#little wolves

[grendel-menz]

The ocean is deep and full of wonders.

A teaser for an illustration I did for @DinoberryPress and their ttrpg project Little Wolves.

[sharpibees]

Need a light? 🕯️

'nother teaser @dinoberrypress 's Little Wolves!! 🐺 Pre-order here!!

[dinoberrypress]

Home of the Academy, Zephyr’s Rest

This week and next we’ll be talking about the fae courts you’ll meet in Little Wolves, our folk-tale TTRPG about werewolves in The Enchanted Forest. To start, we’d like you to meet The Witch Court, who make their home to the north in the cliffside town of Whisperer’s Canyon.

Structures are connected by carved hallways or weaving bridges, built with the canyon’s stone, and the cliff is lined with brick towers, porches, and balconies at every level that make it perfect for any broom-riding or feather-bearing witch to land or take off from.

The Queen of Witches is the Arch Witch of the Academy. Over time, as anyone loyal to this court grows in power, feathers sprout from their bodies and they begin to take on the body of a Harpy.

When a Queen is ready, they choose a successor and retire to the Harpy’s Roost.

Detail from The Four Queens art, illustrated by Grendel Menz @grendel-menz

The world of Little Wolves is vast, and we have many secrets to share with you~

If you’d like to know more, follow our campaign on BackerKit! Soon, we'll visit the Pumpkin Court. 🎃

[ttrpgbookclub]

This month, we read Grand Guignol, an upcoming Victorian romance-horror game by Luke Jordan.

Grand Guignol isn't out yet, but you can find Luke's other work here.

We also covered the demo of "Little Wolves" from Dinoberry Press, which you can find here. You can also support "Little Wolves" on backerkit.

[woodelf68]

Chapters: 9/? Fandom: Thor (Movies) Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Frigga | Freyja & Loki & Odin & Thor (Marvel), Frigga | Freyja & Loki (Marvel), Odin & Thor (Marvel), Loki & Odin (Marvel), Frigga | Freyja/Odin (Marvel), Frigga | Freyja & Thor (Marvel) Characters: Frigga | Freyja (Marvel), Thor (Marvel), Loki (Marvel), Huginn-and-Muninn (Marvel), Odin (Marvel) Additional Tags: Odin (Marvel)'s Good Parenting, Parent Frigga (Marvel), Family Fluff, Kid Thor (Marvel), Kid Loki (Marvel), Kid ages are given in Midgardian equivalents for simplicity Summary:

Short ficlets inspired by tumblr prompts.

New chapter! Tiny Loki fluff! Big brother Thor! Odin being a Good Dad!

[robinsceramics]

some wolves I've been working on!

image description: four porcelain wolves in shades of blue, green, and gray, with white fur markings and black eyes.

[moonbeams-in-a-jar]

Animals + family

[planariaareneat]

How The Nocturnal Bottleneck and Nipples Make Us Human

Almost every post here considers what humans do have, really. It’s a little tiring; realistically every world has its harsh environments and vicious species and a sophont to match. We probably wouldn’t be unique for our adaptability or our persistence or even adrenaline

But our evolution is fucked up as hell, to put it lightly.

Mammals went through what’s been dubbed the nocturnal bottleneck essentially since the start of the mesozoic right up until the Cretaceous ended the archosaur’s exclusive hold over the daylight. We lost a lot of things from every mammal spending most of its time in either a cramped, suffocating burrow or scrounging around in the faint hours of nighttime. Our blood cells lost their nuclei to hold more oxygen while we spent time deep underground, we lost protections against ultraviolet rays in our skin and eyes, we can’t even repair our own DNA using the light of the sun. Most aliens probably wouldn’t have such traits unless their evolution followed a very similar path to ours. They’d be able to see ultraviolet and wouldn’t have to worry about sunburn and all the wonderful privileges essentially all fish, birds, amphibians, and reptiles enjoy as we speak. 

There’s also what we gained from spending so much time in the dark.

