Reduviidaegirl - A Cicada

Carabidae / ground and tiger beetles

Agonum viduum - 2023

Violet Ground Beetle (Carabus violaceus) - 2024

Carabus - 2024

Carabus coriaceus - 2024

The Princess Bride is such a funny book to read after ONLY seeing the movie. Like Goldman made up a fake author from a fake country and proceeded to write the book as an abridged version of what the fake author wrote... and then he proceeds to add in notes to the "abridged version" mentioning all the boring world building stuff he skipped because it was boring.

Like shout out to William Goldman, man really did make an entire book that is just "the cool scenes you thought of in your head" and then made up a fake author to abridge so he doesn't have to connect them.

And it slaps

Some of you may have heard about Monarch butterflies being added to the Threatened species list in the US and be planning to immediately rush out in spring and buy all the milkweed you can manage to do your part and help the species.

And that's fantastic!! Starting a pollinator garden and/or encouraging people and businesses around you to do the same is an excellent way to help not just Monarchs but many other threatened and at-risk pollinator species!

However.

Please please PLEASE do not obtain Tropical Milkweed for this purpose!

Tropical milkweed (Asclepias curassavica)--also commonly known as bloodflower, Mexican butterflyweed, and scarlet milkweed--will likely be the first species of milkweed you find for sale at most nurseries. It'll be fairly cheap, too, and it grows and propagates so easily you'll just want to grab it! But do not do that!

Tropical milkweed can cause a host of issues that can ultimately harm the butterflies you're trying to help, such as--

Harboring a protozoan parasite called OE (which has been linked to lower migration success, reductions in body mass, lifespan, mating success, and flight ability) for long periods of time

Remaining alive for longer periods, encouraging breeding during migration time/overwintering time as well as keeping monarchs in an area until a hard freeze wherein which they die

Actually becoming toxic to monarch caterpillars when exposed to warmer temperatures associated with climate change

However--do not be discouraged!! There are over 100 species of milkweed native to the United States, and plenty of resources on which are native to your state specifically! From there, you can find the nurseries dedicated to selling native milkweeds, or buy/trade for/collect seeds to grow them yourself!!

The world of native milkweeds is vast and enchanting, and I'm sure you'll soon find a favorite species native to your area that suits your growing space! There's tons of amazing options--whether you choose the beautiful pink vanilla-smelling swamp milkweed, the sophisticated redring milkweed, the elusive purple milkweed, the alluring green antelopehorn milkweed, or the charming heartleaf milkweed, or even something I didn't list!

And there's tons of resources and lots of people willing to help you on your native milkweed journey! Like me! Feel free to shoot me an ask if you have any questions!

Just. PLEASE. Leave the tropical milkweed alone. Stay away.

TLDR: Start a pollinator garden to help the monarchs! Just don't plant tropical milkweed. There's hundreds of other milkweeds to grow instead!

comics as an art form make me insane. they’re so difficult to do well. there’s so many different ways to make sequential art work and most of them are deeply unintuitive. onomatopoeia that feels completely ridiculous to put down often reads seamlessly. panels on a page become a fractally nested image composition challenge that’s only possible to lose because if you do a good job no one will notice. you have to direct the readers’ eyes on a specific path across the page but also account for the fact that they won’t follow it. comic time isn’t linear. if the order of events isn’t crystal clear the story becomes incomprehensible. sometimes you need to do this on purpose. all this for a medium almost universally considered less effective than animation and less respectable than plain text. even its own name doesn’t take it seriously

Fate spins along as it should.

“Ages ago the divine touched the real and your living form is the real reaching back, hand in hand, two dancers twirling in the stars forever.”

I feel like this fandom shouldn’t be this mean and divisive about having different takes/ predictions about A STORY THAT IS STILL BEING TOLD

At the end of the day we’re all just responding to improv. Yes, Matt has likely put together some key plot events but his work will only take us so far without the choices the players make.

People can bring up lore/canon/past texts but at some point we do gotta recognize that the path forward is ultimately being decided by Matt and the players.

Use lore/canon/past eps as a guidepost but don’t get superior in thinking your prediction of how things will go is going to be the Correct Version and everyone else “lacks media literacy” (whatever the fuck that overused phrase even means anymore)

Good Evening Mr. Phelps.

30 years ago, the city of Aeor created the Latimus Princeps, a device that prevents divine entry and scrying within the city of Aeor. Since then, our covert agents within the city have learned that Aeor has neared completion of a god-killing weapon known as the Factorum Malleus. In addition, they have created a failsafe protocol spread throughout the city, wherein should they feel there is a threat to the Factorum Malleus, they will disseminate knowledge of how to build it across the globe, ensuring its recreation. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to infiltrate the city of Aeor in the guise of a mortal, sabotage the failsafe mechanism and Latimus Princeps, and destroy the Factorum Malleus. As always, should any of you or your IMF team be caught or killed, the secretary will disavow any knowledge of your actions.

This message will self destruct in five seconds.

“Something Hurts Something Aches Something bends until it breaks.”

Guess who got their hands on Call of the Netherdeep.

(Song referenced: “Time will Change You” by the Crane Wives”)

(Pose by @adorkastock )

comic done for a project assignment a few years back!