#the individual pictures are also the same size as they were in the group picture

[alex-is-a-simp-73]

I done painted some Argos and Mr. Plant rocks

Individual pictures

I rlly like how they turned out

ahhakekemwme its the guys ever

But embodied by Small Rocks that I can Carry Around

Which makes it Infinitely Better

UPDATE:

I put rhinestones on them

They are now Even Better through the power of Being Sparkly

[fl3shm4id3n]

ₜₕₑ Cₑₙₜₐᵤᵣ

𝐒𝐮𝐦𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐲: 𝐘𝐨𝐮'𝐯𝐞 𝐚𝐥𝐰𝐚𝐲𝐬 𝐛𝐞𝐞𝐧 𝐜𝐮𝐫𝐢𝐨𝐮𝐬 𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐌𝐲𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥 𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞𝐬 𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐰𝐧 𝐚𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐮𝐫𝐬. 𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐝𝐢𝐝𝐧'𝐭 𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐰 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮'𝐥𝐥 𝐛𝐞 𝐦𝐞𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐰𝐡𝐢𝐥𝐞 𝐨𝐮𝐭, 𝐥𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐰𝐨𝐨𝐝𝐬.

ᴘᴀɪʀɪɴɢ: ᴄᴇɴᴛᴀᴜʀ! ᴊᴀᴋᴇ ꜱᴜʟʟʏ x ꜰᴇᴍ! ʜᴜᴍᴀɴ! ʀᴇᴀᴅᴇʀ

Tw: Smut, Monster fucking, size difference, sexual tension, nudity, skinny dipping, reader is describe to have wide hips and perky ass, masturbation, outdoor set, titty sucking, oral (f receiving), stomach bulge, kissing.

A/N: I'd like to hear some feed back on this, all feed back is appreciated

Masterlist

ʙᴇꜰᴏʀᴇ ʏᴏᴜ ɢᴏ ᴀɴʏ ꜰᴜʀᴛʜᴇʀ, ᴛʜɪꜱ ɪꜱ ɴꜱꜰᴡ/ꜱᴍᴜᴛ ᴄᴏɴᴛᴇɴᴛ, ɪꜰ ʏᴏᴜ ᴡɪꜱʜ ᴛᴏ ɴᴏᴛ ʀᴇᴀᴅ, ꜱᴋᴇᴅᴀᴅᴅʟᴇ, ɪꜰ ʏᴏᴜ ᴡɪꜱʜ ᴛᴏ ᴘʀᴏᴄᴇᴇᴅ, ᴛʜᴇɴ ʀᴇᴀᴅ ᴀᴛ ʏᴏᴜʀ ᴏᴡɴ ʀɪꜱᴋ.

Mythology had always caught your interest, specially the being mentioned in the many stories and studies you've done. But a particular one has caught your eye. The Centaur. This mythical creature has fascinated you. The lore to it had you hooked. You always wondered how it was possible for a man and horse to be fused together. Who knows, it's only legends and myths that wouldn't be possible to scientifically prove. It was still fun to learn and read about them.

In your free time you'd be reading your book over and over, you never got tired of reading your book about myths and legends from around the world. That's what you were doing at the moment, reading the same myth again. You were in love with it, specially the pictures of the centaur. You couldn't help but wonder how handsome he was, probably to get you hooked on the story or just because who ever illustrated the book thought it would be a good idea.

Your reading was cut short when you had to go out into the forest to collect samples for the scientists. You put your book away, you got ready to go. You were a biologist, who studied all kinds of life human, animal, plants and the environment that they lived in. They needed you so that the others could get the proper samples they needed. When you done getting ready, you were sent off.

The woods seemed calm, and here you were. Collecting samples on your own. You were used to doing things alone. It made you focus and work faster, when you'd be with a group of colleagues it took much longer. You also felt a bit relaxed, listening to the forest as you did your work. You were too caught up in cutting plants and digging roots from the dirt, you got dirt under your nails for sure. You'd clean them later. You went a bit further into the woods, wanting to get more than enough samples for your team of scientists. They needed as much as possible so that each individual could study there fair share.

You were too busy on your work that you didn't even notice a thanator creeping by. Searching for something to eat. You had your back turned to it, you were on your knees, digging with your hands to get a root. Then you stopped, hearing a bush rattle, you stopped and got up quickly. Looking around, studying your surroundings. You saw nothing at first, but then you turned around slowly. You saw the black panther like creature, staring back at you. The creature liked its fangs, you gripped tightly onto your knife in hand. You weren't going to die without a fight.

Slowly, you began to walk backwards, looking at the creature in the eyes, this was something you were told when out in the woods, to never turn your back on a giant wild cat. So you walked slowly, trying to get the beast to leave you alone. But then you fell backwards, losing your balance due to a huge root sticking out of the ground. This gave the Thanator a sign that it'll eat you, without thinking twice. You got up and started running for your life. The Thanator hot on your tail.

You ran, as fast as you could. Thanks to your small body, you were able to slip though small spaces, giving you time to run as the creature struggled to get to you. While you ran, you did not turn back to look at the creature still after you. You didn't want to grow any more fear then what you were already feeling, so you ran and did not look back. You then spotted a clit, and heard a waterfall bellow, assuming there was a river or a pond bellow. So you jumped, the thanator had tried to get you with its claws, it scratched you right on the arm. But you fell down to the water.

The river was strong, taking you down with it with all it's force, you tried to hold onto something, but the water was too much. You was dragged down the river. You popped your head up to try and breath, but the water was pushing you further down. It took about almost fifteen minutes until you were dragged down a shallow end. You manage to crawl out into the wet dirt. You were breathing, as if you have never breath in your life. You were weak, wet and tired. You already felt the soreness hit you. You laid on your side, trying to catch your breath. Then you felt a sharp pain on your left bicep, seen the huge ugly scratch on it. That'll scar, hopefully it doesn't go infected. You just sighed, laying your head on the wet dirt that got on your face. Slowly closing your eyes in exhaustion. As your eyes began to heavy, you couldn't help but spot a figure walking towards you from the woods. You weren't able to have a proper look at it, you only saw a what seemed to be a man, but his lover body, was much bigger. You had closed your eyes completely passing out.

You had began to wake up some time later, who knows how long you've been out cold. It must have been a while since you saw how it was dark already. You were lying on your back, your clothes were still wet, but the ground was dried. You slowly sat up, groaning in pain, looking at your arm, you saw that there was a huge leaf wrapped around were your wound was. Moving your arm, you felt some sticking substance on your wound, you touched the leaf, gently lifting it so see what it was. It was thick green like paste, and the leaf kept the past from falling off your wound. "Don't touch it or else it won't heal properly." You heard a very masculine voice in front of you say.

Looking over to see who it was, you saw a man, he was no ordinary man, but a na'vi man. You've heard of the native's, how they're very tall and muscular, he was both. You also couldn't help how handsome he was. His eyes were a yellow color, similar to a tiger's. His nose was on of a cats, his cheeks bones were very visible and his hair was long, both sides of his head were shaved, but his hair was the longest with braids, feathers and beads on it. He was very handsome, you only got to see his chest and neck. He was wearing a beaded choker and some kind of band on his chest with a knife quiver. He was sitting across a fire he had build between you both.

"You're far from home kid." He said, going back to doing what he was doing. He was using his knife to cut something, that something sounded like as if he was cutting fruits. "You helped me... why?" you asked. Wondering why a native helped you? Normally they'd leave you to die or kill you themselves. "Because you needed it. I had the same experience as you. I was also chased by a thanator, except I didn't get wounded." He explained, interesting. You wanted to get a better view of him. So you began to sit up, slightly groaning by soreness on your body. You stretched your upper body, making your tense muscles relax. You were now sitting properly. "Well... Thank you, for helping me." You said to the man, who was still cutting a fruit. He simply nodded.

There was an awkward silence. You didn't know what to say or do, so you just kept quiet. You trialed down at him, seen how strong he looked. From his arms, chest and his abs. Man, he seemed as if he had put in the work into having that kind of body. The more you look, that was when you saw his lower body. Your eyes went wide, seen that he did not have a pair logs like a man. They where instead of a dire horse. His hooves looked strong, as if he could kick the life out of you. Looking over, slightly moving to see more, he had more than just four legs. He had a total of six legs. "What? Never seen a creature like me?" Jake asked, seen the look on your face, you looked like a fish gasping for water. "Not in person no.." you admitted.

This caught Jake's attention. "In person? So you've heard of my kind?" he asked, then he handed you a cut up fruit. It was a huge, it took up all of your hand. You took it from his hand, slightly touching his palms. "Thank you. I mean yeah. I've read myths and legends of the centaur. I just thought they were only myths..." you admitted, the man only chuckled. "Myths? That's a new one." He said, biting a piece of the sliced yovo fruit. "New one?" you asked him, wondering what he meant by that. "People that I've come across, often think that were were breed like this. That a horse and a na'vi had intimacy and that's why we are how we are." He explained. "Hm, I've read much word weirder things. But this takes the whole cake." You commented, making the man laugh. It made you blush a bit, you had made a very handsome horse man laugh.

"Well, It's only proper for me to introduce myself, my name is Jake Sully." He said, you tilted your head a bit. "Jake Sully? That's a very human name." You commented, eating a slice from the fruit, biting the squishy texture from the peal. Jake watched as you ate your fruit, you couldn't help but look at your mouth. Gently sucking on the peal, trying to drink it's nectar. He watched a little droplet of juice running down your chin, his eyes slightly dilated. He liked what he was seen, but he shook his head. "Hurry up and eat your fruit then go sleep. We have a long day tomorrow." He said, finishing his last slide of fruit, before lying on his side, getting comfortable. You only hummed, going back to laying down on the grass, getting comfortable as possible to go back to sleep. You can softly hear him snoring, he was fast asleep. You tried going back to sleep, closing your eyes, only listening to the small fire crackling and his soft snoring.

The next morning, you were woken up by Jake. He said that you needed to get going before the day ended. He was planning on taking you back to the lab. You got up from the ground and up on your feet, stretching your body, hearing few joints pop and your body was sore. From yesterday and because you were laying on the hard ground. You yawned softly, tears welled up in your eyes. You wiped them away, along with any kind of grim on your eyes. "Come on kid, let go." Jake said, as he turned off the fire with some water he carried in a bottle. You nodded. "Alright alright." You yawned again. Going over to him.

You were now walking with the centaur in the woods, side to side. He was quiet the whole time. You'd look up at him every now and then, seen how big he was compared to you. You knew that na'vi and dire horse were big. But not as big as he was. He was almost a giant. You just noticed that you had lost your small bag which held the samples that you needed, you sighed in annoyance, so you nearly got killed by a thanator for nothing. Well, you were helped by a very handsome horse man, you'd do it again just to see him.

The whole walk you'd stumble and fall sometimes, getting slightly hurt. It must be because you weren't very familiar with the woods. Jake could only watch you, struggling. He thought it was funny seen such a tiny human like you, falling. It was obvious that humans like you weren't experts in wondering around the forest. It was like watching a baby take it's first steps. He knew he needed to help you or else you'd be stuck here all day and night, so he had an idea.

"Take off your shoes." Jake said, making you turn to him as you dusted from leaves off your hair. "Hm? What?" you asked him. "Take off your shoes kid, I don't like repeating myself." He said to you. "Okay okay." You said, sitting on the floor, unlacing your shoes off. "Socks too." He said, watching you removing your shoes. You looked up at him confused, but you did anyway. Now you were barefooted. "Now what?" you asked him. You watched how he got down on six of his hooves. "Get on." He said, making your eyes widen by his sudden request. "You want me to get on you?" You asked, confused. "Yeah, if you continue to walk, we'll be stuck in the forest for days, now hop on." He said. You walked over to him, trying to find a way to get on him. He simply watched you, seen what you were doing.

Until finally, you finally got a hold of him, slightly jumping on him. Your right went up first, then you pulled yourself up to him. Now you were sitting on him, you got comfortable. Jake then got back up on his feet. "See, that wasn't hard now was it?" he asked with a little smirk on his face, making your face heat up. He then grabbed your small hands, placing them around his lower waist, so that you could hold onto him. You felt both his soft flat stomach under his belly bottom, touching were his abdomen should be and your arms brushed against his leathers corset like band. Your chest lightly pressed against his strong back. Your breasts softly touching his muscles, your nipples softly going erect in arousal. Once you were holding onto him, he began to walk again.

