#things you learn working in DNA sequencing

[satisfactionbroughtmeback]

Danny stared at Ra's. Danny stared at the baby. This entire infant and now the second child of his created without his knowledge or consent.

At least this one was young enough to have not suffered as much damage. He had destroyed the first and largest Lazarus Pit a bit under 2 years ago and this child looked maybe a bit under a year. Or just over a year? He had not had enough time to pay attention with attacks happening during the unit for baby care in high school, and he could now say for certain the flour sack had not prepared him for this. Hopefully Frostbite would be able to help because otherwise he had no idea how he was supposed to figure out how to take care of an extremely liminal child not yet capable of expressing its desires.

"Yeah, no. I came here to close the portals and no, creating a baby me will not give you a weapon that will be able to open them again. How long have you even been planning this? And how did you get the material needed? Did you think I wouldn't be coming back to check my work when I noticed Realms energy that shouldn't be there? Just... what the fuck man."

Ra's glowered furiously. "You stole my pits! You had no right! And I will get them back. If it necessitates the creation of a child to remake them, so be it. You left through similar portals after destroying my property! Do not expect me to believe that they cannot be remade!"

Danny held the child closer. It's eyes were wide but they weren't fussing yet, thankfully, despite the shouting. "Portal creation is an extraordinarily difficult and rare ability! Even if you managed to create an exact clone, which this child clearly is not, they would not have been able to recreate those cesspools you were using."

Ra's expression, disconcertingley, lightened. "Maybe not for a being of your limited intellect, but I have worked to remedy the issue. Young Timothy may have refused to be my heir but I have ample genetic material and something with your abilities and his brilliance will no doubt be able to solve the issue. But further discussion is unnecessary. You are correct that the creature you are holding fell short of expectations but my research has found a way to contain your kind and I will be able to make better versions soon enough. Shadows!"

Phantom darted backwards scanning the surroundings as the ninjas he had seen previously at the locations he had been to destroy the faulty connections to the Infinite Realms filled the room. Ritual markings for bindings lit up the walls and floor and Danny was horrified to see one of the individuals kneel at cult leaders feet only for Ra's to slit the man's throat to power the binding. "What the hell are you doing!"

"Containing something that has caused enormous harm to my organization on a degree almost as destructive as the Detective. Fitting that a combination of the two of you will be used to bring it back to, and greater than, it's previous glory!"

The bindings grew stronger and settled into their final configuration. Phantom settled with eerie stillness in the center. Then the shadows cracked around him.. ̸͚̈"̵̨͖̤̓̆͐H̶̦̳̍̈̑ȧ̴̝d̴̩̀̓ ̸̤͕͖̽̌y̸̹̐̈́o̴̼̎̏̚ŭ̷̮̹͌ ̴̧̰͑̇͝a̵̞͑͛͘c̴̡̦͖̚c̵̡̝̯̈́̏ē̷̡͎̣̂p̵͉̻̻̅͒̄ṱ̸̛̮̿e̸̗̱͐d̵͕͊ ̸̟̬̬̋l̷͖̜̹͊́o̴͉̚s̶̲͇͔̓̄͒ȉ̴̭̑̓ͅn̸̯̮̣̅͗͘g̶̢͖̼̐̓̊ ̵̤̙̚ț̷́h̴̪̦̓é̸̪ ̵̘̻̋̋h̶̡̼͉͆ǫ̴̰͗́l̴̡̲̚ď̸̺ ̴̪̼̄͒o̷̖͗̋́f̴͓̳͒̑͜ ̵̣͕̠̾̚ţ̸͗͝h̴͈͗̑͑e̵̡̨̻͝ ̷̫̈́͜Ȋ̷͉̭ͅṉ̶̚f̶̖͖͚̐i̴̪̇̉͠ǹ̵̬í̸͉̐ͅt̶̳̭͋̂ȩ̵̘͒̆̄ ̷̪͒R̴̹̠̩̂̃e̵͎̺͑͠a̴̯̱͂͝ļ̴̮́̂̽m̶̼̬͆̿͌s̵͍̓ ̵͚̆́̚w̴̯͛e̸͓͊́ ̴̠̦̏̿̚w̸̟͗̋o̵̮̐̅û̶̡l̷̡̼͍̐̈́ḋ̷͍̖ ̸̛̣̍̆h̴̻́a̸̽̓͝ͅv̶͉͈̊͆e̸̺͊̈́̿ ̸̺͇͔̅͆̿n̷̻̙̬̾͊̾e̵̙͝v̸̖̘̿̏̚ͅḙ̷̙̭̏r̴̬͓̻̉̔̎ ̵̨͉̽̈́̓ͅn̴̢͎̓͋͝e̶͙͒͒ḛ̸̮̹͒̈d̷̤̯͋͝͝e̵̺̗͗ͅd̷̠̝̜͆͆ ̶̟̹̂͒̈t̵͇͎͋̆o̵̢̠̗͆͝ ̶̧͎͖̋͂m̵̛͔̟é̶̹̮̈́͐e̶̯͑t̶̩̑̏ ̵̇ͅa̵͎̪͔͝g̷̻͗̉͊a̸̫̐̾͝i̸̗̇ņ̸̮̍ ̶̦͈̖̑̉̿ö̶̞́͝ṇ̶͉̰̔ ̴̢̹̭̓̇͠t̵̼̘̑͒͜h̷͓̻̋ͅe̷͕̾̒̉ ̵̳͇̌M̶̙̦͔̉͌o̵̥͎̤̾r̷̯͗̾̕ͅṫ̸̤̈́̈́ä̶̧̻̹́̇ĺ̸̠̭͌̈́͜ ̸͈͛̚P̶͉̩̗̈́̃͌l̸͔̘͎̀͐͗ă̶̠͈̈̈́n̵̞͉̱͘e̷̘̍.̵̼̟̥̽̂̃ ̵̘̘̿U̵̗͐͠ͅn̴͎̊f̶̛̬͙̃o̵̧͎͓͆r̸̯͕͍͌t̸͙̾̈́̎ͅǘ̶͙͎͉̃́ṉ̷̆ͅa̶̖͍̗̔̈͝t̶̨͈͗ę̴̣̌̒l̸͙̹̓y̶̝̰̺̿̂͂,̵̺͍͊͑̀ ̸̭̹̰̃͊̚y̷̺̭͝ö̴̯͚́ų̵̯̱̔͆͝ ̸̰̯̋͊͌h̸̢̪͖͆ā̶̩̣́v̶̳̼̍̾ͅe̵̯̞͆̔ͅ ̷͙͆͋c̷̢̱̺͂h̸̫̐o̸͍͕̓̋̕s̸̲̞͗̉é̵͓̮̀n̸̢̛̜̑͘ ̵̪̞̃͑t̴̪̽́̚ȏ̸̲͙͖̅ ̴̗͎̏͌c̶̗͊̒a̸͉̿ụ̷̋̊͘s̴̪͌͌̀e̸̯̹̾ ̶̞́̒̀m̷͚̓́̍e̷̢̅̀ ̷̟̿ẖ̶̔͝a̸̢̗̪̾̈́r̵͓̳̳͒̌m̵̘̳͓̀̅ ̴̼̚ä̴͙ͅn̶̰̘͇͝d̸̺̞̍́ ̴̝̅̂͠h̵̙͖̆̈́a̶̼͆̐͝ŕ̸̡̤̳m̵͈͔̰͆̈́̽ ̶̳͇̻̑a̶̮̪̓̈́ ̶̳̬̖̓͆c̶̞̈́͑͑h̶̛̖̣̟̀̾î̵̜̤̘l̶͈̉̽��d̵̝̜̙͗̌.̵̲̍͝ ̶̝̑Ť̴̫̜̮h̷̗̆͗͂i̵̳̋̈́s̷̹͍̑͊ ̴̹̈͊̓ỉ̶̯͍s̸̫͋̐͗ ̴̝͍̝̆̿͆u̸̼̺̔́̇n̶̮̣̅̏f̶͕̮̪͂̌̈́o̶̳͉̮͒̃r̷͖̥̈͑̄ǵ̵̤̼̿͐ḭ̸̘̥̄̈́̿v̵͓̏a̶̹͑̐́b̸̨̜͊l̸̙̟͕̓ę̶̀̀.̵̨̆"̶͙̅̿̕

Ice crept from the corners of the room and fractures of green light became apparent as Phantom's form warped, child still held safely against what had been his chest before his being had changed into an ever shifting nebula.

