#it is very much not just used to increase muscle mass etc

[problemeule]

I just called my pcp’s office to ask when I could come to get my t shot and person at the phone straight up said “we don’t do that :)”

[itsabouttimex2]

Hi there did they ever just consider putting a backpack leash on y/n in the Demon Child AU JTTW gang? Also did y/n ever kid kidnapped and held for ransom by many demons to try to get the monk by saying we'll let her go in Exchange for him( I also know he had alot of demon um demon suiters that instead of wanting to eat him apparently wanted marriage dam the monk got accidentally rizz)

Taken Aboard: Restraints

It’s not impossible that the gang would decide to to utilize some form of restraint after enough troublemaking by Y/N- in place of a leash, though, I imagine that Tang Sanzang would actually use a length of fabric to swaddle Y/N.

The event that caused him to decide you needed such extreme supervision?

(He was not happy.)

“Little demon,” he calls, looking down at you expectantly. “Hurry along now- you know what is expected of you before we enter a town.”

“…Master, this is embarrassing.”

“Please hurry, little one. We’ve so much to do, and I would like to get on with it right away.”

And after a little bit of huffing and puffing, you do as requested- and use the 72 Transformation to assume the form of a helpless babe, your mass-displaced form falling snug into his arms.

The Great Monk wraps you in a length of silk that he affixes around his torso and shoulders, leaving your now squishy body squashed against his soft chest.

Not only does this (frankly humiliating) transformation allow Sanzang to sneak you about without scaring any villagers, it also prevents you from running off to cause trouble.

Jokes on him, though- every last bachelorette from the village has one response to a very pretty man bundling around a cute baby:

As for getting kidnapped… yeah, the Journeyfam isn’t putting up with that shit. Not when their master gets snatched up every other day and nearly sautéed and stewed. I mean, operating on the thought that Y/N is very explicitly a demon- horns, fangs, tail, etc- the child has at least some means of self-defense.

If they do get snatched, I can’t imagine there’s a situation where Y/N doesn’t at least leave their assailant battered and scarred, which doesn’t help the demon when three angry demons and a furious dragon break down the door. And Tang Sanzang; to his credit, makes a fair effort to soothe his disciples and quell their fury… but it’s going to be much too late for anyone who decided to lay their hands on the honorary little sibling of all these furious souls.

Outside of kidnapping? I’d like to imagine that Y/N, as a child (potentially female, depending on you or your OC’s gender) in Medieval China, might be eyed up by more… unsavory individuals.

“How much?”

Sanzang turns to find the source of a casual voice, looking at a sweat-stained farmer leaning over a fresh chicken corpse. The laborer takes a moment to wipe his bloody hands, then folds his thick arms.

“How much for the kid? Seems strong, and has some muscle. I could use another pair of hands on the farm.”

And Sanzang is so genuinely appalled at the simple manner in which genuine slavery is being spoken of here, as though you are a commodity and not a thinking, breathing thing all your own. He offers no retort or reprimand, instead choosing to take you by the hand and hurry off into the crowd- not that Wukong won’t have a few “words” to share with the would-be purchaser.

But that’s not even the worst possible scenario for the gang to face-

No, the worst is proposed child marriage.

All it takes is one rich man/woman to decide that they want an “exotic” spouse, and that the little demon child with a pair of magical restraints is their “safest” way to get it.

I don’t even think Sanzang would have time to comprehend what his disciples were doing before it was over- he’s too busy reeling over being offered literal bricks of gold in return for an actual child.

And obviously his answer is a hundred firm “nos” and a dozen chants of “go to your nearest monastery and pray!”, each one delivered with increasing fervor…

Or, it would be- if his disciples hadn’t solved the matter themselves before he had regained the use of his tongue.

[mcclainwilla]

Writing Fight Scenes Part 5 - Kicks

I mean to write/post this two months ago, but I got sad and busy with school. I am still a little sad but I'm of school so let's fuckin go

As someone who did a lot of taekwondo, I know a thing or two about kicks.

Purposes of kicks:

Creating/diminishing distance - if you hold out your arm and your leg at the same time, you'll see that your leg stretches farther. Because a kick reaches farther than a punch, they can be used to stun an opponent while moving closer, or keep them from pursuing when withdrawing

Wearing down an opponent - repeated kicks to the legs/hips/etc. won't end a fight, but it'll definitely take a toll on a character

Power strike - kicks are very powerful and can be used to pretty severely fuck up an opponent **women can often kick harder than men! This is something I will talk about in depth, in another post

Risks of kicks:

Kicks sap more energy - a kick is a 'larger' movement that requires more effort than a punch

Kicks are slower - because a kick moves more mass (a leg is heavier than an arm) and requires a character to shift their weight, they take longer to reach their target and are therefore easier to dodge

Kicks leave you vulnerable - while a character's kick is en route/returning after being thrown, they are standing on one foot hoping no one knocks them over

Now I'll talk about some different types of kicks, their uses, and whether or not I ever want you to write about them

Stun kicks:

As the name implies, these kicks aren't meant to wreck an opponent, they're meant to stop an opponent from getting too close/set up more powerful attacks. Remember when I talked about the sparring stance? (If not, go look at part four.) When standing in a sparring stance, stun kicks are thrown with the front leg. This takes away their power, but makes them faster

Snap front kick:

Travels in a straight line. Lead with the knee, hit with the heel; the height of the kick depends on how high a character lifts their knee. Hit anywhere soft, honestly. Ribs, diaphragm and face are all lovely targets

I see these a lot in traditional boxing/MMA fighting. Useful!

Snap roundhouse:

Travels in a curve - imagine someone is going for a handshake, and a character wants to kick their hand. Once again, lead with the knee, but hit with the ball of the foot (NOT the toes. 'Pull' the goes back to avoid breaking them). Aim at ribs, kidneys, liver or face.

I also see these a lot in professional fighting. They're just a little slower than snap front kicks because a character has to turn the foot they're balancing on to avoid torqueing their knee

Crescent kick:

Travels in an arc (when I was teaching little kiddos, we'd call these rainbow kicks. Maybe that helps with visualization). There's two main types - outside in, and inside out. Either way, they're almost like a slap-in-the-face kick. Crescent kicks are some of the ONLY times a character needs to point their toes - this engages the muscles in the blades of their feet, which is the part of the foot this kick uses. Aim to the face, mostly

I do not recommend these - they're slow (and therefore easier to dodge) and they fucked up my hips

Power kicks

Now we're talking! From a sparring stance, power kicks are thrown with the back foot - this allows a character to gain momentum and, therefore, power. They're slower than stun kicks, but if they land, their worth the hassle

Power front:

Same as the snap front, lead with the knee, hit with the heel. Only this time, a character will 1. Use their back foot and 2. Crunch inward, only to explode outward with the kick - foot goes forward, shoulders go back. This allows a character to put more hip movement into the kick, which increases the power tenfold. Aim mostly to the ribs/stomach - keeping as much of your character's leg bones directly behind the line of the kick makes it more powerful (as such, kicking towards the face with these kinda ruins the purpose)

Highly recommend. Fuck it up, buttercup

Muay Thai roundhouse:

I liken this kick to swinging a baseball bat. This is the other ONLY time your character should point their toes while kicking (if they leave their foot flexed and miss, they'll fold their foot bones in half. Sad!) With the balancing foot, step wide and turn the foot out. Swing other leg towards target, only extending the leg at the last moment. Hit with the shin, and hit low - think ribs and hips

Highly recommend. But be careful not to let your character fuck up their knee - if they miss, they better be prepared to pivot all the way around on that balancing foot, because there's no bailing

Side kick:

This is one I haven't talked about at all yet. Your character will pivot on their balancing leg until they're facing sideways, their back leg now at a 90 degree angle to their body (think sitting in a chair). Then, aiming with their asscheek (not kidding. Point the ass at the target), extend the leg, throwing the hips into the motion by leaning the torso backwards. Hit with the heel, aim for ribs and hips.

Highly recommend. Can you tell I like power kicks?

Fun anecdote, I used to have a sparring partner who was VERY good at these. He'd leave literal black and blue bruises on my hips (bitch) and when we were practicing these using big cushy pads, it wasn't rare for him to blast me halfway across the room

Back kick:

Back kicks are basically side kicks, but with an added turn. This turn generates extra power, but it comes with risks. 1. There's a brief moment wherein your character takes their eyes off their opponent, 2. the opponent will definitely know what's coming, and 3. the turn can knock your character off-balance if they're not careful. The direction of the turn can be tricky to understand, so just know that the character will turn towards their back foot. Then, look over the shoulder/find the target, aim with the ass, and do a side kick with a 20% power buff

Like I mentioned, these are more powerful than side kicks, but riskier too. A good time for your character to practice using these would be while sparring a less-skilled partner!

That's about it. Sorry again this took me so long to make :( but I'll start drafting whatever I'm doing for part six next so maybe I'll make another post sometime within the next three months

[bewitching-aria]

"level 1" exercise regimen

Exercise recommendations

General activity

I try to use 7k-10k steps as a rough ballpark of activity.

If I hit 7k steps, I find that to be acceptable.

If I hit 10k steps, I conclude that I am probably more active that day than usual.

Though going out of your way to increase your step count for the day doesn't really capture your total daily activity accurately, this kind of mindset is probably okay so long as you're not regularly taking extra steps to hit the target.

I think going for 5k+ steps is a good start.

Go on walks more, try pacing around instead of sitting around, etc.

Resistance training

Perform resistance training twice a week.

If physically attending a gym is inconvenient, I recommend r/bodyweight fitness's recommended routine, and tell you to:

Eat the ~$30 L and buy a pull-up bar (yes, you could just use bedsheets/towels and a door, but I found this to be incredibly annoying.)

Use a backpack and throw things in there as a means to add weight to exercises.

If attending a gym is convenient, I would recommend doing so over a calisthenics routine due to easier workout planning.

If the gym is very busy when you attend, that is reason enough to not go if it makes exercising unenjoyable.

I probably would generically recommend Jeff Nippard's Fundamentals Hypertrophy Program, which you can find online as a PDF, somehow, somewhere.

I have not used this program, but I have used his other programs, and generally recommend Nippard's work.

Your goal is to generally follow a double periodization approach per exercise. In each session, attempt to add weight to any of the major compound lifts that the program tells you to do:

Squat

Deadlift

Bench press

Overhead press

Lat pulldown

Row

If you cannot add weight, add repetitions until you can do 5+ more than what you originally could, and then drop repetitions to the original while increasing weight.

For lifts that are isolation, you may not be able to add weight every session, so follow the repetition adding advice here.

Go to failure on your last set.

This is just so you can more realistically track how much more you can do.

Track your lifts!

Phone, print it out and use pen and paper, etc.

Generic intensive exericse

Perform generic exercise once a week.

I highly recommend you find something that is a social activity, so you can link social recreation with exercise.

Rock climbing

Soul cycling

Dance classes

Hiking

Ball sport

If not, I recommend you do something LISS, which I would define loosely as activity that requires effort output, but not something that completely gasses you out.

