#and several elongated limbs

[indiestsnake]

uh. I’ve already posted this. but that was when like 6 ppl knew of my existence and im really proud of it so

content warning, minor body horror. no gore, just something with a few too many limbs

this is my bird do u like him

he is in moderate to severe pain but he is living just like the rest of us

[gobingirl]

Meeting the JL fit

So it’s been said before that Danny would have an eldritch horror form. But what if there different stages he could morph into just for the intimidation factor?

Like imagine he’s trying to make a good impression on the JL but he wants them to take him seriously as a hero. So he’s just in his room shifting from one form to another and everything in between trying to decide what would say ‘friendly but not to be trifled with’ and not ‘shit your pants’. It’s like watching a girl trying to decide what to wear on a first date.

He pulls Jazz into his room to help him decide:

“Just be yourself!”

“But all of these is some form of myself!”

“That’s not what I meant.”

“How about this one?”

And he shrinks from whatever wendigo form looking thing he was a moment ago into his normal Phantom look. But then he lets his claws extend, his hair grows longer to drape around his face dramatically, and several extra eyes pop up over his face and neck. His limbs grow long and his teeth sharpen and elongate to poke out from behind his pale lips.

Jazz just sits there for a moment in silence, looking a little pale herself. Then shakes her head.

“Tone it down just a little.”

He reduces the look to lessen the effect but it’s still pretty terrifying and bad ass.

And that’s what he settled on to go meet the JL for the first time. When he gets there he forgets to turn off his invisibility and when he remembers he just appears in the meeting hall, I’d imagine that Flash would screech in alarm and run into a wall or something before he introduces himself.

[dougdimmadodo]

Italian Three-Toed Skink (Chalcides chalcides)

Family: Skink Family (Scincidae)

IUCN Conservation Status: Least Concern

Like several other species of lizard, the Italian Three-Toed Skink has adapted to move through areas covered with dense vegetation by developing an elongated, flexible, snake-like body with highly regressed limbs, although unlike many other "snake-like lizards" members of this species still possess four tiny limbs, each ending in a stumpy three-toed foot. Said limbs are far too small to support the skink's weight and serve no role in movement (which is achieved through an elegant snake-like slithering motion,) which has led many to question what purpose, if any, they serve; it is generally assumed that the limbs are vestigial and that, given sufficient time, the descendants of modern Italian Three-Toed Skinks will lose them entirely, although some herpetologists and evolutionary biologists have suggested that the continued existence of this species' limbs suggests that they must serve some function, such as being moved as part of a courtship display or allowing mating individuals to hold onto one another (although as these behaviours have never been observed these suggestions are entirely speculative.) Found in damp, well-vegetated areas across most of mainland Italy as well as Tunisia, Algeria, Libya and the nearby island of Sardinia, members of this species are diurnal, feed mainly on insects and breed during the spring; like most skinks, females of this species give birth to live young, with newborns, which resemble miniature adults, being independent immediately after birth.

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Image Source: https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/53646-Chalcides-chalcides

[literaryvein-reblogs]

Word List: Animals

for your next poem/story (pt. 2)

Accentor - a small Eurasian songbird with generally drab-colored plumage

Brach - a female hound

Culver - a dove or pigeon

Diprotodon - a monotypic genus of Australian Pleistocene herbivorous marsupials related to the kangaroos, resembling a rhinoceros in size, and walking on four legs

Eyas - an unfledged bird, specifically: a nestling hawk

Falanouc - (or Falanaka) a viverrine mammal, Eupleres goudotii, of Madagascar closely related to the Asiatic palm civet

Gerenuk - a large-eyed antelope (Litocranius walleri) of eastern Africa with a long neck and limbs

Huemul - (or Guemal) either of two small South American deer, Hippocamelus bisulcus and H. antisiensis, having simple forked antlers

'I'iwi - Hawaiian honeycreeper (Vestiaria coccinea) with chiefly bright vermilion plumage formerly used in making feather cloaks

Jerboa - any of several social nocturnal jumping rodents (family Dipodidae) of arid parts of Asia and northern Africa having a long tail and long hind legs

Kinkajou - a nocturnal arboreal omnivorous mammal (Potos flavus) found from Mexico to South America that is related to the raccoon and has a long prehensile tail, large eyes, and yellowish brown fur

Leveret - a hare in its first year

Murre - any of a genus (Uria) of black-and-white alcids, especially: a common seabird (U. aalge) of northern seas

Nyala - an antelope (Tragelaphus angasii) of southeastern Africa with vertical white stripes on the sides of the body, a dorsal crest of hair from the neck to the base of the tail, and in the male shaggy black hair along the underside; also: a related antelope (T. buxtoni) of Ethiopia

Olm - an elongated European cave-dwelling aquatic salamander (Proteus anguinus) with permanent external gills and small eyes covered by the skin

Pudu - a small reddish deer (Pudu pudu) of the Chilean Andes having simple antlers resembling spikes and standing only 12 or 13 inches high

Quarrion - cockatiel (i.e., a crested small gray Australian parrot, Nymphicus hollandicus, with a yellow head)

Rorqual - any of a family (Balaenopteridae) of large baleen whales that have relatively small heads, short, broad plates of baleen, and the skin of the throat marked with deep longitudinal furrows and that include the blue whale, humpback whale, minke whale, fin whale, and sei whale

Spatangid - a sea urchin of the suborder Spatangina; heart urchin

Turaco - any of a family (Musophagidae) of typically crested African birds that are related to the cuckoos and have a long tail, a short stout often colored bill, and red wing feathers

Urubu - black vulture (i.e., an American vulture, Coragyps atratus, that is smaller than the turkey buzzard and heavier in flight)

Vicuña - a long-necked mammal (Lama vicugna synonym Vicugna vicugna) of the Andes from Peru to Argentina that is related to but somewhat smaller than the guanaco, has a light brown woolly coat that is paler below, is considered to the be ancestor of the alpaca, and has been historically hunted for its wool and meat

Widgeon - any of several freshwater ducks (genus Mareca)

Xiphosura - an order of arthropods comprising the horseshoe crabs and extinct related forms and usually including only the two recent genera Limulus (synonym Xiphosurus) with representatives along the American coast of the Atlantic and Tachypleus with species along the Asiatic coast of the Pacific

Zokor - a burrowing rodent (Myotalpa aspalax) native to the Altai mountains that resembles a mole rat

More: Word Lists ⚜ Part 1

[tribbetherium]

'Beta-twilight gives way to true night as the dim red sun vanishes below the horizon. In the dying scarlet gleam of its final rays, a number of winged, shadowy figures take to the air: a flock of dingbats. Dingbats, the most basal lineage of ratbats, are nocturnal flyers most convergent with Earth's true bats: clumsy on the ground with sprawled limbs, they prefer to hang from trees or rock cliffsides as they roost. They too have small eyes and poor vision, but compensate with large ears and disc-shaped snouts that allow them to navigate via echolocation, using sound, not sight, to find food and avoid obstacles. Highly succsessful, despite the presence of other diurnal ratbat species as well as wingles and pterodents, the dingbats number several hundred species strong, taking on niches such as insectivores hunting flying bugs in the air, nectar-feeders that feed on blooms that open in nighttime, and fruit-eaters that gorge on fruit and spread the seeds in their droppings.

The pictured species, the long-eared pyramidnose (Noctinyctimys pyramirrhinus) has developed a special relationship with the drooping teadrop (Cadopomus nyctophilus), a unique species of pebblefruit tree whose elongated fruits are dull green, but hang down from its branches well clear of its leaves. These are perfect for attracting its target seed-dispersers, who, being nocturnal, do not locate fruits by color but instead by echolocation, and by being in a clear flight path unobstructed by leaves and having a distinctive shape that registers a unique sonar signal to the dingbats, the tree ensures that its fruit will easily be found and more readily consumed by its partner species that allows it to propagate.'

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[new-dinosaurs]

Kiyacursor longipes Averianov et al., 2024 (new genus and species)

(Type specimen of Kiyacursor longipes, from Averianov et al., 2024)

Meaning of name: Kiyacursor = Kiya River runner [in Latin]; longipes = long foot [in Latin]

Age: Early Cretaceous (Aptian)

Where found: Ilek Formation, Kemerovo Oblast, Russia

How much is known: Partial skeleton of one individual including several vertebrae and limb bones. A partial neck vertebra found at the same site may belong to the same individual.

Notes: Kiyacursor was a ceratosaurian theropod. It resembles the Late Jurassic ceratosaurs Elaphrosaurus of Tanzania and Limusaurus of China in having relatively elongate lower legs and feet, suggesting that it was well adapted for fast running. The type specimen of Kiyacursor is estimated to have been 2.5 m long in total body length, but it probably had not finished growing when it died.

Although ceratosaurs are known from the Late Cretaceous of Europe and especially the Southern Hemisphere, Kiyacursor is the youngest known ceratosaur from Asia. In addition to Kiyacursor, the Ilek Formation has produced fossils of various other animals that are more characteristic of Jurassic ecosystems, including certain types of proto-salamanders, proto-crocodylians, and proto-mammals. This may indicate that what is now Western Siberia acted as a "lost world" for some Jurassic animal groups during the Early Cretaceous.

