#and i want more lizards being lizards

[mayhaps-a-blog]

Ysalamir!

I am loving the ysalamir content I see, but I find it curious that so many people seem to default to giving them cat behavior. Cats are adorable, and I love them, but as someone who also adores reptiles, I’d love to see more ysalamir that are just big, fat lizards!

So what does lizard behavior look like?

I admit, I’ve spent more time with snakes than with lizards. But I’ve dealt with some, so here’s what I’ve got:

(This got... so long. Enjoy!)

Reptiles are stupid. Let’s be honest, folks, there is not much going on up in that little head of theirs. They are primarily driven by food, but many lizards may fail to recognize food if it doesn’t look and behave like what they expect.

However, reptiles are also creatures of routine: lights at night, unfamiliar handlers, unfamiliar surroundings can all be highly stressful!

Reptiles can also be curious, and may dig or escape enclosures, then run and hide.

Reptiles generally do not play the same way mammals do. They may enjoy exploring new objects in their enclosure, new scents, and new structures, but likely won’t chase after toys the way cats do.

Reptiles are cold-blooded, which means they cannot regulate their own temperature – instead, they must move to warmer places to warm up, or colder places to cool down. They’ll often find a nice, warm rock or other sunlit surface to just sit and bask.

Reptiles grow sluggish when too cold (or too hot). They move less, they eat less, they shed less often. Lizards that are too hot may take positions (standing up) to maximize airflow, find a cool place to sit, or look for water (and sit in it).

Reptiles don’t tend to see people as friends. People are either 1) large potential predators; run! Hide! Fight! 2) A Big Moving Thing that may hold food! Or might be food? Yay! Food! 3) A Big Warm Rock that moves sometimes. 

Reptiles don’t generally like to be pet, but if habituated to people, likely don’t mind being pet either. Some individuals may enjoy the warmth or interaction; others may prefer not to be touched.

When lizards are stressed or spooked, they may: hiss, puff up and look big, head-bob or display dewlaps, bite at nearby targets, piss or defecate (on the offender, if possible), freeze and/or attempt to run (very fast and will jump off tall objects), attempt to hide (in small cracks they can squeeze into), etc.

Most lizard species can drop their tail if threatened or stressed. These do grow back eventually!

Lizards shed in patches, which they may rub or tear off over a period of a week or two. Don’t pull on the shed - it can tear the skin, and some animals may not wish to be handled at all. Humidity is important as it helps loosen the shed; if patches remain (a bad shed) they may need to be removed manually.

Before shedding the head, lizards shed their eye scales, which leaves them vulnerable with limited eyesight for a few days. They tend to be very skittish.

Males may be more aggressive during mating season, a few months out of the year. Females may be more passive. Some species don’t eat during this time and change their behavior to find or attract mates.

Sick reptiles generally appear lethargic. They may not eat or respond to stimuli.

Like most animals, lizard behavior is highly individual. One paper describes an iguana that sat by the cage door and raised its head for scratches, while another sat above the door and slapped researchers with its tail!

Notably, most lizards are carnivores, but ysalamir are commonly depicted like iguanas, which are herbivores, and have different behaviors. Since they don’t need to chase prey, they tend to be sluggish and spend a lot of time just sitting around.

[fiskael]

Photo shoot of previously undiscovered lizard.

[chitinleg]

"Mister Bashir, what a pleasure it is to finally meet you."

Julian, why in god's name would you invite him to play the villain?

[13reasonstoeatthatcake]

I really want to know how Lilith Sorrengail feels about trying her best to get her youngest daughter away from whatever it was that her dad supposedly found in the Archives after Brennan 'died', just to get said daughter even more involved with the tyrrish rebellion two: electric boogaloo.

[excavatinglizard]

God, please save me from God. I want to be burned, without being consumed.

(Quote from Last Exit by Max Gladstone, Japanese translation by me)

[astragatwo]

Lasso tool Rain World creatures ft. my first 3 tamed lizards

Purple slugcat in the middle belongs to my buddy @upr0ar!

