#got to support victorian furries

[the-writer-nerd-ro]

Just remembered I forgot to post my very self-indulgent fic where Sara Pena meets Sloane from the Fursona Telephone episode (Sloane does not actually appear in this fic but she is discussed at length and will appear in future fics I promise 🥰)

Anyways, enjoy!

Love in its many artforms

Once in a blue moon, Hunter's life intersected with Sara's career, which, today, involved Facebook stalking.

“Oh, Hun, you're Facebook friends with my new client,” Sara called from the living room.

Hunter poked her head out of the kitchen, where she was preparing dinner.

“Hm? Who is it?” Hunter hadn't used Facebook in six and a half years.

“Sloane Clark.”

Hunter inhaled sharply. “I forgot I was Facebook friends with her. She hired you?”

“Yeah, we met at the last party I worked and she said she was having a get together and wanted my energy to liven it up.”

“Oh, cool.” Behind her, a pot of macaroni boiled over.

“How do you two know each other?”

“We went to the same high school,” Hunter said, wondering how much she wanted to elaborate.

“Aw, fun! She seemed really nice.”

“She was pretty nice in high school. We did a group project together.” Hunter took a deep breath and added, “Honestly, I had a bit of a crush on her.”

“I can see that,” Sara said, since she knew she was Hunter’s type and Sloane seemed like her in a slightly different font. “Do you want me to do some digging? See if you would've had a chance in high school?”

“What, like ask her if she's gay?”

“Yeah!”

Hunter blushed, “I don't need to know. But, um, if you wanted to.”

“I won't push the matter, but if it comes up I'll let you know.” Pause. “Unless you wanted to come with me?”

Hunter cringed, glancing behind her. “Shit, the macaroni.”

Sara got up to help sort out dinner (mostly providing moral support) and wait for an answer to her question.

Hunter seemed to mull it over while she pulled the overflowing macaroni pot off the burner. She hadn't started on the roux yet, so at least that wasn't burned. Sara's burner had taken some cosmetic damage, but the rest of their meal was salvageable.

“Do you want to go to the party?” Sara asked again.

“No,” Hunter finally said. “I don't want to know if she remembers me. It can stay an unrequited crush, I have something so much better now.”

Sara threw back her head and laughed. “Thanks, hun. I do like hearing about who you were before I met you. Thank you for letting me into your life.”

“Thank you for wanting to be a part of my life.”

“I could say the same to you.” Sara went to set the table while Hunter finished the mac and cheese.

“I'm still going to find out if Sloane is gay,” Sara added.

“Go for it.”

“And then you can come to the next party.”

Now it was Hunter's turn to laugh. “We'll see about that.”

Sara had a good time at the party, though it was a bit smaller and cozier than she was used to. She got her answer pretty quickly, and a few more answers than she was expecting.

When she came home she was brimming with information.

Hunter usually waited up for Sara after a party and tonight was no different. “How'd it go?”

“It was lovely! Very 90's themed, so that was fun. Like, I don't think she played a single song that came out after 1999. Which is a shame because I know a Valley song she'd love.”

“Interesting,” Hunter said, “what else?”

“Oh yeah, the secret mission.”

“Don't say it like that, that makes me sound creepy,” Hunter said, dressed in her all black vintage nightgown. In the light of Sara's ever-growing collection of candles, she looked like a Victorian ghost come back from the dead to haunt her secret sapphic lover for one last night of passion, unaware that her moans of pleasure sounded like the howls of the damned.

“Sloane is in fact bisexual, though I'm not sure she knew that in high school. But she is also a furry so I'm not entirely certain you're her type.”

“Huh. That's a surprise. Well, thanks for looking into it for me, I guess.”

Sara plopped down on the couch next to Hunter and rested her head on Hunter's shoulder. “No problem, Hun.”

Hunter was quiet for a while before musing, “If we'd dated in high school I would have gotten so good at drawing furries.”

“Love drives us all to create,” Sara said wisely, glancing up at the photo wall of photographs and paintings Hunter had made.

“By the way, I made you a playlist.”

Hunter smiled and pressed a kiss to Sara's cheek. “I love you, too.”

[addytheheartbreaker]

"Meet Bezai the Egg"

Name: Bezai Lebedev Cawthorn

Age: 26

Height: 5'9 ft

Weight: 60 kg

Mask singer belong to: Johnny Weir

Friends with: Doll, Dog, Rabbit, Ice Cream, Leopard, Poodle, Lion, Penguin, Bee, Eagle, Alien, Skeleton, Peacock, Ladybug, Purple Peacock.

Appearance: pale white slick side hair, white with gold rings eyes, gold eye-shadow, cheek bones, small beard, white painted nails with gray crack design and a slim but athletic body (figure skating body type).

Clothing style: his fashion design clothing, coats (mainly Russian, Japanese 30's - 50's coat style), fur coats, his egg sunhat, LOTS of bling and jewelly, eccentric or formal suits (Main clothing). Dresses (to his fashion design or Johnny's fashion design), figure skating suits and Johnny's fashion clothing (for formal, party and broadcast occasions).

Fun facts about Bezai:

•the eccentric, narcissistic, flamboyant, stylish and "all eyes on me" Egg man.

•Egg is born a American, Russian and French (his father is American-Russian while his grandfather is French) and he is Japanese ancestry from his mother's side.

•Bezai can speak Russian and French when he was just a child, he taught himself to learn russian then started understanding Japanese when he was 14. He also learned Japanese too when he was 16.

•He is an ally and one of the iconic people of LGBTQ with Leon and Victoria. His sexuality is gay. He is still single.

•Egg is a anime lover since in his early teens. He is a fan of Yuri on Ice and old anime style times. Him and Johnny talk about it on different times.

•Bezai had been keeping his sexuality a secret from public and from Johnny. Johnny has suspected from his behavior after he had found out he had suffered on keeping his sexuality a secret as Johnny was the first person to convinced him to come out and supported him since and today.

•the reason why kept his sexuality a secret is because he had been bullied since childhood.

•as a child, Egg is isolated and trying to fit in to many children and at school. He is an excellent and a honoured student which envied by many students as most boys bullied him. He is also been verbally harassed by boys by calling him homophonic names which is the reason on keeping his sexuality.

•hr started skating in age 15, he is a huge fan of Johnny Weir's skating performance leading him into interesting in skating and fashion.

•he is an egg lover who always eats and cooks egg related dishes. He is an excellent cook and Bezai eats and diet on a healthy lifestyle because of his skating career.

•He is not a fan of fast food because he prefer to eat healthier food. According to Bezai, he considered fast food "a place of wasting your health".

•he owned 4 pets at his mansion and had taking cared properly either himself or his servants. He owned a white stallion, a white snow fox, a Chihuahua and a swan.

•He is a iconic figure skater from Olympic culture, a fashion designer, a model and a interviewer of the Olympian Winter along side Johnny Weir.

•Egg has retired since 2016 due to his injuries gotten worse. But he can still skating properly and begin designing clothing and interview with several Olympian skaters to socialize and teaching/encouraging skaters.

•He had an accident during his skating performance since 2015. He got injured himself both his knee and hips when he is about to do the trick. That accident horrified Johnny concerning his safety.

•He has been pressured so much due to suffered anxiety issues and intense fear of disappointment/failure.

•when he pressured too much, he will 'crack' mentally. He is lucky that he hadn't harmed himself or commit recklessness.

•Bezai's mentor, Johnny is always worried of Bezai's health and his anxiety issues. Fearing the thought of Bezai doing something harmful to himself.

•He had bodyguards and servants to protect, escort and serving him because of his insecurity and needed emergency.

•Egg lived in his own mansion in the middle of a beautiful field, his mansion is a Victorian like castle, a farm for his vegetable harvesting (because of his healthy lifestyle) and his pet horse, a huge gym and a room filled with stuffed animals.

•he is actually a stuffed animal collector, he mainly collect panda, polar bears, snow fox, swans and fluffy and furry stuffed animals.

•Bezai has a soft spot for soft furry fur and he always sleep with a huge egg like bed inside a very soft cushions, pillows and a soft furry blanket. The reason why he is likes anything soft is because he is an Egg. (If you know what I mean)

•the reason why he is sleeping with an egg like bed is because he is afraid of getting caught by dust, germs and caught himself a cold. (If you remember the clues where Egg is inside a big egg container)

•He is a huge fan of Lady Gaga. He had an autograph from his favorite celebrity and he wanted the signature to his most favorite ice skating costume. He even listened to her songs and brought all albums.

