#about cats in other european countries

[wistfulcynic]

I live in the UK and we keep our cats indoors. We live in a small town though right next to a largish car park. However we used to have a huge, almost totally enclosed back garden area and we still kept the cats indoors. 

My husband (British, I am American) feels very strongly about the ecological aspect. Cats kill birds and small mammals and they also eat plants. There are many common garden plants that are toxic to cats, namely lilies, which cause organ failure within minutes. When he was growing up, my husband’s family cats went outdoors so this is an opinion he wasn’t raised with. Also, I get the impression that the vet disapproves of it but they don’t try to argue with us. 

Overall I choose to prioritise my cats’ safety and health over whatever benefit they might derive from ‘roaming’. Honestly I don’t believe that roaming behaviour is necessarily essential to feline fulfilment, it’s just the instinctive behaviour of a hunter predator. My cats have never shown any desire to go outdoors, they don’t try to run when we open the door. And while we do have to watch their food so they don’t put on weight and make an effort to keep them stimulated, to me this is no different to what we do for ourselves (watching our diets, getting exercise) and is well worth it for the peace of mind of knowing that my cats are safe, healthy, and well-cared-for, and also not out hunting songbirds or eating slugs. 

(Kind of an aside but we also have very large, very aggressive seagulls who come into our back garden and they can and will carry off a small cat and kill it). 

Indoor cats have a much longer life expectancy, their fur is softer, they’re safe from predators and their prey is safe from them, they won’t get poisoned or attacked by dogs or hit by cars or kidnapped by people who enjoy being cruel to animals. I agree with you that the prevailing practice in the UK is to let cats go out but I strongly disagree that this is simply a matter of opinion and a case of different strokes for different folks. The UK in this instance is actively harming cats with this attitude and the sooner people change their way of thinking the better. 

ideologically i disagree with outside cats but i cannot deny the allure of being able to just meet a little guy anytime anywhere

[headspace-hotel]

What i've been learning thru my research is that Lawn Culture and laws against "weeds" in America are deeply connected to anxieties about "undesirable" people.

I read this essay called "Controlling the Weed Nuisance in Turn-of-the-century American Cities" by Zachary J. S. Falck and it discusses how the late 1800's and early 1900's created ideal habitats for weeds with urban expansion, railroads, the colonization of more territory, and the like.

Around this time, laws requiring the destruction of "weeds" were passed in many American cities. These weedy plants were viewed as "filth" and literally disease-causing—in the 1880's in St. Louis, a newspaper reported that weeds infected school children with typhoid, diphtheria, and scarlet fever.

Weeds were also seen as "conducive to immorality" by promoting the presence of "tramps and idlers." People thought wild growing plants would "shelter" threatening criminals. Weeds were heavily associated with poverty and immortality. Panic about them spiked strongly after malaria and typhoid outbreaks.

To make things even wilder, one of the main weeds the legal turmoil and public anxiety centered upon was actually the sunflower. Milkweed was also a major "undesirable" weed and a major target of laws mandating the destruction of weeds.

The major explosion in weed-control law being put forth and enforced happened around 1905-1910. And I formed a hypothesis—I had this abrupt remembrance of something I studied in a history class in college. I thought to myself, I bet this coincides with a major wave of immigration to the USA.

Bingo. 1907 was the peak of European immigration. We must keep in mind that these people were not "white" in the exact way that is recognized today. From what I remember from my history classes, Eastern European people were very much feared as criminals and potential communists. Wikipedia elaborates that the Immigration Act of 1924 was meant to restrict Jewish, Slavic, and Italian people from entering the country, and that the major wave of immigration among them began in the 1890s. Almost perfectly coinciding with the "weed nuisance" panic. (The Immigration Act of 1917 also banned intellectually disabled people, gay people, anarchists, and people from Asia, except for Chinese people...who were only excluded because they were already banned since 1880.)

From this evidence, I would guess that our aesthetics and views about "weeds" emerged from the convergence of two things:

First, we were obliterating native ecosystems by colonizing them and violently displacing their caretakers, then running roughshod over them with poorly informed agricultural and horticultural techniques, as well as constructing lots of cities and railroads, creating the ideal circumstances for weeds.

Second, lots of immigrants were entering the country, and xenophobia and racism lent itself to fears of "criminals" "tramps" and other "undesirable" people, leading to a desire to forcefully impose order and push out the "Other." I am not inventing a connection—undesirable people and undesirable weeds were frequently compared in these times.

And this was at the very beginnings of the eugenics movement, wherein supposedly "inferior" and poor or racialized people were described in a manner much the same as "weeds," particularly supposedly "breeding" much faster than other people.

There is another connection that the essay doesn't bring up, but that is very clear to me. Weeds are in fact plants of the poor and of immigrants, because they are often medicinal and food plants for people on the margins, hanging out around human habitation like semi-domesticated cats around granaries in the ancient Near East.

My Appalachian ancestors ate pokeweed, Phytolacca americana. The plant is toxic, but poor people in the South would gather the plant's young leaves and boil them three times to get the poison out, then eat them as "poke salad." Pokeweed is a weed that grows readily on roadsides and in vacant lots.

In some parts of the world, it is grown as an ornamental plant for its huge, tropical-looking leaves and magenta stems. But my mom hates the stuff. "Cut that down," she says, "it makes us look like rednecks."

[dandelionsresilience]

Good News - June 15-21

Like these weekly compilations? Tip me at $Kaybarr1735! And if you tip me and give me a way to contact you, at the end of the month I'll send you a link to all of the articles I found but didn't use each week!

1. Victory for Same-Sex Marriage in Thailand

“Thailand’s Senate voted 130-4 today to pass a same-sex marriage bill that the lower house had approved by an overwhelming majority in March. This makes Thailand the first country in Southeast Asia, and the second in Asia, to recognize same-sex relationships. […] The Thai Marriage Equality Act […] will come into force 120 days after publication in the Royal Gazette. It will stand as an example of LGBT rights progress across the Asia-Pacific region and the world.”

2. One of world’s rarest cats no longer endangered

“[The Iberian lynx’s] population grew from 62 mature individuals in 2001 to 648 in 2022. While young and mature lynx combined now have an estimated population of more than 2,000, the IUCN reports. The increase is largely thanks to conservation efforts that have focused on increasing the abundance of its main food source - the also endangered wild rabbit, known as European rabbit. Programmes to free hundreds of captive lynxes and restoring scrublands and forests have also played an important role in ensuring the lynx is no longer endangered.”

3. Planning parenthood for incarcerated men

“[M]any incarcerated young men missed [sex-ed] classroom lessons due to truancy or incarceration. Their lack of knowledge about sexual health puts them at a lifelong disadvantage. De La Cruz [a health educator] will guide [incarcerated youths] in lessons about anatomy and pregnancy, birth control and sexually transmitted infections. He also explores healthy relationships and the pitfalls of toxic masculinity. […] Workshops cover healthy relationships, gender and sexuality, and sex trafficking.”

4. Peru puts endemic fog oasis under protection

“Lomas are unique ecosystems relying on marine fog that host rare and endemic plants and animal species. […] The Peruvian government has formally granted conservation status to the 6,449-hectare (16,000-acre) desert oasis site[….] The site, the first of its kind to become protected after more than 15 years of scientific and advocacy efforts, will help scientists understand climatic and marine cycles in the area[, … and] will be protected for future research and exploration for at least three decades.”

5. Religious groups are protecting Pride events — upending the LGBTQ+ vs. faith narrative

“In some cases, de-escalation teams stand as a physical barrier between protesters and event attendees. In other instances, they try to talk with protesters. The goal is generally to keep everyone safe. Leigh was learning that sometimes this didn’t mean acting as security, but doing actual outreach. That might mean making time and space to listen to hate speech. It might mean offering food or water. […] After undergoing Zoom trainings this spring, the members of some 120 faith organizations will fan out across more than 50 Pride events in 16 states to de-escalate the actions of extremist anti-LGBTQ+ hate groups.”

6. 25 years of research shows how to restore damaged rainforest

“For the first time, results from 25 years of work to rehabilitate fire-damaged and heavily logged rainforest are now being presented. The study fills a knowledge gap about the long-term effects of restoration and may become an important guide for future efforts to restore damaged ecosystems.”

7. Audubon and Grassroots Carbon Announce First-of-its-Kind Partnership to Reward Landowners for Improving Habitats for Birds while Building Healthy Soils

“Participating landowners can profit from additional soil carbon storage created through their regenerative land management practices. These practices restore grasslands, improve bird habits, build soil health and drive nature-based soil organic carbon drawdown through the healthy soils of farms and ranches. […] Additionally, regenerative land management practices improve habitats for birds. […] This partnership exemplifies how sustainable practices can drive positive environmental change while providing tangible economic benefits for landowners.”

8. Circular food systems found to dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions, require much less agricultural land

“Redesigning the European food system will reduce agricultural land by 44% while dramatically reducing greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture by 70%. This reduction is possible with the current consumption of animal protein. “Moreover, animals are recyclers in the system. They can recycle nutrients from human-inedible parts of the organic waste and by-products in the food system and convert them to valuable animal products," Simon says.”

