#the smoke effect actually happens a lot more than i thought

[holidaymidi]

another sonic sketch dump !

[lych33dragoncookie]

Only the masterpieces that survive the fiercest flames earn their place in history.

(Analysis post)

Alright, they absolutely cooked this update. Like, undeniably so. I was admittedly not that huge of a fan of the last 2 beast yeast chapters we got; they had really good ideas, and Mystic Flour is a wonderful character, but... Dark Cacao hasn't really been done enough with for it to feel like it had the amount of weight it could have, and it really doesn't feel like much about him actually changed at all. Combine that with a complete lack of interesting dynamics and you have a lot of very good and genuinely pretty well thought out story concepts with extensive cultural research, executed in a way that feels more like a traditional old-school story that weakens the attachment the audience feels to the components of said story.

Here, though? I have no complaints so far. It was absolutely wild in fact, to the point where I don't think it's gonna happen again (nor am I entirely sure it should ever happen again). This was back to back, non-stop, smack to the face one after the other. The moment the first point of conflict came up, it was just shit happening left and right; even in the mandatory moment of rest where we chill out for a bit, it's revealed that hey, these sandstorms? Yeah the sand is actually ashes. It's the remains of all the people that live here. Whether they died off on their own or were killed by someone else.

And if that wasn't enough, very shortly after;

... It's fucking crack.

So, people die and kill each other here very frequently, and not only are their remains visibly on display, their ashes also become sandstorms that make it near impossible to navigate the land; on top of being something that people snort like cocaine to become more energetic and aggressive.

We started fucking wild, dude. This whole thing is pulling no punches.

Though, I do wanna note; I really, really enjoyed the interactions between Smoked Cheese and Golden Cheese. It shows not only how forgiving she is, but how these two have known each other for an incredibly long time, and know each other well. They're incredibly comfortable around each other, despite it all, and despite how brazen and Very Much Not Strategic the queen here can be. I really, really enjoyed them.

Always fun to see a recovering villain do things for good, but in their own unique way that's still not exactly heroic but definitely effective and, at times, very gratifying.

Though I enjoyed all this, there's one thing I wanna talk about above all else.

The star of the show. Note that every single part was enjoyable, of course, and he wouldn't be half as interesting without Golden Cheese Cookie to serve as a parallel, but they've cooked up something special here.

So far, Burning Spice's extent of onscreen appearance is very, very short, but... I don't think I need to tell you that he's already made an impact and a half.

Christ, that's violent. With the sound effects and everything too, god damn. But, I'd be lying if I said this wasn't a pretty superficial source of judgement for this character. It's very very telling of what kind of person he is now, what he's all about, what he's willing to do, what he likes doing, but...

More than anyone else in recent memory, the devil is in the details. So let's look at those details.

Nothing too much so far, other than how much he absolutely loves destruction, but there's already a trend; namely on "Nothing lasts forever. It's as simple as that", "In the end, everything becomes dust.", and "You, too, shall see that destruction is the only way.". There seems to be an infatuation with the natural process of everything fading away, turning to dust and dying out. An entirely honest one, believing that there is just about nothing else to life. These will be important to keep in mind.

Here, we see a bit of his current relationship with his own immortality. He doesn't seem to mind the idea of losing it, finding something that may eventually take him down, but he still takes great pride in it. These lines, in text, seem somewhat miserable (and trust me, they definitely are), but the voicework in just about every language conveys that they are said in a more neutral, even potentially proudly manner. Again, not much on their own, but...

Here's where we get into the fun part.

This. This is the crux of their character. At the start, him and Golden Cheese cookie were more or less the same. Benevolent royalty, close and personal with their subjects. Beloved, and loving.

And then, they lost it all.

One way or another, their kingdoms were lost, reduced to almost nothing. They were overcome by grief, desperate, unable to cope with their loss. One tried to latch on as hard as possible. Preserve what she could, blindly, replacing the harsh truth of reality with an idealized, constructed world, where no one would ever have to know pain ever again. She shut herself off, and retreated in the safety and peace of a false reality. She would rather have lied to both herself and all her subjects than face reality. And eventually, she had to learn to move on. Let herself and her kingdom heal more naturally, facing reality. The other, meanwhile, was desperate to let go. He detached himself, trying to move past the pain of loss. But, of course, he couldn't force it to happen. No one can. And so with the grief of losing that which he held dear, continuing to be faced with the reality that nothing is forever, over and over, while he endured, the world slowly turning to ash around them again and again... It's no wonder something in there eventually cracked.

What will it take to destroy me. Nothing is forever, and yet, I am.

Nothing is forever. And yet, I am.

With time, misery turned to mania, and in an attempt to overcome their grief, they embraced it, in the worst way possible. A coping mechanism gone horrendously wrong. That destruction, that loss, the inevitability of death... It's not painful, no. It doesn't have to be. It can be thrilling. Exhilarating. A new reason to live. If all you care about turns to dust anyways, if that's really the only logical destination... Why not have some fun with it? Why not embody that inevitable, unstoppable force? Why not become what you fear, so you no longer have to be afraid anymore?

... You know, at least that's what I think is going on here. The next chapter could contradict this reading, but... From what all we have right now, it seems like Golden Cheese and Burning Spice are two completely different paths for the exact same type of pain. They are, in a way, the same, but diverge in almost complete opposite ways where it counts.

Spice is genuinely equal parts absolutely terrifying and absolutely miserable; a balance that is incredibly hard to strike in writing, but always absolutely fascinating and wonderful to observe when it happens. I have to say, the more I found out about them, the more I couldn't keep my eyes off everything they have going on.

I'm loving every little bit of this update. Mad props to the devs for cooking something up here that I am genuinely incredibly invested in, almost to the same degree as White Lily and Dark Enchantress. Banger update. Absolute S tier material.

TL;DR: Burning Spice is terrifying, miserable, and ridiculously cool. Everything about this update was an absolute merciless flurry of consecutive gut-punches. And I loved every second of it.

... Now we sit and wait for Shadow Milk's release next year.

[roosterbruiser]

Hi, could I request a Bob x Reader blurb that's a mafia themed one? I leave the plot up to you but I would love it if there was something smutty about it, thank you!

𝐌𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐌𝐞

𝐚 𝐁𝐨𝐛 𝐅𝐥𝐨𝐲𝐝 𝐛𝐥𝐮𝐫𝐛

"C'mere, doll."

Who are you to deny him?

Oh, that's right. You're the woman he's obsessed with, the one who keeps him reeling all night long at just the thought of your lips around his cock, the one who is always game, the one who's actually not very happy with him right now.

So you don't c'mere, doll. You stay put right where you are across the library, leaving all that mahogany and leather between the tow of you, your eyes swimming with annoyance and your lips frowning.

Bob's raising his brows at you expectantly, one hand stuffed in the pocket of his cashmere trousers while the other holds a fat cigar up to his lips. He's not used to people not listening to him right away; what he's used to is people scrambling to follow his direction before he's even given it.

But you aren't biting. He can tell from that indignant expression on your pretty, pretty face that you aren't even thinking about obeying.

And dammit if that doesn't make all the blood in his thighs rush to the head of his cock.

You stare at him. You're annoyed, honestly, but not angry. You two had a date scheduled, one you bought a slinky new dress for, one that had you watching hair tutorials and buying a new foundation. But at the last minute, Bob had called--claiming duty calls--and effectively cancelled your date in a phone call that lasted less than 5 minutes. Usually, you understood. Usually, you were much more forgiving. He was a well-respected man, a man people feared--but he was your Bobby. And because he was your Bobby, you let yourself get worked into a huff about him cancelling your date. You really wanted to go to that new restaurant, the one he claimed is impossible to get reservations for (except for the Bob Floyd, who would do anything to please his lady and also happens to be the son of Danny Floyd--like the Danny Floyd, don of the mafia). Really, you just wanted to put on your pretty dress and be complimented and doted on. Really, you just wanted to eat filet mignon with the man you love and then go home and fuck his brains out. And then maybe open up a bottle of that nice red wine you like so much.

But he hadn't even come home until ten minutes ago, well into the wee hours of the morning. And when he came through the heavy French doors of the library where you've been perched on the sofa waiting for him, he merely pressed a chaste kiss to your head and slumped on the couch to light up a Cuban stogie.

"Thought I said c'mere," Bob says, blowing that thick white smoke from his bitten lips as he tilts his head at you. "Deaf or somethin', baby doll?"

He stares at you. He knows you're upset--you're not exactly one that can hide your emotions, especially when they're because of him. You're in a fantastic dress, one that he would love to run his hands over and then promptly rip off your body, and there are still heels strapped to your feet. You've even painted your nails and done your hair up real nice. He knows, just from looking at you, that you put time and effort into getting ready for the date that he cancelled on a short phone call. He really didn't want to--it was something that was out of his control--but duty really did call.

"Make me," you taunt, completely serious. You're not smiling, there is no playful glint in your eyes. You mean it. You won't come to him unless he makes you.

And boy if that doesn't make his heart rate speed up.

But Bob can play it cool, even if he knows the night will end with him between your legs, coaxing you into summing one more time, doll, c'mon--I know you can do it. So he leans back further into the couch, not breaking his eyes from yours.

Even at the end of the day, a day that dotted his shirtsleeves with blood and caused a whole lot of trouble for his family, he still looks fucking gorgeous. His hair mussed from his fingers running through it, his eyes drooping with exhaustion, his cheeks sunken in slightly. There's that delicious amount of scruff on his cheeks, which he usually keeps well-groomed.

