#SPECIFICALLY A BOXER SHRIMP

[unorthadox-werm]

YES!

shrimp!!

shrimps are cool but i am not a shrimp. when i shrimp over the table for too long, my back starts to hurt. i stand up on my human legs and stretch my human body every hour. sometimes i wish i was a shrimp.

[the-kr8tor]

Could you do fluffy hobbies reaction to reader having like stretch marks or scars stuff like that?

(Sorry my English isn’t good)💗

Thank you for the lovely request, angel! Hope you like it ❤️

Pairing: Hobie Brown x fem! Reader/ Spider-Punk x fem! Reader

Tags: no use of Y/N, no specific physical description of the reader, wrote with a female reader in mind but no pronouns used. Fluff.

ʕ⁠·⁠ᴥ⁠·⁠ʔ

Hobie comes home tired, in one piece but absolutely knackered. He feels his muscles are about to fall out of his bones from the amount of swinging he did throughout the evening. Unfortunately he also had to patrol into the early hours, thanks to the vulture who decided committing crime at dawn is the perfect time to do that. The sun already rose, bathing Spider-Man in its glow.

He finally reaches the houseboat, opening the living room's window, Hobie finds you curled on his lumpy settee, the entire place clean and free from stray mechanical parts. He's incredibly thankful for your help, but he can't help his guilt eat at him. He only wishes that he could've helped, or at least told you it wasn't necessary, but knowing you, you would've had a way in making him give in, especially when it comes to taking care of him.

Just the sight of you makes his heart swell ten fold. Hobie has missed you dearly, he's been so busy with his responsibilities that you haven't seen each other for an entire week, only having a few minutes in the day to talk, which isn't enough for the both of you. That's probably why you've waited for him to get home, ending up sleeping on his couch tired from cleaning and waiting for him.

Hobie sighs, he's already thinking of a way to thank you and make up for lost time. Walking closer, he blinks wide awake at your outfit. Or his outfit for that matter, you're wearing his old band shirt, its color fading. His boxers reveal your legs, skin on full display.

Curled like a shrimp, you groan awake at the sudden presence. Feeling you stir, Hobie takes his mask off to not scare your half asleep brain. Silently, he sits down on the floor, facing your sleepy face. You slowly open your eyes, smile spreading over your lips once your bleary eyes adjust.

"Hi" you say softly like you're trying not to wake up the rest of the city. Feeling for his gloved hand, your hand blindly reaches for him.

"Love," Hobie helps you halfway, bringing his hand over to yours, you relax once more when he cups his palm atop your own. "You look bloody fit right now"

You snort, "even if I drooled all over your pillows?"

He brings his free hand over to your upper thigh, absentmindedly rubbing your skin. Chuckling, Hobie squeezes it for good measure. "I was talking 'bout your little outfit, did you go shopping in my wardrobe?"

You wake up immediately, insecurity filling you, sitting up, you grab the blanket you've kicked off in the middle of the night to tuck your legs under it. "Sorry, should've asked first"

Hobie's brows furrowed, "you don't have to, oi" he notices your downturned gaze, "what's wrong?"

"Nothing, how's the patrol? You didn't get hurt, right?" You play with the frayed edges of the knitted blanket.

"'m fine, just tired" he takes your hand again, softly, he interlocks his fingers with yours. "Love, what's wrong? You suddenly flipped"

"I'm– it's nothing, just realized I have morning breath"

"You know for a fact I don't care 'bout that. I woke up to that a hundred times before, kissed you in the morning a hundred more. You can talk to me." he ducks to meet your gaze. His mind rushes through several thoughts, nothing good out of all of them.

You make yourself smaller on the couch. He waits while you collect your thoughts. "I-I've got stretch marks on my thighs, sorry" hiding your legs under the blanket. Maybe you should've stayed in your long trousers.

Hobie sighs in relief, cupping your thigh over the scratchy fabric. "Lovey" he says softly, staring deep into your eyes. "It's a part of you, even if you've got scales under there I'll still love every inch of you"

"This?" He squeezes your thighs for extra emphasis "there's nothing wrong with it or you, and anybody who says otherwise can kiss my arse"

You laugh, music to his ears. "Thank you, I needed to hear that"

"I've got stretch marks too. Nothin' to be ashamed of, yeah?"

"Yeah" you nod, smiling softly, laying your head atop his shoulder. Hands splayed over his back in an embrace. He reciprocates immediately, rubbing softly over your tensed muscles.

Hobie lifts you up in one swift movement, you gasp at the sudden increase in height. "Let's get you properly tucked in bed"

"Will you join me?" You say into his neck.

"Of course, after a quick shower. I reek"

"I don't care, you smell great to me"

He laughs, "sure, whatever you say, gorgeous" Hobie slaps your butt cheek for good measure.

[stay-with-wonder]

The Mantis Shrimp: Nature’s Marvelous Boxer(The name is misleading. They are neither mantis nor shrimp)

In the mesmerizing world of marine life, the mantis shrimp stands as an extraordinary creature that captivates researchers, scientists, and nature enthusiasts alike. With its kaleidoscope of colors, fascinating behavior, and unique set of abilities, this small but mighty marine marvel has earned a reputation as one of the ocean’s most intriguing inhabitants. Join me as I take you into the captivating world of the mantis shrimp, exploring its incredible features and astonishing capabilities.

The Master of Color:

A Formidable Hunter:

The mantis shrimp’s exceptional hunting prowess makes it a force to be reckoned with in the ocean’s depths. Equipped with appendages resembling a praying mantis, these crustaceans(Crustaceans are a diverse group of arthropods that includes familiar animals such as crabs, lobsters, shrimp, and barnacles. They are characterized by having a hard exoskeleton, a segmented body, and jointed appendages.) are skilled predators that employ two distinct hunting strategies:” spearers” and “smashers” *

-Spearers: Some mantis shrimp species have spear-like appendages that they use to impale and capture prey with lightning-fast precision. They strike so swiftly that the prey has little time to react, making them highly effective hunters. (Do you get the pun now?)

-Smashers: Other mantis shrimp species boast club-like appendages capable of generating an incredible amount of force. They use this power to deliver devastating blows to their prey or even shatter the hard shells of crabs and mollusks, enabling them to feast on well-protected creatures.

Unmatched vision:

The mantis shrimp’s eyes are nothing short of extraordinary, possessing one of the most complex visual systems in the animal kingdom. Unlike humans, who possess three types of color receptors (cones), mantis shrimp have up to 16 different types of cones, enabling them to see colors that are beyond human comprehension. This remarkable visual system allows them to perceive polarized light,(Polarized light refers to a type of light in which the vibrations of the electromagnetic waves are confined to a single plane. This means that the electric field vectors of polarized light oscillate in a specific direction, perpendicular to the direction of propagation.) a phenomenon that helps them navigate, communicate, and hunt effectively.

A Creature of Beauty and Brawn:

Despite their striking appearance, mantis shrimp are relatively small, ranging from a few centimeters to about 15 inches in length. (38.1 cm) They typically inhabit shallow tropical and subtropical waters, often hiding in burrows or crevices within the coral and ambushing unsuspecting prey.

Remarkable Communication:

In addition to their incredible vision, mantis shrimp have developed a unique form of communication. They use body movements, color changes, and even gentle taps to convey messages to other individuals, signaling territorial boundaries or courtship interests. Their complex communication methods contribute to the fascinating social dynamics within their communities.

In the enigmatic world of marine life, the mantis shrimp stands as a true wonder, embodying nature’s ingenious adaptations and remarkable capabilities. From their awe-inspiring colors and exceptional hunting techniques to their unmatched visual system and intricate communication methods, these marine marvels continue to amaze and inspire those who dare to explore the secrets of the ocean. As we uncover the mysteries of the underwater world, the mantis shrimp will undoubtedly remain an enduring symbol of nature’s marvels and evolutionary wonders. Stay With Wonder!

[asknarashikari]

Probably going to be my last ask for a week, going on vacation to Disney World so most likely won't be on tumblr. So let me get this out of the way

Koushiro's base form Vistamp is going to be the Crocodile Vistamp. It's already a pre-made vistamp that fits the aquatic animal theme and has connections to the base vi-stamps of its driver's predecessors, that being reptiles. Along with that, seeing as how it used to belong to Genta, you can also have it be seen as a passing of the torch.