(Select bones and schematic skeletal of Kiyacursor longipes [scale bar refers only to the skeletal and not to the photographs of bones], from Averianov et al., 2024)

Reference: Averianov, A.O., P.P. Skutschas, A.A. Atuchin, D.A. Slobodin, O.A. Feofanova, and O.N. Vladimirova. 2024. The last ceratosaur of Asia: a new noasaurid from the Early Cretaceous Great Siberian Refugium. Proceedings of the Royal Society B 291: 20240537. doi: 10.1098/rspb.2024.0537

[seniorpollinationtechnician]

Despite their best efforts, the team couldn't locate Jorlan. Every attempt to trace his steps proved futile no matter how many devices they deployed. Then, just as suddenly as he had vanished, Jorlan returned. One evening, as the team gathered for their evening meal, he stumbled into the research station. Everyone rushed to greet him, bombarding him with questions about where he had been and what he had seen. Jorlan, however, remained tight-lipped. They assumed his reluctance to talk stemmed from a traumatic experience and in wanting to respect his privacy, they didn't push for answers. The team tried their best to support Jorlan but found it difficult to do when he began to exhibit strange behaviors. It was subtle at first. He became more reclusive, often avoiding social gatherings and spending long hours in the lab. His normally meticulous work grew erratic with unfinished projects and nonsensical reports. He was frequently lost in thought, his eyes unfocused and distant, as if he were somewhere far away. As days turned into weeks, Jorlan's condition worsened. He started missing routine check-ins and meetings, a stark contrast to his previously punctual nature. When approached, he would brush off concerns with a weak smile, insisting he was fine, but his pallor and the dark circles under his eyes told a different story. Eventually, he fell ill. It began with a persistent cough that quickly escalated into severe fatigue. Jorlan, who once navigated the station with purpose and energy, now moved sluggishly, his steps unsteady. He rarely left his room, and when he did, it was only for brief moments before retreating back into the confines of his quarters. One morning, as the light cast a long shadow across the research station, the ORION team members went about their tasks, unaware that what they'd been harboring for the past few weeks had reached maturity. Jorlan, who had been confined to his room for days, emerged unexpectedly. His appearance was shocking; his skin had taken on a sickly brownish hue, and his eyes, once bright and intelligent, were now clouded and devoid of emotion. He moved with a jerky, unnatural gait, his body seeming to struggle against some internal force. The team gathered around him, alarmed by his sudden appearance and worsening condition. They pleaded with him to return to his room, to let them help him, but Jorlan did not respond. Instead, he let out a guttural, inhuman growl. His body convulsed violently, and before their eyes, he began to change. Vines and tendrils erupted from his skin, tearing through his suit. His limbs elongated and twisted into grotesque shapes, covered in thorny growths. His face distorted and lost all semblance of humanity as it morphed into a gaping, petal-like maw that split open into a star-shaped pattern. With terrifying strength and speed, he lunged at the nearest team member, his thorny appendages slicing through the air. Panic erupted as the team scrambled to defend themselves, but they were no match for the creature Jorlan had become. He moved with deadly precision, his new form imbued with a primal, savage intelligence. The station descended into chaos. Alarms blared, and lights flickered as the team members fought desperately to contain the creature. But he was relentless, his plant-like body impervious to their efforts. One by one, they fell, succumbing to his vicious assault. Amid the carnage, it became clear that Jorlan was no longer acting of his own will. His attacks were calculated, as if driven by a singular purpose. After incapacitating the entire team, he somehow managed to override the ship's controls and force it to return to their home planet. The citizen's of Sixam were caught completely off guard. The luminescent cities and serene landscapes became battlegrounds as the monstrous plant creatures descended upon them and overwhelmed the unprepared populace with brutal efficiency. The few survivors, driven to the fringes of civilization, could only watch in horror as their world was overrun.

[skyeslittlecorner]

Tails for All! - Abaddon edition

Other parts: Kings | Gehenna | Tartaros | Hades | Avisos | Nilfheim | Paradise Lost

Dantalian

A small fluffy ball, slightly elongated towards the top. It looks like a deer, but with black fur instead of brown.

He's glad he has small horns because it makes him look less dangerous. He is even happier with his little tail. It's cute and matches Sailor Moon's uniform more than any nasty weapon. He only wishes you could write on it.

Asmodeus doesn't like his tail because, unlike the other two, he can't hold Dantalian by the tail like on a leash. Dantalian offered to attach barbed wire to his tail. You don't know how this conversation went further.

His tail smells lovely, like almonds. Why? Nobody knows.

The best anti-stress squeeze in all of Hell.

Sensitiveness 10/10. Stand on it. Crush it. Tear out the fur. Set it on fire. The more you abuse it, the better.

He will be honestly surprised when you start stroking and kissing him, but... hey, it's actually nice too!

Phenix

A long, feathery tail. The feathers are blurry because they are made of pure flames, you can't see where the feathers end and the fire begins. The whole thing is long up to the feet.

The color of his tail depends on his emotions, in arousal the shades change between red, orange and white when he cums (so usually).

Asmodeus asked Beelzebub to give Phenix a piercing at the base of his tail. Beel could not agree, because he was not his citizen, but under his watchful eye, Asmo did it himself and put a padlock on Phenix, thanks to which his tail does not burn inanimated objects.

Phenix can actually regulate whether his tail will burn someone or not, but he's too excited to consider such things.

Perfect for fighting. Angel feathers smell beautiful when they burn. In addition, severed limbs can be burned to prevent the enemy from bleeding out too quickly.

When not excited, his tail curls up and is much smaller and about the size of Stolas. At least that's what Morax said. No one else can confirm or deny.

Sensitiveness ?/10. How do you want to touch the fire? 

In fact, you saw that a one person can touch Phenix's tail whenever he wants. But Asmo is a mean bastard and all you will hear from him is "try it yourself".

In bed it can only be used as a night lamp. At least until you teach that little bird to keep his emotions in check (good luck).

Ronove

Calf-length, very hard, covered with stone-hard skin, with a ball the size of a fist at the end. Morningstar, actually. Dark, gray skin, rough. He actually has patches like a dinosaur. 

The spines are long, sharp and hooked at the tip. They will tear out a piece of meat if they get stuck. 

Can retract spikes. He controls them much better than Phenix controls his flame. When you're dealing with just the ball, it's very nicely slick and in the right shape... wait, that should have been at the end.

When he was younger and Asmodeus told him to shut up, he put his tail in his mouth. Now it's a bit too big. You can lick it too... wait, yes, at the end. Again. Oops. 

Perfect massager. Heavy enough that you can feel it running along your back and shoulders, but not overwhelming.

Sensitiveness 7/10. He loves playing with his tail when you are together. The tip and base are the most sensitive. Play with them, but not too gently, spankings and whips are most desirable.

Rough skin is perfect for grinding. Besides, he'd love to see it.

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…well, we know about one more figure from this country. And I have an unhealthy obsession with him. He's so hot he burned a hole in my brain, and he isn't even out yet. We only know his appearance from Love Unholyc, but just let's have some fun, I'll try to fit him something. We'll see how this post ages lol.

Asmodeus

Scorpion tail. As thick as his arms, black as his hair, hard and shiny, with a sting at the end.

At first, his tail is confused with Beel and vice versa. In fact, they are two completely different things. Beel is much more flexible and thinner, while Asmo is larger and harder.

He likes to sit on a chaise-longue-like throne in a brothel-looking hall, hold you in his lap, wrap his deadly tail around you, and watch Dantesque scenes at his feet with his queen by his side. The only thing missing is popcorn.

Like his hair, the tail is wrapped in barbed wire. Normal devils would prefer it had some sort of cover on it. The other kings wondered whether they should really do one to him.

Of course it's poisonous. The only antidote is to drink milk from his horn. If you don't please him, he will sting you to try harder. He likes watching you fight for your life…

...but he will never lose himself enough to do real harm to you. I mean, kill you. He will detoxify you long before you pass out.

By the way, do I need to mention that this poison is the strongest aphrodisiac in hell?

Sensitiveness 4/10. As opposed to being the embodiment of lust, his tail is used for fighting rather than caressing.

Yes, he will try to put his stinger in you. No, this is not a good idea. Of course he knows it, but he loves the horror and outrage on your face.

[hisbutleronhiatus]

It has been 33 days since the Kuroshitsuji hiatus was announced.

Today, Sebastian indulged in a deliciously cathartic full-body stretch (elongating his back and limbs around and through several of the manor's rooms and corridors).

Credit: @reine-du-sourire

[indiestsnake]

sample time!!!! just made the introductory post so might as well show the world what the best of my original work is

warning! some body horror. no gore tho.

this is my bird do u like him

he is in moderate to severe pain but he is living just like the rest of us

[xxxangeleyesxxx]

“I was there in the dark when you spilled your first blood

I am here now, as you run from me still

Run then, child

You can't hide from me forever” - Ptolemaea

It was always this familiar dark place she was sent to.

