#ambiguous amphibian

[bursting-at-the-memes]

Ambiguous Amphibian Quotes: Sentence Starters

(change pronouns as needed)

"The other people around here have other, maybe better items." "There's nothing to fear, you have all of the weapons." "There's everything to fear, but just ignore it." "For now, let's go prone on the ground." "Fortunately, as a single man, I am very difficult to detect." "No one saw that. No one saw that. Just ignore that." "I wasn't there when it happened, so therefore it didn't happen." "Look, everyone. Look at how amazing and skilled I am." "It's totally fine, I'll just recover from being shot." "Nothing to see here. I am but an unsuspecting bush." "Bush or not, here I come." "I am a reformed individual." "Why would they leave so many explosives so close together?" "Oh look, everything's burning." "I'm not here. I didn't do that." "Nothing can stop you!" "Everything can stop you, but just ignore that." "No one would expect a grenade to come out of the river!" "Come no closer or be exploded!" "They may have more vehicles, but I have their vehicles." "Okay, I may be out of grenades, but I'm not out of a good attitude." "Well he, he wasn't a hero, but, nevermind. He's just a memory now." "No water means no water." "It seems grotesque...because it is grotesque." "But first, a word from our sponser: Me!" "You just might waste the rest of your life if you don't buy one of these things!" "We can get booped right on the snoot." "I used the technique of guarding a piece of lettuce as bait." "I spent four hours guarding lettuce." "All this as I desperately tried to eat my friends." "I spent hours getting bonked." "I'll see you in therapy." "It was a slaughter. That is to say: we were slaughtered."

[owlyspirit]

Did not expect to see Wilbur on the new AA video lmao

[armagtm]

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[justadumbasskid]

I first got interested in Rimworld by watching Ambiguous Amphibian's videos on the game. I always thought to myself while watching "There are so many readouts and menus with configurable options, how can anyone understand this?" Though 1.3k hours of Rimworld later it's really not that bad once you get into it.

Everytime i show rimworld to a friend they feel like i'm playing the most complex, nerdiest game to ever exist. And i honestly can't blame them when the game does looks like an excel worksheet

[headdunk]

reading thoreau because my favorite frog on youtube recommended his stuff & it was on gutenberg and hoo nelly this son of a bitch loves to walk

[thankskenpenders]

I saw some talk on twitter about there being a trans character in the Lara-Su Chronicles, but didn't see this mentioned in your post, so is this really true or just a rumour? I'm trans and just like to see more trans characters in ANYTHING

Believe me when I say you do not want trans rep from Penders lmao. Please love yourself

Anyway: Ken loves to pat himself on the back on Twitter for planning to put Representation in his stories, but it's really just an ego thing for him. It makes him feel important and progressive. None of it is actually present on the page in TLSC: Beginnings despite his many declarations of how progressive these books will be.

For example, he made a big deal out of the fact that Espio's daughter Salma is autistic now and how big of a deal that is for autistic Sonic fans everywhere, but she's not actually in either of the stories here. She is on the endpaper illustration if you want to look at her godawful new design, though!

He's also spent years making a big deal out of the fact that Rotor/"The Emissary" and Cobar were supposed to be a gay couple in M25YL and how that really broke new ground for comics etc. etc., but in this book all that really results in is a single panel of the Emissary holding Cobar and going "Goddess, don't let him die on me."

And, yes, Ken did, in fact, announce on Twitter some time ago that he plans on including a trans character in The Lara-Su Chronicles. It's apparently even a character we've already met, though whether this means he's retconning a returning Archie Sonic character to be trans or it's one of the new characters is still up in the air. It's presumably an echidna based on Ken's statements about how in the new universe "Echyd'nya" society is so totally progressive and they're "not hung up on gender identity the way humans are" and transitioning is "as common as the air 1 breathes," even going as far as implying that they can spontaneously change sex like amphibians. And yet at the same time this character being trans is a secret in-universe "for reasons that will rock someone’s world."

Exactly none of this is conveyed in any way, shape, or form in the book we got.

I don't really know who the trans character is supposed to be, honestly. My first guess was Dr. Zephyr/Zephur, because their design is slightly gender ambiguous, no one every refers to them with pronouns, and they have no data file to clarify their gender. But no, it can't be them if it's supposed to be an Echyd'nya, and also Zephyr/Zephur is probably just a guy because if they were a woman Ken would've given them an hourglass figure. Maybe... Remington? Given all the shit about his unknown origins, is the Big Twist supposed to be that he was DFAB? I don't know. I just know that, whatever it is, if the story containing the reveal of who the token trans character is even gets published, it's not going to be good.

