#i can hear the ocean and also an owl!

[subjectsix]

bad news: car needs repairs and its defo my fault but an accident entirely, that “not squirming miserably under the consequences of accidents you cannot instantly fix” business is being tested again

good news: in a tent and going to write so much hopefully

[foone]

whats your favourite narnia book if you have one

Since I grew up as an autistic christian, I have many Narnia Opinions!

So, my favorite book for it's own reasons is probably The Magician's Nephew. I'm always a slut for worldbuilding and backstory and that novel is basically just only that. Some guy we know from another book goes on an adventure and in the process gets to be involved with the creation of one world and the destruction of another? kick-ass.

Best book to adapt? The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe. 1988 BBC version, 1979 Cartoon version, 2005 theatrical? All good, in their own ways. The BBC version is just perfectly 80s and the costumes are amazing (because they are costumes! they did all the monsters by sticking a guy in a big costume and I love it), the cartoon version captures the fucking whimsy of a story where SANTA SHOWS UP AND GIVES EVERYONE PRESENTS and the first person to offer any serious lore about the situation is named MR BEAVER. And the 2005 film has the big battles and CGI and Tilda Swinton as the White Witch which is... so much. I love them all.

But the best book adaptation is the 1990 BBC The Silver Chair. Hands down. It's got Tom Baker's Puddleglum, Warwick Davis playing an owl, 0£ BBC budget greenscreened giants (MULTIPLE TIMES), a group of people discovering IT'S A COOKBOOK and one of them being offended by the cookbook saying they don't taste very good, the bad guy turning into a giant rubber snake. a witch trying to gaslight some humans into believing the sun is a myth, and the ultimate salvation of Eustace Scrubb: a boy who almost deserved being named that.

And since I can't not list basically everything Narnia ever made, BBC's 1989 Prince Caspian and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader is pretty good too. It's a fun "road movie", in that it's an odyssey into a fictional Mysterious Ocean of Here There Be Dragons.

Lotta hits in that one. It's also got a "collect the macguffins!" plot where they're trying to collect the Seven Lost Lords.

But yeah, it's like... the first Island gets them a lord and they get to end slavery. Next up, Dragon TF island (The dragon is Greed... but it's also just a literal fucking dragon). Next, Gold TF island. Gold, it turns out, makes you go insane in your lust for wealth, even if you're already a Prince of a whole country. The gold is Greed, but it will also just fucking kill you because you'll be turned into gold.

Then it's the island of the ugly invisible one-foot guys and it turns out they cast a spell to turn invisible so no one could see how they're ugly but they're not ugly, they just think they are? and then it goes "HEY LUCY COMPARE YOURSELF TO YOUR OLDER SISTER" and she's like "I'm ugly.... unlike her. Maybe I should use magic to STEAL HER BEAUTY?!" and it's like, wow. Is there maybe a theme here about self-esteem in your appearance? and Clive Officemax Lewis is over there going I'LL NEVER TELL.

Anyway it's got the good line about how the Wizard in charge of the ugly invisible one-footed pogo-idiots is that how he eagerly awaits the day that they can be ruled by wisdom, instead of magic. It's a fun approach to magic: it's something that is a shortcut, a crutch, and it's a poor replacement for Wisdom, even when used by "the good guys". Tell me, Mr. FedexKinkos-Lewis, do you have any opinions on the complicated relationship between Christianity and magic? oh, you do? I never would have guessed!

They also find The Island Where Dreams Come True. They don't land there, they just fish a screaming man out of the ocean who is trying to escape it. The sailors hear it's The Island Where Dreams Come True and are like "wow, I could have my own ship!" and he yells no, you fools, not dreams like your wishes and imaginations, your actual dreams come true on this island.

and everyone agrees: Get us the fuck away from this island and lets never return.

Anyway I'm not gonna talk about THE ENTIRE MOVIE/BOOK but it's got a great weirdness at the end where they reach the end of the world (which is flat. It's okay, this is Narnia, a completely different world with different physical rules than Earth), and it's a waterfall, but a waterfall going up?

It turns out Heaven is on the other side of it. They turn around, but the anthropomorphic mouse is like "ehh, I'll take that journey" and becomes the Elijah of Aslan's Country, their equivalent of heaven.

Narnia, won't you?

[beedreamscape]

I just like to imagine the point in time when Cosmo and Oscar were the same age and father watches son get older and they slowly lose the old power dynamics and the fights begin to level because he's not a boy anymore, not even a young man — two men seeing eye to eye, fist to fist.

But how can he hate him for enduring? How can he hate him for forgetting? How can he walk away? Sometimes he has to hold him, hurt him, hug him to be sure his father didn't also die that day, mouth forgotten open, wandering spirit, everlasting and immutable.

How do you tear apart from an equal? Father turned brother turned son turned grandson. Lines blur on who protects who, bound to Candela to keep his father safe until he's weak and frail -like a child again- and who else to keep him safe, to care for him but his father? Helping him walk, brushing his hair, buttoning his shirts, telling each other stories before bed because it helps sleep come easier, it helps to keep the nightmares at bay.

A kiss goodnight, wishing/dreading a kiss goodbye.

Cosmo will tell the same stories over and over again like a broken record, an old man's habit, but truly it's because it always makes Oscar's face light up like it's the very first time, he forgets the setup thus he forgets the punchline and the joke is always funny even for the 20th time. It's that smile, it's the son seeking his father's pride.

In Oscar's dreams, they go to sleep together with mouths sewn closed on the same rich dark earth six feet under in four neat rows like in the long-forgotten days of communal sleeping under a travelling tent, the last days of true rest. If he closes his eyes he can still hear the cicadas and hoots of owls, and on the edges of it, he hears the ocean as they drown.

[balkanradfem]

So, I've decided to start learning biology.

My education left me with only primary school biology knowledge, because I had zero biology lessons in high school, and now I find myself sorely lacking in knowledge. Which is inconvenient, now that I'm sick and have no idea what to do. I didn't know where to start, but my roommate is in high school right now, and I borrowed her biology textbook to get myself started.

The biology textbook was so misinformed and outdated it made me worry for the education system. Not only they didn't update any info from the last 40 years, some of the info was completely wrong. For instance, it claims there's 6 billion people on the planet (there's 8), and that there's 6 empires of all living things (there's 8, and some of the old ones have been renamed and disputed). I learned quickly to fact-check every bit of information on wikipedia, and this is where I found some truly astounding info that I had no idea about.

If you all have learned this in highschool and it's common knowledge, please excuse me, but I am shocked.

One of the first topics the book covers is evolutionary history of the planet, and it explains how blue-green algae were the first historic plants to produce a lot of oxygen, which sounds like a positive development for us, because most of the living things right now thrive on oxygen. But, looking it up wikipedia uncovered that it was in fact, an extinction event. Most of life on earth was at that point, thriving in non-oxygen environment, and the introduction of oxygen killed 85% of all living species on earth. It was a huge disaster that happened! It's called 'Great Oxidation Event', or the 'Oxygen Catastrophe'.

But that's not all, I found out that it was not only that which destroyed almost all life on earth, but there's been 5 different events in the history that destroyed close to 80% of all species on the planet, and for some of them we don't even know why. We only found proof that lots of species disappeared at all times and the dominant species on the planet rapidly changed, but no idea why, for some of them it's assumed it has to do with volcanoes or ice, and of them that is well known is the meteor, that ended the big dinosaurs.

I never realized how much of evolution was destruction and then starting over, this was shocking to me. It was also fascinating, I found myself following links and learning more about extinction events, also that we're currently in the extinction event caused by humans who are driving lots of species into extinction by taking over their habitats, which made me sad.

At this point I started reading other, biology-related materials, for example, I read a book named 'What an Owl Knows', which is written by Jennifer Ackerman, an owl scientist who studied owls her entire life; now I know more about owls. I also started listening to an audio book about the ocean, and this one proved to be very difficult to follow, but I'll tell you what I learned from both.

