#no they cannot destroy earth-the-planet as in the giant gravity rock

[slippingbetweenthestars]

How goes writing on your fanfic? How goes next chapter? How do you come up with stuff? Writing process?

Wow! My first unsolicited fic ask! I'm going to assume that this is in reference to Growing Where Planted, as Black and White are Also Colors is a fairly niche story and hasn't been updated for a while.

It goeth fairly well! I've been busy with a lot of life stuff lately but I have a chapter almost drafted (mostly finished, really—I just need to add a bit to the conversation).

After that it gets slightly trickier because I'm having a hard time balancing different characters' perspectives. Specifically, whose perspective is relevant enough to show and how much should be shown? I get easily bogged down in tiny details, so it's hard to move the plot forward when I'm tempted to show each scene in its entirety from 2-4 perspectives. When I focus on one character, inevitably I ask myself what another character is doing during that time period, and the problem compounds.

Related to that challenge is the fact that this story is a bit of a grab bag of different tropes that I enjoy, but when you come at a story with "I want to include almost everything I like," scope creep becomes a problem. That this fic is so self-indulgent is hard because it means I'm tempted to just include everything, and not just tropes, but each of the 4 perspectives on one scene, etc.

I've also been toying with adding yet another subplot (*sigh*). Yes, I know that's a bad idea, given the challenges I've laid out. The problem is that I included a never-shown-on-camera four-year-old child by fandom default, and it's been a long time since I was regularly around kids of that age so I have no idea what to do. I can't even watch him to imitate a kid actor's mannerisms, because he exists in dialogue references only. No matter WHAT I do with Tony, I'm going to have to do a lot of research, unless I just decide to ignore him (hard to do—four year olds are not potted plants) or vamoose him away somehow. So I'm currently dealing with some mental resistance on that front, and since anything I do with Jackie or Pete involves Tony and the subplot would need setting up soon, I need to make a decision quickly.

Re: How I come up with stuff/writing process

While I do have a rough outline of major milestones in the story, I tend to be more of a discovery writer when it comes to characters, and a plot-hole filler when it comes to everything else. When the story was very young, I did a fair amount of brainstorming and wrote that down, so I have many pages of worldbuilding/plot bunnies to mine. At the brainstorming stage (though it still happens occasionally), the show's dialogue provided many odd little inconsistencies and unusual details that served as a jumping off point.

So, for example, how on earth did alternate earth circa 2006/7 get technologically advanced enough to produce direct-to-brain streaming? Forget airships (though that does give me some suggestions about how far back in the timeline changes extend to), wearable tech that interfaces directly with the brain suggests a massively different 20th century.

How did earth get advanced enough to create cybermen? To have an existing Geneva Bio-convention governing the creation of new life forms?? AKA a presumably internationally ratified agreement governing new life forms? That suggests cybermen have precedent.

From a Doylist perspective, Pete's world just had to sound right enough for the show, so when plot demands a reason that Cybermen aren't permitted, a big authority is needed, and so Geneva conventions are referenced but now with reference to bio-conventions. But from a Watsonian perspective...FOR THE LOVE OF SUSPENSION OF DISBELIEF, HOW???

Because the Geneva Convention isn't just a name for "high-falutin' government rules" that you can just swap around and have nothing change. It's a specific agreement made in the aftermath of a truly awful war (much like the earlier Geneva Conventions and the Hague Conventions), and they exist in the form that they do because of the specific horrors of the second World War. It's like "war crimes"—it's not just a name for 'bad things,' it means something specific, including conscripting children, using poison weapons, and torture (among other things).

So, if a bio-convention exists, when was it made? Why was it made? What does it contain? How does it fall short? What ramifications does that have? How does it affect my characters? How does it affect the sociopolitical landscape of Pete's world in the wake of the cyber crisis? Those are the kind of questions that prompted the plot of Planted.

So this particular fic was a whole lot of "how can I fill these worldbuilding holes?" combined with some favorite tropes, "huh, Rose looks a lot harder than we last left her," and some extrapolation from her s4 cameos, then working from there. It's a lot of silly things treated seriously :)

#personal #fic stuff #fyi it's gen con 7 because what we call the geneva convention is technically the fourth geneva convention #and i'm including the protocols in the count number and altering the content therein slightly #look there are also some way more involved alternate histories i could have looked at #but...uh...look those are really serious things to deal with and it's already enough of a headache working with what i've got #before i go and decide to do the following: #change the ending of wwi / change the history of the weimar republic / unwrite the second world war / unwrite the holocaust #unwrite every single convention that came out of that / rewrite the entire history of europe #re-write ever single country that gained independence from colonial/imperial occupation because of the events of wwii #(oh and that's not to mention the fact that one silly little webcast apparently decided that all of south america IS A SINGLE COUNTRY??) #(i am ignoring that because i cannot afford to take that seriously. i cannot afford the landmines waiting for me #heck i haven't even decided whether or not whales scotland and ireland are part of the not-UK #(it's not the uk because it's canonically not a kingdom but a people's republic) #there are so so so many ways to offensively and ignorantly unwrite everyone's history) #and in the most loving way possible RTD absolutely did not understand things like nuclear weapons #despite using them for several plotlines #yes they can destroy life on earth as we know it #no they cannot destroy earth-the-planet as in the giant gravity rock #so i think i'm in a good place to decide to ignore details that are objectively ridiculous

[asgardian--angels]

Melkor, Master of Black Holes: Could you be any More-goth?

So I was rereading the Silm and came upon a passage which I’m not sure how I ever missed:

“And there was strife between Melkor and the other Valar, and for that time Melkor withdrew and departed to other regions and did there what he would; but he did not put the desire of the Kingdom of Arda from his heart.”

-The Ainulindalë

It always takes some time to tease apart Tolkien’s vague wording, attempting to differentiate the jargon of Arda, Earth, Eä, The Void, The World That Is, and the so-called “habitation” for the Children of Ilúvatar, which are referred to countless times in this chapter. For reference, Arda, Earth, and the place of habitation are all the same place - our planet, while the Void is that place which lacks creation, where Eru and some Ainur dwell, and into which the Music filled and created Eä, also known as The World That Is, the known universe. So when Tolkien says ‘the World’ with that uppercase, we are referring to Arda, and all the rest of space that has creation in it, that lies within the Void but is not a part of it, etc etc. 

In this passage, it is described that while the Valar toiled over the new and barren Arda, Melkor gave up trying to seize it for his own for a time. He left ARDA, but it is not stated that he left EÄ - he could not, as once the Valar entered The World That Is, their power was bound to it until its completion (hence why exiling him to the Void was such a huge deal, and perhaps why some argue that he was only pushed out into space, not the true Void, as earlier drafts refer to space as the Void as well, creating two Voids... let’s not confuse ourselves here). So, Melkor departed to “other regions” of space. 

