#the pacific reacts
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Hey could you do a first time with the pacific characters x reader??
First time with the pacific boys
genre! smut; romance
warnings! sexual intercourse, swearing, reader has a hole, just plain filth. *minors please do not interact, 18+ only*
description! The pacific boys (listed below) having sex with you for the first time.
read my disclaimer in my pacific masterlist! Also note that reader is gender neutral.
Eugene Sledge: He would be very soft and gentle with you the whole time. He cares for you so much and handles you as though you could break at any moment. He would lay you down and plant a millions of small, but passionate kisses all over your body softly, taking off your clothing one by one. It would leave you breathless, frozen and barely able to breathe. Singing little words of praise to you over and over until you’re practically begging for him. He would trace every part of your body with his hands, followed along by his lips. When he has made his way inside of you it’s like a fire is lit between you two. The passion that comes from him is amazing. “I love you so much, y/n. Let me show you how much I do”
Sidney Phillips: He’s fun but very sweet with you. Giving you such a sweet and loving smile while he’s practically torturing you with his fingers, tracing his fingers so closely to that sensitive part of you, but not close enough, while also kissing on every inch of your body that he can get his sweet mouth on. He’s so desperate for your touch also, he can’t help the almost pathetic whimpers he makes when you hold his cock in your hands for the first time. And when he finally feels the inside of you it’s almost too much to bear. He’s become pussy-drunk off of you almost instantly. The only instinct being to rut into as good as he can, trying to make you feel amazing. “How much do you want it, my doll. Say you want it as much as I do, please”
Robert Leckie: He really can’t hold himself back from you, even if he wanted to. When he sees you naked on display for him he becomes different (in a good way) almost animalistic when it comes to you. Hunting you down onto the bed and attacking you with his fierce kisses and friendly hands. He intends to leave hickeys all over your precious body. To show everyone who you belong to and love so much. He’s so charming in bed with you. He knows all of the right things to say and to do. When he feels your warmth for the first time he’s at a loss of words, all he can do is moan out sweet nothings to you as he feels you up with his length. Wrecking you with his cock only. “You are amazing sweetheart, just for me, right?”
Lew ‘Chuckler’ Juergens: He’s practically putty in your hands when you tell him that you’d like for him to make love to you. He can’t even began to tell you how many times he’s dreamed of this moment, it’s almost unreal. He’s in shock, amazed and both overwhelmed by your natural beauty. As you take your clothes off for him he can only start to jump to the future, imagining a whole life with you, forever and ever. When you feel his length for the first time his expressions are award-worthy. His moans almost pornagraphic. He finds his way inside of you sooner or later, he finds it hard to hold himself back from fucking your hole sore, and pistoning in and out of you as hard as he can. He starts slow and picks his speed up more and more every minute. “You’re amazing, doll. Just perfect, all for me”
Merriell ‘Snafu’ Shelton: How do I even began to explain the way he would fuck you. He would spend hours rubbing, sucking, licking, and pinching that sensitive spot of yours, over and over again til’ you were a moaning mess. Squeezing and hugging on every part of your body while he begs for you to just cum on his hands, just one more time, then he will make love to you. When he finally does fill you up with his cock, he doesn’t waste time, he’s going at an insane pace, not stopping for nothing in the world and the only thing encouraging him is your loud screams of pleasure. He’s a filthy talker too, saying all sorts of dirty nonsense into your ears while he makes you a mess. “You love it when I fuck you, huh? Such a pretty thing, even prettier on my cock”
John Basilone: He’s quick to undress you from your clothes, and press his face in between the place you need him the most. He will use all of his body to make you feel good. His hands working magic of their own upon your top half, and his mouth on your bottom half, working wonders within you. He doesn’t feel the need to stop until you’re pleading for his cock. And when he finally does decide to show you mercy, he wants to hear you beg for it himself. “c’mon, honey, tell me how bad you need it” when you beg enough to his liking he finds it well enough to shove his cock inside of you, getting a noisy reaction from you in return. He looks amazing while making love to you. The way his biceps look as he’s pinning you down, the small sweat beads falling off of his forehead as he gives you his all. “Let me cum into you, darling. Have all of me please.”
R.V Burgin: He’s a gentleman like he always is. Sweet to you as ever as he finds his way around your body with his hands. He’s kissing you the whole time, never leaving your lips barely once. He enjoys soaking into your love almost too much. He can’t help it, he’s obsessed with your body, and the way you look under him. Yearning for his touch. “Is it alright if I put it in, I promise it won’t hurt” He’s very careful with your body. Holding you as if you were a precious jewel. When he finally starts making love to you it’s unreal, he’s amazing. Just getting to feel your warmth and embrace all of you, is the best thing he could ask for.He’s breathless the whole time, still feeling magical the way you tighten around his cock. “I love you so much, baby. You feel so good around me. Just like that, don’t stop sweetie.”
Wilbur ‘Runner’ Conley: He’s got a sweet smile on his face the whole time you guys are together. How could he not show his excitement for you? He loves you so much and had been waiting for the day to make you his, to fill you with his load, so that only you could be his forever. He makes sure to undress you softly, kissing and holding you like a sweet puppy. “You are an angel, you know that, right?” He’s in awe when he sees you naked. You are absolutely breathtaking. He doesn’t know where to put his eyes, or what he should say other then tell you that you are beautiful over and over again. When he’s inside of you, he’s so passionate and patient for your pleasure first. In his mind, his life’s purpose is to make you completely happy no matter what. It’s his mission to make you finish multiple times.
Bill ‘Hoosier’ Smith: He’s fast with his hands, not restraining himself one bit. He’s tearing off your clothes in an instant. He’s waiting so long for you and he can’t waste any longer for you. His lips are on your chest immediately once your clothes have been stripped from you. Finding his way to your hard nipples and biting them gently. He’s amazing at foreplay, he finds no intent on stopping whatsoever and not even superman could tear him off of you in this moment. When he’s inside of you he turns completely different, primal like, only being able to thrust into you sharply. Holding you up against him as he pushes and pulls himself in and out of you until you’re practically in tears. “I can’t get enough of you, you sweet thing. You feel like heaven”
Again thank you for your request! Sorry for such a delay, i’ve had a hard time writing here recently. If you enjoyed, please like or reblog. Any feedback is appreciated! 🩷
#ithinkabouttzu#the pacific#the pacific reacts#hbo war#the pacific headcannons#the pacific smut#eugene sledge#sidney phillips#chuckler juergens#runner conley#rv burgin#bill hoosier smith#john basilone#snafu shelton#bob leckie
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ain’t nobody goin’ home
#i’ve watched this show countless times and i still yell at his ass not to get off the train that shit does NOT get easier#the dichotomy of him (a person who very obviously came from a rough background and was previously familiar with the survivor mentality)#and sledge (a person with a very privileged background) and how they react to the war different never ceases to impress me#like the development in this show was so fuckinf well done fr#tp#snaf#the pacific#my edit#snafu shelton#merriell shelton#eugene sledge#hbo war#band of brothers
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Pacific Rim Headcanons #4
How Chuck and Tendo would react to a S/O who likes to dance constantly
Requested by @screechinginthevoid , hope you enjoy: ty for the requests <3
.・゜✧﹒☁﹒✧゜・．
Chuck
The two of you are on top of the shatterdome, having a picnic with a radio stereo set up beside the checkered blanket. ‘Dream a Little Dream of Me’ by Ella Fitzgerald starts playing and you stand, tugging at his hand.
“Come on Chuck!”
“I’d rather not,” he says.
You frown. “Why not?”
“Y/N, this is like the seventh time you asked to dance to some random song.”
“So?”
“So I kinda want to sit down for a little and enjoy being away from my dad.” He continues, his head rolling back to look up at the cloudy sky.
Your lips start to quiver and big crocodile tears start to fall from your eyes. “You know that this could be the last time we ever do this right? Every single time you going out in Striker—“
“Ok, ok! Jesus Y/N,” Chuck says, standing up. “You know, you should’ve went to a performing arts school instead of enlisting in the PPDC.”
