#mutations in plants and wildlife that could exist there

[sl33py-g4m3r]

man... idk what led me down the rabbit hole of watching nuclear disasters on youtube....

but....

the more I watch these types of videos; the more I see the perils of nuclear bombs as well as nuclear power, and the fallout that it can create...

should we really be using something so very dangerous just to create electricity and power? is it really a cleaner source than solar/wind/water power?

what if nuclear bombs had never been created? or that we never used nuclear power in power plants?

it seems too dangerous and there's too much risk of fallout and long lasting problems, in people and the environment.....

this just makes me more anti nuclear anything honestly.....

[starwrighter]

I am not a baby!! (Yes you are,)

(Prompt) (Previous part) (Next) (Masterpost) (Ao3)

(Part four peoples!!!)

Either something went wrong with that transmission or he was going to be stuck on this planet for 99,999 hours. Both options didn't bode well for him but one was clearly better than the other.

Ancient's how long was 99,999 hours? With a number that big he was looking at spending around ten years waiting for a rescue team to show up and help them. If everyone wasn't dead by that point they'd probably have built a super cool society with Deepsea bases and nuclear power that they'd have to give up. In ten years he would've figured out what the heck was going on with him and brought them home himself. Though, ten years would give him an excuse for why he was still around the same age he was when he left. Wipe the PDA's data beyond recovery, blame the most annoying creature or plant as what shrank him, and refuse to elaborate any further.

A transmission error was more likely than his brilliant hypothetical scenario. When a spaceship as big as the aurora crashed there was bound to be some interference. Whether that interference be artificial or not was still unclear much to his dismay.

At least he had a scanner, that was a big step for him in his progression. A lot of the actually helpful blueprints were corrupted in the crash and supposedly the scanner could help recover them. Scanning fragments of salvaged tech would be the quickest way of recovery all things considered. Destroyed beacons, singed seaglides, and trashcans were scattered all throughout the shallows, pollution likely reaching farther than what he'd explored. With a crash, this big damage likely extended much farther than what was visible to him.

Not only did their ship crush who knows how many creatures and plants, the regular and radioactive pollution would screw over future generations of fish! It was the intergalactic equivalent of a catastrophic oil spill and he was an unwilling participant in it. Something deep inside him ached at the thought of him being a participant in a planet's destruction.

Chunks of broken spaceship were bad enough for the environment on its own. Batteries, trash, fuel, and hundreds of pounds of manmade resources that'd take hundreds if not thousands of years to decompose. Every scrap of metal, every piece of plastic trash no matter the size was something to poison, choke or kill the local wildlife. Sam would be furious, this wasn't a case of natural food shortages or extreme weather, this could very well be an extinction event! Nuclear power was the default for Alterra's larger ships, and if it wasn't already, the aurora was soon to start leaking radiation all over the place!

This was one of the few life-bearing planets humanity discovered! Hundreds upon hundreds of planets have been discovered within humanity's years of space exploration but life existing without human intervention was still rare. Metal, rock, and gas were what were all that were usually brought back in the beginning. As humanity's technology advanced, they went farther into space, with more habitable planets being discovered and an uptick in thriving alien life. There was always a continuous stream of new discoveries in their universe, alien floras and fauna being discovered as often as they went extinct. Even so, it'd be a cold day in hell before he shared responsibility for any aliens going extinct.

Genetic mutations, Birth defects, and massive amounts of death were the first things that came to mind when radiation was brought into the picture. Radiation was the biggest issue so far, the melted spaceship could be recycled, no matter what Alterra's stupid rules told him he could and couldn't do. Trusting a corporation to clean up their own messes was like asking a toddler to clean up their toys; it would only lead to a conniption fit and a half-assed job. It was unclear how long he was going to be here and if when he met up with the other survivors, the need for materials would only increase as time went on.

Scanning and salvaging would have to wait until the next morning. Darkness shrouded the ocean outside his life pod, making it twice as dangerous to be out there tearing wrecks apart. Bioluminescence wasn't a skill he could put on his resume just yet nor was any kind of night vision. It would be both dangerous and annoying to swim around aimlessly in the dark when he had a perfectly good life pod he could relax in.

Standing in the safety of his lifepod, Danny ran the scanner up and down his body, the tech lighting him up a brilliant blue.

"Performing self-scan. Vital signs follow continuous pattern; no adverse effects identified. Detecting tracing amounts of foreign bacteria. Continuing to monitor,"

The PDA chimed and if Danny were an actual infant like the stupid tablet insisted he was he wouldn't have understood a word of those sentences. But since he wasn't a baby he could properly understand that there were alien germs in his body that really shouldn't be there.

Yeah, That seemed like a problem but it wasn't the reason his powers were short-circuiting. Before they even entered the atmosphere his powers were going wonky. Everything felt the same as it did before he came in contact with this "Foreign bacteria" There were no physical symptoms to complain about so maybe it was just his PDA's way of warning him he was coming down with an alien cold?

Whatever it was, Danny bet fifty bucks the metal muncher was what gave it to him. The creature had a face that screamed "Hey! look at me, I have all the diseases!" Now he was no marine biologist but scrap metal and electrical wire didn't exactly seem like the healthiest snack to chew on. Although, with the resemblance it had to crocodiles back home, one could only wonder if it swallowed metal to help with digestion?

Jagged teeth like the ones on the metal muncher weren't exactly suitable for grinding up food. Finding out the Metal muncher's stomach was full of rocks would be the least surprising thing that's happened today. Metal salvage from the Aurora was way too big to work as a stomach stone so it was more likely the creature just liked chewing on metal. It seemed just as interested in the titanium deposits as it was with the salvage so maybe it was a natural way to file down or sharpen their teeth? Hopefully, the metal munchers were smart enough to avoid chewing on wires that were actively sparking.

Opening a note function on his PDA, Danny began scribbling down everything he'd learned from his encounter with the metal muncher. Easily distracted, aggressive, territorial? Deciding everything he’d seen today was their normal everyday behavior would be stupid. There were new variables in the creature’s environment that could impact its behavior. Continued observation would be helpful as would scanning the animal in the morning. If Danny was going to be stranded on an alien planet you bet your ass he’s going to be studying the local wildlife while he’s here.

“A proper sleep schedule is imperative to the physical and phycological development of young children, " A chime played on his PDA closing the notes app without any warning. A repetitive string of Z’s overtook his screen making it impossible for him to navigate through the applications. Cheeks burning Danny turned the thing off and on again stomping with a huff when the same thing happened when it booted up again.

Taking a deep breath Danny sulked over to the storage unit. It was the only flat surface in this Lifepod he could lay down on and one could only pray to the ancients that the lid wouldn’t cave underneath him. Sleeping on the floor was out of the question. biohazardous goo coated the floor, still liquid enough to slosh around with the erythematic motion of the sea. Naturally, due to preferences, Danny decided to curl up on a surface that didn't have his melted organs on it.

________

Slithering through a barren seabed that once flourished as well as one could in a dying ocean. Mourning the lives that were lost today, he'd failed all over again. His youngest had been the one to see the precursors building raise into the sky this time. A blast strong enough to shake the island that it was built on shot out into the sky. They'd expected something to crash into the water soon after but what they hadn't expected was the size of what hit the waters.

Miles of the seafloor was torn up, and thousands of animals were dead. Jason said it was ironic, even after the precursors wiped themselves out they still found ways to destroy the planet. Bruce thought it was just cruel. It was by sheer stroke of luck that none of his kids had been close to the reaper's breeding ground at the time of impact. All of them managed to remain relatively unharmed when flames and giant pieces of rubble fell from the sky.

Surviving reapers flocked to the sight of the impact, shielded, unseen through the cloud of upturned sand and rubble. It wasn't until they caught a reaper with a familiar-looking creature locked in its mandibles, red blood spilling into the waters as it once had a decade ago that they realized it was happening again.

Nearly all who they'd found near the impact site had been unresponsive, charred, or mangled with their organs strewn out through the sea. In the clutches of the predators now circling the site dying in their arms no matter how quickly or carefully they managed to pry them from the brutal maw of the reapers. Within minutes of the impact, they'd already had a death count in the dozens. It was horrific, little bodies so much like his and his children's more vulnerable forms, dulled claws of younglings that had not yet grown old enough to hunt for themselves. Worst of all was looking into their dying eyes and seeing the agony and confusion of a sentient creature facing a brutal death just as their lives had begun. But that was the death count before the others landed.

Eggs with metallic shells and odd patterning landed all throughout the crater some even landing in the cold darkness of the void where they couldn't be retrieved. Their landings had been much gentler than the initial impact. Immediately the little ones began crawling out of their shells, confused and scared, physically weak. It wasn't uncommon for the precursors to deform the unborn, kidnaping and experimenting on children who lived and died in agony. Malformities ran rampant in this batch of younglings. Instead of soft faces and the vibrant, expressive eyes, they'd come to associate with these children, there were pitch-black, featureless heads smoother than sandstone but solid as titanium. There were points when a child that looked perfectly healthy would go limp for seemingly no reason and never move again. A sped-up gestation period was known to cause problems, let alone a hatching that was induced by precursor technology. As much as it killed him to admit, these younglings, while more abundant were sicklier than the small batch of three that'd fallen years ago.

Most if not all the healthier young ones died from the elements before they could reach them. It was devastating for Dick to find the youngling he'd been guarding in his territory, covered in the luminescent cysts that foreshadowed a certain death. The children got scared when they tried to protect them and when these children got scared they had a tendency to die from it.

Every single death felt like a personal failure. It's like nothing they could do would ever stop the hurt that the precursors continued to cause a thousand years after their extinction.

"Hey... B?" Dick's voice echoed in his mind a reassuring reminder that his son was safe and close enough to contact them. However, the emotions that came in with his son's words were anything but reassuring. Stomach filling with dread he settled on the sea bed just preparing himself for devastating news.

"We've searched the entire crater- none of them survived," A wave of grief hit him like a tsunami when Dicks words sunk in.

"Not the entire crater, there's still the one that landed in the shallows," Tim chimed in.

"We watched that egg for three hours and nothing crawled out of it," Steph groaned and Bruce could almost hear the dramatic way his daughter threw herself into the sand.

"Plus it was smoking and smelled of rot," Duke added somberly, slowly gliding through the impact site by his side.

"Geez, none of them even survived long enough to start building this time!" Dick exclaimed a mournful edge to his usual cheerful tone.

"Tch, pitiful," Damian finally decided to chime in, disappointment clear in the juveniles voice

" Who's pitiful? The babies who died today or the precursors who set them up for death?" Jason questioned, a dangerous edge seeping into the bond.

"I think it's obvious who I was talking about Todd," Damian spat.

"Considering how obsessed you are with what the last group created no, it's not obvious demon spawn," Jason sneered.

"Guys!" Dick snapped. "Arguing with each other isn't help and it sure as the lava zone is hot isn't going to make you feel better for long," Murmurs of agreement rang throughout the bond.

" One of us should still keep an eye on the egg in the shallows," Bruce clutched a piece of metal in pitch-black claws, gills flaring as he swam underneath an egg floating upside-down on the ocean's surface. "Maybe they're just late bloomers?"

"...Maybe?"

"I guess it's possible,"

"Not likely,"

"Tch, if it's already rotten getting our hopes up is pointless," Damian added to the chorus of replies.

"Try saying that when we have new baby siblings swimming around," Dick beamed.

"I will not because it isn't going to happen," His youngest argued pointedly.

"Awwwww, someone's worried they won't be the guppy of the family anymore!" Dick cooed much to Damian's dismay and everyone else's entertainment.

"I am not!" Damian snapped his voice louder than Dick's despite him being the farthest from the impact zone. "If anything I'd be glad someone else would be the victim of you people's constant smothering!" Damian spat, his words lacking any true venom.

"Whatever you say kiddo,"

"Shut up Grayson!" Laughter rang out through the bond followed by teasing and cooing. A reminder that despite everything Bruce still had living children and he hoped it would stay that way long after he passed.

( @avelnfear @meira-3919 @thought-u-said-dragon-queen @hugsandchaos @blep-23 @zeldomnyo @bytheoldwillowtree @justwannabecat @shepherdsheart @starlightcat04 @stargazing-bookwyrm @pupstim )

[lowqualitygarbage]

So what is the wasteland like in your AU? Is life slowly crawling back in? Or is it being stamped out by petty conflicts and the Jesus freaks? How the hell do Gamma storms even still exist? What lives out thier besides people?

!!! Hi!

So, this AU is a pretty direct Fallout adaptation, and I'm not sure how familiar you are with the games so sorry if I over or under explain.

It does kind of bother me that in the games like 200 years have passed since the War, and people are still basically in the stone age and eating centuries-old mac'n'cheese despite so much of the Old World being in a semi-recoverable state.

The sort answer is, the Wasteland could actually be built into a functioning society pretty easily, if people weren't The Absolute Worst.

Settlements are kept small and lower-tech, because you're right, the Army of Righteous does prioritize places that look like they could become a threat. Water treatment plants, armories, power stations, commercial farmlands, etc. The only large settlements that can survive are the ones that are basically fortresses and not worth the effort to wipe out.

This is part of what allowed the system of Overlords to form - they were basically Raiders who were able to survive long enough to amass enough fortifications and followers to the point they aren't easy targets any more, which in turn brings even more settlers to agree to serve under them for protection.

Wildlife is standard Fallout fare - mole rats, mutant dogs, radstags, yao guai, deathclaws, brahmin, giant insects of all kinds, mirelurks, robots, ghouls, and super mutants (along with whatever else I've forgotten). There are a few other animals I'll throw in mutated variations of as needed. Only major homebrew species is Razorbacks - mutated descendants of pigs and boars, I'll do a little writeup on them when I post Fat Nuggets.

As for the radiation storms, they're a gameplay element from Fallout 4, which I think they explained as there being the hyper-irradiated Glowing Sea nearby, which was ground zero for a massive nuke. Storm fronts coming into the Commonwealth over it would pick up the radiation and cause an extra hazard during storms. Most people and animals would either take shelter from the storms, or are already too irradiated/mutated to really be bothered. It's a convenient device to force people into places and in close quarters for a period of time, so I kept it. Let's just assume Pentagram City was a major target for nukes like other major cities, so there's a similar issue.

Additional worldbuilding thoughts below the cut:

The people who do make advancements/big recoveries in technology are people like Vox, and are just basically cut-throat capitalists who will murder their competitors and burn down/steal their stuff, to keep a monopoly on what they offer.

So VoxTech in the Vault 666 universe does offer a bunch of modern conveniences, but he also owns the local power stations and such to make them work, and runs the Vees' territory like a glorified Company Town where everything just goes back into his pockets. Anyone who tries to innovate is either bought out by him, or killed off so they're not a threat. Same with other Overlords who run an industry. No altruists can survive in this environment, which makes Charlie's dreams that much crazier.

technically anyone could probably run a radio broadcast. Alastor is so full of himself he doesn't see others as being even close his level, but people are too freaked out by him to really try; doesn't help that he overrides Vox's broadcast (which is commercials with some music now and again) for funsies whenever he feels like it.

[comicaurora]

I assume that the Twins have been slowly creating new wildlife and flora over the years along side the younger races. So what kind of wildlife and flora existed during the time of the Ancients? And are the Twins still making more wildlife and flora? Or are they focusing on the younger races now?

The Twins are always making more flora, fauna, and even some stranger things that can’t be easily classified.

In the time of the Ancients, things were pretty sparse. The Twins rushed to create an ecosystem that could sustain the life they’d just created - the first plants on the surface were fruit-bearing trees that transformed simple soil and water into something the Elder Races could live on. With the crisis averted, they began to create for artistic purposes rather than desperation or necessity - more simple plants, like grasses, then flowers; larger trees with different colors and shapes of leaves; etc.

When they created a simple food chain (rodents that ate grasses, felids that ate rodents), they began to see the potential for an interconnected ecosystem. They made more animals that ate plants, then more animals that ate animals. They filled the empty oceans and skies with simple swimming and flying creatures, and took inspiration from their initial generations of elemental mutation to create a vast array of species of all shapes, colors and sizes. Within a brisk century, they’d created a global ecosystem that rather resembled our own. Meanwhile, the Ancients began cultivating agriculture and pastoralism almost as quickly as the Twins crafted the species required for it, and the Twins, delighted to see their works so eagerly embraced, spiraled in creativity. A hundred variants on grass, a thousand on flowers, a sparkling panoply of insects to keep the flowers bright, a sky full of birds and an ocean full of fish and land filled with more and more creatures for the adventurous Ancients to seek out and find a place for in their growing civilization.

Animals for riding and transport! The twins had never considered such a thing, but the Ancients found some of their four-legged creations perfect for the task. An animal prized for the textile use of its fur? How novel! Soon fur and wool shone in a dozen different colors. The leaves of one bush happened to produce a bittersweet medicine when brewed in boiling water that soothed lethargy and fatigue, and the Twins embraced the medicinal applications of their creations, hiding hundreds of fascinating medicinal effects in their plants. The more they created, the more the Ancients discovered within their creations - meaning and purpose the Twins had never even considered. The ultimate joy of the artist is to inspire their audience, and the Twins were reveling in this newfound glory. Adventurous mortals sought them out to request specific tools - animals with useful traits, plants with specific medicinal purposes - and the Twins eagerly obliged, hiding their commissioned answer somewhere in their blossoming ecosystem for the mortal to find. Even some humans and elves were rumored to have braved the wild and hostile surface to petition The Twins.

This first age of creation ended with an incident The Twins refuse to recount that took place on an uninhabited continent. The theories suggest that The Twins accidentally created some form of apex predator that destroyed the precious ecosystem they’d crafted for it and threatened catastrophe beyond, and for the first time in their existence were forced to unmake something. It sobered them somewhat, and since then they restricted themselves to carefully hidden and isolated lifewells for their work.

Before the Ancients fell, the Twins had begun branching out, creating more unique and experimental creatures. The first dragons took flight, and mysterious leviathans shifted in the deep ocean. Hidden in lifewells, most new species of The Twins are total mysteries until noticed in the wild by some highly observant scholar - a brand new species of flower, a never-before-seen bird, even some uniquely deadly predators have been credited as creations of the Twins, who do not always have the needs of the Three Elder Races paramount in their minds.

[diavolodigitale]

The Hitchhiker's Guide to Andromeda Galaxy - pt.3 Havarl

Oof, the chapters are getting longer as it always happens with me. This one, I think, is significantly better than the previous ones if we don’t consider the lame beginning ahahah

Genres: comedy, romance (vaguely), friendship maybe, some philosophy? I really don’t know what to call that.

Pairing: m!Ryder/Evfra

Characters: Ryder, Evfra, Vetra, Jaal

Rating: PG

Size: around 9 pages

Pt.1 - Pt.2 - Pt.3 - Pt.4 ----- All chapters in PDF

       The weather on Havarl was as foggy and gloomy as always. High humidity made it hot and stuffy, so at times Ryder found it hard to breathe, wearing his full set of armor and carrying around all the weapons. The squelching of wet leaves and grass could be heard behind him as his companions made their way forward.

       “I heard that Evrfa is now on Havarl as well,” mentioned Jaal, stepping over a peculiar looking mushroom.

       “I thought he never leaves his sanctuary. Hard to imagine him doing something else besides work,” commented Vetra and proceeded adjusted her rifle so that it didn’t impede her movements.

       Ryder coughed a few times. They were already a few steps away from the research facilities.

       “The Resistance operates on many planets. We need to control the Roekaar activity here, so regular investigations on Havarl are no exceptions,” said Jaal.

       Vetra sighed.

       “Isn’t it crazy how the Resistance grew?” she began somewhat excitedly. “I’ve heard rumors that it used to be just a bunch of small groups of angara fighting off kett. And now you have a complex and highly flexible organization controlling most of the galaxy!”

       “Indeed,” agreed Jaal. “What Evfra did to bring them all together is unimaginable. Even if his approach and methods aren’t unanimously accepted between the angara, his achievements are irrefutable.” Jaal stopped and took a long look at the cloudy dark sky.

       “You seem so fascinated by him and his work,” noted Ryder, giving Jaal a light pat on the back.

       “I respect him, yes. The decisions he has to make every day are a tough burden to carry on your own,”—Jaal took a deep breath, lowered his head and continued—“although, considering he thinks of me as his best soldier, he could have bestowed upon me an unrestricted freedom of choice in any situations.”

       “And a better rank?” asked Ryder, giving the angara a friendly understanding smile.

       “Undoubtedly,” agreed Jaal and nodded.

Vetra checked the time on her omni-tool and looked around to make sure they arrived at the right place.

       “Okay, I’ve got to leave you now. See you here exactly in three hours,” she said. “And no being late. Especially it applies to you, Ryder. Nobody will let us back on the ship without the Pathfinder,” she added strictly.

       “And here I started to think that you really worry about me,” replied Ryder in a sad voice.