He finishes his entire cigar, stubbing it out when it's merely a butt. And you stand there, watching him watching you, neither of you speaking.

But then he stands up, rolling the sleeves of his button-up to his elbows, and fixes you with a look that makes your knees weak.

"Want me to make you, doll? Or you wanna listen real good so we can both get what we want?"

You shiver, but hold strong.

"What I wanted was to eat steak tonight and have you take this dress off me," you snark.

He smiles.

"I can make one of those things happen," he says.

You bite a smirk, refusing to give in.

"Freezer's empty," you say absently, raising your brows.

"Shame," he says lowly, slowly crossing the room to where you're standing with wobbling knees. "Guess I'll just have to do the other thing, then, huh?"

here is my tag list!!

[ultimate-shipper-trash-blog]

Pt.4

Over the past couple of months of Eddie's calls, Steve has gotten to know the corroded coffin boys. They've accepted him into their group and he's even gotten to listen to their old demo from high school.

"It's really good Eds."

"No it's not! I can't believe Gareth betrayed me like that. I was trying to NOT embarass myself in front of you-"

"Were you trying...at all?"

"Oh shut up!"

Eddie doesn't even have to make false calls anymore he just calls Steve up and hopes he has some free time during his shift to stop by.

It doesn't matter, Steve will make time always.

They haven't hung out when Steve's not on duty though and he's looking to change that.

Robin doesn't think he's fooling anyone with his weak remarks of 'preserving a friendship'. That's why this Christmas thing has to work.

He doesn't know what he was thinking. His whole thing is not to let Eddie get too close and he's bringing him to meet everyone that's ever mattered to him?!

Definitely not his smartest move. But he couldn't see Eddie's little disappointed pout. Steve knows more than anyone how it feels to spend Christmas by yourself.

---

"Disturbance on 5th."

"...where on 5th?"

"I think you know Steve."

"Shit."

"Attaboy Chief."

---

When he gets to bar there's two giant trucks in the lot and a red faced Eddie yelling at the drivers.

"I don't know where you think I'm gonna pull twenty kegs out from but it'll be your ass if I have anything to do with it!"

Steve jogs over.

"What's up Eddie? You could've just called me."

"Hey Stevie," he finally gives the guys some breathing room. "This is an actual police matter I thought it'd be better if I called the actual station this time."

Steve has never seen Eddie this worked up. He kind of has him in a trance.

The yelling continued which startled his mind back to normal.

"What happened?"

"Well asshole over here left with dipshit-" he gestures to the driver of the second truck. "To grab a 'smoke' and left the trucks unlocked and now all my stock has been stolen! How does that even happen?! How long were you gone to give someone enough time to steals two trucks worth of merchandise!"

The drivers are very obviously stoned.

Eddie runs to Steve and grips his shoulders. Manic look in his eyes.

"How am I supposed to make gingerbread lager along with all the other stupid holiday bullshit without my eight pounds of Cinnamon! Think of the Cinnamon Steve!" He shakes him. "The eggnog! The horror!"

Steve stifles a laugh.

"Ok I'll file a report and get right on it."

"Steeeeevvvveeee"

"Hey it'll be fine. I'll find it. I do do actually police work you know? I don't just hang lights. Besides where could someone be hiding all these shit."

Eddie gives him a grateful look.

"I know Stevie. I'm glad it was you who responded. I believe in you."

Steve's whole body is warm in this winter air. He tries not to look too effected.

---

It doesn't take too long. It's a small town after all.

He brings in the teenagers and calls their parents.

A group of twenty kids. All in high-school. All on the football team.

Easy.

He stops by the bar after and tells Eddie the good news. He also shows up with all of the stolen merchandise minus a keg the kids were halfway through when he found them.

Eddie leaps into his arms. It's the first time they've been this close.

"Thank you thank you thank you-" he's muttering it and rubbing his face in Steve's chest. Steve wishes this was happening in a different circumstance.

NO! BAD!

Steve puts a tentative hand on Eddie's hair.

"It's fine, it's what I'm here for."

Eddie gives him a blinding smile.

"Ok Stevie. Let's do Christmas."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah."

---

"Relax Dingus he'll be here."

"I know! That's why I'm nervous!"

Robin laughs at him. "Chill. They'll love him. Just don't screw this up he obviously likes you."

"Nope there's nothing to screw up! We're just friends. He's coming over because I didn't want him to spend Christmas alone and that's it. Friendly behavior."

Max snorts from over on the couch, El is painting her nails. "Sure Steve. I've only witnessed friendly behavior between you two."

"What! You have!"

She squints at him and pauses for a beat.

"You hopeless bisexual. If that was just friends behavior kill me before it turns into more." She gags at him as El giggles.

"It will be fine Steve," she says. "I will just have a nice talk with him about his intentions with my brother." Her smile is innocent but her face screams chaos and a little devilry.

"No that won't be necessary! I do appreciate it though El, you're a good sister." She's downright scary. Steve never wants Eddie to face her wrath.

---

Eddie fits rights in. He brought over secret recipe Brownies and brought liquor ones for the adults. They were so delicious he swears Argyle shed a tear.

The kids loved him, who knew they had so many dorky things in common.

He was finally able to meet Max in person and together with Robin and El they were a perfect match of sarcasm and teasing.

Steve's heart has never been so full.

Hopper and Joyce were looking at him from the corner. Faces definitely deep in thought.

During presents Eddie sat in what could be described as Steve's lap. He received a sharp look from Dustin and a questioning glance from Mike but didn't say a word. There was nothing to say. They were just friends. That's what they will remain being.

Steve won't let himself get closer. Steve will protect his own heart while protecting Eddie.

Robin could read his mind. Definitely. That had to be the only reason she was giving Steve this kicked puppy look. She knew what he was thinking. She shook her head like she was already disappointed in him and then turned to continue talking to Nancy.

Eddie laughed at some funny socks Jonathon got and squeezed Steve's thigh in the process. He froze up but relaxed when Eddie gave him a soft look.

--

Eddie had grabbed his hand on the way to his car.

"Thank you for this Steve. This has been the best day I've had in awhile."

Steve blushed, "it was no problem, I'm glad you had fun."

"You have an amazing family Steve, they care about you so much," he leaned in and kissed Steve's cheek. "I hope you realize how many people care about you. You deserve it."

Steve's frozen, staring at Eddie with flushed cheeks. He grips his hands tighter.

"I wish I could stay longer but the bar calls me. We'll have to do this again sometime." He flutters his eyelashes at Steve.

"Bye Stevie."

He let's go of his hand and gets in his car driving off.

"Bye Eds," he whispers to no one.

---

I can't help it! I'm posting the rest

[slamminslamminmcgill]

doing ket with lalo 🥰 lil drabble based on my last dick appointment teehee

warning: intox (ketamine, weed, and poppers. mentions of mushrooms and coke), rough sex, choking, anal

Special K, Vitamin K, Indica cocaine, Horse tranquilizer; ketamine goes by a lot of names. It’s one of many substances that you knew about in the abstract, but you’d never been in the room with it. That is, until you started sleeping around with Lalo. Growing up as a prince in the Salamanca dynasty, he’d been around oodles of drugs his whole life, and he could get you anything you were curious about. You wanna trip every once in a while? He’ll get you a pound of shrooms to keep you sufficiently stocked for your travels. And Salamanca weed was BY FAR the best you’ve ever had, be it smoked or eaten in something delicious. Coke was still a bridge too far for you, but ketamine sounded like a relatively safe alternative. Like, it’s used to treat depression. That’s gotta be a good sign, right?

You brought it up to him, and the next time you saw him, he brought some over.

After a few bong rips and an introductory round of rough fucking, you were warmed up and ready to try it.

“So... what's it feel like?”

"Well, ketamine is a dissociative, so you'll feel slowed down. Your body will feel heavy, might stumble when you walk...” Lalo poured some white powder on a compact mirror, and cut them into neat lines using a metal credit card. “The only visual difference is things will have, like... a trail to them, kinda. Like, you can see the movement of things more clearly... I like it for sex 'cause it makes it feel like there's more of an impact to it, y'know? Everything hits harder."

"And it's safe, right? Like you can't overdose on it?"

"Oh, yeah, nah, you'll be fine. We only got half a gram here, anyway. If you take too much, you might go into what's called a k-hole. But if that happens, you just go to sleep. No big deal.” He tapped the credit card on the mirror to shake some excess powder off, then continued to cut the lines. “I've actually been to parties where everyone's on too much K and they're all zoned out. Kind of a bummer, actually."

Not wanting to overdo yourself and kill the vibe, you thought it best to start slow. "Give me the tiniest baby bitch line you can."

"You got it. Just tap me if you want more, okay, mijo?”

“Okay!” You replied with a cheery grin.

Lalo gave the credit card a few final taps, and pointed to the smaller of the two lines. "Take that one." He brought his straw to the bigger one. "You've snorted through a straw before, right?"

"Uh... no actually."

"It's intuitive. You'll get it." Lalo said before serving himself the thicker line. One deep sniff, and it was gone, up inside his nostril. He sniffled a few times, sucking in the trace amounts stuck to his nose hairs, and grimaced at the flavor. “God, I hate that taste. So nasty.” He reached over and grabbed one of the two soda bottles on the nightstand. The other was for you. He warned you about how gross and chemical-y ketamine tastes. After cracking the bottle open and taking a swig, he handed you the straw. “Go for it, chiquito.”

