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tbgblr2 · 1 year

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Cruising into new life - part 1

I’ve just recently came back from a cruise holiday. One of the things which always upset me with cruises was that typically you cannot join if you reach 24 weeks of pregnancy so here’s a story for if things got a bit turned on their heads.

“Everything looks great” our midwife smiled as she wiped the ultrasound gel from my wife’s belly. Jodie pulled her top back down again – tugging it at the end as it threatened not to fully cover the expanse of her belly, and using both of us as support she managed to get sat up and into an upright position.

“I’ve been asked to hand these out to late term mothers who were looking for an opportunity to have one last hurrah before their baby comes. I’m happy to say that as you appear to be complication free I’m happy to sign off on you attending if you’re interested.” She pulled out a drawer and handed us a leaflet.

The leaflet explained about a cruise which was being hosted by Charles LeGrande a well-known eccentric billionaire who – thanks to their media presence – we knew had been expecting his first child with his wife at roughly about the same time as us. It explained that his wife was a lover of the sea and was not happy that the typical cruises would exclude pregnant women when they were typically the ones who needed the luxury and pampering the most. So he was opening his personal cruise ship to 1000 guests who had to be hand-picked by their medical practitioners as being low risk and willing to enjoy the event.

It promised excellent food, 2 weeks of relaxation, access to an executive team of medical staff to cover any possible risk, and even a helicopter to get you back to the mainland should anything present as an emergency situation. The team knew there was every possibility that several of the mothers to be could give birth during the voyage, and yes, that was even planned for with the entire eighth deck – with pristine sea views – converting their cabins into bespoke birthing suites for the trip.

My wife couldn’t wait to say yes, so that is how we found ourselves, 2 weeks later, 39 weeks pregnant and waddling up to the check in desk at the cruise port, with the view of the most magnificent ship we had ever seen our backdrop as we approached the building.

The staff had everything to hand, each way you looked, all you see were bumps of various shapes and sizes – but all were in an advanced state of pregnancy.

The guests were invited to sit down so they weren’t forced to stand up in queues, whilst the staff came to them one after another to get them checked in and issue them whatever documents they needed for the cruise. We were impressed.

Our host stood with his pregnant wife standing beside him at the end of the hallway as each group in turn left the check in area and walked onto the ship, greeting them personally. As we approached the couple my wife commented on Charles wife – who we later learned was called Adriana, or Adi for short – must have incredible stamina to remain standing for so long in her condition – and believe me I have an eye for beauty in the pregnant form and this lady was pregnancy personified – tight dress accentuating what could only be described as a lithe dancers body, with breasts out to there and a belly to match.

The couple were of course full of smiles and welcoming gestures as we walked up the bridge to the atrium, a magnificent view of crystal chandeliers, gold finishes and guests and crew mingling at what was essentially a meet and greet session. We grabbed some canapés and some (non alcoholic) cocktails and looked around. The guest list looked to be from all walks of life – a few men dressed in very expensive looking suits along with their wives in tailored dresses to accentuate their pregnancy alongside working class people – would say around 80% as a guess appearing to be first timer parents – or at least those who didn’t bring their children with them – and a few who had smaller children in tow. One woman who was heavily pregnant had a younger lady with her who we later found out was her daughter, both ironically due the same day. There was what I presumed was a poly couple – 1 man along with 2 women – both heavily pregnant, and one of them holding a small child to her hip.

We met several crew in uniform, each identifying their name badges but not their role on the ship – they advised that Captain LeGrand was wanting to introduce everyone personally.

Finally all guests were boarded and we were asked to move to an adjoining room – which turned out to be a large cinema – where the captain was to give an address. Everyone shuffled in, groans of appreciation from the pregnant ladies having a chance to get off their feet and take a seat as the staff lined up, one set of uniforms on the left and another set on the right. There was an announcement over the PA system;

“Ladies and gentlemen please welcome your host, Mr Charles LeGrande.” He walked into the stage without his wife to good natured applause from the crowd, and as he waited for the noise to recede, he started to speak.

“I’m sure you agree this is a little unusual, but you have all joined me and my wife for what we hope will be a happy and memorable occasion. As you are no doubt aware, my wife is days away from her due date and wanted to do something special. She always hated that commercial cruises did not allow pregnant women on them – her history was a dancer in a show on board these types of cruises – so she asked if we could do something private and avoid the bureaucracy whilst giving pregnant women like you some much needed pampering time as you approach a major milestone in your lives.” This was met with a bit of cheering and clapping from the assembled crowd.

“For the next 2 weeks, I hope you will make the most of these facilities. I will answer the most obvious question first. We have ladies on board who may or may not go into labour through this cruise – my wife included. To ensure you are cared for during this time we have hand-picked an elite team of midwives, doulas, paediatricians and obstetricians, so please allow me to introduce you to the team on my left”. He offered a flourish of his arm. Generally, there was a round of applause as 2 ladies sat behind us caught glimpse of one of the staff – he was a muscular hunk of a man, probably more suited to a catwalk or movie studio than a medical field, and their content caught both me and my wife off guard, sending us into fits of giggles:

“Oh jeez, hope he doesn’t have to deliver my baby - I’ll be too focused on those guns and I’ll forget to push!”

LeGrande continued “To my right are our customer relations team, our spa team, your dining host, customer service staff and our head of housekeeping.” Another round of applause and waves followed from the team. “If you have any questions at all through the cruise please contact the customer service desk and they will make sure the appropriate team members are informed.”

“Next we have your personal trackers. As each of you boarded the ship, you were given a small device.” I looked at the coin sized puck that was handed to me that I put into my pocket. “This is your room key, and more importantly it offers you a way to get in touch with our crew. The red button summons medical help should you need it and the blue button summons customer support. Please, we know that in the later stages of pregnancy mobility is not the best, so please allow us to bring food and drink to you.” There was a general murmur through the crowd. “Of course please be aware that we cannot be everywhere at once so if you log into out app on your phone on ships wifi you can get an idea if the queue and status of your request – as much as we want to try and make things hassle free, if you want something quick, I’m afraid you will need to fetch it yourselves.”

“To aid your mobility on board, at each lift lobby and in the designated room alongside the atrium are electrically assisted wheelchairs. Please feel free to use them – they are not drivable, but the electrical support should help with whoever may be wheeling you around. Please when you have finished with them please return them to an available charging point, or if that is not possible, please hold the return button for 5 seconds until it starts to flash. That will alert our porter team to retrieve it. If you come across one which you would like to use, simply press the button again to stop the signal.”

“I have 3 more announcements. Sorry I know I have been droning on and you would like to explore the ship, but all are very important. Firstly for your safety, please review the lifejacket procedure in your tv in your room. You will be required today at some point to visit your lifeboat station and check in to confirm you have found it. If you have not done this by tomorrow one of our staff will be required to escort you to it – some parts of the law cannot be avoided to maintain our insurance!” Thankfully the crowd laughed at this as he continued “next will be our adults area – when we are in international waters – which we will announce over the PA system when this is the case – will operate a clothing optimal policy. We must insist on zero attendance in these areas by your children. Access to these areas will require use of your puck to unlock the doors and access to these areas by the lifts.” He continued before the murmuring got too loud at that announcement “and finally my wife has an announcement.”

He stepped to the side as the large screen behind him lit up. Adriana appeared on it, beaming, smiling face in front of the camera. She spoke with an accent which hinted at Latina roots, but was highly Americanised now. “Welcome on board. My husband and I would like to welcome you to watch our birth.” There were gasps and mumbles in the crowd but she continued. “I have a camera crew who will be with me during the voyage. We will broadcast over channel 10 on your room TV sets and also in this cinema. Until my labour begins I will be meeting and greeting people on the ship, and once my time is upon me, I would like to share it with you. After leaving the dancers life full time I have trained as a doula, and feel that birth education is incredibly important. I hope footage of my birth gives those of you who are yet to experience this miracle some confidence that you can do it.”

More applause ensued as the message sunk home. This was certainly going to be a cruise to remember that’s for certain.

Charles brought the meeting to a close. “I thank you all for attending and now please enjoy the facilities on offer in our ship.” He held a walkie talkie to his mouth and announced “ensign please let us depart.” With that there was a rumble as the ships engines powered up, and as started to file out of the cinema we felt the movement of the ship as it pushed off from the docks.

It took a little while for the crowd to move, with a large percentage of them groaning and complaining as they were forced to lift their pregnancy addled bodies back out of the – I must say – very comfortable seats. We took it slow, my hand grasping Jodie’s as we took a leisurely stroll around the deck we were on, it was certain that no expense had been spared in getting this ship outfitted for our needs. We came across the room with the wheelchairs and both of us turned as one to look at each other. We nodded simultaneously and dashed in to give one a go. There were still about 2 dozen left hooked up to charge points, so we uncoupled one and Jodie slowly lifted herself down into the seat. Her groan of appreciation for getting off her feet was heavenly to me. I gave it a test push, and found with the electrical assistance it was almost like no one was sitting in it at all.

She looked at her app on her phone as I pushed her along a corridor, reading out useful bits and pieces to me. “Decks 1,2,4 were crew quarters. Deck 3 is dedicated to the atrium, cinema and customer services. Deck 5 contains restaurants, and the spa area. Deck 6 doesn’t appear to be used, 7 and 9 were guest rooms, 8 was the converted floor for the delivery suites around the outside cabins and a medical centre and nursery inside. Deck 10 was the entertainment deck – an indoor area with the nightclub / activities room, and all the outdoor pool areas. At the rear end of the ship – or aft it says here I guess using nautical speak – is the adults only area. There’s access from there to a deck 11 area which is described as the oasis… now that I want to see.”

I grin as we approach a lift “if that announcement was anything to go by, we’ll see a lot more in the adult area than we maybe should.”

My wife just grinned at me and gave me a sly look. She knew as well as me that since she got pregnant I’d been – to quote her – one horny bugger – and she knew that having the opportunity to spend time almost ogling dozens or more pregnant women would be my own idea of heaven. She had found my porn stashes fairly early on in our relationship, and she certainly embraced my kinks, especially now that we had managed the pregnancy thing for real.

We were broken out of our reverie by a ding as the lift arrived. We had left it for the majority to clear out and head to their rooms before we headed that way to avoid crowded lift areas – after all bumps took up a lot more room than expected inside a lift. We stepped in and felt the sensation as we went up to floor 6 the one designated for us. We got out of the lift, and I trundled my wife and chair down the corridor. We spotted our bags outside the room so swiped out puck against the door lock, shoving the door back to peer into the room.

It was gorgeous. We left the chair outside and my wife walked in to a chorus of ‘oohs’ and ‘aahs’ as she looked left and right. I took a step outside and brought in our cases as my wife made a beeline straight for the bed. We noted that alongside the compliment of regular pillows there was a full body pregnancy pillow designed to help support the bump. She flopped down and gave out the most appreciative moan I had ever heard. I offered to take the chair back to the atrium storage area whilst she unpacked, which she agreed to. I headed back out, closing the door behind me and following a walk down the corridor, waiting for a lift ride, taking it down then back up again, and walking along to our room once more, I opened the door to be greeted by the whistling quiet little snores of my wife, deep in sleep, our cases exactly where I’d left them.

I managed to get our stuff unpacked whilst making as little noise as possible and thankfully it didn’t wake my wife. I was constantly amazed at the little smiles and groans she made as I visibly see the movement of the baby inside the bump, encased by the tightly stretched fabric of her top. After unpacking I leave her to her sleep as I shuffle out the room and explore a bit. I run into a lady in the corridor who rivalled any pregnant belly I’d seen in my life, and gave her a quick nod as I noticed she was in the room next door to us. She returned the nod but seemed to be in a bit of a rush to get back into her room. Not that I could blame her of course – strange man in a corridor coupled with late stage pregnancy bladder – who knows what rush she was in.

