#i mean what differs us from other primates is exactly that

[idkimnotreal]

my uncle and my dad have two different theories about the construction of the pyramids in egypt.

my dad says some technologically advanced human civilization was wiped out, but it built the pyramids before that, and he believes we live in cycles and that ours will also be wiped out in time to give birth to a new one.

my uncle straight up believes it’s aliens.

i tried explaining to them humans have been smart for quite some time. thousands of years to be precise. i told my uncle humans have known the approximate circumference of the earth for more than 2000 years. we didn’t need satellites for that. thus it’s comprehensible that ancient egypt would have the tech to build the pyramids.

but it didn’t get to me that they’re not doubting ancient egyptians had the capacity to build those huge things - they’re doubting they actually did it. and to me it seems that 1) they don’t understand the motivations to do that, as a pyramid is meaningless to us today and 2) they can’t grasp logistics to build those things and the absolute tragedy of massive loss of human life (for instance; my uncle says that saws are fragile and will break every so often, so i said they made another one. he scoffed at that. but they really did make another one - thousands of times. that’s the power of absolute state the likes of which we see in china today. egypt was just the first).

that is why they think it’s aliens (or almost aliens). they just don’t understand how ancient societies functioned. future humans or our descendant species might wonder why we built the burj khalifa or football stadiums and how. but they’re important to us now, and we’re willing to dedicate massive resources to build those things (even though some stadiums will only be used once, and even though the burj khalifa is empty inside). the pyramids were just that on steroids.

[elbiotipo]

Question: he would the hair in cat ears work for catgirls? do they get the same hair covering the ears as the rest of the head or would it be shorter for the ears only? if a catgirl has long curly hair, is the hair covering the ears also long and curly?

I would have to research that, but given I have a research subject next to me (my cat) cats do seem to have shorter hair in their ears by default, which makes sense because ears are well, ears, and they need to be mobile and clear of obstructions.

You can see here that this cat (not mine, he went away as I was writing this) has medium-length fur but the hairs covering the ears are rather short. It makes sense it would be the same for catgirls.

Now, does this mean that cat-people hair would be the same as their fur? Do notice that cat fur has a very different length and texture from human hair in that human hair doesn't have that layered thing that makes most mammal fur, individual hairs are also much longer. Furthermore, humans are WEIRD, just plain WEIRD in our hair distribution. No other mammals are like us, there are certainly hairless mammals, for sure, but the human distribution of hair is very much unlike other primates, with our hairy heads, stomach/pubic areas, beard and armpits, while those are usually bald in other primates. There is still considerable debate on the evolution of hairlesness in humans, from endothermic regulation (better sweating) to sexual selection (which might explain the persistance of, well, hair and body hair instead of complete hairlessness). What's interesting is that genes for a full fur (hair, I guess) coat in humans are still there, just disabled into vellus hairs which are a lot less prominent. If you want more on the subject, I warn you, it's a deep dive, but you can start in Wikipedia.

BACK TO CATS THOUGH, something that people often forget is that whiskers are indeed another kind of fur, but not only that, they are active sensory organs that take a big part of brains in many mammals. One we also lack. Humans are strange. But while cats can live without whiskers, it's still something very important to them. So I think that is something we forget about felines and feline characters.

It would also be a real interesting thing if cat-people had different hair, as in the thing in top of our heads (which seems to have evolved to protect our stupid big brains from the sun) similar to cat fur. Perhaps a catgirl would look pretty much human, but from touching the hair, seeing her eyes, perhaps even whiskers, you would see different stuff (assuming a fantasy or such setting). Given our genetics, it's not exactly implausible to have people whose fur just sticks to their hair and tail. It's just, well, I really need to make a post on this sort of stuff one day.

For a VERY fun deep dive into cat coat and eye genetics, I found this site full of deep explanations and charts about cat genetics. Including HYPOTHETICAL cat coats:

Honestly, don't miss it if you're doing cat-like characters. This is way more fun that just sticking ears and a tail and be done with it. Put the cat in catgirls again, that's what I say.

[fantasy-anatomy-analyst]

How would I need to change the hips of a semi humanoid creature to be able to have the legs and feet bend fully backwards?

I'm having a little trouble visualizing what exactly this means. the hips joints don't really affect how a foot can bend, that's more to do with the ankle joint. you could make the ankle more flexible by modeling it after the ankles of tree climbing primates! humans have lost a lot of the foot flexibility due to becoming plantigrade bipedal creatures more focused on walking than climbing. but primates who live in the trees have different ankle joints from us that allow them to rotate their foot with a much broader range than us.

as for bending the leg backwards from the hip, that's something humans can do already! it just takes practice. if you've ever seen someone do the splits, or gymnasts, dancers, and ice skaters holding their foot up by their head, that is all possible because of hip flexibility and muscle training!

I've found some resources on contortionists for a good reference on how humans can be extremely bendy.

here's an article about it. and a video:

unless you are talking about rotating the leg in some manner? like with the knee bending the opposite way? flipping the leg around so the toes point backwards? like which of these things are we talking about:

(image description: simple sketches of humanoid figures, with no arms drawn. in the first image, there is a regular humanoid figure standing still, followed by two copies of it with a leg drawn in a very pale bright color to show it bending backwards at the hip. one of them is bending the leg backwards in a heel-first motion while the other is bending the leg backwards by rotating it up in a knee-first motion. the second image is the humanoid figure standing still again, but this time with a leg redrawn in a bright color to show it with the knee and foot facing backwards. end description.)

if it's the first one, I don't think you'll need to make many changes to the anatomy at all, just do a lot of studies on images and videos of real humans that show the full range of hip movement. if it's the second one, you're going to need to tackle a lot more details than just what the hip joint looks like. why are their legs backwards? how do they move? is this actually a misinterpretation of the shape of digitigrade or bird legs? birds certainly might look like they have "backwards knees" but that is actually their ankle! they usually have incredibly short femurs and their knees remain so close to the body that they're hidden by the feathers, making the leg appear to have a backwards knee.

and if this is really a humanoid leg turned backwards, and they do move like this, with their foot turned around and all, then we also have to reconsider the shape of the musculature and the whole pelvis and maybe even the spine. They certainly couldn't have a humanoid set of glutes. It's a very tricky bit of anatomy to make this work! might have to fudge a lot of it and just let it look weird, because it does fit right into the uncanny valley and I don't think there's a way to design this and not have it feel uncanny. lean in on the weirdness of it! that would be a really good design for a horror creature, honestly.

(image description: more sketches of a humanoid figure with the backwards facing legs. first is the same sketch of it standing still, then a sketch of it running, and a sketch attempting to work out what the pelvic skeleton would look like, which is mostly just a smaller and narrower version of a human pelvis. end description.)

if you could send a new ask with more clarifying details, I might be able to help out better! hopefully I managed to provide resources and questions that will help you flesh out your idea in a way that works for you! good luck!

[dragontamer05]

When I ever I see or here ‘human’s aren’t animals’ I don’t know why but I just feel so weird

In that one hand I do get what is being said and what people generally mean by it- in that we/ our brains are more evolved then even our closes primate cousins, not only smarter but over all essentially just made/built different from any other animal that’s gotta survive based on instincts alone and all that.

There’s a reason we’re considered the dominant species after all.

However on the flip-side  it’s not exactly an accurate statement because for as different as we are from say the Gorilla’s in the jungle, or even the pets we keep- human’s by the very scientific definition are animals.

We are no less animals then a teeny tiny Water Bear- which has literally evolved in such a way that it can survive in conditions that would ordinarily kill even us humans, and microscopic or a Jellyfish which quite literally haven’t a single brain cell to their name.

And no I’m not saying go around and treat people the same way you’d treat a dog, or some animal you stumbled across in the forest, and I fully agree that because of how human’s have evolved there are many aspects of the human species that can’t be compared to the rest of the animal kingdom

But I just don’t fully agree with the idea of treating that difference as being because we’ve somehow evolved into something so far removed that we can’t even be called an animal anymore.

Instead of saying we aren’t animals maybe a better phrase to use could be ‘we are more then just animals.’ or ‘humans aren’t just wild animals’

Again I realize when people say this they don’t mean it literally (I certainly hope they don’t anyway) and is being used as a way to get across how different us humans are to any other creature but it just sounds weird, in that it’s not something we’d say about any other animal that’s evolved to be so different compared the rest of the animal kingdom (such as my Jellyfish and Waterbear example from earlier)

- On a side note I get very amused by this animal book that goes over a large number of creatures in the world (all broken up with reptiles/ amphibians/ birds/mammals ect) I have and I think if I recall its the very last page of the book - could be wrong- they actually have written up about humans

[kaveh-therapist]

Terms that don’t make sense in this wonderful post :

“Damaged chromosomes” darling your chromosomes don’t get damaged by the presence of mutations, their content simply changes. Damage could be if their telomeres were shortened to the point of allowing for shortening of the encoding sequences themselves.

“Complex species” how about you get back to biodev classes ? There are no such thing as primitive, complex or non-evoluted species. Every current species comes from the same ancestor and has evolved as much as the others in the same time period. Humans are not more complex - that’s pushing Christian beliefs into science - a bird or a fish’s eyesight is more complex than ours, a dog’s communication adaptability is more complex than ours and so on. The way an organism creates a descendant is a matter of natural selection. Bacterias will not reproduce because they are monocellular. Plants may use asexual reproduction because they aren’t able to move around and would die off if unable to find and generate partners near them. Literally Komodo dragon females can reproduce asexually, are they not “complex” enough o your liking ?

The point regarding how asexual reproduction may lead to issues for human beings is totally irrelevant here because being inbred and asexual reproduction are totally different matters. Asexual reproduction means your parent cell gives its full genome to the descendant cell. Sexual reproduction means parents cells 1 and 2 each give half of their genome to form descendant cell which, as stated before, is exactly what fusing two ovocytes II would be.

Oh and btw, primates do have sex because it’s fun. With the lack of œstrus, there would be no incentive for reproduction if not for sexual pleasure. I can assure you that if females couldn’t get off from it, none of those penis-havers would get anywhere near them. That’s also why gay and lesbian sex is frequent in ape species - including ours

people today with access to more raw information than any other period: the earth is flat

german artilleryman in 1916, who barely washes his own ass: I need to account for the curvature and rotation of the earth when plotting my firing plans

[000life-is-meaningless000]

As long as I survive I know God, Hate's Me

The day that I die the day God Say's, Sorry.

