#teeny proto

[physically-bloody-medibot]

What if I eat you like a baked potato? (Fork and knife)

I WOULD JUS-ST LIKE THE 'TATO P-PLEASE!!!

[evilminji]

Ya'll know our BELOVED? Little Baby Man?

The noodliest ghosty boy?

What if he WAS Baby? It wouldn't be the first time Danny's enemies plotting gave him offspring. Only this time it's not a clone! It's a proper GHOST baby. Like Lunch Box.

Who's the other parent I hear you ask?

Pretty human-centric view point there buddy, to assume Ghosts NEED two participants to make an offspring. OR are limited to two! Just cause Lunch Lady And Boxie are a couple doesn't mean that's the standard!

We lack data here! ASSUME NOTHING. *sciences harder in your direction*

*awkward cough*

*shuffles notes*

ANYWAY! The child! All it would really take is one(1) VERY poorly timed ambush attack. Imagine if you will, a cell. How does it multiply? While not even close, the simplistic images ARE pretty good as an explanation!

But isn't that just an ecto-clone? You say?

Close!

But THOSE? Are hollow bags of GOO!

No CORE! *slaps the chalkboard behind me*

However! If you wanted, say, a precious bundle off joy? Well, nothing can come from perfect void! You must contribute the building blocks of LIFE! And what are those, my students, in ghost biology??!

Two vital pieces! The Ectoplasm aaaaaaand? That's RIGHT!

The CORE!

A critical and ever vital part of ghost biological function.

Which, like every OTHER part of the body, is malleable. One could, say, make it smaller. Create part of a proto core. OR, should one be ALONE in this process, a FULL protocol.

Upon which, ectoplasm latches, builds, develops and grows. Becomes its own soul.

Now! Do Not mistake me! There is a WILDLY vast difference between the formation of a core and a shattered core. Between willing life and untimely second death. It is not, and never WILL be, easy to create the soul of a child. Tampering with your core is PAINFUL, dangerous, and leaves you WILDLY vulnerable.

There is a REASON Neverborn are so precious.

Buuuuut..... *pulls out a book labeled "Curses Though The Ages"* we must ALSO consider the famed Fenton Luck(tm).

Consider! Where would be the "safest" place to practice making clones of yourself? A place that's wide open. No one wearing white likely to take pot shots at you while your attention is divided in multiple places at once. No parents blowing up the basement at a delicate moment and leaving you trying to hide that extra arm for a week...

Maybe you forget... oh yeah... OTHER GHOSTS.

So there Danny floats. In the Zone. DISTRACTED. His core HUGE from all that recently Royal business as it tries to digest it. Feeling bloated. Trying to work off some energy, as it were. Then who should come along? Why, the universes BEST HUNTER of course! To say *gun powering up noise* :) HI :)

Like buddies DO.

Danny doesn't see him.

Danny is mid-split.

At his limit, honestly. Already made as many copies as he usually can. Is trying for ooooone moooooore..... when...

PAIN. Something cracks.

He loses concentration. Tries to curl in on himself.

Both 1.5 of him tries. He loses hold of the "clone's" Ecto. Somethings free floating leaving his chest along with it. Behind him, Skulker is freaking out. That was MEANT to be on opening volley. A gentle little "hey, come fight me". That crack sounded SERIOUS.

Danny can't breathe. It's like the portal all over again. He curls tighter and tighter. Feels the crown, which was not THERE until this moment, press down tight and gripping onto his head. Thrumming. And then... something feels like a muscle releasing.

His core is... smaller? He'd been watching its progress, it couldn't have digest so fast... how did it lose so much... mass...

Danny feels all the blood drain from his face.

He nearly died.

Again.

His... his soul... WHERE IS HIS SOUL?? That's a piece of him! A part of his SOU-!

He spins around... only to meet the eyes off a blearly blinking, noodlish, cartoon like gremlin with his color scheme. Who's floating along like they're in zero-g. Just... drifting in a slow circle.

They yawn at him with a mouth full of teeny tiny baby fangs. Then chirp.

That's his Son. He doesn't know how, he doesn't know WHY, but he somehow instinctively... just... KNOWS?

They blep.

Danny looks a Skulker. His eyes hold MURDER.

"You're paying child support."

"......yes sir."

@hdgnj @stealingyourbones

[agbpaints]

How To: Basic Model Photography

Far too often I see folks post their newly painted minis online only to fumble at the last hurdle with a poor picture. It doesn't matter how good a painter you are, a bad photo can ruin any model. While you can invest in an expensive light box and a purpose-made camera, there are some things you can do to get at least quality photographs with a phone camera and some items from around the house.

Light

You want as much ambient light as possible plus some extra sources to account for the scale of the minis. If you have a room with big windows and the sun isn't directly blasting through them, that's great. If not then a reasonably bright overhead room light will work too. I also use an articulated LED desk lamp as a more controlled source to light the miniature from the front and illuminate details that an overhead source might cast into shadow.