9. Could Treating Injured Raptors Help Lift a Population? Researchers found the work of rehabbers can have long-lasting benefits

“[“Wildlife professionals”] tend to have a dismissive attitude toward addressing individual animal welfare,” [… but f]or most raptor species, they found, birds released after rehabilitation were about as likely to survive as wild birds. Those released birds can have even broader impacts on the population. Back in the wild, the birds mate and breed, raising hatchlings that grow up to mate and breed, too. When the researchers modeled the effects, they found most species would see at least some population-level benefits from returning raptors to the wild.”

10. Indigenous people in the Amazon are helping to build bridges & save primates

“Working together, the Reconecta Project and the Waimiri-Atroari Indigenous people build bridges that connect the forest canopy over the BR-174 road[….] In the first 10 months of monitoring, eight different species were documented — not only monkeys such as the golden-handed tamarin and the common squirrel monkey (Saimiri sciureus), but also kinkajous (Potos flavus), mouse opossums (Marmosops sp.), and opossums (Didelphis sp.).”

Bonus: A rare maneless zebra was born in the UK

June 8-14 news here | (all credit for images and written material can be found at the source linked; I don’t claim credit for anything but curating.)

[solaireverie]

f1 | i'd be the man

summary: [ drabbles ] you're the formula one driver and he's your wag. (aka the toto wolff-ification of the fast car boys)

warnings: mentions of racism and sexism

author's note: i had so much fun coming up with non-f1 jobs 😂 i'm convinced that most of the boys would still be obsessed with f1. considering doing this for other drivers, drop some suggestions? 👀

→ CHARLES LECLERC

Charles is a fashion designer who works for one of your sponsors. You find his designs slightly... peculiar and aren't afraid to tell him. Determined to prove you wrong about his vision, Charles volunteers to be your primary point of contact for your partnership with the fashion house.

Your meetings are contentious in the beginning, neither of you understanding the other. You leave each consultation with a throbbing migraine and a barely suppressed urge to throw something at Charles. If only he weren't so damned stubborn. (At the same time, you know that his passion for his craft is half of why you even deign to meet with him.)

A grudging respect forms between you after months of friction and endless banter about what exactly you want your sponsorship to look like. If hard-pressed, you might even call it a friendship.

Charles has been a Formula 1 fan since childhood and is secretly a fan of yours. You find out after you meet him for a design meeting after a rough race and he suddenly goes on a rant about how the driver who took you out was being ridiculous and how you deserved better. You're completely charmed and interrupt him by asking him out on a date.

He's the absolute best boyfriend that you could ever ask for, following you to all the European races and supporting you from Monaco when he can't make it. Charles delights in being able to provide a bit of stability for you in your hectic life. He puts up photos of your race wins in his studio and proudly tells all of his clients about his girlfriend and her achievements.

(You still won't listen to his fashion advice, though.)

→ MAX VERSTAPPEN

Max runs the cat shelter that you adopt your cat from. You notice how cute he is the first time you meet him but you're too shy to make a move — besides, Max cherishes his quiet life and you don't know how open he would be to associating with a public figure like a Formula 1 driver. Still, he's funny and kind and you somehow keep talking.

It starts out innocuously, just pictures and updates about your new cat (because Max cares about all of the cats that he's ever taken care of, even the ones that have been adopted into good homes) and occasional behind-the-scenes updates when you find out that Max likes Formula 1.

Without realizing it, Max becomes one of your closest friends. He catsits for you when you're out of the country for races, picks you up from the airport after international races, and cheerfully beats you at sim racing whenever you have the opportunity to game together.

Max realizes that you're basically dating around a year into your friendship. You sleep at his place, in his bed, more often than not. Sassy likes you more than she likes him. You have his coffee order memorized and he knows your parents. (Your mother adores him and constantly encourages you to make a move.)

He's patient, however, and waits for you to realize your own feelings as well. Dating comes as naturally for you as your friendship did. Although Max doesn't always enjoy the media scrutiny that comes with dating a Formula 1 driver, he takes full advantage of the attention to defend you at any given chance.

In fact, you've been asked multiple times by your team principal to get your boyfriend to calm down before he offends another driver, but you wouldn't change Max for the world.

→ LANDO NORRIS

Lando is a Twitch streamer with a decent following who specializes in gaming, especially e-motorsports. He gets the chance to visit your team's garage when he wins a e-sport tournament. He's an unabashed simp fan and immediately makes a fool of himself when he meets you, but you find it adorable.

(Lando swears up and down to anyone who'll listen that he didn't mean to blush and accidentally propose on the spot.)

You cheekily tell him to take you out on a date first and he surprisingly gets his act together and actually follows through. Lando is incredibly kind and clumsily charming despite his awkward exterior. You can tell that he genuinely likes spending time with you and wants to hear what you have to say.

Lando switches to Youtube and vlogging when your relationship stabilizes so he can spend more time with you. His fans — and yours — love catching glimpses of his elusive Formula 1 driver girlfriend in his videos. It's a running joke among his fans that Lando is your sugar baby, which Lando finds extremely funny and shamelessly accepts.

Eventually, both of you realize that you've found the love of your life and you start thinking about marriage. You propose to each other at the same time, on the vacation that you each planned for the other, while your mutual friends who knew about both sides die of laughter from the sidelines.

Lando insists on taking your name as well and declares that he's now officially your trophy husband.

("Get it? You get trophies from your job, which brought us together, so technically I'm a trophy now too?" "Yes, Lando, I understand double entendres perfectly well." "Ooooh French, fancy!")

→ LEWIS HAMILTON

You meet Lewis in your childhood. He karts at the same track as you and you bond over the shared experience of being "other" from the other drivers. No one ever bets on either of you to be fast, to win, so you bet on each other. Lewis supports you with his entire being, even when he chooses to leave racing to chase other dreams. You dreamed of reaching Formula 1 together but Lewis, in this world, is happy cheering from the paddock.

Everyone around you is convinced that you're dating Lewis, who has become a highly successful model and philanthropist. Who else would would take time out of their insanely busy life to follow you around the world? The closeness between you doesn't help either — Lewis acts like your partner more often than not.

Despite appearances, however, Lewis is just your best friend, and it stays that way until a PR disaster with your respective relationships calls for extensive damage control. The best distraction that your media teams can come up with is that you fake-date each other: what better to appease the masses with than the ever-beloved tale of childhood friends to lovers?

The fake relationship changes something in your previously stable friendship. Suddenly, you can't stop seeing Lewis in a different light and you find yourself wishing that the romance was real. You're terrified of losing one of the most important people in your life, so you keep quiet about your true feelings for months as things calm down.

Eventually, your manager gives the all-clear to end the ruse and you end up scrambling for a reason to maintain it. By that time, Lewis has caught on to you. He stops by one night with a bottle of wine and your favorite movie. As the credits play, he leans over and kisses you softly — the first time he's kissed you out of the eye of the public.

You're lost for words and he quietly assures you that no matter what happens if you pursue a real relationship, he'll always be your Lewis.

Ten years later, happily married with a couple of championships under your belt, you couldn't be happier that you had chosen to say "hi" to the boy at the karting track.

likes and reblogs are appreciated!

masterlist | taglist: @scenesofobx @vellicora @boiohboii

[gremlingottoosilly]

The Horror and The Wild [Emperor!Konig x fem!Reader] Medieval Fantasy AU

You had a nice, simple life. Serve the princess, obey the princess, protect the princess with your life. You never thought that this nice, simple life would bring you to be kidnapped by the infamous Northern Emperor. Konig never thought that kidnapping a wife would be much easier than courting one. CHAPTER 1 CHAPTER 2| you're here! Word count: 5317 Tags/Warnings: Medieval fantasy/Alternative European history AU, Age gap, Enemies(one-sided)to lovers, Hurt/Comfort, Kidnapping, Forced marriage, Size difference(Konig is absolutely huge), Somewhat one-sided slow burn, Yandere Konig This fic on AO3

— You’re really quiet, little princess. 

König isn’t ashamed of staring at you the whole horse ride. He isn’t ashamed of touching you, his precious treasure – cupping your breasts through that pathetic excuse of a corset, trying to feel of your legs through the billions of skirts, his touches sprawling across your skin like bruises. He is a soldier in all regards – his touches are far from gentle, far from how he should behave with his bride. You feel like a piece of meat being presented for him to devour. Like an unwilling sacrifice for a benevolent god. 

— Should I scream then?

Snarkiness isn't something that the princess should have – but it's the only weapon you have, although you are not sure if you can even use it. Emperor is laughing, and it is supposed to be a good thing – you were trained to receive such reactions, like a little dog standing and doing tricks on command; you were taught to strive for smiles on the faces of others. But König doesn’t allow you to see his smile, but König laughs all the time while describing to his soldiers the things he wants to do to you. It is almost surely, that he doesn’t think you know his language – you wish you didn’t know. 

— I can give you a reason to scream. — You shall not threaten a… — I’m not threatening you, kleine Katzen. With a good time, maybe. — What are you referring to? — That I would love nothing more but to rip your skirt off and show your cunt a royal treatment, princess.

Emperor has a foul mouth, wandering eyes, and grabby hands – he behaves like a drunk man in a tavern, even though you have never once been in a tavern, and the only drunk men you barely saw were the castle guards on various celebrations. He doesn’t act like a glorious king from the romance novels – and you don’t think that you ever read a novel about a king or an emperor, not about princes and glorious knights. People with this much power don’t deserve love, they already have everything they have – so why would he kidnap you? 

