An Aro Ghost Being Aro (and having Adhd)

Red flags: Unbelievable nature you've never seen before!, no external source cited, low image quality could be hiding AI artifacts, lacks scientific name for plant, OP is an aesthetic blog (no offense, I see you credit most of the artists you post, OP <3).

Green flags: Common name of the tree provided (although the leaves don't look like any olive tree I've ever seen).

Reverse image searches and citation trails all seem to lead back to now-deleted Reddit posts. Google Images says it's this one in r/NatureIsFuckingLit, and TinEye says it's this one in r/interestingasfuck. Both were posted back in 2020. This is important because the rise of AI images was in 2022.

People in the comments of places this image is posted throw around botanical terms like "dichotomous branching" [branches split into two at the nodes] and "divaricated" [branches grow far apart from each other], which are cool, but don't tell me what the tree is.

Searching up "Black Olive" on iNaturalist finally got me some answers, and it turns out that YES. This is a real tree! This tree is a Dwarf Black Olive (Terminalia molinetii, Formerly Bucida spinosa). The above photos are some particularly nicely framed shots of a tree with particularly small leaves, which really highlights the branching structure. I really wish we knew the photographer's name. Here are some more photos of the same species:

Terminalia molinetii by jriveracruz50 on iNaturalist, posted under a CC BY-NC 4.0 license.

This tree is native to Southern Mexico, Belize, the southern tip of Florida, and Cuba. Dwarf Black Olives are completely unrelated to Olive trees in the Olea genus that I'm more familiar with (the former is in Order Myrtales [Myrtles, Evening Primroses, and Allies], and the latter is in Order Lamiales [Mints, Plantains, Olives, and Allies]).

The Representation Compass:

anyways I think I should just add following to the definition both "Good"s and "Bad"s here:

Minority Good: It's accurate enough to who they are and their lived experiences that they can see themselves reflected in that character. Especially if said representation character hasn't been sparingly or unnecessarily cut short. Easier to achieve the more rep characters of that minority group exist in the story in the first place.

Minority Bad: Usually the rep character is a strawman or a stereotype used to either berate or be rhetorically weaponized against the minorty in question. Point is it neither represents the minority group at all, nor does it have a positive impact on it.

Mainstream Good: Little to no discomfort is being felt by the majority of readers or viewers when experiencing the minority representation character. Lack of discomfort does however only means lack of discomfort and can even mean a very boring rep character that is just there being the rep character, without challenging any preconceived notions of the mainstream audience.

Mainstream Bad: Opposite of the above. Can be because the rep character has legit been made by a nazi or bigot who straight up doesn't want the minority group to exist, so the goal is all to make sure that representation automatically equals discomfort in the mind of the mainstream. However, discomfort can also mean getting called out on very common behaviors and interactions with the minority group or getting confronted with common minority experiences that the mainstream usually just doesn't consider their part in and impact of. While both possibilities may look the same to the average well meaning mainstream audience, leading to lots of confusion and infighting + false accusations and all that fun controversy stuff, for media literacy and activism + allyship purposes it's usually important to be able to sit with me

Mainstream Bad: Opposite of the above. Can be because the rep character has legit been made by a nazi or bigot who straight up doesn't want the minority group to exist, so the goal is all to make sure that representation automatically equals discomfort in the mind of the mainstream. However, discomfort can also mean getting called out on very common behaviors and interactions with the minority group or getting confronted with common minority experiences that the mainstream usually just doesn't consider their part in and impact of. While both possibilities may look the same to the average well meaning mainstream audience, leading to lots of confusion and infighting + false accusations and all that fun controversy stuff, for media literacy and activism + allyship purposes it's usually important to be able to sit with media that makes one feel uncomfortable. How else would one learn to be able to differentiate the nazi and bigoted caricatures + propaganda from the actual lived authentic realities of said minority groups in question? How else do you want to be able to understand your potential friend's troubles and problems and therefore be able to help them with that, if you're not even willing to sit in discomfort for a little bit to think and learn?

