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local-hellhound-steals-spaghetti · 5 months ago

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Let's talk about zoo animal welfare for a second...

(And I want to preface this by saying I have a 4 year Bachelor degree in Animal Science (focusing in welfare and behaviour with a major in Canine and Equine Science) before I got sidetracked into zoo animals and did 3 internships working with wild canids, ungulates and marine mammals - this involved both hands on behaviour modification/desenitisation as well as hands off behavioural observation and welfare study. I worked for 2 years as a marine mammal specialist and worked specifically in facilities to improve husbandry, behavioural training and welfare practises.

I also worked in a facility in the Asia Pacific, working to improve welfare standards for bottlenose dolphins and continued to work with cetacean welfare researchers after this. I also did a course in zoo management, husbandry and welfare and this involved working in an accredited zoo facility learning things like exhibit design, behaviour management and husbandry with multiple species.)

So a few points to say about zoo animal welfare when discussing zoo standards and practises:

The average person does not have the expertise to do behaviour observation and welfare evaluation in zoo animals - that's why when the general public visits a zoo and says "the animal looks sad" it's worth being skeptical of that claim. But it doesn't mean a gut feeling about a zoo's quality can be completely invalid. Just that it might be worth researching further or seeking more information.

However, with experience, it is possible to analyse behaviour in the context of welfare. And context to that behaviour is always important (for example, Moo Deng showing stress related behaviour towards the specific context of being touched or followed around by her keeper - very much an indication of poor handling practises)

Poor animal husbandry and welfare is not limited to specific countries or regions, however it can be more normalised and accepted under the influnce of cultures and laws. Or even just the culture of the zoo itself such as the "this is the way we've always done it" places.

Being an accredited zoo is a start to good welfare, but it doesn't make any sort of welfare concern obsolete. And accreditation is supposed to ensure that welfare concerns are addressed but because they are mostly run as a volunteer based organisation, they often don't have resources to check into every concern (unless it's a government funded organisation)

A zoo contributing to conservation research is great, but not if it is at the expense of the animals' welfare - welfare should always be prioritised, with research and conservation efforts to follow.

Welfare is a state that is in flux. So a negative welfare state can move into positive welfare state under different influences.

There are multiple factors that influence zoo animal welfare: enclosure/habitat, expression of natural behaviour, guest interaction, diet, enrichment, water quality, hygeine ect. It'll rarely just be one factor, though it does depend how salient that factor is.

Just because a keeper or management of a zoo have been there for a long time, doesn't mean they can't be criticised - it is possible to be still using outdated practises and believing in methodologies and management practises that need updating - that's the whole point of continued education

Having limited resources can often impact welfare. Giving a facility the resources they need to improve is a good start to improving welfare.

Even if an animal is being handled in an inappropriate way for a short time, that doesn't mean that can't have long term implications for welfare eg. if every time your dog jumped on you when you got home and you smacked him in the face once before going on with your day, that doesn't mean that your dog won't learn negative associations with your arrival just because it was one time.

Best practise husbandry of zoo animals involves:

Use of positive reinforcement based voluntary husbandry and health care

All interaction based on choice and voluntary interaction that is reinforced with primary reinforcement such as food

Mostly hands off approaches for the species that require them (ungulates, large primates, large carnivores)

Relatively stable social groups with aggression only in specific situations/contexts that are normal for the species

Back areas for animals to rest outside of public view

Species appropriate habitats to meet species specific behaviour requirements

Five freedoms of welfare being met but goes above and beyond the bare minimum

Poor zoo animal husbandry involves animals:

Being forced into anything such as presentations, education programs, medical procedures/gating

Any use of physical punishment such as chasing, slapping, pushing or poking - negative reinforcement such as bull hooks are also fairly outdated in handling species like elephants

Being excessively handled, chased and touched/restrained for no reason (eg. for social media videos)

Showing signs of avoidance and aggression constantly towards their keepers

Have constant conflict happening in their social groups

Are living in enclosures that are not suitable for their specific specific needs - size is only one factor in this. Substrate, habitat design, water quality ect. are also things to consider.

Are too close to the public/at risk from the public

Have no areas to retreat from the public/rest away from potential stressors

Have no enrichment program/no daily enrichment

Those are all flags that there could be some poor welfare happening and that a zoo is not prioritising welfare

Okay there's the ramble of the day done. Feel free to ask questions for further clarification if needed.

#I kind of hate when my posts break containment because it's a full time job trying to explain things to people who think they know better #zoo politics #animal welfare #zoo animal welfare #or want to bend over backwards to justify shitty animal husbandry because of whatever reason

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kit-williams · 10 months ago

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Hoof Care

Yes I was really thinking of Baldamort's voice for Drar (Watch his video on the Master of Executions and well you can probably figure out where I got Drar's voice from)

Husbandry tag list: @egrets-not-regrets @liar-anubiass-blog @barn-anon @bleedingichorhearts @gallifreyianrosearkytiorsusan

thank you @squishyowl for the 40k themed dividers

It was that time of the month again where you'd get a call to go to them they paid you quiet a bit and of course you weren't the only person going... it was always a big big event. You head to the Iron Warrior's base near the city... most Chaos Space Marines' don't have bases but their loyalist counterparts do... though Iron Warriors are an exception not a norm. Though you weren't sure as the Iron Warriors didn't have too much friction with their "traitor" selves? You didn't understand nor really bother too.