You turn away from him, the obscenity of his mouth makes your whole face burn. You are trying to hide yourself in your hands, you want to grasp something like a little fan or a handkerchief – everything to sustain your dignity. You are wearing the princess’s name and you have to behave like her – even if you don’t think that she would care about how you are behaving yourself. The dread of being exposed lingers in your chest, the only thing that doesn’t allow you to scream and launch on him like a wild cat. Rules and modesty tie you down stronger than any corset could. 

Like a rabbit caught in the hunter’s trap – you steal looks at the nature around you, excited and terrified to see it for the first time – not the perfect greenery of the castle garden, but an untamed nature. You saw the city for the first time – your capital, not burned and agonized under the empire’s boot, but eerie quiet. The city doesn’t know your face, the princess was hidden, kept in the tower as a means to escape the burden of marriage proposals and possible wars for the sake of securing her beauty. Nobody here knows you for your face, and for them, it’s just the empire’s knights, a power from a country too foreign to be worried about, and a random kidnapped girl in a dissarranged dress and tears streaming down her face. 

A hand on your waist secured you in place. No matter how much you squirm and cry, try to forget all the filthy nonsense he is whispering in your ear, you are forced to listen – and you want to cry every time his face hovers over yours. His hands are touching you, too much for comfort, your are still wrapped in his cape, but it’s a very small mercy for your torn dress and fragile body. 

The road is long and short at the same time. Your kingdom was bordering one of Northern Empire territories, but it’s days away – you never once thought that having the Empire right on your border would be such a nuisance, that it would allow them to simply take whatever they want from your tiny country – the rules of politics are never applying to those in power and, unfortunately, you found out the worst way possible. The road is treacherous, with people surrounding you, with soldiers going through the beheaded country like it’s nothing. You were biting your lips the entire first day of the ride, trying not to cry – you do not want to give him the pleasure of seeing your distress, but you can’t help but sob every time he exits the cabin to yell at his soldiers or laugh at something. 

You are not tied up, they trust you too much – they all know you would not be able to run, seeing just a helpless princess, a little war trophy of their emperor. The war trophy without the war, just a doll for him to enjoy. You steal a few glances at him – his spread legs that make you wonder how the poor horse even can handle him riding it, his mighty body, and his muscular arms. He could wrestle a dragon, you think – he could lift up the whole carriage and bring you back to the capital like this. He is a cocky bastard, not even having his sword in his hand whenever you move too much – too confident that this weak princess would not be able to resist him. You don’t want to fall from the horse and so you freeze in your tracks, even when they hit a small pause on the journey.

You can’t, of course – your hands are trained to hold clothes, to braid hair and, sometimes, fetch the water buckets – but you are mostly proficient in holding books, turning pages and embroidering. You can make tea, you can support the conversation, you can faint dramatically whenever the right opportunity occurs, but the ride has been happening for a few hours already, and you fainted three times – for specific reasons, of course, but fainting now would surely be a bit too much. 

— Is little princess too tired to hold herself straight? 

König chuckles in your ear, hands pushing you against his body. You don’t want to say anything, you’d rather continue your ride until you’re completely exhausted – books were never talking about how hard it is to ride a horse, that your rear would feel numb after the first hour, and your head would be bouncing on every little bump on the road. You never thought that the roads of your kingdom were so terribly maintained – and never thought it would be such a problem. 

You grit your teeth, not wanting to give him the satisfaction of confirming just how weak you are – but he stops his horse once you are not responding, a hand slides under your hips to help you get out from the damned animal. You swear to god that you will never ride this foul creature again – but the god, as always, stays silent. 

— What is it? 

— Princess isn’t used to long detours. We’d have to stop before dawn if we want to keep this a secret for now. — Could travel for a few more hours before it’s too bright.

His second-in-command is a weird man, no doubt. Tall, broad, wearing armor with tiger prints all over the metal – although you never saw a tiger in real life, only on various illustrations of the books you were reading for the Princess. He is painfully informal in a way that makes you wonder how he can keep his head on his shoulders – surely, if he’d talk this way to a king, he wouldn’t be such a profound member of the army. König only shakes his head, pointing at you as the reason to stop – as you begged him to get off this bloody thing. — I need my princess with all innards intact. Especially the soft ones.

Emperor laughs, cupping your ass through the skirts. He somehow managed to grope your softness without breaking the corsage, and you’d feel thankful for him, but the dress was ruined anyway – all the hard work of redoing it over and over, every time you had to manage to squish the princess inside of the harsh corset and billion skirts, every little detail you were thinking through together…it feels somehow suitable, to wear a destroyed dress. Fake princess deserves fake luxury, but even the modesty he allows you to have with his coat wrapped around you feels forced.

Stopping right now, when you feel numb and your legs are getting weak and squishy like that weird transparent foreign delicacy, is very considerate of him. So much so you don’t even want to acknowledge it, hoping he’d just continue to go forward until all the traces of your past are gone. You’re too tired to consider anything from escaping to even opening your eyes. Suddenly, being on a horse of this size doesn't sound like something out of a fairytale. Suddenly, you realize that the horses are tall. 

— What’s wrong, princess? 

— I’m not going down.

You are sitting, frozen on top of his horse. One of your hands is keeping his coat wrapped securely around your body while the other squeezes the reins, hoping not to fall miserably to the ground. You hear soldiers laugh – the embarrassment spreads around your cheeks when you understand that a true princess would have horse riding lessons. You two never did – it would give you too much freedom, and your castle would never accommodate to large grounds of free roaming to keep a princess and her loyal maiden entertained. You can only hope they won’t think that the absence of your riding lessons would be too suspicious – and you also hope that he would just allow you to never jump down to the ground that feels horrifyingly far from you. 

— Do you wish to run with my horse? 

— Yes, your Highness. — Run, then. I’ll be waiting, little princess.

There is a laugh in his voice – you squeeze the reins and try to holster them, maybe kick the foul creature to the side so it would take the hint and start running in the direction of the nearest forest. Maybe you would get lucky, and the horse would drop you in front of the house of a kind forest witch that would take you as her student – you can cook, and you can read, so, naturally, any witch would be happy to have you as a disciple. Maybe you will get even more lucky, and the horse will kick you in the head after dropping you, finishing your misery in a tragic road accident. Not a honorable death, but a quick and interesting one. The horse remains frozen in place – just like you. König gently caresses its face, giving it something to eat – an apple, perhaps, a nice and tasty fruit, or sugar cubes, the delicacy that the princess would often indulge in but never gave you, or something of a…ah, this is it – you are starting to get jealous of his horse. Mayhaps, death is the only choice for you now. 

— I will run. 

— Of course you will. 

— Sir, should we prepare the archers? 

— Don’t know it yet. Maybe the princess escape would be too swift for them. 

You feel your whole face burn – they laugh, they all laugh, looking at you like a piece of meat, a funny joke between them. You don’t want to fall from the horse, and you don’t want to stand here either – but every time you look down at the ground that is so, so far away, you can only shake in your seat. You feel like crying once again – and this is what brings you to the edge. With a deep sigh and shaking hands, you jump down swiftly, your eyes closed and your legs getting tangled in the various skirts, dragging you down. ***

The emperor had an understanding of what he was getting into when he kidnapped a princess. Princesses, pretty and young ones especially, are mysterious creatures that should be carefully studied by the imperial scientist in order to determine how in hell they can even exist without killing themselves on something stupid three times per day. This one, however, was a crowned ruler of weird girls – sometimes throughout the journey, he was thinking about returning her to the king and choosing another one. Then he remembered that he beheaded the king – and so, the bloody dot was sealed in the history of relationships between Northern Empire and this tiny shithole in the middle of nowhere. 

Besides, the princess was too adorable to really throw her out. She is smart – for someone like her, anyway; her snarkiness combined with the primal fear of him and his men made him feel strong, more significant than before. It’s funny, in a way – König had defeated countless great warriors and spent his life turning the tiny Empire into the most powerful nation on the blonde, and yet, he never once felt this achieved as when he held the princess in his arms. The emperor never thought of marriage as a necessity, his whole magic endeavors securing that he would never have to worry about leaving an heir or having someone else to rule – but the loneliness can hit you like a royal stallion bred for the purpose of battery ramming into castle doors, and you can find yourself yearning for something that you never thought you’d want. Speaking of royal horses…

The princess is cute, the princess is dumb, and the princess is the most weird and perfect creature in the whole wide world. Makes him wonder just what was you doing in your little castle with your little servants, running around like ants under your dainty heel. You are snarky to him when you know that he is too busy to strike you and too tired to care about his opinion – he likes that about you, little yawns and feeble attempts to appear strong in front of him. He doesn’t, however, like the way you are frozen on top of his horse. He needs his wife helpless, yes, dependant on him in everything – and he also needs her to ask for help when needed, not…well, not jumping from the height of a royal horse in that stupid dress of yours. 

God, hive him strength. 

König, the ruler of the Northern Empire, biggest royal regime on the globe, thought that he overcame his anxiety when he was young, so long ago, he forgot how fast his heart can beat when the situation is going out of his control. He remembers this dreadful feeling now when that stupid brain of yours has decided that jumping from a horse is a good idea. He is fast, swift enough to catch you before you fall to the ground, and he squeezes your hips enough to hear the crack of that stupid dress construction. 

