#pythons live in trees

[nerdymemes]

[snowshinobi]

longing is a baby ball python in the living room. i don't belong in the only home i've ever known. when i grow, will you still want to keep me?

[quarterlifekitty]

In honor of Lunar New Year, I decided to get freaky!

Please enjoy this celebration of the each animal zodiac with some Hybrid!AU scenarios. Lots of size kink, breeding kink, feral behavior, and more. I'm really on my nerd shit here. Really playing with my dolls rn. This is so utterly distant from the source material it's unreal. You've been warned. [part 1 of 2]

Barn Cat!Nikto x Rat!Reader

Nikto is a dutiful, prideful creature. A stray who domesticated himself to a farm, hunting their vermin in exchange for a place to call his own when he pleased. He’s caught a thousand little krysy like you, but you give him pause when he bears down on you. Something about the quiver to your tail, the nervous clench of your legs… It’s not how rats ought to act when under the paw of a cat. He’s inclined to keep you– curious about what else fear might make you do.

Chianina!Ghost x Vechur!Reader

You’re in adjacent pens, having travelled a long way– you’re show animals, the most exemplary in your breed. True to form, he’s gigantic and has a brilliant white coloring to his fur, and you’re, well… little. Constantly crowded around for onlookers to take pictures, the ox beside you flaring his nostrils when he sees you being overwhelmed and anxious, stamping to scare off the spectators. You’re almost infuriatingly diminutive to him. He doesn’t know how it’s possible, and if the abundance of ribbons on your gate is anything to go by– you’ll probably be paired up to somehow make an even smaller little calf. Maybe he’ll just have to take some steps to make sure he can see it for himself.

Flemish Giant!König x Netherlands Dwarf!Reader

You’re unceremoniously pushed onto the back lawn of the house. Your owner and his are good friends– and have recently become obsessed with the idea of having little baby bunnies to cuddle. Boy meets girl– can I make it any more obvious? You can, because they neglect to take into account your difference in breed. You’re terrified when you encounter him, and he doesn’t help matters when he catches you by the ankle as you try to dive under the porch to hide. But he doesn’t do anything bad when he’s caught you. Just holds you a little too tight, nuzzling, like you’re little more than a toy to him. Unfortunately for you, your owners consider it a successful playdate, keen to set more up regularly until the right season rolls around.

Tiger!Horangi x Housecat!Reader

You live on a plantation bordering forest, climbing in and out of the window by your favorite basking spot to explore. Being raised among humans, your survival instincts are a bit dull– you can’t tell that you’re being watched by a tiger. He’s never seen a little creature like you. You’re like him, but small. But you still very much smell like a female, so he’s more than content to stalk after you. He doesn’t really understand why your back bristles up when he roars. He’s used to females growling and swiping at him when they’re not interested, but you run off back to your window, shaking as you watch him from the walls of your little palace. He’ll try again tomorrow.

Dragon!Price x Fish Scale Gecko!Reader

There aren’t many dragons left in the world. Price, for one, hasn’t seen another since he was very young. He hasn’t seen much of anything in the past hundred years or so– hasn’t come down from on high. No reason to. The forest begins to return to the mountainside– having been leveled by his flame decades ago. With the trees come more creatures, including you. Scales and tail not unlike a dragon– though your size and tree-dwelling habits are decidedly un-dragonlike. With his mating season on the horizon, beggars can’t be choosers, but when he tries to grab you by the tail, he’s left holding a fistful of scales. It gets his blood running hot– he’s forgotten what a thrill it is to hunt. He might just be in love.

Reticulated Python Naga!Nikolai x Brahminy Blind Snake Naga!Reader

You have no idea as to the extent of Nikolai’s tail, as you can’t see it. All you know are the shadows he makes against the sunlight. You know that he eats strange things, things that don’t sound like eggs or larvae (what he’s eating are your predators, hoping to take advantage of a tiny, blind, defenseless thing out in the open). When he ponders about how he’s going to stretch you to fit his cock, to take his eggs– you can’t even begin to imagine what he’s talking about. Your mother made all of her eggs on her own, and so did your sisters– what does he need you for?

[billthebullfrogs]

DOWN UNDER— A Robert Irwin Fanfiction

Summary: You came to Australia Zoo for a fresh start—art, koalas, and maybe a little courage. You didn’t plan on breaking down behind the exhibit on day one. And you definitely didn’t plan on Robert Irwin finding you there. A soft slow-burn about healing, overstimulation, and the boy who sees you anyway.

Cover: @meximex090

PART ONE── ⟡ ˙🌱 ̟

You had promised your therapist you'd take it easy. And really, you tried. But after the last school year took EVERYTHING out of you, and you had to take a break, you decided you didn't wanna keep going like this. How would you get more resilient if you didn't test yourself?

You were hypersensitive. That meant you were basically living on full volume without an off button. Emotions, smells, textures and tastes overwhelmed you like quantum physics would a third grader. It sucked, but you felt it made your art better— more real, maybe. That's why your therapist suggested you go to Paris for your gap year. Or a quiet place in the Highlands, or a little village in Italy. And yes, that sounded good. Really good, in fact, you almost decided to do exactly that.

But then you got that gut feeling. That little tingle telling you to finally dare something. To risk something. And, even though you were the epitome of a scared little mouse, you'd promised yourself to finally start living.

That's what led you to the Australia Zoo— the place for weather that literally melted off your shoes, masses of people trying to squeeze through the roads all at the same time and noises that made you bite your lip and cover your ears in frustration. It was truly ironic. A person like you in the land down under. But it wasn't all bad. It would be a great opportunity for your art. You could finally draw with live models. Drawing wildlife was your favorite thing to do, and in one of the biggest zoos in the world, there was plenty of it. Especially Koalas. The sleepy little marsupials had captured your heart ever since you watched Crickey! with your dad when you were a kid.

And, let's be honest— Robert Irwin was the other, secret reason for your bold choice. You'd always had a sort of parasocial crush on the conservationist, how could you not? He was gorgeous. Especially his ways of treating animals. Like they were breakable. Not in a bad way, never, but he made their fragility seem like it was something beautiful. That spoke to you. And how he didn't scare away from bigger animals like crocodiles or pythons made your heart flutter— he had this way of appreciating life with a passion not many people got to feel. But you guessed it was an Irwin thing. His sister, Bindi, and his mother also had this sort of sunshiney aura, and you didn't even have to mention Steve— you felt like Robert and his dad shared a lot of resemblances.

