#jacks is dinosaur egg

[today-in-the-bunker]

Today, Jack and Sam both enjoy bowls of oatmeal while discussing comic books. Jack had discovered them online, while Sam had loved them during his childhood. Sam recommends X-Men and they discuss silly silver-age story's the rest of the morning.

[emo-batboy]

Depression meals Battinson has made himself at least once while unsupervised to the shock and horror of Alfred

(Alfred has to sleep at some point. that’s when Bruce decides to wreak havoc and make these barely edible monstrosities)

(Btw he’s vegetarian, fucking fight me)

Pepper jack cheese between two seaweed sheets

Uncooked ramen dipped in the seasoning packet

Ready rice with cold tofu

Spoonfuls of peanut butter

Instant grits with one slice of American cheese

Pop tart dipped in hot chocolate

Spaghetti noodles with no other ingredient than a mountain parmesan, didn’t even put salt in the water

“Technically bread” (water and flour, microwaved��he was having a really bad day)

Bread, cheese, ketchup, microwave = pizza

Cream cheese and jelly sandwich

Vegan hot dog microwaved without a plate. He picked it up from the microwave with a piece of white bread and ate it just like that. No dirty dishes

kraft mac and cheese with one single raw asparagus

Various little kiddie-themed smoothie shots

Dry cereal

Cheddar cheese wrapped in a flour tortilla

Vegan dinosaur nuggets (microwaved, tho he tried to cook it in his hot coffee once, it didn’t work)

Frozen snap peas straight from the bag, unthawed

Tomato soup with cheez-its sprinkled on top

Tried to make a meal completely out of vitamin supplements once, based entirely on the exact amount of nutrients you need in a day

A family-sized bag of generic brand corn chips

Hard boiled eggs (they were supposed to be soft-boiled) and paprika

Blueberry bagel, toasted, no butter

Cold chicken noodle soup in one of those paper cartons from the corner store (it gave him food poisoning)

Microwave grilled cheese

Cucumber rolls (cucumber slices he rolled in microwave rice)

Leftover cake washed down with a protein shake

A hunk of mozzarella cheese, microwaved

Frozen Garlic bread (it’s actually good like that, he swears)

Four 5-hour energy shots to make a 20-hour energy (his heart rate didn’t go back to normal for two days)

Fruit snacks squished between two slices of wheat bread

Tried to dry scoop protein powder once, worked about as well as the cinnamon challenge

Pistachios with the shells (it was an accident. He did not notice)

Refried refried beans (for protein)

Handfuls of mushy, room temperature blueberries

Tofu block cut up with a spam slicer and dipped in mustard

[vintagegeekculture]

there was Chinese interest in the Out Of Asia theory, in both the Republic, Chiang Republic and People’s Republic periods before the Out Of Africa theory became commonly accepted. Was the 1954 Yeti expedition done just from the Nepalese-Indian side or were the American agents and “anthropologists” given access on the Sino-Tibetan side of the Himalayan border?

During the early part of this century, it was absolutely believed for a long time that the deserts of Western China were the most likely place of human origins, as seen in this migration map from 1944, made from the best available knowledge of the time:

Remember, the oldest fossil remains at this point were in China, where Homo erectus was discovered (originally known by his initial place of discovery in Chungkotien Cave, nicknamed "Peking Man"). The discovery of Australopithecus and Homo habilis in Olduvai Gorge and South Africa, which place human origins in Africa, were not until the 50s and 60s, so it seemed entirely reasonable that Homo sapiens evolved in Western China.

The idea that China's desert regions were the origin of modern humans and culture is seen a lot in pop culture from 1900-1950, mainly because there were tremendous explorations in the region, especially Aurel Stein's expedition of 1908, who ventured into the Taklamakan Desert to find the Dunhuang Caves and Khara-Khoto, a city destroyed completely by Genghis Khan and vanished in the desert.

If you've ever heard of Roy Chapman Andrews and his famous expeditions in the 1920s, it's worth noting that he ventured into the Gobi Desert looking for human remains....not dinosaurs, and the discovery of dinosaur eggs was an unexpected surprise.

For that reason, there was a short lived Silk Road Mania that seemed to be a smaller scale predecessor to the pop culture dominating Egyptomania of the 1920s. It's bizarre to read adventure and fantasy fiction of the 1910s-1920s that features mentions of Silk Road peoples like the Kyrgyz, Sogdians, Tajik, Uigurians, and Tuvans. The best example I can think of would be the Khlit the Kossack stories of Harold Lamb (who also wrote a biography of Tamerlane), which together with Tarzan and Tros of Samothrace, formed the core inspiration for Robert E. Howard's Conan the Barbarian.

The most interesting example of this would be A. Merritt's Dwellers in the Mirage, which featured a lost city in Xinjiang that was the home of the Nordic race, who worshipped their original religion, the kraken-like squid devil god Khalkru. It was widely believed in this era that Nordics emerged from Central Asia originally, and while it's easy to write this off as turn of the century racialist claptrap pseudohistory (along with Hyperborea legends), in this case, it is actually true: a branch of the Indo-European family lived in West China, and 5,000 year old redheaded mummies have been found in the region. As usual, A. Merritt was right on the money with his archeology, more so than other 1920s authors. After all, his "Moon Pool" was set around the just discovered ruins of Nan Madol, the Venice of Micronesia.

Jack Williamson's still chilling Darker Than You Think in 1948 was also set in the Silk Road/Central Asian region, as the place the race of shapeshifters emerged from, Homo magi, who await the coming of their evil messiah, the Night King, who will give them power over the human race.

H. Rider Haggard set "Ayesha: the Return of She" (1905) in Xinjiang, among a lost Greek colony in Central Asia (no doubt based on Alexandria on the Indus, a Greek colony in modern Pakistan that was the furthest bastion of Greek Culture). This was also two years after the Younghusband Thibetan Expedition of 1903, where the British invaded Tibet. At the time, the Qing Dynasty was completely declining and lost control of the frontier regions, and the power vacuum was filled by religious authority by default (this is something you also saw in Xinjiang, where for example, the leader of the city was the Imam of Kashgar).

This is one of the many British invasions they have attempted to cram down the memory hole, but if you ever see a Himalayan art piece that was "obtained in 1903-1904" ....well, you know where it came from.

Incidentally, there's one really funny recent conspiracy theory about paleontology, fossils, and China that I find incredibly interesting: the idea that dinosaurs having feathers is a lie and a sinister plot spread by the Communist Chinese (who else?) to make American youth into sissy fancylads, like Jessie "the Body" Ventura. How? By lying to us and making up that the manly and vigorous Tyrannosaurus, a beast with off the charts heterosexuality and a model for boys everywhere, might have been feathered like a debutante's dress. What next - lipstick on a Great White Shark? The long term goal is to make Americans effeminate C. Nelson Reilly types unable to defend against invasion. This is a theory that is getting steam among the kind of people who used to read Soldier of Fortune magazine, and among abusive stepfathers the world over.

...okay, are you done laughing? Yeah, this is obvious crackpottery and transparent sexual pathology, on the level of the John Birch Society in the 60s saying the Beatles were a Communist mind control plot. Mostly because animals just look how they look, and if it turned out that the ferocious Tyrannosaurus had feathers and looked like a fancylad Jessie Ventura to you, well, that's your problem and mental baggage, really.

I was left scratching my head over this one. But there is (kind of) something to this, and that is that a huge chunk of recent dinosaur discoveries have been in China. I don't think it has anything to do with a Communist plot to turn American boys into fancylads, but more to do with a major push in internal public investment in sciences in that country, and an explosion of Chinese dinosaur discoveries. If you want to see a great undervisited dinosaur museum, go to the Zigong Dinosaur Museum in Sichuan.

Pop quiz: what living scientist has named more dinosaur discoveries? It's not Bakker or Horner. The greatest living paleontologist, Xu Xing, which is why a lot of recently found dinosaurs are named things like Shangtungasaurus.

[jqmalikhsgib]

astrology

four

you were currently in the kitchen making breakfast for you and jack. jack was still resting in his bed.

its been two months of taking care of jack and its been the best two months ever. jack was an easy child to take care of. he mostly played with his toys and watched cartoons. from time to time you’d get jack to do something educational—besides his homework of course—and he enjoyed it!

today you and jack were heading to a museum. you’d promised him if he got an ‘a’ on his spelling test you’d take him to see the dinosaur bones this weekend. he passed with flying colors! you had been proud of him. instantly putting the test on the fridge for display.

when you finished breakfast you walked upstairs. you gently knocked on jacks door. he was sleeping peacefully. you smiled before walking over to the small boy. running your fingers through his blonde hair.

“jacksters? come on, baby. breakfast is ready.”

jack slowly opened his eyes. “hi, yn!” he said quietly.

“hi, jack. come on, let’s eat, hmm?”

“carry me?”

you laugh before picking the eight year old up. you head downstairs. you sat jack down before making him a plate of eggs, toast, grits, and a glass of orange juice.

“eat up!”

you sat right beside him. you both sat in silence as you ate your breakfast together. for the next couple of hours you made sure jack washed his face, brushed his teeth, and got dressed for the day. you got ready right after.

once you both were well dressed, you allowed jack to watch cartoons for a little while. you still had time to go to the museum.

when it was time you help jack out his shoes on before walking out the door.

