Davenport: would survive, no questions asked. Her speed is awesome for supply runs and she will never be bit because she’s too fast.

Chase Davenport: would adapt the quickest because of his intelligence, his super senses are great for hearing walkers from miles away and he automatically knows how to do everything because of his super intelligence. Would find a cure for the virus like almost immediately though to be honest.

Additionally, the EF

Skylar Storm: same as Bree, would never be bit, would adapt super fast (like hello, alien who adapted to human customs almost immediately)

Kaz: has read so many zombie comic books and thinks he knows everything but actually takes a while to adapt. Becomes one of the doctors of the group and because of that is highly valued. He’s also great for starting campfires too.

Oliver: would take a while to adapt, vomited a few times when he saw a walker being killed or when he killed one. Also highly valued because he’s a doctor. I feel like he’d have a similar development as Father Gabriel tbh. Also very useful for creating clean water for people.

[eirenical]

Let No One Be Forgotten (4,951 words) by eirenical for @fixaidea

Summary:

Ten years ago, an accident left Wu Xie in a coma from which he has not yet awoken. With their Triangle too long broken, Pangzi and Xiaoge are willing to do anything, to sacrifice anything, to get him back.

“A picnic. Picture a forest, a country road, a meadow. Cars drive off the country road into the meadow, a group of young people get out carrying bottles, baskets of food, transistor radios, and cameras. They light fires, pitch tents, turn on the music. In the morning they leave. The animals, birds, and insects that watched in horror through the long night creep out from their hiding places. And what do they see? Old spark plugs and old filters strewn around... Rags, burnt-out bulbs, and a monkey wrench left behind... And of course, the usual mess—apple cores, candy wrappers, charred remains of the campfire, cans, bottles, somebody’s handkerchief, somebody’s penknife, torn newspapers, coins, faded flowers picked in another meadow.” ― Arkady Strugatsky, Boris Strugatsky, Roadside Picnic

Today

“Did we forget anything?”

Xiaoge, still stuffing essentials into pockets of his backpack, slowly shook his head.

“Did you get any sleep this afternoon?”

Xiaoge paused, considered the easy lie for a moment, then slowly shook his head once more.

“You went to go say goodbye, didn’t you. Spent the whole damned day at the research institute hospital sitting at his bedside instead of resting.”

Neither of those were questions, but Xiaoge nodded in response, anyway. He would be ready for tonight. Pangzi understood that, even if he scolded. He would be able to protect them in the Zone better with the memory of Wu Xie held clear and tightly in his mind than with any amount of sleep. Pangzi understood that, as well. Xiaoge had seen Pangzi sneaking out as he’d snuck in, having spent the night in the hospital watching over Wu Xie before going home to get some sleep.

It was good.

They would both need all the memories of Wu Xie they could gather, to do what they had to do tomorrow.

The impossible.

Continue reading on AO3

Notes, tags, and other fic info beneath the cut.

August 24, 2024: This fic was written for @fixaidea for the @pingxie-exchange and is based off a book called Roadside Picnic whose virtues Fixa has been extolling for some time. ;D Anyway, she was right, the book is SO GOOD and I highly recommend it. I've been told you can understand this fic without having read the book, but here's a little help: the basic premise of the book is that aliens have (very briefly) visited Earth and left behind several zones of altered space. Within these altered spaces, the laws of physics do not necessarily always apply and there are also altered objects that humans have since repurposed for their own uses. People periodically visit the zones legally, for research purposes (scientists), and illegally, for profit (stalkers). That should be all you need to know. ^_^

And I'd like to say a GIANT thank you to @bbcphile for an extremely last minute beta and boatloads of encouragement. ^_^

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: 盗墓笔记 - 南派三叔 | The Grave Robbers' Chronicles - Xu Lei Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Wu Xie/Zhang Qiling, Wang Pangzi & Wu Xie & Zhang Qiling, Wang Pangzi & Zhang Qiling Characters: Zhang Qiling, Wu Xie (DMBJ Series), Wang Pangzi Additional Tags: Roadside Picnic AU, The Iron Triangle | Wang Pangzi & Wu Xie & Zhang Qiling, Angst, Coma, Angst with a Happy Ending, Whump, Zhang Qiling Needs a Hug, Zhang Qiling Gets a Hug, Cuddling & Snuggling, Kisses, Caretaking, Crossovers & Fandom Fusions, Alternate Universe, Wu Xie's Curiosity Gets Him Into Trouble... Again, Established Wu Xie/Zhang Qiling

[most-datable-datable-bracket]

ROUND 2 MATCH 47

Polly propaganda:

"Polly comes across as a party girl. She's wild, she likes sex, she likes drugs, she likes drinks. She is besties with Scott and Vera. She loves pulling pranks. She's fun all around. But as you get to know her throughout her endings across the three games, you discover a deep sadness within her. She's a chess master. She loves Russian literature. She's actually kind of a genius. She had a hard life but she won't let that stop her afterlife. Her secret ending in the first game about how she actually died (which she lies about all the time) absolutely broke my heart. She's just so nuanced and layered. She brings out the best in the player characters because she wants them to understand that you can have fun and goof off and it not be the end of the world. She has lots of backstory and she's major plots in both the first game (Prom) and the third (Roadtrip). I highly recommend playing the games because experiencing her secret endings in both is just absolutely heart wrenching."

Jaal propaganda:

“His romance is all about trust gained, vulnerability and making each other feeling safe and he's SO sweet throughout. Player character (Ryder) arrives unannounced on the planet where Jaal's species live, and he joins them to assess their intentions. He's slow to trust (last aliens that they made contact with literally started a decades-long war against his people) but after a while he can start to open up (he responds well to Ryder trusting him and not intervening in certain scenarios, choosing to help his people rather than just finish a mission, honesty in general). He's curious about everything, eager to share knowledge on language, food, biology, culture, literally anything that comes to his mind. He likes tinkering and understanding how things work, he writes poetry and he sews. If romanced, he invites Ryder to his home to meet his mother(s) and the rest of the family, tells them "You make my heart sing" and asks them if they want to be together. Eventually he will take Ryder on a date to his favorite place on the planet to confess his love (player can agree to an intimate scene but it progresses the same even if they say no to him). After they officially get together he'll start using pet names like "Darling one" or "dearest" or "amazing heart" or "You are the light that we all follow, that I follow". Plus, after Ryder meets her, his mother starts doting on you and sending you emails to ask questions to make them feel 100% welcomed in the family (especially since Ryder is human and they face public scrutiny for being of two different planets/species). He's constantly smitten for the player character and not afraid to make it clear for everyone in the general vicinity.”

[nellasbookplanet]

Book recs: vampires

Listen, vampires are a classic for a reason, but they have also been done to death (pardon the pun) to the point that finding books that are creative with the premise can be a bit of a slog through tired old tropes. Hopefully this rec list can be to a bit of help for all vampire fans out there wanting something fresh!

For details on the books, continue under the readmore

Previous rec posts:

Really cool fantasy worldbuilding

Really cool sci-fi worldbuilding

Dark sapphic romances

Mermaid books

Sci-fi vampires:

Fledgling by Octavia Butler

Octavia Butler my beloved, literally you cannot go wrong with one of her books. Fledgling follows what at first seems to be a ten-year-old amnesiac girl, who finds out she is in fact a decades old vampire on the run from others of her kind. The vampires here are a separate species from human, not supernatural, and are as a whole very fascinating and unsettling. Come in prepared for fucked up power dynamics.

Blindsight by Peter Watts

Vampires and aliens and questions of the nature of consciousnesses, oh my. Not a vampire novel so much as a scifi novel about aliens in which there also happens to be vampires (one of which is captain of a spaceship sent to explore an alien ship just entering the solar system). Another example of vampires as an entire separate species, but more horror focused than Fledgling. No, seriously, this book will fuck you up, highly recommend if you're okay with a lot of techno babble and existential horror.

