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#it's not essential to the continuance of the species
kedreeva · 4 months
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Sorry about the color mix up. I appreciate the reply and additional info! I guess bc I know nothing about peafowl (and the fact i dont breed any type of animal), I'm having a hard time understanding how being sterile would be unethical. I do somewhat get the shortened life span. I really would like to understand this, I just sometimes need stuff explained like I'm 5.
Up front, there's no "somewhat get" to a shortened lifespan being caused by a mutation in captive populations. If an animal is capable of living 20+ years (and some live 30+ or even 40+!) and some non-essential mutation is causing them to live 7-9 years, it's flat out absolutely unethical to breed that mutation, full stop, regardless of anything else going on. That's indicative of a MAJOR problem in their genetics. There's NO ethical reason to breed that because humans like how it looks. So, even without the sterility, these birds would 100% be unethical to produce.
The short answer on sterility is this: we don't know WHY they are sterile, but they shouldn't be, and that means something has gone wrong. When something goes wrong with an animal, and it's something genetic that can be passed on, the ONLY responsible and ethical thing for a breeder to do is to stop using that animal for breeding and closely monitor any already-produced offspring for signs of the problem, and likely not breed them, either.
The longer more complicated answer is this: sometimes it's possible to separate the problem from the aesthetic when it comes to morphs, like it was for cameo + blindness, but sometimes it's NOT, like it wasn't for spider + head wobble for ball pythons. In those instances, it's... difficult. Because you're LIKELY going to produce animals that suffer the same problem as their parent(s), in the attempt to separate the problem from the aesthetic, and sometimes that's ALL you're going to produce. As a breeder, it's your absolute responsibility to NOT release the offspring into the general population, where the problem may be replicated without control, and to keep or cull the affected individuals if the problem cannot be separated from the aesthetic, or AT BEST find them guaranteed pet-only homes that will NEVER breed them.
Sometimes the problem IS purely aesthetic or harmless, like it was for pied in peafowl, and sometimes it's not, like it was for vitiligo in peafowl. The problem comes when you ASSUME a mutation is the first, and treat it like the first when it's really the second. This has caused FAR reaching consequences in the peafowl community, and I'm sure in others, where now the autoimmune disease that first bronze had has been passed into genpop by folks who thought they were breeding a harmless new variation of pied. Hybrid animals are often sterile (not in peafowl though, hybrid cristatus-muticus birds are fertile) because of a mismatch in chromosome pairing numbers, and often that's harmless. So, in some cases sterility is not an issue because it's the expected result or is otherwise harmless... but in the case of peafowl, it's NOT an expected result and we don't know if it's caused by something harmless or not.
Some species, like mice and horses and cattle and dogs, genetic testing and DNA mapping done with millions of dollars has proven that while some stuff isn't purely aesthetic, it also doesn't cause harm to the animal in a way that affects quality of life or that can be adapted for in captive care. For example, in chickens, the frizzle gene causes curled feathers in single copy and an absence of feathers in double copy. This gene is considered ethical to produce IF the breeding is done responsibly by putting a single copy bird over a zero copy bird, which produces smooth coats and frizzle coats, but it is unethical to produce double frizzles (called "frazzles") because frazzles cannot thermoregulate, can easily sunburn, and easily suffer skin injury during normal chicken activity.
For peafowl, we have NO genetic testing. We do not have the genome mapped. As far as I know there's a research group working on it (mostly for green peafowl though, in conservation efforts), but that's not remotely finished or available to the public to test anything. We don't know where any of the morph mutations sit, or what is causing them or if they do anything beyond just change the color. Sometimes color mutations are the result of malfunctions in enzymes. For charcoal specifically, we don't know what the mutation does, besides what we can observe on the outside- the birds have half or less the lifespan of normal birds, poor feather quality, and the hens are sterile. Is the sterility harmless like it is in some hybrid animals, or is it actually a major organ failing? Is it the only major organ that fails due to this mutation, or is it just the first sign of their shortened lives? Is it some deficiency in something the birds need to be healthy? Does it hurt the bird? We don't know, but we do know the mutation and the problems (multiple, please do NOT forget that this is one OF MORE THAN ONE problems) can't be separated, and so until we do know why and whether it's harmless or not, the ONLY ethical response to seeing a problem in a major organ's function linked inextricably to a mutation in color is to not propagate that mutation. If someone wanted to fork over the millions it takes to sequence and map genomes and then determine exactly what is going on with peafowl, that would be nice and good, but I don't see that happening. When I win the lottery big, I'll be doing it, but til then we can only follow normal breeding guidelines
Also, to put this into perspective... peafowl mature sexually around 3 years old. They are chicks until the turn of the new year following their hatch. They are yearlings that year, and immature 2yo next year. They aren't actually considered fully grown until 6 years old, and should live another 14+ years. Charcoal birds die a 1-3 years after full maturity. Is it a coincidence that they fail to thrive shortly after full sexual maturity, or is it linked? Again, we don't know. We don't know if the sterility is fine or if it's just a symptom of something worse.
Even without the sterility, though, charcoal has enough issues it would be unethical. If it was JUST sterility, with no other deleterious effects, then maybe it would be different. But it's not.
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crowsyart · 2 years
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Honestly don’t know much about these guys cause I haven’t read the manga or seen soul eater not and don’t exactly. Plan on either but
Also apparently Kim’s a witch and a tanuki one but I designed this before that so. I’ll figure out how the full animal transformation witch thing works later. I’m thinking insect based or something. Or I might just ignore it we’ll see.
Also hiro is there I guess
#with hiro he’s like that textpost about the elf from lord of the rings where they’re like he’s buttfuck ugly for an elf#yeah that’s hiro. he’s a pretty boy to other species but for lions he’s kinda. ugly as hell becuase of his lack of muscle mass and tiny mane#also he curls his whiskers#kilik has a lot of fire and lightning based patterns in his stripes#also he kinda smells like ozone/something burning#his tail is usually puffed up but it’s for debate as to whether he thinks it makes him look cool or it’s just static electricity#him and black star are kinda buddies and he has a bit of a crush on him#w Kim I’m sticking with the iguana because it’s just more fun to me#her frill or spines or whatever you wanna call them are flipped over to style like hair#she plans to get them pierced when she’s older#she’s really into the whole witch asthetic (as a meister of course not like she’s a witch or anything. haha) and chose her weapon#based on that#Jackie based her knowledge of resonance and partnerships purely on book learning and planned to pair with another of her species but#she saw Kim and was like. okay. that one. despite all the rumors of her being kind of an ass#(might’ve been a little crush) but she justified it to herself by saying birds and reptiles have the same ancestor#they have a humidifier in their room and kim leaves her shed everywhere#Jackie’s been picking up ‘how to bond with reptile’ books at the library and hiding them under her bed like it’s dirty magazines or somethin#in the future if they continue to be partners when they resonate Kim is able to actually ‘breathe’ fire essentially through her resonance#Jackie’s a good choice too cause she’s pretty warm so. helps when you’re cold blooded#ox is a pig because they’re very smart animals. and he’s bald#harvar doesn’t really talk much and is very sort of. careful#because of his incredibly large claws he needs to use specialized stuff for writing and whatnot#he can clip them but there’s only so much you can do that#and it feels weird#kilik rung#soul eater au#soul eater#beastars au#anthro au#kim diehl
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obsessivevoidkitten · 7 months
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Getting Thrashed
Female Alpha Yandere x Male Omega Reader (CW: Noncon/dubcon, heat cycles, scent kink, pheromones, non-traditional a/b/o dynamics, NO mpreg, enslaved reader, conquered society, general yandere behavior, teasing, biting, claiming, space pirates) Word Count: 3.4k (WOW, sorry that took so long. I started off writing fast because I loved the idea then lost motivation halfway through. Hope you guys enjoy the second female yandere fic I have written and the first one I have written with smut. Also first fic I have written where the reader penetrates the yandere.)
Your day on the space colony of Nithyal started out like any other. You diligently did your assigned work of farming a wide array of essential foods for the colony.
It was pretty vigorous manual labor, but you didn't mind. You rather enjoyed the scent of fresh soil and ripe fruits.
And you were fairly compensated. Everyone was in Nithyal. After all, the colony was on the planet Solstan. And it wasn't called a paradise world for nothing. The weather was agreeable, there were few dangerous animals, and everyone lived harmoniously. No homelessness, no corruption, no hunger, no violence. You were very grateful to live in such a place.
Especially since you were an omega.
Many generations ago, human fertility was greatly diminishing. In a bid to save the species, there were numerous fertility experiments.
One of the most extreme experiments that altered human DNA and psychology the most resulted in two new variants of humans: Alphas and Omegas.
They were both given extreme fertility, but what good is being fertile if you just end up with a barren partner?
So they were both given heightened olfactory senses, with omegas being given genes to produce pheromones that alphas were attracted to and vice versa.
They were also capable of quickly forming intense bonds with their romantic/sexual interests.
But the biggest difference from unaltered humans was that alphas entered ruts and omegas had heats. These periods of ultra high libido were to make sure they were compelled to procreate.
The gene editing was not without unintended consequences.
Alphas tended to be larger, stronger, and more aggressive than normal people, and omegas had a tendency to be smaller and a bit more submissive.
Alphas also tended to be possessive and jealous, even going so far as almost always needing to mark their mate with a permanent bite.
These behavioral concerns lead to the discontinuation of the program. Specifically, concerns about omegas maintaining their agency when faced with such forceful alphas that could easily sniff them out.
Human fertility was restored through more refined gene editing later, with suppressants being developed for the humans already altered and their descendants so they could mask themselves.
Heats and ruts were only partly suppressed, though and it wasn't too hard for someone to discover who was an omega when their life was put on hold in a predictable pattern once every few months.
It wasn't ideal, since most people hated such altered humans.
But Nithyal was different. Everyone just cared about each other and didn't bother with any judgement.
There was no better place in the galaxy.
That was... until the dark day that a pirate fleet came from the deepest reaches of known space to upend everything.
They were called The Eternal Eclipse. And they certainly eclipsed any joy you found in Nithyal.
Your people tried to mount a defense, fighting bravely with the few ships and ground to air weapons that were available, but given their numbers there was no chance of victory.
Your colony was pretty isolated from the rest of civilization so once conquered there was little chance of liberation.
They quickly killed or at least maimed anyone who tried to fight back or organize a rebellion.
The colonists had become little more than slaves.
Many continued the hard labors they had before, with more demand to support the new ruling population, others were forced into personal servitude for the higher up pirates, and a decent chunk of the population became personal fuck toys.
At first, when the pirates had gathered up all of the colonists to assign them their fates, you were mercifully going to continue the work that you had already been doing.
But unfortunately you somehow caught the eye of Thrash and for some reason she had taken a liking to you. So instead of cultivating plants, you were forced to be by her side all day as a simple servant. This probably wouldn’t have been too bad if the violent leader didn’t happen to be, against all odds, an alpha.
You had never met one before but you could tell right away. Her scent, her attitude, the fact that she was larger and stronger than most adult men. She had hair like fire and an energy and attitude to match.
At first you were worried that she had pegged you for an omega, but she gave no indication that she knew. You were in constant fear that your omega nature would be discovered. It wasn't unheard of for omegas to be brutally raped, sold to far off black markets, or even just outright killed. Surely if she had known you wouldn’t just be a personal slave.
It seemed that your suppressants were enough to completely hide yourself from her, and you had a huge supply of them. Though you knew for a fact that once your heat started, your pheromones would poke through. And you’d also be rather horny. Maybe you could feign illness and cover yourself in perfume?
That was probably your best bet. Though you hoped no one would notice that you got ill like clockwork. Luckily you still had plenty of time until your next heat.
Working for Thrash wasn’t too physically demanding, you just had to clean up after her, prepare meals, and do little odd tasks like deliver a note or something to one of her subordinates. You actually got a lot of down time between tasks… though you always had to stay nearby in case Thrash needed something.
The overworked farmers would have surely enjoyed such a relatively cushy work detail, but it was absolute hell for you. It was like walking on eggshells, just waiting for the other shoe to drop.
Thrash hadn’t treated you poorly, never hit you. But you had no idea how an omega would be treated.
