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rjalker · 19 days

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Which fairy tale do you think is the most fucked up?

I forget what it's called, but the one where the kid gets murdered by his (step?)mom and then she tricks her little kid daughter into thinking she killed him. Then he comes back to life as a bird and gives his sister some new shoes and I forget what he got for his dad and I'm pretty sure he dropped a millstone on his mom lol.

Edit:

I was adding in the paragraph breaks but I'm too lazy to do that on my phone so sorry

Okay I just remembered I can put read more as on my phone

The Juniper Tree

Some two thousand years or so, there lived a rich man with a good and beautiful wife. They loved each other dearly, but sorrowed much that they had no children. So greatly did they desire to have one, that the wife prayed for it day and night, but still they remained childless.

In front of the house there was a court, in which grew a juniper-tree. One winter’s day the wife stood under the tree to peel some apples, and as she was peeling them, she cut her finger, and the blood fell on the snow. ‘Ah,’ sighed the woman heavily, ‘if I had but a child, as red as blood and as white as snow,’ and as she spoke the words, her heart grew light within her, and it seemed to her that her wish was granted, and she returned to the house feeling glad and comforted. A month passed, and the snow had all disappeared; then another month went by, and all the earth was green. So the months followed one another, and first the trees budded in the woods, and soon the green branches grew thickly intertwined, and then the blossoms began to fall. Once again the wife stood under the juniper-tree, and it was so full of sweet scent that her heart leaped for joy, and she was so overcome with her happiness, that she fell on her knees. Presently the fruit became round and firm, and she was glad and at peace; but when they were fully ripe she picked the berries and ate eagerly of them, and then she grew sad and ill. A little while later she called her husband, and said to him, weeping. ‘If I die, bury me under the juniper-tree.’ Then she felt comforted and happy again, and before another month had passed she had a little child, and when she saw that it was as white as snow and as red as blood, her joy was so great that she died.

Her husband buried her under the juniper-tree, and wept bitterly for her. By degrees, however, his sorrow grew less, and although at times he still grieved over his loss, he was able to go about as usual, and later on he married again.

He now had a little daughter born to him; the child of his first wife was a boy, who was as red as blood and as white as snow. The mother loved her daughter very much, and when she looked at her and then looked at the boy, it pierced her heart to think that he would always stand in the way of her own child, and she was continually thinking how she could get the whole of the property for her. This evil thought took possession of her more and more, and made her behave very unkindly to the boy. She drove him from place to place with cuffings and buffetings, so that the poor child went about in fear, and had no peace from the time he left school to the time he went back.

One day the little daughter came running to her mother in the store-room, and said, ‘Mother, give me an apple.’ ‘Yes, my child,’ said the wife, and she gave her a beautiful apple out of the chest; the chest had a very heavy lid and a large iron lock.

‘Mother,’ said the little daughter again, ‘may not brother have one too?’ The mother was angry at this, but she answered, ‘Yes, when he comes out of school.’

Just then she looked out of the window and saw him coming, and it seemed as if an evil spirit entered into her, for she snatched the apple out of her little daughter’s hand, and said, ‘You shall not have one before your brother.’ She threw the apple into the chest and shut it to. The little boy now came in, and the evil spirit in the wife made her say kindly to him, ‘My son, will you have an apple?’ but she gave him a wicked look. ‘Mother,’ said the boy, ‘how dreadful you look! Yes, give me an apple.’ The thought came to her that she would kill him. ‘Come with me,’ she said, and she lifted up the lid of the chest; ‘take one out for yourself.’ And as he bent over to do so, the evil spirit urged her, and crash! down went the lid, and off went the little boy’s head. Then she was overwhelmed with fear at the thought of what she had done. ‘If only I can prevent anyone knowing that I did it,’ she thought. So she went upstairs to her room, and took a white handkerchief out of her top drawer; then she set the boy’s head again on his shoulders, and bound it with the handkerchief so that nothing could be seen, and placed him on a chair by the door with an apple in his hand.

