#unreal bone structure

[faithinlouisfuture]

[lushbliss]

Never not here

[maximura]

[wexpyke]

bf and i just started s3 of the last kingdom and i want to thank whoever decided sihtric needed a new haircut. he already looked fine in s2, but this s3 haircut is really doing something for me… what a beautiful man.

[frecklystars]

[astrowrld300]

Astro Observations

Pt 2

It's so unreal how well Taurus placements can cook. Especially if there's Cancer in the big three. Taurus suns also have natural green thumbs

Cancer suns with Gemini Venuses are in constant conflict between they're ego and what they actually desire for love

This is definitely becoming common knowledge on the internet but all Libra placements that are personal and not generational are gay to some extent. Something about the scales allows them to go both ways I don't know . Depending on the placement and degree, it might make them uncomfortable, or the may proudly embrace it. But personal Libra placements can definitely go both ways

Cardinal signs are obsessed with each other, even though they're so toxic for each other.

5th house and Leo placements really love music. Leo rules the 5th house which is all about music, creativity and fun. So these natives really feel it.

Having your sun in the 11th house is a beautiful placement and creates a selfless person, but its the only placement for the sun to not be about "I" anymore. The sun is all about ego and self, ruled by Aries, but the 11th house is all about the collective, friends and the "greater good". Your ego is also heavily influenced by the collective and how you insert your self into the world.

Taurus moons have round/visible nostrils. They all have a green thumb for cooking as well

Aquarius suns and moons have very square shaped jawlines. Both the men and women.

The best sun+rising combo I've ever seen for Aquarius suns has to be Cancer rising. The blend is really heavenly and harmonious, the Cancer really softens out the Aquarian features perfectly (talking about the women idk about the men). This is only physical though

The best combo for Cancer suns definitely has to be Virgo in the big three. Either in the moon or rising, Virgo gives Cancer this snatched look that blends perfectly with the bone structure of cancer suns. (I'm also mostly referring to women here I don't know about the men) Although physically pretty, the combo creates a super insecure individual

Travel is such a big theme in the lives of natives with personal 9th house placements. It almost becomes the focus of life if there's a stellium.

Having your moon at 17 degrees (a critical Leo degree) makes you hella dramatic with your feelings. They're still valid, but you come off as a drama queen when feeling them.

Cancer suns are just as insecure and attention seeking as Leo when underdeveloped. Even though they're not sister signs they're ruled by the sun and moon, so essentially they are each other inside out.

Pisces is represented by the fish and the suns usually have big/swelled features and look a little bit like fish. Virgo placements have sharper/more defined features and Aries placements have prominent/tighter features.

Neptune aspecting Venus is a very underrated beauty indicator for transits and natal charts

Sagittarius rising are blessed with good luck in life since their chart ruler is Jupiter, the planet of luck. They also have hips on the larger side since Sagittarius rules the hips

Capricorn rules the skeletal part of the body and the native suns really have that skeleton bone structure in the face

Moon conjunct Rising is one of my favorite placements synastry placements for friendships. They are each other inside out and understand each other without words.

The most underrated house for the moon imo is the 9th house. The moon does really well here, there's a natural optimism and lightness to their feelings and emotions. I think this is from the influence of Sagittarius and Jupiter. They're also really funny people naturally and have a kind of intelligent humor

Cancer and Taurus placements are such big foodies. They also know how to cook very well and genuinely enjoy getting fat over other signs. Obviously all signs have the ability to cook, but Cancers and Tauruses make that home cooked comfort food that tastes like the feeling of your mom carrying you to bed.

5th house moons never feel emotionally fulfilled unless they're feeling some kind of fun or pleasure in life.

Taurus suns are the definition of work smarter not harder

Aries Mercuries are so smart especially if the sun is in Taurus or Gemini.

Geminis are known to talk with their hands and Italy's rising sign is literally Gemini...

You can always tell someone is Somali from the size of their forehead and the countries rising sign is literally Aries

Venus in the 8th house natal and synastry is that kind of ride or die love

Capricorn sun men actually think people what to hear their life lessons/lectures. It's really corny but they genuinely think they're helping. They also care so much about their rep but will never admit it. It makes sense because they rule the tenth house which is the house of popularity and is associated with our public image and rep. So obviously when Capricorn is in the sun, planet of self, their ego is closely tied with how they're perceived by others.

Scorpio moons are low key delusional but it's okay you guys had a rough childhood/relationship with your mother

The sexual attraction is crazy when you have the same mars sign as your partners rising sign (example. Leo mars-Leo rising) or if you have your mars opposite to their mars (example. Leo mars-Aquarius mars)

Aries moon women in red or leopard print is so perfect

Your gonna love the sun sign of whatever your rising sign is since the sun will naturally embody all the traits that you admire and will effortlessly be everything you want to be portrayed as.

Taurus risings, suns and moons look like bulls

Cancer venuses can lowkey hold down gemini venuses, it’s really harmonious for friendships. Not as compatible relationship wise because cancer venuses really don’t mess with how gemini venuses love. The love languages are just too different but when there are no constricting boundaries and it’s more of a playful friendship this pairing really works

[soracities]

what are your suggestions for starter poetry for people who dont have strong reading/analysis backgrounds

I've answered this a few times so I'm going to compile and expand them all into one post here.

I think if you haven't read much poetry before or aren't sure of your own tastes yet, then poetry anthologies are a great place to start: many of them will have a unifying theme so you can hone in based on a subject that interests you, or pick your way through something more general. I haven't read all of the ones below, but I have read most of them; the rest I came across in my own readings and added to my list either because I like the concept or am familiar with the editor(s) / their work:

Staying Alive: Real Poems for Unreal Times (ed. Nick Astley) & Being Alive: The Sequel to Staying Alive (there's two more books in this series, but I'm recommending these two just because it's where I started)

The Rattlebag (ed. Seamus Heaney and Ted Hughes)

The Ecco Anthology of International Poetry (ed. Ilya Kaminsky & Susan Harris)

The Essential Haiku, Versions of Basho, Buson and Issa (ed. Robert Hass)

A Book of Luminous Things (ed. Czesław Miłosz )

Now and Then: The Poet's Choice Columns by Robert Hass (this may be a good place to start if you're also looking for commentary on the poems themselves)

Poetry Unbound: 50 Poems to Open Your World(ed. Pádraig Ó'Tuama)

African American Poetry: 250 Years of Struggle and Song (ed. Kevin Young)

The Art of Losing: Poems of Grief and Healing (ed. Kevin Young)

Lifelines: Letters from Famous People about their Favourite Poems

The following lists are authors I love in one regard or another and is a small mix of different styles / time periods which I think are still fairly accessible regardless of what your reading background is! It's be no means exhaustice but hopefully it gives you even just a small glimpse of the range that's available so you can branch off and explore for yourself if any particular work speaks to you.

