#Tettigoniidea

[lullaebies]

Can I request when Daeron either claim Tessarion/ or she is hatched? It will also be amazing if it's slapstick funny at the expense of either Aegon or Aemond. Because we know that Helaena is too smart to be caught up in shenanigans.

This was very fun to write! Ended up as a whole sibling set moment, hehe. I went the hatching route as I generally believe in it! Hope you'll enjoy <3 (also forgive me for any mistakes, I ended up writing this till 1am lol) -

“I told you it will hatch,” Aegon says, the cobalt dragon fighting against the folds of the bedsheets squeaking. Aemond looks at the little hatchling intensely, but only Helaena dares to sit on Daeron’s bed, overwatching the dragon clawing the furs as if they were bears or stags.

“Is Tessie!” the four-year-old Daeron proclaims aloud, gathering the face of the beast into his hands. The dragons squeaks in his hands, but those squeaks turn to croons when Daeron nuzzles against its face.

“You can’t call it Tessie,” Aemond says, appalled. “That’s a tavern girl’s name, not a dragon’s.”

“What tavern girls do you know already?” Aegon snorts at him, poking at his side.

“There’s one in that song…” Helaena supplies, which only adds to make Aemond red. She briskly moves away from the topic, however, waving her hand. “But Daeron had a maid named Tessie,” she moves closer to her youngest brother, pinching him at the round of his cheeks. “Didn’t you?”

Daeron reddens and moves away from her grip. The little dragon releases a puff of smoke in discontent, and Helaena slides away carefully back to the edge of the bed, staring down at it.

“You are going to make the hatchling burn up, Hel,” Aegon says, and promptly brings his own hand to Daeron’s hair, if only to indicate further he does not mean the blue beast in their midst. Said blue beast tries to lunge at Aegon’s hand while Daern’s ears turn redder, too. He yelps and snatches it away quick enough, however. “Are baby dragons supposed to act like scaled rodents?”

Certainly, the whole of them wouldn’t know; little Tessie is a first hatching for their family.

Daeron, mildly offended on his bonded dragon’s behalf, hugs the dragons close and yells at him. “It’s Tessie, not rodent!”

The dragon even manages a little, blue flame that escapes from its mouth, to further drive the point in.

Aegon takes a step back defensively and puts his hands up in defeat, a goofy expression on his commonly sullen face. “Bah. Fine, it’s not mousy, that’s for sure. But Tessie is too normal of a name though, Mond’s right.”

Daeron pouts at that. “But…”

“It can still be Tessie,” Helaena says from the side of the bed. “But it might be nice to make it a part of a grander sounding name, for when it’s going to be big and mighty?”

“Part of…?”

“There’s a family of bush crickets named Tettigoniidea, we can change the spelling some—”

“No.” Aegon promptly halts her, and looks back at his youngest brother, trying to think. “Tessiefyre…? Like our dragons..? ugh, doesn’t sounds right,” he complains to himself, and turns to mutter. “Though it could hardly compare to Sunfyre, anyway…”

Aemond seems to give it the most thought, of the three. “Tessa… Tessarys? Tessaerra? Tessarion?”

“Tessarion,” Daeron seems to brighten up at that. He says it a couple more times to make it slide clearly off of his tongue, and looks down at the dragon in his arms. “Tessarion?” he asks. The dragon croons and presses its head against his finger.

“A good name,” Helaena says, and then dares come closer again, brushing a finger against the dragon’s wing. Aemond dares to come by closer as well, after standing stoically for quite a while. He has always wanted to get close to a dragon, but could never. The dragon he helped name lets him touch its back, for a moment brief, under Daeron’s approving gaze. There’s some calmness in Aemond, then.

Aegon then comes by himself, trying to reach for Tessarion too, last of the three. An inch from the dragon, and she tries to bite again. He shrieks away and escapes behind his baby brother on the bed. “That’s a goddamn snark, not a dragon!” he proclaims, to the rest of the sibling’s laughter.

“That’s a Tessie,” Daeron laughs as he pats the dragon again, smile positively vibrant.

“Tessie, schmessie,” Aegon says, bringing his hands to Daeron’s hair. “I still have you to pet, squirt.”

[animalids]

Bush katydid (Poecilopsyra octoseriata)

Photo by Kurt (Orionmystery) G

[rattyexplores]

Plain Mimicking Snout-Nose Katydid.

Pseudorhynchus selonis

28/05/22

[fatchance]

Katydid panorama.

Unidentified nymph at Ash Canyon Bird Sanctuary, Cochise County, Arizona. 

[britsnana2]

7/11/17                  camellifolia (Common True Katydid)

Class Insecta (Insects) Order Orthoptera (Grasshoppers, Crickets, Katydids) Suborder Ensifera (Long-horned Orthoptera) Infraorder Tettigoniidea (Katydids, Camel Crickets, and relatives) Family Tettigoniidae (Katydids) Subfamily Pseudophyllinae (True Katydids) Genus Pterophylla Species camellifolia (Common True Katydid) Other Common Names Northern Katydid, Rough-winged Katydid, True Katydid Synonyms and other taxonomic changes Pterophylla camellifolia (Fabricius) Orig. Comb: Locusta camellifolia Fabricius 1775 Explanation of Names Species name from Greek camelo camel, plus Latin folius (?) a leaf (1), referring to the shape of the wings, presumably--held over the back to form a camel-like hump(?). Size Circa 45-55 mm Identification Forewings form cup over abdomen, many conspicuous veins. Pronotum has two shallow grooves. Both sexes stridulate "katy-did, katy-didn't" at dusk into night. Song varies geographically. Range e US (mostly: TX-FL-MA-IA) - Map - SINA Habitat Deciduous forests--often heard, but seldom seen, since mostly lives in forest canopy. Season Midsummer to frost. July-October (Michigan), July-September, or November (North Carolina) Food Foliage of deciduous trees, and shrubs(?) Life Cycle Eggs are inserted into loose bark or young stems of trees and hatch in spring. One brood per year. Both sexes stridulate, males more loudly. Song varies geographically. Flightless, but may glide to lower branches of trees (2). Sometimes seen perched on shrubs. Does not come to lights frequently (pers. obs., P. Coin). Remarks One of the few North American insects, perhaps, memorialized in verse. Below is an excerpt from Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.'s poem, To an Insect (1831), full text available from Project Gutenberg:

I LOVE to hear thine earnest voice, Wherever thou art hid, Thou testy little dogmatist, Thou pretty Katydid

[rattyexplores]

Hidden.

Diastella latifolia, “Common Speckled Katydid”

20/04/21

[rattyexplores]

Leaf Katydids. Unidentified, but apart of the subfamily Phaneropterinae.

04/05/22

[rattyexplores]

Sitting atop the throne.

Caedicia simplex 30/08/21

[animalids]

Giant false leaf katydid (Pseudophyllus titan)

Photo by itchydogimages

[animalids]

Jerusalem cricket (Stenopelmatus sp.)

Photo by Linda Tanner