So, there you were. Standing in the middle of the Australia Zoo, crowded by screaming kids and their parents who tried to get them under control. It was then you really began to question your decision. A person like you in a place like this? What made you think this was a good idea?

But now it was too late for regret. You tried to shrug it off. When a worker approached you, offering you a tour of the place after she found out you were new, you gladly took her up on the offer. It was a necessary distraction.

"And here," she pointed to a big eucalyptus tree within a fenced area, "are the Koalas. We check on them every day, the little guys are quite clumsy."

I know, you wanted to say. That's why I love them. Instead, you gave a small smile. She asked if you had any questions, but you barely registered it, because you heard a familiar voice from afar. Robert Irwin. He was probably doing a crocodile show, like the ones you'd seen on videos and blushed like an idiot around. A part of you hoped that he'd be there. But the other really just shut down. This was a bad idea, you thought.

Apparently, the worker noticed you were zoned out. "Oh, that's the croc show. Happens everyday at about 1.30 pm, it's a bit loud, but you get used to it. You wanna see?" She smiled. You panicked a bit. Honestly, as much as you'd like an opportunity to ogle Robert like you were no better than a man, the crocoseum was really overfilled— especially since he did the show. You didn't think you could take that right now.

So you shook your head. "No, thank you." The worker nodded and kept explaining things about the zoo. You tried to listen, and somehow managed to register most of the information she gave you, even though your mind wandered throughout the conversation. Hopefully, this would go alright.

── ⟡ ˙🌱 ̟

It did, in fact, not go alright.

You should’ve known it would be like this. You’d been warned— by travel blogs, by Reddit threads, even by your aunt who did a yoga retreat here in the 90s. Australia is intense, they all said. The sun, the bugs, the colors. The way the air hums at a different frequency.

But you still weren’t prepared for the noise.

And now, on your first real day volunteering at the zoo, (yesterday's introduction didn't count) you sat curled up behind the Koala exhibition, pressing your hands to your ears and trying to shut off that damn manual breathing that was just a little too fast to be comfortable. It was like your lungs didn't fill up properly, like you were starved for air even though you were breathing just fine. Your stupid khaki clothes felt a little too tight, too restraining, and you felt hot. Kids were screaming, the adults didn't have a concept of personal space and somehow always seemed to wanna walk by when there was no room to let them. Animal noises, that weird zoo smell, the sun burning your skin. Everything overflowed. And what made it worse is that you thought you could handle it. You thought you'd gotten strong enough to survive— yet here you were, getting overstimulated on your first day of the job.

It was frustrating, you wanted to bite your tongue really hard or punch something, but instead, you cried. You didn't want to, but it was like your brain saw it as the only way to calm down again. Though it just made everything worse, because now there was no way out. You always felt intensely. Sometimes it was nice, but most of the time, it made you end up like this— crying, with no way to stop.

You tried to think of something to distract yourself. Koalas, the way they sleepily waddled from tree to tree. It almost worked. Almost. But of course, your feelings were too big. That made you cry more. And then—

"Hey, you alright there?"

No. No, no, no, no, no. Please. Not now, not him. You didn't have to look up to know who that voice belonged to. Yet you did, anyway. And there he was.

The Robert Irwin.

This was just too cliché to be true, you almost scoffed. The sun was setting, painting the Australia Zoo a golden hue. It smelled like that indescribable smell of those summer evenings spent sitting outside with friends. You were at your literal dream destination, and Robert Irwin actually talked to you like he was a damn saint. For some reason, that made you feel worse. The man who made kindness look effortless, the man who cared about the smallest of beings, was taking time out of his day to talk to you, and you were sitting there, unable to do literally anything. Well, it wasn't like he came here just for you. He was probably going to check in with the Koalas or something.

You couldn't bring yourself to reply.

However, instead of laughing, scoffing, or telling you to suck it up, he silently sat down next to you, seemingly not afraid of getting dirty sitting on the ground. Well, he did wrestle crocodiles for a living, a little dirt wouldn't stop him.

And then, he started talking.

"You're new, yeah? For your gap year? Heard Zoey talk about an artist who took a break from uni to come here."

He kept going.

"I've always admired people who can draw. While photography is kinda my thing, I've got two left hands when it comes to art like that," he chuckled, and it sounded heavenly. You sniffled, trying to pull yourself together. You finally managed to form a reply.

"My art's still a work in progress.." You huffed out a soft, watery laugh.

"But that doesn't make it bad," he said, turning to look at you. "Not at all, actually. Art doesn't have to look good, it just has to be, y'know? You got all your life to practice. What's your favorite thing to draw?"

After a moment, you replied.

"Koalas."

You couldn't believe it. You were just barely holding it together, and now you talked to Robert Irwin about Koalas. Meanwhile, he just nodded.

"Ah. I get it. Marsupials are the best for calming down. Well, Koalas are. Kangoroos can be pretty wild, almost had one fight me once. Can't recommend that. But Koalas are chill." He smiled. "Did you know that they sleep about 20 hours a day?"

You chuckled softly. "Yeah, cause eucalyptus leaves aren't exactly the most nutritious. They're honestly a mood."

"True. You should really meet Marley. She's one of our Koalas here, and she's a diva. Gets real pissed when you wake her up at the wrong time." He huffed out a laugh. "It's understandable, though." He paused.

"…you feeling better now?"

You hesitated, before nodding. "Yeah, I… thank you. I'm just— my stupid brain shuts down at every bit of stimulation. Maybe I shouldn't have gone here for my gap year.." It was kind of humiliating, admitting this to your… who even was he to you? Technically, a stranger. Why were you telling this a stranger? What was going on with you? Shit. Before you could spiral further, he spoke up again.

"That's just not true. You know, it's not a bad thing to feel. My dad always admired people who are passionate. And you know what I think? I think this is the place for you. Yeah, I get that the crowds can be overwhelming, but you got the Koalas, don't ya? And the Cassowaries and Wombats and Sugar Gliders… You get the point. Not every human will get you, but the animals do."

You looked at him.

"Why are you doing this?"

He blinked. "What?"

"Why are you so patient with me? You barely know me."

"So?"

That simple question rewired your brain. So? He didn't have to know you to understand you. After a moment, you gave him a small smile.

"Thank you."

He gave your shoulder a light pat and got up. "No biggie. Now, c'mon. I gotta show you Marley."

Robert didn't even give you time to think. Possibly because he knew that sometimes, thinking was not good for you. And so you followed him. Maybe this wasn't gonna be so bad. You had your art, you had the animals and friendly coworkers and him. He was, you couldn't pretend, the best thing that happened to you that evening. You still didn't understand why he took that time for you— he was really busy most of the day, after all. But for some reason, he did. And you were incredibly thankful for that.