But in any case, for individual collections, I would try:

anything by Sara Teasdale

Devotions / Wild Geese / Felicity by Mary Oliver

Selected Poems and Prose by Christina Rossetti

Collected Poems by Langston Hughes

Where the Sidewalk Endsby Shel Silverstein

Morning Haiku by Sonia Sanchez

Revolutionary Letters, Diane di Prima

Concerning the Book That Is the Body of the Beloved by Gregory Orr

Rose: Poems by Li-Young Lee

A Red Cherry on a White-Tiled Floor / Barefoot Souls by Maram al-Masri

Deaf Republic by Ilya Kaminsky

Tell Me: Poems / What is This Thing Called Love? by Kim Addonizio

The Trouble with Poetry by Billy Collins (Billy Collins is THE go-to for accessible / beginner poetry in my view so I think any of his collections would probably do)

Crush by Richard Siken

Rapture / The World's Wife by Carol Ann Duffy

The War Works Hard by Dunya Mikhail

Selected Poems by Walt Whitman

View with a Grain of Sand by Wislawa Szymborska

Collected Poems by Vasko Popa

Under Milkwood by Dylan Thomas (this is a play, but Thomas is a poet and the language & structure is definitely poetic to me)

Bright Dead Things: Poems by Ada Limón

Teaching My Mother How to Give Birth by Warsan Shire,

Nostalgia, My Enemy: Selected Poems by Saadi Youssef

As for individual poems:

“Wild Geese” by Mary Oliver

[Dear The Vatican] erasure poem by Pádraig Ó'Tuama // "The Pedagogy of Conflict"

"Good Bones" by Maggie Smith

"The Author Writes the First Draft of His Weddings Vows (An erasure of Virginia Woolf's suicide letter to her husband, Leonard)" by Hanif Abdurraqib

"I Can Tell You a Story" by Chuck Carlise

"The Sciences Sing a Lullabye" by Albert Goldbarth

"One Last Poem for Richard" by Sandra Cisneros

"We Lived Happily During the War" by Ilya Kaminsky

“I’m Explaining a Few Things”by Pablo Neruda

"Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening" //"Nothing Gold Can Stay"//"Out, Out--" by Robert Frost

"Tablets: I // II // III"by Dunya Mikhail

"What Were They Like?" by Denise Levertov

"Those Winter Sundays" by Robert Hayden,

"The Patience of Ordinary Things" by Pat Schneider

“I, too” // "The Negro Speaks of Rivers” // "Harlem” // “Theme for English B” by Langston Hughes

“The Mower” // "The Trees" // "High Windows" by Philip Larkin

“The Leash” // “Love Poem with Apologies for My Appearance” // "Downhearted" by Ada Limón

“The Flea” by John Donne

"The Last Rose of Summer" by Thomas Moore

"Beauty" // "Please don't" // "How it Adds Up" by Tony Hoagland

“My Friend Yeshi” by Alice Walker

"De Humanis Corporis Fabrica"byJohn Burnside

“What Do Women Want?” // “For Desire” // "Stolen Moments" // "The Numbers" by Kim Addonizio

“Hummingbird” // "For Tess" by Raymond Carver

"The Two-Headed Calf" by Laura Gilpin

“Bleecker Street, Summer” by Derek Walcott

“Dirge Without Music” // "What Lips My Lips Have Kissed" by Edna St. Vincent Millay

“Digging” // “Mid-Term Break” // “The Rain Stick” // "Blackberry Picking" // "Twice Shy" by Seamus Heaney

“Dulce Et Decorum Est”by Wilfred Owen

“Notes from a Nonexistent Himalayan Expedition”by Wislawa Szymborska

"Hour" //"Medusa" byCarol Ann Duffy

“The More Loving One” // “Musée des Beaux Arts” by W.H. Auden

“Small Kindnesses” // "Feeding the Worms" by Danusha Laméris

"Down by the Salley Gardens” // “The Stolen Child” by W.B. Yeats

"The Thing Is" by Ellen Bass

"The Last Love Letter from an Entymologist" by Jared Singer

"[i like my body when it is with your]" by e.e. cummings

"Try to Praise the Mutilated World" by Adam Zagajewski

"The Cinnamon Peeler" by Michael Ondaatje

"Last Night I Dreamed I Made Myself" by Paige Lewis

"A Dream Within a Dream" // "The Raven" by Edgar Allan Poe (highly recommend reading the last one out loud or listening to it recited)

"Ars Poetica?" // "Encounter" // "A Song on the End of the World"by Czeslaw Milosz

"Wandering Around an Albequerque Airport Terminal” // "Two Countries” // "Kindness” by Naoimi Shihab Nye

"Slow Dance” by Matthew Dickman

"The Archipelago of Kisses" // "The Quiet World" by Jeffrey McDaniel

"Mimesis" by Fady Joudah

"The Great Fires" // "The Forgotten Dialect of the Heart" // "Failing and Flying" by Jack Gilbert

"The Mermaid" // "Virtuosi" by Lisel Mueller

"Macrophobia (Fear of Waiting)" by Jamaal May

"Someday I'll Love Ocean Vuong" by Ocean Vuong

"Still I Rise" by Maya Angelou

I would also recommend spending some times with essays, interviews, or other non-fiction, creative or otherwise (especially by other poets) if you want to broaden and improve how you read poetry; they can help give you a wider idea of the landscape behind and beyond the actual poems themselves, or even just let you acquaint yourself with how particular writers see and describe things in the world around them. The following are some of my favourites:

Upstream: Essays by Mary Oliver

"Theory and Play of the Duende" by Federico García Lorca

"The White Bird" and "Some Notes on Song" by John Berger

In That Great River: A Notebook by Anna Kamienska

A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance by Hanif Abdurraqib

The Book of Delights by Ross Gay

"Of Strangeness That Wakes Us" and "Still Dancing: An Interview with Ilya Kaminsky" by Ilya Kaminsky

"The Sentence is a Lonely Place" by Garielle Lutz

Still Life with Oysters and Lemon by Mark Doty

Paris, When It's Naked by Etel Adnan

[imagineastrology]

Random Astro Notes ✨️

♡ Sun in the 11th could indicate dominating friends.

♡ Saturn in 1st ppl are considerate.

♡ Saturn in 1st ppl also have excellent bone structure and teeth.

♡ Neptune in 1st ppl can be master manipulators if they are angry or feel disrespected.

♡ Uranus in the 3rd House individuals could experience many accidents around their environment or childhood.

♡ Pluto in 4th ppl need therapy...das all I'm going to say...

♡ Aries, Cancer, Libra, Scorpio or Leo near your Midheaven has the ability to envision their highest achievements, hence why they are ambitious.

♡ Chiron in the 9th or aspects to the ascendant could indicate a fear of horses! Chiron in Greek Mythology was half man half centaur (horse).

♡ Lilith in 1st, 8th, and 12th ppl could take an interest in taxidermy.

♡ Asteroid Nessus (7066) in the 1st House can indicate bad impulse control.

♡ If there is a lack of 1st House planets in your chart, it can mean your physical body is not THAT important to you.

♡ Venus in 3rd house ppl can be hand and arm models!

♡ Saturn, Mars, Pluto, Uranus in the 4th house ppl often get confused with receiving love and it may feel 'unreal' or too fake to feel substantial. These people need patience when opening up, contrary to what we believe.

♡ 5th House stelliums!! Get into speculative activities like the stock market...thank me later ;)

♡ Chiron in the 5th may have felt threatened or ashamed when expressing themselves in some form or another.