Peeps (Peeps duology) by Scott Westerfeld

Young adult. Vampirism as a sexually transmitted parasite that turns most people into bloodthirsty monsters. Cal is an asymptomatic carrier working to find other infected before they hurt people, including his own former girlfriends. But there is something else lurking in the dark, an ancient enemy of the vampire parasite...

Post apocalypse vampires:

The Hallowed Ones (The Hallowed Ones duology) by Laura Bickle

Young adult. Katie is an Amish girl eagerly awaiting her rumspringa, when she gets to try out the outside world. But before she has the chance, something happens to the Outside; a nearby town is wiped out, and something evil stalks the night. To protect their community, the Amish elders decide that no one can leave and no one can enter the sacred ground that makes up their home. That is, until Katie finds an injured young man and decides to help him.

The Company of Death by Elisa Hansen

Wild mix of genres, where a zombie apocalypse has struck and vampires gather up humans to keep their food source from going extinct, a robot travels across America with a young man she's tasked to keep safe, and former-vampire-hunter-recent-zombie Emily teams up with Death himself to stop the apocalypse. Features bi and ace characters! Bonus rec: the author also runs the youtube channel Maven of the Eventide, where she talks about various vampire media. Check it out!

The Immortal Rules (Blood of Eden trilogy) by Julie Kagawa

Young adult. Another zombie apocalypse (well; feral vampires) scenario in which vampires gather humans up to keep their food safe. Allison Sekemoto hates vampires, but when she ends up on the brink of death and is offered a way out, she has no choice but to take it. Hunted by a mad vampire and forced to flee the relative safety of her city, Allie must enter the post-apocalyptic outside world and team up with the free humans roaming there, seeking a cure for the undead plague that ravages the world.

Urban fantasy vampires:

Certain Dark Things by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Queen of fucked up gothic horror, Silvia Moreno-Garcia, comes for vampires in this gritty novel following Domingo, a garbage collecting street kid in a Mexico City where vampires walk the streets. His life gets turned upside down when he meets Atl, a vampire descendant of Aztec blood drinkers who’s on the run and needs all the help she can get.

Sunshine by Robin McKinnley

Urban fantasy on a level of its own, where dangerous magic exists alongside humans. It keeps you guessing and much is left unexplained; if you want clear answers and explanations to everything you might be disappointed, but if you want a world that feels mysterious and dangerous and lived in you'll probably like it. It follows a baker who, after getting kidnapped by vampires, gets embroiled in a dangerous struggle and has to team up with one of them to survive. The vampires here are really inhuman and unsettling.

The Coldest Girl in Coldtown by Holly Black

Young adult. After vampirism swept the land, special Coldtowns were built to quarantine anyone bitten, whether they have turned or not. After having survived a massacre at a party in which her ex-boyfriend got bit, Tana sets out with him and mysterious vampire to reach the nearest Coldtown, not knowing if she’ll ever be able to leave it again.

Modern vampires:

Let the Right One In by John Ajvide Lindqvist

Swedish literary novel set in the 1980s. Follows twelve-year-old Oskar, a troubled and bullied boy who befriends his new neighbor, Eli. But there’s something strange about Eli, such as her only coming out at night. Also available as two separate movie adaptations (I highly recommend the Swedish original; the American remake is perfectly adequate standard horror fare, the original is a masterpiece).

Woman, Eating by Claire Kohda

Literary novel following Lydia, who’s grown up as a vampire under the thumb of her mother, who’s been obsessed with self-hate over their existence as blood drinkers. Finally on her own for the first time in her life, Lydia moves to London hoping to make it as an artist. But surviving alone as a vampire is harder than expected. Slow and fairly light on plot, but utterly captivating.

Companions of the Night by Vivian Vande Velde

Young adult. After Kerry saves a young man from three attackers who claim he's a vampire, she's drawn into a dangerous game and forced to work with a manipulative vampire. Pre-cursor to the modern ya vampire genre, Companions of the Night utilizes many of the same tropes but in very different ways, making it a unique experience.

Historical and fantasy vampires:

A Dowry of Blood by S.T. Gibson

Dracula inspired novella, following Constanta, who’s turned from a medieval peasant to an undead bride. As time passes the relationship between Dracula and Constanta grows all the more strained and potentially dangerous. Teaming up with his two other consorts, she seeks to unravel her husband's secrets. Sapphic and polyamorous.

The Gilda Stories by Jewelle Gomez

Having escaped from slavery in the 1850s, young Gilda is taken in by a vampire, and eventually finds herself turned as well. Consists of a series of novellas following Gilda throughout the centuries, from the past to the present to the future. It’s also sapphic!

House of Hunger by Alexis Henderson

In a world where the rich drink blood to preserve their health, Marion applies to a position as bloodmaid in a notorious noble house far from home. Suddenly showered with luxuries and debauchery, Marion soon gains the interest and favor of Lisavet, countess of the house. A fresh take on the idea of vampires and deliciously dark sapphic romance.

Bonus AKA I haven't read these yet but they seem really cool

The Hunger by Whitley Strieber

Ancient vampire is on the hunt for a new partner, none of which tend to last long.

My Soul to Keep (African Immortals series) by Tananarive Due

I keep seeing this one described as a vampire book, and once stumbled on the description "almost a vampire book" and listen by now I'm simply curious to see what it's about.

Team Human by Justine Larbelestier & Sarah Rees Brennan

Young adult. As far as I can tell, a satire on typical ya vampire romances.

The Madness Season by C.S. Friedman

*chanting* vampires in space vampires iN SPACE

The Lost Girls by Sonia Hartl

Young adult, sapphic. Three vampire girls turned and abandoned by the same vampire get together to stop him from turning yet another girl.

The Balance of Fates by Raquel Raelynn

Young adult, sapphic. A girl enters a competition against vampires and werewolves, complicated by her feelings for one of her vampire competitors.

[thecarnivorousmuffinmeta]

Oh my god I was thinking of potential crossovers with Dune and just remembered Aro exists. Like if you drop any other character in Arrakis you would have a very hard time to get them understand the setting but Aro can read minds with a touch. By the way what do you think happens when a vampire eats a Sandworm, which venom is stronger? Or can a Bene Gesserit or Paul survive vampire venom with their witchy powers? I am thinking a starving Carlisle tries to eat one because there is no goddamn animals in that planet and immediately regrets everything.

Aro would have a leg up in that sense and the "he is virtually indestructible sense". Though I imagine he'd be very sad on Arrakis where everyone's blood tastes like this weird blue shit (canonically, in Twilight, humans with substances in their bloodstream/medical issues are notably less appealing than others).

But onto your questions

What Happens When a Vampire Eats a Sandworm

The thing about vampires is they seem to be extremely adapted to Earth. Their main food source is human (hooray, it's plentiful) and in a pinch they can subsist off animal blood, namely the Cullens seem big on mammals so we don't know if things like fish or lizards work out for them.

An alien sandworm with completely different blood that also produces a highly toxic hallucinogenic wunder venom that lets people see the past and the future and develop psychic powers? I don't think that's even going to smell remotely edible. We're not even talking animal edible, we're talking Carlisle would try and would vomit.

So, it's not so much that the worm's venom is more powerful it's just that... whatever vampires use to process the blood they ingest (do they still have livers? the world will never know) it's probably not going to like what that is and the vampire in question is going to vomit. The same way they do when they eat other materials they're not supposed to eat.

As to whether they'd trip balls or not... Well, probably not, but we don't know. Again, vampires vomit up other substances they can't consume, and we have no mention of any ability to get drunk or in any way poison themselves. Probably because they don't have livers the way we do and use something else to process/purify their blood intake. So, my guess would be no.

Can a Bene Gesserit/Paul Survive a Vampire?

No.

The thing about vampires is they move so fast that they could kill them long before they do anything. Their shot would be in that Paul specifically could foresee it happening extremely clearly, and simply choose the actions such that it doesn't happen, and the Bene Gesserit might maybe sort of kind of be able to guess it will happen and try their best to avoid it.

If the vampire's sitting around they can try to use the voice, but this may not work on vampires, as there's a very physical aspect to it that might not sound right to a vampire's ears.

