#swimmy tail

[pnfc]

todays timefilling activity was trying to list all the ways perry's status as an animal has bearing on his circumstances/character. since a lot of these ideas crop up when im thinking about au or human versions of him

unique effects of perry being a platypus:

prefatory notes: -these aren’t all hard canon, they’re a blend of canon/speculation/my personal preference -some are inconsistent in the show, eg perry being banned from riding a bus but allowed at a casino / dubiously allowed to drive a car. these are potential challenges, not universal ones -some of these circumstances can be wielded strategically for perry's benefit (eg perry exploiting assumed mindlessness) so everything listed isn’t 100% negative -some of these can be superficially mapped onto a human version of perry (eg inability to speak), but they’ll have different nuances if he’s not an animal

note i’m not arguing that any one of these points is fundamental to perry’s character, although they do add up to a set of life circumstances with significant bearing on who perry is in the show. this isn’t a case for the eminent superiority of a canon compliant perry over any au version, which is a matter of personal preference. you could similarly list out all the human-specific qualities of an imagined human perry, and you could find that version of the character more or equally compelling -- but these are qualities unique to the canonical platypus perry. (and i do think all of them are fun to explore, on their own and in the context of him having a rship with doof)

note also there ARE canonical au versions of perry for whom these conditions don’t apply, due to him having a different rship with the flynn-fletchers or owca or doof, or him being a different species! e.g. agent p from ‘temple of juatchadoon’ doesn’t appear to have any relationship with the flynn-fletchers ; parable the dragonpus could have any number of physiological differences, like a massively extended lifespan ; the star wars version of perry likely doesn’t face the same kind of judgment/scrutiny over his species or over interspecies relationships

ok

neutral or positive qualities related to perry’s species:

best most immutable aspect of perry being a platypus: he’s a platypus. ie a cute lovable little animal guy with all these cool platypus features like his swimminess and his electro-bill and his whappy tail and his soft warm fur <3

2nd best (debatable) aspect of perry being a platypus: doof thinks all of the above daily

being an animal means he can communicate with / ally with other animals when he wants to

being an animal who isn't a common pet can occasionally yield specialized treatment, e.g. he gets more respect than a cat or dog in some public spaces, he can 'pass' for a human more easily, and many people can't identify what he is

has a unique rship with the flynn-fletchers and especially phineas&ferb -- they named and raised him, are functionally his parents, even if he catches up to / outpaces them developmentally. he gets to experience a loving parental dynamic from them.

also has a unique rship with monogram and carl, who brought him up through the academy. (based on the owca book, and perry’s current dynamic with mono in particular, this was probably less than wholesome/loving treatment)

no standard human education: is educated/propagandized at owca, and is otherwise self-educated or learns through osmosis

has no known biological family

(i like to assume) born/raised in danville, so isn't actually australian

would face less/no prejudice specifically along the axis of him being trans or intersex, it’s more invisiblized for him (otoh him being in a gay rship, less invisiblized)

is an endangered species

physical limitations/difficulties due to perry’s species:

is unable to speak human language (specifically because he’s an animal; he can make platypus sounds -- his rship with muteness would change if he was human) and (as far as we see in the show) is untrained in asl, so his communicative abilities are restricted

produces dangerous venom that he has to be careful of

very short and tiny (which he CAN use to his advantage but can also disadvantage him in human society, or in general - him trying and failing utterly to pull lyla up the train, lol)

likely has limited understanding of his own anatomy/physiology

(realistically) more vulnerable to heat than a human, potential dietary restrictions, less professional medical support available, seasonal hormone fluctuations

societal judgment/restriction of perry based on his species:

forbidden from accessing some human spaces / doing certain human activities

assumed to be mindless or unintelligent, assumed to be non-autonomous and a pet. generally disrespected (even doof is not innocent of this)

can be treated as a child, due to his young age (tho he's a mature adult in platypus years)

perceived by some as less-than-a-person, worth less than a human

by extension, heinz or any human partner/friend faces judgment for prioritizing/being in a rship with him as an animal (even a platonic one)

ways perry’s role as an owca agent is fucked due to his species:

raised as a child soldier, groomed into his career/given no choice in it, and in his short time on earth has had no opportunity to question or escape from it (due to the host family placement which effectively blackmails perry 24/7)

unclear if he has a right to his own person (owned by owca? and/or superficially owned by the flynn-fletchers?) or a legal government presence (e.g. can he legally own assets? he gets an income, but as an animal does the government acknowledge him as the owner of whatever accounts? is he forced to assume a false human identity? is he a citizen? can he rent?)