[thepartyishere]

mori asks for requests for the ada member joining the agency bc they're going to be chosen by popular demand

[crimeronan]

Would Camila pick up on *something* going on between Amity and Luz in your AU? Where she’d end up like hmm maybe Hunter and Luz aren’t as together as I thought 🤔

i can't decide if it's funnier if camila's gaydar is really good or really bad. both "🤨🤨🤨" and "i'm glad luz has such good friends :)" are appealing in different ways.

either way, i think the funniest reaction to her cottoning on to there being Something between luz and amity would be less "hm, maybe luz and hunter AREN'T together" and more "hm. maybe..... monogamy..... doesn't exist here."

[affectionatecorpse]

I'm once again getting overly philosophical over horror movies, so here's a study of the death angels from A Quiet Place as observed by a very enthusiastic animal loving veterinarian.

Every time people talk about death angels, it is, understandably, about how violent they are. These creatures are brutal and merciless, and will tear apart anything that makes too much noise. Hence the title of the movie.

Death angels are frankly terrifying, and show no empathy towards the creatures of the planet they invaded. No living thing is safe from them.

... so here's why they COULD be--

Look. Death angels are simply not suited for our planet. It's a noisy, chaotic place full of noisy, chaotic animals. From humans, to raccoons, to birds, to cats, nearly everything in our world is a potential trigger for a noise sensitive animal such as these.

But that's exactly what they are. Animals. And no one seems to remember that fact. People talk about them as though they themselves are sentient, anthropomorphic monsters, but the way these creatures act mimic many real life animals. Animals that don't belong here, but are trying to survive here. On a noisy planet covered in water, which they despise and cannot swim in.

Death angels are completely blind by nature, as seen in many other creatures such as cavefish, moles, and my personal favourite, the olm. Due to a lack of sight, they very clearly use echolocation in the film, to scan their surroundings and... well, not get dead. But echolocation is far from their only tool, as their ears are the strongest asset they have.

Their ears are INCREDIBLY sensitive. Just the slight ticking of an egg timer when heard from their perspective in the first film, is like a pounding drum in their ear. This is fine in a naturally quiet planet, but if a very subtle tick is that loud, then imagine the rest of the noise. Screaming. Explosions. Crashing. Little toy planes. Holy CRAP, that's gotta hurt.

Sounds that loud would definitely cause extreme hearing problems from pressure over time, and easily result in lifelong illnesses and disabilities such as deafness, infection, and so forth, if not stopped. It's going to be painful. It's literally bursting their ear drums inside their heads, and you can't explain to an animal why it hurts. You cannot rationalise with wildlife about treatment and self care. An injured and scared animal is always going to turn hostile, no matter how docile they may be normally. You can't explain to a lion with a knife in it's belly that you can stop the pain if it just doesn't attack you. You can't explain to a death angel that it needs to go somewhere more isolated instead of just destroying the source of the noise to shut it up.

Going to backtrack here a sec. Remember how I mentioned echolocation being another asset this creature has? Which means the slightest movement, the tiniest breath, can immediately allow you to be seen by it. With ears that good, too? It can see you from ages away. It knows you're there. Which means they DON'T attack for sport.

'Evil' is a concept rarely seen in nature. Yes, a lot of humans can be evil. And yes, many creatures can be too. Animals hunt for sport as well. Cats, for example! Although even then, I wouldn't describe it as evil. Calling the death angels evil implies they're attacking out of malicious intent, which just isn't true. In moments of panic, they'll destroy. But they are fully aware of humans around them.

Humans need to breathe, and can't stay perfectly still very easily. The death angels would be able to see our main cast at several points, even when they're being quiet. They don't attack whenever they locate a sign of life. For example, the scene in the basement. Being that close, whether the water was running or not, that alien absolutely would've heard Evelyn and the baby's sharp breaths. It didn't care. It was clicking at them almost curiously before it heard the bang of the silo, to which it ditched them to stop the sound.

This scene is a great example of why they don't kill for sport. Injured and young animals are especially easy prey for a creature built so strong and nimble. Evelyn is shown to be terrified of the mere presence of this thing, but it never actually does anything in the scene. It moves about. Ignores her movements in the flooding water. Investigates the baby. Clicks curiously at her while she backs away. It moves slowly and on all fours, when we know while aggressive, they will stand up on their hind legs (unless sprinting) and move very fast.

