#salamander folk | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

wolf-tail · 4 months

Text

Inspired by this post, I've decided to propose a list of hypothetical Primarch fursonas.

Lion El'Johnson: Call me uncreative but it's all in the name. Lion.

Fulgrim: Reticulated python, but the kind specially bred for iridescent scales. Beautiful, dangerous, carefully curated for perfection.

Perturabo: I'm actually stumped here. Open to suggestions.

Jaghatai Khan: Couldn't decide between horse and eagle, so we'll go with hippogriff.

Leman Russ: Basic Bitch #2: Wolf.

Rogal Dorn: Polar bear. Big, dangerous, from a hostile ice environment, white hair.

Konrad Curze: Bat, specifically little brown bat, one of the lil cute fuckers.

Sanguinius: Trumpeter Swan. Beautiful, elegant bird that will absolutely fuck you up if you piss it off.

Ferrus Manus: Scaly-foot gastropod. Weird ass snail that grows iron scales and lives in undersea volcanoes.

Angron: Quokka. Gentle, docile, cute face structured in such a way that it's impossible for it to frown. Everything Angron was made to be but wasn't.

Roboute Guilliman: Domestic bull. Cattle are very...practical animals, if that makes sense. Widespread, useful, strong. Were often used as currency in ancient times. Deceptively "boring", cute as fuck. Sounds like our boy, and we all know how much he likes farms. Moo moo motherfucker.

Magnus the Red: We're going all out on the Egyptian imagery here folks. A gryphon, but with 2 very specific component animals. The sacred ibis is associated with Thoth, a god of wisdom and knowledge. They are also nasty little trash goblins that will raid your dumpster. Barbary lions were associated with kingship, also hair floofy. And fuck it, throw some snakes scales in there too, as Heka, the Egyptian god most strongly associated with magic, had a connection to serpents.

Mortarion: As you can tell, my indecisive ass loves hybrid sonas. Turkey vulture, not traditionally pretty, eats gross and yucky things, so important yet so undervalued. Good sense of smell, especially for a bird. Thematic association with death. Broad diet and adapts well to lots of environments. Spanish moon moth, bug with pretty green and black wings.

Corvus Corax: His name is literally the scientific name for common raven. If it aint't broke, don'y fix it.

Vulkan: Fire salamander/gila monster.

Lorgar: Domestic sheep. The "lamb of God" imagery was too strong. But he's a ram now, angry AF with horns to match.

Horus: Domestic dog. Friendly, charismatic, intelligent, loyal. But can turn on you, given the right circumstances. He'd a mutt, the unnervingly perfect spotty, floppy eared mutt, the "Fido" of an idealized heterosexual white suburban family unit, pickett fence and 2.5 kids. So perfect you can just tell that something is off.

Alpharius and Omegon: Planarian flatworm. You know why.

169 notes · View notes

milk-ly · 8 months

Text

Fuuta and Wind

I was reading this post (super interesting btw!) and I want to address Fuuta’s connection to wind!

That post brings up that Fuuta’s Twitter name is “Pazupazu_Soccer” and if you didn’t know, Pazuzu is a God of wind.

More specifically, Pazuzu is the king of wind demons in Mesopotamian religion. He is believed to help and protect humans from other dangerous wind demons.

Now, that’s already painting a connection between Fuuta and Pazuzu. Some powerful and heroic person/creature that’s protecting the common folk from evil! But there’s MUCH more.

V more below the cut!! V

What is wind? Well, it’s a natural force that represents power. When it’s a simple breeze, it’s pleasant, it can bring about change such as the weather! But what happens when gusts of wind become too powerful or intense? Destruction.

Despite Pazuzu being a creature that wards of other wind demons, he too is still a wind demon. Specifically, one that was known to be destructive and powerful.

Fuuta wanted to be a hero that protects others from evil like Pazuzu! And yet, Pazuzu is a personification of the southwest winds, which associated with droughts, plagues, locust and famine.

Fuuta ends up being not much better than the people he’s attempting to punish. He is a wind demon too in the end. Like wind, Fuuta was powerful, causing destruction and ultimately, the death of a young girl.

And remember Fuuta’s whole fire symbolism? Keep in mind that Pazuzu is the personification of the southern west wind. So hey, what does wind do to a fire? It helps fire spread.

Fuuta wielded a fire sword, the fire being used to symbolize his justice and judgment. Fuuta, being the representation of wind, spread the flames until they were out of control.

Pazuzu also had an arch rival named “Lamashtu,” known as the goddess of monsters/demons.

I’m not sure of my interpretation here but since she is the Goddess of Demons, I believe she might be a representation of those who Fuuta believes have wronged in general. Lamashtu is often associated with very evil deeds. The most famous is how she would pray on children and pregnant woman and eat them.

BUT THERES MORE.

Kajiyama Fuuta written in Kanji is “梶山風汰”

The “ta” (汰 )in “Fuuta” is pretty straightforward. It means "select," or “scour.” Scour means to clean something by rubbing it really hard. Pretty much what Fuuta is trying to do in a way. Trying to remove the scum, the dirt, plaguing society.

