#despite the physical similarities

[sadlynotthevoid]

Talking about the DPxDC crossovers—

You know what is better than "Bruce adopts Danny and/or his sisters after the Fentons mess up" trope? Jack and Maddie adopt the batkids after he messes up.

Listen, I love the "Bad Parents Maddie and Jack" Angst as much as the next phan, but this is way funnier, catarthic and likely to happen.

Just— all the batsiblings having fudge with hot drinks under an improvised blank fort the giant goofy man (their new dad, apparently?) made for them, on-site, and listening silly (real) ghost stories. Meanwhile, the short woman in a cyan hazmat suit is slamming Batman against the floor back and forth, like a kid playing with a doll.

[jinxed-sinner]

the effort that Stolas, Ozzie, and Beelzebub go to in order to minimize any power dynamic between them and their romantic interests isn't discussed enough tbh. There's inherently a power dynamic between a Sin and an imp, or a Sin and a hellhound, or a Goetian prince and an imp, not just socially but also just in terms of inherent abilities. However:

Ozzie assures Fizz that he loves Fizz for Fizz, and it's made clear that he's protective over him because of what the Greed Ring is like, as well as the kinds of merchandise Mammon sells of Fizz. It's not that Ozzie doesn't want Fizz to be independent; in fact, he very much seems to want him to be independent. It's that there's an inherent concern for his safety because Fizz is a celebrity in the Greed Ring that has sex dolls sold of him.

Stolas is afraid of there being a potential power dynamic between him and Blitz beyond the one that comes from him being more powerful than Blitz, and actively seeks to mitigate it by going to Ozzie and asking for one of his crystals so there's no potential for Stolas to be taking advantage of Blitz.

When Bee transforms into her full demon form to get Loona to check on Blitz, when she changes back to her regular form the first thing she does is apologize to Tex, who doesn't even seem to mind, but because that is a show of the inherent power imbalance between Bee and Tex, she apologizes anyway ("Sorry. Sorry, I know, I got a little spicy there. I just hope everything works out."). She even looks apologetic towards Loona.

I love how Helluva Boss treats these power dynamics. There's inherently a power imbalance in these relationships which should make them unhealthy, but the party with more power in each relationship makes an active effort to minimize the power imbalance. It's one of the reasons Ozzie and Fizz's relationship can be as healthy as it is, and it's one of the reasons Tex is so relaxed even after Bee transforms into her full demon form. Stolas and Blitz's relationship is currently toxic because they're stubborn oblivious boneheads who refuse to acknowledge their own feelings or each other's feelings, not because of the power imbalance (at least not inherently, or entirely). I think we should talk about it more tbh.

[dragoonwish]

Scientists

[eternal-moss]

Venti :D

(Pretend I am not 2 days late)

^this year’s birthday art

^last year’s birthday art

^various Ventis over the past 2 years

Venti is tied with Kokomi as my favourite Genshin character. I love him so much, and draw him constantly on scraps of paper but somehow he looks different each time I draw him-

[astarab1aze]

since it's sunday, i've been thinking about how actually important sex and physical intimacy are to each of my muses - i do think there is a difference, one is, well, fucking, and the other is holding hands, kissing, cuddling, etc. so for each, on a scale of 1 - 10:

asuka: sex 7/10 - physical intimacy 9/10

crovita: sex 6/10 physical intimacy 8/10

furie: sex 4/10 - physical intimacy 6/10

hydre: sex 3/10 - physical intimacy 7/10

kaede: sex 8/10 - physical intimacy 10/10

loux: sex 10/10 - physical intimacy 10/10

sortia: sex 1/10 - physical intimacy 1/10

vayn: sex 7/10 - physical intimacy 10/10

viresca: sex 2/10 - physical intimacy 4/10

[royalberryriku]

It's so exhausting having things different about your body or brain that just makes this whole *gestures at literally everything in society* thing undoable. It's frustrating to just do anything and then realised there's mountains I need to cross before I can do things others do and expect me to do as well and so effortlessly. But it just takes so much effort to do that and when it's over, the mental exhaustion just makes it even harder the next time you need to do a thing.

