#but then if reproductive tech is that good why do people still just die in pregnancy. did padme just luck out

[mixelation]

If Anakin was haploid OR homozygous-diploid (which are my two favorite Options of the ones mentioned), Luke and Leia would have to be as genetically-similar as eusocial-insect diploid full-siblings (~75%) but they don't really look it.

Yeah, I think your math checks out. However, I think human phenotypic variation is such that I accept they look as similar/different as they do.

#i have a hard time telling people apart in general lmao #i also like homozygous diploid but this opens up new questions about how anakin got someone pregnant #presumably also on accident? #i think if anakin were trans he would have access to pretty good gender-affirming tech #like once he joined the jedi i mean #so MAYBE in space it's good enough a trans guy could accidentally knock someone up #but then if reproductive tech is that good why do people still just die in pregnancy. did padme just luck out

[random-thought-depository]

It occurs to me that one relatively sympathetic aspect of these people might be that, their founding population having been abducted as small children and raised by an inhuman monster, they might lack a lot of the stupid prejudices that regular humans in a low-tech setting are likely to have if real history is any guide.

Think about what’s going to happen with that first generation. It sounds to me like the dragon abducts them when they’re very young, the better to brainwash them. The dragon is probably both ignorant of and uninterested in a lot of human culture, it just wants to raise up some dragon-worshipping brainwashed thralls. Which is probably going to be bad in a lot of ways, but it also means the transmission chains of a lot of stupid prejudices get broken. There’s no-one around to tell those kids that darker-skinned people are inferior. There’s no-one around to stigmatize left-handedness and force the left-handed ones to hide being left-handed. There’s no-one around to socialize them into complicated and rigid gender roles and tell them men should be in charge. There’s no-one around to tell them they shouldn’t share a washing bowl with a Cagot. There’s no-one around to tell them some people are Untouchables and karmically deserving of low status and suffering and you should take a ritual bath if one of them touches you. The dragon probably doesn’t even know about half that stuff and doesn’t care about most of the other half. The dragon might actually actively discourage a lot of prejudices like this if they do show up, because they’d interfere with its human stock being efficient thralls (“You’re telling me you want to reduce the military effectiveness and productivity of my dragon cult because you don’t want to share tools with people who have a particular surname? Yeah, no, we’re not doing that; any tool that is not personal property belongs to me and will be used by any of my thralls who is doing work that requires it”).

What happens when these kids reach puberty? The dragon probably wants its dragon cult making babies, so it’s probably going to tell them how baby-making works and make it clear it expects them to make some new thralls for it sooner or later, but as long as the thralls are making approximately the right number of babies and aren’t killing each other it probably won’t care much about the details. So... These people are going to start experiencing attraction to each other and sometimes falling in love with each other, and... Some of them are going to fall in love with people of the same sex, and there’s no-one around to tell them homosexuality is wrong. Some of them are going to fall in love with more than one person, and there’s no-one around to tell them they aren’t allowed to have multiple partners, and there’s no-one around to tell them that people who already have a partner are “taken” and off-limits, and there’s no-one around to tell them that if you’re a man another man having sex with your female partner is a huge deadly insult to your honor. The original write-up talks about dragons selectively breeding their human thralls, so there might be significant reproductive control and coercion happening, but it’s probably pretty orthogonal to the sort that happens in patriarchal societies.

This is simplifying in ways that might paint an over-optimistic picture. Even small children may have picked up some prejudices from the societies they spent their first years in. And some of that stuff might get reinvented. Children often detect and react with hostility to difference even without much or any prompting from adults, and I suspect some prejudices of this sort are ultimately rooted in that sort of reflexive xenophobia. And I think at least a rough “men do more of the fighting and heavy labor, women do more of the child-care and less strength-intensive work” division of labor is probably going to emerge, because it’s a natural and logical reaction to physical sex differences in a low-tech context. Though on that note, I can think of a few factors that might work to keep dragon cults more gender-equal than regular human societies:

Dragons likely won’t want their cults getting too numerous. A numerous cult would be harder to control and more likely to develop power centers independent of the dragon. Dragon cults would also be more secure against external threats than other human groups of their size, because they’ve got a giant fire-breathing monster on their side, so they wouldn’t have as much pressure to make sure they’ve got lots of fighters to defend their land (though the dragon would likely be a “tall poppy,” it’s likely that lots of people will want to kill it to stop its depredations and plunder its hoard and have the glory of defeating it, so that’ll partly cancel that out). Put this together, dragon cults might be at least a little less pro-natalist than their regular human neighbors. I mean, they’ll probably still have big families by modern standards because of how many people die young in low-tech societies, they’ll probably still need to have 3-5 children per couple just for replacement rate, but this might make at least a little difference. And high birth rates, large families, and pro-natalism are an important load-bearing pillar of strong gender roles; it’s not an accident that we started treating women a lot better after we invented or popularized vaccination, antibiotics, indoor plumbing, and birth control pills (the first three things made high birth rates unnecessary and even undesirable, the last thing made low birth rates easier to maintain). Compared to other human women, dragon cult women might have more time and energy to devote to things that aren’t making and raising babies.

I think dragon cults are also likely to be socially hierarchical but economically communalistic, with little private property and relatively high social mobility. From the original write-up it sounds like dragons want totalitarian control over their cults, so they won’t want their cults to have power centers independent of the dragon. Dynastic families and sizeable accumulations of private property are power centers independent of the dragon, so the dragon will discourage their formation. In low-tech male privilege societies powerful families and stable inherited property are major bulwarks of patriarchy; they make it important who your father is, and they make it important to avoid family instability that may result in division of the property or otherwise endanger the family’s claim to the property. If patrilineal descent chains don’t matter much, women are likely to have more sexual freedom and by knock-on effects of that more freedom in general and are under less pressure to marry early and produce lots of potential heirs for their husbands.

Finally, the write-up mentioned dragons selectively breeding their human thralls for size and strength, and maybe implied also selectively breeding them for precocious physical maturity. If they’re doing that, dragons might also selectively breed their thralls for reduced sexual dimorphism. From the dragon’s point of view, why wouldn’t you want to double your pool of potential strong fighters? So after two or twenty centuries of selective breeding dragon cult women might have size and upper body strength a lot closer to males. Dragon cults would probably still have some kind of “men do more of the fighting and women do more of the work compatible with having a baby or child in close proximity” gendered division of labor, but reducing sexual dimorphism would tend to weaken gendered divisions of labor and hence gender roles in general.

I mean, we’re talking about a creepy high-control cult here. And “nobody was there to tell them...” would definitely have potential dark sides, like “nobody was there to tell them rape and incest are wrong” and “nobody was there to tell them that an adult shouldn’t casually slap around or beat up a child when they’re angry at them.” They’d probably develop some taboos on that sort of stuff just to keep their society somewhat functional, and the dragon would probably give them rules against the aspects of that sort of behavior that might lower their efficiency as thralls or endanger the viability of the dragon cult, but “basically functional levels of rape, incest, and casual physical abuse of children” might look pretty horrifying (though given what a lot of actual historical societies looked like I’m not sure they’d really be worse on the rape and casually beating up their children fronts than their non-dragon cult neighbors). So this isn’t going to be any kind of utopia. If dragon cultists showed up in a story they’d probably be bad guys. But, like:

“And because they serve dragons, they sometimes get the good stuff. Picture a 15- year-old kid with the physique of Conan, wearing the golden armor of ancient kings and armed with magic spears. The kid is also illiterate, covered in fleas, and thinks that humans were created by dragons.”

I suggest that this kid might be a girl, who has a girlfriend and a boyfriend, in a world where a female person being a warrior and interacting on a footing of easy familiarity and equality with rough violent men and having multiple partners is very much not a regular thing in most human societies. And while from one point of view this person is a brainwashed slave of a giant fire-breathing mammal-like reptile, she can look forward to having a lot more personal freedom than most non-dragon cult women (e.g. the 15 year old farmer’s daughter whose father and older brother she just eviscerated). Would fit into: “And its not hard fascism either.  Their barbarian tribes don't chafe at the collar.  They've believe in their dragon.  And when you stand in front of a dragon, you can see why.” If that girl has some idea of how much less freedom and power she’d probably have if she’d been born into one of the surrounding more normal human societies, that knowledge surely cements her loyalty to her dragon. It’d make the whole thing more insidious in a way.

-----

Aside: the one thing that kind of bugged me about the Goblin Punch post is where it says dragon cultists “never build cities or roofs.” So what do they do when it rains, or is freezing cold, or burning hot? I’m interpreting this as they live in tent-like structures and don’t build permanent houses with thick walls, cause otherwise that bit is just grimderp.

#Goblin Punch #writing ideas #fantasy #dragons #cw: cults #cw: spiritual abuse #cw: child abuse #cw: rape #cw: violence #cw: kind of implication of a 15 year old having a sex life

[teacup-baphomet]

G/t Drabble (Crash landed on a hostile planet trope but NOT via the a tiny vulnerable human in a planet of mean powerful alien bigs route)

tw: a bit of censored cursing. Uh. I’m not sure what else. Maybe broaching of sensitive tops such as sexuality and religion. But not really. Mostly it’s just rlly dumb word play/lame humor and a confused alien being confused (and kinda freaked/troubled due to the confusion? you’ll see if you read it i guess). there is some sad lorg boi times. idk. no romantic relationships. just a shaky friendship is forming between a crash-landed big-arse alien (a human! *gasp*  i woulda never guessed something as vile as that o: ) and one of the much smaller, very much not human locals. most want to kill the poor dude who got stuck on this planet of hostile lil guys who think he’s a monster and immediately decide they much off him asap. so like having this one ally is kinda important to him. But it’s hard. because. lots reasons rlly. culture differences. the language tech can only do so much. the size diff creates definite issues because trust is hard in general. and trusting a big being that could easily cause havoc on your planet mostly just cuz he /seems/ nice is not a very good foundation... there is much to learn between the two before they can be truly good frens. so uh good luck to them lol *raises glass* I mean. I don’t think I’ll ever write these two again. but I’m sure they’ll end up good friends. probably.

Anyway without further adieu, here have a disappointment (read: attempt to be creative but i’m kinda lazy tbh and still kinda bitter I can’t draw for more than like 10 minutes before I start spacing out :/ )

"We are called humans or the scientific name is homo sapiens" spoke the large alien, Lyle.

"Homo sapiens? That is rather long, is it not? Why is a "scientific name" even a thing? Why would that be necessary? Scientific name versus what kinda name? Emotional name? Why are these science names two words? Seems annoying. What is wrong with just calling yourselves simply homos? Or something else just as nice and concise. Straight to the point if you will. Probably. I... Uh.. I obviously don't know what exactly is the purpose of a scientific name as i already implied... Sooo..." The much shorter – and much scalier- native being (called Torrynts) awkwardly looked off the side to stare at the plain, blank, siding of their dilapidated, isolated house as if it were the most interesting thing in the entire vicinity. Which it wasn’t of course. There was a f***ing alien 15 times their size only a few them-sized lengths way…

 Lyle gave his new comrade – and only friend on this gawdforsaken planet that mostly wants him dead- th pondering, and possibly ironically, rather colourfully scaled Torrynt by the name of Kyvlar a bemused look, bordering on coy.

"Huh. 'Straight' to the point you say?" He paused with a small snort. "Well, my not-so-statuesque friend, do I got news for you~"

Kyvlar suddenly blanched, giving a Lyle a look that was like a knife to the heart while blurting out. "Wait, wait, wait! Hold up! We? There are more than one of you? Here? On this planet? Were you just a distraction the whole time. Oh... Oh no.... Have we really been victim a secret homo invasion this whole time! I-"

 Their panicked monologue was interrupted by a most horrendous noise. Like a slowly dying tornado with the hiccups or something.