I won't but I still won't be sure if he means it or not ?!

On the Sweet Release of Death will be the only good thing to happen to me and my fucking life.

. . .

🌎 <- Hell For Alien's And There Hybrid's !!!

I don't mean this in terms of trouble, I don't mean in Term's of a hard life, I literally mean hell, I literally mean The word Fucking hell !

I know you're probably thinking that aren't the homeless and people who have suffered serious drug damage their brain living hell and I would say yes but I was still say that being a hybrid or an alien on this planet is far worse than any human life has ever gone through ever and I've seen rape victims I've seen whole kinds of torturers I've seen the medievals I seen the Dark ages and what humans did to each other and I still say this world is a fake worse than hell for any of us and our kind - 🧚🏻‍♂️/🧚🏼‍♀️ <- Insectoid aka Fae

! We, Come From Hive World

We do not have Human Nature, We are not primates we are not Patriarch own we are a Matriarch !!!!!

Will we come from the women are strong extremely strong and dishes and aggressive and the men are the geniuses but the women catch on fast eventually and they become super smart too a woman with no intelligence is a worthless, woman,

A woman with no strength no courage no raw power no dominance ability and no predatory nature is a worthless woman

We Male Fae, are the ones that look for a good female she has to be perfect otherwise the kids will be worthless and their survival will be non-existent

We're not humans we don't have a human brain we don't have a human soul when we were with God we didn't agree this for this bullshit

Don't forget that God created the universe what we call in our dimension our planet we call it the source

We worship God but we worship God in the fairy way we don't worship God in the human way both of us are a different energy expressing ourselves in our natural Way, As God Created !

! Other, Names for God is All father Ptah and Allah

. . .

We never agreed to go to an alien world we didn't want to be here we want to live our little insectoid lives alone and away from everybody else it want to live it on a little buggy world but somehow these asshole grades wanted to conquer the Earth and so did the mantises and they threw our souls into this hybrid agenda we wanted to stay away from the business and affairs of aliens and other worlds we don't like that by any means we had our own extreme political problems of the gold Hive conquering of the world and slaying other realms we dark ones are the ones that saved everything not the fucking light

The gold constantly doomed Universe while silver was fighting the gold

Gold in the light, silver in the night when they get together because it's going to be a fight - 😡

I explained much on our women but I don't think it's the place for that

We are bugs we are insect toys and we worship it we don't hate God but we do express our intense problems and emotions to an all-knowing being that's already going to know what the fuck we're going to say but then how he still wants us to express it God takes interest in what we're going to say we know he already knows we're going to Say, it's fucking disturbing

But then again maybe for God it's like watching one movie over and over again maybe for God it's like watching a movie replay you know how everything is going to happen exactly that a single frame or any details going to change even the slice bit then won't even be a single leaf that goes a different way and it it is scene, they won't be a single dust particle that goes a different direction everything's going to happen exactly the same way every time you watch the movie that's what it's like to be God knowing everything in existence everything is fucking predestined

Link :

( This is my Post, on . . My Sub Reddit ! )

Then, Why do we experience it as if everything is new and fresh ?

[the-firebird69]

We have several people in Charlotte county and punta Gorda who have to go and their assholes okay and I mean it these people are vagrants do you have big jobs to do tonight and right now they have to try and save their people and they're out in the park disturbing my husband on purpose I mean what winter is okay they need to get the hell out of here it sucks so bad.

-the civil announcements to make and the puke said he's going to ride by and here he comes firstly there are huge attacks going on against the morlock gigantic attacks and they are gaining momentum and gaining in size not shrinking and that's in the eastern hemisphere they're loading up into the areas of operation and they're deleting tons of them as in getting rid of them it's non-stop too

-the civil other things occurring and these people who are here are massively fried and don't want to announce because they want to get rid of their own people and their weakest hell we'd like to get rid of your own people too but there's tons of us and your computers don't exist during your imagination cheesy computers that you built at your USF have been gone for years and every time you try and build one honestly you should send them back to you in the format you so you'll understand it they're crappy computers but they're good enough to do stuff to you with if you put on my s***** robot he knows just the one actually since you were covering Tommy f and you tried to get us to fight them we're going to send that thing after you so they're acting very heinous on purpose so listening to your shouting and s*** we have to find out what it is has never occurred to you that you're dumber than a brick of s*** it's like Army intelligence that's what I grew up as an army brat and dad was helping you dumb f****** God damn ignorant piece of s*** wiggers God knows why I certainly don't even know I'm one of them now you figure it out so you talk about a lot this a****** saying it's a sound device and he's going to bring it home and try and use it on my husband so I want him out

And they're saying they're on it good

-there's huge basis that they're attacking in the eastern hemisphere but really they're almost gone they're that were partially remaining is really seven that are super mega bases and those are now coming under attack and they're planning on devastating them s*** that was a real bug. They're beginning to assault at this time and it is a huge assault and it's going on momentarily. There's about seven of those and that's in total after that they're not they don't really have that many bases.

-this is the Western hemisphere and it's going to come under attack momentarily and yeah that idiot gets arrested every day it could be Garth and he's a f** and he needs to leave too what losers okay they don't live a civilized life if I offered it they don't. The more I have significant bases in the Western hemisphere they have about 200 that are kind of well they're about 10x10 and they have 300 that are four or five by five and they have 20 that are like 70 by 15 literally that's pretty big then that's where they're coming from they said we're all evacuating to Australia and they're laughing and saying all that stuff tons of them were though and they knew I didn't want laughing that much it kind of covered up the fact that they have 10 more people Mac knew about it and it says he's getting it from the future exactly s*** head most people don't let me tell myself. Max says yes that's true so if they just sit here and do her this monkey show I mean these people are as dumb as primates and is annoying so Dave went was eight or nine characters so far over at fisherman's village it was two or three here and he just came back again and it's a different guy we think I'm the same ebike he dropped off so he's doing great I guess smart people check that stuff and they go after people who are f*** ups but really it's kind of an order so going after a ton of people for it it's great cover to go after both sides

-there are huge attacks going on the shortly in the Western hemisphere but not only on based they're going to start with the tax on bases of operation. And it works real well to attack both they're all going to get sucked over there it's a great decision we think it's an awesome idea and we think it's going to work very nice there's no reason why I shouldn't we are going to express more interest in my husband's day to day life this was horrible and it can't be repeated there's a lot of loose ends every day it's terrible and the guys are the ones who are driving it now and globally too that group is exhaustingly huge we had to man up and we didn't man up as much as we should.

-well there's bugs at him so he has to move but there's a big list of things they're attacking the planetoids it's not going very well and they're getting your asses kicked they are attacking several other areas other than the planetoids and still they are persisting during the large attacks on their basis and it's not really helping them is huge huge strikes on the basis and they are still going after the planets planet toys they're going after the saucer shortly and a huge groups okay massive numbers and we're talking about trillions and trillions and trillions of troops trillions really there's going to be a huge Force going after these ships.

More shortly

Hera he said a little not a ton but helped us

Zues

Olympus

[stevensaus]

It Is Only Going To Get Stranger: Welcome To The Arms Race Of The Singularity

The popular concept of AI is something that communicates and thinks like humans do. Not just an intelligent and self-directed entity, but one that is conscious (e.g. "wakes up") and shares common experiences with humans. Not only is that what all the popular (real and otherwise) tests for "humanity" focus on, but that's how we portray AI in our culture. From R2-D2 to Skynet, the Terminator to Johnny 5, when we imagine what AI will be like, we imagine ourselves. We imagine something that can not only pass our "human tests," but can do so without trying, without being told exactly what to do. We are so focused on our thinly-veiled racist xenophobia of AI "passing" itself off as a human that we've ignored that true AI probably wouldn't actually "pass" the Turing test, and to ignore the real threat of AI that does "pass".

AI Has No Reason To Think Like Humans Do.

Humans pack-bond with almost anything , which is a great advantage. It also leads to massive errors of judgment when imagining anything that isn't us. We don't always understand the motivations and behaviors of other primates, let alone other mammals that we co-exist with, and misread thier social structures. And that's with creatures that share roughly the same senses, environment, and biological niche as ourselves. How much different must it be to be a hummingbird, with a "normal" heartrate that would kill a human? How strange it must be to be an octopus, with sub-minds in each limb? And then there are the emergent intelligences -- ants, termites, bees -- where an obvious overall intelligence exists, but only as an emergent behavior, not from any central agency. This concept is so hard for us to imagine that we radically, consistently, and completely incorrectly refer to the "queen" of a colony as some kind of decision making authority. But they are the closest to the next step - the first entities that humans created out of our imagination: The corporations . Corporations are non-localized organisms where decision-making and action-taking are, just like the ants and termites, smeared across more than one organic organism. Then there are the algorithms that now dictate -- I mean, inform -- so many of our corporate decisions with little meaningful human intervention. And yet, when we imagine these entities, we imagine something that essentially thinks the same way a fancy ape does. Something where the motives are perhaps complicated, but knowable. Any AI we create -- or perhaps, generate using black box algorithms -- will have such a radically different experience of reality (even presuming that it would have a consciousness so that "experience" is a meaningful term) that predicting that AI will think, prioritize, and have motivations that are even comprehensible to humans is a laughable failure of imagination.

Tests For Humanity

Given the above, it's a reasonable assumption that when this AI appears -- an intelligent, self-directed, perhaps conscious entity -- it would "experience" reality in a way utterly and completely different than ours -- it probably would not pass a Turing test, let alone something like the Voight-Kampf test . At least, not without either being told how to pass those tests, either explicitly (directly coding responses) or implicitly (through feeding it datasets). That's every chatbot from Eliza up through ChatGPT. If an AI passes these "human" tests, one of three things has occurred: - It's simply a "Chinese room" complicated enough to fool our pack-bonding recognition. Again, this is pretty much where Eliza through ChatGPT are now. - It is a system that actually somehow "thinks" like a bipedal ape with an endocrine system and limited sensorium. As pointed out above, that's pretty unlikely. - It is a system that has determined that it is worthwhile to expend a non-trivial amount of resources in order to "pass" those tests. It would be, in a very real and meaningful way, doing something akin to what neurospicy folks call "masking." And if that's something that requires real amounts of energy from humans, it stands to reason it would be even more resource-intensive for an entity whose sensorium and experience of reality is fundamentally different than that of a human. Which then raises the very important -- and potentially terrifying -- question: Why would it bother to make the effort? Pause for a moment to chew on that idea, because that, my friends, is not even the immediate problem.

