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mnictasbcl · 3 years ago

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First Day Out

For #dbhcolorsofdeviancy, prompt:

June 3rd: First Vacation @connor-sent-by-cyberlife

Rating: Teen

Characters: Connor, Hank Anderson

Relationships: Connor & Hank Anderson

Additional Tags: Vacation, Fluff, Found Family, Plushies

Summary: Hank takes Connor on his first vacation.

(Hint: it’s to do with fish)

Story below! Or, read it on AO3

When Hank suggested some time away from work, Connor was confused. Particularly at the notion of having a ‘well-earned break’.

“I enjoy working.” He replied with a tilt of his head. “The cases lately have been satisfying, if somewhat difficult.”

Hank rolled his eyes. “I know you do. But that’s no reason to say you shouldn’t have a break. Ever since the Revolution, you haven’t stopped working.”

“Crime has been particularly busy in Detroit.” Connor answered. Of course, he wasn’t going to admit that he wasn’t… well, wasn’t too sure of what to do with himself if he stopped working. Whilst he was a deviant, that didn’t mean he automatically picked up every aspect of being human. His whole life has consisted of missions to complete. “Fowler—”

“Will give you a break, or I’ll make him. Give us a break. There’s tons more cops in the DPD who can pick up our cases for a week or so.”

Connor thought it over. “A break would be… a nice change from working. But what exactly would we do?”

Hank shrugged. “I dunno. Maybe take a vacation. Go someplace. You know what—what about this be your first vacation away? You choose where we go.”

“I’ve never been on a vacation before. I wouldn’t know where to pick.”

“Think it over.” Hank waved his hand dismissively. “You don’t have to decide now. Just… think of things you like, and we’ll work from there.”

_______________

Nothing else was said on the subject of a break for another few days. When it reached the weekend, however, Hank brought it up again, pulling Connor aside from menial tasks around his house and sitting him down with a sheet of paper and a pen.

“So, did you get some ideas?”

Connor blinked, LED whirring as he tried to bring up the list he’d been working on during rest breaks at work.

“I have a few.”

Hank nodded eagerly, patting the paper in front of him. “Go on then, son.”

Connor took a few moments writing down his thoughts in perfect Cyberlife sans. The list was rather short, since whilst he had varying interests, many, like ‘Hank’ and ‘Sumo’ didn’t seem applicable for vacation ideas.

“Alright…” Hank took the list from him when he was finished, looking it over. “Dogs… Fish… Investigation...” He threw Connor a look. “Are you kidding me? No way to that last one. We can’t go back to work as a vacation. Fuckin’ android.” He said the last curse with some affection in his tone.

“Well, for dogs, Sumo looks pretty offended.” The dog in questioned whined. “I also don’t have a clue how that could turn into a vacation other than spoiling him more than you already do… Fish, however,” he scratched his chin, “I think I have something.”

Connor blinked. “…yes, Lieutenant?” When the man didn’t answer, he added, “Hank.”

“It’s a surprise.”

The android frowned. “I’ll be able to tell where our destination is on the journey there—”

Hank groaned. “Well, turn off your GPS thingy when we drive there. I know you’ll love this place.

_______________

The next week at work passed surprisingly quickly. Connor would’ve thought that the curiosity of an unknown in his future would have driven him to distraction, but work was busy as ever. Knowing they were going on break the next week, Fowler seemed to be giving them extra cases, as if to make up for the lost time.

But then, it was over. Sunday morning, and Hank had packed a couple of bags, stuffing them into the car. Sumo was staying over with a neighbour that they trusted, despite the fuss the Saint Bernard had put up about being left behind.

“It will only be a week, Sumo.” Connor had told the dog, hugging him one last time. “Hank says that the place we are going to doesn’t allow dogs.”

Connor himself hadn’t been too impressed to leave their canine companion behind but understood it would be less stressful not to have to worry about leaving the dog in a hotel all day for the week instead.

The car journey was fairly long, but his coins, music, and chatter with Hank managed to fill up the space, and before he knew it, they had arrived at their hotel to drop off the bags.

Connor’s wasn’t too full, as he didn’t think he needed too many changes of clothes (not to mention his wardrobe was still quite sparse). As they made their way back in the car to get to the ‘secret location’, he was wearing his favourite outfit so far: a loose-fitting shirt, some jeans, and Hank’s old DPD hoodie.

Hank had promised that the rest of the week would be spent travelling around various tourist attractions and relaxing, but that their destination today was what he’d promised Connor. Since the next week would involve more people travelling back into the cities after the Revolution, that meant today was the last day things would be less busy, and therefore the optimal day to have fun.

Connor was sat in the back of the car so he ‘wouldn’t peek and ruin the surprise’. Whilst he found the notion of keeping a secret strange, he went along with it, seeing Hank’s excitement over everything and not wanting to ruin it. Besides, the suspense was… invigorating, he supposed.

It was something to do with fish, he knew that much. Connor just hoped they weren’t going to a sushi bar. That definitely wasn’t what he had in mind.

The car juddered to a stop, breaking him out of his thoughts. He waited until Hank had gotten out of the car and pulled open his door before looking up, getting out of his seat. Connor glanced to Hank, seeing the excitement sparking in his eyes, before looking up at where they’d arrived.

An Aquarium.

He smiled. “Thank you, Hank,” he replied, already beginning to mirror the excitement of the other man. He couldn’t help it; he loved fish. Ever since he’d saved the one on his first mission, they held a special place in his heart.

Hank was left hurrying to catch up as Connor made his way quickly into the building. They made quick work of paying for their entrance, and then he was bounding through the doors and up to the nearest display.

Tall glass columns stood in the first, central room, each one with glistening blue waters and fish swimming around in them. Connor stood a respectful distance away from the glass, skin reflecting the bright colours as he stared at the creatures.

Hank came up beside him and smiled when the android began to rattle off the different names of the fish in front of him. Some, he even scanned to give a little backstory on how they’d got to the Aquarium.

It wasn’t long before Connor spotted the next area, running down the hallway and seeing the whole curved ceiling was looking up into the water with fish swimming over the top of them. He grinned upon seeing a large fish overhead, white belly completely on display, and pointed it out to Hank.

Making his way down the hallway, the android then noticed a large wall of fish.

“Look, Hank—it’s a clownfish.”

“Looks like you.” The man replied.

Connor tilted his head. “I’m not orange, Hank.”

“But you are a clown.”

Connor sighed, shaking his head. “The clown fish bears no resemblance to clowns. The Amphiprioninae actually…”

He continued on, looking over at the tank, eyes tracking the movements of the graceful fish, flitting to and fro behind the glass. So immersed was he, that he didn’t notice Hank taking out his phone, snapping a picture of him.

“Glad you’re having fun, Connor.”

_______________

They stopped briefly for a late lunch in the Aquarium’s café. Luckily, it was one of the first places to make accommodations for androids (something Hank had made sure to look up in advance) and thus they didn’t only serve human food, but thirium-based drinks for androids as well.

Connor had been expecting a simple thirium pouch, but the menu was extensive. He decided to try the ‘throsty thirium shake’, despite the (albeit whimsical) error in spelling.

Hank was content with a burger. With salad, of course. Connor gasped in surprise as they delivered his drink to him, seeing how they’d utilised ice and small amounts of water to do up his drink. It was placed in a glass with fish patterns creeping around the sides of it, with a little bendy straw.

“This is… interesting.”

When he attempted to drink it through the bendy straw, he noticed this time when Hank tried to snap a picture of him.

“What do you think you’re doing?” He questioned, placing the drink back down, attempting to intimidate but failing with the slight blue stain on his lips.

Hank laughed. “Priceless. Don’t mind me, Connor, I’m just getting a picture of your thirsty thrum—”

“Throsty thirium.” He corrected.

Hank only laughed more.

_______________

The rest of the dwindling afternoon was spent travelling around the Aquarium, spotting the different kinds of fishes. When they were all fished-out, Hank made to leave before spotting the gift store.

“Why the hell not.” He shrugged, motioning for Connor to follow him inside. “I could do with a cheesy mug to show off at work.”

Whilst Hank meandered around in search of said mug, Connor contented himself with looking over the fish-themed objects. He chuckled to see the creative things in store, looking from turtle-shaped handbags to Koi earrings.

Before he realised it, he’d found himself in the plushes section. Oh well, they were rather cute. He looked over each one, scanning them to work out what species they were mimicking.

And then, he saw it. A rather quaint little plush, sitting on the middle shelf. It was a Dwarf gourami, with white and orange scales, incredibly similar to the one he’d saved on his first mission.

It wouldn’t hurt to pick it up, he supposed, running his hands over the fabric. It was rather soft, and they’d done the scales in such a way that they felt separate and smooth, overlapping each other.

“Connor?”

He jumped at the sound of Hank’s voice, turning around to look at the Lieutenant, whose gaze travelled down to the fish in his hands.

“I was just about to check out this mug—” he motioned with the mug in his hands, a quick scan showing the text to read ‘You can tune a guitar, but you can’t tuna fish. Unless you play bass.’ “—you want me to get that as well?”

Connor blushed, shaking his head. “No, of course not—I was just… browsing.” Despite his words, he didn’t let go of the fish.

Hank chuckled. “Look, kid, I don’t mind getting it for you. Won’t tell anyone at the station. Promise.”

He glanced down at it, hands running over the scales, the texture pleasing. Perhaps it wouldn’t hurt. But—no, he couldn’t ask that of the Lieutenant. He didn’t yet have his own source of income, what with android rights and laws still underway.

In the time he’d been deep in thought over it, Hank had made his way over to him. He glanced at the prices on the wall, and nodded, holding out his hand. “It’s only $4. Really, I don’t mind. It is your vacation; my treat.”

Connor smiled. “Thank you, Hank.”

And so, nothing more was said on the matter. Hank handed the fish in a little bag back to Connor once they were back in the car, making no mention when he took it back out of said bag immediately.

He was glad to see Connor was starting to get things of his own, finally, and even more happy to see the android smiling after their day out.

“So, what are you going to name it?”

“Him.” Connor corrected, before looking down at the fish. His mind flashed back briefly to the Dwarf gourami from his mission, the scan showing up its details, before he placed it carefully back in the water.

“And… Dewey.” He decided with a nod. “Like the fish I saved.”

Hank nodded. “Nice name. Very… fish-y.”

Connor smirked. He held a little tighter to Dewey, eyes feeling a little heavy. Androids didn’t get tired, but deviants had the equivalent of it. It had been a busy few weeks at work, and a fun but tiring day at the Aquarium. Before he knew it, he’d drifted off into stasis.

Hank noticed but didn’t stop to snap a picture of the sweet scene this time. Instead, he smiled, and continued driving. He’d always have this memory, and he’d cherish it. Their first vacation had been perfect.

#dbhcolorsofdeviancy #dbh #detroit become human #fanfic #dbh fanfic #dbh connor #dbh hank #dbh connor and hank

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madeofitzits · 5 years ago

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In honor of the impending return of Brooklyn 99, here are 99 reasons that...

1. He was precocious enough to know, at 5 years old, that he wanted to change his name (x)

2. He has a bunch of nicknames: Sandy Amberg, Young Sandwich, etc. but the most endearing one is 'Droidy', his family's name for him (x)

3. He is still super close friends with people he's known since: Elementary School (Chelsea Peretti) (x)...

4. Junior High/High School (Kiv and Jorm) (x)

5. … Summer Camp (Irene Neuwirth) (x)

7. ...and Film School (Chester Tam) (x)

8. Before he met Joanna, he dated other famous ladies but - out of respect - he never discussed it/them (x)

9. He loves turtles and tortoises. When he was a kid, he had a pet turtle that he named 'Squirt' because the first time he held it, it peed on him. His Mom, Margie, accidentally killed Squirt when Andy was at Summer camp... (x)

10. … Maybe this is why, when shooting 'Popstar', Andy fell hard for Maximus (Conner 4 Real's turtle). He says they "had a good thing going" and that he wanted to adopt him. In the end, he decided against it because there are a bunch of coyotes in his neighborhood and he was worried the little guy wouldn't be safe. (Popstar: DVD Commentary)

11. Speaking of his Mom, despite being a super private person, he appeared on 'Finding your Roots' so that he could help her track down her birth family (x)

12. When he succeeded he cried (although we never got to see it on camera) (x)

13. That's because, like all good boys, he loves his Mama which is why - as part of the same episode - he said "My mom is basically the kindest person I know… and many people would corroborate that" (x)

14. Andy's Sisters, Hannie (Johanna) and Darrow, used to make him wear diapers and put his hair in pigtails until he was 5 years old. He says he didn't mind because he just liked that they were paying attention to him (x)

15. That's why he sees his identity in comedy as being 'America's kid brother'. When he was young, he would annoy his sisters until they laughed and he claims to have been replicating that approach to entertainment ever since

16. Although a bunch of his characters have 'Daddy Issues', Andy definitely doesn't. He's super close with his Papa (Joe) and has said "he's a good man" and "the best Dad in the world" (x)

17. Joe was Andy's youth soccer coach and in one scene in 'Hot Rod', Joe's favorite photograph can be seen in the background. It shows a very young Andy posing with a soccer ball, after "scoring the winning goal against Mersey" (x)

18. He's been a loyal Golden State Warriors fan since he was a little kid, living in Oakland (then Berkeley) and, in 2010, he correctly predicted that they would "win a Championship in my lifetime" (x)

19. The proceeds from his Umami Burger ('The Samburger') went to a deafness early detection program in Berkeley. This cause is close to his heart because Margie uses hearing aids and used to work in the special needs program, teaching deaf kids (x)

20. He, Kiv, and Jorm have made multiple donations to their old school district, including $250 000 to its theater program (x)

21. On the subject of The Lonely Island; Andy always goes out of his way to make sure that everyone knows how much he owes to his buddies. For instance, he told Marc Maron, during his WTF appearance, that "I get a lot of credit for what Kiv and Jorm have done" (x)

22. He makes this face when he knows he’s said something naughty…

(Gif credit: @andrewsambags)

23. During his 'Wild Horses' appearance, he said that he can't watch scary movies because they freak him out too much. He told 'Complex' that he's still scared of 'The Shining' (x)...

