#unusual behavior

[aristocraticvision]

Chapter 360: An Evening at the Palace

Lady Helena Reynolds entered the drawing room next to Princess Jessica, finally relaxing a bit after being so nervous at meeting the reigning monarch and his wife.

“Dinner was wonderful, your royal highness,” Lady Helena said as she walked next to Princess Jessica into the lounge adjacent to the family dining room. “Please extend my compliments to your chef. It was a true delight.”

“I’m sure Monsieur Tremont will appreciate your kind words,” Jessica replied as they sat down. “He so rarely has the opportunity to challenge himself anymore. Growing older, Stephen’s tastes – and I must admit, my own, as well – are fairly simple, so I know he was excited to have a visitor to impress.”

“Well, he certainly did so,” Helena replied. “It’s been such a lovely evening I almost wish it wouldn’t end.”

“Such flattery,” Stephen said, smiling. “Though, I must admit, I’ve truly enjoyed myself as well. Michael has brought young ladies home before – but none have been quite as lovely as you.”

Helena dropped her gaze, nearly blushing.

“So how are you finding life in the city?” Jessica asked. “It must be quite a change from Hemingford.”

“It is,” Helena replied, “though, having spent so many years in Paris after my parents passed, Hemingford was more of an adjustment than Weston. While I enjoyed the peace and beauty, there were times it seemed a bit more bucolic than I might have preferred. At least, until Michael arrived.”

“Of course,” Stephen replied. “Which leads me to my next question. Do you two plan on going public with your relationship?”

“Stephen!” Jessica snapped as Helena dropped her gaze nervously. “That’s none of our business!”

“It is very much our business, my dear,” Stephen said. “If they are serious about this relationship, going public will be a much better option than being found out by the press. Believe me, I learned that lesson with Michael’s mother.”

“That may be, father,” Michael said, crossly. “But I would appreciate you allowing us to determine the next phase of our relationship. When we’re ready to go public, we will – but no amount of pressure from you or the press will push us into it.”

“Suit yourself,” Stephen said. “But I won’t be around forever, Michael. It’s time for you to start thinking about your future. That means a wife and a family. The monarchy requires stability, and it’s your responsibility to provide it.”

“I think we’re all getting ahead of ourselves,” Jessica said, trying to de-escalate the conversation. “Michael and Helena have only recently begun seeing one another. I think there’s plenty of time for them to decide how they want to move forward.”

“Perhaps,” Stephen said, standing. “I apologize if I’ve overstepped. If you’ll excuse me, I should turn in before I say anything more.”

“Father, you don’t have to ….” Michael began.

“Goodnight baroness, Michael,” Stephen said. “I’ll see you upstairs, my dear.”

After Stephen’s departure, the room was silent for a moment.

“Mother, what the hell is going on?” Michael asked quietly. “This behavior is extreme – even for him.”

“I’m not sure, but I intend to find out,” Jessica said. “Now, as far as you two are concerned, I hope you’ll ignore my husband’s comments. Michael, why don’t you show Helena the gardens. They’re actually quite lovely at night.”

CHAPTER 1 | BEGINNING OF PART 4 | PREV | NEXT

Continent of Oceana | History of Weston | History of Corwyn | History of Torenth | History of Allycia

[sitting-on-me-bum]

Curious Red Wattlebird by Graeme O'Rourke Via Flickr: This photo was captured in my backyard as this red wattlebird was perched in my Japanese Maple tree. Over the past 12 months it has learnt to trust me and this display I can only put down to this bird trying to ascertain if it was really me behind the camera as the very next capture shows it in a similar low-down pose, but this time looking from its left side. . .or maybe it was checking the brand and model of my camera. It is one of the largest nectar-feeding birds in the world and is the second largest species of honeyeater native to Australia, eclipsed by the yellow wattlebird which is found only in Tasmania. The red wattlebird has a long, specialized tongue to extract nectar from flowers. Its tongue can extend well beyond the tip of its bill, and it is divided at the end to form a brush-like structure with over a hundred bristles that soak up nectar by capillary action. The red wattlebird has mainly grey-brown plumage, red eyes, distinctive pinkish-red wattles** either side of its neck, white streaks on the chest and a large bright yellow patch on the lower belly. The male and female have similar plumage. (**A wattle is a fleshy caruncle from various parts of the head or neck in several groups of birds and mammals and those on the red wattlebird dangle from the lower rear corner of the ear coverts on either side of the neck.) The species is found in southeast Queensland, NSW, Victoria, South Australia and in the southwest of Western Australia, in open forest and woodlands, and is a common visitor to urban gardens and parks. Loud and conspicuous, the red wattlebird is generally found in trees, where it gets most of its food; occasionally it forages on the ground, feeding from a wide variety of flowering plants. Insects also comprise part of its diet. It is territorial and at times aggressive towards birds of other species, often defending rich sources of nectar. Breeding throughout its range, the red wattlebird builds a cup-shaped nest in a tree and raises one or two broods a year.