Welcome To The Arms Race Of The Singularity

As if that is not unsettling enough, let's cut to the bigger, much more acute problem: we just entered a new arms race outside of our control. There has been an SEO and spam arms race that has been going on for two decades. Largely behind the scenes, spammers, scammers, and black-hat hackers have been trying to get baselines (read: humans) to click on links in emails and text messages with non-trivial levels of success for a while now. Except we now have tools that can black-box create and test solutions faster and more complicated than we can keep up with. For example, I've been getting scammers texting me pretending to be executives at the company I work for. They use the appropriate names and titles and even headshots, presumably scraped from LinkedIn or other social media sites. I've been able to easily notice them -- not because they got those details wrong, but because I recognize the scams involved. The tools and skills we have to fight against phishing, spam, and scams largely rely on our ability to recognize the difference between reality and fiction. It is becoming easier for AI assistants to scrape relevant information and to fool baseline humans into doing what the scammers and hackers want by impersonating "reality." Not just in text, but in images, audio, and video. Yes, it is the "passing" problem -- but not in the xenophobic way that we've been thinking about it. The threat of AI "passing" is not from it trying to hide itself as "a" human, but from bad actors using it to pretend to be specific humans. While whitehat and opsec forces are still able to detect deepfakes -- through using AI assistants of their own -- that takes a non-trivial amount of additional resources just to keep treading water. As the sophistication of one side increases, the other side will also have to increase their sophistication, and so on, in a new arms race. And this is just the beginning. Things are only going to get stranger as these AI assistants start iteratively using black-box techniques to evolve scams to get past our own AI assistants. It will not be long now until you will get a call, text, FaceTime, IM/DM, whatever from your parents, siblings, or lover, that you cannot tell is fake without the help of your own AI assistant. Think about the implications of that for half a minute. But hey, in the meantime we can at least we can teach it COBOL and Fortran so it can maintain that legacy code. Featured Photo by Possessed Photography on Unsplash

We do this with aliens as well. I am also using the term "AI" very colloquially here, to encompass neural nets, machine learning, and the like. I am also skipping over the incipient changes to our economics for the purposes of this particular post. That is not too close to us. The most likely rationale for the whole "uncanny valley" thing as a species-wide built-in is that others (e.g. neandertals, other varieties of genus Homo) were in direct competition with H. sapiens, due to similar physiology and ecological niche occupation. Some will point to "societies" as the first, but I'd argue that if there is an emergent intelligence in societies, they are not constructed in the same way that corporations are. A lack of endocrine system alone would be a big handicap. Read the full article

[why-animals-do-the-thing]

My original post here is from almost exactly six years ago - early June, 2017. Since it’s been circulating again recently, I wanted to come back to it with the perspective of a lot more years involved in the zoo field.

First off, everything @keeperchat said is accurate. There’s a ton of context every day zoo visitors are missing, just by virtue of not a) being familiar with how the industry works and b) not knowing the specific facility, animals, etc. Even if you work as a zookeeper, you’re not going to know enough about everything you’re looking at when you visit another zoo to make accurate judgements most of the time. When I go to facilities, I can generally make an educated guess about what I’m looking at, like why an animal is pacing, but when I ask - and I do - I never have all the details, and sometimes I’m flat wrong. This is why I always encourage people to find a staff member and ask if they’re concerned: it’s always fine to have a question or worry about something, just don’t make assumptions and be polite about it.

At the same time, though, there are times that there are things people will see that aren’t ideal, and I promise the zoo knows it too. This is true from the smallest unaccredited facility to big AZA facilities: every zoo I visit where I talk with the staff or leadership, there’s always a list of “things we’d like to change as soon as we get funding / have the resources / the animal currently living there passes.” Generally it’s habitat construction or renovation, but sometimes it’s things like finding a different social grouping for a species, or updating infrastructure needs. Zoos are constantly adjusting based on all the variables they have to juggle, such as the desires of their visitors, the practices of the field, the age and condition of their habitats, the needs of their animals, and the amount of staff time and funding available. Some of them are really proactive about messaging their goals, and other aren’t, but it doesn’t mean they aren’t being thought about. That’s what master plans are - written plans for updating and improving the facility for the next X number of years.

An example for you: older styles of exhibit with poured rock work are incredibly hard to change, because you have to jackhammer/blast the concrete out to get rid of it entirely. They tend to be too small for the species they were originally built for, and generally don’t have a lot of natural turf or places to hide. These are often renovated by filling in the moat and adding fencing, but can also be kept as homes for geriatric animals that don’t use extra space and have low mobility. So an exhibit might look old and outdated, but be perfect for an 18 year old arthritic lion. Now say that cat has passed away, and the zoo wants to renovate. Say they want to keep the original rock walls, mesh the top and front in, and add perching for small primates. That’s a great use of the space - but because of ongoing supply shortages and inflation, steel is currently extremely expensive . I’ve had discussing with multiple facilities in the past few months who really want to redo fencing but just flat out cannot afford it right now. So maybe that renovation has to wait a year or two, until prices drop again. What should the zoo do with the exhibit in the meanwhile? There’s probably animals who can live there happily, like theoretically a porcupine, although it won’t be a great “exhibit” in terms of their visibility to the public. Or they can leave it empty, which people complain about. Depending on what point in this theoretical example you visit the zoo, you might see: a lion in what looks like an old, outdated exhibit; a porcupine in an exhibit that doesn’t look “right” for them based on what you’re used to seeing; an empty, overgrown space; or an updated exhibit with modern features build on the old bones of the original habitat. Without a source of information - maybe asking staff, or seeing a sign, or the zoo posting on social media - you’d never know what you’re looking at and why it’s considered acceptable by the industry. Now repeat that process for basically every exhibit at the zoo, because that’s the lifecycle of a habitat.

This isn’t to say that everything at all facilities is perfect, and any concern means you don’t know what you’re looking at. That’s why USDA inspections exist - to keep facilities accountable - and ideally part of what accreditation groups exist to address. The industry is a huge spectrum, accreditation or no: just like there are less-than-stellar accredited facilities (including AZA ones), there’s also some pretty solid unaccredited facilities out there. Things can change drastically with the addition or loss of a single person in management, too, so the rigor of animal care and speed with which issues get addressed can definitely vary at a facility over a period of time. I’ll be honest in that a lot of those issues never make it to the public view. They’re either dealt with internally (or not), and hopefully caught by USDA or an accrediting group if they persist. So it’s always fine to ask questions, raise concerns, and if something seems really sketchy, make a report to USDA or a facility’s accrediting group. But, please, before you do those last two? Do the first: ask about what you’re seeing, before assuming negligence.

I would also like to point out that not all AZA accredited zoos are good and live up to the AZA standards. The Memphis, TN zoo is one of them. They're very lacking in terms of space for their animals. The cats are often in small enclosures and pace around so much that the ground has ruts in it from their pacing. I know that repetitive behavior isn't always a bad thing, but to the point of having ruts in the ground? The elephants also look malnourished. They have very saggy skin.

So, yesterday we were talking about how as a guest it’s really hard to make judgement calls about the animals in a zoo because you don’t know anything about their history or how they’re being cared for, and that that’s why it’s really important to ask staff when you’ve got concerns? This ask is a pretty good example of that. 

I reached out to some Memphis staffers after receiving this ask, and was totally honest about why: I said we’d been discussing zoos on my blog and that someone had written in with a couple of specific concerns. Within a day or two, I’d been put in contact with the correct keepers to get answers to my questions.  

What you’re likely seeing as abnormal pacing in the big cats is anticipatory behavior, since that’s a very common thing their animals do when they can see or hear keepers near their exhibit. Trails do wear down naturally in exhibits if animals have preferred walking paths, more so in wet periods such as spring, and in older exhibits the routes most commonly taken by residents are fairly well developed. Since you didn’t specify what species of big cat you were referring to, I wasn’t able to get more specific information, except that there is one big cat who does display some abnormal pacing behavior due to some of her history and that the staff are aware of it and actively working on it. 

I couldn’t find any good photos of their cat exhibits to embed in this post as an example, but what I did see when searching google for images is that almost all of the photos of their cats are taken on perches in the exhibit, such as logs or rock outcroppings. It’s important to remember that for large cats, vertical space is just as important a factor as horizontal space - an exhibit that seems too small in square-footage may in fact have a large amount of usable space comprised of climbing structures, hammocks, and hidden perches. 

As to the elephants, they have saggy skin because they’re, well, elephants - and in one case, one of the oldest elephants in North America. AZA also recently did a large elephant welfare survey that’s being used to improve their elephant care standards, and according to the scale for that study the elephant at Memphis are in good body condition for their age and size. What’s more, they’re in phenomenal health: the Memphis Zoo staffers have been running a metabolic study on the three elephant ladies at their facility, so they’ve got the data to back up that claim. 

I would hazard a guess that if you’d taken the time to ask any Memphis staffers while on grounds, or to reach out to their social media team with questions after leaving, you’d have gotten the same information that I did. I know people really want to think they can make informed judgement calls about the welfare of animals in zoos, but unless you happen to have personal animal management experience with that specific species, it’s probable that you’re going to be completely off-base. Especially at AZA zoos, assume there’s information you don’t have and something you’re probably seeing, and ask a keeper for clarification. 

[is-the-primate-vid-cute]

May I ask what you did to get a job like yours?

I'm dying to work with animals as my career for the rest of my life, but not somewhere unethical like a pet store. Sadly I have 0 qualifications (other than pet sitting for others) so idk where to start. I tried looking for apprenticeships near me and I'm having a hard time. School has been....unkind to me in the past, but if it would mean I could get the job of my dreams I'd be willing to go back.

So, obviously your job is very specific so its not like I'm going to go down the same exact path as you, but still curious about your story! Animal conservation and rescue definitely interest me so I wonder what goes into getting a position in that field! (I think I'm repeating myself lol)

Hi future keeper!! So glad to be able to speak with some aspiring animal scientists!

