#why is science so shite

[rmsstevielol]

i am Alexander Hamilton, he is me.

(im writing my arse off, revising for exams😣)

[timeisacephalopod]

Love atheist communities that hate Christianity but reproduce every single issue Christianity has right down to the racism, wild misogyny, and of all fuckin things evangelizing atheism by sending religious people rude ass 'gotcha' type reactionary content to like idk, recruit people to atheism the way Certian Brands of Christian recruit literally anyone to their religion.

Like yes this atheism is what I see a lot of white men participating in, but like how dense do you have to be to only ditch the GOD part of religion and nothing else while claiming you're intellectually superior to religious folks like a great many incredibly talented and smart people in various sciences weren't religious?

[forestshadow-wolf]

It's raining, ghost idly notes. Technically he should be focusing on the field briefing that they're getting, but they'd already gooten one when assigned, one before they left base, and one on the plane ride here. So really, they're just talking in cirlces now.

Price is at the front of the table explaining the plan, which they have to wait four hours to even begin acting on, standing next to the open laptop showing all the documents they need.

Gaz is trying very poorly to act like he's listening. Poorly because he's been flicking wadded up pieces of paper at price (who is ignoring it pretty well)

Ghost usually doesn't sit during briefings, he gets distracted, so he takes up a spot by the wall.

But soap, uncharacteristically is also leaning up against the wall next to him. Usually he playing footsies.with gaz across the table, but not today.

Price is still droning on about the mission blah blah blah, ok well not blah blah blah but it's nothing he hasn't already memorized.

He watches soap squeeze tightly at his knee again, for the third time in the last 20 minutes, as far as he cam reach without making it obvious. Ghost also notes that he's stiffer than usual.

He leans into soap's space just a bit, "you 'kay?" He whispers. Soap nods almost imperceptibly.

"Yeah, why?" He hisses.

"It's just... you know you can sit down right?" He says, gesturing slightly to the 3 open chairs at the table. One of which would normally be occupied by a certain scot anyway.

"Yea- I knoe tha', I chose to stand for a reason."

"Well- I was jus' sayin', ya look uncomfortable, s' all."

"I am, tha's why I'm standing."

"Yeah, 'cus that makes sense-"

"Are you two done arguing yet?" Price cuts in. Soap looks just as chastised as Ghost feels, which... is really only enough to fake it.

"Yes, sir." They both respond, and peice goes back to his rambling.

The meeting ends soon enough, and they're finally released to get ready or whatever they need to do.

"You sure you’re okay, johnny?" Ghost catches a stiff legged soap just before he leaves.

"Aye, s' rain s'all" Ghost isn't really sure what that has to do with anything, and he says as much. "I fucked up my knee a few years ago, it's fine now, the rain just makes it act up a little. Something Something low pressure atmosphere, basic science, I think."

"Okay, well you know you could sit down. Would probably help." Ghost suggests... again

"Yeah and I'll not stand up again, not with this wanker" soap snorts at him, referring to his knee. Ghost frowns.

"Well... anything I can do to help?", soap shifts from one foot to the other.

"Not unless you got me some new knees. It's fine, Ghost, I'm still mission ready if that's what you're worried about. I actually had to redo the fitness tests once I healed up just to make sure I could still do my job."

"..."

"What?" Soap shifts hsi weight again

"... that's really.. not what I was asking about."

"Aye, well- what do you brits say- 'cheers, mate' I'm fine. Swear it."

"And that's why you're limping around?" Sure, maybe a bit of an exaggeration, but it's not technically inaccurate.

"I'm no' 'limping' around, and even if I was it's hardly noticeable. Why do you even care so much, it's no' you're problem." Soap sasses back.

"Well, I'd like to help if I can-"

"How? You gonna shout it outta me? There ain't shite you can do for it. Just leave it be, aye?"

"... fine, but I can help if you let me."

"Aye, I'll keep that in mind, thanks." And then he was walking away, off to do whatever he need to do before their mission.

Ghost makes a note to himself to ask about it again after they're back on base.

[sgiandubh]

I think it's interesting that people (you included) will not find fault with Caitriona. She's on social media but not acknowledging anything or anyone and it's stated well she did it privately. You don't know what she did privately. You stating it doesn't make it true. Stans on Twitter claiming up and down, it's because she has a husband and child, so they can see how weird it looks that she ignores everything, but think of excuses. Lots of people have a spouse and child, yet take 45 seconds to publicly acknowledge things. Sam gets made fun of for selling or promoting (you included) but Cait is precious and fault on her part is not a thing. Why?

Dear Find Fault Anon,

One more time (and I shall always repeat it, until we get somewhere): I am not interested in S and C separately and I dare to think, based on things I do know, that this is not a possibility. Therefore, I shall always consider them as an entity and I am not a Caitriona Balfe stan. Between you and me, I think this is the most ridiculous accusation you could have thought of: usually people shout at me for being an S worshipper, which is not the case.

How could I, Anon? These people are my age, FFS!

Yes, it's very poor manners of C not to thank the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films for that award. But you seem to conveniently forget the tiny detail that S did not congratulate her on social media, either. And, lest I forget, neither did Skeleton, who wouldn't have missed the coat-tailing opportunity for the world, I think and who genuinely likes both of them. S is the only one half-heartedly promoting OL on his socials. For example, I know you don't give a shite about him (I do), but did you hear anything else OL related from Vandervaart, since promo was over? Or John Bell, for that matter?

Nope. You haven't. They all seem to have vanished into thin air, only to materialize when *** will finally decide to put us out of our misery and broadcast Season 7B.

To me, this is the sign something is brewing. I have no speculation to offer, just something that makes you go hmmm. Eventually, though, dots will connect, things will make sense. They always do.

You seem unhappy with my pragmatic take on things, by which I stand: we don't know a thing about this situation and can only speculate. And guess what, my dear: neither do you.

But sure, feel free to focus on nitpicking. That makes you the ideal fodder for this silly game currently being played. Focus on Insta follows opening trails that lead you nowhere and on online times, if it makes you happy. I couldn't care less, Anon. But don't come here stirring shit because you are bored and looking forward to engage with someone. You are barking up the wrong tree.

Finally, I hope you know the difference between opinions and facts. If you don't, by now, I am very sorry and somewhat worried for you. Truly.

[dubiousduskwight]

Day 9: Lend an Ear

Every time he heard the chime of the linkpearl, Rorogino shut his eyes in what was now instinct. Most of the time this wasn’t an issue, but it never failed to interrupt his flow when it happened while painting. Sighing, he looked past his reference picture, gave his patron an apologetic look, and set down his brush to bring his hand to his ear, daubing it in a sandy brown while he did so.

“Hey, ma.” His eyes remained closed as he listened to the conversation on the other end of the line. She was still arguing with his youngest sister, he could tell, but didn’t question why she’d call anyway. Hamletfolk had weird habits. Came from living under a dome with a fake sun, and he couldn’t say he hadn’t picked up a few of his own.

“Yeah, ma,” he replied. “Yeah. No, coin’s coming in.” He opened one eye to look over at the new client and winced, again in apology. She held up her hands to signal a silent understanding. “No, no grant money.”

The tone shifted, and his voice took on a note of annoyance, concealed under surprise. “Wow, a new vilekin? He did? That’s great. Hey, listen, I’m painting, can you call me in a bell – no, of course I’m not doing that. I said I wouldn’t.” He gave a flat look at the canvas. “Ma, it’s a landscape.” This was true: a sketch of the southern Shroud between the forest proper and Highbridge was taking shape on his canvas. “I’ll call back. I will. I mean it. All the best to the rest.”

He ended the call, and exhaled. “Only way she’d let me off the island without a panic,” he explained, tapping the ear that held the linkpearl. “Never calls at a reasonable hour. I told her when I was free, but you think she remembers? Nah.”

“That’s family, I suppose,” said his client, who offered him a small smile and kept her hands folded in her lap.

“Yeah, I suppose.” He picked up his brush, paused, and put it back down before reaching for his pallette. “’New vilekin’,” he said, sneering. “He’s a research assistant. Probably just cleaned up the writing. Or just cleaned up the lab. Always acting like he was working on the Ragnarok. But it’s in the sciences, it’s a good job. It’s not - “ He gestured at his canvas. “You know.”

“Of course. We do value the sciences in Ishgard, but we’re an art-loving lot. It’s a shame there are people in Sharlayan who can’t see that.”

“The poetry department does all right for itself,” Rorogino conceded. “Somehow. But I mean. I’m out here making money, doing something practical, but I gotta act like a guy who stands up to take a shite is the smartest man on the isle.” “...Did you mean ‘sits down to -' “

“I know what I said. Sorry, sorry, we should get on with this.” He pointed at the canvas, where a bare patch of the winding road between Thanalan and the Shroud hadn’t yet been painted in. “You want the pit to go here?”

His patron stepped around him to peer at the location, and gave an approving smile. “Just so. We’ll lead the ambush from there.” “Great. If you got that soil like I asked, we can get started.”

[keepthedelta]

i have to ask,,,, why is it that f1 and the us just have the worst history with each other??? like ive read a few things (i.e the many many attempts of f1 to break into the american market) and it seems like historically, f1 and its relationship w the states is just shite,,,,, even amongst fans it just seems like nobody wants to race in the states???? they’re not even trying to hide the fact that they’re actively preventing an american team from joining the sport???? idk i feel like the issues with f1 and the states have been going on for so long its baffling no ones managed to fix it after all these years

(just gonna put it out there that i am not american and have no horse in this race i just found it odd lol…. is this whole thing just classic europe hating the us?? who knows)

okay this one took me a while because i wanted to think it through properly. bear in mind that i am neither american or european, but i think it's a combination of several things.

one of them is absolutely the classic europe hating the usa etc. etc. us culture is very prominent across the world. it doesn't matter where you are, you're probably going to have watched american films, american tv shows, listened to american music. i'm not going to go so far as to say that they have a cultural monopoly, but it definitely drowns out a lot of local cultural experiences. on the internet you are expected to know, understand and be able to contextualise so many different aspects of american culture, and the favour is never returned. i think europe (broadly speaking, and obviously there is nuance within the continent) is also quite "precious" about their cultural legacy. the west in general views itself as the origin of civilisation, and as the birthplace of good music, good food, good art, of science and beauty. and so i think some of it is a petty battle between the cultural dominance of the us, and the perceived cultural heritage of europe.

and when you look at that in specific f1 terms, europe has a lot of very historic, very iconic tracks that fans really love. monaco, imola, silverstone, the nurburgring (although f1 hasn't raced there in a while). the usa has great, iconic tracks, but f1 doesn't race there. the best american track on the calendar is cota, which i've said before i don't consider to be an especially good track. it sometimes gives good racing, but every element of it is taken from another track. yes the senna esses is a great section of a track, but i would rather see it raced in interlagos, where they fit in with the rest of the track naturally. i love the fast sweeping corners of maggotts-becketts-chapel but i like seeing people race those corners in silverstone, where they are a natural part of the track and environment. cota is just a series of corners taken from other tracks and stuck together. with respect to any americans reading, it feels like a very american thing, to take elements of other nations and strip them of personality and feeling.

other than cota, all the american tracks are street circuits, and there's only so much excitement to be had there. yes the walls are narrow and you run the risk of crashing, but i don't believe that carnage is really that entertaining (i support chaos, not carnage). drivers crashing should not be the only "interesting" aspect of a race. and most street circuits fundamentally cannot provide enough interesting corners, elevation changes, structural interest to make them enjoyable. when you add in the danger and destruction that has come from the actual track part of street circuits like vegas and baku, i really don't believe it adds anything to the racing.