It was especially scary when she decided to tease you, just because she enjoyed watching you squirm.
When she licked your neck in the cafeteria in front of all her dining pirate crew she cackled at how your face turned red and you got as still as a statue as your brain shut down. You were terrified that she could smell or even taste the omega on your skin.
Thrash didn’t really know why but something in her made her love flustering you. She just couldn’t help it. She had always enjoyed making men uncomfortable or putting them in their place, but you were a bit different. It wasn’t like it was with her male pirate colleagues, where she strove to be the best and made them obey her. No, this was different, seeing your face turn red made her hungry for more.
One night she dismissed you with a smack on the ass and let you go to bed while she stayed up drinking with her best buddies. You felt humiliated and rushed off to your room, which was one that was in the house she had claimed for herself in case she needed you for something she wanted you close by. You were really like a live-in maid.
You tidied up a few things before washing up and going to bed, still embarrassed about having your butt touched in public. Despite that you managed to go to sleep pretty quickly.
Though a few hours later a very drunk Thrash comes stumbling in drunk. You wake up with a jolt and nearly jump out of your bed as a strong arm wraps around your waste and firmly pulls you close.
“Mmm where ya goin cutie? Ya need to stay close to yer alpha!”
She lightly grinded into you for a moment, her crotch against your ass before stopping and nuzzling into your neck.
“Thr-Thrash… uh… I think you accident-”
She shushed you by licking your neck and nibbling a bit. You went still as stone. If she broke the skin the special enzymes in her alpha saliva would cause you to have a permanent mark. Fortunately that didn’t happen, instead remaining content with sloppy kisses, sucking, and gentle nibbling.
You couldn’t help but let out a series of little whimpering moans at the sensation. You also became aware of just how nice she smelled. So dominant. Kinda… safe…
She chuckled at your noises.
“Haha, you’re practically a tiny defenseless omega!”
That made you shake the thoughts and distractions from your mind. This woman was not safe. She stole your home and turned you into a glorified slave. If she knew what you were she’d sell you to the highest bidder!
Luckily after that comment she had passed out in a drunken stupor.
You managed to extricate yourself from her grasp before scrambling to get to the restroom. You had to double check to make sure that the bites that Thrash had so kindly applied to your neck had not broken the skin, luckily they hadn’t.
But you still looked absolutely horrible. Your neck was covered in little hickeys, your hair was a mess, and you were so shaky from the rude awakening that you could barely stand.
Something about looking so debauched made your cock hard. Maybe it was because you had her alpha stink all over you or maybe it was something to do with the bites all over your neck. Maybe it was just because you weren’t used to the attention.
It didn’t matter why the result was the same, you had to do something about this almost painful arousal. And the scent that clung to you.
As you got in the shower you gave your cock the attention it was demanding, thinking filthy and shameful thoughts about Thrash. You tried to pleasure yourself to other thoughts but your mind kept drifting back to the oppressor of your people and the way she smelled as she bit and drooled all over your neck.
You couldn’t spill until you imagined her leaving a permanent claiming bite on your neck.
After your shower you felt dirtier than you had before you got in. You reminded yourself that you hated Thrash and that she and her crew had done to upend the lives of you and your people. It wasn’t your fault she made you aroused. What omega wouldn’t have been after that?
After you got dressed and left the bathroom you wrapped your spare blanket around you and slept in the chair in the corner of the room, you would have rather not been in the same room as the drunk alpha, but you had nowhere else you could go.
When Thrash woke up she found you sleeping soundly in the room and it took her a moment to realize she wasn’t in her room. She must have kicked you out of your bed. She did feel kinda bad about it, but she figured you would live. She was the one with the massive headache.
She went back to her quarters, leaving you to sleep a bit longer.
When you woke up you found her, thankfully gone, you wrapped a scarf around yourself to hide your neck, the weather was cool lately so no one should give a second thought to you wearing one. Then you left to start your day of servitude as you did everyday.
Unfortunately for you, you had to accompany her as she went on one of the landed ships to see what the problem was with it since she had originally been a mechanic and engineer. It was very hot in the engine room.
“How are you wearing that scarf? It’s so hot in here.” The heat wasn’t the only problem you were dealing with, she was sweating and only wearing a tank top, allowing her musk to practically smother you.
It didn’t really take all that long for you to get more than a bit dizzy and flustered. And once you were, it took even less time for Thrash to notice, she often kept an overprotective eye on you, though you had rarely noticed.
She came stomping over and looked down at you.
“I told you it was too hot for that! You’re gonna get sick dumbass! Take it off and let’s go outside for some fresh air.”
You fidgeted under her gaze and mumbled that you were okay.
When you didn’t take it off immediately she growled, jerked you over to her, and yanked it off of you.
She stared wide-eyed at your neck, not remembering having put the marks there herself the night before. And she was fucking livid.
“When the fuck did you hook up with someone, you fucking slut!? You belong to ME and I didn’t give you any permission for that shit!”
The enraged alpha slapped you hard across the cheek, making you yelp and stumble to the ground. You were sobbing and could scarcely manage to croak any words out.
“I-i d-d-didn’t l-let anyone d-do-”
Had one of her men defiled you against your will? Defiled HER slave?
“Tell me who did it!! I’ll cut their dick off and shove it up their own ass!”
Her eyes were like a cats, narrow slits. Your naturally submissive instincts told you to put your head down and obey anything the near feral alpha might demand of you.
“Y-you were dr-dr-drunk and b-bit me last night…”
Tears were leaking down your face. If you had not been on suppressants your scent would surely be one of fear mixed with pheromones to calm down this beast.
That’s right, she had woken up with a bad hangover in your room...
Thrash stared at you, at this tiny crying man in front of her, crying and terrified. She felt awful, and she didn’t often feel bad about her actions. She was a pirate, but for some reason she just didn’t like seeing you suffer at all. Certainly not because of her.
“Fuck… I’m… sorry…” She managed to say as she knelt down and rubbed your back.
“I really have no memory of last night...”
The large powerful woman picked you up easily, with your head nuzzled into her neck, crying into her.
“C’mon crybaby, let’s get you cooled off, I’ll deal with this engine later~”
She carried you carefully back to your room in the housing building, collecting odd looks as she did, which she quickly got rid of with a glare each time.
Thrash placed you into your bed and felt your head with the back of her hand. Despite not having the scarf, having been exposed to the cool outside air on the way over here, and now being in an air conditioned room you were hotter than ever.
Your mind was getting foggier and when she left to go get a cool rag and some medicine from the bathroom you finally realized why you were so hot. You were entering heat. The neck stimulation and all of Thrash’s dominant behavior over you must have somehow triggered an early one.
You had to leave before she came back and smelled it. It would only be a matter of moments before the smell broke through your suppressants.
Something in your brain was telling you to just stay there and let your alpha come back and take care of you, but the other much more grounded in reality part of your brain was telling you you had to hide in a utility closet somewhere and deal with the consequences of your absenteeism later. Better than being sold off or raped by every pirate who wants to try out an omega.
Right then you really wished suppressants just completely eliminated heats completely instead of just diluting them a bit.
Right after you had that thought Thrash entered the room and saw you standing by the door, you saw her hand had a bottle of pills. Though her search in your medicine cabinet yielded no fever reducers she found something else hidden away under your sink. Your suppressants.
And then your scent hit her. It was dulled by your medication, but she was an alpha unused to omega pheromones in any capacity.
She growled low and her pupils were like slits as her stare bored into you angrily.
“You’re MY property! And you’re keeping secrets from ME!?”
Before you could stumble out the door she charged at you, picked you up and slammed you down on the bed a bit harder than she had intended. You looked away, unable to meet her domineering and angry gaze. Your only response was to instinctively whimper in submission to placate her rage.
Thrash sniffed you, inhaling your scent from your underarm to your neck. You leaned your head over to give her easier access and show that you submitted to her will. You were terrified and she could certainly smell it.
Some of her drool dripped onto your neck as she hovered above it, licking you tentatively to calm you down. She was going to bite you and make you into her personal fuck toy and mate, she was mad that you had hidden your nature from her, but she would never hurt you.
Thrash sucked and nibbled at the gland in your neck, with you gracing her ears with a new whimpering gasp or moan each time she touched the sensitive spot.
Your terror evaporated quickly, replaced by heat fueled desire. And if you were honest with yourself maybe not all of the yearning was born from your heat.
The lust filled alpha couldn’t help but inhale your scent over and over, it was literally a drug for her. She had already wanted to fuck you into oblivion even before she got a whiff of you in heat, but now there was no stopping herself. Already she couldn’t wait to drink in your smell during your next heat when your suppressants were out of your system.
She made a mental note to flush them after this.
The pirate rubbed your crotch, palming at your erection, getting you even more aroused before she bit your neck. Hard. Her fangs pumping into you something that would make you smell claimed to any other alphas and leaving a large permanent hickey on that portion of your neck.
You moaned out loud in painful pleasure, arching your back and thrusting your clothed arousal into her hand.
Thrash licked your bleeding wound and then turned her attention to your cock and her own pleasure.
You could only stare and writhe in need as she pulled away from you and took off her clothes.
“Gimme a second, I just need to get our clothes off!”
It was the first time you had seen her breasts. You were in awe of this figure above you. So strong and assertive. So beautiful. A perfect partner.
To her you were the beautiful one. So sweet and pretty and perfect put in your place below her.
She practically ripped your clothing off and buried herself back in your neck as she brought herself down on you, enveloping your entire length in the warmth of her cunt. Her hands pushed down your shoulders as she rode you.
Your pleasured moans mixed with her grunts and growls as she fucked you until you saw stars. Your first orgasm was really quick, and was not nearly enough for either of you. Another perk of heats, insatiable libido.
With each of her downward movements you thrust upwards, desperate to get as deep as possible, the scent of her aroused pheromones combined with your heat making you absolutely unable to care about anything else.
You didn’t care that she had conquered your people or that she controlled them. In this state it only made her stronger in your eyes. A more suitable mate. You wanted to fill her up with so many babies.
The sex lasted hours, until the both of you were too sore to keep moving. It finally ended with you clinging to her and using her tits as a pillow with her arm wrapped around your protectively.
When the fog of pheromones and heat left your brain you were horrified by what had happened. But if you weren’t owned by her before, the new mark on your neck meant you certainly were now, and she would never let you go.
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dailyadventureprompts · 3 months
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Monsters Reimagined: Yeenoghu, Demon Lord of Insatiable Hunger
It's been some years since I did my overhaul on the lore of the gnolls and how they embody the weird de/humanization that goes on with various monsters over d&d's history. Ever since I've had more than a few folks write in asking about how I would handle the default Gnoll God Yeenoghu, who exists in a similar state of "Kill everything that ever existed" to Orcus and a good portion of the game's other late game threats, thematically flat and not really useful for building stories around.
For a while I've avoided doing this post because I thought it might skew a little too close to my personal philosophy, and risk going from simply being influenced by my views to an outright soapbox. I personally hold that despite being part of our nature hunger is the source of the majority of human cruelty, and if society and cooperation are the tools we developed to best fight against the threat of famine, it is fear of that famine that allows the powerful to control society and secure their positions of privilege.
I've also dealt with disordered eating in a prior period of my life, alternating between neglecting my body's needs and punishing myself for needing in the first place. I'm well acquainted with hunger and the hollowing effect it can have, though I'd never claim to know it so well as someone who went hungry by anything other than choice and self hatred.
Learning to love food again saved saved my life. The joy of eating, of feeling whole and nourished, yes, but there was also the joy of making: of experimenting, improving, providing, being connected to a great tradition of cultivation which has guided our entire species.
If I was going to talk about an evil god of hunger, I was going to have to touch on all of that, and now that it's out in the open I can continue with a more thematic and narrative discussion on the beast of butchery below the cut.
What's wrong: Going by the default lore, there's not much that really separates Yeenoghu from any other chaotic evil mega-boss. He wants to kill everything in vicious ways, and encourages his followers to do the same. He's there so that the evil clerics can have someone to pray to because the objectively good gods are on the party's side and wouldn't help a bunch of cannibalistic slavers.