[agalychnisspranneusroseus]

Got any trans HCs for the amphibia trio? I love the many different interpretations I've seen from this fandom

I don't know about specific headcanons, I know I'm considering making Anne trans in RiAAU but I haven't decided yet.

In one hand: it would be interesting to think how she deals with her first periods because, well, amphibians don't have those, and Hop Pop assumes she's dying (she doesn't tell anyone else because she's so embarrassed). Not that he tells her that, but it really freaks him out. He thinks she has some sort of internal damage, and it's only after months of research that he finds out about some rare mammalian species, such as a few monkeys and rodents, that experience the same cycle Anne goes through. The whole point of this is that it makes Anne feel even more out-of-place. She doesn't remember her world or her parents, only that she came from "somewhere" (possibly another continent) full of people of her species, and she wonders if things would have been easier if she grew up with her biological family. I mean, surely this would be easier. It just serves as a reminder that she knows nothing about her species, not even its name, and she has no idea of how her biology works or what is good and bad for her or how long she'll live or what changes she'll go through.

.

BUT, on the other hand: Trans Anne. Let's start with the obvious: amphibians don't have penises or vaginas and they reproduce externally, meaning they like... release eggs and sperm in the water and they mix without the involvement of either parent, meaning no one knows what the cultural significance of a "penis" or a "vagina" tends to be in most human cultures. As a literaly 3yo, Anne probably didn't have an extensive understanding of s.ex and gender, and it wasn't like the clothes she showed up with told Hop Pop much. She just knew that, as time went on, she found herself relating more and more to the female frogs of Wartwood, and she almost subconsciously began to refer to herself as a girl. There wasn't any big coming out moment, more like a point in which, after months of ambiguity (this kid kept using different pronouns for herself) she just settled on some good ol' she/her and began picking somewhat girly clothes when Hop Pop took her to the market.

It's not like the concept of trans people doesn't exist in Amphibia, it's just that Anne didn't realize that was her situation until, at least, meeting Marcy, and noticing the differences between them. It's not like either of them had ever seen another human from up close, so they didn't know what to expect anyway. Anne's only encounters with Sasha beforehand had consisted on magical girl swordfighting in the sky and whatnot. Certainly not enough to discuss their unique biology, which is something Marcy is very excited to discuss, since she's never met anyone with her same "condition" before, and she wants to know everything, so she uses her as her little rat lab whenever she has the chance. Even then, since she also lacks all knowledge of human s.exual dimorphism and its cultural implications, she doesn't associate anything about either of their bodies to any specific gender that could possibly be asigned to anyone based on biological feautures. Since Sasha remembers the most from Earth, she's probably the only one who could maybe possibly remeber her mom or the kindergarden teacher saying something about "the difference between boys and girls", but by the point she's in speaking terms with Anne, and by the time she realizes their bodies are different, she doesn't really care.

That's not to say Anne doesn't experience dysphoria or that she never undergoes any kind of physical transition. It was probably around the time her voice started to change during puberty that she realized her case may be kinda unique: neither Marcy nor Sasha's voices have changed that much, she can tell even though she only sees Marcy in person like once every 3 years and all the words she exchanges with Sasha consist of death threats and insults. Plus, there's a clear difference between """male""" and """female""" voiced in frogs too. She doesn't want to sound like a man! She doesn't want to be anything like a man! Men are gross! Sorry Sprig, Hop Pop, but it's true. Men are icky icky yuck yuck and Anne is a girly girl. She doesn't want to turn into Stumpy! Or Buff Loggle! Oh, no, is that her future? She commits the triple mistake of 1) sending a letter to Marcy that same day, 2) knocking on Maddies' door promising her firstborn if she can save her from turning into Stumpy, and 3) she becomes obsessed researching mammalian biology in the archives. Bad decision. Bad bad. She's discovering things to feel dysphoric about she never even knew existed! Did you know mammalian mothers feed their offsprings with "milk" that comes from their "mammary glands"? Did Sasha and Marcy have those? She hates herself a little for checking out Marcy next time she sees her and she realizes that, indeed, in the past years she's grown a pair of those that Anne does NOT have. She notes that both she and Sasha are pretty much hairless. She used to think hair was a normal mammalian trait! That weasel that tries to eat the frogs every winter sure is covered in it!

Maddie shows up to her door with a bunch of new spells to try out, happy to have a willing subject. Most embarrassingly, Marcy starts doing her own research as soon as she gets Anne's letter and sends her all her discoveries, and now Anne feels mortified because Marcy knows about all the bad bad very bad changes she's going through (Marcy, for her part, is just fascinated by the nature of their "condition").