Bring it On quote: “I give up. Need to make it clean since it’s so dirty.”

However the “Fuu” (風 )in Fuuta’s name means “wind.” Sound familiar?

Another fun fact I want to share! From my knowledge, I believe in Japan, “Fuu” is the sound of blowing on something to cool it down. Hmm, now where have I heard that?

Salamander!!

A part of the lyrics in the song is

“Make sure to cool it down so you don’t get burned!”

And in Romaji, it’s:

“chanto fuu shite yakedo shitakunai nara”

Yup!! The Fuu used here means to blow on something to cool it down, the same kanji as Fuuta’s name.

And I just think that’s really neat even if it was probably only half intentional lmao.

Another thing is that that “Yama” (山) in “Kajiyama,” Fuuta’s last name means mountain.

In a lot of written sources, Pazuzu climbs a great mountain and fought other powerful wind demons, coming out victorious. It was a show of his power.

Anyway, kind of an abrupt ending but I just thought this was really interesting!! Thanks for reading!:D

Edit: somebody pointed out that it’s Pazuzu and not Pazupazu. Completely my bad, that is incredibly embarrassing💀I’ve fixed it all now, thank you for the correction @moibakadesu !!

#fuuta kajiyama #milkly ramble #milgram

108 notes · View notes

kid-az · 8 months

Text

All Tomorrows: Vanga-Vangog’s Clicker Hc’s

Specifically, I’m talking about these guys.

They’re a fanmade All Tomorrow’s species made by Vanga-Vangog, and are essentially the descendants of the Blind Folk. They are described as an agoraphobic species who live in dense cities completely without light, as such a thing isn’t useful when you don’t have any eyes.

Anyways I found them to be a very interesting and adorable people, simple in concept but very interesting in execution, so I’m going to make up some headcanons about them.

-Due to their agoraphobic nature and how important crops are for civilization, Farmer’s are heavily respected and idolized in many of their cultures, as they are brave enough to venture into the open plains with little fear of the endless void above them or whatever predators are outside. Often these farmers wear iconic, low brimmed tin hats designed specifically to better focus their echolocation.

-Focusing on farming more, the clickers generally grow various fungi and yam-like staple foods as their primary, non-meat based food sources, as well as some tree fruits and a wheat-like plant. Unlike humans, their animal husbandry involves the domestication of large, herbivorous crabs, cockroaches descended from the Hissing cockroaches, various species of herbivorous salamander descendants for slime and eggs, and a few species of non-sapient posthumans.

-There dog and cat equivalent is a terrestrial species descended from Olm’s, who had entirely lost their eyes like them but more than make up for it through a powerful strong sense of smell, taste, and electro sensitivity. They of course have various different breeds, from larger, longer-legged breeds used by farmers to herd posthumans and salamanders, to smaller breeds who hunt pests inside the cities, to even more aquatic breeds who help with fishing.

-Due to their dense cities, preference to tight spaces, lack of lights and the need to keep settlements more quiet to not overwhelm people and make them deaf, their ecological impact on their world was much lesser than that of modern humans and many other posthuman species, and most of their megafauna and and ancient forests still existed when they first contacted their posthuman brethren.

-Continuing on ecological impact, their world was one terraformed by the Star People before getting Qu’d, so there was very little existing fossil fuels in their world. Instead, their civilizations were powered via nuclear fission and later, fusion. They utilized this energy for power far before they invented their first nuclear weapons.

-They never invented tv screens, instead relying entirely on advanced radios broadcasting talk shows, news, and music. And yes, these radios had separate channels, which were indicated by symbols which functioned similarly to braille. Videogames were only a very recent concept introduced by other species. (Idk how videogames would work for an entirely eyeless species?)

-Other forms of entertainment involved strolling around enclose cave and night parks, appreciating forms of artwork such as sculptures, hollow casts and bas-reliefs, and of course concerts and operas. Also stuff like swimming, children games such as hide and seek + tag, and sports.

-Their cultures were in general more accepting of physically disabled people, (Aka folks with paralyzed/nonexistent limbs and the deaf.) and a lot of their architecture involves heavy use of ramps, elevators, and escalators, with very few stairs in…… “sight.”

-Clicker’s have head hair, but it’s almost never in front as it’d heavily disrupt their echolocation. They are unfortunately beardless, but compensate with their whiskers. Some folks even grow their whiskers to be 1 feet from each end!

-They would not be happy about being compared to a walking fungus zombie. /s

#all tomorrows #nemo ramjet #cm kosemen #posthuman #all tomorrows blind folk #blind folk #fanmade species #clicker #headcanons #worldbuilding

82 notes · View notes

thepringlesofblood · 9 months

Text

All The Fix Facts

thank u hank green for my autistic rights

also god bless the fine folks that put up episode transcripts on the d20 wiki so I can copy-paste these lengthy quotes directly

Ep 1

For every snake in the world, there is 1 snake dick/Every snake that has a dick has 2 dicks.