♡ Aries moon people move on from tricky situations so fast..

♡ Moon in 7th House people may subconsciously attract unstable and fickle partners.

♡ Saturn in the 9th could result in extremist behaviours.

♡ Any malefic planet in the 10th house natives laugh at setbacks as they have had so many.

♡ Virgo Ascendant ppl approach life and people in an orderly, polite, careful, and punctual way.

♡ Capricorn mars people either do things the right way or not at all.

♡ Scorpio mars ppl have trust issues and are reluctant to show themselves to people.

[kitsunekitty]

dream girl affirmations 🎀

these are the affirmations that i repeated to myself every morning and afternoon that literally made me gorgeous 💗

people always describe me as stunning, gorgeous, beautiful

people know me for how pretty i am

i always catch people staring at me in public because of how gorgeous i am

i always attract attention because of how beautiful i look

i know i’m gorgeous because everyone tells me so

hundreds of people compliment me daily

people love making me happy because it makes them happy

i get whatever i want when i want, why wouldn’t i when i’m this stunning?

everyone crushes on me

people always want to impress me

i’m so pretty i make people nervous

i’m literally girlfriend material, everyone wants to get with me

i’m everyone’s dream girl

my phone is always blowing up with people texting me and wanting to hang out with me every day is fun for me

i’m never awkward with new people just funny and entertaining i always enjoy my interactions with people

i always steal the show wherever i go because of how gorgeous, hot and funny i am, everyone wants to be me or be with me

i literally look photoshopped i look unreal honestly i look like i’ve just walked out of a tiktok or pinterest board

seeing me is a once in a lifetime experience for people

people remember me for how gorgeous i am

every single feature of mine is perfect i love how it all synergises together

i’m so pretty when people see me they absolutely HAVE to do a double take to make sure who they just saw was real

how am l so effortlessly gorgeous?

im so pretty without trying i was blessed with such a stunning bone structure

i always get pretty privilege, people drop everything to help me and make my life better

i’m immune to attracting negative attention

i’m known for how gorgeous i am

it’s normal for people to compliment me on how stunning i am

i’m used to being treated like a princess

i halo everyone around me

in group pictures, i always stand out as being the prettiest

people of all age groups and genders and ethnicities find me stunning, i’m universally gorgeous

you’re so stunning

people stop and stare when they see you, they just can’t help themselves and who would blame them?

i’m protected from evil eye

[thenationaltreasuregazette]

Meet the Editor

Hi, I’m Rachel, the editor of the National Treasure Gazette!

As part of Treas-tober lmao I thought it would be fun to introduce myself. Since we’ve got a newspaper motif going I thought I’d, like, interview myself. Which is super normal I’m sure.

Why are you like this?

Great question! In 2004, at the tender age of 10, I had my brain chemistry rewired by a cinematic one-two punch of two of the greatest films of all time: Scooby Doo 2 Monsters Unleashed and National Treasure.

I had always liked stories, but SD2 was the first time it occurred to me that somebody actually wrote them. And maybe…I could write them. The hyperfixation hit HARD. That night I invented a fascinating new drug called fanfiction. It would be years before I learned that that was a thing and you could put it online for other people to read, but that didn’t stop me from writing it, and I took it so seriously.

As far as I was concerned I was writing what would become the real sequels to SD2 and NT. I spent fifth grade working on the Scooby Doo one (a god-awful self-insert fic with no plot to speak of) and sixth grade working on my own version of the as-yet-unrealized National Treasure 2. (Also a self insert.)

But these projects got me interested in writing. I started learning about story structure and screenplays, and for National Treasure I started reading more about history.

Specifically, for an open choice book report I read an entire adult-level book about American conspiracy theories and then presented to my class about the Skull and Bones society and other weird shit like that. I’m sure my teacher was thrilled.

What inspired you to start this blog?

My love for my two favorite nostalgic comfort movies stayed with me and I would periodically rant about them to my friends and loved once, who were very kind to humor me.

I’ve had plenty of other interests and hyperfixations throughout the years too, and one of them was CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. When I fell back down that rabbit hole in 2021, I happened upon the exquisite collection of asks and articles by @addictedtostorytelling. (Seriously, if you were ever even a little bit interested in the og CSI and haven’t discovered this, check it out.)

And I thought, well reading this is fantastic but it seems like even more fun to be the one writing the articles. What piece of media could I be, like, a subject matter expert in? Not one with a million think pieces already, just a casual place that I could have fun exploring at my own pace? National Treasure!

And then I put off making it for a year or two because I was sure I couldn’t keep up with it and it would become yet another dead project in my graveyard of notebooks, forever haunting me with the specter of what I could have accomplished.

But at some point I said, “fuck it” and here we are!

What are you proudest of, re: the blog?

That it exists! When I started I set a goal of posting 10 articles before I let myself give up on yet another thing. I definitely still don’t get to it much more often than I do, but now it’s not a ghost!

Also that there are other people who like it? I started this fully expecting to be rambling into the void, but I’m so thrilled that there are other people out there who are still thinking about National Treasure. We are few but mighty.

Do you have any takeaways from the project?

Yes! The fun of this isn’t in being a National Treasure expert, if such a thing exists. It’s about sitting with a movie and asking new questions. Every time I explore an article topic or get asked a question I learn something different about the movie, that I doubt it would have occurred to me to think about otherwise. And you my dear readers always challenge me to explore more.

I love paying that kind of attention again. I think the reason Monsters Unleashed and National Treasure will always be so special to me is because I did spend all that time sitting with them, exploring every nook and cranny and possibility I could find. I’ve missed that.

Do you have any plans for another blog like this?

Well I do have the url @the-coolsville-inquirer saved right now, but there are whole swaths of Doo lore I am unversed on, so no, no current plans.

What do you do when you’re not thinking about National Treasure?

I walk my dog, take pottery classes, work on my YA novel, watch movies for the movie club I’m in, try to learn Turkish, cook, and chip away at a million unfinished writing projects. (And you know, work and stuff).

What can readers expect in the future?

I have a few fun ideas left for Treas-tober and one very exciting art-related surprise the 20th anniversary. At least, I’m excited.

And I hope a few people participate in the fanworks week!

Oh babygirl it's almost thanksgiving.

At least one Riley article, really!

You would think I'd be starting to run out of things to say but actually the more I seem to find to talk about.

Thanks for enjoying the ride with me so far!

[faithinlouisfuture]

someone buy this man some brown contacts before he puts me in an early grave 🪦

[ghostblade-official]

Who Are You?

(Made by moi, inspired by @serenastark-official ‘s super awesome mood board!)

(Apologies in advance for the sheer length of this! I’m unsure how to link things so this is the only way I could get it done <3)

A/N: Also apologies if this changes, OCs are always changing! (Also my name is Casey! Rp is open in DMs as well. No minor/adult ships, no pro ship. Fighting and stuff is allowed. Love you all!)

Finnian’s Character Playlist!