The owl book was charming, I found out that owls are the most quiet, soundless birds when they fly, because their wings and feathers are the biggest part of their bodies. This is how they manage to swoop up prey without anyone hearing a single flap. They're also very silent and subtle. Unless you're studying owls, you won't be able to tell if the owl is startled, or scared, because she will sit very still and not give you any clues. Smaller owls can go into their 'freeze' response easily if they're being hunted, because their instinct is to be still and not move when in danger! It can make you feel like the owl is not scared, since she's not moving, but she is most likely not comfortable if anyone is approaching her.

Owls have similar faces to our faces, and they're very charismatic to us; this is why baby owls, and injured owls in human care, can sometimes imprint on humans. This is bad news for the owls, because once it happens, they can never again be released into the wild, they'll either never learn to hunt, or they'll act towards humans, like they do to other owls - brawling, attacking, aggressive, territorial. Even if they really like us, they will keep acting like we're other owl, not a different species. They see us similarly to how we see them.

One of the best information I've learned, is that in Serbia, there's the biggest gathering of owls of all species, there can be more than 300 owls in one place at the time. The reason for this is common use of old-fashined methods of harvesting grains, which leaves a lot of leftover corn and wheat on the ground, attracting mice, rats, and other small rodents, which creates a great food source for owls. Serbian farmers don't use rodenticide, so owls don't get poisoned. Owls so beloved and appreciated there, that they have an owl festival every year, and the whole month of november is called 'Sovember', because owl in serbian is 'sova'. I never knew about this, even though it's my neighbour country! I looked this up, and I found a website for the international owl festival, but I couldn't find any more info. I would appreciate it so much if any serbian followers could write me about this and tell me their experiences with it, I've never wanted to visit Serbia more!

The book contains information about owls used in Harry Potter movies, including the names of the owls, as well as discussing how the books made owls popular, and how it made people want them as pets. Owls do not make good pets, because they're predators and will destroy things and be very difficult to care for, but the book encourages readers to find the local owls and keep them safe, to leave old trees with holes in them standing, so the owls could nest in them, or to hang up baskets that can also be used as nests. It was a lovely, charming book and I recommend it to anyone who wants to know more about owls.

The ocean book is named 'How the Ocean Works', by Helen Czerski, and I haven't finished yet, but it opened up a lot of questions for me. The funniest part of it was the breakup of what people used to think about the ocean; apparently before research, people assumed that the sea is salty because it's been left in the sun for too long, and that's just what you get from sun exposure, they believed that deep down it was not salty anymore. They also believed that the sea water cannot go putrid if left standing. It took a scientist checking this to confirm it was not true; sea water did go putrid left in a bucket in the sun, and non-salty water did not turn salty when left in the sun for months. It was interesting to know that for the longest time, people didn't realize it was the salt in the sea that made it salty, I then wondered how they got salt, and it turns out they just got it from the salt mines, which are leftover from the long-dried up seas.

Now new information that I didn't know, was that the salinity is different between the oceans, the Atlantic is saltier than the rest. The book also explained about how the salt is connected to the currents, and to the movements of the sea, and also changes the density of the water. One thing that had me taken aback was that the ocean waves are not only caused by the wind, but the water is reacting to earth's rotation, and this rotation is constantly moving the water. It feels like the ocean is being pulled both by the earth and the moon, constantly being driven by planetary forces, which is interesting, because it's difficult to tell that just by looking.

The book calls ocean the 'blue machine', because it's always moving, and filled with energy. Sun is always warming up the surface, making it a great reservoir of solar energy, and the book goes on about how it's possible to harvest this energy, using hot water, and cold water, apparently there's already buildings being cooled down by the ocean power, but I never managed to figure out how! I tried looking it up, and also found nothing. I wish the book explained the physics of it, so that I could try it out, it's a great thing to be able to get power jut by using hot and cold water, and the water is already heated by the sun, while you can get cold water from the bottom of the sea.

I think I might understand this book better if I read it, rather than listening to the audiobook, which as you can see, just has me puzzled because I do not catch details. Still I wanted to share my new learnings, and ask if anyone can tell me more, or if this is all knowledge that people who had biology in high school already have. I'm having a great time learning, especially because I can just divert in any direction that has my interest, and I can seek out information that gives me useful, practical knowledge. Wish all learning processes could be free and inspired like this!

[noxspost]

hades 2 head cannons

so in Eris's design she has candy bars. So I headconnoned Eris Is having a very fast metabolism. So does Hermes I also gave her the headcannon of having a fiction version of type one diabetes. Hephaestus and Apollo make her medical a device is when they get damaged but they're pretty sturdy.

hynpos has a mobility disability which was made worse by Zeus's lighting bolts that Hypnos got shot by during the Trojan war. Charon has a speech disability had hurts so he doesn't speak much.

---Here is some more---

I also gave moros a anxiety disorder since he can see all the possibilities of a single person's doom. Hades has war ptsd also depression it was worsen by his trashy father waking up.

Hestia has pyromania ares has sensory issues also is Neurdivergent. Ares and Artemis are both Trans and twitched names when they came out to each other.

Athena is hard of hearing also fear of storms why? Because owls are her animal and Owls don't have the oil needed to repel water. So they avoid flying in rain also shs hates the sounds of the thunder and lighting.

Every child of Zeus that is on olympus has at some point has ran to that library room when Zeus starts storms doesn't matter if he was mad or not. The reason why they go to the library room is because that's the only place in the entire mountain that is soundproof completely.

Ares cheating with Aphrodite wasn't a thing and or surprising to Hephaestus since he has been with Ares it is just Hephaestus is greysexual. He also sees Aphrodite as a friend most of the time. All three deities have made it work.

Both him and ares have pain flare ups. So both just rest and go easy also the chains were to trap for hera who loves to Snoop in his room and also in Ares's room. He did not mean to trap both his partner and Aphrodite. People think he hates Ares nope he doesn't

Ares is claustrophobic because of his childhood with his two cousins and the jar. Hephaestus can walk with his prosthetic limb, it just hurts a lot of the time, so he uses his wheelchair or his cane to help. Ares is a great sculptor map maker and is a very patient lover.

Athena and him have a good relationship It just gets a little bit more sharp words during war.

Hermes Loves the weird crochet items he gets from Eris. Oizys Is great at comforting people who have lost a loved one.

The fates, hynpos, charon and Erebus raised their children and siblings since Nyx's parenting style is like those clothing that claim to be one size fits all.

I do not hate her it just she's just not really good at showing her kids that she loves them which can be problematic.

Nemesis is a Loyal friend. She wears a blindfold over her eyes when she is working.

when she doesn't answer her domain it can start to build up tillers too much and she has to Answer to the call of her domain.

It happened once when she was younger and It did lead to a Hecate getting hurt around the lower half of her face, hence why she wears double the amount of face protection.

when she's alone she still wears that mask Hecate is super self-conscious of her face scars. Nemesis feels bad but every time she tells Hecate she can react to this in agner as justice.

She would never got the justice and Hecate reassured her that she didn't need that.

That's why she does listen to Hecate when she has to guard the crossroads because if was any other time before that incident...

she would have just not listened, but she did because she's still repaying Hecate for that mistake. No one wants to talk about that though.

Melinoe was too young and doesn't get answers to The question also Odysseus has a fear of the oceans that one's pretty self-explanatory.

He did cry when heacte said he would have to help her raise the princess. He was despondent for about a week and a 1/2. He cried when Melinoe called he uncle once.

Zagreus favorite type of tree is the sandbox tree and yew berry trees.

Thanatos cried when he got to hold oiziys. She was so tiny and he loves her dearly. Zagreus reminds hades of the Dionysus that was his wife's child before Hera thought it was a great idea to kill him.

Persephone has many bats in the pomegranate trees in gardens hence, why there was a gated door and it was locked for most of the first game. Those bats live in the trees in the crossroads now.