Bonus Brennan Facts:

komodo dragons are actually not poisonous, but the bacteria in their mouth is so powerful that it acts like a toxic venom

Ronnie shows The Fix a drawing he did of "a diagram of the indentations on a snake's lip that lets it detect heat signatures."

Ep 2

eyes can't be itchy. "The membranes around the eyes are innervated with itch receptors and pain neurons, whereas the eyes themselves only have pain neurons because, of course, evolution is strongly incentivized to prevent you from scratching your cornea with your fingernail. So your eyes are never actually itchy."

"The "tails" on a swallowtail butterfly serve no aerodynamic purpose. They're there because birds need something to grab onto when they're trying to kill a butterfly, and they are designed to capture the attention of a bird. The bird will grab onto that tail, and it will break off, and the butterfly is free."

Ep 3

the urethra contains taste receptors/tastebud-like structures

"when eagles grip onto something, they have to flex a muscle to un-grip... So an eagle can hold onto something so hard that even after it dies, it never lets go."

most of the pyramids on Earth are in Sudan

pelicans have 3 stomachs- one of them's just for bones

"it's really easy to detect an acid. But it's not easy to detect the presence of oxygen or carbon dioxide. But when carbon dioxide meets water, like it does in our blood, it creates carbonic acid. That means that our bodies can detect the presence of carbon dioxide, but not the presence or absence of oxygen. So as we move through our lives, if we are deprived of oxygen, we have no idea that that is happening as long as we are breathing out carbon dioxide. But if we are not breathing in oxygen, we just go to sleep and we die. But if we allow the CO2 to build up, we panic. We flail. We break. Until finally, we die."

Ep 4 (folks, we were FED tonight!)

"did you know...that people can have constipation so bad that it will back up and impact their vagus nerve? And as they are finally eliminating that impacted stool, it can have a effect on the nervous system so great that they forget who they are, called constipation-related amnesia. A woman in Tokyo forgot who she was for eight hours" [I just had to fact-check this one, I could only find the one article but still jfc]

"Bones are actually living, and do you know that the reason we produce blood inside of our bones is because it's one of the places that's safest from UV radiation?"

"There are also some birds that can produce a kind of nutritious substance that they'll, that instead of regurgitating their own food, they will produce a kind of milk. It's almost like lactation, but it evolved separately. It was a case of convergent evolution. Pigeons do it."

"There are some salamanders that feed their babies their own skin."

Bonus Brennan Bird Facts

"...there are some species of birds that have a secondary pouch in their esophagus or in their digestive tract where they actually contain, referred to as a craw that has stones or other hard material to help break up food matter before it passes into the rest of their digestive tract."

"Did you know that woodpeckers have a tongue bone called a hyoid bone that wraps around their brain because...it needs to protect their brain from the impact...of...smashing into the wood of the tree to, you know devour their common meal items, which of course are grubs and larval insects."

Ep 5

you can't hum while blocking your nose

Some reptiles have a light-sensing organ on top of their head so they can sense shadows from potential predators

the bootlace worm is the longest animal in the world (not a reptile though rip)

Bonus Brennan Snake Facts!

The black mamba has been clocked going as fast as 12.5 mph, meaning it could outrun even some of the fastest humans, and since its resting speed is 7.5 mph, it would have the stamina to catch up even after a long time, since most humans run around 6 mph

the reticulated python is the longest snake in the world: not the biggest, that's the green anaconda, but the longest.

[thank u brennan for creating a personification of my special interest in snakes and repeatedly including him in things]

Ep 6

some organisms in the ocean glow when disturbed so that if they get eaten, the thing that ate them glows and is eaten. (hank says it way better, I think the ones he was talking about were dinoflagellates?)

"Did you know that the North Pole is actually a South Pole, because when you look at a compass, it points north. But the north pole of the compass is what's pointing north, and north poles point to the south poles. So when we go to the North Pole, it's actually the South Pole." (as i think siobhan said, i don't think i'm smart enough to understand that just yet, so I transcribed his exact words)

Bonus Brennan Fact (from Pasha!)

Diners came to be because people would take old decommissioned dining cars from trains and turn them into stationary eating establishments.

Bonus adventuring party facts under the cut!

Ep 1

the snake dicks are called "hemipenes"

"it's more like the penis branches at the base...they're forked dicks. But you can't see the fork at the end"

Brennan: "Some snakes breed...in a big knot"

Siobhan: "echidnas have a four-pronged penis."

Siobhan: "Kangaroos have heat-sensing penises, 'cause they have to get real deep in there...[and] wobble around in there"

Hank adds "[to] find the right path" and then says "The multipath vaginal canal is like, are you fucking kidding me?" implying that kangaroos have multipath vaginal canals

Siobhan: "Pythagoras was a communist who ran a math cult...that murdered a guy because he gave away the secret of perfect numbers."