It takes a bit, but after a few very frenzied weeks, Anne comes to understad what's going on: her species had certain level of sexual dimorphism and she just happened to have been born with the supposed "sex" usually associated with "men" as a social category. When Hop Pop finds out, he burst into laughter. Oh, it was THAT all along! Anne made it sound so complicated, but it was just the same things he went through when he was younger, just the other way around ("Say what now Hop Pop?")! A few curses here and there and she won't have to worry about these so called "mammary glands" and "hair" anymore, though in the meantime, as Maddie perfects a human-friendly curse, she gets turned into all sort of different creatures. By the time it's done, she just wants to feel like... herself.

It's true that there are some things about her body that make her feel weird, like they don't quite fit in, but there are others she only worries about because she compared herself to Sasha and Marcy, which wasn't fair to anyone involved. Did she really want to fundamentally change parts of her body because of insecurities she developed last week over a book about lemurs? Then, a second set of fears come in: what will happen when she goes back to her place of origin? Because she does want to find her birth family. Will they recognize her, if they're looking for a boy? Will they think she's lying if she claims to be their daughter? If she changes only a few things but doesn't "go all the way", will people there think she's a freak? Will she ever be able to fit in with those of her species?

Does she really care so much about what other people think? She just wants to be herself. Some of the changes she's been going through are making her feel less like herself and more like she's being turned into a tax collector from Toad Tower. Those things have to go - her voice, for example. And she wants a more femenine silhouette (she may or may not show Maddie photos of young Mrs. Croaker as a reference). She wants a softer face. She's seeing her face changing in the mirror and she doesn't like it. She wants it to stay round and soft, not to grow hard and sharp or big and rough. She's not so sure she wants those "mammary glands". It's not like she ever thought about having kids, and the whole "breastfeeding" thing just seems gross, but after her research, and finding out she could have kids with, I don't know, maybe Marcy one day (a thought that makes her blush), she thinks it may be a good idea. She'll consider it. Maybe later. Her genitalia... well, she's used to what she has now. It already took her like 10 years to fully figure out what it was and how it worked and starting over with a whole new set just feels like too much work (also, the babies, the potential babies with Marcy). Frogs and toads have neither "penises" or "vaginas" so there's not a lot of information, and based on books about lemurs and her own empirical experience, comparing herself to other mammalian species isn't too useful. She'll leave it the way it is. She'll see if there's anything else she wants to change later, or if she wants to go back on something.

Marcy is surprised next time Anne visits Newtopia. In her letters, she described this strange transformation in excruciating detail, but seeing her in person now, holding her face in her hands, all she sees is the same Anne she's always loved.

A few more ideas:

HEADCANON: in Amphibia, two people of the same "s.ex" can reproduce through magic, which means there has to be a concious effort and intent. The external fertilization process there's no such thing as a pregnancy, and there's no such thing as s.ex. All reproduction is intentional, which means there's no need for abortion either. There are processes to destroy fertilized eggs and embryos, but they look completely different from human abortions.

Amphibians may perform acts resembling s.ex for pleasure or fun but they look different from human s.ex and have no relation to reproduction.

Andrias is the only person in Amphibia who knows enough about humans to know how they reproduce (a process he finds repulsive). He never tells Marcy, of course, though once she becomes queen, she finds his secret library and his hidden tomes on "alien biology", some of which talk about humans. He's also the only one who knows humans can have children on accident, and that Anne is the only human in Amphibia who could cause something like that to happen (he reads all of Marcy's correspondence). He knows his daughter is very close to this weird farm girl penpal of hers, and even though she's still a child, he worries for her future and the future of the crown. This new discovery could land the crown in the hands of a dynasty of aliens if he's not careful. Is it weird that he spends so much time worrying about his 12yo daughter getting pregnant from another 12yo? Yes, yes it is, but he already controls every aspect of her life, it's not like he's going to stop at her sexuality, future, real, or imaginary.

Man now that I wrote it all down, I think this option is more compelling than the first. Maybe I WILL go with this one.

[isbergillustration]

A bunch of 5 min animal studies from the @weekendsketchers non-stream. Featuring such models as bird (living), fish (living), mammal (living), and amphibian (ambiguous).

[bishacollins]

I hereby want to announce that i will be running for president in 2024 to become the first ambiguous amphibian ambivert bisexual president of the United States of America. Please vote for me I am the lesser evil. Also I might make Destiel canon. again.

[alhaithamaskblog]

The song is called “Unwritten” by natasha bedingfield.

some other stupid lyrics i just noticed while searching up the song:

“Reaching for something in the distance / So close you can almost taste it” - HOW CAN YOU TASTE SOMETHING IF YOU’RE REACHING FOR IT. IS SHE AN AMPHIBIAN? CAN SHE TASTE STUFF THROUGH HER FINGERS?