       “My mothers always worry about you if that makes you feel better,” said Jaal in a sincere attempt to comfort him.

       “Yes, Jaal, this is exactly what I needed to hear.”

       Jaal headed to one of the local ships stationed on the landing area. He intended to visit his family since the vault on Havarl had just been activated, and the crew of the Tempest had some time to consider their subsequent steps in raising the viability of the planet. Besides, it was a good opportunity to just hang around and have some alone time since always being under pressure and not having enough time for themselves could lead to unwanted aftermath in terms of physical and psychological health, and nobody wanted that, especially being hundreds of years far from home.

      Vetra disappeared in the dense forests, heading in the unknown direction with the unknown purpose. She refused to let the Pathfinder know about her business on the planet, but he reckoned it had something to do with illegal shipments. Nothing special, your usual smuggler stuff.

      And Ryder… Well, he simply made up a reason to come. He had some data waiting to be transferred to the angaran scientist here on Havarl, but it surely wouldn’t take him three hours to do that. Usually, he tried to spend every free minute doing something productive and important, but after rescuing the whole planet it would be fair to give his team and himself a little rest. Unofficially, of course.  

       He decided to spend some time talking to the local researchers. The angaran history and culture was so foreign, yet seemed so captivating to him. Of course, humans already went through the phase of first contact with other races, but nobody had seemed so distant till this moment. Nothing here reminded him of familiar worlds, and it was simply riveting.

      Most of the scientists were happy to share what they knew and even more happy to listen to the information he could provide them with. Despite that, some still preferred to stay away from strangers like the Pathfinder. Their distrust could easily be explained by the strong influence of the Roekaar on this planet. Being here, Ryder was content simply with the fact that nobody tried to shoot him on sight only because of him being an alien.

       Having left the safety of the research station behind, he strolled into dense jungles that covered major part of the planet. He didn’t have any particular purpose in mind apart from exploring a bit while he still had the time.

      Due to the abundance of wildlife, it was practically impossible to take a good look around without being in constant fear for your life, so Ryder tried to approach his expedition with caution.

       “Pathfinder, I detect motion in the bushes in front of you. There appear to be two lifeforms engaged in a fight. Be vigilant,” warned him the voice in his head.

       Trusting SAM unconditionally, Ryder turned on tactical vision on his helmet and indeed saw two figures, one of which looked like an angara, and the other one reminded some kind of an animal, most likely a Challyrion, judging by the silhouette. Recalling reports about unnatural mutations which animals on Havarl had undergone, Ryder took out his shotgun, ready both for fight and flight.

With a sharp motion of his hand, he removed the leaves blocking his field of vision only to see Evfra holding a giant beast by its neck. Startled by Pathfinder’s sudden appearance, he got distracted from the animal, which indeed turned out to be a Challyrion, and it managed to break free and go invisible.  

       “Sorry?” mumbled Ryder, still standing with his shotgun drawn out.

       “Hide your weapon”—Evfra shook off bits of non-existent dust from his clothes—“or you might hurt yourself.”

       Ryder removed his weapon back to the holster and took off his helmet, panting. He rubbed his forehead, trying to wipe away the sweat, but instead leaving a dark line from his dirty glove.

       “What are you d—”

       Evfra interrupted Ryder and made a gesture with his hand for the Pathfinder to follow him. “It is best if we don’t stand here. It may have fled now, but it will soon come back with all its pack.”

       “Seems like we meet awfully often lately,” commented Ryder, following Evfra.

       “Yes, unfortunately,” grunted Evfra.  

       “Really, what were the odds that I’d stumble upon you here when you are on another mission.”

       Ryder tried to keep up with Evfra’s pace, even though it was quite challenging for him. The heat made it hard to breathe and the fact that he didn’t know the surroundings didn’t help either. The Resistance leader, it seemed, knew every tree and every winding of the path, while Ryder stumbled and bumped into everything.

       “Actually, it is my day off,” stated Evfra indifferently.

       “Visiting your family?”

       “I have no family to visit,” without hesitation said the angara with voice still clear and unshaken.

       “Oh… I didn’t… I mean, Jaal came here to see his family, so I just assumed…” Ryder apologetically lowered his head. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to.” He cleared his throat.

       “You didn’t kidnap them, so you have nothing to be sorry for.”

       “Did kett do it?” asked Ryder carefully.

       “There was nobody else to do it. Angara are in no habit of harming their own kind.”

       “Is that why you decided to join the Resistance?” asked Ryder. Actually, this particular question was something that had interested him for a long time.

       “That is why I decided to lead it,” answered Evfra, without giving it a second thought.

       “Seems like we have something in common.”

       Evfra hemmed. He could not see a single thing they had in common.

       “Don’t be so skeptical,” said Ryder, noticing his reaction. “I lost my mom 600 years ago and my dad… Let’s just say, he was supposed to be the Pathfinder, not me.”

       “Jaal mentioned you have a sister.” Evfra began walking more slowly, trying to adjust to Ryder’s speed.

       “Yeah,” simply replied Ryder.

       “And where is she know?” continued Evfra, sensing something must be wrong with this topic.

      “Lying in the cryo pod on the Nexus, waiting until I find at least one place appropriate for a new beginning of a human race.” Ryder stopped in front of a massive tree with long crooked branches. He took off his glove to feel its gnarled desiccated texture. “You know, being in a coma, she now talks even less than you. Really doesn’t provide much moral support, huh?”

       Evfra watched the Pathfinder stand before the tree, illuminated by the bluish light emitted by plants endemic to this planet. The facial expression the Pathfinder had reminded him of that one James showed on Kadara when hearing his careless remark about other human Pathfinders.

      Unlike humans, angara not only expressed their emotions freely, but were also able to sense true feelings of others, even in spite of poor manifestation. Evfra mostly expressed anger, impatience and persistence, but that didn’t mean he didn’t know the other ones.

      Misery, despair, grief. He had seen it all long before.

      Not being a master of leading fruitful conversations, he tried to change the topic as best as he could.

      “Was it beautiful on Earth?” he asked, seemingly genuinely interested.

      Ryder made an effort to pull himself together, put on the glove, and turned his reddened face to Evfra.

      “It was. No matter where you went, all places were different. It took years to discover all things that inhabited it and to understand their purpose. I cannot really do justice describing life on Earth, because it is impossible to turn into words.”

      “It is hard to believe such a place existed.”

      “I hope it still does,” said Ryder, and a faint smile appeared on his face. “Being here, sometimes I like to imagine returning to Earth and seeing how everything has changed.”

      “You have already been to some “golden worlds”, as you call them, in our cluster. Did you like any of them?”

      “Well, most of them don’t look the way we expected…”—Ryder rubbed his nose clumsily and gave Evfra another barely noticeable smile—“but even if we imagine that they are habitable… I don’t know. I just don’t think I’ll ever see the place that’s able to make me feel the same way Earth did.”

      “Really?”—some kind of playful air appeared around Evfra; Ryder had never seen him like that before—“Follow me then.”

      James didn’t understand the sudden change, but decided to give in to this strange challenge. He followed Evfra closely, carefully stepping over weird plants and avoiding curious insects hitting him right into his face after approaching way too close. This time the tempo of their walk wasn’t as fast, so it was easier for him to follow.

      They didn’t say a word, but this silence was not at all burdening. Ryder listened to how the wilderness sounded, observed how the Havarl jungles lived and transformed in real time. They didn’t look like anything he had ever seen before yet felt so intimate and not at all threatening, even though they should have.

       Ryder was thinking about how he could prolong this moment and never come back to the Tempest, when they approached an enormous dark wall. It was part of the remnant construction, the likes of which were scattered all around the planet. The cracks in it were glowing with blue and turquoise light, adding to the gleam created by fluorescent plants and fungi.

       “Ready for a quick climb?” asked Evfra the dumbfounded Pathfinder.

       “Only if there’s a safe way down,” said Ryder, although intending to climb up there anyway. It wasn’t every day that he got the opportunity to experience something Evfra willingly wanted to share.

       Evfra started ascending first, showing where it was better to put a foot or a hand. Ryder watched attentively and repeated every step.

      The remnant constructs were as solid and firm as they could be, so there was almost no chance something would collapse under him. Getting used to the overall rhythm of their movements, he began finding his own way up, climbing differently from Evfra.

      Repetitive actions made him dive deep into his thoughts about the remnants and the role they played in the survival of this planet. He couldn’t grasp even the smallest impact they really had on the history and development of life here, and it scared him. Facing such a strong and incomprehensible force made him doubt his most significant success as well as the future of his endeavors.  

       Engulfed into his reflections, Ryder didn’t notice one piece of the construct that was about to fall out and grabbed it. His hand slipped, weighed down by the piece now detached from the wall.

As soon as Evfra heard rustling and swarming under him, he looked down only to see Ryder pathetically hanging on one hand.

       “There is no rest beside you,” he sighed and lowered himself to grab Ryder by his loose arm and pull him up.

       “Thanks,” mumbled the Pathfinder ablush. It really bugged him that whatever he did in front of Evfra led to him embarrassing himself.

       “We are not far, hold on for a little longer.” Evfra’s voice almost sounded comforting and Ryder though that it was unusual for him to be like that.

       After a few more minutes of climbing, they finally reached the top of the construct. Evfra made it up first and offered the Pathfinder his hand once again. Ryder did not attempt to refuse.

       “If you wanted to show me the view from above, we could have just used the Mithrava Ascent,” stated Ryder, overcoming the last obstacle while tightly gripping Evfra’s hand. Having to experience such a treacherous way up, he now wanted to complain a bit to feel better.

       “It is not quite the same. The fog at Mithrava makes it hard to see the real picture. Here the horizon is clear and… there is not a single soul.”

       Red and inhaling jerkily, Ryder got down on his knees to give some rest to his tired limbs and to catch his breath.

       “Take a look,” said Evfra, taking a seat beside Ryder.

       James gazed up slowly and got lost in the open skies. He saw hundreds of stars gleaming through semi-transparent clouds and a huge red Gas Giant taking up a great part of the horizon. It seemed like beyond those starts and clouds he could see other clusters, other galaxies yet unnamed and undiscovered. Beneath the skies lied a sea of trees, living and breathing, the leaves of which whispered in the wind. Dark and bottomless, it reflected the lights of the stars in the glistening surface of plants. From the height he was on, they reminded James of fireflies.

       A strong blow of wind cooled his heated face and made a mess of his short hair. He inhaled calmly, taking his time to fill the lungs with fresh night air, and exhaled. Now there was no place in his mind for the Tempest, for colonies, outposts, and diplomatic fuss. No place for exiles, kett, and all the people they have lost.

       “Here you can pray to your gods. Even if they stayed in your homeworld, they will still hearken,” uttered Evfra under his breath.

       James looked at the other remnant constructs and monoliths towering in the distance. He did not know whom to pray. Everything here was created by someone, but he was alien to this place. For him, there were no gods and no masters, only a vague purpose ahead, unshaped and remote. Far from home, he did not know what destiny awaited his people, but even though he would constantly carry the responsibility for his whole species, now it did not seem that arduous. Now it became an opportunity to outline his own future, intertwined with his people and many others who depended on him.

       “Is it close to how good you’ve felt on Earth?” asked Evfra, his voice still low and quiet.

       “Not even remotely,” said Ryder, smiling to himself. “It is much, much better.”

       He didn’t know for how long they continued to sit there. Frankly speaking, he did not care. He felt like being there at that moment was much more decisive than fighting off hordes of enemies or planning the next offensive.

       When they finally got down, the dreary overgrown forests of Havarl met them with the same apathetic attitude. Nothing altered down here, all the changes remained at the top of the construct and in Ryder’s mind.

       The leader of the Resistance and the Pathfinder exchanged a few words on their way back to the research station, but overall didn’t talk much. Ryder seemed more composed and reserved than ever.

       Being about fifty meters away from the place Ryder was supposed to meet his teammates at, Evfra looked at him one last time and said, “We are quite similar after all, Ryder,” before going his own way.

       “I already told you, my name is—”

       “I remember, no need to repeat,” he threw negligently over his shoulder without turning around.

       The Pathfinder quickly reached the point of destination and was greeted by peacefully snoring Jaal, who leaned on a nearby wall, and nervous Vetra frantically walking back and forth.

       “What. The hell. Is wrong with you?!” she yelled, approaching him and furiously waving her hand. “Three hours! We had to meet in three hours! Not six! That’s twice as much, Ryder, twice!”

       Jaal suddenly woke up because of Vetra’s wailing and rubbed his eyes.

       “Oh, Ryder, finally. Vetra already wanted to go look for you, but I assured her that if you’re lost in the Havarl jungle, there’s nothing she can do about it.”

       Being in high spirits, Ryder laughed off all the questions and inquiries and headed in the direction of the Tempest.

       “Come on, guys, let’s get going,” he appealed to his crewmembers. “The next time we’re in Vortex, drinks are on me.”

       “You are just unbearable, do you know that?” asked Vetra. She was still annoyed no matter what he said in his defense.

       “Yeah, I’ve heard that a few times.”

      “Ask Peebee to go with you when you plan on disappearing for a few hours, she definitely won’t worry about you being eaten by a giant Eiroch or kidnapped by the Roekaar. I am sick and tired, so don’t you even come crawling…”

[alarawriting]

52 Project #39: Seista Nikita

Wow, my brain is a sieve lately. I just didn’t notice it was getting to be 5 pm until it was almost 6.

I wrote this story originally in senior year of high school, in a college creative writing course. Even if your political views don’t change over time, the culture around them does. The Culare was a mockery of ridiculous extremes of environmentalism and animal rights, a la PETA and suchlike. I wouldn’t write a story like this nowadays because the pendulum’s gone so far in the other direction, I wouldn’t see that worthy of mockery, even though I still disagree with such extremes as much as I ever did. I am very fond of the trickster heroine, though, so I’m publishing it anyway. It’s kind of a stupid story, but I still think it’s funny. There have been some revisions made, so if you note things that didn’t exist in 1987, that is why.

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

Once upon a time, in a distant province that never appeared on any map, probably because either a. it was too small to bother with or b. someone bribed the mapmaker, or possibly both, an evil beast called the Culare reigned. (It was pronounced like “Cool air”, but if anyone tried to spell it that way, the Culare would eat them.) Some said the Culare was an experimental mutation; others, an ecologist gone mad. The Culare was an intelligent lion-like being with teleportation powers who took the concept of “protecting the environment” to a degree so ludicrous, not even the most extreme environmentalist would support it. He refused to let the human beings in his province harm the native wildlife by picking it or killing it. That would have been reasonable, but he also wouldn’t let people pick anything they planted themselves, even on their own property. If the plant in question was native, he wouldn’t let them harvest it, and if it wasn’t, he wouldn’t even let people plant it, claiming it was an invasive species. And of course he wouldn’t allow anyone to raise animals for food. Not even unfertilized chicken eggs. (He also took a dim view of the cellophane wrapper industry.)

If people wanted to eat meat, they had to find roadkill, or something that had been killed by another predator. The problem was that the Culare thought that “protecting nature” meant preventing predators of any kind from killing other animals… which meant there were very few animals who’d died of anything other than starvation or disease as their populations exploded. If they wanted to eat vegetables or fruits, people had to find things that were lying around on the ground.  In the beginning of the Culare’s reign, there had been shipments from other countries of rice, and bacon, and potatoes, and tomatoes, and whatever else people wanted to eat. But the Culare wouldn’t tolerate ships that consumed fossil fuels coming in to the ports, and the people of the small nation couldn’t pay enough to make it worth sending sailing ships. Also, packaging. If the food came in anything other than packaging made from recycled matter, which would biodegrade, the Culare would eat the people who brought it.

The Culare himself was sustained on sunflower seeds and papaya juice… when he wasn’t consuming errant humans.  

(Some said the whole thing was a scam, giving the Culare an acceptably environmentally correct reason to eat people. None of them said it very loudly, though, or else they never said it more than once.)

One day, an old man who had once worked for a living making cellophane wrappers, and his 20-ish son Harold, were out, searching for rotten apples and fallen nuts to eat. It was hard enough to find such things, when the entire country was desperately trying to find the same things so they wouldn’t starve to death.  It was made even more difficult by the fact that it was springtime. You might think that the reason springtime was an issue was that nothing had had a chance to get ripe enough to fall, and you’d be correct enough.  But the bigger part of the problem was that Harold was in love, with a girl named Seista Nikita, and he seemed to think that he could live entirely off air, sunlight and his love. At least, one would suspect that from how much attention he was not paying to finding food.

The old man finally got ticked off at the way his son was paying next to no attention to the task at hand, and hobbled off.

“At last,” Harold thought. “That old geezer’s gone. Him and his stories about the glorious days of Saran Wrap! I’d much rather sit under a tree and think about Seista.” With that, he sat down under a tree and thought about Seista.

At the height of his romantic musings, he saw a bunch of flowers. “Wouldn’t it be wonderful if I could pick them and give them to Seista,” he thought, ignoring the fact that Seista would probably prefer nearly anything to flowers. Quickly, he looked around. He saw no one. His hand reached out and he plucked the blossoms.

Suddenly there was a burst of acrid smoke, and a huge lion-like beast appeared in front of him, kind of like the Wicked Witch of the West. “The Culare!” Harold babbled, and tried to hide the flowers.

“SLEAZOID,” the Culare rumbled. “WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO THOSE FLOWERS?”

“Well, it was – it was an accident, yeah. I – you see, I, I thought they were looking ill, that’s it, and I tried to lift them up to inspect them. Yeah, that’s it. And – and they accidentally came loose, yeah—”

“FOOLISH SLIMEBUCKET, DO YOU REALLY EXPECT ME TO BELIEVE SUCH A RIDICULOUS STORY?”

“Oh, please don’t eat me!” begged Harold. “I’ll never do it again!”

“THAT’S WHAT THEY ALL SAY. BUT IT ISN’T GOOD FOR ME TO EAT A HEAVY MEAL THIS EARLY IN THE MORNING. I’LL COME BACK FOR YOU AT SUNSET.”

With that, the Culare vanished.

Harold ran straight to Seista Nikita’s house and told her the news. “And so we must be forever separated, beloved,” he said, tears in his eyes. “For I am doomed! At sunset tonight, I am destined to lose my life at the hands of the Culare. The paws? The claws? I’m not sure ‘hands’ is the correct thing to say here…”

Seista sighed. “You would go and do something like this, wouldn’t you? Stop moaning like that, you sound like a dead cow. I’ll kill the Culare for you and save your idiot backside. Okay?”

“Okay,” Harold sniffed.

So Seista Nikita put on her very tall platform shoes. These shoes were easily a foot and a half tall. You wouldn’t think anyone would be able to walk in such shoes, unless maybe they went to clown college and learned how to use stilts. Seista was a very acrobatic and skilled young woman, though, so while she wobbled a bit, she managed to stay upright all the way to the nearest meadow, which was badly overgrown with wildflowers, pokeweed, ground cover plants, and about half a billion tiny mimosa seedlings. She began to pick flowers and toss them into the air.

The Culare appeared. “SLEAZOID!” he boomed.

“Come and get me, shag-face!” Seista yelled, which was a reference to his lion-like mane rather than some sort of rude reference to a private activity. She kicked off her shoes, directly in front of the Culare, and ran. The Culare tried to pursue, but he tripped over her shoes and broke a forepaw.

“Damn,” Seista said, after escaping. “Those shoes were big enough that he should have tripped over them and broken his neck.” The thought occurred to her that perhaps she should have factored in the fact that he had four legs, and therefore had better balance than she’d accounted for. “I’ll just have to think of something else!”

An hour later, after getting into sneakers and sensible clothes, she climbed a tall cherry tree, went up as far as she could before the branches could no longer hold her weight, and began to pick cherry blossoms. It wasn’t long before the Culare appeared. “YOU AGAIN?”

“Nah, nah, nah nyah nah!” Seista taunted.  She was tall and strong and very acrobatic and fairly smart, but she was, admittedly, more than a little childish.

The Culare leapt at the tree and began to climb up. Seista waited until it had almost reached her, then dropped, letting go of the branch she was on… having already checked that there was another branch right below her. From there, she clambered down as fast as she could go. She figured that would hold him until he starved to death; the Culare was obviously a type of cat, and cats are terrible at climbing down trees.

So she went home to Harold, who was watching a Tarzan movie. It was an animated Disney reboot in 3D. “Well, I took care of that problem.”

“Really?” Harold turned, his 3D glasses sliding off his face. “O my beloved, my thanks know no bounds—”

“Skip it.”

A bulletin interrupted the Tarzan movie. “We interrupt this movie for an important bulletin.”  This was impressively implausible, since the movie was on a streaming service and you wouldn’t think anything could break into and interrupt one of those.

The Culare’s face appeared on the television. “SEISTA NIKITA, IF YOU’RE OUT THERE, YOU’RE DEAD!”

