#LETS GO NEW THEROPOD!!!!

[spectralpaleon]

LETS GO BABYYYYYY

[intimesnewhomo]

@ the universe am I a fucking joke to u

[dragonthunders01]

Spectember D8: Artificial selection

66 million years ago an extraterrestrial object landed on earth… not collided… landed.

It was itself artificial in nature, intelligent, very large and ready to prepare this world for occupants that were never going to come here, this machine was throw by an already extinct civilization that was colonizing the galaxy millions of years ago, leaving these behemoth terraforming drones that readjust the biosphere of a whole planet to be turned into a Arcology structured Ecumenopolis which can let them colonize the new alien planet. The artificial construct is not high intelligent, is more automatic than anything so this would only keep going for what was programmed without the ability to learn anything more of what it needs to maintain the global Arcological cities on the end cretaceous earth, even if it remains millions of years on the same task, following the same protocols and only adapting to an extend.

This has turned the history of earth into a new age, one where a civilization formed without its residents, now affecting the biosphere of the late cretaceous earth and carrying it into a strange new period, this causing a transformation on ways that benefited the survival of no avian dinosaurs and other animals and plants that could have perished if the asteroid collided as this whole system would protect them of the asteroid impact as part of its protocol of preservation. However, the existence of this artificial being would shape that fauna in ways that only could rival to changes made by geological and climate events, the machine would focus its goal on trying to adjust the animals that now live inside the cities to regulate their impact.

On what would be called reserves formed a more fragmentary ecosystems, pockets and islands between cities they are the most natural place on earth, they would see the evolution and extinction of new animals, meanwhile inside cities, there has been two trends: either these animals just adapt to the urbanized the environment remaining almost like their reserve relatives or the machine has modified the animals that tried to pass or live there to accommodate into specific tasks that benefit the infrastructure, indirectly domesticating them by artificial means and indirectly modifying their genes at long term by breeding, though these domesticated fauna sometimes would became extinct for a unexpected catastrophic event or are replaced by another group that the same global machine reshaped into a similar niche. Herbivores that feed on gardens and maintain them clean, predators that hunt animal plagues and balance the population of the other non-domesticated fauna, scavengers that keep streets clean from other animal remains. Although this machine has an army of small drones and systems that self-clean and maintain the cities, it didn’t stop to create its urban ecology to keep everything in check outside of the synthetic drone hands.

With all of this, it was possible that if there was not sentient species going to colonize this new earth, properly a sapient one would evolve inside the cities? Would even the machine would welcome its rise? In sort of way… it happened, but not in the way you could expect.

After 66 million years of constant modifications of these urban ecosystems, and jut since 6 million years ago a unique theropod species evolved, this is the Mockery folk (Scoptosapienoides), derived from a branch of oviraptorosaurs that evolved to hunt down perching animals on the tall building, it lives in these mega cities built and mean to host the long gone alien colonizers, and these theropods are capable of use the shelters with their rooms and beds, and sitting places to rest; these can go away from their specific home to “work” in hunting down the small animals that invaded the gardens of the tall buildings, often taking the transports, they can walk around streets too but they are taking the advantage of these special “elevators” to avoid wasting energy. They work out a whole day on their hunt, in a way this was their whole reward, a good hunt to eat food; they reach up their main homes to rest on the night, they are able to recognize their own houses, marks on them or simply by memory; they normally live solitary unless they establish a monogamous pair with a member of the opposite sex, which can nest and then raise their young in one single shelter until they reach age adult, at that point the monogamous couple separates and lives their lives as before, usually in a span period of more than 5 years; the mockery folk lives accommodated and in the case some of these get sick, old or crippled, these are cared properly if needed by the machine system.

Populations are largely limited to tall building apartments, normally only moving away when population overgrow the shelter amount or if one of the couples of the original family or the children leave and there is no way to properly way to establish a home nearby, normally remains homeless for days or week until they are guided by the machine to a new available building to live.

Their lives are easy, sustained by their hunting an interactive activity outside they can relax and sleep mostly in their shelters, the machine maintains its basic necessities including cleaning of these homes; the machine identifies these as residents of the buildings rather than animals, both collaborating and receiving the actions done, which the machine interprets as sentience acting, but is not, these animals are barely grasping a intelligence higher than a 4 year old human, they are as smart as a parrot and the majority of actions correspond to instinct and beneficial gain, and has been for the last 6 million years without really much advancement except more skill in using the systems of these cities.

The machine itself created them nudging its behavior, a product of mutual improvement and accommodation that produced at the end animals that could fill up a niche other organism couldn't fit, the one of the colonizers, to an extent of course because the machine itself is not capable of uplift these creatures, just to fulfill their needs and the mockery folk corresponds this for their own advantage, but not developed further for the mundane and dull life they obtained.

They became domesticated “people” which took the activities and tasks sapient beings were supposed to do, doing things they were planned to accommodate these unknown creators, though not fully guided by consciousness, they cannot understand why they can live in homes, or how these systems work, they cannot use things above simple color panels which they can touch with their derived finger in order to do an action, they cannot gather information or have a language, or history, they just live and die. There is no way to know if something might help them to evolve of being accommodate being in this artificial world, and the machine is likely not going to push this animal, just to let them live a sort of luxurious life until they all die out like with many other species.

[bestfictionaldinosaur]

Hi everyone! Thanks so much for your submissions today, they really made my day and I definitely needed that!

Anyway, I was going to post some stats again, but I decided to add it to the Official Saurnament Page™ so that anyone could see it live! The new tab shows a basic breakdown of the current potential candidate list, by broad group. Note that these groups are not a 100% accurate parallel to existing clades, this is just for simplicity's sake!

For the uninitiated, dinosaurs are classified into 2 main groups, that's not very interesting but I've kept it in this graph regardless. The 4 main groups, generally, are:

Theyreophora (Stegosaurs, Ankylosaurs, etc.)

Cerapoda (Triceratops, and essentially everything else not in the other categories like Parasaurolophus, Pachycephalosaurus, etc.)

Sauropods (Long necked dinosaurs like brachiosaurus, diplodocus, etc.)

Theropods (T-Rex, Raptors, and everything similar)

As you can see, we have a uh, slight oversaturation problem. But don't let this stop you from submitting theropods if that's what you want!

But like. If you know any non-theropods that you like, especially ornithiscians, please hesitate even less! I had originally wanted to do an ornithiscian and saurischian bracket, but if I have to restructure a little I will.

Anyway! Thanks a lot to all who've submitted, we're still nowhere near ready to move on to the next phase, so there's plenty of time left!

[bethanythebogwitch]

Let’s turn up the heat because I’m going over the real-life inspirations for all the fire-type starter Pokémon. Here are the links for when I covered the inspirations for all grass starters, all fish, and all non-fish aquatic Pokémon.

Gen I gives us quite possibly the most iconic starter line: the Charmander line. Interviews with the design team have revealed that Charizard was the first of the line to be designed and the other two were designed by working backwards from it. Both Charmander’s English and Japanese name (Hitokage) reference the mythical salamander of European folklore. Salamanders have been associated with fire in multiple cultural folklores throughout Europe, often to the point where their depictions have nothing to do with the actual amphibians. Interestingly, the oldest accounts that associate salamanders with fire comes from Pliny the Elder, who repeated an account their bodies were so cold they could extinguish fires. Somewhere along the line of legends being passed down, salamanders got flipped from repelling fire to living in it, possibly as a result of getting conflated with other mythical reptilians like dragons or basilisks. In the renaissance, the alchemist Paracelsus described salamanders as fire elementals, along with a group of other elemental beings (gnomes for earth, sylphs of air, and undines of water).

(image: an artistic depiction of a fiery salamander. Art by Michael Maier)

In addition to salamanders, Charmander and Charmeleon are given the upright poses and dragging tails of outdated reconstructions of theropod dinosaurs. Charizard is a classic depiction of a western dragon: a winged reptile that breathes fire. Western dragons are based heavily on lizards, with some of the earliest depictions being a dead ringer for monitor lizards. Charizard is said to love fighting, which is reminiscent of how western dragons have been depicted as dangerous, destructive, and even demonic monsters. It is only relatively recently that western dragons have been depicted as anything but evil. Charizard doesn’t have the dragon type (unless it mega evolves to X form), but that’s more because back in gen I, dragon was intended to be the special type exclusive to the late-game powerhouses that are the Dratini line. Charizards mega evolutions and gigantamax form don’t really add much to the origin, they’re just exaggerations of Charizard.