Brennan, Danielle, and Trapp all have things to say about the invention of the chocolate chip cookie

Dan: "a staggering amount of what we consider canonical American desserts are inventions by corporations to sell flour...key lime pie is a complete marketing invention."

Ep 2

look idk if it was a joke or not, but Hank did say "It's definitely true that if you cum in space, it'd push you backwards."

(yes, I know the original quote is from the McElroys)

Ep 3 - no facts, but a cool quote from Antonio R. Damasio - "We are not thinking machines that feel, we are feeling machines that think."

Ep 4 - no facts, but soft confirmation of Elias being neurodivergent!

"this sudden moment of someone who you say a fact to, and they say a fact back, and you suddenly go, wait a minute. Which feels very, that's not how every mind works, but it's how Elias's mind works, right? For this guy, this is the thing." (Brennan)

Ep 5

From Brennan & Danielle: Paralegals don't present in court, but rather review documents and speeches and information. Maybe not a new fact to y'all, but I didn't know that!

Trapp: the "hedonic treadmill" is a term describing the way that people are always returning to sort of a base state of happiness, always looking for the next thing that will make them more happy.

#dimension 20 #d20 #original post #mentopolis #mentopolis spoilers #i guess?#fun facts #hank green #brennan lee mulligan #ongoing

80 notes · View notes

fatehbaz · 1 year

Text

A thing that I love to do is to intentionally unlearn English common names for plants and animals. Ascribing of strict formal names to living things for processing through institutionalized knowledge systems is an act of capture. And I am not interested in capturing, possessing, any creature.

What do some English common names teach us about a creature? Names are powerful. These are things that I often contemplate together in relation to each other: “folk” taxonomy, animal naming conventions, erasure of local environmental knowledge, the theft and extraction of Indigenous language and knowledge, and rare and endemic species with specific microhabitat preferences.

---

You might come to find that a creature, like a frog in the tropical Andes, is named for a museum curator in London who had never visited the Andes, or the frog is named after an eighteenth century plantation owner who contracted the European land surveyors to map the area.

There are so many creatures named after racists, eugenicists, violent colonizers. Of course, Linnaean taxonomic naming conventions were being established alongside the height of European maritime dominance, plantation slavery, and colonization of the American hemisphere, Australia, South Asia, the tropics.

A frog might be named after an imperial British adventurer who recorded the creature for audiences at European museums. They called “dibs” on the frog, despite the fact that local Indigenous communities may have had an ongoing relationship with the creature for centuries. So instead I’m interested in trying to learn a “folk” name for the creature, or instead I would apply a new name for an animal based on the geographic area, ecoregion, plant community, or ecocultural region that the creature was most closely associated with.

---

Here’s a situation:

There is a relatively little-known salamander species. It is superlative. The terrestrial adults are enormous, and can be purple-ish in color, marked with gold speckles that seem to glow like glitter. They’re one of the only salamanders on the planet that can vocalize. They live in habitat alongside grizzly bears, mountain lion, wolverine, moose, unique lichen-eating mountain caribou, land snails, big ferns. The aquatic larvae can reach lengths of over 30 centimeters (1 foot), and they live not in still water like ponds and lakes as most other salamander larvae, but instead they swim around in fast-flowing streams.

It’s an endemic species. It lives in just a few small rivers’ watersheds, mostly in small, fast-flowing, cold, clear mountain streams in temperate rainforest ecosystems in the Columbia Mountains of the Northern Rockies, almost entirely within the arbitrary political borders of the US state of “Idaho,” on the traditional land of Nimiipuu (Nez Perce) people and Schitsu’umsh (Skitswish/Coeur d’Alene) people.

And it’s official common name: “Idaho giant salamander.” Not cool. Does the salamander have a meaningful reciprocal relationship with a political entity less than 200 years old, or does the salamander have a relationship with the ancient cedars of the rainforest? Which has existed longer: the arbitrary political entity of Idaho, or the Nimiipuu people? What do some English common names teach us about a creature? Names are powerful. Is the salamander named after the streams, the source of its life? Is it named after the temperate rainforest ecoregion, this safe harbor of fertile vegetation? Does its name refer to the endemic tailed frogs or other aquatic creatures that it relies on for food? Does the name reference the Nimiipuu, who have known the amphibian for centuries? Even the region’s name (”Columbia Mountains”) is a reference to one of history’s most notorious celebrities.

---

Here’s something from Robin Wall Kimmerer:

In the English language, if we want to speak of that sugar maple or that salamander, the only grammar that we have to do so is to call those beings an “it.” [...] In Potawatomi, the cases that we have are animate and inanimate, and it is impossible in our language to speak of other living beings as “it”s. [...] [W]hen we name something, often with a scientific name, this name becomes almost an end to inquiry. We sort of say, well, we know it now. We’re able to systematize it […]. It’s such a mechanical, wooden representation of what a plant really is. And we reduce them tremendously if we just think about them [solely] as physical elements of the ecosystem. […] This comes back to what I think of as the innocent or childlike way of knowing. Actually, that’s a terrible thing to call it. We say it’s an innocent way of knowing, and, in fact, it’s a very worldly and wise way of knowing. That kind of deep attention that we pay as children is something that I cherish, that I think we all can cherish and reclaim, because attention is that doorway to gratitude, the doorway to wonder, the doorway to reciprocity.

