#oides

[polling-sonic-fans]

Thanks for the anonynously submitted poll!

Polling Sonic Fans for their opinions on all manner of things. Share good questions to indicate what you want asked. Submissions open.

[breadbugg]

ive decided i no longer like sonadow, or sonic. this account will be entirely dedicated to my new otp, bowuigi

[serpentface]

The (now extinct) utosai, the last of the great lacetors.

Lacetors are a clade of warmblooded reptiles that fill niches as large grazers. The only genera surviving in the contemporary are relatively small (averaging about the size of cattle), but many older species grew bigger than elephants. Utosai were the last remaining members of this branch, dwindling towards extinction as their once vast grasslands experienced rapid desertification over a period of a mere few millenia, becoming the massive, mostly uninhabitable desert region colloquially known as the Deadlands.

They would historically live in herds consisting of one male, several (sometimes dozens of) females, and their associated young, which would migrate vast distances to follow seasonal rains. Males would fight each other to gain control of their mates or tempt away singular females, with young males roaming in bachelor herds. As reliable grasslands grew sparser, these herds grew much smaller, with the last remaining utosai being found largely as small bands of females and lone, wandering males that would opportunistically mate when they were lucky enough to find each other.

Utosai had very thick scaly skin that folds in plates, in part a vestigial defense mechanism against large predators that had LONG vanished. Like many other lacetor, they had partly bony facial pads that grew large and colorful in males as display features. Their tremendous curving horns served predominantly as additional display features, while the smaller, jutting horns partly figured into intraspecies combat, with males standing side by side and front to back and swinging these horns at each other in ritualized combat behavior.

These horns were clearly of value to the people who once inhabited the same ranges as utosai, as their ivory figured heavily into their craftwork and holy objects and can be found near-ubiquitously in the burials of high ranking people in the east interior Deadlands. These surviving utosai ivory artifacts are of tremendous value, with the mere prospect of obtaining them tempting many graverobbers and other such wealth-seekers into the remains of ancient human settlements (a mostly futile and often deadly task, most accessible tombs have already been plundered and those still left in peace are hidden deeply beneath the sands).

Utosai lasted far longer than many of their counterparts, surviving on (and trapped within) dwindling patches of coastal grassland fed by ocean rains, too isolated within stretches of desert for any chance of migration to grasslands further from the equator. These last fragmentary populations were discovered by traders and treasure seekers sponsored by the early 2nd Burri empire, with many hatchling utosai being taken back overseas hundreds of miles north. It is unknown when the last wild utosai died, but all but the tiniest fragments of their coastal grasslands are gone and the great beasts are nowhere to be found.

The captive animals were bred in Bur and eventually produced a relatively large (and heavily inbred) population, probably maxing out at around 1000 individuals. They were never truly domesticated but could be made tame and well accommodated to handling, which eventually developed into their use as mounts, forming an elite cavalry unit used in warfare. A war utosai was outfitted with a shielded tower upon its back from which archers could fire from height, and would be driven by a rider on its neck. Their use was functionally similar to irl war elephants, being utilized for intimidation, to scatter enemy formations, and to lead (or break) charges. These were the largest animals that most people would have ever seen, and were often reckoned as nigh-invulnerable. The utosai was heavily used in Bur's wars of conquest, and became an esteemed animal emblematic of the second Burri empire's might.

Very few consistently effective counters to the war utosai were discovered during the duration of their use. One very famous, very successful counter was used by the pre-Wardi Ephenni tribe in its war of independence against the second Burri empire (which was already beginning to collapse). The province of Ephennos was of key import to the empire as a breadbasket, being highly fertile lands and providing much of the grain that sustained the empire. A cavalry of ten utosai (a VERY excessive number against a less well-trained, less well-armed group of soldiers) was brought overseas to assist in crushing dissent and were devastating in battle, with only two of the ten being killed in three years of protracted warfare.