“you excited, buddy?!”

“yeah! its been a long time since daddy and i went to see the dinos!”

“yeah?”

jack hums. “last time we went is when mommy was here.”

you frowned. your heart breaking for jack. you knew he missed his mother. you made sure to tell him wherever she is she’ll always love him whenever he missed her and aaron wasn’t around.

jack would tell you she’d like you. you had no idea why, but that made your heart feel full. knowing that if haley was here she’d take a liking to you.

aaron had opened up a little more about his life with haley. she sounded like a lovely woman. always taking care of aaron and jack’s needs. putting them before herself. even after the divorce. she still adored her family.

she was a saint.

“okay, buddy! we’re here. ready?”

jack nods enthusiastically. you laugh as you get out of the car and help him out as well. when you got inside you watch jack as his eyes widened. you smiled.

jack seemed to be extremely excited. the both of you walked around. when he gets near the bug area he makes a face.

“bugs are gross! daddy says he ate a caterpillar once as a dare in high school. he got sick and had to go to ‘mergency room.”

you made a face. picture a teenage aaron eating a caterpillar wasn’t what you thought you’d ever had to picture. of course he did though. teenage boys are dumb.

after about two hours walking around the museum, jack got a little tired. you decided it was time to head back to the house.

you placed the small boy in his car seat before driving back to the house. when you get home you see aaron’s car outside.

you pick a sleeping jack up and walk back inside. you see aaron in his office. you nod your head when he sees you. he gives you a smile before you head upstairs to set jack down.

“how was the museum? i thought id be back in time to go with you. i know how much he wanted me there. sorry i couldn’t make it.”

you shrug your shoulders. “its fine! we had a good time. he told me you ate a caterpillar before.”

aaron groans at the memory.

“yeah. i caught him trying to eat one. i had to stop that from happening before he ended up getting his stomach pumped in the hospital. if i could go back id scold my younger self in being a dumb idiot.”

you laugh. “im sure you weren’t that bad.”

aaron scoffs. “i was the worst! always doing something just to get my dads attention or my mom to give me some physical affection. it was pretty fucking stupid.” aaron shrugs his shoulders.

he did do some crazy shit in his day for his parents affection. his dad was an attorney. he was a pretty good one at that. he wasn’t really around his family. he’d be off ‘working’ for someone.

reality was, he’d been cheating on his mom for years. it wasn’t like he didn’t know. he wasn’t hiding it. its why they had another child in the first place. sean was suppose to be the baby that fixed his parents marriage. aaron and his mother knew deep down his father wasn’t gonna change.

he was a manipulative, narcissistic, arrogant man who mentally abused his family until he got sick.

his mother was no better though. she’d been raised in a high class society. she was just as arrogant as his father. she thought haley wasn’t in their ‘class’ to be apart of this family. its the main reason why aaron cut ties with his parents.

last he heard his father got better and he’s still an cheating asshole while his mother keeps up this perfect family image.

young aaron was lonely and wanted his parents love. he’d do anything for it.

“i know what that’s like. wanting your parents attention.”

aaron gives you a sad smile.

the two of you sat in comfortable silence for a few minutes.

“should we order a pizza for dinner?” you asked.

aaron hums.

“sure.”

you smiled before grabbing the phone and ordering dinner.

shitty fucking ending but i want them together already!!! —which is gonna happen sooner than you think ;)—

[tangledbeast]

Zoo Tycoon Hints and Tips

Copied from my 2003 printout of the official site I posted. This is not all of the cheats that exist, just the ones on that specific page.

Cheat Codes

Name a guest Adam Levesque and unlock all Animal Care research programs (Adam Levesque is the CEO of Blue Fang and Creative Director for Zoo Tycoon.)

Name a guest Lou Catanzaro and unlock all Animal Enrichment research programs.

Name a guest Charlie Peterson and unlock all exhibit foliage.(Charlie Peterson is one of the Program Managers on Zoo Tycoon.)

Name a guest Akiyama and unlock all the scenarios that ship with the game (Akiyama is the family name of one of the test team members.)

Name a guest Steve Serafino and unlock all Endangered Animals research programs. (Steve Serafino is one of the designers of Zoo Tycoon.)

Name a guest John Wheeler and unlock all animal shelters. (John Wheeler is the Engineering Director for Zoo Tycoon)

Name a guest Ron Propst and unlock the Dinosaur Foliage research programs.

Name a Guest Hank Howie and unlock all Staff Education research programs.

Name a guest Eggman and all dinosaur eggs hatch more quickly. (DD)

Name a guest Dinoman and unlock all dinosaurs. (DD)

Name a male maintenance worker Bob V and all currently broken fences are fixed ("Bob V" refers to Bob Vila, the well-known improvement show host.)

Name a scientist Dr.Scholl and all scientists walk twice as fast.(DD)

Name an exhibit Cretaceous Corral and unlock the Triceratops.

Name an exhibit Xanadu and unlock the Unicorn. (Xanadu was Kublai Khan's summer capital in China, where he met Maroc Polo in 1275. It is also the title of a poem by Samuel Taylor Coleridge.)

Name an exhibit Super Croc and unlock Deinosuchus

Press $ (Shift+4) and get $10,000, but a random exhibit fence weakens (great for the Bob V cheat!).

Easter Eggs

On September 15 on the in-game calendar (the date of the signing of the contract between Microsoft and Blue Fang for Zoo Tycoon), a biplane with the Microsoft logo flies across the map pulling a banner with the Blue Fang Logo.

On their own turf, penguins are capable of killing pretty much any animal in the game

Guests entering the zoo on January 1 (New Year's Day) on the in-game calendar will be sick.

October is Dinosaur Month! Purchase all dinosaurs at half price during the in-game month of October.

On October 31 on the real world calendar, all guests and buildings wear orange and black in honor of Halloween, a jack-o-lantern is available from the buildings and items menu, and a wicked witch flies over the zoo on a broomstick.

On October 31 (Halloween) on the in-game calendar a witch flies over the zoo on a broomstick and a jack-o-lantern is available from the buildings and items panel.

On Christmas (December 25) on the in-game calendar, Santa Clause flies over the zoo on his sleigh.

Secrets

Name a male maintenance worker George W and all the foliage in your zoo will vanish, but you'll receive $300 tax rebate.

Name a guest Mr.Brown, Mr.Pink, Mr.White, Mr.Blond, or Mr.Orange and all guests and buildings currently in the zoo change to the associated color.

Name a male maintenance worker The Rock, all buildings are turned to rubble.

Name a bear Deer and the bear will immediately break out of its exhibit unless the fence is electrified)

Place a Mermaid Statue in an exhibit or show tank and it changes into a real mermaid. The Mermaid will not appear in the adopt an animal menu; however,you can continue dropping Mermaid Statues into water tanks to "adopt" more.

Name a guest Zeta Psi and all adult male guests change colors and become sick. (Zeta Psi is a college fraternity.)

Name a guest Alfred H and a flock of birds appears to frighten your guests.

Place a lion, a Bengal tiger, and a bear in an empty exhibit and unlock golden brick walkways.

Name a scientist Dr.Frankenstein and there's a 10% chance an egg will change contents when the scientist visits. (DD)

Name an exhibit Coprolite Corner, all dinosaur poo turns into rock. (DD)

Name guest Stinky and the guest caused other guests to be sick. (MM)

Name a male guest rpro and female guests will run from him. (MM)

Name a male guest Boogyman and the guest causes children to run away screaming. (MM)

Rumors

Name an exhibit wonderland and get a bonus towards the chance of visitors entering the zoo.

Name a reindeer comet and all dinosaurs and dino eggs disappear from your zoo.

Name an exhibit Microsoft and get double the normal donations at exhibits.

Name a female tour guide Rosalie and all your tour guides will work for free. (Rosalie is one of the Deep Gameplay testers for Zoo Tycoon.)

When penguins reach a happiness rating of 90+, they will do a happy dance.

When lowland gorillas reach a happiness rating of 90+, they will do a happy dance.

Name a female Zookeeper Susan Kittleson and Zoo Marketing effect is doubled (not cumulative) (DD)

Name a male Zoo Keeper Chuck Frizelle and Zoo Marketing is doubled (not cumulative) (DD)

Name a guest Russel C and all exhibit fences will become broken, letting the animals free.

Earn the Zoo of the Year award and unlock the Elephant Seal Statue. (MM)

Earn the Excellence in Arctic Exhibit Construction and unlock the Iceberg. (MM)

Earn The Best Sea Lion Show in the Country and unlock the California Sea Lion Statue. (MM)

Earn the Best Orca Show in the Country and unlock the Orca Statue (MM)

Earn the Best Dolphin Show in the County and unlock the Bottlenose Dolphin Statue (MM)

Win the Aquatic SHow Park scenario and unlock the Show Grandstand 2 (MM)

Win the Shark World scenario and unlock the Photo Booth.

Win the Super Zoo scenario and unlock the Trio Statue.

[antappreciationanonymous]

The Most Rarest, Ancient Ants and The Quest to Rediscover Them

Australia is home to a wide range of ant species. One that might spring to mind is the Bulldog/Jack jumper ant, genus myrmecia.