•Egg is rocking with heels! He can wear them and dance with it like a real god he is. (Bezai: of course I can rock it, I'm fabulous!)

•He can wear both dresses and suits what ever he likes. If anyone dare to insult or gave him a homophobic insult at him, his bodyguards would murder/assassinated them. He will ignore it and do what ever he wants.

•Egg has a collection of champagne, he only drink it every weekends.

•Bezai and Nicol often compete to each other teasingly as frenemies. Because of the "their chemistry don't mix well" due to Dog's Gothic puck bad boy persona/style and Egg's flamboyant, narcissistic and stylish style didn't mix so well. Bezai often to teasing Nicol by smacking his butt, teasing him into something that makes him embarrassed and bragging for his closeness to Addy while Nicol often to do scare pranks at him (not too much or too far, but didn't do often because of Addy), fake threats, always pulled his egg hat and teased him about his favorite yaoi ships.

•Egg and Ice Cream are partners together before and after the Masked Singer. Because they both food related.

•Egg is really adored to Doll. Addy admired his flamboyance and stylishness (because I have a soft spot to guys with flamboyance and sassy attitude) and all his bling. While Bezai is being impress of Addy's talent, potential on fashion designing, her elegance and Egg literally saw Doll like a model.

•Egg really wanted Doll to become his model because of her beautiful features and body type. However, Doll doesn't wanted to due to my shyness and I had been told that I look like a super model. Bezai convinced me that I am until Nicol caught that attention.

•Bezai becomes Addy's fashionista/fashion designer, her modelling teacher and a good figure to influence her. Nicol proposed him to become Addy's influential to give her better confidence and helping her picking up clothes for her.

•His room when staying at the Masked Singer season 2 mansion, his room is of course Victorian like, pure white with a hint of jewels, ice, crystals and yellow. With his egg bed, fluffy carpet floor, his stuffed animals and mannequins clothing hanging beside his desk of his several designing clothes.

•Egg work out 4 hours every Monday, Wednesday and Friday to keep his body shape in the same body type.

•he owns two weapons: fork like trident and blades heels/shoes. He knows how to use it and he can fight himself for self defense. Despite he has bodyguards to protect him because of the concerning pressure, he can managed to fight alone or competing someone who challenged him or Egg challenging him.

•Bezai's powers is ice and his fighting style are swan technique style (it is actually flight, he prefer it to be called "Grace style"), agility and balancing (a fox style "skater's style") and some kicking attacks (using his blade heels/shoes)

•Egg is actually a friend to Eagle because they known each other in New York both are interviewers, Peacock since he is a fan to Peacock's performance in Las Vegas, Penguin, Poodle, Alien and Lion together meet each other at the gala every year then Leopard, Bee and Ladybug also met at the gala but the three both commonly have a royal like clothing together.

•Bezai met one of Addy's member from her gang. Narcis the Purple Peacock. Since 4 years ago before the accisent, they first met when Bezai is skating himself at the private skating ring until he notice Narcis's skating first and showing off his skills then the Purple Peacock is offering him a special free drink and complement his professional skating skills.

•the mysterious Russian Purple Peacock even gave him a nickname "ваши милости" ("your Graces" in English).

•Narcis is the one who helped the injured Bezai carrying him out if the ice. Bezai wanted to know who is the mysterious charming man and he also remembered he is actually a Russian man.

•Addy knew it because Narcis told her that he had met the iconic Egg man. He told her not to tell him just yet.

•Egg might have a crush on the mysterious Russian Purple Peacock.

•He CAN'T go out without wearing bling. (Bezai: trust me, I won't go outside the place without wearing my jewelry)

[fresh-widow]

Time for a Reading

The days are creeping closer to the one year mark without my best friend and pirate navigator. We’re partner ‘in crime’ as B would say.

I am lucky to have the three furry familiars. You know I played his Opera which B wrote and sang, on Feb 14. Feb 14th marked 20 years of cocreating this colorful BTS transformed from dump to Victorian house with a full of fruit, veg and herbal Victory garden.

When B’s kitty Luther heard Bs voice singing he got really smileish, and up to the table and started rubbing himself up against B’s open laptop computer screen.

So, as seems to be the pattern on this planet, at a time which is an obvious omen earmarked for radical transformation, the majority Outside Voices keeps waving flaming torches of fear in my face——reprimanding me not to color outside the edges. That everything should stay the same for a year. And of course, do not quit your suffocating half assed undead career, under any circumstances. Because Why?

Because you may die.

Because you may die without any money to support your nothing life.

Because your wilted mind may go in the wrong direction instead of blossom.

-Yeah, right.🙄

It seems like yesterday and not almost a year since my beloved partner died. But the rest of the world hopes I have “moved on,” being shunted back to the ratwheel without free thought space. Putting away 1/3 my salary and counting the years to go before the chains break, and thinking will I be able to actually do what I want to do or will I be half dead mincemeat?

You know my job is just fine, except that I have to be there 45 hours a week and that’s too much for a born extra sensitive person.seriously the worst thing about my job is the swamp of adult negativity that erodes my nervous system and makes the hairs on my shadow stand on end.

Of course everywhere I think of potentially relocation to is in a poisoned water and air artic plague infested fire zone anyway. It is Kali Yuga. It is all illusory karma. Gotta figure out my blind spots to navigate the rest of my karma in this existence.

So what’s the comfort here? Inserting ritual, homage, stretching, and meditative rest buttons.

It’s soggy outside. Gonna skip puddles with my canine companions.

[haunthearted]

I wanted to recommend a very good website, especially to my trans, dysphoric or dissociative followers.

Gender Analysis is a very well researched, well-sourced website about the trans experience. I take whatever opportunities I can to write polite, good-faith, educational replies to people on Reddit who don't "get" trans things, and I always rely heavily on GA because whatever the topic, there will be an article filled with the original scientific papers rebutting transphobic viewpoints. It can also be useful for supporting conversations with parents/friends, because it has the primary research right there. For example, today I learnt that all the concept of Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria ("my kid got a tumblr and now she says shes transgender because of peer pressure!") originated on three anti-trans websites, and despite its official-sounding name, has no research behind it. I knew that intellectually, but it's powerful to have the evidence clearly there for you.

Zinna Jones is one of the key writers there, and you may know her other work as she's been a prominent internet trans human for many years (how she has the courage and spoons for that, I will never know). One of her key experiences of gender dysphoria was depersonalisation: a weird, fuzzy, not-quite-thereness. On beginning hormones, it cleared up immediately: she had an "I didn't know what wrong felt like until I started feeling right" experience, as well you might if feeling oddly absent is your normal day-to-day experience. Because it wasn't a focus of how dysphoria was written about while she was coming up, she's done a lot of writing and research on it at Gender Analysis: describing what it felt like, researching comparable experiences in other trans narratives, and most recently trialing an anti-dissociative drug to see how it affected her.

Many of us come to ghosthood due to experiencing similar things to Jones - a not-quite-thereness, an oddness, a sense of timelessness and dislocation. Some of us very clearly associate it with trauma, a mental illness, or gender dysphoria; for others, it's just part of the fabric of life. I would like to recommend reading her posts on this particular topic to anyone who experiences something similar.

Now, if you relate to what she writes it doesn't mean you're transgender - don't panic - as varieties of depersonalisation can be a symptom of all sorts of other things - especially trauma and trauma-related conditions like BPD/CPTSD. But you might still find her descriptions useful.

On the other hand, if you are identifying as transgender and wondering if hormones are for you, you might find it validating or helpful.

(and because the world is horrible, there's no small chance that trans people are also traumatised. There's a great pair of posts that I'm sure you've already read, "That was dysphoria?" - but also her follow up, in which she re-experiences some of those symptoms as a depression.)

Finally, a recent post series explored an anti-depersonalisation drug, which you might be interested in exploring as an option for yourself. I had no idea there was such a thing!

