#aplpaca

[irradiate-space]

I have seen pigs eat deli ham.

I know I put this on the tags of that "horses will eat meat and eggs" post but like if that's all it takes for people to get freaked out and think horses are deranged then they should also be aware that almost all other herbivores do the exact same thing. It's actually seems to be way less common for herbivores to eat 100% only plants than it is for them to eat meat occasionally (koalas are one of the suspected few strict herbivores bc their diet and digestive system is so specialized). They don't go out searching/hunting for it like carnivores and omnivores, but if they stumble across some carrion or some eggs (or some particularly easy live meat), that's fair game, even moreso if other food is scarce.

Like,,,,Deer will eat dead fish and rabbits, and have been recorded eating dead deer also. They've also been recorded eating live hatchlings from bird nests. Rabbits will scavenge birds a lot, and also do scavenging cannibalism. Snowshoe hares have been recorded scavenging a lynx, which is ironically their main predator when alive. Elephants will eat fish. Cows will eat live birds just right of the ground, along with eggs they may find.

Horses aren't deranged bc they'll eat meat, they're deranged bc theyre like if you put the ghost of a psychically-sensitive victorian child into the body of a 1500 pound mammal.

[thequeervampiric]

There's different species of vultures yeah, tho even the small ones are at least around chicken size, so def bigger than crows. The one in the post is a species of African vulture (I'd guess either Cape Vulture or White Backed Vulture, leaning cape vulture tho bc the eye looks yellow zoomed in). Vultures in North and South America are actually not super related to Eurasian and African vultures tho

oh dang, okay! interesting!

[tibialtybalt]

than kyou @becquerelian for tagging me <3

i am tagging @hoidingaroundthecosmere @a-dux @belladonnafey @aplpaca @pathos-logical

[mslanna]

Firstly, thanks to everybody who recced me Unseelie. I'm happy this book is this known already. Unfortunately, it was one of the few already on my list (along with Vespertine and A Wizard Alone - Millennium Edition).

Secondly I LOVE Ada Hoffman's list and am slowly working my way through it. Ngl, I was hoping for a short cut here. 🙈 There is a lot of sci-fi there.

Thirdly, THANK YOU for those two recs. 🥰 Finding adult high fantasy with autistic protags is a nightmare. But if it means reading guy protags, I will do it. I seem relate much better to autistic traits than to gender traits, as I found out lately.

More books?!? 👀 If it is (adult) fantasy, I'm game. Not fond of dystopia and urban fantasy (detectives/crime are not my thing). Also, the happier the end the better. 😅

The next titles on my to-get list are The Deep by Rivers Solomon and The Impavidus Cycle (though that is, once again, YA.)

I think I can give up on high fantasy with enby autistic protags on the ace spectrum. 😭 (I guess I just found my writing niche...🤔)

Reasons I specified high fantasy:

I love it

I plan to hold a presentation on autsitic protags in fantasy in autumn and it's a high fantasy environment

I love magic

portal fantasies are out of style 😔

“there are no books about….” yes there are. you’re bad at finding books.

[honeii-puff]

The collection of quotes i've found that have been since reposted as a retweet to the "these sound like they're from the bible or paradise lost but they arent", these ones are specifically screenshots of Tumblr, tho there are good twitter ones:

"'God knows all your ugliness' my mother says 'and loves you despite' 'is that supposed to make me feel loved?' I reply 'I am still ugly, he is still God.'" -@avainblue

"the preacher may never marry us and my mama may never know you but I can kiss you over a flask of whiskey and dance with you under the stars and if that isn't marriage I don't know what else God is looking for." -@maybecowboycore

"you grow a beautiful tree and then balk at its fruits?" -@orcboxer

"no fate is so immovable that we cannot change it." -@swords-n-spindles

"god may judge you but his sins outnumber your own." -@afabbaeddel

"do you think jesus, the son of a carpenter, smelt the wood of the cross & temporarily thought of home." -@katabasiss

"you kneel before my throne, unaware that it was born from lies." -@aplpaca

there are probably more that deserve to be on this list, but these are the ones I've found on pinterest

[sidereon-spaceace]

I got tagged by @cherryredjoy to list ten songs!

Every Time / Seven Lions and So Below

You Know What You Are? / Nine Inch Nails

PULSE / Tony Ann

RUN THRU ME / MILKBLOOD

Free / Mother Mother

Nel Nome Del Codice / Keygen Church

American Money / BØRNS

Chemicals / The Glitch Mob

Herald of Darkness / Old Gods of Asgard

The Troubles - Alternate Version / U2

I'll tag @personshapedsplder , @tattoosingarishhues , and @aplpaca

[uinferno]

OCtober Day 25 — Gifts

Late birthday gift to @aplpaca. Her PC, Vyma, in my Cyberpunk Mistborn game I've been running.