I walked along to our lifeboat station and registered my attendance (which thankfully also accommodated Jodie as well) – another thing crossed off the to do list, then made my way up to deck 10 to see the entertainment area. I was met with a camera in my face and the beaming smile of Adriana.

“Ahh hello there sir. I can only presume by your flat midsection, you are one of the fathers to be rather than one of our future mothers?” I couldn’t help but smile at her own infectious smile as I replied

“I’m afraid so. Just exploring on my own as the wife has a nap. My compliments to whoever buys your mattresses – she was asleep within minutes of lying down.”

She smiled in return, her hand caressing her large bump which my eye was drawn down to in the process. Realising I was still being recorded I flicked my eyes back up and looked back towards her face. “I’ll be sure to tell our master of housekeeping. Please, enjoy your stay and I’ll look forward to seeing you around the ship.” With that she gave another beaming smile, the camera man gave a nod to signal that they had stopped recording, and Adriana gave me a quick peck kiss, almost on my cheek in the air a few millimetres from actually touching my skin, thanking me for playing along – usually if someone has a camera sprung on them they panic which is really hard to edit live. Two things crossed my mind – firstly – what perfume was she wearing because it smelled good – all fruity with major notes of cherries, and soon after I froze as I realised point two – I’d potentially just been broadcast to the entire ship checking out Adriana’s bump.

Two other people were in the room – the mother and daughter duo. They were both smiling and looking straight at me which was let’s just say unnerving, but I walked towards them and said my hellos. It was here in the small talk that I learned these 2 ladies – Karen and Jess were mother and daughter, Karen’s husband, Jess’s dad – had divorced several years ago. Both ladies had fallen pregnant after an incident at a celebration even after Jess’s graduation from university. The divorce settlement had allowed them to be self sufficient for the duration of their pregnancies but Jess was aware that she couldn’t live from her mothers hand downs forever so knew once the baby was born she would be starting to look for full time work whilst her mother looked after both her own baby and her grandchild.

I gave my own backstory – me and my wife Jodie had finally decided to try for a baby after several years of considering it, and so far everything was going like textbook. We had an opportunity to learn the sex if the baby several ultrasound checks ago, but we decided against it, but had the doctor write it down in an envelope which she kept in her purse should she ever want to read it. All this time that envelope had remained unopened and we had no plans to change that.

After the introductions and pleasantries were over with, Karen – the mother – grinned at me. “So we saw you checking out boss lady’s rack. Hey man I don’t blame you, she looks good” she emphasised the word spending just a little too long sounding it out. “Just don’t let boss man catch you doing that or he may make you walk the plank. Arr!” She emphasised the pirate noises as I almost choked laughing.

“Would you believe that I wasn’t?” I asked. Both ladies shook their heads together. I was actually looking at her bump… to make sure that I don’t bump into her.” The last bit came out maybe a little too fast for my liking.

“Oooh so that’s it” grinned both ladies. “You like the big bellies.” I made an attempt to say no but before I could get the words out, both had lifted up their tops and exposed their bellies to me. I stood open mouthed unable to make a coherent sentence.

“Go ahead, touch em.” Jess offered. “They’re just baby containers. Smooth, stretched out, Shea butter oiled, tingling to the touch baby containers.” Both burst into fits of giggles. No matter what anyone thought of these 2 as mother and daughter, they were definitely more like friends or sisters.. I could also see how their story went how both of them fell pregnant at the same time at the same party. I’d dare say that Karen, when dolled up for a night out could easily pass for 20 years her junior or so.

“Another time ladies” I inwardly shook my head, I mean this sort of situation would have normally been a dream come true for someone like me, but my wife was literal walking distance away from me. “I’m here with my wife and to let you into a little secret… that sort of thing might just go beyond the ‘baby container’ simplicity for me. I’d feel guilty indulging.” The ladies giggled but offered a counter proposal from Karen;

“I’d like to meet your wife. Don’t worry we will say you are the perfect gent. Just we don’t have many friends and it would be nice to trade gyno horror stories.” I laughed but agreed.

“I’ll let her know. Send me a message when you’re going for food and I’ll see if we can meet you?”

With that we swapped messaging details and went our separate ways.

I headed back to the room to find Jodie awake again and rearranging all the stuff I unpacked. “Oh Hi babe” she announced. “Sorry, don’t know what came over me but that bed was good. Thanks for unpacking everything.” I gave her a one of those looks, with raised eyebrows as a response. “I didn’t say you had unpacked it correctly did I” she offered, fluttering her eyelashes in innocence.

After a bit of time spent pulling things from one cupboard and closet to the next, I explained the story of the 2 ladies who Jodie remembered from the port. She of course agreed to sit with them so I texted a thumbs up to Karen who sent back a smiling face and ‘see you in an hour’

Myself and Jodie wanted to get washed up before the meal so traded showers one after the other. We wanted to share one, but one thing is for certain, cruise ship showers were hardly big enough for one person, never mind two and a bump… so we settled for naked cuddles on the bed as we dried off, my hands exploring Jodie’s breasts and belly as I felt our baby kick at the attention. It got to around 20 minutes before we were due to head down and as things were starting to get spicy between us, I pleaded for us not to head down and just stay in the room explore what the bed had to offer. Jodie stared me straight down.

“I’m starving. Both me and this little cherub need a good bit of food. You don’t want hangry sex, believe me.” I laughed and accepted what she said, rolling over with a kiss to her lips. “Now help me up, I’m like a beached whale.” That was it we were both laughing at that point.

We had a slow walk down, Jodie opting to walk rather than me fetching the chair – she insisted she was pregnant, not an invalid - and met up with Karen and Jess outside the restaurant who were waiting on a chair for us. Jodie greeted them with a smiling hug – or at least as good a hug as you could get when both participants jutted out much father than is normal. We made our way in to get our food – greeted at the door by the staff member who would be serving us for the evening and took us to our table. We were seated – us on one side and those two on the other, presented with menus and made our choices. Conversation flowed – my wife the much more sociable one than me, but all 3 women got along fine. I had a retelling of the ladies back story, a bit of information on how we met and other mundane stuff. When asked if they wanted to give birth on the ship, both were very positive on the idea as long as both were together. Karen of course was hoping she could hold off until Jess had delivered as she wanted to be there for her little girl… but both were aware that babies made their own agendas. We both nodded at that.

When we were asked the same question, Jodie pondered a little while. She explained her own mum was a midwife and she was hoping that she could have delivered her first grandchild at home… but she made us promise not to give up this opportunity – as long as we got straight on the ships wifi and gave her a call so she could be there in spirit if not in person.

After a chorus of ‘Awww’s from the other ladies our first course arrived and we enjoyed what must be one of the nicest meals I ever tasted. Clean plates on the first course, and we were well into the second course when a commotion caught our attention.

One lady was dashing out if the restaurant at a pace I didn’t think a heavily pregnant women could manage, one hand clamped on her mouth the other under her belly. Looking between ourselves we presumed she had a bout of sea sickness but I recognised her as the woman who I ran into in the corridor earlier – our neighbour. When she didn’t return for the rest of the meal I suggested we knock on her door to make sure she was OK as she appeared to be there by herself – no one else followed her out of the restaurant.

We finished up the rest of the meal talking a bit afterwards and around an hour or so after the commotion, we said our goodbyes to the ladies and made our way back to the room to do our good deed of the day.

As we got out of the lift and rounded the corner to our corridor, we heard an shrill cry. Stopped momentarily we looked at each other and dashed as fast as we could towards the sound. Our neighbours door was wide open, a mobile crib outside the door. Looking in the room we were met with a sight. The lady from before facing away from us, stripped naked and bracing herself with one hand on the table and another on the back of a chair. One of the medical team was in front of her, kneeling between her legs, hands poised to catch the baby which she was evidently moments away from giving birth to.

She yelled again and squatted down a little deeper, as we both saw the face of her baby appear between her legs along with a gush of fluids. We noticed then that a rubber mat of some variety had been placed down, presumably to catch the mess. The lady from the medical team was telling her that she was doing a good job, that she was almost done, and with another yelling scream the baby slipped out from between her legs and into the waiting hands of the lady waiting to receive it.

The lady dropped down to her own knees to be handed the baby, as she rocked back on her haunches she finally came back to reality and turned to see us standing the doorway. We were caught red faced looking at her in an intimate, vulnerable moment and we were unsure what to do.

Luckily she smiled first. “Oh hi… you must be my neighbours? Sorry about the noise.”

Jodie just shook her head. “Erm… are you ok? We were just wanting to make sure that you were good after leaving the restaurant in a rush.”

The lady smiled. “I am now. Look… come in, can’t have you sitting in the corridor like that.” She was completely oblivious that she was both naked, holding a crying baby to her chest, and inviting strangers to come into her private space. Either way we did as she asked and closed the door behind us.

Over the course of the next 30 minutes or so we watched as the lady from the medical team carried out checks on the mother and baby, everything seemed fine, then cut the cord as the lady – Donna it turns out – explained to us that she had felt a bit off all day but didn’t want to risk not making it onto the boat as she’d been looking forward to it for several weeks. After she had a wave of nausea during the meal, her waters had broken on the way back to the room, and that was when she had felt the first thing close to a contraction. From there she was in full blown pushing for about 30 minutes until we came along – and the rest we knew. She called the medical team but they already announced she was at 8cm when they arrived and couldn’t be moved to the delivery suite – hence the mobile crib being brought along and her somewhat embarrassing predicament.

With that she finally realised she was naked and asked me to pass her over something to cover her up out of her wardrobe. I found a wrap that she draped over her shoulders as the lady from medical rubbed her belly and she groaned a little – giving birth to her placenta in the process. She relaxed into breastfeeding her baby as we said our goodbyes happy hormones fuelling both our spirits as we opened the door.

Just outside was Adriana and her camera team, ready to meet the mother once the medical team said they were able to. She had heard of the first baby being born on board and needed to greet the mother to congratulate her. She met me with a beaming smile and an immediate moment of recognition from when we met earlier.

“Hello again.” She beamed. “We keep on meeting where all the action happens. Maybe you are this ships good luck charm.” Jodie looked at me quizzically. I explained how I came across her and the team earlier. I introduced Jodie and Adriana gave her a similar ‘just off the cheek’ kiss like she did for me earlier. We waved our goodbyes as the door opened again, the lady from the medical team popping out the room to grab the crib and saying 10-15 minutes to Adriana and the team.

As we walked the few steps up to our room and swiped out key to get in we both burst into giggles. That was certainly an interesting day. Jodie grinned at me. “Maybe we should give them some fun noises to listen to when they’re recording?” I looked at her, instinctively knowing what she meant – her hand had been caressing my leg and knee all through dinner. Without uttering another word between us, we threw our clothes into a corner of the room, I climbed (and sank) into the bed and lay back as she crawled on top of me, her popped out belly button tracing a pattern from my crotch to my navel which sent me into a spin. As she lowered herself down onto my erection in a reverse cowgirl style, our frenzied moans and grunts rang out. My eyes following the rhythmic bouncing of her belly and breasts as she oscillated on top of me. Our climaxes were announced with joint moans, echoing within the confined space of the cabin. Who knows if we were ever caught on camera or if the rooms really were well soundproofed – we never got around to watching that interview.