In an act of cleverness, desperation, or both, a trio of khait were covered in pitch and set ablaze, and spurred into hurtling towards the bulls in the utosai cavalry. The utosai panicked and fled, trampling many Burri soldiers in the process and utterly destroying their formations, with three of the eight utosai falling onto their sides (weighed down by their towers) and killed by Ephenni soldiers. This allowed for victory in battle, and this victory ultimately turned the tide in favor of the kingdom of Ephennos and its eventual independence. A motif of three khait wreathed in flames is still widely used in this region and as emblematic of Ephenni heritage (who, while broadly assimilated into Wardi nationality, still retain a sense of individual identity, and pride in their city-state being a center of power and birthplace of kings within Imperial Wardin).

The use of utosai in warfare dwindled after the discovery of this fairly effective counter. They were no longer reckoned as nearly invulnerable, and the great cost of transporting and feeding these animals became increasingly inviable. Captive breeding began to dwindle along with their use in warfare. The last utosai were lost, killed, or slowly died off in the Burri wilderness during and after the empire's tumultuous collapse. Some folklore describes hidden populations surviving in some wilder areas- there are several places in Bur where people claim to sometimes see the silhouettes of these great beasts against the horizon, and the rural parts of Ephennos are rumored to have a few of them (perhaps descendants of the surviving war utosai, perhaps their ghosts). Otherwise, they are lost to the world.

[humlors]

Wait which billford fics pspspspsps

gotta say, it feels just a little surreal and silly to make a billford fic rec list in the year of our lord 2024, but hell yeah sure

There's an Endless Road by @agentquinn is one of those fics I reread like. at least once a year at this point. Post-canon, human!bill (absolute trash gremlin, as he should be), roadtrip with Bill, Stan and Ford. Cannot understate how much of a comfort fic this is to me. Do yourself a favor and read it

Also by Quinn, State of Dreaming is very much as the description of "One of Us AU, sort of". I remember for real gasping when figuring out what was going on. It's dark, it's just the right flavor of a bit surreal, it's fantastic

In All My Dreams I Drown (also by Quinn, I swear I've read fics from different authors) is a Pirates of the Caribbean AU with Bill as Calypso, Ford as Davy Jones that kickstarted me and @swiftboone talking non stop about this AU for months on end back in the day. Here's a masterpost of the AU of all of the wonderful peeps contributing to it!

While not really a billford fic, if you're on the Bill canon backstory high rn, please please PLEASE read Flat Dreams by @pengychan. It's an absolute masterpiece that very much made me weep reading back in the day. 100% one of those fics I want everyone who's into GF to have read at least once.

If you're not intimidated by long (LONG) fics, I slavishly followed Knowing Me, Knowing You by @f-imaginings back when. On surface, a typical 'bill gets trapped in a human body pre-betrayal' fic, but holy damn does it go places. equal parts rom com with an ABBA theme, equally character study/exploration with some great sci fi stuff

for something shorter, this fic by @marypsue is 100% one of my fave AU concepts of 'bill losing his own powers to make Ford a demon instead, making himself human in the process'. It's so good, bill being his usual trash baby self while coming to terms with the whole "being powerless" thing.

Anyway, these are the one's I can come up with from the top of my head! I've still got a whole heap of GF/billford fic recs under my fic rec tag, so that's another place to go searching! (and what the hell, shameless self promo of my own old fics lmao)

happy hunting for those fics my friend!!

[marfian]

Guys you don't understand, Messi has suffered so much humiliation from everybody, both from people here in Argentina and the media, and foreigners.

This was his last world cup, his last dance. He is 35 years old and playing the way he does.

The entire team deserved this so much and we as a country are so proud, so happy. Literally, crying. Moreover considering everything that happened around the world cup with all the controversies with the media and certain people who dismissed latinamerican football.

Messiento feliz. Al final son medialunas, no croissants, ahre.

[caterpillarinacave]

Using the computer as a babysitter for Jed and Octavius is all fun and games until they figure out how to use Larry’s credit card

[legokingfisher]

Riyu growls and snaps when he’s startled.

He knows it’s not polite, but he can’t help it. It’s a knee-jerk reaction.

He’s done it since he was a dragonet. But of course, it was no big deal back then. He wasn’t strong. He wasn’t big. His spooked growl sounded more like a puppy’s yelp than anything. The others could always shake it off with a smile and an apology, even if he’d accidentally bitten.