there's also one specific difference between american attitudes towards sport and european attitudes that i think is a factor here, and that is the "show" element. europeans love their sport, but the point of it is the sport. if you tried to do a halftime show in a european football match, i'm pretty sure you would be booed off. beyoncé could show up, and the fans would still tell her to step aside so they can watch jude bellingham kick a ball. the show element is much more important to americans, and you see it in the driver introductions at miami and vegas, the celebrity and influencer packed trackwalks etc, and i think that a lot of europeans see it as americans sullying their sport (because f1, and motor racing more broadly, did originate in europe) with their performances, because to them, the important thing is the sport.

america does have a very long history of motorsport, but it has mostly been contained within america, and the sheer size and population of america allows for viewing figures, sponsorship, money, that the rest of the world cannot compete with. nascar is one of the most watched sporting events in the world, solely based on american fans. and the origins of sports like nascar are unique to america. nascar originated in bootleggers smuggling alcohol during prohibition, and the rest of the world didn't have prohibition, so our motorsports are vastly different and cannot connect to american audiences in the same way.

there's also the fact that for much of it's history, the engineering side of motor racing has come from road car manufacturers who then developed cars specifically for racing. for instance, ferrari made road cars to sell to people to drive themselves, but developed a sporting side of the company specifically for racing. this was also the case for america, but because of the us's geographical distance from europe and political isolationism that promoted american made products over imports (this isn't unusual, but i think it's emphasised because the usa is so big and has such a large population) america never had the connection to the big european manufacturers that have historically dominated f1.

having said all that, i will say that f1 did once have a foothold in america. it was never as popular as nascar, but it did genuinely have audiences in the hundreds of thousands. but then the 2005 us grand prix happened. if you don't know, the 2005 us grand prix is an infamous race. at that time there were two tyre suppliers, bridgestone and michelin. ferrari, jordan, and minardi (jordan and minardi being backmarker teams) all used bridgestones while everyone else used michelin tyres. during practice toyota experienced two tyre failures, causing major accidents for ralph schumacher and ricardo zonta. michelin's investigation revealed a flaw in the tyres which meant that they would not be able to withstand more than 10 laps on indianapolis's banked circuit. at the time, teams were not allowed to change tyres during the race. there was a lot of discussion and disagreement about what to do, with suggestions including adding a chicane, running it as a non-championship race, or even making pit-stops every 10 laps, but nothing could be agreed upon, and so after the formation lap all of the teams using michelin tyres withdrew from the race, leaving just six cars (two ferraris and four backmarkers) on the grid.

it was one of the least interesting but most controversial races in f1 history, and the american fans were furious. there were more than 100,000 fans present that day, many of them having travelled for miles and spent a lot of money and they got one of the worst races in f1 history. what f1 fanbase existed in america before that was pretty much killed off right then and there.

[leechfur]

icl the episode ‘a swedish science thing and the equation for toast’ (s2ep22) in young sheldon honestly made me emotional, especially this part: :'-d

"but in that moment, i felt like a neutrino. destined to be alone. forever."

i think it got to me because, as an autistic person, this part felt relatable. he genuinely believed people gaf, lol. i know his lack of self-awareness is meant for laughs. we're supposed to find it funny how clueless he is about others lying, their tone, even when they're clearly annoyed or bothered by him. most of the time, those moments are funny to me. but with this final scene, it definitely  hurt X-D . like hes just like me omg. i think every autistic person can relate to not fitting in, being seen as odd, and not realizing just how strange others find you until a certain event brings it to light. then you feel embarrassed, like a fool, questioning why you're so different and why no one seems to like you. it really does feel like you're going to be alone forever just because you're a too weird. this is why i cherish the early seasons of young sheldon. while they play on sheldon's social ineptness for laughs, there are these moments where they delve deeper and truly make us actually empathize with him. sadly, i feel they lost that touch in the later seasons (like 4-7), making him more grating and insufferable, and it felt as if everyone actually just fucking loathed him. it was sort of the ongoing joke, but it felt like it was taken to the extreme... haha.hahaha

but returning to the episode clip, the montage (?) with the tbbt characters as kids and then the "...thankfully, i was wrong" (linking back to the neutrino quote earlier)... AGHH, screamed whimpered internally. it made me think of my friends and boyfriend, and it just made me incrediblu happy. Its a good reminder that no you should embrace your quirks, and that there's a place in this world where you belong, surrounded by those who cherish you just as you are

this isnt even GOING into the dr sturgis stuff holy shite

[jinx-on-mars-19xx]

Holy Water

Not Natural

The Devil's Trap

Dom x Colson (Yungblud x Machine Gun Kelly)

Warnings: still new so not many, a hint of slow burn, spn inspired, alpha/omega dynamics, demon Kells, hunter Dom, teasing, insults, blood, pain, mentions of a curse, unsafe driving, boys being playful and mean to each other, threats, innuendo, edging if you squint, flirting ⚰️ rating: mature

"Do you play with yourself?" Dom was so shocked by the purred voice and sudden appearance of a demon in his car that he swerved into the other lane and cursed as he tried to right the wheels. Thankfully it was a long stretch of straight highway and late enough no one else was around but he was still annoyed. The bastard disappeared after making him feel weird about his curse and that was his first question back?

"The fuck you on about?" He grumbled back, cracking his neck and clenching his fingers around the steering wheel. He had been getting sleepy but he certainly wasn't anymore. His heart was racing and he couldn't help but squeeze his thighs.

"Do. You. Play?" The demon asked, his voice dripping with something akin to lust but Dom knew it couldn't be for him. The wanker was just teasing him, he was sure of it.

"Don't everyone?" He huffed back, completely ignoring the point of what the beast asked. He knew what Kells was asking but he didn't have to share everything.

"I'm talking about- Do you touch your pussy Dominic?" Kells didn't know why it was bugging him so much and he tried to sound nonchalant but he knew he was failing. He'd tried to leave and focus on anything else all fucking day but the image of those plush spread thighs was burned into his retinas. Since finally talking to the Hunter he couldn't seem to stay away for more than a few hours.

Dom clenched his thighs again, his breath coming a little faster. He'd gone years barely ever thinking about the extra hole between his legs- he ignored it as much as he could. For a few days every month he would notice himself a little extra tingly but otherwise he acted as if it didn't exist. Now it felt like a near constant buzz as if he'd shoved a toy inside himself, something he'd never actually done. Not that a monster deserved to know.

"Do you get wet?" Kells asked, his voice low in the darkness. The car was starting to feel too small for such an ancient rumbling giant of one. There was more than enough space but neither of them felt like it anymore. The demon took a deep breath and turned sideways, sprawling himself across the bench seat. His sunglasses slid down his nose as he watched the boy. The human. The thing that should be his enemy. Why did he care? How long could he say-

"Why?"

"For science." Yeah that didn't work. "Why are you scared to answer? I'd tell you all about it if I had one. Let's just say I'm curious."

"Yeah but you a slut." Dom teased and in the shadows he could see that Cheshire grin spread across the demon's face.

"And you're a fucking prude. Come on, you can tell me. I'm amazing at keeping secrets." He sighed as he eased across the seat, inching closer to the human whose scent wouldn't leave his mind. "When it's late and you're stuck in those ratty old beds and you're lonely, do you explore yourself? Do you touch yourself and soak yourself and bury your fingers in that pretty tight cu- shit!" Before he could reach the kid Dom swerved the car again, sending him tumbling back against the door to hit his head on the window. Hard. He was pretty sure he heard it crack but that might have been his skull. Shit.

"Contrary to your fucking massively inflated ego- I ain't trying to fuck you Kells. You don't get to ask shite like tha' outta the bloody blue. Now be a good bitch and stay." Dom growled, his nostrils flaring with his soft plush lip raised in a snarl.

The demon couldn't help but laugh, no matter what Dom said he could taste his desire in the air. Kells knew he was hot. Besides, he knew the demon who had cursed Dom, the monster the boy had almost had a relationship with. He knew he was the punk's type. He'd meant to just fuck with him but he found himself more turned on than he'd been in so long. There was something about the faux omega that tickled his instincts and it bugged him. Attraction gave someone power over you. He was just trying to take his power back. "Oh Domie, I'm not the bitch here. Besides, I already know the answer. You're too much a fucking prude to have any fun but you do get wet. I can smell you."

Dom's blood was boiling. He hadn't asked for help. He hadn't asked for the bastard to tag along and pick at every insecurity he had. He hadn't asked to be slipped that crimson mickey that he was sure was the only reason he was looking twice at the literal demon in his car. That was the problem here, the blood. That's all that was making him- "Oh god." The beast was right- he was wet. He'd never really been wet. It wasn't much but enough to feel sticky and warm between his legs and he was starting to regret wearing his pants so high. The ridge of his inseam was riding up between his folds and driving him mad.

"Mmm, definitely not that bastard." Kells teased, he knew he was in trouble but it wasn't like the kid could actually hurt him. He didn't have the weaponry. Everything else he tried was honestly just foreplay, even the hot blood trickling through his blonde hair to soak into the back of his shirt felt like a display of lust. A pleasurable tease. A first step to them finding their way to bed together but he knew he shouldn't. He truly had come to help the Hunter find their shared enemy.

"Cute. Why you back Kells?" Dom huffed, trying not to squirm too much in his seat. He wouldn't give the monster the satisfaction.

"We're hunting together." He shrugged, taking his glasses off and folding them before he slipped them into his pocket. He tried to lean back and get comfortable but it was difficult. His pants were too tight and his cock too hard. He was just glad the boy didn't know how much a fuck up he really was, how disgusting he was. Being a demon was one thing but the thoughts he had about the kid? Shit.

"No, you're stalking me while I'm 'unting."

"Same difference."

"It's really not. If I told you to fuck off again?"

"Did it work last time?" The demon grinned, sticking his tongue out as the boy sighed deep. "Do you need to ride?"

Dom choked on spit and spluttered, stuttering a moment as he glanced to the monster with wide eyes. "Wha'?"

The human almost shrieked but he could feel his blood inside him all rushing south. "Do you need me to drive for a while? What the fuck dude? Settle."

"Oi! No one touches me car." Dom knew he had to have done that on purpose. He wasn't sure why he was being tortured with the demon but he knew logically the fucker could help. "I'm stopping in a bit. Found a job nearby. We can find a motel and you can fuck off."

"So you can touch yourself?"

"So I can bloody sleep!" Even Dom didn't know his voice could go so high pitch but the beast brought something out in him.

"Nah, I think I'll stick around for a bit. Don't worry, I won't steal your blankets but I might use all the hot water." He couldn't help chuckling as the human whined for him but he didn't say anything against him staying.

Suddenly there was a hand under Dom's ass, those long fingers were groping and squeezing and the trickle of heat between his legs felt like a flood. His breath caught in his chest as the tingling became a live wire and he made a noise that sounded a little bit too much like a moan. He froze, he couldn't help it. There was something that went soft in his mind but as quickly as it was there the touch was gone. "Did you jus' take me wallet?" His voice was thready but laced with annoyance and when Kells laughed and patted over his thigh he kept himself from jumping.

"I'll go ahead of you and get us a room. Last one there gets to bottom!" The demon disappeared, his deep sensual laugh echoing in Dom's ears as he tightened his fists and pressed down on the gas. He knew he'd get there too late but he didn't know why the thought almost excited him. The devil was joking and he wouldn't allow it anyway. Fuck what was wrong with him? It was going to be a long fucking night.

Author's Note/Tags: @iamnotanearthlingmotherfucker @hollywoodxwhore @jaxbreaker @fenoy7 @cole-way-iero28 🖤

Sorry, I know this was short but I'm really sick after the past few days. Bad flare. Big bad 😅 I didn't want to leave y'all with nothing though and I'm having fun just getting these boys set up in this story. I hope you enjoyed it! I have a lot of ideas for this one⚰️🖤

[weirdly-specific-but-ok]

Hiiiii!!!