#fpreg #birth kink #birth #pregnancy #labor kink

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protoindoeuropean · 10 months

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Comments by people about how disappointed they are to hear that Etymonline is a pretty bad source for (English) etymology make me realize how spoiled we are in Slovene with the (relative) quality and accessibility of etymological dictionaries.

There are three (modern) etymological dictionaries for Slovene: the standard work by Bezlaj, Furlan and Snoj, ESSJ (Etymological Dictionary of the Slovene Language; 4 volumes + indices; begun by Bezlaj in 1976, joined in the following volume (1982) by his student Snoj and in the third and fourth also Furlan (1995, 2005); Bezlaj died in 1994); Snoj's more "popular science" version, SES (Slovene Etymological Dictionary, 1st edition in 1997, 3rd in 2016, available online); Furlan's much more rigorous and dialectally oriented NESSJ (New Etymological Dictionary of the Slovene Language; trial folio in 2013, online publication since 2017).

As mentioned, SES and NESSJ are available online, though the very limited scope of NESSJ means that SES is the usual reference. There are talks about putting ESSJ online as well, but there are some issues with rights and Bezlaj's family etc.

Before illustrating the differences between the various Slovene and English sources for etymology, a few notes on what a good etymological dictionary entry should include:

philological documentation (current meaning, phonetic/phonological information (incl. suprasegmental features), morphological characteristics (inflection, gender), word family (derivatives, parallel formations), attestation (historical sources), onomastic material (esp. anthorponymy and toponymy)

comparative material (cognates or related words in closely related languages and in the wider language family)

etymological explanation (word form at the moment of creation, morphemic structure, meaning and semantic motivation)

To demonstrate the differences between the dictionaries, it's best to consider their entries for the same words:

— ESSJ, SES poln, adj. 'full' in ESSJ and SES. NESSJ does not have this word. ESSJ includes more information on Slovene historical and dialectal attestation, as well as all the existing forms in other Slavic languages. SES, on the other hand, besides the relevant derivations only includes those Slavic languages that are more relevant for the Proto-Slavic reconstruction. It is important to note that this entry from ESSJ is from the third volume, which systematically takes into account the findings of the laryngeal theory (you can see that the reconstruction of the PIE root in ESSJ is *pelH-, with a laryngeal, even if it is not specified which one; cf. the update in SES with *pleh₁-). The first two volumes do not, however, and are therefore in many ways superseded by the entries in SES, even if those are otherwise less rigorous.

***at this point I should note that I'll gladly(!) translate all the Slovene entries if anyone wants me to do so, but I'm not going to do it if no one asks because there are quite a few of them here

Compare the entries in popular English online sources for etymology – Wiktionary and Etymonline; and then also Kroonen's Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic for comparison:

— Kroonen, Wiktionary, Etymonline 1, 2 The Wiktionary entry for full is roughly on par with SES, while Kroonen's Germanic material is more comprehensive. Etymonline, however, shows no trace of the laryngeal theory and when looking at the cognates listed under the root, it's like they've never heard of a diacritic either (except in Old Norse "fjöl-", even though ö is not normally used for Old Norse – ǫ is) – even though those are often crucial! –, not to mention fully replacing ə with e in what should be Avestan pərəna- ...

To also include NESSJ, the word for 'birch' will be used, but first the entries for this word in the already mentioned dictionaries:

—Kroonen, Wiktionary, Etymonline Again the Etymonline entry just does not compare – it's not just that the PIE reconstruction is non-laryngeal, it's also plain wrong because it has *g instead of *ǵ; also again with the diacritics ...

— ESSJ, SES As you can see, this entry is from the first volume of ESSJ and thus also non-laryngeal. It is still more comprehensive in terms of material, but the explanation in SES is more up-to-date.

The entry in NESSJ simply does not compare to the ones above – it is more in line with a dictionary like the Etymological Dictionary of Slavic Languages (ÈSSJa) in the amount of information it includes, which means that it is so long that I will put it under the cut:

— NESSJ You can see that this entry includes much more dialectal and historical material and discusses in depth its historical morphology and types of derivation, finally constructing its diachronic word-family.

And since I mentioned it, here's also the ÈSSJa entry for 'birch':

— ĖSSJa As it is from the very first folio, from 1974, the explanation is non-laryngeal, as in ESSJ. Compared to NESSJ, it includes (literally) a couple more Slavic languages: Slovincian and Polabian, though understandably no further dialectal material, which NESSJ includes specifically for Slovene. ÈSSJa, as a rule, doesn't reconstruct accentual paradigms for Proto-Slavic, while on the other hand, some of the discussion in NESSJa specifically concerns the question of accentual features of the discussed word and its IE word-family. NESSJ is also more explicit in the discussion of the models of derivation and morphological variants.

#j #etymology #slovene #slovenian #etymonline #wiktionary

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talokanda-forever · 1 year

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Oh boy.

I intentionally avoided posting any thing about the allegations against Tenoch yesterday because I require time to process information. I needed time to give my brain a rest. This still feels a bit too soon. I will never be one to say Tenoch or anyone else would, "never do something like that." Because I have no idea. I'm hoping that the allegations aren't true. This post is my way of venting. It is in no way meant to persuade anyone else on what they should think or feel about this situation. And certainly not meant to be proof or evidence of why it happened or didn't happen. I don't know. None of us knows.

1. The framing of the dissemination of this information as "news." My biggest issue is that I've seen a lot of Twitter accounts pick up the same link that appears to be the outlet that first brought the Tweet by Maria Elena Rios to light (reforma.com). I don't know what journalistic standards this outlet follows, so I won't speculate. I did check to see if any well-established US outlets had Tweeted anything (Associated Press, Reuters, CNN, MSNBC), and as of roughly 30 min. ago they had not.

So far, all we really have are glorified Retweets, not a news story. There are A LOT of accounts with well designed pages that have all the hallmarks of looking like "official" news organizations, but they are not. It takes virtually no time or effort to Retweet something and start an avalanche. It's a trend that has bothered me for the last decade or so. Journalism requires independently verifying information you have received. It's going to multiple sources to corroborate the information. It's at the very least attempting to reach out to the involved parties to get their statements. It's reviewing public records and court filings to see what has been officially documented. And not to say that WON'T happen at some point, but it sure as hell isn't going to happen within 24 hours. It will take time and we STILL may never know the full story.

2. We should believe victims. ABSOLUTELY! In this particular instance and from this vantage point, Maria is only his accuser. It has not yet been established that she is his victim. I understand that she is a victim involving another individual, and thank goodness she survived that horific attack. However, as it pertains to Tenoch, I don't think interjecting alleged sexual assault in a Tweet focused on a different issue is enough to automatically leap to saying she was absolutely, 100%, without a doubt victimized by Tenoch. If it happened I would hope Maria would take legal action, given she was comfortable enough to make the accusation publicly under her name. Even then, she is not required to do so (which is why I say we may never know what did or didn't happen). I would imagine navigating the justice system in Mexico is no less stressful as navigating the justice system in the US. There are valid reasons for women not subjecting themselves to (potentially) years of legal struggles. But I also hope she wouldn't be so reckless as to throw out an allegation and not allow Tenoch to formally defend himself, assuming he denies these allegations. Once again, something that requires TIME.

3. To all those I have interacted with over the past few months on this site, know that I luv ya! I value our time together here. Regardless of what you've said or haven't said about this situation, that hasn't changed. I'm choosing to reserve judgement because that's how I am and how I will always be. I respect that everyone is not like me (thank God). Like many others, I will suspend posting here because, if for no other reason, I know how to read a fucking room. Let's all be kind and respectful to one another. To those folks who interact with me regularly, don't hesitate to DM me.

#tenoch huerta #tenoch huerta mejia #jose tenoch huerta mejia

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lower-management · 1 year

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//ooc

Some Beelzebub headcannons of mine cause why not (there is some angst), also some can be quite specific

-they have a sweet tooth

-(this one is my favourite) God made it so when she casted them out of heaven they could never feel full again, not only regarding food but regarding everything, no matter how much they have, how much they know, how much they eat (both metaforically and literally) they'll never feel full and/or satisfied. Their last hope was that after armageddon they would've been able to feel satisfied and full once more, they still wonder if it would've worked. Falling in love with Gabriel did not "cure" this thing

-after armageddon't they had quite a difficult time understanding the purpose of it all, in the end they just realized whatever God had going on they probably would not be able to change it so they just resorted to continuing their days in a loop, they still think about it tho

-the fact they're kinda short for a demon was on purpose, Hell is cramped and a smaller stature helps moving around quicker, also it gives them a slight advantage if fighting someone full enough of themselves to underestimate them

-they enjoy rejecting paperwork for the most absurd reasons possible (even tho it's more of Dagon's invention to do so). Signed the document in a blue pen instead of a black one? Ya gotta restart from the very start buddy

-they still haven't quite grasped the concept of gender

-they keep their nails long-ish so that they can scratch/hurt others easily

-they know math, they know weird facts about biology and science but spelling? Fuck no

-for sometime they were worshipped as a deity, they liked those civilizations cause they felt like even tho they were doing almost nothing to help they were still better at being a God than her herself. They're still bitter over the destiny those civilizations faced, which also fuels a certain hate of theirs for the romans

-nothing can shock them anymore, literally, they've seen things

-they have trust issues, like, lots of them

-sometime after the fall (not much tho) they led a rebellion against satan as they felt like he was not taking organizing Hell as seriously as he should have. Satan was impressed and ended up rewarding them with their status

-they fully believed their feelings for Gabe were just anxiety for the longest time

-they kin Yzma(the disney villain), this one doesn't need much context

-they listen to Melanie Martinez and Caparezza

-(this is attached to the 9th one) they had to let the civilizations that worshipped them die/be conquered and so on because it was "needed for the great plan to work" and they were forced to watch, it's still a sore wound

-they sometimes use old words or expressions just because (example: saying courting instead of flirting)

-after armageddon't things did not go well for them, in fact a duke tried opening up a dispute to overthrow them and take their throne taking advantage of the situation. Needless to say Beelzebub was enraged and destroyed the duke in the most cruel way possible.

-as they are literally gluttony in person while someone else can technically do their bureaucratic duties they cannot be replaced.

-shiny things? They love 'em, but strong (especially artificial) lights? Can bug them, cause flies have a raised sensibility to lights so it would probably overstimulate them.