“Feel the rain on your skin / No one else can feel it for you / Only you can let it in” - IF YOU ASKED SOMEONE ‘oh hey yeah can u just really quickly poke ur arm outside and feel if its raining’ AND THEY SAID ‘oh yeah, lemme check… oh yeah, it’s raining.’ THEN THEY JUST FELT THE RAIN FOR YOU. ALSO, YOU COULD EASILY ASK SOMEONE TO OPEN A WINDOW FOR U AND THAT WOULD LET THE RAIN FRWAKING IN.

“Drench yourself in words unspoken” - words are not liquid. and how can you DRENCH yourself in something that doesn’t even exist yet? since they’re ’UNSPOKEN.’ i don’t even understand how what this is in metaphorical terms?? what if plans for mass genocide r unspoken???? U GONNA DRENCH URSELF IN THAT?

AND ITS JUST THAT CHORUS REPEATED ABOUT 5 TIMES. THERES LIKE ONE OTHER VERSE. WHAT THE HECH.

(i’m sorry, i’m very passionate about these types of things.)

Given I listen to music often I am struggling to understand your frustration with the ambiguity of the lyrics. It’s an art form, it’s alright if the wordplay is not your cup of tea but personally I can see where the artist was coming from. But maybe that’s only because I’ve been hanging out with an artist for most of my life.

[dingodad]

your recent post about the homestuck fandom wanting the characters to remain perfectly ambiguous so they wouldn't trample anyone's headcanons reminded me of "taako mcelroy changes his skin colour every day" and i had a bit of a chuckle about it. so thanks for that

i had really almost forgotten that... homestuck fandom truly crawled out of the sea like amphibians so dungeons and dragons podcast enjoyers could spread their primitive wings and take to the skies

[irrfahrer]

Character Tropes: Ziv Odiz’Zee

Just a few of tropes from tvtropes. They are (hopefully) linked correctly if you want to read up on them. Feel free to add more!

Tagged By: The Force     Tagging: @sithisms  @mando-of-esverr @lighthouseborn @peacefaithed @strongfuck  @starfaithed  @talesgolden  @retrocognizantrecreant @cnlyluck @onehell-of-apilot  @space-hecate @asycuwish @skyler-bane @apexulansis @survivorsofthegalaxy @bewitchingbaker @hopexncarnate   @beskar-himbo   @ofthestcrs @honorhunt  @lady-proudmoore  @savior-of-humanity   @stillfocvsed   @gildedcommander @fallesto @outcaststar @jedilovcd @poewingsdameron @cardinal-carvings    @smertzimy @visceratorn @infernusfuror @inkedstone @kyberllcore  @cfmartyrs  @general-kalani  @luminousxbeings  @thaneirstaer @fleetadmrl   @gwiazdowe @lvkexskywvlker   @ariadne-inthesky   @archaeotech @sxbaist @lightfaithed @trueheartofarebel  @protectxthem    @hunters-house   @envychosen @masterofthelivingforce   @startrailed @bladelancer     @wartornpilot @hosnianleft   @sithdestined     @safrona-shadowsun  @stubborn-amphibian   @ncxile  @skywlkrr  @jedixamidala @chromium-siren @aetcrnus   @bountyborn  @memcriaes @2sabers @thrawnur @creaticn @thestupidmeanone @fatewills…and everyone else who blinked today!            