In short, I was re-reading the archives this morning, and it occurred to me that a great many followers here might appreciate or find these posts useful. Make of them what you will, and best wishes to you all x

A tonne more thoughts after the cut:

This isn't meant to be "a trans blog", so I'm not going to focus on this too often. But certainly for me, Jones' posts really spoke to me and my experiences. I think there's a real danger in underselling how weird gender dysphoria feels. One sort of expects or assumes gender dysphoria is "I hate my breasts because I am a man"; there isn't so much written about how it can be "I'm tired, I don't really care, everything seems hollow and false, but I can't imagine life being any different because it's what I've always known, and it's not clearly anything to do with gender". That's been my experience - and it's incredibly hard to spot. I've been through six diagnoses since I was a teen (OCD, depression, anxiety, BPD, ADHD, autism), because while I've always been clearly unwell, it's hard to pinpoint gender dysphoria when it just manifests as brainweird, especially when that brainweird is you normal, as it was for Jones.   For example, I've never really recognised my own face in the mirror. Weird, but whatever. When I was considering hormones last year, I decided to take up weightlifting as part of my experimentation process. It would allow me to see how I felt about developing a more masculine body, in a controlled way, and as someone who *hates* exercise, it would also be a useful test of commitment: was I dysphoric enough to motivate me to go to the gym? Because if not, I probably was not dysphoric enough to transition either. Well, I went three times a week and followed the correct food recommendations for building muscle until I could no longer afford either; and then it happened. I looked in the mirror and it was like a visceral, immediate shock of recognition. And now I can't unsee it. Every time I look in the mirror, my brain immediately pings back "nice Robert Plant vibe you got there man", which is ridiculous; no one else on the planet would see me and think that. But that very small amount of muscle, and slightly-more-masculine-shoulder/arm-profile, was enough to make my brain recognise itself for the first time.

Sometimes you don't understand what "wrong" feels like until you have "right" to compare it to.

(I think those of us with early experience of abuse might also relate to that; the way that being loved and respected by a good person later in life can be both shocking, and bring on a period of processing and heavy reflection because it illustrates how very wrongly you were treated before. Even if you know it intellectually,  just the experience can be profound. Certainly, I've got a few experiences of not-being-taken-advantage-of which were absolutely shattering, like I was being taught how to love myself for the first time.)

And as you might expect, I'm also feeling very reluctant to pursue transition. This sort of nebulous dysphoria is, well - . I envy very much the "I knew I was trans from the moment I hit puberty because I hated the gender I was living in" people, who clearly see gender as their problem. It's very hard to contemplate something as life-changing as transition when its motivated by an increasing certainty that the only cure for my incurable mental ill is a different hormone balance, and as many days I have where I ask myself why I didn't transition 5 years ago already, I have others where I know I'll have to be dragged kicking and screaming through the process as my last resort.

Like, a few years ago I was at a "Even if I am transgender, I think I'd rather live as a woman [for reasons]" point; and now I'm at a "I would still rather live as a woman, but I am desperate to have enough disposable income to buy a really nice set of towels and maybe transition would make me well enough to not only work, but have a real career, and maybe I could buy a car, and go on holiday, and start buying tailored clothes instead of charity shop, and maybe redecorate my house in faux-Victorian style, and I really don't care if everybody hates me and I no longer have a coherently cisgender body, I would do anything to be able to afford unusual cheeses and teas rather than subsisting on stew" point. It sounds so shallow, but there it is; because so many of the problems I have don't feel dysphoria-related, because I'm only understanding them as dysphoria-related because nothing else has made an impact, my focus is increasingly on the little things in life I want to achieve, and maybe could achieve if my brainweird was fixed. I'm now fairly sure that if/when I do transition physically, I'll continue to recognise myself more, and realise how much of an impact physical dysphoria was having.

But it's what I know. And like Hamlet says, easier to bear the struggles we know than fly to others that we know not of.

Sidenote:

Intermittently, you'll see approaches which try to set up trans or mentally ill people as enemies to otherkin people, like the two experiences cannot co-exist, or like otherkin people ought to take the fall for the way transphobic use them as an anti-trans "gotcha". I personally find this very frustrating: I prefer approaches which are open, rather than closed off. Many/most of my followers here are either trans, mentally ill, have trauma, experience dysphoria or some other unspecified bodyweird/brainweird. In real life, I have four otherkin/therian/furry friends - and they too all meet that description. {There are also many otherkin who see their history as spiritual or religious, who aren't trans/mentally ill/traumatised, or who don't really know the source of their experiences - all of which is also OK!}.

I would always prefer to take a holistic and compassionate approach to the way experiences can overlap, rather than a combatative/competitive/polarised one; any hostile or fightin' talk messages/replies will be ignored, blocked or deleted as appropriate, because that's not a value I have for my online space. Although I'm open to discussing or exploring it, so please don't hold back if you want to talk about your experiences in good faith.

In short, there is a fairly significant overlap between people who come to identify as transgender/dysphoric/mentally ill, and those who come to identify as otherkin, or who might temporarily identify with one of those experiences while figuring things out  - and this post is for them. Politics makes things sound so simple and clean-cut, but people are messy and complex, and I'd much rather help individuals navigate and explore their experiences - even if they are contradictory, or don't support my political goals. Trying to figure out brainweird and bodyweird is challenging enough, without making people tread on eggshells during the process.

[ladyknightskye]

Colors

Happy Birthday @idontgettechnology! Apologies for this not coming out sooner - by the time my muse decided to cooperate, it was already the beginning of school for me. I hope you still like this!

Title: Colors

Prompt: Birthday Party

Relationships: Steve Rogers/Darcy Lewis, Shieldshock, Bucky Barnes/Natasha Romanov, background relationships

Continuity: Canon-Divergence, Soulmate-AU

Warnings: None

Steven Grant Rogers was born without a Mark, Sigil, Initials, or Pattern. His mother searched over his tiny body, but the smooth pink skin was unmarred by black, blue, or any color in between. She didn’t worry much. He could have a String, a Watch, Empathy, or Writing. Sarah Rogers didn’t worry until her baby boy was ten. He didn’t see a String, his wrist didn’t have numbers counting down, and he scribbled on his arms all the time with no reply. He never felt emotions other than his own, or saw things that weren’t there. In fact, he turned out to be completely color blind. She discovered it when he was four, and couldn’t name colors.

           Instead, he learned colors through his friend Bucky. The young Barnes boy taught him that grass was green, and the gray of grass would be the same gray of almost anything that was green. Blood was red, and the gray of blood was the gray of hearts and roses and sometimes the dresses dames wore out on dates with Bucky. The sky was blue, even if all he ever saw was gray. Steve didn’t let his inability to see colors keep him from becoming an artist. After his mother passed, he was able to help support himself and Bucky by drawing cartoons and advertisements.

           After the serum, the colorblindness didn’t go away, which if Erskine had lived might have stumped him. All of Steve’s other disabilities and health problems had disappeared the moment he stepped out of the pod. He also didn’t magically develop any sort of Soul Bond that he could decipher. He’d thought before that the Powers that Be were trying to tell him something, that he wouldn’t live long enough to have a Soulmate, that one of his illnesses would finally kill him. Now, he had no idea why he didn’t have a Bond.

           When he was flying over the Arctic, he realized it was because he wasn’t going to survive the war.

           When Darcy Elizabeth Lewis was born, she didn’t have a physical Soul Bond. Her mother and father didn’t seem to mind, as their Soul Bond had been a Watch. They would wait and see. So they did. They watched as their sweet baby girl grew into a vibrant child. However, she never mentioned seeing Strings, or numbers on her wrist, or mysterious writing. When they visited Darcy’s pediatrician at her yearly check up, her doctor had frowned. “She’s hitting all her developmental benchmarks,” Dr. Simmons said. “How is she doing at Kindergarten?”

           “Fine,” Mrs. Lewis had replied, “Except, she refuses to learn her colors. The teacher says that she ignores her when she asks for Darcy to name her colors.”

           The doctor nodded before turning to Darcy. He was a kindly old man, his wrinkled face  almost always wreathed in a smile. “Darcy Girl,” he said in his jovial voice, “Why aren’t you naming your colors?”

           The little girl was all of five, and she looked embarrassed. “Don’t wanna.”

           The doctor nodded, and told the little family to give him a moment. He returned to the room holding some flash cards. “Darcy Girl, can you see the numbers?”

           The girl squinted at the cards, but shook her head. He showed her three more, but she couldn’t see any of the numbers. “As I thought,” Dr. Simmons said, “she’s colorblind.”

           Her mother bit her lip. “I was afraid of that. But . . . I was more worried about her not showing a Soul Bond. I know most kids don’t have one until they’re approaching their teens, but . . .”

           Dr. Simmons grinned. “I know, but her not having a Soul Bond yet isn’t uncommon.” Then, he got a gleam in his eye. “And actually . . . She could already have a Soul Bond. It’s incredibly, incredibly rare, and easily mistaken with actual genetic colorblindness, but she may have Soul Colors.”

           Mrs. Lewis frowned. “I’ve never heard of Soul Colors.”            Dr. Simmons chuckled. “As I said they are very rare. Maybe one in a million.”

           “But what is it? How do Soul Colors work?” Mr. Lewis asked.