-they developed a weird kind of arachnophobia after the fall. They're not afraid of spiders but they get pretty anxious around them and don't get close (cause, ya know, spiders eat lots of flies and while there are many animals who eat flies it's more about what they represent because God's a bitch that way)

Can't think of anymore, maybe if I remember them I'll put 'em here

#beelzebub headcanons #Good omens #GO #Beelzebub #Ask beelzebub

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missmyloko · 9 months

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Getting To Know Me - Part 8

On The Third Day of Fun I present... the continuation to the last piece! Sorry if it feels like a bit of a Debbie Downer subject, but I'm really passionate about the subject and wanted to use my platform to get it all out so that others feel like they aren't alone. Continued from Part 1 I still attended school throughout all of this. However, it was around this time that just having drop in appointments with a psychiatrist like, once every 6 months at my doctor's office was going to fly anymore, so I was referred to a psychiatrist at our hospital's outpatient clinic who could look after my medication full time. The wait time at that time was 14 months, and I waited. Thankfully, it was worth it in the end. I had someone who could balance my medications, figure out why I went through them so quickly, and I could see them as often as I needed. On average I was running through an entire course of a medication (ie: from its lowest to its highest dose) in about a year, and that's unusually high. Well, it turns out I wasn't hyper-metabolizing them, but rather hypo-metabolizing them; My medication, once ingested, wasn't done running its course through my body before I took the next dose, so I was actually (unknowingly) over medicating myself. To combat this I now take my major medications every 36 hours so that they have time to work through my body and stop the over medicating (low dose medications that act as augmenters are taken every day though). It was during university that I had my first major depressive episode (that I medically knew of, I probably had them before but just didn't know), which is a time where my depression is just kicking my ass beyond normal reasoning and, because of this, I actually ended up flunking a few of my courses. I had to petition the dean to drop the courses from my record to due health reasons, which was accompanied by a letter and documentation from my psychiatrist stating what was going on and that it wasn't my fault. I ended up having 2 of them during my 6 years of university, so I had to petition twice. While in school I did receive special accommodations from the student wellness center regarding exams and assignments and such, which is a fantastic resource that anyone with mental health issues should take advantage of at their schools, and that definitely helped make life easier during those trying times (heck, it helped even when I was feeling decent). Near the end of my university tenure my psychiatrist and I actually managed to find a medication that really worked for me. I was feeling great, my symptoms were under control, and I was feeling like myself for the first time in a long time. However, it was another medication that no one told me right away would cause weight gain and, since we had now figured out how to make medications last, I was on it for a few years. I only ended up going off the medication 4 years ago, but by that time I had ballooned to over 200lbs (I believe I was around 230ish). Unlike the last time, the weight didn't come off as I had developed thyroid issues (they sadly run in my family on both sides), so I was now a depressed again, overweight wad who had gone past the point of being able to do what I loved: wear kimono. It's ironic that I was in the process of publishing a book about something I could no longer wear, but that's life for you. However, not everything ends badly (heck, there's positives, or else I wouldn't be here telling this tale!). Within the last year I finally have a concrete date set for my book to come out (June 28th, 2024!), I've lost exactly 49lbs since going on Ozempic (and diet changes) and can wear kimono again (yay!), and I'm working with my psychiatrist, who is awesome by the way, on changing my medications to make them work for me by understanding exactly what they do and their side effects beforehand. So, hopefully my tale has opened up some feelings inside of you to know that you're not in this alone, it happens to everyone, it does suck, but it does get better.

#mental health #mental health awareness

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digitalgate02 · 1 year

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DigiTimeLines: Document format [pt1]

[AO3 VERSION] [@digimonadventuretimelines blog (outdated)]

Back in November 12 2012 a person asked about Daisuke’s son on the original askblog (ask-daisuke) and I decided to go on a full route of an Alternative Endgame for it. I didn’t do that to spite the epilogue though, I do not enjoy Fix-It culture (I’d rather write my own AU and leave the canon stuff untouched than simply try to “fix” them. Same thing happened with the Hunters arc from Xros Wars, and my own canon-divergent AU based on an old ▽ theory in 2016) so this project was already viewed as some sort of multiverse.

The name Daichi came from an old friend’s answer to my musings on twitter -- they suggested Daichi and Taisuke, but I adopted Daichi for the Daisuke kid, and Taisuke for the other character I designed -- a Taichi’s son OC. The idea of Daichi and his entire plot/story came while doodling him again, for the third time after the name reveal. He would be a space-time traveler based on other medias’ space-time travelers i’ve loved since i was a kid (Future Trunks, Chibi Usa/Sailor Chibi Moon, and Silver the Hedgehog) with a tragic story based on Luke Skywalker (uh, sorta). Daichi would seek for answers in his own journey in order to save his father from a terrible fate -- One where Daisuke becomes a puppet of a greater evil and turns into a menace to the worlds.

Besides this part, Daichi’s (alternate) world has two issues -- an endless conflict between wild digimon who do not want humans to be allowed in the Digital World, so they are trying to close the gates (and this bad guy uses a brainwashed Daisuke-turned-into-a-digimon-hybrid as some general for those troops) … And a force of humans who does not see the digimon as equals, wanting them to be treated as a menace for the human world, having to always be monitored by the police and Digital World’s ambassador Taichi in order to prevent digimon and even human victims.

The goal of the “Neo Chosen Children” is to combat both issues alongside their partners and families. And, for Daichi, to rescue Daisuke from the hands of this new enemy.

As for this setting, space-time travel would be the main theme of it. Daichi and his friends would travel through a special dimension connecting all the worlds and timelines through “doors” and then, they would learn more about the Tokyo Twelve and the Worldwide Chosen, also about other possible worlds. Most of those ideas of “crossovers” came from the crossover chapters in V-Tamer, which were the only thing I read from the manga back in time. And oh, Xros Wars manga’s multiverse theory.

※ This document might have changes from the original chapters 1 to 19 published on the blog & AO3 though.

The main setting: Daichi’s story

While many think the Chosen Children job was over, this was a hoax. With the number of partnerships growing on a large and worldwide scale, the most known Twelve Chosen alongside their Worldwide allies from 2002 started to work harder to make sure the worlds would live in peace and together. But it’s easier said than done -- many issues have been spotted and reported throughout the world. Could Koushiro and Miyako handle a whole community like this? Of course they had the help of the Holy Beasts and the Gennai clones, but they should be sure none of those people would do bad things.

This is where they created a system and an organization in order to catalog and prevent outcomes like a new Kaiser-like enemy. The head and brains of the org was Koushiro, but he also nominated Taichi and Daisuke for co-leaders (Why Taichi and Daisuke? Well, they’re representing their generations after all) and having all the others as part of a council and operations like, teaching the both sides to respect each other, to not treat your digimon as some inferior being and vice-versa, to not be taunted by evil beings… And go on. This org was more likely a school, while a Special Unit force specialized in Digimon cases would work alongside the police.

To keep everything under control, and to know the number of partnerships, Koushiro’s old community list became a registered list -- in which every digivice, human and digimon were registered on a database sooner or later. Non-registered entries would become called “Mercenaries” and if any cataloged Chosen had gone vile for any reason, they would’ve been called “Dark Chosen”. Normal Chosen would just keep their name as it is, or rather “Registered Chosen”. It was like an ID and it could help to keep everything in order.

This went well for a while, but just as you can see… Humans and Digimon are complex creatures, and you can’t get rid of all of the mean spirited ones -- There would exist digimon and humans using each others’ partnerships and power to commit crimes, and others stuff. The Special Digimon Cases unit had always been needed in those cases, in which both digimon and officers had to take care of those bad apples. The Tokyo Twelve’s organization is just a mere big registered database and a “school” to teach and assist the digimon and their partners, not a law enforcer group.

Around Spring 2024, a group of rogue digimon wanting the digimon to be free from the partnership cycle started to move, wanting to separate all of the digimon from the humans. Said enemies managed to lure Daisuke and Ken into a trap… And Daisuke sacrifices himself to save Ken from getting caught -- He opened the gate and shoved Ken and Stingmon with the force of Wingdramon into the gate, and then closed it before those digimon could catch his friend. Ken tries to open the gate again, but it has been locked on the other end. After reporting to the others, the group decided to hide this information from the world… and from their own children.

Daichi’s Destiny

Daichi is a kid born in August 2015, and his personality used to be closer to his parents -- very optimistic and brave, and the only difference is he was the smart aleck of the house. He liked to play games with his dad before school, having to be reminded about his duties by his mother. His little sister -- two years apart -- was also a very lively child. But everything changed when Daisuke disappeared in 2024. While there was a huge effort to keep the world and the group’s children out of it… Daichi’s personality had a drastic change: he became more of a shut-in and spent most of his time studying, making his sister Kiyoko super duper worried and mad at him.

Daichi was so sure that his dad had died that he used to talk in a more depressive tone. Kiyoko used to get extremely furious about it, because she didn’t want to think their dad was dead and the adults were lying to them. It was when, on a normal day in 2029, Daichi and Kiyoko heard a voice calling for help. Daichi tells Kiyoko to go stay at her friend’s house while he investigates it. The voice comes from Daisuke’s office room. He opens the door and sees an old computer on, with a small pink digimon bunny fainted on the floor.

The lights are turned on, and the digimon opens her eyes… And then morphs into her human form. It’s an old acquaintance of his parents -- Natsu (Yes, the digimon girl from Natsu e no Tobira drama CD, you read it right)

Daichi was used to Natsu appearing as an adult human, but this was a big reveal for him -- She’s a digimon!? Is she Daisuke’s second partner? Well, no. Natsu is… An “Honorary partner” for Daisuke. Didn’t she get a human partner before? We will discuss it another day.

Natsu is cheerful and calls Daichi by ‘Daichan’ (Daichi’s nickname) and tells him she needs to talk with his mother or Taichi. The boy says his mother is not around, and Ambasador Yagami is always busy… Then, he wishes his father was still alive to help them. It’s when Natsu drops the bomb: No, Daisuke is alive and she needs help to rescue him. The kid’s behavior changes immediately, and Daichi starts begging Natsu to let him help. If you know Natsu well enough, if you push the right buttons you can make her do or say what you want. So, Daichi’s trickiest smuggest plan was just saying “My father would totally trust you to protect me if I were in danger” which led the digimon girl to agree to taking Daichi to the Digital World.

They went there, and she started getting bombarded with questions from the little kid, things related to what happened to his dad and why everyone was hiding those things from him. While Natsu was still hiding things from him, she managed to slip a few words leading to a battle 5 years ago. A little note: Natsu kept calling Daichi by ‘Daichan’ all the time, not even using his real name at any moment. Suddenly, the big bad enemy showed himself -- Lupinmon, a digimon which was a black wolf warrior, in the same style of the Legendary Hero of Light -- Wolfmon/Lobomon. Lupinmon attacked Natsu and Daichi, and then chased them until a brave and unknown V-mon with the Ulforce V-dramon’s bracelets appeared and repelled a powerful blow from the lupine warrior.

It was when… Something odd happens: Lupinmon steps back, like if he was holding himself to not hurt that human kid… And then in a weaker voice he calls Daichi by his name. By connecting the dots, Daichi realizes Lupinmon was actually his father but this didn’t last for a long time, and then Dai-Lupinmon attacks them again, but this time Natsu’s pendant starts glowing and opens a gate into another place, sucking the kid, her and the mysterious V-mon into a blank space… Quite similar to the dimension Apocalymon sent Taichi and his group once. The difference is, this place does not present the binary code, but has an angel-type digimon guarding it -- ClavisAngemon.

The trio meet a hooded figure with a feminine voice, who gives them some input about that place, its name and why they were there. Daichi was chosen as a new bearer of the power of space-time, but the boy was still in denial about what had happened right now with him: His father tried to murder him. His father, who used to be friendly and kind… Is an enemy of his world now. He couldn’t digest that information very well, and Daichi himself couldn’t bear a high responsibility like that. At first, he refused it… It wasn’t something he could handle at the moment. So, the hooded figure sent them back to the human world.

A few events later, Daichi was involved in an attack on a theater promoting a new movie to encourage the bonds between humans and digimon, in which he had to face Lupinmon’s followers and save them all. Ulforce, the name of that V-mon who was sticking with Daichi and Natsu since their first encounter, ended up being “linked” to Daichi via a special digivice which popped out from nowhere -- the Digivice TimeRune (or D-TimeRune) -- which sent instructions to the boy as “scan the digimon to form a link” and “scan the back of your hand to activate the DigiRune fragment” so he could assist Ulforce in battle. Once Daichi executed all of those instructions, Ulforce evolved into XV-mon (but with the bracelets and the mysterious Holy Ring in his ear) and fought the enemies, which once beaten were locked inside Natsu’s plasma bubbles and left there for the police.