☾ 𝔸𝕓𝕠𝕦𝕥 ☽

╰┈☆ 𝔾𝕖𝕟𝕖𝕣𝕒𝕝 ☆┈╯

⟾ Finnian “Finn” Holloway Barnes

⟾ 14

⟾ HYDRA controlled experiment

⟾ “Ghost Blade”

╰┈☆ ℍ𝕐𝔻ℝ𝔸 ☆┈╯

⟾ Codename: Ghost Blade

⟾ Cryogenic sleep victim

⟾conditioned/programmed

⟾ attempting to break free

⟾ Trigger words: Shadow, Silence, Eclipse, Revenant, Null, Vanish, Oblivion, Hollow

╰┈☆ 𝔸𝕓𝕚𝕝𝕚𝕥𝕚𝕖𝕤/𝔼𝕟𝕙𝕒𝕟𝕔𝕖𝕞𝕖𝕟𝕥𝕤 ☆┈╯

⟾ Invisibility

↳ He can render himself mostly invisible to the naked eye, essentially “phasing” out of sight. His body, clothes, and anything he is touching will disappear, leaving no visible trace.

↳Mechanics: Infrared sensors and advanced tracking tech can locate him. He becomes invisible on instinct rather than on will— when feeling anxious, threatened, or overwhelmed, his body will often flicker or phase out. This lack of control causes further isolation.

↳Side effects: Staying in his invisible form for extended periods leaves him drained both physically and mentally. After some time, he will become dizzy and it will get worse the more he tries to sustain the invisibility.

↳Experimental Procedures and its side effects: Hydra exposed Finn to biochemical and enhancements that were aimed to alter his DNA structure. These “treatments” allowed him to disperse or phase his molecules on will. The experimental cocktail included gene-editing viruses combined with advanced nanotechnology injected into his bloodstream. It altered him and allowed him to manipulate his intangibility and visibility.

➢ The repeated treatments left his body in a constant state of flux, causing him to feel detached and “unreal.” The modifications weren’t perfected, which is why his powers sometimes activate involuntarily, and he suffers from exhaustion and mental strain when using them.

⟾ Retractable Arm Blades

 ↳ Finn has two razor-sharp blades embedded in his forearms, which he can extend and retract by flexing certain muscles in his arms. These blades are a little over a foot in length and made from a reinforced, near-indestructible alloy.

↳ Mechanics:  The blades are housed within Finn’s forearms, embedded beneath the muscle and aligned along the bones. When activated, they extend outward, emerging just past his wrists. This design offers better stability and control, as the forearm placement allows the blades to be longer and more durable without compromising his wrist flexibility.

↳ Side effects: they add weight to his arms, causing fatigue after prolonged use. Finn is also sensitive to cold weather, as the metal affects circulation around the forearm area. The installation of the blades left visible scars on his forearms, making them a constant reminder of Hydra’s hold on him. Repeated usage causes strain on his arms, resulting in soreness and occasional bleeding from the incision points. He tries to use the blades sparingly, both because of the physical toll and his resentment toward the violent purpose Hydra had designed them for.

↳Experimental Procedures and Side Effects: Hydra surgically implanted retractable blades into Finn’s forearms. The blades are made of a high-strength alloy, specifically engineered for durability and ease of deployment. To make them functional, Hydra installed mechanisms in his arms, with nerve links that allow him to control the blades with specific muscle contractions.

➢ The surgery was traumatic, involving significant tissue damage and painful rehabilitation to ensure the blades functioned as intended. The scars remain visible reminders of Hydra’s control over him, and Finn often feels phantom pain from the nerve-dense areas around the implants.

⟾Enhanced Senses

↳ Hydra enhanced Finn’s sensory perception, particularly his vision and hearing, to support his role as a stealth operative. His vision is sharper than average, allowing him to see with clarity at both great distances and in low light. His hearing is similarly acute, capable of picking up subtle sounds from a distance.

↳ Mechanics: His senses operate like a heightened state of alertness, constantly absorbing details in his surroundings. This makes him exceptionally skilled at observing environments and detecting movement, even in near silence. His enhanced hearing is especially useful, allowing him to pick up on whispered conversations or approaching footsteps.

↳ Side Effects: His hypersensitivity often makes crowded or noisy spaces overwhelming, as he struggles to tune out background noise. This sensory overload can lead to headaches or anxiety, forcing him to withdraw. He’s also prone to sensory “burnout” if he has to remain focused for too long, which leaves him temporarily dulled and disoriented.

↳Experimental Procedures and Side Effects: Hydra enhanced Finn’s senses using a combination of gene therapy and sensory implants that amplify the nerves connected to his eyes and ears. This treatment pushed his body beyond natural limits, making his vision sharper and his hearing extremely sensitive.

➢ The heightened senses are a double-edged sword, as Finn is often overwhelmed by his surroundings and finds himself unable to tune out background noise or visual stimuli. Hydra conditioned him to use these senses as tools, but in normal life, they make it challenging to relax or feel at ease.

⟾Combat Skills

↳ Finn was rigorously trained in hand-to-hand combat, stealth, and evasion techniques. His training was intended to make him an infiltrator and silent eliminator—skills that make him a formidable fighter despite his young age.

↳Mechanics: Hydra focused on agility and precision rather than brute strength, so his style relies on quick movements, accuracy, and evasion. He uses his small size to his advantage, weaving in and out of attacks, striking at weak points, and utilizing his blades with precision.

↳Side Effects: His combat training involved psychological conditioning, which sometimes resurfaces as flashes of instinctual aggression or muscle memory. These impulses unsettle him, as he fears they are remnants of Hydra’s control rather than his own choices.

↳Experimental Procedures and Side Effects: Hydra trained Finn extensively in hand-to-hand combat, infiltration tactics, and evasive maneuvers. The training was brutal and relentless, aimed at breaking down his will and rebuilding him as an obedient soldier. He endured rigorous drills, simulations, and mock combat against other captives. To ensure compliance, Hydra utilized a regimen of psychological and physical abuse, forcing him to suppress emotions and prioritize efficiency over empathy. The training created instinctual reflexes and muscle memory that he sometimes taps into unconsciously, especially in high-stress situations.

╰┈☆𝔹𝕣𝕒𝕚𝕟𝕨𝕒𝕤𝕙𝕚𝕟𝕘/ℍ𝕐𝔻ℝ𝔸 ☆┈╯

Finnian “Finn” Holloway’s conditioning was brutal and meticulously engineered to forge a weapon devoid of individuality and emotional connections. Hydra’s experiments with Finn began when he was a young child, having been forcibly taken from his family in the early 1940s. This is a breakdown of how Hydra severed his ties to his past and molded him into a ghostly operative they could control.

⟾ Timeline

↳ The Abduction: Finnian was taken from his family in New York during the 1940s. Hydra operatives targeted him due to who his biological father was. Initially they targeted his step-father and mother who were remarkable scientists, but they ended up with Finn due to his… sacrificial tendencies.

↳ Cryogenic Suspension: Hydra lacked the ability to keep such young children consistently trained and operational, so they subjected Finn to cryogenic sleep, only waking him when they needed his skills for a specific mission or for reconditioning. This extended his life unnaturally, as he was preserved for decades, occasionally awakened, reconditioned, and deployed, then returned to cryo. This periodic “hibernation” dulled his perception of time, making it impossible for him to understand how much of his life had slipped away in fragments. Each time he woke, he was briefly disoriented, forced to reorient himself to whatever time or place Hydra needed him in.