He has to stop himself from yelling. From putting you in your place and slapping you across that perfect face of yours – never the one to beat women, König feels like spanking the shit out of you now. His eyes are flashing with anxiety, and he grabs your shoulders, putting you in front of him – you can’t see his face, covered by his mask, and it’s a small grace for someone like you. He is scary when angry, nostrils flashing with rage when he thinks that you’d rather break your neck than ask him for help. 

— Made others set the camp for tonight. 

Horangi is as perfect as a knight can be – his friend, his partner in crime, one of the only ones who still can survive his temper and not be intimidated by it. He can see the worry in his eyes when König is pushing the little princess down to his hold, draping the various skirts across his hands to rip them away – and he quickly yells at the other soldiers who produced the operation, making them run in various directions to collect wood, stones and set up the tents for tonight. They have to move away from the popular roads, even though nobody in this kingdom would be strong enough to hurt them anyways – but this operation should be a secret, at least relatively, until the princess is secured as his empress, and her body is sprawled across his sheets, withering from pleasure and…

Ah, Scheisse. König cannot stay mad at her when the mere thought of her smile makes his dick twitch in his pants. He survived through horribly throbbing erection against the metal plates of his armor for the whole ride, the small mercy of not having her soft body press against him directly. It didn’t stop him from wanting more, from whispering filthy things, completely undeserving of your virtue. You are bringing him down to his knees – even an emperor is just a man when a pretty girl looks at him, and even at is age, he could feel like a young lover searching for his bride’s hand. 

Oh, but König would love something more than just your hand. 

He should be thankful to his knights for how quickly they made a tent for him to secure the dignity of the first moment between a man and his sweetheart. He usually does everything himself, not wanting to make a lady in waiting out of his knights, but he enjoys their help now – he surely won’t be able to prepare for sleep with his wild cat of a bride in his hands. You are unusually active for a princess, trying to get out of his hands, kicking him with your adorable legs, still wrapped in a ruined skirt. Perhaps you were so mad at him for destroying your dress – he gets it, knowing how sensitive ladies are about this. He’d buy you a new one right away, but, for your stupidity, you deserve to wear only his coat until they are inside the borders of the Empire. 

— Did you hit your head before I got you, princess? What were you thinking? — You told me to run. I did, Your Royal Highness. 

He pinches his nose through the mask, not believing just how arrogant you sound – he wants to push you down, to open that dumb skirt of yours and give your precious ass a few spanks before setting you down, making you sit on the ruined muscle until you’d learn your lesson. The king was definitely not punishing you enough if you still think that you can talk to your betters (and elders) like this. 

— I dared you to run. Thinking you’d accept the consequences with the dignity of a royal lady. 

— Why don’t you kill me then? For belittling your dignity. 

You look too snarky for his liking – he can see how terrified you are, little shakes of your hands and tears in your eyes. You are provoking him, picking the dragon with a stick so he’d burn you to a crisp. König knows that the customs of your kingdom value a good death over everything and just how much you’d love to fall into the grasp of a common tragedy. He also knows that he will not bury his bride before they are even married. 

It’s only natural that the emperor grasps the front of your dress, the edges of the corset you tried to tie down to save some of your dignity. The fabric rips with ridiculous ease, all the gold spent on making it runs with the speed of a thread being torn. Suddenly, your front is exposed, even the underwear is not enough to conceal your privacy. König indulges in the view of your open skin, glossy from sweat and so, so delicious in dim magical light erupting from an artificial candle. He knows that he is playing a dangerous game, that not touching you now would be his greatest accomplishment and greatest torture at the same time – your body meant to be touched, you look like a doll and like a statue, like the greatest treasure and the most desirable slut he ever laid his eyes on. 

The emperor is a man in the end – a war dog, closer to death than to the start of his life, a perfect incarnation of a horrible match to a young princess like you. Too wrathful, too arrogant, with more chips on his shoulders than the hair on your head, and yet, he holds you closely, putting you out of the torture device you are calling a dress. 

You breathe for the first time in forever, and your mouth is shaking from unspoken tears and spoken pleas. He holds himself back from cupping your face in his hands and crushing your lips in a kiss, not because he doesn’t think he deserves it, but because you deserve better than to be fucked on the ground of his tent without proper preparation and some relaxing oils for your body. One kiss would never be enough for him, and he hadn’t touched a woman in far too long to handle himself properly now. 

You look like you need to be ravaged – the greatest temptation König ever experienced. 

— I can do so much to you, little princess. More than you could ever imagine. 

— i’m not…n…not little. Your Highness. 

— You are, compared to me. Should be scared, not snarky. 

— I’m not snarky. 

Just for this, he loses control – your voice, shaking with tears but never losing that arrogant edge, that delicious drawl that cannot be described as something that belongs to a princess, makes him lose all of the composure he had. König had prepared himself for a lady who would fall in his arms and cry the whole night long, he prepared himself for a fierce fighter that would try to kill him immediately – but you are soft and vengeful at the same time, too weak to resist him, but not too helpless to not run his mouth. You speak before you think, and it’s an adorable quality for a princess and horrible – for an empress. good thing you would be his regent, a pretty thing like you should never be annoyed with politics and mingling. König pushes you across his lap, his free hand is tearing through various skirts, and what is left from that awful strick construction you tried to pass as a skirt support. He never understood why anyone would live through this torture – you’d look way nicer in his shirt and nothing more. Or, even better, nothing at all, chained to a bed in his bedroom until he’d think that you are tamed enough to be shown in public. 

You yelp in surprise, precious dumb thing. Just like a princess, you are not accustomed to the consequences of your own actions – you think that you can just run your mouth or do dumb things without his wrath falling upon you…and, little princess, you’re in for quite a shock. Your emperor doesn’t have enough patience for this, even though he did want you as his wife and knew what chaos it could bring. He just never thought that he’d have so much pleasure in looking at your adorable bottoms, all modest and long. Your underpants are adorably white, not stained from multiple washings, crisp and new – he feels the fabric with his fingers and almost thinks to not rip them away, just to appreciate the fine silks that went into constructing it. 

His mercy is cut short by that sweet whimper of yours. You plead with him not to touch you – like you have a saying on this. König defiled the death itself, so why would he even consider such silly things as chastity before marriage? He certainly had enough women in his bed to forbid him from ever going to heaven, and robbing you of your innocence would be a small crime against all the countless sins he already committed. 

But, he doesn’t want you to hate him – and you would, certainly, not in the fiery and passionate way he might enjoy, but a quiet, broken anger. He doesn’t want to turn this fragile thing into the broken shell of the betrothed princess, even if you need to be taught a harsh lesson – and you deserve much better than having your cunt destroyed on the harsh floor of his tent. 

— You’re lucky, little princess. 

He laughs, taking down your underpants – a harsh hand on your bottom, rough fingers that almost burn you without a glove to conceal his touches. You whimper when he lashes on the sensitive skin, stroking sensitive skin. If you knew how hard you make him, you’d run away with his horse already. 

— How am I lucky? You…you killed the king, you destroyed my country, you…

— I killed your father, yes, but I left you alive. 

— To make a show for your soldiers, I assume.. 

— If I wanted to leave you to waste, I would allow them to bounce you on their dicks a while ago. 

— How d…

— You’re lucky because you’re mine, little princess. Not going to share you with anyone. But…

— But? 

Your voice has finally gone down. he can almost taste the dread in your tone. König was burning down villages, destroyed his enemies with nothing more but a rusty sword and hatred in his heart – but he truly feels like a monster when he slaps your ass for the first time and sees your tear-filled eyes staring at him. God, he never was faithful, but hurting you feels like defiling an angel. 

And he loves every second of it. 

— You need to learn a lesson of respect, little princess.

It’s a small grace that he doesn’t make you count his slaps – he simply pushes you down, makes sure that your face is lying on his cloak, just for something soft to rely on, and gives you enough slapping to make the rest of horseriding as painful as possible. Maybe, it would teach you a lesson that if you need help, you’d have to ask him, to beg him for this – and not try to hurt yourself by doing it on your own. You’re awfully independent and resilient for the princess. 

It took him at least five strong, harsh lashes of his hand on your rear to make you cry as loud as he wanted you to. He cups your face in his palm, forcing you up his lap – and smothered your lips with a kiss. König knows he is overstepping; he wouldn’t be able to let go of you after devouring your lips like that, but he doesn’t care, at least for now. He wants to be your everything, to push every thought out of your head and fill it with himself. 

He adores the thought of being your first kiss, your first everything – you’re so inexperienced, so fragile in his hold. Never once thinking of himself as an appreciator of all the thighs dainty and artsy, he wants to worship that pout, your closed eyes, and little prayers of mercy you whisper between each kiss. Your body feels too enticing in his hands, a treasure he needs to keep all to himself. It’s a miracle he didn’t push your underwear down and took you all the way – as much as he wanted to touch you. 

König smiled when you cried into the kiss, trembling in his hold like a caged animal. Never once he thought he’d have this much fun without taking some plumpy woman on his dick, but you are full of surprises. Another five smacks on your ass left you with a bruised bottom and tear-strained, wet face. The look of misery in your eyes made him cackle – god, you were adorable. Continue like this, and he’d spend the rest of his life with you on his lap. 

— We will sleep now. The Empire borders are still days away, and you don’t look like you could handle the road right now. 