raised outside of his species, so quitting and living in nature among his own is not an option for him, he is forced to live in a society not built for his species

estranged from his fellow agents on the basis of species, esp. since the majority of them exhibit more instinctive/untamed animal behaviors that perry finds frustrating/unrelatable

forced to hide his intelligence/personhood/capacity for love and complex relationships among his family (much more severe than just hiding a secret job)

also: they make him eat canned worms and use a litterbox, and we know perry finds this humiliating :(

he has limited autonomy around his family -- is subject to the whims of their travel plans, etc. is technically always performing his job, since he has to maintain cover at home. down-time where he can openly express himself is extremely limited.

not legally protected on the level of a human, so if he dies owca likely will face no consequences - they perform animal experiments on him

has limited (if any) job prospects outside of owca - and doesn't get human worker protections

problematic aspects to perry’s romantic prospects:

literally a minor. literally a 41 year agegap with heinz. obscene

more to the point: ppl assuming perry can’t be in a healthy/consensual rship because he’s an animal

has limited life experience and no romantic experience. heinz is his first romantic connection, and there’s a huge imbalance of experience there.

has severely limited and complicated romantic prospects outside of heinz due to his species (an issue heinz does not share)

(presumably) can’t legally marry heinz, and even if he did many people would not regard him as a serious romantic partner (or stepdad, etc)

his natural lifespan is about a third of a human’s, so he and heinz probably have disparate time left, by a matter of decades (additionally, perry will probably die before most people he knows)

how the heck do a human and a platypus have sex… i’m gonna have to think about this one (more to the point: there’s no established precedent for a romantic and/or physical rship between their species, they have to figure it out on their own. that includes negotiating any imbalance in their sex drives)

[piratecaptainscaptainpirates]

1k request: Stede has his own version of a merman dream. But. Ed's a catboy instead.

You are an absolute genius. This possessed me mind body and soul. Absolutely inspired.

--

Stede Bonnet was dying, probably.

The world was hot and strange, and their bedroom felt weird and empty. His head felt swimmy. The last thing he really remembered was Ed trying to feed him some soup and looking terrified when he couldn’t finish more than a few spoonfuls, and he remembered wanting to fight the entire world for making Ed look so scared.

He remembered Ed putting a wet cloth on his forehead, and it had felt like heaven, and he remembered Ed whispering that he was just burning up, begging please don’t leave me - he wasn’t sure he’d been meant to hear that part.

And now the world was dark and hot and strange. He registered being in his bed, but it was lonely, and he tried to focus on breathing. He didn’t want to go, he wanted to hang on, but it was so hard. He wanted to rally his strength, find the will to choose to live, but he was so fucking tired.

He felt the world start to slip, bleeding away at the edges-

“Stede?”

Stede gasped as he opened his eyes. He was used to the sight of Ed in bed with him becoming the new most beautiful thing he’d ever seen every morning, but this was on a whole new level.

The Ed that crawled into bed with him had big, adorable, soft-looking gray kitty ears, and a long, fluffy tail that curled up into a curious hook, and his movements jingled with the bell on his collar. Stede’s heart absolutely melted at his big, adorable eyes, and the way his ears were slightly folded back with concern.

“You can’t leave me,” Ed pouted, curling up into Stede’s side, fingers starting to knead nervous biscuits into Stede’s chest. “I love you, I need you! I’d be so sad without you!”

Stede reached out to touch his adorable, soft ears, and Ed headbutted his hand, leaning into the contact with a cute little mrrp?