The Hindi songs guy again (salaamat recommendation, if "Hindi songs guy" is too vague)! Firstly, thanks for telling the name of the song, I listened to it and *sighs* it was them!

Secondly, i didn't know you were from India too! Got to know some days ago from your posts, and then just read your post when you were drunk and telling about India. And I fully agree, it was accurate (and as a North Indian, I'm sorry for the racism🙊). And I'm also sorry about the transphobia and every other awfulness you might've experienced. I love youuuu (sorry if this is too weird🙆🏻‍♂️). Also, the career prospects thing was 100% true: I was 'supposed' to become a doctor, but I had taken science just coz i liked it, and then there was a three years long tragic battle against doctor as a career, and then finally after a failed suicide attempt, I was able to choose English Literature, and things are only now (5 years after the fact) looking better....sooooo I guess your fears about college are totally valid but it will be better, you'll meet great people and learn so much beautiful stuff and create sooo many brilliant thingss! Again, I love youuu (and again, sorry if all of it is too much info, too weird, I'm just...weirdly emotional, idk why)

Thirdly, I really like your name! Asmi is a beautifullll nameee!

Fourthly, sorryy for the long and weird ask, just... I'm glad to know someone else from India here, who's also a Good Omens fan and evidently a lovely person. Sooo lots of long tight hugss!

Lastly, sorry for all the sorrys, and you can totally ignore this if it's uncomfortable or anything (if you couldn't tell by the sorrys, I'm super self-conscious, so thanks for the anonymous option)

Love and hugss, and best of luck for college, for your art, and life in general!❤️

Hey anon maggot! I'm so happy you listened to the song and loved it.

And thank you so much for sharing this with me. It's awful that you had to go through all of that, and I'm so proud of you for surviving. I spent three years preparing for medicine too (11th and 12th year, which caused me to fall sick and miss the NEET test, so I took a gap year etc) and I really did want it. Well, I thought I did. It was more that I didn't think I had any other choice.

TW: explicit mentions of transphobia and disregard and discrimination on the basis of mental health below. Skip the below paragraph if you need to.

I'm glad you're doing better. Yeah, I am not looking forward to college. I know there will be fun parts and all. But I had a go at college for three months back in August, and despite it being very liberal and open and stuff in theory, I had to drop out because the entire student body was isolating me because of my mental health and things my ex-roommate had said about me, and a lot of transphobia from the admin too. When I went to the dean and told her I felt unsafe and the environment was horrible, she told me to stop being so self-absorbed (and then denied she said that the next day to my parents). Luckily after the whole medical ordeal my parents had learned to listen to me and they helped me leave.

I will try again. It's just that it's... disheartening. That was design school, too, just like my next college will be. And I really did try my best. It's weird thinking about all that stuff because Tumblr and you maggots have kind of, well, healed it in a way, and given me such a safe space here that it feels unbelievable that the real world could be so, so fucking shite. Apologies for the vent here, but I do want to be honest, and I want everyone who's faced the same thing to know that they're not alone. Because I know so many people, too many, who've been there.

Thank god for Good Omens and you all. For the ridiculous amount of support and love and joy I've got here. It's easier to forget about all of it for a while when I focus on Crowley's pouts and Aziraphale smiling and making you all laugh.

And hey, you have nothing to feel sorry for. I'm so grateful to you for taking the time to write this. I love you too, anon maggot, so very much. Take all the tight hugs right back. I'm so proud of you for fighting for the future you wanted and deserved. I know it's not easy, both to fight with your internalised doubt and the others.

I'm so proud.

Good luck.

All the love, Asmi

[heartwoodventures]

Potions Lesson

Ziv gasps at the setup, marveling at the little alchemy stations. "Ohh how lovely..."

Leo looks around. "It looks cozy."

Ziv nods. "Potions class could not have come sooner..." he grumbles with ginger pat to his side. "I am very eager to learn how to brew a good potion. The timing is...well timed."

Leo ponders over Ziv Zorasch.

Silaena: ..Why do you need potions, exactly?

Aislinn blinks owlishly and looks up from the cup of coffee in her hands as people begin to arrive. Clearly, wandering out from the maze of her thoughts, Aislinn gives her head a shake and waves people in. “Grab a spot at any of the tables. We’ll double up and share as need be.” She explains, her low, soft-spoken voice stretching in an attempt to reach across the room.

Leo: "Is it because you have something odd going on with you and you can't take healing magic right now?"

Nonoli looks around. "There's no stools...!"

Ziv: "Potions, they help with the pain of injuries, you see..."

Leo walks up to a spot and then starts to browse through things, looking at the bottles. and things on the table.

Ziv: "The tables are short enough, I think you'll do fine."

Leo nods to Ziv Zorasch. "It should be okay Noli."

Aislinn goes and sets her coffee down on the counter as she waits for people to settle in. To Nonoli's point, she tilts her head, considering. "If you need, I can go and grab one from downstairs."

Rising Lotus had already set herself up at a table, eyes looking over all the ingredients she sort of just wanted to, dump all together haphazardly. She was able to fight the urge for now though. "...isn't this jus' like cookin' but for shite you can't exactly eat some times?"

Nonoli furrows her brow.

Riylli waves eagerly to Aislinn as she enters the classroom. "Hey! I got a Starlight present for ya! I was gonna give it to you at G'lewra's but I guess y'couldn't make it? Ill wait 'till after the class though! Dont wanna disrupt the teacher."

Ziv: "Or just jump -on- the table." Ziv shrugs at Nonoli Noli.

Nonoli is frustrated with Ziv .

Leo smiles at Ziv.

Nonoli : "And block the love of science with my rump!? I don't think so!"

Leo: "That may not be a great idea. Want me to go find you a stool Noli?"

Aislinn eyes Rising as she takes in the ingredients and decides leaving the room might not be the best idea. She looks to Leo “Aye, if you wouldn’t mind popping downstairs and grabbing a stool. Then we can get started.”

Turning to Rising, she tilts her head. "Aye, it's a little like cooking. Except supposing if you get creative in the kitchen and add too much salt it probably won't hurt you."

Silaena: Hm. Mind terribly being my station partner, Ziv?

Ziv nods to Silaena. "Not at all, by all means feel free."

M'shara approaches a table and begins going over the supplies on it.

Nonoli seems lost in thought. "I should probably get a stool from downstairs... I'll be right back."

Leo Veldha ponders over Nonoli Noli.

Silaena runs her hands over the little station, clearly familiarizing herself with the contents. "Fair warning, every time I've tried to learn alchemy, it's exploded horribly."

Ziv: "Oh dear, well at least there will be healers nearby in case a flask explodes or something.."

Leo tilted his head as he examined the contents on the table. "Some of these look familiar. Do you recognize what they are Noli? Admittedly my time in Sillfane Glade was... well, rushed. So this is one of those holes I'd like to work on filling in."

Nonoli nods to Leo. "Of course! You're looking at the third best alchemist in Heartwood you know!"

Leo smiles at Nonoli. "I thought you'd at least be the best or second best. Who has you beat? Aislinn? She does know her stuff!"

Nonoli nods to Leo.

Rising Lotus: "Well hopefully we won't be makin' anythin' too complicated then. Every time I've cooked more than jus' puttin' meat over a fire I get pretty free form with the measurements."

Clearing her throat, Aislinn turns now, her assessing gaze sweeping over the room. Most of those gathered she knew. One of two, she didn't recognize. That didn't come as a surprise to her. She regularly had her head down involved in some project or other that she lost focus of everything else, eating, for instance. Let alone poking her head out of the clinic or workshop to *meet* people.  She takes a breath and addresses the room "Alright, let's get started." ....

M'shara: "Quiet down please."

Ziv motions joyfully to Aislinn.

Aislinn: "For those that don't know me, I'm Aislinn. I work in the clinic with Lewra and in the workshop on various technological projects. I'm also an alchemist which is why Lewra asked me to teach this class. She sends her apologies but is...occupied elsewhere." There was a minor hitch over that last detail but she has a great poker face and quickly moves on. ...

Nonoli ponders over Aislinn.

Aislinn: "Alchemy is basically, the creation of potions. Good and bad." She gives a half shrug. "Like cooking but more exacting. A little foxglove can strengthen a weak heart. Too much can cause a heart attack. You gotta understand and adhere to the rules before you go getting creative and experimenting." She explains. "But today we're going to make a basic healing potion. Nothing so dire but it should give you good practice with the basics."

Riylli raises her hand, then asks her question out loud anyways. "Can we make potions that give me lots of muscles?"

Ziv swishes his tail back and forth excitedly. "Healing potions, perfect! Maybe now I won't have to pilfer from Noli's stashes..."

Leo gazes upon Aislinn in deep reflection. "I see...  so it's an art of precision."

M'shara simply pretends she hears none of this.

Nonoli senses something amiss with Ziv .

Odile rushes into the room.

Aislinn eyes Riylli with faint amusement. "You can conjure golems from the earth. How much more force do you need at your disposal?"

Leo looked at the equipment in front of him with a newfound respect. It must have been a perilous art to develop.

Rising Lotus: "If you want to be strong like me you have to earn it the true way, not cheatin' with potions and magic."

Aislinn flicks her attention briefly to Ziv and raises a brow

Leo ponders over Nonoli. "Are you okay Noli?" He had missed Ziv's comment.

Aislinn: "Anyone here have any alchemical experience?" She ventures. Basically she wants to know who she can maybe not have to watch so closely in favor of who might possibly cause an explosion. Just in case.

Riylli: "I need enough to carry Mana around when she's old obviously!"

Nonoli: "I think I just discovered why my potions keep going missing..."

Leo is taken aback by Nonoli.

Nonoli: "I do! I do!"

Silaena: ..Do you have a potion addiction, Ziv? I know -how- alchemy works, but..Yeah, practical experience is explosive at best.

Aislinn nods to Nonoli and gives the lalafell a subtle smile. "Good to know."

Ziv is taken aback by Silaena.

Leo: "I learned to brew them before, but it was a -really- long time ago. I can't remember anything about it, so I figured it best to start from scratch."

Nonoli smiles in warm satisfaction before Aislinn.

Ziv: "A what?! Of course not--potions are merely useful to a warrior such as myself who does not easily take to healing magic."

Silaena furrows her brow at Ziv Zorasch.

Odile: "But healing magic is gentler than potion recovery Ziv."

Aislinn: "Alright. A basic healing potion is good knowledge for any mercenary to have. It ain't going to miraculously patch up a bullet wound but it'll shore up stores of depleted aether in the body and buy you some time until you can get to a medic of some stripe."

Rising Lotus shook her head. "I've only ever have bought or get that sort of stuff from folk. Seems complicated with all that measurin' an' all."

Ziv frowns at Odile. It couldn't be helped. He offered a slight shrug and returned his attention to the head of the classroom.

Aislinn tilts her head to Rising. "It can be, aye. But we're gonna go through this one step by step." And hopefully minimize any sort of surprises.

Aislinn "So." She begins and motions to the contents on the tables before them. She draws close to Rising and Riylli's table. "A basic healing potion consists of distilled water, mistletoe, a powdered mushroom called a chanterelle and powdered water and lightning crystals." All of which she holds up one by one off the table as she introduces them. "The first thing we're going to do is pour the distilled water into the crucible and turn on the flame. There's a switch under the pot to get it going."

Riylli: "We're gonna... drink the crystals? Ain't that dangerous?"

M'shara reaches forward to turn on the crucible then picking up the distilled water and carefully pouring it out into the pot.