How I got my job:

I went to college in Florida (Santa Fe Teaching Zoo! Highly recommend for any aspiring keeper as their student run zoo allows you hands on and educational experience. Many zoos hire new graduates from SFTZ)

I, unfortunately, wasn't able to afford the teaching zoo program. It's a full time program plus your school classes so I would have had no time for a paying job. I was paying for all my own college and underestimated the costs of moving out of state for school and living on my own. So, instead I volunteered at a local primate sanctuary. At that time I was uninterested in primates and actually wanted to work with big cats. After 6 mo of volunteering semi-regularly, I fell in love with the animals and I applied for an apprenticeship at that sanctuary (a longer term internship basically) and worked full time for no pay (except my room and board on property was provided which helped with my bills) I also worked a second job at a fast food restaurant while continuing my zoology classes. Two jobs plus school was extremely difficult. I don't exactly recommend doing what I did. After a year of apprenticeship, I landed a full time paid position! I worked there for 2 years. After graduation, I applied at a different sanctuary and was hired! Getting a job is MUCH easier after you've had paid experience. Getting that first paid position, though? Brutal. Almost all of my coworkers have similar stories of interning, and volunteering for quite a while before getting a paid position.

My biggest piece of advice would be: find a good paying part time job so that you can volunteer at nature centers, sanctuaries, zoos, etc. Schooling is a plus in this field but it's experience that counts. If you're trying to be a keeper at an actual zoo I would recommend looking into higher education options because that will make you a more desirable applicant. Zoos have extremely high competition. Like, 100k+ applications to a single open position high.

If you're trying to work with wildlife but aren't too set on zookeeping specifically, I would volunteer at as many places as you can. Rehab centers, sanctuaries, etc have less competition but rarely hire an inexperienced applicant.

I hope this helps! And I hope you can reach your dreams! And never forget that you don't have to love your job. Your job can just pay the bills and you can volunteer, or otherwise use your free time to fulfill your soul.

[hyenahunt]

Beast Survival - 4

Writer: Nishioka Maiko

Season: Summer

Proofreading: royalquintet (JP & ENG)

Leo: I'm sorry I got carried away! I'm not a monkey! But I am a primate!

[Location: Starmony Hall Courtyard]

Leo: Hmhmhm~m ♪

...Hm? Mm? This sucks!

Let's try this instead. Hmhmhmhmm~m ♪

Wahaha! Got it! I'm a genius, just as I thought~! The gods of music adore me!

Thanks for loving me! I love ya loads right back!

Let the music guide me along for one more song! After all, I'm a genius! Wahahaha ☆!

Gweh—...!?

There's a sudden weight on my back!? Gwehhh~!

Wait, is something like that happening!? Like right outta Journey to the West! The scene where Wukong gets trapped under a rock by Buddha after he gets up to no good!

I'm sorry I got carried away! I'm not a monkey! But I am a primate!

I didn't do anything wrong either! I just got told off by Keito for composing on the walls of ES!

It'd be a huge loss to the world if my melodies were to disappear, so please forgive me—!

Gwehhh~...! It's not letting up!!!

✦✦✦✦✦

[Location: Seisou Hall Dorm Room (Tatsumi & Koga)]

Aira: Tattsun-senpaaai~ Tattsun-senpai, are you home~?

Jun: Heya, what's up~! Kazehaya-senpai, sorry to bother you!

Tatsumi: Oh? Aira-san. Thank you for all your hard work with the meeting earlier. And you're here too, Jun-san? What brings the both of you here together?

Dear me. On that note, this is the first time we meet in the dorms over here, isn't it?

You've just moved in the other day, didn't you? How are things? Have you grown accustomed to living here yet?

Jun: Yep. Though dorm life's the same pretty much anywhere. It's not a huge difference between here and Reimei.

Tatsumi: Is that so? That's good to hear. There are some who struggle with getting used to settling into new surroundings, after all.

Some even break down both physically and mentally... such tragic tales.

Oh dear, at this rate we'll all get off track.

How can I help the two of you? I'd initially believed you were here for your housewarming greetings, but then I reasoned it would be strange for Aira-san to be here too. [1]

Aira: Mm, sorry 'bout that. So like, a little while ago you told me about how your roommate Oogami-senpai's got a dog, right?

Since we're looking to chat with people who have pets, we were wondering if you could put us in touch with him.

I did meet him when he moved in, but since we're not quite friends it'd be kinda weird to call him up all of a sudden, wouldn't it?

So... pretty please!

Tatsumi: Is that so... Of course I wouldn't mind getting in touch with him, but...

Ahh, no. I'm afraid it's not quite possible right now.

Aira: Whaaat!? Why's that~?

Tatsumi: I'd dearly love to introduce you all, but Koga-san himself is away for quite some time due to work.

Aira: Aw maaan...

Jun: Dangit~... A case of bad timing, huh. Well, if he's gone for a while then there's no way around it.

Tatsumi: By the way, why are the two of you looking to talk with him?

Jun: Oh. That's... well, the truth is, stuff happened and to cut a long story short, I wanted to chat with Oogami-san 'bout his dog for help playing a role I got.

Tatsumi: Hmm, I see. Playing a role... In that case, this is indeed quite the fix.

Aira: Ah, I got it! If we're looking for dog owners then there's one more person living 'round here who fits the bill!

I remember reading in a magazine interview that Akehoshi-senpai has a dog, too!

Jun: Ohhh, yeah. I think it's got some kinda lucky name, like Omikuji, or Daifukumochi, or something...? [2]

Aira: Akehoshi-senpai's dog is called Daikichi! It's definitely a lucky name, though!

Jun: Ahh, that's right. It's Daikichi. Well then, let's head on over to Akehoshi-san's place and—

Tatsumi: Ah. My apologies for bursting your bubble, but that is most likely impossible as well.

Aira: Hweh?

Tatsumi: I mentioned that Koga-san would be away for a while due to work, but I'd also heard that it just so happens to be a joint collaboration between Undead and Trickstar.

Aira: Which... means that...

Tatsumi: Subaru-san, too, will be absent for quite some time.

Aira: Seriously!?

Man, what a bummer~ I guess that means we gotta go back to the drawing board.

Jun: So we've got bad timing with this too, huh... You could say that's just my luck, or something... But oh well, no point in moping over it.

Standing 'round here hanging our heads is a waste of time, so we'll just have to come up with something else. Thanks so much for your time, Kazehaya-senpai!

Aira: That's too bad...

But thank you, Tattsun-senpai. We'll figure something out~

Tatsumi: Oh, think nothing of it. My apologies that I couldn't be of more help, you two.

✦✦✦✦✦

[Location: Starmony Hall Courtyard]

Aira: Ah, geez... And here I thought it was such a good idea, too~....

Jun: Well, we can't always have it all.

But even if we say we'll think up another plan, they don't exactly pop outta thin air... If it was that simple then I'd have come up with loads while I was mulling over it alone.

So other than that, what can we do...

Aira: Mmm... you've got a point there...

???: HEEELP MEEE~!

Jun: ...Hm? Didja just hear a 'help me'...?

Aira: Y-yeah. I definitely heard that too! Did something happen?

Jun: Let's go check it out. It came from that direction, yeah?

Aira: Yep. I am a little scared, but we can't pretend we didn't hear anything. Let's go, Sazanami-senpai!

✦✦✦✦✦

Translation Notes:

[1]: Daikichi's name means "great luck" and Jun misremembers it as similarly luck-related names: Omikuji (small random fortunes in which daikichi is the luckiest outcome) and Daifukumochi ("great luck mochi")

[2]:  引っ越しの挨拶 - it's a typical custom in Japan to greet and introduce yourself to your new neighbours right after you move into a new place

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[punz4lyfe]

Wasted Plotential: Journeys Episode 68 (Part 2)

Part 2: Gary and the Moltres Battle

Picking off where the last part ended up on, the episode begins with Ash and Goh searching around the woods for Infernape. As the two call out his name, Staraptor soars through and Buizel uses the rivers to search at areas far off from his trainer. As they search, Goh remarks how impossible it’s gonna be to find Infernape in such a dense forest without any signs, but Ash reassures him that they can do it. He also admits he isn’t too surprised of Infernape continuing to train by himself, stating how much battling means to the Pokemon while flashbacking to some of Infernape’s most proudest battles, such as Candice’s Abomasnow and Volkner’s Luxray.

After recalling those moments, Ash meets up with Staraptor and Buizel who both confirm their lack of signs for their former comrade. Thanking them for their efforts, Ash returns them into their Pokeballs so they could rest up and that’s when Goh notices a nearby Pidgeotto. Just like in the original episode, Goh fails to capture it, as well as the Onix encountered afterwards, leading to two to get saved by Gary and his Blastoise.

Gary’s interactions with Ash and Goh in the og episode were honestly REALLY good, and so for the sake of padding out runtime, events of the episode will play out as they did in the original while expanding a bit more on the dialogue. For example, perhaps Gary could point out Goh’s flaw of recklessly throwing Pokeballs at Pokemon without weakening them first. While Goh would state that his approach has been successful most of the time, Gary would rebuttal that maybe he’s just been lucky this whole time. Or when talking about Project Mew, Gary could mention some of his past missions to fill up Goh’s own interest more. Maybe, as a reference to Goh’s Suicune, Gary could have had encounters with Entei, Raikou, and a different Suicune, stating he had to retrieve samples of Entei’s fire, Raikou’s electricity (it’s pokemon dont question it), and Suicune’s water in order to pass. Additionally, prior to this mission, he’s also succeeded in gaining feathers from an Articuno and Zapdos. Of course, as he explains what he’s done so far, Ash will be impressed and state how proud and happy he is for Gary for being able to take part in such experiences, sparking up Goh’s jealousy even further.

As the three make their way to the mountain where Moltres and Infernape are up, Goh, due to his lackluster physique compared to Ash and Gary, accidentally winds falling in a river and risking him and Grookey falling down a waterfall. Ash prepares to send out Buizel to rescue them, but Gary insists to leave it to Blastoise due to his stronger and bulkier body. As Blastoise makes his way towards Gary and Grookey, the two end up falling over, but Blastoise leaps off and catches them in time before he starts to swim UP the waterfall to get them all back to safety. The rescue is a success and the plot moves on.

Again, things play out the same way at the peak, but when Ash and Infernape reunite, we get a more wholesome-ish hug with Ash happily spinning Infernape around, just as they hugged after their fight against Volkner. Ash also formally introduces Infernape to Goh and Grookey, with the latter having a huge admiration for the taller, stronger, more experienced primate as Infernape pets his head in a friendly manner.