This implies it was in... well, not a submissive position, but a nonthreatening one. It wasn't baring it's teeth (as best it could), it had it's claws tucked up and unused, and was in no way in a primed-to-attack mentality. Until the silo made a loud bang. And even then, it could've quickly sliced up the two in the basement before running off, but it DIDN'T. It just left, without a moment of hesitation.

Let's also acknowledge the anatomy.

This is a carnivore. With sharp teeth for ripping apart prey, sharp claws for defence, and thick armour for protection from it's natural climate, as well as strong, long legs for running, this is absolutely a meat eater. The fact it's so well equipped makes me wonder if their natural prey is just as dangerous as them, which is why they have such tough skin. Or if they themselves have something above them in the food chain.

They seem to be pack animals, as usually others aren't far behind when one is about. Such as the trio by the Abbott house, the few at the docks, the ones by Emet's hideout, and even that group sliding down the building in the Day One clip I keep seeing as a gif. With their knack for running included, I wonder if they function like lions? Blending into their environment back home, clicking to hear prey, then the whole pack going on the chase when their target is vulnerable, in a way.

I got distracted. My point was, in a year, all the bodies from past victims vanished. All those people in the town who were swiped left and right just vanished from the town. They couldn't have decomposed in such short time, which means something moved them when it was safe. Something like a carnivore needing food after it felt comfortable in the silent aftermath. The argument that they do it for sport is one I see all the time, and it's just not true.

Everything needs to eat. Carnivores need to eat. Animals need to protect themselves from suspected danger. They never eat on screen because whenever they're on screen, they're surrounded by noise and are DISTRESSED. Have you ever had a sick pet? Most of the time, it won't eat when it's ill because it's too stressed, uncomfortable or in too much pain. When having their ear drums assaulted, a death angel isn't going to sit down with a cup of tea and a grilled cheese. Also, I won't add it because there's blood, but in the scene with the old man screaming in the woods, after it attacks, you can actually see it go back on all fours and sniff about the aftermath, like a hungry predator catching prey to eat. This was probably the first and currently on screen proof of my claim.

By all means, not all animals are meant to be tamed. Jordan Peele's Nope said that best. Yet I can't help but wonder about the individual. Every animal is completely unique. Some will tolerate more than others. Due to their realistic nature and the similarities to actual animals, in specific circumstances, could they be befriended?

Anyway keep an eye out for A Quiet Place 4 where someone has a pet one that wears doggy ear protectors and accepts meat in exchange for pets-- /j

[quietwingsinthesky]

i have spent far too much time on the uesp trying to figure out a lore-friendly name for my argonian that is also. compatible with me having made his name a doctor who reference.

[catgirlkirigiri]

Went into the steam workshop to see if anyone had reskinned coalescipedes so I won't be scared shitless by them, came out of the steam workshop glowing and with children

[angeloncewas]

My DM gave us 3 options and one of them was a dream sequence where we face our demons and you know my fearful symmetry loving self jumped on that right away so anyway my character got turned into a lizard

[du-hjarta-skulblaka]

One of the things I love about Alfie is some of their hyperfixations rub off in me just a little? Like I still wouldn't call myself a fan of Marvel but they have an encyclopedic knowledge that I've managed to pick some things up from and like

Spider-man. Spider-man is their thing. So of course I'm gonna play the insomniac games for them bc I also love them as devs, and...idk? Feels like I get more out of the games by knowing a little more than I would about the comics. And these games are fucking GOOD

Anyway tldr starting spiderman 2 and I absolutly love Miles and Peter's relationship, they're both dumb and loveable. Also really love Mile's new haircut.

[softquietsteadylove]

Can u do a Thenamesh fic where Gil fell first but Thena fell harder? Been obsessed with this he fell first but she fell harder trope🥹

He never thought anything of it. Gil had loved Thena from the moment his eyes met hers. It felt so familiar, like the steam of a hot meal hitting your face after being away. It was comforting, seeing her there beside him. He smiled at her, and he'd gotten the faintest hint of a smile back.

That was it for him.

He never thought about if she felt the same. It just didn't matter--not with their lives the way they were, not with who they were and the mission they had. He loved her. That was it--that was all he needed to know.

He knew she cared for him too. For her lack of words, her actions were always clear in intent, screaming louder than he'd ever heard. They had trust, they had respect, they had camaraderie; fighting with someone demanded that kind of bond. And he knew she cared about him in the way her hand would gently settle against his. He knew in the way she would let him sit next to her, in the little bubble of space she usually demanded to have to herself around anyone else.