Ziv nods. "Sounds simple enough." He begins by adding the distilled water to the pot. "I figured the crystals added extra flavor or bubbles," he said to Riylli's comment as he flipped on the burner.

Nonoli had to use all her willpower to stop herself from starting an "Ackshually" prompt after Ziv's comment.

Leo smiles at Nonoli. "I guess we're starting then? Should probably check the quantities."

Rising Lotus looks over the reagents, shrugging as she dumped an unmeasured amount of water into the pot before turning up the flame way too hot. "There's some soup they used to serve in Drybone that was cold, but then they served it to you with a fire crystal to heat it up. Never got sick or nothin' from it... well you didn't eat the crystal in it of course. Jus' the stew 'round it."

Nonoli: "Turn on the burner. I'll get the water set up!"

Leo nods to Nonoli .

Aislinn shakes her head at Riylli "They'll be regents to cause a chemical reaction imperative to the potion's creation later."

Leo did as was requested and turned on the burner. At the same time, he glanced through the recipe on the page. Seemed simple enough.

Riylli: "...Ah. Yes, of course." Riylli nods along like she knows what any of those words mean. "Er, are we supposed to be starting already?"

Odile climbed up the side of the table to add the pieces of the potion into the pot.

Aislinn eyes Rising's pot. "That's gonna boil fast. You need to watch it. The minute it does, lower the flame to let it simmer." She instructs the woman.

Ziv: "Oh...I wonder if our flame is too high also."

Aislinn: "You all seem to be able to boil water. Good." If she sounds sardonic, it's not on purpose. She has seen people explode boiling water. "Once the water is boiling, add three mistletoe berries. That should be all you have on the table, and lower the flame until the water is simmering."

Odile sets the flame to medium, to boil it faster.

Silaena seems to simply watch, humming. "Maybe. Guess we'll find out."

Rising Lotus: "Uh, right." she started to watch her pot, wondering how hot simmer is. "Alright Riylli add them berries, and I'll figure out how much to turn it down by."

Aislinn: "This is the first part of precision. Boil it too hot and the berries are ruined. Too low and the toxins in the berries won't boil out."

Odile turns down the Heat and adds the berries one by one.

Leo nods to Aislinn.

Ziv drops the three berries into the pot and keeps the flame at its current setting. The fire is on the low side, causing the water to bubble slightly as it simmered the berries.

Riylli nods and pops each berry into the cauldron. "I guess I've done somethin' like this before when I'm makin' my syrup... Y'don't wanna burn out the colour!"

M'shara watches Odile, nodding in approval.

Aislinn nods to Riylli in agreement

Leo took a look at the water. "Oh, I don't think it will be long... hey, where are the berrie Noli?" He looked around the table for them.

Nonoli: "They're right in front of you..."

While they work, Aislinn takes a moment and carefully watches the room.

Rising Lotus watches the water start to bubble, giving it a few moments before she cranked it down some. "I guess if it stops bubblin' 'we'll jus' turn it back up 'til we hit the sweet spot. Also what does color have to do with a healin' potion?"

Leo grabbed the three berries in the bowl and then watched as the bubble started to come up steadily in the cauldron. "Thank you." He dropped them in and then lowered the flame.

Odile: "Red for blood. For easier identification. in case of a rushed scenerio."

Nonoli closed her eyes and sniffed at the air. "Ah, the sweet smell of science." Nonoli smiles in warm satisfaction.

Riylli: "Vibes, Rising. Vibes. The red health potions taste the best! And, I don't know, maybe it'll mess with the ingredients too."

Silaena tilts her head. "Well. It -seems- to be working out, so far."

Aislinn: “It should end up smelling almost sweet. The liquid should turn a pale yellow color as the berries cook. If it goes dark or brown or smells sharp and acrid….well, you burned it. It happens.”

Aislinn: “That’s when you toss it out and start over. But so far, I’m not picking up any weird smells so, good on you!”

Ziv stares at the lightly simmering pot, barely beginning to turn a colored hue as the berries softened up. He adjusts the fire, turning it up just a little, because he couldn't fight the urge there was something wrong.

Nonoli nods to Aislinn.

Aislinn: “Alright! Next, add one level scoop of powdered mushroom using the small metal scoop on the table and mix it slowly into the liquid  you’ve got simmering. Again, be patient. Don’t just go dumping it in and whisking it to death.”

Aislinn's definitely not looking at Rising out of the corner of her eye when she says this.

Rising Lotus "I've mostly had the blue flavored ones. Wonder how we get to blue from these red berries...that turn the water yellowish?" she snapped her fingers. "Oh wait, water crystals are blue!"

Nonoli: "I'll handle this one, Leo!"

Leo nods to Nonoli.

Nonoli carefully pushed a measuring cup into the bag of powdered fungi and slow-dripped it into the simmering water.

Riylli eyes the powdered mushroom "Mm... Chanterelle... Hey Aislinn, do we need to use ALL of it in our potions?"

Leo took a step back, "All yours Noli, show me how it's done!" He watched closely as his tail swayed back and forth.

Ziv steps back for this part, looking intimidated by the more sophisticated ingredients. "Why don't you, Silaena?"

Odile takes the measuring spoon scoops up a good amount of powdered mushroom fungi powder and uses a gloved finger to scrape out the excess and keep it measured.

Aislinn tips her head to Riylli. "No, if you do, you'll ruin it. This is where you get to practice precision."

Riylli: "Good!" Riylli declares, dipping her finger into powder and sticking it in her mouth

Odile picks up the whisk and stirs gently.

Aislinn huffs out a soft laugh of amusement at Riylli

Rising Lotus finally seemed to have a good simmery pot going, and she was about to give it a big ol' scoop of mushroom dust when Riylli tasted some. "...What's it taste like?"

Aislinn nods in approval as Nonoli levels off her scoop of mushroom powder

Silaena nods, veery carefully leveling out a scoop, before stirring the whisk. Probably a little -too- slow.

Riylli: "You've never had it? It's a pretty regular part of the keeper diet. Try some!"

Nonoli: "... don't eat the reagents, Leo."

Odile: "Likely tasting like a spore sponge."

Leo laughs at Nonoli. "I wasn't planning to Noli. Have you ever eaten the ingredients when making potions before though?"

Ziv raises the flame a little, thinking it will help somehow. The cauldron boils steadily, producing some steam.

Nonoli: "It's smart to taste them, if they're edible. But that's just to make sure they haven't gone bad."

Leo nods to Nonoli Noli. "Makes sense to me."

Rising Lotus "Hmm....no. Maybe if it wasn't dust an' a mushroom still." She scoops some of the powered, shaking off the extra but still probably a pinch to much. "Get to stirrin'." she held the spoon out to Riylli.

Riylli frowns. "Y'should level off your measuring cups with your finger, that's what Mana always does when she bakes." She explains and begins to stir carefully. "But a little extra probably wont hurt! Im betting these are mostly here for the flavour anyroad"

Leo: "You know, I am a little surprised that you don't taste more stuff though."

Nonoli ponders over Leo. "Most of this stuff is toxic before it's brewed!"

Leo: "Yeah, but I just think about all the cookie batter you steal when Coco bakes cookies."

Leo winks at Nonoli.

Ziv looks at Nonoli in surprise. "How can something that heals you be toxic?"

Rising Lotus: "That wasn't a cup though it was a spoon."

Ziv: "I don't understand it..."

Nonoli looks at Leo in surprise. "I-I do no such thing!"

Leo beams with delight at Nonoli .

M'shara: "You've clearly never been healed by me before."

Riylli: "Same thing!"

Nonoli: "It's not toxic when you drink it!"

Riylli: "They got all sorts of cups and spoons when you're bakin', and Twelve help you if you mix up a tablespoon with a teaspoon"

Silaena: Most alchemical ingredients balance out the toxicity with each other. It's a science, like that. Or how they're prepared, too.

Ziv: "I see..."

Silaena: Some of them are even only in something to make it not poisonous, too.

Aislinn: “So now you’ve got all the ingredients for a proper healing potion. And you’ve simmered them long enough for them to integrate. Which is a nice soup. Now we need a strong chemical reaction to flash it into something more.” She inhales a breath as if bracing herself. “This is one parts water crystal and two parts lighting crystal mixed and added to the bunsen flame beneath your crucibles. That’s one small spoon.” She holds up the smallest spoon that hardly looks like it could hold anything of substance. “Of blue crystals and two spoons of purple. There are wards of shielding written into the tables and if something goes wrong just step back. Quickly. Please remember the estate was just rebuilt and I don’t want to have to go through that again.”

Leo is taken aback by Aislinn. "It goes into the flame?"

Aislinn nods to Leo. "Into the flame. This creates a quick, small flash of high heat needed to transform the ingredients into a proper potion."

Rising Lotus wiped her hands on her apron. "See this is why I don't cook 'sides from jus' puttin' things over a fire. Too much work. Or at least with cookin' you can jus' like, eyeball spices an' then choke it down if it's bad." she glanced to Linn as she gave the next explanation, looking much more excited for this one. "One of blue two of purple!"

Leo: "Okay..." He grabbed a small bowl and then the blue and purple crystals. "Let's see, one part blue, two purple..."

M'shara looks to Odile, "Did you get that?"

Ziv picks up the blue crystal. "Adding crystals to fire? It's certainly not what I expected but okay. I will add this one if you'd take care of the purples."

Riylli: "My turn!" Riylli declares, proudly taking each scoop and measuring them off with her finger. Into the fire each of them goes with a quick pop of energy, leaving Riylli with a little bit of purple residue on her finger. She looks at it. She stares at it. She contemplates it. Ultimately her intrusive thoughts win through and she carefully pokes the residue with her tongue to see what it tastes like. Just a little bit!

Nonoli: "You can do it!"

Nonoli strikes a triumphant─but not too triumphant─pose for Leo Veldha.

Leo motions joyfully to Nonoli.

Odile nodded. she looks to the crystals. She uses her aether to hover one blue, and two purple.

Leo: "Yes ma'am." he laughs.

Silaena nods once again, moving to measure out the purple crystal dust. The moment her hands come close to it, though, there is prompt little explosion of levin.

Leo carefully measured out the crystals. One teaspoon of blue and two teaspoons of purple. He tried not to pull any more than he needed and put them in as equal quantities. After giving them a good mix, he shrugged and added them to the flame. "Well, here goes."

Ziv looks surprised!

Rising Lotus scoffed as Riylli got to do the cool fire throwing part. She flicked a few more grains of purple in when Riylli was tasting the crushed crystal.

Odile adds the first portion of purple, then the blue, then adds the last portion of purple.

Ziv: "Well there goes our purple--!"

Silaena: ..Yep. Sorry about that. Should've let you do it.

Ziv: "It's' okay. We should try again, with two new crystals."

Ziv: "This health potion -needs- to turn out! I'm really starting to feel it now..."

Leo: "Look good?"

Nonoli seems lost in thought. "So far so good!"

Odile looks stumped.

Aislinn: “Riylli!” She catches the sight of the Keeper putting a finger of crystals in her mouth. Nymeia help her. She’s drawn next by the sound of the small explosion at Ziv’s table. Not enough to trigger the ward. “Alright, there?” She asks.

Silaena nods. "No injuries. Just a little explosion when I touched the lightning."

Ziv: "Umm...well...no. Yes, I think we just need to simply try again. Though I'm not sure why your touch would cause an explosion like that."

Ziv gazes upon Silaena in deep reflection.

Riylli smacks her tongue a few times. "Tastes like... tingling. Like there are bubbles popping on my tongue! They should put this stuff in candy..."

Aislinn hums in thought as she looks Silaena over. "Does...that usually happen when you interact with aspected aether?"

Silaena tilts her head. "Sometimes. Most times, really."

