#that would be several much longer posts

[oneminutefiftysixseconds]

working dogs

domestique wikipedia / hard chase, charles jones / lowimpact.org sheepdogs / marcel ernzer rides ahead of charly gaul in the 1956 tour of luxembourg, archiv luxemburger wort / why become a domestique?, david bates / a sheep dog comforts a dog after protecting the herd from a wolf / andrea carrera and fausto coppi at the 1952 tour de france (can't find photo credits) / domen novak for rouleur / ian stannard carries bottles at the tour de france (can't find photo credits) / lyrics to nobody move nobody get hurt, we are scientists / darwin apatuma carries bottles (can't find photo credits) / a farmer herding sheep, joseph hardman / peloton of the 2014 tour de france, brendan king / welsh sheepdog, kyffin williams / peloton of the 1938 tour de france passes a herd of sheep

[bitsbug]

Getting myself weirdly worked up about the common misconception that 'purpose' is a thing that exists with regards to evolution.

Like, I get it, niches can very well seem like some designed role, crafted to further along the Divine Machine of Nature. When confronted with an organism you don't like, the first question is "What purpose does it serve? Is it insignificant enough to be eradicated?"

But this very much isn't how the natural world works; evolution isn't a planned process. It's a bit more like.. y'know those videos of an algorithm being trained how to walk through trial and error? It's like that, but with a million more variables. And much like the algorithm, there is no forethought involved in evolution - it's only the immediate ''reaction'' to (aka whatever works to survive against) environment circumstances. There's not even the "goal" of survival, it's just that things which don't survive are unable to pass on whatever made them not survive, while things that did survive do.

Now imagine this process happening billions of times in parallel, all interacting with eachother, and all changing themselves in response.

The conditions a population experiences most, and the other populations it interacts with most, will inevitably affect its 'algorithm' for continuing to exist. This friction will pressure it to become more specific in how it functions, and it will come to rely upon how the things around it function. In turn, its environment starts to rely upon how it functions, however indirect that may be. It's all separate systems pressed against eachother, morphing so they align in a way that fits.

So, you can see how this can be so easily mistaken for a purpose. But the distinction is very important, because a species' entire *being* is the thing its ecosystem has molded to, not just one aspect of its lifestyle. Fleas and mosquitoes both take blood from larger animals, but they absolutely aren't interchangeable - their method of feeding, prey choices, life stages, and even movement are completely different, and something else in their respective ecosystems WILL rely on these traits for its own survival. Removing even that one thing will daisy-chain across the system, hindering the survival of everything involved.

That's why vying for killing entire species willy nilly is a bad thing, even if evolution is a morally neutral process with no true meaning behind it! And also why 'purpose' is a bogus concept to apply to this extremely complex system!

[always-a-slut-4-ghouls]

love how hua cheng is just like "I support xie lian rights and xie lian wrongs, except he can never do anything wrong ever even when he kills a bunch of people. Go off king" and Xie Lian is like “This is my beautiful husband, he has committed war crimes, but haven’t we all?”

And their relationship is somehow healthier than anything I've ever been in.

[suikascribbles]

Historia ver. Yachiyo transparent! A labor of love over several days, here she is in all her glory

[arolesbianism]

Thinks abt comic Siffrin. This could be a playground I think. If I felt like it. If I so chose.

[optiwashere]

I liked doing this last week, but it will get kinda repetitive in the coming weeks. So I'm not sure if I'll do it often while I'm posting the modern/band AU, but oh well!

It's another Saturday morning in a blanket with new music. Truly all I could ever need to write.

Here's what I've been working on...

Modern/band AU is fit and ready to start posting this upcoming week. Chapter [redacted] is complete, and I'm now far enough ahead that even a few weeks of busy life won't stop a regular posting schedule. And if I keep up writing then I'll be able to post around Xmas without needing a break!

Chapter [redacted+1] has an opening sentence, which is often the hardest part.