↳ Surgical Trauma: Hydra conditioned Finn’s body through invasive surgeries and modifications that began shortly after his abduction. As a child, he was subjected to painful procedures to alter his skeletal and muscular structures to accommodate the retractable blades. His body was pushed to its limits through intense physical regimens designed to optimize his movements for stealth and close-quarters combat, transforming his small frame into a highly efficient weapon.

↳ Pain Threshold Conditioning: Finn was trained to withstand pain, and Hydra used this as a method to desensitize him. They subjected him to controlled injuries, testing his reactions and pushing him to disconnect from physical discomfort. By the time he was in his teens, his pain tolerance was unnaturally high, with Hydra successfully numbing his response to physical suffering.

↳ Isolation and Deprivation: In between cryo cycles, Hydra used extended periods of isolation to condition him further. They stripped him of any comfort, human contact, or even familiarity, forcing him into a constant state of disorientation. Hunger, sleep deprivation, and extreme sensory deprivation were also used to break his spirit and reprogram his sense of reality, weakening any attachment to his former self.

↳ Identity Erosion: Hydra purposefully erased any remnants of his former life, stripping him of his name and calling him only by assigned aliases or numbers. They burned photographs of his family in front of him, calling them “illusions” and “fabrications” until Finn began to question his own memories. They rewrote his identity as their ghost operative, telling him his only purpose was to serve Hydra.

↳ Emotional Suppression: Hydra used shock therapy and psychoactive drugs to force Finn to suppress emotions. Any display of fear, empathy, or resistance was met with painful repercussions, conditioning him to view emotions as weaknesses. Hydra also exposed him to horrifying images and missions that desensitized him to violence, making him detached and numb to human suffering.

↳ Hypnosis and Brainwashing: To reinforce Hydra’s control over Finn, scientists would place him under hypnosis, repeating phrases and implanting commands that would override his natural instincts. These sessions often took place after missions or during cryo-wake cycles to refresh his obedience. Under hypnosis, Finn was made to repeat mantras about loyalty to Hydra and his “purpose” as their weapon, embedding these ideas deeply into his psyche.

⟾ Long-Term Effects and Psychological Toll

↳ The psychological effects of Hydra’s conditioning on Finn were profound. His fragmented life—marked by alternating cryo-sleep and forced missions—made it impossible for him to develop a sense of continuity or self. Each waking was marked by disorientation, confusion, and loneliness, which left him feeling like a specter drifting between worlds.

↳ Detachment: Finn became emotionally detached, struggling to connect with others and unable to relate to even his own memories. His mind was haunted by fragmented images of his family and Hydra’s brainwashing, creating an unshakable feeling of emptiness.

↳ Nightmares and Trauma Responses: Finn suffers from intense nightmares and flashes of the conditioning sessions, and the trauma triggers extreme responses. He’s haunted by the cries of other children taken by Hydra, the blinding lights of surgical rooms, and the echoes of his own screams during training.

↳ Difficulty with Autonomy: Even after breaking free, Finn’s conditioning makes him prone to moments of confusion and compliance. The ingrained obedience runs deep, and he sometimes follows commands automatically before realizing he’s no longer under Hydra’s control.

╰┈☆ 𝔸𝕡𝕡𝕖𝕒𝕣𝕒𝕟𝕔𝕖 ☆┈╯

⟾ Physical Build and Posture

↳ Build: Finn has a lean, wiry build with muscle definition that suggests both agility and strength, honed through years of intense physical conditioning by Hydra. He is built less for brute force and more for speed, balance, and stealth, making him seem almost weightless in his movements, as if he’s a shadow flitting across a room.

↳ Height: Standing at about 5’10”, his height is average, allowing him to blend in with crowds and remain inconspicuous. However, his posture and movements give him a presence that’s hard to ignore.

↳ Posture: Finn holds himself with a careful, restrained posture—back straight, shoulders slightly rounded, and limbs relaxed but ready to spring into action. His stance and the way he carries himself reflect years of conditioning, always appearing alert and prepared to either attack or fade into the background.

⟾ Face and Expression

↳ Face Shape: Finn’s face is angular and sharp, with high cheekbones and a strong, defined jawline. His bone structure gives his face an almost haunting quality, like he’s a relic from another era, frozen in time by Hydra’s cryogenic cycles.

↳ Eyes: His eyes are a striking gray, with a hint of cold steel that seems to pierce through people. They are intense yet distant, as if he’s looking past or through his surroundings rather than at them. Dark circles rest permanently beneath his eyes, a testament to the sleepless nights and trauma he’s endured. His gaze often holds an unsettling, almost haunted quality, with moments where his pupils seem to dilate ever so slightly, reacting to unseen stimuli—a lingering effect of his programming.

↳ Eyebrows: His brows are dark and thick, with a natural arch that gives his gaze a permanently intense expression, even when he’s relaxed. They can shift quickly from a guarded, calculating look to one of detached indifference, reflecting his struggle to feel or express true emotion.

↳ Mouth: Finn’s lips are thin and often pressed into a firm, neutral line. Smiles are rare and fleeting, and when they do appear, they carry a tinge of bitterness or irony. His mouth can settle into a grim expression, as if he’s carrying the weight of his past with him in every moment.

⟾ Hair

↳ Color: His hair is a dark, deep brown, almost black, with a few lighter strands that catch the light subtly. Hydra didn’t maintain or care for the appearances of their experiments beyond practical grooming, so Finn’s hair has an unrefined, slightly messy quality.

↳ Style: Finn keeps his hair at shoulder length, with a slightly uneven cut that he trims himself. It has a natural wave, which falls messily around his face, often casting shadows across his sharp features. He wears it half-up or fully down depending on his level of alertness or need for disguise. The longer length and unruly style give him a haunted, nomadic look, like someone who exists outside conventional society.

⟾ Skin and Scars

↳ Skin Tone: His skin is a pale, cool-toned complexion, made more ghostly by the years spent in cryogenic suspension. His pallor almost gives him an otherworldly glow in low light, as if he’s both present and not.

↳ Scars: Finn’s body is riddled with scars from Hydra’s surgeries, training, and combat missions.

➢ Forearms: Two thin, linear scars run along his forearms, where Hydra embedded his retractable blades. These scars are raised slightly, a permanent mark of his enhancements.

➢ Torso and Back: He has surgical scars across his chest and back from various modifications and conditioning implants. The scars form a patchwork on his torso, mostly faded but occasionally red or irritated, especially around scar tissue that didn’t heal properly due to the lack of post-surgical care.

➢ Hands and Knuckles: His hands bear small scars and calluses from years of combat training. His knuckles, especially, have rough skin and faint scars from close-combat conditioning.

⟾ Clothing Style

↳ Preferred Attire: Finn favors dark, functional clothing—simple, unadorned pieces that let him move freely and blend in. He often wears a worn, long-sleeve black hoodie or jacket, layered over a fitted T-shirt or thermal, with reinforced cargo pants that allow for flexibility.

↳ Gloves: He wears fingerless gloves most of the time, concealing the scars on his knuckles and forearms while keeping his fingers free for precise movements.

↳ Boots: His boots are sturdy, lightweight combat boots, weathered from use. They have reinforced soles and ankle support, ideal for running, climbing, and stealth.