24. … Similarly, when he was at UC Santa Cruz he worked at the Del Mar movie theater and he had a hard time coping with screenings of 'Species 2' (x)

25. He fell in love with Joanna, the moment he met her, when she greeted him by addressing him as 'Steve the C**t' (x)

26. He listened to 'Ys', everyday for a year, before he and Joanna started dating (x)

27. He bought the original portrait that was used as the basis of the cover art for 'Ys' and gave it to Joanna as a Christmas present, so that she could hang it in her music room (x)

28. He loves birds and goes hiking and birding with Joanna (x)

29. Every new comment he makes about Joanna becomes an instant contender for 'most beautiful thing a person has ever said about their spouse' (x)

30. For example, he readily admits that Jake's iconic heart eyes are the result of him thinking about his amazing wife (x)

31. There are many stories about how incredibly romantic Andy and Joanna's wedding was and Jorm has said that it featured "the most magical vows I've ever heard" (x)

32. The Newsombergs now live in Charlie Chaplin's old house (x)

33. On the Emmys Red Carpet (2015), the year he hosted, they took a momentary break from posing for the world's press to whisper 'I love you' to each other (x)

34. At last year's Vanity Fair party, Andy carried Joanna's purse for her so she could grab a snack (x)

35. He was a semi-permanent fixture in the audience for her recent run of shows for the 'Strings/Keys Incident' tour, even officially confirming his status as the 'President of her Fan Club' (x)

36. He used his Golden Globes monologue to call out the government for framing and murdering the Black Panthers (x)

37. On the Carpet for the Guy's Choice Awards, he called the event "a ridiculous farce", adding that "men already have it so easy - it's insane that there's a show that celebrates them". That makes sense when you consider that he, Kiv and Jorm have made an entire career out of parodying toxic masculinity (x)

38. He once said that only "idiot-ass men" think that women aren't funny (x)

39. He’s been wearing glasses since 7th Grade and he has the most heartbreakingly cute habit of nudging them up his nose, (especially when he wears his Sol Moscot frames) (x)...

40. ... and of rubbing his eyes under them (x)

41. He barely ever wears glasses for roles but he also avoids contacts (because he doesn't like touching his eyeballs) which means he's almost always 'acting blind' (x)

42. He has worn his glasses in character a few times - as 'himself' ('Lady Dynamite'), as 'Paul' ('I Think You Should Leave') and during a very small number of SNL sketches (e.g. during his one appearance in a 'Gilly' with Kristen Wiig) (x)

43. He can't tolerate glare and when that makes him squint it's a sight that's too cute for words (x)

44. He owns about six outfits and has been rotating them for well over a decade (x)

45. He barely ever breaks during shooting/while performing, so when he does it's aggressively adorable. (x), (x)

46. He's a grown ass man who persuades people to come with him to the bathroom because if he goes by himself he'll get lonely (x)

47. He didn't announce he was leaving SNL, until after his last appearance, selflessly choosing not to detract from Kirsten Wiig's huge and emotional send-off (x)

48. He undertook a quest to smell like Lorne Michaels (x)

49. He's ageing like a fine wine (x)

50. To protect their daughter's privacy, Andy and Joanna never announced that they were expecting. They've never released their little girl's name or date of birth and most news outlets still report that they became parents in August 2017 (even though that's inaccurate) (x)

51. Although he's careful not to talk about his daughter often, sometimes he can't keep from gushing about her. For example, when asked about his first year of fatherhood he said: "It’s been the best thing that’s ever happened to me. Just like a beautiful, incredible dream. It has surpassed every expectation I ever had. It’s definitely been very blissful" (x)

52. After their daughter was born, Andy and Joanna spent the first 40 days at home with her (in a practice known as 'confinement'). He's described it as being "a really special time". (x)

53. Andy is famously mild-mannered but, when asked about what triggers his 'Dad claws', he admitted that if anyone attempted to touch his daughter, without permission, he'd "probably sock them hard in the face"…

54. ...Characteristically, he went on to add that he hopes that never happens, since he hasn't been in a fight since 6th Grade (x)

55. Cyndi Lauper was his first celebrity crush and he plays her record ('She's so unusual') for his daughter all the time. (x)

56. His is the very definition of a precious laugh (x)...

57. It's made even more wonderful by the way it makes his voice go high-pitched (x)

58. … and the way it causes his eyebrow to rise involuntarily

59. It's impossible not to smile at his impression of his Mom (x)

60. And laugh at his impression of John Mulaney (x)

61. He was so convinced he wouldn't win the Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Comedy or Musical, that he didn't prepare a speech. Instead, as he explained to David Letterman, he "just went… and started drinking". The resulting list of improvised 'thank yous' was perfect in every way (x)

62. As producers, Andy, Kiv and Jorm have given life to some amazing projects ('Alone Together', 'Brigsby Bear', 'I Think You Should Leave')...

63. … and gone out of their way to support women in comedy ('Party Over Here', 'PEN15') (x)

64. As well as being a comedy legend, he's a super-talented dramatic actor, who gave the performance of a lifetime in 'Celeste and Jesse Forever' but, after the movie wrapped, and it was time to do press for it, he was straight back to goofing around (x)

65. His lip bite should be illegal (x)

66. Even though he wears the same vanishingly small number of outfits, over and over, he has a vast collection of the most excellent socks (x)

67. He always gives 'editing notes' during his own interviews (x)

68. He has a super sweet and sincere way of thanking interviewers when they compliment him (x)

69. He adjusts his hoodie constantly (x)

70. The two most perfect Jake laughs in b99 are actually real Andy laughs 'https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=W38A_xuXaeg https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=sVm9nYrTWRQ

youtube

71. Virtually everyone who has ever worked with Andy has talked about what a wonderful person he is. This explains why so many of them have been involved with more than one of his projects (x)

72. It's not only his colleagues who talk about what a delight he is (x), (x)

73. This lovestruck fool wore his own wife's merch when he went out to dinner (x)

74. No one else uses the word 'dinky' quite like Andy (x). The same goes for 'snacky' (see point 70)

75. He does this with his tongue (x)

76. He still likes to play soccer but his eyesight is so bad that he has to keep his glasses on for it

77. When he lets his gorgeous floofy hair grow a little it sits perfectly over the arms of his glasses (x)

78. He gifted the world with Jakey's little curl (x)

79. At the James Franco Roast, he couldn't bring himself to be mean to anyone except himself (and Jeff Ross, a little!) (x)

80. In fact, he's always been willing to laugh at himself (x) and he still is (x)

81. He changes b99 scripts to make them more feminist (x)

82. Despite their humble insistence that they just benefited from 'good timing', the reality is that Andy, Kiv and Jorm (along with Chris Parnell) revolutionized digital media, when 'Lazy Sunday' popularized YouTube, increasing its traffic by 85% overnight (x)

83. He once attended the Vanity Fair party because his Mom told him to (x)

84. He has an amazing way of subtly but firmly shutting down inappropriate questions, like when this interviewer suggested that Holt being gay was something that could have been played for laughs https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=idQsYQfkR5o

85. He auditioned for SNL at the same time as Bill Hader. Hader thought he'd blown it because Andy had a bunch of props and Bill had none. In the meantime, Andy thought he'd blown it when he saw Hader and realized 'this guy doesn't need any props' (x)

86. His bromance with Seth Meyers is one for the ages (x)

87. Every single second of this video is proof of why Andy, Kiv and Jorm deserve the world (x)

88. He once dragged Mulaney up on stage for SNL Goodnights, even though writers weren't allowed to join in (x)

89. He has a hilarious phobia of pooping anywhere except his own bathroom (x)

90. His beautiful, beautiful, face: His smile (radiant), his eyes (caramel - hella disarming), his ears (adorably asymmetrical), his nose (perfect), His chin (the dimple… *swoon*), his jaw (could cut glass), The 'Sambeard' (another amazing layer of pretty) (x)

91. His body: His butt (x), his thighs, (x) his soft lil tummy (The ‘Sambelly’) (x), his hands. (x), his arms (x), his hips…

(Gif credit: @amystiago /@badpostandy on Twitter)

92. All signs point to the fact that, like Jake, Andy uses his glasses case as a wallet (x)

93. Jake's "cool-cool-cool-cool-cool-cool" is an irl Andy-ism that the writers worked into b99 scripts. What's even better is that Joanna does it, too (x)

94. He has a really good arm and is low key competitive, which is super hot https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=e32K_nBDy3Q

youtube

95. He's one half of the cutest Red Carpet pose of all time (x)

96. He barely ever seems to get mad but if angry Jake is anything to go by, maybe he should... (x)

97. He's a huge nerd, who geeks out over GOT, LOTR, 'Star Wars', 'Alien(s)' and anything relating to time travel (x), (x)

98. He has a gorgeous speaking voice, especially when he’s tired or a little sick. (Bonus points for any time he uses the word ‘correct’. See point 30) (x)

99. He’s still so committed to his b99 fans and fam, even after all this time and is as excited as the rest of us that...

#99 reasons to love #andy samberg #brooklyn nine nine #b99 #a masterpost for the best boy there is

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crime-bot · 4 years ago

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A Bargain (Fragment 5)

(Co-written by @theunluckyturtle)

The mountain base's forest was still rather dense as they walked, but they didn’t mind. It only allowed for more creatures to remain hidden, as well as avians to perch and sing. They recognized each and every song, even though to many it’d be hard to single out a single chirp, and although some birdsongs belonged to more interesting species than others, they all knew them very, very well, so they kept going.

They nearly passed a stream, but stopped in their tracks right when they remembered. Right, they needed to thank the dogs (and actually, Faedris too, while they were at it. The rhocims seemed to be, for the most part, strictly vegetarian. Actually, Pocket might like some fish too...). They still had a long way to go before they were satisfied enough to come back down, though, so they just walked along it and kept their eye out for fish.

Another perk about walking next to a stream is that you don’t have to weave through the flora as dramatically, and although they found it fun sometimes, they had to admit, sometimes it’s just nice to take things easy. Plus, water’s vital for survival, so something’s bound to be near the stream, and if not for the water, then for the plentiful food! They already spotted three crayfish on their hike, and they lost count of how many fish they saw! Maybe they’ll be able to have some fish, too. -Roasted, of course. It’s a shame they couldn’t save time and eat stuff raw or settle for grass like one of their rhocims or hounds, but that’s just how things were.

As they walked further up the mountain, they began to see some braver, yet still common, wildlife; some rabbits, two turtles, countless frogs, squirrels, and small birds, a few ravens, and one crow, to be precise. While interesting, they already heavily looked into those things way, way before. It was hard to not keep their hopes up, though. If they were starting to see more small creatures out in the open, chances are they’ll find something bigger! It was still a good idea to follow the stream, though. It was getting a pinch harder to do, thanks to the increasing incline, but was still incredibly manageable for them.

It seemed like the forest was beginning to thin out for them. Good, good; a change in scenery means a change in available life, as well. They spotted a herd of micro-deer and a lone flatfox, but none of them seemed interested in The Shopkeeper, and The Shopkeeper knew as much as they could about them, anyways.

As they were walking and feeling some of the trees and absolutely safe (they've checked in the past) plants, they heard something rustle in the branches above them. Hm? They stopped and looked up as they leaned on a tree. That sounded too big to be something like a squirrel or a mugin… They reached into their cape and pulled out medium-sized sack of jerky, making sure to make a little show of pulling out one of the pieces.

“I know you’re up, up there in the tree. You’re a curious and hungry, very hungry thing too, aren’t you?”

They stayed still as they spoke, the only thing moving being their cloak as it rippled in the breeze. By now it should’ve recognized the scent, and they could see one of the many branches sway up and down, swishing softly as it did so. They stepped to the side, still keeping the jerky where it was, so that the meat wasn’t between them and whatever was hidden in the trees. Now, it was just a short waiting game.

A pale and flat beaked face flanked by a brown, winged body was all they could make out in the blur as it soundlessly swooped for the meat and plucked it out of their hand until it clung to the tree they were leaning in. At first glance many would’ve taken it for a small, winged otter covered in feathers, but it only had claws on the top on its wings instead of forelegs to pierce into the tree and hold its place as it reached a jerky-filled talon up to its dish-shaped face.

Keeper beamed under their mask the whole time. Of course, they assumed they caught the attention of a predator of sorts, but strigitrices (or just strices, what many people settled for using) were certainly rare. They already knew quite a bit about these kinds of pseudo-owls, though, but it still felt very good knowing they caught another one’s eye.

“I assume you want more?” asked The Shopkeeper as they offered it another piece of jerky from where they stood. It cooed, and they took it as a signal to hold the piece closer for it to more easily take. It stretched its neck out and tore a bit off from the piece they offered, and they sat down as it ate that, as well.

It hooted demandingly and stretched its neck out to them when it was finished, but they continued to sit at the bottom of its tree and replied with, “Ah, you’re going to have to come, come down here with me,” before moving their hand that held the piece of jerky a bit.

It thought for a moment, still clinging to the tree, before carefully dropping to the ground and righting itself to hop next to The Shopkeeper.

← | ◉ | →

#A Bargain

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thatweirdmod · 5 years ago

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Going to the Other Side (Sainwell and Iglair)

Airey jolted from sleep. After years of being shaken from peace by its blaring resonation, the seed of anxiety that the sound of alarm had sown within had grown into a tangle. She scrambled from bed and over to the white dresser to shut it off. Her room was still very dim. 5:30 AM marked the start of another productive day.

She washed her face, brushed her teeth, combed her sleep-tossled black hair straight again, dressed in a long-sleeved white shirt and mid-length black skirt, and applied a modest touch of make-up to her bright-eyed face. She didn't do that little smile in the mirror that nice kids do in the movies, but she was more ready to greet the day than most of them were anyway.

