symbiotic relationship between a crash landed alien vessel holding supposedly water and a hearty knight turned melancholy as a result of the ecstacy pumped straight into its blood

references!! subject to change bc character design is my death sentence. also some sillies bc is it really fma if ed doesnt get called short/kid at least once

I find it very funny that the only time ling and mei directly interact is at the very end and the only time they were ever in the same room together before the promised day is when ling has been freshly possessed. we already know mei gets a glance at greed and is like "is that the yao prince?? why is he here????" and I have to imagine it went similarly from ling's perspective. like he's still reeling from getting possessed on purpose, probably still getting his bearings in there, and he's just experienced potentially the worst twenty-four hours of his life, and then greed starts applauding a little girl's reunion with her panda and ling gets a look at her and is like "oh what the fuck."

I saw everyone was making Sonic ship kids, so I decided to try it as well!

Spirit the Hedgehog. I could NOT decide on colors until I made a human design (this is the third version of him!!!)

Human design!!

I tried to make him look like Sonic and Shadow (cuz he's a Sonadow kid) but I also want him to be unique, but idk :P

no you don't get it. i literally love stories where they dive into people's hearts/minds (literally or figuratively) sm it's my favourite type of storytelling.

**gives the fake peppino head pats cause the blorbo is a good boi and deserves good boi head pats.**

Best blorbo

he deserves ALL of the head pats and attention, my personal take for fakey is that he used to be kinda iffy on any physical attention, but after some time it's become one of his favorite things ❤

other favorite sensations include belly rubs and of course, hugs 🤗🤗🤗

Homunculus Research (the kinda scientific edition)

Time for me to do the thing that I do where I think way too much about barely explained fictional science and try my best to apply actual science to it. For fun.

So, here is my biological summary for the homunculi of Rain Code, which will be mostly non-canon speculation.

What is a homunculus? A homunculus is an artificially created, cloned individual using the genetic information of a human for the purpose of developing immortality and regeneration applicable to military use.

What is a homunculus made of and how? A homunculus is created from gram-negative bacteria and human cells through complete recombinant DNA cloning. This technique is achieved through taking the genes of the human donor and incorporating the information into a bacterial chromosomal DNA and plasmid(the secondary circular DNA molecule of bacteria used for gene replication and transfer). Additionally, the incorporation of the enzyme telomerase and protein p53 is applied.

What contributes to a homunculus's regenerative properties and immortality? Homunculi exhibit accelerated initial growth and healing thanks to the bacterial hybridization of their cells. Bacteria have one of the fastest replication rates, and can replicate at a rate of about every 10 minutes compared to the average human cell's replication rate of every 24 hours. Gram-negative bacteria also have a complex layering of membrane that allow them to be more resistant to antibiotics and a more sturdy structure. Bacteria have the ability to go through inactivation, where they go into a state of metabolic dormancy that protect them and allow them to be able to wait out periods of extreme conditions and nutrient scarcity. Telomerase, the 'immortality enzyme', is utilized for its function in restoring the length of telomeres. Telomeres are a protective chromosomal cap that normally erode with each cell division, and it's this shortening that causes DNA damage and aging in humans. Telomerase repairs this erosion and allows cells to divide indefinitely. However, because of telomerase's link to increased rates of cancer, additional copies of the gene responsible for the production of p53 protein is also incorporated. P53 is a tumor suppressor that allows damaged cells to repair themselves before dividing, which prevents the spread of cancerous cells.

Why is homunculus blood pink? Gram-negative bacteria is identifiable for its bright pink color by using the gram staining method. This is because the characteristic cell wall structure of gram-negative bacteria which makes them so resilient also causes the bacteria to display the color of the safranin. Homunculus researchers may apply a gram staining process to the circulatory system of homunculi for the purpose of identification and observation.

Relevance of gram-negative bacteria in gene cloning and military research. The most commonly used strain of bacteria used in gene cloning research is the gram-negative bacteria such as e. coli for its ready availability, ease of growth and manipulation, and simplicity. Gram-negative bacteria such as e. coli has a history in military research, in cases such as a probiotic when an army surgeon isolated a strain found in a soldier who, unlike his comrades, did not develop an illness from an infectious outbreak.

What is the zombified state of imperfect homunculi? It is the result of cell inactivation that, while it is a protective measure for the cells, the slowed or halted metabolic state causes the low-functioning mental and physical faculties that present zombie-like symptoms, and is currently difficult to impossible to reverse in imperfect homunculi due to their varying degrees of cellular instability.

Why do imperfect homunculi require compounds found in human flesh for nutrients? Plasmid stability in DNA cloned cells is often influenced by the original donor's genotype. Imperfect homunculi cells may include defects in the cell division process where the stability of the human DNA contained in the cell plasmid results in incomplete DNA replication, whereas each division causes informational gaps in the gene and interrupt protein synthesis. These gaps can be filled and repaired by taking and incorporating the required information from a healthy human cell through the process of horizontal gene transfer. Human matter must be consumed and broken down in order for the homunculus cells to initiate this process. The lack of these nutrients can cause the homunculus cells to go into a state of inactivation.

