#zero-gravity hamster wheels

[marlynnofmany]

Racetracking

“The good news,” announced the gravelly voice of Mimi the tentacle alien, “Is that this model defaults to zero-g when it breaks.” He led the way down the corridor with tentacle slaps instead of footsteps, which managed to sound exasperated.

I had the brief thought that he was louder than Mur and Wio when he walked, possibly because he spent so much time in the engine room where everything was noisy. But I put that thought aside. I had a pretty good idea what the bad news was.

“The bad news,” Mimi grumbled, “Is that the carrying cage that these high-paying customers insisted on is so broken that I can’t fix it. Even with the right tools.”

“So we have animals in zero-g,” I said.

Mimi waved a tentacle in a way that I privately found hilarious. “We just took off! Just! It’s like they’re trying to frame us for damages!”

I looked at him in alarm. “Are we sure they’re not?”

He made a dismissive motion, still walking. “That’s what the cameras in the storage holds are for. There’s proof that no one dropped it or whatever. And I think Captain Sunlight is already talking to them about it, which is a conversation I do not envy her.”

I winced. “Yeah. Which animals? It’s just one of the carriers, right?”

“The little ones. I dunno what they’re called. They were alive when I left, but they looked pretty upset.”

That didn’t narrow it down. As the ship’s resident animal expert, I’d had a look at each of the half-dozen life support chambers that passed for carriers among the rich folks. Each of them held a different type of little furry whatsit in wild colors. Each was sealed with its own supply of air and gravity — or at least it was supposed to be.

I couldn’t hear any distressed noises yet, but when Mimi poked the button for the door, it slid open to a chorus of muffled squeaks.

The six chambers were lined up in a row, on display in the center of the room, with nothing close enough to so much as touch them. Five held animals calmly nosing around the bottom.

One held a whirling tornado of blue fur.

I dashed over to peer through the glass, hands dancing uncertainly. I shouldn’t touch it, shouldn’t open it. But—!

…But.

I looked closer. “They’re running.” I dropped my hands and stared.

Mimi plopped down next to me. “Is that bad?”

“No, it’s just — Look at them! They’re doing this on purpose!” I started to smile as I realized why the squeaks sounded familiar. “They’ve made their own hamster wheel.”

“A what now?” Mimi wanted to know.

I gestured vaguely. “It’s an exercise thing for animals like this where I’m from. A wheel that they run inside of, and it keeps spinning. These guys—” I pointed at the chamber. “—Have created their own.”

“Uh-HUH.” Mimi tilted his head to watch the antics, which were slowing down as they noticed us. “That is a strange reaction to zero-gravity.”

“I’ve heard of mice that did that, actually,” I said as a memory surfaced. “It took them a while to make a game of it. I wonder if this isn’t the first time the carrier’s gravity has gone screwy.”

Mimi held a curl of tentacle thoughtfully to his face. “That is an interesting data point. The captain will want to know.” He lowered it. “And if you’re sure these things aren’t about to die of organ explosion or whatever, then we should go tell her.”

The blue furry things — which did honestly look a lot like mice — had settled down to some more even-tempered bumping around in there. None were limping as far as I could tell, and none had been knocked unconscious or worse.

“I think they’re okay,” I said, looking closely. “The food dispenser is closed, thankfully, so there aren’t any pellets or globs of water floating about. They just got a bit of excitement.”

Mimi levered himself off the floor. “They’re not the only ones,” he grumbled. “Annoying little meatsticks must be in cahoots with the rich jerks, trying to make our lives harder. Why would they even do that?”

I gave the chamber one last look, then stood and followed him toward the door. “I dunno, it looks like fun. Probably a lot of animals would enjoy that if they knew it was an option.”

Mimi stared at me with one large eye. “Animals from your planet.”

“Well, yeah. Probably others too.”

He made a wet-sounding snort of skepticism and led the way into the hall.

I followed, smiling. “Come on, it looks like fun. I was just thinking it would be neat to try in a zero-g room, though flat walls wouldn’t be as good as curved ones.”

“Your planet’s full of weirdos. You know that, right?”