She loaded three slices of wheat bread into the toaster- one for herself and two for her dad, who was now stirring around in the bathroom. While tea steeped, she scrambled some hen periods with a spatula. Poor birds. Everyday, or almost everyday, they have to push out something bigger than their heads through a hole that's half the size of a human anus. Most would pass on having to squeeze out a dry, calcium crusted crap everyday. That's what they do to propagate their species though, but it happens whether the eggs turn into fluffy, cute baby birds, or end up fluffy, sizzling in the fat from some mammal's tits.

"Thanks, Airey," her dad said as they sat down for breakfast. He was a hard-working foreman with an increasing number of light-grey streaks in his neatly brushed, black head of hair. He had a soft aura and a kind-hearted, patient smile, but the firmness and understanding needed to instill, and equally important, inspire healthy successfulness and discipline.

She took after him more, Airey's mother used to say before. Their days were always busy, but they made time to have breakfast together. It was the only time they had most days. They'd talk about how things were going, and whether her reply called for guidance or praise, he always had a reason to be proud of his daughter.

Her father was off first. "Bye sweetheart. I love you."

"Bye. Love you too, Dad."

And they meant it more than anything else in the world.

Black backpack on now, Airey stepped out under the swirling grey sky. Cooking breakfast wasn't the only reason she had for getting up early. She headed off down the concrete sidewalk, taking the long, scenic route to school. After doritos, this was her second favorite guilty pleasure. Her heart skipped a beat when she saw him again. Iglair. He was a dream of lightly spiked black hair, lean muscles, and the deepest, bluest eyes that had stopped her dead in her tracks the three times that they had found her. He was perfectly cool, with no insecurity in his gait. Iglair was amazing, a living wonder of the world, that yet passed so easily, like a small, swift breeze- always too swiftly for her to fill her eyes enough.

Airey found a silver lining in this though, as she always did with things. Perhaps it was better than he moved along without catching her gawking. If she ended up seeming like a creep to him, she'd be heartbroken like the MC of Yandere Simulator. The cold wind blew some strands of her long black hair in front of her eyes, and she wished that she'd put on some hair clips. Even the couple of seconds that pushing the hair from her face interrupted her gaze was too much time to lose. And then she felt a pang of forlornness at her desperation.

A brown haired girl in a pink sweater and jeans started down the same path from one of the houses. Unlike Airey, it was actually practical for Cassie to take this route. But like Airey, she was always taking it at the right time. The girls smiled giddily and exchanged excited glances. Briefly, Airey had wondered how this could end, the two of them being friends but liking the same boy. But, it was never going to happen anyway. A sad, lonely part of her knew this, but she couldn't stop herself from following him.

Up ahead, a guy with messy, light brown hair was dragging his beat up tennis shoes down the pavement. Hands buried in his grey hoodie, worn bag slung over his slouched shoulder, a frown was no doubt on his face, which was always a portrait of depression.

He and Iglair never talked on the way to school, but Airey would see them together after school, hanging out around the pawn shop or walking together. She wasn't sure why Iglair spent so much of his time, or any at all, with this shabby Samwell boy, especially when he wasn't connected to his regular group of friends at all.

At school, she ignored the dirty looks from kids who called her a teacher's pet. So what she reminded Mr. Corncap to collect the homework when he forgot? It wasn't her fault that she did her work and they didn't do theirs. This school was full of lazy people, the ones who were outright about simply not wanting to study, and the ones who made excuses, pretending that the reason they couldn't match her performance was because they were dull, and she was just given the gift of sharpness. As if she didn't devote the hours to study that they did to leisure.

Airey spent her day as usual, answering every question correctly when called upon, getting extra marks, and keeping records for the student council as its secretary. She'd had lunch with Cassie and some others, but they were Cassie's circle of friends, not necessarily her own. They just sometimes spoke of things that were.. a bit too crude for Airey's taste. On the way out of school, however, something incredible happened. Iglair approached her.

"Hey, do you have a minute?"

Airey almost couldn't believe her ears. "Yes!" she said, perhaps too quickly. But for him she had a million minutes.

"I hear you're pretty good with math, and that you've tutored some of the other kids," he said.

"Yea.. yes. I've done.. I do that sometimes," she stuttered nervously.

Good lord she was stupid, she thought looking down with a silly simper that she couldn't help. Iglair still had the grace to smile his heartmeltingly charming smile at her, and ask,

"Would you mind helping me with calculus? I've been having a little trouble."

She stared for a moment. He appeared to be slightly abashed at this, and it was absolutely adorable.

"Sure," she agreed, smiling brightly.

"What time is alright for you?" Iglair asked.

She would liked to have thrust everything to the back burner to chase this opportunity that might as well have been her own modern fairytale. However, she had already promised to babysit the neighbors' son for this evening and the next, and Airey was never one to shirk her responsibilities.

"Is Friday at 7:00 fine?" she asked, and then she felt stupid again.

Kids at this school usually had bigger plans than studying on a Friday night, especially someone cool like Iglair. But once again, he was too gracious in the face of her social bumbling, and instead of faltering, his smile grew pleasantly.

"Sounds good. Do you want to meet at my house?"

Heat rushed her body from head to toe. And then she was humiliated. Even the cold could not excuse such a flush, she realized.

"Um.. y-yes, sure. That's fine."

It was beyond fine. In Iglair's house, maybe even his bedroom, she thought woozily. It might smell like him. Would they be alone?

"Alright, see you later then. And thanks!" Iglair said.

"You're welcome," she said, waving shyly as he left.

"Over the moon" might have been a good way to describe Airey as she near skipped down the sidewalk of her neighborhood. But she was not so far above this world that she wouldn't notice one of its creatures moving gradually and dangerously across the ground to her left. She halted, looked both ways, entered the road, and gathered up the turtle.

"You were heading here, right?" Airey asked it chirpily as she carried it to the other side of the road.

Of course, there was no response. What kind of sounds did turtles make anyway, she wondered. As she was setting the animal down, a car sped past behind her, going well above the 30 mph speed limit. "Whew, it's a good thing I saw you just now," a bittersweet victory, when she realized how many of the world's crossing turtles that she wasn't there to help.

The turtle, whom she thought looked like a William, slowly kept on its path, wherever that might be leading. For some reason, Airey always assumed that turtles had a set, known destination to be, maybe because moving at such a painstaking pace might not afford much time for do-overs and mistakes. They had long lives to make up for their slowness, but slowness to balance their long lives. Maybe in a way, turtles lived about as long as other animals.

She turned and saw Cassie heading up the sidewalk. They had walked together, fluttering through various topics as easily as the birds chirping above. Airey remembered their laughter at something that was said, but she didn't know what.

Because now with death sinking its fingers into her soul from where it seeped through her rent body, that was all a distant, and foolishly carefree seeming yesterday. Airey thought she had learned diligently of concerns, that she was molding well into someone reliable and knowledgeable, prepared for the challenges and harshness out in the open grey lands. She thought that she was a person to find color in the world, and to bring the vibrancy of good into the drab and grey.

But somehow things had turned so awry, and how could she have solved this, been ready for it? She could scarcely grasp how this place that she'd been thrust into, this place of unfathomable suffering, could belong to the same reality of the world before. Airey recognized the ones tearing the bloody meat that was once the complete person of herself mechanically only.

Somehow one of them was Iglair, inflicting abuse upon her with the part of himself that she had once, in the cloudy flower days, blushed to think about. The shreds of her ignorant, faraway dream repelled her when they flitted back into her memory. His attention was a nightmare.

But she was not delusional enough to think that she would wake up from this- could not be, with the pain. The body that she'd washed, fed, clothed, and once thought that she knew for an unalienable fact was her own was violated and mutilated beyond the filthiest and most hellish illusion that her un-bled mind of afore times would have been able to conjure.

She could feel herself being battered heavily, but could not see from where the blows were coming and when anymore. Death had become the lover that she desired. And now she faded into the claim of its arms as it pulled her away from the monsters and the agony and into quiet nothing. She felt herself fall, and then with a painful crack to the side of her head, all ended.

Love is over.

#tragedy #lost innocence #violent

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1wngdngl · 5 years ago

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Pokemon Shield playthrough

I’ve been playing this game a lot since last night, and I still haven’t gotten on the train yet ;) I like to take games slowly to make sure I notice and experience everything along the way. It looks like the best way to share my game progress is through screenshots, so that’s what I’ll do. Cut for length and spoilers - I’ve been trying to avoid spoilers and leaks for the past couple weeks, so if you want to be able to experience the games fresh yourself, now might be a good time to click away. [This post covers up thru getting the Dynamax band]

I went ahead with the “standard” female character, but you can bet I’ll be customizing her as soon as I can. What’s with that knock-kneed stance, anyway? Pokemon trainers should stand strong and confident!

Chairman Rose greets us. Everyone online was guessing he’ll turn out to be evil or something. He certainly looks suspicious, doesn’t he?

And here comes the first surprise of the LP - a brand-new Pokemon, not even seen in trailers! (except for that fuzzy 1-frame image from a while back.) Its trunk looks kinda like a soup ladle. Maybe it’s a play on a teacup/teapot elephant? I wonder if it evolves...

Here’s Leon fighting an unknown trainer - maybe a Gym leader?

I really like the art style of the map - it’s so whimsical :)

The map also shows current weather for all locations. Look at all the different stuff going on in the Wild Area at the same time! I’ve been to the real England, and I don’t remember it having such extreme weather...

The map also has a few useful features, like displaying your next objective, and showing the facilities in a town (but only once you’ve been there yourself). The towns and such all have really interesting names that emulate that old English sound.

First thing I do when I gain control in a new Pokemon game? Change the battle style to “Set”. It seems more fair, plus it helps make the game just a bit more challenging.

I’m a little sad that the old option to change menu/text box borders seems to be forever abandoned, though... >.>

My house. It’s a pretty decent-sized place. We have a pet Munchlax and a few Budew outside. My character practices her whistling.

My mom. Or “mum” as the game calls her. The dialog is noticeably slanted toward a more British dialect - I wonder how they handled the accent in other languages?

Speaking of my mom, she seems rather big compared to me, doesn’t she? Quite a bit taller. I’m guessing my character is around 12 - when I was that age, I was the same height as my mom and done growing. Maybe they think people won’t believe this character is the mom’s child if she’s too tall?

Also, my dream is to one day have a /dad/ in a Pokemon game. Seriously, why does every other house I visit have a husband and wife, and my character is always stuck being the only child of a single parent? What if in one of these games, my dad was the champion or the evil team leader - how fun would that be?

My bedroom. The pink clock on the wall reminds me of one from a previous Pokemon game - was it ORAS that had those round clocks on the wall that you could set?

My first step on my journey. Looks like my mom spends every minute gardening - I guess the Budew help her?

Ah yes, every Pokemon game needs a “power of science” guy :)

Here’s another surprise - how many Pokemon games give you a fishing rod right at the start?! Usually you have to track down three different fisherman to get the three versions of the fishing rod. I’m also happy to see that Pokeballs have their own pocket again :)

The handy map tells us where to go next, with even a little picture of our destination.

The champion of Galar, of course, has a huge house.

Wow, a Purrloin! I forgot that they stood on two legs. I like its little bed.

Also, Leon’s family decorate their house mainly in trophies.

I guess this is Hop’s room - I like his artwork. I know Leon has a Charizard - does he have these other two Pokemon too, and that’s why Hop has posters of them?

Leon’s room is mostly a shrine to hats.

Speaking of Leon, he really knows how to play to the crowd ;)

So, some people are wondering if /Leon/ will turn out to be evil in the story. I didn’t really get that vibe from him. He seems like a genuinely nice guy, but he does seem like he has some worries on his mind, like his cheer is sometimes forced?

Maybe he actually hates the limelight and gets uncomfortable with attention? Maybe he’s secretly terminally ill? Maybe there’s some massive threat about to attack the Galar region? He seems really concerned with making sure that Galar has lots of strong trainers. Maybe he knows something about the legendaries?

Alternately, some people were saying that maybe Leon isn’t actually a great champion, and his fights are rigged in his favor by the chairman. /If/ that were the case, I bet that Leon is actually unhappy with that situation and wants to make the tournament more fair.

Or maybe everything in the game is exactly as it seems ;)

Nothing important here, I just like this screenshot. I wonder if Fletchling are native to Galar too?

My first Pokemon! (in this game, at least...) I picked Sobble because he’s the most endearing.

My first battle! I like how the interface is laid out, and how detailed the background is beyond the fighters - you can even see Leon standing there.

My Pokemon's details. I don’t play competitively so I don’t know if it’s a particular “good” Sobble. It seems like this species is a fast special-attacker, so I’ll have to keep that in mind.

The Slumbering Weald (my spellchecker doesn’t even recognize that word :) ) It’s very spooky and seclusive - and it’s right next to the starter town too! You’d think if it was really that dangerous, people would put up more than a flimsy wooden gate to keep trespassers out...Hop, of course, is an idiot and runs right into it; and I, the spineless protagonist, have no option to say no. >.>

My first wild encounter! This starts the trend I noticed all during the opening hours of this game - most of the wild Pokemon are brand-new, totally-unrevealed species. Like this squirrel thing. (Although some people guessed we would get a new squirrel based on that shirt design). I wonder if it evolves?

This part was actually pretty scary, with the Pokemon (I can’t remember its name...) suddenly appearing out of the fog. The Pokemon acted almost like a hologram in battle though - my attacks couldn’t touch it.

What if the twist is that the legendary wolf Pokemon are just illusions, perhaps even man-made ones created to keep intruders from discovering some secret in the forest?

Anyway, we escape from the situation perfectly fine, because of course we do ;)

I noticed that this particular generation gives you quite of a bit of money at the start, but I guess that’s because you encounter the first boutique so early. There’s a fair number of affordable options too. Some of these Pokemon shirts I wish were /real/ shirts.

My new look :) Mostly I just ditched the dress for jeans. This looks like a comfortable outfit, although that knapsack is a bit unwieldy.

We visit the professor’s lab. She has a lot of books, plants, and a tea set. I wonder if she ever has problems with Polteageist?