Background

Try to get some sort of flat color backdrop to photograph your minis against. The easiest method I've found is to get a sheet of paper, I use some lightly colored and textured parchment paper, and then prop that up against something sturdy to make a gentle curve before setting your mini on it. Neoprene warhammer play mats or paper battletech maps can also work great for this if you do want a more thematic background to match your game of choice. This not only makes the model stand out more without visual noise in the background, it helps control your lighting and gives your camera an easier target to focus on.

Stability and Camera Distance

Your weak, fleshy meat hands might seem kinda steady but for the purposes of doing very scuffed macro photography they almost certainly aren't, so you’re gonna want some form of mechanical stabilization for your camera. A tripod is great for this, but if you don't have one then you can just prop your phone up on whatever surfsce you're taking the photos on.

You'll also want to play with how far the camera should be from the model for the best picture- I find that about 6-8 inches works best for my Galaxy 20 but your mileage may vary depending on what hardware you use.

Angles

Because a photo is a static 2d representation of a 3d object, the angle you take a photograph at relative to the model will chance which details are most visible and how the pose is read by the viewer. Think about how you want your finished piece to look like and consider taking a couple of protos with different angles and poses tonsee what works best.

Cropping

A teeny tiny mini in the middle of a big wide photo means anyone who wants to look closely at the details needs to zoom in on it, and most people won't do that! Once you've taken your photo, crop it down so that the miniature is filling the frame.

You could also consider the Rule of Thirds- most photo editing software will give you pairs of vertical and horizonal lines that divide an image into 9 segments, framing your subject in the photo so that it ends up falling along or framed by those lines can give you a guideline to easily produce a well composed photo.

Hopefully these tips help you take better photos of your models! It does take a few extra minutes compared to just snapping a quick photo off the paint betch but the extra effort is absolutely worth the results in my opinion

[milkydraws8]

teeny boppers on a shit little mission/camping trips

ft. a proto kid-flash

[sonicasura]

Yeah that defently happens when the third gets their kotatsus out. Though they are honestly smart in getting either Mina or Soshiro to get the himbo out. Noone wants to deal with those sharp claws or that those teeth all alone.

At least with either the vice-captain or captain there, theres a less chance Kafka would attack right away when someone tries to get him out or try to use the kotatsu his inside of.

Kafka does infact notice when his winter coat start growing. And he is more like "Really? NOW you decide to show up?!" than anything else. He always was a little jealous of his mom and grandpa not struggling as much in staying warm during winter.

He honestly goes on a small tirade should someone ask why he seems so miffed about it too.

Speaking of warmth. When Proto was able to get away with it, he would turn back into his kaiju form and snuggle up to either Akari or Kafka when they were babies. Hina often found herself giggling at the sight of a 12 meter tall kaiju trying his best to snuggle with his teeny tiny daughter or grandson to provied both warmth and security. Its kinda like how RedCoaster desciber her verson of the Titan Eren in her story Rough.

Its a quite the good read and quite a bit of fun too. And has given me much inspiration in how Kafka behaves as a kaiju. Especially when it involves the kids or anyone who's in need of a father for that matter. Theres just too much similarities between I can't help it.

I'd also recommed you try a read. But I don't know if you much of Attack on Titan fan.

Attack on Titan was one of the shows I indulged in during my late middle-highschool years. Season 4 sucks, I actually wrote stuff involving the franchise and Red Coaster's Rogue still remains my favorite AoT fanfic to this day. Hell, I once joked about dropping our kaiju himbo into said franchise. Totally agree with Kafka acting similar to how the Rogue Titan was portrayed in their story.

It's best to handle the kotatsu kaiju like one handles Bakko. Get someone you know is least likely to get scratched up or bitten. Soshiro probably laughs at the sight as Kafka's antics tend to do that.

The himbo going into a tirade about his winter coat finally growing in is on point. Also Proto trying to snuggle against his smaller daughter and grandson is hilariously adorable. I won't be surprised if Hina has a picture of that.

There's probably an entire photo album or recordings of family kaiju shenanigans hidden somewhere.

[peterlorrefanpage]

You know what, this has been clanging around in my head for a bit so I'll share it: [Arsenic and Old Lace]Herman has been bugging Johnathan about getting a cat for weeks. Initially Johnathan was reluctant but one day after walking back from a job interview he sees a kitten abandoned in the park under a bush. He decides *fuck it, why not* and takes the kitten home to Herman. What both of them failed to realize is that the kitten is a teeny ball of terror that loves attacking people's feet

Oh, I love this! Here the boys are, trying to be Good Citizens (I am proud of Johnny going on job interviews!), and now they've got this ball of fur joyously clawing and chomping all visitors like a proto-Johnny. I can totally picture it. Oh, the looks on their faces! And they are utterly helpless before this tiny creature. Also for a moment, I spiraled off into a fantasy that connected the kitten Dr. Lorencz has in "The Boogie Man Will Get You" with this kitten. If we stick with film chronology: -Boogie Man was 1942 -Arsenic was released in 1944 - but was filmed in 1941 - Therefore: Herman Einstein + kitten foundling could become Dr. Lorencz + pocket kitten (Herman having had to, for various reasons, temporarily separate from Johnny, gone on the run, and adopt a new persona). Though kittens don't stay kittens for very long, so Jonathan would have had to find it in December 1941, and Herman would have had to take off almost immediately to get to the Boogie Man town and establish himself, and when we saw him there it was summer, so we may need some timey-wimey manipulation, heh.

