#will keep reading about them bc fascinating creatures

[binchidavinci]

Hiiii okay so I read like all of your Twilight fics and I'm hooked on the idea of poly Cullens. Like yes feed my delusion that I'd have a chance with seven very hot vampires. Anyways I'm not asking for anything specific just maybe some more headcannons on what it's like to be with them? Thx

Dating Poly! Cullens Headcanons

• they are defo very much attuned to you. like they can sense your emotions, your scent, even your heartbeat from across the room. You never have to explain when something is wrong bc they already know if you're sick, on your period, stressed, etc.

• every plan that they make pretty much circles back to you and how it might affect you. they never go away without telling you (they learned that lesson with Bella) and they rarely go hunting all at once; half of them will go out, half of them will stay with you. you think it's silly, that you can look after yourself for a day or two whilst they trek up the mountains, but they really would rather stay with you

• same goes for if you're living at home: if you want to live outside of the cullen house, they respect that (one of them is defo checking in on you nightly though. whether you know it or not is another question), but they'd be just delighted if you ended up living with them. if you're a student, they'd relocate for you. carlisle would make some excuse like "people are noticing our age, anyway"

• they are endlessly patient, gentle, and fascinated by your humanity, even though they once were human, too. bc time moves differently for them, they have infinite patience for you. A day to you is a second to them, so they really are believers in quality time with you.

• they are 100% tactile creatures. expect constant casual touches, whether it be fingers brushing your arm, a hand on your lower back, forehead kisses, being pulled into one of their laps... physical closeness is their love language, and how they make you feel safe (and subsequently, them)

• that being said, they will go to extreme lengths to keep you safe— sometimes to the point of being overprotective. they worry about your fragility as a human constantly, even though you don't feel all that fragile. this wld probably be the main point of contention w them.

• they also try (sometimes unsuccessfully) to give you a normal life, bc they consider your mating with them to be somewhat of a sacrifice (obviously you feel like the luckiest person in the world being quasi married to 7 majorly hot vampires).

• as was the case with Bella and Edward, the immortality question looms. they struggle with the idea of watching you age and die, or the moral weight of turning you. it's a question you want them to get on with and decide (with your input, of course) because you don't want to be a 60 year old vampire; might as well get turned at 30 and be in your prime forever

• as you might expect, they are incredibly attentive lovers. learning every sigh, every moan, every way to make you feel good. They take their time, nearly always prioritizing your pleasure over their own (especially when you ask them to). I personally headcanon that they don't really do group sex...like I think they're freaky but not THAT freaky. I think they don't see their partnership with you as incestuous in anyway, because they are all just completely devoted to you: romantically, paternally, fraternally... it's all in one.

[wildhorizon]

My reaction to Wild Kratts: Hercules - The Giant Beetle

Asked for by @tentacledsnakelover , thank you for the suggestion!

Martin blatantly not helping and also ignoring Chris saying he could use some help is super funny to me, idk why.

Also Martin likes to read, awesome, we love a guy who’s a book-enjoyer. It’s good for your brain, it makes you smarter. (That’s a simplification of it but it’s kinda true!)

Also Martin likes Ancient Greek mythology! Hmm… something tells me he would love the Percy Jackson and the Olympians books if he read them. (Any other fellow PJO fans out there?) I mean the main character loves the color blue, has a connection to water and the ocean, and is super ADHD. They already have so much in common!

HERACLES.

IT’S HERACLES NOT HERCULES.

His original Greek name is Heracles. Hercules is his Roman name. The reason why Hercules became the more popular name is because of the Disney movie, where they decided that Hercules was a better sounding name despite being mythologically inaccurate considering the rest of the movie is Greek and not Roman.

Since they were using beetle pheromones to attract the Hercules beetle, that means the beetle came here specifically because he believed he was gonna find a lady beetle to make babies with.

They really pulled a “hot beetles in your area!” 😭

Poor guy must be so disappointed that he got scammed.

