#༺☆༻ Hirudo

[fox-buried-in-maple-leaves]

Blizzard (Hirudo 3?)

taglist: @cerasus--flores

tw: none actually lol

The snow came down heavily, blanketing the town and castle in heavy flakes. The blizzard had lasted two days now, far worse than the area had ever seen in previous years. It made hunting difficult, leaving some denizens of the castle irritable and tired. The cold didn't help either, the wood pile covered in snow, the wood wet and ice speckled. 

Jacques had managed, with Lumio's help, to keep everybody minimally fed at least. Often hunting for those near death on the roads into town or the woods behind the castle. But it was barely enough, he had to resort to those willing to risk the blizzard for supplies. Often apologizing to the God in question for changing their fates. But times were rough for all.

A knock resounded through the large manor, echoing off of the stone and wood walls. Alee looked out of the window, it was still blizzarding outside, who could that have been? The man stood up, bringing up his heavy dress to move faster. He got to the top of the stairs when he saw Eudes enter the main hall as well. The master of the manor went down a few steps to watch. Eudes opened the front door, greeting the snow covered person on the other side. 

"Hello, welcome to House Destan, how can I help you?" 

Alee watched and listened curiously, he could only really see the person's shoes from this angle but, still. "The storm has made travel to the town impossible, and I would rather not freeze." A man's quiet voice spoke, his accent wasn't odd, but it wasn't French either, British, Alee assumed. He crouched down a little bit to try and see him.

"Can I please come in? I won't be a bother. I just need to warm up."

Eudes turned his head, looking up at his master behind him on the stairs. Alee seemed to think about it, before giving his companion a quick nod. Eudes turned back to the man in the doorway. "Come in. I am Eudes, the butler of the house." He stepped back, letting the man in. Alee finally got a better look at him.

"Mieran."

Blond hair, brown eyes, pale.. He was wrapped in heavy rust coloured robes, wet from snow. His nose was pink from the snow, he had a bag on his arm, arms wrapped around his body. Alee stood straight, descending the last few steps as Eudes shut the door behind the man. He looked up, seemingly surprised by the man's sudden appearance.

"Mieran." Eudes addressed him, pivoting to look up at his master. "The master of the house, Lord Alee Destan. My Lord.” He bowed somewhat as Alee approached them both, stopping beside his longtime companion. Alee waved his hand halfheartedly and Eudes stood straight once more, looking between the two men. 

“Welcome to my home. Have you eaten? I can have our chef prepare something for you.”

“My lord.”

“I’m aware, Eudes.” 

“Food would be pleasant. Thank you..”

Alee nodded, his smile not once faltering as he gave a look to Eudes. The man bowed once more, taking a step back and disappearing further into the house. “I’ll show you to where you can stay. I’ll also have our housekeeper, Giana, bring you warm clothes.” He gestured up the stairs and Mieran gave him a small smile, mostly hidden by the scarf around his neck.

“You’re from Great Britain, correct?” Another nod. “Ah, thought I recognised that. May I ask what brings you to the French Empire?” 

“Oh.. Ah, research. I am a doctor.”

“Oh, how quaint! So is Eudes.” 

Mieran’s confusion momentarily flashed across his face before it settled back to his previous expression. But Alee’s keen eyes didn’t miss the man’s surprise. “Yes, a medical doctor, no less. Still, he chooses to work for me. His medical expertise occasionally comes in handy, often in circumstances like yours, that brings strangers to our home.”

“You seem well though, despite the chill.”

He cracked another small smile at Alee’s words, following him along the dim candle lit hallway. "I am well, thank you." Alee opened a door, stepping inside the room, Mieran followed him. "Wow this is.. Very nice." He looked around the large room, a big bed, a fireplace, there was even a nice sized desk and chair against one wall.

"I'll get some wood for the fireplace while Giana brings you clothing. Or rather, our chef Jacques probably will. Make yourself at home, she'll be by soon."

"Thank you, Lord Destan."

"Please, just Alee is fine, doctor."

"Then just Mieran is fine."

[drafthearse]

"'Attack' by dozens of hungry European Medicinal Leeches, Hirudo medicinalis, while wading across a small weedy pond. Swimwear would not have been recommended here... Such a dense population of several hundred leeches is quite unusual in Central Europe – medical leeches have become a rare species in the wild."

[all-consuming-rot]

my pet yelling L

[hogteeth]

Glubby feast with rain asmr lol

I'm not making the same mistake of feeding them all at once again hah

I love their pattern

[lusus]

messy sketch but its something

[preventthetoast]

based hirudo pfp

thanks! its specifically H. Verbana

[lineithel]

Trying to depict Requiem, the amazing oc of @warlordenfilade !