Seista stared in shock, as the movie resumed. How had he gotten out of that tree? …oh yeah, he could teleport. She probably should have thought of that.

“I thought you said you took care of it!” Harold whined.

“Shut up, I’m trying to think.” Tarzan swung across the jungle floor on a vine. The 3D was powerful enough that he visibly swung toward Seista, despite the fact that she wasn’t wearing 3D glasses. “Oh! That’s it!”

“What’s it?”

“Harold.” She patted his very handsome cheeks. “I love you dearly but you’re too stupid to know what I’m talking about.”

***

Nearby, there was a ravine, where Seista found a tree on one side. With a very long rope, tied to an upper branch of the tree, and a rock tied to one side of it, she flung the rope to the other side, getting it caught on the other side of a bush. There was a bridge a few hundred feet away; she ran down to it, crossed it, and went back to the bush.

With the rope held in one hand, she picked a dandelion.

The Culare appeared. “THAT’S IT! YOU’RE DEAD!”

As he leapt at her, Seista grabbed the rope and swung to the other side.  The Culare roared and leapt at her, apparently unable to see the cliff through the bush.  It turned out he couldn’t teleport if he was in midair; he fell to his death in the ravine below.

She and Harold were married the next week. Three months after that, Seista left Harold to find herself, and ran away to a country where she worked as a stuntwoman in movies. Harold mooned over her for another month before finding his next true love. Seista herself never married again, having decided that being tied down by romance wasn’t for her… particularly since she seemed to be sexually attracted to idiots. She had many fun and satisfying sexual relationships with people whose stupidity didn’t have to impact her life very much.

[hiddendreamer67]

That’s No Bird

Heyo, we had a few secret sanders who didn’t finish gifts. I stepped in for one of ‘em and here’s the gift I made for @falsehoods-phonated! Thank you for your help friend and I hope you enjoy! <3

Word count: 4,069 words

Summary: The Sanders family has traveled to a quaint abandoned park called OakCrest to camp for the weekend. While older brother Deceit helps set up the tent, Logan traverses the woods and finds... something. An undiscovered type of bird, perhaps? It has to be; after all, there’s no way Logan truly found a fairy. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Aaaaand we’ve arrived! Family fun can officially begin!” 

Logan blinked, pushing off the window where his face had been resting for the past several hours. It seemed as per usual he had become distracted with his own train of thought, as it felt that only a few moments ago his parents had piled up the minivan.

In the seat next to him, Logan’s older brother gave what could be an impressive eye roll. “The term ‘fun’ is subjective. I prefer to catalog my experiences how I please, thanks.”

“Oh so I see you’re feeling pleasant as ever.” Their dad chuckled, but there was a fatherly tone to it that was clearly meant as a warning for Deceit to be on his best behavior- which, unfortunately, can also be subjective.

“Dee, darling, how about you help your father pitch the tent?” Mother, always the negotiator, eased things over as she hopped out of the car. “I’ll begin unpacking the car, Logan can you look for some kindling?”

“Naturally.” Logan left the vehicle as well, eager to stretch his legs. It was common for the Sanders family to take camping excursions in the summer, and this particular venture brought them to a new location known as OakCrest Park.

Logan hummed noncommittally to himself, venturing out into the treeline to collect twigs and sticks for a fire. He took note of his surroundings and began to compare it to other landscapes he had camped at previously. OakCrest seemed rather abandoned, foliage growing abundantly as mother nature reclaimed the space. Perhaps this was a poor sign for business but Logan rather enjoyed the overall appearance. Already he could spot several specimens of plant life that were less common in populated areas.

Wanting to explore further, Logan returned to the campsite to drop off his findings and explain to his mother that he would be back shortly. Logan wasn’t foolish; he knew the rules, sticking to one of the hiking trails going further into the forest even as at times the path would disappear for a few feet. He went further, eager to tune out the sound of his brother and father bickering. 

Yes, this was quite nice. Logan attuned to the forest well, listening in to the various wildlife that called this forest home. In the distance he could hear the familiar hiss of a raccoon, the even cadence of goldfinches nesting in the trees, and…

Logan paused, stopping in his walk to see if he heard correctly. It was uncommon for Logan to hear a creature he couldn’t identify. It sounded almost bell-like in nature, as if the musical note itself was shimmering through the air. 

Focusing on this sound alone, Logan followed the call, hearing its faint tones jabber up and down in an almost comedial manner. He was so entranced that Logan was scarcely aware of his feet leaving the path, or the way the other animals cries grew distant. The young lad stepped into a clearing, a twig snapping beneath his boot.

Immediately, the shimmering noise stopped.

Logan frowned, glancing around at his surroundings for a clue as to what could have produced the noise. It seemed rather ordinary, nothing out of place. No abandoned music box as Logan might have imagined. 

There was the faintest shuffling up above Logan on a branch a few feet to the left. Immediately Logan’s gaze snapped up, trying to make out anything suspicious hidden within the leaves. An undiscovered species of bird, perhaps?

Logan took a slow step forwards, and the leaf pile seemed to explode. All at once they came tumbling down upon him, startling Logan enough that he almost missed the single high-note bell tone as a purple being shot out from the foliage and into the air.

It was a moment, nothing more. Logan glanced up at the creature, his jaw dropping as his eyes tried to process the sight before him. A pair of purple wings beating frantically not unlike a hummingbird, and between them… a tiny person. Surely not a person, but enough like a person that it gave Logan quite a fright as those beady eyes briefly pierced into his soul. 

And then, the creature was gone.

“Wait!” Logan cried out, reaching his hand out towards the direction where the apparition had fled. Logan spit a few leaves out of his mouth, attempting to follow the flighty thing before realizing he was running after nothing. 

He blinked, rubbing at his eyes. Was it possible some sort of hallucinogen floating through the air had found its way into his air ducts? There was no logical explanation for such a creature existing, and- and clearly his subconsciousness was playing tricks on him.

Logan nodded to himself, walking back towards the path. Yes, that had to be it, a trick of the light. In his fright Logan had seen an optical illusion when all it had been was a… was a…

Well what was it, anyhow? The point still stood that Logan knew of no creature capable of making such an outlandish noise. It sounded as though it came straight from a realm of fantasy and that must be the only explanation why Logan’s mind chose to input a fairy of all things when it must have been a mutation of some form of aerial creature. Perhaps it was a hummingbird with a vocal defection.

“Logan?” Once again Logan was pulled out of his thoughts by his mother’s voice. “Are you alright? You were gone an awfully long time, we had begun to worry.”

“It would have been so tragic had you wandered off into the woods and gotten yourself mauled by a bear.” Unsurprisingly, Deceit’s words did not sound sympathetic.

“I apologize.” Logan said, glancing at the fading beams of sunlight on the horizon. “I lost track of time.” 

“What?” Deceit gasped, placing a hand to his chest. “We never would have guessed. Truly inspiring insight.” Deceit began to clap loudly, standing up as if to applaud his brother. “Praise be to the favorite spawn!”

“Alright, that’s enough.” Mother gave him a brief glare as she prepared a meal for Logan, the others having already eaten.

“What is it with you and favorites?” Father scoffed, glancing up from where he was baiting a fishing line. “Your mother and I love you both equally.”

“Ah, yes.” Deceit sat back down. “And that would be why when you first took me camping you forgot me in the river.”

“I do believe they were justified in that decision.” Logan drawled, glancing up at down his brother’s form.

“Completely unrelated, I do believe Logan and I will be visiting the river tomorrow.” Deceit glared at him.

Their mother was quick to step between them, eager to prevent any rough-housing near the open flames. “Logan, eat. Deceit, stop antagonizing your brother.”

“I am hardly the only antagonist here.” Deceit huffed. “In the American School System I do believe we would both be equally guilty of punishment.”

“Well, you’ve told us multiple times how that system is flawed, so we’re not using it out here.” His mother teased. “Instead we’ll go by good old fashioned rules, like ‘mom is right’.”

“I do believe that was created with some personal bias.” Logan observed.

“I said eat.”

“Since when did we raise such smart-alecs?” Father murmured. 

Thankfully, the rest of the meal passed without further distraction. Logan was quick to scarf down his portions, both boys helping their mother clean up with only minimal complaining before getting into bed.

“You’re taking up two thirds of the tent.” Logan nudged into Deceit’s side, attempting to get his brother to scoot over.

“I earned two-thirds of this tent, I set it up.” Deceit put an arm over his eyes, ready to drift off. “Soon it will be three-thirds. Survival of the fittest. You can go sleep with whatever raccoon kept you so occupied you forgot you’re supposed to be amongst humans again.”

Logan huffed, rolling over to try and get more comfortable. “...it wasn’t a raccoon.”

“Then what was it?” Deceit groaned, clearly uninterested.

Logan paused, quiet for a very long time. “I don’t know.”

Well, that got his brother’s attention. Deceit sat up, raising a suspicious eyebrow that was only visible via the light of their lantern. “You don’t know? There’s a beast alive unrecognizable to the walking encyclopedia?”

“It wasn’t a beast.” Logan frowned at the wall of the tent. He shifted again. “It was- a bird.”

“A bird.” Deceit flopped back onto the ground, jostling Logan. “You got all wound up over a flying pigeon?”

“Why would you refer to it as a flying pigeon?” Logan snapped, getting defensive. ��Pigeons already fly.”

“I bet it wasn’t even a bird.” Deceit continued to mock, not knowing he had just stated Logan’s own fear. “You probably just spooked a flying squirrel. Or a strange beetle. Maybe it didn’t fly at all, it just jumped away so fast your infinitesimal brain couldn’t process it-”

“Oh quit your chattering.” Logan growled. “If you’ll never let me live that mistake down at least do me the decency of letting me sleep.”

But despite his words, Logan seemed incapable of falling asleep even as the lantern light was turned off and the brothers were plunged into darkness. His mind was left racing, trying to comprehend what he might have seen. No matter how logical an explanation Logan was incapable of convincing himself he had not seen a … tiny winged person.

Logan cringed once again at his own unfounded thought. It had not behaved in a typical pattern for a bird- were there other winged creatures that grew violet feathers in this area? Or perhaps it wasn’t feathers at all, but some sort of insect like Deceit had teasingly suggested. Logan knew that, though unlikely one would be so large, insects were known for a variety of strange genetic mutations. Beetles were estimated to take up 25% of all animals on the planet alone; so, statistically, it was entirely possible it had been some strange undiscovered beetle variety. With feather-like appendages and a bipedal humanoid structure. 

While debating internally what characteristics define a beetle, Logan spotted a faint glow in the distance. He hypothesized this was just the lantern light of his father getting up in the night, until the light began to approach. It was then that Logan realized it was floating in a chaotic flight pattern, emanating a violet light. 

Immediately Logan shot up, pressing his glasses to his face as he shoved his boots haphazardly on. There was no reason to assume his specimen was capable of bio-luminescent energy, but even if this was a new creature Logan’s curiosity had been piqued. 

Logan grabbed his phone in case he needed a light source, but for now he unzipped the tent and allowed his eyes to adjust to the darkness. The violet blur was zipping around so fast Logan couldn’t get a good look. Logan jumped, startled as there was a clattering sound, one of the cans of bug spray knocked from the table.

It seemed this flying blur was either looking for something or just wanted to destroy as much as possible. Both motives were unclear, and until Logan could tell if it was dangerous, he armed himself with the spray and crouched down, quickly moving closer to the scene of the crime. 

Logan uncapped the spray, the noise startling the light as it gave another high-pitched note, in the same tones as the mysterious forest noise. A rapid set of jabbering followed as the being flew closer, and he got the distinct impression that the tiny creature was telling him off. Squinting in the blinding light, Logan aimed solely by instinct as he raised the can and pushed the nozzle. 

The jabbering increased, but then grew less and less frantic as the movements slowed down, the light dimming. Now Logan could make out the figure drifting in the evening breeze. This time there was no disputing it- there was indeed a tiny, confused humanoid creature floating in the night, its shadowy figure outlined in a faint purple glow. It shook its head, stumbling in its path as it tried to retreat away from Logan.

“Oh no you don’t.” Logan turned on his phone light, hurriedly trying to find a container suitable for catching the creature. It couldn’t get away, not now when he had such a great shot. With every second Logan was feeling his chance slipping away, the violet light losing altitude as it tried to dart back towards the forest. Giving up hope of finding anything in the dark, Logan elected to simply sprint after the creature himself.

“Logan?” 

Logan winced, realizing the ruckus had woken some of his family members. He got about three more steps before his mother was awake enough to pull out her patented mom voice.

“LOGAN JAMES SANDERS WHERE DO YOU THINK YOU’RE GOING!”

“I- I don’t have time to explain-” Logan panted, worriedly glancing between his mother and the treeline as his father and brother poked their heads out. 

“You sure as hell do, young man.” His father was just as livid, looking like an angry papa bear awoken early from hibernation. “What sort of asinine compulsion has given you the right to trash the campsite in the middle of the night?”

“This was hardly my doing, I swear-”

“Were you about to run off into the woods?” His mother gasped, rushing over to inspect his face. “Logan, what on earth were you thinking? Do you have any idea how dangerous that would have been?”

“Oh of course he did.” Father growled, stomping forwards. “He’s certainly got a big head on his shoulders, he just doesn’t know how to use it!”

Logan bit his lip, wondering how he could possibly explain his irrational and admittedly foolish behavior without his parents believing he had gone insane. He opened his mouth not unlike a fish, trying to find words that would portray his sanity without being utter falsehoods.

It seemed, for once in his life, Deceit decided to act as a proper older brother should. He burst out in an evil chuckle, drawing attention towards himself and away from Logan. 

“Wow.” Deceit pretended to wipe away a tear, the lantern illuminating the bottom of his chin in an ominous manner. “Didn’t think I could still get lil’ Logie with a dare of all things. What happened to bravery is the fool’s term for idiocy?”

“You dared him to do this?” If anything, their mother’s gaze turned fatally livid. 

Their father stormed up to Deceit, sticking his finger in his son’s face. “You have some nerve, taking advantage of your brother like that! What sort of sick stunt are you pulling, throwing your brother into danger like that-”

“I hardly threw him into danger.” Deceit cut him off with a glare. “He’s the one who acted on it!”

“Yes, indeed.” Mother turned back to Logan, nullifying any chance of Logan sneaking off into the night. “What the devil were you thinking, going along with your brother’s ridiculous notions? I expect at least one of you to possess some common sense.”

“I suppose you just have to lower your expectations.” Deceit shrugged, clearly possessing a death wish. “It sounds to me that the issue lies more with your tendency towards assumptions than your children’s moral compasses leaning further to the side than you would prefer.”

If there had been any chance of a peaceful night in the tents, Deceit’s last comment had hopelessly shattered it. Both boys were dragged by their ears to go sit on a log near the burnt out embers, their parents taking turns scolding them ‘till their voices were hoarse from use. It was clear that the stress of the late hours was weighing heavily on the family’s mood. Logan properly ducked his head in shame, hoping this would be over with quickly.

Deceit raised an eyebrow once they both seemed to be panting for breath. “Are we done here?” He cocked his head, not waiting for an answer when he heard a rumble of thunder in the distance. “Ah, sounds like we are. I suppose our punishment is leaving our camping trip early?”

Their father’s glare narrowed. “Has that been your game all along? You just want to get home to that ratty boyfriend of yours?”

Deceit shrugged. “I have a feeling you don’t care for my answer.”

“We talked about this.” Their mother sounded almost pleading. “It’s supposed to be a family fun weekend!”

“Yes, family fun.” Deceit mocked. “What a joyous time we’re sure to have in the impending rain.”

No! Logan felt his stress increasing, wondering how on earth he could possibly leave when there was still a discovery waiting somewhere in the woods.

“No.” Their father paced back and forth, in full lecture dad mode. “No, here’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to head back into those tents and get some rest. We’re going to wake up, have a nice breakfast, and spend a weekend roughing it as a family as intended.”

Mother nodded rapidly. “Yes, yes, we could all do with a bit of rest. I think a recharge will do us well.”

“...Fine.” Deceit stood up, heading back to their tent. “Can’t wait to be drenched.” 

“Goodnight to you as well.” Father called out.

Logan stood next, knowing that by now the fairy- the creature was likely long gone. It wouldn’t be worth risking further anger tonight. “I apologize for my behavior.”

His mother gave him a soft nod. “Go to bed, Logan.”

Without another word Logan entered the tent shared with his brother, collapsing into his part as he removed his boots. He sighed, staring up at the darkened tent ceiling and trying to process all that occurred.

“...why did you lie?” Logan asked finally, still laying on his back with his eyes open. “Why did you tell them you dared me to misbehave?” 

“You were chasing after your bird, weren’t you?” Deceit answered with his own question. 

“...Yes?” Logan was only more confused.

“I figured as much.” Deceit’s shadow shifted in the darkness. “You’re lucky I bought you more time, they were ready to send us packing. It better be some bird.”

“I suspect it’s not a bird at all.” Logan murmured. “But why are you helping me?”

“Wouldn’t you like to know.” Deceit’s voice was muffled by him putting his face into his pillow.

“Well, yes, that is why I inquired-”

“Look.” Deceit sat up, likely glaring at him. “Here’s what’s gonna happen. Tomorrow morning, you’re gonna go try and catch that thing, and you owe me about a dozen favors. Now pipe down before I knock your teeth out, some of us still want to sleep before we get rained out.”

Deceit had always been a bit cryptic in his responses, and wanting to survive Logan decided to keep his mouth shut. Instead he tried to get some sleep of his own, tossing and turning until Deceit kicked him into the side of the tent. It was a fruitless endeavor, especially when the rain began pouring down creating a cacophony of noise as it pounded against the roof of the tent. 

Finally, after what felt like a miniature eternity, it began to grow lighter outside. Logan took this as a good enough sign to get up, lacing his boots tightly and throwing on a dark green plastic poncho. This time he packed a waterproof flashlight as his light source, just in case, and exited the tent. Immediately his glasses got splattered with raindrops, making vision a bit difficult as he scoured the campsite. It was still a bit of a mess, the fairy having thrown several items around in its temper tantrum. Thankfully Logan was able to find the jar he required easily enough.

One last cautious glance back, and then Logan was trekking out into the forest. He wasn’t exactly certain what to look for so he opted to head back towards the clearing, listening closely for another taste of that twinkling voice. 

He began to fantasize about what would happen if he did manage to catch a fairy. What would this mean for the biological community? How does one even go about presenting such a finding? He’d have to find a way to sustain it- what do fairies need to survive? What do they eat? Hopefully nothing too gnarly. Now Logan was wishing he had paid more attention whenever Roman yammered on about fairy tales. 

Logan paused, trying to figure out if he had heard those bell tones or merely imagined them. It was a quiet noise, with a trembling not unlike a vibrato. He tried to follow it, getting turned around more than once as the rain drowned out the fragile voice. Eventually Logan seemed to have narrowed it down to the base of an old oak tree, where a small bush was trembling more than was strictly necessary in this wind.

Logan crouched down, parting the branches. Sure enough, sat at the base of the tree was the purple fairy, shivering frantically. Without wasting a moment Logan slammed his jar down, watching as the creature flinched when captured. 

“Incredible.” Logan murmured, getting his first real observations as he ducked down further. The fairy had stumbled to its feet, pounding on the glass as if it could make a difference. Logan could hear the sporadic bells going off, its wings drooping significantly. It appeared half-drowned as well, and Logan hypothesized that the rain had grounded the creature. 

As Logan grew used to the being’s appearance, he took notice of its actions. The fairy was stumbling about, clasping at its hair not unlike a human who was experiencing an extreme existential crisis. Logan frowned, trying to make sense of what exactly was happening. Why had the fairy attacked camp? Is that why so few humans visited this park nowadays? But now the creature just looked terribly frightened. It must be a defense mechanism, the creature clearly territorial.

Had it been caught by a human before? Was it dangerous? It was possible that the fairy was just trying to get Logan to lower his guard, releasing him to either escape or worse yet attack Logan. Surely such a small creature would possess some form of self-defense, perhaps a poisonous bite or infectious claws. 

Looming even closer, Logan was able to make out the glazed look of those panicked eyes. It was possible the spray from last night had weakened the creature, allowing it to only travel this far into the woods before being caught by the storm. Perhaps a few effects were still lingering. Could it be sick? Rabid? Did it possess any sentience? It was hard to tell if the bell-voice was as complex as human languages, or just another songbird tune. 

But no matter the complexity of its thoughts, it was clear the fairy was… suffering. It was scared in a new situation, trapped by both the elements and Logan himself, and it was incapacitated. What was the ethical route here? Would it hurt the fairy further to take him back to camp? As he delayed his decision, the fairy sunk further and further to the ground, its little chest heaving as it wrapped its arms around itself and tried feebly to calm and warm itself.