WRONG AGAIN.

ATLAS DID NOT HOLD THE WORLD. HE HELD THE SKY/HEAVENS.

Atlas was the leader of the Titans in their war against Zeus, so when they lost, Zeus punished Atlas by making him hold up the heavens, for if something or someone didn’t hold them, they would fall down and crush the world. (I initially learned this from Percy Jackson, lol. You should read it if you like Greek mythology cus it’s pretty dang accurate for the most part.)

I kinda wish the writer (Chris Kratt) would’ve actually researched these myths before putting them in the episode. Cus like, these are both common misconceptions that a single online search can easily correct. It’s not like it’s hard. No harder than researching beetles.

I suppose I can kind of understand keeping the name Hercules instead of Heracles despite the inaccuracy simply bc Hercules is the more well-known name, so they don’t have to worry about viewers being like “wait, who’s Heracles? Never heard of that guy.”

But Atlas could’ve been changed to say he holds the heavens and it wouldn’t have mattered. The point they’re trying to make, that he holds something very heavy and therefore he’s very strong, and that’s why the Atlas beetle was named after him, remains unchanged. So why not make it accurate?

Ah well at least Hercules found himself a girlfriend after all.

Aaaaaand nevermind.

YOU FOOLS. What is about to happen is entirely their own fault.

They shouldn’t have left the miniaturizer out in the first place.

And they shouldn’t have let a creature climb onto it like that.

What did I tell you??? This is what happens when you aren’t careful with powerful technology!!!

Jimmy: “They’re probably overreacting,”

Why would you think that? When have the Bros ever overreacted about anything serious like this? They’re really not the type of people to panic or lose their heads easily. Kinda sounds like somebody’s projecting…

I know you’re trying your best guys, but do you really think you can hold back a Hercules beetle? They are one of the strongest insects on earth. I really think you’d be better off trying something else.

Do they not have seatbelts in there????

There’s so much I like about this scene. The comedic value of Chris feeling great in his new power suit, just to get instantly crushed by a boulder. The angst and fluff value of Martin freaking out for his Bro, and desperately trying to save him. And then when Chris turns out to be fine, and he practically begs Martin to get the boulder off of him. And then he’s all like,

this beetle is a freaking Avengers level threat.

AVIVA THIS IS NOT THE TIME TO BE FASCINATED BY INSECTS.

YOU SHOULD BE FOCUSING ON FIXING THE MINIATURIZER BEFORE HERCULES DESTROYS THE ENTIRE CITY.

Chris: “By my calculations, a Hercules beetle the size and weight of a human should be able to lift about a hundred times their weight!”

Chris doing some crazy math on the spot all in his head is super impressive. He must be really smart.

Chris: “We restored the natural order, and saved the city!”

Well… except for that one car that got destroyed. (Which they’ll probably end up having to pay for the damages, since this is all their fault in the first place.)

But other than that, sure.

It’s a good thing Aviva warned the city ahead of time so everybody was able to evacuate before Hercules got there.

But anyway, if this was real life, this incident would’ve gotten the Wild Kratts team cancelled SO FAST. There is no way you can come back from this. I mean, an entire city almost got destroyed, people could’ve been killed, all because of their negligence. All of this just from leaving the miniaturizer out, and letting a bug crawl on it. Oh also not to mention all the rainforest trees Hercules tore up on his way to the city. If this was protected land, that’s even worse.

Sure they defeated Hercules in the end, thereby saving the city, but it was their fault the city was in danger in the first place, so cleaning up their own mess was the bare minimum they could’ve done. In fact, I wouldn’t even call it “saving”, bc that implies that they’re heroic for doing it, but they’re not. It’s like, you don’t get to grab a person and deliberately dangle them over the edge of a cliff, and then pull them back and say “I saved you!” NO YOU DIDN’T.

Sure they didn’t cause this problem on purpose, but still.