This is boring, we've done this song and dance before, and the only reason that there are so many demon lords/evil gods/archdevils like this is because the bioessentialism baked into the older editions of the game's lore was also a theological essentialism, and that every group had to have their own gods which perfectly embodied their ethos and there was no crossover whatsoever, themes be damned.
Normally I'd do a whole section about "what can be salvaged" from an old concept, but we're scraping the bottom of the barrel right from the inset. Likewise my trick of combining multiple bits of underwritten d&d mythology to make a sturdier concept isn't going to work as most of d&d's other gods of hunger or famine are similar levels of paper thin.
How do we fix it: I want Yeenoghu to be the opposite of the path I found myself on, a hunger so great and so painful that it percludes happiness, cooperation, or even rational thought. Hunger not as a sumptuous hedonistic gluttony but a hollowing emptiness that compels violence and desperation. More than just psychopathic slaughter and gore, it is becalmed sailors drinking seawater to quench their thirst, the urban poor mixing sawdust and plaster into their food because their wages are not enough to afford grain.
This is where we get the idea of Yeenoghu as an enemy of society, not because violence is antithical to society ( I think we've learned by now how structured violence can really be) but because society fundamentally breaks down when it can't take care of the people who provide its foundations. Contrast the Beast of Butchery with one of my other favourite villainous famine spirits: Caracalla the grim trader, who embodies scarcity as a form of profit and control in to Yeenoghu's scarcity as suffering.
Into this we can also add the idea of the hungry dead, ghouls yes but also vampires, anything cursed with an eternal existence and appetites it no longer has the ability to sate. A large number of cultures across the world share the idea that the dead cannot rest while they are starving, which is why we leave offerings of food by their graves or pour out a glass to the ones we lost along the way.
On that topic, there's also a scrap of lore involving Doresain god of ghouls, who has been depicted as an on and off servant of Yeenoghu. Since I'm already remaking the mythology, I'd have Doresain act as a sort of saint or herald for the demon lord, the wicked but still partially reasonable entity who can villain monolog before the feral and all consuming demon god shows up.
Summing it all up: Yeenoghu isn't a demon you wittingly worship, it's a demon that claims you, marks you as its mouthpiece and through you seeks to consume more of the world. It gives you just enough strength to keep on living, keep on suffering, keep on filling that hole in your belly and feed it in turn.
The greatest of these mouthpieces is Doresain, an elf of ancient times who's unearthly hungers elevated him to demigod status. Known as the knawbone king, he dwells within a dread domain of the shadowfell, and is sought out only for his ability to intercede with the maw-fiend's rampages.
Signs: Unnaturally persistent hunger pangs, excessive drool and gurgling stomach noises, the growth of extra teeth in the mouth, stomachs splitting open into mouths.
Symbols: An animal with three jaws, a three tailed flail or spiked whip. A crown of knawed bones (Doresain)
Titles: Beast of butchery, the maw fiend, the knawing god
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drizztdohurtin · 1 month
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BG3 Tiefling Headcanons
PLEASE note: sections 01 and 03 are headcanons made by the rest of the community that I essentially "subscribe to" and include in my personal lore of the game, so to speak, AND my writing! sections 02 and 04 are the ones that I came up with <3 and, of course, if you particularly enjoy any of them, feel free to use them!
MDNI
any topics in the community HCs that are bold are things that I elaborate on in other sections of the post
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SFW
Section 01. Community HCs:
For the tails: I definitely agree that the middle-most section of the tail is the most acceptable place to touch, like family and friends might pull on it or something
I also love the idea that tiefling partners intertwine their tails!! if a tiefling is with a non-tielfing, they might wrap their tail around other parts of their body idly
love that the base of the tail is completely off-limits to everyone except romantic partners, and that it is quite sensitive around that area
However, I do have a disagreement with a popular tip-of-the-tail hc (see section 02)
The last thing about tails is that they communicate body language!! and I'm sure many of you have seen the comics about this, and I would definitely agree that both consciously and subconsciously, tieflings use their tails to express their feelings
Horns: I completely subscribe to the idea that the skin around the base of the horns is sensitive, but not the rest of the horns (see section 02)
I ADORE the idea that tieflings can pur!! I haven't seen many opinions on this hc, so I will give my opinions in section 02
I have seen a few people comment about this but no specific headcanons for it, so I will include it here: tieflings have a higher body temperature than other humanoid races! (see sections 02 and 04)
Section 02. My HCs:
first things first, I made an entire tieflings purring post because I couldn't fit all of my hcs for that on here.. and let's face it, it deserves its own post
the popular tip of the tail hc that I disagree with (respectfully!!) is that the tips of their tails are sensitive. this ties into why the rest of the horns aren't sensitive - the purpose of features like horns and tails with sharp or blunt ends is for combat/defense. when a body part is used for defense or for making attacks, it wouldn't make sense for that part of the body to have a bunch of nerve endings!
I'm not saying that I think tieflings actually use their horns or tails to fight, but just stating that that's what those features are anatomically meant for, so it's unlikely they'd have much feeling in their horns and the end of their tail
their elevated body temperature is just another one of their infernal traits. I think it's noticeably higher than other humanoids, similar to if you touched the back of your hand to someone with a high fever, but it's their entire body
they don't need as much clothing in the cold weather because of this, and they are very comfortable for other humanoid species to cuddle with <3 (and other things.... lets go section 04!!)
this very well could be something that others have brought up before but if not, I believe tiefling babies would be born without horns and their horns would come in during the teething process - and it would be equally uncomfortable as, if not more than, teething
to add onto that, the horns they grow as babies only continue to grow throughout their life, they never "fall out" or get replaced, so it's a very big deal if a tiefling breaks a horn (on top of how bad it would hurt)
they are to smell hormonal changes, only in their partners - and this is true even if a tiefling is dating a person of another race
TECHNICALLY pheromones as we know them are only detectable within one species, but this is my house and I say fuck it, they can smell changes in their partner no matter their race
if a tiefling's partner was about to start their period, or was about to ovulate, their brain would just kind of know
it would take a little while into the relationship for their body to fully be able to identify each smell, but it would happen gradually the more time they spend together
with that being said, however, they wouldn't magically know if their partner was pregnant unless their partner has been pregnant before then yes they would remember the scent
if it was their first pregnancy, they'd just register that they had a new smell, but wouldn't instinctively know why
my last one is really out of nowhere but tieflings don't get body odor 👍 they still have a natrual scent and they still sweat, they just don't get stinky like the rest of us
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NSFW
Section 03. Community HCs
let's talk about cocks: RIDGES !!!!!!!!!!! (section 04)
big fan of the infernal markings on their dicks
this is something I've seen only a few times in my days as a tiefling smut connoisseur, but the idea of their dicks being shaped a little different compared to other races like elves or humans (I haven't seen much overlap/agreement about this so I'll give my opinion on shape in section 04)
100% agree that the base of the tail would be an erogenous zone, as well as the skin at the base of the horns
I've seen a few honorable mentions of the "mating bite" used in tiefling smut, and I'm here to say: what a great idea (section 04)
the mating bite isn't just a little nip, btw, it's a full-on clamping down on their partner kind of moment... might draw blood if you want it to hehe
Section 04. My HCs
a quick thing about the dick ridges: they are only visible when erect, and the harder they are the more prominent the ridges
their dicks are very commonly curved upwards and the shaft is, on average, thicker, and the tip is pointier than elven/human penises
on to my FAVORITE, possibly the best thought I've ever had: tiefling cum is hot
it's not hot enough to burn you by any means, but because their body temps are already raised, it's gonna be very noticeable for non-tieflings
the heat of their cum would probably be a very satisfying, pleasurable sensation for non-tiefling partners of a male tiefling
but aside from that, imagine the possibilities for those of us who have painful menstrual cramping, I see a lot of potential here y'all ☝☝☝
Since this is my house and I can say whatever I want, I also think that they don't go soft as quickly as the other races, and have shorter refractory periods
and just because I said so, they also ejaculate in larger quantities, which means their orgasms last longer
okay the "mating bite"..... my take on it is that it's used as a dominance thing, rather than an actual mating bite - keeping same-sex couples in mind
whoever is more dominant in that particular moment, or maybe in general, no matter the sex of either participants, may take some of their partner's skin between their teeth and bite down
the more intense the sex is, the harder the bite will be
my favorite time for this is when one or both of them is about to cum <33333
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Masterlist
Thank you FOR READING <33333 I hope you all enjoy this as much as the purring headcanons
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basichextechml · 1 year
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Wet Braids and Ribbon Ties
Wednesday Addams/Fem!Reader
Rating: Teen // 2.4K Words // No pronouns used for reader, but implied Fem, Soft as hell, Teen for graphic jokes and it being somewhat suggestive at the end, Wednesday being someone emotionally vulnerable, Makeout sesh 
A storm brings you closer to Wednesday than you’d ever thought it could.
---
     Pattern recognition was a necessary trait of human evolution, and essential for the continued survival of any species. Those that came before you had used it to scavenge food, tame animals, create languages, and form communities. Sure, you were still doing these things, but it was less urgent, society collectively pushing past those base instincts to refine such senses. Vaguely, you wondered if your ancestors would be a bit disappointed that your brain’s neocortex was being used to psych yourself out over the sight of braids. While they were trying to figure out what berries and fruits wouldn’t kill them, you were worrying about Wednesday Addams and her twin braids that seemed to haunt you. Though, you guess it wasn’t their fault that you had pavlov'd yourself into associating the hairstyle with pretty brown eyes and a penchant to make your heart race.
     It was all made much worse by the storm that had been rapidly approaching Nevermore. Again, ancestors fighting for their lives in the elements- while you were fighting for your life at the sight of Wednesday with water droplets clinging to her lashes.
     Wednesday’s investigation into the murders around the town had all but halted, all her leads running dry. The Sheriff wasn’t responding to her evidence, and Xavier hadn’t made any moves- but she still felt a pull in her chest, like something was missing. She had requested (demanded) that you follow her to the Gates mansion to poke around once more. Enid had vehemently rejected both of your requests to follow.
     “What time are we going then?” You ask, leaning against her bed frame as you watch her fill up a bag with flashlights, rope, and a first aid kit.
     She zips the bag shut in finality, “Tomorrow night, after curfew. We’ll have to walk, so wear a jacket.” It seems she never got over the time you wore a tank top in 45-degree weather and you kept putting your freezing hands on the back of her neck.
     “Isn’t there a storm coming, though?” She raises an eyebrow as if asking ‘so?’, “We don’t know how structurally sound that place is, what if it floods?”
     Wednesday lets out a quiet huff, lips pursed in a thin line, contemplating your words. Finally, she concedes. “You’re right, be ready to leave at 4. I’ll meet you in front of your dorm.”
     Okay, yeah that seemed more reasonable-
     “4? Like four in the morning?” You questioned incredulously, arms crossed in front of your chest.
     There was a ghost of a smile at your confusion, an inherent pride to it. “I thought you wanted to beat the rain?”
     While Wednesday had pavlov'd herself into being associated with the debilitating symptoms of falling in love, you also came to associate the girl and her long, dark braids with the troubling feeling of everything going wrong at once.
---
     Stupid Pavlov. Stupid neocortex. Stupid pattern-seeking brain.
     Due to years of evolution, you were now trudging through cold sheets of rain in a forest with the girl you liked looking for clues on a murder investigation at 4:48 in the morning. Your boots making contact with the mud made terrible squelching noises as you both slowly made your way back to Nevermore, the only sound between you being that of twigs snapping beneath your weight.
     This endeavor had resulted in nothing, it was a long shot if Wednesday was being honest. She had already found the evidence once in the basement, and it had been moved when she came back. Why would the perpetrator come back to the home? She had no clue- but she had nothing else to go on, and was feeling a bit -to her disgrace- defeated. While she was in the middle of looking around the basement for the umpteenth time, the storm predicted on the forecast came early, The house, just as you had predicted, began flooding, cutting her even deeper.
     Now, with no fruits born of her labor, and your cold hand in hers guiding her through the dawn of a new day; you were slowly and surely going home.
