Sporadic Ramblings and Nerdery

could i request an id on this beautiful bug? found in coastal north carolina :)

Beetle ID - NC, USA:

Yessssssssssss, hello, this is a Bark-gnawing Beetle (Temnoscheila virescens), family Trogossitidae.

Trogossitidae - Wikipedia

Soft Serve (Earth-616) MARVEL

Creator: Bob Quinn

Name: Unrevealed

Gender: Female

Hair: Blonde

Origin: Human Mutant

Status: Alive

Reality: Earth-616

Citizenship: Krakoan

Base of Operations: Krakoa

First Appearance: Way of X #2 (2021)

Power: Soft Serve can poop “pretty much all” assorted flavors of ice cream. The character was created by Bob Quinn years ago, and inserted into the background of Way of X #2 in 2021 offering a guest of the Hellfire Gala one of her treats. Forge mentions that her gift is “the best damn ice cream he’d ever had”.

Soft Serve in Way of X #2 (2021) MARVEL

Soft Serve is not lactose intolerant. Her body serves as a portal to the ice cream dimension, with “pooping” being the colloquialism for the bizarre location of the portal. It is likely that she does not poop at all. She is a “big fan” of Eye-Scream, a mutant villain with the ability to become any flavor of ice cream that he desires.

I'm looking at options for how to do magic in a "Science!" way. Of the various attempts to do that in fiction, these are the ones that caught my eye.

To explain further:

Magicules - From That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime. This is magic as, well, a type of unique atom that is psychokinetic in nature. Meaning it responds to thoughts and wills. In a way, it acts like "Ether" just with a more defined origin.

Spirit Bacteria - From Delicious in Dungeon. Spirits in that series are similar to a type of Bacteria. They are simply called "Spirits" when they largely behave and act like Bacteria, except in the actual production of magical effects and elemental manipulation.

Alien Single-Celled Organisms - From Tales of Kaimere. They can also be bacterial in nature. Regardless, the native life of Kaimere is simply known as "Magic." The main ability that defines magic, used in the form of spellcasting, is a symbiotic organism that can replicate things it has consumed. Sort of like the transporter in Star Trek. Large colonies of Magic are often known as Spirits, Demons, or even Gods depending on their size and power. Because Magic is an Organism, it has a lot more explanations out there for it.

Nanomachines - From several series, despite citing Ventus in the post, my main exposure to Tech-as-Magic was the Technomancers of Babylon 5. Lost or forgotten technology as Magic is a fun concept to play with that I'm surprised isn't used that often.

a woman wanted me to let her know if I had a particular item in storage, and she went to get a card out of her purse and went ‘oh no. I’m out of my work cards, I’m so sorry about this’ and handed me this: