funeral-biscuit

glumshoe:

Speaking of prey drive, I saw some interesting experiments done by a guy who worked at a big cat rescue center. I don’t know if they were conducted scientifically, but even anecdotally they were very interesting.

He found that even the friendliest, healthiest, most socialized big cats would revert to ambush behaviors when their keepers were sitting on the ground with their backs to the cats. The lions, tigers, and leopards could be approached confidently from the front just fine, and would even be friendly, but ‘vulnerable and unaware’ positions triggered opportunist hunting instincts. None of the keepers were actually within reach, of course, so they didn’t find out if the pouncing instincts extended to killing and eating them, but all the cats responded with a prey drive.

Except the cheetahs. Cheetahs, being pursuit hunters rather than solitary ambush predators, did not react to the sight of defenseless human keepers on the ground at all – except to come over and nuzzle up against them affectionately. Some even flopped over beside them, apparently agreeing that it was nap time.

That’s the kind of variation and complexity in predator instincts I am talking about when I complain about animals and monsters in movies going after any and every prey they lay eyes on. Even when real animals chase prey out of instinct rather than hunger or defense, it’s not this mindless Destroy Everything rage – it reflects the evolution of their predation habits and the behavior of their natural prey. I would love to see more monster movies where there’s actual thoughtful world-building in the predatory behaviors beyond ‘big scary gnash teeth crash through wall run’.

anxietyproblem:

marauders4evr:

ernmark:

When I worked in a tea shop, I actually got a few people coming in requesting jasmine tea. Why jasmine? Because that’s what Uncle Iroh would drink on Avatar: The Last Airbender.

So here’s something to think about:

Even though he was royalty, Uncle Iroh was a master of preparing his own tea– even after he left with Zuko, he could always be seen preparing it on his own, eventually opening a successful tea shop when the one he worked at turned out to be awful.

For a firebender, heating a pot of water wouldn’t be difficult– a few seconds of rage and you’d have it at a rolling boil– but a rolling boil would ruin the tea.

The secret to a good cup of tea is often in the temperature of water that you use.

Jasmine, green and white tea tends to need between 160-180* F (71-82*C)– go any higher than that, and you’ll scald the leaves and wind up with bitter tea. Let it steep for too long, and it’ll scald anyway. So you can’t just boil the hell out of it and walk away; to be really good, a cup of tea needs a lower temperature and a softer flame. It needs patience and attention. And that’s where Uncle Iroh excelled.

It was such a wonderful character detail, and I love it so.

…I…wait…I just…b…

*Gags* “This tea is nothing more than hot leaf juice!”

“Uncle…that’s what all tea is.”

“How could a member of my own family say something so horrible?”

DO YOU MEAN THAT ZUKO NEVER PREPARED A GOOD CUP OF TEA BEFORE BECAUSE HE WAS TOO IMPATIENT TO PROPERLY HEAT IT AND THAT IROH PUT TWO AND TWO TOGETHER RIGHT THEN AND THERE?

“We’ll have to make some major changes around here!” — His next line which he says firmly, grabbing the teapot and looking at Zuko as he turns.

Like literally after this the main plotpoint between these two is Iroh teaching Zuko how to be more patient/kind/open-minded while also teaching him how to properly work in the tea shop and I just…do you mean to tell me those two were actually not just random meshing plotpoints but were a direct correlation?

ARE YOU KIDDING ME, BRYKE!?

magerights:

as requested, some neat things from dao’s party banter:

• zevran has tattoos all over his body and offers to give alistair a tattoo when he asks about them
• it’s insinuated that zevran can be taken on as king alistair’s personal assassin
• alistair has “brotherly concern” for a warden romancing zevran
• alistair is jealous of a romanced morrigan. she says it’s because she took his “favorite grey warden” away from him
• according to wynne, marriage between circle mages “isn’t encouraged” and any child born to a circle mage is given to the chantry
• alistair has his name stitched into his socks and says it was “part of templar training”
• shale seems to be jealous of alistair when he’s romancing the warden
• leliana implies that she sometimes seduces her targets to kill them
• shale really hates birds and finds the thought of eating one sickening
• zevran spends a lot of time on his hair
• there’s a lot of (gross) dialogue between leliana and morrigan when both are being romanced by a male warden
• leliana catches sten playing with a kitten and/or picking flowers and pokes fun at him by calling him a softie
• sten calls shale “kadan”
• alistair is a full-body blusher
• morrigan flirts with sten quite a bit

and some bonus stuff from daa:

• anders baby talks ser pounce
• sigrun once had a pet nug, but her uncle ate it
• velanna is very self-conscious about her ears
• nathaniel respects velanna (and thinks she’s pretty)
• velanna’s sister seranni pushed her into an icy river twice and liked to put sap in her hair
• nathaniel also has respect for sigrun and thinks she’s “remarkably perky”
• anders is claustrophobic, or at least just hates being underground
• sigrun steals and returns justice’s dagger and ring, just to prove she can
• anders hates grand enchanter irving
• nathaniel is an idle hummer

septemberequinox:

blessed samhain! the veil is thin and so is my damn patience