     As the lights of Nevermore Academy shone through the thicket of the forest, you both continued on your leisurely pace, despite the pouring rain. You both were already wet, running would do you no good now. Despite the shiver that ran down your spine at the nipping cold, you were fine with staying outside a little longer.
     “I’m sorry,” Wednesday said suddenly. The apology nearly made you stop in your tracks, looking at her in disbelief. Never had Wednesday apologized to you- for anything.
     The look on your face, as if you weren’t trusting the words she was saying, snapped at the strings of Wednesday’s heart. Enid’s words come back to haunt her, tearing into her about her inconsiderate nature. She’s sure you’d been made to feel that way as well. It was confusing. She should feel overjoyed at the misery of others. But seeing you by her side, being soaked head to toe by the rain, chilled to the bone? She was just as miserable as you.
     “I’m sorry.” She reiterates, knowing fully that you heard her the first time.
     “You don’t have to apologize-”
     “I do.” The words are biting, and that does stop you in your tracks, inadvertently stopping her as well. Wiping the rain from your eyes, you look down at your interconnected hands. This was the longest you had ever touched her. The longest she’d ever let you touch her. “I have been… Selfish, as of late. And for that, I apologize. I am single-minded, I put you in danger, and I…”
     You watch with a hitched breath as she avoids eye contact. This is difficult for her. Her shoulders are rigid, her mouth tense, and her hands twitching. The rain pelts down on you both, and you suddenly feel like you’re the main characters in a film.
     “I believe I’ve hurt you, so I’m sorry.”
     She looks terribly beautiful, hair sticking to her face in waves, her lips, and her nose the brightest red you’ve seen on her, doe eyes big with her eyeliner running from the rain. You simply squeeze her hand thrice. As unhealthy as it may sound, you had already forgiven her for anything she had done long ago- and you’d continue to do so, as long as she kept dragging you around with her hand in yours.
     “Thank you, Wednesday. I accept your apology.” And, again, you mean it. Pulling her a bit closer, just so your shoulders knock together, you begin your journey once again. “Now come on, I think we should both get dry before we die horrible deaths from contracting pneumonia.”
     “I believe we have conflicting ideas on what constitutes a “horrible death”.”
     “I’m sure we do, Wednesday.”
     You both gingerly sneak through the door and through the foyer, tracking mud on the carpet up the stairs. Wednesday makes you stop once you get to the top, and take off your shoes so you don’t track the mud back to the dorms- so Principle Weems doesn’t suspect you two. Though, you think it’s a lost cause because you’re both the number one suspects for anything slightly off that happens.
     Your dorm is closer, and quietly, in the early morning embers, you usher Wednesday into your room, locking the dorm behind you.
     The single dorm you resided in was smaller than the rest, the space easily filled up by your belongings. But you wouldn’t be caught dead asking to switch, you liked having your privacy- a rarity at a boarding school.
     Wednesday is already making herself at home, leaving her shoes at the door and shrugging off her coat and scarf. “You can shower first.”
     “Are you sure?” You ask, doing the same. Wordlessly, she takes your own jacket from your hands, spreading it on the floor next to hers. The space heater you have for nights like these is already cranked on high.
     “Yes,” Wednesday confirms, sitting down in front of the machine, “I just need some time to think.”
     “Alright, I’ll be quick.”
     You’re true to your word, grabbing your pajamas and heading to the bathroom. The shower feels nice on your frigid skin, and you make sure everything is still organized for when it’s Wednesday’s turn. An extra towel is left on the sink once you’re done. She’s sitting in the exact spot you’d left her, the lines troubling her forehead just as prominent. You search through the black clothes in your closet, pulling out a pair of sweats and a matching sweater with some socks, and tapping her shoulder. “Your turn,” You mumble, presenting your offering.
     Her fingers linger on yours, the shadows and movements emphasized by the low lights in your room. The clothes are held away from her still-wet body, and she gets up, closing the bathroom door behind her. As you hear the shower start again, you put your towel on the floor, mopping up any water that had dripped off of her.
     This evening hadn’t gone as you thought it would’ve. It was like that morality test, if an oncoming train had its brakes cut, and you had to choose between crushing six people or one, what would you choose? You, of course, were all seven people- you would die either way. That made Wednesday the train, didn’t it?
     Before you knew it, the door to your bathroom opened again, Wednesday stepped out in your clothes, using the towel you’d given her to scrunch the water out of the ends of her hair.
     Your mouth felt dry like you were at the dentist getting a tooth pulled, and they had to suction all the saliva from it.
     “Do you have a brush?” She asked. Getting up from your spot on the floor, you flitted around your desk, grabbing the one you’d left next to your vanity mirror. Holding it for a moment, you contemplated your next words.
     “Could I do it?”
     Time stood still in your dorm, fingers nervously pushing over the prongs on your brush as you awaited a response.
     Wednesday felt warm. Swallowing her tongue and sitting down on your bed, cross-legged. “You may.”
     Her hair was long and thick, pitch black as the night sky, and softer than anything you’d felt before. She smells faintly of your shampoo, and you find yourself light-headed as you gingerly rake your fingers through the ends of her hair, ridding it of any tangles. Starting at the ends, you slowly brush through the damp hair, working your way up. It’s longer than you had initially thought, undone of its iconic braided style.
     Wednesday felt nearly naked with her hair unstyled and wet in your hands. The brush working against her scalp treated her so tenderly. As if you would rather walk through the fires of hell than yank against a strand of her head. She licked her lips, eyes suddenly watery. She had forgotten what tenderness had felt like these past few years. She believed she didn’t need it. Maybe she was wrong.
     Using your nail to part her hair in two, you push both sections over her shoulders, and the bed creaks as you get off to sit in front of her.
     The girl who avoided your gaze when apologizing earlier is gone, and instead wholly intent on looking at you as you finger comb through the section of hair on her left shoulder. Deftly, you split it into another three, even sections, slowly beginning to put together her signature braids. Wednesday watches as your lashes flutter while you concentrate, enamored with how you lick your lips and twitch your nose. You’re engrossed in her. Sitting here in your clothes, letting you do her hair, she must be equally captivated.
     You get to the end of the first braid before you notice an issue. “I don’t have a tie,” You announce, pouting.
     “I left them in the bathroom,” Wednesday says, already getting up. But you stop her.
     “Wait-” And you're leaning over to your desk, rummaging through the top drawer. Pulling out two strands of black ribbon, you’re back in your spot in front of her. She’d seen them in your hair before. Setting one down in your lap, nimble fingers keep her braid in place while the other positions the ribbon. Soon enough, she had a perfect little bow tying the braid together. You start immediately on the next one.
     Wednesday Addams has bows in her hair.
     Once you’re confident they’re even, you lean back, eyes immediately shooting up to her neglected bangs. Taking the forgotten brush, you lean in. Much closer than necessary for the task, but instead of pushing you away, she tries to see if she can feel your breath. Rounding off her bangs, you discard the brush for a final time, hands coming up to finger curl the longer ends, framing the hollow of her cheeks perfectly. Your hands settle on the curves of her jaw.
     Her pupils are blown wide, eyes narrowed dangerously, and you feel like a meek hare in front of a desert viper. You’re sure her venom would sting, and you’d be happy to let it flow through you.
     She lets her fangs sink into you, pulling you in until her lips connect with yours. Unlike her demeanor, she was soft against you, hands coming up to the nape of your neck to keep your lips flush against hers. The warmth of your sweater and your hands and your lips are too much and not enough, and when you finally pull away to catch your breath- cheeks hot and eyes lidded- she finds you irrevocably adorable. She understands why Anaconda kill and eat their mate. If you don’t stop looking at her like that, you’ll undoubtedly meet the same demise. Wednesday finds herself pushing you down, pillows cushioning your fall as you lazily bring her back into your embrace.
     As the clocks crawl forward, you both stay the same, warm and flush against one another. And as the clock strikes 8:30am, you’re both broken from your reverie.
     “Good Morning everyone,” Principle Weems sounds from the intercom, “Due to the storm, faculty has made the decision to cancel classes and extracurricular activities for the remainder of the week. If the storm lets up, this schedule is subject to change. Stay dry everybody!”
     A bit late for that.
     “We’ll be staying here.” Wednesday decides for you both, already pulling you back in. You kiss against her jaw in agreement, fingers pulling apart the bows in her hair.
---
Thank you so much for reading! If you enjoyed it, please consider reblogging, I'd really appreciate it! As always, my asks are always open to talk ^-^
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1CbNa8jneefleLKCK98HHC?si=1c7e5b671ae14e42
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vidavalor · 23 days
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Ok fine, I brought milk and chocolate chip cookies this time 🥛 🍪 and also some eggs from my lovely chickens! 🐓 🥚
I hope you accept this apology, and I’ll try my best to behave 😜
So, I wonder how you interpret 1.03 where, just before the flood, one of the unicorns makes a run for it and Crawley says ‘you still got one of them’? Some people seem to believe this means she didn’t understand the process of procreation (at the time). Do you have any thoughts on that?
Please don't behave. Why would you want to do that? Would make this all very boring lol. 😂 Thank you for the very fun ask. I love this question.💕
I think the scene you're talking about is more than a funny aside about whether or not Crowley had finished reading Demon's Guide to Reproduction of Beings on Earth yet... and that might not be the question the scene is really asking. I think it also has a ton to do with the Final Fifteen of 2.06, too, so *slices pie* let's get into the unicorns and the professional midwife/cobbler and what, imo, these two moments have to do with one another:
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In S1, in the scene set just before the beginning of The Flood, we have two questions emerge from Crowley's dialogue, both of which are then picked up again in S2. One is what Crowley meant by "kids" when he said "you can't kill kids" after looking at a group containing both small goats and children. The second question is the one you're talking about, which is whether or not he understood at the time how human reproduction works. The question is born out of the fact that, on the surface, he might appear to not exactly be grasping the concept of Noah's Ark when he says that Shem's "still got one of them" after one of the pair of unicorns takes off and doesn't get on the boat. Both things show back up together again in S2 in the Job minisode and that sort of continuation of story, in a way, might suggest that there's going to be a third layer to this that emerges in S3 as well. I think, though, that we might have enough to look at some potential answers already.
While the "kids" bit is, essentially, answered and was always more of a language joke anyway-- Crowley wishes to kill no kids, be them goats or humans-- the fact that this question returned in S2 and was tied once again with a plot centered around sex and reproduction shows that the questions raised in The Flood scene in S1 are interrelated and pretty important overall. The entire Job plot ultimately comes down to who knows what about human reproduction. Saving the kids comes down to fooling Gabriel and fooling Gabriel can only be done because Gabriel, at least at the time, did not have the first clue how human reproduction normally works. He had only seen this one, initial, very atypical version of it that has basically never happened since and because he didn't spend time on Earth at that point in the story, he didn't know he had it all wrong. This whole story is built around what someone's understanding of reproduction of another species is and it isn't Crowley who doesn't know how it all works by 2500 B.C., it's Gabriel. But what does this have to do with The Flood and Crowley and the unicorns?
In the Job minisode, we are told that Gabriel was in The Garden at the start of it and witnessed Eve's birth from Adam's rib. We find this hilarious because we know that this isn't how sex works and this time, in this scene, Crowley is more than in on the joke with us. What makes the scene funny is actually Crowley's knowledge in it of how human sex and reproduction work. Unlike Gabriel, he wasn't there for Eve's super-weird birth and so he's visibly trying not to be like what the actual fuck? this is how Eve was made? at Aziraphale as Aziraphale's gestures lead Crowley to telling Sitis to pull out one of Job's ribs-- absolutely not a feature of any sex Crowley has ever had or seen. Aziraphale then is flirting with a Crowley who totally gets the joke when Sitis pulls the ox ribs "out" of Job. It's very evident between this scene and the prior night in the cellar that, circa 2500 B.C. at least, Crowley absolutely knew how human sex and reproduction worked.
The key bit here to understanding what Crowley was saying about the unicorns back during The Flood is actually in the reminder in the Job minisode about The Garden that the minisode gives us through making the plot equally about what Gabriel saw in The Garden-- Eve's weird conception and birth-- but also about what Gabriel didn't see-- Adam and Eve have more human-typical sex-- which is something that Crowley set into motion and then something that he and Aziraphale both witnessed.