[captain-kit-adventuress]

Not trying to derail a Black History Month post, but there is one teeny fact that's wrong, and that's that George Washington Carver did not invent peanut butter. He invented over 300 other uses for peanuts, and holy shit, that's amazing as hell and we owe him so much for each and every one of them. But peanut butter wasn't included.

A lot of sources will tell you it was John Harvey Kellogg, but that's complete white-supremacy bullshit. (And also fuck that guy, he was the worst. Have a wank in his honour so he'll spin in his grave.)

A proto-PB was very common among Incan peoples at least several hundred years earlier, if not more, and a lot of indigenous American populations (including from Central and South America) have ground all sorts of nuts, peanuts included, into all sorts of mixtures. I'd be willing to bet that lots of cultures worldwide had and have similar culturally-important foods, too.

That said: George Washington Carver was a ridiculously great inventor who contributed to science in ways many people can ever only hope to, and his legacy shines on in ways most people won't ever know, much less see or understand. This is absolutely not to take away from Carver's achievements, because there were so, so many of them and they were WAY more important than peanut butter.

He deserves to be memorialised about his actual accomplishments.

This Black History Month, reflect for a moment on the fact that George Washington Carver, famously "the inventor of peanut butter and more than 100 industrial uses for peanuts" wasn't, like, Doc Brown fucking around in his garage because he really liked peanuts but was specifically trying to introduce larger use of a nitrogen fixing legume into crop rotations against cotton monoculture which was destroying yields, livelihoods and the biosphere, and how most agribusiness farming now just destroys that topsoil on purpose and continues to grow a cotton monoculture (or soy or corn or whichever local monoculture is profitable) using petrochemical derived fertilizer, which is one element driving climate change

Daniel Hale Williams performed the first successful heart surgery. He also founded the first nonsegregated hospital in America because he was keenly aware of disparate health outcomes by race which is still a problem today.

WEB Dubois was a part of the delegations for the birth of the UN. His proposal to include in the charter that "the colonial system of government … is undemocratic, socially dangerous and a main cause of wars" was not adapted for the final draft. We might see inaction against colonial violence to this day as part of the failure of others to heed his warnings there.

I feel like so often when we look at Black History Month so much of it is driven by factoids but when taken as history in context its about a direct line from decades and centuries to what is happening right now.

[glowingstaranon]

Who’s the best boy Minus or Proto

They blush.

"T-that's a tough question to answer! They're both my mates and I love them dearly - they're both good boys in different ways."

[cao-the-dreamer]

So I read this post by @pastelpaperplanes and I was like “ah fuck it this is too sad I want to give Crusade a friend” and then my brain remembered HEY WAIT THERE’S ANOTHER BABY AMONG THE CONS!!

Bam plot and fluff were born

One unexpected friendship (feat my fav obscure character) coming right up hehehehe. 

*******

If someone had taken a photo at that precise moment, there would only be a blur of colours as a result.

As for Crusade, they had a second to be surprised when they were brutally tackled before fighting instincts kicked in and they tried to use the momentum to roll around and pin their opponent to the ground. Unfortunately, it was like shaking off a Proto-Leech, as the attacker clung to their frame with all their might. 

“Getting tired already, teeny?” they taunted.

“Nope,” Crusade shot back with a devilish grin, “I just haven’t used my secret attack yet!”

They threw their hands against the smaller one’s belly and they shrieked with laughter as Crusade began tickling them mercilessly.

“Unfair!!” they called out between two fits of giggles.

“It’s still super effective! Do you yield, Connie?”

A faceful of purple skin was shoved in their visual field before the girl half-heartedly kicked them and finally relented. Both kids dropped on the floor, snickering, then Connie stuck her tongue out at Crusade.

“Cheater.”

“It’s not cheating when it’s a fight,” Crusade stuck their glossa out too.

“Yeah yeah, you’re gonna defeat baddies with tickles now?”

“Why not? You’re just cranky cause I’m not gonna carry you this time.”

“Hey, I make a perfect backpack!”

“A lazy backpack then.”

“Am not!”

“Am too!”

They kept bickering and didn’t notice Soundwave quietly laughing in the background. He then sent a warning ping to Strika, as the following days were going to be filled with double trouble. She responded with a request about unleashing the kids in the same room as Tarn and filming until the purple tank lost his nerves. 

Soundwave pinged back with a “will do” just as the minibots gathered around Connie and Crusade with various toys in hands. The purple organic clapped her hands when she saw a frisbee, then grabbed it and threw it at Crusade while shouting “think fast!”

Nobody knew what exactly went through Scorponok’s helm when he created Project Firstborn, but once Megatron heard about it, he promptly shut it down and ordered the scientist to put his brain on more useful matters and focus on the war instead of wasting resources. But Connie had already been born, and Megatron didn’t hurt sparklings, no matter how squishy they were. 