(M. gulosa, "Hoppy Joe!")

As you can see, these ants have quite big eyes. This is because bulldog ants are very dependant on vision, something most other ant species have replaced with pheromonal (scent) trails.

But we aren't here to talk about them. We're here to discuss their cooler, shady cousin,

the Dinosaur ant (Nothomyrmecia macrops).

They might look all cute, but they are much more than that.

These ants are possibly the rarest and most primitive of all ant species, and this shows in their behaviour.

Like the Bulldog ant, these ants rely only on their vision as apposed to pheromones. Colonies only range from 50-100 individuals, when most ant species have colonies in the thousands. Furthermore, queens only lay one generation of eggs every year!

Because of this small size, workers can not effectively compete with other species such as Camponotus and Iridomyrmex. Thus, these ants are exclusively nocturnal so they don't have to hunt alongside the diurnal ant species.

Infact, the Dinosaur and Bulldog ant are so similar that the Dinosaur ants genus name, 'Nothomyrmecia', means 'False Bulldog ant'. The species name, 'macrops', means 'big eyes'.

--------------------------------------------------

This species was first discovered in the form of two worker specimens by Amy Ena Crocker and colleagues, supposedly inland from Israelite Bay in Western Australia.

Due to its primitive appearance and unique body shapes, scientists were eager to find more specimens. Many expeditions were set out to locate this ant over the next three decades, all of which failed. One of the more notable expeditions was lead by the late, the great entomologist E. O. Wilson (who literally invented sociobiology!!!)

However, on October 22, 1977, entomologist Robert W. Taylor and colleagues would rediscover a lone worker in Poochera, South Australia. I'll let nullarbor.net take it away:

"Spurred on by rumours that an American scientist was coming to search for the lost ant, Dr. Taylor apparently mounted one last ditch attempt to beat the Americans to the punch. By an incredible stroke of good luck - if it could be called that - Dr Taylor and his group were driving to Western Australia when their vehicle struck mechanical problems at Poochera. As we all know, even the best laid plans can go astray, and Dr. Taylor's expedition was forced to make an unscheduled stop, and camp for the night at Poochera.

"Later that evening Dr. Taylor conducted an impromptu insect survey in the mallee scrub adjacent to camp. There's no doubt the last thing on Dr. Taylor's mind was Nothomyrmecia - after all, the last and only recorded sighting was made 46 years earlier, and even that was fully 1300 kilometres away to the west. Poochera was definitely the last place where Dr. Taylor expected to find Nothomyrmecia - but there it was, one solitary Nothomyrmecia worker ant crawling on a eucalyptus tree trunk.

"The sight was truly astonishing. Dr. Taylor then rushed back to his colleagues and in true Australian style he announced to the world, "The bloody bastard's here! I've got the Notho-bloody- myrmecia!"

I'd like to imagine that's true.

Poochera, which features Nothomyrmecia abundantly in the streets, is perhaps the only town I know of that survives exclusively off of ant tourism.

See you soon.

[rabbiteclair]

How Thinking Works

A thought (example: "I should make an appointment with the optometrist today.") is generated inside a neuron.

The thought is sealed inside a plastic egg.

The plastic egg is dropped into a Rube Goldberg machine which contains, for example, a jack-in-the-box, a xylophone, a dart gun, a toy car, a tea kettle, a miniature trampoline, and one of those wind-up cymbal monkeys.

Synapses are involved, I bet.

The plastic egg is delivered to the consciousness. There, it is opened, and the thought inside is extracted.

Somewhere in the process, the thought has been replaced with something like "I should see how many Google hits there are for 'woke dinosaurs'." This phenomenon is known as transubstantiation, probably.

[slovo-theshattered-onion]

How to Get a Shot of Heaven: Guide for Boys with Fear of Needles

this is a vaguely (very vaguely. it's the Vibes toward the very end) forcemascing fictional story with just some random ocs i pulled from the ether :D

all i can guarantee is that the prose will be decent and maybe the banter will be cute but otherwise i don't know what i'm doing ✨ enjoy the story, 's under the cut !! 4014 words (written in one sitting so quality mileage may vary)

cws: religious trauma (mostly lightheartedly referenced, but very much omnipresent, gets more prevalent toward the end. worth mentioning, jay (pov character) got it in a cult), mentions of sexism and transphobia, kidnapping if you squint, needles and sirynges, Vaguely Horny Vibes further in but not straight away

Much to Jeremiah's surprise, he's largely unaffected by jet lag.

It's odd; his first ever flight, a transatlantic one at that, and all it took for him to shake off the morning after was throwing cold water in his face. If not for Adam looking halfway ran over as he checks the milk's expiration date and curses, Jay would've thought nothing of it, but apparently it's a blessing and the only good reason for Jeremiah to believe in God. Bit dramatic, but sure, whatever. Not like he'd know better.

Having abandoned the fridge in favour of the cabinets, Adam shuts another one with a groan. "I can't believe I have to feed you dry cereal on your first fucking day here. D'you prefer chocolate or fruity and would you be merciful enough to make me choke to death on whichever one you choose?"

Jeremiah snorts. "Can't believe a billionaire eats worse than I did living out of a car." He pushes off the wall, wandering over to the fridge, and examines its remarkably barren, cold insides, "Do they take your 'capable of basic self-care and housekeeping' card once you're masculine enough, or something?"

"Firstly, not a billionaire yet and won't become one if I have anything to say about it. Secondly, you've got it backwards. I'm incompetent because of my wealth, not in spite of it." Good-natured, Adam peeks from around the fridge door in all his mussed, squinty glory, "Men do tend to be encouraged to do jack shit even when they know how, though. 'S called 'toxic masculinity', doubt you've heard of it."

Humming affirmation, Jeremiah takes out a crate of eggs stationed lonesome on the top shelf and checks the date. "Do you have oil, flour and sugar? We could make pancakes."

Adam furrows his brows, like his appearance needs more creases. "Don't you need milk for those? That shit's been spoiled for over a week."

"Heat banishes the sin out of it or something, we'll be fine." Eggs and milk in hand, Jeremiah shuts the fridge with his foot and sets them down, taking the scan for supplies into his own hands. First thing he finds upon opening a top cabinet right next to the fridge is plates, stale-smelling spices, and, for whatever reason, the aforementioned cereal. This place is in desperate need of a full re-arranging, isn't it?

"... Okay, if we swap 'sin' for 'bacteria' that does make sense. You weren't kidding when you said they taught you pure fucking bollocks, huh?" Having got out the oil- olive, not ideal but workable- while Jeremiah was busy with plates, Adam stares at him with what Jay can only assume is highly crumpled scientific fascination.

Jay nods. "Dinosaurs are a scam invented to make people sin and all humans on the flat Earth came from a guy who coincidentally shares your name, yes." In the next cabinet, there's cups, glasses, a single fancy goblet and, on the top shelf, pans, "But hey, at least I know how to organise a kitchen."

"I know where everything is! Look, flour and sugar, record time." Adam says, muscles flexing as he pointedly slams the two largely unopened paper bags down next to the milk and eggs. Because flour is involved, he immediately sneezes.

"Your cereal probably tastes like paprika at this point. Now get out of the kitchen you're paying me to run and let me salvage your pathetic homemaking, shoo." Poking Adam in the chest with a pan, Jeremiah shoulders past him to get to more cabinets. Next one mostly has a myriad snacks and sugary drinks, though because it's ran by Adam, there's random soup bowls in there, too.

As Jay rummages around for a mixing bowl, Adam hovers. He's so rarely recognisably awkward, shameless as he is, his shuffling is even more distracting than it'd normally be. Mixing bowl found- though it's meant to be a salad bowl or something equivalent, judging by the fancy design- Jeremiah turns to glare over his shoulder.

Adam twiddles his thumbs under his ire. "Are you... Sure it's not too uncomfortable? You know, dysphoria and all, 's probably weird to be acting a housewife for a guy you just met three days ago."

Huh. Jeremiah blinks. Looks down at himself.

Even holding a fancy bowl in front of a stacked kitchen counter, the sight is far less nauseating than usual, his chest flattened and hairy legs covered halfway by cargo shorts. He sucks in his lips, worries at them, sets the bowl down. Breathes. Turns, and smirks as he faces Adam. "I'd be more concerned about the three days part than the housewife part, if I were you." He pinches at the loose fabric of his t-shirt, lifting it away, "More seriously though, that binder thingy helps, it's fine."

Squinting blearily, Adam holds up his wrist to check his watch. "You've been awake... How much longer than me, again?" 

Uh? "About an hour? Well, a bit more than that, but I first checked the time an hour before you started puttering."

Adam nods, tapping something into his watch. "And you've been wearing the binder that entire time?"

Oh, right. "Yeah, showered and put it on. That's five more hours, if I remember correctly?"

Adam looks up. "Four and a half. Can I make coffee?"

"Excuse me? Where'd the half hour go?" Crossing his arms, Jeremiah narrows his eyes. Mostly playfully. Excuse him for enjoying the high of a better fitting body.

