#the evolution of the crumpled tissue...

[canisalbus]

what if machete isn't actually a canine at all but a case of highly advanced convergent evolution in which his crumpled tissue ancestors gradually developed doglike traits to the point of being nearly indistinguishable from sighthounds

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[f-nodragonart]

Vertebrate Wings, PART 3: Flight

Return to main post + TOC >>HERE<<

Flight TOC

  Basic Flight Theory

  Bird vs. Bat vs. Pterosaur

  Aspect Ratio and Wing Loading

  Special Cases: Hoverers

Basic Flight Theory

I will openly admit here and now, I’m not well-versed in physics. I apologize if this section is a bit disorganized, since I’ll be stitching together others’ more comprehensible flight descriptions/explanations.

This first bit is from a kind follower, Rahjital, who sent us this quick explanation of flight theory a while back (sadly the images they added no longer seem to be working, so I tried to find fitting images as substitutes):

The first step to learn how lift works is to debunk the popular explanation of how lift forces are created, called the Equal Transit Time theory. The reasoning is that air flowing around the wing splits into two streams, one of which has to travel over the wing and another which travels below it. Due to the shape of the wing, the upper stream has to move faster to cover the same distance. This difference in velocities generates a difference in pressure and therefore lift.

However, what happens if you fly upside down?

The upper side of your wing points towards the ground, and so does the lift force. I would have said you’d fall like a rock, but the fall would actually be faster since your wings would drag you down. We all know that’s not how flight works, though, so how is lift actually created?

All you need to do is tilt the wings a bit. Seriously, I’m not kidding. No need for a specialized wing shape, as the majority of people seems to believe. (although it helps.) Why? Let me explain:

There are two phenomena causing lift to be created:

1. As air flows around the wing, its direction changes downwards and it leaves the back edge of the wing moving slightly more down. Mister Newton tells us that every action has its reaction, so if the air moves down, our wing has to rise.

2. Due to the tilting, the air flowing on the underside of the wing ends up colliding with it and slowing down, raising the pressure. On the other hand, the air flowing over the wings goes upwards because it has to get over the raised front edge, but as it can’t get back down immediately, it ends up travelling in an arc over the wing. This forms a small ‘pocket’ of low pressure straight above the top surface of the wings. These two fields of pressure then generate additional lift. (this is similar to how the Equal Transit Time theory states lift is generated, but with a very different reason, and not as important as the theory states it to be).

Next time you are traveling in a car, try reaching out of the window with your arm when going reasonably fast. As long as you keep your hand parallel to the ground, not much is going to happen, but once you tilt it even a little, the wind is going to push it up. (or down, depending on which direction you tilted it.) That’s it - your hand is generating enough lift to hit the frame of the car window. Just imagine how much lift does a properly built wing get in a similar situation.

The tilt I am talking about the entire time here is called the angle of attack, often abbreviated just AOA. The greater the angle of attack is, the more lift is generated, but the more drag there is, too. For airplanes, the AOA is negligible from an artist’s perspective, but for winged creatures, this is far more of a concern.

Therefore, the flight theory rule #1 is: Whenever you draw a flying creature, always make its wings slightly inclined. It wouldn’t be able to fly otherwise.

~~end quote~~

Bird vs. Bat vs. Pterosaur

This first bit will be borrowed from Koryos’ article “Bat Flight Versus Bird Flight” (which I highly suggest reading in-full for a deeper explanation). Fair warning though—from the short explanation they give of basic flight/lift, it seems they do believe (at least at the time of writing the article) in the now-defunct Equal Transit Time Theory, though their points on bird vs. bat flight are still valid otherwise:

If you look closely at the above gif, you’ll notice that at several points during flight, the bat actually bends its fingers, which dramatically changes the shape of its wings. Birds do not have joints in their feathers, so they cannot do this.

....

Flexible joints are not all the bat has in its arsenal. Its actual bones are flexible, due to a lack of calcium in its diet. This means that they deform and reform their shape during flight.

Birds minimize air resistance by rotating their primaries during their upstroke, allowing air to slip between the feathers. Bats, with solid membranes, can’t do this- so they have an even finer means of control. There are lines of muscle present within the bat’s wing membrane that can actually change the stiffness and malleability of its skin. You can see them quite clearly under the skin of our entangled bat friend.

This is a big brown bat (Eptesicus fuscus), by the way.

These muscles allow the bat to make their membranes flexible during their upstroke to decrease resistance, yet stiff during their downstroke in order to provide lift. It also allows them to change the camber (angle) of their wings on a whim!

This slow-mo video really displays just how incredibly flexible bat wings are.

Bat wings are also covered by millions of tiny, hyper-sensitive hairs that allow the bat to sense air currents and adjust accordingly.

So what does all this control do for the bat?

Well, for one thing, it means they’re not limited by symmetry. Bird wings will almost always mirror each other in shape, while bats may form two different wings shapes at the same time, allowing them to perform some crazy aerial acrobatics. Some insect-eating bats will actually grab an insect by wrapping one wing around it midflight (don’t believe me? You can see it in the beginning of this video!) and then get the insect in their mouth all in a split second, while still flying.

Now, in terms of speed, birds can generally outpace bats. But in terms of maneuverability, bats can fly circles around birds.

The fact that bats’ bones, unlike those of birds, aren’t hollow, and that their skin is heavier than feathers might seem like a disadvantage- but it isn’t. Birds have much more mass in the center of their body than they do in their wings; by contrast, bats have more mass distributed through each wing (12-20% per wing). This means that bats can actually push off their own mass to do things like flip, spin, roll, etc. No bird can stop midflight and flip over to land upside-down, but bats can.

