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stygianflood · 4 years ago

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Like the Shoreline and the Sea (Ethan x F!MC)

Summary- Ethan is asked out on a date right after Miami in Book 1. Ethan’s PoV

Genre, rating, words- Angst, teen, 2k

Open Heart fanfic tropes- birthday, office.

March Challenge Day 13 prompt Someday; April Challenge Day 9 prompt Smell of the Rain

A/N: nor’westers- violent thunderstorms in northern plains of India, before the onslaught of monsoon.

Title inspired by Leonard Cohen’s Hey, That’s No Way to Say Goodbye.

‘This will improve our understanding of adiposity and sarcopenia in this population, help identify thresholds predictive of metabolic risk, and ultimately prevent or ameliorate… ’

Better prevent than ameliorate.

‘...ameliorate the long-term impacts on health and…’

Twenty five years should be long enough.

Hers is a singsong voice, the warm, trilling kind. Mellow sun dances on the frills of her dress. The yellow one.

The man at her side twirls her on the empty kerb. Dips and kisses her. Her laughter is all that is pure and golden.

A child follows them, embarrassed. She bends down to kiss him, and he is furious.

The scene shifts.

The child is on the front porch, eyes set somewhere beyond the wild bergamot bushes.

Tear tracks on pink cheeks mingle and dry with dust from his afternoon’s exploits. Something like a steely resolve troops in his eyes.

Ethan Ramsey has been staring at the same sentence for fifteen minutes now.

Whoever coined the term ‘nostalgia’ from the Homeric nostos and algos was speaking of anguish caused by an inability to return. But they failed to discern the inevitable tethering of reminiscence with habituality.

That is more or less the case with him. Louise Ramsey walked out on her husband, and eleven year old son some twenty five years ago right before his birthday. For a very long time now, home is not about apple crisps or kitchen gardens.

About this time every year, a crevice in his mind he likes to call the amygdala dwells on the same days.

Almost as a ritual.

He is a scientist. A rationalist. And like every year, he reminds himself there is work to do.

Unless there’s a knock at the most unpleasant hour.

He never returns to the article. Never manages a come in. The distraction walks in, messy hair knotted with a pencil. Probably because she has lost another hair tie.

He mustn’t be that aware.

But she talks too much.

‘Dr. Mukherjee.’ He sounds gruff. They’re supposed to be redrawing their boundaries, even if he is the only one making an effort. ‘I thought your shift ended-’

‘Two hours ago.’ Rigours of a sixteen hour shift mark her visage. Her smile is a little too conniving for his comfort. ‘I had work afterwards.’

She starts shuffling papers on his desk, permission be damned. He pinches the bridge of his nose, and manages an exasperated sigh. Since when have interns started walking into his office with… birthday cakes?

‘What do you think you’re- It’s not my-’

‘I heard rumours that Dr. Ramsey had to cancel a date.’ She sounds amused. He does not miss the split second glance she shoots his way before continuing. ‘On his birthday, too. Such a shame.’

He scoffs.

‘No one knows it’s my birthday.’

‘Oh, they do. They’re just too afraid to… ah, invoke the wrath of Dr. Ramsey.’

Of course, she is not one of them. She has absolutely no regard for the immutable drill he has observed for nearly four decades. And why must she, when her sole intent is to swivel the rusty axis of his life.

Ethan has never known the first shower of an Indian monsoon. It is sudden and torrential, just as it is feared and revered. It smells like summer, and mango blossoms.

Ethan has never known one until this year.

‘I’m thirty seven, Rookie,’ He manages weakly.

‘And I would’ve bought the candles accordingly if I knew that.’

The tealights she arranges look so much better, he thinks. The cake is a simple blue and white affair. Not the ones that have more icing than cake, he notes. Not the ones he disapproves of.

Happy Birthday, Dr. Terminator

‘I could’ve whipped something up without sugar,’ She rambles, suddenly starting to blush. ‘Or ordered one. But I only just came to know it’s your birthday. And there wasn’t a lot of-

‘Thank you, Apu.’ Tresses of warmth curl about his chest and the gravel of his voice.

Ethan has avoided birthday cakes for a decade now. Unless it’s Naveen’s birthday, he thinks with a pang.

In his time with Harper or his brief involvements in med-school, no one has ever convinced him to do birthdays. He checks himself. This is just an intern being kind.

But interns aren't kind to Dr. Ramsey, are they.

She assures him the photos are not for social media. They settle on the couch, it’s his first birthday cake in over a decade.

He is glad for an innocuous reason to look at her, laugh at jokes that in any other company would draw his scorn. She is oddly comforting. Unlike most interns who avoid his office at all costs, she moves about it as if she was meant to be here all along.

He must have stalled birthdays worth twenty years only to spend it on a couch with her.

The plates are disposable. It is nothing like the restaurants that come with his status, for there is an endearing simplicity about it.

It almost feels like… home.

He steals occasional glances at her. It has been four agonisingly long days after their return from Miami. And for all his attempts to redraw their boundaries, it has been a non-return of sorts.

Aparna drives him to distraction, flouts each and every one of his rules. Seeks him out in supply closets and muddled dreams. And every time he breaks her heart a little more, he finds himself floundering in his own squalor.

The German counterpart to the English ‘nostalgia’ is ‘sehnsucht’. Like ‘nostalgia’, it has the charm of what has been. But unlike it, it also has the enigma of what has never been. Miami will remain the swansong to an ideal that slipped through Ethan’s fingers.

A surge of anguish ripples through him as he realises all of this is his for the asking, and he will have none of it.

‘It wasn’t a date,’ He blurts out.

He wouldn’t tell her that if he wants her to move on. Not truly.

‘You don’t have to-’

‘She is Declan’s associate in Panacea. She suggested signing the contract with the Diagnostics Team over dinner tonight. So… just business.’

Claudette Wilson is the most promising young face of Panacea, and Ethan needed less than a minute to know why.

Sleek, dark hair styled at her nape played up her high cheekbones. The ruby of her pliant lips, almost risqué for a meeting such as this, always lingered a little longer on the rim of her coffee mug. Even the measured spoons of her laughter came with an all too enticing lilt.

Ethan has met the other type. Vacuous and synthetic. But the steely glint in her eyes came with a weighty intelligence. An unfaltering wit. And when a perfectly manicured hand brushed the contours of his cuff, he knew it was never meant to be just business.

She was irresistible. And so was he.

That afternoon, the bitterness in his mouth had nothing to do with coffee. He learnt he would refuse Claudette even if her pay checks did not come from Panacea.

Aparna falls silent, almost as if discerning in his words everything he left unsaid.

They have run out of jokes and topics for a harmless chat. He is getting terribly comfortable with her again, he realises alarmed. And she is fidgeting with the ring on her finger.

She’s nervous too. He knows. He could define every twitch and turn of those fingers.

Somewhere in their conversation they have edged so close that her knee juts into his thigh. The couch is surprisingly small for two people. Minutes pass, and despite himself, he does not want her to leave.

His fingers rest on her flustered hands, it’s a deep-rooted reflex. Looking down, she weaves his hand in both of her own. Even as the adrenaline surging in his blood incites him to flee, the delirious part of him emerges stronger and more naive.

He thinks she is leaning in. Soaking up the mayhem in his eyes. The slight movement causes wisps of errant hair to slip from the messy bun. There’s new growth around her brows, a faded scar on her forehead. But it’s her eyes that still hold sway over him.

They stroked him with a strange, silent awe on a balcony on the shores of the Atlantic.

She is nothing like interns that hover around him year after year. Sucking up for recommendations. Sometimes more. She can devour him, and just as easily cast him aside without batting an eye.

And yet she is here. Snuggled in his office while her friends call it a night with cheap beer and rowdy escapades.

But she is different tonight. The quiver in her eyes tentative, even wary.

His hand rises of its own accord, tucking strands of hair behind her ear. Inadvertently, it brushes her face, lingers a little longer against her cheek.

She caressed his face as the ocean crashed around him. It was like falling from the top of a precipice. Tumbling into the amorphous, a terrifying weightlessness. He waited.

‘It’s getting late.’

She smells like the hospital, muted shades of honeysuckle, and like herself.

The cool breeze hummed a steady rhyme against the tumble of her midnight blue dress. Bits of the moon bounced off the dark curtain of her hair, plunging into her eyes. Ethan had never seen such fathomless eyes.

‘I should go.’ She leans into his palm, eyes fluttering close.

‘You should.’

And then she caught him. It was the hollow of her neck. It was soft. Like the rest of her.

Neither of them move today, silently imploring the other to charge. Or retreat. The battle drum in his chest is a dull ache. Throbbing and inconsolable.

The ridges of her collarbone bore traces of his ruin. Traces she covered every morning and stripped every night, like the rites of a godless liturgy.

His free hand is still laced in hers, the other drawing her face nearer.

Her lips are inches from his own as he draws a languid finger across them. Her warm breath spills on his lips, warring and mingling with his own ragged ones.

Her mouth was stained with wine. Numbing and inciting. He was battered, and bruised. Marooned at her side. And she was warm. So warm.

His hand traced the pummelling of her heart, kneading the softness of her chest. Her tongue jousted with his own as the ocean lapped at its shore. Tireless and persevering.

She was wild. Like her Gangetic nor’westers on a sultry afternoon. He was bewitched. She was doing something good to him.

Suddenly the air around them is ripped by the sound of his phone.

It’s his father.

The two of them recoil to their own spaces, Ethan horrified that he let himself stray so far yet again. Silencing the still erring device, he faces Aparna bracing for another apology.

‘I know.’

Her smile is placid, all traces of vulnerability gone. He is vaguely aware of the gentle pressure on the hand still clasped in her own.

‘Happy Birthday, Ethan. I’ll see you tomorrow.’

She is gone before he can marshal his thoughts.

Ethan flops back into the couch, shivering and alone. The incandescent glow from the solitary lamp drenches the office in a soft, ethereal haze. She might not have been here at all but for the little things she scatters around him every time she forays into his life.

Today she leaves with him a caesura. It thwarts the cadence of a life he has been putting together since Miami.

After a minute, or perhaps a staggering nightmare, when he rises to pack the rest of the cake, he sees it.

She must have forgotten her hair tie was in her pocket after all.

It stares up at him from the floor, the silken, mute witness of his transgression. He gingerly picks it up, and turns it in his hand as though it houses some ancient sorcery.

Laying it on his desk, he considers texting her. But scarcely does he scroll down to her name when he stops himself. And pockets it.

Somewhere in the Atlantic, waves still crash upon the rocks, moistening, but never quite lingering.

The waves are relentless. Someday, the rocks crumble into fine sand.

Thank you for reading this! Let me know if you’d want to be added or removed.

#open heart #ethan ramsey x mc #choices monthly challenge #fics of the week #choices fic writers creations #openheartfanfics #choicesaprilchallenge2021 #cac2021

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gumnut-logic · 4 years ago

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Callisto (Part Six - Rescue Site)

This fic seems to be taking forever, but I hope it isn’t reading that way. I had so much fun over the weekend and I still have some fun ahead of me writing one of the core scenes I had planned. I hope you are enjoying reading this.

As always, many thanks to the amazing @tsarinatorment @scribbles97 @janetm74 and @vegetacide as well for all the read throughs and support. Wonderful science officer @onereyofstarlight this bit has one of the places we talked about extensively and wouldn’t exist without your help :D

Again, thank you to all the wonderful peeps who have been reading along and commenting despite the once a week posting schedule. You help keep my enthusiasm alive and you have no idea how much I appreciate every word of encouragement ::hugs you all::

Have a Tracy boy or two on the job :D

-o-o-o-

Scott rolled his shoulders and tried to stretch out the tension that was slowly giving him a headache.

At least now they were moving. This rescue felt like it was taking forever.

Hell, it was the same with most space recues, if even more with this one. The distances involved just went on and on and no matter how fast the Thunderbird, it was slow.

It rankled Scott just a little. The fact that the environment could not be influenced by his impatience.

And Dad…

He shunted the thought aside. Perhaps that was why he scorned the time needed. It gave him far too much time to think.

The tunnel stretched out before him as it had for some time now. The life signs were nearly seven hundred kilometres away from Callisto Base. Usually, this was not a problem. There wasn’t a Thunderbird that couldn’t cover that distance in a short period of time. Even Four could do it at velocities no other underwater craft had ever managed.

But this location was at least two kilometres underground, and while the molepod was always an option, Virgil had vetoed it with the option of travelling via dragonfly through the tunnels. Scott had to agree. They needed far more information before barrelling into an unknown situation, not to mention the difficulties of deploying the molepod in these conditions.

But by this point he was almost ready to jump out and blast a hole in the damned moon to get where they needed to go.

Time. So much damned time.

Too much to think.

His hands shifted on the Dragonfly’s controls spinning her into a dive as the tunnel dipped suddenly. The brilliance of the pod’s forward lights lit up the never-ending cave as clear as daylight.

It sparkled back at him in sharp, stabbing needle-like reflections off the walls that did nothing to improve his headache. He had already set his helmet to shade to protect himself. It was ridiculous to be needing sunglasses this far underground.

Behind him, Virgil was following him at a short distance in Dragonfly Two, his lights just bright enough to light up the red of Scott’s pod.

For some irrational reason Scott wanted his pod to be blue.

The blue of the sky he was currently missing.

He sighed.

Again, too much time to think.

“Another five hundred metres.” Alan’s voice from behind him was the reassurance it always was. Why he felt comforted when his littlest brother was nearby and within reach was something he did not want to examine too much.

A twist of his wrists as the tunnel backed around on itself in a hairpin of a turn and he had to dodge another nest of those weird deformed ice stalactite formations sticking out into their path. “What are we looking at?”

“Looks like another cavern. A big one.”

They had flown through several of those enormous caverns on the way out here already. They acted like junctions, some having multiple tunnels converging on them, every single one a home for more ice formations and that damned reflective rock. It had taken John to get them out of the last one. This place was a damned maze.

Virgil had fortunately come prepared, as always. He was leaving a trail of comms-support beacons behind them as a clear path to return to Callisto Base.

Scott fought the urge to duck as the tunnel suddenly shrunk by several metres and took another swerving turn. Scott spun the pod over one-eighty degrees on her longitudinal axis as her wings nearly scraped the ceiling.

Righting them finally, he couldn’t help but check his monitor to make sure Virgil took the turn safely.

He almost smiled as the green pod behind them flipped in a manoeuvre that no doubt had Gordon yelping in the back seat. He couldn’t help but be proud for just a self-indulgent moment.

But his attention was torn away as his pod suddenly shot into a large open space and the light reflecting off the walls suddenly blinded him.

Alan’s gasp behind him only echoed his own.

Their forward lights were being shot at them in blinding brilliance off the ceiling of the new cave.

That brightness only increased as Virgil’s pod spun into a hover beside them.

Oh god.

Whatever had been in the walls of the tunnels was obviously concentrated here.

He redirected the lamps away from the ceiling only to have the brilliance follow them all the way down the closest wall until he was able to turn the pod towards the most distant wall.

Crystal.

There was crystal everywhere.

The cave walls were covered in spikes of the stuff as it they were inside a giant geode. He had to acknowledge that it was stunningly amazing when it wasn’t ripping his eyeballs out.

But that wasn’t what took his breath away.

As their lamps lowered, they caught the edges of something else.

He turned the lights down towards the floor only to discover he couldn’t see it.

Because it was covered in water.

Fluid, liquid water, the dragonflies causing the faintest of ripples to dance across its surface.

A lake.

Scott’s jaw dropped as he tipped the pod to peer down into the dark water only to have more crystal attempt to stab him in the eye from the depths.

“What the hell?”

Water wasn’t supposed to be able to exist in this environment. He poked at his scanners. Atmospheric levels were the same, ever so thin, providing little to no air pressure or heat to keep the water in this state.

“John? What am I seeing?”

Thunderbird Five did not answer immediately, but the data transmission rate on comms doubled as his space brother reached his fingers into the cave through the pod’s sensors.

“Impossible.”

“That was my thought. Virgil?”

“It’s beautiful.”

Scott’s lips thinned. “Scientific explanation? Gordon?”

“You got me here, bro. But I’m more concerned about those lifesigns.”

Scott frowned and double checked his readout. The two dots registered, glowing strongly at him.

From under the water.

-o-o-o-

Virgil frowned as Scott spun his dragonfly around and returned to the entrance of the cavern. His forward lights lit up only what could be considered a beach where the original tunnel swooped in and connected with the crystal cave. At the base there was only a few scattered crystal formations and Virgil watched as his brother expertly put down without touching a single one.

“Are we going to take a look at the lake?”

Typical. Nearby water body and his fish brother wanted in it.

But Virgil needed more reconnaissance.

And if he was honest with himself, there was just a dash of sightseeing involved. Not much, because of the urgency of the mission, but enough curiosity to send him off on a scout around the cavern.

Crystals that had to be the length of an arm or a leg stuck out from the walls in haphazard directions. Most reflected back clear, but in streaks, as if seeping up a localised mineral, there were ribbons of colour in places – reds, greys, golds, pinks. His scanners spat back that it was simply quartz, silicon dioxide, but he had never seen a formation like this.

Which was understandable as this was an alien landscape with vastly different environs to those of Earth. The artist in him was literally stunned, while the scientist valiantly fought for a reason.

He swooped around the edges of the cavern, his lamps lighting up brilliance as he went. The cave proved to be roughly circular, approximately four hundred metres in diameter and about a hundred metres high. He came across two more tunnels leading off it, but all were as dry as the one they had used to enter the cave. Towards the centre, but not quite, the ceiling arched down and what appeared to be a stalactite met a stalagmite to form a column of swirling crystal that looked like something straight out of an art glass exhibition. The ribbons of colour were here too, but this time mostly in a rose pink and a startling blue.

Virgil didn’t have words.

The light playing among the crystals just touched every artistic sense he had and froze them solid.

But there was a mission and those two glowing red dots glared at him from beneath the surface of the lake.

He ran scans of the water. For it was water, mostly, though, certainly not any he would want to drink.

For one thing it was salty, a definite brine solution with a number of minerals including silica in concentrations that defied as much logic as the water’s existence did in the first place.

The difficulty was that the lifesigns weren’t clear. They were in the water, but resolution faded at a very shallow depth and there was a lot of deep depth in places.

“John, can you get any more resolution on these scans? I can’t pinpoint the lifesigns.”

There was a muttered curse on comms that had Virgil arching an eyebrow. “No, I’m sorry, Virgil. Interference is particularly strong in that cavern. We’re working on it, but I don’t have any great hopes.”

“What about a probe? Would that improve the signal?” Virgil blinked as his headache suddenly flared. Ow. Damn. The controls in front of him blurred a moment. Shit!

But then everything righted itself, just leaving an echo of the pain in his head as the headache droned on as it had before.

Maybe his painkillers were wearing off. A glance at the time proved that was far from the case.

He dreaded to think what that would have felt like without them.

“Virg?”

“What?!” Okay, so he was abrupt, but he was busy.

“Hey, hey, calm down. You didn’t answer John. Just checking on you.”

“Virgil, you there?” John’s voice dripped concern.

Shit.

“Sorry. Just got a headache. Need some sleep.”

“I feel you, bro. Want me to pilot?”

“No. No. I’m fine.” He swallowed bile and mentally shook himself. “John, you were saying?”