           “Soul Colors work a bit differently from other Bonds, yes,” Dr. Simmons began, “While Timers and Strings give a psychic guide, and Sigils, Writing, and the others give clues, Soul Colors do nothing to guide Soul Mates together. Your daughter won’t have any prior warning. No communication, no emotions, no guides. Scientists theorize that the reason that it’s so rare is the only clue you get. There’s a very limited pool of candidates.”

           “But how will she know?” Mrs. Lewis pressed.

           “Soulmates with Soul Colors can only perceive color after they meet their Soulmate. Then, based on what research has been done on them, they will be able to see color for the rest of their lives. They have to consummate the Soul Bond, but luckily, they don’t need to actually touch like the others, they only need to lock eyes. In almost all cases they also experience love at first sight. I did a thesis on Soul Colors in college, and ever single case I looked at mentioned the instant emotional bond. Only Empaths show the same proclivity.”

           “So,” Mr. Lewis asked, “how do we know if that’s her Bond, or if she’s truly colorblind?”

           Dr. Simmons sighed. “Well, there’s no real way to be sure. Colorblind people will have another Soul Guide. If she doesn’t develop another Soul Bond, then she has Soul Colors.”

           As the years passed, Darcy never did develop another Bond, so her mother registered her with the Soul Colors Association of America. They found out that there were only about twenty-three people with Soul Colors in the entire country. The Association told the Lewises that they would help Darcy find her Soulmate when she turned eighteen. Sure enough, her first outing with the Association was a week after her eighteenth birthday. However, it was a wash out – while six of the other ten hopefuls found their other halves, she didn’t. She didn’t despair at first because she was one of four who didn’t.

           However, her hope faded as the years went by, and the world continued to be gray.

           When they thawed him out, the last thing on Steve’s mind was Soulmates. In fact, he never gave much thought to them. First it was aliens, then HYDRA, then Bucky, then Ultron . . . He never felt like he had the time to worry, especially since any Soulmate he had was either knocking on death’s door or already there. He watched his friends find theirs though. Natasha and Bucky were bound by a red String only they could see. Tony and Pepper had each other’s Initials emblazoned over their hearts (though their relationship predated Tony being his friend). Wanda and Scott zeroed out their Timers when they met during the nearly disasterous “Civil War” incident, and Hope had found herself and Rhodey with the same Sigil on their left hand. At the moment, he, Sam, and Vision were the only ones without Soulmates.

           And Tony felt like throwing a party.

           It was his birthday, and the birthday boy wanted a huge costume party to celebrate. Reluctantly, Steve dusted off his old dress uniform and styled his hair. He figured that Tony would have to be happy with a 40s soldier as Steve’s costume. He arrived just in time to walk in with Bucky and Natasha, both dressed as werewolves. They had on wolf ears and had painted their faces to make them look furry. Natasha also wore a dark gown, and Bucky was in a tux. “Nice costume,” he said, giving Steve a ‘really?’ look.

           Steve shrugged. “I couldn’t think of anything else to be,” he admitted.

           “Well,” Natasha said, smoothing down one of his sleeves, “you look nice. Maybe we can find you a nice girl to hang out with.”

           “Yeah,” Bucky replied, “didn’t that girl with Thor show up dressed like a 40s dame? Maybe we could make a matched set!”

           Steve sighed, thoroughly fed up with Nat’s matchmaking. He followed them in, and was met with a sea of costumes. There were witches, clowns, and all manner of fictional characters. Tony had dressed up as Sherlock and was presiding over his party from a dais near the DJ. Pepper sat with him, dressed as a Victorian lady. Wanda and Scott waved to the trio from one of the many refreshment tables, dressed as Robin Hood and Maid Marian. Without warning, a large, cartoonish eagle with a stern face stepped in front of them. “Hi guys!”

           Natasha burst into laughter, and Steve and Bucky just stared. The eagle had spoken with Sam’s voice. “Really?” Nat finally sputtered. “Sam the Eagle? You came as a walking pun?”

           The eagle shrugged, and looked over at Steve and Bucky. “Really, you guys haven’t gotten to the Muppets yet? We’ll have to fix that at our next Guys Night.”

           Steve shrugged, looking around. He was thinking of finding a drink and then loitering off to the side of the party for awhile. Music started up, something with an upbeat tempo and Latin rhythms that had Nat dragging Bucky onto the dance floor. Sam waved to Steve as he quickly went to pursue a young woman to dance with. The super soldier wandered a bit, before he saw Thor and his girl standing off to the side, chatting with a senator that looked vaguely familiar. This couple were dressed in matching outfits as well, both of them wearing dark suits and sunglasses. The room was brightly lit, but not enough to need sunglasses. With them was a woman dressed in a style that he was intimately familiar with. Her hair was also caught up into an updo that he remembered. He had no idea what it was called, but he’d seen it on many a woman back in the 40s. She must have been the one Nat and Bucky mentioned earlier. He thought for a moment about going to talk to her, when she turned.

           Their eyes met.

           The world exploded, and Steve nearly stumbled as he took several deep breaths. It felt almost like when he’d first stepped out of Erskine’s pod and had been able to breath properly for the first time in his life. Something clicked in his soul, and he knew. He knew who this woman was.

           Darcy had been listening to Jane natter on for what seemed like hours. She was glad that her friend had managed to find someone to talk to at this party, but Senator Hogan seemed way too interested in Einstein-Rosen Bridges, or maybe he was too interested in Jane. She couldn’t tell what Thor was thinking through the big blond’s sunglasses. She had to admit though, their costumes were a stroke of genius. Being Agent J and Agent T for this shindig showed some balls since half of the newly formed SHIELD had been invited. She turned her back on the Men in Black, and looked about the room.

           That’s when she saw him. She looked at his chest first, impressed as her eyes roamed up to met his. Then, the world exploded, and she felt like she’d just had a strong orgasm, except it shivered out from her heart instead of her lady bits. The man had been handsome in shades of gray, but in color – oh God he was in COLOR! – he was a thing of beauty. She didn’t have the knowledge to name the colors to herself, but she could tell that his eyes were as light as his hair, and his skin must be “white” since hers was the same.

           They stood there like that, staring across at least thirty feet of rented ballroom before she took a tentative step forward. This was her Soulmate, the person who had been destined to give her back her Colors. He’d held them bundled up in his eyes for God knew how long, and now here he was, giving them back to her. She took another step, and he finally moved.

           It was like watching a panther. His big body moved with deadly grace, each movement economical, but effective, and she couldn’t stop the little bit of wondering. What would this man be like in bed? Would he be laser-focused and intense, or playful and lighthearted? Would he vacillate between both? Wait a minute, he was coming over here, what the hell was she going to say to him?!

           “What color are your eyes?” he said to her, solving her dilemma before she could get her brain to wrap around it. In the mere seconds it had taken him to approach, he’d not broken their held gaze.  His voice was low, a honeyed baritone that only served to make Darcy’s lady parts sing in response.

           She swallowed, licking her lips. “My mom told me I have blue eyes.”

           “Blue,” he whispered. “My mother told me my eyes were blue, too.”

           Blue. Darcy knew blue was the color of the ocean and sky, and she suddenly couldn’t wait to find out if his eyes were closer to one or the other. That’s when she remembered her book. She reached out without thinking, grabbing his arm and dragging him along back towards the coat check. He went with her willingly, and neither seemed to be perturbed by the attention they were getting. Darcy spoke to the guy running the check, and he brought her purse. It was a huge messenger style bag, and she rummaged around it to pull out a small cardboard book. She returned her purse to the man at the check in, and then dragged her Soulmate back to an alcove set off from the main ballroom.

           He was looking at her quizzically, until he caught sight of the cover of the book. Then he grinned. She smiled back. “I carry it just in case,” she said with a laugh, “So we won’t be stumbling around in the dark.”

           His laugh was rich and clear, and Darcy realized that she could listen to it for hours on end. She opened up the book titled Colors and pointed to the first page. “Red.”

           Her Soulmate looked up, and pointed to a woman on the dance floor. “Natasha’s hair is red.” He looked back at her. “So is your dress.”

           Darcy beamed at him. “Her hair is beautiful.” She turned the page. “That’s blue. Well, it’s darker than your eyes –“

           “It’s a shade of blue,” he agreed. “Your eyes are closer to it.”

           She turned the page again. “Green.”

           “Grass is green,” he said solemnly, causing Darcy to laugh. “Sorry, it’s what Bucky told me when we were kids. He tried to teach me how to tell apart colors.”

           “He sounds like a stand up friend,” she murmured. “Jane just helps me by telling me what colors clothes are when we go shopping.”

