#i hope to post part 2 tomorrow

[wikitpowers]

kitty and merthur parallels bc i'm sad pt.1 (beware of spoilers!)

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[anipgarden]

What Kind of Plants to Add

This is my sixth post in a series I’ll be making on how to increase biodiversity on a budget! I’m not an expert–just an enthusiast–but I hope something you find here helps! 

I’d love to be able to give a quick and easy list of things to add, but frankly I can’t do that. I can strongly encourage you, however, to look at these categories of plants and do further research to discover what’s native to your area, so you can plant things that’ll have the most impact in your particular area.

With that being said, I will mention a few plants as examples. This is in no way, shape, or form me telling you that you have to or even should buy these specific plants. Not every plant works well in every place in every garden, not to even mention across countries. Above all, if you’re wondering what plants you should be adding, I can wholeheartedly say plants that are native to your area--or at least nonnative non-invasive.

Flowers

Flowers are some of the most common ways people work to increase biodiversity in their gardens, and who can blame them? Seeing pops of color out your window, and directly seeing the impact via butterflies and bees visiting the garden? It’s a win-win for us and the wildlife!

Flowers--especially native wildflowers--are a quick, easy, and cheap way to increase wildlife traffic in your garden. Perennial gardens are more likely to get you the most bang for your buck, as they’ll come back year after year if you treat them well. But don’t dismiss annuals--if you get ones that easily reseed, they’ll eagerly return on their own! If you can, do your best to ensure that the flowers you plant all have different blooming periods--that way, your garden can support wildlife throughout the year instead of for just one brief season. 

Flowers are environmental super boosters. Their nectar and pollen can feed insects and birds, their stems and leaves can provide nesting materials for all sorts of creatures, and their seeds are a popular food source among birds at all times of the year.

Climbing Plants

Climbing plants can be fantastic options for maximizing your impact. If you have limited ground space, growing up can provide interest as well as additional habitat for all kinds of creatures.

Training plants up a trellis, fence, or bare wall offers food, shelter, and habitat. Trumpet vines, passionflowers, honeysuckles, and more will provide sweet nectar for pollinators as well as nesting and hiding spaces for other wildlife like birds, bugs, and lizards. Do note that in some cases, climbing plants can actually affect the structural integrity of walls and roofs if allowed to climb too much and too far along a house, so be careful. 

Bushes/Shrubs

Bushes provide shelter for creatures, which then provides hunting grounds for other animals. Their fallen leaves and petals can be food and shelter for detritivores, amphibians, reptiles, and small mammals--and they also provide good cover for moving around the garden, for creatures who like to stay hidden. They can be a bit more pricey to obtain--unless you get cuttings or seeds and are willing to wait--but they’ll definitely be worth it, and they’re typically low-maintenance once they’re established.

Bonus points if you get a flowering and fruiting bush, like bottlebrush, serviceberry, lilac, or others. This’ll make your bushes not only a place of shelter, but a food source as well--and depending on the kind you pick, may be food for you too! Making a garden border with a series of bushes can be a great option to providing lots of habitat, if you can manage it.

Shrubs with pithy or hollow stems are excellent options for supporting solitary bees. Some examples you could look into are elderberry, raspberry, blackberry, or sumac.

Trees

Trees have a high up-front cost and take awhile to grow, but once they’re settled in place they provide crucial habitat to all kinds of creatures! Insects will be attracted to flowers they may provide, or to nest in the wood. Others may eat the leaves as food, or use them as nesting materials. Birds will perch and nest in trees, and feed off the fruits and seeds and insects that also use the tree. Squirrels also use trees as nesting places, piling up dead leaves into huge clusters to raise their young in, and will absolutely feast on any nuts the tree may provide. Mice, badgers, and more will feast on fallen fruits or seeds, and bats roost in the trunks when given the chance. Detritivores eat fallen leaves and decomposing fruits, providing further food for hunting creatures. Trees can also be good for us--they help block out noise and air pollution, and are the poster child for taking CO2 and making it breathable oxygen. Not to mention they can provide plenty of food for us, too. Nesting grounds, hunting grounds, shelter from weather, and more--trees are, in my opinion, likely to be the best way to boost biodiversity long-term. If you can get your hands on a sapling for cheap and can care for it for awhile, I’d definitely give it a shot! Make sure the tree won’t get too big for where you’re growing it, though--you’ve definitely gotta plan for the long-term before you plant any. 

Some trees can be grown in containers. Though they won’t become gigantic branching behemoths, they’ll still do their part to support all the life that depends on them. Growing a tree from seed may take awhile, but could be an easy option to getting one if you have the patience--the trees are more than happy to help you, as they drop tons of seeds and fruit in fall for you to gather. 

Groundcover

Bare soil is the enemy of microbial life in the soil, and while small pockets of bare soil can be great nesting places for bees and other insects, having swaths of empty soil should be avoided. Groundcover plants grow low to the ground in a sprawling habit, and will often spread quite easily on their own. This is a great way to provide shelter, keep soil temperatures cool, block out weeds, and give your soil life a chance to thrive.

Sometimes, ground covers don’t even have to be planted in the ground. Shallow-rooted plants like succulents, ferns, and alyssum can be planted into cracks in stone walls, and moss can be planted by making moss graffiti and painting it onto a surface. As with climbing plants, do make sure that you don’t cause extra damage to important walls and housing foundations.

Host Plants

Host plants get their own section, because plants of all kinds can be host plants for different creatures! It’s common to think only flowers can be host plants in the beginning, but in reality, many bushes and trees are host plants to dozens of species of butterflies and moths. Honestly, I feel that factor's not talked about enough. Look up what insects live in your area and what kind of host plants they need, and plant some if you can! Bonus points if you can plant a variety of them--I know that there’s hundreds of kinds of milkweed, each one flowering and leafing up around different times of the year. Planting several varieties of milkweed, then, would provide monarchs with food through several seasons, allowing many more of them to grow up in your garden!