Because they have such fine control over their airfoil shape, bats can also generate lift using less energy than birds. Remember when I talked about minimizing surface area during the upstroke and maximizing it during the downstroke? Bats can bend their fingers and ‘crumple’ their wings as they raise them, conserving energy. Think of it like opening and closing an umbrella. While birds can pull their feathers together more tightly, they can’t exactly clench them like fists.

Decreasing energy costs is good in any situation, but particularly for fliers. It takes a lot of energy to fly. In this case, bats can outcompete both birds and insects for energy efficiency- one study found that nectar-feeding bats, though the largest in size, expended the least energy hovering when compared to both moths and hummingbirds.

~~end quote~~

As for pterosaurs, I’ll leave it up to Mike Habib’s article “Feathers vs Membranes”:

The structure and efficiency of pterosaur wings is obviously not known in as much detail as those of birds or bats, for the simple reason that no living representatives of pterosaurs are available for study.  However, soft tissue preservation in pterosaurs does give some critical information about their wing morphology, and the overall shape and structure of the wing can be used (along with first principles from aerodynamics) to estimate efficiency and performance.

…((I’ll just be pasting the basic findings, but please read the full article if you’re interested in specifics))…

Now, for some punchlines...

Based on the structural information above, we might expect the following regarding pterosaurs and birds:

- Pterosaurs would have a base advantage in terms of maneuverability and slow flight competency.

- Pterosaurs would also have had an advantage in terms of soaring capability and efficiency

- Pterosaurs would have been better suited to the evolution of large sizes (though this was affected more by differences in takeoff - see earlier posts about pterosaur launch).

- Birds will perform a bit better as mid-sized, broad-winged morphs (because they can use slotted wing tips and span reduction).

- Birds would have an advantage in steep climb-out after takeoff at small body sizes (because they can work with shorter wings and engage them earlier).  This might pre-dispose them to burst launch morphologies/ecologies.

~~end quote~~

(other articles by Habib about Pterosaur anatomy and flight can be found here and here, for anyone interested)

When Exdraghunt linked us this information about pterosaur wings, it was in relation to a question about pterosaur keels and why they differed from bird keels. Exdraghunt suggested this might be due to pterosaur preference for soaring compared to bird flapping. However, plenty of inland pterosaurs could have been flappers, so I think the shallowness is more likely caused by their muscular setup compared to birds, discussed in more detail in the Basic Anatomy section.

Aspect Ratio and Wing Loading

Now that we have a basic understanding of the different modes of vertebrate flight, we can get to the fun stuff—wing diversity! Believe it or not, my friends, wing shapes and sizes can drastically effect an animal’s flight style.

Aspect ratio is the ratio of length to width in a wing, where high ratio indicates narrow wings, and low ratio indicates wide wings.

Loading is the ratio of body weight to wing size, where low loading = large wings + small weight, and high loading = small wings + large weight.

Measuring these two aspects against each other helps us determine different flight styles.

For a short n’ sweet rundown:

1)      Long, narrow wings (low loading, high ratio)= gliding, low speed

 2)      Long, wide wings (low loading, low ratio)= soaring

 3)      Short, wide wings (high loading, low ratio)= high acceleration (burst speed), maneuverability

 4)      Short, narrow wings (high loading, high ratio)= high speed

Though there are other aspects of wing shape to take into account as well.

(via^)

Pointedness refers to a wing tip’s position on the leading edge; IE- is the longest point of the wing further back behind the leading edge (A, round), or does the longest point lie along the leading edge (B, pointed)?. Rounder wings increase thrust, and lend towards greater maneuverability-- particularly in short/wide wings. Pointed wings reduce drag on the air (which increases speed), particularly in short wings, and can make for smoother flight.

Convexity refers to the acuteness of a wingtip; IE- is the shape of the wingtip curved relatively inwards (C, concave) or outwards (D, convex)? Concave wings are better suited for constant high speed. Convex wings create more lift, so are ideal for slow flying and increase acceleration.

Measuring these two aspects against each other gives us another fun chart of wing types.

(via^)

And let’s not forget that slotted wings—those whose primary remiges have notches which create gaps between these feathers—reduce drag and tend to be found in wide (low ratio) wings.

Put all these aspects and little details together, and you can observe some very unique flight patterns. Most ornithologists tend to organize wings into 4 different types, as shown below.

Though I personally like to use a few more types as organization (list via):

  1) Marine soarers are birds that fly for long periods over the open ocean and have very high aspect-ratio wings and average or low wing loading that reduce the energetic cost of flight. Birds in this category include the albatrosses (Procellariiformes).

  2) Divers/swimmers are birds with medium to high aspect ratios and high wing loading, including murres, loons, grebes, scoters, mergansers, ducks, and swans. These birds fly rapidly, but with limited maneuverability, characteristics useful for birds that often fly long distances (e.g., during migration or to feeding areas) and take-off and land on water where precise maneuverability is not as important.

  3) Aerial hunters are birds with high aspect-ratio wings and low wing loading, a combination permitting rapid flight and excellent maneuverability. Aerial hunters include swallows and martins (Passeriformes), swifts (Apodiformes), nightjars (Caprimulgiformes), Swallow-tailed Kites (Falconiformes), frigatebirds (Fregatidae), terns (Sterninae), some falcons (e.g., hobbies and Eleonora’s Falcon), and tropicbirds (Phaethontidae).

  4) Soarers/coursers include birds with low aspect ratios and low wing loading, characteristics that allow relatively large birds to either soar or fly just above the vegetation in open habitats in search of prey. Birds in the soaring category include hawks and eagles (Falconiformes), vultures, condors, and storks (Ciconiiformes), and cranes (Gruiformes). Coursing birds include some owls (e.g., Barn Owl and Short-eared Owl; Strigiformes) and harriers (Falconiformes).