The new Pokemon center design. I love that the move deleter/relearner and nickname functions are all in one place - I always hated flying around the map trying to remember where they were.

That Pokemon behind the counter is another totally new one. Could this be a Galarian Audino?

Using mystery gift, I was able to get this “Gigantamax” Meowth. However, due to my rule of only using Gen 8 Pokemon, it’s just gonna chill out in the box >.>

Leon is very generous with Pokeballs. Even the items you find on the ground are generous, often containing 2 or 3 “copies” of an item when you check it out. Is that a new thing for Pokemon?

Here I battle my first trainer that isn’t named Hop. He has that squirrel shirt and is a total pushover.

Just chilling by the professor’s house. It looks like maybe you can only fish in fishing spots (those darker circles on the water), but at least you get your fishing pole right away.

Also, I discovered that while I could not sit on beds or chairs inside, I am able to sit on this bench :)

The way the Pokemon mill about in the tall grass is very interesting. Some will try to avoid you, others like this Yamper will chase after you. It makes the routes feel a lot more populated.

I guess this is Sonia’s room. It’s very pink. I wonder if she even /wants/ to do Pokemon research, or if she’d rather be a fashion designer or something.

The in-game time of day doesn’t seem to match up with the Switch system clock, at least not from what I’ve seen so far. For example, suddenly it is sunset and I catch a falling star. (look how the reflection in the water changes :) )

I haven’t decided yet if I want to buy the Switch online service, but in the meantime I decided to at least pick my profile picture. The icons you can choose from actually reveal quite a lot about the trainer classes and gyms that are in the game. For the first time ever, we have a Dark-type gym! Their logo is a sideways version of Team Yell’s logo - does that mean that Team Yell or Marnie is the Dark gym leader?

I spent a while catching Pokemon around the professor’s house. I can’t tell if I got every possible species without looking online, but I did build up a good roster.

I found it really cool how many new, surprising Pokemon showed up this early in the game. There’s the fox one (which is a Dark type and reminds me of Zoroark), the turtle one (which has got to be a pre-evolution of Dreadnaw, probably the 1st of 3 stages), the bird one (based on the “Rook” in its name and the fact that it learns Dark-type moves early, I’m guessing it’s a pre-evolution of Corviknight), and the bug one (can’t wait to see what its final stage looks like).

I went through the party to find the best Pokemon that fit my self-imposed rules (only new, Gen 8 Pokemon, no overlap of types). I know that this means I won’t be able to use Galarian forms or Gigantamaxes of old Pokemon, but just because I’m not using them in my main playthrough doesn’t mean I can’t catch them :)

Next time: I step onto the train and leave my home behind.

#pokemon #pokemon shield #pokemon gen 8 #let's play #lps

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sixstepsaway · 6 years ago

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Runners Excerpt #1 | Calendar

I spent a bunch of time earlier working on a calendar and on the passage of time for my world in Runners and I wrote out a little scene where the human characters discuss it. I thought I’d post it here. Why not?

"What was it you wanted to show me?" Sam looks between Mikey and Law, the two of them flanking either end of a table, with papers unrolled across it. "You know how we asked how long we'd been here?" Law says. Sam nods. "Well, they told us the truth, but it wasn't the kind of truth that works for me, especially when Mikey noticed something... odd." "What did you notice?" Sam asks, looking over at him and frowning. He gets up from his chair, coat hanging limp where his arm used to be, and moves over to the table. "The days are longer here." "What?" Sam hurries over. "How do you know that?" "Mikey checked his watch," Law says and he shrugs. Sam should've seen that as the obvious explanation: how else would anyone know the time? "So what're we talking, here?" Sam says hesitantly. "According to this..." Law gestures at the papers and Sam comes around to step between the two of them and look too. They've spread out, across the large metal table, around six different, long papers. One is a calendar, although it's formed from curved shapes rather than squares, another has times of some sort, and the others seem to be about seasons, events, holidays and other things Sam is sure Mikey is fascinated by. "There's more than thirty hours in a day. I think... this says thirty-seven?" Sam squints. "How does that work?" she says, folding her arms and setting her jaw. "Surely there can't be more hours in a day? That isn't how the world works!" "It's a different world," Mikey points out. She scowls at him and he gestures at the papers. "I'm serious." "I know it's a different world!" Sam snaps at him. "But that doesn't change that there are twenty-four hours in a day." "It kinda does," Law says weakly.

"Don't yell at me again," Mikey grumbles, "but uhh... what makes the days twenty-four hours where we're from is that the Earth spins, right? It takes twenty-four hours for the Earth to do one--" He makes a hand gesture, struggling when he cant use both hands anymore. "--spin." "It's nice to know you didn't lose your eloquence with your arm, Mikey," Law drawls. "Shut up," he grumbles. "You know, the Earth does a rotation and so the sun--" He's still struggling with only one hand, trying to gesture a sphere but unable to pretend there's a sun at the same time. "I get it," Sam says, "but doesn't this world do that too?" "I'm guessing," Law says, "that it takes this planet longer to rotate. Maybe it's bigger? Or just slower? I don't know, maybe it's flat and carried on the backs of really sluggish turtles." Sam blinks twice at her. "Okay, so what does that mean?" she says. "What does it mean for us?" "It means that when someone says we've been here a month, that could be anything from one or two to us," says Law. "The days are a day and a half long, which is why we're constantly tired," Mikey says. "We should be compensating by sleeping more, or possibly sleeping in two shifts so that we get the right amount of sleep until our bodies adjust." "We're sleeping eight hours and then being awake for twenty-nine," Law says with a sigh, "and people think that's okay, because it's how they live, except it's also not? Because a lot of them sleep longer, or go to bed earlier. We have to talk to them and explain we need more sleep or at least need to be... adjusted for this climate." "Adjusted?" Sam says. "Magic." Mikey leans his hip against the table. "The years are nearly twice as long as ours, but have you asked Aukru how old he is?" She shakes her head. "He's twenty-nine." Sam can see that. "He's lived twenty-nine harvests, which is twenty-nine years." He points at the calendar and she looks at it long and hard. There's at least fifteen different sections. She does a quick count: sixteen. Sixteen sections, with dozens of partitions within those. "Twenty-nine years that are twice as long as ours," he says. She hates being treated like an idiot, but right now she feels like one. "I don't understand what you're saying," she says with a sigh. Law pulls over a notepad and pen and shows her. "I did the math on it," she says. Sam takes the notepad. "There's seven hundred and nineteen days in each year, here." "Rotations around the suns, I presume," Mikey says with a shrug, when Sam opens her mouth to ask how the hell that's possible. "Seven hundred and nineteen times twenty-nine is twenty thousand, eight hundred and fifty one," Law says. "Divide that by three hundred and sixty-five and it's--" Sam eyes the number on the bottom of her calculations: fifty seven, and a bunch of decimal places. "Aukru's fifty seven years old?" "No," Mikey says. "That's the point, really. He isn't. He's a twenty-nine year old, because here the years are counted differently." "But he doesn't look nearly sixty," Law says, "so I started doing some asking around and I finally got Tahzia to explain it. She's the only one who didn't look at me funny." "Explain what?" Sam says. "They age differently." Law rests her hands on her hips. "It takes them longer to age. I'm not saying that Aukru is exactly twenty-nine to the day if you compare him with a twenty-nine year old or whatever, I'd say their maturation rate is different, I don't know--" "She thinks way too hard about this," Mikey says with a snort of amusement. Law scowls at him. "But, it turns out that the magic in the atmosphere, it... changes how they age, it slows it down and they live longer. Apparently it varies? Different species age at different rates and they have different maturation rates and cycles and all of that, but..." "What she's trying to say is that although time moves the same, and it still definitely feels like we're awake for twenty-nine hours and only getting eight of sleep, our aging is probably slowing like theirs," he says. "And if we explained to them how many days we'd been alive, they'd probably tuck us away and call us babies." "What? Why?" Sam says. Law flips the page on the notebook and points at some more of her calculations. "We're about nine of their years old." "Oh." She blinks a few times at the notebook. "Seems fair, I guess. That's about what I feel around here." Law laughs and takes her notebook back, placing it down. Sam watches it for a moment, then glances up, eyes lingering on the journal strapped to Mikey's hip. Her own pockets feel light and empty. "Anyway," Mikey says, "that's why when they were telling us the truth about how long we've been here, we still felt like we were being lied to." He shrugs. "When they say we've been here a month, they mean it! It's just that some of the months are as long as two for us, and the days are even longer." "The average month is about forty-five days," Law explains, "and the day is thirty-seven hours. When you use math--" "Which you love to do," Sam says. Law sticks her tongue out at her. "When you use math, a forty-five day month here feels like a seventy day month for us." Mikey snickers under his breath and she cuts her gaze across to him scornfully. "This is why I rounded up." "But it's still forty-five sunrises and sunsets, right?" Sam says. Law nods. "Okay. I can keep track of that at least." She looks back at the journal and at Law's notebook, then away. "So how many days?" she asks Mikey. "How long have we been here?" He puts his hand on his journal. "A while," he says. "I've got at least sixty entries." "So, two months," Sam says. "More like three when you do the math," Law says. "That's how long it feels." "But it's still sixty-odd sleeps," Mikey says. "Which explains my exhaustion." "That probably also has something to do with it." Sam gestures at his missing arm. "You'd think having a few pounds fewer to carry around would make me less tired, but no," he says, smiling airily at her. She rolls her eyes and looks back at the calendar on the table. She doesn't understand most of the numbers, and definitely none of the letters or words. "You guys can read this?" "No way," Law says, "but we asked enough questions to figure out what was a calendar and go from there. It's mostly been estimation, math, and begging Tahzia to explain." "Fair enough." Sam tears her gaze from the calendar. "At least we can all be confused together."

#writeblr #writing #amwriting #original writing #creative writing #fantasy #runners #runnersexcerpt #samantha hughes #gabrielle laurel #michael brown

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bansheefunk · 6 years ago

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Just watched: Littlest Pet Shop, A World of Our Own season 1, part 1

18 abr '18 Overall I don't know where to start I have so much to explain... So I like the previews show, not for the waifus nor the cute art direction but the cute animals "thinking they're people" that was cute and that was enough for me. If we hold the new show next to the old one it's really obvious this one is meant for younger girls than the preview show, the preview show was lets say 6-8 this one is 4-6, it feels lighter and more tender, easier to assimilate, you know what I mean, it's one of those "you know when you see it", early on I felt disencouraged because of this, I'm a man who matches cartoons but I have a cutoff point when it comes at a very young audience but later on something clicked with me, most of the plot were very grounded dealing with how the characters relate to each other and their problems and I released that this show's plot is how little girls imagine being an adult is like, how adult go on their lives trying to coexist and enjoying things children's think adult like but still has a very childish feeling, a couple of episodes were build around social cue normal adults will be used to but here the character are oblivious to them, not dumb or immature just naive, I don't have a problem with that bit it just feels kind of alien. Basically that is what has charmed me so far, it's very childish view of adulthood and I feel I will enjoy the whole show. Beside that the art direction is quiet enjoyable. The intro and outro themes are fashionable, I dunno about the music from the previews show but this time they feel like pop hits from today. The mise en scene is amazing, the whole town looks so utopian but above all like a toy, it's whole city that looks like a very expensive kindergarten or baby nursery and that's so charming. the overall look of the show takes from the previews one's cartoon modern aesthetic and ads gradients and textures feeling like a natural evolution and giving a feeling that reminds me of a late 00's flash game, I love it.

Episode 1 This episode starts with a newcomer cat coming to the town, Roxie (The overly excited dog) strolls him around and this is a very easy way to introduce the audience to the whole thing but this newcomer cat disappear soon enough to give room for the real plot, Roxie has to house sit for a friend but she is befriend by a gang of thots that get her in trouble. This is an example of a plot that could work in a serious story adapted for children under the filter of "this is how children thinks adults are like" and it's kind of accurate. Also on the thot gang there is a snail and I can't wrap my head around that, snails aren't cute and this one tried really hard to be cute but I'm not buying it. Plus in other episodes we see lots of animals that are traditionally not seen as cute and cuddly, that is surprising but kind of strange for me.

Episode 2 Roxie is now living with Jade (Goth black cat, very grumpy), Roxie wants to be a good friend and do something nice for jade who is immune to kindness, Roxie gets lots of idea from different people but none clicks with Jade. this is an innocent story about friendship, a deeper conflict filtered for children, fanboys will see this as lesbian romance and it really gives that vibe. Also in the bar/club were the main cast hangs out the barman is a fish in a ball full of water, that's so strange but now I'm wondering why on TV shows the main cast always has a restaurant, bar, cafe or something similar were they hang out and are friends with the people there, that's so irreal.

Episode 3 The pets go to a fair/amusement park, Jade learns to be friendly to a random raccoon that isn't a pet irl but found his way to the town by being nice. There isn't much here, it was a nice adventure.

Episode 4 Everybody on the town has something stolen, Roxie and Jade team up to solve the mystery inspired by the crime shows Roxie's owners watch. This whole thing felt like a fairy tale, a strange problem has a very common solution I expect most episodes to be like this, I don't know how to describe the "this" but I want to be proven wrong.

25 abr '18

Episode 5 We have an episode with a musical contest, this strikes me as such a girly thing, still the conflict goes on how Quincy (The fainting goat) can't sing but at the end they find him a place I don't have much to say beside that Quincy was really cute and that mouse guy that joined the cast came out of nowhere. I'm disappoint that the song they sang for the contest was hip hop, it wasn't memorable.

Episode 6 Roxie wants a slumber party and invites the rest of the female cast, it would had been funny if she had invited the guys but at least we get petunia (The thot sheep) and a duck from Edie's (The campy parrot) acting class. Tumblr has taught me that girl sleep overs are actually kind of boring and never like we see on TV, still Roxie wants to have a slumber party like on the movies rushing from activity to activity until she falls asleep and misses the real fun. I've mentioned that what charmed me about this show is that this is how little girls imagine adult life is like, grown women do not have slumber parties, they're similar but not called like that... the point is that in this episode the female crew were little girls without parents telling them to keep the noise down, just what the target audience dreams of. Also Roxie got a bouncy castle on her house but Jade ruined, was the that thing a rental? Did Roxie bough it with future plans? Either way is disheartening.