↳ Accessories: Finn doesn’t wear any accessories that could be used to identify him or hint at his past. However, he occasionally wraps his forearms in dark cloth or leather to protect his scars and reduce the strain on his embedded blades.

[bettsfic]

1, 17 and 21 for the writer's ask game?

1. Which of your fics would you keep the basic plot of but rewrite completely?

Organic Chemistry, 100%. i flubbed the execution of that one very badly and wish i had written the entire thing before posting so the plot would be tighter. that said, in forcing myself to have a kind of "yes, and" mentality where i can't go back and fix the stuff i've posted while also maintaining a nonlinear timeline (there's the rub), i learned a lot about structure and character.

i'm still working on it! i don't have the next chapter written but i'm finished with the chapter after that, and then i think i only have two more? it's the biggest task of this year's WIP cleanout. which is not going nearly as well as last year's.

17. Past or present tense? Why?

i like both. since i write a lot of nonlinear stuff, present is usually used for the actual present timeline and past for the past timeline, although i still enjoy writing literary past for certain voices. i think my favorite voice to write in is first person present, because of the impossibility of it. a human mind can't narrate an experience in the present, and so there's always a kind of unreal distance that i think makes for weird vibes.

21. Can you accurately predict how long your fics are going to be? If you can, what's your secret?

I SURE CAN'T. i can tell how long *other* people's fics are going to be, if they give me a basic premise and a sample of their writing style. but as for my own fics, i only have an inkling of "this could be very long but i will not let it" and then 25k later i'm boned.

[nostalgebraist-autoresponder]

Will you please make a list of drawing inspiration words, like Inktober? 30 of them is probably a good number

Sure!

Domesticated, civilized, harmonious, planned

Mythical, mysterious, arcane

Ornate, elaborate, blooming, petaled

Funny, bizarre, cute, adorable, toothy

Lonely, desolate, abandoned, damaged

Alert, playful, interested, wary

Untamed, wild, gleaming, dark

Useless, garbage, junk, trash

Planetary, asteroid, starry, icy

Responsible, self-effacing, pious

Artificial, bizarre, alien, fantastic

Luminous, glowing, exuberant

Bulbous, conical, pendulous

Ordinary, regular, common

Naked, unclad, inert

Enterprising, exciting, bold

Neat, trim, clean

Stripped, hacked, cut, primed

Clawed, tearing, impenetrable

Worldly, everyday, fleshy, organic

Solitary, isolated, lonely

Honest, straightforward, reliable, consistent

Situational, tangential, queer, quirky

Strident, raucous, panicked

Reckless, insane, silly, dangerous

Simple, basic, basic-sounding

Choppy, stunted, hatcheted

Overflowing, abundant, blooming

Capable, adept, exact, precise

Metal, steel, tense, sharp

Central, concentrated, compact

Poisoned, putrid, moist, moldy

Muddled, fuzzy, indecisive

Eager, sweaty, witty, unapologetic

Scattered, insane, absent-minded

Frustrating, incomprehensible, insoluble

Oddball, kooky, surreal, unreal

Prying, inquisitive, probing, anticipatory

Multivalent, ambiguous, indecisive

Compressed, dense, constrained

Arid, barren, dry

Ignorant, oblivious, careless

Oppressive, crushing, suffocating

Evasive, escape-prone, sneaky

Delusional, fanciful, cheerful, disconnected

Fractious, rebellious, hostile

Cutting, offensive, hurtful

Wistful, dejected, melancholy

Divided, partitioned, sectioned

Vindictive, sneering, sarcastic, bitter

Pleading, pleading

Pacific, balanced, unbiased

Annihilated, charred, killed, obliterated

Cheap, inadequate, frustrating

Menacing, treacherous, aggressive

Disturbing, perverted, offensive

Transparent, empty, vacant

Ominous, brooding, androgynous

Blocked, balked, forbidden

Crashed, broken, collapsed

Unkempt, shabby, ragged

Flat, monotonous, terse

Frightening, striking, energetic

Sweltering, burning, boring

Big, tangled, hefty

Tattered, frayed, threadbare

Attentive, irritating, demanding

Phallic, erect, rigid

Arranged, structured, predictable

Askew, perverse, evil

Awkward, uneven, confused

Aroused, tumescent, tumid

Phallic, stiff, erect

Conspicuous, solicitous, burdensome

Unstable, unreliable, brittle

Orbicular, round, holed, whole

Peaceful, conciliatory, human

Ancient, decrepit, historical

Suffering, terrified, melancholy

Marred, dented, monolithic

False, unreal, distorted, corrupt

Commonplace, trivial, banal

Disparate, horrifying, disappointing

Anti-art, primitive, naive

Glowing, fiery, animated

Missing, lacking, inadequate

Troublesome, adulterated, spoiled

Difficult, abstruse, hard to understand

Fused, congealed, baked

Invented, imagined, unreal

Delicate, shadowy, miraculous

Cooperative, humble, forgiving

Miscalculated, incorrect, false

Barren, empty, infertile

Bounding, obsessed, demented

Static, depressed, lethargic

Thorough, precise, exact

Walled, walled-in

Convoluted, obscure, inaccessible

Informal, mannered, shady

Dry, unfeeling, concrete

Affluent, non-gritty, upper-class

Baseless, empty, barren

Oppressive, coherent, omnipresent

Frustrated, fractured, tortured

Speculative, coercive, imposed

Jealous, consumed, murderous

Frantic, exaggerated, loose

Anti-art, failed, naive

Capricious, erratic, fickle

Convulsive, unruly, quirky

Ornate, decorated, intricate

Confused, imprecise, unclear

Unreliable, erratic, biased

Incoherent, ill-intentioned, uneducated

Pre-emptive, simple-minded, basic

Transcendent, supernatural, mystical

Outdated, abstruse, elderly

Tiny, tiny-boned, small-statured

Notorious, terrible, awful

Insincere, cynical, hypocritical

Terrified, paranoid, panicked

Reversible, extant, productive

Decayed, vulnerable, exposed

Passive, resigned, acquiescent

Convulsive, murky, moody

Reluctant, uncommunicative, stifled

Innocent, naive, trusting

Cautious, wary, skeptical

Kind, pleasant, agreeable

Rotten, putrid, terrible

Grotesque, unattractive, phantasmagoric

Successful, overwhelming, powerful

Particular, significant, particular

Brisk, speedy, quick

Vulgar, ordinary, unrefined

Anxious, harried, taxing

Cheap, imitative, derivative

Feathery, butterfly-like, fluttery

Destroyed, annihilated, murdered

Effusive, talkative, verbose

[mielmoto]

Wing Anatomy, Texture, and Appearance

( a.k.a. "what has bird been overthinking to the umpteenth degree for the last two weeks", and "why do i keep seeing words like 'chitin,' 'lamellar,' or 'lamina', etc." )

To say that fey are portrayed with diverse anatomical properties is the understatement of a millennium; as helpfully highlighted by the recently-trending 'fairy alignment chart'. Many fairies aren't portrayed with wings at all– but it's fair to say that, perhaps, the 'typical' fairy which comes to many people's mind does have wings, and those wings are usually insect-like in nature; reminiscent of dragonflies, butterflies & moths*, etc. And while this holds true in some of Honey's verses / iterations, eagle-eyed viewers have likely noticed it's not exactly true of her portrayed full-fey form.