The custom Vistamps I've come up with are Hammer Head Shark (based on Diend instead of Great White because it makes more sense design wise), Bullet Shrimp (either based on Vulcan or Cross-Z, but leaning more towards Cross-Z cause Banjo is a boxer and the Vistamps main fighting style revolves around punches) and Plesiosaur (based on Geiz). Hammer head is currently the only custom Vistamp with a weapon form and buddy form. Unlike the Bullet Shrimp Vistamp (which only has a weapon form with a suit change) and the Plesiosaur Vistamp (which only has a buddy form).

Yoshino's inner phantom is a griffin rather than a dragon like Haruto. That, along with her four elements being Lightning, Ice, Wood, and Metal. The reason why I chose to do this is because I wanted Yoshino's powers to not just be a copy of Haruto's seeing as how at the moment she's not Kamen Rider Wizard, she's only Kamen Rider Circe. (Also, I'd like to imagine that it really doesn't matter as the transformation rings would be interchangeable between Haruto and Yoshino, as all that is needed to use them is a driver and mana). Will she get her own super forms? Yes. Do I know what kind of super form that'll be and what it'll look like? Not a clue but I'll workshop it

I think you'll have to cross out the bit about the Bullet Shrimp being based on Cross-Z... because he has a canon Vistamp, featured in Revice's first Hyper Battle DVD as concept art. It's based on... a chicken.

And it turns Vice into... this.

Given the rest of the Build Rider-themed Vistamps have equally comical effects on Vice, I'm 100% sure George did this on purpose because he dissed him once. I doubt Vale would fare much better, especially if George became a victim of his pranks (unless it turns him into a weapon like Lovekov does for Jeanne- though I can imagine George can be petty enough to still make it look hilarious somehow).

As an aside, George didn't really try to theme the Vistamps after animals related to the specific Riders, or match the Riders with the powers their Vistamps grant. I mean, the Jackal Vistamp turns Vice into a skateboard... but it's themed on Ex-Aid, notoriously known for being clumsy and who would probably faceplant if he got on one.

Frankly I have no idea why George made them that way, seeing as he's supposed to be a Kamen Rider otaku. The only Riders to get a Vistamp that matched their animal theme were Ichigou and Zero-One (both based on grasshoppers).

So yeah, there's really no need to justify what animal and rider themes you give a Vistamp. You can go pretty wild with them.

Other than that I love all these hcs you keep sending me 😊

[wrothian]

finished yakuza 7 last night. i have nothing to say about the story bc i truly for once never give a fuck im here to make my protag drink baby formula and fight naked men but i enjoyed it even when there was a lot of silly moments that felt like "we just need to get from point a to point b man"

whats really important here is nanba. yu nanba. NANBA. why was i not warned that there was a 41 year old ex-nurse who saves a mans life with fishing line and pokes at the stitches and tells the guy "yeah you have to take that out yourself im not doing it". why didnt you inform me that i would have a stinky lying depressed mage who casts SUMMON PIGEON and gets disappointed when he cant do mouth-to-mouth on another man? he scopes out the best places to take a "nice dump" when he goes somewhere new and considers passing out in fear to be a "defense mechanism". he is the king of bunts. hes the partys princess and is a massive coward but pushes through it anyway. why didnt you tell me ichiban would beat him over the head with the brick of friendship and love to the point that nanba cannot avoid finally confronting the claim that he doesnt have friends or doesnt deserve them. ichiban, if he were to die today, would want his last meal to be the first one that nanba showed him how to make. ichiban could suck this man dry every day for the rest of his life and still not feel like hes done enough to repay him. nanba knows when he lies and lets him keep doing it because it feels good when people are nice to him.

why is nanba a milk freak? why is he addicted to drinking milk after baths and why does he drink spoiled milk? he fights his tummy wars completely silent, stoic and unmoving, as the hand of death passes over him and adachi leaves him to die in the grass. nanba can do addition. why is he forced to do manual labor when he can add numbers? hes a frail mage that falls over if he tries to swing his cane. his healing hands always slide across each party members groin and they always thank him for the help. he lied about stealing medicine but i think his capability to save ichibans life with a thread and a rusty pair of scissors says more than enough. seong-hui destroyed him in a single, perfectly aimed orbital strike at his heart by saying he has nightingale syndrome and is in love with ichiban. DID SHE KNOW? THAT NANBA WANTED TO BE NIGHTINGALE, BUT HES A 41 YEAR OLD MAN-FAILURE? his life is only worth 2500 yen.

he has an agenda against chili shrimp. he eats random mushrooms all the time and almost dies. hes a germaphobe but only in specific instances. he gets asked if he can put off dying for a minute and he says NO. I CANT. IM A BABY. he doesnt know the difference between boxers and briefs and is ready at any time to drop his pants. whenever he wants a change of pace he tears down his cardboard house and rebuilds it, a true engineer and architect of our modern age, upon which pigeons and crows shall perch and shit all over him the moment he leaves his home. he is a self-proclaimed walking red flag and admits he has something deeply wrong with him. He always thinks hes going to die. something is going to go horribly wrong. everything is fucked. life sucks.

i want yu nanba to be my nurse for the rest of time

[lavendertownfreak]

So i had to dig a few grave today. It’s usually the first thing I do in a shift when necessary. Not eliminating further on this, for privacy and respect of course, Im instead mentioning this to complain about the GOD DAMN CLAUNCHER! FUCK! One of those bastards got in here and made its presence known by trying to shatter my fuckin femur with its boosted ass steam claw! Thank god I got multiple dark counters with me!

Since I think I’ve heard that some people didn’t know about these little shits, let me elaborate real quick: A good few years ago, someone people started importing Clawnchers into this region for a mixture of food and for like, trophy ponds and the like. Then a GIANT feral population happened, and nowadays we got the water/dark, steam fist pokemon we all know and hate!

(Ooc: this is my concept for a kantonian Clawncher (most if not all fakemon I introduce here are regional fakes or variations for regions before these were introduced). Feral population like alolan meoweth, for the water/dark typing. The main difference is that the pistol shimp and gun bases are dropped in favor of Mantis shrimps and steampunk shit. They still have the asymmetrical claws, but the big one now uses steam vents out the back, and functions much like a high powered piston of sorts (specifically one with a railspike at the end). Ability is iron fists, hidden one is blitz boxer. Basically it’s just the clawncher line but in more colors and now physical attackers.)

[laurelnose]

well, actually, it’s even weirder than that, because like, all of that is true, those are some of the selective pressures driving this specific example of convergent evolution. but 1) "shorten abdomen, lengthen legs" is not actually what carcinisation is and 2) carcinisation is not even a phenomenon of crustaceans. it's just one fucking clade in the decapods. i'll come back to that.

wrt what carcinisation is: most crustaceans are pelagic, swiming in open water, where shrimp and shrimp-adjacent shapes are king and are never gonna carcinise. in these circumstances, the "typical" crustacean body of Basically A Shrimp is plenty mobile. The pelagic shrimp bauplan only becomes a mobility issue for demersal or ground-associated species.

compare: Melicertus canaliculatus and Pandalus borealis, respectively a dendrobranchiate prawn and a caridean (true) shrimp, which both primarily locomote by swimming. Note long, powerful pleon (the entire abdominal section including the tail fan).

In contrast, the reef-associated species Gnathophyllum americanum, Heptacarpus palpator, and Stenopus hispidus all have shortened abdomens (although leg length is variable). Similarly to spiders, they're overall shorter and they concentrate their legs into the middle segments in front of their squat pleons. Just like crabs, they can move forwards and sideways, and they're way better at "backwards" than crabs are. They also retain the uropod escape response (tail goes flick, shrimp goes elsewhere) to get places in a hurry, something crabs have lost. If you're an inflexible arthropod and you want a demersal body plan that allows for movement along multiple vectors, be a shrimp!

If we're talking "spiderization" (arachnidization?), then most of the demersal shrimp qualify. But these are not crabs. This isn't carcinisation.