Try to go for half an hour.

Moving to the point where talking is not easy, but I would not call challenging.

This could be jogging or walking.

Cycling

Swimming

Etc

Dietary recommendations

I personally think diet models are not really necessary early on unless:

Macro level body changes are the first priority, rather than strength or exercise outcomes. That is, fat loss is preferred over anything else.

You personally think the inclusion of a diet model would improve the adherence of your exercise model.

Macro-nutritional recommendations.

I find that hitting the protein intake requirements that maximize muscle protein synthesis in literature (1g of protein to 1lb of body mass, lean mass if the goal is to lose fat) to be generally difficult to achieve in a typical diet without an isolated protein source, so I recommend you incorporate an isolated protein source, and naturally modify the rest of your diet.

If you workout in a period of time where you will not be eating around 2 hours of the workout (before OR after), this is probably the best time to consume your supplemental protein.

Otherwise, consume it during a period of time where you normally have a long (2+ hour) time frame where protein is not consumed.

By natural changes, I mean that if you find you are less hungry, just eat less lol

If you really have the desire to investigate, track just how much protein you consume in a day to see how much supplementation is necessary.

Micro-nutritional recommendations

As a general health guideline, consume your necessary micronutrients.

I think just to be safe, you should be taking vitamins anyways.

Supplementation recommendations.

If you want to supplement, creatine monohydrate is probably the only one I think is worth taking.

[hyperbolicpurple]

For several weeks I’ve been running variations on a strength training program called Easy Strength by Dan John. (There’s a newer version called Even Easier Strength that is, ironically, more complicated and harder to remember, but I’m doing the very simple OG version.)

The idea of Easy Strength is to minimize time in the gym and effort put forward in the gym while still gaining absolute strength in terms of one-rep max (the amount you can lift a single time). In contrast to most powerlifting and bodybuilding programs, which use challenging, near-max-effort sets and rotate muscle groups or work days/rest days because putting in near-maximal effort requires more recovery time, Easy Strength has you in the gym hitting the same loads/lifts, but somewhat lighter and for fewer reps, 5 days in a row per week. (It was developed for college athletes, I think.)

Basically, you pick five movement patterns/compound exercise types and do them every day. You can pick whatever you want, just something from each of these categories:

squat movement (barbell squat, goblet squat, lunge, etc)

hip hinge movement (deadlift, RDL, hip thrust, etc)

push/chest movement (bench press, dumbbell press, incline bench press, etc)

pull/back movement (barbell row, lat pulldown, pullups, etc)

loaded carry (farmer’s walk, suitcase carry, waiter walk, trap bar carry, etc)

The squat, hinge, push, and pull you do for 60-80% of your 1RM (don’t go above 80%) for ten reps total (2 sets of 5, or 1 set of 10). For the loaded carry, you don’t have to pick just one; instead, vary the exercise/weight/time every day.

I’m doing a unilateral-and-dumbbell version of this because I have significant imbalances (my squat shifts so much when I go heavy!), so I’m doing:

Dumbbell step-up (surprisingly hard to do “correctly” for strength, and I had to start with bodyweight!)

Single-leg deadlift

Dumbbell chest press

Incline dumbbell row

Super basic, lots of core work from the step-up and deadlift, don’t need to wait for a squat rack--nice. I don’t always do the loaded carry because sometimes my obliques are shot from the single-leg deadlift especially.

A session of Easy Strength doesn’t take long, especially compared to many powerlifting/bodybuilding programs that have you in the gym for 1-2 hours at a time. Lots of people who do it report supersetting all the movements, meaning that they do the first set of five for each exercise in a row and then repeat the sequence with minimal rest (not hard because they’re not very heavy, so you can move from one exercise to the next pretty quickly), so they’re getting out of the gym in like ... 15 minutes total, counting their warmup. But despite that, in terms of increasing your strength it can be very effective, especially if you keep the weight in the 75-80% 1RM range.

It’s not a bodybuilding routine, and it’s doubtful anyone is gaining appreciable muscle mass on this program, but if you want to get stronger without spending a ton of time in the gym, I’d give it a try. I might not jump into it full-bore right away if you’re new to lifting or de-conditioned--take a couple weeks to fuck around in the gym, master the movement (if you’re new to lifting) so you have decent technique and stop getting sore, test 1RMs, etc--OR go really, really light the first week and just go by feel and add weight as it feels easy. The program is written for 8 weeks/40 workouts, but lots of people run it for 4 weeks/20 workouts.

[cocklessboy]

I’m 37 years old. I’ve been on testosterone HRT for a little over a year now and man, this shit is amazing (don’t let anyone tell you that HRT later in life isn’t effective, it fucking IS). But SO MANY THINGS changed that I was NOT told about, and I wish I’d known what to expect a bit better. So, fellow transmascs who have started or plan to start HRT, here’s my list of Shit What Has Changed From The Hormones. Obviously keep in mind that everyone is different, this list is not exhaustive of all possible changes, and you may or may not experience all of these.

Permanent Changes (things which, to my knowledge, will not change back even if I ever lost access to HRT):

Big Clit (this was one of the first things to change - the clit gets bigger, your size may vary, and parts of it get more sensitive; mine is about the size of my pinkie finger and is big enough to “jerk” with a couple of fingers for sexual pleasure)

Hair All Over (my hair growth came VERY slowly and I am only just now finally starting to get a visible beard; this one is dependent in large part on genetics, and may take a while or may happen right away)

Manly Voice (my voice is pretty deep! higher than a lot of men and still sounds a bit teenager-y, and that may not change, time will tell, but I do not sound female at all anymore)

Conditional Physical Changes (physical things which, to my knowledge, will revert at least in part if I ever lose access to HRT):

BIG STINK (I get sweaty and stinky really easily, even right after putting on deodorant, my feet are sweaty and stinky, my genitals smell totally different now and even stink when they’re clean - I smell very MAN now; this will probably reduce over time as I finish “puberty” and get older)

No periods!!! (Menstruation stopped after a couple months; the whole cycle stopped and there are no more monthly fluctuations in mood, no cramps, no PMS, absolutely none of it. PLEASE NOTE THAT TESTOSTERONE IS NOT BIRTH CONTROL! It is theoretically still possible to get pregnant, so BE CAREFUL out there)

Man Face/Body (body fat distribution has become recognizably male; my face looks male, although quite young; my body fat has moved to male places - big ol beer gut!)

MUSCLES (They do NOT happen automatically but when I exercise now, it leads to a visible increase in muscle mass; when I feel my arms, I feel muscle there and it feels AWESOME)

Big Feet (my feet have actually grown significantly, to the point where my old shoes don’t fit and I have to buy new ones two sizes larger; some people have reported hands growing as well, etc.)

Conditional Emotional/Mental Changes (brain things which, to my knowledge, will revert at least in part if I ever lose access to HRT):

Improved Overall Mental Health (this is pretty obvious - relief of dysphoria leads to a massive improvement; former severe depression and anxiety are pretty much just gone now and I generally feel happier and more comfortable in my own skin)

Stabler Emotions (I am less sensitive, have fewer mood swings, do not feel hurt as easily; menstruation-related mood changes are gone and my emotional state changes based on daily circumstances and events rather than on a monthly schedule)

Inability to Cry (this one really messed me up actually; I used to be a BIG crier, easily set off by almost anything, and I was looking forward to maybe not crying so easily; I did NOT REALIZE that testosterone makes it actually DIFFICULT to cry even when you want to; sometimes this is a serious problem because I’m lacking a critical tool for emotional stability; when I can’t let my feelings out by crying I have to turn to other things like physical activity and aggression; I think this one is REALLY IMPORTANT for people to know about because right up until just a couple of weeks ago, I actually believed cis men didn’t cry solely because of trauma and repression, but it turns out their hormones literally make it hard to cry; I can cry SOMETIMES but it takes a LOT to get the tears to come out, they are not always available when I need them)

Increased Aggression (this one is NOT purely negative - the aggression is not uncontrolled! it is simply AVAILABLE; previously I was always very anxious; in a fight-or-flight situation I had only flight available to me, couldn’t stand up for myself or defend myself, allowed people to take advantage of me, couldn’t even watch scary movies or play most video games because the anxiety of feeling in danger made me run away; now I am capable of standing up for myself, pushing through scary situations, fighting monsters in video games without fear; it turns out that when you can’t cry, aggression IS a viable way to stabilize your emotions by releasing them via anger, but it is VERY IMPORTANT to be aware of how you do this and be careful not to do any harm in the process - playing a violent video game or getting intense exercise are safe ways of releasing emotions through aggression)

“THAT’S AWESOME” (related to the previous point, stuff I used to think was stupid is now awesome, like cool special effects in movies, creepy monsters in video games, etc.)

ALL HORNT UP (I am asexual and up until recently I didn’t care about sex at all; I used to get horny and masturbate once every few days or so on average; now I am horny ALL THE TIME and constantly aware of my clitoris, which is analogous to a cis man’s penis; everything makes me think of sex and my thoughts are full of sexual imagery a lot of the time; I wind up masturbating at least once a day, sometimes multiple times; I hate this actually, it’s inconvenient and frustrating; lately I find myself wanting to actually have sex with another person, though I don’t feel sexual attraction and wouldn’t want to have sex with someone I am not extremely comfortable with; I am assured this massively increased sex drive will decrease as I get through “puberty”)

Confidence (just an overall boost in confidence beyond that which comes from feeling at home in my body; this probably ties into the aggression but is not related to any changes in how other people treat me, I just feel less anxious and more confident, full stop)

Social Changes (changes in how other people perceive and interact with me):

Cis male friends refuse to make physical contact with me; friends who used to hug me regularly will no longer do so; these (straight) friends feel that the correct way to acknowledge my masculinity is to treat me the way they have been taught to treat other men, which means that physical contact can only ever be violent (at some level, this includes things like arm punches and back slaps) or sexual (which they would not do because they are straight, though I am not); This is all an aspect of toxic masculinity, but I was not aware that my cis male friends engaged in it until they saw ME as a man, since they were not like this with me when they saw me as a woman.

Similarly, conversations with other men are FUCKING EXHAUSTING. every conversation has to be a competition, a battle with a winner and a loser. no free exchanges of ideas and information. every opinion must be stated as a FACT and disagreements are actually PERSONAL ATTACKS THAT MUST BE DEFENDED AGAINST. This is another aspect of toxic masculinity which I absolutely abhor. It is a learned behavior, not something that comes from testosterone. I find it so exhausting that I avoid talking to guy friends and prefer to chat with female friends instead.

I look very young and probably always will; people will jokingly say “it must be nice to look young” but I am in my late 30s and it is not fun to look like a teenager; security guards in shops follow me around assuming I’m there to shoplift; anytime I introduce myself to new people my age I feel compelled to first tell them I’m older than I look, otherwise they treat me like a child.

