#I would imagine they only go after mammals though

[plasky]

I just had a really dumb character idea

So you know how there's like mimics n stuff to which they transform/mimic and object/thing/person

I then also thought of a cuckoo bird and how it inacts brood parasitism

What if let's say this was translated to a sort of mimic thing where the mimic leaves their child to some random family and the child shifts to look like they belonged to that family although still looking more off/off-putting

The mimic child then causes "accidents" to the rest of the children in the family leaving only them in the end to have all the food and everything they need for themself to live

[tizeline]

Question: is your raph allergic from peanut butter? And if so how did he found out he is?

Did he ate it on breakfast and then the allergies started?

Well he is allergic to peanuts in canon, so I don't see any reason to change it, so yeah!

I don't know how exactly they figured it out, but it's mentioned in the show that Mikey likes peanut butter ("-eats peanutbutter with his fingers-") so maybe Mikey was just eating peanutbutter, Raph walks into the room and almost fucking dies lmao

On that note, Draxum made the turtles to be extra tough super soldier, right? And because of that I always headcanoned that he made them extra resistant towards posions and other damaging substances and such. So imagine Draxum's suprise when one of his creatons he specifically bio-engineered to be as tough as possible goes into anaphylactic shock from something as common as peanuts, quite the oversight on his part honestly. (After that scare Draxum starts to frantically check if his kids have any other allergies he was unaware of, because holy shit)

Side note though, I always headcanoned that the turtles (in both the AU and in canon) are lactose intolerant. Like. They're reptiles, not mammals, why would they drink milk. And sure, them being mutants mean that they don't exactly have normal turtle diets and for the most part they can eat anything that normal humans eat. But also, most mammals only drink milk while young, from my understanding we're not really "supposed" to drink milk into adulthood, humans are just weird and stubborn and kept doing it anyway XD And even then, based on my 2 seconds of research, like 60-70% of humans are lactose intolerant too. All of this is to say, the turtles are totally lactose intolerant in my mind. I don't think they get very serious symptoms or anything, callback to Draxum making them pretty tough and resistant, but they're not gonna go around drinking a bunch of milk cuz it gives them a tummy ache :(

[weirdmarioenemies]

I've been thinking about Snood a lot lately. Never did I expect I would suddenly become so Snoodpilled! Exactly one week ago, I decided I didn't want to talk about each Snood individually. But I can't help it. I'm gonna do it! I'm about to Snood! I could go on and on about the history of Snood but other people have done that already and you can find it if you're interested. I am just going to explore the designs of each of these little disembodied heads (they are officially referred to as such. I don't know where their bodies went) and you're going to watch! I want you to imagine this happening physically. You sitting in a room while someone plays a slideshow of Snoods while analyzing them. That's what we do here!

Jake is the Main Snood! The simplest, the most straightforward. He is sort of just a face, and I know all the Snoods are, but this is even more straightforward than most! He is pretty striking, though, with his deep blue and intense stare, compared to the more expected yellow smiling face. Despite his simplicity, Jake has served as the mascot of Snood from the beginning, and I guess he's a good choice for that. I don't actively enjoy the designs of many Snoods, so maybe I would say that about any one declared as the mascot, though.

Zod is already much more of a freak than Jake! He's angry, his sclerae turn cyan, and he bares his sharp teeth. My favorite part is that his nostrils glow! What's going on in there? Little creatures throwing a raging party? Or maybe it means it works as an electrical outlet! Most of all, Zod's most interesting feature is his shape. He has four flat-looking protrusions, as if he could easily stand on any of them. Or maybe they're suction cups. Or maybe they're open holes! Stick your arm in and wave at someone from through a Zod! If you cover all but the top one, you could drink a beverage out of him!

Midoribe heard someone say "be there or be square", and let me tell you. He was not there. He is the Snood who fills up most of the space of his sprite, which gives him an interesting vibe of being the Biggest One. I feel like the characters all being radically different shapes would lead to aiming being a bit more difficult depending on which one you're launching. There could be a Snood Visual Clarity tier list! Awesome. Midoribe's face isn't all that interesting, besides his fascinating nose. The bridge is oh so thin, but the nostrils so builbous, looking almost like two tunicates attached to a stactite! Pretty cool of his nose!

Geji is my favorite Snood! The face isn't that exciting compared to the other Snoods', though I like how happy she looks in the standard expression. I say "she" because Snood HD made Geji a very standard Girl Snood design, but look at this original one and tell me that isn't an awesome and epic girl. The best part is all her tendrils! Geji is like a bacterium or something, with all these cilia emerging from her relatively small main body, and filling out the space of her sprite! I bet those could catch plankton if they needed to. They even droop like mammal ears when Geji is sad. But Geji has much reason to smile, and that includes her very interesting widely-placed but tall teeth. Look at them!

Sunny is, I think, the most conventional Snood. A yellow smiley guy with sunglasses, and he's named after the sun. Pretty standard! However, he is the only standard Snood to wear an accessory, which I guess is notable of him. He has the default Mii nose and that is funny to me. The more I look at him, the more I like him! I really like his lopsided smile, and I reasonably like the way his mouth widens SO much when grinning. He is so happy. Lastly, I like how he reminds me of Cheez-It Gripz. Remember Gripz? Gripz were just okay.

Mildred has a really wacky shape! I am not sure how to describe it. Actually, now that I look more closely, she's shaped like a baby's shirt and diaper at rest, and like a somewhat poofy dress when frowning. I don't think that was at all the intention, she is just very oddly shaped! I like it. Mildred has easily the most striking eyes of all, with cyan sclerae, black irises, and pink pupils! They look like they would give her some kind of ability along the lines of X-ray vision. Their positioning makes me think of a hammerhead shark! Mildred's upper lip has a funny little nubbin that seems to lock into a funny little nubbin-shaped slot on the lower lip, and it feels almost beak-like to me. Mildred could chomp a prickly pear pad pretty easily if she wanted to.

Spike is the last of our regular Snoods, and I think he might be my second favorite! His worried expressions are so endearing to me. I think he would be the big tough guy with a heart of gold. He looks like he would be a monster living under a kid's bed, and he would be more scared than the kid when they encounter each other. His horns are kind of the most creature-like of a trait that any Snood has, which is interesting! I think if Spike had a full body, he would have hooves.

AAAAHHHHH!!!! EEK!!!!! This is Numbskull, and Numbskull is a BAD SNOOD! Numbskull cannot be matched with itself and gets in the way and is evil and a bad guy. At first glance it looks like a standard skull, but the more I look at it, the more it looks alive, actually! It has lips. It has nostrils. What I thought were cracks are brown, as if hair! Skin vibes from this Snood. Not only is it an obstacle, but if you don't manage to save all the Snoods, they will turn INTO Numbskulls! Not only did you kill them, you made them bad guys. Nice going, PAL! Luckily we have some MAGIC SNOODS to help deal with them...

Rowbuilder will build a row of all the same kind of Snood, giving an easy area to clear, and transforming other Snoods, including Numbskulls. They can become nice again! They put redemption arcs in Snood! Rowbuilder himself is a weird sort of guy, with a very gaunt face, even more gaunt than the actual skull guy. He has weird Rayman hair on top, and two big ol' arrows on the sides of his head that can stick out to show you that, oh yes, this is a Horizontal Ability guy. I don't have much opinion on him. That little triangle under his mouth could just be a gradient thing, but I think it would be really funny if it was a Snood Soul Patch.

Stone, on the other hand, I love! What's going on with this thing! It is honestly frightening-looking! A strangely-textured orb, entirely out of style with the other Snoods, and a face that's just some vacant, featureless depressions. This would give uncanny valley vibes to a sentient bowling ball. Even though it's a rock, the texture looks like an annelid worm's segments to me. Also even though it's a rock, it explodes! I really don't know why it isn't a bomb (and it would in fact be replaced by a bomb in a later game) but I'm glad it's an unsettling rock instead!

Then there's Wildcard. This goofy guy. This chucklehead. He is playing one of his trademark Tricks on us by not having a unique design in the original game, forcing me to use his sprite from a different game, completely disregarding the consistency of this post! The rascal! He is on our side though, and can turn into whatever Snood is needed to make a match, so don't kill him with hammers. He's alright in the end. The real shame is that he wasn't the Joker in Snood Solitaire! Joker's Trick!