What carcinisation is (Keiler, J., Wirkner, C. S., & Richter, S. (2017). One hundred years of carcinization – the evolution of the crab-like habitus in Anomura (Arthropoda: Crustacea). Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 121(1), 200–222. doi:10.1093/biolinnean/blw031):

Be flatter and wider than you are long. While not strictly necessary, your wide carapace may extend over your legs like an umbrella, and will almost always shade the coxal joint. The demersal shrimp are agile but deliciously weak-armored. You are going to be a tank.

More than simply shrinking your pleon, you must flatten it, and fold it underneath, minimizing or destroying its ability to be used as a paddle for swimming. You don't need to swim: you're a rock with scissors.

what's really fucking weird about carcinisation: most of the crustaceans aren't doing it.

for those not up on crustacean taxonomy, there are like, twelveish big groups in Crustacea, the most popular being Eumalacostraca, which is most of the main guys people think of when you say “crustacean.” there are thirteen extant orders in Eumalacostraca. the only relevant one is Decapoda, which contains prawns, other prawns, slipper lobsters, regular lobsters, not lobsters, true shrimp, boxer shrimp, burrowing shrimp, burrowing shrimp two electric boogaloo, guys with four pinchers, and our two Main Characters, Brachyura and Anomura, which form a clade together called Meiura. the decapods are collectively a very diverse and successful clade!

and of all those different groups, those last two are the ONLY ONES which make crabs. Brachyura is the True Crab infraorder: they figured the body plan out in the early Jurassic and took off. there are ~14,000 living decapod species and 7,000 of them are brachyurans. they are the ur-example of carcinisation.*

* the only earlier example I know of is Cyclida, formerly Cycloidea, which 1) is incertae sedis and 2) has been extinct since roughly the time Brachyura showed up.

Anomura is Brachyura’s weird younger sister; they diverged from Brachyura in the late Triassic, when they started doing weird shit. namely they turned into hermit crabs, which are bizarre because unlike basically all other crustacean groups, the hermit crabs are skimping on the calcium. they've got soft squishy pleons! this is cheaper growth-wise, but requires them to find environmental armor to make up for it. they also did some other weird shit like mole crabs and squat lobsters.

every single group that evolved the crab shape after Brachyura is from Anomura.

every single one! all of them! the king crabs, the porcelain crabs, the hairy stone crab, the coconut crab—all anomurans. there are true crabs and then there are anomuran crabs and NOBODY ELSE is doing crabs. None of the other crustacean groups make crabs. None of the other decapod groups make crabs. it’s JUST FUCKING ANOMURA. they’re still doing it, too; king crabs came out of the hermit crabs only recently, in the Cenozoic. It's not clear exactly what the common ancestor of Anomura looked like—because they split from Brachyura, it's possible they originally looked like crabs, lost the crab shape, and secondarily re-evolved it. it might have been a bit like a frog crab, which are quite primitive. there's some good evidence that, whatever its ancestors looked like while they were still counted as part of Brachyura, the ancestral anomuran was a "symmetrical" hermit crab like Pylochelidae, which have a soft pleon but are not "handed" and have no abdominal curl. (These guys armor with hollow wood, tusk shells, sponges, and bamboo instead of snail shells.)

and it turns out that the hassle of locating and maintaining all that environmental armor is annoying enough that the anomurans have, four separate times, changed their minds and decided that tucking their soft parts underneath and returning to the tanky Crab strategy is a better option. six times, if you count the two separate times they went from the squishy symmetrical hermit body plan above to squat lobsters, which are sometimes considered an example of "partial" carcinisation.

↑ happiest medium

so carcinisation is not about convergent evolution as a general phenomenon. I would hesitate to even analogize it to phenomena like the strong evolutionary trend of teleosts towards skeletal fusion; most examples like that are really big trends, across broad clades, you know? carcinisation is One Weird Thing that Meiura is doing. and boy is it fucking weird

every time someone says “animals keep evolving into crabs” i’m like. head in my hands. no they fucking DON’T. carcinisation isn’t an animals thing. it’s a crustacean thing. it’s literally JUST CRUSTACEA

[heavensdog]

Could you describe the character’s facial features in detail? I’m tempted to make fan art

Hmm. .  I can do my best, but before I do I wanna say that when I started this project, I was heavily influenced by how much creative freedom people had in the fandoms for Samurai of Hyuga, Wayhaven Chronicles and Fallen Hero and the like -- so I really do want people to feel like they have a certain amount of free reign in terms of character design.

So when it comes to the visuals for each of the characters, I have some “key elements” and touchstones that I come back to, but in terms of specific details (like narrow eyes or broad noses or the like) I don’t really have anything pinned down.

But this is what I’m working based off of!

Iriel Lovelace: Iri is supposed to be kind of bulky -- they take up waaaay more space than they used to as a rabbit, and this shows in their height (they are the second tallest -- only Emi is taller than them!) and also in their body posture -- they tend to hunch over and try to minimize themselves physically. They give off a kind of “I used to be a delinquent but now I’m reformed” vibe in their dress -- lots of casual clothing paired with comfier pieces like sweaters and the like, and they wear too many layers for the circumstances. They’ve got rose gold hair and used to have silvery gray eyes but I might change them to pink for the Rabbit Vibes; extra piercings on their ears, possible facial piercings, and they always seem really sad. With all that in mind, I imagine broader facial features would suit them, as well as wider set eyes -- things that make them seem more like “prey” than like “predator”.

Aconite Rosewood: They’re meant to feel kind of like a fish out of water, and this shows in how they dress like they’re making themselves into performance art. They give off a very Innocent Demeanor, so rounder facial features in general fit them, but they also have a very hard-to-pin-down aura. My major themes for them, design wise, are a very on/off aesthetic (they’re either Vintage Magician or Grundgy Occult Graphic Tees) and their body language tends to be very awkward and anxious. They gangle, but not as much as Emi. Dyed pink hair (it’s naturally dark brown, so they bleach it like crazy too) and brown eyes that sometimes seem red in the right light. They wear a necklace with a jeweled ring on it at all times.

Emi Nymbostratus: They’re tallest and they gangle the most. They’ve got more angular features, probably, and they tan really fast, so combined with the fact that they used to bleach their hair, they give off very beachy/surfer vibes. They’ve stopped bleaching their hair since becoming an Agent of Heaven, so their roots are growing out, and they favor a lot of blue clothing. Kind of posh vibes -- Emilio, as mentioned, has an undercut, while Emilia favors more demure partial up-dos.

Abaddon is a shrimp and is to be treated accordingly. I think heavier features would be a nice contrast with their build and coloring -- they’re tiny, favor incredibly frilly clothing (masc!Abaddon still wears a lot of piratey blouses) and have long silver hair with red eyes. Perpetual angry face. Touchstones for them are just the juxtaposition of their constant grouchiness with the ridiculously frilly styles.

Lapis rocks quarantine fashion, let’s be honest. Back in school, they dressed very poshly because that’s what du Mirage wanted, but they’re more of a free spirit, so if they have the opportunity to go around in boxer shorts and a too big t-shirt, they will, and they tend to really like things that bare their midriff especially around the mc which has nothing to do with them being proud of their abs. They have dark hair and reeeeeaaaaally dark lashes, and their skin is tawny -- they’re whole vibe is supposed to bring to mind lost treasures, so gold and blue crystals and obsidian and onyx all suit them.

[sciencespies]

Baby mantis shrimp can throw knockout punches at just 9 days old

https://sciencespies.com/nature/baby-mantis-shrimp-can-throw-knockout-punches-at-just-9-days-old/

Baby mantis shrimp can throw knockout punches at just 9 days old

Mantis shrimp wield a spring-loaded appendage that punches through water with explosive force – and their babies can start swinging just nine days after they hatch.

In a new study, published Thursday (April 29) in the Journal of Experimental Biology, scientists studied larval Philippine mantis shrimp (Gonodactylaceus falcatus) originally collected from Oahu, Hawaii.

The team also reared some of the same species from eggs, carefully monitoring their development through time and then zooming in on their punching appendage under the microscope.

The appendage, called the raptorial appendage, works similarly to a bow and arrow, in that the tip of the appendage gets pulled back, “nocked” against a spring-like mechanism and then let loose in a sudden release of elastic energy, said first author Jacob Harrison, a graduate student in the biology program at Duke University.