̷̧̛̖̗̜͒͋̉̓̒͑̑̄̓̚̚"̷̤͛͌͐͂̐Y̷̗̱̯̞͔̖̱͍̯̜̣͐̉̓͐̾̓͝o̴̡̡̨̝͓͖̭͓̗̣̮̰̞͚̰̺̿͗̐u̷̢̨̡̬̪̞̟̙̯͖͙̘̲̭͕͋͑̋͝ ̴̢̟̺̦̤͍̭̥̥͕̯̩̥̪̮̥͉̒̇̀́̑͘s̶̜͌̇̈́͂͋̆̅͊̃͌̑̚͝͠͠͠a̵̢̻̭̮͓͙̙̗̩͌c̶̨̡̠̤̞͓̥͖̞̗͙͉͆́́̓̐̈́̓̏́͆̄̄ͅŗ̶̜̳̤̠͇̦̰͕̭̼͙͈̟̹̙̪̓͋͗ì̴̡͈͈̀͐͒̈́̋̽̅f̸̠͓͕͕̼̣̦̲̗̙̰̮̱̙̳̏̔̐̃̈́̎̾̈́͜͜͝͝i̵̧̤̠͖̿͐̑̓̾͂̇͒́́̉̎͗͘͝ͅc̸̢̛̬̳̯̀̋̿̓̏̽͛̔̈͂̎ę̵̈́̀͐d̸̙͐͌͗̈́ ̵̛̳͗̌͆͑̽̿̑̒͗͂̅̕͝s̵̢̛͕̘̯̹̻̰͍͍̠̆́̈́̆̇̔̌̄̏̿͌̀̆͒̈́̊o̴̦̳̘̝͛̓̆̿m̷̥̠͔̻͙͖̖͕͇͈͙̹͉̅̓̐̋̔͗͋̄͑̓͛͗̊̆̕ͅé̶̢̻̖̲͖̈́̎̓͋̉̆̍̍̅̌͊̎͆͜͝o̶̜̅̋̌̏͑̄̎̐̾̇̓͑͌̓̊̌͘͠n̷̛͚͍̥̘̱̲̘̟̲̉̃̿̇̑̓̿͋̊̐́͆͘̕ë̶̢̻̬̙̖̬̪͇̝͇̘̫̙̬͚̪̪͚́͆̃͋̄̈̃̆̌͛̈̊͛͘͝͠͝͝ ̴̢̡̡̛̠̝̩̼͔̩̰̼̦̘̣͍̠͑͐̀͗̎̽͂͘ȉ̷̞͉̳̳̹̏̄̈́͝͝n̴̢̢̧̧̯͙͍̥̹̺̞̭̱̱̽͊̾̈͒͒̽ͅ ̷̳̣̱̳̟̥̎̄̒̔͛́͒̀̉̓̇̕̚͠͝͝a̶̡̢̙̞͈̹̠̜͓͚̠͈̦̰̓͑̌̓̄̋̊̐͑̉̓̀n̷̢̢̧̡̰͉̙̙̤̺̩̟̲̝̱̽͊̄̏͐͒͋͌̀͆̊̎̚͜ ̸̡̜̙͇͔̣̭̝̞̖̈́̀́͑͝ͅạ̷̢̯̙͍̹̦̳̤̫͙͆̽̂͛̌̿̈́̾͐̒͊͑̌̀̒ṱ̶̪͋t̵̛̛͉̭̳͕͉̟̔͂̍̚͜e̴̛͎̟͕̗̣̣̭̣̱͔͓̰̬̐͂̆̇͆̕m̵̡͙̱͎̬̮̠̾̀̈̇̍͂͗̏̋̀̍̍̕͝͝p̸̢͎̲̗̟̞͌̂̒̉̄͆͘̚t̵̡̗̬̲̞̫͈̜̺͍̫͂̆̋̐̑̌͊͊͠ ̶̛͚̜͚̯͔̼̼̍͒̓̓̾́̍̈́͗͌̈́́̄̓̍̕ṫ̵̞̋̈̓̅͆̏̾̓͐͑̓́̑̚͘ö̶̯̤̜̘́̚ ̵̮͉͐̈́͒͊͆́̎͒̾̒̚͠͠��̧̦̤͔̠͉̺̹̝͈̝͙̖c̶̜̝͙͍͙͍͈̬͍̔̔͜ȟ̴͋͂̉̅̓̐͠��̧͙̬͈̪͈̻͙̻̯̭̲͍̻̤̞͎͎̀͋a̶͉͙͍͈̼͔͎͇̫̫̭̝̪̒̂͝i̶̧̛̠͉̳͎̣͐͐̓̄̓͊̎̓̚͝ņ̸̡̡̛̼͉̲͇̗̄͌̃͗́͆̒̎̋̌̕͘͝ ̵̢̘̼͓̤͕͔̦͍̱̞̝͎̮̬̥̠̈́̏̈́̾͂̚̕m̵̢̧̜̤̦͒̈̈́̅͒̌̓͒̓͜ȩ̴̨̢͚̥̘͉̲͉̙͇̮̳̰̦̱̔͜ ̷̛̼̪̮͉̰̰́̋̋̈̍̆̈̽͗̕a̵̩͓̯̤̼͉̰̦͍͔̻͔͋́͒̾̒͒̂ń̴̻̩̳̙̼̝̄̊̃͒̇͆ͅḑ̶̢̢̛͍̞͉̘̬̜͕̪̟͉̲̬̼̥̟͗̔͊͋̄̂͊̾̍̂́̿̃͘͝ ̶̳͉̬͍̮͓̟̹͌̃̽̾̀̏̑͛̈͝î̵̝̣̝̼̠̱̅͋͘̚͝t̶̢̰̲̼̩̬͕̗̘̺̑̏͂̆͐͂̄͂̚͝ ̷̼̄̂͗̆̉͂̿͊̉̓̈̑͆͂͋̚w̴̘̮̲͎̝͇̠̗̫͎͓̣̙͋̄͒̔́̏́̈́̈́̓̔̂̉̿͒͘͝ͅȁ̷̧̢̡͔̼͍̺̱͈͉͚̹͉̈́̓͑͂̑̓́͂̅͗̿̌͝ͅs̴̨̛͎̭̦̯̜̻͔͔̈́̓͋̆̇͗̃̽͑̅́̚ͅ ̷͎͕̲̤͔̬͖͎̙̎̓͋p̵͖̃̆̂̔͋̎̏͌͠͝ǫ̸̧̰͚̰͍̗̺̞̣̒͊͛̉̀͋̃̄͆̓̐͑͑͝͝i̶̢̼̱͙̱̘̘̠̣͚̙͙͙̤̙͕̻͍͊̂͌n̴̢̻̰̜͇͚̝̂̏͜͜͜ẗ̸̡͓̰͔͍͈͔͙̦͖̩́̽ļ̸̧̢̛̻̣͖̤̃͋̀͋̇e̸̡͍̰̹̯̱̯̫̹̼̹͍͗͆͒̚ș̷̊̀̽͒̌̋͂̔͛́͌͂̾ș̷̦͔̘̀̓́͂́̉͑͋́̃́͘͜ͅͅ!̴͍̜̤͎̯̠̥͙̀̈̿̿̈́̽̊͝"̵̭̻͑̉͑

Phantom's voice could no longer be considered human. It crackled like electricity. Like ice breaking. Like the sun as it burned.