"We've been hanging out. Don't cry, you can have your dysphoria hoodie even if you'll boil, but I'm not letting you fuck up your ribs. Now, coffee? Would you mind if I used ice cream instead of milk or would you just prefer it black?" Back at the counters, Adam squats, opening a bottom cabinet.

Jeremiah huffs. "Ice cream's good, but not too much. And sure, try and convince me you were responsible when you got your first binder." Measuring flour with a literal cup, he pours it into the bowl. No sieve, whatever; he'll just mix like he's trying to make a death vortex.

With a heavy thud, Adam sets a fancy, massive coffee maker on a nearby counter and stares blankly ahead. After a beat, he smiles. "I was, actually. I'm paranoid, remember?" His cheekiness almost masks the deep eye bags he's boasting.

Huffing again, Jay goes back to measuring sugar. "Who would've thought the biggest, most relevant inconsistency I'd have to face off with would be that weird degenerates are also sicklers for rules."

"Not all of us!" Adam laughs, brighter, "Though admittedly most do try to stay safe as much as possible." He puts coffee beans in a grinder, shutting the lid, "Loud, prepare yourself."

Even with the warning, Jeremiah flinches while cracking the eggs into a soup bowl to beat. He's found a whisk by the time Adam finishes with the deliciously fragrant but not worth the noise coffee beans, started to work at it even; before Adam can comment, he turns to him with the most judgemental face he can muster. "Why do you have a whisk and not a sieve?"

A bit more life to his face, Adam blushes. "I, uh, used to. Have one, that is."

"You lost it?" Opening the milk, Jay asks, amused, "Oh, this has started clotting. How are you this much of a disaster, good sir?"

Adam groans, setting up the coffee machine with whatever ancient magic required to make it work. "We're going to get stomach bugs and die."

"Better than paprika-flavoured cereal." Light, Jeremiah snorts, "It'll be fine, expired milk actually makes pancakes taste better. Probably that bacteria you mentioned, whatever it may be."

A beep, and Adam leaves the coffee for the refrigerator, probably to get his ice cream. "Fair. Bacteria is what turns milk into sour cream and cottage cheese, so, probably fine." He says, playfully exasperated, "If we die, though, I'm beating your ass in hell." And bonks Jay over the head with the frigid box of vanilla he got, which is frankly unnecessary. Jeremiah sticks his tongue out, and focuses on eviscerating the last clots in the egg and milk mixture.

For the rest of the preparations, they're both quiet, though Adam does start to mutter some tune under his nose. He even dances once he's done distributing the ice cream between mugs, completely uncaring of Jeremiah's not so subtle staring.

... It rides up his t-shirt, which, while never particularly modest given he paired it with only boxers, still did more to cover him before he raised his arms. Jeremiah's not staring, but it's hard not to see that he's- he's got a bulge, which, Jay has noticed earlier- not for any perverse reasons!- but- how's it not a trick of light? Adam's the same as Jay, isn't he??

Does that mean Jeremiah could one day- whipping his eyes back down to the pancake batter, Jay mixes with all the carefully controlled violence he's capable of. This is fine. Everything is fine. Adam promised to help him along with whatever aspect of 'transition' he needs or wants, so. All fine!

Thankfully for Jeremiah's mortification, Adam doesn't initiate conversation when handing him his coffee nor when stealing freshly cooked pancakes before Jay's done frying them all. At the same time, unfortunately, Adam is hovering far too close and taking his turn to stare. Since turning up the heat would do nothing but burn the remaining batter, all Jeremiah can do about it is try to distract himself while he's still busy.

Adam's cup clicks against the fancy, tiled counter top, empty by the sound of things.

"So... You say the binder helps you feel better even when you're doing 'womanly' shit? Quotation marks, nothing's inherently womanly or whatever. D'you... Would you be willing to try something even more masculinising? Since you're gonna be doing mostly domestic work around here." Fiddling with his hands, Adam stares, head cocked and lips pursed.

Oh. Jeremiah takes a deep breath. "It's that hormone you take, yeah?Tesrone- uh, whatever it's called."

"Testosterone!" Brighter in a blink, Adam leans closer, "Yeah, it's that. Makes you more hairy, changes your fat distribution to be more masculine, makes muscle gain easier and drops your voice, among the most immediately noticeable changes. D'you wanna know more?" He's shining, brown-bronze eyes crinkled and grin sharp and fox-like. 

Deep breath, again. More or less needlessly flipping the pancakes, just to check they've cooked on both sides, Jeremiah bites his lip. "Mhm. Is this a faustian bargain type of deal?" He asks, unloading the pancakes onto the plate.

"Oh, absolutely. One hand, you get a will to live and a body that feels more yours, but on the other, male pattern baldness and bad skin. Look at this shit!" Adam leans in, lifting his messy and admittedly slightly greasy raven hair from covering his forehead, "I'm only twenty six, and it's already killing me." Playful, he combs the hair back in place with his fingers, and upleans closer to Jay's face, "Also, you get a T-dick." Mock-whispering, he hides his teeth behind a pointy smile, face as though composed of impish edges.

A T-dick-

Adam laughs, bouncing back with another stolen pancake. He gets a little crumb in his sharply trimmed beard as he takes a bite, and in his washed up, stretched out moon design t-shirt draping a bit oddly over his warm tan, he looks startlingly like any other guy; could Jeremiah get the same?

Swallowing, Adam wipes his chin, taking the crumb off with it. "I'd show you, but I've already got surgery so it wouldn't be a good example. Eh, there's pictures online and shit." He shrugs, "Everything else, you can pretty much just see looking at me. Except, I get hot and hungry more easily? Hm, my endurance got worse, but as I said, muscle grows faster and more defined with less effort, so it's not a terrible trade-off. There's ways to mitigate the hair loss and whatnot-"

"How do I get it?" Jay cuts him off, putting the pan in the sink and taking a pancake for himself. His coffee, predictably, got cold while he was cooking. Still, hiding in a coffee mug is more unassuming than staring at the floor, probably.

"I've got to take my shot for today, still." More subdued yet clearly still smiling, Adam tears off a chunk of pancake, seemingly swallowing without chewing like the terrible creature he is, "Wouldn't be much trouble giving you a dose, too."

Oh, Lord. No, Adam was wrong, the jet lag immunity isn't the only good proof for a loving God. The real proof is that Jeremiah managed to set his sights on pickpocketing the one man who would give him all this in return for coming clean.

Although- "Shot? Like, needles?"

For a split second furrowing his brows, Adam brightens again, swallowing another small chunk of pancake. "Yeah, but if you hate getting stabbed, 's not a big deal. There's gel and pills, too! We'd have to wait a bit before we get them, though, since I don't use those. You're lucky I'm the founder-owner-CEO-whatever of an NGO that deals with transition and stuff, it'd be harder to get our hands on more T without going the legal route. That's not only a while longer, but also, scary as fuck if you escaped some technically-legal abusive environment, which you did, so. Lucky! I'll figure out a way to get you some-"

"I'd like to try now." Jeremiah interrupts, again. Tenses up. Impolite.

Smiling so widely it must hurt, Adam strides over, puts the plucked pancake back on the plate and pokes non-too-gently under Jay's ribs. "I was trying to buy time for my impulsive ass, this is not proper risk-aware medical practice. But, I'm also not going back on my word, so, let me go print out an informational leaflet so we can at least pretend I'm not breaking the law, yeah?"

"You flew me here in a private jet specifically to bypass the customs." Unimpressed, Jeremiah crosses one arm over his toro and takes a bite of his own half-forgotten food. It gets him a rough mussing of his freshly cut hair and, predictably, no response other than laughter as Adam shoves his head and takes off sprinting out the room.

Huffing lightly, amused, Jay finally takes a sip of his barely tepid coffee. It's rich, deliciously bitter, and the vanilla does add a little something; he could convince Adam to make coffee with ice cream all the time, if he's lucky.

Or he could just make it himself, since he'll be working the kitchen. He glances at the imposing, shiny coffee machine.

... Maybe not.

By the time he's finishing the second pancake, Adam pokes into the kitchen, waving some pastel papers through the door. "It's done! Come find me in my room when you've finished, I'll be getting everything out meanwhile." With that, he's gone again, the stairs thudding under his feet.

Needless to say, Jeremiah swallows the rest of his pancake in possibly worse offence to nature than Adam did.

He forces himself to stretch to get the food to fall down at least somewhat, and tries to walk like a normal person. Keyword being 'tries'. Scaling the stairs two at a time, he paces with the biggest steps he can keep looking somewhat acceptable to polite society toward Adam's door; it's open, so Jay slips in easily.

At his vanity, Adam has arranged two medical-looking tiny bottles of clear liquid, a syringe, a bunch of bandaids and- and packed needles, okay, of course. With a deep breath, Jeremiah shuts the door, and goes to get the papers Adam has gestured him toward while rummaging in a med kit.

Most of the things on the pretty pastel infographics, Adam has mentioned, though there's also increased risk of some male-typical diseases such as cholesterol issues.