[ssruis]

Aside from the noble platypus I also feel like rui would really enjoy these animals:

Mola mola/Sunfish

Anteater

Echidna

Kiwi

Kākāpō

Axolotl

Horseshoe crab

Gibbon

[hishighnesstheprincess]

Ninjago season 7 would have been better if they gave Kai mommy issues instead of daddy issues

[dkettchen]

not me adding literal buddhist monk shaolin masters to my very short list of ppl I’ve ever strongly related to the philosophy/mentality/approach to life of oh boy

[pickingupthepunchlines]

.

[mushroom-for-art]

Hey @blues-sues, they consume me enjoy.

In the rain

Hidden under a rough covering of leaves, two Mewtwo sheltered themselves from the rain with the little dip huddling close for warmth as the rain splattered heavily around them. The red hued one kept his arms wrapped around his companion holding them close protectively, eyes constantly scanning his surroundings trying to pinpoint any abnormal movement or sounds from around the rain, his eyes darting to leaves that bounced under fat water droplets or branches that swayed in a gust.

He jolted flinching as a droplet that had rolled across the leaves fell on his back, water still getting them within their makeshift shelter. Feeling her shiver he held her tighter pulling her closer as rain thumped around them. He tilted and moved his head desperate to hear over the rain or anything past the rain as another droplet hit his arm then his tail. He couldn't help the growl that started to grumble and grow within the back of his throat and as it to insult him a drop plonked onto his head causing him to jolt and shift his body weight. His companion made a soft noise as she felt him moving.

He moved into a crouch, his arms still wrapped around his friend, his tail thumping into the sopping wet ground causing mud to fly around, his eyes frantic as the rain continued to pour indiscriminately around them.

He felt his companion lightly jump in his arms as rain hit her on the cheek, despite her quietly giggling at the sensation and surprise he felt aggressive. He shifted on his toes feeling quills starting to form under his body, his body beginning to stretch and morph. He felt his fingers and toes extending elongating outwards, his digits sinking into the dirt as he growled, feeling surrounded by thousands of unseen enemies and untraceable threats. He shoved himself upwards from his crouch standing and storming out into the rain even as his limbs screamed at him to not move. He bellowed snarling furious at the rain turning in circles as he was lashed with water in feral deranged hysteria.

Throwing his thick quills from his wrists, they sank into the mud into tree trunks as he paced in a circle overwhelmed with pain and sounds. The rain was horrid and wet and cold on his body and wracked him full of chill even as his limbs and body burned in searing agony. His wrists and fingers quivered in uncontrollable subtle shaking between freezing anxiety and overwhelming pain, his foot sank into the mud whimpering with the pain shooting up his leg as his tail thrashed. Everything was just too much as he growled over his pain at the sky daring the weather to come and fight him personally, it was an unstoppable entity, an enemy that needed to be subdued even as rain hit his face and into his eyes.

Shivering from the sudden loneliness his companion of pinks moved carefully from where she was huddled making a soft oop as her horns touched the leaves above her head and splattered her head. She moved her hands to feel around to carefully shimmy out from the little shelter. Unable to see anything but the aura of others she managed to step into the open. She had seen other aura traces but right now all she could make out were the waves of bright red energy rolling off of her companion. His aura flared outwards in powerful waves that almost sent her stumbling backwards, but she could read him and she could feel his pain and terror. Even as his aura blinded her vision further with red and the outline of his taller form she approached, with practiced caution.