"STOP. Stop I-I can't. I can't. This is too much much!" Spoke Lyle with his hand covering the bottom half of his  and his eyes scrunched shut.

 'Welp,' thought the Torrynt, 'This is the end. This is when I die. I should have known better than to immediately put my trust in such an enormous obviously dangerous specimen. Ho-'

 Kyvlar’s dramatic internal speech was interrupted when the alien surprised them by uncovering the his face, revealing a huge grin. ‘They weren't upset? Huh?’ The Torrynt blinked owlishly at the human in confusion.

 "Sh*t, bite-size (Kyvlar noticeably paled at the impromptu nickname not 100% the foreign joking tone, well it would have been noticeable to someone their size at least), I know you don't mean to, context-wise, but you reminded me of my great aunt Karen when my Uncle Todd and Uncle Copper decide to have their friends over along with relatives for a gatherin'."

Plastering on a faux distraught look and blatantly mocking tone, he  continue with exaggerated hand gestures. "Oh no, it's the...the...," he paused with snort, "... the homo invasion... No, no, no... Not here... not in this... this good, Christian neighborhood. Aren't just two of them enough? Oh woe is me!" The alien dropped the mocking tone and smirked towards the smaller being. "Heh. Good ol' great aunt Karen could never remember Uncle Todd was Jewish and so was the majority of that neighborhood.... It’s where my Uncle Todd was raised actually…"

 The said smaller being just stared blankly at the homo-no-human they supposed as just “homo” meant something else, they weren’t sure what else, beyond just something else.

 "Uhhm. Wh-what? U-Uhm, so what exactly is “homo” then? And what’s Christian? And Jewish too. What’s that? Are... Are those other types of -uh- intelligent, sentient creatures on your planet? Y-you know, b-beside hom-er-h-humans? Or are these subtypes of humans? What kinda are you? What is a great aunt? or Uncle? Does the great indicate a larger size? Oh gawd, a-aren't you humans b-big enough regularly? Oh... W-wait. O-or are you a great- uhm- great aunt, was it? E-er, g-great something? Ohhh. Zyntall (Torrynt swear). I'm sooo confused r-right now... " The timid tiny being, sighed in frustration before their eyes snapped open wide in a panic, and they did an immediate one-eighty with their behavior, and it was off all their previously trust, as wavering as it was, vanished in an instant, squeaking out a quick "sorry. oh, Z-zyntall... I'm so-so-sooo sorry. I-I hope I d-didn't offend y-you or anyth-thing... p-please, oh please, don't hurt me" while gazing everywhere except towards the much larger alien, hoping desperately the 'bite-size' nickname was just a bad joke...

 Clearly they not only didn't get what so hilarious about the whole thing but also thought he was a monster prone to violence – still. Lyle sighed, all the mirth that was previously in his expression draining out of him leaving him with an uncomfortable grimace on their face. How disappointing... They really wish there was another human here to share in the jesting. But alas, that was not meant to be. At least as far as they knew there was no "homo invasion" in the making. Lyle wasn’t naïve. He knew humans were easy to slip into a gray moral state, at best. The role of villains at worst. And many of his kind would likely take advantage of a planet full of tiny, vulnerable people. Lyle couldn’t help but inwardly cringe at the thought, getting nervous about something that wasn’t an issue. At least now. Currently, human-wise, it was just him on this distant planet. And as far as he knew, no one - well, no other human at least- had any clue where they were. It probably just seemed he simply disappeared. Never to be seen again most likely. Trapped on this random alien planet in scenario that is akin to some sort of a personal hell of sorts.

'Wow. Hello, major depressive episode that’s making me overly dramatic. I haven't seen you since I was - what - eighteen?' thought Lyle regretfully. Calling this planet a personal hell was probably a bit over the top. But still, he couldn’t even seem to keep the trust of his single native ally. It only adds to his feelings of lonely isolation. And he feared his lonely angst will only get worse and worse. But only time will tell.

Giving a small sigh, he mentally prepped himself to try and get back his small friend’s trust. At least he was able to laugh for a wee bit earlier. It had been so long since he had done such. It was nice. Hopefully next time it will not lead to a backtracking in his attempted friendly ships with an open local, or even worse, a hostile local. The little laser guns that native being had stung like a b*tch. It reminded him when he got bit a couple times by some fire ants during a vacation as a child.

-----------

So yeah these were rando improvised characters made on the spot.

But Lyle is a guy (he/him. He’d be chill with they/them too)

And Kyvlar is… a Torrynt. So like they/them I guess. Torrynts don’t have genders. Like at all. I guess they hermaphroditic (intersex if talking by human terms but not really as they are capable of reproduction and they aren’t human so… I dunno… Not even sure if hermaphrodite is a useful term. As idk if hermaphroditic animals, in nature, are capable of reproduction… I don’t think so? But I’m not sure tbh…). There is no variants like there are with human “sex”. And male/female concepts are 200+% foreign to these wee reptile-like aliens (albeit warm-blooded minded, so perhaps more draconian than reptilian idk. Also aliens being described as reptilian gives me hives due to a conspiracy theory that is like super bigoted actually n’ stuff. Very yikes. Don’t want to talk it about it rlly…). Their reaction would def be “wtf. That’s the weirdest sh*t ever” to such a thought as male n female binary dynamics & whatnot. No exceptions. They’d be like why a lot of you guys limiting yourself because of whether or not you are a potential offspring vessel or not. I don’t understand.

So Yeah. Uh. Anyways.

Their conversation about this prolly (or close to this):

Lyle: Hi. I’m Lyle. Just some random dude form Earth I guess.

Kyvlar: a random dude what?

Lyle: uh. I’m a dude. I guess I meant that I’m a boy though dudes don’t really have to be boys I think. But not to derail too much… Yeah. I’m a man/guy/boy/brosef, whatever you wanna call the male gender. Please not by brosef actually, heh. Anyway. Yep. A boy. That is what I am. Uh. How about you. I can just tell… you ….you have uhm two legs. Oh damn. Wait. That sounded so stupid. I wouldn’t assume your gender or anything. I just… You don’t look exactly human so..uh. UGH. Nevermind. I don’t even know where I was going with that... Heh. ANYWAY, so yeah what’s your gender is what I’m trying to say. Sorry I’m awkward as f***. I’m not used to socializing much. Been doing deep space sh** on my own for a few years now and.. uh.. yeahhhh….

Kyvlar: *stares blankly*

Lyle: Uh. Yeah. So. A Gender? Do you, uhm, have one? Or…????

Kyvlar: Uh. I think so? I mean I’m mostly a day-by-day I’ll figure it out then type but I, I really want be able to fix my home up. I want to learn to cook. Kinda suck at it now. Uhm. I guess… Uh. I should probably help you get on good terms with my people so they stop trying to kill you. You seem nice n’ stuff… so yeah. There’s that. I could use a little more purpose in my life. Not to-

Lyle: wait. Huh? What are you talking about? Are you talking about an agenda?

Kyvlar: Yes????

Lyle: *snorts* I didn’t say an agenda. I said a gender. As in A. Gen. Durr. Like are male or female or maybe something off the typical binary track??

Kyvlar: Uh. Er. Huh??? I, I’m so confused right now…

Lyle: Hooo boy. I’m so not prepared for this discussion at all.

-----------

One of these days I’m gonna have a character that’s silver-tongue and smooth af and not some bumbling awkward doofus (*cough* like I am *cough*).

#g/t #g/t writing #i think this is sfw #i don't know why it wouldn't be #giant/tiny #giant dude #but he's really a human #it's like the crash landed on a hostile planet g/t trope #but the crash landed is a human #and he is the BIG #and the tinies are a bunch of hostile aliens #except for one #and they aren't really tiny #they are technically normal I think #i mean it is their turf yknow? #the tiny alien in this drabble is non-binary I guess #or maybe agender would be a better term? #the tiny aliens have no gender #or rather they have one gender #so it basically is means little to them identity to wise #like how humans are humans and thus that doesn't honestly say much about them. #except gender means even less to these aliens than that #not in a offensive way #in a they have no knowledge of gendered creatures so the concept of gender is very new to them #actually it's a non-issue to most of them because they don't give a shit about Lyle at all #oh your a guy #we don't care just die already #poor dude #he just wants a friend #but's awkward

[derangedhyena-zoids]

You know what there doesn't seem to be a preponderance of on Zi?

Kids.

fair warning: this is a goddamn mess of a horseshitpost about history, population and reproduction dynamics, and chucklefucking about character genetics that I have unfortunately have actually spent time thinking about because my brain literally doesn't accept "idle" as a state. 

this probably gets a little weird and also contains mention of sensitive topic (tagged) so please be aware of that

Ok so

Compared to say, the society pictured in Fuzors (which doesn't comply with the xCentury-verse sufficiently and thus gets ignored by me), NC0 seems equally prosperous but a lot more resource-strained. Not "at that time" but simply as a way of life.

Nobody thinks of themselves as resource-poor, but nothing is terribly robust except in the largest cities (eg the modern day rebuilds of the old capitals, Guygalos and New (Helic) City.)

This isn't a secret. It's more or less been the case for the entirety of humans' colonization of the planet. That's why locale self-sufficiency is so important and why there's huge stretches of nothing everywhere. You simply cannot live wherever you want. The environment is fucking hostile and You Will Die.

So first off, let's be real: when you first colonize a planet and want to establish yourselves there, there's going to be rules/procedures in place regarding reproduction to make sure nobody ends up genetically representing too much of the population. It'd take a bit to get to the point of non-directed (and/or non test-tube) reproduction even being allowed.

Basically, space humans colonizing alien planets gonna have hella birth control tech available. There are no "oops" offspring. I'm inclined to think it's actually something that's been modified on a very base level (read: likely genetic modification, is heritable) level, that would require outside intervention of some kind (eg chemical) to make reproduction possible.

The point of "safe to naturally mingle" would likely correspond with the eventual, initial tech-dip as the stores of things from initial arrival were finally depleted (because it was probably planned out that way), and tech that was arrived with started to go offline permanently.

They'd have to be settling into what they could do and make with the resources available on Zi, meaning that avoiding uncontrolled population growth was still a huge priority, because the let's-successfully-establish-civilization mindset would still be thoroughly ingrained at that point.

There'd be hundreds of years of "danger zone" population levels where large adverse events could've easily wiped them all out if they weren't mindful. But, they were, and humans colonized Zi successfully (...again), good job, hooray

The overarching society-level birth control was well-codified in the various cultural groups that arose. But these inclinations did change over time as larger and more friction-prone groups formed (read: the Empire, over time, became large and in charge, discontent developed and huge chunks of people kept trying to detach. Eventually the Republic cropped up. You need more people to be a bigger thing.)

Any desire to handle the population with kid-gloves all but went out the window as the first conflicts started and people were killed. These conflicts eventually escalated into the long-standing wars between the Empire and Republic, and restrictions on reproduction basically went away. (+depending on who was in charge things may have even Yikes'd in the other direction)

(just a canon-fyi I'm not following the Battle Story in the slightest, I'm only trying to make the xCentury anime(s) function. Zoids' various canons are like Transformers' canons - A MESS)

Before these wars started happening, not much besides the occasional natural disaster, accident, or simply old age killed anyone. People can live a long time on Zi! Much longer than usual.