“Oh, it’s been said before.”

~~~

Thanks to this post for inspiration! It was too good an idea to pass up.

Anyways, this is the ongoing backstory adventures of the main character from this book. But you probably already knew that.

[laguera25]

Movie Review:  Glass--SPOILERS

Most critical reviews are decidedly meh about <i>Glass</i>, but it resonated profoundly with me because it's situated within a disabled perspective.  Oh, there's some window dressing about human evolution and the advent of a new superhero age, but at its heart, it's about exploring the world from a disabled perspective and is a fine bit of disability horror.  While Glass, with his osteogenesis imperfecta and his wheelchair, is the most obvious symbol of this worldview, Kevin and David are part of it as well, and while a lot of reviewers are pissing and moaning about the tedium of the hospital interlude, I found it mesmerizing because it perfectly encapsulated the darkest horrors and unglamorous realities of disabled life.

If you are disabled, you are robbed of the illusion of control that is so freely granted to everyone else as soon as they can walk or crawl or otherwise propel themselves through the world.  Your life is not your own.  You can say no, but there is no guarantee that it will be honored, and, in fact, a good chance it will be ignored, and if you protest or disagree, you will be punished.  The parameters of your world will be defined howsoever they choose, and there will be no escape, and the doctors and orderlies who possess the power to expand or contract your horizons as they see fit will tell themselves--and you, ad nauseam--that it is for your own good. Disagree, and they will wield your intransigence as further proof of your unfitness for society.  After all, if you were truly rational, you would see that the world isn't safe or meant for you and would be grateful for their protection, which manifests in isolation, regimentation, and a cocktail of punitive drugs.  And if you persist in trying to slip the yoke of their charity, well, they'll just have to manhaul you into surgery and laser your brains out to make you more tractable.

In this warped world, Elijah and Kevin aren't evil monsters who derail trains and eat people, but victims trying to buck the status quo that fears difference so much that it is willing to quash it by any means necessary, even if it means mindfucking superheroes and drowning them in puddles to keep the truth from getting out.

The counseling session is a masterclass in manipulation and malignant ableism.  Of course you're not special, Dr. Staple tells them again and again.  You're not something greater.  You are, in fact, broken, delusional aberrations who need to be convinced of your weakness, your need to be shut away.  Because you are incapable of seeing the truth, don't you think it would be best if you let us take care of you?  Stay in an institution.  Out of sight, out of mind, and no one will have to be burdened by knowledge of you.  For someone who meets this attitude on a subliminal level every day, this is prime nightmare fuel.

I'm not sure how aware of these implications M. Night Shyamalan was when he was filming, but two scenes make me think he had an inkling, a shadow glimpsed from the corner of his eye.  The first is the memory elicited from Elijah by the laser when Staple tries to scramble his brains.  In it, he's a young boy at a fair with a pair of enormous stuffed lions under his arms.  We watch as he gets on a ride called the [something] Tornado that looks like a bigger, more hurl-inducing version of the teacup ride.  We know there is only one way this can end as he climbs into the seat and buffers himself with his stuffed lions and wraps a scarf around his hands to insulate them from the bone-jarring g-forces of the lap bar, and my heart broke because even as the fusty, jaded adult in me was foaming at the mouth at him for doing something so cataclysmically dumb, my heart cried out in anguished sympathy because he just wanted to be a kid and go on all the whizzing, whirling rides like everybody else, to know the exhilaration of feeling like you could touch the clouds.  He just wanted to do something fun without having to hold referendums on whether he should and strategize about it like it was a goddamn military campaign, and for anyone who recognizes that yearning, what happens next is excruciating.