I have yet to experience any significant difference in things like respect from other people because of the pandemic - I rarely speak with people I don’t already know really well. However, it’s worth noting that there is ample anecdotal evidence from other trans men that in general, people are more respectful and take you more seriously if they perceive you as male.

Things That Don’t Change:

The boobs don’t go away without surgery. This is my last major point of dysphoria and I am planning surgery soon. Binders can help in the meantime, but the redistribution of fat thanks to HRT does nothing to breast tissue (alas).

I am still the same goddamn person, and sometimes I wish people wouldn’t treat me differently out of some misguided eagerness to prove they are trans-friendly; for me, my transition is about feeling more at home in my own skin, not about any desire to be perceived as fundamentally different; this is quite personal, however, and your experience may vary.

My cat does not seem to perceive me any differently and does not behave any differently with me. I was actually worried about this because previously he was always a bit nervous around men. Animals know what’s up, they know who you are.

Food and drink still tastes the same; hobbies and interests are the same; political and social opinions are the same.

Despite the above notes about things like aggression, I have NOT become more violent or controlling; I do NOT show affection violently; I have NOT lost the need for cuddles and comfort and expressing emotions; these things are NOT inherent to being male, they are aspects of the toxic masculinity that our society teaches.

That’s all I can think of for now. Might add more later. Other trans men, feel free to reblog and add your experiences. Transphobes keep your fucking hands off my post.

[maulusque]

Clone genetic enhancement ideas

So the clones were genetically enhanced, but i don’t really see any writers (in fanfic or in published stuff) really exploring what that MEANS beyond “clone very stronk”. Here are some ideas that would actually make clones significantly different from just a regular-ass human in peak condition. 

-enhanced senses: eyesight, hearing, etc. I’m talking eyes like a HAWK

-better reflexes

-quicker information processing

-can hear sounds of higher and lower frequency than standard humans

-can see light of a broader spectrum than human standard

-learn quicker, retain information and skills better (potential problem: if you learn something the WRONG way, that way might stick really well)

-photographic memory (really useful for memorizing layouts and maps)

-immunity to various diseases

-can tolerate a wider range of temperatures and environments

-increased stamina and strength baseline. Clones can just run full-tilt for hours and hours and be like “ah a nice stroll”. Over long distances, they can out-pace jedi in the same way that humans can out-pace horses.

-higher tolerance of certain poisons/toxins (clones can straight-up drink ethanol, and get maybe a little tipsy)

-bodies respond quickly to physical stress, and slowly to the absence of it (basically, this means that physical conditioning results in stronger muscles and a stronger cardiovascular system really quickly, and it takes MUCH longer for a clone to lose strength and conditioning due to not exercising than standard humans. Think how much valuable training time is saved if they only have to go on a run like, once a month in order to stay in shape)

-increased ability to function through intense pain and acute injuries. Basically, semi-disabling the pain system so it’s less distracting. Probably not good for the survival of the individual in many situations, but an advantage on the battlefield. 

-heal faster and better, with fewer long-term complications. Clones can dislocate their shoulders and NOT have the joint be permanently fucked up, because the Kaminoans re-designed the whole damn thing to suck WAY less.

-actually, unique internal anatomy. There’s probably a lot about the human body besides the shoulder joint that is actually just really stupid, and something no intelligent designer would actually build. So the Kaminoans can fix a lot of that stuff. Better knees, maybe. Stronger ribs. Maybe Cody punches droids not just because he’s a mad bastard, but also because his metatarsals are literally as strong as steel. 

-Hearing loss/hearing damage? No problem, your ear can regrow those little hair-thingies that help you hear. 

-Of course, it takes energy to maintain muscle mass, which is why human bodies lose it if we’re not using it. Clones need significantly more calories than standard humans. However, their digestive systems are enhanced to extract calories and nutrients from food much more efficiently, so food goes much farther. Potential weird side effect: maybe clones only have to poop like, once a week?

-You could probably extend that into increased ability to tolerate long periods without food/on low rations, despite the increased need for calories. 

-wouldn’t it be NEAT if the kaminoans somehow designed self-repairing DNA. This would mean that others couldn’t take a DNA sample from a clone and modify it to create their own clones (basically, it protects their product. It’s like DRM for clones). This ALSO means that clones couldn’t get cancer, and that they’d be immune to radiation poisoning. So a clone could just walk up to a sphere of uranium at critical mass and pick it up. Maybe with oven mitts on if it’s hot. (this would also make it harder for a rapid-aging cure to be developed, but uhhhh fanfic writers find a way)

- “bred for obedience” I think most of this would have to be accomplished through tightly-controlled messaging and cultural norms as the clones grow up- basically, enshrining obedience as a desirable and almost sacred trait, to be prized higher than anything else, including the lives of your brothers. In the same way that we hear stories of people sacrificing their lives to protect their loved ones, the clones would grow up hearing stories of soldiers sacrificing their brothers’ lives to obey an order from a superior. 

-SOME of the “obedience” thing could be engineered, though. Humans are already super social, but it would probably make sense for the clones to have an even greater need for social bonds. This would make for greater teamwork and coordination, and better unit cohesion, since the clones would be more inclined to prioritize friendship/agreeing with someone over winning an argument. It would also make it so they’d bond with their natural-born generals more easily, so they would obey them not just because they’re supposed to, but because they’d be much quicker to see them as a friend, and someone who’s trust they want to earn, someone they want to incorporate into their group and make happy.

-consequently, clones who find themselves alone do NOT do well. Isolation has a much more profoundly negative impact on clones than on regular humans.

-Originally, clones designed to operate alone or in small teams would not have the social enhancement- ARC troopers, spec-ops teams, etc. There wouldn’t be much of a noticeable difference in everyday interactions, but they’d also be vaguely weirded out by what they interpret as aggressive friendliness from their brothers, and their brothers would think they’re a bit shy and standoffish. 

-actually this social modification would make it MUCH harder for clones to kill people. REGULAR HUMANS are already super bad at killing people- i remember reading this article about how as soon as soldiers have to point their weapons at actual people, their aim gets mysteriously much shittier. Even when compared to situations that are exactly the same, except they’re not shooting at other humans. So reconcile this how you will, idk.

-I imagine a lot of these enhancements would be accomplished not through DNA, but through microorganisms. Retroviruses could explain the DNA resistant to modification, and the increased healing speed, and possibly some disease resistance (do i know anything about retroviruses other than a vague concept of what they are? no i do not. will that stop me? also no.) Their metabolism can be partially explained through specially engineered gut microbes.

-not sure how they’d go about making clones “resistant to any stress”, because you can’t exactly turn off the trauma response in the brain without breaking a bunch of other things. They could probably do a bit of fiddling to make clones more resistant to chemical imbalances, and therefore more depression-resistant. I think most of the “stress-resistance” would have to come through training. Either they train the clones to basically suppress everything, which might work alright in the short term. OR they actually have systems in place that help prevent the development of things like PTSD and help treat trauma. Meaning the clones are literally trained in self-care, positive self-talk, talking about their pain with their brothers, and having community rituals around things like death and grief. I don’t think that’s super likely because one thing that’s integral to those concepts is the concept of “i am a person and i have worth, and if i feel angry about something bad happening, that is ok and valid” and considering that a whole lot of bad things happen to the clones all the time and their childhood is a whole boatload of bad all happening at once, i don’t think the kaminoans would want the clones realizing “hey wait a minute i’m a person and i don’t deserve to be treated this way and it’s ok for me to be mad at you”. 

- the clones were supposedly engineered to be “less aggressive” but i think there was literally nothing more to that than a cover story for the control chip. The clones wouldn’t be raised with a lot of the aggressive western concept of masculinity, where anger is the default reaction to like, everything, and your personal pride is extremely important and also fragile (no offense lmao). So you wouldn’t have clones posturing and getting angry over perceived slights and fighting each other all the time, like everyone in-universe apparently expects to be the case. Anyway, why would you want your soldiers to be less aggressive? they’re literally supposed to fight and kill the enemy. You want them fully capable of getting angry, anger is the human response to fear and danger that lets us DO something about it. 

-obviously the biggest component in how they behave would be how they are raised, but that’s an entirely different post

-Specializations! I imagine that initially, the Kaminoans had different clones with different traits engineered specifically to fill certain roles. However, as the war went on, they struggled to keep up with demand and had to start shoving clones into whatever roles were needed (hence Fives and Echo becoming ARCs, despite not being engineered as ARC troopers). 

-Command clones would have better abilities in the executive function parts of the brain that deal with extrapolation, planning ahead, spatial reasoning, etc. They’d also have increased visual pattern recognition (like a pigeon)

-search-and-rescue troops would also have the pigeon pattern recognition abilities. The coast guard literally strapped pigeons to helicopters who would tap a button when they saw orange in the water, because they were better at spotting it than humans. Pigeons can detect cancer in microscope images of cells, because they’re that good at pattern recognition

-Pilots would have hella reflexes, excellent spatial awareness and spatial reasoning skills, much greater ability to process visual information, stronger hearts and blood vessels (to resist greater Gs of force), and they’d also be much shorter, to better fit into a cockpit. Which reminds me of Axe, that poor bastard from Ahsoka’s squadron over Ryloth who was almost eight feet tall. rip poor Axe, how did you even become a pilot, you long bastard.

-medics who can smell certain diseases. If you want to get a little bit out there, make the medics able to purr so they can sooth stressed-out patients. 

-infantry would have even greater endurance than everyone else, as well as greater tolerance for, and ability to, remain constantly on alert.

-ability to fall asleep at will? that would be super dope.

-maybe more efficient sleep, so to an adult clone, 4 hours of sleep is genuinely sufficient.

-concept: clones can sort of turn down their bodily functions- slow their digestion, heart, lungs, the whole nine yards- to last longer in adverse conditions. Sort of a half-hibernation (or quarter hibernation- they’d still be able to talk and think, but they’d feel very lethargic). They wouldn’t be able to function very well, but it would be great for things like enduring intense cold, periods without food, low-oxygen environments, and it would be especially useful if you were wounded and waiting for help, since you could slow your circulation, meaning it would take you a lot longer to bleed out. This state could be triggered by a combination of physical actions such as sitting or lying still, breathing slowly and deeply, and focusing on slowing the heart down (humans can actually slow down their hearts consciously if you practice at it, this is basically that, but turned up to like 1100).

-one thing that never made sense to me was the whole “we’re running out of jango fett’s DNA, all the new clones won’t be as good, and we have to stop ventress from stealing the original DNA” because like, can’t they just, get the EXACT SAME DNA from the clones?? you know, the exact genetic copies? With all the enhancements already done? But now my idea is that the kaminoans have engineered the clones so their DNA straight up can’t be copied. The clone’s own body can obviously replicate it, but if you take a sample and try to extract the DNA, it just self-destructs or something. This is to protect their intellectual property, but also means that they literally have to use a couple of Jango Fett’s actual human cells for every single clone they make (and the fact that they then have to do all the above enhancements to every single embryo helps explain why there’s so many small mutations, such as hair color and height). So they kinda shot themselves in the foot with that one. 

