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y-rhywbeth2 · 1 month ago

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Illithid: Biology

Link: Disclaimer regarding D&D "canon" & Index [tldr: D&D lore is a giant conflicting mess you can almost always find something that argues against [x]. Larian's lore is also a conflicting mess. There's a lot of lore; I don't know everything. You learn to take what you want and leave the rest. Frankly these posts may get updated now and then. etc]

Biology | Elder Brains | Culture | Variants WIP

I need a break from elves.

Frankly I think most of this info is on the wiki, but whatever; a compilation of three sourcebooks and some errata.

Life cycle: From tadpole to squid to Elder Brain food; how ceremorphosis is a joy (and also a manageable condition that need not end in tentacles if you stay on top of it)

Psychology: Propaganda hours and one-sided relationships for the tentacled academics; and why the undead make them flip their shit.

Physiology: Internal organs, lifespan, senses and what do you suppose being able to feel with your stomach lining is like?

Habitat: 'On today's agenda: kill the sun.'

Diet: You don't have to live on human brains, asshole.

Reproduction: So how are half-illithid made? WotC, once again, show me the forbidden mind flayer courtship lore.

It all begins when a mind flayer lays eggs in the brine pool that houses the elder brain. A clutch of mind flayer eggs consists of a pile of clear eggs, one-sixth of an inch in diameter, bound together by sticky garlic-scented mucus, which float at the top of the nursery (usually around the edges).

After a month these hatch into tiny mauve tadpoles less than an inch long (the tentacles are deceiving, they're not cephalopods, they're amphibians) which live in the brine pool as room mates with the colony Elder Brain. Most will be eaten by the Brain, leaving a handful of survivors (1 in a 1000 are spared).

Without the Elder Brain these tadpoles would begin cannibalising each other, until only one survived, developing enough to leave the pool and become a giant wormy horror that's about as intelligent as a dog that I'll talk about later. Nature is beautiful.

But moving onto the average tadpole who grows up with the Brain: Tadpoles take a decade to mature, feeding on mashed organs fed to them by 'nursery attendants.' Once they're about 3 inches long they're ready to get shoved up somebody's nose. The 'sucker' on the underside of its body which served as a mouth has developed a spiny rim, and four tentacles and webbed growths have spouted from it like a tail. By the time they're mature they look like elongated tiny octopi.

Tadpoles are implanted into the orifice of a humanoid being of appropriate size. Eye, nostril, ear canal, you decide.

Hosts must be mammalian, between 5'4"-6'2" tall and weigh between 130-270 pounds. This means candidates for ceremorphosis are humans, elves, gith, gnolls and large goblinoids. Worry not, the rest of you may still be of service to our glorious mucus covered masters as slaves and food, and advancements in illithid science now allows gnomes to become tiny squid people.

A tadpole in its natural state is about as intelligent as a frog. It proceeds to consume its host's brain, growing in size and intellect and melding itself to the brain stem, replacing that brain as the body's control centre.

The length of the process varies by host, depending on both their strength of mind and physical health and can take from an hour to a tenday or more. Translating mechanics to narrative: as the brain damage develops the infected loses motor control and balance, memory, personality, intellectual capability, emotional regulation and probably emotions in general, and so on so forth begin to go as the person is slowly and utterly destroyed. A restoration spell cast upon them will reverse the damage done, delaying ceremorphosis - in theory indefinitely, but it will not destroy the tadpole. The tadpole is easy to kill, but incredibly difficult to locate as you'd have to go rooting through the brain looking for it which will almost definitely kill the host. Apparently a heal spell is required to cure the condition. Of course if you kill the host and the tadpole pre-ceremorphosis then resurrecting them will bring them back right as rain, tadpole free.

Assuming that doesn't happen: once the brain is gone, the host is dead, '[their] spirit seeks its fate in the Outer Planes' and the body is left to the parasite.

The illithid begins to rewrite the nervous system and physically edit the exterior of its new body (though not the interior organs). Interior function remains largely the same, but soft tissue is overwritten on a fundamental level to the point where it doesn't really count as humanoid tissue any longer. Within seven days you have the finished product. The skin turns mauve and begins to secrete mucus, the eyes sink into the skull and turn solid white throughout, fingers begin to meld together, webbing increases between digits, the human mouth is replaced with that of a lamprey's, and four tentacles are acquired.

Once the host is destroyed the only way to bring them back is the miracle spell: in other words you need to track down a very powerful cleric and convince them to give their god a call and ask for direct divine intervention to rewrite reality so that the ceremorphosis didn't happen. Mind flayers, being sapient beings with a patron deity, presumably have souls. Most illithid believe they don't have souls (or at least not ones beholden to a deity), and insist that Ilsensine and Maanzecorian are just 'ideals,' but the hubris ridden squids are hardly unbiased. The Illithiad talks about it like they do have souls.

The illithid may have picked up some residual memory from the host, a psionic echo of neurons now gone, though considering illithid and humanoid neurology and emotions are incompatible as hardware and programming these memories are going to mean little to them if anything, and mind flayers have no sentimental attachment to the host identity as a result.

You now have a neophyte: a newborn illithid is little more than a tentacled frog that suddenly gained a lot of processing power and a shiny new sapience. It has no innate knowledge of its needs or culture and hasn't fully developed its abilities or adjusted to its form and will need the guidance of its colony as it learns and 'grows up.'

At 21 years old they should be adult ilithid with fully mature psionic abilities and control of their bodies.

An illithid lives for about 135 years, at the end of which it has its brain removed and is thrown into the spawning pool from whence it came where its brain is eaten by the colony Elder Brain. Illithid believe that they will live on forever as part of a union of those who came before them. In truth the Brain just treats them exactly as they once treated their host and victims; by killing of their individuality and personality and stealing their memories and intelligence to empower itself. But kinda worse, because at least the tadpoles aren't intelligent enough to have morals.

Psychology:

It's often believed due to their lack of facial expressions and unfamiliar body language, as well as the flat effect of their 'voice' when communicating telepathically, that mind flayers have no emotions.

It's actually the exact opposite: mind flayers have all-consuming, overwhelming feelings at all times, carefully internalised.

A mind flayer's emotions are not directly equivalent to those of a humanoid in 'feel' (possibly due to a lack of brain and hormones?), though some can be compared for an idea of what they're like. From an outsider perspective the majority of these emotions would be viewed as 'negative.'

A mind flayer experiences fulfilment and positive emotion from a) eating brains and b) pursuing and satisfying their curiosities and taking pride in positive outcomes. Curiosity itself being a powerful drive for their kind, they're all usually studying something. Outside of those two activities nothing gives mind flayers 'happiness'/whatever their version of serotonin is. 'Fear,' 'envy,' and 'hate' are other manifestations of aggression, the same as with most sentient beings.

Another other primary mind flayer emotion is aggression, usually frustration. They are a very easily pissed off people, and the belief that they are the superior beings who should be guiding the world into a Lawful utopia of master (mind flayer) and thrall (everyone else) often leads them to be very grumpy when the world, most bizarrely, does not seem to be in step with their outlook.

Whether it's innate or conditioned (and at what stage the conditioning began, tadpole or illithid) is not clear, but it's described as an 'instinct' for illithid to believe they are inherently superior and all others are thralls and good. Oh boy, the hubris. On the plus side it can be overcome and unlearned.

Mind flayers need socialisation, in a sense. Being telepathic, hive mind-oriented beings they're known to panic when alone in their own heads (such as when being outside the range of their colony).

'Dominion is life' is a key philosophy; 'only through the domination of others can [one] actualise their inner desires, needs, and future goals.' Mind flayers on a base psychological level need a thrall as a kind of mirror and anchor of their identity, not so much for care of the person they're connected to but in order to project themselves onto a being they feel 'intimately' connected to. Being without thralls is traumatic, and mind flayers will usually drop everything to acquire more when they have none. Without thralls the mind flayer's emotional health is destroyed and they just downward spiral into depression and insanity. They will often 'die quietly' in this situation.

Creating a thrall is 'no small matter' and requires the efforts of the entire colony lending their psionic abilities to the one performing the process in order to bring them into the hive mind. The intended thrall is branded with their master's ID and conditioned with layers of psionic brainwashing in repeat sessions, completely erasing their personality and individuality and then reprograming them to suit their master's needs.

While we 'cattle' consider this horrific, mind flayers see this as an act of altruism. They genuinely believe that the 'lesser races' require their dominance for guidance to thrive. Those who are consumed are appreciated; an illithid grants the lesser races a boon by consuming them and briefly experiencing their existence, and the thrall race grants them their 'gifts.'

'Oh, most delicious morsel, perceive my appreciation of your unique gifts...' - A mind flayer, addressing its 'donor'

(Mind flayers that question any of these doctrines of how it's good for the 'lesser races' are subject to immediate execution.)

Illithid do not typically have such 'intimate' bonds with each other. While they are cooperative, mind flayers are highly individualistic and very competitive. While they're known to experience grief at the passing of their people, tentacled academics don't like to share their personal research with the other mad scientists.

They aren't incapable of being decent people.

'...there are some benevolent illithids, though these tend to be reclusive and well-hidden, or magically disguised into other shapes they “wear” almost all the time, just to avoid constant attacks or hostility from others who see their mind flayer bodies and react accordingly. At least one longterm-in-print “human” NPC of the Realms is actually one of these disguised illithids. - Ed Greenwood (I'm not sure who it is, NPCs aren't my forte)

'Rogue' illithid are those who - somehow - break free of an Elder Brain's borderline omnipotent dominion and reclaim their individuality. Some of them, often those with open minds who've lived long and experience many things, come to see mind flayer supremacy propaganda as nonsense and come to respect non-illithid as their equals on par with fellow illithid rather than thralls in the great plan of the universe.

Aside from the gith, the undead are the illithid's least favourite group of people in the universe. This has been downplayed as editions proceeded, but as walking corpses the undead have neither body temperature nor brain activity; This makes them effectively invisible to mind flayers who struggle to sense their presence, and worse, means that they cannot be controlled throwing a wrench in the 'we are the supreme beings' paradigm that informs the entire mind flayer propoganda machine. Mind flayers are absolutely fucking terrified of the undead to the point of psychological trauma, to quote the book, and when informed of undead sightings near their colonies the community will drop all activity to focus on getting rid of them. Preferably by organising a group of thralls trained to hunt them and sending them off to deal with the problem.

