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mijh · 3 years

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these are maned wolves (my ocs from wolfwalker ) and are not a mother and her cub, but two friends. 👍🥰😁🧡

about maned wolf:

Guara wolf From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia How to read a taxonomy infoxoxy-maned wolf [1] Occurrence: Pleistocene - Recent Maned wolf in the Serra da Canastra National Park Maned wolf in the Serra da Canastra National Park conservation state Almost threatened Almost threatened (IUCN 3.1) [2] Scientific classification Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Mammalia Order: Carnivora Family: Canidae Genre: Chrysocyon Smith, 1839 Species: C. brachyurus Binomial name Chrysocyon brachyurus Illiger, 1815 Type species Canis jubatus Desmarest, 1820 Geographic distribution Maned Wolf range.png Synonyms [3] Canis brachyurus Illiger, 1811 Canis campestris Wied-Neuwied, 1826 Canis isodactylus Ameghino, 1909 Canis jubatus Desmarest, 1820 Vulpes cankerosa Oken, 1816 The maned wolf (scientific name: Chrysocyon brachyurus) is a species of canid endemic to South America and the only member of the genus Chrysocyon. Probably the closest living species is the vinegar dog (Speothos venaticus). It occurs in savannas and open areas in central Brazil, Paraguay, Argentina and Bolivia, being a typical animal of the Cerrado. It was extinct in part from its occurrence to the south, but it must still occur in Uruguay. On July 29, 2020 the maned wolf was chosen to symbolize the two hundred reais bill.

It is the largest canid in South America, reaching between 20 and 30 kg in weight and up to 90 cm at the height of the withers. Its long, slender legs and dense reddish coat give it an unmistakable appearance. The maned wolf is adapted to the open environments of the South American savannas, being a twilight and omnivorous animal, with an important role in the dispersion of seeds of fruits of the cerrado, mainly the lobeira (Solanum lycocarpum). Lonely, the territories are divided between a couple, who are in the period of the female's estrus. These territories are quite wide, and may have an area of up to 123 km². Communication takes place mainly through scent marking, but vocalizations similar to barking also occur. Gestation lasts up to 65 days, with black newborns weighing between 340 and 430 g.

Despite not being considered in danger of extinction by the IUCN, all the countries in which it occurs classify it in some degree of threat, although the real situation of the populations is not known. It is estimated that there are about 23 thousand animals in the wild, being a popular animal in all zoos. It is threatened mainly because of the destruction of the cerrado to expand agriculture, pedestrian accidents, hunting and diseases caused by domestic dogs. However, it is adaptable and tolerant of changes caused by humans. The maned wolf currently occurs in areas of Atlantic Forest already deforested, where it did not originally occur.

Some communities carry superstitions about the maned wolf and may even harbor a certain aversion to the animal. But in general, the maned wolf provokes sympathy in humans and is therefore used as a flag species in the conservation of the Cerrado.

Index 1 Etymology 2 Taxonomy and evolution 3 Geographic distribution and habitat 4 Description 5 Behavior and ecology 5.1 Diet and foraging 5.2 Territory, area of life and social behavior 5.3 Reproduction and life cycle 6 Conservation 7 Cultural aspects 7.1 Representations in cash 8 References 9 External links Etymology The maned wolf is also known as maned, watered, aguaraçu, mane wolf, mane wolf or red wolf. [4] [5] The term wolf originates from the Latin lupus. [4] Guará and aguará originated from the Tupi-Guarani agoa'rá, "down hair". [6] Aguaraçu came from the term for "guará grande". [4] Tupi-Guarani names of origin are more common in Argentina and Paraguay (aguará guazú), but other Spanish-speaking countries have other names like boroche in Bolivia and wolf of crin in Peru. [7] Lobo de crin (in Spanish) and maned wolf (in English) are allusions to the mane of the nape of the neck. [7]

Taxonomy and evolution

It is one of the endemic canids of South America. Phylogenetic relationships of South American canids. [8]

Chrysocyon brachyurus - maned wolf

Speothos venaticus - vinegar dog

Atelocynus microtis - short-eared bush dog

Cerdocyon thous - bush dog

Lycalopex genus - South American foxes

Phylogeny inferred from mitochondrial and nuclear DNA data. The species was described in 1815, by Johann Karl Wilhelm Illiger, initially as Canis brachyurus. [3] Lorenz Oken classified it as Vulpes cancosa, and only in 1839, Charles Hamilton Smith described the genus Chrysocyon. [3] Later, other authors considered him to be a member of the genus Canis. [3]

Despite having belonged to the genera Canis and Vulpes, due to their morphological similarities, the maned wolf is not closely related to these genera. [9] Molecular studies have shown no relationship between the Chrysocyon genus and these canids. [8] [10] The maned wolf is one of the endemic canids of South America, along with the bush dog (Cerdocyon thous ), the vinegar dog (Speothus venaticus) and the genus Lycalopex. [8] Such a group is monophyletic according to genetic studies, but morphological studies include Nyctereutes procyonoides, who is originally from Asia. [8]A study comparing the brain anatomy of several canids, published in 2003, placed the maned wolf as akin to the falkland fox (Dusicyon australis) and the genus Lycalopex (considered by the authors as Pseudalopex). [11] Molecular studies corroborate that the maned wolf has a unique common ancestor with the falkland fox, which lived approximately 6 million years ago. [12] [13]However, recent genetic studies place the maned wolf as the closest phylogenetically to the vinegar dog (Speothos venaticus), forming a clade that is a sister group to another to which all other South American canids belong, such as the canine dog. short-eared bush (Atelocynus microtis), the bush dog (Cerdocyon thous) and the genus Lycalopex. [8] [10] This clade diverged from other South American canids about 4.2 million years ago, and the Chrysocyon and Speothos genera diverged about 3 million years ago. [8]Not many maned wolf fossils are known and those that were discovered originate from the Holocene and the Upper Pleistocene, unearthed in the Brazilian plateau, indicating that the species also evolved only in the open areas of Central Brazil. [14] Nor are subspecies recognized. [15]Geographic distribution and habitatThe Cerrado is the main habitat of the maned wolf. The maned wolf is an endemic canid from South America and inhabits the grasslands and thickets of the center of that continent. Its geographic distribution extends from the mouth of the Parnaíba River, in the Northeast of Brazil, through the lowlands of Bolivia, east of the Pampas del Heath, in Peru and the Paraguayan chaco, to Rio Grande do Sul. [3] Evidence of the maned wolf's presence in Argentina can be found up to Parallel 30, with recent sightings in Santiago del Estero. [2] Probably the maned wolf still occurs in Uruguay, given that a specimen was spotted in 1990, but since then there has been no record of the species in the country. [2]It is a fact that the maned wolf has disappeared in many regions at the southern limits of its geographical distribution, occurring almost only up to the border of Rio Grande do Sul with Uruguay. [16] Interestingly, the deforestation of the Atlantic Forest in the southeastern and eastern regions of Brazil favored the expansion of its geographic distribution to areas where it did not previously inhabit. [16] For this reason, records in Atlantic Forest areas in Paraná, São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Minas Gerais have increased in recent years. [5] In the Pantanal the maned wolf occurs in highlands in the upper Paraguay, but avoids the lowlands of the Pantanal plain. [5] There are sporadic records of the species in transition areas between the Cerrado and the Amazon and the Caatinga. [5] The species can occur above 1,500 meters in altitude. [5]The maned wolf habitat is mainly characterized by open fields, with shrub vegetation and forest areas with open canopy, being a typical animal of the Cerrado. [15] It can also be found in areas that experience periodic flooding and man-made fields. [15] The maned wolf prefers environments with a low amount of shrubs and sparse vegetation. [15] More closed areas are used for rest during the day, especially in regions that have been greatly altered anthropically. [17] In these altered areas it can be seen in cultivated fields, Eucalyptus plantations and even in suburban areas. [18] Although the species can occur in anthropic environments, further studies are needed to quantify the degree of tolerance of the maned wolf to agricultural activities, but some authors suggest the preference for areas modified by man as opposed to well-preserved forest areas. [5] [15]DescriptionThe skull is similar to that of the wolf and the coyote. It is the largest canid in South America, reaching between 95 and 115 cm in length, with a tail measuring between 38 and 50 cm in length and reaching up to 90 cm at the height of the withers. [15] It weighs between 20.5 and 30 kg, with no significant differences in the weight of males and females. [15] It is an animal difficult to confuse with other South American canids, because of its long and thin legs, dense reddish coat and large ears. [15] The species' slender shape is probably an adaptation to displacement in open areas covered by grasses. [3]It is unmistakable among South American canids, being the largest among them. The body coat varies from golden red to orange and the hairs on the back of the neck and feet are black, with no undercoat in the coat. [3] The lower part of the jaw and the tip of the tail are white. [3] The hairs are long, reaching up to 8 cm in length along the body, forming a type of mane on the animal's neck. [7] There is almost no variation in the color of the coat, and it is not possible to identify individuals or sex from hair color, although an entirely black individual has already been recorded in northern Minas Gerais. [7] [19]The shape of the head looks like that of a fox. The snout is slender and the ears are large. [3] However, the skull is similar to that of the wolf (Canis lupus) and the coyote (Canis latrans). [3] The skull also has a prominent sagittal crest. The butcher tooth is reduced, the upper incisors small and the canines long. [3] Like the other canids, it has 42 teeth with the following dental formula: {\ displaystyle {\ tfrac {3.1.4.2} {3.1.4.3}} \ times 2 = 42} \ tfrac {3.1.4.2} {3.1.4.3} \ times 2 = 42 [20] Similar to the vinegar dog (Speothos venaticus), the maned wolf's rhyme extends to the upper lip, but the vibrissae are longer. [3]The maned wolf's footprints are similar to those of the dog, but have the pads disproportionately small when compared to the digits of the digits, which are wide open. [21] [22] The dog has foot pads up to 3 times larger than the maned wolf's footprints. [22] These pillows are triangular in shape. [22] The front footprints are between 7 and 9 cm long and 5.5 and 7 cm wide, and those on the back legs are between 6.5 and 9 cm long and 6.5 to 8.5 cm wide. [22 ] A characteristic that differentiates the maned wolf's footprints from that of other South American canids is the proximal union of the third and fourth digits. [3]Geneticame n the maned wolf has 38 chromosomes, with a karyotype similar to that of other canids. [3] Genetic diversity suggests that 15,000 years ago the species suffered a reduction in its diversity, called the bottleneck effect. Even so, this genetic diversity is greater than that of other canids. [5]average 0.7 seconds in 2 to 4 second intervals, a sequence that is repeated for up to 23 times. [7] Both males and females vocalize. [7] They tend to vocalize more at night, when they can be heard from several meters away. [35] Despite being associated with territoriality, vocalizations are more frequent among young people from the same territory, suggesting that they are only a sign for contact over great distances between known individuals and not for the defense of territory. [35]Direct social interactions are rare and maned wolves seem to avoid each other. [7] Agonistic encounters are rare but occur mainly between males, and have not been seen among females. [32] This results in almost no overlap in the male territories. [32]