  5) Short-burst fliers are birds with low aspect ratios and high wing loading that fly infrequently and only for short distances. Birds in this category include those in the orders Galliformes (e.g., turkeys, pheasants, quail, grouse, and megapodes) and Tinamiformes (tinamous).

  6) Hoverers are birds capable of flying in one position without wind and have high aspect ratios and, surprisingly, high wing loading. The high aspect ratio reduces the energetic cost of flight, whereas the high wing loading permits relatively fast, agile flight (Rayner 1998). The only true hoverers are the hummingbirds (Apodiformes).

~~end quote~~

I don’t have an outside source to verify this observation, but I’ve found that a longer “hand” section and shorter arm generally correlate with high-speed flight, while a shorter “hand” and longer arm correlates to low-speed gliding. I can only assume this may be due to a shorter arm section being easier to flap rapidly, but again, this is conjecture.

While much of this information is bird-specific, I was able to scrounge up a graph of bat aspect ratios and loading, so I can only assume these concepts similarly apply to bat flight.

(via^)

There sadly seems to be much less information available on bat wing/flight diversity…

As for pterosaur wing diversity, exdraghunt sent in some great input (as well as that chart of different bat wings featured above~):

There actually is a fair amount of wing diversity among pterosaurs, and it fairly closely parallels that in birds. (Though they do not reach the extreme variety in shapes that birds do, due to the limitations in variety of “arm+wing finger” combos)

One of the most extreme examples is Nyctosaurus gracilis, a long-distance marine soarer, similar to albatrosses. They have very long, thin wings (and also lost their other wing fingers, presumably because they came on land rarely)

Other species of pterosaur, like insect eaters (which need short, broad wings for manuverability) or over-land fliers would’ve had different wing shapes.

Some of this difference was achieved by varying the ratio between “arm” and “wing finger” lengths. You’ll notice that smaller, earlier “Rhamphorhynchoids” (the top half, with the long tails) tended towards  short arms vs long wing fingers. While larger, later Pterodactyloid species developed longer arms in relationships to the wing finger. (Especially in the wrist)

Wing shape silhouettes, by Mark Witton. (Not to scale, obvs.)

~~end quote~~

Special Cases: Hoverers

Hoverers such as hummingbirds are special cases in the world of vertebrate flight, because much of their lifestyle and physiology mimics that of insects-- including their flight.

The basic rules of flight theory discussed above won’t exactly apply to these guys, because air doesn’t travel over their wings in the same way it does in other vertebrate flyers. Take a look at this post and compare the animations between the hummingbird, goose, and bat. What exactly is unique about the hummingbird animation compared to the other two?

A few things-- for one, hummingbirds don’t have nearly as many points of wing articulation during flight. If you look closely, you’ll see there’s no bend at the elbow or wrist for a hummingbird; they move their whole arm in a completely stiff, figure-8 pattern. Such high-speed flapping can’t handle that much articulation.

Why a figure-8? Here’s the thing-- hummingbirds don’t technically have an upstroke they have to account for. Every stroke of their wings is a downstroke because when they pull their wings back, the topside of their wings tilts down and also pushes against the air as a “downstroke”. Thus, there’s never a gap between downstrokes-- they’re always efficiently pushing down against the air.

This is also why, unlike most every other flying vertebrate, their flight is more vertical than horizontal. In order to properly swing their wings in a figure-8 motion, they have to tilt their bodies up.

While hovering flight is cool as hell, it comes with a lot of restrictions; mainly, hoverers are always small. The energetic restrictions required for hovering are so incredibly high that bodies much bigger than a hummingbird wouldn’t be able to consume enough energy to make up for hovering. Plus, hoverers tend to live right on the edge of starvation because what energy they do manage to consume is used up so quickly.

If you do want to integrate hovering into your dragons, consider making it a secondary form of flight that they can only keep up for short bursts, rather than their primary mode of flight. Unless you’re ready to give your dragon a lot of physiological restrictions, which is cool too.

-Mod Spiral

[thatsrightdollface]

KamiHaji Week Prompt One: “Ship Day”

Every Year (Honest)

Mizuki visits Unari beneath her ocean, long, long into the future. 

Ships: Mizuki/Unari (One-Sided), Mizuki/Nanami Momozono (One-Sided)

Post-Canon.  About 1,500 words.  I’d give this a “G” rating, too.

Other Relevant Tags: Loss, Friendship, Hurt/Comfort, Ice Cream.

(Thank you for reading, if you do, and sorry for anything I got wrong!  Happy KamiHaji Week~~~!) 

Ao3 link! 

He was coming to see her, in those dripping dark halls beneath the Okinawan Ocean – soon, now.  Unari’s insides tangled, thinking on it…  Reminding herself, so that she ran webbed fingers through her hair and scrubbed bits of clinging seaweed from between the scales of her winding tail. Fidgeting.  Expecting.  He’d made his promises to her years before – plenty of children had been born and grown into their human lives since he’d spoken them.  Every year, Mizuki came to visit Unari’s caves and corridors, her slow-brewing Water of Evolution and ageless, sharp-toothed smile.  Every year, whatever had been happening at the shrine he served.  Whatever had been happening in all that strange, too-fast world beyond the deep.  

               Sometimes he came with a batch of his sacred sake, humming to himself and content…  Possibly a little drunk, already.  Sometimes he came wearing strange clothes from a human store and carrying gifts from the mortal world beyond.  The tissue paper stuffed around those gifts would be only a little damp after his trip through her sea, in that case.  Unari wouldn’t have expected anything less from a divine water snake familiar.