“While we have a pretty great understanding of how it functions in the adults … we didn’t really have a solid understanding of how it develops,” Harrison told Live Science.

Related: Smash! Super-stabby mantis shrimp shows off in video

Now, in a “remarkably complete and carefully controlled” study, Harrison and his team have started to unravel the mystery of when mantis shrimp start throwing down like lightning-fast boxers, said Roy Caldwell, a professor of integrative biology at the University of California, Berkeley, who was not involved in the study.

A larval mantis shrimp punching at 20,000 frames per second. (The Company of Biologists, Harrison et al., J. Exp. Biol., 2021)

And furthermore, since larval mantis shrimp have transparent shells, “what’s new about this study is [that] the transparency of the raptorial apparatus allows them to see in great detail exactly what’s going on,” Caldwell said.

“That hasn’t been possible in looking at adults,” whose exoskeleton is opaque, he said.

Slower than expected, but still impressive 

When adult mantis shrimp unleash a flurry of strikes, the tips of their appendages can slice through the water at about 50 mph (80 km/h), according to National Geographic.

But a mathematical model, published in 2018 in the journal Science, hinted that baby mantis shrimp might throw even faster punches than adults, assuming they take up boxing at a young age. 

This model, developed in the same lab Harrison works in, zoomed in on the spring mechanism mantis shrimp use to deliver punishing blows.

“We see these mechanisms all over biology,” from jumping frogs and insects to stinging jellyfish that fire venom-filled capsules into their prey, Harrison noted. 

The model hinted that these spring-loaded mechanisms should generally become less efficient at larger scales, and therefore, smaller springs with less mass should generate higher acceleration when let loose.

Another model that specifically focused on mantis shrimp revealed a similar result, indicating that larger mantis shrimp species strike more slowly than smaller species, the researchers reported in 2016 in the Journal of Experimental Biology. 

Harrison and his team wanted to see if these models held up in larval mantis shrimp, since of course, they’re smaller than adults of their species. So the team searched for tiny, translucent mantis shrimp in Hawaii in the dead of night.

“If you go out where you can find adult mantis shrimp, you can actually stick a light in the water, and mantis shrimp will come like a moth to a flame,” Harrison said. That said, larval crabs, shrimp and fish also flock to the light and get scooped up in the same buckets as the mantis shrimp; so therein lies the challenge.

These free-swimming shrimp larvae had matured enough to exit the burrow in which they hatched, so they tended to be at least 9 to 14 days old at the time of capture, Harrison noted.

To collect data on even younger mantis shrimp, Harrison also collected an egg clutch from a female G. falcatus found at Wailupe Beach Park. The eggs hatched in transit on their way to Duke University, but the team still managed to raise the puny mantis shrimp for 28 days in their lab.

Related: Six bizarre feeding tactics from the depths of our oceans

With mantis shrimp in hand, the team carefully observed how the larvae developed through time. G. falcatus larvae were previously known to progress through six larval stages, each marked by the larva molting its exoskeleton. The team found that, in the first and second larval stages, the larvae huddled together at the bottom of the tank; by the third stage, they began swimming but did not throw any punches. 

But by the fourth stage, around day 9 to 14, “larvae began striking and ‘waving’ their raptorial appendages as they swam through the water,” the authors wrote in their report.

At this point, the raptorial appendages had fully formed and closely resembled an adult’s, in terms of structure, and the larvae also began snacking on larval brine shrimp that the team provided. Each larva measured about the size of a grain of rice at this juncture.

The team shot high-speed, high-resolution video of the strikes by the older larval mantis shrimp they’d scooped from the ocean, to see just how they hurl their appendages through water. This required placing the rice-size larvae into a custom rig and securing them with glue, so they’d stay in frame and in focus.

The footage enabled the team to not only examine the speed and mechanics of each punch, but also to watch as elements of the spring mechanism slid to and fro under the transparent exoskeleton. 

“What we found was that they could produce really high accelerations and velocities relative to their body size,” Harrison said.

These metrics specifically measure how rapidly the larvae appendages can transition from stillness to striking, so in this respect, the larvae were “roughly on par with a lot of the adult species,” he said.

However, in terms of their overall speed, the larval strikes only traveled about 0.9 mph (1.4 k/h) – an order of magnitude slower than the adult strikes. 

“The finding that was a little bit surprising was that the speed of the strike is less than what we see in adults,” Caldwell said.

This difference in speed may be related to the actual materials making up the spring, he said; perhaps the spring itself or the “latch” that nocks the appendage in place, differs in larval and adult mantis shrimp, limiting the amount of elastic energy that the larvae can deploy. 

Related: Dangers in the deep: 10 scariest sea creatures

The water surrounding the mantis shrimp may also impact their striking speed, Harrison suggested.

To teeny marine creatures, like larvae, water feels quite viscous, more like molasses than water as we experience it, he said. It may be that, as mantis shrimp mature, they can better overcome the stickiness of the water and execute faster strikes.

And despite being slower than adults, the larvae still threw punches that were five to 10 times faster than the reported swimming speeds of similarly sized organisms and more than 150 times faster than their favorite brine shrimp snacks can swim, the authors wrote.

Evolutionarily, there may not be much pressure for larvae to increase their striking speed before reaching maturity, Caldwell said.

The study is also limited in that the team only collected video of defensive strikes, provoked by irritating the larvae with a toothpick, Caldwell noted. “We know, in adults, there’s considerable ability to modulate the strength of the strike depending on what it’s being used for,” whether that be defense, or capturing or stabbing prey, he said. So the speed of the strike may differ somewhat, depending on its purpose.

Looking forward, Harrison and his team plan to probe what factors limit the larval mantis shrimps’ striking speed, as well as when the shrimp overcome this limitation in the course of development, he said. They also want to examine whether the raptorial appendage develops similarly across the hundreds of mantis shrimp species, he added. 

“The larval stomatopods,” another term for mantis shrimp, “are basically a black box, we know very little about them,” Caldwell noted. “Almost anything done on larval stomatopods is new and interesting … They’ve just literally scratched the surface in terms of looking at morphology.”

Related Content:

Image gallery: Magnificent mantis shrimp

Photos: The amazing eyes of the mantis shrimp

Photos: Ancient shrimp-like critter was tiny but fierce 

This article was originally published by Live Science. Read the original article here.

#Nature

[thompsborn]

Thompsborn with 7 and/or 21 please, I love your stories on these two 🥺❤❤

i was gonna try to do both but i couldn’t think of a good way to combo them so seven it is!!

7. …to shut them up

here we go :D

—

In theory, being best friends with a teenage superhero sounds pretty damn cool.

And it is, really—in a lot of ways, it lives up to the hype, feeling like part of an elite club, one of the few people who know the truth about this specific thing and being able to talk in thinly veiled code at school about things that no one else can know. Knowing Spider-Man is a damn treat and a half, even with the worry that comes with hoping that Peter is okay, the bitter taste of heartbreak that lingers in the air when they’re watching a live feed of a fight against Doc Ock and Harley is in tears watching as Spidey gets hurt, the aching knowledge of why Peter is limping in the morning followed by the gratitude when the limp is gone by the afternoon. Which, okay—pros and cons, like with everything. There are good things and there are bad things and it isn’t always all that cool. But, like, for the most part, it’s pretty cool. There’s just the occasional reminder of some of the not so cool things.

Like, for instance, when Peter has to leave in the middle of the school day because the Lizard (the fucking Lizard, because Spider-Man has the weirdest villains ever, what the fuck) is attacking Manhattan and most of the Avengers are away on a bigger mission so it’s down to Peter to bring a stop to it, and the poor vigilante, already down to his boxers in the alleyway by the school and yanking his suit up his legs, looks the two of them in the eye and tells them, “I need you to cover for me.”

Flash, who is the latest member of the Spider-Man Protection Squad and definitely still reeling from the fact that he gets to be involved at all, nods his head enthusiastically. “Yeah, man! We got you!”

“We definitely do not got you,” Harry cuts in—the realist, really. “Flash can’t lie for shit. Like, he’s worse than Ned, and Ned told Mr. Harrington that you had severe diarreah from eating too much shrimp last week when you missed decathlon. Harrington didn’t even ask, Ned just—he just said it.”