The whole ride, you couldn't help but feel all sorts of things. You were literally riding a centaur. The same creature that you have been fascinated by for years. Were you dreaming? Did you hit your head or something? You had so many thoughts in your head. You had been quiet the whole ride, and so was he. There wasn't anything you could talk about, you doubted that he wanted to learn about humans or what you did for a living. You laid your head on his back, avoiding his hair, sighing out of boredom. "What's on your mind kid?" he broke the silence. Making you lift your head from his back. "Oh, nothing. Just thinking." You responded, still holding onto him by the waist. He just hummed, walking on the path of dirt, leaving behind his hoof prints.

After a couple more hours of walking, you came to stop, near a river. He got down, allowing you to get off him. "I need to check your wound." He said, going over to the river with you on his side. He got down on legs, sitting down. Gesturing you to get close. Once close, he sat you down on your knees. He began to remove the leaf off your arm, the paste was dried. He reached over to the water, grabbing some on his hand and putting it on the paste, making it wet. Easily removing it. You watched as he worked, your eyes were focused on your wound at first then you turned to look at him, seen him focused on getting the paste off you. Now that the paste was fully gone, your wound showed. Three red huge scratch marks were on your skin. It looked a lot better. It might scar, but it could've been worst.

"It needs to breath." Jake commented, looking back at you in the eyes. Seen how you were staring back at him. You only nodded. "Right, yeah." You responded immediately. Jake slightly chuckled. He then got up from the floor, beginning to take off his chest band and his waist corset. "What are you doing?" you asked him. He placed his things on the floor. "I'm going for a dip, you can join if you want." He said. Once his stuff was off, he walked into the water, you watched how the bottom of his horse body began to disappear into the water, only up his waist showed. He turned around to look at you, still sitting on the dirt. Watching him with your mouth slightly open. He chuckled by the look on your face. He then turned back, going a bit deeper into the water, to get his whole body wet.

You just watched him, going more into the water, seen his blue skin disappearing in the clear water. Looking down at yourself, you saw the dirt on your skin and clothes. Maybe you did need a bath. So you got up from the ground, beginning to take off your brown shorts. Pulling them down to the floor, followed by your panties. Then came your shirt, you pulled it over your head, exposing your soft flesh to the air, your nipples quickly went erect. You touched the water with your foot first, feeling how cold it was, but once you were in the water, it'll feel warm. So you slowly began to walk into the water, covering your chest with your arms as you went further in. The cold water made you squeak, it was slowly consuming you. Finally you were in the water, reaching up to your neck, you shivered under water. "Changed your mind?" Jake asked, looking over at you. He had come out from the deeper end. His torso was on full display, water dripping from his toned blue body.

You only nodded. "Yeah, I figured a should get cleaned up a bit." You said to him, he couldn't help but grin, seen how flushed your face looked. "Alright." He said, turning back to cleaning himself. You only nodded and processed to do the same. You brushed off the dirt attached to your skin, making the water around you slightly brown because of the dirt. Your skin was much cleaner now. You then dipped your head into the water to get your hair and face wet. You didn't have a brush, so your fingers will do. You then began to step out of the water walking towards the river and back into the shore.

Jake had heard the water moving around him, he turned to see what it was. He watched you stepping out of the water, his eyes widen, seen your wet skin glowing in the sun light. As you had your back turned, busy squeezing the access water from your hair, he got a good view of your figure. He had a nice view, he watched how the droplets of water rolling down your back and behind the back of your thighs. He couldn't help but stare at your wide hips and perky ass. He knew that it was real, the way it jiggled and how your thighs were also as big. He also got a view your hip dips. You were like some kind of goddess in his eyes. God, he couldn't keep himself together. He felt his body beginning to heat up in the cold water, he felt his cock twitching under water.

He couldn't help but lick his bottom thin lip. He had wanted you the moment you had sat on him, and rode him him around. He could smell your arousal through your shorts, it was pretty strong. He took this as a sign that you wanted him as well. He wanted you, and he was going to have you.

You both decided to stay near the river for the night. It would take another day to get you back to the lab. You were a couple meters away, back in the forest. Jake had made another fire so that you and him could stay warm. You were still naked, you had washed your clothes, in attempt to get the mud and dirt off. Now it was sitting on a rock drying. At the moment you were eating some fish that were around the river, Jake had caught them easily with his hands. You both ate in silence, Jake had finished his fish while you kept on eating yours. It was bit to big to finish in a moment.

You had finally finished eating the huge thing. You felt a bit full, you saw the small food baby in your belly. You only licked the bones of the fish and your lips, getting any little rest of the fish. You sighed, placing the bones on the leaf used a plate. Then laid down, good thing you weren't wearing your shorts. "I see that you enjoyed it?" He asked you, watching you as you were lied down on the grass. Looking at your naked body, glowing by the light of the fire. Your skin looked very smooth. He looked at how your nipples stood up. He couldn't help but lick his bottom lip again. "Yeah, that was good. How did you learn to cook like that?" you asked him, sitting up, holding your weight on your elbows. Oblivious to the fact you are literally naked in front of the horse man.

"We're taught to survive in the woods, that means, hunting, fishing, cooking and you know." He listed, still looking at your body. Seen how your little blotted belly began to grow small. "Hm, Interesting." You said, laying back down on the soft ground. Eating that big fish had you feeling sleeping. You let out a soft yawn. "You should sleep now." Jake said towards you, who was already yawning and closing your eyes. Already falling asleep. Jake just chuckled, watching you slowly drifting into slumber.

A couple hours had passed, you slowly began to wake up. You hummed, stretching your body on the ground, then you felt your bladder about to explode. You had to use the bathroom. So you got up and went behind him bushes to do your business. A couple minutes after, you went back to the river to clean yourself between your legs. When done, you went back to where you were sleeping in, touching your clothes that hanged on branches, it was still damp. You weren't going to put damp clothes on. So you left them, looking over, you saw how Jake was gone.

You looked around, trying to see if you could find him, but he was nowhere near the small fire. "Jake?" you called out to him, nothing. "Jake!" you slightly shouted this time, still nothing. Looking down on his sleeping spot, you saw the footprints of his hooves, you decided to follow them. As you followed the prints, you could hear something. You stopped and listened closely. It sounded like breathing, harsh breathing and groaning. You listened closely, it sounded like Jake was making those noises.

The closer you got, the louder it got. You could here him cursing under his breath and you could hear some smacking happening. What was he doing? You thought to yourself. The closer you got, the more you heard. Jake let out a moan and a grunt. "Fuck!" he hissed. Was he okay? Was he hurt? You wondered, so you got closer. You moved some leaves away, then that was when you froze on the spot. Your eyes slightly widening, by the sight.

There was Jake. He was bucking his hips against the giant soft looking mushroom. His cock fully out and erect, his veins were pulsing around his shaft. Rubbing against the soft flat top on the giant fungi. He was relieving himself. This is something horses did. They'd either smack their cocks onto their stomachs or rub them on an object. He was clearly masturbating. Maybe it was to release stress? Or just because it was what horses did, but he wasn't just a horse, he was also a man.

Jake groaned, biting his bottom lip hard and his eyes were screwed shut. Sweat was building up on his forehead, droplets rolling down the side of his face to his neck. "Oh god kid!" he groaned, bucking his hips against the soft fungi. He had thought of you as he tried to relieve himself. He couldn't get you out of his head, he really wished that you'd be laying on this fungi allowing him to fuck you. He really wanted you. So bad, it almost hurt. Then he heard some noises, turning around, he saw you. Standing there with your eyes wide, looking at him trying to relieve himself.

"Please... help me.." he whined, still bucking his hips. "I need your help.." He hissed, gripping tightly onto the mushroom. You looked at him. "My help?" you asked, looking down back at his cock, still rubbing against the flat mushroom head. "Yes, please help me.. I need your help." He whined. You weren't sure whether to help him or not, you didn't know how you could help him. "Please, I beg you!" He groaned. You hated seen him in such pain, so you you decided to help him. It was the least you could do since he helped you. Slowly you walked forward. Now you stood in front of him, in a quick motion. He grabbed your small body and placed it on the mushroom.

Now you were laying on the fungi. Just like how he imagined. You laying here, naked underneath him. He got down on his legs, in a siting position. His body was above yours. Caging you with his huge arms around your head. "I've waited for this moment" he growled softly, before you could say anything, his lips crashed into your. His whole mouth, he was kissing you. It was a hard kiss, you felt his teeth and tongue trying devour you. It felt arousing in a way. You threw your arms over his head, trying to also kiss him back, but his kiss was hungry and needy. He really did want this.

When he pulled away, he went down to kiss your neck, gently kissing and licking every bit of skin he could. "Oh fuck!" he growled. Kissing and licking some more. "When we were at the river." He stopped, looking at your breasts, face to face with the soft flesh. "I just wanted to take you on the spot!" he then pushed his face onto your chest, kissing around your plush breasts, he then took one of his nipples into your mouth. Making you moan loudly, his right hand then came, taking your neglected breasts into his huge hand squeezing it as he sucked onto your nipple. "Mm! God this tits! I couldn't stop thinking what it was like to taste them!" you mentioned, pulling away, seen the small bit of spit covered nipple. He continued to admire your breasts, seen that you were breathing for air. Your face was flushed and your mouth was slightly open.

He then lowed down, he was now between your legs. He grabbed them and spread them wide. You couldn't help but whimper a bit, seen that your glistening folds were on full display. "You think I wouldn't notice how you looked at me? I smell you when you sat on me and rode me." He brought up, making you look at him, holding yourself up with your elbows. Seen the hungry look on his eyes, he was busy staring at your pink folds. Without a warning he buried his face between your legs. "Ahh!" you moaned loudly, throwing your back onto the soft fungi. You felt how his tongue licked your entire pussy. He began to suck onto your as his tongue thrusted into you. You brought the back of your hand up to your lip, gently biting it, as a form to hide your moans. He continued to suck and lick as if he had been starving for days. He was hitting every spot, causing you to jolt every now and then.

After a couple minutes, he had pulled away. His lips had your juices stuck to them. You laying on your back, your body shaking like crazy. You were close, but Jake had pulled away just. You felt energy draining from your body. "We're not done yet kid." He said, you saw the grin on his face, you knew that he was being serious. He let your legs go, but kept them spread, then he got up from the ground, moving up. His horse like body was now above you, his cock was as hard as a rock and his tip was leaking precum. Jake positioned his four upper legs right next either side of your small torso. His hind legs were carrying his whole body, but with the help of the flat fungi, he had enough support.

You held onto the upper body, softly digging your fingers onto his skin. Jake took this as a sign and pushed right in slowly. You gasped, digging your nails onto the flesh, feeling his huge tip began to thrust inside your tight hole. "Oh! You're tight!" he commented, holding onto a thick branch as he thrusted into you. Looking down, you saw the massive bulge in your belly. The stretching of your pussy slightly burned, but it felt so good, you were already clenching around him. Jake groaned, feeling your tight squishy walls gripping onto him. After you got slightly adjusted to his size, he slowly began to thrust into you, he didn't want to hurt you, so he went slowly.

Your body was on fire, just like before, he was hitting all your good spots, making your body shiver like crazy. The stretching of your legs also burned a bit, but you weren't focused on that. You were enjoying getting stretched by his massive tip. "You're enjoying this aren't you? I can feel you trying to milk me!" he growled, gripping tightly onto the branch as he continued to thrust into you. "I just want to keep you! For myself!" He moaned at each thrust. "Imagine!" he groaned as he thrusted a bit much faster, going further in. "You! As my little wife!" He growled. "You'll only be mine! And mine alone!" he bit onto his lip hard, he felt himself getting closer.

And so were you, you were close to reaching your climax. His tip was hitting your g-spot. You felt your body getting weaker and weaker by the minute. All that was heard was the sound of skin slapping and your moans of pleasure. Your nails were dogged in his skin and your legs were about to give out. You almost couldn't take it, you were so close to passing out too. "I'm! I'm!" Jake tried to say, but he couldn't, he just keep thrusting as if his life depended on it. He was hammering down your poor pussy. Without a warning, he had bucked his hips one final time and he came deep inside you.