Her hand reached out and she managed to brush against his tail as it swayed past her hand thankfully going over his quills in a way that flattened them and left her unharmed. She heard his startled breath and the splat of mud as he turned quickly to confront her with a snarl before quietening into a whimper. Despite being blind to turned her head up to meet where his gaze should be and raised her hands upwards towards him. She couldn't actually reach but she didn't need to, she felt his hands quickly cupping the back of hers and his face burying quickly into her palms as he mumbled apologies into her hold. She rubbed her thumbs carefully against his cheeks as he buried into her hands feeling his tail curl around her and pull her closer as he moved into a crouch still using his hands to keep hers on his face. Slowly he moved his hands moving them instead to wrap around her body pulling her in closer to himself as he pressed his face into her neck as her hands moved one holding his face the other gently holding his neck. His aura waves were calming from erratic spikes and waves to small rolls of energy but she could still sense he was in pain even if he didn't express it.

She tilted her head to the side gently bonking against him and lightly rubbing her cheek against the side of his head near his horns offering a soft comforting purr. The rain pattered above them as a psychic barrier was made like an umbrella, she squeezed him just softly closer to her purring a bit deeper, "there you go," she comforted, "that's better yea?" She felt him nod into her neck.

Her hand moved from his neck to rub down his upper back carefully, his quills already flattened, she could feel his body starting to change once more, his aura signature shrinking as his body reduced in stature and size back to his regular form, though he still huddled into her. Even though he was quiet she knew he was still in pain, the mega evolution took a great physical toll on his body it was something he really shouldn't have done but she could understand why. Had he ever really heard or felt the rain before? She'd heard it a few times from her own room but she figured to him this was already so much especially with how anxious and protective he'd become. She gently squeezed him closer to her and he made a soft mrrp.

"Come on, let's head back to the shelter, wait for this rain to stop." He nodded into her neck once more his hold on her tightening as she moved, "Rig, you gotta let go so we can move," she giggled softly as he made a bit of a stubborn grumble moving to pick her up as she squealed and very much told him off and to put her down for his own sake before he hurt himself further.

"I know you're already going to be aching from that evolution. You stop being silly and put me down no lifting anything, oh my Arceus Rigger!!" He ignored her protests carrying her back to the shelter and ducking under inside keeping the protect barrier above them to offer more security and ease his overwhelmed senses. He put her down but didn't release.

"That was very foolish and you know it I can feel the pain in your aura," he buried himself into her neck wrapping his legs and tail around her to hold her close to him as she tutted thumping her tail a little to express her mild frustration at his lack of self care before sighing leaning into his warm hold. "You better take it easy from now on though Rig, you're still recovering if you continue to push yourself too far you could be seriously hurt." Her voice was soft but he could hear the clear worry in her tone as she cuddled herself into him.

"Sorry Mel…" His voice a mumble, "I'll, try..promise.." She sighed softly, the sincerity was clear in his aura despite him struggling for words. She leant into him comfortable in his hold and warm as she felt him mutually lean and press into her, closing her eyes she just listened to the rain with him.

[fayevalcntine]

Arguing that Louis didn't actually choose Lestat at the end or that he "chose the family unit over Claudia, not Lestat" is futile when you consider that even before the murder plot, Louis did choose Lestat over Claudia's safety and peace of mind by taking him back in episode 6. And arguing over semantics by saying "well, they both laid out rules for him to follow" still doesn't erase the fact that Louis expected Claudia to just act like everything was completely fine with Lestat coming back, and even "do more" in terms of repairing her relationship with him. Regardless of what may be true or not, I do think that Lestat became worse towards Claudia once she came back, and Louis actively trying to get her to make peace with Lestat is still him picking someone over her by having that person invade her current living space. As for the murder, again, even if you were to argue that Louis didn't choose Lestat over her then, he still lashed out by physically restraining her the same way Lestat did. For how much can you argue that Louis picked her if she can't feel safe with him and his decisions?

[sirfrogsworth]

How do you take a photo of time?

I've been watching the track events at the Olympics since I was a wee lad. It was a tradition in our family. We'd gather around our ancient low-definition 19 inch CRT television and watch tiny blobs compete against other tiny blobs and root for our country.