Soon after this, little Marleen came up to her mother who was stirring a pot of boiling water over the fire, and said, ‘Mother, brother is sitting by the door with an apple in his hand, and he looks so pale; and when I asked him to give me the apple, he did not answer, and that frightened me.’

‘Go to him again,’ said her mother, ‘and if he does not answer, give him a box on the ear.’ So little Marleen went, and said, ‘Brother, give me that apple,’ but he did not say a word; then she gave him a box on the ear, and his head rolled off. She was so terrified at this, that she ran crying and screaming to her mother. ‘Oh!’ she said, ‘I have knocked off brother’s head,’ and then she wept and wept, and nothing would stop her.

‘What have you done!’ said her mother, ‘but no one must know about it, so you must keep silence; what is done can’t be undone; we will make him into puddings.’ And she took the little boy and cut him up, made him into puddings, and put him in the pot. But Marleen stood looking on, and wept and wept, and her tears fell into the pot, so that there was no need of salt.

Presently the father came home and sat down to his dinner; he asked, ‘Where is my son?’ The mother said nothing, but gave him a large dish of black pudding, and Marleen still wept without ceasing.

The father again asked, ‘Where is my son?’

‘Oh,’ answered the wife, ‘he is gone into the country to his mother’s great uncle; he is going to stay there some time.’

‘What has he gone there for, and he never even said goodbye to me!’

‘Well, he likes being there, and he told me he should be away quite six weeks; he is well looked after there.’

‘I feel very unhappy about it,’ said the husband, ‘in case it should not be all right, and he ought to have said goodbye to me.’

With this he went on with his dinner, and said, ‘Little Marleen, why do you weep? Brother will soon be back.’ Then he asked his wife for more pudding, and as he ate, he threw the bones under the table.

Little Marleen went upstairs and took her best silk handkerchief out of her bottom drawer, and in it she wrapped all the bones from under the table and carried them outside, and all the time she did nothing but weep. Then she laid them in the green grass under the juniper-tree, and she had no sooner done so, then all her sadness seemed to leave her, and she wept no more. And now the juniper-tree began to move, and the branches waved backwards and forwards, first away from one another, and then together again, as it might be someone clapping their hands for joy. After this a mist came round the tree, and in the midst of it there was a burning as of fire, and out of the fire there flew a beautiful bird, that rose high into the air, singing magnificently, and when it could no more be seen, the juniper-tree stood there as before, and the silk handkerchief and the bones were gone.

Little Marleen now felt as lighthearted and happy as if her brother were still alive, and she went back to the house and sat down cheerfully to the table and ate.

The bird flew away and alighted on the house of a goldsmith and began to sing:

‘My mother killed her little son; My father grieved when I was gone; My sister loved me best of all; She laid her kerchief over me, And took my bones that they might lie Underneath the juniper-tree Kywitt, Kywitt, what a beautiful bird am I!’

The goldsmith was in his workshop making a gold chain, when he heard the song of the bird on his roof. He thought it so beautiful that he got up and ran out, and as he crossed the threshold he lost one of his slippers. But he ran on into the middle of the street, with a slipper on one foot and a sock on the other; he still had on his apron, and still held the gold chain and the pincers in his hands, and so he stood gazing up at the bird, while the sun came shining brightly down on the street. ‘Bird,’ he said, ‘how beautifully you sing! Sing me that song again.’ ‘Nay,’ said the bird, ‘I do not sing twice for nothing. Give that gold chain, and I will sing it you again.’ ‘Here is the chain, take it,’ said the goldsmith. ‘Only sing me that again.’ The bird flew down and took the gold chain in his right claw, and then he alighted again in front of the goldsmith and sang:

Then he flew away, and settled on the roof of a shoemaker’s house and sang:

The shoemaker heard him, and he jumped up and ran out in his shirt-sleeves, and stood looking up at the bird on the roof with his hand over his eyes to keep himself from being blinded by the sun. ‘Bird,’ he said, ‘how beautifully you sing!’ Then he called through the door to his wife: ‘Wife, come out; here is a bird, come and look at it and hear how beautifully it sings.’ Then he called his daughter and the children, then the apprentices, girls and boys, and they all ran up the street to look at the bird, and saw how splendid it was with its red and green feathers, and its neck like burnished gold, and eyes like two bright stars in its head. ‘Bird,’ said the shoemaker, ‘sing me that song again.’ ‘Nay,’ answered the bird, ‘I do not sing twice for nothing; you must give me something.’ ‘Wife,’ said the man, ‘go into the garret; on the upper shelf you will see a pair of red shoes; bring them to me.’ The wife went in and fetched the shoes. ‘There, bird,’ said the shoemaker, ‘now sing me that song again.’ The bird flew down and took the red shoes in his left claw, and then he went back to the roof and sang:

When he had finished, he flew away. He had the chain in his right claw and the shoes in his left, and he flew right away to a mill, and the mill went ‘Click clack, click clack, click clack.’ Inside the mill were twenty of the miller’s men hewing a stone, and as they went ‘Hick hack, hick hack, hick hack,’ the mill went ‘Click clack, click clack, click clack.’ The bird settled on a lime-tree in front of the mill and sang:

‘My mother killed her little son;

then one of the men left off,

My father grieved when I was gone;

two more men left off and listened,

My sister loved me best of all;

then four more left off,

She laid her kerchief over me, And took my bones that they might lie

Now there were only eight at work,

Underneath,

and now only five,

the juniper-tree.

and now only one,

Kywitt, Kywitt, what a beautiful bird am I!’

then he looked up and the last one had left off work. ‘Bird,’ he said, ‘what a beautiful song that is you sing! Let me hear it too; sing it again.’ ‘Nay,’ answered the bird, ‘I do not sing twice for nothing; give me that millstone, and I will sing it again.’ ‘If it belonged to me alone,’ said the man, ‘you should have it.’ ‘Yes, yes,’ said the others: ‘if he will sing again, he can have it.’ The bird came down, and all the twenty millers set to and lifted up the stone with a beam; then the bird put his head through the hole and took the stone round his neck like a collar, and flew back with it to the tree and sang—

And when he had finished his song, he spread his wings, and with the chain in his right claw, the shoes in his left, and the millstone round his neck, he flew right away to his father’s house. The father, the mother, and little Marleen were having their dinner. ‘How lighthearted I feel,’ said the father, ‘so pleased and cheerful.’ ‘And I,’ said the mother, ‘I feel so uneasy, as if a heavy thunderstorm were coming.’ But little Marleen sat and wept and wept. Then the bird came flying towards the house and settled on the roof. ‘I do feel so happy,’ said the father, ‘and how beautifully the sun shines; I feel just as if I were going to see an old friend again.’ ‘Ah!’ said the wife, ‘and I am so full of distress and uneasiness that my teeth chatter, and I feel as if there were a fire in my veins,’ and she tore open her dress; and all the while little Marleen sat in the corner and wept, and the plate on her knees was wet with her tears. The bird now flew to the juniper-tree and began singing:

‘My mother killed her little son;

the mother shut her eyes and her ears, that she might see and hear nothing, but there was a roaring sound in her ears like that of a violent storm, and in her eyes a burning and flashing like lightning:

My father grieved when I was gone;

‘Look, mother,’ said the man, ‘at the beautiful bird that is singing so magnificently; and how warm and bright the sun is, and what a delicious scent of spice in the air!’

My sister loved me best of all;

then little Marleen laid her head down on her knees and sobbed. ‘I must go outside and see the bird nearer,’ said the man. ‘Ah, do not go!’ cried the wife. ‘I feel as if the whole house were in flames!’ But the man went out and looked at the bird.

She laid her kerchief over me, And took my bones that they might lie Underneath the juniper-tree Kywitt, Kywitt, what a beautiful bird am I!’