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By bringing up how Gabriel doesn't know what human sex and reproduction normally look like because of what he saw (and missed) in The Garden of Eden, the show is also reminding us that, after Gabriel left, Crowley was sent up into The Garden and tempted Eve into eating the apple. Eve then shared the apple with Adam. Adam and Eve figured out sex not long after that, during a period of time in which both Aziraphale and Crowley were also in The Garden and Eve's pregnancy was one of Aziraphale's motivations for giving them his flaming sword.
Mah point is that Crowley absolutely knew about sex and sexual reproduction during The Flood because Crowley and Aziraphale essentially watched the first humans have sex on Earth in The Garden of Eden.
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The show also has about a half-dozen jokes about Anthony J. "Can I watchchch?" Crowley's voyeuristic tendencies and roots some of it to the fact that he's the Serpent of Eden and gets off on watching his temptation labors bear fruit. (It's been a long day. I have earned that joke😂). Ya know, such as:
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This whole unicorn and sex thing is also part of the Job minisode by way of the ox ribs, further making it all kind of part of the same story. The inclusion of unicorns in ancient history in GO feels like a nod to the re'em, an animal mentioned a few times in The Bible (including in The Book of Job), which has been frequently translated as "unicorn" and is part of the origin for from where our idea of unicorns comes in the first place. The same word has been translated as meaning other animals-- among them? The wild ox.
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Making things even more interesting is unicorn lore. The unicorn was said to be a wild, secretive creature who lived in the forest and who could only ever be captured and tamed by a virgin maiden. Aziraphale, in 2500 B.C., is shown to not eat or drink before the night in the cellar began so odds are also good on the food-and-alcohol = sex show that Aziraphale definitely qualified as a virgin maiden when he went to absolute town on those ox ribs. Anyway...
...what I'm saying here is that it feels extremely unlikely that, by the time of The Flood in 3,004 B.C., that Crowley didn't know how human sex and reproduction worked when he saw it play out in The Garden. Other than Eve's speedy stages of pregnancy meant to get the ball rolling on humanity, Adam and Eve's sex was typical of humans. So, Crowley knew about sex and sexual reproduction when he made the comment about the unicorns... but then how does that make sense, right?
In order to think that Crowley didn't know how reproduction works during The Flood scene we've seen, you would have to assume two things are true: 1) that unicorns reproduce via sexual reproduction and 2) that unicorns went extinct as a result of one of them making a run for it and not making it onto Noah's Ark, right?
The thing is... the show might be subtly trying to show that unicorns do still exist in GO. But before you say 'but, Vida, seriously?! We've never seen an unicorn after The Flood!', I'm going to argue that maybe we actually have one as a major supporting character and this S2 scene might be hinting in that direction:
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The parallel to the "Oi, Shem!" scene is Nina-as-Crowley telling Aziraphale-as-Shem that that unicorn (The Bentley) is running of its own accord. Unicorns are magical beings. How magical beings present, as God pointed out in S1, is up to them. Human forms are just one option, right? I don't know exactly where this is going but this bit in S2 was a direct tie to The Flood's unicorn moment and it would explain a thing or two about Chitty Chitty Bang Bang if it were somehow tied to the unicorns. Can Crowley actually make them, the way Beez can make flies? Can Aziraphale? We really have no idea how the unicorn thing works in GO so we can't really use it as an example that Crowley didn't know about sex when it's more that we don't know about unicorns...
The unicorn that we saw during The Flood tracked with what we think of as the mythical being of an unicorn in our real world so we could make the assumption that some of the same aspects of them are/were true in GO. Unicorns are magical horse/donkey-like beings (which couldn't possibly be more Crowley and Aziraphale if it tried.) They are few and far between, are hard to spot and mostly keep to themselves. Human beings have no real actual proof that they ever existed in the first place and generally consider them mythical beings but Good Omens shows us that they at least did exist in GO ancient times-- and might still. In modern times, unicorns have become a LGBTQIA+ symbol and, for that reason and that reason alone, it seems unlikely that they actually went extinct in the world of *Good Omens*...
So, let's presume that Crowley said the existence of unicorns would continue even if Shem only had one of them on Noah's Ark because he knows that unicorns are not like other beings on Earth. Think about what else Crowley is then saying here with this line to Shem:
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Noah's Ark, to us, is a story about continuing the existence of life for beings on Earth, right? It's about pairs, about mates, for the purpose of continuing species on earth via sexual reproduction. That's why we consider what Crowley's saying in this moment of this scene through the lens of it being entirely about sexual reproduction. When it comes to the unicorns, though, you could argue that Crowley is not actually talking about reproduction but about romance. We don't actually know how unicorns work-- but Crowley does.
What Crowley is actually telling us in this scene is that paired unicorns can survive the death of one of them because they're a part of each other. What Crowley is actually saying is that the pair of mated unicorns in the scene are two beings who share a single existence.
You couldn't permanently kill one of a pair of unicorns without killing both of them. So long as one of them still exists, they both do.
One unicorn could make a run for it for any reason and bolt away from his mate and die in the storm but Crowley knew the bolting unicorn was a part of the one that Shem got on the boat and so could be brought back.
In S2, we see something like this with other magical beings-- Ineffable Bureaucracy.
Oi, Shem, that purple-eyed unicorn's gonna make a run for it...
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It's too late, too late...
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Oh, well, you've still got one of them...
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The Fly is Gabriel and Beez together; it's their shared existence. Without it, Gabriel would not have survived. The one of them still left-- Beez-- is the one who can put it together and bring Gabriel back into a full existence.
Ineffable Bureaucracy are unicorns who parallel our main two, though, and Oi, Shem...
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...that bow-tied unicorn's gonna make a run for it...
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Oh, well, you've still got one of them...
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jupiterswasphouse · 1 month
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WASPS OF THE WORLD - A REVIEW
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[Image ID: A photo of the cover of the book 'Wasps Of The World: A Guide To Every Family' by Simon Van Noort and Gavin Broad, a black and white cover with 12 in color photos of wasps of a multitude of different families /End ID.]
Howdy everyone! and happy Wasp Wednesday!
Yesterday, I finished reading through this book, and figured I'd share my thoughts and reasons to recommend it, given how recently published it is as of writing! (February 6th, 2024)
Read under the cut!
So, How Extensive Is It?:
The cover doesn't lie, for the most part, covering every family that one might traditionally consider to be wasps as of the publishing date, and more! Despite being simply titled 'Wasps Of The World', you may be surprised to learn that this book essentially covers all of Hymenoptera, to an extent.
The taxonomically minded of you might expect ants and bees to get at least a passing mention, also being wasps themselves, although their sections are less extensive than other well known families, and the bee families are not covered individually (I cannot yet speak for the quality of these books but this book recommends the publications 'Ants, A Visual Guide' by Heather Campbell and Benjamin Blanchard, and 'Bees Of The World' by Laurence Packer for more extensive reading).
What you might not expect however, is the section on suborder Symphyta, which is to say, sawflies! Each family of this suborder is covered in pages 30 - 59, just as extensively as those in Apocrita (Covered in pages 60 - 233). I must say this was a pleasant surprise!
How Is It Covered? (Extensiveness Continued):
The length of each segment tends to depend on how much is actually known about each family and how unique each species or subfamily is from each other within, and may range from a short paragraph to up to 4 pages. Images, with descriptions, are provided for each family, sometimes just one but usually two or more, as well as a section covering; Distribution (with geographic map), Genera, Habitats, Size, Activity, Reproduction, and Diet
Of course, with the species richness of an order like Hymenoptera, not everything about each family can be covered in a 200+ page book, but this book provides an absolutely fantastic framework of knowledge from nesting and parasitizing behavior, to their vast ecological benefits (or pest statuses in the few cases where applicable), as well as a glossary of some of the more technical terms used (Page 234) and suggested further reading (Page 235)
The book also contains a wonderful introductory section (Pages 6 - 29) covering generally common behaviors, anatomy, diversity, biology, conservation, classification, and even how wasps are photographed! (bonus points for the mention of iNaturalist)
Would I Recommend It?/How Good Is It For Someone Like Me (The Reader)?:
The short answer is Absolutely/Great!
The longer answer is yes, I would recommend it, as already mentioned, it provides an extensive amount of knowledge for those just getting interested in Hymenoptera or entomology in general, and provides plenty in the way of extra information that even someone who's been invested in the study for quite a while may not yet know, including more recent developments in each family's classification.
As the title might suggest, the book may also see some use as a field guide, or as an aid to teach others about wasps!
The book is also relatively cheap comparatively to some textbooks, available for $25 - $30 for an outright purchase
In Conclusion:
This is a wonderful book and I'm very happy with my purchase! It feels weird giving a star rating to non-fiction publications but if I had to give one, it would be
5/5
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beanibon · 11 months
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I see you’ve got requests open and your Mermaid AU has me hooked 👀 Could you write about Mer!VashOr Mer!Knives with an s/o that’s part human (whatever the other part is can be up to you :})? literally go nuts with this request tbh-
Oml yesss!!! Also I have to stay true to my mermaidness, so reader is gonna be half-mermaid!
So reader essentially is human appearance, but with colourful webbed fingers and feet to help swim, and when they're in the water gills will open on their necks. This is how Mer!Vash and Mer!Knives children would look like in their respective lil headcanons (not saying that reader is their children, let this be separate from those ones xD)
TW: none really, just mating bites, a little suggestive in Vash's :3
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You were a bizarre sight, unlike the other humans who overlooked him and his brother. You had a kind of aura that intrigued Knives, that seemed oddly familiar as you went about your work, following Rem as you assisted her in regards to the brother's.
The moment you revealed what you actually were, as Knives dragged your unaware body into the freezing depths, pausing as gills opened along your neck.
Curious chirps sounded as Knives squinted at you, flipping you this way and that as he studied your now prominent mermaid features.
You were patient, laughing as the usually aggressive mermaid circled you, poked and prodded you in his confusion. Not to mention Rem had made no effort to help you, the woman remaining at the observation pools edge.
When his own webbed hands grabbed your webbed hand, Knives huffed. Boredly swimming away, he made his presence scarce around you since then.
It wasn't until weeks later, being informed the news of a severely injured Knives who got into a scuffle with another of his species, defending Vash who 'stole' a prized shell, that you had to look after him.
No one else was allowed in the recovery tank, Rem tried at times but Knives' aggression was too much for her this time, and she didn't want another oxygen tank exploding within the tank and shattering it. That's where you came in.
Entering the tank, you slowly approached the injured Knives, flinching at his high-pitched shriek. It wasn't until you replied with your own did he simmer down, reluctantly allowing you to treat his wounds.
This continued on for a couple weeks and each visit resulted in Knives slowly looking forward to your visits, so much so he'd curl around you while you just kept him company, updating him on his worried brother.
The moment he could return to the ocean, Knives missed you already, knowing you couldn't visit as often now that he's recovered. So he gives himself minor injuries, pathetic scrapes, or even purposely slapping a sea urchin or two onto his tail and presenting it to you with no evidence of it hurting.
Rem was quick to catch on, offering you longer breaks to be with Knives so he'd stop injuring himself no matter how minor the wound was it was making other employees wary whenever he appeared. And Knives couldn't be more happy when Vash dragged him away from a toxic jellyfish to you, instantly having the larger twin latch onto you with excited chirps and purrs.
Eventually Knives and you marked each other, sealing your mateship as he nuzzled contently into you, purring non-stop while you combed his hair.
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Vash tends to wander, his favourite place is a large reef just a few kilometres from the observatory, where he collects shells, avoids getting into fights with other mermaids and just harasses the local fish.
That's where he bumped into you, literally. You were diving along with some close friends, friends that knew what you were and made sure to keep you safe. So you can imagine their surprise when a curious mermaid collided into you chasing a parrot fish.
Vash startled very quickly, hiding between some coral when he realised the group was staring at him, you were rather curious going to follow only to stop when Meryl stopped you. She signed it probably wasn't a good idea, but you at least wanted to apologise for startling him.
Approaching his hiding place, you gained his attention by sliding an iridescent shell between the spines of coral, to which the quivering mermaid chirped, revealing himself as he studied the gift. You gained Vash's attention, frowning as you chirped back at him, broken merfolk language in form of an apology.