The norm would be the fact that there is a Night Lord base being built somewhere given that there were now enough loyalist night lords demanding it. But you made sure your tools were sharp and everything was ready... you knew the only downside of the Iron Warriors was the fact that both loyalist and traitor elements kept pushing and vying for power within their own... faction?

As you backed your truck in and got out you could hear his crooning... he was old had that slightly withered lit to his voice as it croaked out of him as if he had ruined his vocal cords time and time again. "Missy so nice of you to join us." Drar the Warpcutter spoke and if you remembered he said he was the leader of a warband known as the Malefactors of Sin.

"Lord Drar... and hello Helios." You politely said as his Master of Executions followed. The big man behind him looked at you and you swallowed... you didn't get the feel good vibes everyone else got. Your eyes flicked to their weapons... to the skulls up their belt... and you had a feeling Drar enjoyed the fact you were afraid of them. "Where is Vasso..." You ask for the current "chapter master" and you watch Drar wave his hand.

"Busy. The child is going to work himself to death at this rate and I... took the liberty of playing host for him." He says with a grin, "But enough pleasantries... you're the final one to arrive." You flinch as his massive hand pushes against your back and you move into the hanger.

Chaos Space Marines of countless chapters and warbands were here all highly mutated. Heavy hooves clipped and clopped against the floor as centaurs made their way to the designated zone. You headed over to the other ferriers as Drar trilled his goodbye and Helios just gave a nod. You could see where other space marines were watching and learning how to take care of their mutated brothers and cousins as in the far corner you could see iron warriors guarding feral marines that took the offer for maintained care but do not want humans touching them. You could understand as it took you a long time to get over the wrongness of your clients.

At least they behaved better than horses, the massive hooves were clipped and trimmed even polished if they wanted too. The utterly massive Black Legionary stallion... Troc was his name, he would have been such a pretty black horse, brought his own shoes... shiny brass things. He liked his hooves painted a nice solid black.

You could hear Adamatar bellowing as the white minotaur had hurt one of his hooves and so trying to get him to behave enough to put a block on his hoof was feeling like an impossible task. You could spy long tails wagging as fur coats were being brushed... a canine centaur of a Night Lord was half asleep as he was getting his jet black fur coat groomed and nails trimmed on his paws. You trimmed the frog of Troc's hooves just shaping his hoof as he was currently gushing about his bonded... a little girl who had a habit of calling him "pony" or "horsey" when she got overly excited and also calling him "Truck".

The shiny iron horseshoes of a bulky draft of an Iron warrior caught your eye. They certainly liked to feel pretty.... you shiver as a heavily mutated space marine lumbers past... organized chaos of it all and you're getting paid enough that it makes you not have to worry about the slower times of the year.

You could see someone with their body leaning into a massive stomach maw just cleaning the teeth of the marine. You stop looking as you hammer in his shoe and work on cutting the nails and then applying the black hoof polish.... rinse and repeat.

Sure they cooperated more then an actual animal but it was still a lot of hard work. "Hey!" You snapped at someone's apprentice. "Don't just walk behind them!" You said pointing out the fact that they were just walking right behind the centaurs. Which if he was working with actual horses was bad practice.

"They won't kick." They countered back.

"Yeah but they still can't see you and when you work with an actual horse they will kick if you walk right behind you. Give them the same berth as you would an actual horse because if one of these boy's kicks you're going to die." You huff as you resume working on the hooves of the Iron Warrior as someone was working on his horns... it was sometimes easier to do multiple tasks on the same marine as they kept still.

Lunch was provided and it was nice... it felt normal to have that lull in working as you grabbed a coffee as you worked in shifts... went around inspecting other's techniques... watching how some of them were teaching their apprentices, in various fields, or how they were teaching the Astartes on how to take care of their own. Sometimes a feral marine would be brave and try to get taken care of by one of us "mortals" but you never volunteered you had plenty of Astartes asking for you to work on them personally.

But the day blurred on by till you were getting handed a stack of cash of a few thousand dollars with the hope that you would come back same time next month and as well as the cavate that if something changed they would inform you. Again you see Drar as you head back to your trunk and a cup of coffee, that looks so small in his hands, is given to you. "What's this for?"

"Job well done?" He croons.

"Ah yes the usual hush coffee so I don't tattle on Vasso of you playing chapter master huh?" You say ignoring the scowl on his face as you sip the coffee, "or... is it hush coffee to keep me from tattling again to Vasso because you enjoy scaring people?"

"Mouthy little mortal aren't you." He hisses as you cow slightly, far too tired to not be filled with dread as he moves far too smoothly for something so big. He spat to the side, "But something like that."

"And like usual I'm going to be the last one to leave because you like chatting." You say tiredly as you drink the hot brew that made you feel tired. You had enough for a hotel in the city for tonight though... beds were always available here at the fortress. "I have a feeling you're going to chat me up so long I might just have to spend the night."