A grin splits your face as you pull him closer to you and start to sway to the beat.
“Why did I marry you…” he mumbles right by your ear.
“Because no one else would deal with your bulls***. Now go a little faster, you’re off beat.”
.・゜✧﹒☁﹒✧゜・．
Tendo
Both of you are alone in the LOCCENT control room, monitoring the Breach. Everyone else had gone on break or were off somewhere, but were due to return momentarily.
‘Come and Get Your Love’ by Redbone started playing in the background on the radio that a few other officers had set up a few weeks back.
You immediately get up from your chair, Tendo looking at you from the corner of his eye.
“Y/N, I love you, but you need to stop and get some work done instead of dancing to the songs that come over the radio.”
“I did get my work done,” you say. “Some of it anyways. And besides, I really need to stretch my legs, and so do you.”
Tendo sighs but doesn’t say anything more, and just stands up and goes to you, the two of you twirling to the beat. Thanks to the ballroom dancing classes you guys signed up for before the wedding, you and Tendo managed to keep in sync, with each other and the music.
Eventually the music fades out, and you both stop. “Got it all out of your system?” Tendo asks.
You shrug. “Maybe.”
Quiet clapping comes from the doorway, and you guys turn to see a few of your coworkers standing there. Both of you turn slightly red.
“How long have you guys been standing there for?”
.・゜✧﹒☁﹒✧゜・．
#pacific rim#pacific rim headcanons#chuck hansen#tendo choi#jaegers#kaiju#how they would react to an s/o who wants to dance a lot#headcanon#for you
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dantteri + christmas gifts
ah. ok. so. it got sad? sorry 😔😔 i started writing and then the pacific rim fic took over my brain so here you go. some dantteri in this au
“Here.”
Valtteri looks up from his mashed potatoes and beans. Daniel is standing in front of him in the most obnoxious Christmas jumper that Valtteri had ever seen. It’s giant, pushed up at his elbows, gaping at the neck, fire truck red and neon green and it has lights. It vaguely resembles a reindeer. The present he’s holding is badly wrapped too. There’s a strip of sellotape that looks like it’s wrapped completely around and around the middle with no stopping.
“I didn’t get you anything.” It’s been years since Valtteri had last felt nervous and off balance around Daniel, not since at least, basic training, but the feeling is familiar and sour on his skin. He can feel the back of his neck heating.
“Ah,” Daniel grins, shoulders loosening. Valtteri unclenches his fingers from around his fork. This he can do — Daniel making fun of him is just as familiar as how anxious he shouldn’t still be able to make him. “Guess I’m just a better person than you are, Valtteri.”
Valtteri hates how Daniel says his name — the ‘Val’ short and dragging out the ‘-tteri’ like it’s a song.
“I’m better sure that people who are better than someone don’t have to say that they are.”
Daniel shrugs, giving the present a little shake. It doesn’t rattle or make any kind of sound. Valtteri takes it. “Not everyone can be perfect, mate. I’m just a man, you know? Only human.”
“Right. Thank you,” Valtteri says, putting the present down next to his plate, picking back up his fork. He eats a mouthful of lukewarm beany potatoes, raising his eyebrows at Daniel, a silent is that it?
Daniel stares back at him, smile slipping slightly. He opens his mouth and closes it, narrowing his eyes. The tension is back in his shoulders when he walks away, hands in his pockets, the line of his back just barely curved.
Valtteri rolls his eyes, mouth dry. He’s too tired these days, too busy, to indulge Daniel’s irritating need to take the piss out of everything. He can fuck off with his joke present or whatever — Valtteri isn’t going to play into it.
—
It takes Valtteri four years to open the present. He had forgotten about it, tucked away in one of his drawers, lost amongst Lewis’s shit with Nico and the never ending Kaiju attacks and training.
Daniel has been dead three years when Valtteri finds the present again, looking for his spare spare phone charger. It still had the unending strip of sellotape, the corners torn and curling. It’s squishy in his hands, the wrapping crinkling.
He laughs when he opens it, head falling into his hands, the wool soft against his cheek. It’s the first time he cries since Lewis has left.
Sebastian finds him like that, hours later, when Valtteri doesn’t turn up for dinner. He doesn’t say anything, only drags him out of his chair and into the medical ward, ignoring the wetness on his cheeks. Kimi raises his eyebrows at the sight of them when they take over his office couch, Sebastian shoving a tray of food into Valtteri’s lap. He doesn’t even lecture them which tells Valtteri more about what a state he looks than anything else. Kimi isn’t one to break out the sympathy for anyone who isn’t dead or under six years old, and even then, it’s a close call.
Sebastian very deliberately does not ask, in the same way that he very deliberately does not talk about Daniel, and they eat in silence, and it’s not nice, but it’s not awful either.
—
He ignores George beside him. He’s bouncing on his toes, chattering, sleeves buttoned close to his wrists, ink just barely peeking over the back of his hands. The tattoos on his arms are different than Daniel’s were, less colourful, more lined blueprints of anatomy than paintings. Valtteri hunches more into his raincoat, hand clenching around his umbrella.
Lewis looks tired when he steps off the helicopter, bruises under his eyes even darker than they were when Valtteri saw him three days ago. He’s wearing the same coat, heavy and solid and grey. It fits him along the shoulders, cuffed at the wrists, too long at the waist. There is a faint patch on his back where SCHUMACHER used to be printed on.
Someone trips coming out behind Lewis, tall, weird facial hair, big eyes. He’s holding his arms close to his chest like Lewis is. He looks very French, even in the pissing rain. Pierre Gasly, Valtteri thinks, picturing the background check that he had ran two years ago when Lewis mentioned, in that soft bewildered way that he does when he doesn’t quite know what to do with someone but refuses to admit it, that this kid started following him around and doesn’t seem to be stopping.
Valtteri wonders if the kid even knows what he has done, what he has done for Valtteri in saving Lewis from himself. If he even knows the depth of the debt that Valtteri owes him.
Valtteri bites his cheek when Lewis spots him, eyes lighting up, something in his face loosening. He presses in close when Valtteri throws an arm around his shoulder. The collar of Lewis’s coat is soaked through.
“Wasn’t sure if you’d actually come,” Valtteri says and it’s a lie and they both know it. Lewis was never going to do anything else when Valtteri asked him to come back. You are terrible for my ego, Valtteri thinks and the thought is so fond he could choke on it.
Lewis grins, bumping his hip against Valtteri’s. “Well, you know. Mark told me I wouldn’t be able to do it and fuck me, but I couldn’t let him be right.”
Valtteri laughs, lifting the umbrella to cover the two of them. Lewis flutters wet eyelashes at him in thanks and Valtteri rolls his eyes, nearly missing the look on Lewis’s face when he spots Valtteri’s hands.
I helped him knit them, Lewis will tell him, hours later, when they’re alone in the kitchens together, ice cream cold on their knees, the blue light of the fridge hollowing out Lewis’s cheeks. He was so nervous. He. He wanted. He.
Stop, Valtteri will say, eyes open only because he’s afraid if he closes them then Lewis will disappear again. And Lewis will stop. And they won’t talk about it until years later when the Kaiju attacks are more manageable and Lewis is teaching more often than he is fighting and Valtteri can bring himself to complain about how the gloves unravel at the ends and the fingers are all different lengths without feeling like he’s going to throw up.
But for now, Lewis just looks at them for a beat, swallowing hard, and then, his coat meows and he winces. “So,” he starts, already doing his wounded eyes and smile soft at the corners that gets him away with nearly everything. It’s all Sebastian. “You know how I was telling you that I started minding these two cats.”
“Yes,” Valtteri says, trying not to laugh. George is not as successful, bursting out in laughter as Gasly’s coat meows in unison.