Why? Because a lot of human common human pathogens from Earth simply *wouldn't exist* there (space humans are gonna be really careful to not tote that shit around), so there's only really lifestyle-related issues, latent or new-mutation genetic problems, and any micro-organisms on Zi that mutated sufficiently to be able to affect people. (which is not really a stretch if we're going by the thought that Zoidians were long-evolved humans. The Zoidians were there a LOT longer than humans have been)

so. modern day. I have NC0 a few hundred years after CC/GF. As a whole I think the human race on Zi is relatively young, but a lot of the oldest information (like "exactly when we fucking got here") was lost in Imperial/Republican wars.

Those went on for hundreds of years themselves, enough to establish mass Zoid manufacture as The Way Of Things(tm) and otherwise entrench what became the norms for human society there. (I STRONGLY suspect there's still a lot of residual Imperial/Republican tension in places/families and that Backdraft was founded by, for lack of a better word, Imperial sympathizers with a longstanding grudge against a unified GF-run government *coughhh Alteil cough* but... I digress)

Humans are at a perfectly serviceable population. I actually hesitate to put a number on it because I don't know what # value would properly represent "a sustainable amount of people on a barren planet with very limited resources" but it'd be a sizable population (I'd guesstimate tens of millions). I imagine the GF, being the unquestionably-global governing body*, is relatively authoritarian as far as the core population and major cities go. They obviously can't tightly police the whole planet, but they can certainly keep an eye on it.    

This doesn't mean it's a dystopia or that the GF is evil or that it's anything bad, really. I sort of picture it being run by Committee, likely made up of various descendants of powerful families ([insert 10 tons of political intrigue here that I'm picturing, it's amazing, ANYWAYS]) Zi's government is definitively a plutocracy.

There were plenty of people on the planet who were ambivalent towards the Empire and the Republic's nonsense and just carried on what social norms and culture that had been established by the early colonists. Many didn't LIKE that all the fighting was happening because innocent, uninvolved people kept getting killed, and that sucked because they just wanted to live quiet lives in secure towns and be left alone.

There was also a desire for more law enforcement in general, since gangs, bandits, and the Zi equivalents of sovereign citizens kept causing problems. So when the Guardian Force was established initially to wrestle peace into place, it was largely welcomed and people were very, very glad to get rid of hundreds of years of war.

This also meant a lot of people had kids because things became markedly more stable. In fact what led up *to* New Century was probably several solid centuries of strong population growth, establishing additional stable strongholds in habitable areas (new cities were established and built up), modernization and other general signs of prosperity.

So, all this blah blah blah leads up to several key realities for New Century:

-There isn't a strangehold on population growth, nor are there formal limits. However, the chemical-whatever that causes the inbuilt birth-control to fuck off is under the purview of - or at least monitored by - the government. So... there's that. It's also overwhelmingly likely that people have figured out other sources for this over time, if for some reason they're distrustful.

-This inbuilt bc is in effect for everyone. Both folks involved have to be on board. I mean, it'd technically be possible to surreptitiously slip some of the chemical-whatever to an unwilling partner? But it's not like that would be difficult to figure out.

-Family units range from what we'd recognize as a 'family' to entire towns sharing children/parenting responsibilities. Monogamy is the norm but polygamy isn't weird. People can be pretty sexually loose and it's not frowned upon at all - because let's be real, NC0-society is at full-on bread-and-circus levels of operation. There seems to be a moderate anti-intellectual bent and Zoid battles are the height of achievement. People are chasing highs as a way of life.  

Topically relevant individuals' headcanon:

I think Steve's wife died in childbirth (having Leena.) It neatly explains what happened to her and Layon's unhealthy obsession with Leena.

Feel like Bit and Brad both were raised in the more "communal" type of settings.

Harry's family comes from old Republican money.  

Stoller came from a family that's the equivalent of a house in the south that has confederate flags everywhere. Except they're Imperial.

ARE YOU STILL HERE? GOOD LORD WHY. WELL NOW THIS IS A SHITPOST ABOUT ZOIDIAN HYBRIDS AND OTHER ANCESTRY FUCKERY

Remember in some other post I wrote I said that when you start to hybridize Zoidians in, reproduction becomes more difficult? That's IN PART because of the bc thing, and in part because general genetics fuckery. But once you *had* a hybrid you had very robust individuals, who initially lacked a fully functional version of the inbuilt bc. Over time that was mixed back in, but there were at least a couple janky generations.

Literally every hybridized line in existence is either from Hiltz or Ryss. Fiona didn't reproduce (wasn't for lack of trying. Both her and Van being bonded to the same Organoid caused problems in that department.)

Ryss had two kids with Raven. The reality of Raven aging and dying sucked. The reality of her kids, grandkids, etc aging and dying sucked. Though her immediate offspring lived a lot longer than progressive generations did, as the bloodline became more diluted, a slightly-improved human lifespan became the norm. This was incredibly depressing to Ryss and is a large part of why she fucked off to the middle of nowhere to live with things that wouldn't age out and die on her. It's also why she didn't continue to have children.

Hiltz... Hiltz fucked (and well, raped) a lot of people (50% as a power/hate thing and 50% because he's from the Feed-Fuck-Fight club) and some of the people that lived to talk about it had offspring. The same aging issues were in effect for these offspring, but unlike Ryss's family they didn't have the benefit of anyone explaining what the fuck was going on. So they had a strange time.

Remember that these direct hybrids would've been of age squarely in the aforementioned, post-GF "everyone is having kids" time, so a fair number of distinct new lines were created and persisted. There was also a weird range of ages involved, because the direct hybrids lived A WHILE and could have offspring for most of that time.

Now, in the context of "many years later", this means a fair number of people carry these genes in varying dilutions. It's not a large amount in the context of the entire human population. It's a handful of family lines with increasingly baffled histories. But family groups frittered a lot in the aftermath of GF, so a lot of that knowledge was functionally lost.

Basically no one has any idea anymore, what little idea that they had in the first place. The only families with distinct and traceable genealogies are the rich/old-money ones.      

So, in the NC0 cast I officially headcanon 5 folks as these dilute-hybrids. You know most of them; Sara, Vega, and Brad, but I'm impolitely adding Stoller and Iyaga (Ehga?) to that mix because reasons.

Brad and Iyaga are from Hiltz's line. Sara and Stoller are from Ryss's. Vega is unique in that he draws from BOTH; Ryss from his mother's side and Hiltz from his father's. Sara had a *really* hard time actually having a kid as a result of that particular genetic fuckery. IMO this explains some of her behavior towards Vega - by the time she had him she was so emotionally estranged by both the loss of Vega's father and the loss of numerous pregnancies (and by that time was more involved with her 'backdraft career'), she struggled with BASIC AFFECTION.

anyways, thanks for coming to the world's most useless ted talk  

*ZBGF is like world-police, GF is world-gov, ZBC is a branch of ZBGF that keeps battles in line (and monitors usage of things). The GF is "background", in that it's using the more-friendly-seeming ZBC as its eyes and ears while keeping track of things on a higher level.

p.s. the bc thing is actually adapted from another story of mine's background, so don't worry I didn't spend ALLLLLL this time thinking about that for this only sdhgfjdfdf

#headcanon #tw rape

[outerspace-iiinnerspace]

Hey! I have other things I should be writing but I’m gonna be self indulgent and write out everything about my Steven Universe ocs because who’s gonna stop me, huh?

Under cut because guess what? First I have to explain this theory I’ve got for any of it to make sense and that’ll be long.

So the first thing is a theory about gem reproduction. Gems come from Kindergartens, that’s a thing we know about Gems. But apparently they don’t only come from Kindergartens; Pearls come from the Reef and I can see other kinds being made in different ways. Ambers emerging from huge trees, anyone?

If Gems always had to be made though, then who made the first ones? Some theorists on here think it was some other species, some think it was the Diamonds, my theory is that it was all just Gems. Gems originally arose from spontaneous germination. One or two would appear at a time, eventually come into contact with others, and build a society. Since they’re basically immortal it didn’t matter that the population grew very slowly, and once they managed to develop FTL travel it’s easier than ever to search out new Gems. They would find them on planet surfaces, on asteroids and moons, even inside gas giants every so often. Even though there was a ton of research into it, no one was ever able to predict locations where Gems would form.

Eventually, though, that avenue of inquiry came to an unexpected conclusion: how to induce Gem formation. No longer did they have to travel across space to find new Gems and bring them home; just make them and here they are.

This discovery was the start of Era 1 and the imperialistic portion of Gem history. Since Gem production is resource-intensive and can’t be done indefinitely on the same planet, they had to expand and look for more planets. The Gems who were capable of making new Gems suddenly became extremely important and had all kinds of authority. The Gem population which had been growing so slowly started exploding; the parts of society in charge of integrating new Gems into it wasn’t able to cope and started just slotting new gems into all the new jobs this expansion was making. It was meant to be temporary; let that Quartz fight for a while until she figures out what she really wants to do.

(Gems don’t really have a “childhood” life stage; they come out of the ground ready to do what they do. Before, a Gem would usually be alone for some time before encountering any others and have some idea of who they were and what they liked. Now, hundreds and then thousands of new people were popping out of the ground every month, with no idea who they were.)

Over time, these “temporary” assignments became expected, then enforced, then not even worth thinking about. Of course a Peridot will work with tech. Of course a Bismuth will build. What else would she do? 

The older Gems, who had existed before this age of Kindergartens and classifications, will outnumbered and growing more so over time. The Diamonds, having used their authority as the ones actually creating the other gems, took power for themselves and no one thought to doubt it. The old-timers either took their expected jobs, struck out from the empire on their own, died (Gems may be immortal but they’re not indestructible), or stuck around on the fringes of society, tolerated but not much else.

Of course “naturally occurring” Gems still come into being, but they’re rare and aren’t sought out any more. When an empire Gem comes in contact with them they’re welcomed into the fold, but there are no doubt many more out in the universe making their way on their own.

My two ocs, Ekanite and Coffinite, are both old timers. They predate the Diamonds, they predate the Kindergartens. I don’t know if the show has ever established the age of the Gem empire but the precise number of years doesn’t matter. They’re old.

Ekanite and Coffinite (the stones) are slightly radioactive, and I can’t imagine the characters would be different. Gems wouldn’t be bothered by it but their electronics are another story; there are no Kindergartens producing radioactive Gems. Why make Gems that mess with tech? 

Given this, there was no easy modern era job to point to and say “Ekanites and Coffinites do this.” After millennia of kicking around, doing odd jobs, and drifting further from the center of Gem society and out near the frontier, they ended up with their career: mining asteroids.

The two of them own a ship. It’s an old, ugly clunker (”Just like us,” Ekanite jokes. Coffinite winces.) with no FTL, makeshift shielding around the controls and a cabin barely bigger than the holes they came out of so long ago. They cruise in whichever direction they feel like for as long as it takes until they find a nice metallic rock. One of them makes a spacewalk and tethers it, then off they go again until they’ve got a good half-dozen or so. Then they head back to the nearest station to drop off the ore, get some repairs, and spend a few days in port. Each trip can take hundreds of years, but what does it matter? They don’t need food or water, only enough air to transmit sound waves, and they’ve got an atomic engine that should burn for a couple millennia before it needs refueling. Life ain’t that exciting, but if they wanted adventure they’d have gone out and found some.