You pout, pushing yourself off his lap. Even the hard floor of the tent was better, the cold fabric made your butt sting a bit less. You still couldn’t sit straight, still miserable, with a burning feeling in the depths of your tummy – hate, perhaps, that made your hands shake and your thighs feel a bit too wet and warm for your liking. There is a knot in your lower stomach that makes you feel weird, anxious, that makes you squeeze your legs shut as you push through the pain and get your underpants on again. The soft silks of the princess’s undergarments made you feel a bit better. 

— I’d love nothing more but to run away while we’re still at my home, Butcher.

He smiles under his hood, pushing his hand on your backside. You freeze as he rolls you over, making you fit perfectly against his broad chest. He is a horrible, disgusting human being, clingy and warm around you – his bear-like hold is too strong on your limbs, making you freeze completely. 

— I’m sure you are, Liebling. And I would love to catch you and spank your rear again. 

— I will…you won’t catch me. 

— Someone will. I’ll pay handsomely to any knight or wandering hunter to bring my wife back to me. 

— I’m not y…your wife. 

— Yet. 

You turn away from him – try to, at least. He squeezes you against his chest makes you calm down in his hold like a wild cat he picked up on the side of the road. You don’t want to admit it, but he is warm, cozy, and even the harsh fabric he threw on the ground to make you a bed feels nice compared to the castle floors where you spend so much time. You still squirm, trying to find a good position to lay next to him without feeling like a toy in the hands of a grabby kid. König feels your wounded, perfect ass grinding against him – out of most of his armor, he can’t contain his erection now. Oh, how the strong emperor wished he’d have 

— Stop moving, princess. Unless you want to consummate our marriage early. 

— I’m not…I’m not moving. 

— You are squirming. Is the ground not to your liking?

— I must prefer sleeping in a grave with my papa. — Can’t promise you this…but isn’t sleeping with the Death himself would be enough? — You’re not death, your highness. A blight, maybe. Or a plague. — You’re making me blush, little princess. There is a smile in his voice. You feel your cheeks heat up again, but you can’t say anything. Too many nights sleeping by the princess’s bedspot, always being the first one to greet her at sunrise and the last one to tell her stories before going to sleep. Like a loyal dog on the wooden floor, with a pillow under your cheek for comfort – all of her other handmaidens, precious ladies from good families, had their own quarters and rooms. 

You had a cot by her bed and her endless affection. 

Compared to this, sleeping on the floor of a rich tent with an emperor by your side isn’t as bad. You have to remind yourself that you are sleeping with a murdered, pillager, kidnapper and colonialist – you shouldn’t feel warm by his side. But, he hugs you like a lover. But, he buries his masked face in your hair and inhales your scent – sweet fragrances mixed with the blood and sweat of a long journey. 

You fall asleep in his arms before you can think of something smart to say. 

König doesn’t fall asleep until hour later – too busy looking at your precious form, wrapped so perfectly in his arms. 

[soo0hee]

His Good Kitten

Pairing — Yoon Jeonghan x afab!Reader

Summary — It wasn't planned that you had to stay back while Jeonghan flew out of country for a schedule. While understandable, you weren't all that pleased with your boyfriend upon coming back home...

Genre — smut, established relationship, idol!au, hybrid!au

Warnings — penetrative sex, unprotected sex (be safe babes), heavy makeout session, tell me if i missed sumn

Word Count — 1.7k

A/N — @svtiddiess It's finished wifey!!

Rating — nsfw

Disclaimer: this fic is written and copyrighted by ©soo0hee on tumblr. do not rewrite or repost on any other plattforms without my permission.

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED!

When Jeonghan had left for Berlin to attend the Saint Laurent Fashion Show, he had left his very disgruntled Cat hybrid behind in Seoul to stay with his members.

On a normal schedule, he probably would have taken you with him, you were after all not just his Hybrid, but his girlfriend too, but this time was different. Not that he wanted to leave you behind, no that wasn’t it at all. It was more an issue with the Airline that had told him the seats were fully booked and that humans had a higher priority then Hybrids had.

HE had been pissed when the Company had told him that but there was nothing he could have done. His flight was full and you would stay home for a few days while he was almost 15 flight hours away.

This wasn’t up for debate in any way and so he had kissed you goodbye, ignoring the irritated twitch of your fuzzy black ear on top of your head and whining about how unfair it was and that he should just stay home with you.

The screaming of his fans had been like music to his ears, waving happily at the European carats that for once had the luck of at least seeing 1 member of Seventeen in their country.

The vocalist was still glad once he was back inside the aircraft on the way home.

The members, especially Seungcheol and Joshua, had dropped by his apartment, bringing his kitten food and keeping you company throughout his days in Germany to keep him updated on how you were doing. And so he knew that you were sulking big time.

You loved his members, always having fun with them whenever you were hanging out but this time, you were not exactly sunshine and flowers about that.

He also didn’t know what to expect when he got home but he was not surprised that instead of basically running him over upon entering their home, he was being ignored. Finding you in front of the TV, napping on your special fluffy bean bag while some Drama was running for background noise, he had dropped his bags on the couch to put away later.

You had not even twitched with your tail at his presence.

It had greatly amused him even now, days later was he rather amused at your behavior.

While it would seem like you were truly mad at him to others, he knew the truth. Knew that behind all the petty hissing, annoyed tail flicking, rolling eyes and typical cat behaviors that came with your instincts as a feline hybrid, there was a lonely kitten, waiting for her loved one to come back to her and end her misery.

Yes, the broken vase from the kitchen table or the scratch on his arm were minor inconveniences but nothing he couldn’t handle and certainly nothing that could make him love you any less.

What he did not find funny was the ignoring of his affections. Cuddling was not allowed, kisses strictly forbidden and hand holding had earned him a nasty hiss the first day he had been back.

That had all been very much nit to his liking but acceptable for him.

However now, he was staring down at the bleeding gash on the inside of his arms and that was had his jaw tense. The pain itself was bearable and while stinging, nothing to the pain his various injuries as an idol had brought him.

Judging by the wide, horrified eyes he was staring into right now, you were just as shocked as he was. The well kept manicured claws on your fingers were pressed to your chest, almost like you were hugging yourself away from him and trying to hide.

“I– I’m sorry Hannie! I wasn’t– I didn’t want to, but I was– and you, you were just laughing and I–“ you stammered out, tears already filling those beautiful eyes he loved so much and had the situation been different, he would have pulled you into his arms already. But right now, hugging you was the last thing on his mind. Instead he was glaring harshly at you and in the back of his mind the little voice yelled at him for making you flinch and back up a step or two.

“Jeonghannie I–“ your high pitched panicked voice fell on silent ears, and nervously you stared at the hand he held up to stop your rambling and get you to listen to him for once.

Harsher then he had ever spoken to you he growled out a forced quiet, “Quiet.”

Jeonghan turned his arm a bit to get a better view on the damage your claws had done to his skin before looking back up.

“You know, I get being angry I really do. But this time you went to far? Why are you being such a brat about something I, the company nor you had any influence in? It’s not like I made you stay back because I didn’t want you there, but right now I really don’t want to see your face!”

The second the words had left his lips Jeonghan already wanted to take them back. He watched the tears spilling over while you whirled around just to escape into your own room. A room you rarely ever used and that had probably so much dust collecting on the surfaces that you could draw on them.

You didn’t come out until late in the night. To busy sulking you had curled up on your bed, the missing scent of your boyfriend frustrating you to no end.

You hadn’t truly been mad at Jeonghan. His reaction to his bleeding arm more then understandable and even if you didn’t like admitting it, deserved. That didn’t mean that his words about not wanting to see you didn’t hurt.

The noises Jeonghan made while getting ready for bed could be heard even through the door and when they stopped entirely, you knew that he was deeply buried into your shared blankets.

You huffed, missing his warm embrace as you sat in the dark of your room. The LED clock on the bedside table being the only source of light.

0:34 am

Crawling down from the mattress you moved towards the door. The hallway was dark just like you had thought and the only sound your sensitive ears could make out was the humming of the AC.

Your boyfriend didn’t move an inch when you opened the door, pretending to be asleep until you had gotten comfortable under the blanket while clinging onto his back.

“Hey kitten.” He hummed with his eyes closed.

“Hey…” you whispered back, face hiding in the back of his shirt.

“You know that I didn’t mean to yell at you, right?”

This time it was your turn to hum at him.

“And that you will only ever be my good girl, right?”

Jeonghan turned around just to be met with loud purring rumbling from your throat and mouth pressed to his. Lips forcefully claiming his own in a way to try and get him to submit to your will. Jeonghan didn’t budge for a second, hand coming up to hold your face and tilt it away to look at you.

“Hanniiie…” you whined, pleading for him to do something about the heat building in between your legs. Being called his good girl had always had that affect. [Eunha I don’t want to hear a thing!]

“What’s wrong darling girl? Hm? Got something to say?” he teased lazily and bit his lip.

“Need you. Missed you” It wasn’t a lie. You did miss his company over the last few days and right now, all you wanted was for Jeonghan to show your where your belonged and if that meant to be stuffed full, dripping cum and tears of pleasure running down your face.

“Oh you missed me? Well we can’t have that, do we now? Any idea what we could do about it?”

Your ear twitched when you felt his fingers wander further south.

“Play with me, please…” you sighed and Jeonghan chuckled.

“Oh gladly!”

He rolled on top of you and in between your legs, catching your wandering hands with his and held them together above your head.