           “Yeah, but we had an easier time of it back in the day. Clothes came in four colors – and all of them matched one another,” her Soulmate snorted.

           “Back in the day? What day? The 90s?” Darcy laughed.

           He just blinked at her. “ . . . Soulmate, do you know who I am?”

           She snorted, and shook her head as she turned to page. “No. Should I?”

           When silence greeted her, Darcy looked back up into the incredulous eyes of both her Soulmate, and Tony Stark who had just waltzed into their little alcove. “Seriously, Lewis, you don’t know who he is?!” Stark barked.

           “Tony, does Pepper know you’ve slipped your leash?” she shot back, and out of the corner of her eye, saw three people approach – one of them the previously mentioned Natasha.

           “You sass Tony?” her Soulmate breathed. “God, I love you.”

           “Movin’ fast aren’t ya, Cap?” Stark asked with a grin.

           “Steve,” the dark haired man that had just walked up asked, “Who’s the dame?”

           “Dame? What am I, a French matron?” Darcy snarked.

           Her Soulmate – Steve – chuckled. “Oh God,” the man said with a look of utter terror, “There are two of them.”

           “It’s ok, Buck, she’s my Soulmate.”

           The four people standing froze, but Darcy focused on the more important part of that last statement. “Buck? As in Bucky? Your friend that tried to teach you colors?”

           “Yeah,” Steve replied, “Bucky here is my oldest friend.”

           “Emphasis on oldest,” Stark said absently.

           That’s when it hit her. Her Soulmate knew Tony Stark. Her Soulmate knew a guy called Bucky, and woman called Natasha. Her Soulmate’s name was Steve. Holy shit.

           Steve saw it, the moment she realized who he was. Her eyes went wide, and her mouth formed a little “o” of surprise. However, her next statement completely took him off guard. “So, who’s the Muppet?”

           “Sam Wilson, nice to meet you.” The eagle held out a wing.

           “. . . Sam the Falcon came as Sam the Eagle?” his Soulmate breathed. “Really?”

           “I know!” Natasha agreed. She held out a fist, and his Soulmate met her halfway.

           “Jesus, there are two of them,” Sam muttered.

           “No, there are two Steves.”

           “Or,” his Soulmate said, her dander firmly up, “There could just be a Steve and a Darcy.”

           “Yeah,” Steve agreed, giving his friends a gimlet stare. He’d even used his Captain voice. “A Steve and Darcy Rogers,” he said, then leaned over to her, “Unless you want to keep your maiden name. I know that’s a thing now.”

           She looked amused, while the rest of their little group looked appalled. Darcy just put her hands to her heart. “Dude, you were my one historical figure crush in high school. Of course I’m taking your name.”

           “I don’t have a ring,” he murmured, enjoying the looks of complete horror on his friends’ faces.

           “It’s okay,” she laughed, “Their faces are red.”

           “I know,” he replied, leaning in closer to her. “It’s fun isn’t it?”

           Darcy threw back her head with laughter. She leaned into him, and he took her book. “So, guys, could you please leave me and my fiancée alone?”

           Tony and Sam were sputtering, Nat had her mouth hanging open, and Bucky was bug-eyed. “You’re serious,” he said incredulously.

           “Yeah, I am,” he said, staring into Darcy’s blue eyes.

           “Can I help pick out the ring?” she asked.

           “Of course.”

           She leaned over, and touched her lips to his. They were soft and warm, but before he could get more than a peck she pulled away. With a growl he glared at his friends who were still standing over them with an array of disbelieving looks – well except for Sam whose eagle mask hid his face.

           “Darcy?” a light feminine voice asked from behind the wall of Avenger.

           They turned, allowing the woman through. She was dressed in a dark suit, and wore sunglasses. “Hey Jane!” Darcy chirped. “This is my Soulmate! I got an Avenger too!”

           The woman’s mouth fell open. “Really?! He gave you colors?! Darcy!” she squealed.

           “Can you also explain to these guys why it’s totes okay that he’s proposing marriage please? Preferably somewhere else so that I can make out with him?” Darcy said with a waved hand at the other four.

           Jane laughed. “Seriously, it’s okay Mr. Stark, Ms. Romanoff, scary guy and eagle guy. Soulmates with Soul Colors are a bit different from other Bonds. They’re like Empaths – they almost always experience love at first sight.”

           “So,” Natasha drawled, “Spontaneous declarations of love and marriage are not uncommon?”

           “Nope,” Jane answered before she began shooing them off. “Now get! Darcy’s been waiting twenty-eight years for this. Scram!”

           Now visibly less nervous, the others left, Sam with a jaunty wave and Bucky with a saucy wink. Jane hugged Darcy before she skipped back to Thor’s side. “Now, soldier boy, we were about to learn about the color orange.”

           “No,” he said, drawing her chin up, “We were about to make out.”

           Her eyes turned a darker shade of blue before her lips crashed onto his.

           Steve didn’t find out until he was trying to hunt her down one day nearly a week after they first met that her last name was Lewis. When he mentioned it, she replied that it didn’t matter because soon her last name was going to be Rogers. He agreed.

           “Hey, if you’re Captain America, can everyone call me Mrs. America?”

           “Darcy.”

           “What? It’s a valid question. Can they call me Mrs. America? You know, like when you’re announced, ‘Captain and Mrs. America.’ It would be so cool.”

           “. . .”

           “I mean, at like, Avengers functions. Otherwise, of course I’m Mrs. Rogers.”

           “I like it better as ‘Captain and Mrs. Rogers.’”

           “Aw.”

           “ . . . But I bet Tony’d get a kick at next year’s birthday party to announce us as Captain and Mrs. America.”

           “I love you!”

           Darcy picked out a solitaire sapphire for her engagement ring set into a silver band. Her dress was red, he wore his dress blues. They were married in a small ceremony only three months after they met, but it would have been sooner if not for her special order wedding dress. Everyone was ordered to wear colorful clothing to the ceremony – Captain and Mrs. (America) Rogers had lived long enough in black and white.

[shmosnet2]

Why Are Humans Hairless Compared To Other Mammals?

Why Are Humans Hairless Compared To Other Mammals?

Human hairlessness is an evolutionary mystery. There are many theories out there, but two important ones are the savanna hypothesis and the ectoparasite hypothesis.

Humans are unique in many ways. We have the powerful tool of language, we have consciousness, and we have opposable thumbs. We conquered fire, water, air and even space. No other animal, not even the dinosaurs with their gargantuan size and sharp teeth could achieve this. However, we are probably the most different from other animals, especially mammals, in terms of our hair, or lack of it, to be more precise. Why aren’t we furry like our closest living relatives—the bonobos, chimps, and gorillas?

These bonobos can’t figure out why humans don’t have as much hair as them. (Image Credit: Flickr) Charles Darwin would answer this question with sexual selection. In 1871, in his book “The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex”, Darwin proposed the concept of sexual selection as “the advantage which certain individuals have over others of the same sex and species, solely in respect of reproduction”. This means that the purpose of certain characteristics is largely for flirtation. These characteristics help an animal secure a mate over other competing individuals. The Darwinian Homo sapiens lost their hair because males found less hairy females sexier. He reasoned that over generations of males picking less hairy mates, the overall population, of both males and females, became less hairy due to genetic mixing. This sounds like a logical argument when you have only half the facts. Darwin, the father of evolution, came up with the best explanation he could with the information on hand (and Victorian Era biases). Hair, hair everywhere To understand the flaw in Darwin’s argument, let’s look at what evolutionary biology has unearthed today about hair. Hair is a protein filament that grows from the dermis layer of your skin. Almost every mammal around us has a thick coating of hair or fur. Except for a handful of creatures, like the hairless mole rat (which only looks cute in Kim Possible, but is quite alarming in reality) and aquatic mammals like whales and dolphins, most mammals have hair. Land mammals evolved this hair because it gave them an edge on land. Fur is a great insulator against heat. The hair traps pockets of hair between them, keeping the heat in when it’s cold outside. Piloerection, also known as getting goosebumps, is a thermoregulatory mechanism of increasing these air pockets. The arrector pili muscles cause the hair to stand up, thus forming air pockets. The fur also protects the skin from the harmful UV rays of the sun. Hair is an extended sensory tool. Something brushing up against hair moves the hair follicles, which send signals to the brain to pay attention. This helps when pesky parasites like bedbugs or mosquitoes are lurking around trying to suck your blood.