1 may '18

Episode 7 The episode goes with Roxie collecting old toys for charity, grabbing an old toy from Jade that later on turns out that it was very special for jade setting Roxy in a painful quest for it. At the end Jade lets go of her toy clown stepping into maturity and she adds that now Roxie makes her feel loved like that clown did and that ramps up the lesbian subtext like if there was no tomorrow. This was a nice episode, we saw lots of characters and places across the city, hell we even saw Jade's toy being take by a little kitty who was going around with her mom, that makes the city feel lived in and I love that.

Episode 8 Town fastest rabbit hit up on Roxie and Bev on the gym and for some reason the prepare to race against him and enlist an athletic dog that Roxie finds hot (beware shippers) and in top of that Petula gets into it teaming up with the fast rabbit and making the main gang bet for humiliation after the defeat. Incredibly they lose, the commenter on the event even said that rabbits are supposed to be fast and his victory was no surprise, so the audience celebrates the gangs effort because of how novel it was. At the end that resolution was actually very surprising it's refreshing to see a message like that.

10 may '18, night

Episode 9 So this episode opens with the girls doing yoga at the park, the mere fact of such thing makes me stop in my tracks. Anywho, this is now a Bev centric episode, this came late but it was good, Bev meets with an old turtle friend to get a backstage on a popular talk show and turns out the host that Edie admired so much is a jerk, nothing special but this show keep proving me that this is how little girls see adult life because this episode could easily be a chick flick

Episode 10 So this is an episode of Trip (The hamster) and Quincy (The goat) being best bro and doing manly shit like going on adventures but at the end the main conflict is fixed by talking seriously to each other. The last LPS cartoon and this one had a pair of guys that were best bros, Sunil and Vinny and now Trip and Quincy, an episode of them being bros and going into adventures is the last thing I would had expected in a show aimed a little girls, in cartoons aimed at girls male characters some times will play very big roles but this episode goes far beyond that and I should not be surprised about that because brotherhood is a thing that fascinates women so this may be some little girl's first yaoi ship, that's kind of concerning.

17 may '18, past midnight

Episode 11 Bev gets the main gang an invitation to a party on a cruiser with a royal corgi, this set up could had come from romance novel so I'm not surprised it's here and thinking about this episode it feels like a parody of a romance novel, I have never read one but this is the kind of thing I would expect of one. This set up fall apart in the end and we're reminded that this is a show for little girls, no couple kiss, social norms get broken and this formal party turn into madness with the main theme playing over it at the end. I don't know what to say about this plot except that the female goat Quincy met was cute but I'm sure we won't see her again.

Episode 12 I have to be honest, my hearing failed me and most of the dialog flew over my head, the plot deals with Bev doing something risky and the other pets trying to save her but at the end turns out their efforts were in vain, Bev didn't risk her life. A thing that really got my attention is that the main gang meets a spider, I always try to imagine how these character will look on the more human side of the anthropomorphism scale, like most furry characters but in this show we see so many species that rarely get furry art some times I have a hard time imaging them beyond their present design, kudos to the toymakers and the people behind the cartoon for stepping out of the comfort zone of cutesy and cuddly animals. Also I've mentioned that the shows theme is so up to date and I was wondering what'll be like to watch this in 40-50 years...

24 may '18, evening

Episode 13 This episode gets kind of paradoxical, the pets feel they've become too soft and decide to go camping to reconnect with their animal part by going to camp but I'm beyond sure even in their normal homes they're quiet domestic, they never been to a forest so their concerns are mis aimed. They get in some trouble but fix it all with teamwork and this made me notice that this show maybe more 'action' packed than what I thought before, it's not just petty drama but the pets do get in adventures.

Episode 14 Roxie caught Jade falling on her back, very different from any other cat. Roxie is incredibly incompetent keeping her mouth shout and so ends up telling everyone while runs around to tell people to not tell anyone. I don't know what to say. I can't really find a comparison for how would this plot go done in a more serious tone, I know it is about gossip but the set up is still too far out.

31 may '18, night

Episode 15 So when a an episode is interesting I have something to tell beyond the episode's plot but now I have nothing to say beside recapping stuff I've said before in other reviews. Jade becomes a fashion icon after this world's equivalent of [I really want to insert a reference here but I don't know any significant fashion bloggers, I was going to say Perez Hilton but he posts gossip and not fashion so I don't know] and everything she wears becomes a fad, Jade as the grumpy goth she is hates all this attention while Edie gets jealous. This plot doesn't have a clear adult equivalent, perhaps there is one but I have yet to see it. I'm afraid that my argument that this show is how little girls imagine the adult world to be like is crumbling.

Episode 16 remember the Sponge Bob episode 'Squirrel Jokes'? This is like an inversion of it. Quincy becomes a comedian making imitations of his friends, Edie was just on a TV PSA and people is laughing at her character through Quincy's imitation, but Quincy learns fast enough and pull an Andy Kaufman making an imitation of himself. I'm fascinated by how this is the opposite of a plot another cartoon did, such thing must had happen before but nobody must have noticed it. Also Quincy and Edie share an intimate moment at the end that is a tremendous shipper bait.

6 jun '18, night

Episode 17 So the pets get in a cruise once again, Bev's relative who is captain appears again and that's kind of a neat detail, they remember that character exists but I feel he's only a device to justify the pets getting into a cruise. Either way the plot of this episode is that the new act for the cruise's entertainment, a hypnotists husky, hypnotizes the crew and herself by accident leaving the ship unprotected, Bev takes over, uses our main gang as crew and is a terrible captain. The hypnosis scene gave me a tremendous "This is somebody's fetish" moment but thankfully the whole episode wasn't build around it. I'm feeling my argument of "this is how little girls imagine adult life is like" holds no basis anymore, the pets are in a life of endless vacations and petty drama, this isn't a soap opera like I imagined it'll go.

Episode 18 The pets are going camping, why? Why do they take vacations? They don't work! They live this life of endless leisure! — I can't with this anymore, these pets are trust fund babies... They tell scary stories around the campfire and we get clips of them but they're done in the normal style of the show feeling like they have no contrast. One of the stories mentions a human, a dog catcher being like the boogieman of this world, that was interesting but beside that there isn't much to this episode.

13 jun '18, night

Episode 19 So Jade fell into this fad of crystals but is keeping it in secret. It's a strange set up, Jade does seem self aware enough to know she defying the expectations of the people around her and that's is why she's is so weary of Roxie and Edie, because they'll make a big deal out of her acting different and that's a type of attitude she doesn't like but in my mind I have the feeling that Jade will embrace the fad and tell Edie and Roxy to buzz off but at the end this set up showed us how austere and secretive Jade is, I'm left puzzled.

Episode 20 Trip becomes a meme, but it's more like a meme from 2006, it's just an embarrassing video of him like the Star Wars kid. The joke goes is that Trip is oblivious to the fact he just humiliated himself and he goes around proud enjoying his fame to the point he organized a live show. Trip is a strange character because he doesn't have a defined gimmick, all the other characters from the main gang have something but Trip always felt flat on that matter, I think that before the show started the promotional material pointed towards him being a ninja(?) or an action guy but that hasn't been played too much in the show and even if the show was set on that being Trip's gimmick then this episode was a little out of character. Trip should have something but this episode doesn't help him to grow and had a really cheesy ending.

23 jun '18, night

Episode 21 So Edie gets all over herself, this time she takes a character out of the stage into the real world, she thinks she's a real psychic now and goes to the park, sets a tent and start to give predictions to the people. This episode addresses the criticism that 'psychics' relay on making ambiguous predictions to sound accurated once something fits the prediction but they don't go too deep with that and instead we have Edie snapping out of it mostly by herself. I don't know what to think but I feel that flavor of "this is what little girls imagine adult life is like" has returned.

24 jun '18, past midnight

Episode 22 So this episode deals with something I should had seen coming but now that I have it I'm kind of surprised. Roxy, Jade and Edie have to take care of a bunch or naughty and aggressive puppies, they fail but this setup really caught my attention, I don't remember many cartoon dealing with childcare and babysitting in this manner. I mean this is a show for little girls and the core audience may find the topic interesting but I can't recall seeing it on any other cartoon and that has made this episode so interesting for me.

5 jul '18, night

Episode 23 So Bev gets bored and decides to try roller derby after a team invited her to join. This episode reminds a lot of The Game of Their Lives, the movie that I just saw, Bev's team is full of losers who put no effort into the game, she struggles and struggles to rise them until they one one match and then they celebrate, it feels phony like in The game of Their Lives because they do not address the fact they they probably still come last in the league and who know if the team still had that fighting spirit after Bev left.

Episode 24 Trip becomes rich after selling his outlandish invention on Paw Tucket's equivalent of Dragon's Den. I remember I've said that I feel Trip doesn't have a gimmick but I feel one is growing on him, it's hard to explain but Trip is a guy who who falls into success and finds a way to ruin it, kind of like Kramer from Seinfeld but Trip has a very different personality. Still, it's too fuzzy to arrive to a conclusion yet, Either way I enjoyed the mise en scene on this episode, I want an office like Trip's. Also Quincy and Edie spend a lot of time together in this episode, is this ship baiting? I don't think a show for 4-6 years old girls would play with such a thing.

Episode 25 So Bev works as an assistant for the duo of magicians who are not getting along. The magician duo composed of a rabbit and a dog had an interesting gimmick, the rabbit is all serious while the dog clown around the tricks, they have an amazing dynamic in the stage and that reminds me a lot in 2001 I saw a live stage show of a magician and a clown with a similar dynamic, I just feel it's an amazing combination and seeing it again here really warmed my heart. On a similar note is sad that in the previews LPS show Sunil and Pepper never had an act like this together. The dog also reminds me of the argentine comedy troupe Les Luthiers for whom part of the joke is the fact that they look like serious performers of classical music. This was a really enjoyable episode and I hope we see more of the rabbit and dog due soon.

Episode 26 A shepherd dog arrives in town, Roxy and jade try to introduce him to the place but he falls over trying to run after a sheep, Roxie is kind enough to invite him to recover at their home but jade is having none of it. I think this plot has been done before, like one of those standard plot that cartoons recycle. Overall this episode was just bland, can't say much beyond hat.

Overall The first season isn't over yet, and I'll be reviewing the second part whenever it comes out. this show has charmed me, everything is cute and nothing hurts, specially the mise en scene, paw tucket feels like an utopia, where everything is shiny and clean, I want a place like it to be real so I can not live there and call its inhabitants rich assholes.

#own post #littlest pet shop #lps #littlest pet shop a world of our own #lps awooo #hasbro

