werewolvesversus:

In this excerpt from Quebecoiswolf’s WEREWOLVES VERSUS: ROMANCE story, a wealthy vampire escorts a werewolf celebrity around his father’s casino, while considering taking a gamble of his own.

She smiles and climbs to her feet, drink in hand. I guide her out to the casino floor. Even at dawn, there are a few gamblers out, putting their money in my dad’s pocket. The handful who are pretty enough or have special skills are being silently pushed to keep gambling, their thoughts lost in the religious fervor of the gambler, so certain that they’re just one well-placed chip on the felt or one spin of the wheel away from reversing their fortunes.

“This is the main floor. The Nubian is the second largest casino on the strip and was the very first to open after the families of the Nevada Freehold decided to move the strip underground, so that vampires and humans alike could be out on the town twenty four hours a day.”

Regina smiles, but glances over her shoulder, as if afraid of being stalked.

“Sorry…” she says. “I’m so afraid that Nurse or my mom are going to pop up behind me or something.”

“Nurse was that Minnesotans, right?”

She nods, taking a long slurp on her straw, draining the last dregs of blood, booze, and sugar.

I continue explaining the history and engineering of the Nevada Strip, but it’s all scripted and rehearsed. What I’m really thinking about is the mention of her Minnesotans bodyguard and Mark Gillette’s two massive yet thoroughly-tamed performing werewolves. And it makes me wonder… what would happen if I bit a Lupus Sapiens Kaisar? Why would it be any different? Because the question that’s been on the mind of every vampire for almost a century – since the Great Rising – is: what the hell are the Kaisars doing right that they’re ruling over a major nation in a world that rightfully belongs to vampires? What powers do they really have? They’re not as big as Minnesotans, not as numerous as Medius, and not infectious like Formosi. Their only real strength seems to be money and factory space. Werewolves or not, surely some vampire somewhere has gotten close enough to take a bite. But maybe Regina is the only one who’s gotten far enough away from her bodyguards to make biting possible. Or maybe I’m too late and there’s a vampire behind the scenes pulling all the Kaisars around like puppets. Or maybe what makes the Kaisars special is that fanging them doesn’t work at all.

But what would it hurt to try?

Read the rest in WEREWOLVES VERSUS: ROMANCE! Download the entire issue for any price on Gumroad or Itch.io! Your purchase will benefit all of the contributors to this issue.

More of Quebecoiswolf’s work can be found here.

nasa:

Earth is a big weird planet. With so much going on, it’s easy to forget some of the many, many processes happening here. But at the same time, some stuff is so unexpected and just plain strange that it’s impossible to forget. We asked around and found out lots of people here at NASA have this problem.

Here are some facts about Earth that live rent free in our heads:

Earth has a solid inner core that is almost as hot as the surface of the Sun. Earth’s core gets as high as 9,800 degrees Fahrenheit, while the surface of the Sun is about 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit.

Dust from the Sahara fertilizes the Amazon rainforest. 27.7 million tons blow all the way across the Atlantic Ocean to the rainforest each year, where it brings phosphorus – a nutrient plants need to grow.

Ice in Antarctica looks solid and still, but it’s actually flowing – in some places it flows so fast that scientific instruments can move as much as a kilometer (more than half a mile!) a year.

Speaking of Antarctica: Ice shelves (the floating part of ice sheets) can be as big as Texas. Because they float, they rise and fall with the tide. So floating ice as big as Texas, attached to the Antarctic Ice Sheet, can rise and fall up to ~26 feet!

Melting ice on land makes its way to the ocean. As polar glaciers melt, the water sloshes to the equator, and which can actually slow the spin of Earth.

Even though it looks it, the ocean isn’t level. The surface has peaks and valleys and varies due to changes in height of the land below, winds, temperature, saltiness, atmospheric pressure, ocean circulation, and more.

Earth isn’t the only mind-blowing place out there. From here, we look out into the rest of the universe, full of weird planets and galaxies that surprise us.

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com.

kaosafro:

30-minute-memes:

Almost like this was done of purpose to keep certain groups of ppl from voting

When Black people say that racism is systemic this is what we mean. By being over policed we are in constant danger of being disenfranchised.

ancientegyptdaily:

_{#061/ ∞ — [random Egypt photos]}