#also walruses are huge

[megafighter343]

"Someone could have delivered the walrus." There is nothing in the original poll that says there was a delivery driver. The text says that you hear a knock and you see either a fairy or a walrus.

Also, someone delivering a walrus to my house just raises further questions. Who is this person? Where and how did they acquire a walrus? How did they find my address? Why did they deliver a walrus to my house? Hell, how far did they have to travel to do this? Is this an out-of-state walrus?

People really be going out of their way to accept the weirdest fuckin' scenario possible before they accept the idea of fairies being real.

[sealsdaily]

Seeing a concerning amount of people confusing elephant seals with baikal seals or even walruses. Granted, that amount is like 7 people but I'll take any excuse to infodump

These are juvenile elephant seals.

This is a baikal seal.

Let's compare!

Firstly, let's think about eye size. I deliberately chose images where both had comparable size, but what about what's behind the eyelids? You can see the baikal seal's face shape is affected by its huge eyes. The elephant seals meanwhile are comparatively less affected.

You can also see this in the eye shape.

Traced baikal eye on the left, traced elephant seal eye on the right. The left is noticeably wider (squinting), while the right is more open vertically. This way, you can see that their eye size only looks similar because the baikal seal is squinting. If the seal's eye is completely open but isn't the size of a tangerine, that's probably a baby elephant seal!

Concerning general face shape, Baikal seals often have a flat, sloping forehead that connects to the doglike snout. Elephant seals' faces seem to merge a bit more with the rest of the body, looking more round, which makes the snout stick out a bit more also - this is why elephant seals have that wrinkle, but baikals don't!

I was gonna discuss the walrus thing too but this post is long as is I might make it later if you guys really want ^_^

[nardo-headcanons]

I loved the Kumo head canons. I'd love to see your take on the Sand village or the Snow village ❤️❤️❤️

hey dear! I have done headcanons on Sunagakure already, you can find them here.

thank you to @naruto-scribblings-j for requesting.

Yukigakure Worldbuilding Headcanon

People and Culture

The people of the hidden snow village are a small, silent, yet very proud community. They are not the most hospitable and take a long time to warm up. Having to save on precious air as there is not a lot of oxygen in higher altitudes, hidden snow citizens prefer to use as little words as possible. However, this makes their friendship the more valuable. Once you're considered a friend, you are their family as well. Humor in the hidden snow village is another interesting issue, as it is a rather crude and dry one. However, don't let the cold, uninviting attitude of the hidden snow people scare you off, as they are rather inquisitive. Gossip spreads like a wildfire here. Another fun fact: Fridges and freezers are only used in spring, why waste electricity when you can let your food cool in your backyard? This has led to very creative ways of building fences to protect your dinner from any stray polar bear... or neighbor. The hidden snow people is not one to celebrate many things, except Winter's solstice, which is also celebrated as the impending return of Spring. This spring is an artificial one, as huge heat generators are turned on to melt away the snow and ice.

Clothing and Cosmetics

The hair, regardless of gender, is almost always grown out, often times worn open or at least framing the face, as an additional protection against the cold. Hidden snow people have rather thick and luscious hair, and compared to other ninja nations, the most hair follices on an individual basis, evolution's trick against te cold. Hair care is very important for them, and learning how to braid your hair is a standard practice once you're old enough to brush your own hair. Clothes are worn in thick layers and rarely dyed, richer families making the exception. The ankles and feet are often wrapped in thick fur as cold feet make your entire body feel cold.

Nature

Flora The entire country is covered in snow and glaciers, therefore only allowing for evolution's hardest soldiers. The main vegetation here are icy wastelands, some grasslands and tundra made up of various conifers. Native deciduous trees include birches and some willow species, and birch sap is often served as a drink in the Land of Snow. Another survivor from the village of snow are the lichens that cover the barren rocks, adding at least a little bit of color. There are also some moorlands that run through the country, but these are located outside the village and have hardly been explored.

One special flower that had made its way here is the dandelion, a flower with a high cultural status. Its bloom mirrors the change from short, buoyant spring to the icy, merciless winter. Its leaves are often harvested and can be eaten in salads or used in traditional medicine. (although this traditional medicine is only popular with hidden snow aunties nowadays)

Fauna

The Land of Snow was once densely populated by polar bears, but their numbers have dwindled since the Snow Village was founded, as they were often hunted for prestige. The most widespread mammals are reindeer and musk oxen, and the occasional lemming can be found in the dense ice deserts.

Birdlife includes corvids, gulls, albatrosses and the snow villagers' favorite bird: the puffin. These are strictly protected and are also very popular with children. In addition to these birds, loons, ptarmigans and owls also feel at home in the land of snow - sometimes even one or the other odd duck strays in. If you reach the hard-to-reach coastlines of the Land of Snow, you will often encounter seals and walruses. Around the coast, orcas also make the Arctic Ocean unsafe, which often does not suit the other native whale species (humpback whales, narwhals, belugas, sperm whales and blue whales). Fish in the Land of Snow include cod, shrimp, crab, halibut, redfish, char, turbot and salmon.

Domesticized animals

It's not uncommon for a hidden snow family to own their own sled dog as well as a herd of sheep, depending on where their home is located.