So if a vampire makes them go splat, they're going splat.

But What About Venom?

Venom's a different story and the answer is probably yes. The Bene Gesserit, and Paul as well, are highly trained to be able to psychicly purge poisons from their bodies. This is how/why Jessica survives becoming a Reverand Mother and why only Bene Gesserit survive this process. Paul is notably trained in this as well.

Given we see that the venom can be sucked out in canon by Edward, I imagine a trained Bene Gesserit would have more than enough time to be able to purge it from their bodies with minimal/no side effects.

[sephirthoughts]

Hi! I hope you had a good day today.

For the ask game, what are your thoughts on 5 and 9 for Sephiroth?

I did, thank you! I hope you had a good day, too!

ON TO THE BURNING QUESTIONS

5. Sephiroth is such a wonderful layer-cake of pathologies, it's so fun to dissect the impacts on his personality. He is autistic-spectrum, hyper-intelligent, alienated, deeply insecure, and feels he has no 'place in the world'. Despite his insistence, under Jenova's influence, that he's the chosen one and meant to rule the world, he has rock-bottom self-esteem and almost no sense of self. He knows he's different but he has no idea who he is. Add being raised in a lab, horribly abused, and treated like a weapon rather than a person his whole life, and there's not a lot of Sephiroth left.

This would affect his living space in that it'd be generic, impersonal, highly functional, basically empty, serving its purpose as a place to rest, and nothing else. Has place to lie down, has place to shower, has place to dress=meets criteria. I doubt he'd notice if there were even blankets on the bed. It's a Sephiroth storage container, more than a living space. Which is terribly sad and now I am sad. BOOOO ME

Whether he's messy or not is another question. He honestly strikes me as someone who hates disorder if he ever thinks about it. The problem is, he does not think about it. He has executive function issues (see: his bout of manic hyperfocus in the archives, where he had books just strewn everywhere and didn't eat or sleep or bathe for days), and is generally unaware of anything pertaining to his own self-care, including messiness/dirtiness, unless they become a nuisance that disrupts his current fixation.

When he was being raised in the lab, he was a child, so there were people who cleaned, cooked, washed his clothing, etc., and in SOLDIER they definitely had people to take care of those kind of domestic things, so they could focus on training. Hence, he never learned to clean up after himself.

All of this wouldn't matter much, in a living situation with custodial services, but if left to his own devices, his combined lack of awareness, neglect of his own needs, and inexperience with such things would create a perfect storm. He'd forget to take the garbage out, never pick up after himself, not do the dishes, have takeout boxes everywhere, and have no idea that dusting, mopping, vacuuming, etc. even exist as concepts. I think his living space would be kind of awful. But he wouldn't notice.

That is, until Angeal comes over, has seven simultaneous brain aneurysms, leaves and returns with Zack and cleaning supplies, and they spend the next ten hours deep-cleaning the place, while Sephiroth insists it's not that bad.

9. This accords so nicely with number 5! Because he'd be a terrible roommate.

-He'd be quiet, courteous, and never have parties or eat your food, but he'd leave stupid long silver hairs all over everything (the less said about the bathroom shower drain the better), never clean up after himself, and act confused when asked to do so.

-He is definitely the type to always be forgetting his house key. Like, he may as well not have one.

-He leaves that stupid, ultra-sharp, nine-foot-long sword just LYING AROUND WHEREVER. Someone is going to lose a foot.

-He thinks he's a great cook and likes to share his talent with people, and he's too sweetly sincere and excited about it, so you can't bear to break his heart, and you wind up gritting your teeth and smiling through a plate of sticky, pasty, mushy pasta, with sauce made from frankly baffling ingredients (you put walnuts in the marinara? ohhhh...how…interesting. is this an anchovy?).

-He casually says absolutely horrible, emotionally devastating things, without realizing they're horrible. Example:

person: my mom was so forgetful, she always used to burn the garlic bread and she'd mix up my brother's lunch box and mine half the time

sephiroth: haha yeah, i know what you mean. on several occasions, Hojo forgot to send someone to change my IV, when he left me strapped to an exam table in the basement lab for multiple days, and i nearly died of dehydration and malnutrition

person:

sephiroth: parents, right?

-Lastly, Sephiroth absolutely never wears a shirt and in fact doesn't even own one. This is not an annoying habit, this is the habit that makes all the other ones worth putting up with.

[sagevalleymusings]

Man or Bear? Is a Stupid Dichotomy, but No One on Tumblr Will Believe Me

So there’s this meme that’s been going around… ‘which would you rather run into alone in the woods: a man, or a bear?’ I’ve heard a couple of variations on the answer (which of course is always ‘I choose the bear’) - at least someone would believe me about the bear attack, it depends on the bear… I’ve even heard the variant where a man will answer, well it depends on the man or the bear, but then if you ask the question, alone in the woods with a woman or a bear, well there’s no question!

Here’s the thing. I hate this thought experiment. For a lot of reasons, and I worry this essay will be nothing but me circling the point like a vulture if I try and write it without structure so as a spoiler, here’s the main three reasons: it treats violence from men against women as a personal threat and not a systemic issue, it continues to perpetuate the narrative of violence as heteropatriarchal, and it completely ignores race, even though race is highly prevalent when talking about gender and violence in America. 

Are you ready to get into it?

The Violence is Unstated but it isn’t Subtext

Whether they mean to or not, when thinking about the man or bear prompt, people are primed by the language to come to a specific conclusion. People are thinking about men and bears as two things in a set and priming themselves for the belief that if it is a choice between the two, we are assessing the threat of two different apex predators. Everyone knows why you are asking this question, so everyone whether they realize it or not is answering as though what you meant is obviously, ‘would you rather be assaulted by a man or a bear?’ All of the responses hinge on the assumption that one of the two will assault you. We are less primed to think immediately of violence if the question is ‘would you rather be alone in the woods and run into a man or a blobfish’ for example. 

But even that phrase, ‘alone in the woods’ evokes a long history of horror media and potentially even an evolutionary fear of predators. What about the question, ‘would you rather be alone in a tiger enclosure with a man, or with a tiger?’ ‘Would you rather be alone at a pet food store with a man or a coyote?’ 

Because if we’re being honest… I think I’d rather be assaulted by a bear too. And it has nothing to do with thinking that men are more physically dangerous. If my options are to be assaulted by a man or by a bear, at least a bear is alien and inhuman. It’s assaulting you for food, or for defense of her cubs, but a man would be deliberately causing another person harm, with the intent to terrorize. A bear is more likely to kill you accidentally, but there’s something about psychological violence that makes it more frightening even though it is less deadly. 

And from what I’ve seen, the responses do seem to know this. Posts that actually get into the why talk about the fear of being followed home, the frustration with not being believed, the long-term psychological damage of the consequences of rape without Roe V Wade, the jeering catcalls and general lack of empathy… it’s never about the physical danger or threat of death that a man could bring, but all the things a man could bring that a bear literally could not, which are ultimately more frightening and insidious, precisely because they are not physical.

In previous iterations of this essay, I spent a long and arduous time proving why, when people cite that bears are more violent, it’s a faulty comparison. And I want to still get into that, but I don’t want to lose sight of this point. I agree that if my options were to be assaulted by a man or a bear, I would also prefer a bear. A bear can only kill you. 

But the question isn’t ‘which would you be assaulted by’ it’s ‘run into alone.’ And because we are talking about one while meaning the other (foreshadowing) it absolutely encourages the assumption that running into a man alone is inherently a risk. I’ve seen people say this explicitly in response. I don’t like that this thought experiment leads to people talking about men as inherently violent, and I want to get into why I have a problem with that part.

But before I do, I want to be very clear that this is going to sound like me saying #notallmen, but I do take violence against women very seriously. I have never been more than casually groped by a man, which is relevant here when talking about lived experience, but I am still a woman and so I do understand the psychology that goes into having to take active precautions against violence from your fellow humans in a way that men just do not have to think about. But in the socioeconomic climate we find ourselves in, I think it bears considering that some women are thinking about male violence… a little too much. 