Brown fat is only found in mammals, it’s a special type of fat which bear cells with several oil droplets and are utterly jammed with mitochondria. This lets it make heat, a lot of it, fast. We don’t even need to shiver to induce this heat generation from brown adipose tissue - factor in our downright hyperactive mitochondria, and we can warm up quickly. Sure, it doesn’t have too much use in adult humans, but it keeps our infants warm and still provides a little boost the whole run we have in this universe.

Unless aliens also went through a time where their small ancestors had to face cold nights, they’d have to produce heat the old fashioned way when chilled. Aliens might have to shiver the whole time they’re in a cold room while the human watches in confusion, quite literally unshaken, and wonders if the room is a lot colder than the thermostat set to 60 says. The aliens stare at their companion in confusion, it’s just a normal temperature to shiver at after all, how is the human sitting so still?

Our small ancestors spending all their time out foraging at night is also why we have such a good sense of touch, smell, and hearing. They were more important senses than vision (we’re lucky to have even redeveloped basic color vision, frankly) at the time and place and simply ended up continuing to serve us well. Birds and reptiles rarely have acute senses of smell and the latter especially are lucky to have acute hearing, and birds rarely have impeccable hearing themselves either. Our skin is free of scales and honed to sensitivity, and our external ears and complicated ear bones provide an immense range of hearing (from 20 all the way to 17,000 hertz!).

Aliens might not be able to pin down the chirp of a cricket or the light click of a lock being picked. The human might be the only one on board a ship that can pick out the finer sounds of the engine’s constant thrum and know the critical difference between when everything is fine and when something is wrong. The human could probably pick out the sounds of an approaching enemy’s careless footsteps - they’re only as light enough for *them* to stop hearing them, after all - and be the one to see the horrified expression (well, more on that later) on their face when we get the drop on them in spite of their perceived stealth. 

But perhaps the most versatile, convoluted, amazing, and utterly unique trait we have is right on your face this instant. Lips.

Lips in most animals are a simple seal to hold in the mouth’s moisture and protect the teeth, even if they’re supple they’re NEVER muscular except in mammals, and we have only one thing to thank for it; milk and nipples. Lips evolved exclusively to allow babies to suckle, it required a vacuum to be created in the mouth, and with no other animal having anything like a nipple it never happened in other animals. Many animals make milk, to be frank, but no other animal has nipples.

Your cheeks and lips are a marvel among tetrapods, no other animal can suck like mammals can. Aliens wouldn’t have straws or even be able to sip from the edge of a glass, they’d have to have a proboscis or simply tilt the whole thing back. Aliens likely won’t have woodwind instruments or balloons you can blow into. We take so much about our lips for granted. Hell, our muscular faces are vital for expressions, we’re probably absolute facial contortionists among a cast of creatures with mandibles and beaks and expressionless scaly maws. Aliens might find us ridiculously easy to read, if anything, compared to their own kind (all the better to deceive them) - or perhaps they’d find us hard to decipher anyways, with our lack of color-changing skin or erectable crests of bright feathers. Baring teeth might not be seen as a sign of aggression in most of the universe, smiling would be all too distinctly human. 

Perhaps with how infectious we are sometimes, that’s what we’d contribute to the universe; others might have to make do with opening their mouths just enough to show their teeth or splaying their innumerable mouthparts with just the right curve, but perhaps we’d teach the galaxy to smile, one ally at a time. 

Wouldn’t that be amazing?

[puppyeared]

my attempt at making a fursona

[aerequets]

I had a cute interaction with my son that I wanted to offer as a possible idea for a comic about Anya! He has been interested lately in learning the male and female names of animals, asking me "what's a girl chicken called? what's a girl lion called?" and he finally got to "what's a girl dog called?" And my husband and I kept insisting there is no name for a girl dog, it's just a dog. But he knew something was up from the way I laughed so he kept asking. And finally I said "a girl dog is a dogina." And he bought it. Now, if it were Anya, she definitely wouldn't have bought it! But I can also imagine Franky or someone answering her sarcastically "a girl dog is called a Fiona" LOL. Anyway, just a fun idea along the lines of that early comic you drew of the "motherfucker doesn't start with a b" concept which I LOVED.