Peter pauses with his suit halfway up his chest, nose crinkled. “Is that why Mr. Harrington asked me if I needed to go home on Friday? God, that’s so embarrassing.”

“Yeah,” Harry agrees, nodding, “but Flash? Twenty thousand times worse.”

“That’s not—” Flash stops, splutters, flapping a hand out in a grand gesture of defense, only to fall short and deflate a moment later. “Okay, yeah, I’m bad, but—but I’ll let Harry do the talking, okay?”

With a satisfied nod, Harry says, “In that case, yes, we got you covered. Go save lives, Spider-Man.”

Peter puffs out a sigh, tugs his suit on the rest of the way before grappling with his mask from his backpack. “Tell Harley not to worry too much about me and that I’ll call him after?”

“It won’t help, but we’ll tell him,” Harry says, taking Peter’s backback from him.

“Thanks,” Peter murmurs, yanking his mask over his head. “We all hanging out tonight?”

“Even if you’re in a hospital bed,” Harry tells him.

Flash makes a noise. “Please don’t be in a hospital bed.”

That makes Peter snickers, arms lowering once his mask is in place, the eye pieces of his suit shrinking and growing a bit as it starts up. “I’ll try my best. Gotta go.”

And, with a flick of his hand up at the top of the wall beside them, he swings away.

“God, that never gets old,” Flash says, eyes wide as he watches Peter swing around the corner and disappear. There’s an almost childish sort of glee on his face, a grin pulling at his lips as he stares at where Spider-Man just was, eyes wide with awe. “That’s so—it’s so cool. Holy shit. So cool.”

Harry snickers, shoulders Peter’s backpack and says, “C’mon, lets put his bag in my car and come up with a good excuse for why he had to disappear this time.”

Almost in a hero worship kind of daze, Flash follows after Harry like a lost puppy, still glancing over at where Peter had been as if expecting him to appear again. “You think he’s gonna get hurt again?”

“A few bruises, for sure,” Harry answers, unlocking his car and tossing Peter’s backpack into the back seat. “Anything big, like with Doc Ock? I don’t know. I hope not, and not just for his sake. Harley was a fucking mess when that shit went down and I’d rather not have a repeat of that.”

“You say that like you weren’t worried, too,” Flash points out.

Harry hums, swings the car door shut and locks it up again. “I was, but I wasn’t boyfriend worried.”

Flash frowns. “There’s a difference?”

“Oh, god, there’s a difference.” Harry leads them through the parking lot, weaving them between cars and back around the front of the school, heading towards the side door that they propped open in order to get back inside with as little notice to people as possible. “I was just best friend worried, which is—don’t get me wrong, that’s a lot of worry, too, but I was able to kind of keep my cool and logically tell myself that Pete was most likely gonna be fine. Harley was only able to keep his cool when he was in front of Peter, but as soon as he was out of Peter’s sight, he fucking lost it. Like, he lost it, lost it. He was a wreck.”

“Jesus,” Flash murmurs, pulling open the door and holding it to let Harry inside first. “So, is it, like—”

“Shh—”

But Flash doesn’t seem to hear Harry shush him doesn’t seem to hear the footsteps around the corner of someone who is undoubtedly about to catch them sneaking back into the school in the middle of third period, keeps happily saying, “Is it a worse kind of worry or is it just a more intense kind of worry? Like, it has to be at least more intense when you’re dating fuckin’ Spider-Man, but—”

Harry curses lightly. The footsteps are getting closer. “Flash—”

“—but would it still be just as intense if it was just Peter and if Peter wasn’t Sp—”

With a strangled noise, Harry lurches forward, doing the only thing he can think of that will make Flash stop talking, grabs him by the sides of his face and pulls him forward to crash their lips together, his heart thundering in his chest with anxiety over the thought of someone overhearing Peter’s identity, but his heart only seems to pick up speed when, instead of lurching back or anything, like one would expect, Flash responds by just making a rumbly sort of noise in surprise before kissing back enthusiastically, one hand coming up to cup Harry’s cheek in his palm, the other clutching Harry’s sweatshirt tight in his grip.

It’s not—well, okay, the entire point of the kiss was to make Flash be quiet, but, Harry can’t pretend he isn’t enjoying it, actually kind of loves it, loves the way they mold together with ease, moving in sync and leaning into it and Flash’s thumb with swiping over the apple of Harry’s cheek with a gentle gentle gentle kind of touch, which is very nice, and, okay, maybe he can’t—maybe—maybe it’s possible that Harry has a bit of a crush on Flash anyway, maybe it’s been there for a while now, bubbling beneath his skin and pressing against his ribcage, because maybe they have a really well structured understanding of one another, of their lives and how they were raised and maybe it’s nice, how well they can share a look and just know that something is wrong, and maybe the reason Harry’s first reaction to shutting Flash up was this, because maybe Harry is a little bit selfish and wanted to know what kissing him was like in the first place. Doesn’t matter, really, because what matters is that it worked, and the footsteps that had been approaching them come to a sudden halt after turning the corner a few feet away. And then:

“It’s just me,” MJ tells them, voice dripping with amusement as they lurch away from each other. “But I’m just gonna leave so you two can talk about this and finally get your head out of your stupid asses.”

Flash blinks at Harry, wide eyed and full of shock, as MJ spins on her heel and walks away, leaving the two of them alone. Harry stares back, holding his breath and waiting for a reaction, which comes in the form of Flash letting out an uneven breath and asking, “You kissed me because someone was coming?”

“Uh—” Harry clears his throat, still cradling Flash’s face in his hands. “Yeah.”

“Not for any other reason?” Flash questions. “Just for that one reason and absolutely nothing else?”

Harry averts his eyes with a wince. “Well—”

An almost smug sort of smile pulls at Flash’s lips. “Then keep kissing me.”

“Oh, thank god,” Harry breathes, already leaning back in.

[lucysisland]

The rosemary bush blooming its unabashed blue. Also dumplings filled with steam and soup so my mouth fills and I bubble over with laughter. Little things. People kissing on bicycles. Being able to walk up the stairs and run back down. Joanna’s garden after the long flight to Tel Aviv. Not being detained like everyone thought I would. The man with dreadlocks and a perfect green shirt walking home from work. One cold beer before I drink it and get sick. How peaches mold into compost in a single day: orange to gray to darkness into dirt. Her ankle’s taste. The skin right under the knob, delicate as a tomatillo’s shroud. All the animals that talk to me. That I finally let them talk to me. The blessing of waking early enough to watch the fox bathe itself. The suction of a man’s hands meeting another’s on the street. Every single person looking up to see them. Bros, yes. But lovely in the golden light with brims swung to the back. I want shoulders like they have. Want my waist to taper to an ass built like the David’s. I admit it: this body’s not enough for me. Still I love it. Al B Sure blasting out a Nissan Sentra’s windows. Bowties. Ridiculous blues. My mother’s seizures- specifically that I don’t have them. That I can answer Ross’ call or not because we live Harmonious and are always talking somehow. Tapestries with their gluttony of deer. Fig perfume and also cypress. Boxer briefs and packing socks in jockey shorts. Strap ons. Soft and hard. Welcome in her hand and in mine as I greet the real me. The little shop in Provincetown. And the speckled dog that licks itself in that fresco of the crucifixion. Mary Oliver. I love her. I really do. The baseball she gave me that says, “Go Sox!” Though, I love the Orioles. Old Bay on all my shrimp. And justice. And cities burning if people need to burn them to get free. My grandmother gardening in the late light. Sun Ra. The first time. Paris, even though I’ve never been there. Natal plums. Tattoos everlasting: Clouds. Orion’s belt. Pushing inside her with both hands holding myself up. My weight. Her grabbing and saying, “God.” “Fuck.” The neighbors. Casablanca. Not knowing anything. Angels. Mashed potatoes. Good red wine.

Praise House: The New Economy by Gabrielle Calvocoressi 

[firesoulstuff]

get to know the blogger 3, 7, 8, 11, 13, 17, 18, 20, 24, 25, 29, 31, 34, 38, 39, 41, 46, 50

3. What are your favorite TV shows?

Obviously all of the Arrowverse shows. I also LOVE The Good Place, Bob’s Burgers, and Stranger Things. I have also lately been rewatching The Penguins of Madagascar, and I have always loved Buzz Lightyear of Star Command. I really appreciate kids’ shows that go the extra mile with their jokes.

