Well… This Started Out As A Portrait Of Death

Wrecker being obsessed with fishing is just hilarious. I cannot wait to read the whole thing!!!

Finals are NEXT WEEK but I needed a break, so voila, have some Pabu shenanigans:

Crosshair leans down, scooping up a handful of water to splash the back of Wrecker’s head. “We get it, Wreck. Shut up about the fish.” 

The mischievous glint in Wrecker’s eyes alerts Omega to what he’s about to do even before he moves. Crosshair sees it too, but he can’t move fast enough through the water to get out of the way. With a grin that spreads almost from ear to ear, Wrecker shoves his youngest brother squarely in the chest, sending him toppling backwards into the water with a startled yelp.  

Omega clamps her hands over her mouth, desperately trying - and failing - to stifle her laughter. Lyanna has no such self-restraint, and practically folds herself in half from giggling. 

She half-prepares herself for Crosshair to fly off the handle, but he comes up smirking, wiping the seawater from his eyes. There’s a hint of playfulness, actual playfulness, in his voice that she can’t remember ever hearing before. “You’re dead.” 

That’s all it takes to set everyone off, and by the time Tech finally wanders over to let them know that the others are calling it a night, Omega has lost count of the amount of soakings she’s received.

Here’s a WIP since I know I’ve been kinda quiet lately. Chemistry has been really hard🥺

Schedule Update and Contributor Applications

Hey there troopers! As promised here is an announcement letting you know that the schedule has been updated and confirmed on our carrd. In addition, our contributor applications will open TOMORROW and close on August 5th.

As always, don't feel shy about reaching out if you have a question for us!

This has been bothering me. I know people have responded saying that you act in a motherly way towards the Batch and towards Omega. I think they are looking at it almost in a “group mom” way. You are someone who acts as a voice of reason, and takes care of the others’ needs like food and play and cleaning.

The thing is: those aren’t inherently motherly traits. Yes many moms do them, but many dads do too. And many people who are neither moms nor dads. It’s just plain, ole caring for someone else’s welfare.

So while understandable that the traits are associated with motherhood and femininity because often our society downplays the nurturing role of the father, people should recognize that they are also fatherly and masculine characteristics. A man is equally capable of caring for his friends and family’s physical needs as he is for their emotional needs. It doesn’t detract from his masculinity if he is emotionally vulnerable to his people. And it doesn’t detract from his masculinity if he wants to give them a better quality of life because he loves them.

I love how the og batch are that “manwhore, mansplain, manipulate, and manslaughter” meme

Manwhore: Hunter

Mansplain: Tech

Manipulate: Wrecker 

Manslaughter: Crosshair

Before anyone says Wrecker is manslaughter, look at this face

He’s got manipulate in the bag

A hug for u <333

I need a hug

"Dream well my little one - of stars singing - their gentle night song~"

This was mean! How am I supposed to do homework when I'm crying??

well that fucking hurts

AAAAAAAAAA

OH MY GOSH ITS SO TINY

It looks like a gumdrop. I wanna smoosh it so bad but it wouldn’t recover so I won’t.

Here’s the paper that describes this species holotype!! Mycena subcyanocephala from Latin, literally “little blue-head” (don’t quote me on that, it’s been a few years since I reviewed my Latin). It’s a new species, so we don’t know much about it yet. BUT they belong to the Mycena genus, which is potentially one of the coolest fungi clades around!! It’s one of the most prolific genera of fungi, and is native to nearly every continent! They’re also some of the smallest mushrooms in the world. They tend to be no bigger than a few centimeters in cap diameter, so many species have cute common names like “pixie’s parasol”!

And if you thought being a common sort of mushroom made them boring, you’d be sorely mistaken because they’re one of the genera that contains bioluminescent species!!! Of the 500 known species, around 58 glow with this absolutely ethereal, chemically-generated glow called foxfire. They do this by introducing oxygen to luciferin, a protein that produces light when this reaction occurs using the enzyme luciferase as a reaction site. Absolutely magical!! I wonder if our littol gumdrop friend is one of the 58!!

I don’t wanna bore y’all with a lecture on bioluminescence, even though it’s one of THE COOLEST things in nature (and that’s saying a lot), so have some pictures of foxfire instead <3333

(pssssssstt thanks for sharing your shroom pics with me @blithe-imperial-underling and @imperial-strategist )

You can learn more about Mycena here (sorry it’s just Wikipedia, it was kinda hard to find an overview article quickly) and you can learn more about bioluminescence in fungi here!

You are correct, @theartgremlin​. I am always watching, and I found your biology lesson very interesting. My aide has a particular interest in mycology, and she was intrigued when I forwarded the information I intercepted about the microscopic predators from your planet. She shared an interesting bit of fungi with me as a result. This is one she thought I would appreciate due to its coloring resembling those of my old GAR legion.

But I should have known by the look on her face that Lieutenant Blithe had more to show me than just that one holopic. The next image she showed me was even better. Just like your microscopic worms, it was the size of this organism that was the most interesting.

The orginal post containing these extraordinary images can be found here.