You were very inexperienced with your father's tongue, but you knew enough to form small conversations.
The look Vash gave you was full of astonishment, eyes sparkling as his lips formed a massive smile. Placing his shell into his seaweed satchel, Vash spun you around, tugging you upside as he admired your legs. You yelped when he innocently spread your legs, trying to communicate how inappropriate it was, only this new friend didn't listen. Not until your closest friend, Wolfwood stepped in.
The overly friendly mermaid screeched at the burly man putting him in a headlock, signing if you were okay. Of course you were, just startled this curious creature was so forward.
Asking Nicholas to free the distressed mermaid, he obliged yelling as Vash hid behind you, rapid chirps and shrill clicks shot his way. You knew they were a lecture of sorts, with some colourful language that made you snort, but that's how Vash made a friend of you.
You frequented the reef often, as it was home to your father before he was poached, now the reef was under protection of the observatory a little further out. So you often visited Vash, allowing him to appropriately admired your legs and any other features he took interest in.
He'd bring you colourful shells and pearls as gifts, whereas you'd bring him either food or items he'd be allowed to keep in the ocean. It became a small tradition, one that lead to Vash making a bold move on his part.
It was another day that your friends took you for a dive, also befriending the blonde mermaid. It wasn't until you entered the water, instantly seeing Vash making a beeline for you. You were happy to see him, yelping as he collided with you, growling the moment his fangs sunk into your shoulder.
Your friends had never seen you be aggressive, not in your mermaid half way at least. When your eyes slitted, teeth forming sharp points as you screeched at the mermaid, causing Vash to return the sudden aggression as he felt justified in his actions.
Nicholas and Meryl tried separating you two, but when you surged forward sinking your own teeth a little too painfully into Vash's neck. Only then did the two settle, Vash's annoyed pouting and clicks turning into happy wiggles and nibbles of your flesh.
You still held a small grudge to being marked without warning, not that you opposed the idea, a heads up would've been nice. Now you endured endless teasing from Nicholas, proudly showing your other friends Vash's mating mark with no shame.
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a-dinosaur-a-day · 9 months
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Think of Megafauna as the evolutionary equivalent of The Rich
no no no, hold on with me a second
matter and energy are finite. an ecosystem is, essentially, a group of organisms in a particular location balancing each other out in order to allow for matter and energy to flow in a constant cycle
that balance requires each species to reproduce to the best of its ability, and all the species around it to take advantage of that reproduction to the best of their abilities
the larger you are, the more energy and matter you need to survive. yes, if you're bigger, you can have an advantage over other species in getting food (either by being able to reach more of it, or overpower things to get to it, that kind of thing). but you have to make up for it by eating more. a LOT more. it scales up logarithmically.
because bigger species need more resources to exist, they aren't able to spend as many on reproduction, meaning that - as a rule - bigger species have smaller populations. which is an evolutionary disadvantage. but not their only one.
in a way, they are hoarding matter and energy in the bodies of a select few, that gained larger size in order to access more matter and energy. which, yes, every species tries to do, but at smaller sizes, its sustainable.
smaller species have larger populations, which then speciate more so that more offspring can live and occupy new niches, which then leads to more speciation because niches beget niches, and so on
yes, bigger species can also strike that balance, but they sit on the top of a precarious peak. they rely on that entire system to continue to function in order to fuel their large size and successful populations.
so bigger species tend to evolve in systems where there are not selection pressures for them to be economical. and most bigger species do not have much in the way of modern descendants.
because the minute their ecosystem starts to fall apart, they can't get enough food.
and they go extinct.
megafaunalism is just a different kind of specialization, and niche specialists have to be very lucky to survive mass extinctions.
we see this in every extinction. end ordovician, end devonian, end permian, end triassic, end cretaceous, the current one. megafauna go first.
the main difference between megafauna and Human Wealth Hoarders is that megafauna aren't making a conscious choice. Human Wealth Hoarders are.
and, much like megafauna, as the system they rely on collapses, they will be the first to go extinct. there's fewer of them, and they're more vulnerable. poorer people, much like smaller species, will lose many members - but, because there are more of us / smaller species are significantly more diverse, we'll/they'll ultimately get through it a lot easier.
the only reason we think megafauna = good is because *we're* megafauna. not only megafauna, but the highest trophic level (ie "top predators", which, given everything gets decomposed in the end, sure is an extremely revealing way to phrase it in terms of the psyche of the people inventing the term). we've convinced ourselves that being at the "end" (there is no end. we all get decomposed) of the "food chain" (it's a circular web) is best because that's where we are, and it gives us more power and control.
but just as toxins in water concentrate in "top predators", so do the stressors of ecological crises disproportionately affect megafauna. and us.
smaller is more diverse, more speciose, because they can. and evolutionarily speaking, more diverse = winning. because you're more likely to keep playing the game in the future.
so yeah. bigger is worse, actually.
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ironbatpaperturtle · 16 days
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Ok, insane au idea but hear me out
It's Eden, and Adam has just found Eve has eaten the apple, but he doesn't eat it. Instead, he becomes depressed as Eve is kicked out of the garden and given a new husband to continue humanity with. God sees Adam's state and decides to take his humanity and store it in heaven, essentially turning Adam into a wild animal. Fast forward to the present time, Charlie is in heaven, and Emily accidentally spills something about Adam's humanity and what happened in the garden. Charlie tells her dad and he becomes furious. That's where the idea ends.
WHAT WHAT WHAT THAT'S SO COOL
Waiit >w<
----
"Thanks again Emily" Charlie smiled at the young seraphim. She'd never felt so thankful for someone other than her girlfriend to believe in the whole redemption.
"It's all good" Emily laughed, waving her hand. "This actually helps me in understanding the human soul better"
Momentarily dumb founded Charlie tilted her head "Oh right! your job is to spread joy amongst the heaven and winners!"
"Yes . . . But . . . It also helps me in helping Addie"
Addie?
"Oh" now Charlie's a people person, well she belives she's a people person, and so, with her people person ability it was easy to notice how Emily looked sad talking about this Addie entity. It seemed like something bad happened.
"I just . . . I've been trying to understand it y'know? All living creatures on Earth have souls, what makes the human soul different from the countless other species is there humanity!"
Charlie frowned, her eyebrows creasing in worry. She could feel the uncomfortable stickiness of a melting rainbow ice cream. She's never seen Emily raise her voice like that, even back in court she wasn't this . . . frustrated.
"Sera doesn't want me to help him. They don't want me talking to him. But they also don't wan't me talking about him." Charlie noticed how the younger Seraphim's gaze turned into a glare. "I fucking hate it"
Holy shit
____
"Sweetie how was the meeting?" Lucifer greeted taking the plate of panckaes and settling it infront on the dining room waving his daughter over.
"It was fine Dad"
"Fine? Just fine? Not comfortable? Did some angel say something about you?"
"No just" Charlie doesn't even know if she should reveal it to her Dad. She loves him, he's finally trying to be more present in her life. But it just feels so invading. Especially since with how Emily acted. It screamed personal issues.
"Aww sweetie"
Charlie found herself ingulfed in a hug. Her eyes were suddenly turning glassy, she doesn't even know why she was tearing up. Charlie knew that even though she's the princess of Hell. She had a streak of being shamelessly kind and sympathetic.
And seeing how heated, how beneath the rage Emily felt, she also felt helplessness.
____
Lucifer paced back and front, twiddling with his daughters phone. Watching in anticipation as the name 'Emily' pop-up. Whatever happened shook his daughter enough to make her cry. And no-one makes his princess cry like that. He knows that it wasn't the young Seraphims fault. From how Charlie describes her she seems like a sweet girl.
But Lucifer can't take any chances, this girl might have the answer as too why his princess was crying.
"Hello? Oh hello!" This was Emily? She seemed like a sweet kid. Doesn't look a year over 200.
"Pleasure to meet you I'm--"
"Charlie's dad! Lucifer Morningstar, oh yess I'm so pleased to meet you. I'm Emily or Em for short. The elders have told me so much about you!"
"Not pleasant ones I assume?"
At that Emily's smile dipped, Lucifer kinda feels bad for being the cause. Still he had a mission to do, find the purpose on why his daughter was so sad after coming back from heaven.
"Actually I wanted to call because Char Chars been on a mood ever since she came back from heaven?"
The crocked smile Emily was wearing dropped to a frown "Oh I'm so sorry I didn't expect to drop something so personal to Charlie"
Personal problems? Girl problems!
"Oh! well! that's uh . . . certainly . . . I'll leave you too it!" Before Lucifer could end the call Emily frantically yelled a series of 'waits' causing Lucifer to halt in pressing the end call button
"Actually since you've been part of Eden" the devil internally cringed "I thought you'd want to about know this"
____
Lucifer felt a burning anger, waiting for the younger seraphim's portal to transfer him to Eden.
____
"Addies still in Eden, I can create a portal to transfer you there, please be patient with him"
____
When a portal eventually did open Lucifer didn't waste a second to dash inside. It was just as he remembered, breath-taking. But now's not the time for that. He needs to find Adam.
____
"Addie's really sensitive, you need to let him trust you"
____
Adam
Oh Adam
The Adam Lucifer knew, was gone. This Adam was growling at Lucifer, infront of Adam was a lion what was also growling at Lucifer. ____
Anyways ig it goes like Lucifer secretly visiting Adam in Eden, trying to find a way to bring his humanity back. Events, events yada yada.
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rustingcat · 7 months
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Chapter 3 Kara
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"For years I felt the weight of Krypton, its legacy and history laid on my shoulders, and I felt like a failure for never having the chance to educate Kal. But after learning about Argo, it's like some of this weight was lifted off my shoulders, knowing I'm not the only one out there who remembers, that it's not on me. Yet, I feel detached? I don't know, it feels different from what I remember. I mean it is different, it's nothing like how Krypton was, but they are all Kryptonians. You know what I mean?" Kara turned to Lena, she wasn't sure what she was hoping to find in her eyes, but it softened the moment they met.
"I think so." Lena nodded. "Although, considering that you were barely a teenager back then, it would make sense."
"I suppose." Kara swallowed hard.
They were sitting on Kara’s couch with the plans for the machine laying in front of them.  It was two days after they had come back from Argo. Kara had managed to translate most of it, enough for them to at least start.
"You mentioned that you can basically control how the child would turn up with the matrix, right?"
"Not exactly, you can't control your child's every decision, but essentially yes. You can choose how they look, and you can choose their um… brain type? We had a name for it in Kryptonese."
"So did your parents choose what you would be?" Lena finally asked.
"In some ways, yes." She said a bit distanced. "They didn't care much about my appearance or gender, but they made sure my mind would be sharp, curious and analytical. Basically creating me to be a scientist before I was even born. And it worked, you know? I grew up loving it. As my dad said, I was the youngest person to be considered to join the science guild, and I bet I would've gotten in too."
Lena remained silent. Not that she expected her to say anything, but she wasn't sure what to do nex.
Kara took a sip of her water. Staring intensity into the plans, yet not really focused on them she continued talking. "I thought about it a lot, you know, how my life would look like had I grown up there. What could I have created, how many lives I could've improved, how much I could've advanced our species. But the more I think about it the more I realised how lucky I was to escape that fate." Kara finally dared to raise her head, meeting Lena's gaze as she felt her eyes fill with water. "Am I a bad person for thinking that?" Her voice broke as the tears started running freely down her face. 
Lena scooted over, engulfing her dearest friend in a tight hug. "Not at all." She whispered in her ear. "There's nothing wrong about finding happiness. But we'll make sure that if we ever make this public we'll do our best so that no one could use it to put more pressure on anyone." She combed her fingers through her hair to ground her.
Kara exhaled a breath she wasn't aware she was holding. The reason the plans were not yet fully translated were not because of language complications or any math difficulties, but because she couldn't bring herself to complete it. It felt too heavy of a task.
"It's just- that I love my job. I love singing, painting, and playing games with my friends and I know that I would've never gotten to do any of that had I lived on Krypton. It was all about doing your part, and not much else. And there are still many many good things that I loved about Krypton and many problems I have with earth. But I still prefer to be here, and I feel awful about it. Like I failed everyone, I failed my purpose in life."