'To an illithid’s way of viewing things, it appears as if undead were created long, long ago just to thwart illithid dominance.'

To add insult to injury they're not edible, and if you tried to eat their brain it would be 'like eating a frozen pizza that's still frozen. Not the most uplifting experience.' Or so says Christopher Perkins. Ghouls and zombies on the other hand are probably fine eating their brains.

Physiology:

Mind flayers are warm blooded.

Tall, emaciated looking figures; While they're extremely powerful natural psionicists, in terms of physical prowess they're usually nothing to write home about.

Their tentacles range from 2-4 feet in full length, usually appearing shorter at rest. An illithid's tentacles are very responsive, almost always in motion in response to their inner thoughts and moods. They double as an extra set of arms, and possess the full strength of arms too.

Most internal anatomy, with the exception of the sex organs and any mammary glands, remains and functions much the same as it always has, save that each organ is now wired into the nervous system to a greater degree. Every single organ effectively becomes an auxillary brain - likely because a mind flayer doesn't have a true brain of its own - allowing an illithid greater information storage and processing capabilities. It also allows them an awareness of their internal anatomy rather like everybody else is aware of their external sensory anatomy.

Mind flayer skin is a vibrant mauve; The glands of the dermis are altered to secrete a lot of mucus in order to lock in moisture and keep that delicate amphibious skin covered in a film of slime - which smells of vanilla, onion and garlic. Without this protective covering, for example if lost to the drying effects of the sun or from disease, the mind flayer dehydrates and is at risk of death if not replenished. The mucus also does something unexplained that amplifies a mind flayer's psionic abilities and offers protection against harmful magic.

There's also been something about moulting that wasn't expanded on.

The index finger is lost, for some reason, leaving a mind flayer with three fingers and a thumb. These are tipped with long black 'claws' of cartilage, but despite looking threatening they're harmless. On the feet all but two toes are lost as webbing stretches between them to form flippers. Unsurprisingly for semi-aquatic beings, mind flayers are adept swimmers, though they can't breathe underwater and must surface for air.

Due to the shape of their mouth and the loss of a tongue and use of vocal chords due to ceremorphosis, illithid technically cannot verbalise and communicate exclusively via telepathy and body language (via tentacles). If forced they can shove one of their own tentacles down their throat and force it to function as a voice box and tongue (usually for spellcasting purposes). The sensation is horrible for the illithid and the sound is godawful for those listening to it, so everybody suffers together!

Senses:

The primary sense of an illithid is, naturally, their psionic abilities: primarily detect thoughts which they can use to track living beings around them and communicate.

The exterior remodelling has several effects. The nostrils are lost in favour of tentacles, meaning that an illithid must breathe through its mouth and has no olfactory sense.

Sight: Illithid eyes are covered in a pale film which screens out the light spectrum visible to human eyes, but does give allow them to see in infrared and track heat signatures. Or in 3.5e-onwards parlance due to jettisoning infravision as a concept: they can see perfectly in the dark, but struggle in lighted conditions and see not at all in full sunlight. Due to this lack of vision, illithid 'write' things using a psionic method called Qualith. While it is inscribed, the actual information it contains isn't in the writing it just beams into your brain at a touch.

Hearing: The outer ear is reduced to a barely noticeable ridge around the ear canal over the process of ceremorphosis, which reduces the illithid's auditory capabilities. They're reasonably good at telling what direction a sound is coming from, but struggle to tell sounds apart or pick apart various components within a sound.

Habitat:

As the sun blinds them and dries them out - which is greatly uncomfortable and a serious health risk - illithid absolutely despise the thing. A popular mind flayer rhetoric is that the damn thing should be blotted out. Not just the sun of Toril; the sun of every world across the planes.

They need dark, cool, damp moisture in their surroundings to survive and thrive.

For the time being mind flayers live the subterranean lifestyle, seeking out damp briny caves to make their homes in. Mind flayer collonies are often most at home in the very deepest levels of the Underdark.

Diet:

The downside of this reconstruction of the stolen host body is that the body loses its ability to produce hormones and enzymes - in order for a mind flayer's neurons and organs to function, it must take them from living beings (preferably humanoids). While they're infamous for eating brains, and the largest portion of their diet is brains - from which they can gain most of what they need - an illithid must actually consume a balanced diet of all organs found in the human body. The psionic energies within brains gives a boost to metabolism that allows illithid to effectively go without standard nutrition for the most part. A brain a month holds them over fine.

The brain doesn't need to be humanoid, it just needs to be 'nourishing' enough. Felids and canids and octopi should make a good meals.

However part of the pleasure of consuming a brain is in experiencing the memories of the victim, a sensation often shared with the rest of the colony, and animals rarely provide the same entertainment value. While illithid can get by on a brain a month, and can find more ethical options, the s majority wouldn't do that and eat far more than they need to simply for the pleasure it brings them. They also eat animal brains for snacks in between humanoid meals.

That said apparently 'many illithids over the years have forsaken eating human brains in favour of other diets, and working with human thoughts and memories in other ways.' The details of these diets have been written up somewhere but are currently behind NDAs (can't be given 'yet' was the phrasing).

While most find an illithid mouth scary, rest assured that mind flayers do not bite. Their mouths are too weak to break skin, let alone chew through flesh and bone: No, their tentacles secrete enzymes that dissolve through organic matter, allowing them to expose the organs (the illithid's own mucus protects their own flesh). The lamprey-like structure of the mouth allows them to latch onto the flesh and then they shove their tentacles into the cavity, move the dissolving organ mush into their mouth and eat it.

Reproduction:

Ceremorphosis also edits the reproductive organs. The host's mammalian sexual characteristics disappear as they are altered for illithid use.

Illithid are hermaphrodites and oviparous, every illithid will - on two or three occasions in its life - lay eggs in the colony brine pool. Lore does not go into mind flayer mating practices, so how these eggs are fertilised is not covered. Possibly they self-fertilise. It's also possible that it takes two to tadpole: it could be done in the style of fish, where one lays the eggs and another fertilises them, but considering they're amphibians with a mammalian base structure it's not out of the question that mind flayers fuck. Especially on Toril. It's also not explained why two/three times; if they have a libido at all, or if they go into heat three times in their life, or if the colony simply has a roster that decides who is on breeding duties and when...

Their reproductive system, for those found on Toril, is also apparently compatible with humanoid systems and can produce half-illithid. It's the Forgotten Realms. Everything in this setting turns out to be horny when you dig deep enough.

Underdark assures us that 'most often' mind flayers impregnate humanoids with mad science rather than by 'direct mating.' 'Most often,' not accounting for the minority who decided to go at it the 'direct' way. I have no idea what illithid society thinks of mind flayers with these inclinations (I strongly suspect it's not approved of), nor do I have any hints as to how direct mating with illithid works.

#Honestly I'm surprised nobody's asked Ed Greenwood about mind flayer sex yet #What *are* the tentacle fetishists doing?#calamari hours #long post #edgelord hours

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headfullof-ideas · 1 month ago

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Some dragon lore that might be considered more headcanon that I made up for my fic that I’m just gonna share with the rest of the HTTYD fandom, because I’m fully aware many may not read my fic as it’s a crossover with a teeny tiny show relatively no one’s heard of

- Gronckle’s, Catastrophic Quakens, and Eruptodon’s are related species that evolved in different ways (other related species chains will involve Night Fury-Light Fury-Woolly Howl-Sand Wraith, Hideous Zippleback- Venus Snapptrapper, Boneknapper-Armorwing-Sword Stealer and maybe Timberjack-Typhoomerang)

- Monstrous Nightmare’s are surprisingly strong swimmers and fond of the water, considering they’re a staple Stoker Class dragon with their ability to set themselves on fire

- Deadly Nadder’s have horrible depth perception and used to be a smaller and typically prey-dragon for the cannibal species, which is why they evolved both their spiny tails and such a heightened sense of smell. Lack of depth perception that helps you pinpoint where something is doesn’t mean much when you can either sniff it out or shoot spines in almost every direction as a defense mechanism

- Hideous Zippleback’s are the most well-adapted to life on the ground, especially in wooded areas, amongst the other more common dragon species, and are also the fastest runners. They’re almost better runners than they are fliers. They’re also incredibly good ambush predators, with perfect camouflage in forest environments and impressive stealth, and in areas where there are little other dragons, especially a dragon larger than them, are usually the top of their food chains, which is why they’re one of the bigger of the common breeds (Ala Nightmare’s, Gronckles, and Nadders)

- Speed Stingers fight each other in a similar manner to jousting, but on a much faster and dangerous level, with a bit of the game Chicken thrown in as well

- Deadly Nadder’s are actually a Dual Class dragon, fitting perfectly enough in both the Sharp and Tracker Class that they were categorized into both

- Bewilderbeast’s and the Red Death’s species are both sexually dimorphic, but more in regard to size. Male Bewilderbeast’s are the ones that get so large, hence the name ‘King of Dragons’. The same applies in reverse to the Red Death’s species, with the females the ones that grow to the giant sizes, earning them a similar name ‘Queen of Dragons’. This is also why there are so few of these giant dragons around; there’s a very short window in which they can mate with the opposite sex, before it becomes too dangerous or risky for the smaller partner. Few naturally born males or females of the respective species ever hatch, so they evolved to have long lifespans as a whole, and the smaller sex of each species also evolved the same trick the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park and the frogs they were made with developed; instant transgenderism

- Singetails evolved their complex fire-breathing system as a defense mechanism against the Skrills that were hunting them, and Skrills evolved their long-ranged electrical attacks in retaliation

- The type of lava blast a Gronckle shoots can vary depending on what kind of rocks they ate to prepare for the blast, or what kind of rock diet they usually eat

- Light Furies are glittery because they can often be found near warmer but still polar regions, where the sparkling helps them blend in with the snow. Light Furies also get chunky with blubber the colder the area they live in gets; they adapted to adjust their body weight depending on how much heat they needed to retain due to their surroundings

- Woolly Howls and Snow Wraiths often fight with one another as they live in the same environments and clash over territory

- Monstrous Nightmare’s aren’t necessarily a species that mates for life, but they are one of the species that will keep going back to a certain partner if they liked them, and sometimes refuse other suitors in favor of a repeated partner they’re fond of. They also raise their hatchlings well into young adulthood, unlike some species who wait until the babies can fend for themselves. Some Monstrous Nightmare chicks will even seek out their parents and siblings well into adulthood to check up on them and catch up, or even stay with them