[misterfudgelord]

SEND THIS TO OTHER BLOGGERS YOU THINK ARE WONDERFUL💜💜💜💜

@alohaasaloevera @pidgeeepombo @pidges-lost-robot @ikimaru @nikogane @klanced @aplpaca @glimzo @binart mass communication, the wonders of the modern age

[life-b4-death]

Tagged by @evening-bat for 5 songs I've been loving a lot lately. It'd be lame as hell to put five songs from the new twenty one pilots album on here so I'm trying to mix it up haha

I tag @blooming-dark-flower @kaladinkholins @aplpaca @cami-chats and @chaos-and-recover 😎

[cambodiancheese]

@aplpaca found this quote, decided to draw a picture.

[aplpaca]

finished a painting thingy of a field in north carolina, based on a picture I took during field work. It started pouring like 7 mins after we finished banding our sparrows the day I took the og photo.

[lightspren]

10 songs, 10 people

tagged by @cedar-phoenix and i hope i’m understanding right that it’s “10 songs u like, something you like about them, tag 10 ppl” because THATS WHAT I’M DOING lmfao

Worth It - Haley Heynderickx. This song has been There For Me in ways I can’t fully describe. “Maybe I, maybe I’ve been selfish / Maybe I, maybe I’ve been selfless / Maybe I, maybe I’ve been worthless / Maybe I, maybe I’ve been worth it”

The Graveyard Near the House - The Airborne Toxic Event. Possibly my favorite love song, as morbid as that probably sounds LOL. It’s just so full of meaning. “It’s better to love whether you win or lose or die / It’s better to love, and I will love you ‘til I die”

No Choir - Florence + the Machine. Another that makes me feel things. The opening lines live in my head rent free Forever. “And it’s hard to write about being happy, ‘cause the older I get / I find that happiness is an extremely uneventful subject.”

Not With Haste - Mumford & Sons. I don’t think I can even pinpoint a specific line on this one, it’s just the whole song that gives me Emotions. Something something enjoying all the time we have to it’s fullest and loving fiercely, something idk

Green Screens - Sleeping At Last. If you asked me to tell you what this song was about i’d just stare at you blankly until we both passed out. And yet it Speaks to me.

Almost (Sweet Music) - Hozier. My fave Hozier song, it’s so good and makes me super happy

Eight - Sleeping At Last. “When I see fragile things, helpless things, broken things / I see the familiar” as a kid who grew up in an occasionally volatile household, this song speaks to bruises still on my heart.

Some Nights - fun. SOME NIGHTS I STAY UP CASHING IN MY BAD LUCK lalala I’ve loved this song for over a decade and even in my worst moods, I will scream-sing it in the car.

All At Once - The Airborne Toxic Event. Definitely a song that’s spoken to me thru late teens and 20’s. “We grow old all at once / And it comes like a punch / In the gut, in the back, in the face”

Carry On - fun. Ending on one more song that carried (lol) me through my teen years and into adulthood. “If you’re lost and alone / Or you’re sinking like a stone / Carry on”

now for tagging!! if you don’t wanna do it please don’t feel obligated, it’s just for funsies. and if you wanna do it but i don’t tag you then do it anyway and pretend I did!

@herestothekids @cephalopodvictorious @aplpaca @wendelbarge @imnotokaywiththerunning @whovianuncle @unthinkingclunk @zeromorph @chris-wonder @iwishiwasatraveler

[mxlxdroit]

tagged by @deanmarywinchester absolutely AGES ago to do a receipt! thanks michael :) shoutout to your rhiannon giddens track, i love her music.

i had to do it for the past six months because i haven't used spotify in the last month, apparently

yes, i did buy the boygenius album so i don't have to listen to it on spotify all the time #supportartists

special shoutout to the blur song. it is so good and i want to get that album too

tagging: @aplpaca @satoshihiwatari @thebreakfastgenie @stroyent @charjo @sun-dari if you want to!

[thebookbin]

Inda

Sherwood Smith

Genre: epic fantasy, military fantasy Publisher: DAW Books (Penguin Random House) Year: 2006

It's easy to tell when certain traits are passed on through family. One of my oldest friends has the exact same sarcastic laugh as her brother. Another friend has a daughter that does the exact same expression of puppy eyes when she wants something. Me? Well, my mom buys stuff off instagram ads like nobody's business. While I don't do that exact same thing, I am easily influenced.