(image: art of a western dragon by Friedrich Justin Bertuch)

Cyndaquil is based on an echidna, an Australian monotreme (egg-laying mammal) that has a long snout and quills like a porcupine.

(image: a long-beaked echidna. I don't know why, but its snout makes me very uncomfortable)

Despite being an echidna, its species name is the Fire Mouse Pokémon. This is actually a hint to an additional inspiration for its origin. The Japanese word that got translated to “Fire Mouse” is “Hinezumi”. This is the Japanese name for a monster originating in Chinese legend called the “huǒshǔ”. It’s a flaming mouse that lives in volcanoes. The flaming mammal and volcano association continues through the line. Also, when I googled “hinezumi” the first thing that popped up was the Monster Girl Encyclopedia. If you know, you know (don’t google it). Quilava and Typhlosion completely drop the echidna inspiration, which is a bit disappointing to me. That’s why I made regional variants of them for my Australia/New Zealand fakemon region where they stay as echidnas. While being based on badgers, they retain the quills that are found in many animals, most famously porcupines and hedgehogs. Hisuian Typhlosion is based on Kamuy-huci, the Ainu goddess of the hearth. The Ainu are the indigenous people of Hokkaido, the island that inspired Sinnoh and Hisui. There are multiple Ainu references in Hisui’s design, plot, and regional variants. In the Ainu religion, the hearth was the connection between Earth and the world of spirits and was therefore never allowed to go out. It could also be used to communicate with the kamuy (gods and spirits) and was the passage through which the souls of the dead would leave the world and eventually return for reincarnation. This is why Hisuian Typhlosion is part ghost-type. The fire around H Typhlosion’s neck looks like magatama beads, which are used in the spiritual practices of multiple belief systems. These flames can release 108 ghost lights. 108 is an important number in Buddhism and is the number of beads in a Japamala, another type of beaded necklace used for spiritual practices in (among other religions) certain types of Buddhism.

(image: a japamala with wood beads)

The Torchic line is, I suspect, the place where the trend of basing fire starters on Chinese zodiac animals started. Typhlosion really doesn’t fit the zodiac, though some people say it’s supposed to be the mouse. The line is based on chickens. More specifically, they are based on the basan, a legendary fire-breathing chicken.

(image: art of a basan by Takehara Shunsen)

Torchic is a chick, a hatchling chicken. It being bright orange comes from a tradition of dying chicks bright colors to be sold at festivals. Male Torchics have a tiny black spot on their rear ends that females don’t. This is probably based on vent sexing, a technique for determining the sex of chocks, a notoriously difficult task. It is done by examining the cloaca, looking for a bump that usually only males have. Combusken and Blaziken are based on cockfighting, a form of animal abuse where people force chickens to fight and bet on the winners. The official art for Blaziken’s normal and mega evolved forms have it in poses used in the martial art of Muay Thai. Blaziken is usually depicted as fighting primarily with kicks and Muay Thai emphasizes kicking. Blaziken being an humanoid with a bird head may also reference the bird-headed Egyptian gods Horus and Ra, or off of the karura, a diving being that looks like a human with a bird’s head in Japanese mythology.

(image: a statue of a karura)

The Chimchar line are based on the monkey from the zodiac. Chimchar’s species name is the Chimp Pokémon, and it does bare some resemblance to a young chimpanzee. When Chimchar’s flame goes out, you can see prominent red marking on its butt. Several monkey species have marking on their hindquarters, but the most famous by far is the baboon. Chimchar’s lack of a tail identifies it as an ape, but its evolved from gain tails, making them monkeys. A lot of people think that apes are separate from monkeys, but really apes are a subset of old-world monkeys. Apes are monkeys, you are an ape, therefore you are a monkey and that’s nothing to be ashamed of. Monferno and Infernape both have prominent facial markings heavily reminiscent of those of mandrills.

(image: a male mandrill's face)

Monferno having blue facial marking and orange fur also makes it look like a golden snub-nosed monkey.

(Image: a golden snub-nosed monkey's face)

These are native to China and the line does have some heavy Chinese influence. The martial art that Monferno and Infernape use is most likely Monkey Kung Fu or Hóu Quán, which was inspired by the movements of monkeys. Infernape is based on the character of Son Goku, the Japanese name for the character Sun Wukong from the Chinese epic novel Journey to the West. Sun Wukong is the king of all monkeys, a martial artist, and has several magic powers.

(image: Japanse art of Son Goku/Sun Wukong. Art by Shunman Kubo)

Sun Wukong may be based on the older Hindu god Hanuman, a monkey-like god associated with strength and heroism who was also a member of the varana, a species of monkey people.

(image: a sculpture of Hanuman)

The Tepig line are based on the boar of the zodiac. Ken Sugimori said that the Unova starters were based on different cultures to reflect Unova being a very diverse place. The Tepig line were given Chinese design elements whole the Snivy line were “western” and the Oshawott line were Japanese. Tepig having a dark marking on its head and rear but being light everywhere else comes from the markings of the British Saddleback pig breed.

(image: a British saddleback pig)

The fire and pig combination references how pigs are bad at regulating their body head and need to use external sources like mud to cool off. Pignite takes on more boar traits with its exposed tusks. The markings on its body look like it is dressed in a wrestling singlet, which fits as both Pignite and Emboar are based on wrestlers. The yellow markings on Pignite and Emboar resemble patters found in ancient Chinese cauldrons called dings.

(image: a ding)

Ken Sugimori also stated Emboar was inspired by the character Zhang Fei in the Chinese novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms. In the story, Zhang Fei is betrayed and decapitated by his own men. This could be the purpose of the fire scarf Emboar has, to separate its head from its body. Pignte and Emboar also draw from another Chinese story, the afore-mentioned Journey to the West, specifically the character of Zhu Baije. Zhu Baije is a pig man who joins the titular journey. He is also jealous of Sun Wukong, which kind of fits with how Emboar is a much worse Pokémon than Infernape.

(image: an artists depiction of Zhu Baije. Unknown artist)

The Fennekin like take the place of the fox in the zodiac. Design-wise, their large ears mark them as being based on fennec foxes. They are also based off of the kitsune, magical foxes in Japanese mythology. Among the many powers attributed to kitsune were the ability to breathe fire and perform magic. Kitsune could also take on the form of human women, which is referenced in Fennekin’s evolutions becoming humanoid and having feminine designs.

(image: art of a Kitsune scaring two people by Utagawa Kuniyoshi)

Human could also learn magic form foxes, becoming  fox witches or kitsune-mochi/kitsune-tsukai. Braixen and Delphox take quite a bit of their design from these fox witches, they also draw from the classic wester witch, using magic wands and Braixen having a tail that looks like the head of a flying broomstick. The association of witches with fire might be a reference to witch burnings. Delphox is also based on a prophet or seer, with its ability to see the future. Delphox’s English name directly references the ancient Greek oracle at Delphi. The final forms of the Kalos starters are based on the fantasy character archetypes of the fighter, the mage, and the thief. Delphox is very much the mage.

Litten is a black cat with tabby cat features. Tabby cats are defined by the stripes on their faces and legs. The orange and black stripes also identify it as the tiger from the zodiac. Its eyes plus forehead stripes are a dead ringer for the alchemical symbol for brimstone, another name for sulfur. Sulfur is a highly flammable element, fitting the fire type. This is one of several references to alchemy found in gen VII.

(image: the alchemical symbol for brimstone. two horizontal lines crossed by a vertical line that leads down into an infinity symbol)

Torracat doesn’t change much from Litten, just adding more stripes and a fireball that looks like a bell on a cat’s collar. It does change when it evolves to Incineroar, and not for the better. Incineroar is my least favorite final stage starter and easily in my top 10 most hated Pokémon. I could go on for a while about how much I hate it, but this isn’t the post for that. It’s still a tiger, but now it has been combined with a professional wrestler. You can tell they really wanted to do another fire/fighting type but knew there would be backlash. The belt of fire is based on a championship belt and its dark type comes from being a heel. In wrestling language, a heel is a villainous character, someone the audience is supposed to boo (a face is a heroic character). This fits with Incineroar being describes as a violent and egotistical Pokémon. However, Incineroar does have a soft side. This fits with how wrestlers are performers playing characters. A performer playing a heel character may cheat, lie, steal, and generally be an asshole while in character, but when not in character they probably won’t be nearly as unpleasant a person.

