#Turtles and tortoises probably come next

[cxpperhead]

What are your favorite non-snake reptiles to keep or look after?

"Hmm, it's difficult to say. There are just as many different species to take into consideration as there are ones with varying levels of temperament, needs and care requirements. In my personal experience, if I could only pick one set species to care for, it would probably be the monitor lizard. They are some of the most intelligent reptiles out there and come in a great variety from Ackie Monitors to the Australian Goanna." Savannah monitors, water monitors, he had a little experience with them all, even the odd Komodo here and there. Copperhead preferred snakes for obvious reasons, but he couldn't deny these particular lizards had their own unique charm. "The trouble with keeping them is that they require a lot more money and attention than most people think they need. They see a cute little baby lizard and can't imagine it needing anything more than a 4x2x2 enclosure once they grow up. I've seen too many monitors receiving subpar care, whether from poorly-maintain diets or too-small enclosures. I like them, but could not keep one long term due to the nature of my, ahh... employment."

[martitheevans]

You reblogged a post that said we can send you random asks so here i go: opinion on turtles?

Turtles. 10/10. Wish I had a house I could carry around on my back and retract into whenever I wanted.

I kept getting turtles and tortoises mixed up and had to Google some stuff and found that all tortoises are considered turtles because they belong to the order Testudines or Chelonia. But, not all tortoises are turtles, I think that's interesting enough to share.

[snapdragonessart]

Part 2 of my dragon dentition series 😊 ancients coming next! Teef info under the cut

Obelisks take inspiration from Chinese guardian lion statues, with their voluminous manes, big paws and fierce face. As such, their teeth would be similar to a lion’s dentition, with massive canines and carnassials. Although lions mainly eat land-based animals, they are also opportunistic and will sometimes eat fish and even insects. This doesn’t make up for any large part of their diet, however, and in this way they differ from Obelisks which only eat seafood and bugs. Jaguars make a better match for Obelisks in regards to food, as they eat aquatic prey more often than lions do, with one remote population of jaguars in Brazil primarily feeding on aquatic reptiles and fish.

Pearlcatchers were pretty tricky to pin down. Their body and face look almost horse or deer-shaped. Their diet is insects and plants. The only creature that came to mind for Pearlcatchers were qilins; one-horned legendary beasts from Chinese mythology. They’re fully scaled, with dragon-like faces and a body shaped like a horse, deer or goat. This seems to fit Pearlcatcher’s the most, but figuring out their dentition is another matter. There’s not really a 1-to-1 comparative animal I can base their teeth on, so I think they’d be a mish-mash of different tooth structures. They’d have larger canines, maybe like a musk deer, but the rest of their teeth would follow a more herbivorous design. They’d have large, flat molars and premolars for grinding up plants, probably similar to a horse or goat. 

Ridgebacks are basically land-sharks, no question. Their diet and face says it all. Although their snouts look more like goblin sharks to me, I don’t think they’d have those creepy mouths. Their dentition would be more like a great white; they’d have a mouth full of serrated, razor sharp teeth. Like actual sharks, Ridgeback’s would have a reserve of extra teeth in their jaws. 

Skydancer dragons present another tricky situation. They’re bird dragons, and eat plants and insects like Pearlcatchers. Although some official art shows them with teeth, I don’t think they’d actually have them. The closest structure to teeth that's found in birds is the tomia, which is the cutting edge of the upper and lower beak. Tomia is not made of enamel, but of cartilage. Seed-eating birds use this to slice through seed hulls, and birds of prey like falcons have a single sharp projection to rip meat and insects apart. Geese have tomia on their tongues, which pushes the food back towards their throat as they eat. Skydancers probably have a gizzard as well, as the tomia is not enough on its own to grind food down completely. It was hard to figure out what the Skydancer’s beak would be most similar to; out of all the more hook beaked birds, it reminded me most of vultures or eagles, although in diet they do not match them at all. Skydancer beaks are a mish-mash of different bird characteristics that I thought would fit them the most, rather than based on a single bird in particular.

Snappers are tortoise dragons, and like tortoises they’d have ridges in their beaks to help chew food. The official lore states that their beaks are “lined with molars that begin halfway down the jaw and continue all the way to the back”. Real-life tortoises don’t have teeth, so I’d imagine these structures would be like the tomia of birds. Their diet would be a mix of what tortoises and turtles eat, as Snappers eat both plants and seafood.

Spirals really remind me of ferrets, with their noodley bodies and energetic, chaotic nature. Like ferrets, they’d have sharp little canines, incisors and carnassials for shredding meat. Ferrets mainly eat meat, but will also eat bugs too, which matches up with the Spirals diet.

Tundra dragons are currently the only purely herbivorous dragon. The lore states that they have “impressive canine teeth used for combat. The majority of their jaw is set with flat, wide molars, perfect for grinding up scrub.” They’d be most similar to musk deers in dentition, with both male and female Tundras having the enlarged canines characteristic of male musk deer. The canines wouldn’t be as thin or long as a musk deer; they would be thick, robust, and fit more snugly inside the mouth. 

Last for the modern breeds, we have the Wildclaws. They’re raptor dragons, based on the Dromaeosaurids - raptor dinosaurs (velociraptors, utahraptors, etc). Like raptors, Wildclaws would have widely spaced and serrated teeth. They’d be fairly equal in shape, and would curve backwards.  Raptors were carnivorous, which fits with the Wildclaw’s meat diet.

[sacredartist33013]

Well I'm apparently gone to the sea. I thought of the unicorn force and mentioned it as a joke... I didn't think it'd come to the turtle force!

That's right friend's I've become so turtle brained that I'm attempting to make a turtle force(in similar vein to the phoenix force or a non sentient force idk) and boy do i have some picks of turtles to look around at.

I'm just gonna make my life easier and include the tortoise as well.

Now turtles from what i already researched before seem to be mainly symbols of wisdom,longevity,and strangely enough a connection between earth and sky(if you look at the mythical turtles) because quite a few turtles in myth are toted as having the world on there back.

The world turtle(which is found in a few different myths around the world)

Kurma(the turtle of hindu myth said to be the same as the world turtle)

Ao the chinese mythical turtle said to have been used as supports for the sky by the goddess Nüwa. 

And for non world supporting turtles in myth

We got

The famous kappa

The mythical spirit turtle

Chelone(who was turned to a tortoise for refusing to attend zeus's wedding)

Probably the next most well known mythical turtle genbu the black tortoise of the north

There's even a dragon turtle

Honorable mention goes to the tarasque. A mythical dragon like creature in french folklore that is typically dedicated with a turtle shell

The amabie from japanese folklore also gets one. It's a mermaid like yokai with a beak and i thought it was turtle related before i did a search to remember it properly.

Now there's also a few turtles in cartoons and other media as well.

Obviously the famous shell shocked pizza lings themselves

Theres the 3 tailed turtle isobu from naruto

The koopas from mario

The turtle miraculous

Oogway from king fu panda(which also had a version of genbu)

Turtle from dc(who often uses the still force)

And probably so so so so many more i could never keep track of.

But yeah... This is what rabbit holes can get to you. As well as a brain nearly always on turtle ideas... Ah to be in my old steven universe ideas age

@brightlotusmoon

@fire-fira

@forgetful-nerd

@brain-rot-tmnt

@technicallysublimechild

I'm just gonna add all the nice people i know to this. Watch the chaos.

[downwiththemutantnjnjaturtles]

Hello how are you? I was looking at your blog and thought it was amazing. I had made an oc that was human but turned tortoise because of a lab accident. I've had it in my head and would love to see the reaction of the bayverse boys finding another mutant that is a female tortoise. if you can do it, if you can't just ignore it and I loved your posts 💕(●♡∀♡)

Bayverse boys react to discovering mutant!reader!