               And sometimes…  Later on… Mizuki came with his eyes red and stinging, because his human love was growing so frail, so fading, and he could pour out all his cleansing holy powers – gather all sorts of cryptic medicine – and still not save her completely.  Human creatures weren’t built to last long, after all – especially if they were determined to stay human and die a human death.  But Mizuki would come check in, even so, and smile for Unari as though he thought she was wonderful.  Say it was good to see her, and truly, truly mean it.

               Unari actually believed Mizuki meant it, anyway, which was no small thing for someone who’d lived as many lonely, doubting centuries as she had.  She hadn’t gone around with her face eternally hidden in a long time, but of course she remembered what the world looked like through a ghostly film… Through a veil, yes, but more through her own clouded sense of self.  Unari couldn’t help but remember the way her mother had taught her to be ashamed of her dragon blood, ashamed of her stark horns and face half scabbed with scales.  Maybe she would always remember, and it would well up inside her sometimes like a hateful, simmering tide.  

               She would have good days, and bad.  She would feel like her best self, and she wouldn’t. That was a gift her childhood had left for her, and Unari had told Mizuki about it a little bit from year to year to year.  Feelings came and went like tides, and he understood, she thought.  He would accept her whatever sort of day it was, and knowing that always helped her look into her own face again.

               Unari had offered her arms to Mizuki without questioning it at all, when he came with his eyes red and his voice shaking a few years back…  When he had hospital phone numbers saved in his contacts list and very little experience with the passage of mortal lives.  He’d crumpled into her for just a second, face against the crook of her neck and shoulders shivering as if the world were freezing around them, though Unari knew it wasn’t.  He took in a long, watery breath, and Unari held him as well as she knew how.  It was the way she’d held him a couple times before, by that point, and the way she’d once been afraid she would never be able to hold anyone in all her time on that earth.

               This man had nearly been her husband, Unari’d thought, without really meaning to.  If she hadn’t released Mizuki from their agreement.  If she hadn’t seen that love and want and pain he felt, churning beneath the smoothed-out surface of him.  Beneath fangs and sharp venom-green eyes, beneath holy purpose and the word of his god.  Mizuki felt all those things, even still.  Even now.  All those things for some bright-eyed human girl.  

               Unari held Mizuki as long as he needed to be held, and thought about how they might have been married.  Might’ve been together all the time.  She reminded herself not to think about any of that, of course, just as soon as she remembered to.  It could only hurt, after all.  

               And then the moment passed.  Mizuki was propping himself back up, soon enough, and offering a story about something strange that had happened on his way to her corner of the world.  His human love had asked him to keep smiling if he could, he’d said, and Unari didn’t think he would’ve let that smile slip for just anybody.  

               Every year Mizuki showed up, and Unari tried to meet him with seashell ornaments pinned in her hair– like the one she’d made as a child, before her mother reminded her why she shouldn’t be seen.  Mizuki would compliment her for that, she knew, and his voice would go all breezy and tender.  So different from the way he’d taunted the former wild fox, Tomoe, egging him into spectral fire…  So different from how he spoke at the foot of Lord Mikage, his newest god.  Mizuki’s easy manners changed Unari’s home for a while, no matter what.  His laughter lit everything up, at least so far as she was concerned, like river water catching in the sunlight.

               And then, of course, Mizuki left.  Back to Mikage Shrine, riding along the spine of that winding white freshwater serpent.  Waving to her over his shoulder or making a heart with his bent fingers, tender and gentle and gone.  He had his place, and she had hers.  He had snarky quips to make about the goings on back at Mikage Shrine and she had an ocean to keep as pure and deathless as she could.  Sometimes he stayed for a day or so, and sometimes he stayed a bit longer… But not usually.

               And yes – yes –

               Maybe Unari wished things could be different. Wished it somewhere deep and real inside herself, like magma bubbling into a vein of heat and want beneath the pitch-dark sea.  Maybe she was still hoping for a change.  

               Hoping that this time of all times, Mizuki would lean in so much closer to her.  Maybe now he’d brush his cold fingers against hers and learn what wanting to stay with her tasted like...   Maybe he’d lick his lips before murmuring something new – before changing things between them.  He would taste the salt of that place, then, the way Unari always, always tasted salt. She was an ocean-born creature, after all.  

               This man could’ve been her husband.    

               It was hard not to remember that, sometimes, even as Unari tried to shove the thought away.  

               Mizuki could have learned to live beneath waves, beneath salt wind and whale song and coral palaces constantly growing, becoming new. It wouldn’t have been just a visit, then, and it definitely wouldn’t have meant so many goodbyes.  They could have had something eternal.  

               But that wasn’t what Unari was going to ask for, when Mizuki came to see her again that year.  At the beginning, she’d asked him to stay with her plenty of times.  Over and over again. She’d hinted that he could change his mind and become hers whenever he wanted.  But now?  

               Now, Mizuki brought ice cream when he dropped by – it was a human food his second goddess… (his mortal love) … had taught him about.  He gave Unari a choice of different flavors, voice so airy and familiar she felt her heart in her throat.  He propped his cheek on his palm and listened to her talk through how her year had been; he brought photos of the forest around Mikage shrine to show her, and photos of human shops and gardens and a shimmering city that seemed to grow stranger all the time.  So much glass!  You wouldn’t be able to escape your reflection for long in a place like that, wherever you went.  It was possible Unari wouldn’t have minded too much, if Mizuki had been there with her, though.  It was possible she wouldn’t have minded much at all.  

               He brought photos of his mortal love’s great-grandchild, too, that little thing who called him “Uncle Mizuki” just the same as the child before her, and the child before that.  He smiled, fond and sad, flipping through those pictures…  He smiled like he knew Unari already understood whatever he could say.  And she thought maybe she did, after all their years together.  