Why are imperfect homunculi vulnerable to sunlight? UV has been known to exhibit antimicrobial effects. Many bacteria, especially gram-negative bacteria, are averse to sunlight. Exposure to the UV radiation in sunlight results in the damage or solar induced inactivation of unstable homunculus cells.

Written, hopefully, as simplified and concise as possible for readability. I feel like I'm forgetting more things I wanted to address, but maybe I'll just leave it here and just make more parts if I think of it :P

I have yet to see any official Cloaca art so I've just been picturing one of those segmented fidget toys shakily hanging in the air while it gyrates so violently

Curious about how they first met

It’s spooky month! Happy HalloTeen!

[group lineup under cut]

I coud make a medieval fantasy vers of Husha... and throw em in Dungeon Meshi....

omg! You answered so quickly I didn’t even think you were going to respond! Thank you thank you!

Btw I do have a few questions, you never do specify if they still have alchemy or if this wastelands au has another power system but even if they do have alchemy I was wondering how Al got all fucked since I have a few ideas for that

(Alchemic) Al didn’t get his whole body taken and only most of it which definitely traumatized Ed for sure

(non-alchemic) Al got the same sickness as their mother which would actually spread through the blood slowly and once it got to Al he had enough time to chop off most of the infected parts and save his life and give him prosthetics and such

In this wasteland au they work as sheriffs if I’m not mistaken and I’m guessing mustang team and everyone else does as well and I see that this is a town where they are only present but they are part of a bigger organization where it is basically the military in canon but I’m opt for just kicking the whole military and having it be domestic life and no homunculus

But I don’t mind following canon but I have a few ideas on a different plot line that could work for the boys but tell me what you think :)

fjlgd OF COURSE!! :'O

i havent mentioned alchemy yet bc tbh I'm. still up in the air about it? some of the ideas i tossed around was like. very particular alchemy use? like ed being able to transmute his gun into another kind of gun, but not sure about that since it feels weird for them to have guns yanno? i feel like it would be a very last-measure kind of thing... i don't think they'd actually shoot to harm ppl, but like--shoot at an overhanging beam to make it fall down and pin their opponent or something

but your non alchemic idea is pretty similar to what i was thinking!! like. ed al and trisha all got this weird infection that ate away at them (not sure if its like a legit disease/infection dealio or like. similar to a chemical burn), kinda visibly similar to how transmutation occurs on skin, or like regeneration on homunculus

like this! but the skin would be like. dying or something.

and it eventually got trisha fully, and al's was getting REALLY bad and they had to salvage what they could to keep him alive!! like what you mentioned :")

i knew i wanted roy and his posse to be sheriffs/law enforcement, while ed and al were kind of bounty hunters in some way? so they would interact in the way that roy would be like pst. hey. fix this for me and get this guy. and then they would. but they would still have some kind of autonomy, separate from law enforcement, and could still get in hot shit with other town sheriffs lol

BUT YEA all in all i didn't really think about the military or the military coup too much? i tbh have very little knowledge on wild west politics n all that, so i don't even know if it could even GO as big as it does in fma, since i'd imagine it mostly be limited to small towns.

most i've thought about homunculus is like... lust being one of those saucy ladies in a saloon, but literally nothing else lol. maybe they could be. crime lords? bandit leaders? the kind of fellows who organize attacks on trains/townsfolks/carriages?

everything i've got isnt set in stone and totally up for interpretation!! i haven't even thought much about a storyline for the au other than little bits of ed and al being chaotic on bandits lmao I'm really interested what ideas you have!! 👀👀

did you know that homunculus isn't on spotify? but also this version i found on youtube is 100% not the version i remember. i wonder if the one i had was censored because it said "smoke my lungs away" instead of "smoke myself a j" but no offense i like mine better

Apparently I don't have the file but my parents might or @xavidotron ? (obviously no urgency, take care of baby, get sleep, hang out w parents)

im glad people are enjoying greed!mei because she is so funny to think about. the combination of her tendency to adopt weird men with questionable morals as her father figure(s) and greed's immediate fondness for any human that is assertive and interesting means he gets attached to her in mere SECONDS. he gives the shtick ling got like "HAHAHA HAND OVER YOUR BODY- oh my god it's a little girl. why is there a tiny child in here." and she immediately launches into yelling at him about how he's a foul beast but she needs his power to be able to protect her clan and he's like "holy shit. you're the best. whatever you want, small adorable child"

All the Boito Mefistofele content on my dash lately has been making me think about how neat it is that there are three classic Faust operas (Berlioz's La Damnation de Faust--which we're gonna count as an opera because it's a dramatic narrative conveyed through music--Gounod's Faust, and the aforementioned Mefistofele) and each of them focuses on the perspective of a different figure in Goethe's central triangle. Berlioz, drawing on his own struggles with mental illness, emphasizes the tortured psyche of the title figure; Gounod centers Marguerite as a tragic heroine, and then Boito comes along to give the devil his due.

I dunno, I just really like that.