Drar laughed, it was hardly a pleasant sounding thing... it was dark and ominous... it was downright an evil sounding thing that ended rolling in his chest till it quieted. "You look exhausted."

You just drank the coffee to prevent yourself from making a 'captain obvious' joke, "I might stay tonight or at least get a few hours of shut eye."

"Then let me play the good host once more." He crooned and you just locked your car after placing your tools inside... just a few hours of sleep then you'd make the drive home.

#warhammer 40k #space marine husbandry #space marine husbandry sentience #tales from the barn #Missy the farrier #Master of Executions Helios #Lord Drar the Warpcutter #I didn't know how to end this #I think this is fine #No bond #Missy is not warp blind

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sparkylurkdragon · 1 year ago

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Yep.

And it can work with adults, though it's obviously easier with puppies and kittens. Urist the cat learned bite inhibition during her trick-training sessions that started when she was about a year old. She was a little too excited about grabbing treats out of my hand, but after yelping and immediately stopping the sessions, she learned how to be very gentle within two or three interrupted sessions, with the occasional reinforcement over the following month or two.

She's now very gentle when she takes treats from me, and I also meet her halfway by putting treats somewhere she can reach without taking them out of my hand, such as dropping them in front of her or resting them on a knee.

Source: [x]

Follow Ultrafacts for more facts!

#animal training #animal husbandry #pets #dogs #cats #housecats #canines

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champawattigress · 1 year ago

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Furthermore, people on this site need to accept that the topic of "animals" is vast and encompasses hundreds of specialised disciplines, of which even the most knowledgeable person can only have mastered a handful. The person who knows a lot about snake/rodent/bird husbandry and behaviour (random example, not referring to anyone in particular) is not automatically an authority of canine behaviour.

You all need to stop treating animal blogs on this site as authorities on every animal topic in existence. Too many people are gaining followings based on a specific topic they happen to have a lot of knowledge about, and then being treated by the userbase like their opinion on other topics is worth more than any other rando's.

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justkidneying · 16 days ago

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Why some crossbreeds work and some don't

We can breed two types of dogs together (same species), or a donkey and horse together (same genus), but you can't breed a cat and dog together (fucking obviously). But why? And why do we even want to crossbreed things in the first place?

As for the why, that's simple: hybrid vigor. Also known as heterosis, hybrid vigor is the idea that crossbreeds have better fitness (ability to survive and reproduce) than their pure bred parents. Mostly, this term is used in agriculture and animal husbandry, but I think it leads the way for an interesting discussion (and we're definitely going to get weird in this one ;)). Sometimes though, crossbreeds are shittier at certain things. Think about a camel x llama mix. They wanted it to have the six of a camel but the hair of a llama. As far as I am aware, this program was not very successful.

Genetic Basics

For every gene, you have two copies. Each of these alleles is a bit different. Some are dominant and are expressed in the phenotype (the observable characteristics of an organism), while others are recessive (but they can still be passed on). There are other types of gene expression, but I won't go into them here. One hypothesis on why hybridizing an organism gives it better fitness is due to these dominant alleles. The theory states that as a population becomes more related, more of the recessive traits are allowed to be expressed. When you introduce a new genome with dominant alleles, you can overcome the shitty recessive ones.

Crossbreeding corn and shit is really cool and interesting, but I'm not a plant scientist so I'm not going to talk about it. We're going to talk about animals instead. So crossbreeding is mostly between things that are the same species, so think of Goldendoodles and Texas Heelers. There isn't a lot of research actually showing that mutts are inherently more fit than their parents. The main thing you can overcome is inbreeding depression (like how bulldogs don't live that long). Most traits associated with inbreeding are from recessive alleles. But sometimes you actually want to inbreed if you're looking for a specific trait (like a bloodhound's nose).

Crossbreeds that Work

Now onto some more fun stuff (in my opinion). The number of chromosomes and the relation of two species will let us know if they can crossbreed. I'll give some animals and their number will be their number of chromosomes.

Dog (78) + Wolf (78) = Wolfdog (78)

Bos tarus [cow] (60) + American Bison (60) = Beefalo (60)

Horse (64) + Donkey (62) = Mule (63)

Alright, so the first example would create a wolf dog that can reproduce with another canine. They come from the same genus. Same thing with the bovines. Next, we get to the mule. Horses and donkeys are from the same genus, but they have different chromosome numbers. This means that the donkey contributes 31 chromosomes and the horse contributes 32 to the offspring (which is actually either a mule or hinny depending on who tops). The offspring will be sterile due to its shitty code. Mules are way better (imo) than horses or donkeys, and that's why a lot of people prefer them for doing work. However, you cannot say they are more biologically fit, as they cannot reproduce.

So mostly you can see that the crossbreeds are happening in animals that are of the same genus (though you can't always breed two genus members together). You can go less related than that, but I'm not a biologist, so I don't know many examples off the top of my head. One famous one is the marine iguana/land iguana hybrid from two members of the same family (family is a step above genus).