Just imagining himself with a careful beard, bigger, broader body, maybe even with a sharper jaw if he's lucky, has Jeremiah salivating too much to care much about some disease he has the smallest amount of knowledge on. He flips over to the final page-

Oh, that's what Adam meant by 'T-dick'. That. Does look sort of like a phallus. Good Lord. Jeremiah licks his lips. Yeah, no, he can deal with a needle for this. He glances over to Adam just in time to see him punch bubbles out of the assembled syringe.

That needle is sharp. Does Testosterone hurt? Jeremiah only got given shots once in his life, against his parents' will at that, and that hurt, and his parents hated it and tried to exorcise him and-

"Earth to Jeremiah?" Syringe lowered, Adam waves his free hand with furrowed brows and narrowed lips, "Are you sure you don't want to wait for gel? We can get you more informed and shit, and there won't be any needles involved. It's okay to take care of your brain first."

It's okay. Forcing himself to breathe, Jeremiah sets the pages down and takes a step closer. "You mentioned you need one, too? Could you do it on yourself first, then?" With his shoulders this tight and hands clutching at each other so hard in front of his chest, he must look like a prey animal. He swallows, shifts his arms to be crossed. A bit better.

Shifting his syringe-hand the slightest bit, Adam hums, light. "Sure, whatever. I do it on my left hip, usually." And, true to word, he lifts his t-shirt with his thumb and pushes his boxers down with the rest of his fingers, quick and practiced.

Taking a small turn to make his actions clearer, Adam brings the needle closer- he doesn't even flinch. Just injects, pulls out the needle, sets it down on a little napkin on the vanity and smoothly bandaids over the spot. He pulls his boxers back in place.

Sunny, Adam's smiling when Jeremiah finally looks back up to his face. "Better than coffee, I'm telling you. Coffee's for energy, this-" He pats his hip, "is for the will to use it. Does that make sense? 'M not a poet." Glancing around as though he's searching for something, he takes off to his closet, and pulls out a box from the bottom, "D'you wanna do it yourself or for me to do it? If me, I have an idea that might calm you."

Oh. Hm. Adam clearly knows what he's doing, so it's probably a better idea to have him take care of it. Plus, the idea of stabbing himself with a needle damn near makes Jeremiah's legs give out; is it even a choice when the answer's so obvious? "You, please. You know all of the safety precautions and such, it only- what's that?"

"Oh!" Showing off the sleek, shimmery green on one side and smooth black on the other item, Adam glows, "It's a blindfold. One of my employees got it for me after I've complained about struggling to sleep one too many times, but it turns out I hate being unable to see when my eyes are open, so I've put it in the shame box. I hear these help people calm down, and in your particular case, you won't have to see what I'm doing! So it'll probably be less scary."

Jay bites his lip, walks over to where Adam sits on the ground with the blindfold offered out. "It's shaped weird." Taking the thing, he turns it over, soft material weirdly attached. Are the sockets meant to cover the eyes?

"That's so it can block out the most light. I hated that, but who knows, it might work better for you." Up from the floor, Adam extends a hand asking for the blindfold back, looks up to Jeremiah's face and adjusts the sockets a bit. He raises it up, as though to put on Jay, before pausing, "Oh, would you like to do that yourself, actually? I should've asked before just going for it."

Adam will- have him blindfolded, specifically to inject him with a drug. What was it Jeremiah's parents used to say about strangers and why can't he bring himself to feel anything but warm anyway, as though a cosy fireplace heating his face, chest and abdomen?

... Too warm, mouth watering at the very idea of- Adam, his hands around Jay's head adjusting the straps that will hold the blindfold in place, body no doubt going at least somewhat flush with Jay because of their height difference or- or Jay bowing down-

Mechanically, gingerly, Jay takes the blindfold for himself and fits it over his eyes. Another, highly specific reason to believe in God is, his complexion makes it very hard to notice when he blushes, as deep and vivid as his skin is.

Given the heat in his cheeks, it may just be noticeable anyway- Adam pushes him, no, guides him until his back is to the wall. The vanity and the door are to the left of him, now, the closet to the right; focus on recalling what the room looks like, imagine it from this angle, it's fine.

A gentle touch lifts up his t-shirt a bit over his right hip, takes his hand up to hold it. Jeremiah didn't know heat could pool from his body and between his legs this fast, didn't know he could be so warm. His cargo shorts get pushed down on one side, his boxers follow, and Adam secures it in place with Jay's other hand; is it possible to get light-headed off touch?

"Count your breathing so you keep your stress in check, okay? Four or five for in, hold and out is good to start with." Cheerful as ever from a little bit to the left, Adam says. Jay forces his lungs to drag in air, so much colder than his body. Somehow, counting in his head does nothing to dissipate the heat, the soft simmer remaining even.

He counts as he breathes, overly aware of the whisper-crackle of needle packaging and the sound of a tiny glass bottle being lifted off tile. It clinks back down after another count of five, and the clatter of a nail against the plastic of a syringe rings twice. Two more counts, another short clack, Adam's steps walking over; the rabbit who took over Jeremiah's heart must've been running a race to get there.

Pressing into him, Adam pins Jay's right leg in place with his own. Warm, smelling of vanilla, coffee and something heavy, musky just underneath, he hums, probably meant in comfort. "Counting?"

Jeremiah hums back, nods. A cold swab that just swiped against his hip pulls back, callused fingers framing over where it was.

"Good. Now listen to me count and follow, okay? Right now, in. One, two, three, four, five-" Adam starts, there's a pinprick in Jay's hip, a weird pinch, Adam pulls his hand away, "-two, three, four five, you can let out your breath, now." The same hand, left, ruffles gently through Jeremiah's hair.

Breathing out slowly, like a balloon deflating, Jeremiah eases his muscles. Adam has pulled away; so, he pushes off the blindfold, looking over just in time to see the needles be thrown in the trash. He kind of really wants to slide down the wall, and a hug. Adam's scent lingers in his nostrils.

Scratch this being God, it can only be demonic temptation.

"Fears overcome, damn! Good job, Jay-Jay. Want me to go grab us a victory snack or something?" Packing up the med kit, Adam grins.

Well. Jeremiah was never heading for Heaven; might as well bask in the liquid salvation warming his veins while it lasts. Unsteady, he smiles back and gives a thumbs up. Adam tells him to wait on the bed.

He got so much more than he bargained for when trying to get money for groceries in the only way he could think of. 'Lucky' doesn't cut it; Jeremiah must be wickedly blessed, or maybe cursed.

So long as he gets to keep this, he doesn't care.

(author's note: yes, their names are jeremiah and adam. don't question it and don't read into the symbolism unless you wanna be disappointed (or to surprise me), because i sure didn't, i was just handed these names by The Brain and rolled with it WHEEZE)

[diskaywrites]

Fluffvember 2024

𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐭 #𝟐𝟐: 𝐒𝐭𝐮𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐝 𝐀𝐧𝐢𝐦𝐚𝐥 𝐏𝐚𝐢𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠: 𝐋𝐮𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐬𝐚𝐮𝐫𝐮𝐬 𝐱 𝐉𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐏𝐞𝐫𝐫𝐲 (𝐨𝐜) 𝐱 𝐉𝐚𝐜𝐤 𝐏𝐞𝐫𝐫𝐲 ((𝐧𝐨𝐧𝐫𝐨𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐜)) 𝐌𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐎𝐟:

.✽✦✽.◦.✽✦✽..✽✦✽.◦.✽✦✽..✽✦✽.◦.✽✦✽..✽✦✽.◦.✽✦✽..✽✦✽.◦.✽

One of Austin Matelson's favorite places in the entire world was the inside of a natural history museum. While he was working PWG shows on the weekend, sometimes he would poke into the local museums just to see the exhibits. As a man with a masters in a historical field, learning had always appealed to him, though he completely understood that it was not everyone's cup of apple-cinnamon tea.

It certainly didn't seem like the cup of tea that the twins he found himself the surrogate father to enjoyed.

He wasn't quite sure how he had ended up with Jack and Jill Perry following his every move like hatchlings to their mothers. Maybe it had to do with Jack and himself being paired together during training. The curly haired young man, boy really, had latched onto Austin like a baby bird, though instead of constant squawking, Jack had been near mute. Austin was thankful for the little sign language he knew, able to communicate basically with Jack. It wasn't very long into the friendship that, one night after training, Jack had wordlessly tugged Austin behind him into his apartment to meet the other half of the twins, Jill. She was just as quiet, at first, but as the trio grew closer, Jill became more open and bubbly.

They became the closest to children that Austin had ever imagined having.

That meant making sure that the two were well-fed and, after moving in, that the house was running smoothly. In the beginning, the hardest thing was getting used to the twins routines. Jill and Jack had been so set on relying on only each other that the fact he had been let into their lives was special. Austin had done his best to let the two into his own routines. That included the museum trips and the special modifications it took for the other two to enjoy it.

Austin had to make sure that the travel bag was packed with the things they needed for the day. Jack needed a fidget that kept his fingers busy, something like a stress ball or fidget spinner, while Jill never went anywhere without her stuffed Curious George. Austin had only asked her about the animal once, the sad look on her face telling him everything. It was a present from her father. Austin had never asked again, simply accepting the doll to be part of their lives like the headphones she wore everywhere.

The fidgets and the headphones hadn't made the sensory experience of the La Brea Tar Pits Museum any easier.