Food

Fish and Other Proteins You know how it goes. Once you go fishing, your dinner is secured. This is the case for the hidden snow village as well. However, unlike Kirigakure, fish is not as extremely accessible as in Kirigakure, since fishermen often have to travel a bit before stumbling upon any fish. Popular protein options are reindeer, lamb and seal meat, which often times is frozen (duh), or brined. Smoking meats is also very common, since spices are not widely accessible here (resulting in a few... questionable food preparation decisions that the locals have come up with over time.) Carbs Although the hidden snow diet is rather high in protein due to carbs not being very accessible, wheat, buckwheat and potatoes are the most common source of carbs. The hidden snow country offers a wide variety of breads. Funnily enough, rice is seen as an "exotic" luxury carb. Fruit The best berries are grown in the Land of snow (and in the iron realm, but that deserves its own post). Most beloved berries include wild strawberries, currants, sea buckthorn, raspberries, blackberries, gooseberries and mulberries. Aside from berries, the hidden snow village also offers crunchy pears, apples and cherries. The fruit in the hidden snow country are very high in vitamin c, causing a rather sour taste, but also preventing any scurvy outbreaks. Any citrus fruits are a rarity here and can only be grown in greenhouses, making them very expensive, and not very tasty, in all honesty.

Tradition vs Modernity Nowadays, most foods that used to be inaccessible are now grown in large greenhouses. Most hidden snow citizens are not opposed to GMO foods, and in fact, embrace it. Most of the GMO foods are first cultivated in the hidden snow village before making their way to the market. Many youngsters prefer the modern dishes over the traditional ones. Traditionally, the hidden snow citizen always tries to make the most out of the food that they have, resulting in dishes such as blood sausage, blood pudding, brain (double fried to protect from any nasty prions) and many gelatinous foods.

That's all, folks!

Feel free to use these for your OCs, headcanons, fics, etc but it would be nice to give me credit c:

[boneappleteethsplural]

RAMBLE TIME! not a serious post whatsoever

my headmate, Astophilith/Astro, is a Kraken Cat. half octopus, half kitty. he loves the sea and sea creatures and when he fronted we all knew he would fixate on the ocean in some way

its mermaids. its mermaids and their potential biology, this is what he has determined:

mermaids are pale. pale pale pale. assuming they have human skin, no light gets down into the ocean so they dont need melanin to protect them from the sun

mermaids are FAT! theyre plus sized. if you look at any sea mammal (whales, dolphins, walruses, seals) they are fat they have tons of blubber to keep them warm in those freezing ocean temps

pupils are HUGE! there is no light down there, their pupils are either massive or their entire eye is pupil

meemaid hair is not the same as human hair, the damage from the salt water would be BAD bad itd be frizzy and horrible. they are either: bald (lots of hair slows swimming down)(competitive swimmers wear swim caps and shave off ALL hair on their body), they have octopus/squid tentacle hair like medusa or the inklings from splatoon, they have hair that functions like cat whiskers (cats whiskers can sense things, if mermaid hair is super long they could use it to sense when something is behind them. useful due to no light down there), or they have jellyfish tentacle hair (stings and catches pray for them, also good reason for how long it is)

if we go with the jellyfish tentacle hair thing, their hands and forearms, shoulders, back, most of their body would be scales. like hard hard scales to resist the stinging of their own hair.

they have webbing between their fingers (like duck feet) to help them swim

if mermaids *are* mammals (and therefore chonky), theyd need some sort of thing like turtles where their nostrils close up so they dont get water in their lungs. i personallt love the concept of mermaids with human mammal lungs *and* gills. im thinking that the way this would function is that underwater their nostrils close up and stop taking in above water oxygen, their gills would have some sort of function where between lung and gill the H2O stops being H2O and is converted into water and the water part just goes back to the ocean (like through the skin or through the mouth, maybe back out through the gills the way human lungs take in oxygen and push out carbon dioxide. have not worked that out yet). above water im thinking that their gills close up and they revert to using their nostrils and take in oxygen etc etc

obviously mermaids are fantasy creatures and therefore not real so you do you! these are i guess just headcanons that made me and astro go Oooooooo and i wanted to share them

again do whatever you want with mermaids design them however, this is just speaking on a more scientific level (or as scientific you could get with fantasy creatures)

anyone is free to reblog and add onto this or (politely) correct me (i wont reply to aggression or anything mean. this is for fun.)

if anyone takes inspo from these ideas for mermaid art please show us we would LOVE to see! theres no need for credit either, we saw some headcanons a few years ago and simply expanded on them and turned them into our own thing :)

-Maelstrom

[autistic-autumn]

One interesting unrelated oddity I'm finding with the fairy-sized-walrus vs walrus-sized-fairy poll is a surprising number of people seem to think walruses are the same size as humans. This is decidedly not true, at least among adult walruses, even females of the smaller Atlantic subspecies. The largest humans and smallest adult walruses are similar I suppose, but that is a large edge case and would be odd to base one's expectations off of.

I noticed this particularly with the size variation poll I did. Walrus' are huge and not something to underestimate. Certainly the biggest thing in it's favor given it's a huge scary shocking beast. Even people thinking a fairy-sized walrus is the size of a baby walrus (assuming tiny fairy). Baby walrus' are also just large creatures, much closer to actual human size than a fully grown one (seeing numbers around 64kg, length/height of 3-4ft. Not as large but still large animal size).

[inapat17]

Animation shows: The art of drawing society (4/4)

Grandpa Walrus

Cartoons are a colorful medium that creators like to use to depict their vision of our modern world. Therefore this series of articles will be dedicated to animated TV, internet shows and movies of this last year which humorously describes our contemporary society. Today a short film that explores different ways of grieving. Children find death to be a brutal and incomprehensible experience. “Grandpa Walrus” explores the imagination of children who struggle to cope with a tragic event: the death of their grandfather.