GUYS MELKOR WAS JUST FLOATING AROUND FUCKING SHIT UP IN SPACE FOR A WHILE THAT’S SO COOL

@samwise-po-tay-toe-gamgee and I were just thinking of him loving planets like Mercury, or creating giant volcanoes and storms on Mars or Jupiter. Having his way making the outer planets bitterly cold (I bet he entered Uranus at some point) and smashing all the rocks he likes, creating asteroid belts and sending comets with their icy tails careening through the galaxy. 

But wait - let’s think bigger than that. Suns. Full of energy, full of light. Oh, he would get creative with those. (And, while Varda is often heralded as the Vala who put stars in the sky, Tolkien established in the Ainulindalë that ‘innumerable stars’ did already exist in the universe). Mr. Melkor “I wanna punch the Sun” Bauglir would probably have done exactly that. Punch suns so hard they explode, into cosmically beautiful supernovas. The Valar would lament, but surely Eru looking down would smile. Those gas clouds would be the birthplace of galaxies. But Melkor could do even more. He would even perhaps harness their energy, draining it, letting it out into the universe or taking it into himself, leaving gigantic dying stars in his wake. Those stars would then collapse under their own gravity, unable to maintain nuclear fusion. And then?

Black holes. 

An entity so powerful it bends space and time around it, eating all matter, all light. If anyone could have created these, it would be Melkor. And it would have been a crowning achievement: taking a creation of Light, and forcing it to eat itself, becoming something from which light now cannot escape, something utterly Dark. A slap in the face to his brethren, Melkor would have smirked with satisfaction.

Then, Melkor “descended upon Arda in power and majesty greater than any other of the Valar,” taking on a visible raiment. But the way this is worded here in this passage and the following paragraph, made me think that he took this form before he entered Arda again, not after. Which, to me, presents a dazzling image of Melkor coalescing his fana of space rock and sunfire, stripping dust from the heavens themselves so that Earth may see its king stand proud and tall in a cloak of cosmic majesty, one that would surpass that of all his kin.

Supernovas, quasars, pulsars, brown dwarfs raining molten iron, black holes, and so much more. Who knows, maybe he even had a part in dark matter? The greatest spectacles of the universe, from his hand, while the other Valar lent all of their attention to Earth alone. Melkor may have just been the one to paint Eä with color, and fill it with mysteries. Even in this, he fulfilled his purpose. Destroying to create, recycling the matter of the universe. In fact, it’s now thought galaxies would not exist if not for the supermassive black holes at their center. Yet another thing his kin would never give him credit for, seeing only how he attacked that which they held sacred. But even so, it is these things which fascinate humankind today - all of Melkor’s creations, from volcanoes to glaciers, snowflakes and rainbows and hey, maybe even black holes. 

#melkor #morgoth #the silmarillion #my meta #also can i just squint real hard at the professor cause EA ... EARTH? #also mairon would have loved to go into space i wonder if they ever did but it seems unlikely #maybe after the dagorath yeah? #find a nice planet to settle on #unless they're scrapping the whole universe and starting over #also hey can i tell you more about black holes cause they're fucking AWESOME #god mairon would have loved suns with their nuclear fusion - it's literal alchemy in motion #hot date idea: center of the fucking sun

[aphrodaisyacs]

Summary:

He’s probably going to die. Using the Infinity Stone might burn him inside out to the point of no return. Maybe he’ll lose control and he’ll send them both flying to their deaths, until their bodies float endlessly through the icy unforgivable vacuum of space.

But it’s better than the certainty of having his last breath crushed out of his throat in Thanos’ grip.

Tesseract between his blistered fingers, he thinks about safety and pulls.

Or: The one where Loki isn’t dumbed down for plot reasons and the Butterfly Effect ensues

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Archive Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply Category: Gen Fandom: The Avengers (Marvel Movies) Characters: Loki (Marvel), Thor (Marvel), Heimdall (Marvel), Wanda Maximoff, Bruce Banner, Thanos (Marvel), Stephen Strange, Tony Stark, James "Bucky" Barnes, Guardians of the Galaxy Team, Steve Rogers, T'Challa (Marvel), Peter Parker Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Fix-It, Shitstorm with a Happy Ending, Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, POV Multiple, Loss of Limbs, Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie) Spoilers, Canon-Typical Violence

This was supposed to be a one-shot but it bullied its way into becoming a multi-chapter so here’s the first one!!

@pinato @ellcwrites @pretty-tsundere-cactus

If you prefer reading on tumblr, the full chapter is below:

It’s not enough, the realisation is a sickening weight in Loki’s stomach. His bones ache from exhaustion, his arms burn from the depletion of his magic. He tastes ash, smoke and blood in the air and between his lips. The ground shakes and the Hulk roars.

But it’s not enough.

Even the great green beast, the strongest, most indestructible, terrifying, the Champion ‒ their last hope against Thanos’ raw power. He isn’t enough.

He’s bent over Thor as if his brother could actually be protected by his weakened body. He knows that Thor too, had completely burnt out all of his lightning and is teetering on the edge of consciousness.

They are going to die. Except…

The soft blue glow of the Tesseract is harsh in its salience. He can reach it. The Space Stone‒ he can use it. Jump through space. Jump to somewhere where there’s help. Somewhere they can stall just long enough where they can recover, gather their strength…

Loki looks over at where Heimdall had fallen. He is met with golden eyes burning with resignation, hope, and the determination to carry out one final act of defiance. Those eyes slide over to the Hulk’s losing battle. Loki feels a pang in his chest. He knows what he must do.

He’s gripping Thor so hard his knuckles somehow turn even whiter. He reaches out to the Tesseract.

He’s probably going to die. Using the Infinity Stone might burn him inside out to the point of no return. Maybe he’ll lose control and he’ll send them both flying to their deaths, until their bodies float endlessly through the icy unforgivable vacuum of space.

But it’s better than the certainty of having his last breath crushed out of his throat in Thanos’ grip.

Tesseract between his blistered fingers, he thinks about safety and pulls.

The world tugs and swirls around him, but panic reverberates through his entire being when he sees Corvus lunge at them right as the ship dissolves into the vacuum of space.

They land amongst floating rocks.

Corvus immediately thrusts his weapon at Loki, but he is blocked with a punch from Thor. The two of them grapple with each other, sending each other’s weightless bodies flying into a boulder.

Loki barely registers the blue creeping onto his fingertips as he summons his last knife. He kicks off against a nearby rock, propelling himself towards the two struggling figures.

He drives the knife through Corvus’ skull.

Corvus stills. His grip on his weapon loosens.

Loki doesn’t think twice before snatching the spear out of the already stiffening grip.

Thor pushes Corvus’ body away, then ducks to avoid a rock the size of his head. Loki grabs onto his brother’s armour before the idiot can send himself crashing into another rock.