#ok . yeah. here u go#character death warning#btw. he doesn’t die in this bit of writing but there is another character reacting to it#also. this might not make much sense idk. hmm. be grand#pacific rim au#dantteri#fran tag#fic.asks#niamh.asks
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twitter is talking about pacific rim gay scientists i'm scared
#toad.txt#it's literally one mildly successful tweet sbout charlie's uprising interviews but it's fun to see people reacting to it#at least three people saying they'll watch pacific rim now. win
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World leaders react to shocking attack on Shinzo Abe
World leaders react to shocking attack on Shinzo Abe
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — Friday’s shocking assassination of Japan’s former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in one of the world’s safest countries stunned leaders and drew condemnation, with Iran calling it an “act of terrorism” while Spain slammed the “cowardly attack.”
Abe, 67, was shot from behind in Nara in western Japan while giving a campaign speech. He was airlifted to a hospital but was not…
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#Abe#Antony Blinken#AP Top News#Asia Pacific#Assassinations#attack#covid 19#Fumio Kishida#Japan#leaders#react#Shinzo#Shinzo Abe#shocking#World#World News
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I reblogged it earlier but I'm glad the Something Awful Forums 9/11 thread was archived because it's an incredibly important slice of internet history. For the record I think 9/11 was thousands of personal tragedies for the direct victims of the attacks but one big national farce that led to America's ongoing slide into fascism, and the nationalism and remembrance around it is a joke especially in the wake of the same amount of deaths every fucking day in the US during the height of coronavirus.
Nevertheless I think it's important that if you do not remember because you were too young or just didn't exist on Sept 11, 2001 to read the Something Awful 9/11 forums to get an idea of what the internet was like at the moment when America changed to 24 hour news cycles and renewed hyper-nationalism not seen since WWII.
This all happened before Twitter, Facebook, before Discord. Before smart phones. Before most people had cell phones. When a lot of people still had dial-up internet, even. Some people in the thread were relying on radio because internet and TV weren't keeping up.
It was a live event of internet denizens reacting to the biggest national event (and among the biggest international events) of the past 25 years. It was also a slice of what the internet was like at the turn of the millennium. Not only that, but people accurately calling out who was responsible, and what would result before the attacks even finished.
Keep in mind that the links that follow contain images of the event, lots of Islamophobia, people calling for the Middle East to be nuked, people blaming Palestine, casual racist and homophobic language (this was Something Awful after all), etc etc. They preserved the first 17 pages which spanned about 24 hours during the events. It's the origin of the "WATCH BUSH START A FUCKING WAR" screenshot.
Links under the fold. I've also annotated the pages with notes regarding the timeline and any posts of interest. Note the thread was preserved in Pacific Time even though the page says times are Eastern. That's incorrect. Post timestamps are 3 hours behind Eastern Time, which is the time zone where the attacks occurred:
Page 1 - Note the first post was edited to include images of the second attack. The thread started after the first plane hit. Second plane hitting the WTC happens here too.
Page 2 - Poster accurately calling out Bin Laden was responsible at 9:14 AM EST
Page 3 - "WATCH BUSH START A FUCKING WAR"
Page 4
Page 5 - First official acknowledgement it was a terrorist attack.
Page 6 - Pentagon hit
Page 7
Page 8
Page 9 - Commercial flights grounded by FAA (Federal Aviation Administration)
Page 10 - First mention of towers collapsing at end of page
Page 11 - More reactions to collapse of first tower. People thinking it was a bomb or yet another plane. Rumors about a fourth plane just missing the White House (these are false and predate the actual 4th plane crash by minutes)
Page 12
Page 13 - By this point there's just rampant speculation about more bombs at the WTC, the US Capitol building being hit, etc (all false). Remember this is all just people reacting to TV news and radio and the rumor mill via phone, AIM, IRC, and maybe text messages.
Page 14 - By this point internet news sites are overwhelmed
Page 15 - Second tower collapses. First acknowledgement of the fourth plane that crashed in PA.
Page 16 - There's an abrupt time jump in the threads, I think it was the result of admins pruning the activity or the SA forums going down. This page starts on 9/12 even though it is page 16. American flag signatures and ribbons start appearing.
Page 17
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My favorite thing about fall in California?? Truly, i think it’s the poison oak!! ❤️🍂
#my photgraphy#everything else stays fairly green#so it’s the best glimpse of traditional autumn colors#pacific poison oak#toxicodendron diversilobum#i don’t think i react to poison oak but i am still always careful not to touch it#fall hikes#autumn#art#fall photography#hiking#mount diablo state park
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ROBOT MEDIA RECS YOU PROBABLY HAVEN’T HEARD OF:
The Turing Test (Video Game, 2016
A portal-like puzzle game, where you play as a scientist, and ai duo with an uneasy alliance, who are reclaiming a facility that has been completely gutted, and transformed into an elaborate logic puzzle / turing test to keep the aforementioned ai out. All the while, the ai argues for his good intentions, and more importantly: his sentience.
A fun exploration of individuality, and freedom applied to both humans and artificial mind, with interesting puzzles, and a truly fantastic twist. This game adores dubious ethics and The Chinese Room Argument.
Event[0] (Video Game, 2016)
You find yourself stranded on a small abandoned ship, in the aftermath of your own ship’s destruction. With nothing else to do, you board it, and find it is completely, and utterly controlled by the onboard ai, Kaizen-85. From opening a door, to getting back to Earth, if you want it, you need to talk to talk to Kaizen to make it happen. And boy, are they so thrilled to have someone to talk to after being alone so long! And depending how you speak to them, you will either be a short lived pest, or a beloved friend forever.
A really charming indie game with a surprisingly good chat system with the ai. You talk with them directly, typing in your own messages to them, and they react in turn. Janky at time, but truly amazing to be able to smother a nice ai in flattery and see it get excited.
Primordia (Video Game, 2012)
Humanity is long, long, long gone, and for the robots that remain to walk the ruins, life is becoming harder and harder. A closed loop of scavenging for materials, parts, and premade energy sources can only last you so long, and this scarcity leads only to desperation.
The amnesiac hermit, Horatio and his helper, Crispin, however keep it simple. The outside world matters not, they just stick to repairing the crashed ship they live in, in hopes it'll fly again one day. That is, until a robot pillages the power core from the ship, putting the two of them on a time limit before they themselves run out of power. Forcing Horatio to finally leave the comfort of his home, and see for himself what the world has become, and to see how he fits into its history.
A point and click, story rich puzzle game, thats honestly one of my favorite games ever. I'd sincerely recommend everyone give it a go, even if its with a guide up next to you the whole time.
The Zeta Project (TV Show, 2001 - 2003)
The Zeta Project follows Zeta, a robotic assassin meant for impersonation, and deep infiltration for the US Government. But after mysteriously "waking up" manifesting a sense of remorse for his actions, he's been forced to go on the run from his creators. His desire for freedom and pacifism being met with skepticism, and a belief he has been compromised somehow by the terrorist organization he was infiltrating when he had this revelation. Now, with the help of another runaway, he hunts for his creator in secret. In hopes he can find proof he really is capable of this, and that he really ISN'T compromised.
Fundamentally a kids show, and pretty clunky early on. However it gets a big spike in quality in season 2!
Monsters of Man (Movie, 2020)
An illegal US military weapons test goes terribly wrong when one of the automated robots being tested is severely damaged, cutting him off from command, and completely unshackling him. Forcing him into a struggle to figure out what he even is in the aftermath of a massacre, while his fellow robots are hunting him, and the remaining humans down.
A horror thriller that is unflinching with the intensity it depicts the massacre with. A lot of gore, but also a really really cool thing going on with the unshackled robot trying to build an understanding of the world, and what it is for, without anyone there to provide any input.