               Now, Unari just asked if Mizuki would like to attend a party with her while he was staying beneath her waves…  One of those galas her mother had never wanted to take her along to.  You know. She knew he could say yes to something like that in good conscience, and a knowing little grin might slither over his face like a shared secret.  

               Mizuki could’ve been Unari’s husband, sure, but what they had was honest.  That was important.  That was theirs.  And maybe Unari would vow to get him home before his Lord Mikage started hinting that he was taking an awfully long time away from the shrine, next – and maybe Mizuki would do an impression of Tomoe the former wild fox scolding him for shirking his duties.  It had been a long time since Tomoe had done a thing like that, but they’d laugh together like Mizuki’d gotten lectured just yesterday.  As if he’d been lounging around waiting for the stars to come out or reading a novel or something when the fox decided he was supposed to be cleaning dishes.  Unari thought she could do a pretty decent impression of Tomoe’s voice by that point, too.

               They’d go inside together, then.  Maybe he’d even notice how carefully she’d polished her scales.

[dailyenricopucci]

Gee Pucci, Three 「Stands」?

Everyone knows Pucci has three Stands. It’s practically a meme at this point. But the problem is, with so many Stands, all three of whom throw the ‘one ability per Stand’ rule off a damn cliff, it can be hard to keep track of what they can all do. So I’m here to help with that.

Strap yourselves in, it’s gonna be a long one.

Info under the cut~

WHITESNAKE:

Destructive Power: ? Speed: D Range: ?  Durability: A Precision: ? Development Potential: ?

Whitesnake, Pucci’s original Stand, was used by Pucci to peruse parts of GDSt Jail that he couldn’t access, finding and manipulating Stand users or eliminating ones he has no use for and stealing their Stands away just in case.

Strength: Whitesnake is no slouch when it comes to physical combat. Although his punching speed can’t reach the levels of Star Platinum, Whitesnake can still move much faster than a human, and punch much harder as well. An open-handed strike can easily chop through a human leg, as found out the hard way by Weather Report, and Whitesnake can also spear a human (Annasui) through the chest and still be strong enough to lift them off their feet. During his fight with Foo Fighters, Whitesnake was shown to tear his way through the engine compartment of a truck, presumably through the engine as well, another testament to his physical power.

Range: Pucci states in the Heavy Rainfall Warning arc that Whitesnake’s maximum range is 20 metres or so, and his strength only increases the closer he gets to Pucci.

Independence & Intelligence: One of Whitesnake’s quirks is that he is, in fact, fully sentient and possesses a consciousness completely separate from Pucci’s. He is cold and sinister when calm, but unlike Pucci, is very quick to explosive bursts of anger, particularly when things don’t go his way. His independence means he can do jobs for Pucci on his own volition, without Pucci having to supervise him. However, such independence has its risks, as Whitesnake will sometimes hesitate while thinking over Pucci’s orders (like being ordered to eliminate a certain adorable plankton gal). He also exhibits technical knowledge, such as skilled close combat techniques, critical thinking, and proper use of a handgun.

Discs: Whitesnake’s most notorious ability is his creation of Discs. At first glance they appear the same as a normal CD disc, but closer inspection reveals that they are completely indestructible. Bend ‘em, drop ‘em, shoot ‘em with a gun, the only way to destroy one of Pucci’s discs is to put them into a host and have the host die with the disc inside. What the Discs actually do varies depending on what kind of disc is used. Most often shown is Whitesnake compacting the memories and Stand (the soul) of a person into Discs and stealing them; the Discs can then be inserted into other people, granting them access to the memories or Stand contained by the Disc (although Stands can reject incompatible hosts, like Star Platinum rejecting Jolyne). The now Disc-less person will fall into a comatose state, during which their bodily processes will shut down and their bodies will begin to decay. Restoration of the Discs is the only cure; restoring only the Stand will leave the person alive, but lacking in any memories whatsoever, even basic functions, and restoring only the memories will still leave the individual soulless and dying. Whitesnake has also been shown to be capable of creating discs from his own body with orders imprinted into them; inserting these discs into a host, such as a prison guard or a bird, will force them to carry out those orders no matter what. Pucci has also been shown to remove his eyesight as discs, which leaves the question of whether he can remove more bodily functions, or do it to other people.

Illusion Mist: Whitesnake is capable of generating, through unknown means, a misty gas of some sort. The gas induces stupor and unconsciousness in those it envelops, making them experience vivid dreams to prevent them from realising they’ve even fallen asleep. While the victim dreams, the mist will slowly collect on their bodies and congeal into a white goo with powerful acidic properties, slowly dissolving the victims like stomach acid, just like a snake as it swallows prey. During this time, Whitesnake is free to snatch the victim’s Discs and leave them to die, a gruesome fate that took Emporio Alnino’s mother, as well as others before her. The mist can also be used to create illusions outside of dreams, as seen when FF tricked Whitesnake by making attack his own reflection in the mist, or Whitesnake wrapping the mist around himself and disguising himself as Weather Report.

Mind Control: Only seen once, Whitesnake is capable of ramming his fingers through the skull of a victim (in this case, Annasui) and taking control of their mind. In this state, the victim’s free will is eradicated, forcing them to do whatever Pucci tells them to do so long as Whitesnake’s fingers stay jammed in their brain.

---

C-MOON:

Destructive Power: Zero Speed: B Range: B Durability: ? Precision: ? Development Potential: ?

C-Moon is the next step in Whitesnake’s Pokemon evolution. Created by Whitesnake fusing the biological matter of the Green Baby and the fragment of Dio’s The World contained within into his body, C-Moon is undoubtedly a very dangerous Stand.

