#this is very similar to apex predator I know

[cowboyemeritus]

thinking about, uh, enrichment activities

cw: predator/prey

You tuck yourself behind a boulder, gasping for air. Trying to listen for your pursuer is useless; he can tear through the forest without making a single sound. Your heart races, pounding in your ears like a stampede of cattle, as you allow yourself this shortest moment of reprieve. You’ll have to get up soon. With how you’re sweating buckets already, there’s no doubt he can smell you from miles away.

Heaving a sigh, you force yourself to stand. Your legs already feel dangerously tight, the muscles screaming for a break. Without a doubt they’ll be even worse tomorrow, so saturated with lactic acid you’ll barely be able to walk.

You’ll be bedridden for a multitude of reasons, but at the moment, that’s neither here nor there.

A twig snaps, and a primal pulse of fear runs down your spine. It could be anything, but you get the distinct feeling that it’s him fucking with you. Though he may be nearby, you know the game is nowhere close to being over. You can’t have been at this for more than a half hour, and he enjoys the thrill of the chase just as much as the “kill” at its end.

It takes some coaxing, but eventually you’re able to force yourself to start running again. Your legs, your lungs — everything fucking hurts. But you know he’ll make it worth your while when this is over. He always does.

Secondo controls his urges well enough. It’s something he’s worked hard to achieve, suffering through years of trial and error, of pain and self-hatred. Though his bloodlust is nowhere near as intense as it once was, every so often, the predator instinct rears its ugly head. The desire to hunt, he’s said, is like an itch, all-consuming and impossible to repress. The only way to keep this impulse in check is to indulge it before it gets out of hand, in a controlled environment with a willing participant. That’s where you come in.

Is it dangerous? Absolutely. But you love Secondo and trust him implicitly.

And you’d be lying to yourself if you said the whole ordeal, from the chase to the thorough fucking afterwards, wasn’t extremely hot.

What would your peasant ancestors say if they saw you like this, letting your vampire boyfriend hunt you for sport? You suppose it doesn’t really matter; they’re all dead and you’re here, right-fucking-now, trying very very hard not to break an ankle.

At this point, you’ve ventured so far into the woods that you can’t recognize your surroundings at all. It’s disorienting to say the least, and that animal part of your brain goes wild, desperately searching for a landmark of some kind. Still, you keep running. You would just hate to be a buzz-kill. The clouds break, the light of the full moon illuminating the forest. The trees cast long, black shadows, confusing the terrain even more. It makes it all the more difficult to navigate, unsure of what’s an obstacle and what’s not.

Your foot catches on a fallen tree branch. You stumble, but manage to keep yourself upright. When you look back up, ready to keep charging forward, your heart nearly stops. Directly ahead, no more than five yards away, looms a dark figure. The shadows seem to bend around him, keeping his features obscured. You gasp, backpedaling a few steps before turning to run in the opposite direction.

You slam into a hard body. It knocks the wind out of you, but before you can even try to breathe Secondo is on you, sinking his fangs into your neck. With the adrenaline coursing through your veins like poison, you can barely feel him puncturing the skin. Your beloved groans as your blood coats his tongue, shuddering as he takes a long pull. He gulps you down like he hasn’t had a meal in years, and though the sound of it is a little gross, you’re morbidly fascinated by it. You wonder just how much he could take from you before your life is in danger. The thought of it, of how much power he holds over you, has got whatever blood you have left traveling straight to your core.

Already you’re dizzy. Your knees buckle and he sinks to the forest floor with you, holding you tight to him. He’s as affected by this as you are, cock straining through the fabric of his pants. You try to grind against him, but the combination of exhaustion and blood loss makes it difficult to do anything other than moan and whimper weakly. Secondo seems to get the memo, though, a strong hand coming to your waist. His fingers, perpetually cold, hook under the waistband of your running shorts and underwear, tugging the garments down. He finds your clit immediately, drawing tight circles around the bundle of nerves, quickly working you into a delirium. It’s all so much at once, it doesn’t take long for you to fall over the edge, your vision getting fuzzy.

Secondo finally detaches from your neck as you come down. His lips are stained red with your blood, trails of it running down his chin. He’s a mess, paints smeared and eyes blow out as he lays you down on the leaves, fumbling with the buttons on his trousers. He kisses you, the taste of iron filling your mouth when his tongue bullies itself past your lips. Then you feel the hardness of him against you, prodding at the apex of your thighs. Secondo takes his cock in hand and grunts as he gives himself a few strokes. Drunk on your blood and the satisfaction of a good hunt, he says nothing as he finally pushes inside you. All you can do is cry out, deliciously overstimulated and reeling, though the night is far from over.

Oh, the things you do for love.

[unusualshrimp]

hey sorry i can't come to work today im thinking about the various implications of zombie horror and the way it affects people

[homunculus-argument]

One thing that can save you from so much needless bickering online is always taking an "innocent until proven guilty" approach about whether or not somebody is an idiot. If something that a person you don't know is doing, thinking, or saying makes no sense to you, it's better to assume that your initial assumption of what's going on is wrong, and that there's some additional element in this that you're unaware of, and what they're up to makes sense in context.

Let's say that someone posts on tumblr: "oh great, there's a fucking crocodile on the backyard. Hope it goes away before I have to let the dog out." Talking about it in a very casual way like that's just shit that happens sometimes.

And this is read by someone whose first assumption is that everyone online comes from a similar background and cultural context as they do, and thinks: Well, if there was a crocodile on my backyard, that would mean there's something horribly wrong, and I would be unsettled indeed. As this person does not seem appropriately freaked out about this, then clearly they must be an idiot.

And so they swoop in to scold the OP for being so casual about something that must clearly be a dire situation, an apex predator like a crocodile roaming around is an emergency worse than any regular invasive species, they must immediately find out where that creature escaped from and not let it out of their sight!

And meanwhile, the original OP argues that every single step of that plan is insane and they are not going to do that. And they continue arguing like this, because one is correct in their stance that an escaped crocodile in an environment it doesn't belong in is a dire and serious situation, and the other one is correct in their stanse that it would be ridiculous to call animal control over simply seeing a wild animal naturally chilling in its native environment.

And this whole argument could have been avoided if the responder had taken the alternative route: Concluding that since behaving the way OP does in their own environment would be idiotic, then clearly they must be living somewhere else.

And a simple question of "are crocodiles normal where you're from?" could have settled this immediately, as the two would have immediately come to learn that one of them is from Australia and the other one is from France.

[chirrups]

I feel like I have nothing to ask, I simply would love to hear more about them fucked up mermaid and murderer

And I would absolutely love to tell you about them, Tin.

This AU takes place somewhere vaguely in the Pacific Northwest (circa. 1970s-80s) in an isolated fishing town along a storm-wracked coast.

Fisheries in and around the bay have collapsed due to extreme winter weather patterns + overfishing + an oil spill from a tanker run aground down the coast, leaving most of the bay's inhabitants to live pretty much hand-to-mouth off contaminated fish in recent years.

get ready for LORE (and more drawings but mostly the LORE)

general warning: this is pretty long

The "story" as it were, kicks off when Gem finally gets fed up with another fisherman in the area, Grian, over continued conflict about ownership of fishing grounds in the mouth of the bay.

She orchestrates his death (with the eager assistance of Scott and Impulse) out at sea and passes off his death as a tragic accident in the winter swells with her being the unfortunate finder of his remains.

And it works.

See the thing is: Gem has a history of causing disappearances. It started with some accidents with out-of-town poachers. She would chase these people off and one or two would just slip overboard and happen to drown. It wasn’t her fault and besides they deserve it. But things start to escalate from there. Poachers become outsiders become fellow townspeople. Grian is someone Gem’s known for years, whose friends are tangentially her friends or acquaintances. His death is a cold-blooded murder driven by hatred and frustration. This time something is different about what she's done and Gem knows it.

But Gem is a reputable and well-known person. Her prices are fair, she drives poachers out of the bay and maintains order around the pragmatic fishing ground policy that undoubtedly helps everyone to survive.