Now, the only thing you had to watch out for was falling for him. Like, actually falling in love. That had always been a stupid idea for you. But after that evening, the numbers were not looking good for you at all. Fate, if there was such a thing, didn't seem to be on your side. You bit back a sigh.

As if reading your mind, he looked over at you.

"Hey. You're gonna be alright."

Like hell you were.

[bogleech]

Actually my CURRENT completely serious personal list of animals I'd add to our current world and specifically local to where I live is as follows. I have shared some of these before but my list is always evolving:

1) A big tarantula sized lousefly because I think they look awesome, would be like vampire bats in that they can bite anything but don't naturally mess with humans. Everyone would find these scary, I would keep one as a pet.

2) a freshwater amphibious barnacle. Larva would have to crawl out of the water and start growing in dirt or mud with long roots. Would smell bad to attract and catch flies when it's exposed to air. In water could catch things like ostracods. I would raise these in pots of dirty scummy water on my balcony. Pokemon would make a poison type Barbacle form out of them.

3) a big huge 12-15 foot long predatory amphibian that looks like specifically this toy of Crassigyrinus. Basically just like a crocodile in size, niche and danger level but slimy and would like cold northern rivers so I can go see them and feed them raw chicken off our fishing docks.

4) a creature exactly like this idiot looking prehistoric lamprey reconstruction, but with a horrible mouth that can bite you like the cookie cutter shark/cookie cutter animals I was hypothesizing. These would live wherever #3 lives so they could have a good food source (#3 should regenerate really well like an axolotl) and so I could catch them and keep them in aquariums

5) a predatory spiny katydid like this guy but as huge as a New Zealand Weta and maybe camouflaged like a clump of lichens

6) a species of glow worm gnats that are maybe just modestly twice as big and just about everywhere in the world in trees and stuff

7) a giant python size freshwater ribbon worm, just like the marine ones with paralyzing venom that swallow whole big fish. Just want one that lives closer. It should be able to come on land, too. I just want the mongolian death worm to be real.

8) a single freshwater cephalopod and I nominate a flapjack octopus big enough to eat a man. I just want the cuero to be real.

9) basket star that hangs from trees and catches birds and stuff. I know echinoderms use seawater as blood but maybe it could fill itself with salty mucus? Maybe it should also protect itself by stinging all over. I'm tired of getting stung by boring nettles in the woods, I wanna get stung instead by spiny tree tentacles.

10) a single surviving pterosaur that evolved to be vampiric and should look as close as possible to the stirge from Dungeons and Dragons

just to clarify that's this one, the one that looks like a miserable piece of shit

[travelingthief]

Apollo as a Queer Deity

The Death of Hyacinthos (1801) by Jean Broc

Apollo has had many male lovers in Greek mythology. Most famously, he loved the young mortal Hyacinthus, the namesake for the hyacinth. But the list doesn’t stop there.

Admentus

 Admentus of Pherae was the mortal king Lord Apollo was sentenced to serve for a year as punishment for slaying the Python at Delphi. Writers such as Plutarch, Callimachus, Tibullus, and Ovid described Apollo’s affection for Adementus with homoerotic overtones. Callimachus wrote that Apollo was “fired with love” for Admentus. In addition to his servitude, Apollo helped Admentus prolong his life by getting the Fates drunk and persuading them to let Admentus live, so long as he could find someone else to die in his place. When his parents would not die for him, Alecstis, Admentus’s wife, died for him instead. After realizing he didn’t want to live without his wife, Heracles - who was impressed with Admentus’s kind treatment of guests - descended into the Underworld and fought Thanatos, ultimately winning and returning Alecstis to the Land of the Living. 

Adonis

Adonis was loved by many deities, Apollo included. Adonis was said to “act as a man with Aphrodite and act as a woman with Apollo.”

Branchus

Branchus was a seer of Apollo and in some traditions, is his lover. Sometimes Branchus was born with his seer abilities and other times his abilities are a gift from the god he received later in life. In his adulthood, Branchus worked in animal husbandry. Apollo, enamored with Branchus’s beauty, disguised himself as a goatherd. Apollo revealed his divinity by milking a male goat. After revealing his divinity, Branchus and Apollo became lovers and Branchus established a temple for Apollo at Didyma. 

Cyparissus

Cyparissus was a boy whom Apollo loved. He gifted the boy a stag, but Cyparissus accidentally killed his beloved stag in a hunting accident. He prayed to Apollo for his grief to be immortalized, so Apollo changed him into a Cypress tree, which became sacred to Apollo.

Hyacinthus

Hyacinthus was a mortal youth whom both Apollo and Zephyrus loved. One day, while Apollo and Hyacinthus played discus a jealous Zephyrus looked on. Zephyrus, god of the west wind, decided to punish the couple by manipulating the winds, causing the discus to strike Hyacinthus in the head and killing him. Apollo, overcome with grief, immortalized his beloved by turning him into a hyacinth. 

Some scholars interpret this myth as the hot sun killing crops in the summertime, as Hyacinthus was a minor Cthonic vegetation deity. 

Iapyx

Iapyx was a favorite of Apollo and they were potentially lovers. Apollo wanted to bestow a gift on Iapyx. Iapyx elected to receive a longer life and skilled healing abilities. 

My Personal Experience:

When I was 14, I cut all of my long, dark hair off which marked the beginning of my physical transition. I spent my teen years exploring my identity and coming into myself. The same time I overcame some prominent internalized transphobia was around the time I became a Hellenic polytheist. In an act of societal defiance, I decided to grow my hair back out.

I was 19 and completely on my own for the first time, and that year was one of the most transformational years of my life (so far). I learned about manhood, adulthood, and what masculinity means to me. Eventually though, it was time for me to cut all of my hair off. I had learned a lot about myself, one of them being I hate having long hair.

So again, I cut off my long, dark hair, this time with a better understanding of who I was and where I was going. In ancient times, boys would cut off their hair in the name of Apollo to signify their transition to manhood, and that is exactly what I did. Now, my last lock of long hair sits in an envelope, next to another labeled "First haircut, 2004" on my Apollo altar.

I don't know if many people turn to Apollo as a queer god, especially for transness. But with the journey I've been on, it only felt right.