“You’re freezing.” Logan realized, wondering if it could even understand him. The fairy’s head snapped back, once again tracking Logan’s every move. “I imagine your habitat is further into the forest, and without proper shelter… well, I imagine a great many predators would take advantage of you when grounded.”

The fairy shuddered, though it was unclear if this was in response to Logan’s statement or another bout of cold. 

Logan nodded to himself, agreeing with his own reasoning. It would be cruel to leave this creature so defenseless when he had been a major component in disarming it in the first place. Logan would take it back to camp, explaining himself to his family. Then he would help the fairy recover, warming it up and calming it down. 

His mind made up, Logan carefully flipped over the jar and slid the lid in place. The fairy let out another round of frantic jingling as it was tumbled about inside. 

“It’s alright.” Logan murmured, hoping his low tones would come off as less threatening as he stood up. “I’ve got you now.”

[thegrandimago]

As habitat and biodiversity loss increase globally, the coronavirus outbreak may be just the beginning of mass pandemics

Mayibout 2 is not a healthy place. The 150 or so people who live in the village, which sits on the south bank of the Ivindo River, deep in the great Minkebe Forest in northern Gabon, are used to occasional bouts of diseases such as malaria, dengue, yellow fever and sleeping sickness. Mostly they shrug them off.

But in January 1996, Ebola, a deadly virus then barely known to humans, unexpectedly spilled out of the forest in a wave of small epidemics. The disease killed 21 of 37 villagers who were reported to have been infected, including a number who had carried, skinned, chopped or eaten a chimpanzee from the nearby forest.

I travelled to Mayibout 2 in 2004 to investigate why deadly diseases new to humans were emerging from biodiversity “hotspots” such as tropical rainforests and bushmeat markets in African and Asian cities.

It took a day by canoe and then many hours along degraded forest logging roads, passing Baka villages and a small goldmine, to reach the village. There, I found traumatised people still fearful that the deadly virus, which kills up to 90% of the people it infects, would return.

Villagers told me how children had gone into the forest with dogs that had killed the chimp. They said that everyone who cooked or ate it got a terrible fever within a few hours. Some died immediately, while others were taken down the river to hospital. A few, like Nesto Bematsick, recovered. “We used to love the forest, now we fear it,” he told me. Many of Bematsick’s family members died.

Only a decade or two ago it was widely thought that tropical forests and intact natural environments teeming with exotic wildlife threatened humans by harbouring the viruses and pathogens that lead to new diseases in humans such as Ebola, HIV and dengue.

But a number of researchers today think that it is actually humanity’s destruction of biodiversity that creates the conditions for new viruses and diseases such as Covid-19, the viral disease that emerged in China in December 2019, to arise – with profound health and economic impacts in rich and poor countries alike. In fact, a new discipline, planetary health, is emerging that focuses on the increasingly visible connections between the wellbeing of humans, other living things and entire ecosystems.

Is it possible, then, that it was human activity, such as road building, mining, hunting and logging, that triggered the Ebola epidemics in Mayibout 2 and elsewhere in the 1990s and that is unleashing new terrors today?

“We invade tropical forests and other wild landscapes, which harbour so many species of animals and plants – and within those creatures, so many unknown viruses,” David Quammen, author of Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Pandemic, recently wrote in the New York Times. “We cut the trees; we kill the animals or cage them and send them to markets. We disrupt ecosystems, and we shake viruses loose from their natural hosts. When that happens, they need a new host. Often, we are it.”

Increasing threat

Research suggests that outbreaks of animal-borne and other infectious diseases such as Ebola, Sars, bird flu and now Covid-19, caused by a novel coronavirus, are on the rise. Pathogens are crossing from animals to humans, and many are able to spread quickly to new places. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that three-quarters of new or emerging diseases that infect humans originate in animals.

Some, like rabies and plague, crossed from animals centuries ago. Others, such as Marburg, which is thought to be transmitted by bats, are still rare. A few, like Covid-19, which emerged last year in Wuhan, China, and Mers, which is linked to camels in the Middle East, are new to humans and spreading globally.

Other diseases that have crossed into humans include Lassa fever, which was first identified in 1969 in Nigeria; Nipah from Malaysia; and Sars from China, which killed more than 700 people and travelled to 30 countries in 2002–03. Some, like Zika and West Nile virus, which emerged in Africa, have mutated and become established on other continents.

Kate Jones, chair of ecology and biodiversity at UCL, calls emerging animal-borne infectious diseases an “increasing and very significant threat to global health, security and economies”.

Amplification effect

In 2008, Jones and a team of researchers identified 335 diseases that emerged between 1960 and 2004, at least 60% of which came from animals.

Increasingly, says Jones, these zoonotic diseases are linked to environmental change and human behaviour. The disruption of pristine forests driven by logging, mining, road building through remote places, rapid urbanisation and population growth is bringing people into closer contact with animal species they may never have been near before, she says.

The resulting transmission of disease from wildlife to humans, she says, is now “a hidden cost of human economic development. There are just so many more of us, in every environment. We are going into largely undisturbed places and being exposed more and more. We are creating habitats where viruses are transmitted more easily, and then we are surprised that we have new ones.”

Jones studies how changes in land use contribute to the risk. “We are researching how species in degraded habitats are likely to carry more viruses which can infect humans,” she says. “Simpler systems get an amplification effect. Destroy landscapes, and the species you are left with are the ones humans get the diseases from.”

“There are countless pathogens out there continuing to evolve which at some point could pose a threat to humans,” says Eric Fevre, chair of veterinary infectious diseases at the University of Liverpool’s Institute of Infection and Global Health. “The risk [of pathogens jumping from animals to humans] has always been there.”

The difference between now and a few decades ago, Fevre says, is that diseases are likely to spring up in both urban and natural environments. “We have created densely packed populations where alongside us are bats and rodents and birds, pets and other living things. That creates intense interaction and opportunities for things to move from species to species,” he says.

Tip of the iceberg

“Pathogens do not respect species boundaries,” says disease ecologist Thomas Gillespie, an associate professor in Emory University’s Department of Environmental Sciences, who studies how shrinking natural habitats and changing behaviour add to the risk of diseases spilling over from animals to humans.

“I am not at all surprised about the coronavirus outbreak,” he says. “The majority of pathogens are still to be discovered. We are at the very tip of the iceberg.”

Humans, says Gillespie, are creating the conditions for the spread of diseases by reducing the natural barriers between host animals – in which the virus is naturally circulating – and themselves. “We fully expect the arrival of pandemic influenza; we can expect large-scale human mortalities; we can expect other pathogens with other impacts. A disease like Ebola is not easily spread. But something with a mortality rate of Ebola spread by something like measles would be catastrophic,” Gillespie says.

Wildlife everywhere is being put under more stress, he says. “Major landscape changes are causing animals to lose habitats, which means species become crowded together and also come into greater contact with humans. Species that survive change are now moving and mixing with different animals and with humans.”

Gillespie sees this in the US, where suburbs fragment forests and raise the risk of humans contracting Lyme disease. “Altering the ecosystem affects the complex cycle of the Lyme pathogen. People living close by are more likely to get bitten by a tick carrying Lyme bacteria,” he says.

Yet human health research seldom considers the surrounding natural ecosystems, says Richard Ostfeld, distinguished senior scientist at the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies in Millbrook, New York. He and others are developing the emerging discipline of planetary health, which looks at the links between human and ecosystem health.

“There’s misapprehension among scientists and the public that natural ecosystems are the source of threats to ourselves. It’s a mistake. Nature poses threats, it is true, but it’s human activities that do the real damage. The health risks in a natural environment can be made much worse when we interfere with it,” he says.

Ostfeld points to rats and bats, which are strongly linked with the direct and indirect spread of zoonotic diseases. “Rodents and some bats thrive when we disrupt natural habitats. They are the most likely to promote transmissions [of pathogens]. The more we disturb the forests and habitats the more danger we are in,” he says.

Felicia Keesing, professor of biology at Bard College, New York, studies how environmental changes influence the probability that humans will be exposed to infectious diseases. “When we erode biodiversity, we see a proliferation of the species most likely to transmit newdiseases to us, but there’s also good evidence that those same species are the best hosts for existing diseases,” she wrote in an email to Ensia, the nonprofit media outlet that reports on our changing planet.

The market connection

Disease ecologists argue that viruses and other pathogens are also likely to move from animals to humans in the many informal markets that have sprung up to provide fresh meat to fast-growing urban populations around the world. Here, animals are slaughtered, cut up and sold on the spot.

The “wet market” (one that sells fresh produce and meat) in Wuhan, thought by the Chinese government to be the starting point of the current Covid-19 pandemic, was known to sell numerous wild animals, including live wolf pups, salamanders, crocodiles, scorpions, rats, squirrels, foxes, civets and turtles.

Equally, urban markets in west and central Africa sell monkeys, bats, rats, and dozens of species of bird, mammal, insect and rodent slaughtered and sold close to open refuse dumps and with no drainage.

“Wet markets make a perfect storm for cross-species transmission of pathogens,” says Gillespie. “Whenever you have novel interactions with a range of species in one place, whether that is in a natural environment like a forest or a wet market, you can have a spillover event.”

The Wuhan market, along with others that sell live animals, has been shut by the Chinese authorities, and last month Beijing outlawed the trading and eating of wild animals except for fish and seafood. But bans on live animals being sold in urban areas or informal markets are not the answer, say some scientists.

“The wet market in Lagos is notorious. It’s like a nuclear bomb waiting to happen. But it’s not fair to demonise places which do not have fridges. These traditional markets provide much of the food for Africa and Asia,” says Jones.

“These markets are essential sources of food for hundreds of millions of poor people, and getting rid of them is impossible,” says Delia Grace, a senior epidemiologist and veterinarian with the International Livestock Research Institute, which is based in Nairobi, Kenya. She argues that bans force traders underground, where they may pay less attention to hygiene.

Fevre and colleague Cecilia Tacoli, principal researcher in the human settlements research group at the International Institute of Environment and Development (IIED), argue in a blog post that rather than pointing the finger at wet markets, we should look at the burgeoning trade in wild animals.

“It is wild animals rather than farmed animals that are the natural hosts of many viruses,” they write. “Wet markets are considered part of the informal food trade that is often blamed for contributing to spreading disease. But … evidence shows the link between informal markets and disease is not always so clear cut.”

Changing behaviour

So what, if anything, can we do about all of this?

Jones says that change must come from both rich and poor societies. Demand for wood, minerals and resources from the global north leads to the degraded landscapes and ecological disruption that drives disease, she says. “We must think about global biosecurity, find the weak points and bolster the provision of health care in developing countries. Otherwise we can expect more of the same,” she adds.

“The risks are greater now. They were always present and have been there for generations. It is our interactions with that risk which must be changed,” says Brian Bird, a research virologist at the University of California, Davis School of Veterinary Medicine One Health Institute, where he leads Ebola-related surveillance activities in Sierra Leone and elsewhere.

“We are in an era now of chronic emergency,” Bird says. “Diseases are more likely to travel further and faster than before, which means we must be faster in our responses. It needs investments, change in human behaviour, and it means we must listen to people at community levels.”

Getting the message about pathogens and disease to hunters, loggers, market traders and consumers is key, Bird says. “These spillovers start with one or two people. The solutions start with education and awareness. We must make people aware things are different now. I have learned from working in Sierra Leone with Ebola-affected people that local communities have the hunger and desire to have information,” he says. “They want to know what to do. They want to learn.”

Fevre and Tacoli advocate rethinking urban infrastructure, particularly within low-income and informal settlements. “Short-term efforts are focused on containing the spread of infection,” they write. “The longer term – given that new infectious diseases will likely continue to spread rapidly into and within cities – calls for an overhaul of current approaches to urban planning and development.”

The bottom line, Bird says, is to be prepared. “We can’t predict where the next pandemic will come from, so we need mitigation plans to take into account the worst possible scenarios,” he says. “The only certain thing is that the next one will certainly come.”

This piece is jointly published with Ensia

[wow-thisismylifeiguess]

FF7 - Dust - Prologue

//Lyrics: Dust by The Neighbourhood//

No more water in the lake / No more fish in the ocean / They grew wings, flew away

In the end, it was all for nothing. Sephiroth had succeeded in his destruction of everything, leaving Gaia a decimated mess in which nothing existed in a normal state any longer. Mutations seemed to take over the Planet. She was a ruined amalgamation of simply /mess/. Some parts of the Planet seemed to wither away, consumed by a darkness that was both tangible and not, whilst others flourished in a way that was all encompassing, plants growing at such an alarming rate that it was easy to be dragged in and reduced to nothing more than nutrients. Animals changed in ways that defied all known sciences, fish growing wings, birds developing gills. The state of balance was lost and the hierarchy was overthrown in favor of a free for all, wildlife devouring wildlife with no regard for natural order.

I got a clue where they're going / They want a break / They want a break

It was as if rules no longer pertained to anything at all, breaking free of the mold the Planet had seemingly set in stone, only to see that very stone wither away like it were nothing in the first place. Every living thing had seemingly decided that they wanted a freedom they initially had no way of achieving, and thus, it was like Chaos had become the new normal.

All the lucky ones kept fucking it up

Sephiroth's plan worked, but only to a certain extent. Things didn't quite end up the way he wanted them to and it resulted in the Chaos Gaia was now forced into. The Planet would attempt to heal Herself. Time flowed in no single direction and thus the destruction was witnessed many times, attempts to halt it only resulting in failure, and once again, Chaos.

Threatened our lives, but it wasn't enough / Didn't want to sit down, couldn't listen to 'no'

He was unstoppable in his pursuit of a goal that was impossible from the start. Godhood didn't exist. You could reach for the stars all you wanted, but the only thing that would come from it was a burning brightness that left you scarred and blinded. Sephiroth had already ascended from humanity, but he made them suffer in his attempts to become something more, something greater. My voice was loud, the loudest of everyone who attempted to force him to listen, but nothing came of it. Nothing was strong enough to beat a stubborness fit for someone who believed their worth was beyond that of any other living being.

Body, so everybody went out of control / Thrashing in platinum dust

There were human survivors, of course. Even against someone akin to a mad king, humanity had its own level of stubborness that aided in their never ending battle with the inevitability known as extinction. To fight against inevitability was to drive yourself insane due to the sheer impossibility of ever winning against something that was both an unstoppable force and an immovable object, as abstract and paradoxical as it was. In a Chaos ruled Planet, there was nothing left to do but join in on the disorder. Minds would break, and everything fell away to ruin.

Damage that can't be undone / Tragic falling weapons / They want a break

Regardless of the attempts the Planet made to bring order back to Gaia, nothing worked. It was like this had been the true plan all along, hidden away from the eyes of the Planet Herself, known only by the greater Universe who found humanish's pleasure in watching the destruction of something it could easily create another of. In a useless attempt to protect Herself, the Planet spawned Weapons that were far greater than the ones initially made to fight against Jenova all those years, decades, centuries? ago. Their arrival simply added to the Chaos as it brought the Planet closer to Her final demise, some even developing a level of sentience that resulted in the internalized destruction of Themselves as they came to the conclusion that 'winning' was nothing but a delusional idea.

Everybody went to outer space / The second that the sun exploded

Everything came to a peak. Destruction grew to catastrophic level and the Universe watched as it wrapped its hand around the sun itself squeezed. There was little to no time to process the change. The sun exploded and everything reliant or it's existence was snuffed out. Those who were only human were the first to go, gone in a flash so quick, it was like their existence had been nothing but an illusion the whole time. Those slightly less human, infused with cells that should have never been mixed into the DNA of humanity, lasted just a bit longer. Long enough to watch the sky turn black and then red. Long enough to see the rest of the Planet be engulfed in a five that was so hot, it was like there was no sensation of all. Humanity ceased to be, returning to wherever it came from in the first place.

I'm the only fool that stayed

In the end, the Universe played a cruel trick on me. It left me alive, or at least, in a state of existence so utterly painful and simultaneously painless, there was no way I could be dead, though living wasn't quite the term that could be used to describe the plane of existence I was on. During this time, I could hear the Universe laugh, so proud of Itself for the terror and ruin It had caused, toying around with the Planet like She was nothing more than just a plaything, and Her inhabitants simply pawns in a game of make believe, like the Universe was a child constantly on the edge of boredom, finding new ways to entertain itself. Gaia was gone, eradicated in a way that no miracle could bring Her back, and that had been the Universe's plan all along.

If you've reading this, I wrote it

Earth is so strange. Similar, but utterly different. Nothing is the same, but occasionally, I see something in the corner of my eye that reminds me of a past I should no longer be able to remember. Things feel deceptively peaceful here, even if Earth has its own brand of terrors. However, there's no pull from the Planet. She's gone, and Earth doesn't even come close to the overwhelming entity She used to be. I can feel my memories slip occasionally, and it's almost more terrifying than having witnessed the destruction of an entire timeline. So, I write it down, to remind myself that I'm not insane. I see people I recognize who look at me like I'm familiar to them as well, but they continue walking like I'm nothing but a stranger, and here on Earth, that's exactly what I am. But still, I keep watch over them just because I can. Because it's my job now. The Universe has a twisted sense of humor, because the Demi-Human who strived toward Godhood was reduced to a librarian with too much time as his hands, and the human who strived for peace of normalcy was given a power he in no way wanted. Cloud Strife ceased to exist in the way that people knew him when the Planet died, but not everything about him was erased. Instead, the Universe made him a Guardian. The Universe made me a Guardian. And I'll keep them all safe this time.

[siliquasquama]

COVID-19 and the Epidemiology of Zoonotic Disease in Relationship to Modern Human Industry: Educated Guesses from an Amateur’s Brief Research

Wikipedia's basic description of the SARS-COV-2 says that while bats are the most likely natural reservoir, the genome of the virus as it exists in bats is just different enough from the human strain that there was probably an intermediate host between bats and humans. In other words, the virus probably did not come from people EATING bats, nor purchasing bats from the market, but perhaps it did come from going to the market to purchase bats for eating.

I find Wikipedia's explanation plausible because of an article I read on Chuangchn.org, which asserts that we get epidemics when an expansion of human activity into wild microbial reservoirs allows certain viruses to hit crowded populations with low immunity, be they livestock feedlots or slums full of severely stressed humans. Normally those reservoirs have buffers against infecting humans because of a great genetic variety among the wildlife, such that any one strain can only spread so far; as modern capitalism steadily reduces the size and genetic variety of wild populations, their attendant microbial parasites have fewer barriers against reaching humans.

So you get one virus running into, say, a vast pen of cattle, and as the cattle have no immunity, the virus faces very little selection pressure that would force a greater genetic variety. Instead the selection pressure is to spread as fast as possible, which means to grow as fast as possible, and the faster a virus grows, the more strain it places on the host, so within a short time the virus goes from benign to deadly.

And so you tend to get epidemics coming close on the heels of major capitalistic shifts in the concentration of living creatures. English outbreaks came in the era when they began to enclose their cattle in pens; the Spanish Flu started in the pigs of a Kansas stockyard shortly following the rise of American industrialized agriculture.

Admittedly these viral outbreaks can occur with direct human incursions into the wild, either by incorporating wild animals into modern markets or simply pushing industrialism into wild areas. Ebola seems to have appeared first in the 1970s with an English-owned cotton mill operation that planted itself in the central African jungle and occurred again every time that sort of industrialism increased its presence in the area. Likewise HIV is said to have come from humans eating "bushmeat", which is any manner of monkey meat, as if humans had not been doing such a thing before, so that they had no immunity to what they found within those animals -- maybe, then, they were going after bushmeat because their usual food sources were out of reach? Oh, wouldn't it be interesting if HIV and Ebola came from the same damn cotton mill!

This is not the case. According to the Chuangchn article, Ebola was first recorded in 1976 where the most common strain of HIV appears to come from early-20th-century Kinshasa, or should I say Leopoldville, the capital of the Belgian Congo and centerpoint for a great deal of environmental degradation and societal upheaval through modern capitalism. Bushmeat had been a common food source for a long time, with Simian Immunodefficiency Virus being endemic in wild primates. People used to catch SIV all the time. They resisted it well and fast enough that it could never spread from human to human. Then Leopoldville created a world where increased prostitution could spread syphilis more quickly, such that the ulcers which present the greatest danger of transferring SIV were all over the place, and SIV was now able to jump from one person to another fast enough to mutate into HIV.

Now as for Ebola and HIV, both of those diseases are more deadly than the diseases that seem to come from livestock concentration. One of them is a hundred percent fatal, the other fifty percent without treatment. Likewise the source of the Black Plague was Central or East Asian rodents moving into human agricultural areas due to climate change, and the disease itself appears to have an untreated mortality rate of thirty to sixty percent if bubonic, one hundred percent if pneumonic or Septicimic -- as if a wild microbe that hits human populations without an intermediary host is invariably more deadly than one that arises out of the intermediary host.