Leonardo:

Leo was taken off-guard when he discovered another mutant. Being told all his life they were on their own in their big, lonely world, Leo almost could not believe what he was looking at when they found her. He was skeptical at first; where did the other mutant come from, how was she created, and why, were his questions. For a moment, he thought that she had to have been a mole, artificially created and sent solely to thwart their family. Their enemies were not below experimenting with mutagen. But when she explained that her DNA had been spliced on accident, he gradually warmed up. He helped her adjust to her new life and body, teaching her all the things it could do and opening up all of the possibilities to cheer her back up.

Michelangelo:

Mikey was ecstatic when they discovered another mutant. To know there was another mutant in the world meant there could be more, and that thought was exhilarating. He forgets she was mutated from a human, not a turtle, so things aren't easy for her like it is for them. To get her mind off of the drastic change in her life, he wants to show her the fun sofe of everything instead of letting her focus on the negatives. He's great at adapting so that talent rubs off on her when it comes to accepting that she's a tortoise now and no longer human. Mikey is just glad to have a companion who is like him, instead of wishing he could be human to be with them. 💛 He wants to know what life topside is like from an insider's point of view, so really appreciates that he can connect with someone on that.

Donatello:

Donnie is just as surprised by the discovery as she was when she discovered the turtles. He came off a little overbearing at first trying to run test to see how stable her mutation was from human to animal, but just out of curiosity! He wanted to see that her transition went well and seeing that everything was looking good, he admitted he just wanted feel helpful. Secretly he's amazed that there's another mutant roaming New York City, but after running probability tests, concluded that she is one of a kind. :) Tries to relate to her as mutants together, as well as on the things that make you two people like the humans topside.

Raphael:

Raph was next to Mikey in terms of excitement when he learned there was another mutant. For once, he didn't feel so alone in the world knowing they weren't the only ones out there. Was standoffish at first as usual, but his brothers could tell he was cooking up scenarios in his mind as soon as they discovered her. It was like a light bulb went off in his head. He's so family oriented so she quickly became part of the group, under his protection like everyone else. It's a habit of his to go overboard in doing that, so maybe annoys her a little by treating her like a dependent, even though she had more topside experience than all of them.

[wevelocityteampresents-blog]

Pokémon Pocket Monsters BW Volume 1 - Chapter 12

After stopping Team Plasma from another one of their vicious plots. a Tirtouga invites Red and the others to his home in the Abyssal Ruins.

After tackling the Nimbasa City gym, the next obvious destination would be... ...Undella Town. For some reason, Anakubo decided to let Red, Pikachu, and Clefairy take a break in an area far off from their travel route. If you didn't know, Undella Town is on the other side of the country.

I guess the real reason Anakubo picked Undella Town over Driftveil City is because of the Abyssal Ruins.

Instead of being an expansive ruin with various ancient writing on the walls and floor, it's depicted in the manga as an underwater palace. I guess the main inspiration for this version of the ruins would be Atlantis. A more ideal look for one of your main settings if you don't plan on having your characters scour the sea looking for ancient treasure.

Moving onto the characters, Team Plasma returns yet again. This time making it clearer that they aren't as supportive of Pokémon as they claim. Even though they don't stay that long during the adventure, this chapter does a good job at showing Team Plasma's true colors. After seeing them talk about their purpose in "I Want To Talk To Pokémon!", kidnapping Pikachu in "Detective Clefairy's Solo Explanation!", and bullying Tirtouga in this chapter, we've finally seen Team Plasma's true selves unfold in real-time.

As for Tirtouga, he's a bit different from other prehistoric Pokémon. Instead of being resurrected from a fossil or having been discovered sleeping beneath the earth for centuries, Tirtouga uses the ruins as his home and has lived there for the past one hundred million years. He seems like a kind old tortoise who treats nice people well.

But if Tirtouga's been living there since it was constructed, then does that mean he's been around actual human beings once in his life? And if he's been living underwater for this many years, then does the same thing apply to other members of his species? That's a question that probably won't be answered.

This chapter wasn't that bad. We got to see Team Plasma as the true villains they are, a unique twist was made on a mysterious area from the video games, and most of the jokes are pretty funny. A nice ending to an otherwise excellent beginning of the Black and White saga of the Pokémon Pocket Monsters manga!

This concludes Pokémon Pocket Monsters BW. (For now at least...)

After all the series I've read through, the Black and White saga proves to be my absolute favorite. Certain story elements and plotlines are made clearer to readers who've never read any of the previous volumes, and the way newer characters and Pokémon were adapted into the Pokémon Pocket Monsters canon was done very well (most of the time, anyway...) and it's enjoyable to see them pair up with Red and Clefairy. On top of that, I've found myself appreciating the writing and dialogue between characters with the action scenes also being entertaining for how bizarre they get and the strategies Clefairy uses to win. Red also improves a bit as a Trainer and manages to defeat a multitude of Gym Leaders and Team Plasma members within a single volume. I'd say this is honestly the best Pokémon Pocket Monsters saga Anakubo has ever made.

Sadly, all good things must come to an end. We may have seen this manga's iconic beginnings, its obscure present, and its apparent non-stop rise in quality. But pretty soon we'll reach the point where Pokémon Pocket Monsters began to lose its charm. The XY saga is upon us...

TRANSLATOR'S NOTES

In the third and fourth pages, Clefairy dresses up as Urashima Taro.

Urashima Taro is a character from a Japanese folktale of the same name. One of his most memorable moments is helping a bullied sea turtle who took him to an underwater palace as thanks. This is reflected in the chapter as Tirtouga invites Red, Clefairy, and Pikachu to his home in the Abyssal Ruins to show his gratitude to them.

On page 4, Clefairy tries to bargain with the Team Plasma grunts by sharing some kimi-dango with them.

As Red states in the same panel, Clefairy's referencing another Japanese folktale. This time it's Momotaro, the boy who was born from a peach. He also carries kimi-dango which has varying effects on the people he feeds it to. With the ones Clefairy carries around, they just set Team Plasma's mouths on fire.

Ouch...

[kevin-the-bruyne]

Logbook of a Conservationist Scorned Part 3

Part 1 Part 2

A/N: God I really need to be stopped. But I can't because I'm having too much fun. Written for the my dearest @mr-iskender and tagging @touchmycoat because once more you were entirely too kind on the previous parts

A/N2: Sand and Ray are tortoises in this fic. I know nothing about tortoises. ~~

“Okay then, let’s see some prime turtle dick!” Mew knows that he should probably have more patience for someone he met 15 seconds ago but he can’t help how he instinctively reaches for the bundle of his science readings, rolls it up and hits Top on the head. “Ow!” Top rubs the top of his head, exaggeratedly sulking, “What was that for?” “Please take this seriously, or you can leave.”

Top looks at Mew’s serious expression for a few long moments before putting his hand up appeasingly, “Okay, okay. I’m here, I really do want to help.” Mew smiles winningly, “Alright then, let’s first go over the readings I sent you!” Once they finish going over the background material, which Top had obviously not bothered to even skim, it’s fairly late and Mew sulks pointedly as he says, “Well, I think there is only time to feed one of the tortoises since they refuse to eat together. You really need to meet Sand, since it’s his genitalia we’ll be modeling but Ray is much nicer so you’ll probably have better luck socializing with him first.” Mew nods to himself a few times, “Yeah let’s start with Ray.”