She is the type of person to look to for guidance when things get hard because she can make those hard choices. So how on earth could it be her fault?

No one is wiser until Grian's funeral brings an old friend into town who is more than a little suspicious about the circumstances of his death.

Scar was one of Grian's crewmates when they did trawling much further south. They split when Scar took up (illegal) whaling and Grian moved into the bay.

As an outsider, Scar isn't so swayed by the goodwill the town has around Gem's name. He's no detective but for the sake of an old friend, he might as well try.

In this AU, mermaids are social mammals part of the Hominidae family that went back into the ocean similar to Cetaceans. They live in matrilineal family groups or in any other female-led organization of pods and have a very "survival-oriented" global culture (with regional variation).

Pearl is a lone mermaid whose pod lived in the bay until they were starved out by the collapsing fisheries. PNW mermaids are more territorial than other ecotypes and value strength over anything else. Pearl's inability (read: unwillingness) to oust other pods for better fishing grounds and the loss of one of her pod members summarily lead the other two to abandon her.

Without a pod to help her, hunting enough in her dwindling territory has been difficult and lonely, leading her to slowly starve just as the humans in the bay have begun to.

She took to trailing fishing boats to steal from their catch, which is how she met Gem who was mid-throwing some unfortunate soul overboard.

They have an interesting relationship.

Gem is enamored with Pearl at the halfway point between a person and a large apex predator. She loves the way Pearl needs her to live and the way Pearl, as a social creature with no pod, craves her attention. It's thrilling to have a predator at her beck and call like this and, in turn, to be so desperately needed. She also loves the way Pearl doesn't look at her like she's dangerous (the way Scott and Impulse have begun to when they think she doesn't see them). Her interest in Pearl seems to be leaching into something more than just wildlife admiration. She's begun to learn the mermaid language just to talk to her. For what? Who really knows. Meanwhile, Pearl is hungry enough to eat just about anything Gem throws her (including human bodies) and desperate enough that she lets Gem get much closer than many humans in this area have ever been to a mermaid. (They even touch, scandalous for mermaids.)

It's skewed for sure. From Gem's perspective, they've got something special going on. From Pearl's... not so much.

This being Secret-Life based, you can imagine how this story ends...

Bonus piece: Pearl and her old pod.

IN GENERAL, Biological females are generally larger with a set of rotated tusks protruding from their lower jaw for dominance displays. Biological males are commonly smaller and more agile, with more dexterous hands due to decreased adipose tissue distribution over their bodies. (They actually have 3 biological sexes and tons of social gender variation but that's a talk for another time). Pre-cultural awakening, these pods would form around a biological female and their harem for reproductive purposes. That female would then protect the harem from other females looking to "steal them" or their territories (like horses but reverse-style). In modern times, these pods are often composed of groups of friends/related family members as sort of "platonic life partners" and stealing other pod members is seen as a very archaic sort of thing. Territory stealing, however, is still up for grabs.

[the-ancient-dragons]

EXTRA OVERCOMPLICATED ICEWIIIIINGS

You know how it goes, Joy Ang is cool and I'm not yadda yadda move on.

Details and explanation below!

Otherwise, next week is the last Pyrrhian tribe: NightWings!!!! See you then!

More overcomplicated dragons.

If the RainWings are the design that destroys Joy's work the least, this one takes the original IceWings and tosses them out the window. Going into this design I knew it would be hard, but boy was I unprepared to get art block for 2 months because of it.

I eventually found my inspiration in the girdled, spiny, and horned lizards, They. Are. So. Freaking cool. If you think a crocodile skink is awesome, look up girdled lizards. Not as fancy with the eyeliner but they are SPIKY!

I fell in love in particular with the giant girdled lizard. I knew I wanted the scales of the IceWing to look rough and like they were made of actual ice or diamonds - or covered in frozen sleet and snow - and this lizard was basically perfect inspo for that. Also, blue spiny lizards. They are basically real life IceWings, full stop.

But even though I had perfect references to draw from, I still struggled with the head shape. I wanted them to feel like a reptilian polar bear, which is why I slightly blunted it, but I think I should have gone with a more angular shape instead. I can always change it later when I do their full-body.

I did have a very fun time with the horns, however. I wanted them to be a mix of narwhal teeth and icicles (yes, narwhal 'horns' are actually overgrown teeth. One tooth, usually, but sometimes they can have two!!). Before I get distracted I should explain how they grow: the scales at the base of the horn are constantly growing and essentially create the horn. That's what gives them their narwhal-like spirals.

I chose a similar approach to the neck spikes (untangling that mess was fun, let me tell you. Grids are very useful when doing many scales/spikes). At the base of each one you'll notice a scale forming it. On the back, I wanted to give a good side profile of the spikes. Technically, they are ever-growing, and need to be trimmed or sharpened constantly.

Now, as I was drawing them, I asked myself: why do IceWings need a mane of spikes?

A stupid question, you might wonder, but to me it's very important. Animals look the way they do for survival. So, while it's important visually for the ice theme, how could they be explained scientifically?

And then, when thinking of polar bears, I got my answer.

How the hell does a giant sparkly dragon hunt in the north? Seals would probably be part of their diet, but it's hard to sneak up on them if you're a ten ton reptilian flying creature, so I imagine they would tackle the problem like a polar bear would by waiting by a breathing hole and pouncing at the right moment. They already look like a frozen snowbank, so that part is easy.

But any hungry polar bear would be doing the same thing, and like a giant dragon, they would be waiting downwind of the breathing hole too. They wouldn't pose a threat to adult dragons or dragonets larger than them, but in real life polar bears are dangerous hunters and prey on humans. Why wouldn't it prey on a dragonet it thinks it can take on? Things in the WOF universe seem to be extra big (or scavengers/humans are tiny) so I think it would be a feasible for a desperate bear to hunt a dragon. They cannibalize, anyway, so going after another apex predator isn't out of the question. In this case, the horns and neck spikes would be a dragonet's saving grace, discouraging attacks from behind and especially on their necks. A bear's teeth could never get through their scales, but they could still crush their airways and choke them, and the spikes would keep them away from their necks and protect them from that fate. As they grow up, the neck spikes' length and strength could be used to determine a dragon's health and help them select good partners.

Finally, continuing with the bear theme: for the scales, I took inspiration from polar bear fur (which is actually hollow) to help design how IceWings preserve their body heat. In polar bears, its used to make them look white by reflecting the light of the sun, but in IceWings it could keep the cold out. Air pockets would create a barrier between them and the outside elements, and whatever gets in would meet their thick layer of fat that does the real warming. Yes, IceWings would be squishy, but you'd probably poke your eye out or stick permanently to their side a la tongue to cold metal pole.

Don't hug IceWings; they're very cold.

[ravensvalley]

#Wolves

I need to say a few words here about Wolves and their role in biodiversity. Because I like them, but most of all, they're a must in the wilderness.

Like every time we are standing on the edge of a hiking trail of a National Park, a protected territory, we all must beware of the consequences.

Au contrary to what most people may think of its surface, no matter how large it might be, isn't big enough to sustain a healthy Wolf population over a long term. This large Predator requires a massive home range to find the prey it needs to survive. Studies have shown that all the Wolf packs in Parks must travel outside its boundaries to meet their needs. And these large Canids are also victims of habitat degradation and fragmentation, not to mention deaths of human origin.

And for people who don't know, Wolves are considered as an umbrella species. Which means that efforts to protect it benefit the entire ecosystem, since the Wolf's territory encompasses the territories of many other species with a similar home range.

As for being an apex Predators, Wolves play an important role in biodiversity. Yes, their presence has been scientifically proven to increase the abundance and diversity of plants, mamal's Birds, Amphibiants, and Reptiles. Wolves help to control the amount of Prey on their territory; this prevents an overpopulation of herbivores, which could be detrimental to plant regrowth. Wolves also give a boost to several other animal species by leaving their partially carcasses for scavengers to feed on. Through its influence on the entire food chain and by curbing excessive grazing. So yes, the Wolf is a key species needed to preserve the balance of Ecosystem.