Words of Robin Wall Kimmerer. Interviewed by Krista Tippett. “On Being with Krista Tippett - Robin Wall Kimmerer: The Intelligence in All Kinds of Life.” February 2016.

---

It’s also important to me to clarify that, when referencing an Indigenous name or term for landmarks, places, plants, animals, etc. I only really feel comfortable doing so if the name is explicitly used by and/or confirmed to be accurate by speakers, researchers, knowledge-holders, etc. from that Indigenous community. And I also don’t want to use/share a name/term if the name/term was “collected” (appropriated, extracted) by a chauvinistic white academic or paternalistic Euro-American “ethnologist” or reproduced in a 1950s ethnobotany book or something. I especially don’t like relying on the testimony of, like, Euro-American missionaries or “traders’ who recorded terms in their personal journal in the 1750s or something.

How were those terms encountered?

How were they “extracted”?

Under duress?

Were these names, this environmental knowledge, willingly shared?

What ethical implications are there, of accepting secondhand information from an invading “pioneer”?

Many times, I’ll be reading a paper, maybe a “contempoary” paper from the past 10 years, and see references to a cool-sounding place-name or alternative name for a creature, and I’ve thought “wow, the connotations of the name sound really interesting, I wonder where this was learned,” and I’ll check the bibliography, and the “Indigenous name” was taken from a 1965 academic article, which itself was taken from a 1922 ethnology article sponsored by the F0rd Motor Company in pursuit of stealing local plant knowledge and land titles for rubber plantations or something, and that info itself was taken from an 1874 report from settler-colonial surveyors interviewing “locals” while traveling in company with an ex-government employee “cowboy” who had previously murdered at least 5 of the “locals.” So that, often in Euro-American “Knowledge” or “Science”, when trying to determine the Source Of A Fact, there is this blatant lineage of theft and violence and roundabout superficial self-referencing.

Even in relatively modern academic journals. Let’s say, in the 1990s, a European academic does “field research” in Amazonia. Maybe they record an “accurate” term, and I read about it in a paper. The academic says that they have a “profound respect” for “the culture”. Does this make it OK to “take” their terms? Does this make it more acceptable to “extract” a language as if it were a resource, a possession? Does it change the fact that the sponsoring academic institution or the publishing journal are both entangled with corporate extraction and ongoing (neo)colonial financialization, dispossession, debt, etc.?

So (1) you’re presented with names/terms which are probably inaccurate and which you have no way of confirming because of the convoluted way the term was passed down through settler-colonial knowledge-systematization institutions; and/or (2) more importantly, you’re presented with names/terms stolen, often at threat of violence; or (3) even in “good” scenarios with an accurate term and a so-called self-professed “respectful observer”, you’re presented with names/terms which have great power, connected to a specific culture and landscape, which should be treated with reverence and deep care, but which can easily be stolen and appropriated by popular media, wielding the power of the name in contexts where it doesn’t belong, a betrayal to the people, place, and/or creature.

---

Names imply or explicitly reveal the life of a creature or place, and also imply the connections between the creature/place being named, and the other worlds and relationships it influences and interacts with.

If i am not from the community that conceived the term/language, (1) it doesn’t feel honorable appropriating their language for myself, especially if I don’t have ongoing personal connection to people, places; (2) it doesn’t feel honorable, or all that reliable, to accept at face value the accuracy of a language/term if it’s being reported secondhand by a Euro-American academic intermediary, especially if that language was recorded during periods when Euro-American observers were actively engaged in colonization; and (3) it doesn’t feel honorable to use what might even be accurate Indigenous language/terminology if it was recorded/learned/stolen/promoted by Euro-American observers, unless there is explicit permission from native speakers to use the word, or unless native speakers actively encourage the acknowledgement of the words, maybe for purposes like language revitalization.

There is power and knowledge in a name. using a name involves serious responsibility. i feel that some names aren’t for me to invoke.

---

I think that maybe no name can do justice to the entire rich existence of a creature, but we can really do better than some English common names, especially in those cases when an animal is named after a lone individual human. And so, in naming, there might be a difficult decision to make. Do you name a creature for its behavior, its location, its appearance, its season of activity, its prefered habitat, its companion species? Maybe you have your own, personal, relationship with the creature. A living thing has so many interweaved relationships with others. Maybe its “meaning” changes with context or season or emotional state of the human observer. Maybe I will sometimes call the “Idaho giant salamander” something more fitting. Maybe I’ll call it “the cedar salamander” or the “guardian of the waterfall pools” or “the giant of the stream” or “moss dragon” or whatever. Depends on the mood, context, whatever.

We are all of us, salamander and human, more rich and complex than associations with mere behavior, appearance, habitat preference, or the surveyors that try to capture and catalogue us. And sometimes, I’m uncomfortable enclosing us with a singular denomination, with a strict name. I don’t assume that I know enough about a living thing to possess it through formal naming conventions.

