it's dangerous to go alone

asocial asexual alien // professional overthinker // interests include: sci-fi and fantasy, astronomy, biology, ancient history, and memes // art blog: @knight-of-aether (find me lurking over on deviantart, ao3, bluesky, and pillowfort)

[sandpontiff]

On a trip

[sparrowlucero]

will you make more driftwood wolves?

yeah i'm making some right now, a few people have asked : )

if people have suggestions for trees with cool bark patterns please feel free to let me know!

[nat-20s]

just thought of a fun new comics OC named Stella the Postal Worker. She is a completely normal human woman who just happens to do insane things on the regular in order to get superheros their mail. She broke into the fortress of solitude to make sure superman knew he had jury duty but now she has a key 💖

[nat-20s]

stella rides with Impulse to tell flash to just pay the 20 bucks he owes to the library. Stella has a grappling hook so she can shove off a bag of fan/hate mail to batman and when he's like. dare I ask how much of it is...explicit she's like. dude I don't read your mail, man. that's your job. While they're both suspended 1000 feet over Gotham

[nat-20s]

she does not know any of their secret identities she is determined to get mail specifically assigned to the super persona. occasionally one of them tries to just tell her their actual home address and she's like NO. you will NOT add to my workload I am hiring a submarine to deliver to Aquaman not joe schmoe!!

[nat-20s]

Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night nor alien invasion nor batarang nor time travel will stay THIS courier

[cutter-kirby]

when the characters love each other and it's not romantic and it's never expected to be anything "more" than what they are to each other now. when they mean so much to each other and it's entirely aromantic

[serialephemera]

Not yet placed in time...or place

“Bowdaar, tear his arms off.”

The Wookie broke ranks with Vette and started toward the previously smirking trader. The man’s eyes rounded full circle. “Wait! I might have miscounted the goods. I’m sure I can come up with the rest of it.”

“Bowdaar, don’t tear his arms off…yet. I give you six hours to deliver because you seem like you were a nice kid once.” Vette sighed. “I just don’t know what went wrong.” She didn’t like to be quite that vicious, but this trader was well known scum and Vette did need the shipment.

On the way back to the Ebon Crock, Vette side-eyed her friend. “Ever get bored with the arm-tearing?”

“It works,” said Bowdaar. “I’m getting used to stopping with dislocation.”

“We could work up a little variety. How about ‘Bowdaar, kneecap him.’”

“I did that to three Nikto with shock sticks once.”

“That sounds painful. Uh, what about ‘Bowdaar, pants him.’”

“That’s the first step in half the takedowns I know. Drooga loved it.”

“Really. How about ‘Bowdaar, rotate his ears a hundred eighty degrees.’”

Bowdaar hesitated.

“Good? Huh? C’mon.”

“You don’t want a threat that’s hard to visualize.”

“What’s so hard about visualizing ear rotation?”

Bowdaar waved generally at her head. “You have to remove the ears first. That’s extra steps.”

“I defer to your expertise. But I’m going to come up with weirder threats the next time someone tries to cheat us.”

“And I follow through?”

“I believe in you.”

“I don’t hate anybody’s ears that much.”

“I’ve got some prime ideas about hair. Or lekku, I don’t know who’s next.”

“Just remember that I’m the muscle, not a surgeon.”

“Blunt force it is. You’ll see.”

“That’s what I’m afraid of.”

“You think we’ll see the rest of our stuff?”

“Six hours? He’ll be out of this system.”

Vette pulled a small crystal out of her back pocket. “Not without the sublight phase lens, he’s not. Risha taught me well.”

Bowdaar’s eyes were bright blue and a little shocked. “So why did you need me?”

“You’re muscle and a fantastic distraction. That’s the great thing about hiring you.”

“Like I would go anywhere else.”

Vette patted his furry arm and grinned. “Just my luck, my friend. Let’s go home.”

[ebitenpura]

swtor question of the day: if your non-force sensitive OC suddenly gained the Force, how would they use it? what abilities do you think would manifest in them? how powerful do you think they would be?