Crime Statistics and White Hegemony

I’ve talked about this before, but there is a difference between ‘men commit more violent crimes’ and ‘men get convicted of more violent crimes.’ But when it comes to talking about rates of violence, we talk like we are speaking about the former while using the rates of the latter. And it cannot be left unsaid when talking about rates of conviction that black men get convicted of violent crimes at much higher rates than white men. 

At the same time… there has been a real and genuine shift in our conversations about consent in the last forty years. Some of the numbers have not caught up yet but it’s important to bear in mind that violent crime of all kinds has been steadily going down for a long time. Part of the reason we don’t talk about this is because the American hegemony is reliant on prison as a form of capital and population control, and so politicians have a vested interest in keeping you specifically afraid of the dangers of violent outsiders.

It can still be propaganda even if it isn’t Mexicans specifically you are calling rapists and murderers.

This can be really hard for people who have been subject to violent crime to hear. And the numbers are pretty disappointing, even still. Patriarchal violence is real and present in America. But I will stand firm in my conviction that although violence from humans does represent a danger in the world, the way in which we talk about violence as an act men specifically do against women specifically is unhelpful for combating both systemic violence and personal violence. And even though we don’t think we’re doing ‘white women’s tears’ we absolutely are, because our statistics about violent crime in America come from conviction rates, which means we are basing our fear of all men on black men in specific. 

When is Personal Violence Systemic?

I’m going to circle back to this point about violent crime, statistics, and racism, but I want to tangent briefly to talk about statistics normalization. 

I saw one post early on which cited some actual numbers, and claimed that bears killed 8 women in North America between 2020-2022, while men killed 12,000 women in that time. 

So about that population density…

There are approximately 800,000 brown and black bears in North America, the populations responsible for those 8 deaths. Meanwhile, there are approximately 225,407,000 legally adult males in the United States and Canada. That means that the ratio of deaths per bear in North America is 0.001% per bear. And the number of murders per adult man in North America is 0.005%. That does still mean that you are five times more likely to be murdered by a man than a bear, but… that is absolutely a zero percent chance of being murdered no matter what. Does that mean I think personal protection against that slim chance is pointless? Not really, they mostly never get used but do help when they are. But it’s important to bring up how rare it is already because there is another factor here that we’re not taking into consideration. It’s called negativity bias.

Have you ever seen a bear in the wild? Probably not, right? There’s not that many and they’re mostly in the forest. I would guess that a majority of people who actually do see a bear in the woods do get attacked by that bear. You’ve been in the woods with a bear, you just didn’t see them. The majority of the time, bears don’t care about you. You are a predator, and they’re an enormous mammal that just doesn’t have the energy for that fight. Bears get a reputation as violent animals much for the same reason that sharks do - because they are a dangerous predator, and if you do see one, that’s already a step too far.

So… Have you ever seen a man? Sounds like a dumb question, you presumably have a father. But go on this journey with me. There’s a likelihood that if you are inside of the North America demographics we’ve been talking about this whole time, you do not live in a female-exclusive commune that kicks little boys out of their den the second they stop breastfeeding, yes that is a real thing. 

In which case, there are probably men you interact with. Dare I say it on a daily basis. Rural towns look safer on the surface but in fact when you adjust for population they are not, they just have less people and therefore less opportunity for disruption. This is why we have to adjust for population when we do demographics in general, but the fact that bears and people do not share the same social sphere means that adjusting for demographics does not truly normalize these two numbers. We are literally comparing apples and oranges. Are you more likely to be assaulted by the guy ringing up your groceries, or the lynx that just gave you a warning growl?

You are far more likely to die in a car crash than a plane crash, even after normalizing the data for per vehicle, per passenger, per mile, or per trip. But we don’t act like that’s true because for most people most of the time, cars are incredibly safe - millions of people drive millions of cars safely every single day. The risk is negligible not because the number of automobile accidents are low - they aren’t. It’s negligible because when accounting for daily risk, cars occur in our daily life so frequently that we stop thinking about it as dangerous.  

The risk of being attacked by a random man is, genuinely, also negligible. Choosing literally any adult man on earth to find yourself alone in the woods with versus any bear, you are physically safer choosing the man, statistically, not that you needed me to point that out because it’s the one thing the MRAs have figured out about this thought experiment and they won’t shut up about it. 

But none of that matters emotionally, because of the negativity bias. Men are more likely to be the perpetrators of violent crime. Not by as much as you would think, and more on that later, but what this means is that if something dangerous has happened to you, it was probably done by a man. This is why the response to #notallmen was #yesallwomen. We become primed to believe men are threats not because they are, but because if we’ve experienced harm, it’s been by men. And that negativity bias is a bias. The hundreds of normal interactions you have in your day to day are normal. 

But just because most men are fine doesn’t really change how people feel about it, does it? All of this stuff is subject to context, and if your context is negative, your conclusions will be negative. It depends on the man, it depends on the bear. If you see a polar bear at even twenty miles, you’re dead. Radio the base to warn them and pray to your god kind of dead. Polar bears are extremely territorial and more importantly they’re so much larger than us that they think we’re prey, which is not true of any other species of bear. I would rather be stuck in the woods with Ted Bundy than a polar bear, at least I have a chance of taking Ted Bundy in a fight. But if I have to choose between a sun bear and Matt Walsh, I’m definitely okay chilling with the sun bear. Hell, there is a long list of men no longer in my life right now that I wouldn’t choose before a sun bear. So believe me, I do get it. 

Heteropatriarchal Assumptions

But the thing is, I would absolutely say it depends on the woman and it depends on the bear. I was living with four people, and the cops showed up because the two women got into a fist fight. My ex girlfriend was abusive. I moved three hundred miles because a woman was stalking me.

Women can also be violent. To quote from me: Women are less likely to be reported as perpetrators of violent crime, more likely to receive smaller sentences or warnings for the same crimes, and more likely to use methods which aren't considered assault (like emotional abuse). And when you look at self reports instead of crime statistics, the gender gap is much lower.

I had this complaint about #metoo when it first came around and people started posting the corresponding hashtag #believewomen. For starters, it doesn’t take almost any kind of queer domestic experiences into consideration. It’s hard to talk about for example partner violence in lesbian separatist circles where they firmly believe that violence is a male only behavior. The few times I tried mentioning people I knew who weren’t women who’d been raped or assaulted by women, I was told to sit down and shut up, because this conversation was about male violence against women and nothing else. And yeah, sure, it is… but it shouldn’t be. 

Which I think is a good opportunity to circle back to negativity bias, because I did check those murder rate statistics by the way. 

The number of women murdered in the United States and Canada between 2020-2022 was nearly exactly 12,000 - it was 12,075. This isn’t women murdered by men by the way - it’s all women murdered, regardless of the gender of the perpetrator. I can’t say for certain how many women were murdered by men specifically (most crimes are more frequently in-group violence), but I can say specifically that only about 78% of the perpetrators were men.

And also 77% of the victims. The number of men murdered in the same time frame was 44,715. Over three times higher. The numbers from our ‘man or bear’ folks deliberately remove the 6 men killed by bears and over forty-thousand men murdered in the same time frame. 12,000 looks pretty scary if the number you are comparing it to is 8. But it doesn’t look very large at all if the number you’re comparing it to is 44,000. 

‘Men are murdered at disproportionately high rates compared to women’ is a thing which at this point would feel true if I said it, but again we’re looking at conviction rates. I got these US numbers straight from the FBI. Both the US and Canada notoriously have a high number of missing and murdered women. 

Wait, I think I’m missing a word in there… oh right. Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women.

Oops All Racism

That’s right I’m talking about race again. I find it almost offensive as a white woman when I hear other white women talking about the threat of violence as an epidemic. The demographic info everyone is sharing about murders disproportionately represents people of color in the perpetrator column and the victim column. That 12,000 number just isn’t about me. We cannot have this conversation unless we are willing to look at intersectionality. I will 100% always and without reservation believe a black or brown woman when she says that she feels threatened. But I extend less grace to my fellow white women. We have been tools of white hegemony for a long, long, long time. America’s system of oppression, including patriarchal oppression, relies on our fear of male violence to maintain control.