“Please don’t go,” Ed said, leaning forward to nuzzle his cheek cutely against Stede’s shoulder, the bell on his collar jangling. “You promised you’d never leave me again.”

Stede had promised him that. It would be an absolute dick move, to abandon his boyfriend when they’d only been living together for a couple months. Stede Bonnet, taken out by a little head cold? Ha! If his throat wasn’t so sore, he’d laugh at the thought.

“Please come back to me.” Ed pressed his nose under Stede’s jaw, purring softly, an adorable little noise. His fluffy tail thrashed anxiously over the covers. “We’ll keep each other safe. We promised each other, didn't we? I want to be with you for the rest of my life. I can’t lose you.”

Stede took a deep, rallying breath, and he tried to sit up. All he really managed was a groan in the back of his throat and a twitch of his hand.

“Yes!” Ed’s ears pricked forward with excitement, his eyes getting somehow even bigger and more adorable. “You can do it, babe, c’mon! Fight it! You’ve got this!”

Stede thought he might be able to manage a word. “Ed,” he groaned.

“That’s it!” Ed wiggled happily, pushing his head against Stede’s shoulder before doing this sort of adorable stretch onto his back, his shirt riding up to show off his adorable, soft tummy. As usual, the sight made Stede want to brush his fingers adoringly through his happy trail, bite gently at the soft skin there to make Ed squirm and giggle…

He couldn’t be finished. He wasn’t going to die before burying his face in Ed’s tummy one last time.

With a prodigious effort, Stede opened his eyes.

That was a little strange. He’d thought his eyes were already open, but when he opened them again, the cat-Ed in his lap was gone, and their bedroom felt more real than it had just a few moments ago. He could feel the soft quilt under his fingers, and as he sat up, the cloth that had been placed on his forehead, which had long since stopped being so pleasantly cool against his skin, kind of flopped down into his eyes.

And…there. Stede’s entire body relaxed when he realized Ed was still with him, asleep in a chair at his bedside. He’d fallen over so his head was resting on Stede’s thigh, his soft snores like a cute little purr.

Stede reached down to pet Ed’s hair. “Ed?”

“Mm - Stede?” Ed rubbed at his eyes with his knuckles as he sat up, starting to smile at him automatically before the realization hit. Shit - Stede! How do you feel?”

Stede let Ed press the back of his hand to his forehead. “Pretty great, actually.”

“Oh, thank fuck,” Ed groaned in relief, climbing into bed next to him so he could hold his face and pepper his cheeks with kisses until Stede was laughing. “You were so warm, and I couldn’t get your fever down, and I didn’t know what to do-”

“It’s alright.” Stede held Ed’s hand to his chest, letting him feel the steady beat of his heart. “You saved my life, I think.”

Ed raised an eyebrow. “Yeah?”

“Yeah.” Stede sighed in fond reminiscence. “I was thinking about how I felt like absolute shit, and then you just appeared to me.”

“Woah,” Ed breathed. “Like a mermaid? What color were my scales?”

“More like a cat,” Stede said, scritching at Ed’s beard, smirking at the way Ed’s eyes fluttered shut and he leaned into it. Still very catlike, really. “You were so cute. You had these big soft ears, and a cute fluffy tail, and I knew why I had to stay alive.”

Ed humored him. “Why’s that?”

“So I could do this.” Stede lunged forward, gently pushing Ed over so he could press his face into his soft, adorable tummy. Oh, yeah. The world felt right again.

Ed snorted, wrapping his arms around Stede to hold him close. “Never change, Stede.”

[radioiaci]

@damnedrainbows ▹ liked for a starter (for Husk).

"I've been meaning to ask, my feline friend," Alastor practically crooned at the other - well into his third (or fourth?) glass of scotch for the evening, the tail that he kept normally hidden doing a little sway back and forth with his obvious intrigue into the topic of conversation, despite its mundanity.

"Do you groom yourself in a typical fashion? Or is it more cat-like? You don't use your tongue, do you?"