Grandpa Walrus or Pépé le morse is an animated short film directed by Lucrèce Andreae which was awarded best animated short at the 2018 César awards. The movie starts with a panorama of the cold and grey beach. Twelve-years-old Lucas, our narrator, explains the expression “grandpa walrus”: “One of my friends told me that in Russia, there are some kind of huge guys who spend their lives tanning, even when it’s cold. They are called walruses! I think that Grandpa was a walrus. And now he is dead”. Olivia who is the mother, Granny, the twins Jade and Mélissa, and Lucas who is carrying his baby brother Marcus are out in the middle of October on a cold and windy beach to pay a last tribute to their grandpa. The atmosphere is not at all ceremonious. The twins are talking about boys, the grandmother falls on the ground in devotion every two steps and Olivia is just trying to get through this nonsense. Finally arriving on the beach the family is faced with the horrifying vision of tons of cigarette butts spread on the sand forming the silhouette of the grandfather’s body. Then each of the characters split upon the immense beach mourning their grandfather in different ways. The young character’s imaginations come to life. Lucas is facing a frightful vision of a humanoid walrus smoking a cigarette. The twins live a near death experience when they get attacked by plants and little Marius is running away in the oceans.

It’s a deeply poetic animated film which explores dark themes such as death and mourning through visions that are both beautiful and nightmarish. Nevertheless, the characters remain very realistic. They shout, insult each other and argue. Although they are experiencing the same tragic event, they don’t understand each other. While Lucas and the grandma seem to have the same admiration for the patriarch, Olivia remains  resentful toward a man who for her was selfish and who died a pathetic death just like he lived a pathetic life.

On this large beach, the characters are reduced to their littleness. Lucrèce Andreae's film is a story that is both personal and universal. For the film, she drew inspiration from her personal life. In an interview, she said that the idea for her film came from a friend that lives in Saint Petersburg. She told her the story of the “walruses”: men who spent their lives sunbathing whether it’s winter or summer. For the beach, she was inspired by the Atlantic coast where she spent time with her parents. Finally, the small eclectic group was more or less a depiction of her family.

Death is a universal subject. Lucrèce Andreae also used international references to make this poetic animated short film. She chose to set the movie on a beach in reference to Shoji Ueda’s photos. The beach setting is something universal. For Lucrèce Andreae Shoji’s photos are both poetic and absurd.  These two adjectives can also be used to qualify her film. The vulgar and grotesque characters of Italian cinema were a source of inspiration for the characters of this animated short film. Moreover, the fantastic visions in a realistic setting are a clear reference to Hayao Myasaki's Japanese animated movies.

© Shoji Ueda

Spirited away, Hayao Myazaki, 2001

In the film statement of intent, the director writes her motivation for making this film. These words can also serve as a conclusion to this series of articles: “As Charlie Chaplin once said: “ Life is a tragedy in close up, but it is a comedy in wide shot ” and I am convinced that you just need a little distance from things so you can laugh at anything”. 

In this series of articles I wanted to show that cartoons are mediums through which we can talk about anything. If I haven't convinced the readers, I hope at least you've been able to discover some great animated movies or TV shows.

[haljathefangirlcat]

if i saw a fairy: yeah, okay, this is impossible. which means it's either a dream, a hallucination, or highly advanced technology being used to fuck with people because who gives a damn about the good of mankind anymore, I guess. only two of these options are worrying, and only one of these two is something I probably need to do something about personally asap.

if i saw a fairy and it somehow proved its own reality: mmmmh. okay. okay. let's not freak out just yet. you've read stuff about this. tons of stuff, actually. the important thing right now is not magic existing or whether "stories of humanoid magical creatures were actually inspired by contact with Neanderthals" theories can be considered to have a grain of truth to them if the ancient other humanoid species turns to really be that tiny. the important thing is not dying and not being lured under the hills or to the Land of Eternal Youth. start coming up with extremely polite excuses for why you can't eat anything or listen to music, now.

if a walrus knocked on my fucking door and i was able to tell it was an actual real walrus because even someone in a big walrus costume wouldn't look like an actual real fucking walrus: ????????? why is this giant monstrosity with enormous tusks, best known from every nature documentary about the arctic i've ever watched for being able to kill other giant monstrosities with enormous tusk by merely repeatedly slamming its fucking huge weight and girth into them until they're dead and also for being able to fight off polar bears, on my fucking doorstep. i know for a fact that the one nature park near where i live, which to be fair isn't even really that close, doesn't have any fucking walruses. i wouldn't even be able to tell you where the nearest zoo is, but certainly nowhere this fucking close either. the closest big body of water is a sweetwater lake where i've never seen anything but fish, ducks, and swans. i have no fucking frame of reference here. i have no fucking idea what to do. at all. do i try to make myself bigger? or does that only work with mountain lions in American cartoons? should i run back inside? or would any sudden movement cause it to hurl itself at me and kill me by repeatedly slamming its fucking huge weight and girth into me until i'm dead. should i just stay very very very still and try to pretend i'm not even breathing? should i drop down and pretend i'm dead? should i call animal control? the police?? the fucking firefighters??? let's face it, i'll probably just call my mom first. does she know the first thing about dealing with walruses? fuck no, but she'll yell at me when i freak out to snap me out of it and then speak in a much softer gentler voice when i start crying instead. also she had the sort of childhood that was punctuated by headless hens running around in the yard because they weren't decapitated properly, a furious pig rampaging through the streets while squealing all of its rage at and hatred of the human race to everyone's terror and the screams of parents forcibly dragging their children back inside because it wasn't shot properly between the eyes before being brought to the butcher, and an escaped circus lion taking a nice stroll through the town and then deciding to rest beside a briefly unattended baby until the police managed to find it without apparently once thinking of harming the baby. she is a woman who has seen horrors and miracles. she'd kill the fucking fairy with a fly swatter and think about the existential implications later.