To conclude; Wolves are very wary and will run away from any human they detect through their remarkable senses of hearing and smell - they can sniff out their Prey from more than 2kms away. Several studies have shown that Wolves will try to avoid humans at all costs and flee when approached.

Just to say that all citizens have a responsibility to protect the Wolves.

[zoomzooml]

Dragons:TNR Jörmungandr redesign (rework?) concept

(Also I know that my design pushes beyond limits of TNR animation in more than one way but here I just had fun lol)

I feel like he is not intimidating enough in original. He is very small for an "Apex predator of all dragons" (and let's remember that TNR has Giants Realm so-). I expected him to slide way longer when he was escaping his prison. He also had a lot of troubles with catching dragons (it was honestly sad to watch) And yes, as far as I know snakes are expecionally challenging to rig and animate and TNR doesn't have movie-level budget, but c'mon. It's The Final Boss. (*I think that in concept art he actually is longer so perhaps they shortened him to make animation easier (and cheaper??) considering mad speed seasons were coming out)

Sidenote - that poor danger noodle had so little of any kind of build up. It's really sad. And the first time we see him live he: did shitty jumpscare (build up was actually decent imo, but sound effect and bad animation humbled it), had short, off-screen fight with Sky Torcher after which he didn't even kill him (though he did at least leave some nasty scars and broke Torchie's tooth), and then fucked away. For me it was very underhelming.

Low quality clip for those who didn't watch (I hope Tumblr won't take it down).

Coming back to the design. I really don't like his colors. He got wings but to compensate I decided that he's not a good flier. In my mind he is an ambush hunter. And I know that THE Jörmungandr, the spawn of Loki from the myths, did not have wings, and this is pretty consistent as far as I know, but it is not THE Jörmungandr, so yeah

He is in some way mix between King Cobra, Moray Eel and sea snakes (Yellow-Lipped Sea Krait mostly). I changed his hood to be more similar in construction to a king cobra. In short, it is a bit of loose skin and ribs with the ability to move. In my design, the tips of some of the ribs poke through the skin. Now I don't think TNR would be able to animate it (But i'm not very familiar with 3D animation, especially for shows) so in show he probably would just have hood always flared. His head and sail are inspired by mooray eel because they are dope and I love them. I feel that aspects of sea snakes have died in design - they have a paddle at the end of the tail, but this has already been included in the OG design, so I don't feel the need to talk about it. However, like Sea Krait, Jörmungandr is semi-aquatic. He is much slower on land than in the water, but the difference is not as great as with Sea Krait.

I increased his size - and if he wasn't inprisoned he probably would be about 15-25% longer by now. He's old enough to be a Titan Wing but he isn't normal size - he stopped growing a bit after outgrowing average dragon of his species (let's remember that Red Death is Titan Wing as well!).

*Jörmungandr is longer but Red Death is more massive. Avarage serpents are slightly shorter than Red Death as well.

To be honest, I'm not sure if I didn't overkill it with his size. On the one hand he is large, on the other hand he is mostly long and not that massive. Idk

In addition to the scars, I think Jörmungandr would also be covered with small amounts of moss and other vegetation that started growing on him when he wasn't really active (his cave is very wet/moisty). To survive he spent almost his entire life in a state of brumation, being more active when he sensed meal approaching his reach.

Now, in my mind The Jörmungandr is the name of this particular dragon, not the whole species (Midgard Serpents? IDK), and at the same time he is not a "real" Jörmungandr from the myths. Because words cannot describe how I hate that plot.

I don't know how exactly he got his name but I think it was not because of how big he is, but because of his intelligence and mischievous soul. Again, idk.

Jörmungandr is a tragic dragon. In my version he was not trapped by Hiccup (in my version Hiccup never come back to Hidden World, because c'mon. I don't really like THW but if TNR is continity to that franchise they should follow established canon and not wreck last movie and make it completely insignificant. It loses all it's value if Hiccup, his family and perhaps other vikings, just come back and maybe even lived in the Hidden World anyway! If we have to have human marks and structures, etc. in the Hidden World, I would do it more in the style of “Haddock's Cycle” than “Hiccup and Tom.” Essentially, the creator of these changes is perhaps one of Hiccup's descendants, Tom's ancestors - the "soul of the dragon" that Hiccup and before him his mother had, summoning them to the world of dragons to see "Is it finally time? ”, but it never is, not yet anyway. Idk, I'm trying lol)

I have two concepts: There was once a main entrance to his part of the Dark Realm accompanianed by the waterfalls of magma, but now there's only basalt wall. This would make the closure possible for natural reasons and give Tom an opportunity to show off his geoligical knowledge some more.

Or he was caged in human-build prison, but not by Hiccup. I did that little sketch of how his page in Dragon Book could look in this scenario. Clearly different artstyle than Hiccup's to show that he was not the one to write about this individual (tho in show there's already different styles so--) But at the second thought it can be just illustration for species as whole, so anyway

In both cases, there are ways to enter his personal prison but he is too large to use them. They are still usefull as this is the only way prey will come to his reach. Not many dragons can escape his jaws.

He has spent most of his life in a rather hostile environment to which he was not adapted, which has left scars on his body and psyche. When he's not hunting, he sleeps. Hunger has halted his growth.

Jörmungandr is a damaged, dangerous dragon, the victim of fate and unknown past.

The psychological damage has made him hyper-aggressive, even by the standards of an already aggressive species. I don't think he could ever satiate his hunger either - if he could he would hunt and eat until he consumed everything in range or died of overeating.

For this dragon, it seems too late for a happy ending, unfortunately.

Now about the Midgard Serpents (placeholdern name, I have no idea how to name them) as a whole. Apex Predator may be a bit much, given the existence of dragons like Red Death, Purple Death or Bewilderbeast. However, Midgard Serpents remain one of the dragons that feed almost exclusively on other dragons (and sometimes even other members of their own species - they're cannibalistic), and they're damn good at it. When they feel best in the water, they can follow their prey in the sky or on land. They grow quite large and still are able to take down prey more massive than themselves (mostly thanks to venom and poisonous gas).

I think they are the main predators of 'Deaths and Bewilderbeasts (and other equally large dragons) in the earlier stages of life.

[jainydoe]

Metastable; Chapter 2

Ch. 1

She knows how pretty she can look, playing the fool.

One of the few bits of her mother she’s carried since leaving home. Smooth talker and smoother muscle. She gets off on the talking first. Looking the enemy in the eye, the face, taking them in and offering one last chance . Everything in her thrums to life when they inevitably refuse. She prides herself on it. Being an irresistible challenge. She never snuffs the light out, no matter how surrounded she may be. She always takes the time to lean over their gaping form, tasting as much of her conquering as she can. She’s a killer. An animal. Under Varric’s tutelage, she has become an apex predator. 

When it comes to Emmrich, however, she finds herself flat on her ass, his eyes glittering as he stares at her down his aristocratic nose. Holding back a kind laugh at how filthy she can get. Like a child.

For the first time, the challenge of his stare feels like one she might turn down. She’s no coward. But she knows when there’s a fight she can’t win. It’s called being wise, she tells herself. He’s smarter. Faster. Like a rabbit she has to chase with a butcher knife. He’d rather spend his days chit-chatting with the Fade engineer than lowering his standards for the riff raff. She can imagine the things they must be laughing about when she feels their pair of eyes on her back. Words like hoi polloi and rough around the edges. The kind of girl you don’t bring home for dinner. She burns in her shoulders and neck when she thinks about how quickly he slices her in half. She’s been a woman for a while, but he stunts her into a girl. Bumbling and trying so very hard to prove she’s worth the conversation. He keeps an arm’s distance. Keeps the darlings and true smiles at a minimum. He’s pissed off when she drags other teammates on expeditions because he clearly doesn’t trust them, doesn’t trust her , to get the job done. He’s seasoned. He’s experienced. He knows everything about everywhere and lets other people talk about things because he’s graceful . It makes her want to march into his quarters, stand on his desk, strip herself bare and ask just how much he thinks he knows. Prove yourself, she’d say, watching as he leaned against the fireplace, skull in hand, beginning to inspect her in a similar fashion. He’d circle, fingers lazily raising her arms, dipping into her fat, hand gripping her thighs as he eventually levels to just in front of her navel. He’d say something about her being an adequate specimen but requiring further tests to evaluate her worth, her viability. Let’s see how useful you can be off the battlefield, my dear. 