It was when… Daichi realized he could use this power to… travel back in time and prevent his dad from being captured. This means once he and the others return to the Dimensional Space, Daichi informs ClavisAngemon and the hooded figure he’s ready for it. It’s the moment the place reveals an infinite number of doors within the blank space. But one problem was… All of them are identical. This makes Ulforce lose his composure and start whining about this being ridiculous -- HOW CAN YOU KNOW WHICH DOOR TAKES TO WHICH PLACE AND TIME!?

The hooded figure also warns Daichi, Ulforce and Natsu that they should not alter the past, or else their world would’ve been destroyed. This does not make Daichi afraid at all, and he says he would prefer to not exist as long as his father is safe and happy.

Thus… Daichi, Ulforce and Natsu started traveling through space-time.

While some other cases were running amok, Kiyoko and the Tokyo Twelve’s children were starting to get involved with them -- by receiving this same special digivice and forming a link with some digimon involved in incidents and attacks. But one of those kids had decided to form a link with a special digimon… And kept it a secret.

Yagami Taisuke, the Self-Proclaimed Rival

Taisuke is Taichi and Sora’s only child in Daichi’s world. The reason for this strange family to work well is… Taichi and Sora managed to solve their personal issues and became a couple. To make this couple get hitched and be more functional they had to become mature people first. And they did that. Taisuke is the youngest of the Tokyo Twelve’s kids, having 10 years in 2029. Since both parents are important figures -- Taichi because he’s the Ambassador, and Sora because of being the daughter of Takenouchi Toshiko, who’s still the Head Master of the Takenouchi school of traditional Japanese flower arrangement at this moment. But Sora also started to get her own recognition in her own area -- as a fashion designer specialized in Japanese style -- Taisuke is… overshadowed by his parents fame and treated as “The Digital World ambassador’s son” or “Takenouchi Toshiko’s grandson” or “Takenouchi Sora’s son”. This makes him mad every time because he’s not seen as himself but rather as someone’s son/grandson. This explains why he’s mostly mad at everyone not seeing Daichi as “Worldwide famous Ramen Chef Motomiya Daisuke’s son” and why he self-proclaimed himself to be Daichi’s rival.

It can be said that, during the same moment Daichi was facing Lupinmon… Taisuke was witnessing another event: A black Agumon coming from a gate area nearby his house. This Agumon wasn’t normal though, it had been looking for an old acquaintance from the past. Taisuke didn’t know what this meant, but he couldn’t ignore that critter. Once they were facing some evil guys, a D-TimeRune appeared in front of the boy and he decided to accept it, forming a link with that BlackAgumon. The Rune of Courage appeared for both of them -- and thus they faced the enemy digimon together.

But… Taisuke couldn’t tell his parents about that. So, he hid BlackAgumon inside the digivice and kept facing tough enemies in the shadows… As the Brave Tamer.

The more Taichi was involved in this whole mess against this Lupinmon menace, the more Taichi spent times busier and out of his home. This kept making Taisuke feel anguished and revolted, because he wanted his family to be together again. And it seemed like Sora was… acting like her mother when it comes to Taisuke -- wanting him to stay safe. So, she asked Piyomon to watch him for her, as the boy’s bodyguard.

Kiyoko and Captain the Hawkmon (and Others)

When Daichi returned for his first adventure in an alternate year 2002, Kiyoko interrupted his sleep by showing a hurt two head-feathered Poromon who was escaping from the bad guys. During the night, she, Daichi, Ulforce and Natsu were fighting an unknown digimon chasing the girl and the Poromon, until discovering it was a BlackGuilmon via the digimon scan mode of the D-TimeRune. While Kiyoko fled with the bird baby digimon in her arms, she vowed to protect him… And this led her to a digivice which she used to form a link with Poromon.

Poromon evolved into Hawkmon, one with a bandana and two head feathers under it and visible on the side of his head, and then introduced himself as Captain, a pirate of the seven seas. He beats the foe and Natsu traps it inside one of her plasma bubbles, but then they’re surprised by a strange pair of shadows. Daichi and Ulforce go after them, while Natsu takes Kiyoko and Captain back home, where they would just report to Miyako what had happened that night.

During the chase, the human-like shadow shows to have a digivice too, with a symbol of a sun in it. The digimon partnered with the shadow evolved into a Greymon -- But none of them were able to recognize if it was a normal Greymon or some other digimon. The shadow then jumps on the Greymon-like back and disappears in the landscape. Daichi and Ulforce return home, wondering if that human would be a foe or not.

After that encounter with the mysterious kid with a digivice like his and Kiyoko’s… Ulforce mentions about the kid having the Fragment of Courage, and then they got this small talk about what those symbols are and points out Daichi’s flame-like symbol is called Fragment of Tenacity, meanwhile Kiyoko’s paw-like symbol is the Fragment of Determination. Those felt the same words and some connection to the crest of Courage, but they were viewed as their own variants of it according to Natsu.

What are those “Fragments” though? Are they something similar to the crests? They are the core of the crests actually. The origins of those symbols came from the ancient Digital World era, as some clan symbols -- and those digimon created ways to spread those traits through their own clan and the entire Digital World. Powers that enriched the land and planet.

Meanwhile Eiji and Hoshi, the Ichijouji siblings (children of Ken and Hikari in this world) had met their future partners -- a BlackTailmon and a Wormmon, respectively. In the pinch of danger, both siblings got digivices and linked themselves to those two digimon in order to save them from the enemy. Eiji got the Fragment of Kindness, while Hoshi got the Fragment of Happiness, which had a cherry blossom flower as a symbol. Later they would nickname their mons as Kitty and Sting, respectively.

Other children in their circle of friends would’ve gotten digivices and partners too, when involved in a fewer attacks of Lupinmon’s troops. Reika (Iori’s daughter) partnered with an Armadimon and getting the Fragment of Fairness (a burgundy Scale symbol), Jin (Jou’s son) got partnered with a Kamemon and got the Fragment of Reliability, Mike (Mimi’s trans son) got partnered with a Floramon and got the Fragment of Sincerity. Another case happened to Mitsuki (Takeru’s son) and Mirai (Koushiro’s daughter), who were found by their partners Tsukaimon and KoKabuterimon in the meantime. Mitsuki got the Fragment of Hope, while Mirai the Fragment of Knowledge.

Elise, Yamato’s daughter, had a different case and encounter.

Elise and the Mysterious BlackGabumon

Elise is a very refined child -- she’s courteous, calm and has a sweet singing voice. She ends up finding a hurt Gabumon in the playground and then asking her cousin Mitsuki to help her to treat the mon’s wounds. While they spend time together, the BlackGabumon starts forming a link with Elise and later, when she’s in danger… He comes to her rescue. However, that BlackGabumon wasn’t unusual -- he was one of the soldiers of Lupinmon’s troops, but he refuses to take part in those activities anymore and then turns into Elise’s partner. Elise receives a blue D-TimeRune, and the Fragment of Friendship.

Meanwhile, Daichi, Ulforce and Natsu were off town and traveling through space-time again, searching for the event which led to Daisuke turning into Lupinmon and stopping it from happening. But Daichi ended up in another alternative world. Since Daichi was so interested in Daisuke’s backstory… He tried to investigate Daisuke’s past, but Natsu prevented him from learning more about it. She immediately “ejected” them from that world, but instead of going back to the Dimensional Space dungeon, she threw them into a battle between… Lupinmon and Ichijouji Ken!?

Somehow, Daichi’s presence there only proved to Ken that Lupinmon was Daisuke -- as the opponent avoided attacking the kid and the others. But this didn’t last for much time, and then Ken had to retreat and take the trio with him. Daichi had to explain to his mother and to Ken what was happening, but they couldn’t let Daichi risk his life like that. But Daichi didn’t talk about his space-time travel mission, or the plan to go back in time and prevent Daisuke from getting captured.

The captured enemies from the previous times Daichi, Ulforce and Natsu had been involved were sent to a special facility to prevent them from getting hurt. There, Ken worked as the lead of the Special Digimon Cases Unit from the police -- an investigation team. Using his best tricks to make the criminals talk, Ken got more information about what was going on and what were Lupinmon’s goal -- to close the gates connecting to the Digital World permanently, separating both worlds from each other again and forever.

Besides Ken, the mysterious kid fighting against the troops -- who later would’ve been revealed to be Taisuke under the “Brave Tamer” alias -- had an excellent intel team on his side: Mirai and Mitsuki. Mirai is a prodigy young girl, with a tinker-like mind and skills. She might be young, but her interest in technology and building/programming stuff only made her become skilled enough to obtain information and stuff from her own father’s network and database. Meanwhile Mitsuki has the power of gathering information by the power of a strong fanbase watching his videos and forum posts. He also has inherited Takaishi Natsuko’s investigative reporter skills, being able to research and get whatever he needs.

Besides that, Ken and the Tokyo Twelve group were also investigating Daisuke’s disappearance. And Ken had to update them with what he had discovered recently. Their Children weren’t aware of those news, so they kept working to protect innocents instead.

The Unknown Trio

Despite everything, a mysterious duo with a Coronamon and a Lunamon popped into the story. Children with no actual background or database -- Chosen Children unknown to Koushiro and Taichi… Or even to the entire Network. Soleil (FR: Sun) and Lune (FR: Moon) were mischievous kids fighting the enemies without any affiliation to a side. There was one more detail: Soleil claimed to be the “new vessel” of Homeostasis, and that he was chosen to eliminate those who were disturbing the peace of the Digital World.

Something fishy, yes. Hikari and the others knew Homeostasis wouldn’t be this harsh, or act as some punisher. Homeostasis is a gentle teacher-like security system. Not a god nor a warrior.

Lune, on the other side, was the peacemaker of the duo -- She’s a psychic like Hikari, so she used her powers in order to find the best peaceful method to put an end to any fight. She seemed to be the one able to reason with Soleil and make him step back or retreat. With those children involved, the Twelve, and the Neo Chosen had this new issue.

But they weren’t alone -- There was a brain in their team, Étoile (FR: Star), but this one didn’t like to appear in public… So they only would learn about his existence a little later. Étoile has a fellow partner, a purple Pokomon/Viximon named Renard. Étoile works as the technician of Solei-Lune’s operations, always saving them when things go south.

Soleil’s hidden background is that he’s the son of a very rich family, but neglected by parents. His real name is Youta, and he’s a year older than Daichi. His nonchalant behavior combined with a charismatic aura makes him irresistible to form an alliance, but deep down he hides a fierce and vigilante demeanor… Resulting in him being quite terrible if you turn him into your enemy. He likes to think he’s a hero of justice, and his senses are quite twisted at this point…

Lune’s secret story is that she's a very smart and talented girl called Mizuki, who used to be doing favors for others all the time, borrowing her notes, letting them work in group projects… But they also liked to ask her for fortune readings, so she was seen as the most popular fortune teller in town. She had this sixth sense and legit psychic powers, lending her to learn in advance what to do and to solve people’s problems. But she’s unable to stand for herself, and is sacrificial in order to bring order and peace. She crosses her path with Youta’s and then they realize they’re made to be partners in this whole war against the darkness and evil.

Later, they find Étoile (whose real name is Noel) and they form an alliance -- whose objective is to beat Lupinmon and any other enemy in their way, to bring peace back to the worlds.

Soleil is Daichi’s “true” rival, and their personalities since they met. Meanwhile, Lune seems to have some interest in Daichi’s pacifism methods.