It was a bit like watching YouTube on your phone in 144p.

Several heroes emerged.

Jackie Joyner-Kersee was amazing.

You can't forget about Flo-Jo.

And then the Olympics decided NBA players were allowed in the competition.

Which formed... The Dream Team.

Was this fair?

Well... they won each game by an average of 44 points.

So... no. It was not fair.

Though it became more fair as time went on.

But, umm... yeah. The other teams looked like the Washington Generals and the US looked like the Harlem Globetrotters if they stopped screwing around half of the game.

But my absolute favorite Olympian was a runner named Michael Johnson.

He was cool as heck.

For one thing... gold shoes.

But he also had this crazy, upright, Tom Cruise-ish sprinting style that just made him look like a running robot on the track.

And in the 1996 Atlanta games he just trounced EVERYONE. I mean, it wasn't even close.

Yikes. Those losing blobs are probably really embarrassed.

Last night I decided to invigorate my nostalgia and watch the track events again. And I got to see one of the wildest races in history.

It didn't even last 10 seconds but it was one of the most exciting sporting events I've ever witnessed. Almost every runner won the race.

After I saw that initially, I was like... who the heck won???

Even in slow motion I wasn't sure.

This was one of the closest finishes in history. There has never been a race where all 8 runners were within this margin.

The arena was silent as the winner was being confirmed. The runners just kind of paced around waiting for official word. My best guess was the Jamaican runner, Kishane Thompson. But then the loudspeaker announced Noah Lyles.

The last tiny morsel of American pride burst out of me with a big "Wooooo!"

I forgot what it was like to be proud of my country. I wish it happened more often. But this young man, despite being last place in the first 3rd of the race, turned on the afterburners and won in a photo finish.

And that's when my inner nerd took over.

Because when they showed the photo finish image, it looked super weird.

Why is the track white?

Why do all of the runners look all warpy like that QWOP game?

So I went down a research rabbit hole to figure this out.

Photo finishes are actually fascinating. The first photo finish captured the end of a horse race in 1890. But that was mostly luck and timing. The actual photo finish mechanisms weren't used until 1937.

Originally they would film the finish line through a physical slit.

And the first horsie head that appeared in that slit would be the winner. This technology ended a huge aspect of corruption in horse race fixing almost overnight.

But we have come a long way since then. And I'd like to introduce you to the Omega Scan 'O' Vision Ultimate.

This slow motion camera sits fixed on the finish line of every race. The concept of the photo finish has remained remarkably similar to the 1930s approach. The camera sensor is specially designed to only record a vertical slit.

Only the finish line itself is actually captured.

And because it limits what it records to only that slit, it can capture 40,000 frames per second to get amazing temporal resolution.

So why don't the photo finishes just look like, well... this?

That is because the camera takes a picture of time more-so than dimensional space. I guess it would be more accurate to say it *assembles* a picture of time.

As the runners cross the finish line, the camera combines all of the little strips of pictures into a single image.

It's almost like if you tried to reassemble a piece of paper after it had been shredded.

Imagine each strip of paper is a picture of ONLY the finish line, just at a slightly different point in time.

What if someone stopped on the finish line and didn't move... what would that look like?

Once they got there, the same part of their body would just be repeated.

So the right side of the photo finish picture represents earlier in time and it just assembles the image strip by strip as time passes and you literally get a picture of time itself.

NEAT!

Okay, but how do they determine the winner from the photo finish?

I mean, that shoe looks like it is ahead of Noah Lyles!

Clavicles!

The IAFF rules state the foremost part of the torso must cross the finish line first. And the endpoint of the torso is the outer end of the clavicle.

So if you get this bone across the finish line first, you win the race.

Two more fun facts!

The start of the race is actually just as carefully timed as the end of the race. There are sensors in the starting blocks of each runner.

The starting gun also has an electronic sensor.