Scorbunny is the rabbit of the zodiac. More specifically, it is a white rabbit and like with real rabbits, its feet are considered good luck charms. The yellow patch on its face comes from a Japanese character design trope where a bandage over the nose is supposed to indicate that the character is tough and rambunctious. Maylene from the Sinnoh games shares this design element. Its fire typing could come from the Jataka tales, a collection of Buddhist stories from India. In tale 316, a rabbit is placed in a fire as a burnt offering, but it is unharmed by the flame. Another connection could come from the fact that rabbits have unusually high body temperatures for mammals. If Scorbunny is cheerful child, Raboot is a moody teenager. It’s fur and the stripe on its head look like a tracksuit and headband, giving it a connection to athletics. This continues with Cinderace, who is now an association football (or soccer to Americans) player. Football is a huge deal in England, the basis for Galar. Its fur looks like athlete’s attire and it uses a flaming berry like a football. This is another one where you can tell they wanted to make another fire/fighting type.

The Fuecoco line ditched the zodiac theme to become a crocodile. Its upright posture makes it look like a chibified theropod dinosaur and its silhouette looks like a chili pepper. The white face of both Fuecoco and Crocalor resembles a calavera, skull imagery used in the Mexican Day of the Dead. This is a Mexican holiday which is a celebration of dead loved ones that is typically very spirited and cheerful as opposed to glum and mournful. Folklore says the ghost will return to the world of the living on the Day of the Dead. While Paldea is based on Spain and Portugal, several of the new Pokémon have designs based on elements from central and south America, possibly because of both countries’ history of colonialism in those areas. Crocalor adds several references to mariachi players. The flaming nest and egg on its head is a sombrero while the markings on its abdomen look like a traje cordobés, a type of vest often used in mariachi.

(image: a mariachi band wearing wests and sombreros)

The hat combined with the calavera face makes it look like La Calavera Catrina, a skeleton wearing a wide-brimmed hat that is used as a common symbol in the Day of the Dead.

(image: art of La Calavera Catriana by José Guadalupe Posado)

It could also be a bouquet of Tagetes erects, the Mexican marigold, a flow also used for the Day of the Dead. Skeledirge continues the mariachi and Day of the Dead theme by becoming an undead singing crocodile. Real crocodiles will vocalize during mating and nesting season. There are several stories of ghostly or monstrous crocodiles in Spanish folklore, such as the Cocollona and the Drac de Na Coca, the latter of which is displayed as a taxidermied specimen in a museum in the city of Palma de Mallorca. There is also the Coco or Cuca, a boogieman-like that originated in Spain and Portugal and spread to the Americas that is often depicted as a monstrous crocodile. All three of the Paldea starters are based on entertainers and Skeledirge is based on a singer. Given its typing and English name, it probably single funeral dirges. The fiery bird on its nose could come from the gharial, another type of crocodilian. Male gharials have large bumps on the tips of their snouts in the same spot the bird sits.

(image: a male gharial)

Another, possibly more likely source is the Egyptian plover, a bird that will land on top of Nile crocodiles and eat parasites off of their skin. Skeledirge could also be based off of alebrijes, very colorful statues of mythical creatures in Mexican folk art. This is making me think about how cool a Mexico-based region could be.

[suryp]

australovenator hrt - wip

"hello, [xxxxxxx], thanks for coming in today."

"ah, thanks for having me, doc, this has been a long time coming."

"speaking of, mind specifying what, exactly, 'this' is?"

"i... i dont think im human."

"well thats quite obvious, but if you-"

"australovenator."

"...excuse me?"

"i think im a dinosaur. a megaraptoran. i fantasize about having talons about tearing things apart with them about piercing their ribs an-"

"slow down, slow down... so your a dinosaur."

"...yes"

"well, theres going to be issues with that. prehistoric therians generally dont have living examples of what they are, and even if we can reasonably predict behavior, exact appearance often varies wildly, and we may not know what, exactly, you wish to be.

"i... i see."

"theres also the difficulty of finding applicable hormones, if that is indeed the route you wish to take. skeletal changes may be particularly difficult. not as complex as, say, adding new limbs to a dragon or moving the ribs to the correct position on a tortoise, but still."

"..."

"lets not worry right now. just tell me, or rather, show me what a dinosaur is for you"

"ahm, well, i guess its... lean. a gracile but generic theropod build, like a roadrunner but, well, larger."

"and with talons?"

"and with talons, at least on the forelimbs. big, six inch meathooks."

"is that why you haven't trimmed your nails?

"heh... actually, ive got some good references..."

"oh?"

"yeah, um, im guessing you don't know what a Taro is? actually, a Darun might be better, at least for a few parts but..."

"..."

"doc?"

"...there... there may be an easier route. arguably. especially for a megaraptoran."

"what do you mean?"

"im not supposed to mention it, and its not viable for everyone or even most patients, but for saurians in particular it's the cleanest way forward."

"what is it?"

"well, it requires a detailed analysis of your blood type, medical history, personality, beliefs, family, friends, and extensive deliberation from a variety of professionals in this field."

"doesnt... doesnt sound to different from hrt."

"its not, apart from being simpler and safer in your specific case."

"how long till i start?"

"months, potentially, though you could tale more basic hormones in the meantime."

"and how long till then?"

"just next week."

"it sounds... ideal. yeah. lets go with that."

"alright, i'll see you then to further discuss what changes you'll expect, and then-"

"off to the races?"

"off to the races."

anyone who predicts the other thing gets an immediate follow and a kiss

the name is blurred but will remain constant. suryp is fine.

im not sure if ill draw this, frankly, ever. im weird self conscious of the fact i only have pen n paper artwork. hm

mutuals you didn't reas this.

[space-blue]

2 episodes in Prehistoric Planet season 2, and I must say, the animation is incredible. Top notch. Every animal feels heavy and real...

But if Favreau and his philosophy of 'grey and drab = real' could actually fuck off to go ruin another genre of cinema and leave dinos and animals at large alone, that'd be great!!

Every dino is some shade of grey or brown. Dashes of reddish-rust colour aren't noticeable or enough. Have you seen... birds? Have you seen... lizards? They're not all sand coloured you know?? Not every baby needs to have a quail pattern and colour palette either.

We know things like some raptors having *iridescent* plumage.

When we applied our method to the melanosomes of Anchiornis, the results were striking. Our statistical predictions indicated that the feathers that covered much of the creature's body were mostly gray. The long feathers on the animal's arms and legs, in contrast, were unpigmented by melanosomes and thus white, except for the melanosome-laden tips, which we predicted were black. (Modern birds often have black-tipped wing feathers. The melanin, in addition to coloring the feathers, also fortifies them against battering winds. Perhaps Anchiornis benefited from this strengthening property of melanin, too.) Most surprising, the feathers on the crown of the head contained impressions of round melanosomes—the “meatballs”—that would have given Anchiornis a ruddy crest. All told, this combination of colors made for a spectacularly flamboyant creature.

It was not long before we discovered evidence of iridescence in an actual dinosaur—a crow-size creature from China with wings on all four limbs. Dubbed Microraptor, it was a primitive cousin to Jurassic Park's Velociraptor. The movie depicted Velociraptor with scaly skin, but scientists now know that both these dinosaurs were, in fact, covered in feathers. In Microraptor, the preserved feathers contain long, sausage-shaped melanosomes arranged to bend light in eye-catching ways. Its plumage thus would have been black, with the same shiny sheen as a crow's. Microraptor is not the only extinct creature now known to have had that rainbow shimmer. Jennifer Peteya of Oberlin College and Ghent's Shawkey have described shimmering iridescence in an enantiornithine bird, called Bohaiornis, and a Jurassic theropod with a big, fan-shaped tail, named Caihong.

Source

Let the artists be creative too, come on. Watching the show saddens me at times when a new dino comes in looking so alive but the exact same grey muddled mix of non-colour.

[sagemonsters]

interest check for new project

Would anyone be interested in a CYOA digital zine? I’m thinking something that’s Stone Age fantasy in the same vein as Fire and Ice (1983) and the Planegea setting for D&D 5e—basically something that involves dinosaurs, mammoths, magic, undead, and an untamed landscape full of wonder and danger all at the same time in one glorious, anachronistic stew.

(I have a weakness for stonepunk fantasy settings, okay?)