In the end, maybe Scorponok deserved a little credit, as the unlikeliest friendship had bloomed between Crusade and Connie.

It wasn’t really a secret the young heir possessed civilian frame coding, it just wasn’t said out loud. However, said coding had given them a more fragile frame compared to other Decepticons, which made Megatron extremely worried about his child getting hurt. And their difference ostracised them from the rest of the Decepticon army, not blatantly, but enough to make them cry in confusion wondering if they did something bad.

But Connie was smaller, more frail-looking, and absolutely didn’t care about bloodlines since she was herself a “freak”. She was literally unable to hurt Crusade. Add the fact the little spitfire loved to rough and tumble, got an extreme (and surprising) resilience, and was unable to shut up (blame Misfire for that), this was the result: Crusade got a playmate with whom they didn’t have to hold back, in sass and in strength. And they both didn’t care about the other’s origins.

Soundwave dodged the frisbee just in time before it smashed him in the face. The disk bounced on the wall, clattered on the floor and Connie launched to grab it. She grinned at Crusade, readied her stance, threw the frisbee…

Which whacked Megatron right in the helm just as he entered the room.

Both kids froze. Megatron raised an eyebrow. Crusade moved in front of Connie, trying and failing to be inconspicuous in shielding her from their carrier’s possible wrath.

But Megatron simply laughed and picked up the frisbee, which looked hilariously small between his digits.

“Your stance is not bad, but you could use a little more force. May I show you?”

Taken aback, Connie nodded. What followed was an improvised class of frisbee with Megatron more often than not receiving the disk in the shins. The kids enthusiastically followed the big leader’s advices, then promptly used him as a jungle gym once they were bored. 

Soundwave smiled behind his mask as he witnessed Crusade’s radiant expression spread across their face.

[joisbishmyoga]

Random thought: so we all know how Spock keeps popping immediate family out of the woodwork without ever having mentioned them before?

Worldbuilding idea: This is Vulcan manners. 'Not mentioning family' is so deeply rooted in their culture they don't even notice*, but it's straight from pre-Surakian times, and very early on at that. Vulcans were in a state of constant, complicated, and ever-shifting internecine warfare for most of their history, all of their recorded history before Surak. Like, Romeo and Juliet would've been Baby's First Fairy Tale levels of clan war. (Only two clans in the fight! Barely half a dozen deaths! It's practically Sesame Street!) So you don't want to talk to that stranger at the oasis only to discover your grandfather's pet sehlat ate all the plomeek in their great-grandfather's garden, so now you're obligated to fight to the death once you're far enough to not contaminate the water. (Vulcans are also a desert people; their planet has very little water. Tie-in novels claim there was a massive solar flare around the same time proto-Vulcans were figuring out words.) So yeah, Vulcan culture, Spock (and any Vulcan) can have as many relatives as the writers want without ever having to mention they exist.

* this might even explain the completely illogical bias against teeny!Spock, racist bullying going unaddressed and esteemed scientific officials flat-out calling his human heritage a handicap to his face. Everybody can identify his family on sight, and that is abhorrently rude.

[physically-bloody-medibot]

proto you are so small can i hold you in my hands for a moment? i promise ill be careful.

JA!! BE CAREF-FULL!! OH! AND GLOVES ARE REC-COMENDED, UNLESS YOU D-DONT MIND BLOOD AND LEAD T-TOUCHING YOUR SKIN!!

[stitchieau-the-actual-one]

Okay, so an this is an idea I had at like... 3am this morning when I just couldn’t sleep. (yeah, yeah I know more stuff for @megamanrecut be mad at me some other time)

This is Aspen Proto and Elec’s adopted son, whose actually an alien equivalent to an advanced android. As a newborn he had clear hair, skin, and eyes for developmental reasons, so he needs his father to assimilate his coding. But since his mother was a neglectful sort, and his father was mostly presumed dead. So him and Proto kinda just bond and Elec just rolls with it until he too succumbs to the tiny developing android. Aspen is a rather quiet child who only really gets chatty if he’s around family or really needs something in particular. 

so some factoids on this too:

* you know how you can calm a fussy baby by driving them around the block? Well the way to Aspen’s heart in that context, is to literally sit him next to Wily. He loves hearing world domination plots sooo much, it puts him to sleep.

*Proto and Elec actually had to be in close constant vicinity of Aspen for 1 year and 3 months, because his tiny body needed their coding for the development of his tiny system. Everything from viral protection to eye color is determined by the parental coding bond. So in those first year and 3 months, Proto and Elec had to take turns taking care of him. However its a slow process and doesn’t require 24/7 attention so, Aspen would stay with Elec during crazy world domination schemes, otherwise its Proto.

*After that Top would get stuck with babysitting.

* Aspen has met his actual father, but since his father left him. the necessary paternal bond isn’t there, so to Aspen he was no different then a random stranger off the street. So he pitched a fit until Dad or Papa found him, and saved him from this crazy spooky looking guy. 

