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Masterlist

(Previously gabrielerudessa; also just changed pfp from my Norm Maclean x OC to Simon Iron Lung with a crown of flowers because I really liked this art. Probably pfp will remain for a long time or until I make some new art that makes me go YOU lmao)

Fanfics, Fanarts, and Meta analysis

Alien Franchise Masterlist

Fallout Masterlist

Iron Lung Masterlist

Pillars Of Eternity

Not Strong Enough (Hiravias x F!Watcher, NSFW) AO3 | Song

Arts in General

Multiple Fandoms (Enderal, The Evil Within, The Wayhaven Chronicles, Dragon Age)

Original Works

Video Edits

Iron Lung (Rimani - Gabriele D'Annunzio, proclaimed by Paul Damian)

Iron Lung (Realization - Weird Wolves)

Project Hail Mary (Children of the Sky - Imagine Dragons)

Lucy Maclean (Devil Devil - Milck)

PSA:

The few x reader pieces I have atm, in general, I aimed to write with no physical characteristics like body type, skin color or hair texture mentioned, but maybe something slipped. Please fell free to reach out and warn me, I'll be glad to fix it. This extends to gender neutral: if it says it's GN and something breaks this, let me know and I'll fix it.

Some of these, reader has a few specific characteristics mentioned. These are clearly warned in the post itself, and anything beyond was an accident. Again, feel free to reach out.

#masterlist #fallout #enderal #nehrim #wayhaven chronicles #dragon age #the evil within #alien franchise #pillars of eternity #iron lung #on the 'plans and such'#someone send me focus on PRESENT THINGS #the speed my brain can chuck out fully formed plans for long stories is a gift and a curse wrapped up in one

talontarget

jkr is literally posting upskirt photos to her social media. when will it finally get through to harry potter fans that their support makes her feel confident and correct enough to do things like this

dodykeahedron

If the holocaust denialism SOMEHOW wasn't enough for you to shut up about your favourite kids book as an adult; JK Rowling just committed a sex crime IRL against a transgender woman.

When do we start to care.

blonsh

punkrinn

Simon Iron Lung sketches

damienos

penandinkprincess

sometimes you see Takes™ that make you go "mmmhmmm okay yeah i see we both interpreted that differently based on what the show gave us, but i see how you arrived at your ideas even if they're different from mine," and then sometimes you see Takes™ that make you go "brother what show did you even fucking watch"

homunculus-argument

Herding sheep, looking after kids, and playing healer in videogames: every day you're surprised of the sheer innovative genius of how they'll find the most inconvenient goddamn places just outside your reach to get hurt or put themselves in lethal danger.

drafty-castle

Isn’t this sheep in real life?

homunculus-argument

Children in real life also.

homunculus-argument

It. It literally did. That was literally precisely the point.

I have no idea how the hell I could possibly express myself more clearly.

flickering-leaves

The humble Oxford comma

homunculus-argument

IT'S LITERALLY RIGHT THERE.

mylordshesacactus

#you can understand op by using your brain

varricsbrokencrossbowbianca

Despite all my rage, I am still just a rat in a cage

damienos

dragonflight203

Now here's a little interesting tidbit: Karpyshyn hypothesizes in Mass Effect's Ascension that a species' genetic diversity decreases as its ability to travel (and therefore interbreed within itself) increases.

Humans are therefore more diverse than the other species in C-Space because they are the latest species to join the interstellar community (meaning they have most recently developed the ability to freely intermix across the globe).

So 'humans are more diverse than other species' seems to be based on the idea that humanity was until recently an isolated 'island' and humanity will become less diverse in the future.

In my opinion this fails to take into account the idea that many colonies will have self-sustaining populations and therefore form isolated communities (equaling genetic offshoots for their species) but it's not as wild as humans are inherently more diverse than other species.

"Even accounting for the fact that many of the physical differences were obscured by their environmental suits, it was a safe generalization to say that quarians all tended to look pretty much the same. They were of an almost uniformly similar size and build, with far less variety than was was found in humans."

...

"That same degree of variance simply didn't exist in the quarian population.

"It's like that with all the other races, Kahlee thought to herself. For some reason, humans just have more genetic diversity than the rest of the galaxy. She hadn't really noticed it before, not consciously, but here on the bridge of the Idenna it seemed to strike home.

"It's happening to us too, she realized as Hendel shook the captain's hand. The big man's mix of Nordic and Indian ancestry was the norm on Earth now, and the inevitable genetic by-product was a more physically homogeneous population. In the twenty-second century blond hair like hers was a rarity, and naturally blue eyes were nonexistent. But with hair dye, skin toning, and colored contact lenses, who really cares?" (Pages 279-289)

crapeaucrapeau

Sooooo… basically, the argument is that, since humans no longer live in discrete populations isolated from one another, they are no longer taking the long road to speciation ?