That's assuming the Plague hit humans directly through people eating gerbils in the manner of people eating Bushmeat to catch SIV, and that neither rats nor fleas were the intermediate host where the bacteria could go from benign to virulent. To compare the Black Plague to Ebola is also to conflate the behavior of viruses with bacteria. I do not know if they would react to certain selection pressure the same way.

All I know is that these microbes which become dangerous among crowded livestock seem to have a lower, or perhaps slower, mortality rate than the ones which develop from direct wild-to-human transfer. The zoonotic diseases that humans are supposed to have picked up from livestock at the beginning of human-animal domestication -- Tuberculosis, Smallpox, Cowpox, Glanders, Escheria Coli, and so forth -- generally have a much lower mortality rate than Ebola, with only Smallpox reaching the untreated mortality rate of the Black Plague --

In populations already exposed to the disease, at any rate. For virgin populations such as the entire Western Hemisphere circa 1492, the untreated mortality rate was something even Ebola could not match. It may simply be that the zoonotic diseases livestock herders are familiar with are less deadly because their most dangerous strains burned themselves out tens of thousands of years ago. In that sense, the only real difference between zoonotic diseases incubating in livestock and those hitting humans directly would be the novelty, where these wild diseases, being invariably new to us, have not yet burned through enough people to create a selection pressure towards less fatal strains.

One might argue that Rabies has been known for many thousands of years and remains as deadly as it ever was, and is a very good example of how dangerous a virus can be when it infects humans directly from the wild. But the fact that Rabies spreads though biting means that it's not viral in the same way as most other diseases. Despite the fact that the virus itself has an evolution rate similar to any other RNA virus, it doesn't have the transmission rate of most other RNA viruses, so I would expect that its effective rate of evolution is much too slow to force it into something less deadly.

In point of fact, of the seven major species in the Lyssavirus family, nearly all of them follow the same pattern as Rabies: bats as a wild reservoir, human transmission through biting, fatal if untreated, human transmission extremely rare. Only Mokola Virus is endemic in mammal populations like the Rabies we know, and then only in South Africa; as it has the possibility of being transferred by Mosquitoes, it may have a much shorter time scale for selection pressure than any other Lyssavirus and, as it happens, one of the two humans who contracted the disease recovered. Nor do the cats infected with Mokola Virus exhibit unprovoked aggression in the manner of Rabies. While all these strains appear to have evolved within the last 1500 years, only Mokola Virus appears to face enough selection pressure to evolve into a milder form. For the rest, they still run wild, and it will be a long, long time before they settle down.

Rabies remains deadly for being new in comparison to its evolutionary time scale, and HIV remains deadly for being new in relation to its own time scale, and Ebola remains deadly for being new in general, where livestock-zoonotic diseases have been facing more intense selection pressure for quite a while longer than these diseases direct from the wild. We're all virgin populations for Ebola, Rabies, and HIV like the Western Hemisphere was a virgin population for   Smallpox.  That's a more prosaic explanation for this discrepancy than some aspect of livestock that makes their epidemics less deadly...

Especially since James Gallagher at the BBC News says HIV is already adapting into a slightly less deadly form as it gets used to human immune systems.

And yet the initial outbreak of SARS in 2003 was entirely novel, it came from a wild vector and its case fatality rate was an average of nine percent. That looks like a case of a novel wild virus with direct transfer being much less than fatal. Palm Civets, there you go, there's the vector, right? Except that these palm civets were in the wild-animal MARKET, and the virus itself has a wild reservoir in bats, so if the civets were shoved in close together like any livestock then the disease would have developed within their population just the same as if they were all pigs. I can't say that SARS was a direct transfer from the wild.

As for this Novel Coronavirus...while Hubei does a lot of livestock operations but the pandemic has been traced to Wuhan's Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market, which also sells lots and lots of wild animals, quite similar to the meat market in Guandong where the 2003 SARS came from. As I imagine it, the virus started from one bat, incubated among wild animals crowded together, and developed in just the same way as 2003 SARS.

The fact that the virus appears to have a low variability among known genomic sequences stands in marked contrast to HIV, which has a great deal of genetic variability in its many subtypes, and Ebola, which is an entire genus of viruses, as well as the aforementioned seven species of Lyssavirus, of which Rabies is but one part. It is as if this novel Coronavirus hit a crowded population just once and took off from there, facing, as I said, no selection pressure to force genetic variety, where viruses picked up directly from the wild have competed against their wild hosts a long time before ever reaching humans.

I imagine the scenario as follows:

1. A living landscape in its proper state has a great deal of genetic variety among its multicelled organisms.

2. This variety creates an evolutionary selection pressure in their attendant microbial populations, which means these microbial populations will have a degree of genetic diversity matching the macrobial popluation.

3. Humans pushing their industry into these areas for the first time reduce the genetic diversity of the area, thereby reducing the diversity of immune responses, and letting certain microbes spread farther.

4. At the same time, humans pushing industry into these areas are coming across populations of wild microbes that still have a high degree of genetic diversity.

5. Humans doing the grunt work in this industrial push have many opportunities for contact with this population of wild microbes through direct contact with wild animals.

6. Wild microbes enter the human population with multiple strains, be they subtypes or whole species, where a wild microbe hitting a stockyard first would be only one or a very few strains.

7. Having a high degree of genetic variety from the start, they have much more chance to compete against human immune systems than the intermediary-incubated epidemics, so they are invariably more damaging to their human host.

8. By the same token, they cannot be endemic among human populations like the diseases that grew out of microbes hitting livestock operations, because as they have survived within wild macrobial populations that resist them well, they are optimized for surviving within a host and against virulence. Their methods of human-to-human transfer, be it saliva, sexual intercourse, or skin contact, have a low rate of success compared to the livestock-incubated diseases.

See for example Leprosy, which appears to have a wild reservoir in Red Squirrels, does terrible things to its victims, and...is not very contagious between humans.

The existence of Cholera complicates this picture because it is an incredibly deadly disease like Ebola, and it seems to be endemic to human populations, in contrast to Ebola which disappears until industry expands into the jungle again. And it is extremely virulent, without having a stealthy effect on humans. How does Cholera win the epidemic jackpot? By having its wild microbial reservoir in water. Water contaminated with fecal matter causes zooplankton to pick up the bacteria; oysters then eat the zooplankton; humans eat the oysters, and get sick; suddenly they’re contaminating the water with their own fecal matter and the disease is living free in the local water for a while, and everyone else gets it.  Cholera is unusual for having a wild reservoir that is invariably close to human habitation, such that it remains endemic without becoming any less wild. Let us say, then, that Cholera is not endemic to humans, but is endemic to a source so close to them that it might as well be. It comes in waves, because it comes on the waves.

Perhaps not so unusual. There is a land-based wild reservoir that resembles that of Cholera. Once upon a time, there was once another extremely virulent and deadly disease in the manner of Cholera, called the English Sweating Sickness. It killed its victims in the space of hours, and had outbreaks from 1485 to 1551. The most likely source was a strain of Hantavirus with a wild reservoir in rodents. Like the schools of wild fish, its reservoir was constantly interacting with human populations, as rodents broke into human food stores. English Sweating Sickness has never been seen again, but Hantaviruses remain quite dangerous, enough so that a discovery of mouse droppings in a human space demands immediate and thorough cleanup.

I find it telling that the aforementioned article mentions this English Sweating Sickness coming in a time of agricultural and social upheaval. I also find it telling that Wikipedia attributes the first major recorded Cholera epidemic to increased commerce, pilgrimage and migration. Just like folks in China hitting the SARS viruses, eh? Wuhan’s meat market has a bunch of wild animals to sell because people are running into them more, as they push capitalist industry further into wild spaces. So those wild microbes hit populations that are tailor-made for turning a virus into an epidemic. These wild reservoirs are somewhat dangerous on their own, as Rabies and Lyme Disease will tell. You can walk in the forest without fear of breathing them in, as long as you avoid getting bit by anything. But to destroy their habitats, to reduce the genetic diversity of those places, so that there's less buffer between the viruses and us, just for the sake of making more money faster, well...that’s when these critters get into our lungs.

It’s the interface of an increase in Intensive Industrialism with Wilderness that does the trick.

As I live in the Northeast United States, in the foothills of the northern Appalachian Mountains, I and all my friends deal with this every damn summer when we have to worry about Deer Ticks. Those didn’t become a problem until people shoved their big suburban houses up against the woods just as they were coming back, and in the new forest with new deer populations there were no wolves, so there’s deer everywhere and there are deer ticks everywhere. Lyme Disease gets into a person and it never goes away on its own, but gums up your joints and wears you down over the years if left untreated. Call it the AIDS of New England. Human immune systems can’t handle AIDS nor Lyme Disease, and I don’t think that’s a coincidence. Lyme Disease is yet another virus direct from the woods.

Supposedly Poison Ivy comes from the same issue, for as people shove their houses up against the woods they create more of the edge-forest area where Poison Ivy thrives.

It’s that edge that does it. The edge between Industry and Wilderness, that’s where the world boils and roils and spits out hot stuff like someone put too much oil in the fry pan. Edge environments always have the most activity in the first place even if they’re All Natural. Continental shelves, forest edges, river banks, lake shores, swamps, salt marshes, whatever the biologists will call an Ecotone. That’s where the living world boils and roils, as the creatures of one biome meet another. If Intense Human Industry barges into the place and smashes it up without an ounce of caution -- well, the results are like someone smashing a fist into a frypan of simmering oil.

“That’s what you get for messing with the Wilderness!” cry the Eco-facists and all the folks who think humans are a disease upon the earth. “Mother Gaia takes her revenge! So there!”

And there I come to the one part of Chuangchn’s article that I really disagree with. The author thinks that we’re Losing The Wilderness. But I don’t think we’ve ever really had any. Not Wilderness with a capital W, at any rate. Humans have been significant shapers of the living landscape for tens of thousands of years. Our species has been fairly well integrated with the world and highly influential, a lot like beavers making ponds all across northeast North America. In the same time period as beavers, humans were setting enough small fires in the Jemez Mountains of New Mexico to be a bigger factor for forest fires than the climate was. Likewise the Amazon Rainforest that we think of being a Pristine Landscape Untouched By The Hand Of Man was actually shaped by centuries of human activity. Humans made all the terra preta that you can find throughout the rainforest. Hard to believe that they could make fertile soil without livestock! I will leave you to guess of where that manure came from.

Indeed, to speak of "wilderness" implies that we are separate from the world, and it is this mindset that leads us to set aside certain areas as Natural Pristine Beauty and then pave over everything around them. Both lands are thus diminished by the desire for Purity. If we were willing to incorporate the rest of living world, letting it live and grow with our influence but not our destruction, as once we used to, such that the genetic variety of the world was not reduced -- perhaps then we would not have these epidemics after all. It is not that we need to Preserve The Wilderness so much as we need to become part of the world again.

As it is, capitalism prefers that this does not happen, because it means a slower increase in personal wealth for the select people holding all the money. Capitalism does not live and let live. It cannot. The system wants more, more, more, faster and faster. To clarify: certain people holding all the money want more, more, more, faster and faster. There is no place they would let alone if they could make lots of money off it soon, nor any place they would let make money slowly when it could make money quickly. So you see people choosing to strip-mine a place instead of sell tickets for river rafting.

This was never necessary, except to serve the greed for personal wealth and power. And yet, was it even necessary for that? The Empire of the Incans functioned without money or markets, as did every civilization for thousands of years, until someone invented coinage around the 600s BCE. Plenty of wealth and power to be had without coins, surely! The real value of money is liquidity and speed, and some people want their fortune Now. Maybe it’s the Greed For Speed that makes the difference between the power-grabbing of an aristocrat and the power-grabbing of a merchant.

And so as we alter the landscape too fast it cannot adapt in time, and suffers greatly.

We see the results in one epidemic after another. It’s not Gaia’s Revenge; it’s just the fallout of us setting things up to make a virus’s happy accident our unhappy accident, time and again.

[biostudyblog]

Evolution

Evolution is an essential key to understanding all branches of biology. Microevolution is the changes in one gene pool of a population over generations. Macroevolution is speciation, which refers to the formation of an entirely new species.

Individuals never change or evolve. Your DNA is your DNA, and cannot evolve. (Adaption is different). A population is the smallest group that can evolve.

Evidence of Evolution

There are 6 areas of study that prove the theory of evolution:

Fossil record

Comparative anatomy

Comparative biochemistry

Comparative embryology

Molecular biology

Biogeography

Fossil Record

The fossil record is evidence of species who have become extinct or evolved into other species.

99% of all organisms that have ever lived on earth are now extinct.

With studies of radioactive dating and half-life, we know the earth is approximately 4.6 billion years old.

Prokaryotic cells are the oldest fossils, and so were the first organisms to develop on earth.

Palaeontologists have discovered transitional fossils, which link older, extinct fossils to modern species. For example, the discovery of the Archaeopteryx is a fossil that links reptiles and birds. Along with that, we know that the Hyracotherium was the ancestor of the modern-day horse.

Comparative Anatomy

Many organisms share anatomic structures, proving that they came from a common ancestor. For example, by comparing the dental structure of humans and chimpanzees, we now know that we share a common ancestor that lived less than 10 million years ago.

Homologous Structures: Homologous structures are like the wing of a bat, the fin of a whale, and our own arm. By looking at them, it’s evident that they share bone structure. We share a common ancestor, however, we diverged millions of years ago.

Analogous Structures: Analogous structures are like a bat and fly’s wing. They have the same function, however a differing underlying structure. This is a superficial similarity and reflects adaptation to a similar environment. It is an example of convergent evolution.

Vestigial Structures: Vestigial structures are like our coccyx (the tailbone). While it was useful when our ancestors had tails, it now is a useless reminder of what we used to be. Fun fact: the appendix is not a vestigial structure. In fact, it has a function in the immune system.

Comparative Biochemistry

Organisms with a common ancestor have common biochemical pathways. The more closely related two organisms are to each other, the more similar their biochemistry is. Humans and mice are both mammals, which is why mice are often used in medical research (However, mice are rodents and we are apes, which is why studies done on mice can very often be flawed.)

Comparative Embryology

More closely related organisms go through similar stages in their embryonic development as they evolved from a common ancestor. When vertebrates are embryos, we all develop gill pouches on the side of our throat. In fish, these become the gills. In humans, they become the eustachian tubes which connect the middle ear with the throat.

Molecular Biology

Comparing two organisms on a molecular level also gives insight into how closely related they are. Since respiration requires an electron transport chain, we have a polypeptide called cytochrome c. By comparing the amino acid sequence of cytochrome c, we can know how closely related the organisms are. For example, our cytochrome c is identical to that of a chimpanzee, however different from a pig, and almost completely different to that of the cytochrome c found in paramecia.

Biogeography

The earth did not always look the way that it does now. The theory of continental drift states that 250 million years ago, all the continents were together in a supercontinent called Pangaea, which slowly, over time, separated into the 7 continents that we know today. Because of this, we know organisms like marsupials migrated by land from South America, across Antartica to Australia, before the continents separated, isolating marsupials.

Lamarck vs. Darwin

Before Darwin’s theory of evolution was Lamarck’s. Lamarck’s theory was based on the ideas of inheritance of acquired characteristics, and use and disuse. He believed that individual organisms change in response to their environment. For example, when the ecological niche that giraffes in the grasslands of Africa became too full, he believed they learned to stretch their necks to reach the acacia trees. After developing these long necks, they passed the trait off to their offspring.

Darwin did his studies on the Galapagos Islands to study the strange wildlife that lived there. His theory of evolution was based on characteristics of animals like the finches who had developed different shaped beaks depending on which ecological niche they filled. He published his book in 1859 and became a sensation.

Darwin’s Theory of Evolution

Darwin’s theory of evolution stated that:

Populations grow exponentially, to overpopulate and over exceed their resources. This idea came from Malthus, who in 1798 published his research on population growth, disease and famine.

Overpopulation results in competition and a struggle to exist.

In all populations, some organisms have advantages over others. Those that win the genetic lottery are able to survive long enough to reproduce, passing the successful traits on. The organisms who lose the genetic lottery die before they can pass their genetic material on. For example, in a snowy area, if there are white and brown rabbits, the brown rabbits will be eaten, as they don’t camouflage. As a result, only white rabbits have babies, and soon the entire population will become white. This is a concept known as survival of the fittest.

Fitness refers to the ability of an organism to reproduce.

How the Giraffe Got Its Long Neck

Lamarck’s theory was thrown out in favour of Charles Darwin’s. What happened, was there were too many animals in one ecological niche, and so not enough food. Giraffes with shorter necks couldn’t find enough food, and so they starved. Giraffes with longer necks than normal were able to eat food other animals couldn’t reach, and so survived and passed on their DNA. Thus, over time, there was a noticeable change in the appearance of the giraffes, as the average neck length of the population increased, not the individual.

How the Peppered Moth Went From Light to Dark

In England, until around 1845, peppered moths were light. This was around industrialisation, and so factories producing smoke and soot polluted the air. As a result, light moths no longer could camouflage themselves and were picked off, causing an increase in the percentage of black moths, as black moths had the selective advantage. This darkening is known as industrial melanism.

Evolution and Drug Resistance

Antibiotics are wonder drugs. People are constantly asking for them, even if they have a virus. However, by taking antibiotics more, the antibiotics become more and more useless. This is because antibiotics kill susceptible bacteria while leaving alone bacteria that have developed resistance. These bacteria reproduce, and antibiotics no longer can fight them. The ability of a virus or bacteria impacts the ease of finding a cure. A famous example is AIDS. AIDS is caused by the HIV virus which evolves extremely easily. Currently, the treatment for the disease is a drugs cocktail which slows its progression. In some patients, the HIV virus becomes resistant, and they take a downward spiral. The flu virus is another example of a virus that evolves extremely quickly.

Types of Natural Selection

There are 3 ways natural selection can alter the frequency of inherited traits in a population, depending on the favoured phenotypes: stabilising selection, diversifying, or disruptive selection, and directional selection.

Stabilising Selection

Stabilising eliminates the extremes, and favours the more common intermediate form. Stabilising selection is the reason why most human babies are born with a similar weight: 6 to 9 pounds, as greater or less than this often increases the mortality risk.

Disruptive or Diversifying Selection

Disruptive selection increases the numbers of extreme types in a population, at the cost of intermediate forms (it is the opposite of stabilising selection.) This results in a balanced polymorphism where two or more phenotypes coexist. Over time this may lead to speciation.

Directional Selection

Directional selection is caused by changing environmental conditions, where one phenotype replaces another. The peppered moth's case is an example of this.

Diversity Within a Population

Darwin’s theory of evolution depends on diversity within any given gene pool.

Darwin at the time could not explain the genetic diversity, however, we now know it is due to mutation, genetic drift, and genetic flow.

Mutation

Mutations are changes in genetic material. They are the raw material for evolutionary change. Even just one point mutation can introduce a whole new allele to a population, as found by Hugo de Vries who studies polyploidy in plants.

Genetic Drift

Genetic drift is a change in the gene pool due to chance. This is the reason why most people from Ireland have red hair because there is no known evolutionary benefit. Two more broad examples of genetic drift are the bottleneck effect and the founder effect.

The Bottleneck Effect

The bottleneck effect is caused by major events, like a flood, volcano, or fire causing the massive, nonselective reduction in the population. The resulting population is no longer representative of the original one, causing certain alleles to be over or underrepresented, completely by chance.

The Founder Effect

When a small population breaks away from a larger population, it is not representative of the original population. As a result, rare alleles can become overrepresented. This happened in the 1770s, with the Old Order of the Amish in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Their ancestors moved from Germany to America, and a large percentage of them have the dominant, but rare gene for polydactyly, which means having more than 5 fingers and toes. As a result, in this area, there is a massive concentration of this extremely rare gene.

Gene Flow

Gene flow is the movement of alleles in and out of a population. Migration of fertile individuals or gametes between populations may cause gene flow. When pollen from a flower in one valley travels via the wind across a mountain to another valley, that causes gene flow.

Population Stability (Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium)

Hardy and Weinburg were two scientists who developed a theory describing a stable, nonevolving population (where the allele frequency does not change). For there to be Hardy-Weinburg equilibrium, the population must meet the following requirements:

It must be very large: Because changes in small populations have such massive effects on the allele frequency of the entire population, there must be a large population to dilute these changes.

The population must be isolated: When a population is isolated, the lack of gene flow prevents the introduction of new alleles into the gene pool

There must be no mutations: Mutations alter the allelic frequency and can lead to a whole new allele.

Mating must be random: When individuals select mates, natural selection comes into play, and the fittest individual will reproduce, altering the allelic frequency.

There must be no natural selection: Adding to the above, there must be no reason for the population to evolve.

Hardy-Weinburg Equation

The Hardy-Weinburg Equation is necessary to know the frequency of alleles in a population.

Example Problem:

If 9% of the population has blue eyes, what percentage of the population is hybrid for brown eyes? Homozygous for brown eyes?