He’s grown a lot since then. His claws are sharper, and so are his teeth. His voice has deepened, and thus his growl has turned into a predator’s snarl.

He doesn’t mean anything by it. Everyone knows that. Everyone tells him they know that.

It doesn’t stop him from feeling guilty, though.

He wishes he didn’t react like that. He knows what’ll happen if he bites. If he swipes. If he whips around too fast, knocks something over. He’s got the equipment to do damage, now. Damage that can’t be just shaken off with a smile. And he’s not done growing yet.

It makes him cautious. It makes him wary. He’s glad his hearing is good, and his smelling. Ninja training helps, too— he’s learned to become harder to sneak up on.

He’s pretty on-top of it.

Or. He was.

The matriarch of the mountain dragons, mighty as the peaks she roams, is dead. Departed. Murdered.

It’s hard to focus, now. Riyu visited her once, after the victory against Beatrix. Just that once.

(He’d assumed he’d have plenty of other opportunities to do so. She was in her prime, after all.)

He wishes he’d visited more. He wishes he’d stayed with her longer. He wishes he could have given her a proper goodbye. He wishes he’d been ready.

He feels hollow. Heavy. Lost.

He’s been off his game.

Seeing as his tribe mother’s grave is far out of sight from the monastery, he figures he can put it out of mind, too. He trains with the others. He chokes down his food. He makes sure his tail is wagging.

But he’s been off his game. It’s hard to focus, now.

Sora didn’t mean to scare him. She’d just tapped his shoulder. But he had missed her approach.

He’s been off his game.

Riyu growls and snaps when he’s startled.

Sora’s fast, her reflexes are good— but what if she hadn’t been fast enough? What if he’d bitten? What if he’d swiped? What if? What if?

He startled her too. She can reassure him to the moon and back, but he saw it. He saw her face.

He’s been off his game.

It’s hard to focus, now.

It’s made it easy to startle him.

Riyu growls and snaps when he’s startled.

He’s been sloppy on missions, too. Lloyd tells him he’s trying his best. Thats what’s important. Lloyd tells him it’s okay. He’s not the weak link.

Maybe a weak link is a good thing to be. He’s sure it would be better than being a monster. Something that lashes out like a cornered dog.

Or maybe he can be both. Somehow. Lloyd’s also said he’s talented. Maybe he’s ‘talented’ enough to do that.

After all,

He’s been off his game. He can’t do anything right, now.

After all,

Riyu growls and snaps when he’s startled.

[popiellart]

commission for NathanCSDndguy on twitter

[undertalethingems]

you have some kind of formal art education?

yes! but, i didn't go to school for art originally, and while my college had a perfectly fine art department and i liked most all of my teachers, sometimes i'm not sure how much i actually learned, haha...

i've been doing art basically all my life, and lucked out in having pretty good art teachers through primary and secondary schooling; they introduced me and my classmates to a lot of different media and techniques, from pen and ink to stained glass. Some of the lower level art classes i took in college actually repeated concepts i was already familiar with, but there was no testing out of them so i had to do them again. it was painful :"D

i still think it was a valuable experience though :>

[heuldoch7b]

stretch marks are so beautiful... i enver really noticed they have a like, a shiny effect until today 😭💕

[doodles-in-sand]

"And I was still a cowardly mont blanc, after all."

[saingirl101]

Omg its really is movie jumanji. The real life characters are controlling the movie characters

I see this only as a win as usha continues her old lady dominance.

So many potentially amazing interactions. Plus the homebrewed aspects of kids on bikes is so cool. I am so excited for the rest of this series.

Us for the rest of the season.

[mlembug]

When I say that Yoshida Gorou makes the most transfem hentai ever, this is what I mean.

[mvvocaloidgifs]

【公式】 メロメロイド／かいりきベア feat.初音ミク  

[fozethefox]

May mercy come to your home

[ok-i-draw]

I offer Stitches and Hackjob for artistic inspiration!

Whoops! Sorry for answering so late! Had this in the folder for a while! Here you go @chimeracarnival !