The smell had been the issue for the twins, the rotten egg stench even a little overwhelming for him. Jack had been easier to help regulate. Jill, on the other hand, had needed to go into the museum building to get away from the smell. The trio had circled the gift shop and every time they passed it, Austin noticed that Jill's eyes were drawn to a new plush.

It was a triceratops, a brownish orange in color with brown horns in the same color as its frills. The inclusion in the stuffed animals of the tar pits was baffling to Ausin, seeing as how the tar pits were known for their Smilodon and mammoth, but it was there none-the-less. Jill's hazel eyes kept finding their way to the animal and so, when she and Jack left to go get a drink from the fountain, Austin made sure to pay for both that and a Smilodon for Jack.

He met them at the fountains, presenting the bags to their new respective owners. Jill squealed as she pulled the triceratops against her face, nuzzling it with closed eyes. She seemed so happy to have it in her grasp, cradling both her Curious George and her triceratops with equal adoration. Jack beamed as he placed his Smilodon in the pocket of his jacket, peeking out as if the animal was happy to see them. The siblings tossed their arms around Austin in a warm hug, which he returned.

If dinosaurs and prehistoric creatures were the way to their hearts? He'd keep that close to his own for the rest of his days.

[deepdreamnights]

Saucerhead

The creature appeared sporadically over a six week period, with sightings correlating with reports of missing household electronics and yard tools.

We think it was eating them.

The image(s) above in this post were made using an autogenerated prompt and/or have not been modified/iterated extensively. As such, they do not meet the minimum expression threshold, and are in the public domain. Prompt under the fold.

Prompt: a color photo of a parasaurolophus-anthro waitress, sharp focus, national archives, 1975, real parasaurolophus, hyper-realistic, green scales, yellow stripes, yellow uniform, ILM, weta digital, stan winston studios, walking with dinosaurs:: a vintage retro tin robot, character design by akiman and john byrne, from Street Fighter Alpha 3, full body, character design on white background, promotional art, 1998:: portrait of a highly realistic victorian dinosaur-person, formal portrait, B&W wet plate photograph, ultrasharp detail, by James Gurney, walking with dinosaurs, scales, ILM, allosaurus, tyrannosaurus, carnotaurus, megalodon, national archives:: an egg with robot tentacles walking across a desk, realistic CGI, rendering, 3d artwork, artstation trending, octane render, nvidia, weta digital:: if titanium were a pop singer, robot-woman made of titanium, titanium-elemental, resembles Katy Perry, dress made of titanium, fantasy character portrait:: inks for a panel of the x-files comic by jack kirby, 1968 , in the style of marvel comics:: A grainy VHS footage of an alien flying saucer at night in the mountains, with colorful lights. The footage appears to be in the style of a typical 1990s UFO sighting video, with low quality and shadows, but unidentifiable lights moving through the sky, possibly in the style of an early Steven Spielberg film.

[slickshoesareyoucrazy]

Know Me

I think you can get to know a person pretty well when you know what their preferred media to consume is. And I guess in an effort to let a couple people here know me better, I have made an unordered, inexhaustive list of movies, TV shows, and books that I really liked. I know I've left some off, especially the books list. There are a lot of books and movies I've enjoyed but these are ones I'd repeat, some over and over and over without ever getting tired of them. I didn't include any music or visual art here, because that's too hard to list and it's too mood dependent. Maybe I'll make a musical artist list some other time. Anyway here you go.

Movies

Ghostbusters; Ferris Bueller's Day Off; Return To Me; Field of Dreams; My Big Fat Greek Wedding; The Crow; The Breakfast Club; Coco; Twister; About Time; Everything Everywhere All At Once; The Shape of Water; Coming To America; Casablanca; Forrest Gump; Young Frankenstein; Stand By Me; Up!; Dogma; Jaws; The Goonies; Groundhog Day; The Royal Tenenbaums; Moana; O Brother Where Art Thou; Inglorious Basterds; When Harry Met Sally; Bull Durham; Four Weddings and a Funeral; Moonrise Kingdom; Almost Famous; Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon; Clueless; Encanto; Remember the Titans; Splash; Spotlight; Blazing Saddles; Knives Out; Glass Onion; Soul; Sixteen Candles; Unbreakable; Slingblade; The Blues Brothers; The Great Outdoors; Ghostbusters Afterlife; It's a Wonderful Life; Juno; Mr. Holland's Opus; Fargo; Fried Green Tomatoes; The Burbs; Booksmart; Scott Pilgrim vs the World; Lady and the Tramp; Yesterday; Wristcutters a love story; Timer; A Few Good Men; Rain Man; Good Will Hunting; Hoosiers; Moonstruck; Dazed and Confused; Amelie; West Side Story; Hairspray;

TV Shows

Scrubs; Sesame Street; Derry Girls; Psych; The Bear; Crazy Ex Girlfriend; Letterkenny; Jane the Virgin; Schitt's Creek; King of the Hill; Barney Miller; Phineas and Ferb; A Different World; Northern Exposure; The Great British Bake Off; What We Do in the Shadows; Bob's Burgers; Only Murders in the Building; That 70s Show; Scooby Doo (the original TV series and star movies from the 70s); All in the Family; MASH; The Muppet Show; Seinfeld; Ted Lasso; Never Have I Ever; Brooklyn 99; The Get Down; Daria; ghosts; Columbo; normal people; Alice and Jack; Hilda; Southside

Books

A.A. Milne's Winnie the Pooh series; Charlotte's Web; Ferris; To Kill a Mockingbird; Horton Hears a Who; Horton Hatches the Egg; Little Tree; Prickly Jenny; A Friend For Henry; Sing Unburied Sing; Knuffle Bunny series by Mo Willems; The Boy the Horse the Fox and the Mole; Counting By 7s; Turtles All the Way Down; The Lightness of Hands; Everything Everything; The Things They Carried; Hocus Pocus; The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store; Just Kids; A Long Way Down; Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine; Let the Great World Spin; The Poisonwood Bible; Little Altars Everywhere; The Double Bind; When Breath Becomes air; Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow; You Don't Have to Say You Love Me; The Bean Trees; Imagine Wanting Only This; The Joy Luck Club; The Martian; The Art of Racing in the Rain; East of Eden; Song of Solomon; The Color Purple; The House on Mango Street; The Wind Knows My Name; In Five Years; Tuesdays with morrie; Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close; And Then There Were None; Sharp Objects; Homegoing; The Perks of Being a Wallflower; Under the Whispering Door; Maybe Next Time; Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing; How To Be Good; The Friend; Heaven: Dinosaurs; Redhead by the Side of the Road; Julie and Julia; Attachments; My Grandmother Said to Tell You She's Sorry; I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings; Lily and the Octopus; The History of Love; Take Me With You When You Go; Big Trouble; The Alchemist; Dear Fahrenheit 451; I'm Not a Mourning Person; The Outsiders; All About Love; Georgie All Along; Postcards From the Edge; Breakfast at Tiffany's; The Secret Life of Bees; Nothing to See Here; The Book of Two Ways; Cat's Cradle; Wonder; The Giver series; The Squish;

[cyberneticlagomorph]

first prev

The stream continues and what follows is a blur of colors and activity.

Cousin Liam pulls the group this way and that, up the museum's spiral and back down again in a seemingly random arrangement as he talks the entire time.

Liam ducks into an incredibly small tunnel halfway up the wall, its entrance no bigger than a quarter. He just sort of... stops being a solid person, and becomes something much more malleable and strange as he filters into the hole in the wall like smoke through a pipe. Liam is gone for several seconds before the wall hole starts to widen like parting jaws.

Liam is pulling on the entrance, stretching it open until its wide enough to walk through. He waves excitedly towards Jack and the camera.

"Well c'mon, before the museum gets shy and tries to close it up again." He's grinning, like a kid that's found something so cool he's dropped everything just to come show you. "Technically I'm not supposed to show off exhibits before they hatch, but i found this one last week and it's too good not to."

The new doorway trembles a little, as if uncertain about the new visitors seeing what's beyond it just yet.

"...the museum just hatches exhibits?" Says one of the kids, probably Zeb.

"Well, yes," Says Liam, rubbing his palms together until a ball of light forms and starts to float away and illuminate the space. "I'm sure your house hatches new rooms when you need them, the museum does the same."

The un-hatched exhibit is... it simply IS...

The walls are striped with rainbows of soil horizons, a myriad of impossible colors in dense layers that do and do not make sense in ways that are really hard to describe.

There's a wall dedicated to Wonderland, showing the layers from grass to bedrock interspersed with rocks and fossils, dense tea deposits, and pottery sherds. The fossils here are made of ceramic that gets more and more ornate the farther down you go, under layers of volcanic rock are the shapes of strange birds and proto fae forever preserved in blue and white china swirls.

On Candyland's wall is a some sort of dinosaur skeleton made from butterscotch candy, speckled with lint, old coins, and long white hairs like it's been rolling around at the bottom of Nana's purse since it died. The dinosaur itself is strange... its no recognizable earthly species, and seems to be some sort of early draconic ancestor.

There's more and more on every wall, a slice taken from every country and continent, more fossils and figures hewn from materials more strange than the last.

