"Mario Mario" is an anachronism. He and his brother were only ever referred to by mononyms in their lifetime, like most residents of the Mushroom Kingdom at the time - multi-part names were typically reserved for members of the Toadstool dynasty, and even these were more like titles or Roman cognomina than what we would call a surname today. His putative ennoblement as founder of the "House of Mario" came centuries later as the collapsing feudal order sought additional sources of legitimacy
#mushroom kingdom folklore says that he sleeps beneath a warp pipe to arise in the time of the kingdom's greatest need #he's definitely shown up a few times but it's hard to tell if he has risen from the dead or is just in the middle of some time travel shit #historians hate him.
While the historical evidence for Mario having a younger brother is quite concrete, the name of said brother is less certain. "Luigi" is generally held to originate with a separate figure from a series of chthonic myths, who originally served as a sort of psychopomp charged with capturing spirits that escaped the underworld. The strongest case for a contemporary figure named Luigi comes from the Waffle Kingdom sagas; however, this Luigi's brother is a gladiator named Gonzales.
i just found out about this bird (scale-crested pygmy tyrant) trying to find the most biodiverse countries and i feel tears welling up in my eyes because its so cute
why does it look like that i love him so much he's a little fella
Instead of the new dogshit Odyssey film you should watch Iphigenia (1977). Itās made by actual Greek people and focuses on a mother-daughter relationship to explore how women are sacrificed by powerful men in times of war. Also the main actress has the face of an angel š the whole movie is available on YT with English subtitles.
suddenly remembered that pjotwt incident where show fans dogged on latinopercy's fanart of latino percy to "defend" walker and one of the comments said that the piece didn't feel like percy because he looked "too angry" and . [insert plethora of generational curses here] now it has me thinking about surreptitious fandom racism in how people seem to be receiving and interpreting show percy (a blond, blue-eyed pale kid) vs book percy (who's commonly depicted as a darker-skinned boy of color)
show percy being seen as the ideal percy because he fits the white vision of a beach boy, which he never was in the first place, instead of the considerably more alternative, rough-looking skater city boy he was in the books. the massive erasure of how teachers instantly distrust percy and never think he'll amount to anything because of how his disability others him; the lighthearted twist on percy's home situation so that we don't feel the total gravity of the situation that gabe puts both percy and sally in; the glossing over of how gabe and authority figures are easily able to label percy as a terrorist because he's a poor runaway kid, and percy is in turn severely traumatized by them (just look at his internal narration when he meets mr. d); show percy being to one to know and narrate everything about greek mythology instead of annabeth; show percy being first and foremost a lovable golden retriever goof and to-be-boyfriend; show fans wanting percy to be openly pursuant and communicative about his feelings with annabeth from the get-go, perceiving botl and tlo percy as an asshole for daring to be interested in other girls because it doesn't fit in with the golden retriever bf archetype they want him to be.
show percy is not tangibly othered in the way that book percy made us feel that he is and therefore carries no impact preceding from that; percy with none of the melancholy and the rage and the tragedy that haunts him from the first book because of his mother's death (because, remember, he knows from episode 2? 3? that sally is alive in the underworld). to the show and its fans, percy's coding in the books as a minority (even if unintentional on rick's part) is inconsequential to his character; and it seems they like him that way. otherwise, he's too angry, too complicated, too much of an asshole for the extremely stunted extent of their moral palette.
the thing abt fics with phantom in them is that phantom has only said like three to six things in the entire fucking video game, half of which we (technically) can not attribute to them with 100% certainty. and the other half being pulled from their mind in a delirious haze. so like. seeing the way that people decide to characterize them is really fun and interesting
me personally i greatly enjoy the read of like. an angsty teen if they were raised in a glass dollhouse. furious and angry and depressed and suicidal, latching their teeth into your outstretched hand and not letting go. but they spent their entire 'childhood' in an abandoned chapel and they dont know how to say fuck or damn
all of hornet's verboseness and pretentiousness with none of the politeness or false modesty attached. and thats if they even decide to speak to you at all.
i wanted to draw qedi-var's lil travel booties. shortwing harpies don't have hardened foot pads because they're predominantly a perching and hanging-off-of-walls/ceilings type of people, so for prolonged journeys on the ground they gotta wear shoes. the shoes are made of heavy duty algal leather.
also decided i could no longer stand by shortwing ear feathers because it just makes no sense so for now their ears are hidden under the feathers. also tried him out with a longer tail than usual because i think it makes them look a bit more balanced; their legs are pretty short and camped under the torso and makes them have a slight leaning-forward stance when standing. sometimes i think they should have eyebrows but for now that privilege is not granted to them.