Realistically, they shouldn’t be allowed to continue working with such powerful technology like the miniaturizer. It’s simply too dangerous. One little mistake could result in horrific damage or even death. They’re simply too careless with it. There are no rules or regulations for why, when, and how the miniaturizer is to be used. They could do absolutely anything with it, whenever they want, for any reason. And that’s what makes it so dangerous.

But, this doesn’t take place in the real world. Thank goodness the Wild Kratts universe seems to be far more lenient than ours, as the Crew got off Scot-free.

Alrighty, now here’s 5 fun facts about Hercules beetles, the episode doesn’t tell you:

1. Hercules beetles are in the same family as dung beetles. (Source A)

2. A slight inaccuracy in this episode, they say that the Hercules beetle is the strongest insect in the world, but that’s incorrect. The title really goes to the dung beetle. Some species like the Taurus scarab or Bull-headed Dung Beetle can lift up to 1,141 times their own body weight. Meanwhile, according to the episode, Hercules beetles can lift “at least 50 times their body weight”. Yeah they’ve got nothing on the dung beetle. (Source B)

3. Hercules beetles change colour from a greenish or yellow in a dry state to a black when it’s humid in the air. Scientists still aren’t sure why this happens, but it could have something to do with predation or mating. (Source C)

4. They spend most of their lives in the larvae stage, which can be around 2 years. The adult stage of their life as a fully formed flying beetle only lasts 3-6 months. (Source C)

5. When metamorphosing from a larva to an adult, the larva will form a casing out of feces and solidify itself into a beetle-shaped cocoon, even having a mould for the horn and having a segmented abdominal area, allowing it to wiggle around as it pupates. (Source C) Here’s a video (which is included within Source C) of the life cycle of a Hercules beetle, if you’d like to see how they transform from a grub to beetle! (I find it quite freaky, but interesting nonetheless)

Sources:

A. https://hgic.clemson.edu/eastern-hercules-beetles/

B. https://bugunderglass.com/strongest-bug-world-revealed/

C. https://factanimal.com/hercules-beetle/

[minhyukielee]

I haven't been using tumblr much for posting fanfic ideas and concepts but i kind of want to try it out! and also i love the concept of Love As Shown Through The Camera Lens and applying it to liushen has set my brain on fire so.

Liushen modern cultivation AU where Shen Yuan is a wildlife/beast photographer, Liu Qingge comes along to protect him, and It Goes From There thoughts below

It starts with Shen Yuan getting injured on one of his excursions. He's always been fascinated with beasts, so to learn more about them he took up photography - the artistic aspect of it appeals to him, as well as being able to capture and record these creatures in their natural habitat!

Of course, it only takes one time with a beast noticing him and attacking for liu qingge to insist on coming along. at first he just stayed there, a silent shadow watching over sy as he excitedly rambled about all the beasts they saw and their habits as he snapped pictures. Then, liu qingge offers to take him to see the bigger, more dangerous beasts that *he* hunts - with the one caveat that shen yuan stays completely hidden and out of the way during the fight. of course shen yuan jumps at the opportunity!

Seeing Liu Qingge in action is.... wow. sy almost forgets to snap pictures of the rare beast, enraptured by the way liu qingge moves in a fight. he's always known his shidi is a legend in battle, of course, but it's one thing to see lqg trounce all of the kids that he barely calls "disciples" and something completely different to see him in the middle of a real, actual fight!

Sy does eventually manage to snap a few photos of the beast. almost all of them have liu qingge there, though, and sy can't stop staring at them.

because of how cool the monster is! no other reason.

liu qingge keeps taking him on hunts, and shen yuan keeps snapping photos, and those photos start to lean more and more into being pictures of how utterly majestic lqg is in action. and if he starts suggesting places with better lighting and backgrounds so that the pictures of lqg the beast look all the more majestic, who can possibly judge him!