[crackling-dab]

Alright im weighing in on the walrus vs fairy debate

Now i dont remember the wording on the original post. If it was "what would be more surprising," you could interpret that as "what would make the least sense 'objectively'", in which case sure, it's the fairy, sure.

But it could (and likely should) be read as "what would surprise you more", if it wasn't written that way already, in which case the answer is a walrus, without contest.

Like yes, fairies dont exist, but they are generally "guy shaped" and not larger than a human, depending on the fairy lore were following. I think it would take a minute for the brain to process exactly what you were seeing, and that it should be surprising, so the initial reaction would be confusion at best.

A Walrus, on the other hand, does not need to be processed. I know what a walrus looks like. I know that walruses should not be at my door. And i know that walruses are fucking huge.

Like, up to 4000+ pounds (2000+ kg) huge.

Also, i cannot predict what the walrus is going to do, or stop it for that matter! My initial reaction to a giant, wild animal on my door step is going to be much stronger, more fearful, and therefore more surprised than to some weird guy.

Like i can reason and communicate with a fairy. Not a walrus.

[magic-and-moonlit-wings]

Thoughts on ‘The Sea Beast’

SPOILERS AHOY!

I loved the character designs, for the humans and the creatures. I feel like the design team had a lot of fun.

It was neat how the castle architecture and decor had a palette of sea green, gold, and white, yet still felt very aquatic, rather than leaning on an “ocean theme = blue” palette.

The royal couple’s costumes kind of gave me ‘sea monster’ vibes even before they were confirmed to be antagonistic characters. I think it was all the little triangles on the trim. (According to a sewing website I’ve read, those are called Van Dyke points, but I’m not sure how widely used that term is.)

I think Blue is the same species as Red, just a different colour while a baby. The angler lure will lose its light and turn into a crest as Blue gets older. I want a plushie of Blue, and maybe one of the yellow ones as well.

I very, very much want to see a video of Voltaire’s song “The Beast Of Pirate’s Bay” using clips from this movie.

Captain Crow was super dumb for dumping the Hand Of God harpoon overboard as soon as Red was captured. Even if he was holding off on killing her until they got back to the capital, keeping the poison on hand might have been a good idea in case they needed to, oh, I don’t know, sedate the giant beast again?

Potential reasons I came up with for why humans and sea beasts would be in conflict:

Some combination of the following:

1. It started due to honest misunderstandings, akin to a shark’s “test bite” of a surfer.

Sea beasts are huge, and big things need lots of food. Know what has a lot of calories? Mammal meat. It is not unreasonable to think some types of sea beast might eat whales. Ships at sea would be mistaken for a whale surfacing to breathe, the sea beast would come up to eat it, and oops, it’s not a whale after all.

Even the story about how “them beasts would come right up to shore, pluck a lady from her veggie patch, and swallow her up” could be based on true events. If a sea beast preyed on pinnipeds (seals, sea lions, and walruses), they could mistake humans on the beach for seals and go after them, expecting them to be slower and clumsier out of water.

2. Sea Beast territory blocks an otherwise-desirable trading route.

Plenty of wars and conflicts in human history have been about controlling trade routes. As a coastal territory, much of the kingdom’s trade is presumably by sea.

3. Sea Beast territory overlaps with otherwise-desirable fishing grounds.

As stated in Hypothesis 1, big animals need lots of food. Red’s whirlpool trick is presumably to cluster fish together so she can eat a bunch of them in one bite.

Coastal regions also tend to be heavily dependant on fishing for food.

4. The horns are harvested for ‘medicinal’ purposes.

It fits with the whaling metaphor (harvesting blubber and spermaceti for lamp oil, and baleen for corset boning), the big game hunting theme (rhino horns used as an aphrodisiac), and the theme of hunting supernatural creatures (unicorn horns, and narwhal tusks, could supposedly detect and cure poisons).

5. The Royal Family have discovered the Sea Beasts make useful scapegoats.

“Yes, we had to raise taxes, but it’s to fund the hunters and protect our people from the beasts!”

“Yes, everything is expensive, because it’s hard to get imports past the beasts and we can only produce so much locally.”

Depending on what people believe about the sea beasts’ intelligence and capabilities, it might even be possible to blame them for storms, droughts, floods, and tidal waves.

6. It’s a direct side-effect of the whaling industry.

Related to Hypothesis 3; sea beasts have sunk whaling ships, and compete for the same prey. Humans started trying to wipe them out so they’d stop getting in the way.

(I did not actually expect this to be canon, since whaling is generally frowned upon by a modern audience and this is a kids’ movie, so the scriptwriters wouldn’t want to get into that.

Also, do whales even exist in this world, or do sea beasts fill that ecological niche? We never see proof onscreen that whales coexist with sea beasts, but the ocean is vast and it’s hard to prove a negative.)

7. From the Sea Beasts’ perspective, humans are a fellow beast with whom they are competing for territory.

I mean, looking at things from a certain angle, this isn’t totally wrong.

The Explanation The Movie Gave:

Generations ago, the Royal Family told everyone that Sea Beasts were bad and needed to be hunted. They did this for ... reasons.