Anna was accustomed to this dream at this point, if you could even call it that. She once heard from someone that sleep is death playing shy, and this was fairly reminiscent of it. It’s completely pitch black dark, you couldn’t even see the tips of your fingers if you tried. No matter how far she walked, nothing blocked her from transversing further.

Disembodied hands would grab at her side and graze her cheek. She wondered if they were truly there or just her mind playing tricks on her. Still, she would swat at them. Still, she would draw back and shiver in disgust at the mild violation. Occasionally, she would hear a blood curdling scream from somewhere in the blackness. Sometimes it was far away. Others, right next to her ear. Despite mirroring their suffering and fear in this lonely place, it never made it feel any less cold and isolated.

This was hell. After reading the Bible at 12 and getting to the verse it was described, that was what she concluded. There was no demons torturing you for eternity in unspeakable ways. It was no Dante’s Inferno. It was darkness, weeping, screaming, and complete and utter despair.

The only thing missing was fire and agony, but, as Anna thought thankfully, you couldn’t feel pain in dreams. That would only wake you up.

Her only question; Why was she sent here? What had she done?

One would think after several years of experiencing this nightly torment that she would no longer be afraid of it, but no. Anna would still walk with uncertainty, her hands reaching out in front of her for something, anything to grasp onto and make the chaos make sense, but she could never find it. Even now, she still covered her ears to block out the horrible screams from countless people she had no way of saving. Her heart would still ache with the all too familiar pain of loneliness and betrayal from a source she couldn’t ascertain. It never got easier.

Tonight was different though.

There was a formless door. It opened just slightly. Precious light spilled from within onto the oak floor. Anna reached towards it.

The metallic taste of blood hit her tongue.

She hesitated. Her outstretched hand shook unsteadily. A part of her understood that what lie beyond this door was something that she did not want to see, something she was simply not ready to face. She didn’t want to enter it, but she knew she had to.

Suddenly, she was a little girl again. The delicate hands before her gave way to small, stubby ones, nail beds bitten and peeling. She carefully peered inside.

This didn’t feel like a dream anymore, it felt like reality.

And yet it just couldn’t be. The monster standing before her couldn’t be real. She had to be dreaming, cause if she wasn’t—

The beast with seven heads audibly shifted it’s haunting blue eyes to look at her. She froze, then began heaving, unable to get enough air into her lungs. She couldn’t move, couldn’t do anything to run or defend herself, though in all fairness, what could she do? There were two bodies on the floor, blood gushed out from their torn, mangled limbs. The monster’s elongated hands were drenched in blood. Gnashing teeth easily tore apart flesh from a leg. It gingerly offered her a severed arm, as if it meant nothing to indulge in the most taboo thing imaginable.

Her heart was pounding. Her mouth spilled words beyond her control.

“Johan? You- W-What have you done!?”

The most demonic, distorted version of her brother’s voice came echoed out of sync from the many heads of that creature.

“Anna, please listen to me. We have to-“

All at once Anna was in her bed again, sweating bullets, breathing heavily and staring at the ceiling. She had her blanket clutched to her chest in a white-knuckled grip. She slowly adjusted to her new surroundings and sat up, scanning her room for anything out of place, glancing back every so often at an oddly placed coat and the closet. Anna was used to nightmares, but not ones of that caliber. She was admittedly shaken, and didn’t think more sleep was in the cards for tonight.

The bedside clock read 1:43am. Pictures of her, her family, and friends stared up at her with their mocking smiling faces, like she didn’t just go through hell and back. She picked the one of her and Johan at their high school graduation ceremony and smiled, feeling herself begin to calm down. Johan looked at her with such a gentle expression, while she beamed at the camera, her arms wrapped around her barely older brother in a vice grip.

It was one of her favorite pictures. It served as a reminder that no matter what happened, he would always be there for her.

She put the photo down and slipped out of bed, leaving the room.

Johan would probably be asleep by now, but you honestly never knew with him. He had quite the odd sleep schedule.

His door was just barely left opened, the plain, navy blue queen sized bed was neatly made and without its usual inhabitant. She could hear him scribbling something on a piece of paper and flipping through the pages of a book. Hopefully, she wasn’t interrupting his late night study session.

She knocked the side of the door frame.

“Johan? Is it ok if I come in?”

The writing paused and he called for her from his desk. She smiled warmly and entered the room. He swung his chair to face her, giving her that signature soft gaze he always carried.

For whatever reason, she felt herself tense in front of him. Sweaty hands clenched at her sides. Unable to meet his eyes, she glanced at a patchy spot on the carpet the landlord refused to fix.

“I um, I-I had a really bad dream.” Anna was awful at hiding her emotions, especially in front of him. She sat down on his bed and seemed to have his full attention. Opening up about things would always be difficult, but it shouldn’t be this difficult. Johan was her most trusted person. “I know that it probably sounds silly, and I know that I’m too old to be letting it affect me like this but it just felt so real.” She sucked in her lip and shyly popped the question.

“Can I sleep here for tonight?”

@theartifxce

[depraveddame]

Chapters 8 and 9 of Bring Your Seed to Blossom have been posted!

I forgot to post about chapter 8 last week, so sorry!

Chapter 8 features the first of several flashbacks that will be featured in this fic, and chapter 9 is the heaviest of the story thus far. Please, please read the notes for chapter 9 before reading.

Chapter 8 Excerpts:

“So…Morning Star Counselling?” Crowley asked, shifting his weight on the stormy grey, tufted leather sofa as he sat across from Dr Morningstar, absentmindedly drumming his painted fingernails on his stocking clad knee (he had another session straight after this one that was of a another therapeutic nature entirely; no time to change beforehand, and the fishnets he wore under his inky black jeans were peeking out through the torn knees of the denim, more so than he’d realized until he sat down approximately two minutes ago to begin his first official appointment) “bit serendipitous, having a last name made for a therapy practice, innit?”

His busy fingers moved onto the black elastic hair band on his wrist, plucking and twisting it as he changed positions again; Crowley was a fidgety person by nature, but for some reason, that trait was amplified tenfold within this office to a highly questionable degree.

*

He glanced up from his book, leveled the most devastating smile at Aziraphale and murmured, the whisper of a smirk playing around his upturned lips, “‘bout time you came over and introduced yourself, love; you had me thinking you might’ve been a ghost.”

Aziraphale chuckled in spite of himself as he stared down into those sea glass eyes, and as he sat down at the behest of the other’s invitation, the blonde introduced himself.

“Sebastian Barclay, but I go by Seb,” he declared with that dazzling smile as he ran his fingers through his hair, and Aziraphale replied, his voice irritatingly higher than normal and possibly obscured by his heart thudding around in his throat, “I’m Aziraphale Fell, and I’m afraid I don’t have the luxury of a decent shortened moniker.”

Chapter 9 Excerpt:

“Have you ever…spoken with someone, about your experience with your ex? With a therapist, or a counsellor of some sort?” He kept his tone gentle and curious, concerned how Crowley may interpret such a question as possibly being judgemental or negative in any way, but before he even finished his query, Crowley tensed against him; his shoulders and torso turned rigid against Aziraphale’s chest and stomach, and his long legs drew up from their elongated position on the sofa, shrinking into himself as he took a shallow, shuddering breath, and Aziraphale’s heart dropped into that icy depth it always found whenever Crowley was anxious or afraid.

“Crowley?” he whispered, stricken with guilt over putting stress back into Crowley’s limbs so soon, for failing to lessen his pain and discomfort and instead renewing it, “I’m— forgive me, my dear, I don’t mean to overstep—”

“You didn’t,” Crowley’s reply was adjacent to monotone as he disentangled himself from Aziraphale, sitting up and slowly angling forward as he folded his legs at the knee, “I— I s’pose it’s time you know.”