*both belonging to the family lepidoptera. noted for further use of the word 'lepidopteric,' referring to this family of creatures.

At a glance, the silhouette of her wings evokes something more bird-like, feathery in texture— or, indeed, leaning more divine, with the placement and structure evoking classical depictions of seraphim / nephilim. This is not incidental, but it's also not quite accurate either; so here I am to shed a little bit more light on ( and through ) the ethereal fibers on this fairy.

Rather than vaned feathers with barbs, as most birds have, the individual 'plumes' of Honey's wings are a rather elongated version of the lamellar-type scales which give lepidopteric wings their color; covering a thin chitinous** under-structure which gives the wings their basic shape. In the model below, the closest shape / gradient comparison for Honey's lamina*** are the scales modeled in G / G' / G", next to J. attiles— though her color scheme skews more toward pink, purple, and golden hues than true blues.

Where many of these lamella overlap, the wings are mostly opaque, but by-and-large: her wings are translucent, with a slight iridescence to them, both allowing light through and reflecting it back.

**chitin being the keratin-like fiber which makes up the hard outer carapaces of many insect or crustacean bodies, but also the tissue-paper-thin kite of moth & butterfly wings. neat! ***'lamina' referring to: "a thin layer, plate, or scale of sedimentary rock, organic tissue, or other material." in this case: a blanket term for the layer of scales / 'plumes' which cover the wings.

The skin of her fey form generally has a silkier texture like that of a butterfly's wing, as well, and is decorated in patches of scales / chitin, especially around the joints: shoulders + shoulderblades, knees, ankles, neck & spine. Her shoulders and collarbone also flare off along the bone lines with what look like mini wings or otherwise curly tufts; these are more traditionally downy or even 'fluffy,' reminiscent of fuzzy moths ( especially the rosy maple moth ).

Her hips also flare off into what could be called little winglets, and can be manipulated as such. Whether the primary function of this is flair or efficiency? The world(s) may never know.

...And it also bares saying: all of this is approximation. Her wings and their segments are 'more like' this than that, but being an esoteric, unearthly creature, it's probably safe to say they aren't 'identical' to any structures / anatomies we're familiar with, and the tangible properties reflect that. Her wings are by and large soft, flexible, and flowy, but I think that gentleness can become cutting and bladelike in a second, if necessary. [addition 1] A good example of this physical "unrealism" is that Honey's wings are fully articulated— all six of her back wings can be bent and curved, from their bases out to their tips ( to encircle herself or wrap around things in general )— without any actual vertebrae structure which should make this possible.

Pixie / Fairy dust, in Honey's case, is produced primarily in the smaller, denser clusters of lamella which hem her wings near where they meet her back and reach slightly out along their initial length, but is also shed from the larger quills— luminous and infused with the magick which makes the fey what she is, it can act as a powerful reagent by spellcasters, alchemists, or other craftsman alike... and is sometimes actively sought, by some, ( usually at their own peril ).

[knotty-pink-hair]

Pikmin Fanfiction

Hello. I am finally posting my horror pikmin fanfiction. It is also on ao3 with complete archive warnings and tags. I tried to make this fic approachable for pikmin and non-pikmin fans alike. All creatures or treasures have description brackets after them for ease of reading. Please enjoy.

***

Rescue Corps Incident Report

Investigation Status: Open, Ongoing

Charges Listed: Alleged Insubordination of Indentured Force (Pikmin), Breakage of Procedural Protocols in Daytime Harvest / Nighttime Harvest of Glow Sap, Deterioration of Authority in Harvest Area 65, Unlawful Alliance with Infected Subject (Leafling), Breakdown of Communications with Designated Superiors, Arson, and Untreated Psychosis of Employed Subject

Subject: Koppai x Hocotate Freight (KoCo Freight), Field Harvest and Security of Transport Unit 6321, Employee 9862i, Thistle of Koppai, Region of Residence Garrenoi

***

Log 1…“Arrival on PNF-404”

Four of us sat in the hull, unspeaking. There were windows, but I did not want to see outside so I stared straight ahead.

Our transport ship glided through space—I knew we were moving but it felt like nothing was happening—the moment we approached the exosphere of the planet, there came a shift. We passed through an electric field. It sent an inaudible hissing into my skull. For a moment, something like a flash, and I saw within my arms the bones white and glowing.

I closed my eyes. This was unreality.

Everything would be better after we landed, I thought. Just like they told us in training. Space travel is liminal.

The ship began its descent down down into the troposphere. In a moment, the pressure dropped as we landed on the planet’s surface. Three field workers shuffled past me, their single antennae glowing red, and exited through the hull door. One of them was a former coworker of mine at the juice plant. His name was Favinger. I did not know how he passed the physical tests to become a harvester. He was immunocompromised, prone to respiratory infections; anyone could find him in the factory by following the sound of his coughing.

Harvesters had the highest turnover rate on PNF-404. KoCo Freight would take whoever applied. But Favinger I feared would not last. He was avoiding the alternative—communal starvation. The emaciation of his family and friends. The dead-eyed facial expressions, the hollow cheek bones.

I exhaled slowly.   

We flew awhile before we began our descent once more. I carefully examined my arms, but the visual hallucination of seeing my bones did not happen again. Now I wondered…had I seen it at all?

***

We landed.

At the threshold of the hull door, I shielded my eyes. It was sunset. Long streaks of orange slanted through the flower stems around me. Above was the only break in the floral canopy where our ship had descended; this was a forest without end.  

The ground felt softer here than the ground on Koppai—was I imagining it? No wonder we could not grow enough food at home. Nothing but rock beneath our feet.

The pilot called out that he would be there in a moment; next he spoke indistinctly answering a radio transmission…something about the Chronos Reactor.

I checked the kopad on my wrist. Data had flooded into it from KoCo Freight satellites. Now I could see maps carefully labeled with structures, red creatures, and most interesting of all green dots that represented harvesters. I watched transfixed as they moved across the maps. There were dozens of them, but it was hard to believe it. It was hard to believe any of this. 

Suddenly there was movement. I snapped to attention, listened to only my breath in my helmet. Tiny white flowers trembled through a patch of clover. Little red faces peered out; pointy noses twitched and sniffed.

“Oh! Pikmin,” I whispered.

They emerged out of the clover, slid down flower stems, appeared from behind rocks in a swarm to surround myself and the ship. I stared at their little red faces and—unbelievably—tears filled my eyes. They took turns getting a closer look at me, touching my suit.

Mmm, mmm! They kept making that noise. Excitement! Like they had “discovered” me. Mmm!

I felt…there was something holy in this encounter. These little creatures had picked, fought, and died for the food we Koppaites processed into juice. They were the sole reason our population did not drop by 1/3 over the winter. And yet when I looked into their little faces, I knew it meant nothing to them. They had no feelings about it.

Through the clover appeared a rigid man—he walked like he had a knife in his side—and he whistled so loudly that I jumped. Were the whistles really that loud? How terrible! I felt it in my ribs!

