#tone science

[soranatus]

PETE WHITE in The Venture Bros: “The Morphic Trilogy” (2018)

[omg-snakes]

Real Science II: The Cookening

Our players:

Meet the Experiment group, aka the Hot Lunch Bunch

And the Control group, who are also technically receiving a hot lunch but it's not quite as hot I guess.

I've taken initial measurements for all participants and logged baseline weight and length, and the majority of these kiddos have already started eating their meals!

An early pitfall: my hypothesis that cooked prey would be more readily accepted seems to have been correct. A few of the Control group haven't taken meals yet while all of the Experiment group are taking meals with gusto.

If the Control kiddos don't get with the program they're going to skew my data. >:(

[hellsite-proteins]

protein request: can you do the bridge of touch tone telephone by lemon demon

sure thing! this whole album feels spooky to me in a really fun way, and i think that describes the peptonominations perfectly! you can read the full lyrics here

letter sequence in this ask matching protein-coding amino acids:

hDnthangpyetImntdneImanepertImtheneThenewhwasrightallalngettertelaghedatthanwrngImanepertinmyfieldFlgyyesitsallrealAncientaliensitsalltreImanepertjstlikeyAndlikeyImagenisefremytimeDiselievingthatstherealcrimePrettysntheylldiscvermeIntheSperSargassSea

protein guy analysis:

we got some cool looking alpha helices, which is always nice to see. unfortunately, they all hate each other. i've probably written that exact sentence before at least once on here, but it is a constant theme without sections of hydrophobic amino acids to clump together in the middle. however, this is still a unique protein in that it's fuelling a new mystery for me. there is one place where the chain is broken, with only a dotted line between residues. i've checked three times that i didn't include any non-canonical amino acids, but if i still missed any, please let me know! the line does not go away when i hide all hydrogen bonds, so at least one possibility is eliminated. the same thing happens when i open the structure with the other software i had been using before, so it's not just an issue with ChimeraX. i've included a close up screenshot of the area coloured by heteroatom, so if anyone has any theories, feel free to share! (this includes wacky and fun conspiracies, because none of this is real anyways)

predicted protein structure:

cartoon representation

zoom on mystery bonding

[rakkikuroba]

Hal 9000 and GLaDOS talking together in Lego Dimensions feels like watching two autistic persons interacting.

[hussyknee]

Seeing characters in romance stories just jetting between countries at a moment's notice with no thought for visa; seeing airports as sites of triumphant climaxes and romantic denouements instead of places of fear and danger where a sword hangs above your head— it all breaks off little pieces of my heart. They're constant reminders that my people will never be human enough in the colonial world order to be allowed to move freely around it. No matter what your race, those non-refugees living in the Global North will never understand what it's like to be part of a global ghetto where your passport is nothing but a trembling supplication and humiliation.

[beep-beepster]

I feel like there is a strong correlation to Frank Hubert’s initial subtext with Dune (its islamic religious themes, a premise setting an empire against local populaces, the attention towards ecological developments in desert environments with a bias towards temperate zones from outsiders wanting to “enrich” the land), and all of the recent developments in Gaza and its history, both with the original influences to Hubert’s novel and the timing of a blockbuster adaptation happening while international focus grows towards Palestine, that is going unmentioned outside of the usual jokes and memes

[monstrousproductions]

✨Episode 28 - Decision Episode!✨

Things get heated aboard the Tola; and a kindly stranger soothes a crying child…

Subscribe now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or your podcatcher of choice 🚀✨ Full transcript available here.

Travelling Light is a science fantasy podcast that follows the Traveller as they explore their galaxy, collecting stories from the people they meet and adding them to their community archives.

Our artist Matt McDyre (@diabeticspoon92) illustrates every episode’s archive entry. This week’s entry was based on a suggestion from Matty O.K. Smith - him off of @neighbourlypod! Thanks pal 🥰

Send in your own archive entries on social media, by email, or through monstrousproductions.org. Every entry gets its own illustration, just like the one above!

This episode includes an audience decision. Should the Traveller tell one other person about the trade, or share the news with the whole crew? Vote now on Ko-Fi! Voting closes at 1.00PM UK time on Tuesday 30th and the result will be revealed in Episode 29 🗳️

Voting is open to everyone who supports us on Ko-Fi. As well as making decisions about the show, you can also get all sorts of rewards including an invitation to our Discord server, additional art, annotated scripts and weekly blogs!