Crossbreeding in Humans

Now, onto humans. We have 46 chromosomes (22 pairs plus two sex chromosomes [X/Y]). We also happen to have our own genus (Homo), and the closest relationship we have is to chimps and bonobos. They both have 48 chromosomes. We share about 96-99% of our genetic code with chimpanzees. The difference here his chromosome number two. This is the chromosome that gives us the difference. Our #2 has the same info as two chromosomes in chimps. Therefore, it's thought that this is due to chromosomal fusion in our evolutionary history.

In saying this, I want you to know that we also share like 85% of DNA with dogs as well, because a lot of DNA is just being alive, having a spine, and being on land. Shit like that. There's not as much difference in animals as people like to believe.

We're gonna get weird now. So, there have been attempts to crossbreed chimps and humans, and they were unsuccessful (they were in the USSR). But if it is entirely out of the realm of possibility? No idea. I argued with some of my classmates about this for a while. There have been bigger jumps in crossbreeding, and I think we won't ever really get an answer to this anyway. I feel gross and I'm going to move on now.

One animal has successfully been hybridized with humans: mice. Transgenic mice have either human DNA inserted in their entire genome, or they may have it only in some cells of the body (chimerism). This is mostly to test disease and stuff, it's not as cool as it sounds, they're mostly just getting them to express things like interleukins. This has sparked debate however, about whether or not this is against nature or whatever. I think it's a dumb argument cause fuck it do whatever you want, but I believe that a lot of this sentiment will stagnate research and advancement in this field, so...

Where is the line between one species and another?

A weird note to end on: HeLa cells. These are a cell line from a woman's cervix (who died in the 1950s) that now have about 76-80 chromosomes. While they can't crossbreed in the normal way, they can fuck up other cell cultures. If another line is contaminated with them, HeLa cells will dominate and their genetic markers will be found in that of the resulting cell line. This made me circle back to the point about transgenic mice. The controversy from politicians was about where you draw the line about what is human and what is not. You can say a mouse with 1% human DNA is not human. But what about a 50% match? What about HeLa cells? Are they no longer human cells, and when would a line have been crossed? Anyways, just some food for thought. Thanks for reading my ramblings.

#idk why i wrote this #i was journeying down a rabbit hole #so youre welcome #medicine #med studyblr #biology #genetics

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mandana-the-service-pup · 2 years ago

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We moved Mandanas appointment back a week so she can have an elbow mass removed while she’s sedated for X-rays. In preparation for the minor surgery we’ve been conditioning her muzzle, practicing our handling techniques and going on a lot of decompression walks.

Video shows her walking with a big stick when she notices a skateboarder. It ends abruptly bc I didn’t like that she was fixated on something across a busy street. I wanted to have my hands free just in case but no worries. She recalled perfectly.

#belgian malinois #2 years #service dog in training #service dog training #positive reinforcement #decompression walk #canine husbandry #cooperative care #service dogblr #dogblr #vetblr

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sparkylurkdragon · 2 years ago

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9.) My leashed cat (or if I had one, small dog) may activate prey drive in your "friendly" large dog. Friendly with humans doesn't necessarily mean friendly with small animals (this is related to the environmental impact issue, above).

10.) Their large dog, leashed or not, may have their prey drive activated by your unleashed small dog. At least if your small friend is leashed, it means you have more control over the situation and are hopefully close enough to scoop them up out of danger, and if everyone's leashed you can check the other animal is good with smaller animals before letting them interact.

11.) Unleashed dogs are excellent candidates for getting skunked, smacked by a porcupine, or bit by something rabid. Apart from everything else, it's for their own safety, too.

Everyone else talked about outdoor cats, it's time for me to talk about offleash dogs

#yep #dogs #pets #canines #animal harm mention #animal husbandry

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fallershipping · 1 year ago

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Looker and Anabel's Pokemon

Due to the fanfic Neither Black Nor White on AO3 (Rated Mature), I was thinking about my headcanons for Pokemon husbandry and what it takes to keep such amazing, unique, and uniquely costy creatures, especially in the terms of Anabel.

Looker is pretty simple since he only has Croagunk, but a good reason he has another Croagunk after his last one's passing is that he's well aware of the species and how to properly care for one.

An old piece but Looker wears safety gloves when handling this species. Not just to protect himself from the poison that seeps from its body fairly naturally (even if it's in very low doses) but mostly because amphibians are very porous. Gloves that do not irritate its skin and are frequently washed are something Looker has for the lil guy. He also is well aware of how Croagunk's poison/venom works: in very low doses from a Poison Jab it can safely knock down a fully grown person to put them in a drowsy state. It can even be reworked for medicinal purposes.

Beyond that he's well aware of the environment Croagunk needs to thrive. Regular water misting or splashes in bodies of water keep the frog's skin moist, but Croagunk isn't too hard to maintain due to the body size and species.

The real tricky person is Anabel.

Now still on Looker's side, Anabel has given him (forced onto him, really) shared custody of her Riolu/Lucario in my headcanon. He's been learning how to take care of such a Pokemon, which is actually quite a simple species due to being a loyal canine. I don't believe Pokemon eat processed kibble, but Lucario can eat a diet similar to a human except with more of a meat/eggs focus. (And no chocolate, I don't believe the Lucario Movie in the slightest.) Unlike Croagunk, doesn't need a special place to sleep or regular skin moistenings.