Nectar Plants

Plants that provide nectar to insects is a great foundation to increasing biodiversity! This is, of course, many native wildflowers (and even nonnative wildflowers, though be sure they aren’t invasives who’ll do more harm than good), but many native bushes, vines, and trees will also provide nectar to hungry pollinators! 

Keystone Species

To be frank, some plants can have a bigger impact than others in a landscape. By all means, every bit helps, but if you want to boost biodiversity quickly there are a few plants that can essentially serve as the backbone of local ecosystems that you can grow in anything from a balcony pot to a small patch of your backyard. These plants can be different depending on where you are, so do your research to find out what would be best to grow in your area. If you can’t get them all? That’s alright! But even hitting just a few of these target species really can do a lot.

That’s the end of this post! My next post is gonna be about things to keep in mind/continue to do once you get plants in the ground! Until then, I hope this advice was helpful! Feel free to reply with any questions, your success stories, or anything you think I may have forgotten to add in!

[esaari]

honk

[overly-verbose]

Seriously, bro's a professional yapper lmfao

Tbf it's not completely unprovoked and he does just want to at least try explaining some things, if in a roundabout way, to make people more at ease (if not in the moment then overall) but, well-

sometimes it has the opposite effect lmao 😂

Also like, it's absolutely hilarious how I thought

'oh but this is just, like three scenes - how long could this be'

but all the freaking talking and stuff that everyone's doing is making Part 8 the second longest in the series 😂😂😂💀😂

(I fear for my poor brain, man - we've only just barely almost covered the Detention Center Arc

(and a little bit of the VS Mahito Arc Mahito Gets Curse PTSD Arc but I do wanna fill in some of the gaps between those)

and it's already gonna be over 40k words???

Why am I being so ambitious for my first ever proper writing project frrr *perishes a bit*

but I do hope to get it to the end - and beyond because there's no way I wouldn't constantly add to the post-main-plot shenanigans lol - however long that takes heh (just try to be patient with me pls I try my best here 😂) 👍)

[mulders-too-large-shirt]

s5 episode 13 thoughts

reading this episode’s description… i sense a two parter. ahaha! yes, if you look to the episode slightly to the right, it seems to indicate that this is, in fact, going to end on a cliff hanger.

well! best to be prepared. 

we haven’t dealt with aliens in a while now… or at least it feels that way to me, even though it’s really only been 7 or so episodes since the whole emily situation (which was pretty promptly forgotten about, narrative-wise). but i’m prepared for some intense and action-packed sequences that raise more questions than they answer. 

and most importantly, i know in my heart and soul: CSM is NOT dead!!

let us begin!

post-episode thoughts: justice for my boy dmitri. and also give scully ANOTHER vacation with no creepy dolls. and MANDATORY weekly therapy sessions for both of our agents. and let them cuddle. also: wtf, krycek?

ohhh, i know exactly what kind of episode this is going to be, as we open with mulder narrating over an image of a galaxy. yes. i see how this is going to go down.

(trying to imagine the actors in the booth narrating these little speeches on the nature of the universe in a solemn monotone and it does make me laugh)

we see two teenagers speaking in what i think is russian? they see a UFO and are running to tell “the others”. ah, they are in kazakhstan. i knew a guy from kazakhstan. 

they smell something in the woods… fire! they are running toward it. and they find a car in flames. seems to be many cars in flames!!! 

they are calling for their family!!!! were they in the cars?!? no one is yelling back!! but a man emerges engulfed in flames, and they run back into the woods. 

WHAT THE FUCK someone grabs the boy with glasses and his face (or lack thereof) is scary. the blond boy (later revealed to be named dmitri) listens as he screams!!!

damn. hell of an opening there.

OH HOLD UP. I SEE “also starring nicholas lea” as these white trucks move towards the charred cars. now, usually i am not very observant when it comes to the text at the beginning, but i know what this means: RETURN OF THE WORSTIE KRYCEK 🔥🔥🔥

this has great implications. 

AND IS THIS MARITA???? WHAT IS SHE DOING IN KAZAKHSTAN???

these men in camo are opening up the cars and using fire extinguishers on them. for what purposes??

NO! the blond teenager is in the woods still and KRYCEK FINDS HIM!!!! THEY’RE GONNA KILL HIM NOOOOO

the poor boy in glasses has been burnt to a crisp :(

krycek is trying to KICK marita out of this war zone looking place despite her having permission under the UN

(it was at this point i began to wonder if contemporary fans shipped those two, in the sort of "two pretty people who have never met but have no one else to be paired off with" kind of way that is so popular in fandom. this question was later answered)

krycek says he knows who she is and who she works for… ooooo, is he telling the truth?!? he says to tell "them" it’s all going to hell. and then they take that poor boy away!!

“you tell them to kiss my american ass” (krycek spits at marita) damn!!! i mean i hate the guy, but i also don’t trust marita at ALL, so i'm not sure if there’s anyone i should be rooting here between them.

jump to a woman, who is talking about her last abductions, during which she felt no fear, and this allowed her to communicate with “them”. she claims she is an apostle of a new age of enlightenment. an audience claps at this.

is this like a film screening or something??? or??

ohhh, it’s at MIT? this guy gestures to the screen, referring to the woman as “patient X”. hence the episode title. i see what they did there.

why is mulder at this panel…. and why does he look so stressed out…?

this other guy says that we aren't "breeding cows" for the aliens, but instead are subjects to them, in the way we picture our relationship with god. don’t care for that one bit.

OHHH MULDER IS SPEAKING NOW… he doesn’t believe this woman, nor her feel-good message, but he doesn’t think she’s lying either! “i think… that if you prepare people well enough to believe a lie, they will believe it as if it were true” very philosophical

why is he out here in public doing all this… i thought the whole alien business was top secret!! but then again, they mentioned him on the jerry springer show, so maybe not???