Sources:

Homoerotic themes in Greek and Roman mythology - Wikipedia

Hyacinth (mythology) - Wikipedia

CYPARISSUS (Kyparissos) - Cean Prince of Greek Mythology

Branchus in Greek Mythology - Greek Legends and Myths

Admetus of Pherae - Wikipedia

Alcestis - Wikipedia

Iapyx - Wikipedia

Adonis - Wikipedia

Divider: @cafekitsune

[whereserpentswalk]

Humans are fundamentally rare in the multiverse. There are likely well over 2000 billion humans in the multiverse, but that means nothing when there are far more multiverses then there are humans, much less human civilization. There are a few pockets, but if you go to most habitable universes you'll find nobody is there, and if there is someone there they're mostly surrounded by nobody. And where there are humans sometimes they've changed themselves into things that aren't really human anymore.

For example, you'll end up in a universe that's a flat endless plane, covered in lush rainforests. And you'll hear that there's a human civilization of 14 million people there. But then you'll see that in the heart of that human civilization is a great city of about ten million people. And that great city is an amazing place, a civilization with countless great things, thousands of years of history, and multiple distinct cultures and ethnic groups living there. But then you realize that the majority of the humans in that universe live in one city. And then you learn that two million people outside the city live a day's drive from the city, most of them near one of the rivers intersecting the city. And beyond that there's an infinite plane, larger then humanity's first planet, and it has only two million to populate it, most of them so isolated they'll never know a multiverse, or even other humans, exist. Most of this "human inhabited" universe is continent sized stretches of forest no human has ever been, where only pythons the size of whales, eusocial monkeys, venomous tree cats, wolves that hunt by echolocation, and other such creatures lay. And with how far it is from any other human inhabited plane it is, they'll likely never know other humans exist in any sense other then vaugly knowing their origins.

Back when humanity's home universe wasn't lost, people thought the idea of empty land was a dream, that they could be the ones to populate it. But now there's so much of it, that it's useless trying to inhabit it all.

There's humans who've adapted harshly to their planes. For example, there's a universe where everything is filled with a poison gas. But it's where humans ended up, so they attempted by wearing skin tight rubber suits and gas masks while outside. After countless generations of multiple humans civilizations and nations existing in that plane, humans have entirely lost their skin there. At least they don't have skin like most people do, it's like it's all a sensitive second layer not meant to ever be exposed, sof moist and hairless. They don't need to eat when they inject nutrients, so their jaws have fused together, and their digestive system is gone. And since they have goggles on at all times no eyelids are needed. They wouldn't consider a human without their protective suit to even be naked, they'd consider them to be flayed. They only ever take off their suits when they grow out of one, or when they take on the painful burden of reproducing with eachother. They're all fine with how things work, none of them like the idea of having proper skin again. And the few times they've interacted with humans from other dimensions they treat them as one would a civilization of walking skeletons.

Sometimes things become incredibly strange just from how colonization happens is an example of humans who ended up on a near perfect copy of humanity's hone universe, but who lost a lot of their initial population and had to resort to unorthodox means to repopulate. They reproduced through artificial wombs, mixing DNA through blood instead of through natrual reproduction. And because of this they lost the ability to reproduce naturally through generations of evolution. For thousands of years, and countless civilizations and countries, they've been entirely sexless. The genes that cause them to develope secondary sex characteristics never trigger, and their genitals are basically nothing but holes for them to urinate through. Even the part of their arm where blood is drawn has naturally thinner skin and no pain receptors. They think of sex as just something animals do, and they find the idea that humans from other universes do it completely disgusting, like seeing a human with the traits of a wild animal.

There's also examples of humans who don't lose their bodies but they do lose their culture. For example, there's a group of humans who ended up on a plane of endless forests, inhabited by countless insectiod creatures, with several sapient species between them. The humans didn't have any land to take, so they became a middle man minority for most of the major civilizations there. There are no human kings or republics, no human armies, no humans cities. Humans there are a loose diaspora, with a culture that's built in the shadows of other creatures empires. The time since they had their own plane, and their own sovereign civilizations, is so long gone it seems strange to think of. They're entirely a people defined by serving other species, sometimes they're rich merchants and allies to the state, sometimes they're poor and destitute, sometimes they're equal and partially assimilated, but they are by their definition part of a greater whole. And most of them live without ever thinking of their species as one that can even have its own nations and cities.

There are ones which went the other way. For example on a cold and desolate plane, there's a human civilization that got sentient machines to do all their labor for them. On this plane every human is nobility, and infact their word for human and their word for lord is the same thing. There are no humans who aren't part of the ruling class, with countless sapient robots as their subjects. Some humans there won't even see another human outside of their family unless they're doing diplomacy with other noble houses. Of course, if a human loses their wealth, they're no longer considered humans, just being one of the countless robot subjects. And if a machine gains enough resources to be given a noble title, then they're considered human. There is no way that that society comprehends humanity without comprehending its ruling caste.

We've even found a few very far planes where humans have been stranded and forgotten they were from anywhere else. For example there's a colony vessel that became standed on a universe that's mostly a weightless void, but has a few habitable orbs. They luckily found an orb with the closest equivalent life to their homeworld, but by the time they got there they reverted to the stone age. They fought off the local demihumans that they later named the denisovans and neanderthals, but by the time they had technology to understand their history they just assumed they evolved from the local demihuman lines. They're at a high level of technology now, with some very interesting cold weather adaptations (including the unique trait of colored hair) but they don't seem to know about humanity's history at all. Wish them luck out there, it's very cold, and very lonely in this multiverse, mabye they're happiest to think it's as small as it is for them.

[maculategiraffe]

oh my god y'all my boyfriend went to feed hildegard and she got so excited she accidentally struck the little fake tree in her terrarium and BIT A PIECE OFF and wouldn't let go and we had to take it away from her with the tongs and she was SO mad. she was like "leave me alone. it's a very weird thing and very unlike any rat I've ever caught but I caught it and I'm gonna eat it. you big bullies"

she's fine, she found the actual rat and ate it and now she's going back into her rock to digest in peace. but oh my god. I feel like maybe she is stupid even for a ball python. like how would this precious little dumbass ever survive a day in the jungle. she would fall out of a tree and land on an okapi and die trying to eat it. thank god she has us. and that we never intend to give her any live prey, partly because I think it's cruel to the prey but also because if she had to fight a live rat I am not 100% confident she would win

[starwrittenresources]

✨— 𝐌𝐎𝐍𝐓𝐘 𝐏𝐘𝐓𝐇𝐎𝐍 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐇𝐎𝐋𝐘 𝐆𝐑𝐀𝐈𝐋 𝐏𝐑𝐎𝐌𝐏𝐓𝐒 ✨

quotes from the 1975 Monty Python and the Holy Grail film. feel free to switch around pronouns, diction, and the like to make them more suitable for your muse.