(airplane judges him, when he notices that shen yuan has set one of the photos as his phone lockscreen. sy immediately defends himself - don't you know how rare that purple-toed armored tiger is! nevermind that about 80% of the tiger is cropped out and it's mostly just liu qingge, an artful tear across the front of his shirt exposing his abs. it's a badass picture ok!!!!!!)

it gets worse, though. even when sy doesn't have his professional camera out on hunts, he keeps feeling the urge to snap pictures of lqg as they come to spend more and more time together. lqg on the train, staring out the window. lqg doing sword forms. lqg making a face when sy forces him to try a new absurd trendy dessert. soon sy's camera roll is filled with liu qingge

maybe then it just takes sy's younger sister looking for a picture on sy's phone and being like "so is that guy your boyfriend or" to have sy suddenly realize. oh shit maybe this isn't normal bro feelings. maybe normal people dont take 2k photos of their good guy pals. or maybe he stays oblivious idk i haven't decided (plot twist lqg has also been sneaking shitty pictures of sy on his old af flip phone in terrible quality bc he never cared enough to upgrade) (taking better pictures of shen yuan is the ONLY reason he ever considered upgrading his phone once he gets close to running out of space)

ANYWAY that's enough rambling from me i just wanted to get this concept out there. Maybe someday i'll clean it up figure out an ending and post it on ao3 LMAOOOOO ANYWAY THANKS FOR READING BYE

[kyoukorpse]

why do you hate sturgeon? what did the fish do

oh. oh boy. okay listen. [ill include a tldr at the bottom]

to preface this i need yall to understand i LOVE marine life-- not even just ocean creatures (altho im a bit biased bc of how deep the ocean gets and how freaky the critters get down there) i love river, lake, pond life... just anything that resides in bodies of water.

im so fascinated with water biomes right down to reading about the different types of bodies of water that exist including bodies of water that are completely deprived of oxygen with the bottoms being much denser and much colder. i love every bit of it. the water, the flora and fauna-- all of it. utterly fascinated.

its my biggest overall special interest. ive spent a lot of money over the last few years visiting a few different aquariums in the US and i plan on seeing as many world wide aquariums as i can in my lifetime.

...however.

now... its not their fault. sturgeon are just animals. i respect them as such, i would never go out of my way to harm one. i truly believe being scared of an animal is a personal issue bc animals are just existing. they don't deserve to be harmed for simply existing in a way that makes someone uncomfortable. i am well aware this is a me issue.

what had happened was when i was about 14 years old i was in science class watching a movie that had come out recently. it was "are we done yet".

and if u havent seen it, its just a sequel to "are we there yet" and it involves the previous movie's characters establishing a new home and one thing a character does to help them settle in is take the dad and kids fishing. for sturgeon.

now this is one of those things where a seemingly harmless thing scars someone for life and for some reason it happened to me then in that moment. the scene where they're fishing goes wrong and the dad is like pulled into the water or something and the sturgeon is framed in a way thats reminiscent of how the shark is portrayed in Jaws (at least from what i can recall. keep in mind i have memory problems).

and that stuck with me. for some reason. i had never seen a sturgeon up until that point. and that was my first impression. now im grown.. i know better... im working on getting over this... #myjourney #Growth

in fact back when i went to the Shedd aquarium in chicago there was a sturgeon touch tank! and i touched one!! and i squealed but i did it and my friends cheered me on bc they are so cool and awesome.

i will get thru this. #stopsturgeonHate

tl;dr: i stg i love fish so much but i watched a movie when i was 14 with a scary sturgeon scene and it changed me but im trying to do better.

[asherblueedition]

Redacted Headcanons 2

Finished my thesis reviews and now have nothing to do, so I'll give you some headcanons.

Shaw Pack

Asher has a charm bracelet that his sister gave him, and she sends him a new charm every year for Christmas.

Sweetheart and Milo keep a detailed list of every restaurant they have visited and what they thought of it.