WAIT!! i thought he was going to come in with the “she’s lying; the aliens have bigger and more evil plans” take, but it sounds like he’s just straight up denying aliens.

“what i‘ve seen, i’ve seen because i wanted to believe” <- ohhhh what. is he lying?? or does he really no longer believe in aliens?? is this FBI-ordered damage control??

the crowd is pissed at his suggestion that there are no aliens involved here, just a government developing biological warfare. okay, so this is NOT FBI-ordered damage control, then. because that is actually worse for the government's image.

the others on the panel look stressed tf out by what he has to say and he leaves… but he recognizes dr. werber in the audience. he says it’s been 5 years! OHHH it’s the guy who did hypnotherapy with him to help him remember his sister… now why is he here?!? was he just in the area??

mulder explains that he has come to distrust those memories. even the memory of his sister being taken???

“i don’t think you understand. there’s just too much evidence that it’s all been a lie. the conspiracy is not to hide the existence of extraterrestrials, it’s to make people believe in it so completely that they question nothing” <- huh. very interesting take.

dr. werber reveals that HE is patient x’s doctor!! and he thinks that mulder should meet her. damn. that's a twist.

now we're back at the tunguska gulag with krycek and some other guy. krycek is very sweaty from beating this poor boy dmitri up!!! 

oh no… the other guy is the doctor that does the experiments with the black oil, and he protests because they are only supposed to do the experiments on the criminal. krycek decides to change that, i guess. why is the screen so dark? he’s far less sweaty in the next shot. then he pays some other guy to say he was never there. 

krycek pockets some of the doctor’s serum. now what is that all about…?

krycek locks the door on the doctor and dmitri?! what is he doing??

meanwhile, mulder is meeting patient X, who is really named cassandra. she seems very very very happy. she says he is a hero of hers. 

SHE SAYS SHE READ ABOUT HIM IN THE NEWS THREE YEARS AGO AFTER HE HELPED DUANE BARRY??? damn. damn damn damn.

duane barry... (takes a drag of a cigarette) haven't heard that name in years...

“you may not like me as much as you like that story” “that story saved my life” <- ohhh, this is not going to end well, huh….

she says she has been a multiple abductee for over 30 years!!! (then how is she not dead?!) and no one would believe her until she read that story. 

he tells her that she should check herself out of this hospital and live her life :(

but now is not a good time, because she is going to be called again soon. “now is a time of war and stress among the alien nations” ohhh okay. yeah, for sure. /s

“there was a time when i would have believed what you’re saying, without a doubt” “there is no doubt, mr. mulder. i know what i’ve experienced. i have been through the terror and the tests more times than i can count” <- ohhh they took her FETUS?? i applaud her conviction and her standing her ground, knowing that what she experienced is real, but damn, sounds kind of hard to think of "them" positively.

she insists they’re here to deliver a message, but there are other forces at work. 

girl, if they took your fetus, i’m not so sure they’re here for good…

and she insists that he ought to know, because he is the one person that can do something about it. no pressure!!

“i’m not”, he says, then walks away. this is a great turn in character. refusal of the call, if you will. after many years of responding to the call.

poor dmitri is strapped down and undergoing the evil oil, which is slurping itself down his throat. 

someone else in the gulag is pissed to hear about what went down with krycek and the boy. and the doctor who did the experiment on him is dead!! is this the end of the oil experiments?

you know, mulder has the oil in him too... don't think i've forgotten

krycek is on a boat leaving russia. he has brought someone water. who?

oh my god, it looks like it’s the boy from before?? but he was just trapped under all that wire!!!! did krycek somehow hide, kill the doctor, free dmitri, and then escape without the others noticing?

back at the FBI, agent spender is approaching scully (NEW CHARACTER ALERT). he says he hasn’t been able to reach mulder. hmm… spender says he would prefer if mulder wasn’t talking to this alien abductee. oh! it’s his mother??

he says she is a very disturbed woman, and he wants to build a reputation here, not be given one… hmm. is he really her son?? or just some guy trying to throw her off the case?

in new york, marita is debriefing the syndicate on the whole situation she witnessed. there were 41 bodies!!! all burned beyond recognition!! by a technology none of the UN medics had ever seen!!

ohhh, it looks like the victims had the little microchips in them… so they must have all been abductees!! well-groomed man says he thinks it was for a group abduction???

“in the final stages before it begins, there will most likely be assemblies” <- so is "it" going down??? like, now??

is that what the movie will be about?!?

this other guy thinks the aliens are lying about their time table… marita thinks this isn’t part of the plan; this is an act of war. and she tells them about krycek! and she thinks that he knows what went down because he captured dmitri, who saw what happened!!

the phone rings…… well-groomed man picks it up. yes, it is krycek. he says he’s in town!!

he says he will take all of their research on the black oil in exchange for the boy… hmm…. hmm…. and he’ll starve the kid until then!!!

can poor dmitri even talk?? it looked like his whole face was burned and then sewn up!!

down in his office, mulder is drawing a spiral, when scully emerges to toss a newspaper at him. “shouldn’t that be my picture next to the headline?” LMAOOO it’s an article with his quote about how the conjecture around aliens is “false, dangerous, delusional”

she asks if this has anything to do with cassandra, and he says that “cassandra spender is living proof that that the truth i’ve so boldly been seeking for the last 5 years is the truth of a madman” oh! so he really must be in his doubting era, huh? also, he seems to be doodling or perhaps completing a crossword puzzle while saying this, which is so funny 

NOOO HE’S DOODLING A FUNNY MUSTACHE AND BEARD ONTO HIMSELF aww :( this is sad

“one more anal-probing, gyro-pyro, levitating-ecoplasm alien antimatter story, and i’m going to take out my gun and shoot somebody” “well! i guess i’m done here” <- LMAO SCULLY

SHE TELLS HIM TO HAVE A NICE LIFE LMAO as if they could ever part after their work was completed. these bitches are tied at the soul.