She decides to confide in Davrin. He’s to-the-point. Doesn’t waver. He doesn’t talk to her like someone to be revered or saved. She’s a colleague. Someone who will sit in silence and share a glass of whiskey snuck from the pantry. 

“What do you think of everyone?” He’s offered her a block of wood and a carving knife. She hasn’t figured out what she’s making yet. He’s promised he’ll turn it into something salvageable. He’s, at the moment, shaping a thing with plenty of teeth. 

“They’re fine. Why?” She doesn’t meet his gaze. “You, uh,” he pauses, “asking about someone in particular?”

She looks at him, then. He scratches his chin, the back of his neck. This is unfamiliar territory for them both. “Before I left my clan, there was someone.” She’ll never under-appreciate his bravery. “She was a little older.” 

He tells her about their brief affair. How she was cold. But kind. Then warm, when she wanted. When things grow wet and all too real, she asks if they can take Assan for a walk around the forest. He doesn’t say he’s grateful for the redirection, just laughs and grabs his coat. She doesn’t have brothers, but thinks this is what it must feel like. It’s as they’re crossing the quad that she sees Emmrich, a trail of smoke drifting off the edge of the balcony. That’s the moment - the quick burn on Davrin’s shoulder - that stitches her back into battle. She’s no longer chasing with a butcher knife. She understands, now, that she’s got him in range with a bow, and he’s so graciously waiting. Twitching. Almost ready to bolt. 

She tells herself not to compare an arrow to the cigarette she slides between his lips. He’s not prey. She’s not hunting him. He’s not something to be conquered. But before she can feel they’re on equal footing, she awakens to the smell of citrus and sugar. Orange and cinnamon tea with an assortment of jams. He’s made her breakfast and is asking if he can take her to dinner. He’s wearing cufflinks and she’s wrapped in just his bed linens. She smooths on a smile she knows looks relaxed and mentions she has nothing to wear to such an occasion. She hasn’t needed a dress in a while. 

You haven’t needed a dress ever, you rat.

He shakes his head, lifting her hand to his lips and peppering kisses in between you’ll look ravishing no matter the ensemble, my heart. She reminds herself to commission Neve for a much required pre-evening collaboration. 

“What’s got you in knots,” she asks, gently rifling through a clutch she keeps in a curio. Rook sits cross-legged in the middle of her floor, wisps landing on her hair and shoulders as if to offer a comforting pat. She regrets that it doesn’t help.

“Emmrich and I had sex.” 

The clutch almost drops, completely. Instead a tube of imported lipstick rolls to her boots, something called Ravaging Raven . Neve snatches it into her hand before opening it up and twisting the bottom. 

“Well, that’s that, then.” 

She finds herself stiffening her posture. “Is that a problem, Neve,”

“No, of course not. Of course, it’s not a problem.” She doesn’t need to hammer the questions. She knows her stare is enough. Neve bites. “I suppose it’s just a bit of a surprise, is all. We all thought you fancied Davrin.” We all? “Though Emmrich’s affections come as no surprise. He always gets that look in his eyes when we’re out on a job. Like he wants to, well. You know.” Neve smiles in that way that she’s sure makes Lucanis want to. Well. “You know, Rook, if he’s taking you out to dinner, maybe it’s more than just a … temporary thing. Is that something you want?”

She’s mulled it over. What life after this might look like with someone like him. Soirees. Seances. Limited interior real estate, given the mountains of tomes he’d keep around. She’s never been still, a thrumming storm sweeping the land, but she thinks she’d consider it. For someone like him. “For someone like him, yeah. I do.” 

Neve raises the lipstick to Rook’s mouth. “I know exactly what you mean.”

When they enter the restaurant, it’s all smiles and handshakes for Professor Valkarin, Watcher Extraordinaire and Handsome Catch of the College. The staff know him. The staff like him. They ask if she’s a prospective study in the program, or a recent graduate he’s enticing to join as an adjunct. She doesn’t miss the way he swallows, hand brushing her forearm as he asks for a private room. Somewhere on the roof. His usual bottle, thanks. 

There are too many forks and not enough food, but she realizes quickly that the things she’ll taste tonight, she may never taste again. These are what people mean when they say flavor combinations. 

Amuse bouche. 

Aperitif. 

She can tell he enjoys waving his fingers, things she could never afford floating onto her placemat and wasting itself on her appetite. He’s showing off. He’s bragging. He wants her to be impressed by just how easily beautiful things come his way. She feels easy. A cheap thrill. Wasted.

“How do you like your meal, my darling?”

She smiles, making sure her mouth is closed. “It’s the best meal I’ve ever had.” 

He acts like this is a lovely surprise. “I just love the food here. It’s so delicate and rich. Just like you.”

A lie. 

The chef of this establishment, her name is Savya , makes their way to the table. She’s aged. Her body is soft and unscarred. She has pale hair and the kind of skin that’s wrinkled like silk, not crushed paper. A kind of patience and stature in her voice than comes with time and money. She rests a hand on Emmrich’s shoulder. Rook stops just in time from grabbing her last remaining fork and jamming it in Yaya’s eye. “I trust the meal was to your liking.” 

“Savya, it was divine. The hint of nutmeg, was it?” She nods. “Inspired.” 

He introduces Rook. Says she’s a special young lady who deserves the very best. Savya is kind and uninterested in the way she’s found all Nevarran’s can be. The living are so, very dull, after all. The conversation leaves Rook behind. 

She tells herself it ends here. This outfit makes her feel like a giant and she’s spilled food on the tablecloth. She thinks nothing of the wine he’s picked, all she can be sure of is it must be older than her. She wants to cry. She wants to kick his legs and throw a tantrum. She wants to scream at him for leading her on, making a fool of her, not playing fair. He slides a hand across the table, running a finger up her knuckles before taking her hand in his. He tells Savya that he and Rook would just love to join her and Asha for another one of their Big Bad Dinner Parties and Savya gives Rook a smile and takes her shoulder in her other, manicured hand. 

“I would love nothing more.”

It’s once she’s gone, table bussed and post-meal coffee heating their chins that he says it. “I’m not so disillusioned as to ignore the differences between us. Some more,” he circles the rim of his cup, rings glinting in the moonlight, “physical than others.” It’s then that she notices the red splashing under his skin, lip twitching, she can’t tell if he’s breathing. His eyes shine. “Tell me if this is real. Before I,” his posture slouches, a man run dry, “- before we fall too deep.”

Her arrow has had him pierced and bleeding out this whole time. He’s not a god. Not a man. She sees a boy from ages ago, twirling a handpicked bouquet and begging to never be left alone. It’s then that she understands the butcher knife was never for him. It’s for her. This is her moment to bleed. 

She stands, looking out onto the fog and freeze of the Necropolis. Her hand extends to him, still seated. Still un-breathing. She stares down her nose. “I can’t promise life with me will be clean. Or neat. Or that I’ll be of very much use off the battlefield.” 

He slides his hand into hers, a soft tune beginning to murmur around them. She’s sure he’s conjuring it, himself. That must be why a thrill runs up her spine when he takes her into his arms, waltz position practiced and proper.

“If I wanted this woman you’ve crafted in your head,” his lips brush the tips of her ears, “I’d already have her.” His thumb turns her cheek to his lips. He presses a kiss to the apple. She still smells like morning jam. “I can’t promise life with me will be exciting. Or revolutionary. Or that I’ll be of very much interest in a matter of time.” 

It sounds stupid, when he says it. They both are perfectly stupid. And they’re both quite pretty, in this light. Each of them complete and utter fools. 

[candlecove-weaintdeadyet]

Inspired by something @harlowehearse said earlier today, I bring you...a possible Burnt Wicks!take on the Banana People.