Similarly, David and Angel keep a list of movies they've seen and have long debates about them

Darlin is older than David, and they never let him forget it.

Baabe has a master's in Psychology

Marie made food for Gabe and babysat David every week for a year after David's mom died, and she still brings David and Angel food anytime she is near their house.

Ash and Milo got in a pretty big fight in middle school, and it took David physically sitting them down and forcing them to talk it out to fix it. They haven't had a real fight since then

Christian and Milo actually like a lot of the same music, and they can get into some fun debates about it

Speaking of music, Angel and Darlin are HUGE goths. Not necessarily in aesthetic, but they spend long car rides together listening to Siouxsie, The Cramps, Bauhaus, they love it all

Darling has really deep scarring on their neck and arms from Quinn

Contrary to popular belief, Angel and David both are HUGE introverts and I am 90% sure no one would see them again if Ash and Baabe didn't pull them out of their cave every week or so for a double date

Vamps:

As I said in a post earlier, Lovely and Vincent do puzzles together. They specifically like doing beach and mountain scenes

Sam used to hang out in the Walmart parking lot as a teen until three in the morning (small town country kid things) and once got so drunk he fell out of the back of someone's truck and busted his knee pretty bad. He can't bring himself to heal the scar.

Vincent likes to go to museums and look at the old cars (he's such a nerd, I love hi,m your honor)

Lovely likes to be up high like a cat. They sit on the roof. They climb trees. They hike mountains. They want to be Tall.

Porter was very well read before he turned, and once he became a Solaire he spent his free time reading. Now sometimes before bed he will lay his head on Treasures shoulder and read whatever book they are on that week and occasionally give comments

In an act of cosmic irony, Vincent is allergic to garlic

Sometimes the lights flicker when Lovely is asleep or when they are feeding. Like the littlest bit of their powers are reaching out

Sam took up embroidery to pass the time

Sam also likes to chop wood. He doesn't need to because he can't feel the temperature, but he enjoys the motions of it (Darlin enjoys the motions too)

Sam also cooks amazing southern food. I'm talking greens, cornbread, succotash, potatoes, gravy, you name it. He and David are a lethal pair during the holidays. He loves watching the others eat and occasionally enjoys a plate for himself, even if he doesn't need it.

Porter had never lived in one house for more than a year, and it scares him that he wants Treasure's to be the first to stick

Bonus: Hush thinks the ocean is FASCINATING and could probably spend a year just learning about different creatures

anyways yeah like if you wanna hear me ramble about the DAMN crew bc they deserve their own post.

[saltnpepperbunny]

Silly question, best things about rabbits?

Wow I'm so glad you asked-- Here's your bulleted list:

SHAPE! ORB!!!

soft soft theyre so fucking soft you have no idea until you touch one--

they dont talk! no barking YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (disclaimer: i love dogs)

the fucking ears

blank rabbit stare is the cutest thing on the planet sorry. just o_o at all hours

theyre vegan pets so their food basically doesnt go bad (except for fresh veggies) and most bugs arent really interested in it (disclaimer: i am not vegan)

the little mwah mwah mwah they do

bunnies are so cute together ToT i have a bonded pair and theyre so fucking into each other its painfully cute 24/7. they sleep together, they make out all the time, they check on each other, they play and eat meals together. witnessing a bunny friendship is just such a blessing. they are extremely loving creatures.

theyre also hilariously violent w each other lol

its cause theyre territorial. like me! relatable???