OHHHH scully reads cassandra's file and finds out that cassandra was ALSO taken at skyland mountain (!!) and that she had an implant at the base of her neck (!!)

scully looks horrified as mulder puts his coat on and leaves... is he going to the mountain?

well, skyland mountain is hopping tonight, regardless of if he is in attendance or not.

now we see cassandra, pressing her fingers into the window. and scully is here too?!?? she says she is sure she knows scully. from the abductions?!?

scully wants to ask some questions!!!

scully asks to sit down…. and she says that she learned about her from her son. 

ohhhh no… “you’re feeling it too, aren’t you?” (she reaches out to touch the base of scully’s neck) “you wake up at night knowing you need to be somewhere, but you don’t know where it is. like you forgot an appointment you didn’t know you had”

scully wavers for a bit, then says “that’s not why i’m here” <- SO IS IT TRUE?? SHE REALLY FEELS THOSE THINGS EVEN AFTER THE IMPLANT WAS REMOVED??

oh my god, she’s warning cassandra not to take the neck implant out because she will get very sick :( oh poor sweet scully, breaking her own promise to that agent to make sure his mom doesn’t get sick… 

cassandra says she would never remove it because she wants to go; the aliens have so much to teach us, and they’re great healers. maybe that’s why scully was chosen. damn. i think she meant that to be comforting, but it was really messed up :(

that's like saying "i know you were tortured and all of your autonomy stripped and you nearly died, but the wise and merciful aliens chose YOU, aren't you so special?" ouch!!! like a worse version of someone saying "it's all part of god's plan" when you suffer

OH NO… so many people are arriving at the mountain… and now i am putting together what is going on… the guy who thought he was supposed to go to a mountain but wasn’t sure of any details… all of the cars arriving… they’re going to get blown up!!! 

someone comes sprinting at this red headed guy as the same man with the burned face from the beginning of the episode lights this dude on FIRE!!!!

mulder saunters up the mountain the next morning in the mixture of fog and smoke, where there are dozens of bodies in bags. scully reports no survivors. they can’t ID the bodies, so no relation can be confirmed

“mulder, why are you tiptoeing around the obvious fact here?” <- OHHH! now she has to talk conspiracy into him!!!

he shoots down her theory with a quickness, saying that he can give her an explanation. 

mulder, please be careful, okay? this is a very SENSITIVE subject with her, and your bluntness may need some adjusting. she is talking about the most traumatic experience of her life, so maybe invalidating that is NOT the move. do not make her sound crazy for seeing a connection. no matter how emo you are over the fact that you no longer believe. thank you very much. peace and love.

another jump. marita points out that this incident at skyland mountain is the same thing she saw in kazakhstan! “this is no good, i don’t like being kept in the dark on this” says one of the dudes from the syndicate. which, like, yeah. it’s not good at all. astute observation. 

“someone’s going to great lengths to sabotage our work” is it... CSM???? or intergalactic alien warfare?

cassandra is crying, watching the news, while scully and mulder arrive. she called them!! and she says that this isn’t supposed to be happening; she knew those people who died- they were friends from a long time ago. 

she tells mulder and scully that they have to do something about it (again, no pressure). but in walks her son!!

ohhh, agent spender he says that all of the people who died were in a cult together with his mother? one where the aliens will come and taken them to heaven. mulder says they won’t be bothering her anymore. while scully gazes at cassandra’s finger prints on the window…

hmm. how the tables have turned. scully is the one thinking of believing the alien lady.

scully is clearly bothered, and this dude in a mustache and hat is watching her. DID HE JUST ENTER CASSANDRA’S ROOM???? STAY AWAY FROM HER!!

back to dmitri!!!! krycek is dropping him water!!! OH SHIT, MARITA IS THERE!!! she somehow got on the ship??

“you think you can pull this off, don’t you?” GET HIM‼️

WHAT THE FUCK?? HE GRABS HER LIKE THEY’RE GOING TO THROW HANDS, BUT NOW HE’S KISSING HER???? IS THIS CONSENSUAL??????

“they give me what i want… then i’m gonna rule the world”, mutters krycek between forceful kissing

hold on. i have to rewind that against my own will. because i cannot tell what is going on

that is more moaning than i cared for.

“we’ve got them on their knees, alex” <- SO THEY KNOW EACH OTHER???? oh my GAWD, that was a lot of tongue action. 

okay. so it seems that was consensual. and they left the ship to go escalate matters. with poor dmitri on the floor. 

gonna need a moment to process that one.

????

WHY WERE THEY BEEFING BACK IN KAZAKHSTAN.... was it part of some elaborate performance if they really did know each other already?? is that what they do before they make out? roleplay being on opposite sides of the cold war?

are they going to end the cold war (which i know in theory already ended, but c'mon, let's call a spade a spade) by letting the aliens take over and trusting them to put krycek in a position of power?

uh. okay.

scully is sleeping…. she sees something out her window?? and feels the back of her neck…. there is a ringing sound… what is going on!!! is she feeling the vague call?? how?!

krycek comes back to the ship, but dmitri is gone!! and here instead is well-groomed man!!! with a gun!! asking where the boy is!!!

krycek, you utter fool. was marita sent to distract you...? or did you truly get lost in the sauce and leave your prisoner unattended to go hook up...? the levels of backstabbing here are countless

scully arrives in mulder’s office the next morning, looking scared, but he’s already launching into the fact that there were metal implants in the necks of some of the skyland mountain victims. and that a few of them were involved with local UFO organizations!! and their medical records show they had been experiencing distress from believing they will be contacted by aliens!!

he is convinced that the government put those implants in them and then made them go to the mountain… but she says it doesn’t make sense. they weren’t abducted this time, they were led to their deaths- and why?

OH MY GOD??? “you know mulder… maybe you shouldn’t be so quick… to rule out what cassandra spender has to say”

she said that so slowly, like it was a confession she was scared to voice aloud, and i want to hold her tightly. but!!! the phone is ringing!! the voice on the other side is going to say cassandra’s dead, isn’t it?

they’re locking eyes and he nods, seeming to take her words to heart. please listen to her, mr. mulder.

IT’S MARITA??? she’s telling him about the incident in kazakhstan… and says she has someone who knows about it. dmitri is in her car… but again, i ask: can he talk?? and isn't there a language barrier anyway??

what sort of trickery is afoot…? she tells mulder to come here and wait for her call… but dmitri has gotten up, and the black oil is SEEPING from his eye and nose wounds!!! he reaches out and she gasps!!!

and scully is out the door by then, looking panicked. she gets a drink of water, and i fully thought she was going to be sick for a second which i was not ready for. oh, scully :(

okay, so mulder is off to meet marita at this random ass payphone… but no one is there…. just some smudges on the window??

he picks up the phone and calls agent spender. he’s looking for scully… but she isn’t with him!! and his mother is gone, too!!

cut to the sky… then a bridge… was scully summoned to this bridge??? does the implant’s influence linger?? the man who went into cassandra’s room is pushing her wheelchair, and dmitri is here with opened eyes. and so is scully!!!! 

everyone is looking up. pointing at something!!! run away, scully!! you know what happens next!!! either aliens or burning!!!

it looks like a UFO is right over their heads. scully is watching carefully. and she sees cassandra, who reaches out to hold her hand. but then someone is on fire!!!!!

the men without the faces are here with their fire sticks!!!

TO BE CONTINUED

MAN. WHAT THE HELL????

i have a lot of questions!!!

so can scully still feel the call to alien things despite the implant no longer being there?? is dmitri going to become one of those guys with no faces?? or is he healing?? because his eyes were opened!! and are the guys with no faces a rogue alien species, or are they working for the gulag that krycek is running?? what is krycek planning?? how does he know marita?? and where IS marita?? are they really working together, or double-crossing each other at the highest level of professionalism?

what about the black oil that is in him and mulder? is it ever going to come out of them the way it came out of dmitri? or make them all glowy like what happened in that one episode a while back? or does krycek not have to worry about it because he got his arm cut off? what was the whole arm cutting off thing even about, again?

how is scully going to escape this mass burning site? why did she go?? can the call not be resisted?? is it in her bloodstream?? if someone IS plotting to interrupt the colonization plan, who is it?? and why?? who would benefit from inciting alien warfare that could destroy many worlds?? how much of this is the government to blame for, and how much of it are the aliens responsible for?? why did the government agree to all this colonization stuff? did they have no say in the matter? and where is CSM? 

i predict that 15% of these questions will ever be answered. and that is if chris carter is feeling generous.

i get that mulder is having his crisis of faith, but i wish he was gentler with scully in this episode :/ please use kindness, my king. she has undergone the indescribable. she has every right to be suspicious. how quickly he falls into the ways of the rigid skeptic, believing there must be an answer that isn’t what is being shown to him! of course, he just shifts the blame from the aliens to the government, but still!

poor sweet scully, just wanting cassandra to be okay, warning her against removing the implant, and then being told that maybe she was chosen by the aliens for a reason. whether cassandra meant it to hurt or not (and i truly do not believe she meant it to hurt), being told that those terrible things happened to scully because they chose her must have felt horrible. 

and mulder is going to feel SO guilty for dismissing her when he learns where she ended up…

ARGH damn you, cliffhangers!!! i always fall for your tricks!!

with these alien-heavy episodes, i feel we sometimes lose the emotional weight of the series in favor of rapid plot development. i did not feel this way about today's episode, though. i thought we had plenty of emotional content between mulder doubting the aliens (which he had expressed earlier in the season, but i had not fully believed- and i assume that by the next episode he will have fully rejoined the alien train, especially since we, the viewers, know the alien stuff to be real thanks to the syndicate) and in general regretting all of his life choices. and scully had the terrible ordeal of reliving her own horrific experiences, yet still finding compassion for cassandra, and having to talk sense into mulder even if that meant having to think about what she has worked so hard to put behind her. AND we learn she still feels alien subliminal messaging!! what a terrible burden!!

well, what can happen next? stay tuned, i suppose!

[seventh-district]

7am, eating cold leftover teriyaki stir-fry for breakfast and crying over blorbos

[whomadewaffles]

Some pjhazel incorrect quotes I've been saving for awhile...I feel like with how starved for content shippers of these two are right now, keeping these to myself would be a crime. I'm SO sorry for not citing sources. I wasn’t originally planning to post these, and finding them retroactively is like.. impossible.

Pjhazel is the focus, but others are included as side characters. So if you don't ship them, then just scroll on by and go about your day, please!

Also, for a heads up that will apply to all 3 parts: expect bad language and sex references cos obviously.

Oh, and this is part 1 of 3, even if it is the longest part

Long post under the cut!

_______

Josie: You slept with Hazel? OUR Hazel? Callahan??

Pj: I didn't know what else to do! She had those big, sad eyes. I couldn't help it.

Josie: ...sure, sounds like you had no other choice.

--------

Pj: I love saying 'fuck me' because it can either be sexual or sarcastic and those are two things that describe me perfectly.

--------

Hazel, jumping out of pj's closet: BOO!

Pj:

Hazel:

Pj:

Hazel: *makes the patented Hazel callahan sad face*

Pj: Ahh! Oh my god! You scared me!

------

Hazel: TERRIBLE NEWS!

Pj: Did you disarm the bomb?

Hazel: If I disarmed it, would I come running in here and shout, TERRIBLE NEWS!?