You followed his lead: inhaling the powder, cringing at the chemical taste, and taking a drink to wash it down. You sat still for a moment, allowing the drug to take effect. “Hmm… okay…” You mused, evaluating your altered senses. The first thing you noticed was a feeling of being weighed down. That must be the heaviness he mentioned. You waved your arm in front of your face, and you noticed individual frames of motion as it moved. A trail, just like he said. “Okay… I think I’m getting it.”

“Yeah, there you go!” Lalo smiled and wrapped his arms around you from behind, hugging your back to his chest and kissing the top of your head. You felt more pressure in his touch than usual. It felt deeper. “Now… where were we?”

…

Not long after, you found yourself on all fours, ass up, pressed into the corner of your bed. Lalo had you in a headlock, his arms crossed around your neck, choking you as he rammed his thick cock into your weakened body. Your fingers fumbled with the poppers you were holding, desperately trying to huff them and open up before he could rip your asshole apart. He growled feral filth in your ear the whole time.

“Mmm, you know what’s the best part about ketamine? It’s that you get so relaxed… So pliable… So stupid… It’s so easy for me to just… mix your fucking guts around… Use you however I want… And you can’t do anything to stop it... Only thing you can do is just. Fucking. Take it.”

[gentlemean]

I know the fandom loves throwing ideas around for a hypothetical adaptation, so why not chime in.

I think most of us agree that an animated series would be better than the dreaded life-action adaptation. Regardless of format, any adaptation would have to somehow preserve the peculiarities, the absolute whiplash, and way the narration shapes the narrative. In my opinion, an animated series could do this quite well.

We start off with Gideon the Ninth. It's shown in heavily stylized 3d animation (think, at least Arcane-style), with strong contrasts in the colors. The Ninth house is dark and desaturated, the lights in the eyes of animated skeletons and Gideon's hair positively burn among the dreary surroundings. Then, getting to the First, the world is vibrant and bright, lots of elaborate light refractions in the broken windows of Canaan house.

Characters are accompanied not only by small, individual musical themes, but also by visual clues. Each house might have distinct little particles and effects that appear in scenes in which the respective characters act. They might synergize in scenes where characters cooperate or contrast in scenes in which they fight. (example: the Niners are always accompanied by shadows, ink-blots staining the scenery around them. The Third are too graceful to be real, all of their animations use exaggerated smear-frames in overly grandiose flourishes. When Naberius fights Gideon, his strikes stir the shadows around Gideon, cleaving bright rifts into the inkstained dark.)

The story is told as we know it, without reordering or large ommissions. One thing we see not nearly often enough in modern television is actual narration in the background. We don't need it for all of the visuals and happenings, but so much of gtn profits from Gideon's thoughts and feelings.

A few scenes look differently though. When Gideon allows Harrow to take over her vision, the animation style changes. It gets a bit more abstract, the surroundings are textured like oil paintings, and Gideon herself has trails of smoke and ink following her movements. This is how they see the world together, and it is reflected again at the very end of the first book, when Harrow ascends. Except this time there's no borrowing, it's something deeper. The world is painted, more abstractly this time, and the characters appear almost like paper cuts.

And then the fun begins. We leave gtn and start htn. There is no more Gideon in our narrative, and yet there is her narration. As in the first series we retain parts of the narration, and it is her voice - mostly. Now, this is a source of great confusion in the book, right? The series would have to make it explicit that it is her voice, but it can have fun with it nevertheless. Some words are garbled, overlapping, distorted. Sometimes, Harrow's voice seamlessly takes over the narration, drifting in and continuing, while still using Gideon's pronunciation and vocal flow.

The visuals, on the other hand - now, that's an entirely different thing. At this point we know what the world looks like when Gideon sees it and what it looks like when they see it together. htn gives us two exciting new variations: 'Harrow with very little Gideon' for the Mithraeum story, and 'Harrow entirely without Gideon' for the river bubble. In the main, physical-world story we retain broad strokes of thick oil paint for the world around Harrow. The characters are too clean on a messy background, with some of the paint steadily bleeding into their shapes. The paint seems almost like it is an active participant in the narrative, crawling across inconvenient truths to blot them out, staining everyone but keeping it's distant from John, who therefore remains clearer than clear, shiny and bright, squeaky clean and lemon scented. But then there's the river bubble, and we get full Harrow, with a teeny bit of Wake. The scenery around the characters is vague and misty, swathes of color arrange into a distorted background like ink being poured into water. The entire scenery bleeds color and light into the surroundings of dark, barely saturated characters. It breaks at the seams when the uncomfortably realistic fleshy pipes wind through the walls, something too concrete for a tearstained world.

Towards the final act, we see a few changes: Abigail summons Nonius, and the shape language changes. Everything's still illustrated the way it was before, but the stark, desaturated characters in his proximity stop being mere dark blots in this scenery, and instead become almost comic-like. Their strikes and attacks are supported by respective action lines, their poses and moves adapt to the newly imposed genre conventions. Meanwhile, on the Mithraeum, Gideon is keeping the fires burning. We're almost back to the way we used to see the world in the beginning, Gideon's stark contrast and smooth environments. But there's the ink bleeding into the scenery from dark corners and bright red puddles, there's enough of Harrow here to stain the world.

And, well. We get to Nona. And Nona's world fundamentally isn't like the one the other's see. Nona's world is mismatched and chaotic and charmingly odd. Most of it is claymation, interspersed with some other materials. Cam's swords are real metal, the dust of New Rho fills the air, and most of the food is probably actual food that looks as dreadfully out of place in this world as it feels in Nona's mouth. There remains a touch of Harrow, expressive movements are exaggerated with her flowing ink, action lines like calligraphy. Of course, there are also the John chapters. Here, we get to have proper fun with the visuals. Let's recap: it's Harrow getting to experience a memory of Alecto, narrated by John. We already know Harrow's flowing colors that stain the backgrounds, and we get mixed medium animation with it: articulated plastic dolls, of course, with some natural materials (moss, wood, some metal scraps) as set dressing.

I'm still not entirely settled on the Nona Epilogue. As long as Alecto isn't out I'm not sure whether I want to keep in line with something from the next book, or whether it's its own thing. Until we know more: illuminated manuscript.

---

Well, that was more than I originally intended to write, but I've had those thoughts in my head basically since I've started the books, and they needed an outlet. There's plenty more ideas where those came from, please please talk to me. 'The Unwanted Guest' as an actual play, anyone? (When Cam makes contact with Babs, and the fight initiates, the camera zooms out from the now frozen claymation, revealing it's situated on a table in the front row of a theatre hall BTW)

[foggynitefic]

Drop Them Bones Chapter 9: Hard and Fast

This one's a doozy...

Hard and Fast

To be sure of, without a doubt, without debate History: In seafaring times, the term ‘hard and fast’ was used to describe a vessel that was beached on land and unable to be moved. [Don’t lie. Absolutely none of us thought it meant that. None of us.]

So, funny thing. Since posting Chapter 8, I had a wonderful long weekend in Manhattan, followed by the worst stomach flu I’ve gotten in at least a decade. Then, after a few weeks recovering from that, I partially dislocated my knee and sprained my MCL. Full damage assessment still TBD in a couple months, but I have a care plan for now.

What I’ve posted as Chapter 9 was supposed to be ten pages max plus additional scenes, and then this happened. So, I have 6k words of Chapter 10 already because I split Chapter 9 in half, and I’ve had the final scene in Chapter 10 (originally intended for Chapter 6, hah!) written for the last three months…

I currently have 9 more chapters planned out, but as this adventure has shown me, that’s more like guidelines. This chapter would have been out sooner, but reference above, and in retrospect, this chapter’s title also describes me in seafaring times right now…

Notes

At least I’m recuperating and back to excessive research spiraling:

If you have the equipment, time, and inclination, you too can om a gator nom. I have only ever outsourced my gator dining experience to trustworthy restaurants, because I’m happy to compensate people accordingly for their labor and gator meat is fucking expensive to have shipped up north.

I’ve mostly encountered alligator fried or in etouffees in restaurants, and if you can’t source alligator or just think they’re too cute to eat (look at them faces!), they do taste like a fishy chicken, but less swampy than frog, and have the consistency of a pork chop. So, imo, you can substitute either white chicken meat or pork to about the same effects in all the recipes except the whole smoked gator. Alligator meat is very lean and easy to dry out, though (flashbacks to straw-like fried, breaded nonsense on that one trip to Florida…) The Daily Beast has an article from 2019 that goes into more detail on taste, etc. I’m not going to link to any of the butchering videos I watched to make this fic, but if you’re interested, deermeatfordinner on Youtube has a good one.

And yes, in true Louisiana fashion, the state government does have an alligator cookbook available in PDF for free. The final page notes that funds for it came from both Florida and Louisiana, and the most approximate publication date I can find for it is 1994. Its text, graphics, and ingredients definitely look like something from the 80s or 90s…

I was not tracking that discarded crocodile and alligator fat can be used to produce biodiesel at competitive prices…

I went down a lot of interesting 1700-1800s sailing history that involved the provisions given per day to British Navy sailors, how much salt was needed to brine 100 lbs of meat, and how the brining process actually worked (floating eggs and meats, oh my!) The average alligator yields about 40 lbs of meat, so all the proportions and weights for applegators came from multiplying that by three, then adding on more layers of fat than an alligator would have because applegators can also go out in the deep sea. Yes, I know this is a fanfic for fantasy pirates on an imaginary planet. If Oda-sensei can say they’re all stronger because gravity, I can make chonky applegators.