[literaryvein-reblogs]

Word List: Animals

for your next poem/story

Aardwolf - a maned striped nocturnal mammal (Proteles cristatus) of southern and eastern Africa that resembles the related hyenas and feeds chiefly on insects and especially termites

Bittern - any of various small or medium-sized, short-necked, usually secretive herons

Chevrotain - (also called mouse deer) any of several very small hornless deerlike ruminant mammals of tropical Asia, the Malay archipelago, and West Africa superficially resembling the musk deer, the male having short tusks, and being among the smallest known ruminants, standing only about a foot high

Douroucouli - (also called owl monkey) any of several small nocturnal monkeys (genus Aotus) of Central and South American tropical forests that have round heads, large eyes, and densely furred bodies

Eland - either of two large African antelopes (Taurotragus oryx and Taurotragus derbianus) bovine in form with short spirally twisted horns in both sexes

Falconet - any of several very small falcons

Gemsbok - a large and strikingly marked oryx (Oryx gazella) formerly abundant in southern Africa

Hoatzin - a crested large South American bird (Opisthocomos hoazin) with blue facial skin, red eyes, brown plumage marked with white above, and claws on the first and second digits of the wing when young

Ichneumon - a mongoose (Herpestes ichneumon) of Africa, southern Europe, and southwestern Asia

Jacana - any of a family (Jacanidae) of long-legged and long-toed tropical wading birds that frequent coastal freshwater marshes and ponds

Klipspringer - a small antelope (Oreotragus oreotragus) that is somewhat like the chamois in habits and is found from Cape Colony to Somaliland

Lammergeier - a large Old World vulture (Gypaetus barbatus) that occurs in mountainous regions, has long black bristles at the base of the bill, and in flight resembles a very large falcon; bearded vulture

Muntjac - any of a genus (Muntiacus) of small deer of southeastern Asia with an alarm call similar to the bark of a dog and having in the male elongated, downward-pointing upper canine teeth which protrude from the lip and short, usually unbranched, pointed antlers; barking deer

Nightjar - any of a family (Caprimulgidae) of medium-sized long-winged crepuscular or nocturnal birds (such as the whip-poor-wills and nighthawks) having a short bill, short legs, and soft mottled plumage and feeding on insects which they catch on the wing

Ouzel - blackbird

Palfrey - archaic: a saddle horse other than a warhorse; especially: a lady's light easy-gaited horse

Quetzal - a Central American trogon (Pharomachrus mocinno) that has brilliant green plumage above, a red breast, and in the male long upper tail coverts

Rosella - an Australian parakeet (Platycercus eximius) often kept as a cage bird having the head and back of the neck scarlet and the cheeks white, the back dark green varied with lighter green, and the breast red and yellow

Springhare - jumping hare i.e., a sciuromorph rodent (Pedetes cafer) of southern and eastern Africa that resembles a kangaroo in form, that is about two feet long, and that is tawny brown in color and of nocturnal and social habits

Thylacine - Tasmanian tiger i.e., a somewhat doglike carnivorous marsupial (Thylacinus cynocephalus) that formerly inhabited Tasmania but is now considered extinct

Uintatherium - a genus (the type of the family Uintatheriidae) of large herbivorous ungulate mammals of the order Dinocerata from the Eocene of Wyoming resembling elephants in size and in the conformation of their limbs and having three pairs of bony protuberances respectively on the parietal, maxillary, and nasal bones of the skill, a pair of canine tusks guarded by downwardly directed processes of the lower jaw but no upper incisors, and a proportionately very small brain

Vaquita - a small, highly endangered porpoise (Phocoena sinus) of the Gulf of California having a dark ring around the eyes and reaching only four to five feet (1.2 to 1.5 meters) in length

Whitecoat - a very young hair seal and especially a harp seal

Xiphias - a genus (the type of the family Xiphiidae) of large scombroid fishes comprising the common swordfish

Zho - (also called dzo) a hybrid between the yak and the domestic cow

More: Word Lists

[tribbetherium]

While a relatively secluded ecosystem, the caverns of Arcuterra have expanded greatly over the last few million years. Consisting of a network of tunnels, chambers and crevices spanning for miles underground, the floor space of the caves have now exceeded those of a small island comparable to Earth's Tasmania-- and has gotten large enough to have several sub-biomes within itself, some levels more superficial and closer to the outside world where the abundance of nutrients trickling in allows the lush forest-like growth of subterranean pseudo-flora, and others beneath the upper layers where groundwater and detritus accumulates, forming stagnant, muddy swamps where, against all odds, life finds a way to thrive.

One of the ecosystem's most abundant animals are the feelerflits: the caverns' only flying animals. Descended from dipteran flies, their forebearers once did lose their wings in their initial colonization--yet over time re-evolved this ability through atavistic mutations once the caves had expanded enough to make flight advantageous again: though now, in pitch black darkness and without vision.

Feelerflits, however, managed to adapt by developing especially-hypertrophied feelers both on their antennae and their abdominal cerci, giving them the ability to detect movement both forward and behind. This, coupled by pressure sensors and long hairs on their feelers, allow them to discern their environment in flight, while olfactory and theroreceptor cells allow them to pick up thermal and chemical signals to recognize food, enemies, and conspecifics.

Most of the common feelerflits (Phantasmusca spp.) are generalist omnivores, feeding on decaying matter, shroomor spores and fungi, but some, in the abundance of resources and lack of competition, have ascended a rung in the food chain. The murksquitoes (Anophelomimus spp.) have become part-time parasites, supplementing their diet of mocklichen spores by biting larger animals such as daggoths, especially females that require additional protein in producing their eggs. Others, the darkdarters (Quadropteroides spp.) have become predators, preying on other feelerflits. With their halteres enlarged to resemble a second pair of wings but used as organs of balance instead, they are agile in the air, seizing other, smaller feelerflit species with spiny grasping forelimbs and using a sharp proboscis to pierce the bodies of their prey.

This abundance of insects, arthropods and other invertebrates has led to other unique specializations among the daggoths: the cavern systems' dominant troglofauna. Many are specialized insectivores, typically smaller species, but also some unusual outliers among the larger kinds.

One such creature is the trunked tendrilcrown (Oroproboscimys nasocephalus), a member of the cavehopper family that, unlike its other grazing kin, has adapted an elongated snout from the elongation of its lips, forming a trunk-like appendage with its mouth opening at the end, out of which emerges a long, sticky tongue equipped with small barbs, ideal for piercing through mocklichens to get at the interior, reaching into crevices to pull out rootlike mycelia, and most importantly to raid insect nests and feed on the inhabitants. Its trunklike appendage only contains its mouth, with its nostrils set far back behind the top of its head, keeping the vulnerable orfices far from reach of its biting insect prey.

Tendrilcrowns, like most other cavehoppers, are gregarious creatures that seek safety in numbers from predators like blindmutts and tendriltooths. They use their tail, atypically long for a daggoth, as a scent-marking organ to set territorial boundaries and identify related individuals. Yet, as their social behavior are merely for protection, their individual bonds are rather weak. When startled by predators, they individually flee with powerful thrusts of their leaping hind limbs, displaying little concern for their fellows whose company they only partake in to reduce the chances of individually being caught.

The cavehoppers may be agile and flighty creatures, but in the limited space, not all daggoths share their energetic means of movement. Some daggoths are content with a slower-paced life: especially those that live in the lower levels of the cave systems where fewer food is available and energy is better off conserved.

The gloomy squonk (Trogloporcimys nasoculus), one species of the gloomhogs in relation to the biblarodons, lives in the basement-levels of the cavern systems: where the muddy deposits gather into the large, wide chambers into a sort of underground marshland. Here, underneath the organic sludge, specialized filamentuous fungi grow in soggy, fibrous clusters, absorbing and converting the detritus back into biomass that, in turn, is the primary food of the gloomy squonk. Its ghostly eye-like orfices are in fact enlarged nostrils on its inverted, upturned snout, as it has adapted for spending much of its time wallowing in the subterranean swamps scraping off the fungi from the bottom, surfacing time and time to breathe. With larger nostrils as well as a markedly larger lung capacity, it is able to take in more air per breath, allowing it to make the most of the thin, oxygen-poor atmosphere so deep beneath the ground.

Its sluggish demeanor, large fat-storing body and glycogen-storing liver allow the gloomy squonk to survive for long periods without food, in one of the less-hospitable regions of the cavern system, where growths of its preferred forage follow irregular boom-and-bust cycles depending on how much nutrition is available from higher rungs. This, however, makes it an ideal potential meal for younger tendriltooths that may wander down lower crevices to avoid competition from aggressive and cannibalistic adults. However, while slow and typically placid, the squonk is not entirely defenseless. Its jaws, strong enough to tear fungal mycelia from rocky anchors, can also inflict a vice grip onto a would-be predator, after which it submerges into the muddy sludge in an attempt to drown its assailant.

Similarly, while some of the blindmutts became active, pouncing ambush predators, others, the cavegleaners, took on a more slow-paced lifestyle, wandering along as foragers and scavengers, picking on shroomors, insects, small daggoths and carrion, and thus alleviating competitive pressure from the tendriltooths, who now seldom consider them a threat and rarely bother attacking them.

The ridge-headed whiskersaw (Heliconasodon rubrilophus) is one such cavegleaner, often drawn to the leftover kills of tendriltooths to finish off the remains left behind once the predator is sated. Like the tendriltooth, the whiskersaw is equipped with sharp keratinous serrations on its nasal tendrils that function much like teeth. Yet now, with its foraging lifestyle, the whiskersaw now puts its false dentition to a strange use: coiling its two most prominent tendrils into tight spirals with the spines pointing outward, it then rotates them against one another as they uncoil back and forth: forming two abrading "polishers" that cleanly scrape the last residues of meat attached to bones, especially those out of reach of other predators. When uncoiled, these spiny appendages can also be inserted into hollows of bones to access the marrow, or be probed into the burrows of small prey to be extracted from their hiding spots.