Why are we here, he sees Thor mouthing. He can’t answer, and it’s not just because the vacuum would suck his voice away. He doesn’t know why he sent them to the remains of Asgard (he does). It is little more than pile of rocks (it used to be home, safety, even when it became his prison). He’d wasted some of his last remaining drops of energy (he’d wasted it on sentiment).

He can’t even muster the strength to react when he looks down and sees that his hands had turned completely blue. Instead, he draws in absolutely everything left in him and pulls at the Tesseract once more.

This time, however, pain sears through his entire body and it is almost impossible to fight against the Tesseract pulling right back at him.

He barely registers Thor’s horrified expression before everything fades to black.

The Guardians stare at the man they’ve picked up from the debris. He returns their stares with a steady golden gaze.

“So‒ Heimdall,” Gamora begins, “Your ship had the Space Stone, but then its keeper used it to escape and left everyone else for dead?”

“No,” says Heimdall. “Half of the ship‒ nearly all of them non-combatants‒ were evacuated. And by then, the remaining half who stayed to fight were all killed by Thanos and the Black Order. Only four of us were left. Loki took Thor with him, but the moment the Space Stone slipped from his grasp, Thanos merely used the Power Stone to destroy the rest of the ship and left. I sent Banner to Midgard before the explosion hit.”

“I am Groot?” Groot asks, finally looking up from his game.

“Also known as Earth. Terra.”

Rocket’s jaw drops.

“You speak Groot?”

“Yes,” Heimdall says, tilting his head slightly forward in acknowledgement.

Peter clears his throat.

“I mean, Groot isn’t that hard to pick up,” he says, walking into the conversation with the casualness of a man trying too hard to be casual. “Like I was a natural at it back when Groot turned back into a little sapling.” He turns, only to be met with scrunched faces and raised eyebrows from his friends rather than the acknowledgement he was hoping for. The only indication of Heimdall’s mild bemusement is a miniscule furrow in his brows, which Peter takes as a challenge, if the way he straightens like a territorial swan is any indication.

“Why are you trying to make yourself look taller?” Mantis asks, antennae twitching curiously.

“What’re you talking about? This is how tall I am.” He broadly gestures at his entire body, which makes his hands accidently smack into Mantis. She gasps.

“You’re insecure!” She sounds delightfully surprised by her discovery. “And jealous.”

“What?” Peter exclaims. “No I’m not!”

“Peter!” Gamora cuts in, not even bothering to mask her annoyance. When the entire ship falls silent, she sighs.

“The entire time I knew Thanos he only ever had one goal: to bring balance to the universe by wiping out half of all life. He used to kill people planet by planet, massacre by massacre…”

“Including my own,” Drax softly adds.

“If he gets all six Infinity Stones, he can do it with the snap of his fingers.” Gamora punctuates it with a snap of her own. It echoes sharply in the silence of the ship. The aura of solemnity is blanketing its occupants, whose gazes and bodies are wilting from the gravity of their situation. Except for Heimdall, who is looking at Gamora thoughtfully.

“We need to stop him,” she continues. “Which means we need to know where he’s going next.”

“He is after the Reality Stone in Knowhere,” Heimdall says, finally breaking his silence.

“How would you know any of that?” Gamora asks sharply.

“Years ago, Asgard secretly entrusted it to the Elder Taneleer Tivan.” Upon seeing the Guardians’ blank looks, Heimdall adds, “You may know him as the Collector.”

“No way,” Peter says. “Only an idiot would give it to the Collector.”

“How do you know he won’t go after any of the other stones?” Gamora cuts in.

“My sight and hearing extends throughout the universe. Thanos is currently alone, and preparing for his journey towards Knowhere. If we are fast enough, we have a chance of arriving before him.”

Gamora chews her lip.

“Then does that mean you know where all the other stones are?”

“Time, Mind and now Space are on Midgard. He currently has the Power Stone, which leaves the Soul Stone.” Heimdall pauses. “But there must be some powerful magic guarding the Soul Stone, for I cannot see it.”

“So… even you don’t know where the Soul Stone is?” Only Heimdall manages to hear the artificial steadiness in Gamora’s voice.

“No, I do not.” He looks into her eyes and sees trepidation carefully hidden under layers of steel. He understands. And he dips his head apologetically. “I’m sorry.”

“Well, what are we waiting for?” Peter says, physically stepping between them. “Rocket! Let’s turn this thing around to Knowhere.”

“Oh are you kidding me, back to bossing me around now?” Rocket rolls his eyes but follows Peter to the cockpit anyway. “Come on, Groot, let’s go.”

A giant ring. Rubble. Destruction. Two grotesque figures, fanned by flames.

TONY STARK MISSING

It all flashes across the small screen, painful reminders that their stolen moments can be snatched back so abruptly, so messily, that their tentative blossom of hope get snagged and torn out as well.

Just a little more time. That was all they wanted.

But a blast of blue energy sends Vision flying into the pavement, shattering the peace of the cool night.

Wanda reacts by throwing her own red energy in the direction of the attack. She sees it hit an alien woman-like figure before she turns back to Vision, who is now stripped of his human skin and embedded into the stone road.

“I’m okay… I’m okay,” Vision wheezes as Wanda propels them both into a temporary hiding spot.

And he is, Wanda realises once she’s done a quick scan on him using her powers. The blast of blue energy appears to have done little more than leaving him winded and breathless.

When the alien woman attacks again, Wanda makes herself as much of a target for the hits and blows as she can. The woman may be physically tougher and faster than her, but in between ducking the three-pronged spear, Wanda dredges up her powers and her hand-to-hand training from the Black Widow and Captain America.

They’re evenly matched.

(Thank god the woman seems to be alone)

Eventually Vision joins the fight, and while the woman is too busy deflecting his golden beam from the Mind Stone, Wanda seeps her magic into the woman’s mind.

Sleep, she wills.

The woman crumples to the ground.

Wanda watches the woman stir as she feels the last vestiges of her magic run its course. The woman had been bound once Steve, Sam and Natasha arrived and though Natasha’s the only one who stayed behind to help watch over their unconscious captive, Steve and Sam are still nearby, dealing with the alien spaceship they had found parked above the train station.

Wanda’s pulse quickens as they watch the woman tug at her restraints, snarling when she’s unable to budge the vibranium even with her strength.

Natasha begins the interrogation, and Wanda summons a small cloud of magic around her clenched fists, just in case.

But the woman’s demeanour suddenly changes, her hot anger hardening to ice cold apathy. She merely rolls her eyes at Natasha’s attempts to talk to her, and she looks almost bored at the red energy crackling at Wanda’s fingertips. Instead, she silently stares at Vision with an intensity that causes him to self-consciously reach up to the stone on his forehead.

Wanda feels a surge of anger at the woman. The nerve of her, and whoever she is working for, to feel entitled to the stones and their power, as if it justifies all the death, all the destruction they have caused.