Reproduction and life cycle

The puppies are born weighing between 340 and 430 g and have a reddish coat after the tenth week As in the diet, most of the data on the maned wolf's estrus and reproductive cycle comes from animals in captivity, mainly on the endocrinology of reproduction. [33] However, studies of animals in freedom have found that hormonal changes follow the same pattern of variation as animals in captivity. [33] At first females spontaneously ovulate, but some authors suggest that the presence of a male is important for estrus induction. [33]

Captive animals in the northern hemisphere breed between October and February and in the southern hemisphere between August and October. This indicates that the photoperiod has an important role in the reproduction of the maned wolf, mainly due to the production of semen. [3] [33] Usually estrus occurs annually [3] and the amount of sperm produced by the maned wolf is less when compared to that of other canids. [33]

Copulations take place during the 4-day period of estrus and are followed by up to 15 minutes of copulatory engagement. [3] The courtship behavior is no different from that of other canids, characterized by frequent approximations and anogenital investigation. [26]

The gestation lasts about 65 days, being born between 2 and 5 puppies, but 7 puppies have already been registered. [3] Births in May have already been observed in the Serra da Canastra, but captivity data suggest that births are concentrated between June and September. [5] The few data available on reproduction in the wild show that the maned wolf reproduces with difficulty and the mortality of young is high. Females can stay up to 2 years without reproducing. [33]

In captivity, reproduction is even more difficult, especially in temperate countries in the northern hemisphere. [33] The puppies are born weighing between 340 and 430 grams, black and changing to a reddish color after the tenth week. [3] The eyes open at about 9 days of age. [3] They are breastfed up to 4 months and fed by their parents through regurgitation until 10 months, starting at the 3rd week of age. [25] [26] At three months of age the puppies accompany the mother while she forages. [25] Parental care is shared between male and female, but females do this more often. [25] Data on male parental care have been collected from captive animals, and little is known about whether this occurs frequently in wild animals. [26] Sexual maturity is reached at 1 year of age and after that age they leave the territory in which they were born. [26]

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a-dinosaur-a-day · 4 years

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Pica

Black-Billed Magpie by USFWS, in the Public Domain

Etymology: Magpie

First Described By: Brisson, 1760

Classification: Dinosauromorpha, Dinosauriformes, Dracohors, Dinosauria, Saurischia, Eusaurischia, Theropoda, Neotheropoda, Averostra, Tetanurae, Orionides, Avetheropoda, Coelurosauria, Tyrannoraptora, Maniraptoromorpha, Maniraptoriformes, Maniraptora, Pennaraptora, Paraves, Eumaniraptora, Averaptora, Avialae, Euavialae, Avebrevicauda, Pygostaylia, Ornithothoraces, Euornithes, Ornithuromorpha, Ornithurae, Neornithes, Neognathae, Neoaves, Inopinaves, Telluraves, Australaves, Eufalconimorphae, Psittacopasserae, Passeriformes, Eupasseres, Passeri, Euoscines, Corvides, Corvoidea, Corvidae, Corvinae

Referred Species: P. mourerae, P. pica (Eurasian Magpie), P. serica (Oriental Magpie), P. bottanensis (Black-Rumped Magpie), P. asirensis (Asir Magpie), P. mauritanica (Maghreb Magpie), P. nuttalli (Yellow-Billed Magpie), P. hudsonia (Black-Billed Magpie)

Status: Extinct - Extant, Endangered - Least Concern

Time and Place: From 3.6 million years ago until today, from the Piacenzian of the Pliocene through the Holocene

Magpies are known from all around the Northern Hemisphere

Physical Description: Magpies are beautiful, if fairly recognizable Corvids, famed from all over the Northern Hemisphere for their cleverness and beautiful plumage. They can range in size from 43 to 60 centimeters long, with the Yellow-Billed Magpie reaching the smallest sizes and the Black-Billed reaching the largest. This makes them rather large as far as songbirds are concerned, though they are still significantly smaller than the Ravens and Crows that they’re close cousins to. Magpies tend to have black backs, heads, and necks, with varying levels of black on their bodies; they then have white bellies and white tops to their wings. The rest of their wings, and tails, can be black - or an iridescent mixture of colors on a black background. These colors vary from species to species, but can be blue, green, and purple-ish tinted - at least one species can even blend into the yellow-brown range. They have thick, strongly clawed toes; and they have very large, thick beaks, like other Corvids. They have short to medium sized wings as well, indicating their adapted ability for flying between and among thick trees.

Oriental Magpie by Yoo Chung, CC BY-SA 2.5

Diet: Magpies are creative, opportunistic omnivores - they literally will eat anything. Insects, small vertebrates, eggs, carrion, leaves, fruit, seeds, your leftover pizza, that hamburger it found on the street, falafel, rice, a heaping load of spaghetti - literally, anything. It will eat anything. Hide your food.

Behavior: Magpies are clever little buggers, with complex behaviors and extensive social communication. They tend to feed on the ground, usually with other Magpies, and even in mixed-species flocks depending on the abundance of food. They’ll Pick food up from the ground and dig into soil and litter, flipping over all sorts of things to look for food - including trash and poop. They’ll also hunt live food from perches in trees, or make traps to catch flies and other insects. Some will also stick around with predators and larger scavengers, looking for roadkill and other sources of meat that could be easily gotten from. They often will also store the food, in crevices and trees and the like, though usually they don’t leave the food for long and go to pick it up in a few days. The walk around and strut, usually fearlessly, attempting to catch whatever food they can; thousands of them can often be found foraging together, and using their unique cleverness to track down food.

Black-Billed Magpie by the USFWS, in the Public Domain

Magpies are some of the smartest known animals - with large brain to body mass ratios, similar to those of cetaceans and primates; the region of their brains that works on cognitive tasks and higher thought processes is of a similar size to those found in chimpanzees and even close to those of people. As such, Magpies - much like their cousins the ravens - are some of the smartest animals alive today, probably holding second place after humans. They have high levels of social cognition, reasoning, flexibility, imagination, and ability to evaluate and predict the future. They also have very elaborate social rituals - they are able to recognize themselves, even in the mirror; and they show grief and rituals around the deaths of family members and friends. They also use tools, and use their experiences to predict the behavior of others. This knowledge of tool use is passed on from generation to generation, and modified as well - so they also have culture and rituals. They can count, imitate people, recognize words, and use tools to clean their own cages. They tend to form gangs in the wild, and use complex strategies in order to gather food and stick together. They also will ant - ie, apply ants to their plumage in order to prevent parasites and irritation - and sun-bathe to stay warm.

Maghreb Magpie by Charles J. Sharp, CC BY-SA 4.0

These birds roost communally and fly quite slowly over their ranges, usually interspersing their flaps with gliding to conserve energy. They make calls to flock members with regular frequency, mainly chattering and squeaking calls, as well as warbling songs and mimicry. Some species tend to have larger vocabularies than others, though they all make similar calls. Begging from the young sounds about as high pitched and peeping as one would expect. They have dominance hierarchies within the flocks formed during the non-breeding season, and dominant individuals in the flocks can and do steal food from the subordinate individuals. Interestingly enough, the younger males tend to dominate the older ones - though that may be more of a tolerance thing than anything else. These birds don’t tend to migrate, though they do move from place to place in response to climate and food availability.

Black-Rumped Magpie

Magpies are monogamous, possibly staying with the same partner for their entire lives, and multiple sets of parents will work together to tend for the nests and care for the young. They start laying eggs in the winter, though usually most eggs are laid in the early spring. The parents will build the nests together, with the male bringing materials and the female doing the building. This usually takes a couple of weeks, and at the end the pair have a large domed structure made of sticks and twigs - a very deep cup, lined with soft wool, fur, grasses, and feathers. A fresh nest is built every year, even though the pairs stay together; they’re usually built in trees, usually near to the top, though buildings are sometimes used. Old nests are sometimes reused, if they were particularly good and lasted that whole time. They lay between two and nine eggs, though of course four to six is the most common number; and they are incubated mostly by the female for about two weeks. Both sexes will then feed the chicks, while the female does most of the watching and caring for them at the nest - leaving the male in charge of gathering the food and helping to fend off predators. Other pairs may come to help - usually relatives or friends. The young will leave the nest after a month to two months, and young in the nests may come together with other young - especially if there was a communal brooding situation - to form a creche of juveniles their own age. Honestly, it’s almost like a school class in some ways, with how they behave with each other and socialize and learn from the adults. They reach sexual maturity in about one to two years, and live for six years in the wild.

Juvenile Eurasian Magpie by Cyberolm, CC BY-SA 4.0

Speaking of friends - yes, magpies have been known to befriend humans, or at least have interactions with them. They are tame and friendly in areas where they’re left undisturbed, and in areas where they are shot at or bothered, they are defensive against humans coming into their areas. This can vary wildly, as they used to be considered viable game birds, but today they aren’t hunted as much and tend to be a little less on guard. They defend their nests violently against humans, and do not abandon them except as a last resort. Parents will mob people looking in on the nests - even scientists - especially if they are repeat offenders. But, since they recognize people’s faces, they are able to tell friend from foe (or perceived foe) and will seek out humans who give them treats or protection.

Asir Magpie by Mansur Al Fahad

Ecosystem: Magpies stick to woodland and forests, though they do venture into more suburban and developed areas depending on the availability of trees. They will also inhabit open country, so long as there are some scattered trees available. Magpies can be found in all sorts of elevations, including in the mountains and as high as 4400 meters up into them. Some species, such as the Yellow-Billed, can tolerate warmer temperatures than others. Those that encroach on human habitat are often considered pests. While they do have predators, most are killed by West-Nile virus, to which they are particularly susceptible.

Eurasian Magpie by Andreas Eichler, CC BY-SA 4.0

Other: Magpies are Corvids, so they’re cousins with all the other ridiculously smart passerine birds, making the question of “are members of the genus Corvus or the genus Pica smarter” rather one of splitting hairs. In the end, both genera showcase extreme intelligence, and are either the second smartest animals or close to it. Honestly, if they were smarter than humans I wouldn’t be surprised - they show culture and the ability to pass down learned things from generation to generation, and they might just be smart enough to not fucking destroy the planet (unlike us). Anyways, Magpies are often thought of as pests for their ability to get at sources of human food and also steal the eggs of birds with more pretty songs, so birders actually hate them. However, they don’t actually have a negative impact on the song-bird population. Most Magpies aren’t threatened with extinction and have populations in the thousands, though the Yellow-Billed species is vulnerable due to poisons used to take care of squirrels, and the Asir species is endangered due to a restricted range and decreasing suitable habitat.