Charon taught Thanatos and nemesis how to use a oar as a weapon. The fury sisters see Persephone as a mother.

Melinoe is the bringer of madness and nightmares. Her domain is not fully awake yet because dionysus is too far away and on a madness trip currently.

Everyone in the crossroads repeatedly ask moros what her doom was when dionysus comes back till In the madness half of his domain.

Melinoe Has never used her darker side of nature, and Hecate is terrified of that because she has brought back multiple spiders the size of Cerberus's biggest paw Pad.

[rxttenfish]

How do the merfolk sound like? What kinds of noises can they make?

the short answer is: real big and spooky

it's actually kind of relevant to this chapter in caecilian, mostly because i realized there was a lot more focus that'd have to be put onto merfolk language here with aaravi's particular... Interaction. in longer terms, their vocalizations are complex and multi-faceted, utilizing the full breadth of sound available to them and within the medium of water.

merfolk have an incredibly large vocal organ that spans the length down their throat and to the bottom of their ribs. i haven't fully detailed out how it works because i still need to do a lot more research on specifically underwater vocalizations (and my personal pet theory that i think this is extremely under-researched for marine life beyond whales...), but i know it's huge, complex, and extremely important for merfolk interactions. it's capable of producing a wide variety of sounds, both high-frequency and low-frequency, and is capable of achieving some impressive volume.

it also means they're capable of closed-mouth vocalizations, which is why you get those descriptions of merfolk talking with their mouth closed and why holding their mouth closed won't necessarily stop them from speaking. for most merfolk, it's the norm. i'm not sure how much they actually use their mouth itself for vocalizations? their lips aren't very mobile, they don't like to reveal their teeth a whole lot, they don't have cheeks and have a much weaker seal for suction than a mammal. the most they use it for is the noise produced by snapping their jaws or clattering their teeth together.

merfolk also have some impressive auditory capabilities to match. this is another thing that i really need to do more research in... but it's also why their earfins are like that. merfolk very much did end up co-opting their external gills to also perform as external ears. they were already serving a role as a sensory organ, able to pick up vibrations in the water, temperature, differences in depth, etc etc, so it wasn't a huge jump to make, especially when they're already in the same place as the ear (since they're external gills. and earbones are modified gill arches). they almost certainly have some sort of "fat pad" in their internal ears as well to help pick up on vibrations as well — and there seems to be evidence that, because fish live in water and hearing is just a means of detecting vibrations, and as opposed to air which doesn't carry those vibrations as well as water, they can just... use their entire bodies as an ear? again, really need to go into it, but also i can't help but feel this is going to be woefully under-researched to begin with.

i've gone back and forth on it, especially with that research i still need to do... but the structure of the external gills themselves also helps act as an external ear. as in, they're large and sensitive to help them have this wide range of hearing and sound on land as well, potentially also helping in the water?, and help to guide sound back to their inner ear, with their ability to reposition themselves assisting to "refine" that sound. this is also an additional benefit to the cheek fluff and why i put it there in the first place. it serves the same purpose as the facial disk on an owl, further refining and detailing those sounds and providing multi-dimensionality. again, don't know how well this will hold up underwater! still need to work on that! but it's there!

anyhow. all of this is important, because merfolk are most adapted for long-range sound. visibility is poor in even the clearest of ocean water, and they're already playing with long distances between themselves and everything else and long distances even between other merfolk. light doesn't penetrate very far in water, and they can't rely on their sight even in good conditions, made worse if they dive to pursue prey or for safety or for any other reason. they're also highly social, with high social cohesion allowing them to hit far above their own weight and working together with more merfolk had greatly compounding positive effects on their own survival. they need to stay in touch, they need to work together, they need to know what other merfolk are doing and to reinforce those bonds.

most merfolk vocalizations, then, follow in the same trend as other large marine animals. they're noted as sounding very "musical", with similar long, haunting songs as whales and leopard seals, although with distinct features that makes it easy to tell them apart at a distance. they tend on the deeper side - they're large animals, and their vocal organs are large, and those deeper sounds travel further too. i've compared them to sounding like what a whale mixed with a tiger or crocodile would sound like, or to the person version of a cello or bass. it might be described as "growly", but think like how someone with a very low, smooth voice might still be described that way. they do have some infrasonic rumbles as an important component of their typical repertoire, so they can also come off like standing too close to a bass speaker. you can usually feel a merfolk talking as much as hear them.

however, compounding this is the complexity of their vocalizations. most merfolk have a tendency to "play" with sound - stretching it out further than it has to be, or trying to make syllables rhyme when they don't, things very odd for a human to listen to. it's like they're trying to sing but there's no rhythm or beat to it yet, disjointed sound that's almost a tune but not there yet. accents complicate this further, although the full diversity tends to be lost on landfolk, because this usually manifests in them "playing" with their words slightly differently, producing slightly different almost-songs.

they also tend to just play with sound in the typical way. merfolk retain a heightened degree of playfulness throughout their entire lives, with a high neuroplasticity to match, and so they get an urge to "remix" sounds or just to roll them around and try them out, stretching them out like taffy or squashing them together. sometimes this means they'll repeat an interesting word or sound until it stops sounding anything like what it means, sometimes they'll just repeat and shuffle around sounds they know, sometimes they just try to come up with new sounds or stretch their vocal organ in new and interesting ways. this also means they're highly skilled as mimics - though, this is a learned behavior, not an innate one, and one that's mostly treated like a party trick by other merfolk.

they also intersperse their language with other sounds and vocalizations. merfolk are very used to trying to talk to each other without being actually able to see each other, so a part of this includes needing to pass along that emotional information as well. plus, beyond their fins, they just aren't very expressive, with far more limited body language than most.

but, mostly, this manifests in their language getting increasingly more complex. merfolk brains are already primed to quickly process and sort out a lot of different auditory information at once, and they take full advantage of their wide range of sounds in order to communicate, with their language, then, favoring a multi-layered approach that's very hard for other species to understand or decipher.

for instance, they might have a single word that they use when in close contact with the subject they're referring to. this word already has a sandwich of different vocal elements to it, forming one meaning when put all together. but, a merfolk will seldom ever use that word alone, because in order to grammatically make it work and string it together with another word, they have to move those different vocal elements so that the two words weave together and naturally "flow" into each other in accordance to a cultural sense of rhythm. then, this has to be repeated with the entire sentence, making sure that it naturally forms one whole block of sound that composes a series of sounds that all fit together properly with each other. also changing this is when they add in grammatical signifiers of emotion on top of their verbal cues and components, and they might add in locational signifiers to it as well, to create different clauses within the same sentence that weave over each other to make a string of meaning.

worse yet, merfolk can also shorten these sentences too, with rules for how to do so, effectively reducing entire sentences down to singular contractions.

and merfolk do like packing as much meaning as they can into their sentences as possible! i take a LOT of liberties when writing out the translated dialogue, mostly favoring what works best narratively over the transliteration of what's going on, not least of all because to literally translate what's being said would be to create a lot of run-on sentences with repeat information, even information that might be immediately obvious.

this occurs because there's also another mode of their languages: the fact that it's happening over distances to assumed lots of other merfolk.

merfolk are simply... very used to hearing other merfolk, all the time, at all hours of the day. and this is very important information to them! it helps them keep up with the social environment on top of the literal environment, evolved out of a need to be able to quickly coordinate themselves in groups when on hunts or in danger, each needing to immediately react to something that only one other merfolk might have seen.

and the modern extension of this is the fact that merfolk end up forming mental projections and maps of their entire environment and are able to know at any given time what's happening in any given place within it, regardless of how involved they actually are. they have to be able to quickly respond to social changes and alterations in dynamics, so constantly communicating what's going on and what any given merfolk's feelings are is important. their relationship hierarchy determines so much of their life and how they navigate the world and the other merfolk within it, that they need to immediately tell what the entire complex social dynamic is of any potential merfolk upon first meeting. they need to know what's going on over there in case someone's in danger, and they need to protect those close to them and respond to threats swiftly so that those relationships can be preserved.