You had let out a scream, as he came so did you. He stayed still, all six legs were shaking. He hadn't pulled out yet, he made sure that you took most of his seed. You were completely filled to the brim. You felt as if you were going to explode. After a few seconds, he slowly pulled away from you, making you whimper. His seed slowly poured out of you. Jake got down from you, he was now facing you down. Seen your sweat covered body and your body shivering like crazy. "How do you feel?" he asked you, wiping the sweat off his forehead. "..G-Good.." you whispered to him, with a small grin on your lips. Jake got down, kissing your lips softly. "That's good" he purred softly against his lips.

You both headed back to your so called little camp. You had gone to take care of business, as much as pain you were in, you still manage to walk over to the river. Jake was back, laying on his side waiting for you to come back. When you were back, you were slightly limping, which made Jake smirk by the sight. You manage to walk over to where was laying. He then pulled you close to him, nuzzling to you close. You wrapped your arms around his neck, cuddling close to him. It didn't take long for the two of you to go to sleep.

The next morning, you were sore like a bitch. Your whole body ached, specially your legs. Jake had to help you up. As much pain you were in, it was worth it. As you got your dried clothes from the branches, Jake put out the small fire. You stopped from putting your panties on, and looked over at him. "Did you mean what you said last night?" you asked. Then Jake turned to you, he had a bit of a shy look on his face. "I mean, yeah. I know I only met you in a day, but, I wish to start a life with you." He confessed, his cheeks turning a purple color. You couldn't help but smile. "I was wishing you'd say that" You said with a smile. You saw that happy look on his face. "Really?" He asked, you nodded. He was happy, you saw how his hoof tapped onto the ground.

You decided not to put on your clothes, you felt as if you weren't going to need them, so you just left them were they were. You walked over to Jake, he then leaned down, so that you could hop onto his horse back. Once on his back, he got up back on his hooves, going on his way back to his village with you as his now wife.

[thescribblings]

Long post ahead! I type a lot .^.

Here's a lil something I've spent some time on! I'm definitely nearing my goal of being able to draw comics! .^.

However, keep in mind that I'm very much an amateur artist, so there will be imperfections😅.

Here, I've drawn a lot of new (and scary) poses, expressions, perspectives, and clothes! I never draw clothes! I've also never even tried to draw them in the same clothes from different perspectives like this before. I also mainly draw without references

And i know i know, it's always better with references but i always just get distracted while looking for a good reference and most of the time i give up before i even find one and just draw it without anyways, lol

Rant over now! Promise

Here's a page I've been working on non-stop for literal days. It was a lot of fun! And it helped me try out a new art style :]

Individual pictures and context under the cut! i will be referring to future leo as nardo or leonardo, and present leo as, well, leo!

Here we have the doodle that started it all! I did use a cat as a reference, and i personally found that hilarious

Anyways, leonardo is being held like the cat that he is. Meanwhile, leo is held next to him vibing, not a thought behind those eyes

✨️co-existing✨️(with iced coffee)

They decided to have a day of leo to leo Bonding and got iced coffee for the occasion, probably spending some time clothes shopping and going equally crazy over a random article of clothing with a unicorn on it

This one has a bit more story behind it, they went on a day outing with the fam, nardo had grabbed a map of the city and they decided to stray from the group to explore, and they quickly got lost.

Leonardo helped leo get on his shoulders to see if there were any familiar landmarks around, and while leo enjoyed being roughly 12 feet tall, nardo texted the others asking where they were and looked around the area.

(Shirts lovingly made by mikey)

Entirely lost, leonardo decided to ask a pair of yokai ladies for directions. They turned out to be extremely helpful, one of them pointing out where on the map they were and where the landmark raph had sent them is.

Meanwhile, some backstory here: ever since leonardo had stopped staying in the lair 24/7 and actually started coming with when the others went out, leo had become an expert at keeping flirtatious yokai of all shapes sizes and genders away from his eldest brother

Leo noticed one of the yokai women was trying to make a move on him and stepped between her and nardo, making for a hilarious scene when he told her to stay away from his clearly adult brother

Leonardo is entirely oblivious as to the amount of yokai that find him attractive, which is exactly how leo wants it to be, for some reason

It's even funnier with the fact that leonardo is, in fact, very gay.

They thanked the yokai (leo doing that gesture where you point at your eyes then at the person as an unspoken "i got my eyes on you" behind nardo's back) then stepped away from the crowd and planned when and where everyone would meet up (they quickly decided on a food spot that accommodated everyones needs, and they had often gone there for lunch or early dinner in the past)

While they waited, the two decided to browse some stores, window shop etc.

Leonardo bought himself a backpack and proceeded to purchase knickknacks, snacks, and gifts for the fam, including some that he snuck in there for leo without the teen noticing (he was the greatest ninja the world had ever seen, once, after all)

While nardo walked, leo was chatting away happily on his shoulders, the elders tail wagging along as well, especially when leo told a pun or two, once a leo, always a leo. (Leonardo chipped in with some puns as well)

(leonardo personally believes his tail is pretty damn useless since it's so short. He has stated, "The only thing it's good for is waggin' " in the past. However, the rest of the fam think that's a perfectly adequate reason to have a tail)

They spent the entire day out having fun and walked around with just a handfull of breaks, so i think it's safe to say they'd be pretty drained by the time they got home

On another note, nardo being a war veteran and all that, I'm not 100% sure how that works but i like to imagine he'd get rather overwhelmed by all the crowds, different smells and loud noises (in other words overstimulation) so i think he'd be WAY more drained than everyone else by the end of the day (save for maybe mikey, i bet he'd be pretty drained too)

Either way, nardo basically just flopped onto the nearest plush surface and went out like a light while everyone else went to bed like regular people. This is a common occurrence after long, exhausting days

But sometimes...

Sometimes he dents the floor

(Bonus doodles)

I don't even know why this came to be, but it did

Thank you for reading!

Have nice day

[ningauinerd]

Time to infodump about the animals I'm supposedly a nerd about.

All pictures in this post are N. yvonneae, the southern ningaui (Image credit: Owen Lishmund)

The ningauis (in the genus Ningaui, if you can believe it) are a group of tiny dasyurid marsupials native to the arid and semi-arid regions of Australia. Smaller than their close dunnart relatives (very close, as I will explain later), and with broader hindfeet, ningauis were first documented by western science relatively recently by Australian mammal standards. Although some specimens had been collected previously, being haphazardly assigned to planigales (another genus of miniscule dasyurids), it wasn't until 1975 that the genus Ningaui was erected and its first two species were described - N. ridei, the Wongai ningaui, and N. timealeyi, the Pilbara ningaui. A third species, the southern ningaui (N. yvonneae), was named in 1983.

Oh, and in case you were wondering where the name "ningaui" comes from, it refers to tiny beings from Aboriginal mythology that come out at night, are covered in hair, have notably short feet and eat their food raw. Most of these traits are also shared by these little marsupials, hence why palaeontologist Mike Archer (the original author of the genus) found it to be a fitting name for them!

(Image credit: glandarius)

Ningauis are small - really small, some of the smallest land mammals in fact. With the tiniest individuals being only 5 cm long, not including the tail, they are about the same length as Australia's smallest native mammal, the long-tailed planigale. However, ningauis are significantly chunkier and therefore usually weigh a couple more grams, meaning planigales win in regards to all-around tininess. The very largest ningauis still only reach about 8 cm in length and 14 grams in weight.

What they lack in size they make up for in ferocity however, as they follow the typical dasyurid trend of becoming increasingly savage the smaller they get. Tasmanian devils, despite their reputation, are actually quite relaxed when handled - on the other end of the spectrum, ningauis, which are around a thousand times smaller than a devil, will try to murder you, your family and everyone you hold dear if they find themselves captured. But, despite their best efforts to chew the fingers off of every field mammalogist in inland Australia, they aren't very strong.

remorseless beasts (Image credit: Tina Gillespie & Miss.chelle.13)

These ferocious predators feed on a variety of different prey items, the majority of which are small invertebrates - in the case of the Wongai ningaui, they prefer prey that is less than a centimetre long. However, they will also go after larger prey, having epic duels with grasshoppers, spiders, centipedes and even small skinks which they subdue with a crushing bite to the back of the head. Unlike their dunnart relatives, the shorter, broader feet of ningauis allows them to climb into shrubs and grass clumps.

All ningaui species are extremely similar to one another, so much so that the Wongai ningaui and southern ningaui are almost externally indistinguishable and the Pilbara ningaui can only be told apart by looking at its foot pads, teat number and skull. However, they can usually be distinguished by distribution. The Pilbara ningaui is the most range restricted, being endemic to the central and western Pilbara region of western Australia. The southern ningaui occurs in three disjunct populations across the southern semi-arid zone, whilst the Wongai ningaui is distributed widely across much of the interior. All species show a strong preference for environments dominated by spinifex grass (Triodia), which they use as shelter.

A ningaui takes shelter amongst the spinifex (Image credit: Euan Moore)

In regards to how they are related to other dasyurids, ningauis fall in the tribe Sminthopsini together with the kultarr (Antechinomys laniger, another species I really need to cover sometime) and many species of dunnart (Sminthopsis). However, recent phylogenetic studies have consistently recovered both Antechinomys and Ningaui as being within the Sminthopsis lineage, meaning that both ningauis and the kultarr are, in essence, just weird dunnarts. With Sminthopsis as we currently understand it being highly paraphyletic, a revision of the genus is needed.

[crevicedwelling]

an update on some isopod projects I’ve been working on!

the het albino Armadillidium nasatum are now producing F2 and there’s a lot of albino babies! little snowballs when they roll up

Big Leopard (an unusually yellow Porcellio scaber) had a lot of kids, and many of her sons are beautifully mottled with both orange and yellow. the most common yellow mottling genes only affect females, so this is probably something new… or perhaps an American line of “Orin’s Calico.” (they also are just as skittish and fast as she was, hence the featherweight forceps restraint)

no idea where the piebald Trachelipus rathkii came from. normal wild grandparents, mothers were albino, but it seems I’ve got more than one morph in these kids. same story on the pied Porcellionides pruinosus, papa was pink, mama was unrelated normal gray. not sure how either morph will inherit

the riverside strain of Armadillidium vulgare has made many quite lovely individuals, like the pied female and gold-brushed male pictured. since they’re nearing breeding age, I’ve set aside an unusual dull yellowish pair, but since both pieds are female I’ve left them in with the rest.

finally for some more P. scaber: the “Rose Quartz” male has been putting on a lot of size, and so have his offspring! perhaps next month he will have some pink grandchildren. the “Mosaic Dalmatian” clutch have been separated into two groups, 14 mosaic and 10 normal “Dalmatian.” the ratio would imply the gene is dominant, since the father is not closely related & probably isn’t heterozygous. I’ll need to breed some to wildtype to know for sure how it inherits.

I’ve got a lot more weird isopod alchemy I’m cooking up, but it’s nice to see the stuff I began working on in 2022 starting to produce more mutants… even if they aren’t exactly what I expected.

[vixen525noms]

Special Gift Part 1

Another story that started out on my deviantart page. Like DCD it will be continued. A G/T story with a much more wholesome giant, but there will be vore.

It occurs long while after Defying Certain Death, but in the same world and both stories do eventually tie together.

Picture | Next

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“Sir? The... ah... smaller guests have arrived. You probably should go out and join the celebration before one of the less friendly guests gets it in their head that one or two won’t be missed.” Connor nodded as he stood and turned away from his desk. He tended to dislike formal gatherings, especially when there was a large number of guests or if there were guests that could be in conflict. And this event had both. He had been grateful the coronation had only a small crowd, but it meant that the next event would have a large crowd. Not to mention gifts. No telling what some people would consider an appropriate gift to a new leader. He would have to greet and speak with the representatives of many peoples, both those representing the Syorians and Syors from different areas and those representing different races in the neighboring land. That’s what had him most concerned. They were so small by comparison... what would they consider an appropriate gift?