❝ Listen, strange women lyin' in ponds distributin' swords is no basis for a system of government. Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical aquatic ceremony. ❞

❝ Stop. Who would cross the Bridge of Death must answer me these questions three, ere the other side he see. ❞

❝ What… is the air-speed velocity of an unladen swallow? ❞

❝ What makes you think she's a witch? ❞

❝ 'Tis but a scratch! ❞

❝ I don't want to talk to you no more, you empty-headed animal food trough wiper! I fart in your general direction! Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries! ❞

❝ Oh, stop bitching and let’s go have tea. ❞

❝ Those who hear them seldom live to tell the tale! ❞

❝ You stay in the room and make sure he doesn’t leave. ❞

❝ You’re not going to do a song while I’m here. ❞

❝ What I object to is that you automatically treat me like an inferior! ❞

❝ Guards, make sure the prince doesn't leave this room until I come and get him.❞

❝ Look, it's my duty as a knight to sample as much peril as I can. ❞

❝ We were in the nick of time. You were in great peril. ❞

❝ It's just a flesh wound. ❞

❝ Are you suggesting coconuts migrate? ❞

❝ In order to maintain air-speed velocity, a swallow needs to beat its wings forty-three times every second, right? ❞

❝ Will you go and tell your master that Arthur from the Court of Camelot is here?❞

❝ Come and see the violence inherent in the system. Help! Help! I'm being repressed! ❞

❝ Well, that's no ordinary rabbit. ❞

❝ Look, that rabbit's got a vicious streak a mile wide! It's a killer! ❞

❝ We are now no longer the Knights who say Ni. ❞

❝ It's only a model! ❞

❝ Go and tell your master that we have been charged by God with a sacred quest. If he will give us food and shelter for the night, he can join us in our quest for the Holy Grail. ❞

❝ Well, I'll ask him, but I don't think he will be very keen. Uh, he's already got one, you see. ❞

❝ On second thought, let's not go to Camelot. It is a silly place. ❞

❝ Bring out yer dead. ❞

❝ I'm not dead. I'm getting better. ❞

❝ You're not fooling anyone, you know. Isn't there anything you could do? ❞

❝ Oh, but you can't expect to wield supreme executive power just because some watery tart threw a sword at you. ❞

❝ You must cut down the mightiest tree in the forest… WITH… A HERRING! ❞

❝ Oh, king eh? Very nice. And how'd you get that, eh? By exploiting the workers. By hanging on to outdated imperialist dogma which perpetuates the economic and social differences in our society. ❞

❝ What manner of man are you that can summon up fire without flint or tinder?❞

❝ I seek the bravest and the finest knights in the land who will join me in my court at Camelot. ❞

❝ You have proved yourself worthy. Will you join me? ❞

❝ I have no quarrel with you, good Sir Knight. But I must cross this bridge. ❞

❝ Now, stand aside, worthy adversary! ❞

❝ Is there someone else up there we can talk to? ❞

❝ No, now go away or I shall taunt you a second time! ❞

❝ Follow. But! Follow only if ye be men of valor! For the entrance to this cave is guarded by a creature so foul, so cruel, that no man yet has fought with it… and lived! BONES of full fifty men lie strewn about its lair! So! Brave knights! If you do doubt your courage or your strength, come no further, for death awaits you all with nasty, big, pointy teeth… ❞

❝ Look, if he was dying, he wouldn't have bothered to carve 'Aaaauuuggghhhh'. He'd just say it. ❞

❝ I seek the Grail! I have seen it, here in this castle! ❞

❝ Get on with it! ❞

❝ Please! This is supposed to be a happy occasion. Let's not bicker and argue about who killed who. ❞

[rea-grimm]

Naga Shanks

You lived on the edge of the woods where no one could disturb you. You inherited a small cottage from your grandfather who used to live there. It wasn't much, but it was plenty for you. You had everything you needed.

Plus, you had peace and quiet and nothing to disturb you. No annoying people, no thieves, nothing. Just the pleasant sound of the forest and the river that flowed nearby.

You knew there were not exactly human beings living in the forest, but you never encountered any. They too were protective of their privacy and didn't want to be discovered by humans.

Apparently, that didn't apply to all non-human beings. It's been a few years since you lived there. You were walking in the woods, along the river, enjoying a nice summer day.

You stopped when you noticed a red snake's tail disappearing into the stream. You followed it with your eyes to the other side, where a surprise awaited you. The tail widened until you came upon the part where it changed at the waist into a man with red hair. Naga. You stared at him as if you'd seen a mirage.

"This isn't where I'd expect company," he smiled at you, baring his oh-so-sharp snake teeth.

"M-me neither..." you stammered, trying not to let your shock show.

"I'm Shanks," he smiled at you, crossing the creek and offering you his hand.

"Y/N," you introduced yourself and shook his hand.

You had no idea someone cold-blooded could be so warm, and even though he wasn't human and everyone had warned you about such creatures, you felt like you could trust him. Despite the feeling you had that, he could be very dangerous. Maybe even the most dangerous in the forest.

You hung out with him for a while, and he even walked you to the edge of the forest, wondering if he would take you home. You were quite comfortable with him.

From that moment on, you saw more and more of him, and eventually every time you went into the woods or he visited you at your house. You talked about all sorts of things, and you were both curious about each other.

Shanks showed you the beauty of the forest where you had never been before and told you about all his adventures and the other creatures he had met during his travels.

Very soon you two became friends and much more. You didn't see him as a monster like other people but as someone you had a good time with and someone you wanted in your life. And Naga had that too.

One day you walked along a stream until you came to a small waterfall where he had built a small structure in the treetops. He lived there and from his balcony, he had a beautiful view of the waterfall and the trees around.

It was also the day you spent your first night with him. You spent more and more time there until you decided to stay together and live in his house by the waterfall. Of course, you still had your cabin where you spent your winters.

After a while, you tried to start a family, but it was not easy between men and nagas. Maybe that meant you'd never even make it... But that didn't stop you from trying.

One morning you were lying in bed together with Shanks hugging you and his tail coiled around your whole body. The morning was hard for Naga, as you provided the warmth he needed for his own thermoregulation.

He never wanted to get up and always had a thousand and one reasons to stay in bed longer. Plus, you couldn't just push him off of you, as he had much more strength. Sometimes when he was half asleep, he would forget how strong he was, and sometimes when you tried to get out of his grip, his snake body would tighten. Then you felt as if you were a victim being captured by an anaconda or a python trying to squeeze the life out of you.