Top smiles at him, “You know you’re really cute when you nerd out.” The compliment catches him off guard and Mew reaches for the bundles of readings again, but this time Top is ready and grabs his wrist before the papers can make impact, “We-we’re colleagues! This is sexual harassment.” Top raises an eyebrow, “Oh?” He pulls on Mew’s hand so that Mew stumbles forward, nearly bumping into him, “I was just paying you a friendly compliment but if you’re thinking about sex then-” Top moves closer in a slow, measured movement and Mew finally gathers enough wherewithal to decisively push him away, “Enough!” 

“The only sex we have the time to think about is the one that Sand and Ray are not having!” “So once they do we can think about other kinds?” “Top! You’re fired!” “Okay! Okay ! I’m going to be totally serious from now onwards. Let’s see this cute little, super sweet, angelic tortoise of yours.” Mew hands Top the plate containing Ray’s food, while he goes to fetch Ray, “Put half down now and when he’s approaching, put down the rest while he watches so he knows you’re a friend and provider.” Top throws him a thumbs up before rationing the food out onto Ray’s banana leaf plate the way Mew asked him to. “Hey buddy.” Mew calls out gently when he is close to where Ray is sleeping and runs a gentle hand down the top of his head to wake him up, “It’s dinner time!” Ray is alert immediately, and then bounds - at the bounding pace of a tortoise - towards dinner. He stop short when he sees Top. Top waves at him but Ray tenses up and doesn’t move. “Top, now. Put the rest in now.” Top nods, holding up each piece of vegetable out to show Ray before putting it on his plate. When he’s done Top smiles and then sits down next to Ray’s meal, waiting for Ray’s next move.

Ray’s next move never comes as Ray starts backing away slowly, his beady eyes trained on Top.

“Ray? That’s a friend! Where are you going? Top come here, bring some carrots and spinach with you.” Top does as he’s told, crouches down with a handful of carrots stretched out towards Ray, “Are you sure this is the friendly one?” Top asks perplexed as he tries to coo and make little noises at Ray so Ray would eat the offered meal or even sniff his hand. Ray stays completely still, his hackles raised, not moving an inch towards Top. “I don’t know what’s wrong.” Mew muses, “He looks so stressed out. Top stop! Move back NOW.” 

Top, who doesn’t understand the signs of tortoise aggression, mistakes Ray stretching his neck out and growling slightly for a friendly gesture and holds a carrot stick out in front of his mouth in just the perfect angle to-

“Ouch! FUCK! He BIT me!” Ray charges towards Top but this time Top is quick to move back, nursing his bleeding forefinger.

“Ray STOP!” Mew yells and Ray immediately comes to a standstill, looking up at Mew shocked that he had raised his voice, “God! What is WRONG with you” Mew looks down angrily at Ray so Ray can’t mistake his displeasure and Ray drops to the ground and retracts completely into his shell. Mew grabs Top and rushes him out, to get some first aid, crossing by Sand, banana leaf laden with Ray’s untouched dinner in his mouth, slowly dragging it to Ray’s side of the enclosure.

[pbandjesse]

I ate way to much dinner and now my stomach hurts. It was the hungriest I've felt since we got back from our trip. And today was the first day I felt the lease nauseous. Some of that though I think is I'm finally catching up on sleep.

I was right about last night's event being good. I would end up having a really good time. I had some excellent little tours and talks. The appetizer was this beautiful focaccia with spicy feta. It was really good. It was salty though so a fruit would have been nice to off set that but it was still really nice.

I would shut down the exhibit. And said goodbye to everyone. And went home.

I was really happy to see James. And we had two Amazon packages! One was a rack for the back of the door. Another was a Bissell steam cleaner. Amazing. James would open those up and I would go and take a bath. Which helped me feel a lot better.

It was a little tough to fall asleep. Despite how tired I was. I was a little overheated but it was fine. Eventually I went to sleep but forgot to turn the string lights off. And was woken up at like 3am and the lights hurt. But I nudged James and they unplugged them and we went back to sleep.

I would wake up at 930. I wasn't thrilled that I slept so late but I apparently needed it. I was actually still so very tired. But I woke up in James's arms and that was so nice. I would go and get cleaned up and dressed and I just still felt so weak. I went downstairs to get some cookies and milk for a little fuel. And James was downstairs doing the same. While folding clean clothes. We would go upstairs together and that's when I stumbled up the first flight of stairs. And was very upset about it but as I was saying that I tripped up the second and fell and spilled my glass of milk and landed on my elbow that I brushed on Saturday. Ouch. Upsetting and embarrassing.

I would be dramatic about spilling the milk and me and James would laugh of actually crying over spilled milk. But it was cleaned up and it was fine.

I would head downstairs with James to work on setting up the shelves for over the door and got the Bissell unpacked. But I was feeling really weak. And not myself. I have those days but I feel like it's been happening more. Probably because I am not getting enough rest. But today I wanted to catch up on that rest.

We would just chill for a bit but then I asked James if we could go get brunch. And James said of course. And we were off.

We went to Southside diner. It was a grey day today and I was wearing a little fleece. Not that I really needed it but it was comforting to have.

And our brunch was really nice. I felt very quiet but I was enjoying James's company. I did think our waitress forgot about us. But they would come and take our order. And our food wouldn't take long at all. And it was very good.

James and the guy at the next booth would commiserate about how great scrapple was. The girl the guy was with was like, I have never tried that and they convinced her to. She would try it and was just like. That's...interesting. Which was pretty funny.

James would pay and we joked about how dramatic and theatrical I was being about holding hands. I accused them of teasing me. But I just want to hold their hand all the time. For love reasons but also for the reason that if we aren't holding hands James walks entirely to fast and in front of me.

We would go to a couple pet stores today to look at frogs and turtles. I wouldn't get anything but I am starting to put thought into what I want. At the first store they had sliders but I was thinking more a tortoise then a turtle.

They also had a pacman frog and I a risky really liked him but then I got nervous about not being able to build him a good tank. So we headed out and to the next pet store.

At this one they had no frogs but they did have a Russian tortoise. And he was so cute. He was just what I wanted. But he was $200. I was hoping for the $75-100 range but this was just not going to happen today. I was a little disappointed but it was okay. We left there and decided to go to the Aldi for groceries.

We did okay. I got some ice cream. James got bacon and hotdogs and milk and cheese. It was a pretty good little stop. I was hoping for a pastry of some sort but that wasn't meant to be. Ah well.

We went home after that. I had wanted to stop to vacuum the car but I was all of a sudden so tired. I didn't remind James that that was what I had wanted. I stead just letting ho go home.

When wr got back I would get in bed. James joined me soon after. And I would end up sleeping until 6. Oops.

It was a pretty good rest, being almost 4 hours. James apparently tried to wake me up a few times. But I was not having it. I also just don't remember. When I woke up I was just so hungry. Which caused me to eat way to much. I had cookies. Then James brought me spaghetti and garlic bread for dinner. And then I wanted so much chocolate. And it's frustrating because I'm still hungry. But my stomach hurts and I am sure it's because I have barely been able to eat all week. So now I can't eat as much. Even though I am craving so much more then I have had. I don't want to feel overly full anymore

I am struggling to write tonight. I am still just so sleepy. So I am just going to rest. And hope that tomorrow my energy is more normal again. Plus I have a field trip so I will have to be on and good at my job.

I am going to put my phone down now, and it is very bright and my eyes hurt. But I love you all and I hope you have a great night. Until tomorrow!!