She almost doesn’t notice Steve approaching their corner and Sam landing next to him. The woman seems to be aware of them too, because she finally breaks her silence with laughter. The sound sends a crawling sensation down Wanda’s neck. Natasha swings the prongs of the trident at the woman’s throat in warning, letting the tips pierce her skin until three thin trails of dark blue run down her neck. The only indication of pain is a short gasp, which is quickly replaced by a feral grin.

“You’re no match for Thanos. He’s far more powerful than you can ever imagine. The stones belong to him, and he’ll restore balance to the universe. It doesn’t matter if you kill me here, because you won’t be able to stop him.”

Natasha hums.

“Is that so?”

The woman juts her chin out, seemingly ignorant to the way the gesture made the prongs sink further into her throat.

Natasha exchange glances with Steve. His expression is unreadable, but his crossed arms tense up slightly. Wanda feels her stomach drop.

Natasha gives the trident a final push.

A sharp crack.

A hoarse gasp.

A body crumples to the ground.

part 2

#marvel #infinity war #infinity war fix it #loki #thor #heimdall #guardians of the galaxy #wanda maximoff #daisy's fics #swh

[riddledeep]

Fae Cosmology

This post briefly outlines fae beliefs of the universe as relates to the 24 Fae Planes, inter-plane travel, and early Fairy World

Related:

24 Fae Planes and brief info about each one

Maps in my deviantArt Sta.sh

7 Billion Years in 15,000 Words

7 Billion Years in Brief (2,000-words TL;DR)

Cloudland Belief Systems

Early Fairy World

Traditionally, Fairies believe their ancestors lived in a land of cliffs and forests known as Elphame. Elphame can be found on a planet called Elrue, which was home to a variety of species. Fae ancestors nobly sailed from the planet Elrue and valiantly settled Earth and its surrounding cloudlands shortly after the Sealing War.

Anti-Fairies traditionally believe their ancestors didn’t arrive until later, when Evadne and Ione were dumped on Earth in punishment for stealing powerful magic from the nature spirits. Either way, it’s thought many, many years passed before these early Fae developed an organized society; until then, they just existed as mischievous trickster spirits who tormented other species.

Elrue was the mother planet of the Fae; Fairy World was known as “the Fairy World colony.” The path home to Elrue has been forgotten in modern day, though zealous explorers search the universe for it. Other colonies descended from early Elrulians possibly exist elsewhere in the universe; a few alien races trace their heritage here, but at the moment no other fully magical races on level with the Fae have been found thriving.

Before they began using the human names of Earth locations, the Fae knew present-day South America as New Elrue because the warm environment was most similar to the alleged conditions of Elphame. In contemporary Fairy World, Elrulian is the language most similar to Spanish. It is Juandissimo’s first language (though it’s just different enough from Spanish that he doesn’t speak Spanish perfectly- see also, “Stupid Cupid”).

For more about cloudland languages, click HERE.

The 24 Fae Planes

The universe exists in layers known as planes that stretch infinitely in every direction. In most places throughout the cosmos, the layers are thin or empty, with only Plane 1 (the Star Plane) and Plane 2 (the Planet Plane) existing in a tangible form.

Despite the existence of hundreds of advanced alien races scattered across the universe, few species are located near points in the universe that feature tangible planes. If they are located near these points, only the first handful of layers may have manifested in a tangible form. Among those races, few possess the ability to ascend above Plane 2.

Although the fae see the cloudlands as circular, being landscapes that wrap around planets or moons, they do not envision the planes as circular; rather, each plane is a flat layer stacked one above the other. Cloudland planes may swivel laterally as though impaled on a peg, following the rotation of the host planet to some degree, but do not rotate perfectly with the planet. Someone who fell from the cloudlands at noon may land in a different spot on Earth than someone who fell in the evening; the two locations may be within a few hundred miles, but the landing point would not be exact.

That said, inter-plane pathways (such as the Rainbow Bridge) are magical paths that connect planes from a single stable point to another single stable point (such as Dimmsdale to Faeheim) no matter how far apart the rotation of the planet or swivel of the cloudlands may have taken them. Those who intend to use a Bridge will try to time their trip when it’s shortest because if they wait then the length of the trip extends (and traffic makes the wait longer still).

The Fae believe in 24 tangible, accessible planes, not counting the immaterial Plane 0 (colloquially known as the Ghost Zone) that they understand very little of due to being almost entirely banned from the area by the Ghosts. Rumor has it that the Beasts guard additional planes, but since Beast World is largely unexplored by the Fae, these rumors remain speculation. The planes the Fae know of are called “The 24 Fae Planes” and any other planes that may exist are none of their concern; thus, the Ghost Zone is not counted as a Fae plane and any Beast Planes, if there are any, are not counted with the 24.

It’s widely agreed that the Fairy World colony was deliberately built in one of very, very few areas where almost every plane overlaps in a straight shot, though Fairies and Anti-Fairies debate how the cloudlands came into being. Though the planes are not lined up in a perfect stack above and below Fairy World, they overlap with near-perfection, so travel is relatively easy.

Notably, Fairy World does not appear to have direct access to Planes 23 or 24, leading many to believe Plane 23 is a beautiful world of spirits and that its heavenly land is nourished by a magical fountain which pours down from Plane 24. Some argue Planes 23 and 24 do not even exist, but considerable science suggests there is something up there that cannot be accessed with current Fae technology, so speculations abound.

Inter-Plane Travel

The fae, with their teleportation magic, have the ability to visit other planes with ease; other races can ascend through the use of magic or advanced technology. As far as the fae are concerned, rockets are a human technology allowing them to breach the barrier between Planes 1 and 2. Fairies nervously fear the day human technologies advance enough to pierce Plane 3, the lowest level of Fairy World. Denzel Crocker has reached as far as Plane 5 (the most populated level of Fairy World) on multiple occasions.

Most often, a short-term burst of energy (magical or technological) is used to propel a small number of travelers from one plane to the next, reducing the risk of a large invasion; Fairy World uses border crossing stations and annoying levels of paperwork (courtesy of the Pixies) to defend the thin points of the planes where travelers are most likely to materialize.

Fairy World also has a standing defense force of soldiers known as Keepers, but Fairies do not have many internal defenses like walls or forts. A large enough attack force could overpower them, but the Fairies constantly procrastinate improving internal defenses since they do not see an attack as likely. In contrast, Anti-Fairy World is scattered with walls, forts, and castles.

Inter-plane transportation technology is usually used by merchant vessels that carry goods between Fairy World and alien planets, with a small device able to transport only one ship between planes at a time. Fairy World docks can hold about ten ships at a time depending on the size of the vessel, with additional ships ~mostly~ prevented from ascending a plane until a previous ship has left and a space has opened at the dock.