^ (im not kidding my girl plucks my boy's fur to bully him sometimes)

matriarchal rabbits. females tend to be dominant and boys are submissive. love the feminine energy

theyre actually really fucking fast. if youve seen a rabbit hopping around or even doing zoomies you still dont know. if a rabbit gets scared and wants to disappear, they will vanish in an instant. you blink and they are gone. already in a bolthole that they pre-planned for this exact incident bc bunnies!! always!! know their boltholes!! they are more aware of their surroundings than they come off.

their weird ass fluffy feet

theyre generally p easy to take care of. i dont find their basic care terribly difficult, even though like they ARE harder than dogs and cats. especially healthwise. healthwise bunnies can suck.

okay im just gonna say it theyre just straightup flipping cute. bunny is my perfect cute creature. precious angels.

i like that they fucked up australia LOL. i like that when humans mess w bunnies, bunnies clap back w the most powerful thing they have: their womb

sorry what i mean by that is when people fuck w rabbits, capturing them and bringing them to weird places to farm them, rabbits tend to a) escape, and then b) fuck the living daylights out of each other until they overpopulate and start running the ecosystem. we are so good at multiplying we fuck up entire continents. our house now. OUR KINGDOM NOW. like how cool is that???

i am constantly fascinated by their body language. ive been keeping rabbits for 8 years now so i can read them p well by their posture and positioning and stuff. like i tend to know what my rabbits are going to do before they do it. also their body language is just so unique and weird and interesting, it's so different from dogs and cats (who are very very different from each other too).

orb.

somft.

relatable animal.

i love rabbits!!!!

[magicalgirlvioletstarshine]

Turned one of my ocs, Eden Goodridge, into a madoka magica character!

My tablet is broken and i was too impatient and could not figure out how to draw her gavel on my phone lmao so here is what we are getting for now until i redraw her 😭

She's a murderous magical girl cult leader and i love her. Sharing her lore bc I'm obsessed with her.

Also base for the gem btw: https://www.deviantart.com/a1ice101/art/Soul-Gem-Lineart-V2-302887107

A kind, cutesy, and polite mystery writer, with an unexpected fascination with grotesque mystery stories. Eden portrays herself as a serene and thoughtful individual…almost unnervingly so. She always gives off an air of mystique, and seems to be analyzing everything around her, which it turns out is true, as she can read others with disturbingly accurate detail, and will psychoanalyze them to their faces. Eden talks enthusiastically about her writing, often seeming unaware…or maybe just unconcerned, about how creepy her musings can come off. She is a true Romantic and a huge escapist, dreaming of a better world than the one she lives in now, but is the opposite of naive—in fact, she is very aware of the fundamental issues of society, and hates those who cannot see the world for how it truly is. Eden is very cynical, and believes humans are sinful creatures who need a powerful authority figure to scare them into line. She has a superiority complex, believing herself to be better than most people, and believes that something must be done to cleanse the world of evil, but her cynicism has caused her to lose faith in humanity.

The only thing keeping her going is her dream of fostering connection between people and trying to make the world better the best she can.

Eden traveled to Japan to study English and linguistics, in hopes of becoming an English teacher in Japan, but she is finding it rather dull and dreams for more. She is only seeing more and more evil in the world and has begun to wonder if truly good people even can exist in a world with no “godly power” reigning over it.

HISTORY

-Grew up Christian and went to Catholic school.

-Parents divorced when she was eight

-Her life was often a mess. She was picked on as a child and had bottled up emotions over her parent's divorce. She often had to switch houses and life felt unstable.

-She retreated to storytelling as a form of escapism

-As a fan of mystery stories, she became invested in true crime and real-life stories for her own research. Eden saw how cruel people could be firsthand as well.

-Over time, not only did she recognize the selfishness of average people, but also she started to see the corruption in society itself and how it drove people to crime. And, through reading and learning of history, she saw a cycle of abuse by the privileged 1% becoming corrupted by "sins" like pride and greed and finding scapegoats to violently oppress.

-Eden saw religion as a dirty tool used to oppress people as well, but also was fascinated by how much control it could put people under.