-of course since things like ADHD and autism have a strong genetic component, the kaminoans could theoretically engineer those out of the clones, but actually FUCK THAT so for whatever reason, that’s just not something they are able to do, and neurodivergent clones are absolutely a thing

[dismal-noise]

Let's Learn About Our Metabolism!

Recently I haven't been able to stop worrying about the dreaded "starvation mode", and that I wasn't doing enough to speed my metabolism up... So I looked into it, and I learned a lot of very interesting things! Mainly that a lot of the things I thought I knew about my metabolism was completely backwards, so let's talk about it! :)

NOTE: I AM NOT AN EXPERT! I just did some basic research and want to share what I found.

As always, all sources used are at the bottom of the post.

So,, what even IS my metabolism?

The word metabolism refers to the chemical processes that go on continuously inside the body in order to to keep you alive and maintain homeostasis. This takes energy to do, which is measured in kilojoules (kJ)

These chemical processes can broadly be divided into 2 groups: catabolism (breaking down food), and anabolism (building repairing our body).

So again: "metabolism" is not a SPECIFIC chemical process, but rather the term we use when talking about ALL of the chemical processes your body uses to keep you alive.

Wait but now I'm confused... I thought my metabolism is what controlled how fast I burn what I eat??

It is! It's just a bit more complicated. Your body turns food into energy, and uses that energy to function. Any extra energy the body takes in is stored (mostly as fat). Your body's metabolic rate (or total energy expenditure) is divided into 3 parts:

Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR)

This is the energy you use to keep all the body's systems functioning correctly (including breathing, keeping your heart beating, adjusting hormone levels, and growing/repairing cells)

Your BMR accounts for 50-80% of your body's daily energy usage, and seems to be what people are usually referring to when they talk about "speeding up" or "slowing down your metabolism"

Thermogenesis (Thermic effect of food)

This is the energy your body uses to digest food and drink, and to absorb, transport, and store nutrients.

Thermogenesis accounts for 5-10% of your body's daily energy expenditure.

Energy used during physical activity

This refers to energy used by physical activity. this includes planned exercise like biking, running, walking, swimming, etc; and all incidental activity like moving from room to room and even fidgeting!

This one really varies from person to person, but for a person who has about 30 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity a day, physical activity accounts for about 20% of daily energy use.

So basically, a lot of people use the term "metabolism" when they are talking about how many calories their body burns just living when they should really be using the term "BMR".

And when people say things like "the daily recommended calories for an average adult is 2,000" they are saying that the average person's metabolic rate uses about 2,000 calories worth of energy a day! that's kinda crazy, right?

Ok cool, so can the "speed" of my Metabolic Rate change?

Yes! Kinda.

You see, Thermogenesis is out of your control, and your BMR can kinda be affected by different things you can do, but as far as I know the changes are not significant. And you can increase your physical activity to burn up more calories to, but I get the feeling you guys know that ;)

Your BMR is the only one of these that is both in your control, and not. It's calculated using your sex, age, hight, and weight; but is affected by things like starving (decrease in up to 15%), caffeine (small increase), and even the temp of your environment.

Unfortunately, there is no magic thing we can do to just make our bodies use significantly more calories for our BMR. We CAN try to maximise our BMR by doing strength training (muscle requires way more energy to maintain than fat), and by "high restricting" or planning some high calorie days to help prevent your BMR from slowing due to lack of food!

A quick note for my fellow nonbinary and trans peeps: There is plenty of research out there that shows that your "biological sex" matters less than your "hormonal sex" when calculating your BMR. this is because most BMR calculations look for lean body mass vs fat cause they require different amounts of energy to maintain, and women are more likely to have more body fat (there are many reasons for this, but I won't be going into it today).

So you can do a couple of things:

1) If you have not taking hormones, then you can calculate using your AGAB (assigned gender at birth)

2) If you ARE taking hormones, or are "fully transitioned" then you could calculate using "male" if your taking T, and "female" if you are taking E. If your microdosing or your transition is incomplete then you could calculate twice (once with male, and once with female) and average the 2 numbers

3) You could look for calculators that DONT include the gender question! they exist! The Katch-McArdle Formula for calculating your BMR does not have the gender question.

That was a lot, can you summarize it?

Absolutely!

TLDR: "metabolism" is an umbrella term for "everything your body does that requires energy.

Your metabolic rate (aka how much energy your body uses) is determined by 3 parts: thermogenesis, BMR, and physical activity.

Thermogenesis is out of your control

BMR is affected by your actions to an extent, but you can't "speed it up" to use more calories. It can be slowed down if your body feels it needs to conserve energy because you aren't eating enough, an it can slow down by 15%

Physical activity is totally in your control (for abled body people anyway, I know physical activity is different for everyone). The more you move, the more energy your body uses, and the more calories your burn

As always, I love you all, drink some water, and stay safe <3

-dismal

Sources (I encourage you all to read as they go more in-depth and are easy reads)

Metabolism - Better Health

Metabolism and weight loss - Mayo Clinic

Can you boost your metabolism? - Medlineplus.org

Nutritional needs, transfolk and biological sex - old blog post

[wtficedance]

Q #175 - What do fast skaters do that separates themselves from their slower competitors?

Q #175: "I’ve always wondered how some skaters can gain and carry speed more than others. what do fast skaters do that separates themselves from their slower competitors? people always say that knee bend helps, but how does it work?"

Hi anon,

Great question, I’m going to answer as concisely and non-sciencey as possible.

Not all speed is created equal. At least with regards as to how it should be reflected in skating skills scores. Speed that is generated through things like running on the ice, skips, hockey or speed skating-style stroking—even if it’s incredibly fast—should not increase skating skills scores or be reflected in GOE bullets.

Skaters that gain speed using crossovers, basic skating vocabulary, precise and controlled stroking, and using clear technique should have that benefit their SS score. So how to you gain speed if not by running on the ice? I just RT-ed my post on knee bend, so if you want to learn more about that it is Q #43. A skater accelerates by:

Increasing the force that they push with (recruiting more muscle fibers in their lower body)

Increasing the power of that stroke by delivering that force over a shorter period of time (power is the rate of Work / Time, aka making the stroke faster)

Delivering that stroke over a longer displacement (using the length of their stride to keep that contact on the ice, Work = Force * Disp.)

By increasing the original potential energy by bending their knees further, if we treat the knee like a spring where the potential spring energy increases with every degree from 180 > 90, the greater the range of motion of the knee, the more potential energy the skater has to translate into speed.

Exceptionally fast skaters like Kaori Sakamoto, Han Yan, Wakaba Higuchi, Kaetlyn Osmond, Hubbell/Donohue, Virtue/Moir, Miura/Kihara etc… apply significantly more force per stroke or crossover than their slower competitors because they are recruiting more muscle fibers from the correct muscle groups (^PE), bending their knees (^PE), and maintaining as much contact with the ice to gain the full potential of that stroke over the shortest possible time—increasing their power.

This is one of the major advantages of muscle mass, there’s simply more muscle fibers to recruit to each stroke, and they have more capacity for work. This is also why very fast singles skaters tend to have very large jumps, their knee bend allows them to translate that spring energy into elevation.

[vulnera-sanentura]

Cat Facts: Why’s this Cat Vomiting?

Like most of my posts, this is coming more from a veterinary student/pre-vet education perspective, but hopefully some owners that follow me can get some useful info from this!

Unsurprising to most vet students, there’s about as many reasons for vomiting as there are diagnoses in general. We’re going to attempt to narrow that down a bit, break them into categories which makes it more useful for diagnostics and relevant differentials.

First off, you have to differentiate vomiting from regurgitation.

Vomiting: nausea (drooling, lip licking, swallowing, depression/restlessness), abdominal muscle contraction, contains bile/digested blood/digested food

Regurgitation: no nausea, no abdominal contractions or bile, presence of undigested food in a tubular shape.

Once you’re sure it’s actually vomiting, you’ll need to differentiate it into acute or chronic, as well as emergency/non-emergency. Acute will be in the last few days or day of presentation, often multiple times in the same day, and will often present as more “sick” than the chronic vomiter.

In chronic cases, the vomiting is usually more than 2 times a month and has been going on for months to years. Chronic vomiters can be “apparently healthy” and the vomiting only brought up at a wellness check or prompted by the vet/nurses and the owner didn’t think to bring it up because “cats just vomit, and they seem fine other than that.” History can help a lot! If there’s an acute case, and the cat has access to toxic substances, a habit or likelihood of eating foreign objects (hair ties, string, q-tips, etc), or has had a recent change in diet, that could lead you immediately to the most likely cause and the most appropriate next steps. Acute vomiting generally has fewer causes or at least more obvious causes, and next steps generally include abdominal radiographs or triage/supportive care if indicated. Physical exam can locate a linear foreign body that’s anchored to the underside of the tongue.

So, what if that doesn’t help? That’s when you start your baseline diagnostics! CBC/Chem/UA can rule in or rule out a lot of potential causes for vomiting:

Diabetes: hyperglycemia, glucosuria, ketonuria, low USG

Liver disease: hyperbilirubinemia, decreased BUN, increased liver enzymes, bilirubinuria

Renal disease: increased BUN/creatinine, low USG

Hyperthyroidism: increased T4, increased liver enzymes (ALP, ALT), mild increase in PCV, low USG

Electrolyte/acid-base derangements: Na, K, Cl, Ca, pH, bicarb, tCO2

Eosinophilia: parasites, IBD, hypereosinophilic syndrome, mast cell tumors

Neutrophilia: gastroenteritis, neoplasia

Neutropenia: salmonellosis, retroviruses

Hemoconcentration: dehydration

Anemia: chronic disease, GI blood loss

Fecal may also show parasites, and FeLV/FIV positive snap test might be supportive of vomiting from a FeLV/FIV related illness

Secondary diagnostics beyond bloodwork and urinalysis would be the next step after that. Radiographs may show abnormalities in organ size/architecture (small kidneys, enlarged liver), foreign bodies, GI obstruction, or masses.

Ultrasound is the diagnostic of choice for **chronic vomiting and normal bloodwork**. It can reveal thickening of the stomach/small intestines, wall layer changes, and/or enlarged lymph nodes. It can also show or allow better examination of abdominal masses, or the presence of free fluid.

fPLI may be indicated if pancreatitis is suspected, but may be normal in chronic pancreatitis cases. Heartworm testing if the cat lives in an endemic area, after other causes have been ruled out.

Intestinal biopsy and histopathology is recommended in cases of chronic vomiting with GI thickening seen on ultrasound. This will differentiate between IBD and lymphoma, which cannot be done without the histopath! Though presumptive and empirical treatment may be considered in cases of financial concern. IBD is often in younger cats and lymphoma in older, however that’s simply a generalization and not a hard and fast rule. IBD and lymphoma are the two most common causes of chronic vomiting in cats. Exploratory surgery and full thickness biopsies is preferred over endoscopic biopsy, as you can retrieve intestinal samples from more than just the duodenum, the samples will be higher quality for your pathologist, and you can determine the staging of the lymphoma (if that’s the cause).