Alligator Body Language and You, or: How To Know When An Alligator On Social Media is Being Stressed for Views
Alligators are wild animals. Despite the idiotic claims of animal abusers like Jay Brewer, they cannot be domesticated, which means they are always going to react on the same natural instincts they've had for millions of years. Habituated, yes. Tamed, yes. Trained, definitely. Crocodilians can form bonds with people- they're social and quite intelligent. They can solve problems, use tools, and they're actually quite playful. Alligators are also really good at communicating how they're feeling, but to somebody who doesn't spend much time around them, their body language can be a bit mystifying. And it doesn't help when social media influencers are saying shit like this:
That is not what a happy gator looks like.
That's a terrified, furious gator who isn't attacking because the ogre handling her has her in a chokehold. She's doing everything she can to express her displeasure, and he's lying about it because he knows his audience doesn't even know how to think critically about what he's doing. He knows that because his audience doesn't know anything about these animals, he can get away with it. This I think is why I hate him so much- he deliberately miseducates his audience. He knows what he's doing is factually inaccurate, he just doesn't care because attention means more to him than anything else in the world.
Let's change that! Here are two really important lessons for understanding alligator body language on social media.
Lesson 1: Alligators Don't Smile (in fact, most animals don't)
So what's going on in this video? Jay Brewer is aggressively choking his white alligator Coconut while scrubbing algae off of her with a toothbrush. And make no mistake, he is digging into the creature's throat while she is visibly distressed. He claims she's happy- but she's not. He is willfully misrepresenting what this animal is feeling. That's a problem, because people... well, we actually kind of suck at reading other species' body language. The reason for this is that we tend to overlay our own responses on their physical cues, and that's a problem. For example, let's look at an animal with a really similar face to ours, the chimpanzee. Check out Ama's toothy grin!
Wait, no. That's not a happy smile. That's a threat display. When a chimpanzee "smiles," it's either terrified and doing a fear grimace, or it's showing you its teeth because it intends on using them in your face.
How about a dog? Look at my smiling, happy puppy!
Oh wait no, this is a picture of Ryder when he was super overwhelmed by noise and people during a holiday party. He'd hopped up in my sister's lap to get away from stuff that was happening on the floor and was panting quite heavily. See the tension in the corners of his mouth and his eyes? A lot of the time when a dog "smiles," the smile isn't happy. It's stress! Why Animals Do The Thing has a nice writeup about that, but the point is, our body language is not the same as other species. And for reptiles, body language is wildly different.
For instance, look at these two alligators. Pretty cute, right? Look at 'em, they're posing for a Christmas card or something! How do you think they're feeling?
Well, I'll tell you how the normal one is feeling. He's annoyed! Why is he annoyed? Because the albino just rolled up, pushed another gator off the platform, and is trying to push this guy, too. I know this because I actually saw it happen. It was pretty funny, not gonna lie. He's not gaping all the way, but he was hissing- you can actually see him getting annoyed in the sequence I took right before this shot. Look at him in this first shot here- he's just relaxing, and you can see he isn't gaping even a little bit.
By the end, he's expressing displeasure, but not enough to actually do anything about it. He's annoyed, but he's comfy and that's where one of the best basking areas is, so he'll put up with it.
Reptiles open their mouths wide for a lot of reasons, but never because they are actively enjoying a sensation. Unless they're eating. No reptile smiles- they can't. They don't even have moveable lips. If a reptile is gaping, it's doing so because:
It is doing a threat display.
It is making certain vocalizations, all of which are threats. Alligators are one of the rare reptiles that do regularly vocalize, but most of their calls aren't made with a wide open mouth.