He sighed as he made his way to the great hall. No matter what they brought, he would have to feign pleasure at receiving the gift. It wouldn’t do to offend them, especially when the occasion was meant to celebrate the anniversary of the treaty between their people. It had been quite some time since the treaty was signed, and the laws enacted to ensure that no one did anything to ruin that treaty. He had been very young at the time, but not so much that he couldn’t remember what lead to it. Giants, primarily the Syors, had hunted the terrans, and the nearly identical humans for ages. He was no historian, but he doubted there was a time they ever hadn’t. Until the treaty anyway. A treaty made because the terrans had finally had enough and decided to strike back. Not with a few giant hunters, there had always been a few of those pests around, but as a people. An army.

At first, most giants had found the idea laughable. It didn’t seem like such comparatively small people could be any sort of a threat. But they soon learned they had underestimated the power of terran magic. They could never have guessed the terrans would find a way for individuals to merge their magic to strengthen it into an incredible force. It was after an entire town was wiped out that they began negotiations. They quickly met with the terrans on their terms, and had a treaty written in a matter of hours. It had only taken so long because of the challenge in writing it in a size that wouldn’t be too difficult for the terrans to read, but large enough for the giants to still make it out.

It had only taken the terrans half that time to eliminate an entire town. Half that time to create the Forest of Death, a place where every tree was the corpse of a giant.

Connor considered the different aspects of the treaty. If he was going to be meeting with representatives of their people, he would be expected to be familiar with most, if not all aspects of the treaty. He also had to be familiar with customs regarding interactions, as a leader he was expected to know everything necessary to avoid anything that might be seen as rude or insulting. But above all else to have full understanding of the treaty.

Writing and enforcing the treaty had been difficult. The biggest problem to follow was getting the Syors to give up their favorite prey. While as a group, the terrans had been quite formidable, most individuals stood little chance against a giant. There was also the complication that many Syorians, and some Syor hybrids, kept humans or terrans as pets. Luckily, the terrans hadn’t been too harsh on that matter, accepting it as long as the companion was well taken care of and had occasional interaction with people of the same size. They insisted on setting a duration limit, after a certain amount of time the pet would have to be offered the opportunity to return to their people. While Syor hybrids had complained about it, most Syorians were open to the idea, it already was common for Syorians to offer at least some degree of freedom after a while, and cared for their pets well enough that they would stay with their ‘owner’ or at least remain friends. And there were exceptions, certain circumstances where it was expected the ‘pet’ would not be released...

His train of thought was interrupted when he heard his arrival being announced as he neared the Great Hall where the guests were gathered. “Announcing the arrival of the new King, Connlaodh Rourke Kenrich...” Connor mostly tuned out the introduction, rather disliking the tradition for members of the royal family to have long names. He would have greatly preferred a much shorter name, and he couldn’t count the times he had requested they shorten his introduction. Now that he was in charge, he’d have to have that discussion again. He’d be far more likely to be successful in that request now that he had taken the throne.

Upon entering the Great Hall, he immediately was having to meet the various representatives, many having suggestions on things he might change, requests on certain matters, as well as several wanting a meeting at a later time. He was glad his royal steward stayed close, taking notes on everything said to him. He did his best to make a path toward the area set up for the little folks, knowing a number of them would be eager to leave this environment. Who could blame them for being a bit intimidated when surrounded by giants? At least there were elevated paths attached to the wall, leading to balconies and tables set up to accommodate them. There were even platform paths hanging from the ceiling for when any smaller guests were around for an extended stay. Simple teleportation charms could take them there, eliminating the need for a long climb. He couldn’t help but wonder if those paths were in use at all today. Most likely, this event was to celebrate the treaty, so some of the humans, terrans, and even other species had probably travelled great distance to get here, too far to make the trip home this evening. He’d ask his steward to double check that all accommodations were set for overnight stays.

When he reached the area where the terran and human representatives were, they bowed, and he immediately waved it off, “That’s unnecessary. I prefer keeping a more casual environment. Please, make yourself comfortable while you’re here. Is there anything in particular that needs to be discussed today?” The smaller people were clearly surprised by his open, friendly demeanor. He knew his father had been a bit of a stickler for tradition at times, insistent on typical formalities. It had caught them off guard, but before long they were past the tension and able to talk to him more openly. He made sure his steward took notes as they discussed various matters. A caravan of performers had vanished while en route to perform on his side of the border. It wasn’t surprising that some would perform for giants, he knew several borderland towns welcomed the smaller people, knowing talent came in all sizes. A rogue Syor had caused trouble and been injured by their mages. He made sure to get a detailed description of both the missing performers and the troublemaker.

The terrans were ecstatic when he told the steward to put a priority on those matters, glad to see he was taking their matters seriously. Some giants would be dismissive of their troubles... This new ruler was clearly going to be an improvement. The steward dismissed himself to retrieve more paper, and just after he stepped away, the little folks brought up a new topic, one of the things he had been concerned about.

“We have a gift for you,”

Whatever it was, he had to act grateful, if only to make sure everything stayed on good terms.

“...something to show we are willing to put effort into maintaining positive relations with you and your kingdom.”

Oh gods, with the size difference, what if he accidentally broke whatever it was? That would be a disaster! They may take it as a show of disrespect, and there was no telling where that could lead!

“We have a few contacts here, and we’ve talked with them a great deal to find out what we could get you that you would actually like. It wasn’t easy.”

Connor went from worried to puzzled ... he didn’t have many interests, and he couldn’t think of anything they could provide. He read a lot, but they couldn’t possible get any books his size. He liked music, perhaps some enchanted object that played songs? He’d heard of statuettes of birds enchanted to sound like them, and self-playing instruments... but nothing compared to actually hearing a skilled musician or singer. But his greatest interest had always been in terrans themselves; he was fond of the idea of perhaps getting to know some of them or even befriend them, but there were no real gifts that could be given having to do with that interest.

Or so he thought.

His eyes widened when a couple of them escorted a clearly frightened girl to stand before him. While she was dressed up nicely, he was almost certain she had originally been lower class. If there had been some sort of lottery for this, a noble could easily bribe their way out. If not by some lottery, was she a criminal of some sort? Perhaps her family had sold her to pay off a debt? He couldn’t think of many alternate ways someone could end up in this situation. He remembered suddenly that their attention was on him, they were waiting for his reaction to this ‘gift’. He had wanted a companion... but he was a little uneasy at the idea of taking someone against their will. And with that look of fear, there was no doubting she was not here by choice. But no matter what he thought of the situation, he couldn’t offend the visiting diplomats.

He reached forward slowly, watching her attempt to back away, but the others holding her put. He gently closed his hand around her, slowly picking her up. She struggled to get loose and he had to tighten his grip slightly, if only to make sure she wouldn’t end up falling the long, and potentially deadly drop to the ground. Terrans, or humans, if that’s what she was, were a bit fragile in some ways. Long falls were dangerous for them. He brought her near his face, closing his eyes briefly and inhaling her scent. Lingering instinct from long ago surfaced, and before he realized what he was doing, he’d gently licked her, getting her arm and the side of her face wet. He blinked and lowered her slightly as he realized what he’d done, then looked back down at the small visitors. They didn’t look surprised, they knew enough about Syorians to know that even if they had been peaceful before the truce, they had never fully lost the predatory side of their nature, especially a hybrid like him. They were confident he wouldn’t hurt her, but also were fairly certain it wouldn’t be a one-time thing.

Connor finally found his voice again, “Thank you for such a.... thoughtful gift. She’ll be well cared for here.” His mind raced as he analyzed the situation. She’s a gift, and as such, they’ll expect me to keep her in my room. “I’ll have my people start setting up accommodations for her in my room.” He’d have to genuinely do that, some of the visitors would stay overnight and it had to look like he was pleased with his gift.

Was he? Was he happy with this kind of gift? He was somewhat torn on it. He had always wanted a terran companion; this should be a dream come true! And yet... seeing how scared she was... that wasn’t what he wanted at all. He didn’t want a companion that was terrified of him. Where was she even from? Her tan skin tone made her look somewhat more... exotic than the visiting diplomats. Or was that tan from working in the fields? He didn’t want to make her more nervous by looking for tan lines, the poor girl needed some time to calm down. What if she had come from far away? She may have never seen a giant before... or even known they exist!

Now that he knew what to do about where she would stay, what about during the celebration? He would have preferred to have let her ride on his shoulder, see what was going on, ever participate... but she was bordering on panic. If he put her there, she’d surely try to get away, and with how tall he was, that would lead to injury or even death. So he did the only thing he could think of. Grateful the jacket he wore had a pocket on the chest; he opened it and gently set her inside. Hopefully she’d be relatively comfortable in there. With luck, she’d calm down and he could talk to her later. Reassure her that she’d be okay with him, that he’d take care of her.

He listened to the terrans explain they had a chest of clothes in her size they would leave here for her, as well as other things he may lack despite his terran-friendly accommodations in part of the castle. Things like a hairbrush and other personal care items. They were quick to reassure that his accommodations were more than adequate; there wasn’t much they had to supply aside from clothing. His steward finally returned with more paper for notes as they praised how well prepared the accommodations were. Connor was grateful to have the man around again to assist with this, he always worried he might make a mistake dealing with small folks, but he could count on his steward to help if he made a mistake.

One of the visiting diplomats that brought the girl spoke up, “Since your new... friend... may be a bit too nervous to talk at first, her name is Naomi. Honestly, we half expected you to just eat the girl. We all know all too well your kind can do that without causing harm, and seeing your initial... reaction... it was a surprise when you put her in your pocket instead.“

Crap. He should have known the visiting diplomats would be well educated on his kind and know what was normal for them and what they enjoyed. He thought quickly on how to respond, “Well, she seemed a bit scared, I didn’t want to overwhelm her too much, and thought it would be better to talk with you rather than have my mouth full for a time tasting her.” The diplomat seemed to consider this, “Well the banquet is supposed to begin soon, is it not? So we’ll likely be taking a break from the discussion soon anyway, and on the same note, for that same reason the duration would be brief for her.”

Connor glanced briefly at his steward, hoping the man could help fill in a different excuse to not frighten the girl. The response was just an arched brow. Connor quickly guessed what that meant. He needed to play along. Needed to make sure the diplomats were convinced he was pleased with what they chose to give him, especially since it was something so different from normally done at such events. So he reached back in his pocket and gently scooped the girl out of his pocket again.

The diplomats and his steward were watching him. The girl had almost immediately tried to bolt off his hand, so he made sure to have enough grip that there was no risk of her falling. He could see she was scared, and he didn’t like the idea of scaring her more. But he also needed to appear enthusiastic about his ‘gift’. Diplomatic relations were extremely important... Maybe he could get away with just part of it.

He looked over the girl in his hand again. She really was pretty, and now that he looked closer, he noticed that while the dress was high quality, it had seemingly been designed to not cover as much skin as most outfits. He realized the dress had been designed specifically for this situation; to make her look fancy and appropriate to the event while also allowing him a good taste. He brought her close and inhaled her scent again. She smelled lovely... Her smell definitely made it tempting, despite the fact he disliked the idea of scaring her more. But it seemed he had little option in this particular situation, so he opened his mouth and gently placed her inside, immediately purring at her taste. He closed his lips quickly to assure she wouldn’t try to get out, mainly so she wouldn’t potentially fall.

As he closed his teeth and started to taste her, he noticed the diplomats talking amongst themselves a bit, then to his steward. They could all hear him purring, and apparently that was the indication they had been looking for as proof he enjoyed his gift. He wasn’t sure who he heard said it, but he definitely heard one of them comment on his purr. Then he heard his steward speak, “As you can no doubt hear now, King Connor is quite pleased with the gift. If none of you mind, I can continue to take notes on anything else you wish to discuss while he steps away to take his time... enjoying the gift. Perhaps you can even give me a bit more information on the girl.”

Thank goodness, an opening to step away. He didn’t want to swallow this poor girl... They said her name was Naomi, right? He nodded to the small diplomats politely and walked away, soon making his way to the back room again. He could feel the saliva building in his mouth from her taste... He didn’t want her to be too much of a mess, so he pinned the frightened, squirming girl with his tongue and swallowed the extra saliva. Once that was done, he opened his mouth and caught her as she scrambled out of his mouth. The girl seemed a bit overwhelmed by the experience, and was limp in his hand as he held her, so he tried to reassure her. “It’s alright... I’m sorry about that. Politics and all that... maintaining good relations is essential so I had to make sure I looked pleased with whatever gift was offered... I am sorry about tasting you like that.”