Yellow-Billed Magpie by Bill Bouton, CC BY-SA 2.0

Species Differences: The different species of Magpie differ primarily on coloration and range, as their sizes tend to be very similar. The Eurasian Magpie is often synonymized with the Oriental and Black-Rumped Magpies; whether or not these are three different species of bird is a bit of a taxonomical question. These birds range all over Eurasia - as the name suggests - with the “Oriental” subspecies (species?) being found more in Eastern Asia, and the Black-Rumped subspecies (species?) also found in Eastern Asia. At least a few varieties have a purple tail and dark blue wings; while others are more green on both the wing and tail, with only the tail tip coming out as purple. Asir Magpies are the only Magpies known from Saudi Arabia; they have dark blue wings and brownish tails, which end in a purple tip. The Maghreb Magpie is known from Northwestern Africa, and has a complete rainbow-colored tail and blue wings. The Yellow-Billed Magpie is especially distinct from the rest in having a yellow bill and yellow patches around the eyes (while the other species have black bills and black patches); they have blue wings and blueish-purple tails, and are found in California. Finally, the Black-Billed Magpie is found in the rest of North America (though not the eastern portion of the continent, or the southern), and has blue wings and a rainbow tail. There is one extinct species, P. mourerae, from the Pliocene of Spain; it seems to be very similar to living species except for that it wasn't as good of a flier - and it may have even be flightless, due to the fact that it lived on an island!

~ By Meig Dickson

Sources Under the Cut

Bekoff, M. (2009). "Animal emotions, wild justice and why they matter: Grieving magpies, a pissy baboon, and empathic elephants". Emotion, Space and Society. 2 (2): 1–4.

Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, D. Roberson, T. A. Fredericks, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2017. The eBird/Clements checklist of birds of the world: v2017

del Hoyo, J., Collar, N. & Christie, D.A. (2019). Maghreb Magpie (Pica mauritanica). In: del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A., Sargatal, J., Christie, D.A. & de Juana, E. (eds.). Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona.

Emery, Nathan J.; Clayton, Nicola S. (Dec 2004). "The mentality of crows: convergent evolution of intelligence in corvids and apes". Science. 306 (5703): 1903–1907.

Madge, S. & Kirwan, G.M. (2019). Asir Magpie (Pica asirensis). In: del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A., Sargatal, J., Christie, D.A. & de Juana, E. (eds.). Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona.

Madge, S., Christie, D.A. & Kirwan, G.M. (2019). Eurasian Magpie (Pica pica). In: del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A., Sargatal, J., Christie, D.A. & de Juana, E. (eds.). Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona.

Marzluff, J. & de Juana, E. (2019). Black-billed Magpie (Pica hudsonia). In: del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A., Sargatal, J., Christie, D.A. & de Juana, E. (eds.). Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona.

Marzluff, J. & Sharpe, C.J. (2019). Yellow-billed Magpie (Pica nutalli). In: del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A., Sargatal, J., Christie, D.A. & de Juana, E. (eds.). Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona.

Mourer-Chauvire, C., J. A. Alcover, S. Moya and J. Pons. 1980. Une nouvelle forme insulaire d'effraie geante, Tyto balearica n. sp. (Aves, Strigiformes), du Plio-Pleistocene des Baleares. Geobios 13(5):803-811.

Parmalee, P. W. 1992. A late Pleistocene avifauna from northwestern Alabama. Science Series, Los Angeles Museum of Natural History, Science, and Art 36:307-318.

Segui, B. 2001. A new species of Pica (Aves: Corvidae) from the Plio-Pleistocene of Mallorca, Balearic Islands (Western Mediterranean). Geobios 34(3):339-347.

Wetmore, A. 1962. Notes on fossil and subfossil birds. Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections 145(2):1-17.

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purple-spring · 6 years

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the vocabulary of us

Summary: Sometimes, words won't suffice to describe a love like theirs. Unless, of course, they're in alphabetical order. (Part 1 of 2)

Author’s Note: This is my tribute to the amazing David Leviathan, and his incredible book The Lovers’ Dictionary. The dictionary format that this fic has taken is not mine, and I use it here in homage to Leviathan.

Furthermore, this is a work of fiction. While it is based on a number of real-life events (filming of Riverdale 1.06, the Antelope Valley shoot, Comic-Con, the SH Hawaii trip, among many others), it is purely speculative, and was not intended to upset or offend.

Thank you to @jandjsalmon and @theatreofexpression for your incredible beta work, and to @stark, @gingerheel, @a92vm and @amab1060 for reading over this at different points and your valuable input.

Read under the cut, or on Ao3.

aperture (noun)

I wanted to capture you on film the moment I first met you.

The lighting, at least from a photographer’s perspective, wasn’t ideal; you were lit by nothing more than the fluorescent gleam of the lights overhead. There was no natural sunlight in that audition room - just an artificial pallor that made all of us look greyish and pale.

Not you, though.

That day, you were radiance and lustre and fire. Beyond the sudden certainty in my gut that I wanted to look at you for an unusually long period of time, there was something about you that day that drew me in. I averted my gaze - I didn’t want to come off as a creep - but every nerve in my body insisted on the contrary. I ignored them. Reluctantly.

What was it, though, that pulled me under? Perhaps it was your steely conviction, or your absolute, unflinching belief in yourself, both so evident in the way that you kept your head down, your eyes fixed on your script. Whatever it was, it was palpable - glaringly apparent to anyone who saw you (ask Cami. She was there. She knew it, too).

I didn’t photograph you that day. But maybe it’s for the best.

There are some things that are better captured by the unfiltered, evanescent lens of memory.

…

banter (noun)

Should I have been surprised at the rapid accumulation of teasing remarks between us? My underlying, deliberate flirtation and your coy return?

One time, I threw out a joke - a half-insult, really - that would’ve thwarted a lesser being. To see if you would take it. To see how far I could push you.

I wasn’t prepared. You smiled, drew yourself up like a pistol, then roasted me so magnificently that my friends gasped, and couldn’t stop laughing for ages.

I fell so fucking hard for you that night.

…

confirm (verb)

When I sensed the turning of the tide, I FaceTimed Dylan. He was puttering around his apartment, occasionally turning towards his phone, which was propped up on the kitchen benchtop. I asked him when he’d be back in LA.

“Two weeks, if the meeting with the William Vale contractors goes well, otherwise I’ll have to stick around here and push the trip back,” he said. “Why?”

“I want you to meet her.” I cleared my throat. “Lili, I mean.”

At the mention of your name - a name he had heard many a time over the last few months - he turned right around. I stared back at him, hoping that the implication was obvious enough that I didn’t need to elucidate why I wanted him to meet you . My once-mirror image, his hair golden as mine used to be, fixed his eyes on me and nodded sagely.

“Alright.”

That day on the beach, you couldn’t have been more perfect if you tried. You cooed over photos of Magnus. You asked him about the brewery. Your interest didn’t even waver as he segued into an impromptu lecture on how to use squash blossoms to infuse mead. You both discovered an affinity for laughing at my expense, which I didn’t mind (at least not from you; he just likes being a dick).

When you left, he and I hung back at the beach in companionable silence, staring at the horizon while finishing off our beers. He spoke up first.

“So… did you need, I don’t know, my blessing or something?”

I shrugged. “I just wanted to know what you thought of her.”

“You want my honest opinion?”

I sat up. “Yeah. I do.”

He polished off the rest of his drink, then looked at me, his face absolutely deadpan. “Cole, I’m sorry. She’s way too good for you.”

I laughed my head off. “Fuck off, dude.”

“Love you, too, baby bro.”

...

draft (noun)

In my mind, I wrote and rewrote what I was going to say to you. It needed to be heartfelt, but not too sentimental. Articulate, but not overly verbose (as I often tend to be).

It haunted me, the thought of this hypothetical speech.

...

envelope (verb)

It would all prove futile.

I wanted to enrapture you with my words.

Instead, I wrapped you up in my arms.

…

found (verb)

Had I been lost before that moment? Because as I slipped in behind your sleeping form and you tensed for a brief, fearful moment before melting achingly into mine, I felt as though I existed only in the places where our bodies touched, and all the rest of me was smoke.

We fell asleep together on the couch. Actually, that’s a lie - you fell asleep while I grinned stupidly at the ceiling for what seemed like hours. I felt like I was discovering someone new that night. Not you: I was already learning you like most things I’ve learned in my life - passionately, persistently, obsessively.

I was discovering myself. Like a man seeing his reflection in the mirror after months in the wilderness, I was startled by the person I’d become.

He was happy. At peace. And he was falling in love.

...

green (noun)

When I was in college, I took a class on art theory and criticism at Gallatin, where we did a whole two weeks on colour symbolism. Red is passion, anger, lust, love. White is purity, innocence, perfection. Etc, etc. You get the point.

Now, as for green.

“The etymology of green is simple,” my professor - the artist Meleto Mokosi - said as he paced around the lecture room stage. “It comes from the Old English word grene, which has the same root as the words grass, and more significantly, grow. This explains many of our symbolic associations with the colour: nature, energy, freshness and growth.”

He clicked on his laptop and an image of an Egyptian painting filled the large screen behind him. “The Ancient Egyptians, however, were onto this long before Old English even existed as a language. To them, green symbolised more than growth. Its hues painted the face of one of their chief gods, Osiris, the god of the underworld. It represented vigour and health, but more importantly, it represented regeneration. Rebirth.”

How apt. That the fervent green of your eyes was all I saw before I leaned in to close the distance between our lips for the very first time.

I was reborn in that kiss.

…

historical (adjective)

It didn’t occur to either of us to mark the date. We only realised this months later. You were frantic. We need a date, Cole. And I understood that - the need to commemorate, to pay tribute.

But history is more than a timeline, is it not? And it’s more than just facts and people and places. It’s about feel. It’s about zeitgeist. It’s about what the senses recall.

I don’t need a date to remind me of the scent of your skin, the soft pillow of your mouth, the gentle pull of your teeth on my bottom lip, your hands on my chest, your wrists still caught in my grip.

The memory of you transcends chronology.

…

inarticulate (adjective)

Sometimes it’s a look - an upward, innocent glance or a slight, playful glint in your eyes. Other times, it’s the maddening curve of your waist, or the shape you take as you turn off the light and move slowly towards the edge of my bed, your smile palpable even in the hushed darkness.

It’s in those times when you render me - yes, even me - speechless.