I cannot help but have a conspiratorial voice in my head whispering that it serves white hegemony to keep me, a white woman, afraid of men in general while pretending that it’s not black men we’re talking about. From a practical standpoint, a fear and distrust of all men has not and does not lead to white men being convicted at the same rate. Even if you use the language of feminism to justify that fear. What it does lead to is continued reliance on a criminal justice system which fails to arrest for crimes committed, fails to convict for crimes arrested, and disproportionately punishes people of color and black men in specific as an extension of slavery. 

If I find myself alone in the woods with a black man, let’s be real here… the threat in that space is not the man. It’s me. 

So What Now?

In conclusion, I think that painting men as the target of our ire in a conversation about patriarchal violence is the wrong tactic, because it teaches a fear of personal violence that from a sociological perspective bears out in increased policing of black and brown men only. I believe that the conversation we should be having about male violence is about politics and systems and not about personal interactions. 

Brock Turner served half his sentence. Bill Cosby’s conviction was overturned only three years after the court case. Harvey Weinstein’s case is going to retrial right now. All of these people are household names - deeply vilified by most of the country. But it doesn’t matter. They are still free from consequences. 

People are not the problem here. Systems are. Systems which privilege the rich and powerful, which give the benefit of the doubt to the perpetrator, and which discourage restorative justice. Post #metoo, we’ve genuinely made enormous strides on interpersonal relationships. It simply is not the case that the average person will refuse to believe you if you tell them you are the victim of a crime, even sexual assault. But in the court of law, a jury is legally required not to believe you unless the evidence is overwhelmingly otherwise. 

I hate the thought exercise ‘man or bear’ because it highlights that there is a real problem but does nothing to attempt to solve it. And at this point in the conversation I am done underlining believe women in bright bold sharpie. I know where people stand by now, they’ve had plenty of time to figure this out. But I don’t need Mitch McConnell to get it in his bones why I’d cuddle with a black bear than spend five minutes in a room alone with him in order to get some fucking laws passed around here. And I think that while we focus on the fear of personal violence broadly, we lose some ability to control what laws exactly we’re talking about. Are ankle bracelets a safe and effective means of reintegration? How do we divest funds from overpolicing and into community care? Has increased security in secluded parks (where the question ‘man or bear’ is relevant) actually increased safety, or has it merely increased state violence toward vulnerable populations such as racial minorities, unhoused people, and persons with mental health issues? 

Yes we need to fix patriarchal violence in our country. And we have been. We’ve literally been watching this happen for years. And it’s for that reason for me that I think the man or bear thought experiment feels like a second wave argument in a fourth wave era. Feminism cannot continue to be about protecting women from men without taking into account the ways in which intersections of privilege affect those relationships, including the ways in which white women have power in this society and ‘man or bear’ completely flattens a lot of the conversation and work we’ve already been doing. 

I believe in our ability to have nuanced conversations about violence, and ‘I’d choose the bear’ isn’t it. 

[wolf-among-mechs]

🛸🍜 for the ask game.

- Star Captain/Colonel Hazen, @is-the-battlemech-cool-or-not

Greetings Star Colonel. Somehow I was expecting you to ask me about my thoughts on a mech. You are free to do so as well of course. Nevertheless your choice of questions are still quite fun.

🛸 Is there a "canon rumor" theory (e.g. hyperspace weirdness, aliens, Phantom 'Mech Ability, time travel, alternate universes, the Lost Cameron) that you believe in? Or perhaps have experienced?

I have to admit that most of these rumors, these wild flights of fancy have an explaination. That is not to diminish anyone else's beliefs. But rather... I have already spoken about how in Kuritan space I was believed to be an Oni, an ogre of ancient terran myth on the planet Yance at first and then beyond. To the point where shinto priests put up paper wards to keep me away from settlements.

For a long time in the inner sphere the remains of General Kerensky's exodus fleet was still out there in space. That turned out to be very real. Many thought they were aliens at first. It came as a bit of a surprise that I was a descendant of them. In truth actually, to me when I was told of the clans when I had proved myself to the Dragoons in full, it felt like a strange myth. I was not sure what to think for a very long time. After a few years I was honestly ready to dismiss it as some sort of... Story to explain the founding of our company.

But as for what I currently believe... I feel a lot of uncertainty with hyperspace travel. What is to say that the next jump does not take you somewhere where a different choice was made at some point? Do you exit in the same reality that you left? There are so many decisions made every day big and small that the amount of deviation to the reality you left it is so highly unlikely you will ever notice. That thought troubles me.

I am also pretty sure there are aliens out there. Ones that could talk with us. Communicate. Like in holovids. They have got to be out there and figured out their own hyperdrives right? Something to transport them between stars. I get that space is big, mind boggingly big as one author once put it. But is it that big? Looking around the stars of the Inner Sphere the miracle of life is not a single isolated incident on Terra. It brings to mind an old... I do not know if proverb is the correct term. But I have seen it in litterature.

"Two possibilities exist: Either we are alone in the universe or we are not. Both are equally terrifying."

🍜= what is your favorite food?

Now for something a bit mundane. Food.

There are few things quite as satisfying as pizza or a kebab after when you return to the hangar in a condition to eat. Battles do take a lot out of you so something like that is good to get you on your feet. And water. So much water. Even with a cooling suit my mechs are always very hot.

Remember to rehydrate fellow mechwarriors.

But if we're talking favourite... Probably Rasalhagian sushi? It is probably slightly perplexingly specific. If there is a complaint I do have about sushi it is that is not very filling. And Rasalhagian food is maybe a bit bland sometimes. They smoothen over the others weakness quite well. If you have not had it. It consists mostly of the same things you would find for sushi plates but also variants for smoked herring and lobster. Which do have a different flavour profile entirely than salmon. It also a few different side dishes. Potato, gravy and meatballs are of course one of them. It is Rasalhague after all.

[figandthewasp]

@tiarnietalks PLUTO IN AQUARIUS!

We ride at dawn Alien Witches!

248 years in the making!

Aqaurius- fixed Air- ruled by Saturn & Uranus.

“All geniuses are misunderstood; that's built into the definition of the word. To succeed, one must develop thick skin regarding our basic need for approval. To hold the truth with which everyone agrees is easy; to hold one against the tide of popular assumptions is vastly more arduous. How does the psyche adapt? There are healthy answers, or all geniuses would be mad as well as misunderstood, & they are not.” Steven Forrest

Pluto has been in & out of Aquarius since March 2023, showing us glimpses of what the future may hold, but today, November 20th 2024, he has made his full ingress into Aquarius where he will stay until January 2044!

1777 was the last time Pluto was in Aquarius!

This fixed Air archetype can be highly rigid, questioning everything, often needing proof; there is an intellectual superiority complex & a very black & white mindset. Just look at the division that happened in the world when Saturn was in Aquarius in 2021-2023! Family breakdowns & separations because of opposing views, cancel culture, etc. Aquarius isn't all butterflies, hippie communes, & rainbows my friends, that's Pisces energy but there will be a deep compelling urge for equality, freedom of speech, brotherhood & a love of humanity rising within this transit!

Aquarius energy is the loner, the eccentric, the rebel, the genius, the individualist; often seen as crazy & highly misunderstood. Einstein & Elon are both seen as crazy, definitely ahead of their time, have their North Node in Aquarius & are the true pioneers, wayshowers, & inventors. Like them or not, this is Aquarius.

Science, new technology, new medicines, new ways of living life, sci-fi, space, aliens, the esoteric & time travel all belong to Aquarius.

There is an objectivity & detachment to the Aquarius archetype, which is great for giving perspective, & we are going to need a lot of that over the coming 2 decades!

Watch group think & be discerning!

Pluto in Aquarius sees a BRAND NEW WORLD!

Collectively, the world will never look the same again.