The reader steps into the role of a shaman’s apprentice who is tasked with retrieving a ceremonial artifact from a dangerous location. Along the way, you will meet some enemies of your clan—do you attempt to parlay and make peace, do you sneak around them, or do you try to fight?

Likewise, you’ll also find a portal to a strange, poisonous jungle full of the ruins of a past civilization more technologically advanced than your own—do you stop to gather artifacts for further study, do you hurry past as fast as you can toward your goal, or do you begin a spell or ritual attempting to communicate with the spirits of those who once lived here?

I could go on. The point, though, is monster romance. The reader will meet three nonhuman love interests and get to travel with one of them + earn (or potentially lose!) their affection during this quest. There will be a plethora of endings to achieve.

Realistically speaking this is more of an RPG Maker project (or a visual novel) than anything else and I feel like I’m biting off a great deal more than I can chew for a first CYOA story—but aiming high is how you learn, right? So, I’m going to do it.

Love Interests

First of all, I want to make love interests that are (mostly) original and not just creatures that are copy/pasted from extant modern cultures. Example: harpies come from Greek mythology, so I’m not really a big fan of them for this particular project, but I think a pterasaur-based monster person would be really fun.

Actually, you know what, I’m going to use that.

Tekka Stoneclaws (they/them) is a brightly colored, pterasaur-esque person who is a great seer and wielder of magic. They call upon the power of Sky, the mercurial deity of all celestial objects.

Meithe Half-Tooth (she/her) is a smilodon-esque person who has one broken front fang and fights her enemies through means of physical strength. She calls on the power of Stone, the stalwart deity of the earth.

Khirs One-Eye (he/him) is a theropod-esque person with a (potentially cursed) obsidian knife that he obtained through unkind means. He fights, lies, and betrays to make his way through the world, and calls on the power of Shade, the ever-hungry deity of midnight.

That’s all I’ve got for now. Ofc it needs waaaayyyyy more work than this, but I’m really excited! I’ve never written a CYOA story before, so it will be a long time in the making, but I’d love to share the process and finished product here on tumblr. Please do let me know your thoughts!

[grymmblr]

Dinner Date [Unfinished] (ca. 2019)

The theropod had finally arrived at a brown American Four Square house. It was about 7:35 PM by this time—the sun had already set as it was Autumn, and all that could be seen was the shimmering moon, and the shining stars, in the lovely dark blue sky. He tried to stay as quiet as possible in order to not wake any of the neighbors, tiptoeing over to his awaited destination. He only came for one person and that was the dog of his dreams. When he finally arrived at his beloved's door, he rang the bell. Water could be heard from inside the house.

"Just a second!" Beckham had called out. That was accompanied by sounds of scrubbing.

The velociraptor wondered whether the hound was taking a shower or simply brushing his teeth. All he knew was that he was glad that he was at least cleaning himself before the date. Roger waited quietly and patiently for the canine to finish whatever it was he was doing. After a few seconds, Beckham had finally stepped out of his house. He was wearing nothing but his usual newsboy cap, long-sleeved orange sweater, black jeans, black military boots, and collar, looking exactly the same as usual, minus the jacket. The mutt had looked up and down at the dinosaur, examining his appearance.

"You look wonderful this evening," he commented.

"Thanks!" said Roger. "I wish I could say the same about you. The least you could do was wear a new hat or collar." He paused for a second while gathering his thoughts. "Or for the love of God, put something more formal on!"

The stud paused for a few seconds before bursting with laughter. The raptor wasn't so sure about what he found so funny about that statement, until... "You think I actually own formal clothes?" Beck asked, mid-laughter, holding his gut. "All I own are casual clothes!"

"Well, why don't we just go down to the nearest clothes store on our way to the airport?" Roger suggested. Suddenly a loud growling noise filled the room. It sounded very familiar, so familiar that the raptor knew exactly where it was coming from. He looked at the mongrel's stomach as he held it again.

"Yeah, I'd rather not," the tyke started. "See, I've been saving myself for dinner and I feel if I have to wait any longer than I should, I'm going to start seeing red."

The Saurischia simply tisked at him, "You know, it's always okay to have a little snack before dinner. You do know that, right?"

"Uh-huh, and haven't you heard that it's never good to spoil your appetite?"

"Touche, mon cher." the dinosaur acknowledged. "Now, let's get out of here already. We're both hungry!" The raptor folded out his arm, placing his fist on his hip, and soon the dog wrapped his arm around it, as they headed out of the house and out into town.

------------------------------------------------------------

"Hmm, what a fancy restaurant," Beck commented. "Didn't know you could afford it."

"Why, yes!" Roger started. "Only the finest for the classiest mutt around." He stated that sentence semi-sarcastically. "Let's hope you don't scratch your butt or chase the waiter while you're in there."

"Yes, and let's hope you don't screech, claw at people, and try to eat anyone when things don't go your way."

"You flatter me," laughed the raptor as they finally headed inside.

The men were sat at the table, examining their menus quietly. There was a very diverse set of things on the menu, even things that would be considered odd for such a fancy-looking restaurant. Of course, that must've been the reason Roger had chosen it. For quite a while, the two boys were simply squinting at their menus, "hmm-ing" at themselves while thinking about what they were going to order. Finally, one of them decided to break the silence.

"What are you going to order?" the theropod questioned.

"Wouldn't you like to know?" the dog sneered back.

"If I didn't, I wouldn't have asked," Roger replied.

"Well, if you must know, I think I'm going to have..." he started, "The roast beef with a side of Yorkshire Pudding, Duchess Baked Potatoes, chicken noodle soup, and a spot of tea." He listed those items very fast.

"Keep in mind, Beckham, we're both splitting the check here." the raptor reminded. "You're going to be paying for your half of the order, so I'd choose wisely."

Beckham simply chupsed, a grimace on his face. "Oooh... right, you should've told me that earlier. I've only got pounds on me."

"Well, I thought you gained weight," the quick-witted dinosaur smirked.

"Har-dee-har-har." the mongrel spoke sarcastically, rolling his eyes. "You know exactly what I mean."

"Look, just go down to the nearest ATM and try to exchange currency there," Roger began. "I'll wait here and try not to order anything while you're out."

Beckham simply nodded before pulling out his chair and hopping off of it. He headed out of the restaurant, on his way to the ATM machine. Roger simply sneered at him, tisking to himself. He always thought that the way that hound walked looked ridiculous. It was worse than a duck or a penguin waddling. He especially hated how his hands almost reached his knees. It was simply unnatural as if God built him to simply look funny. Everything about him seemed like a little inside joke. Just as he was lost in his thoughts, he heard a man clear his throat. After phasing out for a bit, he looked away from the door and up at the waiter.

"May I take your order, sir?" the overworked and underpaid bloke begged in a monotone voice.

"Um..." The theropod was lost in his thoughts once again, wondering whether he should order some appetizers for now or if to wait for the mutt to return just like he promised. After thinking for a bit, he decided to finally answer. "Yes, I would like to order some mozzarella sticks with a side of marinara sauce, and some buffalo chicken wings, with bones that is." He giggled to himself, "See my date is currently away right now, exchanging currency, but he really loves bones for some reason I will never understand." Simply thinking about the dog enjoying bones was enough to make the dinosaur blush and giggle wildly. Despite his demeanor and overall attitude, he knew deep down inside, he might simply really love Beckham, as much as he wouldn't want to admit it.

"Uh-huh," the waiter noted, writing down the order on a mini flipbook. "And what would you like to drink?"

"One large Coca-Cola, and a large cup of Hawaiian Punch, please."

"Okay, I'll be back with your order momentarily." The fellow took the menus and simply walked away.

Roger simply tapped his hands on the table, making various mouth noises as he waited for the food. Even worse, the pooch still hadn't returned yet. Eventually, he got out his smartphone and started playing on some apps to pass the time. He first decided to watch some educational videos. Thankfully, he had the volume on mute and the captions on so other patrons wouldn't hear it and he could still read it. After about 7 minutes, he decided to play some puzzle and word games, his absolute favorites to play. Those took about 15 minutes of his time in total. He was still bored, wishing he had other people to talk to in order to pass the time. As much as he hated to do this, he decided to check some of his social media apps and websites in order to kill a few more minutes. As he was about to check on Pictogram, the waiter had finally returned with his order. He put the plate of mozzarella sticks, the miniature cup of marinara sauce, and a box of buffalo wings on the table in front of him.

"Here you are, sir," the monotonous waiter spoke. "I'll be back in a few minutes for your main course."