[infjtarot]

4 of Cups. Tarot of Traditions

Can there be too much of a good thing? In Cancer III, the fickle Moon is both sign and decan ruler, inflated by ever-expansive Jupiter ruling the fours. This a fortunate pairing, but with too much water. Sometimes even comfort comes with a vague sense of underwhelm perhaps due the stagnation of fours. Ironically, having too much often leads to dissatisfaction and yearning for the next thing. Like Siddhartha, one can only tread a path of affluence for so long before thinking that surely there is more to life than acquisition. Both decan signification descriptions speak of riding out, pursuing and forcefully acquiring and possessing through contention. Picatrix describes an enigmatic celhafe, probably an alternate transliteration of salihafa, the Arabic word for “tortoise,” which is associated with Cancer. A turtle carries its self-sufficient albeit constricting home upon its back. The celhafe holds a snake and has golden chains before him. Snakes are symbols of transformation, and chain—however golden—are confining. Agrippa’s image is a hunter with lance, horn, and hunting dogs, chasing after the ever-elusive prey. Susan T. Chang. Tarot Deciphered

[frog-ology]

When it comes to non-avian reptiles, cognition research is next to non-existent. A few labs throughout the world are working to fill this huge gap, but there’s still so much to do.

From my personal experiences (I started my PhD on lizard cognition with Prof Martin Whiting, before finding my true calling with frogs), some skinks, particularly the more social ones of the Egernia group, are brilliantly intelligent.

People commonly say monitor lizards are intelligent but we have essentially no research on them cognitively, and I think that belief is based more in varanids being large and charismatic, rather than any demonstrated cognitive abilities.

In my own work I looked at cognitive abilities in Tiliqua rugosa (sleepy lizards), and wild-caught Pogona vitticeps (central bearded dragons), and whilst the sleepies impressed me (paper to come in Behavioral Ecology soon), the dragons really didn’t seem to have a whole lot going on up there, in the least judgemental way possible.

Some tortoises have also been found to have quite complex cognitive abilities, and if I had to bet on it, I’d probably wager that they’ll turn out on top. Not convinced on turtles, though.

There’s also a clicker-trained iguana at Melbourne Zoo, that iguana is pretty smart.

There’s even less research on frog cognition than there is on reptiles, and I suspect it varies enormously between species (as it does in other such large groups, like birds).

Dr Sabrina Burmeister’s work on poison frogs has laid a lot of really important ground work for the field of frog cognition, but when they’re really the only group that’s been studied (to that degree), we can’t really say whether they’re the smartest or just the only ones we know anything about. Frog cognition research is truly in its infancy.

I suspect, as is often the case across taxonomic groups, that frogs with more complex social structures (e.g. parental care, long-term territories, etc.) like poison frogs are more likely to have more complex cognitive abilities, however.

What would you say are the most intelligent reptiles / amphibians? How do we test their intelligence? Are they capable of learning or being trained?

I’d like to give a fancy or elaborate answer, but the simple answer is probably just corvids. They’re crazy good at our human-centric tests of intelligence, and certainly outperform any squamate or amphibian. Among squamates, my money would be on varanids (monitor lizards). Among amphibians, it looks like some of the dart frogs are probably the best.

Basically all of these animals can be trained at some level, but it varies substantially.

[gumnut-logic]

“It looks like a duck.”

“How can it look like a duck? It has four legs.”

“You’re calling them legs? They look more like flippers.”

“Hey, it was you who said it was a duck. Ducks don’t have four flippers.” I could hear Gordon frowning at Alan and rolled my eyes. They were obviously arguing about something. Gordon should be going to bed. We’d been out most of the day, in the rain and the mud and I swear I hadn’t gotten it all out of my hair yet. And I’d kept my helmet on the entire time.

There was a chance I was hallucinating mud, but honestly, there had been so much.

“It’s a turtle, Alan.”

As I rounded the entrance into the comms room, I came across the terrible two over by Dad’s desk, huddled over something.

The sun shining through the open windows was far too bright than it had any right to be, since Gordon and I had been up all night on the other side of the planet. The cool breeze tangled in my still damp hair, making me shiver.

“Don’t you mean tortoise? Its neck is too long for a turtle.”

Even I could see Gordon’s incredulity as he stared at his little brother. “What do you know about tortoises?”

“I know what a tortoise is! And that is a long-necked tortoise, not a turtle.”

“It doesn’t have a head, Allie.”

“Turtles have heads, Gords.”

“So do tortoises.”

It was at this point I realised they were huddled over Gordon’s phone, some kind of image on the screen.

I peered over their shoulders.

“Whoa, Virg! What the hell?” The fish jumped away from me. “Personal space much?” He stared. “You turning ninja or something?”

I raised my eyebrows in surprise and looked down at my bare feet. “Uh, no?” So it wasn’t often I wandered around without my boots, but I was in pyjama bottoms and a t-shirt and I really was beyond caring. “You need to go to bed, Gordon. We could get another callout.”

His shoulders dropped. “I know, I know. I was gonna go and then my search pinged me.” He held up his phone, but didn’t hold it still enough for me to see anything.

I closed my eyes. “Gords…”

“You know, the search that automatically pulls up mentions of us.”

I blinked slowly at him. “Eos manages that.”

“Noooo, I have a special search. Just for us. You know Two, you and me.”

“Why?”

He shrugged. “Curious. Anyway…” And this time he did hold up the phone still enough to actually see. “We got a complaint.”

It was my turn to drop my shoulders. “Another one?”

Gordon snorted. “What’s life without bitching about it?”

I groaned and turned around to head up to my rooms again. I’d only come down to check on the fish. He has a tendency to get distracted.

May I present exhibit A.

“I don’t have the energy for this. Let Jack handle it.” Jack Dunning our lawyer, a man and a firm we kept far too busy.

Mostly because some people sucked.

“But this is art, Virg. Just look at it.”

I blinked, but, of course, he had piqued my curiosity. I turned back to find him holding up his phone again.

On it was an image taken from the sky, probably a drone, of a burnt and muddy spot on a lawn.

It took me a moment to connect the dots, but it was obvious Gordon saw the moment I did.

“We made art, Virg. Look, we made a turtle.”

Alan grumbled. “I still think it is a tortoise.”

I ignored him, and, reaching out, took the phone from Gordon’s hand.

There was a headline. ‘International Rescue destroys $100,000 worth of landscaping…again.”

I arched an eyebrow. How does a chunk of lawn outside a collapsed conservatory cost $100,000? You’d think they’d have more to worry about off screen where the massive sinkhole had eaten half the building and the museum next to it.

Yet they were complaining about the front lawn?

“Virg?” Gordon was frowning at me. “You’re not taking it seriously are you?” A hand landed on my shoulder as he leant in to gesture at the photo. “This is art, bro. You drew a turtle.”

I was obviously too tired to understand what the hell he was talking about.

So he showed me.

“See, four VTOL burn marks for flippers. Landing strut prints for legs. Module deployment indent for its body. She sunk down quit a bit - that was a lot of wet soil. Ramp indent and pod tracks for the neck. Turtle.”

I wasn’t looking at him, but I could hear the grin in his voice.

I turned the phone around to get the image from another angle. “It doesn’t have a head.”

“Abstraction is one of your specialities, Virg, go with the flow.”

“You think we drew a beheaded turtle.” I could kinda see it.

“It’s a tortoise.” Alan folded his arms across his chest and frowned.

“It doesn’t matter. It is art. I bet I could sell this and make money for charity.”

“It’s not your photo.” Why was I even discussing this?

“Okay, I’ll pull one from our footage. I bet we have one and probably others. I could sell several. Get some money flowing for the people affected by the sinkhole.”