It is about to bite something delicious or somebody stupid. Check out this video- virtually all of the gaping here is anticipatory because these trained gators know darn well that the bowl is full of delicious snacks. (I have some issues with Florida's Wildest, but the man knows how to train a gator AND he is honest about explaining what they're doing and why, and all of his animals are healthy and well-cared for, and he doesn't put the public or his staff at risk- just himself.)
It's too hot and it has opened its mouth to vent some of that heat and thermoregulate. This is the main reason why alligators will often have their mouths part of the way open, but sometimes they'll open all the way for thermoregulation. This is what a thermoregulatory gape looks like- usually it's not all the way open, kinda more like < rather than V, but you can't say that 100% of the time. Additionally, a thermoregulatory gape... typically happens when it's hot out. If they're inside, maybe they've been under their basking light for too long. Heat's the dominant factor, is what I'm getting at.
There is another reason that a captive crocodilian might be gaping, and that's because it's doing so on command. Some places have their gators trained to gape on cue, like St. Augustine Alligator Farm and other good zoos. They have the animals do this in presentations that are genuinely educational. They ask the animals to open their mouths so that they can show off their teeth and demonstrate how their tongues seal off the back of their mouth. They'll also do it as part of routine healthcare, because looking at their teeth is important.
In this case, the animals aren't gaping because they're stressed, they're gaping because they know they're gonna get a piece of chicken or fish if they do it. And what's more, they're doing it on cue. They have a specific command or signal that tells them to open wide. It's not an instinctive response to a situation. It's trained. If the animal provides the behavior after a cue, the situation is much less likely to be negatively impactful.
It's also important to remember that there's a difference between a partially open mouth and a gape! As discussed above, alligators will often have their mouths a little bit open just to maintain temperature homeostasis. It helps them stay comfy, temperature-wise. These guys are all doing thermoregulatory open-mouthed behavior- that slight open and relaxed body posture is a dead giveaway. (That and it's the hottest spot in the enclosure.)
Lesson 2: A Happy Gator Is A Chill Gator
So if alligators don't smile or have facial expressions other than the :V that typically signifies distress, how else can you tell how they're feeling? One way is stillness. See, alligators subscribe to the philosophy of if it sucks... hit da bricks.
Basically, if they hate it, they'll leave. Unless, y'know, somebody has their meaty claws digging into their throat or is otherwise restraining them. (Restraint isn't always bad, btw. Sometimes the animal is going through a medical thing or needs to be restrained for their safety- which a responsible educator will explain.)
Let's look at a very similar scenario, in which a captive alligator is getting his back scrubbed.
As you can see, it's quite different. First, he's not being restrained at all. Second, look at how relaxed he is! He's just chilling there vibing! He could simply get up and leave if he wanted to, because he's not being held. Towards the end of the video, as he lifts his head, you can see that his respiratory rate is very even as his throat flutters a bit. I'm not sure what this facility is, so I can't comment on care/general ethics, but like. In this specific case, this is an alligator enjoying being scrubbed! And you can tell because he's not doing anything. A happy gator is content to be doing what they're doing.
Why Should I Listen To You?
Now, you should ask yourself, why should you listen to me? Why should you trust me, who does not own an alligator, versus Jay Brewer, who owns several?
Well, first off, there's no profit for me in telling you that what you're seeing on social media is in fact not what you're being told you're seeing. I'm not getting paid to do this. That's the thing with people who make social media content. The big names aren't doing it just for fun. They're doing it for money. Whether that's profit through partnerships or sponsorships, or getting more people to visit their facilities, or ad revenue, you can't ignore the factor of money. And this is NOT a bad thing, because it allows educators to do what they're passionate about! People deserve to be paid for the work that they do!
But the problem starts when you chase the algorithm instead of actually educating. A "smiling" alligator gets the views, and if people don't know enough to know better, it keeps getting the views. People love unconventional animal stories and they want those animals to be happy- but the inability to even know where to start with critically evaluating these posts really hinders the ability to spread real information. Like, this post will probably get a couple hundred notes, but that video of Coconut being scrubbed had almost 400,000 likes when I took that screenshot. Think about how many eyeballs that's reached by now. What I'm saying here is that it's just... really important to think critically about who you're getting your information from. What do dissenters say in the comments? What do other professionals say? You won't find a single herpetologist that has anything good to say about Prehistoric Pets, I can tell you that right now.
