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Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: The Witcher (TV) Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Geralt z Rivii | Geralt of Rivia/Jaskier | Dandelion Characters: Geralt z Rivii | Geralt of Rivia, Jaskier | Dandelion Additional Tags: Fake/Pretend Relationship, set between 1x04 and 1x05 i guess Summary:

“Look,” Jaskier says, a little desperately, “you’ve pretended to be my bodyguard before, right? This isn’t so different.”

Geralt says, “It’s different.” But he doesn’t, actually, say ‘no.’

(For the prompt: “Jaskier has secretly been engaged this whole time (he is a viscount after all) and Geralt agrees to pretend to be dating Jaskier so his fiance will let him cancel the engagement.”)

IT’S DONE, HERE IT IS, I FINISHED A FIC. thanks to @oatplant for the prompt! and thanks to everyone who liked the excerpts and gave me life!

(my ko-fi)

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🏮 happy new year! 🧧

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Temples are built for gods. Knowing this a farmer builds a small temple to see what kind of god turns up.

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Callisto and her stringy-armed emergency food source(s)

for some reason when I read the scene where wet (and naked) Zagreus cuddles against fur, my brain went “ooooo I wanna draw this”

a sketch for @argetcross ‘s amazing Hades fanfic “wasting beats of this heart of mine”, a mortal!Zagreus AU mainly about him experiencing ancient Greece, doing demigod-ish stuffs and flirting with death, it’s fun and y’all should definitely go check it out!

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Happy 2nd anniversary to my zag mortal au fic, “wasting beats of this heart of mine”! I wanted to share more concepts and sketches I made over this past year with everyone. Thank you, as always, to all my kind and supportive readers, who have made these last two years so memorable and fun!

A big shoutout to @nanisnart, one of my betas, who drew the lines for the sphinx above and has been a staunch defender of sphinx time during all of Thebes. As this post lengthens, I will enclose the rest of my words below.

Keep reading

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DRAWTOBER #19 - wasting beats of this heart of mine by @argetcross

“You sound like a mortal.” She said, with the faint glimmer of amusement in her eyes. Zagreus chortled too, but then fell silent. Nyx gave him a knowing look. “What is it, my child?” “You said the curse is tied into my godhood, right? What if…” The words tasted unnatural in his mouth, a blasphemy before they could even take shape in the air. Zagreus coughed them out regardless. “What if I could shed my divinity? What if I became a mortal?” -- Or, despite being a god, Zagreus keeps running out of time. A "Zagreus Becomes Mortal" AU.

holy SHIT this fic!!! this fic!!!! it has a fantastic premise - what if when Zagreus got to the surface, Persephone wasn't just right there within his limited reach? - and the plot is so incredible, it's honestly like reading a whole new greek epic! Zagreus is on one larger quest but on the way he gets caught up in lots of small adventures and meets many familiar faces from greek myth, including some new gods and goddesses not found in the game. all of the new characters are just fantastic and really hold their own in the story, and it's so... simultaneously funny and tragic watching Thanatos trailing Zagreus like "I feel perfectly normal emotions about you, human, do not question my involvement 😳". I really cannot recommend this fic enough if you enjoy reading adventures and want more Hades-verse content, and I am SO freakin excited to see where this goes and how it resolves!

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Wanted to draw Callisto from @argetcross ‘s wasting beats of this heart of mine looking a bit scary (Go girl!)

Necessary note is that I showed this to my cousins and they were convinced I had drawn Spiller from The Secret World of Arietty

Aw fuck…I totally did

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September was a weird month for me

Tunglr bonked the og post so check out the uncropped stuff on my bitch twit or bsky

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A scene from Chapter 18 of the amazing fic “Look Up and Wonder” commissioned by @mariejacquelyn.

I can’t recommend this fic highly enough, it’s a wild and entertaining ride.

Commission info (x)

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[BAMF] + ( \ Y . )

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me: i kinda just want to draw something cute and shippy for this au, maybe?

my worthless brain: unfortunately,

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why not a little of both ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

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"Hush, child, . . . It will be over soon. Then your punishment can truly begin."

I am deeply invested in @asidian's Wyllstarion AU fanfic Another Path at the moment and it is fueling my torturing Astarion muse, so you get more Astarion whump I'm afraid.

Cazador threatening to poke his eyeball out for being a little traitor~

Tag list-

@whumpifi

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Alligator Body Language and You, or: How To Know When An Alligator On Social Media is Being Stressed for Views

Alligators are wild animals. Despite the idiotic claims of animal abusers like Jay Brewer, they cannot be domesticated, which means they are always going to react on the same natural instincts they've had for millions of years. Habituated, yes. Tamed, yes. Trained, definitely. Crocodilians can form bonds with people- they're social and quite intelligent. They can solve problems, use tools, and they're actually quite playful. Alligators are also really good at communicating how they're feeling, but to somebody who doesn't spend much time around them, their body language can be a bit mystifying. And it doesn't help when social media influencers are saying shit like this:

That is not what a happy gator looks like.