Ziv continues to fuss over their pot, stirring it steadily to prevent it from boiling over.

Aislinn quickly tosses over her shoulder, "Riylli, stop eating the crystals. Do you want aether sickness?"

Riylli: "N... No..." Riylli mumbles, properly scolded

Rising Lotus jumped a bit at the explosion, bumping some of their blue crystal dust onto the table. Her attention returns to Riylli as she describes the taste, flicking more blue dust into the flame. "Guess that makes sense, purple is lightning. Guess blue would taste wet then..." her hand got close to the blue powder when Linn called Riylli out, slowly pulling her hand back.

Aislinn returns her attention to Silaena. "Hmm. Try switching. Ziv, add the lightning crystals, let Silaena handle the water crystal."

Riylli: "Quit addin' more crystal!"

Silaena hums, nodding again. "Sure. Ready, Ziv?"

Ziv nods, exchanging the water crystal for the two lightning ones. "Yes, let's see if this way does better."

Silaena moves to measure out the water crystal. And, not a hint of explosion, it seems, as it goes into the fire.

Ziv drops the crystals into the flame like two ice cubes into a glass of water.

Rising Lotus: "Psh, it was like, hardly anymore than we needed." she went to give their pot a few stirs as she looked at the so far unremarkable hue.

Riylli: "No causin' trouble for the teacher! We gotta be EXACT! Otherwise the cookies will end up super salty! I mean, potions."

In the wake of the expected flash of heat, Aislinn studies Silaena with open curiosity. "Right, then. " As quiet as she is, she raises her voice over the room. "Your potion should now be blue in color and clear. Go ahead and pour it carefully into an empty flask using the funnel on the table to check it for color and clarity." She explains.

Leo gazes upon Nonoli in deep reflection. "Hey Noli, do you think Nolas may like this kind of thing?"

Odile: "Maybe, Leo."

Aislinn: "If it's purple. You added too much lightning and burned it. If it's still pale, it's fine to drink but I doubt it's gonna do you any good when you need it. If it smells bad...well, this is not a potion that should smell bad. Don't drink it." She ticks off the common problems found with making this potion.

Nonoli gently stirred their ingredients, glancing up at Leo before raising a brow. "I don't think kids like anything they can't eat. Potions are usually rather bitter too."

Ziv places the funnel over the flask and slowly begins to ladle the light blue concoction. Steam fills up the glass beaker as the hot liquid is poured into it. "This was not so difficult at all. With enough mistletoe and ground mushrooms this will be easy to make in my own room."

Silaena taps her chin. "Really not selling the lack of potion addiction there, buddy."

Rising Lotus gave it a few more stirs, wasn't quite as blue as ones she had purchased before, but it was a tone of blue at least. "Alrighty, guess we ought to dish it out. Get the bottle ready." she lowered the heat and went for the ladel. "...I guess we can add some blue to it to make it more blue..." she eyed those crystals again.

Leo closed his eyes. "Mm... I'd like him to try a lot of things to see if he has a hobby he likes. I guess you're right though, maybe I'll wait until he's older..." His ears perked up at Odile's words as he gave her a small smile. "Thanks Odile." He took a glance at the color of the potion. Looked blue to him!

M'shara: "Simply try not to blow up the house if you have a lab in your room."

Aislinn nods to Ziv as she eyes the color of the liquid he's pouring into the flask. "I think you've got the hang of this, Ziv."

Leo looks at M'shara in shock! "Good point... definitely when he's older..."

Ziv motions joyfully.

Riylli: "We added enough!" Riylli scolds while getting the bottle ready

Ziv: "It feels good to have the approval of a learned professional. Excellent! Perhaps next I can work on adding a grape flavor..."

M'shara checks carefully over the potion in the cauldron.

Silaena: ..Why grape, specifically?

Odile looks shocked.

Aislinn sidles up to Rising and Riylli's table and removes the vials of powdered aether. Definitely not because she overheard the plan to add more to the drink.

Riylli looks sad as her purple candy is taken away.

Ziv: "For flavor of course! Is there another fruit flavor that sounds more appealing?"

Nonoli: "I was creating alchemy fire in my room a summer ago, when Zoronado and I would go on our adventures. Napalm really saved our skins in more than a few pinches."

Aislinn gives Nonoli a look of approval. Nothing wrong with weaponizing what you need for defense.

Silaena taps her chin. "Blackberry."

Leo ponders over Nonoli. "What's napalm do?"

Nonoli: "It's like... an extremely hot liquid that ignites anything it touches. If you got it on your clothes you could leap into a lake and it would still burn!"

Leo is taken aback by Nonoli Noli.

Silaena Naellenar: Well, that's a marginally terrifying thing to be making in your room.

Leo Veldha bit his lower lip. "I think it's best Nolas stay far away from alchemy then. At least until he's much older." He cleared his throat. "Well all that aside, it does sound very useful." His ears perked at Silaena's words. "And terrifying, yes."

Nonoli: "I used every precaution!"

Ziv: "Oh...well that's a good idea as well. I will have to engineer a blackberry flavor as well."

Rising Lotus rolled her eyes at Riylli, trying to look all innocent as their crystals were confiscated. She gave the concoction one more stir before scooping some up and pouring it into the beaker until it was almost full. "How's it look. Blue enough?" she bent down some to inspect it a bit closer.

Nonoli: "There's all sorts of neat stuff you can make, with the right reagents."

Odile takes a beaker, a funnel, and ladle to fill the potion into the beaker.

Leo smiles at Nonoli.

Silaena: I think I'll stick with weapons and trinkets, myself. Alchemy clearly doesn't like me much.

Nonoli: "Potions of invisibility, elixirs of night vision, giantstride tonics. Potions of strength."

Aislinn: "Anyone have any questions regarding the state of their potion or about the recipe in general?" She asks as she sets the vials of aether on the counter and begins circulating the room, handing out papers "I have copies of the instructions here for you. Lewra and I will leave the set up here for you all to practice if you want. The clinic should have enough ingredients stored if you need."

Nonoli smiles at Aislinn.

Leo motions joyfully to Aislinn.

Riylli raises her hand again. "Is ours okay? It's not super blue"

Leo: "Thank you Aislinn."

Nonoli continued to stir the beaker to make sure nothing burned on the bottom of the glass.

Ziv takes a swig of their potion, happily accepting a leaflet. "Indeed, many thanks. This will be a skill I use most often, rest assured. No more bothering the clinic for simple potions."

Aislinn smiles and gives a nod to Leo before turning to Riylli's question. "Hmm. Let's see it?"

Leo: "Hey Noli, do you mind if I practice making some potions with you sometime? As a healer I feel like I should know more about them and, you know, not rely on my magic as much as I do."

Nonoli nods to Leo.

Leo smiles in warm satisfaction before Nonoli. "Thank you."

Rising Lotus "Yeah I've seen bluer. I'm tellin' ya it needs more blue." she eyed the crushed water crystals on the counter on the opposite side of the room as she was handed the paper.

Nonoli: "Of course! I don't... want to make anything in your house, though. Your beastly boy gets his greedy little hands into everything!"

Nonoli is frustrated with Leo.

Leo laughs at Nonoli.

Riylli nudges the bottle in AIslinn's direction. "I think we mighta just burned out the colour!" Riylli says, repeating the same phrase from earlier. She's clearly learned a new fun fact.

Leo: "He's a handful isn't he? But that's part of what makes him so fun. If you'd like we can move some things around in our old room here in Heartwood."

M'shara eyes the potion on her table. "A well crafted product if I can say."

Odile: "Indeed."

Nonoli: "Oh we still have our old room. Well... half of it. When we remodeled we had to fix the entire back end..."

Leo nods to Nonoli.

Aislinn carefully takes up the flask, eyes it and then gives it a sniff. She tilts her head, considering. "It's a little weak. Most likely boiled the mistletoe too hot." She hands the flask back. "It might be a little less potent than normal but it won't do you any harm if  you drink it." She stares up at Rising over the rim of her spectacles. "It does not need more ‘blue’." She states definitively. Giving them a taste of powdered crystals may have been a mistake. 

Nonoli: "All my potions... gone... gone!" Nonoli clutches her head.

Leo turned his gaze to Ziv for a moment as he smiled at Noli. "I'll help where I can..."

Riylli: "Ha! Told you!" Riylli is a teachers pet. "Y'should be the one to drink it though. How's your wound doin'?"

Ziv looks over to Odile and M'shara's table with hopeful eyes. "Are you two going to finish that? The potion?"

Nonoli: "I'm just glad I was in the clinic when it all went down... if I was snoozing in my room I'd be a pancake!"

M'shara: "What do you mean finish?"

Odile: "Yes and you are not getting one lick of it."

Ziv is taken aback by Odile .

Leo let out a sigh. "That was rough. I nearly lost it when Coco was caught up in that. It was all I could do to stop myself from slamming my body against that door instead of holding that... thing down."

Aislinn hands copies of the recipe out to Ziv and Silaena

Rising Lotus: "It's not my fault no one taught me what a simmer is." she took the potion from Aislinn, temperature testing it by tapping the side a few times. "An' it's gettin' better, should be gettin' the bandages off soon anyway. Ain't hurt as much to move." she swirled the potion a few times before throwing it back, letting out a light cough as it was a tad too hot for chugging but she managed it anyway.

Ziv: "Denying a wounded man treatment, that is cruel..."

Riylli: "...How is it? Feelin' healed?"

Odile: I had to lock up the potion cabinets after your little raid in the Med Ward."

Aislinn glances at Odile and Shara's flask and nods

Ziv shows Odile his utter disappointment. "Yes and it was not very appreciated--! I have suffered greatly..."

M'shara eyebrows slant downward in concern. "Are you stealing potions from people?"

Odile: "You are wounded mentally, not physically."

Ziv disagrees with Odile. "Supplies from the clinic were out, I was merely redirecting."

Rising Lotus smacks her lips. "I guess I feel sort of less sore, not the same kick as a normal potion though." it needed more blue.

Aislinn: "Thank you all for coming and learning a bit about alchemy. I'm thinking all of these potions turned out fairly well. Nice job." She nods

Odile: "You need a shrink, not a potion."

Ziv looks at Odile in surprise.

Riylli : "Thanks for teachin' us!"

Aislinn gives Riylli a slanted smile of appreciation

Ziv: "Oh it's nothing like that...Thank you professor Aislinn for teaching us, yes! It is good to learn self-sufficiency."

Rising Lotus nodded "Aye, thank ya. Probably will still rely on others for it, but it's fun to know what I can do with crushed crystals an' fire now!"

Silaena nods. "Mm. Thank you for the lesson. Sorry for blowing up your crystals, too."

Nonoli smiles at Aislinn.

Odile: "Ms. North I would suggest locking up all alchemy equipment from Ziv until he takes a psych test."

Nonoli: "Alchemy should be a mandatory course for any mercenary! A quick sip of a potion can be far more reliable than a proper heal!"

Leo ponders over Nonoli .

Ziv agrees wholeheartedly with Nonoli .

Ziv looks at Odile and buries his face in disbelief.

Leo: "If you say so."

M'shara clears her throat. "We can discuss those matters in private."

Aislinn turns her attention to Odile, her brow lifting. She catches Shara's reply before she can move to question the lalafell's statement and instead shares a look with the other officer. "Duly noted." She replies neutrally to Odile.

Rising Lotus rubs her chin. "Maybe I should teach a fishin' course or somethin' for folks...not that it's hard. But some of the finer details, an' how to know what fish you should eat or somethin'."

Leo: "But regardless, thank you for teaching us Aislinn."

Riylli: "Can we go volcano fishin' again?"

Ziv: "Why I've never heard such nonsense in my life. If you'll excuse me, I have much practice to do with my alembic."