Now firmly on Anabel, we have from order of obtainment: Snorlax, Alakazam, Raikou, Latios, Entei, Weavile, Mismagius, Salamence, and (Shared Custody)Lucario.

Having a Munchlax/Snorlax starter ALONE sounds costly enough. It's known to be a gluttonous Pokemon, so it's already expensive by itself. Anabel thankfully has a plan. International Pokemon League Societies provide benefit for trainers: things like access to specialized food, items, and certifications based on the level trainer someone is. (This is why you can only buy Ultra Balls after certain amount of accomplishments.)

So Anabel has special nutrient rich Snorlax food that keeps it happy. Snorlax as a species tend to fall under "you are what you eat" so if they eat low energy vegetation they'll need a lot, versus high protein/calorie food products that get processed easier into energy. Snorlax also enjoys restaurants that also serve the Pokemon, as it can enjoy human-based food as treats.

Alakazam and Weavile are simple diets like Lucario and Croagunk. Mismagius doesn't need to eat but can "ingest" a treat if she wants to. Salamence needs more due to size but can eat fruits, root veggies, eggs, and meat.

And then there is Raikou, Entei, and Latios. Two big cat carnivores and one long-migration Pokemon, all legendaries. There is not enough information about this Pokemon, and people who train legendaries are but a handful. Anabel needs a properly licensed certificate alone for Salamence and Snorlax. She needs a VERY SPECIAL certification and Trainer ID to even allow for her rare, precious, and intense legendary creatures-- and to prove that she can take proper care of them.

They are like endangered species mixed with cryptids, and their diets can be specialized. Thankfully, however, Latios is easy to feed with a similar diet to Salamence except with less meat. He often finds food on his own, however. Raikou and Entei can have meat at home, but would much rather hunt for their own food. That being said, they also seem to gain energy from volcanic activity and thunderstorms, as they are still a rather mystical species. Anabel is weary about letting them hunt for themselves, because they fall under an invasive species or something akin to letting your cat be an outdoor cat so that it kills all the birds in the area (Not cool. Stop making your cat an outdoor cat.)

But if anything, Latios, Raikou, and Entei are very, very intelligent. They don't overhunt; they take what they need from the earth and repay it. They rely on the energy of the planet as well as the energy of their diet, so they are three independent Pokemon that keep themselves fed.

Even so, with International Police and the League Associations, Anabel can breathe easy that she's not breaking the bank just to keep her Pokemon fed. Just as long as she's following regulations and providing research info on rare species, a lot of her food costs as subsidized or her Pokemon are taken care of when she uses the PC to send them over to a general caretaker.

Burnet and Wicke in Alola provide free health screenings on her Legendaries as they are the only ones Anabel trusts, and they want to work with such increadible Pokemon!

And that's what I have in terms of Pokemon husbandry. It can be rather difficult to upkeep such increadible creatures without extra help, so this is probably why so many people have one or two Pokemon that are considered more pet-like than anything.

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astarab1aze · 9 months ago

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➥ Runaway Mage

⸻Technical Information. // Face, Voice, etc.

01. Faceclaim. Yoru [ Shishi no Odoriko ] & Personal or Comm'd art 04. Voice Claim. Miyavi, if he had noticeable vocal cord damage

⸻Profile Information. // Name, Age, etc.

01. Name. Kaede Shikabane 02. Alias. Shizuka, Kae 03. Sex. Male 04. Gender. Male 05. Age. 46 [ Dependent ] 06. Birth Date. October 31st [ Balemagus ] 07. Blood Type. AB+ 08. Race. Half-Elfhen & Half-Feline, Zurine by nationality ; Yuureian by ethnicity. 09. Marital Status. Single [ Multiship ] 10. Orientation. Bisexual [ Biromantic / heavy male preference ] 11. Residence. He has no home, ever on the move, trying a little too hard to escape his own life in more ways than one.

⸻Physical Information. // Body, Equipment, Family, etc.

17. Physical Description. Kaede’s hair is rather long and layered, so it tends to sit in a boyish, fly-away sort of way. It’s a dark violet shade - or, pretentiously, midnight - and incredibly soft to the touch. The lighter, floral blue of his eyes contrasts nicely with his hair. More often than not, he prefers to wear it down, as he feels the style compliments his overall appearance. His body is slim with some light toning and he stands at a rough 5'5", a little on the short side even for an elf. His skin is somewhat unusually pale, denoting a lack of sleep and improper nutrition. He wears a crimson jade hip ornament said to have healing properties, handed down in his family by patriarchal members. He has an abundance of barely-there freckles all over his body and both self-harm & combat scars, a large gash across his throat and quite a few on each of his thighs - and many more on his arms, front, and back; Also has a birthmark under his right buttcheek that looks something like a smeary bruise. There is a surgical scar on his right hip caused by a near-ruinous injury and the surgery that followed. On each pointed long-ear, his lobes are pierced, as well as two cuffs on his right ear. He has a natural pair of darkly spotted snow leopard ears and a long, fluffy tail as well as slit pupils, long canines, patches of dark fur along his spine and shoulders, and claw-like nails. Also x3, he has a phenomenal ass.