The other conspicuous feature of the whiskersaw is of course the two fleshy ridges that adorn its head: the frontmost rims of which are made of highly-vascularized tissue that can be engorged and distended with specialized blood vessels to release a small amount of body heat. These are picked up by the thermoreceptors found on the nasal tendrils of other whiskersaws, in essence being used as a display organ by a species without eyes to see visual cues. Being mesothermic, like most daggoths, the display is a very energy-intensive effort in relative terms, and to the solitary creatures only means one of two things: a dominant male asserting his strength to a potential rival, or a receptive female advertising her readiness to breed. Also like the majority of other daggoths, the undeveloped but precocial young recieve minimal parental care, nursing for only a day or two before being deposited near abundant food sources conducive to their growth and survival.

A wide variety of large fauna now thrive among the drier regions of the caverns, which, while still smaller than surface animals due to the more limited space and resources, nonetheless reach impressive sizes for a cave-dweller. But the aquatic biomes of the caverns are not left out by such trends, as some aquatic daggoths have grown quite large, in particular the deeplake trogadile (Troglomyosuchus pennadactylus) which can reach lengths of up to a meter long or more.

While the tendriltooths are the top predators of the land, the trogadiles are the apex carnivores of the underground rivers and lakes where an impressive array of organisms thrive: aquatic insects, shrish, pescopods, hampreys and tubesnouts alike, dependent on a base producer of chemosynthetic bacterial mats and aquatic meatmoss, growing in thorny fronds like animal kelp. All of these are food for the trogadile: not a picky eater, it catches food with its muscular fused nasal lobes as well as two smaller tendrils equipped with sharp claw-like points, and using its extensible snorkel-like nostrils to breathe at the surface every few minutes, sometimes lying motionless just below the surface with only its snorkels exposed, waiting to strike at unwary prey.

Their specialized limbs, modified into flipper-like paddles, undulate rhythmically to propel themselves through the water, but, conversely, now make them practically immobile on land as grown adults, entirely helpless and vulnerable if beached. Young individuals, a few inches long at birth, however can manage a clumsy scuttle across dry land, enough to be able to disperse into other bodies of water. Once grown, they are permanently waterbound, though populations can still intermingle genetically despite isolated pools being separated, due to the amphibious capabilities of the juveniles.

Many branches of the daggoth evolutionary family have thus produced a wide variety of some of the strangest and most alien-looking forms ever assumed by a rodent: to such an extent that many are scarcely ever recognizable as such. Many of these arise from derived lineages, but, from the gothtles, one of the most basal lineages, bizarre yet oddly familiar forms too have since emerged. These animals, in their basal forms once top predator of the caves, now find themselves at the bottom of the food chain, preyed upon by their distant kin: while some such as the xenomures adapted to flee and hide, others armed themselves with strange weaponry to to ward off and injure their enemies.

The veiled sixclaw (Hexaceratonychus cryptocephalus) is one such unusual species that, when threatened, conceals its face and sensitive nasal tendrils in a fold of thick skin as it curls itself up into a tight ball: leaving only six prominent defensive spines exposed. These long, horn-like projections are, surprisingly, actually elongated claws: attached to mobile, specialized digits, they can point in any direction to painfully stick into a predator's mouth, and, even when moving about and actively foraging, the sixclaw bears its weaponry in arms, raised above and behind its body to make it difficult to grab. Able to move together, they can pinch the tendrils and toes of an enemy, hard enough to draw blood, even if successfully picked up.

This ability for the digits to grip in junction has been put to good use by some species. The shield-faced pintler (Durocephalomus carcinychus) specifically has hypertrophied the first two pairs of its digits to use almost as grasping pincers, able to partly oppose and each equipped with a large, retractable claw. These serve it good use in excavating burrows, tearing apart food, defending itself and, most remarkably, used in intraspecific combat. Males can be up to twice as big as a female, and sport greatly enlarged claws and a larger keratinous facial shield that, while used in the females merely to protect their faces while burrowing, are defenses for males when they fight over territory, mates and resources, lifting each other up and tossing each other away as they tussle for dominance, with the losing combatant occasionally losing a few digits in the process.

These defenses, armor and burrowing abilities all reach their peak in the armored crustster (Carcinocricetus memeticus), a smaller and more placid relative of the pintlers that has evolved a more compact body and a single enlarged shield covering most of its back that, with its sharp-spined edges and smooth curved shape, makes it resistant to all but the most specialized of predators. Its powerful front claws are primarily used for digging, while its back, reinforced by a thick and sturdy spine with multiple interlocking vertebral processes, allow it great strength for its size, able to use it for leverage to wedge itself under large stones or into crevices, both to make itself inaccessible to enemies trying to fish it out of its hiding spots, as well as access small invertebrate prey taking shelter underneath.

[thesilliestrovingalive]

Updated: February 2, 2025

Reworked Character #10: Gimlet

POTENTIAL TRIGGER WARNING: Viewer discretion is advised due to references to death, torture, neglect, SA, child abuse, substance abuse, necrophilia, cannibalism, and crime.

Real name: Vasser Gutenschiff-Wolstenholme

Esper title: Avatar of Theriomorphic Anima, Parasitism, and Aggression

Alias: Brutish Vanguard

Occupation: Chief Warrant Officer of the P.F. Squad

Retirement plans: Doesn’t know what kind of purpose he’ll have after resigning from his military duties

Special skills: Proficiency in radio communication technology, overwhelming the enemy, con artistry, dagger throwing, and quick drawing

Esper abilities: By focusing on the internal dynamics of his muscles and the rhythmic pulse of his blood, he can tap into the depths of his unbridled strength. When he does so, his veins bulge from his skin and his muscles spasm uncontrollably. However, this transformation enables him to deliver blows that cause the earth to slightly tremble, crush his opponents' bones with a single grip, and lift and throw objects with ease, including those that weigh as much as a small hill. By tapping into the irrational part of his soul, he can access a feral state of mind for 1 to 3 hours, amplifying his killing instincts and physical strength to nearly earth-shattering levels. However, the longer he remains in this primal state, the more his hostility levels intensify. Surrendering to this feral state of mind allows his id to gradually dominate his psyche, a process worsened by his cocaine addiction.

He can unleash a loud, painful scream or cry of anger, generating paralysing vibrations that temporarily stun his enemies for three minutes. By superheating the water-rich waste materials in his intestines and blood, he can boil them to extreme temperatures and project the scalding, watery vomit at his opponents through regurgitation. His body hosts a multitude of tiny parasites and viruses, which coexist harmlessly with his organs, blood circulation, and cellular structures. However, he can harness these microorganisms as a defence mechanism, releasing them to infect his enemies through physical contact and airborne respiratory droplets.

Gimlet has the ability to create worm-like creatures that are grotesque and multi-eyed with bony wings, serrated teeth, and elongated snouts. This can be achieved through an expulsion mechanism involving a specialised, jade-coloured testicular sac situated centrally in the groin. Connected to the penis and digestive system by red-violet vascular appendages, he can vomit a tar-like, seminal substance that rapidly transforms into a worm-like creature that inherits his eye and hair colour. When he overworks this particular organ, he suffers from severe stomach pains and general bodily soreness that last for several hours.

These creatures mature into bipedal worms, distinguished by sparse, wispy light brown hair growth on their chests, armpits, scalps, and jawlines. They are also adorned with spiky, cartilaginous armour plating in dull silver or glossy black, which covers their faces, backs, and limbs. They serve as obedient soldiers and suicide bombers, possessing the same abilities as Gimlet. They can instantaneously self-destruct, releasing either a poisonous gas or a burning, gooey, glowing purple acid that engulfs their surroundings.

Hobbies: Kayaking, tinkering with radio technology, watching action-packed, splatterpunk, and pornographic films, riding his motorbike in the countryside and newly liberated cities, and building scale models of military vehicles and historical war events

Likes: Celaphios, radio towers, intelligent women, collecting rare pornography magazines and seashells, and the satisfaction he feels when killing a highly dangerous individual

Dislikes: Bees, necrophilia, becoming like his abusive biological father, being viewed as disappointing and unmanageable, and the mistreatment of young children

Favourite food: Full English breakfast and grilled pineapple

Favourite drink: French gimlet (preferably if it has two parts sweetened lime juice)

Sexuality: Sex-favourable, grayromantic gynesexual

Gender: Male

Age: 27 (in 2022), 33 (in 2028), 35 (in 2030), 37 (in 2032), 39 (in 2034), 46 (in 2041), 48 (in 2043), 49 (in 2044), and 52 (in 2047)

Blood type: O-

Weight: 217 lbs. (98 kg)

Design: He’s a 6 ft (182.88 cm) British-German mesomorph with a perfectly chiselled musculature, a subtly rounded abdomen, semi-broad shoulders, and prominent thighs. He has rose beige skin, frown lines, a black mole on the right side of his chin, and reddish-brown freckles scattered across his face, chest, and hands. He has sparkling rusty orange eyes and middle-parted maroon hair with subtle waves and neatly trimmed sideburns. His eyes were originally a light brown, and his hair was once a golden bronze colour with mutton chops and straight locks. His muscle fibres and intestines have a yellowish-green tint, and he possesses two forked tongues coated in a translucent, gelatinous slime mixed with his blood.