“Let me make it up to you baby.” The vocalist whispered gently. You shivered at the husky tone, knees parted and tail swishing around, excitedly thumping against the soft mattress of the bed in anticipation of what was to come.

Jeonghan, just as impatient as you were almost ripped through the fabric of your clothes until you were stark naked before stripping himself. Hard cock pressing against your dripping cunt causing you both to moan at the friction.

He aligned himself with your hole, pushing in without further ado and enjoying the tight heat around his cock.

“Please Han, fuck me!”

Jeonghan didn’t let himself be told twice. Knowing that you could take it when he was rough he started a thrusting, finding a fast and hard rhythm that left you breathless.

“Such a good girl, taking me so well and sounding so cute all whiney for me to fuck her.” His voice went right to your head, clenching down and causing the man to groan as he got closer to cumming along with you.

“Can I cum? Please let me cum…”

“Cum with me, kitten!”

Your eyes rolled back as you felt Jeonghan spill his seed inside you, lips mouthing down your throat, nipping on the sweaty skin hard enough for you to know that he would leave bruises.

You came down from your high, only now noticing that you had worked Jeonghan’s back over with your claws.

“Sorry.” You mock gasped at him. Jeonghan snickered, knowing that you weren’t sorry in the slightest before fully laying down on top of you.

“Liar.”

“But you love it.” You purred playfully.

“That I do. I love you.”

[draconesmundi]

Happy Dracones Monday! Firedrakes!

Happy Dracones Monday! This Monday we're looking at four dragon species at once, the firedrakes! Here they are, approximately to scale with eachother.

The glitterdrake is the smallest, the size of a large lizard or small cat. They live in laurel forests on Macaronesian Islands, in the Atlantic near Africa. Glitterdrakes aren't based on mythology; I put them on Macaronesia because I couldn't find Macaronesian dragon mythology but I am trying to put dragons EVERYWHERE on the map. Also, putting these dragons on an archipelago of islands means I can have a lot of island subspecies and colour morphs - glitterdrakes represent colourful fantasy dragons, so having them come in every colour (sapphire blue, ruby red, emerald green, royal purple, burning gold, shining silver etc.) was important to me.

The Welsh dragon is smaller than the other European firedrakes at 1.5 meters. They are no less fierce - there aren't any common firedrakes in Wales as a common firedrake cannot maintain a territory there for long. Originally I had the Welsh dragon as a subspecies of the common firedrake, but decided that this dragon had so much personality and folklore that it could get it's own chapter.

The common firedrake is found in Western Europe, 4m long. When designing these I noticed in a lot of heraldry dragons don't seem to have horns? Ears yes, but hornless? Also I noticed that dragons in heraldry tend to have the dorsal finlets from the back of the head to between their shoulders, but no further, which is something I have kept for all my firedrake species.

The viridian firedrake is the largest firedrake species, over 5m long. They are found in Eastern and Southern Europe, and in Russia. I based their appearance on old storybook illustrations to make them look very 'classic', which is why they have horns and cheek frills compared to the more heraldic and hornless common firedrake.

Rant about the term 'firedrake' under the cut! :)

In other creative works, these are called 'classic dragons', 'European dragons', 'true dragons' and 'Western dragons', but I am not a fan of these terms - 'true dragon' implies other dragons are untrue dragons, which is nonsense. 'Western dragon' or 'European dragon' is largely accurate (the 4 legged 2 winged dragon design is common in Europe and the West) but there are other Western and European dragons (wyrms and wyverns) and I find these terms confusing when other types of dragons are taken into account. Also, some Asian dragons also have 4 legs and 2 wings. 'Classic' dragons... serpentine and wyrmish dragons are more classic than 4 legged 2 winged firebreathers, etc.

I went with 'firedrake' as a term for these dragons because 'drake', 'drachen', 'ddraig', 'drac', 'drak' and 'dreki' are all words for dragons like this in European languages, and because firedrake is a word used in literature like some translations of Beowulf and, of course, Tolkien's Legendarium (firedrake comes from Old English fȳrdraca). I think it's a good word that easily conjures up fire breathing four legged, two winged dragons without making them more 'true' or 'classic' than other dragon types or tying them specifically to 'European' and 'Western' countries.

In Dracones Mundi I really try to get a huge diversity of dragons across to the readers. There are around 68 dragon species in this project, only 4 of which are firedrakes. I want to show readers there is more to dragon mythology than "here is a western dragon, they are evil and associated with fire, here is an eastern dragon, they are good and associated with water" - I want to dig deeper. I want people to know about azhdarha, about cuélebres, about coameh. So I'm shining the spotlight away from these firedrakes and trying to make them a small part of a much larger discussion. :)

[astroyongie]

🐈‍⬛ ྀི Goddess Worship: An Introduction of Freyja 🐈‍⬛ ྀི

Note: Day 17 of our October calendar! Today we have an introduction of deities I work with/worship. This post is to provide some information about the deities but also how I work with them personally. Everyone has their own methods with the Gods, and you should do whatever feels right with you while also respecting the bases of the religions.

─── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ───── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ───── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ───── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆

Historical Background:

Freyja (or Freya) is a major goddess in Norse mythology, belonging to the Vanir tribe of deities, which are associated with fertility, prosperity, and nature. (Vanir and Aesir are different deities in the Norse Mytho). She is the daughter of Njord, the sea god, and sister to Freyr (Twins), the god of fertility, peace, and prosperity. Her hall is known as Fólkvangr which welcome half of the warriors who died in battle. She is also the goddess of love, beauty, war, death, and magic (her magic is known as seidr associated with prophecy and shape-shifting. she could see into the future and use the power of runes). Freyja’s worship may predate Norse mythology, with roots in earlier Germanic or proto-Indo-European traditions second the archeologists studies.

Attributes and Symbols:

Cats: Freyja’s chariot is said to be drawn by two large cats, symbolizing fertility and domesticity. She has been long symbolized through cats and usually people who. worship her will use cats to connect with her Boars: She also rides the boar named Hildisv��ni, a symbol of fertility, protection, and strength. Brísingamen: Her famous necklace, a symbol of fertility, sexuality, and beauty. The Brísingamen was often considered an object of great power and desire as in the mytho many creatures and gods have fought to have it. Falcon Cloak: This magical cloak allows Freyja to shapeshift into a bird, symbolizing freedom, the soul’s flight, and her connection to magic. Amber and Gold: Amber, known as "Freyja's tears," is associated with the goddess due to the myth where she weeps golden tears for her missing husband, Óðr.

Worship and Rituals:

Seidr (Magic): Freyja is a practitioner and teacher of seidr, a form of Norse magic involving divination, trance states, and influencing fate. Women (and men) who practiced seidr would invoke her for aid. this pratice is still used in the Nordic countries but it needs to be taught through initiation. One cannot learn to practice Seidr magic without initiation by another Seidr. One way of worshipping her is through the practice of Runes. Love and Fertility: As a fertility goddess, Freyja was worshipped by those seeking love, marriage, and fertility. Offerings of gold, honey, and flowers were made in her name. A lot of people would also use sexual intercourse as a way to give away their energy to the goddess in exchange of love and pregnancy. Battle and Death: Despite being a goddess of love, Freyja is also a goddess of war and death. Half of those who die in battle are said to go to her hall, Fólkvangr, while the other half go to Odin’s hall, Valhalla. One can worship her not only for love but also for strenght in battles. She is fierce when it comes to help protect those who pray her. Now in the modern times, her worship of battles have been adjusted with internal battles, challenges in life and even justice. Festivals: Freyja was likely honored during seasonal festivals like Dísablót (mostly done during winter seasons), where offerings were made to the dísir, female spirits or ancestors, who were linked to fertility and protection. It involves sacrifices (not animals but instead sacrificing something of you in return of something else) and ritual offerings to Freyja or the feminine ancestor spirits. Unfortunately there isn't many source of information about the norse mythology as Norse People didn't especially write it.

-> When worshipping Freyja, do not take her for granted. Her energy is pure and warm but she wishes for attention. Make a small altar for her, give offerings every friday (and of course offerings during spells were you invoke her energy or help). The important here to feel connected to the deity and respect her as a whole energy. Everyone has their own way of praticing, so do what feels right. But remember to do your own research. Get out of TikTok and READ! archeological revues and works are important.

-> Ideas for offerings: Wine, honey, bread, prayers, cat symbols (statues, whiskers, furr, ect), same with boar figures, jewelery, gold, coins, amber, red fruits, apples, incense, candles, anything else that feels right to you

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

"Freyja, Lady, Vanadis: An Introduction to the Goddess" by Patricia M. Lafayllve

"The Viking Way: Religion and War in Late Iron Age Scandinavia" by Neil Price

"Gods and Myths of Northern Europe" by H.R. Ellis Davidson LA MITOLOGÍA, Y. E. C. D. THE MYTHOLOGY AND CULT OF FREYJA AND HER IMPORTANCE TO VIKING AGE WOMEN. Bellows, Henry Adams (Trans.) (1923).

A Edda Poetica. American-Scandinavian Foundation

─── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ───── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ───── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ───── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆

[sgiandubh]

Tools of the trade

Came home an hour ago from a reception I literally fled (busy week in this respect, unfortunately). And I kept being internally nagged during the short taxi ride, by what is probably at least this season's Anon. Landed in @bat-cat-reader's inbox with regard to Marple's most recent innuendo:

I had to know more about this, since I had no idea such deep diving tools were now available for pretty much everyone. Here's the gist of how it works, in pics and a quick review:

What Snoopreport promises its subscribers is to basically keep them posted on the targeted accounts' online behavior patterns...