7. What are your favorite books?

OK, so I have not read an actual book in a very long time. I read a lot of fanfic. That being said, my favorite books have always been Fever 1793, Rodzina, and The Clay Marble.

8. What are your favourite movies?

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2

Frozen 2

Suicide Squad: Assault on Arkham

11. If you had to get a new pet right now (ignoring price), what would you get? What would you name them?

So my goal in life is to have a Dachshund who I will name Booster. But specifically right now there is a dog in a shelter a few towns away who I WANT SO BAD AND HAVE BEEN BEGGING MY PARENTS TO LET ME GET HIM (sucks being an adult who lives at home sometimes). ANYWAY, he is a boxer/labrador mix and I would name him Tucker. He looks like a Tucker.

13. If you had to make everyone you know watch one movie, read one book, and listen to one song, what would they be?

Movie: There probably is one but I can’t think of it. I guess I’ll say Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2

Book: Rodzina, I guess? Again, I don’t read a lot.

Song: Gun Powder and Lead, By: Miranda Lambert. Everyone should know that song.

17. If you had to pick one movie you’ve seen to erase from your memory, what would you pick?

Akira. I still have nightmares. If you have never seen that count yourself lucky.

18. If you had to pick one item to be gifted to you (up to $50,000 USD in value) that you couldn’t exchange/give away, what would you pick?

Um.... Up to that much money? A new car. Mine is dangerously close to crapping out on me.

20. If you had to become a high school teacher, what subject would you teach? And what club/sports team would you advise?

History. I was pretty good at history in school (I took two different levels simultaneously and got A’s in both), and it’s not overly complicated in terms of trying to teach it. I would advise either the drama club or the yearbook club. Or whatever club some students needed an advisor for.

24. What’s something you’ve done that you’re really proud of?

So I did a Rugged Maniac (despite not being in the BEST shape) and not only did I finish but I did the optional obstacle of these swinging monkey bars. They were optional because they were so big and slippery. It took my five tries but I did it!

25. What’s the book/movie/TV show that influenced you the most out of everything?

I’m gonna say Kim Possible influenced me the most??? Not like in an emotionally deep way, but like I thought Shego was hilarious as a kid and I was at that age where I was actively mimicking traits of my favorite characters, so I decided I wanted to be sarcastic like her. I have since grown into a very sarcastic person - who sometimes borderlines on mean - and one of my friends once told me he admires how quick I am with it.

29. What’s the funniest movie you’ve ever seen?

I probably have a better answer than this somewhere in my head, but I just saw Jumanji: The Next Level and I was IN TEARS laughing for most of it. So it is at least one of the funniest movies I’ve ever seen.

Cheaper by the Dozen 2 has also always been a favorite of mine.

31. What’s one food/dish that you really want to try?

Lobster Mac n Cheese. That sounds great.

34. What are some movies/TV shows that you most want to watch, but haven’t yet?

House

Umbrella Academy

Manifest

Scrubs

Grey’s Anatomy (I have seen a few episodes of this, but I want to actually watch it some day)

38. What are some foods that you hated as a kid, which you’ve now come to like?

Broccoli

Shrimp (Has to be cooked though)

Roast Beef

39. What are some of your most unusual pet peeves?

I... I hate when people get sidetracked during boardgames? Like, if they forget to take a new card when they’re supposed to. I can’t let it go. I have a cousin I grew up with who has the WORST attention span and is in her own world completely when we play games. Like I have played a game with JUST her, so two players, and she loses track of who’s turn it is. So like, I blame her for this pet peeve.

41. What’s your best party trick?

I can whistle using my tongue and my teeth.

46. What are some movies/TV shows/books that you think are overrated?

Twilight

Hunger Games

Harry Potter

50. In terms of weather, what does a “perfect day” look like to you?

70 degrees, sunny, a nice breeze so it isn’t too hot.

Thanks for the asks!!!

[littlemanatarms]

Tagged by @johnhocksbur

Let’s do this.

Nickname: Konrad, Kunkka, Kona

Zodiac: Sagittarius

Height: 164cm (5′4″ or something)

Favorite Musician: Probably Sabaton.

Song stuck in my head: Some song from Nier Automata OST

Other blogs: None at the moment.

Do I get asks: Not really. 

Blogs following: I have no idea if this means how many I follow or how many followers I got. I follow 78 blogs and have 65 followers. I have yet to make it to 69.

Amount of sleep: I take time to sleep around 10 hours but usually get 6-8.

Lucky numbers: I’ve never found any correlation between numbers and lucky events but let’s just go with 20.

What I’m wearing: A T-shirt and boxers. I’m about to go to bed.

Dream job: 40k Inquisitor

Dream trip: Interrail trip through Europe. Look it up if you don’t know what Interrail is, it’s pretty awesome.

Favorite food: Pizza, specifically one with ham, shrimps, olives, cheese and tuna. Pineapple, not to mention fucking strawberries, has no place in my heart or on top of my pizza.

Played instruments: You should hear me go nuts with a triangle.

Languages: Finnish, English and Swedish.

Favorite songs: Pretty much anything by Geneburn.

Random Fact: My body temperature is always pretty high, everyone who has witnessed this *up close* has made the mandatory “You’re so hot”-joke.

Describe yourself as aesthetic things: Skeletons, forest camo, spent shells, trinkets. Cluttered rooms and shelves, forest paths. Crumbling ruins. Sunshine through the blinds. One of those cute salt/pepper shaker combos that look like they’re hugging. 

I, in turn, go with the safe @oomcheck and @tammukka . Everyone else always ignores these, which is fine.

[nuttyrabbit]

♆ ϡ ☂ for Mach

♆ - BODY Headcanon

It’s very much a “no shit” kind of statement, but Mach is pretty fit. He’s not super bulky or muscular, instead having a rather lean body type, the kind you would expect from a boxer or someone who fights like one.  I imagine his back is covered in colorful scales much like a real mantis shrimp, with a massive “tattoo” (AKA painted scales) of the Black Lotus symbol on his upper back.   It’s something he insisted on getting rather than it being something that was forced upon him, something to show his absolute dedication to Frost and his cause.   I also imagine his hands, specifically his knuckles, to be rather beat up and worn-looking due to his years of using them, hence why they’re both heavily bandaged. That and he thinks it looks really cool.   In general, he thinks he looks damn good and is very proud of how he looks.

ϡ - MENTAL STATE Headcanon 

I imagine Mach is someone whose mind is constantly pumping him up, telling him he’s got this, that he’s the best and all that shit.  Not only does this feed his ego, it also makes him someone who seems perpetually energetic and amped up, even if he tries to hide it to “play it cool” so to speak.   I imagine that tucked away in the back of his mind there’s a lingering bitterness from his childhood that never really went away, but he tries not to think about it. It’s all behind him now, behind him and in the fucking dirt. He should know, he put it there himself

☂ - FOOD Headcanon

Given that Mach is basically a boxer,  he has to eat a lot to upkeep both his body and his lifestyle, and by god does he eat a lot.  Meat (Chicken and beef mostly, though he also likes his bacon), eggs, noodles, and even fish make up his usual meals, and while Takeda takes her time eating, Mach gobbles it down in a matter of mere minutes, just shoving it in his face as fast as possible.  Interestingly enough, despite or possibly in direct spite of his upbringing, Mach actually dislikes “fancy” food, preferring more casual, low effort and low frills fare.   It’s honestly a good thing he gets the palace servants to prepare him meals, because the only cooking tool this man can use is the microwave.

Also even outside of meals, this man loves his junk food, especially chips. He goes absolutely gaga over sour cream and onion potato chips and he’s the type of person to get crumbs EVERYWHERE.  

FINALLY I’ve answered ALL of these!