And last, and arguably least, we have Odin. I like Odin, but Odin does not appear in any "mainline" Snood games, just a few spinoffs! Their design is much less upsetting than any other Snood's. This is easy to look at. So obviously I would love to see what Odin would look like if they were a gradient freak like the other Snoods! I think peach is a good color choice for an additional Snood, and the expressions are fun and distinct, but the arrow-shaped horns (?) do evoke Rowbuilder, so something a bit more distinct would have been nice. Maybe antennae, or ossicones!

And that's all the Snoods! I will not be going over their various redesigns, because none are nearly as visually striking and distinct as the originals. Especially the Snood HD ones, who are cohesive and have more mass appeal, at the cost of actual interesting designs. In the end, I still feel none of the Snoods are my style, but they sure are Interesting!

[dullgecko]

I’ve been thinking more about goblin culture after my latest ask and what major differences a horde would have when interacting with spyre culture, so here they are;

Nudity is definitely not a major taboo in goblin culture and neither are female breasts, like no one’s going to just strut around naked but it can can hot in the caves during summer so if either gender just decides to go shirtless and just wear some short pants no one’s going to bat an eye.

Or if certain injuries or tasks mean wearing clothes is just going to get in the way then of course the simplest solution is just going to take of whatever article of clothing is needed.

Also set meal times would probably also be a weird concept to goblins, like goblins eat when they’re either hungry or food is available.

And while yes grabbing a small snack and sitting with others on occasion is done for the most part food is consumed as quickly as possible so you can carry on with other stuff. The idea of everyone sitting down THREE times a day all at an agreed time by everyone to slowly consume food is just bizarre to them.

Physical contact and body language is almost as much as a part of goblin language as verbal is so when talking to non goblins I imagine goblins having to constantly remind themselves not to punctuate whatever their saying with an a quick hug/grapple or soft bite and that the variation of different ear poses mean little to them etc. xx

Goblins, as a species, are more on the 'critter' end of the spectrum when it comes to their physiology. They look superficially humanoid but they're not /human/ (human encompassing any species that can cross breed and create viable young without weird magic schenanigans ie orc, human, elves etc). There's no reason why they would have the same biological set-up as those species. External genitals would be a detriment when you're scrambling through tight tunnels so they're evolved to keep them 'tucked away' until it's time to party so to speak. It's not even that weird of a set up (dragonborn are the same but they're reptillian) but it's surprising because goblins look like they're just small green humanoids and theyre mammals.

At first glance it means that males and females are basically identical when nude (females only developing breasts while pregnant or rearing young) so why would wandering around naked even be an issue. Everyone looks the same theres nothing to hide. Clothes are more for comfort or personal style than anything else. Plus, even if you're born one way you can easily get one of your hordes clerics to swap you to the other sex. Most goblins go through a phase where they switch back and forth until they usually settle on their favorite around puberty.

Changing your physical sex can alter things like the stripes along your back or tail and face markings (stripes will darken on males and get wider with irregular edges for camoflage) but thats as far as they get with sexual dimorphism, most races dont look hard enough to clock that it may have changed and its usually hidden under clothing so if one of the goblins they're aquainted with suddenly changed sex they wouldnt know unless told. Face shape is more of a genetic thing than a sexuality thing and goblin kids might take after one parent more than the other but it has nothing to do with whether they're male or female.

‐-------------

Riz grew up in Elmville so he's used to the people around him needing to eat at specific times because thats just what these people do. He initially tried to match his mealtimes with them but he ended up making himself ill from eating too much when he's not hungry (it would be similar to a human eating a huge breakfast, then an equally huge brunch, THEN an equally huge lunch all within the span of a couple hours).

He finds it easier to just put off eating for as long as possible even if he's absoloutly starving JUST so he can sit and share food with his friends. It made his coffee habit worse though because he'll sometimes skip a meal even if he's ravenous so he can eat with his friends later; having more coffee than usual because its something that temporarily fills his stomach and supresses his appetite.

Once his party find out they gently let him know that they wont be offended if he doesnt /actually/ eat a whole meal with them. Its mostly about the act of sitting and sharing something together, so Riz will often just have a drink or a small snack to chew on inbetween his large meal days.

------------------------

Be careful when speaking common young goblin. The tall-men races will start a fight over the silliest things. Imagine attacking someone because they told a joke (teeth bared and ears alert with amusement) or getting hurt because you let them know you love them (a bite on the forearm not even hard enough to draw much blood). Make sure you are also careful when showing your emotions, because being upset or anxious will often make them believe you are priming to attack even though you politely expressed your desire to be left alone.

[blueper-saiyan]

I’m overanalyzing something that’s canonically not meant to be thought about, for fun, so here’s a speculative Saiyan biology question: how often do they actually need to eat? I’ve sort of joked about the possibility that it’s like large predators irl where they gorge themselves occasionally and then wait until the next big kill. This would balance out the amount they’re eating to closer to a normal human, just a surprising amount in one sitting, and dodge the thing I’m about to go off the deep end about. But I think they’re probably supposed to need that amount frequently? Which is like, rodent levels of frequency and portions, but unlike a small mammal, a huge amount of actual food consumed. It’s fine if there’s only a handful of Saiyans on a whole planet but how did that work when there was a lot of them? That’s a massive amount of food, where is it coming from? Are they mostly feeding their army by taking food from conquered planets? They’d still need to be producing enough for their homeworld. Is it being farmed automatically and that’s how they can have the majority of their whole species be soldiers? But like, Gine has a job processing meat, so it’s clearly not entirely automated. Stuck thinking about Saiyan agricultural production and supply logistics help.

Unfortunately, I can also say that almost immediately after finding out the amount that Saiyans eat, the back of my mind did jump to “how fast do they starve?” Like, is that a much bigger threat for them than a human or do they have about the same amount of reserves, even if they’re eating more? If it is way faster, how does that affect how they view food/hunger? As a fun irl example, hummingbirds have such an insane metabolism that they would potentially starve to death if they slept at night. So they don’t sleep like normal, they enter a state that’s more like hibernation to slow their metabolism down enough to survive. Many hummingbird species are fiercely territorial because they need access to their food source or they starve. I imagine a theoretical hummingbird society would be thinking about food differently. And because this is my indulgent post where I get to talk about animals, I’m also going to bring up vampire bats, which could also potentially starve if they can’t feed within two days or so (I did not go deep into scientific literature to find original numbers and sources for this estimate I’m sorry true bat fans. Actually same goes for the hummingbird estimate but I know more about birds.). Unlike the more territorial hummingbirds though, vampire bats roost together during the day in colonies, with the same other bats repeatedly. And their food source can’t be guarded like a flower patch can, so there’s less purpose to territoriality. So they can form long term friendships with each other by interacting in ways like grooming each other. Within these friendships, when one bat gets a meal during their few-hour-a-night feeding window, but the other one doesn’t, the one who got enough food will often share with their friend to keep them from going hungry. Then their friend returns the favor when their roles are reversed, keeping them both alive, along with the rest of their friend network.

So those are some very different responses to needing food nearly constantly. If I were deeper in ecology mode I could probably try and come up with explanations based on the types of food source and territory and other factors for why, but I’m here to apply this to Saiyans lol. Honestly, a cooperative strategy would make more sense given that they’re pretty human-like, but that’s certainly not the sense we get given of their society. Were they always super individualistic or is that a recent development? Are they even actually individualistic or is that fully a societal role thing (elites are different from lower class warriors)? Or is the idea that they don’t cooperate partly a lie made up after their deaths anyway? Speculative biology for intelligent species get the extra layer of culture just to make things more messy and fun. We also know pretty much nothing about their original home planet and the actual context that shaped them, so I don’t get to apply other factors, like how easy it is to defend food sources or how important it is to stick together. We probably won’t ever get to know anything more about their original homeworld/Sadala, which is disappointing given that we got hints about it, but it does leave more room for speculation.