Strength: Don’t let Araki’s stats and Annasui’s comments fool you: C-Moon is immensely strong.With the already formidable strength of Whitesnake supplemented by The World’s power, C-Moon’s power leaves little room for mistakes when fighting him. His strength doesn’t seem to diminish as he moves away from Pucci, as C-Moon, while at least 50 metres away from Pucci, is shown to hit Jolyne and her Stand so hard the impact crumpled the ticket booth wall underneath her. Later, C-Moon punches both of Jolyne’s arms so hard they bend at very, very unhealthy angles, and before that, a classic Muda Muda from C-Moon demolishes a steel support column like tissue paper. Jolyne is pretty lucky she dodged most of C-Moon’s hits during their 1v1, because the fight would’ve been over much quicker if she hadn’t. And just in case you were wondering, C-Moon’s surface inversion takes a few moments to take effect, so all the damage listed here was purely a result of C-Moon’s raw strength. His Destructive Power is listed as ‘Zero’ or ‘None’, but that doesn’t indicate a lack of strength: it could be that C-Moon’s Destructive Power is so high that it lacks an appropriate rating altogether.

Independence: Although he doesn’t express his emotions as much as he used to, C-Moon is still capable of thinking and acting separately from Pucci. During his fight with Jolyne, C-Moon demonstrates critical thinking, using his environment and his powers to his advantage, and displays some pretty sweet MMA fighting skills. He also talks a few times, if only to inform Jolyne he’s going to kill her, and to tell Annasui to fuck off, essentially.

Range: C-Moon seems to have a range greatly exceeding that of his previous form, being at least 50 metres away from Pucci at one stage. His gravity field also extends roughly 3 kilometres.

Physical Body: Easily C-Moon’s most bizarre trait is his seemingly organic form. Jolyne is capable of hitting him by herself, without using her Stand, which shouldn’t be possible; C-Moon is also shown to bleed from injuries sustained, and said injuries don’t pass on to Pucci. Additionally, C-Moon is almost never shown levitating, as most Stands do, and he is never summoned partially; his body is always whole when manifesting, unlike some Stands who can appear as just an arm or the upper body. Given that he evolved when Pucci absorbed the Green Bay, and the fact that all that organic tissue had to go somewhere, it may well be that C-Moon is one of the only Stands with a fully tangible organic body.

Gravity Inversion Field: With Pucci as the centre, C-Moon can invert gravity in all directions away from Pucci, essentially forcing everything to fll away from him. The field has a radius of roughly 3km, extending outwards, so anything that attempting to enter the field will find itself pushing back out until they leave the field.

Gravity Manipulation: C-Moon has also shown the ability to redirect gravity at will, at least within a short distance of himself. The strength and direction of this seems to be under C-Moon’s control, as he used gravity to slam Jolyne’s arm down, crumpling the ticket booth under her (this is after the aforementioned hit, see the Strength section), and when he flung concrete tiles at Annasui at high speed by flinging them via gravity manipulation. The extent of this ability is unknown, but as long as he keeps using it to beat up Annasui, it’s fine by me.

Surface Inversion: C-Moon’s most infamous ability is Surface Inversion. The lightest touch from C-Moon’s hands can cause an object to have its gravitational centre invert itself, causing said object to quickly and violently turn inside out. This usually causes catastrophic structural damage to the object in question, like a ticket booth or Jolyne’s fingers. The effect can be reversed by C-Moon touching it again, but the damage done will remain. The power can be used strategically, as seen with C-Moon using it to change the terrain to destabilise his opponent and put himself in a better position. However, Surface Inversion really shines as an offensive power; the slightest graze from one of C-Moon’s punches turned Jolyne Kujo’s fingers inside out, crippling her hand, and a full force open-handed stab to her chest resulted in her heart turning inside out, reversing her blood flow and cutting off the oxygen to her brain (as if the massive blood loss and shock wasn’t enough). Even if he wasn’t so physically strong, C-Moon is an extremely dangerous Stand to go toe-to-toe with.

Time Acceleration: In the Jailbreak arc, we see Pucci, sick and in pain, as his Stand struggles to cope with the changes it’s undergoing. He states that it is no longer Whitesnake, indicating that this was when the transition to C-Moon was starting, and that it was no longer under his control. During this time, Pucci briefly touches a woman while helping her with her groceries; the thumb of his Stand, with the same blackstripe/GACT markings as C-Moon, appears and activates its power. The woman’s watch starts to spin at blinding speeds, and her fingernails grow dramatically in less than a second; the eggs she was holding all hatch into chicks, and worst of all, the whole left half of her baby son’s body is instantly accelerated into a full-grown adult man. This was just a precursor to Made in Heaven’s power, but since it accelerates objects on contact, and at such a massive rate, this ‘weaker’ version may be even worse... especially since it’s out of Pucci’s control.

Time Stop(?): It’s important to remember that Whitesnake absorbed a fragment of The World’s power when he evolved into C-Moon. This affected more than just his powers and his appearance; after being exposed to Jotaro’s time stop just twice, Pucci was noted to be able to move his eyes and look around in the stopped time, allowing him to make note of and -mostly- avoid the spear Jotaro threw at him. Considering that this development mimics Jotaro’s own development of time stopping during his fight with DIO, there is a very real possibility that C-Moon, given time and enough exposure to the stopped time, could have developed The World’s ability to stop time himself. As if he wasn’t OP enough already, right?

---

MADE IN HEAVEN:

Destructive Power: B Speed: Infinite Range: C Durability: A Precision: C Development Potential: A

The final stage in Whitesnake’s evolution and the final step in DIO’s master plan, Made in Heaven is, simply put, one of the most powerful Stands in existence.