So when I came across a post by @aplpaca about one of her favorite childhood series, I was cautiously intrigued. Then, while waiting for one of my other holds, I discovered my local library had the entire quartet, so I grabbed a copy of Inda, which I read in a single sitting, and I have no regrets (justice for Dogpiss).

Where to even begin? One of my all time favorite tropes is books with child narrators when the books aren't necessarily for children (see: Ender's Game, This Tender Land, Dear Edward). I think children are such an underutilized point of view in books not aimed for children and Sherwood Smith manages it all so well, it's almost like there are two stories happening at once: one in the idyllic world of children and the other harsh light of adulthood.

Inda (who gives Kaladin vibes for the Stormlight Archive fans) is such a singular title character. This first book focuses on his childhood from a bright-eyed second prince to an exiled privateer on the high seas, this book takes you places. Inda, while clearly the main character, is not the only POV character by far. The world Smith builds is fascinating, queernormative, and expansive. It's hard to encompass everything this book is in one short review, so I'll try and hone in on a few specifics.

Smith is such a master of characterization that even the main antagonist, Aldren, most commonly referred to in the book as the Sierlaef, feels tragic. As a young boy with a disability and a distant father, it's so easy to see how in his desperate search for validation, he reaches for the poisonous influence of his uncle. No child should have to bear the weight of such responsibility, distance, and aloofness. As he grows and the adults around him fail him, and he rebuffs all pivotal moments of redemption and his inevitable descent into villainy becomes a tragedy. Just the right word here, a genuine friend there, and the Sierlaef would have grown to be a noble man, if not a good one. Instead, by the end of the novel he goes from misguided, angry teen to a selfish, dangerous, obsessed man. Every single character has this level of detailed motivation, story, and outcome—even the ones you don't like.

This book made me laugh, it made me cry. (Yes, I did cry real tears for a character named Dogpiss by his fellow child soldiers). The love depicted in this book—familial, friendship, duty—is exquisite. There aren't really any romantic relationships I can point to in this installment, most marriages are marriages of convenience or politics and romance isn't a factor. This is a book of loyalty, bonds, and destiny. I can't recommend it enough.

storygraph | bookshop.org | local houston

★★★★★ JUSTICE FOR DOGPISS STARS

[kidrat]

Tag 10 people you want to know better Tagged by @en-theos (thank u!)

song stuck in my head: uuuuh nge opening I think? I've never watched more than bits and pieces of the start of the show tho lmao

last song I listened to: technically just sleep lofi but before that I was listening to a Karen Jonz so last song 'peças quebradas' by her

favorite color: been on a green kick for a while, really like bright emerald tones / Houseplant Colour. generally a big fan of blue too, especially sky blues and vivid + pale + cool blues.

three favorite foods: there's these rlly good beef brisket noodles from a pho place in the city centre that i have romantic feelings for. been enjoying pbj sandwiches recently too which is random because I never ate them growing up. also ice cream, especially swedish glace chocolate stuff

last thing(s) I googled: lol after the song question I went and googled how you pronounce the letter ç in brazilian portuguese (like an 's' apparently)

dream trip: I don't really desire travel. like it doesn't rlly occur to me so I dont have hypothetical trips i think about? HOWEVER i am excited to go to london w some online friends this month! and to go on a canal boat long weekend w other friends later in summer

tagging @aplpaca @larvamotif @hardoncaulfield @facelessoldgargoyle @nitrosplicer @tyrannuspitch @finelythreadedsky @vracious @thoodleoo @orpheuscas

[kandrakelsier]

Quals are done, so I finally get to this. Thanks @merfilly for the tag!

10 characters

How to play: name 10 of your favorite characters from 10 different fandoms, then tag 10 people to do the same.

-Ahsoka Tano (Star Wars) -Vin Venture (Cosmere) -Edward Kenway (Assassin's Creed) -Bernadetta Varley (Fire Emblem) -Catra (She-Ra) -Eudico (Warframe) -Blake Belladonna (RWBY) -Hana Song (Overwatch) -Countess Amara (Codex Alera) -Isara Gunther (Valkyria Chronicles)

Tagging: @helianthus-hellion, @paltrymarshmallow, @cadenzarose, @ittybittytatertot, @hildegard-von-bangin, @ariapmdeol, @sherpawhale, @aplpaca, @onedragontorulethemall, @charjo