Curing meat Wikipedia article; Quora entry (of all things) on sailor provisions; Colonies, Ships and Pirates blog; and an NIH paper with some science of curing meats; plus a definition of pellicle; and some historical pre-refrigeration context.  Salting meat Wikipedia article and smoking meat Wikipedia article. And of course, once the fancy bougie restaurants start using salt water, it’s cool again.

If you don’t have a smoker at home, here’s a stove-top smoked salmon recipe that could work with any type of fish (though, I don’t think a sweet cure would really go with white fish).

How to dehydrate food without a dehydrator ideas

Making a ground oven: I actually learned about this technique back in anthropology of food, as it’s one of the oldest cooking methods that we know of, and I’ve always wanted to try it. Darn you, local fire ordinances.

Random fandom trivia: If you’re a fan of 911 Lone Star, you may remember the first (I think) season episode of a family ground cooking in their backyard and their racist neighbor being a dick about it then getting a righteous comeuppance from the team. Is it over the top justice? Yes. Is the drama hilarious? Also, yes.

They use a technique in this chapter that I based off a New England clambake set up. Mainly, a pit on the beach with seaweed, hot rocks, and a wet sail over top, covered with sand. General bake concepts and times came from here (if you can read it through that horrible font…)

Sustainably harvesting seaweed.  Modern Farmer has a pretty informative newsletter I’ve been subscribed to for a couple years – It’s an interesting read if you’re into agriculture news (food-related technology, regulations, innovations, etc.) and like to know more about your food supply chain.

I didn’t know how to make sausage before. Behold, basic sausage tutorial!

Recipes bludgeoned in the making of this chapter:

I have never cooked gator meat or a whole pig, but here are recipes that sound like horrifying fun:

Whole Smoked Gator

But also, whole pig ground cooked

Kalua Pork  

Alligator Jerky

Songs: 

[jerreeeeeee]

i also read the suffering game graphic novel. here's praises and criticisms. this one is also more negatives than positives unfortunately, i tried to be fair and thoughtful but i did not like it very much

things i liked:

-lucretia prologue establishing that she went to wonderland + talking abt missing the crew. fun & mysterious

-hi mavis and mookie :) they are cute

-HI BARRY sometimes i forget he stalked merle’s family outing. i love that freak

-magnus and angus scene!! fisher showing angus the statue drawing!! ango detective subplot!! this is a nice and natural addition since we know he was sleuthing around the BOB

-merle teasing taako about his date is kinda cute actually love seeing them be friends

-thank god they got rid of the chimera. idk if this is a hot take or anything but its probably my least favorite fight in the podcast its so out of place and unnecessary. there are lots of fights that didnt really matter in the beginning like all the gerblins and the slime swamp in rockport but they were still like getting their bearings and the show was more like a real dnd campaign than a typical actual play, but by the time you get to the suffering game there’s more interesting things to do and you're like god why are we still doing random forest encounters just get to wonderland already

-not a positive per se but i’m not that upset about sterling and his party being cut. i feel like an adaptation would’ve had an opportunity to make that little c-plot matter more, and that would’ve been awesome, but as is in the podcast, i never felt particularly strongly about it? not enough to miss it. idk like magnus and merle were already for ‘trust’ even if it were strangers and taako never seems all that regretful about it (which like. fair. he’s the pragmatist and that’s how the prisoner’s dilemma works. he played the game right because he couldn’t afford to lose, knowing they hurt some slightly-less-strangers doesn’t really change that).

-i dont remember which of the boys discovered it in the podcast but merle noticing the smoke thing is good. he actually is competent and especially in an arc that’s meant to make him feel useless that’s a good little reminder

-i do like that the liches say the bell is very powerful & is threatening to destroy them like both keeping in theme with the rest of the relics and an introduction to the idea that sharing an incredible and dangerous power between two people makes it easier to keep your sanity, similar to lichdom

-griffin getting cut off with the hunger is awesome finally we’re taking advantage of the medium. nothing more to say that choice rules

-posts on tumblr hyped me up for taako recognizing barry’s dick but unfortunately that’s not really what happened and now i’m disappointed. but the graphic novels arent canon so i’ll just have to continue with my barry/taako awkward past one night stand agenda despite it all

-i dont quite know how to feel about the umbrastaff leaping to barry to replace the “love barry, trust barry” moment. on the one hand, having lup actually speak to taako wouldn’t work super well in graphic novel form, not to mention the whole band of projected thought thing was kinda convoluted and they are clearly very limited on time, and taako choosing to trust the umbrastaff in this way is a creative way to get that same effect. on the other hand, its so unclear what even happened or why it changes taako’s mind without podcast context. that’s one of my big gripes, you’re expected to be familiar with the story already, but if you’re familiar with the story, the graphic novels are… worse in every way. also, i really really liked the original scene so even though it doesn’t work, i miss it. this isn’t as effective—we don’t find out there’s a person missing from taako’s memory, his heart doesn't swell at the sound of her voice, he doesn’t know with certainty that she’s someone dear to him. it's just like, another instance of the umbrastaff acting weird. maybe you put together that 'LUP' is a person but you don't have any indication until the moment of remembering how important she is. all of that would be really difficult to get across in a visual medium anyway, but still, yknow, it doesn’t hit as hard.

-ango!! his mage hand is coming along so well!! although. why is his wand just like a stick. did he pick it up off the ground. taako needs to take better care of his boy this reflects badly on him as a teacher lmao

-i felt this way about the eleventh hour too but there’s so many little details of taako and merle’s friendship i feel like they have little asides and jokes together a lot and i love that

-the looming dread of the hunger is done pretty well (as well as it can be with such time restraints)

-merle trying to commune with pan and seeing john instead is good. very ominous and intriguing for new readers and exciting for podcast listeners

-really liked the panel of barry in the red robe against the stars and the bond engine’s white ring as he’s remembering. very cool very cinematic

-i actually also really like the framing as taako remembers, filling in the memories we’d seen previously and clearing out the static while he looks so broken, and merle asking him what he’s remembering, and then finally speaking his sister’s name. its framed very powerfully. i wish he and lup didn’t look awful so i could actually feel something at that part. like they are my favorite characters ever their story makes me so emotional and i just. they’re unrecognizable. the character designs are terrible and taako has spent 6 books now being mischaracterized and flattened to hell so i just can’t muster any emotion. maybe i'll redraw that page someday though because the panelling is genuinely very good

-the ending lucretia monologue is good she's the narrator she's the main character she's everything. love the portraits staticking out and mirroring and changing, and ending on the beach painting is great. very cinematic and a natural way to phase into the stolen century

things i didn’t like:

-i dont think taako’s deepest desire is his own brand of fashion forward athleisure wear if i’m being quite honest. these little things irk me

-why is liches get stitches all the way in the beginning… ill portent for how the rest of this book will go

-i think they shouldve introduced the flaming raging poisoning sword of doom way earlier. the payoff isnt nearly as good without the setup of having been magnus’ white whale for like fifty episodes. maybe they did mention it in earlier books and i just forgot though

-^ i hate his stupid ugly oversexualized stereotyped ass so fucking much its unreal

-why are edward and lydia ugly :( —(they're not ugly because they're chubby they're ugly because their color schemes and outfits are fucking awful) (fr though why are all their colors so muted and dingy?? why are their outfits boring?? at least their heart attack looks are fun)

-oh so there’s just no trust or forsake at all. yeah i don’t like that. in the end no great loss since i don't think it really says anything about thb's characters that hasn't already been said, but so much of thb's characters and arcs have been cut from the gns already

-i get that they’re low on time trying to fit in reunion tour but like come on part of the suffering of the suffering game is how long and painful it is cutting it down really just. makes it not matter as much

-magnus looks no different after aging LMAO he gets like 2 gray hairs and that’s it

-edward and lydia’s lich forms are also boring unfortunately

-no tasha’s hideous laughter on the heart attack mannequin? lame. although i have for the first time realized that dnd shows kinda have a thing for characters uninterested in romance being forced by mysterious powers to be haunted by creepy puppet-like “romance partners” huh

-magnus doesn’t forget kalen?? why cut that out? i guess because there was never closure for it in the original story?

-no boss rush?? that was fun :(

-magnus and taako aren’t surprised merle has kids??? did they know???