[wishfromthesea]

System?? Stuff???

talking about possible system don't look at me

I recently discovered I might be a median system and would like to make a post explaining how I experience it to make sense of things. I'm still questioning, so I'm not claiming I'm actually a system just yet, I have to talk to professionals about this first

• probably OSDD-1a, traumagenic but can't remember trauma I just know it's there because of a lot of stuff

• median, monoconscious, shared memory

• there's definitely different versions of "me". I can often tell I am someone different than I was before. The "mes" are different enough that they have separate names, personality, taste in things, and vibes, but we share thoughts and memory. I experience them all as being "me" when they're fronting, but they feel like separate people when they're not fronting (eg, I am Elysium rn. When Elysium stops fronting, he no longer feels like me, but feels like someone else. When he fronts again, he's me again)

• I dissociate often. I am depersonalized most of the time and feel disconnected from my body, but when things get hard my first reaction is to derealize as well. Often my dissociation feels like someone other than me is experiencing things, or someone other than me just did/said something

• we all have different genders and sexualities, but most and the most active are transmasc. This makes settling on labels very hard. Abrosexual and genderfluid never felt quite right

• Eden seems to be a core of sorts. He's the "base" me. I use Eden also as a collective name, he named himself after it since he's the "main" one

• there's 20+ of me. How many is hard to count, and I commonly get new ones while others go dormant

• most of us in nonhuman. I believe this to be because of my animals (and specifically mammals) special interest. How humanoid we are varies

• I use fursonas/personas/pokesonas/whateversonas as a way to keep track of everyone. Because of our OCs special interest, most of us want to have a sona, and often a way I can tell there's someone new is if I'm increadibly compelled to create a new sona. The sonas are based on what each one feels they should look like, though some are more exact than others

• we have no communication (... probably?) because we're monoconscious. But my inner voice is a bit different depending on who's fronting. We also have no headspace, it's just kind of a black void in there

• I can sometimes see the facets, but usually only who's fronting sees themselves when imagining actions they'd do. Some can't see themselves, and it sometimes doesn't always work. I generally seem to instinctively know vaguely what each facet looks like

• this is all distressing to us. Forming new facets is distressing. Switching is distressing. Blurring is distressing. Not having a cohesive identity is distressing. Not out of any specific reason, our brain seems to just find something inherently wrong with it. We've found it distressing since before finding out we might have this. This isn't something we want, but also we accept it

[phoebepheebsphibs]

Let me tell you one crazy dream I had last night. Ok so I read new chapter from your fic "hide and seek." But not only that one, but also read in AO3 "the corner store" from Kicstarash.. then it got all mixed up in my head and made me think, how would Splinter and the turtles would deal with one the kids accidentally went into hibernation? Like would they think they.... :( imagine how desperate would Splinter be to try and wake them up so badly. Imagine how much angst for a first time parent 🥺 heart breaking 💔

-💙🌸

Let's tell a story...

Splinter was never really that into biology, but he knew enough about animals to know that most went into hibernation during winter. Mammals did, at least. Well, bears and squirrels did.

But he didn't know that reptiles did. After the mutation, when he'd gotten the chance he'd gone to the library to get a book on taking care of pet turtles. That was when he discovered that turtles were reptiles and not amphibians. That they were omnivores, though you should typically feed them veggies and fruits. That each of his new sons were different species, which really surprised him because in all honesty he thought that there were at max three different kinds of turtle. He was in way over his head, he realized. And then he got to the part about how they were cold-blooded. He got to the part on brumation, a reptilian hibernation, how when it got too cold their bodies slo-o-o-owed do-o-o-own... Splinter didn't fully get why this happened, but all he needed to know was that it did happen and what he could do to prevent it.

Splinter had to get heat lamps and place them all around the lair. He had bundles upon bundles of blankets. He worked overtime to make sure that each area of their sewer home was the right temperature for them all. Splinter's room was nice and cold, down in the low sixties, perfect for a hair-covered warm-blooded creature like himself. And his little babies seemed very content with the warmth he provided for them in every room. He also made sure that they had tiny pools of water waiting in every room too, just in case they got too hot and needed to cool down. Reptiles didn't have sweat glands, after all, so they couldn't cool down the same way a mammal could. But for the most part, and as a first-time parent and first-time reptile caretaker, Splinter was doing a fantastic job.

And then came their second December.

Splinter had woken up in the middle of the night from extreme chills and shivers. All of the heaters and lamps were off; a snowstorm had caused a city-wide power-outage. Splinter immediately rushed to his boys, they were just old enough to have a separate bedroom from Splinter, but they still shared a small bed. Splinter dropped to his knees and inspected the boys. Their heat lamp was off, the back-up heater too! The small bowl of water in the corner was slowly going from liquid to solid. He placed his fingers against Red's neck. There was almost no pulse... He pressed his ear against Purple's back, the tiny softshell tended to sleep on his stomach... he couldn't hear a heartbeat! Splinter panicked, grabbing each turtle and cradling them close to his chest.

"My precious boys," he whimpered, crying softly as he rocked them back and forth. "Please... please do not leave me alone..."

Splinter suddenly recalled something from the book... their bodies slowed down... they were just sleeping! Not dead! But he needed to warm them up as soon as possible...

He grabbed the blankie they slept with and bundled them together, trying to conserve their body heat. He rushed to his room and grabbed two more blankets -- one to sling around his chest like a baby bjorn, the other to wrap himself in. He made a mad dash to the generator, and after a few tries he finally managed to get it started. It took an hour for the heat to come back, and in the meantime Splinter kept himself moving about, hoping that his body would generate enough warmth for the boys...

He felt something. Something move against his shirt, slowly shuffling around in the sling... He pulled back his blanket and looked inside. Dear little baby Blue lolled his head back and forth as his eyes lazily opened. His brothers were still deep asleep, but Blue slowly tried to climb up and out to see his father's face better. Splinter held back tears of relieved joy as he lifted the little six year old up.

"...Daddy...?"

"Yes, my son, I'm here. Are you okay?"

"...Cold... tireedddd..."

"That's alright. It's still late in the night, you can go back to sleep."

Blue nodded groggily, though Splinter could tell the child was ever so desperately trying to fight the sleep. He saw his tiny eyes sliding closed, only to open suddenly as he jerked his head back, looked around, and then snuggled back into Splinter's fur. Then the cycle would continue a few more times before Blue finally succumbed.

By morning, the boys were fine again, and Splinter made doubly sure that the generator was always working after that.

[bunnymajo]

Went ahead just filled out that whole OC ask prompt for Quake the Elephant :P

Get to know her better! She'll be competing in the @sonic-oc-showdown going on right now!

You can vote here!

Name: Quake the Elephant

Species: Asian Elephant

Type: Power

Alignment: Good

Home: Sol Empire (wanders)

✨How did you come up with the OC’s name?

Since Blaze & Marine have very on-the-nose names based on their powers I wanted a similar kind of name for her. So I thought of a bunch of earth-related names that I thought were cute, Quake I was on the fence about but after talking with some friends (shout-out to the bumblekast server) who liked it I started warming up to it too. 

🌼  - How old are they? (Or approximate age range)

Late teen/young adult. Older than Blaze

🌺- Do they have any love interest(s)?

Not currently. 

🍕  - What is their favorite food?

Anything Lychee flavored. Tropical fruits are always a hit in general. Never eats meat.

💼  - What do they do for a living?

A traveling oracle, she can pick up vibes and premonitions from certain gemstones or rock formations. People seek out her help for advice or if there’s land that needs excavating

🎹  - Do they have any hobbies?

At her core Quake is just a big rock nerd. She likes learning and going to museums if there's any kind of exhibit about geology

Also all her jewelry is handmade so she's good at metal craft, all her rings are melted down ores & metals she's collected. There's a story behind each one.

🎯  -What do they do best?

Crush rocks. Look at rock. Know where rock came from.

🥊  -What do they love to do? What do they hate to do?

She loves to just sit and enjoy her surroundings, no drama, only sitting

She hates shopping for herself. She doesn’t mind it if it’s a gift, but clothes shopping for herself in particular she’s just really uncomfortable with the whole experience (look around, looking at sizes, trying them on, figuring out if she likes it enough to wear more than once, standing in line to buy it. etc. )

❤️  - What is one of your OC’s best memories?

I could be cheesy and say when she made friends with Blaze & Marine, but other than that she's always traveling she doesn't usually spend time with other people on her birthday or holidays - but one time a town she was staying at found out and threw her a small surprise party and she still cries when she thinks about it.

✂️   - What is one of your OC’s worst memories?

Sometimes picking up & and experiencing the memories of an old rock aren't always pretty. She doesn't like to talk about them.

🧊  - Is their current design the first one?

There’s a few initial sketches I did to get the overall idea going, but currently she’s on her 1st finalized design

🍀  - What originally inspired the OC?

I like powerhouse ladies and I like plus-sized representation in my favorite media, Blaze currently doesn’t have that in the Sol dimension so I took that as a challenge to see if I could make one. Sega also (currently) isn’t really keen on large mammal designs like elephants or horses, so I wanted to see if I could make a large hooved animal fit into the Sonic template. 

🌂  - What genre do they belong in?

I picture her fitting right into a kung-fu movie, as either a wise mentor or the hero's traveling companion, or even a mini boss depending on the situation.

She would hope she fit right into a cozy slice of life drama or a hallmark movie though, but she has too much of a fantasy character presence

💚  - What is your OC’s gender identity and sexuality?