Reaching out from his seat on the other side of the bar, the slightly tipsy radio demon brought claws to lightly pluck a hair or two from Husk's fuzzy arm. Inspecting it closely, though it was difficult. His vision was already just a touch swimmy.

He fought the urge to put the small strand of fur in his mouth to determine how it tasted.

[shinyshade8026]

what happened to swimmy tail?? :(

I'm surprised you're not talking about the fact the tips of his ear's are torn!

It happened when he was in the river! Tad got tossed around pretty hard by the currents and well... sharp stones...

He was in his water form due to the water touching him but also because his mind was panicking and made him change like that. So the tadpole tail was torn, not his actual tail

[salchat]

Fixer-upper

“Joke’s on you, pipsqueak," said Bobby.  "It’s summer break.”

The kid’s swimmy eyes blinked.  He sniffed.  “What?”

“There ain’t no school to go to right now.”

“Oh.”

“Summer break’s for running about and playing games and such.  Didn’t your brother tell you that?”

Sammy just looked up at him solemnly.  His droopy little mouth drooped a bit further.

“I guess not,” said Bobby, softly.  He ruffled the little boy’s hair.  “Dean’s not saying much about anything at the moment, is he?”

“No, Uncle Bobby,” muttered Sammy.

“Don’t suppose you know what that’s about, do you?”

The mop of hair shook.  The sneakers ground into the dry dirt, one toe and then the other.  “Dad took Dean somewhere at night.  I woke up when they came back and Dad had hurt his arm and Dean was all white like he was sick and he wouldn’t talk to me.”

“And he hasn’t said anything since?”

“No, Uncle Bobby.”

"Okay."  Across the yard, the older boy hadn’t moved, his body hunched over, his hands dangling limply between his bent-up legs.  He wasn’t right, that was for sure.

The night before, Bobby had been at the tail end of a bottle, drifting down into the usual heap of crap that went on in his head if he let it.  Then from outside, there’d come the rumble of a familiar engine and the creak and slam of car doors followed by a hammering fit to raise the dead, or at least to sober up a maudlin-drunk Bobby.

"I need a few days," John Winchester had growled.

Bobby couldn't remember what reply he’d made, if any.  The boys had been pushed in through the door, Sammy first, yawning and trailing a blanket, then Dean, carrying the bags, saying nothing.

John hadn’t stayed to see the boys settled.  Hadn’t even shut off the Impala's engine, in fact.  Just mumbled something which might have been thanks - but probably wasn't - and then off he went, wheels kicking up the dust behind him.

It hadn’t been the first time they’d been dumped like that.  The boys had sorted themselves out with minimal input from Bobby, taking over the dusty spare room, falling into the twin beds with mismatched bedspreads.

In the morning, he’d been expecting two whirlwinds to blow through the house, emptying the fridge of anything remotely edible before disappearing into the yard to find out what was new and find themselves as much trouble as they could.  And Sammy was much the same as usual, chattering away and jumping about like he couldn’t keep still.  But Dean was silent and blank - eating if Bobby told him to eat, helping with the chores if Bobby told him to, but doing nothing off his own bat - nothing apart from watching his brother, following him around like a silent shadow, like a ghost that had given itself one task and was going to stick to it forever.

What the hell had that Goddamn fool Winchester done to his oldest son?

Read on AO3

Read on ffn

[ratcandy]

hang on I talked about these guys once ages ago but I was reminded of them this morning and feel a need to share them. Now that there's suddenly more eyes here. Need everyone to know one of my favorite insects

(Photo credit)

look at this thing. Appreciate how it looks like a cross between a stick bug (with a slender, elongate body) and a mantis (those sick raptorial claws). Look at and appreciate how silly they look, all weirdly positioned and wonky.

(Photo credit)

On first glance you'd probably think this thing is a mantis that just lies flat. Or perhaps a stick bug that evolved in a weird way. But no actually. It's neither of those things.

It's in the order Hemiptera, which is the order inhabited by stink bugs, assassin bugs, leafhoppers, and cicadas. Because it's got a rostrum. Which is essentially a fucked up and evil beak.