"You are Kara Zor-El Danvers. Your name tells a journey and your journey is not yet over. You are not a bad person for having emotions. You've been through a lot and you still came out on top. You are still so full of kindness, love, and hope. How can that be a failure? How can it be anything but the greatest thing in life? You are amazing Kara and I'm sure the rest of your journey would be just as amazing."
"Thank you." Kara whispered into her neck in a sob.
"How about we order another pizza and watch a movie instead?" Lena suggested, whispering quietly in her ear.
"Yeah," Kara smiled weakly. "That would be great."
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thenightwolf51 · 2 months
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A detail from the first Trolls movie that always kinda confused me was the fact that Chef was gonna feed Poppy to Gristle.
Poppy is King Peppy's heir, shes the future queen. You'd think that would make her off limits. She needs to survive to be crowned and eventually continue the royal line. The bergens are a monarchy themselves so they understand this importance and the trolls are their livestock so they would have to put some focus on maintaining genetics and keeping the trolls at a somewhat stable quality of life, that includes the social dynamics of the tribe. At least as much as we would keep track of the Queen bee in a hive, the biggest bull in a herd, or the fastest horse in the derby.
But now with Band Together it makes more sence.
Viva is older than Poppy, which means that she would likely have been assumed to be the future queen. As far as the bergens are concerned King Peppy already had his "heir and a spare". Poppy was just the spare.
With that in mind, i wonder if it was a tradition for bergen royalty to be fed a royal troll for their first trollstice. "Every prince deserves a princess" Chef had said. Did Peppy have a sibling that was fed to Gristle's dad?
If Poppy hadn't been born, would Viva had been considered old enough for Peppy to be given to Gristle instead? She managed to lead the Puttputts when she got seperated. Or would Gristle have gotten Viva and the bergens just hoped Peppy would create a new heir?
And back to the genetics bit. Do you think they selectively bred the trolls for the best taste or effect. Like specifically choosing trolls or families with undesirable traits to cook at trollstice so that their genes die out. Is that how the average pop troll of the current generation got to be so... delusionaly cheerful.
Like i know its all played up for the movies because their pop trolls, constantly singing and dancing and eating sugary sweets. But in comparison to the other genres they just seem more exaggerated.
So how much of that happy positivity and optimistic near lack of self preservation that most pop trolls have is natural for their genre and how much is enhanced due to at least 100 years of selective breeding.
I imagine the happier a troll the more dopamine/serotonin they produce naturally so the bergens would probably take care to decrease the the amount of trolls that wernt as "potent". Which likely would have been trolls that sang and danced less, were more likely to develop anxiety or were prone to depression or going grey.
On the evolutionary side of things this would have led to the happiest and more optimistic pop trolls to be the most attractive and ideal mates even if the trolls don't relize the scientific reason behind it or consciously notice that happy trolls had a higher servival rate.
(Which kind of reminds me of that one post that said something about boybands like Brozone who made trolls happy with their music likely being "protected" in some way because bergens wanted them to continue making trolls happy)
And i do think the pop trolls were captive for at least 100 years because i doubt a whole town and castle, essentially a small kingdom can be built in one life time. Especially not one with an established monarchy and near religious holiday that has a "minister of happiness". Honestly i wanna see it as over 200 years, give them plenty of time to forget their pre-trollstice history like the existence of other tribes
This is a bit long and rambling but my world building mind really wants to hyperfixate on the details of the pop troll's captivity and what it means for them as a species and for the ways their culture might have shifted or adapted.
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kondensaduhhh · 3 months
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Brozone HCs (Post Break Up)
- first of all, i refuse to believe that John Dory was any older than 16 when the band broke up, maybe he's just baby faced, but to me, he's at most 16 years old, yall really gonna look at JD in that flashback and see a 20?? hes just a babyyy
- their ages when the band broke up are, JD: 16, Bruce: 15, Clay: 13, Floyd: 12, Branch: 4
- the tunnel escape only happened almost a year later
- Bruce found Vacay Island only months after the tunnel escape, he ran away from the rest of the trolls thinking maybe he'll find his older brother, but instead found Vacay Island.
- Bruce met Brandy and was in love at first sight, instantly tried to impress her by doing the whole Heartthrob bit, which only amused Brandy, but only when he started to mellow out and started to let down the Heartthrob title, did Brandy start to reciprocate.
- Bruce tried to do the whole courting thing with Brandy, but the second she liked him back, she was like "Mmyeah, youre my boyfriend now" and Bruce nearly screamed like one of his fangirls that he had to take a dive in the ocean.
- due to this, Bruce was the only one that didn't experience becoming gray.
- Floyd became gray after the tunnel escape, back when they were still within the cage, he still somewhat knew where his brothers were, except for JD, but he knew his big brother would be fine. so when they executed the tunnel escape, he couldn't find Clay and Bruce, and didnt know that Branch had started to isolate himself so no one has seen his younger brother either.
- he became gray and left the village, as he was going to look for himself. he didnt sing for a long time, but he did start writing songs and poems that eventually became songs, and had the spontaneous thought of singing one song and broadcasting it.
- the song became an instant hit, and slowly has he started to build his solo career did he gain his colors back.
- Clay lost his colors when they found the hold course to reside in. he lost it a few weeks living in the golf course, did reality set in that he might never see his family again, a lot of the putt putt trolls lost their colors too.
- when Viva saw this, as heartbroken as she was too, she was the firstborn of the king, and as their princess she cant let any of this sadness continue to consume her people, and she found ways to cheer the putt putt trolls up and bring their colors back, including Clay.
- Clay actually only started doing the boring stuff to get away from his previous title of The Fun One, but as things continued on, he did it to keep his mind off of being fun, because being fun reminded him of his family, the family he will never see again.
- but Clay does enjoy keeping the putt putt trolls safe and not gray, he even invented 'protocols' which were essentially games to keep them happy, which he would never admit were games
- JD's colours were on and off for a year when he left the band, and when he came to visit for Branch's birthday, everybody was gone, his colors went to a cooler colour where he cried for days in their pod, and then went gray when the tears subsided. when he left the cage, his colours were so dull, no bergen saw him leave the tree, bc he left with no caution whatsoever
- John Dory doesn't know how much time has passed. he used to have a calendar where he would cross out the days to keep track, but he forgot if he crossed the date out too early or too late and eventually just stopped.
- Floyd became a songwriter to multiple different species
- the brothers who had a hard time fitting back in the pop village from least to most was Floyd, Bruce, Clay, and JD.
- Floyd still had his social skills, better than the rest of the brothers due to the being a songwriter and all, Bruce, while not interacting with trolls, he wasnt living in the past like Clay was, and JD only had Rhonda with the occasional small talk to other trolls whenever he needed supplies that he couldnt make out of scratch.
- JD nearly died a few times. being mostly alone in nature was a lot of trial and error. he got sick/injured so severely that he would write barely intelligible notes about who his brothers were and to tell them how sorry he was and how to take care of Rhonda, pass out and completely forget about the letters. they're tucked into the nooks and crannies inside Rhonda.
- Clay tried to write letters to his brothers, if they were out there, but when it came to sending them, he didn't know how. so he just has thousands of letters addressed to his brothers, varying from asking how Branch was doing, if Floyd still bakes and how he misses his baked goods, asks if Spruce can tell him how to do his hair because it was growing out of control and he always had the best hair out of all of them, and telling John Dory how much he hated him and that it was all his fault and that he misses the soup JD used to make for him specifically, and how tight JD hugged him and missed his stories and how he missed him. How he missed all of them.
- Bruce had a bit of a hard time in raising his kids, not realising that the Vacay Puppets aged differently from trolls. that while most trollings could hold a whole conversation with understanding at the age of a year and a half, some even just after hatching, while his children only babbled and said very few words and short, broken sentences at age 3. he was very worried about their development until Brandy told them that they actually developing pretty quickly for a Vacay Puppet (idk wtf to call them😭😭)
- ppl think that JD is stupid, but the truth is he just misses social cues, and has been out in the wilderness mostly alone so, what is common sense to most trolls, John Dory has completely forgotten about
- Floyd is obviously the most sensitive, but this not only means he is quick to shed a tear, he is also quick to be offended/mad. sometimes it scares Floyd how much he sees JD in himself, but this also made Floyd empathise with JD somewhat, knowing the shame that comes after the anger that came too quick and left just as quickly
- accessory HCs: Floyd has a total of 4 ear piercings, all in one ear,
Branch has got both his ears pierced, the left being a small, mint green gem, and the right a magenta barbell,
Bruce def a navel piercing, a shell necklace with 14 shells on it to represent his wife and kids, and a teal, yellow, pink, and blue woven anklet,
Clay doesn't have any piercings but he does have tats on his legs of those fuck ass stars, hearts, and diamonds on his legs, all below the knee, bc Viva wanted to try tattooing,
JD has a tongue and nipple piercings, he doesn't remember getting them, all he knows he that he got really sad, and then next thing he knows he's awake somewhere he knew he didnt fall asleep in, he kept them anyway
- pop trolls' hair can change when they undergo extreme negative emotions, which was why Clay's hair went from straight and yellow, to curly and green
- when Bruce had an all girl quintuplets (bc i refuse to believe that they had all those children one by one😭😭) he named them Jane Dolly, Clair, Flora, and Briar ((btw i only just found out that Bruce only has one daughter but shhh))
- Floyd has written songs for/about all his brothers, but never said their names in them or even mentioned that it was about Brother specifically, always a vague family member or loved one.
- John Dory was the best at any culinary skill out of all of them, he's the one that taught Floyd how to bake, from how to make the fluffiest chiffon cake, how to laminate pastries, to knowing how to do everything from scratch, to how to do everything without any baking equipment, like a thermometer or a timer.
- However, Bruce, despite being a father and owning a restaurant, is the shittiest cook out of all of them, he either forgets an ingredient and/or under/overdoes it.
- nature is oddly nice to Floyd. not bc of anything in particular, they just really like him. JD used to call Floyd their lucky charm whenever they go camping.
- JD, Clay, and Floyd are adrenaline junkies.
- Clay knows pretty much everything there is in fabric making, from crocheting, knitting to tapestry making, he can do it.
- Floyd absolutely LOVES denim. he will most likely have one piece of his outfit be denim, be it his pants or a bracelet
- after years of being alone, and only having Rhonda be his constant companion, JD has a concerningly high pain tolerance, and being around such a big creature like Rhonda and no one else to compare pain to, whenever he does react to pain, he thinks he's just being over dramatic bc when Rhonda had a splinter the same size as the one he is currently injured with (AKA HUGE) she merely limped, so hed probably be fine.
- Clay looks the most like their mother
- And John Dory is their half brother
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wolven91 · 9 months
Text
Lucky Human Feet
Vix stared at the thin pink thing as it bumbled around its workshop. It had sequestered itself into what was essentially a storeroom off from main engineering and converted it into a workshop suited for its smaller size.
Vix gnashed her teeth in confused frustration. Humans were pointless on a voyage like this, why would they bring such a ridiculously fragile thing? She was going to grab it by its pathetic little neck and shake it until an answer fell out!
As she got up to stomp over to him before she made it even a few feet from her desk, her pile of sensitive components fell over. They themselves didn’t bother her, but the lopeljack’s cover required her to keep up appearances and made a mad grab for them. By the time she had finished restacking the tokens of her disguise, the human had left and for the time she forgot about the human and his infuriating existence until later on in the evening.
That evening. Vix was sat in the bar on board the large craft with the rest of the crew that were no longer on shift. The only reason she remembered her original thought now was because she saw the human trying to pull himself up onto the bar stool nearby. He was her target, she was not to move against him yet, only observe and report back to her contact. 
She rolled her eyes at the childlike display; they truly were useless creatures.
"Why must we be laboured with those cretins?" The lopeljack asked the group who were also sitting at her table, it was more as a rhetorical question, Vix not really expecting an answer. 
"''Cos we'd be stupid not to." Replied her superior, and lead engineer, plainly. 
She had to defer to this superior for the time being. Only for as long as she needed. 
