darkclouds-rainsounds

[darkclouds-rainsounds]

Nintendo Power issue 113 (October 1998)

[darkclouds-rainsounds]

litwick line from pokémon conquest

[darkclouds-rainsounds]

i dont "Practice" anything. i Rawdog it. And if im not good first try i GIVE UP.

[darkclouds-rainsounds]

it IS kind of funny to me how professor oak is constantly framed as this great benevolent amazing professor to the point where they were even like "let's give this guy a cousin in alola who looks almost exactly like him because THAT'S what everybody wants to see in the games right" and then you pick up r/b/y or fr/lg and see how he treats blue and it's like Wow. This old man sucks. Somebody should kill him for sport. is he as bad as, say, ghetsis or lusamine? no. but he is DEFINITELY objectively awful. the games and professor oak framing blue as a bad trainer and person when he quite LITERALLY did NOTHING wrong (r/b/y has as many examples of blue being genuinely helpful towards his childhood friend as it does of him being an arrogant little twat, which is fine because. hello. he's 11. have you ever interacted with 11-year-olds) is soooooo irritating sometimes because like. in the VERY NEXT GENERATION you have a very clear example (silver) of what a kid mistreating their pokémon looks like (to the point where npcs are quite literally commenting on it left and right) and absolutely none of that is there with blue. glad to see he's flourishing now that he's fully moved to alola with red to run the battle tree and i hope he's blocked professor oak's number

[darkclouds-rainsounds]

honestly if ghetsis actually won and became ruler of everything and a god etc he would probably kill himself

[darkclouds-rainsounds]

btw you guys ever think about Shedinja? i didn't know this before i raised one but Shedinja is created (separated??) from Nincada/Ninjask with the same moveset, same personality... i took it to have its friendship evaluated and the woman in Verdanturf confirmed: my Shedinja knows me. it loves me. though seemingly just created, it has memories of me, and maybe even memories of being a Nincada.

and yet, Nincada's evolved form is standing right there next to Shedinja. Ninjask is the completed form, the imago, with that exact same love, those exact same memories. until that moment of evolution, the two were one Pokémon.

i can't stop wondering. what must that be like? what must it feel like, being the ghost of a living being? finding yourself empty, outside your biological body, but your body is still there and the one inhabiting it is still you? and what does Ninjask feel, seeing eyes peering out from the shell of its old form, and then finding that those eyes are its own?

[darkclouds-rainsounds]

banging my head against the fucking wall whoever up at gamefreak thought it was a good idea to change silver's mt moon dialogue in hgss is a fucking idiot

[darkclouds-rainsounds]

it is my true belief that pokémon character designers intentionally nerf every character who would’ve otherwise been too attractive or popular or cool for the sake of maintaining balance in the universe. they did that to volo’s hair and pants in an attempt to combat the thirstposting. and his initial outfit they made yellow and blue and weird like a balloon to beat us back. they gave everyone awful shoes for world peace. they made part 2 kieran look like an onion so we’d stop drawing him like a serial killer. it’s all for our safety to stop us from becoming obsessed. unfortunately it doesn’t work at all but they try

[darkclouds-rainsounds]

In theory, maybe I get the “we’re all just playing with barbies, they’re fictional characters, no interpretation is incorrect because it’s an interpretation” argument. But actually no, not all takes are equally valid. Framing something as an interpretation doesn’t mean it inherently has merit. Some takes are completely incorrect and betray a fundamental misunderstanding of the source material. They just aren’t a reason to harass people or send death threats

[darkclouds-rainsounds]

The thing about those posts I’ve seen about Tumblr users having an odd habit of using other people’s posts criticizing a(n applicable) bigoted behavior as a confessional to try and cleanse them of their sins is like. They’re all missing the part that they objectively should be embarrassed about the behavior in the first place.

[darkclouds-rainsounds]

y'all know that whole left-brained/right-brained thing is fake right? and the "brain fully develops at age 25" thing? and the "we only use 10% of our brains" thing? yeah they're all complete horseshit please yell at anyone who says them

[darkclouds-rainsounds]

Those snakes aren’t cuddling. They’re not a social species.

While working with Dr. Thomas Guensburg (currently a researcher at the Field Museum of Natural History) on imagery of crinoid evolutionary chains for peer review, he revealed that he was worried how it would be received. His work was solid, clearly explained, and very clear- at the time I was confused how other researchers could reject it. It was then I learned how sometimes the truth doesn't always matter, especially when people's careers were staked on false information they based their own research on; many would fight tooth and nail to suppress evidence that things might not be true as they were invested in the former incorrect belief. It is my understanding this sort of suppression happened quite often, unfortunately.