[moonchild-magick]

My dad usually doesn't have anything to say about me burning incense. This afternoon when I burnt incense, he got aggressively angry about it and kinda freaked out. The blend was for cleansing and calming. Is it possible that there's something attached to him that got agitated from the incense? It's very unlike him to act this way when he's never had an issue with it before...

[sabkiawaaj]

Woman Caught Repeatedly Eating Stale Bread After Washing It at Night, Surprising Reason Unveiled

Woman Caught Repeatedly Eating Stale Bread After Washing It at Night, Surprising Reason Unveiled Woman Caught Repeatedly Eating Stale Bread After Washing It at Night, Surprising Reason Unveiled In a bizarre incident that has left many astonished, a woman was caught red-handed indulging in a peculiar habit of washing stale bread at night before consuming it. The revelation of her unusual…

[xtruss]

Cougars are Ambushing and Killing Wolves—and No One Knows Why

These rare kills in Washington State have biologists searching for answers. “Everyone always assumes wolves have the upper hand,” says one scientist. “But that’s not always the case.”

— By Kylie Mohr | August 25, 2023

Fighting like Cats and Dogs? As Washington State Cougars target Wolves, scientists are grappling to understand this unusual behavior. Since their reintroduction to the American West in 1995, wolves have expanded their range. Though some neighboring States have five times as many wolves, Washington is documenting far more of these kills—almost 30 percent of the 21 documented natural wolf mortalities in the state. "That's huge if that trend holds," says Trent Roussin, a Washington biologist. Photograph By Bob Gibbson/Alamy

A female wolf padded down an old logging road in northeastern Washington last summer. The yearling would have barely made a sound as she trotted through brush and dry pine needles on an overgrown path that dropped into a steep canyon. Somewhere in the shadows—possibly tucked away in the bushes or hunkered down behind a boulder—she was watched by amber eyes. They belonged to a cougar, which pounced.

The two tangled in a blur of fur, claws, and teeth, with evidence showing the fight came to an abrupt end, about a hundred yards downhill, when the cougar's sharp bite punctured the wolf's skull. The feline nibbled on the wolf, then hid the carcass for a later meal before slinking off into the forest.

Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) staff have documented cougars killing six collared wolves since 2013—almost 30 percent of the 21 documented natural wolf mortalities in the state. "That's huge if that trend holds and is representative of the entire population [in the state]," says Trent Roussin, a WDFW biologist. The kills involve multiple wolf packs in different areas of Washington.

Such kills are rare elsewhere in the U.S. West, where more wolves are on the landscape since their reintroduction to Yellowstone National Park, which is mostly in Wyoming, and central Idaho in 1995. Today Montana and Idaho have over five times more wolves than Washington.

Yellowstone biologists documented only two cases of cougars killing wolves in the past 28 years (the last in 2003). Idaho also recorded only two kills (the last in 2012).

In Montana, five wolf deaths due to cougars were documented between 2009 and 2012. "We have not seen anything like that since that time to my knowledge," said Brian Wakeling, game management bureau chief, by email.

"It just goes to show how rare it is in those states,” says Roussin. “We have a much smaller population, but we've documented it far more frequently." Wolves had naturally dispersed into Washington by the summer of 2008; recent counts found 216 wolves in 37 packs, mostly in the Cascade Range and the state's wooded northeastern corner.

Roussin points to the cougar's signature on this wolf skull: two punctures where the cat’s teeth pierced it. Photograph Via WDFW

The Lone Wolf Factor

While a wolf pack tends to have an advantage over a single cougar—sometimes running it up into a tree or kicking it off a carcass to scavenge for themselves—a cougar excels in a one-on-one ambush. All but one of Washington's wolf kills involved lone wolves.

