~ Steve And Bucky ~

So true

Reading about how to manage pcos and it’s like:

don’t use deodorant, don’t use perfume, stop eating carbs, stop eating dairy, stop eating sugar, stop eating gluten, stop consuming any form of caffeine, stop consuming salt, don’t use nonstick pans, don’t drink water from plastic water bottles, take 20 different supplements every day, eat avocados every day, live in the forest, build a house from logs you personally got from cutting a pine tree in the forest, only feast on berries and meat you hunted yourself and only drink water from the stream behind your wooden house in the forest.

I’ve developed a pointless headcanon that Gholdengo will casually collapse back into a pile of coins when pouting. like they’ll just get upset over something and

cue some trainer walking into the Pokemon Center, dumping 1,000 pennies on the counter, and being like “yeah they didn’t want to come in today”

My mom bought me this book for Christmas

The Resurrectionist by EB Hudspeth, a fantasy field guide full of anatomical illustrations of monsters and cryptids.

The musculoskeletal systems are fun to look at, but not nearly as in-depth as I would have liked. If you have more than a passing knowledge of taxonomy (or in my case, access to Wikipedia), a lot of the details fall apart under scrutiny

The harpy has four upper limbs connected to one shoulder girdle; it shouldn't have arms, only wings

The sphinx is not classified as a mammal, but is still somehow in the family Felidae with cats (and like the harpy is also drawn with only two girdles despite having six limbs. I will give the author credit for giving the sphinx a keel for the wing muscles to attach to)

It lists the Hindu deity Genesha as a cryptid, which is a no-no.

Cerberus is also explicitly not a mammal, but somehow still a canine (literally in the species Canis with wolves, dogs, and coyotes)

Both mermaids and dragons are listed as members of the order Caudata; the only extant members of Caudata are salamanders, which kinda makes sense for dragons, but not so much for mermaids (also, the author keeps playing it fast and loose with cladistics; both mermaids and dragons are in the same order despite being in different classes, and while dragons are explicitly said to be amphibians, mermaids are given the fictional class mammicthyes, which means mammal-fish. At that point, why not just call mermaids amphibians? Why make up a fake latin hybrid name?)

But what bugs me most of all is the classification of the Minotaur as its own order of mammal when in mythology it is explicitly described as a hybrid of two known species (made possible only by the cruel machinations of the divine, but still)

To use actual taxonomical nomenclature, the minotaur's species would be B. taurus × H. sapiens (specifically B. taurus♂ × H. sapiens♀; there are, to my knowledge, no legends of H. sapiens♂ × B. taurus♀). That's how ligers, tigons, mules, zorses, pizzly bears, narlugas, etc., are described.

If I had written this book, I would have leaned more into evolutionary biology. Most land animals have four limbs because they all evolved from boney lobe-finned fish, which split off from the boneless sharks and rays millions of years earlier, so any six-limbed vertebrates would need to be descended from a fictitious category of six-finned fish which would either be an offshoot of boney fish/tetrapods (I guess they'd be hexapods, though that term refers to insect arthropods), OR a precursor to boney and cartilaginous fish that both clades split away from much earlier (it's easier to lose structures than to gain them, so it makes more sense for a six-limbed ancestor to spawn four-limbed descendants than the other way around).

Think about how different elephants are from humans, and humans are from aligators, and aligators are from penguins, and remember that they all evolved from the same ancestor tiktaalik, an amphibious fish that existed some 375 million years ago. Imagine a precursor six-limbed species and how diverse all its descendants would look after 400 million years. Save for the occasional instance of convergent evolution causing two unrelated species to independently evolve similar body plans to fill the same niche, tetrapods and hexapods would look nothing alike. There would be very little recognizable overlap between the two. A six-limbed "pegasus" would not look like a real world horse, and a six-limbed "dragon" would not look reptilian/dinosaur-ish, for much the same reason that giraffes don't look like frogs; they're just too distantly related. Bonless sharks and boney fish and whales/dolphins all have similar looking bodyplans only because their environment requires the same hydrodynamic shape, while terrstrial vertebrates are much more physically diverse.

I love these descriptions! This person made them out to sound like cryptids!

Telling Apart Fallout Protagonists: a Discerning Wastelander’s Guide

Vault Dweller: a Vault Dweller will typically be wearing the Vault 13 jumpsuit, but given the prominence of the Vault through the Interplay-Obsidian games, it’s not a guarantee. Look for the scrungliest teen you can find or - due to the sheer bulk and limited graphics of the game’s default protagonist - a man with the widest tits known to man.