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orbemnews · 4 years ago

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The Price They Pay for Your Perfect Vacation Photo It took nearly three months, but Jody Pinder eventually succeeded. Endangered green sea turtles, usually shy, skittish and satisfied with a diet of sea grass and algae, were accepting handouts of squid that he and other local tour operators were providing at Bottom Harbor in the Bahamas. “If you don’t feed them, they won’t come close enough for you to see them and photograph them,” Mr. Pinder said. Before the pandemic, Mr. Pinder and others had been selling this assured adventure to a booming population of tourists. Day after day, boats would flock to Bottom Harbor and tourists would hop into its shallow turquoise waters holding squid morsels in their hands or on wooden skewers. The turtles would then grab the snacks as the visitors snapped Instagram-worthy images. Those who don’t take care sometimes find themselves getting bitten by the aquatic animals, who may mistake human toes and fingers for another snack. The practice is known as provisioning, and it’s an easy meal for the shelled creatures. But conservation biologists have expressed concern in a number of recent published scientific studies about what this food source means for the physical well-being and natural behavior of not just these turtles, but other marine creatures, from tiny reef fish to giant sharks. “This situation exemplifies one of the biggest challenges in conservation science,” said Owen O’Shea, executive director of the Center for Ocean Research and Education in the Bahamas. “We’re often addressing issues that have already started and we’re playing catch up.” Many experts argue that in marine environments, such feeding practices are poorly regulated, presenting risks for wildlife that are already in decline. When humans ease the energy-intensive process of seeking food for wild animals by frequently offering them grub, it can facilitate habituation. That can make animals less guarded around humans, and lead to other damaging behaviors. Although some conservationists have successfully lobbied to end provisioning at certain sites, to feed or not to feed continues to be a dilemma at others. Free meals with a covert price tag It’s no surprise that the wildlife tourism industry has time and again turned to provisioning wildlife. “From a commercial point of view, what wildlife tourism requires is the ability to sell an experience where you can reliably sight or interact with the wild animals,” said Mark Orams, a professor of marine recreation and tourism at the Auckland University of Technology. “Provisioning allows that to occur.” Local communities and economies in many countries are surely benefiting from wildlife tourism that uses provisioning. But most conservation biologists would describe the feedings as dangerous to the health and safety of wild animals. In marine environments, such provisioning herds species — that would otherwise roam large swathes of the ocean alone — close together. “Suddenly a very independent and solitary animal is in close contact with everybody else, which means it’s easier for them to get infected with parasites or viruses,” said Valeria Senigaglia, a marine biologist at Australia’s Murdoch University. It also encourages wild animals to eat regularly rather than intermittently, and sometimes discourages tracking and hunting of prey. Habituation, aggression and loss of fear toward humans typically follows, which could endanger the animals. Janet Mann, a marine biologist at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., who has witnessed this behavior among dolphins, doesn’t support such provisioning. “Humans have a strong urge to feed wild animals in their environment,” Dr. Mann said. “Sometimes we think we’re doing them a favor, but not necessarily.” National or local laws that ban feeding wild animals can serve as deterrents. In the United States, for example, feeding marine mammals constitutes harassment under the 1972 Marine Mammal Protection Act. But ongoing illegal feeding of dolphins by local and recreational boaters and tourists in Florida’s Sarasota Bay, for instance, indicates challenges with enforcement. In the Philippines, a country that typically attracts over eight million tourists a year, recent national legislation bans the feeding of whale sharks, the world’s largest species of fish. But the law sometimes clashes with local wildlife welfare rules that only broadly prohibit harassment, without specifically mentioning provisioning. Scars and selfies Villagers in Tan-awan, on Cebu Island in the Philippines, manage the world’s largest whale shark tourism destination. Hand-feeding this globally endangered species with shrimp is central to the operation. Although whale sharks had been spotted in the region, they didn’t historically gather near the village’s coast until 2011. Local fishermen may have used shrimp to lure these underwater giants away from baits used on their fishing lines, which could have inspired tour operators to use similar tactics beginning around that year to attract the gentle filter feeders for visitors’ enjoyment. Since then, the industry has boomed. The local government has created an interaction site 160 feet offshore. There, in a cordoned area the size of almost 12 football fields, fishermen feed the whale sharks and tourists swim or dive to take selfies with the fish. But there are rules: no motorized boats, and only designated fishermen can feed the animals every morning within the buoy-marked boundary. There are also limits on how many people can interact with a single whale shark and how close they can get to it. Touching or riding these animals is prohibited, and a visitor’s time in the interaction area is limited to 30 minutes, while a sea warden keeps guard. Between 2012 and 2018, this provisioning site lured over 400 whale sharks and tourist numbers spiked to over 500,000 from 98,000, generating millions of dollars in yearly revenue. But there’s a price that many whale sharks pay. Researchers at the Philippines’ Large Marine Vertebrate Research Institute found scars on 144 of 152 whale sharks they photographed from 2012 through 2015 near Tan-awan, possibly from contact with ropes, small boats or propellers. At the interaction site, they found some whale sharks spending six times longer in the warm surface waters and performing deeper dives toward the end of the feeding session, possibly to cool down — a behavior that could affect their long-term fitness. Also, despite the many rules, the researchers observed poor compliance from many tourists who moved too close to the whale sharks. Some even touched the animals. The research team has proposed several solutions, including limiting daily tourist numbers and raising ticket prices. Restricting the feeding to a select set of whale sharks could also help. But they also warn that modifying an activity that brings income to a once extremely poor community is complicated. Regulated feeding that’s unlikely to stop At Monkey Mia in Western Australia’s Shark Bay, the state’s Parks and Wildlife Services staff use another regulatory approach to limit the provisioning of Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins. Tourists are only allowed to feed two to five identified females — of the area’s thousands — that the bay’s managers track. These dolphins and their calves (who aren’t provisioned) typically visit a 300-foot section of beach, beyond which tourists line up for up to three feeding sessions each morning. Park rangers select some visitors to step knee-deep into the water and hand-feed the adults with the fish they provide. The rangers also limit these handouts to just 10 percent of a dolphin’s daily intake in order to dissuade food dependency. Otherwise touching or swimming with these animals is prohibited. Provisioning looked very different in Monkey Mia in the 1960s, when fishermen tossed unwanted catch or bait along shorelines. Into the 1980s, authorities did not regulate feeding by tourists near the shore or from boats. People touched the dolphins, fed them multiple times during the day and there were no limits on how much fish they were given. “In some ways it was fun for people because where else could you go and frolic around the water with dolphins and get them to play with you,” said Dr. Mann, who has been studying the Monkey Mia dolphins for about 40 years. Although feeding regulations were put in place in 1989, the 1994 deaths of three calves resulted in new rules in 1995 that are still in effect today. Since then, adult dolphins have cut their daily time at the provisioning site by over an hour. The early survival of their calves also substantially improved after 1995, possibly because nursing near shore waters was challenging for mothers. “When a baby dolphin feeds, it needs to go underneath the mother,” Dr. Senigaglia said. “With no space in shallow waters, the dolphin can’t nurse.” Even with these rules in place, compared with the calves of non-provisioned mothers, these baby dolphins received less maternal care and foraged more. Also, the survival benefits recorded among these calves waned at the juvenile stage. But that is unlikely to halt the feeding at Monkey Mia, Dr. Mann said. The site attracts nearly 100,000 tourists every year and millions of dollars in ticket sales. It also provisions only a handful of animals, while offering an avenue to get people interested in dolphin biology and conservation. Unlike the Australian dolphin site, many more locations have unregulated feeding. At some of them, government agencies and conservation organizations have worked together to halt provisioning. At Laganas Bay off Greece’s Zakynthos Island a few years ago, local tour boat operators tossed tomatoes, oranges and other fruits and vegetables into the sparkling blue waters to entice loggerhead turtles. Tourists waited for the turtles to come to the surface, and then took photos and touched them. In the harbor, some fishermen also provisioned these primarily carnivorous turtles, collecting tips from onlookers whom they encouraged to touch the turtle’s head and flippers. “This is totally inappropriate,” said Panagiota Theodorou, a conservation coordinator at Archelon, the sea turtle protection society in Greece. “Then animals start being aggressive to humans.” She came across social media posts of several swimmers who got bitten by the region’s turtles. Ms. Theodorou and her colleagues worked with the local coast guard to raise awareness about the issue among tour operators and tourists. They wrote letters and issued news releases to explain the downsides of such provisioning. The coast guard also issued strict warnings to tour companies to discontinue the feeding or risk fines. The provisioning seemed to have ceased in 2018. Thinking beyond the short-term Back in the Bahamas, Dr. O’Shea and Fee Smulders, a marine ecology graduate student at the University of Wageningen in the Netherlands, observed the provisioned green turtles were also aggressive toward each other when competing for food. By mounting cameras on five fed turtles and studying hours of video footage, they noted that the otherwise solitary animals were resting in groups in shallow waters. “If you have high densities of turtles, then one day a shark could show up,” Ms. Smulders said. “That could be dangerous for tourists.” But in the absence of regulation, the provisioning will likely persist. Mr. Pinder, for instance, has no plans to halt sea turtle feeding at Bottom Harbor. If turtle populations were to decline in the future, he says he would reconsider. For now, though, deviations in natural turtle behavior recorded by scientists don’t seem compelling to him. But Dr. Orams at Auckland University of Technology said there should be priorities in addition to making money. “The evidence is so clear that when we deliberately provision marine animals as a tourist attraction, the long-term implications are never good.” Source link Orbem News #pay #perfect #photo #price #vacation

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firjii · 7 years ago

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A5, C1, F1, G4, J5, L3, N2, R4, U4, Y2, and Z4! Any OC you like, mix and match, up to you.

A fine list. I had to think about these overnight.

~For Bae Lavellan~

A5. what is their most impressive talent?

She actually excels at many things, but her most uniqueskill is that she can speak backwards. She’ll do it when she’s bored, she’ll doit when she’s upset, she’ll do it to unsettle someone she dislikes. She cansustain it for quite awhile if she’s feeling talkative. Leliana thought that itwas a secret code or cipher at first. When pressed, Bae didn’t have a goodanswer for why or how she’d learned to do it. It’s especially surprising whenyou consider that she’s not fluently multilingual – she was a hopeless studentwhen it came to elven, so she mostly gets by in Common.

J5. what brings them the most joy in the world?

Interesting question. Her skills aren’t necessarily what shetakes pleasure in – they’re just things that she happens to be good at. Sheenjoys problem solving and looking for things that other people miss (it’s anuncontrollable reflex anyway), so she enjoys climbing, especially if the goalis a quiet and private spot with a good view. When she was still living withher clan, it was one of the only ways that she could really clear her head. Shecan be a bit clumsy with other kinds of movement and doesn’t have big muscles,but she’s very flexible and climbing just…makes sense somehow. She could alwaysreach heights that others didn’t dare to go to or couldn’t see a way to get to,although she rarely did it for competition’s sake and not everyone realize howgood at it she was.

~For Gelya Tabris:~

G4. what parts of them do they like and dislike?

She always wanted more muscle. Life in the alienage meant alot of crime, and not just involving humans. There were few depths thatpickpockets and muggers wouldn’t stoop to. As befits a rogue, Gelya always hadfair reflexes, but no matter how much she tried to build muscle mass, she couldnever make real progress (partly because she was never exactly well-fed andpartly because she was born very prematurely and was never going to have alarge frame anyway). A man of even middling strength could have easilyoverpowered her, though luckily many elves pitied her instead and sometimesshunned her a little or even regarded her as mentally ill (which isn’tcompletely incorrect, though most of her psychological issues are directly dueto alienage life, not genetic predisposition).

She is, however, a very fast learner, and she knows it. Shecan improve greatly after making just one mistake, and once she’s learned howto do something, she never forgets it. She’s not especially skilled inanything, but it’s always been obvious – even to her – that her chances ofsurvival are ultimately better than many others’ because she understands how toadapt and adjust (even if it kills her a little inside sometimes). It’s a small comfort, but it’s enough to get her through the day.

~For Mervyn Lavellan~ [y’all haven’t seen him yet since he’strapped in the PS3, but he was my first Inquisitor and first DA build]

F1. what do they do for fun?

Though he didn’t grow up playing it, he ADORES chess and anyother games that even vaguely resemble it. He’s not always the absolute bestplayer, but his strategizing skills are a perfect foundation for learning it.He frequently hounds his advisors for a chance to hone his skills and learn newmoves. He can be quite cynical about non-elves sometimes, but he greatly admiresthe other races’ board games and sees the value in applying the skills neededfor them to real life and vice versa.

~For Radi Lavellan~

C1. how do they sit in a chair?

At a formal dinner table? Tidily and carefully. Her sitting posturein front of others is so polished that you’d think she’d grown up in Orlesianhigh society.

But in an armchair by a roaring hearth? All bets are off.She usually just ragdolls and passes out because she’s very prone to worrying andlong days and basically never gets enough sleep.

L3. are there any foods they hate?

Bread pudding, rosemary, and most pickled foods. She’s alsonot crazy about most liquor unless it’s cider, beer, or wine.

N2. what have they never done that they want to do?

While she’s socially confident and isn’t particularlyinhibited, she was never in a relationship pre-Inquisition. Growing up, she sawteenaged friends and family gradually marry off or at least get involved inmatchmaking, but she never even spent private time for a picnic with someone,never mind a kiss or something more. Cullen is her first everything.

It’s not that she didn’t want anyone prior to that (she’s not ace or aro), butshe saw enough families get separated by war, feuds, etc. that she couldn’tquite commit to the idea herself. She also always focused on protecting othersin the clan, so tbh she was honestly too busy keeping track of the clan’ssafety most of the time to really step back from worrying long enough to thinkabout it.

R4. have they broken any rules they now regret breaking?

I think she regrets that she doesn’t regret breaking rules. She’s usually done so for thegreater good and she only defies authority when its logic no longer serves agood purpose, but it’s happened often enough over the years that she waspainted as a cocky youngster early on. Some in the clan praised this and otherscalled her a traitor for it.

Now and then, she has a quiet moment of reflectionand wonders if things would have been better if she’d let others share some ofthe load. She’s not assertive by default and didn’t quite choose to be theguardian type – it sort of just happened in some moments when others didn’thave the same willpower. By the time she’d realized what she’d become, it wastoo late to change course…especially considering there was nothing actually wrongwith who she was.

U4. have they ever been doubted?

Considering she’s fairly atheist for an elf? You betcha.Plenty of people in her clan always resented her input/advice/opinions onimportant matters. Even the Keeper only let her be Second – Radi doesn’t try tostep on others’ toes and she doesn’t openly try to tell other people how tothink, but her lack of firm belief in the gods definitely meant that she waslooked down on, held back, and not always taken seriously.

Y2. what inspired you to create them?

It’s like this: my last DA OC was pretty nondescript on theoutside but basically scarred beyond recognition on the inside. I thought I’dtry the opposite with Radi: someone with a lot of literal scars but a bit lessof the “acute psychological trauma” side of things (not that there isn’t any,but it’s not the outright paralyzing sort like Bae has). She’s alsoneurotypical, so the scores of things that bother/confuse/upset Bae don’tnecessarily stand out to Radi.

I also have a bit of a hangup about making my OC’s look “tooperfect.” Granted, none of mine have horrible deformities and I’m thrilledevery time someone calls one of them cute, but mine don’t have fancy hair, alot of makeup, large eyes, flawless skin, etc. I’m not complaining becausethat’s 10000% deliberate. I spend much moretime making them look the way they do, not less.

While I definitely wouldn’t call Radi ugly, she does have some verydistinctive features which may or may not be attractive according tostereotypical beauty standards (a very angular jaw, noticeable cheek hollowsthat point to her scarily underweight tendencies rather than nice bonestructure, a cleft and sort of puffy chin, recessed eye sockets and puffy eyes that make her look a lot more squinty/suspicious than she actually is, etc.).

Furthermore, although she’s cis female, I wanted her to bean example of a woman who doesn’t necessarily get positively recognized for heroutward appearances since her features aren’t widely praised (or even widely acknowledged) for women. In fact, a fewpeople have already misgendered her. That actually makes me happy because it shows that Idid my job right.

And, of course, I loved the idea of having a character whohas very visible, very striking scars but actually isn’t that bothered by themcosmetically because they’re proof of just how tough someone can be – even ascrawny mage.

Z4. what’s their dream pet?

She’ll take every opportunity she gets to have a new pet, regardless of species, but she’s fascinated by turtles and tortoises. She’s goodaround most domesticated animals but appreciates the ones that have a quietsteadiness.

#dragon age oc chatter #radi lavellan #bae lavellan #mervyn lavellan #gelya tabris

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ezatluba · 4 years ago

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With an Internet of Animals, Scientists Aim to Track and Save Wildlife

Using tiny sensors and equipment aboard the space station, a project called ICARUS seeks to revolutionize animal tracking.

By Jim Robbins

June 9, 2020

The International Space Station, orbiting some 240 miles above the planet, is about to join the effort to monitor the world’s wildlife — and to revolutionize the science of animal tracking.