His forearms and shoulders are covered in healed minor incisions, and a massive scar extends from his left deltoid to his right hypochondriac region, organically zigzagging across his torso. His left hand and right leg have been augmented with cutting-edge prosthetics, featuring sleek, aerodynamic plates and agile, fibre-optic wires that blur the lines between human and machine. The prosthetics are infused with AI-driven neurosync technology, allowing for seamless integration and real-time synchronisation with his neural signals. His left-hand prosthetic features retractable blade claws made of razor-sharp adamantium, and they can extend and retract with a mere thought, thanks to the advanced neural interface.

Gimlet’s military gear consists of a mahogany headband, a metal dog tag necklace with his name, and a grimy meat brown sleeveless shirt with vertical Carolina blue stripes. He has a shoulder holster for his Mauser C96 Broomhandle, along with a single pouch for a 8mm Gasser magazine, and wears a dark bluish-green belt with a bronze buckle and a sheath for his combat knife. He wears a dark goldenrod vest with four pockets, boasting the logo of the P.F. Squad on the back. Additionally, he wears persimmon-hued wristbands and dark green moss army cargo pants tucked into rose ebony combat boots. The pockets of his vest carry around iron knuckles given to him by Hyakutaro, a pontifical mitre shell, a flask of vodka gimlet, a bottle of Ritalin, a small plastic bag of crushed cocaine, a rolled-up piece of paper the size of a straw, and his motorcycle key.

Over sleeveless shirt, he dons a Soldier Plate Carrier System (SPCS) with a MultiCam pattern, which carries around his walkie-talkie and ammo for other firearms. His forearms are wrapped worn and dirty gauze, and he wears a rust-coloured bandolier draped over his right shoulder, holding throwing daggers. Gimlet carries around a dark bluish-green load-bearing backpack that contains camping equipment, tactical explosives, portable ammo boxes, a canteen full of water, and a random pornography magazine from his personal collection he chose to bring along with him that day. It contains two bottles of French gimlet, an APX P25 radio, a Rocket Launcher, a Grenade Gun, and a Shotgun. His backpack also holds four plushies from his childhood: Emmerich, a polar bear with a light coral bow tie; Theobald, an orange-eyed black tiger with Hunyadi yellow stripes; Philomena, an opalescent white dragon with lavender eyes and azure spines; and Linnaea, a bronze-horned husky with a white fur coat featuring blue-grey, citron, and fallow brown splotches.

He wears golden huggie earrings, a silver ring featuring a square-cut fire opal on his left middle finger, and bronze-plated goggles with orange-tinted lenses.

He owns a state-of-the-art drop pack with a metallic blue finish, compact and aerodynamic, approximately half the size of his torso. This advanced pack features high-thrust mini-jet engines, each adorned with a light blue stripe at their entrance, and retractable, razor-sharp airplane wings that provide enhanced stability and maneuverability. Additionally, its integrated artificial intelligence ensures real-time weather analysis and automatic adjustments for a smoother, more stable flight and parachuting experience. Furthermore, it boasts rapid-deployment technology for quick and seamless wing extension, enabling swift response times in high-pressure situations. It has been built to withstand extreme weather conditions, including intense turbulence, heavy rainfall, and scorching temperatures.

Tequila built him a modified Ariel W/NG 350 with a bulkier, steadier design, boasting a camouflage pattern in fern green, golden brown, and taupe grey, and completed with a rusty orange leather seat.

Super Devil form: He's a 20' 11" (637.54 cm) reptilian kangaroo with bulging, viciously torn, infected muscular tissue that pulses with every heartbeat. His scaly taupe grey skin, which hosts a multitude of tiny parasites and viruses, is coated in a thin layer of translucent, gelatinous slime. Gimlet has a head shaped like a bear's, featuring three forked tongues smeared with bloody slime and four rows of dark goldenrod teeth that resemble those of a humpback anglerfish. His eight rusty orange eyes have flecks of moss that are dark green and metallic blue pupils that dilate in response to sunlight. His coarse, unruly middle-parted hair is strikingly two-toned with the left side silver-grey and the right side mahogany. The hair falls slightly over his broad shoulders, which are ridiculously wide and covered in jagged, cartilaginous spikes that stand straight up. He has persimmon-hued ram horns, twitching Apantesis phalerata antennae, and retractable, razor-sharp bronze claws and talons.

He has two pairs of arms: the first pair is elongated yet uncomfortably muscular, covered in shaggy coyote fur ravaged by mange; and the second pair resembles long puma-furred forelegs, but with uncannily slender toes. From his hip joints, he has notably large hind legs of a yellowish-green locust, complete with a deep red tibia and brownish-grey tiger-like stripes on the femurs. He has an exceptionally long, thin rose ebony rodent tail, twice the size of his torso, that splits halfway along its length. Additionally, Gimlet possesses wings similar to those of a migratory locust, but with a leathery texture and a subtle mahogany sheen.

His back is covered in writhing, sinuous tendrils that resemble dark bluish-green smooth-skinned serpents, each tipped with hook-like bronze claws. His neck features sixteen delicate, petal-shaped skin flaps that can open to reveal thirty-two small openings, which he can use to release his blood to create deadly weapons. Additionally, he possesses a pouch containing intestinal appendages with a yellowish-green tint, which he uses to spray scalding, watery vomit.

Character summary: He identifies as an agnostic Protestant Anglican that takes responsibility for his actions when it's convenient for him. He shows a willingness to take risks and face danger head-on, never backing down from a fight. He's resolute and unshakeable in his convictions to get the job done and to eliminate the weak and corrupt, even when advised against certain actions. He values his autonomy and privacy, preferring to work independently rather than as part of a team and keep his personal life and feelings closely guarded. He personally views himself as a true hero for his hard work during the Arms Deal Barrage, but he also humbly acknowledges the significant contributions of his comrades, recognizing the immense debt he owes them for their help. While he thrives on constant action, excitement, and a desire for immediate gratification, he occasionally appreciates the quiet comfort of mundane routines and stillness. When he doesn't understand something, he exclusively seeks clarification from Tequila or Red Eye as he fears that asking anyone else might lead to ridicule or insults for his perceived lack of sophistication.

He's a mischievous, troublesome, highly opinionated, and forgetful prankster who enjoys poking fun at the cadets. Occasionally, his grandiose sense of self-worth becomes apparent, particularly in situations that either threaten his ego or feed his overconfidence. When intoxicated, he exhibits problematic behaviour, including objectifying and harassing women, episodes of sadness, verbal aggression, and disruptive, violent outbursts. He finds solace in Emmerich, Theobald, Philomena, and Linnea because they serve as comforting reminders of his late mother and siblings, providing emotional support during moments when reality feels overwhelming. However, he's reluctant to share this with others because he doesn’t want to be perceived as vulnerable, pathetic, and immature, so they remain a closely guarded secret.

He has a quick temper, which makes him prone to argumentative outbursts, physical and verbal aggression, and hostile behaviour. When extremely angry, he frequently resorts to shouting death threats as well as making misogynistic, racially, and sanist charged comments that are deeply hurtful and damaging. He becomes instantly offended and irritated when people compare him to his abusive, psychopathic father as he harbours a deep-seated fear of emulating him. He struggles to show remorse, particularly towards his enemies, people who get on his nerves, and those he's not emotionally invested in. He’s a resourceful and attention-seeking thief with a yearning for physical and emotional intimacy and an aversion to being ignored. Notably, he quickly becomes emotionally attached to individuals who show him genuine kindness and tenderness.

He enjoys playfully teasing those he's familiar with as it's his way of alleviating tension. He’s not a very talkative person, often speaking in short sentences, and has a habit of giving dismissive snorts in certain situations. Despite his aloof and mean nature, he’s surprisingly capable of following orders from his superiors. He isn't afraid to speak his mind and call out people when they do something that defies common sense, even if it means he sometimes comes across as a hypocrite. When he's deadly serious, he assumes a stoic and expressionless demeanour, exuding a menacing aura that commands attention. He's a bloodthirsty adrenaline junkie who derives sadistic pleasure from killing and torturing his enemies, taking his brutality to extremes by devouring their entrails and bathing in their blood.

He's haunted by his emotionally scarred past, which he tries to numb through substance abuse, alcohol, and promiscuity. He attempts to hide his addiction from others, but when confronted, he typically responds in one of two ways: either by denying the issue altogether or becoming sarcastic and condescending. He has a history of making unwanted flirtatious advances towards women, and his licentious behaviour in sexual relationships is often selfish and irresponsible. He’s known to rely on his glib and superficial charm to try to seduce women with the sole intention of gratifying his own sexual desires. However, his promiscuous behaviour doesn't cross the line into sexual assault because he can't stand sexual violence and is disgusted by the idea of someone forcing themselves on another person without consent.