On my second watching, I puzzled out, “Maybe that’s part of the point, that the real motives were lost to history and sometimes you don’t get to find out why; some random kid like Maisie never got to find out the full truth, but she still found out the important part - that the manipulation existed, and that sea beasts aren’t actively malicious - and that’s why it’s important to question stuff people have ‘always known’, because details get lost over time and could’ve been wrong to begin with.”

But for a first watching, wow, talk about leaving an important plot thread hanging.

[tenebrius-excellium]

You guys I spent too much time randomly browsing Instagram yesterday and ended up having the coolest dream EVER.

It was Percy Jackson (2023) x Live action Httyd (2025). And it was freaking GOOD.

Listen listen listen - think a large, fantastical Roman/Greek city bustling with life. At its edge, picture Httyd2's dragon racing setup mixed with a huge, beautiful colosseum-like war arena. The design is a harmless, fictional movie aesthetic but it's BIG FUN. There are lots of colorful flags and banners, lots of ropes and nets hanging everywhere, and the atmosphere is roaring and excited like a stadium at the world cup. Behind the walls of the arena, what's meant to be the Mediterranean but absolutely looks like a dreamy tropical sea, stretches endlessly into the horizon.

Walker Scobell is young Hiccup, Leah Jeffries is young Astrid. The teens have always been good friends. Now they're late to the dragon training festival and are hurrying there to make it. They know they have to fight each other first and then the captive dragons of the city to determine who will get to slay which dragon at the end. The final face-off is supposed to be a sort of meet-your-match arrangement, an almost sacred encounter between each human and the dragon that challenges them best. A fierce bond of mutual respect and hatred is supposed to develop between the human and their special dragon, locking them in an equal and deeply personal match of life and death in the final round. Only one can ever make it out alive. It's meant to earn them their place in society. If the teen wins, they are showered with the honor and glory and the rights of a warrior, if the dragon wins, its ability to survive is just as respected and it gets released back into the wild.

The pre-show has Alexandra Daddario looking like older Httyd2 Astrid, while her name remains Annabeth, absolutely toying with multiple dragons. She is the city's famous dragon warrior champion fighting simultaneously against one or two Hideous Zipplebacks, a Monstrous Nightmare, and several water dragons. She bests them all. Maybe she's younger Astrid's older sister. Young Astrid aspires to be like her. At one time, Httyd2 Astrid-Annabeth puts out a Nightmare's fire with her dripping wet, gorgeous long, blonde hair. Doesn't even hesitate. The crowd goes bananas. (This looked so cool in my dream - like she was mopping up fire with her hair. Since it was soaking wet from the water, that somehow didn't do any damage lol. Dream logic, bwahaha)

Now, all the dragons in their cages look like massive beasts, a mix of bears, beavers, walruses and really bad dragon CGI from the 90s. Except the Monstrous Nightmare which looks normal, which is no surprise if you know me of course. Toothless is held captive there too. He's an old dragon whose shape looks more like a manta ray in this non-animated version of events.

He and Hiccup have already singled out each other to face in final combat. Yet already there's also kindness connecting them. The old dragon and the young child have too much mercy for each other's fate to give hatred and ferocity and the bit much effort. So when it's Hiccup's turn to enter the ring...and Toothless is already waiting for him there... Hiccup chooses to enter the arena from a jumping plank above. Why? Because he can also "accidentally", conveniently open the dragon release hatch from there. He does it, Toothless shoots out from under him - and Hiccup JUMPS, perfectly landing on his back, the audience gasps, and - Hiccup and Toothless fly out of the arena together and soar over the endless, turquoise, tropical summer sea. Until they cannot be seen from afar anymore.

Toothless is so old he can't fly for long, and he sets Hiccup down in some shallows of these warm, beautiful, tropical ocean waters. He then introduces Hiccup to young Toothless, who is actually his grandson, and asks him to protect him. Hiccup promises to do so. Old Toothless goes away to die peacefully, and young Toothless and Hiccup become the best buds we all know and love.

Cue Walker-Scobell-Hiccup and young Toothless bringing peace and friendship to Greek-Roman-Colosseum Berk with young Leah-Jeffries-Astrid's help. Behind Httyd2-Astrid-Annabeth's back, naturally, because she is the one who doesn't approve it out of tradition and because it might threaten her status as the beloved hero of the city. Love it. Lol. Makes perfect sense, doesn't it??????

Idk I really loved this story concept!!!

If you made it all the way down here, thanks for reading!

[pbandjesse]

I'm walking in the woods right now. I'm on my way back to my building from riding horses which was fun but now my allergies are going crazy. I've decided that even though it's 8:00 I'm going to go home. I would like to take a shower and sleep in my own bed. Because while I love sleeping in the hammock I think being home has become a little bit more important to me this year. But today was a pretty good day overall even if I'm still pretty sore and I was very nauseous for a lot of it.

I slept okay last night. I did not get enough sleep for some reason. I don't even remember not falling asleep early last night I just didn't sleep good. And when I woke up it was 6:30 and I didn't need to be awake yet but I was and for some reason when I get to lay in bed for a half an hour just being awake I tend to feel better when my alarm does finally go off. And beyond being nauseous this held true.

I left for work and was in a pretty good mood. I had a nice drive and got here before 8:00. There wasn't a lot for me to do today. Like set up-wise. I had done a really good job of getting everything ready already So I just made sure everything was clean and then I went for a little walk. I went to talk to Chris and make sure that buying adhesive at home Depot would be a reimbursed. And he said it was fine. So I will do that either tomorrow or Saturday. And then I just did a little walk around camp until I went back to the art building where I hung out in the hammock inside.