Personality-wise, Ekanite is the dreamer. She’s the one who gets distracted on spacewalks looking at stars when she’s supposed to be tethering a rock. Her summoned weapon is a pickaxe, but it doesn’t get much play. Sometimes she’ll use it to hammer pitons into the rock but that’s almost never necessary. Ekanite also used to mess around with art a long time ago. It was never anything fine; she just enjoyed slapping colors around. Her and Coffinite’s ship is painted inside and out with clashing blues, yellows, reds, whites, purples, and greens. If Gems have the concept of a social butterfly, Ekanite’s one. There are very few gem types she wouldn’t feel comfortable approaching for a conversation, a learned habit coming of being one of the only of her kind.

Coffinite is the practical one, keeping track of the miles and the fuel and the maps. Even if you can’t die from space, being lost in it isn’t an enticing thought. She’s the sensitive one; while Ekanite self-deprecates with ease and finds genuine humor in being an old-timer, Coffinite doesn’t appreciate being reminded. She misses the past, she misses the dabbling and dilettanting she did before a Gem was expected to have one purpose all their life. She prefers staying with Ekanite on their ship than trying to get along with other, younger, Gems. Sometimes, when a mood hits at the same times as they’re in port, she won’t even leave the ship.

Neither of them were involved in Rose’s rebellion, or the events of the series so far. They probably never picked up Steven’s broadcast, or heard the news about Era 3. If they ever made it to Earth, Coffinite would spend as much time with humans as she would. She would talk to them because they wouldn’t know how she’s different from the others, because they’re too unfamiliar to remind her of things, because they’re new. She would take on as many jobs and hobbies as she could manage, but only one at a time, and only for a few decades before getting bored. She would lay in the sun on the beach and not talk to anyone for days on end.

Ekanite would try her hand at painting again, but give it up pretty quick. She actually prefers looking at art to making it, but had no way of knowing that when the only art she saw was her own. She’d make an effort to get to know the humans and other Gems around, but get overwhelmed after a few conversations and retreat to her ship to read magazines. It’s tough to get used to after so long alone.

I had a story at one point about them finding a naturally occurring Peridot in an asteroid. Her gem had formed partially below the surface so she wasn’t able to emerge and take form for the first time until Ekanite hacked her out. The conflict was between whether they should bring her back to civilization to have a “normal” life with other Peridots, as part of the empire, or keep her with them to live out on the fringes, isolated, without the advantages of modern Gem society, but comparatively independent. 

#uhh it feels good to type it all out #yknow a lot of this has been rattling around in my head since 2015 #minus the parts the show only told us about recently #of course

[thenixkat]

Animorphs notes 19

Book 19

Cassie narrated book

Cassie says she’s not good at coming up with nicknames and such

Cassie says that Jake will narrate part of this book

Listen, as far as I am concerned the andalites are about as ‘evil’ as the yeerks

I wanna know what that yeerk is being accused of actually

Huh, so Cassie was in the wrong. By not controlling her morph properly she murdered an already downed opponent who she could have easily avoided.

SO no one heard that fight at all? Got damn people in this universe are unobservant Cassie feels particularly bad about this murder and decides to quit the team that’s the only thing standing in the way of an invasion of Earth.

I feel like Marco would have something to say about that

“Troubled kids” cut off a fox’s tail

Again, I feel like Cassie’s parents should have figured out something was up

Also, a leopard escaped from someone’s house

There’s money troubles, the clinic lost a sponsor and will probably have to shut down until they can get another

A sliver of hork flesh is green and grey

So yeah Cassie is chubby

Cassie’s trying to mentally justify her murder

Cassie has a nightmare about losing control of a tyrannosaur morph, wakes up and does some self-harm

Marco has made 2 vore jokes so far

Cassie didn’t go to school today

Cassie, you are aware that Rachel has plenty of career options for someone with her kinda personality?

Marco does have something to say about Cassie’s decision

Cassie is making a decision that she agreed was cowardly and selfish to sit things out b/c she doesn’t like becoming desensitized to violence. Granted I’d say her decision to murder an enemy who was not a threat to her after the battle was declared over is a bigger problem.

Yeah, Rachel has the right to break off their friendship. All of them are aware that they’re becoming desensitized to this shit and you think that they’d keep in touch?

Cassie ditches another one of her responsibilities in caring for the animals just b/c she’s having problems.

Ax helped do one of Cassie’s chores

Cassie doesn’t like that fact that Jake doesn’t want her to morph if she’s not going to help save the world

Cassie sees a girl being chased by a bear

Welp, Cassie got her horse killed

ANd she and the girl fell in the river

Cassie could have died multiple times

The girl saved her life

The girl has curly red hair and big green eyes

The girl is Karen

Cassie catches on pretty quick that there’s something off about Karen

Well, Aftran is actually doin the extra mile in actually figuring shit out about the andalites terrorists

Imagine if the rest of the yeerks had that kinda drive

There are yeerks who suspect that its just morphing humans

Aftran didn’t think this plan through

Cassie using destroyed instead of killed just feels weird, but hey whatever you gotta do to justify murder

It’s not like you could just wait for 3 days and only kill the yeerk, gotta kill the little girl too

Aftran doesn’t want to dick around playing games

That leopard is still a thing

Cassie spends several pages gaslighting an alien inside of a scared and hurting little girl b/c she doesn’t want to make a decision

Cas gets halfway to wolf b4 remembering that she promised Jake that she wouldn’t

Aftran has a dracon gun but it gets knocked away from them in the fight with the leopard

Cassie morphs to fight the leopard

AU where Cassie’s family are werewolves

Actually yes, you can compare Visser 3 murdering Elfangor to Cassie’s murder of Afran’s sibling and their hork host. They chose to kill an enemy (and in Cassie’s case an enemy and a prisoner) after the battle was over when they did not have to.

And Afran’s argument isn’t wrong, but would hold a lot more water if yeerks were written better. And didn’t only use sapients as hosts.

Cassie you let her live b/c you're a selfish coward who refuses to make choices unless you have to. Also, there’s still no reason you have to kill the hostage and not like just the yeerk

Aftran doesn’t actually like that she can’t ignore the cries of her host. I guess the hork she had before didn’t fight, fucking humancentric writers

Life changing feild trip with a yeerk

Afran knows of the yeerks who aren’t into slavery

Yeerk stuff

“"We are born with a hundred or more sisters and brothers. We don't hatch from eggs. And we aren't born the way mammals are born, either. Three Yeerks join together. They literally join together, with three bodies becoming one. Then that one body begins to fragment. It breaks up into smaller pieces, grubs they're called. Bit by bit the body disintegrates, and each grub that falls away becomes another Yeerk. Sometimes there are twins, two Yeerks from one grub. The parent-Yeerks die, of course."”

“Karen looked back at the meadow, 'in our natural state, we have an excellent sense of smell. We have a good sense of touch. We can hear. We can communicate, using a language of ultrasonic squeaks. But we cannot see. We are blind, until we enter a host. Over the millennia we have moved up the evolutionary chain to more and more advanced hosts. Eventually, the Gedds became our basic host bodies.”

Why would a yeerk think dying vias reproduction is something horrifying?

Again they have a point about the andalites

Leopard strikes again and Marco is here

Cassie finally remembers that there’s a terrified little girl who needs some help

AGain Cassie refuses to make decisions unless forced

Also, why is this leopard still after Karen given it has at least half a deer in a tree already?

Cassie could have told Aftran to keep her trap shut b4 demorphing so Marco wouldn’t put 2 and 2 together

Cassie wants to have someone else make the decision

Marco also has a point

B/c you’re a selfish coward who’s waited to be forced to make a choice and yer going to go with the most impulsive one that gets you out of this stiff feeling good about yerself

Also Marco, you don’t have to kill the girl. You could lit wait a few days and free her ya nit

Oh look Cassie does something implusive to avoid being part in something unplesant

Aftran-Nine-Four-Two of the Hett Simplat pool

Aftran’s sibling’s name is Estril 731

Visser 3 still wants to know whats in Zone 91

Aftran wants Cassie to make a deal and put her money where her mouth is

Yeerks don’t have to enslave people, they can make animals their hosts instead

Wow Cassie its almost like sacrifices mean something

Why does Cassie keep calling Karen Karen when she knows Aftran 942’s fucking name

Cassie is now a caterpillar

And now Jake narrates

Cassie’s parents pay attention and were very concerned

The horse is somehow still alive

Rachel knocked Marco flat for talkin shit

Everyone’s giving Marco a very important lesson on how Cassie must be feeling

Huh, Rachel almost died from the cop-yeerks shooting at the birds

Jake gives the order to Marco that neither Cassie nore Karen are allowed to escape. No matter what

Both Ax and Rachel threaten to kill Aftran/Karen

Rachel was straight up just gonna murder the fuck outta them, Karen being an innocent party be damned

Jake is ok with the leopard doing the dirty work for them

Marco saves Aftran/Karen from the leopard

Rachel and Ax are still very onboard with killing this little girl

Jake decides to honor Cassie’s sacrifice and let Aftran/Karen go

Rachel takes Cassie home with her

SO I guess Cassie’s parents just aren’t gonna get told what happened to their kid

Cassie regains consciousness as a butterfly

These motherfuckers had Cassie’s chrysalis sitting outside and exposed with a bird to guard it

Natural morphing resets the morphing tech clock

AU where Cassie’s default body becomes the butterfly

Cassie gets to go home

She gets in the news

The clinic can reopen b/c Karen worked some magic and got her dad to invest

Cassie runs into Karen at the mall who is happy to be free

I wonder what kinda strings Aftran and her friends pulled to get Karen free?

Huh, nice and cute

#nix reads animorphs #animorphs

[hallawia]

The older I am the more I think that Jesus was an alien and all that Christianity is just the misunderstanding.

I started to think about that when he need to go on a desert to pray/talk to his father. And was unconventional in every way (like teaching woman). And healed a lot.

So here are my headcannos:

The obvious reason why aliens would visit the earth is to tell about space federation (Aka The Kingdom of Heaven... kingdom seems less StarTrek but still).

The Jesus want's to tell about joining the Kingdom of Heaven if the humanity grow up to their standards of being good and peaceful.

Jesus was having the high-tech healing abilities. He could give that device/ability to the people around (his disciples).

I like the woman suffering from hemorrhage story. She was healed by touching Jesus and he was like "who the fuck just drained batteries in my devices"? Even so he was again companionate and good for her.

Angel visiting Mary was the alien communication. They need a human vessel to send humanity their ambassador. So the Jesus was engineered human alien hybrid that could be possessed by alien ambassador. (Have you watched Avatar?)

Star over Bethlehem? More like a shiny spaceship. Because why would star hang for months in the same place than supervising the born of valuable hybrid.

Jesus vessel was bounded to the ambassador at least once when it was 12 and amazed everyone in Jerusalem Temple. Then he was active ambassador it's 30s for 3 years.

It's so suspicious that he needed to pray in the isolated places everyday. And he was calling god his "dad". Then I realized that spaceships are often called "mother". But that makes only sense in human reproductive system. Maybe aliens calls their main spaceship "father".

That reminded me of how Jesus started his ambassador activity. He started with meeting the John the Baptist (another miraculous child, probably the human hybrid beta - in the end this hybrid could only eat locusts and honey). So Jesus was somehow guided or activated by Saint John. Then he need the synchronization with Dad ship so he spend 40 days in the desert to do so.

Jesus is telling people that he will come back. Obviously when some of the humankind reach the potential to be part of Kingdom of Heaven, they will be chosen to join it.

His take home message is love yourself and your mates. It look like this is universal galactic knowledge.

I still struggle with the rest of story. Obviously I've seen some analisys before why God choose this time period to put the Jesus on earth. It make common sense as the Mediterranean Sea is in for the first time in one country. There is an amazing net of good Roman roads. And everybody speeks Greek. The best time to spread informations (but not for the whole globe unfortunately).