“That night, I relocated Elegy’s brain. I keep it in Elegy’s cold spark chamber, haloed in the wreath of tendrils that creates my sapience, protected in a cocoon of techno-organic flesh, guarded by the thickest metal I can grow, supported by the strongest armour plating the Decepticons produce. If I lose Elegy’s brain, if I damage it, there goes my capacity for higher thought—there goes my entire personality—there goes my sense of restraint. A feral and mature sovereign electro-leech loosed upon Cybertron is the no-win scenario for everyone. ”

——Dark Assassin, Devourer of Souls, by Enfilade

So scary yet surprisingly romantic 😭

I mean, Requiem is like an apex predator, who is surrounded by FOOD yet exhibits humanity (Cybertronianity?) and self-restraint, just because of emotions such as loyalty, friendship, or even respectful brotherhood (that lands perhaps a little bit close to love).

Him and Deathsaurus somehow reminds me of the little prince and his fox (I am still crying for the latter pair’s eventual parting of ways). The wonder and terror they both evoke in everyone including the readers, plus the affection and protection for their own people, it’s impossible not to feel moved and love these characters!

P.S. I really hope that someday I’ll be able to draw him with Elegy ’s frame😣

[libralizard]

Help my friend fund her new pc!

My friend @sironahirudo is hosting a month long dona-thon to raise money for new computer parts starting today.

She'll be playing Tears of The Kingdom all month on her twitch so make sure to stop by!

You can find her today at https://www.twitch.tv/sironahirudo from 2PM GMT!

[mlimby]

Neva posted these

[cheshiresartblog]

Oh look, a few fantroll.

[whiteleech]

Baby Leech!! Look at all his tiny eyes!   “ Hirudinaria bpling “

[fox-buried-in-maple-leaves]

Revenant (Hirudo 2)

taglist: @cerasus--flores

tw: Illness, Death.

Avignon, France, May 3rd, 1348.

The streets filled with the stench of the dead, dirty and desolate. A plague of biblical proportions ravaged the commune, laying waste to its people. A punishment for the sins of humanity. Sins that did not apply to him. The man that walked the streets with the dead of night, unafraid of the pestilence that scared even the great Clement VI. 

The sick and the dying reached for their God, but he had long since abandoned them. A most unfortunate display. But he was not here for them, as much as he wished he could be. He could not save them all. He was here for the work of a supposed empiric. A false doctor lauding miracle cures for extra money. 

He had a particular hatred for miracle workers. 

Red eyes glowed in the dark of the night as he stood outside of the house of his target. Death. He smelled death. But buried beneath the stench of death lay something else. As he approached the house, growing closer, the smell did too. Lavender. The sweet scent of lavender, a flower commonly used by the plague doctors to stave off the plague.

“Please…” A woman grabbed at his overcoat, tugging on the black fabric. The man paused, looking down at her. “Help me..” She begged and he wished that he could. The man bent down, taking her hands in his gloved ones, careful of the boils on her skin. She didn’t have much time left, he could smell it on her.

And so his mark could wait.

He’d get to him eventually.

He sat with her, her hands in his, listening to her pained breathing as the sickness attacked her systems. “I am so sorry, my dear.” He whispered as her grip on him loosened. He gently crossed her arms over her chest, reaching out and closing her eyes with the touch of a feather. “You are free from sin, this is not what your God would have asked for.” He signed the cross over her.

Quietly he stood, turning back towards the house. It was well into the evening, but candles flickered through the glass of the basement window. The man spared one last glance at the woman before he headed towards the house. He was surprised to find the home so easy to enter, but he wasn’t going to knock it as he stepped inside.

The stench of death grew stronger, but it was fresh, misplaced. The man crept down the stairs, his eyes allowing him to see in the darkness of the house. Coughing reached his ears as he got to the bottom of the stairs, turning down the hallway he followed the pitiful coughs until he reached the end of the hallway. 

An open door, a man slouched at a desk, a mask affixed to his face, parchment and texts spread out before him. The man narrowed his eyes, sharp red gaze piercing through him without his knowledge. Slowly the man approached, careful not to make himself heard. As luck would have it, the man coughed again, turning to cough away from his texts despite the beak-like mask.

“Who are you?!” He stumbled out of his chair, the wooden chair falling onto the ground as he backed away from the man with red eyes. But the man momentarily paid the empiric no mind, eyes sweeping over the recently inked research hastily jotted down on the parchments. His eyes narrowed, pale lips pulling into a frown.