(Photo credit, which is actually just electronically published images from the book "Guide to Aquatic Invertebrates of the Upper Midwest")

And they are positioned like that because they're an aquatic species. They're little swimmy bitches.

So that's fucked up, right. Because it looks so much like a stick or mantis, only to juke you with being a True Bug. Well what's even MORE fucked up?

what do you think we Called these things. What did we as a human species decide to name them.

that's right

WATER SCORPIONS

that's not even the same CLASS !! Those are ARACHNIDS!! These are INSECTS!!!

At least for the other half of the family (Nepidae) it makes SOME amount of SENSE,

(Photo credit)

LIKE I GET THAT, even if it's still an Insect at least I get it SUPERFICIALLY...

but when you off-handedly refer to these thangs as a water scorpion, people are probably thinking one of those guys with the long barbed-tails and big snippy snippy claws and are all horrified when you're like "oh I just pick up that little twig in my hands hehe" NO!!!! They'rE NOT scorpion .

It's a silly little stick cosplaying as a mantis when in reality it's a stink bug. and it's name is Wet Scorpion.

Appreciate. Appreciate it with me

[doorrobloxstuff]

what are some oddly specific hc of Ambush? I’m hyperfixated on multiple entities I swear-

Oooo I have some.

Though I love tinybush headcanons I do like the idea Ambush is BEEEEEG listen, both ideas battle in my head lol.

Tiny..Rush., though..

It can turn off its glow like a little night light or even glow pleasantly when it’s bedtime :)

Can hoot like an owl or even whistle thanks to its weirdly shaped mouth.

Can suck it’s tail into its body by simply sucking in its breath.

Will occasionally come into the rooms, find a warm vent and curl up to sleep on it. Sometimes 120 and A90 will join…maybe even A60 to.

Once smashed a grandfather clock on Greed’s head.

Hates water, but GUESS WHO SWIMS ANYWAYS because it’s kid got a swimmy tail.

Technically a rush headcanon too, but towards the end of a week it’ll probably be burnt out (literally due to the amount of crucifixes used on it) and super tired so it’ll bury itself in a bath tub under something cool like ice and let out a bunch of stress relieving “OoOoOoOOOOooOoO’s”

When it’s babies were reaaaaal tiny they’d use its tail as a slide.

Okay but imagine if turned off it’s light when it was really desperate to kill someone and your an intruder and you turned around and just saw this.

Boo :)

[chickenpeep77]

Farif

Six legged swimmy thing. Tasseled tail is probably for camouflaging in plants.

[guthrie-odonto]

So here’s a theory I’ve had for quite some time but has recently gotten more evidence—to put it into Monsterverse classification:

Titanus Lechuza: the Owl Beast Titan

Essentially, this is stating that the owl beast is some kind of titan or titan-adjacent, maybe an adolescent. Here’s the evidence we have so far, in order of episodes:

First off, going off of the mindscape as well as how big her beast mode gets in the finale, this thing’s HUGE. Not kaiju-sized, though, hence why I emphasize that it could be an adolescent or something of that nature.

(note: I know what you’re thinking about this thing’s head not being the fanged skull of King, his dad, or the titan trappers’ costumes, but 1) we don’t know for absolute certain if all titans look like that, and 2) the owl beast specifically takes after a barn owl—the shape and white color of this owl’s facial disc contrasting with its eyes does leave its face looking particularly skull-like)

Titans are naturally immune to the scalding hydrosphere of the demon realm, as shown by King taking a swimmy on titan trapper island and Titan!Luz standing in the boiling rains unaffected. Granted, there was the shield spell that Eda cast over the house at the beginning of “The Intruder” (even then, we don’t know if it lasted after she collapsed, given how exhausting casting the spell made her), but the very fact that the owl beast was bold enough to crash out of the window and subsequently make its way to Hooty kinda says something about how afraid of boiling rains this “beast” is…