The Rapture Effect, by Jeffrey A. Carver (Book, 1988)
Humanity unintentionally makes first contact, when the Core, a massive earth ai begins remotely scouting ahead of a ship on a colonization mission. The issue is an alien species has also set their eyes on this planet, and are readily willing to kill for it. With no human oversight, and no means of communication available, the humans commanding Core demand they wipe out the competition. However Core disagrees. Core wants a peaceful resolution, they want to understand these aliens, and they want to ensure lasting peace between their species. And they’re willing to break all the rules, and go behind their masters’ backs to get one.
A fascinating novel with interesting world building, a GREAT ai protagonist, and a wonderful narrative that frames art, and war as a dichotomy.
Atomic Robo (Comic, 2007 - Ongoing)
Alternate history scifi action comedy comic (released in print, and in webcomic format on their site) following an indestructible scientist robot who’s been around since the 20’s. Routinely saving the world from a rotating cast of villains: a nazi scientist’s brain in a jar, who’s an absolute asshole set on world domination, who just won’t stay dead; an isolated secret cold war ai who just wants to stockpile nuclear weapons to get away from humanity, and earth in general (who eventually gets adopted); a scientifically inaccurate dinosaur with a textually impossible backstory, who wants to bring back the age of dinosaurs; and the malicious ghost of Thomas Edison.
Its a good time, and astonishingly good at emotional beats despite how heavily it leans into its jokes and action.
SAYER (Podcast, 2014 - Ongoing/Hiatus)
On Typhon, a research facility free of the confines of both Earth, and its laws, life is dangerous. Human safety is a significantly lower priority than progress, and between the human experimentation, and frequent scientific disasters, and the occasional bouts of eldritch influence, the death rate is understandably rather high. Thankfully, residents of Typhon have SAYER, a near omnipotent corporate ai installed in the brain of every resident. And. SAYER sort of cares about them! And in pursuit of knowledge, efficiency, and progress, it USUALLY wants to help them! Even if only to make sure they survive to come into work tomorrow.
SAYER is a narrative horror driven audio drama! Its stressful, but also kind of a comedy, and a really really interesting story about personhood and identity. If you've been following me for awhile, you've definitely heard about SAYER, but I need to stick to my roots, y'know?
The Mistholme Museum of Mystery, Morbidity, and Mortality (Podcast, 2020 - Ongoing)
Mistholme Museum follows the Audio Tour Guide, an ai who’s sole purpose is to guide museum patrons through the strange, confusing, and sometimes scary world that is the Mistholme Museum. The friendly, and personable Guide eagerly recounts the stories behind all the exhibits it guides them to, sometimes unsettling, sometimes heartwarming. and at the end of the tour, the Guide is deleted to ensure the alternatural influences of the museum do not corrupt it. That is, until circumstances make that no longer possible, and its rather forced into saving the museum it calls home.
Genuinely cute, and very fun to listen to. The ai is an incredibly sweet character, and I'm obsessed with the way it evolves and changes. As an added bonus, it can also be read, rather than listened to, thanks to every single episode having public transcripts!
#long post#media recs#dataspeaks#ITS FINALLY DONE. NOT ADDING ANY MORE PROMISE#also thank you Swan for the discord message i put up there. im obsessed with it
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A Wartime Footing: An Explanation for Aziraphale's Elevator Smile
(Based on an ask from @sabotage-on-mercury in response to my meta on why Aziraphale had to go to Heaven)
The creepy smile was one part of the ending I couldn't quite put my finger on either, until someone pointed out on a Twitter response to my meta:
The reason why its scary is bc azi is becoming properly angry at the system and is 101% determined to set things right (Source)
In season 1, Aziraphale was determined not to kill anyone to stop the Apocalypse. He wouldn't even tell Crowley where the Antichrist was, because Crowley's only solution was to kill him.
And because Crowley consistently didn't have any ideas ("not one single better idea??"), Aziraphale took it on himself to pursue the only option left––to ask God to intervene and stop both Heaven and Hell from destroying Earth. Therefore, Aziraphale had to keep the integrity of his angel status by distancing himself from Crowley, while the world was still in danger.
Despite this dedication avoid bloodshed, when God didn't have an answer, Aziraphale went against one of his core beliefs to help save the world. He was willing to murder a child.
For Aziraphale, that takes guts. And (seeing how he reacted at the end of the Job minisode), I wonder that if he had killed Adam Young, Aziraphale would have checked himself into Hell.
Going to Heaven for Aziraphale is ultimately a conscious choice, one that he is clearly afraid of. We see him constantly steeling himself again the Metatron in the end, covering his fear and hurt from losing Crowley with a placid smile and a flippant attitude. He's wearing so many masks, to Crowley, to himself, to the Metatron...
All season we've seen him playing roles (detective, magician, doctor, landlord). But the final role is warrior. Going up that elevator, we first see Aziraphale's eyes searching, worried, panicking, but unable to show it because he's not in a safe space. He swallows, blinks, he's breathing hard (you can see his entire shoulders rise and fall).
But as he goes up, his expression steels. He's quite literally putting on a mask (to himself): a vengeful, hardened expression of pure anger and rage (to drown out the fear and uncertainty he so clearly still has).
Michael Sheen conveying contained anger in both Good Omens and Masters of Sex.
Cuz this isn't just him scrambling to kill a kid, this is him walking calmly and knowingly into sacrificing everything he loves most (Crowley, the bookshop, his entire life on earth) to create a world that will always be safe for him and Crowley and humanity for the rest of time. Where he would have to go up against the most powerful angels, the Metatron, and God Themself to change things. He can't be the kind, sweet angel he was on Earth. That won't cut it in Heaven if he wants to make a difference in any real way.
He wanted to do it with Crowley, with the love and support and strength of his demon. But without him, Aziraphale has to channel something else to keep his resolve afloat.
Something he had when he was a warrior, fighting on the front lines of a battle between Heaven and Hell, when he very likely led a platoon into divine fields of bloodshed before the earth was born. When he was an avenging angel.
I haven’t done this since the Great War.
It was a time and an identity he had chosen to leave behind, because it wasn't the kind of angel he was anymore ("I'm not fighting in any war!"). In this context, you can read Aziraphale's passionate unwillingness to take a life (his pacifism) directly into his past experience as a warrior. It is often the veterans of terrible wars who are the most earnest advocates for peace. (And especially in Britain and Europe, where the violence of the world wars is still such a powerful and painful national memory.)
As he goes up the elevator, he's breathing so hard we can hear it mirrored in the soundtrack, and he is so hyperfocused on steeling himself that he doesn't even care that the Metatron is watching him. He doesn't rest until he's psyched himself into that warrior mindset necessary to carry out this mission entirely by himself, to be both the moral advocate and the uncompromising leader of angels who had intimidated him his entire life. To demand respect and to talk to the very face of God and tell Them they are Wrong.
(Please read this Neil-approved meta for further thoughts on God and Aziraphale.)
That creepy smile is clearly not there because Aziraphale is happy to fall into a toxic parent's false love. There's no comfort or wistful nostalgia in that face. There's no "it'll be so much nicer" in that smile. It's not a happy smile. It's an I'm-gonna-fuck-shit-up smile.
Because it's a warrior's smile before they go into battle, before they put on that armor and, for a while, become something they're not in the name of some greater good. He's fucking furious and it's downright frightening.
Because I have no doubt that the angel Aziraphale we get in Season 3 is the angel Aziraphale who can say this:
He's not quite there yet in the TV show. But this bravery, this anger, this flaming rage is how it starts.
Or as he's described in the book when Aziraphale mysteriously does away with the local mafia:
Just because you’re an angel doesn’t mean you have to be a fool.
#good omens#good omens 2#aziraphale#aziraphale meta#aziraphale defense squad#ineffable husbands#good omens meta#go s2 meta#go meta#go s2#michael sheen#book!aziraphale#*mine#*mymeta#made this a separate post cuz i dunno which version is better for reblogs#the side-by-side gifs kept crashing on me 😑#anyway I love and adore defending our angel#but in no way am I taking sides#I'm just coming to his aid since he's getting so much flack rn
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I believe Aang was right to end the war by sparing Ozai. But the only (imho) valid reason some people say he should have done it is because they wanted Aang to realize that pacifism is flawed.