A large antenna and other equipment aboard the orbiting outpost, installed by spacewalking Russian astronauts in 2018, are being tested and will become fully operational this summer. The system will relay a much wider range of data than previous tracking technologies, logging not just an animal’s location but also its physiology and environment. This will assist scientists, conservationists and others whose work requires close monitoring of wildlife on the move, and provide much more detailed information on the health of the world’s ecosystems.

The new approach, known as ICARUS — short for International Cooperation for Animal Research Using Space — will also be able to track animals across far larger areas than other technologies. At the same time, ICARUS has shrunk the size of the transmitters that the animals wear and made them far cheaper to boot.

These changes will allow researchers to track flocks of birds as they migrate over long distances, for instance, instead of monitoring only one or two birds at a time, as well as far smaller creatures, including insects. And, as climate change and habitat destruction roil the planet, ICARUS will allow biologists and wildlife managers to quickly respond to changes in where and when species migrate.

“It’s a new era of discovery,” said Walter Jetz, a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at Yale, whose center is working with the project. “We will discover new migration paths, habitat requirements, things about species behavior that we didn’t even think about. That discovery will bring about all sorts of new questions.”

As an added bonus, people all over the world will one day be able to log on with a smartphone app to what’s known as the internet of animals to follow their favorite bird or tortoise or fish as it migrates and is tracked by the space station practically in real time.

The science of wildlife tracking, known as bio-logging, has come a long way in recent years. In the 1990s, researchers were still tracking large mammals using devices the size of lantern batteries. The technology has grown smaller since then, but many collars and tags are still too big for some three-quarters of the world’s wild creatures.

This space-based approach to uncovering the hidden lives of animals is led by Martin Wikelski, the director of migration research at the Max Planck Institute for Animal Behavior in Germany, who pursued it with a passion for years to overcome gaps and drawbacks in current technologies. It has been funded primarily by DLR, the German space agency.

ICARUS combines off-the-shelf technology, which includes solar and GPS units, and new communication technology that was developed for this mission, and specifically designed for tracking small animals.

On the ground, researchers will attach solar-powered bio-loggers that are far smaller than other technology — the size of two fingernails. They weigh less than three grams, about one-tenth of an ounce, and technicians say they will soon have one gram trackers.

Once secured — an easy process that seldom harms the animal — the sensors will hitch a ride on an array of animals and insects, like locusts, songbirds and baby tortoises. Most current wildlife tracking technologies can’t be attached to creatures that weigh less than 100 grams, or about three and a half ounces. And while the new sensors are smaller and lighter, their advanced design will allow them to collect far more data by monitoring an animal’s physiology, including skin temperature and body position, and external conditions like weather metrics.

The technology can also be used to accomplish a range of goals beyond wildlife studies.

Dr. Wikelski has studied the ability of cows, domestic goats and sheep in Italy to sense earthquakes and volcanic eruptions hours before they happen. Behavioral changes can be picked up by the sensors, he said, so herd behavior may provide an early warning.

“We think something smells wrong to them and there is static in the air,” he said. “So they move into wooded areas where they have shelter.”

Why the animals react is not yet known.

Icarus could also help track elephants vulnerable to poaching in Africa, or keep tabs on species of bats, pangolins and other animals that have played a role in viral epidemics.

“With skin temperature we can see in the ducks in China whether the next avian influenza is starting,” Dr. Wikelski said.

The power of this new approach is partially based on the fact that the space station can pick up the signals of these animals almost anywhere on the planet (the station does not pass over Earth’s polar regions, however). And while other conservation projects have tracked sharks, birds and other migratory species with satellites, this one aims to be useful for a wide range of species that researchers can ask to have added.

The sensors it relies on, at about $500 each, are a fraction of the price of other widely used tags.

They can last an animal’s lifetime and even be reused. They are able to store up to 500 megabytes, an entire lifetime of data on an animal. A researcher need not retrieve the tag; its data can be downloaded with a computer or a smartphone.

ICARUS “will truly change the study of animal migration,” said Nathan Senner, a biologist at the University of South Carolina. He plans to use it for a study tracking the Hudsonian godwit, a shorebird that makes one of the world’s longest migrations, from southern Chile to Alaska.

“We could get location estimates that are much more precise and help us develop targeted on the ground conservation measures,” Dr. Senner said.

In Europe, studies show some 30 percent of migratory songbirds, or about 420 million, have disappeared. ICARUS may give a much more detailed answer to where and why the animals are dying and guide conservation measures.

Dr. Wikelski said he was asked by a farmer in the German village where he grew up why there were no swallows this year.

“It’s hard to say,” Dr. Wikelski said. “Did they die on the way south? Were they eaten in the Mediterranean? Were they hunted in North Africa? Were they poisoned in the Sahel? Was the weather really bad? Those are the kinds of things we will find out.”

ICARUS will provide data on an individual bird, as well as a collective. In a study by Dr. Wikelski and others at Max Planck Institute, researchers are tagging 1,200 blackbirds in the hopes of better understanding the timing and route of their travels and where and why their numbers are declining.

In the Galápagos Islands, sensors will be used on baby tortoises to track their migration, a project of the Galápagos Tortoise Movement Ecology Programme.

“No one knows how the hatchlings survive,” said Dr. Wikelski, who works with the program. “Those are the lost years of the sea turtles. Knowing where they go will allow us to protect them better.”

Because ICARUS has the capability of tagging many more animals than other technologies do, Dr. Wikelski likened it to a smartphone traffic app that can track many cars on a highway at once. One phone can provide a lot of information about one car, but many phones sending information to one app can offer information about traffic patterns.

One of the goals of the project, Dr. Wikelski said, is to help conservation managers respond to a changing world. Protected areas like wildlife parks and forest preserves are defined by fixed boundaries. But many species are on the move as climate and other changes cause shifts, and protecting them will require an understanding of where they are going and where new protected areas and corridors may need to be created.

The system will be open to researchers around the world to use for research. And the data, with some exceptions, will be accessible to everyone. Dr. Wikelski said readings from ICARUS could be combined with other kinds of information, such as the eBird database, to make the data even more robust.

Another ambition of ICARUS is to allow anyone with a smartphone to follow tagged migrating animals. One app, called Animal Tracker, already exists as a way to tap into ground-based wildlife tracking systems.

Dr. Wikelski hopes that connecting people to a single charismatic animal whose movements they can follow will build support for conservation. “If people hear Cecil the lion died it’s very real to them,” he said, referring to a lion in Zimbabwe that was killed by an American hunter in 2015. “But if you say 3,000 lions died nobody cares.”

Mark Hebblewhite, a wildlife biologist at the University of Montana who has used wildlife tracking technology for decades, said ICARUS would have the capacity to fill in many gaps in our knowledge of the natural world.

“We’ll get a lot of things from ICARUS we can’t get any other way,” he said. “It’s exciting.”

But technology has downsides as well, he said. Birds may suddenly and unpredictably change their migration, for example, after years of traveling the same way, and Dr. Hebblewhite said there was a danger that conservation decisions could be made by people “who don’t know anything about birds except dots on a map.”

Some might say nature should maintain a degree of mystery from an all-seeing eye in the sky, but Dr. Wikelski, not surprisingly, doesn’t agree.

“These animals are providing really important information, maybe for survival of humankind,” he said. “We should have this information.”

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shannrussell-blog1 · 5 years ago

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Western Australia has some of the most incredible locations to camp at in the country. Whether it’s along the 20,000km of coastline or inland next to a pristine river or lake, you’ll find some truly mind blowing places to spend a night under the canvas. If you’ve been camping for some time, you’ve probably come across farm stays or stations that have been opened to the public for camping. Western Australia is no exception to this, and we’ve got some brilliant station camping destinations on private property.

Some stations are heavily focused on tourism, whilst others are still primarily working the land and simply allow those who want to see an incredible area in. Many have facilities including running water, toilets and showers, but there are some that have none of that – so you must be 100% self-sufficient.

Our camp site at Carrarang Station, WA. Image: Aaron Schubert.

Either way, there is a sense of trust expected when the land managers and owners open their gates. This is their backyard and their livelihood. If you are given access, treat it as you would your own property, and look after it well. These Station stays are a huge privilege and should be treated as such. They offer some of the best camping anywhere in Australia, so let’s keep it that way!

Many of the bigger stations begin several hours north of Perth, and in this post, I’m going to share four beautiful stations that you need to camp at – all under 12 hours drive from Perth!

Stations you must visit in Western Australia

1. Lynton Station

Some 500km North West of Perth lies Lynton Station, a relatively small property right next to where the Hutt River flows into the ocean. It will take you about 5 and a half hours to get there from Perth, passing through Geraldton and Northhampton. It’s located just 5km from Port Gregory, a small fishing town with a little general store and not much else.

The phrase Linga Longa at Lynton Station has been coined over the years, and I’m certain you’ll want to do just that. You can do the Linga Longa Farm Stay on the Lynton Station Heritage Site, with the option for camping, or even staying in the bunkhouse or cottage.

It’s also just down the road from the Pink Lake, which is an amazing phenomenon. Algae turns the water pink, and on a sunny day, the lake looks absolutely incredible. Kalbarri, Hutt River Province, Northhampton, Wagoe, Horrocks and Lucky Bay are all within 65km making it a perfect base to explore the beautiful region.

With flushing toilets, hot showers and a small camp kitchen, Lynton Station is like a Caravan Park with more space, more to see and at $10 per person per night it’s a steal!

The phenomenon that is the Pink Lake near Lynton Station. Image: Aaron Schubert.

Lynton Station History

Originally, way back in 1853 Lynton Station was founded as a convict depot, and housed convicts used for their labour in the lead mine. There was a bakery, depot, lockup, hospital, lime kiln and admin block, and still today many of the remains exist. The shire of Northhampton has taken over the restoration and maintenance of a very historical site.

You can visit the various remains and walk through them (some are in brilliant condition), and read about what went on many years ago, so it’s definitely worth a visit if you’re a local history buff.

A view of Lynton Station from the top of the hill. Image: Aaron Schubert.

Accessing Hutt River

If you have a 4WD, you can cross the road bordering Lynton Station and take a short, sandy track onto the beach where Hutt River flows out into the ocean (although it doesn’t always flow). The beach is unreal, as some of the sand is pink. There’s amazing dunes behind the river there and plenty of great fishing.

With the help of a 4WD, you can access the pink sands where the Hutt River flows to the ocean. Image: Aaron Schubert.

2. Murchison House Station

Kalbarri is a very popular tourist destination. However, most people only see what’s south of the Murchison River. If you are keen, you can travel and explore north of Kalbarri, by crossing the Murchison River onto Murchison House Station.

Stations in Australia are typically huge portions of land, and Murchison House is no exception to the rule. At a whopping 350,000 acres, it’s literally twice the size of Singapore. Do you want to know the best part is? You have access to the entire station, except where commercial activity is going on e.g. sheds, machinery, etc.

We spent several days at Murchison House, and probably explored about 10% of it. You can camp near the homestead, where flushing toilets and hot showers can be used. Or head further away for a more remote camping trip. Camping is permitted both upstream and downstream of the bridge, depending on what sort of experience you’re after.

From riverside camping to sand dunes, rocky hill climbs, huge expanses of land and cliffs – the Murchison House Station has an unbelievable amount of variety. Inland the river is still, so it’s perfect for fishing, swimming and relaxing for the day.

The station opens each year from April to October and is closed for the rest of the year for goat mustering. 4WD tracks are second to none, with incredible views and more tracks than you can poke a stick at. It’s $50 to access the station (if you cross the river), and $12.50 per person per night. Children are free under 16… how good’s that?

A 4WD is a great way to explore the huge Murchison Station. Image: Aaron Schubert.

3. Carrarang Station

If remote, truly self-sufficient camping on some of the most pristine parts of the WA coast tickles your fancy, Carrarang Station is for you. Located in the Shark Bay World Heritage Region, Carrarang Station can be found roughly 75km from the most western point of Australia – Steep Point.

Carrarang primarily operates as a station. but in past years the owners have opened it up for camping. Bookings are an absolute must, and when you do an entire beach is allotted entirely to you! The station is not set up for tourists – those who visit must be entirely self-sufficient and pay a small fee of $5 per person per night.

The Freycinet Inlet at Carrarang, Western Australia. Image: Aaron Schubert.

By self-sufficient, I mean everything – food, water, toilet and anything else you may need. There is nothing in the way of amenities at the station, and it’s a long way from the nearest town. The reward though, is some of the least touched coastline in WA, backing onto the Freycinet inlet and looking towards Shark Bay. The inlet is stunning and packed full of pink snapper and other beautiful fish to eat.

It’s a great place to stay at if you want to visit Steep Point and False Entrance. It’s also easily doable on a day trip. The trek out to Steep Point requires a high clearance 4WD, low tyre pressures and plenty of fuel, but is an absolute must!

False entrance near Steep Point – arguably one of the best places to drop a line in WA. Image: Aaron Schubert.

4. Gnaraloo Station

The Great Barrier Reef in Queensland is world renown. Ningaloo, on the other hand, is much less publicised, although arguably just as spectacular. Ningaloo Reef runs from Exmouth down the coast roughly 260km, with a large majority of the reef accessible from the shore, or not too far off with a boat. With manta rays, whale sharks and a diversity of other marine life like nothing else, it’s a huge attraction.

Fortunately for us, there are a couple of Stations that exist right on the coast where the Ningaloo Reef runs past. Gnaraloo is one of these – and is found just over 1000km north of Perth. It’s hugely popular for fishing, surfing, snorkelling and wind/kite surfing. So much so, that some of the best surfers around the world come to visit in their time off!

Swimming with turtles in the Ningaloo Reef. Image: Aaron Schubert.

Getting to Gnarlaroo

To get there, take the Blowholes road towards the coast just north of Carnarvon, and then head north along Gnaraloo Road. The track can be very rough and a 4WD is recommended. You’ll pass Quobba Station, Red Bluff and a salt mine before arriving at one of the more remote places to access the Ningaloo Reef.