Identifies as a girl, she/her/they pronouns, Ace Lesbian

🙌  - How many siblings does your OC have?

Currently 0. She views Marine as what it would be like to have a little sister though.

🍎  - What is the OC’s relationship w/their parents like?

Parents? In Sonic’s world? Ha!

Her oracle powers can be traced through her lineage though. I imagine she would view them with respect.

🧠  - What do you like most about the OC?

She’s cute and she can punch a rock in half

I also just like gentle giant characters. She's oc comfort food.

✏️  - How often do you draw/write about the OC?

Not as much as I should but I really want to change that, I think there’s so much potential to explore Blaze’s world and it’s just sitting there.

💎  - Do you ever see yourself killing off the OC?

Absolutely not. Even if there was a dire situation where death seems like the only way out, I’ve seen enough magical girl baloney to know there’s always another way. Blaze & Marine would snap her out of that “I have to end myself here to save everyone” mentality, but that's the only kind of scenario where I'd even think about that.

💀  - Does your OC have any phobias?

Claustrophobia, including feeling closed in by big crowds 

🍩  -Who is your OC’s arch-nemesis or rival?

In a playful manner, Blaze as a rival. 

🎓  - How long have you had the OC?

About 5 months :’D

Thanks for reading!

[fairy-writes]

Merfolk!Viktor x Reader 06

i decided not to link the past parts of this series. i don’t want like a million links on my post.

so! 

all parts of this series are tagged under cryptid!viktor :)

cryptid!viktor also includes my pieces with vampire!viktor

also take all this scientific stuff with a grain of salt. i have actually no idea what i’m doing.

“magnificent! absolutely stunning!” the onsight doctor (veterinarian) gasps as she marvels at the ct scan in front of her. it showed a detailed scan of viktor’s inner organs and body. the merman was still heavily sedated, floating motionless in an upright glass tube of water with a machine buzzing around him, taking said ct scans for you to stare at.

if they hadn’t tortured the poor merman so, you would’ve found it fascinating. 

part of you still did. 

so you watched on, watching as assistants performed test after test with an anesthesiologist monitoring viktor’s vitals. 

which probably didn’t matter because no one had any idea what normal vital signs for him were. 

“what’s magnificent and oh so stunning?” you comment dryly, and the doctor points to what looks like a set of lungs. but they looked almost alien. 

“the lungs! It looks like there’s a resonating chamber. think like a whale using vibrations to make its calls and noises throughout its skull. except instead of its entire skull, this creature uses only its lungs! it also has a larynx, much like a whale, so i’d imagine it makes similar noises. if only i could dissect the thing!”

“absolutely not.” you snap, and the doctor holds up her hands in defense.

“mr. leroy was very insistent that the specimen not be harmed. don’t worry, i won’t break that promise.” you pointedly ignored the whole “specimen” comment. though it did make you wonder. were they going to experiment on him?

testing went on for hours. during that time, countless discoveries were made. viktor was likely an omnivore, though leaning toward carnivore with those shark-like teeth of his. and while his bottom half was indeed fish (likely sturgeon like you had first guessed), he was distinctly mammal, much like whales or dolphins. 

did all merfolk have those kinds of teeth? 

did they all make the same noise? 

were they all mammalian? or were some more fish-like than dolphin-like?

you had so many questions. 

hours after viktor had been released into his enclosure, you snuck back into the testing lab with a swipe of your badge. while it would log that you had entered the premises after closing, you couldn’t help but be curious about what they had discovered.

you logged into the computer and typed in marcus’s access code—he had given it to you when he couldn’t be bothered with paperwork—and clicked on the file labeled “experiment neptunus.”

it pulled up hundreds of documents, and you were promptly overwhelmed.

so you clicked on the first file and found something interesting. 

something very interesting. 

it was a picture. but not of viktor. 

instead, it was of another merfolk, with her human half looking about seventeen years old with long blue hair and her fish half looking long, black, and whiplike. she was unconscious, eyes closed and mouth hanging open slightly to show teeth even more wickedly sharp than viktor’s. 

what fish was she?

you scrolled down and saw some classifications. 

EXPERIMENT NEPTUNUS SPECIMEN #01 CLASSIFICATION: 

KINGDOM: Animalia

PHYLUM: Chordata

CLASS: Mammalia

ORDER: Caudata

FAMILY: Hominidae

GENUS: Oceanus

SPECIES: Homo Oceanus

since when had there been another mer in this aquarium? you had only seen viktor and had even seen maps of the place, so you knew there weren’t any other enclosures unless they were underground. 

was this mermaid a deep sea fish? 

did she not require light like viktor likely did? 

scrolling down some more, you found some notes. 

“tests have shown that the fish-like bottom half is that of a pacific black dragonfish. the specimen is exceptionally aggressive, as such is the nature of the fish. it will be transported to another oceanarium where it can be monitored further.”

so there was more merfolk out there. and silco did know about them already.

just what was he planning?

[diejager]

Hi! I was curious (if you don’t mind writing!) a Dorm leaders twst (separately!) x Vampire! Reader hcs?

(Like for the scenarios I guess?😭 how would the dorm Leaders react to reader being a vampire?)

Also you have a lovely day / afternoon / night and a splendid year!!

Lovely afternoon, indeed and splendid year to you too! Thank you <33

The only warning is blood.

You thought you would fit in with all the other magical and special beings than the rural village in your kingdom, find others of your kind than the warm-blooded humans near your house. As welcoming as they were, they weren't partial to fear and wary gazes when some willing folks appeared with incisions on their skin. After your sudden appearance at NCR, an unfortunate surprise that puts you and Crowley in trouble, you tried to fit in after all the mess your "summoning" caused.

You spoke about your condition to the ghosts living in your dorm and Grim, they were clueless until you brought it up and none knew what to make of your eating habit, free blood wasn't something people kept on them every day - except the liquid life coursing through their veins. You took it up to the headmaster, he gathered the teachers and all agreed to help provide blood, whether on their own or from outside sources.

You tried covering yourself from the sun, your skin sensitive to it, and your body weaker under sunlight. Your cold body was kept hidden under layers of cloth and dead heart by not letting them near you.

Although you tried covering your state, inquisitive ears and wandering eyes uncovered your hard-kept truth.

[Riddle Rosehearts]

He was surprised, he's sure everyone's surprise - even a bit, at least - and can't help to look at you differently, not in a bad way, but more in reverence. You're the only living "dead" he knows in the college, heart unbeating and skin deathly cool to the touch.

He sees your hesitance when he asks you to drink from him, straight from his warm body instead of your previous ways. He revels in the tentative licks from the rough surface of your tongue and the cool kiss on your lips. When he feels the prick of your teeth, he almost shudders, face turning a bright shade of red when you pull back to lap at the exquisite drops.

He likes the feeling of supplying you even though you firmly tell him that he doesn't need to let you feed. He loves the feeling of caring for you.

He also realizes that red never looked as pretty as it did than on you, red coating your lips, rolling down your cupid's bow, and the lick of your cold tongue. Red, the color of his being and house, looks beautiful on your kissable lips.

[Leona Kingscholar]

It somehow made sense, the odd, inhuman smell, unlike hybrids or beasts like them, or even fae folks of Diasomnia, yours has this off-putting feeling. The discovery of you being a vampire wasn't that surprising, a cold corpse walking amongst the living. The missing warmth and the eerie silence from your heart and lungs made complete sense.

He isn't one to change his ways after knowing, you're the one who saved and helped him, you would remain his friend and someone he'd - if he has the chance - date.

He usually does the preying, being a predator since birth, but he doesn't mind letting you prey on him; let you sink your teeth into his wrist and drink, let you lap at his skin for dripping blood like a fountain of luxuries.

He loves the sight of blood on you, he can only imagine how hunting would go with you, him being a predatory mammal and you a predatory creature.

[Azul Ashengrotto]

He certainly didn't expect that, he never had anything he could use against you as he did with other students, secrets or regrets. Though he wouldn't use it against you, it would be his way of thanking you for keeping his past a secret. He sees it as an opportunity to get closer to you.

As the caring friend and businessman that he makes himself as he proposes to add a new drink to the menu, one available to you and you alone if you ask for it, it could easily be masqueraded as one of the cocktails they made. The source? You don't have to worry about that, he makes sure it's safe and clean blood - perhaps his.

It takes a few attempts for him to confess that the blood you drinks is from him - although you already knew that, you could smell the dried blood of his cuts - as much as you appreciate him for doing that, you told him against doing so in fear of him getting an infection.