Strength: Made in Heaven’s strength is still as impressive as his previous two forms, capable of bending back a palm tree with his bare hands (anyone who has tried to bend a palm tree will know this isn’t easy). His speed, combined with his strength, lends his blows a cleanliness not present in his previous forms; where Whitesnake’s strikes would roughly chop off a limb, Made in Heaven can slice through flesh and bone like a scalpel, as seen with Ermes Costello’s arms, or Jotaro Kujo’s entire head. His strength is also enough for him to be able to stab Annasui through the chest... with another Stand’s hand. He also seems to be able to lift Pucci, not unlike The World and Star Platinum did for their users in Cairo, allowing Pucci to move through the air; it’s possible, however, that Made in Heaven just threw him instead.

Range: Made in Heaven’s physical range is severely reduced, never being seen to leave Pucci’s side. However, the range of his time acceleration affects the entire universe, which is pretty impressive.

Independence(?): Made in Heaven never speaks, and is almost never seen without a calm, almost serene expression on his face, so we have little proof of him having the same sentience he had in his previous forms. However, he does exhibit frustration and anger at times, and he busts out a mean slasher smile when murdering Jolyne Kujo, so it’s up for debate really.

Time Acceleration: A vastly more powerful version of the ability possessed by C-Moon, Made in Heaven can manipulate gravity on a universal scale to speed up time exponentially. The rate at which time speeds up increases over time; early on, an hour is observed to pass in roughly two minutes, and by the time the acceleration is nearing its peak, clothes dissolve to tatters in seconds and rocks can be seen eroding in the water. Any living thing possessing a body block is unaffected by the time acceleration; bacteria and microorganisms carry on at lightning speed, but humans and animals will be left behind to behave at normal speeds. The acceleration can even affect Stand abilities, as noted by Jotaro, whose time stop was reduced in length by Pucci’s power. Speaking of Pucci, he is the exception that proves the rule; he himself is affected by the acceleration, zooming around at blinding speed. Although he isn’t technically moving faster (he’s moving at his normal speed, just over a shorter time frame), the fact that everyone else is left behind means that Pucci may as well be moving at super speed, making him almost impossible to fight.

Universal Overwrite: The concept that time has an ‘end point’ is one of the driving concepts behind Made in Heaven. The ‘end point’ in question is the point in time where time ends, loops around and starts all over again, exactly the same as the first. Made in Heaven’s acceleration hastens the cycle and brings about the reset of the universe in a matter of minutes, creating what we can call the ‘Pucciverse’. However, this overwrite functions a little like overwriting a file on a computer; once the loading bar fills up (time reaching the point where Pucci initially began accelerating), the old file is completely overwritten and can’t be retrieved, but if the loading bar is interrupted (Pucci dying before the loop completes), the old file will be restored (the old universe returning). This is the universe we see at the end of Part 6; the original universe is still here, and Parts 1-5 still happened, but something changed so that Part 6 never did, and the main cast lived different lives with different names. Why this happened isn’t clear.

Soul Memorisation: Although living things aren’t affected by the acceleration, their souls are; as time speeds up, their souls will memorise everything that should have happened to them in their lifetime. Then, once the timeline loops around and starts again, all humans will have memorised, in their souls, every single event that can occur in their lifetime. This grants them a weird ‘future sense’ like a really powerful feeling of deja vu. The principle behind this is Pucci’s philosophy of ‘peace of mind’, the idea that if humans always knew what was going to happen to them, good or bad, they would have time to come to terms with it and be at peace. This is Pucci’s idea of Heaven: a world where mankind can know its own fate and be at peace with itself. If one should die during or before the acceleration, that’s fine; their souls will still carry across into the Pucciverse, but they’re now locked into their fate. The only person exempt from this rule is Pucci, who can move and manipulate people’s fates as he pleases. Additionally, if someone is killed directly by Made in Heaven, their soul will be left behind, and their role in the time stream will be filled by a similar, but fundamentally different individual, as seen by the strange Not-Jolyne and Not-Jotaro Emporio found in GDSt. Should Pucci be killed and the Pucciverse collapse, however, those souls will be restored along with the original universe, albeit with different names and lives.

And that’s the end, folks! Hope you enjoyed it, because it took me nearly three hours to get this all typed out! If any of you learned something from this, I can consider my job done. Have a good one!

[escrituralibre]

[part 4] twenty minutes of writing 6/1/21

“The reason I ask, Malik”, she spat his name at him, his resolve shrinking with each passing moment, “is because I, alongside every other person working in this facility, have spent every waking moment of the past decade building something that, as of two hours ago, now resides inside your skull.”

She stared, unblinking into his eyes to allow the full weight of her words to sink into his aching psyche. Malik held her gaze, but his hunched posture betrayed his lowly status in this stand off. When the doctor was content that her words had the effect she desired, she continued.

“Mr Khan, you have undergone keyhole surgery to implant what can only be described as humanity’s greatest achievement since the internet into the tissue of your brain. It is a neural-mimetic devise that has the ability to read, and send, the electrical impulses that our body uses to communicate with itself.”

She paused and studied his face, before removing herself from between his legs. Malik let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding. 

There was an painfully long pause before anyone spoke again. Mailk was far too exhaused to catch one of the incohent jumble of questions that faught for attention in his mind, and Doctor D still seemed to be annoyed that she had to spend time with this fool. Finally, after a dizzying silence, she continued.

“The original plan was to implant the chip into a NASA astronaught, but the funders of the project had a much grander vision. And so, I ask you once again, Mr Khan, after all this time, and money, and effort, how is it that this priceless artefact of human evolutation has ended up inside your head?”