Soleil has gotten the Fragment of Light, while Lune the Fragment of Energy (which symbol is a stylized Yin-Yang)

A Brief Side-story: Daichi Meets Akira

One of the worlds depicted in the project… Is an alternative timeline where Daisuke managed to get courage enough to confess his feelings for Hikari, who also had strong feelings for him. In this world, Akira and his sister Amy are a duo fighting evil alongside their older cousin Takara (Taichi’s and Saiba Rei’s daughter), who is the leader of their group.

Daichi accidentally goes to this world while trying to go home, but he realizes the couple of people who also exist in this world did not recognize him, or think he, Ulforce and Natsu are allies of the real villain -- Gokumon/Reapermon.

Akira is the clumsiest sweetpie child in town, also a little fired up, who tends to solve stuff in the most peaceful way. His partner is a Plotmon with an unique Tailmon variant form: a Snowshoe-like cat. But, besides that form, Akira is clueless about which form his beloved Hana (the Plotmon’s name) would take in the future.

Natsu’s pendant is stolen by Shadramon, and they have to search for it. With Akira and Takara’s help, they manage to get the pendant back but they are forced to face Shadramon. It’s when Hana evolves into a Snowshoe variant of Nefertimon and alongside Ulforce and Takara’s V-dramon (Zero) they beat it.

This wouldn’t be the last time Daichi & co. would see those kids…

Lupinmon’s Foggy Memories & Meeting Daisuke from the Past

The encounters with Daichi only triggered Daisuke’s memories, and he started to slowly regain control of himself. Still, this wasn’t enough to make him realize he’s the human those people and digimon are talking about. And when he’s this close to connect the dots, Lupinmon’s boss, a higher rank digimon (Perfect level) -- Papillonmon -- used his powers to keep Daisuke under the enemy’s control. So neither Daisuke or Magnamon could do anything… This vile digimon also has a higher rank master, but this will be left to another time.

With Lupinmon’s troops gaining forces, and some other allies of the vile digimon coming through, the Twelve and the Chosen Network have to take action and prevent more chaos and misfortune. At this point Taisuke, Mirai and Mitsuki are too deep into the battle that they cannot go back anymore -- Taisuke then is caught by Kiyoko and Eiji, who complain of him doing all the ‘cool’ stuff all alone. They don’t know what they could do to help now, though… Taisuke gives all the details of what’s happening and then Kiyoko finally learns that his dad is one of the enemies. The shock does not change her desire to come to rescue him. But the only thing that makes her EXTREMELY mad is that Daichi was hiding that secret from her.

Not that Daichi wanted to hide those from her, but more like he was too focused on his goal he couldn’t tell her anything yet. And he wasn’t in town again… Where did Daichi go?

He was finally in the past. But possibly not from his timeline.

Daichi arrived in the past, meeting a 17 year old Daisuke who was still in High School and working harder on his life goal -- But still clueless about how to make this dream come true. At first, this moody Daisuke treats Daichi with suspicion, as if he could read Daichi’s intentions just by looking into the boy’s eyes. Daichi trying to warn him about some enemy didn’t work either.

Daisuke hated the idea of him turning evil and hurting his own friends, he refused to hear that kid’s story -- he won’t believe it at all. Daichi was losing his patience with this, until they’re attacked by an enemy digimon from Duskmon’s army. It’s then when Daichi sees Lighdra-Glaive and the Lightnimon armor in person. He believes it’s too late and that Daisuke had become a digimon already.

Daisuke/Lightni growls as this kid is definitely going to ruin everything and tries to hide from him. V-mon asks why Daisuke is so nervous about the kid’s warnings and he says it’s because this means he would lose his mind and do something worse. V-mon realizes Daisuke means this whole façade is starting to damage his poor mind, and this brings V-mon the flashback of what Ranamon had said about Duskmon. If Daisuke is going to run amok, then…

But no, Daichi is so sure he can prevent this from happening!! He got there! He will… He will save Daisuke at all costs!! Ulforce wonders if Lightnimon is a real digimon though, it felt more like an armor than a ‘digimon form’ … V-mon explains Daisuke is pretending to be a digimon, but this only makes things worse for Daichi & co. -- This means he’s doing it on purpose right? EXCEPT V-mon denies, and says he’s actually doing those because Daisuke got brainwashed by the enemy, Duskmon. Natsu is concerned about Daisuke right now, but V-mon assures her they’re not doing anything evil or bad, and yes beating the enemies all alone.

All Alone… But why? Wasn’t Daisuke’s group of friends able to beat those enemies? V-mon frowns, saying Daisuke is too paranoid and afraid of getting others hurt to indirectly hit him that he’s pulling this whole façade all alone. Ulforce sighs, because this felt like a bad idea, Daichi and Natsu agree. Daisuke stares at them from a distance, that kid really came to ruin his disguise… Daichi comes to talk with Daisuke again, but the other refuses to believe he would turn into the enemy in the future. Daichi shakes his head, saying he’s not talking about that, but rather wanting Daisuke to go back to his friends. Daisuke snaps, that kid really doesn’t understand what’s happening there. Natsu reminds Daisuke the real Daisuke wouldn’t do that and would fight the enemy alongside the group instead. V-mon tries to stop them before Daisuke could do something harsh, but he just sits here pouting like a kid.

It’s not like he doesn’t want to go back to the group… He then says he had done awful things already, he threatened his own friends… He was lying to them, he was toying with everyone… He believes he’s no longer the same anymore. The trio frown, this feels bad… Until Daichi says his friends wouldn’t judge him and if he explains what’s going on they might understand. This is when Daisuke notices the kid is not a legit nuisance like he was thinking of. But they were attacked by Vulturemon, a bounty hunter affiliated to Duskmon.

During the battle, BurningFladramon and Ulforce XV-mon form face it together, with Natsu and Daisuke (as Lightnimon) as support. Once they beat the enemy and Daisuke is safe to be himself, he looks at Daichi: I don’t want your world to disappear because of me. We can handle this by ourselves. If I turn evil… My friends will stop me quickly!!

With those words, and “Please go back to your time and help future-me there” as requested, Daichi realizes what he must do. Then, Natsu opens the gate to the Dimensional Space dungeon and they vanish. Daisuke then says he will come to talk with the others, but then… He sees Ken seeking for Lightni in the middle of the forest. Daisuke looks at V-mon and says that he can’t go back to the group yet, so he asks the digimon to bear with him a little more.

Another Side-story: Daichi Meets Toshi

While trying to return back to his world… Daichi, Ulforce and Natsu are thrown into another alternative future, one where things are even worse than in their home timeline. In this world they meet Toshi, Daisuke and Ken’s adoptive son, who had orphaned when he was very little -- his biological parents were killed by a menace digimon -- Megidramon -- and he had to grow up in a foster house. He escaped from there countless times until he met Daisuke, told his story and then Daisuke decided he couldn’t turn his back on him. In this world, Daisuke and Ken became a couple, and they tried to have a child by a surrogate mother, but they had no success. Toshi’s adoption came in handy, and their family was all happy until the day ChaosDukemon, the other side of Megidramon, came to eliminate that child and the Twelve Chosen.

Daichi arries in the middle of a battle against WaruMonzaemon, one of ChaosDukemon’s lackeys. Toshi’s partner, Shadow the Impmon -- In his Sorcerimon form -- casts a spell to distract the enemy and teleport everyone -- Daichi & co. included -- to a safer place.

There, they learn more about Toshi’s world and what’s happening with him. Apparently him being the ‘bearer of darkness’ is driving dark-evil digimon into their doorstep, and he cannot leave his new family and friends get hurt. Daichi offers him some help, and then they start making a plan to defeat WaruMonzaemon.

In the meantime, Socerimon evolves with the power of forbidden knowledge into Baalmon, and then they get more advantage against the evil lackey. Not only that, but Ulforce evolves into AeroV-dramon but with the V-bracelets in it. Daichi and Toshi are perplexed, since XV-mon is a purebreed V-mon line while V-dramon line is another kind of line. How could Ulforce be able to evolve into a V-dramon family member!? Who knows…

Once they beat WaruMonzaemon, Toshi says he will protect everyone and everything from ChaosDukemon at any cost. Daichi appreciates that vibe and with this he, Ulforce and Natsu return to their home.

Still this wouldn’t be the last time they would see Toshi and Shadow…

The Enemy’s Plan and the Neo Chosen’s Strategy

While Daichi was out, Ken and the others involved in this fight against Lupinmon discovered the plans of those evil digimon: Their original intent was to bring the Digimon Kaiser back and then force the digimon to distrust humans, forcing them to close the gates and separate the Digital World from the Human World again. But those plans were screwed up by Daisuke and his sacrificial tendencies.

But those plans changed -- They were still going after Ken, of course… But for another reason now.

Mirai kept feeding Taisuke and Kiyoko about the details she could get from her father’s database. Eiji and Hoshi were nervous to learn that their father is a target. They couldn’t let that happen, but their parents wouldn’t allow them to get involved.

It was when Daichi returned. He was so sure he had to rescue his father that he didn’t realize that… Yes, all the worlds and timelines he visited before didn’t disappear -- they only generated a divergent timeline from those events. A new door appeared every time he left a timeline.

But now he had to build a plan to save Daisuke. And this is where the other Tokyo Twelve’s children got in. They were so passionate about their families and friends that they would break the orders of their parents and relatives to protect those bonds. Daichi wanted to go alone, but this would only make him commit Daisuke-from-the-past’s mistakes as well. Taisuke, Kiyoko, Eiji and Hoshi offered to come with him and be his backup.

As they go into the Digital World, the group starts unlocking forms based on their Rune Fragment. Aquilamon (Captain) evolves into Hookmon (one which had the perfect-level power); Stingmon (Sting) into Cannonbeemon, BlackTailmon (Kitty) into BlackRapidmon, and Greymon virus (Draki) into MetalGreymon virus. The more they strengthened their bonds with their digimon, the more they started unlocking more and more power in order to beat the enemy’s army.

Daichi then is stopped by a Gennai clone, who sends a countermeasure against Magnamon’s powers to the boy’s digivice. This Gennai clone says it was an important item borrowed from the Holy Beasts. Daichi checks his digivice and notices it’s a golden Digimental. But why would he need a Digimental?? It wasn’t just a regular digimental -- It was the Digimental of Destiny.

The group started to get divided between enemies: Kiyoko and Captain were left behind to fight Mermaimon. Hoshi and Sting against Ookuwagamon, Eiji and Kitty against Doumon. Taisuke and Daichi, alongside their partners and Natsu, went straight to the main goal -- Lupinmon.

But, in their way there’s a MetalTyrannomon. It’s when Taisuke says he will take down that enemy while he leaves the rest to Daichi. Daichi, Ulforce and Natsu agree, and then they move to the next area, going after Lupinmon.

The next obstacle was Magnamon himself. But Magnamon had a black armor instead of the usual golden one. Natsu then realized the Digimental wasn’t for Ulforce and yes for her. But… Can Daichi make a link with Natsu? A digimon already partnered with someone else? Also, what happened with her partner though!?

Natsu’s Armor-Evolution: Magnabbitmon

Natsu is not a usual digimon. She was linked to that space-time dungeon and not partnered with any human before. Or rather, she was partnered with a person from another parallel world: Daisuke’s counterpart of Warlock’s world -- Lance Duskstella. This kid came from a world where the digimon and the humans were in an endless fight in a world made of magic instead. And this kid studied harder to defend the digimon from the humans, imagining a world where both could co-exist in peace. He believed in the existence of this place, and wanted so hard to open a gate to it. Natsu, or rather, ChibiBunnymon was a small digimon which came with a special power: the ability to open gates into the multiverse.

