#take a wild guess why hes doing this

[padfootastic]

Sunday Snippet

(is that a thing? idk but i literally just wrote this for FoD and it wont be posted for a few chapters--so a couple months minimum--but i just. really wanted to share it so. enjoy)

He casually points a finger at the hideous vase behind their heads, levitating it wandlessly and wordlessly. If he was around other wix, they would’ve been amazed and perhaps, slightly awed. That it was Muggles--and this particular set at that--meant they were almost vibrating out of their skin in fear. 

Good. 

“Do you know,” he started with a pleasant smile, bringing the floating vase closer to them, enjoying the way Petunia’s mouth opened in a wordless scream. He didn't even have to Silence them. “they thought I could kill 12 people, just like that, with one word. Not one person, not even my closest friends, believed otherwise.”

Once upon a time that statement would’ve hurt, it had hurt him everytime he was conscious enough to think about it in Azkaban. But he’d made his peace with it now, had accepted that there was a part of him that was inherently repulsive, untrustworthy, broken. 

“There was a reason for why they did that. My brother--you know him, James--was murdered. They thought I lost my mind, and perhaps I did, a little bit.” 

Because James was the last--and only--person who’d never turned away from him. He’d taken all of Sirius’ ugliness, all those rough edges he’d tried so hard to hide, cutting himself and the world in the process, and kept those with himself. Sirius never had to worry about himself around James, because he knew he’d take care of him. Wouldn’t let him break. 

At least, that’s how it should have been. They should’ve grown old together, stuck at the hip until their hearts and their magic gave out. James shouldn’t have been buried in the ground at the age of twenty fucking one while Sirius still had to live without him, god, it was so unfair. 

It was--

He shouldn’t be living without James. He was nothing without James. 

It was that thought that sent a fresh wave of anger through his veins, anger he knew was very plainly visible on his face, reflecting in his eyes, because the moment he looked at the Dursleys, he could hear two distinctive whimpers at once. 

“So,” he said, voice rough like gravel, almost unrecognisable to even him. He knew his eyes would be closer to black than their usual grey, the Madness stirring within him, wanting out. “What do you think I’ll do to people, to vermin like you, who touched my godson?” 

His only response was a slow, trickling sound and a pungent smell filling the living room. 

[necrotic-nephilim]

If you want to be bothered. Maybe this for dick and Bruce???

i ALWAYS want to be bothered these are always the highlight of my day tbh you're a delight for letting me just yap <3

Dick. For the canon isn't real square I am Specifically talking about the Tom Taylor Nightwing run. Usually I ignore bad runs but given this one is ongoing (though about to end THANK GOD and get replaced by Dan Watters who i have high hopes for since i adored his Sword of Azrael (2022) run but i digress) so I counted it. Especially since it's so debated if that run is bad or not, for some reason. I'm a 90s Nightwing truther. I love Dick so dearly and tbh recently I've been more enamored with him the more I read his Discowing era, I didn't used to be as big of a Dick stan as I am these days.

Bruce. Honestly where do you even start with Bruce. I want to fist fight him and also patch him up. He got me into comics and superheroes as a whole but I roll my eyes whenever he shows up in a story. He's a bastard and usually not a good father but also complex and should be dissected under a magnifying glass. I love him dearly. He's also just the worst. I think that's why I love him. I'm always a fan of unabashedly Complicated Asshole Bruce who's generally not always the best person, particularly not to the Batfamily and that being the driving force of his relationships with them, especially in shipping.

And for bonus points, Tim. Because know above all else, I'm a Tim Drake kinnie /deg. He's been my number one for a decade and I've yet to uproot him from my brain. He's literally the Worst half the time and I love him for it. And the canon isn't real refers to Tim Drake: Robin because... that sure was a comic. And that's about all I can say about it. Pre-Flashpoint Tim I miss you so dearly. I think it's fun that I want to put him in a blender and drink the juice but also want Nothing Ever to happen to him.