That's a terrified, furious gator who isn't attacking because the ogre handling her has her in a chokehold. She's doing everything she can to express her displeasure, and he's lying about it because he knows his audience doesn't even know how to think critically about what he's doing. He knows that because his audience doesn't know anything about these animals, he can get away with it. This I think is why I hate him so much- he deliberately miseducates his audience. He knows what he's doing is factually inaccurate, he just doesn't care because attention means more to him than anything else in the world.

Let's change that! Here are two really important lessons for understanding alligator body language on social media.

Lesson 1: Alligators Don't Smile (in fact, most animals don't)

So what's going on in this video? Jay Brewer is aggressively choking his white alligator Coconut while scrubbing algae off of her with a toothbrush. And make no mistake, he is digging into the creature's throat while she is visibly distressed. He claims she's happy- but she's not. He is willfully misrepresenting what this animal is feeling. That's a problem, because people... well, we actually kind of suck at reading other species' body language. The reason for this is that we tend to overlay our own responses on their physical cues, and that's a problem. For example, let's look at an animal with a really similar face to ours, the chimpanzee. Check out Ama's toothy grin!

Wait, no. That's not a happy smile. That's a threat display. When a chimpanzee "smiles," it's either terrified and doing a fear grimace, or it's showing you its teeth because it intends on using them in your face.

How about a dog? Look at my smiling, happy puppy!

Oh wait no, this is a picture of Ryder when he was super overwhelmed by noise and people during a holiday party. He'd hopped up in my sister's lap to get away from stuff that was happening on the floor and was panting quite heavily. See the tension in the corners of his mouth and his eyes? A lot of the time when a dog "smiles," the smile isn't happy. It's stress! Why Animals Do The Thing has a nice writeup about that, but the point is, our body language is not the same as other species. And for reptiles, body language is wildly different.

For instance, look at these two alligators. Pretty cute, right? Look at 'em, they're posing for a Christmas card or something! How do you think they're feeling?

Well, I'll tell you how the normal one is feeling. He's annoyed! Why is he annoyed? Because the albino just rolled up, pushed another gator off the platform, and is trying to push this guy, too. I know this because I actually saw it happen. It was pretty funny, not gonna lie. He's not gaping all the way, but he was hissing- you can actually see him getting annoyed in the sequence I took right before this shot. Look at him in this first shot here- he's just relaxing, and you can see he isn't gaping even a little bit.

By the end, he's expressing displeasure, but not enough to actually do anything about it. He's annoyed, but he's comfy and that's where one of the best basking areas is, so he'll put up with it.

Reptiles open their mouths wide for a lot of reasons, but never because they are actively enjoying a sensation. Unless they're eating. No reptile smiles- they can't. They don't even have moveable lips. If a reptile is gaping, it's doing so because:

It is doing a threat display.

It is making certain vocalizations, all of which are threats. Alligators are one of the rare reptiles that do regularly vocalize, but most of their calls aren't made with a wide open mouth.

It is about to bite something delicious or somebody stupid. Check out this video- virtually all of the gaping here is anticipatory because these trained gators know darn well that the bowl is full of delicious snacks. (I have some issues with Florida's Wildest, but the man knows how to train a gator AND he is honest about explaining what they're doing and why, and all of his animals are healthy and well-cared for, and he doesn't put the public or his staff at risk- just himself.)

It's too hot and it has opened its mouth to vent some of that heat and thermoregulate. This is the main reason why alligators will often have their mouths part of the way open, but sometimes they'll open all the way for thermoregulation. This is what a thermoregulatory gape looks like- usually it's not all the way open, kinda more like < rather than V, but you can't say that 100% of the time. Additionally, a thermoregulatory gape... typically happens when it's hot out. If they're inside, maybe they've been under their basking light for too long. Heat's the dominant factor, is what I'm getting at.

There is another reason that a captive crocodilian might be gaping, and that's because it's doing so on command. Some places have their gators trained to gape on cue, like St. Augustine Alligator Farm and other good zoos. They have the animals do this in presentations that are genuinely educational. They ask the animals to open their mouths so that they can show off their teeth and demonstrate how their tongues seal off the back of their mouth. They'll also do it as part of routine healthcare, because looking at their teeth is important.

In this case, the animals aren't gaping because they're stressed, they're gaping because they know they're gonna get a piece of chicken or fish if they do it. And what's more, they're doing it on cue. They have a specific command or signal that tells them to open wide. It's not an instinctive response to a situation. It's trained. If the animal provides the behavior after a cue, the situation is much less likely to be negatively impactful.

It's also important to remember that there's a difference between a partially open mouth and a gape! As discussed above, alligators will often have their mouths a little bit open just to maintain temperature homeostasis. It helps them stay comfy, temperature-wise. These guys are all doing thermoregulatory open-mouthed behavior- that slight open and relaxed body posture is a dead giveaway. (That and it's the hottest spot in the enclosure.)

Lesson 2: A Happy Gator Is A Chill Gator

So if alligators don't smile or have facial expressions other than the :V that typically signifies distress, how else can you tell how they're feeling? One way is stillness. See, alligators subscribe to the philosophy of if it sucks... hit da bricks.