13. Equipment. He is effectively always ready for a fight, keeping a Yuureian silsaph katana and at least four knives of varying styles and lengths on his person at all times. He will also have various items kept in a limitless bag including Zurine medical tools, a journal, palmseal, singing stones, minor husbandry tools, some specific alchemical reagents, witchlights, a collection of both expired and current border passes, various international currencies, witchlights, and some other magical items and tools. 14. Occupation. Untethered sorcier with allegiance to no governing body on the continent ; He has chosen to never kill for a ruler or agency, as well as never to be a court mage, devoting himself to a life of drifting in order to escape his obligations. 15. Job Performance. Not Applicable 16. Parents. Juno Miris of Lakensov, Vago (deceased) and Kurai Shikabane of Chiisana, Yuurei (deceased) ; He doesn't much remember his mother and though he doesn't know it, she remains attached to him in spirit as a demonic presence - his father, however, he is glad to be rid of. 17. Siblings. Terin Shikabane (deceased) and Morrigan ( @elysiumtouched ) through seemingly tenuous relations, but they are in fact all half-brothers.

⸻Personality Information. // Likes, Strengths, etc.

18. Likes. Kirati dragon's breath, Myrrdinian chocolate oranges, specifically Yuureian tea, most animals, long moonlit walks, most international foods, taking naps, drawing, listening to local street music, dancing, men with light hair, singing, spending time with his lixni Muushi, Vagoan whisky, knives, flowers, black coffee, sharing snacks and drinks, ignoring Crimson-Talon letters, reading and researching, exploring old ruins, etc. 19. Dislikes. Inefficiency, most mushrooms, most sweet things, being forced to improvise, being flustered or confused, blood on his skin or staining his clothes, the sight of corpses, failure, imperfection, being responsible for other people’s lives, lack of control, being noticed, most nightfolk, most humans, all Wildlings, the undead, cottonmouth cakes, scarbuncle cheese, most other sorciers, most other elves, etc.

20. Positive Traits. Honest. Diligent. Loyal. Protective. Committed. Persistent. Strong willed. Hard-working. Thoughtful. Kind. Generous. Earnest. Firm. Loving. Prepared. Giving. Mostly merciful. Self-sacrificing. Open-minded. Accepting. Proud. 21. Negative Traits. Distrustful. Obstinate. Conflicted. Reckless. Guarded. Hard-headed. Hot-tempered. Bratty. Snobby. Self-loathing. Self-conscious. Reactive. Melancholic. Isolative. Impatient. A smidge obsessive. May get jealous. Envious. Naive. Prone to panic. 22. Goals. To try to find a way to beat the madness before it takes him. 23. Desires. Freedom from his grief, and forgiveness for the lives he couldn’t save or had to take, whether against his will or not; To love and be loved as though he were truly worthy of it. He’s tired of floating through life with nothing to show for it, and being hunted as a consequence. 24. Alignment. Neutral Good

25. Personality. Kaede has some difficulty forming relationships with other people and is generally very slow to start. Incidentally, this frees up a lot of his time, so he pours nearly all his focus into his work. He’s incredibly flawed in some aspects of his reasoning and decision-making, despite his intelligence, having assigned an arbitrary amount of blame to himself for past failures and horrific incidences, perceived or not. He’s the small and silent type, with a spoonful of emotional baggage and social ineptitude. Though he comes off as cold and formal at times, he has a mischievous streak and can be rather playful under the right conditions. He can also be sweet and somewhat boyish, though he’s mostly a bit bratty and hardheaded. He’s a sensitive soul at the end of the day, riddled with trauma responses and other behaviors resulting from years upon years of emotional, mental, and physical abuses - where the bulk of his trust and mental health issues stem from. He has vivid flashbacks about the massacres, nightmares too, and such will drag him back into an incosollable state of fear and misery. Although, he tends to hide, like a feline trying to lick their wounds in private.

⸻Sorcery Information. // Affinity, Talent, etc.

26. Affinity. Necrotic and Fire - high-level control, practiced and mastered well at the Zurine Mages' University. 27. Shapeshifting. Not applicable - he never cared much for transformation as a school of magic and wasn't born naturally capable of it in the first place. 28. Utility. Wards, curses, summoning, husbandry, and illusions - moderate. 29. Specialization. Lightning Magic, summoning, illusions, and some Bestial magic - highly skilled thanks to years of careful study, practice, and fine-tuned familial & cultural techniques handed down for generations. 30. Graduate School. Zurine Mages’ University - the only active school for mages on the pangea ; Extremely dedicated to quality, well-rounded education and therefore expensive, though they do offer scholarships based on potential ; Open to all magical folk, or those who can afford it ; Generally treated as a sort of haven for them. 31. Classification. Anthromorph, Runaway Mage ; Anthromorphs are a sub-type of shapeshifter or were whose human and primary animal forms are permanently apparent in some combination - they are equally as animal as they are ‘human’ in appearance and physiology. Kaede is somewhat different as he gets his animal parts from his elfhen side ; Runaway mages, or untethered sorciers (typically), are effectively deserters and thereby marked for capture and hollowing, which drains a mage of their magic and leaves them a weak, nearly-mindless husk of their former selves - there is a steeper cost to receiving an education at the University.

