Daily OpusEverything I write is freely rebloggable. Just keep the source and tell people about my books :D [Until I decide otherwise, my pronouns are Ze/Hir/Hirself. As in "Ze went to the shops to get hir medication hirself". Thank you for the respect.]
[AN: Link leads to some things found on Pompeii’s walls. Most of it rude. It’s not just Pompeii, but also there’s a dick drawn on Hadrian’s wall, and Nordic runes in a very high place in a cave that read, Gosh this is a long way up, or words to that effect. Humanity never changes.]
They had been excavating for months. The city itself had been flooded by a mudslide in eras past. By all historical accounts, only the most stubborn residents refused to flee before the disaster. In terms of geology, it had gone under very quickly. In less than a week. There had been weeks of warning, and an encroaching tide of mud, all of which only lead to the people living there to ignore all warnings.
Humans could be like that, sometimes. However, there were few left when the most liquid slurry engulfed the area literally overnight. When it was over, there was no trace left and little geography remaining to assist in finding the place. In its own way, it was a time machine. Those excavating it could find the place unchanged for hundreds of years.
Right now, they were finding the graffiti of the public left in public places. Humans were loath to write in their own spaces, but the courtyard of many is also vandalized by everyone. Many a word of wit and wisdom has been left on the surface of a public toilet stall.
I had some other work to do this morning (Figuring out some algae stuff involving 1000 L mesocosm up a mountain) so mystery species has been sitting alone in the lab all morning…..
Made it up to the lab today to find this. It’s probably from the fridge defrosting and not the creepy “algae”.
June 13th Update.
According to a few colleagues it’s either a plant, an algae, or a fungi. So that’s been helpful.
After a day with some sunlight I think I might be seeing some chloroplasts.
It seems to like the nutrient solution I added yesterday though!
I for one welcome our new plant, algae, or fungi overlords.
I was about to say “in a sensible lab people wouldn’t waste time with this, they’d autoclave the bottles and move on” but on reflection I can’t think of a single bio lab I’ve been in that wouldn’t immediately go “ooh, mystery algae, that sounds like a fun challenge; let’s devote multiple hours to identifying it for no reason”.
I need updates tell me about the algae
The mystery algae/plant/fungi/alien is stuck in the university growth chamber. With everything going on I probably won’t get to check in on it until September, possibly not until 2021.
So by that time it will have developed what, writing?
God I hope so, then I can train it to write my thesis!
This entire post is the most on-brand biologist thing I have seen in my entire godforsaken life. The moment this pandemic is over these guys have another crisis ready for us.
Can we get an update cause this is crazy
Update: Due to the global pandemic, the algae has been left alone in a weird hidden growth chamber for a year and will likely stay there for another year. Enjoy that information!
Oh god oh fuck oh Jesus fuck
This is unreasonably funny to me. Like if you wrote it as an apocalypse drama, nobody would believe it… But this is real stuff.
The World ends not with a bang. Not with a whimper. But with a curious voice cooing, “Oooh, what’s that?” and a poke.
Accidents happen quickly. Reactions to them differ. Humans have a shock response that insulates them from immediately feeling an injury. As a survival tactic, it’s great for getting the people away from the threat, but in a more technologically advanced setting… it’s disturbing to unprepared onlookers.
Human Dree had been working on something involving sharp tools and applied pressure. One of their multiple hobbies. The tool slipped, and the reaction was instant and automatic. “FLAKK!”
Human Dree left their work to track down the tool that had gone flying. In the process, they realised that they were hurt. “Ow.” Human Dree finished retrieving their tool and inspected the site of their pain. Palpating the area, seemingly for curiosity’s sake more than anything else.
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“So you’re telling me… that you have an actual WAR GAME!!” – Anon Guest
The Humans had been playing Symbolically Kill Your Friends with something called Water Guns. Traxx, watching the mayhem, was rather puzzled, and asked the obvious question: “This is a game of hunting, or a game of war?”
Human Deb answered, “Oh we have loads of games of war.” Then they casually shot their ally across the hall.
Which lead to the next question: “How much number is ‘loads’?” Which, Traxx had to admit, came out with more than a vague note of panic in it.
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We have a lot of “dragons” in our history, whether they be a legend, fairytale, myth or cultural history. Humans find that there is a dragon-like species that matches many of there historical depictions of their dragons, but are treated like outcasts. The Alliance, not knowing this, get a little worried when they threatened about the dragons. While humans try to make the dragons feel less like outcasts. – Anon Guest
At first, the Humans thought it was a joke. Galactic Alliance maps held pictograms showing the intelligent species that lived within any given territory, though some were so small that an observer would have to zoom in. The territory of the Drakkoen was large and had a picture that the Humans instantly recognised.
“You’re kidding, right?” they would say. “Here there be dragons? For real?”
The patient map-holder would have to explain that, yes, that was a real territory and those were the real Deathworlder beings who lived there and yes, they really were dangerous and– why are you jotting down co-ordinates, Human? Following this was the dawning horror that the Human or Humans were actively planning to go there and say ‘hello’.
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Chinese Water Torture is in the best cases extremely effective and in the worst cases useless against Humans. It’s debatable.
Unsurprisingly Aliens of all species are not familiar with it and subsequently belong to the first Category. – Anon Guest
One drop… falls. It lands on the brow of the captive, who cannot escape its icy touch. One drop of water is no physical harm to anyone. Theoretically, they could eventually fill the room, were it not well drained. Some drops don’t even make it as far as the drains, evaporating from the captive’s skin and hair.
Another drop, and another, and another, raining down in slow and steady beats. It’s the kind of force that wears holes into stones. It’s the kind of force that wears away mountains. It is the relentless force that could tunnel through to the centre of the world, should nothing else stop it.
But it is a single drop of water. There’s no way that one drop could hurt or harm a living being. After the third hour of one drop after another, that truth seems less and less likely. Every drop is like a bullet. Time ticks away, and the captive starts to dread the next drop.
[Be sure to visit internutter (dot) org for a link to the rest of this story, and details on how to support this artist. Or visit steemit (dot) com (slash at) internutter for the stories at their freshest]