It doesn't work.  The lions slide to the floor and the scarf unwinds from his hands, and gravity and inevitability do their awful work.  The joyous wonder in his eyes as he whirls around and around becomes terror as realization dawns and then agony as bones shatter against gaily-colored steel.  It's not fair.  The cold reality of his disability has won over his hope and idealism.  No matter how much he wishes it, he will never be able to move through the world as easily as everyone else, without the grim, unwelcome knowledge that every movement could bring unspeakable pain and life itself is an act of endurance and howling defiance.  It's the innocence of childhood juxtaposed against the inflexible cruelty of what is, proof that magical thinking doesn't always beat the monster.

The second comes at the end of the climactic battle in the hospital yard.  Kevin/The Beast has discovered the truth about Glass' motives and shattered his sternum.  The injuries are fatal, and his distraught mother rushes to comfort him.

"I wasn't a mistake, Mama," he croaks.  It's meant to be an affirmation, but it's uncertain, fifty going on five, and he searches her face with raw need.

"No, baby, you weren't.  You were spectacular."

And that's the heart of this movie.  The maternal affirmation that every heart seeks but so few disabled hearts get.  All Elijah wants to hear as his life slips away is that he wasn't regretted by the one who should have loved him most.  It's such a low bar to clear given that mothers of rapists and kiddie fiddlers will sob and swear that their precious baby isn't bad, just misunderstood, but it might as well be hurdling Everest in a world where parents become martyrs by blogging to the whole world how much it sucks to be the mother(it's almost always the mother)of a disabled child.  Everywhere we look, we see markers of how unwanted we are in a world not made for us and that makes zero effort to make it so, and even our families often treat us as a burden assumed rather than a vital new thread in the family tapestry.

I suspect Shyamalan suspects this, too, which is why he gives us a hopeful ending that falls flat.  Despite Dr. Staple's best efforts to quash all evidence of superheroes, Elijah has outfoxed her by making sure footage of the final battle and their executions is uploaded to the web and disseminated to anyone with a connection.  

"This is our ticket to the rest of the universe," Mother Glass says hopefully as the video goes viral and people watch in disbelief.

It's a lovely sentiment, but sentiment is all it is because you can see by the news chyrons at the bottom of every screen how it will be presented.  As far as the media is concerned, these weren't superheroes murdered to suppress their existence, but three escaped lunatics under the influence  of psychosis and adverse drug interactions who were killed for the public good.  In a day or two, the hamster wheels that spin the public attention span will veer in a different direction, and the secret will remain safe.

Of course most people are whinging about the dearth of badass superhero fights in this movie because the story Shyamalan told, whether he meant to or not, wasn't calibrated to their frequency and didn't reflect their emotional landscape.  They've never had to worry about visibility and freedom because they have always assumed both, and the titanic struggle for recognition and integration happened in a language they will never speak on a level beyond flying fists and bulging pecs and artistic explosions.  If there isn't an epic fight and an epic fuck, it's not a story worth their time.

[retro-hime]

The Ask Arcana Questionnaire

an awesome ass thank you to @fireflytrio for making this~!!

I have two apprentices so I’m filling this out for both of them. Essa and Valstyne. Essa’s will always be in bold and Valstyne’s will be italicized 

Part 1.) Characterization. Use these questions as a way to flesh out some of your character’s personality, background, likes/dislikes, etc.

Their surname?

Decesare

Castle

Halloween costume?

Devil/Satan but in like that scary attractive way. Could still kill you, but looks hot while doing it

Fairy

Familiar/animal friend?

Owl (or albino miniature dragon if lore allows)

Fruit Bat

Big spoon or little spoon?

Physically little spoon, emotionally big spoon

Both

Religious?

Not really, no

A little bit

Favorite fruit?

Blackberries and raspberries

Pomegranates

Idea of a nice date?

A rooftop picnic watching the sunset

She’s not too picky. Honestly any date is a nice date when you’re with the right person. But if she had to pick, it would be walking the beach barefoot and talking

Favorite season?

Winter

Spring and Winter and Fall and Summer... She can’t choose they’re all really nice

When is their Birthday?

April 12th (Aries)

January 23rd (Aquarius)

Favorite carnival ride?