*For Aspen’s kind sight is the last thing to fully develop, so he’s severely nearsighted until the age of 2. But he knows his family without it. Papa smells like Polo and old bookstores and Dad constantly smells like a hanger. kinda hard to miss it.  And well, Wily and Top look unique enough for Aspen’s teeny developing eyesight and brain not have trouble knowing immediately who he’s looking at.

*Tango and Aspen couldn’t be any closer, even if they wanted too. 

*Yes, Aspen assimilated Proto’s sleeping habits. you could burn the entire world down, place him near a jet, nothing will wake him. except maybe Papa shaking his tiny body which in that case he’ll always have a microfit over. “No I don’t wanna wake up, lemme sleep. No I don’t want snackies! I want sleep!” essentially. 

* when under immense distress Aspen becomes a tiny electrified hot potato, but getting him to that point takes a lot since he has Proto’s Aloof disposition and Risk taking behaviour and Elec’s ability to just straight up not give a single shit. 

*if you hand him something, Aspen will just stare at it. 

[vivithefolle]

Do you think that Ron and Hermione's relationship is normal? I'm shipping them for so many years now. But now after seeing so much romione bashing and people pointing out small mistakes in their relationship I doubt.

Btw I love your blog<3

♥

I certainly would have liked Romione better had Half-Blood Prince never happened. Seriously, I’m not bashing Hermione because I like it (........... ok fine I do enjoy it on some level because it’s complicated), and really I hate it that I can’t ship Romione as wholeheartedly and as happily as I used to back when I was teeny.

But... one of the reasons I’m so virulent about Hermione’s flaws and how much she hurt Ron is to fight Ron-bashing. Because Ron-bashing involves putting Ron under a magnifying glass and decreeding to hate on him for every tiny, single thing he did, in order to pretend he’s “unworthy”, in order to pass him off as an incel or even worse. Here, I’ll show you -

Do you think that is it possible for Ron to become abusive given the incidences of violence and just being a really shitty person that occur in the books?

This anon immediately got under my skin, because I had recently witnessed a truly hideous Ron-bashing fic posted in the Romione tag without being tagged properly and when I asked the author to tag it “Ron Weasley Bashing” they refused, stating it was “their opinion” and they were “extrapolating” canon. (The fic was about Ron-the-domestic-abuser-raping-a-pregnant-Hermione. Yes. Clearly that's an opinion and not just an open delusion. /sarcasm)

So I went all out. Because they want to “““extrapolate”““ from Ron’s flaws, but in the same breath pretend Hermione doesn’t do fucked-up shit? They try to quote Ron’s “incidences of violence” like Hermione wasn’t the one who canonically sent birds at Ron’s face?

That’s what makes me furious. That’s what gets my blood boiling. The double standards. The injustice, the unfairness of it all. So apparently Ron doing stupid shitty teenage things like dating someone he isn’t actually interested in because he’s starved for affection, or wanting to punch a proto-Nazi who insults his friends would translate into him being “abusive”, but Hermione can go around kidnapping and disfiguring people and she’s pure as the driven snow?

This is what drives me insane, the fact that people will scrutinize every single one of Ron’s actions and proclaim him an abuser but turn a blind eye to Hermione’s entirely, or worse, attempt to justify her behaviour by trying to make it out like it’s her victims’ faults.

I try to be as loud, as angry, but as implacably logical as possible when I’m confronted with idiots trying to bash Ron by “““extrapolating”““ his attributes. Because if you’re gonna put Ron under the microscope to find something to dislike, you damn better do the same to every other character. If you’re gonna apply ludicrous standards no human being could ever hope to meet to one person but not to others, then you’re no better than the common Draco Malfoy: a bully trying to lord their perceived superiority over others. And I despise bullies.

So... yeah, that’s why I’m Hermione critical, bordering on bashing at times, because I just can’t with this fandom full of moralizing, hypocritical cunts. Which has led to me being more critical of Hermione, which has led to me being critical of Romione... and I don’t like it much, I can promise you that.

[szintalikedthat]

Hello! I saw your post about playlists and I have a request for a vibe!

🎵 + When you're feeling really disconnected from yourself but also sort of angry at everything and then your cat comes and loves up to you and you're still angry and sad but you're also filled with so much love for this teeny tiny animal

Hell yes!!!!

What makes this ask so awesome, is that not only it is a really interesting vibe that I just felt in my heart on 6 different cosmic levels, but it comes with a full blown 5 act structure, which I will be more than happy to indulge... especially because telling a narrative arc with strategically ordered songs is my favourite thing about building a playlist.

When I was thinking about where to begin, I felt like the only genre that can truly encompass the range of emotions contained herein AND even the cuteness of a cat, was none other than emo. Am I right or am I right? But I have to confess, I'm not super familiar with the emo scene, cause when it happened, I went through a phase of listening to very little to no music. And like I said, I cannot accurately pinpoint musical genres because I just sort them in my head completely differently, so... this playlist has maybe like one or two songs that are actually emo, I think(?) and is not so much emo overall as much as "Songs that made me feel like what I thought emo should feel like". However I do know that some emo bands like to have one foot in metal and the other in electronic music, so this is what created the backbone of this playlist that holds it all together - an electronic and/or industrial metal streak. Fingers crossed that this will be up your alley.