- Night Furies and their related species are like whale pods, who teach lessons and skills through generations and live in family units. Many of a Night Fury’s hidden skills have to be taught by another dragon of the same species, unlike other species who instinctually learn them as they grow. They also age at relatively the same pace as humans, mentally and physically

- Some Gronckles can actually develop allergies to certain rocks and minerals, and have preferences for what rocks they’ll eat in the same way other dragons will prefer a certain kind of fish or game over something else. Gemstones and jewels are kind of like candy to Gronckles

- All the ‘cannibal’ species (Deathsong, Skrill, Deathgripper, etc.) don’t rely on just dragons for their diet, as dragons are some of the hardest prey to catch. Even Cavern Crashers don’t rely on just dragon eggs for their food; they’ll eat any small animal they can get their teeth on, and if they’re lucky, nests of other egg laying animals

- Skrills will also hunt Flightmare’s if presented with the opportunity, as well as some of the smaller ‘Terror’ dragons species (Night Terrors and Terrible Terrors), but they’re also really fond of sheep. They don’t eat fish like most other dragon species unless they find it dead somewhere else, or steal it from another dragon, and that’s if the Skrill even has a taste for fish. This is due to the fact that water is their biggest weakness, and fishing means getting wet and making themselves very vulnerable, which means most don’t even develop a taste or liking for seafood

#it is my goal to not necessarily FIX the Light Fury design #rather to ADD to it and find a way to make it make sense #i hope the headcanon/lore I added here pleases some people regarding that species #and any of these other one’s really #some of these are a little more headcanon-y than others #but a lot of these was me coming up with lore I felt actually fit the dragon in canon #and also with my fic #httyd #httyd dragon lore #httyd dragon headcanons #tagging both #adding the tag for my fic at the end purely because most of this ends up in it and I came up with it for the fic itself #httyd/the deep crossover

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s0fti3w1tch · 2 years ago

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This is not for gatekeeping, I just wanna spout some turtle facts bc I'm a fucking nerd

THE FLAT FUCK FRIDAY MEMES WITH DONNIE ARE FUNNY AS FUCK

Though, these fellas aren't spiny soft shells!

It's the Asian giant soft shell turtle! / Cantor's giant soft shell turtle!

Some differences:

- Spiny softshells are native to North America, spanning from Central-Eastern U.S. all the way down to Northern Mexico, and a little bit into Canada.

- Asian giant softshells are native to Southeast Asia, all the way from Bangladesh to the Philippines, and even spread a bit further out, like in Eastern South India.

- Spiny softshells' carapaces are rougher by its head, spines along the front edge which give it its name. They are also known to "resemble pancakes."

- Asian giant softshells have a smooth carapace all around. It almost blends into their neck.

- Spiny softshells have a snorkel-like nose, 2 yellowish lines on the sides of its head.

- Asian giant softshell turtles have a broad head that ends in a shorter snout, eyes sitting close to it. For this reason, it's also called a "Frog-Faced turtle"

- Adult female spiny softshell's carapaces can grow to 7 up to 19 inches in length. Adult male spiny softshells can go from 5 to 10 inches.

- The general range of size for an adult Asian giant softshell's carapace is 28-39 inches in length.

- Though not listed as not endangered in the US (put as 'least concerned' in the IUCN), spiny softshells are considered endangered in Canada (listed as 'endangered' by COSEWIC, SARA, and 'threatened' by ESA).

- The Asian giant softshell turtle is classified as critically endangered by the IUCN (Though said they need to be reclassified due to more concerns). It's considered an EDGE species, Evolutionarily Distinct and Globally Endangeted.

This has been turtle facts with Buwan! Again! :)

some other related posts abt turtle facts!

#rottmnt donnie #flat fuck friday #turtle facts with ROTTMNT because I cannot shut up #donatello hamato is the softshell ever #regular buwan reblog #turtle facts n tmnt

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hoodie-prince-kid · 1 year ago

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Its four mammals, four birds, four amphibians/reptiles, and four fish from the area.

So from Mexico I chose the Mexican Fruit Bat, Vaquita, Bobcat, Desert Kangaroo Rat, Black-Necked Stilt, Broad Billed Hummingbird, Marbled Godwit, Inca Dove, Mexican Spiny Tailed Iguana, Gila Monster, Axolotl, Forrer's Grass Frog, Rainwater Killifish, Giant Oarfish, Pacific White Skate, and the Mexican Blind Brotula.

Youve got it all sfigured out, way to go!

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dendroica · 6 years ago

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Haiti's first private nature reserve will protect 68 species of vertebrates | MNN - Mother Nature Network

Professor S. Blair Hedges from Temple University and Haitian businessman Philippe Bayard, CEO of Sunrise Airways and president of Société Audubon Haiti, began working together nine years ago in an effort to raise awareness about Haiti's loss of wildlife and wilderness. The Haitian government took notice of Hedges' and Bayard's efforts and declared Grand Bois a national park in 2015. Then, in November 2018, Hedges and his team identified Grand Bois, along with a few other locations, as a biodiversity hotspot in a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. They determined this by conducting helicopter surveys of Haiti's remaining forests.

The national park designation helped create some protections, but the Haitian government has limited resources to adequately keep the park safe. Hedges and Bayard sought private funding to secure more land and to help pay for park management. They found the GWC and Rainforest Trust as willing partners to further protect Grand Bois. "Sadly, conservation efforts in Haiti were not producing convincing results and therefore the current system of protected areas is not working. Something different was truly needed," Bayard says in a statement from Temple University. Following two years of instability in the government, the coalition managed to complete the land purchase Jan. 18.

The Grand Bois mountain is part of Haiti's Massif de la Hotte mountain range, a key conservation region in the country and one of the most important habitats for amphibians in the world. Over the course of seven years, Hedges and Bayard conducted two expeditions through Grand Bois and documented 68 individual vertebrate species, including 19 critically endangered amphibians.

These amphibians include the Tiburon stream frog (pictured above), which had gone unseen by researchers for 40 years. This frog is a "unique lost species," according to the GWC, that made an evolutionary reversal to aquatic living after its ancestors had adapted to a terrestrial forest life.

#Spiny Giant Frog #Eleutherodactylus nortoni #Tiburon Stream Frog #Foothill Robber Frog #Eleutherodactylus semipalmatus #Eleutherodactylus #Eleutherodactylinae #Eleutherodactylidae #Brachycephaloidea #Neobatrachia #Anura #Lissamphibia #Amphibia #amphibian #frog #biodiversity #conservation #Haiti

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thefrogghost · 3 years ago

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Frog Fact: the Giant Spiny Frog is the largest frog species in Hong Kong, able to grow up to 10 cm (4 in)

#frog #frog fact #fun fact #giant spiny frog #hong kong #frog pic #real frog

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free-boundsoul · 3 years ago

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Break through

Welp, i finally continued my thought about the Freelancer v Kody at the E&E games idea. Sorry if the fighting scene sucks, I tried my best. um TW: violence, if anyone thinks of anything else just let me know so i can add it im not the best with tags

@1small-frogs (I'm sorry I didn't tag you when I posted this originally!)

A dull ringing sound filled their ears after the announcement, the roar of the crowd fading away as the Freelancer stared up at the names on the giant flat screen. Their own. And Kody’s. After he moved, they didn’t think (hoped) that they wouldn’t see him again. What was he doing here? He never seemed the type to get into competitions before, why was he competing in the Games? Why did it have to be the first match?

They tried to keep their breathing even, counting softly under their breath like how Hux had shown them, trying to keep the panic from taking over as their feet started to move toward the steps of the arena. They suddenly didn’t have any interest in the Games anymore, their stomach was in knots and their throat felt there was a hand curled around it. They kept their eyes down by their feet as they tried to keep their heart from beating out of their chest.

They didn’t see Lasko run up to an official, talking in hushed tones but his voice was firm, “You have to change the lineup. They cannot fight against each other. Kody was banned from any sporting events on campus, he-”

“Lasko, we can’t change the lineup. Kody’s sentence was dismissed after he left the academy and joined another. We can’t go about changing the rules just because of a little incident. And what if they advance far enough and still end up against each other? Best to get it out of the way now.” The older teacher rolled his eyes as he made a shooing motion with his hand, turning back to the arena. “Get back to your post.”

A gust of wind had the air elemental’s hair rising before he took a deep breath to regain control. “We will be talking to Administration about this. He should never have been allowed to compete.”

They didn’t see Hux physically holding Damien back at the arena’s entrance, the fire elemental trying squirm out of his grasp as he cursed. “Dammit, let me go! I’ll go fight that soggy creep!”

Hux grit his teeth as he readjusted his grip, “I know, bro. I hate it too. But we can’t go out there and beat the shit out of that fucker. We don’t want to disqualify them. And you’d know they would just blame themselves if we got ourselves disqualified doing that. I mean, I wouldn’t mind getting kicked from the Games if I got in a good hit or two but...”

Damien growled but stopped thrashing against him, “But they would blame themselves... fuck!”

They didn’t see Gavin glaring at two Inchoate demons as they kept him from just rifting down to his partner. Sure, he’d have to tear through the other protections put up to keep the unempowered masses in the dark but that wasn’t exactly his main concern.

His concern laid with the waves of fear, the self-doubt, the panic that he could feel even this far away. He should just whisk them away; the Games be damned but... he grit his teeth until his jaw creaked. He knew how much this meant to them, they’d been so excited to compete, to prove their skill and now all the exited-nervous energy was now just panic that turned their aura into a spiny, spiky mess.

His eyes narrowed at the screen as Hudson started to remind them about the rules. If the water elemental tried anything that was even remotely against the rules, he’d get down there to protect them.

“Alright both competitors are on the stage! This is a one-on-one match; all elemental and energetic powers are allowed! Anything else and you are disqualified! There are two ways to win. Either you have fifteen minutes to knock your opponent out of the arena, or the last one standing wins! We have healers standing by at the ready in case of any accidents. Are you both ready?”

“I’m ready.” The Freelancer couldn’t suppress the shudder that went through them at that voice. They heard echoes of it in their head, his words swirling around when they were having a bad day, dragging them down even further-

They closed their eyes as they slowly pushed out the air in their lungs, raising their head as they inhaled and slowly opened their eyes toward the booth the sonal energetic was. “I’m ready.” Their voice was soft but it didn’t tremble, and they knew he’d heard it.