[stargalaxyshooter]

Tried to read an "anti-bkdk" post (which was really just an anti bkg rant lmao) because I like seeing different viewpoints but it was hard to take *some* of these points seriously when one of their first main arguments was "bakugo doesn't care about izuku's life". Idk I can't take any point being made past that point serious because you either wilfully ignore canon or did not get passed episode one. You can argue bakugo is a lot of things but "doesn't care about izuku's life" is not one of them LOL

[izzehands]

[arsonforcharlie]

if one more person comes into this room and tells me I look just like my father I'm gonna mcfreakin' lose it

[persephoneflouwers]

Anons ✨

[hyah-through-hyrule]

My crops would be so watered if I could just love a main/popular character for once

[mihai-florescu]

Tsumugi "i wouldnt say im kind, people who have suffered the most pain are the kindest and i dont remember many painful memories, so i dont think im kind" Aoba, we're getting you a therapist that will suggest that maybe, maaaybe, you're so extremely repressed.

[thatone-churro]

y’know just as soon as i start getting comfortable with the idea of being open/relying on my dad and him being more comfortable with my choices than i feared, i can essentially throw all that out the window with how vehemently he yelled at me at the thought of my getting my septum pierced (even though i never said i was yet. i said my side before i decide anything else). also making underhanded remarks of me never getting tattoos other than the one for my mom. like okay don’t ask me why i don’t tell you about anything or talk to you or anything. what the fuck.

[monsterfactoryfanfic]

if I've learned anything from grad school it's to check your sources, and this has proven invaluable in the dozens of instances when I've had an MBA-type try to tell me something about finances or leadership. Case in point:

Firefox serves me clickbaity articles through Pocket, which is fine because I like Firefox. But sometimes an article makes me curious. I'm pretty anal about my finances, and I wondered if this article was, as I suspected, total horseshit, or could potentially benefit me and help me get my spending under control. So let's check the article in question.

It mostly seems like common sense. "...track expenses and income for at least a month before setting a budget...How much money do I have or earn? How much do I want to save?" Basic shit like that. But then I get to this section:

This sounds fucking made up to me. And thankfully, they've provided a source to their claim that "research has repeatedly shown" that writing things down changes behavior. First mistake. What research is this?

Forbes, naturally, my #1 source for absolute dogshit fart-sniffing financial schlock. Forbes is the type of website that guy from high school who constantly posts on linkedin trawls daily for little articles like this that make him feel better about refusing to pay for a decent package for his employees' healthcare (I'm from the United States, a barbaric, conflict-ridden country in the throes of civil unrest, so obsessed with violence that its warlords prioritize weapons over universal medical coverage. I digress). Forbes constantly posts shit like this, and I constantly spend my time at leadership seminars debunking poor consultants who get paid to read these claims credulously. Look at this highlighted text. Does it make sense to you that simply writing your financial goals down would result in a 10x increase in your income? Because if it does, let me make you an offer on this sick ass bridge.

Thankfully, Forbes also makes the mistake of citing their sources. Let's check to see where this hyperlink goes:

SidSavara. I've never heard of this site, but the About section tells me that Sid is "a technology leader who empowers teams to grow into their best selves. He is a life-long learner enjoys developing software, leading teams in delivering mission critical projects, playing guitar and watching football and basketball."

That doesn't mean anything. What are his LinkedIn credentials? With the caveat that anyone can lie on Linkedin, Mr. Savara appears to be a Software Engineer. Which is fine! I'm glad software engineers exist! But Sid's got nothing in his professional history which suggests he knows shit about finance. So I'm already pretty skeptical of his website, which is increasingly looking like a personal fart-huffing blog.

The article itself repeats the credulous claim made in the Forbes story earlier, but this time, provides no link for the 3% story. Mr. Savara is smarter than his colleages at Forbes, it's much wiser to just make shit up.

HOWEVER. I am not the first person to have followed this rabbit hole. Because at the very top of this article, there is a disclaimer.

Uh oh!

Sid's been called out before, and in the follow up to this article, he reveals the truth.

You can guess where this is going.

So to go back to the VERY beginning of this post, both Pocket/Good Housekeeping and Forbes failed to do even the most basic of research, taking the wild claim that writing down your budget may increase your income by 10x on good faith and the word of a(n admittedly honest about his shortcomings) software engineer.