I made a spotify compilation of it all but I also linked the individual songs thru youtube in case someone doesn’t use it.

Enjoy! 🎵

1. Dissociation Every Day is Exactly The Same - Elektrik People

I consider this kind of a blatant choice in my neck of the musical woods but if there has ever been a better song written about that very emotion that you were talking about, I haven't heard it. I offer it to you now like a special gift directly from the playlist of a very personal OC who himself has some issues and dissociative tendencies. Yes, I'm talking about my OCs I'm projecting onto of whom nobody fucking asked, because I don't want to make this too personal, what about it. Don't we all? And yes, this IS the Nine Inch Nails song, but I chose this version - and tbh I like this one better than the original, with all due respect to Mr. Reznor - because the soft, slightly slurring vocals and reverberating instruments really make it sound as if I myself were hearing it through a disconcerted haze.

2. Realization X - Hatari

I put this song in as a kind of segway between the previous song and the next; it's like a moment of coming-to, a realization of one's true pain that was blocked before, and includes all the disillusionment, hatred, and grief that it entails, but is also still kind of... catchy, in a way? If you will. Song translation

3. Fragmentation Buried Alive - Otep

And there we are, the true, unfiltered cacophony of negative emotions, spoken in their full and direct brutality. What really gets me about Otep every time, is that besides some of her lyrics just being genuinely great poetry, she can speak the most simple, emo, generic words with such incredible cadence that you quake as you feel the emotion in your veins right there where she's at.

4. Spiral Victimized- KoRn

Look, I might be a little bit biased, but when you're asking me for trauma induced, frothing dissociative rage, I'm definitely thinking of Jonathan Davis, because let's be honest, no one brings it to the table like he does. That's just objectively true. There is no shortage of such musical numbers in KoRn's repertoire but as opposed to some of their maddening, blunt and grunge-like earlier sounds, I decided to bring something from their newer catalog, which encases the madness in a cleanly yet jagged, cutting-edge electronic shell, and thus will fit in with this playlist very nicely.

5. Contact Teardrop - Massive Attack

So I asked myself, "Is there a song that makes me feel the emotion of touching extremely soft fur and would fit into this playlist" and I immediately knew that this song would be THE perfect answer. I wanted the shift to be as sudden as possible, but at the same time still a little bit organic, which is a high expectation but this song has an almost KoRn-like chord progression just in major instead of minor. I couldn't have invented a better one if I tried.

6. Decision Neon Gravestones - Twenty One Pilots

Okay, I'm not even going to make any jokes about this or anything. I think this song is a really brutal confrontation about a very heavy topic, and the biggest takeaway that I want you to have from it is that, I think, there is a point at the bottom of your hopelessness where you HAVE to make a conscious decision to move upward even if you don't feel like you can do it or whether it's even possible, before the healing can start. And sometimes it really be like that.

7. Clarity Bring Me The Horizon - Can You Feel My Heart

Note that after the Soft Cat neither of the songs are really as unhinged as we started, and that is for a reason. I think that this song must have been insanely popular at a time, sorry about that. I swear, I'm trying to make choices that are not too obvious but it felt like it would just hit the right emotional beat. I think you can read a lot into these rhetorical questions, in the song I mean, but the cord progressions always make me feel a certain opening up to hope through teary eyes.

8. Power Suffering You - 16 Volt

At the end of it all, by any means I wanted to end this playlist on a positive note, so here we are. There's just something about this song that gets me every time. It leans into its own early 2000s proto-emo roots with such a sweeping, unapologetic confidence. This song be like "You're goddamn right I'm a fucking whiney little bitch with my depression and unprocessed negative emotions, you wanna fight about it? You wanna take it outside?" What else could I have for it than respect? The rhythm is mercilessly pumping, the riffs are almost bizarrely catchy. I wouldn't necessarily call this song positive on a surface level, but it always makes me feel weirdly upbeat. Once you read into it a bit metatextually, this song is the pinnacle of depressed but reclaimed power, an almost fashionably earworm-like rallying cry of healthily channeled righteous anger. I actually almost put it at the beginning because I think playlists should begin strong - I like to make playlists that either sweep you or slap you on the face with the very first chord lol - and I think this song, almost literally slaps. However I immediately realized that no, this cannot happen, not this time. This song cannot be at the start because this is exactly the goal where I want you to mentally arrive at.

Okay, enough of the playlist infused therapy session. I hope you had some kind of positive takeaway and maybe even some songs you didn't know before. Now go and stick it to the man!

[theveryworstthing]

hello everyone, here are some very rough sketches of hare Messenger/caravan friends. i wanna draw more of these because i’ve finally settled on a general design and now i’m ready to get wacky with them.

but first.

it is time for lore.

this isn’t everything i want to say about hares and caravans and their relationship with rabbits and the above ground world but i figure it’s a start. so welcome to Hare Caravans: a short history intertwined with landscaping and postal work.