With that the bird let fall the gold chain, and it fell just round the man’s neck, so that it fitted him exactly. He went inside, and said, ‘See, what a splendid bird that is; he has given me this beautiful gold chain, and looks so beautiful himself.’ But the wife was in such fear and trouble, that she fell on the floor, and her cap fell from her head. Then the bird began again:

‘My mother killed her little son;

‘Ah me!’ cried the wife, ‘if I were but a thousand feet beneath the earth, that I might not hear that song.’

My father grieved when I was gone;

then the woman fell down again as if dead.

My sister loved me best of all;

‘Well,’ said little Marleen, ‘I will go out too and see if the bird will give me anything.’ So she went out.

She laid her kerchief over me, And took my bones that they might lie

and he threw down the shoes to her,

Underneath the juniper-tree Kywitt, Kywitt, what a beautiful bird am I!’

And she now felt quite happy and lighthearted; she put on the shoes and danced and jumped about in them. ‘I was so miserable,’ she said, ‘when I came out, but that has all passed away; that is indeed a splendid bird, and he has given me a pair of red shoes.’ The wife sprang up, with her hair standing out from her head like flames of fire. ‘Then I will go out too,’ she said, ‘and see if it will lighten my misery, for I feel as if the world were coming to an end.’ But as she crossed the threshold, crash! the bird threw the millstone down on her head, and she was crushed to death. The father and little Marleen heard the sound and ran out, but they only saw mist and flame and fire rising from the spot, and when these had passed, there stood the little brother, and he took the father and little Marleen by the hand; then they all three rejoiced, and went inside together and sat down to their dinners and ate.

#asks #replies #public domain characters #public domain #fairy tales #The juniper tree

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ruthlesslistener · 1 year

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oughh i love snakes. do u have anymore pics of her on hand?

yes i have many of my delinquent teenager. always

#anon #reply #miss juniper everythingbagel #my pets #snakes #ball python #reptiblr #she cost me years of my life amd hours of study time in one morning #and also 80 dollars of preventative gear #if it happened any other week but this one it would be fine but NOT TJIS OME

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houseofwisteria · 29 days

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" i love my girlfriend and my girlfriends boyfriend they're both so pretty bro I swear "

#reply: rafe #( dash comm )#this is him at shelby + topper #ans juniper + jj #hes got a lot of love to give okay?#and rachel + topper

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keytaryourheart · 8 months

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When Tim Key ratioed me requested (threatened ?,,) by @horneboy

#tim key #this was around dec 2021 i think #i should never have underestimated the exceptional emily juniper #i tried looking for the comment now but i can’t find it?? did i delete it? idk why i would do that tho..#nvm I just didn’t load all the replies 💀💀💀💀

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allthatisleftinthedark · 1 month

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Which muse is the one who enjoys reading romance novels? What's each muse's favorite genre of book to read/movie to watch?

unprompted asks | always accepting | @offrozenmemoirs

Four syllables for you: Ai-mon El-rose. A prolific reader and investor in the arts, Aimon is very open to xyr accrued collection of novels and is very opinionated on which authors are the best and worst. A prior post better details the reasoning behind xyr insistence on creating a grand collection, which can be read here.

Xe will always take more to read fiction than nonfiction and would be very exuberant to take another enjoyer of romance. If anything, he will be direct and would give a chance to convene with someone who reads it. The truth of the matter is that Drakeshadow is suffocating in the many things he likes and what he does; resistance is had in many different ways, but letting himself digest and indulge in something that does not harm, impede, or abuse the power of someone is a very odd (and low hanging fruit) of resisting.

At a point, I discussed with Luca ( @offrozenmemoirs ) that Aimon and Seraph would be the top contenders to start a book club and be as quick to bond with each other if they met in circumstances different from what goes on in the campaign.