I blinked again. It had truly been a shit rescue and there were a lot of people in pain. “Tomorrow, Gords. You need sleep and so do I. Speak to John in the morning. Maybe ask Eos to tolerate you for the second it will take her to retrieve the footage.”

Gordon held up his hands. “Fine, fine. Will do. But I am going to do it, Virg. Virgil Tracy original art. The Flying Turtle Lands. Or The Landing of the Flying Turtle.” He frowned. “Do Turtles roost?”

Oh god. I turned away and headed out of the room fast. I was going to go to bed and face this later, hopefully after a bucket of coffee, or maybe not at all.

Hopefully.

I went to bed and I did sleep, long and well.

And by the time I had drunk enough coffee to become coherent the next morning, Gordon had raised 3.6 million by selling Flying Turtle prints online.

-o-o-o-

[vgtracy]

What piece of art are you grateful for?

“It looks like a duck.”

“How can it look like a duck? It has four legs.”

“You’re calling them legs? They look more like flippers.”

“Hey, it was you who said it was a duck. Ducks don’t have four flippers.” I could hear Gordon frowning at Alan and rolled my eyes. They were obviously arguing about something. Gordon should be going to bed. We’d been out most of the day, in the rain and the mud and I swear I hadn’t gotten it all out of my hair yet. And I’d kept my helmet on the entire time.

There was a chance I was hallucinating mud, but honestly, there had been so much.

“It’s a turtle, Alan.”

As I rounded the entrance into the comms room, I came across the terrible two over by Dad’s desk, huddled over something.

The sun shining through the open windows was far too bright than it had any right to be, since Gordon and I had been up all night on the other side of the planet. The cool breeze tangled in my still damp hair, making me shiver.

“Don’t you mean tortoise? Its neck is too long for a turtle.”

Even I could see Gordon’s incredulity as he stared at his little brother. “What do you know about tortoises?”

“I know what a tortoise is! And that is a long-necked tortoise, not a turtle.”

“It doesn’t have a head, Allie.”

“Turtles have heads, Gords.”

“So do tortoises.”

It was at this point I realised they were huddled over Gordon’s phone, some kind of image on the screen.

I peered over their shoulders.

“Whoa, Virg! What the hell?” The fish jumped away from me. “Personal space much?” He stared. “You turning ninja or something?”

I raised my eyebrows in surprise and looked down at my bare feet. “Uh, no?” So it wasn’t often I wandered around without my boots, but I was in pyjama bottoms and a t-shirt and I really was beyond caring. “You need to go to bed, Gordon. We could get another callout.”

His shoulders dropped. “I know, I know. I was gonna go and then my search pinged me.” He held up his phone, but didn’t hold it still enough for me to see anything.

I closed my eyes. “Gords…”

“You know, the search that automatically pulls up mentions of us.”

I blinked slowly at him. “Eos manages that.”

“Noooo, I have a special search. Just for us. You know Two, you and me.”

“Why?”

He shrugged. “Curious. Anyway…” And this time he did hold up the phone still enough to actually see. “We got a complaint.”

It was my turn to drop my shoulders. “Another one?”

Gordon snorted. “What’s life without bitching about it?”

I groaned and turned around to head up to my rooms again. I’d only come down to check on the fish. He has a tendency to get distracted.

May I present exhibit A.

“I don’t have the energy for this. Let Jack handle it.” Jack Dunning our lawyer, a man and a firm we kept far too busy.

Mostly because some people sucked.

“But this is art, Virg. Just look at it.”

I blinked, but, of course, he had piqued my curiosity. I turned back to find him holding up his phone again.

On it was an image taken from the sky, probably a drone, of a burnt and muddy spot on a lawn.

It took me a moment to connect the dots, but it was obvious Gordon saw the moment I did.

“We made art, Virg. Look, we made a turtle.”

Alan grumbled. “I still think it is a tortoise.”

I ignored him, and, reaching out, took the phone from Gordon’s hand.

There was a headline. ‘International Rescue destroys $100,000 worth of landscaping…again.”

I arched an eyebrow. How does a chunk of lawn outside a collapsed conservatory cost $100,000? You’d think they’d have more to worry about off screen where the massive sinkhole had eaten half the building and the museum next to it.

Yet they were complaining about the front lawn?

“Virg?” Gordon was frowning at me. “You’re not taking it seriously are you?” A hand landed on my shoulder as he leant in to gesture at the photo. “This is art, bro. You drew a turtle.”

I was obviously too tired to understand what the hell he was talking about.

So he showed me.

“See, four VTOL burn marks for flippers. Landing strut prints for legs. Module deployment indent for its body. She sunk down quit a bit - that was a lot of wet soil. Ramp indent and pod tracks for the neck. Turtle.”

I wasn’t looking at him, but I could hear the grin in his voice.

I turned the phone around to get the image from another angle. “It doesn’t have a head.”

“Abstraction is one of your specialities, Virg, go with the flow.”

“You think we drew a beheaded turtle.” He could kinda see it.

“It’s a tortoise.” Alan folded his arms across his chest and frowned.

“It doesn’t matter. It is art. I bet I could sell this and make money for charity.”

“It’s not your photo.” Why was I even discussing this?

“Okay, I’ll pull one from our footage. I bet we have one and probably others. I could sell several. Get some money flowing for the people affected by the sinkhole.”

I blinked again. It had truly been a shit rescue and there were a lot of people in pain. “Tomorrow, Gords. You need sleep and so do I. Speak to John in the morning. Maybe ask Eos to tolerate you for the second it will take her to retrieve the footage.”

Gordon held up his hands. “Fine, fine. Will do. But I am going to do it, Virg. Virgil Tracy original art. The Flying Turtle Lands. Or The Landing of the Flying Turtle.” He frowned. “Do Turtles roost?”

Oh god. I turned away and headed out of the room fast. I was going to go to bed and face this later, hopefully after a bucket of coffee, or maybe not at all.

Hopefully.

I went to bed and I did sleep, long and well.

And by the time I had drunk enough coffee to become coherent the next morning, Gordon had raised 3.6 million by selling Flying Turtle prints online.

VT.

[greyias]

Kiss Prompt # 2. Pairing of your choice :)

Kiss Prompt # 2. Pairing of your choice :) // 2. Kiss on the forehead | Sort of a follow-up to this ficlet | Inspired by this lovely art by @dingoat​

Theron Shan may or may not have had a secret list of activities that he would rather shovel steaming bantha fodder than engage in — but if such a mythical list existed, real estate shopping would have been at the top of it. And the longer this day dragged on, and the more properties this realtor dragged them to, the higher it climbed on that totally fictitious list.

Granted, the day had dragged on because Theron had personally eliminated most of the properties they’d looked at here on Rishi from spending their hard-earned credits on — but he had a very specific list of things he expected out of a home. Or vacation home. Or whatever the hell this was. (He probably shouldn’t make grand, romantic promises in the midst of honeymoon bliss — all the blood definitely hadn’t been rushing to his brain. But that was another issue entirely.) Still. He had some basic expectations for a residence, such as running water, sound infrastructure, no visible rust or mold, adequate HoloNet access, no backstabbing pirates as next-door neighbors, escape routes if shit hit the fan, and so on. You’d think he was being unreasonable based on the looks he was getting from his beloved bride. Instead of, you know, being sane. And forward thinking.

He was about to remind her of this when he realized he’d been left alone with the realtor — and the sales pitch was just getting warmed up.

“Oh, Mr. Shan, this property is just beautiful, I know you’ll love this one.”

“That’s what you said about the last five,” he pointed out sourly.

“Yes, but this one has running water!”