What I don't understand is why this would amount to loss of diversity ? Wouldn't random mutations, made all the likelier because of the greater population and the greater range of possible environments, be likelier to occur now ?

Sure, recessive genes no longer express themselves that easily, and the odds of reproducing with someone without such genes increase, so they might (maybe ?) be phased out of the general population over time (?), but is that the same as loss of genetic diversity ?

…does this suggest that the Reapers invaded Earth for our blondes ?

amorphousturtle

It also fails to take into account the increase in outside causes of genetic mutations, especially exposure to radioactive elements. As tech advances, more dangerous elements are exploited and more commonly. It's canon that Eezo exposure skyrocketed after its discovery and widespread application, with rather extreme mutations being common (usually cancer, but not always). And then there's unmentioned things like variations in solar radiation on different colony planets, the need to create your own protection against it on space stations and during interstellar travel, exposure to novel pathogens or environmental conditions on colony planets that can cause or encourage adaptations... (Paging @arburi more a more expert opinion on Space Hazards here <3)

Then there's the fact that simply being capable of traveling does not people people are going to actually do that. There's the classic "What's holding you back from traveling the world?" "Money." exchange for starters. Most colonies aren't going to have a reason to visit either, so even the people who can afford to travel aren't necessarily going to travel everywhere. You're still going to have your backwaters and boonies. Not to mention, a big part of what the Galapagos Islands such a genetic cornucopia wasn't that they were completely isolated but that travel between them WAS possible, just difficult enough to be uncommon. Isolated areas that could diversify, and then exchange that diversity with other areas! Adapt, travel, adapt again, travel again, etc etc. Sounds a lot like the great distances between colonies, huh?

And then most damning of all, you have the Unification War. Turians colonization created such isolated communities that they became culturally differentiated to the point of rejecting all outsiders. It's a HELL of a lot easier to export a unified culture than it is unified genetics (see: americanization of media), and failed that? The Hierarchy had to make a massive concerted effort to prevent the natural isolation of colonies from bringing about a second Unification War... But somehow have so much inter-exchange that they homogenized their genetics on accident? Pull the other one, it's got bells on it.

This feels more like a 90s or 00s era rejection of the 80s scifi/futurism trope of racial isolationism than anything. Which, funnily enough, was originally inspired by realworld observation of the results of INCREASED immigration to other (western) countries. People would take advantage of the increased ease of travel, find themselves cultural outsiders in their new lands, and seek out others of similar cultures to consolidate social/political/economic power on a small (city/town/neighborhood) scale. Which was how you got regions of cities referred to as "Chinatown" or "Little Italy" or the like. It's easier to live your day to day life if you are surrounded by people who speak your Mother Language and remember how the Old Country did things, and a hell of a lot harder to get hatecrimed if there's hundreds (or thousands) of people like you in the area than if there's just a couple. And even then, 80s scifi also included a lot of ethnic and cultural mixing as a counterpoint to that, often in the same work. In the Cyberpunk 2020 setting, for example, some of the major gangs (Mob, Tong, Yakuza, etc) and Corps (Arasaka, Militech, etc) are very ethnically focused . But at the same time despite being (mostly) set in USA the "standard" language of the setting isn't English, it's Streetslang. "A universal polyglot of English, French, German, Japanese and a half dozen other languages". Plus, Kimiko Sanchez wasn't named that on accident. =P

shewolfofvilnius

also that velocity in the degree of ethnic and cultural mixing doesn't even really track with humans as we see them at the time of the games. Prejudice and bigotry is clearly very alive and well in the systems alliance, never even mind the quintessentially human "petty ass grudges" like what happened to Ashley's family.

Just as there are a hell of a lot of humans that are clearly prejudiced against aliens, there's ZERO universe where that intra-humanity prejudice is gone that fast. NO chance.

dessathealien

... I wonder if Karpyshyn ever visited Brazil. We are literally one of if not the most diverse countries. There's a reason that our passport can reach astronomical prices in the Black Market: *anyone* can pass as Brazilian because we don't have a Common Feature, there's Black, white, Arabic, Asian, Indigenous, literally any facial features. Growing up, in public schools, I would look around and see people with all manners of facial features and heights and weights.

We have the biggest populations of Japanese descent people outside of Japan and of Lebanese descent people outside of Lebanon - heck our population of Lebanese descent is BIGGER than Lebanon's population. We have multiple communities of Quilombolas, Black people descended of the slaves that escaped slavery, and of South American Indigenous people, keeping their cultures alive. Also Italian descent people. North, northeast, center-east, southeast and south region people are massively different between themselves because of how they formed historically. And there's def more I'm forgetting.