"Thank you, my good man." The Saurischia was relieved to finally see his meal.

The man walked away, leaving Roger to simply look down at his meal, wondering what to do. Quite a few minutes have passed and Beckham still hasn't returned yet. He wondered what was taking him so long anyway. He didn't think it would take this long to simply buy out money from an ATM. Perhaps there was a long wait in the line. Whatever the case, he was surely hungry. The velociraptor knew it would be wrong to do this, but he decided that one bite wouldn't hurt. He took one mozzarella stick, dipped it in the sauce, and took a bite out of it. It had quite a scrumptious taste, just delightful. A tinge of guilt filled him, but the flavor was too good to pass off. After finishing the stick, he decided to wolf down more and more, with ravenous hunger.

After finishing the entire plate, he suddenly heard the doors of the restaurant open and heard loud panting. Roger looked toward the door and saw a familiar sight. Suddenly, he felt a tinge of guilt and anxiety come on from eating all of that food. He knew he wouldn't be all too pleased if he found out about it. The dog had finally returned, walking up to the table, still breathless, pulling out the chair, and sitting in it. His tongue was sticking out, wagging in and out of his mouth. He looked down for a few minutes, trying to catch his breath, before looking into Roger's eyes.

"Welcome back, you mangy mutt!" the Paraves exclaimed, giddily.

"Thanks, you untapped fossil fuel!" Beckham responded, joy in his voice. "Sorry, I was late. There was a long wait at the ATM. Then, I decided to get something real quick before coming back here." He looked down at the table and saw an empty plate and a box full of some unknown, to him, food and narrowed his eyes. "I see you've definitely lived up to your promise of not ordering any food while I was gone."

"Yeah, sorry," the Tetanurae chupsed. "I couldn't help myself. I was hungry. But you can't say I never thought of you because I got you these!" He pushed the box of wings toward the canine. "I specifically asked for bones, because I knew you like them a lot for whatever reason. I will never understand you dogs."

The wolf's descendant licked his chops, rubbing his hands together as he took sight of the food in front of him. "I see you know the best way to a man's heart, after all."

"The only reason I'd ever want to get to your heart is to stab it to death," the Dromeosauridae snarked. The yellow-furred hound and the red-haired raptor both shared a hearty laugh at the comment for a good minute before, "Seriously, I absolutely despise you." He made the comment in the most serious, harsh voice he could.

"Well, right back at you then, eh?"

He simply took a bite out of his food, looking down at the table. They both shared a moment of awkward silence, simply eating their food. They were not sure what to say to each other after that awkward comment. They simply spent the next few minutes simply finishing their food off. After that was done, they were both tapping their hands on the table and whistling, still not sure what to say to each other or looking into each other's eyes. Beckham didn't truly feel any contempt for what Roger said—he was used to him making comments like that, and he had a feeling it simply wasn't true. He just wasn't so sure what to bring up, and Roger was in the same boat in not knowing what to say. Suddenly, though, the quick-witted velociraptor came up with a topic starter—a pretty basic one, anyway.

"So, how are things over at your job?" The dreamy-eyed Tyrannoraptora tilted his head in his hand, spinning his other hand's index finger on the table, still not looking into the dog's eyes.

"Oh, the same as usual," he began, "Ramon the Goat and his friends are up to their hijinks, my boss is making me work like crazy, the toddlers are being their messy and mischievous selves, and most importantly, Simone the Shark is eating a lot of the dead fish. As always, I'm just here suffering. How about you? How are things with you?"

"The country's going mad, my parents are fighting, and my friend is giving me mixed feelings, so I'm also suffering as well," Roger responded. "Luckily, my love of drawing has made a return, and my friend's going on vacation soon so I'll be suffering from missing him, and yet feeling a bit more peaceful at the same time. Speaking of, how is your relationship with Shelby going? Especially considering you agreed to this date with me. Does he know about this?"

"I will never tell him about us, and you know it," he barked, "It would break his poor little heart if he knew, even if you and I are just friends. I love the man but I can't help but want a little change from the routine is all. Our relationship is going well, otherwise, with its ups and downs as is normal. We recently snuck out to a nearby carnival and after playing some games, we kissed on the Ferris wheel. It was wonderful, I felt all tingly inside."

"That's good to hear," the velociraptor chirped. "I'm rooting for you guys! Your relationship is absolutely adorable."

"Are you sure you're not just jealous of what we have?" Beckham raised an "eyebrow", a smirk across his face.

"I don't know why your dumb brain thinks that I have a thing for you." He crossed his arms, looking away from the pooch and huffed. "I don't like you and I never will, you big-nosed, beer-bellied, buck-tooth, egotistical little devil-horned mutt!"

"Ah, how I love it when you call me those things." The mutt had a dreamy, starry-eyed smile, moving in closer to the dinosaur, in order to nuzzle him with his cheek.

"Hmph!" Roger huffed, his arms still crossed and snout raised in the air. "Weren't you just talking about how much you love your boyfriend Shelby Woolsenburg?"

"Oh, right..." The recollection of his true lover made him stop and feel ashamed of his actions, he had a disappointed frown on his face. Suddenly a thought came to his mind and he perked up. "So, where's the damn waiter wanting to know our main course, anyway?"

"Relax, Beckham," the Theropoda urged, a kind smile and loving voice, petting the mutt on the head. "They'll be here soon, you just need to have some patience is all. If they don't get here in 5 minutes, I'll file a complaint, okay?"

"Actually, with your fiery temper, I think it'd be best if I did it."

"Aww, you never let me have fun," the raptor giggled.

"It's because your brand of 'fun' usually lands us in trouble," the stud pointed out, a playful grin. They both shared a few chuckles before the waiter finally walked up to their table, returning their menus to them. Sweet relief! "Finally! I was wondering when you'd come back

[haltraveler]

Okay but, you know what would be cool?Psychologically accurate dinosaur monster movie, where the trick to surviving is treating the dinosaurs like big animals instead of movie monsters.

There's still the obligatory "eaten by a theropod" death, of course, but most of the deaths are centered on how scary the herbivores are when provoked.

Seriously, a stegosaurus has DEADLY SPIKES on its tail, more dinosaur monster films should have thagomizer impalements!

Absolutely, that'd totally rule. The Jurassic franchise really fails in using the potential of herbivorous dinosaurs as real threats, beyond the Stegosaurus scene in TLW and the Therizinosaurus in Dominion, and even then there are no actual herbivore kills in the franchise that I can recall, not even of other dinosaurs besides the Therizinosaurus getting an assist against the Giganotosaurus.

If you want to make a movie with scary dinosaurs, limiting yourself to the carnivorous theropods is a HUGE handicap. As you mentioned, stegosaurs had enormous spines and while they couldn't run very fast they could pivot startlingly quickly. But they're honestly one of the LEAST scary groups of large plant eating dinosaurs.

Hadrosaurs, the "duck-bills", are often used as fodder for meat eaters and treated as gentle and placid but that's mainly because they don't have any visible pointy bits. In truth, a hadrosaurid could EASILY end your life for annoying it, because it's the size of a small elephant and probably quite fast for its size. A singe kick from a Parasaurolophus would cave in your ribcage and a bite from its beak and grinding battery of teeth would mangle your hand beyond recognition.

Ankylosaurs meanwhile? Besides being so heavily armored that they even had armor plates on their eyelids, that tail club is one of the most devastating natural weapons to ever evolve. It's meant for smashing T. rex shins and if you've seen a T. rex skeleton you know those leg bones were no joke. Not to mention that some of them seem to have had poor eyesight which if rhinos are any indication would only make them more trigger-happy.

Ceratopsids? Absolute nightmare fuel. The gigantic 3+ foot horns on a Triceratops? Not even the part I'd worry most about, because people forget that fucking beak, which had a very powerful bite and a sharp enough hook that some scientists have speculated it might've occasionally eaten meat. Combine that with ludicrously thick skin and Triceratops is less like a big cow and more like a 7 ton wild boar.

And then there's sauropods... dear lord, fucking sauropods. Easily the most terrifying land animals of all time, just from sheer mass. It's hard to even fathom the idea of a 20+ ton Apatosaurus, let alone a 75 ton titanosaur like Patagotitan. The good news is that they couldn't run. The bad news is that their strides were long enough that it wouldn't matter, because they could just casually walk fast enough to overtake most humans who aren't trained athletes. And if we want to use the most impressive hypotheses about their biology, it's been proposed that diplodocids could crack their tails like whips, generating a sonic boom loud enough to cause fatal organ damage even if you don't factor in the tip of the tail, which in at least one species was covered in tiny spines like a saw, slashing through flesh.

