#fun fact friday

[daily-crabbys]

Crab Fact: Crabs have teeth in their stomach that help them grind their food for digestion. Ghost crabs have been observed using these teeth to growl!

[learnyouabiology]

Fun Fact: Hognose snakes are dramatic lil guys!

I am particularly fond of the snakes known as hognose snakes, and my reasons are both understandable and correct.

This is a hognose snake:

(They received their name by having the sweetest lil snoot to ever require a boop – image source)

They use these adorable snoots to burrow under sandy soil using a sort of nuzzle-y motion. They then use these burrows as a place to sleep at night, hibernate in the winter, and lay their eggs. 

(you could say they’re into... the Underground Scene! ...ok yeah i’ll show myself out – image source)

Plus, they come in a variety of delightful colours!

We've got brown! Beige! Yellow! Black! Red! Orange! Tan! Kinda greenish! Orange again!

(pretty sneks! – Here’s all the image sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)

And, to be clear, the snakes pictured above are wild snakes. No selective breeding by humans in these noodly bois! At least, not in these specific individuals. probably. I guess a few of them could be escapees... 

But most importantly: These snakes know the true meaning of DRAMA

Hognose snakes are actors, first and foremost. When they feel threatened, the first thing they do is puff out their neck into a hood. 

(like cobras, this hood is made by FLEXING THEIR NECK RIBS. which: gross – image source x)

This superficially makes them look like a cobra, but what they’re actually trying to do is make themselves seem bigger, and therefore scarier. Possibly those dark spots on their neck helps with that! 

Any resemblance to real-life Eurasian cobras, real or fictional, is purely coincidental

Also, it makes its mouth do this:

(Snakes that SCREAAAAAAAM. – image source)

honestly, if I didn’t already know that hognose snakes were harmless, this would ABSOLUTELY make me leave it the hell alone 

But if all of that^ is unsuccessful at scaring away the predator, the hognose snake pulls its signature move: playing dead

If you think that is a lame signature move, then you are wrong, because hognose snakes put EVERYTHING into their performance and I love them for it.

(they’re serious, they’ll do it!  – image source)

((I’m actually going to stick the rest of this under a read-more, bc the pictures of the alive-and-physically-fine hognose snakes do kind of look like a legitimately-dead hognose snake, if you don’t know what to look for. 

So, uh: cw for a snake being too good at pretending to be dead))

Behold: a series of completely healthy, unharmed snakes!!!

(to help with their self-esteem, we ask that you at least pretend to believe that they are dead – image sources 1, 2, 3, 4)

Honestly, the photos don’t do it justice. Here’s my favourite video of the whole wonderous performance: 

But to review:

There's writhing! There's dramatic noises! There's flipping onto their back and opening their mouth wide and letting their tongue hang out! There's excreting a combination of  intentionally smelly substances!!! Truly a master of the art of being left the hell alone (*^▽^*)

(yep. deeeeefinitely dead. not just faking it. nothing worth eating here! – image source)

Personally, my favourite part of this is how they insist on rolling onto their back, even when they are rolled back onto their stomach. 

Seriously, if you try to roll them right-side-up, they will flip back over. It's as though they believe that a good, proper dead snek MUST be on its back, obviously.

(truly fearsome – image source)

Sadly, the hognose snake may have made itself too scary, according to humans.

Out of fear, these snakes are commonly killed on sight 😔. I once heard someone proudly brag about how they’d killed a dozen cobras! In southern Ontario! Where cobras do not live! This is both extremely frustrating and deeply sad.

(safe enough to hold! although maybe don’t, just because this snake IS probably experiencing mortal fear, which is not a good feeling – image source © Dean Stavrides)

So just to highlight: hognose snakes are completely harmless. They’re just pretending to be fearsome!

(not that people should be killing venomous snakes either, imo. Let the danger noodles LIVE THEIR LIVES)

(i is baybee, pls do not hurt me – image source)

And now some bonus facts to help raise us out of that downer:

Hognose snakes are toad specialists! Their favourite food is toads, which is unusual, because toads are poisonous. Hognose snakes deal with this by force of will and also, at least two amino acid substitutions, maybe (Mohammadi et al. 2016). Possibly a few other things help with this, also (Feldman et al. 2016).