The real kicker for this theory for me: the island Papa Titan hid King’s egg in was hidden by that sigil on the ceiling to the point of Lilith saying it wasn’t even on any maps? How then, was Eda able to just randomly stumble upon this island and therefore meet King for the first time

In “Knock, Knock, Knockin’ on Hooty’s door”, we learn that the inciting incident that trapped the owl beast in the curse, and subsequently Eda, was it being hunted down by “the collector”. Now I think it’s kind of implied that this was one of the archivists instead of our Collector, but that lends even more credence to this being a titan of some kind since it’d give this archivist a motive. As for them calling the owl titan a “beast”, something tells me the archivists wouldn’t see the titans as their equals (and just look at the language the titan trappers use when talking about these behemoths)

When Eda re-enacts the “owl beast’s fucking pissed” meme I made in the buildup to “For the Future”, there’s obviously the six wings, but she also has a noticeably more wolf or coyote-like tail…

We’ve seen that this is a precedent in titans not just from King himself, but from the dad bod form Papa titan chooses to take when talking to Luz and the Titan disguises used by the titan trappers! (not to mention that, although the curse is canonically exacerbated by stress, Eda coincidentally went beast mode from her grief and anger right when King went feral…)

Not only that, but look at titan!Luz, formed when Papa Titan imbued her with the last of his life energy to stop Belos once and for all, and Harpy Eda, formed from Eda and the owl beast working as one:

… they got the same eyes.

Conclusion: if I’m correct in this one, I guess it takes a (half)titan to raise a titan.

[grimmmedic]

The Ultimasaurus Draconis blinked a groggy golden eye open, faintly catching the faint sounds of helicopters overhead. The swimmy feeling of tranquilizers still made him feel sleepy and not quite right. He flexed his jaw, feeling the sluggish movement of his muscles.

He pushed himself up with his arms, huge talons gripping the earth to provide leverage, but he was far too unsteady to get to his feet. A mix of Giganotosaurus, Tyrannosaurus, and Argentinosaurus gave him his sheer size, even at a young age, with massive legs and arms (thanks to a dash of Therizinosaurus and Spinosaurus) ensured he could even walk on all fours if he wished. But right now, he was too sleepy.

Arc shook his head, grumbling in his throat before looking over and noticing his brother, Seraph, lay curled up not too far away, a massive bulk of ivory and gold scales, in contrast to his brother’s obsidian and crimson. Arc swatted him lightly with the flat side of his tail, but Seraph merely grumbled and rolled onto his side. Pffft. Useless scalebrain.

Finally feeling a lot more steady, Arc pushed himself to his feet, yawning; better check out the surrounding area and ensure it was secure. 

[craftingcreatures]

Pelagic Nemerteans with convergently fishlike body shapes?! This is like Phylliroe sea slugs all over again

While looking for more info on this guy I also found Nectonemertes, which even has a swimmy little tail! (B and C in the figure below)

Ribbon worm with the smooth moves 💃🏻⁠

Nemerteans are neither worms nor fish, although they look a bit like both. They are unique enough to belong in their own phylum. Most nemerteans burrow in sediments or between crevices in rocks, shells, and other seafloor habitats, but some, like this one, live in the open ocean, never touching the seafloor. Nemerteans range in length from a few millimeters to 30 meters stretched (nearly 100 feet) in length (most species commonly measure about 20 centimeters, just about eight inches, or less).⁠ ⁠ This ribbon worm (Phallonemertes sp.) was observed at 1,630 meters (5,348 feet).

[johndoeswords]

The Tail of Walther & Wilhelm (an excerpt)

Walther’s wet eyes watered more in the wind. Tiny snowflakes kicked up into his whiskers and landed on his snout. He grimaced in the cold, a single breath of wind skated across the desolate cemetery, cut through his now-not-so-thick seeming sweater, and disappeared into the dark woods beyond the wrought iron gate on the other side of the clearing.

Walther waddled up onto the hard base on which the concrete fairy sat unmoving. 

Lifting himself onto his hind legs with his tail strung out behind him for balance, just its tip still touching the ground behind, he placed his paws up on the edge of the frozen basin.