And those are just the major A-list groups. I could go into detail about how an Iguanodon, Deinocheirus, or Plateosaurus could fuck you up but I think I've made my point pretty clearly.

[fallenangellinwonderland]

A difficult task part 3

-Sherlock, Sherlock! It's fine! We'll figure it out. - John rests his hand on Sherlock's shoulder - I will help you, Mrs. Hudson and Molly can help us too, even Mary!- he tries his best to calm down his friend. Anthea is at the door holding a little boy's hand. Even if they had not done a DNA test, there was no doubt it was Sherlock's, the book was pretty much a copy of the famous detective. Head full of dark wavy hair, it isn't curly, his round eyes a bright innocent blue, his little button nose like Irene's and he has her ears, while his lips are Sherlock's very pinkish. He is wearing a green jumper and blue jeans and brown tennis shoes. He looks neat. Sherlock looks at the little boy with an astonish expression on his face, he does look like him. -hi- his little voice say. -William this is Sherlock Holmes, your father- Mycroft pushes the boy carefully to Sherlock. They stare at each other for a second. Sherlock looks back at Mycroft again with pleading eyes. -If you have any question you can call me, I'll try my best to help you. Mommy will be delighted with the news.- Mycroft nods at them and gives a short wave to William before walking out. -Hi, Will, my name is John. Are you hungry?- John kneels down to be his height. The boy shakes his head no before looking back at Sherlock. -okay, then why don't we open your suitcase, let's see what is inside. Sherlock sits down again still in shock. His head is a mess, a million thoughts crossing his mind. John unzips the blue suitcase revealing the clothes and some story books and a stuffed pirate parrot. It was probably 30cm, bright green, a wooden left, black eye patch and a black pirate hat with a skull in the middle. William grabbed it holding it tight against his chest. Sherlock covers his face before rubbing it. John ignores him and smiles at Will. -What's his name?- he asks petting the parrot. -Bones.- will replies handing the parrot to John. Sherlock takes his hands off his face and looks at will arching his right eyebrow -Bones?... That's creative...did you chose the name yourself?- The little boy nods smiling shyly -Parrots have 25 bones. Birds came from theropods- -Do you like dinosaurs?- Sherlock is now more interested in getting to know him. It was a long evening, Sherlock didn't feel comfortable enough to be near Will. Will didn't feel comfortable enough in such a messy place with things that could break easily but he was bored. John didn't know what to do, didn't know how to help them. Okay that's all my brain could develop. I thought, wouldn't it be cute that Sherlock runs a bubble bath to him and taking him to the zoo, or the park or show him some simple experiments, dressing him in style like him. Sherlock having to deal with Will being extrovert or maybe he is introvert but Sherlock doesn't want him to be like him, because he doesn't want Will to be bullied. Imagine Will taking every kitten he finds in the street and Sherlock trying his best to not scold him but getting a bit annoyed because he has to take them out. And when he takes him to kindergarten (nursery in London) he meets the reader, (here i go again) she could be Will's teacher. She helps Sherlock so he can help Will with his homework, and maybe she teaches him some parenting tips.

[snickeringdragon]

so, reposting this bc i realised reblogs dont seem to appear on searches on tumblr lmfao

lighthearted rant abt why the galarian fossil pokemon shouldnt be alive!!/pos

ill go in dex order, dracozolt-arctozolt-dracovish-arctovish

dracozolt!! the combination of the bird and drake fossils, by far the LEAST fucked up of the galarian fossils, but it still has some clear issues to point out

after analyzing the living halves AND the fossils/descriptions you can pretty easily figure out what all 4 of the halves are roughly based after, the draco half causes some confusion but after the dex states that dracozolt is herbivorous, and the front half zolt clearly being a species of small feathered dromaeosaurid like raptors (possibly something like microraptor or archeaopteryx due to the bird fossils description stating it could fly, which no dromaeosaurs did but some were thought to glide!!) and those basically all being carnivorous, we can figure out draco is the herbivorous half, leading me to believe its some type of stegosaurid now, with a front half thats carnivorous and a back half thats herbivorous thats GOT to cause some issues, not getting proper nutrition, not having proper ways to digest certain things one half needs, etc, if we go with what the dex says (which the dex is CLEARLY not very reliable for these pokemon but lets just use it here) that its herbivorous the zolt half could be receiving malnutrition and having trouble eating the correct food the center of balance!

its probably thrown off by the obvious size difference and the fact that stegosaurids are quadrapeds, while dracozolt is a biped. if it falls over its pretty fucked but thats pretty normal for large theropods tbh

there could be some issues with body temperature, but im not sure, smaller things get colder faster and bigger things get hotter faster

thats all i have to say for dracozolt!!

Arctozolt

arctozolt is the combination of the dino and bird fossils and was my first galar fossil! theyve got some VERY clear issues and a few less clear ones to address, but they are Definitely not enjoying coming back from the dead 💖

first, what IS the arcto half? judging by what we can see i think its most likely to be a type of plesiosaur, it could also be some other aquatic reptiles like ichthyosaurs but i think plesiosaurs are more likely

arctozolt is. cold. duh, the freezing half of an ice type plesiosaur and a small dromeasaur is probably leaving lil zolt pretty chilly and uncomfortable, please give them a scarf

if you take a look back at dracozolt and compare to arctozolt, youll notice the upper torso and most of the arms are inside arctos? blubber? scales? one of those two! not only does this leave the hands nearly useless it also means that if the bones, muscle, flesh, etc, are still present it could definitely cause some health issues, including messing with organs

arctozolt is CLEARLY not supposed to be walking, a terrestrial animal was combined with an aquatic one to result in uh. broken flippers probably, aquatic animals can get VERY heavy and the flippers were clearly never designed to handle that weight, its likely highly uncomfortable to walk on them and probably causes many injuries including broken bones

Dracovish

oh FUCKING boy/lh the combination of the drake and fish fossils dracovish is a NIGHTMARE of a pokemon, a head on a tail, an aquatic creature combined with a terrestrial one, a carnivore combined with an herbivore, this is my least favorite galar fossil

firstly, whats the vish half? this is the only galarian fossil you can get an exact genus for, vish is almost certainly based of dunkleosteus, a prehistoric fish that had one FUCK of a jaw!

now, as stated above the picture dracovish has the same conflicting diet issue dracozolt has, draco being an herbivore and vish most likely being a carnivore like dunkleosteus, i wont go into too much detail because i already did with dracozolt

center of balance comes up once again, i dont think i need to elaborate much but with how it just. Is. theres no way this guy walks very straight, its also fucked if it falls just like dracozolt

dracovishs head is attached to its tail, that parts obvious, but this is CERTAINLY ***HIGHLY*** uncomfortable, stegosaurid tails should NOT be bent like that as well as just the effort it most likely takes to keep it up, also its head is upside down if it actually puts its tail back down, ALSO the spiky plates on dracos tail could very well harm itself if it gets too unlucky so.

dracovish has no throat unless cara liss decided to ACTUALLY put effort into these frankensteins monsters and put a throat in the tail theres no way it can uh. really do anything, eat, breathe air, drink water, yea

speaking of breathing!! does it? have lungs? the front half of draco being cut off could make it so theres no lungs, and vish most likely doesnt even have gills and if it DID have FUNCTIONING gills thatd bring up a whole NEW issue about how this thing CANT swim, no buts it just Cant

SPEAKING of it not having specific organs, does it have a HEART??? does it???? does it???????

theres so much about dracovish i probably forgot something/srs anyways!

Arctovish

arctovish is the combination of the dino and fish fossils, and the last one of the galarian fossils!!!!!

arctovish is probably the normalest LOOKING of the galarian fossils, until you realise its. head is on upside down, the pokedex, although unreliable for these pokemon i have a reason to believe what it says here, states this:

it has "trouble eating its prey" and "breathing difficulties" caused by its flipped head

it could have issues similar to arctozolt because of the freezing ice type arcto, but i feel itd be better than arctozolts issues

so uhhh thats it! thats my whole ass essay on why the galarian fossils are in constant pain/cant Live!

i spent an hour of my life on this, please reblog it/lh

[woodswalker96]

Well, I’m super-late…let’s talk about E750!