We are going to witness things we have NEVER seen before, I mean it's already happening! AI, robots delivering food, drones, cloning, the metaverse, far right. Within days of Pluto's 1st ingress back in 2023 we saw the creator of the AI software quit! Umm, yeah, can't make this shit up! Things are accelerating! What's real & what's not! Its worlds within worlds. It feels like a HUMANITY REBIRTH to be honest! A full breakdown of society precedes the breakthrough of a new one. It's big. Remember, Pluto destroys, he exposes the TRUTH, you can't hide from Pluto, & Aquarius is the seeker, so this new phase of destruction & excavation is going to be HUGE! People will be more accepting of who anyone IS or wants to be, thank the lord; it's gonna get weird though, so be prepared for that! I believe people will embrace who they really are more too, especially if they have been doing the work on themselves & have a stable understanding of their psyche, traumas, patterns ect, if not they may feel isolated & allow fear, confusion & control to take over. Pluto will be in the first decan of Aquarius until 2031!! The Lord of Defeat, the 5 of Swords, which represents conflict, destruction, competition & disagreements. OUCHY! Aquarius is ruled by the Star though representing faith, hope & renewal! Pluto in Aquarius makes a supportive trine to the South Node in Libra until January 29th 2025, really assisting us in clearing all that karmic debris, it might even feel like a huge hangover or an exciting new space opening up! As Pluto trines the South Node of fate, he makes a sextile to the North Node in Aries, offering an opportunity to grow into more of who you are, to cast OFF the old & truly shift gears, entering brand new terrain! I love this aspect for us! On the micro, look to your Aquarius house, this is where you will be injected with creative originality, where you are being asked to reform, transform & revolutionize that part of your life. What rules of your own must you break?

Pluto in Aquarius is just getting started & will be a HUGE topic of conversation over the next 20 years as we witness many new ways of living, innovations, realizations, inventions, humans or fake humans, quantum shifts, time travel, new galaxies, all of it, it's all NEW (knew) as we truly advance & evolve.  We have never been in this space before, there is mystery & magic. Expect the unexpected, hello, Pluto in a Uranus ruled sign. Shit is gonna get weird! Reform. Reveal. Radical anarchy! It's the revolution to evolution!

[uraharashouten]

What're your thoughts on Urahara being autistic?

Interesting question, Anon. I suppose whenever a character has quirks, this question must arise. So, fair enough; let's consider evidence, and how well he fits some typical traits of autistic-coded characters. I looked these up, so please forgive any oversights or discrepancies they might come with.

1. Social Difficulties. The character might have difficulty interpreting body language, facial expressions, or tone of voice, leading to awkward or misunderstood interactions. They might find small talk uncomfortable or unnecessary and may prefer more direct or in-depth conversations.

Kisuke actually seems generally good at reading people and speaking to their unvoiced thoughts.

He's generally good with small talk and jovial banter, as well.

2. Literal Thinking. Autistic-coded characters may take things literally and struggle to understand figures of speech, sarcasm, or jokes that rely on double meanings.

This one's a bit tougher to pin down, because while I certainly can provide examples of him using sarcasm and figures of speech, I'm not sure I can point to many that he must interpret from others. He can be pedantic, though, for the sake of mischief.

3. Focused Interests. These characters often have highly focused interests that they pursue with intensity. They may talk at length about their interests, sometimes to the point of alienating others who don't share the same level of enthusiasm.

If you were looking for a character that fit this characteristic, I would probably point you to Mayuri, who relentlessly and repeatedly pursues his special interest of creating life. Although we do know that Kisuke spent years trying to find a way to prevent Hollowfication, we don't really see him engrossed in that research except in a brief flashback. We also have developed fanon that he loses sense of time while focused on research projects, mostly from that anime-only TBTP episode in which Soi Fon stalks him. But otherwise, the only time we see him emerge unkempt and disheveled is when Rukia visits the shop so early she wakes him from sleep. So while I do enjoy leaning into the headcanon that he can become absorbed in his projects, we really never see him in that process. They're always presented as a fait accompli.

4. Routine and Structure: They may rely heavily on routines, schedules, or predictability in their day-to-day life. Changes to these routines can cause them distress or anxiety.

This characteristic might fit. He does wear the same outfit daily, even after Kubo released the NBFH chapter and every other character got a glow-up... except him. He's the same. At least get a haircut, my guy.

5. Sensory Sensitivity. Autistic-coded characters may be overwhelmed by loud noises, bright lights, certain textures, or strong smells. Alternatively, they may be under-responsive to sensory stimuli.

We don't really see him react negatively to sensory input, though we do know from Klub Outside Q&A that he has a bland palate and prefers rice. This might point to sensory issues with food.

His monotonous wardrobe might also be a comfort issue—he's basically in his pajamas 24/7!

6. Blunt Communication. These characters often say exactly what they mean without worrying too much about social norms or diplomacy. They may be perceived as rude, even though they don't intend to offend.

Oh my. I think if anything he has the opposite problem—indirect and evasive to a fault! His speech, too, is meticulously polite. He consistently uses soft, practically feminine-coded polite Japanese grammar, very diplomatic.

7. Difficulty with Eye Contact. The character might find eye contact uncomfortable or even painful, preferring to look away or focus on other things during conversations.

We don't see this during TBTP, but we do with the hat. It is a form of armor, in a way, to keep folks at a distance. This, however, has likely more to do with trying not to draw attention to himself for most of canon. He would prefer to avoid the spotlight; there is more room to maneuver in the dark. But he has no trouble making eye contact when he wants to be intimidating.

8. Emotional Expression. Their emotional expressions may not match what others expect. For example, they might seem to have a neutral or "flat" tone of voice or facial expressions, even when they are feeling strong emotions.

This... is the opposite of a flat affect.

9. Logical and Analytical Thinking. Autistic-coded characters may be exceptionally good at logic, analysis, or pattern recognition, sometimes to the detriment of understanding emotions or social dynamics.

Well, all right, you've got me there. I don't think I even need to spend time on this question. Next?

10. Difficulty with Change. They might find it hard to shift from one task to another or adapt to changes in plans or environments.

In terms of changes in plans and environments, I can't think of anyone more adept to the ground shifting beneath his feet, can you?

So! How did we do?

Points 3, 4, 5, and definitely 9 might have him on the spectrum... but that's less than five out of ten, and aren't we all on the spectrum? That's why it's a spectrum!

If he's a little bit of a jerk when it comes to being considerate and sensitive with peoples' feelings, well, I'm going to say that's just his personality.

[teacorgi]

Hi I really like Lily's style! She's super cool but I was wondering, is she still a vampire? The fangs are a great look! (⁠☆⁠▽⁠☆⁠) What all does vampirism entail in your world/setting? There are so many different interpretations of the curse and I like learning about everyone's ideas on it!

HEWWO ! >W< ty for the ask abt lilly waah !!

i feel like this got too long for the dashboard so ill throw my answer under a readmore !

She is still a vampire ! Part of the time, anyway ! In her main universe/the main universe i write with her in she is a human but ! i do have an AU i poke around in sometimes w/stories where she's a vampire still bc its Very important to me that she gets to keep her vampirism somewhere u know x3

The Curse(tm) depends on the type/'rank' of vampire in most my universes that i write w/them.

Lillian, for example, was changed by a man who held a moderate amnt of control over her following the change. While under his influence/control she could only drink blood n was unable to go out during the day w/out it severely burning her.