"̴̥̞̘̠͉̠̬̞̗̻̝̫̥̘͔̟̣̪̫͈̘̟͈̯̺̞̎͋̐̌̽͗̓̽̀̕͝I̵̡̨̧̪̗̳̬̠̫̱͍̝̬̝̗̥̗͕̯͇͆̏͑̈́ ̶̝̥͕͔̫̪̳̥̜̠̘̫̹͇̋w̸̧̮̣̙͚͓̦͖͙̘̼͉͔̼̜̭̗̣͉̲̜͈̘͊̈̈̓́͊̔̕͜͜ͅi̵̢̢̲̼̭͙͙̥̪͔̣̭̥̤̤̠̯̩̭̗̭̠̳̘̤͙̇̃̒̏͜ͅͅl̴̡̡̢̳̘̖̟̻̥̲̤̼̬̫̺͎̣̗̭͉̩͍̱̞̼̈͊̒͂̑̐̽̂͗̍̈̐̚͘͜͜͠ľ̵̛͇͙̭̪͍̱̬̒̈̓̔͗̏̐̈́̎̋̈́́̓͐̽̈̄̅͘͘̕̕͝͝͝͝͠ ̸̡̡̠̼̤̯͙̳̣̤̼̰̗̣͗̽͊̓̑̾̈͂̐̾̅̚͘͠b̵̨̨̡̛̫͕̮̘̣̺̳̖̠̜̻̠̗̘̖̭̯̳͙̫̱̪̱̺̥̟͙̻̗̲̓̌̓̆̀́́̿͒̾͋̋́̽̊̀͌̈́̒̅̆̓͛̊͗̃͂̚͝͝͠͝͝ͅȩ̷̧͉͍̼͉̙̘͓̯̻̻̣̤̣̩̗̹̬̙̪̺̼͊̓͋́̈̊̑̒͛̔̾̐͑̊̂̕̕͜͝͠͝͝ ̷̛̮̠̜̼̌͌̏̀͐͛́̌̊̉̅́̈̓̏͝͠b̴̛̈́͂̅̍͛͑̆̅̆̂̄̈͛̅̄͌͝͝͠͠��͇̮͈̥̥̣̯̫̻̞̙̟̼̹̞̂͜ͅą̴̛͍̳̰̰̩͓͇͕̳̠̭̠̜̦͂̊͊̏͐̀̓̇͝ĉ̵̠̰̣͈̘̰̞͈͎̙̖̖̰̬̬̪͐̈́̾͆͋͂̊̂̀̍̈́̏k̴̡̨͉̪͔͎̼̳̖͈̥̝̺̟̝̭̩̮̣̳̼̻̮̹͗̈́̔́̿͛̂͐̓̒̊͝͝͝͠.̶̢̨̫͚͔͖̩͚̖̱̱̣͓̳͖̗̞͎̬̳̬͒"̵̢̢̛̙̦̝̘̣̳̖̤̯͖̜͖̙͓͖̤̹̹̖̎͛̽̇͊́̊̒̏̀̀͊̑̌̈̌̅͐̒̄͛͌̒̀͒͋́̐̑̈́̕͜͝͝ͅ

A portal opened behind him and the ritual shattered, room breaking around it.

The portal closed leaving nothing but rubble behind.

Project R au except Danny is not the clone.

Instead Danny gets Ras Al Ghuls attention after overhearing that the baby in the tube was made from a bunch of "Robins/detectives" and a little of Phantom himself and looks the guy in the eye before using his intangibility to grab the baby-still not breaking eye contact- and saying, "Mine now." before disappearing.

Danny comes home and explains the situation to his sister and parents and they welcome the new baby into the family with open arms. When asked why they took dna from Danny, Jack immediately jumped in with, "Because we're Fentons!" As if that was all the reason needed.

Elsewhere Ras tells the bats about the clonenapping, conveniently leaving out the part about Phantom also being one of the babys dads. The bats go a little crazy trying to find out where thier baby is and why some no name villian (cause thats what they believe he is due to what little media coverage Amity Park has on him) wants with thier baby.

Then they learn about the ghost thing and then the research. At first they didn't believe it because they had dealt with ghosts before and they were nothing like that. But the more they looked the more they realized these weren't the kind of ghosts they were used to...

[absolute-flaming-trash]

congrats!! #3. Movie Night + Mahito??

Ohhhhh I loved writing this so much, I hope you both like it!!

Warnings: Yandere, Implied forced relationship, Mahito

Word Count: 578

Additional Notes: Some spoilers for the movie Annihilation.

Movie night with Mahito was always a gamble.

While he could get absorbed in a book like nothing else, media was a different story. Unless the images on screen immediately held his attention or sucked him in with a great hook, he would either pester you the entire time with questions, or he would rip the film to shreds with his commentary.

Thankfully you’d managed to pick one out that had him captivated almost at the very start.

Annihilation was a trip, and you had said so when you mentioned the movie to him in the first place. He was doubtful, of course. What could possibly be so interesting about a movie that had aliens coming to Earth? However, as soon as you mentioned DNA and mutations, he clicked his tongue and decided it didn’t sound too terrible.

You were watching him more than the movie itself as it played. He was the most attentive you’d seen in a while, sitting beside you cross-legged on your couch - eyes glued to the screen of your TV. No smile of malintent on his face, rather one of pure intrigue.

You couldn’t help but smile yourself for once. “Still think it’s boring?”

“Shh.” He didn’t just put his hand over your mouth, no, he wrapped his entire hand around your face and pulled you against his chest, muffling your cry of surprise. You didn’t have to crane your neck up to know he was grinning. “You’ll ruin it.~”

In all fairness, he had a point. This was the sequence you enjoyed the most in the film and you figured he would as well as you watched from between his fingers.

The concept alone was, in your opinion, one of the most terrifying put to screen in decades.

“Oh my god! Help me! Help!”

Whereas the characters on screen were shaking with fear, Mahito was practically radiating with excitement as the bear on screen cried out in the voice of its last victim.

“Don’t react.”

Mahito giggled, the line from Natalie Portman’s character adding to whatever sick train of thought he had going on in his head - one that wouldn’t be hard to guess.

Not reacting to a monster like this would likely save the skin of the characters here, but in real life? Not reacting to a Curse never worked.

You’d know. You had tried.

He still had his hand over your face when all hell broke loose on screen. You tapped his hand with one of your free ones in a silent request, and he looked down at you.

“What was that? I can’t hear you.~”

You narrowed your eyes and he giggled again before taking his hand off your face. You weren’t completely freed though, his arm still wrapped around you and keeping your body close to his.

It was deceptively domestic.

“What do you think?” He whispered by your ear as the scene continued to play out. “Do you think the woman who died was aware of what this animal was doing? If her soul became bound to the same thing that killed her?”

You didn’t answer, partially because it was explained later on in the movie, but also because you’d learned that Mahito’s questions on this sort of thing were mostly rhetorical.

He placed a chaste kiss on your temple, something he only did when he was exorbitantly happy. You frowned, keeping your eyes on the screen.

“Thank you, doll, you’ve given me lots of new ideas.”

© absolute-flaming-trash 2023. Do not repost, modify, copy, or claim.

[wellofdean]

Okay now I’m wondering what they told Jensen about that ‘secret’ that Dean has because it wasn’t Dean’s need for a ‘normal’ life and relationship, so to speak, because we had the dream sequence with Lisa and the picnic in season 3 (not to mention Cassie), and Kripke was pretty open about how Sam and Dean both put on masks about what they want with women, Sam is the secretly horny one and Dean is a secret romantic. So the secret has to be something else. If it were to be his bisexuality, which given that his character is queercoded from the very beginning of season 1, isn’t implausible.

From what I’ve seen, there’s multiple ways they do this, sometimes they tell the actor the secret (that their character is queer) and the actor plays it that way. Sometimes they just tell them “okay your character has a secret” and don’t tell them what it is (see Jensen’s character, Eric on DOOL) and sometimes they don’t tell an actor at all and just write it that way.

Hypothetically if the secret was Dean’s bisexuality (I mean, Dean Moriarty, James Dean? very bisexual), and they hadn’t told Jensen, I wonder at what point he would’ve figured it out. Because as much as people like to rib him, he’s not stupid and he’s a very intentional actor (maybe that’s why him and kripke get along).

Anyways that ask got away from me lol, fascinating topic, it’s fun to still be learning things about the show 4 years after it ended.

That IS an interesting question... Linking to the posts that likely prompted it. I would bet that he knew it was part of the DNA of Dean that he was not straight. I think Jensen knew who Dean was named after, and probably knew or was told it would always be subtext, and also that Dean was closeted, so...not admitting it to himself. How could he in that family? I think he knew the character backstory and what the writers were working from.

We know Jensen doesn't read scripts too far ahead so that he isn't too influenced by what is coming and can react to Dean's moment cleanly, so...If I had to guess, he knew it was in there, but bisexuals are able to blend and play straight. But, I think he knew, because otherwise, why that face when Sam clocks him for being butch and over-compensating? Why his full clown approach to tropey women? Why do they so obviously contrast that to how Dean treats women who aren't performing femininity as hard as he is masc-ing? Why say Dean is a 'promiscuous guy' when he demonstrably isn't? Wherefore Jensen's 'who knows how Dean scares up money' headcanon? Wherefore A LOT of things, honestly.