An artist’s recreation of what the ancient Castorocauda probably looked like (Photo Credit : Nobu Tamura/Wikimedia Commons) Even with all of this that we understand, figuring out why, how and when animals upgraded to hair is difficult. Evidence often comes from fossils, which aren’t great at recording soft tissue impressions. The first undisputed evidence of hair comes from the fossilized hair impressions of Castorocauda, a semi-aquatic mammal that lived in the middle to late Jurassic Period (Callovian age). This puts the appearance of hair at least 164 million years ago (mya). Another fossil found in Mongolia appeared to show fur on a mammal, and the researchers named this specimen Megaconus. All this evidence leads back to a common ancestor of mammals, the reptile-mammal—synapsids. Hair, Hair Nowhere: Darwin’s explanation works perfectly fine in the modern world (more or less). Some males do find females with less hair more attractive, but some others might not. Another group might not care. In all this, culture dictates attractiveness. This is where Darwin’s argument breaks down. Our hairlessness is not the only component for mate selection, as it is in male birds with vibrant plumage or odd dance rituals linked to mating. Darwin’s sexual selection hypothesis fails to specify what caused the hair loss in the first place. While Darwin didn’t solve the mystery, he did open the floor for later evolutionary biologists to present their own theories. These figures didn’t disappoint. The Savanna Hypothesis The ‘Savanna hypothesis’ is the current favorite. Whenever research published supports or denies this theory, the science communication space scrambles to cover the shift. Proposed by Raymond Dart in 1925 after discovering the first Australopithecus skeleton in Africa, the hypothesis fits our visions of pre-man the best. The hypothesis suggests that hominids lost their hair because having it became inconvenient. Out in the open (or closed?) savannas of Africa, with the sun beating down on them, cooling off would be a problem. Remember, body hair serves as an insulator. Keeping unnecessary insulation means the body must expend more energy to thermoregulate.

The ultimate dilemma for any paleontologist The Ectoparasite Hypothesis At some point during any school year, a lice outbreak is bound to happen. Children come back itching and scratching at their scalp. I’m sure there is a certain mother out there that has thought about shaving off all their child’s hair just to avoid dealing with that potential risk. Mark Pagel and Walter Bodmer must have thought so too, as their hypothesis suggests that our ancestors lost all their body hair to avoid lice infestations. Hair is a great place for lice and other ectoparasites to hang out. They not only suck on their host’s blood, but also carry diseases. Having less hair makes one an unsuitable habitation for such creepy crawlies. Pagal and Bodmer suggest in their original paper that the trait started out being naturally selected for, as individuals with greater lice infestations might have died through disease, and the trait eventually got reinforced through sexual selection (Great! Darwin might not be wrong after all). The Naked Love Hypothesis Proposed by James Giles, this hypothesis suggests that human hairlessness increased a mother’s love for her child. Humans walking on our own two feet was a big moment in our evolution, but walking on two feet meant giving up those nifty prehensile feet that chimps and other great apes have. Young hominids wouldn’t have been able to cling to their mother’s fur without them, forcing the mothers to carry them. The more motivated and loving a mother was towards her child, the more likely she would have been to carry her child. A lack of hair, which increases the pleasure of skin-to-skin contact, might make the mother love her child more, and therefore make her more motivated to carry it, thus giving it a better chance of survival. The Aquatic Ape Hypothesis At some point around 6 to 8 mya, hominids had an aquatic phase. Fur made swimming difficult and the hair no longer served as a great insulator. Thus, evolution decided to get rid of it. Although paleontologists have found remains of hominids near water bodies, there is no evidence that they ever had a completely submerged existence. Of all the theories presented in this article, this one holds the least sway in the scientific community at large.

Where’s the evidence? None of these have provided a convincing answer, as there isn’t enough evidence to furnish that answer. Paleontologists don’t know what the hominid environment looked like at every step of evolution, nor how much of it looked like open grasslands (which every natural history documentary shows) versus thick tree cover. The indirect means we use, such as carbon dating, fossils and skeletal records, don’t give us the entire picture. In fact, different pieces of the same puzzle can contradict research done in the past. Today, hair is closely linked with our identity. The hairstyles we maintain and the decision to keep body hair or not is heavily influenced by culture. Humans now have fire, clothes, air conditioning, and pest control, allowing us to control our environment to a large degree. While we don’t know exactly how it came to be on our bodies in the way it is, hair has now become a cultural tool for self-expression!

https://ift.tt/32dAL1o . Foreign Articles November 03, 2019 at 09:56PM

[shah2323-madtitan]

Games Delayed, Games Played and Seasons Completed

We share a number of the finest photographs from the worlds of sports activities and know-how each day in our e-newsletter. Subscribe to the SportTechie Every day here.

The Nationwide Ladies’s Soccer League is closing in on the primary huge success for U.S. crew sports activities within the coronavirus period: efficiently finishing its restart event. On July 18, Sky Blue FC defeated the Washington Spirit, Four-Three, on penalty kicks to advance to the NWSL Problem Cup semifinals. Sky Blue gamers rushed to embrace goalkeeper Kailen Sheridan in celebration. (Maddie Meyer/Getty Photos)

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Liverpool FC celebrated its first ever English Premier League title at residence on Wed., July 22, sealing the 2019-20 season with a 5-Three victory over Chelsea. No followers had been inside Anfield, and the crew requested supporters to have fun at residence due to the continued pandemic. However 1000’s nonetheless gathered exterior the stadium, and 9 had been arrested. In an announcement, Liverpool expressed disappointment with its followers for not following its request. (Laurence Griffiths/Getty Photos)

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The Washington Nationals usually play spring coaching video games in entrance of followers in a ballpark they share with the Houston Astros in West Palm Seaside, Fla. This yr, after the coronavirus-induced sports activities hiatus, the Nationals are enjoying one other spherical of preseason video games, in the summertime, with no followers, and in Nationals Park. On Sat., July 18, the 2019 World Collection champs misplaced its “summer time camp” re-opener, 7-2, in opposition to the Philadelphia Phillies. (Scott Taetsch/Getty Photos)

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Whereas Australian Soccer League groups had been compelled to quickly go away Victoria because the coronavirus outbreak worsened within the southeastern Australian state, Optus Stadium in Perth on the west coast has welcomed again followers. Spectators are solely allowed in each different row, however some have been criticized for not following social distancing pointers. Masks are being inspired, however will not be necessary. Fremantle Dockers followers watched their crew lose 5.2 (32) – 9.eight (62) to the West Coast Eagles on Solar., July 19. (Paul Kane/Getty Photos)

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The San Francisco Giants and the Oakland A’s performed a two-game summer time camp collection within the Bay Space on July 20 and 21. Forward of the primary recreation on the Oakland Coliseum, in entrance of cardboard cutouts of A’s followers, Giants supervisor Gabe Kapler and a number of of his gamers knelt in the course of the nationwide anthem. Three years in the past on the identical subject, A’s catcher Bruce Maxwell turned the primary MLB participant to kneel in the course of the anthem. (Ezra Shaw/Getty Photos)

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Promoting area displaying messages of help for frontline staff have turn into frequent in stadiums within the U.Ok. because the restart of sports activities. On Mon., July 20, England’s cricket crew defeated the West Indies by 113 runs. As England closed in on victory, bowler Ben Stokes made a diving save to maintain a ball from crossing the boundary (which might have scored an automated 4 runs). (Dan Mullan/Getty Photos/ECB)

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System 1 driver Alexander Albon’s pre-race warmup routine includes mobilization and stretching, plus coordination and response workouts like bouncing balls off the facet of his Purple Bull crew’s trailer. Albon certified 13th on the Hungarian Grand Prix on Sat., July 18, however completed fifth within the moist and dry race the following day. (Getty Photos)

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Australian Soccer League gamers on the North Melbourne Kangaroos had been busy coaching at their momentary residence in Sunshine Coast, Queensland. After the AFL suspended its season in March because of the coronavirus, play resumed on June 11. However the league’s Melbourne-based groups needed to relocate following a spike on COVID-19 within the Victorian capital. The league is aiming to carry its Grand Last match in October. (Bradley Kanaris/Getty Photos)

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Blooper, the Atlanta Braves’ furry, horn-earned mascot, held up cardboard cutouts displaying the faces of Braves gamers throughout a summer time camp recreation in opposition to the Miami Marlins at a vacant Truist Park. The Braves got here from behind to win, 10-9. Like different MLB groups, the Braves are providing followers the choice to have their picture cutouts positioned across the ballpark to fill empty seats this season. (Kevin C. Cox/Getty Photos)