Why did I spend 30 minutes to make a tumblr post about this? Mostly to show off how smart I am, but also to remind folks of just how flimsy any claim on the internet can be. Click those links, follow those sources, and when the sources stop linking, ask why.

[mbirnsings-71]

I know way too many things but not enough to where it feels like I can just randomly infodump on Tumblr unless it's something very specific like Fandom Stuff and even then I'm not infodumping fandom stuff unless it's to my friends who have never consumed the media before because there's pure Joy that comes with me getting to be the one that shares a new thing with them it's so fun!!

[icefang111]

Left other Wednesday game (no more chaotic monk for me thank god) and joined new Wednesday game, and new dm has mentioned they want a focus on "more difficult combat" and truly I am out here trying to pre-session 0 guess what that means for what I should do build wise (I like to plan, esp for multiclasses)

Like normal game I just aim for basic viability, not high not low, but man's wants hard combat tm and mentioned the finickyness of my initial build pitch off rip so I'm like... how munchkin do I need to be for you??? What's the right level of optimized?

I've made branching path build plans at this point my brain is so stuck on this.

[mrbonsaibones]

so my dad took the whole fam to a pirate metal show for the first day of spring vacation (don't ask) and while there were many delightful things about this, the best part was this guy in front of us who had brought his four year old daughter with him and she knew every word to every (really vulgar) song.

she was dressed in full pirate garb, sparkly skirt, pirate flag and all

I made a little drawing of her just because I had to make sure I wasn't hallucinating and-

pardon the bisexual lighting I was taking a break from the pit in the jungle themed smoking section/bar in the corner

[slightly-knot-insane]

Chained

He's been hungry for too long, starving for your touch and smell and taste. But he can't have you - not today. He is too wild and uncontrollable. He could hurt you so badly from the sheer force of his need. The rut is boiling his blood. That's why he's chained.

"Stay away!" His breath is hoarse. "Stay... away."

But it's so hard to look at him like this. He is drooling and panting, and you can see his cock throbbing. He is slowly transforming and his knot is red and heavy, glistening from sweat.

You know how dangerous he is. He could rip you with those claws and long fingers as if you're a paper tissue. His body is huge, warm, pulsating. You lick your lips feeling your core getting moist. You rub your thighs.

His eyes bulge. "Are you..." He can smell you. He can smell your arousal and your adrenaline heating up your body. "Are you insane?"

"Calm down. You will stay tied down. I will just... help you let off steam."

You kneel in front of him, push his thighs apart to admire his big throbbing cock with ease. It's almost purple, ready to explode, moist from precum. The veins that decorate the shaft are pulsating from hot blood rushing through them. It looks so... delicious. And the knot at the base... It's so big and firm and smooth.

You take it in your hand and hungrily look upward. His mouth is open, sweat dripping from his brow, eyes lustful and hopeful. He wants to say something, but he can't. He just stares at you, at your mouth.

You kiss his knot, gently, rubbing your lips against his cock's skin, not breaking eye contact. He swallows hard and carefully watches as you plant pecks along his shaft to his glans. Once you lick his tip, the chains rattle from his arms trying to move, and he grunts. "Nnnng... this is not... helping."

You giggle. Poor guy. Well, he deserves a little treat. You open your mouth and take his whole glans into it. It's so big that you almost can't breathe. But you've been practicing. He sighs a deep sigh, lifting his head upwards with eyes closed, enjoying your touch. His teeth are getting sharper and longer. They are so beautiful, you think to yourself.

You push your hand down your panties and into your wetness, thoroughly dampening each and every finger. You lift your hand up, offering your lewdness. He immediately snaps his head downward, his nostrils wide, chains shaking and ringing, and slurps your fingers into his mouth. You both moan, tasting each others arousals.

He licks your fingers like they are popsicles, collecting every drop of your juices and groans as you start sucking his glans, jacking him off with your other hand. He's too big for you to put him completely down your throat. You need practice - a lot more practice - to swallow his cock entirely. But, for now, this will do. And he's not complaining.