He wasn’t sure how much she was paying attention. He pulled out a handkerchief to set over her so she could start to clean up, and gently set her down on his desk. “Wait here a moment and I’ll go look up a cleaning charm... much more efficient than water. Should only take a moment.” He turned to his book shelf, looking over the books and finding the right one. “Here we go... You’ll be cleaned up in no time...” He pulled the book from the shelf and turned to face the girl... She was gone.

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[coolgoodandfine]

Shhh... secret draft designs. Don't tell Twitter yet. Please give me any feedback, and feel free to read my many design thoughts under the cut. Also feel free to use the designs yourself.

Alright! The things right at the top that i wanted to keep in mind were things in the series that are distinct to mechanites vs things warforged have.

As far as I remember, there are only two notable ones. Mechanites have jaws that cannot move, instead they have face plates that can open up. And while the other isn't stated in canon, warforged have crystals in their eyes, and mechanites are never pictured or described in that way.

I almost broke the first rule on purpose with DX-TR, seeing as he's described as human-like and the negotiator, but as I was going through the series again, he was explicitly stated to have the same stiff jaw.

The only heights (I think) we have were that VR-LA got the haha funny meme number at 6'9", MR-SN was a few inches taller, and C-RA is at least as tall as Finbar (7'2"). From there, I wanted DX-TR to be nearly as tall as VR-LA, so he's around 6'6"/6'7". E-DN is about the same height as him because I feel like with her satyr legs, her being taller made sense. I put K-LB around 6'2" because I was originally going to have a slight joke that this height was after he'd already made mods to himself with heels and his mohawk. I didn't like how the heels came out, so I left it out. AS-TR is the shortest at the bare minimum height for warforged at 5'10". I'll get into that in the section discussing her design.

While it didn't really come up in these designs, since VR-LA has been pictured with yellow eyes, and described with blue, I've headcanoned that mechanites eyes change color based on how much processing they're doing. So the default would be blue, when they're calm and just hanging out. Their eyes switch to yellow when they're concentrating or focused on something specific. Orange is when they're flustered or upset. Red is the dramatic color for when they're really angy. I'd imagine someone like DX-TR can deliberately control it to avoid giving away some tell, but I don't think it's common for mechanites to do it.

The designs are mostly based on the same shapes and pieces that VR-LA has, rather than Vice/He-11, as those feel like they're kind of unusual in that regard. And even if they're not, I'd still chalk it up as a difference in their plane of origin. Onto individual character notes!

C-RA was described as being large, having a sort of knights templar, aesthetic, somewhat like living armor but more organic. Mostly what I referenced was plate armor, so pretty straight-forward. That being said, I feel like her design's a little plain. I wanted to add something to her head to help distinguish her head silhouette more. Plus I feel like her colors are too desaturated, and she just doesn't really have a shape that carries throughout her design. Idk, it's fine, but it just doesn't feel striking.

MR-SN was described as being slender, regal, and with a permanent smile in his eyes. I feel like I had a similar issue with him that I had with C-RA where there doesn't seem to be anything that carries through his design. I feel like I captured the face pretty well at least where he looks kind and kind of like a dad who's just proud of you. He's one I kind of feel like with clothes, his design might work better. I had no clue what color to go for, so it's just a color that I thought would be unique enough to the group.

VR-LA is just based on his season 1 art. The only thing I changed from how I drew him before, was mostly just proportions, like around the joints. I wanted him to be a thin, scrawny nerd, so he's also more narrow than before. My goal was half of C-RA's size, and I think C-RA's about 1 1/2 VR-LA's, so it's close enough.

DX-TR was described as human-like and bald with a flesh tone color. He was honestly really easy. As a joke, I referenced Seth Everman for his face sculpt, and I think it came out well. Mostly I referenced human muscles for his sculpt. I considered giving him tattoos, but didn't really have any ideas for that. He's got two notably unique traits from the rest of the group. He's the only one without shoulder pauldrons, which I kinda want to change, but idk there, and the light in his eyes is round rather than the cross design I treated as baseline. I wanted a less human saturation in skin, and I don't think I achieved that, but I'm not sure it'd look as good. I kinda want him more uncanny valley, but idk what to do there.

E-DN was described as a similar mechanite design as VR-LA, but with satyr legs. I gave her horns and horizontal pupils, mostly just for variety. I gave her a little more of just a round shape compared to VR-LA's more angular shapes. Her design I like over all. I like the colors, and I think the mint accents help her stand out. She's got good shapes and a good silhouette. And everything feels like it came out pretty well with her.

K-LB I'm torn on. I almost feel like he stands out too much. As far as what's described, I had the hardest time figuring out his design. He's described as a standard mechanite that's gold with fine gold filigree that looks like wire mesh, as well as a blue glow from his arms. I was going for somewhere around a punk-ish Rodney Copperbottom from Robots kind of idea. The filigree mesh I just used a nonsense text brush because i didn't have any specific ideas there. I like how the yellows/blues look together. I like the hexagon shape that carries throughout. His silhouette's mostly different enough from everyone else. I don't think he's too saturated. Yet I just don't feel like his design fits him, and I don't know what to do. He's the one I feel like scrapping and redoing the most.

AS-TR was described with long hair, and a slight glow, but didn't have much of a description as far as I remember otherwise. She had two notable design inspirations. Selûne and my cat who coincidentally has the same name (mostly my cat lol). One of Selûne's avatar's is described as long limbed (which is kind of how I just drew the mechanites), with pale hair, dusty skin, and green eyes. The pattern around her eyes is a less exaggerated version of some of her iconography. Her eyes are tinted green with her holy symbol as the shape of the lights. If I were smart, I'd actually have put all seven of the stars that are a part of Selûne's holy symbol (and I might change that later). Aster (my cat) is a tiny little black cat with a grey undercoat and two tiny lil white spots. So from there, I made AS-TR the smallest mechanite, she's two different shades of grey, and she has two little white spots on her chest in a similar size, shape, and location as Aster's. As a result of the name coincidence, and from what we've seen, similar personality, AS-TR is required to be my favorite, lol. Even excluding that though, I do like how her design came out too. Like I said, I might change the design slightly to have the seven stars across her, and I might change the greys to have more contrast because they're too similar, but the whole design came close to what I had in mind.

Over all, I'm pretty satisfied with all of these designs, and while there's things I'm going to change, I think these are all pretty solid.

[jmenvs3000f23]

Madagascar, Lemurs, OneHealth.......a Masters? 🏝️🐒🔭🎓(U9)

Hey friends, its been a while and I’m glad you’re here!

This weeks’ prompt encourages us to share something about nature that gets us excited and ooooooooooooooooh am I excited! Like I’ve mentioned before, I’m a 4th year zoology student which 1) means I know a lot of cool animal stuff (ask me questions!), and 2) it’s almost time for me to graduate!

So today I’d like to talk about my current Masters application and the really cool OneHealth conservation research I have done (and hope to do again) in Madagascar!

Over the summer I got the opportunity to take the One Health Approach to Conservation Field school where we were taught zoological, ecological, and anthropological approaches to conservation issues in Madagascar’s rainforest and unique dry deciduous forest within Ankarafantsika National Park (Picture a rainforest but take away the rain, the biggest animal is the same kind of lemur as Zoboomafoo, and also the soil is like sand!!). While I won’t go into too much detail about most of the field work we practiced, like tree identification, phrenology, and size measurements, participant-observation sessions in tree-planting, rice harvesting, and a local village classroom, and of course-tent living and consistent rice and beans eating, I willllllllllll go into detail about the lemurs, cause oh so much do I love those little guys.

(1. Male with eye tumor/injury, 2. me with two mothers (if you look close you can see 2 baby heads!), 3. me taking leaf samples to make a dry-season Tree ID sketch, 4. my luxurious living quarters for the month.)

Our instructions were to do both focal and scan sampling, but my absolute favourite part of the trip was following the lemur groups and trying to identify the specific individuals while they were either chilling in our camp or being extremely chaotic in the forest.

During these observations, not once but twice did I witness 2 separate groups have lemurs literally try to kill an individual from the other group... and so when asking about this to my professor, the general conclusion we came to after he told me he’s never seen such violence despite coming to the park for years, was that the increased forest fragmentation (deforestation making the forest into sections rather than one continuous space) might be forcing groups that should be far apart into sharing the same spaces, causing fights for space, food, etc.

This species of lemur (Coquerel’s sifaka) is critically endangered and is  a huge sense of pride for the indigenous people of Madagascar. Many of the parks residents follow taboos that forbid lemur hunting and consumption to protect these creatures. Unfortunately, its possible that either the  past or current farming practices of some of them are negatively affecting lemurs, potentially without realizing. Not only does this become an anthropological issue, but if true, is a logistical problem best answered with knowledge of the lemurs behaviour, spatial and abundance knowledge on the plants used for food and shelter by both lemurs and people, and of course interviewing, participating in, and  potentially educating and being educated by  the residents to get a proper understanding of how to tackle this problem.

And so that’s the general gist of what I’ll be diving deeper into for my Masters, wish me luck!

[My friends video of one of the violent interactions (I know it looks like they are hugging but they have giant teeth with a strong bite force, are the size of toddlers, and it didn't give up until it thought the other was practically dead), the lemur that didn't run away was left with a bleeding head and injured arm but we think she survived!]

[the-jellydex]

The Vancouver Aquarium

Recently, I had the privilege and honour of visiting the Vancouver Aquarium!! It was very nice, and I'd like to give my honest review :)

Jellyfish Exhibit Rating:

Diversity - 7/10 - Only limited to Rhizostomeae and Semaeostomeae jellyfish (no combs or hydrozoans), but they get extra points for showing the rare "Stalked Jellyfish"

Presentation - 7/10 - Most exhibits had more jellyfish per square meter than normal so it was very pretty. One seemed kind of sad though.

Learning - 10/10 - Accurate information paired with engaging visuals, along with dedicated and knowledgeable staff. Here's a shout out to Noah I love him so much 🙏🙏

can we also appreciate how at every opportunity they get, the staff will thank the indigenous nations by name (there are multiple) that have owned and taken care of the land that the aquarium resides in? I respected that a lot haha.

So to start... I believe we entered at an auspicious day (even though it wasn't the weekend, when the jelly touchpool tanks are open)

That's right!! A local school was visiting the aquarium at the same time we were ^-^!! How exciting is that? I felt so much nostalgia haha... I wish I could've done something like this in elementary school ;w;

OK, so going into the aquarium I was already very excited, and seeing this made me gasp !! :>

(unfortunately, I spooked my mother, so um. Yeah)

Unfortunately they 1) Do not currently show the Phacellophora camtschatica in the aquarium and 2) call it the "Fried Egg Jelly" (actually, it's not too big of a deal but I prefer to call it the "Egg Yolk Jelly" since the Mediterranean Jelly resembles a fried egg.

Hey, did you know that the Association of Zoos and Aquariums recently released a jellyfish care guide? I ended up quoting it when I talked to one of the staff, hehe

Now, most of their exhibits are divided by world region- but the jellyfish (as with most exhibits it seems) are grouped into one... except for the Papua Jellyfish, which is the first tank placed in the Tropical Exhibits.

It's verrrry large (larger than any rhizostomid exhibit I've seen) and there are many, many jellyfish! Unfortunately the strong light and deep blue background made it pretty difficult to get good individual pictures (all of mine came out blurry :<), but they were so cute and small.

The jellies often bumped into the ground, and one was swirling around on the bottom, unable to get back into the flow (perhaps it was in-between the two circular currents?). Anyways something told me that this exhibit wasn't as well-looked after as the other ones :<

I did see a couple of really broken ones (sorry for the bad lighting, but here was a jellyfish that had most of its bell ripped up), and it just broke my heart. Most of the jellyfish were in fine condition, though, so I think it's just the normal ripped bells and appendages that you can find in any jellyfish exhibit.

Curiously enough, however, this exhibit shows information cards for three different jellies when in reality there is only one species (The "Spotted Jellyfish") in the tank. I'll explain my theory why later when I get to them.