...

juxtaposed (verb)

We were driving somewhere. I had one hand on the steering wheel, another on your knee.

“So you went to school to escape acting, and I escaped from school into acting.” Your eyes sparkled as you drew that contrast between us.

I turned to smile at that. “Pretty much, yeah.”

“We were going in two completely opposite directions, essentially.”

“Yep.”

Silence. Then: “Huh.” You let out a rush of breath. “That’s crazy.”

I stole a quick glance at you. “What is?

“Just… that somehow, in the briefest window of time, we met in the middle.”

...

keepsake (noun)

You thought you’d lost it - your white shirt, from the first night you stayed over.

I kept it for a while. I wanted to preserve the memory of its removal.

…

ladder (noun)

A kiss triggered it - the deluge of questions that we had managed to ward off in the haze of each other.

Our first onscreen kiss as Betty and Jughead was supposed to be simple and straightforward. We’d both made light of it in the lead-up to filming. After all, we’d kissed plenty by that point. What’s another one, right?

But on the day, I stood at the bottom of that ladder while Steven, our director, talked me through what he wanted. Slowly, it was becoming anything but straightforward.

“Jughead’s putting himself in a vulnerable place,” he said. “Yes, he summons up the courage to kiss this girl he’s been rapidly developing feelings for, but down here, your character’s still in a place of nervousness and anxiety because he has no idea how the hell this is gonna turn out. It’s a big move for him. The ladder has nine steps on it, but really, the emotional equivalent of what he’s going through spans the distance of a thousand miles.”

I nodded in agreement. The wheels in my head were already turning, anticipating his direction.

“It’s a pivotal scene, and Jughead is driving it. He’s acting out of his own agency, exercising initiative over one of the only areas in his life in which he can have power - his feelings. So I guess what I need from you as an actor is to access that same vulnerability. To tap into your own emotional memory. Is there a place in your life where that vulnerability exists? I want you to go there. Safely, of course.”

So I did. There were plenty of moments in my life in which I’d felt vulnerable, but none of them felt particularly safe to delve into unless I had some sort of epic therapeutic debrief afterwards.

Then I thought of you, and how you made me feel reckless and exposed and exuberant all at the same time. And then it hit me.

I was about to kiss this girl that I was falling in love with in front of a crew of twenty people.

My head started reeling.

Does this scare her as much as it scares me - all the noise that surrounds us?

What if the noise overtakes us?

What if it becomes too much?

What if we crumble under the pressure?

If I wasn’t feeling exposed before, I sure as fuck was feeling it now.

Suddenly the nine rungs leading up to Betty’s room stretched out to infinity, and the journey there felt like a quantum leap.

...

metaphor (noun)

I kind of botched the kiss. You thought I’d forgotten my cue, saying your line (“What?”) twice - the second time, more forcefully - because I probably looked as lost and worried as I felt. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Britta flipping through the script, unsure of what to do or whether it was supposed to play out the way that it did.

But your lips were my ballast in the storm, and as I went in for that kiss, I felt the chaos in my mind subsiding, my vision narrowing to only you. Suddenly, it didn’t matter that we were surrounded by twenty people, with three cameras pointed in our direction, because the only thing that carried weight in that moment was me and you.

I always think of our process for filming that scene as a metaphor for us. Or at least for how I feel about you. We’re constantly surrounded by so much noise, but you are my touchstone for clarity.

In the contented silences of our drives home, I remember this: that you are the quiet in the clamour, the stillness that steadies me.

…

north (noun)

“If you could be anywhere in the world right now, where would you be?”

You gave me a lazy smile from where you were lying down, near the foot of your bed. “I’d be right here. With you.”

I rolled my eyes and chortled at that. “Obviously. Besides here.”

You sat up, the sheets bunched around your body. With your hair all messed up and the sunlight hitting you just right, you looked ethereal. “Wait, don’t answer just yet,” I said, grabbing my camera off the nightstand. “Hold that pose for me.”

You kept your eyes forward, away from the lens, already accustomed to the way I worked. “Honestly, how many photos have you taken of me, Cole?”

I snapped a couple. “Not enough.” I put the camera down and crawled over to you. “Okay. Back to the question.”

You chewed thoughtfully on your lower lip. “I’d have to say… Antelope Valley. I’ve never been.”

I scoffed. “Really? That’s like an hour from here, Lils. You could’ve picked, I don’t know, Hawaii or something.”

“Well, Hawaii is such a dream. That’s on my ‘someday’ list.” (I took note of that.) But I like my fantasies accessible.” I smiled and opened my mouth to make a crack about accessible fantasies, but you clamped it shut with your hand. “And please, have a little self-respect, Cole: the joke’s too easy. Don’t even bother going there.”

(Have I ever told you that I love it when you call me out on my shit?)

“Alright then,” I said, taking your hand and kissing your open palm. “Why Antelope Valley? Why would you want to go there?”

“You’ll laugh.”

I shrugged. “Try me.”

“Alright. It’s a little self-indulgent, but… you know the poppy fields up there?” I nodded. “I want to go there, dress up like a fairy princess, and walk amongst the flowers and have my photo taken.”

I smiled. “Really?”

“Yeah.” Your face scrunched up in embarrassment. “Is that... lame? That’s lame, right? Like, total Manic Pixie Dream Girl bullshit.”

“No, it’s actually…” The first word that came to mind was ‘adorable’. Which was woefully inadequate. I felt as though I had to resort to some insanely specific German word, one that meant “an overwhelming desire to fulfill the dreams of a lover, fuelled by intense feelings of warmth and affection.”

Because even then, mere months into our story, I knew that I wanted to indulge every whim and wish of yours. That I would do anything in my power to make you happy.

“You there?” You waved your hand in front of my face.

I turned to you. “Alright. Let’s do it.”

“What?”

“It’s about an hour’s drive up north from here, and you’ll probably have to change there, but I guess you can always—”

You launched into me so quickly that our teeth knocked together, and I’m pretty sure I bit you by accident.

We laughed about it afterwards. Right before you went on to research every fast food outlet and candy store on the route to the valley. Right before I promised myself that I would do this more often - take adventures with you.

…

obsess (verb)

I traced the soft muscles on your back with my hand, the black dress you wore on the day accentuating it perfectly. Unfairly.

“Get in the car,” I whispered.

In the backseat, I followed that same path with my lips - the one my fingers had made - inhaling the scent of the valley and of your skin.

Creating an addiction from which I could never recover.

…

proprietorial (adjective)

There are unspoken protocols in archaeology about what to do once you’ve found something incredibly valuable. The first priority is obviously protection, and archaeologists take this seriously; some use code words when talking about the found artifact (like “buttons” for gold, or “lemons” for silver) to avoid the constant threat of public theft, while others employ guards around the clock to preserve the excavation site. The more valuable the artifact, the more serious and intensive the protection.

It might be the archaeologist lying dormant in me, but I guarded the secret of us with a fierce protectiveness. Like a treasure goblin clutching its horde, I held on to the intimate knowledge of our relationship, reluctant to impart it to anyone else beyond my family and closest friends.

Because unlike so much of my life that is co-owned by my brother, or has been co-opted by the public, this thing that we had was wholly and completely mine. Or rather, ours. And I wanted to keep it that way for as long as possible.

There’s something sexy in that. In the secrecy. In what is hidden.

In looking at you from across the room, and knowing that no matter how beautiful you looked in that moment, you were still more transcendent in my arms that morning.

…

quell (verb)

“Tsk, tsk. Be careful, dude.” Mad appeared at my side, a cocktail in her hand. The Comic-Con shindig was our last media obligation for the weekend, and it was pleasing to see her there - one of mine and Debby’s friends from LA, and now one of yours, too.

I gave her a look. “‘Careful’? Of what?”

She shook her head and laughed. “Seriously? You have no idea what you look like right now?”

“Well, I am wearing a nifty red suit--”

“I think technically, that colour’s called oxblood.”

“Yeah, I think I’ll stick to red.” Mad rolled her eyes at me. “Besides my nifty RED suit, I haven’t the faintest idea what the hell you’re talking about.”

She leaned in. “Look I’ve known about it for ages now, so I’m not particularly surprised, but when you’re making those desperate bedroom eyes at Lili...” I scoffed dismissively. She ignored me and went on. “When you’re doing that, you’re pretty much broadcasting your relationship to the whole room. Actually, scratch that - to this whole fucking town. ”

I wanted to brush that off, but she may have had a point.

Comic-Con had been fun, but difficult. Both of us knew that we were under scrutiny, and had zero interest in responding to any rumour or speculation that had nothing to do with the show itself.

Even then, with that in the back of our minds, we just barely managed to suppress ourselves from enacting the normalcy of our relationship. Every time I was in your vicinity, I had to pull myself together, because after months of retaining the memory of your skin, I could barely trust myself not to touch you.

So instead, I sought you out in every interview, every crowded room. It didn’t matter where you stood or sat, whether you were close by or seated far away from me: I always found you, and somehow willed you to look my way. I didn’t really need much more than that - just the assurance that you were there was enough.

The party, however, felt different. As my eyes settled on you - as they were now trained to do - my gaze was drawn to others that had you in their sights. Particularly one - a brash industry type who none too subtly shifted course and crossed over to you and Cami.

Usually, I’m a fairly chilled out boyfriend, but it was the end of an insanely busy week, and I was exhausted and in no mood to look at other guys gawking at you. Or, in this case, brazenly chatting you up.

I put my beer down on a table next to me, my body steely with resolve.

Mad read my mind and nudged me sharply with her elbow. “Hey. Friendly reminder that it’s an Entertainment Weekly party.” The implication was clear: the place was swarming with reporters. Technically off-duty, but obviously still tuned in to any whiff of gossip. “You sure you want to do this?”

“Sure,” I said, shrugging off my blazer. “Fuck it. Tell them we were canoodling.”

I could still hear Mad’s bark of laughter as I walked through the crowd, blazer in hand, driven by purpose. Your back was turned; Camila had to tap your arm to get your attention.

You raised an eyebrow at me as you turned around. “Cole?”

I needed an excuse. Anything. “Are you cold?”

“Cold? Um, I guess...?”

I stepped forward and reached around to drape my jacket over your shoulders - a signal, clear as day, for anyone who cared enough to read into it, including this poor, irrelevant fuckboi who had stupidly attempted to launch a flirtatious offensive your way. As he slunk away, I stayed where I stood, inches away from you, uncaring as to who saw us standing that way, that close.

In your eyes mingled incredulity, confusion and delight. What are you doing? Do you know where we are? “Um. Are you okay?”

Was I? All I knew was that I was with you. And I’d been wanting to do just this one thing all night. Because I was tired of the pretence, and I needed my girl.