For all characters these are their genres of preference for reading:

Aimon—As stated in the beginning half of the ask, romance fiction is one of my favorite genres. The specific subgenres would be a historical romance that usually predates the Graneyean Empire's presence in Nihiran; these texts are significantly challenging to find and could be lost to time (hence Aimon's efforts to collect and preserve them). Nonfiction-wise, xe prioritizes finding illustrated books related to architecture, usually visual dictionaries and engineering books detailing modern and alternative technologies used globally. Their status in the Graneyean Empire makes this remarkably easier to locate and purchase.

Discoverer—As an entity presenting more of a phenomenon, written or oral knowledge considered niche or "lost" would favor them. Genre means nothing to them as long as there is gain or, as its name suggests, something to discover.

Estranha—Nonfiction writing that includes self-help autobiographies that venture into journal writing and, secretly, self-sabotaging. Most of their catalog has essays regarding the subject of their thesis. They have also been giving a chance to fiction, specifically children's fiction.

Juniper—After spending countless years in the most wealthy library in the Graneyean Empire, this retired cat enjoys spending her late nights reading books on travel, specifically Tahrea, where her wife is from, and culinary. The latter isn't necessarily for learning new recipes but for reading through the autobiographical parts of a recipe writer's life (or their experience at a particular food establishment). Fiction-wise, they enjoy short stories and tend to pick up a good leaflet that offers several stories written by different authors with a vague uniting theme.

Maisie—Called "nerd" in her first session by the DMistress herself, it would not be unusual to admit that reading materials often venture into nonfiction (i.e., cultural studies, history, and theory). However, this is not her preference since those are read not out of pleasure but necessity. She enjoys thriller and suspense novels but is very biased toward ancient myths. Sweetly, she carries a copy of her brother's old manuscripts to read throughout her travels when she has ample time to relax.

Sino—Much like her counterpart, the gnome has a good list of reading material that explores theory-crafting and history due to her work with her patron. Unlike Maisie, Sino finds these enjoyable because they better acquaint themselves with the shadow plane. Her personal reading taste would include a guide on weapon maintenance and, hilariously, unsolved mysteries.

#⋆ * behind the cast ; ooc‚ general * ⋆#⋆ * notes spotted and slid along ; aimon elrose‚ asks * ⋆#( estra ask tag )#⋆ * memo seen and replied ; juniper 'ghost whisker'‚ asks * ⋆#⋆ * correspondences acknowledged and responded ; maisie doscedar‚ asks * ⋆#⋆ * lettered received and responded ; sino‚ asks * ⋆

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formorethananame · 8 months

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@svnandmccn, a closed starter

With a happy noise, Shadow bounded towards her store room. She held onto Juniper's sleeve as she did, peeking over her shoulder with a smile. "They're so beautiful, you're gonna love them!"

The source of her excitement was the new shipment of pots and the new shipment of flowers she'd gotten in. Nothing excited her more than nature, and that included what she was able to sell. Shadow let go of Juniper's sleeve and opened the doors to reveal the new product. The flowers were just as bright as the pots available, a myriad of color and patterns and designs. "See!" Shadow turned to Juniper, her face bright and happy. "Aren't they beautiful?!"

#svnandmccn #replies; shadow #threads; shadow x juniper #verse: don't want the world to see me

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arthurtaylorlester · 1 year

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You asked for malevolent asks, here’s me wracking my brain:

- what are your favourite malevolent fics?

- how do you personally picture John? If at all?

- what is one thing you’d personally pay real money to see happen in canon?

oh god i havent read malevolent fics in forever, but @smallsies malevolent week series + the lighthouse fic and i'm currently waiting for formaldehyde to be completed, but judging from the fanart i'll probably love that too !!

i don't lmao, which is why i cant pin down a definitive design for me. but humanized i think he's either quite tall or quite short, dark curly hair in mullet, earring and piercings (black specifically), he's poc bcs i love projecting and like pure gold eyes, no whites. but like in canon he's sock puppet

real money for something that fits in the show? dark world arc with parker & john meeting and begrudgingly teaming up to save arthur from the newest eldritch being in love with him. faroe is also there. but if we're being silly timetravel arc where all the characters go to watch the barbie movie

thanks for the asks :)

#malevolent #malevolent podcast #malevolent asks #unhinged aromantics #red replies #lavender juniper tag

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godsdefied · 4 months

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𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐨𝐮𝐥 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐟𝐢𝐭𝐬 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐨 𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐞. / @jundlcndwastes

#hi pls accept this as apology for me taking 50 million years to reply to anything <3 #jundlcndwastes #* ship — happy & juniper.