JELLYFISH HALL!!! There are many glowing sea nettles hanging from the ceiling, along with two life-sized lion's mane jellyfish!! :). The lion's manes also glow in different colours.

Also, if you notice, there's a very large crowd gathered in front of the sea nettle exhibit- and that's because I was INCREDIBLY, INCREDIBLY lucky to stop by RIGHT when they were doing a live jellyfish feeding. I cannot even begin to articulate how fortunate I was to accidentally stumble upon this.

Anyway, here's the obligatory jelly card haha :)

Here is speaker Noah, a 3rd year in his Marine Conservation degree showing us how amazing jellyfish are. I appreciate him a lot he gave me a lot of good information, which I'll just list down here:

The liquid inside of the measuring cup is in fact Jellyfish Food!

Usually, they are fed Artemis sp. naupili (sea monkeys, as he said it, or brine shrimp), but there were some other goodies added into the mix as well- like squid and herring.

This was all mixed in with a bit of gelatin- as sea nettles prefer to eat their food in bigger chunks.

These sea nettles are not fed with moon jellyfish- though the AZA Jellyfish Handbook does recommend to do that since sea nettles are medusivoric, and require jellyfish in their diet to grow properly. Apparently, the gelatin acts as an adequate substitute ^-^!!

Also Noah knows about the Monterey Bay Aquarium let's give him a round of applause ^-^!!! He said i should go there but. Well. I already did :3.

I could've went into more detail about the Cnidocyte explanation, but I'm probably not the best person to be teaching total beginners and children about jellyfish because I'd be way too technical (I was literally the only person in the crowd who was cheering lmao).

Here's a screenshot of the feeding video I took! (I'll upload the full feeding video if there's popular demand for it haha)

Anyways, after that excitement... it was time to look at the rest of the jellies.

This was the sign in front of the moon jelly exhibit. I just thought it was interesting to see what the aquarium defined as "Jellyfish" (this definition can vary from aquarium to aquarium) Here, we can see that the Vancouver Aquarium considers Comb Jellies, Molluscs, and Salps as jellyfish. (this is more inclusive than my own personal definition- which excludes molluscs haha)

There was a bigger tank (that I did not take a full picture of... stupid Donut) that did include the Mediterranean and Australian Spotted jelly. They actually looked... a lot bigger in person than I thought, haha.

Now, I think the reason why these jellies were not roomed with the Papua jellies was because while they were originally a part of the exhibit, the two jellies actually outgrew the tank became too big to room with the small Papua jellies. These were housed in a tank that was about as big (if not bigger) than the Papua jelly tank- and there were not as many jellies per square meter in here.

Still weird that they kept the information cards about the jellies though... I guess it would've been too unsightly to remove?

Ok, I also forgot to take a full view picture of this exhibit but don't be fooled by the pretty jellyfish. This exhibit was kind of... lacking, imo. I can only really describe it with a diagram of sorts.

This is a circular tank, but I'm guessing there were two opposing currents on either side. All of the sea nettles had migrated to the right current, making that half look too crowded and the other side completely empty. It didn't help that when all of the jellyfish were on the very shaded bottom, the entire tank was dark :(.

// Can we just say that them mentioning one of the Japanese names of the jellyfish is AWESOME? I've only seen this on the japanese wikipedia haha- though there was no mention of "Ninjas," only in military warfare in the Sengoku Period by Sanada Nobushige. Well. I'll correct my statement if it ends up being wrong later.

Quick break to visit my hero, Mackenzie Neale :). I'm a big fan of your work!!

Alright, now to visit the Moon jelly exhibit (it was honestly one of the most densely packed tanks I had ever seen- very impressive :>)

I made an instagram reel going over the sexual dimorphism of moon jellies- maybe I'll post it on here if I feel like it haha :3

^^ They have more infographics like this but this is the only one I took a picture of... awe :<.

OK, so with all of the main jellyfish out of the way... now started the hardest part of my journey: Finding the elusive, rare Staurozan (Stalked) jellyfish. These are so rare, apparently they're difficult for even scientists to get their hands on. I absolutely had to see them for myself.

Unfortunately... I kept running around in circles trying to find it (I had asked a staff member earlier where the exhibit was... but I forgot lol. I ended up having to ask two more people. It's tucked away in an unmarked Polar exhibit btw :>!!

Here was the gift shop I ended up visiting, there was a Japanese Sea nettle with a heart on it- awww

Anyways, I promise, after like 20 minutes of searching... I finally found the polar exhibits!!

They had (one) hydrozoan jellyfish here... and it was a picture. An unnamed picture. For the record, it's called the "Battering Ram Jellyfish," according to Lisa-Ann Gershwin. It's a part of the Narcomedusae group, which have similarly positioned tentacles.

And now, in another fit of I did a dumb... I didn't take a picture of the two wall tanks... because the Vancouver Aquarium HAD to be confusing with them for some reason :/

this is the tank on the left! It has the Stalked Jellyfish card......... but the tank itself has NO Stalked Jellyfish...? I had NO idea why and it's driving me mad.

This tank was to the RIGHT of the tank with the card (ie. A TOTALLY SEPARATE TANK), BUT THESE ONES WERE THE ONES THAT HAD STAUROZOA?????... I have no words.

I actually ended up noticing them first because of their weird "firework-like" structure was different from the other corals, but I didn't know if they were actually staurozoa until I saw the card. Anyways, very confusing, but definitely the most magical and rewarding experience you could have in the aquarium. I'll leave out the directions to find this place so if anyone decides to visit the aquarium, they can just look for the staurozoa themselves :>

... and finally, that ends our jelly tour of the Vancouver Aquarium. Before you head home, though, why not pick up a cute little eco-friendly jelly plush on your way out?

She's a beauty, that's for sure!

[arminreindl]

Gaffneylania: Argentinian Horned Turtle

Those familiar with the reptiles of Cenozoic Australia may be familiar with the turtle family known as the Meiolaniidae. A group of stem-turtles that appear deceptively like modern snapping turtles or land tortoises, yet are not especially close to either. To those that know them, Meiolaniids bear some resemblance to ankylosaurs or even ceratopsians, possessing horns that sometimes form frill like structures and having clubbed tails. The two illustrations below are by the always talented Hodari Nundu and were drawn for the articles on New Caledonia and Lord Howe Island by The Extinctions (check them out), featuring Meiolania mackayi and Meiolania platyceps respectively.

While meiolaniids are mostly associated with Australia and the surrounding islands, primarily around the later half of the Neogene and the Quarternary, their lineage starts much earlier and far away. Meiolaniids first appeared in Patagonia some 50 million years ago. Previously one genus was known from there, the frilled Niolamia, until in 2015 Sterli and colleagues described a second Argentinian meiolaniid: Gaffneylania auricularis (Gaffney's Roamer with Ears).

Now on a surface level, Gaffneylania is a wonderfully complete animal. We have parts of the skull, most of the lower jaw, multiple vertebrae of the neck and tail, various shell plates from different specimens and limb bones. In theory great, in practice not so much, as most these elements are sadly very fragmentary and disarticulated. So it takes some creativity to put things together.

Take the horns for example. While we have parts of the skull, we lack the skull roof and most of the upper jaw (safe for a fragment of the maxilla+premaxilla). So we don't have as clear a picture of how the horns and shields of Gaffneylania should look like. We do have a horn, but its broken at the base so we can't tell how it would fit on the skull. Still we can look at it and compare it to others. Now from the front, the horns of Gaffneylania (1st from the left) are broad and flattened, similar to what we see in Niolamia (2nd from the left) yet different in having rounded, not pointed, tips. They also differ clearly from the less flat horns we see in Ninjemys and Meiolania (3rd and 4th respectively). The images below in order are from Sterli et al. 2015, Victoria Arbour, Ghedo and David Morgan-Mar.

In other parts it also generally matches other meiolaniids. The limbs are very robust and short, the lower jaw is short but differs from Meiolania in having two, not three cutting ridges, and further differs in which ridge is the bigger one. The shell tho known mostly from individual fragments does at least show that its outer edge was serrated rather than smooth. The fossil material also includes a series of osteoderms, bone that was embeded into the skin and functioned as armor. These osteoderms came in different sizes and likely covered the forelimbs of Gaffneylania. Below are elements from Gaffneylania compared to Niolamia (reconstruction by Sterli et al. 2011) and to Miolania (Richard Owen 1888).

Anatomically there isn't a whole lot more to break down, as we don't have preserved tail rings that form the tail club in derived neiolaniids (tho that would have been useful in determining relationships). So lets briefly address how it happens that meiolaniids are known from Australia and South America, despite their distance. The short answer is rather simple. Antarctica. Meiolaniiformes were a chiefly Gondwanan group that at one point or another disperesed into Antarctica, at the time not yet a frozen wasteland, and continued to diversify there. From Antarctica, meiolaniids could have traveled to both South America and Australia before the two continents split off entirely. Through this, members of the same family ended up on vastly different continents when climate began to change for the worse, becoming colder and dryer. And that's when the paths diverged. South America didn't move especially much and around the Middle Eocene turtles began to go extinct in Patagonia, unable to deal with the temperatures. Things would have gone similarily in Australia if it wasn't for the fact that the continent was continuously drifting north at the same time, balancing out the climate change with just getting closer to warmer latitudes. But even then, meiolaniids on the mainland suffered the same fate as much of Australia's megafauna while their island relatives might have survived longer, but obviously not until today.

To any paleoartists out there, there has seemingly never been an attempt at reconstructing this animal. Just thought I might mention that. And of course the obligatory Wikipedia page, courtesy of yours truly: Gaffneylania - Wikipedia

[salrikstrongbow]

A cave painting dating back to 5000 A10 of Arkanos Earth, Northwest Siropea.

Pictured above appears to be the early modern species fighting some kind of extinct avian creature (troll, goblin, orc) and protecting their village (dwarf, elf, human). This cave painting is essential to understand how the species of Arkanos Earth became co-dependent on one another, rather than competing as individual species. This also appears to have been the purpose of the painting itself, to instruct the place of this particular tribe of prehistoric peoples.

It is theorized that proto-orcs and their ancestors 'kept' proto-humans and their ancestors as 'pets' to tend to prehistoric camps. This was a great advantage as the human species were able to cook and construct their camps and villages while the orc species hunted game and defended territory. Over time the other sentient species that evolved on Arkanos Earth integrated into this system to create more and more successful settlements. Trolls were large as well as able to stand still for hours at a time, goblins could wriggle into tight spaces and scout ahead, elves could aid everyone with rudimentary understanding of magic as well as natural, and dwarves were strong enough to quickly erect/dismantle camps as much as being small enough to reach smaller areas in-camp.

Collectively, the idea that went into becoming unified groups and ethnicities together rather than competing in mono-species groups separately was similar to how wolves were domesticated into dogs - gathering together over time to share resources and abilities in a way that benefited the whole.

*Note: The only species not pictured here are the Giants and Ratfolk. Ratfolk were largely subterranean and did not formally join their sentient kin immediately, often burrowing under or nearby and living off discarded resources from sentient camps. Giants were likely in the same role as their cousins, the orcs and trolls, but were likely feared at first for their immense size. Both species, however, did ultimately join the others and integrate into niches that they could fill.

[balanceoflightanddark]

Dinosaur Profile: Stokesosaurus

An early relative of the great Tyrannosaurus rex, Stokesosaurus provides a window into the early history of the infamous Tyrannosaur family and a new perspective of the giants to be.

Background

Stokesosaurus was described in 1974 by geologist James Henry Madsen amid various Allosaur specimens collected at the famous Cleveland-Dinosaur Quarry in Emery County, Utah as part of the equally famous Morrison Formation. The Morrison Formation dates back to the late Jurassic Period from 156-146 million years ago. It was in these rocks that famous dinosaurs such as the aformentioned Allosaurus, Stegosaurus, Apatosaurus, Brontosaurus, and Brachiosaurus were discovered all the way back to the infamous Bone Wars.

North America during the Late Jurassic almost resembled that of today, having broken apart from Africa and South America during the breakup of the supercontinent Pangea. Instead, it was part of a supercontinent that is referred to as Laurasia along with North and South China, while South America, Africa, India, Australia, and Antartica were joined together in the southern Gondwana.