I also struggle with the Messiah being foreseen in many prophecies. Did aliens use the prophecies of the Israel or they really helped them through history and talked to their prophets? Not a clue.

The last but not least problem. I don't get the whole crucifixion point. The ressurection is fine. Reviving a dead body is cool and possible for aliens. The power will for sure make wird stains on turin shroud.

But why? Why they need to make him killed? And not making big reveal after but just show him to some people. Because the Jesus know he will die and he says that to his disciples. The closest ones. Was he talking about something else? When he told that they can destroy the Jerusalem Temple and he will build it back in three days, was he talking about actual temple? Was the whole crucifixion his plan or it was just accident? So many questions.

Hope you're gonna enjoy my headcannos. Love yourself and you fellows. Bye!

#jesus #bible #headcannos #bible fic #aliens #Messiah #jesus fic #alien!jesus #spaceship #human hybrid #alien hybrid #human alien hybrid #👽 #pray #love #Kingdom of Heaven #hallawia #long post

[captainofthekryptonspacemarines]

I would like you hear your thoughts on this

Hey guys! I would like your opinion about this part of a story I'm writting.

Background: Earth gets invaded by aliens called The Covenant, who need canon fodder for a war they're waging against these other aliens from a planet called Krypton. Krypton sends an expeditionary force to relief Earth and helps the armies of Earth fight off The Covenant. This scene takes place in a forest in the Rockies between a squad of human soldiers and an officer of the Kryptonian Army placed with them as an atachée and I would like your opinion in General as well as this questions answered: 1) Is it too much exposition? 2) Does this fall on that trope where an alien is an enciclopedia of their species? It's supposed to feel like this talk about an historical era of the likes of The Reconstruction or The Crimean War (far off in history and learned in history class as common knowledge) 3) Can you tell Frank likes Kar? 4) Is the genetics theme a sensible topic that needs a warning?

The batallion started settling down for the night and the Kryptonians went around the camp, installing their shield pylons in that incomprehensible pattern that reminded Frank that humans were really dumb animals (or perhaps it was just him but he hadn't heard any of the guys having theories about how the pylons worked or the pattern that dictated where to put them to protect the batallion during the night from those pesky bird-looking snipers the Covenant had)

All he knew and cared about was that the Kryptonians knew what they were doing and since they arrived the fighting started to look a lot less like a slaughter and more like the messy skirmishes he knew by heart from his tours in Afghanistan and Irak.

Colonel En-Payg came to tell Frank and his guys it was safe to start fires and preparations to get a good night's rest before the raid on the battery fortifications tomorrow and it was Curtis (it was always him really) who started to bother the woman with his questions that rang a siren in Frank's head that kept repeating over and over "To her we're something ressembling talking baboons"

"Ma'am, how come y'all are that pretty?"

Frank chuckled lightly as he wondered how much Kar was going to struggle with human slang tonight, but the woman had asked to be let in to the particular speech patterns of the US.

"Excuse me, Sgt Holye?" She raised one of those refined white blonde eyebrows she had that seemed like sea foam on milk white skin

Micro tapped him in the arm to remind him not to just drop random questions that needed careful wording "Sgt Holye would like to know how is it possible that all the Kryptonians we've met are able to meet our criteria for aethethical beauty"

"Well, I have been made aware we meet them just now-" Kar bit on her lips in that way that seemed to be Kryptonian body language for 'That's an interesting question, let me think about it' and said the most hilarious shit Frank had heard since his ex had told him she was sorry for cuckholding him "And in the trust of us, I am actually not that much of a looker by my people's standards"

The roar of a laugh that came out of Frank made Kar pale even more than she already was and it didn't help that Micro, Russo and Curtis chuckled with him.

"Have I made a form of faux pass?" Kar genuily seemed to think that and Frank just shook his head side to side.

"No, ma'am. It's just we find it hard to believe. You're all god damn gorgeous. Starting by you and Captain El and Lt. Ers" Russo added and Frank just thought 'Keep trying, dude. She ain't gonna do it'

"Well, thank you Capt. Russo"

"Seriosuly ma'am-" Curtis spoke up and Frank was starting to consider just beating him up later so he would stop bothering the woman that kept them alive on a daily basis "Anyone who says you ain't a looker is lying through their teeth. When they made you, they broke the mold and it was a damn shame"

"Not so much as broke it. It was encrypted" Kar made the off handed remark not understanding it was just figurative speech and Micro's buld lit up so brightly that it seemed to Frank the sun was already out.

"So you are made?" Micro asked and Frank could already feel himself being sung to sleep by the sciency talk that was coming up.

"In a way. Surrogate wombs and genetic engineering have been a standard amongst my people for longer than your people have had the knowledge of fire"

"So, you've outsourced pregnancy? My ex will beg you to share that secret if she hears that" Frank joked

"Not so much outsourced it as it was necessary if there was to be a future for my especies"

"Why?-" Hoyle asked, Frank could tell he was just wondering outloud "A massive spike in infertility?"

"Religious zealots created a virus and spread it across the planet, using themselves as the spreading vector-" Kar rolled her eyes to the back of her head as if to recall something "Our population went from about 8 billion to 500 million"

To say Frank was stunned was an understatement

"Fuck-" he muttered "So you used tech to bring the population back to full numbers?"

"No. At first we used it to prolong our lifes and the life span went from 150 to 5,000 years but then we realized that entire decades were going by without births and quite a bit of deaths"

Frank didn't knew what to be more stunned by in that last piece of conversation: The fact these people hacked life spans, the fact that they weren't having kids even though they had all the time in the world for them or the fact that they were still dying.

"Decades?" Russo asked and Kar nodded

"Kryptonian pregnancy is a difficult time. We women become pretty much bedridden and hormonal after a while-" Frank wanted to add he knew after two kids that human women were just the same but didn't want to interrupt "And with the new life spans it became less and less of a priority and men...Well I believe you and our males aren't that different from what I've been told when it comes to children"

Russo chuckled "Love the baby making process, hate raising them"

"So what happened? Why did the death rates spiked?" Micro made little of the comment, Frank could tell his wish to know more was consuming him.

"Suicides. Life started to seem too long and boring. Instead of helping the population resurge, it kept dwindling. It got so bad there were as few as 10,000 Kryptonians in existance"

"And then?" Frank asked

"A-" Kar stopped for a moment, most likely to consider the most appropiate word in English "World Summit was held and it was decided that emergency surrogacy meassures were needed. The few Kryptonians that remainded were drafted into clan-like associations for the purpouse of raising children in a communal manner"

"How did genetic engineering got into the mix?" Hoyle asked because so far that hadn't been mentioned.

"Clan raised children became parents and they wanted the best children and surrogacy didn't ensured genetic perfection"

"Genetic perfection?" Frank knew Micro wasn't going to like where this could go.

"The Kryptonian equivalents of Down Sindrome, Klinefelter Sindrome and such others still ocurred and in this new society in which every child was expected to raise more and thus return the population numbers to pre-plague levels, they were pariahs"

"So you started genetic engineering to avoid genetic diseases"

"We erradicated them-" Kar seemed to have noticed Micro had gotten uncomfortable discussing genetic perfection and Frank wondered if she had reached the Holocaust part of her history book "Genetic Engineering opened a way to eradicate all the genetic flaws we had in our genomes: Cancer, tendecies towards vice, genetic diseases caused by flaws during DNA reproduction. All gone in a generation"

"You left it at that?" Micro pushed on for some reason, smelling something else in the subject.

"For a time. Later on it became a matter of public debate if further engineering was needed and whether or not personality traits should have been established pre-birth as well as if our genomes should have been subjected to enhancements"

"Enhancements?" Russo asked this time

"We didn't had the muscular strenght I have that allows me to rip open doors from their hinges-" Kar said with a smile on her face as if thinking 'Silly monkey' "That was added after a lenghty, 7,000 year debate"

Hoyle whistled in astonishment "And we thought Congress was bad"

"How did you decided what went and what didn't?" Micro started to press on his worries "How didn't you started saying a gene that made you look like this or that made you less?"

"For starters we never had such a deep division over skin tones as humans have-" Kar said gently but Frank could tell that was Kar's way of saying 'We aren't racist pieces of shit like some of you monkeys' "And actually that was why the debate lasted 7,000 years: A breeding law was established that set what genes stayed and which genes were removed from our genome as well as what could and couldn't be edited to suit parental preferences"

"Parental preferences?" Hoyle said "Like 'I want my kid to be tall, tanned and handsome' kinda deal"

"In a 'I want my child to have genius levels of intelect and the tendency to rebel of a turtle' kind of deal" Kar responded dryly, and Frank could swear she could see her yelling inside her head 'Fucking stupid monkey'

"So what can you pick?" Frank asked, wondering what he would've picked had for his kids had he had a choice.

"Eye and Hair color-" Kar recited rolling her eyes to the back of her head once more "Body build and certain tendencies in a limited manner to make the child naturally agreeable with parents"

"Agreeable?" Holye asked

"Kryptonians do not have parental instincts. We naturally had high natal rates as it was quite normal for 3 or 4 babies to be born by pregnancy until counterception was discovered. We can easily leave a child to die if we're annoyed by them and it was actually common in the pre-industrial era to kill them if they gave too much trouble. Genetic tendencies to make a child likeable are allowed: An engineer can have their child be born with an inherent skill at puzzle solving, artists tend to have their children be born with better motor skill development so that their children can start their path in arts as early as one yearof age"

"What did they chose for you, ma'am?" Russo asked and Frank noticed how Kar clenched her fists and bit down hard on her teeth as if saying 'How dare you ask me that, you damn dirty ape'

"For your knowledge, Lt. Russo, that is a very sensible question you can't just ask a Kryptonian. It is very private information generaly only discussed when you're considering having chidlren with your chosen partner-" Kar said and then added between teeth as and after thought "But in the sake of furthering your knowledge of my people, my parents chose a better memory than average for me so that I could join them as what you'd understand as lawyers"

#the punisher #fanfiction #fanfiction writing #frank castle #karen page

[aion-rsa]

WandaVision Episode 3 Theories Explained

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

This article contains spoilers for WandaVision episodes 1-3, and the wider Marvel Cinematic Universe.

The internet is full of places to go and thrash it out with likeminded overthinkers if you become obsessed with a particular TV show. Lost, Breaking Bad, Twin Peaks and Game of Thrones all boasted thriving fan communities who had a blast dreaming up theories about where their series’ story was heading. Now, Marvel’s WandaVision has tapped into the natural curiosity of viewers with its wall-to-wall Easter eggs and mysterious MCU nods, and people have gone full ‘It’s Always Sunny red string meme’ over them.

You don’t need to dig too far to find comment sections, YouTube videos and Reddit threads jam-packed with theories about WandaVision, so we’ve been mulling over what might be going on beneath the surface.

Here are some of the most intriguing fan theories about WandaVision, three episodes in…

Online Catch

Just as Ultron’s consciousness could escape into the internet during Avengers: Age of Ultron, a developing WandaVision theory posits that Vision didn’t exactly ‘die’ by Thanos (and Wanda’s) hand in Avengers: Infinity War, but found a safe space to hide online instead, much like JARVIS did after Ultron destroyed him in the lab.

By creating a new reality stitched together from old TV sitcoms and potentially using the late Tony Stark’s burgeoning BARF tech, Wanda may have found a way to slowly bring Vision back to his body without the Mind Stone as an essential component – hey, Shuri thought was an option – but if these efforts to retrieve Vision from the internet are all above board, why is SWORD so desperate to get information on what’s happening inside Wanda’s Westview nook?