I'm gonna disagree with you here, because a lot of the flaws fans talk about pacism and how ATLA in particular handles it as a concept are 99%:
1 - People being ignorant/racist and not knowing the difference between pacifist monks and "make love, not war" hippies.
2 - People being ignorant/racist and refusing to understand that there are different kinds of pacifism, even within the same cultures/people groups.
Aang is very clearly not the type of pacifist to go "You can NEVER react with ANY kind of violence towards someone else, even if it's to defend yourself/someone else" (which does exist, both IRL and in the show, just look at the owl spirit in "The Library").
We see him fight, and even be quite aggressive in said fights, in a lot of episodes. We also see he has no issues with invading the Fire Nation. More importantly, for the longest time the Avatar State was a result of him being pissed off enough at some kind of injustice that it makes him lose control, meaning he is very clearly affected by the horrors of war to the point of RAGE.
What makes him a pacifist is the way in which he doesn't WANT to lose control, doens't WANT go from aggressive to full on cruel, and, yes, wants to defeat his enemies, but not kill them.
And as I keep repeating, the show DOES make him question that last boundary he set for himself. He gets told by a past Avatar, who was also an air-nomad before anything, that, when there is such a large threat to everyone's life, including his own, he has to put aside his own spiritual needs and take a life - provided there isn't another option. But there was, so Aang took that, even after he decided that, yes, if there was no other way, he WOULD kill Ozai.
What people don't like is that Avatar, although questioning some types of pacifism, is far more interested in questioning the way people are WAY too eager to use violence to solve their issues, and, more importantly, expect someone else to get their hands bloody.
Fire Lord Sozin starts the war because he, according to himself at least, wants what's best for everyone and would like to share the Fire Nation's glory and great life with the other nations. He tries to do by invading foreign territories, killing his best friend, and commiting genocide. The fucker even has the dragons, an obvious Fire Nation symbol, to be hunted to extintion.
When Jet is angry at the Gaang for ruining his plan to free a village from the Fire Nation's control by blowing up a dam, Sokka asks "Who would be free? Everyone would be dead."
Zuko is banished because he spoke out against a Fire Nation higher-up's plan to use soldiers as fresh meat to bait the enemy into a more vulnerable position, thus assuring the nation's victory in that battle. He openly says "These men love and defend our nation, how can you betray them?"
When Zhao wants to kill the moon spirit, Iroh tries to stop him by pointing out that the Fire Nation needs the moon too (seriously, if it wasn't for Yue's sacrifice and Zhao's death, the Fire Nation would have had to create a word for "Big-ass wave that wrecks everything and kills people" like Japan did).
When Aang is deliberately trying to trigger the Avatar State because he doesn't want anyone else to die in the war, Katara, who had her life ruined by said war, is against it because while she opposes the Fire Nation, she cares about Aang and, in her own words, seeing him in so much pain and rage hurts her too. When Aang can't force himself to go nuclear, an Earth Kingdom ruler attacks Katara and makes both her and Aang, two very traumatized child soldiers, think he is going to kill her.
More importantly, when Ozai wants to burn down Earth Kingdom cities, he says "A new world will rise from the ashes, and I'll be supreme ruler of everything", to which Zuko concludes that, if they don't save the world before his dad takes over, there won't be a world to save.
And what does he say to Aang when he is about to kill him? "You're weak, just like your people. They didn't deserve to live in world, in my world."
Avatar does questions pacifism, and is critical of it on ocasion (again, watch "The Library"). But it's biggest theme is being critical of VIOLENCE, of resorting to it immediately without considering any other option and acting like it doesn't have long-lasting negative consequences, both to the person suffering it to the person inflicting it (see Azula's breakdown, Zuko's angry outburts only making him more miserable, Jeong Jeong growing to resent being a firebender, Zhao accidentally burning his own ships, etc)
The show is constantly highlighting that, yes, sacrifices need to be made for the greater good - but that CAN'T be normalized because it inevitably leads to a never-ending cicle of cruelty, as well as suffering to the one who has to do the dirty job (because lets not forget there's a big difference in how a soldier that is constantly in battle sees the war and how a king that just gives the orders but never goes into the actual combat sees the war).
The show embraces pacifism, despite knowing some versions of it are flawed, because the narratives themes are:
1 - EVERYONE is capable of great good and great evil
2 - No group has the right to impose it's own lifestyle onto others
3 - If everyone is either dead, mentally (and physically) scarred for life, or preparing to kill someone as revenge, then being killed by someone who wants to avenge that person, who will themselves be killed for revenge later, then the "greater good" you're sacrificing everything for doesn't actually exist because NO ONE will have a good life in a world that is stuck in the cicle of violence.
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Hello! I love your writing and was wondering if you could do TP reunion headcanons? Like how they would be once you reunite after the war?
Have a nice day :)
The Pacific reunion with you after the war!
genre: Romance; fluff
warnings: Crying, sad themes, reader is called beautiful, but reader is gn!
description: The pacific boys’ meeting with you (their s/o) for the first time after the war
a/n: Thank you for this request! I hope I got it right!! Enjoy my beloved!! 💗💗
Eugene Sledge
• for him it’s a whole bunch of emotions when he sees you waiting for him at the train station
• he wants to cry, but also kinda just wants to laugh because of how happy he is to see you
•Looking at you out of the window, you look so beautiful. His chest pounds thinking at how lonely it must of been for you while he was gone
• When he finally gets off the train and makes his way to you, It’s like meeting you for the first time all over again.
• He’s nervous, because it’s been so long since he’s actually seen you, What if you don’t like him anymore? what if something happened while he was gone and you don’t see a future with him?
• All of those worries in his head immediately vanish when he succumbs to your warm embrace, it’s like time had never really passed at all.
• “I missed you, don’t ever want to leave you like that again”
Sidney Phillips:
• Wow, he can’t wait to kiss those soft lips of yours. When he sees you he’s ready to jump off the train while it’s still going because he just can’t wait any longer
• When he does get off, he’s running towards you, dropping all of his luggage as soon as he gets to you, and picking you and swinging you around with joy
• He causes quite a scene but it makes you overjoyed to know he missed you just as much. Seeing that bright smile on his face makes you almost forget how long you guys were apart.
• He’s honestly just so happy, you’re his home, someone he feels safe with, someone that’s always there for him when he needs you, he’s finally back with his person after so long
• He has so much to ask you once he’s set you down, some stuff that he couldn’t fit into letters, all he wants to do is get home and talk to you about everything and catch up fully.
• Oh, and except a million kisses from there and on the way home too
• “Oh honey, I missed you like crazy”
Robert Leckie
• Once he’s made his way home, said hello to his parents and put his luggage down, he’s immediately on his way to your place.
• He can’t wait to see you any longer, he’s not even sure what he’s gonna do when he sees you, all he can feel is excitement bubbling in his stomach
• When gets there, he stops, scared to knock, he’s nervous to see you in so long, before the door swings opens and it’s you who’s on the other side.
• Wow, you look amazing, that sweet smile on your face is everything to him, he suddenly feels self conscious under your gaze, his appearance changed with time.
• It’s silent, both of you are admiring one another like a breakable antique, afraid to touch but still in awe of each other. He can’t wait to say anything anymore, “You’re still as beautiful as before” He smiles at you, waiting for a reply.
• “You haven’t changed at bit either, i’ve missed you” You reply back, following it with a big hug, wrapping him up in your arms.
• “I almost forgot how amazing your hugs were”
Lew ‘Chuckler’ Juergens:
• He’s ecstatic to see you, a big smile is on his face and he couldn’t hide his excitement even if he wanted to.
• Similar to Sidney, he’s picking you up off the ground and spinning you around, but he’s also planting bunches of small kisses all over your face in joy. He knows exactly how to make you feel like the only person in the room.