He loves to feed you, so the solution was to have you drink from the source to negate the risks of infection or contracting any sickness. He's addicted to the sting of your teeth and the hot sensation that spreads through his body when you stare up from his lowered wrist.

[Kalim Al-Asim]

He's shocked, and dumbfounded, even after Jalim's constant reminder that you seemed somewhat inhuman. He's giddy, filled with excitement, he was practically jumping from one side of the room to the other to invite you for drinks and inquiries. Spitting questions after questions about you being a vampire and your nightly habits.

You're hesitant when he asked you to bite him, saying that he wants to feel - experience - how it is to be fed on by someone he likes. Jamil shrugged when you turned to ask for support about it being a bad idea. He always stares when you drink, eyes stuck on your lips as you slowly wrap around the skin of his wrist and pierce it.

He makes it a habit of asking you when your next thirst is, urging you to take from him with eager eyes.

The blood doesn't bother him at all, what he likes the most is the deep shade of crimson that drowns your usual (e/c) when you drink. It's a more vibrant red than his eyes, almost shining like gems, it's enticingly attractive while doing the deed; the blood, the cold of your tongue and mouth, and your crimson eyes peering at him for any signs of pain or discomfort. He really loves your eyes.

[Vil Schoenheit]

He can think of so many ways to match with you, especially during Halloween. He's neither shocked nor fazed by your vampirism. He doesn't mind the cold nor the - what he can't wait to see - red taint your lips.

Although he worries about his appearance, he sees the puncture marks on his wrist as an intimate brand of your relationship. The crimson of his blood paints your lips like the lipstick he owns, cover the pearly whites of your teeth and the cold pads of your tongue with him.

He loves staring into your changing eyes, a mystical transformation that made him value your eyes so much more, the fury and life that appeared when you drank liquid life from others. How life filled your crimson irises during and after a feed.

He can't wait for Halloween to match you, pull out his vampire costume and finally let you drink from his neck and shoulders, closer and more intimate.

[Idia Shroud]

He didn't know how to react, he was practically the same as you, minus the blood-drinking and dead body. Like you, he prefers dark cold places and shies from confrontations, that's why he didn't know how to react accordingly without pushing you away with his reaction.

He's extremely shy and awkward, but he manages to push a few questions through his lips. He lets you stay in his obscure dorm whenever the sun gets too hot and bright, more than before his discovery.

He still blushes deeply when you drink from him, the cold doesn't deter him, he was already cold to the touch, it was because of your lips touching him. He assumed that you'd drink from his neck, but when you reassured him that you'd drink from his wrist, he didn't feel any more reassured. Being able to see you drink, mouth wrapped around his pale skin, and his blood popping out from the small mark on his flesh made him more flustered.

He likes the semblance between you two, loving the cold, obscure embrace of darkness and shying away from too much interaction. He doesn't have to worry about having a warm body to heat you while cuddling, or anything humans needed, you care for him well enough as he does with you.

[Malleus Draconia]

He isn't surprised, he's seen vampires before in his grandmother's kingdom - the Valley of Thorns - and has talked to a few. He knew the signs of a vampire, he knew you were one from the first meeting and hadn't hinted that he knew.

Fae blood was different from others, it was more potent with magic, so the risk of you getting drunk on a few gulps is high; he would like to witness that, see you getting drunk and high on his royal fae blood if he's being honest with his wishes.

Although he's seen vampires drink in public and acts of PDA between fae and vampires, he prefers the expected change of your red eyes and the drunkenness numbing your mind.

He knows how to care for a vampire, shy from sunlight and weak to hunger, his blood - that acts like a drug to them - would be perfect for catering to your needs and his fae lineage meant that he healed faster than most and his longevity, ensures that he'd always be by your side.

[bionicboxes]

The Mannequin and Silly Kitty don’t really need elaboration on where they are in the mall but I felt like Tick and Tock needed some further elaboration on the matter. 

So, they’re from a place in the food court, ‘Wonderland Theatre’ (name pending), real retro theming. Designed some of the other animatronics that’d be there as well, though Tick and Tock are the only Alive ones, currently at least. Its not really relevant but I imagine the Rat King came from the same circus Ollie did originally, it’s had some changes but Ollie would probably still recognize it. 

Cut for further rambling haha! 

Besides Tick and Tock coming from here, I think this might be where Mary works! See, I had imagined when Dolly meets back up with Mary (them being friends that had grown distant recently) after Love Bugg prodding them to go out and socialize, it’s by coincidence at the mall when Dolly goes to eat, since Mary is working wherever that is- and I figure, hey, this is totally the place Dolly would go. And its totally a place Mary would choose to work at because she’d love a food place that decided to be a little fun and silly in the face of modern Boringness and Unification of how Every store Ever looks. 

I also think it would be! very funny! that there was something Paranormal right under Dolly and Mary’s (and Sammy but he probably didn’t go here except to see Mary while she was working sometimes maybe) noses the whole time! Probably even before Dolly brought Love Bugg to life! They could’ve found out about the ‘bringing inanimate objects to life’ thing wayyyy before working on Ollie if only they were there at the right time. Probably best they learned it from Ollie, though. 

Some additional notes! Rat King breaks the color palette of the other three just a weee bit because of its origins of not being built for the Wonderland! You probably noticed there’s a bit of theming going on here as well; each have a card suit (Diamond for Tick, Spade for Tock, Heart for Rat King, and Club for Teatime) as well as an alice in wonderland character they are (vaguely) based on (The White Rabbit for Tick and Tock, the Queen of Hearts for Rat King, and the Mad Hatter for Teatime). Plus, I did have the idea of them all being ‘rodents’- rabbits aren’t actually but you know what I mean, small mammal guys with those Vibes. They used to be classified as rodents, at least, so I’m counting it. 

[inqilabi]

girl the thing you said about rape being not natural even though human males do it the same way animal males do, because humans are special and control their environment is stupid. when we were animals, when we were not modern homo sapiens do you think at some point of evolving into humans we just forgot how to rape? it just went out of our minds for a hundred thousand years? the distinction between animal and human is arbitrary, we are not that different.

If the distinction between animal and human is arbitrary, and we are simply a continuation of animal then why don't non-human animals develop the planet - create spaceships to explore other planets or can articulate how our world or universe came about? Why dont we see orcas which are by far the most intelligent mammal with complex language capabilities similar to humans, do that? Why are we the only species that can do that?

Evolution happens over millions of years, so yes you can easily evolve out of behaviors or as you put it "forget to rape" because it happens over millions of years. There's absolutely traits that "went out of our minds for a hundred thousands of years". Knuckle walking, completely gone. Being a good climber, completely gone - you have to develop this. And if you believe that rape is a biological trait, it should actually be relatively easily to believe that it can be evolved out in a species based on the environment since that's exactly how evolutionary biology works.

And not all non-human primates living even today rape. Like bonobo, one of our closest living relative, has never had an observed case of male sexual coercion. In fact, in their culture females dominate cultural relations and networks, and males grow up in this "culture' and observe and therefore learn, that they will have more mating success with grooming strategies rather than aggression. And they actually apparently get mating success by gaining support from these female networks.

And the natural experiment example of Robert Sapolsky's forest baboon troop, which DID have sexual coercion in their culture, but did not after the aggressive males all died out from eating contaminated food. In the following years, the troop developed a culture that was cooperative and they retained this culture going forward. There was no reappearance if sexual aggression thereafter.

And lastly, PR Sanday studied some 95 "primitive" cultures in society and found that 50%, half of were rape-free. These still exist today.

In all the above examples, there's a common theme of sociability for survival. This is what I was saying previously, human evolution is unique in that tool development, led to bigger brains dedicated to language and social function. Homo sapien evolution is even unique compared to other hominids in that unlike all other hominids, homo sapiens was not restricted to limited range of environment. It's both these things together that make humans unique. Early homo sapiens would have been bands of 20-30 people working together, splitting labour, cooperating, talking things through, analyzing things together to adapt to life anywhere. It's hard to imagine rape in these circumstances when rape doesn't exist in cultures and societies even today, where cooperation is required for survival.