Let’s play the biggest game of kick the can on the internet.

Grace being some kind of long lost atlantean royalty descendant.

Cause remember, the crystal in the atlantis the lost empire movie only takes those of royal blood and it simply won't chose another one.

And there are three possibilities that I can think of for Eva stratt in this super niche AU there:

A) Withmore standin but more morally grey, has basically blackmailed and sent in grace onto this expedition to tau ceti atlantis against his will

B) Atlantean quasi queen in charge but not really of royal blood herself, basically there was an Atlantean expedition back to the surface world to track down the one lost royal heir and Carl kidnapped Grace back down to them

him being there with Adrian living in the underground world type stuff, but them both still being aliens and having initially been from Erid. Why are they on earth? Probably first generation space explorers or something and their ship ended up crashing into the oceans of earth and these two just happened to be lucky enough to survive that and the aftermath of it.

They had enough time to get accostumed to their new perma home and to study the humans underground and learn the atlantean's language (hence why Rocky may later on be able to understand/talk with Grace)

ADDITIONALLY: both Rocky and Adrian just know the Atlantean crystal is there. They can hear it in the frequencies too high for human ears to be perceived, they do kinda communicate with it and it lowkey freaks them out a lot, because that's just an unholy mysteriously floating eridian brain hivemind to them there. But the crystal is also lowkey responsible for making sure that they both still keep on having food and were able to survive for as long as they did, same way it did for the atlanteans.

They may also as a consequence of meeting mostly atlantean humans think that humans live as long as them if not even longer. Until they meet grace and that is all like "wdym a dozen centuries is NOT the natural human life span, question? hold on, humans usually mature HOW FAST again, question statement?!"

Grace being some kind of long lost atlantean royalty descendant.

Cause remember, the crystal in the atlantis the lost empire movie only takes those of royal blood and it simply won't chose another one.

And there are three possibilities that I can think of for Eva stratt in this super niche AU there:

A) Withmore standin but more morally grey, has basically blackmailed and sent in grace onto this expedition to tau ceti atlantis against his will

B) Atlantean quasi queen in charge but not really of royal blood herself, basically there was an Atlantean expedition back to the surface world to track down the one lost royal heir and Carl kidnapped Grace back down to them

him being there with Adrian living in the underground world type stuff, but them both still being aliens and having initially been from Erid. Why are they on earth? Probably first generation space explorers or something and their ship ended up crashing into the oceans of earth and these two just happened to be lucky enough to survive that and the aftermath of it.

They had enough time to get accostumed to their new perma home and to study the humans underground and learn the atlantean's language (hence why Rocky may later on be able to understand/talk with Grace)

ADDITIONALLY: both Rocky and Adrian just know the Atlantean crystal is there. They can hear it in the frequencies too high for human ears to be perceived, they do kinda communicate with it and it lowkey freaks them out a lot, because that's just an unholy mysteriously floating eridian brain hivemind to them there. But the crystal is also lowkey responsible for making sure that they both still keep on having food and were able to survive for as long as they did, same way it did for the atlanteans.

They may also as a consequence of meeting mostly atlantean humans think that humans live as long as them if not even longer. Until they meet grace and that is all like "wdym a dozen centuries is NOT the natural human life span, question? hold on, humans usually mature HOW FAST again, question statement?!"

収穫祭

2015年、長屋門公園。

Grace being some kind of long lost atlantean royalty descendant.

Cause remember, the crystal in the atlantis the lost empire movie only takes those of royal blood and it simply won't chose another one.

And there are three possibilities that I can think of for Eva stratt in this super niche AU there:

A) Withmore standin but more morally grey, has basically blackmailed and sent in grace onto this expedition to tau ceti atlantis against his will

B) Atlantean quasi queen in charge but not really of royal blood herself, basically there was an Atlantean expedition back to the surface world to track down the one lost royal heir and Carl kidnapped Grace back down to them