There are little dig pits full of cool rocks, and tiny fossils surrounding a mining sluice. There are child sized mining helmets, shovels, picks, buckets and brushes for people to excavate their own finds and take them home.

Even Liam looks amazed as he pokes around in one of the dig pits and comes back with a porcelain tooth of some kind. He lets out a long low whistle, "I knew the museum had something big planned but I didn't expect it to be anything like this."

"Are... are we allowed to dig around in here or should we leave? You did say this exhibit wasn't ready." Jack says, watching Egg try to bury one of her siblings in a pit.

Liam shrugs, "I wouldn't, not at least until we can find a curator to take care of it first."

"Oh, should be leave then?" Jack rescues her children from their live burial and confines Egg to a stroller. Egg hisses about it and tries to pull a knife.

Liam Shrugs again, tossing the tooth her found back into the pit, "Yeah probably, do want y'all getting in trouble on my account."

The group turns to see a figure standing in the new doorway, several feet taller than the average human. Vaguely humanoid but only vaguely, more like a shape with eyes than an actual person with a face.

Liam freezes, an uneasy smile curving its way across his face as his ears flick back, "H-hey boss, fancy meeting you here..."

The shape tilts its head to one side and squints in a way that seems to say 'I work here, why wouldn't you see me where I work?'

"y-yeah about that, this is my cousin Prince Jack and her family, I just wanted to show them around the museum and we got a little distracted... honest!" His hands go up like he's trying to calm a startled animal

The figure looks around, stretching out some sort of limb so it can touch one of the dirt walls in a way that is remarkably tender. It looks back at Liam and tilts its head in a different direction 'This exhibit is unfinished and unmanned, please come back later' its big blank eyes say before it grows a hand in order to snap its fingers.

Everything seems to blink out of exisitence for just a moment, and the group find themselves standing outside of a different exhibit that's a little crowded with people. The sign over the door reads 'The Golden Age of Draking'.

Jack looks at the sign and then at Liam, "What was that?"

"Oh, that was my boss, the Curator, they're like a... projection of the museum itself? Kind of like a limb, and kind of like its soul? But they're also their own person, it's all very complicated." Liam makes several waving hand gestures to show his confusion about the whole thing. "I should really get back to work, but if you guys need anything just shout ok?"

Liam turns back into a signpost, with feet this time, and scampers off in no particular direction before anyone can say anything else.

[thejoreeezyway]

Jurassic Park: Novels vs. Movies:

As I sit down to write this blog post, my mind wanders back to my childhood and the memories of my mother reading the "Jurassic Park" novels. She would always say that the books were far better than the movies, and as I grew older, I began to understand why. The novels, penned by Michael Crichton, offer a deeper, more complex narrative that explores the dangers of scientific hubris and the unpredictability of nature. 

 I’ll be breaking down the differences between the movie and the book, showcasing how these two mediums tell different stories of Lost World and Jurassic Park.

"Jurassic Park": Novels vs. Movies Characters:

In the movie, John Hammond is portrayed as a likable, grandfatherly figure. However, the novel presents him as a more ruthless and greedy character.

The fates of characters like Hammond, Ian Malcolm, and Donald Gennaro differ significantly between the book and the film.

Dinosaurs:

The movie's Dilophosaurus features a frilled neck, which is not present in the novel.

The novel showcases more dinosaur species, such as Procompsognathus (Compys).

Timeline:

The movie's events primarily take place within a single day and night, whereas the novel spans several days.

Tone:

The film leans more towards a family-friendly tone and focuses on adventure, while the novel is darker and emphasizes the consequences of scientific hubris and nature's unpredictability.

Scenes:

Iconic movie scenes, like the T. rex chasing a Jeep and the kitchen scene with the velociraptors, are unique to the film.

The novel features additional action sequences, such as an extended river chase and a confrontation with a pack of Velociraptors in the park's aviary.

Order of events:

Some events occur in a different order between the movie and the novel, such as the Triceratops scene preceding the T. rex attack in the movie, while the order is reversed in the novel.

Ellie Sattler:

In the movie, Ellie Sattler plays a significant role in restoring the park's power and is portrayed as a strong, resourceful character. In the novel, her role is somewhat more limited, with a focus on her paleobotanical expertise.

"The Lost World": Novels vs. Movies

Characters:

Dr. Alan Grant and Ellie Sattler are not present in the movie, which instead introduces new characters like Nick Van Owen and Peter Ludlow.

In the book, Dr. Alan Grant and Ellie Sattler have minor roles, while Richard Levine, Jack Thorne, and Eddie Carr are key characters.

Main plot:

The movie revolves around a mission to rescue Sarah Harding, who is already on the island, and InGen's attempt to capture dinosaurs for a new park in San Diego.

The novel's plot focuses on an expedition to study dinosaurs in their natural habitat and a rival company's attempt to steal dinosaur eggs.

San Diego incident:

A Tyrannosaurus rex rampaging through San Diego is a major plot point in the movie, but this incident does not occur in the novel.

Raptors' intelligence:

The movie depicts Raptors as highly intelligent but lacking the level of cooperation and coordination found in the novel.

In the novel, Raptors are portrayed as more cunning, with complex social behaviors and advanced hunting strategies

Carnotaurus and T. rex

Jurassic Park has captivated audiences for decades, with the epic tale of dinosaurs brought back to life capturing our collective imagination. While Steven Spielberg's iconic movie adaptation has undoubtedly left a lasting impact, many fans will attest that Michael Crichton's novel offers a different, more immersive experience.

The movie omits the Carnotaurus and its camouflage ability, while the T. rex nest is central to the film's plot. In the novel, the T. rex nest scene is less prominent and focuses more on observing the dinosaurs' behavior from a distance.

Jurassic Park has captivated audiences for decades, with the epic tale of dinosaurs brought back to life capturing our collective imagination. While Steven Spielberg’s iconic movie adaptation has undoubtedly left a lasting impact, many fans will attest that Michael Crichton’s novel offers a different, more immersive experience.

- JOREEEZY

https://k4v3.com/

[primevein]

The Prime of His Youth: Book II: Quest for Fire: Ch24: Prehistory

Jack started to rouse in the back of Bulkhead. "You know?" Bulkhead asked, "When I said nap, I was joking. You can go back to sleep if you want."

Jack tired stretched. "It's hard for Humans to sleep in places they aren't used to."

"Is that why Miko is still sleeping?" Bulkhead asked.

"I'm guessing she's used to sleeping in the back here?" Jack tiredly asked, and yawned.

"How about you?" Bulkhead asked.

"Nowadays I usually cuddle a femme." Jack simply stated. He looked outside as the cave was passing them by. "How long was I out?"

"Few hours, I think." Bulkhead replied.

Jack yawned as he watched the cave passing them by. "We need to find some place to pull over."

"You can sleep there." Bulkhead stated.

"We need to eat." Jack stated.

"Way ahead of you." Bulkhead stated, and Jack just looked forward with unfocused eyes. "In the passenger seat."

Jack leaned forward and reached his arm around the seat, groping until he found a box. He struggled for a moment until he pushed it with his right hand until it moved off to the side. He grabbed it with this left hand and lifted it on the console. He sat back and tiredly looked at his jacket in the centre of the seat. He carefully folded it up and used his left hand to slip it into the passenger seat. He then pulled the Cybertronian storage box to the back. He put it down in the middle and looked forward again, "We'll also need to do ablutions."

"Which is what, exactly?" Bulkhead asked.

"Haven't we?.." Jack tiredly asked. "I guess not. Waste removal. Cleaning." He then looked over at Miko enjoying her sleep, "But, I guess we can wait. Sitrep?"

"Windblade found a side tunnel up ahead." Bulkhead uttered. "She's on station. Smokescreen is en route to scout it."

"Not the way." Jack tiredly stated.

"I guess it doesn't just end, huh?" Bulkhead asked.

"I don't know how I know it." Jack stated.

"It shouldn't be that surprising, that's the reason we came here." Bulkhead replied.

Jack lay back, snuggling into the seat, "Tell Smokescreen to not..." he grumbled, and closed his eyes.

"Then what do we find ahead?" Bulkhead asked, "More trouble?"

"Good trouble." Jack grumbled, and drifted off.

* * *

Jack slowly woke up to Miko awake beside him. "You finally waking up?" she asked, and he just stared at her. She opened the storage unit and grabbed a couple of containers before quickly closing it. She handed one to Jack.

"Meatloaf for breakfast?" Jack asked.

"We can't exactly pull over and let your fembots cook us eggs and bacon." Miko replied.

"Right?.." Jack uttered, as he thought it over.

* * *

Jack rode on Arcee, next to Smokescreen. Bulkhead was once again loaded with the cargo, with the trailer and Windblade on his roof. Arcelia and Roxana followed behind them, with Sirenia fluttering above.

"So, what are we up against?" Arcee asked.

"Like I know." Jack simply stated, "It's big, it's bad, but also good, for whatever that means."

"Allies." Windblade said, and simply let it hang.

* * *

The group approached a group of robot dinosaurs biting, stomping, and breathing fire on a group of Cybertronians.

"Someone want to tell me why there are robot dinosaurs?" Jack asked.

"The short version is Shockwave." Arcelia stated.