“We got the go ahead! Do your best out there! Ready...Set...Fight!!”

“I’ve been waiting for this, little raincloud.” The first raindrop hit their nose before it was downpouring, quickly soaking through their hair and clothes. They squinted up at the sky that had been clear just a moment ago, the dark clouds only centered over the arena. They grunted as a torrent of water slammed into them, sending them stumbling back until stones came out of the earth to brace their feet.

“Keep your eyes on me, Freelancer.” Kody’s eyes were cold and hard, his hands raised before he was sending another wave of water at them.

Their hands reached out, the air swirling around them to try and shield themselves, but the blow had too much force behind it; knocking their hands away, leaving them open to the wave of water that crashed into them from the side. They gasped as they were knocked onto their side, water splashing up around them before they were scrambling to get back on their feet. Only for their arms to get yanked behind their back by watery chains.

They yelped as they started to drag them back by the boundary, their legs straining to keep them upright as their sneakers skidded along the rain-soaked stone. No...nonono! I can’t lose this easily! A guttural yell tore free from their throat as they slammed down onto their knees, a rumble coming from the earth as a shockwave rippled out from their position. It disrupted Kody’s concentration enough for them to break free and get back on their feet.

The Freelancer flung their arm out, fingers snapping together in a move that was more out of habit than an actual need. Fire was an element they were confident in, after all the time spent practicing with Damien, hours spent until they were dripping with sweat and the core within them felt like it was made of molten glass. But it was their strongest element, their core thrumming out with familiar heat as they sent a fiery blast his way.

The Freelancer’s eyes widened at the trail of flames that fizzled and sputtered in the rain, the water elemental easily brushing their attack aside with a wave of water. That…that’s the strongest attack I have…why was it so weak? They spun as Kody sent another torrent their way, gathering up momentum and the air to slice through the water.

“Oh little raincloud… you really thought that fire would help you against me? Have you ever practiced your fire control in the rain before? It’s a natural deterrent against flame. I thought that would be obvious.” Kody sneered, not bothered by the rain that soaked him through. He moved almost gracefully, his feet shifting before his arms snapped out and a low wave swept their feet out from under them. His arm chopped down with a flat palm as a thick sheet of water formed from the rain above them, slamming into their back and forcing them against the ground.

They cried out as the air was forced from their lungs, their hands flat against the stones as they struggled to lift themselves up. Their body ringing with sharp pangs along their back and ribs before they pulled in a gasp of air. Footsteps drew closer as they forced their body to move, getting back on their feet to glare at the water elemental as he smirked. “Then again. You always were naïve, Freelancer. And gullible.”

They gasped as water started to flow up their body, their feet leaving their contact with the earth as they floated, their hands and arms getting caught up in the flow. They pulled in as much air as they could into their lungs as the water closed up over their chest, around their neck. “Say goodnight, little raincloud.” They pursed their lips shut as it sealed in over their head.

Can’t panic, don’t freak out… Gotta concentrate. They pulled at their connection to the air, it was a more subtle feeling than the spark of flame or the steadiness of the earth. They breathed out slowly, the water expanding out as a bubble started to form. Now to just call on the oxygen in the water and… Their core stuttered at how much energy it was taking to pull the air through the water, the force starting to build as wind whipped around in the bubble that just kept expanding before it ruptured, the force tearing through the water and making Kody stumble back as they fell to their hands and knees, hacking and gasping in air.

They weakly raised their head at the snort from the water elemental, mustering up enough to glare at him. Was he trying to kill them? Or just knock them out? He rolled his eyes at the look on their face, “So dramatic, and for what? That little stunt didn’t save you. I can tell you’re almost out of energy. This was almost laughable at how little of a challenge you put up. I really was wrong about you, little raincloud. You’re pathetic.”

Their hands fisted until their knuckles turned white. His words echoing around in their head. How could they be so weak? They spent so much time practicing and honing their elemental control just for their nerves to shatter when they saw him. They’d thought that they’d let him go, moved on from what happened and yet now when it mattered, they couldn’t do anything.

How many times had Hux held them when they were so brittle they felt like they were going to shatter? How many times had Lasko been there with a sympathetic ear and kind words when they blamed themselves for thinking Kody had been right? That they’d just blown the whole incident out of proportion? How many times had Damien raged and swore up and down that it wasn’t their fault that the creep had been the one who’d been in the wrong? How many times had Gavin promised that they weren’t less than what they’d been before, that they weren’t somehow dirty…

Their partners, their family, had tried so hard to help them move on and they were failing… They’d really thought, deep down, that Kody had been in the right, that he had just been trying to help them. They’d tried to give him chances, to understand why he’d even do that to someone and he wouldn’t even give them that. No, it was their fault for not knowing what it meant to Bridge, their fault for telling someone about it, their fault that he’d been an outcast… Never his.

Their core thrummed with the rage that was building up in their chest. The usual fiery emotion was cold, they were done with his games. His blame. They were done with giving him any sort of chance to have any control over them.

Kody raised his arms, they rain starting to form two spears that were aimed at them. They reached for their core, instinct driving them as they reached for fire. The breath they exhaled condensed, sparkling in the air. As the spears came down they lifted their hands, the crackle of magic almost deafening to their ears as the crowd went silent, even the water elemental staring in a stunned moment of awe as his spears froze in an instant, shattering from the force of the magic, the rain crystallizing into hail that fell to the ground.

“Hey! That can’t be fair, this is just elements-“

“Ice is Fire-Contra, it’s within the rules!” Hudson was quick to reprimand him.

The Freelancer slammed their hands to the ground, the water that had soaked the arena turning to ice that had Kody slipping as he stumbled back. They didn’t waste time, knowing that if they were going to win, they had to press the advantage they’d gotten from his shock. They splayed their hand out, pushing past the exhaustion that was clawing at them as air started to swirl in a tight spiral, the wind whipping around that had their feet skidding on the ice before they shifted their ankles, the earth breaking through the ice to secure them in place.

They focused that mass at the water elemental, letting it rip free to slam into him with enough force that he tumbled off his feet, spinning on the ice before he latched on and came to a stop. “I’m not done with you yet, Freelan-“

“And Kody is out of bounds! Number 13 is the winner!” Hudson’s announcement had the crowd in an uproar. Kody and the Freelancer both focusing in on the line that one of Kody’s feet and crossed over before he stopped. They almost collapsed with relief, panting as they turned away from the water elemental, not sparring him another glance as they started to head to their exit, already seeing Hux and Damien running toward them. It was enough to bring a smile to their face as they stumbled down the steps, two pairs of strong arms coming to support them.

“Dude, are you okay?” Hux’s voice faded in and out as their eyes fought to stay open. They just needed to sit down for a minute.

“Come on, let’s get you to a healer, you used too much energy.” Damien urged, backing up enough for Hux to scoop them up in his arms. They nestled into the warmth as their body started to shiver, the frost that had coated their soaked clothes starting to melt. They just needed to rest for a moment…Damien and Hux were there. They were safe.

“Deviant!”

“The healer’s station is this way!” They let out a small chuckle at Gavin’s and Lasko’s voices… yeah, they’d be fine.

#redacted asmr #redacted freelancer #redacted kody #redacted damien #redacted gavin #redacted huxley #redacted lasko #redacted fanfic

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writersblockcansuckmyballs · 2 years ago

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Ok babes I finally finished Aquafolk

Species Name: Aquafolk Caste/s: Beast, Magician Deities: Irrenna, Jasper Origin: Born Affinity: Animals, Plants Description: The aquafolk are by far the most varied species in Ri'ath, all unified by their connection to aquatic and amphibious animals and, as the name would suggest, their dwelling in wetlands and large bodies of water. All subclasses of Aquafolk serve both the water goddess Irrenna and the nature god Jasper.

Subclasses; -Abyssal Aquafolk dwell in the abyss zone of the oceans of Ri'ath, 3-6 kilometres below the surface. They eat of the decomposing matter that settles on the sea floor and require no oxygen to survive. They have bioluminescent stripes covering their entire bodies, not unlike those of a tiger. Smooth, scaled and slender, their bodies are optimised for moving quickly through the water, like all ocean-dwelling subclasses. Large bulbous eyes, completely black, help them see in the incredibly low light environment. Some adopt similar features to their totem animals, such as the anglerfish, gulper eel and dumbo octopus.

-Entrenched Aquafolk make their home in the foreboding depths of ocean trenches. They feed on bacterial and microscopic organisms that live around hydrothermic vents. They have translucent skin and are eyeless due to the total lack of light in their habitat, and navigate by sensing movement in the water with spiny appendages along their arms and torso. Common totem animals of the entrenched aquafolk include starfish, giant tubeworms and cusk-eels.

-Inland Aquafolk dwell in rivers and lakes. They are amphibious and live in small settlements near, or sometimes on, the water. They have thick, scaled hides and hooked claws which they use to catch fish. Common totem animals of the Inland Aquafolk include crocodiles, alligators, salmon and ducks. Common plant totems include cattails, algae and water lilies. -Midnight Aquafolk occupy the midnight zone of the ocean, from around 1 to 4 kilometres deep. They are opportunistic hunters but prey is few and far between so scavenging is typically how they find nutrition. They sport four pairs of eyes, which can detect the slightest traces of light. Bright red patterns decorate sleek black bodies, elongated fingers ready to snatch any unfortunate trespasser and slim, eel-like tails twisting their way through the murky depths. Common totems of midnight aquafolk include vampire squid, sea cucumbers and angler fish.

-Swamp Aquafolk are amphibious and live in large communities in swamps, bogs and marshes. Mostly they catch birds, fish and small amphibians, though in desperate times they may resort to hunting crocodilians. The smallest of all the aquafolk, those that dwell in the wetlands typically only grow to around two feet tall. They have lidless dark green or brown eyes with pupils that resemble those of a frog. Their night vision is excellent, though they are far-sighted in the daylight, only registering movements of close objects. They pounce on their prey, propelled by disproportionately long legs and wide, webbed feet. They have retractable hooked claws and unlike most aquafolk, unwebbed fingers. They have segmented, chitinous body armour and do not have any teeth, using their claws to tear their food into chunks before swallowing it whole. Common totems include anacondas, crocodilians, bullfrogs, cattails and mangrove trees.

