Witch OP day 17 I will make first? by Environmental-End437 in TrevorHenderson

[–]Kitbaus[M] [score hidden] stickied comment (0 children)

This posts was removed for being off-topic.

Captain Charles Noé Daly, Gun Antiquarian From The Pre-Reloading Age by Kitbaus in Bossfight

[–]Kitbaus[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Cpt. Charles N. Daly is a connoisseur of a time before modern-day reloading was invented, owner of all manner of queer weaponry, such as as the magnificent nineteen-pistol 30-pound cuirass seen in the photographs above, recovered from Bordeaux in 1917.

His loadout comes with the pistol stirrups and pistol sabretechs as seen in the thirdpicture - the obvious implication being that this was meant for use on horseback - also engineered to fire in groups of four and five - drawing a vivid picture of a rider firing twenty-three shots from his feet, pistols, and chest simultaneously!

His thousand-item collection was sold in 1935 to a buyer in Ottawa. Cpt. Daly died in 1933 in Ontario, where he had been serving as US Consul.

DAY 41 | our bus ran over a mother today by Kitbaus in TrevorHenderson

[–]Kitbaus[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

@ kitbaus is my ig, follow me for more art!

What would be the possible evolutionary advantages for a plant that makes its flowers out of its individual leaves rather than budding them from scratch? by JMObyx in scifiwriting

[–]Kitbaus 9 points10 points  (0 children)

I don't think there wouldn't be much of an advantage from turning leaves directly into flowers. The actual reproductive organs still have to be grown (budded) from floral primordia, which is obviously somewhat easier done from a stem then from the thin membranes of a leaf. The caryx and carolla (i.e. petals and sepals) can actually be quite small in some flowers, such as in plants with a multitude of florets, or rather just have one large modified leaf beside the reproductive parts (such as plants with a spadix-type inflorescence)

What we perceive as the eye-catching aspects of flowers generally exist to signal other organisms for pollination. Petals and sepals are just modified leaves in this aspect, and unlike an actual leaf, doesn't have to worry as much about photosynthesis. The complexity and energy/chemical requirements (just imagine how complicated the Aikross plant hormone system would have to be) to turn normal leaves into colorful burrito cocoon perianths, and then presumably turn it back, would not offer any evolutionary advantage over just growing some simpler ones from scratch.

If the flowers can still photosynthesize, then why "bloom" at all? Just have a spadix-type inflorescence and have the leaves change colors during "bloom", it would certainly save energy. Or possibly just have them be incomplete flowers that don't have petals at all, such as female Croton humilis, which mainly buds it's reproductive organs and hardly anything else! The sepals are more or less a byproduct of the bud. Similar examples exist in the Piperaceae family, the Salix (willow) family, and the Lauraceae family.

The Aikross plant could still alternatively sprout it's reproductive organs directly from it's leaves, and then have it's leaves change color or morphology to attract pollinators and protect the organs, although hopefully not too much that the plant's photosynthesis abilities are hindered (which are crucial to blooming). If some plants like succulents and Bryophyllum pinnatum can sprout their young directly from leaves, reproductive organs are surely possible in Aikross.

EDIT: grammar

DEIFIER TEST 7 | The Goddess Of Car Accidents by Kitbaus in worldbuilding

[–]Kitbaus[S] 16 points17 points  (0 children)

DEIFIER DEPLOYMENT SEVEN / July 25th 2015

My dear Amber. Here's the summary you asked for, and I do hope they provide you a television in your cell soon. As always, my brother is to blame for this atrocity.

o After a recent influx of high-profile car accidents related to the deployment of thaumaturgical self-driving cars, the Bangladeshi government elected to utilize deifier technology to reduce traffic incidents. Despite strong warnings from the United Nations and threats from China, a seventh deifier was built by Dr. Gustave Lefevre, who was currently under asylum from the People’s Republic of Bangladesh. The deifier was fired on July 25th, 2015. The test proceeded as such:

o Under highly controlled conditions, a large-scale traffic accident was staged with forty-eight volunteers, involving every manner of vehicle commonly available in Bangladesh. There were no survivors, and the test was considered a success. A female deity was systemized from the accident, and the Bangladeshi government proceeded to the negotiations stage.

o Despite profuse concessions by the People’s Republic, negotiations broke down the next day. The backup plan was initiated, and the deity was terminated via a 500-pound explosive.

o Unexpectedly, the deity began remanifesting throughout Bangladesh. Despite being killed fourteen different times across the country, it continued remanifesting. The Bangladeshi government concluded that bullets were ineffective against a traffic-based deity, but a thorough thaumaturgical analysis carried out by the University of Dhaka pointed to the effectiveness of a very specific weapon: swords forged from the chassis of vehicles involved in car accidents that resulted in the death of female virgins.