it's a lot! it's a lot, and it can be even harder for other species to conceptualize, especially because merfolk tend to "think in 3d". as in, they already live their entire lives within a place where moving up/down is just as easy as moving front/back or left/right. they have to navigate three dimensional environments in a way a lot of terrestrial life doesn't have to, and they have to get used to quick changes within that. so, they tend to map their thoughts more like physical objects, with locational markers allowing them to sort through it more easily, or think about how things might connect or layer over each other in complex ways. this gets attached to words and grammatical units, but it also means a merfolk can mentally map out the exact physical location of all this auditory information with greater ease, and this can have a major impact on how they converse with each other.

a merfolk, even when alone, or with a group, or at any given point when they're not engaged in any other conversation, will often feel an impulse to... fundamentally, start narrating what's happening. as in, their languages also have a component that allows them to strip down to solely physical information too, allowing any given merfolk to map out a location without it necessarily needing to be a grammatically correct sentence in other ways. and this is because of that mental mapping through sound and conversation, that it's seen as polite to do so and helps others navigate and respond accurately to what's going on, but it also gives the participating merfolk a sense of community and interconnectedness.

this, all of this, can also be stripped down even further, in the same reason why all these strict rules about making all the different elements "match" is so important to them. as in, to a group of merfolk who are used to each other and used to each other's verbal patterns, they can be stripped down so far as to become shorthand for more complex locations and events. think of it like doctor's handwriting, and how they can write a full chemical name out with a gesture. it's complex information relayed quickly, which is EXACTLY what merfolk want when they go hunting.

merfolk hunts are... kind of terrifying to witness for this reason. all this care and effort becomes immediately clear as they are seemingly able to act as one, seemingly reading each other's minds to become one well-oiled machine. this is the end culmination of all of their thoughts of communal identity, the evolutionary pressure that led to their complex languages and complex relationship hierarchies and everything - that they can move and act so effectively that they're one body in many.

of course, this gets done for multiple other reasons in the modern day, but the whale and leviathan hunts still are a well-loved tradition and way of life, especially celebrated by many great nomadic families.

that said, some other sounds i've described merfolk as making, though usually more in the line of their vocal expressions of emotion than language proper: chirps, chirrups, whistles, clicks, chattering, trills, chittering, squeaks, honks, grunts, growls, rumbles, huffing, braying, purring, hissing, wailing, screeching, screaming, thumping, chuffing, and more! they cannot roar, but they can make infrasonic rumbles like crocodiles or large dinosaurs are theorized, and they do tend to scream like parrots in order to show extreme emotions (distress, yes, but also joy or excitement). i have some example audio here and there as demonstrations of what they sound like, and it swings wildly from cute and precious to horror movie soundtrack. :3

[amoristt]

Alive | König/Reader

anon: hello i see u do requests for mw2 now! can i request konig being sent on a hostage rescue mission, and when he gets there he finds of them is his partner (reader), who went MIA months ago and was presumed dead?

a/n: i hope you like it! sorry if the german is wrong i had to use google translate gffjhdgjfh

reblogs + tags and replies will make my entire day as i put a lot of effort into this :)! it also helps motivate me!

story continues beneath the read more. let me know if you can’t access it!

want to support me? heres my kofi!

Besides the frequent chatter of voices emerging from the radio on his tactical belt, there is a cold silence that blankets the halls König travels down. Years spent training in the force had taught him well to be light on his feet despite his size, eyes focused on every micromovement in front of him. A rat scurries from a pile of crates on the floor and into a vent. Flies gather at the swinging lamps overhead. It feels like the hallways are endless. 

“König, position?” A voice rings from the device. He offers a short response. 

“West wing.”

“Anything yet?”

“Nein.”

Faintly, voices echoed down corridors. He’d entered the base like a ghost in the night, and mowed down every enemy that stood in his way. This was his specialty, after all, and this wasn’t his first rodeo in gutting out the base of human traffickers. However, this was the first time in a long time. The last time he’d been sent to a hostage rescue, there were… issues. He remembered it almost all too clearly. The worst night of his life thus far.

You’d gone in first despite his protests, and that was it. He had been too far away, minutes behind you. Moments later the building was up in flames, with your poor soul trapped inside. König hadn’t known peace since that moment, an ocean of turmoil overtaking him. The sight of glowing embers raining down over him as he stood, helpless, on the sidelines.

You’d been presumed dead the moment the monumental flames could have practically knocked at heaven's door.

Even despite his rank, his team had to damn near peel him away from the scene. Never had he felt pain like that in his entire life.

Until, the next morning, that was. When his weary eyes opened to see nothing but his dull ceiling, and he realized the night before hadn’t been some awful nightmare. 

It took weeks for him to regain enough composure to properly work again. But, in some ways, he felt like he never left that night. Sometimes he felt he was still there- staring up at the monstrous glowing flames and fighting to not think about how you spent your last moments.

After months, he'd agreed to another rescue mission. Perhaps a win, perhaps saving someone, may put some of his demons to bed.

He passes doors upon doors, all blown wide open as evidence of men fleeing his approach. Scattered papers line the floors, chairs knocked to their sides. Window's thrown open with little care.

One door, however, gathers his attention almost instantly. The way it was shut tight with a deadbolt locked on practically begged for him to investigate. He reaches out and makes quick work of breaking the metal bolt, hearing the metal clatter to the floor. Tentatively, he twists the knob and shoves it open, weapon ready to fire. Inside, a cluster of women gather in the far corner, eyes as wide as owls, fingers all clutching each other in fear. 

“I’ve found them,” He says into his radio, taking a head count. “Three of them. West wing, fifth door to the left.”

“Intel says there’s a fourth.” Comes back the answer, and he frowns, peering through his mask to recount. “We’re sending in reinforcements.”

König lowers his weapon cautiously and counts again, just in case. Just as before, it’s three women, all frightened beyond belief. He steps to the side and motions for them to exit the room, knowing his teammates were bounding towards the room and would be able to lead them to the safety of their vehicles outside. As they filter past him one by one, he doesn’t miss the glance one of them takes towards the closet at the other end of the room before darting into the hall. Quietly, he takes steps towards it, lifting his weapon. He could practically sense a presence from within, eyes narrowed, creeping closer and closer. 

Without even bothering to demand the person inside to come out, he grasps the door and tears it open, his gun pointing directly inside, his hulking figure shadowed by the ceiling lamp behind him. The flashlight on his gun beams over a figure inside. The person’s hands are over their face to escape the blinding light. He could see purple bruises on their elbows, finger marks on their biceps.

The fourth hostage. 

“Go on. Go.” He says quickly, lowering his gun. He expects the hostage to turn tail and run, rip past him and scurry down the trashed halls to their freedom. But, instead, they lower their hands, big eyes gaping up at him. His heart nearly seizes as he makes out the person's features.

“König?” Your voice is a strange version of soft. Afraid, confused, relieved. You’re frozen in place, holding your hands to your chest, as if you can’t believe the sight before you. As if you can't believe it’s really, truly. him.

But it is. 

König’s actions move faster than the speed of his thoughts. His gun is slung behind his shoulder, his hands find your arms and he’s pulling you out from the confines of your hiding spot. His mind is reeling, his fingers shake, he can’t hear anything other than his heartbeat and the soft sounds you make as he practically crushes you against him. Time stands still for a moment. The flickering yellow of the hanging light pauses. He breathes into your hair and the scent of you almost has him losing his composure. There isn’t even time for tears to gather in his water lines when he squeezes his eyes shut and clutches you to him, so close, afraid if he lets go you’ll disappear all over again. 

“Du bist lebendig, du bist lebendig.” The desperation in his voice is more than apparent. He can barely even think. “I thought I lost you, meine Liebe, Ich dachte, du wärst tot.” 