This week’s episode also includes a trailer for Before the Tone by @knaveofheartsad, a queer SF horror with a focus on siblings, hallways that are too long, and the building dread of being followed. Find out more at their website or listen now wherever you get your podcasts 🥳

🚀✨ See you next week! ✨🚀

[mariocki]

Doctor X (1932)

"If you ask me, I think Dr. Xavier is using very unethical methods."

"Necessity has no ethics, sir."

[in-tua-deep]

when I was 12 I was sick and missed a science test. when I was back at school the teacher told me I could make it up after class but it completely slipped my mind and I went home on the bus

the next day I went to the teacher to apologize and tell her I could stay after that day if it was still okay and before I could she was like “You saw the zero in the grade book” in such a matter of fact way

I, in fact, had not looked at the grade book?? I had no idea that she’d put a zero in for my test. I was just a distractible kid with undiagnosed ADHD who… forgot to stay after school because my usual routine was to get on the bus

I didn’t say that of course. I just nodded in absolute befuddlement and then stayed to take my test that day

I’m much older than 12 now but I still remember my confusion and shame and the bolt of momentary panic before she told me she would let me do the test and I’m like. idk. it kind of stuck with me. I was 12. I was a pretty good student otherwise, yeah distractible but in a quiet “doodle on every paper near me” and “has two to three books on hand at any given time so I don’t get bored” kind of way.

I think even after all these years I still don’t understand why she felt like she had to scare me

[t-w-i-l-l-e-r]

HELLO MY FELLOW TUMBLR USERS!!!! I am joining u to say that 1ST CHAPTER OF MY STUPIDLY SCI-FI VOCALOID FANFIC IS UP AND RUNNING!!! I’ve been working on it for a frankly absurd amount of time and I’m sososososo excited to finally share it <3! though it’s obviously inspired by vocaloid and its characters, u don’t rly need to know anything about vocaloid to “get it” considering vocaloid doesn’t rly have a “canon” in the typical sense. This is more of just my love letter to the vocal synth fanbase and it’s never-ending creativity that never fails to amaze me. In particular I was inspired by the INCREDIBLE webcomic NEXT!!! Sound of The Future (or @nextsoundofthefuture) and the adorable videos of irunas-talkloids, but there so many other incredible vocaloid artists that influenced the wider world of this fic. I’d like to thank all of them indirectly, as well as thank my lovely beta @privatehummus and kinda-betas @bats-in-the-snow and @finnickylines (what do u call the ppl u bullied into listening read ur fanfic out loud to? Either way, thx guys!!). Anyway, I hope u enjoy my silly robot ramblings! Let the batshittery begin <3 <3 <3

[evilhenchpersonforhire]

Person eviler than me:

Whoever decided to demonize tone tags as cringe and make fun of people who actually need and use them.

[vickyvicarious]

Today's entry is another one with strong comparisons to be made between the asylum pair and the castle pair. We start off with Renfield-Dracula comparisons: both his eating other creatures in order to gain life and his cheerful attitude here remind me of the Count. Whenever Dracula had won some new victory over Jonathan (typically by doing something offscreen to foil his latest effort) he tended to get very cheerful and charming. Renfield has circumvented Seward's refusal to give him a cat by eating all his birds and then restarting his experiment, a victory of sorts for him, and is correspondingly quite cheerful.

But it's Seward's response to this behavior which is especially reminiscent of Dracula, and chillingly so: he drugs Renfield to sleep and then goes through his belongings.

I gave Renfield a strong opiate to-night, enough to make even him sleep, and took away his pocket-book to look at it.

While it's never explicitly confirmed, I have a theory that Dracula had been exercising control over Jonathan's sleep throughout his stay in the castle. There are repeated instances where he tells Jonathan to rest well or to sleep soon and Jonathan always follows up with confirmation that direction was followed (when other times there are hints towards unsteady sleep/nightmares). And while it isn't as directly a scene of magical influence, the day Dracula stole Jonathan's papers and other belongings was while also he was locked in a room, sleeping.

That's creepy enough, and it speaks to Seward respecting no boundaries at all with his patient, but the part that sticks out to me most of all is the way this is a direct parallel to a worst-case scenario for Jonathan. Because what is described above is quite simply: the captor, having noticed his captive is keeping notes that he doesn't understand, forces his captive into a vulnerable unconscious state and takes said notes to read and use for his own purposes.