The beginnings of a journey: staying above ground where all the things that want to kill you are is good actually.

The first hare leveret was born at about the same time as the first rabbit kit. Some say that the two litters were only a nest apart, or that they were even reared together. No one is quite sure of the exact times and distances though because the only people there were the Mothers, who are all gone now, and a few couple minute old gods, who while gods, were just dumb babies who had no idea that any of this would ever matter in the future.

The main thing of importance is that in the beginning there were rabbits and hares in the same general area dealing with the same general existence bullshit and for some reason instead of wising up and going underground like the rabbits, the hares decided (in what had to be a blinding species-wide wave of spite and wanderlust because let’s be real they are EVEN TWITCHIER than rabbits) to stay above ground,learn to do sick stunts, and make the world Deal With Them.

Both rabbits and hares are naturally very quick on their feet but hares are faster and ridiculously acrobatic. They were able to live above ground on the island for so long because even though they still got got every now and then, they were able to juke their way to survival most of the time. But this made hares very solitary. They’re a little more resistant to fear death but it’s still a thing that happens and stress took less hares than you’d think but more hares than you’d hope. They didn’t have the guaranteed safety of the rabbits’ warrens to relax in and it’s hard to build a stable community when a group = a delicious easy target for predators. That’s where the Messengers came in.

The Messengers At first they were merely a small guild of traveling hares that worked as sort of builders/landscapers/proto-postalworkers. Everything about them was kept pretty hush hush and their founder, a tall albino hare who even then everyone suspected had been doing this job way before this job had a name, wasn’t much into discussing the business to those they didn’t deem prospective hires. This made them one of, if not the first, secret society on the island.

The Messengers would collect and deliver letters, small items, and general news from different parts of the island, packing their cargo on quick beetle steads and leading them through the night to distant territories. When they got to a new area they set up cryptic signs and elaborately camouflaged tents that served as pop-up meeting places for whoever was passing through. They were hardworking, crafty, sleep deprived, respectful of their clients’ privacy, and their slogan: ‘I might only be stopped by death and then I only might be’ has persisted as an empowering and slightly threatening mantra for the hares, rabbits, and now vultures who continue in their stead. Truly strong roots for modern island derived postal work.

The Outposts Now when I said those first Messenger-built tents were camouflaged I mean that they were functionally, borderline rage inducingly, invisible. Messengers would arrange entire false landscapes around their tents and the tents themselves were made of thick woven mats covered in layers of cultivated moss, fungus, and various bits of predator-offensive local vegetation for an optimal ‘this is totally a normal danger bush please piss off’ vibe. Some of their later outposts(where modern ‘postal’ work gets its name)included hidden doorways on seemingly regular boulders, clusters of reeds hiding entrances to submerged airtight rooms, and that one open grove near the Center that looked like nothing until you inevitably walked smack into an expertly painted wall like a dang cartoon character. That was the Head Messenger’s favorite outpost (and the most entertaining to watch from afar).

Most of these places got wrecked by time but some people say that the grove outpost still exists, much to the irritation of local postal workers. This is just an urban legend. Their official stance is that the place was destroyed in a storm shortly after the hares all left the island, and a search of the grove certainly supports their exasperated claims that nothing is there anymore. But there are also no ruins of any sort in the grove and to this day the rare rabbit or vulture will come back from their travels with stories about face planting into air and discovering a weird old building that contained nothing but a single black envelope. Again, the island postal service says these are all just urban legends and nothing more.

But also, maybe just keep away from the area and if you see any black envelopes please contact your nearest postal worker asap.

The Signs Since the outposts were so hidden, if you weren’t lucky enough to stumble into one or you didn’t notice the appearance of a New Bush, then you had to look for the signs. A stack of flat stones or a single hare antler tipped with black were signals that a Messenger was visiting. These items would always be at the base of a tree or some other large immovable object where the Messenger would use paint made with Medic’s Eye fungi spores to draw directional symbols that would light up momentarily when the surface was tapped. Before they left the Messenger would always recollect and scrub away their sign materials. Just leaving up signs was irresponsible, as future Messengers might set up in a different spot and conflicting signs would be confusing. Also, bandits might use abandoned signs to lure victims into ambushes. Very few bandits ever had the chance to do this since Messengers were diligent about erasing their signs and very few of them escaped the Messengers if they found out which hooligans had betrayed the people’s trust in mail, but still.

The birth of caravans and getting creative At the outposts, hares would collect their mail, talk amongst themselves, and generally spend leisure time with their brethren without the threat of danger. The outposts were (purposefully) hard to find, only stayed open for a day or two at most, and the messengers had a serious lack of chill due to their busy schedules, but people really loved them. As interest in these meeting spots grew trade increased, people grew closer(within reason, hares were still real solitary at that point), and eventually caravans were created to make setting up these pop-up marketplaces/communities easier.