I was already really nauseous but I was also very anxious. Specifically about my hammock. Anton is a very great help but he loves laying in the inside hammock and I want to lay on the inside hammock so I put a wash on my stuffed animals in it and my book and hoped that if he came while I was walking to the nurse that he would not be inside of it but he ended up not coming today. So it was fine. But my anxiety was still very high.

I was going to work today working on my blanket. All 12 rows are completed and now they are sewed together in pairs. And tomorrow I hope to work on sewing the Paris together. And so far Louisa has been a huge help making sure that none of my pairs or rose were incorrect. We laid them all out and made sure and pinned and put notes on things so that things were being laid and sewn in the right direction and it was nice.

And the kids today made pretty good artwork. They were mostly on time which was surprising. And we didn't have any like great masterpieces today. Not to say they weren't wonderful but none like blew me out of the water. I think some of the problem is we have too many white socks. I think if I was to do this project again next year I will get way more colorful socks. Because we ran out of those like on Monday and those ones just look so much cleaner.

But the kids were good and they made good work and while I didn't feel very good everyone was really kind. And I had the counselors helping with the hot glue and while there was one or two small burns nobody was seriously injured which is always my concern.

I did not go to lunch because I had brought my Chipotle from yesterday with me. And I ate half of that and then I just turned off the lights and hung out in the inside hammock until my next class. I just really it did not feel good today and was happy to be alone.

I honestly wasn't sure it was going to participate in the counselor ride tonight because I was feeling so unwell. But I knew that if I didn't I would feel bad about that too so really there was no winning. My neck also just really hurts still and I would love for it to stop hurting so much but nothing seems to be helping. I'm hoping that going home tonight and taking a hot bath will help at least a little bit.

The afternoon groups were great. My day campers really seem to like the sock project even if they have to keep starting over over it over again. And when the stockade boys came a few of them even made some puppets including Jorge. Jorge always makes walruses and I thought it was very sweet when he made a walrus. I was not feeling great still though. And I was trying my best to not let everyone know how bad I was feeling but it was hard. I was talking to Louisa a lot about it today because she spent literally the entire day with me. And she worked on her embroidery and we just chit-chatted while the kids worked and during our breaks we both read Dear America books while laying in the hammocks. She's reading the Titanic one but I don't think she's going to finish it because she says it's already too sad. Which is true.

But she just wants to chit chat I had to be one point be like Louisa please let me read my book I only have 20 pages left. And I really didn't love this one there was a lot of parts where I felt like I missed something because she was skipping big sections but it was still enjoyable at the end and I'm excited to read my next one which is going to be taking place in 1919 which is a nice change of pace because I've been doing a lot of 17 and 1800s.

My last day group camp group left and I still had one more group which was my late pioneer group. I was not thrilled about having such a late group but they were very sweet boys and they did a good job. And they had lots of questions about my blanket which I was finally finishing sewing out the last pair row. And I was able to lay everything out and get it all rolled up and folded.

While we were folding it Elizabeth called me to ask if Louisa was with me and I was like yes she's been here all day do you want me to send her down and at first she said no but then Alexi let us know that her dad was there and wanted to say hello so I sent her to the office. And then the boys finished up and I got my stuff and went to dinner.

Dinner was not good. It wasn't that it tasted bad because I didn't eat any of it. What they had for people who do eat me it was jerked Jamaican chicken and some rice and vegetables. Which is fine. Except there was a very unclearness of about what was vegetarian what wasn't and then they finally brought the vegetarian option out which was like a vegetarian chicken and rice Jamaican inspired dish. Which I'm sure would have been fine not my thing but fine. Except I scooped up and it was still frozen. So I gave it back to the chef and then he said it would be a few minutes in the oven and I waited like 15 minutes but it didn't come out so I just had a couple pieces of broccoli and gave up and left.

Mostly because we were getting ready for the trail ride at 7:00 and I wanted to get going to ice first. So I went and waited by the office and read my book a little bit. And then the people that work up in horses. Braden, Laney, and CC from the pool were up there waiting for Kona ice as well. And they were running a little bit late so we were jokingly like yelling about Jimmy not being there when he was supposed to be. Jimmy is the man that runs the Kona ice truck. And once he was there we got our things and I walked up with them. And they walk so fast. I have little legs guys and I'm old. But I did my best to keep up with them and it was nice hanging out.

I got to watch them tack up the horses. And put all of the things together and then everybody else who was coming on the trail ride would slowly start coming through. Ty was coming as well as Antonio. Tony was there as well. Candella who I love. And I specifically loved that she kept yelling at the horses in very very fast Spanish. I got to ride on Denton. And he was a very well behaved horse.

Which was great because I don't know if you remember my ride last year when I was on Little bolt and he rode me into Elizabeth's car and then into a bush. Denton was a very good listener. And he let me pet his face and his ears and I even gave him some of my snowball. It was mango flavored.

When we did finally get to ride I was all the way in the back because Denton likes to kick. He did not kick anyone but he kept biting the horse in front of us. And I think I did a lot better with controlling the words this year. Specifically because the saddle fit me better and I was not in excruciating pain the entire time. My neck still definitely hurt but there wasn't a lot of looking all the way backwards so it didn't bother me too much and I was able to just kind of be chill about it.