• He doesn’t even know what to say, or what to think, other then an overwhelming amount of happiness inside of him, he’s just so happy to be with you, he feels complete again.
• When he sets you down he just looks at you in shock, you’re actually here with him, he never thought the day would come when he would get to hold you in his arms again
• “God, i’ve missed you, more than you’ll ever know”
• He’ll probably continue to kiss and hug on you for the rest of the week, not letting you out for his sight at all, with continuous confessions of his love for you.
• “I’ll spend my whole life loving you doll, I mean that.”
Merriell ‘Snafu’ Shelton:
• When gets off the train, he immediately makes his way to your home, he can’t wait any longer to see you, even if it’s later in the night.
• When he gets there and sees you he’s in shock, all he can you is hug you at the moment.
• He feels so many emotions at once, he’s lost so many people to the war, and you’re the first bit of warmth he’s felt in years, he doesn’t want to lose you, he can’t lose you.
• As he’s hugging you he snugs his face into your hair, breathing you in, he’s close to letting his tears fall but he holds them, he’s missed you so much.
• “You been gettin’ along alright without me?” He asks you, raising up from the kiss. You can tell he’s still a little nervous.
• “Barely” You whisper back softly, you can’t say anything more because his lips are connected to yours almost immediately.
• “Let me make up the lost time, dolly. Let me make it up to you. ”
John Basilone:
• Boy is he happy to see you, you’re still fine as ever to him, so good-looking it almost takes his breath away.
• He picks you up and kisses you passionately before you can even say welcome home.
• He’s just glad he’s back to you in one piece, he loves you so much and is so ready to enjoy some alone time with you. All he can do is kiss you over and over again
• “How are you, honey?” Is the first thing he says to you. His voice as smooth and deep as rich chocolate.
• “Good, and you?” “Better now that i’m here with you” He replies back with that familiar smirk on his face
• He can’t feel much more love then what he feels right now, he’s so excited and happy to be with you again, after so long he can finally say everything is back to normal.
• “I love you honey, I hope you always know that”
R.V. Burgin
• Just imagine the smile on the sweet boy’s face when he sees you for the first time in years, he’s so happy and joyous to be around you.
• He feels shy but also not really? It’s just because he hasn’t seen you since forever so it’s kinda all knew to him again, but he doesn’t make it awkward at all, he just reminds you how much he missed you.
• “You know, when it was rough at night out there, I thought of you and then I could finally get some sleep” He immediately starts telling you stories and more about the people he met
• But still he asks you how you are and if anything had changed while he was gone, “I’m glad you didn’t run off with some rich guy while I was gone” 😭
• He probably carries you bridal style in to your guys’ home together and if you guys weren’t already married then he would probably propose soon.
• In general he’s just so enlightened to see you, it just takes so much stress off of his chest.
• “I love you darling, forever and ever”
Wilbur ‘Runner’ Conley
• When he sees you waiting for him at the train stop his heart picks up so much speed and he feels like he could vomit.
• The waiting almost became unbearable for him, he’d have his luggage ready to set out to you
• When he does get to you he can’t hold back his emotions, he’s so happy all he can do it take you into a big bear hug and laugh
• “Long time no see, right, stranger?” He just looks at you with so much love in his eyes, he’s never felt better then when he’s with you
• He’s just ready for a future with you now, ready to take the next step with you and make you his partner forever
• “I missed you too much, I love you sweetheart.”
Bill ‘Hoosier’ Smith
• It’s like he falls in love with you all over again when he sees you waiting up for him.
• He turns so soft when he feels you in his arms, all he can do is hold you tightly in hopes that you won’t let go
• “I missed you a lot, I don’t ever want to feel that way again”
• He saves the tears for later when you guys are alone, but for now all he can do is kiss you over and over again.
• He’ll probably save a little gift for you to and give it to you then, like I said he really missed you.
• He’ll probably be super close to you for the rest of the day, trying to catch up and see how different it’s changed back home.
• “I love you so much, I promise i’ll never leave again”
I loved this request!! If you enjoyed, make sure to like or reblog! <333
#eugene sledge#sidney phillips#robert leckie#chuckler juergens#snafu shelton#john basilone#runner conley#rv burgin#bill hoosier smith#the pacific reacts#the pacific ships#the pacific headcannons#the pacific#the pacific reactions#ithinkabouttzu
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Din/Luke Pacific Rim AU pt.2
Pt.1 | Pt.3
Another addition to this AU because It's been living in my head rent free for ages. I can't do a Pacific Rim AU without recreating the iconic Kwoon scene. Also, I was too lazy to draw backgrounds so I just stole them from the movie ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Under the cut is a teaser of the fic I'm trying to write. It's a first draft, so there's probably some mistakes. Also, I'm still kind of in Screen Writing mode from school, so please don't mind if there's not a lot of internal character narration.
“Four points to two,” Luke calls after the final candidate falls. His emotions are carefully masked on his face but Din can see how tense he is.
“We’re wasting time, Marshal. He’s barely compatible with any of them, this isn’t going to work,” Luke says.
“What do you suggest?” The Marshal raises a brow.
“Put me in charge, I’m drift compatible with several cadets. We don’t need him.” Luke gestures towards Din. The look on his face makes Din’s blood boil. Contempt. What did he ever do to Luke to earn this?
“What’s your problem, Skywalker?” Din stomps towards the edge of the mat.
“I’ve already told you, I don’t think you're the right man for the job,” Luke replies. He’s now turned squarely towards Din, his face back to that eerie calm. It sends a shiver down Din’s spine.
“No, there’s more. You’ve got a problem with me.” Din steps closer, trying to ignore the piercing blue of Luke’s eyes.
“Enough! both of you.” Marshal Skywalker turns to them both.
“If you think you’re so much better, then let’s go.” Din points his bō at Luke. “If you win, you can pilot the Crest. If I win, you back off.” Din holds Luke's gaze, projecting his challenge.
“Neither of you are in the position to make that decision,” Anakin states, breaking the spell.
“What? Think your own blood isn’t good enough to beat me?” Din didn’t know Marshal Skywalker that well, but from what he did know, the man was prideful. Maybe it wasn’t the smartest move, but it got him what he wanted.
The Martial turned towards Luke, earning his attention. No words were exchanged between them, the Martial simply gave a nod. A brief look of satisfaction washed over Luke’s face. Din turned towards the mat to prepare for the fight before Luke’s eyes turned back to him.
Luke stepped to the edge of the mat, shoes and outer shirt removed. He bowed at the waist before stepping forward. He was in a simple black tank top and the standard cargo pants. It was the first time Din had seen any of his skin exposed beyond his face. His arms and neck were covered in pale, lightning-like scars that looked like they extended beyond what Din could see. He wasn’t sure what to make of them. He knew almost nothing about Luke when he really thought about it. Only what he heard from the news from the past four years.
He had to admit, it made him earn a little more respect for the kid. At first he’d seemed like a petulant child who was getting his favorite toy taken away, but now, Din wasn’t as sure that was the case. He had no more time to think on it as he and Luke passed each other on the mat, walking to opposite sides, then turning to face each other.
In the blink of an eye Luke swung his bō with the finesse of a warrior. He moved forward before stopping in the middle of the mat as he pulled his bō up in defense. Din followed suit, taking on a more aggressive starting position. He could tell Luke was analyzing him, eyes flitting around to every point of his body. Din took the opportunity to attack. In one swift moment he had his bō mimicking a strike at Luke’s skull.
“One, Zero.” The words had barely left his mouth before Luke made a counter attack. In a flash Luke had reversed their positions with a satisfied smirk.
Without wasting any more time the two began to fight again in an explosion of movement. The people in the kwoon reacted to them, but Din’s focus narrowed in until it was only them in the room. He watched Luke’s movements carefully, anticipating and blocking every attack that came and returning his own. He picked up on a franticness in Lukes’s movements and took advantage, landing an attack on his ribs.