-dupree looks terrible but i guess props to carey for giving him feathers even though it looks bad

-just axed the liches’ backstory?? that was kind of important?? the fact that they turned to necromancy out of love for their family & powered themselves with positive emotions too? that like, has relevance later…

-NO BAD LUCK FOR ARMS OUTSTRETCHED? COME ON

-the framing of magnus’ soul being removed is so anticlimactic in general like the POINT of a VISUAL adaptation is to have interesting & cinematic VISUALS its just so messy

-all of arms outstretched didnt look very good in general sorry. its just such a big important moment and to make it so mid… a tragedy

-“i guess we still needed each other after all” doesnt work anymore because they removed all of edward and lydia’s backstory and character but it was an interesting line to me that i wish had been kept. hammering in that liches need anchors is, again, pretty relevant later on, getting rid of that foreshadowing sucks, and it also humanizes these villains in an interesting way that really highlights their powerlust as their downfall rather than just, like, cruelty for evil’s sake. like yes they torture people and find it fun because they’re so distanced from their own humanity but they also truly believed it was necessary for their own safety and seemingly only became sadistic after they desensitized themselves. i wrote a post about this a while ago but idk if i’ll ever post it

-not a fan of barry killing lydia either. idk why, its not like he hasn’t killed other people to protect the boys before. but that’s earlier in the show before we know he’s not just a villain and is in fact meant to introduce him as a villain. now he’s a friend so idk if you can just go back to having him murder people? again its not a wrong choice but it feels like messy storytelling. also like i think seeing a lich grieving her anchor and a sister grieving her brother would pull some heartstrings for him. it would maybe remind him of some people he loves and garner some sympathy and give him some pause. and i liked that in the podcast even though lydia was so distanced from the idea of positive anchors, killing edward just immediately undoes her, fits in with the themes and the way we understand liches to work, another powerful example of what bonds can do, and that's kinda lost here

-magnus’ answer to the bell sucks so badddd lmao when these books NEED context they’re devoid of it but when they actually have the necessary plot points/character arc established for the reader to put something together they have to go and spell it out like the audience is stupid. there was something so raw and powerful about magnus’ original “i’d hate it. shut the fuck up.” like just shutting it down and not even considering it. that’s completely lost when he has to be like “recap time! my wife, julia,” eugh just didnt like that. there are so many powerful lines from balance that i don’t hate on principal that they’ve changed, but there was no good reason to change, and so the new version just falls flat and there was no reason not to include the original lines verbatim? i get not wanting to just deliver a podcast highlight reel and have the gns be their own story or w/e but if you’re gonna do that you have to do it well, and they just keep being worse unfortunately

-they don’t get the chance to go off the grid themselves and choose to trust barry?? come the fuck ON that is IMPORTANT to the STORY

-this may or may not be an unpopular opinion but i’m not a fan of barry’s design either. i don’t like the hair and he’s not fat enough. less egregious than others but its still another instance of being like who tf is that

-barry’s little coin monologue was kinda fun and dramatic and i (finally) liked the visuals of him falling from the sky/silhouette of the starblaster against faerun’s single sun. but i wish they’d kept more of the original. add drama that’s fine but the point of it is to humanize him after we’ve spent so long thinking of him as a villain and a ghost and a force of the story and now it turns out he’s barry bluejeans. he’s just a guy. he loves his mom. he’s allergic to dairy. he’s afraid of the dark.

-especially not a fan of cutting out the “love that defined and redeemed you” and “dull weight in your chest” in barry’s coin monologue. those are important parts of his character. whether you interpret the love and the weight to be for lup or for the whole crew, you need to know that the red robe has lost people, and that everything he does is to try to get them back. he’s the lover and he’s grief personified. his mission is to save the world AND recover his family. thats like. kinda important for his character and role in the story. if you ask me.

-again the “we’ll get em next time” magnus flashback is not BAD but it could’ve looked so much better? carey definitely has strengths as an artist but her fight scenes and character design tends to be very weak so its unfortunate that this is an adaptation of a dnd podcast where those 2 things are like, the most important. idk i feel like i should be articulating what i mean better but i’m not sure how. the fights just are often really cluttered and framed in an odd way that doesn’t look very good or dramatic or dynamic. i don’t want to say carey is a bad artist, i really don’t think she is! but i think she was not the right artist for this project. the magic of a visual medium is, well. the visuals. when they’re mid the whole story suffers.

-taako and merle not just saying magnus is dead is sorta unnecessarily confusing since everyone like assumes he’s dead anyway? idk i don’t understand that choice. kinda fucks with his moment with carey. not a big deal in the end but it does seem unnecessary

-MAGNUS DOESN’T GO SEE FISHER?? the mannequin dies in fantasy costco??? what about johann???

-“you stole half of my fucking heart” i know a lot of people loved this line but it genuinely baffles me. Why Only Half. not only referencing one of the most heartwarming (and heartbreaking) lines in the original show with no context for why its meaningful at all yet—but also minimizing it? why soften that blow? why detract from the raw intensity of that grief? why reduce a very powerful sentiment? an adaptation of balance that doesn’t allow itself to be earnest and wholehearted (ha) about its platonic bonds is not a good adaptation, straight up. maybe its not that deep but it is To Me. maybe it has no real import and i’m just being stupid but like they made that choice to write half instead of just “my heart.” Why, genuinely

-hey what the fuck happened to johann for real though. that was a really important part of the story. hey. hey. what about johann. like are we just ignoring johann. am i insane. how has no one mentioned this. what’s up with johann

-

so all in all, again, rushed pacing, axing of a lot of very important plot points, shoddy visuals.

it did not make me relive the emotional journey of the suffering game and reunion tour. it inspired a vague nostalgia for the first time i experienced reunion tour, reminded me of how much i love the original show, and made me want to listen to the podcast again. especially reunion tour good god i love reunion tour. and it made me desperately wish for a good adaptation. i would do fucking anything for a good adaptation. the longing is making me sick. at least we always have podcast reunion tour.

the graphic novels are just so empty and soulless compared to the original show. i wouldn’t have an issue with changes, except that the changes, at every turn, gut the emotional core of the story that makes it so special, and ruin the strong themes throughout the story. they fundamentally misunderstand what is so good about balance. and also, like, basic storytelling. they’re poorly designed and poorly written, so they don’t even stand on their own as a different story. i'm not expecting an exact replica, but i am expecting good writing, good changes when necessary, and respect for the original beloved story. without those, the soul is gone, the spark of what makes balance so compelling and emotional.

i am dreading the story and song graphic novel. i don’t think it will be any good. the themes and character arcs and plot of the show have been mangled beyond belief so nothing is really meaningful anymore. can we go back to the johann thing for a moment—

[eilooxara]

I think noise pollution is hurting us (people in general) more than anyone acknowledges

Like. Hearing damage happens way way below the threshold of pain. And some very normal common sounds exceed that threshold.

And hearing damage isn't the only thing!! Hypertension and sleep disturbance and migraines and heart disease and immune system effects and fucking birth defects and mental health degradation are all results from excessive noise too

And collectively as a society we have decided this is fine????

You can tell from the. Everything.

Cars are the obvious one in America but I bet the trains in places where they have proper transit do it too (the train near my house sure does!). Aircraft and sirens and notification sounds on everything and smoke detectors (did you know it's illegal to alter your own smoke detector in your own home to make it quieter??? Did you know that smoke detectors absolutely cause hearing damage every time they go off?? Did you know that some people including me and one of my wives are incapacitated by sufficiently loud sound and are therefore put in far more danger if there actually IS a fire?? Did you know my wife once had to be rescued from a false alarm because she couldn't move once the fire alarm started???) and power tools and subwoofers and stadiums and and and

And all this push for denser and denser cities --even from people who appear to actually prefer the welfare of humanity at large--the whole walkable cities thing requires LOTS of density. Less cars might help but it might NOT help ENOUGH. Has anyone thought about the noise that comes with living that close? How are we going to manage it?? I'm not saying there's no solution but it must be addressed, we can't just handwave that

Why am I the only one who cares about this??

[drstonetrivia]

Chapter 4 Trivia

Tsukasa's stone-cold goals are revealed.

Tsukasa's still got some lion blood on his hand from the punch he delivered in the last chapter.

Because lions have to be stronger than their prey, they're full of muscle and don't have a lot of fat, making their meat tough. Because of the lack of connective tissue and fat to soften the meat through traditional methods, the best way to do it is slowly over a low temperature which prevents the meat overcooking while allowing the connective tissue to break down and soften. Recommendations for cooking lion meat say 57°C over 24 hours. After that, it apparently tastes like pork, but richer.

(I couldn't find any sources on the meat smelling or tasting like ammonia, I'm forced to assume it's a side effect of their territory-marking urine?)

Normally it takes 6-8 weeks to make leather out of skin, but here Tsukasa is wearing it immediately and probably even before the body's become cold, judging by Taiju carrying Yuzuriha's statue to the base in the next panel. This is absolutely disgusting. Don't do this please.

Here we have proof Senku switches out his pouches based on what he needs. What's actually in them is anyone's guess though!

Smoking food works for several reasons. It dries the food (preventing fungal/bacterial growth), the smoke keeps insects away during the process, and the smoke itself imparts preservative and antimicrobial compounds such as the aldehydes Senku mentions. (Too much is toxic though!)

Interesting little habit you have there, Senku...

According to Senku, Tsukasa's skin is extremely pale. I'm not sure if this means he's got Snow White's complexion, or if Senku and Taiju are by comparison very tanned from working outside all day.

Tsukasa may have deemed himself the fighter, but he's no meathead! Based off his thoughtful comments, it looks like Tsukasa is quite scientifically knowledgeable himself, just not as much as Senku.

Adding lime (calcium carbonate) to soil reduces its acidity. Most plants prefer a pH of 6-7.5, which is neutral to slightly acidic. Obviously adding lime to already alkaline soil will make it even more alkaline, so you should test your soil first. Some plants like the acidity!

Heating lime to over 900°C releases CO2 and forms calcium oxide. Adding water and sand to it creates mortar, a substance that hardens by absorbing CO2 from the atmosphere and turning it back into calcium carbonate.

Fun fact: you can use the carbon in mortar for carbon dating!

To make soap, you need a fat (vegetable oil, bacon grease) and a base (lye, wood ash, lime). The goal is to saponify the fat. In modern soaps, calcium carbonate is added to bulk up the product and act as a mild abrasive.

Taiju is a very good friend for Senku because he obviously pays good attention and has a good memory. That is all.

He's just not that great for subtlety or negotiations...