"So, Decepticons?" Jack asked.

"They wish." Bulkhead stated.

"Wait, are they Dinobots?!" Miko asked.

"Yep." Bulkhead replied.

"Who wishes?" Jack asked.

"Shockwave's minions." Bulkhead added. "I wasn't there, and never actually met them, but apparentlly they were kidnapped during the War for Cybertron. They were experimented on. Shockwave apparently somehow turned their intelligence into rage. Wanted to use them as super soldiers."

"Did it work?" Miko asked.

The robotic T. rex spun, knocking the Cybertronian away and roared so loud the convoy slowed to a stop.

"Sounds like it." Bulkhead uttered.

"So, we help them?" Arcee asked, as the T. rex started breathing fire on the group.

"I think we should just wait here."

Jack leaned to the side, and Arcee followed. He climbed off of her and stepped forward. Miko quickly climbed out of Bulkhead's passenger door and ran up beside him.

"I'm going to go and talk to them." Jack stated, and looked back to Arcee. She was deathly worried for him. "I'm not going to get too close, and the other side probably won't consider us a threat." He then looked to Miko.

"Us?" she asked.

"You're telling me that you didn't want to come?" Jack asked.

"You actually want me to come?!" Miko shouted.

"Yeah, we're not kids anymore." Jack said, and turned back forward. He turned back to Arcee, "Transform." he said. She did, and had the look her thought she would. He stepped towards her. She stepped towards him, and then kneeled down to kiss him.

"You are going to come back to me, right?" Arcee asked.

"Contrary to popular belief, I have no intent to dying." Jack replied.

"We're going to live forever!" Miko exclaimed.

"Well, maybe not that." Jack said as he walked away.

* * *

The battle was done. Most of the Cybertronians were dead of fleeing. Swoop landed and looked over at the approaching Humans. "Don't look now, boss, but something is watching us."

Grimlock transformed, with the rest of the Dinobots quickly following his lead. He turned to looked at them, and Jack waved. "Who - you?!" Grimlock asked.

"Jack, Jack Darby!" Jack stated.

"Jackjack Darby, Me - Grimlock!"

"Just one Jack." he simply stated. "This is Miko Nakadai!"

"Why you here?!" Grimlock exclaimed.

"Just passing through!" Jack replied, and turned back to the convoy. Bulkhead waved at him. Roxana quickly and eagerly did so as well. Then came Smokescreen, followed by a reluctant Arcee. Bulkhead then transformed back, "Could you ladies load me back up?" Bulkhead asked. Arcelia and Sirenia quickly moved over to the cargo liner. They loaded him up.

Windblade transformed and flew over to the Dinobots. She transformed and landed. "Windblade, leader of the Battle Sisters of Caminus."

"Why on Cybertron?" Grimlock asked.

"To aid the young Humans." she said, and gestured to Jack and Miko. Grimlock turned towards them, only to catch them waving.

"Why here?!" Grimlock asked.

"It's a secret!" Miko exclaimed.

"Who were you fighting?" Jack asked.

"Call - Forged!" Grimlock exclaimed.

"They were created by Shockwave." Swoop stated. "I'm Swoop, by the way. This is Snarl, Slug, and Sludge."

"Was that before or after what Shockwave did to you?" Jack asked.

"You - no - like Grimlock name?!"

"It's fucking awesome!" Miko shouted.

"Grimlock - proud - name."

"For what it's worth, we're Autobots." Jack stated, "Or were, before the war ended."

"War - not - over!" Grimlock shouted.

"Not while the Forged are still around!" Slug replied.

"This seems personal?" Jack asked.

"Oh?" Swoop asked, "It's simple. They want us to be like them."

"You need help?" Miko asked.

"How - little - creature - help?" Grimlock asked. Miko put on the Apex Armour and slammed her hands together. "Hm?" Grimlock asked with respect.

"If you could show us to your base, we could talk about our plans?" Jack asked.

"Plans?!" an offended Grimlock asked, "Sound - like - Optimus."

"He sees it too?" Miko asked.

"The trouble is Grimlock hates Optimus." Sludge stated.

"Why?" Miko asked.

"Optimus - weak." Grimlock stated, "Afraid. Prefer talking. Dinobots real Autobots." Jack just looked at him expectantly. "Fine." an annoyed Grimlock stated, "Need refuel."

Sludge turned into a brontosaurus, Slug into a triceratops, Snarl into a stegasaurus. Swoop turned into a pterodactyl and flew about them. Swoop took wing while the rest started walking away. Miko ran up beside Grimlock, and then took her Apex Armour off, "Not going to transform?" Miko asked.

"Grimlock - angry!" Grimlock shouted.

"And when you transform?" Miko asked.

"More - angry!" Grimlock shouted.

"Long story short," Sludge said, his head turned towards her, "he was awake for what Shockwave did to him."

"Took - Shockwave's - arm off!" Grimlock proudly exclaimed. "But now, only transform when fight. Too much anger, otherwise. Tend to break things."

"I've been known to break things as well." Miko stated, and turned to Sludge, "Do you mind if I ride you?"

"You can't weigh that much." Sludge simply replied, and Miko rushed over to climb onto him. Arcee pulled over just in front of Jack and he climbed on board. The rest of the convoy was transformed and was rolling out.

[spacefinch]

A list of all of Carlos’s outfits in the Magic School Bus show. I am bored and I have nothing better to do.

Normal outfit (hoodie, red pants, and sneakers)

Blue space suit (Gets Lost in Space and Sees Stars)

Teal scuba gear (Inside Ralphie)

Blue scuba gear w/helmet (Gets Eaten)

Adventuring outfit (Hops Home)

Rotting log expedition outfit (Meets the Rot Squad)

Desert adventuring outfit (All Dried Up)

Concert recital outfit (In the Haunted House)

Baseball uniform (Plays Ball)

Short sleeves/Summer outfit (Kicks Up a Storm)

Normal outfit with life vest (Blows its Top)

Dinosaur safari outfit (The Busasaurus)

Butterfly safari outfit (Butterfly and the Bog Beast)

Soccer uniform (Butterfly and the Bog Beast)

Anti-fungus suit (In a Pickle)

Engine-exploration suit (Revving Up)

Star Trek style uniform (Out of This World)

Clunky red space suit (Out of This World)

Yellow scuba gear w/mask (Ups and Downs)

Blue and yellow jacket (In the Arctic)

Blue scuba gear w/mask (Goes Upstream)

Giant from Jack and the Beanstalk (Gets Planted)

Skydiving gear (In the Rainforest)

Rock suit (Rocks and Rolls)

Winter outfit— Orange and green coat (Rocks and Rolls; Holiday Special)

Red scuba gear (Meets Molly Cule)

Egg scuba gear (Cracks a Yolk)

Beach outfit (Goes to Mussel Beach)

Rain jacket and hat (Gets Swamped)

Formal outfit (Goes Cellular)

ANOTHER scuba-ish suit with a helmet (Goes Cellular— although this one seems more astronaut-ish)

Basketball uniform (Gains Weight)

Skateboarding gear (Gets Programmed)

Yellow scuba gear w/helmet (Takes a Dive)

Normal outfit, but with hard hat (Under Construction)

Notes:

Not a big fan of the clunky space suit, but considering that “Out of This World” was Star Trek reference after another, it kind of fits. The space suits in Star Trek TOS are even worse.

It always feels a bit strange to see Carlos wearing an outfit that isn’t primary colors.

The books also have some great designs as well, but that’s not what I’m here for.

Half of these outfits are some variation of space suits or scuba suits. Which doesn’t surprise me, but man, the artists couldn’t stick to a consistent scuba design for any of the kids.

My personal favorites for Carlos’s alternate outfits are: Star Trek uniform, blue space suit, orange and green winter coat, summer outfit, butterfly safari outfit, and baseball uniform.

[hunsa-jars]

Hey, quick question, you play Stardew Valley, correct? Got any Perfection run advice?

Howdy! Yeah, i do play Stardew, i'm actually attempting my first perfection run with my current save file

Hmmm advice... sure, i have a few

SAVE UP AT LEAST 10 OF EVERYTHING, don't be like me and sell your crops or flowers or minerals without knowing if you need them for much much later. Like marble, for the goddamn marble brazier. Or for cooking

Don't leave buying festival exclusive crafting recipes for later, seriously. I forgot the jack-o-lantern recipe can be only bought on Spirit's Eve and now i'm suffering

Also speaking of crafting recipes: The Deluxe Scarecrow. Just wait until you're rich and buy enough casino tokens you need to get rarecrow #3. The others are much easier to obtain

Don't get married early, just take your time

Crusader is a great enchantment for your sword, it kills mummies without you having to blow them up, USE IT!

The island obelisk should be the first obelisk you build, it's a 100 times more useful than the other ones

Do not sell your first ancient seed, dinosaur or ostrich egg, keep those close, grow/hatch em, THEN give em away to the museum or professor snail

The museum... be patient, it's gonna be fine

Fishing... um.... get good- (cooking and luck will be your bestest friends)

Building relationships is important, the villagers are more helpful than you might think

Save up lots of rocks

Starfruit, ancient fruit, sweet gem berry and wine gonna be your big money makers

Good luck