He could feel Gordon’s eyes on the back of his neck.

“Probe deployed. Target is Burr Crater, which you are directly under at the moment.”

Virgil’s display reported the probe entering Callisto’s atmosphere. He hoped it would give them enough information to act.

Time was ticking.

He spun the pod around and tried to ignore the rainbow of light that was his forward lamps. The flicker, while beautiful, was doing nothing good for his headache at all.

“You sure you’re okay, Virg?”

He pressed his lips together and considered ignoring the question from Gordon. But he knew if he did, his brother would only worry more.

It was a Tracy trait.

“Let’s just get this mission done. We have people who need saving.”

Gordon’s grunt wasn’t a happy one and the chances of Scott being called in on his headache were increasing by the moment.

“I’m fine, Gordon.” He cut the conversation off by dropping the pod rapidly towards the beach where Scott had climbed out and was walking to the water’s edge. Another spin mid-air and Virgil lowered into a rather delicate landing, keeping the pod’s feet away from the crystal formations sticking out of the rock.

Virgil swallowed again before climbing out of the pod. His boots hit solid but glittering rock, damp in the darkness.

Scott and Alan were standing at the water’s edge staring out at the spectacle that the pod lights lit up.

Gordon clambered out behind Virgil and together they both walked over to stand beside their brothers.

“This is so cool!” Alan was obviously excited.

He said it on external comms and the sound travelled across the cavern only to bounce back in so many perfect ‘ool’s Virgil’s eyes widened.

On the spur of that, as the ‘ool’s slowly faded away, he activated his own external comm and sung a single pure C note.

It came back at him from so many different directions it was like a chorus.

“Oh, wow.”

‘Wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow…’ It went on, the faint atmosphere sporting just enough density to carry the sound waves.

“That is something, isn’t it?” Scott’s voice was quiet. “The dragonflies made one hell of a racket. We’re going to have to be careful. Wouldn’t want to set up a harmonic that could bring the roof down on us.”

Virgil was still processing. The thought of playing his piano in this cave was just mind boggling.

“Dad says the Base scientists are having some kind of scientific fit over this place.” A grunt. “I’m more concerned about those two lifesigns.” He paused. “John, any luck with the probe?”

“Unfortunately, no. The interference is just too thick. I can read the water, but very little in it or below it. I’ll keep trying.”

Scott sighed. “Keep us updated. Looks like this will have to be more hands on.” He turned to Gordon. “We need Thunderbird Four.”

-o-o-o-

#thunderbirds are go #thunderbirds #thunderbirds fanfiction #Scott Tracy #Virgil Tracy #John Tracy #Gordon Tracy #Alan Tracy #callisto

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98prilla · 4 years ago

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Deathworlder Down

AO3

Warning for blood/violent imagery.

based on @delimeful ‘s wonderful WIBAR AU

...

Flashes.

The arena, blood on his hands, of all different colors, teeth bared, trying, begging, the other aliens to stop, he doesn’t want to hurt anyone, but they don’t understand or don’t believe him, and then they’re lunging and instinct takes over, and when he blinks, it’s to a puddle of pepto pink ichor and a mangled body in his hands.

…

The cell, he’s back in the cell, and they’re coming, and he wasn’t ready and Patton isn’t hiding and the door opens, and he lunges, biting, scratching, kicking, screaming, the stun batons sending lightning through his veins, spasming his muscles, and he was aware of Patton’s scream, as he’s dragged away, his pretty blood splattering across the floor, and he’s beaten, shocked, kicked, all the while hearing Patton’s anguish as his feathers were stripped from him all over again, only this time, when they throw Patton back in his cell, his eyes are empty and blank, his body broken and still, and there’s nothing left of the chirping little ampen, and there’s nothing left of himself, as he loses his mind, ripping and tearing through the wall, tearing everything in his path to shreds until a blaster goes off and shoots a hole clean through his chest.

…

He’s running. He’s on an alien planet, and he’s running, and he can hear them behind him, they’re catching up, as he tears through the brush and the trees, leading them away, away, away, from camp, and he staggers as a dart hits his neck, the world spinning on it’s axis as he goes down hard. He can feel the chains being shackled around him, the collar fastened onto his neck, and he can’t even breathe, as electricity burns his skin, from the collar, sends him into unconsciousness, and when he wakes, he’s back in the cell. And the nightmare restarts.

…

“no…” He’s walking home, it’s late, the streetlights on, as he slinks through the shortcut through the park. He hates it, but it’s the fastest way home, and he’s never had any trouble, though he’s heard stories of people getting jumped.

“No…” He winces, at a sharp pain in his neck, for a moment thinking he’d been stung by a bee or a wasp, but when he reaches to feel, a small dart comes away in his hand. He stares at it, befuddled, before he feels another sting, stumbling against a tree as the world starts to tilt, trying to stay upright. Cloaked figures, shrouded figures, language he doesn’t know, and he tried to call out for help, tried to get away, but another wash of dizziness stole his breath, and he fainted.

When he woke up, he was on the ship, in the cell.

“NO!” He jolted upright, pulse racing, breath caught in his throat, the cell, the ship, he was on the ship, needle, needle in his arm, what were they taking this time? What else could they take, they were going to sell him for parts, maybe this was finally to off him for the scientists, he felt dizzy and lightheaded, weak, disoriented, maybe the tranq patch had worn off early, maybe he had a chance to get away, maybe-

A hand, a scaled hand came into view, and he hissed, scrambling backwards, falling off the edge of the furniture he was on. One second it was the sterile room, the iron bed, the suited figures, then it was a couch, smooth walls, soft light. His vision flicked between the two and he couldn’t figure out which was the truth and which was the lie, the suited figures turning towards him, batons out, crackling with energy, the scaled figure trying to reach out, trying to say something, but he couldn’t hear, he couldn’t and it burned, and he was dying, he was sure this is what dying felt like, as he scrambled further back, further away, hissing again as the tug pulled the needle out of his arm, pressing his hoodie sleeve against it to stop the bleeding, but the red, red, red, brought him right back, and it was everywhere, and there was too much, and it wasn’t all his, the bodies scattered across the floor, the colors blending like some macabre watercolor painting, swirling and blending and mixing and-

Touch. Touch against his shoulder. He’d curled into a ball, hands over his ears, forehead touching the floor, making himself as small as possible, trying to hide, but the noise was everywhere and they’d found him and he was going to die, going to be sold off for parts and he was so stupid-

Then the touch moved, a small, so small, hand slipping under his chin, gently tilting his head up, feathers tickling his skin, as he met those big, doe eyes. Feathers. Blue. Antennae, moth like. Fluffy. Safe.

Safe?

“Breathe, Virgil. Can you do that? In… out…” the words sounded so far away, and not quite in sync with the mouth movements, but he tried to follow them, tried to understand, tried to copy his movements. “good, kiddo. You’re doing good. Do you know who I am?” The feathery being asked, and his mind stalled. It must have shown on his face, because the being’s dropped, expression sad, and he hated that look on Patton’s face-

“Patton!” He rasped, voice barely a whisper, throat dry and sore, not helped from the hyperventilating he’d just been doing, from the panic attack. “Patton…” his eyes welled up, and he opened his arms, Patton flying into them without a second thought, hugging him as wide as he could around his chest, Virgil careful as he held him, letting his face rest against his soft feathers, mumbling an apology about getting them wet, met with Patton’s relieved little choked laugh.

He was shaking, he couldn’t stop shaking, the room still flickering, time and space folding in on itself, and it was making him dizzy.

Then Patton started doing the chirp, coo, pattern, vibrating against his chest, grounding him as he struggled to get his breathing under control, to force his mind to the present, but it wouldn’t stop slipping.

“s-sorry… I… I'm so-rry…”

“Shhh, you’re ok, kiddo, it’s ok.” He just shook his head, chest constricting, choking on the air, it burned in his lungs and made him want to scream, just to relieve some of the pressure, but there wasn’t enough air.

“virgil. Can you tell me, five things you can see? Take your time.” Logan, crouched down a fair distance away, to give him space.

“Y-you… patton… R-roman… the… the couch and the… the… n-needle" his breath caught again, his panic flaring, eating him up.

“Alright, good, stay with me, Virgil. Four things you can feel.”

“Pa-tton. My hoodie… the fl-floor. B-andages?” he asked, realizing his arms were carefully wrapped in them.

“you hurt yourself. Nothing serious, it’s alright. Three things you can hear.” He managed a deep breath in, forcing air in and out to answer.

“Chirp/coo.” He said, smiling slightly at Patton's added little trill. “my h-eart, my voice.” He answered, focusing on the feeling of his hands against his hoodie, Patton's warmth against him.

“Excellent. Two things you can smell?”

“Metal… myself" he wrinkled his nose slightly, smelling his own sweat.

“Last one, one thing you can taste.” Logan's steady voice, and he thought for a moment.

“Copper.” He answered, looking up, finally, meeting Logan's eyes for a brief moment, before his gaze flicked to Roman, who stood frozen by the couch, scales half raised in alarm, but also… worry?

“Virgil. How are you feeling?” Logan asked, snapping him back to attention, realizing he’d started to drift.

“um. Sore. Achy. Tired.” He answered, head thumping back against the wall, hissing as it hurt more than expected.

“I was going to warn you about that. We found you fallen over, unconscious on the bathroom floor, bleeding from your head. You’ve been severely ill, and mostly fitfully unconscious, for nearly seven days.” Logan explained.

“Why didn’t you tell us you were so sick!?” Patton scolded, though his voice was gentle.

“i… I didn’t want to bother you. I’ve been sick before. It’s… its fine.”

“no, it isn’t. Virgil. You are severely underweight and malnourished and sleep deprived, all factors that compromise your immune system making it more difficult to fight off disease and you very nearly died because you seemingly cannot comprehend that you are an important member of this crew and we will gladly help if you just ask for it!” He flinched at Logan shouting, his hands clenched into fists. He’d never heard Logan raise his voice, didn’t even know he could, but his mind snagged on what Logan had just said, and he shook his head.

“I… but I’m not. Important. You’re…a family. I’m just a tag along, because you were basically guilted into taking me with. You don’t… want me, here, and that’s fine, I wouldn’t want me here either, so the least I can do is take up the least space and use the least stuff and make myself as little of a nuisance as possible because then maybe I’ll get to stay longer before you get sick of me and kick me off.” Usually he wouldn’t be this candid, but he was tired, and he felt floaty and not all there, his normal anxiety not holding him back.

“Virgil… that's not true.” Roman added, Virgil's bitter laugh echoing harshly through the space.

“Sure it isn’t. You’ve made it clear, what you think of me. And you know what? I’m terrified, constantly, that you might be right. Sooner or later I’m going to hurt someone. It’s… it’s the only thing I’m good at, hurting people. Sometimes I think I should just bail, just leave a note and run, before I hurt anyone. Before I ruin it all. Before I ruin this… this amazing little family, you guys have.”

His eyes slipped closed, against his will, exhaustion weighing him down, settling into his bones from the panic attacks. “I w-want it so badly, it h-urts sometimes, but I can’t… I know I can’t have it. Be part of it. Know I’ll just… just be in the way.” He mumbled, not even sure if he was speaking aloud, anymore.

“Virg… we'll talk about this later, ok? Just… can you make it back to the couch? You need more sleep.” Patton asked, moving off his chest. He nodded, managing to peel his eyes open, stumble to his feet, collapsing face down on the couch before blacking out as soon as his head hit the cushions.

…

“Well. His fever’s broken. There’s no point using these, any further.” Logan, trying to keep his voice steady as he packed up the IV line and supplies, considering hurling the needle out the airlock, just to spite the universe for forcing him to use it.

“I… I need to go. Think. About… things…” Roman poorly explained, darting from the room, as Patton sighed, feathers fluffing and resettling, worried gaze flicking between the doorway Roman had vanished down, Logan storing the medical supplies, and Virgil, face down on the couch. His forehead was a lot cooler, now, and his breathing finally seemed to be normal, deep, steady breaths. His eyes weren’t twitching in his sleep either, a good sign, Patton had learned early on that eye twitches meant bad dreams, nightmares. That was when he would curl up around Virgil’s head and churr softly, a low, rumbling vibration in his chest, that he used to soothe kits, but it also seemed to do the trick on the human. Most of the ampen soothing methods did, which he would have once considered odd, since they relied on empathy to work. But if anything, Virgil had too much empathy, his words playing back in Patton’s mind.

“He thinks we don’t care. We don’t… don’t consider him family, why would he… after everything, still think that?” Patton asked softly, looking up at Logan’s sigh.

“He’s been hurt, Patton. Deeply, psychologically, hurt. He’s so used to being in fight or flight mode, that is all his body knows how to do. His body, his mind, it doesn’t understand, can’t comprehend, safety. And after… after what he went through, how they demeaned him and treated him like a wild animal, like a… a specimen, it’s no wonder that he struggles to comprehend his own self worth, lacks any sense of self esteem or importance. He had to fight every day just to survive, just to keep you safe, and though I am thankful for it, it likely has contributed to his fear of himself. He knows how easily he could hurt any one of us.”

“He won’t though! He’d rather tear himself apart than hurt any of us.” Patton protested.

“I know, Patton. But he clearly doesn’t. He doesn’t take care of himself, he doesn’t trust himself, Patton, and until he starts doing that, understanding that he is wanted and loved and safe, I’m afraid he won’t take care of himself.”

“Then we’ll make sure he does. I will physically fight him.” Patton muttered, determination clear in every bristling feather, and Logan chuckled slightly, shaking his head.

“I would enjoy watching you take down a human, Patton, especially since Virgil would let you, but violence is not going to help in this situation.”

“Still. If he won’t take care of himself, I’m going to make him take care of himself.” He ruffled Patton’s head as he passed the couch, barely containing his smile at the small squeak the motion illicited, stopping at a small tug of his hand.

“Lo? Thank you. For getting him through.” He softened, looking back at Patton, giving his hand a gentle squeeze.

“Of course, Patton. Get some more sleep, now that he’s safe, won’t you?” Patton nodded, drawing away and circling a couple times before settling down curled around Virgil’s head, careful to keep a layer of blanket between them, so he wouldn’t accidentally siphon off energy in his sleep. Virgil needed all of it he could get.

@fortheloveofjanus

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kirayun · 4 years ago

Text

The Journey Of Destiny (Eng Version) - S1E00: Prologue

(This is the version translated with Google Translate of my fic in Italian. And just an attempt to see if posting in dual language can work. Let me know if for those who read in English it is understandable or is it better if I leave it alone, do not worry about tell me.)

AO3 Link

Summary: "Billions of dollars of equipment at your disposal, and I beat you with a laptop that I won in a bet?"

In a similar universe, but at the same time different, the meeting in advance of two destined souls changes the unfolding of events forever.

The cell phone alarm woke her from sleep, her eyes opened in the darkness of the van and one arm reached out to light the lamp so as to illuminate the tiny space on wheels where the girl lived.

For Skye a new day had begun, a day she would normally use to take a step closer to her goal, her constant pursuit, research that was now hampered by the empty space between her electronic equipment where she normally kept her computer. Just yesterday the laptop had abandoned her forever, deciding to die beyond repair.

After a last look and a sigh, Skye got up to begin her usual morning routine.

Skye came out of the diner's employees' bathroom next to the alley where she used to park the van, she had an agreement with the elderly owner couple that allowed Skye to use it to freshen up in exchange for her help in advertising the place on the internet and social media.

She nodded to the clerk behind the counter, a short red-haired young girl under twenty, although she couldn't see him because she was busy with the coffee machine

"Hey Grace"

The waitress, Grace, looked around and smiled at the sight of who had called her

"Skye hello, the usual?"

"Sure, you know how I like it," she said ambiguously and adding a wink, knowing it would provoke a reaction in the younger girl.

Grace's reaction was as expected: flush in her cheeks and she stumbled backwards slightly bumping a jug of coffee that nearly fell off the shelf behind her. "Skye!"

A small laugh went out from the hacker. "You know I only make fun of you."

A nod from the redhead confirmed his statement. "Sure, sure, but in the meantime you almost made me break a jug ... again!" She made the point by waving the object that had nearly been destroyed in front of her.

After another little laugh from Skye, things resumed normally. She hadn't lied that his behavior was just to tease her, in fact, despite her bisexuality and her penchant for pretty, innocent-looking girls, the younger redhead was almost like a younger sister to her. Ever since she started going to the diner, the two had empathized with their similar family background, not knowing where you really come from and who your parents were.

The only difference was that as much as Grace accepted the life she now had and moved on with it, Skye couldn't do the same and was determined to find the answers she sought.

If only his computer had not dumped

Jemma Simmons walked along the sidewalk with her laptop bag over her shoulder and her cell phone to her ear.

"Mom I told you, I'm just waiting for Fitz and me to be assigned to the new job, Agent Weaver assured me it will be high profile but it still takes some time before it's ready."

As she continued to advance the girl noticed a small diner, an ideal place where she could stop and try to solve the problem that had arisen the night before.

"Look, I have to leave you…," she listened for a moment. "Yes, I love you too, and tell me ..." But she was interrupted by a man in a hurry who bumped into her and who continued to advance without even looking back.

After glancing disapprovingly at the direction where the man had gone, she put the phone back to her ear hearing her mother's voice asking if she was still on the line. "Yes, sorry ... yes, everything is fine ... yes I'll call you soon ...," and after a last goodbye the call ended and she walked into the diner.

Jemma had sat at a small table against one of the windows and was trying to solve something on the laptop while she was sipping the tea she had ordered earlier. She was thinking of having something to eat, but she wanted to fix this first.

The counter was behind her but she could hear the red-haired waitress, Grace if she remembered her nameplate correctly, jokingly arguing with another girl named Skye. Out of curiosity she was about to turn her head to see the scene when a large error message appears on the computer.

“No, no! Don't do this to me… ”But nothing, as she typed in several commands, the machine didn't respond.

All this attracted the attention of Skye who seeing the laptop and the girl from the back decided to get up from the counter and approach her table. "Any problems with the computer?" She asked and waited for the other girl to notice her.

When Jemma looked up at the new voice, she and Skye met eyes for the first time and for a moment everything seemed to stop. Both girls momentarily forgot what they were doing there or even who they were, too busy examining who they were in front of and the particular and invisible energy that a single glance had created between them. It didn't feel like a look from two strangers, it was as if they had always known each other and were just re-meeting after a very long time. Neither of the girls, however, had processed all this in their mind, it was more an unconscious feeling hidden inside them.

After a few seconds, Jemma's brain finally processed the question. "What? ..." she was the first to recover from that strange feeling that was soon forgotten by both of them and that brought them back to the present. "... Oh yeah, and since last night he's been giving me trouble and today he seems to be totally crazy opening a bunch of random stuff at once and not responding to any commands I give him which is really weird because he's new and just for I use it for work but I didn't even have time to do anything about it because it immediately created problems, by now I have resigned myself to the fact that it must have some manufacturing defect and that I will have to change it. " She said it all at once and so quickly with even a few hand gestures that Skye couldn't help but find the lovely thing, that accent then…

Skye glanced at the screen as she ducked a little toward it. "Trust me, I know something about computers ditching you, mine just melted a few days ago ... but yours doesn't seem hopeless ...," she raised her posture and pointed to where the other girl was sitting. "I can? I'm Skye anyway. " Taking advantage of the moment also to introduce yourself.

Jemma understood the meaning of the question, nodded affirmatively and moved over the bench, letting Skye sit next to her. After all, what did it cost to let this girl give it a try? She knew that SHIELD would pay her another without a problem, part of her benefits as a scientist was the ability to have various equipment put on the expense account. And if while observing yet another failure to save him she was stirred inside by the close presence of this girl ... well Jemma certainly wouldn't have objected. "Jemma, and I don't think you're going to get anything out of him." By now she had already given up anyway.

Skye turned her head to Jemma looking into her eyes again. “So little confidence in my abilities ?,” she said using a slightly softer voice but not over the top.

"I don't know you, I can't know what your abilities are." Jemma replied with a smirk and a little playful voice, without even realizing the subtle flirtation the two had started.

"Yet you did not hesitate to immediately assume that I would fail." Skye said in the same tone as the other girl.

"I wasn't underestimating your possible computer skills, I'm just stating the facts based on the evidence I've been subjected to in the last fourteen hours." Jemma was trying to use logic in this "discussion". It was no longer about the computer, but who would have the last word on the other first.

Skye, sensing a slight hint of defiance in Jemma's argument, decided she definitely needed to impress the girl while at the same time keeping her hacker ego high. She brought her face a little closer to her. "Do you bet I can fix it?" His tone was doubtless defiant now.

Jemma didn't pull back and fold her arms as if to affirm it. “Let's do this, you said yours broke a few days ago right? If by a miracle you manage to make it work properly you can keep it, as I said so much it's new and I haven't put anything personal on it yet. "

Skye raised an eyebrow at this. "What if I don't succeed?"

"Then you buy me breakfast." Jemma answered without hesitation. At least she could get a meal with Skye and the morning wouldn't be ruined by the laptop disaster.

"This sounds like a win either way to me." Again the flirtation had made its appearance and to increase it all she even gave a wink.

Taken aback by the sudden audacity, Jemma looked down and blushed. The two remained in their positions for a few seconds, until Skye stopped looking at her and focused again on the laptop.

So for the next few minutes the young hacker did her magic and the biochemist watched her sipping her tea. For Jemma there was something special about this girl she had just met, she didn't know why, but she felt that today something had changed. She did not know what, in what quantity and how this would affect her from now on, she only knew that the meeting with Skye had shifted the axis of her life in an unpredictable way and she was curious what this would bring. The logical part of her brain, which was the one she usually used, said that it was a bit of an exaggeration to think so of a person with whom she had just exchanged a few words and who was now trying to solve her laptop, a laptop that moreover she had promised as part of the bet. But this time Jemma couldn't listen to that logical part of her, too busy with these new sensations. Nor was the "girl" part the problem since she never hid her bisexuality from anyone.

"Done! Like New!"

Skye's sudden voice roused Jemma from her thoughts, and once she understood what she had said, she moved the laptop towards her and stared at the screen. And indeed the computer now seemed to be back in place, the desktop in front of her was normal, and after a few tests, she could confirm that the device was responding to every command she gave it. "How did you do that?!" Jemma was not ignorant on the subject, you don't get two doctorates at a very young age without using computers, let alone having attended the Academy of Science and Technology at SHIELD, and yes perhaps this would have been more subject for the Academy of Communications, but she could say she could manage a little and recognize when a case was lost. But Skye had managed to solve everything in a few minutes.

"Secrets of the trade." These words and a small shrug were Skye's only response, along with a satisfied smirk that wouldn't leave his lips.

Jemma smiled along with her, and after looking at the laptop one last time, she closed it and lifted it with one hand to give it to Skye "Well, so now this is yours"

"Wait, were you serious ?!" Honestly, when Jemma told Skye the stakes, she didn't think she would actually have her laptop if she fixed it. Who does it with a stranger ?!

"Absolutely, a bet is a bet, and then my job will pay me a new one without any problems, it's part of my benefits." Jemma said with conviction.

"But won't they want the old one to check?" It couldn't be that simple.

“I will say that it ended up under a car and that there were only so many pieces left to throw away. Quiet I'm a pretty respected girl in my work area, I'm not usually the "Bad Girl Shenanigans" type. " The advantage of being a girl who usually never breaks the rules is doing what is expected of her, but spending time with Skye kept making her question a lot of things. Jemma handed the laptop to the girl once more, hoping that she would finally take her winnings.

Skye eventually gave up and accepted it, not believing her luck: she had met a beautiful girl and won a new laptop that only needed a quick reprogramming, or at least quick as far as her personal computer skills are concerned.

Once again the two girls were staring at each other, trying to figure out what they should be saying now, but then Jemma glanced at the diner's wall clock and revived all at once. “I didn't realize it was so late! My best friend is waiting for me! " She was due to meet with Fitz very soon. She stood up and quickly gathered her things, minus the laptop of course, "can you ..." she waved her hand to the fact that being seated next to her could not leave the table.

Skye, who had been immobilized by this sudden turn of events, realized the request. "Uh, sure ..." she got up to let her pass, still wondering how it was all ending so quickly.

Once clear of the table and leaving the money for the waitress, Jemma looked at Skye. "Sorry but I really have to go, my friend will kill me if I'm late, we have this dendrotoxin project and soon we'll be called back to our work ...," she quickly realized that the other girl looked confused about that. who had just said, "... sorry, forget it, big words from a scientist." The smile Skye gave in return made her smile too. "So I'm going ..." And after a last hesitation, she headed for the exit of the diner.

Skye finally recovered and ran to join Jemma who was now on the sidewalk outside the diner looking for a Taxi. "Jemma wait ... and what about that breakfast?" She asked trying on one last note of flirtation.

As the Taxi arrived, the biochemist turned to her. “You won the bet, didn't you? You'll have to settle for the laptop and wait for the next time. ”The big smile on Jemma's face confirmed it all.

"Look, I'm counting on it!" Today it seemed that neither of the girls ever stopped smiling at each other.

Jemma nodded and after having a final look at the other girl got into the Taxì, leaving a few seconds later.

Skye stood there staring until the car was out of sight, then returned to the diner. Only once inside did she realize something… they hadn't exchanged phone numbers! She immediately ran to the table with her new laptop hoping Jemma was lying when she said she hadn't put anything personal in it yet, but unfortunately for her after a few minutes she realized that in fact there was really no information that would allow her to track it down. Skye didn't even know her last name! This was an absolute disaster for her, far worse than how she had felt when she woke up without a computer to work on.

Grace, seeing her agitation, approached her. "Are you all right Skye?" Asked the young waitress.

Skye shook her head and looked up at her friend "I feel like I just missed the chance of a lifetime ..."

Grace, who had been watching Skye and the English girl interact the whole time, immediately understood what she meant. "Well you know ... if it is meant to be I'm sure that in some you will be able to meet her again, who knows, life always has a way to surprise you, you'll see," also adding an encouraging smile.

As the redhead got back to work, Skye stared out of the diner window reflecting on her words and the entire encounter with Jemma. Even though she didn't have the same confidence as Grace, just looking at how long she still looked for where she came from and who her parents were, she had the feeling that something really special had happened today and maybe this wouldn't be the only time. she would see Jemma.

But for now she no longer had time for these thoughts, or rather, she had other people to look for. And thanks to her new laptop, she could get back to work to attract the attention of a certain secret organization…

The End... or not?

What do you think? Should I continue? Is the translated version understandable and legible or should I leave it alone and limit myself to those in Italian? Don't worry to be honest, I prefer to know right away if it works or not.

#skimmons #bioquake #Daisy Johnson #jemma simmons #agents of shield

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taendrils · 5 years ago

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cloud delivery! — preview

― ❝sometimes other fairies really can’t tell what goes through your head or if anything at all does, but your kind’s wonder reaches its peak as they spot you interacting with min yoongi: the closed-off garden fairy. you choose not to mention how you deliver things to him on the daily and how you may or may not stop at nothing until you get to see him smile.❞

• genre: fluff, comedy, romance, idiots to lovers, disney fairies au • warnings: swearing, mentions of anxiety and perfectionism issues • pairing: garden fairy!yoongi x fast-flying fairy!reader • preview wordcount: 2.8k words

An old knowledge with ties back when humanity couldn't trace says that when a child laughs for the first time, a new fairy is born. Back when the first humans came to be, once their hearts bloomed with genuine joy, fairies followed their path and helped their surroundings grow along with their smiles. Water fairies purified their rivers and those of light have sown the sun into rays falling from the sky to give humans guidance and brighten their circles. Gentle braids of blossom that they called flowers started rising from fertile soil and frost dusted the tops of the mountains where fairies flew to give colour to this world.

As much as humans depended on fairies, the same could be said from the other perspective: with fairies learning new ways to care for the world and building routines often broken by events impossible to imagine for those who kept an axis of seasons and light. Many curiosities have arisen in young minds but humans meeting their helpers was rarer than the eclipses or red auroras that were painted for them. Despite that, sprinkles of magic still caressed heads on pillows and brought consciences along the path of pleasant dreams.

Eras have passed and happiness took different forms, yet no matter the timeline, they all kept the same core belief. Fairies were shaped by the experience of euphoria, and laughter trailed after them in their early stages with the same purity and open heart they were created from.

Yoongi doesn't know what kind of laughter lightning must have struck the child who made you appear, but he's sure that wherever they are, that baby must have had some future sight and is having a field day with watching him interact with the bane of his existence. That's what must have caused the laughter, unforeseen circumstances that no fairy kingdom ruler or human scientist could have explained, because you were too out of this world for him to explain otherwise.

Well, you or your head, that is.

If his house branch sharer Namjoon, fawn fairy extraordinaire also held residence in Yoongi’s head where dramatic monologues were played more ardently than those on a slow roll of a film, he might’ve reprimanded Yoongi, stomped on his dreams and overall existence by telling him you were not so bad. Or worse, tell him that he’s exaggerating and that this grudge he’s holding over you has no place on moral grounds like those where fairies existed in.

Ok, fine. Maybe he was being a little dramatic. Blame it on his nature, on the talent he was born under, or just pin it under the mentorship of Rosetta, head garden fairy and symbol of house behaviour. It is her fault that garden fairies are thought to have a stuck-up reputation, therefore many are surprised when they meet the other fairies with the same talent, like sweet Jimin, who bared resemblance with the snowdrops he carefully bloomed every spring season.

Yoongi doesn’t mind the reputation, might even be true in his case. He’d like not to be approached. It sounded about festive right now.

But eternal life doesn’t go the way we want it to, honeydew, Rosetta’s words ring into his head, pushing aside the unfinished monologue still tapping at the back of his head. There might be some truth to that, as no one would wish to share her experiences of being dragged in the mud and stuck in a carriage hundred times their size in The Mainland. Yoongi shudders, the roses in his hair rattling with the rhythm of his vibration.

Still, he wishes he could sleep in a hollow deep enough for fate to spare him the responsibility just this day. And the following one. And the next season, until autumn comes in and he gets to do what he has been meaning to all this time. See, another reason why he loathes being assigned on spring, besides having no way out of meeting with you. His conscience finds itself pouring magic dust on the monologue which takes the spotlight as it returns, and fine, he is exaggerating. You were not a bad person. Ahem. Fairy.

Not a bad fairy.

In a sense, he knows that he can’t deal with you due to the differences in your kind and how you stood out from his perceptions. By nature you lacked tints of responsibility and regard for every other living creature, not for the fact that you chose not to care but you just forgot. Whatever the consequences were, you had no mind for those either: you were more inclined to brush them off and continue on with your duties, excuses and pretences of living in the present almost synonymous with your name. Yoongi had a word for that: human.

From what he learned about humans and their characteristics, you were eerily similar, it scared him sometimes. Only on the inside, where he liked to keep any thought which could give you an advantage over him. The first ‘oh well, I forgot’ from you in his presence brought a month’s drought on the eastern region and a near heart attack from Yoongi, while your first ‘oops’ stuttered with the most radiant smile followed after gentle, idiotic Namjoon trusted you with leading a lost mandarin duck and ending up on the other side of the world with it.

Although the similarities don’t make him lose his balance and fall face-down on bulbs nowadays, you’re still a constant surprise. Might be due to the fact that you are so far from the usual fairies he interacts with, preferring to stay away from fast-flying fairies and their tempers. Those often found him with his tongue prodding at his cheek, snarky remarks growing in his head like forest fungus but blocked as they glide closer towards his mouth. Might be due to the fact that you’re the fastest fairy he’s ever seen, speed intertwining with such positivity and enthusiasm that Yoongi is sure you could circle the world before it grinned sunset if you wished.

You were so far off what he had expected and all over the place that he used to hear about you only in emergency situations, wandering around with desires of helping and without a department, carrying every task your kind couldn’t. Not even Vidia, made of dark purple, confidence and sarcasm stepped up in times of crisis quite like you did.

Current crisis? Yoongi himself. At least that’s what he thinks, because he couldn’t explain your visits otherwise without shame dusting pretty cheeks pink.

Meeting with other fairies, it often left him on edge, small changes he would make picking apart at his brain and tightening inside his chest, scared of lashing out at others but obviously uncomfortable. Fairies needed routine, moves not missing the smallest element, but mistakes were prone: a package here, a honeysuckle with its vines intertwined there–one second of not paying attention and no one was doing things the way he wanted. And oh, how aware he was of it but how futile were his attempts to control his fixation as it ate away at his will to express it.

More often than not, the means of speaking up forced his heart into erratic pounds, coming down from the interactions drained and exhausting every resource in his body. He wishes for quiet, for slumber into tulip petals, wishes the warm wind breezed through the static air, widening the space between his fingers. Like now. Pixie dust stars fall upon his ground with you getting closer, and your grip on the strap loosens, the leaf cover of the pouch now held gently by your palm. He recognises the sensation without bringing his focus into it, the breeze that changes the direction of the heat and instead of descent, it’s brought into a spiral that surrounds the being.

But then your mouth opens.

“Ten bowls of clay, taken straight from under the sunlight,” you beam as you drop the luggage down, crouching to detangle the cover. Used to hearing the fairy’s instructions, you waste no time to put the items one over the other, bending to in your arms. Yoongi stares at you with his mouth open, and for once the shock in his eyes has a pleasant warmth rising the corners of your smile.

“Are you sure you can handle that?” Yoongi says slowly, syllables forming in reluctance as he watches the pile grow until it reaches your chin. It's going to fall.

“Of course, of course, I got it, just give me some space so I can move.”

His heart starts to pick up the pace at your mismatched steps, part of him wondering why didn’t you just fly over? Hello? He’d love to have the time to judge your transportation choices more, but his instincts kick in as his eyes land right on one bowl slipping from under your chin. It will fall.

He moves faster than his thought, diving to catch it, but he is no wind person and ends up hanging in the air, wings pulling his weight with shame as he finds himself face to face with the fallen bowl levitating in front of him.

“You think I’m some sort of fool, Min Yoongi?” you reprimand and the pixie dust you used on the items seems to form its usual sparkle, mocking his attempts. “All you do is nag me about getting flower paint on your precious cutlery. I can’t begin to imagine what would happen if I broke one of these limited edition bowls. What do you do with these anyway.”

He doesn’t even have the brain to be offended, questions about your word choices puzzling him and setting a fog over the remains of his previous scare. “Limited edition?”

What the hell.

“Well, of course,” you say as if Yoongi truly is some fool, and truly doesn’t know anything. “You think Jungkook likes playing with dirt?”

“Isn’t that what he always does?” Jungkook, that talented, curious and awful, awful tinker fairy who lived to torment him as well, Yoongi was sure Jungkook said this to you so you could rub it in his face.

“Yoongi! You know he has more important business, trying to decipher all this lost stuff. Tinkerbell never lets him breathe.”

Ah yes, the lost stuff, Yoongi recalls. The pieces of plastic with strobes of wires and organised circuits. He grimaces thinking of where those could have come from.

“Very fun,” he says despite himself, sarcasm dripping at the end of his mouth. “You were gone for a long time. Did you get to eat?” Yoongi coughs before crossing his arms, studying the cracks between the tree's bark. He didn't care for those in a while.

“Why? You wanted me to pick up something on the way? I could do it next time,” you say, eagerness pouring out of your words before it pauses to a halt, stopped by Yoongi’s blank face. “No? Fine. I ate, thank you for asking.”

And see, his fading conscience makes it hard for Yoongi to hate you when you are like this–and when he met you this often. Because you were not just the bane of his existence–you were his delivery girl too. His forgetful, airheaded delivery girl who treated everyone the same, paying no attention to Yoongi more than you’d do to anyone else, he thinks as you tilt your head to look at him with big, curious eyes. The silence stretches with the time you take to analyse him before you run with it in your chaotic rhythm.

“You should see how it goes when I don’t want to eat,” you continue on, not seeming to notice how you switched the tangent of your conversation. “Him and the other tinker fairies surround me and chant food, food, food, you know what I mean? I can’t believe them. It’s funny, but my mouth hurts from all the chewing.”

You cup your face and squish your cheeks with one hand to make your point, petal mouth open in a pout. Not soon after, way before Yoongi has time to dwell on it, your posture sags, hands flying to grip the ends of your top. The top made from bits and pieces of purple salvia that he took care of and sent for stitching with careful instructions, and here you were–not a care in the world about all that work by the way you were patting your tummy with mock indignation.

“They’re so so stubborn, I thought my stomach was going to pop out of this fucking–”

Rose glass breaking, Yoongi almost swears himself, getting close out of habit before he realises what he’s doing. His feet plant themselves straight onto the ground, feeling too awkward to back out or resume the beginning of his rant. “H...How many times did I tell you?”

“What? What am I doing?” you ask, dopey arches framing a full smile as you dote on the way his lips purse.

“Stop swearing,” he speaks with his voice lowered, reproachful tone curling like tendrils as it gets to you.

“What’s wrong with that?”

While fairies adapted the language of the region they were residing in, swear words were rare and a clear sign of human interaction. A thing you weren’t supposed to do. The hopeful part of his conscience was praying for you to have heard it from Vidia, back from when the group had their own human encounters. But the realistic side of him, the one occupying itself with creating bonds and structures within his space laughed at the thought: your curiosity was too big to be restrained to a life of nature for eternity.

“You can’t do that here. We have manners, unlike you wind people.”

“You’re being mean, you menace in pink,” he hears Namjoon say from a low branch before you get a chance at a reply and Yoongi drifts his eyes to see his preferred acquaintance (not for long) painting over the wings of a ladybug.

The garden fairy squints at his companion, eyebrows furrowing over delicate features. “Talk about me when your rat stops eating away at my seeds.”

Namjoon rolls his eyes, taking a second brush to puncture the first dot. “It’s a mouse, not a rat. Where did you even hear that?”

“But? But...They told us rats were an accident.”

“They were,” Namjoon nods, solemn as he continues his work. “Weird how that happened. We should ask Yoongi, he has the experience.”

“For the last time,” Yoongi says in the same fashion, looking ready to puncture Namjoon with those brushes, “My aim was off.”

You cross your arms over your chest as you lean against the stem of a dandelion, a small smile playing over your lips at their bickering.

“So was the smell. And the plant. And the root that kept growing.” Namjoon points matter-of-factly, accentuating every hit with a dot on the ladybug. “Seems like you couldn’t get rid of that green duckfoot.”