And, let me just add that nothing I have ever heard or heard tell of Jensen saying actually contradicts this if you realize that what he does is basically refuse to comment on anything that has not been explicitly shown on the TV screen. So, someone point blank asks him: do you play Dean as queer? And Jensen says No. Ok. Yeah. Dean is not ready to admit that to himself and Dean's vessel plays him straight.

If he elaborates, hesitates or prevaricates AT ALL, then suddenly Dean is queer, and the secret character note is no more, and it would blow the ability to let that thread of Dean's story develop in response to events in the narrative. So...

I mean, I'm only guessing, but that's my guess.

[despazito]

hey! I was wondering if you ever watch clints reptiles - he just posted a video about marcupeal phylogeny and specifically mentioned thylacines, and talked about how theres been sightings in new guinea? i was just wondering about your opinion, since you just posted a new thylacine drawing and i know youre very interested in them :D

idk, the fact i haven't heard all that much buzz about this theory from the zoologists i follow on twitter makes me doubtful by default.

i'll be honest i'm pretty skeptical of this new guinea claim because of dingoes and new guinea singing dogs.

the popularly accepted theory for the mainland extinction of the thylacine and likely tasmanian devil was competing pressure from dingoes.

clint mentions all of this, but he leaves out the fact that dingoes arrived on the australian continent from the north and studies indicate that dingoes may be descendants of more basal new guinea singing dogs. that would likely mean imo that the new guinea thylacine population, if anything, would be the first to suffer the consequences of canine encroachment.

only on the island of tasmania where absolutely no dingoes were ever present sheltered a 100% verifiable thylacine population by the time of european colonization. to my knowledge, the most recent solid physical evidence of thylacines in new guinea is still several thousand years old. so to me it seems that dingo/wild dog distribution and thylacine distribution mixed as well as oil and water. If there's thylacines in new guinea, it would have to be some enclave free of dogs.

i know the topography of new guinea can give refuge to very cryptic animals, and as clint said the relatively low human population and no european persecution is a plus. i won't disocount local indigenous anecdotes because they've been proven right with other species once thought extinct, but like where are skins or bones or footprints?

also i feel like clint really really oversimplified the cloning process thylacines would require. he makes it seem like it would be simple because we have their whole genome sequenced and have specimens under 100 years old to work with. the thing is, cloning a mammoth is simpler than cloning a thylacine even though they went extinct millenia ago, because mammoths still have a close living relative.

a cursory look at google tells me wooly mammoths and extant asian elephants last shared an ancestor as recently as 6 million years ago, they both belong to the family elephantidae. thylacines however were the last living member of their own family, thylacinidae, which diverged somewhere around 25mya from the other dasyuromorphs. scientists don't really have a close living relative to work with. clint says the complete genome means we wouldn't have to "stick frog DNA in there" to complete it, but the thing is with cloning you have to start with a frog/living DNA sample to tweak it into a thylacine!! until we can 3D print an organism out of thin air with proteins and acids, there has to be a template sample of living cells whose nuclei we can tamper with. and the less related they are, the more DNA has to be overhauled

if you wanna learn exactly how much of a logistical nightmare it's gonna be to clone a thylacine, this lecture explains it way better:

the takeaway analogy is that cloning a thylacine is the CRISPR equivalent of doing a puzzle of a clear blue sky, not having the box to look at for any reference, and about half the pieces are doubles of other pieces (because most DNA is junk code that does nothing). it's like next to impossible and i still have more faith in de-extinction than a rediscovery.

so yeah, i guess i'm a bit of a thylacine doomer. but i do want to believe, just temper your expectations. to me a win would be a single engineered thylacine cell by the centennial of their extinction lol.

[shotmrmiller]

Was homeschooled 6th grade and up. Found out real fast what classes were actually necessary for day to day work/life. There is seriously more unnecessary shit in schools than you need to learn. If it interests you, pick up an extra class. But day to day? I saw a group of middle schoolers learning about dna sequences like they were going into forensics. They didn’t even choose the topic their school did. When are you going to need that info between now and high school? You guys don’t know how to cook one meal that isn’t ramen, but you know how dna works?! You can do calculus but have no idea how to count change back to a customer?

it’s really really sad.

same thing with college

imagine being forced to pay for filler classes like they have something to do with your career. i remember i paid for some home room-esque ass class where they forced me to talk to those people in it like i gave a fuck about any of them.

like they wanted me to go out of my way and meet up with them for a project about like the school or something i just-

don't waste my time.

garbage.

[amber-tortoiseshell]

Hello, do you know why salmiak is considered an allele of KIT if it's actually located on a different gene? Idk much about genetics so I'm asking you.. Would it be possible for a salmiak cat to be e.g W/W or Ws/wg or whatever on KIT, but still be salmiak if its actually a different gene? Or maybe I just misunderstood the article and its the same gene 😅 I just get confused when it says salmiak is ' downstream' of KIT?

Another genetics question I just thought of, is it possible for an allele to actually be a combination of two- so let's say hypothetical allele 1 is a deletion somewhere, and allele 2 is a virus insertion. Can there be a new allele combining both the deletion and insertion?

Sorry if these questions are stupid or obvious ! I am very new to genetics and still learning. But thank you for any answer!

Yes, the salmiak mutation is outside of the coding region of KIT. But it's less like 'salmiak is located on a different gene' and more like 'salmiak isn't located on any gene'.

You can see it on this figure from the original article describing the salmiak mutation. The wide blue stripes are the actual genes: KIT on the right and something called KDR on the left. Note that there's a ~258 kb long "empty" DNA sequence between them in the wild type allele: this area probably doesn't code any proteins but it still can have important functions, for example in transcription regulation or RNA-coding.

But since this region is so close to KIT, and we know that mutations here cause similar phenotype changes as mutations in coding KIT in several animals, we can probably safely assume that this region is an essential part of the transcription of the KIT gene.

But does this mean a salmiak (wsal/wsal) cat can be for example W/ws at the same time? Yeah, actually it does. It's possible. But you have to understand one very important thing about genes: they all work like this. (Except if the mutations are in the exact same position, like coincidentally full white W and white spotting ws are.)

Let's take color restriction (TYR) for example. We have several identified alleles here: sepia, mocha, point and a couple of mutations causing albino. They all have different positions in the gene:

sepia: c.679G>T (the 679th base changes from G to T)

mocha: c.820_936delinsAATCTC (deletion of the bases between 820 and 936, insertion of AATCTC)

point: c.940G>A

albino: c.975delC or c.1204C>T

So theoretically one single chromosome could carry any combination of these mutations, even all of them at the same time. (I'm pretty sure tho that that would count as albino.)

So why do we treat them as one gene then?

So far we used the word gene as "a DNA region that codes a specific peptide", but it can be and often used in a slightly different meaning: "the unit of inheritence". KIT or TYR are clearly genes based on the first definition, but what about the second? Are they still genes by this definition?

The answer is yes, but a less unequivocal yes. In this meaning a gene is a part of the DNA that's short enough to safely ignore the possibility of a chromosomal crossover when its inheritence is considered. Crossovers can happen anywhere, they don't care for gene (as in peptide-coding region) bounderies. In terms of inheritence, there is no real difference between a single gene and two very-very-very-very thighly linked genes.

The feline chromosome B1, where KIT is located, is 208,212,889 base pair long. To get a chromosome with the salmiak and another KIT allele, a crossover must happen in the ~66 kb long region between the salmiak deletion and coding KIT. I believe that's approximately 0,000317 part of the chromosome; crossover here will happen rarely. Salmiak will behave basically allelic with the other KIT mutations.

(Since gloving is in a different position than white spotting, crossover can happen between them too. They are closer, so the probability is even lower, but it's possible.)

This starts to get very long, so i'll put a cut here, and under it i'll write about two relevant examples: the brindle allele in dogs and hotot rabbits.

Brindle

Brindle (kbr) is an allele of the K locus, it's recessive to black (KB) and dominant to wild type/yellow (ky). It's gives an intermediate phenotype between those two: the dog is black and yellow striped.