#this is all just copy pasted and slightly edited from older posts of mine on this site #but the naming conventions of the frogs in Ecaudorian tropical Andes had me thinking about this #abolition #interspecies #ecology

223 notes · View notes

star-trekkin-across-theuniverse · 4 months

Text

Shortbread, pt 4

word count: 1124 tags: @rampant-salamander, @bolontiku, @castiels-sunflowers

part 1, part 2, part 3

__________

Bucky took you to a dance hall. You hadn’t realized they were really a thing, assuming it was Hollywood trickery, but he placed your hand in the crook of his elbow, guiding you along the evening streets of Brooklyn and up the steps of a nondescript building. As the doors opened, the contagious joy of Big Band music spilled out into the crisp night air. Your delighted smile took Bucky off-guard.

“Hasn’t anyone ever taken you dancing?” He asked. You shook your head before realizing it probably wasn’t realistic to admit it.

“Never,” you admitted with some embarrassment. Bucky raised an eyebrow.

“You aren’t one of those nurses that’s actually a nun are you? I ship out soon, I don’t want that on my conscience.” He gave you a serious look and the humour that glittered in this Bucky’s eyes was replaced by the worried look Bucky sometimes wore in the future. You took in a soft breath and tried to recover, covering your surprise with a quick laugh.

“No, not at all,” you covered quickly. “Just grew up sheltered. My folks weren’t exactly delighted that I became a nurse, if you get my meaning.” You remembered learning that World War II was a turning point in legitimizing nursing as a career. Before either of the World Wars, nursing just wasn’t something good girls did. Who would go into a career where you’d see other people naked, sick or worse? Only fallen women.

Bucky tipped his head and took your appearance in. You’d done your best to try to make sure you were dressed appropriately, but the toilette of a woman in the 1940s wasn’t something you’d needed to learn in medic school.

“And no one has chased your skirt since leaving home? I find that hard to believe,” he pressed. You laughed, hoping it hid your nervousness.

“Uncle Sam’s been keeping me busy, Bucky,” you retorted. He seemed mollified by your answer, and helped you slip your coat off to leave at the coat check before leading you out onto the dance floor for a slow song. “I’m not much of a dancer.” You felt the need to apologize, and he shook his head.

“Just follow my lead, sweetheart,” he murmured, pulling you close. You were immediately aware of his body, and how close he was, and you had to keep reminding your libido that this Bucky wasn’t your Bucky. That this Bucky would probably be scandalized by the relationship you had with your Bucky. He was a confident lead, moving you around the floor gracefully. You fell silent, examining his face, and noting the small differences between your Bucky and him. He was younger, obviously, and softer. He was still muscular, as far as you could tell, but he wasn’t affected by the serum yet, so those muscles you could feel were less built. He seemed emotionally softer too. More likely to flirt and tease. Your Bucky had taken a long time to join in your ridiculous antics.

“God, you’re beautiful,” you breathed, forgetting yourself for a moment. His brow furrowed in confusion.

“Aren’t I supposed to say that to you?” He asked.

“Only if you think so,” you laughed. His eyes locked with yours and you wondered if he was looking into your soul. The look of desire he gave you was familiar, and you felt your cheeks heating in response.

“We should leave. Let’s go get a coffee,” he led you off the dance floor, and helped you into your coat. He offered his elbow, but you chose to lace your fingers with his instead. He lifted your hand and pressed a kiss against it. “You’re trouble, you know that?”

You couldn’t help but laugh and shake your head. “What’s that supposed to mean?” He stopped walking, and looked up and down the street before backing you into the brick wall of the nearest storefront.

“What it means, sweetheart, is that I’m shipping out to a war in a day, and you are making me think about after that. And that shouldn’t be happening. I shouldn’t be falling for you like this. I want to promise you more than tonight. There’s just something about you that makes me want more. I might not come home, I don’t want to make you promises I might not keep.” His breath was warm on your face, and you had to stop yourself from pulling him into a kiss.

“Maybe don’t make me promises then.” Your words were a soft exhalation. He pressed his mouth against yours in a chaste kiss and then pulled away.

“Since the moment I saw you hanging out of your window, I’ve wanted to make every promise I can to you,” he swore. There was some kind of predisposition to love him there, and he must have been feeling it too. You tried to shake the desire free and act more like a woman of his time would. As much as you wanted to do the exact opposite, you pulled away.

“How am I supposed to know you aren’t just telling me stories because you’re heading off to the war? Maybe you just picked me because you heard nurses are fast?” You asked, the words tasting like bile. Bucky looked hurt, just for a moment, before he shook his head and looked at you imploringly.

“Marry me,” he blurted. Your eyes went wide and you gasped.

“Bucky, we just met today,” you exclaimed, pushing away from him and stepping into the middle of the sidewalk, back under the streetlight.

“I know. It’s either the smartest thing I’ve ever done, or the stupidest,” he agreed.