*fanfare* creachur

Basically, the body is like. Long n yellow with green bits on the snoot and tail and darker spots both to resemble real bananas and as camouflage. The legs are very woody, kind of peg-doll-esque, and colored/patterned like banana tree wood. They kinda fill the niche of a crocodilian/similar apex predators.

I don't think I can call these 'Banana People' anymore. I don't know what these are.

[ranticore]

this is as far as i got into a diagram of siphos, the dominant life form of Siren, my big big worldbuilding project. it's fuck ugly and i am not lining this. I really liked the idea of alternating generations and a stupid complex life cycle. Ultimately there are no 'plants' on Siren as we know them. Instead we have the 'sessile' generation of the creatures which, in a different 'active' generation, are among the fastest and most active apex predators in the vast freshwater seas of Siren. It took the first human settlers on Siren years to understand that what they were assuming were completely different animals were in fact all the same animal - and, ultimately, it brings into question the definition of 'species' as it stands.

Tides are regular but slow; a yearly occurrence (when not a neap or spring supertide). When there is no or very little water movement (during a low tide phase), the fresh water forms strongly stratified layers, including an anoxic dead zone near the bottom. the increased water flow of a rising or falling tide increases mixing in the water, and provides enough nutrient flow for the sessile adult phase of the siphos to happily live their lives anchored to the substrate, feeding by suspension. each 'leaf' has a feeding structure which i have not designed yet, but also uses gas exchange to create air bladders in a process not unlike photosynthesis. the bladders raise and lower the leaves in the water column to take advantage of zooplankton density (diel vertical migration).

Each leaf produces two motile clone larva which break out and swim away. It's not uncommon for these larva to be released in a swarm when the adult sessile sipho is under attack or being eaten. The two holes in the leaves will slowly refill with the next clones. The larvae swim until they meet larvae of another sessile adult, whereupon they spawn, releasing planktonic gonads for sexual reproduction. the eggs form thick mats on the sea floor (some with an additional 'worm' stage of joined together eggs which trundles along until it finds suitable substrate) and eventually sprout into more sessile adults.

Whether or not the larva undergo sexual or asexual reproduction depends on oxygen saturation in the water. If the water has a low saturation, it is likely due to a period of stratification in the water column (still water at high or low tide). Because there may not be enough prey for a sessile adult to get by on, it triggers the beginning of the active generation. the larva instead divides asexually and enters a kind of locust phase of rapid development into swarms of nymphs which form most of the "fish" in Siren's seas. The nymphs progress through several stages of development, as the water continues to settle and stratify, until ultimately they are able to leave the water. similar to dragonflies, the nymph 2 stage are the largest flying predators native to the planet, and feed mostly on smaller siphos of other species and the insect-like creatures that swarm around the coastlines. the nymphs are sexually active and can lay fast-developing eggs which will hatch into more nymphs. nymph swarms number in the trillions and are very short-lived, taking advantage of only a few weeks of ideal conditions.

during a neap or spring tide year, when the water is liable to undergo extreme, catastrophic changes, the nymph 2 stage will then become fully active adults; too heavy to fly, the adults of the active generation propel themselves via specialised hydrofoil arms. they prey mainly on nymphs of other species (though cannibalism is common) and, since the settlement of Siren, sea-dwelling or even flighted humans. with the ability to travel very far and very fast, these adults are the means by which entire species can uproot and fuck off to a more livable area if the neap tide decides to turn their aquatic home into a new continent.

They do eventually spawn and, depending on oxygen saturation, release eggs that will become nymphs or sessile adults.

[forgetfulslasher]

Headcanons about "The Obsessed"!

Since IDK released his new video of The Obsessed showing off some of its new forms, I've been thinking quite a bit about its biology! So I've compiled something of a list regarding my headcanons about it. While some things have been omitted as to avoid spoilers for my fic "Obsession", when that is done I will add these details back in.

*Note; The Obsessed's spider form will NOT be appearing in "Obsession", and probably will not appear in anything I choose to do with it in the future (and if it does, then it will be heavily tagged). I do not want to exclude anyone who has arachnophobia/an aversion to spiders from the main story, and so there's no need to worry about that.

With all that said and done, let's begin!

Overview

The Obsessed, as we have come to know it by, is part of an unnamed species of monster. While many cultures have their own names for this specimen, the denizens of the Redwoods simply choose to call it "The Obsessed". This species is NOT common, with at most one inhabiting an entire biome, while most biomes don't even have it at all. They are incredibly territorial and very dangerous when angered, and will typically kill off any apex predators in the area that it sees as competition. Anything it cannot defeat it will live in uneasy peace with, unless the competitor threatens The Obsessed further, in which it will leave in an attempt to find a new home similar to its first one.

Though there is only one species of The Obsessed, its genetic makeup allows it to modify its body as it grows to better suit its environment. For example, a Redwoods Obsessed has slightly reddish skin, while a cave Obsessed would likely be the color of obsidian. These modifications become more extreme as it grows, which becomes a double-edged sword. On one hand, these changes allow the Obsessed to completely dominate its home environment. On the other, these changes might become so extreme that leaving can actually kill it by overexposure, and even if it survives, it may still be incredibly weakened. An Obsessed will not leave its home except for dire circumstances.

Personality

First of all, The Obsessed tends to be pretty reclusive in nature. It will only allow itself to be seen when it wants to be seen, and does a lot of hiding because of this. They tend to be nocturnal but can adjust their sleeping schedules when needed.

As one can expect, The Obsessed is known for becoming scarily infatuated by certain things. Or, rather, obsessed to the point of violence. However, the object of its affections can change depending on what interests it most. In the Redwoods, humans are what it sees to be the most interesting, so a Redwoods Obsessed usually only becomes infatuated with humans. Meanwhile, an Obsessed that lives in biome where no humans frequent might take an interest in a certain animal species, or maybe even a structure or plant species. As long as they can keep the specific thing that they have their eyes on to themselves, they will be happy. However, The Obsessed does NOT like to share, so "keeping something to itself" usually means isolating that thing from everything about it, and killing off anything that competes for that attention.

The Obsessed is incredibly intelligent, although how they display that intelligence varies on what it sees often. A cave Obsessed would not be able to understand human language or write human words the way an Obsessed that's been around humans can. However, a human-acclimated Obsessed would not be able to, say, understand wolf howls the way that an Obsessed that's always around wolves would be able to. For human-acclimated Obsessed, The Obsessed is usually able to see importance in certain objects, phrases, animals or people and adjust its actions toward them accordingly. That is to say, it knows that flowers mean love, screaming means fear, and that people usually like their pets. Basically, as long as it repeatedly sees a behavior, it is typically able to understand it.

Finally, Obsessed are violent. Incredibly so. Like I said before, they don't like to share, and that applies to both biomes and the object of its affections. Furthermore, if an Obsessed does not feel like its being paid attention to enough, it will usually kill the object of its affections and seek out a new one. The Obsessed wants the eyes of its obsession to be on it whenever it wants, and not a second sooner or later. Their clinginess can extend even in death, and past obsessions may have their graves vandalized or even destroyed if The Obsessed sees them get too much attention from mourning loved ones. It is incredibly hard to survive an Obsessed loving you, especially if you have ones you love.

Physiology

The build of an Obsessed depends on how long it's been alive, which I shall go more in-depth with below. It also depends on what biome it lives in. For the sake of simplicity regarding the lifespan, I will only talk about the Redwoods Obsessed as it is what we are all most familiar with. But some parts of them remain the same no matter where an Obsessed lives. All Obsessed start off vaguely humanoid in nature and obtain more monstrous traits the older they grow. They all have very long fingers and legs with two bends in them (think like a Demogorgon from Stranger Things-- THAT is what their legs look like). They also all have certain defense mechanisms to help them hide from prying eyes, such as emitting a black smoke that makes the world around them darker.