Due to the formation of new coastlines with the birth of the new Atlantic, the once arid deserts became dominated by coastal rainforest and rich savannahs. With so much greenery to go around, it provided the perfect habitat for dinosaurs to become giants.

Late Jurassic Utah was not without its challenges though. Dry seasons were especially harsh with water being a scarce resource. Species that couldn't migrate were forced to congregate at ever shrinking pools of water, which could dry up completely in particularly bad seasons. These became hazardous as desperately thirsty animals would either find themselves trapped in thick mud to be preyed upon by predators, or just die from dehydration being unwilling to leave their water source.

The Cleveland-Quarry is one of these traps. Over time, the returning waters from the wet season would quickly bury dead carcasses and preserve them for generations to come. Allosaurus was a surprisingly common find here, probably attracted to the scent of rotting meat, with unlucky individuals becoming stuck as well.

It's among the specimens of Allosaurus that Stokesosaurus would be identified, likely drawn by the same desperation that spurned many a carnivore to their death.

Evolutionary History

Stokesosaurus clevandii is considered part of what is referred to as Pantyrannosauria: a group that is more advanced than the more primitive Proceratosaurs that includes Guanlong, an often-cited tyrannosaur ancestor. Proceratosaurs and early Pantyrannosaurs were small to medium-sized predators, often overshadowed by the larger allosaurs. Believed to have migrated to North America from Asia.

They in turn are members of the coelurosaur family that first evolved from around 160 million years ago. Coelurosaurs are dinosaurs that are most closely related to birds, such as dromaeosaurs and the tyrannosaurs themselves. Small and lightweight, they were able to feed primarily on small game and avoid direct competition with larger predators.

Description

What little we have of Stokesosaurus clevelandi (Stokes' Lizard of Cleveland) are mainly fragmentary remains. The most complete and intact specimen is UMNH 2938, which consists of a left hip bone. It's believed to belong to a juvenile, with the lower picture being scaled to a probable adult.

With an estimated length of 3 to 4 meters when fully grown, Stokesosaurus was a pint sized predator. Far smaller than the more famous giant herbivores that populated prehistoric Utah. This would've restricted its diet to smaller game such as rodents or young dinosaurs small enough to attack. To catch agile prey such as these, it's likely Stokesosaurus's light frame would've allowed it to be fast and agile themselves.

Being small and fast would also allow it to deal with the larger and more ferocious allosaurs. Stokesosaurus would've simply been too scrawny and small to make a proper meal out of, so they were more than likely not worth the effort needed by the larger predators to catch them. The most contact the two groups would've had would be during feedings where the smaller Stokesosaurus would easily be chased off by the larger allosaurs. Not before taking a few bites from the carcass themselves first of course.

Surviving Among Giants

Despite being in the low end of the food chain, there are certain advantages to being small. For starters, a small body mass requires less amounts of food to maintain. Meaning Stokesosaurus can afford to spend less time hunting and expending energy.

A lesser need for food also means a lesser need for territory and a steady supply of meat. Big predators often need wide territories in order to maintain their immense size. And with such a high demand in food and space, means competition for territory can be fierce and often dangerous. Small predators like Stokesosaurus avoid this problem by not having a need for such wide territories.

Life for a big predatory dinosaur was rough. Between having to hunt dangerous big game and contend with rivals for large territories, many large predatory dinosaur remains have evidence of injury. The famous Allosaurus specimen MOR 693 or "Big Al" was discovered to have evidence of 19 broken bones throughout his life, with signs of an illness being his cause of death. Stokesosaurus may have been able to avoid this fate by going after smaller game and having a reduced need for territory, thus reducing the threat of deadly competition. Living small and avoiding life threatening battles or hunts probably allowed Stokesaurus and other early tyrannosaurs to thrive under the shadows of giants. Until they were able to become the famous predators known the world over

Pop Culture

Stokesosaurus has a very minimal presence in media, though it does make a noticeable appearance in the Zoo Tycoon 2: Extinct Animals expansion pack. Players are able to adopt Stokesosaurus to add to their zoo as a 1 1/2 star animal. Here it has been beefed up in size to a medium sized carnivore with a large enclosure requirement and is treated as an apex predator similar to Tyrannosaurus rex.

There is also an easter egg of sorts related to Stokesosaurus. If a painting easel is placed within its enclosure as a toy, it'll put on a pair of glasses and paint on the easel, similar to an elephant.

Sources:

Jurassic Period - Geology Page

(PDF) The dinosaur death-trap of the Cleveland Lloyd Quarry, Emery County, Utah | ResearchGate

The phylogeny and evolutionary history of tyrannosauroid dinosaurs | Scientific Reports (nature.com)

Stokesosaurus (prehistoric-wildlife.com)

The Systematics of Late Jurassic Tyrannosauroid Theropods from Europe and North America

Review of Pathologies on MOR 693: An Allosaurus from the Late Jurassic of Wyoming and Implications for Understanding Allosaur Immune Systems

Artists

Stokesosaurus by Tom Parker from Wikipedia

Jurassic Period Paleogeography from Britannica

Cleveland-Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry by Mark Ostler from visitutah.com

Stokesosaurus clevelandi: Stokes' lizard by Paleonerd01 from deviantart

Stokesosaurus from prehistoric-wildlife.com

Evan Johnson-Ransom from twitter

Zoo Tycoon 2 pics taken from Zoo Tycoon wiki

[nuinindia2023]

Day 26: #roadtrip

Welcome back everyone! For those of you who read yesterday’s blog post, Snehaa and I decided to switch it up a little. Not only was she busy documenting our day for the blog, but she also was busy taking over the Northeastern Instagram page. And I’m not talking about the Northeastern GEO page. I mean the actual official Northeastern Instagram page. Like the one with 109k followers. She did an amazing job by the way- go Snehaa!

Anyway, here we are. A new day, a new blog post. Today’s itinerary was pretty simple. 4 hour bus ride to Agra, Taj Mahal, 4 hour bus ride to Delhi. #roadtrip Yes, you did the math correctly, that is approximately 8 hours on the bus (not including bus traffic!) and we made it out alive. However, I will say those 8 hours felt like an eternity. To show you what our journey looked like here is a screenshot of Apple Maps (not showing the traffic that we did unfortunately hit)

The morning started out in high spirits. Well, as high as they could be for that early 7am departure from the Lemon Tree hotel in Jaipur. Most people took the first hour or so to sleep, and by the time we started unopening the packed breakfast, we were all awake and ready to see the Taj. (Compliments to the wonderful hotel staff who packaged up some breakfast foods for us to eat on the bus!) Please enjoy the photo of Scott dancing along to some song playing in his earbuds. Pictured below is also a photo of us enjoying some toast before the bus left.

Olivia and I also had purchased some fun snacks for this bus ride and filmed a few fun taste test videos. Here is a fun screenshot I took from when we tried the Spanish Tomato Tango Lays chip and were cheers-ing. We even got Prof. Duane to try it with us.

While I will not be putting those on this blog post, please note that we enjoyed most of the snacks we tried and it was a good way to pass the time. We took a quick pit stop to use the restroom and quickly browse the souvenir store, and then were on our merry way to Agra.

As soon as we stepped off the bus the hawkers sprang into action and throwing necklaces, magnets, and key chains in our faces, but no one stopped to buy. At least not right then. A short golf cart ride later and we were at the East Entrance to get a quick lesson on the Taj’s history. Fun fact: it took 22 years to build and there are 22 white domes that make up the Taj. One for each year it took to build! I'm not going to lie, pictures do not do it justice, but nonetheless, please enjoy.

We also learned that the inscription highlighted in one of those pictures is an optical illusion. The writing at the top is written bigger, but because of the longer distance from the viewer, it appears to be the same size as the text at eye-level!

Let’s just say that it’s one of the seven wonders for a reason. It’s absolutely breathtaking, and we were lucky because the crowds didn’t seem too bad. We stopped at several stops to take individual photos, as well as a group shot. The photographer that took some of our photos was very keen on getting everyone one to do one of his guided poses.

I thought about putting in some of those individual photos here, but for all you parents out there- I decided to not spoil the surprise. Ask your kids for their photos! For now, just enjoy a few of the smaller group shots we took :)

By the time most of the Instagram-worthy photos were taken, we were starting to get pretty hot and ready to move on to see the inside. Once we got inside the mausoleum, we weren’t allowed to take any photos. There was a security guard who had a whistle at the ready to tell off any visitors for taking photos. So, in the meantime, please enjoy this photo I got online that shows that the the beautiful inside looked like (below; left)

Once we finished walking our little circle around the tombs, we were ready to wrap this tour up. Like I said, the Taj is absolutely beautiful, but at that point, we were all ready to get out of the heat and continue along on our journey. So we made our way to the exit, stopped to purchase any desired photographs from the photographer, got swarmed by hawkers again, and then finally got on the bus.

We stopped at a McDonalds for a to-go lunch to eat as we continued to drive the 4 hours to Delhi. I’m not entirely sure if the drive was closer to 5 hours or not, but it certainly felt like it. With a full day of traveling, we were all glad to see the sign for the Eros Hotel. For dinner, some people ordered take-out, while a group went to a local food court down the street that Teddy found. (Giving credit where credit is due) We ate at a Pan-Asian restaurant and then briefly scoped out the scene for a potential spot to hang out at tomorrow night. Stay tuned to find out if we actually end up going back to there or not. Well that’s it for me. We’ll see you all tomorrow!

[mariacallous]

The messages are scrawled on the toilet walls and across stall doors, on the tiles and next to the holders for paper. In Chinese characters, with the occasional English phrase, they echo the words of the protest banner that was unfurled across a busy overpass in Beijing: “No to confinement, we want freedom! No to lies, we want dignity! No to the great leader, we want to vote!”

The stunning act of defiance at the bridge took place on the eve of the 20th Communist party congress, when Xi Jinping officially embarked on a custom-breaking third term as China’s supreme leader, surrounded by a politburo stacked with his loyalists. The party’s narrative of confidence and triumph was nevertheless punctured by one man’s disobedience.

Like the rumblings of thunder that follow a flash of lightning, the daring proclamation has reverberated across the country, despite the bridge protester’s forced disappearance. Public restrooms, one of the last physical spaces in China beyond the government’s watch, have emerged as an unexpected venue for dissent. Replicas of the original banner have been spotted in London across Westminster Bridge and outside the Chinese embassy. Overseas Chinese students have also put up posters in solidarity on telephone poles and university noticeboards.

I click through the images from campuses across North America and Europe. I try to picture the anonymous young faces behind the handwritten notes and hastily designed placards, and catch glimpses of myself from a decade ago. I was one of these students, making sense of a new country while for ever tied to the old home, sizing up newly gained freedoms and wondering how to best exercise them.

When I left China for graduate school in the US in 2009, it still seemed possible to navigate the world with a map of conventional wisdom. My birth country has now become so unrecognisable that I sometimes wonder if the past was a figment of my imagination. With the benefit of hindsight, one can clearly see the trajectory of Beijing’s authoritarian ascent, as the tightening of control began before Xi’s reign. Now, the speculation about how long the red emperor might rule carries the same whiff of denial as the old talk of “Xi the reformer” when he first took office, and the recurring fantasies of a palace coup. The obsession with an individual tyrant overlooks the system that enables that tyranny.

In Xi’s latest address at the party congress, there was no mention of “political reform” or “intra-party democracy”, key phrases that had appeared in all previous reports since the early 1980s. The significance of this shift is not so much that the party has changed, but that it no longer needs the pretence – just like the all-male, 24-member politburo that was unveiled last week, breaking another decades-old convention where one or two women held token seats (though never on the standing committee).

From the very beginning, gestures to “democracy” and “reform” were in service to the Chinese leadership. After the disasters of the Mao era, the party needed new legal and institutional scaffolding to reclaim legitimacy, and to facilitate the transition from a planned economy to integration with the capitalist market. Before Xi consolidated power, competing factions at the top and opaqueness within the bureaucracy meant there was limited flexibility to question and experiment. Individuals and civil society groups manoeuvred this fragile space in order to push for social progress.