Legally, "disfigurement" means to cause permanent change in a person's body, particularly by leaving visible scars which affect a person's appearance. We don't see any of that on Tsukasa, so did they heal? Was he fighting with broken fingers pre-petrification? What happened?

Freshly broken stone parts are colored in white. Does this mean as long as the stone is still white/unblemished, the pieces can be recombined?

Haha yeah it would be a shame if an evil dictator was woken up...

I still don't understand why Tsukasa skinned the lion where it dropped instead of bringing it back with them if they were going to eat the meat anyway...

[posttexasstressdisorder]

Scientists have fiercely debated the existence of ‘Planet 9’ for a decade. Some say evidence is piling up

By Jacopo Prisco, CNN

Updated: 6:07 PM EST, Wed November 6, 2024

Source: CNN

Our solar system used to have nine planets. Astronomer Mike Brown, also known as “the man who killed Pluto,” said he got hate mail from kids and obscene calls at 3 a.m. for years after his most famous finding helped change that.

Brown, a professor of planetary astronomy at Caltech, discovered another small world called Eris in the Kuiper Belt — a vast ring of icy objects beyond Neptune’s orbit that also happens to be the former ninth planet’s neighborhood. The 2005 revelation set off a chain of events that led to Pluto’s still-controversial demotion from planet status the following year.

But now, just as the Kuiper Belt effectively took a ninth planet away, Brown and other scientists believe it could give one back.

The belt, which astronomers believe is made of leftovers from the solar system’s formation, extends 50 times farther from the sun than Earth, with a secondary region that reaches beyond it for nearly 20 times that distance. Pluto, now classified as a dwarf planet along with Eris, is just one of the largest among the scores of icy bodies that exist there — and doesn’t dominate its own orbit and clear the orbit of other objects. That’s why it can’t have the same standing as the remaining eight planets, according to guidelines laid out by the International Astronomical Union.

Because objects in the Kuiper Belt are so far away from the sun, however, they are difficult to spot. For more than a decade, astronomers have been searching that area for a hidden planet that has never been observed, but its presence is inferred by the behavior of other nearby objects. It’s often called Planet X or Planet Nine.

“If we find another planet, that is a really big deal,” said Malena Rice, an assistant professor of astronomy at Yale University. “It could completely reshape our understanding of the solar system and of other planetary systems, and how we fit into that context. It’s really exciting — there is a lot of potential to learn a tremendous amount about the universe.”

The excitement comes with some controversy — different camps have competing theories about the planet itself while some researchers believe it doesn’t exist at all.

“There are definitely full-blown skeptics about Planet Nine — it’s kind of a contentious topic,” Rice said. “Some people feel very passionately that it exists. Some people feel very passionately that it doesn’t. There’s a lot of debate in trying to pin down what it is, and whether it’s there. But that’s the hallmark of a really interesting topic, because otherwise people wouldn’t have heated opinions about it.”

Soon, the debate could be settled, once a new telescope capable of surveying the entire available sky every few nights comes online in late 2025. Until then, a team of researchers believes it has found the most compelling evidence yet that the hidden planet is real.

A ‘smoking gun’

The search for Planet Nine has only recently kicked into gear, but the discussion about its existence dates back more than 175 years.

“Since Neptune was successfully discovered in 1846, at least 30 astronomers have proposed the existence of various types of trans-Neptunian planets — and they’ve always been wrong,” said Konstantin Batygin, a colleague of Brown’s who is also a professor of planetary science at the California Institute of Technology. Any body orbiting the sun beyond the orbit of Neptune is defined as “trans-Neptunian” by astronomers.

“I never thought I would be talking about how there’s evidence for a trans-Neptunian planet, but I believe that unlike all of those previous times, in this case, we’re actually right,” he added.

Batygin and Brown are among the most vocal supporters of Planet Nine. The pair has been actively working on finding the hidden planet since 2014, inspired by a study by astronomers Scott Sheppard, staff scientist at the Carnegie Institution for Science in Washington, DC, and Chadwick Trujillo, associate professor of astronomy and planetary sciences at Northern Arizona University.

Sheppard and Trujillo were the first to notice that the orbits of a handful of known trans-Neptunian objects were all strangely clustered together. The duo argued that an unseen planet — several times larger than Earth and more than 200 times our planet’s distance from the sun — could be “shepherding” these smaller objects.

“The most visually striking evidence remains the earliest: that the most distant object(s) beyond Neptune all have orbits (that) point in one direction,” Brown said in an email.

Batygin has since coauthored half a dozen studies on Planet Nine, offering several lines of evidence about its existence. The strongest, he said, is in his latest work, coauthored by Brown and two other researchers and published in April in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

The study tracks icy bodies subject to some kind of perturbation that’s injecting them into the orbit of Neptune before they leave the solar system entirely. “If you look at these bodies, their lifetimes are tiny compared to the age of the solar system,” Batygin said. “That means something is putting them there. And so what can it be?”

One option could be something called galactic tide, a combination of forces exerted by distant stars in the Milky Way galaxy. But Batygin and his team ran computer simulations to test this scenario versus the presence of Planet Nine, and they found that a solar system without the hidden planet is “strongly refuted by the data.”

“That’s a really remarkable smoking gun. And it’s obvious in retrospect, so I feel a little embarrassed that it took us almost a decade to figure this out. Better late than never, I suppose,” Batygin said.

Planet Nine, according to Batygin, is a “super-Earth” object, about five to seven times the mass of our planet, and its orbital period is between 10,000 and 20,000 years. “What I cannot calculate from doing simulations is where it is on its orbit, as well as its composition,” Batygin said. “The most mundane explanation is that it’s kind of a smaller version of Uranus and Neptune, and probably one of the cores that participated in the formation process of those planets.”

The super-Earth hypothesis is perhaps the one that gets the most support among Planet Nine believers, but competing theories present alternative explanations.

Super-Pluto? Competing Kuiper Belt theories

A study published in August 2023 proposes the existence of a hidden planet that’s actually much smaller, with a mass between 1.5 and 3 times that of Earth. “It’s possible that it’s an icy, rocky Earth, or a super-Pluto,” said Patryk Sofia Lykawka, an associate professor of planetary sciences at Kindai University in Japan and coauthor of the study.

“Because of its large mass, it would have a high internal energy that could sustain, for example, subsurface oceans. Its orbit would be very distant, much beyond Neptune, and much more inclined if compared to the known planets — even more inclined than Pluto’s, whose inclination is about 17 degrees,” Lykawka said. (Astronomers refer to a planet’s orbit as inclined when it’s not on the same plane as Earth’s.)

The presence of the planet is derived from computational models meant to explain the strange behaviors of populations of trans-Neptunian objects, which suggests similarities with Batygin’s research. However, Lykawka pointed out, his model does not look at the same orbital alignments and is very different from Batygin’s. That’s why he doesn’t refer to the mystery object as Planet Nine but “Kuiper Belt planet” instead, to “make it clear that we are talking about different hypothetical planets,” he explained.

Other theories propose that the anomalies everyone’s trying to explain are due to something else entirely, such as a primordial black hole — created just after the big bang — that our solar system captured as it moved across the galaxy. Another idea suggests that there might be something wrong with science’s current understanding of gravity.

But according to Rice of Yale University, these theories would be very difficult to test. “There are lots of other ideas, but I usually try to go with Occam’s razor when it comes to deciding what to prioritize in terms of checking,” she said, citing a classic principle of philosophy that states that among competing ideas, the simplest is usually correct. “In terms of scientific viability, we know that there are eight planets already, so it’s not so crazy to have another planet within the same system.”

The most promising path forward, she added, is actually finding more of the trans-Neptunian objects that Batygin is basing his hypothesis on — and proving that it’s statistically significant that their orbits are clustered.

The push for more evidence

Some researchers believe that currently scientists have detected too few of these distant trans-Neptunian objects to draw any conclusions about their orbits.

“We have about roughly a dozen or so of these objects,” said Renu Malhotra, regents professor of planetary sciences at the University of Arizona, “but we observe only the brightest ones, and only a tiny fraction of even those, because we observe them when they are at their closest approach to the sun.”

The data suffers from observational bias, according to Malhotra, which is why researchers are skeptical about it. Among the skeptics is Sheppard of the Carnegie Institution for Science, one of the coauthors of the 2014 study that inspired Batygin’s research.

“By now, we expected to have found many more of these extreme trans-Neptunian objects,” Sheppard said in an email. “Having several tens of them would allow us to reliably determine if they are truly clustered in space or not. But unfortunately we are still in the small-number statistics realm, because they are much rarer than first thought. Right now I would say it’s possible there is a super-Earth planet in the distant solar system, but we cannot say that with a lot of confidence.”

The controversy can get heated, according to Malhotra. “Scientists come in different personality types, just like everybody else. Some are more aggressive about their science, while others are more measured,” she said. “There is a perception that the idea of a Neptune-mass Planet Nine is being pushed more aggressively than the statistics justify.”

Malhotra coauthored an August 2017 paper suggesting the presence of a Mars-size planet in the Kuiper Belt, but she’s not ruling out the Planet Nine hypothesis entirely.

“It’s up in the air. It’s just at the edge of statistical significance,” she said. ”But there’s nothing in the physics we know and the observations we have that rules out the possibility of large planets at tens of times the distance of Neptune from the sun.”

Observing the planet directly would, of course, end all controversy, but every attempt so far has come up empty.

