I Don’t Understand The Way Things Are Sometimes…

The Subcon Lindworm

Once upon a time there was a wooded kingdom known as Subcon. Subcon’s monarchs wanted children, but even after many attempts, they remained childless. One day the king went out into the woods, lamenting his fate, when an odd cat-like creature appeared before him. “What’s wrong sugar?” she asks the king. He replies, telling the being of the kingdom’s woes. The Cat tells him of an ancient ritual they could perform to ensure the queen is with child.

They must place an old well-loved pot in the north-east corner of their garden on the night of a full moon. The next morning there will be two roses under the pot. One rose will be blue, and the other yellow. These roses are to be plucked of petals and made into a tea. If the queen drinks the tea made from the blue flower, she will have a boy, and if she drinks from the yellow flower she will have a girl. She must not drink both teas, or things may go wrong. 

The king follows these directions, giving the queen both teas, and allowing her to choose. After pondering for a time, she drinks the yellow tea, but as it was so delicious, she decides to drink the other one too. All seems well for a time, but after 9 months, it is time for the princelings to be born. As the first child comes into the world, it is immediately obvious that not all is as it should be. In place of a human child, something resembling a purple snake covered in vibrant violet plumage slithers out of the womb. The queen cries in distress, and spooked by the noise, the creature later to become known as the Subcon Snatcher crawls away on a pair of clawed, thin arms out the window and into the forest. His twin, on the other hand, comes into the world a perfect mix of the king and queen.

Years pass. Rumors of a giant purple beast living in the woods spread. The queen and king investigate, searching for their lost child. Snatcher is so hungry. He hunts and he hunts, but he never feels satisfied. One day, he comes upon a pair of people, dressed in fine clothes, with bizarre rings of shiny metal upon their heads. He eats them before they can even scream.

Life goes on. The second child, now named Marcus, becomes king. He falls in love and marries a florist who lives in the village. They are content for a time, but eventually they begin to feel like something is missing. They want a child. Marcus grew up with the story of the kind cat lady in the woods, so he knows where to go when all else fails. Something goes wrong though. Upon hearing his plea, the cat can only respond, “I’m sorry sugar, but last time I tried to help, people started going missing in this here forest.” And that would have been that, if it were not for the fact that on his way back to the castle, Marcus finds a little girl, one with a beautiful bow in her hair, trying to get her cat out of a tree. After helping her, they begin to talk, and the king realizes that this bow child is without parents, without a home, and without food. He visits her from time to time. Their rendezvous become more and more frequent. One fateful day, Marcus asks the child to come home with him, completely unaware of the sun yellow eyes glowing brightly in the bushes.

Well. I’m too tired to continue right now, and I’m aware that this isn’t very good, but it’s something. Background set up! Wooo!

Once a vacuum cleaner salesman stole my mom’s vacuum cleaner :(

this article is sad but the image combined with the headline is stan

It’s done! My Wasteland, Baby! aquarium, featuring Mercutio the marimo as Andrew Mossball-Byrne.

Inspired by this post from @turninghoziest

It is so funny to me that my school was like “if you post anything bad about anyone at this school online we will find out eventually” bc

no. No they will not. I could start ranting and raving about anyone I wanted, and no one would ever know.

No

One

NOOoOoOOOOoO

D:

R I P to the most important sea otter in my life :(

Remembering Rosa the sea otter

Hello Aquarium family. It’s with great sadness that we share that our beloved sea otter Rosa passed away today. At 24 years old, Rosa was the oldest resident otter at the Aquarium and one of our most experienced surrogate moms, having raised 15 stranded sea otter pups in her time with us. 

While Rosa spent the last few months behind the scenes getting extra special care from our staff, she was the matriarch of the Sea Otters exhibit. Beloved and cherished by millions of visitors and fans of the live Sea Otter Cam, she was instantly recognizable thanks to her blonde head (eclipsed only by Ivy as our most grizzled of kelp grizzlies) and her signature head-all-the-way-back swimming style.

“Rosa was one of our most playful sea otters, and even at 24 years old, she would still be seen frolicking and wrestling with the younger otters when she instigated it,” said Melanie Oerter, curator of mammals. “Rosa was usually found sleeping against the window while on exhibit with her chin tucked tight into her chest and her tail swishing back and forth.”

After being found stranded as a four-week-old pup in September 1999, Rosa became part of the Aquarium family before our sea otter surrogacy program even took shape. Our Sea Otter Program staff raised her by hand for nearly seven months before releasing her to the wild. 

Rosa eventually returned to the Aquarium once again in March 2002 when she didn’t take to life outside of human care, and she immediately became a fixture in the formative years of our sea otter surrogacy program as a caring adoptive mother for rescued pups destined for wild release.

She was a delight to work with, though she certainly had her expectations of our staff according to the many Sea Otter Mammalogists who trained (were trained by?) Rosa over the years. 

"Rosa was an incredibly smart otter! Generally calm and patient with the staff. However, she could be defiant at times and there would be no convincing her to do something she did not want to do," said Oerter. "She would often just look at us or swim away. I believe she was the one who was really training us all of these years. I certainly learned a lot from working with such an incredible otter. It has been a privilege and to say we will miss her is understated."

Rosa relaxed into retirement from surrogacy in 2019, acting as a companion and cornerstone in the ever-changing raft of otters in our care. 

Wild female sea otters live between 15 and 20 years, and reaching the age of 24 is a testament to the exceptional care Rosa received throughout her life from our Veterinary and Animal Care teams. In recent years, she began showing signs of age-related health concerns.  In the last few weeks, her health had been deteriorating. After an exam, the veterinary and animal care teams made the difficult choice to humanely euthanize Rosa because those health conditions were compromising her quality of life. She passed away peacefully, surrounded by her caretakers.

Rosa’s legacy lives on both at the Aquarium with our other resident sea otters Kit, Selka, Ivy, and Ruby, and in the wild, where sea otter pups she raised continue to raise pups of their own, contributing to the recovery of their species and their ecosystems along the California coast. 

Rosa was an inspiration to millions as a charismatic ambassador for her threatened species while playing a leading role in the story of sea otter recovery from near-extinction during the fur trade. Rosa will be greatly missed by all of us who got to know her over the years.

To celebrate Rosa’s long life, please feel free to share photos and stories of your encounters with Rosa at the Aquarium in the comment section on this post, in her memory and for the staff and volunteers grieving her loss. Thank you all for being such a big part of Rosa’s life. 🦦♥️

I feel like ai art would be fun if we were all still just typing random prompts into it like mushroom giving a ted talk and going lol this looks stupid wasn’t that fun but instead people are like trying to replace jobs with it

Painted bunting!

Love these lil guys!

lahore pigeons are some of the most visually appealing birds out there. like in terms of visual design. very minimalist, good contrast.

Free slightly moldy bread disposal.

Just curious how people feel about Raccoons

I, personally can feel movement and actions. If I want to picture an apple, I rotate a little 3D model of it around and poke my imaginary little fingers all over it. I can ‘see’ the apple by doing this.

Unfortunately, my apples come in the shade of blendr gray, and when I imagine a color, the color is on the top layer, meaning I can imagine red, and also an apple, but never a red apple.

Apple.

ummmmmmmmmmmmm???

I think someone messed up just a smidge