⸻Background Information. // Past to Present. // Warnings for...death, arranged marriages, underage marriage, murder, cheating, very dysfunctional families, abuse, and other things that were kinda common in medieval times. There's a lot more to Kaede's story et all, but I've kinda beaten all the details to death.

Kaede has really only ever known death and misery over the course of his life.

Born to miserable people - Juno of Clan Miris in Lakensov, a free spirit of a fledgling warrior, and Kurai of the Shikabane Clan out of Yuurei, an insecure, powerless man - in a miserable, atypical arranged marriage brought on by desperate need for saphluvium and pig-iron. Juno was young when she was promised to Zenchuu Shikabane, and at the time, Kurai was only a handful years older than her. The two were inseparable when they met, and Zenchuu, next in line as head of the Shikabane, thought nothing of it. Allowing Juno and Kurai to befriend one another - seemed only fair when considering how much older Zenchou was in reality (14 versus 349). But such was the way of things, to secure much needed resources.

Some Vagoans dedicate their lives entirely to monster hunting and extermination, curse breaking, escorting, smuggling, artisanship, among other related fields of work - they forge their weapons and tools with saphluvium, silver, and both proper and pig-iron. With local mines fast-depleting, the Miris Clan was losing grip on their trade, gradually becoming poorer and poorer. It came to a point they couldn't take care of the children anymore, so they arranged marriages, hoping to restore their clan through agreements, alliances, and, well, marriages. Insodoing with Juno, they were able to secure enough iron, silver, and saphluvium to get back on track and breathe some new life back into their clan and community - the hope, then, was that her new family would treat her well and care for her in the ways they couldn't at the time, though it took much longer than it seems, and she wasn't treated well.

The Shikabane are, in some ways, obsessed with death due to generational curses, malice, and genuine evil that'd taken root hundreds of years ago. For some time, they were isolatory, refusing to interact with anyone outside the clan. Naturally, predictable problems cropped up, problems that some were desperate to be rid of and others were only too happy to wallow in. Much of their history is buried, though accurate and detailed descriptions of what sins were committed by their number exist, if only in theory. Such that happened to Juno, whose betrayal of Zenchuu by having an affair with Kurai resulted in her murder a handful years later, when Kaede was small enough to perhaps not remember her later on in life...and the Madness that gripped Taisho, the head of the family before Zenchou, that caused him to slaughter so many.

The madness persisted, and it was soon found a host of demons had possessed certain members of the Shikabane hundreds of years before, biding their time, lying in wait, on top of the threat of ever encroaching insanity - the curse of the Mad Empress all elfhen are subject to. Worse still, it was found Taisho aimed to use Kaede in a blood ritual as a vessel to house the devils inhabiting his body at the time. Taisho violently killed as many people as he could, from the oldest members of the clan to some of the youngest, and far too many had died before he could be stopped by the likes of Kurai and the few who remained that weren't children.

From that day on, though the blame wasn't Kaede's to bear, he was treated as responsible for it all because he was mentioned by name in Taisho's journals, multiple times. Endless obsessive rants about stealing his body, smothering his soul, working his way up to clan head again, murder murder murder- Kaede was special after all. The only member of the family in hundreds of years capable of wielding not one, not two, but multiple forms of magic with a very unique proclivity toward lightning magic and illusions. Taisho killed so many just for a chance to take him and use him, so the remaining family associated Kaede with their loss, as the cause of it, the reason. More than that, however, was the fear Taisho's ritual had worked, and the simple fact Kaede was there where Taisho was dead.

So Kaede got the brunt of everyone's wrath, but especially Kurai's. All failure, every misstep, every stumble out of line was punished severely for years. Kurai would beat him, lock him up in a cell beneath the main house, isolate him through manipulation, shunning, setting too many expectations for him to follow, preventing him from ever leaving the estate. He was kept a prisoner in his own home, taumatized and without any support, forced to learn how to master certain family techniques until such a time came they decided to ship him off to Zuri with Aoi and Terin.

Terin died along the way, slaughtered by Wildlings on the border between Chimeria and western Vago. It wasn't Kaede's fault, but Aoi would see his failed plan as the cause regardless, but the truth was that the Wildlings were faster and armed with silsaph blades. They didn't stand a chance, not really, not ever. In the end, Terin knew this well and had already accepted his fate, thinking of his death before it came a sacrifice to see Kaede and Aoi get away. It would've been easier if Kaede'd been the one who died, however, for upon arrival in Zuri, Aoi informed the sorciers in Azura of Kaede's ineptitude - bitter and angry at Terin's passing. For the following ten years, he wasn't allowed to leave the University tower, at all, put on an effective house arrest until one day, they ended this punishment and gave him an ultimatum: Serve us willingly, or serve us in death.