Killing him herself n drinking some of his blood basically released her from him + buffed her vampy powers up a bit. She can eat normie human food sometimes w/out getting sick and sunny days just feel like when you go outside w/a not-quite-healed sunburn- warm, tingly, hurts a little bit but its bearable. some of this is due to alien tech given to her by her husband tho to help her deal w/negative side effects.

there are also...alien vampires in this universe which are responsible for introducing vampirism to earth many centuries ago. they don't typically come to earth themselves but lilly's daughter is friends w/a few of them =3

some of these alien vamps don't really suffer many negative effects at All and have more abilities ( can turn into various beasts, teleport, turn invisible, ect ) but others are weaker than ur average earth vampire. it just depends !

ooh also if u do not consume enough blood, even if you are able to eat human food n have been doing so, you can go into a frenzied starvation mode. when this happens, people lose control of themselves and seek out a food source indiscriminately.

lets see... what else... vamps can feed off other vamps but its not as effective/does not taste good... there are some alien species w/highly prized blood... holy water and the like mostly only effects lower tier vamps and only rly works bc of the strong emotional energy behind the process of making the vamp hunting items... silverware tastes extremely bitter and acidic to them... a weaker vamp could paralyze a stronger one if their venom was different enough...

i kno there is more but. sleepy....... sleepy... i am so VEWY sleepy so im sorry if this sounds rambly or doesnt make sense DX TY AGAIN a lot for the question ;w; i havent talked this much abt oc stuff publically in 500000 yrs no joke lol

[starrysnowdrop]

Hello! Another little Hali question if I may?

Feeling a bit inspired by the screenshots you posted of Hali and Aymeric in Ishgard, I was wondering what Aymeric made of Sharlayan and it's culture?

I've really enjoyed reading about Hali's impressions of Ishgard, but I'm wondering how it went when she accompanied Aymeric to Sharlayan and how she might have helped him to make sense of any cultural differences?

Fortunately Aymeric has exquisite manners, so that probably helped, but were there any challenges (other than the cuisine I imagine!).

I expect that the scholarly proclivities of the Sharlayans were not entirely alien, given his familiarity with Saint Endalim's Scholasticate, but were there things that surprised him? Did Hali show him around the Noumenon? Or even take him to dance beneath the artificial stars of Labyrinthos?

After all the time she spent away from home, did she quite enjoy playing tour guide? Or did she feel somewhat ambivalent about her homeland and her connection with it?

Yay!! I’ve been blessed with another Mimble ask!! And this is a good one too, because I’ve been meaning to talk about Aymeric’s impressions of Sharlayan since I’ve talked extensively about Hali’s impressions of Ishgard already. So let’s jump right into it! 💖

Aymeric had heard so much about Sharlayan from Hali over the years, and he was familiar with the abandoned Sharlayan colony and Idyllshire, so he had seen ruins of Sharlayan architecture before, but it still didn’t prepare him for just how beautiful Sharlayan is (as were many of us too when the EW trailer came out). It was breathtaking, with the white marble buildings, the harbor with the Thaliak statue, and all of the water features found throughout the city. Aymeric appreciates fine art and architecture, so he was quite impressed with all the sights.

Another element that Aymeric was impressed by was that there was no class or caste system in Sharlayan society. Everyone was equal, and there was a true democracy in place that Aymeric really enjoyed seeing. It was prevalent everywhere he went, and all had an equal opportunity to make a good life for themselves. Well, unless you were an outsider that is.

You see, Aymeric was treated very well, and him being so polite, respectful, and dignified, most Sharlayans were very welcoming to him… until they found out that he was Ishgardian. He found out rather quickly that many Sharlayans are, well, snobby and think very highly of themselves. No one said anything to him directly, but he was well aware of the looks that they gave him. They were judging him for being an Ishgardian, and just as Fourchenault looked down on Eorzeans when he visited Gridania, it was likely due to fighting the Dragonsong War for a thousand years, something that Sharlayans frown upon.

Even with this, Aymeric still enjoyed himself overall, as Hali was happy to give him the full tour, showing him the Noumenon with more books than he ever could imagine, the Studium where Hali studied and graduated from, eating at the Last Stand where he ate some great food (as Hali made sure to keep Archon Loaf far away from him), and of course Labyrinthos, her actual home where she was born and grew up. He visited with Hali’s parents in their home in Labyrinthos, and he was fascinated with the artificial sky, but he quickly understood why Hali was so adamant about leaving Sharlayan and seeing the world. An artificial sky and artificial environment could never replace the real thing, and he was happy to finally see where a little girl who dreamed to see the real world had grown up to become the woman he fell in love with.

That’s about it for now! Thank you so much @mimble-sparklepudding for this amazing ask! It really helped me to brainstorm how Aymeric would feel about Sharlayan, and I might expand on all of this in the future. You also gave me some gpose ideas (dancing underneath the artificial night sky in Labyrinthos being at the top of the list), so thank you!!! 🥰💖

[ossidae-passeridae]

🛒🎶🛠🏆 and ✨✨ i saw you dodging the other one >:(

Oh yeah mid here with the technical questions this'll be a fun one :3

🛒 What are some common things you incorporate in your fics? Themes, feels, scenes, imagery, etc.

*cracks knuckles* alright everyone settle in we're gonna be here a while.

Themes: loss of control, the interplay between fear and desire, situations which cannot be borne but must be, love as a partial deconstruction/destruction of the self, fear as a vehicle for self destruction, pain as catharsis, alienation from one's own body/status/existence... The strength of community working together?

Feels: Catharsis. It's all about catharsis in my works, all the other feels are simply vehicles to get us there.

Scenes: Standing over a sink full of blood and teeth (I literally have two WIPs with this right now), being trapped in a room with no way to escape, spiraling so far into one's mind that the physical world ceases to exist... My scenes tend towards night, and grime, and dim lighting, and the reflection of neon lights in puddled water on the pavement.

Imagery: water, the ocean, black holes, the vastness of empty space, sucking darkness, water drip drip dripping as a metaphor for slow decay, opulence as alienation. Food as a metaphor for love. Also that.

🎶 Do you listen to music while you write? What song have you been playing on loop lately?

This is highly dependent on what I'm writing! Sometimes it's integral I listen to music, other times I must have Total Silence(tm). Some fics I've written listening to one song on repeat include:

Pretty Waste (WIP): same titled song by Bones UK

broken pieces of the day: Delirium Tremens (Falling Down a Hole.) by A Burning Century

Rōnin: which continues to be written while listening to the same-titled album by Zack Hemsey

Overall I write a lot listening to She Wants Revenge and Crüxshadows, which I think tells you a lot about me!

Six Months in a Leaky Boat was written in a furious haze, and I'm sure that I did listen to a lot of music throughout it (there's no way I'd be able to put together the musical interludes otherwise), but I cannot for the life of me remember any specifics.

🛠What tools/programs/apps do you use to write?

This one depends a bit on the scope of the work. For most things, I use gdocs because I swap between devices as my brain throws various hissy fits. For longer and more invested works which requires pages of planning and worldbuilding, I prefer Scrivener.

For gdocs, I also use a plugin called Draftback, which lets me look over my document edit history (with graphs!). I find that I can use these to pick out when I'm floundering on a fic and need new eyes on them - my graphs go from nice straight lines to horrible spotty messes.

🏆 What’s your most popular fic?

Hands down it's gotta be 'sometimes the feeling is right' ahahaha. What can I say, everyone loves medical accuracy bordering on medfet I guess??? It's my most viewed, most kudosed, and most bookmarked work!

Eternal thanks to @canonical-transformation who betaed it for me when I was yelling into a pillow about it not working with me 💖💖💖 You are, in fact, the best

✨ Give you and your writing a compliment. Go on now. You know you deserve it. 😉

*loudly grumbles*

dae's writing is almost as cool as mid and aspires to their level of excellence 😤 HAPPY NOW

[dcwnthercbbithcle]

Basics of the DBD mermaid!AU or the murmaids as I've been calling them.

You don't turn into a murmaid, at least, not in any typical sense, there is a curse at play when it come to the Entity driving the creation of the murmaids, among other horrors, in order to continue sustaining its existence beneath the sea. However, by and large, the curse of the Entity and the Entity's power has come to form less of a chokehold on Earth's Oceans over time as the human and animal fear of the ocean has lessened.

The Entity, at least per my murmaid AU, rather than feeding off the fear of people in itself, feeds off of the human and animal fear of the great ocean, its depths, its horrors and what exactly occurs in the depths where sun cannot shine. But as humans do, the more we explore, the less afraid we become, the more the absurd becomes commonplace.