[blackberry-command-cap]

OOH. fascinating question

Every OC of mine is Force sensitive, except for Aela. Some have learned to use it, others haven't or don't even realize it's there... but I'm going down the list and yeesh. It's literally all of them. So we will just be answering for Aela here lol

Aela has zero force sensitivity. In the timeline where she gets possessed by Valkorian... suddenly she does, in fact, have the force. at the time she's pretty much just focused on reaching her goal at any cost so she isn't much thinking about it but there is. a lot of lightning

If she just got the Force randomly, not because of being possessed by an unimaginably evil being... hmm. I think it would be subtle. Increased strength, better reflexes in battle, faster. In fact, I'm not sure she would even realize it was the Force and in fact if anyone pointed it out she would vehemently deny it. Force users are the worst and can't be trusted therefore accepting that she IS one would require a huge reworking of her entire worldview that she doesn't care to do.

making this a tag game because I can. @frauleiiin @rakghoulified @understorysunflecks @forcemalarkey

[forcemalarkey]

My only two atm that aren't Force Sensitive are Nines and Kazi. (My smuggler Mal is Force Sensitive and flat up just pretends it is not a thing.)

My BH Kazi's abilities would probably be more physical. He would use it to augment his current fighting skills and treat it as just another part of his kit, another weapon or tool. He would probably be fairly strong - there are a handful of Force-sensitives in his family. He would agree to Sith training and then five minutes in immediately dip bc he'd realize everyone here is awful, actually. He's a Bounty Hunter first and foremost, and he's incredibly practical.

Nines... hoo boy I was avoiding this question (which is so good btw) bc i knew it would be a doozy to answer for him.

Nines hates the Force because people have only ever used it to hurt him so all of his abilities would manifest internally. He would be very powerful and much of his ability would center around his mind, telepathy, shields, ect. The extra control over his own mind would be a relief but he would HATE being telepathic. It would feel like an invasion of privacy and he would focus heavily on controlling it.

The one thing he might enjoy is invisibility or the ability to go unnoticed. It would depend on if he viewed it as mind manipulation or an effect centered on himself. Lana is always using the Force to find him when he doesn't want to be found, so he might feel like using it to hide from her is evening the score. He would mostly use it to avoid social interactions and hide from important meetings. He would also have too much fun popping up out of thin air to startle people - Theron would be his favorite victim and would be fed up within the first week.

I don't think @nemotoself or @elliedearest has answered this one yet if they want to.

[nemotoself]

My two non-forcies... I think they would both need an intervention.

Faro the agent (she’s all watching us and ben afflek smoking about this rn)

I just would find it so poetic and terrible if her speciality would be centring around mind control. Like she does her usual manipulation tactics on people and notices that they are so easy to get around, laughably so. Unnaturally so. And then she has to grab her own throat and chokes when she connects the dots.

It’s all subtle and so easy to slip into it. As if she has done this all her life. She is so very very persuasive. So irresistible. So terrifying. She finds out she can also do blatant. Hold out her hand and people around her clutch their heads and fall on their knees before her. Do whatever she compels them to. Lick the floor in front of her. She’s shaking, she’s choking on her own strangled, deranged laugh. She never repeats it, but that experience, that ‘test’, does something irreparable to her. Nobody should have this much power.

It's also so easy to make people think that she’s not standing where she's standing. So easy to make people think she is someone else actually, until it’s too late. (That’s what the ‘invisibility’ of the Force classes is to me: they are mind tricking others that they aren’t actually occupying the space that they are, they aren’t truly invisible. idk how that would work on droids or cameras though. Can you mind trick a droid? Maybe it requires something else, fuzz their processor or memory stick instead of compulsion.) Eh, I’m getting away from the point, but yes, Faro would be a natural at that. And she would hate it, hate herself, and would love it, in a terrible way.

“I literally would never do any of that,” Faro says from over there. Alright, Faro. Yes, Faro.

Tevuuk the smuggler

Hey, Tevvers would also like a try at the mind trick! (oh the hypocrite! I was just talking about how they hate this the other day). But they aren’t especially good at it. How their Force sensitivity manifests is in the precognition. Seconds ahead but also an indefinite amount, days, months, years. People used to call them lucky, but now it’s not luck anymore. The game is rigged now. They wouldn’t be able to truly guide it at first, it being more of impressions that pop up indiscriminately in their mind. After years of practice, they would be able to consciously look for things, get more specific impressions. They would abuse all of it so hard. They would also get a lot twitchier than they already are because of all the possibilities, the danger, the ruin. Honestly it would make them worse. But their chances at keeping up the crime lord thing for longer just tripled at least.