Basically, if they hate it, they'll leave. Unless, y'know, somebody has their meaty claws digging into their throat or is otherwise restraining them. (Restraint isn't always bad, btw. Sometimes the animal is going through a medical thing or needs to be restrained for their safety- which a responsible educator will explain.)

Let's look at a very similar scenario, in which a captive alligator is getting his back scrubbed.

As you can see, it's quite different. First, he's not being restrained at all. Second, look at how relaxed he is! He's just chilling there vibing! He could simply get up and leave if he wanted to, because he's not being held. Towards the end of the video, as he lifts his head, you can see that his respiratory rate is very even as his throat flutters a bit. I'm not sure what this facility is, so I can't comment on care/general ethics, but like. In this specific case, this is an alligator enjoying being scrubbed! And you can tell because he's not doing anything. A happy gator is content to be doing what they're doing.

Why Should I Listen To You?

Now, you should ask yourself, why should you listen to me? Why should you trust me, who does not own an alligator, versus Jay Brewer, who owns several?

Well, first off, there's no profit for me in telling you that what you're seeing on social media is in fact not what you're being told you're seeing. I'm not getting paid to do this. That's the thing with people who make social media content. The big names aren't doing it just for fun. They're doing it for money. Whether that's profit through partnerships or sponsorships, or getting more people to visit their facilities, or ad revenue, you can't ignore the factor of money. And this is NOT a bad thing, because it allows educators to do what they're passionate about! People deserve to be paid for the work that they do!

But the problem starts when you chase the algorithm instead of actually educating. A "smiling" alligator gets the views, and if people don't know enough to know better, it keeps getting the views. People love unconventional animal stories and they want those animals to be happy- but the inability to even know where to start with critically evaluating these posts really hinders the ability to spread real information. Like, this post will probably get a couple hundred notes, but that video of Coconut being scrubbed had almost 400,000 likes when I took that screenshot. Think about how many eyeballs that's reached by now. What I'm saying here is that it's just... really important to think critically about who you're getting your information from. What do dissenters say in the comments? What do other professionals say? You won't find a single herpetologist that has anything good to say about Prehistoric Pets, I can tell you that right now.

Another reason you can trust me is that my sources are not "just trust me bro," or "years of experience pretending my pet shop where animals come to die is a real zoo." Instead, here are my primary sources for my information on alligator behavior:

Dragon Songs: Love and Adventure among Crocodiles, Alligators, and Other Dinosaur Relations- Vladimir Dinets

The Secret Social Lives of Reptiles- J. Sean Doody, Vladimir Dinets, Gordon M. Burghardt

Social Behavior Deficiencies in Captive American Alligators (Alligator mississippiensis)- Z Walsh, H Olson, M Clendening, A Rycyk

Social Displays of the American Alligator (Alligator mississippiensis)- Kent Vliet

Social Signals and Behaviors of Adult Alligators and Crocodiles- Leslie Garrick, Jeffery Lang

Never smile at a crocodile: Gaping behaviour in the Nile crocodile at Ndumo Game Reserve, South Africa- Cormac Price, Mohamed Ezat, Céline Hanzen, Colleen Downs (this one's Nile crocs, not American alligators, but it's really useful for modeling an understanding of gape behaviors and proximity)

Thermoregulatory Behavior of Captive American Alligators (Alligator mississippiensis)- Cheryl S. Asa, Gary D. London, Ronald R. Goellner, Norman Haskell, Glenn Roberts, Crispen Wilson

Unprovoked Mouth Gaping Behavior in Extant Crocodylia- Noah J. Carl, Heather A. Stewart, Jenny S. Paul

Thank you for reading! Here's a very happy wild alligator from Sanibel for your trouble.

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Kingdom Hearts, Squall Leonhart/Cloud Strife

Rating: G

Warnings: none! (except maybe some references to underage drinking)

Insomnia (n.): habitual sleeplessness; inability to sleep.

Five times Cloud’s family kept him company when he couldn’t sleep, and one time it was the other way around.

i was having a rough time and fighting the insomnia monster and then i read through the @liverpepper blog (which is adorable!) and then i got sad about cloud strife. then again, that’s my secret, cap, i’m always sad about cloud strife. anyway i wrote some happy liverpepper fic to cheer myself up.

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There she is, the Genshin OC ever, Suha by @4dango-the2nd !

I really hope I'm not overstepping, but bro, I LOVE her. I initially started reading Gilded Sea's Dream because of the immaculate art, but the character writing and especially the way Suha's story is intertwined with the game's lore have me floored. (Not to mention Haikaveh as dads, I mean, c'mon.)

I also just adore her design so much, cos it's the colour palettes I love paired with a fierce yet sweet personality, and I do gotta say, Suha is the first source of inspiration that made my hand itch to draw in a LONG while. Especially after finding out one of my fav Genshin fanfic writers included her in one of their series AND after discovering her amazing adult design.

I love her, I love Haikaveh being dads, and I definitely took entirely too long on that top drawing, dear god.

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your honour

they are not 800

they are 8

or less

oh my gods and in love

what a date