She respected him; he knew his stuff and had the scars to prove he learned his lessons. But her barely hidden look of contempt should have told him her opinion on his statement. He smiled ruefully before going into more detail, interpreting her disdain for lack of experience, rather than frustration. She was one of the highly trained lopeljacks, she had travelled further across the galaxy than he may have, seen, met and killed more species than him. 
"I get you're new, but I think there's something you should know about our 'pathetic' friends. No ship with something important to do, should ever leave port without a human on board." He said 'sagely'.
"For hellspawns sake; Why?!" She demanded.
"They're lucky."
She gave him a withering stare, there was no such thing as luck. Only skill.
"Despite a whole galaxy worth of creatures that would eat them with ease, they live. Despite their world, statistically, having killed them off millenia ago, they live. Despite all the hardships their people have been subjected to getting to the stars; they live." He shook his head, mane whipping back and forth before he continued.
"Every time something terrible is to befall them, something gets in the way. They aren't invincible, their conservation status can attest to that, but it's as if invisible spirits will always try to tip the scales in their favour… If one is allied with a human, one is protected by this unseen force."
Vix looked back at the human, currently chatting up the bartender. The inherent ability to survive and succeed despite multiple moments of destruction, it was beyond chance. Perhaps there was something to this old fool’s ramblings?
As the lopeljack watched the human, she observed them absently moving their drink to the otherside of them just as another patron fell backwards onto the bar. If the human's drink had remained... it would have spilt.
"How?" Vix demanded, turning back to her ‘boss’. 
He shrugged, while drinking.
"I heard something about them having lucky feet. Apparently they used to keep lucky feet of some kind on a chain around their necks, that's just rumours though.”
Vix scratched at her chin while staring at the boot-clad appendages of her target, dangling from the bar stool.
"...lucky you say..."
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jadedwolf18-blog · 1 year
Text
Mini Phantom Invasion.
Hi, I plan for this to be a series of inter connected one shots based on some of my favorite prompts. I’m a huge Tim Drake/Red Robin x Danny phantom shipper, so for now most of my fics will feature them. Once I’ve end this series, I’ll try branching out to other relationships Danny could have with the bats.
I can’t remember where I got all of them but I’ll try to tag as I find them. If anyone notices a prompt or plot they’ve seen please let me know or tag the person it came from. I’m knew to posting on Tumblr so I’m still getting used to how to tag and insert links. Thank you.
🤍🖤💚💙💚🖤🤍
Chapter 1
Danny was not having a good day. He’d had a fight with his parents about ghost hunting, stating clearly that he had no interest in their bias views on an entire species based on one encounter when they were young. It had escalated to the point where they blamed his lack of interest on the fact that he was spending to much time with his sister and his female friends. 
He’d had enough! He left mid argument and was contemplating just packing up and moving into the Ghost Zone permanently. As he’d slammed the door he could hear his parents shouts for him to come back and once again blaming his behaviour on a ghost.
What did his sexuality have to do with ghost hunting? And what was wrong with wanting to be more feminine sometimes? He honestly didn’t understand why they found it so weird or wrong for him to swap between genders and pronouns? Jazz, Sam and Tucker accepted him as he was, they didn’t but an eye when he would randomly say ‘she’, ‘they’ or ‘him’, they just continued the conversation with the new pronoun and that was that. They understood and accepted that sometime he felt male or female or neither. He was lucky to have them. 
The day just seemed to continue down hill from there. It was summer vacation so Sam was forced to spend time with her parents at some rich holiday resort, Tucker had won a spot in some sort of tech camp and Jazz was still at College working on a finals thesis and was unable to come back for the summer. He was essentially alone for the summer. He could hang out with Val but she was working a lot and he didn’t want to bother her. He still felt guilty about her dad losing his job, even if it wasn’t entirely his fault.
*****
After leaving the house he’d found a place to transform and let the cool rings of light soothe him and took off into the sky. After finding out they could survive in space it became their favourite way to relax, they’d spend ours exploring space, even hang out on the moon. Thank you high speed and portal powers. Their Phantom form had changed in the last two years. People could no longer tell if they were male or female and he looked less human now. Thankfully, they looked nothing like their alternate future self. When their legs melded together their ghostly tail looked more eel like and their ears were longer and thiner, resembling delicate fins. Jazz and their friends had joked about how the acted like cat ears. Lastly their face was now a pale mint color, almost white and translucent, his eyes were still the same luminous ecto-green with deep blue pupils. The only similarity to Dan, that they could see, were the fangs and longer hair both of which were also present in their human form.
*****
They had been flying around Amity, a somewhat lazy patrol of his claimed haunt, it was a calm night. Ever since they had defeated Pariah Dark the other ghost had calmed down and came to Amity less frequently. A few still came to bug them, namely Skulker, Ember, Johny and Kitty. Young Blood and Boxy more frequently than the others and of course Cujo came by often. Their visits were more to do with fulfilling their obsessions than anything else. Danny’s obsession was Space but so was Protection. They needed to fulfil both to some extent or suffer from a form of ghost hunger. It was a win win situation even if they did go back… home? Was it really still a home? 
Before they could go down that dark spiral again their instincts took over and they narrowly dodged a bright green shot that had been aimed at their head. Whirling around and flying higher out of range they looked at their attacker and just stared.
“of course it’s them.” They muttered. Before repeating it with more venom than they thought they were capable of. Which was shocking because not even Vlad had receive as much hatred in the entirety of the time they’ve known him than in that split second they felt it towards their own parents. “Of fucking course it’s them!”
They blink away the shock of such an intense emotion and huffed. Not even bothering to acknowledge them they turned around to leave. That had been a mistake. They’d barely made it a few paces before pain bloomed across their back as an Eco-blast shredded the fins on their lower back and bit deep into their flesh. They bit back a cry of shock as they felt themselves plummet from the sky. It took a moment but they gathered enough concentration to open a portal. He didn’t care where they ended up as their only thought was ‘Somewhere safe.’
They fell through and just before they lost consciousness, they heard their parents yell after him.
“Get back here you ghost scum, so we can rip you apart molecule by molecule!”
“We won’t forgive you for corrupting our Danny!”
‘Of course… It’s always Phantoms fault…’ Danny’s world turned black as he continued to fall. Maybe when they opened their eyes again all of it would have been a dream.
*****
Somewhere in the infinite green a Grandfather clock chimed. A screen flickered. Time flowed on.
“All is as it should be.”
Chapter 2
(I'm Not A Cynic Song by Alec Benjamin)
Danny pulled their little floating ducks out of their personal pocket dimension and set them to gently drift in the hot spring. They had found it while wandering the forest. Their lower back still ached and they were a little worried about how it hadn’t healed completely yet.
*****
They didn’t know where they were or how long they had been in this dimension but they were safe and alone for the time being. When they’d woken up, the first thing they did was try to figure out where they were. thankfully no-one had discovered them, tucked away in the underbrush of the forest they had landed in. They’d let invisibility wash over them and flew high enough to get a view of the land. They recognised asian architecture and flew in the direction they had spotted a small farming village. With a closer look they determined they had landed in some version of Japan. Instinctually they knew they were not in their home dimension. Everything, even the air and feel of the atmosphere felt slightly shifted to the left. It was like that feeling of entering a hotel room, they were all essentially the same but there were the little details that told you it was a different hotel. 
*****
Brushing the thought, and everything associated with the reason they were injured and alone in a foreign dimension, aside. They coiled their tail in the centre of the spring and sank down until their lower back was submerged in the healing warmth of the spring. Closing their eyes in content they began to hum. Their eyes shot open when they felt a gentle nudge against his arm but smiled gently at the little wisp as it bobbed and drifted in the breeze. They continued to hum and watched in amusement as more joined the first. The little orbs of light ranged in color from soft pale blues to vibrant greens and warm reds, oranges and yellows.
They lost themselves in their song as they twirled in and played with the water, creating little floating ice crystals that caused mist to form around them as hot and cold air danced around each other. Humming soon gave way to words as they swayed to the rhythm only they could hear. 
“I'm just bein' realistic, bein' honest with myself
I've tried bein' optimistic but it doesn't seem to help
So I'll just have to admit this is the hand that I've been dealt
I'm not bein' pessimistic, just bein' honest with myself”
They were thankful to Pandora, who had taught them to sing in an effort to train his ghostly wail, for realising he was taking on the form and habits of a triton. 
“I'm not a cynic, oh, today's just not my day
I've tried to spin it 'bout a thousand different ways
But from every angle, oh, the outlook is the same
I swear that I'm not a cynic, my glass just has no water in it today”
They poured all the hurt, betrayal, anger and loneliness into their voice, allowing them to release it all in a more melodic call than his previous wail. That, as pandora explained, had been an unhealthy burst of emotion and they were lucky they hadn’t blown out their vocal cords the last few times they used it. 
“I swear that I'm not a cynic, my glass just has no water in it”
Through their practice they found they could influence emotions but not out right control them. They were glad, influencing them was bad enough, he didn’t want to manipulate anyone. They didn’t want to spend their life wondering if the people around them truly cared or if they had somehow manipulated them into caring. They may me a budding empath but they still struggled to tell the difference between a sincere emotion and a projected emotion.
“You only get that which you're given, it's not always up to you
Not every Sunday is a picnic 'cause the sky ain't always blue
You can't just change the weather by changing your point of view
Some days you have to wait until the storm just passes through”
Danny’s voice grew louder as their emotions poured out into the lyrics. They knew they still had their friend, their sister, Elle and everyone in the Infinite Realm. They were also the Half Ghost son of ghost hunters and scientist with a heavy bias against Ecto-entities. They will be the rulers of an entire realm in only a few short years.
“I'm not a cynic, oh, today's just not my day
I've tried to spin it 'bout a thousand different ways
But from every angle, oh, the outlook is the same
I swear that I'm not a cynic, my glass just has no water in it today”
They gave a bitter sweet smile as they watched the wisps duck and weave between the ice crystals. They looked around for their ducks and their smile turned a little more sad as they waved their hand and the little ducks joined the dancing lights and crystals. Each one was modelled after his favourite comic book vigilante. They’d had to save them from the dump truck once, they’d been looking for them when he’d asked his parents, their father had made an off hand comment about how he should throw out old toys and they’d panicked. They’d manage to find and save them all just before the truck arrived.
“So like a boat on the ocean, I'll rock with the waves
God, I'm so sick of this notion that I have to fake
Fake my emotions and pretend I'm okay
So like a boat on the ocean, I'll just rock with the waves”
Jazz had bought them for them, after they had told her about being gender fluid and pan, they were probably one of their most treasured possessions. Jazz had gone on a whole spiel about how it’s important that she show support and provide a safe and understanding environment. They hadn’t been listening, they’d been crying. To caught up in their overflowing emotions and happiness. It lasted a day, their parents had been less than understanding, with their passive-aggressive comments and actions. 
“I'm not a cynic, oh, today's just not my day
I've tried to spin it 'bout a thousand different ways
But from every angle, oh, the outlook is the same
I swear that I'm not a cynic, my glass just has no water in it today”
Their frown returned. They had shot them, that in itself wasn’t unusual, as Phantom. Isn’t that a sad thought. What was was that there had been no prior warning. It was a sniper shot, from their mother. Only their heightened hearing and instinct had saved them from ending up dead dead instead of a Halfa. That bothered him
“I swear that I'm not a cynic, my glass just has no water in it today”
They returned to humming the last notes of their song as the dunked under the water to rinse off. They popped back up and gathered their ducks, floated up out of the spring and laughed as the wisps twirled around him. They landed on the ground, allowing their legs to form and walked off into the forest, dancing lights trailing after them. Completely unaware of their watchers.
*****
The shadows slunk away to report their findings. While two birds hesitantly returned to their temporary nest, One worried and wanting to help the being that reminded him so much of his younger siblings. The other having felt a connection to a being that had shared similar experiences, someone they wanted to help and if they wanted to end the beings loneliness… that was no one’s business but their own. Both slept little that night, both determined to find the being again and offer what they could to help.
*****
@im-totally-not-an-alien-2
@alinmenttreasure
@blackroserelina
@blacksea21090
@seraphinedemort
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