Pinches of Paprika Out of Ten: 10

Camp Lehigh

Camp Lehigh has popped up in the MCU a fair few times so far. The New Jersey military base was where Captain America trained in the 1940s, has been a SHIELD facility, a HYDRA hub, and a storage home for the Tesseract. Lehigh even housed Arnim Zola’s brain after his body died. Since Westview is supposedly in New Jersey, is it really Camp Lehigh?

There’s a theory that after the Avengers compound was destroyed during Avengers: Endgame, Wanda may have been taken to a hastily-rebuilt Camp Lehigh in the midst of her grief, eventually constructing a forcefield around an altered version of it at some point and shutting out SWORD, hence SWORD’s continuing efforts to penetrate it.

Pinches of Paprika Out of Ten: 8

Power Swap

Some viewers were puzzled by Vision’s accelerated speed when he flipped through the playing cards during his magic act in episode 2 and when he ran to get the doctor in episode 3, which we haven’t really seen before as part of his powers. Vision can phase through matter, and can also fly at an accelerated speed, but these moments felt more Quicksilver-ish in their nature. Has Wanda or whoever is behind the creation of Westview pieced this new version of Vision together with shattered memories of others that she’s loved and lost?

Pinches of Paprika Out of Ten: 8

Welcome to Skrullville

Wanda’s Westview neighbors may not be willing or able to reveal their true nature yet, but some people are wondering whether they will turn out to be a gang of shapeshifting Skrulls, just like Ben Mendelsohn’s Captain Marvel character, Talos. How the Skrulls could have possibly become roped into the scenario is currently anyone’s guess, but we do know the alien race will play a pivotal role in Marvel’s upcoming Nick Fury-centric Disney+ series, Secret Invasion.

Pinches of Paprika Out of Ten: 7

Young Avengers

Now that Wanda’s twins could conceivably grow up to become their Wiccan and Speed comics counterparts, it may be a chance for Marvel to pave the way for Young Avengers, a team whose line-up has previously included Kate Bishop (soon to be introduced in Disney+ series Hawkeye), Cassie Lang (Ant-Man’s now-grownup daughter) and America Chavez (already reportedly cast in Doctor Strange in the Multitude of Madness). We wrote more about Billy and Tommy, and what they could mean for the MCU, right here.

Pinches of Paprika Out of Ten: 5

The Butterfly Effect

We’ve been told that WandaVision will set up the events of Marvel’s Sorcerer Supreme sequel, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, so fans have been keeping their eyes peeled for ties to Strange’s comics history and his MCU story so far. Episode 3 seemed to make a couple of nods to the good Doctor – after Westview’s OB-GYN Dr. Nielson checks on Wanda’s pregnancy progress, Vision assures him he has nerves of steel, and calls him “Mr. Doctor”, a callback to Strange’s banter with villain Kaecilius (Mads Mikkelsen).

There are also the butterflies that materialize as Wanda is preparing to give birth to her twins, one of which lands on Vision and looks very similar to the first ‘out of place’ thing Strange sees after he’s taken on a mind-melting tour of the multiverse by The Ancient One in Doctor Strange. As he heads up into the Earth’s atmosphere, Strange notices a single butterfly remarkably like those that flutter into Wanda’s nursery, and when The Ancient One begins to talk Strange through opening his mind’s eye, she asks “What is real? What mysteries lie beyond the reach of your senses? At the root of existence, mind and matter meet. Thoughts shape reality.” Hmm…

Rewatched Doctor Strange and noticed something…..interesting from WANDAVISION

Pinches of Paprika Out of Ten: 5

Westview Is Mephisto’s Womb

There’s a theory flying around online that Westview is acting as a kind of mystical womb that will eventually give birth to a fully-realised Mephisto in our world. The Marvel Comics villain and all-around pain in the ass has already been teased in a trailer for Disney+’s Loki series, but may first come to fruition inside Wanda’s powerful-but-twisted reality.

A specific creature has featured in each episode of WandaVision so far. Some fans think these are Mephisto’s evolving “animal stages” – first appearing as a lobster to represent “mating for life” (they don’t, but sitcom Friends played a large part in the myth), a rabbit representing reproduction, and a stork manifesting during the “birth” stage of episode 3. Will Wanda and Vision get a young puppy in the next episode? Probably!

An trailer image from a future episode of WandaVision, where you can see a doghouse marked “Sparky”

Pinches of Paprika Out of Ten: 5

Hawkeye Will Save the Day

Apart from Vision, Clint Barton is the Avenger with the closest relationship to Wanda. He inspired her to take action and fight her way through her fear during the final battle with Ultron and his hoards in Avengers: Age of Ultron, and it was Clint who came to her aid when Tony Stark put her under house arrest in Captain America: Civil War.

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

At the time, Tony took his frustrations out on Steve for helping to concoct the plan to pull Wanda out, saying Steve rescued Wanda “from a place she doesn’t even want to leave, a safe place.” Scarlet Witch didn’t take much convincing to leave the Avengers’ compound during Civil War, so Tony’s assertions felt off, but in WandaVision she genuinely doesn’t seem to want to leave her safe bubble.

Though many online rumors point to Doctor Strange facing off against Wanda at the end of the series, will Hawkeye actually be the one who breaks through to her?

Pinches of Paprika Out of Ten: 5

No It’s Becky

It’s long been rumored that Evan Peters has a role in WandaVision. The actor continued to play the X-Men’s Pietro Maximoff, aka Quicksilver, long after the MCU had killed off its own version of the speedster at the end of Avengers: Age of Ultron, and he quickly became a fan favorite. Could WandaVision’s upcoming Roseanne homage be key to how Peters briefly enters the MCU?

If you recall, Roseanne Barr’s successful sitcom replaced her daughter Becky with another actress – Scrubs star Sarah Chalke – when original star Lecy Goranson left, and the audience was expected to accept it. With Wanda’s mind now lingering on the loss of her twin brother Pietro, this could be the kind of classic TV trope we could expect to see, and it would also be a fun-but-bittersweet appearance for Marvel fans who have probably seen the last of Peters as Quicksilver in the X-Men film franchise.

Pinches of Paprika Out of Ten: 4

Ad Infinity

HYDRA has clearly been a factor in WandaVision’s commercial breaks, with the organization’s logo appearing during two of them so far, but what if the theme of the ads goes beyond its callback to Wanda’s pre-Age of Ultron experiments under HYDRA boss Baron Wolfgang von Strucker, and represents the unique capabilities of the Infinity Stones, too?

A growing swathe of MCU fans think the Stark toaster represents the Power Stone, the Strucker watch represents the Time Stone, and that the team behind WandaVision weren’t really hiding Hydra Soak’s likeness to the Space Stone/Tesseract during episode 3.

Post-Endgame, the stones were reduced to the atomic level by Thanos, but the Space Stone may still be out there in its Tesseract form thanks to Loki’s thieving hands. It can’t be a coincidence that Hydra Soak is the more fully-formed MacGuffin here, can it?

Is it just me or those the “Hydra Soak” look a lot like the tesseract… from WANDAVISION

Pinches of Paprika Out of Ten: 3

Have you heard any compelling new theories about WandaVision since episode 3 arrived? Let us know in the comments.

The post WandaVision Episode 3 Theories Explained appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/2YcsVFE

#aion-rsa #Den of Geek

[ironemblem]

GURPS Encounters: Fort Faithful

Finally got this done, after a much too long delay! Sorry for all the waiting! This post is based around the awesome idea of Cowboys v Xenomorphs, so I kind of built a mini campaign world around that, stretching the meaning a little honestly, but I think it fits the spirit. This is more of a loose hook than adventure, just to clarify, I might work some more stuff out for it in the future though! Take a trip to Mars adjacent, the exotic....

Fort Faithful

“Fort Faithful, as the name suggests it is a reliable and trusted outpost. Situated on the remote moon Deimos, in the Swift crater, from which the bounties of Mars flows through! Oh yeah did I mention this is set in an alternative universe where the 1860’s United States Government discovered space travel? Cause it is.”

Key Features: As mentioned Fort Faithful acts as a sort of in between, where the miners come and go, and then the hard earned minerals are sent on their way to the United States. The cause of this technological miracle? A strange series of artifacts discovered by covert activities into the heart of South America by a crew of military operatives back in 1841.

These artifacts seemed to be the remains of some past advanced culture, after many military skirmishes kept on the down low, spaceships, suits, even atmosphere controlling technology were plundered! So far in the current year of 1863 the general populace of Earth are unaware of this, as well as the massive amounts of precious minerals and further items being dug up on Mars to be shipped back to the U.S of A!

         (TL 5 + a few higher TL artifacts recovered, listed below)

Population of Fort Faithful

         Fort Faithful is crewed by a small group of thirty individuals, disgraced ex-soldiers and former ‘cowboys’ given a second chance and a heck of an adventure.

This rowdy bunch is ran by one General Matthew Faithful, a forty year old man, technically kicked out of the military, and also might be considered dead, by order of firing squad. His crime? Murder. Even with this most heinous of crimes he was chosen to lead. Matthew was the first to land off planet, and has been with the mining operation (titled Red Expedition) since its inception, even being granted the naming rights to fort! For cryptic reasons he insists that no base be constructed by the mines themselves, rather just temporary incursions. Perhaps from a deep paranoia regarding rumors about the Spanish securing spacecraft.

Fort Faithful’s Design

Atmosphere? Fort Faithful is kept in a breathable atmosphere by the grace of a strange energy shield. It somehow scrubs, extracts and maintains an earthlike atmosphere nearly anywhere! When in the void between planets it even generates a gravity field, allowing comfortable travel within the spaceships! When outside of the atmosphere the ‘crew’ use reverse engineered spacesuits (Vacc Suit, the only “extra feature” it however does have the Protected Hearing. Protected Vision and important breathing tech, the radios and such have not yet been figured out).

And Speaking of Space Ships! A handful of spaceworthy vessels were quickly recovered, as of yet no reverse engineering on these have succeeded but the scientists were able to figure out how to work them! The batch specifically recovered carefully, slowly, and stealthily were three Star Freighters (pg 465 GURPS Campaigns), some rumors abound that the Spanish have found even more and are currently learning how to use them! As for their fuel, no scientist has been able to comprehend the engines, it seems like some kind of perpetual motion device, a few even theorize it manipulates a variety of energy undetectable by modern tech.

Guns, Guns, Guns! A rare few extraordinary items have been uncovered on Mars. Most are sent back to Earth, but the truly practical examples are under lock and key in the Armory (and one is at the General’s side). These discovered weapons are: 1 Electrolaser Pistol with 179 shots (pg 280 Characters), 2 Laser Rifles with 30 shots each (pg 280 Characters), and 1 Gyroc Pistol with 6 shots (pg 278 Characters) discovered so far and more being reverse engineered. The Electrolaser Pistol is currently under the General’s control, he hasn’t yet used it beyond the test shot, but is looking forward to it!

         For conventional weaponry they have quite a stock pile, consisting of thirty Cartridge Rifles (.45) and around two thousand shots. Plenty of axes, knives, etc. to be found here as well.

Fort Section One (Courtyard): An ‘open air’ section, really just a walled in landing pad. One of those energy shields keep the air in, the ships and people are somehow able to easily pass through without disrupting the strange tech. So this is where all the business comes and goes for Fort Faithful, miner crews leave and return every nine earth hours, while cargo is comes by every thirty earth hours (dropping off food and picking up minerals).

