cheers to the desolate twilight of humanity

basically, there's been an ants' nest near a vent shaft of this abandoned Soviet bunker for decades. the nest spilled over into the bunker itself at some point once it was abandoned and there was no way for the ants to make their way back up to the nest, no queen but a constant supply of new colony members raining down from above, and no source of food in the bunker other than the corpses of their fellow ants.

fast forward to some scientists looking for bats that stumble on what's basically a post-apocalyptic ant society. they go "holy fuck" start studying, and observe that, all things considered, the ants still pretty much act like regular ants doing regular ant things.

fast forward some more, and the scientists feel like they have enough data from observing the colony as-is, so they decide to try an experiment. they put a little walkway between the bunker colony and the og colony in the vent shaft so the bunker colony members have the option of leaving and rejoining the og colony.

spoiler alert: every single ant in the bunker immediately nopes the fuck back to the colony in the vent shaft. within days the bunker is completely empty. the scientists leave the walkway in place so when more ants inevitably fall back down the vent shaft they can just climb back up instead of starting up the cycle anew.

Greek cosmetic vase with a ram's head

6th century BCE

Malayan White-banded Awl (Hasora m. malayana), family Hesperiidae, Coeliadinae, Pang Sida National Park, Thailand

some recent small projects.

a tarot box for my partner's mini deck. the pullout drawer is magnetic so the box stays closed, and is also fun to fidget with because it slides the last few millimeters on its own with a satisfying snap.

a medicine box for me because "i remember taking my meds, but is that memory from this morning or yesterday?" is real.

icarian task: when you have a task you know you’re going to fail at anyways, so why not have some fun with it before it all comes crashing down

cassandrean task: when you have to deal with people you KNOW won’t listen to you, despite having accurate information, and having to watch them fumble about when you told them the solution from the start (most often witnessed in customer service)

Tenna art by @9Aaaalt29 on twt