------

Pj: hazel, you are such a nerdy little dork, you can't pull any girl.

Hazel * has been crushing on her since they met*: okay. that's fine.

*2 years later*

Hazel: so what did you say? Repeat that again.

Pj: 🤡

--------

Pj: It has come to my attention, that I have some unresolved feelings or resentment toward my father.

Therapist: a little late, but I’m happy you’ve taken this first step. Now you can start looking to overcome that.

Pj: Already done. I’ve found a full proof solution…I’m going to ignore it. Completely and utterly.

Pj: just like my dad did me.

--------

Pj: the secret to being impulsive successfully is being faster than the consequences of your actions. you can't let them catch you or its all over

Annie: is that why everytime Hazel even looks at you since you kissed her you run away like a little bitch?

-------

Pj *trying everything she can to kiss hazel again without just admitting she likes her like a normal healthy person*: Hey, are you aware that kissing reduces stress?

Hazel: Okay.

Pj:

Hazel:

Pj: Hey, you look stressed. Like, really stressed. Just wanted to let you know.

--------

Hazel: It’s not that I don’t trust pj, I just... don’t trust her impulse control

-------

Hazel: None of you might remember this, but there was a time when PJ considered herself out of my league.

Hazel: Oh, how the mighty have fallen (into my arms)

------

Hazel *trying to teach her girlfriend how to take better notes in class*: to make it easier, you should always highlight the important things

*later*

Annie: Hazel, why are you covered in different colored highlighter?

Hazel: don't ask

Pj: she's important! okay!?

-------

Hazel: I'm freaking out, How do I make our first date really romantic?

Stella-Rebecca: Be mysterious.

Hazel: Okay!

*later, while on a date with pj* 

Pj: So where are we going?

Hazel: None of your fucking business.

Pj *is shocked and a little turned on* 😳

-------

Pj: Yeah, I lost the ability to give a shit at a very young age. It was a very tragic accident. Never recovered

------

Pj: *on the phone with josie* I can’t talk right now, I’m doing hot girl shit.

Josie: You’re pulling Oreos apart and shaving off the frosting to make a mega Oreo, aren’t you?

Pj: Maybe.

-----

Pj: I love you.

Hazel: I thought I annoyed you?

Pj: You do annoy me. You annoy me more than I ever thought possible, but I want to spend every irritating moment with you.

--------

Pj: Im tired

Hazel: You should come to the gym with me! We could make it a date and exercising gives you energy!

Pj: Yeah, the same energy you need to go to the gym

Pj: Sounds like a pyramid scheme to me

------

Pj *texting*: I'm showering

Hazel *texting back*: oh nice, send a pic of you're hair in a giant spike lmao!

--------

Pj: rest assured, rational me and impulsive me are having a fucking smackdown 24/7 100% of the time

-----

Hazel: Please, this is the 4th time its happened, I'm begging you go to a doctor.

Pj: I'm sorry is this OUR broken nose? Stay out of it.

------

Pj: I asked Hazel out.

Britney: Oh, I’m sorry.

Pj: Why?

Brittney: Well, I assume she said no.

Pj: No, she said yes.

Brittney: Really? Then I’m sorry for her.

-------

Pj: Shout out to my girlfriend who just randomly decided to eat my chapstick.

Hazel: WHY WOULD THEY MAKE IT COTTON-CANDY FLAVORED IF IT WASN'T MEANT TO BE EATEN?!

--------

Pj: You're annoying.

Hazel *in her head*: Enemies to lovers, slowburn, angst with happy ending, 300k+ words

------

Pj: I win

Hazel: I am literally pinning you down

Pj: I know

-----

Hazel: So sorry for making you fall in love with me because of my autistic swag and kissable lips.

--------

Pj: *Drinking a bottle of water*

Josie: Since when do you carry water? I've known you my whole life and you never do that.

Pj: Hazel freaked out ‘cause I told her I never drink water

Pj: Now she’s making me drink 8 glasses a day

Pj: It’s like, there’s water in soda, coffee, the little pools of water on pizza…

Isabel: …That’s grease

Pj: Well it’s wet isn’t it!

-------

Hazel: You're in love with me?

Pj: Unless you're not in love with me. Then I take it back, because, you know... I'm cool.

-------

Pj: You are an absolute fucking dork.

Hazel *singing*: Yeah, but I'm your dork!

Pj *happy sigh*: Yeah, you're my dork.

--------

Pj: I'm a very good liar.

Josie: Yesterday, I asked if you were missing  hazel while she was gone, and you said "no" right before bursting into tears.

--------

[morsartis]

Rodimus x Professional!Reader Pt. 1

The first part is from Reader's POV and the second will be from Rodimus' POV.

Parts:

Part 2- https://www.tumblr.com/morsartis/712534482204377088/rodimus-x-professionalreader-pt-2?source=share

Part 3- https://www.tumblr.com/morsartis/712534804211662848/rodimus-x-professionalreader-pt-3?source=share

----

Hot water beat down on your back as you rested your head on the shower wall. Everything ached. From your toes to your scalp you felt like one massive bruise. It wasn’t uncommon for you to get back to your quarters feeling drained and tired. Ever since the Lost Light had taken on human crew members your hands had been full, especially following your commander's death. A day that still weighed something fierce on your heart. You’d had to step up- despite the fact that you hadn’t been next in line to lead at all. There had been too much panic, too much grief, and you had done what you had always done in the face of terrible personal tragedy and chaos. You’d buckled down and taken over. Somehow that had led to you being promoted as the human liaison to the captain of the Lost Light. It was an honor certainly but it was something you struggled with. All that responsibility on your shoulders, Commander Jameson had grown livid when the promotion had passed over him and went to you instead. His contempt and judgment was yet another thing that weighed you down. He made it clear that he had little to no respect for you or your new position. It had led to endless fights over the tiniest things that shouldn’t have been fights in the first place. 