She was hunted by vile people and digimon, and always afraid of everyone… Until she met Lance. It was the first time she went in contact with someone with a person who lacked malice… She became his friend and partner, and then he learned about the existence of other worlds and timelines, events which happened differently… And events he wished to be part of his life. But unlike the others who were chasing Natsu, he never wanted to use her powers for himself. And when he was assassinated… He left with her a spell to find him again.

Or at least, one of his counterparts in the multiverse.

Was Daisuke destined to find Natsu by sheer accident? Or was it part of that spell? Nevertheless, Natsu went looking for this person… For a long long time ago. But Daisuke, Mimi and Wallace never had found a partner for Natsu. And one day… The egg vanished from Mimi’s house. Mimi, Wallace and Daisuke couldn’t explain what happened, or why the egg disappeared, and they had a little hard time dealing with it.

Until… They met again later.

Was Daichi… connected to Lance? Well, maybe? (I’m not going to spoil my other project ok)

Daichi isn’t sure if he can form a link with Natsu, but he had to try. So he did all the steps like if he had no partner digimon already, and it worked. Natsu now was connected to Daichi, and he used the Digimental on her -- She armor evolved into a Magnamon counterpart: Magnabbitmon.

Magnabbitmon was able to face Magnamon’s power equally, and then left Daichi and Ulforce to face Lupinmon all alone.

But could Daichi fight his dad? I mean, he’s a human, right? What if Ulforce killed him by accident!? The kid wasn’t thinking straight… Lupinmon tried attacking them, But Ulforce protected Daichi. XV-mon reminds Daichi this isn’t the right hour to be hesitant, and keeps Lupinmon busy. Daichi starts to think: How can they bring his dad back to his senses? There must be something!!

Then he looks at the goggles hidden under his aviator scarf. Yes… Maybe that could help!! Now what to do with them? He approaches the battle with them on his head, and then jumps on Ulforce’s back the moment his partner backs off. He tells Ulforce to bring him closer to Lupinmon, and that has a plan. Ulforce nods and flies in Lupinmon’s direction, shoving the lupine-like digimon to the wall, and then pinned him on it.

Daichi, on XV-mon’s shoulder, shows the goggles to Lupinmon and starts telling him to remember who he is. Lupinmon starts wavering… But it worked. Daisuke was able to break the mental control pulled by Papillonmon. A strange butterfly shadow leaves his body (in the Magna vs Magnabbit battle, another one leaves Magna’s body) -- Daisuke and Magnamon immediately destroy those with their powers. Daichi asks what was that thing and Daisuke says it was the bug controlling him and Magnamon.

It was when Papillonmon himself appeared and attacked them, Daisuke shielded Daichi and got hit… But instead of dying he turned into a small baby II-like digimon and fell unconscious. Ulforce and Natsu try to attack Papillonmon, but he leaves an army of brainwashed Manticoremon behind. Magnamon had devolved back to Chibimon form due to exhaustion and now there were two baby digimon in Daichi’s arms. The others come right there and they join the fight, opening a path to the exit.

Now that they have rescued Daisuke and V-mon… All they have left is fighting Papillonmon, right?

… Right?

#digimon adventure timelines

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doctor-fancy-pants · 2 years

Text

High Maintenance Holothurians and Why I Live On This Beanbag Now

I have filled MANY buckets with seawater (and seawater ice slushies) and put them in the fridge for the next shot (ie the next collection operation, be it beam trawl, scampi net, or McKenna trawl). That will come up on the next shift, but I like to make sure they have cold seawater available.

This is because we have an ice machine in the lab, and while it sounds like the 80dB tortured shrieks of the hopeless damned (yes, I'm glad I packed my Loop earplugs), it does make ice fairly quickly.

What we cannot make quickly is a 20L bucket of cold seawater for creatures that are used to living at 1000m or more depths, because we might be in the tropics and all, but trust me, at that depth, it's fucking cold.

And if I try to put my holothurians in warm seawater, they will freak out and explode (and shed their intestines). If I put them on ice, without seawater, they will desiccate. That's true of many marine organisms, but while hard-shelled molluscs and hard-carapaced crustaceans can keep their internal environments more damp, echinoderms don't do so well.

(the same goes for jellies, soft corals, and less robust crusties like the little shrimp and prawns.)

Since I want my sea cucumbers to live long enough to be sorted into species (or at least what I think are species, an assessment that comes with error bars, particularly as I am not a holothurian taxonomist), and also counted, weighed, photographed, documented and finally pickled (or blast frozen) with the relevant DNA intact (it starts to degrade upon cell death), that means I spend a not insignificant amount of time lugging 20L buckets from the seawater tap to the fridge and back again.

That was a derail. Where was I? Ah, yes.

I have also done all the ethanol transfers for the current batch of sea cucumbers.

Sea cucumbers have SO MUCH water in their bodies that you can't just stash them in high-grade ethanol and call it a day, because as they absorb the ethanol, the water leaves their tissues and dilutes the surrounding ethanol, and if you were so foolhardy as to pack your holothurians tightly - surely you would not do such a thing, though! - you'll be lucky to have 40% ethanol at the end of that process.

What you will have is a bag (because if you're packing your sea cucumbers tightly in ethanol, probably you've put them in a bag. TSK TSK) of rotting sea cucumbers, which is super-fun to open later on.

What you need to do is try to get your cukes into a jar where they will occupy about 10% of the total volume. Not the one third, two thirds rule that many picklers of critters live by - nope, this is one part in ten.

(I am so bad at estimating the volume of anything that I literally stare at the cuke in the jar and try to mentally superimpose it another 9 times in that space.)

Then you leave them there - preferably in the fridge, to slow down any deterioration (a.k.a. "rotting") - give them a little swirl maybe, and maybe also give them 24 hours. After that, if you can, you should probably change out the ethanol (a full change if you have enough on hand).

After the initial fixing, you can downsize their jar pretty well. It basically depends on how much water is hanging around in those tissues.

Essentially: the holothurians are amazing, but wow, they are high maintenance as hell.

That was a derail. Where was I? Oh yeah.

I have ALSO stashed all the small starfish and brittle stars in the appropriate jars. I put them in little ziploc bags, poke holes in the bags to allow flow through, and then put them all in a large jar full of ethanol.

It's all about surface area to volume ratios (and, yeah, also water content, but that's way less of an issue with the small starfish and brittle stars), and making sure nothing has an air bubble which could allow it to dry out. Sometimes it's a bit fiddly, and I spend a bit more time than I'd like leaning over a jar full of ethanol making sure everything is properly pickled, but overall it works, preserves things very well, and saves ethanol.

(As we can see, my "be thrifty with the ethanol" policy comes to a screeching halt when it hits the "sea cucumbers need HOW much?!" issue.)

That was a derail. Where was I?

Oh, yeah. I have ALSO grabbed a drum liner and prepared a new 60L drum for the specimens, labelled it appropriately and then I have carefully stacked all my stashed specimens from the last day or so into it, thus clearing out almost the entirety of my flammables cabinet.

If this is confusing, fear not: echinoderms are not especially flammable. In fact, as an obligately marine phylum, they are perhaps less flammable than many animal groups! At least, in their natural element.

When they've been pickled in 98-100% ethanol, they become quite flammable indeed, so that's where they live when they're not in the drum (which is a dangerous goods container).

This process did involve me putting a sea cucumber into a Clip Fresh food storage box, which I then sealed with duct tape, because I am an untrusting individual and I have been hurt before, dammit. I also sealed up some plastic bags of very large starfish with duct tape, because it doesn't matter what you do, the bags will leak, even if you double bag, and probably even if you seal them with duct tape, but you know what, you can't say I didn't give it a fair shot.

(I hate, hate, hate putting specimens into bags of ethanol without then putting that bag in a jar. This is how you open a drum of specimens and get greeted by the smell of rotting tissue and ethanol, which is somehow worse than just the smell of rotting tissue. It's like when someone has terrible body odour and doesn't shower for three days and then sprays fucking Norsca all over themselves. The odour is somehow worse than if they hadn't bothered with the belated deodorant.)

(anyways: big starfish mostly do not bend, and they do not fit in jars, and often they do not even fit in off-brand Tupperware, so we make do and hope for the best. Sometimes we fortify that hope through the application of duct tape.)

That was a derail. Where was I?

Look, those were all the things I did AFTER we finished sorting and processing the last trawl... which was extremely light for everyone else, but I got a veritable FIELD of holothurians - over 20kgs of cukes all told - multiple species, including the one known colloquially as the "purple loaf". We got eleven of those.

(Chief Scientist was measuring the purple loaves and said "are we sure we don't have any more purple loaves to measure?" and I looked at my tray of long sea-serpent-esque critters and said, "no, but if you're interested, I have about six magenta baguettes...?")

For some reason, the vast majority of sea cucumbers we have seen on this voyage have been pink, purple, or somewhere on that end of the visible light spectrum. I'm well aware of why red pigment is a popular evolutionary choice for those in the lightless depths, so the pink is entirely reasonable, but the various shades of purple across some extremely different groups of holothurians is new to me.

The 1000m scampi trawl came in with more cukes than anything else, but they were all familiar customers by this point. The 400m beam trawl earlier in the shift had many less sea cucumbers but was more complex in terms of sorting across all the different groups (mostly our Crustacean Expert got hammered there, though that's usually the case. Crusties be *everywhere*, in large numbers, in many many many many different kinds).

What I meant to say, when I first started writing this post, is that... I have done many things and I am very tired and the last week in particular has been bonkers with chaos and I am not moving from this beanbag until the science meeting is finished, unless it's to go get a biscuit from the mess.

The science meeting does not start for another twenty minutes, so I am doing well. And then we do shift handover straight after that.

I was thinking I might go and organise some of the photos we've been taking - to help sort and categorise and link up our records, for groups like holothurians where we don't have a specialist on board to ID them confidently, but I'm wiped, and my feet are angry with me.

Beanbag. I live here now.

...

(I plan to add photos to this post later - I haven't done that because this started out as a Facebook post and then I realised I was writing the blog post I'd been sort of meaning to write for ages, so it was somewhat spontaneous.)

#marine biology #sea cucumbers #holothurians go in the naughty bucket #marine biologists do not lick the science because it secretes a thick layer of protective mucous and ew no #gascoyne2022 #RVinvestigator #everything is flammable in absolute ethanol #do not make molotov cocktails out of echinoderms #duct tape

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handweavers · 2 years

Note

hey Kiran. um. not totally sure how to ask this. but i was hoping you could talk about some of your experiences with university as a disabled person of colour in Canada? bc i am those things as well (lol) and ive just about finished my first term and im thinking hard about whether or not i should continue despite the difficulty and youve spoken about some of that before. if you dont want to talk publicly i can come off anon

i'm okay with talking loosely about it publicly but if you want more precise/specific info talking privately would be better or if you want to know something that i don't mention in this answer. i also can't speak for experiences that i don't have, ie. my experience is my own and may or may not reflect yours or that of other disabled poc given the sheer diversity of people encompassed by that phrase. i'm just going to do bullet points here of stuff i think is most important off the top of my head:

- first of all, see if you qualify for the canada permanent disability student grant benefit if you aren't already receiving it. i'm familiar with OSAP but regardless of what province you're in, if you provide documentation that states you have a permanent disability to your province's student aid system and you show financial need you can receive up to $2000 per semester IN GRANTS (not loans) from the federal government as part of the canada permanent disability student benefit to help you with tuition and paying for other expenses, and even more if you do a spring/summer semester. again, it's paperwork and it's a drag, but that's a LOT of money that can make your life easier so you can focus on taking care of yourself and on your education. and again, i repeat, it's a GRANT not a loan, you don't have to pay it back.