Isolation and Speciation

A species is a population whose members are able to interbreed and produce fertile offspring. Horses and donkeys produce mules, which are infertile, thus they are not in the same species. When a population fragments and isolates small groups, new species may form, as different selective pressures influence the two groups.

Geographic Isolation

Geographic isolation can be caused by any geographic feature that makes it nearly impossible for two groups to interact, such as mountains, canyons, or rivers.

Polyploidy

Polyploidy is a mutation that occurs during meiosis, where instead of ending up diploid (2n), cells can become polyploids (>2n). Polyploids cannot breed with non-polyploids, therefore this is a kind of isolation.

Habitat Isolation

Habitat isolation occurs when two organisms live in the same area but rarely interact. For example, two snakes may share the same genus, however, one inhabits the water, while one is terrestrial.

Behavioural Isolation

Behavioural isolation occurs when two organisms are isolated because of a change in behaviour. For instance, male fireflies attract mates by flashing a specific pattern of lights. If the male firefly does not use the pattern she will respond to, no mating will occur.

Temporal Isolation

Temporal isolation is just isolation over time. Two plants of one species may become isolated, as one becomes sexually mature earlier than the other.

Reproductive Isolation

Reproductive isolation is caused when anatomical incompatibility makes it impossible to mate, for example, a chihuahua and a great dane cannot mate.

Patterns of Evolution

Divergent Evolution

Divergent evolution when a species is isolated and becomes a new species. Homologous structures are evidence of this pattern of evolution.

Convergent Evolution

Convergent evolution occurs when two unrelated species inhabit the same environment. For example, in the whale and the fish, despite having different ancestors, they have very similar appearances and features as these features benefit both of them. Analogous structures are evidence of this pattern of evolution.

Parallel Evolution

Parallel evolution describes when two related species have related evolutionary adaptations. For example, the grey wolf and Tasmanian wolf have striking similarities, as, despite their geographic isolation, their environments are similar.

Coevolution

Coevolution is the mutual set of adaptations between two interacting species. For example, pollinators and plants. When it feeds from a flower, a pollinator guarantees the survival of the plant. Thus, the plants and pollinators evolve together to guarantee survival together.

Adaptive Radiation

When most people are asked to talk about evolution, Darwin’s finches are brought up. When the birds were isolated on multiple different islands, and environments, the one species fractured into multiple. This is called adaptive radiation.

Theories About the Theory

Gradualism

Gradualism is Darwin’s belief that evolution occurs gradually over a long period of time in a linear, or branching fashion. Big changes occur by accumulating multiple small ones. For this theory to be correct, no missing links should exist.

This theory is no longer popular, as transitional fossils are rare to find.

Punctuated Equilibrium

Punctuated equilibrium is more widely accepted by scientists now. It is the idea that new species occur suddenly after long periods of now change, as new species arrive in different places, expanding their range, and replacing the ancestral species.

Spontaneous Generation

Before there were gradualism and punctuated equilibrium, there was spontaneous generation. It was a popular idea until the 1700′s and states that living things emerge from nonliving ones. Francesco Redi disproved this theory by putting decaying meat into wide mouth jars, some with lids, some covered by cheesecloth, and some left open. Maggots only appeared where flies could lay their eggs.

How Life Began

So then, if life comes from life, where did it all start?

After the formation of the earth, around 4.6 billion years ago, earth’s outer surface cooled and solidified, forming a crust. The ancient environment was likely made primarily of CH4 (methane), NH3 (ammonia), and H20 (vapour). There was no free oxygen. Intense heat, lightning, and radiation in the atmosphere gave rise to the first cell. An attempt to recreate these conditions have happened a lot throughout history.

In the 1920s, two scientists, Oparin and Haldane separately concluded that earth’s early conditions gave rise to life. In the absence of corrosively reactive O2 that would react and degrade them, organic molecules were able to form and persist.

In the 1950s, Miller and Urey tested this hypothesis and proved nearly any energy source could convert inorganic molecules into organic molecules including amino acids. They used electricity to mimic lightning, and UV light, as without the atmosphere we have today, with its protective ozone layer, UV rays were extremely prevalent (the sun was a deadly laser, but not anymore there’s a blanket)

Fox, in more recent times, recreated this experiment and produced membrane-bound cell-like structures he named proteinoid microspheres which were able to survive for hours in a lab.

The Heterotroph Hypothesis and the Theory of Endosymbiosis

The Heterotroph Hypothesis states that it is most likely that the first cells on earth were anaerobic heterotrophic prokaryotes (as autotrophs need membrane-bound organelles to produce their own energy)

Eukaryotic cells evolved when small bacteria took residence in large prokaryotic cells and helped perform essential functions in the host cell. These small bacteria became the nuclei, chloroplasts, and mitochondria we have today, which is why these 3 organelles have their own DNA, and why the mitochondria and chloroplasts can self-replicate.

The first multicellular animals appeared around 565 million years ago, and within 40 million years, the phyla we know today appeared. This time, when multiple organisms moved onto land is called the Cambrian explosion. Animals developed features such as lungs, skin, limbs, internal fertilisation mechanisms, and eggshells in order to survive on land. Plants developed roots, supporting cells that allowed them to be so tall, vascular tissue, cutin on their leaves, and seeds.

Mass Extinctions

So if life on earth represents 3% of what used to be on earth, how did so many species die out?

While normal extinction causes the deaths of individual species or populations, mass extinctions are events that lead to the deaths of more than 75% of life on earth. Earth has seen five and may be seeing a sixth in today’s time.

The Permian extinction occurred 250 million years ago when massive volcano eruptions in Siberia spewed massive amounts of lava, and CO2 raising the global temperature up 6 degrees. (Sound familiar?)

Where did the dinosaurs go? The Cretaceous extinction was a subject of much speculation, until the discovery of a massive asteroid hole on the Yucatan Penninsula in Mexico. The 10 km-wide asteroid crashed, causing massive clouds of debris to coat the atmosphere, blocking sunlight, killing plants, and the animals that depended on them. Some dinosaurs survived and evolved into birds. So next time you have a parrot on your finger, remember that you have what used to be a dinosaur standing on your finger.

[gojirahkiin]

What the  Godzilla Anime should’ve been! Part 1

Starting with an apology to Tyrantis Terror, and a promise that unlike the last time I pinged you with fanfiction, this will be a good read.

Alright, so @tyrantisterror​‘s cry of “BE INTERESTING YOU COWARDS!” is essentially the majority opinion of the Godzilla fandom towards the anime. This is how I, personally, would fix it.

To do so, I would take three premises, because in my spite I want to prove that there is a way that good can come of them:

Godzilla has reigned undisputed for 20,000 years

Mothra is dead, but her egg and people live

Ghidorah is an eldritch god.

What the anime lacks boils down to two things: character and spectacle. Everyone was boring and nothing cool happened.

But even assuming that you want to go in a completely different direction than the rest of the Godzilla franchise, you don’t have to be garbage about it. So Mothra has no Shobijin/Cosmos/Elias equivalents. Fine, but she doesn’t need any since she has an entire race/species of people. But you know who does need some now?

I present some amazing fanart for a priestess of King Ghidorah! Ignore the Noodledorah silhouettes behind her. I am scrapping that entire design for eldritch ramen.

Even worse, the canon Exif communicated with Ghidorah through math. That is the lamest thing possible. But once again harvesting and inverting classic Mothra, what do you think I could substitute for Fairy Mothra, a fragment of spirit given form and purpose?

A Dorat. Obviously it needs tweaking. No aspect of King Ghidorah would ever deign to be so cute. But my point stands: his most devout worshipers would have these tiny avatars of their god to guide them in their malice.

Now, I said that Mothra doesn’t need the Shobijin since she has a race/species. That’s not a metaphor. The canon Houtua are covered in powdery tattoos and given antennae. It’s never made explicit (because that might be cool) but they are implied to be literal children of Mothra.

Imagine the implications of being able to genetically prove that your goddess is the mother of your species? I discard the name Houtua and rename these technical kaiju the Elias. Could’ve also called them Cosmos, but I flipped a coin.

I’ll come back to Mothra in a bit. For now, let’s talk about Godzilla. He’s the ruler of Earth in this continuity, but what does that really mean? Well...

I do want to say that I’m not making this a post-apocalyptic MonsterVerse, as cool as that would be. What I mean is that every kaiju that hasn’t submitted to Godzilla’s dominance has been killed.

Godzilla is King of the Monsters in that he has no true rivals for the throne, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t resistance.

Mothra’s egg is hidden, proving that it is possible to hide from him. It is also possible to run from him since he can’t be everywhere at once, and there are creatures capable and willing to do both.

This is where my versions of the Servum (the worm & dragon-like creatures that were never named and hardly shown in canon) come in, in both name and concept.

The Kaiju Catastrophe wiped out many species, if only because humanity got increasingly destructive in their efforts to stop it, leaving vacuums in many ecosystems. 20,000 years isn’t a long time for new species to evolve, but a core theme of the Godzilla series is that mutations happen quickly.

In the aftermath, many species mutated and evolved to be symbiotic towards Godzilla, because being simultaneously around and useful to him was a great way to survive and be protected.

These creatures are the Servum, but there aren’t that many ways to be useful to Godzilla, and so they are essentially “battle honey guides.” They hunt down and swarm creatures that show signs of hostility toward the King, or simply call to summon him if they think they’re out of their league.

Godzilla has naturally been growing and mutating for all 20,000 years, but unlike the near-comatose tree in the anime, my Godzilla is active and roaming. Most of the Earth has well-worn pathways because unless he must deviate to deal with a challenger, he has a decently efficient patrol route.

One of the other results of Godzilla's never-ending world tour is that everything is a bit more radioactive and a bit more violent. The first is natural. The second requires explanation.

Essentially, kaiju that covet the throne hide in nice fertile areas with lots of food of whatever kind they eat. These are typically destroyed in the battle when Godzilla finds them. As a result, aggression, growth, and general "kaiju-fication" has been encouraged in the wildlife for the last 20,000 years, because if you can protect your territory from would-be crown-hunters it won't be destroyed by Godzilla.

Biollante exists, but less as a distinct creature and more as a taxonomic classification; when Godzilla destroys a region in battle, it takes truly remarkable plants to colonize it - these aggressive and radiosynthetic plants are the Biollante.

Now let’s talk about Mechagodzilla, an technology in general. What is left of humanity after 20,000 years? Not a lot to be honest.

Bunkers aren’t much protection from burrowing kaiju, and not even the most optimistic “abandoned by people” documentary thinks any skyscraper will last for 20,000 years.

But it sounds like I’m contradicting myself - if new kaiju are always rising, and virtually all traces of humanity are gone, then where are Mechagodzilla and Mothra’s egg in this continuity? Hilariously, they’re still around because they’re in almost the same place.

In my take on this scenario, Godzilla first appeared in 1954 at a height of 50 meters. By the time humanity had to flee in 2054, he’d swelled to his 100 meter height.

As a result, Mechagodzilla’s factory was built inside a mountain, so that the facility could constantly expand so that if and when the machine got wrecked, it could be rebuilt bigger and better for the next rematch, and both mecha and factory were constantly being built and improved until almost the day humanity evacuated.

Mothra first challenged Godzilla after humanity fled, but her standard procedure is to find a nice safe place for her egg before charging into mortal combat, and she found this very conveniently mostly empty hangar inside a mountain. A bit bland and sterile for her taste, but safe.

Hearkening back to the Heisei era again, Mothra’s egg is psychic, and has a useful passive defense. It radiates an aura that renders the area uninteresting to any kaiju not specifically looking for a Mothra egg. As a result, the egg, the Elias, and Mechagodzilla have been housemates for 20,000 years give or take.

Some of you may have caught that I said Mothra first challenged Godzilla. That’s because this version of Mothra is also active in the timeline... in a sense. Each time the egg hatches, the new Mothra has been challenging Godzilla, and each time she’s taken longer to develop, but done better in the fight. And the most recent challenger was 10,000 years ago...

So, let’s talk about King Ghidorah himself. The anime’s designers claim that their Ghidorah is the final evolution of the essence of Ghidorah.

Screw that! If I want an enemy that’s unkillable because he’s technically in another dimension, other franchises have done it better and with more spectacle.

King Ghidorah isn’t just about destruction. It isn’t enough to let a ghost noodle rip apart and eat a planet (in lore and not on screen of course). King Ghidorah is about the fear, helplessness, and despair in the face of an end to everything you care about that cannot be stopped.

Some people complain that in Rebirth of Mothra III, Ghidorah only destroyed a little bit and then went back to guarding his dome. My hypothesis is that there was a very deliberate and cruel reason for that.

The children knew that they’d been captured and knew that the walls were acidic because one of them tossed a ball at it. But their parents didn’t know yet. Ghidorah destroyed a little and then went back to the dome so that the parents would know what happened and that there was nothing they could do to stop it.

Also, he loomed over the dome and watched it - he was waiting for the digestion process to begin; he was people-watching in the most sadistic manner possible, like a child setting fire to ants with a magnifying glass.

But that incarnation of Ghidorah was a bit too stoic and focused for my taste. I want him to hearken back to Shōwa Ghidorah: we don’t know why he does what he does, only that he’s having a blast doing it!

So let’s run with that. I’m discarding the Exif’s name. In another callback to the past, their name can translate as Xians or Xiliens depending on your preference. And the Xiliens don’t often name their god, but they call him one of three euphemisms: The Laughing King, The Golden Light, and The Threefold Death.

The Xiliens also follow their god’s example: they are quite cheerful and always happy to meet new people (because they’ll get to kill them later); they’re decked out in gaudy, shiny golden colors; and when they’re getting ready to kill someone, they do their damnedest to give them a threefold death.

The Death of their Hopes.

The Death of their Body.

And reserved for their god alone, the Death of their World.

When King Ghidorah is summoned by the terrible cruelty and laughter of his followers, a tear into another dimension is opened over the planet, and an asteroid drops from it, with all the destructive power you’d expect of an asteroid strike.

To die in the blast is an honor and a mercy, because the true horror manifests from the molten ruins and lets out a cackling roar that can be heard across the entire planet. If there are any orbiting ships or space stations, the roar defies all laws of reality to be heard there too.

And in every listener, the sound inspires the primal terror of imminent death.

A cornered rat will bite the cat, but the Laughing King does not begrudge his prey. It’s no fun if they don’t fight back! They need to believe that they stand a chance, so that as they lie bleeding and broken by the Golden Light of gravity beams their hopes can die with their flesh!

This is the true purpose of the Threefold Death that is King Ghidorah. You don’t kill for sustenance or defense; such material needs are mark of a mortal. You kill for fun! For the joy of watching life and hope leave a victim’s eyes!

That is the true essence of King Ghidorah!

[aion-rsa]

Resident Evil DASH: Canceled Sequel or Urban Legend?

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As the upcoming Resident Evil Village looks to terrify some with its classic monsters and excite others with its giant vampire ladies, fans everywhere find reasons to reflect on the greatest franchise in horror game history. Yet, I’m willing to bet that even some of the biggest Resident Evil fans haven’t heard about the “missing” game in the franchise: Resident Evil: DASH.

For over twenty years, rumors of a canceled project known simply as Resident Evil: DASH have divided the Resident Evil fanbase. For some, it’s the ultimate missing part of Resident Evil‘s legacy. To others, it’s one of the longest-lasting urban legends in video game history and a rumor that, much like a Resident Evil zombie, never seems to die.

What’s the true story of Resident Evil: DASH, though? That’s what we’ll try to uncover today as we dive into the fascinating history of this nearly mythical game.

Resident Evil: DASH – The Other (Other) Resident Evil 2

There’s very little about the Resident Evil: DASH story that’s “simple,” but the simplest place to start is with the long-standing rumor that Resident Evil: DASH was essentially supposed to be the first follow-up to 1996’s Resident Evil.

Now, here is where things start to get complicated. You may recall that Resident Evil 2 started off as an almost entirely different game that was about 70% complete before Capcom decided to essentially start from scratch on what we now know as 1998’s Resident Evil 2. That scrapped version of the sequel is regularly referred to as Resident Evil 1.5, which is indeed something of a lost Resident Evil game. 

You may also recall that Capcom started working on Resident Evil Zero not long after Resident Evil’s release. That game was supposed to debut on the Nintendo 64DD (and later the N64), but Capcom struggled to fit the project on an N64 cartridge, so they eventually just released it for the GameCube in 2002.

So where does Resident Evil: DASH fit into that timeline? The most popular version of the game’s development story suggests that it either would have been the direct sequel to Resident Evil or a kind of “spin-off” meant to fill in the release date gap between Resident Evil and Resident 2 (which would place its likely intended release sometime in 1997). In some ways, you could almost consider it another Resident Evil 1.5. There were also rumors it would be released on the Sega Saturn as a replacement for (or extension of) the Resident Evil port eventually released on that console. 

Where does all this information come from? Well, most of the DASH talk seems to originate from an old magazine interview with Capcom’s Yoshiki Okamoto. I believe that the interview initially ran in a publication called Dengeki PlayStation, but there has been some dispute about the publication that originally ran the interview.

A translation of that interview that was passed around a few English language websites at the time included a reference to a game called Biohazard: DASH (sometimes translated to Resident Evil: DASH). In the coming years, various pieces of concept art were thrown around that reportedly showcased what DASH looked like during its early development stages before the whole thing was quietly canceled by Capcom. 

So what did DASH look like at that time? Funny you should ask…

Resident Evil: DASH Would Have Seen Jill and Chris Return to Spencer Mansion 

While reports suggest that an early version of Resident Evil: DASH featured entirely new characters, most rumors argue that Capcom decided fairly early on that the project should star Resident Evil protagonists Jill Valentine and Chris Redfield. 

In any case, most reports about Resident Evil: DASH’s story seem to agree that the game would have taken place about three years after the events of the original and was always designed to take players back to Spencer Mansion. In fact, it’s been said that the game’s world would have essentially served as a “greatest hits” tour of some of the original title’s most memorable locations, which really does seem to support the idea that DASH was meant as a side project rather than a fully-fledged sequel. 

You might be wondering how DASH would have brought us back to Spencer Mansion considering that the mansion was seemingly destroyed at the end of the first game. Well, it turns out that the DASH team reportedly accounted for that little problem and were working on a story that would have made DASH one of the strangest (and most fascinating) pieces of horror in the Resident Evil canon. 

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Resident Evil: DASH Was a Horror Game About Plants (and At Least One Spider)

Even though there have been a lot of conflicting reports about DASH over the years, one thing that everyone seems to agree on is that the project would have been a rare video game entry into the “natural” horror genre. Yes, Resident Evil: DASH would have gone full The Happening by telling a horror story starring plants. 

According to DASH’s rumored plot, the explosion at Spencer Mansion left the place in ruins but didn’t entirely wipe it off the map. Actually, the explosion would have unearthed a secret underground lab not seen in the first game where Umbrella reportedly experimented on plants. Remember the Plant 42 boss fight in the original game? Apparently, that plant was just the tip of the iceberg in regards to what Umbrella was working on in the deepest parts of the mansion. 

Now free from the lab, the mutated plants would have taken over the remains of Spencer Mansion, spawned new mutations, and would have even resurrected some creatures as plant/zombie hybrids. In fact, one piece of concept art suggests that the plan was to end Resident Evil: DASH with a fight against a giant plant with the face and features of Albert Wesker. Needless to say, the idea that Wesker had died and was resurrected as a plant hybrid would have drastically impacted Resident Evil lore had that story come to pass. 

I should also mention the giant spider. Early Resident Evil: DASH art featured a version of the Spencer Mansion lobby completely overrun with spider webs. There has been some speculation the webs were constructed by multiple spiders, but there is a more popular version of that story that suggests a giant spider would have served as one of the game’s main antagonists and may have even played a role similar to Mr. X in Resident Evil 2 or the Nemesis in Resident Evil 3. 

Honestly, all of that sounds amazing. I love the idea of a Resident Evil game starring plant-like monsters, and I really love the idea of a Resident Evil game that lets us explore the monster-inhabited ruins of Spencer Mansion. Indeed, the potential of that premise is a big part of the reason the Resident Evil: DASH rumors have stayed so strong over the years. 

Sadly, here’s where I’ve got to throw some cold water on this story. 

Resident Evil: DASH Rumors Are Based On a Major Mistranslation

Remember that Yoshiki Okamoto interview I mentioned earlier that many say is the only known official reference to a game called Biohazard: DASH? As it turns out, even that interview doesn’t include any references to such a game. In fact, there’s never been any official reference to such a project made by any member of the Capcom team (except for, perhaps, references to these rumors). 

See, Okamoto was actually talking about two separate projects in that interview: the Sega Saturn port of Biohazard and Rockman: DASH (which we know as Mega Man Legends in the West). A widespread mistranslation of the interview essentially combined those two games, and people became convinced that Capcom was working on a Resident Evil game we just never heard about again. 