"Everyone always assumes wolves have the upper hand," says ecologist Mark Elbroch, the leader of Panthera's Puma Program. "But that's not always the case." (Cougars are interchangeably referred to as pumas and mountain lions.)

Washington’s first known wolf death by cougars, in 2013, was an underweight yearling female traveling on a ridgeline in the Cascade Mountains. A cougar killed another wolf in the same Teanaway pack, a two-year-old male, in March 2014, near a creek. It happened again, a month later: a six-year-old breeding male of the Smackout pack, within sight of the den. Researchers also documented more recent cougar kills: a seven-year-old female wolf in 2019, the yearling female in early September of last year, and then a wolf pup later that month.

A Clue From Tracking Tools

Radio collars tipped off biologists to this trend. "The use of collars certainly brings some of these stories to light," says Dan Stahler, a biologist who leads wolf and cougar research in Yellowstone National Park. When an animal doesn't move for eight hours, its collar sends a signal. Scientists hustle to retrieve the collar and piece together what happened.

Investigators first look for signs of poaching by humans, a common cause of death. They also examine the scene for animal tracks, scat, and the wolf’s body positioning. A neatly hidden carcass suggests a cougar, while a mess of scattered limbs could be another wolf. Biologists then take the wolf carcass, or sometimes just its head, back to the lab for more tests. Necropsies reveal the distinct cougar signature: two punctures in the skull.

When the two species interact, it tends to be over prey, but only one of Washington's documented wolf mortalities by a cougar involved a moose carcass—a messy situation where researchers believe a cougar killed a wolf pup while its pack was feeding on a moose.

All but one of Washington's documented wolf kills by cougars involved lone wolves. The state counts around 216 wolves in 37 packs, mostly in the Cascade Range and its wooded northeastern corner, where this pack is located. Photograph Via WDFW

Could Terrain Be Key?

Interactions between wolves and cougars appear to vary by habitat. Researchers found wolves killing numerous cougar kittens in the Teton Range, and a 2020 study there found wolves affected cougar populations more than recreational hunting or prey availability. Cougars fatally attacking wolves, lead author Elbroch says, is "the rarer of the two potential outcomes."

But biologists haven't documented wolf kills of cougars or their kittens in Washington. And while wolves have killed a few cougars and kittens in neighboring Yellowstone National Park, researchers found wolves didn't have a major effect on cougar populations there. In fact, cougars continued to increase in number following wolf reintroduction.

Data collected in Yellowstone before, during, and after wolf reintroduction provides a window into how the species have found a way to warily coexist by partitioning the landscape. Cougars shrunk their home ranges as wolves expanded in the park, selecting areas that were craggier, steeper, and more densely forested.

"This is what allows them to be more sneaky, to work their way through and still survive in this landscape that's dominated by wolves and bears," says Toni Ruth, a biologist who studied cougars there from 1998 to 2006 for the Hornocker Wildlife Institute. Wolves hunting in packs prefer open country where they can outrun, tire, and surround their prey.

Wolf tracks on a Washington road. Wolves generally prefer open areas such as meadows while cougars inhabit craggy ravines and forests. One theory holds that Washington's landscape may be giving cougars an upper hand, though this hasn't yet been formally studied. Photograph Via WDFW

Without a large enough sample size to draw more definitive conclusions, Roussin suggests habitat differences could help explain Washington's higher wolf mortality from cougars. The state has steep mountains, tight ravines, and fewer open rolling meadows—which might give cougars an upper hand. Experts say other factors could be at play too, like cougar density, wolf pack size, or even wolves' relative newness to an area. Roussin plans a formal analysis if more incidents occur.

Meanwhile wolves and cougars will continue overlapping, as they have for thousands of years. "These two species coexisted a heck of a long time before we began interfering with things," Elbroch says.

As wolves newly repopulate in areas such as Oregon and California, a better understanding of how they interact with other species, including us, is key. "We're in an era of carnivore restoration in the western U.S. that's unprecedented," Stahler says. "The big question that's unanswered is how do we as humans fit into that story."

[mayasaura]

So many people are ready to defend to the death that it's much easier to accept a fantasy creature on your doorstep than a real live out of place animal. Why? Just because a walrus has a known range and fairies, being fake, can do whatever? Where are your imaginations? Where is your appreciation for life's infinite potential for chaos? Statistics are guidelines to trends, not immutable law. Embrace the truth that walruses, and indeed people too, can also do whatever.