Isn't that exactly what Jonathan lived in such dread of happening, all that time? If Dracula had ever spotted Jonathan writing in his journal, I'm sure it would have happened. And while he wouldn't understand the exact meaning of the shorthand (much the same way Seward doesn't initially understand all Renfield's figures) the gist of the idea would be communicated (he'd realize Jonathan is keeping a secret record and the implications of that, much the same way Seward here is able to finally put together the pieces and figure out Renfield's general ideas). And what comes next? Well, it wouldn't be good for Jonathan, obviously.

Seward doesn't punish Renfield for what he discovers. Not directly. But his reaction is just as terrible because the realization tempts him all the more to indulge his 'mad scientist' instincts. He wants to make a name for himself via Renfield's heretofore unknown madness, and it doesn't really matter how Renfield feels about that or is treated in pursuit of that. Oh, sure, he confines himself here to speculation about whether it might not be worth it to see how far he'd go - tells himself I must not think of this. And yet he's incredibly attracted to the idea (re:dracula did so well with putting voice to how EAGER he is and how reluctantly he pulls himself back - and then only partially before dipping his toes in again), and is already behaving well outside of any appropriate motivation. And so... while Renfield isn't going to suffer in the same way Jonathan would have from the discovery of his diary, he still is worse off. By completing his long-awaited thought and coming up with a name for Renfield ("a zoöphagous (life-eating) maniac") Seward has fully finished shifting him into a mental category entirely separate from all the other patients, and it's definitely not one that has his best interests in mind. He's possessive, too invested, dehumanizing (yesterday's "my friend" has become today's "my homicidal maniac"), and it's all just not good for either one of them.

I think Seward realizes that this isn't good for his own mental health as well, but he can't help longing for it. This is getting more into just me musing aloud here, but... A while ago he spoke about relative dangers of selfish vs. unselfish people, and concluded that people who dedicate themselves to a duty are more dangerous because they throw themselves in fully. And yet that's something he seems to be longing for:

If only there were a sufficient cause! I must not think too much of this, or I may be tempted; a good cause might turn the scale with me, for may not I too be of an exceptional brain, congenitally?

He knows that he is susceptible to that kind of temptation, to ignore all moral qualms for the sake of (making a name for himself with) Science. And he's trying to pull himself back from that brink... but a part of him wants nothing more than to find a cause worthy enough to do it anyway. He wants to dedicate himself fully to something important. He knows that he isn't entirely normal himself, and that once he gave in there would be no turning back. The idea appeals to him, even as it repels him - which in itself is very vampiric, actually. It's like the idea of finding a "sufficient cause" is his own trance which he must try to resist.

And the way he thinks of Lucy right after this seems telling to me. Perhaps he hoped that Lucy would balance him out, would help pull him away from these kinds of impulses, would make him Normal in a way he can't be on his own. But she didn't pick him, in fact she picked a man who is also much more Normal, and they're both wonderful and happy together. And he's happy for them, of course, but it leaves him on the outside. And on the other hand there's Renfield, who seems fully lost (and happy to be so) inside his own mad devotion to his cause. Seward seems to be pining after both Lucy and Renfield in this entry. Not romantically for Renfield, but they represent to him opposite extremes. Lucy is the life he could have if he didn't feel so drawn to odd and amoral ideas; Renfield is the fulfillment he could feel if he didn't feel sufficiently sane to let morals hold him back from indulging those urges. He knows Lucy doesn't love him back (symbolically: that he can't ever be fully normal) and that Renfield isn't someone to imitate (symbolically: that he can't let himself give in fully), so he's just stuck teetering between them at the moment. Of course, with Lucy's rejection leading him to isolate himself in his work (and away from his friends who also pull him back more to better behavior) he keeps tipping more and more towards becoming mad himself in his own way. But he still retains enough control over himself to feel bad about it and refuse to indulge himself fully... even as he fails to notice, or simply doesn't care, just how badly he's already failing to act in Renfield's own interests.

[wakingdreamworld]

Floating Cities

And a Mountain Prison

[nightseeye]

Teehee, OC stuffs mainly, but lotsa Fresh in there too. Even did a lil writing based off the middle comic (fresh and HCT (square robo), put it in a readmore

Its set after game events, and also my undrawn comic events regarding my two ocs, just a lil convo between an protective guard robo and the guy who caused them to almost kill their boss

Lel had swept out like a whirlwind, leaving the two in silence, studiously ignoring one another as they waited for the scientist to return. Fresh fidled with their headset, while the robot simply stared straight at the empty doorway Lel had disappeared through.