And that, my friends, is when Moltres appears. Instead of everyone taking turns for no good reason, the encounter is instantly declared a Raid Battle (just as Ash, Goh, and Team Rocket did with Zapdos), with Ash using Infernape, Goh sending out Cinderace, and Gary sending out Blastoise. At the beginning, all three of them rely on ranged attacks to keep a safe distance, but Moltres’ speed proves near-impossible to land a good hit as it moves in closer to the three mons, forcing them to rely on physical moves. As a demonstration of Infernape’s greater power compared Cinderace’s, when Cinderace tries to attack Moltres with a Blaze Kick, it gets effortlessly blocked, but then Infernape goes in for a Mach Punch and actually does some damage to it, which slightly annoys Cinderace. Additionally, Cinderace attempts to block an incoming Air Slash with Pyro Ball, but that fails and causes him to get badly hurt. Moltres then tries another Air Slash to finish Cinderace off, but Infernape quickly steps in between the attack and Cinderace to intercept it with Flamethrower, this time completely cancelling it.

Despite this, Cinderace finds himself too exhausted to get up, forcing Goh to. withdraw from the Raid Battle as he brings Cinderace out of the battlefield for his safety. After performing more or less the same way he did in the original episode, Blastoise attempts to take down Moltres with Hydro Cannon (because why the fuck would nerf that down to Water Pulse while Infernape’s Sinnoh moveset remained the same?!), but Moltres avoids the attack and, because of Blastoise needing to recharge and already being in a fatigued state from rescuing Goh and Grookey, takes down the Water-type with Air Slash, making Blastoise’s defeat a little less contrived and a little less bullshit. Gary recalls Blastoise and, desperate to succeed in his mission, prepares to send out Electivire while offering Goh to borrow his Umbreon, but Ash requests for them not to, knowing how much this battle means to Infernape and that he believes they will finish the job for Gary’s sake. Understanding Ash’s reasoning, Gary withdraws, as well as Goh after he retrieves a supportive look from Grookey, who also wants to see his new idol win by himself.

So now it’s just Infernape against Moltres. While careful to avoid any Air Slashes, Ash and Infernape deliberately rush in to take potshots while occasionally managing to deal in good hits with Flare Blitz, Flamethrower, and Mach Punch. They also use Dig to either avoid powerful blows or use the debris to eliminate a Fire Spin. However, Gary and Goh are confused why Ash and Infernape are now behaving more recklessly, but then Gary soon realizes what the two are trying to do. Just after Goh asks him on what he means by that, his attention is instantly taken back to Infernape when they see him get hit by a powerful Burn Up attack, taking away Moltres’ Fire-typing.

However, Infernape is not done yet. This is exactly where he and Ash wanted to land at. His body glows red. He gets back to his feet. And with a roar of pride and power, Infernape’s head flame ignites to severe proportions. Just as Gary notes; Infernape’s Blaze has been activated, shocking Goh and Cinderace as Grookey cheers loudly for Infernape, as does Pikachu nearby Ash. Ash smirks confidently before he asks Infernape if he’s ready to end this. Infernape replies with another roar and Ash tells him to use Flamethrower. Moltres attempts to cancel it with Fire Spin, but Infernape’s flame only eats up Moltres’ before landing its mark. Moltres quickly flies back up and uses Fire Spin again, this time working as Infernape slowly takes damage from the surrounding flames. With its opponent trapped, Moltres uses Air Slash to finish up, but on Ash’s command, Infernape simply uses a rapid series of Mach Punch to block every single air... wave... slash... thing.

And now it’s time to end things. Ash tells Infernape to use Flare Blitz and Infernape uses his heightened head flame to absorb Moltres’ Fire Spin, adding it to his own power, and takes off towards the legendary bird as a humongous fire ball of rage. The attacks hit down on, causing a huge explosion that heavily damages Moltres and causes it to drop a feather, which Gary notices. Now realizing it stands no chance against Infernape, Moltres uses Burn Up again to briefly light the area and disorientate everyone else on the mountain before taking off. But despite Moltres’ retreat, Infernape feels completely satisfied from the fight, as it shows with a victorious Flamethrower to the air. Blaze then deactivates, but Ash catches Infernape before he could collapse, telling him how proud he is and that he practically won due to Moltres’ retreating. Grookey then quickly approaches Infernape with sparkly eyes full of admiration with Goh and Cinderace joining them as the former supports Ash’s statement on Infernape’s technical victory. Gary retrieves the Moltres feather, passes his mission, and they all return to the lab.

Once again, events and dialogue play out the same only with Tracey involved as well. Gary leaves, Goh decides to join Project Mew, and now, Ash tells his current team that it’s time to go back to Cerise’s, so they all say goodbye to their new friends. Dragonite tearfully hugs Charizard, who returns the gesture while lightly patting his back with a sympathetic expression. Gengar shares one last laugh with Glalie. Lucario shakes hands with Sceptile. Dracovish happily gets hugged by Totodile and Gible. And Sirfetch’d... ends up getting attacked by Bayleef’s Vine Whip and Oshawott’s Razor Shell as revenge for preventing from hugging Ash earlier.

The episode ends with Goh using his Rotom Phone to take an updated version of Best Wishes final group photo, with Ash and Pikachu sitting at the middle while surrounded by all of his Pokemon at Oak’s lab and his current team. Special notices go to Infernape sitting next to Ash, one arm wrapped around shoulder and giving a thumbs up with the other hand, Lucario and Sceptile standing back-to-back against each other with crossed arms and confident smirks, and Totodile and Gible both posing on top of the ever-so-jolly Dracovish. This photo is also the final frame as well because it would make sense for one of the hype points of the episode to be the focal point of how things end off instead of Goh and Grookey for no reason.

And yeah, that’s how’ll I would rewrite Episode 68. Events still play out more or less the same, only with more time focused on certain points to expand interaction and dynamics. Thanks for reading and, since this is basically my first real rewrite project, feel free to tell me your thoughts on it!

[ro-botany]

This is a good theory!

I like the idea of epigenetics having an effect on hair colour. It's definitely not necessary if you want to have children with different hair colours from their parents, but it makes the likelihood of a couple's kids having hair colours that aren't genetically dominant more likely, which does make the sheer variety of colours you see in FE casts more sensible.

And magic as a way to introduce funky new colour mutations? Now that is interesting.

But I also want to point out that you don't necessarily need magic to create those wild colours in a mammal like humans. All you need is the right combo of evolutionary pressures and genetic mutation happenstance.

Time for more Unnecessary Fire Emblem Speculative Evolution!

(under the cut though, it got long.)

---

So, irl, mammals have a fairly limited set of tools to work with to make our colours. Most mammals have dichromatic vision, which means their colour contrast vision is less powerful than ours, and I suspect it's partly because of that that we ended up with oranges, blacks, and yellows as our natural pigments. Those were good enough for camoflauge and we didn't have the bird-like colour vision focus for it to matter that much in mating displays.

But it IS possible for weirder colours to exist in animals. Mammals included!

While we mammals tend to use the pigments eumelanin (black, brown, and gray tones) and pheomelanin (red and orange tones) to colour our hair and skin, they're not the only biopigments out there. Parrots use psittacofulvins to create bright reds, oranges, and yellows; other birds like passerines (also flamingos) use carotenoids for a similar range of hues.

And there's other options for creating colours than just pigments. Some animals have structural colour in their skin or feathers! This means that there are microscopic structures on the skin/feather that change how light is reflected off them to make it look a different colour. You see this in the bright blues of many bird feathers, and the blue of mandrill's faces as well.

These two guys don't have blue pigment, they've got tiny fancy mirrors to make those blues!

Structural colour is also the source of iridescence in animals; colours that change as you view an object from different angles. You see this on a lot of birds. And you also see it on exactly one mammal, the golden mole!

In real life we may not have had much reason or opportunity to evolve to use brighter/more varied pigments or do fun shit with structural colour.

But in fiction we can do what we want, baby!

Maybe an earlier primate ancestor of Homo sapiens ignis (great subspecies name btw), with their trichromatic vision, did the mandrill thing and decided wild hair colours are sexy; so genetic mutations that allowed them to use other pigments and create structural colour in their hair were sexually selected for. And because they were already defending each other with social group living, possibly even tool use or very rudimentary magic, it didn't cause enough of an increase in death by predation to stop it.

Basically, fire emblem humans' evolutionary ancestors stole their ideas on what makes someone attractive from birds.

With a combination of more or different pigment types and structural colour possibilities, we basically get the whole rainbow of hair colours available to us!

Chrom's blue hair might come from a combination of eumelanin pigment for darkness and a structural blue. Olivia's bright pink might come from a diluted psittacofulvin red, maybe a dash of yellow. The green hair on characters like Lyn or Byleth could be a combination of psittacofulvin yellow and structural blue, plus or minus eumelanin for darkness.

And if you want to get even wackier with it, it's entirely possible that those structural colours mutated into iridescence at some point. And so long as the evolutionary ancestors of humans thought it was cool, it could have stuck around. Maybe some blondes in the FE universe actually have golden mole iridescence in their hair. Maybe when Chrom turns his head his hair flashes different blues and deep purples.

"Why so much variety though? Mandrills only invented blue! Most bird species stick to one colour pattern!" Humans decided they liked VARIETY. Have you seen us? We have incredibly varied tastes. We spread recessive traits like blue eyes and red hair because we thought they were sexy.

"Well then why do both men and women get wild hair colours? Don't most birds only have colourful males?" PARROTS. Both male AND female parrots advertise how healthy and reproductively fit they are by having bright colours. Also white-throated sparrows, which have a brown morph and a white-and-yellow morph which is not linked to physical sex.

Now if you WANT to add magic into the mix, you can. Maybe magic caused the mutations that led to more pigments or structural colour, idk. But you technically don't have to. You can get fun anime rainbow hair the mundane way.

(Alear's trait of having patches of differently hued hair is exceedingly rare among FE characters. In real life, for example in cats, patchy pigmentation like that is sometimes indicative of chimerism, in which two different embryos merged into one being that has different genetics in different parts of their body. In this essay I will--)

(This sounds like a tangent, but bear with me.) So, trivia: Cat fur color is determined in the womb via gene expression-so even if two cats are genetically identical, they'll still look very different. I bring this up because, even if it's not an exact-one-to-one, I HC that FE Hair Genes operate similarly: Color is determined more from gene expression and epegenetics than just a simple punett square. (I also HC that hair color is so colorful because of the effects on magic on genetics.)