Asskicking Equals Authority / Deadpan Snarker / Bifauxnen /  Glass Cannon /  Loveable Rogue / The Gunslinger /   The Cynic /  Ace Pilot /   The Sneaky Guy /  Mama Bear / Respected by the Respected / Cut a Slice, Take the Rest /  Rebellious Spirit /  Half-Human Hybrid / Achilles’ Heel / Nigh-Invulnerability / Seen It All /Soul Jar / Kryptonite Factor / Involuntary Shapeshifter / Voluntary Shapeshifting / Living Lie Detector / Kaleidoscope /  Villainous Friendship / Meaningful Name /  Good is not soft / The Gadfly / Eyes / Asshole Victim / Anti-Hero / They're Called "Personal Issues" for a Reason / Dark Secret / Sour Supporter / Ideal Hero / Kill All Humans /  Break the Cutie  /  Familiar / Stronger than they look  / The Exile / Organic Technology / Older Than Dirt / Ridiculously Human Robots / Self-Made Man / The Medic / Become a Real Boy / The Beastmaster / Zen survivor / Cynical Mentor / Albinos Are Freaks / Ambiguous Robots / Even Evil Has Loved Ones / Weakened by the Light / Magical Eye(s) / Tall, Dark, and Snarky / Magic Music / Lady of War / The Mole / Expressive Hair / Walking Wasteland / The Heart / Spoiled Sweet / The Stoic / Bad Powers, Good People /  Archnemesis Dad / Battle Ballgown / Villain Protagonist / Shonen Hair / Cute Bruiser / Cheerful Child / Rapunzel Hair / Green Thumb / Caring Gardener / White and Red and Eerie All Over / Dark Action Girl / Mind Virus / Theme Music Power-Up / Training from Hell / Epiphany Therapy / Self-Made Orphan / Rich Bitch / Aloof Big Brother / Stalker with a Crush / Power Tattoo / Driven by Envy / Always Second Best / I Lied /  Medicate the Medium /  Big Brother Instinct / Fake Memories* / Shell-Shocked Veteran / Survivor Guilt / Jerk with a Heart of Gold / Noble Demon / Alcohol-Induced Idiocy / The Power of Love / The Love Slap of Epiphany / Fantastic Racism / Fertile Feet / the Quiet Big Guy / The Power of Friendship / Good Thing You Can Heal / I Just Want To Be Normal / The Power of Hate /  The Paladin /  Mind over Matter / All powerful Bystander / Remember That You Trust Me / Dark Is Not Evil / Lovable Alpha Bitch / Split Personality Takeover / Dying Alone / Cursed / Heroic Sacrifice / Loners Are Freaks / Go Mad from the Isolation / NEET / Do Not Taunt Cthulhu / Curb-Stomp Battle /  There Are No Therapists / Cry for the Devil / Cradle of Loneliness / Psychic Powers / Desperately Craves Affection / Expressive Ears  / Hates Being Touched / Because You Were Nice to Me / No Sense of Personal Space / Et Tu, Brute? / Go Out with a Smile / Artificial Limbs / Super Senses / Badass Adorable / Apocalypse Maiden / Enemy Within / Badass / Old Soldier / Warrior Monk / Freakiness Shame / Abusive Parents / Defied Trope / Fluffy Tamer / Born Unlucky / Nightmare Fetishist / Too Kinky to Torture / Bad Dreams / Talking in Your Sleep / Death Seeker /  Even Evil Has Standards /  The Dreaded / All of the Other Reindeer / Heroes Prefer Swords / One-Man Army / Lightning Bruiser / Sanity Slippage / Roaring Rampage of Revenge / White Hair, Black Heart / Light Is Not Good / Unstoppable Rage / Too Clever by Half / Younger Than They Look / Older Than They Look / Well-Intentioned Extremist / Smug Super / When She Smiles / Bad Powers, Good People / Big Brother (Sister) Worship / The Virus / Emotionless Girl / 100% Adoration Rating / 0% Approval Rating / Magical Girl / Laughing Mad / My God, What Have I Done? / Sickeningly Sweethearts / Ill Girl /  Contralto of Danger / Bandage Babe / Too Good for This Sinful Earth / Brilliant, but Lazy / Motor Mouth / Beauty Mark / Psychopathic Manchild / Voice of the Legion / Mad Scientist / Our Zombies Are Different / Glowing Eyelights of Undeath / You Wouldn't Like Me When I'm Angry / Nature Lover / A-Cup Angst / The Hedonist / Big Breast Pride / Absolute Cleavage / Blue Blood / The Tease / Cold-Blooded Torture / Cosmic Plaything / Jerkass Woobie / Anime Hair / Good Scars, Evil Scars / Unscrupulous Hero / The Snark Knight / Pragmatic Hero / Token Evil Teammate / Evil is Deathly Cold / The Necromancer / Magic Knight / The Kingslayer / Badass Longcoat / Casting a Shadow / Troubled, But Cute / Used to be a Sweet Kid / From Nobody to Nightmare / Consummate Liar / Control Freak / Badass Bookworm / Affably Evil / Bastard Angst / Functional Addict / Jack-of-All-Trades / Combat Pragmatist /

*Fake Memories: Not a especially big part of Zivs character, but the highly forcesensetive Murakami Orchids are telepathically connected and so are their memories. The Sickness and its follow up The Blackwing Virus are nothing but the corrupted councious of one of the Murakami Orchids and sucked up the memories of everyone infected (and slowly lets their infected have more and more skills of what had ben collected in thismemory pool). As Darth Drear and Darth Scabrous were both infected by The SIckness, it had soaked up their memories too and this memories were shared telepathically with other Murakami Orchids, including eventually Zivs Murakami 4000 years later. As the Murakami roams through Zivs memories and the pool of memories of other Orchids to learn, Ziv will find herself going through memories of the two Darths in her dreams. It does not help her in anything but having very horrible dreams, beside beeing able to read Darth Scabrous handwriting and having a rough plan of the Academy on Odacer Faustin in her mind. Ziv is obviously not epsecially happy about this. She does not like the idea that her Life is influenced by people who had died fourthausand years before her birth.