From there, those who believed the story and those who were just happy to troll the rest of us joined forces to bolster the idea that there was this very convincing Resident Evil project canceled under mysterious circumstances. 

So all of that concept art for DASH was also created by fans, right? Well, no, actually. Most of that concept art came from Capcom and the Resident Evil team. In fact, the origins of those drawings are a big part of the reason why the DASH rumors have flourished after all these years. 

The “Real” Resident Evil: DASH Was a Scrapped Idea for a Resident Evil 2 Scenario

While it seems that some of the concept art for Resident Evil: DASH that has been circulated over the years may have been manufactured by fans, most of it comes from a combination of sources that were simply misrepresented when they were shared online. 

Resident Evil Zero is actually one of the biggest early contributors to the Resident Evil: DASH myth. A lot of concept art from that game has been attributed to DASH over the years. It’s easy enough to see why people would buy into the idea that art was associated with DASH at a time when most fans didn’t even know Zero existed, but even in the years that followed Zero‘s 2002 release, vague pieces of that title’s concept art have convincingly been misattributed to DASH.

While early art of Resident Evil Zero’s protagonists could help explain why some people felt that Resident Evil: DASH once starred new characters, it’s much more likely that particular rumor can be traced back to some leaked Resident Evil 1.5 character concepts. Again, a lot of people probably didn’t know the Resident Evil 1.5 development story back in the late ‘90s/early 2000s, so they may have assumed Resident Evil 2’s initial leading characters were somehow associated with Resident Evil: DASH. Even when people learned about Resident Evil Zero and Resident Evil 1.5, all the behind-the-scenes stuff from that time seemed to get lumped together. 

What about all of those drawings of Spencer Mansion covered with spider webs and wildlife, though? Interestingly, it seems some of those drawings originate from Resident Evil 2’s development. Actually, in a 1998 magazine interview, Resident Evil writer Noboru Sugimura mentions that the team originally intended to have players leave the police station in Resident Evil 2 and eventually work their way back to a version of Spencer Mansion inhabited by “a monster that was left alive in the blasted out ruins of the lobby and dining hall.”

While there’s no mention of any plant monsters in that interview, it really does seem that the Resident Evil team once seriously considered featuring a version of Spencer Mansion typically associated with Resident Evil: DASH in Resident Evil 2. Like so many other things about that game, though, plans changed along the way. 

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So while Resident Evil: DASH must be considered an urban legend, it’s fascinating to see how so many of the rumors that have kept the project alive over the years are based on games that were eventually released or ideas that Capcom had considered at some point. 

The post Resident Evil DASH: Canceled Sequel or Urban Legend? appeared first on Den of Geek.

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[ezatluba]

A wild mink in Utah has Covid-19. Veterinarians fear this is just the beginning.

Which animals can catch Covid-19, which can’t — and why it matters.

Brian Resnick

Dec 16, 2020, 9:30am EST

It started in nature. A coronavirus that originated in bats has wound up in humans, causing the Covid-19 pandemic.

And it can go back to nature.

The SARS-CoV-2 virus can jump again, from humans, back into animals, back into wildlife, where it can wait, mutate, and change. Perhaps, years from now, it can infect people again.

“If we’re careful — and we’re lucky — there won’t be a wildlife population that becomes infected and becomes an established reservoir that can also infect people,” Sarah Olson, associate director of the health program at the Wildlife Conservation Society, says. “If it does, then we’ve got a long-term issue here, where this virus has the potential to be with us for millennia. And millennia is a long time. The risk may be small, but the consequences are huge.”

Our luck may soon be tested. On December 13, the US Department of Agriculture reported that a wild mink in Utah tested positive for the coronavirus.

“To our knowledge, this is the first free-ranging, native wild animal confirmed with SARS-CoV-2,” the National Veterinary Services Laboratories reported. A genetic analysis of the virus suggested the wild mink picked it up from a nearby mink farm, perhaps via wastewater runoff from the farm.

No other species surrounding the farm were found to be infected, though, and there’s no evidence that Covid-19 is spreading among wild mink. One possibility is the wild mink could have just picked it up from the farm and has not spread it since.

Another possibility: We haven’t yet detected a bigger outbreak. “This is potentially going to be a more widespread problem in wild mink,” says Stephanie Seifert, a researcher at Washington State University’s school for global animal health. It’s “very unlikely they swabbed the only wild mink with SARS-CoV-2.”

Mink are just one species. There’s no comprehensive analysis of all the animals in the world, whether or not they can get Covid-19 and spread it among themselves, and potentially to other wildlife. The virus could be establishing copies of itself in nature right now, and we would have no real-time way of knowing.

The light at the end of the tunnel for the pandemic is growing brighter, however. Safe, effective vaccines are now starting to be distributed in the US. But the eventual end of the pandemic will likely not mean the end of SARS-CoV-2. It may still sporadically, or more regularly — no one really knows — infect animals and wildlife across the world.

In the right animal host, the virus could lurk for years before an opportune moment to jump back into humans. Over that time, the virus could change a bit, mutating into a form that could evade the current vaccines.

Several species have been infected so far: cats, dogs, lions, tigers, pumas, mink, and, most recently, snow leopards. More species have been shown, in lab studies, to be vulnerable to infection.

But scientists are still investigating: How many more animals could potentially catch SARS-CoV-2, and what will it mean for the course of the pandemic and for the health of wildlife?

To avoid the worst, scientists and veterinarians need to know which animals SARS-CoV-2 could potentially infect, and figure out the chances of the virus jumping from humans to the animals and back to humans again.

Can dogs catch coronavirus? Can cats? Lions? What else?

Scientists already know of many types of animals that can catch SARS-CoV-2. They know it because the virus originated in the animal world — likely in bats. They also know it because they’ve seen several species of animals get infected.

Early on in the pandemic, tigers at the Bronx Zoo got sick (three of them had a cough)with the virus. Veterinarians have since found signs of Covid-19 infections in some of the animals that humans spend the most time with.

Jonathan Runstadler, a veterinarian at Tufts University, is running a surveillance study of animals that come in for treatment at the school’s veterinary clinic. So far, they’re finding “a few percent of those domestic pet dogs and cats are developing antibodies to this SARS-CoV-2 virus,” Runstadler says, meaning their bodies have encountered the infection and mounted an immune response.

“It is unknown where the infection or virus they responded to came from,” he says, but the “highest likelihood” scenario was that it came from human household members. Overall, he says, it’s not a lot of animals getting infected, but it’s clear that dogs and cats can, in some instances, be infected with the virus.

Cats seem to be more susceptible than dogs overall (though the cats themselves don’t seem to get very sick). Dogs are a highly diverse species. “So it’s possible that there may be specific breeds or types of dogs that are more susceptible, we don’t really know,” Siefert says.

Other animals have been shown to be much more susceptible not just to infection but to severe disease and even death. In Denmark, authorities ordered the culling of millions of captive mink after outbreaks occurred on hundreds of farms.

The concern wasn’t just that the virus was spreading among the mink, making them sick, making their breathing difficult, and killing many. It was that the virus had jumped from the mink and then back into people, with some genetic changes to the spike protein that the virus uses to enter cells.

“If the virus does begin circulating in a new species, the results will really be unpredictable,” Angela Rasmussen, a virologist with Georgetown’s Center for Global Health Science and Security, says. The virus is constantly mutating, changing in subtle ways. When it enters a new species, that species’ immune system makes it so a significantly altered strain of the virus emerges. “The real question is whether it will change in a way that is more or less detrimental to the human population,” she says.

ONCE A DISEASE ESTABLISHES ITSELF IN WILDLIFE, “IT’S JUST EXPONENTIALLY HARDER TO CONTROL”

Currently, there’s no clear evidence that the genetic changes that occurred on the mink farm would make the virus more likely to evade a person’s immune system or diminish the efficacy of a vaccine. But Denmark’s health authorities didn’t want to risk it. So they ordered the culling of all the mink. (Denmark’s health minister who made the decision has since resigned.)

The mink were a bit of a ticking time bomb: The virus spreads easily among mink in farms because they are kept in close quarters (the same ease of transmission happens among humans in close quarters).

Researchers are trying to figure out which animals could spread the virus from humans back to wildlife

It’s relatively easy to keep track of the virus in farmed animals. Their health is regularly monitored. Farmers notice when mink start dying. But what happens if the virus gets into an animal that spreads the virus asymptomatically, or gets into wildlife, which would be harder to track?

Once a disease establishes itself in wildlife, Olson says, “It’s just exponentially harder to control. I mean, you can barely get people to take vaccines. Imagine wildlife. You just have very limited options.”

The USDA maintains there “is currently no evidence” that the virus has established itself in wild mink populations near the farm where it was found. “It is important that surveillance in wildlife around infected mink farms continue, to identify if the virus enters local wildlife populations,” the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service spokesperson said in a statement to Vox.

Researchers can’t study every animal species on Earth and test whether it can carry SARS-CoV-2. They’re focusing their research on animals that could act as conduits between humans and wildlife.

Anna Fagre, a veterinarian and microbiology researcher at Colorado State University, is doing this research on deer mice. In a lab study, Fagre and colleagues revealed that deer mice can contract the virus and spread it among other deer mice.

Deer mice are common animals in rural areas. “We see them, if staying in, like, cabins in the woods, [deer] mice are going to set up shop there,” Fagre says. Deer mice are known to occasionally spread other viruses, and they exist at the interface between human dwelling and the broader natural world. They could be a conduit ferrying SARS-CoV-2 from humans to other wildlife.

In her lab, “we were able to inoculate and infect these deer mice, and they actually did transmit the virus to other mice they were housed with,” Fagre says. They experienced subtle symptoms like losing a bit of weight, and they “get a little bit quiet,” she says (quieter than, um, a mouse). Then, a few days later, they recover. That subtle illness might make it hard to realize if there are suddenly a lot of deer mice with the virus. Plus, these are not captive animals. If a viral mutation emerged among them, it would be discovered much later than what occurred in the mink.

“When this preprint [study] came out,” she says, “some people were like, ‘Oh, my god, this is so scary: deer mice! We’ll never get rid of the virus if deer mice become infected.’”

For Fagre, her results aren’t a reason to panic. It was just a lab study. The results don’t mean there are deer mice running around rural areas with the virus. They also don’t mean the mice will become a source of future infection for humans.

“There are so many different steps the virus would have to take to spill back from humans into deer mice, and then circulate in deer mice, and then be transmitted back from deer mice into humans,” she says. “I’m not saying it couldn’t happen. It certainly could. Cross-species transmission is what led to the Covid-19 pandemic.” The research helps scientists be vigilant. “It’s important to be aware,” she says.

Rare human-to-animal-to-human jumps could have huge consequences

Being aware of which animals can be infected with the virus helps researchers ask new questions, too. House cats of all sorts seem to be susceptible to the virus. “I live in kind of a rural area of eastern Washington and I’ve actually caught deer mice in my house,” Seifert says. “So I’m like, can my cat, if he kills deer mice, can my cat contract SARS-CoV-2? I don’t know.”

That is unclear. Also unclear: if there are circumstances where a cat could pass the virus to a human. It’s possible, but it has yet to be seen.

“We know that in experimental studies that this can go from cat to cat,” Danielle Adney, a veterinarian-researcher working with the National Institutes of Health, says. “In the real world, it really seems like every animal that’s been reported has a pretty clear link to an infected human. So this is still a pandemic that’s driven almost exclusively by human-to-human contact.”

(Pet owners don’t have to be wary of their cats infecting them. That said: A few of the veterinarians said their colleagues need to be really careful and wear good personal protective equipment and N95 masks when working on cats — particularly if they’re doing dental work.)

But we know that rare events can have devastating consequences. It was rare for SARS-CoV-2 to jump from bats to humans. “I’m very worried about cats,” Rasmussen says. “There’s a lot of feral cats out there in the world. There’s also a lot of people who have outdoor cats that may or may not interact with other feral cats or other outdoor cats. And then if those cats are coming back and snuggling with their owners, that’s a potential source for the virus to spill over for future ... introductions into the human population.”

She’s not saying this will happen or that it’s currently happening. She’s saying it’s something to monitor. Because “if it [the virus] got into something like cats, and became widespread among cats, that would be a huge problem in terms of being able to control it long term.”

It’s still unknown which species ferried the coronavirus from bats to humans in Wuhan, China. It could have been bats, but it could have been another species. Perhaps a similar species is found in other parts of the world and can carry the virus back and forth between humans and animals.

In the near term, vaccines will help avoid the virus jumping back from animals to humans. But 10 or 20 years from now, how many people will still be vaccinated and immune to Covid-19? No one knows. Thinking about Covid-19 in animals is to think about the bigger picture, on a longer timeline. Covid-19 could essentially hide in animals for years, waiting, subtly mutating and changing, before making a jump back into humans.

What’s hard about this topic is all the (literal) moving, crawling, trotting, scampering pieces: There are so many species, interacting with us in so many ways, interacting with other members of their own species in so many ways, interacting with other species in so many ways. In that sense, studying Covid-19 in animals is an opportunity to better understand the complicated ways diseases spread from animals to humans and back again. That could help keep SARS-CoV-2 at bay, but it could also help prevent future pandemics.

The research on Covid-19 and animals has uncovered some good news, too.

“Luckily, ducks and chickens and pigs have all been shown not to be susceptible, in laboratory studies, and cows have really low susceptibility,” Fagre says. That means that the situation that happened on mink farms is unlikely to occur on farms where these more common animals are raised as livestock.

It’s not just about human health, but animal health as well

Veterinarians can think of a lot of potentially scary scenarios here. Some of them are scary not just in terms of human health, but for animal health, too.

Scientists have conducted broad surveys of animal biology, noting which animals have a cellular receptor similar to the ACE-2 receptor in humans. This is a protein found on the surface of many human cells that the virus uses as a front door to start hijacking the cell and replicating within it.

At the top of the list of potentially most at-risk animals are some of the most critically endangered species on the planet, and some of our closest genetic relatives in the natural world.

At the Bwindi Impenetrable National Park in Uganda, veterinarian and conservationist Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka is concerned about a potential outbreak among the park’s 460 mountain gorillas, which represent nearly half of all mountain gorillas left in the wild.

Gorillas share 98.4 percent of their DNA with humans. They have a similar immune system and have similar cellular proteins through which SARS-CoV-2 enters to infect the body. If one of these precious few gorillas got infected, Kalema-Zikusoka worries they would get sick and die. Worse, the disease could spread rapidly among them.

“They don’t know how to social distance,” Kalema-Zikusoka says. Likewise, there’s no putting a mask on a 300-plus-pound wild gorilla. “They’re always grooming each other, they’re always moving together as a group. So if one of them gets Covid-19, it’s very easy for the rest of them to get it.”

The virus, she says, plainly “is a threat to the gorillas,” as well as to chimpanzees and orangutans, which also share an overwhelming amount of DNA with humans. It’s not easy to treat a wild gorilla if it gets sick. And if one does, she says, the plan is to quarantine potentially exposed gorillas via 24-hour monitoring by park workers in the forest.

“You can’t provide the same level of intensive treatment to a wild gorilla as you would a human being, who you can put in a hospital ward, put on a ventilator for days and days,” she says. Instead, they would try to treat the gorillas in their own habitat, shooting pharmaceutical-loaded darts at the animals, if need be.

“The best we can do,” she adds, “is teach people to social distance from them.” Since the pandemic began, all people visiting the gorillas in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park in Uganda must wear masks, they must get their temperatures checked, and they must stay 10 meters (32 feet) away from the animals.

Just as Covid-19 threatens gorilla conservation in Uganda, in North America, researchers are worried about bats. In recent years, millions of North American bats have died of a fungal disease called white nose syndrome. The pandemic threatens bats, for one, because it has basically shut down research on live bats. There’s fear that humans could give the bats the virus and start an outbreak among them. “We don’t know if that can happen and which species that can happen in,” Siefert says. But considering how this virus likely originated in bats, scientists don’t want to risk it.

There’s no knowing what SARS-CoV-2 would do to bats in North America or which species it could infect. Perhaps more would get sick and die. If infected, North American bats could become a reservoir species for SARS-CoV-2, a potential source of the virus for other wildlife and, down the line, for more human infections.

All the veterinarians I spoke to stressed that whatever is happening with Covid-19 in animals right now, it’s not as critical, or dire, as the situation in humans. It makes obvious sense that there are more resources currently going into tracking the spread among people than tracking the spread among animals.

“Thousands of people are dying every day from this virus,” Fagre says. “Everyone’s first priority isn’t screening a bunch of wild rodents to see if they’ve been exposed.”

But down the line, perhaps we should prioritize them. Covid-19 is leaving a lot of shadow imprints on the world. It has upended lives and industries. But it’s also potentially burrowing itself back into nature, where it will wait. This virus came from nature, and it may very well return there. Scientists ought to track it as it does.

“This isn’t going to be the last spillover event,” Olson says, where a virus jumps from animals to humans. “We owe it to future generations to get our act together here.”

[yekulan-dothkah]

Plot & Story Meme

ONE PLACE ♦ The Black Shroud: “These woods have come to be my new home, between my own fascination and obligations, I spend a majority of my time within them; I see my own home less than the hut I built within the depths of the wilderness. I enjoy studying the flora and fauna, learning how to not only co-exist, but maintain the delicate balance that being like yourself and I threaten to destroy. It’s comforting that my desire is accompanied by the gift of being a Hearer; the Elementals make my job that much easier when I can literally hear their pleas for justice or satisfaction.”

TWO VILLAINS ♦ Poachers: “When I first left the Steppes, I was looking to become stronger and faster, to become a force of reckoning that would one day return to Azim and fight alongside my tribes to push back the empire. A naive goal for a single Xaela, admittedly, but I’ve been able to re-purpose my hunting tactics for a breed of gluttonous bipedal Aldenard creatures; poachers, to be specific. The one thing the Elementals won’t stand are these greedy hunters disturbing the balance of the Black Shroud, and so every poacher is my enemy, and me theirs. While I try not to enjoy hunting this witty prey, sometimes it’s hard to hold back what was ingrained in me from my younger days and I catch myself smiling.” ♦ My Arm “I know it sounds silly, but my aether mutated arm is both my biggest gift and worst enemy, I am constantly fighting with it to survive. In time it will claim me, but until then it grants me the opportunity to do amazing feats; from mending Hedgetree’s, to purifying Treant’s of disease, even repopulating threatened plant species, and the ability to give or take life. Balancing my chores, my aether, and how often I use it are crucial to making the most of my time until the mistakes I made to gain the arm catch up with me. I have done some research on a theory that should extend my lifetime tenfold, to that of a normal person, but it’s all still numbers and theories, only testing it will prove if it works or not.”

THREE RELATIONSHIPS ♦  Yekulan & Thrae “Easy, first off, Thrae Illiam. She was there for me when I was trying to relearn living, literally, and quickly helped me become a mature adult again after losing my memory. We quickly became friends and as we found out more about the other, we slowly became more entwined in each other’s emotions as well. We take care of each other in a special way, a way I didn’t know existed before meeting her; she grounds my thoughts, helps comfort me after many a lonely day in the shroud, and there’s never doubt in my mind I’m loved no matter how near or far she is. It was only a matter of time before we married and ran off together for a few weeks on our honeymoon before getting back to our busy obligations.” ♦ Yekulan & Motoko “I’ll admit, I was nervous to adopt, but Thrae assured me all would be well. When we found Motoko, I like to think we both decided in the same moment she was coming home with us. Between her rough upbringing and my own stories of the Steppes and the Shroud, we have a variety of stories to tell and share knowledge from. I couldn’t have hoped to get along better with our child; we take turns cooking and teaching one another recipes, helping each other out with finding things to wear, and I relish the days we simply curl up in a soft warm spot under the sun and enjoy the others company. She’s forced me to grow up even faster than Thrae did, but for better, not worse.” ♦ Yekulan & Altan “Altan is my best friend, the friend I have known the longest, and my guidance through many an event. She was there when I was found as a child in the Steppes, when I left for Aldenard, when I took up mercenary work, and when I wiped my memory. She was my first partner, a friend with benefits as you say here in Aldenard, but neither of us wanted to tie down to a western concept and prefer to live freely, until I met Thrae at least. We still have the occasional session with one another, but we also still meet as friends for company to talk and bond over the odd things we find the people of Aldenard do. Helping each other learn as we were both new to Aldenard was when our bond grew the most, followed by when she helped essentially be my mother after I lost my memory; supporting me in more ways than I can count as I gained my bearings again.”