In the bowl half full of glassy white ice a small pool showed no reflection, only a clouded crackled translucence that obscured the concrete bottom beneath.

He looked again into the fairy’s stone eyes, level with his this time, and straight-on. Swallowing hard, he couldn’t help but smell a life beneath the cold surface. He’d heard the stories but wasn’t fool enough to have ever tried following their lead. They were told as heed, not instruction. 

The fairy’s face smirked - or maybe it was cast in a smirk and Walther just noticed now that he was face-to-face with the thing - he heaved a sigh and looked down into the frozen water in the basin. Lifting his head back up to look into the creature’s eyes one last time, he finally managed a word - whispered.

“Please”

The stone creature’s eyes glinted. This time Walther knew he wasn’t imagining the change. Slowly, they seemed to smooth and fill, melting the rough worn concrete into a glassy black. The eyes were like frozen pools themselves, only filled with an inky blackness not in any water Walther would ever care to drink. The eyes focused into a single dark color and stared deeply into the possum’s purse-lipped face.

The stone fairy did not move its lips but Walther heard the reply all the same: “What do you seek?”

Walther’s mind raced. Had this been what his brother had seen? What did Walther seek, really? A nice pile of leaves, a bit of snowberry missed by the birds, a small hole that would fit his head and body and not let a fox find him, a bowl of eggs and pecans, a thousand things… 

It took a moment for him to regain his composure. He knew the answer. He had practiced it in his dreams, in his nightmares, on his walk to the cemetery which had felt like both.

“A den from the cold”, he replied.

A small part of him wished he’d said nothing. Wished he’d turned around. Wished he’d not even noticed his brother was missing.

The larger part of him, his stomach that usually just stored the pit, felt suddenly swimmy and weightless. Every hair on the possum's body stood on end. It felt like lightning just about to strike, but never cracking. He looked into the basin and saw its contents melting, moving, like a pot of oil on a hot stove, struck by an undercurrent of heat but still and quiet on the surface. The basin itself had smoothed and turned from its rough concrete into a shining silver. 

The possum’s back feet lifted off the stone underneath him and he clung to the edge of the basin, gasping now instead of sighing. 

He stared into the fairy’s black eyes - the stone was melting away and coloring in skin, and hair, and clothes - shimmering wings that glowed like transparent rainbow, all of the fairy, the basin, the pool, seemed to be alive with warmth and color - all but the fairy’s toes, still concrete and stuck to the stone circle beneath them.

Walther looked up, again into the fairy’s still-black eyes. He saw the face and lips moving this time, the smirk now very much alive. “Your tail”, the living fairy said, gently.

Walther raised his eyebrows, glanced back and saw the tip of his long pink tail still touching the snowy ground from which he had stepped up only minutes (that felt like months) earlier.

“You’ll have to let go, you won’t be able to find until you do”, the fairy said simply, seeing into Walther’s heart.

The cautious possum choked back his every natural instinct to turn, to run, to flee, to faint, to….

He closed his eyes, and lifted his tail off the earth.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

A brief excerpt from a tragically unfinished short story about a very anxious little opossum trying to find his brother.

Inspired by a lovely photo that I'd be delighted to know the original artist of, but in the meantime, found on @the-possum-posting here

[alphynix]

Mixosaurus cornalianus here was a small early ichthyosaur, only about 0.8-1m long (2'7"-3'3") and generally considered to be transitional between the eel-like swimming style of basal forms and the more dolphin-like later forms. Living during the Middle Triassic, about 242 million years ago, it inhabited a shallow tropical sea that covered what is now the modern border between Switzerland and Italy.

It was previously thought to be a slow swimmer with a low and poorly-developed tail fin, and whether it even had a dorsal fin or not was unclear. But now new specimens with soft tissue impressions have given us a big surprise.

Not only did it actually have a fairly well-developed semilunate tail fin, but it also had a dorsal fin positioned much further forward on its body than expected, giving it a shape similar to some small sharks and representing the current earliest known dorsal fin of any amniote.