Silaena: Good luck? Try not to get too into drinking the potions, I guess?

Silaena fails to understand Ziv Zorasch.

Rising Lotus: " I mean, /we/ can, but if I'm gonna teach a class or somethin' it probably would be more pratical an' like, survival trainin' an' all."

Ziv: "Oh do not listen to those overblown reactions. There is nothing wrong with taking medicine."

Riylli: "Volcanoes need survival training the most!"

Leo expresses his worry with Ziv .

Odile: "If the cleaning crew and I go into your room Ziv, tell me we would not find used potion bottles everywhere in there. We got rich last time just from bottle returns."

Silaena : Hard disagree. Too much is a dependency, Ziv. Those are a weakness folks can exploit.

Leo: "Ziv, I don't know what's going on lately, but you should take care of yourself."

Silaena: But you're a grown man. So it's not really like anyone can stop you, either. Just be careful?

Rising Lotus: "How often do we end up there though? The one time we went fishin', an' then when we returned for that hunt? Probably more practical to have like...cold places trainin'."

Riylli: "THEY'RE COOLER THOUGH! Y'gotta go somewhere cool to get students interested!"

Ziv turns a bit red from all the fuss over him. "Yes yes, I agree, a grown man indeed. There is no need to worry so much over nothing.."

Ziv looks stumped.

Odile: "We fuss, because we worry."

Leo nods to Odile .

Rising Lotus: "I mean this was pretty simple an' we were invested right?"

Ziv hurries off with his leaflet before someone tries to tell him he can't brew any potions. "Why thank you, that is very sweet. But humbly I must point to my track record. In any case, goodnight to all--I have important matters to attend."

Ziv bids farewell.

Riylli: "That's 'cuz Aislinn is cool." Riylli says, before something dawns on her. "Oh! Gotta go grab my gift for her! Be right back!"

Leo : "Are you about ready to head home Noli?"

M'shara hums along to the music.

Nonoli nods to Leo.

Leo: "Let's get going then, I'm sure Zoro and Coco are waiting."

Riylli rushes back in and right up to Aislinn, holding a clear jar full of purple stuff in her hands. It kind of looks like a potion with how purple it is, fittingly enough. "Here! This is a syrup I made outta my very own home grown sweet violets! Y'can basically use it in any cookin' you do that needs sugar if you want a bit more unique of a flavor. Mana likes it in her tea!"

Nonoli: "Let's go see what this 'cleansing ritual' your wife mentioned is all about."

Odile gives Riylli a big hug.

Leo expresses his worry with Nonoli. "It's not fun..."

Nonoli ponders over Leo.

Rising Lotus looks over the paper she was handed, trying to see any recipes that would catch her eye to try this again when Riylli came running back with the present. Something then dawned on her when she heard Nonoli mention the cleansing ritual. "Oh right. Hey Lin an' M'shara. There's a little voidsent named Zilmat that'll be workin' in the library."

M'shara: "A what now?"

Aislinn looks up from her thoughts of Ziv as Riylli returns. Her eyes widened slightly in surprise at the jar. "Oh!" Something warm lights behind her eyes. "Violets. I get it. Can't say I've ever had the privilege of trying violet syrup." She says as she takes the jar. "Thank you! I'll have to try it in tea like G’manafa, then."

Aislinn stops and blinks at Rising. "I'm sorry, what? A voidsent?" Talk about whiplash.

Riylli grins proudly. "Good! The sweet violets are special violets because they're sweet, so they make a really good syrup!" Riylli states simply, before turning to Rising. "And don't you worry, you'll get my next batch whenever its grown, okay? Can only make so much at once, especially now that its winter." She explains, then moves off to the side to let Rising deal with the voidsent fallout

M'shara: "Are you entered into a pact with this voidsent or something that can control it?"

Aislinn hugs the jar close to her as she stares at Rising, her lips forming a thin, hard line. She's not thrilled.

Rising Lotus "Aw, thank ya. I'll find ya somethin' nice...but it'll be harder since it can't jus' be fish related..anyway!" she returned back to the other matter. "Long story short, Riylli, I, an' some others went to where that tomestone lead." she motioned to Linn "Was Jackal's hideout, an' with the tone of money he said I could have, half of which went to here to fix the place up, there was a little eye voidsent fellow that has to listen to me now."

Riylli: "I told her it was a terrible idea..." Riylli mumbles from off on the side

M'shara raised a brow at the last part. "It has to or -must-?"

Rising Lotus: "I think he has to. That's what the letter said anyway. He's pretty harmless an' a huge coward, think Jackal mostly jus' fucked with him most of the time, so things should be fine. Kept a good track of all of that bastard's books, an' liked readin' so seemed like a good fit."

Aislinn shifts slightly, clearly uncomfortable. She hated anything having to do with the void. Having one occupying space under the same roof wasn’t ideal. “Alright.” It was not alright. “But why does it have to live -here-?”

M'shara draws in a deep breath then exhales slowly through her nose.

Rising Lotus: " 'Cause that's where the library is. Doesn't really leave it 'less I come get him, an' still sort of jus' hides when folks go in there. Still workin' on that, wouldn't make much of a librarian if he ain't helpin' folks."

M'shara: "What it is eating?"

M'shara: "Are you feeding it?"

Rising Lotus: "He said Jackal used to feed him scraps, when we found him he was eatin' coffee beans. So jus' normal food for his size. Nysc gave him some aether wine once."

Riylli looks back and forth between them, then starts scooting towards the door. She did not want to get involved in this well deserved scolding. "Alright, I'm, uh, off for now. Happy Starlight all!" She says, then poofs

M'shara was a hard woman to read but the way she ran her fingers through her hair was telling enough. "Well then. I suppose it will have to be taken up with her."

Aislinn lets go a perturbed sound in the back of her throat, wordlessly but vocally backing up Shara's questions. "So Nyscera knows." She shakes her head, annoyed, among other things. "Fine. I'll add some wards to the lab. The workshop. The clinic." She murmurs under her breath. So much for stepping foot in the library again. 

M'shara: "I can assist with your warding."

Aislinn tips her head gratefully to Shara. "Not exactly my specialty. You're probably better at it than I."

Rising Lotus let out pfft and a dismissive wave of her hand. "You're worryin' 'bout nothin'. I'll let ya meet him sometime, he's too small to do any damage an' too cowardly to try. Plus feel bad for the thing, Jackal was an arse to him all the time, bastard wasn't ever there for me an' left me an' my ma." she shrugged lightly.

M'shara nods her head. "Yes, I understand how you feel about it but smaller more cowardly voidsent also tend to be opportunist who will consume something larger than them at the first chance."

Aislinn: "So you're saying the thing has a reason to hold a grudge against people, considering how it's been treated." She points out.

Aislinn lets go a breath "I can't say I understand your reasoning, Rising. And I trust you but I also..." She trails off and decides against explaining her reticence. "There's nothing good about the void. I've seen that much."

Rising Lotus scratched the back of her head as she pondered what was being brought forth. "I don't think so. Seems happy jus' to be able to read mostly. Didn't have much stories back in cave after all. In the off chance he does try somethin' I think he'll be squashed pretty quick, but that ain't gonna happen."

M'shara: "Well, it'll get taken up with Nyscera I suppose. In the meantime we do have wards."

Rising Lotus: "Things will be fine." she assured them once more. "I mean, I used to think nothin' good came out of Garlemald, but then I went there an' there were good folk. I'm sure the void has to be the same then...jus' probably much lesser. But there are them voidsent that work for the saucer an' all, so there ya go."

M'shara: "Yes, well, I'd be more at ease if it was bound by contract like those at the saucer."

Rising Lotus: "I think the contract was given to me when he died, I can get you the letter to be sure, an' calls me master an' all, well did 'til I told him to stop."

M'shara: "Certainly. In the meantime I'll help Aislinn with some wards. Then I need to go get my beauty sleep."

Aislinn nods distantly, casting her gaze across the room. "Aye, that'll have to do." Inhales slowly, her thoughts retreating back behind a quiet, closed door expression. "Aye, I'm going to go ahead and start cleaning up and get back to work. Thank you both for coming."

Rising Lotus "Sure thing, thanks for teachin'. I'll drag him out of there soon so you can get a good look at 'em!" she grinned before giving them a wave and heading out the door.

[fuzzydreamin]

What The Companions Say About... Mirelurks!

I'm posting these just because I find the companions in-game reactions to things rather interesting. You might be surprised by what some of them have to say about certain things.

These are just their dialogues for during combat and after combat or walking through areas inhabited by this enemy type. It does not include anything from specific areas, quests, or other dialogue.

⌨ Ada

⌨: If radiation hyper-evolved the horseshoe crab, I wonder how it's affected the rest of the ocean's inhabitants. ⌨: It's fascinating that the mirelurk's social order resembles a caste-like system. ⌨: Never aim for the mirelurk's shell… it's a waste of ammunition. ⌨: My olfactory sensors are catching the scent of rotten fish. Quite revolting for you, I'd imagine. ⌨: Gather all the mirelurk meat that you can, it's actually rather nutritious… if you can get past the slimy texture.

☘ Cait

Regular ☘: Crab feast! ☘: Concentrate fire on their soft spots! Royal ☘: Holy shite, look at the size of that beast! ☘: 'Lurk King! Take 'em down!

☘: I've heard of gettin' crabs, but this is somethin' entirely different. ☘: All we need is some drawn butter and a squeeze of lemon, then we'll be all set. ☘: Damn 'lurks… this whole place stinks like the sea. ☘: Try and hit the 'lurks in their soft spots… don't waste your time shootin' at their shell. ☘: 'Lurks are the main reason you won't catch me skinny dippin' anytime soon.

⚙ Codsworth

Regular ⚙: {Neutral} Mirelurks, mum! ⚙: {Neutral} Crab cakes for dinner, mum?

⚙: {making a joke with bravado / Amused} Crab cakes for dinner, mum? ⚙: {thinking aloud} Mirelurks. Horrible creatures. ⚙: {making a terrible joke with bravado / Amused} Mirelurks are no stroll along the beach, eh mum? Haha. ⚙: {(with bravado) giving advice} When beset by mirelurks, clock 'em in the squishy spots. ⚙: {Concerned} Keep a look out for mirelurks, mum.

⚕ Curie

Regular ⚕: Even the crabs have mutated. Their carapace provided no resistance. ⚕: We must defeat these… mirelurks. For science. ⚕: Tissue samples may provide theories as to these mirelurks genesis. ⚕: These mirelurks, they were not in the Old World, right? Royal ⚕: The mirelurk queen must play a vital role in their reproductive cycle.

⚕: It stands to reason that aquatic animals would succumb to the ravages of radiation. ⚕: Are mirelurk claws a great delicacy? ⚕: So their carapace did not protect their ancestors from mutation. ⚕: The aquatic ecosystem is worthy of study. The mirelurks' role in this, I am sure, is quite fascinating. ⚕: I hypothesise that the initial cause of many animal mutations was mankind's research. The mirelurk, for example.

♞ Danse

Regular ♞: Mirelurks! Take them down! ♞: Aim for their heads! Royal ♞: King, huh? We'll see about that! ♞: Watch for their blasts!

♞: {Sarcasm} Mirelurks. What's next? Giant fish with sharp teeth? ♞: These creatures are one of the reasons why the Brotherhood travels by air and not by sea. ♞: {rhetorical} Is it just me, or do you smell the ocean whenever these things are around? ♞: I wonder if the Brotherhood could adapt the mirelurk's carapace for use as armoured plating. ♞: It's ludicrous to name their leaders "kings" and "queens." Mirelurks are nothing but disorganised rabble.