[elemental-drag0n]

Pinned post time :)

Im elemental-dragon he/him

6'1" pansexual. I have ADHD and dysgraphia.

Tags:

Dysgraphia is a mental disorder simmaler to dyslexia the diffrence being it applys to writing not reading.

Im mostly going to be posting TF2, memes, art, and random little things here.

Some of my favorite media is: TF2, Tally-hall, house of leaves, shane frost(mostly his SFW stuff), DND, wendigoon, tom ska, the octopus lady, super eyepatch wolf, spaceboy, soundsmith, shane mcgilicutty, strange aeons, sam o nella, patrisa taxxon, mini muinite man, michel reeves, lazy purple, ilyx, ilikecheese, i did a thing, hugbees, gus johnson, graeldon, elmaxo, drew gooden, dragoon, doug doug, don hertzfelt, dingo doodles, david achu, danny gonzoles, coonor creates, code bullet, chucklle sandeitch,chrbrg, charborg, cpg grey, captian sauce, bog boy, bill wurtz, baraby dixon, athena p, ambiguous amphibian, alex bale.

Art: My art

[violettesiren]

Our eyes bend what they cannot see. The end of deepest winter.

I suspect things are growing again. After sleeping soundly for centuries, muddy buds are pushing into the crunch of air.

Will we miss the deep freeze? The sound of snow falling on snow?

Many days I start off as you and end leagues away.

Is it my ambiguous skin? Not human, not amphibian, not fowl, not insect, but mammal.

And what of the cyber creatures?

Of the people, we say. A casing as bright as a beetle of yore. What it means to never be alone again.

Imagine the ancient scientists in their white coats standing forever with hands behind their backs. Heads bowed in prayer or punishment. Either way, we’re their splayed creation myth—hubris or bridge.

A whole planet of things to restore or discard, swirling in currents, washing up into caves.

All day, I waited for the light to hit just so. Rib bones, aluminum, rebar. Waited for a sign—what to do with this inheritance.

Did we ask for such patience, such flight?

All day, I watched the flowers turn their new faces to the old sun. That’s devotion. Or maybe instinct. Have we learned the difference?

The sex of flowers undoes me. Such delicate anatomy.

I want to be fingers not folded but crane. I want to be salt to your kingdom. I will be bird to your wire.

Birds of a Feather by Tamiko Beyer

[thriftstoreiconofthevirginmary]

some thoughts

every time I see a clip of mingi or changbin, as a fellow leo I just feel this deep spiritual connection to them. mingi isn’t even my bias in ateez, but I still feel this kinship with an absolute stranger as if it is a fact. do I know anything about who either mingi or changbin actually are as people? personally, no. and I don’t especially want to know, either – I prefer my celebrities at arm’s length and am more than okay consuming the content that they already put out. am I aware that a lot of content put out in a kpop space is likely heavily edited, that there is a vested interest in building and maintaining each of these men as a brand (separate from and as a part of their respective groups)? well, yes. duh. I wasn’t born yesterday. am I aware that astrology is for the most part a pseudoscience, in which I am not especially well-versed? yes, I am.

that being said. when I was in undergrad, I took this philosophy class. (am I aware that I only took 3 philosophy classes over the course of my degree, several years ago? yes! I would never purport to be an expert but by god I love to think about things, and certain little things just stick in the brain forever. like the 3-octive chromatic scale on the clarinet and the fact that amphibians have 3-chamber hearts. but I digress that has nothing to do with the subject at hand.) now, this was an intro course on philosophy, so we basically did a speedrun thru everything. two main things stuck with me.

one is the platonic idea of the perfect form (or is it might be socrates - I always confuse those two). there are two versions of this idea (or at least two versions that I remember) and the first version puts forth that there is, somewhere out there, this one, true perfect version of a thing. like, even if it’s just an idea, there is somewhere out there the most perfect tree, or shoe, against which all other versions of shoes or trees can be measured. the second version puts forth that for each individual tree or shoe or whatever, there is a ‘truest’ most perfect version. so, there is a truest or most perfect version of your favorite adidas tennis shoe or the beech tree in front of your apartment complex, right? the adidas shoe and the beech tree can be measured against that most ideal or perfect version of itself.