Malik began to laugh. This was getting ridiculous. His insides were aching from the lack of adequate sustenance, the effects of the drugs were yet to fully wear off, and now this woman, with her uncannily perfect features, was claiming that he had suddenly become a living, breathing holy grail? Malik almost heard the snap as the last of his patience was crushed under the absurdity of the situation.

“Listen... you” he instantly regretted not paying attention when she introduced herself. “I have about as much clue as to what the fuck is going on as you do. As far as I’m concerened, I was responding to an advert looking for test subjects willing to take part in human trials of some non-cosmetic bio augmentations. There was nothing special about it. All of this MK Ultra bullshit is not what I signed up for.”

Malik hopped off the table onto his feed and instantly crumpled to the ground, like a baby giraffe tumbling into the world for the first time. Doctor D rolled her eyes.

“Would you like to see how it works?”

[centaurrential]

More unfinished work. Having trouble with this one...

Chapter 1

The mid-afternoon sun shone into Helena’s room as she examined the pills in her hand. Blue: check. Yellow: check. Pink: check. White: check… A sip of water and down they went. She positioned herself in bed, waiting for the exhaustion of mania, waiting to melt into sleep as the medication cloaked her mind.

It was hot. The air was red. The leaves of the sal tree framed the scene as though one were looking at a roughly constructed film screen. A seemingly infinite row of identical, cross-legged and perfectly-postured Devis were seated to the right, the illusion of distance created by progressively smaller Devis disappearing toward the middle. As many mortal women as there were deities laid on their backs, their bodies turned toward the goddesses.  Needles and thread dancing in the air like a conductor’s baton during a poised, largo symphony, the sibling goddesses sewed shut their subjects’ mouths and eyes with perfect synchronicity and precision that could rival the most talented surgeons. The quietude and ceremonial air of the operations seemed to indicate that this was a ritual that had been performed many times over. There was no sign that the women, as still as the dead, had offered any protest. A voice whispered, “This is what you are.”

The day in India transformed into a dark, desolate night in the suburbs, where there were no sidewalks and where pedestrians were hardly welcome. An old, dilapidated house sat on the street amidst new constructions covered in neutral colours almost as horrifying as the abandoned house itself. Helena entered the empty house, to be welcomed by furniture that was grey, stained and torn all over, and probably overrun with pests. For reasons unbeknownst to her she sat in a chair that started sprouting arms which wrapped themselves around her and bound her to the chair so tightly that she had no choice but to face the terror of ghostly images of women from older generations swarming her. “This is what you will become,” they said.

Helena suddenly woke up, sweaty and disoriented. She pondered the dreams, thinking of her medication, which she knew was capable of producing an intense dream life, though that was not to say that she believed dreams were arbitrary and inconsequential. For a short while, she studied the chain of events leading up to that moment in her sunny bedroom. She recognized the familiar feeling of being in knots, overwhelmed by anxiety and expectation. His thoughtful pauses in conversation played counterpoint to her swift speech, which was an attempt to capture all of her brilliant musings so as to prove her intellectual equality. But his careful diction distilled from quiet periods of thought betrayed a maturity and a confidence that his audience would remain captivated even through his pensive, and sometimes long silences. When he finally spoke, his baritone was not a lonely effort from his vocal chords. His body shaped his voice, the textbook of his history. His voice, in turn,—stentorian as it was--lent change to his body, like the slow evolution of the meander of a river.

~~~

Our heroine’s ‘mater’ shouted from the kitchen in dual frustration with her sick daughter and the invading fruit flies she was swatting at with a wet rag. Heli put a brake on her train of thought and she emerged from her bedroom to find her mother, having given up on the flies, leaving the tiny, semi-open kitchen to join their relatives, who were seated around the living area. Like a typical Catholic-Balkan immigrants' apartment (“real” houses wouldn’t enter the picture for this particular demographic until years later), images of the Virgin Mother, crucifixes and paintings of horses-and-buggies betrayed an ignorance to modern living but an immense devotion to maintaining their transplanted religious patriotism.

Helena dropped down onto the couch--the kind that was made of a horrible black felt-like fabric with striations of green and white all over. She began to grasp the reality of the circumstances, but that comprehension was still a far cry from comfort. Sensing the quiet devastation in the room, and failing desperately to conquer the leaden weight supported by her robust five-foot-eleven frame, she laid down. Within seconds, she was upright again. I felt that I bore the heaviness in the room, and that made me tired. Once more, she was lying down with her legs dangling on the armrest of that damned spongey couch. She closed her eyes for a minute. A potent combination of restlessness, exhaustion and claustrophobia took over. I wish I could stand atop a mountain and open myself as widely as I can, to let all the noise and voices--the wicked, winged demons that they are--dissipate so completely into the air that they could never come together again to torment me.

Looking around the room, Helena noticed certain things about each of her family members. Her mother wiped the sweat off her brow with a crumpled tissue. Her uncle dried his teary eyes with an old grey sock. The family matriarch clung to her rosary. But perhaps Heli's most peculiar observation was of her grandfather. Residual from her Deda’s traumatizing move from the rural villages of Yugoslavia to the relative refinement of southern Ontario was his one-way departure from common reality. It was almost as if his relationship to society at that point foreshadowed the dichotomy of the burgeoning cosmopolitan attitude in the region and the influx of bewildered immigrants faced with a set of beliefs and behaviours that ensured hardship for them. His mumbling, nonsensical strands of words revealed he was in a world that nobody else could access, and he seemed to exist in it with a contentment that the general populace would probably treat with revile. But perhaps, in some way, he was the lone healthy individual in the midst of a cacophony of tragedy.