Anyways, thought experiments like this are fun :) But. They better not do this for real ingame tho. They better not. Sure, I do love my space wizards but I have very protective feelings towards the Non-Force sensitives. I do not want them to be able to feel the Force in any way shape or form and if that is shoehorned onto them I will!!!   idk. be sad.

The only. ONLY way I wouldn’t be perma mad is if they took away the Force sensitivity from the Force classes in turn. That would be hilarious. The Karma. (would never happen but I would dig it)

Hello to @fallen-knight and @zod-off if you feel like doing this

[fallen-knight]

ooooh man... the funny thing is, I'm just realizing I have two who are completely aloof on the whole Force business (both Mandalorians, at that) and two for whom it's much more personal (both the stealth classes). let's see who I can poke for an interesting result...

Major Bralor (Mandalorian mercenary trooper because I, being an edgelord, just couldn't get invested in the story from a basic Republic recruit pov) would be practical about it once the initial shock died down - appreciative of her new abilities, but very unwilling to end up like a Sith. She deserted from the Empire, left her clan and became dar'manda once she realized the Mandalorians' actions didn't align with the values she'd internalized - there was no honor in what they were doing to civilians and prisoners upon the orders of the Sith, and certainly no honor in the Sith themselves. Ironically enough, I can see her Force sensitivity manifesting in battle as lightning or explosive shockwaves, intensifying and feeding on her bloodlust, risking her allies' safety and her own moral code. She would most likely approach the Jedi for training - though this is 2000 years before Tarre Vizsla, and they'd probably reject her for being too old and too Mandalorian. Still, she'd try to keep a cool head and seek out a mentor willing to help her, with Yuun's guidance along the way.

Captain Scorze is already afflicted by the meddling of an eldritch higher power, She who rules over the dark between the stars... but it's just like having a powerful Force-sensitive friend on call, really. They're still a totally normal Nautolan (even if nobody else is able to look at them straight on without feeling a chill down their spine, seeing shadows around them and hearing whispers of impending doom...) If they start getting win after win at the pazaak table, flipping a credit and watching it float midair a second too long, disappearing mid-fight before they can reach for their stealth generator - well, that's just a sign of Her favor, and they'll drink to their patron and sacrifice a little more of their coffers and themself to the altar of the void. Pirate warlock time, hell yeah!

Agent Sa'vialis was once Force-sensitive... until she wasn't. She still gets the occasional weirdly insistent gut feeling that may or may not turn out to be anything; it's impossible to tell if it's her old powers, her experience and instincts, or her paranoia and generally fucked mental health that are issuing any sort of warning, and she always verifies her thoughts in reality before she's willing to act on them. She also has the kind of luck that would make a smuggler blush, though she attributes all of her charisma nat 20s to her own efforts, thank you very much. As it is, she's nowhere near the threshold of being noticeably open to the Force, far below the 90th percentile by galactic standards.

If her Force sensitivity were to return, in the precognition she used as a navigator and the persuasion she's made into an art... she'd be more elated than angsty, but would fuck off from the Empire real quick; she's seen what the Sith are like and doesn't care to become one. Their freedom isn't all it's cracked up to be, and she'd want to test her abilities in private before any faction got its claws on her - she'd never be able to return to Chiss space if word got out, either. Her relationship with Raina would get both more and less complicated; in canon, they're very much like sisters, but she is the tiniest bit jealous. At least it would bring them closer, for better or worse. Probably worse tbh, they'd be holy terrors once they started figuring out their abilities together...

(Totally agree about the game btw, oooh they better not. A temporary losing/gaining powers arc could be interesting, but it would have to be very carefully handled in the story, and not actually change one's combat style or anything. If they ever just went "hey everyone is Force-sensitive now, you're welcome," I would stop playing lol.)

[afloweroutofstone]

My favorite category of government program to run across is "program you've never heard of doing extremely important work to solve a major problem which you have also never heard of." On that note, the US drops millions of pounds of sterile bugs over Panama each week in order to prevent a parasite infestation from moving into North America. Everyone say thank you to the Panama-United States Commission for the Eradication and Prevention of the Cattle Borer Worm (COPEG)

[afloweroutofstone]

This program had its funding cut during the DOGE cuts last year and now the parasitic worm they were trying to slow the spread of has officially arrived in the United States.