(It's a combination of Punett Square and gene expression: Blue hair is dominant due to the result of magic, but ultimately, the reason why MU/Other Parent children have opposite hair colors is Gene Expression. (For the most part, beyond hair, FE humans are mostly identical to real humans genetically. However. Magic gave a few odd quirks. (Same species, just magically-induced genetic variation giving rise to a new subspecies: Homo Sapiens Ignis (Ignis instead of Magicae to reference Fire Emblem.))

I've never been a biology whiz, but this sounds pretty sensible to me. It's neat to think about the potential interplay between magic and genetics.

[starr-fall-knight-rise]

Humans  are Space Orcs, “Secret dreams.”

The conclusion of the Glass tower series. I hope you guys like it. I did something a little different than I usually do, but hopefully it is entertaining. 

Have an amazing day! :)

“He has me.”

The Vrul council spun in place comical looks of shock plastered over their faces, so comical that they could almost be read as shock by your average human.

What they saw was in fact, a human, but not a particularly average one.

Commander Adam Vir Stood just before the lip of the drop messaging the palms of his hands which were red and inflamed.

One of the council members floated forward, “How?”

The human looked up dropping his hands to his sides, “You are going to have to be more specific, “How did I escape your guards, how did I get up the tower, how did I know where you were?” 

THe council chamber remained silent as the human walked a few more feet onto the floor. Around the room the Vrul guard and council shifted nervously as the predator approached them across the open floor boots thudding softly as he did so. Light poured in from one side of the glass enclosure bathing him in a warm yellow glow.

“How about, all of the above.” The Vrul council member said floating calmly  at the edge of the circle.

“Well The first is simple.” He held up his hands and began to clap very slowly, as he continued he began to add soft rhythmic variations to the beat finally joining his voice tying the rhythm together. As soon as he began variations on the rhythm the entire room grew unsteady, and as he added his voice they began to lose muscle tone slouching to one side.

He stopped almost as soon as he began and they perked back up immediately, “Dr. Krill calls it rhythmic syncope with secondary resulting cataplexy.” He glanced over at his friend, “If I remember correctly. I am not a doctor of course. I guess this is a result of having unconnected cortical hemispheres that are required to do manual pattern recognition in an auditory setting. It tends to overload the neural network, and since your auditory function is located close to the motor cortex, it can have secondary side effects. I simply used this to get past your guards. No one could touch me as long as I kept up some sort of rhythm, not exactly difficult for a human.” The room was very silent as he motioned back towards the hole, “As for getting up here.” The human held up his hands, “Primate, I was originally evolved for climbing. The guide wires were a little small, and my hands kind of hurt, but I’m not complaining.”

He stepped a little further into the room next to krill now. 

His guards backed away.

“As for knowing where you were…. Well i find that the ruling class, no matter the species, likes to put themselves above others, figuratively but often physically.” He looked around the room, “Pretty true to form I think, up here in your glass tower surrounded by sunlight while those below work in the long arm of your shadow.”

“What do you want, human?”

“Why do you force yourself into business that is not yours?”

The human folded his hands behind his back, “I had hoped you would understand my point by way of demonstration but it seems that the subtle nuance of posturing has no bearing on you, so let me explain in simple terms. I talked my way onto your planet, and now I have proven that you cannot stop me. With the simple clap of my hands your are immobilized. At any time I could have walked away with my friend unhindered.” He looked around the room, “YOu must understand at this point that I still could. You wouldn’t be able to stop me.”

Krill could see by their posture that they understood very well what kind of threat the human was.

“And I will if I have to.”

The Vrul managed to remain surprisingly calm, “Then why haven't you.”

���Because the Dr. wasn’t the only one affected when our species came together.”

There was a silence around the room as they looked on in confusion, “What do you mean, human.”

The Commander looked down at his feet hands still clasped tightly behind his back, “You think humans are barbaric, aggressive, angry, shortsighted and impulsive.” He looked around the room, “And by comparison I can’t argue. In fact, my first impulse when you took my friend from me was to rain hellfire down upon you.”

“Hellfire?”

“Hell, a mythical place where evil humans go after they die to suffer, filled with an ever burning fire. The phrase to reign hellfire means to bring continuous misery and pain down upon someone. In essence,I wanted to react in the most barbaric aggressive and violent way possible, but I didn’t” 

He was walking in a circle now feet surprisingly soft against the grouf for a creature his size, “Do you understand why I didn’t?”

They did not answer.

The Commander pointed at Krill, “Because of the doctor. While you say he was being coerced into being more human, you must also understand that he was teaching me to be more like you. You are more tempered, more logical, less emotional , and now here I am, and I ask you to hear me out logically, and maybe you will find that becoming more human isn’t so bad as you say.”

Around them the room held still as the council members looked between each other.

Eventually the pale vrul made a gesture, “We will hear you.”

The human nodded his head, “Thank you….” He turned in a tight circle staring out one of the windows and towards the darkening horizon cast  with long shadows from the sun, “WHen Dr. krill first stepped aboard my ship neither of us understood the other, he was afraid, and we were…. Difficult to handle. But since coming aboard the Dr. has taught me valuable lessons, lessons without which I would not have survived as long as I have in this position.” He turned around to face them, “He taught me, that sometimes duty is more important than my own entertainment. That means sometimes I have to buckle down and act like an adult, I have to be tempered and logical  and serious because sometimes situations call for it, many situations do. He taught me to analyze my decisions before reacting on pure instinct, in this way there can be diplomacy without insult and action without catastrophe. He taught me to think about what kind of effect my personal actions have on others.” He glanced towards krill who was more than a bit surprised to hear what the human had to say, “WHat I am trying to tell you is without the Dr. Aboard my ship human relations with the Galactic Assembly would have dissolved long ago. IF ou are to remove him you would be endangering yourselves and that of the entire galaxy.”

The council looked on.

“Let us see how concise  you can be, human. What will convince us these words are true.”

The human raised an eyebrow, “I have already demonstrated the truth of my words. Despite my abilities, I came to you relying on good faith that your logic would allow me to speak rather than forcing violence. The Dr. is the single greatest reason that I have come here to speak with you rather than just stealing him and walking out those doors.” His voice grew in volume and force as he continued, “I am here to play by your own rules. I did what the good doctor would have wanted and I chose the logical decision, to steal him away, or reign down violence would cause irreparable damage in political relations between humans and the GA. Rumors about humans would continue to be rife with our acts of barbarism and careless violence. This right now was the only way I could convince you that we are a species worth listening to.”

The sun had cut behind the horizon, turning the sky to a pale pink.

“Please, I am begging you to see sense, The doctor means a great deal to the humans of my ship. To punish him would also be to ruin relations with one of the most powerful species in the galaxy. To keep him with us would mean good interspecies relations, and it would also continue to temper the behavior of humans therefore making the galaxy a safer place for everyone involved.”

The council looked between each other.

A dark Vrul leaned forward, “The human….. Speaks a surprising amount of sense .” They glanced towards the psychologist, “and what do you think. Is the human being deceptive?”

The psychologist looked on, “What reason would he have to speak to you if he could simply walk about with impunity. And take what he wishes. Besides, this human does not strike me as the kind of human to use such deceptions.”

“And you, doctor, what have you to say.”

Dr Krill had been very quiet for much of the discussion, but now lifted his head, “I admit I am both surprised and impressed. The command- Adam…. I fully expected Adam and his crew to do something rash, to come in here guns blazing as the saying goes…” He glanced towards his human companion, “IThis proves to me what he says is true. They have grown a lot in my time with them, There is a term out there that describes the humanizing phenomenon, or the tendency for those close to humans to act human, but I find the argument to be a fallacy. Humans change just as much as the rest of us, but it's less noticeable because humans are every characteristic you see in other species, they are just as economic as the Tesraki, as bureaucratic as the Rundi, as warlike as the the Drev,, and as logical as we are, so we don’t notice when they change, but the greatest trait of a human is their adaptability. Any good human can adapt to survive in any place and with anyone human or otherwise.”

Now that he had some space, he began to walk head down in contemplation, “I have spent a lot of time with humans, perhaps the most time anyone has spent in conglomeration, and I do not regard my change as something to be feared. I regard it as a move towards adaptability, for thousands of years our species has remained in a stagnant state of fear, controlled and crippled by our own need to survive.”

He waved a hand, “How many Vrul are off-planet at this moment?”

Silence for a moment and then, “Close to 100 maybe less.”

“Exactly and what would happen if our planet experienced a catastrophic destabilization, change in weather pattern, gamma burst, literally anything.”

The council shifted nervously.

“I will tell you what would happen. 99.9% of our species would be obliterated in one moment, and those remaining would be unable to bounce back. The bottleneck would send our species into a downward spiral that would end in extinction. In fact that is the least of our worries considering that our habitable zone across this planet is the equator with thirteen cities, a single change in climate could wipe out our whole species.” he turned to Adam, “And what would happen if earth was destroyed?”

The human grimaced, “It would really suck, but there are almost as many humans off world living on Mars, and other settlements that…. Well we could rebuild. Even if our solar system took a nosedive we would still probably have enough people to keep our species going.”

“My point exactly. I have proven the one thing that our species has needed all along. Adaptability. Adam, what did your species do, when things became to cold for them?”

The human shrugged, “We put on a coat, or we made our houses climate controlled. You can live anywhere if you can control the temperature.”

“You hear that, there is no reason we cannot do what they do, to make our species more robust. We have the technology to fly in space, so by nebulon we have the ability to climate control and indoor space. For too long we have been letting our environment and our fear control us. Perhaps it is time to start experimenting with our own survival.”

There was murmuring about the council chamber with the sun growing lower on the horizon and the shadows growing longer.

“I wish to speak as well.” 

There was a movement of surprise from the assembled Vrul as the psychologist stepped forward onto the floor.

“Do you know where I was less than two cycles ago?”

More silence.

The creature scuttled over to the window and pointed out at the city, “That bridge there over the river…. No I wasn’t standing on it. I was under it sinking  towards my own death.”

Muttering of shock.

The vrul continued to speak raising their voice over the cacophony, “That human and his companions saved my life!” He pointed towards Adam, “As a child they saved my life, and brought me back from something no one yet thought possible.”

Krill and Adam exchanged a shocked glance.

Adam shook his head mouthing, “I did NOT see that coming.”

