I get distracted so damn easily!

One of my fave photos from mine and @lunarchandelure's wedding!

Had to make this meme because it reminded me so much of it:

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So in the past, the deep-sea goblin shark hasn't really been studied all that much in its natural environment because, well, deep sea.

Buuuut!

Guess what's happened for the first time, y'all

The deep-sea goblin shark has been studied in its natural environment for the first time!!

Goblin sharks are, essentially, living fossils. They're the only extant (living) species of a lineage that goes back nearly 125 million years. Their origins are further back that some dinosaurs!!

They're not pretty and they're not friendly looking either but they're still adorable!

The problem with goblin sharks is that they've only really ever been studied after getting caught in deep sea fishing nets and lines so pretty much nothing is known about how they behave, interact, etc etc beyond physiological stuff. Which, honestly, sad af because it's meant we've mainly had to guess about them (educated guesses but still guesses all-the-same).

But times are a-changing now!

Side-note: their faces are so weird okay, I love them.

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Back in 2019 though, there was an expedition to investigate the deep-sea ecosystems around Jarvis Island which, btw, is a protected wildlife area about a thousand nautical miles south of Honolulu. The lead author of this study, Aaron Judah, examined a load of footage from the dive around Jarvis Island and confirmed that what the expedition members thought was a goblin shark was, indeed, a goblin shark.

Then, in 2024 another sighting was reported in the Tonga Trench (near Fiji in the southern Pacific) via a baited camera (they got to see it actually eating food!!!). So Judah looked at that footage in his study too!

The thing is tho... is that the Tonga Trench is the second deepest marine trench in the world. Second only to the Mariana Trench. And the goblin shark seen in the Tonga Trench at a depth of almost two thousand metres!

Prior to that sighting, it was believed that goblin sharks only dived to around 1300 metres at most! So this is monumental!!

So, not only was a goblin shark seen at a depth far greater than it was believed they dived to, but it was also viewed in its natural, alive state, existing and being alive and that's just- it's just amazing! And geographically, too! Now, we now know that the range of goblin sharks is larger than we previously thought.

This is honestly amazing and kinda world-changing just like the new footage of the Greenland shark. We now have new avenues of research and study into goblin sharks and how they exist and interact with deep-sea ecosystems and that's just beyond amazing.

With these sightings and the new information about goblin sharks, the species can be added to the list of recorded species in a protected area too!

And if you want to see video the sighting, here it is!

Or you can watch the YouTube video below instead

Shotgunshipping for you guys 🫀

For your consideration

-The Seven of Cups-

Meaning: illusions, temptation, deception

The third in my Sander’s Sides tarot series! Click here to see the Ace of Wands (reversed) and the Eight of Swords

Black and White version:

Do you think that Lucifer is genuinely infatuated with Sam out of his own free will, or are they both Victims™ of Chuck? If he can orchestrate everything, as long as he can reasonably predict, as shown and told repeatedly by the series, do you think Lucifer actually enjoys what cycles of abuse he's incurring onto Sam? Do you think there's a part of him that latches onto Sam tighter, in a way similar to Dean, because Sam's father couldn't break him? In a way, Dean and Lucifer can envy Sam in ways they'd understand between each other. The preferred son, the unbreakable son, the son who had the strength to be more than what he was told he was.

Your posts... Have me suddenly very sympathetic to Lucifer, and further pondering any MegxSam&(alter!Lucifer)xCas... What a dynamic shift between that little group ... If such aforementioned things were to be played with.

As always, you provoke the brain worms in delightful ways. Kripke would be jealous.

to preface I will never think that Lucifer is excused or justified in any ways he treats Sam and that is like. completely on him and a product of his own choices.

HOWEVER, if we are talking about the way Lucifer did fixate on Sam....... Lucifer was kept in intense solitary confinement for millennia. He was put in a time-compressing prison alone and all he had was himself and what he could create. Chuck did create Sam to be Lucifer's true vessel, and Sam was destined to be who Broke Him Out. A lot of Heaven seem to view "vessels" in a very dehumanised way, and it's not like Michael's very attached to Dean, so it's not like Chuck went in planning Lucifer to approach Sam with affection & compassion, but he did create a circumstance of horrific loneliness while Lucifer had this endless expanse of time to obsess, day dream, fixate, plan, etc over Sam. Is it Lucifer's free will? I would say completely, and I think that's sort of the core of Supernatural -- even within predetermination free will is not precluded. Maybe when I'm done the s15 relapse I'll change my mind. But was he put in a situation where his psychological state that fosters the circumstance that led to him responding that way to Sam? Absolutely.

I think that Lucifer does have a lot of respect for Sam's defiance, rebellious nature, his deep-seated convinctions and his refusal to bend. I think this is essential to how Lucifer can ever have any degree of affection or humanisation of anyone in part as a reflection of his narcissism. He sees himself in Sam, likewise with Jack, even if he's lacking in areas they are not he sees it. He wants to be challenged, but in part because what he is is something that challenges. He also cannot handle it though. He can stare at his (Sam's) hand scratching away almost taking back control with immense pride, but actually facing Sam's rejection of him (or Jack's) in the name of other conviction and he switches to intense degradation and devaluation of them. And once Sam's in the Cage, Lucifer's going to recreate Chuck's mechanisms simply because what Lucifer's starved for IS entertainment because of isolation. And perhaps that's part of where Chuck's isolating tactics start too. Chuck has himself and Amara but otherwise all he knows for interaction is within his creation. That's the same for Lucifer in the Cage. However at some point free will matters, conscioussness, interaction. Lucifer's interaction is Sam. Sam's his entertainment. Just like he's Chuck's.

But yeah I also think Dean and Lucifer have a lot more parallels in terms of How Sam Actually Stays. I think Chuck sees that too and in fact I"d argue a huge part of what Supernatural is IS trying to Break Sam. And while this is successful in MANY ways from the sheer degree of trauma, abuse, gaslighting, cult-dynamics, world not responding in any logical manner to ethics but predetermination, and brainwashing, there remains things that Sam won't fold on. I do think Lucifer (and Dean) admire that a lot in Sam. But I also think it's a point to smash or want to destroy about him as well. With Lucifer, this is a tragic irony of his inability to maintain connections. He needs complete devotion to not devalue someone but will devalue anyone who gives him complete devotion. And for Dean it's tragic insofar as he loves Sam and doesn't want to crush him, but also needs him so badly and to stay and fold he'll end up the source of harm instead of protection (very common in abusive dynamics).