Yoongi’s jaw ticks, “Stop making fun of it, no one actually calls it that.”

“That’s true, in cities they call it oregano,” you throw and both men turn towards you with bulging eyes, prompting you to return the stare with even bigger ones, as if saying ‘what?’. Namjoon snickers and Yoongi asks Mother Dove what duty he omitted to deserve this. Was it this cursed ‘oregano’ that made it all like this?

The mint disaster happened more than twenty seasons ago, when he was a mere apprentice fairy. Nothing more than a distracted occurrence, where he did not pay much attention to the fact that bloom happened with intention, his thoughts drifted as his magic poured into the soil. When he snapped back to reality, he was met with a different smell and patterns which made him think he had created another type of grass, but with more of a scent. It was humiliating, and it took a lot for him to wash off the stain over his reputation in the following cycles. The realization sinks in as it dissolves, disbelief replacing his initial panic. Not only did you know about the incident, but also–

“She’s been to the cities.” Yoongi murmurs to himself in despair, lips trembling with his shaky exhale as he watches your blank face, no reaction to your slip.

“Of course she’s been to the cities Yoongi, where have you been?” Namjoon teases. “Who do you think gave them the oregano?”

“You're welcome anytime too, you know,” you say with a smile, treading with care on making a direct invitation to Yoongi and putting him in a position he might not want. High chances are he is never doing that, and by the way your eyes plead with him, he realises you think the same. The garden fairy contemplates changing the subject, but he knows you're trying to help, and again, you do this with everyone, so he does not feel as pressured.

His traitor heart, however, has another agenda: it jumps at seeing you manifest a sense of empathy, a patience that goes against your nature. He assumes you mean to ease him into the thought you, or any delivery person won't be there forever. Still,

“There’s something else I have to do.”

The way he says it makes you sigh.

He is so dreamy when he rejects you.

i’ve Been Workin On THis For 2 MOnfs and still not getting close to the end please motivate me !!!!! Tell Me WHot U think praise makes my red bloodcells multiply!

#kwritersworldnet #networkbangtan #btsguild #kwordsmiths #bangtanarmynet #bts scenarios #bts fluff #yoongi scenarios #yoongi fluff #bts x reader #yoongi x reader #bts fanfic #yoongi fanfic #bts x you #bts x y/n #yoongi x you #yoongi x y/n

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sciencespies · 4 years ago

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These 3 recent studies radically change what we understand about dogs

https://sciencespies.com/nature/these-3-recent-studies-radically-change-what-we-understand-about-dogs/

These 3 recent studies radically change what we understand about dogs

It often seems impossible to know what’s going on in Fido’s head as he lounges on his dog bed.

But a handful of new studies offer surprising insights about how our canine companions age, perceive human speech, and find their way home.

A study published last month showed that dogs understand verbal communication just like we do: They parse out tone then meaning as separate aspects of human speech.

Dogs may also use Earth’s magnetic field like a compass to find their way home, other recent research revealed.

And another study published this summer found that puppies age much faster than older dogs do: which means you’re probably underestimating your dog’s human-age equivalent.

Taken together, these recent discoveries may change how you understand your pet.

We’ve been underestimating our dogs’ ages

Dogs live an average of 12 years. Human life expectancy, by contrast, is at least five times that, which is why many people go by the common rule of thumb that one “dog year” is equivalent to seven “human years.”

But that one-to-seven ratio is wrong, researchers found it’s a misunderstanding of how dogs’ ageing processes compare to those of humans. Instead, according to a July study, genetic evidence suggests that Labrador puppies and other young dogs age faster than their older counterparts.

“What’s surprising is exactly how old a 1-year-old dog is: it’s like a 30-year-old human,” Trey Ideker, a co-author of that study, said in a press release.

But after that first year or two, dogs age more slowly as time passes – or rather, their cells do. So for each year older a dog gets, the corresponding increase in “human years” gets smaller. A 12-year-old Labrador is 70 human years old, the study found.

Ultimately, in order to calculate your dog’s human-age equivalent, you’ll need a calculator. The researchers’ formula is: A dog’s human age = 16 ln * your dog’s age + 31. (The ln refers to the natural log of a number.)

Dogs understand speech in the same way we do

When humans hear someone speak, our brains divide the work of processing that verbal communication between the left and right hemispheres. First, the right hemisphere focuses on parsing out the speaker’s underlying tone, then the left hemisphere processes the meaning of what we’ve heard.

Researchers discovered in 2014 that dogs’ brains divvy up the task of speech processing in the same way, between their left and right hemispheres, though the scientists weren’t sure of the order in which that happened.

The recent study, however, found that dogs understand tone first, then meaning, in the same order humans do. The authors examined the brain activity of 12 pet dogs – six border collies, five golden retrievers, and one German shepherd – using a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) machine.

They had the dogs listen to known praise words like “clever,” “well done,” and “that’s it,” as well as unknown words like “as if” and “yet” in both praising and neutral tones. The data showed that the dogs processed “simpler, emotionally loaded cues” like tone first, then “more complex, learnt cues,” Attila Andics, one of the co-authors, said in a press release.

Dogs use the magnetic field to navigate

Dogs have an uncanny ability to find their way home using their sense of smell. But that’s not the only navigational tool at their disposal: Pups can also orient themselves using Earth’s magnetic field, according to a June study.

Birds, whales, and dolphins also use the same sixth sense, called magnetoreception, to plot their long migrations.

“The magnetic field may provide dogs with a ‘universal’ reference frame, which is essential for long-distance navigation, and arguably, the most important component that is ‘missing’ from our current understanding of mammalian special behaviour and cognition,” the authors of the recent study wrote.

The researchers used GPS trackers to study how 27 dogs navigated over the course of 662 expeditions between 2014 and 2017 in the Czech Republic. They chose hunting breeds like terriers and dachshunds, which are trained to find prey like foxes in dense woodlands, then find their way back to their owners.

The researchers found that after the dogs were released into the woods, the animals typically retraced their steps back to their release point by following their own scent.

But in one-third of the expeditions, the dogs took a different way home: On those trips, most of the dogs started off by running for 65 feet (20 metres) along Earth’s north-south axis – even if the direction of their destination didn’t align with that orientation.

This “compass run” helps the dogs figure out where magnetic north and south are, and where they are in relation to those points, according to the study authors.

“This run is instrumental for bringing the mental map into register with the magnetic compass and to establish the heading of the animal,” they wrote.

Kateřina Benediktová, one of the study authors, told Live Science that unlike hunting dogs, a “human would most probably get lost without a compass and a map if roaming over comparable distances in unfamiliar forested areas.”

This article was originally published by Business Insider.

More from Business Insider:

#Nature

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commentaryvorg · 5 years ago

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So, okay, I am planning to get around to doing both a bonus ramble for chapter 6, and also finally doing that bonus ramble for chapter 5 that I mentioned back then. Buuut instead of working on those things yet, I found myself doing something a little different.

See, this whole commentary was all written in the same ridiculously long document. And there’s a search function that can tell me exactly how many instances of a given character’s name are in this document, which I can also break down to see how many times they’re mentioned within a single post’s worth of it. Which means that, other than a commentary for DRV3, what I’ve also unintentionally generated is a huge source of data on how I see this story, in terms of how relevant and interesting each character is being at each point in the narrative.

So, well, I don’t know if anyone else will be into this, but I found it fascinating to look into, so here’s me nerding out over some data. You want a visual representation of how I see the story of Danganronpa V3, with GRAPHS? Then look no further.

(Disclaimer: whenever I talk about a character’s “relevance” during this, obviously I am talking about their relevance according to me as measured by my commentary. Though it should have at least some relation to their objective relevance to the story, this is not necessarily a measure of that.)

The number of times a character is mentioned will include both the times I mentioned them in my own commentary and times they’re mentioned in quotes from the game, either as the tag for who’s speaking or being talked about by another character.

I should also note that for all of these upcoming graphs, Kaito and Kokichi’s counts have been adjusted to account for the fact that Exisal Kokichi is actually Kaito. I counted the number of mentions of specifically “Exisal Kokichi”, then subtracted that amount from Kokichi’s count and added it to Kaito’s. Similarly, Tsumugi’s count was adjusted to include all of her cosplays of DR1/2 characters in trial 6, since those were all just her speaking.

First, here’s the totals of how many times each character was mentioned throughout the entire commentary. (This is only main commentary posts; bonus chapter-end rambles and replies to asks are not included.) The characters are ordered along the X-axis by how long they were alive for, so that you can compare how relevant they should in theory have been based on that to how relevant they actually are to the story in my eyes.

Surprising absolutely no-one, Kaito is the character I talked about the most. He even managed to beat out Shuichi, the actual protagonist of the game who is alive for a whole chapter more than him, by a significant margin. In fact, I imagine that all of my talking about Kaito’s issues with regards to Shuichi contributed quite significantly to Shuichi’s count.

I’m personally a little sad that Kokichi managed to significantly beat out Maki for third place. But while I don’t know if my talking about his actual issues alone would outstrip Maki’s, he was also very relevant to the plot of both chapters 4 and 5, plus I spent a lot of time in general explaining why he was obviously wrong every time he kept insisting he was obviously right, so that does track. He’s still only mentioned slightly less than half as much as Kaito, though. That seems fair.

(I know a lot of people associate Kokichi with the colour purple, but I really feel like black-and-white represents him more. Besides, if I’d given him a somewhat darker, more bluer purple than Kaito’s, he’d be really difficult to distinguish from both Kaito and Shuichi in the upcoming line graphs.)

Gonta comes in fifth place! Partly this is that I did his FTEs out of personal preference even though they’re not obviously meant to be a canon part of the story like Kaito’s and Maki’s definitely are. It’s also probably because Gonta speaking about himself in third-person amplified his own count to a significant fraction more than it would have otherwise been if he didn’t talk that way. But even so, Gonta is important and good (and rather relevant to both Kaito and Kokichi in different ways) so he definitely deserves to be considered a relatively significant part of this story.

Then nobody else gets mentioned over a thousand times; the next highest are the basically-tied Kaede and Himiko. Kaede was relevant enough from the single chapter she was around to even beat out even the other two who made it to chapter 6, who have a higher count than the rest mostly due to gradually accumulating it throughout the whole game.

Everyone else is hovering at around 300 mentions or so. The least mentioned of all is Angie, which makes sense, because of the characters I don’t personally care for at all, she had the least relevance to the plot.

Next, let’s look at a general overview of how each character’s relevance shifts from chapter to chapter. To do this, I calculated the average number of times each character was mentioned per post in any given chapter. (This doesn’t include the prologue, since that’s only two posts, one of which has most of the characters not existing yet and one of which is me mostly talking about their overall predicted relevance to this commentary rather than their relevance at that particular point in the story, so that data wouldn’t mean much.)

(I should add that, were I being a Proper Scientist about this, I would have first normalised the character mentions to each post’s word count to account for the fact that posts have varying lengths. But since I tried to keep the post lengths fairly similar anyway, the raw number of character mentions should still be a reasonable universal measure of that character’s proportional relevance in any given post, and therefore in any given chapter once averaged. I’d rather not make things more confusing for any less-sciencey readers – if you have no idea what I just said here, don’t worry about it.)

As you’d imagine, everyone who dies peaks in relevance during the chapter they die in. The only exception to this is Kokichi, whom I found more interesting to talk about in chapter 4 than chapter 5. That is, after all, the chapter he commits murder in.

I’m a little surprised that Kaito’s chapter 5 average is so much higher than his chapter 4 average, since I consider both chapters 4 and 5 to be Extremely Good Kaito Chapters for different reasons. I suppose it’s because, while he’s got fun character stuff going on throughout both chapters, in chapter 5 Kaito is also significantly more relevant to the plot than he is in chapter 4. He does spend trial 5 being effectively both the victim and a major participant in the discussion of the case (in a way that culprits usually aren’t until they get accused because they’re trying to lay low), which is bound to have pushed up his average a lot.

Kaito manages to still be the third most relevant character in both chapters 1 and 6. In chapter 1 it’s partly helped by me doing his FTEs out of what was largely personal preference, but he also really is doing a lot more interesting things and having more of a character arc already in that chapter than basically anyone else except for the two protagonists. And in chapter 6, I went into it determined to find every possible opportunity to mention Kaito, but… I’m still impressed with myself that I managed to mention him more times in that chapter than even Maki, who is still having an actual character arc at that point.

Four of our five most relevant characters take a dip in relevance during chapter 3. That really does go to show that chapter 3 is kind of the black sheep of the story that doesn’t fit thematically with the rest of it nearly as much. Kaito gets nerfed in-universe for silly reasons, while the out-universe writers apparently just couldn’t think of anything interesting to do with Kokichi in this chapter. Even Shuichi is mentioned less despite being the protagonist, because this is in between him overcoming his own post-Kaede issues during chapter 2, and him becoming very very relevant to Kaito’s issues during chapters 4 and 5. Maki’s development really is the only big overarching story-related thing going on in this chapter.

…Nonetheless, I’m still impressed with how much I managed to mention Kaito during chapter 3, such that he’s still more relevant to me in it than anyone else. I went into that chapter thinking I wasn’t going to have much to say about him past the beginning part because he spends so much of it ill and offscreen, but I still ended up finding plenty to say about why he is ill and offscreen anyway.

It’s kind of interesting how, until Gonta dies, Gonta and Kokichi’s graphs look very similar to each other, with Kokichi’s just being a little bit higher. They are, tragically for Gonta, both relevant for similar reasons a lot of the time. In the same vein, but happier, Kaito and Shuichi’s graphs for chapters 2 to 4 also have a similar shape to each other, which makes sense since I’m often talking about them both together. In chapter 5, Kaito’s greater relevance to the plot and not just to his and Shuichi’s character arcs is bound to be why he has a much higher increase than Shuichi there.

While most characters barely get mentioned once they’ve been dead for more than a chapter (they tend to at least get mentioned a little in the chapter afterwards due to people reflecting on the previous case), Kaede’s baseline during chapters 3 to 5 is still slightly higher than most. She averages at nearly 2 mentions per post for those three chapters, which is very impressive for someone who’s been dead since chapter 1! She really does continue to have an influence throughout the whole game.

Now let’s break it down further into each individual post to see how everyone’s relevance changes within each chapter. I’m separating these into one graph per chapter so as not to overwhelm things with one ridiculously wide graph.

(Including lines dividing the different sections of a chapter to help people follow roughly where each post is at in the story. The posts which are only half Deadly Life are being fully counted as that for our purposes here – think of it as the lead-in to the body discovery as well as the investigation itself.)

Unsurprisingly, Kaede is almost always the most relevant character in any chapter 1 post – after all, she’s the protagonist, plus she’s being really interesting and relevant to the narrative the entire time in a way that Shuichi won’t always be once he becomes the protagonist. Kaito does somehow manage to be slightly more relevant than Kaede just for the first half of trial 1, probably because his strategy meeting was the topic of discussion a lot there, while Kaede’s character (aka the part where she murdered someone) was less in focus.

Kaito is still a clear third place here. While he doesn’t really come into explicit narrative focus until the end of chapter 1, he’s still having something of a character arc in the background and being way more interesting than any of the other non-Kaede-or-Shuichi characters, who are in this chapter mostly just background noise desperately trying to establish their basic character traits. Maki is one of the only ones who’s less background noise and more having a few moments of me talking about her issues in between her pointedly not drawing attention to herself at all. And while Kokichi is the fourth most relevant character in this chapter, we can see from this that it’s mainly due to his background noise being slightly noisier than everyone else’s (particularly in the trial, because trust issues), with the only thing of any real note he does in this chapter being discouraging everyone from the escape tunnel at the beginning.

(Featuring characters who are dead from the beginning of the chapter becoming dotted lines, to help unclutter things and also make it noticeable at a glance whenever a peak is a character managing to be relevant after they’re dead.)

And now, while Shuichi has become the protagonist and is having plenty of interesting character arc this chapter, Kaito has also fully come into narrative focus and so is going to be outstripping even Shuichi in relevance most of the time from now on. The one time this chapter that Shuichi does manage to be more relevant than Kaito is in the latter part of the trial as he faces the truth and accuses Kirumi, first with Kaito’s encouragement but then seemingly without needing Kaito at all towards the end, which feels… appropriate.

You can see the peaks of Kaito’s free time events and then him training Shuichi during the Daily Life. The patterns for a character in Daily Life will often oscillate like this, as Daily Lifes tend to alternate between character development stuff and plot stuff. Those Kokichi peaks in Daily Life, for example, are all him reacting to (or causing) plot stuff. The Gonta ones are partly his free time events incidentally happening to land in the same post as plot stuff, but also the Insect Meet-and-Greet.

Maki starts to become more relevant during the investigation and trial, featuring a big peak in the part where Kaito believes in her and is Good. You can also notice Himiko being brainwashed by Angie, doing her magic show, and being suspected during the trial, with vague smaller peaks of Angie and/or Tenko at the same time. A lot more characters are beginning to make themselves noticed above the background noise by now, even aside from this chapter’s victim and culprit.

Kaito is super relevant during his free time event and first training session with Maki, and then fluctuates wildly between being ill and trying very hard not to be ill for the rest of the non-trial posts. (Not that I don’t still find stuff to say about him even when he is, but it is harder when he spends most of the post offscreen.) That first Deadly Life post is far less about the murder and more just me talking about Kaito’s phobia for practically the whole post, which is why nobody else except for him and his sidekicks are all that relevant there. A bunch of the other characters shoot up for the second Deadly Life post compared to the first as there’s a lot more plot going on there.

Maki’s relevance steadily increases during Daily Life except for the post which is half plot and half Gonta’s FTEs. You can also notice the part where Tenko tries to stop Angie’s ritual and get through to Himiko.

Kokichi isn’t doing much of anything during the Daily Life and his only significant peaks are discussing his trust issues in the trial (in conjunction with Himiko wanting to believe in Tenko, featuring even more of Kaito being good) and then him accidentally being nice to Himiko in the trial conclusion.

Practically every interesting character (except Shuichi, who’s just doing his detective thing) drops in relevance between the first half of the trial and the second, because there really isn’t nearly as much interesting character stuff going on in the second half of the trial and it’s just Kiyo being terrible.

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(I split up the Daily Life and Deadly Life a little differently in this one, since while the whole Virtual World trip is nominally “Daily Life”, it’s basically the murder already in progress and has a very different tone from the rest of Daily Life up until the end of free time. Now also featuring splits for the trial because my coverage of trials from this point on is so damn long.)

Man, I love how starkly clear it is that there are really only four characters who are relevant to this case and trial. Even Maki isn’t – she gets her moment to shine during the Daily Life and some brief bits of being good during the investigation, but the trial is not about her at all. Similarly, Himiko has a bit during the Daily Life focusing on her post-Tenko development (featuring Gonta) and then basically nothing after that.

Any big peak of Shuichi in this chapter can be assumed to almost certainly be about Kaito’s issues regarding him; Kaito has peaks in similar places to Shuichi most of the time. The only times he doesn’t are Maki’s training, which is of course about Kaito helping her, and then the first post of the trial, which has a good bit of Kaito’s principles clashing with Kokichi. But for the entire rest of the trial, Kaito’s relevance does not remotely correlate with Kokichi’s, or even Gonta’s, because Kaito’s issues in this trial are really almost entirely about Shuichi.