“What if I call your bluff and say yes?”

“Father Sullivan has been my priest since I was a baby. He’ll do it for us. It’s not even late yet.” He pulled you back against him and pressed a more insistent kiss to your lips. You felt his tongue tease at your lips and opened your mouth to him. He groaned and wrapped his arms around you, directing you back against the building. His hands were everywhere, like he’d suddenly remembered how your bodies worked together, but it couldn’t be. This Bucky had never met you before. This Bucky was shipping overseas the next day, and would get taken prisoner at Azzano, and experimented on. He would help form the Howling Commandos, and be lost in action, and become the Winter Soldier. You felt tears pricking at your eyes and pulled away, panting.

“This feels right, sweetheart, tell me I’m wrong.” His words whispered across your lips.

“I’m going to look back on this and think I’m crazy, but maybe that’s the war that’s doing this,” you blurted. “Let’s go find that priest of yours.”

#bucky barnes x reader

28 notes · View notes

thelongestway · 3 months

Text

B5 first watch on the rewatch, "The Parliament of Dreams"

This was a fun episode! My B5 friend cackled that this was up my alley, and indeed a showcasing of cultures is that. I actually liked both storylines. Now I get what you all meant about the aides - poor Ko'dath! I guessed it was a makeup issue (the bane of all modern sci-fi!), but Na'toth won me over very quickly. G'Kar is such a drama king, it's hilarious; but I mean, look at all of the Narn! Ok, lol, the Centauri aren't far from that and neither are the Minbari. Londo's inner nature is a feast table; sounds about right!

We finally get to meet Lennier, about whom I know only a meme that goes "If you want to kill me, please do it quickly, I've got tons of work"? Seems to check out? Lennier quickly goes into Delenn's steel grip ("Look up. I don't need an aide who will be forever walking into things." - not an exact quote, but man, is this a good Delenn line!) and goes quiet. FOR NOW. Me to my friend: "of the ambassadors, is it only Delenn that does not sleep with literally everyone on the station?" Him: "Well, Strazhinsky is a big Tolkien fan. And specifically Delenn is Luthien." Me: wat. I guess we'll have to wait and see? There's another name I vaguely remember out of context: John Sheridan or something? Sinclair's story line is just "no ex-wives are contained within it: the TV show." It gave me Disco Elysium vibes, which explains the dialogue. :P The assassin with his bookkeeper glasses! Comedy gold! And so is Na'toth just beating the crap out of the idiot she's been trying to protect, and enjoying it more than a little. Also, I hear you folks (B5 team) also got an Emmy for the makeup in this episode? "Also" as in "the Emmy team sure does like their lizards, huh? Narn, are you the grown-up salamander babies from VOY?" The two giddy Narn as they ferry the assassin out are glorious. Those two look like kids who got their hands on A PILE of ice cream. :P "Have a pleasant flight!" Minbari "jokes" about accidentally marrying people are indeed very elvish. :P I was honestly thinking Sinclair was going to do a showcasing of space exploration as humanity's dream. But no, we go into theology instead (starting with atheism, ha). There are a lot of things wrong with the line - for some reason it assumes the religions are the same as in contemporaneity, etc - but it legit surprised me.

#b5 rewatch #babylon 5 #b5 #sorry I'm late with this one but February isn't easy :P

23 notes · View notes

majickth · 1 year

Note

Hi I just found the HH au and. MMMMMMMMMM I LOVE IT.

What's up with Xisuma? Does EX exist? If so, are they siblings? One is a doppelganger? Maybe someone made a machine (surprisingly not being Doc this time cough Beef cough) that splits people apart?

Also are there any LARPers in the Hollow?

They are — were — brothers.

Accidents happen. That’s what folks say between half-hearted platitudes and uneasy glances. Kids get rowdy. Siblings fight. Sometimes a push becomes a shove that goes too far and someone falls and…and accidents happen.

But accidents can be fixed.

A night in a cemetery, a deal with a butcher, a threat to an undertaker — they become the needle and thread to patch things together. Make things right again.

Accidents can be fixed.

Insect wings and salamander tails and crooked bones. Etchings on a broken bridge. Promises to brimstone, to the moon, to the Void. To fill the spaces left behind by a single careless mistake.

Accidents can be fixed.

They are still brothers, even if an old obituary says otherwise, even if one is ostracized as a troublemaker, even if the other’s bones bend and words buzz and their shadow is no longer there.

Accidents can never be fixed.

Also Gem is 100% into LARPing and is trying to get her roommates to join in :]

#hermits hollow au #ex is just an angsty little punk #and x never quite came back right

269 notes · View notes

evolutionsvoid · 2 months

Text

The Waniguchi is a rather visually striking species of amphibian that is found far east, dwelling within the many rivers and ponds. While some may assume it a kind of lizard at first glance, these creatures are actually large salamanders, bearing wide round heads and damp scaleless skin. What may cause this confusion are the numerous hardened bumps that dot their hide, perhaps giving the impression of scales. Some of these hardened circles grow to bigger sizes, providing a sort of crude armor for the salamander. Also running along its body are notable crests, believed to aid the males in winning over mates. While they are quite flashy, most people are drawn more to the head of the Waniguchi, which is said to have quite the signature shape and markings to it. The locals have likened it to a special bell that they have, due to its rounded flat appearance. Thus this species gained their name from that very bell!