While it would be possible to force your ship to the next plane, good manners prevents merchants from doing so; however, a messenger ship may force their way up in times of emergency. Small, nimble ships (especially ones powered by rockets or magic) could force their way up and speed across Fairy World without stopping at the dock, forcing the Keepers to chase them down. Runaway ships suggest invasion and often spur Fairy World’s port city (Serentip) into panic.

Besides short-term transportation, long-term pathways can be established in the thin points between different planes. The Rainbow Bridge is the most famous of these pathways, as it connects Plane 2 (planets; specifically Dimmsdale on Earth) directly to Plane 5 (Faeheim, Fairy World’s capital city). The Pixies possess the Bit Bridge, which connects their home on Plane 3 to Mushroom Rock, Kansas. The Anti-Fairies once possessed the Shadow Bridge, which connected an island near Ireland to the Anti-Fairy World capital Luna’s Landing on Plane 8, but the Bridge was destroyed during the War of the Sunset Divide.

Though these Bridges are created of light and magic, they are solid to stand on. Furthermore, Bridges pull magical creatures and objects towards them like a magnet, so although it’s possible a magical being may fall off, it’s unlikely unless you deliberately flings yourself off. Only magical creatures can see the Bridges naturally; mundane creatures must be touched by magic in some way to see them. A fairy godkid can see and walk on a Bridge, but once their mind is wiped and cleaned of their interaction with magic, the Bridge becomes invisible and intangible.

You cannot fly directly to a higher plane; you will simply keep flying into that plane’s stars (each sky is a different layer with its own stars). It is, however, possible to fall to a lower plane if you walk off a floating cloud or rocky island and plummet. If you leave a higher plane, you’ll have to use magic, technology, or ascend a Bridge to return. In the episode “Crocker Shocker,” Fairy World’s capital city (on Plane 5) nearly fell into Giant Bucket of Acid World (positioned directly below it on Plane 4).

Plane Variations

Physics (those of both science and magic) vary between different planes. With some variation, physics are more or less consistent between Planes 3-8, which is why the Fairy and Anti-Fairy populations range between these five levels. From Plane 9 onward, variations in magic, gravity, land formations, and existence in general becomes increasingly extreme.

Ex: Plane 13 is incredibly bright and features fertile green grass while Plane 18 is incredibly dark as though no starlight reaches it, but Plane 19 is once again very bright.

Suns and Moons: Each plane appears to exist semi-independently, with some possessing a sun and a moon or two while other planes get by only on starlight, yet don’t freeze.

Fae magic behaves slightly differently on each plane, with certain spells being stronger on some and weaker on others. Different areas within each plane can affect magic as well, with the energy field (and therefore magic itself) being more unstable in some places than others. Fae settlements are located in stable patches of the energy field while unstable patches are often uninhabited even if there are beneficial resources like water and fertile farmland in those areas.

Vacation Homes: In modern times, vacation homes are often built in these unstable patches. These unstable zones are considered the rural areas of the cloudlands, and are sometimes populated by farmers and ranchers who have chosen to live there even if it means giving up all (or nearly all) their magic.

Variations in gravity mean little to creatures who can float, although visiting humans may be disoriented. You can often guess whether a fae was raised on a plane with lighter or heavier gravity depending on how often they walk and how quickly they beat their wings. Furthermore, different areas of different planes experience their own pockets where gravity is lighter or heavier. Pixie World’s capital, Inkblot City, is located in a very light gravity zone where even pixies, famous for their poor floating abilities, can float easily (and where the cost of living is very high). Anti-Fairy World’s capital, Luna’s Landing, is located in a slightly heavier gravity patch and has resulted in a culture of floating low to the ground or walking from place to place (but housing prices are much lower). Jogging is a common exercise in Luna’s Landing... Inkblot City, not so much. After all, walking is for poor people.

The passing of time begins to blend in the upper planes, tangling inexperienced travelers in a mess of past and future. Healing naturally over time is impossible. Landscapes may change their appearance and it’s easy to get turned around. Magic becomes increasingly difficult to manage up there, sometimes nonexistent. While poofing is possible between lower planes, it becomes impossible the higher you get. Strange creatures roam the upper planes, many threatening and some capable of using magic.

Few see the point of traveling to higher planes when the lower levels are perfectly safe. However, the magical rosewater that powers the Big Wand and every little wand can only be obtained from the upper levels of existence. Rosewater is incredibly valuable and merchants put their lives at risk to obtain it. That said, it can be collected in bulk and distributed abundantly (ensuring a long career for the merchants who gather it, tactfully not spiking prices to the point it would be more convenient to fetch your own instead of buying it). 

Soil composition and land formations vary between different planes and within each plane, leading to a richly diverse realm contained in a relatively small funnel (compared to the rest of the universe). Due to this surprising wealth of different land and magic quality, combined with a small population, the Fae have seen little reason to expand beyond their home in search of anything new. They work with what they have and use magic to obtain anything else, with the exception of unique alien technologies they don’t understand well enough to poof up.

Lateral Travel

When the Fae do leave Fairy World to travel laterally, they will travel on either Plane 1 or Plane 2, which exist in tangible form all throughout the known universe. Traveling on a higher plane can only take you so far, as the plane will cease existing in areas it cannot manifest as a tangible thing. If this happens, you won’t fall off the edge of the plane and plummet to a lower one- you’ll simply keep flying until you’re constricted by space and have to walk, then crawl, and finally you’ll hit a wall and can go no further.

An exception is if you find a thin tunnel you can crawl or walk through that leads from one patch of stable planes to another. These paths exist and a few are known, allowing faster travel through the universe since obstacles like asteroids do not exist in the upper planes and energy currents in the field can propel you faster.

Religions, Philosophies, and the Afterlife

Click HERE to view the Cloudland Beliefs post for more.

Beliefs vary throughout the cloudlands, but many fae believe their souls will travel to Plane 23 after death. Some believe they live life with only part of their true soul, and their soul will reunite with their counterparts’ souls after death, becoming a united creature; this is known as the Daoine form and is usually believed in by Fairies (who, being related to insects, favor a life cycle of metamorphosis). Others believe souls will exist as separate beings, leaving a peaceful afterlife without uniting with counterparts.

Those who hold Zodii beliefs (traditionally Anti-Fairies) believe in reincarnation, if it’s the will of the nature spirits; they believe souls pass briefly through Plane 23 to be examined by the spirits before anything else can happen to it. Some souls are sent to live another life very quickly (notably, Anti-Cosmo’s cousin is said to be a reincarnation of his own mother, who died “unfairly” and was given another chance at life immediately). Other souls are placed on probation (usually to serve the spirits for centuries or even millennia) until the spirit in charge of them decides to grant them another chance at life.

Old souls are souls that have experienced many incarnation cycles, while new souls are newborns in early incarnations.

End souls are souls in their final incarnation, though they rarely know it during life.