But tonight, you were disturbed from your dream by something else: crying. Not just any cry, it was a child's cry, a baby's cry. Even Shanks heard it and automatically pulled away from you and looked at you wondering if you heard it too.

You climbed out of bed and went straight to the balcony to see what was going on. Shanks went right outside to take a look. Already from the balcony, you could see a small basket floating down the stream and heading for the waterfall.

"Shanks, over there!" you called to him, but he was already heading for it. Even though the water was cold, he climbed in to save the basket. You made a fire so he could warm himself.

Naga went in and handed you the basket. He was glad for your thoughtfulness and curled up by the fire so that he rested his head on your shoulder.

A baby, barely a few months old, was still crying in the basket. You unwrapped the blanket from it when you realized it was not just any baby. It was a nagy baby. It was a girl with coral-red scales with white spots. She had a fluff of hair on her head as well, with half of her head equally coral red and the other half white like freshly fallen snow.

"Shhh, it's going to be okay," you said gently, taking the baby gently into your arms. Even though it was naga, you didn't mind. The naga stopped crying and the end of its tail wrapped around your hand. The girl opened her large eyes, which were a bright purple colour, and her small hands reached up to your face.

"Looks like she likes you," Shanks smiled, his forked tongue flicking against your cheek in his version of a snake kiss.

"Looks like it," you replied. You and Shanks didn't have to decide for long, because the moment he brought her to your house, you were clear. You kept the baby naga, took her in as your own and named her Uta.

Uta grew up like water and made you happy. You had her as your own and you were her parents. Of course, you let her know she was adopted, but it didn't matter. Maybe it just reinforced the strength of your little family.

Uta was playing outside by the river, where the sun was shining, chasing butterflies and singing. Her voice was like the voice of an angel full of joy. Shanks watched her from the balcony while he sipped rum and basked himself.

You, meanwhile, were cooking dinner and making tea from the herbs that were supposed to help you conceive a naga. Even though you had a red and white naga as your daughter, it didn't stop you from trying. You hoped you could give her a sibling to play with.

"Mmmm, that dinner smells delicious," Shanks turned to you hugged you from behind and nuzzled your neck. "And you smell even better," he muttered and grazed his fangs over your skin. "Completely irresistible..." and his tongue flicked over your skin.

"Wait until Uta falls asleep," you replied, tasting your food. "I'd say it's done, wouldn't you?" and you gave him a taste, too.

"Delicious as always," he replied.

"Perfect. Will you get Uta?" You turned to him.

"Sure," he replied and involuntarily let you go before walking to the balcony and calling out to Uta, who soon joined you.

After dinner, the three of you lay in bed with Uta in the middle, her and Shanks' tails wrapped in a sort of tangle around the three of you. Your unusual little family.

Shanks Masterlist

[chungledown-bimothy]

The Fix's Facts

The Big Guy:

-For every snake, there is one snake dick. Snakes have 2 dicks. (said thrice)

The Scattered Mind:

-The tails on a swallowtail butterfly's wings don't serve any aerodynamic purpose. They're there so birds will grab them, at which point they'll break off and the swallowtail can escape.

-Eyes can't be itchy. They, unlike the membranes around them, don't have itch receptors.

-More than half the bones in your body are in your hands and feet.

F For Freezer: (and for facts!)

-The urethra contains taste receptors

-When eagles grip onto something, they have to flex a muscle to let go. An eagle can hold onto something so hard that even after it dies, it never lets go.

-Most of the pyramids on Earth are in Sudan.

-Pelicans have three stomachs, one of which is just for bones.

-Acids are easy to detect, oxygen and carbon dioxide are not. But when carbon dioxide meets water, like it does in our blood, it creates carbonic acid. This means our bodies can detect the presence of carbon dioxide, but not the presence or absence of oxygen.

If we are deprived of oxygen, we have no idea that that is happening as long as we are breathing out carbon dioxide. If we are not breathing oxygen, we just go to sleep and die. But if we allow the CO2 to build up, we panic. We flail. We break. Until finally, we die.

Grappling With Death:

-People can have constipation so bad that it will back up and impact their vagus nerve. As they are eliminating that impacted stool, it can have an effect on the nervous system so great that they forget who they are. Constipation-related amnesia. A woman in Tokyo forgot who she was for 8 hours.

-Bones are living.

-The reason we produce blood inside of our bones is because it's one of the places that's safest from UV radiation.

-There are some birds that can produce a nutritious substance that's a kind of milk. It's almost like lactation, but it evolved separately (convergent evolution). Pigeons do it.

-There are some salamanders that feed their babies their own skin

BONUS ROUND: Brennan "Bird Facts" Lee Mulligan

-There are some species of birds that have a secondary pouch in their esophagus/digestive tract where they have what's called a craw, that has stones or other hard material to help break up food matter before it passes into the rest of their digestive tract.

-Woodpeckers have a tongue bone called a hyoid bone that wraps around their brain because it needs to protect their brain from the impact of pounding into trees to devour their common meal items, grubs and larval insects.

Emergency Powers:

-You can't hum while you're blocking your nose.

-The longest animal is the bootlace worm.

-There are some reptiles that have a light-sensing organ on the top of their head so they can sense shadows that might be coming from something that's coming for them.

BONUS ROUND 2: Brennan's Back, Baby

-The black mamba has been observed at top speeds of 12.5 miles per hour. At that speed, it would almost certainly catch even some of the fastest humans on the planet. Even faster people wouldn't have the stamina, because resting or average speed is 7.5 miles an hour, which is faster than the human average, which is 6, and that's for healthy adults.

-The reticulated python is the longest snake in the world. The biggest is the anaconda.

Case Closed:

-There's little creatures in the sea that make pretty little lights. Why would they do that? It attracts little fishes who suck them up, and the light makes the fish glow. This attracts more little fish.

-The North Pole is actually a South Pole, because when you look at a compass, it points north. But the north pole of the compass is what's pointing north, and north poles point to the south poles.

BONUS ROUND 3: Once More, With Feeling

-Diners originate from dining cars on trains. The first diners were the dining cars of trains that had been taken out of service and were used stationarily as restaurants.