They have determined the fastest a human can react to the sound of a gun is roughly 100 milliseconds. So if you start running before 100 milliseconds they know you didn't actually hear the gun, you just got antsy and started running too early.

And the final fun fact...

Did you notice the Omega logo at the top of the photo finish?

That isn't superimposed or added after the fact. That is captured by the camera.

But if this image is composed only of tiny little slivers, how did they get the Omega logo to show up?

That is a little display. And it is synchronized with the Scan 'O' Vision Ultimate to show a little sliver of the Omega logo for each frame captured.

So when the final image is stitched together, it looks like a cohesive logo at the top of the photo.

Pretty clever, Omega!

[featherymainffins]

I named a behaviour I do after one of my friends, let's call him Dorian. You must be thinking "Wow that's such a sweet sentiment." and you'd be wrong.

You see it's a little bad habit known as being overly flirty and trying to be friends with benefits or some such with everyone in range but then actually never doing anything with any of those people. Not even kissing.

[kaijutegu]

Alligator Body Language and You, or: How To Know When An Alligator On Social Media is Being Stressed for Views

Alligators are wild animals. Despite the idiotic claims of animal abusers like Jay Brewer, they cannot be domesticated, which means they are always going to react on the same natural instincts they've had for millions of years. Habituated, yes. Tamed, yes. Trained, definitely. Crocodilians can form bonds with people- they're social and quite intelligent. They can solve problems, use tools, and they're actually quite playful. Alligators are also really good at communicating how they're feeling, but to somebody who doesn't spend much time around them, their body language can be a bit mystifying. And it doesn't help when social media influencers are saying shit like this:

That is not what a happy gator looks like.

That's a terrified, furious gator who isn't attacking because the ogre handling her has her in a chokehold. She's doing everything she can to express her displeasure, and he's lying about it because he knows his audience doesn't even know how to think critically about what he's doing. He knows that because his audience doesn't know anything about these animals, he can get away with it. This I think is why I hate him so much- he deliberately miseducates his audience. He knows what he's doing is factually inaccurate, he just doesn't care because attention means more to him than anything else in the world.

Let's change that! Here are two really important lessons for understanding alligator body language on social media.

Lesson 1: Alligators Don't Smile (in fact, most animals don't)

So what's going on in this video? Jay Brewer is aggressively choking his white alligator Coconut while scrubbing algae off of her with a toothbrush. And make no mistake, he is digging into the creature's throat while she is visibly distressed. He claims she's happy- but she's not. He is willfully misrepresenting what this animal is feeling. That's a problem, because people... well, we actually kind of suck at reading other species' body language. The reason for this is that we tend to overlay our own responses on their physical cues, and that's a problem. For example, let's look at an animal with a really similar face to ours, the chimpanzee. Check out Ama's toothy grin!

Wait, no. That's not a happy smile. That's a threat display. When a chimpanzee "smiles," it's either terrified and doing a fear grimace, or it's showing you its teeth because it intends on using them in your face.

How about a dog? Look at my smiling, happy puppy!

Oh wait no, this is a picture of Ryder when he was super overwhelmed by noise and people during a holiday party. He'd hopped up in my sister's lap to get away from stuff that was happening on the floor and was panting quite heavily. See the tension in the corners of his mouth and his eyes? A lot of the time when a dog "smiles," the smile isn't happy. It's stress! Why Animals Do The Thing has a nice writeup about that, but the point is, our body language is not the same as other species. And for reptiles, body language is wildly different.

For instance, look at these two alligators. Pretty cute, right? Look at 'em, they're posing for a Christmas card or something! How do you think they're feeling?

Well, I'll tell you how the normal one is feeling. He's annoyed! Why is he annoyed? Because the albino just rolled up, pushed another gator off the platform, and is trying to push this guy, too. I know this because I actually saw it happen. It was pretty funny, not gonna lie. He's not gaping all the way, but he was hissing- you can actually see him getting annoyed in the sequence I took right before this shot. Look at him in this first shot here- he's just relaxing, and you can see he isn't gaping even a little bit.