While some of his peers did this deliberately, even with common folks it's much easier to get them to believe something false than to question their belief and change it to something true even with evidence. So far as Hognose Snakes go, from my understanding the last in depth research on these animals in the wild was done in the 1980's - which is incredibly dated. Even in recent years we've found so much of what we "knew" about reptiles was entirely wrong. Back then we "knew" reptiles couldn't see red light so it was commonly used for heating. Back then we "knew" rattlesnakes and leopard geckos were solitary animals. We now know this information is incorrect.

Reptiles can see red light, and a constant red light negatively affects their sleep cycles, health, and behavior. Leopard geckos actually live in colonies - yet some people will still argue they are solitary animals in the wild. As for rattlesnakes, Project Rattlecam livestreams and documents the lives of rattlesnakes. Do they look like solitary animals to you?

So back to Hognose Snakes. When I first got my girls I'd read up everything on them, how they were solitary, and deaf, and not that bright, and unable to feel emotion (let alone love) due to missing the part of the brain that is capable of processing that. All of those things my girls have shown me to be untrue. Snakes are not deaf, in fact my girls regularly respond to my voice. They're not stupid (at least not any more than the average human child tbh) and can be target trained as well as taught to point at things they want. As far as feeling emotion, their brains are structured like birds, not humans, so they have a different brain structure and chemical but do indeed feel happiness, emotion, and affection- I have videos on my blog of Scoria using a gesture to request being pet she learned from mimicking me petting her.

As far as being solitary- the evidence I've seen that can be repeated points to that information being untrue. Think about it, why would a solitary species dedicate one of their few words to say, "I'm friendly! Let's be nice to each other." The "twitch" is also seen in the (very much not solitary) rattlesnake to communicate with other individuals they are friendly. Contrary to popular belief this is NOT strictly to signal mating but used far more often to display friendliness- Project Rattlecam has quite a few examples between babies and adults.

Hognoses also are known to brumate together over winter in the same dens. That doesn't sound like solitary animal behavior, especially considering they tend to brumate with individuals they know. Honestly? This sounds more like loose colony behavior. A researcher very well could have seen that a hognose went to a den by themselves and thought, "Hmm, these aren't like garter snakes who cram themselves into a den like a clown car. They are solitary."

My girls don't either. Usually each will sleep in her own den- unless she's worried about the other. I've seen a few times, including when Sakura was in shed, Scoria didn't leave her sister's side. But normally they'll go to one of their favorite dens (they seem to have decided amongst themselves what belongs to who) and while they'll sometimes borrow each other's dens, like a sister staying in her sister's room, they tend to stay in their own beds for the most part. During the day, they'll seek each other out, Sakura will greet Scoria with a twitch, and they'll either play with today's enrichment activity or snuggle up together and wait for me. They didn't start out together, and the decision to house them together was NOT one I took lightly. I actually have two identical enclosures I bought for each of them, but the other never got set up because they get very upset when I separate them. After quarantining Sakura, I left one of the rocks she'd had in her enclosure on a table Scoria was playing on. Her response was dramatic, she KNEW the scent was another snake, and from that second on she was determined to find this other hognose. I was afraid of introducing them, Scoria actually found Sakura's enclosure and tried to free her by digging through the side (there's a video of this in one of my older posts.) I VERY cautiously introduced them, and after some tongue flicks and twitches, Sakura immediately started treating Scoria like her mother.

Sakura was an absolute wreck when I got her, terrified of humans- I think her breeder mishandled her as she had trauma responses and would blind panic and flail when I tried to hold her. But if Scoria was with her and I picked them both up at the same time? She'd have no hesitation. Take Scoria away and Sakura was immediately back to hiding, panicking, and flailing. If they can see each other and Sakura gets scared, such as if there's a loud sound, she immediately races over to her sister and hides her head under her chin. I've seen them both be protective of each other too, even earlier this week I startled Sakura and she hissed- Scoria came racing from where she was to check Sakura where she was then go back to whatever she was doing. And when I take one out and not the other- if one can't find their sister while we are out I will come back to her very concerned hoggie, who will check her sister over completely when I put her back to ensure she is okay before she'll relax. They BOTH do this. And so many other things. So yes, I am aware of what people say about hognoses. And I am aware of the behavior I've witnessed and repeatedly seen proven to be true with my own girls. I've had other hognose keepers echo similar things when they let their snakes play together during free time as well. The entire world might not be open to hearing what is commonly believed might not be true- let's face it, an absurd amount of reptile keepers are still using red lights and refuse to change. But regardless, I know my girls, have studied their behavior, and am doing what they've shown me is best for their health and well being. <3

[darkclouds-rainsounds]

My fave

[darkclouds-rainsounds]

Give or Take | venesection feat. GUMI V3 English

[darkclouds-rainsounds]

Fruiting Bodies | R.I.P feat. GUMI V3 English

[darkclouds-rainsounds]

The Medical Anomaly | R.I.P feat. Oliver