... without the need to publicly follow them on Insta (sounds familiar?)...

...leaving no trace (zero accountability, because it uses only public data: this can be interpreted differently, in a different legal system/context, since several European countries, as I already discussed, have more protective legal provisions for a person's right to his/her own image)...

... at minimal costs (I suppose the most cost-effective, if we assume this is one of the used monitoring tools, would be the small business pack, allowing the super sleuth to track 10 different accounts, for peanuts):

A review of this product I have checked here (https://www.techuntold.com/snoopreport-review/) points out the obvious Achilles' heel of this app. Snoopreport obviously does not work for private accounts:

Which brings up a logical question: could the (in)famous 'resource' be S's private Insta account, in which case it would be very difficult for the sleuth to admit stalking it? Is it even technically possible to stalk a private Instagram account and remain unseen?

The answer to the latter is yes: other actors of this apparently very lucrative market, such as Glassagram (https://glassagram.com/), do not have Snoopreport's scruples and monitor even private accounts.

I think this is pretty self-explanatory and to be honest, it gave me the chills:

Serious reviews (https://www.techuntold.com/glassagram-review-spy-instagram/) are raving about this one, calling it the best app on the market, mainly because you can save all the snooped content on your own device:

... and the price, for stalking (their own choice of vocabulary, not mine, for once) an unlimited number of accounts is reasonable:

Best of it? They've been around since 2017.

In a nutshell: is it legal? it would seem so, in the US, not so sure about the UK/EU. Is it moral? It's up to you to decide what to think of a firm which has no problem admitting to encouraging stalking (but hey, don't listen to the nutcase here, huh?) and uses completely different real-life situations (infidelity, kids' monitoring) to assert its legitimacy and utility.

What I mean by this very long and illustrative post is this: you do not need inside sources/information to have one day the idea of crossing what is obviously (at least in my book) a red line. You just have to be able (lots of free time), willing (asserting power over a very thirsty and not so digitally skilled audience) and voilà: a Super Sleuth is born.

It is one thing to analyze and speculate, based on open sources, to your heart's content. It is a different affair altogether to obsessively monitor someone, with so much detail and personal (& financial) investment, over a substantial period of time. I will die on this hill and you will never change my mind on this one.

Is the emperor naked? I wouldn't venture speculating. What I do know, is that this emperor is a very, very sad one.

[carrieeve]

happy Tuesday, everyone. hope your day and week is better than ours.

now, this video isn't mine but it's one that shook me greatly. this is the Kamieńczyk's waterfall, in Karkonosze mountains. it's a tourist attraction and it usually looks impressive. but nowhere near this scary.

Poland (and other central European countries) is suffering from a dramatic flood. it's being compared to the Millennial Flood of 1997--an event so cataclysmic, there's even a Netflix show about it. we don't know what will happen now, we can only hope it won't be so bad. but we're still in the middle of it all. the massive wave is coming to Opole and Wrocław (where my brother lives but he's safe and okay).

big thank you to @togetherkru for reaching out. i am alright and i shall stay that way. i live not only in central Poland, but in a very particular spot that's usually not affected by disastrous weather. but we're all worried as hell. i've spent the last three days watching nothing but news stations. keep your fingers crossed for us.

big love, fam.

@pendragaryen @natassakar @ninappon @nakey-cats-take-bathsss @infp-with-all-the-feelings @igotbellarkeforthat @immortalpramheda @geekyogicheese @roguetwelve @jeanie205 @okmcintyre @julibernardo @gabbagabbadoo @writetheniteaway @travllingbunny @lee-em-dee @kizo2703

[dxmedstudent]

I haven't been on Tumblr in a while but wanted to check how you're doing! How is married life treating you and how is work- I remember last time you were applying for GP training! I'm just coming to the end of F1 :)

Me neither, Anon! Honestly? I have been meaning to come back to Tumblr a while ago, but life has been busy! I had tried to spend less time on socual media so i could focus on my membership exams, and that went too well.

Time flies, I can't believe it's been more than 10 years since I joined tumblr or graduated from med school.

I can't remember which updates I've already shared, so I'll make a list.

Married life is great - pretty similar to pre-married life. Because we started off in different cities due to my training and covid, it's honestly just a joy to live together and be able to hang out. I've been meaning to post a couple of anonymised wedding photos. It still feels amazing that we managed to get all the people we love together. We also managed to fly out to my birth country so that DxDude could meet my relatives...most of whom don't speak English. It was hilarious and lovely and he took being mobbed by an army of Eastern European Babushkas very well.

We adopted a cat! His owner died suddenly and my parents sort of got left with the cat. It was at a difficult time, as it was around the time my beloved cat passed away last year. I still miss her. But I couldn't let someone's baby, a lovely senior cat, live out his last days in a shelter. He's a little 14ish year old man called Sherlock. He loves being held and sitting on my shoulders and he drools when he gets excited. We've been trying to discourage his habit of nipping you when he wants something.

My houseplants and balcony plants may be slowly getting out of control, but I'm happy I have lots of them, and i would have more if we weren't running out of space. I'm currently waging a war against mealybugs. Send thoughts and prayers.

I did get into GP training! And it was local to where I wanted to be, which made it much easier to finally move in together. In fact, I JUST finished GP training a couple of weeks ago and am now living my GP dreams working in one of the practices that I trained in. It's very inner city London. Our patients have complex needs, and I'm honoured to ve in a team that have a lot of experience serving patients affected by substance abuse, homelessness and refugee populations and other complex issues.

We went on Honeymoon to Japan! It was amazing, and I'd still love to go again. I was bold enough to arrange my Honeymoon to be barely a month before a postgraduate exam, but I passed!

This past academic year has been filled with sitting exams and jumping through the hoops required for my eportfolio. On top of working full time as a GP. I didn't think I would do it all first time TBH, but my supervisor had more faith in me than I did. It's honestly been amazing to work for a few jobs in GP training where I felt seen and wanted and where my hard work was appreciated. I can't believe my supervisor offered me my current job, and wanted me to stay on, but they did!

I finished a diploma in sexual and reproductive health and trained in fitting contraceptive implants. I'd like to train up to fit IUDs also to try to improve local access to sexual health services.

I went on strike these past couple of years, when the junior doctors went on strike again. I'm still processing the pay offer and the new government. But I'm relieved we're no loner under the Tories.

We'd like to move house, but we've not gotten around to trying to do this seriously, because my life was already stressful enough. We do need more space, and I hope we'll find somewhere modestly nice that we can afford.

We're trying for kids, and it's sadly taking much longer than we hoped. Being a patient is...a slow and frustrating experience because it already feels like I've had to work harder than I should to advocate for appropriate care. I could say a LOT about the postcode lotteries that come with UK fertility care but I'll leave that for another post.

I've finally accepted that my hair is wavy, and I'm trying out different products to lean into the natural waves and bring them out without leaving it a frizzy Hermione-esque mess. It spent tge past years mostly in a plait or cadet bun, but I'm finally giving my hair a bit more freedom. I have NOT yet accepted that my hair is mostly white at this point. I alternate between wanting to go grey (because that would look cool) and wanting to stay brown because that's kind of how I've imagined myself for the past 35+ years.

I finally get to indulge in painting my nails. I've loved it since I was like 13 and seeing my nails sparkly and colorful brings out my inner 13 year old and she is thrilled. Every time I make my nails glow in the dark, I show them off to DxDude before bed.

My laptop died and then I inherited an old laptop from my parents which is also dying. Which is part of the reason I haven't created much art in recent years. I should probably just bite the bullet and buy a new one, but my exams and diplomas have been expensive so I've been putting it off. To be fair I also made the decision to use my limited free time to keep up with friends and family IRL and try not to feel bad about taking a break from creating. I felt like I was blaming myself for not managing to do everything I wanted to do. I've slowly accepted that none of us can do everything.

I think that's it for now. Looking forward to catching up with what medblr are up to 😃

[olympeline]

And now for a post about the characters who are giving me the most trouble in my National Animals AU. All of the below come with the tag of “umm, maybe?? I don’t know. Please help me decide.”

Japan: ??? → white tiger → ???

I only have one idea for Kiku and it’s that he would have been a tiger during his imperial years. A white one to match his red and white flag. After WW2 ended, he would change (back?) into something else. Japan in its empire days would need a powerful and aggressive apex predator, but what would Kiku be after giving that up? I have no idea. Japan’s national animal is the green pheasant but would a brightly coloured, flashy bird suit the introverted Kiku? Hmm…

China: ??? → giant panda

Remember when I said France was the problem country of this AU? Remember the days my sweet, Summer child self thought Francis was the worst it could get? I was wrong. Oh, dear God, how wrong was I. 🫠 Francis is nothing, absolutely nothing, compared to the shrieking hall of nightmares that Yao is. Take that ??? → and multiply it by like, ten, for a start. China is such an ancient country with a rich, complicated history to rival any other. Plus because of my veto on mythical animals I can’t give him a lung dragon like I really want to. He ends up as a panda but I don’t have a clue when that would happen or what his older forms would be. I’m so far out of my depth I’m not even going to try. I’ll leave it to my bros in the Chinese side of the Hetalia fandom and go with whatever they think Yao would be.