Regardless, this a philosophical debate since we don't have evidence of whether rape was common or not prior to 10000 years ago. The only evidence we have is what i presented above, the non-human primates and ethnographic study of some cultures today. Your argument relies on the logic that since rape is biological and present in animals, it would be preserved in human evolution. I disagree with this logic, I think human evolution required this behaviour to be specifically 'evolved out' in order to survive. And it does not reappear until 10,000 years ago. And I still believe that regardless how we start, whether men are predisposed to rape biologically or not, we would be able to eliminate this when we women seize reproductive forces and address women's oppression materially. So ultimately it is possible to end it via a cultural evolution regardless of how we start. This we have plenty of examples of - i gave GDR & Long Bow as examples already of a primordial form of this. We saw lots of changes there and that wasn't even a full seizure of reproductive forces, it was only small material redistribution of resources to women that significantly reduced women's oppression.

But are you able to explain why in non-human primates and even human societies we have examples of no sexual coercion. Yes these are a small percentage because of the general and increasing development of society towards patriarchy, which would lead us to hypothesize that its likely that these rape-free cultures were more prevalent in the past prior to patriarchy. But if you believe that rape is a biological aspect, then why do these cultures not have rape. They should - since its a biological feature of evolutionary development, it should be pervasive no?

[bluegekk0]

🦀

i was going to take this one literally and talk about fpk digging for crabs at the beach, or something of that sort. but then i remembered the "why does everything evolve into crabs" question and i felt inspired to talk about some worldbuilding. veeery loosely based on the emoji, so sorry if this isn't what you were hoping for haha

so i've mentioned before that wyrms in the au aren't god-like creatures and instead are the closest thing this universe had to dinosaurs. their ancestors were small, but they evolved to grow into massive sizes and slowly took over the planet. of all the gigantic species that once roamed the world, wyrms were the last, all thanks to their strange ability to stop aging. the lack of sufficient food drove them to intense intraspecies competition and cannibalism, and so they eventually all died out (with the exception of fpk, who found a way to adapt)

so if wyrms and other giant creatures were the dinosaurs, then i guess that makes the lesser creatures the mammal equivalents here. they outlived their ancient contemporaries and became the dominant group, as they evolved into all the different species that can be found today. the whole group is most commonly referred to as bugs, but many of them do not resemble our world's insects at all. funnily enough, many would likely be classified under vertebrate thanks to the presence of skeletal structures that allow them to reach larger sizes and bipedal body plan. not to mention, the bleed red in the au, so their inner systems are also different to those of insects

but where do the gods come into this? they are present after all. the way i imagine them in the au, their most accurate title would be "guardians". with some exceptions, like the radiance and unn, they are not creators of life forms. instead, they guide the mortals, leaving clues in form of lore tablets, and they each have their own domain they are responsible for watching over (like dreams for the radiance, and nightmares for grimm). as for where they came from, i'm not quite sure. perhaps the first god was a strange mutation, or an extraterrestrial being. i referred to grimm and wl as the youngest generation of gods, so perhaps they're like greek gods in this area, as if, they have children that then join the pantheon of gods. though i imagine the dream realm itself to be a bit more like asgard from norse mythology - it's a realm for all the gods to reside in, and each of them has their own "hall" - this case, their individual sub-realms. for example, grimm's nightmare realm was one of them, it was once part of the dream realm, but was separated from it following his banishment - he can only enter the nightmare realm and is unable to visit the shared dream realm

i'm still brainstorming how much that impacts their influence in the regions they haven't originated from. for example, i think grimm and the radiance came from the territory that is now hallownest and the neighboring regions, and i guess that would mean they hold the most power here, which makes sense. but since grimm can collect nightmare essence outside of hallownest, then it can't be limited to just this territory. i'll figure something out eventually, i think there are many directions to go in with this. and i like the idea of different regions having different "dominant" gods, so i'd love to explore and experiment with that

this is definitely in the confusing rambling territory but i've always enjoyed thinking of the world in the au in this kind of context. magic is interesting, but i've always been more drawn to, i don't know, i guess a speculative evolution/biology kind of direction? it's still in the fantasy territory since it doesn't match reality 1:1, but i guess i just enjoy having a slightly more grounded approach. well, aside from the gods hahaha

[selamat-linting]

terrafirmacraft update again because i spent my off day playing video games

1. the bed

i got it guyss!!! i killed a bear and use the hide for bed. you see, a few weeks in game, i encountered a bear. i ran way as fast as i can because i dont have any armor yet. little did i know, when it followed my frantic running, it accidentally fell and get stuck on a steep cliff with nowhere to go. i was trying to find the start of the river, hoping it would lead to an area with a better flow of water, but instead i find the bear. it was easy killing. i just had to keep throwing my spears at it and it'll die.

look, i've gotten killed several times by bears so makes sense i'd get cocky seeing one completely trapped. i feel like a cerebral assasin, its all about the game! and how you play it. until i got too reckless and fell into the freezing river.

i frantically swim my way out and ran into the house, thinking the bear could accidentally fall with me and chase me home. imagine that, running home shivering and soaking wet afraid of shadows. im lucky this version of the modpack doesnt include a temperature system. i would have died of hypothermia! it was an autumn night and the climate im in was on the colder side.

i went back shortly in the morning, and the bear was still there. it only take a few shots. after retrieving the hide, i finally made my second thatch bed after eight months in game without it. the thatch bed is different than the regular base game bed since it couldnt be used to actually sleep, its just a way to set up your spawn point. my next goal right now, is a proper bed made of wools or silk.

turns out, silkworms are only for the hardrock version of tfc. i cant farm my way out of it. so, i have to find sheeps, or other wooly mammals. luckily tfc have alpacas, and they frequently spawn in colder regions like the one im in. it still took multiple expeditions that ends with me going home with only seeds or ores. i even find a spot in a hill that has a kimberlite (diamond) ore. thats how lucky i am with animals. i did find one eventually though

2. the alpaca

i kidnapped a child murdered and her mother. you see, when i find my alpaca, it was young and small, i was desperate already, especially since it was a snowy plains and walking there is so slow and annoying, so i just take it home. i didnt know where the mother is. every day i feed it. and what do you know, turns out baby alpacas can be sheared, despite its small size.

a few days after the alpaca is in my home, when im in another expedition, i find an adult female alpaca wandering alone in the wilderness. i figured it must be its mother. unfortunately, i was heavy with so much load and far from home, so i kinda need a food sourse. at least its sheepskin can be stripped into pieces of wool. in the end, the combined total of wool gathered from these two animals afforded me 1 (one) single wool sheets. weaving and spindling is cool btw. i just need two wool sheets more for the bed

(to be continued because im tired and this is too long already)

[sinisterexaggerator]

His kid.

(Shriv Suurgav and Zay Versio)

Warnings: Thoughts of blood and gore. Angst. Sadness/depression. Negative reflections about life and death. Mild PTSD. Family feels / fluff. Happy/sappy ending.

Notes: This came out. Also, I was never satisfied with how Shriv said "Oh," after Iden's death in Battlefront 2: Resurrection. I feel like he felt a lot in that moment and did not have any time to process as both him and Zay needed to escape. I also imagine he wanted to keep his head clear for her sake. He had to be strong.

This fic is Shriv reflecting on his life as a soldier, what it all means, and coming to terms with the fact he's got a kid now.

Word count: 2.8+

-----

Shriv rubbed the entirety of his face in the center of his palm, trying to keep the exhaustion at bay as Zay Versio stared across the booth at him with wide brown eyes.

Currently, he put on a performance in the guise of a smile, attempting to mask his weariness and all the feelings he had about anything and everything. The teenage girl was brimming with excitable energy while all Shriv wanted to do was sleep for about a thousand years.

“So, you think we’ll find him? This Agamar guy?” she asked while sipping on her bantha-milk shake. It was almost the color of Shriv’s scales, and he nearly wrinkled his nonexistent nose at her, thinking dairy of any kind was nothing short of repulsive. He would never understand why mammals liked the stuff – it had to be innate.

“Your guess is as good as mine,” Shriv stated, one foot up on the booth seat as he leaned back against the wall, long fingers digging into the flesh of his brow. “With how many doors have been slammed in our faces thus far, I’d be surprised.”

“Hmm,” Zay hummed, taking another slurp of the thick substance in her glass as Shriv simply blinked at her, sighing for want of anything better to do.

“I have a good feeling about this one,” she acknowledged, perking up a bit as she watched a waitress stroll by. “Aren’t you going to order something?”

“Not hungry,” Shriv informed her, though this was abnormal. Shriv had a healthy appetite and usually ate whatever was put in front of him, but as of late the only thing feeding him was his anxiety.

“You should eat, Uncle Shriv,” Zay frowned, causing something inside Shriv’s heart to stir, though oftentimes repressed on purpose. It was a dangerous game, feeling things. He knew all too well.

He started to drift, red eyes glazing over, his voice coming out softer than customary, and lacking any of its usual gruff edge. “Thankss for trying to look out, kiddo, but I’m fine.”