-Tidal Aquafolk are amphibious and live in shallow water and reefs near the shore. They subsist on seagrass, algae, shellfish and are less skittish around people than other subclasses and steal from fishermen frequently. They have cloudy blue-green eyes, small, closely packed needle-like teeth line their gums, with a second row at the back of their mouth. With gills situated on their necks as well as mammal-like lungs, they can breathe above and below the waves. Webbed hands and feet are tipped with short, hooked claws that aid with opening shells and also serve as effective weapons of self-defense. Common totems include crustaceans, sea turtles, coral and kelp

-Twilight Aquafolk dwell in the twilight zone of the ocean, from depths of around 200 metres to 1 kilometre below. They hunt as a pod, corralling schools of small fish in a similar fashion to the hunting tactics of seals. They swallow prey whole and have no teeth or claws to speak of. Twilight aquafolk have deep blue skin with striking green and yellow patterns at their extremities that distinguish individuals as surely as a land-dweller's fingerprint. They have the typical webbed digits on their hands but elongated rear flippers make them the most agile of any ocean-dwelling aquafolk. They have four fully black eyes, two on the front and two on the side of their heads. Common totems of Twilight aquafolk include squid, jellyfish and lanternfish.

#Species Classification #Creature - Aquafolk #a guide to the gods

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randomencounters · 4 years ago

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Table of Were-Creatures

“Even one who is pure in heart / and says their prayers by night / may become a ___ when the night-flower blooms and the silver moon is bright.”

I’m not sure if I recommend using this with the Table of Races from a previous post (https://randomencounters.tumblr.com/post/631073167702687744/okay-fine-a-d100-table-of-races). I was trying this table out and, sure, a Drow Were-Styracosaur, a Succubus that turns into a Hyena when the moon is full, sure, but I’m not sure even I could handle a Mi-Go Were-Baleen-Whale.

Wolf

Bear (type appropriate to character’s native land)

Boar

Jackal

Hyena

Bat

Wild dudes with horns and hooves (d8: Deer, Moose, Ibex, Antelope, Gazelle, Fanged Muntjac, Saiga Antelope, Mountain Goat)

Big Cat (d4: Lion, Tiger, Panther, Jaguar)

Housecat

Domesticated Dog (d20: Chihuahua, Tibetan Mastiff, Great Dane, French Bulldog, Pug, Italian Greyhound, Golden Retriever, Black Lab, Basset Hound, Shih Tzu, Pit Bull, Husky, Beagle, Bichon Frise, Yorkshire Terrier, Corgi, Pomeranian, Boston Terrier, Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, Schnauzer)

Rodent (d10: Field Mouse, Rat, Naked Mole Rat, Guinea Pig, Jerboa, Squirrel, Sugar-Glider, Chipmunk, Capybara, Anti-Magic Field Mouse)

Beaver

Skunk

Possum

Fox

Hedgehog

Star-Nosed Mole

Ferret

Otter

Snake (d6: Cobra, Rattle, Ball Python, Puff Adder, Gliding, Winged, Hoop)

Frilled Lizard

Snapping Turtle

Horned Lizard

Suchian (d4: Alligator, Crocodile, Gharial, Caiman)

Plesiosaur

Deinonychus

Herbivorous Dinosaur (d4: Stegosaur, Styracosaur, Brachiosaur, Ankylosaur)

Pterodactyl

Amphibian (d8: Bullfrog, Tropical Poison Frog, Spring Peeper, Surinam Toad, Chinese Mustache Toad, Axolotl, Salamander, one of those weird extinct hammerhead dudes)

Cow

Giraffe

Goat

Sheep

Horse

Llama or Alpaca

Armadillo

Sloth

Kangaroo

Platypus

Koala

Panda

Anteater

Aye-Aye

Ape (d4: Gorilla, Chimpanzee, Orangutan, Proboscis)

Elephant

Rhinoceros

Hippo

Tapir

Fowl (d4: Chicken, Duck, Goose, Peacock)

Wild bird (d10: Crow, Woodpecker, Hummingbird, Eagle, Hawk, Pelican, Vulture, Owl, Penguin, Dodo)

Freshwater Fish (d6 Catfish, Salmon, Sturgeon, Gar, Fancy Koi, Fur-Bearing Trout)

Saltwater Fish (d20: Lionfish, Puffer, Stingray, Remora, Swordfish, Coelacanth, Anglerfish, Stoplight Loosejaw, Gulper Eel, Blobfish, Hagfish, Mola-Mola, Electric Eel, Sarcastic Fringehead, Hammerhead Shark, Sawfish, Megamouth Shark, Goblin Shark, Wobbegong, Great White Shark)

Cetacean (d6: Orca, Walrus, Baleen Whale, Dolphin, Barking Seal, Narwhal)

Marine Mollusk (d10: Dumbo Octopus, Blue Ring Octopus, Mimic Octopus, Humboldt Squid, Vampire Squid, Magnapinna Squid, Colossal Squid, Cuttlefish, Clam/Oyster/Mussel, Spiny Conch)

Crustacean (d6: Blue Crab, Snow Crab, Hermit Crab, Lobster, Mantis Shrimp, Pillbug)

Other marine invertebrate (d10: Starfish, Jellyfish, Sea Urchin, Sea Cucumber, Bobbit Worm, Anemone, Anomalocaris, Opabinia, Barnacle, Glaucus)

Arachnid (d8: Tarantula, Spiny Orb Weaver, Cartwheel, Black Widow, Regular Scorpion, Vinegaroon, Tick, Horseshoe Crabs which are apparently Arachnids)

Centipede

Insect (d10: Stag Beetle, Mayfly, Stick Bug, Wasp, Moth, Camel Cricket, Junebug, Earwig, Bullet Ant, Orchid Mantis)

Snail (d10: 1-6 garden, 7-9 venomous, 10 Flail)

Ooze (d4: Banana Slug, Gelatinous Cube, Green Slime, Black Pudding)

Lurker or Trapper

Roper or Darkmantle

Bag of Devouring

Rust Monster

Owlbear

Dragonet (roll d10: Red, Green, White, Black, Blue, Gold, Silver, Brass, Bronze, Copper)

Duckbunny

Bullette

Flumph

Mimic

Displacer-Beast

Blink Dog

Elemental/Paraelemental (d8: Fire, Water, Air, Earth, Lava, Ice, Lightning, Void)

Wyvern

Bonnacon

Basilisk/Cockatrice

Pegasus

Unicorn

Phoenix

Mongolian Death Worm

Fresno Nightcrawler

Cryptoleporidae (d4: Jackalope, Skvader, Rasselbock, Wolpertinger)

Elwetrisch

Dungavenhooter

Squonk

Sidehill Gouger (aka Prock, Hunkus, Gyascutus)

Avalerion

Rhinogradentia

Fiji Mermaid

Pokemon of choice

Pixie

Giant

Worm-on-a-string

Venus Fly Trap

Car

Chimaera (traditional Lion-Goat-Snake)

Chimaera (reroll this table three times for the three animals to combine)

Randomitemdrop.tumblr.com/random

Randomencounters.tumblr.com/random

#hybrids #humanoids #animals #tables

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marcholasmoth · 3 years ago

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OSRR: 2684

i made more snowflakes today, but i also helped a few students today! i was happy about that.

the last solo snowflake photo is the smallest snowflake i've ever made, i believe. it's about three-quarters of an inch across. it fits on my thumbnail.

the giant-ass pair of scissors is what i used to cut these out. what i've used to cut all of the snowflakes i've made out. i'm honestly really proud of them.

anyway, i zoomed in for class this evening, and i actually got to contribute, because a bunch was straight-up arithmetic and i was happy to do math and stuff and contribute, even though i can't do programming.

and of course, not leaving londonderry was nice. it sucks that i'm always tired now that i gotta drive a bunch more, because i don't get into class and i can't ask for the specific help i want to ask for because it's just like. me nervous.

that's all.

oh wait.

not quite.

this next part is mostly discussion of foods, so if that's not your thing, then suffice it to say, i had something that tried very hard to be a green bean and ultimately bamboozled me.

so the mcc student senate and cultural exchange club put together an entire shebang today for students. there was a stuffed animal station that was like build-a-bear but they're little, a cotton candy station, the nursing club did tie blankets, and there was a prize wheel and all sorts of stuff. aileen came around and told people about it, and me and samantha bolted from the library. we got things from the spiny wheel and we stuffed animals - she stuffed a frog who she named kyle after i suggested it and i made a unicorn-pegasus who i named tanya. she's very cute and very soft and she has a star inside her.

after we left, they brought in some nepalese food! i asked chelsie to go and grab some for me, so she went and brought me some and then got some for herself. on the plate, there was yellow curry and rice, a little bit of a cold vegetable salad, some bread, and a dumpling. the yellow curry was delicious. the rice was perfect. i took a bite of a carrot from the salad, and it was good - cold, crunchy, and quite spicy, but good. the bread and the dumpling were also delicious, so i then went back to the salad to eat some more. it had carrots, peas, cucumbers, capers, and green beans in it, and after eating the carrots and peas, i went after the green beans! which, yknow, in a cold salad, would be crispy, so i was super excited to munch on those.

stabbed it with my fork, chomped down on it, ...

... discovered real fast it was Decidedly Not A Green Bean.

it was the single spiciest thing i've ever put in my mouth.

i was dying.

i was dying for twenty minutes, until chels offered me her leftover bread and rice and i went MONCH MONCH MONCH oh that.

oh my god, it was so bad.

i have a decent tolerance for spice for a white person. i like spicy food. i'll get things at indian and thai places with a medium spice and it's delicious.

but this thing,

was unapologetically painful.

it didn't even go to the "huh, this has an interesting flavor" stage. it just went straight to "ow, ow, ow."

i couldn't even breathe out of my mouth, it was so sensitive and burned. holy shit, man. if that had been actual, real heat, it would've seared off all of my taste buds.

eventually, thanks to the extra bread and rice (and a lot of time spent at the water fountain trying to remove the capsaicin from my mouth), i was able to get it to a manageable level and it faded from there.

but fuck that. it didn't even have a spice warning.

so.

that is my experience with the Spiciest Green Bean I've Ever Had. i can't even say eaten, because i didn't eat it - i ended up chewing on it for a hot second and spitting it out.

don't do it. always ask if there's peppers. don't be like me.

rip.