Another reason you can trust me is that my sources are not "just trust me bro," or "years of experience pretending my pet shop where animals come to die is a real zoo." Instead, here are my primary sources for my information on alligator behavior:
Dragon Songs: Love and Adventure among Crocodiles, Alligators, and Other Dinosaur Relations- Vladimir Dinets
The Secret Social Lives of Reptiles- J. Sean Doody, Vladimir Dinets, Gordon M. Burghardt
Social Behavior Deficiencies in Captive American Alligators (Alligator mississippiensis)- Z Walsh, H Olson, M Clendening, A Rycyk
Social Displays of the American Alligator (Alligator mississippiensis)- Kent Vliet
Social Signals and Behaviors of Adult Alligators and Crocodiles- Leslie Garrick, Jeffery Lang
Thermoregulatory Behavior of Captive American Alligators (Alligator mississippiensis)- Cheryl S. Asa, Gary D. London, Ronald R. Goellner, Norman Haskell, Glenn Roberts, Crispen Wilson
Unprovoked Mouth Gaping Behavior in Extant Crocodylia- Noah J. Carl, Heather A. Stewart, Jenny S. Paul
Thank you for reading! Here's a very happy wild alligator from Sanibel for your trouble.
tumblr staff doesnāt want you to know this, but a great way to treat small amounts of granulation tissue to prevent it from becoming hypergranulation inside the canal of your neovagina is to make a hypersaline solution (more in tense version of regular saline) and soak a tampon in it, and then insert that tampon into your vaginal canal
now Iām sure if you are dealing with granulation tissue during early recovery from bottom surgery youāre probably thinking gosh fuck Iām a trans girl iāve never had to put a tampon in in my life how do I do thisā¦and Iād love to show you but
anyways, if you're a trans girl and have never used a tampon before, here's some tips
- you shouldn't be able to really feel it, if you do it isn't tilted correctly or it's not far enough in. in my experience the easiest way to put in a tampon is squatting and tilting slightly forward but experiment and see what feels best for you
- it's completely normal to take a few attempts to get in correctly , that's what the string is for (easy removal)
- if you lose the string you can just Go Up There and pull it out, it's just more messy
- even though you don't bleed, do not leave it in for long. i'm serious. you can still get toxic shock syndrome, it's not pretty and you will need serious medical intervention. change tampons at least every 8 hours
- probably common sense but ill add anyways, tampons expand when absorbing fluid! do not worry if it's a little struggle to get out that's normal (but if you're having a REALLY hard time that is not, probably size down your tampon)
[Cyprozombiegirl] Granulation tissue is a normal tissue that forms underneath where the skin will form, its bright red and shiny (and painful to the touch). Unfortunately when the injured/cut area is consistently wet often too much of this tissue forms and prevents skin from growing over it. When this happens itās called hypergranulation and needs to be chemically burned away. If youāve got some but not a lot though, not enough to technically be hypergranulation but on the way there, you can use hypersaline to treat it.
It canāt stop anything once youāve fully got hypergranulation, but if itās only granulation it seems to help a lot. I found out about this from a friend whose special interest is bottom surgery
To Make The HyperSaline Solution
[Cyprozombiegirl] mix 2 teaspoons of table salt with 1 cup of warm water (which youāve boiled for at least 20min) in a clean container until the salt dissolves. soak tampon in it. Insert tampon (this can be tricky because it will rapidly expand, so I suggest getting one for light flow).
[Dilsdoes] hi! just a note: make sure the salt youre using is non iodized! generally for saline solutions used internally like this you want to avoid iodized salt. it tends to irritate mucous membranes
Further information on Tampons can be searched online or on the Tampon box.
ID: Censored image for "breaking Tumblr guidelines".
A diagram for how to apply a tampon in a (neo)vagina.
1. Tampon inside a tampon applicator, with tampon chord (a string used to pull the tampon out).
2. Hand with the tampon itself pointed towards the palm and body. Index finger over the Tampon applicator plunger.
3. Spreading vaginal opening with the other hand, and placing the tampon with tampon applicator towards the vaginal entrance. Legs spread apart.