[talonabraxas]

“I have united with the serpent of the beyond. I have accepted everything beyond into myself.” -C.G. Jung, The Red Book

The Caduceus - Magical Staff of Hermes Talon Abraxas

Through his sacrifice the Serpent-Saviour initiates a new winding on the spiral of the next dimension, marking the beginning of a New Age. He is like The Redeemer on the cross. Through him man pulls himself up at the moment of death into the lunar foundations of the next world. The Adept who touches the earth like the serpent's tail sacrifices his life to lift up the whole in his journey back to his Spiritual Seat. He is the Spiralled Serpent of the Tree of Life. "He is the Spiralled Serpent of the Tree of Life. The trunk of the Asvatta tree grows from heaven and descends at every Beginning from the two dark wings of the Swan of Life. The two Serpents, the ever-living and its illusion (spirit and matter) whose two heads grow from the one head between the wings, descend along the trunk, interlacing in close embrace. The two tails join on earth (the manifested universe) into one, and this is the great illusion."

Ophios and Ophiomorphos, Apollo and Python, Osiris and Typhon, Christos and the Serpent, are all convertible terms, all Logoi. "One is unintelligible without the other." They are spiritual saviours and physical regenerators; the former ensure immortality for the Divine Spirit and the latter give it through regeneration of the seed. The serpent or saviour has to die because he reveals the secret of the Immortal Ego. Human consciousness is related to the balancing and flow of subtle energy currents. The Sakti of Siva actively revolves around the Siva lingham, the neutral rod of the caduceus. The lotus centers in the body are pierced by the Sakti energy passing into progressively finer vibrations. The Buddha termed this 'the untying of all the knots in the inverse order.' Man approaches the Divine through spiral stages of initiation. Apollonius of Tyana spoke of the Second Hour when "by the duad, the zodiacal fish chant the praises of God; the fiery serpents entwine about the caduceus and the thunder becomes harmonious." This is one of twelve zodiacal steps of successive initiation, another being to study the balanced forces in nature and learn how harmony results from the analogy of contraries, "to know the Great Magical Agent and two-fold polarization of universal light."

[atlas-nsfw]

Absolutely not expecting you to feel like you have to write anything about the lamia and naga fighting over a human (not that I’d complain if you did!) I was just curious.

Do you think they’d ever grudgingly get along for the sake of a human, maybe on a smaller scale? Like if an individual lamia were somehow separated from the other lamia, and ended up alone with a single human and single naga?

I was just day dreaming and imagining a human in a cabin in the wilderness somewhere, with a naga who goes out and hunts and provides food and essentials etc while the human looks after the garden and grows fruit and veg. And a lamia who loathes living so primitively (and sharing with a naga) but loves the sex and the human so does their best to make the cabin into a luxurious little hideaway. The lamia going to the nearest village or town to trade furs and meat the naga hunts for silks and feather cushions and perfumes to spoil their human and keep them in comfort. Creating a nest fit for a queen so when it’s time for the human to lay their eggs they want for nothing.

The human doesn’t necessarily want or need all these things (hence living with a naga in the woods), but does appreciate little luxuries now and then and likes the fact that it makes their lamia happy all the same.

Sorry for the long ramble… Just wanted to share my day dream!

🪢

I absolutely love this. The naga and lamia barely tolerating each other for the sake of the human is so funny to me. Them always competing a little bit hehe. Maybe the lamia is like a Saharan horned viper and the naga is green tree python? They live in a little cabin in the jungle, a sort of hidden paradise (even if the naga and lamia are always fighting).

Maybe the lamia is outcasted and that is why they end up in the jungle and are willing to share with the naga since they lost their community? Who do you think found the human first?

Taglist: @leitor-sonolento, @kittycatkandies, @ren-lives-here, @tiredsleepyhead

[sapphiresenthiss]

You have snakes? 🥰 what kinds? I'm not a huge fan of tarantulas though I get the appeal from others I just can't cause of bad experiences when I was younger. But snakes... those I adore

I do! I have almost 20 of them right now. I have reticulated pythons (that includes my famous Nagini who lives free in my house 24/7, doing whatever she pleases), ball pythons and scaleless corn snakes. I used to keep burmese pythons, several boa species, grene tree pythons, hognoses, rattlesnakes, vipers and some others. Snakes are simply amazing ❤️

You really have to know what you're doing though, with the bigger or venomous ones.

[wisteriagoesvroom]

LOL I can imagine for vampire au Lando starting to third wheel Carcar and so even though turning Franco is a complete accident he can’t feel too guilty bc he uses it as an excuse to hang around someone else, and somehow he learns more about vampirism lore through a human grad student than he’s learned in his whole life (he’s lived a long time, lots of info to absorb). Then also, if you don’t mind my ask, what do they all do for jobs/how do they get money and would Franco keep studying ?

HELP this is so cute. ok. norpinto-frando vampire au for those who aren't up to speed...

Lando starting to third wheel Carcar and so even though turning Franco is a complete accident, [Lando] can’t feel too guilty bc he uses it as an excuse to hang around someone else -> screaming cus, absolutely. random associated headcanons for this... i'll rewind a bit:

carlos is the oldest vampire, like, moorish/medieval era. he met lando while they were both at a masquerade ball in the early 1600s and smelled each other right away (carlos like wood and ink, lando like gas lamps and wet stone).

lando is an tudor era vampire. like he actually knew shakespeare and said he was one of the best viral marketers of the era

oscar was turned in the early days of the australian penal colony, he's like first or second generation white australian but he refuses to be called british. he moved in to the house because the rent was cheap and he doesn't feel the need to live extravagantly -- even though he, too, is $$ loaded $$

oscar didn't move in until about two decades ago - very short by vampire standards, to them it feels like yesterday - but carlos and oscar are basically They Were Roommates atp even though they squabble con-stant-ly

their neighbours think they are a new age-y polyam group but because the people who live opposite them are students, nobody ever hangs around longer than a year to remember them or dig deeper

so franco definitely brings a fun funky fresh dynamic

he learns more about vampirism lore through a human grad student than he’s learned in his whole life (he’s lived a long time, lots of info to absorb) -> things that baby vamp!franco teaches lando include

tiktok trends, like how to make ur teeth comically large in photos. lando finds this hilarious

how to use venmo

creating a roster on google docs for who needs to do what house chores

jailbreaking an apple watch so it doesn't read their pulses (they don't have any), but it will remind them of the moon phases and when they might be extra hungry to feed

at one point franco actually puts his academic skills to use and helps lando hunt down some of his family tree, because since lando was turned and it's been so long, he doesn't remember much about them : ( so one of franco's little gifts to lando is helping him trace his heritage

what do they all do for jobs/how do they get money and would Franco keep studying ? -> i love how practical-minded you are. um well let's say this fictional supernatural creatures' market mostly runs on barter trades and goodwill agreements. the entire house sometimes just gets lazy tbh so lando or carlos will just dig into one of the old chests of random shit and pull out an antique and go: "do we think this is worth anything?" then they take it to an antiques dealer who is also a mage (alex albon) and there is a 1 in 25 chance that the antique is actually is worth something, so that bankrolls them for another half a year or whatever.