(is snek eat toad? or does toad wearing cape of snek? impossible to tell, really – image source)

Also, I have a confession: hognose snakes... are venomous. Technically.

(itty bitty little fangs at the veeeeery back of their mouth!  – image source)

They are known as rear-fanged snakes, which means they have fangs aaaall the way at the back of their mouth. The venom they produce seems to be toad-specific, and is considered to be harmless to humans unless you happen to have an allergy but that's the exception rather than the rule

(the two hognose species. They are both baybee, but in different ways actually there might be more than two species but these are the two i’ve actually learned about so ALL WELL   – image source)

Also, hognose snakes are big cowards NOT aggressive and I've never even heard of anyone getting bit by a one (outside of one feeding mishap, which we can all agree was an ACCIDENT). 

The series of events that would need to occur for you to be envenomated are so unlikely and bizarre that I assume you would have to be TRYING to get bit.

This has been Fun Fact Friday, bringing you the forbidden noodly boys to try and keep them a little more safe!

.....................................................................

Sources, because I know me and SO DO YOU:

Averill-Murray, R. C. (2006). Natural history of the western hog-nosed snake (Heterodon nasicus) with notes on envenomation. Sonoran Herpetologist, 19(9), 98-101.

Buchanan, Scott W.; Timm, Brad C.; Cook, Robert P.; Couse, Richard; Hazard, Lisa C. (2017). Spatial ecology and habitat selection of eastern hognose snakes. The Journal of Wildlife Management, 81(3), 509–520. doi:10.1002/jwmg.21218 

CHS: Canadian Herpetological Society https://canadianherpetology.ca/species/species_page.html?cname=Eastern%20Hog-nosed%20Snake

COSEWIC. 2021. COSEWIC assessment and status report on the Eastern Hog-nosed Snake Heterodon platirhinos in Canada. Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada. Ottawa. xi + 45 pp.  https://www.canada.ca/en/environment-climate-change/services/species-risk-public-registry/cosewic-assessments-status-reports/eastern-hog-nosed-snake-2021.html

Cunnington, G. M., & Cebek, J. E. (2005). Mating and nesting behavior of the eastern hognose snake (Heterodon platirhinos) in the northern portion of its range. The American midland naturalist, 154(2), 474-478.

Feldman, C. R., Durso, A. M., Hanifin, C. T., Pfrender, M. E., Ducey, P. K., Stokes, A. N., ... & Brodie Jr, E. D. (2016). Is there more than one way to skin a newt? Convergent toxin resistance in snakes is not due to a common genetic mechanism. Heredity, 116(1), 84-91. 

 Jared, C., Luiz Mailho‐Fontana, P., & Maria Antoniazzi, M. (2021). Differences between poison and venom: An attempt at an integrative biological approach. Acta Zoologica, 102(4), 337-350.

Liu, C., Chen, Y., Zheng, Y., Bo, J., Yang, C., Xu, S., & Zhang, S. (2022). Wear Resistance Improvement of Keeled Structure and Overlapped Distribution of Snake Scales. Journal of Bionic Engineering, 1-11. Citing abstract.

Mohammadi, S., Gompert, Z., Gonzalez, J., Takeuchi, H., Mori, A., & Savitzky, A. H. (2016). Toxin-resistant isoforms of Na+/K+-ATPase in snakes do not closely track dietary specialization on toads. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 283(1842), 20162111. 

 Nature Conservancy of Canada: https://www.natureconservancy.ca/en/what-we-do/resource-centre/featured-species/reptiles-and-amphibians/eastern-hog-nosed-snake.html

Plummer, M. V., & Mills, N. E. (1996). Observations on trailing and mating behaviors in hognose snakes (Heterodon platirhinos). Journal of Herpetology, 30(1), 80-82.