Lifespan

0-50: This is the first stage of an Obsessed's life cycle. It is not known if they are born via egg or live birth, but they raise themselves. A young Obsessed is about 5' (five feet) tall and a dark gray/black in color. It has two eyes that glow very faintly, but its smile does not yet glow. Young Obsessed are incredibly skittish and you usually won't see one at all. They spend their early years getting a lay of the land and observing the local wildlife-- including humans. They learn an incredibly amount during these early years. Behaviors such as gift-giving typically start at this age.

50-100: An Obsessed will usually choose their first obsession around this time. It may take some a couple decades to realize what they actually like, but an Obsessed will always have at least one obsession before reaching 100 years. During these years, the Obsessed grows taller, stronger, and much more violent. They go from being scrawny little cowards to capable of taking down a full-grown grizzly bear without even breaking a sweat. Both their eyes and teeth glow brightly in the night, a warning sign that warns others to stay away. They become capable of emitting a thick black smoke to conceal themselves. In the case of the Redwoods Obsessed, it's skin gains a dark reddish tint and it starts growing fur/hair-like projections out of its body.

100-200: The first monstrous traits start to appear during these years. The Obsessed may grow taller, but always stronger, to the point where some believe it to be virtually unkillable. Their eyes and mouth are capable of glowing red or yellow when angered. In the case of forest and Redwoods Obsessed, they will start to take on the attributes of spiders (with climbing on trees/the undersides of caves being a behavior that they start exhibiting during the 50-100 years). Their arms split in two to give them six limbs in total. They begin to grow six more eyes, although they are sensitive to light and cannot glow/must be hidden.

200-300: The Obsessed reaches its final form. Two of the arms that the Obsessed has (aka, half of the set of four it gains once they split during 100-200) shift so that they are behind The Obsessed's shoulder and moreso on its back. Redwoods and forest-based Obsessed sprout six more spider legs from their back, giving them twelve limbs in total. These limbs fold up against its back when not in use. It is able to move incredibly fast, and its speed is unmatched along the trees. It now has eight eyes which are all capable of glowing, though it may hide the six new ones with a flap of skin during the day. There is nothing you can do to fight this. If you become its next obsession, you can consider everyone that you love already dead. And if you anger it, then you sure as hell better be prepared for what happens next, because your death will not be pretty.

Death: If an Obsessed somehow dies of a natural age and not due to the violent life it often lives, it will simply go to sleep and never wake up. Everything about it will disintegrate, even its bones. All that will be left is a thick black dust which smells of copper and ink, eventually carried away by the wind or stained into the ground by the rain. If you find a large patch of ground or grass that stays stained black no matter what, with the dirt many feet below being stained as well, then you know that's where an Obsessed has died.

[morskisir]

Answer to this ask I had to post seperately because I reached the character limit or something.

OHHHH Anon you are not ready. I think about this bastard so much and too deeply.

Before I get into it:

I love how you worded this question- gives a nice atmosphere.

Just to be clear this is all about RED Sniper. I apologise to any BLU Sniper enjoyers for I don't have thoughts about that guy.

I'm not the biggest fan of the comics for many reasons so don't mind me retconning a lot of that.

In the end these are all MY opinions and views of him- if you don't like them that's no problem. It's free real estate.

And FINALLY; my thoughts, under read more:

OKAY, let's start with what even got me to interpret him the way that I do; hell yeah baby, it's Meet the Sniper time.

I've seen MANY people often assume that Sniper is one of the most normal/chill people of the 2fort nine- but the impression I got is that he wants you to think he's normal so desperately despite everything else pointing to how fucking weird he actually is. Simply noticing the stuff he's saying makes it a lot more clear. The very beginning where he goes "Boom, headshot," making light of taking another person's life so swiftly. "Cause at the end of the day; as long as there's two people left on the planet- someone is gonna want someone dead," really positive light you see the world in, Sniper.

Of course you can take this as him being "realistic", and I do agree he's more of a realist than a pessimist or optimist, but "...have a plan to kill everyone you meet," is SO fucked up. Why is his first thought when meeting someone to know how to kill them? This to me is him not being able to properly connect to other people/understand them or actually SEE them as people. Not to mention his smile after delivering that shot in the timelapse of him sniping (AND after stabbing Spy). This cunt enjoys killing. He's not the type to slowly kill someone or torture them- but he is the type to feel satisfaction after planting a bullet in someone; give himself a pat on the back for it- or perhaps find humour in the kill.

The conclusion this brought me to is that he is an unreliable narrator in "Meet the Sniper". (Also the "..be polite," line. Yeah, sure, dude. Your voice lines are very polite.)

CAN WE TALK ABOUT HIS FUCKING TEETH? The way his teeth look and how much they're shown to the viewer by exaggerating his mouth movements feels like a "this guy is NOT normal" sign. No one in the game has teeth similar to him and his canines are HUGE. Like holy shit, he's an apex predator.

A comment @cheebuss (I know you wanna get tagged) saw once has been a running joke between us- it was basically "He indicates so he's normal," which is fucking hilarious, but I can genuinely refute that point. First of all we see him fucking speeding in the beginning of the video- to be fair we don't know what the speed limit on this road is, BUT:

Cunt drives around with a broken side mirror. That's really unsafe, obviously. A good chunk of that mirror has gone to shit and he does not care to replace it (which feeds into my headcanon of him being stingy/not wanting to spend money because he lived on a farm and they did everything themselves). Speaking of his van; it gave me the impression he likes having everything he needs near him- he doesn't need a grand, expensive space to feel comfortable. (I headcanon that he's actually scared/unnerved by vast, empty spaces/buildings) ALSO I think he's messy and prefers the claustrophobia of his van. I like to believe his childhood room was much the same (to the detriment of his mother)- that's his safe space damn it!!!

And here I can transition into talking about his parents!!! : D Of course, not much was shown to us of Mr. & Mrs. Mundy, but we can still glean some stuff from the video- and partially- the comics.

His father very obviously disapproves of his job, calling him "a crazed gunman", and showing his morals do not align with Sniper's. Sniper calls for his mum during the phone call shown at the very end of the video- looking annoyed and somewhat distressed. It's clear to me that they've had this argument many times and Mrs. Mundy is the mediator in them. I think she disapproves of the job as much as her husband does, but is sick of hearing them argue to that extent. Regardless of this conflict, Sniper loves and cares for his parents- they are his world. He doesn't care for anyone else, most of the shit he does is for their sake and continuing to provide support so they can live a stable life at their farm as they get older. It's one of the nicest things about Sniper.

Although, I do think he struggled to get them to understand him properly. He is a quiet man who doesn't express a lot of his emotions. That will complicate things, especially if he doesn't talk about it- and he doesn't!!! : D

Despite this, I think they were the people he was closest to. Sniper, to me, is a guy who's never had friends and has been lonely as well as isolated his entire life. "Too weird to live, much too rare to die." And this is a VERY long time we're talking about; DECADES. Decades of minimum to no human connection. (Just to note; he is almost 50 to me. The comic writers fucked the timeline up and made him a 20 something year old. The Sin. Do not speak of it to me. It makes him less interesting/compelling I'm not kidding.) He is anxious in social settings, barely speaks up, and prefers to simply back away when he doesn't know how to deal with something. (SUPER DUPER AUTISM + SOCIAL ANXIETY!!!) Does he try to interact with his co-workers? Veeeeery little. He yearns for connection he convinces himself he doesn't need. He trusts no one. He's a mystery to them.

But hey!!! Less distractions from his job!!! (Bad transition) This man is genuinely incredible at what he does- I keep replaying the part where he reloads his rifle. He was not kidding about being efficient (he also kills the entire BLU team in that video??). The lad's got incredible patience, aim, control, and overall understanding of what he's doing. There's something fucked up about him observing the people he's targetting like prey, but let's leave that for when I mention his previous job as a tracker (if I do). I imagine the only thing he excelled at in school (he did go there!! He can write!!!) is maths, as that is very much needed when you're a sniper.

BTW I think he barely passed school; he hated being there, had no interest in school work and his teachers kept pestering him about his social life. Leave him alone, he doesn't need that (he does).

Most of his focus went to his parents' farm where I think he mostly took care of the animals....or went out to hunt them; which is how he learned to shoot out of a rifle in the first place. (His dad taught him.) He's not exactly an animal guy but he's also not not an animal guy.