German spills from his lips in a warble, all the little things he’d thought he’d never get to say to you again. His lungs heave as he rambles, feeling your arms wrap around him. He’s sure his words are barely even meeting your ears, but he doesn’t care. 

From his belt, his radio calls out to him. Two voices now, both demanding to know his current position and why he hadn’t been answering. He has to force himself to pull away from you to answer, and it nearly hurts as you leave his embrace, his voice harsh and shaky.

“I’ve found ___,” He remarks frantically, his free hand clutching your shoulder. “She’s alive, mein Gott, she’s here.” 

“___?” A male voice chirps over the line. "She's alive?"

König breathes, nods as if they can see him. His hand flattens over your back and tugs you back into him. “Ja, I’ve got her. Coming back now." He presses his lips to your head through the thin fabric of his mask. “I’ve got you.”

He nestles his radio back into its place and wastes no time scooping you into his arms. He knows his hold is almost too tight, likely uncomfortable against the severe amount of bruising littering your body, but he couldn't help himself. You were right there. Alive. 

Alive, and clinging to him like he was your lifeline, like if you didn’t wrap your fingers around whatever you could manage to grasp, he’d drop you and you’d fall back into that awful place. He rushes down the halls with a newfound urgency, frantic to leave this horrible place as a memory. Frantic to get you back to where you belong. 

König could feel you peering up at him, taking in the intensity of his eyes as he used his shoulder to shove open the door to your freedom. The cold outside bites at him, but he welcome the feeling, the dirt shifting under his large boots and he picks up pace. 

“I’ve got you.” He says again, into the crisp air, and he feels you nod quickly, surely unable to find the energy to respond. In the distance he can see the calvary waiting for him. The hostages were loaded into a larger buggy while he took to a smaller vehicle. His lungs heave as he runs with you, heart thrashing in his large ribcage. His teammate throws open the door of the vehicle and he’s quick to load you inside. You limply lean against him as he settles in beside you, arm wrapped tight around your shoulder to keep you up right. With a yank, he rips his gloves him his hands, presses his palms into your skin to feel you, really feel you.

Even with your bruises, even when your marks and scrapes, you're just as soft as he remembered. You're everything he remembered. Everything he thought he'd never get to have ever again.

As you look up at him, he blinks down at you with misty eyes. His fingers pull hair from your face and tuck the strands behind your ears. When you smile at him, König feels a boulder lodge itself in his throat. Try as he may to gag it down, his efforts are fruitless, and he bumps his forehead against yours. 

The tears he’d been running from bite at the corners of his eyes as the vehicle rolls to the a start. You let your body relax against him, his head falling back against the headrest, bare fingers petting over your skin. 

It's over, you're safe. He has you.

He kisses the top of your head as the vehicle roars down the open road, and billows of dirt clouds obscuring your prison before it disappeared all together under the night sky.

[i-rate-horse-games]

rating Star Stable Online

Star Stable Online is a MMORPG! its plot seems to get pretty wild!

upon discovering that Fish was an option in the drop down name creators, i cackled with joy. this is Rusty Fishfish and Futurefish

our goal in this world was to become Fish. one glorious leap into the ocean showed us that it would be harder than anticipated, due to having taken a ‘dangerous’ fall. luckily it doesn’t seem like horses can be injured, even though the screen flashes red if you trip while jumping. 

i joined right after the new character models became available. i think they’re pretty neat! some of the body types looked androgynous to me, but the game calls you a girl regardless. but you can still buy facial hair in the shop!

the world is a nice size! it’s scaled small enough that you feel like you’re going places even when your horse is physically moving a little slow, and the world is big enough that there’s plenty to explore while still being small enough that you see other players going about their lives pretty frequently. 

speaking of other players! shout out to @ro-sso for warning me to never open the global chat. i did! i asked how to get hay after very rapidly forgetting what i had just learned. three people told me it grew on a farm. i said Ok. when i did find the hay (in a shop) i told the chat i had been betrayed and bamboozled and they said “BAHAHAHAHAHA”. later i used the Say chat to ask for help finding a championship that was starting soon, and everyone nearby was very helpful. you win some you lose some

quests seem to be the biggest part of the game! they’re how you get player and horse exp and level up and get better stats for competing. a lot of the quests i did felt very tedious. lots of riding back and forth and delivering messages and so forth. the worst ones involved herding horses that kept splitting into smaller groups and running around a mall doing errands for a sketchy guy. my favorite quests were the ones where i got to open my backpack and drag a tool onto something, which felt like playing Nancy Drew. there was also one where we got to follow the visible smell of pumpkin pie on a trail to a little cottage, and it was nighttime so there were cricket sounds as well!

there’s so much love and soul packed into this world! there’s a pony who was elected mayor! there’s a pirate themed race that has music just similar enough to the Pirates of the Carribean music to remind you of it while also remaining distinct! there’s a riding club that “wears pink and not only on wednesdays.”! there’s a girl with a pet owl named Toby who says “Even though he blathers about it, Toby loves bugs.” there’s vague sounds of people talking in areas with lots of NPCs! there’s a kid with a hot air balloon who takes you up to the cloud kingdom! he has a pet frog who can ride on your head! there’s an emo electric violinist who was really funny! you can get a kitten for your saddlebag! the music is pretty decent!

the clothes very strongly remind me of being 12. something about the slightly awkward way the clothes fit is nostalgic. there were also lots of flower crowns for the summer solstice!

a huge point for this game is that it has its own pride festival!

there’s just something about going to a new place and seeing rainbow flags everywhere, especially after the horrors of horse isle 3. i hear this game also has canon lesbian characters! this does make it even funnier that all players are assigned Cowgirl at login

the one thing that really surprised me is that if you play without a membership, you are apparently trapped in a demo version, and the rest of the game is locked behind a paywall. this sprang up on me after i started running out of quests. the game told me to level up to unlock more main quests, but the only way to get player exp was to do quests, and i pretty much ran out. this concept is really foreign to me, since every game like this that i’ve played before, the membership made your life much easier and more posh, but free players could still get a lot out of the game. games like club penguin, pixie hollow, animal jam, etc. it’s only about $5 a month, though, with a permanent membership option for over 50 dollars. i have not purchased it, but if I ever do, i will update my rating. :)

while googling the above problem to figure out what was going on, i learned that there's no level cap and there's seasonal events that give EXP, so even if you've finished the whole game, there can still be players more powerful than you with better stats dominating the competition. that seems ! a little rough! they also said that after you beat the game, there's not much left to do. hopefully the fun part is the journey and not the destination!

all in all, though, we did it. we became Fish.

and that makes it all worth it.

i’m rating Star Stable Online 4.5 out of 5 stars!

★★★★✬

please feel free to submit horse games or ask me to reevaluate! next up is Alicia Online!

[arosnowflake]

I think post-Link's Awakening Link absolutely will not shut the fuck up about Koholint. Tells everyone who stands still long enough about the magical island he went to and how he met a mermaid and a nice talking owl and the coolest girl in the whole universe! Sees honey and starts talking about that time on Koholint when he had honey and also met a talking bear who was a chef. Except he rarely if ever informs anyone that Koholint was a dream from a giant flying whale and also gone now, so at some point among sailors a rumor starts about this magical island with talking animals where the sun never sets, but nobody can seem to find it. Legend has it that if you see seagulls on the open ocean, you should follow them, for they will lead you to Koholint. In the distance, you might be able to hear one of them singing. And anyway that's how I think Koholint will be remembered.

[itsbenedict]

From the beginning | Previously

(Also, realized I left a sentence unfinished in yesterday's update- due to owl chase exhaustion, your STINGY OUTLIER has decreased to 85%.)

Alright. You'll give this guy and his non-fungible-whatevers a shot. And by giving them a shot, you mean you'll dismiss them as a hallucination and go CLIMB THE BEANSTALK, up into the clouds.

It's a long climb, but the beanstalk's leaves have conveniently grown in a tight spiral with few significant gaps. You don't have much trouble ascending this thing, which is a good thing since your back hasn't been the same since... well, at least since getting gnawed on by a giant skeleton. You summit in a reasonable amount of time.