By the end, he's expressing displeasure, but not enough to actually do anything about it. He's annoyed, but he's comfy and that's where one of the best basking areas is, so he'll put up with it.

Reptiles open their mouths wide for a lot of reasons, but never because they are actively enjoying a sensation. Unless they're eating. No reptile smiles- they can't. They don't even have moveable lips. If a reptile is gaping, it's doing so because:

It is doing a threat display.

It is making certain vocalizations, all of which are threats. Alligators are one of the rare reptiles that do regularly vocalize, but most of their calls aren't made with a wide open mouth.

It is about to bite something delicious or somebody stupid. Check out this video- virtually all of the gaping here is anticipatory because these trained gators know darn well that the bowl is full of delicious snacks. (I have some issues with Florida's Wildest, but the man knows how to train a gator AND he is honest about explaining what they're doing and why, and all of his animals are healthy and well-cared for, and he doesn't put the public or his staff at risk- just himself.)

It's too hot and it has opened its mouth to vent some of that heat and thermoregulate. This is the main reason why alligators will often have their mouths part of the way open, but sometimes they'll open all the way for thermoregulation. This is what a thermoregulatory gape looks like- usually it's not all the way open, kinda more like < rather than V, but you can't say that 100% of the time. Additionally, a thermoregulatory gape... typically happens when it's hot out. If they're inside, maybe they've been under their basking light for too long. Heat's the dominant factor, is what I'm getting at.

There is another reason that a captive crocodilian might be gaping, and that's because it's doing so on command. Some places have their gators trained to gape on cue, like St. Augustine Alligator Farm and other good zoos. They have the animals do this in presentations that are genuinely educational. They ask the animals to open their mouths so that they can show off their teeth and demonstrate how their tongues seal off the back of their mouth. They'll also do it as part of routine healthcare, because looking at their teeth is important.

In this case, the animals aren't gaping because they're stressed, they're gaping because they know they're gonna get a piece of chicken or fish if they do it. And what's more, they're doing it on cue. They have a specific command or signal that tells them to open wide. It's not an instinctive response to a situation. It's trained. If the animal provides the behavior after a cue, the situation is much less likely to be negatively impactful.

It's also important to remember that there's a difference between a partially open mouth and a gape! As discussed above, alligators will often have their mouths a little bit open just to maintain temperature homeostasis. It helps them stay comfy, temperature-wise. These guys are all doing thermoregulatory open-mouthed behavior- that slight open and relaxed body posture is a dead giveaway. (That and it's the hottest spot in the enclosure.)

Lesson 2: A Happy Gator Is A Chill Gator

So if alligators don't smile or have facial expressions other than the :V that typically signifies distress, how else can you tell how they're feeling? One way is stillness. See, alligators subscribe to the philosophy of if it sucks... hit da bricks.

Basically, if they hate it, they'll leave. Unless, y'know, somebody has their meaty claws digging into their throat or is otherwise restraining them. (Restraint isn't always bad, btw. Sometimes the animal is going through a medical thing or needs to be restrained for their safety- which a responsible educator will explain.)

Let's look at a very similar scenario, in which a captive alligator is getting his back scrubbed.

As you can see, it's quite different. First, he's not being restrained at all. Second, look at how relaxed he is! He's just chilling there vibing! He could simply get up and leave if he wanted to, because he's not being held. Towards the end of the video, as he lifts his head, you can see that his respiratory rate is very even as his throat flutters a bit. I'm not sure what this facility is, so I can't comment on care/general ethics, but like. In this specific case, this is an alligator enjoying being scrubbed! And you can tell because he's not doing anything. A happy gator is content to be doing what they're doing.

Why Should I Listen To You?

Now, you should ask yourself, why should you listen to me? Why should you trust me, who does not own an alligator, versus Jay Brewer, who owns several?