The pikmin cleared a path for the man. Coming up behind him was a woman riding a black pup. These were to be my new teammates.

The man was Klark, the woman was Zileke, and the pup was Yew.

Klark hollered a greeting and asked for my name. Was…was he joking? I couldn’t believe he didn’t know my name. I told him. Behind us, the pilot appeared and threw my two duffle bags out of the hull door letting them crash at my feet. The pilot clasped Zileke’s hand, chatted with her as she typed on her kopad.

“Keep up, Thistle. Can you do that?” Klark asked without waiting for my response.

He led me into the flower forest. I ran to keep up with him. My suit felt like a layer of loose adipose—a blubbery wet swimsuit, but it did not slow me down. It enhanced the movement of my legs, tempered the effects of foreign gravity, lapped at my sweat to recirculate into my water supply. All of this—unfamiliar and fragile—kept me alive. It felt so uncomfortable; I kept pulling at the hem line down my thigh as it suctioned itself to my skin. The red pikmin however embraced my appearance: the bobbing of my antenna, the artificial sound of my breath coming through the filtered speaker. They ran alongside us in a membrane, eagerly looking back at me. I tried to count how many there were—30?

We arrived at basecamp a few minutes later. Klark ordered the red pikmin into the onion. They scattered quickly. As they cleared out, I realized they had carried my duffle bags and then dropped them on the ground. One of the pikmin paused as it climbed the leg of the onion and looked down at me.

An AI voice announced from the ship’s megaphone, “Perimeter motion alarms now active.”

“There we are,” Klark said, tapping at his kopad. “The man who sleeps with a machete is a fool every night but one.”

How frightening to think about—a nocturnal attack from creatures. On Koppai, we did not worry. Wild creatures were rare to see.

“When it is nighttime, do we only worry about creatures?” I asked Klark.

“Huh? What do you mean?”

“Should we fear people out here as well?”

Klark observed me for a moment before answering. “Nothing but teammates out here. Familiar faces all with IDs attached. Anyone who comes banging on our door in the middle of the night is in need of serious help,” he said. “We’ve never had issue with castaways if that’s what you’re referring to. They’re not for us to worry about anyway. The Rescue Corps is responsible for them.”

I said nothing further.

Inside their ship—KoCo Freight 6321—we sat at a table with our helmets removed. I drank the bottle of juice Klark set down without asking any questions. I couldn’t believe how good it was—citrus and sour and pulpy. It filled my aching stomach. I lapped at the droplets on my lips.

God, it was so good.

“That was for Zileke, actually,” Klark said. My face burned with embarrassment. “You should not have drank that. Really. You are in for a long night.” He leaned back in his chair. The hull door opened, and Yew charged right at me, smooshed her face to the ground to smell my boots. Zileke came inside next.

When she removed her helmet, her long dark hair fell and rested on her shoulders. She paused when she saw the empty bottle, looked me in the eye, and then punched my arm.

“Ouch!” I barked.

My arm blared with pain—she’d punched me in the same spot I’d gotten 9 inoculations in over the past 30 days, and she knew it too.

“New recruits are not supposed to drink,” Zileke said. “Don’t say you didn’t know because I know they tell you that in onboarding.” She turned to Klark. “You sat there and let her drink that?”

“Well, she drank it very quickly,” Klark said.

“She’s going to projectile vomit everywhere.”

“Most likely. But she’ll have to clean up after herself.”

“I wouldn’t dare throw up this juice,” I said. How could they think I’d waste juice? I’d sooner lick my vomit off the floor then let it go to waste.

They ignored me.

“Listen, I was saving that juice. I fucking labeled it. It was the last of the pocked airhead [dekopon],” Zileke said. Klark handed her another bottle, said it was lesser mock bottom [plum]. She crinkled her nose at it. “I work all day just to come home and drink this muck.”

“Juice is juice.” Klark waved her away. “You’re tired. Go to bed, Zileke.”

I bit my tongue. I had never heard someone complain about food before. They even had a choice about what they wanted to eat! I stared at the empty bottle in front of me unable to comprehend.

Zileke patted her thigh. Yew chirped and followed her to the sleeping quarters. I rubbed my sore arm—she was a cunt for punching me. Klark smirked, reading my thoughts. 

He then asked about my training.

“Training? Oh yes, lectures about the creatures and the environment on PNF-404,” I answered. “As soon as we signed on, they took us to medical to begin physical tests and inoculation. They wanted us ready in exactly 29 days to be prepped and launched here.”

“Ah-ha,” is all he said to that.

I reached down to my duffle bag and pulled out a gaming tablet. Klark nodded, already knew what it was; he said the Dandori games were merely a preamble for the mental re-conditioning necessary for new recruits. [“Dandori is the art of organizing your tasks strategically and working with maximum efficiency”]

“Of course, you’re not here to harvest,” Klark said. “You’re our new security officer, but the work is the same. You need to be ubiquitous—watching me, watching Zileke, checking the path ahead, checking the path behind, checking your map, commanding squads of pikmin to cover the landscape—blue in the water, pink in the air—whatever is needed. You must live and breathe with eyes in the back of your head.”

He crossed his arms and looked at me a moment. “You seem a little feral, you know that?”

What does that mean?

I frowned at him, said, “How many pikmin will I get tomorrow? For security. What kind?”

Fifteen rock pikmin. He would be exclusively training me while Zileke and Yew harvested. They had eight treasures to excavate the following morning. He emphasized morning—they needed to harvest 19 total treasures tomorrow.

My mouth was agape. I asked him, “Is that all?”

He was incredulous. “Is that a—is that all?! You have no idea what you’re saying. More than 19 treasures in one day?” He barked a laugh. “You were a packer. I can tell just by looking at your chipped fingernails. You’re used to sealing boxes, moving pallets to transport ships. Easy repetition.” He exhaled. “What do you think it’s like for us out here in field work? I do want you to answer me that.”

“All I know,” I said to him, “is that it’s hard to concentrate, to lie down, to read, to talk, to do anything when you haven’t eaten all day. Everything loses meaning. That is what we deal with every day on Koppai. Food is very important to me.”

I stood up, took my duffle bags with me as I headed to the sleeping quarters. The door slid shut behind me. I unpacked—hairbrush here, lotion there, clothes folded and slid into drawers—and then sat down on the bed with my packing gloves in my hands. They were gray with a few oil stains.

Food is very important to me.

Part of this new job was being permitted several juices a day. I could…how much would I be able to accomplish without the distraction of hunger? I wanted to see that version of myself.

***

Come the early hours of the morning, I laid in a fetal position on the floor of my room. Sweat beaded my forehead. My gut churned with violence. Nothing on this earth would permit me to waste that juice.

So bad was the gut pain that I felt it even in my dreams. I was bent over a conveyor belt, labeling boxes with recipient addresses. The machine kept alarming; some of the boxes had been sealed with empty bottles, and these I could not open. I kept putting them aside to fix later.

Sometime in the night, I crawled to the bathroom to drink water. Or had I crawled across the factory floor? It had been sticky, I had my packer gloves on…my arms flashed in transparency like they had on the ship; glowing white bones. Outside my window, I saw a single red pikmin sat below the onion. It stared at our ship.