What should I tell owners to keep a look out for? 2x a month or more vomiting, INCLUDING HAIRBALLS, is abnormal and justifies an ultrasound study. Cats should in theory be able to process hair since they evolved to groom their fur (a bit more leeway is given to long-haired cats since that’s a genetic mutation we’ve selected for), and vomiting hairballs regularly is suggestive of hypomotility of the GI tract.

The only exception to this is eating grass and vomiting, as grass is irritating to the stomach and can cause vomiting, but is more or less harmless on its own.

Due to this being a very wide topic I didn’t go much into specifics, but I can if you all are interested in any specific parts of this!

[lilyofthestyx]

Aeipathy: Chapter Two

Disclaimer: i don’t (unfortunately) own Marvel or any of their characters, plot points, etc. so all right are to them and their our overlord Disney

AN: yeahhhh this one’s a shorty but i promise the next one will be longer and filled with plot and angst and shit so prepare yourselves <3

Bucky x Reader

Word Count: 3.1k

TW: angst, mentions of torture, mentions of murder/arson, HYDRA collectively is a prick

Chapter One is available here!

   Gnawing. 

   It claws through my body on all fours. Tearing, ripping, hacking, burning. 

   Monstrous fangs that sink into the deepest parts of muscle- I can feel it in my bones, the burning. 

  There is no noise, just the sound of whirring and the unholy screeching of demons in my ears. Faceless demons, demons whose faces have too much detail, demons that stare, demons that scream. Demons, demons, demons. 

   I have fallen. Fallen from grace. Fallen from…

   No, no. 

   I am falling. 

   Something catches me. A savior in blue. Scarlet red smeared across their chest. Blood. My blood- the blood of sinners and saints and bystanders. Of children and ancients and of rich and poor. 

   There’s white streaked between the red. Piety. Purity. Righteousness. Desperately, I cling to the stark white stripes. Indecipherable mumbles pass my lips as I stare at the white. I beg for purity, to be clean again.

   Every time I wake up, it’s always the same. 

   The immovable weight in my body. The unceasing shivering. The bite of frost. The writhing of filth in my veins. In my nerves. In every fiber of my being. Festering. Growing. Rotting. Corrupting. Remembering. 

   But why can’t I remember?

   All I can remember are the demons. Faceless, nameless but never silent. Always screaming.

   Screaming, screaming, screaming. 

   I cling to the white. The righteousness of my savior. Solidity in turbulence. Silence in cacophony. Purity. Cleanliness. Life. 

   I cling to life. 

   But life burns under my fingertips. It shrieks and squirms under my touch- tries to escape. Repelled by my presence, it retracts away from my grasp.

   Color retracts into shapes as I take in my surroundings. An almost completely empty room completely made of concrete. A single contraption behind me made of metal. Icy fog slithers out of the open door, hissing and flicking at my ankles. 

   Words, however, remain blurred. The savior holds me upright- pulls me to my feet. Everything burns and aches. I’m so incredibly cold. Frosted water paints my skin, coats my clothes to my body. A puddle gathers beneath the writhing fog. 

   This seems familiar. 

   My eyes turn up towards my savior. The blood-stained guardian. Words fall from their lips, landing on deaf ears. 

   My body trembles as the cold becomes more vicious with its fangs. The savior turns away and says something. Everything is muffled- faraway and distant and like someone has their hands clamped down over my ears. 

   “Why am I awake?” I ask, straightening up. Every inch of me quivers while every part of me wishes to stop. 

   But I was awoken for a purpose. My mission.

   And I’ll complete it. 

   Hail HYDRA.

Location: S.H.I.E.L.D. Headquarters

Date: 2012

   “Woah, easy, ________,” I mutter, holding her upright. Her eyes wide, they flick around the room. Her hands grip my chest as she shakes violently. 

   She’s here. She’s alive. 

   She… she died. Died on that table- how is this…

   “Steve,” Tony mutters, holding out a blanket. I take it and start to wrap it around her shoulders. 

   As her glazed eyes lock with mine, I look over her face. She’s drained of color- blue and white. Her chapped blue lips open and close violently.

   Hoarsely, she starts to speak. 

   But not anything I can understand. 

   Over and over, she repeats questions with her eyes wide and wary of every moment and movement. My eyes dart over to Tony- who watches ________, his eyebrows furrowed. 

   Russian. 

   That’s what she’s speaking. Russian. And fluently. Extremely well. Why… Why is she…?

   “She didn’t… usually speak like this, did she?” Tony asks, gesturing vaguely to her as she continues to shake in my arms. Broken words off a stolen tongue hiss past her lips. She furrows her eyebrows as she looks between the two of us. 

   “Her files told me she was-” Tony continues. 

   “She’s… she’s never spoken this before,” I mutter, adjusting my grip under her arms. “Raised in Brooklyn for most’a her life- I dunno why-”

   “V chem... moya missiya?” ________ hisses, her voice shaking. I look down and watch her straighten up on unsteady legs. “V chem moya missiya?” 

   “...why is she…?” Tony mutters, stepping in front of her. He lets his head fall back with a sigh as he taps his leg with his finger. “It’s been a long time, let’s see if I can do this.” Rolling his shoulders back and snapping his neck, he focuses back on ________. “Kto ty?”

   ________’s head tilts to the side slightly. Her eyebrows furrow further as she glares at him through them. “...Hetaerae. V chem moya missiya?”

   Tony sighs and closes his eyes as he speaks. “Ch… chto… ty. Chto ty?”

   Her eyes glaze over as she stops shaking, standing upright. “Ya HYDRA.”

   “...she’s… She died, Tony. I don’t… I don’t know what else to tell you,” I mutter, looking up from the desk. “She… she died before I even got the serum. I hadn’t even seen Doctor Erskine- Bucky… he hadn’t been shipped off to Europe yet.”

   “I may be able to help explain that,” Tony says as he gets to his feet. In his hand is a thick folder filled with papers and photos and notes and scraps of paper. He places it in front of me with a thud. “Apologies- I would opt for the digital version but, uh… you… don’t even know what... that… is.”

   “Tony,” I say sharply as I open the folder. He just shrugs and sits down across the table again. The top paper is mostly blacked-out with a few words left untouched. ________’s name. Her age. Her parents and their causes and dates of death. And other words that… don’t make sense. ‘Mistress’. ‘Replication’. ‘Improvement’. ‘Rejected’. ‘Baroness’. ‘Salbei’.

   ‘Hetaerae’. 

   Repeated over and over throughout the sea of black streaks is that word. ‘Hetaerae’. At the very bottom of the page in tiny letters are the words ‘Project Samsara- Hetaerae’. In the corner is a skull with tentacles writhing beneath it. ‘HYDRA’ is written along the curve of the skull. 

   My stomach churns. If HYDRA really is behind this then...

   I start tearing into the folder. Photos of the various angles of the steel container from when I woke up. Under it is a handwritten note. ‘Cryo-container; Vrsn: Hetaerae’. 

   Another photo- this one of a chair. On the armrests and legs are cuffs, along with another one on the back of the chair. Something metal comes around the chair. It juts off the side of a machine and looms over it like an archway. A note is written over the photo. ‘Neck brace may prematurely terminate subject. Issue logged during first programming session’.

   Another blacked-out stack of papers. The same words are repeated over and over again. ‘Hetaerae’, ‘Baroness’, ‘Samsara’, ‘Salbei’, ‘HYDRA’. My fists clench the papers before tossing them to the side. Tony watches in silence. 

   What the Hell is this? What were they doing- what did ________ have to do with it? 

   My eyebrows furrow as I manically flip through the papers. Papers fly to the side as I tear through the folder. I can feel myself getting rigid as I near the end. 

   Nothing. I’ve learned nothing. Not a single goddamn thing. There’s nothing here- 

   My hands stop as my eyes rest on the last few items. A file not blacked out. It’s completely intact. Nothing scratched, no scribbles, no hasty lines cutting through words. I snatch it and start reading. 

Project Samsara; Hetaerae

Subject Name: ________ Bishop

Subject Age: 26

Subject Info:

Daughter of Leon Bishop (deceased) and Catherine Chambers (deceased)

Resident of Brooklyn, NY

Military background

Non-combatant medic

Attempted pilot training

Worked under Doctor Akin Nachtnebel- HYDRA researcher

Personal friend of Captain Steven G. Rogers, Sergeant James B. Barnes, political activist Odessa Lily Mae Ababio

Official status: Deceased

Simplified Process Log (see file 178953 for detailed logs):

Day 1: 

Body retrieved by HYDRA. 

Blood and tissue samples taken. 

Heart/respiration rates taken. 

Note: Hetaerae seems to be semi-lucid. May require sedation. 

Day 13:

Serum incubation complete. 

Visible changes in body structure internal and external. 

Bone density increased slightly, muscle mass increased, other changes to be tested.

Day 23:

Regen. abilities test positive

Enhanced reflexes test positive

Body modifications test optimal

Note: Hetaerae seemed to negatively respond to pain. Possible weakness. Must train to not respond.

Day 68:

First programming session prematurely terminated. Hetaerae reacted negatively to programming.

Admitted to medical wing. 

Near strangulation and bruised trachea. 

Removing neck cuff on programming station and attempting again tomorrow. 

Day 100:

Programming temporarily successful. 

Hetaerae could not recall set of numbers given pre-programming for forty minutes. 

Memory wipe testing will continue.

Day 173:

Hetaerae admitted to medical wing for treatment. 

Major vocal cord damage. 

Damage not irreversible. 

Memory wipe testing will continue.

Note: Hetaerae begged for ‘Steve’ and ‘Bucky’ repeatedly during memory wipe. More research needed.

Day 234:

Three guards admitted to medical wing. 

Hetaerae had clawed at their eyes, noses, ears, and mouths

Broken nails were taken from guards’ faces.

Admitted samples for research.

Extra-long memory wipe testing done. 

Hetaerae will be allowed a day to rest after strenuous session. Cannot allow for subject’s termination.

Day 250:

Near disaster.

Hetaerae attempted escape.

Four guards killed. Two more seriously injured.

Must increase security.

Note: Hetaerae lethal before combat training. A promising candidate. Akin, in his paranoia, chose well.

Day 276:

Hetaerae broke free of restraints during memory wipe.

Too exhausted to attempt escape. 

Memory wipe has prevented Hetaerae from remembering subject name.

Will begin codeword implantation process tomorrow. 

Day 342:  

Hetaerae begins Samsara training tomorrow. 

Complete memory wipe achieved. 

Hetaerae is the only thing within subject.

Day 3658:

Samsara training complete.

Winter Soldier co-training complete.

Complete memory wipe complete.

Codeword implantation complete. 

Hetaerae to be placed in cryo to await orders.

Hail HYDRA. 

HYDRA status: Active. Ready for use.