Those who try to integrate traditional Fairy and Anti-Fairy beliefs believe that if all three counterparts agree to unite as one, they will. Those who desire reincarnation will serve the nature spirits until they are granted another life. Daoine unity and reincarnation both involve the unanimous decision of all three parts of the soul; souls in disagreement must reside as separate shards on Plane 23 (probably in discontent) until they decide to either unite or reincarnate together.

Integrationists believe the first reincarnation is usually met with resistance by at least one of the other soul shards, delaying it for thousands of years. Eventually resistant shards give in. Reincarnation occurs and continues multiple times before all souls are satisfied and agree to unite into one, spending the remainder of their existence in Daoine form. Balance, agreement, and consent are absolutely key.

Click HERE for my Fairly OddParents worldbuilding masterpost

#RD general #RD worldbuilding

[fireinclined-archive]

CAPELLAN HEADCANONS

the language

the capellan language is just song. the vocabulary and grammar is easy enough to learn but the musical aspect makes it super hard to learn, because if you’re a half step off a note, then you’ve either changed the meaning entirely, or you’re saying with a very different tone that what you intended. 

because music is tied to phrases, instrumental capellan music can be used to suggest certain phrases or ideas. this could be used to communicate as well in a pinch. instead of speaking, one can whistle a tune and imply a certain phrase or command

cassandra & the capellan language

cassandra will sometimes speak in a singsong voice, just because she’s used to it, and it’s not really weird to her to do it- she’ll also do it to convey different emotions if she’s talking with someone who knows capellan enough to get it.

an amazing headcanon that sammun came up with is that a singsong voice is also cassandra’s like slurred voice- when she’s tired or drunk.

the four inclinations

each inclination holds a very important role in capellan culture- a very important philosophy on capella is that if something starts to fail, and needs to be replaced, you must destroy the old and start over. this is what fire inclined capellans represent- the destruction of the old so one can rebuild. after all- some flowers only bloom after a fire.

ice inclined capellans represent the taming of capella- capella is mostly frigid mountaintops and unruly seas. ice inclined capellans have the ability to tame both of these.

light inclined capellans are the elucidators, the scholars. they ‘light the way’ for other capellans, and are usually taken to academic pursuits.

life inclined capellans are the healers- even before the limitations were added to capellan dna, life inclined capellans were seen as wise people who knew when to heal…and when to let go.

what planet capella is in real life

we humans know capella as kepler-442b! it’s an exoplanet orbiting kepler-442, which is located in the lyra constellation! it’s a k-type main-sequence star, which is actually really good, because they emit less ultra-violet radiation that harms dna and stuff.

the gravity on kepler-442b is 30% stronger than that of earth’s, which jives nicely with how capella has stronger gravity than earth’s. the temperature on kepler-442b is 233K, or −40 °C; −40 °F. which…admittedly that’s very low, even for how cold i wanted capella to be, but…i’ll take what i can get. another thing that irks me is that kepler-442b was discovered/identified as a planet that might be able to sustain life in january of 2015, and the way i write it, cassandra already knows about what humans call capella when she gets there.

ANOTHER thing that doesn’t match up is the distance from earth- in “in the morning” and perhaps even on this blog, i’ve said that capella is 10,000 light years from earth. kepler-442b is only 1,120 light years away. but this is something i can easily change- the important thing about capella’s distance from earth is that it has to be far enough away so that capellans really don’t give a shit about earth, and that it has to be greater than 30 years or so, so that capella is still visible from earth when cassandra gets there.

biological differences from humans

second eyelids- they’re to protect the eyes but also allow the capellan to see through it

four lungs, and larger chest cavity in general. ribs round out in the back a bit

more muscle mass

bones have a smaller radius and are denser

they’re fucking giants- cassandra is 6′5 and average height for a capellan. tall for a capellan is 7′5.

their blood is almost rusty looking bc there’s more oxygen in it

capellans are very auditory based creatures- for example, hearing is to them what smell is to humans, taste wise. so the food has to be noisy when eaten to taste good

capellan naming conventions + cassandra’s name

so, capellans don’t have last names at all- instead they have core names and family suffixes. cassandra’s family suffix is -lyn, however, after the destruction of capella, cassandra chose to take on the -ndra suffix again

-ndra is the orphan’s suffix, but more specifically…its the suffix of the unwanted. only children who are given up at birth, are completely disowned from the family, or choose to cut ALL ties to their families have this suffix.

since cassandra was given up at birth, her names have been

cassandra -> cassalyn -> cassandra

her core name is cassa, and it’s considered very rude to call a capellan by their core name unless they have given explicit permission for you to do so. in addition- cassandra CANNOT STAND the nickname cassie, since that’s what her name would have been if dulcie and her had gotten married, and what dulcie used to call cassandra when they were engaged.

tl;dr: don’t call her cass and DEFINITELY don’t call her cassie

capellan art

capellan art is usually 3d stuff- very rarely do capellans just sit and paint on a normal canvas. this is because of their inclinations! many famous capellan artists utilize their inclinations to create art, or create art based off their inclinations. fire inclined capellans will typically use their powers to melt and shape metal, or do something with pottery. ice inclined capellans will typically make huge ice sculptures- or really small and intricate stuff. they can also freeze off bits of rock- like how potholes are made?- and create sculptures that way.

light inclined capellans usually create huge structures or hanging mobiles made of glass that reflects light just so. and…unfortunately, life inclined capellans get the short end of the stick, since their inclination doesn’t really affect the environment the same way the other three do. however, life inclined capellans get a lot of props for being able to create amazing works without using an inclination.

anyway- this is why cassandra does like sculptures from the renaissance, but not really paintings. the only earth paintings cassandra really enjoys are more abstract ones or very colorful ones. cassandra does adore vincent van gogh, both for his subject matter and the colors and techniques in his paintings. but cassandra has a particular fondness for 3d art because that’s simply what art was on capella.

alcohol tolerance

originally i was going to have capellans have a notoriously low alcohol tolerance, but taking into consideration the rest of their biology, it’s much more likely that it’s harder for them to get drunk, especially on earth alcohol. so i guess cassandra falls under the never gets drunk trope.

light inclined capellans

remember when i said that light inclined capellans are the elucidators? the ones who ‘light the way?’ they’re also…well, if you’ve read the d.ivergent series, they’re lowkey like candor. they are incredibly good at reading people and have a knack for telling when someone’s lying or not telling the whole truth.

that’s kind of their thing- the pursuit of the truth- be it spiritually, scientifically, or even more like. detective-y. when they think someone is lying or there is a greater truth to be discovered, they will keep pressing and digging until they learn the truth.

life inclined capellans

life inclined capellans obviously can’t bring back the dead, but it’s more than that. they can’t even like…waste their powers trying to heal a dead body. so when people are like ‘you’ve got to try!’ its not they aren’t…it’s just that there’s not hing to connect to.

capellan healing requires a connection- a touching of souls- to work. this is why any verse where hellion heals splinter will result in a crippled verse; as she heals splinter, she grows scared of that connection, and…so does he, unconscious or not. it gets harder and harder to establish that connection efficiently as splinter wakes up, and once he’s up, it’s takes so much just to make the connection.

but anyway- if someone’s dead…there’s no soul to touch. not anymore. so they can’t even really try to heal a dead person.

how a life inclined capellan defends themself

the life inclination is the only inclination to contain the full spectrum of it’s power. and what i mean by “the full spectrum of it’s power” is that with the fire and ice inclinations- they used to be one inclination, simply thermal manipulation. but over time it split up in two, and now you can really see how they’re really just halves of a whole. the fire inclination cannot cool down a room that they’ve heated up- likewise, the ice inclination cannot “undo” any frost that’s built up. 

but the life inclination covers the ability to heal life and the ability to harm it- it contains both extremes. 