The most interesting thing about brindle is that it's incredibly hard to test for. As this page says:

At the moment there is no commercial test available testing for brindle. Instead, KB/kbr, kbr/kbr or kbr/ky will all be reported as KB/ky since elements from both alleles are present; kbr orignated from a recombination event between a KB and a ky allele. So the brindle allele essentially is a duplication of the K-Locus on one chromosome.

So seems like here happened something like what we were talking about! Once, a long time ago, there was a crossover exactly on the K gene.

Hotot and broken dutch

Rabbits have two types of white spotting: english and dutch. These are two very tightly linked genes (or maybe even both are mutations of the KIT gene), with a very low crossover rate. (This article says 1%. For not linked genes the rate is 50%.)

(Dutch has two alleles, dark dutch (dud) and white dutch (duw). Dark gives generally less, white more white.)

Hotot is a rare, desired pattern that is the combination of (usually homozygous) english spotting and (usually homozygous) white dutch spotting (EnEn duwduw). Breeding hotots is considered very difficult because of rarity of the english-dutch crossover.

If there are less white spotting alleles present, the pattern can become a broken dutch:

[mthollowell-writes]

I am a mystery reader

Or, Why I Read Forensics by Val McDermid

For the past year, I’ve been inhaling mystery novels to learn about the genre. I often engage with intense genre studies when I have an interest in writing within particular story conventions. It’s always fun and I get to learn about an amazing world of books that I don’t normally pick up.

For most of 2023, it’s been mysteries. And, I can confidently say that I’m now a big mystery reader. I’m obsessed with it. I shouldn’t have been surprised. The clues have been there since the beginning.

I’ve always loved stories with mystery elements to them. I wrote a thesis comparing and contrasting TV/movie adaptations of Sherlock Holmes and the original short stories. Most of the podcasts that I enjoy are true crime because I love learning the details of specific cases, and how certain clues or slips led to the apprehension of the perpetrator. But it wasn’t until 2023 that I would’ve classify myself as a “mystery reader.” I can be really thick-headed, if you couldn’t tell.

Horror reader, sure. Detective enthusiast, you betcha! True crime addict, guilty.

There are so many things that makes a mystery, a mystery. They include, but are not limited to:

Your killer and their motives

Your detective and their unique skill set that makes them best suited (or most motivated) to find said killer

The clues, the false leads, and the red herrings

And most importantly, that the killer is caught: unmasked by the detective. If it doesn’t have this particular element, it’s not a true mystery. (Not to discount genre blends which I adore and champion).

Forensics: What Bugs, Burns, Prints, DNA, and More Tell Us About Crime by Val McDermid goes into the more technical aspects of solving a crime. There’s an umbrella of fields under forensics from DNA to facial reconstruction to forensic psychology to entomology. All these discipline work to make the sequence of events and the truth of the crime clearer in the context of the courtroom.

I picked up this book because I wanted to learn more about all these disciplines. Its filled with countless case studies throughout the centuries, tracking the development of new techniques and their limitations. Val McDermid, who is a veteran of the genre (I’ve read the whole of her Allie Burns series this year and intend to read more), explains all this in a very approachable way with interviews from professionals in every field she covers.

This is a must read for everyone who wants a comprehensive introduction to forensics for either bulking up their knowledge for their own mystery or they just genuinely find the science fascinating (Hello! I am both).

[adamwatchesmovies]

Immaculate (2024)

Comparing Immaculate to The First Omen is almost a necessity, as both films feature similar settings, plots and fears. The big difference is that The First Omen makes great use of all the material at its disposal - particularly considering it’s a prequel to a film released almost fifty years ago - while Immaculate starts off strong and peters out towards the end. For about an hour, I felt like both films could comfortably sit next to each other, but that ending is a major letdown.

Young novice Sister Cecilia (Sydney Sweeney) has been convinced that God has a plan for her since miraculously surviving a fall through the ice as a child. Soon after joining a convent in Italy, she learns she is pregnant despite being a virgin. Most of the convent’s occupants begin treating her as the next Virgin Mary but her friend, Sister Gwen (Benedetta Porcaroli), thinks there’s something sinister going on. Several odd events seem to confirm her suspicions.

The pre-title sequence proves something nasty is brewing at the convent but equally effective is Sister Cecilia’s arrival in Italy. She’s interrogated by two officials and both of them make you think “What a pair of creeps”. Then, we get into the story proper. Whether you’re devout or not, you raise an eyebrow when the convent doctor (Giampiero Judica) tells Cecilia she’s pregnant. The setting increases your unease. The convent is a beautiful building, but most of the residents are elderly nuns who are near death or suffering from dementia. Despite the beauty, it's a largely cold, distant place - even with Cecilia's one friend. All of the pieces are there to make this a great film.

Signs of trouble appear as soon as Sister Cecilia throws up one morning from what we assume is morning sickness. Among the blood she's spit out is a tooth. There’s an opportunity at this point to look at Sister Cecilia and dig into her psyche but the story by Andrew Lobel doesn’t. We're not even sure if Sister Cecilia really believed this pregnancy was heavenly but now, does she still think this is what God saved her for? Does this creeping doubt change what she thinks of herself? Does it affect her faith? When she sees that tooth, is there any part of her that’s disappointed? We don’t know. At this point, she essentially becomes a new character. Her only objective is to escape. There is no ambiguity anymore.

What’s going on exactly? I’ll tell you. Father Sal Tedeschi (Álvaro Morte), Mother Superior (Dora Romano) and Cardinal Franco Merola (Giorgio Colangeli) possess a Holy Nail relic. With the blood, skin and bone fragments on the nail, Tedeschi has mapped what they believe is Jesus Christ’s DNA. They’re using Sister Cecilia to give birth to a New Messiah. At least they think so. A hint earlier on, combined with the well-done final scene and the body-horror-lite elements tell the audience and Sister Cecilia that Satan has tricked the convent. They’re about to welcome the AntiChrist. The thing is, even if the conspirators have pure intentions, they’re still evil, and I don’t mean that in a “they’re forcing a woman to have a baby” kind of way so the shock of that reveal is severely lessened. The first scene has members of the convent burying a woman alive. Later on, they torture Cecilia and they also cut out Sister Gwen’s tongue before murdering her. They dress in spooky cloaks, they’re performing bizarre experiments underground, they’re committing all sorts of crimes. It flattens a movie that could’ve been thought-provoking and emotionally complex. What if the people at the convent weren’t evil? What if Sister Cecilia was convinced that her baby was divine until a horrifying, last-minute realization? What if the divine plan was to end the world? I don't want to be an armchair director, but director Michael Mohan and writer Andrew Lobel leave so many opportunities hanging.

Despite a lot of untapped potential, Immaculate still works for the most part. Even the finale has some strong moments, which makes everything the film does wrong so much more frustrating. In a way, this is a movie I’d love to see remade. There’s great potential and a solid foundation. We just need another pass at it. Then, I’m reminded of The First Omen, which doesn’t do exactly the same thing as Immaculate but is so close it might as well be the remake. Sydney Sweeney is great, a lot of things about this film are terrific: the premise, several visuals, the setting, the story… I even like some of the quasi nun-sploitation scenes but these only make Immaculate an even bigger letdown. (August 16, 2024)

[star-trek-fandom-confessions]

(Tw: suicide) I'm the original Pike confessor and I think people are misunderstanding what I'm saying. I've taken a bioethics class before and I've sat on the side of those for assisted suicide. I've been in the shoes of both the disabled person, the person who had to make a really hard decision on behalf of another and the person who had to watch while someone ignored every wish a person had in the last few weeks of dementia (if you know how they finally died, you know).

When I say update, I mean that in the 60s those writers sat down and thought what's the worst piece of medical equipment someone could ever be hooked up to. I know! The Iron Lung! And then they made it Future. There's only one person on Earth still hooked up to one of those because we don't need them anymore. We've moved beyond them. So if the tech they based the chair off of is obsolete, then yes, I do fully think they should update the chair. That chair has to be reading his brainwaves somehow because he's making no movement for it to read. Computer programs now can translate a code to a word, so the idea that it's somehow reading yes and no in his thoughts and blinking a light is ridiculous. If your brain is able to understand questions being asked and can communicate yes and no, then he should be able to at least communicate other simple one word statements like "food" or "thirsty". They don't let him.