#food tw #tw food #molly rambles #operation srr #osrr #2000s #2600s #sunshine boy

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foulserpent · 4 years ago

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the siege of kvatch

martin has a bad night. 3659 words

cw: death and violence and brief gore, child injuries, implied mass death, description of injuries

Something had jolted Martin awake. He blearily forced his eyes to open.

He was on his back, staring up at the low, cracked ceiling of his home. His surroundings were tinged a deep navy blue, with shafts of moonlight casting cool haloes on the ridges of his blanket.

Martin hoisted himself up, squeezing his eyes shut in irritation and flicking a small light into being with a simple spell. This was hardly unusual. He rarely slept a solid night, and it was a near futile task to fall back asleep unassisted once he'd been awakened.

He shuffled across the room towards his kitchen cupboards, pausing for a moment to glance out the window for any sign of a disturbance. The dried herbs hanging above rustled gently in the breeze, and the night beyond was still, but for the distant chirping of frogs. He sighed.

The clink of bottles seemed deafening in the night air as he searched for the right potion, a simple sleeping aid. Some of the other priests frowned on medicating like this, something he never really understood. This was why he didn't live in the undercroft anymore. He could take the guilt of a negligible lack of devotion any day over the pestering from the rest of the faithful any time he didn't leave every facet of his health to the Akatosh. He figured he'd be of more use to the Dragon well rested.

Martin swirled the clear liquid, debating whether to just drink from the bottle, when the hairs on the back of his neck began to prickle. He froze, straining to discern what had set him off. The dull clatter of the bottle settling unused into the drawer seemed even louder than before, and it hit him. The frogs had gone silent.

Suddenly, Martin felt a sensation as if the air was being sucked from his lungs, and the blueish moonlight burned away into a deep red glow. Then came a rumbling, a low moan from deep below the earth that set the window rattling. Then silence. A stream of dust hissed down from a crack in the ceiling, bathed a dirty rose in the ever-brightening crimson glow.

Martin shakily set about putting a robe on and slipping on a pair of sandals. The red light was only growing brighter as he cautiously stepped outside. He shuffled out of the alley and toward the source of the light, and froze.

There was something massive and black looming over a swath of houses a block away, framed by an even more colossal structure that towered high above the city walls and painted the night in crimson. It was ringed by black stone, hooking out from the earth like some half-formed ribcage, and between it swirled a shrieking vortex of fire and starstuff that crackled with streaks of white lightning. Martin's stomach dropped. He recognized, with painful familiarity, what he was looking at.

This was some kind of gate to Oblivion.

His attention was caught again by the black shape moving, setting a spiny leg through a house. The roof was pierced as if it were nothing, and there came a muffled shout that was drowned by the groaning of wood and something far deeper as the thing moved. The hulking mass slowly waded through the building on six legs wider than oak trunks, stepping almost delicately, as if it thought itself stealthy.

Martin stood frozen in place as the thing began to emit a noise,a low groan that raised into a brassy wail that shook the earth in a long, eerie note. At its center, something began to glow the deep red of molten metal. The air seemed to grow still, sluggish, bending in a profane gravity towards the building heat and the hovering black sphere in its center, looking as if a bloody red eye. The light shifted from red to orange to hot-white, air shimmering under the infernal heat as the groaning crescendoed to a shrieking buzz. Martin briefly saw a halo of beady insectoid eyes glow into view through the waves of heat, saw the rim- no, throat quiver in feverish anticipation.

Then, the pressure snapped.

Martin flung himself to the ground.

A pillar of flame streaked through the air high above him, bathing the night an unearthly white brighter than any daylight. Martin closed his eyes and flattened himself into the mud as shrieking heat radiated down upon him. There was a great roar in its path, and the light that pierced through his eyelids began to simmer into a dull orange. He dared a glance upward.

Fire. Half of the city, the half he had just stumbled out from, was a flattened smear. It was as if a gigantic hand had raked the earth and casually wiped it clean, and in its place left a wall of flame. The mighty wall behind it lay in a smoking heap, and as he watched, the pointed arrowheads of another gate sprouted like some vile mockery of a flower in its remains.

As his hearing faded back in, he began to pick up the sound of screams. The streets around him were beginning to flood with people, stumbling out of their homes in nightgowns and bare feet and gazing in terror upon the half of the city that had just been wiped out of existence. Above it all, the great beast stood gleaming in the firelight. Its head looked to be blown off, chunks of flesh falling to the earth as it vomited liquid fire at its feet. And there was something swarming at its legs, shadows darting in and out of view. Large reptilian beasts were advancing from the gate, and behind them the horned and armor clad forms of infernal soldiers. Dremora.

Martin staggered to his feet and began to look around for an avenue of escape, but the red glow of those gates mocked him from every direction. They were being opened strategically, blocking off every exit from the city. There was a more mundane glow now lighting up the whole perimeter, under a sky blackening with smoke. They were setting fires. They were smoking the people of Kvatch out. Why?

He turned towards the southern end of the city, away from the swath of destruction. The chapel stood tall there, laid with thick stone and guarding a network of tunnels and crypts. If there was anywhere to hide, it would be there.

"Get to the chapel!" He choked out at the fleeing people around him. "It's daedra, get to the chapel!"

He waved frantically in that direction, panic mounting as the shadowy forms of daedra drew closer. The soldiers fanned out to either side of the street and stormed their way to the doors of homes, splintering the cheap wood with brutal kicks of thorny boots. How many people were still in their houses?

“Get outside!” He shouted, voice cracking.

“Get outside!” His neighbors echoed as they ran.

The smallest daedra were now plainly visible, charging forth at a steady lope, their hooked beaks glittering wickedly in the red light. He saw one veer to the side with a shriek, leaping at a man that had just emerged from his door with four clawed limbs outstretched. He was pinned underneath with a yelp, and the beast, with an almost delicate avian movement, ripped out his throat. Martin began to run. He would be no use to anyone if he was dead.

As he bolted down the streets the ground resumed its shaking. He chanced a look behind him, and saw that the giant insect-beast was now charging blindly through the city. It scrambled over houses and shops with a speed that defied its massive size, dribbling its molten core and setting fires with every step. Martin lost sight of it as it crested the arena district to his right, the earth still rumbling in its stead. He picked up the pace.

A large pack of citizens had fallen in beside him as he approached the chapel grounds. This part of town was in flames as well. A group of daedroth were busying themselves with picking off people that ran from their burning homes. One of the smaller beasts, armor clad and bearing a staff, turned to face their group and opened its spiny jaws. It barked an order at the other two, giant beasts that loomed almost a story above the ground. Martin cursed under his breath as the others began to scramble past him into the chapel.

A few armed civilians and a guard came to his side, her dark face streaked with sweat.

“You should get inside. Are you any good in a fight, priest?” She asked.

“Not really,” Martin panted as he readied a spell.

Two of the larger daedroth had ignored their commander, instead choosing to fight over what he hoped was a corpse. Martin concentrated, collecting moisture from the air and cooling it between his hands. His will became a thorn of ice, and he sent it flying towards one of the larger daedroth. The ice tore through its neck, and the beast began to thrash wildly.

The other large daedroth dropped to all fours, and charged. They scattered, and the beast barrelled past and spun around, its massive tail smashing a dent into the doors of the chapel with the momentum. There was a scream from inside.

The armed men and women bore down on the beast as Martin readied another spell, turning to deal with the smaller daedroth. But it had disappeared from sight, leaving the grounds empty save for the flames. He had no time to wonder why it had gone. There was a cry of pain from the group. The daedroth had seized a man by the leg and begun to roll, splintering the limb like a twig. The others took the opportunity to stab at the beast, sinking their blades into its neck and stomach. It too began to flail, dragging the man by his ruined leg along with it until it finally lay still.

After the injured man was dragged inside, Martin took one last look around the grounds. An antlered straggler was scrambling over a pile of rubble. He looked to be in nightclothes and covered in blood, barefoot and shirtless and holding a blazing sword in his right hand.

"Over here!" Martin called.

The man's ears perked and he whirled around to stare him down. His chest was heaving, starkly cut by- a wound? No, a massive scar. His face was inscrutable from this distance, but the exasperation with which he threw out his arms was unmissable.

"What?"

"Over here!"

"What?!" the man yelled. "I'm not- what the fuck!?" He dropped his arms and bolted in the opposite direction. Towards the city's main gate. Towards one of those burning tears in reality.

Martin cursed. There was no time to care. He took a deep breath and stepped inside.

There were about thirty people who had made it into the chapel, most singed and bloodied. The stronger men and women were set about barricading the doors, while throngs more just sat in shock or in huddled, wailing masses. He recognized most of the faces in the crowd, people he had seen every day on the streets and in the markets, people who had come through for his services and made friendly conversation, or who gutted him with casual quips about how good it was to see men like him practicing the true faith and left him wondering what about him they meant. They were all familiar, all masked in the same veil of dust and blood and fear.

"Is anyone wounded?" Martin asked. A stupid question.

"Over here, priest." Someone croaked. There was a good dozen people lying on the floor towards the altars, huddled over by other civilians who busied themselves in slowing their bleeding and setting their limbs. Martin made his way over, ignoring the searing pain in his own legs from all the running.

The conscious survivors mumbled greetings to him, and pointed numbly in the direction of six of their number. Martin could smell the burnt flesh from here.

"Do any of you know healing spells?" Martin asked.

One man looked up, a younger fellow with blonde hair. "I know a little but- but Nothing for wounds like these." He said, frantic.

Martin cursed to himself. Inexperienced healers in situations like these could do more harm than good. Just one moment of panic as a major artery or ruptured organ was attended to could warp flesh like wet clay.

"Keep working on the bleeding. Don't worry about the internal injuries for now, don't try to heal any deeper than the surface. Just stop any bleeding."

Martin breathed hard as he looked between the most grievously injured. The man with a crushed leg, face pale and clammy as he stared at the torn piece of meat that had been a leg. Two women who were mauled almost beyond recognition, being hurriedly bandaged by a few other survivors. A badly burned man, blackened in one arm and angry red all over, breathing hard. A little girl who choked and clutched at her bloody chest, curly hair wet with blood.

He quickly made a decision, and brought himself down over her. He set to work with trembling hands, feeling for where she was injured. She was still breathing, but the sound was strange and labored and her eyes were glassy.

"Try to stay awake, please." He said.

She looked at him, then stared into space.

"Can you tell me your name?" He asked, hoping to keep her mind off the pain.