   “Look at her track record,” Tony mutters, sliding a thick wad of papers over to me. Turning away, I shake my head. “...fine. I’ll read it for you.” He huffs, flipping through the various pages. “Uh… her first mission was to…” he scoffs, “To take out a mid-level politician that had apparently laid his eyes on something he shouldn’t have. ‘Mission: success, target: terminated’.”

   “Tony…” I warn quietly, my shoulders getting tenser with each word. 

   “A few missions later, she’s retrieving lab samples and… and destroying the lab... Fourteen people killed. ‘Mission: success, targets: terminated’.”

   “Tony.”

   “I’m skimmin’ here, Cap, but listen- an orphanage in Saint Petersburg, a… a couple in Prague, a woman in Athens, a man in Cairo...” Tony continues skimming through the pages. “‘Mission: success, target: terminated’, ‘Mission: success, target: terminated’, ‘Mission: success, target: terminated’-”

   “Enough!” I snap, turning to look at him. 

   Tony sighs and puts the papers down. Running a hand down his face, he purses his lips. “Dunno how else t’tell ya this, Cap- she’s dangerous. She has killed hundreds of people. She can speak seven languages, she can infiltrate a political atmosphere and topple it, she can... camouflage in any… social situation, she has a perfect kill record... Whoever she was before-”

   “She’s still in there,” I cut in. “She’s still in there.”

   Tony rolls his eyes. “Are… are you not... hearing what I’m telling you?” He gestures to the original folder. “They laid into her for… ten years. Subjected her to torture. Wiped her slate clean. Whatever was in there, pal, it’s long gone.”

   A huff leaves my lips. “...you don’t know what she was like,” I mumble coldly, reminiscing over what it was like to live with her, to live with her at my side like I was at hers. “She was… the most... hard-headed… stubborn dame I’d ever met. And strong, too.”

   “Rogers-”

   “She’s still in there, Tony,” I snap, my eyes flicking up to him. “She’s strong.”

   “Good morning.” I say, waving at ________ as she sits on the chair. Her breathing is steady, eyes trained on the opposite side of the room. Her wrists are handcuffed to the armests- the same with her ankles. They clink slightly as she breathes. 

   The room is completely empty except for another chair across from hers. My shield lays against the chair- ‘a precaution’ Fury called it. 

   ‘A threat’ is what I would call it. 

   I step further into the room and sit down on the chair. With glazed eyes, she watches me. “Are… those too tight?” I ask, gesturing to the cuffs. 

   She says nothing. Only blinks in response. 

   She… she looks so empty. 

   Her face was always glowing, her smile illuminating the clinic when Buck and I would walk in to bring her lunch or just to bug her. Letters would flood in every now and then from past patients or their families, thanking her for her patience and kindness. She would keep them all in a shoebox under her bed.

   And her hands. She would wrap bandages around my wounds with care. She’d always tell me to not get it in my head to fight again… and then ask where the punks lived so she could ‘pay them a visit’. Her hands were always feather-soft when checking every injury’s progress. 

   Now they look… darker. Not in color but just… darker. 

   Stained.  

   Did she know what she was doing when she killed those people?

   ________ shifts slightly, the sound of the handcuffs pulling me out of my head. I clear my throat and straighten up. “...do you know who I am?” I ask quietly. 

   No response. 

   “Do you know who you are?”

   “Haetarae.” She answers, eyes still glazed. 

   “Do you… do you know who you actually are?”

   ________’s eyes narrow for just a moment. “...HYDRA.”

   “No. No,” I mutter, pointing to my chest. “...do you know who I am?”

   ...nothing. 

   “Steve. I’m Stevie. We… we grew up in Brooklyn together. With Bucky. We, um… Buck ‘nd I, we helped you out of a fight when you were thirteen. That’s how we met… you… remember that…?”

   She blinks, eyes scanning over me. 

   Getting up from my seat, I reach into my pocket and tug a photo of the three of us out of my pocket. It was taken after she had gotten her nursing credentials. We had gone out dancing, just the three of us. We found someone willing to take our photo. A smile crosses my lips as I look down at it. 

   Colors start to fade into the black and white photo. Every detail is so crisp. ________’s chin is resting on my head as she stands behind me- a bright, red-lipped smile on her face. Her arms are wrapped around my chest as she leans over. Her hair is done perfectly- up with roses in her hair. Neat and tidy like she practiced. The skirt of her dress is the same shade of red as her lips. Black dots pattern the fabric of the skirt. The bodice was black- matching her heels. Hooked through her elbows was a creme-colored fur boa. 

   Bucky’s got his arm around her waist and he ducks down to my level. He holds a pressed black suit, wearing a red undershirt. His suit jacket is hung over his shoulder with his undershirt’s sleeves rolled up. I remember him shining his shoes that day while ________ meticulously placed roses in her hair. Bucky had sewn and hemmed my pants with pride. ‘It’s a special day, punk’, he mumbled with the needle between his lips, ‘can’t have ya trippin’ on your pant legs.’ 

   She shifts again and I’m pulled right back into now. ________ sits in front of me. No smile, no roses, no brightness. And Bucky… Bucky’s dead and gone. Lost a long, long time ago. Slowly, I hold out the photo. “...see?” I mumble, “That’s me… before I… had a growth spurt. And that’s Buck.”

   I look up to her. She’s focused on the photo, eyes slightly squinted and head tilted to the side just barely. “...Buck ‘nd you,” I laugh quietly. “He… he was… so crazy about you. He just… never realised it.”

   The door behind us cracks open. Her body snaps tightly, eyes back to glazed. Tony peeks his head into the room and tilts it back. “Eyepatch wants you.”

   I sigh. Looking back at ________, I tuck the photo into her hand. Slowly, her fingers wrap around it delicately. I nod once and start out of the room. As the door swings shut, I spare one last look. ________ looks down at the photo, her head slightly tilting once more.

   “It may be our only option,” Fury sighs. “She’s unpredictable at best.”

   “She’s still in there- if I can just… keep talking with her-”

   “That is out of the question,” he says firmly, eye flicking up to me. “...you’re too close on this one, Rogers. I’m making the executive decision to-”

   Lights start to flash overhead- red and screaming. A wailing buzz rips out of the hallway as the red light bathes us in scarlet. The door slams open, Tony standing in the doorway, panting. Fury slowly gets out of his seat, eye wide. 

   “She… She got out,” Tony mutters, gesturing outside.

   My body launches forward as I run into the hallway. People are running, an anxious chatter swarming around them as they pass just in front of me. As I push into the main hallway, elbows and chests are thrown into me. Flicking to each person, my eyes catch the room where ________ was held. The door is almost completely torn off the hinges- the wood cracked at the handle. 

   I start to push through the sea of people. Like water, they throw themselves against me- eager to leave the building and get the hell out of harm’s way. But as I make my way to the door and push out the other side of the tempest, I can see the dangling cuffs still hanging around the armrests. 

   My fingers graze the splintering wood door, tracing the ridges of where her fingers had dug into the wood- leaving grooves in the shape of her hand. The hinges look relatively new as they hang lifelessly off the wall. The debris littering the floor is kicked around, leaving a partial trail down the hallway. I follow with a solid grip on my shield. 

   “________?” I hiss, looking around the empty hallway. Everything is dimmed by the red lights and the screaming of the alarms haven’t stopped. “________!” 

   I round a corner and every adrenaline-fueled tension melts away. At the very end of the hallway is a floor-to-ceiling window. Broken glass lays at the base of a gaping hole. 

   She’s gone. 

[abowlofpetuniasandawhale]

i feel weird posting about this because it’s such a sore subject for so many (including me) but i kind of wanted to write about this and reflect on it for my own personal growth so

i started eating in a calorie deficit on 12/4 after ~3 months of eating at maintenance and high volume strength training. Technically my eight weeks are up on 12/29 but I already feel like im basically where i need to be (and that alone, being satisfied with myself instead of wanting to double down and go smaller is such a success all by itself)

im so proud of myself, not for losing weight, but for managing to do it without a relapse even when my mental health has been in the toilet. obviously it wasn’t perfect and there were days where i definitely didn’t eat enough, but considering it was almost always out of laziness or genuine lack of appetite (hello tolerance break) instead of being the restriction game where i get obsessed with making the calorie count as small as possible, im calling it a success.

i definitely wish i had eaten more and especially eaten more protein. considering i lost 13lbs (which is too much for that amount of time, even if i’d had a much much higher body fat percentage to start with) i do think that more than a bit of my weight loss was in lost muscle mass because i wasn’t maintaining properly and wasn’t keeping up with my lifting as much (which i forgive myself for because i was literally starving, even if only slightly). i think i would have actually gotten even better results (in terms of my personal desired body composition, not weight lost because as i said i definitely lost too much weight too quickly for it to be healthy) if i had just made myself eat an extra snack a few nights a week

either way i think i’m going to end the deficit early and slowly start upping my calories and lifts again. i remember starting this not-a-diet and being so so terrified i was going to relapse completely and convinced i was going to have to stop myself.

i think i didn’t relapse for a number of reasons

1) from the beginning it was always going to be a finite period of time, based on research into body building-style bulking and cutting. having a definite end date in mind kept me focused on the fact that undereating was a temporary means to a specific end and not a form of self control, punishment, or coping mechanism. it also avoided the ED mentality of “i’m going to restrict as long as it takes until i look the way i want” which always comes with moving goal posts

2) i had one set menu that included 3 easy meals that could all be spiced up different ways (for example dinner was always tofu vegetable stir fry but the veggies, sauce, and seasonings are free choice), correct macros, and room for snacks. this kept me from overthinking, waffling about what i felt okay to eat, constantly reading labels, etc. and by the time i got bored of eating the same thing i was comfortable swapping out meals with roughly the same calories and macros to keep it interesting without having to obsess or overplan

3) i had/have an exit plan that’s evidence based. this consists of increasing calories 100-200 per day with a focus on macros and stopping or continuing based on how i feel, how my body responds, etc. for as long as it takes. Knowing what the next step would be, how to manage the situation if i shock my body and suddenly retain a bunch of water, and avoiding suddenly having to make myself eat more than i was used to and the anxiety that would come with that, all made me way more comfortable and confident that i was in control of the restriction and not the other way around. i also specifically didn’t plan out anything after i get back to maintenance so i’m not rushing.

i know i need to spend at least eight weeks at maintenance before i decide to bulk, cut again, or continue at maintenance and i plan to make that choice very leisurely (though with me having lost more lean muscle mass than anticipated and me really missing the energy to lift, i think i’m leaning towards a bulk. i think giving myself the opportunity to eat more and manage those feelings in a stable environment might actually be really good for my recovery, and having a goal that’s focused on building myself rather than shrinking myself seems like a good activity to push my comfort level.

lots of rambles to say TLDR; i did my very first mentally healthy, non-ed calorie deficit and i’m very proud of myself for staying consistent and not slipping into bad patterns again

[magnetic-darkness]

Zombies The Infected

*credit for this amalgamation result of Pathogen The Infected and Zombie The Coil is listed under general credits but I wanted to mention it again out of respect since they are both wonderful fanmade creations*

*also FYI none of this has been play or beta tested and is mostly cobbled together from the inspirations and so sources listed above, uh, just so you know...*

Zombies, exist within the World of Midnight in a variety of forms, such as the Giovanni's or a Matter/Death Awakened Mage's raised corpses will attest. But such entities are little more than animated meat puppets.