Rouse, Jeremy D.; Willson, Robert J.; Black, Ron; Brooks, Ronald J.  (2011). Movement and Spatial Dispersion of Sistrurus catenatus and Heterodon platirhinos: Implications for Interactions with Roads. Copeia, 2011(3), 443–456. doi:10.1643/ce-09-036     

Seburn, D. 2008. Recovery Strategy for the Eastern Hog-nosed Snake (Heterodon platirhinos) in Canada. Species at Risk Act Recovery Strategy Series. Parks Canada Agency, Ottawa. vi + 24pp.

Schwartz, V. & D. Golden (2002). Field Guide to Reptiles and Amphibians of New Jersey. New Jersey Division of Fish and Wildlife

VHS: Virginia herpetological society http://www.virginiaherpetologicalsociety.com/reptiles/snakes/eastern-hog-nosed-snake/eastern_hognose_snake.php#:~:text=Heterodon%20is%20derived%20from%20the%20Greek%20words%20heteros,meaning%20%22broad%20or%20flat%22%20and%20rhinos%20meaning%20%22snout%22

Young, R. A. (1992). Effects of Duvernoy's gland secretions from the eastern hognose snake, Heterodon platirhinos, on smooth muscle and neuromuscular junction. Toxicon, 30(7), 775-779. https://doi.org/10.1016/0041-0101(92)90013-U

Young, B. A., & Morain, M. (2003). Vertical burrowing in the Saharan sand vipers (Cerastes). Copeia, 2003(1), 131-137.

SARA: threatened https://www.canada.ca/en/environment-climate-change/services/species-risk-public-registry.html

[jurakan]

Fun Facts that could be mine, you say? I'm demanding a refund if it isn't as fun as the advertisement seemed to make it...

No pressure, huh?

Alright, then, go big or go home, I guess. Today You Learned about an architectural conspiracy theory.

Star forts!

Or bastion forts, as Wikipedia calls them.

So if you've looked at fortresses throughout history, you may notice that there came a point in which Europeans started building fortresses like this, instead of like standard castles with rectangular or circular walls. The change was the advent of gunpowder, or rather, the wide usage of gunpowder on the battlefield and in sieges. See, if you're defending a fort, and someone comes with cannons... well, they can blow the wall apart quite easily. You can also try planting explosives at the base of the walls.

Walls like this, which were thicker and lower, allowed you to have less of a target, a more difficult wall to blast through, and gave your defenders a chance to fire down at people who walked up to the wall in a way that you can't do if you don't have a good angle on them.

Or something. I don't know, I'm not a tactician. Anyway there a butt-ton of these around the world. They fell out of favor as gunpowder weapons evolved, so they became obsolete. That's not the wild part. The absolutely wild part is that there are people who have conspiracy theories about these things.

So as pointed out in this article, there's a website called starforts.org, which claims that these fortresses are not, as they appear to be, structures built for gunpowder warfare, but are actually the remains of a long-lost civilization that spanned the globe before recorded history.

I promise that I am not making this up.

The claims are things that are obviously nonsense--that these somehow harness electricity somehow to make them ancient power generators that we've somehow forgotten how to turn on, or that they're used to transport people around the globe. These whackjobs insist that Europeans didn't build these--they found them out there in the wild, or something, and built over them to disguise how old they really are. There's one assertion that they're actually grown like living organisms rather than built like... buildings.

[Ohmygoshweareadoomedspecies]

Obviously, no, this is bunk. No, it's more than bunk, it's remarkably stupid. We have records of these forts being built. You can look up why they were built the way they were! Heck, you can visit them and see their foundations and walls and see that they're clearly not organic, or ancient, or power generators, or whatever!

They look really cool, though.

[beccawise7]

Don't waste them!

May today be amazing for you!

~beccawise7💜🖤

[karkkidoeswriting]

Fun Fact Friday - Valeri cor Mantgamia

He has two dogs, Cúén and Faendie. They are Cabalusian Bear Dogs, originally bred for hunting big game like bears, but also used by the Cabalusian cavalry class íochiar, which Valeri is too, for warfare. Valeri's dogs are trained for war. They are black, though Faendie has white in her chest, big and they are basically a fantasy world version of Karelian Bear Dogs. He loves them a lot. They sleep with him and go with him basically everywhere. They have a hierarchy since Faedie is older, so she gets to sleep on Valeri's back as his weight blanket, while Cúén sleeps on his feet.