You find yourself amid the cloudscape hills above the city.

You're fairly certain clouds aren't supposed to be substantial objects that you can stand on. There've been a lot of things happening to you lately that aren't supposed to be happening.

Up here, it seems... oddly desolate. You've been to a lot of places, and they've all been oddly desolate, but this place seems more desolate than usual. An unexpected dearth of giants. The voices of wrongness that have been murmuring just out of sight seem to have quieted, and you only pick up the occasional errant footfall of something with the wrong number of feet. The sun scours everything here of its shadows.

You climb to the top of what seem to be a set of stadium bleachers formed from cloudstuff, and look down at what you can see. From here, you have a great view of...

...mostly the ocean, actually. You have a vague sense like something might be down there, underwater- but you're not sure how you'd reach it. There's... what might be a boat, just offshore near the holy tower? Maybe that's the conveyance you have available to you.

Once again, you find yourself surrounded by the encoded manifestations of your own indecision. There's some weird crap up here in the clouds.

You hear the sound of that owl again! You can't catch a glimpse of it, but if you just follow that owl, you're sure you'll find your daughter! That sound is A HOOTED INCENTIVE!

The mannequin's here, this time posed like it's playing an electric guitar... on an oyster it's holding, for some reason. Is this rock n' roll look really a SECRETARY POSTURE?

There's a DOLLHOUSE EXCERPT- just one room of a dollhouse, sawed out from the rest of the dollhouse to give you an idea of what you're buying.

The great-grandchildren of the concept of a little customer service booth, patent-trolling anyone who tries to open a new one. THE KIOSK ESTATE's entitlement is deeply aggravating.

Continued

[magicalgirlagency]

As someone who love Geological and travelling. I wonder why there aren't any Mahou Shojo with a biomes theme already. It could work really well with the Climate Change topic too.

The main girls would be based on earth's biomes (jungles, oceans, mountains,...) The protagontist would be a Desert themed heroine (since deserts are badly underrated/misunderstood, they're amazing too ppl).

I think the Protag would be really confused about why she's desert based, since due to their reputation, she thinks desert are just "bad" and scary wastelands. Add in the mascot (a shapeshfiting snek or bird could work nicely) along with a Forest themed teammates who love studying about deserts (and nature in general), and there could be a plot point about the Desert Girl learning to accept her powers.

The team would include:

An ocean themed warrior who's older (probably 23-24yrs old) than the rest of her team, is their leader and mentor (since the sea is much, much older , practically ancient compare to other biomes). She'd use a spear/trident as her weapon and can shift into a "full aqua" form in which she's near unbeatable since nothing can really physically harm her in this liquidfied state. She'd have gills (for breathing underwater) and Bioluminescence (since deep sea creatures have them). Oh, and she can sing very well, 'cause mermaids and sirens. She's the team Cool Big Sis and is actually the legal guardian of one of the girl. She's normally really calm, but she teases the younger members a lot.

*Also she does have a mermaid form, her tail is that of a sailfish. And she could bite like a shark in this form, 'cause why wouldn't she be able to do that? She could manipulate ink and salt too, since squids exist and the ocean is salty.

The empathetic and warmhearted girl is a tundra themed warrior. She has a fox-like outfit which change the colour of its fur depending on the seasons (like how arctic foxes change their fur color). Her boots actually was design similarly to the hooves of a Reindeer and she have a cloak that can turn into owl wings allowing her to fly. Her body can also give off a very cold aura due to tundra being the coldest biome, but her body temperature itself is very warm. Plus, her suit would be fluffy so her friends enjoy snuggling with her for warmth during winter. She's a cuddle bug so it's a win-win for her too. Also, she's shorter than her friends since tundra animals have shorter legs and the flora there is very short as well. She uses a pair of metal fans to fight.

*She would be able to summon harsh cold wind and manipulate them to attack her enemies. She can also create moss patches and small shrubs to protect her friends. And she got great hearing btw, due to artic hares.

An energetic girl transforms into a Lake/River/freshwater Swamp heroine. She can manipulate water and is able to summon boiling hot water for attacks. She's able to purify polluted water. She can create blobs of murky slugde that can poison and slow down enemies. Her suit is based on crocodile/alligator and frogs. Her armor is thick and scaly, giving her nearly OP defense. They are mostly dry, but she can make them produce a slimy and venomous mucus at will. She also has buglike mandibles on her mask. Her armor also has iredescence btw, since it'd be very stylish. Her weapon is an axe.

*she's the Ocean Heroine adopted daughter. She enjoy cooking and her food taste amazing, but watching her cooks can be scary. She's very insecure about her look (she has vitiligo). Despite being tomboyish and energetic, she prefer dresses over pants. She also has a pet snake.

The Forest lad herself, she's very studious and creative. Her armor is based on tropical birds, big cats and flowers. This mean that she has the most colorful armor of the group. She has a pair of large bird wings behind that resemble a combination of several bird species wings. She can also became invisible to enemies (chameleon) and can deliver poisonous attack using her "claws". She also have this patches of small flower on one of her shoulder plate, from which she can realise a sleep inducing gas. She's not at all okay with the Protag feeling toward deserts and tried her best to change her friend view on the biome. She has like, three pet cats at home. Her weapon is a bow along with javelins.

*she's a part of the student council, and is the chillest one in that group. It's common knowledge among the younger students in the school that if you want to get out of trouble, you bribe her with some cool stationaries and she'd help you.

The Protagontist herself, she's kind and friendly, but easily confused. Her armor is based on desert snakes and scorpions. She has multiple segmented legs sprouting from her back armor plate. She also has a scorpion tail that can deal some serious damage. She can tank extremely high heat along with enduring below zero temperature. She is able to control sand to attack enemies. Additionally, since Antarctica is a desert, she has an ice mode that she'd to unlock.

*she watched alot of dark MGs show and was not at all on board with becoming a Magical Girl when the birb mascot first came to her. Thankfully, the mascot do watch those animes too (they got tricked by the art style) and thus is also as traumatized as she is.

...dear lord, I just write all that in 30mins, how did this happen???

Hey, you should craft your own series with that! I sense great potential for storytelling!

[blu3b3rryj4mp1r3]

Sort of long ramble about why I love Owl City =]

I've been listening to the Of June EP from 2007 a lot lately and it's so magical. The lyrics of Adam Youngs music always feel so imaginative, like they are written from the perspective of someone who loves life.

When I listen to Of June and Ocean Eyes I feel like I'm floating on clouds, walking through glittery winter landscapes breathing in fresh air or sitting on a beach with white glistening sand and the most aqua blue clearest cleanest ocean in front of me. It's so dreamy and and the sounds sound so sparkly. I'm in a world where time is still and I'm absolved of all my stresses of past traumas, gender dysphoria and worries over the future. Nothing calms me as much as this music does.

Another thing I love about his music is Adam's voice! The way he sings is so smooth, like all the lyrics just flow together- It's hard to describe since, I don't know much music terminology but it's so soothing, like someone singing you a lullaby. I vocal stim a lot by singing and It's very fun to try and copy his like "intonation" if that's the word (inflection? the way he sings lol).

I love to daydream while listening to Owl City, picturing little animated music videos in my head featuring my favourite characters or characters that I've made up myself. I've always loved daydreaming and can imagine things very vividly; the scenarios and landscapes his music paints makes it so perfect to imagine to. Every song feels like it tells a story that I can see in my head when I listen to it. That's why I find it so inspiring as well!

I love the way he words things and the way it makes life sound as beautiful as it is when you are little and experiencing everything for the first time. "Vanilla twilight", "oceanic vistas", "struck a sparkling tone like a xylophone", "the glow in the dark stars on your ceiling, will shine for us", "I won't ever prove statues can move. But I like to think they do", "strawberry avalanche".. idunno he just describes things so beautifully and the lyrics are so full of imagination, it's so whimsical.