Research on a disease that caused frequent childhood sickness. 

The man wasn’t an empiric. But a doctor.

His intel had been wrong.

The man suddenly collapsed and red eyes widened in mild surprise. He coughed again, reaching up with shaky hands to undo the mask filled with herbs. It had done nothing to protect him from the sickness. From God’s wrath. And something told him the red eyed stranger would be unaffected himself. Sweaty blond hair fell around his face, blue eyes tired and dulling.

“Alee Destan. Who are you?”

“Doctor..” He coughed, blood staining his lips as he dropped his mask onto the ground beside him. Alee quickly knelt down in front of him, moving the mask out of the way. “Doctor Eudes.. Brissett.. Please.. Make sure my research finds capable hands.” The man reached out, his own gloved hand finding Alee’s. “It is all I ask, that someone continue what I have started.”

Miracle workers, he hated them.

For one turned him into what he became.

A cure for a disease that caused frequent childhood sickness.

“You can continue your own research.” Alee offered, his fangs visible in the candlelight of the basement as he spoke. His red eyes glinted and yet the doctor did not find himself afraid, but rather, intrigued by the beast. “You will lay loyalty to me, but you will have freedom and eternal life.” Eudes’ grip on his hand tightened. 

His sharp smile sent shivers down the doctor’s spine but he nodded nonetheless, weakly shaking the beast’s hand. “This will hurt. And it will taste awful for me.” Alee yanked Eudes’ hand, pulling him forward, the beast’s free hand catching between his shoulder blades. In a swift motion, Alee bit down on the doctor’s neck. 

It was a toxin, injectable by choice. One that would infect faster than the pestilence could, that would kill off all of the doctor’s human systems, and reawaken some of them all while creating new ones. An illness of its own right, but one that granted near immortality. The doctor slumped in his grip as the toxin overtook his system. His heart stopped, Alee could hear the moment it did.

Alee gently set him against the wall, wiping the tainted blood from his lips onto his black overcoat. Disgusting. The beast stood, turning away to spit more of the disgusting blood onto the ground. He couldn’t stand the taste. While he waited, he picked up the chair, sitting it upright in front of the desk he then sat down. 

The research, the symptoms, the causes. It all read so familiar to him. He carefully looked through the research, reading what he could in the shorthand of the doctor. “What.. What are you?” The broken voice asked, hoarse and pained from beside him on the ground. Alee lifted his head, setting the parchment down.

“They just call me monster. Though I’ve also heard revenant.. Demon.. And vampir from the Germans. Vampire. I am a creature who feeds on the essence of the living, no matter.” Alee halfheartedly waved his hand and stood up. “Gather your things, Eudes. Only bring what you need. People like us, we must always be moving.”

“Why?”

His smile was sharp, fangs still stained in slight red with the doctor’s own blood. “Humans do not take kindly to monsters. I would loathe if you ended up staked into a box.” He held out a hand to the man. Once blue eyes now a deep hue of red looked up at him, and the doctor slipped his hand into the vampire’s. 

“I’m.. Hungry.”

And he laughed, tugging Eudes in close, he grinned at the much taller and much larger man. A dangerous glint in the master’s eyes. “Only what is necessary. Run along, darling. I will show you how to feed.” And Alee let him go, watched the doctor stumble to collect his research from the table. It had been a long time since he had a companion. 

[cuddledot]

hey riley what do you think of that ant species that can manually explode itself

Ok, I think they're fucking cool, they're now gonna be added on a list of favorite guys that Explode (Bombardier Beetle, Termites, etc) but also their fucking name is so funny. Colobopsis explodens.....She colo on my bopsis until I explodens

[lolothesilly]

OUGH so i just typed out a bunch of fun facts about leeches....

tw for discussion of blood, disease transmission, & animal defecation!

most species of leech dont feed on humans, they tend to be very specialized to feed on a specific animal (often fish and amphibians!)

some leeches dont drink blood at all & instead are carnivores eating things like earthworms or slugs!!

its not very likely to get a serious illness from a leech even in the wild because of the way their mouthparts work, the most likely way to get a bloodborne disease from a leech is actually to grab it and yank it off bc that may make it regurgitate the blood in its tummy out of stress!! it is however entirely possible for the bite itself to get infected bc wild leeches tend to live in pond or swamp water which isnt known for being sanitary lol, so if you are bitten by a wild leech definitely clean the wound as best you can, apply pressure, and seek medical assistance just in case!!

the best way to remove a leech is to run your fingernail (or a credit card or similar thin sturdy water-resistant material) under the edge of its face, bc it latches on using a suction cup (like an octopus! there's a suction cup on its face & one on the end of its tail! the face is on the narrower end btw, the fat end is its big ol butt <3) so if you gently break the suction seal it'll just fall off!