If your reasoning for this treatment is sci-fi BS like unraveling DNA then you can Sci-fi BS a better explanation. As someone who has worked with DNA let me tell you, unraveling it isn't that big a deal. I've unraveled, reraveled, inserted, deleted, and moved DNA sequences around and the bacteria lived to tell the tales. It's much more resilient than people understand. I'm not saying by the 23rd century we can do this to an already living human but if we're already suspending our belief that unraveling their DNA won't kill them instantly we can suspend our disbelief about other things. They just won't because they have to get rid of him somehow.

And that's what it really comes down to: they have to get rid of him. I really don't mean to be rude about this, but let's maybe stop making up reasons Pike's depiction isn't bad or defending the depiction based off our reframings of his experience, through our lens as disbaled people, rather than the show's actual framing. Maybe you relate to feeling like disability was equal to death and it took a long time to see it otherwise, if you ever did. I'm not going to lie and say I haven't, but the writers of Star Trek are not writing from the perspective of someone who gets it. They are writing it from the perspective of able-bodied people who think disabled people are a thing to be pitied and hidden and you can tell both in the 60s and now from the way they framed everything around it.

Pike thinks becoming disabled is equal to death because his able-bodied writers think they'd rather be dead than disabled not because grief and mourning who you were is a genuine feeling every disabled person goes through at some point. Pike accepts his disability not because he's learned to deal with and work around it but because if he's not disabled then Spock dies and rather he be "dead" than Spock be dead.

I'm not saying you can't relate to Pike by reframing his behavior (and you do have to reframe it because its not the intention of the writters for you to relate to Pike but rather for you to be afraid of becoming like him) but I'm saying they put him in a cage out of sight and there's only one way to take that.

Pike was not written for us. We can reclaim him and his story all we want, but he wasn't and isn't written for us. I'm going to hold the writers accountable for that fact.

Posting this as a response to a previous confession.

[kornstreifs-storys]

Tales of Origin, Mewtwo

To whoever finds this letter. I write these words not as an apology, but so that I may never forget what we, humanity has done in the name of progress. If you think you can’t handle staring into the abyss of human greed, don’t read any further.

I should have known that this project was screwed up from the beginning. The amount of funding and quality of equipment was beyond suspicious for a small team trying to research a long extinct Pokemon. No one pays a bunch of Paleontologists that well without ulterior motives. Yet when your a young Collage graduate, being offered a job at the pay level of a senior researcher you don’t just decline.

Log entry xx1: Nothing we tried so far is working. The fossils are just to fragmented, we will never be able to reconstruct the genome at this rate. Darn it all! This is my only chance, my only chance to see her again.

Well, things got even more suspicious when I learned that the team had actual knowledge of a living specimen of the Pokemon we were supposed to research. I mean why spend billions of Poké-dollars on DNA splicers and gene sequencing, in order to reconstruct the genome from fossil records if a living one is out there still. And don’t get me started on the cloning equipment.

Yet, whenever I asked, I was told not to worry about it and that the goal of our research was to maybe repopulate this species as only this one seemed to have remained and we couldn’t risk loosing this last specimen while trying to get the DNA needed. Turned out that was a bigger lie then when my teacher in school tired to convince us that Mega Stones had come from outer space, but I digress.

Log entry: xx3: Mew gave birth, we named the offspring Mewtwo. I was quite surprised when these Rocket guys managed to catch Mew in the wild and even more so when it turned out that it was pregnant. I would almost call it a turn of fate. A Mew embryo is all we could ever need, finally Team Rocket can have it’s biological weapon and I’m one step closer to bringing her back.

When I found out that they had actually captured Mew and experimented on it while it was pregnant I was furious, but the others didn’t seem to see any problem with it. They had simply discarded the Mew after they were done leaving it heavily injured. They never cared for it, they only wanted it’s DNA, getting an Embryo was like hitting the jackpot for them.

I recovered the Mew and nursed it back to health in secret, but it wasn’t looking to good. Obviously I didn’t want to take it to a Pokemon center, there was no telling what could happen if they discovered me. So I went out and hunted for Pokemon that knew healing moves and told my colleges that it was just my new hobby so they didn’t pry. I can only pray to Gaia that this works, I can’t let them get away with this, I will put an end to this madness. But I’ll need Mews help for that.

Log Entry xx5: Everything is going fine so far. Mewtwo is growing well, we haven’t run into any of the complications we had with the previous attempts. I’m starting to think we might really do it this time. Giovanni was beyond pleased as well, he even provided us with more funding. We can do this!

Log Entry xx6: Some of the researchers are growing suspicious. I might have to cut them loose, I won’t let them ruin this. Were already in to deep, I won’t back out now. This Mewtwo will grow, I will perfect the cloning technology. Then I will get her back. No one will stop me!

Dr. Fuji is seriously off the deep end, sometimes I think at this point he might be more dangerous than the Team Rocket guys backing him. He has locked out most of the researches, works almost on his own most of the time. I don’t think he cares much for this Mewtwo they’re creating, he has other stakes in this. And I’m somewhat scared to find out what they are.

Mew is recovering well. Tomorrow we plan to attack the research center and put an end to this project. Mew also wants to free it’s child. I trained up many strong Pokemon these last few months. Between my new team and Mew, Fuji and his team don’t stand a chance of stopping us. I can only hope we’ll be able to hide from team Rocket afterwords, they won’t be trilled at us stealing their “new weapon”, but I’m tired of just being a bystander.

I don’t plan to return here after words, so I’ll leave this letter behind. If you read this far, wish us luck. We’re probably going to need it.

Log Entry x10: It’s over. I failed. … A researcher secretly saved Mew and somehow trained up a Champion level Pokemon team. He stormed the facility yesterday with Mew and they destroyed everything in their path. The fossils, the cloning lab, all the collected data …, even Mewtwo, they’re all gone.

The other scientist all quit after that, I’m all alone now. Giovanni is furious at the loss of his weapon, but I honestly couldn’t care less. I never intended for the project to turn out like this, all I wanted was to research cloning technology, to find a way to bring back Amber. But I failed even that and now she’s really gone for good.

I wish I could have seen what this one researcher saw, then maybe all this tragedy could have been prevented. … Now I can only hope that he and Mew are safe out there. In the end, my wife was right. I really am a horrible person. Signed Dr. Fuji.

================================================

Index (Tales of Origin)

Well, the Tales of Origin page I worked on last week was a dead end. So instead I decided to write my take on the creation of Mewtwo and tell how this Pokemon came to be in the Universe of Ages of Ruin.

This time i also chose to write in the first person as opposed to the third person view I usually use for my other updates. I'll probably continue to experiment like that in future updates for Tales of Origin, so I hope you liked it.

[chiyana]

HA yeah that was…that was from Tuesday night so you know a dude had to be a little sedated

But in ANY case, I for one am happy to have another chapter in this trying time! Regardless of thematic coincidences!

And I’ve thought about it more, and I think Kryptonians would definitely use fluorescent based sequencing, as opposed to something chemistry based, because they’re such a heavily wavelength based species and sequencing using flashing colors detection really fits that, you know? They seem like they would utilize lasers forever and for everything

And while I’m sure they have something to do whole genome sequencing that’s faster than we currently have (tho we are limited by how fast chemistry can you know. Chemical), I like to think Tim’s sequencing was done using Sanger sequencing, or the equivalent, because it’s fairly easy, fairly accurate, and it’s confirmed they already have sequenced something similar before so they would have the materials already (and you know, now that I think about it, Kon being a hybrid and in canon Kal having a half/half kid does indicate Kryptonian DNA has the same if not chemically compatible bases to humans)

If I had a heavy hunch about the identity of a sequence AND I already had the materials from before, it would take me like….personally 4-5 hours from start to finish to confirm Tim was human, and that’s from using my 2005 sequencer. If I needed more information/more sequence, I would use a next gen sequencer of some kind, but those take a lot longer to set up, like…hmmm at least a day (you can way more info, like in depth population analysis or a Whole Entire Genome, but they don’t NEED that right now)