You can very clearly see the point at which Gonta gets accused in the trial – that is, just after the post in which Kokichi made everything about himself for ages and then threw a tantrum when Shuichi wasn’t having any of it. Kokichi’s pattern for the rest of the trial until the execution then looks a lot more similar to Gonta’s pattern than it does to Kaito’s. Guess who’s the real source of Kokichi’s issues here.

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(Splitting up the Daily Life here as well between the end of free time and the beginning of Kaito’s brilliant heroic plan, since the first half is a lot more character development and the second half is a lot more plot.)

For the Daily Life, there’s kiiind of that same pattern of Kaito and Shuichi having similar peaks, since Kaito’s issues are still extremely about Shuichi at this point. That doesn’t show up so well during free time in which Kaito is not available, even though I kind of am still talking about Kaito’s issues a good bit, because I’m mostly doing so through the metaphor of Himiko’s FTEs without directly mentioning Kaito’s name as much. The one in which Kaito and Shuichi’s patterns match the least is the post with Kaito’s plan, which is about him realising he needs to actually be a hero instead of focusing on looking like one just to prove himself to Shuichi, so that seems appropriate. And after the last part of the Daily Life in which they make up and have their adorable window conversation, Kaito is more or less over his issues regarding Shuichi – or at least isn’t letting them affect him any more – so their patterns don’t match up as much as they used to once we get to the case and trial. The Shuichi peaks during the investigation and trial are then a lot more focused on Shuichi himself, in terms of how he’s dealing with Kaito being apparently dead.

It’s pretty abundantly clear that this chapter is basically just about the training trio, plus Kokichi who facilitates those character dynamics by driving the plot. Himiko’s free time events are noticeable, as is the bit in the trial where she’s a suspect, but she doesn’t do much the rest of the time. Meanwhile Tsumugi and Keebo are still contributing practically fuck all to the narrative, just like they’ve been doing for the past four chapters as well. You can tell which post is mostly me talking about the Hope’s Peak plot because none of the characters get talked about in it to a particularly great extent – and Kaito still manages to be the third most relevant character in that post even though he’s offscreen for the whole thing.

As he should be, Kaito is always the most relevant character for the entire trial, even more so than Kokichi! Remember that I adjusted the data to account for the fact that Exisal Kokichi is actually Kaito – without that, Kokichi does get more mentions than Kaito in a few trial posts, but that isn’t a fair representation of who is actually being talked about and having lines. Heck, I imagine that about half of Kokichi’s mentions in the trial are just me talking about how he would usually act in order to explain why Kaito’s really not quite acting like the real Kokichi at all.

The biggest Kokichi peak in the trial proper is the only one that has a lot of me talking about him for his own sake, as I discuss the logistics of his plan and explain how he ruined it all by posthumously gloating. You can also see his plan being discussed in the trial conclusion, and then him ceasing to be relevant as everything becomes about Kaito and his friends.

This trial does have less obvious trends than trial 4 – I split it up at the intermission again, but there’s not much of a meaningful narrative difference between the first half and the second. There’s so much discussion of the logistics of the case and everything Exisal Kokichi is saying that the actual character progression that Maki and Shuichi have here gets a little bit lost amongst that noise (and Kaito himself isn’t precisely having much of an actual arc during this trial even as he is being the best and most relevant). You can at least see the post which is almost entirely flashback, featuring a lot more Maki and much less Shuichi, then also the part where Maki is adorable as she realises Kaito’s still alive and then can’t bear to accept he’s the culprit. You can also kind of see Shuichi forcing himself to accept Kaito’s death in the Debate Scrum earlier on, and then believing in Kaito towards the end.

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(There wasn’t an official intermission to split the trial at, but I decided to split it at the point where the audience shows up, since there’s a very big shift in topic and tone from then on. The first half is a lot longer in-game than it might seem based on how comparatively long I spent on it, because most of it was straightforward deductions and exposition that I didn’t have much to say about.)

The overall counts for characters in general during this chapter are a lot lower, which reflects the fact that there’s less interesting character arc stuff going on here and I’m talking a lot more about the plot instead.

Kokichi has a big posthumous peak when we’re investigating his lab and his room, some decent relevance throughout the rest of the investigation for plot reasons (the Bugvac, etc), another small peak in the trial as we confirm he wasn’t a Remnant of Despair… and then he basically just stops being relevant once we move onto the fiction stuff and start thinking more about the influence the deceased characters had on those who are still here. Kaito has much steadier posthumous relevance throughout, partly out of how much he means to his sidekicks (that biggest peak is when Tsumugi uses that to make Shuichi and Maki despair over their fictionality), and partly because I just can’t stop finding reasons to mention him even though he’s gone.

Kaede and Rantaro are of course quite relevant during their retrial, and a little bit during some other plot parts – Rantaro’s lab, the stupid Kaede twin red herring during the investigation, Shuichi realising why Rantaro did the killing game again. Other than these plotty parts, Kaede’s pattern kiiiinda matches Kaito’s here and there, since they did both have such an influence on Shuichi. The parts where Kaito has more of a peak than Kaede are a lot more specific to him, such as the flashbacks in the investigation that were relevant to his issues, and the impossible being possible near the end of the trial.

You can see Tsumugi being found out as the mastermind… and then only being the most relevant character for a grand total of two posts. Keebo’s brief stint as protagonist is also pretty clear here, and he’s the most relevant for exactly one post. But this chapter is really the most about Shuichi. Tsumugi’s relevance as the mastermind drops right off in the same post that Shuichi’s shoots back up as he realises what’s going on with this hope nonsense and stands against it, which is very satisfying. Even Kaito becomes more relevant than Tsumugi towards the end of the trial!

Bonus fun facts about all the post-by-post graphs taken together:

While Kaito is alive, there are only two posts in which he is not among the top three most relevant characters. In both cases he’s a pretty close fourth, and in one of those cases he’s a lot more the topic of my commentary than you’d think from the number of times I mention his name, so he probably isn’t really only the fourth most relevant at all there.

There are only nine posts in which Kokichi is more relevant than Kaito, and three of those are only by a pretty small margin.

The character who has the single highest number of mentions in any one post is actually not Kaito – it’s Gonta. While Kaito is extremely relevant in many many posts, there seems to be a maximum to that. After all, there is a maximum post length that I tried to adhere to, and so even in a post with the highest possible concentration of talking about Kaito, there’s basically a hypothetical limit to the number of times he can be mentioned. But Gonta’s thing of amplifying his own count because he talks about himself in third-person means that, for the one post which is almost entirely about him (the first half of trial 4’s conclusion), he outstrips that hypothetical per-post limit in a way that other characters wouldn’t be able to do no matter how relevant they are.

This was really fun to look at! I always had an instinctive feeling for how I felt about each character’s relevance at each point in the story, but it’s cool to see a visual representation of it using actual data. It really does feel very accurate. Kaito’s frequent high counts may sometimes be an exaggeration of his objective relevance on the surface, but that genuinely is how I see those parts of the story. Even if it’s subtle, there’s so much going on in Kaito’s head beneath the surface, and that’s the biggest thing that draws me to any given part of the story.

And what I love so much about this story, as these graphs so wonderfully show, is how relevant Kaito always is. Even if Kaito hadn’t been one of the most important characters in this story, he’d still have been my favourite anyway just because he’s the kind of character I tend to enjoy in a lot of different ways. So it’s just so great to me that, no matter where I’m at in the story (unless it’s chapter 6), it’s never too far away from some part in which Kaito is being at least a little bit interesting and fun in some way – and usually a hell of a lot more than just a little.

(Have I ever mentioned how incredibly happy I am that the writers really did thoroughly care about Kaito’s story and didn’t gratuitously kill him off earlier than he deserved like they’d been making it seem like they would.)

#danganronpa v3 #bonus ramble #(basically like a bonus ramble for the entire thing in one?)#(right?)

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nasa · 6 years ago

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Ultra-Close Orbits of Saturn = Ultra-Cool Science

On Sept. 15, 2017, our Cassini spacecraft ended its epic exploration of Saturn with a planned dive into the planet’s atmosphere–sending back new science to the very last second. The spacecraft is gone, but the science continues!

New research emerging from the final orbits represents a huge leap forward in our understanding of the Saturn system -- especially the mysterious, never-before-explored region between the planet and its rings. Some preconceived ideas are turning out to be wrong while new questions are being raised. How did they form? What holds them in place? What are they made of?

Six teams of researchers are publishing their work Oct. 5 in the journal Science, based on findings from Cassini's Grand Finale. That's when, as the spacecraft was running out of fuel, the mission team steered Cassini spectacularly close to Saturn in 22 orbits before deliberately vaporizing it in a final plunge into the atmosphere in September 2017.

Knowing Cassini's days were numbered, its mission team went for gold. The spacecraft flew where it was never designed to fly. For the first time, it probed Saturn's magnetized environment, flew through icy, rocky ring particles and sniffed the atmosphere in the 1,200-mile-wide (2,000-kilometer-wide) gap between the rings and the cloud tops. Not only did the engineering push the spacecraft to its limits, the new findings illustrate how powerful and agile the instruments were.

Many more Grand Finale science results are to come, but today's highlights include:

Complex organic compounds embedded in water nanograins rain down from Saturn's rings into its upper atmosphere. Scientists saw water and silicates, but they were surprised to see also methane, ammonia, carbon monoxide, nitrogen and carbon dioxide. The composition of organics is different from that found on moon Enceladus – and also different from those on moon Titan, meaning there are at least three distinct reservoirs of organic molecules in the Saturn system.

For the first time, Cassini saw up close how rings interact with the planet and observed inner-ring particles and gases falling directly into the atmosphere. Some particles take on electric charges and spiral along magnetic-field lines, falling into Saturn at higher latitudes -- a phenomenon known as "ring rain." But scientists were surprised to see that others are dragged quickly into Saturn at the equator. And it's all falling out of the rings faster than scientists thought -- as much as 10,000 kg of material per second.

Scientists were surprised to see what the material looks like in the gap between the rings and Saturn's atmosphere. They knew that the particles throughout the rings ranged from large to small. They thought material in the gap would look the same. But the sampling showed mostly tiny, nanograin- and micron-sized particles, like smoke, telling us that some yet-unknown process is grinding up particles. What could it be? Future research into the final bits of data sent by Cassini may hold the answer.

Saturn and its rings are even more interconnected than scientists thought. Cassini revealed a previously unknown electric current system that connects the rings to the top of Saturn's atmosphere.

Scientists discovered a new radiation belt around Saturn, close to the planet and composed of energetic particles. They found that while the belt actually intersects with the innermost ring, the ring is so tenuous that it doesn’t block the belt from forming.

Unlike every other planet with a magnetic field in our Solar System, Saturn's magnetic field is almost completely aligned with its spin axis. Think of the planet and the magnetic field as completely separate things that are both spinning. Both have the same center point, but they each have their own axis about which they spin. But for Saturn the two axes are essentially the same – no other planet does that, and we did not think it was even possible for this to happen. This new data shows a magnetic-field tilt of less than 0.0095 degrees. (Earth's magnetic field is tilted 11 degrees from its spin axis.) According to everything scientists know about how planetary magnetic fields are generated, Saturn should not have one. It's a mystery physicists will be working to solve.

Cassini flew above Saturn's magnetic poles, directly sampling regions where radio emissions are generated. The findings more than doubled the number of reported crossings of radio sources from the planet, one of the few non-terrestrial locations where scientists have been able to study a mechanism believed to operate throughout the universe. How are these signals generated? That’s still a mystery researchers are looking to uncover.

For the Cassini mission, the science rolling out from Grand Finale orbits confirms that the calculated risk of diving into the gap -- skimming the upper atmosphere and skirting the edge of the inner rings -- was worthwhile.

Almost everything going on in that region turned out to be a surprise, which was the importance of going there, to explore a place we'd never been before. And the expedition really paid off!

Analysis of Cassini data from the spacecraft’s instruments will be ongoing for years to come, helping to paint a clearer picture of Saturn.

To read the papers published in Science, visit: URL to papers

To learn more about the ground-breaking Cassini mission and its 13 years at Saturn, visit: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/main/index.html

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com.

#nasa #space #cassini #grandfinale #spacecraft #planet #rings #solarsystem

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the--sad--hatter · 6 years ago

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Name Calling (38)

FANDOM - MARVEL MCU, DEADPOOL & X-MEN

PAIRING - BUCKY X READER (female reader, no physical descriptions)

WARNINGS - ALL OF THEM, SMUT, VIOLENCE ANGST

DESCRIPTION -

Vernichtung - Destruction, Annhialation.

It was what you were named and what you were supposed to be but the only thing you wanted to destroy was Bucky Barnes.

The ongoing and bloody war of words between you and Bucky turns in your favor when a disgruntled one night stand of his lets slip a secret when you run into her in the elevator… Now you have all the ammunition you need to destroy your enemy but you don’t plan on killing him quickly. Oh no, Bucky Barnes was going to suffer and you were going to enjoy every second. You just didn’t count on enjoying it quite so much.

But when your past catches up to you in the form of the mad scientist who made you, Bucky might be one of the only things that can save you from yourself. You can’t run from what you are but with his help, you can fight back.

Current Word Count - 107,534

MASTERLIST or Read on Ao3

Moodboard by @talesofakindredspirit

Chapter Thirty Eight - Wilson Squared

“Tony, you can’t be mad at her. She’s exactly like you, it’s almost scary.” Pepper said in your defence.

You were nowhere to be seen, having disappeared after calling out the UN and Docherty live on camera.

“It’s different when I do it!” Tony insisted.

“Because somebody else has to deal with it when you do it, I have to deal with it. But when she does it, it’s on you.” Pepper said.

“You’re enjoying this far too much!” Tony accused.

“I’m worried about her as well but they can’t arrest her for not signing the accords or practising free speech. Until she actively breaks the law, all they can do is make threats.” Pepper sighed.

“Threats are bad, everyone is making threats against her! And if she’s on the wrong side of the accords, how am I supposed to protect her from Hydra and Docherty?” Tony demanded, two seconds away from tearing his hair out.

“We will find a way. Nobody is touching our girl.” Pepper said vehemently.

Tony smiled sappily at her.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

The Avengers were divided. They’d all watched your escapes on the news and quickly devolved into two sides arguing.

In the middle of an Avengers family argument Sam checked his phone far too casually and started edging towards the door. Bucky narrowed his eyes and moved to stand next to him.

“You know where she is don’t you?” He asked quietly.

“Listen man, she’s overwhelmed. She needs space to think and calm down.” Sam hissed back.

“She doesn’t need space, she needs her best friend. I’ll distract everyone so you can sneak out.” Bucky said.

Sam looked taken aback and Bucky rolled his eyes.

“I know she loves me but she’s loved you for longer. She just tipped her whole world on it’s axis, she needs something familiar.” Bucky pointed out reasonably.

Sam nodded in understanding.

“Alright Barnes. You clear a path and I’ll go and look after our girl.”

Bucky nodded back discreetly and went to the other side of the room and started pacing angrily. After a few moments he cracked his fist down on a table, making a bang that got everybody’s attention.

“Why are we arguing about whether or not she did the right thing? We should be concentrating on what Ross is going to do next!” He raged.

“Bucky’s right, she done it and we have to deal with it!” Steve agreed.

In the ensuing chaos Sam slipped away unseen.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

You saw Sam walking across the park towards you and sighed in relief. You didn’t regret your decision but the adrenaline had worn off and now you just felt nervous. You’d ripped the rug out from under yourself and while it was the right choice, you didn’t know where you stood now. Sam was steady, reliable and safe. You needed your best friend more than anything right now.

“Interesting place to hide.” He noted as he approached.

“I figured a public spot was probably my best bet.” You admitted.

“Until you actively defy the accords with more than words, Ross can’t do shit.” Sam huffed.

“Sam... Did you think I did the right thing?” You asked curiously.

Sam sighed and offered you his arm. You accepted and linked your arm with his as he started walking along the park path with you.

“I think you did the right thing for you. I don’t think you would be you if you did anything else.” He said diplomatically.

“But I made everything more difficult for everybody else.” You pushed.

You knew you’d pretty much screwed everyone else over and you were guilty but the UN had backed you into a corner and you had made the only move you could bring yourself to.

“Yeah you did, but I think you had too. Most of us don’t like the accords, we signed to keep the peace. Even those who agree with them don’t like Ross. Maybe you’re leading us towards a change. Would you sign if somebody you trusted was in charge?” Sam asked you.

“Yeah, I would. If I really trusted them. If it was somebody qualified, experienced and honest. Somebody with good intentions.” You said carefully.

Sam looked at you suspiciously.

“Are you thinking of somebody specific?” He asked.

“I am. Somebody The UN would approve of and The Avengers would listen to. Someone who can talk politics and strategy, make moral choices and keep the world safe.”

“I don’t think they’d approve of Cap if that’s where you’re going with this...”

“I’m not. I’m thinking of Rhodey.” You admitted.

Sam gaped for a second.

“That’s actually perfect. Colonel James Rhodes, War Machine. That could work.” He admitted.

“I’d sign for him, he wouldn’t abuse the position. For either side. The trick is getting the UN to fire Ross and replace him with Rhodey while thinking it was all their idea.” You said, swerving towards a food truck.

“So we ask Nat for help.” He said.

“We ask Nat for help.” You agreed.

“I’ve gotta ask, did you plan this before you told Ross to shove it?” He enquired.

“Honestly? No. I just did what my heart was telling me. It was only after I realised I was fucked and I wished someone good were running the show I thought of it.” You admitted.

You ordered food for the two of you and paid while Sam was lost in thought.

“If we can talk everyone into getting on board with this, and I don’t think it will be too difficult then The Accords might actually be what Tony was hoping they would. I’d still rather they didn’t exist at all, Steve as well probably but at least this way it’s a decent compromise.” He decided.

You nodded and motioned for him to stay while you went to a bench and put down some food on it and came back.

“Whatcha doing?” He asked curiously.

“You were followed.” You told him and he tensed.

You just smirked and motioned for him to watch the food. A few seconds passed before a red figure slipped out from behind a tree and crept towards the food.

“Hiiiiiiiiiiiiii Peaches, other Wilson!” Deadpool called as he grabbed the food you’d left for him.

“No way.” Sam groaned, annoyed he’d been stalked by the merc.

“Hi sweetie!” You called back as Wade literally skipped over.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Bucky knocked on the door apprehensively. When Friday had asked him to come to the Lab, he’d had a pretty good idea about what Tony wanted to discuss. He stepped inside and Tony flung his screwdriver aside and looked at the Winter Soldier with a harsh glare.

“Do you love her?” Tony went straight for the kill.

“Yes.” It was a simple word but it held a universe’s worth of weight, he said it with such surety and conviction.

“Then convince her to sign the accords.” Tony implored.

“What?” Bucky blinked. That wasn’t where he thought this was going.

“If she doesn’t then she’s going to end up a criminal, on the run from the government, from Hydra and from Project Vernichtung. How long do you think we can protect her if that happens?”

“I’m not going to ask her to sign away her control and even if I did she wouldn’t do it.”

“She loves with her whole heart, she doesn’t know any other way. If she loves you, then she really loves you. I hate that but I can’t change it so you need to use that love to save her from herself.” Tony said with a bitter tone.