The outline for the AU has been modified a little. Combined three chapters into one, split out another chapter into two. Probably lots of consolidation to be done otherwise. There's a weird bit in the outline that's kinda fuzzy, but I'm sure I'll knuckle my way through it since it's not thematically deep. Might even be another chapter consolidation. This fic is definitely going to be longer than the 40k I was hoping it would top out at...

Editing the previous chapters has been a fun exercise in trimming the fat! I still want there to be scenes that are just ~vibes~ but I axed 1k words and the whole thing is cleaner for it.

More Minthara/Lae'zel is in the works, but it's mostly only the skeleton of an idea as I've had to rework it multiple times. I've a little under 1k actually written, and I'm not too convinced of what it is at the moment either. Quite frustrating.

Another seedling of an idea for non-smutty Asheera/Shadowheart fics. But it's really just "Shadowheart meets Asheera's parents" and boy I'm not ready for the mixed emotions Shadowheart's going to feel in that one. You know it's not just going to be fluff.

The Gauntlet/Nightsong segment for my core Shadowheart/Asheera series has a skeleton of an outline now. The POVs have been picked, the core beats are there, and I know it's going to hurt like a motherfucker to write some of this.

[tiercel]

After years of engaging in and witnessing mind numbing drama randomly spawned on the internet about labels and flags and such my brain has finally adapted and stops me from actually understanding what im reading so its easier to just scroll past & pretend i didnt see anything

[ollyou]

IMPORTANT!!!

In light of recent (albeit poor) doxxing attempts made towards me by people who associate with the following user, along with other very absurd things I’ve been sent, I’m putting my foot down once again and letting all of you know that I want any of you to hardblock me if you support @sound-hz / @tentamissile-maestro, as this person has openly encouraged harassment towards me and obsessively namedrops me for their followers to go after me.

I’ve been in the process of writing something as this person has attempted to spread an overdramatized and inaccurate document full of negative assumptions towards me, however as my own document is not finished, I cannot send it here at the moment. I’m only writing this here because I’m getting annoyed with their followers telling me “I know your address :3” and such.

I do not want such toxic and drama-hungry people anywhere near me. Please, please do NOT interact with me at all whatsoever if you support sound-hz. Thank you, and I’m sorry any of you have to see this. I wish this never had to happen, but it was forced upon me after enduring so much harassment.

[loregoddess]

a sentence can be a paragraph, if you believe in your heart and use enough commas, em dashes, semicolons, and parentheses, maybe even an ellipsis

[fragmentedblade]

Fu Xuan calls March "young girl", which is understandable. But she also calls Chengjie "young man from the Artisanship Commission" and like... ma'am how old are you

[destinationtoast]

How much of The Locked Tomb series would you say one needs to read before one can determine whether the series is Not For One?

[ourceliumnetwork]

feeling a lot more stable about everything, i decided to forego keeping a bandaid on because my fucking skin cannot take the adhesives for that long omg itches so bad around them

I have a plan in place to replace the bandaids should i require not needing to see my elbow again about it, but i also wanted to see for myself how bad it was.

BOY HOWDY do I bruise purty. That shit is dark where it's not already going greenyellow. looks like I put a sharpie in a chokehold and barely managed to wrangle it into submission like damn.

[minakoaiinos]

Anyway good morning.

[lilbirdblu]

the niche struggle of having adhd and autism but also a history with an eating disorder so when u dont have any foods ur hyperfixating on and all of ur former safe foods are no longer an option, u just. dont eat. bc eating completely disinterests u and it becomes an immense struggle just to make sure ur fed enough to survive and dont accidentally slip back into a relapse

[woundedheartwithin]

[arolesbianism]

I love thinking abt my time looper ocs interacting with Sif because they'd both be sooo pissy abt how """easy""" Sif had it even though both of them would get stuck way worse than Sif in their place. Brute is allergic to acknowledging their own needs and Lace would immediately latch onto every wrong lead you can possibly imagine and by the time she would learn abt wishcraft she would have long since forgotten she even made a wish