-Eden became extremely disillusioned with the world, and retreated even more into her books, using them as an outlet to spread her views. She ended up earning fame when she started publishing them. Her novels were praised for their characters, who were notably complex and morally gray, but also very twisted and violent. They all explored deep philosophical questions, and Eden was able to spread her viewpoints on society to like-minded people through her readers

In this AU, upon meeting Kyubey, Eden jumped at the opportunity to have the power to actually change the world. She wanted to punish those who got away with their crimes. Her wish was to have the power to cleanse the grief and suffering in the world. Her gavel creates holy light, and her ability is to see whether or not people are "sinners", along with the ability to take grief away from other magical girls at the cost of darkening her own soul gem. She kills both witches and anyone she deems a sinner, leaving messages from "The Angel of Death" that she hopes will wake up humanity to their sinful ways. Upon learning the truth of Witches, Eden starts an organization called "The Eye of Providence". The goal of the organization is to "turn the world into a paradise" by finding someone Eden can manipulate into making a wish so that Eden will retain her sanity when she becomes a Witch. Eden then plans to siphon the grief from all of the magical girls in the world, and create a barrier covering it so that magical girls never have to turn into witches and she can reign as a god in a paradise where no evil will exist ever again.

[kneelingshadowsalome]

Hello!! I just started reading your works recently and I think it's safe to say that I have fallen in love with them <3 the way you write both the cod guys and the reader feels so real and poetic that I just, eat it up everytime. I read your Barbarian! König post and it got me thinking about something.

König and Ghost are kinda opposites when it comes to their darlings. König likes darlings fiesty and snippy but Ghost likes his darlings as more agreeable or soft but not weak, ykwim??

And it got me thinking about Barbarian! Ghost. Whereas König got his darling bc he killed her husband and she was there when it happened, I see Ghost as going to take one girl originally but then the darling steps in front of said girl and says to take her instead, saving the girl and sacrificing herself. Idk but I think he would be very attracted to that, and unlike König who gently picks you up and puts you upon his horse while you kick and bite him, Ghost grabs you and lays you stomach first against his horse harshly, keeping a sturdy hand on your back as he rides away.

Sorry if this is weird or ooc!! But it was just a thought that came to me!

Oh Barbarian!Ghost would be sooo disinterested on the outside. He only saves her ass discreetly, but saves it more than enough times to spark her curiosity.

Why does he come to her rescue and then abandons her to her own devices?

CW: Minor violence (bruises), noncon groping, fear of SA, blood, cuddling & snuggling, Ghost being a complex PTSD weirdo who has a fascination towards bones.

It’s actually she who approaches him first, not the other way around. He allows her to seek protection by staying near him and thus get the others off her back: he might even throw her a piece of roasted lamb as if she were some stray cat, lurking about his campfire. But there’s not much more than that on offer for her: only a few sideways glances that tell her he regards her mostly as a nuisance and a liability, accompanied by a few scrap bones that luckily have some meat and fat still on them.

He shows her how to snap the bigger ones in half to get to the life saving marrow, and that’s when she realizes he regards her a bit dumb, some pretty royal girl who doesn’t know how to survive without a man.

And who’s to blame for all that? Clever men who have forced her to learn poetry and songs, pluck chords and recite philosophers from memory. No one ever even taught her how to ride a horse, the only things she can do is chat about the latest political turns and whether it’s old-fashioned to style your hair Southern style.

Now she’s supposed to strike a conversation with a barbarian who dresses in furs and wool, who collects the knuckles of his fallen enemies and looks at her like she’s the uncivilized one here. He probably plays dice with those bones, and she’s never seen him force a woman under him; she’s never seen him take a woman at all.

He’s probably half dead already, some ghoul raised to ravage this earth. But everytime she gets drooled over or spat upon, groped or squeezed or slapped on the soft flesh of her butt, she makes her way to him and only him. To become one with the shadows too, or to disappear, perhaps.

He gives her his biggest, thickest pelt to wrap around her shoulders, to cover those assets that make these wartorn men so crazy. Or then he doesn’t want to find her frozen to death at dawn... Dark, vast eyes look at her in the early morning fog, up from above from the highest heights, as if asking why she overslept again.