Naturally, he took their offer - anything to be free, even if only for a little while. They were unwilling to allow his talents go to waste, no matter how he felt on the issue, and resolved themselves to use him exclusively to suit whatever ends they saw fit. Treating him in his beastly-elfhen form as expendable, only still breathing because he's useful to them, ostracized by all irrespective of him in his totality. And, for a time, he played along, intending fully to escape the minute he breathed his first breath of fresh air outside the tower.

When such opportunity arose, tasked with hunting down a runaway mage, he killed his companions in cold blood, burned the order, and ran. He's been running ever since.

#➥ Kaede.#♞ // Verse: Of Endless Suffering.#/ bleh #/ not happy about how i wrote the backstory so might rewrite it at a later date #/ servicable for now tho

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cinlat · 2 years ago

Text

OC Kiss Week: 2023

Thank you @dingoat for offering up Ahuska! I had the perfect mental picture of how this would happen immediately and it’s been killing me to keep it secret!

Kiss Type: Platonic Word Count: 766 Fandom: swtor

“What the fething hell are you doing here?”

Fynta winced at the Bothan’s sharp tone. She’d pushed Ahuska to swear a few times, but rarely upon greeting. Still, Fynta offered a lopsided grin. “I could say the same about you. Last I saw, you were shoveling tauntaun osik on Hoth.” She spread her arms to encompass the dessert at her back. “Tatooine is a long way from home.”

Ahuska snorted and turned her back on Fynta. “I’m not only a tauntaun caretaker. I specialize in a few breeds of husbandry.” Something rumbled behind the locked door Ahuska had caught Fynta trying to slice her way into. A chill raced along her spine. Ahuska must have sensed it because her snout pulled into a vicious smirk.

“So,” the Bothan prodded. “Your turn.”

“A job,” Fynta answered, though she was still staring at the locked door and trying to keep her imagination from running wild. Finally, Fynta looked at her not-quite friend. “I need to kill someone inside that palace.”

Ahuska’s features darkened, lip curling to display the tips of her canines. “Maybe I should have let you break into the cage. It would save the galaxy a lot of trouble.”

“Probably, but this guy deserves it.” Fynta retrieved her datapad to pull up the information on her mark. She didn’t always agree when Nox chose a target, but she’d been able to dig up enough on this one to know that he wouldn’t be missed. Fynta scrolled through the data and highlighted the bits that would be of interest to an animal lover like Ahuska. “Pretty sure he’s actually a bad guy.”

After a long stare, Ahuska snatched the datapad from Fynta’s hand. Her eyes narrowed at the screen, then widened when she reached the part about the underground womp rat fighting ring he ran out of the Hutt’s palace. It was by invitation only with a closed list. Fynta had failed for two weeks to get herself added, so she’d opted for an old-fashioned break-in. According to the blueprints she’d purchased from the sleazy Twi’lek in the market, that cage led to a secret tunnel.

Ahuska handed the device back to Fynta, then crossed her arms. “You’re here to kill an animal fighter? That seems a little below your pay grade.”

“It is.” Fynta had no idea why Nox wanted the man dead. Only that she was supposed to kill him. “He got on the wrong side of a Sith, but that helps, right?” She gestured with the datapad to remind Ahuska of what it held.

Another long bout of silence before Ahuska rolled her eyes. “Fine, but I’m not helping you. I’m helping them.” Fynta could live with that. She followed Ahuska to the cage and watched as the Bothan placed a hand on the scanner. “Stand back and don’t move.”

Fynta obeyed, and Ahuska swung open the door. Fynta barely restrained her bladder when a figure three meters tall loomed out of the shadows. Ahuska ignored the slobbery fangs and claws that could shred rock, speaking in soft tones while she patted the baby rancor on the chin. Finally, she glanced at Fynta. “You can come in now.”

“And yet, I don’t want to.” Fynta hadn’t moved from her spot, eyeing the darkness behind the baby and wondering where its parents were.

An amused Bothan was a funny sight. Ahuska offered what Fynta could only think of as a wolfish grin. “There’s a tunnel that leads into the lower levels of the palace in the back. It was the breeding pen, now it’s a nursery. You’ll have to climb once you reach the end.”

Caution momentarily forgotten, Fynta stepped into the cage. “You’re not setting me up?”

This time, Ahuska curled her lips in disgust. “Don’t be stupid. Just because I want to kill you doesn't mean I actually will. Besides, someone needs to help those poor creatures, and I don’t have access to that part of the palace.”

Fynta chuckled, closed the distance between them, and grabbed a started Ahuska by the snout. She planted a sloppy kiss on the side of the Bothan’s nose and danced away before the baby rancor could get agitated. “You’re the best, Fluffy.”

Fynta started towards the yawning darkness in the back of the cage at a run, mostly to avoid Ahuska’s retaliation.

“I hope you step in rancor osik,” the Bothan yelled after Fynta with a healthy amount of snarl in her voice. No doubt she’d suffer Ahuska’s wrath the next time she was within the Bothan’s reach. Until then, Fynta had a job to do.

#swtor #oc kiss week #sith fynta #mandalorian #sith assassin #in the literal sense #dingoat oc: ahuska #bothan #very much too good for fynta #XD

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