4. Push tampon applicator plunger with index finger, with tampon inside, to push it further inside.
5. Take out tampon applicator. The tampon should be secured inside the vaginal canal, with tampon chord hanging outside of the vagina.
make sure you are doing this using a tampon with a plastic applicator. This is for a number of reasons: firstly, they are easier to use than other options, but secondly and more crucially, theyre actually compatible with the whole "putting in a tampon soaked in liquid" thing. If you use an applicatorless tampon like OB, it'll just fully expand and good fucking luck getting that in. If you use a tampon with a cardboard applicator, its harder to put in and also the cardboard will just get soggy.
you want something that looks like this:
Make sure to soak the tampon while it is in the applicator. do not remove it from the plastic casing (blue in this picture) or you will be unable to put it in.
I would also highly recommend avoiding tampax pearl tampons or anything similar. This means anything that advertises itself as having a thicker string or "leak protection". Firstly, if youre not bleeding or otherwise oversaturating the tampon with liquid you wont need it (yet again a reason to soak the tampon while its in the applicator). Secondly, that thicker string can be massively uncomfortable even for people used to wearing tampons (which can also be an issue if you dont yet know how to differentiate between "is this tampon not in properly?" and "the string on this brand fucking sucks eggs".) If youve never worn one, save yourself the trouble. A thin tampon string you shouldnt be able to feel is best.
If the tampon string breaks (which, if youre worried about this, dont be. It's extremely unlikely, I've had it happen once in my many years of wearing exclusively tampons) bear down like youre taking a shit and it should start to come out on its own. This can also help if youre having trouble taking it out or are just nervous. Like mentioned above, this can be even easier if youre in something of a squatting position, such as by putting a stool under your feet.
It's worth mentioning that tampons come in different sizes. From smallest to largest they go: light/junior/slim, regular, super, super plus, and ultra. Light/junior/slim and ultra can be hard to find. Your best bet is regular. The larger a tampon, the more likely you will struggle to remove it, not because it is physically large, but because it can absorb more liquid and will thus be dryer. Just go with a smaller one and you should be fine
Here's a non-Tumblr source on hypergranulation and its treatment in neovaginas in case anyone would like that. (I wanted to find something more before reblogging medical advice.) It doesn't bring up the preventive solution OP is talking about but it does give some context for it.
Take care of yourselves, especially after surgery. I love you.
I'm gonna add my 2 cent cause even though I'm cis this has happened to me and I can imagine it's even more uncomfortable to our trans sisters:
If you're having a hard time removing the tampon because there's a lot of friction or it feels like it expanded too much don't hesitate to douse your finger in a bit of lube and lube the vaginal canal. This will help get the tampon out with less discomfort!
I mean, Iām pretty sure Lin is supposed to represent what Chihiroās future might be like if she accepted her role in the bath house and didnāt try to maintain her own identity and values. Sheās not a bad person, but sheās hedonistic to exactly the extent that the bath house culture allows her to be as an employee and has no ambition beyond the system of favors, bribes, and petty intimidation between low-level workers. Sheās traded her individuality and opportunity to better herself for the security of predictable exploitation and she doesnāt seem to regret it.
I donāt think itās a coincidence that Lin is the only other major character who looks human throughout the movie - Iām not certain she started out human, but I suspect she may have, and may have fully traded away her humanity. I do think itās significant that she, unlike Chihiro and Haku, doesnāt reclaim her name at the end of the story.
She doesnāt want her independence or identity back. Her purpose is to eat and look pretty.
Alternate interpretation: I always thought Lin meant to be a comforting presence.
Sheās the first bathhouse worker who is kind to Chihiro, helping her get her clothes and navigate her first work assignment and sneak food. One of the core themes of Spirited AwayĀ is finding your footing in a new and terrifying place, and Lin and Haku are key allies in Chihiroās struggle to gain the skills and self-assurance she needs in order to thrive.
Linās human appearance helps us and Chihiro feel more sympathetic towards her . Her familiarity with the system of favors and bribes makes her appealing as a role model who can demystify Chihiroās new environment for her. Unlike the more inhuman occupants of the bathhouse, Lin looks like someone Chihiro could become in the future, and thatās a good thing! Sheās living proof that the bathhouse is not such a monstrous and scary place. Because Lin treats the bathhouse like home, Chihiro begins to see it as a home, too.