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England soccer legend Jack Charlton’s funeral cortege drove via the streets of his childhood hometown of Ashington, U.Ok., on Tues., July 21. Charlton, who was a part of the England crew that received the 1966 World Cup, went on to turn into the supervisor of the primary Republic of Eire crew to achieve a World Cup. Mason King, 6, had “Wor Jackie” (“Our Jackie,” within the native Geordie dialect) and Charlton’s jersey quantity painted on his again as he waited to look at the procession. (Ian Forsyth/Getty Photos)

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Pokémon Sun introduced the idea of regional forms or variants of pokémon previously known and loved from other games and it looks like the same is going to be true for the Galar region in Pokémon Sword and Pokémon Shield. We got a first glimpse of four new form pokémon as well as a newbie Morpeko so we'll take a look at that too. Flaming Galar Region On the brink of the UK's collapse, Game Freak have seen fit to commemorate the end of the state by setting Pokémon Sword and Pokémon Shield in a region, heavily inspired by the UK. In particular it seems that the British Empire and industrialisation are being celebrated with the coal pokémon Rolycoly and a new Weezing form inspired, it seems, by factory owners. What better way to celebrate colonialism and the tens of thousands of children that died working in factories for a pittance? Here's the new Weezing: Richie: Yaaaaas Fairy/Poison, dig that shit! Maining Weezing, calling it now! I cant abandon my fire-rabbit starter quick enough! The Victorian industrial revolution design is funky, the dour grey and top hats is fantastic. Even Weezings iconic expression works here conjuring the fat-cat stiff-upper-lip-old-boy aura. Brill. Cunzy1 1: Yeah. Hard love. TGAM have a shared love of poison types especially the gen wunners Weezing/Muk/Arbok/Golbat. Already shipping Alolan Muk and Galarian Weezing. Hopefully this means Weezing might have some viability? Curious about the hidden ability too. Following in the footsteps of giving rubbish pokémon an equally rubbish new lease on life; see also Mega Beedrill and half the cool-design-but-not-at-all-viable-Alolan-forms there's a new zigzagoon line form for the Galar region AND an evolved form. Cunzy1 1: When you're favourite pokémon doesn't make the cut take solace in the fact that zigzagoon got a new form and evolution. Richie: It looks like a badger fucked the mid 1970's - early 1980's punk subculture. Are badgers quintessentially British? I dot get this mon... Evolve and Box. Cunzy1 1: You know what. I take it back. There're three people out there whose favourite pokémon is Linoone and against all the odds they've been fan-served. I'm happy for them all. Richie: Yeah and it will appease all of the fanartists begging for another bipedal furry so that Lucario and Zoroark et al and have big furry fanarting orgies. Cunzy1 1: They knew exactly what they were doing with Obstagoon's tongue and there's terraflops of deviant art already. Enough with the dark types though. Lastly, because aside from the fanart market, none of these new pokémon are especially merchandise shifters we've got another useless adorable electric type to turn into plushies, notebooks, stickers, backpacks... Richie: Oh wow another electric type I wont use, I mean  how many electric rodents do we need? Cunzy1 1: Although it does instantly earn a spot on the not at all viable shit colour/form changing dream team alongside Ditto, Kecleon, Castform, Minior and Darmanitan which needed some electric support I guess(?).

http://www.thatguys.co.uk/2019/08/tgam-ponders-new-galarian-form-pokemon.html

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5 Ways The Past Was Even Crazier Than You Thought

Everyone’s had a jerk ruin their day. But go back a few centuries, and you’ll find that the world was built for jerks — jerks who could screw with other people’s lives and rarely suffer any consequences. OK, maybe it’s not so different from today. Regardless, whether it was starting fights on the beach or pretending to be a ghost for criminal purposes, the past was a ludicrously awful place. Take how …

5

People Used To Celebrate Christmas By Getting Drunk And Rioting

Modern Christmas involves awkward interactions with estranged relatives and eating a worrying amount of food, and that alone stresses us out. But that’s nothing compared to mid-19th-century America, when the holiday season was spring break crossed with Die Hard. Youths brawled, riots broke out, and the streets became holly jolly battlefields. More people dreaded Christmas than looked forward to it, because people called “fantasticals” would go out of their way to make life fantastically miserable for others.

Back then, Christmas was more of a public holiday, where you’d get out of the house to watch a horse race, go skating, etc. But if you were young and working class, you’d get drunk, set off explosives, fire guns, stage mock battles, block off roads, blast trumpets, sing, and generally try to make as much noise and chaos as humanly possible all day and night, often while cross-dressing or in blackface. If someone objected to the racket, well …

Via Johns Hopkins Univ. PressThis is back when Peace on Earth and Goodwill towards men were typically pleas for mercy.

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What if you decided to stay indoors? No problem, the chaos would come to you. During an activity called callithumpian, people would play deliberately shitty music while going from tavern to tavern demanding free booze, and they’d beat the stuffing out of anyone who said no (or who didn’t offer enough). The authorities were generally helpless to stop this, and police who tried to intervene were sometimes attacked as well. To be fair, there were a lot of complicated class and racial issues at work during all of this, but it was probably tough to appreciate that if you were getting the crap beaten out of you for not giving away enough free booze to violent mobs.

4

18th-Century “Pranks” Were Flat Out Dangerous

Old-timey pranks put our modern-day YouTube wangs to shame. One fun example was giving someone an explosive disguised as charcoal so you could chortle heartily when their fireplace blew up.

Other “jests” included vomiting on beggars and attacking them with dogs, knocking away people’s lanterns so they couldn’t see in the dark, nailing people’s doors shut, just stealing shit, or getting drunk and rampaging through the streets while breaking windows, knocking people over, and presumably yelling “Merry Christmas!” The Enlightenment’s formula for comedy was “misery plus other people, and that’s it.”

H. AlkenThough we have to admit, a few people really made an art of it.

Elderly and disabled people were the preferred targets of these wacky shenanigans: One “celebrated aristocratic prankster” organized a dinner staffed by all of the stutterers he could find, just so he and his friends could make fun of their speech impediments. Other dinners featured waiters who had bad legs or arms, so they could be yelled at or “thrown downstairs” for spilling food. Internet trolling almost seems quaint by comparison, doesn’t it?

3

People Used Ridiculous Disguises To Commit Crimes

While modern ghost enthusiasts are largely confined to low-budget reality TV shows, belief and curiosity in the spirit world used to be more widespread … which of course meant that people were there to take advantage.

Sometimes it was just for fun, like in the case of a young 18th-century scholar who was in the middle of writing a local history when he decided to pretend that a well was haunted for “his own amusement.” In 1621, Henry Church, with the help of some London magicians, pretended to be a ghost to convince his wife to give him her inheritance. One 17th-century conman pretended to be the ghost of a suicide victim said to be haunting a establishment so he could scare off gamblers and steal their money. Yep, an actual Scooby-Doo plot played out in reality.

Running Press PublishersZoinks, indeed.

Then there was the infamous 1762 Cock Lane Ghost. Long haunting short, William Kent and his lady friend Fanny rented a room in London. Fanny died, and then their landlord, Richard Parsons, got his daughter Elizabeth to pretend to be Fanny’s ghost. “Fanny” made weird noises and claimed to be the victim of arsenic poisoning, which made Kent look like a murderer. A media circus erupted, and while an investigation eventually discovered the truth, Parsons first sold tickets to witness the ghost and received donations from people who felt bad that his building was haunted. “Fake Ghost-Haver” used to be a valid profession, and you didn’t even have to film it.

But it wasn’t only ghosts. In the Channel Islands, the thing for hip 17th-century youths to do was dress up as werewolves and throw stones at people’s doors in the middle of the night, with women who were “already sexually compromised” being their preferred target. Authorities were already suspicious of young people who gathered in groups at night, so think of this as an insane 17th-century version of Footloose. Alternatively, people would wear the fabricated heads of horses or donkeys, drape sheets over their bodies, and use cords to make the jaws on their heads move and make noise. And then they’d chase people around and try to bite them. Imagine coming home from a hard day of peasantry, only for some deranged furry in your yard to try to take a chunk out of your ass.

piola666/iStockYup, this gag was already old 400 years ago. Sorry, edgy YouTubers.

2

Australia Had An Epidemic Of Psychotic Beach Bums

There’s always that one jerk at the beach, blasting music, spreading his stuff over five of the best deckchairs, getting obnoxiously drunk, and generally ruining your day. And in Australia from around the 1880s to the 1910s, the beaches were dominated by those assholes. Known as larrikins, Australia’s beach bullies would turn up by the dozens or even hundreds and then proceed to piss everyone off. Larrikins would start fights, take over facilities, and generally not be satisfied until they were ruining everyone else’s time. Often while naked.