There were like three times where I screamed. The first one was because I thought it was so funny when we were going downhill and he started to trot. I can't imagine what a cancer feels like because trotting seems so fast. And you don't really have anything to hold on to so at one point I started slipping off the front of the saddle because I was writing an English saddle that has no horn. And that was very scary. And then another time I almost fell off and my feet fell out of the stirrups and I started sliding and then I got a crane up in my leg and I thought it was going to die. It was very scary. But I was laughing the whole way through and honestly it was a really nice time. I like to talking to Laney who was riding behind me as our trail guide. And I'm really glad that they cut the trail rides from an hour to a half an hour though because by the time the half hour is done my thighs hurt so much. Thankfully they don't really hurt too much anymore as I'm driving home. But I still have a good time.

Once the trail ride itself was done we went into the ring and we were allowed to just kind of ride in circles and try things out. I got Denton to trot a few more times and I felt a little bit more in control and I got him to turn the way I wanted him to and I felt a lot more secure. I still don't know how you don't slide off the saddle but I was having a good time. Eventually though I did just want to get off of the horse. He kept trying to walk over the jumps and I did not enjoy that and I didn't know how to make him stop trying to do that. And I was very afraid he was going to jump for real. I was very much ready to be done.

Lady wouldn't let me use the stairs to get off of him and I was very afraid of sliding off the horse to get on the ground because my likes keep giving out but I was able to slowly slide down and get off and I did not die. I watched Denton back up to his little house and one of the other girls help me take his tack and saddle off. And then I gave him the rest of my snowball and said goodbye.

That is when I decided I was going to go. It's not as late as I thought it was going to be and I really still do not feel good. And I really think that me and showering and being clean and then being in my own bed will help. I really hope it does. At least emotionally.

I am writing this in the car while I drive home but I'm using talk to text so I feel like it's fine. I'm not looking at my phone at all so hopefully most of this is coming out and it's not nonsense.

I walked back up to the car after and enjoyed being in the woods. And now I am in the car and most of the way home. Tomorrow is going to be a long day but I still think it will be good. My plan is to work and then after my last program I got to get set up for next week and then make sure everything is put away from this week and then I'm going to help with pickup and the ceremony directions. And then I will get out of there. I'm going to go to home Depot and get the adhesive I need. And hopefully you'll be home around the same time and I'm getting home today. It's going to be a long day so I really hope this nausea goes away because it sucks.

I hope you all sleep great. I promise not to post this until I'm actually home. I love you all. Good night!

[hyliascommonwealth]

What's everyone's favorite creature?

That Depends on if you mean by “Creature” haha! We’ll be broad on this answer and give one from the commonwealth and one from the world surrounding them!

Uli has a huge weakness for Horses, he loves to sit in the grass and watch them roam, most of the wild Hylian horses recognize him as the “Hylian who brings us free apples!” Aside from being terrified of monsters he actually finds Lizalfos terribly interesting to watch from a distance, he has several sketch books full of scribblings about Lizalfos. As for Creatures of the wider world, Uli loves Blue whales and Beluga whales, they are some of his favorites to learn about, and see if he decides on taking a ship to other parts of the world. Though it isn’t often as he gets horribly sea sick.

Nabora LOVES Sand Seals, they are her favorite Gerudo Desert Native Creature she interacts with Daily, though she can approach them in the wild without them fleeing immediately, she much prefers to watch them roam uninterrupted.The world has many Mythological creatures that she finds endlessly interesting, and when she has access to the Internet she is quite swiftly down a Rabbit Hole of Creatures in the regions she visits. She simply cannot Choose one! As for animals she was in love immediately when she learned that there was a snowy equivalent to her Sand Seals, she loves Walruses and really developed a love for Elephants.

Vallo likes most any Bird, He isn’t all that picky, Song Birds, Herons, He’s always a fan of the Hawks native to Hyrule, this carries over to the outside world as well, Secretary Birds, Penguins, Ostriches, he really enjoys watching any bird he can see and will gladly travel to see them in the wild if he can.

Viri loves Gorillas, he thinks they are absolutely the BEST animals outside of Hyrule. Any Ape or Monkey is absolutely tops on his list of creatures. The now critically endangered Faron Woodland Monkeys are some of his most beloved, but they haven’t been observed in the wild in Generations.

Rika has a real soft spot for Sea Lions and Seals in general, they have such fun personalities and behaviors that watching them sun bathe on the Glass Beach gives so much free serotonin. She’s also developed quite an interest in Griaffes and Cheetahs.

Tuto Loves the little Fireproof Lizards that skitter about Death mountain, and has an interest in Dragons, but still remembers a time when he was young when a Dragon would eat Gorons.

Idli has more of an interest in Bugs than most critters, she loves bees and Dragonflies, Watching she has a tank of Snails in her home that she maintains Meticulously because she loves them so much, they are all named.

Rutelia doesn’t think much about creatures though she likes the sounds of Ducks in the area, their silly little walks and funny noises make her want to hold them and listen to that noise all the time. The first time she encountered a swan though was really traumatic.

Cirrus loves The Skyloftian Loftwings, but also has at least three Remlits, though the first time he saw a wild hare on the surface he was deeply intrigued by them, and then he discovered that Hares and Rabbits are a whole separate thing, and he’s been fascinated for years.

[hejscandinavia]

This was probably the earliest day we had to wake up. We had to leave the hotel at 7:45 am so didn’t get much sleep. I was so ready for the continental breakfast, and then…I forgot I was in Norway lol. The classic American hotel breakfast with eggs, bacon, and pancakes was not there. Instead, the hotel had bread, small donuts, smoked salmon, salad, yogurt, and fruit. It was still VERY good. Basically every morning I would get the bread, spread butter, put some cheese on top, with lettuce, smoked salmon, and cucumber. I feel like after Europe I will definitely be eating Smorebord a lot for lunches. Also, homemade butter with homemade bread. The bread, butter, and sometimes cheese combo has changed me lol.