I love the reoccurring themes of the ocean/water throughout his music as well, it feels so fresh and cleansing in a way. Listening to it is like breathing fresh air on a cold winters day.

And I have to say the references to insomnia in many songs hit home for me lol. My c-ptsd has given me terrible insomnia and I also struggle with depression, it's comforting to hear those kind of things brought up (not only because I feel less alone about it but) in a way that makes it feel like it's okay that is that way and life isn't over because of it, that that feeling will pass.. if that makes sense? I mean in Owl City's music even when things are sad there is always hope. I think I lack hope a lot of the time, I can feel like giving up easily, it's nice to be reminded that life isn't over because x,y and z. "I dont' need a telescope to see that there's hope and that makes me feel brave"

If anyone read all that I hope it was somewhat coherent, speaking of insomnia it's 8am and I'm not asleep yet xD

TLDR: If you're looking for calming music to imagine AMV's of your OC's to and you like dans/electropop and maybe are a little bit emo, I think you should check out Owl City! 🩵

[rene-01]

Some information of characters from my new fantasy AU! A list of everyone added so far and what they are! (Some are Minecraft related cause I got this idea in mc!)

-Noah: moth + potion maker

-Cody: saytar

-Gwen: ender dragon

-Trent: Enderman

-Duncan: nether dragon

-Tyler: Viking

-Alejandro: demigod (nether)

-José: demigod (ocean)

-Carlos: demigod (overworld, not including ocean)

-Sierra: demigod + witch (ender)

-Emma: witch

-Eulia (oc): goddess + deer

-Bridgette: siren

-Justin: siren

-Brody: turtle

-Geoff: mermaid

-Crimson & Ennui: bats

-Lindsay: princess + tiefling

-Axel: tiefling

-Ripper, Chase, Zee: Raccoon + thief

-Dawn: fairy

-Beth: fairy

-B: giant

-Bowie: Phoenix

-Raj + Wayne: two headed owl griffen

-Aku (oc): Elf

-Heather: black widow

-Courtney: Centaur

Any questions are welcome! If there’s any specific lore you wanna hear of lmk! I can also make a ship list !! :33

[bonefall]

Do you have a list of bb!characters names in clanmew? Because I want to translate some of the names, but I don’t know which ones have been done yet.

I did not have a list! But, for you, I've gone ahead and compiled the ones I have thus far.

I definitely missed a couple of them, but here's 60 translations

Littlecloud = Eebhai ("Little Fat Cloud," a name that was a bit ironic because Littlecloud is a VERY skinny cat. It was given by Nightstar, in the hopes of receiving a blessing.)

Harespring = Yywayayiaoyr (Hare + Will jump up. Invokes a hare that thinks before it leaps)

Mistyfoot = Sooheffepab (Morning mist, refers to the dewey haze of morning, given by Oakheart because he collected her in the morning + Pad, as 'foot' often ends up absorbing a lot of unique suffixes for paw-related parts)

Tangleburr = Mwuprkido (Mwupr = Tangle, twist, knot, Kido = burrs, but also any plant debris that gets lodged in fur)

Patchpelt = Chafaborrl (Patch as in a grouping of similar vegetation. Patchkit and Leopardkit were twin names likely to invoke the image of a leopard hiding in grass as a reference to an old LeopardClan story)

Torear = Hssbupira (Hssbup, Small, rocky outcrop in moorlands that protects one from the wind + Ira, Ear )

Mudclaw = Mulpkach (Mud that is still wet, but not sticky or dangerous, rain mud. + Claw)

Whitewater = Osksrosha (Osk = Color white + Rosha = Sloshing water)

One-eye = Mwiskpi (Mwisk = Missing, Lost, + Pi. Lost-Seeing/Hearing)

Stemleaf = Prryemruss (Prryem refer to the beginning of any plant, where it springs from the ground. It was widely agreed this name is... A Choice, on Bramblestar's behalf)

Stumptail = Borgswash (Borg = Refers to ANY cut cylinder with a flattened top. Original translation, Stumpy, was an accidental translation of a pun as the translator did not know he was born this way, and ergo does not have a cut tail.)

Barkface = Karakbauss (Karak refers to thick, rough bark. Not the type that can be peeled off willows and made into string)

Breezepelt = Hrra'aborrl (A wind that pauses and then picks up pace + pelt)

Nightcloud = Oogarhai (All nighttime hours, from vesper to twilight + fat cloud)

Bayshine = Wawashem (RiverClan and WindClan think this is a weird name, because of an interesting dialect difference between Shadow/Thunder and River/Wind. They think it should be 'Sawawashem')

Thriftear = Paharlira (Paharl is an ancient Lake word, shared with Ivypool by Midnight. Thrift is a hardy species that grows by the ocean.)

Fernsong = Nanyananya (Fern + Yanana, Singing)

Jayfeather = Arkrbufr (Arkr = Screech Eurasian Jay + Bufr, a large feather from a tail or wing)

Downkit = Fuffrmew (Fuffr, soft, small feathers from the chest and body.)

Crowfoot = Rawkpwyyar (Rawk = Carrion Crow Corvus corone)

Redtail = Reyswash (Rey = Yew berry, blood red)

Graystripe = Urrnseek (Urrn = Stormy-gray. Seek = A long, thick stripe)

Brindlewing = Sipbeof (Sip = A short, thin stripe. Beof = A Feathered Wing; Beof is a Tribe word)

Needletail = Nyypswash (Nyyp = The leaf of a pine, but also means a 'harmless thorn.' Something that looks sharp but is actually quite soft.)

Thornclaw = Nakkach

Owlwhisker (Barn Owl) = Weearhussk (Barn Owl)

Owlclaw = Huokach (Eagle Owl)

Hootwhisker = Hrrua'uhussk (Tawny Owl)

Dovewing = Hrrubeof (Rock pigeon + wing)

Briarlight: Pik'kashayu (Shayu is any light source, from which light comes. A sun, stars, bioluminescent things)

Brightheart: Yaywibabun (Intense Heartbeating. Bright is a word about intensity, it means saturated colors, blinding lights, and overwhelming beauty)

Troutstream = Powshshush (Trout was probably named in reverence of the fact there were suddenly trout in the water again; Trout are an indicator species of river health and the River Chell was fucked for several years)

Birchfall = Pyachfew (Downy birch + Fallen)

Birchface = Byachbauss (Silver birch + Face)

Iceheart = Skyyfskababi (Frozen heart + will beat.)

Meltpelt = Bmubborrl (Melting + Pelt. Could also be used to describe being uncomfortably hot, but cats only sweat on their feet)

Ratscar = Eepyach (Black Rat + Scar)

Frostfur = Chikifaf (Frost + Fur)

Snowbird = Sonchpigu (Sound of snow crunching + Generic Songbird)

Scorchfur = Fifkarfaf (Burned + fur)

Lionblaze = Raorgabrrl (Lion + Crackling, refers to fire "eating" tinder, causing it to crack)

Slatefur = Pyabfaf (Slab/Flat Stone + Fur)

Poolcloud = Slofhai (Pool + Cloud)

Toadskip = Amampipip (Common Toad + Bouncing)

Nettlespot = Pokalowo (Stinging Nettle + Circle )

Spotfur = Owofaf (Refers to a single big spot she has on one side)

Tawnyspots = Pyowaposnya (Light brown color + Spotting)

Oakstar = Byochshai (Oak + Star)

Frecklewish = Husswo'shaba (Spots where the whiskers connect + Prayer)

Houndleap = Bayaolu (VERY large dog that howls + will jump)

Stagleap = Aayoolu (Adult Male Red Deer/Cervus elaphus + will jump)

Doefeather = Maa'arfrif (Muntjac + Feather)

Deerfoot = Augpwyyarr (Antlerless red deer + foot)

Deerleap = Augluar (Antlerless red deer + Jumping)

Fawnstep = Myaapab (Baby deer + Will walk)

Spiketail = Kikswash (Spine + Tail)

Cypresspaw = Pfufohpwyr (Pussywillow + Toebean)

Fireheart = Kafyarbabun (Wildfire + Heartbeat)

Squirrelflight = Pishkafsheek (Red squirrel + Soaring like a bird of prey)

Hallowflight = Shahafniooaw (Holy/Healing/Redemption + Flew like a swift, a hard one to translate into English)

[cutesharkstudios]

Mother's Here CH. 4

(This chapter takes place a few months after Watching and Dreaming) Camilla was sleeping after her last work day of the week. She covered for some sick co-workers who got better shortly afterwards, so her boss gave her a 3 day weekend. She then started to hear weird cracking noises, but she didn't think much of it. Until a bolt of lightning struck the tree right outside her house.