i didnt bring franky or fiona into this, but it also turned out lowkey sad 😭😭😭 i had no idea where it was going till it was too late. Anyways. Dogina is funny, thank you for the idea LMAO

[grirnoires]

sitting around doing fuck all team

[sharpibees]

The density of the forest is immaculate

'nother snippet! Really proud of this one and can't wait for others to see it in @dinoberrypress's Little Wolves >:)

[dinoberrypress]

Rottlings are a mischievous type of Found Soul. Sometimes, impatient souls will bind themselves to raw root veggies before they're prepared as magically preserved vessels. They’re known to bite, kick shins, and tip over plant pots.

In time a rottling’s body will rot away, but until then, they tend to play pranks and get into all sorts of trouble. Sometimes they pretend to be mandrakes by screaming when they’re unearthed to scare unsuspecting gardeners.

There’s a rumor that one of the local goblins is actually of a stack of rottlings in a trench coat. Will you help investigate?

[hinamie]

the sirens are turning red

[tubbytarchia]

The bloodied moon cried for you, but you only heard the stars The weeping moon then bled for you, but you only saw her scars

[starry-bi-sky]

wolfpack. aka: if not friend, then why friend-shaped?

"Hey-- uh, Danny?" There's an almost imperceptible tremor in Tucker's voice.

Danny doesn't look up from what he's doing, his pencil scritching across his notebook as he tries to do another quadratic formula question. "Hm."

"What's -- uh -- what's with the dogs?"

He looks up now, and finally sees where Tucker is -- standing in the doorway of his room with an ashy look on his face and a skewed, nervous smile. He's got a white knuckle grip on the doorknob. Sam is wide-eyed behind him, and using him as a partial meat-shield.

Danny looks down to the two giant ghost wolves sprawled next to him lazily. One large green one with his head in Danny's lap, letting him use him as a prop-up for his notebook. Another equally large black one splayed against his hip, sleeping on her side with her head tilted inward to his calf.

Automatically, a grin tilts across Danny's face, and he lifts his notebook up to scratch behind the green one's ears. He opens a lazy eye, one that is bloody red with a ring of yellow around the pupil, before slipping it shut and leaning his head into Danny's touch. "This is Sirius and Procyon," he says, and reaches down to scratch Sirius' belly. "And they're not dogs, they're wolves."

"Great," Tucker says, his voice suddenly much smaller and faint, "Love that distinction."

Sirius makes a great big groan, and Danny's grin widens, his heart swelling with fondness. His hand slips away from her belly, and before he can put his notebook back down, Procyon pushes his head up his lap until his ear is against his stomach, demanding pets now too.

Sam peeks her head up from over Tucker's shoulder, "I think what Tucker's asking here is what are they doing here, Danny."

He shrugs, scratching under Procyon's chin. "They kinda just showed up. I tried sending them back to the Zone, but they keep returning." And they were weirdly intent on just following him around, which is the only reason he gave up on returning them. They weren't causing trouble, and they knew how to hide around the living. Plus, he just loves dogs. "So now I have two wolves living with me."

This, oddly enough, did not do anything to calm Sam and Tucker down. Tucker's mouth purses into a thin line, and he presses the sides of his palms to his lips in prayer. "How have your parents not found out about this?"

Danny wordlessly raises his hand, and his sleeve slides down to reveal a thin chain bracelet hooked around his wrist. He whistles sharply, and both Procyon and Sirius jerk their heads up to look at him, ears pricked up and eyes alert.

Silently, he points to his wrist and rattles it twice, and in unison both wolves stand up and pounce. Instantly, they turn into a respective, opaque black and green mist that swirls around the bracelet and forms into two, flat wolf charms.

Both wolves are posing in the stereotypical wolf howl, with little stars indented on the sides. Procyon's charm has the Canis Minor constellation engraved on it, while Sirius has the Canis Major.

Danny faces Sam and Tucker, and points at his wrist. "Like this."