Dear fucking LORD I am beyond grateful for the reptile Facebook groups. I was already in most of the needed ones - Advancing Herpetological Husbandry, Reptile Lighting, and How Not to Slay the Dragon. Last one was the immediate care info brush up and getting specifics down for set up. My post is up in there now & already gotten some really nice helpful comments, which made me nearly cry once.
Have joined another group from there, for bearded dragons with muscular dystrophy, as it's possible that's what Ed may have along with MBD. Still relatively new and not much research, but seems to be getting more common in pet store dragons due to poor breeding. So I have that group for info if needed.
And now I have money to finish immediate supply shopping, so I went to get the heat bulbs and UVB light, then wanted to double check that the light would be correct for the usage. Reptile Lighting has all of the mesh screens researched for amount of UVB blocked, which coordinates for a chart to tell you the right bulb strength for distances to ensure the right amount of UVB exposure.
Cue almost crying again bc THANK YOU THAT WAS SO EASY.
Bulbs ordered.
Oh, and Ed has a vet appointment on Monday afternoon, so we just gotta get through the weekend. Focusing on rehydration first, fixing basking spot second, and then we'll try food.
Perhaps this much celebration is already enough, let's move onto the actual fact...
General fish fact!
The very first animals that could be considered fish appeared around 500 million years ago, during the Cambrian period. They've been evolving and diversifying ever since! With 35 000 discovered extant species and counting, there are more species of fish than there are species of mammals, birds, reptiles, and amphibians combined.
most insane side effect of getting further into the marine bio degree and taking so many classes about fish evolution and anatomy is that now i see every terrestrial vertebrate as just an extremely derived lobe-finned fish. and i don't mean in the abstract sense of "i consider them fish" or even "i refer to them as fish" i mean i look at a cat or a deer or a pigeon and my brain just superimposes a basal sarcopterygian onto their anatomy and goes "yeah. that's a highly derived fish." like at this point i'm worried that someday i'm gonna accidentally refer to my lungs as my swim bladder
The reason Pasha N. is stuck filing stimuli in the evidence locker is because if she ever went out for a walk and found Madame Loathing’s Home for Wayward Interests, all the kids would be freed and adopted within the hour
I think it’s time I start to slowly introduce more characters from D’s group; this is J (she/they), she met D when they were both 8 years old so they’ve been bestfriends for over 200,000 years. She’s also a fallen angel. Her sacred animal is a snake, whereas D’s is a fox.
One thing people need to understand about me is that I am always role-playing. Even and especially when I'm playing board games where that's not the point. So to me, games where the mechanics have literally nothing to do with the framing device are kind of absurd.
We took Mista B to a convention last weekend ♡^▽^♡ He was sooo popular! My partner and I did a couple cosplay photoshoots with him, but until those come back here’s some pics of everyone’s favorite little guy
Baraka is top tier best boi and dad bro. Screw anyone spreading otherwise.
Our mans got his redemption (arc) and good guy treatment, and not anti-hero because what brutal “ends justify the means stuff” is all in his fighting style, biological weapons, and fighting attitude he has and uses, well he can’t even control or even asked for it ssoooo. He even says he knows he’s the one with the most time and transformation who has Tarkat and took that super mutation in stride and got super strength and retractable respawning arm blades, saw some people needed help, would get very little in return, and said “BET. Let’s jump their asses.”
The Baraka Syzoth discussions then fight then more discussions? They’re tag teaming against what turned out to be (and incidentally was) Ashrah, and then Ermac? And when Ashrah & Syzoth get a chance to have a new home our man don’t even say shit because everyone knows he’s going back to his people. Johnny even says he knows Baraka’s home is in that realm.
Baraka being a kickass fighter who SPARES his opponents and enemies even if they situationally or otherwise deserved death and he got talked down or chose himself not to kill? CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT, YA LOVE TO SEE IT!
Then his new son bro Syzoth risks his own recently FUCKING HEAVILY EARNED AND DESERVED, position, power, & respect to let The “king/Chief” of Tarkatans meet the new Empress, and all he asks is supplies and no scorn for his people. Man got his people some help, and now the disease could even be stabilizing, since him & Mileena seem to embrace it for the right reasons, going batshit bloody feral to defend your friends and family, and it seems to be livable, if still traumatizing, but able to be utilized.
Mileena Syzoth Baraka & Ashrah bout to be strutting down a runway showing of all of the teeth, eyes, tails, bony ridges, scales, and not giving a fuck that these beautiful people deserve to continue to not give.
In short, Baraka Syzoth & Mileena have never been better, NRS are kicking ass again, and our babies are finally jobbers no longer.
As a follow up to the post about partners, here is one on the friend groups. Specifically for the grandkids - I may make one for the adults if people are really that interested.
Feel free to send asks to learn more about them! As this is just a list of names.
I might add to this as I go.
Those with * beside their name are canon character/based off background townspeople.
Isabela:
*Mariano Guzmán
*Marta Carrillo
Lucía Desto
Isabela changes the name weekly because she’s Isabela. The Madrigals call them the Green Group because ✨nature✨.
(While Señorita Perfecta, she did have a girl group of friends but ditched them following the rebuild as she found them to be fake and only with her for popularity points. She casually crashes Dolores and Luisa’s friends groups too).
Dolores:
*Lili Iglesias
Eugenia Augado
The Gossipers. None of them picked the name. Isabela did jokingly and it just kinda stuck?
Luisa:
Carmen Garza
Paula Zapatero
Andres Medina-Lanzo
They never really had a nickname. As children they called themselves the Secret Friends Club, Julieta still calls them that (to the embarrassment of Luisa).
Camilo:
Federico Rubio-Torres
Beatriz Basurto
Santino Aldana
Olga Aldana
Ruben Zapatero
*Marco Osma
Nicknamed The Reptile Kids, at Camilo’s suggestion because his symbol is a chameleon. (They were young at the time). Though Dolores has plenty of other, harsher names for them…
Mirabel:
Álvaro Escarra
They don’t have a name because Mirabel thought that would be childish and there is only two of them, so it would be unnecessary. Usually just referred to as AEMM (their initials) if not their actual names by others.
Antonio:
*Alejandra Bernal
*Juancho “coffee kid” Desoto
*Cecilia Rubio-Torres
They are dubbed the Friendly Four, they are the ones who picked the name.