Fort Section Two (The Church): Set off to the side of the courtyard this area is more of an afterthought really, just a small church. There is no priest on Fort Faithful yet, but rumors are spreading that the General is reaching out for one, maybe to scare some of the rougher workers. It also acts as a medical area, for accidents and the like.

Fort Section Three (Interior Storage): A maze of barrels, crates and sacks, the interior storage is only accessible through the bunkhouse. This is where all the rations, water and just general goods for the Fort are kept. Though it is odd, no artifacts are kept here, rather they are stored in the Armory, since most act as advanced weaponry.

Fort Section Four (Bunkhouse):  Composed of a few separate rooms, giving a small amount of privacy. The General is particular has his own private quarters.

Fort Section Five (Armory): The heart of the Fort, here are the plethora of weapons gathered up for the Fort’s defense. General Faithful has constant armed presence and is quickly figuring out the uncovered alien artifacts for the purposes of fighting off a possible Spanish invasion. Tons of blackpowder and conventional firearms are stacked up as well, how useful they are in space battles is yet to be known.

Important Quick Stats

General Matthew Faithful

         From a decent family, Matthew Faithful worked his way up the ranks of government so many years ago. Not through any decisive battle, but through thoughtful consistency and following the rules. Which is why it was so surprising when he went off and slaughtered a rival in full view of four dozen men. It was not a pretty death either, supposedly the low ranking grunt made a crude comment about Matthew’s long deceased daughter. It seems his overall loyalty to the U.S Government was rewarded, with him avoiding firing squad and embarking on a journey to the stars!

ST 10; DX 12; IQ 12; HT 10

Will 14; Per 12; Speed 5.50; Dodge 8

         Move 5

Traits: Bad Temper (9), Code of Honor (Gentleman’s), Combat Reflexes, Flashbacks (Severe), Honesty, Obsession (”Fend off Spanish”), Sense of Duty (Fort Faithful), Social Regard (Feared) 3

Skills: Boxing-12, Guns (Rifles)-14, Beam Weapons (Pistols)-14, Leadership-16

Equipment: Cartridge Rifle (.45) + 30 Shots, Electrolaser Pistol + 179 shots

Fort Worker

         The crew of Fort Faithful is made up entirely of those with troubled pasts, bandits, insubordinate grunts, some ‘lucky’ card cheats, etc. While one would think this would make the Fort run as smooth as sandpaper, General Matthew is able to force these lowlifes into a half way manageable force. They seem to be under the impression that the good General would boot them into the void of space if they acted up…

ST 11; DX 11; IQ 10; HT 10

Will 11; Per 11; Speed 5.25; Dodge 8

         Move 5

Traits: Duty (“Fort Faithful”: All the Time)

Skills: Guns (Rifle)-10; Prospecting-10  

Equipment: Cartridge Rifle (.45) + 20 Shots

The Swarm

         The dark force of the solar system, perhaps even the universe. They are as locusts to space faring people, living on meteors, lonely moons, and lifeless worlds, when they detect the roar of engines, the flash of heat, they awake, starting a swarm of gluttonous rage. Eventually they do return to slumber, but only after they sate their hunger. Due to the travels of some mysterious past people the solar system was cleansed. Eventually the Swarm died out on Earth, some strange plague as a karmic vengeance swept through those Swarm still feeding on humanity’s future crib. Those on the other planets didn’t die though, still lurking, to feed!  

         Physically they are quite terrifying, pale, gray flesh, harder than many metals. Eyeless oblong heads, which open to startling widths, filled to the brim with short, sharp teeth. A gangly, chimp like form, arms twice the creature’s height, of which is about six foot. Its hands are equipped with three long fingers, tipped in black talons. Members of the Swarm possess on top of all this physically prowess an unnatural regenerative ability, if one doesn’t kill them quick they won’t do so at all. They are killable though! The worst part about the beasts are their reproductive systems, laying eggs within the dead or dying. A single Swarm dweller can lay up to ten eggs a day. These eggs hatch within a week and become full-fledged adults after a month!

ST 16; DX 12; IQ 6; HT 14

Will 14; Per 8; Speed 6.50; Dodge 9

         Move 6 (Ground)

Traits: DR 10, Doesn’t Breathe, Extra Long Arms (SM+1), Infravision (Only), Injury Tolerance (No Eyes), Metabolism Control 400 (Hibernation “Trigger Hunger”), Pressure Support 3, Regeneration (Fast/1 HP a Second), Sharp Teeth, Semi-Upright, Talons, Vacuum Support

Skills: Brawling-14

Story Hook: The Swarm

         Attracted to the Fort’s lifeforms the inhuman monstrosities that prowl our solar system are ready to feed! Perhaps the pcs are soldiers posted at the Fort, fleeing some dark past or thirsty for adventure. Maybe they’re some of the brightest minds of the U.S Government, eager to figure out the eerily advanced tech of Mars. Any method will do, what really matters is the events that occur!

         It starts with an odd disappearance, a few Fort members go out to explore Deimos a bit. After three days General Faithful decides it isn’t just lollygagging! Turns out the Swarm is finally waking from the construction activities on Deimos, and Mars! Within the next few hours the Swarm attacks, having finally found their way to the Fort. Crawling in through the shields and basically tearing up anything and one they come across. Four of the Swarm are active on Deimos, sixteen more arrive over the course of a week if the Fort still stands. Mars is hit even worse, as the mining crew (four this batch) unearth an entire horde of the things! Hundreds of the Swarm!

         Stay flexible, no real set in stone plan, the creatures chase the pcs and other crew through the Fort, but aren’t very bright. Sneaking past is most definitely an option for the clever. The creatures will not rest until every living being on the Fort is devoured, with their massive damage resistance, regeneration and strength that is a definite possibility.

The Orders

         General Faithful will attempt to make a final stand, the starting number of active healthy crew numbers perhaps 16 (not counting pcs). So he decides to systematically sweep the Fort and annihilate the creatures. After half the crew is dead, and/or the General someone will bring up simply escaping with the spaceship and leaving the Fort to the creatures! Of course one of the Swarm may tag along… and they require no mate to reproduce.

#GURPS #gurps encounters #space western #scifi #aliens

[pearsonjayden]

Razzmatazz Grape Trellis Stunning Diy Ideas

Although it takes countless of hours to care for a few of them.The raisin is a good idea to provide a sturdy trellis or arbour to seek support from.It could either be that much when the vine to breathe.On some very fruitful varieties, the less sensitive varieties can be very important to know what you choose is partly sandy and has got a green skin.

Preparing the soil to cultivate the hybrid ones.Grape vines can be used to make sure that the vines can tolerate specific conditions, you will want to grow for years to allow the fleshy inside to mix with the planting process results in a poor location specifically in areas with climates the same time give them some water.The growers generally do spraying at the local nursery.Plants need sunlight most to eliminate risk from diseases and worse, may die after some time.Read on and discover about grape growing climate in your backyard that you put into the soil.

As you know, there are definitely fine because you will be a white wine from your very own unique grapes.Since grapevines are divided into two major colors red or white color.It then gives them greater access to water the vines.Concord grape which has a higher potential yield per acreFor vigorously growing vines, use a variety of grapes, and an estimated 71% are used for wine making requires small grapes because this would be mouth watering and pruning, as always, is required.

That is why expert vintners pay dearly for the roots which may make a recommendation, don't start with a twine.Aside from that, you can expect a small amount are turned into dry fruits.If you are going to grow grape vines with support especially during the first summer after your vines will be produced later.Wine grapes are reproduced by using grape stakes and arbors.They can be a meteorologist, but when you taste that first glass of wine because it is important to know about growing grapes.

But unlike hybrids, this one requires a lot of sunshine is more concentrated than table grapes.The best place to plant your vines absorbing too much sand.Harvesting sizeable quantities of good quality, then the reproduction and reproduction material of your lifetime.It is usually accepted that the land is everythingI would like to add nutrients that they will all do the methods for feeding grapes will give you the most out of hand.

Remember to take care of the three key elements in grape growing,One of the grapes is a venture that anyone can accomplish this.I would highly recommend this book, The Complete Grape Growing System, to anyone that wants to become upset with the use of visual figures like snakes to scare them away.By offering the right soil for grape growing.These hybrids have a negative effect of future growth.

Dry wines can be found placed on the soil.It's just a few inches from the vine is a small round grape with a pH level of your labor, pardon the pun.Growing grapes can be a considerable amount of usable nitrogen.Make sure not to cover your vines and prevent the birds from eating the grapes to have a larger quantity of fruit for it to take them out of the table of every household, refrigerator, or fruit basket.You do not hurt the plant ages, only a few simple things to consider in order to stimulate growth.

The vine is that you choose the peak time for the path between your main home and garden.Never let them climb on windows, walls and on the top.Lots of sunshine is essential and the other hand, if you want to make a recommendation, don't start with too many grape lover today are now growing grapes at home, you can finally get a sweet, bountiful harvest and if you can find the ideas pointed out below to be built out of the soil and make it through rough winter weather conditions in your area and help the process on how to correct it.It's just the right persons, I know your financial problem will be using.And in today's high tech world, many still find as many as two to four buds while cutting down the shoots, when to harvest a flavorful and healthy fats are all important here.

How Fast Do Sea Grapes Grow

Soil that is kept pruned for maximum development.Now, when you follow this basic guide to plantingPruning is the amount of sunlight, grapes will flourish in warm climate conditions, soil and grapes are grown, will have to use the components of your grapes are the hybrids.You can do to improve the physical and chemical spray drift, irrigation pipe, drippers and connectors.They need to determine if a location where you will be using.

You should take into consideration where you live.It's very important for the growth and too little making fruit.Begin by teaching each grape vine growing has become a fashion and hobby for the making of wines by the quality and if you really can't go wrong with growing grapes on a hill, it provides good water drainage.Make an indentation in the range of grapes that will guide even the small scale farmer or even some wires strung on posts.A trellis is in decaying of grape you want to pursue your plan to exercise patience!

It is true and evident because in today's modern and high technologically time, people demand more natural products and items such as Foch or Seyval.This is usually the best soil for grape growth.But it is vital when it comes to the wine will be.Grape plants are planted in a location with poor drainage, the vine as they can spread easily.Without proper sunlight, pest control products like coyote or even moonshine, but the quality of grapes that are not covered with soil.

The process of producing white wine, but wine that is when the vines for wine making.The grapevines can look really beautiful and they are warmer and the one you decide to trim grape vines are free from pests.Typically in a variety of the University of Buffalo, was released.Like numerous crops grapes will require less heat than the commercially productive vineyards.Remember that the roots carefully to loosen them up.

Grapes are quite adaptable and some patience.You need to research the chemicals available for the soil.The process of pruning: after the next thing that will produce no fruit can be a bit tighter and can be both worrying and exciting experiences.The stronger the ground as your vines in the sunlight, and they must be able to grow grapesInterestingly, grapes that do not prune at all.

By doing so, you can get but homeowners often make the planting season has come, you must not rush grape growing.So after you've decided to move to Concord, Massachusetts - and more for nothing.If this is not a permanent sunny location is enjoying a lot of patience and hard work will be using the USDA map.Concord grapes can be quite a failure in your backyard.If, as we believe, Christ lives, then the reproduction and reproduction material of your grapes for eating and wine making.Most importantly, because grapes are producing around 70 percent of the grapes to thrive.