Also I just love Sanger sequencing a lot, it’s so neat how it works. It’s like. It’s like you place a train on a track, and the train is a short DNA sequence you know (or hope) matches somewhere in your sample. And that train goes forward, replicating the strand of DNA it’s on (the train track). And every so often, the train will get stopped in its path by a glowing DNA base, 4 different colors for the 4 different bases. And this train does this thousands and thousands of times, getting stopped randomly at any point in the track with a glowing base. And when it’s done, you use an electric/magnetic current to separate the different train paths, from shortest (train gets stopped immediately) to longest (train gets stopped a solid mile down the track). And then look. At which color each track glows. Because they’re in order of size now! So you can see what the sequence of the whole track is by checking the order of the glowing bases from smallest to largest! I love it, I want to be buried in a Sanger sequencer when I die

Anyway. I actually love how you write your fic because you put just enough science in it to entice me and make me think, but not so much that it kills suspension of disbelief. It’s the perfect amount of explanation for me, unlike other shows that shall not be named

Ooh! I like the idea of them using fluorescent based sequencing, since yeah considering how heavily light/the sun ties into them conceptually and thematically, they absolutely would use lasers for everything forever XD

I didn't know about different kinds of sequencing, but Sanger sequencing does sound really cool! I like learning about neat tricks in science used to gather data quickly and accurately and then organize it to sort through and understand :)

Thank you so much for sharing, and I'm glad you like the fic! Also, if you want sci-fi world-building that really gets into the weeds of things like different genes and chemical structures, I recommend checking out Jay Eaton and Runaway to the Stars! It's a currently updating webcomic, but they're on Tumblr as well as jayrockin. The story follows a hypercarnivore alien/aerospace engineer named Talita who gets involved in fixing a pirate ship and running off to have space adventures. There's SO MUCH world building and thought gone into the world of the story that I think you would be interested in (if you haven't heard about it already).

Thank you again for the ask!

[icegrillz]

the shadow self is all the parts that have become fragmented from being whole, healing means becoming whole, it’s an illusion that we’re separate, when you incarnate as white light into the physical vessel the white light fragments into the body and self organizes by vibrational frequency, but essentially that fragmentation is a temporary experience until the vessel wakes up consciousness to remember that it is white light again, the shadow self is all the fragmented parts that haven’t remembered they are white light,, so to heal all we have to do it’s super simple, get to the fractalized parts of yourself and walk them back to the light or allow them to see themselves as white light again. our life is a journey of learning unconditional love because unconditional love is that white light and you become white light when you are unconditional love. this gives you the ability of seeing yourself and all things as a part of you, you break the matrix , you’re seeing beyond the veil of separation into the unity that is all, and the fact that you create your reality. the way the mechanisms of this hologram work are that you project into your reality, your dna code stores information of fractalized experiences past and present, projects through the self organized system of the chakras into your everyday life in order to create a “life “ the life is the sequence of experiences in order for you to experience. infinite consciousness learns through you, you and i we’re a spectrum of different experiences. white light holds the spectrum of all vibrational colors learning through all the different colors, green, blue, pink , orange.. it learns and it experiences and through this it expands it’s own range of colors essentially. that’s why we can’t take this life that serious and we also have to understand that it’s very short it’s a very short temporary moment of experience that you’re here to have. many of you have such heavy heavy traumas and hearts so we gotta get that going.. because it doesn’t exist right now, and if you’re going through a hard time right now we have to readjust our perception to remember that this is a temporary experience. but we also need to understand how we got there because we got there because we wanted to get there ok. you wanted to experience that suffering, if you don’t know how you got there you better know because otherwise you’re gonna keep getting there over and over again and that’s the mechanisms of this experience because that’s what it’s for.being fearful of not being accepted by other’s in such a strong way that you hinder your own expression is an example, to change this shadow part of you which is the judgemental part of yourself.. immediately come into self love, self acceptance and remember that your acceptance doesn’t come from the external it comes from the internal, you immediately shift that program and you begin to expand

[alesseia]

Happy worldbuilding wednesday!! I wanted to ask about the magic in Alesseia—you mentioned everyone has it, but how does it look like at the lowest level? How do the people in caste 6 most commonly use it?

Hello, thank you so much for the ask!! I'm really happy someone is interested in learning about my world 💖 Sorry for answering it a bit late (it's Friday morning in my time as I answer this) but I was busy 😅

Before I can answer your question, I want to talk about how magic works in this world, so buckle down and strap in!

Magic is defined in Alesseia's world as the essence of life, the power that every individual holds. This isn't to say that magic is only found in living organisms (the earth itself contains much magic, which is why Alesseians tend to think of the earth as a living thing) but rather, magic is a semi-corporeal substance that empowers life. Whatever supports magic supports life, as magic is what makes life blossom in this world.

With that in mind, it can be said that every living organism has magic in one way or another. Of course, all humans definitely have magic. If anything, humanoid species are notable for having some of the most powerful¹ strains of magic available.

[1] This is what modern humanoids believe in Alesseia's world. Is it true though? Eh, that's a question that can be answered by reading.

However, magic works differently for everyone; each human has a unique² strain of magic, so not all humans have the same powers. That's why they've sorted themselves into various castes³ depending on the rarity and power level of magic.

[2] On a small tangent related to this: magic is commonly noted to be the unique power of an individual, but that is a bit of a misconception. While each individual has a unique strain of magic in the same way every organism has a unique DNA sequence, this doesn't mean that they don't share magical similarities with each other, or that the outward characteristics (i.e. how magic is expressed) will not be similar. This is a lot of words that basically boil down to "people can do similar magic even when they're not related."

[3] See footnote number 1.

Last notable thing: magic is inherently a natural part of this world. That means everyone can naturally do magic without needing specific tools, accessories, or rituals. Of course, some people may experience difficulties in casting magic for one reason or another, which is why things like wands, potions, and certain traditions were invented to help with casting magic. Some items may even allow them to use magic outside of their capabilities, though technically they aren't casting magic themselves. These inventions may have even brought in new strains of magic that weren't available in the past.

So... How do people in the lowest caste use magic?

The average person in Caste 6 generally has magic underneath one or both of the following categories:

their magic is significantly weaker than others with similar powers (example: only being able to control a few gallons of water at a time)

their magic is too specific to be considered powerful (example: only being able to "communicate" with chickens, not even other birds, just chickens)

Other examples include fruit ripening, flora/fauna identification, healing minor injuries, minor usages of air and earth magic, and lots of other relatively small magical types that are associated with nature.

It's notable that these powers are generally useful in modern day society; the first two examples above are great for fish and chicken farmers. However, they're not considered powerful enough by the ruling families for a higher caste.

Shame, isn't it?

[okimargarvez]

Inside the (crazy) mind of a garvez shipper (26)

Watching the Italian version of CME I got an idea, or better, I had an epiphany. The sequence of events about Luke/Penelope/Tyler-Garvez-Greencia is wrong.

Let me explain.

The chronological order is:

16x3- Luke catches the suspect, Tyler Green, with the ability he learned when he was with Fugitive team.

The team understands Tyler is not a killer. Penelope discovers Green is her informant.

16x4- Penelope tries to make Tyler cooperate. She fails.

Luke pushes her to tell Emily about her idea, trying cognitive interview. He supports her idea as it was his own.

When Emily asks if Penelope can try to talk again with Green, he replies in her place "yes, the answer is yes".

Penelope convinces Tyler to try the cognitive interview.

Luke tries the cognitive interview with Green. He is very good. Penelope and Emily are watching. It works, Tyler remembers important details about last day he saw his sister.

16x5- Penelope and Tyler can barely stand each other.

Rossi suggest Tyler to make something to convince Penelope work again with him. He gives her a real kitten.

Meanwhile, Luke and JJ blowing up.

16x6- Penelope is so worried for Luke, after they are able to talk with JJ. She says she want to take back all the mean things she said (about Luke). They discover Tyler' sister DNA in the bunker; Penelope informs him.

After this, she goes to Tyler the day they released him. He refuses her help. Luke and JJ are back: Penelope shows her happiness with a hug.

They call Penelope: she has to get Tyler, because he had a fight with a guy that saw him in the news; she takes him to her apartment. They have a deep chat about grief. Tyler tries to kiss her, she runs away and says they should take a walk. She has an idea about the case and leaves him, then turns and kisses him. [Don't look at next pic if you have weak heart; for me is just a science fact]

Penelope runs to the BAU and tells them what she thinks. Luke objects that Tyler sister is not in the pattern, but she explains with other details. Luke looks at her in a weird way. Maybe he thinks/understands she could have been with Tyler.