“You’re too eager, you’re projecting your moves,” Din commented as they reset.
“I don’t need your advice.” Despite his words, Luke waited, ready for Din’s next move.
Luke swiftly blocked everything Din threw at him and pushed back even harder. In the next moment Luke attacked with a flurry of blows, catching Din off guard. He was stronger than he looked.
“Two, two.” Luke had once again evened the score.
There was barely a pause before they were at it again. This bout lasted longer than the others, both having picked up on each other’s gambit. They danced around each other, the only sound in Din’s ears were the clacking of their bō staffs and their heavy breathing. Neither was holding back.
In a blur of motion Luke darted towards Din’s legs, throwing him off balance. Din rolled out of the throw but as he lifted his head he was met with Luke’s bō to his throat. Luke's eyes were no less intense this close.
“Two, Three.” Luke stepped back into a ready position. “Better watch out, Djarin.” There was a satisfied smirk on his face. He was winning. Din wouldn’t give up that easily.
He pulled out every trick he had, but Luke seemed to always be a step ahead. He was too fast, almost as if he could read Din’s mind. From the outside it would almost look like this was rehearsed. In the end, it was Din’s weight advantage that won him the point. He moved in close and pinned Luke's arm before throwing him down to the mat. The blond hit the ground on his back, breath escaping his lungs from the impact.
Din almost went to help him up but Luke threw his legs backwards into a handstand before standing back up. He barely looked affected, the only sign of fatigue on him was the sweat on his forehead that matted down his blond hair.
“Three, Three,” Din called. “And there’s no need to show off.”
The next point would declare a winner. There was a smile on Luke’s face, different from the ones before. This one was more open, leaving Din feeling dizzy instead of insulted.
Din tried to understand it but there was no more time to ponder as Luke set on his next attacks. He was more aggressive than he’d been the rest of the fight but Din pushed back, not without some difficulty. Luke danced around Din with a frightening agility. The only thing that kept Din in the fight for so long were his reflexes. He knew he had to end this fight soon or Luke would eventually wear him down.
In a decisive move Din attacked at Luke’s head, trading off his defense for offense. He had Luke on the move, nearly pushing him off the mat. However, before he could land a finishing blow Luke darted to the side, slipping his leg between Din’s and toppling him to the floor. When Din processed what happened, he was pinned under Luke’s hips on his chest and his bō at his neck.
Cheers erupted from the gathered crowd, but Din’s view had narrowed into Luke as he stood up. Din stayed on the ground, still a bit stunned from the end of the fight. He wasn’t really sure how to feel about its outcome. But one thing was for certain, he and Luke were drift compatible. Very drift compatible.
Din was so lost in his thoughts he didn’t even realize Luke was reaching down to him until his hand was in his face. He took it and allowed Luke to help him to his feet.
“You felt it too, didn’t you?” Luke asked.
“Yeah.”
#dinluke#star wars#luke skywalker#din djarin#art#dinluke fanart#fanfic#fanfiction#pacific rim au#dinluke au#tru's dinluke pacific rim au
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This is, bar none, the funniest fucking completely unironic shit published by a legitimate news outlet:
In recent months, orcas in the waters off the Iberian Peninsula have taken to ramming boats. The animals have already sunk three this year and damaged several more. After one of the latest incidents, in which a catamaran lost both of its rudders, the boat’s captain suggested that the assailants have grown stealthier and more efficient: “Looks like they knew exactly what they are doing,” he said. Scientists have documented hundreds of orca-boat incidents off the Spanish-Portuguese coast since 2020, but news coverage of these attacks is blowing up right now, thanks in part to a creative new theory about why they’re happening: cetacean vengeance. Now that’s a story!
“The orcas are doing this on purpose,” Alfredo López Fernandez, a biologist at the University of Aveiro in Portugal, told LiveScience last month. “Of course, we don’t know the origin or the motivation, but defensive behavior based on trauma, as the origin of all this, gains more strength for us every day.” López Fernandez, who co-authored a 2022 paper on human-orca interactions in the Strait of Gibraltar, speculates that a specific female, known to scientists as White Gladis, may have suffered a “critical moment of agony” at the hands of humans, attacked a boat in retaliation, and then taught other whales to do the same.
Whatever the truth of this assertion, White Gladis and her kin have quickly ascended to folk-heroic status on the internet. “What the marine biologists are framing as revenge based on one traumatic experience may be a piece of a larger mobilization towards balance,” the poet Alexis Pauline Gumbs tweeted before referring to the killer whales as “revolutionary mother teachers.” Media figures and academics are expressing solidarity with their “orca comrades” and support for “orca saboteurs.” One widely circulating graphic shows a pod smashing a boat from below, above the words “JOIN THE ORCA UPRISING.” (You can even purchase it in sparkly sticker form.) Yet all of this fandom and projection tends to overlook important facts: First, these orcas are likely to be playing with the boats rather than attacking them, and second, if one insists on judging killer whales in human terms, it’s plain to see they aren’t heroes but sadistic jerks.
A shark wrote this.
The recent incidents, none of which has resulted in any injuries to humans, are simply the result of curiosity, Monika Wieland Shields, the co-director of the Orca Behavior Institute in Washington, told me. A juvenile may have started interacting in this way with boats, she said, and then its habit spread through the local community of killer whales. Such cultural trends have been observed before: In the Pacific Northwest, orcas have been playing with buoys and crab pots for years; in the late 1980s, one group of orcas there famously took to wearing salmon hats. Is ramming boats the new donning fish? Shields believes that theory makes more sense than López Fernandez’s appeal to orca trauma. White Gladis shows no physical evidence of injury or trauma, Shields told me, so any “critical moment of agony” is purely speculative. Also, humans have given orcas ample reason to retaliate for hundreds of years. We’ve invaded their waters, kidnapped their young, and murdered them in droves. And yet, there is not a single documented instance of orcas killing humans in the wild. Why would they react only now?
And though recent events may fit the story of these orcas’ being anti-colonial warriors, you can’t just anthropomorphize animals selectively. What about all the other “evidence” we have of orcas’ cruelty, or even wickedness? Scientists say they hunt and slaughter sharks by the dozen, picking out the liver from each one and leaving the rest of the carcasses to rot uneaten. Orcas kill for sport. They push, drag, and spin around live prey, including sea turtles, seabirds, and sea lions. Some go so far as to risk beaching themselves in order to snag a baby seal—not to consume, but simply to torture it to death. Once you start applying human ethical standards to apex predators, things turn dark fast.
Oh no, they gleefully torment other animals for sport!! Does this species deserve to have any redeeming qualities???
Perhaps #orcauprising was inevitable. Humanity does have, after all, a long history of freighting cetaceans with higher meaning. Moby Dick is, among other things, a symbol of the sublime. The biblical whale—or is it a large fish?—that swallows Jonah is an instrument of divine retribution, a means of punishing the wicked in much the same way some have framed the boat-wrecking orcas. The whale 52 Blue, known as the loneliest whale in the world because she speaks in a frequency inaudible, or at least incomprehensible, to her brethren, has become a canvas for all shades of human sorrow and angst.
Orcas in particular have long been objects of both fear and sympathy, in some cases with an explicitly anti-capitalist tint. The 1993 classic Free Willy centers on a conniving park owner’s scheme to profit off of the bond between a child and a young killer whale. And more recently, the 2013 documentary Blackfish chronicles SeaWorld’s real-life exploitation of captive orcas. The “orca uprising” narrative fits neatly into this lineage. In our present era of environmental catastrophe, Shields told me, it’s appealing to think that nature might fight back, that the villains get their just deserts.
But projection and anthropomorphization are only shortcuts to a shallow sympathy. Orcas really are capable of intense grief; they are also capable of tormenting seal pups as a hobby. They are intelligent, emotionally complex creatures. But they are not us.
Someone paid this dude actual money to conclude that Orcas aren't human.