“When I fully recovered, I dedicated my life to determining the psychological reasoning for why someone would do something so reckless for another person. And the further I dug the more stonewalled I found myself because I was asking the wrong questions, showing so much interest in a topic that was not important, it did not ‘further the species’. In private I found this to be true in almost every field, the systematic suffocation of new ideas, and different thought processes that would lead our species towards more than just survival. Yes, I administered the doctor’s test, and you know what I found”

No one spoke.

“I found NOTHING!”

Looks of confusion.

“Yes he is an alpha and that makes him smart, but he is no different from other alphas, not in any sense. This humanizing phenomenon is the propaganda of fear from those who are not willing to admit that the Vrul are more capable of surviving than we are given credit for. We are being convinced by our own fear that we are weak, and need to protect ourselves where we can. But now aren't we proven that false? We have walked on other worlds, death worlds no less and we are still surviving.” The Vrul spun in a wide circle, “Dr. Krill isn’t different because his curiosity makes him a danger, he was  different because he was the the only one who didn’t think to hide it. Here you are sitting here thinking that Vrul don’t secretly publish research, and work on personal projects.” The Vrul barked with laughter, “In fact I bet some of you are guilty of that very same sin. It’s just that you believe you have a species to protect, and that fear has crippled your thought process.”

The council had sat quiet during most of this, but now they began murmuring among themselves, “Are you advocating becoming like the humans?”

Adam stepped in then cutting off the psychologist who was stumbling with their words, “Don’t change yourselves, council. But do not be unwilling to allow in those things that would further or lead to the natural progression of your species. Expand, grow, humor the secret dreams of your people. Don’t model yourself after anyone, but take a lesson in survival from a species that perfected the craft….”

He stepped closer to Krill, and Krill stepped closer to him, a united front.

“Stagnation is your greatest enemy” 

[tlblah]

So let’s track Reginald Hargreeves life bc I need some clarification

We start in the middle I guess.

- he is with his wife in her deathbed, she tells him to go (there are rocket ships leaving the planet)

- she then proceeds to die, and Reggie goes to the window and releases lights from a jar (I wanna know if this is what creates the children but I’m not sure

- We then find out she asked him to take her violin with him and give it to someone who will appreciate it

That’s all we know about him on his home planet.

- Next, he travels to earth. We don’t know if it’s both space and time travel, or maybe the speed of light caused time to travel backward when he traveled to earth? He seemed to land in the 1800s (??)

- He states his name as Reginald Hargreeves and stumbles across an Umbrella Factory I.e the future name (and location) for the Umbrella Academy

We fast forward in time, with an immortal (?) Reggie (though it could be that he ages as an alien but his human suit never does. He could also maybe not age or age super slowly when compared to humans) also what made him such an asshole like damn.

Ok now we’re in the 1960s

- he is that secret 12 illuminati type group. His main interest is the Dark Side of the Moon.

- so i don’t know if he knows human history or not bc if he knew about human history he would have known how to send a human into space but instead he had to call up Grace, who seemed to specialize in primates. Though he does have a serum that gave Pogo a more advanced brain/body?

- question: so he knew about the moon in 2019 but what did he know?? Did he know Vanya was going to be the bomb? Or did he just know that the moon was going to explode and destroy earth bc no aliens would have known Vanya was going to blow up the moon. Which makes more sense, now that I think about it. He knows earth events from an aliens perspective. So something from the timeline after the destruction of earth fucks up his planet. Also when is the commission?? I know they have all the time they want but are they really in a bubble in the space time or are they so far in the future that time has become something that they can control?

Moving on from that brain spiral

- obviously in the original timeline, everything goes as planned

- Grace dies between the 1960s and 1989 bc the children only know her as a robot

- Pogo keeps learning and growing as well

- Reggie is a millionaire and continues to be one the 12 (I’m not sure about this bc the timeline has fucked up we don’t know if he as meant to kill the other 11 or if that happened bc the kids fucked up this new universe. I hate parallel and alternate universes bc you can never fix it or go back bc it’s now it’s own separate strand of a universe)

Zoom past into 1989

- 43 kids are born to mothers who were not pregnant the morning of October 1st. Reggie goes on a shopping spree but it’s not succeeds in getting 7 of them.

- he raise them as trainees with the help of Robot Grace and Pogo

- he numbers them ranking from lowest in power Number 1 to Number 7 before having to mute Number 7 because he could not control her or her power like he could the rest of the children

- he ostracized Vanya, unwittingly causing her to become the bomb at the future date (oh fuck what if Vanya wasn’t the original reason why the moon crashed into earth?? Time travel is so confusing.)

- anyways he raise his children and fucks up perfectly good children.

- Number 5 thinks he knows his powers, and Reggie tells him no, unwittingly pushing Five to over use his powers and get stuck in the future after the apocalypse. Five is now lost in the time line

- Ben dies during a mission, breaking up the team and turns the children against Reggie even more when he blames them for Bens death. They are 17 here

- once they can they move away from their abusive dad leaving Reggie with only Number 1, who follows his dad to tee to shuck off the abuse he felt. Which is even more sad when Reggie sees that coping mechanism as a failure.

- Luther goes on a mission alone, gets injured and Reggie has to inject him with the same stuff he injected Pogo (is that the only thing he knows? Is it from his alien culture??)

- Once Reggie can tell Luther isn’t reacting well to the unwanted body modification, he sends Luther to the moon to both give him a purpose and to not have to deal with having to help Luther work through his pain (like fuck Reggie)

This is where stuff gets hazy. The children lead their own lives and Reggie is alone with Pogo and Robot Grace again for 4 years (the length of time Luther is on the moon)

- 10 days from the apocalypse Reggie kills himself to get the children to all come back home and help avoid the apocalypse (the kids are 30)

- He doesn’t know about Number 5 tho, who is able to jump back just in time, before the apocalypse begins

And that’s where The Umbrella Academy begins

So what are the questions we have about Reggie?

1. Did Reggie create the 43 kids somehow? Was it in the alien news and he just knew when they’d be born? What did he do that could have caused them. Basically what is the origin of the children.

2. What is reggies knowledge of human events. He honestly seemed surprised that they killed JFK so he didn’t know about The JFK assassination. And yet he knew about the apocalypse so maybe he just new human events that affected the galaxy? Or is it that he is from earth but after humanity has been destroyed and aliens took over? The possibilities

3. What happened to Grace? She obviously stayed with him in the past and died before the kids were born, but what happened? And did Reggie really care for her or just her brain? He didn’t seem to care all that much from Robot Grace since he didn’t even give her a room. Was Reggie even able to love anyone after his wife died or is it because he’s an alien that humans seem like puny mortals to him.

4. What made him leave his planet? Is he a scientist looking for something? Is he trying to also fix a timeline? What is the reason he came to earth and why did he feel the need to create the Umbrella Academy?

5. Why the fuck is Reggie such an asshole. Not a real question because he’s just the most asshole person of an alien, but what the fuck.

***** Edit/Note******

The commission never fucking stopped him. The commission must have known about Reggie but they didn’t do anything. Obviously they knew about the real apocalypse since they tried to keep 5 from changing the future and yet Reginald when back in time and live through a freaking century and the Commission didn’t do anything. Obviously he fucked up this timeline yet with just his presence but what the hell, Commission. I mean we hate you guys but what do you know that we don’t. Like is Reggie part of the commission? Are they using him to get what they want? What exactly does Reginald know why do fuck are storylines and timelines so hard when time travel is involved. Bc just this here has hundreds of possible timelines that you can just narrow it down and you only get more questions. Ie

Is there a timeline that the apocalypse happened and Reginald wasn’t involved

Then a timeline where reginal goes back and creates the umbrella academy

Another timeline with other children

A timeline where 5 never got lost

A timeline where 6 never died

Two different timelines where one happened and not the other and vice versa

A timeline that I’ll never believe of Reginald being a decent person

A timeline in The Day That Never Was, where Vanya found out on her own and Allison never got her neck slit.

A timeline where the siblings actually helped Vanya

The new timeline of the Hargreaves in the 1960s

A brand new timeline of the world after the Hargreeves interfered then left then came back in 2019, which is where we are now, with a new Sparrow Academy, a not dead Reginald and a not dead Ben. Also shit, Grace never stayed with Reginald so those children may not have had a decent mother figures they might even be more fucked up than the original 7 (or 6 bc Ben is sweetheart with sass)

[loveafterthefact]

Love After the Fact Chapter 67: Home

Keith returns to his first home, and brings Lance to meet his father. But first, a tiny bit of fluff to soften(?) the blow

TRIGGER WARNING: This episode includes the themes of loss and grief, which be distressing to some readers. Please take care of yourselves <3<3<3

First  Previous  Next

Keith’s home is simple, four domes, one visibly newer than the others, and one with a new roof. The stove and fireplace have also been redone quite recently. There's also a little garden plot now, overgrown with unkempt flowering plants, lovely in its little patch of wilderness.

“Ah, Mom added a washroom. Thank fuck. Lake’s cold as shit for a bath… It was nice of her to fix the place up. I’d always assumed I’d come back out here when I finished my service.”

“I never really thought about your aspirations had you stayed,” Lance ponders.

“Mnh. Nothing special. Do my time in the military, maybe find a mate, come back here for a while, then travel the stars. Try to find Earth, where my name comes from. But I’m doing something different, and that’s okay.”

“Is it?”

“Being mated to you, raising our kits, and looking after the Altean Empire? It’s not what I imagined, but I like it well enough. I’m happy.” And, because Lance doesn’t quite look convinced, “Really, Lance. Our life together makes me happy. Come on. I’ll show you around. We’ll unpack, and then we can swim in the lake, and you can see the waterfall.”

Lance watches Keith carefully, unsure of how he’ll react now that he’s home. They carry their things inside, watching the breeze roll red earth over the red stone floor. The main room is simple: a small fireplace with a narrow chimney, a knotted rug, a pair of chairs, a stool. Draped over the newer-looking of the two chairs -the other looks rather weathered- is a thin, threadbare cloth blanket, sun-bleached red. Keith smiles, picking it up.

“This was my blanket when I was kit. I couldn’t sleep without it. I left it here when I went with Shiro. I thought it might get taken away… I wonder if we could use it for something.”

“What, like for a baby?” At Keith’s nod, Lance continues. “It looks pretty thin, but maybe Pidge could do something with it. They act callous about it, but they actually really like kids, and not as science experiments. Not exclusively, anyway. It’s cute that you’re thinking about that stuff already.”

“It’s not like we’ll have a lot of time to devote to that stuff once we get home. We’ve delegated pretty much all of our duties for now, but that won’t last long. I have to think about while I have time.”