🕶 Deacon

Regular 🕶: Time for crab cakes. 🕶: Great. How many clips is it going to take to kill those things? Royal 🕶: Oh no, it's a big one. 🕶: Just once I want radiation to turn something into a giant fluffy bunny instead of the Grand Poobah of all mirelurks. Hail.

🕶: I would've paid 50 caps to be with you the first time you saw one of the crabs. Must've thought you'd walked into a B movie. 🕶: I hate 'lurks. Piercing their shell is a bitch, let me tell you. 🕶: Hit the 'lurks in their soft spot, if you can. Then grab butter. Yum. 🕶: Can we just steer clear of the mirelurks next time? They chew through my ammo. 🕶: Because, you know, the world wasn't screwed enough. So sure, bring on the giant nearly indestructible crabs. That'll be good.

☠ Gage

Regular ☠: Try and hit the face! ☠: God I hate these stupid shells… Royal ☠: You ain't king of shit! ☠: Nice fins, show-off!

☠: {SinisterSmile} You like crab? Me, never cared for it. ☠: {SinisterSmile} Ever wonder what it'd be like to have claws?… Me neither. ☠: {SinisterSmile} Mudcrabs sure do have a certain… odour to 'em, don't they?

☣ Hancock

Regular ☣: {Irritated} Come on, handsome. Show me that face. ☣: {Stern} Aim for the eyes! Royal ☣: {Neutral} So long, your Majesty. ☣: {Stern} I'm your king now!

☣: {Neutral} You know what mirelurk shell doesn't protect against? Mines. ☣: {Neutral} Folks'll pay good money for 'lurk meat. Never a fan myself. ☣: {Neutral} Everywhere there's water, there's damn 'lurks. ☣: {Neutral} Keep an eye out for burrows. Mirelurks like their meals surprised. ☣: {Straightforward, changing to "I have seen some shit." / Neutral} I saw a mirelurk spawning once. Can't eat shellfish to this day.

☸ Longfellow

☸: {Sarcasm, punctuate with a laugh} Fightin' mirelurks always makes me hungry. Smell like seafood, all of 'em. ☸: {Grim} Seen a mirelurk's claw snap a man in half once. ☸: {Safe old hunter giving advice} Mirelurks are damn quick for their size. Wouldn't recommend tryin' to outrun one. ☸: {Safe old hunter giving advice} Fightin' mirelurks ain't complicated. Just like most critters, you aim for the soft bits.

⨁ MacCready

Regular ⨁: Mirelurk! Take it out! ⨁: Shoot for its head! Royal ⨁: Time for some regicide! ⨁: Heads up! Mirelurk king!

⨁: Okay, I've officially lost my appetite for seafood. ⨁: Some people eat mirelurk meat, but I never got used to the taste. ⨁: If there was ever a sign that nature's pissed at us, this is it. ⨁: You're going to need some high velocity ammo if you want to punch through mirelurk armour. ⨁: Hope you brought a mallet and bib with you.

♥ Nick

Regular ♥: {Stern} Watch it. Lurks on the loose. ♥: {Neutral} Don't fire until you see the whites of their eyestalks. Royal ♥: {Confident} There's a new king in town. ♥: {Neutral} Careful. These kings like to serenade their supper.

♥: {Neutral} You see any burrows around? Mirelurks usually like to scare the hell out of their prey before eating them… ♥: {Neutral} If you're really looking to tick off a mirelurk, fiddle with its eggs. ♥: {Neutral} And this is why I don't swim. ♥: {Neutral} Anywhere there's water, there's mirelurks.

✉ Piper

Regular ✉: {Irritated} Come on, lurk. Show us that underbelly. ✉: {Stern} If you like your limbs, I'd keep my distance. Royal ✉: {Neutral} Careful. These things know how to wail. ✉: {Stern} So long, your Highness.

✉: {Neutral} You can make a pretty penny selling mirelurk eggs, so long as you're not too attached to your fingers. ✉: {Neutral} I wouldn't stick a toe in water for years because of these things. ✉: {Conspiratorial} The secret to dealing with mirelurks? Mines. ✉: {Neutral} With the right spices, mirelurk meat can taste just like an old shoe. ✉: {Neutral} You know what fact never fails to give me chills when it comes to mirelurks? The world? Seventy percent water.

☀ Preston

Regular ☀: Mirelurks. Aim for the face. ☀: Let's see how your shell stands up to this. Royal ☀: It's one of the big ones. ☀: Damn, look at the size of that thing.

☀: Keep an eye out. 'Lurks could be hiding anywhere around here. ☀: Mirelurk meat is pretty tasty, if you don't mind the smell. ☀: Damn, I hate these things. ☀: Remember, you're just wasting ammo shooting at a 'lurk's shell. The soft underbelly's what you want to aim for. ☀: I hope you like seafood.

☢ Strong

☢: Mirelurks. ☢: Mirelurks smell fishy. Strong hate fishy. ☢: Smash mirelurk face. It softest part. ☢: Mirelurks smell bad but taste good. ☢: Strong smash mirelurks.

☾ X6-88

☾: {Concerned} I've seen a mirelurk crush a cement block like it was nothing. ☾: You want to keep a mirelurk at range, ma'am. Fire, fall back and repeat. ☾: Mirelurks are slower on land. That's where you want to fight them. ☾: Mirelurk shells are as hard as rock. Aim for the eyes, or between the plates. ☾: {Disgust} We're going to smell like seafood for a week.

-----

My Notes:

Codsworth makes the same joke both when entering combat and exploring a spawn area.

Curie thinks humans may have played a part in the creation of Mirelurks, and not just natural radiation exposure - that said, it could be alluding to the additional polution of FEV from the bombs and sites hit by them, not that Curie has any knowledge of that though.

Danse really hates mirelurks, and probably everything that might come out of the ocean. No wonder he was so glad to join the BoS and get out of Rivet City. Don't take him to a beach, he'll be sour and on alert the whole time.

Deacon also no likey the big crabs. Except for eating. Bring him it pre-killed.

Gage calling them mudcrabs is cute.

Hancock is scarred. Man's seen some shit.

Guess it's good Mac doesn't have a taste for crab, seeing as fish gives him gas.

Pretty sure crabs have black eyes, so... Guess Nick doesn't want us to shoot them at all😂

Piper will eat mole rat meat, something most seem to hate, but thinks Mirelurk is bad? Guess she wouldn't fancy a trip to Fah Hahbah.

Mirelurks smell bad, but taste good.

[rosheendubh]

just as point in fact…no one ever paired Tywin Lannister and dad-bod in the same sentence…

—Just sayin’…a mid-60s/maybe early 70s, lean, mean, ruthless, pragmatic, cunning, disciplined, battle-machine. He walked into that throne room when Cersei was about to kill herself, and her son, with more presence than Filoni’s rendition of Thrawn (no fault to Lars, but he was both not well cast, and not well directed) could to an entire ISD hanger’s worth of Fart-Gas Zombies held together by red duct tape chanting his name…which is also quite out of character, whether from Legends/canon EU books. Thrawn’s characterization with Zahn is many things, but excessive displays of aggrandizing isn’t one of them (cue: the apologetics for “but 10 years in Exile”)…it also doesn’t help that none of the actors look like they’re taking their lines seriously (and with the over-long, melodramatic pauses, long-range 10000 yard stares, and ChatGPT level dialogue, who can blame them?—no honestly, I’ve seen ChatGPT dialogue that sounded exactly like that exchange between Sabine and Ahsoka on the ship, with her training…down to the actual tags/and descriptors), and move through the space around them so stiff and hesitant, you can tell no time was taken to smooth out scenes largely cast on green-screen between the production team, and the actors. Which is why, even the action bits appear awkward, and without much dynamism.

—To each their own, but this portrayal of such a pivotal character is definitely Filoni’s (horridly, but only IMHO) misconstruction. —and as for Ezra and Sabine’s reunion…*wah-wah-wah*—whaaaa??? Anyone recall Sansa and Jon Snow’s embrace after ALL THE ABSOLUTE SHITE they’ve survived over the years? I will still rewatch that moment—ya’ll should too. It’s very cathartic compared to Gazoo-moment everyone was rewarded with, between Ezra (“Hey, Girl, Waz’Up-Word”)-lost-boy-for-a-decade-SpaceAladdin, and Sabine (I’m supposed to be in my late 20s/30?-with the emotional maturity of a teen who just lost cell phone privileges-so flipping annoying-you wish Shin actually had gutted her and decapitated her…omg—how do people think she’s *sooo awesome*—and goes shrill on a Wolf-Horse for…reasons?? Oh, dramatic tension, she’s a very tortured and *fiery* warrior…I’m a woman, and a feminist, but this ain’t how ladies should be written…this is how fanboys think STRONGFEMALECHARACTERS act…take a pass, go watch EmilyBlunt in ‘TheEdgeofTomorrow*…).

—GoTs has A LOT OF ISSUES (mostly with S7/S8 of GoT, and its early Season1 episodes were admittedly…difficult. For a while, I called it LotR with T&A$$…but by that SeasonFinale, as Daenerys stepped out of ashes with 3 lil’Bebe Dragons, and Jorah kneels to her, vowing that line, “Blood of my Blood”—a line that could have fallen in flat-trope-tripe—hell no, hello, Drama Hook. We were on Team Dany…). —Genera differences aside, Team Filoni needs to take some lessons from what the GoTs writers/producers learned as they re-vamped (apparently, an even worse original filming of S1E1 of GoTs, that went back to the drawing board, it was so awful…so urban legend/DenofGeek alleges)—get fresh eyes to look at what you’re doin’ dudes…and maybe someone who’s read the actual source material. But isn’t in love with it—like Gilroy. I still think that’s why ‘Andor’ carried such a different essence—and a much needed sophistication for how science-fiction, and SpaceOpera ought to land. Fuck, go read some DeathStalker too, if you’re looking for bombast with tropes, and a good time. Watch bloody ‘The Expanse’. Someone mentioned, if Filoni required a lesson on how to communicate back-story as a balance between narration, and scene progression, to bring a largely uninformed audience up to speed on a Universe/World building Plot mythos with which most audience isn’t familiar, watch the first 15 minutes of ‘Serenity’. And maybe the entire Season of ‘Arcane’?. —which leads to the ultimate conclusion, Thrawn shouldn’t have been used by Filoni at all in ‘Rebels’. They needed a BigBad, and he ought to have just contrived his own generic Imperial of the Week. Which is what he did. And named it Thrawn. And yes, I know, supposedly he consulted Zahn. I’m more convinced, Zahn is diplomatic, and either felt (as he’d mentioned a few years ago), he was done writing Thrawn’s arc, and so, resigned his BlueManArtLovingAdmiral to the Disney drain of EU archives from which Disney borrows when it can’t be bothered to create its own original characters; or, he’s going to quietly retcon Thrawnius back into Zahn shape—given the rumors of recent months where he seems to have reconsidered revisiting Thrawn/Chiss arcs. Who knows? —My suspicion with ‘Rebels’ (of which, I completely can figure out the story-line, *secret*—it’s not that complicated for anyone who’s read any sort of children’s literature, or young adult books through their youth. Yes, I’ve tried watching episodes—it’s a cartoon made for kids—would’a loved as a kid…probably/maybe? As an adult, I’m wondering what other fodder people read and watch to consider this *quality*). I think what no one admits is, the animated series needed a big name from popular Lore to draw viewers, so there was computer-animated, cartoon-Thrawn…Filoni’s Disney Imperial. —okay, soap box rant done—we all have our OPs. I’m holding out for Andor/S2, but after that, cancelling Disney+. Actually, might even cancel before, and just renew when Andor/S2 comes out…

[magpiemirroring]

Every time I see someone argue that AI is making art accessible, or making art possible for disabled people or whatever, I'm just....