Portugal: ???

Google tells me Portugal has the Iberian wolf as their national animal. Which works fine but ehhh, I’m on the fence about another Western European country getting a wolf. We already have Feli, Lovi, and their Grandpa Rome as an Italian wolf pack. Portugal was so influential in starting the Age of Discovery that I’m almost tempted to make him an otter or an albatross or something. Then there’s the Iberian lynx: a roaming hunter that’s also a strong swimmer. Portugal and England have the longest military alliance in the world that’s still going to this day. So some lynx/lion big cat solidarity? Damn, Portugal, calm down! Too many good choices you have.

[afeelgoodblog]

The Best News of Last Week

1. Woman who was walking to work because her car was broken finds $14k in a bag and turns it in to police, who return it to newlyweds who lost it. Crowdfund for a new car up to $14k so far.

Dianne Gordon was walking home from work on Jan. 21 when she saw a plastic bag on the ground and inside the bag she could see piles of money. Although she was in need of a vehicle-- her car broke down last year -- Gordon contacted police and returned the money immediately.

Police were able to track down who the money belonged to and discovered it belonged to a newlywed couple and have since returned the money to the couple. As for Gordon, her good deed wasn’t overlooked by people who heard her story, as the spouse of one of the police officers involved launched a crowdfunding campaign to help secure a car for Gordon. As of Thursday morning, the campaign has raised $14,500

2. Washington D.C.’s free bus bill becomes law as zero-fare transit systems take off

Washington, D.C., has enacted a zero-fare bus bill into law.

The policy eliminates the $2 fare for all the city’s buses starting this summer.

It is the largest city to institute a fare-free transit system and part of a growing movement nationwide.

3. Mom and son graduate college together, fulfilling 18-year promise

Carolyn and Immanuel Patton, a mother-son duo from Maryland, have graduated college together, fulfilling a promise the younger Patton first made to his mom when he was 5 years old.

Two years after they started the path together and about 18 years after Immanuel Patton vowed to graduate alongside his mother, they realized their collective dream.

4. A homeless mother left a note with her dog for whoever found her. An animal shelter reunited them.

This pup named Lilo came to McKamey Animal Center off the street - with an added surprise – a note.

"Please don't abuse me." Cool, totally wanted to be crying at work right now.

The shelter staff posted about Lilo on social media, hoping to connect with her owner when they got a call from someone saying they were Lilo's mom. While centers like McKamey provide shelter for dogs, they also provide resources for families who love their pets, but might not be able to keep them due to cost. Mann said they'll give food and supplies to families struggling to pay for their pets' needs. They'll even help the family find a pet-friendly home.

5. Campbell Johnstone reveals himself to be first openly gay All Black.

In a momentous moment for New Zealand's rainbow community, Campbell Johnstone has outed himself as the first openly gay player to have represented the country's most influential sporting brand.

All Black No. 1056 has publicly revealed his sexuality – in a brave bid to “open up that door and magically make that closet disappear” – for the first time on TVNZ's Seven Sharp programme on Monday evening. Johnstone, who played three tests for the All Blacks all in 2005, did confide in some teammates and his family during his playing days.

6. 92 year old flood victim reunited with lost cat

Valerie Axtens thought she had seen the last of her beloved cat Mendelson as she was being rescued through a window from rapidly rising floodwater. Valerie Axtens was rescued during the February 28 flood.

After the floodwater receded and one of her sons was able to return and check on the mud-covered house, he discovered — much to everyone's surprise — the cat had survived.

7. Slovenia becomes first eastern European country to recognise same-sex marriage

The legalisation of same-sex marriage has officially come into effect in Slovenia, in a huge win for LGBTQ+ rights in eastern Europe. 

The bill, which saw Slovenia’s Family Code updated, officially took its place amongst the country’s other laws on Tuesday (1 February). The historic moment followed a decision by the country’s top court in July, which found that banning same-sex marriage and adoption violated the country’s constitution, which prohibits discrimination

-- - -

That's it for this week. If you liked this post you can support this newsletter with a small kofi donation:

Buy me a coffee ❤️

Have a great week ahead :)

[littlestpetshoparchiver]

Littlest Petshop Lexibook Learning Laptop!

This was legit SO interesting to research considering there's a manual for it. They are made by Lexibook, a European company that produces technology aimed at kids' entertainment and education. They still produce laptops like these even!

Their goal with the LPS laptop was to teach children spelling, math, and French in English-speaking countries. It also taught French children the same thing but taught English as a second language. They had three little buddies that would accompany their learning, cheeky monkey, sporty dog, and cuddly cat. You could chat to them!

Here's a look at some of the games. This model was made in 2009

Lexibook produced multiple different LPS laptops. Here are some of the others!

This one came with a piano it's so cute. There's a listing for it on Australian Amazon, so it looks like it was always sold there!

I honestly have no clue what LPS University is, I've seen other merch with this (such as a hat).

This one is movie-themed which is pretty cool.

Look at the cute lady bug. There's also an alternate coloring and graphic design version.

The alternate was listed on a German website, I wonder if it was sold there too? It's from 2011

Lexibook created a lot of other LPS technology which I'll post! Let me know if you ever used these, I'd love to hear about them!

[wc-confessions]

Not really a confession, but I have a question. I've been thinking for a while about organizing a raffle that would collect money for Palestine (specificaly for an evacuation fundraiser chosen by me). I had a little bit of a problem with choosing what should I raffle, but then I remembered that a lot of people in the WC Fandom like Polish Warrior Cats book covers and merch. So I was wondering...would you like to participate in a raffle like that and donate to a fundraiser for a possibility of winning either the limited edition preview Polish Warrior Cats

merch or an item from the official store of the publisher of Polish Warrior Cats chosen by you (up to 20$, which is about 60PLN)? Unfortunately, there probably wouldn't be a possibility of sending the item to either US or UK, only European Union countries. The raffle isn't hosted yet, I just wanted to ask if anyone would be interested.

https://ksiegarnianowabasn.com/pl/searchquery/Wojownicy/7/phot/5

Btw here is the link to the Polish Warrior Cats publisher online store. You can check what Warrior Cats related items do they sell (they don't only sell books but also posters and some other gadgets as well).

‎

[awholelotofladybug]

(stammering au) Say Dog owners, why don't you tell us more about your precious pooches?

"Well, Buddy is a yellow lab. He's s-s-s-seventeen inches at the shoulder with a short coat, and technically still a puppy. My mom got him for me as a g-g-g-gift when a friend of hers had a litter of puppies. He's very… He's very playful. His favorite game is Fetch. I play it with him almost every day. He's a lot of responsibility, but he's absolutely w-w-w-worth it."

"My Sophie is a white standard poodle. She's the sweetest thing, very cuddly. She's about twenty-three and a half inches at the shoulder, and we got her a modified continental cut so she looks pretty. Sophie also loves to go swimming and play in puddles. She can get muddy once in a while, I don't mind. I love making my Sophie Baby look all clean and pretty."

"Rex is a European Doberman. He's loyal, intelligent, and tough as nails. My parents got him for me as a gift. He's got a short coat and is twenty-eight inches at the shoulder. Before we adopted him, someone cropped his ears and docked his tail. That's illegal in my country, but whoever did it to him is bound to be dealt with eventually. Rex LOVES to roughhouse. It's exhausting, but whatever makes my Champion happy."

"My little Mitsi is a golden teacup Pomeranian. I found her at the animal shelter and simply had to have her. She's a tiny little thing, about eight and a half inches tall, but that only makes us love her more. She loves playing with her squeaky toys and will play tug-of-war with Rex and one of his rope toys. I almost named her "Fluffy" because of her coat, but "Fluffy" is more of a cat name, so I named her after my great aunt."

I have a Shiba Inu named Gigi. She's around sixteen inches at the shoulder, has a beautiful, golden goat, and the cutest curly tail. Giselle and I picked her up about a year ago when she was just a little puppy. She's such a precious little dog."

"My mom got Luka and me a red wiener dog named Lola. She's adorable. Smart too. She already knows "roll over," "sit up," "shake," and "play dead." She's only nine inches at the shoulder, so she's pretty low to the ground, but she has more love than a truckload of dogs. Sometimes she sneaks into one of our rooms and crawls into bed with us to snuggle. Such an awesome little dog."

"My mother recently gifted me with a Corgi named Toby. He's twelve inches at the shoulder and has a soft red and white coat. I love him, honestly. He's a friendly little guy. It's fun to watch him scamper around, and play with his chew toys. I've never had a pet before, so it's a new experience for me but Toby seems to like me enough. I'm sure it'll work out, as long as I give him food, water, and lots of love."

"I have a yellow Pomeranian named Winston. He's eleven inches tall. I found him at the animal shelter two years ago when he was just a little pup. We've been inseparable ever since. He especially enjoys playing catch, usually with tennis balls or rubber squeaky toys."

"My family recently adopted a French Bulldog named Lulu. She is the sweetest little thing. She's 13 months old, fawn-pied colored, and is about 18 inches tall at the head. Most Frenchies have breathing problems, but not my Lulu. Her snout is just big enough that she can breathe easily. And she is SUCH a loving dog. She adores people, cats, and other dogs. I can't tell you how many times she's jumped up on me to greet me."