Chosen One: it can be hard to discern Chosen Ones, as they are the least drawn Fallout protagonists. Often, the Chosen One will be clad in armor made from vault suits, power armor, or other series staples. The presence of the Highwayman is a dead giveaway.

Lone Wanderer: Lone Wanderers will often be difficult to parse from Vault Dwellers; always check the Vault number when identifying if possible. Like the Vault Dweller, Lone Wanderers are teenagers, but the Lone Wanderer has a softer, more cherubic side than the Vault Dweller’s harder edge. They may use this soft side to lure in unsuspecting enemies, or they have gone through enough for it to have been worn off - but glimmers of it remain.

Courier 6: there are three dominant subspecies of Courier 6 - the Cowboy, the Ranger, and the Dogtooth (so named for the pattern of their “borrowed” suit jacket). Other variants, such as the Khan or the Ghoul, are less common.

Sole Survivor: unlike other protagonists, the Sole Survivor can often be found in pre-war clothing - if not their main outfit, than an “in town” plumage. The Minuteman General is a common type, but a surprisingly persistent subspecies is the Stepford. Overwhelmingly female, the Stepford can be identified by their blond hair, blue eyes, uneasy smile. Be careful around the Stepford, though: those red splotches on her dress aren’t flowers, and that’s not jewelry glinting behind her black.

Reclaimer: extremely uncommon and hard to identify.

I 💖 reindeer 🔔🦌🎀

Laura's Magical Kisses

Laura really did have the most enchanting lips. They were so soft, so warm, and the perfect shade of rosy pink to entice Gena back to them again and again and again until she felt practically dizzy with arousal. Every time she thought she could pull away, every time she thought she could clear the erotic fog out of her head they seduced her into, Gena leaned back ever so slightly and saw them teasing her with that Cupid’s bow and she lost herself in yet another deep, soulful kiss. And the world once again slipped away into peace and pleasure and she forgot everything but her lover’s beautiful mouth.

Even when she knew there were things she should be focusing on, they always seemed distant and irrelevant compared to the warmth of those magical kisses. They were supposed to be studying, after all, and the midterm was less than a week away… but Gena’s eyes resolutely refused to open, and her thoughts didn’t want to drag themselves free of the scent and taste of Laura’s gorgeous lips. They kept Gena in a state of distraction so sensual and erotic all their own that she barely noticed Laura pulling up Gena’s top so her heavy tits dangled and swayed with every motion… motion? That, that was… motion?

It was only when she really tried to put her sluggish brain to work that Gena realized just how little hyperbole lay behind her daydreams of Laura’s mesmerizing lips. Every time she tried to break down the tangle of emotion and sensation that wrapped her up and held her and left her dazed and befuddled and utterly stupefied with lust, Gena found herself once again focusing on the sensual beauty of those enchanting kisses. The rocking motion of her body, the vague and distant memories of a door opening and closing, the hand resting on the small of her back, it all blended together into confusion and Gena couldn’t separate it all out. It was simply pleasure, intense and overwhelming, and Laura’s mouth exemplified that pleasure so completely that Gena couldn’t think about anything else.

Slowly, though, and with a titanic effort, Gena managed to pick out a few details. Laura’s soft, soothing caresses on her shoulders, each one easing her back down into the erotic reverie that began and ended with those perfect lips. A feeling of restraint, as though something–maybe her own bunched and tangled panties–was confining her legs as she crouched on all fours. Low, masculine grunts, each one timed to the sensation of a well-lubed shaft penetrating Gena’s slick and hungry ass. That one stirred up memories of a finger smearing something over and around and inside her anus, loosening it while Gena drifted in endless distraction and kissed herself into blissful oblivion. Was… was she getting butt-fucked without even noticing? Was that even possible? Gena tried to open her eyes and look.

But then Laura kissed her again, and Gena’s resolve melted into slick, dripping lust against those soft pink lips. She didn’t need to think about what was happening behind her. She didn’t need to tear herself away from that perfect embrace. She could keep kissing and let it all simply fade away… and the last tiny little speck thought Gena summoned up before her mind went joyously blank was that this wasn’t the first time she’d struggled and failed to free herself from Laura’s trance. And it absolutely wouldn’t be the last.