FOUR ITEMS ♦ My First Grimoire “Twelve, I don’t know what I would do without my grimoire. It started off as a gift from my longest known and best friend Altan right after I lost my memory, but it’s quickly become much more than a book full of my naïve observations; if you flipped through it you would be able to watch a child become an adult over a matter of several hundred pages. While it weighs a tonze I like to think my knowledge is literally making me stronger by carrying it around, I’ve had to get it rebound several times due to its increasing size until I had to give up hauling it around. I recently transcribed it to a more readable large book with a few hundred less pages thanks to being more organized, but I’ve kept the original as a keepsake of sorts; something to look back on and see how far I’ve come from my mistakes.” ♦ Wolf Mask “This raggedy old thing? My first hunt for the conjurers guild as a Hearer; not being able to cast magic conventionally as a conjurer I was forced to relearn how to use a bow and daggers, the training was quick thankfully, even if my mind didn’t remember my past my muscles did and my skills came back quite quickly. Ready for my target I set out and slayed the tainted beast before it could do further harm; I nearly died being the young hunter I technically was, but my reflexes won out in the end against the wolf’s brute strength and speed. I’ve worn it as a sort of trophy ever since, reminds me of what I did wrong and much like my grimoire, reminds me of how far I’ve come since arriving in Aldenard; going from a power hungry warrior to a protector of the forest I once called a killing ground.” ♦ Vath Chest Piece “Ah, yes, my armor. To make a long story short, when the doors to Ishgard were finally pulled open for a select few, I took it upon myself to sneak by with the help of a smuggler or three. I needed to see this land that had been secluded for so long, to see the flora and fauna; how a section of land grows when secluded from the rest of it. My findings were nothing short of extraordinary; wild chocobo’s, dragons in quantities best described as hordes, and beasts of all size and shape, most having become massive apex predators in order to survive or developing aggressive tactics for normally docile creatures like herbivores. My most enjoyable find was the Vath, a group of insect people who happily took in my teachings on useful concoctions and remedies, I even performed work for some room and board amongst them while I studied the local wildlife. In return for my efforts to help them they insisted I have a piece of their armor, and that I was always welcome in Loth ast Vath; not only is the chest piece sturdy, but it doubles as an amazing camouflage within the Black Shroud, I have theories that the land the Vath call home once looked a lot like the Black Shroud given how well they would blend in here.“ ♦ Wedding Ring “How could I forget, my wedding ring. It means a lot to me that Thrae proposed to me, I would have been a fool to say no, but it didn’t make it any less daunting of a question. It’s more commitment than I had ever accepted before; having run away from the problems of Doma, literally, only to run away from my problems again in Aldenard, metaphorically, I had a habit of running away from a problem once I found it. To say I wasn’t running anymore, to accept my choices and start settling down with another; it’s been an adventure but something I’ve enjoyed greatly in the same breath.

FIVE  CHARACTERS ♦ Shattered Shield "I don’t think I’ve every trusted a mercenary with my life as much as I do Shield. He’s quite the character, and fighter besides. He was the first real connection I made in Aldenard, needing escort from Lominsa to Gridania I hired him for the job and was not disappointed. Not many people mess with a Roegadyn standing that tall or broad, and the few fools that did quickly learned their lesson. He was kind and gentlemanly from what I remember, staying up on watch till the wee hours of the night, and an ever vigilant eye on the road ahead. Sometimes I wonder if I’d still be alive today if I had tried the same trip on my own, but I also catch myself wondering how he is doing and hoping all is well for him. Maybe I should try sending him letters, the Moogles are awfully good at finding people.” ♦ Mallogon Longspear “An odd fellow, I’ll admit my past self was a bit smitten over Mallogon’s caring demeanor to say nothing of his appearance. If nothing else, he was, no, is, an amazing friend. I knew him before my loss of memory, now that I can remember that far back I recall him mending my stubborn self as well as my wounds; he was teaching me not to be so cold and uptight about remaining alone in this new strange land. I also remember right after I lost my memory, when I was trying to learn how to work and earn a living I would clean and cook for anyone willing to pay. You wouldn’t believe his face when he saw little old me dressed up like a maid, while it made no sense to me then is always makes me stifle a giggle to remember it now; I even remember hearing noise from inside the house and upon looking back on the moment, I’m guessing he trashed the house just so he’d have an excuse to pay me to clean it. I still remember that kiss we shared, my second one here in Aldenard, the thought still makes my knees a bit weak. I didn’t know at the time you don’t kiss your maid so I thought it was fine, but it’s obvious to me now that wasn’t my smartest decision.” ♦ Vaega Navarro “I can’t tell you how confused I was when I mentioned Vaega’s name at the Conjurer’s Guild one day and received several gawking stares, no one could believe I knew the man. He came to my store one day, looking around for products to help with his beauty. Naturally I had several products to offer like a lotion for his fur to become soft and fuller, a mask to wear before bed that would help his face from wrinkling and remain firm, and some naturally dyed cosmetics for makeup; namely my home grown Soldiers Sore paste, something Miqo'te use to paint their faces. He was one of my first customers and has truly helped get my business off the ground, that aside he is quite the company to keep, extravagant in more ways than one and always enthralling to listen to over a cup of tea or coffee.” ♦ Myoro “That beautiful woman, I wish I could do more to help her. Myoro is stricken with a problem I can’t solve, but can only slow; I can’t begin to describe the pain of seeing a patient and knowing one day something terrible will happen and there’s nothing you can do to stop it- It’s been a tough lesson to say the least, to know I can’t help everyone and accept that fact. To the same extent, we’re not that different, my own problem will claim me some day, and she has helped teach me to seize every day, enjoy it to the fullest and not let dread hold me down. She also, coincidentally if my recovered memory serves me right, was my first kiss in Aldenard, I was so smitten by her beauty my brash self simply asked if I could and she said yes. Ah, how daft and young I must have seemed; thinking back on it, meeting her again after my loss of memory was nothing short of a miracle, one I’m glad happened. She has since become more than a patient, a close friend I enjoy the company of every chance I get.” ♦ Keelah Se'Lai “Keelah, yes, of course I remember her, my spritely neighbor down the way. I often find myself stopping to envy her garden as a walk by on my way into the Shroud. I recall her going through a number of ups and down, while on the up she is a little, *ahem* loud some nights with her company, nothing I couldn’t drown out with a pair of pillows; none the less I can’t deny she has helped spark some more creative ideas in bed with Thrae. On the other hand, I recall hearing crying on the odd night; I would bring her fresh baked goods and some of my alchemical concoctions in hopes that maybe a day of treats and pampering would help. I hope she’s okay, maybe I should drop off another basket, I haven’t heard from her in some time." 

SIX MOMENTS ♦ Abandonment "When I was a part of the Dotharl Tribe I went into combat at a much younger age than I should have, sneaking into combat against my Khan’s best wishes. With just a spear and my agility to save me I fought and killed, trying to live up the warrior I was named after, only to take a large blow to the back of my head. After visiting the tribe again many years later, I found out they thought I was dead and left me out to be consumed by the wild life like all the other casualties. I woke up before that thankfully and wandered around looking for my now lost family. After a week of living on my own and nearly starving I was found by the Kahkol; it was a different lifestyle to say the least, but in the end I accepted them as family and they accepted me, that is how I got my tribe name of Dothkah, it is also thanks to that incident I found Altan, my best friend.” ♦ Reunion “In Aldenard, I was alone for many moons after I arrived and escaped an Ishgard convoy that tried to kill me and others who had fled Doma, nearly died countless times along the way. One day while I was drinking in Limsa she found me, Altan, for the first time in moons I didn’t feel alone. While it was evident I had changed in my time abroad, Altan was warm and welcoming as always, and a little frisky. I guess all that time crammed on a boat does that to people. Anyways, without her finding me there in the Drowning Wench, I’m not sure where I would be now, probably still drinking and hunting, if I hadn’t died yet.” ♦ Lost Memories “You have to understand, Altan tells me it was a moon, but I was asleep for what felt like years due to an artifact I had found we later discovered was of Machi design. The artifact induced horrible vivid dreams of what I can only assume was an attempt to torment the target with their worst fear; mine was losing control of my anger, hurting my friends and family. I was out of my body, watching as a soul while my body went from house to house, from one friend to the next, and finally Altan, killing them all violently. They would run, flee, fight, and every time I would kill them. I would wake, only to find the dream starting over again, or worse; I would be one of my victims, hacking myself apart and unable to stop it. The trauma of those endless nightmares scared me, scarred me, when the curse was finally broken I couldn’t handle the memory of such a dream that felt so real. I employed Altan to find an alchemist with the means to rid me of those horrid dreams; while she found one, a Ramza Wyvernjack, he could not rid me of my nightmares without ridding me of my life’s memories as well. I said my goodbyes to my closest friends, before having Altan tie me to that damned chair, those moments are the fuzziest even now, but I can recall that moment of regret, the want to back out, to keep trying to push past the nightmares, but Altan couldn’t hear me past the gurgling of the potion down my throat…” ♦ Lazy Problems “If my memory loss wasn’t bad enough, I was bored and wanted to learn magic, I was lazy and thought it would make my life easier. A little cloud to rain on my garden, hot fires for cooking, ice for my icebox, wind to dry off after a bath, lighting to fertilize soil, earth to dig and plant easier; all foolishly simple desires. I paid for it, I wasn’t casting magic properly, and without a focus or output, I was using large amounts of mana for small spells because I didn’t understand channeling either. Before long my arm that I was using to funnel all my magic through built up a residual pool of aether, playing with all the elements meant the result could have been anything, but it seemed earth was my burden and like a sprout, a green tinge began to spread up from my fingertips before turning into leaves and vines. I can’t tell you all the horrible ways I tried to rid myself of the mutation, but like the hardiest of plants it always grew back. Thanks to Thrae I figured out how to manage the mutation, to slow it’s spread, but it’s already gone too far and put my life at risk, I don’t have much time left thanks to it, but I’m trying to make the most of it.” ♦ Dried Lalafel “I was in Ul'Dah, dropping off a crate of potions for the sick and poor, when I was jumped by a merchant I had pissed off with my free service and his pair of bruisers. While they beat me within an ilm of my life that night, the malice of my former self quickly shined through my loss of memory. I found the merchant, framed my own apology to remove my motive, before sucking the man’s aether right out of him with my arm; I’ll admit, it was more of an accident than intentional, but the crafty poison I put in his wine would have killed him if I didn’t use my arm. I left his withered body in that house of riches he had earned off the backs of the poor, no one has been the wiser to suspect me yet, most probably don’t even remember that ass of a merchant and competitors were probably grateful.” ♦ Whispers “I remember it so vividly, sitting down for dinner with Altan when the voices first started, they were quiet whispers, but as I ignored them through the meal they only grew louder and louder. I remember the look on her face as I closed the windows in confusion, she was as baffled as I was. Sure enough they got louder the more I ignored them, until I opened the front door to tell whoever it was to be quiet before I was crippled, laying on the ground grasping my horns in agony as they shouted at me. It was the Elementals, and in trying to learn conjury I had awoken my ability as a Hearer, or at least that’s what they told me at the Conjurers guild the next day when I went looking for answers. They taught me how to drown out the voices, how to focus on a single voice in need of help, and how to listen when I wanted to instead of all the time. It’s because of that night I hunt poachers, that I live so much of my life in the shroud seeking to help balance the forest, that I have the connection with nature that I do.”

SEVEN QUOTES ♦ “Oh dear.” I didn’t know swears in Eorzean for the longest time, but I had been able to figure out ‘Oh dear’, could mean many things depending on the tone, and used it regularly until I learned more vocabulary, it’s sort of just stuck since. ♦ “Maybe if I…” I’m always looking for ways to improve, to do things better than what was previous accepted, even if I was the one who set the old standard. Everything from the arrangement of crops and their rotations, all the way to how to approach a frenzied beast in the Shroud. I often think out loud. ♦ “I can do better.” Failure is just an excuse to get back up, try again, and do it better; this normally comes after ‘Maybe if I’ as far as quotes go. ♦ “This is Amazing!” Normally what comes out of my mouth after I realize what I’ve been missing, or come to a conclusion on a new theory. Normally it’s about a potion recipe that when I test it actually works, but lately it has been regarding the Amdapori sigils I’ve been experimenting with. ♦ “To fight for that which can’t protect itself, to do good until my last moments, if for no other reasons than I take great pride in good deeds, and I owe it to this world for my violent past” I have killed many creatures and people needlessly in my time, I seek to redeem that past now with what time I have left, as simple as it is said. ♦ “Elementals, forgive me.” Nearly every day I ask for their forgiveness, sometimes I need to take from their bounty, or kill for food, other times I commit what would be woodsin if not for my duty as a Hearer, but it makes me no less aware of my actions and their costs. I try to say it to let them know I am thoughtful of my actions. ♦ “You reek of Woodsin.” I get a little carried away when I go ‘hunting’, I’ll admit, and this one slips out more than I would like; but to be fair poachers do smell awful, I think I’ve gained a nose for smelling woodsin, less the smell so much as the scent most people who have it carry. I’m not sure if they all use the same soap or maybe it’s the sweat covered coins that line their pouches. ___

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[kaaramel]

i conked out at like 2am writing this so weigh that in your mind vis-a-vis expectations of quality

the dialogue is weird and stilted a'purpose, partly as like, 'translation' into english from trashtalk (which i imagine is mostly pretty direct) and partly because fish hasnt held a damn conversation in years

whatever woooo apocalypse time

The day had been scorchingly hot, which was bad, and witheringly dry, which was worse. Time was, he might have preferred a dry heat, but things had changed. Drastically so. Now his water supply was unfathomably precious, and he was wasting half of it by sloshing it over his thin, membranous skin, trying in vain to keep himself moist, to wash off the dust and sand and ash that clung to him.

Once upon a time, the beginning of the end of the world, there had been all sorts of crackpot theories, doomsday cults and conspiracists blooming and thriving on the chaos of the profound, unstoppable destruction. One faction he remembered with particular bitterness had held that the influx of radiation was simply ushering in a new age - the powerful mutagen was gifting stagnant humanity a new method of evolution, allowing them to adapt to their new environments, guiding them to radiate into a thousand brand-new, more powerful, better-suited forms. The cults were long since disbanded or dead or themselves mutated into unrecognizability, but he would have liked to confront them, perhaps. Demand what their oh-so-idealistic philosophy of hyperadaptation could say to explain away being shaped into a fish in the middle of the desert.

He'd kept two legs, two arms, two eyes, one head, and such. That was more than some poor bastards could say. His skin was more like a frog's than a fish's, strictly speaking, scale-free and smooth and a vivid shade of green; it was the fins and the wide, thick-lipped mouth that gave him the impression that he’d go well with tartar sauce. He'd never been near a body of water large enough to test whether he actually had gills, but a certain internal fluttering and other changes in the way he breathed suggested he might. He'd never been much of a looker, even before, but he could run and talk and shoot, all of which were skills that counted, in this new and harsher world.

He was not much more than another desert scavenger, competing with the scorpions and the maggots. The bandage-cloaked bandit gangs were the closest thing to civilization, and they bickered and stole and fought among themselves, endlessly. He survived; that was about all that could be said, and it pained him, when he had the energy to spare for self-reflection.

The bandit gangs had been quiet lately, which really should have been a sign. He hadn't paid enough attention, had just been grateful for the lull in activity. As far as he could gather, several factions had been united under a single strong leader. He had not, unfortunately, deduced this through some sort of brilliantly skilled ex-cop investigative work. It was a guess inspired by his current state of being shot at by a big fuckin' bandit and his swarm of cronies.

Cowering behind cover (the bleached skull of some long-dead fishlike creature, which wasn't particularly encouraging) he worked to reload his trusty, slightly battered revolver. He'd been hit once, but that was fine, he'd always worked better under stress. Think of it as motivation to get this over with quickly. Another flurry of bullets whizzed around him, some of them cracking into his makeshift protection, which wouldn't last forever. He just needed to find the right moment.

The shooting paused. The bandit leader spat some crude and guttural jabbering about cowardice, his voice betraying that he was on the move, angling for a new position. Time to move - he ducked and rolled, came up on his feet, revolver steady -

Something burst out of the rocky wall of the canyon - about baseline human-size and bipedal, purple, faceted surfaces that the sun reflected off. It continued the wild charge, funneled its momentum seamlessly into a furious uppercut that sent one unlucky bandit flying off its feet and crashing headlong into another. Both went down in a tangle of wrappings and rifles. The lead bandit turned, distracted, unloaded a wild barrage of gunfire at the newcomer with a roar of rage. The forgotten loner, not distracted at all, trained his revolver on the towering figure and fired, over and over, until his target crumpled to the desert sand.

The remaining bandits cut their losses and fled, trading frantic accusations and vicious insults (Trashtalk, as its name would suggest, was a language truly rich with insults - even the simplified pidgin the bandits spoke). He approached the big bandit's corpse as the dust cleared, anxious to loot him before any particularly daring bandits chose to regroup. It was a shame about the mutant that had leapt into the fray like that, earning itself nothing but a showy entrance and a point-blank flurry of gunfire, but perhaps it had been carrying valuables as well...

A crystalline formation jutting out of the ground beside the fallen bandit glittered brilliantly in the sunlight, and resolved itself somehow into a humanoid shape, albeit a squat and bulky one, with no obvious neck or any division between head and torso. It was the mutant that had plowed through a solid wall of rock, then taken the brunt of bandit gunfire, and it was clearly untouched. Grinning, it raised a chunky hand in friendly greeting.

"Hello." Its Trashtalk had an odd, eerie echo to it, but was entirely understandable. "Good shooting."

"How you alive?" he demanded, blunter and gruffer than he liked, his voice rough from disuse. He wished he could spare a drink of water.

It grinned, and its teeth were sharp and blindingly shiny. "Oh, that? I'm tough. I can handle a few bullets." The constructions it used when referring to itself were unfamiliar to him for a moment, and then he recognized the form. Feminine. She continued. "Like a rock, see? I reflect -" She flexed an arm, showing an impressive bicep, and it went rigid and sharp, the flat panes of it glossy in the bright desert sun. Pointed with the other, mimed a bullet's path bouncing off of it. "Ka-ping."

"You're very strong." He edged closer to the big bandit's body, wondering bleakly if she would demand the spoils from the kill. His best chance in that case would be to grab what he could and try to outrun her. There was something curious about the dirt near his corpse, a darker shape, a hint of movement.

"You too. Like I said. Good marksman." Her radiant smile hadn't faded. "Call me Crystal. What do I call you?"

Proper names in the wasteland were precious and rare. Too many painful memories were locked up in names from before, and on the flipside there were people now who hadn't been 'people' until the radiation, who hadn't had names at all. Mostly descriptions would do. Something snappy and short enough for your friends to yell, something obvious that didn't give too much away.

He shrugged. "Fish." What else?

"You alone? You want to come with me?"

He lost his train of thought entirely. "I - Alone. Yes. What?"

"Through the portals." He had heard the word, but not what it meant - by way of illustration, she pointed at the yawning purple vortex that had opened beside the bandit's corpse, swallowing a trickle of fine desert sand that swirled and disappeared inside. "I'm looking for something. Special. Important. You should come, Fish-out-of-water. This is no place for you."

What did he have to lose?

"Fläshyn," he grunted. Let's do this.

The bandits had carried nothing much useful besides ammunition and guns. Fish managed to patch himself up, liberated a shotgun and some shells that didn't seem in too dire a state. Crystal slung a machinegun over her craggy shoulder and strode confidently toward the portal.

"We need to stick together," she warned him, bracing her feet against the inexorable suction, and held out a hand for him to take. It was solid but surprisingly warm - not on the surface like a rock that had been in the sun, but truly heated from within. "It'll be rough. Hope you don't get sick easy."

"I'll survive," he said, and the portal drew them in to a dizzying timeless rushing void - nothing solid, nothing still, no way to orient himself or measure how long he'd been inside

- and emerged into clear blue waters.

He gasped reflexively for air and got a rush of warm water that soothed parts of his throat he hadn't known existed. He could breathe! Not labored, painful gasps for hot, dry, sandy air, real breathing!

Crystal's chuckle was distorted even more by the water. "Portals aren't always this nice. Lucky you, Fish."

"I will drink. This entire oasis." It was the only word that came to mind for body-of-water. Fish kicked off from the ground, swimming a few strokes experimentally. His efforts were a little clumsy, but respectable enough. Crystal appeared to be heavy enough to simply walk along the bottom.

"Staying here then? I won't make you go. This might be a good place." It was tempting for perhaps half a second.

Other fish - animal fish, not humanoid mutants - were already gathering. The bony, visible ribcages and sharp teeth weren't especially encouraging. A few tenacious scraps of water plants were clinging to the rocky bottom, achingly brilliant rippling green strands, but even as he watched, a few of the starvation-skinny fish got into a fight over the few stringy mouthfuls, snapping and ramming at each other viciously. If this was the state of the local wildlife, he'd just as soon keep moving.

"Was a nice thought." Guns and water didn't mix; he pulled out the only thing he carried that might be effective: a screwdriver, but one large and hefty enough to do some damage. Crystal flexed her fists and shifted into a fighting stance as the school of hungry fish closed in.