I leaned in and kissed you, right there in the middle of that crowded room. You went rigid with panic before melting against me, your lips soft and trusting and pliant in mine.

“I’m fine,” I whispered against your mouth. “Never better.”

…

recurring (verb)

Yours or mine?

At the beginning of every weekend, you asked that on the drive home, your overnight bag sitting in the back of my car.

Yours or mine?

I didn’t mind either. My PS4 was at my place, but at least your washing machine actually worked.

(Okay, so mine just hadn’t been used.)

Yours or mine?

From a Friday ritual, it became a nightly one. Until nights turned into consecutive mornings. You’d go home to get more clothes. Eventually, you bought a toothbrush and left it on my bathroom sink.

One day, you leaned over and whispered at the end of a long day at work, I’m tired.

Let’s go home.

...

surprise (noun)

I gave you a sleepy, lingering kiss goodbye before I left for my weekend shoot in LA. Making sure you were still asleep, I adjusted the folded printout of our Hawaii flight itinerary, propping it up on the nightstand, with a Post-it note stuck on top.

“You and me. New Year’s.”

I wish I was there. I wish I’d recorded it somehow, heard the screams that triggered the complaints to building management. As it turns out, all I received was this, a text message in all caps:

“YOU SNEAKY FUCKER I LOVE YOU SO FUCKING MUCH.”

...

trick or treat (noun)

“So this washes off, right?”

“For the fiftieth time, Cole, yes.”

You were carefully drawing my skull teeth lines over the thick white base you’d applied to my face. I poked at your stomach. You looked up, close to the edge of your patience. I’d been doing that to you the entire time.

“Yes?”

“Nothing, I just…” I tucked a stray piece of hair behind your ear. “You’re really good at this, you know? I love that.”

I watched as your hard, focused expression softened into appreciation. “Thank you, babe.”

“Also, we can still kiss with this on, right?”

You frowned. “It’ll smudge.”

“But how much are we talking, though? Like full-on smearing, or just a small streak here and there? Because if it’s just a streak, do you think—”

“Cole!”

“No kissing. Got it.”

I shut my mouth, clasped my hands neatly on my lap, the very picture of perfect behaviour. You giggled at the sight.

“Alright, you big baby. Just one more before I have to shade the black in.”

Like a kid being told that he could finally eat all his Halloween candy, I didn’t need to be told twice.

...

uneventful (adjective)

But, in all honesty, so much of who we are dwells in the mundane.

In passing out together on the couch after a long day at work. In the gaps of silence as we trawl through Instagram before settling in for the night. In the text messages compiling the grocery shopping list for the week. In the exasperation as I trip over one of your heels in the dark. In seeing your face dotted with pimple cream. In the arguments over whose turn it was to pick the driving playlist.

Between monotony with you and thrills with anyone else, I’d pick being boring with you. Every single time.

…

validate (verb)

I rubbed my eyes in frustration and looked at the kitchen clock. 2 am. Fuck. I had an early call time, too.

“Cole?” You came out of the room, bleary-eyed and wrapped in the duvet that you’d dragged off the bed. “You’re still awake.”

“I am.” I swivelled around in my chair to face you. “Everything I’ve taken sucks. It sucks, Lili. I’m sitting here trying to edit my photos, and I’m dying of cringe.”

“Oh, come on. You’re only saying that because it’s two in the morning and you’re your own worst critic. Here, move over.” I shifted a little in my seat as you sat on my lap, duvet and all.

You scrolled through the photos on my laptop. “Okay. Look at this one. See the way you’ve framed Sam here? In the rips of the white plastic?”

“It’s super pretentious, right?”

“No! God, what is wrong with you? It’s stunning. And see how he stands in the landscape, beyond the confines of the plastic? That’s like, a gorgeous metaphor for his process as an artist, how he’s broken free from the mold, how he’s his own man now.”

I sat there silently.

“Oh, and this one? The way you’ve tilted the horizon, and captured the sweep of his trenchcoat, the top hat in his hand? The lines in this are so bold and--”

“Brash?” I grinned at you.

You rolled your eyes. “I was gonna say ‘striking’, but sure, you can go with that.” I hugged you close to me. “Your work is amazing, Cole. Don’t you ever doubt yourself.”

“Thank you.” I kissed your shoulder. “How do you know so much about photography, anyway?”

You gave me a cute little shrug. “I learned from the best.”

…

whipped (adjective)

See: COLE SPROUSE.

...

xenophile (noun)

I thought I was the nerd. But I wasn’t the one who loaned James Michener’s Hawaii from the library and took it out to read on the plane.

It was adorable. But also, it made me want to take you everywhere. To spark your curiosity, to ignite your discoveries, to stoke the wonder.

If there was anyone who could be by your side as you found that the world was your oyster, please, let it always be me.

...

yes (unclassified)

We’re light years away from the fact, but in my idle moments, I imagine it. I imagine how I’d do it - where, and when, and even who might be there.

Maybe our friends. My brother. Your family. Definitely a photographer. In my more delirious flights of fancy, a specially trained pug.

And you. Obviously you. Your hair caught up in the breeze, your eyes widening in surprise before crumpling in the weight of the moment.

Saying yes.

…

zenith (noun)

We stood at the summit, the warm air punctuated by pockets of sea breeze. So many people think of the beach when they think of Hawaii, but - as we found out ourselves - its lush, verdant mountains are just as amazing and sublime.

I held your hand in mine as we looked out over the gorge and at the sea beyond it, the vivid cerulean of the deep bleeding into the viridity of the shallows. There was no-one else around, just us. I pulled you in, holding you in my embrace, relishing being alone with you.

I thought of the year that had passed, and my mind wandered to where I was when midnight struck over to 2017 - running down to the lobby of the William Vale while my brother and our friends waited outside the room we had locked ourselves out of, eating the remains of a pizza off the floor. You and I had tried to call each other to wish each other a happy new year, but in the tangle of signals and the confusion of the room situation, we didn’t make it, settling for a text message instead.

Thinking of the marked contrasts between then and now, a thought began to formulate in my mind - that this was it. That I had hit the proverbial jackpot of fate. Standing there, on the peak of a mountain in Hawaii, holding you in my arms, I had the very best that life had to offer.

But then you tugged at my sleeve and excitedly pointed out a pod of dolphins swimming in the waves, and there and then, I realised that my earlier assumption was wrong. Or at least it wasn’t entirely right. There were surprises around every corner. New heights to be scaled, new adventures to pursue. All of them with you.

“Oh my god, did you see that?” you asked.

I did, Lili. And I saw you. And realised the truth.

Our best still lies ahead of us.

#sprousehart #sprousehart fanfic #sprousehart fanfiction #riverdale rpf #paperlesscrown writes

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muthur9000 · 6 years

Text

Left Column: Upon close study of the engineers and the planet’s flora and fauna, I have come to an enlightened conclusion. That their power and success has not been retarded by being so beholden to history and entrenched custom. A more detailed appraisal yields the conclusion that as simple, primitive systems have a beauty and indeed power in their simplicity and an honesty that I with any previously, progressions view of the development and aesthetics have through overly subjective and too human eyes. There is a strength born of adversity and harsh environments, the vitality of violent existence. Center: Amorphophallus titanium Non-existence to existence to darkness again. Breathe the sweet putrescence of experience Fig A (mature) Fig B (mature) Right column: It also occurs to me to investigate the possibility that the seemingly divergent shift from previously monolithic and simple forms of classic Engineer architecture to the post-industrial aesthetic especially apparent in their interplanetary vehicles and spacesuits are actually the result of a congruent return to even older and natural forms. Possibly the result of both an aesthetic epiphany and the technological means to achieve it. Culminating in a relatively sudden shift combining anthropomorphism, zoomorphism, and phylotomorphic traits. Not to mention the vascularity inherent in mechanically or technologically based branching systems and architectural structures, so that an all-encompassing type of ‘bio-mechanical’ view emerged.

'Corpse lillies' – but of course they'd have 'em! About the first thing I asked on the first day was that while I totally get the aesthetic of the city referencing great civilisations/ancient cultures (and obviously goes hand in hand with the Engineers looking like classical statues), I wanted to know why/how the shift happened to the Giger/biomechanical look. I never did get an answer so I invented one for my backstory/inserted it into my/David's scientific notes, here as it applies to flora and fauna studies. From the right hand side: "It also occurs to me to investigate the possibility that the seemingly divergent shift from previously monolithic and simple forms of classic Engineer architecture to the post-industrial aesthetic especially apparent in their interplanetary vehicles and spacesuits are actually the result of a congruent return to even older and natural forms. Possibly the result of both an aesthetic epiphany and the technological means to achieve it. Culminating in a relatively sudden shift combining anthropomorphism, zoomorphism, and phylotomorphic traits. Not to mention the vascularity inherent in mechanically or technologically based branching systems and architectural structures, so that an all-encompassing type of 'bio-mechanical' view emerged."

A post shared by matt hatton (@matthatt0n) on Jun 5, 2017 at 3:55am PDT

Transcription – David’s Illustrations

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Etymology

Amorphophallus titanum, in Latin | Ancient Greek = άμορφος + φαλλός

amorphos = without form, misshapen + phallos = phallus + titanum = titan/giant (1)

Amorphophallus titanum

Also known as the titan arum is a flowering plant with the largest unbranched inflorescence(spike) in the world.(3)

Due to its odour, like the smell of a rotting corpse or carcass, it’s characterized as a carrion flower and is also known as the corpse flower or corpse plant.

Kingdom Plantae

By Rkitko – cobbled together by User:Rkitko from images available on Wikimedia Commons., CC BY-SA 4.0,

Taxonomic kingdom comprising all living or extinct plants.

Phylum Tracheophyta

Green plants with a vascular system that contains tracheids or tracheary elements (as vessel elements or fibres) and including the subdivisions Psilopsida, Sphenopsida, Lycopsida, and Pteropsida.

Class Liliopsida

Seed plants that produce an embryo with a single cotyledon and parallel-veined leaves: includes grasses and lilies and palms and orchids; divided into four subclasses or superorders: Alismatidae; Arecidae; Commelinidae; and Liliidae.

Order Arales

By Christian Fischer, CC BY-SA 3.0,

monocotyledonous woody or herbaceous plants that are usually sympodial with cyclic flowers on a spadix — see Araceae, Lemnaceae.