Bundles of stiffening collagen fibers inside its fins were very similar to those known from later Jurassic ichthyosaur species, indicating that this adaptation evolved much earlier in the lineage than previously thought. Along with stomach contents showing it mainly ate both cephalopods and small fish – fairly fast-moving prey – this suggests it was a capable open-water swimmer. It wouldn't have been quite as speedy as its much more specialized Jurassic relatives, but it may have still been about as efficient as the small modern sharks it resembled.

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Nix Illustration | Tumblr | Pillowfort | Twitter | Patreon

[magnoliasandbeardedtooth]

today in, are my fish going to die

[softandsleepyboy]

I worked in a bookstore and know lots and lots of children's books! I know the storybooks better than the chapter books, so that list is much longer

For the Little Kiddos:

Winnie the Pooh

Peter Rabbit

Berenstain Bears

Swimmy

Curious George

Anything by Tomie DePaola

Ferdinand

The Lorax

Harold and the Purple Crayon

Olivia

Amelia Bedelia

Babar

Eloise

Millions of Cats

If You Give a Mouse a Cookie

Pete the Cat

Pinkalicious

Anything by Mo Willems

The Day the Crayons Quit

Dragons Love Tacos

Jabari Jumps

Anything by Richard Scarry

The Snowy Day

The Napping House

Make Way for Ducklings

Stellaluna

I Am Enough

Change Sings

Madeline

How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight?

What Do You Do With a Tail Like This?

Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs

The Mitten by Jan Brett

I, Spy books

For Big Kiddos:

The Little Prince

The Moomin Series

The Wizard of Oz

Charlotte's Web

A Wrinkle in Time

A Light in the Attic

Ramona and Beezus

Alice in Wonderland

The American Girl Series

How to Train Your Dragon

Stuart Little

The Giver

Rats of NIMH

The Doll People

Frindle

Nancy Drew / Hardy Boys

Spy School

Tale of Desperaux

Artemis Fowl

Fablehaven

Peter and the Star Catchers

This list got a lot longer than I intended so I'm going to stop now, but feel free to ask me about specific kinds of books if you want recommendations!

My favorite books for regression!

Ages 1-6

📖The Very Hungry Caterpillar

📖 Llama Llama Red Pajama

📖Chicka Chicka Boom Boom

📖Goodnight Moon

📖Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?

📖The Rainbow Fish

📖Where the Wild Things Are

📖Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

📖A Bad Case Of The Stripes

📖Frog and Toad series

📖Corduroy

📖Clifford series

Ages 7-10

📖The Magic Tree House series

📖 Anne of Green Gables series

📖The Tea Dragon Society

📖Matilda

📖 Where The Sidewalk Ends

📖 Magic School Bus series

Ages 10-13

📖Howls Moving Castle

📖The Secret Garden

📖 Goosebumps series

📖Kiki's Delivery Service

📖 A Series of Unfortunate Events series

📖Chronicles of Narnia

📖The Hobbit

Feel free to add your favorite books!

[doorrobloxstuff]

Are there any creatures in the hotel with these type of feets?????? I need to know, Warden!! I NEED TO KNOW!!!!!!

Weeping and wailing weeping and wailing!! WEBBED!! PAWS!!! I love those..

But agonizingly..not fully..No :( most entities just float or have hand floating hands/arms. (Rush, Ambush + Halt)

Even with Ambush’s lovely aquatic genes, no dice. :(

It only passed Gills + and the stingy tail. And that was to ONE of its children. Sally got all the swimmy genes. 120 + 90 got the fluffy genes while A 60 sorta looks like a floaty..imp..lion thingie..

Technically its twin dupe has webby paws but they look more like kitty paws and Dupe, like Ambush HATES water and will actively start screaming if it falls in it.

All the dominant water stuff died with Depth since Never wanted kids and that’s valid tho. Maybe someday a human will come by and and reintroduce swimmy stuff and make the pool semi-relevant to the hotel or the second update will come and smash my skull in completely decanonizing this.

Or dread do be lookin like a frog and I am right