And once Chihiro starts to think of the bathhouse as her territory, sheĀ realizes that she has agency in this place as well. She uses its rules to her own advantage to free Haku and herself.
And that is the point of Chihiroās journey in Spirited Away: itās a metaphor for starting over in a new place and overcoming fear of the unfamiliar. After all, the frame story is Chihiroās family moving to a new city. At the beginning of the movie, Chihiro is despondent, unhappy to be leaving her old friends behind. By the end, after making it through the spirit world, sheās taking a much more active role in helping her parents settle into their new home.
These theories coexist really well, I think. Lin has accepted her place within this system, and thatās given her the confidence and experience to be a mentor for Chihiro. Because she knows the system, she can make things a little better for Chihiro.
Because Chihiro has a mentor and friend, she learns how to survive and even do well in the Bathhouse. Itās because of Lin that Chihiro is able to not accept her place within this system and instead fight back, and in the end to make things a little better for everyone.
Thereās something there about community, and easing the path for those who come after you. Lin doesnāt regret her choices because they were the best choices she could make, and thatās okay. Itās not a tragedy. She got as far as she could get, and because she did, sheās there to help Chihiro get farther.Ā
And isnāt that what weāre all here for, in the end? To go as far as we can, and then give a hand up to those coming after us? Itās never a tragedy when children can go farther than their mentors ever could. Thatās a triumph.
{ID
1 - 3 - Three gifs of Lin from Spirited Away, being generally cool
4 - reply from @/get-cuboned, āHer purpose is to eat and be prettyā
5 - gif from Sailor Moon of a girl with shining eyes
Skywings!! I finally decided on some design elements for them so hereās some new stuff ( the male Skywings Iāve drawn before are just younger, thatās why they look a lil different, itās not a retcon shhh). Theyāre birds I have to give them bird thing you understand.
A lot of things about skywing society have changed recently. Aerie, once a term that was used to describe smaller family groups, can now be used to describe large tracts of land governed by a lead family of nobles, appointed to lead subsections of the Queens domain. The Cliff Skywings (ones from the northish mountain-forested regions) are the ones the other dragons are most familiar with and are currently the dominant group, with a Cliff skywing being the current queen, uniting disparate aeries under her newly formed military with the proposed goal of gaining more land and resources from their neighbors, drawing on the average Skywingsā desperation for better living conditions and security against famine and disease. Cliffs have a much more rigid gender divide (which they see as a reflection of their bodiesā Event-given āpurposesā, the female lays eggs and more or less just leaves, leaving care of them with the males other than delivering kills), which has been reinforced further by legislation by the Queen (for example, adding āmarriageā as a thing to officially lock down partners of a female rather than have it be a less formal arrangement/the males switch between partners and there wasnāt a lot of female supervision on eggs as long as new workers for the family were being made. The marriage thing was proposed to make it easier for females to ensure their eggs werenāt just being discarded/replaced with another females/their sire running off and not supporting the group, and to help make record-keeping and direct inheritance/successor stuff easier since again it makes sure that males arenāt running off with the eggs to do whatever (But the main motivation is that it helps keep property and wealth tied to the female, since she now has exclusivity with a specific pool of males to work with and can pass things directly to successors that for sure came from them. It also limits social mobility for males, keeping them reliant and in service to a female. This also allows the nobility to have a large group of suitors bound to them under threat of punishment and homelessness to raise more successors and workers for them). Iām still kinda working on this system some things may not work. Itās kind of a combo of birds of prey where females and males are different sizes for less hunting competition between each other (different prey size needs) and for the female to be able to defend the nest, except the male is the one in the nest raising eggs (having duller coloration to blend in). M are smaller because thereās usually a couple of them there in the nesting area, they work together and donāt need size because the female is providing food and defense). Plains and boreal are more monomorphic, sharing care more equally. Idk idk
Hereās a map of super generalized populations for those with very distinct groups based on appearance/environmental specialization btw. I wanted to figure out where im talking about here (does Not reflect past or present borders and is very messy Iāll need to work on it, this is just kinda where they tend to live). The text got smudged but itās meant to say that open water seawings migrate around the continent. Technically shouldāve added Icewings too since their polar guys look different but theyre found in just a very narrow strip at the very top left of land there.