Cúén shares his name with Cúén cor Faélci, though Valeri doesn't know that yet, since Faélci is going with his cousin's name. Once they become hated allies and Valeri learns Faélci's real first name, he absolutely will not let it go that they share a name. What makes it funnier to Valeri is that Faélci is very cold and prickly, while Cúén the dog is extremely eager to please, hyper-active and always demanding affection from Valeri. The amount of times Valeri makes the "Do you want scratches, Cúén?" *turns to Faélci* "I'm talking to the dog" joke as if it never gets old is many.

He has a nice singing voice, but he has too much social anxiety to ever sing in front of other people.

He has extensive burn scars in his back. The worst burns have caused nerve damage, which causes him chronic pain. It's worst in summer, since the pain flares with temperature changes, but it's usually fairly manageable with pain medication.

He's religious. He was raised for several years in an orphanage run by a temple, so he became quite devout Arkhonite, which is the main religion in the Angusian Empire. The main god worshipped in Arkhonity is the Sun God (there's two gods) and a lot of the rituals involve fire, which is a problem for Valeri, since he has pretty bad phobia for fire, and cannot even light a candle himself.

Bear Castle Cycle Masterpost

Tag list under the cut! Let me know if you want to be added/removed!

I decided to do Creators Club's Fun Fact Friday for Valeri too, since I didn't have the time to do it last week! Tagging @creators-club @bardic-tales!

BCC tag list: @siarven @worldbuildng @emilyoracle @frvnwrites @kainablue

@writingrosesonneptune @contes-de-rheio @faelanvance @outpost51 @dotr-rose-love

[bardic-tales]

I figured today I would focus on some facts about Bianca that I have been developing recently or over the last few months. They are going to range from romantic to the mundane. Also, there is mention of BDSM practices below.

While Bianca is a demisexual, I also label her as pansexual, too. Bianca does not care what anyone's orientation is. As long as a person developed an emotional bond with her, she could become attracted to them.

Bianca is also demiromantic. She made her living for six years as a romance author. I am a sucker for sticking an author / writer character into my stories.

Both Sephiroth and she are touch-starved, but to varying degrees. Sephiroth is not use to physical contact. When Bianca first hugged him, he was stiff and leaned away from her touch.

However, they do engage in BDSM practices. He is the dominant partner. Bianca would be considered an alpha submissive. She enjoys her bratty role.

Sephiroth will manifest his wing as a sign of dominance when she is too out of line with her brat persona. He has also used his telekinetic abilities to hold her down. This is never down in an abusive way. She consents every time. Sephiroth is the only being she trusts, which is ironic in its own way.

However, one of her 'rewards' is she gets to brush and style his hair. It's a bonding experience between the two. He also likes to brush and braid her hair, placing flower crowns on her head in their dreamscape. This keeps the Hades and Persephone theming of their relationship.

Bianca sees herself as an avenging angel, as well as the self-imposed title 'Priestess of Jenova' to honor Sephiroth and their plans. She harbors a hatred for humanity after everything that happened in her life.

Bianca prefers to wear Sephiroth's clothing when she can. He does NOT mind sharing his clothes, as he sees this as claiming her in a way. She loves to envelop herself in his scent, as she has heightened senses due to her demonic heritage. His scent provides her comfort on those days when her past is just a little too much for her. She boasts that she can smell him 100 miles away. This has lead to a nickname 'his bloodhound'.

Fun fact. I was going to make FWC an isekai in this newest rewrite. I found it funny that with Bianca's reality bending powers that she could have made 'One-Winged Angel' play on the Planet when Sephiroth fought Cloud. There are times when she does play music from her world, but seeing that they are on a different planet, Cloud, Sephiroth, and the rest do not understand the music.