Batygin coauthored a March study that used data from the Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System, or Pan-STARRS, observatory in Hawaii, allowing researchers to analyze 78% of the sky where Planet Nine supposedly could be — but they couldn’t find it.

“It’s been a real slog,” he said about the attempt, citing the difficulty of having to work with telescopes over just a few days of allotted time while fighting against equipment breakages and adverse weather.

Spotting such a distant object without knowing where to look is exceedingly hard, and akin to searching for a target with a sniper rifle instead of binoculars, according to Batygin.

“The sky is a really, really big place when you’re looking for something so painfully dim,” he said. “This thing is something like 100 million times less bright than Neptune — that’s really pushing towards the edge of what’s possible with the absolute largest telescopes in the world right now.”

Other searches, such as one performed for a December 2021 study using the Atacama Cosmology Telescope in Chile, have also come up short. “I had to test tens of thousands of different orbits. In the end I didn’t spot anything,” said the study’s lead author Sigurd Naess, a researcher at the Institute of Theoretical Astrophysics of the University of Oslo in Norway.

The instrument’s sensitivity, he added, was good enough that it should have been able to detect a planet in an area between 300 and 600 times the distance between Earth and the sun.

“That’s enough to be informative, but far from enough to disprove Planet Nine as a whole,” Naess said in an email.

A potential ‘new chapter’

Amid controversies and diverging opinions, all of the researchers agree on one thing. A new wide-angle telescope currently under construction could soon put the debate to rest, once the US National Science Foundation and Stanford University researchers start scientific operations in late 2025. Called the Vera C. Rubin Observatory, it has the largest digital camera ever built and sits atop an 8,800-foot mountain in northern Chile.

“This is a next-generation telescope that will search the entire available sky every few days,” Batygin said. “It might just find Planet Nine directly, which would be a fantastic conclusion to the search and open up a new chapter. At the very least, it will find a ton more Kuiper Belt objects. But even if it doesn’t discover a single new object, it will be enough to confirm the Planet Nine hypothesis, because it will test all of the statistics, all of the patterns that we see with an independent survey.”

Rice agrees that the telescope will go a long way to settling the debate, and clearly address the question of the statistical significance of the alignment of trans-Neptunian objects — the key point of evidence for Planet Nine.

If the Rubin telescope finds a super-Earth, Rice said, that would be exciting because these celestial bodies, between the sizes of Earth and Neptune, are a common type of exoplanet.

“We do not have one in the solar system, which seems really strange, and has kind of been an outstanding mystery because we find so many of them in systems around other stars — it would be incredible to actually study one up close, because exoplanets are so far away that it’s very difficult to get a real grasp on exactly what they physically look like,” Rice said.

Finding a smaller planet would also spark excitement, Rice added, because every solar system planet is immensely useful for extrapolating information about the thousands of comparable exoplanets that researchers are uncovering across the galaxy.

And what if nothing shows up at all? It would still be useful to know for sure how many planets there are, Rice said. “I think not even knowing the number of planets in our own solar system is very humbling.”

That means that even the facts that many people learned from textbooks as children can change, as scientists discover more about the universe.

“That’s actually a wonderful thing,” she added. “Human knowledge is continually moving — sometimes it’s huge shifts, sometimes it’s just a back-and-forth debate. It’s a fun, emblematic example of the scientific process.”

[allthelittlecreepycrawlies]

Okay, so, trying to get into this less refined thing.

As I said before, I actually have an outline for how the Butterfly Effect AU is supposed to go past the point I couldn't keep writing. If y'all don't mind spoilers, I'd be interested in your thoughts.

(But I'm putting it behind a cut for those who don't want spoilers.)

By the time his parents and brother and cousin get close enough to get Huaisang's attention, both Papa Nie and Mingjue are suffering pretty horrible nosebleeds, maybe even bleeding from the eyes too, and Linsong and Zonghui are not doing much better.

Understandably, since this is the day Mingjue died in the old timeline, the blood only makes Huaisang panic more, which makes the shockwaves worse.

Mingjue has no idea how to reassure him, just holding on to him in the hopes that will help somehow.

Suddenly he feels the cold shock of ghostly hands reaching into his body, something that had never happened before since Huaisang had always been partially solid.

While he's still stunned, he can feel something like layers and layers of grime being burned off his core as Huaisang clutches it. As the shockwaves die down, he finds himself feeling... better. A lot better. Even though he was nowhere near the qi deviation he'd experienced in the old timeline, the resentment was still starting to accumulate, and now it's just gone.

Huaisang seems to be just as surprised that whatever he did worked, at least as a temporary fix.

He starts to reach for their dad to do the same to him, but then he... flickers a little bit, like a struggling candle flame.

Oh. Shit. Papa Nie immediately realizes that they are now very short on time and orders everyone else to go get Huaisang's mama, the other siblings/extended family members, and every healer and strong cultivator they have, because they can't hold out hope that Huaisang will hang on long enough for Lan Qiren and Wen Ruohan to arrive. They have to execute the saber preservation plan now and pray it doesn't destroy him for good.

It takes the entire rest of the day and almost all the way through the night to finish the ritual, and by the time it's done, Huaisang is more like a smoke wisp than a glow. Pretty much all of his family is in tears, but he's... smiling.

It worked. Generations of Nies will be able to use the pear tree as a place to cleanse their sabers when they start getting too demanding, and the pears to cleanse themselves.

His brother's alive. His parents are alive. His cousins are alive. He has a sister now. The war never started. He has no more regrets.

Realizing that they really are going to lose him now, Mingjue makes him promise he'll come back somehow, so that they can eventually reincarnate as brothers again.

And then he's gone.

Three months later, Mingjue turns thirty and takes on the sect leader role, his father being the first Nie leader ever to be able to peacefully retire.

Six years after that, a circus caravan is passing through, and is invited to perform for the locals in the courtyard of the Unclean Realms. Nie Xunyao is the first to notice something strange, and immediately goes to get Mingjue.

There's a small boy among the performers, caring for the trained bird flock with surprising ease. He's happy and healthy and greets Nie-zongzhu with a huge grin and an offer to hold one of the colorful parrotlets.

He has bright green eyes and a very familiar face.

[alitteraladhdmess]

ROTTMNT AU!! Continue for More Information

Tethered to Us (TTUS)

A few weeks ago I watched the horror movie Us and I thought the concept of it was very interesting. “Shadow” versions of yourself controlling your every move. So because I love combining things I like I decided to try and put that movie into Rise. The concept isn’t exactly the same, I changed a lot as I work shopped it, and it’s still in the works but I like anyways.

When the turtles got mutated, and Draxum’s lab destroyed, a few positions and crystals got knocked over and thrown across the lab. One crystal in particular landed near the turtle tots. Consequently, both due to its magic and landing in the ooze, it fused with the turtles giving them a unique ability. Of course no one found out about this ability till later on in their little tot lives. This new ability allows the turtles to transform into these short of creatures. The transformation is heavily dependent upon emotion and almost impossible to fully control, unless the right practices are meditated, or one other reason I will get into in a bit. Shifting mostly happens when the host experiences anger, sadness, and sometimes joy at a very intense level. It almost acts as a shield in a way.

These leviathans, I’ll call them for lack of a better word, are giant shadow like creatures. Depending on the hosts height or how they feel, the leviathan can be as small as an ant or bigger than a 10 story building. Their markings also depend on the host and their feelings. When angry the markings will be sharp and exact. When sad they will droop or become dull. And when happy the markings will glow. When the host is about to transform their figure smokes, the smoke can be multi colored.

Splinter found out about this little aspect of the turtles after the twins got into a fight and Leo got a little too silly in his teasing. Later, Leo and Raph started transforming more often, but Mikey only ever smoked, never mad enough to actually shift. As the turtles continue to grow Donnie starts experimenting with the abilities of these unknown forms. His studies came back and proved that each leviathan has different abilities that correspond to the hosts ninpo, although they can’t use the ninpo in said form. Leo was able to reach incredible speeds 247 mph, could scale walls with ease, and could sense emotions with 80% accuracy. Like a lizard.

Mikey is fire resistant, or can stand temperatures of 2,000 at least. Splinter caught them and didn’t let them continue the experiment. Mikey is able to roll into an armored ball and is quite agile, which makes up for his small size. Very similar to armadillos. He also has the strongest bite of the four.

Raph, closely resembled a porcupine with his movable spines on his back. Although not as many. He is able to resize himself, the smallest he can get is about the size of the average house cat, and the biggest of about 10 football fields.

Donnie was by far the most graceful of all the turtles, and had very insect like features. His eyes could see 360 and all his other senses are heightened. Moth like wings allow him to fly and he was able to tech into organic matter (like the Alcarian in Voltron) but the effort is taxing on his energy. And unlike the other three, Donnie is able to speak in his leviathan form, albeit very choppy.

Donnie found that at the center of a leviathan there is a crystal shard protected by a shield of mystic energy. *no turtles were harmed in the finding of this information* Consequently, though, the leviathan goes into shut down once any material breaks the mystic shield, and the host can’t turn back for 24 hours.

With that being said, the second way to control a leviathan is to remove the crystal from its host. In most cases the crystal would become completely detached from its host and neither would be able to affect the other.

!!Small Spoiler!!

In the case of the turtles it is sewn to their soul and are effected by any damage to the crystal but not vice versa.