As you all mentioned already, ethnic and cultural mixing is not FAST. And Brazil is only unified by a single identity of Brazilian because the Portuguese Royal Family managed to run from Napoleon to here, changing the language that should be spoken by law from the General Language (very based on Indigenous languages) to Portuguese (and our Pt is very different from the Portugal one nowadays, even between states). And still, overall there are separations, with some people showing more prejudice than others, and these separations are not only because of "hard to travel": brazilians overall travel a lot, visiting relatives in other states and cities.

Easy of travel doesn't equate with "diminishing genetic and cultural diversity", especially not FAST.

skoomaadealer

J'zargo a talented and ambitious mage, is the cause of another fire at the College🔥. Fortunately, this time only the whiskers were damaged.

damienos

Iron Lung - Mark Fischbach

dragonflight203

Ascension provides more insight into Omega, although oddly it makes no mention of Aria.

Perhaps it was written prior to BioWare creating her.

-“Every corner of the station stank with the mingled odors of a dozen different alien species: sweat and pheromones poorly covered up by the gagging scent of unfamiliar perfumes; the reek of unidentifiable foods wafting from open windows and doors; the putrid stench of uncollected garbage that littered the back alleys.” (Pel POV, pages 46-47)

-- Omega does stink horribly

The mention of “uncollected garbage” also implies that garbage is collected elsewhere. Or perhaps that Pel’s bias showing through (he’s not an Omega native) and he’s assuming that garbage is normally collected.

-“The aliens couldn’t even agree on a single name for the station. Each speaker called it something different in his or her native tongue. The unpronounceable asari name loosely translated as ‘heart of evil,’ the turians referred to it as ‘world without law,’ the salarians called it ‘place of secrets,’ and the krogans knew it as ‘land of opportunity.’ For the sake of convenience, the automated translator Pel wore strapped to his belt translated all these terms into the human word ‘Omega’ – the absolute end of all things.” (Pel POV, page 47)

--The names used convey some insight into each species. The asari prioritize morality, the turians law, the salarians knowledge, and the krogan, well, opportunity.

Also, I’d like to comment on Pel’s hypocrisy. He bitches that the other species can’t agree on a name for Omega, yet doesn’t comment that humanity gave it yet another name when they had numerous options to pick from.

-“The warehouse was in a prime location: their proximity to the spaceport allowed small ships to come and go without drawing undue mention, and they were within walking distance of a monorail linked to several other sections of the city.” (Pel POV, page 156)

--Somehow, despite being asteroid being splintered into numerous districts under various (and frequently contested) rule there’s a monorail.

How? And how does it continue to exist as wars wage over the districts it passes through?

I don’t think Karpyshyn considered all the details on this.

-“The station was a haven for slavers, and he witnessed firsthand weeping men, women, and children being bought and sold like chattel.” (Lemm POV, page 175)

--For all her talk about freedom and rage at Cerberus for caging Omega, Aria permits slavery on the station.

Perhaps this was retconned in the games, but I doubt it. That would go against Omega’s ‘lawlessness’.

crapeaucrapeau

@dragonflight203 : bottom left picture near the text, the image I mentioned

crapeaucrapeau

D.K. may also have a monorail thing, because I remember that in Revelation there's a monorail on the Citadel too (which rules, because yay for public transportation !)

dessathealien

I would risk saying Omega's monorail is more about transporting what the mines we see in the ME3 dlc Omega produce fast and smoothly; if I remember right, that's big on keeping the station afloat, right? Also to ensure there's fast transportation to any place that has a massive technological failure to be fixed: places like Citadel and Omega, fully artificial, need fast transportation, if only so the powers that control can ensure they still have the means to access the means of money and of keeping THEMSELVES alive

damienos

dramatic-dolphin

and if i said nolan's odyssey starring no greek actors and with no recognizable aspects of greek culture or involvement by greeks, is the direct legacy of white supremacist colonialism that treated ancient greece as not just the pinnacle of ancient culture, but of an artificially created "european" culture, which white western europeans and their settler descendants, as the new pinnacle of culture, were the sole spiritual inheritors of.

hiveswap

^^^ PEOPLE ARE STILL THERE. There's a metro station across the street from the colosseum where i found a hair in my pizza slice. We drove by ruins of an amphitheater next to a motorway in greece once. It's literally just real places where real people live and have lived. It's not mythical perfect lands that once existed. I went to Itacha in 2023 and there was not enough parking space.

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