Of course by this point the safest spots had small permanent outposts  with a rotating staff of guard hares (and a few adventurous rabbits). But hares were too twitchy to leave whole towns just…there. Out in the open. Permanently. A house can’t run. Or at least most houses can’t run. Who in their right mind would want long term shelter you can’t pick up and take with you? But a vehicle? Strap a streamlined wagon to a strong beetle, or better yet get a walking worm that can really sprint, and now you’re in business(some of the most beloved hare fables are about a witch who lived in a walking worm that ran around on pillyki legs). And so these hidden outposts became the center of constantly fluctuating camouflaged towns made of caravans.

The wagons and worms that inhabited these towns were really…a sight. Of course they were all the equivalent of speedwalking shrubbery, but the variation! The ingenuity! The application of literally whatever they found while rambling around! Closer looks revealed dead branch coverings held up by years of interlocking shed antlers and tied together with cast off scraps of green fabric that were coated with wax and artfully styled into very convincing leaves. Plants with woven roots for floors and branches for roofs were kept on shallow platforms of soil and molded into tiny but ever growing shacks. Walking worms resembling rotted logs filled fine garden lounges and stages and libraries and laundry rooms tiled with smooth bits of broken pottery. In a small tent that from the outside looks like three sticks and an unfortunate amount of wolf poop, a midwife helps deliver three healthy leverets. A wonderland made of pure natural beauty, art, and a little teeny tiny bit of collected travel garbage. Magnificent.

It really is too bad that most of the more fragile ones didn’t survive the trip to the mainland. Being successfully converted into boats was just not in the cards for them. Silver lining? They got to re-design them all over again with mainland materials. So even though true Island Vehicles are rare now they’re all just as funky.

The Connections Caravan communities really changed hare society. They had always had culture and stories and art, but it was hard to enjoy any of that with frickin’ wolves and owls on their heels 24/7. While families with younger children or disabled members traveled together, it was just so much safer to stay in small distant groups if you stayed in a group at all. This meant very little non trade or procreation mingling. The relative safety of the caravan towns gave birth to a wave of new art and culture exploration since people now had time, space, and input from so many new friends with similar interests in the same place. It’s amazing what you can do when you aren’t constantly running on survival mode and even though they had had access to friendly rabbit spaces before, it just wasn’t the same. Soon entire droves of hares started moving together in very loose communities. Wagons or worms never really right next to each other but all heading in the same direction on their own paths and coming back together at the end of their journeys. Close enough to run to a neighbor if need be but never clumped up. As these droves solidified, they each developed distinct new customs and skills, and the connections between members became as strong as any warren.

These connections are especially apparent in an old practice called Path Merging. Originally only done to seal peace treaties after the rare violent cross-caravan spat but now a common practice, if a single leveret is born (a rarity) they are paired with a single leveret of a similar age from a neighboring ally caravan and raised together. The pair travels back and forth all of their young lives, first with their mothers and then alone, living in their home caravans for different parts of the year. A few of these pairs stay together forever and some only part ways when they start their own families but ideally they at least make it to twenty years before calling for a separating ritual for the whole deal to be Solid. Similar to a diplomatic betrothal but based more on creating lifelong partners of any relationship type over setting up a marriage, this fostering of an intense bond from being the only true constants in each other’s lives is a show of good will and connection between their people. In a way they come to embody the essence of their community and as single litters are seen as a sign of pure hare independence and the old ways of their lost island home, these children are very powerful symbols.

It also means surefire preferential trading and aid from what are pretty much blood-contract bound allies.

These leverets are supposed to be raised like any other, but may receive a little special treatment in times of hardship to prove one caravans’ dependability to the other. A pair being returned in bad condition or with tales of abuse can start or further irritate conflicts. A falling out between the bonded pair can also be disastrous but it happens. You usually have no idea if babies will just super hate each other once they learn what hate is! Or what life in general will throw at you! If everything else is fine but they’re just not compatible people then after a while the caravan elders from both sides will come together and amicably agree to separate them. Although if one deeply wrongs or injures the other there can be some…dire consequences for the offending party that can splash back on their community depending on the situation. Hares almost always avoid war, but they’re real big on justice.

Despite this intense ritual, hares are still hares. They travel together now but they’re still kind of solitary creatures. Caravans are still pretty spaced out affairs, relying on radios and slime mold compasses to keep in touch when someone needs to wander away from the group for a bit. Outside of the usual life threatening issues, they’re not really worried about wandering the untamed mainland alone.

It’s not really a big deal when you have somewhere to come back to.

[otussketching]

Okay, I just had to get on the hype train!

Occludentavis was recently described from a well-preserved skull encased in amber. It comes from amber sites in Myanmar. These same sites have preserved many other avian remains, like feathers, feet, a piece of a small dinosaurs tail (!) and even a whole bird hatchling (!!!). Along with insects, plants, lizards, frogs, basically an entire menagerie of tiny things.

For this picture, I wanted to emphasize that the bird is small, pretty and weird. So, I gave it some colors inspired by some hummingbirds, and while we only know the skull, it's thought to be of relation to Archaeopteryx, so I based the rest of the body on that.

That's kind of close to actual size, by the way. The skull is 1,5 cm long, the length estimated at around 7-8 cm, and it's been estimated to have weighed about 2 grams. So, teeny tiny proto-bird. Yay!