(If you enjoy this fiction and want to make sure it continues, please visit https://www.patreon.com/Jukebox to become a supporter. Or, if you simply want to make a one-time contribution, you can drop me a tip at https://ko-fi.com/jukebox instead. Thank you!)

As someone that has been diagnosed with both avpd and autism, I am curious about that post Shinji was talking about between how avpd and autism could be comorbid. Would you like to share?

Hello.. Thanks for your interest. Sorry this took so long to respond to. These thoughts are still a work in progress, so… If anyone has any input, please feel free to give it!

Just to be clear, I’m not a professional. I’m working off the research I have done, personal experience, and observations of others. Unfortunately, it is really hard to find information on this kind of thing because of the little research done about autistic adults, and how so much of it treats us like we are incapable of complex emotional behaviour because we are autistic.

The basic idea is that I think autistic people can be more inclined to develop certain personality disorders than allistic people due to how our brains are wired, how susceptible we are to abuse, and how autistic people process trauma compared to allistic people. Here, I’m talking about Avoidant Personality Disorder specifically.

#tw for talk of abuse and ableism

For AvPD, I think that when you look at the causes of it, it becomes apparent that an autistic person could easily develop it. A study taken about the relationship of those diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder and personality disorder criteria found this:

“When markedly avoidant behavior is present in individualswith PDD/ASD, it could rather be seen as a consequence ofthe PDD/ASD. For some individuals with AS, their disabilityin interpreting social cues leads to a major concern aboutwhat impression they make on others and even a disablingfear for social situations, thus increasing the risk for avoidantbehavior. Moreover, elevated sensitivity to stressful environmentsbecause of visual and auditory perceptual difficultiesmay well contribute to avoidant behavior.” (source)

So, we can see that there is a significant portion of autistic people that display enough avoidant behaviour to mark off most if not all the criteria for the diagnosis of AvPD. I mean, this isn’t news… It’s why the differential diagnosis between AvPD and autism spectrum disorders are so controversial. There was always this assumption that many people diagnosed with AvPD were actually autistic, but with new information coming out about personality disorders, I think it’s kind of silly not to consider you can have both. 

(Obviously the world of medicine is starting to believe that it’s silly, too. Being diagnosed with a PD and an autism spectrum disorder is really common now. I don’t have any statistics for this, but I can confidently say 2/3 of the autistic people I know are also securely diagnosed with a PD.)

There is a lot of controversy about the ‘nature versus nurture’ debate with personality disorders, and that’s why PDs used to not really be diagnosed alongside autism. There’s been a lot of new research on this in general, but with AvPD, it has generally been confirmed to develop from things such as neglect, abuse, incest and peer rejection. Some people do develop AvPD and feel they have nothing that conditioned the disorder, but you can’t ignore the apparent link between PTSD/C-PTSD and AvPD. 

“… it is generally believed that these biological substrates exist within the avoidant personality as a biological foundation for the emergence of the disorder itself & that full development of APD is likely due to significant environmental influences (Millon & Everly).”

So, if we take this all into account: AvPD fully develops due to environmental factors. These environmental factors are often abuse, neglect, peer rejection, and related things. And there are studies confirming that not only do autistic people experience the world more intensely, but that they are much more susceptible to neglect and peer victimization/rejection than allistic people, and twice as susceptible to physical/sexual abuse.

Being autistic in an allistic world means living in a world that is constantly telling us to be smaller, to be quieter, to not exist. Trauma can develop in several different ways, of course, but the main point is that autistic people experience the environmental causes of AvPD at higher rates than allistic people - so why would autistic people not be more inclined to develop it? Why wouldn’t an autistic person develop AvPD when the world is constantly pushing us to be exactly what AvPD turns you into: out of mind and out of sight?

I hope someday in the future more research is done about autistic adults and trauma, as well as personality disorders. (I also hope it can be done in a way that isn’t full of stigma and demonization of autistic people and the mentally ill.) 

Anyway, um, that’s just my take on it. Sorry that it got so long-winded.

- Shinji

Fudgy Brownie Cookies

Recipe source: Marsha’s Baking Addiction

The first batch of the Pride Stegosaurus designs I’ve done over the last 2 years.

They’re available as 5x7 prints and large and small vinyl stickers on my website.

www.emmalerae.com

Skin Picking

AJ’s Brain