His ongoing search for purpose and moral direction contributes to his introspective and brooding demeanour. He's capable of being polite, tender, and compassionate, but his display of these qualities depend on his relationship with the person and his current emotional state. Despite his bullying nature towards most people, he shows a more cordial and respectful side to those who are willing to give him a chance and befriend him. He secretly cares about his comrades and friends, and will selflessly put his life on the line to ensure their safety. He's even willing to avenge the people who hurt his comrades and friends because he wants those responsible to be held accountable for their actions. When the situation calls for it, he drops his rude exterior and treats them with the kindness and respect they deserve. Moreover, he’s willing to apologise to others when he realises he has gone too far. Tequila's scolding often prompts him to own up to his mistakes, take responsibility, and make amends. He's surprisingly gentle and nice with children, and, like Ralf, he enjoys playing with them whenever he has the time.

He regards Red Eye as an older sister and deeply enjoys competing with her, while also going to great lengths to ensure her safety. He personally regards her as a "truly awesome babe" and often playfully teases her about coming to her rescue during the final moments of the Arms Deal Barrage. He strongly values her as one of the select few who genuinely understand him and are committed to supporting him on his journey towards self-improvement. Before the Earth invasion by the Invaders, he had no experience in raising children and was hesitant to take on a paternal role due to his mental health struggles and issues with managing aggression. However, that changed when Celaphios entered his life, beginning to treat him like the son he never had, ensuring he felt safe, loved, and cherished.

He frequently butt heads with Marco because of his perceived intellectual superiority and willingness to confront Gimlet when he bullies their friends and comrades. He also frequently clashes with Ralf, Walter, Tarma, and Eri due to his objectification of his female comrades, relentless mocking and bullying of others, impulsive, short-fused nature, and tendency to cause unnecessary problems.

He was once incredibly close to Sagan and Logan, considering them his first true best friends. He deeply cherished their friendship, enjoying playful banter, meandering conversations, and fun-filled nights together. However, their friendship deteriorated when he discovered Sagan and Logan were secretly working as double agents for the Rebel Army. Feeling betrayed, he became intensely resentful and dismissive towards them, perceiving their actions as a violation of trust and a pursuit of morally wrong objectives. The betrayal was compounded when they fully defected to General Morden's side during the Great Morden War, causing him to view them as genuine threats to global peace.

Despite their falling out, he still finds himself sexually attracted to Sagan and hopes to build a romantic connection with her. He admires her beauty, comparable to Red Eye, and is deeply impressed by her extraordinary intelligence, reminiscent of Tequila. However, he doubts that forming a romantic relationship with her is a possibility because he's fully aware that she exhibits manipulative and promiscuous tendencies.

He deeply cares for Tequila, his adoptive father, and strongly fears losing him unexpectedly as he was the only person willing to raise him as a son. However, he struggles with feelings of unworthiness to be considered the closest thing to a living son due to his frequent disappointments. He holds Hyakutaro, his former drill instructor, and Margaret, his usual mission commander, in high esteem because they played a significant role in shaping him into one of the Peregrine Falcons Squad's most exceptional soldiers. He views Hyakutaro as a carefree uncle and enjoys spending time with him, whether they're honing his fighting skills or going bar hopping after a long day. He sees Margaret as a mother figure and appreciates her jovial company, often lending a hand with her gardening and listening to the latest gossip she's heard. He’s fiercely protective of Tequila, Hyakutaro, and Margaret, and won't stand for anyone insulting or harming them.

Backstory: Vasser Gutenschiff-Wolstenholme was born on October 8, 1995 in Birmingham, England, United Kingdom. The Gutenschiff family of Germany originated as a mix of archaeological explorers and con artists in the field of historical documentation. However, they later made a name for themselves as formidable soldiers during various conflicts of the German Empire and Weimar Republic eras. Their reputation grew as a feared and ferocious family, revelling in the defeat of their enemies and thriving on the adrenaline rush of battle. In contrast, the British Wolstenholme family was known for their relatively peaceful pursuits, dedicating themselves to advancing the significance of radio communication and entertainment. Additionally, the Wolstenholmes were esteemed for their long lineage of historians, who uniquely shared their expertise by crafting intricate models of ancient civilizations and pivotal events that shaped the course of history.

Unlike the Wolstenholmes, the Gutenschiffs descended into darkness with rumours swirling that they embraced cult-like practices. It became a dark and sinister tradition among the descending families to have only one child, preferably male, to carry on their legacy. In cases where twins or multiple births occurred, the eldest child was forced into a horrific coming-of-age act: they were coerced into killing their sibling and then consuming their flesh.

Vasser's father, Kanan Gutenschiff, was a notorious commander in the European Garrison of the Regular Army. He treated all of his enemies mercilessly, taking sadistic glee in the carnage that surrounded him. After a few years of military service, Kanan was discharged by his superiors in the Regular Army. This decision was made after numerous complaints of workplace harassment were filed against him, and following an incident in which he fatally shot a comrade with a rifle during a heated argument. The discharge was likely intended to prevent damage to the organisation's reputation as a peacekeeping force.

Following his discharge, Kanan took up work at a pub in Birmingham, where he led a double life as a professional con artist. One quiet evening, he met Cerys Wolstenholme, a radio and television service technician, and was immediately smitten. He shamelessly flirted with her, offering drinks and engaging her in conversation about their daily lives. As they spent more time together on several dates, Kanan's charm eventually won her over, and they became intimate, resulting in a surprise pregnancy with triplets: Vasser, Teresa, and Rugal.

Kanan was a controlling and strict father, who prioritised his own desires, using Cerys for his own sexual gratification while feigning concern for his children. However, he showed a marked preference for Vasser, the firstborn of the triplets, who received a disproportionate share of his attention and was even taught German, Sanskrit, Ukrainian, and Indonesian. According to the Gutenschiff tradition, Vasser was designated as the chosen heir, prompting Kanan to mould him into a fearless and apathetic individual, adept in both combat and deception. Kanan occasionally resorted to physical discipline and emotional insults when Vasser misbehaved. Meanwhile, Teresa experienced sexual abuse at his hands every two weeks, being treated as an object rather than a person with only superficial displays of kindness. As for the autistic Rugal, Kanan neglected his emotional well-being, viewing him as a disappointment and an unwanted responsibility.

Cerys devoted herself to nurturing Vasser, Teresa, and Rugal, imparting valuable life lessons, homeschooling them, and sharing joyful moments with them. Vasser's most treasured memory of his mother is the gift of Philomena on his 6th birthday, a cherished keepsake he holds dear to this day. She introduced Protestant Anglicanism into the lives of Vasser and his siblings, a faith he still holds onto to this day. However, due to Kanan's abuse and her worsening depression and agoraphobia, she relocated to the basement, where she became increasingly emotionally withdrawn and absent. Kanan would seize this opportunity to fatally asphyxiate Cerys, and then repeatedly commit a horrific act of necrophilia with her lifeless body.

When Vasser turned 14, Kanan attempted to manipulate him into killing his siblings to solidify his position as the Gutenschiff heir. However, Vasser was horrified by the suggestion of slaughtering his family members in cold blood, which infuriated Kanan. Kanan taunted Vasser, branding him a coward and an embarrassment to the Gutenschiffs. In a twisted display of power, Kanan brutally murdered Teresa and Rugal in front of Vasser, forcing him to witness the atrocity while subjecting him to verbal abuse. Later, Kanan used the bodies of Teresa and Rugal to prepare a meal, coercing Vasser into consuming it and leaving no remains.

Kanan would continue to try to mould Vasser into a successful Gutenschiff heir through coercive behaviour and emotional mistreatment, but eventually gave up when Vasser became more defiant, anxious, and aggressive. As Vasser was labelled a failure in his eyes, he began to neglect and abandon Vasser's emotional and physical needs, focusing instead on his own desires, hedonistic lifestyle, and exploitative relationships with sex workers. After discovering his mother's lifeless body in the basement, Vasser packed his belongings and took his deceased sister's most treasured plushies (Emmerich, Theobald, and Linnaea). He fled his toxic household and took to the streets, where he honed his resourcefulness through cunning and stealth, mastering the arts of deception and thievery to survive against the odds.

He found refuge in an abandoned radio station building, using it as his shelter and an excuse to tinker with radio communication technology. Despite being practically homeless and living on the streets, he was faring well in this new lifestyle. However, everything changed when he inadvertently caught the attention of a group of bullies in his neighbourhood. They relentlessly harassed him, and the abandoned radio station building became an increasingly vital safe haven, while his plushies served as a source of emotional comfort. At 16, the bullies torched the radio station building, leaving Vasser feeling defenceless and vulnerable. Seeking vengeance, he attempted to fight back but was vastly outnumbered. They brutally beat him and quickly fled the scene, leaving him in an alleyway with a bruised and bloodied face.