"A..." She said. “...Ah..” It dribbled across her dusty lips alongside a drop of blood. Martin's heart sank.

"D-Don't speak, don't. I'm sorry." He took a deep breath and gently pulled aside her torn nightshirt. There was a wound between her ribs, foaming pink and hissing with each breath. He swallowed hard.

"Can you breathe out for me, as much as you can?" He asked, readying a spell. She let out a shaky breath, and he drew his hand back, pulling fluid from her lungs along with it and flinging it to the side. Ignoring the blood now coating his fingers, he covered the hole with again as she finished her breath.

"Good, good, keep breathing." He concentrated, sending out waves of healing into her chest, feeling the flesh stir to attention. Her lung had begun to heal, and he bit his lip in concentration, feeling the waves of the spell as if it were an extra limb. Her lung needed to be closed first with great delicacy, not letting the flesh of the vital organ grow too wildly or blend into the surrounding tissue, but gently coaxing the cells into mending themselves as if they had never been torn apart by something that should have never, never happened.

"Please, help me!" The burned man screamed. "I'm dying, I'm dying."

"Hold ON!" Martin barked, immediately regretting his words. "I-I need to concentrate, I'll be right there, just hold on."

He pitifully glanced back at the other survivors that crowded near the doors.

"Do ANY of you know any healing spells?"

They looked among themselves sheepishly. Before anyone could say what he already guessed, the door thudded with a mighty impact and they scrambled to brace it. There was a splintering sound, and a great clawed hand burst through the wood. The daedra knew they were there.

Martin let out a cry of frustration, and turned back to the little girl to finish the spell, doing his best to ignore the chorus of thumps against the chapel doors. The girls eyes were closed and she had given in to unconsciousness, but her breathing was now steady. This was all he could do for now.

He moved to help the burned man, but the woman next to him coughed a spray of blood and began to choke, and he moaned in panic. He cupped her ribs and sent pulse after pulse of the spell into her, coaxing the fluid out from her choked lungs. Martin glanced upwards to her face to check for alertness, and felt his blood run cold. Her head was visibly dented on the side, bleeding into the floor. How had he not noticed? How had no one noticed?

He scrambled, returning to her chest. She needed to breathe first, then he could fix her head. But as her ribs began to lock back into place, the pulse of his spell faltered. His hands gave off a weak glow, and then nothing.

The burned man screamed, and the blonde man attending to the other wounded began to hyperventilate. Martin felt as though he was suffocating.

Breathe, breathe, you can't cast if you aren't breathing.

He dragged in breath after breath, trying to stay calm.

Mara, my hands are yours. He prayed, straining to cast the spell.

The woman began to choke again.

Akatosh, give me strength. Please help me.

His hands remained useless.

Please help me.

As the moans of pain around him came to a crescendo, he began to sob.

----

It wasn't unusual. One hears about it all the time, in situations like these. Healing spells could be fickle, what with how heavily they rely on the caster's own body rhythms. Moments like these were nothing like when some mercenary is dragged in by a friend with a grievous wound, still managing to crack jokes even as she chokes on blood, and the natural anxiety of the situation metastasizes into a knife-edge focus. People still go about their days outside, and you know whatever happens, in the morning the world will be the same as it ever was. Your magic flows like honey, and the wounded leaves with "thank you"s and weary declarations of "I'm never going into the salt marsh in land-dreugh season again". Or they don't recover as smoothly, or you lose them, and it eats and eats at you but your spells still flow because it's nothing so bad as to leave you unsure that the sun will rise tomorrow.

In the burned out shell of everything you know, magic will lose your command. It will sputter, grow lean and feeble, or fade out entirely, leaving you helpless and useless as you try to work by hand what can only be done by the most skilled of surgeons, and life bleeds away through your fingers faster than you could ever hope to hold it in shape.

Martin sat next to the two surviving wounded in a heap. The young girl breathed steadily at his side, and one of the mauled women shivered into the robes offered by the other survivors. No one wanted to take from the dead.

Before him lay a hasty scattering of offerings and prayer materials. Just some candles the other survivors scrounged from around the chapel, with his own blood let and offered to the fires in bitter urgency. For hours now, he had spoken the rites again and again. He prayed through every splintering of the door, every distant scream, until his throat was sore and mouth was dry. Martin had begun to cry again, finally just begging for a sign that anyone was listening, the slightest abnormal flicker of a candle, a faint breeze, anything he could take and delude himself with that his god gave half a shit about what happened to some piddling little mortals in a burning wreck.

Now, his eyes were bloodshot and glassy as the dead, and he breathed slow and deep. He stared across the chapel, past the human shapes cloaked under straw prayer mats and curtains and blankets pulled up from the undercroft.

The chaos outside had long choked and begun to still, and the barricade was kept sealed tight. A cursory glance through the holes showed that the animal daedra still roamed the streets in great numbers, now settling into picking apart the dead. Soft rains had begun to fall, and it seemed that if there was to be any mercy on this night, it would be a slow death to the fires that still raged across the city.

A teenage girl approached with a loaf of bread. She held it towards Martin silently, brow raised in concern. Martin willed his eyes into focus. He recognized her. This was the daughter of one of the iron smiths in town. Her tusks had grown since Martin had last seen her, and her eyes were tired beyond anything someone that young should ever be.

"I'm not hungry." He said, wincing at the hoarseness of his own voice. "Thank you."

The girl turned away, then started at a small commotion. Something had gotten the people watching the barricade excited.

"What is it?" she called.

"There's someone outside! They're saying the gates are gone!" The guard responded.

The girl perked up and ran towards the entrance, leaving Martin to stare through the space in her wake.

He could only hear brief snatches of the conversation. There was fighting on the streets now, it seemed. The daedra were being faced by armed survivors and the remnants of the town guard. He could now hear it. More clashing outside, the shrieks of the beast daedra and raised voices.

Dawn was approaching, and it was far from over. Morning light had begun to filter through the intricate stained glass, painting the triple-faced images of Akatosh onto the cold stone around him. It made his stomach churn. Martin closed his eyes, though he knew no sleep would come to him. His head was split with pain, and his mind was little but a dull buzz. He squeezed his eyes shut tighter. A few of the devout doggedly knelt nearby saying morning prayers, and he made no move to join them. Their desperate calls to the Dragon were little more than indistinct murmurs, muffled by the sounds of distant violence and the soft rain.

#I WILL WRITE SOMETHING H4PPY 4ND FUN NEXT. I PROMISE #martin septim #my writing

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mayor-rosie-of-riga · 5 years ago

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ACNL icons - fish

originally ripped by redblueyellow

cropped and saved as individual images for embedding purposes - useful for blog buttons, favicons, custom mouses, etc.

full list under the readmore, listed alphabetically for easy searching

fresh water

angel fish

arapaima

arowana

barbel steel

bitterling

black bass

bluegill

carp

catfish

char

cherry salmon

crawfish

crucian carp

dab

dace

dorado

eel

freshwater goby

frog

gar

giant snakehead

goldfish

guppy

killifish

king salmon

koi

loach

mitten crab

neon tetra

nibble fish

pale chub

pike

piranha

pond smelt

pop-eyed goldfish

rainbow trout

saddled bichir

salmon

soft-shelled turtle

stringfish

sweetfish

tadpole

yellow perch

salt water

barred knifejaw

blowfish

blue marlin

butterfly fish

clown fish

coelacanth

football fish

giant trevally

hammerhead shark

horse mackerel

moray eel

napoleonfish

oarfish

ocean sunfish

olive flounder

puffer fish

ray

red snapper

ribbon eel

saw shark

sea bass

sea butterfly

seahorse

shark

squid

surgeonfish

tuna

whale shark

zebra turkeyfish

sea floor

abalone

acorn barnacle

chambered nautilus

clam

ear shell

flatworm

giant isopod

horsehair crab

horseshoe crab

lobster

mantis shrimp

octopus

oyster

pearl oyster

red king crab

scallop

sea anamenone

sea cumcumber

sea grapes

sea slug

sea star

sea urchin

seaweed

snow crab

spider crab

spiny lobster

spotted garden eel

sweet shrimp

tiger prawn

turban shell

#animal crossing #animal crossing new leaf #acnl #acnl fish #fish #from the Mayor's office #Resources

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rallis-fatalis · 6 years ago

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An Onyxpected Catch

On a normal day like any other, Adam decides to go fishing and hope for some good catches. That plan changes quickly when a certain blue dragon gets involved and the man gets more than he asked for. No day is normal when Rallis comes along.

It was just supposed to be a nice bit of alone time, a man and his fishing rod and the quiet river. Well, lava river. An afternoon catching eels in the peace and quiet of Mor-Ul-Rek. Just cast out the rod, pull up a seat, and read a book or something while waiting for an eel to bite. Hope a few had eaten some onyx so he could sell the bits when he smashed them open. An exuberant blue dragon playing with said eels was the last thing he wanted, and was frankly the last thing he expected.

The dragon stopped pawing at the lava at the sound of footsteps and turned around with a smile. "Hi Adam! What are you doing here? And what is that silly thing you're wearing?"

"Hello Rallis," he waved, much less enthusiastically. "Just fishing. And my outfit isn't silly! It's an angler outfit, perfect for fishing." He set up shop, casting the rod into the lava with a satisfying sizzle. Rallis snickered at his funny heavy outfit and the odd colorful spiny things pinned to his hat. "Hope you didn't scare them all away!" he barked at her.

"Nah, not all of them! Why, are you gonna play with them too?"

If playing meant smashing them open, yes. But he wasn't about to say that. "Just catching a few to look at is all," he lied.

"With a stick?" Rallis laughed. "Fish are caught with hands! Not sticks!"

Adam gave the lava a wary glance. "Yeah, I don't think I'm sticking my hand in that." Even with the icy gloves he was wearing, the lava heated the rod in his hands. "How are you here, Rallis? Don't you need a fire cape to get in here?"

The dragon snorted. "Are you assuming I don't have one?"

"You know, I shouldn't put anything past you at this point. You're always full of surprises. How did you manage to do the Fight Caves?"

"Oh it's simple! Jad and everyone are my friends!"

Adam looked at her in amazement. This story promised to be a lot more interesting than the book he brought. "Do tell."

"Alright!" she started with a giggle. "The warden of the Fight Caves told me I had to make my way through a gauntlet of fights and beat what was at the end. So I did just that! The first thing that happened when I started the gauntlet was I bumped into a little bat friend made of fire! They were super cute. And they brought a friend too!"