“She loves you more than anything Stark, if she won’t change her mind for you then she won’t do it for anything.” Bucky argued.

“Why is nobody taking this as seriously as I am? If they come for her she’ll have to run and she can’t come back. I’m going to lose her and so are you. Or are you going to disregard everything Rogers did to get you here and go on the run again?” Tony asked furiously.

“Steve did what he had to do because he’s my family. He’ll understand if I do what I have to for her.”

“So you are planning on running with her?”Tony said derisively.

Bucky didn’t answer him but the answer was clear anyway from the stubbornness of his stance to the passion in his eyes.

“Good.” Tony said with a nod.

“Wait what?” Bucky was thrown.

“I hate you. I don’t want to and I know it’s unfair and irrational but I do. Having you near my daughter terrifies me but the thought of her out there alone terrifies me more.” Tony admitted.

“You were hoping I would go with her if she ran.” Bucky accused.

“And now I know you will. I can’t, they would find us faster if I was with her but you know how to hide. I can help from here and lead them away from you as much as possible and you can make sure nobody finds her.” Tony said, turning his back on Bucky.

“Stark, I never planned to fall in love with her. I’m sor...”

“Don’t.” Tony spat angrily.

“She deserves someone better than you loving her but I’d make a deal with the devil himself to keep her safe and your love will protect her.”

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

When Wade said he knew a good place for you to hang out and lay low, Sam had been sceptical but intrigued. You had been excited, Wade always took you to the best places.

“A strip club?” Sam demanded uncomfortably.

“A classy establishment with exotic dancers performing.” Deadpool corrected.

“Man this is wrong on so many levels.” Sam said, his eyes drifting to the stage.

“That’s Candy, want me to introduce you to her?” Wade asked, leaning his head on Sam’s shoulder.

“No I do not!” Sam said, pushing Wade away.

“You can’t be ok with this!” He said, turning to you.

You weren’t standing next to him like he thought.

“Guys, they have a buffet!” You called excitedly from the other side of the room, piling chicken wings onto a plate.

“Well if they have a buffet...” Sam shrugged.

“Oh Candyyyyy, my friend wants a Dance!” Deadpool called the woman working the pole.

“I do not...!” Sam insisted but you didn’t seem phased by Wade’s announcement and the woman was already heading over.

“Well, I’d hate to be rude.” He said and grinned.

“I knew we were spiritually related!” Wade crowed excitedly.

You ignored the entire exchange in favour of balancing as much food as you could on your plate until a woman came to stand next to you.

“Hey, I saw you on TV earlier. Loved the way you stood up to those assholes.” She told you.

You looked up from the chicken wing you were devouring and smiled shyly at her.

“Thanks, I’m glad somebody sees it my way.” You laughed.

She very kindly picked up your second plate for you and carried it to an empty table.

“Wade was impressed as well, he was practically crying with pride.” She said with a fond smile.

“Oh you know Wade?”

“I’m Vanessa, his girlfriend.”

You choked on the chicken wing and looked at her in shock.

“You’re who now?” You croaked.

“It’s nice to finally meet you Peaches. Daddypool’s told me all about you.” She said with an amused grin and a friendly wink.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

“She’s not there.”

Tony paused his angry stride towards your room and turned to look at Natasha.

“Of course she isn’t.” He said bitterly.

“Don’t worry, Wilson went to get her. He thinks he’s subtle.” Natasha smirked and handed Tony a folded piece of paper.

“I don’t like to be handed things, especially not mysterious pieces of paper by super spy’s.”

“This is where I went this morning. I knew she wouldn’t sign, people who spent their lives being controlled by someone who wanted to use their abilities don’t willingly sign away that control to someone else. This is her contingency plan I set up. Show her the paper, have her memorise the address and then burn it.” Natasha instructed.

“A little warning would have been nice before I walked into the situation.” Tony grumbled, snatching the paper.

“You really should have known Tony.” Natasha admonished him.

“Yeah, hindsight is 20-20 though. Listen I need you to run a name for me, very quietly.”

Natasha looked intrigued.

“What’s the name?”

“Anne Docherty.”

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

You honestly couldn’t tell if Vanessa was just a natural flirt who was being nice or if she was actually flirting with you. If it was the latter you were really going to regret asking her to teach you how to give a lap dance, but something told you Bucky would forgive you.

“Well hello there.” Wade purred and you peered around Vanessa’s hips to look at him.

“This isn’t what it looks like!” You defended yourself.

“Hey Red, your girl is as adorable as you said she would be.” Vanessa greeted him as he kissed her on the cheek.

“I told you you’d like her. So can we keep her?” He said, pulling off his mask and giving her puppy dog eyes.”

“NOPE!” You yelled, dumping Vanessa onto his lap instead.

“Yes we can.” Vanessa smirked.

“What about Wilson, can we keep him?” Wade pleaded.

“Where is my Sam?” You asked nervously.

You looked around and spotted Sam chatting away animatedly to three women who all looked convincingly invested in what he had to say.

“I think she’s pretty in love with her soldier though.” Vanessa warned him, shooting you a soft grin.

“Aren’t we all?” Wade sighed dreamily.

You grinned at the thought of Bucky. Your soldier. You didn’t care what Tony said, you wouldn’t lose Bucky. You wouldn’t lose anybody, you didn’t care what you had to do to pull it off. All you had to do was keep out of trouble long enough to get Rhodey on the UN council so could sign the accords.

But because fate was a bitch and Wade Wilson pissed of a lot of people that was the moment the bullets started flying.

You immediately grabbed Vanessa from Wade and pushed her behind you.

“Friends of yours?” You asked Wade as you watched Sam dive behind the bar.

“DEADPOOL! Our boss has a message for you!” One of the goons yelled.

“Vanessa, get under the table. Wade, give Sam a gun.” You instructed calmly and stepped into the centre of the club.

“Not to be a cliché but gentlemen, you really don’t want to do this.” You addressed them.

“Holy shit, It’s Deathwave!” One of them yelled as they all aimed their guns at you.

“Always happy to meet a fan.” You smirked.

“We’re here for Deadpool, we don’t have any beef with you.” The de facto leader sneered.

“Hate to break it to you sweetcheeks but she’s with me.” Wade called helpfully.

“What he said.” You agreed.

They opened fire on you and you kicked the table you’d placed yourself behind up into the air to shield yourself. It was a lot harder than Steve made it look and you had to dive to the side to avoid getting shot.

You heard the sounds of screaming and looked up in time to see a guy getting stabbed by Wade. You stood up and grabbed the gun arm of one of the men and snapped the bone in half, kneeing him in the head when he fell to the ground. One of his buddies snarled angrily at you but before he could retaliate Sam shot him.

Wade was cackling maniacally as he slashed and stabbed his way through them. You rolled your eyes and picked a man up by the shirt and threw him clear across the club.

“You idiots really want to take on Deadpool and Deathwave?” You asked them, purposely not identifying Sam for his own protection.

“Let’s get out of here!” They shrieked.

You pulled Wade back by the scruff of the neck as they fled.

“Let them go.” You snarled.

“But..”

“I am not getting arrested in a Strip Club for breaking the accords like this. It’s not nearly epic enough and it’ll be hard to explain.” You said wearily.

“So I guess you want me to forget this happened?” Sam asked you, crossing his arms.

“Ugh, what do you want in return?” You sighed.

“At least one day a week with you, no Barnes and you have to help me get back at him and cap for always picking on me during runs.”

“Done.” You agreed.

“What do I get for keeping your secret?” Wade asked you cheekily.

“I’ll give you Cap’s phone number.” Sam offered before you could negotiate.

“DONE!!!!” Wade shrieked excitedly.

Wade became very hard to contain as he flapped over to Sam and you and Vanessa rolled your eyes simultaneously.

“You wanna bribe me for your silence?” You asked as you checked on her.

“Nope. Just keep coming round here once in a while to say hi and we’ll call it even.” She said and you shook on it.

“Wilson I knew you got me, it’s like we’re one! We are meant to be, we’re spiritual soulmates!” Wade said loudly and Sam rolled his eyes.

“Sam Wilson will you marry me?” Wade sunk down to one knee and looked up at Sam seriously.

“No.” Sam said shortly.

“But we are destined for one another and the best part is we don’t even have to change our last name!”

Sam shot you a pleading look and you sniggered.

“Dibs on being your best man!”

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

You’d wanted a calm normal day but what you had got was far from it. Still, you had your priorities in order now and since you had calmed down all you wanted was Bucky. You walked quickly though the compound, hoping to avoid running into anyone else before you found your soldier but again, fate was being a bitch.

You heard gentle footsteps skittering down the hall and poked your head around the corner to see a little furry black blur running away. You sighed and shot after it, scooping the black cat off the floor.

“Not so fast buddy, Thor will be in a world of trouble if anyone else sees you.” You muttered to the hissing creature.

You narrowed your eyes at it and hissed back. The evil thing looked taken aback for a seconds before it swiped it’s claws at your cheek and you swore and dropped it.

“How dare you manhandle me mortal!” The cat that wasn’t a cat anymore said.

The cat was now a very very tall dark haired man, clad in green and gold and wearing the most vicious sneer you had ever been on the receiving end of.

“Well the good news is my transgressions are about to be old news!” You said.

“You would betray Thor to draw attention away from yourself?” He hissed in disapproval.

“Don’t take the moral high ground with me LOKITTY, I’m telling my father because Thor snuck a god who once tried to take over the planet into the compound!” You shrieked, offended.

“So you would rather run and tattle to your father than speak to my brother and give him a chance to explain himself? How typically selfish of your kind.”

You frowned at him. He had a point actually.

“Fine. Kitty up and I’ll take you back to Thor.” You huffed.

“I do not take orders from Mortals.” He insisted, affronted.

“Listen to me tall, dark and menacing, you either hide and come with me to Thor or I take you to see Dr Banner... It’s a compromise, not an order.” You told him.

“Very well... little one.” He said, making Thor’s cute term of endearment for you sound like an insult.

You were staring down at a cat again.

“If you try and scratch me again I’ll snap your tiny neck.” You warned and the cat rolled it’s bright green eyes at you.

Ignoring how surreal that was you tentatively picked it up and hurried back to Thor’s room. Without bothering to knock you burst in.

“Little one! You have brought back Lo... my cat!”

“Yeah Thor, I brought your evil brother who you snuck in in cat form back before he could escape.!” You hissed, dropping the cat on a chair.

Thor had the grace to look chastised.

“Little one, he is not evil. He is my brother and I can explain.” Thor said, his eyes pleading.

“You had better. You have two minutes to explain why the villain who brought aliens to New York and killed hundreds of people is currently licking his paw and giving me side eyes.”

“Loki was not himself when he did these things, he was under the influence of a true villain.” Thor insisted.

“That’s his defence? And you believed him? He’s the god of lies!”

“You know nothing of Loki except what your father has told you, I have known him all my life. I believe him.” Thor protested.

“Well if you’re so sure he’s telling the truth, why not be honest with The Avengers?” You demanded.

“I do not believe they will treat him fairly.” He admitted.

“Well that’s insulting. They let Bucky in, they let Natasha in... Tony created Ultron. Forgiveness is a thing around here, for those who deserve it. I’m going to go get my dad and you and I will explain Loki. If he’s telling the truth then I promise you, he will be treated fairly.” You assured Thor.

“And if he is not?”

“You are my friend Thor, I won’t let anything bad happen to your brother, even if he is a little fluffball of evil.” You promised, glaring at the cat in question.

You turned towards the door and reached for the handle.

“Loki no!” Thor roared.

You whirled round and were blinded by a green light.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

“You have some explaining to do...” Clint sniggered at Thor.

The God of Thunder was stood in the living room looking sheepish and nervous, holding a black cat by the scruff of the neck in one hand and a toddler screaming and crying into his chest with the other. The little girl looked up at Clint and Natasha with very familiar red rimmed, tear filled eyes and held her arms out to the red-headed assassin.

“Oh no, you have a lot of explaining to do!”

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

This is for UnitedKindomOrgy who requested the Wilson day out with marriage proposal. The next chapter is for Annabelle who suggested something tropey like de-aging or sex pollen and for the many many people who asked for Loki! I hope you like and are excited for the next chapter?

Also, there's a lot to unpack in this chapter but what are your thoughts on Rhodey??And Loki? And Bucky knowing she needed Sam?? And Tony and Bucky?? Christ this was a long chapter!!

@nerdandproud-86 @harrison-shot-first@thejourneyneverendsx @thelostallycat @inquisitor-selvala@the-corruptor @iovher @kendrawr-kitkat @phoenix-whiskey-tears @the–real-wombat @buckitybarnes@fairislesheets @angieptt@meganjonezzzz@dugan365@fluffeh-kitty@memanda17@krystallynx@theonelittleone@piscesbarnes@free-as-fishes@tarastudiesalot @captainamericasbeard@dropthepizza346@jaynnanadrews@likes-to-smell-books @drdorkus @life-wanderer @metalarmlover @animegirlgeeky @jsmith509

#hattersmarvelverse #bucky x reader #bucky fic

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lilmajorshawty · 6 years ago

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Decans Series: Rising Signs Episode One

Aries Decan One(0-10′ Degrees): Aries & Mars

Men: These Natives are True in their Martian like presence. The men sport often hung or lean physics while even the men who are boasting a more robust size often carry the same aggressive and burly look as if they were some beast stripped from the wild. When young the men can often seem like a rebel without a cause, lost or as if they are “expecting.” The vitality is sky high and even more so is the body’s ability to heal from wounds. These natives heal the quickest out of all the Aries decans and unfortunately sport the worst temper. these natives tend to have an unknowingly abrasive energy and can seem much ruder than they actually are. most men with this early decan of Aries tend to be independent but “searching” whether they admit it or not, for their other half. This decan has the strongest connection to libra on it’s axis so these men as much of a loner as they may seem deep down are on a pursuit to find love and give love. This Aries rising is passionate but a bit overwhelming in it’s energy. They want and Will get and tend to have the most ferocious tenacity outwardly than the rest of their counterparts.

Women: The women with this degree tend to be Bundles of joy, many handle the Arian energy very well in this decan, taking on it’s childish and youthful energies and turning them into something pure and admirable. These natives are happy go lucky and take life by the rope and also don’t mind the occasional free fall. They tend to be the types to do things solo and normally despise being hand held threw anything. they have a bit of a tom boy spirit and many are actively involved in heavy duty work like construction, engineering or even just sports in general to relieve any access energy. Many women with this position are easy to get along with and have an almost infectious laughter to them. Men and women naturally gravitate to them because of their open and charming disposition. They ooze a special kind of sex appeal and it’s one that feels like nostalgia. they regardless of all these fun things LOATHE clingy or cramped spaces and can act out when placed in them.

Men/Women with water influence(all Aries Rising): (cancer) - Sentimental and guarded. will seem like a wounded bird and In a sense withhold. they’ll seem like they’re in conflict with the idea of being tied down or domesticated and may even bring the fight home with them. Extremely caring, tender and loyal but the cardinal overload tends to make them emotionally unpredictable especially the closer to 0-3′ degrees the rising sign of Aries is in. (Scorpio) - Deep & mysterious. you’ll notice the Arian side quick but only during short burst. the eyes tend to be deep and darker features are often seen. They tend to be powerhouses and dress in more dark and hidden attire. These men are very ambitious and have quite a bit of stamina when it comes to tolerating others. they tend to be crafty but also direct. the mind and heart operate unified, but they are remarkably cerebral and can often place ambition above sexual desire(especially in women). (Pisces) - Ghastly, they’ll always wear a face, which makes them very hard top pin down. you’ll likely think they’re a Pisces rising at first. the best way to point them out is their messy and underkept look. they seem natural and a bit lost. they throw the Arian rage at the wrong things and have the tendency to burn out quicker than any others Aries rising. They have so much creative energy and even more so they have the ability to create and do anything they conjure but many of these men fall to easily for the drugs, sex and lack of stability rather than claim their own destiny.(the women normally don’t struggle with this as bad as the men do here.)

Men/women with earth influence(all Aries rising): (Taurus)-steady, but, fluctuating. can seem timid one minute and then bubbly and talkative the next. their can be troubles maintaining the energy as it comes and goes. the sexual appetite in both sexes is high but usually the desire for committed sexual encounters matter more to them. Stubbornness is doubled because of Aries energy and even more so if they are in the second decan as the double fixed energy makes them downright immovable. Sensual and intimate personality. (Virgo) - CUNNING. the body moves quick, faster than most Virgo types. the nature can be overly self invested but they don’t mean to be that way. the nature is reserved and respectful but a beastly personality can be hidden beneath the breathe. grounded but also lacking in foundation. the analytical side of Virgo is watered down and the reckless nature of Aries is more subdued. a tendency to fall in complacency is common ground but these natives tend to attract partners who stay the long haul. Fluctuations with weight can happen but the weight can be lost quickly. IRRITABLE.(Capricorn) - AMBITIOUS. these natives can be cold to the touch and prefer non-emotional sexual encounters(especially the business men & women of this combo) they can have a powerful sexual charisma. they can have overwhelming personalities or be deeply intimidating. the ability to take it easy might be hard here as they often easily pull all nighters or sacrifice family, love and all else for the sake of job, work and so on.(most of them are doing this to be providers though) the heart is SO BIG but it’s layered behind walls and distrust. Passion goes towards getting ahead.

Men/Women With Air influence(all Aries Rising):(Gemini) - Talkative and jivy. These natives can be colorful as hell, often playing their hands in many different activities, people, communities and so on. many have a strong attraction to rap, word of mouth and literature. these natives tend to be slightly air headed and superficial when it comes to being “deep” they can seem dismissive or careless when it comes to other people but it’s mainly because they don’t tale life or anything that happens in it that seriously. they get over things quick and tend to push others to be open to up’s and down’s. they can be mentally ambiguous and love a good mystery. many are very hard to get close to and they have a strong passionate side! many are very giving and loving to those they care about in their own way but they can lack emotional expression.(Libra) - Lovers, grand and schemers. they can be heartthrobs and seduce you just by flipping their hair or licking their lips. they are often passive and slightly people centered but deep down they aren’t nearly as concerned with the masses as they seem. they can be moody and dart from one feeling to the next pretty quickly. a good deal of them are artist and tend to have an 70-90s feel. they don’t hold on to connections and tend to have more situational friends if anything. Sweet but detached. the Martian side is often projected onto others. (Aquarius) - Spontaneous and aloof. the personality is quirky and the Martian energy is expressed in a wonky sort of scientist way. these natives tend to have an interest in being doctors or surgeons. the hands are often very capable and these natives tend to have well expected writing abilities. these natives tend to be loners and keep their distance from people. they can have an electric sort of rebel like nature to them, but they normally express this impulsive side when alone or with friends. they may fall for their friends quite a bit or be off to the side preferring to use their energy towards other things. many prefer self sexual pleasing than having physical sex.