Yet the party has never relented on the issues that are central to its power, or hesitated to use force against perceived challenges. A periodic loosening of controls is wielded as an effective tool to gather information and maintain control. With the end of performative deference to legal rules and institutional norms, a party that governs by fear and patronage will embolden the worst instincts of the bureaucracy, where loyalty is rewarded over competence, power is rarely held accountable, and mistakes in policy become exceedingly difficult to correct.

The future is grim, not just for China and its people. Many in the west who have been drumming up a “new cold war” with China take every instance of Beijing’s abuses as proof of a “China threat” and justification for expanding the national security state. The new cold warriors are not so different from their counterparts a generation ago, who preached that marketisation and free trade would usher in political liberalisation. Both narratives stem from an unabashed belief in the supremacy of their own system: the “end of history”. Shifting blame to a faceless foreign other is a convenient diversion from raging crises at home.

The primary struggle in the world today is not the essentialist framing of China versus the US, east versus west. Nor is it the reductionist idea of democracy versus autocracy, freedom versus captivity. The rights and liberties taken for granted in the ostensibly democratic west have been subsidised by cheap labour and imports from authoritarian countries. The free flow of capital demands that toiling bodies be kept in place.

The fundamental choice is between clinging to an old order crumbling under its own weight, and forging a new world while there’s still time. We’re all exiles from a past we thought we knew, stranded on an ice cap amid warming seas. We can fight each other for the receding higher ground, or build lifeboats together: alternative futures of mutual care in which value is not conditional on exclusion or domination.

I cannot recall when I entered a state of perpetual mourning. I grieve for the country I left with no certain prospect of return, the direction it’s heading in, the plight of the world, the foreclosed possibilities. Sorrow tears into my organs and gnaws at my bones. But what I fear more than pain is numbness: to give in to the powers that be, and give up on imagining otherwise.

I remind myself that for a Chinese woman, learning how to read and moving to a foreign country were once revolutionary acts conceived in fugitive spaces. No control is absolute. Power at its most menacing and totalising is also insecure and unsustainable. I hold no illusions about the long night ahead, but each refusal of injustice preserves an opening. Every act of rebellion, however spectacular or humble, is a reclamation of the self and a love letter to a stranger. Across the darkness, another searching gaze catches the flicker, and a sacred bond is cast: I see you. I feel you. We are still here.

[joewein]

I Bought A Snake

(Picture of Sisu’s litter. Unlike Ball Python’s, Boas are live born. Sisu is in there somewhere.)

As a kid in the 70s, I frequented pet stores and was enamored with the little snakes in there. There would be some Corn Snakes, usually Ball Pythons, and Boas.  The Ball Pythons and Boas looked similar as babies, but the pet shop shop people would guide me toward the Ball Pythons - the Boas got huge and were temperamental they'd say. Also, all the snakes ate mice, conveniently hoarded in a separate terrarium piled on top of each other for about a quarter each. This was a bummer. I liked the mice too (I will get into feeding another time). I thought the coolest snake was the Boa, with it's sleek head and more curious personality, but even if my parents allowed, I wouldn't want a huge, angry snake as a pet.

What I didn't realize is those Boas in the pet stores in the 70s were some of the very first Boas being sold as pet snakes. And the people selling them knew almost nothing about them. As they were bringing in exotic fish from South America, they'd catch and throw in some Boas for a little extra cash. There was not yet any regard for the type of Boa being sold. Weird to think snakes have been around 130 million years - with the dinosaurs, survived the ice age, adapted and evolved all over the planet - and these Boas end up in little shops at the same time I am walking in.

Vin Russo, author of The More Complete Boa Constrictor, worked in one of these pet stores. He was one of the early ones to recognize that these snakes coming in labeled as Boas actually varied in size, pattern, temperament and care. He was a pioneer of categorizing and captive breeding snakes.

Vin was on the East Coast, I grew up in the West. In Palm Springs, where the days were scorching but desert nights were cool. I'd frequently see snakes with the Kangaroo Rats and lizards as I'd walk around in the evening. I believe this is where my interest in these animals began, and I'm sure there's a certain nostalgia now.

Over the years since then, the classification of Boa Constrictors has been adjusted many times. The most common being the Boa Constrictor Imperator (recently changed to just Boa Imperator). But there are many types with distinct variances.

There are essentially three groups of Boa Constrictors:

The common pet store boa today, which is a mixed-bred BCI. These tend to make good pets as they are docile and attractive, but do vary in size and pattern and you don't really know what you're going to end up with. They also tend to get large.

Morph Boas, these are also mostly BCI, but are bred specifically for the pattern/look of the snake, which get pretty spectacular. There is a wide variety, with new patterns going for a high price. While you generally do know who the parents are (since they are specifically bred by breeders to achieve these patterns) I have observed you will get quite a range in terms of size and temperament, which is not what they are breeding for.

Locality Boas. These are captive-bred snakes that maintain a bloodline to the original locality they came from. It's sort of like purebred vs. mixed bred dogs. And like dogs, neither is better or worse as a pet and every individual has its own personality. But I would say with a purebred or locality boa, you have more information about the animal you are getting. Unlike purebred dogs, which were bred for specific traits, Locality Boas just don't introduce anything new - so it is a continuation of a bloodline of snake as it evolved in a given location. These are the Locality Boas:

Boa Constrictor Species Classification

Boa Constrictor Imperator or Boa Imperator (BCI) There are about 10 sub-species of these. Including Dwarf Boas from Belize, the popular Hog Island Boa from Honduras, and the pure Columbian boa from Barranquilla.

Boa Constrictor Sigma (BCS) These are Boas from Mexico, including the increasingly popular Tarahumara Mountain Boa, which are prized for their small size and dark exotic pattern. Although these are known to be "nippy" as babies.

Boa Constrictor Constrictor (BCC) These tend to be some of the more striking looking snakes, but also more irritable. And they can also get to be 12 feet. They include the Surinam, Brazilian, Peruvian, and others east of the Andes.

Boa Constrictor Longicauda (BCL) An interesting Peruvian Boa that turns blacker as it ages.

Boa Constrictor Occidentalis (BCO) The Argentine Boa is one of the largest and a very beatutiful boa.

Boa Constrictor Nebulosa (BCN) The Clouded boa, which I don't know much about.

Boa Constrictor Sabogae (BCS) The popular Pearl Island boa.

Boa Constrictor Amarali (BCA) A very interesting, thicker bodied Boa that I was leaning toward buying, but did not end up getting.

In all cases there is sexual dimorphism, the female is notably larger than the male. That is why I intended to get a male snake. But that is not what I ended up with.

I ultimately purchased a beautiful female Locality Boa directly from Vin and had her shipped to me.

Sisu is a Boa Imperator from Barranquilla, Columbia. This just means they can trace back her lineage from Vin Russo to Gus Rentfro's company Rio Bravo before him. Rentfro originally caught and and began a captive-bred colony of Barranquilla Boas in the 70s and 80s.

Barranquilla are known for being docile, inquisitive, and not growing as large as many of the others (although they are not dwarf boas).

It is also believed Barranquilla Boas have ancestry of BCC, as Boa Constrictor Constrictor are indigenous to Columbia just on the other side of the Andes. As a a result, they have what I consider a very striking, wild look to them.

I have spent less than a month with Sisu. I started this blog to document my education and fascination with my new companion. I am glad they grow slowly.

[andrewcoopersblog]

Week 2:

Penguin Activity:

A cartoon penguin created in Adobe Illustrator using vectors.

STEP 1:

To begin with, a pill shape is created using the ELLIPSE tool to make a circle. Then, using the DIRECT SELECTION tool, the bottom point of the circle is selected and deleted leaving a half circle arc. This is the duplicated and reflect so that there are now two half-circle arcs which are mirror images of each other. The requisite space is then left between them. By drawing a marquee around the bottom left point of the top shape and the top left of the right point, they can be joined with a straight line using the JOIN function. The same is then done for the right-hand side points, and a pill is formed. By drawing a marquee around the new shape and using the GROUP function, the new shape can be turned into one shape.

STEP 2:

To add the tail and lick of hair, use the PEN tool and the ADD POINT feature, more points can be added to the pill shape. Then using DIRECT SELECTION, these points can be manipulated - in this case, dragging the middle point of 3 points the tail feathers and hair lick can be stretched out of the pill shape. Once the are in approximately the right position, the angles of the curves can be adjusted be using DIRECT SELECTION on the handles of the points.

STEP 3:

The eyes are created by using the ELLIPSE tool. The fill of the eye has a GRADIENT applied to it. The gradient blends 2 (or more) colours to achieve a natural-looking transition between them. The preset RADIAL GRADIENT uses a circular effect and worked well for the eyes. The white reflective glint is just another ellipse filled with white. The two ellipses that form each eye can then be GROUPED together and duplicated to produce the second eye. This method eliminates the need to finesse the shapes and sizes of the ellipse to make sure the match. The beak outline was made with the PEN tool, and is 3 straight lines forming a triangle. Again using the DIRECT SELECTION tool, two of the triangle's points were softened into curves by dragging the little circle that appears inside the point.

STEP 4:

The feet are made using a series of curves to produce the top half of the appendage. This is then duplicated, reflected, and flipped to make the bottom half, ensuring that it is symmetrical. Once the 2 halves are aligned, a marquee is drawn around the foot and GROUPED to create one shape.

By duplicating the foot, and off-setting the two shapes can be super-imposed on each other. By selecting the path along the bottom of each toe of the upper-most shape and deleting it the overlapping parts of the toes can be removed. Then it is a case of selecting the two points at the end of the toe and using the JOIN function to draw a straight line between them, the same is then done for the two points in the webbing of each toe.

Combining the new, 3D foot into one shape with the GROUP function allows us to flatten the shape so it appears that it is standing flat on the ground. The leg is a rectangle drawn using the PEN tool with the bottom two points softened into curves. GROUP the leg and foot into one. Duplicate and then rotate it to the required angle so it looks like he is stepping. I also made this 2nd leg a little smaller than the other as it is furthest away from the viewer. The shape can then be filled with colour, and a decent penguin's foot with the appearance of 3 dimensions is created.

STEP 5:

Now that there are multiple components to the picture, it is useful to separate them into LAYERS using the LAYERS palette. This enables us to work on individual parts of the penguin. Each layer can be hidden/revealed with the eye in the left-most column of the palette. The next column with the padlock locks/unlocks layers. When locked, that layer cannot be changed until unlocked again. This is useful for ensuring that changes aren't accidentally made to those parts of the image while working on another layer. It is also useful to give each layer a name that corresponds to what is happening on said layer so that they can be easily accessed and switched between without wasting time trying to figure out which parts of the image are on which layer. Different aspects of the image cange be moved between layers by using the SELECTION tool. A coloured dot will appear in the right-most column (not shown), by dragging this to a different layer in the palette, that part of the image will then be deposited on the new layer - this is also useful for separating a one layered image into multiple layers as more aspects are added to it.

STEP 6:

To give the penguin some belly feathers, the rough shape that will appear on the body is drawn with the PEN tool using a mix of curves. Using a bright colour for the stroke is good so that it is easily distinguishible. Everything that appears outside of the main pill shape of the body can be slapped in without too much thought as to the angles. all that is needed is a closed shape. Now open the PATHFINDER palette and with both shapes selected, chose the INTERSECT Shape Mode.

This cause the overlap between the 2 shapes to create a new shape and everything outside the body is gone. Turn off the outline of the belly feathers shape and adjust colour as required.

Using the same process as for creating the belly feathers, we can add some shadow to the penguin to give the appearance of depth to the body. Lower the OPACITY of the shadow shape so that it is not just a solid colour and allows the 2 colours of the bird's body to show through. The highlight on the head was created by making a circle with the ELLIPSE tool, the ADD point feature of the PEN tool. A bunch of points were added around the circle and then stretched and re-angled (as described in STEP 2) to give the impression of light bouncing off that part of the penguin's head.

STEP 7:

The wing is added, and moved to the front of the image using the OBJECT menu on the toolbar - ARRANGE - MOVE TO FRONT. The penguin's right foot was moved to the back of the image in the same way, except using he MOVE TO BACK function. Colour is added to the beak, with a second triangle drawn over the top with a different hue of orange to give the impression of 3 dimensions. Finally, add an opaque ellipse, or two beneath the penguin to act as a drop shadow, further breathing life into the little guy.