Sighing heavily you blinked past the water running down your face. The need for actual running water on the Lost Light had been Commander Hennis’ first petition when you’d come aboard and after her death it had only been right for you to continue that petition. You were grateful for it. Slicking your hair back you took another moment to simply breathe. One deep breath in and then the slow exhale. Shutting off the spray you blindly reached for your towel. Wrapping the soft fluffy thing around yourself you relished its warmth as you stepped out of the tub and into the slightly cooler room. You cursed when you realized you’d left your sleep clothes on your bed. Stepping into the main portion of your room you froze, the blood draining from your face so quickly you almost felt light headed. Clutching the towel tightly to yourself you straightened up immediately. Shit, you were way too underdressed, your hair was still wet and tangled, you were wearing a towel. 

“Captain!” You resisted the urge to salute if only because you feared losing your towel. Rodimus froze, optics wide as he glanced down at you. Jesus, you could die of mortification. 

“I-,” His voicebox made an odd sound you could only describe as a radio dial, “I didn’t realize you were here.”

“I thought to get an early night, Sir.” Oh you just wanted to curl into a ball and die. This was so unprofessional. God, you even planned your own pajamas to be professional in case of an emergency. Why did he have to walk in now? Why did you forget your clothes on your bed? You glanced at your folded clothes and felt a new mortification rising when you realized you’d done like you usually did and placed your underwear on top. Your very nice, lacey, underwear that you rarely got the chance to wear and only decided to wear tonight to make yourself feel nice. As a secret little pick-me-up that only you would know about. The red stood out starkly against your grey sweats and space program t-shirt, the clothes far too professional to even consider what you might be wearing underneath. Even the sports bra you’d chosen was cute with its little lacey front and tiny decorative bow. As if sensing your mortification you could only observe in horror as Rodimus followed your gaze to the clothes you’d plainly laid out. If it were even possible it was as if he froze and locked up more than previously. 

Was- was he blushing?! 

Your face was officially on fire you were simply going to kill yourself. Anything to escape the mortification. Your co-captain, your liaison partner, knew what you were going to wear to bed and he’d been around human culture long enough to understand exactly why you might have been embarrassed. Grasping at straws like it was all you could do, you tried to regain control of the situation. 

“Ahem,” You cleared your throat drawing his attention back to you, “Was there a particular reason you were coming into my quarters Captain?” 

Rodimus straightened up quickly his grip on his holopad tightening. 

“Ah- yes. There was- well… Ahem. To be honest-,” He was stammering, god you were never going to live down the embarrassment, “I wanted your opinion on a transfer I’ve been considering.” 

“A transfer?”

“Yes. One of the humans here.”

That wiped the embarrassment straight from your system. Technically Rodimus could transfer whoever he wished at any point so long as Megatron signed off on said transfer. It had been an unspoken rule since Commander Hennis’ and since your own tenure that all human transfers were to be decided by the human liaison. For Rodimus to even consider transferring a human without giving the full reigns to you must have been serious. 

“May I ask the reason for transfer?”

“Insubordination.” The way he said it left little room to question. His voice was grave and serious in a way you rarely heard from your usually compassionate companion. Clearly this was not a decision he had made lightly. 

“And the crewmember?” You asked after a moment when it became clear he was not going to elaborate. 

“Commander Jameson.” 

“What?” You asked the question slipping out before you could help it. To say you were shocked was an understatement. You had thought that Commander Jameson had been wise enough to keep his displeasure and insubordination pointed towards you and you only. 

“I think it would be best for both the crew and for Commander Jameson himself if he were placed with a different vessel.” 

“My apologies then Captain, I had thought that Commander Jameson had merely been targeting me due to the promotional passover that occurred following Commander Hennis’ passing. I hadn’t a clue that he’d been lashing out towards other higher-ups. Please allow me to talk to him and discuss these matters, I shall ensure he keeps his issues with the chain of command solely with me.” 

“That’s the problem!” Rodimus shouted, waving his arm through the air. You jumped. “He shouldn’t be treating you that way in the first place! You received the promotion because you earned it. Your crew would have been killed if you hadn’t made the calls you did and kept a level head. While Commander Jameson was too busy trying to prove himself you were putting in the actual work. You brought your crew together, you led them into action, you pulled them through that dark time. Not him! I am tired of hearing his baseless complaints about your leadership. You’ve gone above and beyond what was expected of you for the sake of your human crew and your cybertronian companions!” 

You could feel the flush traveling from your cheeks all the way to your shoulders the flattery soothing a sore spot you had been nursing for a while now. But still, despite Jameson’s clear dislike of you, you had a duty to him as his superior. 

“I understand that Rodimus and I thank you for your conviction of my skills,” You replied soothingly, adjusting your hold on your towel, “However, I have a duty to my crew. Commander Jameson’s grievances are with me and me alone. Outside of that he has followed all his orders from other officers to a perfect T. Unless there are incidents I haven’t been informed of..?” You trailed off waiting for a reply. 

“... No. He’s followed orders from other crew members well enough.” Rodimus admitted begrudgingly. You offered him a sincerely sympathetic smile. 

“Then I owe him the chance to discuss options with me first before the call is made for him. If he wishes to transfer then I will be happy to have him transferred, but if he wishes to stay then that decision should be respected as well.”

That was clearly not what he wanted to hear. Rodimus’ expression turned stony, every bit the captain he had to be instead of the mech you had gotten to know. 

“Please let him know that if he fails to follow your direct orders again he will be transferred regardless.” His voice was cold, a sort of anger that sent chills down your spine. You’d never heard anything like it. From Megatron you might have been able to keep the surprise off your face but from Rodimus? The change was too intense not to show your shock. “I’ve transferred the documents to you for review. Good night.” 