He wasn’t fine. He wasn’t sure how Zay  was fine. Days ago she had watched her own mother die before her eyes, and before that, had heard news of the death of her father. Now here she was on a mission from General Organa and Shriv was acting as … what, exactly?

Zay watched as the waitress disappeared into the kitchen, pursing her lips at the Duros who looked, among other things, like he needed a well-deserved nap.

“I’m going to order you a Ronto wrap and some caf, then I’m going to the ‘fresher, be right back.”

Shriv kept a lookout as she pushed herself out of the booth, walking towards the little diner’s counter some distance away. He wondered if that was another thing about teenagers he was just starting to learn – they were hard of hearing.

He quickly deteriorated the moment she was out of sight.

A million thoughts pummeled him all at once. He hadn’t had time to even sit with himself since before he could remember. A stream of negativity flooded his conscience, though that was nothing out of the ordinary. He had a guilt complex.

Birth, death, life, all that stuff in the middle. It all felt like some twisted game he just couldn’t win, or didn’t even know the rules to. One minute someone’s there, smiling at you, and the next minute there’s a thermal detonator at their feet and they’ve got nowhere to run.

Shriv sat up enough to place his head upon the table, wrapping his arms around his waist as his foot fell to the floor to join the other. He stared at the duracrete beneath through a thin sheen of tears.

The pointless drudgery of training to be elite, to be special, to command forces to attack equally trained elite forces that were brainwashed into thinking you were the enemy when you were only doing what you had to do to survive one more day in this karked up galaxy called home.

Sometimes he wondered who was right, and who was wrong, if anyone. Occasionally Shriv thought even the people he knew closely were really nothing more than strangers with their own opinions and points of view, different outlooks, crossing or clashing instead of conveniently trying to work things out. Even rebel leaders argued amongst themselves for “the greater good.”

Everyone had their own idiosyncrasies, mental illnesses, ways of being, and maybe no one could "just get along" … maybe it was impossible, and it made Shriv sad. The senate had fallen all those years ago, and the Empire had flourished because people didn’t want to talk, they didn’t want to listen, they only cared about self-preservation, which was all fine and good and all, but what about helping each other? What about guiding one another to understand?

They had rebuilt things, Luke and Leia had rebuilt things, sort of. The New Republic had righted all the evils, or tried to, though the First Order never truly died. Of course, nothing was ever perfect. He liked to think they had been better off, but some might say otherwise. Now it didn’t matter. Hosnian Prime was gone. Everyone, gone. It was like starting from scratch.

And working with others was hard; no one was ever bound to see eye-to-eye all the time, and in a few instances it couldn’t be fixed… someone winds up hurt in the end, physically or mentally. You get committed to something bigger than yourself, and it was all just ... overwhelming.

Life was supposed to be enjoyable, but then it's not one day, or you feel like shit for no apparent reason. Maybe you make someone mad without realizing it. Human beings especially were fekking complicated. Shriv wished things were simpler, easier, and that everyone had more patience and care for one another.

And this wasn’t just picking sides. This was just Shriv overanalyzing. He found his mood had been affected more than once by several people in various cells, different base camps, or other random locations that were supposed to be his comrades in arms though they hardly knew each other.

He thought it was crazy how all that worked. Maybe it was just a him thing, yet others also seem to be affected as they were often left yelling at each other.

Overall, was a few months eating side-by-side really enough time to trust another person with your life on the field? What was the alternative? All they ultimately had was each other.

He just ... didn’t know what to do about so many things. So maybe he should just stop thinking all together.

‘Yes, why don't you do that.’

But he couldn’t. That wasn’t even the worst of it.

The endless tediousness of ensuring supplies were in order when the next day you were on the run, barely escaping with the clothes on your back and your life, hearing that not everyone made it out in time.

The smell of burnt flesh, the image of corpses littering the battlefront, left, right, and centerfield, some incomplete, blown to bits, guts and blood and viscera as far as the eye could see and his eyes could see far.

Sometimes, as a marksman, it was impersonal. The target resided in a place he would never bother to cross otherwise. He did not have to view the results of his work up close, but still they fell.

Shriv was not a murderer. He kept telling himself that. But, at the end of the day what did he do most frequently? What thoughts and actions took up most of his time and brain power?

Strategy, analysis, battle tactics, military maneuvers, field-exercises, his own breathing rhythm before he took the shot, calculated risks, uncalculated risks, precision, anticipation, surprise.

The surprises were absolutely awful.

And this didn’t account for the time spent behind the yoke of his X-wing. That was a whole other kettle of scalefish.

Flight theory, air and space navigation, specified directives, operating procedures, offensive splits, crossturns, evasive actions, inertial compensation, forever and on and on and on…

But no matter how much he knew, in the end it might as well be drivel, fanciful nonsense, a foreign language he didn’t understand, gibberish, woolgathering, incoherent digressiveness, red tape, or officialese.

‘In the end, it doesn’t really help anyone, does it?’

That wasn’t true at all, and he was well aware. It was just so hard not to think that way when half of your existence had been spent around death and some guy’s diatribe.

Shriv thought actions spoke louder than words in most cases, but sometimes the words were so loud the speakers could drown each other out. Sometimes they were so loud they were a distraction from what really mattered.

Saving people’s lives, eradicating tyranny, throwing yourself headfirst into a dangerous situation for a low payout only to try and live to fight another day.

But sometimes you didn’t live … that’s what got to him more than anything.

Some would say it couldn’t be helped. That’s just the price you pay in this line of work. Was it work? It didn’t pay except in stale rations, backaches, and sleepless nights.

Sleepless nights spent staring at the underside of a bunk bed, or the dilapidated, ancient ceiling of some bygone civilization’s temple in the middle of the woods on a desolate planet no one had ever heard of. Or maybe the transparisteel dome of his starship, guarded by the natural camouflage of a jungle’s canopy, hoping to Maker no one spotted you as you waited for your informant, mark, or friend.

He had boiled that one over, turned it clockwise a million times like a rotisserie nuna in his mind. “It can’t be helped.”

When Iden died all he had said was “Oh.”

Zay had said it was okay, that she made it count, and of course he knew “she always did,” but that was besides the point. There was more to it than that. So much more that in that moment he could not express it in words, but he had felt it in his heart, his very bones, and he had screamed internally.

He had cut the comm, hesitated, gasped a breath, but when it really mattered his voice came out steady and clear. He had to keep it together for her. For Zay.

Dare he say it? He had loved Iden.

Sure, he had been skeptical of her at first. She was ex-Imp. He had taken a risk bringing her aboard, but she had quickly proven herself, and Del too. She had been family, his family, like a sister, someone he looked up to, someone he had fought beside, someone who had been there for him through thick and thin, someone he had cared about.

But, now she was gone, and all he had said was “Oh.” It ate him away inside. She deserved more than “Oh.”

Why did it even have to be like this? Why couldn’t he have been there to save her? Maybe he would have seen Hask coming, and that course of events would have never played out in the first place.

Even so, they wouldn’t have had an escape plan. The Destroyer went down. That was the point. All three of them would have died. There was no other way. “It couldn’t be helped.”

That was just the life of a soldier. One day Shriv was sure he would be the one to die. He didn’t know when, or where, or even how. He assumed at the barrel end of some Stormtrooper’s blaster rifle.

He wonders if it hurts - dying. He wonders how bad it had hurt Versio. He pinches back the saline liquid that threatens to fall from his eyes, thoughts wandering to the daughter she had left behind. The one who had left her disgusting bantha-milk shake on the table across from him to slowly melt.

Zay was strong, independent, a go-getter. She had her mother’s fiery spirit and then some. She was destined for great things. She would make her parents proud, but she was just a … kid. She shouldn’t be forced to do things like this – hunt down Rebel sympathizers, take orders from generals, fly around the galaxy in a stolen TIE fighter that at any moment could be shot down or pulled in by a tractor beam, recalled, confiscated, searched out, destroyed with them inside it..

But she wasn’t anybody’s kid now, she was another orphan of the war. The war that never ended, and Shriv had been at this for some thirty years. He was tired. He didn’t want to fight anymore, but the only alternative was to give up, go hide somewhere, and he just couldn’t do that.

Iden had done that, lots of people had done that. They had their reasons - family.

Shriv never had that sort of reason. He had never found the time for love, for a partner, for someone to care about like that, or to care about him.

It wasn’t because he didn’t want to. He had dreamed about it on occasion. He just … didn’t have the desire to bring offspring into a place as kriffed up as the current reality he existed in. That, and he knew he was an acquired taste. He never had any luck in that department.