"STATEMENT: Clear dislike of subject." Cut through the silence, leaving the beat surprised it was broken at all.

Fresh couldn't help but roll their eye once they actually registered the obvious understatement. Anytime they came to talk to Lel, the robot was never too far away, hovering in a corner somewhere like the obnoxiously overprotective guard dog it was built to be. Not the worst reaction they've gotten from someone, but after enough time it became... grating.

"Unsurprising." The beat couldn't help the disdain and dismissal that dripped off the single word, cutting their gaze away from the robot.

"EXPOUND: Subject is the cause of PRIMARY OBJECTIVE failure."

That alone brought their attention back to the conversation. It wasn't rare that Fresh learned whatever particular reason a person had for hating them, but they haven't yet heard one from the robot. Usually it was something along the lines of tearing apart the Treeangle, or turning the seas pink. Nothing ever personal enough that they actually cared - beyond those flowers they beat up during their freedom-induced rampage, - but the beat was curious to hear whatever reason had taken it so long to spit out.

"Yeah? And what's that?"

The robot gazed up ever so slightly, as if reading it out from thin air: "PRIMARY OBJECTIVE: Keep USER Lel safe, hale, and happy."

Fresh couldn't help but flinch back as the robot slowly turned to face them, a single glowing pupil growing to encompass its entire eye in an admittedly very unnerving display. They could almost imagine how threatening the machine had looked when corrupted with the single spark of pink flickering in its eye, sharp claws pointing at the beat.

"STATEMENT: Cause of PRIMARY OBJECTIVE failure."

That simple sentence was just the truth, but nothing had ever felt more like an accusation, judgement, and condemnation than that. It struck true like an execution, guilt tying a noose around their neck and rendering them silent. There was nothing Fresh could say to to defend themself, no excuses to give, and none that they'd want to try. Maybe if they hadn't grown so close to the scientist these past few weeks, that single sentence wouldn't feel so bad, but... the knowledge that they had a hand in Lel's pain, in that kind scientist's fear...

Maybe they could understand HCT's hatred a little better.

"VEXATION: Subject is.-"  The fragmented sentence was was enough to pull their thoughts out of the spiral they were going down, and Fresh couldn't almost help but feel grateful towards the robot, even as it turned back away from them. With its pupil returned to normal size, they were able to see its expression change from angry, to fustrated, and settle on annoyed as it found a way to complete its sentence, "..tolerated, by USER Lel."

Fresh snorted.

"I think they do more than tolerate me." They replied, mind drifting back to all the times they've poked around the lab, only to be caught by Lel, and not scolded, but taught about how whatever equipment they were poking at worked.

How, even as the scientist threw a million questions their way, they were kind enough to notice the ones the beat shied away from, and not ask anymore. The snacks, the smiles, the simple greetings and waves if they ever passed one another elsewhere in Paradise. They wouldn't be surpised if Lel counted them as an friend.

The beat knew they counted them as one.

There was a sound Fresh could almost describe as a prim sniff, if it hadn't come from the robot bigger than they were, "EXPOUND: Lethal force distinctly unauthorized."

Lel rushed back into the room to see Fresh in tears on the floor, gasping for air as they cackled, while HCT stood, seemingly unmoved as it glared off to the side.

[eclaire-went-bam]

bcs i'm aware of how i automatically percieve people, i earnestly try to give the benefit of the doubt a lot. i tend to believe people are Actually Just That Dumb™ when they're joking about something, so i try to get ahead of that & tell myself people are joking when they say something stupid, so that i don't look stupid

all i've learnt in doing that, is most of the time, people aren't joking. they actually did mean what they say, & i made the situation 10× worse by laughing at what they said.

not only does it reinforce the idea in my head that people are Dumb so i need to take the reins on literally Everything, but it also leads people to believe i'm making fun of them for saying something silly & talking to me less, when, if i knew it were a genuine thing they thought, i would have gladly explained it without judgement

but i don't really know how to stop treating them as jokes, because what if they ARE joking so they laugh at me for how Stupid i am for taking the bait? i can't handle being made a fool of, i think i'd rather die