Her favorite music is gothic rock and darkwave, industrial rock and metal, alternative rock, trip-hop, and symphonic metal. As she was teleported onto Gaia in '96, her musical tastes stay stuck in the 90s.

Bianca is 5 foot even. I often head canon Sephiroth to be 6'5". Since she is so much smaller than him, she will often levitate off of her feet to hug him or give him a kiss.

tagging some fellow mutuals: @themaradwrites @littleshopofchaos @serenofroses @megandaisy9 @watermeezer

@nightingaleflow @prehistoric-creatures @creativechaosqueen @chickensarentcheap @glbettwrites

@seastarblue

[seastarblue]

Fun Fact Friday!

for today’s event hosted by @bardic-tales and the @creators-club , we’re doing fun facts about Harper!

———

He has a lovely singing voice, and sometimes (though he’d never admit it) he writes little songs!

Speaking of music, according to the mage’s guide his magic is classified as External Emotional Sound Magic, which basically means he can manipulate people’s emotions with his voice.

Speaking of his magic, he can also mimic voices and various sounds! It gives everyone a fright later lol

He is the most physically weak character I have, bro is Stick

^That being said, he’s much more of a sneaky character, and uses brain over brawn all the time.

Occasionally he uses Gun as well. It’s very effective.

He started developing vitiligo at 14. He thought he was dying.

His reddish hair is natural, but it got redder with time.

His favorite color is red!

And he really likes Goose (the dog who may become a dragon idk yet) and Noodle.

“those two are my kids <3” -H

———

next week is Mehri <3

[memento-morianon]

Fun Fact Friday

@creators-club, @bardic-tales

here are 5 random facts about my writing project!

my current main story is actually the result of multiple generations of ocs, as in I started by trying to write stories about some ocs, and then I gave them kids and wanted to write about the kids. and then I made those kid ocs into adult ocs and gave them their own kids, and my protagonist Morianon is one of those kids that is now an adult. I know the full backstory of both sides of his adoptive parents' families. His dad's parents were my first ever queer ocs. They're unfortunately no longer relevant to my main plot, but maybe I'll revisit them someday and write a short side story about em.

I also have more fantasy people species than are shown in my main plot, I just had to cut some of them to keep the world from feeling too complicated and crowded. I've got a third species connected to the orcs and gnomes, I've got lizard folk, I've got two types of unrelated merfolk, I even tried making kangaroo people once. I like designing people species! but they simply don't all fit in the plot, so I had to downsize.

Both of my protagonists were originally designed as elf children, but I changed my mind and Morianon ended up a bird dude while Evarin ended up a gnome. And while Morianon has had the most obvious visual changes, Evarin is the one who's had the most character changes! Morianon's backstory has been refined but not changed much, and Evarin has had a total shift in the narrative and taken a completely new role.

The Memento Morianon project was supposed to be one book but it's got such a slow and meandering plot that I was struggling to flesh it out while also keeping it shorter. So it's going to be a trilogy now, whoops! but on the other hand, coming up with the subtitles has also been fun! in order, they'll be Blood, Breath, and Bone, all of which tie into the themes and significant events that happen within each book.

I've done so much work on the worldbuilding and so much of it just won't be relevant for the narrative of any of my stories, so I'm planning on making a fully illustrated bonus book just to compile all my cool ideas. I mean, where else am I supposed to put all the fantasy biology art and extra details about the goblin revolution?

(image description: art of a chalicothere-like centaur bending forward to touch the ground. their unique skeleton is overlayed on their body. end description.)

[creators-club]

Welcome to the Fun Fact Friday event. Please refer to the project we did 'Meet the Character / Project' for everyone's talking point, if it is a day where you are encouraged to send asks about characters.

How to participate: Create a post and tell us random fun facts about your WIP or characters.

Please tag @bardic-tales after you make your post or answer a question, so I can upload it both to @creators-club and @bardic-tales. For any additional questions, how to join, or info, please see our guidelines post for the club. Thank you.

