No unifying theme, just vibes

Medley. Old enough to know better. I write fic, mostly about books and Babylon 5. This is my weird little internet scrapbook. Un_finished @ AO3

[wholeheartedsuggestions]

we are all “difficult” sometimes. that doesn’t make you a problem or a burden or an inconvenience. it makes you a human being with feelings.

[funstyle]

[recommending something i sincerely love] ok so the thing about it is it kinda sucks

[idrawr16yt]

[phaeton-flier]

Bear religion probably fucking rocks. You're a fucking bear, you're the deadliest thing on earth, once a year an endless supply of salmon just flings itself up the river to gorge on and then you nap for 3 months.

[phaeton-flier]

The most delicious food in the world is protected by tiny demons who can defend it from everyone except you. Your natural armor is thick enough that you can just eat the damn hive while they buzz around you. God's chosen animals right there

[theaudientvoid]

[centrally-unplanned]

Regular bears tell stories of angel bears sent by the Bear God, pure white and twice as strong as any normal bear could be, who rule the summit of the Earth and kill all who stand in their path.

And they are right, those bears exist and totally do that. Humans just have fake angels as a cope.

[theabigailthorn]

love the idea of bears being the chosen species actually. having a near death experience and glimpsing heaven and realising it's just full of bears, no humans at all, humans not ensouled actually, humans an accidental byproduct of God's plan for bears

[virgin-martyr]

Lisa Robertson’s “Report 1624: The House" 

[quasi-normalcy]

My headcanon is that the Minbari "head bone" starts off as two horns that grow on either side of the head until they merge together at the back

[thatpegasusmedley]

I seldom dive into fandom discourse, and I’m not saying OP’s headcanon is wrong (since headcanon BY DEFINITION can’t be wrong and this is a hill I will die on). BUT! It’s not biologically impossible - or even implauisible - at all for Minbari to be born with their crest, so long as they have something like eponychium/“foal slippers” covering their crest during gestation and birth. Eponychium is the soft tissue covering horse foals’ hooves so they don’t damage the mare’s reproductive tract. You’ll only ever see foal slippers if you are around VERY young foals - they’re gone by the time the foal is a day or two old. Pictorial references here if you want them (weird but not gross): https://www.horsenation.com/2022/08/22/mythbuster-monday-foals-are-born-with-slippers/

[gracklesascendant]

oh wow, this is a really cool fact!

I suppose the other difficulty, assuming Minbari are basically mammals close to humans (and since they're all 1-10% human this seems to be the case), is that human heads are already difficult to birth because our heads are so big. human infants are born with unfused skull bones so they can fit through the birth canal.

maybe there's something bendy and unfused going on there, though!

[thatpegasusmedley]

Or else they’re born even more “undercooked” than human babies - I’m given to understand that the reason humans are born so underdeveloped compared to other primates is because otherwise our heads wouldn’t fit through the birth canal (!).

Poor Minbari parents if that’s the case lol

[oilpalette]

Monsieur Noir in the Yellow Room, 2026 by Elena Polishchuk (Russian, b. 1978); Oil on canvas, 60×60cm

[quasi-normalcy]

My headcanon is that the Minbari "head bone" starts off as two horns that grow on either side of the head until they merge together at the back

[thatpegasusmedley]

I seldom dive into fandom discourse, and I’m not saying OP’s headcanon is wrong (since headcanon BY DEFINITION can’t be wrong and this is a hill I will die on). BUT! It’s not biologically impossible - or even implauisible - at all for Minbari to be born with their crest, so long as they have something like eponychium/“foal slippers” covering their crest during gestation and birth. Eponychium is the soft tissue covering horse foals’ hooves so they don’t damage the mare’s reproductive tract. You’ll only ever see foal slippers if you are around VERY young foals - they’re gone by the time the foal is a day or two old. Pictorial references here if you want them (weird but not gross): https://www.horsenation.com/2022/08/22/mythbuster-monday-foals-are-born-with-slippers/

[enchantedbook]

"The Frog Prince" #illustration by Traute Schlegell, 1960

[horsefigureoftheday]

Horse figure of the day: Roman Seraphim "Stephanie"

[deadagaindaniel]

do you really need to ask jack

[lady-viccy]

Mutuals in different timezones:

Turn based friendship

[s2g]

[gracklesascendant]

does anyone else headcanon Babylon 5 Mars as kinda 1800s-1900s Texas politically (kinda poor and depressed and sucks to live there! no money! libertarian paradise! can't go two feet without running into a libertarian socialist or otherwise commune! cult compounds up the wazu!)

and kinda ultra cyberpunk: huge mega corporations own many of the resources, there's barely any worker's rights to speak of, the recent rebellion being put down brutally in 2258 means everyone hates EarthGov. there's a big military security presence, and things we take for granted like free association and small presses and political associations, are repeatedly cracked down upon

and the Resistance is a mess of true believers who want someone better in with cult of personalities, people who want revenge against Earth and will do anything to get it, hobbiest murderers, corporate false flag operations, EarthGov false flags to delegitimize resistance etc. and these are sometimes all the same cell

oh yeah and security forces brutalize people in broad daylight and EarthGov doesn't care even when the Mars Provisional Government complains. This is canon to Deadly Relations even circa ~2200, by the way, the book has Psi Cops brutally scan non-telepaths in public (two big no-nos) and nothing happens to them. Bester explicitly notes how much he appreciates this lol

everything is cramped and if you aren't working for Earth you've starved in living memory (the 2258 rebellion happened because the earlier food riots were brutally suppressed)

but everyone is walking around with 90s New York accents and with a lot of 1900s New York kitch in the touristy districts in the main city, near Armstrong Spaceport, and in New Vegas

and I imagine New Vegas as a pastiche of 20th century Vegas turned up to 11 when they have money to do so, complete with organized crime

[gracklesascendant]

ALSO everyone's favorite Captain Sheridan was part of that brutal crackdown in 2258 and saw no problem with it

and that's (part of) why Clark thinks Sheridan will support him when he appoints him to Babylon 5.

the other part is Sheridan is THE biggest war hero from the Earth-Minbari war and the xenophobic flavor of fascism gripping Earth venerates him as part of their whole cult of heroism thing. those guys WISH they were Sheridan when they daydream about killing Minbari. that's why they always say "Sheridan was tricked by EVIL MINBARI PUSSY" and never "Sheridan sucks" in their propaganda lol

[corrya]

I think about this like once a day

[fuckyeahkitschy2]

[english-history-trip]

[o-craven-canto]

It might seem weird and strange, or even vexing and annoying, but there is a tale and cause for the whole and totality of it.

[o-craven-canto]

curse and damn it, this is way too fun and amusing. It should be done with care and attention before it stains and ruins my whole speech and language