“They should all have running water!”

“The building code here on Rishi is what we call a ‘work in progress’,” the realtor admitted. “Most of the clientele aren’t very particular.”

“You mean the pirates,” Theron corrected.

The realtor shrugged. “In addition to working plumbing, this property comes with a beach-front view, complete with a balcony overlooking your own private beach and a full-sized hangar large enough to store a small starship.” It was probably best to not bring up the fact they’d need a much larger hangar to accommodate the Defender. She might try to sell them a spaceport or something if they weren’t careful. “Whether you choose to live out your days in paradise or use it as a vacation home, this property will provide you with memories that will last a lifetime.”

“As long as you don’t mind a little of that beach following you back in your bed and living space,” Theron grumbled. Looking out onto the large balcony above them, the ocean was right there — and stunningly blue — if one looked past the sand that would undoubtedly track all the way up the elevator and into the apartment.

He was about to ask the realtor to show another property when he heard his wife squeal with delight somewhere behind them. “Oh Force, you’re so cute!”

“I’m cute?” Theron asked, raising an eyebrow.

When Theron turned around, he discovered that his errant bride had waded into the surf. Grey was kneeling in the waves, pant legs pushed up, socks and boots discarded on the shore, as she leaned in to pet the nose of what appeared to be a massive tortoise. Or maybe a turtle? He didn’t know, he wasn’t a herpetologist. But from where he was standing, “cute” seemed to be a misnomer. Cute was reserved for cuddly, fluffy creatures such as porgs or vulptexes. Not scaly, shelled reptiles encrusted with crusty, drying sand and saltwater.

“Not you,” his wife said absently, not taking her gaze away from her new friend. “But you’re also pretty adorable, so I reserve the right to revise that assessment.”

“Well, as long as I’m on the list,” Theron said, amused.

“You’re up there, right behind Speedy here.”

Theron took issue with several facets of that statement, the first that he was losing out to some random, shelled interloper. But also, “Speedy? You named the turtle? That?”

“Tortoise? Turtle?” She gave ‘Speedy’ an assessing look. “He’s been following us since we arrived and keeping up at a quick pace!”

Somehow, he hadn’t noticed their turtle stalker. Damn, he really was losing his edge.

Theron let out a heavy sigh as his wife smiled at the turtle. He’d seen that expression on her face before. It always meant they were returning home with yet another animal “friend” (see: pet) to add to the Alliance’s ever-expanding menagerie on Odessen. He’d last seen that look while trying to infiltrate Vaylin’s palace, and she’d risked the entire mission to heal a sick exoboar. That had netted them an entire pack of big, slobbery, loyal beasts who now roamed the forest behind the Alliance base.

He was pretty sure they were going to destroy the planet’s ecosystem if she kept bringing strays home.

“How much for the turtle?” Theron asked, his demeanor that of a man resigned to his fate as the “father” of a new turtle son.

The real estate agent blinked. “The turtle?”

“Yes, the turtle. How much for it?”

“Mr. Shan, I think that’s just a wild animal that happens to live here. The turtle is not for sale.”

“You drive a hard bargain,” Theron said, pulling out a credit chit.

“I’m only licensed to sell property.”

Theron mulled it over, giving the matter the due consideration he gave all important life decisions. They could walk away, find another piece of property. But then he’d have to stare at Grey’s crestfallen face as she bid her new “friend” farewell. But. If the turtle belonged to the beach, and they bought the property that included the beach, they technically owned the turtle, or at least the right to lay claim to him for all intents and purposes. It was a foolproof plan.

“So what you’re saying is my wife gets the turtle if we buy the property. I see your game, you canny negotiator.”

“Sir, I really don’t know why you’re so obsessed with this turtle.”

“Look, do you want to sell this place or not?”

The realtor paused for a moment to consider this before breaking into a wide smile. “Why don’t I get the paperwork started?”

Theron ran a mental tally of their finances, trying to figure out how they were going to afford this — and what shell corporations he’d need to set up to put a few legal layers between their names and the property so they could keep this little getaway hidden from the prying eyes of the galaxy (as well as certain nosy Sith on Odessen who knew the definition of vacation even less than him).

“What do you think?” he asked as Grey gave Speedy’s head another pat.

“I think Speedy is a noble name,” she said with a definitive nod.

“I meant about the property.”

“Oh,” she said, finally tearing her gaze away from her new scaly friend to take in the beach, the private balcony, and the apartment that they hadn’t looked inside yet to make sure there weren’t any gaping holes in the walls. Her gaze softened as it met Theron’s. “It’s perfect.”

She rose from the waves like a goddess, droplets of water clinging to her calves and pants, and took his hand before finally addressing the nearly forgotten realtor. “We’ll take it.”

As the sun sank into the horizon behind them, Theron slung his arm around her waist, drawing her to him as they gazed up at their new apartment.

“I think I am going to like it here,” she mused.

“Me too,” he agreed, pressing a soft kiss to her forehead.

He let it all wash over him as she leaned into the touch. The waves lapping at their feet, the salty tang of the sea breeze wafting by, and the warmth of his new wife by his side.

A small nudge on his leg caused him to look down from the breathtaking view to find a reptilian green face nuzzling his knee. And the stupid turtle too, he supposed.

[tenthgrove]

Hello! Can I request La Squadra with a new teammate that's a reptile enthusiast? Talks constantly about reptiles, keeps turtles, tortoises, lizards, snakes, etc. as pets. Probably keeps 2 huge ball pythons named Linguine and Fettucine, and teammate constantly walks around the base with one or both loosely wrapped around their arms or neck.

La Squadra with a Reptile Enthusiast

La Squadra x Reader, Platonic/Romantic (Interpretable), SFW

Formaggio- He finds reptiles totally neat, and he loves that you’ve brought them here. The snakes are his favourite, because he’s fascinated with how they eat and is morbidly intrigued about whether they could ingest a human. Secretly, he sometimes hopes for an intruder to break in so he could put that theory to the test. (You tell him that Ball Pythons aren’t actually dangerous to humans and he’s very disappointed). Just… please… whatever you do, don’t leave the snakes around his cats. Even if it’s mostly irrational he does worry about them sometimes.

Illuso- Likes the fact that, unlike with Formaggio’s cats, he can hold your pets without getting fur all over his precious clothes. He thinks your pets make him look cool and likes them for the aesthetic, so you’ll be surprised how amicable the usually standoffish man is to your reptiles. He names half of them himself before he realises you’ve already got names for them, and continues to get mixed up between your names and his own.

Prosciutto- When you first move in, Prosciutto hates the fact you had to bring all your pets with you. You waste so much of your time dealing with them, and surely it’s making you less efficient as an assassin. Prosciutto is hardly a fan of the wriggly things themselves either. What changes things is simple exposure. Prosciutto can only be mad about something for so long. He particularly comes to tolerate your turtles- they’re very well-behaved creatures and the rest of your squad could really learn from them.

Pesci- Is kind of terrified at first because he’s heard that snakes are dangerous, but once he’s assured that nothing you own is dangerous to anyone over the age of 1, he calms down. Reptiles are strange to him because he’s never really seen many in person, but he’ll watch them curiously to observe how they move. Sometimes he’ll touch them nervously before stumbling back again. He might be shy at first, but it doesn’t take Pesci long to come around. He’s also more than happy to hear you talk about your pets, since the chance to talk about anything that isn’t murder is a relief to him.