This is my favorite shot of it by the way.

E750 was something I was not expecting to like, but I now very much enjoy. It’s a perfect summation of how feel about the JW hybrids in general; that they’re not really dinosaurs but rather monsters parading in a dinosaur-like figure. Like, the Indominus rex was a monstrosity but still relatively a dinosaur in feeling. The Indoraptor was definitely more monstrous, the tricking of humans, climbing over mansions on dark, stormy nights, creeping into little a girl’s bedrooms and creepily extending its hand out to her, and lets not forget the running…on all fours. But this, this was much more of a “does this even count as a dinosaur” kind of monster.

This dinosaur’s abilities are already insane (tree climbing, heat vision, venomous quills), but the look on this animal is something else entirely. You do get the feeling that this is a beta version (I don’t fully understand gamer speak, forgive me if I’m using that wrong), but it’s also it’s own thing, something that was left on the drawing board but too good to erase.

The effects this animal has on the wildlife on the island is even more so than that of Rexy, every dinosaur is acting out of character, random stampedes occurring any second, anywhere. I honestly thought that they were the reason for the extinctions of certain dinosaurs on the island, but I don’t think the writers were going with that angle. Still, it’s a cool thought though.

We got to know right off the bat that this was going to be a major antagonist for the season in how it just slaughtered the Ceratosaurus like it did, the theropod who, in my opinion anyways, was larger than both the Carnotaurus and Baryonyx, at least in the series (but the sizes for the dinosaurs in the series, and the franchise in general, tends to vary from entry to entry, and even within the entry themselves too). It was almost effortless in how the Scorpius took it down, which led me to believe that it was the cause of the extinctions on the island from Fallen Kingdom. Then we saw it’s quills in action. Honestly, I think it was a good idea to leave Rexy out of the e750 plot lines, because if she did her signature chomp on them, their quills could get stuck in/around her mouth, instantly paralyzing her. I mean, we saw them take out a Brachiosaurus, that to me is pretty, well, insane!

Then, there’s the attacks on the campers. The writers did an excellent job at making me at least feel like these kids were on death row when e750 was around. The terror it inflicted on them was magnetic, giving me the idea that they might not be able to survive this dinosaur. It managed to first scare the dino loving, “we’re finally leaving the island” soul out of these kids, then it completely wrecks the rebuilt camp when trying to get at the kids. This dinosaur was a relentless killing machine, and I was here for it.

All in all, I was not expecting a new hybrid, but I’m glad we got one. This was pretty cool to see, and I can’t wait to see what season 4 brings us.

Also, I’d like to thank the people who made this gifs and made them available for use.

[dracophilearts]

So a couple of months ago, the youtube channel PragMagik uploaded a "Goomy of Every Type" video (www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYlrsD… ) I love goomy and after watching a lot of videos by them and others I've been wanting to get back into making new pokemon. So I decided to do Sliggoo evolutions for them all! And then I decided screw it, let's make GOODRA too! And honestly, I'm happy how most all of them turned out so I'm going to share them. I even made an instagram for it, we'll see how often I update that...The poison Goomy design is by Gooompy (www.instagram.com/gooompy)

This one was interesting to do. I like the concept for this poison-type being tar based, and really liked how my Sliggoo turned out. I tried to make him almost cave-man looking.

But for Goodra, I ended up doing this guy and loved him...but realized he didn't look a lot like Goodra. I thought about trying again, but I just enjoyed him too much and decided instead he'll be a sort of regional evolution--basically, his DNA is messed up from the tar-pits and got fused with other pokemon whos remains were there, and so now he's more like a velociraptor...with mammoth horns coming out of his head. They looked like Goodra's tendrils, okay? XD I added the hints of purple to give it more of a poison feel. The name comes from Theropod (a carnivorous dinosaur of a group whose members are typically bipedal and range from small and delicately built to very large), but using Tar and the "dra" ending from Goodra. The shinies were just kind of me playing around with colors.

Electric Sliggoo and Goodra

Normal Sliggoo and Goodra

Ground Sliggoo and Goodra

Dark Sliggoo and Goodra

Grass Sliggoo and Goodra

Ice Sliggoo and Goodra

Ghost Sliggoo and Goodra

Bug Sliggoo and Goodrax

Flying Sliggoo and Goodra

Poison Sliggoo and Taropodra

Psychic Sliggoo and Goodra

Rock Sliggoo and Goodra

Fairy Sliggoo and Goodra

Fighting Sliggoo and Goodra

Fire Sliggoo and Goodra

Water Sliggoo and Ryuugoo

[bestfictionaldinosaur]

Saurnament Profiles: Blue [Jurassic Park/World]

Blue is a "velociraptor" from the Jurassic Park franchise, specifically the Jurassic World movies, or the JCU/Jurassic Cinematic Universe as no one calls it. Born in a lab and raised more or less from birth by some guy that sounds exactly like Mario from the Super Mario Bros. Movie (and nowhere else), Blue is the beta of a pack of velociraptors, with the alpha being the aforementioned not-Charles-Martinet. She was raised in captivity as part of the new park's asset collection, and after the events of the 2nd film in the World series, flees and begins living in the Californian wilderness, while appearing to maintain some level of affection for her former tamer.

Now, the Jurassic World films have a built in defense mechanism for their dinosaur designs in that strictly speaking, none of them are actually true dinosaurs. They are essentially chimeras, created from the remains of dinosaurs, but with genetic material from various other animals, such as frogs and cuttlefish, to fill in the gaps as needed. So, it's technically futile to criticize them for accuracy, but I'm going to anyway in this case!

The JCU would have you believe these creatures are the size of short adult humans with incredible social skills and intelligence on par, or even surpassing that of humans. But in reality, these things differ from real velociraptors in 3 main ways: feathers, size, and intelligence. The first two can be summarized by this image:

Velociraptor is 2; 3 is the Austroraptor and 1 is the Microraptor. If the only dinosaur in image that you're bigger than has "micro" in its name, you're definitely not known for your size.

As you can see, Velociraptors were tiny! And, like many theropods, were covered in feathers! Note that not ALL dinosaurs had feathers, in fact most probably didn't. I plan to make another post on feathers later, but only a small subset of raptors had full on feathers. But, velociraptors were almost certainly one of them!

And as far as intelligence goes, well. It's impossible to measure human intelligence, let alone that of animals, let ALONE that of animals that died millennia ago. So we'll never know for sure. That said, the JCU depicts these things as highly social, capable of empathy, with the ability to use tools and calculate, all traits reserved for the most intelligent of animals, like apes and crows.

There is really no evidence for this. We don't even know for sure if they hunted in packs. But we also have no reason to believe they had any of these intellect based traits; by modern estimation they were no more or less smart than the average (non parrot, non corvid) bird. Pretty smart as far as animals go, but most likely not able to set traps and such. So less "clever girl" and more "moderately intelligent girl".

[angryschnauzer]

Superior Specimen - Chapter 2

Summary: One night when you are following the Archaeology tag on instagram you stumbled across a fun looking dig… and an even more interesting Paleontologist who soon follows you back. Over the following weeks you start chatting and a friendship soon grows.

Relationship: AU Henry Cavill x Female Reader (No race or body shape mentioned)

Chapter 1, 

Warnings: Slow Burn, NSFW, 18+, Mutual Masturbation, Phone Sex

I do not operate a tag list, but please follow @angryschnauzerwrites​ and put that blog onto notifications, as you will then be notified whenever i post something new.

I don’t have a masterlist, but all my works are on AO3, link here. Usually i post oneshots to Tumblr and AO3, and multichapters exclusively to AO3, but as this is my first henry story and its going to be a short series, i’ll post to both places.

Superior Specimen – Chapter 2

 You were thankful you were on the late shift the next day, you’d taken matters into your own hands again whilst in bed the night before, using your fingers and toys to make yourself cum again and again, each time images of Henry clouding your mind. Your stomach muscles ached from the amount of times you’d abused them with powerful orgasms, but it gave you a pleasant reminder as you trotted up the steps to the staff entrance of the museum.

 With your personal belongings secured in your locker, your name badge and security pass clipped to the chest of your blouse, you made your way through the building until you reached the main atrium… and stopped.

 To your surprise the place was packed, not just with visitors, but with staff setting out velvet ropes and areas to control the crowds. Squeezing past a large group of excited school kids and their teachers you finally made it to the desk, raising an eyebrow at your co-worker;

 “What’s going on?”