Afterward, we met outside the hotel to meet our guides, Joffery (from France) and Jenka (from Belgium). Our guides throughout my entire trip were AMAZING! They were so funny, engaging, and helpful. We then drove to the docks so go on an hour long boat ride. The waters in Svalbard as so beautiful. As said before, they are this brilliant blue with hints of emerald green. The mountains surrounding us just made it better. We mostly sat outside on the dock taking photos of the nature and of the other group. Coolest thing we saw, A WALRUS! On our right, a walrus was coming up for air for around thirty seconds. It was SO COOL! It took a few ducks, snorted, and went back down. Ah to only be able to scuba dive and see what lies beneath!

Afterward, we arrived on shore with an old lighthouse and radio tower. We then started walking. Well this was one hike. In total, 15 MILES. Bruh I’ve never walked that much (okay maybe but that was Disney and I have zero comprehension of steps in that place). 

The landscape was pretty diverse. As some points, it was completely rocky (so many kinds, especially shards, from black, brown, red, orange, and a lot of quartz). At others, it was a flat and dirt. Then it was holes and bumps with moss covering it. We saw various reindeer on the hike. We even saw a fox for a few seconds! I only saw a glimpse of it because it was blending in so well to the landscape. We took several stops, either to ford the rivers, look at the plants, examine a carcass, and my personal favorite, old whale bones! We didn’t know how old they were. They could either be from the whaling period from 1600-1800 or even older when most of Svalbard was under water several thousand years ago! You can’t tell in the arctic a lot because decomposition is a very slow process. Are we got closer to shore, the beaches were grey with some having ice on top. It was pretty rocky and lots of orange kelp.

We finally got to our main destination, the walrus colony. Sadly, there were no walruses. We had lunch at 2 pm from backpacking kits. I had a dehydrated chicken curry which was okay and the berry tea. Man I LOVE the berry tea. I need to figure out if one of the European stores in Madison has it! The view was still really nice. We had a great look over the sea on these old cliffs. 

Well as we were eating, the guides spotted walruses! We had passed them on our way there. So we packed up quickly and were speeding to go see them.

Before getting close, the guides told us we had to be quiet, not super close, and had to be in the direction the wind was going so the animals can’t smell us. As we crept over the hill, we had a huge scent of animal. And there they were. Thirty or so walruses were lying on the beach in two groups. They were so lazy, sleeping on the shoreline.  Two of them were moving. One was very slowly moving to the water. He was sit up, think, then roll, stand up for ten seconds, then roll again. Time was not apart of their agenda. 

Sadly, we did have to leave to get back to camp. After our boat ride, we had to get dinner. Mirren, Alex, Lulu, Cielo, Caitlin, Ava, and Abby went to Svalbar. I got an Irish coffee. Not my favorite drink as I have explored in alcohol. For food, I had a nutty pasta. It was pretty okay. For desert, I got an Antarctic breakfast! It was from an expedition with lignonberry, ice cream, pancakes, bacon, and syrup. Now that was pretty darn good. Favorite part of the whole evening: my DND joke. For the past couple of months, I have grown an obsession the rudeness of seagulls. Because of this, I would love to play DND as an annoying seagull. With this, I got an idea at the restaurant. “So imagine you’re in DND, and you play as a seagull. Your name is Sval and you’re a bard. Cause ‘Svalbard’. And ALSO! You’re are bartender cause “Svalbar.” Throughout the rest of class, “imagine you’re in DND,” has become a running joke. I’m loving it. 

[curiosityschild]

Also, walruses are huge!!! If I didn't see it out the window before I opened the door that would be a legitimate jumpscare. Faeries as far as I know would be human sized or smaller.

[synapsid-taxonomy]

Basically all the reconstructions of Uintatherium that I’ve seen show it with exposed tusks, but is it possible that they were actually covered by its lips? Hippos have similarly large tusks and they are not exposed.

I'd personally consider it most likely that Uintatherium's tusks were covered by lips! Note how the lower jaw of Uintatherium has a flange that lines up pretty much exactly with the length of the tusks:

The canine teeth do not project past the lower jaw in clouded leopards, hippos, and baboons, and these all cover their canines with lips.

Things like Thylacosmilus and Barbourofelis - and also Uintatherium - have huge canine teeth, but they also have flanges of the lower jaw that line up with them. This implies that, when the mouth was closed, the canines continued to be sheathed in the lower jaw, like baboons and living carnivorans. So we probably wouldn't see exposed canines in these fossil genera.

In contrast, in mammals with exposed "fangs" (musk deer, walruses, Smilodon) the canines project significantly below the edge of the lower jaw. So they can't be sheathed in the same way.

[disabled-bnha-abandoned-blog]

Hiii! Who do you think would have had a HUGE hyperfixation on marine animals when they were younger? They like, had the biggest obsession with an animal that no ones heard of (like me with Walruses 👉🏼👈🏼) and would tell anyone and everyone about them.

ok, i'm thinking Ochako, but also Tokoyami HOWEVER

i know bakugou is a sea animal nerd from that one time he found a starfish on the beach and was so interested in it, he went home and researched starfish for as longs as he could. (i made a post ab this headcanon)

Ochako would really like walruses, like you. If she could, she'd buy all the walrus plushies she could. She also likes manatees (some people call them sea cows..idk either)

Tokoyami would be very into eels. He has a sword in his room with an eel engraved onto it