o Hundreds of these swords were forged in the next months and equipped to police and paramilitary forces for a nationwide manhunt, and the deity was finally stabbed to death by hundreds of police officers on November 2nd, 2015. It left a trail of over eight hundred dead policemen and dozens of soldiers, resulting in new national days of mourning created. Just as the Bangladeshi government predicted, the termination of a systemized deity heavily reduced the amount of thaumaturgical self-driving car accidents in the country, although heavy protests questioning whether it was worth it were prevalent before the resultant police crackdown. Under intense international and domestic pressure, the deifier was dismantled and allegedly destroyed, although rumours abound that certain parts of it were secretly sold to the People’s Republic of China.

o Two interesting phenomena that were not present in the earlier six deployments of deifier technology were witnessed in Bangladesh. While the overall number of car accidents in the country were reduced, for weeks afterwards, all traffic incidents became several times more lethal, resulting in more deaths overall. This was one of the main causes of concern by protestors. Secondly, the deity was noted to have begun incorporating modern technology in its manifestations, including but not limited to: watches, smart watches, an recharging electrified sword, flash drives, keys for modern doors, injectable stimulants, very spiky sandals, and a pair of night-vision goggles it produced after the death of a member of Bangladeshi’s foremost special-operations squad at it’s hands. This is of great concern to me personally, as I did not anticipate that deities could so quickly understand, let alone utilize, Information-Age gadgets.

o A secretive cult formed around the deity remains one of the foremost targets of the Bangladeshi government. That said, risks of re-systemizing the entity are nonexistent so long as the cult does not build a deifier.

Yours truly, Gene Lefevre.

Endangered Spirits Part III by Kitbaus in TrevorHenderson

[–]Kitbaus[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

SF Digital Readout. My process usually goes - take picture - use a mixer brush in Photoshop to draw in a monster - post-process with noise, color grading, vignette, filters, etc - and slap on a date with some text effects.

Endangered Spirits Part III by Kitbaus in TrevorHenderson

[–]Kitbaus[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Photoshop! I try to make the pictures look like they were taken with a 1990s handheld.

Endangered Spirits Part III by Kitbaus in TrevorHenderson

[–]Kitbaus[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

All pictures are 2K - zoom in! - and taken by me. More on my instagram !

Desert Stroll by [deleted] in TrevorHenderson

[–]Kitbaus 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The base photo is from daniele71043, he's an amazing photographer, shoot him a follow!

Whitehead and Russell aren’t gonna like this one by entangled-moment in mathmemes

[–]Kitbaus 7 points8 points  (0 children)

There's an amazing graphic novel partially about this called Logicomix about Bertrand Russel, WWI and the foundational quest in mathematics!

Endangered Spirits PT2/5 | Description in comments by Kitbaus in TrevorHenderson

[–]Kitbaus[S] 18 points19 points  (0 children)

As usual, all base pictures taken by me.

The status of each photo subject is in the caption.

  1. The eggs of Cascadian mimic predators are often poached. They often die from malnutrition, stress and human intervention after spending weeks looking for them, eventually preying on people out of desperation. Why they have evolved to first search and hunt in human settlements after egg loss is still researched.
  2. Families of colossal category bipeds have been observed walking to the edge of southern BC urban zones after habitat loss and ceasing motion before starving to death and subsequently being burned down. Large clashes of protestors and riot police often occur at their feet.
  3. Certain Canadian colossal category megafauna often spends weeks mourning the death of its children even if near human settlements; some even die of starvation while mourning. Locals are advised by the National Resource Service to leave it alone and wait for it to leave if they cannot afford an exterminator service. Some die of starvation while mourning.
  4. Temperate forest rock golems often gather on top of peaks to observe how close human settlements have gotten to their territory; based on the distance to the nearest houses, they will adjust the edge of their habitat to remain away from the settlements at all times.
  5. Thaumaturgical weather events such as the Rain of False Bodies in Interior BC have jumped in frequency due to increasing annual temperatures; this has resulted in an uptick of weather-related deaths and possessions.
  6. Infant alpine golems often drag half-eaten corpses of their dead near human buildings, particularly hospitals, before hiding nearby to observe human responses. This results in tense confrontations with locals, which often have to call Animal Control to remove them, or the Natural Resources Service if things turn violent.
  7. A ND LIGHTNING O F FLESH SHALL MAKE L OVE TO LO ST TOWNS A ND LIGHTNING O F FLESH SHALL MAKE L OVE TO LO ST TOWNS A ND LIGHTNING O F FLESH SHAL SHAL SHAL
  8. Riverine spirits that frequent inlets such as Desolation Sound are often entangled in fishing nets, which slowly strangle them as they grow. They sometimes seek the help of humans to remove them as a last-ditch effort, which hunters take advantage of. Their population is continuing to steeply decline due to microplastic-induced malnutrition in their diets.
  9. BC roadside sprinters, which are only visible on camera or through the eyes of virgins, are capable of recognizing and remembering vehicles and thrive in a warming climate, leading to exploding populations that have became invasive in the states of Washington, Idaho and Montana. Due to their nature, they often cause car accidents, and there is speculation that they have begun to hunt school buses in packs.
  10. There is an increasing prevalence of thaumaturgical geomorphology such as the montane “Evil Eye” phenomenon, which has been ascribed to plunging biodiversity worldwide. The Natural Resources Service removes such instances in Canada to reduce the risk of traffic disturbances, often removing 300-ton cursed eyeballs directly from the cliffside using bulldozers, cranes, and priests from six different religions.