[knifearo]

by the way

[crqstalite]

stay your pretty eyes on course.

[tiredassmage]

If this thing eats us, you're fired.

[zod-off]

Hunter.

Hey so uhh does everyone remember those painterly portraits I did for my new inquisitors? Seddhun has been sitting in my wips looking at me every time I scroll past them for a while now 😅.

I'm not gonna finish this so I'm setting them free at last lol. One day they will have actual characterisation but today is not that day 😌🙏.

I think the idea was that they're in debt to their former slave master/fighting ring for the cost of buying their own and their brother's freedom. So the great hunt seems an excellent way to finally pay off the money they owe. No idea if they'll learn honour and morals or if they'll continue in the dog eat dog world mindset.

[evil-puppetmaster]

There are a lot of reasons to oppose monarchy but one of the most overlooked is that the king is always getting stuck in some kind of hazardous puzzle chamber filling up with gravel or lava or something. Do your fucking job man

[occultopossum]

Typical

[thursdaylast]

my favorite part of silksong is when Hornet pauses midbattle to write mean things about the bugs she's fighting in her diary. very relatable

[lucenorthstar]

it's all right. it's all right.

[stygian-caldera]

oc portrait wip. not sure i'll finish this

[muttsandmustelidae]

From the Nashville Zoo’s fb page! Here’s the petition, please please please take a moment to add your name (even if you’re not from Nashville!). If you are from Tennessee, contact your representatives and make it clear that the people do not want this data center. This is an AZA accredited zoo which is home to several species of critically endangered animals, we NEED to protect it. Make your voice heard!

[muttsandmustelidae]

Because people will pay attention to cute animals, here are some of the critically endangered/endangered species housed at the Nashville Zoo!

The Amur Leopard and Clouded Leopard (which recently celebrated its 50th cub born at the zoo!)

The Sumatran Tiger

The Red Ruffed Lemur and Ring-Tailed Lemur

The Cotton-Top Tamarin and White-Cheeked Gibbon

The Colobus Monkey and De Brazza’s Monkey

And the Mexican Spider Monkey!

Look at them!!!! Look at them and fight like hell to save them!!!!

[autisticlittleguy]

"Grace Ryland is Rocky's dog" is such a funny fucking dynamic when you think about it

Eridians are further behind than humans technologically right? They dont have computers, relativity, quantum mechanics, etc. In fact, Eridians probably dont even know about the Big Bang because their atmosphere would filter out most of the cosmic microwave background radiation we use to detect it. On a human timeline, theyre anywhere between like early-mid 20th century. Rocky's basically a cosmonaut.

So the human civilization is pretty advanced from Rocky's perspective. Rationally he understands this. On a conceptual level he knows this to be true.

But at the same time... imagine youre one of the first ever cosmonauts to make it into space. Then you meet a 10 year old alien dog who cant do 2+2 without pulling out its calculator. It forgets everything constantly and has to keep notes everywhere, like it basically lives in Memento (2000). Also if it doesnt nap constantly it gets even stupider. And you somehow has to reconcile this with the fact that this dog has a better understanding of physics than your entire civilization does. Like the dog knows how the universe started.

[autisticlittleguy]

This isnt better from Grace's perspective btw. Eridians never developed computers, so all their ship systems are steered using basically the manual labor of 24 Eridians. Also theres no radiation shielding on their ship. Actually im pretty sure half the reason why Rocky is always busy fixing shit is because the radiation keeps frying all the onboard electronics, so hes always building and fixing and replacing components

Like imagine being a modern day sailor navigating the Pacific with GPS and strong hulls to protect against the raging ocean. And from portside you see like an honest to god viking ship. Except its made of some high tech carbon fiber material. But like, its still very definitely a viking ship. You can clearly see there's 24 oars along the hull where sailors are supposed to use to manually row their ship. Also the ship is leaking and theres like one little dude on board whos skittering around patching the holes constantly. Also this little dude is blind and doesnt know about water. Thats how insane Eridians look being an interstellar species without computers or radiation shielding.

Both of them thinks the other one is the completely ridiculous and absurd one and theyre both totally amazed at how far the other has come in spite of it