Melone- Don’t ask him why, but snakes give Melone a bad case of Déjà vu. It’s almost like a memory from another universe… Anyway, Melone is definitely the sort to have an affinity for unconventional pets, so he loves all your little scale babies unconditionally. You’ll often catch him giving the turtles a little kiss on their noses. He really can’t help himself on that front. The second you move in, Melone is researching everything about reptile care since things like that really fascinate him, so he’ll be a surprisingly good choice for babysitting your pets when you’re away.

Ghiaccio- Very much prefers reptiles to pets like dogs, cats or birds since there’s less chance of sudden loud noises which knaw at Ghiaccio’s sensory issues. He’s very surprised when he finds out how many you own, and that surprise might come off as judgement, but really, he doesn’t mind at all. His favourites are the lizards. He likes to feed them just to watch them. He loves the way their little eyes roll.

Risotto- Your capo can certainly admire your guts in keeping such creatures, as well as the effort you put into caring for them. He has a particular bond with your pythons, and one day you walked in on him lying down next to them like a child and petting their scales. He got up in a start and nothing more was said of it, but you know what you saw. Nobody else knows how he manages not to flinch whenever one of them slivers off your shoulder and onto his. Risotto simply smiles, and gives the python a little scratch on it’s forehead before resuming whatever he was doing. He’ll even do his office work like that. TLDR, Linguine and Fettucine are Risotto’s daughters now and you’ll just have to live with that fact.

Sorbet and Gelato- Gelato has a confession to make, he really likes reptiles too. He just loves their goofy little faces and the texture of their skin. His favourites are lizards because he loves their little zoomies. Sorbet, though not as entrenched as Gelato, also has an affinity for the creatures. They are quieter than most pets, which he can certainly approve of. It also helps that he’s one of the few bitches in this house with any semblance of executive function, so he’s probably your best bet for taking on cleaning duties when you’re away on a mission. Just… do prepare yourself. You may come home to find the eccentric couple feeding your pets… well, human meat. They just wanted to know what would happen.

[peralta-guaranteed]

i randomly remembered when enzo broke his arm around a year ago, i know it sounds mean but could you possibly do one of mac/maya doing the same (nothing major to cause it)

"It's okay." Amy hears herself repeat the phrase for probably the hundredth time now. "It's okay." It's probably supposed to calm them all down, all three adults and one little crying, screaming boy in the car, but it's barely working.

"It's not!" Jake hisses into her direction, the fear and panic and worry in his eyes more than obvious as he clutches Mac's head against his shoulder some more, tightens the grip around his back.

"It's gonna be, though." Rosa says from the driver's seat in front - she was clearly the calmest of all of them after what happened, so she'd grabbed Amy's purse, pulled their car keys out of it, and then pushed all three of them into the backseat before starting the car. And now she was making her way to the emergency wing of the hospital at about 15mp/h higher than allowed in the inner city. "The arm's broken, but not in a bad way. It's gonna heal."

"How can a bone break in a good way?" Asks the man who once stated that as long as his blood was still inside him, things were obviously good. Mac starts wailing a little louder in his arms.

"You're stressing him out." Rosa states, matter-of-fact, before slowing down just a little before a right turn so the kid in Jake's arms doesn't get jostled too much.

"It hurt." Mac sniffles and looks over at Amy with the reddest, most tear-filled eyes she's ever seen, and it takes a lot not to cry with him.

"It's gonna be okay, peanut. The doctors like uncle Jorge are going to fix it." She tries to calm him, and maybe Jake a little bit, who nods and scratches through Mac's hair like he does when he's trying to lull him into sleep.

-*-

They make it to the emergency room in record time, frankly, and if Rosa's rushed past some traffic lights and speed radars, Amy's not going to complain once the tickets come in the mail.

A bored-looking nurse informs them that there’s only enough space for one parent in the room during the x-ray and the cast and treatment, and Jake wants to debate for the first time in his life, because that’s obviously bullshit, but Amy puts a hand on his arm and then lifts Mac out of them.

“Sit with Rosa”, she says in that voice she’s started using after Mac, that mom-voice that’s always right, “Calm down, and we’ll be back before you know it. And it’s all going to be fine.”

She’s off with the crying toddler and nurse before Jake can really protest, and Rosa is already sitting in a corner of the waiting area, so he drops down next to her instead and buries his head in his hands.

“Dude, you’re blowing this out of proportion. Kids hurt themselves all the time. He’s gonna bounce back like always.”

“I broke his arm, Rosa.”

There’s a beat of silence between them as the weight of that statement settles. Rosa gives up her nonchalant pose to lean forward as well, trying to get into Jake’s field of vision, but it’s kinda hard when he’s staring down onto the floor.

“You did not.” She hisses. “Jake, you didn’t. He fell. He was climbing. It happens.”

“I helped him up on that tower, he’s too little for it-”

“It’s on the playground, he was gonna go for it eventually-”

“I was right next to him-”

“So were Amy and I-”

“You were talking-”

“So at least you were paying better attention-”

“I coulda grabbed him, I shoulda-”

“You did what you could, immediately and without question. It’s not your fault the kid drops faster than a cannonball.” Rosa ends their little squabble, and the old lady across them lets out a little harrumph, but Rosa shoots her the deadliest glare she can muster, which means a lot. “You were over there in a flash, Jake, I’ve never seen you move so fast.”

“Wasn’t fast enough. Wasn’t good enough.” He mumbles into his hands, rubbing across his face and his hair that’s already a mess. Rosa watches him for a moment, and calculates. Pieces together the evidence, like she does as a detective, and comes to a solution that most people probably won’t like, but those usually get her results.

“Do you want to leave?” She asks, and he looks at her like she’s grown a second head. “Amy’s got it under control, she told you. It’s probably gonna take a while, anyway, we can dip out for a drink to calm down and come back and they’ll be none the wiser.”

“Are you insane?!” Jake hisses back now, giving her exactly the reaction she’d expected. “I’m not going to leave my son in the hospital to go to a bar-”

He stops and stares at her, and it seems like his own detective brain is finally catching up with his panicked dad brain, because he sees what she’s doing. So she nods.

“You’re still good. You’re still better.” She says, and they don’t need to mention who he’s better than. It was the first of his stories that he told her, after he hurt something in his wrist at the academy - how that wrist never really healed right anyway, not since he was 5 and Bobby Linder drove over it with his tricycle by accident and his mom had to rush him to the hospital and his dad asked ‘what is that?’ with beer on his breath when he showed him the cast later. They’d known each other for barely a month back then, and Rosa was still refusing to think of anyone as her friend, but the way he’d looked at his wrist in its bandage and smiled the most broken smile she’d ever seen had set something off in her head. Something that yelled Protect at her every time he mentioned his dad later, something that made her threaten Roger Peralta with one of her knives after their graduation when Jake was in the bathroom ‘real quick’, but she knew he was hiding in there so no one could see his hands shake. Good thing Rosa never gave a damn about going into the men’s toilets anyway, because she sure as hell went after him when Roger had dipped out as usual.

She watches Jake’s tense shoulders drop with another sigh.

“Being better doesn’t make me good. That bar is set so fucking low.”

“I’m not having this entire discussion with you again, Peralta. We’ve been through this way too many times anyway. You. are. a. good. dad. One accident doesn’t change that.”

“Okay.” He nods, and she can tell he’s trying to imprint her words into his brain, so she continues.

“Mac’s going to hurt himself, and others are going to hurt him, and things are gonna go bad sometimes. You’ll probably be back here in the hospital a few times, considering how much he seems to love danger. And it’s going to be okay, just like Amy said, because you’re going to be there, and you’ll help him through it, and take care of him while he heals.”

“Yeah.” He nods again, and Rosa leans closer to him some more, and finally gets into his field of vision.