carlos makes a lot of noise about being "an art dealer" just because he sold a goya painting to a museum once.

oscar is a man of industry, of the "newer" world (australia) etc etc so he spent the 80s and 90s learning C++ and Java and Python so he legit just codes for a living. or when he feels like it. oscar has helped launch at least a dozen startups under various pseudonyms and one of them is even a blue chip company by now. he doesn't do it for money tho. he just does it cus he likes a challenge, and otherwise fights with carlos too much. when he isn't coding he likes to tinker and fix things just for fun. like, he legit knows how to fix a boiler and stuff. his familiar is definitely a grumpy orange neighbourhood cat.

franco keeps studying!! he is such a nerd that he's like "i can totally learn everything about anything now, and i could in theory do like 20 masters degrees, and nobody can stop me"!! then lando is like, "well you might get bored of it after a while or burn out". but franco insists he will not. in fact with his enhanced neurological abilities he goes on an academic bender trying to fast forward through an entire harvard's undergrad degree's worth of material in a week, and he ends up faceplanting on his desk. and then poor lando has to go and find a fresh chicken or something to kill and revive franco 'cus franco wore himself out too fast being a bb vampire with accelerated mind powers.

franco promises never to do that again (but of course he will continue to do it once in a while, and everyone still looks after him in his lil study hangovers because he is so very nice. also he taught them how to use venmo.)

and. one time. franco is like. "i can't find this rare sonnet do you know what library i could maybe locate it in" and lando is like "wait i know that one" and pulls out an honest to god original copy that he at some point got laminated in the early 80s. and franco is like. "um i think this should be in a museum??" and lando is like "yeah but i gave them a copy of this, cus i spilled ink on the corner of this in 1603 after a really good night out" and franco is like "???? ok ????"

then lando swans off to moodily stare at the moon or some shit.

[dailydemonspotlight]

Apollo - Day 179

Race: Deity Arcana: Sun Alignment: Light-Neutral June 2nd, 2025

And so I return, on the gayest of months. Happy pride month, everybody! I was planning on returning for a while, but I finally overcame my burnout in June, of all months, funny enough. Because of that, as well as everything else, I thought it would be fun to pursue one idea- how about the most queer demons in the series? And the first one that came to mind was, of course, Apollo- possibly the most famously aggressively bisexual characters in myth. Well known fact: the Greeks were gay. Very much so, in fact. They valued strength, and often didn't distinguish between genders for sexuality- rather, they effectively saw you as either the top or the bottom, regardless of gender. I'd rather not get into the more ugly side of this (look up pederasty if you're interested, though I doubt you are given the root word of that phrase >_>) but still, whether it be from Sappho of Lesbos to Achilles and Patroclus, gayness was very common in ancient Greece, whether it be their stories or their day to day lives, and this cannot be exemplified better than with today's Demon of the Day, Apollo.

The fact that this account is a thinly veiled excuse to ramble about mythology will become very apparent here because, bar none, Apollo is my favorite Greek god, and he always has been (maybe that was an early sign of my taste in men?) since I was a child. As one of the sons of Zeus, the twin brother of Artemis, and the patron deity of several very important aspects of Greek life such as music, artistry, and even taking over as god of the sun from the retired Helios, Apollo has a very long and storied history filled with heartbreak and love. And a lot of banging. A LOT.

Born to one of a million affairs between Zeus and a woman/some men, this time being the Titan Leto, Apollo lived a very strange life growing up- and by that, I mean he didn't really grow up as much as he was forcefed ambrosia until he became a fully grown man in one day after a 9-day labor from Leto supported by everyone but, predictably, the jealous and enraged Hera (who I can't even say was acting like a jerk, but at the same time, Zeus has done it a million other times- girl, at some point, you either gotta accept it, divorce his ass, or kill him) who was instead endeavoring to make Leto's life a living hell. Hera sent a massive snake/dragon (it's contested) called Python to attack Leto and prevent her from giving birth, but nearly as soon as Apollo popped out from the womb and donned the lyre did he engage in battle with the snake.

After killing the snake, and recognizing that it would later become a coding language, Apollo ended up holding it high, becoming a symbol of Delphi, the land he fought atop with it, who would later go on to start a specific form of sports games, the Pythian games. Later on, Apollo soon became a god of many things once finally being recognized as one of the gods in the pantheon- he was the god of music, the god of prophecy, oracles, archery (something he presumably shared with Artemis? I'm not sure, maybe Artemis is just the goddess of hunting and Apollo is the god of archery), healing, plague, and disease. More infamously, though, is that Apollo got around. And it NEVER ended well.

I can't go over all of their stories because we'd literally be here all day, but here's a 'quick' list of his lovers (and/or the people he got enamored to and who ran away from him screaming), and how they met their demise. A lot of this is taken from this post by @apollosgiftofprophecy, so check it out!

Acantha, who died by turning into a cactus

Coronis, who was shot by a volley of arrows by Artemis after cheating on Apollo

Hyacinthus, who truly loved Apollo- and turned into a flower

Cyparissus, whose deer died and was promptly turned into a tree for reasons.

Adonis. He died. Whaddya want from me.

Phorbas, who became a the constellation of Ophiuchus

Daphne, who became a tree after Apollo fell in love with her

Castalia, who turned into a spring to escape from Apollo

Admentus, who temporarily died in war before Heracles brought him back.

So yeah. Not the best track record,and according to this Reddit post, he has a 13% mortality rate when it comes to his lovers. I'd recommend reading into any one of these myths- they're all unique in their own respects, being either tragic, or darkly comedic, or both. It's also a good way to get a look at who Apollo was in terms of character- basically being Zeus's twinkiest soldier.

Am I allowed to say that?

Am I gonna get smited?

Eh, whatever. In terms of design, Apollo hasn't shown up in the mainline series since Kyūyaku Megami Tensei, a compendium release of the first two MT games, but his design in KMT is pretty decent- it's a fine enough appearance for him, but it's a little bland, to be honest. Even still, I think it fits him better than his Persona 2 appearance, though his P2 appearance is far more creative and I honestly like how it looks far more.

Not sure why both of them are red, though. Is it because he's the sun? But then, that'd be a pale yellow, right? Ah, whatever- it works fine in both appearances. I'm just defensive about this man.