[caepaecaesurae]

> Cae + Nad : Gossip

caepaecaesurae So I'm getting better about lovwers trolljacksparrow yeah? caepaecaesurae I'm actually trying all that again A bit trolljacksparrow ooh anyone specific in mind/any takers yet, lovve?

caepaecaesurae I appear to havwe horrible taste Or At least slightly questionable trolljacksparrow ehehehehehhe cmon cmon wwho is it caepaecaesurae Oh tsk like you'vwe nevwer had that realisation about anything you'vwe wvillingly gotten yourself into ... Ringleader, twvice. trolljacksparrow ringleader??????/ ring???? leader??????? RINGLEADER????? caepaecaesurae I wvas a trickster one of those times and it turned out fine, so trolljacksparrow ring "HHuHhHHhurrrgghhhh ive never submitted to anything not even a stoplight, hurggggghhhh, i am very tough sexually everyone needs to know this" leader??? caepaecaesurae You knowv, wve're both old and lazy and get bored trolljacksparrow oh my god??? (dont misunderstand, i support you!) but oh my god! caepaecaesurae Honestly, entirely reasonable trolljacksparrow HONEY, howw is your taste so bad! ....ok but howw did it go caepaecaesurae Also your description is delightful I don't knowv, magic? trolljacksparrow ehehehehehehe caepaecaesurae Wvell, it wvent wvell enough for a second round trolljacksparrow ayyyyy/ caepaecaesurae It's purposefully a bit intermittant to avwoid getting terribly attached, but I think there'll be a third at some point trolljacksparrow (terribly attached on wwhich side?) i wwould literally nevver havve seen this coming. like. literally nevver. caepaecaesurae wvell, I'm stupid and he's prone to obsession, so either wvay, really. trolljacksparrow if someone wwas like  "dude, dude, your kismesis is gonna bang that one guy (tm)" i wwould not havve believved them pffff holy fuck man ok but honestly, good on you trolljacksparrow hell yeah highfivve caepaecaesurae haha High fivwe, chief. I havwe no idea wvhat I'm doing wvith myself, but.. it's good to get out there. And he's not all bad.  If you scoot the bad bits off the plate there's things left It's alright trolljacksparrow yeah, i actually like got along wwith him that one time after he freaked out that i wwas going to do vviolence upon him hes not all bad, surprisingly >That 'haha' kinda makes you feel bad. Should you be, like, more supportive? Or something? caepaecaesurae "I'm thinking of you naked" wvas the line that wvorked on him by the wvay. trolljacksparrow FUCK L O L caepaecaesurae He wvas surprised trolljacksparrow FANTASTIC caepaecaesurae It wvas pretty good trolljacksparrow nice!! you fuckin smooth operator hahahahaha caepaecaesurae I don't remember wvhat it wvas during the trickster thing I think it wvas something like "I'm easy and interested" I havwe no idea wvhat people consider smooth or wvhy trolljacksparrow ehehehehehe yeah honestly most of the times me neither but dude, lets celebrate, like, hell yeah broadening horizons and all that noise caepaecaesurae :) trolljacksparrow ://) !! caepaecaesurae Te amo trolljacksparrow te amo! tea ammo! all of that! trolljacksparrow (fucking ringleader. unbelievable.) trolljacksparrow (TWWELVVE FEET TALL) caepaecaesurae He's rather fond of my teeth I'm not used to getting compliments about that that don't sound like comparisons to beartraps trolljacksparrow thats a mood sexy sexy beartraps caepaecaesurae He's also remarkably considerate and careful WVith a backup just in case trolljacksparrow thats fantastic! a backup? like, threesomes? caepaecaesurae wvell I meant my extra teeth Most beartraps havwe only the one rowv trolljacksparrow OH yeah ivve nevver hunted bears, i dont knoww i thought it tied into the considerate part and like yeah that wwould be considerate but clarification wwas needed caepaecaesurae Aye, I'm not quite up to several-somes yet trolljacksparrow you can wwork up to it, it takes time to build stamina ://P caepaecaesurae Speaking of Ringleader though, do you see the post he responded to?  The one wvhere cherry shrimp spoke up trolljacksparrow ....im trying to imagine sollux vvantas on a date wwith ringleader "fucking ringleader" makara and i am FAILING MISERABLY caepaecaesurae Same It's almost majestic trolljacksparrow just. i cant picture them in the same room evven but just caepaecaesurae Nowv try to imagine his moirail's spin on this trolljacksparrow the mind cant handle that many possiblities oh my goD HAHAHAHAHA caepaecaesurae This is entirely my fault and I can't find myself minding trolljacksparrow you arrange beautiful things, sometimes caepaecaesurae The boy's a damn boxer and I think Ringleader wvould respect that trolljacksparrow he is, but hes also like i mean i dont think ringleader is immune to sollux vvantas cause NO ONE IS, APPARENTLY caepaecaesurae Sollux VWantas. trolljacksparrow JUST LOOK AT HIM AUGH sollux vvwwantas anywway i still cant fucking picture it but if it happens itll be glorious caepaecaesurae Imagine Sollux VWantas and Ringleader aiming for casual lovwers, and the moirail wvandering directly into a terrible pitch court wvith Ringleader if she isn't already spoken for in pitch trolljacksparrow i mean, hed probably find a lot of wways to piss her off, but that? wwould end in fire caepaecaesurae She'd be a brat, and his dedication to her health wvould rest entirely on her moirail's shoulders And as wve all knowv, Sollux VWantas trolljacksparrow yea wwe really do then again ringleader, wwho is apparently super blunt, might be the only person to be blunt enough for the boy wwho didnt realize wwhat pinching someones ass indicated caepaecaesurae I think Ringleader is the only responsible adult invwolvwed, and that's going to be fascinating to hear about ovwer drinks somenight trolljacksparrow ovver a lot of drinks caepaecaesurae Probably it wvon't go anywvhere caepaecaesurae But it's interesting to think about trolljacksparrow hahahaha yeah caepaecaesurae Anywvay I thought I'd keep you in the loop About Ringleader "Yes that one" Makara trolljacksparrow i appreciate it! keep me in the loop about any others, yeah? (like im fine wwith evverything i just. wwant gossip) caepaecaesurae I'll try dearest If it evwer comes to someone wvhere the secret wvould be hard but important to me to keep, wvould you rather struggle wvith it or not be technically sure? trolljacksparrow wwho could you possibly fuck that requires covvert ops, babe but like caepaecaesurae If someone has clade wvho are vwiolently opposed to highbloods for example, or wvho havwe terrible history wvith Amporas specifically ... caepaecaesurae If someone has clade wvho mistrust me specifically due to some long-ago argument If I evwer make it wvith a VWriska trolljacksparrow ok i just gotta outline that if anyone tries to mess wwith you ill hand them their spine noww that thats done wwith hhm, i dont knoww. like... i wwant to support you, yeah? but also, like, im just......i wwouldnt betray you, evver caepaecaesurae Oh surely, and I appreciate it caepaecaesurae I knowv you wvouldn't I'm just asking if you'd prefer juicy gossip, or havwing things easy not havwing to keep track of wvho knowvs wvhat trolljacksparrow im thinking about that because on one hand fuuuuck i lovve gossip but on the other hand i often havve a hard time wwith like not freaking out ovver direct lying? so its like wwhat are the odds that someone comes up to me and is like HEY ARE CAE AND X FUCKING and im unable to say 'hey. fuck you' (id do it anywway, like, despite the thing, it just might not be effectivve) so its like caepaecaesurae Higher than you'd think, hypothetically! trolljacksparrow make your best judgment of like wwhat thats just like, my clade i guess is it only hypothetically? caepaecaesurae ... There's someone else, and I do think you'd havwe an easier time of it if I'm not specific.  The one you'd be trying not to lie to is Sparks, for possibly a swveep or fivwe until a fewv things wvork out. If it lasts that long caepaecaesurae But at the same time, I lovwe and trust you. trolljacksparrow mmmm yeah. caepaecaesurae And it's important I not try to ovwer-control things trolljacksparrow okay i havve no idea wwhat that means in relation to all this but like yeah, aight like, dont tell me >Man, you're put out by this more than you anticipated. trolljacksparrow >Why can't you enjoy gossip. caepaecaesurae Te amo, dearest.  If any rough spots evwer get wvorked out so secrecy isn't an issue, or if it doesn't wvork out so it can be a past-tense secret rather than an ongoing one, I'll be sure to let you knowv first thing But.. I'm getting out there, and it's rare and precious and newv, and I havwe rather awvkwvard taste But hey, wvhat else is newv trolljacksparrow sent a GIF caepaecaesurae You and Kankri are the only ones wvho knowv about a vwisit or twvo to Ringleader And you're the only one wvho knowvs he's not the only one trolljacksparrow ! i adore you trolljacksparrow once again, anyone troubles you ill fucking delimb them, but yeah caepaecaesurae WVarm thoughts for cold evwenings trolljacksparrow oh, and by the wway trolljacksparrow you offered up a lot of scenarios back then, right caepaecaesurae Back wvhen? trolljacksparrow back wwhen i wwas like oh dude wwhat reason could you possibly havve to havve a tactical dick appointment relying on james bondery and secrecy caepaecaesurae Aye, that I did trolljacksparrow and you specifically mentioned making it wwith a vvriska... caepaecaesurae Sparks looks rather dimly on those trolljacksparrow that he does, that he does but also trolljacksparrow also wwell caepaecaesurae Unrelated sidenote, I'm trading holiday gifts wvith his VWriska nowv and again. trolljacksparrow stop interrupting my dramatic fucking revveal for fucks sake! are you a bloody ampora or wwhat! fucking unbelievvable caepaecaesurae She's dead, but her ghost is about. You're wvelcome and I am suddenly all ears trolljacksparrow thank god! okay anywway funny you should mention making it wwith a vvriska.... because i got c3<ed to one for like half a swweep. (AAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY DID FUCKING ANYONE SEE THAT COMING) caepaecaesurae Ashen? Absolutely baffled trolljacksparrow yes, topleaf! caepaecaesurae But nowv that you mention it, I can only think of one that you speak to much online... trolljacksparrow ://) caepaecaesurae WVell damn Good showv keeping that one quiet, howv havwe you managed? caepaecaesurae Keeping it off Sparks' radar alone must havwe been tricky trolljacksparrow ://)!! trolljacksparrow yeah!! theres some people that knoww but not a lot and ITS SO DIFFICULT i just wwant to openly affection at her but  i cant my beautiful sharp fighty ashenmate caepaecaesurae Side-leavwes, or is one of you the top? trolljacksparrow im the topleaf! she's a marvvel and a delight and she brightens my life and this is a god damn secret, okay angel? caepaecaesurae Swvorn and sealed trolljacksparrow i asked to tell you the moment you mentioned a vvriska because, oh my god, the opportunity, "in case i make it vwith a wvriska" "GUESS WWHAT (//: ", just, damn caepaecaesurae I wvish you the dearest of luck wvith her, Serkets are... tricky. trolljacksparrow she made a vvery elaborate threat against your wwell-being if you fuck this up belovved, it wwas practically ornate caepaecaesurae My good luck, then Thank you for not directly sharing the threat. trolljacksparrow you wwont mess this up though so no wworries! like theres nothing to mess up caepaecaesurae I wvon't be getting in her wvay trolljacksparrow oh honey its just "dont tell this to people" not "gtfo" caepaecaesurae Aye, all's wvell trolljacksparrow (i knoww that serkets arent rays of moonbeams though, so dont wworry) trolljacksparrow also im her topleaf so if she does get upset wwith you shed havve to talk it out wwith me caepaecaesurae I appreciate it Again, I wvon't be interfering or risking your quadrant. Believwe it or not I knowv my wvay around a secret or twvo trolljacksparrow you and your mystery beau ://P caepaecaesurae Eh That's days old I wvouldn't call it wvorth being proud of keeping quiet yet trolljacksparrow doesnt it givve such a rogueish air to the wwhole thing? also im gonna come bother you in person if youre not super busy caepaecaesurae <3< trolljacksparrow <3< !!! trolljacksparrow >Nadaya is definitely finding Cae and cuddling up to him and purring super contently. His. >He might look slightly :c but he tries very hard not to let it show. caepaecaesurae > ..and Cae's definitely a little distant-eyed and faintly sad, but very fond of cuddles and hanging out comfortably. trolljacksparrow >...Cae gets finpets, and Nadaya promptly hoists himself into Cae's lap, and sighs. "Look, fucking, she didnt actually make the threat she just told me to tell you that she made an elaborate threat, I'm sorry, I didn't realize, just look--" and you show him this: https://puu.sh/zihDF/5648ce76f9.png caepaecaesurae > His mouth opened and closed once as he absorbed that, fins shifting slightly, before pinning a bit and lowering.  His cheeks heated, lighting slightly, and he glanced away > He gave a small awkward shoulder pat, and a nod. trolljacksparrow > Nadaya kissed him directly on the tip of his nose. "I'm sorry beloved," and a hair ruffle, Nadaya is gonna be comfortable all over him. caepaecaesurae "...sorry, chief," he murmered back. trolljacksparrow "hey it's fine, it's okay, don't worry about it, yeah," Cae's neck gets nuzzled, purr starting up. This is fine, it's a fine way to spend time. caepaecaesurae "...You got wvorried enough to come ovwer." trolljacksparrow "i mean, you say this as if i dont love spending time with you?" Nadaya curled a hand in the fabric of Cae's shirt, a picture of peace on his kismesis. "you're stressed from unrelated reasons too, so its like... i dont want you to be sad," he finished lamely, sighing and nuzzling. ".............i wwouldnt let her. it wwas just, a lack-of-trust thing that manifested badly." caepaecaesurae > Arms gently closed around him, and Cae rested his cheek in Nadaya's hair, carefully, trying to avoid as many charms and knives as possible.  One or two was fine. "...Aye.  WVe'll see howv much she trusts or distrusts." "..I'll be myself, and wve'll see if that's enough." trolljacksparrow >Nadaya's purr intensified at that, fins fluttering. Hugs! Hell yeah! A part of him hoped Cae gets a weird imprint from the charms. "yeah - and, i'm serious, it wwont come to vviolence, swworn and sealed and all that." caepaecaesurae > He acquired a small smile, only slightly sad.  Nadaya was more reassuring than he had any right to be, though. "..I knowv my pan plays tricks on me, lovwe.  WVe'll see howv it goes."