“And you’re not going to even think, for one second, that you could be anywhere as bad of a father as that piece of shit. And you’re not going to believe, whatever anyone says, that Mac doesn’t know how lucky he is to have you as a dad.”

He nods a third time, and she remembers how he jokingly told her once, after a few drinks, that the little screaming voice of conscience in his head always alternates between either Amy’s voice or her voice. She hopes she’s given him some new tracks to replay if he needs to.

“Thank you, Rosa.” He says, and leans back in the most uncomfortable chair either of them have sat in, and they’ve both been to prison. He tilts over when she leans back too, lands his head on her shoulder, and she doesn’t shrug him off for once. She can have a soft spot for the Santiago-Peraltas when no one else is there to see, she supposes.

“You looked like you wanted to punch out that nurse.” She says with a quick grin, and hears him snort.

“Was thinking about it. Not enough space for two parents, what kind of bullshit is that?!”

“You couldn’t throw a proper punch anyway.”

“Hey, I know how to hit people. I trained to do it just as much as you.”

They share a giggle as the exhaustion and stress of the last hour flows out of them, and the old lady across them seems mildly shocked rather than annoyed by now, but who cares.

-*-

Amy comes back with Mac in her arms an hour later, and they’re both all smiles. Mac sports an impressive new sticker collection on his shirt, and a lollipop that’s painting his lips orange. (Amy’s have a slight tint to them as well.)

The cast on his arm is bright green, and he carefully lifts it to show Jake as he switches from his Mama’s arms into his. (Jake had jumped up from his chair so fast he almost threw Rosa, who was also getting up, to the ground.)

“Like ninja!” he says around the lollipop, and Amy wipes a bit of spit away before it can drop on Jake’s shirt.

“Yeah, just like the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, buddy.” Jake nods because of course he understands his kid’s train of thought better than anyone else, and kisses Mac’s temple, stays there a second longer for that perfect toddler scent, even as it’s mixed with hospital disinfectant and playground mud.

“Look, RoRo!” Mac yells into his ear and leans over to show Rosa as well. “Turtle shell!”

“That’s pretty cool, dude.” Aunt RoRo answers as she inspects the cast to see if it’s well done or if she has to go back there and punch out a nurse herself. “Let’s get you three home.” She says after concluding that the cast is acceptable enough to let the poor hospital workers alone.

-*-

She was planning to drop them off, park their car and then head for the precinct where her bike is waiting for her, but Amy invited her up for some coffee for ‘her nerves’, and Jake offered dinner as a thanks, and Mac absolutely needed to show her the new toy he got in that package from abuela, and then suddenly she’s on a playmat on the floor for an hour after Chinese takeout and pretending to be a Ninja Tortoise or whatever. That soft spot is gonna be more trouble than it’s worth, she thinks for a second before Mac smiles at her as his Jedi figure shoots lasers at her turtle doll, and immediately realises it’s worth so much more than any trouble. Mac looks at his cast a little worried, whenever he thinks no one is watching him, and god, could he be any more like his dad? At least she and Amy already have a good instructions booklet on how to handle him, in that case.

“That green cast is pretty cool.” She says when she catches him look once more. “But you know what would make it even cooler? Drawings.”

“Drawies? On my arm?”

“Yeah, buddy. We can draw on it with a sharpie.”

He’s up and running to Amy, asking for a sharpie, in no time at all and yep, he is just as easily distracted as his dad. Mac grins wide and unworried now as he climbs on Jake’s lap on the couch, asks Amy to draw something when she returns with a set of markers, calls Rosa over to draw something too.

Amy does a little bear, his favourite animal at the moment. Rosa does a rocket ship and a pirate ship, the two best ships in the world, as they both agree. Jake does a Ninja Turtle cartoon face yelling PIZZA!, which is obviously Mac’s absolute favourite the moment it’s done.

When Jake wants to cap the Sharpie after his work of art, Mac grabs his hand and pulls it back down. “Steady, peanut. Don’t wanna scribble over Aunt RoRo’s cool ship, right?” He says with a grin over to her as she rolls her eyes. Mac’s already tried to cover several walls, most of his storytime books, and the kitchen table with his drawings as soon as he’s handed any sort of writing tool, so Jake won’t let go of the marker just to be safe, but he does let Mac’s little hand guide his big one as he makes him draw a wonky heart, right on the cast over the back of his hand, and then places a kiss on the same place on Jake’s hand.

You’re not going to believe, whatever anyone says, that Mac doesn’t know how lucky he is to have you as a dad the little Rosa voice in Jake’s head repeats as he smiles at her, and she actually smiles back.

[twdmusicboxmystery]

If you check out the Chinese legends around the Black Tortoise on wiki it's pretty interesting, the tortoise and snake were generals who supported the great king of the north (where we know Rick was last on his boat) and were usually shown as intertwined in art. I'm just saying. :) Your post about D and snakes made me think about how his classic double-knife strike is like a snake striking with it's fangs?

Okay, can I just say...this is genius. We know TWD uses Chinese and Tibetan legends a lot, so it would make sense for this to = some kind of template of Beth and Daryl.

Everyone can read more about these legends here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Tortoise

Okay, gonna go down a rabbit hole.

Since Daryl is always the one directly holding and handling the snakes, he would obvious be the snake general.

Then we have that great little story Norman told after they filmed Still about how there was a little ceramic turtle in the mess of the moonshine shack that Emily liked, and so he saved it for her. At the time, most people assumed it just a super-cute behind-the-scenes story, but we know better by now, don't we. It was so much more than that. It was a hint at the symbolism and the template. Daryl = Snake. Beth = Turtle. And I think you're right that Rick is the king of the north (no GoT pun intended; although like Jon, Rick DID undergo a death fake out 👀).

So here's the next thing. I've sort of had these thoughts floating on the outskirts of my mind for a while, but haven't really nailed them down. Your question here helped me to do so.

We have this "north" theme, right? My mind goes first to 6x10, where Carl held then-baby Judith on his lap and pointed to the North Star, telling her that she should follow it to find her way home.

Home in TWD world is always where your family is. So, it isn't necessarily a concrete place. It's just whatever location your family is currently in. As you say, Rick is in the north. And Michonne is now, too. So for Judith to reunite with her family, she'll have to go north. (We still wonder if this will happen somehow and Daryl will follow her, and that's what the Daryl spinoff will be. Total conjecture at this point, but it would just make sense).

I also want to point out that Maggie and Negan, by going to NYC, are also headed north.

See, TD has always assumed because of lines like this, because Beth's spoon = Big Dipper, and tons of other symbols around this, that Beth will COME BACK to where TF is. But maybe it's the opposite. Maybe, especially if anything happens to Alexandria in 11c, TF will have to go to them (Beth and Rick).

I honestly think Rick will end up being the leader of the CRM. The Saviors and AOW was a template for what will happen with the CRM. So, much like he did with them in S8, he'll have to win a war against the CRM, probably break the organization down a bit, assign new leadership to parts of it, etc. But I really do think he'll be the over-arching leader once the war is over.

(Remember after AOW, when Daryl was running the Sanctuary and Rick stayed for the night, and people were saying things like, "the great Rick Grimes," which Michonne teased him about later? Yeah, that's gonna happen on a MUCH bigger scale.)

Anyway, I think this is most of what I have to say about this right now, but I'll keep an eye on it. This is genius. And I love the idea that Daryl's double knives are symbolic of snake fangs. Meanwhile...turtles are green.

(P.S. Some turtles are yellow as well.)

Thanks so much for this, Nonny! Xoxo! 🔥😎💝