(I might be messing this up quite a bit, so my apologies. hopefully you still get my point.)

now, skip forward quite a bit. there was this guy named heidigger, (and it is hard to emphasize just how shitty this dude was, as an essential aside). his goal was to figure out the essence of things, or how we can define and recognize what something actually is, its being. I tried to work thru this idea in my final paper for that class…what makes a thing what it is? for example, how would the essence or being of a piece of art be defined? does the artist define the quote unquote soul of their art? does the collective audience decide (is the collective audience the contemporary audience, or the audience of the time the piece of art was made)? does the physical material out of which the piece is made up, the paint and wood and canvas, comprise the essence of the piece? does its location? its history? these are not new suppositions at all, people have been thinking and writing about this stuff for literally ever. but what is it? the most obvious answer might be that all of those things make that piece of art what it is. they all conspire to make up the ‘essence’ of that thing. but if that is true, then the essence is still unnamable, right? no one can point to what ‘it’ is. it exists, but it is pretty much impossible to reference directly. what ‘it’ is, is fluid, and ambiguous, ineffable. the spirit of the thing, its ‘self’ is too big to actually nail down. and that’s sort of the point, isn’t it? that’s what makes you feel something, when you look at it. the way your being interacts with the being of the piece of art helps to make it what it is, and maybe vice versa.

but I hold that this is true of pretty much everything. every object has an essence. the adidas shoe. the beech tree. your old elementary school. Rush by troye sivan. Actual Rush. That poem about the plum and the ice box.

does this apply to people, then? I think it can. that moves you into realms of psychology and sociology, into theories of human behavior. (the self in isolation and the self in observation – which is more true? the self you believe and feel yourself to be, or the self that other people perceive? is it your hobbies, your interests, the clothes that you wear, your friends, your past, the way you treat animals, the shift in your posture when a camera points in your direction? your desire to do better – or not? your brain chemistry?) can the self (or the ‘essence’) of who you are be truly perceived and known, by yourself or by those around you? by strangers?

to get lofty about it, I don’t think the essence of anyone’s selfhood can be legitimately named or defined, in either the macro or the micro. The ‘essence’ of the self is fluid, ambiguous, it has too many moving parts. the essence exists. the effort to define it, or to figure it out, or to just get closer to ‘it’, is basically what every philosopher ever was or is trying to do, and also the point of every coming of age movie, the cringe poetry you wrote in your tenth grade diary, that brief exploration with bangs. it’s just life.

that is to say, the effort is noble, maybe even essential, but there is a reason so many of those movies end with the conclusion that there is no end to that exploration. hopefully (not to get too saccharine) that is an effort that continues thru the course of your life, despite the difficulty of that effort and the impossibility of the systems and frameworks to which we’re all subjected.

to circle back to astrology, and my eventual point, even though astrology is a pseudoscience (how do we even define science? not to get into it or anything, but psychology and sociology have been defined supposedly as soft-sciences, whatever that means, and science as a system is an effort at explanation, to help define or discover the borders of what is…science leaves space for the unexplainable, the unprovable, that which lies beyond ‘rational’ explanation, again I digress) it still serves a purpose. it provides structure, it’s fun, it helps people explore the intricacies of their own nature and how they relate to others. it has its limits and its flaws but so does quote unquote actual science, and religion, etcetera.

in this case, my sun sign happens to match both changbin’s and mingi’s. (changbin’s birthday is actually very close to my own, which is my most fun fact atm). why on earth do I think this dubious shared attribute gives me any sort of insight into the spirits of two Korean men far more talented than I am who have no idea (thank GOD) that I exist?

I like to think of myself as a reasonable person, so I don’t think I possess any sort of special insight, really, into myself or anybody else. I am, after all, just some guy. that being said, I do think all human beings on some level share the experience, however brief and rare, of glimpsing the ‘essence’ of other people’s spirits. it is a moment of kinship or instant connection with another person, even if that person is a stranger, the realization that you and this other person share that essential, unnamable trait which makes us human (macro) and which makes them human (micro). c.s. lewis defined this glimpse of the true thing as joy. lots of people have lots of different names for it. it’s the moment you’re driving someplace with the windows down and you look over at your best friend in the passenger seat with her hair in the wind, and you just get it. that moment you see the purchases of the person ahead of you stacked on the conveyer belt at the grocery store, (tampons, cake mix, laundry detergent) and just fundamentally understand.