Family Araceae

The family of plants (order Arales) chiefly of tropical distribution distinguished by having the flowers on a fleshy spadix subtended by a leafy spathe.(2)

Genus Amorphophallus

By Credits: US Botanic Garden

The genus of tropical East Indian aroids having a mottled flowering spathe in advance of the large compound leaf and often attaining a height of several feet — see krubi. 2 plural – es: a plant of the genus Amorphophallus.(1)

Easter Eggs

Lyrics

The Essence Of Putrescence by GORGASM album: “Bleeding Profusely” (2001) Here she lies dead, yet crawling with life Rotting entombed and deformed by decay Taking her from death putrid grasp Now her remains return home with me

I reconstruct her corpse to fuck

Wax replacing skin that’s rotted Fasten bones with screws and wire Vaginal tube inserted I’m consumed with sick… DESIRES!

Breathing in her rancid scent Intoxicated as I mount her Cunt and ass joined from the thrusting Her remains crushed while I’m fucking

Embalmed with cum I spew my climax deep inside her Festering lust turning to nymphomania NECROSEXUAL!(4)

References

Walter, K.S. & Gillett, H.J. [eds] (1998) 1997 IUCN Red List of Threatened Plants. Compiled by the World Conservation Monitoring Center. IUCN – The World Conservation Union, Gland, Switzerland and Cambridge, UK.

Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (August 2003) http://www.rbgkew.org.uk/titan/index.html

Attenborough, D. (1995) The Private Life of Plants. BBC Books, London.

The Essence Of Putrescence by GORGASM, album: “Bleeding Profusely” (2001) http://www.darklyrics.com/lyrics/gorgasm/bleedingprofusely.html

Amorphophallus Titanium

#amorphophallus titanum #botanical illustration #concept art #corpse lily #david 8 #gorgasm #matt hatton #PLANET 4 #RESEARCH #the essence of putrescence #titan arum

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inventedworld · 6 years

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MAYBE THE DONKEY IS THE HERO?

People who care about literature and western culture are supposed to care about Don Quixote. Scholars regard it as not only one of the first novels ever written, but also one of the greatest novels ever written: pretty impressive for a first go!

In western traditions, Spain glows in bright, creative sunlight. Music, painting, sculpture, architecture, mathematics, literature: Spain offers riches. Somehow, some way, Cervantes’s errant knight on his noble donkey has come to be part of that pantheon. But while I’m sure The Don was well intended, as a character he doesn’t make me lean in to the tale. I can’t deny, however, that Señor Quixote holds unique pride of place in the literary canon. Everyone should, therefore, at least know the basics, regardless of how you feel about the book. If you’re hiding in the back of the class, still unsure, I promise not to point you you. Here’s the wispy limn:

A middle aged nobleman reads widely and imagines vividly. As a result, he determines himself to be a knight and sets out to right wrongs and fight injustices, with plans of restoring a measure of virtue and morality to an otherwise corrupt world.

It’s a good premise in my humble opinion. Filled with allegorical power and the potential for comic flights to convey vital ideas, our hidalgo hero sets out on his quest. Unfortunately that’s where my own private exasperation sets in. Rather than calling foul on untenable circumstances, he sets his sights on forces that are not, actually….anything important at all. Most famously, he challenges windmills.

I’m no literalist. I understand the metaphor here, and the sublime satire, and even the narrative messages of fighting against impossible odds. But it’s one thing for a group of flower carrying children to oppose a ferocious army on the field of literary battle. It’s quite another to have a deluded man stand up for idealized values and virtue and essentially oppose meaninglessness. That’s a character waiting for a better world rather than trying to move a mountain. That’s a character waiting for Godot.

In leveling his lance at windmills we see that The Don is deluded. That’s okay. There’s a great history of literary fools who present important messages to surrounding characters and, more importantly, us readers. To be foolish is to make erroneous judgements. A lack of intellectual capability is not the province of literary clowns, nor would that lack of smarts even be a fair or legitimate target for literary poking. Fools are about doing dumb things in the face of reality. In Quixote’s case, he’s presented as a man with a need to do important things, virtuous things, constructive things, but he can’t tell what they are. He doesn’t really perceive what’s real in the real world. What’s more, his fantasy world isn’t representative of the real one. His efforts are wasted, and to me that’s not only tragic, it’s disempowering. In a world where there are seemingly endless wrongs to right and endless injustices to correct, one would hope that a children’s army or a humble hobbit with hairy feet would stand up and at least try, even if there were no chance at success at all. Hollow efforts to declare that windmills are dragons spends the character’s precious life not on morality or values, but on deluded self indulgence. (Don’t even get me started on Dulcinea!) With real wrongs to be righted, he’s more interested in being the guy to do it, all the while doing nothing at all. He’s not the ultimate idealist. He’s the cranky guy telling you to stay off the grass.

Filmmaking itself is ultimately a quixotic enterprise. (The utility of that eponymous word in a contemporary sense does not certify the merits of its etymology.) The forces aligned against any filmmaker, especially newly minted ones, are enormous. If one gives it very much thought, in fact, filmmaking is a practically insurmountable task. That said, people do it anyway and sometimes they do it very well. What is an artist, after all, if not idealistic? The creative people of the world— the dreamers of the world—are all ultimately idealistic in some form. Don Quixote, we are taught to believe, should be our standard-bearer. How ironic, then, that the thing this false knight ultimately champions is the least tangible thing of all, namely a need for idealism in the first place. The problem is not that he fails, or approaches his quests with absurd strategies. The problem is that in his idealism he fails to see what’s right in front of his eyes. This speaks to an abdication of responsibility, a license for narcissism rather than idealism. The fact that he fails to see what’s right in front of him and instead favors his own private obsessions emphasizes his fatal flaw.

I realize I’m in a minuscule minority here; everybody who knows anything about literature regards Quixiote as a giant, to say nothing of being a slayer of giants, as he puts it so many times in the novel. I realize this book is the cornerstone of Western literature. Its tropes repeat over and over; its characters refract as seminal archetypes. Endless pages of analysis and critique and review and consideration about this singular work have contributed mightily to philosophy and literary thought and cultural mores. Perhaps the real value of Don Quixote is not in the book, per se, but in the scintillation of cultural and intellectual and ethical considerations that orbit it’s unusual gravity well.

Come to think of it, that might ultimately be an idea which could become the backbone of a genuinely interesting tale, namely one where a cultural collective undertook fascinating, even important intellectual explorations based on a questionable map made from a cartographer who only imagined the places he’d been.

@michaelstarobin or facebook.com/1auglobalmedia

#Don Quixote #novels #idealism

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yum-grass · 9 months

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Sorry to get all serious on my funny goofy blog but in going to dive in to some etymology (the Study and science of words and how that originated)

So if you don’t know the etymology of the name Dolores (istg I have a point to this at the end!!!) than strap in or read the TL;dr

So my mother recently bought to my attention the study of dolorolagy the study of pain because she listened to a podcast (it’s called olagyolagy or something it’s really cool thay have an episode on fungolagy (fungus) and mycilolagy (mushrooms) vary cool!) and we came to a conclusion that the name Dolores stems from the Latin/Greek word for pain

Example

Theology>Theo>god/gods

The words for most olagy’s start with a Latin and or greek word because of colonization and the way the “English” language originated

So from that we get:

Theology> the study of god/the gods

Theo> god/gods

Olagy>the study of/ to study

Dore\dora> gift

Theodore> gift of god/a gift from the gods

Ya-da kachow you gust learns a thing (semi-unrelated but the reason this post is being made it because I worked on a fan fiction and I decided to prove to people about the name Theodore and how Pandora and theology binds to make that name and that made me think of this so now I’m doing this! I’ll link the fanfic maybe just because I worked hard on my explanation there or I’ll just post it here)

Back to the point

Dolorolagy>dolor>pain

Dolorolagy> the study of pain

Dolor>pain

Olagy>the study of

Es> prefix -fully -full (not completely sure on this one but context clues with other words bright me here)

Dolores> painfully, painful, the painful one/the pain filled one

And so my big point with this brings me to a book

‘Lolita’

Vary sad book personality I will probably never read it unless it gets me extra credit

But you may not know this but the girl it’s about

Her name isn’t Lolita

Lolita was a nick name her abuser giver her, a pet name if you will

Her name was Dolores

Her name means ‘the pain filled one’

And though I have never read the book I know enough about it to know that adds another layer to the storytelling

Thank you for reading my essay.

TL;DR: the name Dolores is derived from the word dolor meaning pain and es a prefix meaning -full

Dolores ruffly means “the pain filled one”

The name of the little girl from the book ‘Lolita’ is Dolores which brings an even greater layer to the unreliable narration angle of the book

#Lolita #etymology #lolita by vladimir nabokov #etymology classes from grass #Dolores #dolorolagy

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tsikli · 2 years

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Ðusyþ word of the day #74

il'llfeð alÐusyþ xurwyngöfdu

feilfeikw /fel.'feikʷ/ [fel.'veikʷʰ]*〈pelfaaku〉

*standard dialect

Etymology

Descended from Old Ðusyþ pelfaaku (yard, small patch of grass or foliage), ultimately descended from Ahmegon pelfaaku (mountain herb garden), a compound of pel (crop) + faaku (mountain range).

Definition

n. (class: furry, soft)

moss, lichen

2. the roof of a tent or temporary shelter

#conlang #dostawotd #ðusyþwotd

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in-a-narrow-land · 7 years

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Old Anitami, Part Two: Noun Classes

<<Previous: Orthography, Phonology, and Phonotactics

I initially wanted to spend only one week on nouns, but this is long enough as is, and now it looks like I might have to split up cases into two posts. So, noun classes! These categories mostly aren’t productive in modern Anitami, but we still have all the morphosyntactic residue left over. It’s one of my favorite things to teach, at least to Anitami speakers, since it taps into a set of patterns we’re all vaguely aware of but don’t really have a solid grammatical explanation for.

There are five classes in total: animate, inanimate, human, abstract, and miscellaneous (which isn’t quite accurate, but I’ll get to that when I get to it). [ooc: amentans are not human, this is a translation convention]. Each one has a characteristic affix which appears in every case except the nominative, and a few have characteristic prefixes as well. Pronouns must agree with class, as well as object-markers on verbs (which are optional), the mandatory subject-markers need not. They’d all be class 1 or 3 in any case.

Class 1: Animate. This one is fairly straightforward – animate things all have some sort of internal vital force. The words for person (one of the few “human” words that isn’t in the human class), all animals, and ghosts and other supernatural beings are all prototypical examples. Fire, and by extension computers in modern Anitami (literally fire-ensouled things) are animate, but not other electrical appliances. The words for heart, lungs, brain, stomach, and blood are animate, but not other organs. A couple of virulently fast-growing species of plants are animate, but I can’t recall any off the top of my head.

The stem ending for this class is –(a)nen. If the noun ends in a vowel, the a will usually drop out. The remaining vowel may shift around depending on additional case endings.