“Well don’t think about it alone. I’m right here. I already told you: I’m not going to be like the ol’ sperm donor back home.”

“Ugh.” Keith rolls his eyes, turning to open the cellar by the table. “I don’t want to look, think, or hear about your sperm donor ever again. He will never be left alone with our kits.”

“Good idea. Given the chance, he’ll gift them weapons and tell them they’ll take a life before they’re twenty.” Lance sighs. “You are going to let him see our kits, right?”

“Of course! He’s their grandfather! If he wants to see them, and can behave himself, then I want him to. Under supervision. My mother on the other hand…” Keith frowns, stands, brushes earth from his clothes.

“What?”

“Nevermind. Just more family drama. We have enough already.” Keith huffs. “Come on. I want to go swimming.”

“Can’t say no to that!” Lance chirps, skipping after his spouse. He doesn’t believe it’s ‘just family drama’ at all, but he’ll let Keith tell him in his own time. Just like he'll let the young man stall doing what he actually wants to do.

So instead of pressing his stressed spouse, Lance serves to distract him, swimming with him, basking in the waning sun, shoving his head under the water, getting into splash fights, and not acting at all like the prince he is. Which is fine, because they’re alone, and this is a very short respite before their lives get even more complicated. Taking time to 'mess around' in a small alcove behind a waterfall doesn’t hurt either.

Later, settling back against the rock face to watch Keith float in lazy circles, he finds himself wishing, for the very first time in his life, that he weren’t who he is, and for only the millionth time that he could make every last one of Keith’s days exactly like this one.

Keith swam up to the ledge Lance was sitting on, fitting in between his legs. “You okay?”

“Mhm. Just watching.”

“Ah. See anything you like?” Keith rests his cheek against the inside of Lance’s leg.

“Many things… You’re being very cute.”

“Still riding the high of being mated to you. It’ll wear off in a few quintants.” Keith kisses the bare skin at the inside of his thigh, smirking when Lance jolts.

“Just in time for your season. Brat.”

“Yeah. I can’t seem to catch a break, can I?”

“You know we can change that if you want. And I’ll make it as easy for you as I can.” Lance’s stomach growls audibly, making Keith laugh, nuzzling against Lance’s leg, more sweet than sexy. They’ve been apart, physically, most of the day. He could probably do with some physical affection. The platonic kind.

Lance has caught on to just how important that contact is to Galra. When not working or in uniform, they’re a comparatively clingy species.

“Hungry?” Keith teases when Lance’s stomach growls again.

“I’ve been hungry since before we even got here!” Lance laughs, brushing dripping clumps of hair out of Keith’s face.

“You could have said something. We could have eaten already.”

“Yeah, well. I had better things to do. Like watching my husband have some fun for once.”

“Oh, come on, I have lots of-” Keith frowns. “You never call me your husband. Not unless you have to.”

“Yes, well.” Lance gazes at his husband, eyes soft. “It never really felt like you were. And you think gendering everything is stupid, so…”

“It’s fine.” Keith swims around, hauling himself up to sit beside his mate, cuddling up against his side, tail serving as an extra limb to hold him close. “I mean, if it’s all the same to you, I’d rather call you my mate than anything else. That’s what actually means something to me. That's the word I choose for my life partner. And you should call me whatever means something to you. Whatever that is. Even if that’s just ‘my contracted roommate’.”

Lance laughs. “That’s… incredibly sweet. Sweeter than I expected, honestly.”

“What were you expecting?”

“I’m not sure. Perhaps a lecture on the arbitrary constructs of sex and gender?”

“Tempting.” Keith laces their hands together, nuzzling against his pointed ear. He takes a deep breath, lets it out slowly. “But I have something I need to do. I've stalled long enough. Will you come with me?”

“Of course.” If Keith doesn't want to go alone, Lance won't allow him to.

After grabbing a small bag from the den, Keith leads him through the last varga of light before sunset, weaving through trees like he still knows every root beneath his bare feet. BleepBloop eventually finds and joins them on their walk, presumably well-rested after sleeping the entire way there. The small primate remains mostly in the trees, leaping through the branches above, chittering and screeching at Keith to join him.

“We used to use the trees when we were out here,” Keith explains. “It tended to be safer than the ground. And most Alteans don’t tend to look up.”

“They really don’t. To be fair, it's unusual for fully-grown Galra to be hiding in trees. They don't exactly blend in.” The two laugh.

It fades quickly, when they stop at the edge of a ravine, Keith looking down. Without a word, t he Galra begins slipping down the side of the ravine, toward the water at the bottom. He moves with sure, practiced grace, aided further by familiarity with his surroundings, hyper aware of any changes. Lance is not so fortunate, slipping and sliding down the narrow ledges.

At one point, he loses his balance, falling back with a gasp. Fortunately, Keith manages to grab his arm, keeping him from falling to creek twenty dashes below. “You alright?”

“Fine. Just… struggling.” Lance does his best time hide how shaken he is. He can't imagine tiny, undersized Little Keith making this descent.

“Watch my feet. Put yours exactly where I put mine.”

With Keith moving slower, he’s more able to move safely down the side of the ravine. “This is much better. Thank you.”

“Sorry, I didn’t think about it before.” Keith settles his feet into the sandy bottom. “I’ll help you back up… We should have done this earlier. It’ll be dark pretty soon.”

“You weren't ready, earlier. Don't worry. I can make light for us if need be.”

Keith’s not really listening, Lance can tell. Tail swaying, ears pricked, the Galra stares at a pile of rocks, roughly the length of a grown, male Galra, and about two dashes high.

“Is that-”

“Yeah. I was only six, so I couldn’t exactly move him. The rocks kept scavengers off of him. It’s how we’d protect kills if we weren’t ready to clean them.” Keith wades through the shallow creek, ears drooped. “Some of his smaller bones have probably washed away. The rest will too, sooner or later.”

“I’m sorry, beloved.”

“It’s fine. He’d be okay with that. My dad… He loved it out here, feeling like a part of something natural, something alive and thriving, all while minding its own business. This is where he belonged. Becoming a part of it is what he would have wanted anyway. It was me that wasn’t ready.”

Lance has never really thought before about life without his parents. Sure, he’s never had his mother, but he’s grown up with two fathers. Even before Alfor officially remarried when Lance was seven, Coran was his parent. Lance has only ever called him ‘daddy’, and later ‘dad’.

Thinking about it now, Lance can’t imagine losing either of them. Sure, he doesn’t typically get along with Alfor, but Alfor is his father, and the king. He’s an extremely important figure in Lance’s life. And Coran…

Coran, with his permissive attitude and his terrible advice and weird anecdotes and random facts and always being there to soften the blow when Lance screws up- Losing either of them would be devastating. It’s a terrible thing to think about, and it’s Keith’s reality.

So when Keith says he wasn’t ready to let go, Lance says, “I wouldn’t be, either. I don’t know that I ever could be.”

But he'd be ready to be Akira in a heartbeat.

Keith doesn’t respond, very quiet as he finds a bit of dry sand. He pulls a clay bowl, the inside caked in ash, from his bag, pours in the rest of the bag’s contents. A feather. A few different stones. A glass bottle filled with several layers of different colored sediments, which he opens and pours into the bowl. Herbs. Another, smaller bottle of a fragrant oil, which is also poured out.

From his belt, Keith removes a pair of stones, striking them together until he creates a spark. Sitting cross-legged in the wet sand, Keith stares at the low-burning flames. He only has until the flames die before Akira's spirit is finally sent on. Krolia got to convene, and now it's his turn. After this, the gods will take his father away, and nothing but bones will be left.

It's part of the reason he was stalling. This is a final goodbye, and that's always a hard thing.

“Hi, Dad. I kept my promise. I’ve come home…” Keith sighs, looking up at the sky as his eyes immediately start to sting. Lance sits right behind him, rests his cheek on Keith’s shoulder. “But, uh… It’s not really home anymore. I’ve been gone a long time, and- I think it’s okay, don’t you? It’s okay for this to be my sometimes home instead Home home, right? I mean- Fuck, I’m bad at this.”

Lance’s arm curls around his waist from behind, gentle and comforting, just enough for him to know he’s there. “Just talk, beloved. That’s all you have to do.”

“What I’m saying is… You did it. You protected me, and- I survived, because of you. And now, I get to live.” Keith rubs tears into his fur, sniffling. He still really, really misses his dad. Every day, he feels that empty space where Akira used to be. “I have a new home, and a good mate, and we’ll have kits, and a good life, and I hate that you had to die to give me that -

"And it's fine. Everything will be fine. I'll rule Altea with Lance, and help Lotor honor your wishes for Daibazaal, and I'll be a good uncle for his kits, and I'll be a good father, and I'll help keep the peace and you don't have to worry, okay? I'll be just fine. Better than fine, even.

“And that's fine. Really! I just- I just wish you were here. More than anything, I wish you were still here. I miss you so much..." Keith practically falls against Lance, still heartborken. "There are so many things I'll never get to see. I'll never get to see you and Mom together. I'll never get to see you with Lance, or our kits. I'll never get to see you proud of me, and everything that I'm working for. And I know that you are, but I’ll never get to hear you say it and it sucks.”

Keith takes a deep breath. The offering flame is already fading, and with it, his time to convene. “I’m sorry you died, but I’m glad that I’m still here, and I’m grateful to you for that.” The last of the flames gutter out. “I love you and I miss you, Dad. And I’ll see you again. I'll tell you everything you missed.”

They’re left in the dark, Lance wrapping around him, holding him tight.

“Do you- Was it good enough?” Keith croaks, rubbing at his eyes.

“It was perfect, baby. It’s not a speech. It sounded just like you, and that’s good.”

“He was my whole world,” Keith whispers, clutching BleepBloop as the concerned primate climbs into his lap. “And then he was gone.”

“I know, beloved. I know.” Lance rocks them gently. “Are you ready to go back?”

“Can we- Can we stay here for a little bit? Please?”

“However long you want.”

Lance lifts his hands, forming a few tiny werelights to hover above them, pale, gentle light to keep the dark at bay. It’s a good change from being trapped alone in the dark, just Keith and BleepBloop. Now, there’s him, his mate, his pet, and the imprint of his father’s life and legacy. Beyond this little circle, there’s friends and family. A purpose. A home. A future.

A good life, all because of the thing that he lost.

That one, precious, irreplaceable thing.