Well, first: have you talked to any disabled artists? Some of whom were artists before they became disabled? Because I've yet to talk to any who would be content with a machine making art for them. The part folks yearn for is not really the idea magically being on the paper, it's the time spent making the piece. And artists can be very clever and very determined to find a way to make art in spite of any limits their bodies may have.

But really: Why are you so ashamed of being an amateur artist?

Like, I've been putting work into getting good at art since I was in preschool and paused while eating my crayons to consider that it mattered to me how many legs a horse had and I was damn well going to attempt to get it right!

But maybe that's not you. Maybe you haven't found the right art form for you yet. Maybe you haven't been willing or able to throw yourself at the challenge of getting better at any form of art.

There's lots of things I'd like to be good at, but I'm not. I didn't have it in me to throw myself at dance or music. I took music lessons twice in my life. Once with violin through my school, and once private piano lessons with a nice lady who taught piano in her living room. I murdered the violin. I was passable at piano. I wasn't passionate enough about either to practice frequently.

Any hope of dance or sports would have been nixed by my body. I'm flexible in the wrong ways and I have shoddy proprioception, so I would have inevitably torn something or broken something important in the process. And I didn't love either enough to sacrifice my body to them. (I love art like that and I am so careful of my hands and wrists and shoulders and I still have times where I can't make art or I have to make art slowly.) But I love to dance for fun, just for myself.

I'm an amateur chef and baker. I have a bare minimum of skill in sewing. I dabbled in making websites but coding gives me a headache. I love so many kinds of science and still do, but got burned out on trying to get my math to the necessary levels. I love history, but if you ask me to write a proper research paper I will probably cry from academic burnout but I will ramble about history if you give me an opening. I am frankly shite at any sport that involves running and the only sport I ever daydreamed about getting good at was archery. I love playing video games, but I despite the many many hours I have put into some games, I always play on easy mode and have no interest in Getting Good because that's not fun for me. I can't sing, I can't dance, and my acting skills are rusty at best. I used to do whatever theatre I could. I took theatre electives 3 years in a row in school and did summer school one year to make room for theatre. I sang and danced badly as required. I'm naturally shy, but I liked acting. A lot. But I didn't like it as much as I liked drawing and painting and digital art. I didn't want to throw myself into the grind to try to make acting work for me and I decided I didn't even want to devote my time to local theatre. It took so many hours that I would rather spend on art. But I exercise my dormant theatre kid muscles by DMing D&D when I can cram that into my schedule, lmao.

I am bad at so many things that I enjoy doing and I still enjoy doing them. Doing the thing is what's fun and fulfilling.

So when folks claim they need AI so they can make art, I'm kinda flummoxed, but that seems like you're letting the AI do the fun part, the important part, the part where the art is actually made. Do you actually like art? Do you actually want to make art?

Why are you so embarrassed and ashamed of not having professional level skills in something you never put professional level effort into? Look at all those things I'm shit at! There are professionals I can and will pay for if I need a thing professionally done with professional skill. But messing around with food, with learning, with video games, with theatre and improv skills, and making all sorts of things in areas of art and crafting that are not my focus? These are my side projects. My fun times with friends. They don't need to be good, just pleasing to do.

Why do you hold art to a different standard? Why is art all about the finished product's value in someone else's eyes and not the experience you have in making it?

[coralsgrimes]

Sooo over the months I been typing these long ass coral life stories, very agitated may I add, but then the frustration wears off so I just been deleting the shite cuz why would anyone wanna read any of that.

Tho I have a fuck me story from today x.x

So imagine me just coral girlblogging making fun of Benny and then!!! A call! Sadly it was our lab technician and when he's calling it's gotta be real bad. But ye know there's this storm coming so maybe he just updating me about the department whatever they came up with??? Nooooo he did not xd

Lemme break it down for ye cuz like;

1. One of the cleaners walks by our cold room, feels that it's unusually warm around

2. No idea how long it took but the cleaner eventually tells the guard who comes by and is like oh it's fucking boiling

3. The guard calls our technician who comes by and decides the cold room is fucking broken

4. He calls me, while imma trying to girlblog, to come cuz it's a disaster

Sooo, I sent thousands of messages in our lab group chat asking who was the last one in the lab Saturday night and who's coming later today cuz I would appreciate the help. Still have no idea how long the cold room was boiling. Anyways it was me, the technician and later later later one other girl came by but she had her shite to do too so was not mucha help. We moved everything that was in there to freezers, cold rooms and fridges all over the building and in another fucking building cuz one thing about science - there's never enough space and so it happened that our cold room is the biggest in the building cuz we stock shit tons of media. And the problem is that the stuff there is big like bottles of reagents, media and I just made like a 200 fresh plates last week that might all be bin material at this point x.x so it was like impossible Tetris to put it all elsewhere lol and I had to make fucking lists of where each lil fucker went

Then I sent thousands of emails to PIs of the other lab groups in the building and everyone else in that circus to say yeee sorry to stuff yer fridge but our cold room is a sauna now soooo had no choice xd

And then, since cold room is a critical equipment, we called the service right, like to get to the shite and fix it they have to get on the roof cuz idk why but all the cold rooms in the building are like that apparently. So tonight/tomorrow it's stormy so no one is getting up that fucking roof, Tuesday maybe? Nope, they said MAYBE they can get someone to take a look on Friday....

Just so ye all know, the temperature in the cold room is supposed to be between 2 and 4 degrees. It was 26??? me think when I came, and then it was 39 when I was leaving xd it stinks and is so dirty I will probably have to deep clean it after it's fixed

And now, the storm is coming and I love rain on my roof windows but not the stormy about to kill me red weather alert rain and wind. Fun x.x

I do obviously blame Benny cuz the timing is absolutely not a coincidence lol I may make no sense but Imma so tired xd gotta come in late tomorrow as a treat and also after the worst alert is over xd if the power dies then I might even get tomorrow off cuz funny thing when there's no power they do have a generator back up, tho!! it can't power the whole building so if that happens they disconnect all equipment and all sockets and turn off the automatic lights and shite so that only freezers and fridges and incubators would take the power lol meaning no one on site. Let's pray actually 🙏 could use that lol

[illiath-the-fae]

TLDR: I find the "throw-away" comment that child psychologists only give a shit about something because they don't understand something to be rather problematic.

On the other hand, yes, go badger whomever you need to, to get whatever tests you think might be necessary, and make sure you list anything that you do "differently" than your peers to your medical professionals.

So... I agree with the "if you're having issues with <x> symptom, and many in my family have <z> diagnosis, but not me", get tested. I mean, I recently got diagnosed with Asthma... my brother has it, and I've been alive for multiple decades at this point, and I never thought to get tested because "that isn't what his condition is like". I got the diagnosis after some tests, because I moved to a higher altitude residence, and about six months later started coughing every few hours for a month before I went to the doctor (this was during the lockdowns, so also had to navigate the "unexplained cough" issues around that, even with at-home testing it was difficult to get an appointment). Turned out my "wheezing" that was, to me, a normal part of being winded... was a major symptom of asthma... and I didn't know as my brother's symptoms involved not breathing at all when his asthma flared up, so "mild wheezing" didn't seem like a problem.

Now, bringing this back to psychology. I've been a "school psychologist" (legally in my areas that's a special role which I didn't have, but most of the students I worked with would have called me that), and I had a stack of testing materials on hand, just in case I needed to test a student. I had ONE student who suggested any symptoms that would have let me test them, I had to get approval from my supervisor, and we agreed to do the testing (on March 11th 2020... and I was due to see the student the next week... I guess you can figure out why we never ran the tests). Most psychologists at schools aren't as prepared as I am, or don't have the qualification(s) to run those tests like I have. And the reason is that most school districts in the USA don't have the money to pay for someone to do that. I also grew up in Australia, we didn't have an onsite psychologist, the school guidance councilor could (and did in my case) make referrals to outside testing (which was covered my the national healthcare system there, can't say if that's changed in the intervening decades), but many parents can't afford to take the time off to take kids off to get that testing.

Also, when I was a kid, we didn't have an ADHD diagnosis at all, what we had was ADD, and that has a slightly different cluster of symptoms. And the ADHD diagnosis has changed (officially) a few times since I started formally studying psychology.

What this means is twofold, first, not all school-based psychologists are capable of even doing the testing for mental health conditions (if such testing is warranted for the diagnosis, I'll explain that in a bit). There are also some shite ones, because they're barely qualified to be a therapist, let alone use the word psychologist as a job title, but the rest of us? We need to know you're going through something before we can run the tests... because they cost US money to run... yes... my little pieces of paper for the testing? They're legally copyrighted and cost upwards of $25 a pop, for the "simple" tests. There's a standard test that I would love to do with any client... it'd cost me $150 per client to run, fine if I'm in private practice seeing adult clients, not something I can just pay for out of my own pocket for a student I might see once before they refuse to show up to school again (which happened to me twice while working at the school).

Second, there's the issue of diagnosis changing, yes, it happens, so when you went to school (whatever level), and now, even if only six months has passed, the diagnosis criteria may now be different. Because psychology is not a religion, it's a science, and so things change when new information comes to light (heck, anyone out there with an Asperger's Diagnosis want to weigh in on how stuff can change?). Also, testing changes and improves, what we "look for" to determine if an expensive to run test is warranted also changes, and more.

Thirdly, there's a little thing we do called "differential diagnosis", if you've watched a good medical drama (or some of the shit ones too, tbh), you've seen an example of how that plays out. We look for symptoms and use them to rule in, or out, potential diagnoses. This could mean that your little confusion over how people react to you when you get distracted/hyper-focused/whatever, could be ADHD, it could be ASD, it could be SCD, or it could be multiple other conditions in that vein... or it could be a sign of something entirely different. And without being able to gather enough information to even begin a diagnosis, it's frequently easier on the client (especially if a child) to NOT diagnose than to attempt diagnosis. Can you imagine what it would be like to be sent off for multiple weeks of psychological testing every time you brought up something new to your therapist (or someone else at the school)? We try to avoid that.

And lastly, getting back to my original bit here with this longer section... sometimes you don't tell the person of your symptom(s) because you don't see them as problems, especially not "as bad" or "as difficult" as what others get. So, we're thinking "oh this child is anxious about school, let's work on their anxiety, and how to handle it", when the child is sitting there thinking to themselves "well, all my brothers have ADHD, and I just get angry for no reason sometimes"... and ignoring the distraction/hyper-focus loop they get into, because they don't understand it.

Also... this is only a "quickie" response... I used to spend HOURS ranting about this problem with my supervisor at the school placement, because of all the hassles involved in diagnosing (if relevant) at the school.

"i had straight As in high school i don't understand why college is so hard" get tested for adhd. if you were tested as a kid and they didn't diagnose you it was cause your grades were good then but you've since lost the routine and structure in hs that kept you on top of everything so go get retested. go get tested for adhd. go

[jewishbarbies]

Me again.

Just curious.

What would you say your best subject in school or college is?

For me it’s history. Hence why I studied it. It’s the only thing I’m good at. (I was okay at English and maths, maybe science but meh or shite at everything else)

It’s the only subject I’d have called my favourite one. Mainly because I already had an interest in it as a kid at home.

That’s also why I’m obliged to call out people for spreading lies and myths about history. Especially denialists! (For instance I just put up a bunch of posts explaining how Turkey continues to deny the Armenian Genocide (and the Assyrian genocide) of 1915)

I’ll admit I’m no expert. Despite my degree.

But still.

What about you? If it’s okay for me to ask

my best was definitely English! I was testing as a sophomore in college while being a high school student. I’ve been writing since I was 13 or so, so that makes sense lol.