In one well-documented case, about 60 larrikins crashed the seventh annual picnic of the Amalgamated Journeymen Tailors’ Association, a name so old-timey that a monocle has spontaneously appeared on your face just reading it. They started small, stealing a soccer ball and refusing to give it back, but soon escalated into crashing a dance pavilion, where they hurled their friends into other dancers. It should go without saying that most of them were drunk as hell for all of this.

The BulletinThese guys? Drunk? We refuse to believe it.

Larrikins had also crashed another dance party a couple of days earlier. The police were informed, but were helpless to intervene. Whenever they tired to arrest a larrikin, the others would either cause chaos elsewhere as a distraction or shower the cops with stones. At one point, they severely injured a woman who happened to be near an officer. While today we limit our riots to important concerns, like protesting institutional violence or celebrating a big sports victory, “we really want to piss off these dancers who are politely minding their own business” used to be due cause.

1

In Victorian England, Attacking The Police Was A National Pastime

The modern public’s relationship with the police is complicated, but both sides are best friends compared to how things were in Victorian England. In the 1870s and ’80s, baiting police officers was practically the national hobby. Methods of trolling included setting booby traps with tripwires, leading bobbies on merry chases, and straight up attacking police officers out of the blue.

In 1880, a drunk by the name of Joseph Broxup played an extended game of runaround with the police, quickly attacking them and then shutting doors in their faces when they chased him. This was a bit of a trend, as a Leeds constable named Prewer seemed to spend all of his time haplessly chasing around after people and then getting his ass kicked.

The Crown Court of England and WalesYou cant look this good without making some enemies.

Other miscreants would get their dogs to attack police officers, sometimes for the sheer hell of it. Police were technically allowed to enter private property to do their jobs, but people were so resistant to the idea that constables were reluctant to investigate domestic violence, because often the only thing the abuser and the victim could agree on was that the police should fuck off. The police would even get shit for doing objectively helpful things, like returning mislaid property or pointing out doors that had accidentally been left unlocked and open.

Maybe this was all because the police themselves were less a Thin Blue Line and more Police Academy, spending a good chunk of time getting drunk instead of showing up for their shifts. It seems like sober policemen were more the exception than the rule, although given that the alcohol probably dulled the pain inflicted by random passersby for no apparent reason, maybe we’re confusing cause and effect here.

And you know why you can’t “pretend” to be a ghost anymore? Ghost costumes have gotten too darn adorable, that’s why.

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For more, check out 5 Underreported Jerk Moves By Famous Historical Figures and 29 Insane Pastimes That Prove History Was Terrifying.

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Hyperallergic: Interactive Art Center Meow Wolf Is Forging a New Business Model for Artists

House of Eternal Return, installation view (photo by Kate Russell; all images courtesy Meow Wolf)

For many private arts venues, fundraising is a hardscrabble ordeal, an unceasing quest to scrape together enough grants and donations to keep the lights on — which makes Meow Wolf’s recent fundraising success all the more remarkable.

Meow Wolf, a Santa Fe–based artist collective that opened a very popular permanent art installation in a former bowling alley in 2015, raised more than $1 million in just two days on Wefunder, faster than any other company using the crowdfunding website. More than 725 investors paid at least $1,000 each to help fund the building of a new manufacturing facility in Santa Fe and the hiring of a full-time team to build new installations as Meow Wolf plans to expand to future locations, most likely in Austin, Denver, Houston or Las Vegas.

Meow Wolf (photo by Kate Russell)

House of Eternal Return, installation view (photo by Lindsey Kennedy)

Meow Wolf co-founder and CEO Vince Kadlubek told Hyperallergic that he was surprised by the quick response, especially since there is no way for investors to sell their shares in a privately held company and no guarantee of any profits in the future. “We know we have fans, and we have a good profile,” he said. “It’s a fairly risky proposition for investors, so the fact that so many people were willing to jump in without a promise of a return really spoke volumes. We’re so grateful for the support we have.”

Meow Wolf, which got its name from random words drawn from a hat by collective members, also raised more than $7 million earlier this year through more conventional investment rounds. It has become an employee-owned company with a revenue-sharing plan for the more than 135 artists who created the vast 20,000-square-foot permanent installation called House of Eternal Return, in the process forging a path for a new business model to support artists: a hybrid blend of art and entertainment that sells immersive experiences rather than artwork. The installation has become a major tourist attraction in Santa Fe, seeing more than 400,000 visitors and raking in $7 million in revenue in its first year. The installation has broad appeal, attracting families and tourists who might never step foot in a gallery or art museum. That success has stirred some controversy in art circles about whether Meow Wolf is creating art or just entertainment — as if there’s some reason visual art shouldn’t be just as entertaining and profitable as film, music, or theater.

House of Eternal Return, installation view (photo by Lindsey Kennedy)

House of Eternal Return, installation view (photo by Lindsey Kennedy)

House of Eternal Return, installation view (photo by Lindsey Kennedy)

While Hollywood has protected the rights of creatives through royalties, emerging visual artists are often expected to work for free in exchange for “exposure,” and they don’t get royalties when their work is resold in the future at higher values. “We’re building a model that is more like the entertainment model, so artists are able to participate in the success that their creativity brings forth,” Kadlubek said. “We feel like we’ve cracked an egg, and I’m hoping that other artists take advantage of this model.”

I drove to the House of Eternal Return in early July, at the tail end of a dusty 700-mile road trip from the scorched earth of Las Vegas to the stunning mountainous landscape of Santa Fe, which was a homecoming of sorts. I lived in “The City Different” for seven years before moving to Washington, D.C., in 2005, and I started making mixed-media artwork there, collecting rusted bedsprings, auto parts, and metal scraps that had been tossed decades earlier into rock-bottomed arroyos in the piñon-studded hills around the city. I used to bowl and sing drunken karaoke in the bar at Silva Lanes before Meow Wolf transformed it into something entirely different and unexpected.

House of Eternal Return, installation view (photo by Lindsey Kennedy)

House of Eternal Return, installation view (photo by Lindsey Kennedy)

House of Eternal Return, installation view (photo by Lindsey Kennedy)

At the House of Eternal Return, I saw the ticket line stretching out the door toward the giant metal sculptures of a wolf and a robot smelling a flower in the parking lot. Inside, the installation opens in a Scooby Doo–ish Victorian house, where a vaguely described mystery involving a missing family has unlocked supernatural portals into other worlds. The theme is a very loose construct that ultimately fails to contain the chaos within the wondrous maze of rooms filled with a bizarre bounty of surprises. A 20-foot-tall furry, horned creature stares down with hollow glowing eyes, a video projection of a falling man can only be glimpsed inside a toilet, and a path winds through a forest of neon glowing trees. I walked into a mastodon skeleton’s eerie green rib cage and played its bones like a xylophone. Try doing that at MoMA.

House of Eternal Return, installation view (photo by Lindsey Kennedy)

As an arts writer, I initially started analyzing the experience, but I quickly realized that was a mistake. It’s more refreshing to just roll with the weirdness and see what opening the next door brings. House of Eternal Return is a creative free-for-all, like falling into a dream or sliding down a rabbit hole. It’s a psychedelic trip that winds through narrow openings and up twisting spiral staircases. My two sons, who are five and seven, loved it, unlike some of our art museum forays where they kept yanking me toward the exit. They didn’t care if this wild ride was art or entertainment or both — and pretty soon I didn’t, either.

Over the past decade, Santa Fe’s art scene has sharpened its edges considerably, moving beyond a regional focus on Southwestern art, Pueblo pottery, and the bland abstract paintings that the calcified galleries on Canyon Road sell to rich tourists. Nine contemporary art galleries now fill the new Railyard Arts District next to the contemporary art museum SITE Santa Fe. The first museum in the nation dedicated to encaustic art opened this year with an exhibition focused on climate change. And Meow Wolf has evolved from a ragtag group of artists staging low-budget shows in rundown buildings into a multi-million-dollar operation that employs more than 150 people, helping artists thrive in a state hammered by the nation’s highest unemployment rate. It remains to be seen whether their radically different art-as-entertainment model will succeed outside the Land of Enchantment, but hundreds of investors are betting on it.

House of Eternal Return, installation view (photo by Lindsey Kennedy)

Christian Ristrow’s Robot at Meow Wolf (photo by Kate Russell)

House of Eternal Return, installation view (photo by Lindsey Kennedy)

The post Interactive Art Center Meow Wolf Is Forging a New Business Model for Artists appeared first on Hyperallergic.

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