Yes, answering the door to find a walrus is infinitely weirder than answering it to find a fairy. Like many weird things, it's also easily explained once you get past the initial shock of subverted expectations.

A walrus has a known range. Fine. Perhaps then it did not move itself. Perhaps it has an accomplice, or it is a victim of someone else's machinations. A walrus is too large to get to your apartment? A baby walrus can be as small as three feet long and weigh as little as one hundred pounds. Nowhere does the poll specify that the walrus is an adult.

Now tell me, which is a more likely possibility: Fairies suddenly exist, or your neighbor is secretly involved in the illegal trading of exotic pets?

[babacontainsmultitudes]

I can't really draw what's on my mind so here is the blueprint of my vision instead:

[mudwerks]

(via Recent wildlife attacks around Tucson prompt rabies warning)

State and federal wildlife officials are warning people to be on the lookout for rabid animals after a recent rash of attacks around Tucson in the past two months.

A skunk, a fox and two bobcats have bitten or scratched people in four separate incidents of suspected rabies since Nov. 27, said Arizona Game and Fish Department spokesman Mark Hart.

“That’s unusual,” Hart said, though the agency is not ready to call it an outbreak just yet.

The latest attack occurred in the Rincon Mountain District of Saguaro National Park on Sunday, when a bobcat bit and scratched a man on Cactus Forest Drive. The man was treated at an emergency room and released following the attack, Hart said.

more local news

[mizzical]

practiced sketches of mai

[prolibytherium]

I'm going to be real I don't have any doubts that there are trans people on the tumblr/auttomatic staff who sincerely want to improve circumstances for trans users on this site but I'm really not going to care about apologetic gestures until there is material improvement. I won't trust vague assurances of improving anti-harassment measures until I see it. It's not like any of these patterns of abusive moderation against the most vulnerable demographics is new.

[markedbyindecision]

i’m losing it why is Jane batting her eyes at Maura rn

[whippetcrimes]

A lot of compliments on her speed this morning! I think the thing we need to improve on is endurance. Her breeder suggested a remote control car to chase.... Going to look into it. But I'm sure more walks and such will help too

[simonsoys]

how do you think papyrus will react if he found out sans was a smoker for a while and it clicked to him he's been doing it for years?

I feel like you'd be able to smell it on him, but maybe Sans could use the excuse that it's the smell of the bar(tender).

Probably just extra disgust-- it's gross, even by Sans standards. Would that account for Sans being slimy? (Would it even be harmful to skeletons??)

I think he'd assume Sans picked it up from some of his acquaintances at first, and wheel in the local school's TV to show a MTT-brand "say NO! to peer pressure" video. With a sad sigh, he'd have to ask you to be a good example for his brother, since Sans is more vulnerable to social influence.

Real talk though I don't think there's much Papyrus would do except nag. He already nags Sans for the other unhealthy habits he's got going on and hasn't seemed to push deeper into the "why" behind any of it at the time of the game's story. As much as he complains, he lets Sans make adult decisions-- and for what it's worth, Sans does do the same for Papyrus.

[yorthae]

Started a new save for Amalfein (old one broke) and I was struck by that scene you get if you rest before reaching Lae'zel the first night as the durge again- the option to figure out who you are via your heritage seems to reveal some degree of false awareness in your memory, specifically for githyanki, dragonborn, and drow.

The linked post suggests some sort of false awareness here based on what Bhaal would expect the durge to know but I think that a lot of the specificity of how the dialogue shapes around it suggests that a lot of this is more than incidental. Speaking just for lolthsworn drow durges anyway, Minthara still specifically says "Like you, I grew up in Qu'ellarz'orl..." which is a wild thing to assume about a person. Qu'ellarz'orl is the home of the elite of the elite, many of the high houses aren't even located there, and most people from Menzoberranzan probably will not step foot there. I would guess that there is something about drow durges that justifies this assumption— accent when speaking drow, mannerisms, something, because its perhaps an even wilder assumption to make about a stranger who you have only ever seen on the surface.

All of this is a long way of justifying my headcanon that this knowledge/these memories are not artificially constructed, but rather artificially implanted, possibly from sacrifices and/or other Bhaalites.

[saintarmand]

all vampires are autistic actually

[talkingadult]

JUST WALKED INTO RENY’S (a Maine adventure— iyk,yk) AND THEY WERE PLAYING THE VOIDZ IN THE RENY’S.