It was then that Tequila found him and, in a surprising gesture of kindness, treated him to lunch at a local restaurant. This act of kindness led Vasser to form an instant emotional bond with Tequila, and he found himself opening up about his current situation, driven by a desire to further fuel his quest for vengeance. To his surprise, Tequila was deeply moved by Vasser's story and vowed to ensure Kanan would pay for the pain he had inflicted. After lunch, Vasser led Tequila to his father's house, deliberately drawing attention to himself as a distraction. Inside, a drunken Kanan violently dragged Vasser into the house, intent on using him to satisfy his twisted desires. Just in time, Tequila slipped inside unnoticed and silently ambushed Kanan, saving Vasser from harm.

With the deed done, Tequila took Vasser under his wing, providing him with a stable and nurturing environment, complete with nutritious food, proper education, and a sense of belonging. He was once a shy and curious child, but after forming a close bond with Margaret, who showed him motherly care and affection, he began to grow more confident and outgoing. After coming to regard Margaret as a mother figure, he thoroughly enjoyed her company from that point on. With Tequila's support and encouragement, he explored new interests and discovered a passion for treasure hunting, seashell collecting, and building scale models of military vehicles and historic battle scenes. He still remembers a trip to the beach where he found a rare hundred-eyed cowrie shell, which he gave to Tequila as a token of heartfelt gratitude.

Little is known about his life after being adopted by Tequila, but it is known that he went on to work as a radio technician apprentice after completing his education. He started visiting establishments with adult entertainment and underground social clubs as a way to unwind and have fun, but soon found himself developing a dependence on well drinks like margarita and gimlet, and substances including cocaine and amphetamines as a coping mechanism for his traumatic experiences. His friends began calling him “Gimlet” due to his fondness for the cocktail, a nickname he embraced because it sounded cool and served as a distraction from his past.

After completing his apprenticeship, he felt a sudden sense of purposelessness wash over him. He wondered if he was headed in the right direction and if emulating his mother's career was genuinely his own aspiration. Tequila noticed his struggle and persuaded him to join the Peregrine Falcons Squad, hoping it would give him direction. Initially, Gimlet was hesitant, opposing the idea of engaging in warfare and using violence against criminals and terrorists. However, after a night of contemplation over drinks, he decided to join the P.F. Squad, shortly after completing a stint in rehab, which Tequila had helped him seek out after discovering his struggles with substance abuse.

Once he joined the P.F. Squad, his true nature began to surface, leading to several issues, including making inappropriate advances towards women, taking a disturbing delight in the demise of his enemies, and taunting the cadets. He quickly formed strong bonds with Sagan and Logan during a vacation trip to the Bahamas, where they collected some seashells, shared a couple of drinks, and opened up about their life stories, aspirations, and interests. During that vacation, a night of heavy drinking led to a one-night stand with Sagan, which subtly shifted the dynamics of their friendship and introduced a hint of unresolved sexual tension. A year before the Arms Deal Barrage, he met Red Eye and quickly came to regard her as an older sister.

He played a crucial role in the Arms Deal Barrage as a fighter, during which he exposed the Regular Army's secret corruption. He developed a deep-seated aversion to bees after accidentally disturbing a beehive with a stray bullet while navigating a jungle. The enraged bees attacked him, and as he yelled and tried to fight them off, the commotion alerted nearby Serapion Fellowship troops, who responded by attacking him and his team. He claimed that the top brass had classified the mission as a training drill, since he was just a recruit at the time.

Initially, he playfully taunted Tarma, Marco, Fio, and Eri when they joined the P.F. Squad and S.P.A.R.R.O.W.S. special forces units. However, after Marco stood up to him for his excessive teasing of Tarma and crude behaviour towards Eri, and Tequila reprimanded him for bullying the cadets, he ceased his teasing and gradually formed friendships with them.

During a mission in Indonesia, where he was combating a rogue military organisation involved in illicit activities such as bioterrorism, murder, and weapon trafficking, he sustained severe injuries in battle, losing his left hand and right leg. These injuries were subsequently replaced with advanced cybernetic prosthetics, designed by Tarma, for which he remains deeply grateful.

Tragically, during the Great Morden War, he was brutally tortured and executed in front of Marco and Tarma. Unbeknownst to him, Morden had secretly promised Tequila to revive him in a new form, and his body was sent to Doctor Amadeus. Through Doctor Amadeus' expertise, Gimlet was successfully revived, but as a semi-clone of Tarma. He would become infused with psionic energy, triggering a drastic shift in his personality. As a result, he would adopt a far more troubled and volatile persona, which would lead to him succumbing to his past addictions and alienating many close friendships, including those with Marco, Tarma, Eri, and Fio.

[luxudus]

Here's my celebration of 2023's femboy day! back when i was first drawing out the celebration in 2022 i was originally intending to use one of these guys, but due to time constraints and a bit of motivation I went with the sophonts seen in last year's celebration. This time i brought back those original concepts and fixed up their designs Some where slight tweaks and other complete redesigns. Lastly for reference they're all around 1.8 meters / 6 feet tall

The Mm-Kca't't are a sophont species of crustacean-like centaurs from a world named C'tok-Uur.

A blue moon orbiting a jovian world. Despite it's sheer blueness, C'tok-Uur has no major oceans but dozens of seas and lakes, it is dominated by savannahs and deserts where plant life takes on a deep blue hue. The dominant form of fauna are 4 limbed crustacean-like invertebrates with a single compound eye stretching across the face.

The Mm-Kca't't are heavily derived from that group, the "upper body" is actually an elongated head with the brain at the base, with their arms evolved from a pair of mandibles and the mouth is located at the center of the chest, males have large megacerops-like horns while females have a flat disk head. They are competitive obligate herbivores native to the savannahs of C'tok-Uur, males will spar with each other over potential mates. The motion dazzle camoflage helps their herds become indistinguishable to predators. They communicate through hums and clicks, and live in hierarchal herds, and living such social lives and with such surprisingly dexterous arms paved way for sapience

The Mm-Kca't't are somewhat advanced, they had just invented nuclear energy and are experiencing an atomic revolution as and are just beginning the construction of the first satellites. A popular facet of their culture involve male Mm-Kca't't denouncing their "masculinity" by cutting off their horns, modifying their diet, and present themselves more femininely while still identifying as "male"

The Hsh'shhh are a sophont species of mollusk-like flyers from a planet known as Sss'Shaa

Their homeworld is a humid superearth with an incredibly dense atmosphere and 6 moons. The planet has a wide axial tilt, coupled with the dense atmosphere, allows heat and light to distribute evenly across the planet. Giving ideal conditions for plant life of all photosynthetic processes to evolve and thrive, giving the surface of this world a "rainbow" hue. Fauna come in the form of external gilled, 4-eyed, slug-like pseudovertebrates that established an aerial ecosystem stretching into the clouds.

The Hsh'shhh evolved in the emergant layer of Sss'Shaa's rainforests. Descending from a line of "bipeds" that evolved their external gills into a set of wings. They eat with a radula located through the slit on their chest. Their red-pink facial disk act as ears while the blue fans act as a nose and rudders. They use their entire head and neck as a single arm to manipulate their envrionment, and their middle "finger" isa derived from a genital sheath. Their extremely vibrant coloring and black stripes help break up their outline when flying over the multicolored landscape, and their countershaded underbellies blend in with the sky. They live in order-less flocks and communicate through hissing.

Their society is surprisingly advanced given the higher gravity and greater air resistance of their home, but through the construction of several heavy duty space elevators and the establishment of 2 dozen space stations built for construction, they were able to bypass the limitations of their homeworld and colonize the rest of their star system, effectively becoming a kardeshev type 2 civilization comprised of independant nation states occupying different worlds. Their society is egalitarian and environmentalist and are currently terraforming their nearest interplanetary neighbours.

The concept of "femenine" males has been a cultural staple across Hsh'shhh history, and the idea is so prevelant that they and "masculine" females are categorized as their own entire genders

And the Vonzullt are a sapient species of mammal-like hexapods from a cold planet named Toiazuul.

Their homeworld is somewhat earthlike and is the only one supporting a breathable atmosphere. The major difference is that all landmasses are converged into a single supercontinent, and the planet is in the middle of an ice age that freezes any part of the planet 30 degrees away from the equator. flora on this world is yellow in color and technically wam blooded. The dominant fauna come in the form of jawless segmented vertebrate-like hexapods with 4 patches of layered photoreceptors that act as eyes.

The Vonzullt evolve from a family of mammal-like hexapodal carnivores that recently took an upright stance to watch out for apex predators. To make up for the lack of jaws, they and all other hexapods evolved a pair of chelicerae to hold onto food and "chew" on it. They live in hunting packs and evolved in the southern seasonal forests. Their intricate pack bonds and hunting strategies kickstarted their sapience, and eventually civilization as a whole

Unlike the previously mentioned civilizations, the VonZullt are far less developed, they experienced an industrial revolution a generation ago, are currently rediscovering the rest of their planet, and the concept of democracy has just developed and begun to spread.

surprisingly, the concept of feminine men is held with high regard among many Vonzullt societies, and in the case of the most prominent society, a somewhat militaristic empire. They are even given positions of power as they are seen as selflessly giving their strength to their brothers rather than hording it to themselves.