As you pump him, now with both hands, and suck him off, his chains shake, moving in rhythm with bobbing of your head like an instrument. He growls, moans and pants, and you know he won't last long. With a howl, he orgasms into your mouth and you let some of his seed down your throat, but you let the rest spray you, covering your face, neck and chest with thick cum.

He jerks his hips once, twice, and as soon as he empties his balls all over your skin, he looks at you.

"Oh my." He smiles, breathless. "You did such a good job."

"Did I?" You beam licking his seed off your upper lip.

"Mmhm... But guess what?" His grin becomes even wider. Alarmingly so. "My chains broke."

[why-animals-do-the-thing]

I promised you some lions! Let's talk about manes, males, and management.

This is Tandie, the current male lion at the Woodland Park Zoo.

Notice anything odd about him? He's got one of those hilarious awkward teenager manes. Except... this cat is nine years old.

I was, of course, immediately curious.

Manes serve a lot of purposes for male lions, including being an indicator of health and fitness - it's actually a sexually selected trait and a social signal. Mane texture / hair quality / length is dependent on nutrition and the body having energy to grow (and carry around!) that much hair! The color is also a signal: males with darker manes have been found to have higher testosterone levels.

In one research report, wild males were much more likely to avoid a lion decoy when it had a longer or darker mane - but the girls really loved a dark mane. It's thought this is because a long, dark mane is an indicator of mate quality. Males with longer, darker manes have higher testosterone and were pretty healthy: meaning they had more energy for fighting, had a better chance of recovering if they got injured, and generally had a higher rate of offspring survival. Manes matter!

So, back to Tandie. He was actually born at the Woodland Park Zoo in 2014 alongside two brothers, to dad Xerxes and mother Adia.

This was Xerxes (rip).

Obviously, a very large, dark, lush mane on Xerxes here. So where did these blond muttonchops come from on his son?

I asked the zoo docents and got an answer that didn't make a lot of sense. They told me that after the three cubs grew into adolescents, they were moved to the Oakland Zoo together. But living together suppressed his testosterone, and he never grew a mane.

Hmmmm.

Here's a photo from 2016, when the brothers debuted at Oakland. They're a year and a half old in this photo.

(Photo Credit: Oakland Zoo)

And here's from an announcement for their third birthday.

(Photo credit: Oakland Zoo)

Okay, so these dudes obviously all were growing manes as of 2017. I think Tandie is the one on the left in the first photo, and laying down in the middle on the second. What happened?

I was just in the Bay Area for a zoo road trip, of course I went to Oakland and tracked down a docent to ask some questions.

It turns out that shortly after the brothers turned three, they started acting like adult male lions: they started scuffling regularly. It's a normal social thing for male lions to live in groups, called coalitions, but according to my lion experts there's generally a baseline level of some social jostling within them. It wasn't quite clear from what the docent said if they couldn't manage the boys together, or if they just wanted to avoid the scratches and small wounds that result from normal lion behavior. Regardless, they put all three of the boys on testosterone blockers in order to be able to keep them together as a social group.

Now, I don't know a lot about the use of hormone alteration as a form of captive animal management, except in the case of birth control. I don't think it's something that's unethical - there was just a webinar on it that I saw go by - but I don't think it's commonly done with big cats. Lions have kind of complicated reproductive cycles, and for instance, we've been learning that female lions can take much longer to come into estrus again than expected after coming off hormonal birth control.

In males, testosterone blockers (or being neutered) means they lose their manes. This is why a lot of rescues will do a vasectomy on their males instead of a neuter - it allows them to keep their mane and the social signals that accompany it.

Tandie returned home to Woodland Park Zoo after Xerxes passed in early 2022, and the docent told me all of the lions had been off their blockers "for while." I'd guess those things happened around the same time, since bringing the trio down to a duo at Oakland would reduce some of the social tensions.

Hormones are such interesting things, though. One of Tandie's brothers has a full mane again, and the other is still totally mane-less.

As for Tandie, his mane is growing back in, and it looks like he might rival his dad for length and coloration.

He started here, in February:

Yesterday:

What a difference four months (and maybe proximity to a girl) makes!

[othercrossee]

Mochi not taking vtubing as serious as many to make sure he's grounded and doesnt blur the line between reality and 2d is actually pretty neat tbh