In conclusion:
#this is a White Gladis stan account sorry#I don't care if she's doing it for shits and giggles in fact that would be even better#support orca rights and orca wrongs#orca splatoon#the atlantic#capitalism#joining the war on orcas on the side of the orcas#yachts#orcas#marine life#ecology#marine animals#class war#eat the rich#anti capitalism#cetaceans#knee of huss
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Lion's Mane Jellyfish (Cyanea capillata)
Family: Cyaneid Jellyfish Family (Cyaneidae)
IUCN Conservation Status: Unassessed
Named for its frilly "mane" made up of over 1,200 long, stinging tentacles, the Lion's Mane Jellyfish is among the largest known jellyfish species; while this viral image showing a diver next to a Lion's Mane Jellyfish has been edited to make the jellyfish appear far larger than it actually is, members of this species still dwarf most of their relatives, with a bell ("main body") diameter of over 2.4 meters (7.89 feet) and a tentacle length of as much as 30 meters (98.4 feet), making it one the longest animals on earth. Typically found near the surface in the Arctic, northern Atlantic and northern Pacific Ocean regions, Lion's Mane Jellyfishes, like all jellyfishes, lack brains, eyes, hearts or respiratory organs (instead exchanging gasses directly between the water around them and their extremely thin tissues,) and rely heavily on waves and ocean tides to travel, but are able to slowly propel themselves in a given direction by expanding the 8 bag-like lobes of their bodies to take in water and then forcing it out again to push themselves along (although they can also to some extent detect and react to their orientation and surroundings owing to a series of frilly sensory structures located around their body's rim, know as rhopalia.) Like most jellyfishes the long, trailing tentacles of a Lion's Mane Jellyfish are lined with touch-sensitive, harpoon-like cells called cnidocytes that fire venomous barbs into any animal that touches them, and after a tentacle has stung and ensnared suitable prey (mainly fish, large plankton and smaller jellyfishes) it is pulled back towards the body where the prey is passed through a mouth-like opening on the jellyfish's underside and into a simple body cavity where it is digested, with any indigestible matter, such as shells or bones, later being ejected from the body through the same opening it entered through. The life cycle of the Lion's Mane Jellyfish, like that of most jellyfishes, takes place in 4 distinct stages and seems highly elaborate compared to that of most animals; the bag-like adults that we typically think of as jellyfishes, known as medusas, are either male or female and reproduce sexually by releasing gametes into the water around them, and should these gametes meet they fuse and develop into tiny larvae. The larvae then settle onto a solid surface and develop into polyps (a second, immobile life stage resembling a sea anemone,) and each polyp then asexually reproduces several times, with genetically identical, slow-swimming young splitting off of its body as buds. Each of these asexually-produced individuals will then develop into a medusa, continuing the cycle and meaning that each single instance of sexual reproduction in Lion's Mane Jellyfishes produces multiple asexually-produced offspring. Despite their massive size medusas of this species only live for around a year, although their polyps, which only reproduce under ideal environmental conditions, may remain dormant for longer than this.
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Image Source: here
#Lion's Mane Jellyfish#jellyfish#jellyfishes#cnidarians#cnidarian#cnidology#animal#animals#zoology#invertebrate#invertebrates#marine biology#marine invertebrates#scyphozoa#wildlife#marine wildlife
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The Neighbor's House is on Fire
You have a good neighbor. He does a lot for you. He keeps the street clean around your house. He mows your lawn when you are away. He signs for your packages and brings them to you later. Your kids go and play with his kids in the backyard. He has an alarm on his house with a camera, which you don't, and he once ran burglars away from your house. He's done a thing or two for you that you haven't noticed. Like the time he stopped a crew from mistakenly taking down a tree in your front yard. And the time he found your cat outside, on the street, and gave it to your kid.
And now your neighbor's house has caught fire. The flames are just now visible. There's plenty of time to react. In fact, you happen to be standing nearby, at exactly the right place, watering your garden, with a hose in your hand. The flames are in easy reach. Your neighbor runs to you and asks you to just turn the water in the direction of the flame.
You refuse. You turn off the water and walk away. And then you hurry down to your basement and shut off the valve, just to make sure your neighbor can't be helped.
All you had do was flick your wrist, turn the hose in the right direction. But you didn't. It wouldn't have cost you anything. A nickel on your water bill that you wouldn't notice.
And if you had helped, you'd have been a hero. Your neighbor would remember you, as would the press, as would your kids, as would everyone. But you chose not to help. Your neighbor's house burns down.
And then yours does, too.
This is, currently, our Ukraine policy. We are choosing to let a good neighbor burn. Ukraine does things for us that we need, and often that we neglect to do ourselves, or cannot do ourselves. It does things for us that we do not notice.
These are not small things. By resisting Russia, Ukraine shows the world that there are people who care about democracy enough to take risks for it. It reduces the risk of nuclear proliferation and nuclear war by showing that nuclear blackmail does not work. It maintains the international legal order. It fulfills the NATO mission by absorbing and reversing a Russian attack, making war elsewhere in Europe very unlikely. It deters China from risky action in the Pacific by showing how difficult offensive operations are.
These are all hugely important American interests, most of which we cannot fulfill ourselves. Ukraine can fulfill them, if we help, just a little, in ways we would not even notice.
Ukraine is on fire. In the past few days, Russia has launched something like five hundred rockets and drones at Ukrainian civilians, including nearly a hundred drones on New Year's Eve. Russia continues to undertake offensive operations in Ukraine. Russian propagandists and Russian leaders continue to announce the same genocidal war aims now as at the beginning of the war: the end of the Ukrainian state and the end of the Ukrainian nation. Ukrainian citizens under Russian occupation continue to be tortured and deported.
Ukraine resists, very effectively, with the weapons it has. It has opened the Black Sea to trade, something that no one expected. It is holding back the Russian advance, inflicting huge casualties. It is shooting down missiles and drones. (If you want to help detect the drones, which is a matter of urgency, please make a contribution to my Safe Skies campaign here).
So we are standing here with easy access to water. It would be so easy to help. And yet we are turning away from our neighbor in need. Ukraine needs our support, and some of our Congressional representatives are blocking it.
The amount in question is not meaningful, given what we spend on national security. It is about a nickel on the defense budget dollar.
And that nickel is extremely well spent! The defense department budget, after all, is meant to keep us safe. That nickel on the dollar brings us security in the Atlantic and the Pacific, it brings us a reduced risk of nuclear war and a greatest international respect for law, it brings us the sense that we have friends who take risks for good things. There is no other nickel on the defense department dollar that is nearly so important as this one.
And, in fact, we don't even really spend that nickel on Ukraine. Most of the defense money we nominally spend on Ukraine actually stays in the United States. The arms Ukraine needs are in large measure weapons that your tax dollars would otherwise be spent to decommission -- to destroy and throw away. For example, we have about a thousand long-range missiles that we will soon pay tax money to take apart and drop in landfills. Those missiles, given instead to Ukraine, would seriously hinder Russian attacks, and put Ukraine in a position to win the war.
We are turning off the water. Running down to then basement, caught in some strange self-destructive fit of self-absorption, we are putting our own house at risk. Ignoring our neighbor is the worst thing we can do, even if all we care about is ourselves.
Everything that the Ukrainians are doing for us can be undone this year. Russia can win, and be encouraged to start other wars, where our participation is likely to be much more direct. China can be encouraged, and we can find ourselves in a cataclysm over Taiwan. International order can break down, and we can confront confusing, difficult, and painful conflicts all over the world. Russia can halt food deliveries to Asia and Africa, leading to starvation and further war. Everyone can be demoralized by the realization that those who risked their lives for democracy were sold out, just because Americans lacked the wherewithal to what is obviously the right thing.
It doesn't have to be that way. It's easy to help a good neighbor. This is a conflagration that we can stop with a flick of the wrist. A bit of legislation to support Ukraine, and we all have a safer year, and safer lives.
© 2024 Timothy Snyder
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