It's complicated.

ANYWAYS, I've talked enough about one single video. Let's mention his in game voice lines a bit!

There's a LOT of material there but here's the stuff I want to mention:

He talks to himself a lot. He isn't out there with the others- his job is to be perched up somewhere high and shoot from a distance so he doesn't get spotted. He makes so many jokes that only HE's going to find funny, except "You've got a forehead on ya like a coffee table," which is genuinely the funniest thing he's ever said. Boy voices his thoughts and tries to entertain himself when he's alone- I don't judge him for that. He has to sit there for hours in complete focus (he helps himself via a lot of coffee). I DO judge the things he says, however.

He's violent. (WHAT!?) There's plenty of examples but I would like to mention one adressed to his teammates. One of the "Jeers" commands is "Should've saved a bullet for some of you blokes!" which, hey, what the fuck? That's scary. He got so frustrated he threatened his own team with murder. (It's kinda funny) To me this shows he's bad at controlling his outbursts or that he never learned how to deal with them. (Autism moment!!!)

He literally growls.

There's this line addressed to Spy: "What goes around comes around, you snotty little nance." If you're not aware- "nance" is derogatory Australian slang for a prissy, effeminate gay man. I headcanon Sniper as a homosexual man so it tickles me that he's so insecure about this fact. It's sad, absolutely, but I find humour in this horrible man being a homophobic homosexual. Project your insecurities onto a guy who can read people extremely well, why don't you. He won't do anything about it, I promise :) (Lie)

I was doing my best to not mention SniperSpy but CAN WE TALK ABOUT HIS LINES AIMED AT SPY AND HOW THEY'RE DIRECT RESPONSES TO THINGS SPY SAYS? (plus the highest number of revenge lines he has directed at someone is Spy)

-> = response to:

"Aww, did I get blood on your suit!?" -> "You got blood on my suit."

"I was never on your side either! Wanker!" -> "I never really was on your side."

"Ah, my God, you've been shot. Did you get a look at the handsome rogue who did it?" -> "I'll see you in hell, you handsome rogue."

BY THE WAY, THAT LAST LINE? SPY ONLY SAYS THAT TO HIS COUNTERPART. WHAT, WERE YOU LOOKING AT HIM? WERE YOU WATCHING HIM ALL DAY? WHY DO YOU REMEMBER SO MANY THINGS HE'S SAID? WHY ARE YOU SO FOCUSED ON HIM? ARE YOU OBSESSED WITH HIM? ARE YOU OBSESSED? WHY ARE YOU OBSESSED WITH A LITTLE NANCY BOY? HM?

There is so much more I could mention. I think whatever thing he has going on with Spy is super important to him, but I will hold back for your sake as I can talk about this for hours. You have no clue how many parallels there are, etc.

Anyways, he's in Expiration Date! A little bit! He doesn't say anything. <3 I'm proud of him!!! <3

He literally just stands around ominously in the shadows (and finds RED Spy being made fun of very amusing).

"Hehe."

(I just noticed he took his watch off and put it on his vest. This is an autism moment because I, too, hate having something on me that I don't usually have so I need to balance it out by removing something else; if I have it on me. Either way it's sensory suffering.) (Him being super attached to his hat and glasses is also an autism moment. He is no one without them.)

And then he has that one part in The Bread Fight(tm) where he gets confused by Pauling and Scout pushing the bomb.

"Tails gets trolled" looking ass.

I like watching him fall over.

After he falls here, he takes his kukri out which was... attached? situated? It was behind the strap of his arrow carrier. I think that's cool. I also think he wouldn't be doing that during matches because Spy is very much capable of stealing it/putting it away without Sniper noticing, even if it was literally on his back.

Also, I am a firm believer in "Sniper can only do one thing extremely well and has little to no interest in creative stuff," so I disagree with the idea of him being able to play a saxophone. You could say he was made to do that in school, but this guy is a smoker. I do not believe he can do that. You cannot convince me.

I think that's enough! This doesn't even go past the hypothetical tip of the iceberg, but it's a lot of words. This is the very basic stuff you have to know about how I see this cunt.

Thank you for letting me share some of my insanity.

[voidandabyssal]

Okay, hoping this is allowed. In regards to Below the Ice, how do you think some of the other Sans' would react to Reader in the same situation? Say Red, Blue, Axe, or Dior? You don't have to answer for all of these if you don't feel like it!

Of course this is allowed! Such a good idea. Hopefully I read this right lol

Red:

Reds more aggressive than Sans. He's not an Orca Siren but a Bull shark Siren. Not exactly known for being cold and calculating. There's definitely more murder attempts, Red is also far more successful at killing off Readers co-workers. This is probably set off the coast of coast of mexico, lots of bull sharks and bull shark sirens congregate there.

He's also more openly flirty though, he's more aware of his feelings to reader than Sans is and he's not shy about checking you out ;)))

Initially, he thinks your just like the other scientists. Dumb, easily manipulatable and an easy meal. You quickly prove him wrong when you successfully manage to trap him under some falling rocks.

Boy does Red love a strong and smart partner. Something about being capable enough to take down an apex predator like him just does it for him.

The two of you get closer once he's under captivity, which is in this au, not for evil science purposes but more so for everyone's (including reds, safety). Once you're on more equal power dynamics you find him to be quite funny and charming when he needs to be.

He's pretty touchy as well, not to the point of it being uncomfortable. He just likes play fighting with you, or just holding onto you.

Blue:

He's a Dolphin Siren! you initially meet him when your scuba diving taking coral samples. He's friendly and inquisitive and all too helpful. Your other colleagues are jealous he approached you this time. Similar to Red, this doesn't take place in the arctic but instead somewhere off the coast of Australia, maybe the Great Barrier Reef.

Yeah, he's definitely known around the area for how kind he is. Tons of youtube videos have gone viral featuring him helping fishermen, scuba divers and even lost swimmers.

ngl, this is probably the best start to your relationship compared to any of the other boys

He often swims circles around you, trying to draw you from your work to play with him, solve puzzles and even tries to get you to meet his brother. Sometimes you relent, sometimes you don't, though you do build a strong friendship.

You fall first but he falls harder.

It just hits him one day. You and him are out swimming, you collecting important marine data and him following you around with a strange stirring in his soul that he can't quite place.

When he sees you helping a small fish out of a plastic bottle. That's when it hits him. He loves you. You're perfect

Axe:

hhrrrrrrgggg pretty human,,,,,,

eyes wide, jaw dropped, STARING,,,,

you first meet when you're out late night fishing. You had been warned of a Giant Pacific Octopus Siren that had recently started inhabiting the area but what did they know??? Certainly not more than you! You'd been fishing round these parts since you were a baby!

"....HOLY SHIT!" is what you screech out, dropping your fishing rod when you see Axe's bright red eye-light looking up from the murky deep.

Yeah you turn right back around and don't come back. Much to Axe's disappointment. Luckily for him, and unluckily for you, he has very long, very powerful tentacles that he uses to pull you into the water with him.

He doesn't drag you under of course, he's smart enough to figure out that you really don't like that.

He's already designated you his mate. Sorry, pal, you're just going to have to make do with the giant octopus Siren cuddling up to you now.

He does let you go eventually, though you do have to repeatedly promise him that you'll come back.

And you do, afraid that he'll come chase you down. Eventually it does come to be a mutually loving relationship, it just takes a little time.

Dior (lusttale Sans):

This time you're the one approaching him. You're a famous wildlife photographer and you have been craving that perfect, career making picture; and you know who you have to photograph.

Dior, a famous lionfish Siren, known for his striking beauty and his charming friendliness to everyone. He proves to be rather elusive. Hard to find, rarely ever in one spot as he's surrounded by many Siren admirers. But you're determined!

finally, after days of bashing up against sharp corals in your search, you find him! Dozing off on a large rock formation. You're steadying yourself for the perfect picture when you notice a much larger Siren sneaking up on Dior, teeth bared and claws sharpened.