Current members:

@bardic-tales @megandaisy9 @watermeezer @littleshopofchaos

@nightingaleflowlibrary @kricketbee

@themaradwrites @pinkevilwriter

@serenofroses @asirensrage @aalinaaaaaa @goldenlilium-ocs @glbettwrites

@wyked-ao3 @badscientist @thebadphilosopher @andromedalestrange

@fantastictrashpolice @seastarblue @happypup-kitcat24 @chickensarentcheap @allaboutmagic

@ryns-ramblings @kathaliabloodyrose @riemmetric @andromedaexists @kckramer

@tales-from-nocturnaliss @pastelpinkhobbies @idonthaveapenname @the-bar-sinister @rosesonkittens

@bloodred2023 @kanobarlowe @aquixoticwrites @new-royston-cursebreakers

@rosemirmir @salmonandfox @fablesandfragments @paganmindidnothingwrong @elshells

@viscerawrites @ellowynthenotking @dawsonskyelar @greenapplespider

@edupunkn00b @the-duke-of-nuts @exclawshou @karkkidoeswriting @meerawrites

@theglitchywriterboi @mayarab @memento-morianon

[inaris-pokemon-world]

📚 shinies?

Fun Fact #16: There are certain colors for Pokemon that are considered the "standard" shiny coloration, often as they're the most common or first documented.

[same-pic-of-venus-everyday]

Fun fact friday

Venus's years are shorter than its days, with a year being ~225 earth days long and a day on venus being ~243 earth days long

[daily-crabbys]

Crab Fact: A crab can not hold your hand :(

[learnyouabiology]

Fun Fact: Many Frogs get through Winter... Underwater

Many people have heard of the legendary frogs that are able to freeze solid and survive the winter. (if not, I did write a whole post about it. so.)

This post is not about those frogs. Though amazing, they are the exception rather than the rule. It is much more common for frogs to overwinter in other ways!

The most common strategy to survive winter is to simply live somewhere that does not have winter!

(you’ll notice there are more species of frog closer to the equator. this is not a coincidence. image source)

But some frogs don’t HAVE that luxury! SOME frogs have to deal with a winter that lasts close to 6 entire months! 

(im suffering)

The majority of frogs that face this threat survive by either digging underground, or by finding a permanent body of water and just... chilling 🥶😎.

(I will not apologise for my excellent jokes. image source)

Ice is less dense than water, which is why ice burgs exist, among other things. Water is at its densest around 4°Celcius. The 4°C sinks, which means that, in the wintertime, the unfrozen bottom of the pond will (generally) not get colder than 4°C.

Additionally, frogs are ectotherms, aka “cold-blooded”, and as their body temperature drops, so too does their metabolism. This makes it so the frogs can go a long time without food, and also allows them to get by without much oxygen. 

(i love them. image source)

Frogs still need some oxygen, though, so it’s a good thing that frogs are able to absorb oxygen through their skin, just like most amphibians (all amphibians? i can’t think of an exception, but there are so many frog species that I don’t want to commit to a big word like “all”).

Generally, they’ll stay at the bottom of the pond, in a spot that has enough water flow to provide sufficient oxygen for the frogs’ diminished metabolic needs! They generally don’t bury themselves in the mud, though. That part of the pond is nearly devoid of oxygen, and also where the turtles are hibernating!

Here are some pictures of frogs overwinter underwater:

(image sources, in order: mink frog, Green Frog, Bull Frog,  fire-bellied toad, marsh frog, siberian wood frog, northern Leopard Frog.)

was this an excuse to show y’all a bunch of pictures of frogs that I like? Yes. 

(also please note: second last frog is a siberian wood frog, NOT an american wood frog, and they DO overwinter underwater (Berman et al. 2019). They’re special because they can survive months with very little oxygen, or maybe even no oxygen at all! Good for them 😊)

This has been Fun Fact Friday, letting you know that when the frog gets cold, the frog goes to bed for 6 months. Honestly same.

Sources under the cut!