The Infected, as these more sentient Zombies prefer to call themselves, are a different breed entirely. They are as much akin to the raised corpses of those other group's as the Kindred are to the vampires of Hollywood. Which is to say, inspired from and by, but different none the less.

These Infected must grapple with themes of body horror and gore, disease and chronic illness management, and the struggle of how far they are willing to go to survive.

Below is the details of the Infected;

The Pathogen is believed to be the source of the Infected in much the same way as Caine and Gaia are for the Kindred and Garou, with just as many mysteries surrounding its Origins and the reasons it reacts to its victims as they do. It is the source of a Zombie's Hunger and power in much the same way that the Beast does for Kindred.

The Infection provides a unique power source (like Vitae/Blood for Kindred, Rage and Gnosis for the Changing Breeds, etc.) called Viscera. When it runs low, the Infected begins to experience symptoms of their Hunger as an Outbreak (a little like a frenzy). Viscera is regained in one of two ways; Gore and Devour. Gore is the consumption of living organic material, risking Mortality and reducing Hunger by boosting the amount of energy gained from body part consumption. Devour is the consumption of dead organic material, safely avoiding the risk of Mortality loss but not fully easing the Hunger as it reduces the energy gained from body part consumption (but never below one point).

Different body parts provide different amounts of energy; Brains are the most satiating, then come the Liver and other Organs, and, lastly, bones and blood provide the least amount of Viscera.

Outbreaks are very similar to the Frenzies experienced by Kindred and Garou. They are a state of intense emotion and Hunger that the Pathogen overwhelms its host and begins to change and mutate. While the state will often pass and few ever recall events during such a state, there is some small relief and mildbconcern over the fact that the changes the Pathogen creates in the body during an Outbreak are reversed when it is over. During an Outbreak, the Zombie exits what has now been called the Carrier Stage (the Pathogen is passive and non-contagious while the host experiences chronic but minor Symptoms) and enters the Acute Stage (the Pathogen is more active due to Hunger and Fear, one's Symptoms become more severe and contagious to victims, the Symptoms one experiences will have a direct influence on the potential Vectors of the individuals exposed).

The Infection does not always result in Zombies, it should be noted. Infected is a general term for those organisms under or directly linked to the Pathogen's influence. Maglinants-or Mals as they are commonly called-are those who have been Infected but remain mindless, guided solely by the Pathogen's raw instincts to consume and wander. Symbiotes are Infected plants and animals. Wights are a ghoul-like Infected human who has been exposed to Viscera in some way, but have not been Incubated properly into Malignants. Liches are cannibalistic Zombies who hunt humans as if they were prey (a trait similar to some True Fae Keepers with their Changelings), and are one of the many antagonists for the Infected to deal with. There are also the various human-ran organizations that are after them for their own gains and reasons.

The process of becoming an Infected is two parts; Incubation and Latency. Incubation is when the individual has succumbed to the Pathogen's influence and become a Mal. Latency is when they regain their sentience after their First Meal of organic material and the resulting Viscera.

The Buried Gored their First Meal while fhe Reposed Devoured theirs.

Mals, Zombies, and many other Infected tend to travel in groups called Hordes.

There is a minor Delirium-like effect on humans called the Haze that appears when Infected are at low (3 points and less) Viscera and lifts if they rise above it. Any supernatural effect that not be be explained away/rationalized will simply be ignored unless the individual is actively harmed. However, that will only extend a cettain amount as trying to consume someone in a crowd versus doing so in a back alley will naturally draw far far too much attention for even the Haze to cover up. Liches are the only ones immune to the Haze's protective effects on mortal perceptions of Infected despite their more monstrous corpse-like appearances.

Vectors determines how one was infected by the Pathogen and thus the type of Zombie the character is. Meanwhile, Symptoms are the way the Infection manifests within the individual. Antibodies are unique weaknesses of the Vectors. As a whole, the Infected appear to be weakened by both the usual methods of destruction (Fire and Decapitation) as well as concentrated forms of CT's or Calcium Tablets (Things like Marble, Limestone, Chalk, Pearls, and the like).

The Vectors are; Airborne (vapors and contaminated air), Bitten (Animal, insect, humans), Endoparasite (Fungi, molds, and parasites), Infused (Bloodstream or organ transplants), and Tetrogen (those unborn exposed in-utero or through the birthing and breastfeeding processes).

The Symptoms are; Dermis (Rashes, hives, and inflamed swelling), Fever (fever, muscle aches, chills and sweats), Respiratory (Coughing and congestion), Gastroenditis (Vomitting, diarrhea, bloating, gas), and Insomnia (Fatigue, night terrors, hallucinations, insonmia).

The Antibodies are; Silver for the Bitten, Jade for the Infused, Sunlight for the Unborn, Salt for the Endoparasite, and Water for the Airborne.

Mortality is the measure of a Zombie's Humanity versus how much they have been consumed by the Pathogen's influence.

Strains are the Discipline and Gift equivalent of Zombies, the types of supernatural powers they have access to. Every Zombie will start with access to three Strains upon character creation; one determined by the Vector, one determined by the Symptom, and one of the player's own choice.

The Strains are summarized below;

Seance is a series of powers that affect the minds and perceptions of its victims. It also providing access to the Horde Mentality, a Hive Mind connecting the users much like the Malkavians in their Networks while also providing access to Whispers, an odd and disjointed collection of memory fragments from one's past life as well as the mass Hunger and trauma experienced by many Infected as they struggle for dominance against the Pathogen.

Mutations requires the merging of one's very flesh to whatever one wishes to manipulate and control in the world around them. It does not work on living or dead things, but things that were never alive are fine, such as tech.

Disencarnate allows for the change of movement between various creatures and places and things, as well as enhancing the senses of its user.

Convalescence and Necrosis are two sides of the same coin in that they are reverse powers of each other. Convalescence is the set of powers tied to regeneration and growth and purification while Necrosis is tied to plague and rot and corruption.

Vivification and Necromancy are also mirrors of each other in that manner. Vivification allows for control over the bodies of the living (Garou, Mages, animals, etc.) while Necromancy allows for the same over the dead (Vampires, Mummies, corpses, etc.). Neither allow the ability to change oneself in any way.

Pathogenesis is the term for disease development and thusvis quite fitting for the set of powers tied to changing one's own body through mutations and modifications, such as acidic bile or poisonous gas and sharpened tongue blades. It cannot be used to affect someone else's body.

Cessation allows for the suppression and manipulation of one's Hunger. At higher levels, it also allows for the direct conversion of other energy forms into Viscera and vice versa.

Extinction is very simple as it allows use of the classical elements, often for self-burial and extinguishment.

Vigor is the set of powers linked to increasing one's strength, endurance, and, eventually at higher levels, speed.

Wheel of Life allows interaction with Wraiths and Spirits across the Gauntlet, eventually growing to allow Possession of others and the ability to Astral Project oneself, as well

Resuscitation is the set of powers tied to being able to blend in with humans and the envoirment. This is also extended to other fleshy-based disguises and mimicry.

[lwamonstergirls]

(OLD) Little Witch Academia: Monster Witches Bio - Were Witches

Hello everyone, back again with another post for my Monster Witches AU! This time to talk about biology and abilities the girls have in these new beastly forms. Starting with the were's. I'll be using Akko for an example on how things work for them, then get to the other's as it gets more specific.

Akko can control how much of the animal she turns into, giving her certain features in specific percentages. 0% means she looks like a normal person, with no animalistic features to speak of. 25% means she has cat ears and a cat tail, along with cat pupils and fangs. So basically she looks like a typical cat girl you'd see in anime in this percentage. 50% means that she's covered in fur now, along with whiskers. She also gains claws in this percentage, but they aren't retractable. 75% means she looks like a large monstrous cross between humanoid and feline, while also having the ability to retract her claws. She's also incredibly strong in this form and gains more durability. 100% means she looks like a giant feral cat, like she comes to the same shoulder height as canon Ursula in this form.

Her 100% form looks like a cross between a house cat and a black panther. Her fur is brunette like her hair color, with white fur at the tip of her tail and in/around her cat ears. She has subtle hints of Jaguar-like spots on her fur in her 75% and 100% forms, and she even has small saber-teeth that are hidden when her mouth is closed. She's as playful as as a house cat regardless of any percentage she's in, and is often seen pouncing on Diana, despite the many times Diana has told her to stop. She reacts to catnip the same way cats do, and is often easily distracted by a laser pointer. She's also as lazy any cat is, taking multiple cat naps throughout the day to get her 18 needed hours of sleep. Or so she claims.

Wangari is a Wereleopard, meaning she's similar to a Werecat, but with obvious differences. As for Wangari's transformations, same as Akko's, except her 100% leopard form would be like twice as big as Akko's 100% cat form. As a Leopard, Wangari would be rather strong. While her true muscle mass isn't properly shown in her 0% through 50% forms, it is really visible in her 75% and 100% forms. Regardless, she is incredibly strong even in her 0% form, and her strength only increases the further she goes down the line. Just lile Akko's complete cat form, Wangari's complete Leopard form has traits that are common for a were's complete forms, looking pretty feral and has small saber-teeth that are hidden when her mouth is closed. Wangari also loves to climb trees, which makes sense in all honesty. She often climbs trees and use them to either take cat naps, surprise people, hide, eat her secret candy stache when Joanna feels like having a sweet tooth, etc. This does help with her news anchoring skills as well. She's able to silently stalk students and hide in trees while she reports on the situation.

Mary is a Were-Jackalope, which even I will admit is a strange combination, but it's a neat thing to turn into regardless. Same rule applies for her different forms, but she has both ears and antlers in her 25% form and going forward. Except the antlers get bigger as the transformation progresses. She would also lack fangs, and instead she would gain rabbit incisors that would stick out of her mouth a little in her 25% form, up into her 100% form. She needs to chew on something rough daily as to wear them down, otherwise they'll get overgrown and she'll need help from others to get them to a much more manageable size. In her complete Jackalope form, she'd be like the exact same size as a large Border Collie. She's able to jump 12 feet into the air and leap 36 feet into the distance with her powerful hind legs. She's has amazing yet very sensitive hearing, able to hear a pin drop from miles away. She uses this to her advantage and can pretty tell whatever and whenever anything happens in Luna Nova.