celebrity is kind of a beast. there is a lot to be said of it, and a lot has been said of it, and just like everything else I’ve said here, I don’t think I necessarily anything new to add to the zeitgeist. in my pov, the saddest part of celebrity is the way it alienates people from other people. this goes in both directions: the way it encourages and rewards people to look at other people thru a microscope. to view other people, once they have reached a certain arbitrary status, as ideas or concepts rather than human beings. then, of course, the other direction: wealth and status can isolate celebrities from the lived experience of other human beings. spend long enough being famous enough and rich enough, despite individual intention or desire, and most of the human experience can become as abstract a concept to that person as celebrity is to everyone else. (note the use of ‘can’ here – this is a very basic distillation of a huge and complex phenomenon, and it is not universally applicable, because nothing is universally applicable)

so, I think it is sort of cool that these brief flashes of essential understanding can still happen despite the existence of the massive framework of celebrity. for me, astrology served as the catalyst of this flash. for both changbin and mingi, there is this contrast between confident, badass onstage personas and softer, often goofier moments caught more candidly on camera. an invulnerable larger than life person, and the gentler far more vulnerable (maybe even tender) person that exists behind or within that bigger person.

like I was saying before, the essence of the self is fluid. those two aspects of the self, they exist because of one another, they interact with one another. now again I don’t know these people at all. this may – in fact, statistically, it likely is – just a projection. the fraction of their lives these two individuals share with their audience is just a small part of the whole. and the self is infinite, in its way. we know this. however, being privy to this small part of their lives allowed me in turn to access a revelation about my own life. if it was in fact projection, it still helped me learn something true about myself, even if it was through a slightly staged vlog and a TikTok edit of a man rapping his heart out on stage in a pair of dark-tint sunglasses.

those flashes of clarity come from somewhere. they are just as true as anything else, pointing us toward the essence of things (or of other people). even if that essence can’t truly be captured or named, it can be felt. that’s a pretty irreplaceable part of the human experience. anyway. that was my thought of the day.

[pokeherps]

accepted species list

our accepted species list was created because of the ambiguity of pokémon classification and variation in what is considered reptilian and amphibian. we restrict our intake to these species because our expertise is in those areas only and we want to give the best care possible to our pokémon.

notes:

if not all of an evolutionary line is considered reptilian or amphibian but part of it is, then all of that evolutionary line is accepted regardless of the individual species classification.

In a branching evolutionary line, only the branch that contains the reptilian or amphibian pokémon is accepted (eg vaporeon and eevee are accepted, but leafeon is not).

all dragon types are accepted regardless of individual species classification. if part of an evolutionary line has the dragon typing then the whole evolutionary line is accepted.

if you have a species that is not on the list but could conceivably fall under either the reptilian or amphibian category, send an ask/dm and we will look at it on a case by case basis.

pokémon species we accept:

Charmander / Charmeleon / Charizard

Squirtle / Wartortle / Blastoise

Ekans / Arbok

Poliwag / Poliwhirl / Poliwrath / Politoed

Slowpoke / Slowbro / Slowking

Onix / Steelix

Exeggute (Alolan) / Exeggutor (Alolan)

Horsea / Seadra / Kingdra

Magikarp / Gyarados

Lapras

Eevee / Vaporeon

Dratini / Dragonair / Dragonite

Totodile / Croconaw / Feraligatr

Wooper / Quagsire / Clodsire

Shuckle

Treecko / Grovyle / Sceptile

Mudkip / Marshtomp / Swampert

Lotad / Lombre / Ludicolo

Torkoal

Trapinch / Vibrava / Flygon

Swablu / Altaria

Seviper

Feebas / Milotic

Keckleon

Bagon / Shelgon / Salamence

Turtwig / Grotle / Torterra

Gible / Gabite / Garchomp

Croagunk / Toxicroak

Snivy / Service / Serperior

Tympole / Palpitoad / Seismitoad

Sandile / Krokorok / Krookodile

Scraggy / Scrafty

Tirtouga / Carracosta

Axew / Fraxure / Haxorus

Druddigon

Deino / Zweilous / Hydreigon

Froakie / Frogadier / Greninja

Skrelp / Dragalge

Helioptile / Heliolisk

Goomy / Sliggoo / Goodra

Noibat / Noivern

Salandit / Salazzle

Turtonator

Drampa

Jangmo-o / Hakamo-o / Kommo-o

Sobble / Drizzile/ Inteleon

Chewtle / Dreadnaw

Applin / Flapple / Appletun

Silicobra / Sandaconda

Toxel / Toxtricity

Dracozolt / Dracovish

Duraludon

Dreepy / Drakloak / Dragapult

Fuecoco / Crocalor / Skeledirge

Tadbulb / Bellibolt

Cyclizar

Frigibax / Arctibax / Baxcalibur

Restricted species we will accept (but literally how did you get it in the first place):

Rayquaza

Latias

Latios

Dialga

Palkia

Giratina

Reshiram

Zekrom

Kyurem

Zygarde

Type:Null / Silvally

Guzzlord

Naganadel

Eternatus

Regidrago

Koraidon

Miraidon