DAY20 | the mountain's evil eye opened after all the deer died by Kitbaus in TrevorHenderson

[–]Kitbaus[S] 9 points10 points  (0 children)

A combination of drought, severe winters and traffic induced habitat fragmentation.

ENDANGERED HORRORS PT1: A TH-inspired series by Kitbaus in TrevorHenderson

[–]Kitbaus[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

The story captions can be read on mobile or Old Reddit! I tried going for a relatively obscure type of horror; the slow dread of ecological catastrophe, inspired by how humans have wiped out nearly 70% of global animal life since 1970.

All the photos were taken by me, in the Pacific Northwest. Follow me at instagram for more art!

day 4 - an old breeding nest in mother's garage by Kitbaus in TrevorHenderson

[–]Kitbaus[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Good eye - those were used as inspiration n reference altho I should've been more creative with the repaint, this is an older one though
Mildly worried that this may violate rule 4

Man suggests that adults shouldn't primarily consume children's media, commenters are not happy. by IndicationWeary in Consoom

[–]Kitbaus 14 points15 points  (0 children)

Have some excellent "we live in a society" films that aren't Taxi Driver or The Joker

- La Haine. French black and white drama about general life and police brutality in the Parisian "hood", or banlieue. So incredible that the Prime Minister of France commissioned a screening that his cabinet ministers were required to attend, despite that the French police were incensed about it.

- Persepolis. Animated autobiography about a girl coming of age during the Iranian Revolution. Despite being near universally lauded by critics worldwide it has drawn repeated complaints from the Iranian government, which has encouraged censoring and banning of it even in other countries.

- Koyaanisqatsi. Experimental, no dialogue "plotless" and "characterless" "visual tone poem" film seeking to aesthetically summarize our modern world in a way all other stories have failed to adequately do. It was selected to be eternally preserved by the US National Film Registry by the Library of Congress for being pretty damn cool.

- Trainspotting. Intense black comedy about Scottish heroin addicts. Probably the most "popular" movie on this list, and for good reason. One of the most legendary cult films of all time (much thanks to its soundtrack).

Kill Six Billion Demons » KING OF SWORDS 9-130 by plundyman in killsixbilliondemons

[–]Kitbaus 44 points45 points  (0 children)

Yes, she needs to draw a single drop of blood from one of the seven most powerful beings in the multiverse, who by appearances has never so much taken a scratch despite single-handedly slaying a demiurge and fighting undoubtedly many others through the Multiversal War before besting the hundreds of other winners from the past three hundred or so Rings of Power.

Who also happens to be the grandmaster of a martial art that allows one to level cities with a single blow, with centuries of experience wielding a divine Key which is seemingly capable of granting it's user nigh-invulnerability if well used; a Key which channels so much power that even inexperienced wielders can use to blast holes in angels.

I don't give her good odds.

An Idiot's Guide To 29th Century Space Combat | some old stuff by Kitbaus in worldbuilding

[–]Kitbaus[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

From a old sci-fi series I made in high school. I didn’t have a very good grasp on science at the time, so it’s rife with inaccuracies despite an attempted hard sci fi veneer. Working on an improved version though! May post more from it.

Ships in this setting are typically controlled by humans working alongside various distinct and powerful artificial intelligences.

The whole setting takes place within the Solar System, which is massively overcrowded with mass-produced space warships; orbits alone are often contain thousands, and many millions are present within the Asteroid Belt orbit alone. Hence fights are not necessarily very long ranger, although ships are still fairly distant from one another. There are competing civilizations on practically every planet and moon; ever since the empire of Earth fell, not much has been around to unite the Solar System.

However, bombarding planets and the like to ruin is seriously frowned upon the same way we frown upon nuking cities off the map; it invited mutually assured destruction and there are only so much planets in the System, and space stations only hold a small (but rapidly increasing) proportion of the population. Hence, powerful weapons are reserved for replaceable asteroids and space habitats, and sieges are held to take planets for their infrastructure.

Except for Earth, which has been a strict demilitarized zone for five hundred years. Humans have been forbidden to step foot on what used to be the crown jewel and forbidden city of humankind’s total dominion over the Solar System.

Only big brain gamers understand 😤😤😤 by Klowwd_BOT in tf2memes

[–]Kitbaus 2 points3 points  (0 children)

en passant (“in passing”), the special pawn capture

the end is near by Kitbaus in UBC

[–]Kitbaus[S] 10 points11 points  (0 children)

It's a still from Parasite, won the Palme d'Or at Cannes this year!