"This extra space next to me belongs to you. I know where I end now. I won't get lost." -- shoot me (metaphorically) and leave me for dead (metaphorically) why won't you. To make this about Dylan and maybe it's about Connor, maybe it's about Brinksy, maybe it's about any journeyman in the NHL. My brain screamed Chris Driedger and his memorable (to me) Players' Tribune article:
And how can you mention Dylan and Zach (Za-ach, the way Dylan says it) without me having a breakdown about them? You simply can't. And for the younger dudes, maybe it's a little Bords/Briss, not yet steady in The Show, a little bit of distance, a summer that tries to erase and make up all the memories they've made separately... and then a blurry insta story in Vegas. Just like old times but somewhere else. Maybe it's not the same bed, maybe it's not the same set of forks, but maybe it's the principle of the thing.
Anyway, goodbye. Sorry for this, your tag walls make me break out in imagined scenarios.
Much love. xxx
please never be sorry for sending me messages <3 i love reading them i love getting them i think they’re beautiful and i love them i’m!!!!! [🥹💕🦋🫧✨💘😭 <- the best approximation of what my heart is doing]
ok NOW i am taking this step by step because every narrative here kicked me straight in the knees (metaphorically) i am w e e p i n g (literally): i knew tangentially about chris driedger going to seattle but i had never read his players’ tribune love letter to seattle & all i can say is oh. oh. and with the part about trains delayed but still being right on time—
sometimes a dream is a truth your heart knows long before you do. the space that the city and the team made for him (“you’d be the only guy on the team”)🗣️🗣️🗣️ !!! but the way that chris talks about needing to put in the work & leo not letting him quit,,, that’s chris filling up the teakettle with twice as much water, crowding one side of the bed (falling asleep against a bus window dreaming), becoming unburdened by the idea of not being their guy, not having the fallback being their draft pick to content and settle himself with. that’s chris betting on a future. that’s the train coming down the tracks, right on time.
(i am feeling unhinged about it)
SECOND. i know i was the one that said zach and dylan to start so technically i brought this on myself but also i have been ktfo by the mere mention of the way that dylan says zach’s name different from everyone else, stealing an extra breath, stealing as much time as he can get with him, which reminded me of a poem i just read:
The Need Is So Great, Jim Moore
^^^dylan still in love with zach even as he’s leaving, can feel himself losing him, and taking every sliver of the love in his smile that he can get. even if he knows zach doesn’t still feel the same way he’s drawing out the long goodbye & saying i love you in a thousand ways without ever saying it out loud (“i have been asking for a time but in ways that have no words” because he doesn’t want to ask too much, to ask for love) in the hope that zach will say it back OKAY I’M LEAVING i can’t do this
that was a lie because THREE. “maybe it’s the principle of the thing” please insert the most ungodly screech how could you just (lovingly) come in straight with the steel chair and bean me upside the head with that l i n e i think this story has the potential for such tragedy in it but also the most tender domestic longing because bords & briss have known each other for a long time (i think) and guys do sometimes lose themselves when they first get to the nhl.
it’s a big scene, you’re with big name guys, you’re finally doing the thing you always dreamed about, you’re no longer necessarily the best because everyone’s the best, you’re not sure how you fit in, you can get lost in the glitz and the glamor of it but you can also literally get lost in it, the slog of the season and getting caught up and down between teams and leagues and endless airports and buses and travel and ice rinks, losing your phone (accidental) and having new people hound you for quotes and fame and connection so you lose your phone (on purpose) and i think where i’m trying to go is: this could play out as the tragedy of borde going to the california coastline and briss shipping off to the vegas strip and both of them getting a little lost.
maybe there’s someone else, maybe i am steadfastly not thinking about “a summer that tries to erase and make up all the memories they've made separately” as either a summer of them pretending things are ok after a year of barely speaking and now being completely different people they never were before OR a summer of them trying to pretend like they can forget about each other because maybe they didn’t think their relationship was the same thing, is all, when they were or weren’t together. maybe it’s nobody’s fault but for the fact that they were scared and tired and lonely trying to make it in the big times and didn’t know how to show it. and then borde shows up with takeout and plastic forks in vegas and it’s december and nothing like winter in ann arbor and still they fill up all the empty spaces in each other with the things they didn’t know they’d miss until they were gone and this is the real thing, not whatever they were trying too hard to be, to recreate their own nostalgia for the love in their memories. it’s the principle of the thing, is all, to always be true to the love they have right now & not what they think it should be.
sorry that i wrote you kind of an essay of an answer but i had so so so many thoughts because your ask was so lovely so thank you for sending it to me (you are always welcome to!! i love your imagined scenarios!!! cannot even explain how much!!!) & thank you for taking the time to read my walls of tags :))) <3
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I was writing, but then I came upon the fact that I don’t actually know what a healthy diet for my 300-600 pound reptiles would look like.
If you plan to keep reading, please tighten your seatbelts, not because this is exciting, but because we’ll be taking 90 degree turns at 45mph. This is basically just me researching out loud so people can see my process. Also, I will be mentioning various parts of animals that may make some people queasy.