I will be expanding on this au and I hope to come out with character designs for each. If you guys could recommend other names for the leviathans that would be wonderful. And I may create a comic for it but no promises. Feel free to asks questions about TTUS, I will gladly answer them as long as they don’t contain eventual spoilers for any plot I wish to keep secret. Thank you for reading all of this!! I hope you stay for further posts:)

[thedomesticanthropologist]

I am so proud of you! I struggle with addiction myself, I know how hard it gets. Can you say more about the positives you see now after 100 days of being free?

(Voice to text was used so errors may exist))

I have experienced more of my daily life!

It was less scary than I thought

I learned that the fear of change is harder than changing (for me)

I got to know myself better, and give myself permission to grow

I learned that reality and life is happening whether I'm hiding or not, and that accepting it and facing it actually lead to improvements in my experience of it

I have written thousands of words

I have made new online friends and managed to keep our connections healthy whereas before during addiction I couldn't trust my own responses or actions when I was under the influence and it damaged my connections

I have drawn more in the last few months than I have in years and I've been bold enough to "be bad", the Sivvus Ask Posts I've always want Ed to have OC doodles but never had "the time" to do a drawn response. In sobriety I faced that fear of "bad quality" and decided doing something fast and fun regardless of its quality was worth it. As a result, I've drawn lots and it has been fun even if they aren't 'my quality'

I used to drink and smoke in order to make my sleep better. And I convinced myself I couldn't sleep without it. But after the first two weeks of sobriety, I learned that it was making my sleep worse, And creating a cycle of Reliance. Now I sleep better than I ever have.

Being sober allowed me to pursue the proper strength, dosages and types of medication that I require for Ongoing issues and to be able to trust their effect. Because I didn't have anything interacting with them!

I can actually evaluate what I want and don't want. And even finding out that I don't know what I want. I can sit with it with clarity and practice being okay with that.

I've given myself permission to pursue my own kind of happiness and to start looking at things that I enjoy regardless of how other people perceive me. Before I got sober. I really let what I thought was expected of me hurt me, When I got sober? I realized that feeling didn't magically go away. But I also realized I had permission from myself because I was what mattered.

It's all been a bit subtle. It's not a magic shift, but it's like unlocking this door to being in control. And having that control begin to feel safe instead of paralyzing for scary. Because you're choosing not to drown it. And when you face it, it becomes easier. With each moment, you choose yourself over your addiction.

Thank you for the ask!

[outofangband]

daegred-winsterhand asked:

for the headcanon game, 🖤🐣 for Aerin or Morwen

From this headcanon ask game here! Still accepting them!

I went a bit lighter for the dark headcanons because I recently posted a really intense piece about Aerin (to ao3 not here) and it took a lot out of me…I still had some dark ones but I’ll compile a few more really dark ones later

I did most of these for Aerin, im going to make a separate post for Morwen, but I did include a couple for her tooo

Happy HCs (all my happy HCs for Aerin inevitably make me sad because most of them involve things she loses either completely or mostly, post Nírnaeth)

-Aerin learned to swim in the deeper pools of Nen Lalaith. She loves the water and is a strong swimmer. She also loved to watch the minnows and other tiny fish dart through the stream. When she was little she would take longer and longer walks trying to reach the source of the stream. When she got older and was able to ride longer distances she eventually got there, taking a three day trip with Húrin and another one of their cousins. It’s one of her happiest memories

-Aerin is one or two centimeters taller than Húrin and was absolutely delighted when this happened, when she was fourteen and him a couple years older. I headcanon that Indor was one of Galdor’s liege lords and one of his most trusted kinsmen and their children grew up close.)

-When Húrin was home him and Morwen would often spend evenings in the day room of their house. They would read or work on individual projects or they would play a chess like game. Sometimes they would have long debates. These peaceful evenings she almost felt completely at home.

Dark HCs (post Nírnaeth Aerin related warnings)

-Every time Aerin is punished for helping Morwen or some other transgression it makes the next time harder. She still does but it takes so much out of her to the point where leaving the house becomes panic inducing.

-Aerin is so grateful she never has children. She could not bear to bring someone else into this. And it brings her a grim satisfaction that Brodda will have no heir, no legacy, something the Narn specifically says he wanted and which was part of his reasons for what he did (I actually have a separate post about this, if you’re interested, that goes into my thoughts about this and why and the significance and the different possibilities)

-No matter how much Aerin may hate and fear Brodda, she has to know him on such a personal level; she has to learn his habits and moods and preferences because she has to, the alternative is dangerous. This is definitely something I want to work more with but the effect it has on her is profound. Just thinking about the level of very unwanted casual familiarity and closeness(?) unsure of wording here

(Will post more dark HCs for Morwen later but)

-It gets to Morwen, knowing that some people want to violently hurt her because in their minds that would make them powerful because they’ve decided you’re a scary witch and that if they tried, there’s very little she can do to defend herself or Niënor. Even when she’s in Doriath, that fear never fully leaves her

-Morwen will never admit this but she has had a fear of fire since the Bragollach. Lighting candles is usually fine, lighting a contained fire in the hearth gets easier over time. But when she can feel smoke in her lungs and feel the heat of the flames? It can be panic inducing. Of course as this is Morwen her panic tends to show as her being sharper and more brusque with others or isolating.

Rían on the other hand has a morbid fascination with fire.

On a semi related note I headcanon that several Hadorian festivals include bonfires including the celebration for the new year as I think I’ve talked about. Morwen is displeased by this.

[sonicasura]

Personal Headcanons #4

Some more headcanons for you folks but this one is gonna be a bit special. I'll be including an OC and an AU version of a character as well! Enjoy!

Knack

Absolutely shy and skittish in the first two weeks of his creation. It wasn't uncommon for Doctor Vargas or Lucas to find Knack hiding somewhere. A few spots were creative while some... I think the 13 foot fellow made out of relics hiding behind a potted plant is very obvious.

Sporadic copycat. Knack tends to copy certain things he sees from actions to basic body movement. Blinking? Definitely copied despite not needing to. Homing Attack? He saw Lucas play Sonic once and thought it was cool. Knack even mimics the Doc's way of stimming which is tapping his fingers to make a random beat.

Can actually purr funnily enough. Even when he's in his smallest form, 2'6 and mute, Knack somehow able to purr. The only explanation the Doctor could think of is the chest orb is just copying the action via a loud acoustic hum. Still doesn't stop Knack from rumbling like a mini jackhammer as a 32' giant.

He sometimes hates being small. Without the ability to use relics to manipulate his size, Knack is effectively mute and has difficulty pulling down a large lever. Although his 'cute' appearance doesn't scare the crap out of people like a relic behemoth with sharp claws, large teeth paired to a scary mug.

Jim Lake Jr (Half Troll)

Has multiple cases of dysphoria after being transformed. Sometimes Jim thinks he's smaller like as if he was still human. Blinky or Claire had to pull him out whenever he got stuck. In need of food therapy too as Jim keeps trying to eat human food only to make himself sick later.

Sensory overload in the smell and hearing department. Jim tends to get overstimulated so much that sometimes he will just shut down. Claire gotten him some noise cancelling headphones while his troll mentor got a face mask to help with his heightened sense of smell.

Gets the zoomies. Considering he's technically an infant in troll years despite being 16-17 half human, Jim has a LOT more energy to burn. Blinky might've stolen a drone for his half troll student to chase. No one wants to deal with a hyperactive kid on a long ass exodus fron California to New Jersey.

Decides to learn how to make troll food. Jim can't really eat most of the stuff he used to as a human and eating just utensils tends to get stale. Plus he misses being able to eat his own cooking. Blinky got him a lot of cooking books and tries to procure any ingredients he can.

Tikki Cho (OC)

Likes collecting various stuff akin to a tame hoarder. Tikki has an organized stash of various items from books, collectible figures, movies and videogames. Any duplicates are given to children related charities, the local library or friends.

Tikki's love language in general(both platonic and romantic) is physical affection. She likes to hug or nuzzle people if given permission. Even holding hands is enough for her. It's easier to notice Tikki's Angora Rabbit traits as it isn't uncommon for someone's arms to vanish in her fur via hug.

There are often misconceptions when it comes to Tikki's eyes. Some people tend to think she's blind or imagine what her full face looks like. A bias stemmed from how her hair practically covers everything the nose. Tikki politely clears any misconception whether verbally or brush her hair aside to show her green eyes.

Rarely curses. Tikki doesn't swear much as she doesn't care about foul language in general. Is in the 'Will Say Fuck' section cause any big emotional reaction guarantees a curse from her. Rage tends to get the most.

Jim Lake Jr (Beastformer/ Troll or More)

Has accidentally set trees on fire multiple times with his horns. Jim had quite a temper when he was younger which usually led to fire shooting out than smoke. He gotten better since he began living with Barbara but it still happens.

Mischief maker. It isn't uncommon for Jim to prank others in the dead of night. Most of his antics are harmless like burying someone's bird fountain in acorns or a water balloon trap at the door. Although folk he doesn't like will find a bite taken out of their cars and goats in their backyard.

Definitely had to take a bath multiple times cause he got really dirty. Sometimes punk teenagers would dump paint over him in vehicle mode or Jim lands to a big mud puddle in beast mode. Barbara always hoses him down as going through a car wash feels too weird.

You know how a octopus will suddenly punch a fish out of spite? That's Jim right here but it's just a bad habit. In vehicle form, he often opens his car door just for a cyclist to crash into it or punch an unsuspecting troll before hiding his robotic arm. In Beast form he just headbutts people like a goat. Jim lightly tap his horns against Barbara a few times at best and rammed Strickler twice at worst.

And that's it! Until next time folks, I'll see you later!