[marche-towers]

Tagged by the loml @hideandseaking

Rules: answer the questions and tag 10 blogs you want to know better

A) age: 22 B) birthplace: Southern California C) current time: 11:26 pm D) last drink you had: Gotta stay hydrated with that warter E) easiest person to talk to: Nikky! I love her, she is the best girlfriend in the world and i talk to her every night F) favourite song atm: Come on Eileen, sweet Caroline, and Talk Dirty to me, have been on repeat in my head the past 2 weeks G) grosses memory: So i was working at disneyland a few weeks ago, and i swear, this guy with his like 7 year old kid walked up next to my facepainting stand and pulled  his pants down and had him Pee in a plastic bottle right in front of me!!! H) hogwarts house: Ravenclaw I) in love: Fuck Yeah! J) jealous: shit idk money?? ive gotta drop like 500$ this week K) killed someone: Only in my hardcore gamer life L) love at first sight: nah, but pics of my gf make my heart flutter M) Middle name: Eli N) number of siblings: I have a younger sister who is the worst but were getting along rn O) one wish: i want to be able to duplicate myself, so i can go to school, stay home, work, and visit my gf! R) reasons to smile: I love talking to nikky every night, its my favorite part of the day S) song you last listened to: My Gf making Yoshi Noises as im writing this meme out T) time you woke up: i wake up twice at 7 and 7:30 cuz those are my alarms U) underwear color: Navy blue Boxers with a little white and red stripes V) vacation destination: I wanna go to Hawaii again only this time not as my familys personal cheuffer and also with nikky, also i wanna go to Japan too W) worst habit: Dangit i pick my nose so much, and i leave dishes in the sink after i cook X) x-rays: probs a few years ago when i got my braces Y) favourite food: I love spicy Boiled shrimp from Kickin Crab my favorite resturanut, Ramen from Shinsengumi, Tacos from a very specific taco truck, and Burritos from literally anywhere, i ate a burrito once that was bigger than my whle fat head Z) zodiac sign: Leo Sun, Capricorn Moon, Scorpio Rising

@stinkiedinkiedoodles @rubenisalive @jutopa @krissanthimum @kawaiilibrary