Katie is a Weresheep, something that even I'm surprised is an actual creature from mythology. Same rule applies for her when it comes to transforming, except her 100% sheep form looks much less feral than the other were's. Her complete sheep form is about the size of a cow, with about as much kicking power in her legs. She's also been seen moving around in a way that many describe "As a Bucking Bronco that's as high as a kite" whenever she's spooked in that form. So many do their best not to scare her. In her 25% form, her hair is rather soft and bushy like wool. Its even had an effect on people, causing them yo become drowsy and sleep if they make contact with the wool for too long. Katie's complete sheep form also has the ability to make a 'baaahh' at a certain frequency that allows her to put many of the Luna Nova populace and nearby town into a a rather deep sleep. While she would never do this, she still thinks about the reasons she would need to, just in case. In her 25% form, she gains small little horns that barely poke out of her hair. Just like Mary's antlers, they grow as her transformation progresses. Katie also has a bad habit of clothing and stuff like bed sheets. She tries not to do this, but it's her addiction I guess.

That's it for now, though more of these bio's will be coming soon. As well as some more monster girls

[onwesterlywinds]

More a writer question than a character question here, though it is about your WoL... my attempts at writing are now leading up to a fight, and I'm wondering: how would you or how do you write about your character's strength? Like if they were in a fight? Would their in-game level and stats constantly increasing translate directly to your story? How does their strength and skill now compare to the average soldier? To Hien or Lyse? What do you think the additional re-joining did?

Usually, when I write out a fight, I’m thinking about two angles:

A. The mechanics of the fight: What words go into describing action, combat, physical movements, etc. I wish I knew how this works, and I will update you when I find out. I’m not trying to be glib here; writing action is very much a weak spot of mine, and I’m trying to improve on it as much as I can. But for me, conveying strength or power isn’t especially my goal while I write out a fight: I try to think about what conveys momentum, energy, and a means to whatever end my character is trying to reach. That leads into the next point...

B. The meaning of the fight: How this moment fits into their progression as a character. What’s the desired outcome of the overall scene? To use writing language, it can be helpful to think of each fight as its own mini-story: what’s the inciting incident, what abilities or knowledge or tools do the character gain or draw upon throughout the fight, what raises the stakes, what’s the “breaking point,” and what brings it all to an end? That might be a helpful way of reframing some of your questions above!

When it comes to the abilities my characters have, for me it depends less on their level progression and more on the entire arc they’ve taken as a character. Ashe is my best example of this: she’s level 80 in warrior and machinist, but her skill with an axe has suffered ever since she was captured and imprisoned by Garleans back in 4.0. She lost a lot of her muscle mass in a short span and has not devoted the considerable time it would take to recondition her strength, because being an Ala Mhigan representative and aiding Dalmascan rebellions is already spreading her way too thin. This is just one example of a decrease in power, and it doesn’t have to be rooted in trauma! Ahtynwyb, my WoL, has stayed relatively stagnant in her abilities since 4.0, solely because the level 70 paladin move Passage of Arms was such a perfect fit for her thematically while the 70-80 moves just weren’t.

And when it comes to strength relative to NPCs (or other PCs!)... go with what you feel. I think lots of us have felt pressure to make our WoLs as close to ordinary as possible to prevent accusations of being “OP” - but in actuality, there’s room for so many Warriors of Light to complement one another without any one of them being the best. In the case of NPCs, Ahtyn is great at defending; she could probably weather any of Lyse’s blows but would have a hard time getting in more than a few counterhits. Ashe could take out more Garleans from afar than Hien ever could, and he’d probably thank her.

On a broader level, having an ordinary character can mean their story of hard work and persistence resonates that much more when they succeed; having an extraordinary character can mean extra responsibilities or heightened moral stakes - and those are just ideas! It’s not the strength that matters, but what you do with it, and that applies regardless of who wins a given fight.

Hope all of this helps! Thanks so much for reaching out. I’d be happy to talk through my own writing steps if it’s ever helpful.

[vybas]

What to Eat After a Workout — Powerful Post-Workout Nutrition

The majority of people don’t know what to eat after a workout, Here you will find powerful post-workout Nutrition to get the best result.

You make a great effort in the workout, always attending to perform much better and reach your aims.

You give a big part of your thought to your pre-workout than the post-workout meal.

Yet having the proper nutrients after the workout is just as essential as what you take before.

Here you will find a detailed guide to proper nutrition after the workout.

What to Eat After a Workout Is Essential

To understand how the proper foods help you after the workout, it’s crucial to know how the body is influenced by physical activity.

The moment you are working out, the muscles consume their glycogen stores as a source of energy. What happens is that the muscles are depleted of glycogen. Some of the proteins in the muscles are also get destroyed and broken down.

After you have done your workout, your body works to rebuild its glycogen stocks and regrow and repair your muscle proteins.

Having the proper nutrients directly after your workout helps your body get this process faster. It is especially great to eat protein and carbs after your workout.

Doing this push your body to:

Improve recovery.

Boost muscle protein synthesis (growth).

Reduce muscle protein breakdown.

Revive glycogen stores.

SUMMARY

Taking in the proper nutrients after the workout helps you rebuild the glycogen stores and your muscle proteins. It additionally helps stimulate the growth of new extra muscle.

Carbs, Protein, and Fat

This part explains how every macronutrient — carbs, protein, and fat — is included in the body’s post-workout recovery process.

Protein Promotes Repair and Build Muscle

As described earlier, the workout triggers the breakdown of muscle protein.

The speed at which this results depends on the workout and your level of exercising, however, even well-trained athletes have the muscle protein breakdown.

Taking an adequate quantity of protein after your workout provides your body the amino acids it requires to rebuild and repair these proteins. Additionally, it supplies you with the building blocks needed to build new muscle mass.

It’s suggested that you take 0.3–0.5g of protein per kg of body weight ( 0.14–0.23 g/pound ) pretty soon after the workout.

Researches have proved that ingesting 20–40g of protein appears to maximize the body’s capacity to recover after the workout.

Related article: What to eat before a workout — Powerful Pre-Workout Nutrition

Carbs Improve The Recovery Process

The body’s glycogen stores are used as a source of energy during the workout, and getting carbs after the workout helps renew them.

The speed at which your glycogen stores are consumed depends on the workout. For instance, resistance training pushes your body to use less glycogen than endurance sports do.

That’s means if you are a bodybuilder you consume fewer carbs than others who participate in endurance sports (swimming, running, etc.).

Having 1.1–1.5g of carbs per Kg (0.5–0.7 g/pound) of your body weight within 30 minutes after your workout results in decent glycogen resynthesis.

Moreover, insulin secretion, which increases glycogen synthesis, is strongly stimulated when protein and carbs are consumed at the same time.

For that, consuming both proteins and carbs right after your workout can boost glycogen and protein synthesis.

Try to have the two in a degree of 3:1 (carbs to protein). For instance, 90 grams of carbs and 30 grams of protein.

Consuming plenty of carbs to restore glycogen stores is most crucial for the ones who exercise often, such as those who take two sessions on the same day. If you have a day or two to rest between workout sessions then this doesn’t matter.

Fat Is Not That Bad

Countless people believe that having fat after their workout inhibits the absorption of nutrients and slows down digestion.

While the fact is fat can slow down the digestion of your post-workout meal, it will not decrease its profits.

For illustration, research told that skim milk is less beneficial at boosting muscle growth after the workout than whole milk.

Besides, another research explained that even during ingesting a high-fat meal (45% energy comes from fat) after exercising, muscle glycogen synthesis was not touched.

It can be an excellent idea to limit the quantity of fat you take after the workout, still having some fat in the post-workout meal will not influence the recovery process.

SUMMARY

The post-workout meal with both carbs and protein will restore glycogen storage and boost muscle protein synthesis. Having a degree of 3:1 (carbs to protein) is a useful way to reach this.

The Right Timing of The Post-Workout Meal Matters

Your body’s capacity to rebuild protein and restore glycogen is improved after your workout.

So, it’s suggested that you get a combination of protein and carbs right after the workout.

Although the timing doesn’t must be exact, several specialists suggest that it good if you get your post-workout meal within 45 minutes.

In fact, it’s thought that the delay of carb eating by at least two hours after your workout can lead to 50% lower degrees of glycogen synthesis.

Still, if you ate a meal before your workout, it’s possible that the benefits from the meal still apply even after the workout.

SUMMARY

Try to take your post-workout meal within 45 minutes of Working out. But, you have the possibility to extend this time a little longer, depending on the size and timing of the pre-workout meal you ate.

Foods to eat After the Workout

The main purpose of the post-workout meal is to satisfy your body with the proper nutrients for sufficient recovery and to maximize the profits of your workout.

Picking simply digested foods will improve nutrient absorption.

The next lists include examples of easily and simply digested foods:

Protein:

Eggs

Protein bar

Greek yogurt

Chicken

Salmon

Tuna

Animal- or plant-based protein powder

Cottage cheese

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Carbs

Chocolate milk

Dark, leafy green vegetables

Fruits (pineapple, berries, banana, kiwi)

Potatoes

Rice cakes

Oatmeal

Quinoa

Pasta

Sweet potatoes

Rice

Fats:

Trail mix (dried fruits and nuts)

Nuts

Avocado

Nut butter

Example Post-Workout Meals

So here are some examples of what to eat after a workout, mixtures of the foods noted before can generate excellent meals that give you all the nutrients you lack after the workout.

Here are some samples of easy and quick meals to try after your workout:

Egg omelet beside avocado spread on toast.

Banana and protein shake.

Rice crackers and peanut butter.

Tuna salad sandwich on whole-grain bread.

Salmon with sweet potato.

Whey protein, banana, oatmeal, and almonds.

Pita and hummus.

Greek yogurt, granola, and berries.

Fruits and cottage cheese.

Skim milk cereal.

Tuna and crackers.

Quinoa bowl with berries and pecans.

Grilled chicken with roasted vegetables.

Whole grain toast and almond butter.

Multi-grain bread and raw peanuts.

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Be Sure to Drink Plenty of Water

It is essential to take plenty of water before and after the workout session.

When you are well hydrated, this guarantees the optimal internal environment for the body to get the best results.

Through the workout, you lose water and electrolytes in sweating. Refilling these after the workout helps with performance and recovery.

It’s very necessary to refill fluids if your following workout session is within 12 hours.

Depending on the strength of the workout, water or an electrolyte drink is advised to refill fluid losses.

SUMMARY

It is necessary to get water and electrolyte drink after the workout to replenish what was lost during your exercises.

Setting It All Together

Eating a decent quantity of protein and carbs after the workout is required.

It will boost recovery, stimulate muscle protein synthesis, and improve your performance during the next workout session.

If you can’t eat within 45 minutes of exercising, it’s essential to not go much more than 2 hours before taking a meal.

Lastly, refilling lost water and electrolytes complete the picture and help to get the best results from your workout.

Also read:

Upper Body Kettlebell Workout: The Most Powerful Guide

That’s Why Having a Coffee Before a Workout is Very Useful

The best High Fiber Foods — Full guide for Fiber Foods

The best plyometric cardio circuit insanity — Experts say

Best Workout for Belly Fat “Quickly” | Powerful Guide

That’s the resume of What to eat before a workout, hope you take some good information, see you in the next post.