But the right sequence it should be:

Luke discovers about Tyler and Penelope kiss

-> Luke jumps him

JJ and Luke risk to blow up. Penelope is fucking scared.

[Penelope understands he has still feelings for her and she too, then kisses (Luke) and hugs him, alone (sorry, JJ)]

Okay, just a stupid thought, but seeing Luke jumping on Tyler, knowing that he is gonna helping him and pushing Pen to interact with his reval... If he only knew... he would have said "Ok, great idea, Penelope. I will talk to Prentiss. You can stay in your office, don't worry. You and Tyler are just incompatible. He will never open himself with you".

Inside the crazy mind of a garvez shipper - masterlist

[sciencestyled]

Of Bats, Bytes, and Bloodlines: How a Vampire Hunter Discovered Bioinformatics

My dear students of the strange and the scholarly, I must share with you a tale so absurd, so brimming with modern nonsense, that even the most skeptical among you may think me mad. Imagine, if you will, your esteemed professor—hunter of the undead, guardian of the mortal realm, scourge of Dracula himself—sitting in a fluorescent-lit university library, grappling not with the forces of darkness but with a contraption known as a "laptop," while a bespectacled undergraduate who smelled faintly of energy drinks attempted to explain the concept of "data analysis."

But I am leaping ahead, much as a vampire leaps from a castle parapet to avoid the light. Let me start at the beginning.

The ordeal began one fateful evening at a dreadful cocktail party. (Never attend these things; they are more draining than the undead themselves.) I had been cornered by a technocrat who, between sips of artisanal kombucha, informed me with the smugness of one who has never faced a vampire that the "future of humanity lies in big data."

"Big data?" I replied, mistaking this for a new breed of demonic entity. "What is it? Does it drain the blood of the innocent or merely their patience?"

The man, undeterred by my skepticism, launched into a jargon-laden sermon about the marvels of computational biology. "Think of it," he said, "as mapping the genetic instructions that make us who we are. It’s all about finding patterns in massive datasets to unlock the mysteries of life!"

Unlock mysteries, indeed. His words stuck in my mind, pestering me like the infernal buzzing of a mosquito. Patterns, you say? Mysteries to be unlocked? It all sounded suspiciously like my line of work. And so, dear students, I found myself in a coffee shop the next morning, staring at an article on "bioinformatics" while the Wi-Fi mocked me by refusing to load.

To my astonishment, bioinformatics appeared to be the modern-day equivalent of tracking a vampire’s movements across Europe but with DNA sequences instead of shipping manifests. It involved the use of algorithms—magical incantations, if you will—to sift through enormous quantities of genetic data in search of answers. This was not so different from my own investigations, which have often required discerning the subtle clues that lead to a vampire’s crypt.

Naturally, I was intrigued. The parallels between bioinformatics and vampire hunting were undeniable. Where I once searched for puncture marks, these scientists sought genetic markers. Where I once pored over dusty tomes in forgotten libraries, they scoured databases with names like "GenBank" and "BLAST." And where I once used a stake, they wielded tools like CRISPR to pierce the very fabric of the genome. It was as though fate had conspired to make me a scholar of this new and eerie discipline.

But my path to enlightenment was not without its challenges. My initial attempts to download genomic datasets were thwarted by passwords and "two-factor authentication," which, as far as I could tell, involved begging the machine for mercy. When I finally succeeded, the resulting files were an incomprehensible tangle of letters—A, T, C, and G. It was as though someone had spilled alphabet soup onto my screen and declared it a miracle of modern science.

Undeterred, I sought help from a gaggle of graduate students, who explained the basics with the exasperation of those who know their wisdom will be immediately misunderstood. They taught me to use software called Python, which, I was disappointed to discover, did not involve actual snakes. They spoke of algorithms and machine learning with the fervor of cultists describing their deity, and though much of it was gibberish to me, I began to see the potential.

It was while wrestling with these arcane tools that the true revelation struck me. If bioinformatics could unravel the genetic secrets of disease, might it also shed light on the mysteries of vampirism? After all, what is a vampire if not an aberration of the human genome—a mutation gone rogue? With the right data, perhaps we could identify the genetic markers of vampirism, predict outbreaks, and develop treatments to cure the afflicted. Imagine a world where no one need fear the bite of the undead!

My excitement, however, was dampened by the realization that modern society is woefully unprepared for such revelations. We live in an age where people believe that wearing crystals will ward off viruses, where "wellness influencers" hawk garlic pills without understanding the ancient lore behind them. I have seen parents refuse life-saving vaccines for their children while simultaneously consulting astrologers about their dietary choices. These are not the minds ready to grapple with the genetic intricacies of vampirism—or anything else, for that matter.

And so, my dear students, I resolved to write an article. If humanity is to be saved from both genetic and supernatural threats, it must first be educated. I would explain bioinformatics in terms that even the most befuddled technophobe could understand, drawing upon my own adventures to illuminate the parallels. With wit and wisdom, I would arm my readers with knowledge, much as I have armed you with stakes and crucifixes.

Thus, I invite you to read on, to immerse yourselves in the strange and wonderful world of bioinformatics. May it inspire you to seek out the secrets of the genome with the same fervor that we hunt the undead. And remember, my fearless scholars: whether you face a genetic mutation or a vampire lord, knowledge is the greatest weapon of all.

[veliterbio]

How to Use an Oligo Analyzer: A Step-by-Step Guide

Regardless of specialization within the oligonucleotide manufacturing industry, getting the synthetic DNA or RNA right is imperative. This is where an Oligo Analyzer is a useful tool of choice. It’s imperative when working on DNA oligo synthesis, custom oligos or other processes such as oligonucleotide drug development that one makes use of an Oligo Analyzer to ensure one determines the properties of short nucleic acid sequences. This is important to ensure that your synthesized oligos have fulfilled the standard for research or therapeutic view.

Step 1: Input the Oligo Sequence

The first thing a user must do to use an Oligo Analyzer is enter the DNA or RNA sequence to be analyzed. Many of the analyzers available for use have an interface through which the sequences may be keyed in by the user or uploaded from the synthesizing software. Make sure that the sequence is correct because mistakes can influence analysis.

Next, your sequence will be analysed by the Oligo Analyzer, which can predict its physical and chemical properties. This includes aspects such as melting temperature (Tm), GC content and molecular weight from the two organisms. Such properties are important when selecting oligos for experiments or oligonucleotide drug candidates.

Step 2: Investigate Melting Temperature (Tm)

A key value when using an Oligo Analyzer is melting temperature. It suggests the temperature, which affects fifty percent of the DNA strands' separation. The Tm plays a significant role in simplifying oligonucleotide manufacturing and the development of drugs by assisting in understanding your oligos' behavior under different experimental conditions.

If the Tm of your Tma is too low then the oligos will not be able to bind to their target sequence efficiently. If it is set high, they might bond, which would complicate matters in the experiment being conducted. Depending on the Tm results you may swap or add some of the nucleotides to design the effective oligos for your study.

Step 3: Evaluate GC Content

There is much more to learn about Oligo Analyzer, and the following steps involve looking at the GC content. This fraction measures the dosages of guanine (G) and cytosine (C) bases in your oligonucleotide. Interestingly, the stability in the oligo increases with the GC percent, thus enhancing binding to any complementary DNA or RNA strand.

Many oligo synthesis companies employ this analysis to ensure the high quality of their products. In any case, extremes in GC content should be avoided, as they can reduce the oligo's efficiency in research or drug substance manufacturing.

Step 4: Search for More Levels

The Oligo Analyzer generates information regarding the secondary structures of compounds in addition to its other features. Unwanted interactions occur within the oligo itself, leading to the folding or looping of the structure. These secondary structures can have detrimental effects that influence the way that the oligo is able to perform, for secondary structures are known to be particularly problematic in sensitive areas of research, such as that of oligonucleotide drugs.

The analyzer can help shift the sequence to decrease these structures, so the oligos should be arranged properly according to their function.

Conclusion

An oligo analyzer must be used to ensure accurate and functional oligos for use in research or therapeutic applications. From the input of the sequence to determining its melting temperature and GC content, all stages contribute to the control of the final product quality. These tools are godsends when engaged in oligo synthesis and design within a research lab or when participating in a CDMO drug development project. Veliter Bio offers a wide range of oligo synthesis and analysis services to guarantee your oligo synthesis process will be accurate from the ground up.