A rabbit is thrown at her feet, but she doesn’t know what to do with it: she knows he wants her to skin it, yes, but how? Even with the knife he provides her, she can only stare at the soft creature helplessly, lick her dry, creaky lips until he sighs and comes to wrench the blade away, taking the hare before it turns too stiff.

She’s almost certain he’s not even interested in women until one day, someone goes a bit too far and grabs a handful of her to squeeze. The spitting, jerking and screaming turn into a whole fistfight until she gets drawn to her knees by her hair. He’s about to rip her scalp off, of that she is sure from how much it burns.

Tears stream down her face from pure pain alone, but this time, the bone marrow man doesn’t only save her. He walks to the scene like a shadow, yanks her gropers head back, and slits his throat right then and there. The others take a few steps back, mist rises from their gaping mouths as he lets go of the bleeding slump, looking at the pulsing, open vein as if he intends to drink from it. But it seems he only wanted to confirm that the dead stay dead because his interest in this man fades as quickly as it was aroused.

She rises to her feet, only to get swept off them as he dives for her hips and raises her to a crude carry, mainly meant for wheat sacks and sheep.

With a wide palm resting on her butt, he hauls her back to his fire, further away from the open field, and she doesn’t dare to utter a word. He doesn’t squeeze her, he doesn’t grope or slap or force her, but he does throw the fur away from her shoulders to check her body for bruises. She stays silent for the whole inspection as he moves her joints and limbs to check if anything’s broken, carefully like she indeed was only a little lamb. Brushes the pads of his fingers across the darkening spots that tell a story of violence, and it makes her shiver.

They’re just bruises, but they’re also evidence that her body is not her own anymore. Still, this clinical inspection feels far more intimate and warm than the rough hands and demanding mouths from before: it’s not just the intention behind the touch, it’s his presence.

You’ve never felt so thoroughly seen.

A low rumble rises in agreement to you taking his probing so well, and you kind of wish he would hold you tonight.

Just… Hold you.

When he withdraws, content with finding you relatively intact after the attempted assault, you grab his wrist. His head snaps back instantly, but he doesn’t pry himself away from your insolent little fingers. If anything, he’s curious.

You don’t know his words, and he doesn’t know yours, so you decide it’s best not to speak at all.

Pulling his palm back, you bring it to your hip, then further up to your waist, trying to make it clear that it’s only closeness and body warmth you seek. You leave it there, and it stays there, out of its own free will. A thumb brushes over your ribs, explorative. His eyes travel, they move down the line of your neck and try to decide what you might want from him, but then you see the fathomless depths he’s been hiding. His eyes come alive, and there’s such darkness there, an unquenchable well of want that shoots fear straight down your stomach.

You were wrong about him, so wrong…

He’s not disinterested, he’s just been holding back a tide as if it’s no big deal to fight back the very gods on his own.

His palm feels like fire, but he doesn’t move, only battles with his demons for a while. You lie there before him, feeling utterly idiotic for thinking he’s different from the rest of the men.

But then… The fur gets drawn over your half naked body. Slowly, deliberately. He’s not reverent: he only knows the consequences of his actions, and this is a path he does not wish to take.

It doesn’t prevent him from laying himself down to sleep next to you, however.

It doesn’t prevent you from slowly reaching an arm around him, the rigid form that slowly, so slowly turns lax. You risk to curl against him: not safe, only warm. A stray royal cat and a ghoul who collects bones, you think, but then the ghoul sighs and turns. You should feel rejected from the way he presents his back to you, but you suspect that it has something to do with him coming alive downstairs.

And you cling to him.

He doesn’t rip you off of him as you slip a hand under his arm and bend against him, like a river otter who just found a fat clam. His solemn breaths lull you to sleep, and he stays still for you: all night until the birds start to sing and the sun warms your face, the whole heap of you two.

Like a big pile of snow, melting on a summer’s day…