The beauty of this is, much fewer people visit. Therefore the reef is in much better condition than the well trampled bits further north. The main campground is at 3 Mile, a campsite which is a couple of km south of the homestead. There are 65 unpowered sites, with basic hot showers and toilets. Rates range from $18 per person per night to $25 per person per night depending on the time of year.

You can snorkel in the little lagoon here, or explore the rest of the property by 4WD. There are several beaches you can get to, with some of the least seen, fished and photographed coastline in WA.

Balloon fishing is a hugely popular activity off the cliffs. It’s done by using a bait that bobs in and out of the water by a balloon attached to the end of your line. This attracts some of the bigger species of fish in the area, and the results are incredible. You can catch big Mackerel, Tuna and even Sailfish this way.

If you’re an avid fisherman, you’ve got to try balloon fishing at Gnaraloo station. Image: Aaron Schubert.

Enjoying Station Camping in Western Australia

It really is a magic feeling to access some of the best parts of the country in someone’s back yard. We’ve got a spectacular state to enjoy. There’s something about listening to a land owner proudly explain what they’ve done with the place that nothing compares to.

I often stay at Stations all over WA and will continue to do so. Maybe I will catch you out there!

Where’s the ultimate Station Camping destination that you’ve visited?

The post Why Station Camping in Western Australia is a Must! appeared first on Snowys Blog.

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galacticbugman · 6 years ago

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Recent Reptile and Amphibian encounters

I am not much of a herper I am more of a bug person more than anything now and days. However I fancy myself as a generalist when it comes to nature. No matter if it flies, creeps, crawls, leaps, gallops, slithers, swims; I will photograph it. I love to keep a diverse life list and love to keep a track of all that I see in the natural world. It is just something fun to do; it is like a game of hide and seek but when you seek out a new creature you log it and then keep it to a list. It can often jog fond memories of the places you saw the creatures and sometimes the people you were with. For me even the old wild friends you see with often lead to more memories and sometime you learn something new about the creatures when you encounter them over and over again. This occurred just over a few weeks. I went out to River Legacy to try and get a boost in observations for my iNaturalist account. I have been going out there a lot more because it has been really rainy and great for fungus and bugs. Here are a few old friends that I took photos.

Okay in the photo above it is kind of hard to see. What you are looking at is one of the most common of the snakes at River Legacy. This one I have posted all too often but I got this Copperhead in a position I have never photographed before. This guy was pointed out by one of my friends who works at the science center. She saw it right off the bat but I had a hard time trying to spot it. You will notice in some of the other photos they are more of a tan and orange color and sleeker. This one was much more brown and dulled out. This guy is gong to shed soon but he had not quite gone into blue yet. Okay what does that mean going into blue? Well when snakes shed the skin is solid and even covers the eyes for it makes a scale over the eyes when it is time to grow. They gain a bluish tint on the eyes and when they are like that Look Out! They will strike at anything and everything. You just have to make sure to give it it’s space. I fed a couple that had gone into blue; they may have been non-venomous but still they are more alert to everything since they are practically blind. This guy was all coiled up by this tree waiting for a meal to pass by. I think that the Copperhead is one of the most beautiful snakes in the state of Texas. They are a very attractive snake in my opinion. There skin when freshly shed is so beautiful. Before I get on one of my long winded speeches let us look at another herp that I found recently.

A couple of weekends ago I went out on the longer trails at River Legacy one Sunday on one of my weekend nature hikes. A lady on the trail was with her family and pointed this guy out to me. This little cutie may look cute but he will grow up to be one of the kings of the pond. This is the Common Snapping Turtle. Now there are two kinds of Snapper in our area. We have the Common which is this guy and we have the Alligator and both have two different feeding habits. I used to feed animals at the Fort Worth Nature Center as one of my volunteer jobs and I had the pleasure to feed both species of turtle. This one is the active hunter. That neck may look small but don’t let size fool you this guy can extend it and it will whip around and try to get you if you pick this one up. I learned that babies are not as ready to bite but when they get a few years old they become more bite happy. They will go out of their way to chase down a meal but; The Alligator Snapper (which I don’t have a photo of) that guy is more of a ambush predator. On their tongues are made like a fishing lure and when a fish comes into close...WACKO! I love snapping turtles. I used to love it when kids would come into the reptile room. I would teach them the feeding behavior of the turtles. I loved their reactions when they would snag a fish or bite one in half. They are the true meat cleavers of the of the pond.

Here is another one that was pretty cool. It was found just this weekend right when the Copperhead was found. This guy is one of the hardest lizards to photograph. This is the Little Brown Skink. Not a snake although he is snake like. He is long and slender and pretty small. This guy is about the size he will remain forever. These guys normally are on the move. You will hear them rustling in the leaf litter and most of the time they are gone before you see them. You have to sneak up them but they are quick to run. This guy was the exception however. My dad and my friend both pointed this out to me. It is good to always have extra pair of eyes on the trail. I do have pretty sharp vision but even I miss things that are hiding in plain sight. This guy was sitting as still as could be not moving a muscle. You had to watch him very closely because his head would twitch every so often. These are one of my favorite lizards. I have managed to catch a much larger skink at River Legacy but the thing with skinks is they can be pretty bitey and boy did I get it the day I wrangled a Common Five-lined Skink. I was showing it to a few kids and it had enough and bit the base of my ring finger on my left hand. It didn’t draw blood but he told he that he had enough of that. The bit isn’t that bad in some cases normally a quick release. They may pinch and you can feel their needle sharp teeth but it depends on the size if they will draw blood. There are some huge skinks in the world that can take a plug out of you but the ones we have here are small potatoes compared to some and are nothing to worry about in terms of getting bit. You just have to understand that it is their only way to tell you; you crossed the line and it is time to go or to PUT ME DOWN!” Still I love skinks they are cute little lizards. Lets look at another one sshhhallll wee

Okay so not my best shot but still a really good one. This is known as a Southern Leopard Frog. This is a fairly large species we get here in Texas though is considerably smaller than our giant Bullfrogs. This guy was on a bit of refuse down near the Red Bridge where most of the shots were taken in these slides. This guy was sitting as still as could be; possibly looking for a nearby snack. I don’t always see these kinds of frogs. I mostly see Bullfrogs and Blanchard’s Cricket Frogs along with their cousins the Green Tree Frog, and the Gulf Coast Toad. I have not seen a new species of frog to add to my list. I don’t see these all too often because they blend in so well with their environment. This is my second one to photograph in recent years which is kind of odd. Frogs and other herps are not my strong suit but I do carry around a make shift herping tool. It is a BBQ skewer that I converted into a double pronged herp stick. I don’t use it too often by I have been known to use it. I use it mainly to flip over logs and if you dare do this in person be warned and wear some snake proof boots or your best pair of hikers for it is pretty risky business sometimes. The thing is when out in the wilderness you want to wear a pair of jeans and a good pair of boots. You never want to be out in shorts. It is the one thing that I was taught early on before I signed up to be a Texas Master Naturalist. It is just something to take head of because there are plants like Bull Nettle that will get you and not to mention the mosquitoes.

Here is my last observation for this herp post. This guy was found as it was being swept down stream in a current near where the Leopard Frog was. This guy is not venomous even though its name might conjure up another master predator of North America. This guy is called the Diamond-backed Watersnake. this guy was a big one. These guys are known to get pretty good sized around and in length. These are said to be more common than another species of Watersnake we get called the Plain-bellied Watersnake also known as the Yellow-bellied Watersnake. In the herp world there have been quite a few changes to the Taxanomic Nomenclature which is kind of causing a lot of mixed feelings and causing a few upsets in the science community. Some of the snakes have been hit hard by this. I have seen quite a few of these on my travels to many North Texas parks. These guys are quite fun to look for. I don’t mind snakes they don’t bother me at all. They used to bother me something fierce but after years of learning to better understand the beauty of the reptile world mainly from watching Steve Irwin tapes and things I have since changed my attitude toward these misunderstood creatures. For some reason I love the misunderstood animals. I guess I have always been one to stand up for the little guys. To better appreciate these creatures is to learn how they live and what they do to survive. Their is beauty in the ways in which these creatures live. Sure they may not have fur or make pleasing sounds but the world of herps is a special one. They are an indicator in our ecosystems that tell if it is healthy or not. If you have these guys the area is a good one. If you don’t see many of these then you don’t have such a good ecosystem. Many species are known as indicator species and this goes hand in hand with many of the insects and even with the fungi. Everything is connected one way or another. For this is the way of nature and the connection it makes with us. It calls to us for we came from it.

In closing remarks:

Remember being a naturalist may not cost too much to get started but when you start working you way up the ladder you might want to invest in better equipment. Learning about nature in the field is fun but field investigations are only part of the equation. In the iNaturalist gig you have to go out and get your observations but then you have to go back home and study your findings just like in a lab situation. Learning about nature is fun and very rewarding. If you have an interest in wildlife or nature don’t be afraid to let that small spark start a life time of wonder and self discovery. Being an wildlife photographer and a hiker and a naturalist has helped me find my voice, my strengths, and my weaknesses. I always had a hard time conveying natural ideals to people but now that I have been out more and have spent time with people who are like minded and people who share some of the same ideals I have been able to speak more on the things I love the most. Nature is a wonderful thing on this planet. There is no other place I would rather be than losing myself in a forest, mountain crest, or oceanic area, or heck a dark cave studying the beauty and the majesty of Mother Nature. I often see this quote that really speaks to me “Not all who wander are lost.” This is something I have really taken to heart. Nature is something I really connect with and love. I love it so much and it makes me sad just how far away we have driven ourselves from it. It is something that we can’t replace and must be protect for our future generations to appreciate and enjoy. Making contributions by volunteering for your local nature park or nature center or heck even donating is a great thing. Nature was made for us to lose ourselves and explore. So until we meet again I am Zachary Chapman AKA Galactic_Bug_Man and I will see you on the trail.

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askghostcrawler · 8 years ago

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“Could you explain the oceanography part of your bio? As an aspiring marine scientist with a passion for games, I'm interested in hearing about your background.”

I always loved science as a kid. In college I decided I wanted to be an oceanographer, and majored in biology. I also picked up a major in philosophy, because biology at the undergraduate level is mostly memorization, and the philosophy at least allowed me to think. I also did internships at the National Aquarium in Baltimore and spent a summer at the University of Maryland’s Horn Point lab.

I was accepted to a few graduate programs, but ultimately went with the one from the University of Texas at Austin. I grew up in Texas (I was an army brat, so I grew up in a lot of places, but Texas had made the best impression). I had also spent some time at the sleepy beach town of Port Aransas, which is the where UT’s marine lab is still located. I hit it off with the professor who eventually became my adviser and found his research on crustaceans fascinating. UT also offered the best package of financial assistance and I was determined not to get buried under student loans.

I spent a year in Austin doing some of the base graduate level classes (evolution, statistics, molecular biology) and then moved to Port Aransas where I lived for 5 additional years. My area of study was benthic ecology, which means things that live on the ocean floor (and is the opposite of pelagic, which means stuff that live in the water like plankton, jellyfish and many fish). Benthic ecology involves some fish, but is mostly invertebrates. I love invertebrates. In the marine ecosystem, it means you are looking a lot at worms, clams and crustaceans. At my peak, I estimate I knew the scientific name of about 3000 species of Gulf of Mexico invertebrates.

My dissertation was called something like “Genetic diversity in harpacticoid copepods exposed to chronic contamination at offshore oil and gas wells.” This was the era where PCR allowed DNA sequencing using very small tissue samples, which was revolutionary for the time. Prior to that, you had to gather huge tissue samples, which made it hard to work on individual small organisms. Oil and gas is of course of major importance to the Texas economy. Despite the occasional news report of a wrecked tanker or oil well blow out, overall the petrochemical industry has a pretty good record of not dumping their product all over the ocean. (That would after all, be giving up the very product they are collecting.) But chronic exposure is another story. Low levels of hydrocarbons and heavy metals such as lead and cadmium can contaminate the sediment around oil wells, and while they won’t kill many animals outright, they can cause smaller, long term effects.

If all of that is too technical, I’ll just say that graduate school was hard and stressful but a lot of fun. I spent a lot of time on boats, including several overnight trips on research cruises (and do not think of cruise-ship comfort when I use the term “cruise”). I spent a lot of time on the beach, or estuaries, or salt marshes, all of which are beautiful environments. I had a pet tank stocked with mantis shrimp and octopus. I saw sharks and whales and manatees and sea turtles. I went fishing a lot. I was quite broke (most scientists are) but I got to meet a lot of really smart people from around the world. I got to teach the occasional course to undergraduates, and I always loved it. I’d still teach today if I had the time. When I retire, I will probably go back to teaching.

When I finished my Ph.D. I was offered a research position at the University of South Carolina, which also has a storied marine science program. This was not a tenure-track position (the holy grail for academia and just as rare) but it was a good job and almost doubled my pay. I ran the lab of a professor who had been promoted to dean. I think I published 5-6 papers, which isn’t bad for the few years I was in science. I still got out in the field some, but less, and I spent a lot of time writing grant proposals and typing up results. Scrounging for research funds even then was challenging, and I can only imagine how much worse it has gotten, and how much harder it is about to get for poor scientists in the USA. You can make decent money in medical research or working for a company, but being a scientist even at a major research university doesn’t pay nearly what it should given the high degree of technical expertise it requires and the ultimate benefit it can provide to society. But anyway.

The thing that ultimately convinced me that I was in the wrong career was that so many of my colleagues would go home, have dinner, and then go back to the lab to work on their experiments. I wanted to play games after dinner. Science is a career where the rewards are largely limited to your own personal passion for the work. I realized I didn’t have the passion that my coworkers had, and it wasn’t fair to them or the industry to keep doing something that I didn’t love. So I switched careers. And never looked back. While I still would rather play games than go back to work after dinner, I am confident in saying that I do love my career now. I still love the ocean too. For me, it makes a better hobby than a career.

3/29/2017

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