Then, he realized he could still play an important role. Zay wasn’t on her own. She didn’t exactly have to be an orphan. She had him. They had each other. He was no replacement, and he wouldn’t try to be, but maybe, just maybe, he was better than nothing.

Hard to get along with, hard to love, maybe. But he liked to think he was a decent guy that perhaps in another life would have made a good role model for someone, or maybe even a dad as humans called them.

“Uncle Shriv?”

Shriv shot up, not expecting to be caught in such a state. He had meant to snap out of it before Zay returned, though she witnessed the tail end of his tears. They were quickly wiped away on his sleeve, but that was not satisfactory. The young woman sat down next to him, a concerned look upon her face.

“Are you okay? I ordered you that wrap with extra Clutch sauce, just like you like,” she offered with a lopsided smile.

The tears fell fresh, Shriv reaching out awkwardly with both arms, trying for a hug that was well-meaning yet somewhat clumsy. He cinched them loosely around her neck and pulled her in. There was little protest, as Zay allowed the embrace, even returning it with a soft pat to his back.

“Sweet girl, listen to me, all right?”

“All right,” she consented, continuing to permit the odd show of affection from the Duros who rarely, if ever, indulged in this sort of thing. It was unusual, and she couldn’t help being curious.

“Your mom and dad – they were good people. You’re good people,” Shriv started off, talking softly into her ear. “Iden, she gave her life fighting for a cause she believed in. I don’t have to tell you that. But I know what it’s like to feel like you’ve got nothing, nobody, and what it’s like to be alone.”

Zay listened intently, deciding not to interrupt, but to hear him out before saying anything one way or the other, yet she felt a tug on her heartstrings just the same.

“I just want to tell you right now, you’re not. Not only do you have the whole of the Resistance guarding your back, but you’ve got me, kid.” Shriv tightened his grip, burying his face into her jacket. “You’ve always got me. You’re my kid now, understand?”

Zay's smile brightened as she nodded her head.

“I know we don’t look anything alike. Hell, we’re not even the same species, but anyone messes with you, they’ve gotta go through me. Besides …” Shriv pulled away, placing his hands atop Zay’s shoulders. He returned her smile, albeit weakly. “I don’t want your mom to haunt me. She’d have my ass.”

Zay laughed then, wiping her own tears away that had started to form. Shriv felt guilty. He hadn’t meant to make her cry.

“She would, too,” the girl affirmed, grinning from ear to ear, though there was a hint of sadness lingering behind the otherwise cheeriness of her expression.

“OK, Shriv, under one condition.”

Shriv sat back, awaiting her stipulation.

“You eat something. I need you on your A game.”

“Sure thing, kiddo,” he agreed, watching after her as she took up her spot on the other side. He wearily expelled a breath, folding his arms across his chest.

“One more thing, Zay,” he stated.

“What is it?” she asked, dark eyes meeting his ruby ones directly.

“Don’t … order anymore of those. They’re gross,” he professed, waving offhandedly at her bantha-milk shake.

Zay responded by taking a long, laggard sip through her straw. He was almost positive she did it to annoy him, a mischievous twinkle residing in her gaze.

Shriv shook his head, smirking. “Already going through your rebellious phase. Lucky me."

[jmenvs3000f23]

Learning, growing, and sharing the passion🐛🦋(U10)

Reflecting on my journey of developing my personal stance as a nature interpreter, I realize my ethos is deeply rooted in storytelling. While I would absolutely consider myself smart and capable of any challenge thrown my way, I wouldn't claim to be the one to ask for a perfectly articulated summary of a concept, or a history (or stats oh gosh...)) But! I am your girl if you want to talk about animals or nature with the same excitement and perception shifts you had as a kid; when learning about something like dinosaurs or other planets for the very first time and feeling like your mind was blown, or maybe even that the person was just making stuff up because of how wild it seemed.

At it’s core, my passion sings when having the chance to discuss niche topics with open-minds that delve into things like evolution, coming from the perspective that there are so many mysteries out there that could be unraveled if you only cared to look.

Just this week, some of these topics for me and some peers have included trying to understand bird tetrachromacy (how and why they can see in UV), mammals returning to the water like whales and dolphins, or how?? Literally how??? lemurs got to Madagascar.

To me, it's not just about sharing information, but having fun in the process and getting to share what you learn about the animals and their exploits in ways that would rival the wildest fantasy stories.

[Saw-whet owl wing under UV💡 ]

[OG whale💪🏻 ]

I've been playfully dubbed the "zookeeper of knowledge" by a friend in this context, after spending far too many hours working on a project because we kept getting side-tracked and discussing things not necessarily needed, but so incredibly interesting. (And it’s probably a title I'd gladly claim if it weren't so corny to be honest.) Regardless, it summarizes my commitment to becoming a curator of the captivating craziness that the animal kingdom has to offer. With a bias but passionate zoological perspective, I strive to share my spark of curiosity. ✨

Beyond my zoology lens, I strive for a focus on eco-consciousness in the work that I do, hoping to bridge the gap between science and the public and to foster stronger connection with Mother Nature.

As for translating these passions to children, I’m a firm believer in both transparency and honesty. While it’s almost guaranteed they won’t enjoy their first climate change lesson, I think forming traits of environmental stewardship and the understanding that actions have environmental consequences in children is critical if we want our passion for nature to be held by future generations. I remember my first lonely polar bear on a drifting ice berg video, and yes I was sad….but it left a vivid mark on my consciousness, shaping my understanding of the environmental challenges we face and it very likely brought me to where I am today.

Speaking of inspiring children, I cannot hold myself back as I have to show you guys what I found last week!

[Zoologist Barbie!!!!!!!!💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗]

I'm not even that much of a Barbie fan but I think now I have to be! I would have exploded with joy if I had this as I kid! I mean, if Barbie is doing it, I can't even imagine how many little girls will now be exposed to the possibility of studying zoology or similar topics and I won't lie...I could cry 🥹 (not to mention how close the koala is to a lemur and my personal goals regarding that....interesting......verrry interesting 🔮)

Though I still think going outside with curiosity in mind is the number one way to develop a relationship with nature, I’d consider things and representations like this even more important in places like cities, where natural spaces are becoming less and less accessible due to never-ending infrastructure and the digital domination of screens and virtual experiences.

The allure of video games and online platforms often out-win outdoor activities at least in my own anecdotal experience, raising concerns about the disconnect between the younger generation and the natural world. I think environmental educators are becoming more and more important in schools, and I believe they play a pivotal role in counteracting this trend, as they offer opportunities for a child to focus on wonders within the natural world. I had a hard time myself trying to sound reasonable to many of my friends and family as a kid when saying I wanted to study animals and nature since technology was progressing so quickly and I was viewed as looking backwards.

and so I think this doll (or things similar) can reinspire or hold that flame when kids aren't yet to sure if they'll find a nice outdoor spot to explore, an educator excited to answer questions, or a community like Guelph that embraces natural sciences so much.

In my opinion, harsh climate crisis truths can surely be sugar-coated for young minds to an extent, but to completely wait until their old enough to ‘actually understand’ is just providing the perfect opportunity for a child to become a distracted or oblivious teenager or adult. Again, this is my opinion but at this point in time, in a current climate crisis with almost no signs of slowing down, being an adult in a country like Canada and purposely ignoring it is NOT cool!!

Now, we don’t have to live every moment with the weight of the world on our shoulders, and I don’t wish that on anyone! But I believe the absolute bare minimum is to consider our actions in relation to nature and provide the next generation the building blocks and exposure they'll need to make environmentally conscious choices. Concepts like reusable water bottles over disposable plastic ones, not littering, and realizing our planet belongs to others too aren’t scary things and if anything, promote cultures of care and community. These seemingly simple ideas start to lay the foundation for responsible and conscious individuals to gladly carry the torch of environmental awareness into the future!

Anyways, that's what's up with me, and so I hope you've found at least one thing on my blog that made you think about, reconsider, or learn something, and maybe even want to go hug a tree 💝🐛

Works cited

Johnson, N. A., Lahti, D. C., & Blumstein, D. T. (2012). Combating the Assumption of Evolutionary Progress: Lessons from the Decay and Loss of Traits. Evolution Education & Outreach, 5(1), 128–138. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12052-011-0381-y

Northern saw-whet owl outstretched wing under blacklight, by Seabrook Leckie, Attribution-NonCommercal-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic license, https://www.flickr.com/photos/rustyblackbird/