Men/women With fire influence( All Aries rising): (Aries) - OVERWHELMING. they can be powerful, and a great deal tend to be active in sports, politics, or even war in some way through the military or even just open warfare at home or against others. The body is often physically strong and high in bone density. the movements tend to be heavy and these natives often sport heavy hands. their is an intensity to every action and these natives tend to have an intense home life to match, the mother is a juggernaut often holding equal footing to that of a war general in the house. the father is either a tyrant or an adversary. the grandparents are usually the source of sensitivity for the child. passionate and high sex drive and normally these natives are rather open to sexual expression gay or straight. (Leo) - Fast and well spoken. the mind is often creative and the talents are enterprising. the nature of the romantic investments tend to be turbulent and erotic. these natives have their line and fare share of hot sex stories but are pretty modest. the self esteem and confidence is well developed and these natives usually carry themselves with high décor and prestige. the nature is lion like and they tend to impulsively switch moods rather quickly especially if a their attention has been caught. (Sagittarius) - Philosophical yet daring. they want to explore it all but can also be rather impatient with learning what must be learnt to visit. they are daredevils and advocates for something big and better. many of them love the planet and strong on stopping further damage to the planet. many of them are activist and spend much of their time away from home or helping others. Sagittarius influence makes these natives put much of their energy into helping others. Many are caring but a bit lacking in sympathy for the feelings of others.

Aries rising decan Two(10-20′ degrees): Aries & Mars, Leo & Sun.

Men: These men can have a sort of innocent, lost boy energy to them. they “seem” impressionable to many but you’ll be shocked once they drop the façade. they’re quick but tamed and normally hide their rage behind a wall of patience. They do better with this than their female counter part in this decan but make no mistake they can be downright ugly when they get pushed. the men have a HIGH sexual energy but it expresses itself almost in a Virgo like fashion. Many of them do value attention and care but in a weird twist they prefer to be the ones giving it to others rather than basking in it. they’re considerate and deeply compassionate. The thing here is that these men are “secretive” they keep much of what they feel, think or want to themselves which can make them seem a bit aloof or disengaged than the typical Aries rising. in many ways they’ll seem like an Aquarius or Virgo rising upon first meeting. The give away is that these men Have some of the most intense gazes and the most powerful aura without trying. they own a room before they even step foot, and can kick up the sexual notch in little than a second. these men can be unnerving when they drop the lost persona.

Women: The women of this decan can be aloof, cool and HOT tempered. They love a thrill and have a very progressive mind. Many of these women are ambitious and place high value in the fruits of labor like mentality. They work and play hard but can in some ways seem so preoccupied with their own independence that their lovers feel a bit “Left out in the cold.” to that I simply reply with...KEEP UP. these women move quick and can be in and out of your life at a moments notice as they tend to keep their eyes on the big picture and in many ways you’re not that picture. they are extremely devoted to their families and are the Mother bear of either your worst nightmare or your dreams. they adore children and even more so their loved ones and to them romance takes a back seat to them always. They have a very open mind and tend to be strongly tied to their own heritage. many of the women here adore harsher/more earthy tones like marron, greens and silvers. these women CAN get angry and I mean angry and even more so if they get the feeling that you wasted their time. They have a strong ego but are humble as they come.

Aries rising Decan Three(20-29′): Aries & Mars, Sagittarius & Jupiter

Men: These men are like a breathe of the amazon. The harsh salted sea of the Atlantic. They feel like they’re not from here and even more so they feel as if they’re some astral being here for a moment and nothing more. they’re on the quieter side of the Aries rising and tend to observe rather than outright express their will. these men normally show their intensity in their self control. they ware very self aware and often exert small amounts or larger amounts of their energy when necessary. They can be sensitive to the body movements and language of others and much like a ram in the wild they can become skittish if you are acting out of character. they are sexually open but also naturally magnetic without going out of their way to do so. They can be suckers for music and dancing and many even tend to be on the more artistic side of things. These men also tend to be advent in literature or the word of spoken. they adore broadening their perspectives and try to remain open to that of others(even though they’ll go tooth and nail with you on their own beliefs. They are passionate but withholding and act much more like an earth rising than a fire rising. these men tend to dress very well and take great care of themselves. most are sexually intense and have an insatiable appetite but normally this is kept under wraps(all you see is the hot guy, but once you get in bed you see the animal).

Women: These women tend to be polite, intellectual and underhanded. they can see threw people and that is their super power. these women can spend half a second sizing someone up before they know just the right words, body language, or eye contact to make to get what they need. they tend to be natural born activist and vibrate on a speedy mental frequency which often makes it super hard for most people to actively keep up. they tend to be content with being alone and doing their own thing but they can turn into quite the butterfly in the face of a crowd. they are natural born performers but to that end many of them hate the spotlight no matter how grand their charisma may be. these women tend to be very uplifting to be around. their wording of things can be slightly dismissive and blunt but they have good intentions. these natives tend to be high class and prefer the company of people who respect others and themselves so dispute their aggressive side they keep a strong grip on not seeming overly aggressive. these women are strong and INTENSE but the joyous cloud around them hides it.

Physical/personality Decan One:

The eyes tend to be deeply set. fixed eyes. can seem playful but a serious demeanor. calm but Dismissive body movements. can seem emotionally distant. Radiant smiles and a semi- cheerful resting face.

Physical/personality Decan Two:

Heavy set chest in men and women here. The eyes are passive and seem a bit like they’re looking through you or past you. Attention elsewhere always. Can go from smiling to straight-faced in half a second. Natural body figure whether they work out or not LOOKS real good. often natural hair, curls or waves on it’s own. for all races the skin is often soft and the hair tends to seem loose or rather fitting to the persons face.

physical/ personality Decan Three:

Darker features. the eyes are steady but deceitful. low smiles and can seem grand. the aura is heavy. many are sporting very strong familial genetics(might be the one in the family that inherited great grandmas silver hair, or great granddads birthmarks and so on. The body for men and women can look stunning no matter the weight, it has a sort of uniqueness to it.

Song decan one: The Warlord.

Vince Staples - BAGBAK

Phantogram - You Don’t Get Me High Anymore

Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Sacrilege

Tove lo - Bitches

Chase Atlantic - Devilish

Sky Ferreira - you’re Not The one

Song Decan Two: The Skirmisher

Run the Jewels - Legend Has it

A$Ap Ferg - Plain Jane

N.E.R.D & Rihanna - Lemon

Rihanna - Needed Me

Beyoncé - Partition

Tinashe - No drama

Song Decan Three: The Casanova

Miguel - sky Walker

Kendrick Lamar - Swimming pools

ScHoolboy Q - Man of the Year

ScHoolboy Q - Collard greens

A$AP Rocky - Goldie

Travis Scott - Long live A$AP

#mine #aries rising #Decans #astro posts

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athenal21 · 5 years ago

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Color Theory History

Within the document pertaining to the history of color, the author details the relationships between colors, specifics of color mixing, and how colors have been used and created over time.

Many color theories used to come from Aristotle who believed that colors such as red in sunsets, was the result of the white sunlight mixed with the darkness of night, or that colors such as green were more of a shadow than they were light, and blue was mostly only shadow.

Other artists such as Leonardo Da Vinci, observed a phenomenon he called “simultaneous contrast” in which he believed the colors “white, yellow, green blue, red and black” were the artists most basic tools since when juxtaposed they intensified each other's hues. In his paintings, Da Vinci would purposely use yellow flesh tones to intensify the reds and blues incorporated in a figures clothing. He also incorporated a term known as Sfumato, the use of a dark, smokey, softly blended background that created drama in the piece, adding depth and careful control of light and focus.

Another man came along, Sir Isaac Newton, a physicist, whose theories depicted that “all spectral hues are present in white light”. Even in current time we still refer to a similar model that shows the main colors red blue and yellow and white that when played off of each other create new colors (green, purple, orange etc.)

Moses Harris, an entomologist and engraver, was responsible for creating “the first model of pigment primaries”. His theory directly states what I explained in the previous paragraph, that all colors derive from the three primary colors, red, yellow and blue. He found 18 colors that derived from the mix of these primary colors and sorted them into tints (lighter values) and shades (darker values).

Later, a man by the name of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe who was a German Poet, focused on color as a visual phenomenon within the eyes, “rather than an aspect of. Light”. Goethe developed specific instructions on perfecting the use of colored shadows, especially those seen in nature and the natural world.

A German painter, Phillip Otto Runge, “presented color relationships within a sphere”. Pure hues would be located around the equator, and the axis would present a gray scale value. In light of this, a German teacher, Johannesburg Itten, reacted to Runge’s sphere, commenting that this model “is the most convenient for plotting the characteristic and manifold properties of the color universe”.

Michael Eugene Chevreul was a renowned chemist, “developed a finely graded, two-dimensional color circle”. This circle demonstrated the use of reds,blues, and yellows as primary colors, and the use of greens, oranges, and purples as secondary colors. He also noted the contrast between adjacent colors as analogous colors.

Artist, and Scientist, Ogden Rood, believed that there were three main variables that create the difference in colors. These variables were purity (saturation), luminosity (value), and hue. He also believed in the use of complementary colors, and therefore created “the circle of contrasting colors”.

Albert Munsell used three dimensions to describe color variation. These included “ hue, value, and chroma (saturation)”. Instead of the traditional use of three colors red, blue ,and yellow as primary, Munsell used five, with the inclusion of green and purple. He “sought an objective standard for precise pigment specifications”.

Lastly, a German Scientist, Wilhelm Ostwald, created a color model that quantified color variations based on mathematical steps. He used black and white “in geometric rather than arithmetic progression” as well as “an analysis of the light apparently reflected or absorbed by a surface”. “His system has been useful for grading colors for printing process” being a “subtractive method of color mixing”.

I think it is really interesting how deeply these individuals studied color and the way colors work together. They were able to critically play off of each other's theories to find the most effective way that color works. Their creation of charts and color guides has helped shape amazing works by artists throughout time. We still use these charts today and it has opened doors into all new forms of playing with color, to new art styles, technological advancements, psychology and color,and even as far as fashion and home decor. It has changed the way in which we both see and use color, and has given us a greater understanding of things, being that color is something most all of us see and interact with everyday.

#colorresearch homework homework3 colorhistory colortheory lifecolor #colortheoryhistory

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franzbiblio · 6 years ago

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Where in the comics are Professor X and Magneto?

So it occurs to me that those not up-to-date with comics might be interested in a "where are they now?" for Professor X and Magneto, especially if you might be interested in jumping into the breach with this new launch of House of X/Power of X making it a bit easier than usual to jump into the insanity that is comics in general and X-Men comics in particular.

The short answer is that there isn't really a status quo established for this particular era of X-Men as of yet and as for Magneto and Charles Xavier's potential place in the coming status quo, I can't even really predict, which is both exciting and terrifying if I'm being honest.

Magneto:

I will start with Magneto who is a little more complicated to explain how he got where he is, but I do at least have a vague notion of the general trajectory we might be seeing from him in the next several months:

Until recently Magneto has spent most of his time running about being an anti-hero type from leading a distinctly shady team of the X-men in Uncanny X-Men (2016) #1-19, until Psylocke (Betsy Braddock) decided that he had been too shady and stabbed him and apparently killed him.

This being comics means that he got better immediately, but decided to not make this fact known and instead served as the secret mentor for the teenage time-displaced original five X-men in the pages of X-Men: Blue (2017) #1-28, that is until during the arc during issues #23-28 (collected in the X-Men trade titled Cry Havok) when Magneto is shown disillusioned with trying to be hero because his teenaged wards had run off into space (let the record show this is not the first time that Magneto has been driven back to villainy because his wards have a predilection for running off to space without so much as leaving a note) during a huge international crisis leaving Magneto to pick up the pieces in the only way he knows: being shady. This is then exacerbated when at the end of the arc Magneto is forced to kill brainwashed mutants he was attempting to save, fleeing to the future (there was a time machine in the basement… let’s not go into it) where he learned that him being an asshole is the only way the future will be saved, he then returns to the present seeking revenge on Emma Frost who was complicit in the whole brainwashing mutants thing. The original five X-Men freshly back from space objected to this whole killing Emma Frost thing and Magneto and the original five make their formal break in X-Men: Blue (2017) #31.

We are then shown Magneto fully returning to villainy with the destruction of a research facility, killing all the scientists inside, but because this is Magneto there are sympathetic "trying to prevent the future destruction of mutantkind" motivations behind this, but still kind of a dick move. He is then shown with a new Brotherhood of Mutants on a new Asteroid M (you know the secret asteroid base he has because he is not a dramatic bitch at all) setting him up clearly as a future threat for the X-Men.

Then Uncanny X-Men relaunched with an event called X-Men Disassembled that spanned Uncanny X-Men (2018) #1-10 where Magneto appeared as the brainwashed, bearded minion of Jean Grey's sort of alternate universe son who is now a reality warping messiah figure, Nate Grey AKA X-Man. While Magneto shakes off the brainwashing in Uncanny X-Men #10, joining the X-Men in attacking said reality warping messiah, he, along with every other mutant present, end up sucked into some kind of pocket dimension/alternate universe (it's a little unclear at the moment what exactly it is) and the results of this is being explored in the crossover event Age of X-Man. Magneto specifically is a principal character in the Marvelous X-Men (2019) #1-5 miniseries, which depicts Magneto as a part of the X-Men team in this alternate universe utopia with no memories of the regular universe. He has a half cape with a fluff and is pretty dapper, so I'm a fan. The last few issues have shown him along with the rest of the cast beginning to have flashbacks of the other universe and begin to doubt the Utopia.

This miniseries will be running until sometime in June where we can only assume that all the mutants currently trapped in the pocket dimension will return to the regular universe with their restored memories. It's impossible to know what the exact fallout of this will be.

It seems unlikely to me that Magneto would go back to being an ally of the X-Men after all the build-up to making him a proper "villain" again. They released a whole series dedicated to X-Men "villains" one-shots called X-Men: Black and there was a Magneto issue and the cover of Uncanny X-Men #13 that came out in March sorted Magneto along with other X-Men villains like Sinister, Apocalypse, and Cassandra Nova.

Most likely Magneto coming out of Age of X-Man will go back to being a “villain”, though whether future writers will necessarily follow-up on the story threads that were left dangling by the end of X-Men: Blue, I can only speculate.

For Charles Xavier:

So, Charles is a little easier to explain insofar as he was dead for a lot of the past decade of comics.

For those unaware during the Avengers v. X-Men crossover event back in 2012, Charles Xavier died at the hands of one of his oldest students and son-guy-figure, Scott Summers, in Scott's defense he was possessed by the phoenix force at the time and felt really, really bad about it after (like not bad enough to stop being part of the rad mutant rebelz, but you know, bad).

From thereon Charles would only appear in a limited capacity as some kind of ghost or psychic shadow or whatever you want to call it. Most prominently Red Skull would grave rob his brain and use it to manipulate the world in Uncanny Avengers (2012) eventually leading to the crossover event AXIS.

He'd also pop up as a spirit in heaven alongside Kurt Wagner in Amazing X-Men (2013) #2 and #5 and Charles's son David Haller would spend the majority of X-Men Legacy (2012) fighting against a malicious psychic entity that looked like Charles Xavier but is actually more of a manifestation of David's hatred... or something (the actual details are kept purposely vague).

It's not until Astonishing X-Men (2017) does the actual Charles Xavier appear and even then it's ambiguous until basically the end of the series whether it is really Charles Xavier back (it... mostly is) but in #7 he rejects being called Professor X, saying it doesn't feel right (I mean he's thirty, has hair and is drawn by Phil Noto, it makes a person feel different) and instead adopted the moniker X. At the end of the arc in Astonishing X-Men (2017) #12, Charles forgoes returning to the X-Men, claiming that Kitty was doing fine without him and then wipes everyone's mind who had been involved in the matter except Psylocke (Betsy Braddock), asking her to keep an eye on him and stop him if he's being too shady (sound familiar?) and then just vaguely refers to his "new dream".

Our next and as of writing last time seeing resurrected Charles is in Astonishing X-Men (2017) Annual #1 written by Matthew Rosenberg. It's a standalone story where the four of five original X-Men (Scott wasn't there because he was busy being dead or effectively dead at the time, I mean he was a student of Charles Xavier, he learned from the best) meet up and have a bitchfest about their fucked up lives. This is interrupted by Charles just strolling in, not explaining how he got back, stealing their wine and sort of apologizing for involving them in traumatizing superhero shenanigans.

He then promptly takes them out for some family bonding through more traumatic superhero shenanigans that ends with a warehouse full of people dead. It's capped off with Charles mind-wiping them, but they then get to have a do-over reunion dinner where they show that they can appreciate what they've accomplished instead of dwelling on missed opportunities, which I interpret as Charles's messed up apology to them, which is kind of sweet while being really messed up. Which I think is kind of what this take on Xavier is going for. He was trapped in the astral plane with the Shadow King for effectively centuries so I guess strange coping mechanisms are to be expected.

So with Cyclops back from the dead in Uncanny X-Men (2019) #11, it seems that some kind of reunion between the two is inevitable and it's more of a question of when, under what circumstances and will Scott get to remember it even happened after? With Legion (David Haller) being a part of how Nate Grey was able to suck everyone into Age of X-Man, I wouldn't be surprised if Xavier plays some key role in getting the X-Men back from the Age of X-Men. I really doubt that Xavier will blame Cyclops for the whole killing him dead with cosmic fire thing, but other than that I can't say.

The Charles Xavier we are getting is definitely a darker take on the character who is more comfortable with taking extreme measures, but how exactly this plays into what his "new dream" is remains to be seen. I definitely don't want Xavier to get too much exposure, he really works best right now as an enigma doing his own thing, with the Astonishing X-Men Annual playing this up to good effect with Charles being used sparingly but completely stealing the scene when he does appear. Since Rosenburg that wrote the Annual and is now writing Uncanny X-Men I'm feeling slightly optimistic, though I can't help but be worried that since things established in Astonishing (like Warren being in control of his Archangel persona) was ignored by later writers.

In a previous X-Men Monday on Adventures in Poor Taste (http://www.adventuresinpoortaste.com/2019/03/04/x-men-monday-featuring-jordan-d-white-2-nightcrawlers-soul-sacrificial-goats-and-weezer/) senior editor in charge of the X-Men line at Marvel, Jordan White mentioned that Professor X will be back and play an important role in the future of the line and included an image of X, but absolutely no more context on what his role might be. So at least he doesn't seem lost in limbo.

In the back of my head I can't help but vaguely hope that since this Xavier is darker and seems to be cleaning up loose ends in secret that might threaten his students that we could see him joining up in some capacity with newly villainous Magneto since we've had Magneto join Xavier's side several times but never seen the reverse. That could at least be novel, but at the same time I can't really see Charles fighting against his old students even if he thought it was in their best interest as we saw in his emotional breakdown during Avengers v. X-Men.

From what we’ve seen of the promo materials from House of X/Powers of X, I kind of doubt that direction, Hickman has been making vague references to X trying to take the X-Men in a new direction, I guess that “new dream” vaguely referred to at the end of Astonishing.

All of this being a long-winded 1.5k way to say: we'll have to wait and see.

#x-men #professor x #magneto #x-men comics

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biostudyblog · 5 years ago

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Animal/Bio-Diversity Facts!

I combined these two topics because there’s a lot of overlap, and I decided that taking notes on both really helped me understand what the other is trying to say. This will be a long post, strap yourself in.

Organisms are organized and classified via a system known as Taxonomy. This system was developed by a scientist named Carl Linnaeus. To identify individual organisms, binomial nomenclature is used. What this means is each organism is called by their genus and species name. For example, Homo sapien, Pyrrhura molinae, (Green cheek conure), and Betta splendens.