"Look out!" You say, or at least try to say through all the bubbles. Dior does manage to wake up though, and quickly pokes the attacker with one of his many poisonous spines.

He thanks you, deciding to pose for you in thanks for you saving him.

When you leave, he assumes you'll never come back. He's too used to people leaving once they've gotten what they want out of him.

He's pleasantly surprised when you come back, without the camera, just wanting to know more about the beautiful but distant Siren.

He doesn't mean to fall as fast and as hard as he does, but being around someone so genuine is such a nice shock to his system he just can't help but fall for your smile.

[arredusworld]

Loongs speculative biology is breaking me a little bit

im adding Loongs (Chinese dragons) to Arredus right, cuz they look cool, are cool, and i refuse to be euro-centric in my fantasy worlds

problem, the way i want to go about it is ruining my life (hyperbole), see part of Arredus is to have implied speculative evolution to back up the speculative biology, and Loongs are making that really hard

lets examine this depiction, scales are seen along side whiskers on the snout, spikes along the back, (presumed) feather coverage on the tale and face, and ears

this creates some issues, see the scales assert that this is a reptile of some kind, the (presumed) feathers make it likely that this is a dinosaur, but thats a guarantee, maybe lizards on Arredus have feathers, maybe its in the class of true dragons, or maybe those arnt feathers at all, and are instead real weird scales, tho considering all the more detailed art ive seen depicts it as fluffy-

-like this, <sidenote, there is so much ai slop of eastern mysticism out there> and while i acknowledge this is a modern piece of art, it appears to be representative of wat ppl think Loongs look like

<another sidenote, some art depicts the dragon with horns but this is inconsistently done so whether its s thing is up in the air>

one more thing b4 i begin speculating is that this project has no respect for modern preconceptions of the fantasy u know and love, only science and even thats a vague impression, so if that means making pegasus a dragon that convergently evolved to look like equines with wings, so be it

with that said lets get into my ideas for how to get this thing to exist at all, firstly lets talk environmental pressures, Loongs are suppose to be water gods of some sort and closely tied to alligators, turtles, and fish, so it is semi-aquatic, and being from china in our world, its likely accustomed more specifically to lush jungle environments

next lets talk niche, every animal in an ecosystem has a niche, wats this guys, well clearly its an apex predator, i dont think this needs much elaboration

next is its behaviors, and again i think its fairly intuitive to say Loongs are ambush predators, like cats and alligators, also most likely making it a solitary animal

finally for the hard part ive been procrastinating on all post, wat friggin animal is this at all, the first thots are obviously a reptile of some kind, if the non scaly bits are feathers, than its a dinosaur, most likely a dragon, however his native land is in Lushia, a continent with very little reptiles at all

another option is to make the Loong a mammal of some kind, maybe a monotreme, which would make it fairly distinct and also give me more freedom to be creative, or a feline, very similar in lifestyle of a jaguar (reminder that these nightmare animals are not only good but happy swimmers)

the issue i run into repeatedly is that no answer makes me happy, while a feline is my fave of the choices, it raises more questions for me, why is its snout so long, is the "scales" just fur pattern? or did this feline specifically evolve armadillo fur, if so why, if its a monotreme, wat does that mean at all, its a neat idea and allows it to lay eggs still but is that all that important? do all monotremes have beaks? does the Loong? is it bioluminescent like platypuses? if its a reptile, why is it one of the few on this continent? it didnt fly over like the dragons did, unless this is a dragon who lost its wings, if so why? why not evolve fin like wings to help swim like sea serpents? if its not a dragon, wat reptile is it? it has to be a dinosaur of some kind thats where feathers are from, but its clearly not any other dino other than a dragon, which circles us bacc around, and wat about them ears, are they false ears like the horns on a horned owl? if so why did it evolve that other than to look cool? does it even look that cool?

in short the Loong is making me tear loong strainds of hair out of my head, so here poll, decide ur thots and please tell me more in the replys/notes/watever else you wanna use to communicate with me

[cyborg-squid]

TUNGUSKA SANCTUARY

One of the things that's really interesting to me about Tunguska, and one of the reasons I think it was kind of criticized when it first came out, is how it is not afraid to have the characters be wrong? About the identity of Koyanskaya.

She is not Tamamo Vitch, despite being addressed as such in subtitles from her intro and the like, so the first 'person' that is wrong is the story itself. And of course, it knows it's wrong, it's not an inconsistency with itself, it knows it's lying to the reader and building off their assumptions by giving her the name Tamamo and similar features. Tamamo no Mae herself tells the player (if not Guda) the truth in the flashback: Koyanskaya is not a Tamamo, despite how shady Tamamo comes off as when she says it.

The second person wrong about Koyanskaya is Taigong: she is not Daiji either, as much as Taigong says she is, even up until he meets her. He says he's there to hunt Daiji, he's got a plan to hunt Daiji, he's got his whole Anti-Daiji NP, and is caught very of guard when she's not Daiji. Which potentially reflects the players own assumptions, if they've come to the conclusion that she's not a Tamamo, then what else could she be but a Daiji?!

In a way, it makes me think of… I don't know what the term is, but the type of animal that disguises itself as a bigger predator to scare off others, despite not being the strongest itself. You take the looks, the mannerisms, of the ones stronger than you and this come off looking stronger yourself. That's true for both Koyanskaya's imitation of human forms and killing capabilties, the apex predator of the planet, and her copying, intentional or not, of Tamamo and Daiji. It also just makes sense that something that exists separate from Human History would sort of leech off of entities from Human History in an effort to keep itself around.

And that, in my opinion, lends a whole lot more weight to Koyanskaya's name, both the name she goes and also her true name: Koyanskaya. She is Koyanskaya, even with Light and Dark, she is solely Koyanskaya. While the Light and Dark versions do have the 'moral' connotations at first glance, what they actually make me think of is how the Tunguska explosion is presented in the story; the Light of this blinding all-eradicating flash, and the Dark that follows, which is shown in the Koyanskaya start of chapters as accompanied by the voices of the animal masses. There is nothing inherently moral or different about either side, they both simply are, both what arrives with and what arrives after The End.

[saritapaleo]

Known for its tall, recognizable, cassowary-like crest, Corythoraptor jacobsi was a large oviraptorosaur also from the Nanxiong Formation of Late Cretaceous China. Corythoraptor’s crest was heavily pneumatized (full of air pockets), even more so than the modern day cassowary’s crest. This likely made the crest very light and fragile, even when covered by a keratinous sheath. It probably served a purpose similar to a cassowary’s crest: for display, to dissipate heat, and to detect low-frequency sounds.

The first, and only, known specimen was found to be at least 6 or 7 years old, having gone through seasonal growth spurts. This indicates that it lived in an environment that experienced fluctuating rainy and arid seasons. Corythoraptor likely used its toothless beak for eating plants, nuts, and seeds. However, since the Nanxiong Formation was home to many different species of oviraptorosaurs, it’s possible each one specialized in different types of food to avoid competition.

Corythoraptor had its first big spotlight in the documentary Prehistoric Planet, where it was seen eating Ginkgo seeds and being hunted by the long-snouted tyrannosaurid Qianzhousaurus, the apex predator of the Nanxiong Formation. It was also seen in the second season having its eggs stolen by the dromaeosaur Kuru kulla. While a welcome reversal of the common trope of always depicting oviraptorosaurs as egg thieves, Kuru did not live in the Nanxiong Formation, and was instead native to the slightly older Barun Goyot Formation of Mongolia. Corythoraptor would have instead shared the Nanxiong with other oviraptorosaurs like Tongtianlong, Ganzhousaurus, Huanansaurus, Jiangxisaurus, Shixinggia, Nankangia, and Banji, as well as therizinosaurids like Nanshiungosaurus, macronarian sauropods like Jiangxititan, indeterminate hadrosaurs, turtles, lizards, and the crocodilian Jiangxisuchus.

This art may be used for educational purposes, with credit, but please contact me first for permission before using my art. I would like to know where and how it is being used. If you don’t have something to add that was not already addressed in this caption, please do not repost this art. Thank you!