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juniperdaily · 5 months

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spot the tortoise

#'you can't see me' she says #'yes i can' i reply #junie.exe #juniper daily #red footed tortoise #cherry head tortoise

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jundlcndwastes · 1 month

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Send "❤" For my muse to kiss yours. | asked by @jigsawscarred

It was beginning to feel like it was a drinking game now - every time they started talking about their respective scars, the uneasiness of it all caused them to pick up another drink and knock it back, hard liquor burning their throats on the way down. If it was to help them forget or help them talk about it, that was up for debate. Being this vulnerable with one another, it opened up a sense of intimacy, and the next thing she knew she was kissing him. Lips tasted of warm honey and whiskey and she couldn't stop herself, head buzzing from drinking, from feeling too much all at once.

#jigsawscarred #☆ ───── JUNIPER WOLFHART ( MEME REPLIES )

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ruthlesslistener · 1 year

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So when I was little I was like. Deathly afraid of snakes. Terrified and awful at even being around them. A sharp contrast to my sister who at the ripe age of 10 would happily want to hold and touch snakes, even if she really shouldn’t. (She’d over turn logs and wood to look at the babies? Little snakes curled up under them. Much to my horror.)

Anyways around 14 I started trying to get over it, bc my rational brain had kicked in and I knew they weren’t any real threat to me. They were just creatures trying to live and explore safely as well yknow? I held a snake at that age for the first time and I actually enjoyed it. Wasn’t frighten and was proud of myself for not freaking out about it despite it being v new and nerve wracking. (In the years following with trying to connect with Mother Nature I’d also be trying to breath and get myself to not freak about being close to spiders and some other bugs. Still. Working on those.)

Since then I haven’t had access to snakes in front of me. High school didn’t have any science teachers with snakes and I’m in a city for college so even worrying about them being in the brush is gone. So my fear/progress with snakes had largely gone dormant. But! You keep posting snakes and esp your thoughts and experiences with Juniper and it’s?? Really?? Helped me wrap my head around being cool with snakes. They’re funky noodle creatures. They’re pretty chill usually. They’re creatures with habits and personalities like anything else. Just noodle shaped. No more dangerous than a dog or cat really, maybe even less so considering big dog breeds. Arguably prettier than a lot of dogs too.

Idk it’s just been nice hearing about Juniper. She sounds like such a delightful noodle to live with honestly. And hearing about your experiences with her has grounded snakes back into reality instead of Evil Serpent Creature Of The Brush. So thanks for that ig✨✨

!!! I've just had this sitting in my inbox for a couple days now because I genuinely couldn't come up with the words to answer it. I've loved snakes all my life but was raised by a parent who was and still is scared shitless of them, so being able to reduce some of that terror by just nerding out about them?? That really made my week.

Now, if you want some more fun info about my experiences with them that ground them even further into 'this is just a little guy' territory:

Snakes are hands-down one of the most gentle, least-capable-of-evil vertebrates that I've ever worked with (which to be fair, includes parrots and rabbits so we've got a high bar here), primarily because they seem to only experience a few emotions: fear, hunger, curiosity, and contentment, and each of those motivations take up the entire braincell currently running at the moment. Which is likely far more simplistic than what we give them credit for- they can be very clever little things when they want!- but what surprised and delighted me the most after getting Juniper (even with all the research I did!!) was just how much curiosity takes up that one active braincell. Snakes are very frightened, sensitive beings, but when they feel secure enough for it, they are SUPER inquisitive. Everytime after 7, Juniper will poke her head out of her hide, and will actively watch me go about my nighttime routine until I settle or she gets bored enough to fall asleep. When I take her out, her primary mission is to explore wherever she can, investigating every little change in her environment before coming back to me to coil up under my crossed legs (or trying to wedge behind the bookshelf). They're often flagged as simple animals, and their emotions likely are quite primitive, but there's just a certain sort of joy that one gains from watching an animal explore her surroundings and seeing the little gears turning in her brain that makes it click just how similar we are to each other, even after years of evolution, and how magical it is that she has grown to understand that I am harmless enough for me to be a familiar anchor point when something New and Scary but also very Intruiguing comes along. And it's delightful to interact with her and see that realization click into place, and to also know that I wouldn't get a bite from it without great warning. Because snakes only bite when scared or hungry, and she is neither scared of me nor mistakes me for her dinner. That's a marked difference from interacting with parrots or rabbits, and also much less painful of a bite prospect- snakes do not have big beaks or jaws made for crushing through wooden materials, with sharp edges that slice right into your flesh. They've just got a whole bunch of little pinprick teethers, and no bite force whatsoever to hold it up. A bite is much less scary and much less likely to happen from a nonvenomous snake than from most other animals

(They can presumably also get angry, but the only time I've ever seen an angry snake was a very territorial, horny male in breeding season who'd mistake hands for othet snakes. Even then, all he'd do is push at them with his coils or grumpily shove at the hand with his face. No striking! Just the snake equivilant of hip-nudging.)

Something else about Juniper that really surprised me when I first got her- snakes aren't born knowing how to eat! They've got the instinct to strike at food and coil it, but the actual size they need to strike, amount they need to coil to kill the prey, and which way to gulp it down is a process learned by trial and error. Some can bonk their wee faces too hard on the strike and scare themselves so bad that it stops them from eating; some will try endlessly to eat a rat from the side or the ass end and then get so frustrated by their efforts that they give up. Juniper, luckily, is not either of those- she's a garbage disposal of a ball python, one that'll eat anything as long as it's not covered in substrate- but she was terrible at striking when she was little, terrible at figuring out how to eat said prey, and is still pretty terrible at wrapping her meals, like any proper snake should. I got her eating frozen/thawed when she was only 75g, so it's likely that she's never learned how to kill prey, and so sometimes she just...doesn't even try. I can't ever give this girl a live rat!! She doesn't know how to kill it like a proper python!!! And that's just so very funny to me. It really shows you that snakes aren't instinct-driven killing machines like people say, but animals equipped with a basic understanding of what they need to do and no actual experience on how to do it. She's at least figured out how to eat her reheated rats facefirst like a normal snake should, without enthusiastically trying to chow down on it from the side, but the way she's learned to manouver it against her body until she finds the right way it needs to go took almost an entire year of practice. And it's fascinating to see her do it, as she'll often use her own coils to help push her food to where she wants it to go. It might seem callous to state how much I enjoy watching my snake eat, especially since I love rodents, but the clear enjoyment/enthusiasm she gets out of a meal and the way she problem solves to get it in a configuration where she can eat it shows just how much more is going on upstairs than what we think, and that's super cool to me

(She also wipes her face after meals! Usually because a bit of substrate gets caught in her mouth and she hates the feel, but I've seen her do it even when nothing is in her mouth. She'll go up to one of her rougher pieces of decor, then carefully wipe her face on it, one side after another, just like how people do with napkins. I'm not sure if this is to help realign her jaws or if the fur of it tickles her face when no subtrate is in her mouth, but it is extremely cute)

Anyways, I'm so very happy that I've been able to use my love for snakes to help you appreciate them better! Here's a couple pictures of Juniper for you, taken when she was just hanging on my lap chillin while I called my family (or crawling over me so that she can get a good scope of the new apartment)

#demonicintegrity #miss juniper everythingbagel #reply #i can go on for ages about her antics honestly #she's such a character and its so fucking cute #just such an inquisitive and sweet and gentle little soul #and I get the delight of being the one to take care of her

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