There were originally 6 taxa or levels of organization developed by Linnaeus; kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, and species. The 20th century saw many changes to Linnaeus’ original system of organization. The 3 original kingdoms were expanded to 5; Monera, Protista, Fungi, Plantae, and Animalia, a 6th, Archaebacteria was added to represent extremophiles that were so intense they had to be separated from bacteria to give their coolness more merit.

Today's scientists added a 7th level, domain. We use a 3-domain system based on DNA analysis. These domains are eukarya, bacteria, and archaea. Monera stopped being used as the prokaryotes were split between bacteria and archaea. Archaea are in fact, not bacteria, and so were given their own domain.

Here are some characteristics shared among members of the same domain:

Bacteria

All members of this domain are unicellular prokaryotes. This means that they lack internal membranes, like a nucleus, mitochondria, or chloroplasts)

Some are anaerobic (metabolize without oxygen) some are aerobic (metabolize with oxygen)

In the environment, some are decomposers, meaning they decompose and recycle dead organic material.

Some are pathogens, such as some strains of E.coli.

Speaking of E.coli, they also play a vital role in genetic engineering. E.coli is used to manufacture human insulin

Some reproduce using conjugation. This is a primitive process, where individuals exchange genetic material

They have a thick and rigid cell wall

Some, like blue-green algae, are autotrophic (make their own food) others are heterotropic (depend on complex organic substances for food)

Have no introns (noncoding segments of DNA)

Archaea

Also unicellular prokaryotes

Include extremophiles, which are organisms that live in extreme environments. Some examples are Methanogens (obtain energy by producing methane from hydrogen) Halophiles (thrive in extremely salty environments, such as the Dead Sea) and Thermophiles (thrive in extremely high temperatures, like Yellowstone's hot springs)

Have introns present in some of their genes

Eukarya

Have a nucleus and internal, membrane-bound organelles

Include: Protista, Fungi, Plantae, and Animalia

Moving into kingdoms, there are 4. These are the 4 mentioned above, fungi, Protista, Plantae, and Animalia. Here are some traits for each:

Protista

Most are unicellular, however, some are primitive multicellular organisms.

Include both heterotrophs (like amoeba, and paramecium) and autotrophs (like euglenas)

Move using different structures, such as pseudopods in amoeba, cilia in paramecium, and flagella in euglenas.

Include organisms not cool enough to sit with the fungi or Plantae kingdoms, like seaweed and slime mould.

Some, like algae and paramecium, carry out conjugation

Some can cause serious diseases like amoebic dysentery and malaria

Fungi

All are heterotrophic

Include unicellular and multicellular organisms

Able to digest extracellularly by secreting hydrolytic enzymes, and absorbing the nutrients via diffusion.

Are essential to the environment, as they are decomposers. They are saprobes, which mean they eat decaying organic matter.

They have cell walls, however, unlike plants whose cell walls are made of cellulose, their cell walls are made of chitin.

Lichens are fungi and algae living in a mutualistic, symbiotic relationship. Lichens are strong enough to withstand harsh, unforgiving environments, thus are often the pioneer organisms (the first to colonize a new environment).

They reproduce asexually by budding, like yeast, spore formation, like bread mould, or fragmentation (aka 1 parent breaks itself into several, living pieces), however, some can reproduce sexually.

Plantae

All are multicellular, nonmotile, and autotrophic.

Their cell walls, as mentioned above, are made of cellulose.

Plants can create their own food by photosynthesis, which uses chlorophyll a and b.

Their carbohydrates are stored as starch

They reproduce sexually by alternating between the gametophyte and sporophyte generations.

Some (tracheophytes) have vascular tissue while others (bryophytes) do not.

Animalia

All are heterotrophic, multicellular, and motile

Most reproduce sexually with a dominant diploid (2n) stage

In most, a sperm with a flagellum fertilizes a large, nonmotile egg.

Animals are classified, traditionally based on anatomical features (homologous structures) and embryonic development.

There are 35 phyla. Since I want to eat something today, I’ll go over the 9 the Barron’s SAT book describes, which are Porifera, cnidarians, Platyhelminthes, nematodes, annelids, molluscs, arthropods, echinoderms, and chordates.

Each animal phylum represents the evolution of a new, successful body plan. Some of these trends include specialisation of tissues, germ layers, body symmetry, the development of a head end, and body cavity formation.

Specialized cells, tissues, and organs

The cell is the basic unit of all life, for example, fat cells. Tissue is the next block up and is a collection of tissues performing a function, such as adipose tissue. An organ is a group of tissues working together to perform a similar function. For example, the brain.

Organisms making up the phylum Porifera, like sponges are made of a loose confederation of cells. Since those cells are not specialized, they are not considered tissue. These cells can react to stimuli, however, lack muscle or nerve tissue.

Organisms making up the phylum cnidaria possess tissue, however the most primitive and simple form of tissue. However, no organs. Flatworms do have organs, however, lack an organ system. Annelids, however, possess a full organ system.

Germ Layers

Germ layers make up the tissues and organs of the body. They form early in embryonic development. There are 3 kinds, however, not all organisms have all 3.

Ectoderm- outermost layer, makes up skin and nervous system

Mesoderm- middle layer, becomes blood, muscles, and bones

Endoderm- innermost layer, makes up the viscera (guts)

Porifera and cnidarians only have 2 layers. They lack mesoderm and instead have mesoglea or middle glue which holds the 2 layers together. Organisms that have 3 true germ layers are called triploblastic.

Body Symmetry

Most primitive animals exhibit radial symmetry. More complex animals exhibit bilateral symmetry. This is displayed in the drawings below. Echinoderms are a key exception to this rule. They develop with bilateral symmetry, however, as an adult, they exhibit radial symmetry. In bilateral symmetry, the body mirrors itself along the left and right on the longitudinal axis.

This also means that Patrick Star is not drawn biologically accurate. Shame.

Body Cavity Formation

The coelom is a fluid-filled body cavity, completely surrounded by mesoderm tissue. It is found only in more evolutionarily advanced organisms. Organisms like flatworms, who lack a coelom are known as acoelomates. Organisms, like nematodes or roundworms, who have a fluid-filled tube between the endoderm and mesoderm, functioning as a hydrostatic skeleton, are known as pseudocoelomates. Coelomates are organisms with a true coelom. Annelida, Mollusca, Arthropoda, and Chordata are all phyla that have this structure.

Development of a Head (Cephilization)

Organisms that developed bilateral symmetry also have an anterior and posterior end. (The head and rear end). The sensory apparatus and brain, or ganglia in less developed organisms are organized on the anterior end, while digestion, excretion, and reproduction all keep their organs on the posterior end. Cephilization began with flatworms.

Here is a cladogram to help visualize when different traits developed.

Traits of 9 different phyla:

Porifera:

No symmetry at all

No nerve or muscle tissue, sessile (nonmotile)

Filter nutrients from water drawn into a central cavity

Like many other primitive organisms, they only have 2 cell layers, ectoderm and endoderm, with the noncellular mesoglea holding them together

They have specialized cells, however, there is no organization to the cells, therefore they do not have tissue or organs.

Evolved from colonial organisms: fun fact, you can push a sponge through a cheesecloth, which will separate into individual cells, all and become a sponge. This is related to how a sponge reproduces

They reproduce asexually via fragmentation, meaning each piece that is separated has the necessary cells to become an individual organism. This means that technically,

Spongebob is reproducing here. Good on him.

They also reproduce sexually. They are hermaphrodites, meaning that they have characteristics of both males and females.

Cnidarians

Include organisms like hydra and jellyfish

Radial symmetry

Body plan is a polyp (vase-shaped, like hydra) which is mostly sessile or medusa (upside-down bowl-shaped, like jellyfish) which is mostly motile.

Life cycle- although there are exceptions, some go through a planula larva (free-swimming) stage, then proceed to their reproductive stage, that being asexual (polyps, ) or sexual (medusas)

Only have ectoderm and endoderm cell layers

Have a gastrovascular cavity where extracellular digestion occurs. They only have one opening to this cavity, so waste and food both go through the mouth.

Have lysosomes where intracellular digestion occurs.

No transport system, since each cell is in contact with the outside environment.

All have stinging cells (cnidocytes) for protection, with nematocysts, which are stingers.

Platyhelminthes

Include organisms like flatworms like tapeworms

These are the most simple organisms with bilateral symmetry, an anterior end, and 3 distinct cell layers (ectoderm, endoderm, and mesoderm... yay bones muscle and blood!)

The digestive cavity has only 1 opening for egestion and ingestion, like cnidaria, so food can’t be continuously processed.

Their body is solid and has no room for a true digestive and respiratory system to circulate food or oxygen. The solution to this problem was to develop an extremely flat and thin body that allowed most of their body cells to have contact with the outside and thus exchange nutrients and waste via diffusion.

Nematodes

Include roundworms like pinworms

Unsegmented worms with bilateral symmetry, but very little sensory apparatus.

A large majority of them are parasitic. Trichinosis is caused by the worm Trichinella, which is often found in uncooked pork.

C. elegans is often used as an animal model when studying genes and embryonic development.

Digestive tract is two way, meaning they have a mouth and an anus

Annelids

Include earthworms and leeches

Segmented worms with bilateral symmetry, and very little sensory apparatus.

Two-way digestive tract, and a tube within a tube, consisting of a crop, gizzard, and intestine.

They have a nephridium, which is a tubule responsible for the excretion of nitrogen waste, urea.

They have a closed circulatory system and a heart with 5 pairs of aortic arches

Diffuse oxygen and carbon dioxide through their moist skin

Hermaphrodites

Mollusca

Include squids, octopi, slugs, clams and snails.

Have soft bodies, protected by hard calcium shells

They have open circulatory systems. This means they don’t have capillaries, however, have blood-filled spaces called hemocoels, or sinuses.

Have bilateral symmetry and 3 distinct body zones: The head-foot, with sensory and motor organs, Visceral mass, with organs of digestion, excretion, and reproduction, and the mantle, a specialized tissue that surrounds the visceral mass and produces the shell.

They have something known as a radula, which is moveable and has teeth, that behaves like a tongue.

Many have gills and nephridia

Arthropods

Include insecta (like grasshoppers), crustacea (like shrimp and crabs), and arachnida (like spiders and scorpions

Have jointed appendages

Segmented into head, thorax, and abdomen

Contain more sensory apparatuses than annelids which means they can move much more freely

Have an exoskeleton made of a polysaccharide known as chitin.

They also have an open circulatory system, with a tubular hard and hemocoels

For excretion, they have structures known as Malpighian tubules, which remove the nitrogenous waste; uric acid.

They have air ducts known as trachea which bring air from the environment into hemocoels.

Echinoderms

Include sea stars and sea urchins.

Most are sessile, or slow-moving (so stop judging Patrick. It’s just how he was born)

They are an exception to the bilateral symmetry rule. As embryos, they have bilateral symmetry, however, as they develop, they develop radial symmetry. This evolved for their sedentary lifestyle.

They have a water vascular system, which creates hydrostatic support for their tube feet which allow for locomotion

They reproduce sexually via external fertilization

They also have the ability to reproduce asexually via fragmentation, and regeneration. As long as the new sea star has part of the central canal, it will become a new organism.

They have an endoskeleton with calcium plates. Endoskeletons grow with the body, as opposed to exoskeletons that have to be shed

Chordates

Include vertebrae (like us!)

Chordates have a notochord which is a rod that extends the length of the body and is a flexible axis.

They have a dorsal, hollow nerve cord

The tail is responsible for movement and balance. We, humans, have a coccyx, which is a vestige of what was once our tail. Hence the name, tailbone.

Birds and mammals are homeotherms, meaning they are able to maintain consistent body temperature. The other chordates, like fish, reptiles, and amphibians are cold-blooded.

Let’s get specific, with mammals (because mammals are a superior class of animals. I would know, I am one.)

Mammals are named after their mammary glands. These glands let mothers provide milk to their babies.

They all have hair or fur

They are endotherms, meaning they generate their hair from within

Most are placental mammals, also known as eutherians. The embryo develops internally in a uterus connected to the mother via a placenta. Since the embryo is unable to perform essential functions such as digestion and excretion by itself, until late into the pregnancy, the placenta diffuses nutrients in and waste out for the baby.

Marsupials are an interesting class of animals. Their babies are born extremely early in development (after about 36 days), however, the mother has a pouch, where the baby will nurse until around 9 months.

Most mammals give birth to live young. There are exceptions to this rule, as our favourite egg-laying mammal of action’s theme explained to us. (Dooby dooby dooa dooby dooby dooaa AGENT P!)

Platypi and spiny anteaters derive their nutrients from a shelled egg.

Getting even more specific, let’s talk about primates. These are the least superior mammals. I should know. I am one.

Primates were descendants of insectivores. They have dexterous hands, and opposable thumbs, which allow their hands to perform fine motor tasks. Instead of claws, they have nails

Their hands contain many nerve endings, making them very sensitive (which is why papercuts are so agonizingly painful.) Their eyes are forward-facing and close together. This allows face to face communication. Close eyes allow for overlapping fields of vision, increasing depth perception and hand-eye coordination.)

Primates engage in the most intensive parenting out of any mammal. They tend to have single births and build strong bonds with their young.

The book organized 3 different organisms based on their taxonomy. I put that down and added rats because rats are cool. Don’t @ me.

Cladograms

Cladograms are an extremely useful tool to show how organisms evolved different traits over time. There is a more complicated one above, however, the book included an extremely simplified one also that helped me understand how these graphs are made, so I will include that here as well.

First, like any graph, a table is made detailing the data that will be graphed. In this case, this data will be the specific organisms (cats, lizards, salmons, and earthworms) and the existence of specific traits (backbone, legs, and hair.)

Then a line is drawn, showing each trait as it developed, following by the organism with that trait.

What this graph shows is that cats and lizards are more related than lizards and earthworms, etc. Tldr; a cladogram/phylogenetic tree draws distinctions between shared traits (traits different organisms have in common) and derived traits (traits that the ancestor did not have) displayed in such a way so as to show the evolutionary history of a group of organisms.

So what qualifies an animal? Animals are multicellular eukaryotes. They are all heterotrophs, meaning they acquire nutrients via ingestion. (Unlike plants, which manage to get nutrients through photosynthesis, such as the Calvin Cycle which produces a plants sugar.) All animals can move in some form.

Movement is a broad term. Beating cilia, and waving tentacles both count as movement. The movement that often comes to peoples minds, however, is locomotion, which is the movement from place to place. Some animals are sessile, which means they lack the capability to move from place to place. Hydra can still wave their tentacles (in the air like they just don’t care). Sponges are an interesting case, as many legitimately, cannot move.

Above, I mentioned terms like endoskeletons, exoskeletons, and hydrostatic skeletons. Hydrostatic skeletons are closed body compartments filled with fluid, that provide support. Exoskeletons are external, nongrowing skeletons, made of chitin (which also makes up the cell walls of fungi). Endoskeletons are internal skeletons made of bone and cartilage that grow with the organism. They are connected to each other at joints via ligaments, and to skeletal muscles (voluntary muscles) via the tendons.

All life has the ability to maintain homeostasis. Life survives within a narrow temperature range, from around 0 degrees Celsius to around 50 degrees celsius. In the ocean, this was not a massive problem, as it is the most stable environment temperature-wise, as water is able to absorb a lot of heat. However, the land is a lot more crazy. Different organisms found different ways to adapt and survive.

For example, a jackrabbit's ears are a major tell about what climate they live in. Jackrabbits that survive in the cold have small ears to minimize heat loss. Jackrabbits living in the heat have large ears that allow heat to dissipate, filled with small capillaries making the ears appear pink.

Huddling, basking, panting and sweating, swarming, and shivering are all examples of adaptations different organisms use to survive in extreme temperature. Depending on whether an organism is an ectotherm or endotherm, their temperature regulation will be different. An ectotherm is heated from the outside. For example, crocodiles bask in the warm sun to heat their bodies up. Endotherms or homeotherms generate their heat from the inside by using large quantities of energy. For example, a litter of cold puppies will huddle together and with their mother, as their warmth, and their mothers warmth help heat them up.

Excretion refers to the removal of metabolic waste, such as excess water, carbon dioxide, and nitrogenous waste. There are 3 different kinds produced by different organisms

Ammonia

Ammonia is soluble in water and extremely toxic. Anybody who takes proper care of a fish tank is aware that cleaning the ammonia from their tank is essential in keeping their fish healthy.

Excreted mainly by marine life, like hydra and fish.

Urea

Not as toxic as ammonia

Excreted by earthworms and humans (urine contains urea and water)

In mammals, the liver is responsible for turning ammonia into urea.

Uric Acid

A paste-like substance that isn’t soluble, and not very toxic

Excreted by insects, many reptiles, and birds, and allow for the preservation of water.

Different organisms have different structures that allow for excretion.

Hydra excretes ammonia with no aid from any excess structure.

Platyhelminthes have flame cells that help them excrete ammonia

Earthworms have nephridia (metanephridia) to excrete Urea

Insects have Malpighian tubules to excrete uric acid

Humans have nephrons to excrete urea.

Following up, let's look at 3 different organisms and the characteristics that make them unique!

Hydra (from Cnidaria)

Hyrda digest their food in the gastrovascular cavity. They, unfortunately only have one hole, where food goes in and waste comes out. The gastrodermis (gastrovascular cavity lining, or gastrocoel) secrete digestive enzymes to help extracellular digestion progress. Lysosomes, which are found in animal cells are responsible for intracellular digestion.

Hydra reproduces asexually by budding. A bud is a genetically identical, but tiny little hydra that grows within or on the parent.

Earthworms (From Annelida)

The digestive system of earthworms is much more complex than that of the hydra. Luckily, they have a mouth and an anus. The mouth ingests decaying organic matter along with the soil. The food travels down the oesophagus into the crop. The crop stores the food until it is ready to be digested. The food then moves into the gizzard, with thick muscular walls that digest the food mechanically, with the aid of the ingested sand and soil. The food moves into the intestines, where chemical digestion occurs. The intestine has a large fold, called the typhlosole, which increases the surface area.

Worms don’t have a traditional respiratory system. Instead, gas is exchanged by diffusion, through moist skin. This type of respiratory system is called an external respiratory system. Their hearts have 5 aortic arches that pump blood. Worms have capillaries, giving them a closed circulatory system. Their blood contains haemoglobin, making it red. Earthworms have nephridia, excreting urea, and are hermaphrodites. A worms brain is made of two dorsal, solid, fused ganglia, with a solid, ventral, nerve cord.

Grasshoppers (From Arthropoda)

Grasshoppers also have a digestive tract consisting of a crop and gizzard. They also have mouthparts specialized for tasting, biting, and crushing food, and their gizzard has chitin plates that aid in mechanical digestion. Their digestive tract contains Malpighian tubules that remove nitrogenous waste in the form of uric acid. (No, I did not draw a grasshopper. I know when I am defeated.)

Grasshoppers have a similar nervous system to worms, however, they have an open circulatory system. They lack capillaries, and blood moves through hemocoels instead. Arthropod blood has no haemoglobin. They have an internal respiratory surface because gas exchange occurs on the inside. They have a system of tracheal tubes that lead to the hemocoels. Oxygen is carried by hemocyanin, with copper as the core atom. This is why molluscs and insects have blue blood.

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