Useveu are a species of intelligent, flight-capable reptiles that, in adulthood, stand between 6 to 9 feet high on average and weight roughly (so roughly) 300 to 600 pounds on average. They are carnivores, but they live closely to humans, and would therefore eventually incorporate other types of foods into their diets.
(I think it’s worth it to note that the humans who live in countries where Useveu are common almost always have a vegetarian diet. There are logistical and social reasons for this.)
Reptiles like komodo dragons and snakes can eat pretty much every kind of meat. Bones and organs are definitely going to be in an Usevuth’s diet, as well. Reptiles like geckos, however, seem to need veggies, and one thing I read specifically said to make sure geckos are getting enough calcium.
Komodo dragons and snakes eat their prey’s bones, but a gecko isn’t big enough to eat vertebrates. Pet birds, also, are said to need calcium-rich diets, and we humans go crazy for calcium supplements, but again, pet birds and song birds don’t get opportunities to eat bones, and humans don’t exactly make an effort to eat them.
So maybe Useveu won’t naturally need calcium-rich vegetables. And maybe they don’t need to avoid phosphorous if their intake of bone is high enough. But they are a social species living with another social species, and both have relatively high populations, and they have to pay for their food.
Poor Useveu will largely exist off of chicken, eggs, and probably fish for their meats. These are all high in calcium when consumed whole. But there are more dietary needs than that. Useveu are huge animals, and in whatever wild conditions their bodies evolved to cope with, they definitely eat red meat. If their body relies on red meat in their diet but they’re too poor to afford meat from larger animals, this could lead to iron and vitamin B deficiencies.
I think the bottom line for the fact of whether these guys are getting everything they need from a diet of animals is pretty straightforward. If they are consuming healthy animals whole, they themselves will be healthy. This is with the sole exception of deficiencies from being unable to afford red meats. These can probably be compensated for with the purchase of blood (iron, affordable) and whatever amounts of liver (B vitamins, expensive) can be managed.
My questions becomes what non-animal items an Usevuth can eat off of a human’s plate.
I know for a fact that Usevase (males) will have citrus in their diets. But citrus fruits require a substantial amount of water to grow, and in a pre industrial revolution world where there are no freshwater rivers or lakes particularly nearby, these foods become expensive. However, there are trains, which can extend the reach of an affordable citrus belt. Flying to buy or deliver groceries like this would be impractical and expensive, since the quantity of products would be small for such a long distance.
Citrus fruits contain a lot of oils, acids, and vitamin C. Usevase have a bodily use for the oils (which can be harmful to digestion in other animals), and will build a tolerance to the acids. Psoralen, which is a substance that can cause cell damage when combined with sunlight in the skin, would be mostly harmless to Useveu thanks to their scales.
So citrus doesn’t pose a threat to my reptiles that I have to worldbuild around. Then I look to staples of human vegetarian diets that will grow in the climate I’m looking at, as these will be foods Useveu are most likely to ingest.
Vegetarian staples are largely going to be protein-rich foods, like lentils, beans, quinoa, and eggs. My climate can’t grow quinoa, but soy and lentil are fine. Another good food would probably be brown rice, which can grow in this climate, as well. Looking at its contents for things that could hurt a reptile, I see unfamiliar things like selenium and manganese, but both are water soluble and will be passed by the body once it has the amount it needs. Bread is another thing that will likely find its way into an Usevuth’s diet, and wheat is both accessible and appears to be non-toxic.
Last on the list of human foods I’m going to bother worrying about is cabbage, which appears to be completely fine for reptiles. Some species have trouble due to acidity or phosphorous levels in various breeds of cabbage, but this shouldn’t be a problem for Useveu.
So there I have it. I wasted what must have been almost an hour and a half finding out that nothing I was trying to feed my reptiles was actually going to hurt them. But at least now I know!
눈_눈
Writing is great. Always do your research.
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Yes, I have sources. No, I will not format or further fact-check them.
https://ielc.libguides.com/sdzg/factsheets/komododragon/diet
https://www.completecritter.com/leopard-gecko.html
https://birdsupplies.com/blogs/news/144550983-calcium-deficiency-in-parrots-and-what-to-do-about-it
https://reptilecraze.com/what-human-foods-can-snakes-eat/
https://www.fitday.com/fitness-articles/nutrition/healthy-eating/white-meat-vs-red-meat.html
https://www.historyrundown.com/can-cats-and-dogs-eat-citrus-fruits/
https://www.thekitchn.com/10-vegetarian-staples-that-are-always-on-my-shopping-list-252972
https://morningchores.com/growing-quinoa/
https://www.homedepot.com/c/ai/find-your-usda-plant-hardiness-zone/9ba683603be9fa5395fab90108cf77fc
https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/is-brown-rice-good-for-you#nutrition
https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/selenium/
https://www.mountsinai.org/health-library/supplement/manganese
https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/foods/wheat#vitamins-and-minerals
https://homeguides.sfgate.com/conditions-need-grow-rice-wheat-corn-soybeans-80104.html
https://dragonsdiet.com/blogs/dragon-care/can-bearded-dragons-eat-cabbage
https://www.animalhouseofchicago.com/news/reptile-amphibian-herbivore-nutrition
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