People still fear the ocean, obviously, that's a given, but it's far less than in years before when information was scarcer and the world seemed like a comparatively much smaller place.

The souls that are/were/will be the murmaids are made up EXCLUSIVELY those who were in other verses were either killers or survivors in its realm. Logic on this is still out, god knows I've already put more than enough thought into this, but for the sake of argument. There ARE humans, far, far more humans than murmaids, anyone who was in the realm? Murmaid, even if they've technically been 'voided' in canon or are considered dead*

(*adding that, technically, survivors in the murmaid verse do have murmaid families that birthed them, but it's not a direct drag and drop from canon. Genes aren't working through science, they're working with magic and the fact that I'm not willing to draw out family trees with survivors. Just do know they were created, and born rather than shaped through magic itself )

Anyways! Back to the murmaids. Killer!murmaids are an entirely different, more old-god-esc species of murmaids compared to the survivors. Killer!murmaids were born from purely magic, and, if the Entity doesn't kill them, can become kaiju-esc storm causing monstrosities in time. They exist to feed into the fear of the ocean, being those horrifying creatures on maps to stir up horrific storms, drag men into the depths and all around remind people why you don't mess with the ocean. The older a killer is, at least in respect to the time they were added to DBD (and/or how much the Entity favors them), the larger and more powerful they are.

They do not inherently get along with Survivor!murmaids and often victimize and target them as a source of food, though the Killer!murmaids need to eat is purely psychological rather than physical.

Killer!murmaids are all, at least to some extent, aware of their purpose both in existing and the grand scheme of the ocean and earths foodchain. They don't always commune with the Entity, and I don't blame them, Entity can't change its nature. But there is no question that they are neither animal or man, they are magic and a force of nature and it can ABSOLUTELY get to their heads.

Likewise, Killer!murmaids tend not to be social creatures, only ever seeming to bond with each other or live a solitary and reclusive lifestyle. Though there are always exceptions to this rule.

Meanwhile the survivors, they're uhhh, they're less ENGROSSED in the magic that is going down with the Entity and just as much subject to the torment and sacrifice by the Killer!murmaids as normal humans are.

Survivor!murmaids are the poor fuckers that live in the ocean, simply put, they have no grand place in the Entity's design, at least, not in any capacity where their individual identities are of importance.

Their species, diets, etc. vary wildly based on their location, but by and large, there is one constant that all are highly-intelligent, highly-social and somewhat alien humanoids that have all the workings of a human race, down to language, but it's nothing more than similar evolution and the fact the Entity was working from a human design.

Most live in Pods or groups of between 2-50 and tend to live along the coastlines, though shun human intervention and activity as though it were the plague because of outstanding aggression from land-dwelling species (as humans and animals tend to do! no one wants to be a rich man's rug or a bear's dinner)

Some are exclusively man-eating and carnivorous while others can be exclusively herbivorous and peaceful. Depends on the group and the identity of the survivor in question.

While there is a vast spectrum of different physical needs and natures to the Survivor!murmaids, one commonly witnessed fact is that REGARDLESS of their individual needs, they seem to avoid targetting each other unless in a starvation scenario and will often adopt each other into groups despite social, cultural, etc. differences. (i.e herbivorous!Claudette is absolutely chilling with man-eater!Doe) almost as though on some level they seem to understand that there is safety in numbers especially in the face of greater threats.

Almost none of them are aware of the Entity or capable of venturing into the deep ocean where it resides, barring a couple exceptions. (Vittorio, Haddie, etc. you get the feel!)

Survivor!murmaids seem incapable of venturing onto land or 'transforming' as it were into more human forms. Killer!murmaids, depending on the individual in question, however seem adept at this so long as to fuel the Entity's goals.

Both Killer! and Survivor!murmaids only and exclusively occur in the ocean, no fresh water fishies here, I'm afraid!

[lazlolullaby]

GOTG Holiday Special rewrite/subplot additions

(alt title: Damn, Yondu got a funeral and two follow ups and he was an a-hole of a dad, but Gamora was a core member, a love interest, and a mom and gets nothing??? Lemme fix that.)

Take this with a grain of salt, as with all fanworks, this is for me and i’m just sharing it with you. It’s also a messy rambling outline so. if you have more questions or ideas, message me or make your own post.

Stakar and Aleta Orgord, the Ravager Leaders, send a single helmeted person to hunt The Guardians down and give them a box. It should be easy, they just bought a new base.

It cuts to the Guardians on Knowhere, looking at at a message from the planet Zen-Whoberi. In-between Infinity War and Endgame, Rocket and Nebula were able to bury the Guardian!Gamora on Zen-Whoberi. Now that people were returned from the Blip, there were some arguments and Gamora’s remains now need to be moved. Peter is distraught, but he goes with Rocket and Groot to pick up the body.

Mantis, Drax and Nebula stay behind. Mantis, seeing how Peter is sad, checks a calendar. It’s almost Christmastime! She remembers in the time between Vol 2 to now that he does celebrate it. He usually does something small; a gift exchange, splurging on a good sit down meal. This year Mantis wants to go BIG.

Kraglin tries to talk her out of it, but Drax and Nebula back her up. Drax because now they have a Permanent Base in the form of Knowhere he’d like to make good memories. And Nebula also had been invited to the Stark’s Extended Family Christmas parties and wants a little more of that cheer.

In the background the helmeted person leaves the Box on Knowhere, it looks ominous but it’s soon lost and swept up in the Christmas planning. Nebula looks at it thoughtfully.

So now we have two running plots, one a somber grieving of Gamora and discussion of what she would have wanted. And one Christmastime with Aliens Mania. Decorating, discussing traditions, going to a gay bar and stealing Kevin Bacon.

Add in some details that Rocket remembering Lylla and his first family, that Groot also considered Guardian!Gamora his mother. Peter did go to the Stark funeral, but...emphasis on the implication that he’s been running for so long that he’s never slowed down to process that grief. Picking up her remains forces him to start thinking and that foreshadows in Vol 3 where he knows he can’t “fix” Feral!Gamora and he’s a bit of a mess.

It’s just a toss up if they steal Kevin Bacon before the others get back and Cosmo is the one to object to human trafficking. But Kevin calms down and celebrates with them.

Peter, Rocket and Groot come back to a highly decorated Knowhere with food and cheer and it’s just the thing to remind them of what they have now. Mantis tells him they are siblings and Peter is thrilled.

Groot opens the Ravager box for everyone - it’s fabric and leather with a new logo for the Guardians for them to make their own outfits. As a congratulations, a peace offering from the Ravagers.

Nebula gives Rocket the prosthetic arm. “How in the heck didja manage to get this?”

There’s a flashback with Bucky and Nebula. “I want the arm for my friend for Christmas. I don’t wish to harm you...much.” “Hey If I just give it it’s gonna look suspicious. So. Let’s make the fight look good.”

Nebula replies: “The Spirit of Christmas possessed me and gave me the strength not to kill him.”

After Kevin returns home, after the major gift giving and it winds down, they hold a second funeral for Gamora.

Her remains are burned like Yondu’s were and released outside of Knowhere to the song “Rubberband man”. The Ravager ships show up and throw some fireworks. Referencing her nearly dying in space with Peter in Vol 1 and the song she was singing in IW. In a way, she’s there with them at their new home, with her family.

Cut to credits.

end credits scene where Feral!Gamora was the helmeted person and was watching the funeral from afar. “This is a waste of time and resources. I’ve never even seen such foolish warriors. How did they even manage to save the galaxy?”

Nebula jumps in on the communication. “Twice. Even more if you look close enough.”

“I suppose I will have to take your word for it. It’s...good to talk to you again, sister. You were the one I hated least.” Gamora tips up her chin.

Nebula grunts and tips up her chin. “I understand if you don’t want to stay.”

“I suppose...it’s difficult. You’ve always been compared to me, and now - I feel as if I go back, I’ll be compared to myself.”

“Whoever you turn out to be. You will always be my sister.”

Gamora smiles and turns away.