Vocabulary: Fila, human; Laman, animal; Halmi, fish; Anno, snake; Kisa, fire. Particular animals names are often prefixed with na- (as in Nalinwi, cat), and birds names are often prefixed with e- (Emala, owl), but these fall away in compounds. These would decline as Filanen-, Lamannen-, Kisanen-, etc.

Class 2: Inanimate. Even more self-explanatory than class 1. Inanimate nouns are concrete, tangible objects, which are not, even by metonymic extension, alive. This is also the default class for loanwords after about the middle of the classical period, even if they’re semantically abstract or animate, but this is mostly only relevant to technical or religious vocabulary. There are plenty of weird other weird exceptions, but they’ll all be covered as they come up in the other classes. It should probably go without saying, but classes are morphologically fixed and don’t vary with the particular semantic context. In a play about a walking, talking rock, the rock would still be grammatically inanimate.

The stem suffix for this class (i/a)l, depending on vowel harmony.

Vocabulary: Talla, tree; Ert, seed; Lothe, flower; Kalka, glass; Alash, stone; Kaimat, house; Maen, bread. Tallal, Ertil, Lothil, Kalkal, etc.

Class 3: Human. This class covers all caste names, all professions names with a couple of exceptions, the words for child, man, woman, etc., all family relationships, etc. – anything that a human being, and only a human being, could be.

The stem suffix for this class is –(a)nath.

Many nouns in this class end in the agentive suffix –mi (Kisantami, Lamenelmi, etc.), which roughly means a person who does/is x, and also shows up pretty frequently in personal names. It’s also the source of my favorite example of rebracketing in any language! As most of you probably know, the people who first spoke the language we now know as Anitami called themselves the Anaita. The word for a person form this group was, naturally, Anaitami (Anaita-mi). Later on, -mi ceased to be productive and lost its particular meaning, along with the other personalizing suffix (–li, meaning a person similar to x, also still found in personal names). Both began to merge semantically with –i, the class 5 stem ending (in that both indicate a particular instance of a large thing, but see my notes on class 5 nouns). Later still, the Anaita establish a nation, and contemporary speakers naturally break down their demonym as, not Anaita-mi, but Anaitam-i. Those of you who were paying attention last week will remember that Anaitam contains an illegal stress, therefore it must reduce, and it does – to Anitam.

Vocabulary: Alasi, singer; Aven, judge; Pallan, builder; Tis, actor.

Class 4: Abstract. Here, things start to get a little more complicated. Class 4 is defined as “abstract” in every grammar textbook, but it really has to do with collectivity. (I can’t claim any credit for this concept, or for my understand of class 5 nouns. I got it all from my first Oahkar professor, of all people, who’s actually Anitami and generally pretty fascinating).

The core abstract nouns – childhood, age, peace, war, guilt, contentment (and all emotional states), wisdom, talent, etc. – can be thought of as a kind of summation over a lot of specific instances of a thing. By identifying a shared property over series of specific things (children, time periods, attractive people, whatever), you arrive at the abstract, or collective, noun.

For the same reason, all gerunds are grammatically class 4. In this sense, they’re conceptualized as the summation of a bunch of individual instances of the verb they derive from – I enjoy eating, I need to practice swimming, reading helps one learn Anitami, etc. all imply repeated, habitual action. Nominalized adjectives (e.g. the poor, the rich, the beautiful) are almost all class 4.

Human collectives are also all class 4, with the exception of caste names, even if they’re arguably concrete. The words for family, nation, language, and ethnicity are class 4, and the names of all individual nations and languages and ethnicities gain a class 4 stem suffix as they decline. This is one of the few features of the noun class system that’s still productive in modern Anitami!

Concrete nouns that inherently refer to a something with a large number of smaller parts are often, though not always, class 4. The classic examples are hair, fur, feathers, dust, grass, and snow. Inclusions in this category aren’t consistent, and it’s best to just look up a list if you’re confused about whether a particular noun is class 4 or class 2. Of course, this is utterly bizarre if you’re conceptualizing class 4 as abstract nouns, but it makes perfect sense when you think about it in terms of collectivity.

The stem suffix for this class is –(ik)at. This class includes an unusual number of words which include the stem in their nominative form; unlike the other classes, the first two characters don’t reduplicate. Estikat, but Peikatat, etc.

Vocabulary: Estik, knowledge; Menal, goodness; Peikat, strength; Yahai, childhood; Waln, fur.

Class 5: Miscellaneous. Not miscellaneous! The textbooks are wrong! Class 5 can see like a catchall, until you realize that the central metaphor involved in instantiation. Nouns in this class are individual instances of more comprehensive objects or processes. The most central examples are deverbal nouns – words which derive from verbs but behave grammatically as nouns – that refer to particular events or actions. Scratch (from “to scratch”), song (from “to sing”), promise, reading (in the sense of “this passage has multiple readings,” or “he gave a reading of his poetry”), etc. Note that this only applies to nouns that are actually derived from verbs, and not nouns that sound similar to verbs because they share an etymological root. As with class 4, inclusions in this category really can’t be derived from first principles, and it’s always safer to consult a list.

Also by a similar process to class 4, singular things that ordinarily occur in groups are usually class 5. A blade of grass, a speck of dust, a snowflake, a puzzle piece, etc. Many class 5 nouns in this category don’t have class 4 equivalents, though, and vice versa. By analogy, many partial, broken, or otherwise incomplete things are class 5 – fragment, shard, unfortunately lots of words for physical disabilities, etc. Adding the class 5 ending to other nouns is a really old-fashioned way of denoting that it’s broken.

Approaching the metaphor from another angle, things that are made are frequently class 5. The idea is that they’re the material instantiation of an abstract idea, or in the case of more utilitarian objects, one example of a form that’s repeatedly instantiated. Painting, sculpture, carving (for more than one reason) are class 5. The words for characteristically earthenware utensils (like bowl) are class 5, but not the words for characteristically metal ones (knife). It’s not entirely clear why, but the leading theory is that it has something to do with the metalworking process inherently requiring more people.

All words for units of measure are class 5, and units of time are considered particularly paradigmatic. Finally, the words for ambassador and foreigner are class 5 – the only human words that aren’t class 3 – because they represent “instances” of a foreign people. Demonyms are also class 5, for the same reason.

All class 5 words end in –i in the nominative. The stem suffix is –min.

Vocabulary: Walni, bowl; Neloti, reading; Halti, scratch; Fayali, year; Lossi, snowflake.

Next: Case >>

#amenta #amenta rp #old anitami

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logophilia-education · 5 years

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Have you ever plucked litchi off a tree? 😍 . Amongst the many, many things that're extraordinary about the Assam Valley School, one that stands out is the carefully nurtured vegetation on-campus! 🖤 They have such diversity in their flora, right from the less-than-usual grass, to their shrubs and hedges, to the creepers, to the imposingly tall trees! 😮🖤😮 . One can only imagine how studying would feel amidst such idyllic surroundings! 😍 ______________________________ The last batch of PSP Advanced this Summer begins on July 21st, 2019! ❤️❤️❤️ Register before seats go out! www.logophilia.in/summer19 ______________________________ 2019 © Logophilia Education Pvt. Ltd. #Logophilia #Vocabulary #NoBetterWayToLearnEnglish #Etymology #IsntThisHowYouShouldStudy #Education #Guwahati #Assam #India #WhatSchoolsDontTeach #textbooks #School #HowToStudy #HowToLearn #class #teachers #students #outdoors #litchi #Tree #fruits #nature #beauty #MemorisingIsNotStudying #LogophiliaIsHiring #AssamValleySchool (at The Assam Valley School) https://www.instagram.com/p/B0SUhbJBZWs/?igshid=k1dek18jx8ob

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a-dinosaur-a-day · 5 years

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Rhodophoneus cruentus

By Nigel Voaden, CC BY-SA 2.0

Etymology: Murderer of Roses

First Described By: Heuglin, 1871

Status: Extant, Least Concern

Time and Place: Within the last 10,000 years, in the Holocene of the Quaternary

The Rosy-Patched Bushshrike is known from the Horn of Africa

Physical Description: The Rosy-Patched Bushshrike is a fairly large passerine, reaching 22 to 23.5 centimeters in length. They are very distinctive in appearance as well, with a very heavy and strong bill that is hooked and notched in appearance. They have grey feathers along their backs, a white stripe over the eye, and yellowish feathers along the belly and butt. Their tails are fairly long as well. The males have a red patch across their neck and chest, while the females have a black patch on the neck that switches to a red patch on the chest. Some populations of this species also have red patches on their butts, and males with black and red patches on their throats. This rosy patch makes them extremely distinctive to spot in the wild.

Diet: The Rosy-Patched Bushshrike mainly feeds on insects, especially beetles and grasshoppers.

Behavior: This bird will spend most of its time foraging in open terrain, especially scrub and grassland, usually far away from any sort of tree cover. They forage amongst the surface litter, hopping over obstacles and onto prey and running fast over the ground. When they do fly, they do so very low over the ground. Usually they spend their time alone or in mated pairs, though they are occasionally in small groups; they try to keep out of sight of humans, but they are a restless sort of bird, and will often just run around even though you wouldn’t expect it to. They make very thin, piercing whistles, though they’ll also sing high-pitched “twee-u-twee-u-twee-u” songs, alternating between higher and lower pitches. They will call each other for long periods of time on top of bushes, with only the head visible from the bush. Sometimes, mated pairs will even duet together. Their alarm class are very harsh “krrr krrrr krrr” sounds.

By Roy Prasad, CC BY-SA 4.0

The Rosy-Patched Bush-Shrike breeds whenever rain occurs, usually in spring and early summer, though this varies across its range. The males often sing against each other to compete for a mate, stretching their legs and body upwards while whistling at each other. When a female arrives, they will chase each other around with their wings outstretched and tails fanned to try and impress her. They then perch on dead branches, bobbing up and down while the female just watches. Eventually one wins the argument, and the pair nests together in a concealed spot among the thorn bushes and shrubs. They make the nest out of fibres, twigs, and dry grass in an untidy shallow cup. They lay two to three eggs in a nest. These birds do not migrate, and stay within their home range for most of their lives. However, they do wander occasionally, especially in response to changes in water levels.

Ecosystem: The Rosy-Patched Bush-Shrike lives in hot coastal plains and dry open scrub fields, as well as arid brush and semi desert habitats. They are occasionally also found in acacia groves.

Other: This bird is not globally threatened, though some populations are quite rare compared to others.

~ By Meig Dickson

Sources under the Cut

Fry, H. (2019). Rosy-patched Bush-shrike (Rhodophoneus cruentus). In: del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A., Sargatal, J., Christie, D.A. & de Juana, E. (eds.). Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona.