"Yeah I remember those," he told her. "They make you tired when they bite you."

"Oh they do?" Rallis asked with a tilted head. "They never bit me! They flew around really fast and we ended up playing tag. They were really nice! Soon these big blobby guys showed up, oozing out of the lava. I couldn't pet them, they were too hot, but they did enjoy dancing! They were super jiggly!"

She laughed as she danced around Adam. He just looked at her dubiously, thinking she was making it all up.

"Then two more little ones came and joined us. They were much less jiggly but they still danced with us. But then Xil interrupted us!" She grew pouty just thinking about it. "They shot these big sharp rocks at us and scared the jiggly friends away! So rude!"

"So what did you do?"

"I went over and had a talk! It's rude to just shoot at people and interrupt their day!"

Adam shook his head with a smile. "So you talked with a giant rock monster? Told it you were mad with it? That seems a little hard to believe."

"Well yeah! How else do you make someone stop doing something? You talk! Fix the misunderstanding! Why, do you not believe me?" She pouted. "Just because you can't talk with things that aren't human doesn't mean I can't!"

"Okay, okay, I believe you!" he held up his hands defensively. "What next?"

"Xil went away! And then Kih and Kek came back to play. It was all good!"

Adam was pulled away from the story by his fishing rod finally registering a catch. An eel squirmed out of the lava, Adam deftly unhooking it and dropping it in his bucket with a single smooth motion. Rallis clapped and gave the eel a pat on the head. Adam almost felt bad for what he was about to do to the thing.

"So Miss Pacifist, I have a question." Rallis turned her attention back to her friend. "When you were playing tag and dancing with your molten mates, how many showed up?"

She thought for a moment. "Hmm... I think there were two Kih, three Kek, one Xil. Then there was a big Mejkot, and a red Ket-Zek, an orange Ket-Zek, four small Mejkot, and Jad. So... fourteen?"

"F-fourteen?! You only faced fourteen monsters?!"

"Hey they aren't monsters, they're friends!" she snapped. "And yeah, why? How many did you see?"

He shuddered, remembering trying to keep count wave after wave, thinking it would never end. He wondered if he was even making a dent in their forces, feeling more ragged and beaten as the fighting went on. "I lost count around 80. There were more though. So many more... It was like they never stopped, like the same ones would keep coming back, over and over again."

"Oh, well that's because they do!" Rallis said matter-of-factly. "They're all made of lava and rock and magic, you can't kill them! They reform after a while. You likely did see the same ones a few times. I'd be mad and come back too if you beat me up!"

Adam sighed. So he could have saved himself some trouble if he had paid attention to that sort of thing? Was there a way to beat them so they wouldn't reform? He was starting to get a headache. There was no reason to think so much about it now, though. He had his cape and it was done. Luckily another eel helped snap him out of his inner groaning and moaning.

Rallis continued on. "Then the big Mejkot showed up and I told them they looked like a crocodile! They asked me what a crocodile was so I told them! I think they want to go visit the desert now. Then these two big frog dogs showed up and they were so sweet! They loved to be pet and have their bellies rubbed. Everything in there was so friendly. I'll have to go back some time!"

He ticked off what she described and noticed the lack of the whole reason for the gauntlet. "What about Jad?"

Rallis grinned and bounced. "Jad is a good friend! I was a little scared at first because she was so big and angry, but she stopped being so mad when she saw me with everyone else. Everyone ran off pretty quickly though, I guess they were scared of her too. But I talked with her and had a nice time! She kept sniffing at my pocket and found my candy so I gave her some. Jad has a pretty big sweet tooth, you know!"

"You beat Jad... with candy?"

She pulled out a wrapped gooey ball of taffy for emphasis. "Purple sweets to be exact! Want one?" She tossed him a piece and popped another in her mouth. "I gave her some and she was happy and left afterwards. It was a fun time!"

Adam squished the candy in between his fingers. The heat of the volcano was making it extra melty. "Let me get this straight. You played, danced, talked, and snacked your way to a fire cape? Do I have that correct?"

"Yep," Rallis said between chews. "They said 'make your way' through the gauntlet and 'beat' Jad. They didn't say kill or fight. I made my way through and beat her my own way. Why what did you do?"

'Shot everything with my crossbow.'

Another eel got hooked on the line. He had three now, hopefully one would have some onyx. Rallis poked at the eels in the bucket, scratching one behind the fin on its back. Adam pulled out a hammer and took one out of the bucket and held it in place on the floor. "Sorry little guy."

Rallis shrieked and quickly pulled the eel away, dropping it back into the bucket with the others and holding it away from the man. "What are you doing?!" she shouted.

"Fishing. You're supposed to hit them on the head first."

Rallis looked horrified. "You don't eat eels! That's horrible! They're small leviathans! You can't do that!"

"I'm actually not going to eat them," he told her. "I'm looking for something they might have eaten. Sometimes they eat bits of onyx."

"You're smashing them open for onyx? For money?! Adam you can't do that!"

"Why not?" he growled. "It's just a fish, Rallis, come on."

"Don't you 'it's just a fish' me!" She dumped the eels back into the lava before he could react, the trio happily swimming away.

"What the hell Rallis?!"

She threw the bucket back at him. "You shush! Now come here!" She yanked him along, barely giving him enough time to grab his gear before pulling him away from the fishing spot.

"Rallis I'm really not in the mood for whatever you're doing right now," he said grumpily. She didn't reply. They soon reached a small shop selling various gems and ore. Rallis dug into one of her many pouches and pulled out a hulking stack of tokkul and slammed it on the counter.

"An onyx, please," she snapped. The TzHaar running the shop handed her a beautiful uncut black stone. Rallis slammed it into Adam's hands. "There! A whole onyx! Now never try to smash my eel friends again!"

Adam couldn't believe what just happened. He stared at the gem dumbly. "Whether it's a fire cape or money, you don't have to kill stuff to get what you want." He almost wanted to snap back about that hypocrisy but didn't. She spun around and waved goodbye. "I'm gonna go say hi to Jad again. Bye Adam. Enjoy your onyx!"

After the moment of shock, he laughed to himself and walked away, looking the onyx over. "I should invite Rallis on fishing trips more often if this is how they'll go!"

#osrs #runescape #my writes #oc tag

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petculiars · 2 years ago

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Cool Names for Your Pet Hermit Crab

New Post has been published on https://www.petculiars.com/cool-names-for-your-pet-hermit-crab/

Cool Names for Your Pet Hermit Crab

You might not know this but hermit crabs don’t socialize a lot. This can be pretty helpful if you’d want just one as a pet. One of the first issues you will be faced with when you bring your hermit crab home aside from creating its perfect habitat will be to find a great name for it. This article should give you some really interesting name ideas for a pet hermit crab.

Colors of the Ocean

You can get inspiration when it comes to naming your pet hermit crab from the many marine colors like green, cyan, teal, or blue, or from the pet’s skin color like orange, scarlet, or red, or even the color of the shell.

Most people consider a pet hermit crab quite the unusual choice of pet. These creatures are not at all active and will most of the time go through an entire day in the comfort of their shells. One important aspect you need to consider is that these creatures are very delicate and will need a lot of care to develop properly. You will have to build a tank or enclosure very similar to what they’d find in their natural habitat. They will become great pets for all of the family, including the children because they are practically harmless. They won’t need a lot of food or space either. You have a lot of different types of food you can give them because they are considered omnivorous.

You might also like my articles on name ideas for cute frogs, squids, or axolotls.

While naming, you can use the ocean and its coastal environment as inspiration. For example, a pet male hermit crab can be named ‘Blue’ or ‘Palm’, while the female can be named ‘Coral’, ‘Shelly’, or ‘Pearl’.

Famous Crab Names

If you don’t know what name to give your pet crab, then go for the name of a famous character. This list isn’t a very long one because, to be honest, I don’t know a lot of famous hermit grabs (some of them I found on Google myself), but you’ll surely find others as well if you’re passionate about these creatures.

Ms. Krabappel – Although not really a crab in the normal sense, her name does have the crab work in it and she is a very popular Simpsons character. )

Tamatoa, the giant crab from Moana

Cancer, after the star sign and constellation

Sebastian from The Little Mermaid

Mr. Krabs from SpongeBob SquarePants

Great Names for a Hermit Crab Pet

Female Pet Hermit Crab Names Male Pet Hermit Crab Names Wavy Water Tika Twister Swirly Tongs Sunny Toby Spongy Tide Silver Teal Shini Surf Shina Snappy Shelly Shield Shelby Shade Sandy Sebastian Sandra Seaman Salty Scribbles Saila Sand Ruby Sammy Pookie Raf Peeky Palm Peeka Oreo Pearl Odie Palm Pip Orange Pench Oceana Ocean Nickie Mr. Krabs Munchy Mr. Hook Moe Mr. Deep Mino Mr. Beach Migo Moon Meenie Max Marina Jamie Maria Hermie Krabba Green Kinky Gold Keisha George Ivory

How Do You Know if a Hermit Crab Is a Boy or a Girl?

It is usually pretty complicated to find out for sure what gender is your hermit crab. There are some people that would even tell you that hermit crabs can change their gender throughout their lifetimes. Although this is a hard task even for specialists, there are some clues that might help you out. Before reading the clues, keep in mind that you should never take a crab out of the shell using force, even if only for a short while in the hopes of determining its gender. It really isn’t a fun experience for the creature.

If you have an older, larger crab, then people say you can actually get the gender out of the look of its legs. The male will usually have spiny, hairy legs, while the female will have smoother ones.

A female land hermit crab will also have gonopores, which are small openings, which can be visible or not in the first section of her back walking legs.

To be perfectly honest, you might never know the gender of your hermit crab pet but there is also some good news about this: A hermit crab will never breed in captivity so if this was your problem, you really have nothing to worry about.

Naming Your Pair of Pet Hermit Crabs

Tide and Wave

Teensy and Weensy

Surf and Turf

Shelly and Shelby

Sea and Ocean

Sand and Paper

Peeky and Peepy

Foam and Roam

Curly and Hurly

Big and Small

It will take a lot of responsibility to raise any animal as your pet. You will have to read up on tips to raise the particular pet. If you’re not sure what to name a pet, you can always ask for help from family members because they might have some pretty creative ideas.

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