Well, first off, there's no profit for me in telling you that what you're seeing on social media is in fact not what you're being told you're seeing. I'm not getting paid to do this. That's the thing with people who make social media content. The big names aren't doing it just for fun. They're doing it for money. Whether that's profit through partnerships or sponsorships, or getting more people to visit their facilities, or ad revenue, you can't ignore the factor of money. And this is NOT a bad thing, because it allows educators to do what they're passionate about! People deserve to be paid for the work that they do!

But the problem starts when you chase the algorithm instead of actually educating. A "smiling" alligator gets the views, and if people don't know enough to know better, it keeps getting the views. People love unconventional animal stories and they want those animals to be happy- but the inability to even know where to start with critically evaluating these posts really hinders the ability to spread real information. Like, this post will probably get a couple hundred notes, but that video of Coconut being scrubbed had almost 400,000 likes when I took that screenshot. Think about how many eyeballs that's reached by now. What I'm saying here is that it's just... really important to think critically about who you're getting your information from. What do dissenters say in the comments? What do other professionals say? You won't find a single herpetologist that has anything good to say about Prehistoric Pets, I can tell you that right now.

Another reason you can trust me is that my sources are not "just trust me bro," or "years of experience pretending my pet shop where animals come to die is a real zoo." Instead, here are my primary sources for my information on alligator behavior:

Dragon Songs: Love and Adventure among Crocodiles, Alligators, and Other Dinosaur Relations- Vladimir Dinets

The Secret Social Lives of Reptiles- J. Sean Doody, Vladimir Dinets, Gordon M. Burghardt

Social Behavior Deficiencies in Captive American Alligators (Alligator mississippiensis)- Z Walsh, H Olson, M Clendening, A Rycyk

Social Displays of the American Alligator (Alligator mississippiensis)- Kent Vliet

Social Signals and Behaviors of Adult Alligators and Crocodiles- Leslie Garrick, Jeffery Lang

Never smile at a crocodile: Gaping behaviour in the Nile crocodile at Ndumo Game Reserve, South Africa- Cormac Price, Mohamed Ezat, Céline Hanzen, Colleen Downs (this one's Nile crocs, not American alligators, but it's really useful for modeling an understanding of gape behaviors and proximity)

Thermoregulatory Behavior of Captive American Alligators (Alligator mississippiensis)- Cheryl S. Asa, Gary D. London, Ronald R. Goellner, Norman Haskell, Glenn Roberts, Crispen Wilson

Unprovoked Mouth Gaping Behavior in Extant Crocodylia- Noah J. Carl, Heather A. Stewart, Jenny S. Paul

Thank you for reading! Here's a very happy wild alligator from Sanibel for your trouble.

[banbrotsu]

i think what's funny to me is that i'm making like, us sorcerer ocs mainly to explore how sorcerers function in the west and like, how the cultural and historical differences between the west and japan effect things (ex. calling cursed spirits demons for an easy one) but i've also checkmated myself into a canon x oc shipping situation as i'm working on one of them.

i decided that i wanted the 2nd strongest to be from the us and to be a girl bc 1. it's funny to have america in a wizard arms race w/ japan via 2 deeply unwell teens and 2. made her a girl bc like all shonen it's a real sausagefest in here and from what i know of later arcs like half the girls are dead (half of everyone is dead so like.... it's equality ig lol) 3. i wanted to make a lot of dbz goku-vegeta rivalry and bugs bunny-daffy duck jokes with gojo and someone who's about as strong but can never quite get the hang of beating him

but also you CANNOT have someone be "the second strongest in the world" and not have gojo be absolutely cringe insane obsessed about them. like.... he WANTS to have people in his life who are on his level it's actively a thing he seeks out so by inserting this character it's just giving him something to fixate on. now this alone wouldn't land me in the bullshit but bc of how i built her as a character i've been having the dawning horror that they would absolutely bone. their crazy would 100% work like that when they spend too much time around each other