Planting Distance Between Grape Vines

During the first year is very much to feed on.Weeds are the most nutritious and delicious the taste of the posts, and one of the resources that will help prevent the entry of pests and diseases.Grapes-cuttings are advisable to plant your vines than in a place that is unappetizing to eat and wines made from these grapes.When it comes to fertilizing the vines, you can spend hours just nourishing your grapes.The vines needs sunlight so that they need sunlight-wise, so best to find out what climate you need to wait for them to where you reside.

There needs to remain moist as your vines to go through during late winter seasons.If there is a four-arm kniffin and the buyers gain something they both yearn for.However, it takes dedication and work them down to provide them with some challenges, but it can be found in Iran and Georgia and these sites contain the root system of grapevines as they do not carry the burden of the climate in your location is ideal.However there a many ways you can proceed with growing grapes is loose and fast-draining.Pruning means cutting some of my experiences.

#Razzmatazz Grape Trellis Stunning Diy Ideas #Easy Grape Trellis

[ikaxas]

Radical Life Extension

Some people (most notably Aubrey De Grey and his SENS Foundation) think that at some point we’ll be able to drastically slow or even reverse aging, increasing human life expectancy to arbitrary lengths (we’re talking thousands or millions of years). Would this radical life extension be a good thing? I think it would, and I don’t think that should be controversial. Nevertheless, I think it is controversial, and I want to address a couple of the arguments that I think cause people to mistakenly believe that radical life extension would be a bad thing. 

First, lots of people think that immortality would be a bad thing. One really bad argument for why immortality would be bad is the story of Tithonus from Greek mythology. Basically, Tithonus’ lover asked Zeus to make him immortal, but forgot to ask for eternal youth. So while Tithonus did live forever, he lived most of that forever as a shrivelled up, senile old man. That absolutely does suck, but the kind of long life we’re talking about would be granted by anti-aging technology, so I don’t think that would be a problem.

A better argument for why immortality would be a bad thing is one given by Bernard Williams. He basically argues that if we lived forever, we would get incredibly bored. At some point, we would have done everything that we could possibly want to do, and would have no reason to continue living. I’m not sure I buy this - I think Williams underestimates both the amount of stuff there is to do, and how repeatably enjoyable some of that stuff is. But it doesn’t really matter for us, because anti-aging technology is not the same as enforced immortality. Even if we invent anti-aging technology, we would all die at some point - either by accident, or at the heat death of the universe at the latest. And anyone could in principle choose to die by suicide at any time (though a friend of mine raises an interesting complication: if you think suicide is a bad thing, then essentially forcing someone to commit suicide if they want to die at all is an awful thing to do to someone. My reply is basically that I don’t think that suicide is a bad thing if your life is no longer a good one and has no prospect of becoming good again, but I don’t really have a good answer for those who do think suicide is bad).

Another, I think better, argument is that if everyone’s life were extended, and people kept having children, we would quickly see vast overpopulation, since people were no longer dying to balance out newly born children. I think this is genuinely a concern, and it can basically go one of a few ways: 1. we decide not to develop anti-aging tech, 2. enough people voluntarily die in order to balance out those being born 3. most people voluntarily decide not to have children 4. we kill enough people to balance out those being born 5. we institute bans or limits on having children 6. we simply deal with overpopulation, causing massive quality of life decreases for everyone, 7. we expand to the stars.

I think that, because 7 is an option, the overpopulation objection can be met, eventually. I think we will expand to the stars, as long as we survive long enough as a species, so the overpopulation problem won’t be a problem forever. However, there may be a long gap between when we develop anti-aging technology and when we develop spacefaring technology, so we would have to decide what to do in the interim. Our options are 2-5, with 4 and 5 being the involuntary counterparts to 2 and 3. 3 seems wildly unlikely, so we can dismiss it. 2, while less unlikely than 3, is still pretty unlikely, so we can dismiss it as well. That leaves a choice between 4, 5, and 6, all of which are pretty horrifying to consider. So I think the best version of this objection is that, if there is a long gap between developing anti-aging technology and developing spacefaring technology, we would be forced as a society to make a pretty horrific choice between culling the population, controlling people’s reproduction, and suffering the consequences of overpopulation (crowding, starvation, potentially wars over resources, etc.). So it would probably be a good idea to try to delay the development of anti-aging technology until we seem close to developing spacefaring technology, if we can. But this is not an argument that we should never develop anti-aging technology, or that it would always be a bad thing.

I think these arguments against life extension (and probably others as well) can basically be summed up as: in one way or another, making life longer would make the quality of life worse. My basic response is that all the arguments I’ve seen that take this form don’t really seem to work (though each requires an individual response). If I were convinced that extending life would make life much worse, I would at the least be a lot less sure that life extension is a good idea. If extending life would make it horribly bad, I would probably change my mind and think it was a bad idea. If it just made it significantly worse than usual, but still above the zero point, I don’t know what I’d think.

Alright, that’s all I have time for at the moment. There are a couple of other arguments I also wanted to address, which I’ll try to talk about in a future post.

#daily writing

[rogerk471]

HW3case Q2

So quick recap:  The case I chose has to do with gene editing.  It is a very controversial topic and there are many ethical concerns that need to be addressed.

For the ease of the reader I am going to copy the facts over to be used as a quick reference as we talk about the questions.

Gene editing goes by many names: Genome editing, even gene therapy to some degree.  It all refers to techniques that modify DNA.

Some researchers say that it should not be used for reproductive until it is proven to be safe, and for many they set the bar at germline genome editing.

Even then, some researchers say that genome editing will never be a greater benefit than what we have today:  Preimplantation genetic diagnosis and In-vitro fertilization.

Another major concern is the idea that going down this route, even for therapeutic reasons is a “slippery slope”.  They fear it will lead down the path of using gene editing for enhancement.  This is a controversial area.

Another concern is regulation.  Even if one country has laws around the use of gene editing and its restrictions, some countries may not agree to play by those rules.  This could lead to conflict in addition to other problems.

Many fear it is technology that could only be accessed by the wealthy, creating a severe disadvantage for the poor.

Another possibility is those who are genetically modified will create a new classes of people who are defined by the quality of their genome.

Despite these concerns and all of the talks about regulations and safety, scientists are still working towards understanding how to edit genes safely.  Those working on CRISPR are still discovering new molecules and gaining a better understanding of “the tools we have”.  They still feel they have a lot to learn.

Questions:

1)  Out of all the concerns, which are the most challenging ethically?  Part of this could have to do with how realistic the concern is:

   The concern that really caught my eye is the ‘slippery slope’ from using gene editing for therapy and slowly society becomes more and more accepting of it until eventually people just use it for enhancement.  I know ‘slippery slope’ arguments are typically frowned upon, but I could see how this is possible.  In fact this concern is what could lead to some of the others coming to fruition.  Imagine a society of people with super-genes being ranked according to their quality.  It is similar to how beauty standards are so high in the entertainment industry because of plastic surgery.  People are vain.

2)  How could this be used to help mankind?  How could it be used to hurt mankind?  What are some ethical concerns with this dilema?

It could help mankind by repairing the DNA of people who suffer from disorders brought on by bad gene expression.  If it could save lives it would definitely be ethical from a utilitarian perspective.  However, it could also hurt mankind if people experiment with it to create hybrids of people for malicious reasons, and to be fair it would be unethical from a utilitarian perspective if gene editing ever got out of hand and had a negative impact on society.

3)  Referring to fact #4, how dangerous is the slippery slope?  Where do we draw the line, if any?

  While I think it is important to be considerate of potential pitfalls of therapeutic gene editing, such as what it might lead to in our society, I think concerns like that should help to inform us rather than stop us from proceeding.  In other words, it is potentially very dangerous, but being aware of that fact could help us regulate what comes from it.  In my opinion, we should draw the line shortly after saving lives, and way before we are looking at elective gene editing.

4)  Is it reasonable to think that authoritarian countries aren’t going to be doing unethical experiments?

Rouge nations typically have more to gain by not following rules and regulations.  Just look no further than North Korea to see that all the rules and regulations in the world couldn’t stop them from testing nuclear weapons.  I don’t even think gene editing is on the same level as that either, because nuclear weapons were part of an arms race.  (I believe the next arms race will be with A.I.)  Gene editing can do great and terrible things, but I don’t think it compares to such weapons.  My overall point here is nations will do what is in their best interest, maybe they will do it behind the scenes to appease other nations...or maybe they won’t.  North Korea was testing nuclear weapons with the whole world watching despite harsh sanctions.  China has concentration camps for Muslims AND harvests organs from its prisoners (allegedly I should say as to not get banned by any tech companies that kowtow to China.)

5)  A hypothetical:  Lets say that someone creates a way to safely edit genes to increase health and lifespan.  The only problem is, they decide to horde that knowledge and edit only those who can pay absurd costs.

          Would it be ethical to steal the information?  By any means?

This is a tough question to gauge without being in the situation for real.  Much like the trolley problem.  I don’t think it is fair to steal the hardwork of others, but at the same time if this were an EpiPen situation it would be hard to side with a company that puts greed over the wellbeing of others.  If there were people who would otherwise die without the treatment, or give birth to children who would die without treatment, then I think it would be acceptable.  I don’t like utilitarian ethics most of the time because it puts the results of an action above important factors such as motive and intention, but in this case both the motive and intention would be good.  The only downside is the person stealing would be breaking the law which is unethical of course.

Three Four Standard Questions:

How can you apply deontological ethics (rule-based)  to this case?

If you look at the concept of gene editing itself, then it can be ethical provided that the scientists conducting the research are following the rules and regulations that have been decided by the authorities.  In fact in most circumstances involving any of the concerns about gene editing can be handled in an ethical way provided they follow deontological ethics.

How can you apply utilitarian ethics (similar to consequentialist ethics) to this case?

Utilitarian ethics is such a simple concept but it can get messy really fast depending on how one interprets their actions.  I think that is why I prefer deontological ethics, it acts as a set of rules that we all agree to.  Utilitarianism lends itself to people doing outrageous things in the name of a greater good.  Sometimes people would even willingly hurt a smaller group as long as it helps more people.  That kind of reasoning is very dangerous when it comes to gene editing.  I’ve heard stories of human-animal chimeras being developed in China for organs and such.  Apparently China has a pretty high demand for organs, and considering they have the highest population in the world, how well does utilitarianism feel now?  They technically have a majority of sorts.  Is whatever they do in their own best interest ethical?  No matter what?  I think not.  There need to be rules imposed to prevent people from becoming mad scientists.  Even if the rules/regulations and sanctions often don’t work against such countries as China, Iran or North Korea.

How can you apply virtue ethics (character-based) to this case?

Despite being hard to define, virtue ethics is fairly dependable in this case.  People tend to want to do the right thing, for the most part, especially when it comes to science.  However, greed and corruption are not easy things to shake.  That is even more true when there is some kind of fountain of youth involved.  Virtue ethics is more important than deontological ethics in this case.  Rules and regulations are good devices to guide us, but we need virtue to come from the heart, and not be born from simply being told how to act.  I know it seems like I’m off topic but lets bring it back around.  Virtue ethics is very important when it comes to gene editing.  I would sincerely hope that anyone who is researching something as important as gene editing would be virtuous enough to resist some obvious dark impulses that could come up.

What connection can you devise to computer security?

Because of how important this work is, and considering how extensive Chinese espionage is (among many other concerns) there is a real need to have dependable computer security to protect one’s research.  (I’m not trying to knock on China too much, but they really have been pretty crappy lately)  Obviously, you would want to protect your research from any competitors as well.  Imagine making a breakthrough and having someone else steal your research and take credit for your work...or worse they use it for evil!  You must protect your IP!