ANYWAY.  

it’s really strange that you can heal someone gradually, or heal someone wrong, or only heal someone partially- but you can’t do that with killing someone. just- boom, they’re dead, no grey area, right?

WELL. not quite. its possible to weaken someone- kill them gradually, drain away their life force bit by bit. HOWEVER this is the most difficult thing to master for a life inclined capellan. if you can weaken someone, slow down the killing so it’s not immediate, you’re basically considered a master of your inclination. 

but…it’s not a good thing. the life inclination, because it covers two extremes, comes from two extremes as well. it can come from either kindness or malice. it is literally possible to kill someone with kindness, usually because it’s an act of mercy. 

however, this technique can only be utilized by using malice- since there is no mercy or kindness in making someone suffer. 

so, life inclined capellans CAN defend themselves but

its the hardest technique to master

it comes from a bad place

if you can do it people generally look down on you because why would you want to make someone suffer??

ancient capellans

ancient capellans’ inclinations were  less of ‘one inclination for life but an immense amount of control’ and more of ‘okay you have all four but they’re all weak’

maybe as time went on, capellans learned to hone one inclination over the others, and eventually evolved to the point where a capellan only got one inclination but has a huge amount of control over it.

this feeds into my headcanon that in situations of immense stress a fully grown capellan can briefly access another inclination. the situation in particular is that owl is dying in cassandra’s arms and something just clicks inside her and she’s able to keep owl alive using a life inclination.

it’s only for a total of three minutes and it didn’t heal the damage as much as simply keeping her alive.

touch

since i just read a post about touch s.tarvation, i got thinking about capellans and touching. and thinking on how physically affectionate cassandra’s relationships with other capellans are, i’ve come to the conclusion that capellans are just very physically affectionate. like it takes less time for them to feel comfortable being physically affectionate with someone new, and platonic cuddling and kisses are super duper common. sharing a bed is something that’s often done by close friends or roommates, especially for comfort.

#🌻 bad decisions make for the best memories「HEADCANONS.」 #hc rush #long post //

[brevoorthistoryofcomics]

The next book I picked up at the 7-1 was the final super hero issue of DC SPECIAL for the time being--with the following release, the book began reprinting Three Musketeers stories and the like, which didn’t interest me. I feel like I’m harping on him and his work, but it’s unavoidable given that he was doing pretty much all of the covers for the super hero line at this point: Ernie Chua/Chan’s cover for this issue is pretty weak stuff. 

The first story in this oversized issue was a pretty good Superman adventure in which the Man of Steel has to contend with a plague of super-insects and creatures from space--creatures that are even more powerful than he is, are impervious to Kryptonite, and cannot (for some reason never quite explained) be projected into the Phantom Zone.

Turns out that it’s the work of a band of death-obsessed aliens from a Red Sun world that’s even larger than Krypton and has even greater gravity--so that the super-creatures are even more powerful than Superman on Earth. Superman finds their ark and uses it to get to the alien world, just in time for the Death-Aliens to explain their plan to him before they destroy their own planet as their finishing touch. Superman escapes--and the fragments of the giant world that are drawn back to Earth in his wake prove to be just as fatal to the colossal creatures as Kryptonite is to him! Lucky break!

Next up is a relatively early and completely ridiculous Green Lantern story. It’s a Leap Year, the one instance where its proper for a young lady to propose marriage to a man. So Carol Ferris intends to corner Green Lantern. In order to get out of this conundrum, GL creates a huge menace with his Power Ring that he must dash off to combat despite Carol’s question. But when klutzy GL gets knocked unconscious by a child’s radio-controlled airplane, the creature he created runs wild!

GL’s Menace has the rudimentary thought processes of a child, but that doesn’t prevent it from causing mayhem. The military is called out to stop the creature, but their weapons are useless against its Power-Beam-created hide. Eventually, Hal wakes up, races to the scene and disintegrates the creature with his Power Ring before Coast City can be nuked. And then, he gets lucky in that the members of the Green lantern Fan Club, all of whom are women, accost him, each one asking him to marry them. This gives GL the cloud cover to declare that, since he can’t marry all of them, he’ll marry none. And so, Hal Jordan’s bachelorhood is saved!

Next up is a beautifully-drawn installment of the War That Time Forgot, illustrated by Russ Heath. I didn’t care much for war stories, though, so this tale of a Cop-turned-G.I. and the criminal who escaped from him, now also a G.I., being trapped on the mysterious island of dinosaurs as they fight World War Ii didn’t do much for me. I was surprised years later to discover that the War That Time Forgot was a series--I just assumed that this tale was a one-off.

Finally, the issue closes with a key Marvel Family story, the one in which the Rock of Eternity, Shazam’s home-away-from-home is introduced! When Billy Batson finds a crook peddling the Book of Shazam at an old bookshop, he and Mary and Freddy Freeman attempt to return it to the Old Wizard. But when he doesn't appear in his usual spot, they use the book to learn about the Rock of Eternity, which sits atop the crossroads of time, and from which every point in time and space is accessible.

Turns out that Shazam had built the Rock to entomb the personification of Evil, who can split himself into three forms: Sin, Wickedness and Terror. The three-in-one demon escapes captivity and steals Pandora’s Box from Shazam, requiring the Marvel Family to split up and hunt him down across all of time and space. They naturally succeed in detaining him, and by story’s end he is once again buried under the colossal Eternity Rock.

#DC Special #Superman #Green Lantern #War That Time Forgot #Marvel Family #Captain Marvel #Russ Heath #Ernie Chua #Ernie Chan #DC

[kentkennyradcliffe]

November 6th, 2009

Let the sunshine in

11–06-09

Kenny Radcliffe

 When I was a little boy, I would wake up early at dawn and sit outside with my dog watching the beautiful sunrise. I was amazed by the colors of the deep purple clouds and the burnt orange light shining out across the grayish blue sky.  It was something my grandpa and I shared when I saw him for the last time over summer. It is something my dad and I watch sometimes when we both happen to wake up early on Saturday morning, and someday, when I have children of my own, I will hopefully share the majestic beauty of the sunrise with them. However, not all things hoped for come to pass though.