Rollercoasters and drop towers. Anything that is scary as shit, like the zero gravity spinning thing

The spinning swings and hang gliders

Favorite emoji?

Devil emoji (Im on my laptop so I cant put them)

Any heart emoji and the eggplant and peach emoji 

Like to do in their free time?

Helping around town, eating, herbology/herbs, picking herbs, Underground fighting, sitting on the roof tops and throwing harmless stuff at passerbys

Astronomy/Constellations, astrology, people watching and then coming up with elaborate stories about them, helping the baker, walking/hiking through the forest

What sports would they play?

Kick-boxing or MMA

Track and field

What kind of car would they drive?

A big ass truck, preferrably Ford

SUV, those ones with three rowed seats. Or one of those rv’s or buses that were made into a cool mobile home.. So a mobile tiny home

How do they treat their significant other when they’re feeling unusually affectionate?

Lots of hugging and hand holding. She’ll go out of her way to get the person food (excessive amounts)

She would do a lot of amsall stuff, she’s already insanely affectionate, getting them their favorite flowers and giving them more kisses in random places than usual. Cooking/baking their favorite thing. Elaborate ass compliments

Favorite manga?

One Punch Man and Boku No Hero Academia

Ouran Highschool Host Club, Reimei No Arcana, and Kaichou Wa Maid-Sama... and Say I Love You

Main store to shop for clothes (if they lived in our world)?

Forever 21 or Hot Topic

Earthbound or any hipster thrift store and Platos Closet

What were they like growing up?

Very rough. She got into a lot of fights growing up. She was very protective of her mother and got into a lot of fights when the local kids and their parents would try to talk shit about her mother being a ‘witch’. Kinda like “call her a witch all you want Karn but you were just in the store yesterday getting a salve for that itch where the sun dont shine” 

She was a very sweet and quiet kid growing up and would make money helping everyone out around town. Her father was a surgeon and she would sometimes be required to help him out during his surgeries. So she doesn’t mind gore too much and started to really have a fascination with skulls. She has her mother and her fathers skulls in a glass case on a shelf in the shop.

What kind of drunk are they at a party?

Will kiss the person they secretly have a crush on, get more honest than usual, and will start fights. “i’ll kick your ass! i’ll kick my own ass!”

Dances on tables, becomes less reserved, the wholesome friend drunk where she’ll tell you how much she loves you. (Yuuri from Yuri On Ice when he got drunk. nuff said)

Reaction to someone telling a dirty joke?

"Oh shit that was good! Wanna hear a better one?!”

She would blush and snort/laugh at the same time. 

Reaction to stubbing their toe?

Creative ass curse words and then blaming the thing she stubbed her toe on.

“I curse you and your childrens children!” she screams at the table

Favorite color?

Dark colors, black red, black green, etc. 

Pastels~

Favorite See’s chocolate?

Dark chocolate

Chocolate and peanut butter

Favorite poptart flavor?

Gingerbread

Smores

Favorite hobby?

fighting for money

Singing and baking

How they sing at karaoke parties?

Refuses to sing, is only there for the alcohol

Sings loudly and seriously is drunk. She sings too well when shes not drunk but picks songs that people will hate. (Like Barbie Girl or any song by Aqua)

Preferred social media platform?

Reddit and Twitter

Tumblr

Opinion on puns?

Pun’s are the devils work, but god damn theyre funny. So shitty but so great. 

Has dad jokes/puns of her own

How do they typically deal with their problems?

Ignore that shit as much as possible until it is eminent

Push it down if it’s emotional problems. Other problems she tries to tackle head on because she doesn’t like putting off the inevitable

Spice girl nickname?

Death Spice

Honey Spice

Personal hygiene routine?

She showers every night because she always comes home dirty and her mom was big about being clean at night. She washes her hair every night as well

She showers twice a day and likes to make sure she always smells good. She washes her hair every other day and has a whole routine for it so that is stays moisturized and healthy.

Favorite alcoholic drink?

Fireball Whiskey

Rumchata

Favorite genre of music?

Any form of rock or rap/hip hop/r&b

Jazz or video game type music

Modern AU job/career?

MMA fighter

Vet

Favorite musical?

Hamilton and Sweeney Todd

Les miserables

How would they celebrate their significant other’s birthday?