When it comes to their daily lives, Waniguchi pretty much spend their time either sleeping or waiting. They lurk on the bottom of water bodies, typically hiding in burrows, under rocks or tucked into crevices. They feed upon fish, crustaceans, worms and bugs, or any small aquatic critter that swims too close. Their mouths open wide to suck in prey, and then a multitude of tiny sharp teeth to grab hold! Anything they catch, they swallow whole, and then they either go back to waiting for more food, or simply fall asleep to digest the day's catch. Not a complicated lifestyle, but there is certainly beauty in simplicity! And I am sure there are some folk that are envious of an easy life of just eating and sleeping!

While the Waniguchi is by no means an utterly bizarre or crazy creature, what is interesting to note is its place in local culture. I mentioned before that the people have named it after a bell of theirs, but that isn't where things ended. These calm, simple amphibians are seen as protective spirits or guardians, which appears to be a common theme with salamanders in this region. They are also said to be wise, and their mere presence can bring about blessings. Thus, Waniguchi have been taken in as pets and shrine animals, given a place to live within sacred pools and ponds. If you find yourself at any shrine that has an ornamental water body near it, you can be sure a Waniguchi lives within it! The caretakers of these places feed them and ensure their ponds are in perfect condition, as it is vital to keep the salamanders happy! It should be noted that it is decades of breeding these salamanders that has led to the domesticated breeds having such beautiful head patterns. I can't imagine the amount of work it took to get them to have such a similar look to the bells themselves! That being said, the wild ones do not have nearly as intricate of a design to them, being much more muddled, mottled and dull. Regardless, they are treated with the same level of respect, and it is illegal to harass them or harm them in any way. I should point out that this includes throwing coins and random crap into their ponds! There are special fountains and boxes to put coins and donations, you clods! If you chuck that stuff into their pools, there is a chance they may swallow them, get sick or even die! So read the signs, respect the rules and keep your garbage out of their homes! Do know that if I catch you breaking that rule, than I too will partake in reckless stupid behavior and toss you into the pool too!

Chlora Myron

Dryad Natural Historian

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

"Waniguchi"

Not much to really say with this one, as I was not able to learn much about the Waniguchi yokai, but it was kind of funny that descriptions often called the bell shape "crocodilian" meanwhile the giant salamander is just sitting right there with the roundish flat head.

#waniguchi #yokai #monster #creature #amphibian #salamander #art #drawing

25 notes · View notes

scrivenger-grimgar · 7 months

Text

buckle up folks, its a long one

the Hatake turn into an animal during puberty, any animal and any Hatake-by-blood. after 24 hours, they turn human again and can then form contracts with bonded animals of their type.

adoption by blood is the Hatake's most coveted jutsu, though entirely unknown by other clans. the adopted lack the Hatake white chakra, but their children will have it!

Kakashi turns into a samoyed dog and this sparks great joy for Team Minato. this is why he has a bunch of dogs.

Sakumo is an arctic gray wolf and could bond with Fire Country's wolf packs.

Orochimaru is a blue coral snake. he adopted Anko, who is a boomslang snake, as well as his other kids; Kimimaro is a pangolin, Suigetsu is a leopard seal, Jugo is a tiger, and Karin is a giant river otter

Touka is a grizzly bear. she has several sun bear friends just to freak out the Senju elders.

Tobirama is a clouded leopard, and specifically took on missions to new places to look for leopards of different kinds, along with Touka for cousin-sibling bonding time!

if Kakashi starts using the blood adoption jutsu on his friends/students, well... that's clan business.

Sasuke turns into a nightjar! Itachi is a crow (obvs), and Shisui is a raven.

now, Kakashi didn't adopt Shisui. Shisui is Kagami's grandson, and Kagami was adopted by Tobirama, meaning Shisui has the Hatake white chakra! Kagami is a magpie.

Naruto becomes a maned wolf, which... well. Kakashi helps him find as many bush dogs and falkland wolves as possible, but they're rather rare critters.

Sakura becomes a lynx. she enjoys scaring the shit out of people with her calls.

Genma becomes a Komodo dragon, Hayate is a raccoon, Yugao a stoat

Sai is a burrowing owl, Iruka is an hourglass dolphin, Izumo is a sea eagle, and Kotetsu is a leopard shark.

Ino becomes a secretary bird, Shikamaru turns into an elk, and Choji is a giant salamander

Asuma is a gecko, Kurenai is a mocking bird, Tsunade is a bison, and Tenten is a porcupine!

Kiba is a borzoi and Hana is a newfoundlander

Hinata is a flemish giant rabbit and Neji is a badger

45 notes · View notes