Just like that he was gone leaving you standing there shivering from the cold in your towel wondering what had gotten into the normally sunny optimistic mech. Swallowing nervously you shuffled towards your pajamas and got dressed. Everything would have to wait until the morning but already anxiety was beginning to set in. What would you do about this? What could be done to fix it? If you didn’t know him so well by now you would have thought Rodimus was angry with you, but you knew that despite what had happened his anger was directed towards Jameson. With a deep breath you sat on your bed and tried to relax. You’d get this sorted out just like you always did. It would be fine. And then you could talk with Rodimus about why it had upset him the way it did.

[vizhlowkey]

I miss them

[stuck-in-the-ghost-zone]

SENDING MY FIRST ASK FROM THE NEW BLOG!!!! i feel like i am sending a letter from a new address... crazy. ANYWAY HOW R U TONIGHT!!!! i hope ur havin a good day!!!! kicking my feet like a teenager at a sleepover rn tell me abt ur day who r the blorbos in ur mind rn what kinda art r u workin on lately how's it going friend!!!

HIIIIIII HI HI . HELLO SHADOW THE HEDGEHOG- i mean catboy cellbit!!! . dude i am. dreading the coming week tbh but it is fine !! we will get thru it we will survive!!! i am so sleepytired but alas i also cannot sleep so i may just have another night of reading and music ahead of me . wah. i hope u are hsving a good night <3 IVE BEEN COMPLETELY ART NERFED TOO BTW. my laptop died on me a couple days ago and while i was able to find a new one affordably it will not be here until the 13th 😔 so no digital art from me for a while. sigh. i DID just decorate my new sketchbook with stickers tho so im hoping that will get my brain in gear for traditional art again. AS FOR BLORBOS. oh . u know. the usuals. vash the stampede. zacharie from off . masky marblehornets (also tim marblehornets) . to name three of them.

[foster-the-moths]

just wrote 1,400 words of catalyst but worse au i think something bad happening to me (and by that i mean. hyperfixation.)

[mashmouths]

i had planned to come back from rehearsal and listen to at least 1 of the 3 fucking hours of podcast i have to get through for a class but found out i had a draft of a paper due at midnight so! instead of doing either of those important and pressing assignments i made dinner for 2 hours and sat on my phone for the rest until time ran out 🫶 i am so happy to be alive (said through clenched teeth)

[cloneboywonder]

I almost accidentally texted my boss that “it’s so hard being a teenage girl in her 20s” :-(

[lucylucius]

happy 3 years of TLOU part 2!! 🌿✨🏌️🔨🤠🦕🎸💚🐑😭

[orcelito]

Maybe ignoring my grief is detrimental to my overall mental health

Idk what else to do tho

[weaselle]

i had to make a solution for this for myself, mostly because of depression, but it makes a nice How To for folks who are low on spoons or could use some help in the kitchen.

Fortunately i was a professional cook for over a decade. UNfortunately the first post i made explaining it was suuuuper long. Let's see if i can do better

So you select any protein that you can cook in a frying pan -- chicken breasts, ground beef, pork chops, sausages, steak, chicken thighs, whatever. You also select one or two types of veggie (mushrooms or tubers also work, i just did this with potatoes and carrots for dinner tonight).

[i like cooking for vegetarians, but this is how i cook for myself when i'm low on spoons - perhaps i'll do another post for meatless meals]

You'll also need some kind of oil, and a sauce or two of your choice in a bottle. All cooking gear is a large frying pan with lid (i prefer non-stick) a spatula, a cutting board, and a knife.

You cut the veggies into bite size pieces, cut up enough for two meals. One kind of veggie is fine, or you can do mix two or three

Put frying pan on medium heat with a little oil. Tubers or mushrooms or go in the pan a few minutes before the protein. 2 portions of the protein goes in the pan, about 5 minutes with lid (don't worry you can still get a good sear on both sides)

Now flip your protein if it's flip-able and add normal veggies, put the lid back on another five-ish minutes.

Take your protein out and put it with one portion of the veggies in a microwave safe container. That's going to be your lunch tomorrow. Put the other portion of protein on a plate to rest (you have to let a cooked protein sit a couple minutes before you serve it or when you cut into it all the juices run out and it goes dry - the liquids thicken as it cools, preventing this drying out if you let it rest, the goal is to serve it very warm but not hot hot)

While it's resting, pour some sauce from your bottle in the pan with the rest of the veggies and turn up the heat. A single sauce/bottle is fine, i like to get fancy and mix a couple. Two examples of personal favorite mixes are 1: bbq sauce and a hot sauce like sriracha 2: roughly equal parts low sodium soy sauce and worcestershire (makes something similar to a teriyaki sauce) A swallow of wine is almost always a great option if you want to add that to your sauce too, just add it to the pan before the other sauces so the alcohol has time to burn off.

...

Here is the important bit. While your veggies are finishing, wash your cutting board and chef knife. Then when you dump your veggies and sauce over your protein on the plate, while it is still too hot to eat, you wash your frying pan and spatula before you eat. Now the only dishes you have left to do are your plate and fork. Maybe a steak knife.

...

The whole thing takes about 35 minutes even with washing the dishes, and that includes your lunch for the next day- just pour a different sauce on and stick it in the microwave for a couple minutes (or five minutes back in the frying pan) and you have a full healthy lunch with a different flavor

You can use this technique every single meal and it yields hundreds of combinations, from pork and potatoes bbq, to salmon and broccoli teriyaki, to chicken and zucchini in a soy glaze.

It will keep you down to less than an hour of kitchen time per day total for both lunch and dinner including all dish clean up, uses the least dishes, the least effort, requires the least technique, and is, depending on what you pick out, very affordable

here are a couple more examples from this month; i didn’t take pictures of the salmon i did recently, but you get the idea

it's not super fancy, but it is easy, affordable, quick, and any flavors you want. Hope this helps some folks

Happy Cooking!