 “It’s that presentation today… you know, the new dig that found the new species of Theropod. They’re announcing the plans for the new installation in a few weeks, got most of the archaeologists that were on the Russian expedition here today too”

 “Oh… I had forgotten that was today” you were surprised at yourself for forgetting, it had after all been on the staff agenda for a couple of weeks. Your co-worker handed you a printout of the days schedule, and glancing down it you saw a few points for the preparation that hadn’t yet been crossed off; “Do they still need the handouts in the presentation space?”

 “Oh yeah… someone’ll need to run them up in a few minutes”

 “I’ll take them”

 “Great” your co-worker turned and smiled at more visitors that were heading towards the desk whilst you bent down and checked through the boxes of various leaflets and handouts that were stored under the desk, only hearing her as she spoke to whoever had arrived;

 “Dr Cavill, so good to see you back again”

 “Oh, you know, it’s good to be back in these old hallways, feels like home”

 You froze, you recognised that voice. Your co-worker tapped you on your shoulder;

 “Hey, get up here, I need to introduce you!” she said excitedly.

 Taking a deep breath you stood and turned, straightening your blouse as you watched Henry look at you and the realisation hit of who you were, he however managed to hide it well, just a faint blush dusting across his face as he held out a large hand to you;

 “It’s a pleasure to meet you”

 Taking it you tried not to smirk - or giggle, laugh, or cry - as you shook his hand, unable to get over how huge it was and how it practically swamped your own average sized one;

 “It’s a pleasure to finally meet you Sir”

 Noticing how he seemed to suck one cheek in, as if biting it from the inside, he nodded to the box you had previously lifted onto the desk;

 “Everything sorted for the presentation?”

“Just need to get the handouts into the displays on the 3rd floor”

 “Here, let me carry that for you”

 As the pair of you walked up the main staircase beside each other, the crowds seem to part like a sea as Henry headed towards them, the heavy box of paper tucked under one arm as he carried it with ease. Once you reached the third floor he made straight for the presentation area, unclipping the velvet rope with his free hand and letting you pass, before hooking it back again behind the pair of you.

 In the quiet vestibule of the upper floor you could see where large screens hung from the ceiling, projectors in the roof rolling a series of slideshows of the dig and the finds, and plans for the new exhibition. He slid the box onto the table before turning, his hands on your hips as he pushed you against the wall, hidden from view. Without a word his lips were on yours and you were opening willingly as his tongue pushed against them, tasting you. His grip on your hips was gentle yet firm, and as he slid his hands up your torso his thumbs pressed against the underside of your breasts through your clothing, and yet the heat from them almost seared your skin. Your senses were bombarded by him, by his touch, by the feel of his hard body against you, by the rich warm tones of his aftershave.The arousal in you was already building, and as you involuntarily clenched your stomach muscles you let out a whimper causing Henry to pull away;

 “Are you ok? Was that too much too soon?”

 Resting a hand on the back of his neck you smiled at him;

 “No, not too much… but you’re turning me on and my stomach hurts from making myself come so many times last night thinking of you…”

 “Oh… well how about…”

 Suddenly he spun you 180º, his arms wrapping around your body before he splayed his huge hands out over your stomach, the heat of his palms soothing your aching muscles like a walking heat pad, holding you tight to his body as his lips brushed against your ear;

 “Can’t have you hurting Princess”

 “Hmmn, no we can’t”

 He pressed a series of light kisses to your earlobe and the side of your neck and you found yourself grinding your ass back against the growing bulge that was pressing against you. Clearing your throat your voice was quiet as you spoke;

 “You didn’t say you were attached to the Museum”

 “I’m sorry...” he slowly turned you until you were facing him; “I should have said from the start, I’m on the board of directors… it was wrong, but there you were, so damn beautiful, unbelievably smart… your comments on the digs feed helped with so many identifications, and then you get a job at the same museum…”

 “I guess it’s something we should probably talk about more, but I’m going to need to be getting back to my job soon, Sir”

 Henry let out a low growl at the use of 'Sir', pulling you flush with his body;

 “I’ll look forward to you calling me Sir outside of work soon”

 “Promises promises…”

 You grinned and kissed him again, before pulling away and glancing down, smirking when you saw the impressive swelling at the front of the khaki trousers;

 “You might need to calm down before the press sees you, Sir”

 He lightly swatted your ass, his handspan covering an entire buttcheek;

 “You get back to the desk, I’ll sort the handouts… call you later?”

 Nodding you grinned and turned the corner, ducking under the velvet rope and smiling to yourself as you returned to your duties.

 -

 The day had flown by and even on the late shift the Museum was busy right up to closing time, the front doors closed to stop any more visitors from entering, and you made an announcement over the public address system in multiple languages that any remaining visitors would need to leave within the following 30 minutes. Setting the handset back onto the cradle you sighed and sat down in the chair, your co-worker smiling at you;

 “A few of us are going for drinks after work, fancy coming?”

 With a smile you nodded;

 “Sounds good”

 At that moment you looked up and saw Henry descending the large staircase, surrounded by a group of VIP’s that had attended the presentation. They paused in the foyer under the Blue Whale skeleton that hung from the ceiling, whilst Henry approached your desk with a smile;

 “Afternoon Ladies, would you be able to arrange a cab for our group of VIP's? They have a booking for dinner”

 With a smile you nodded and dialled for the corporate booking line of Addison Lee, arranging for two 8-seater mini-buses to collect from the side street of the Museum. As you went through the details on the phone Henry made small talk with your colleague;

 “I hope the presentation didn’t make you lovely ladies too busy today?”

 “Not at all Dr Cavill, we had a huge number of people sign up for the newsletter release”

 He nodded;

 “We’ll arrange for a few of bottles of champers for your team today”

 She grinned and nodded to you;

 “Oh, we’re more Gin girl’s Dr Cavill, we’re hitting Soho tonight”

 He let out a low laugh as you hung up, sliding the requisition approval form across the desk;

 “If you could just sign the expense approval form, Sir”

 Signing the form, you watched as his hands moved slowly and surely, before handing the pen back to you;

 “Don’t get into too much trouble then Ladies”

 “Only a little bit…” you grinned.

 -

 Your evening had been fun. In the deep summer London heat the group of you had eaten outside a small street-food place before heading to a lively bar, and three double gin & tonic’s later you were standing on the patio as the sun started to set over the noisy city. Finishing your drink you announced you were heading home, one of your co-workers agreeing as you were both on shift tomorrow - although the late one - and said your goodbyes to everyone else.

 As you wove your way through the busy nightlife of Soho, you saw the taxi rank ahead and escorted your co-worker there, hailing her a cab as she giggled in her drunken state. Giving the driver her address as she crawled into the back seat, she insisted she would message you once home, and you were relieved you’d managed to snag a female cab driver for her. Turning and waving her off you smiled when you looked down the taxi rank and saw Henry surrounded by a group of somewhat inebriated VIP’s, trying to organise them but having little success. Seeing you he gave you puppy dog eyes and mouthed ‘help’, and you approached with a grin on your face;

 “Dr Cavill, was a lovely surprise Sir… you seem to be having a spot of trouble though…”

 The group surrounding him started to recognise you, having signed most of them in for their visit to the Museum earlier, and were greeted by a chorus of drunken hello’s. Henry called out over the top of the drunken rabble;

 “I’m trying to get them into cabs, but the cabs will only drop off at one place”

 “Leave it with me” you winked at him before whistling loudly with two fingers to get the crowd’s attention; “Where is everyone staying?”

 Through everyone talking at the same time you gathered that most were at The Dorchester, whilst some had opted for the Hilton at Marble Arch. You quickly started to herd the VIP’s into black cabs, speaking to the drivers and getting them to arrange with the valets at each hotel to have the fares billed to the VIP’s rooms.

 When the last cab pulled away Henry stood beside you, wrapping his arm around your shoulders;

 “That was amazing, you did in 5 minutes what I’d spent half an hour trying to do”

 Turning you realised you face was inches from his, and the kiss that followed was natural and tender, his hand straying to your hip where he pulled you flush with his body. 

 When you finally broke apart you both had huge grins plastered across your faces, his voice deep and rough;

 “Let me buy you a drink”

 “Just one… I’ve had a few already and actually have to work tomorrow”

 “Just the one” he promised, slipping his huge hand around yours, and you walked hand in hand to a nearby bar.

Chapter 3 >>>