leech "bites" can bleed a lot bc their saliva has anticoagulant properties, so leeches are the most dangerous to ppl who have hemophilia or another bleeding disorder!!

leeches dont really have fangs, they have a tiny Y-shaped jaw with microscopic "teeth", almost like a weird little saw, and they use that to break the skin & use their suction cup to latch onto the tiny wound and just sort of free-feed as the blood flows out!!

they also dont drink a huge amount of blood tbh, especially if its just one of them (though they do tend to live in large groups), but the anticoagulant can cause you to bleed (not gushing, more like a steady leak?) for hours after the leech lets go, so its good to apply pressure with clean bandages after being bit!!

leeches are used in medicine to this day!!

you can also keep them as pets, theyre one of the few truly low-maintenance animals, they just need dechlorinated water, some gravel (for rubbing against to help shed their skin), a hidey hole or two, & for their water to be cleaned every so often!! they can live in surprisingly small enclosures, but it definitely doesnt hurt to give them space to explore :) they do also prefer darkness though, so its best to make sure they're shaded from any bright lights or windows!!

leeches like to live with other leeches!!! they will actually curl up together and at least one study has shown that they release oxytocin when "cuddling" with each other (the same brain chemical that's released when, for example, a mother cuddles her baby!!)

its generally ok to keep leeches of the same species together, they arent likely to attack each other unless one of them is full of warm blood & another is hungry!! this is why its best to feed your leeches around the same time & if one refuses to eat, keep it in a separate tank from the ones that have eaten until the full ones defecate and/or the empty one eats!!

adult Hirudo verbana (the modern "medicinal leech" bc the similar, historically used Hirudo medicinalis is endangered) can feed as infrequently as once or twice a year!! they'll digest their meal over a long period of time and (if i recall correctly?) tend to defecate it all at once!! it'll be pretty obvious when your leech does a poop (they'll release dark fluid into the water, this is just whats left of the blood once it nutrients have been absorbed) so clean their water as soon as you notice that xP

some leech owners feed them their own blood, but others will buy unsalted (important!! salt can kill them!!) pork blood from butchers or some deli markets, put that blood in a plastic bag or sausage casing, and warm it up in a bowl of warm water & let the leeches feed on that!!

Hirudo verbana are more colorful than you might think! they have patterns along their back in varying shades of orange, dark green, and brown, while their bellies are a lighter tan color!!

ok ill stop now hehe >w<

[hogteeth]

Shlip shlorp

[medicalleeches]

The Benefits of Using Leech for Medical Treatment

Most of us cannot stand the feeling of leeches being used on our bodies as a part of modern medical treatment. But in the recent years there have been many researches that show the reason why they are relied upon for centuries as an essential part of medical care. There are various kinds of leeches, but not all the leeches are used for medical purposes. One among the best medicinal leeches is the hirudo leeches also known as European medicinal leech. These particular kinds of leeches have special properties in their saliva that can be used in various post surgical and cosmetic treatments. If you are in the medical field and looking for live hirudo leeches for sale or hirudo leeches live pets for sale you can purchase it from us. We breed live medical leeches for sale and supply throughout the nation. Once an order is placed, they are ready to be shipped and reach in a minimum number of days. 

If you are new to this and are wondering how they are used medically, this blog is especially for you. Leech’s saliva contains a blood thinner and an anti-platelet agent Hirudin. It prevents blood clots and cuts down on the amount of blocked blood. Various chemicals in leech saliva maintain blood circulation in damaged zones. It also allows new veins to expand or existing to enlarge and accommodate more blood flow, even after the leech is detached from your body. The treatment is painless as the leeches, when they bite they release a pain killer chemicals around the area to curb pain. 

This kind of treatment has existed for over hundreds of years. In Egypt and Greece followed a similar practice of shedding blood. The physicians of the time believed in curing an illness by removing the blood from their patient. Instead of using some crude instruments, leeches were used widely because they do what they are good at, make their patients bleed without pain. Thus after many researches and proofs, leeches are legally allowed to be used in serious conditions to save limbs of a patient and save lives.

Considering leeches to be one of the most primate organisms in the nature that can help prevent tissue death or promote healing  in specific conditions, many countries around the world have recognized and allowed the use of leeches as live medical instruments and be discarded as a medical waste in a safe way after they have been used. If you are searching online for, live medical leeches for sale or leech for medical treatment, visit our website https://www.medicalleeches.au/ for urgent deliveries.