He never thought anything of it--never read more into it. If she loved him, then he didn't need her to say it. He understood her better than that.

But for Thena, every one of those little things was like a letter in a sentence--a word in a love letter she'd been writing since she slipped her hand into his.

She hadn't expected it. They were Eternals, and they had a mission. And Thena was nothing if not focused and driven when it came to battle. She was the Warrior Eternal--it was woven into the fabric of her being.

But even being the world's deadliest warrior, that was not all life offered. Even they had time when the battlefield was far away and life was quiet. And the more she got to know Gilgamesh, the more she liked those times.

He had this smile that was like the sun--better, brighter, warmer. For as drab as the planet was for a long time in its early evolutionary stages, Gilgamesh outshone anything Earth had to offer, as far as she was concerned. She came to crave feeling of him sitting beside her after the fight. She wanted to hear his breathing close by when they were on watch under the quiet of the moon. She liked knowing he was there, warm and sturdy, always within arm's reach.

That was what did her in: he was there. Not that he was just there, but that something in her mind - in her very soul - felt him there. He was as present in her consciousness as the air in her lungs or the Cosmic Energy rushing through her veins. And his absences were felt even more acutely.

She wanted to be around him always, so she volunteered for watch duty with him, often lingering long after the typical time for shift changes. She liked being close to him, so she would drag herself to the celebrations and revelry just so she could feel his arm stretched out behind her. It never wound around her, but she could feel how close it was to it. She wanted to lean against him, so she would let him support her after a particularly long and arduous fight.

She wanted to tell him she loved him, so she stayed close by. She held his head on her shoulder when he dozed off and she made sure not to finish her own serving of food until she knew he'd gotten to enjoy enough of his own hard work for himself.

"Hey," he greeted her softly, as he always did. He was a force of nature - as was she - and he could be louder than even Kingo when he wanted to be. But with her, he was as gentle as the wind on a flower. "How was it out there?"

Boring, without him. "Calm."

"Good," he nodded as he reached up to the Domo's kitchen cabinets. His eyes trailed along the spice collection he'd been building over their measly hundreds of years so far on Earth.

He always put them back absently when he was in the moment, wrapped up in his cooking. Thena always snuck back later that night to re-organise them into the order he liked.

He reached up, pulling out a soft bundle of buns--his latest creation, stuffed with melted down palm sugar. He bounced his eyebrows at her.

She rose from her chair, lured by the confection as if hypnotised. Her hands came around his, leaning her head down to take a bite from the bun still technically in his grasp. She looked into his eyes as she chewed, wondering how long it would take him to melt down sugar until it became the beautiful colour of his eyes.

Gil blushed faintly, between staring into those eyes of hers and her holding his hands in her amazingly soft ones. "Good?"

She gulped down the bite, smiling as warmly and honestly as she could. He had that effect on her effortlessly. "Perfect."

"I'll make more," he blurted out in an instant, as if she'd asked and this was his answer. "You finish that, I'll start a new batch."

Thena's cheeks glowed with affection as he pressed the treat into her palms and drifted to the stove, his fingers trailing over her skin for every last second possible. "You're too good to me."

He stared at her, eyes bursting with his love for her. "Impossible."

[lucy-ghoul]

I just realized what's wrong with the Targaryen wigs in HotD: they don't look like Targaryen hair, they look like they were stolen from the Malfoys. They all share one (1) or at best two wigs in toto and it makes them look like freaking Lucius Malfoy clones

[spartalabouche]

whitefang and i started playing baldurs gate finally and my first thoughts are 1. i figured it had an actual storyline of some sort but absolutely nothing with the worms and such have ever been mentioned in any kind of post ive seen. a bit shocking. funny to find out seemingly literally everybody you can be friends with has a brain worm. 2. shadowhearts voice is way higher pitched than i had expected it to be 3. character creator kinda sucks. ngl. like its cool and all and i think its fun to get to choose my penis but its just not enough variety yet too much variety. like theres just not enough control why do i have to pick from 5 preset faces without even like any adjustment sliders. also where the fuck are all the pigtails? you guys never heard of someone wanting to be a tiefling with pigtails? grow up.