Jobling, J. A. 2010. The Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names. Christopher Helm Publishing, A&C Black Publishers Ltd, London.

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helshades · 7 years

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'violence committed by men' is exactly what male violence means.

Certainly, but as I said, it’s the phrasing I’m not overly fond of, and as I stated it in a response to somebody who worried about a possible essentialisation of the feminist discourse, in all likelihood this has to do with my handle on the English language: in male violence I tend not to read ‘violence committed by men/males’ but ‘violence inherent to males’.

If you’ve spent more than five seconds in my tags or have happened across conversations in which I’ve intervened, you know which sort of thinker I am, which is definitely not a liberal one—I’m not stating this out of defensiveness but rather giving some context to my thoughts; I’m probably a socialist first and foremost (in the etymological, original sense of the term), a republican and democrat both, in the sense given to these words by the notion of French citizenship, and I am excessively remote from liberalism as a principle, to be plain and obvious. I’m not big on confusing the personal sentiments with the common good, usually, but as it happens this is also why I have so much trouble understanding the virtue of mounting even a part of my political movement against a group of people.

If we really intend to distinguish between the individuals and the hierarchical structures of power, we have to mind our words, truly. Which wouldn’t be the same as ‘focusing feminism on men’ or some other empty accusation. This is also about cutting grass underneath our opponents’ feet, although not only. Feminism isn’t for men, but it loses an awful lot of its pertinence if worded and acted against men, or at the very least men as a sex, rather than as a social class; and refusing to acknowledge the fact that, indeed, Not All Men profit from patriarchy, or are interested in doing so, is only ever proving the liberals’ point: that we’re incapable of seeing nuance, that we don’t care for people, only vague ideals, that we’re profoundly antisocial and prejudiced without respite.Understand that this isn’t about sounding nice and available to the nasty liberals, it’s about staying true to our own fucking ideas of a juster world, mind you.

#answers #nonnies #the birds and the bees

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trisscar368 · 7 years

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11 questions tag

@destiel-shmestiel tagged me to do questions (hiiii sorrryyyy *horrible at answering her mail*)

1. If you could have any career and you would automatically have whatever skills were necessary to do well in it, what would you choose? Author. I enjoy stories and telling them, and actually being able to make a living at it would be incredible.

2. I know everyone asks about the pets but please tell me about your pets if you have any. Currently I have joint custody of one noodle child; an albino corn snake that my sibling and I rescued from my cousin’s kids. He just got a new cave and he’s very happy with it.

3. Pancakes or waffles or neither? Waffles. Definitely waffles.

4. If you could be any kind of animal (including human) what would you choose? Normally I would answer this with “DRAGONS” but I think today I’d want to be a cockatoo.

5. What is a thought that makes you really happy? Diamonds are flammable.

6. Did/do you have a favorite teacher? What are they like? Hmm, I’ve got two contestants for that. One is my first history prof at community college. He was a fantastic teacher, took no crap from anyone, and insisted on primary source. Second is my Russian prof from uni. She was incredibly patient and she knew the linguistics and the culture incredibly well; she let us derail the class on more than one occasion to discuss Russian history or the etymology of certain words.

7. Favorite school subject? Probably the one department I wish I’d spent more time in during uni is anthropology. I utterly adored the Myth/Magic/Folk religion class I took.

8. Do you like to go outside?

That’s...

I love the outdoors. I do, I love climbing trees and sneaking through the grass; fresh fruit in autumn sunlight is sheer heaven.

For the past year though I’ve been having random anxiety attacks when I go out. I’ve gotten so much better since I moved back from Thailand to the States, but it’s still there.

9. What kind of games did you play as a child? Oh gosh... well, Jedi was a constant game when I was smol. I also had this awful habit of acquiring “swords” (sticks, wrapping paper tubes, pvc pipes, fake lightsabres) and forcing people to fence with me. (I still have a collection of “sticks” as my sib puts it; my kubitan, some tire-pressure-gauging-stick things that are the perfect length for dual wield, my mother’s practice katanas...)

10. Do you remember your dreams when you wake up? (Maybe tell me about one? :D) It’s rare for me to remember, and when I do they’re weird... I occasionally have dreams where I have a gaming interface, like a HUD or a map. There was one of those where Darth Vader was chasing me through a hedge maze and I was using the map to avoid him.

11. Do you always have to know the plan or do you just go with the flow? There is no plan. There’s never a plan. I mean there’s occasionally a plan but I never pay much attention to it and it goes out the window all the time

#tag games #not spn

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raining-v-coffee · 7 years

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Naruto general fic recs

~ My notes * Multichapter

The Cheapest Currency

“Naruto has few emotional connections, Kakashi-kun, but those he does have are all the stronger for it. I dare say he would do anything for those he loves.”

crazy enough to live a little

Konoha is an experience, and that’s just about the politest way Ine can phrase it.

For Warmth

Don’t panic, Naruto tells himself. It’s the first thing that pops into his mind, and the voice in his head sounds suspiciously like Kakashi: Just don’t panic.

Kakashi is down for the count, and it's up to the kids to save the day.

Family Secret

-Complete- They've always been there, out of reach, but they never abandoned me. Yet as I grew they moved farther away. It's like the way a normal kid would see his parents age and have the chance to come to terms with the fact that one day they'll die.

Observation

Naruto never realized, but ever since they were academy students together he had been watching him out of the corner of his eye. [One shot, gen.]

The World's Greatest Chunin Exam Team

Set a year after the war. Naruto, frustrated at being told he's going to have to miss out on another Chunin exam due to no available teams, seeks to solve the problem himself. The story of an S-Class Ninja forming an equally ridiculous team to compete against Genin. [Some NaruHina] (Complete)

~ A unique, and completely ridiculous concept. I love it. <3

An Unofficial Motto

Or: Why Nara Shikaku is mostly sure that Itachi doesn’t have Nara blood.

Etymology

AU, post-Kakashi Gaiden, pre-Naruto, TWO-SHOT. A very young Naruto exploits a loophole and makes a flawed assumption. His mother is dismayed. His father thinks its hysterical. Read, review, and enjoy!

Truth in Misconceptions

They made assumptions about what the girls were born to do. There was some truth in their misconceptions.

~ Every time I read this I get chills.

To Be Cared For

Naruto doesn't often get sick, but when he does he knows his routine: hunker down and be miserable. But this time around maybe he can finally have a taste of what others normally have. Naruto-Fluff-ness.

Pack

Tobirama-centric one-shot, Gen story set during the initial forming of Konoha.

There is a reason so many different cultures have myths about lost children being raised by wolves. There is a reason the most dangerous animal you can ever encounter in the wild is a mother protecting her young. There is a reason Konoha has a sexual assault rate so low it is almost non-existent.

The One Where Sakura Gets Some Roommates

In retrospect this was probably the moment Sakura should have said no, packed up all of her stuff, and fled into the night bound for the warm embrace of a soulless, money-sucking hotel rather than continue seriously considering signing the lease and moving in with these weirdoes.

Muted Cacophony as the Future Changes

The Council makes a mistake. Konoha pays the price. Akatsuki settles, like its members need. And Uzumaki Naruko finds a home when she's had nothing but a prison.

Further Down Road One *

spinoff of Down Every Road Chapter One "arranged marriage"

(recursive fanfiction of Silver Queen's Dreaming of Sunshine. originally posted on tumblr)

Trust Your Nose *

A bit of fix-it, a little cuteness and some puppy-piles. A four-year-old Naruto makes canine friends and grows up with them.

Underneath the Shifting Sands *

Gaara goes to Grass Chunin Exams to prove his worthiness of the title of Kazekage. A partial Team 7 is there as well and, like usual, nothing turns out the way he expects it to when Shikako Nara is around.

Based on Dreaming of Sunshine by Silver Queen

~ I love this universe. ❤ OC insert

Cleaning no Jutsu *

She seemed determined enough. Maybe she'd be able to finally answer the question that had been bugging him for a while now, since he had realised he'd forgotten the answer years ago. What colour was his carpet?

~ A super cute OC fic.

White Knight, Burning Bright *

Naruto isn’t the only one in the village to earn the title “monster”. At the age of six, he meets a collared Orochimaru and makes a most unlikely ally.

The Soul Mate Phenomenon (is ruining my life) WIP

Sakura learns why so many ninja hope never to have a soul mate.

A political perspective WIP

Hatake Kakashi was a shinobi, and as a shinobi, the only people who could give him orders were his military superiors. The idea that a Council made up of civilians and peers was under the impression they could give him orders...displeased him.

Or: He was ordered to pass Team 7. He was fine with that, until they actually passed.

Ricochet WIP

Sometimes it's easy to see the familiar in the faces around you. Sometimes it sucks to figure out why.

~ It starts out like crack, but then it breaks your heart. You have been warned.

Konoha's Maelstrom WIP

If you have ridiculous chakra reserves, a forbidden technique that enables brute force training, and an insatiable appetite for epic skills, what are the chances that you'll settle for mediocrity? A bit of insanity is a small price to pay for being awesome.

Dreaming of S(omething) WIP

Or, How Shikako and Gaara Make It Work (And Sometimes Don't)

(Loosely related, recursive ficlets of Silver Queen's Dreaming of Sunshine. originally posted on tumblr)

About Face WIP

A little yellow-haired boy saves Sakura from the bullies. And everything changes.

Secrets And Lies Mature

Naruto has a secret. So does Sasuke. And Sakura. Just how were the genin teams picked again?

Forever towards dawn we run Mature

After the loss of his wife and his predecessor, Minato throws himself into his work, leaving his son almost entirely alone. Naruto grows up shunned but never outright reviled, aware of his burden and achingly lonely. But it’s not his way to give up, and someday, with the help of Kakashi, Obito, and a few faithful friends, he’s going to show his father just what kind of shinobi he can be.

Teacup Tempest Mature

Naruto has been hiding something since the time she was ten. Now she's finally graduated from the Academy only to find that the guy she's sorta-kinda been dating is her sensei. And he doesn't know. All Kakashi knows is that Naruto is scarily familiar. And his girlfriend has secrets that he only thinks he knows. And once he knows them, he's upset and confused. And yet, he still loves her.

Déjà vu no Jutsu * Mature

Take one dead, thirty year old career soldier, stick in the body of a child during the Second Great Shinobi War. Add a mini-Namikaze Minato, ninjas, chakra, tailed beasts, and shake well. Is it any wonder she thought she was insane?

Tumbling Naruto WIP Mature

Snippets done to prompts from Tumblr. Mostly Naruto Centric. Slash, crack, au, timetravel, etc.

To my Masterpost of Naruto Fic recs <3

I also have rec lists for Harry Potter and Doctor who.

#Naruto #fic recs #general #none of these wonderful fics belong to me

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