Berman, D. I., Bulakhova, N. A., & Meshcheryakova, E. N. (2019). The Siberian wood frog survives for months underwater without oxygen. Scientific reports, 9(1), 1-7. [PDF]

Jenkins, C. N., Pimm, S. L., & Joppa, L. N. (2013). Global patterns of terrestrial vertebrate diversity and conservation. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 110(28), E2602-E2610. [PDF]

How do frogs survive winter? Why don't they freeze to death? Scientific American: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-do-frogs-survive-wint/

[jurakan]

Do you have any Fun Facts today? Maybe something literary?

You know what? I think I can manage that. Everyone knows about the friendship between C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien. But there's another guy who gets skipped out on, and was super-influential on Lewis.

Today You Learned about Roger Lancelyn Green!

Our boy Robert here was an undergraduate at Oxford when he met Jack Lewis, who was his teacher. After graduating and becoming an Oxford scholar in his own right, he remained very good friends with Lewis and a member of the Inklings. He actually traveled with Lewis and his wife, Joy, on vacation to Greece, shortly before Joy's death in 1960.

If you read histories of the Inklings, you may notice that Tolkien didn't seem to like drafts of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe that much. Well, Lewis's friend Lancelyn Green did, and encouraged him to keep working and eventually publish it.

[Wikipedia also says he came up with the title 'Chronicles of Narnia', but there's no citation on that sentence, so take it with a grain of salt.]

Roger has his own literary career, too. He wrote several books for children, retelling myths and folklore, from Greek myths, to Norse myths, to Arthurian stories. And these books are all still widely available! He's also the author of several literary biographies of people like Andrew Lang (compiler of fairy tale books), Lewis Carroll (author of Alice in Wonderland), J.M. Barrie (author of Peter Pan), and of course, C.S. Lewis himself.

It's actually pretty cool that we have a biography of C.S. Lewis by a guy who was close friends with him, I think!

Also, he was the father of literature scholar Richard Lancelyn Green, but that guy, I think, deserves his own Fun Fact for another time.

[samanthasgone]

Credit: sportsgirlclub

Fun fact Friday!

(🎥: @carleecalf and @sportsgirlsclub on TT and IG)

( good news is that they probably do know who we are )

[karkkidoeswriting]

Fun Fact Friday - Cúén cor Faélci

He got into revolutionary politics through lesbianism. As a 17 yo he had a lesbian phase so he got into lesbian poet circles, where he met all kinds of lesbians - working class, republican, revolutionary, Cabalusian separatist. He also met trans masc people and quickly realized he was a) not a woman b) not into women.

He's really good at archery, including horse archery. He won archery contests as a teenager. They have guns so archery is basically a sport of the nobles, not used in warfare. Cabalusian nobles use archery for hunting too. He's also a very good marksman with rifle.

He has conspired with his sister, who along with her husband are also Cabalusian separatists, to keep the fact that he's been infiltrating the Virénian army for several years hidden from their mother and the rest of the clan. His mother thinks he's living with his sister and studying poetry in Virén. He also hasn't told his mother he has yeeted the teet (had top surgery), and he's not sure at this point how he will do that.

He's very pretentious about poetry and literature. He's kinda pretentious in general. He hates popular literature, and especially Julie noé Maupin, who among many things (opera singer, fencer, infamously hot lesbian) is a writer, who writes very popular very fun chivalric romances, which every self-respecting pretentious literature enjoyer thinks are trashy.

He has an on-and-off affair with Aerich, the leader of the separatist group he's part of. On and off, because since he's infiltrating the army they are regularly separated for multiple months and can't have any correspondence either, since Aerich is very much a wanted enemy of the empire. Faélci has said to Aerich that he's free to have other affairs while he's away, but in reality he's stressed that Aerich will fall in love with someone else. He would not admit that under torture, because being in love is very embarrassing and being jealous on top of it is even more so.

Aerich calls him "Little Wolf" (Faénie in Cerfi) because Cúén means wolf cub in Cerfi. It makes Faélci extremely soft and weak when he does it so casually (especially when he says "my Little Wolf"). He would not admit that either under torture.

Bear Castle Cycle Masterpost

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