- with that out of the way, i've found university exceptionally difficult and something i would only recommend if going to university is what is needed for the job you want to do or the field you want to be in. if you're unsure of what you want to do/what your goal is for university, or if what you want to do doesn't necessarily require a bachelor's degree, i don't think the pain is worth it. wait or do something else and then if you know for sure what you want and that you need a degree to get there, go ahead, and pace yourself. don't do a full course load, figure out what the sweet spot for you is and stick to that. my max course load is 3 classes per semester, less if i'm doing studio courses. if you have your disability status on file with your uni and with your provincial student aid system, you can take as little as 30-40% course load* (depends on the school and province) and you will still count as a full time student and reap the benefits of that.

- make sure that you have academic accommodations with your university's accessibility services, it can be a lot of work but it will save your life. having that & especially having accommodations that Require professors to give you extensions to assignments is so necessary and is the only reason i've gotten this far. the process for getting this & for getting permanent disability approved for student aid with the government various depending on your disabilities and can be exhausting and inaccessible, which is a problem in itself, but its completely necessary and something I personally would've been completely fucked without

- ive been in post secondary education for 6+ years now and i have never encountered a professor that refused to give me an extension on an assignment, including when I've submitted assignments late without mentioning it to them first, and outside of accommodations I put this largely on keeping an open and friendly communication with my profs. at the start of the semester I let them know that I have accommodations and will need extensions due to physical and mental health issues, and whenever i've had a flare up the first thing I did once I felt well enough to was to email them and let them know, and tell them that I am working on my assignments and will try my best to get them in as soon as I can. I have even submitted assignments weeks late, with an apology and amended with "I understand if this can't be marked/if it's too late, and I thank you for your patience with me regardless" and every single time they have marked my assignment without penalty. even if you have to suck up to them and apologize and do all of that shit, do it, because it'll save you. you don't need to elaborate and write your life story, just speak plainly and tell them you're having issues related to the reasons why you have accommodations and you're struggling but you're trying, and they will appreciate that. the vast majority of them want you to succeed and want to help you do that, you just have to try to meet them partway.

- if something fucked up is going on and you need help with a prof or some other kind of situation, contact your student union and ask them for help and they can either write on your behalf to wherever the complaint is best sent and follow up with it on your behalf OR point you in the right direction and offer support and resources. check if your student union has an accessibility rep and a rep for students of colour and contact them in particular, they are there to help you and they are your peers. they will also almost definitely have a food bank and can help you when it comes to your student medical insurance plan or any other concerns

- if you're on OSAP or other student aid and you need to drop a class, do it early, don't force yourself to suffer through it, because the longer you wait to drop it the higher chance you won't get a refund for the course, and if youre receiving grants that $ will be converted to loans if you don't get that refund. again, this is based on my experience with OSAP, but be aware of drop dates and plan accordingly. if something happens and you miss the drop date though, don't force yourself to suffer and stick through a course you know you cant finish. drop it before you get a 0 or failing mark on your file, because that can fuck you with the university admin side of things and get you on academic probation which can then effect your OSAP or whichever student aid service you have. based on experience I'd rather just get the $500 or however much tuition for that class cost me converted to a loan and deal with paying that back after I graduate, but of course it's entirely up to you.

#long post #sorry for the wall of text #but if you have more specific qs just let me know

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lucysweatslove · 1 year

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Mini-vent re: med school.

So without using exact program names because I don’t want this to be that searchable, I was accepted into my top choice med school. I’m from Montana, and we don’t have our own state MD program. It would apparently cost a lot to establish one. What we have instead is a formal agreement with an MD school in Washington (UW). Basically our state pays for 30 seats at that school, so UW has to admit 30 of us each year. Prior to this, we have to prove we are MT residents through a lengthy process where they check our residence history, voter registration, vehicle registrations, all of our past scholastic records, tax returns, etc.

It used to be that the Montana students move to Seattle, but now we have all of our “book learning” at a university here (MSU). We use their curriculum and resources, but we take classes at MSU, and I think the staff is considered MSU staff. Idk, but all of the classes are officially through MSU. Because of this, we have to technically be enrolled at MSU too. I got my master’s at MSU, and I taught there, so I still have my student + faculty accounts.

I had officially applied to and was accepted into UW’s program. Yay! Applications all in cost my thousands, but probably only a few hundred specific to UW.

Now, however, I have to submit a brand new application to MSU as well. They told me this yesterday. The deadline is Friday. Not a huge issue, but once again I had to supply all the residency documents AGAIN (despite already being classified as an in-state student and going through the other certification), AND I had to pay another $60. And despite being in full compliance with immunizations through UW, I have to re-submit all those documents to MSU, but I can’t do that until I’m successfully admitted which may take a little bit, idk.

They also may need me to re-send in my official transcripts- UW should have mine from when I applied to the med school, but MSU needs a copy of all of them, and there’s no guarantee that the program coordinator has them from my prior application to the master’s program. I emailed the coordinator about it but if I had to resend it, it’s like another $50 I think to get them official transcripts for a third time at this point.

This is definitely a “good problem to have” in the sense that it means med school. But there are just so many hoops to jump through and I don’t like them.

#personal #Lucy goes to med school

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championofnyx · 2 years

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"Keeper of the Lost Cities" And Why Kids Shouldn't Be Allowed To Read It

For those of you who are not familiar with the series, it is a middle-aged 8 book on-going series written by Shannon Messenger about the life of an elve girl Sophies Foster raised by human parents before being taken into the hidden world of elves where she is plopped into a three-way fight between the government and two insurgency factions with different perspectives of how their world should operate, leaving her and her friends left to balance the issues within their society. This, at face value, sounds like a compelling narrative of tweenhood in a turbulent world, yet, it is the world this takes place in and the lack of criticism of its harmful ideals that there is a problem.

Ok, so why am I making this? I read a few of the Keepers books when I was younger but stopped the series around book three and didn't pick it back up again until book 5 when the kid I was babysitting asked me to read it out loud to her. It was kind of a fun moment and she caught me up to speed on book 4 but as we were reading I picked up on some red flags within the writing and world-building. I quickly re-read the whole series (Audiobooks my man, they do wonders for reading time) and realized that this wasn't the best series to introduce younger kids without serious conversation accompanying it. Those red flags would be The Issue of Eugenetic Marriage Limitations, Issues Within the Neverseens and Black Swans Ideals, and Elvan Society. Let's get started.

The Issue of Eugenetics and Marriage Limitations

The issue of Eugenics shows up in several ways throughout this series, most notably, through match lists and the breeding of those with abilities to those with abilities. But before we dive into the Lost Cities, let us talk a little about what eugenics is.

The concept of eugenics has been present throughout much of human history with its first official documentation coming from Plato, yet the concept has been narrowed down simply as "planned breeding". So how does this show up in the Lost Cities? Matches. Essentially, the matches tell you who you should be allowed to have a baby with, the enforcement of which is societal pressure. Now, you may be saying, "but the matches are for marriage and not nessacerally breeding" and to that, I point you to one main function of the matching process, the limit the possibility of marring a relative, which would only become an issue if these matches were made to have children. As well as this line: "'Progress, Prosperity, Permanence, and Proliferation,' Grady told her. 'The goals of every match.'" In which it is admitted that one of the main goals of matchmaking is proliferation, increasing the population of the elves. More so, those who have abilities are never matched with those who do not have abilities. And those who possess abilities are viewed as less than for having married and had children with the person without abilities. As if they are tainted. As well as any children they have been tainted by the union, which is shown through the wretched treatment of the Dizznee kids. The entire purpose of match marking is to breed desirable children to increase the population of elves.

Elvan Society

Elvan society is run by a council of the elvan elite that has full jurisdiction of governing, laws, and their enforcement, and the only military presence in the cities, the Goblins whose services are paid for through an alliance with a foreign power and rule through proxies of other talented individuals who are viewed also as elites within society. The entrance of the social elite on the council level is determined by closed doors votes, and on the regency level through an appointment that is reserved for those with favorable birth or great physical ability. While there is so much that I could talk about elvan society, I want to focus on the issue of the Talentless.

They are sectioned off from society greatly and live in a working-class town such as Mysterium are barred from entering governmental service and the elite class through social norms upheld by the ruling body. They are essentially removed from the main society as we know it with a few exceptions to those deemed 'valuable'. Kesler is a talented potion maker who is sought after by the elite class and therefore allowed to engage in normal society. Timkin Hek is from a well-established family and married into a well-established family and is allowed to stay. And while this 'othering' and social exclusion of those who do not seem as contributing to society, what is more, terrifying is the treatment of those who step outside of the social order subjected.

There have been throw-away sentences about labor camps where people not contributing to society, criminals, and those without abilities, are sent to be useful. As well as youth who have committed the offense of not being able to handle their abilities are sent into Exillium where they are re-educated to become more obedient members of society. And if not, they are sent to live on the fringes of society, serving it but never being allowed to reenter.

The Issue Of The Neverseen and Black Swan

At this point, many of you would say that this issue is being addressed by the Black Swan and Neverseen, but I reject that. Let's talk about the Black Swan first.

The Black Swan is an organization that works with the preexisting social structure that facilitates the mistreatment of its citizens to make a change while upholding the order. They haven't talked about dissolving the council and system of regency, but rather want the council and ruling class to adopt their ideals to bring social change. In this endeavor, they have genetically modified a child with the hope of raising her to be a weapon in this movement of social change, impregnated a woman unknowing with a child that was not hers, and stalked said child throughout her youth. And who, from the perspective of the narrative, are good people who hold the means for successful social change.

Now, the Neverseen is viewed as an antagonistic force that wishes for a complete upheaval of the social order so that the discrimination that many of its members experience, and what drove them into this line of work, is dissolved. Yes, they engage in terrorism, but if Sophie was created by the Neverseen, the story would be similar to Hunger Games or Divergent. There is a mentality that "one person's terrorist is another freedom fighter" and while I can debate the market of that sentiment until I lose my voice, it's present thought out middle-grade and YA literature. Dissolving the council is the most efficient way to change the disparity and watch predjust within the elvan society and yet they are labeled as the bad guys. Some problems can not be fixed within a broken society, that is why we have rebellions, and the Blackswan is not a rebel organization, they haven't been since they cozied up to the council around book six, they are reformers. And when a society is so entrenched in a cycle of oppression, reform can only come in the wake of upheaval. Sometimes, you need people willing to destroy a system to make a new one.

I know many will say that the series is ongoing and has time to address these societal issues, and to that I say, the ninth book is being released soon. Why wait for eight books? Silence is a wretched weapon when produced at the right times.

Conclusion

With everything that I have said throughout this post, I want you to think of another time in history when there have been limitations on marriage with those deemed as less than others and who was allowed to have children with who was mandated by the government as to keep genetic balance within society. When undesirables were cast out of society, either for reeducation or an invisible labor force. Yes, the Blackswan seemed to be fighting for social change. But they are looking to keep the regime and change the laws that produce inequality. Rember when I asked you to think about history? How many people do you know that think the Nazis should have stayed in power if they rewrote the Numenburg Laws? How would you feel if someone was teaching that to children?

#Keeper of the Lost Cities #Literacy Criticism #If you disagree please comment I would love to opportunity to clarify any points that I made #I didn't write this out of hate for Shannon Messenger but rather acknowledgment of the harmful traits carried in her books

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