Camilla: DIOS MIO!

She then got up to check up on her kids. She didn't like the idea that they would be scared, so she wanted to check on them. When she got to the stairs, she saw her kids, Luz Vee and Hunter, had all gotten up to check on her.

They embraced each other, glad that the others were safe and sound.

Hunter: Hey, I'd take that over boiling rain any day.

Vee: I second that.

Camilla: Wait, boiling rain?

Luz: Yep, from the boiling ocean. Not sure why it boils, but it does.

Camilla: How did you survive there?

Luz: I'm your daughter. You'd be shocked what a Noceda can do with some hope and a little bit of light magic.

Camilla: Well, you don't have to worry about that here. I'm just glad my babies are safe.

Vee: And we're happy you are safe too.

Hunter: You know, the boiling isles isn't as scary when you've been there for a while. I only remember you going there to fight Belos with us. Maybe you could come by some time.

Camilla: Yeah, it's Thursday night, I already put in my 40 hours, I could totally go there. Tell you what, let's do a day trip tommorrow, just the 4 of us.

Hunter: Cool, I could introduce you to Darius. He'd be interested in your sewing machine, since he sews in his spare time.

Vee: I'll have to be home in time to prepare for my date with Masha, but sure.

They then heard knocking on the door. Camilla opened it to see Amity, absolutely drenched and looking worried beyond beleif.

Amity: I sensed Luz was scared. Is she okay.

Luz: Mi vida! I'm fine, but are you okay, you look like you booked it all the way from the isles.

Amity: Don't worry Luz, I'll be fine.

(The next day)

Amity: Aaaaachoo!

Vee: Bless you.

Amity spent the night at the Noceda household, as Camilla didn't like the idea of Amity going out in the rain again. She wound up catching the cold, and the Noceda family carried her to the isles to get her proper doctors. Luz explained that she got the Boiling Isles mold and she was fine afterwards, so maybe Amity would be fine after a day or two.

They opened the door to Blight manor, seeing Emira on her scroll calling people with worry in her voice. After hanging up, she looked at the door and saw Amity, whom she tackle hugged.

Emira: AMITY! Are you okay? We didn't see you this morning and saw your window was open, so we wondered what happened.

After Alador, Darius, and Edric met up with the group, Amity explained the situation.

Alador: Wow, on one hand, please don't do that again, but good on you for being there for Luz.

Darius: Have fun on your day together Noceda family.

Luz: Are you sure you don't need me to help with Amity?

Alador: We don't want to impose on your plans. Also, this is an opertunity for me to step up as a father for once.

Amity: I am so sorry for the inconvienience!

Camilla: Don't be, we're here to help.

Their first stop was the owl house. Camilla only got to be there a couple of times when she helped her kids out during the fight agains Belos, so she was glad to meet up and properly introduce herself to the Clawthornes. After the Day Of Unity events, Lilith and Gwen moved in with Eda. Raine and Eda had just gotten engaged the previous month.

Gwen: So you're Luz's mom. I'm Eda's mom, Gwen.

Camilla: Glad to meet you. I've heard of some of the crazy stuff that happened on the isles.

Lilith: Then I take it you've heard of my……shenanigans.

Camilla: Normally I'd break your spine for trying to impale my daughter, but given the circumstances you were in plus the genuine remorse you feel, I'll let it slide.

Raine: Your daughter is a delight. Seriously, she got Ms. "Who needs therapy when I have apple blood" to open up and heal.

Eda: Yeah, ever since I met her, I've been less of a drinker, I've been in a better mood, and I got back together with the love of my life.

Camilla: Well Luz does that to people. Say Gwen, what did you think I was like before we officially met?

Gwen: I figured you would be a lot like your daughter, and it appears I was right. Though I did owe Eda and Raine a bit of an apology after I was introduced to her.

Eda: I told Raine about that incident.

Raine: Yeah, that was so akward.

Luz: What did you ask Eda?

Gwen: I, may or may not, have thought before our introduction that you were Raine and Eda's kid.

Eda and Raine silightly blushed at that, as they mentioned wanting kids one day but had to think about it a bit more. Camilla and Luz went wide eyed at that revelation. And then Camilla just started laughing.

Camilla: I don't blame you! You two are so alike!

Lilith: Yeah, Luz is so much like Eda. Here's hoping she gets a better future though.

Eda: Eh, given where I am now, I would go through that again if I had to.

Camilla: So, where do you think is the best spot for a visit? My 3 day weekend only lasts so long.

Eda: I'd recommend the beastkeeping sanctuary.

Raine: I think the bard music building woudl be wonderful.

Lilith: Pop by the museam!

Camilla: Okay, why not?

[adiosterror]

🩶, 🎚️ and 🪽

(@/scarecrowbf ^_^)

Oh geez, three at once,, bet

🩶 (Song that reminds you of your f/o)

There's SO many I could say for this, honestly, but I'll have to go with (and highly recommend) Ascending Heaven by Asyndeton!

I have no idea where I first heard this song, but it really stuck with me when I was in school and I would listen to it every day while I read the comic. It's a very comforting song, especially the chorus with the lines 'I'll take away your pain, I'll hold you in my arms' both feels like a selfship thing and also how she treats her friends and all that. She's very stubborn on making sure everyone she loves is safe, going as far as to literally retcon the entire story so they don't have to die.

🎚️ (Album cover that reminds you of your selfship and/or your f/o)

I'm sure there's a lot of really good answers out there that I could say, and I'd love to hear any other ideas, but I'd have to say I'm split between two! There's the album cover for Homestuck Vol. 10 with all the kids meeting up which is awesome (it also has casey!! i love you so much casey), but that feels like too easy of an answer.

My other option would probably be Owl City's Ocean Eyes. I didn't even know this until I googled it, but this album came out in 2009! Just a couple months after Homestuck first started,, neat! I'd choose the deluxe edition of the album cover, the big lettering and white border makes it feel a bit lighter in color compared to the original. And also, the deluxe has a banger remix of Hello, Seattle.

🪽 (Song lyric that makes you think of your f/o and/or selfship)

There are SO many of these I could scream, but I'll stick to two just to keep it simple!

The first one is from Meteor Shower by Cavetown, specifically the line 'I'd sell my own bones for sapphire stones, 'cause blue is your favorite color.'

I'm not even really sure if blue is her favorite color? I'm pretty sure it is, but there's some hot debate in the fandom about it being either blue or green. I'm on team blue because literally everything is blue except her original shirt and things based off it, which is just Slimer from Ghostbusters,, who is green,,,

But yeah, I think she'd look really pretty in sapphires, now that I think about it,,,

The other song is It Only Takes A Moment from the Hello, Dolly soundtrack!

This song stuck with me ever since I was a little kid, my favorite movie has always been Wall-E lol,, but the lyric for this song is 'Your heart knows in a moment, you will never be alone again.'

I'm not sure why I have it superglued onto June in my head, but the delivery of the line sounds so full of adoration and acceptance, it makes me feel that kinda way, you know? You can just hear the love in his voice, throughout the whole song but especially in this line.

Thank you so much for the ask!! It means the world to me, hehe,, I'm excited to see your responses too! ❤️❤️