There is increasing scientific evidence that supports the idea of the sun dying. It has been something controversial in the past, but now, the idea has become theory. Our sun is not going to be around forever. It is, after all, a star. And stars die. But the sun will not die in our lifetime; it is estimated to still have 5 billion years of life left. (The Sun’s Energy) The sun is not just going to die suddenly. It has been dying ever since it was created. Just like a human life has a time limit, so does our sun. But what would happen if our sun dies? When it enters its final days, there will be dramatic and horrible consequences on earth. The gravitational pull on earth from the sun will be gone, so we will pull away from our current position, which will affect life on our planet. There will be no more heat, which means plants and animals and humans would die, the earth would be weather less, and ultimately, we will see our earth become an icy lifeless planet.

The sun is especially important to our earth. It provides heat to our planet. Every spot on Earth is receiving an average of 342 watts of energy from the Sun. (Cain) We need this heat to maintain a stable condition on earth. Once the sun begins to get closer to its death day, there will be changes in the Earths overall temperature. This would be catastrophic. The decrease in heat would affect plant life and animal life. The earth would begin to get colder. Places that are already freezing, like the arctic would become unbearable for any life, while places that are warmer, like South America, would become the next Russia. After awhile, the remaining heat from the sun will die out completely and the Earth would be frozen. Earth would be the next Pluto, icy and completely lifeless.

In addition to the heat we receive from the Sun, plants absorb energy from the Sun, mix this with carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, and grow. (Cain) We all use energy from the sun. We eat the plants that feed off the energy the sun gives them. We eat the animals that eat the plants that we eat. Most of the energy we need comes from the sun.

The sun is also responsible for keeping us in place. If the sun were to die, then we would have no more gravitational pull on earth from the sun. The sun’s gravitational pull is what keeps us revolving and rotating around the sun, and why the earth spins around on its axis. When the sun dies off, our seasons would change, and we would see summer get colder and colder. Our normal day and night cycle would be different too. The day would be shorter and darker, and the night would be longer and colder. Without this pull of gravity, we would just fly off into space, away from the warmth and light of the Sun, and out into the cold black of space. (Cain)

This will certainly be a violent end for our sun and the earth. Now, I bet you are wondering why, or how, the earth is dying. Well, the sun uses energy that it has stored inside of it since its birth, which was 5 billion years ago. Since then, it has used up about half of its nuclear fuel, which is hydrogen. (Zoom Astronomy - The Sun) The sun cannot replace this lost energy, so it will eventually use up all its stored energy. In about 5 billion years from now, most of the hydrogen in the center will get used up, and the sun will enter a dying phase. (The Sun’s Energy)

Think about your car now and how it uses oil to run. You know it runs on oil, so you fill up the tank. Your car runs for as long as it can while using that tank of oil. But once that tank runs out, your car cannot run anymore. Same thing with the sun, the sun needs hydrogen to run. But once the suns natural energy runs out, it dies. It is as simple as that. The only difference is that we can fill up our car’s tank again, while the sun cannot replace its lost energy. There is no one stop nuclear fuel store for the sun in the solar system. Once it runs out, that is it.

After this phase, the outer layers of the Sun will continue to expand. As this happens, the core will contract; the helium atoms in the core will fuse together, forming carbon atoms and releasing energy. The core will then be stable since the carbon atoms are not further compressible. Then the outer layers of the Sun drift off into space, exposing the core. ("Zoom Astronomy - The Sun") What is left of the sun will shrink and cool and become devoid of all nuclear fuel. It is now a white dwarf, still radiating left-over heat. But once that heat is all gone, it will be a cold, dark black dwarf, in other words - a dead star. ("Zoom Astronomy - The Sun")

All stars die, and each star goes through the same “dying” process. However, each star in our universe is in a different stage of the dying process, because they are older. Some stars that are 20 billion years old are now white dwarfs, while other newer stars are red giants. The time limit on a star’s life depends on the age of the star. By knowing the age, you can determine: What stellar classification the star is in, how much energy the star has lost, and ultimately know when the star will die.

Our star, the sun, is class G V star, or a yellow dwarf. It has a weak hydrogen state because it is in the process of converting hydrogen to helium in its core by means of nuclear fusion. Each second, it fuses approximately 600 million tons of hydrogen to helium, converting about 4 million tons of matter to energy. This is a lot of energy the sun is using, and it is never replaced. A G V star will fuse hydrogen for approximately 10 billion years, until it is exhausted at the center of the star. When this happens, the star expands to many times its previous size and becomes a red giant. Eventually the red giant sheds its outer layers of gas, which become a planetary nebula, while the core cools and contracts into a compact, dense white dwarf.

Since our sun has been alive for 5 billion years, we can assume that it has used up about 5 billion years of its stored hydrogen. This means that our sun has another 5 billion years left to be a yellow dwarf and will become a red giant. Earth cannot survive with a red dwarf as our sun. A red dwarf expands to about 200 times the size of what the sun is currently, which means the orbits of the nine plants would screw up. The first five plants could be engulfed by the red giant. Earth would fall back into a lower orbit and get engulfed and incorporated inside the sun before the sun reaches its largest size, despite the sun losing about 38% of its mass. Before this happens, Earth's biosphere will have long been destroyed by the Sun's steady increase in brightness as its hydrogen supply dwindles and its core contracts, even before the transition to a Red Giant. After just over 1 billion years, the extra solar energy input will cause Earth's oceans to evaporate and the hydrogen from the water to be lost permanently to space, with total loss of water by 3 billion years. Earth's atmosphere and lithosphere will become like that of Venus. Over another billion years, most of the atmosphere will get lost in space leaving Earth with a surface of molten rock and no sustainable life.

The process of our sun going from a yellow dwarf to a red giant would be the death of the earth, but not necessarily the death of human life. By the time the sun gets close to its death date, we will probably have major advancements in science and technology which would allow us to plan for the next 5 billion years to find a way to live with the changes of the sun. In our lifetime we do not need to worry about any of this, it is the up to the future earth’s population to find a way out of this. Who knows, we might even find another solar system with a sun like ours and go live there. Anything is possible in the future.

                  Bibliography:

 "The Death of the Sun." Zoom Astronomy - The Sun. 2009. Enchanted Learning, Web. 8 Nov 2009.

<http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/astronomy/sun/sundeath.shtml>

 Cain, Fraser. "What the Sun Does for Us." The Sun. 19-Sep-2008. Universe Today, Web. 8 Nov 2009.

<http://www.universetoday.com/guide-to-space/the-sun/what-the-sun-does-for-us/>.

 "The Sun's Energy." Web. 8 Nov 2009.

<http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/physics/sobel/Nucphys/sun.html>.