Would spend a week planning and overthinking it. She would attempt to cook (which she can NOT do) and she would try to be romantic and would clean herself up and look really nice. It would be a personal dinner and a day spent doing whatever their SO wanted to do. 

She would wake them up with breakfast in bed and kisses. Then they would spend the day visiting their favorite places no matter the price and it would end with an elaborate picnic on the beach. 

Would they rather turn into a tiny rhinoceros or a giant hamster?

Giant Hamster

tiny rhinoceros

What would they do for their significant other for Valentine’s Day?

She would go to every a week in advance and would order a dish from each one to be delivered to the shop. She would send her SO out on errands all day so she could prepare it and would reward them with a surprise extravagant dinner.

Would wait until the day after when everything is on sale and shower her SO in the sweets that she binge bought. End the day in some intricate lingerie

Pros and cons to having them as a roommate?

Pros: Brings in money, can kick someones ass for you, knows how to take care of you when you’re sick, is good at cleaning.

Cons: Bullheaded, stubborn, is messy, sometimes won’t come home for days, cant. cook

Pros: Can cook, is homely, nicely decorates the house, house always smells good, makes sure everything is where it should be, likes to help

Cons: Skulls and bones (it usually makes people uncomfortable), superstitious 

On a scale from 1-10 how Extra are they?

8

5

Favorite meme?

Damn daniel and legally blind

Kermit self to self meme

Favorite three pokemon?

Gabite, Misdreavus, Haunter

Milotic, Sylveon, Staraptor

How tall are they?

5′4″

4′11″ and 3/4

Part 2.) Scaling. Using your best judgement, where does your fan apprentice fall on these scales?

[Example: Shortest to tallest?

Portia, Asra, [MC name here], Nadia, Lucio, Julian, Muriel]

Most to least superstitious?

Portia, Julian, Essa, Nadia, Lucio, Asra, Valstyne, Muriel

Most to least excited to be at a WWE event?

Essa, Portia, Lucio, Valstyne, Asra, Julian, Nadia, Muriel

Worst to best at handling children?

Nadia, Lucio, Muriel, Asra, Essa, Portia, Julian, Valstyne

Worst to best alcohol tolerance?

Muriel, Asra, Lucio, Valstyne, Julian, Portia, Essa, Nadia,

Best to worst at keeping secrets?

Asra, Valstyne, Muriel, Nadia, Lucio, Essa, Portia, Julian

Best to worst dancers?

Valstyne, Asra, Portia, Julian, Nadia, Lucio, Muriel, Essa

Most to least likely to slap you for stealing a mcnugget?

Essa, Nadia, Lucio, Asra, Portia, Julian, Muriel, Valstyne

Least to most likely to eat something weird on a dare?

Nadia, Julian, Valstyne, Muriel, Lucio, Portia, Asra, Essa

Least to most old?

Asra, Valstyne, Portia, Muriel, Essa, Julian, Lucio, Nadia

Part 3.) Extra characterization tidbits (whether you want to make a description or insert a photo for these is up to you!)

MC as a:

•MCR song

Mama

Sing

•vine

Kiss my ass (Summerella)

Any of the Thomas Sanders Vines of him narrating peoples lives

•a piece of furniture

Shelf (that way no one can fuck with her)

China Cabinet

•character from the Labyrinth

Hoggle

Jareth

•character in a cliche Noir film

Bad Cop who slaps the suspect around and uses unconventional ways to get answers. Has ties with the underground/black market in the city so they can get reliable information

 Knight in Sour armor, believes the world is good but keeps being let down. And Sympathy for the Devil, realizes the bad guy is no so bad after all 

•Tarot card

The Tower

Wheel of Fortune

•Micheal Jackson song

They Don’t Care About Us

Remember The Time

•character in the play “Cats”

I have no idea honestly

•Panic! at the disco song

Lying is the Most Fun A Girl Can Have Without Taking Her Clothes Off

House of Memories

•cliche high school student stereotype

The delinquent that is actually really talented/smart

The eccentric weird girl that is friends with everyone of every friend group

•furby

•flight rising dragon breed

Mirror Dragon

Skydancer and Spiral Dragon

•deadly sin

Wrath

Envy

•DnD class

Barbarian

Warlock

•character from Mean Girls

Janis

Ms. Norbury

•hogwarts house

Slytherin

Hufflepuff

•cryptid

Jersey Devil

Shadow People

•monster factory character

Way too complicated for me to get into

[sufficientlylargen]

I'm not sure "haptic feedback" is the right term here, since trains do definitely provide haptic feedback (you can feel them rumbling over bumps, you can feel the acceleration as they turn, you can crack open a window and feel the air rushing by). Maybe a better axis is whether or not you can control its movement while riding in/on it? That would give us:

A. Controlled/Barrier/Fast: Car, aircraft, train (but only if you're driving)

B. Controlled/Barrier/Slow: Golf cart, forklift, cruise ship (pilot), anything from A that's not working very well.

C. Uncontrolled/Barrier/Fast: Space station, spacecraft reentry capsule, house picked up by a tornado à la Wizard of Oz, falling to your death from a very great height while in a large hamster ball, anything from A if you're a passenger or the brakes don't work.

D. Uncontrolled/Barrier/Slow: Baby carriage, elevator, cruise ship (passenger), trapped in a large hamster ball floating on lazy river, house picked up by tornado à la Wizard of Oz and then deposited in a swamp where it is now very slowly sinking, space station where you redefine your frame of reference to provide yourself with constant zero speed, also anything else from C where you redefine your frame of reference to keep your velocity constant.

E. Controlled/No Barrier/Fast: Motorcycle, jetski, jetpack, speeder bike in the forests of Endor, being Superman and/or The Flash.

F. Controlled/No Barrier/Slow: Bicycle, segway, going for a walk, horse (skilled rider).

G. Uncontrolled/No Barrier/Fast: Being a passenger on anything from E, (including riding Superman and/or The Flash), fired out of a cannon, riding on top of anything from A, falling to your death from a very great height when you forgot your large hamster ball, spacecraft reentry capsule whose occupants are about to have a Bad Day™, typical planet.

H. Uncontrolled/No Barrier/Slow: Moving sidewalk in airport, parachute, passenger on any of F, horse (unskilled rider), lazy river (no hamster ball), moose, being Boromir's corpse floating down a river with the broken Horn of Gondor (no hamster ball), roomba, trying to ride a moose and ending up as a corpse floating down a river (no hamster ball, although the moose had one), freefall in extremely low gravity, Yoda's floating disc-chair from the Star Wars prequels but you don't know how to operate it and none of these button labels make any sense so it's just sort of wobbling around everywhere and it keeps bumping into things and you swear you don't even know how you turned the stupid thing on but will someone please come and turn it off before you randomly float into one of those bottomless-pit deathtrap rooms that every goddamn building around here seems to have four of, car without brakes or steering wheel or doors or roof or engine, typical planet (in no-speeding school zone).

i think probably urban highways are bad for like, human flourishing, because most people dont like them, and theyre especially a low value use of coastal areas, but *i* like them, so it irritates me when people shit on them. what if you could go FAST in a CITY?! is this not obviously great to everyone else

[jayrockin]

I don't know if you've gotten that deep into space stuff in Runaway, but is there artificial (of the Star Wars kind) gravity and who makes the best ships? If I was a rich guy and wanted a 100% custom ship, who's the best in the business?

The only artificial gravity in RttS is hamster wheel gravity, ie, centrifugal force. The smallest ships don’t bother having it because there’s no room for the giant motor system needed to spin the habitat module, or because the module would have too small a diameter and be nauseating to passengers (ie, gravity would be noticeably different at the head vs the feet). Thankfully they don’t need to worry too much about body degradation in zero G because the longest spaceflight trips an average ship will take are about 3 weeks (I still need to pick what slower-than-light propulsion method I’m using... hghsgh)

I haven’t made up any specific companies for RttS, but for a human customer avians are pretty good ship manufacturers... technically ferrets have been in the business longer (they have been space-faring for possibly thousands of years before anyone else) but their habitat designs are a tube maze.

[jayrockin]

I’m absolutely stealing FTL Atom’s hamster wheel gravity setup for the larger ships and space stations in RttS. Although, big RttS vessels tend to be very pencil-shaped, because the only FTL travel they have is artificial portals and everything has to fit through the standard 2 mile diameter slot.

I’m also probably going to give the Runaway (Bip’s vessel) hamster wheel gravity, partly because I'm just... very fond of it as a concept... and also because it's been retrofitted from a pirate ship with a crew if about 20 centaurs, so they have an excess of living and storage space. An RttS vessel even a little bit smaller would probably just be all zero G