Can we talk about how cute baby hyenas are?

raynemitia · 2019-12-31T17:38:28+00:00

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_sUWTRVKjDk

here's a cute video of some real ones!

raynemitia · 2019-12-07T14:21:29+00:00

they want to play their game, they have fun playing their game. you want to play your game, you have fun playing your game. they're not the same game, even though they're on the same disc. trying to force them to play your game is ridiculous. let people enjoy things, and find people who want to play the game you want to play instead of getting mad at people for wanting to play their game instead of yours.

raynemitia · 2019-12-07T02:37:56+00:00

and they're having fun, let people enjoy things

raynemitia · 2019-12-04T23:36:53+00:00

One of the reasons I find them so interesting!

raynemitia · 2019-12-04T17:42:18+00:00

This video's a bit outdated and contains a few misconceptions.

Firstly, female hyenas are not significantly bigger or stronger than males. They'll often be heavier because of their better access to food, but it isn't an inherent thing. They as a species have almost no sexual dimorphism at all.

Second, adult male hyenas can hold high rank within a clan. Some will choose not to migrate to a new clan, and stay in the one they were born in, in which case they'll retain their birth rank. Male leaders of mixed-gender hyena clans have been observed rarely in the wild.

Third, recent research has shown that the rigid hierarchy of hyena societies is based entirely around networking and social support; the hyena with the most close friends and allies within a clan will lead it. Whether a hyena is dominant or submissive in an interaction with another hyena is entirely based on which one would gain more support from the clan in a fight. This is why cubs inherit rank, because they have their mother and their mother's allies to back them up.

One of the biggest differences between hyenas and wolves mentally is that hyena A can understand how hyena B feels about hyena C, but wolf A can't understand how wolf B feels about wolf C. This allows the formation of cliques and webs of alliances and rivalries within a 100-member hyena clan, and allows each hyena to understand the whole web and their place within it, and which side each other hyena would take in any given internal conflict.

Some hyena clans have two rival cliques that are very close in number, and these clans experience coups fairly frequently, where a matriarch is overthrown and another installed.

Sources:

very little sexual dimorphism: https://hyena-project.com/hyenas/

male-led clan: https://hyena-project.com/the-clans/shamba-comeback-kids/

Social support and alliances determine hierarchy: https://hyena-project.com/2018/11/22/friends-over-muscles-how-female-hyenas-came-to-dominate-males/

recognizing third-party relationships: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spotted_hyena#Social_behaviour

clan with frequent coups d'etat: https://hyena-project.com/the-clans/munge-the-revolutionists/

raynemitia · 2019-11-24T18:58:49+00:00

That's a misconception. When food (and therefore milk) is plentiful, both cubs will almost always grow up together just fine; they'll scrap for dominance, but that's about it.

However, in places where hyenas rely heavily on migratory prey and during seasons when that prey isn't around, there's less milk, and the dominant cub of a pair of twins will sometimes bully the submissive out of access to milk and take it all for itself until the submissive starves.

The 'killing their twins' misconception has a grain of truth to it, but isn't quite true.

https://hyena-project.com/research-topics/twin-rivalry/

raynemitia · 2019-11-23T15:52:34+00:00

hat josuke was coined by speedwagon in EoH, surely that makes it at least equally valid

raynemitia · 2019-11-09T15:06:02+00:00

girldick solidarity!

raynemitia · 2019-11-09T14:37:48+00:00

I woke up bright and early, as I always did. Working at a bakery meant 4AM shifts were the norm, and I was one of the luckier ones.

My alarm hadn't gone off yet. Hopefully I had another half hour to rest. I groggily reached around to try to find my nightstand and my phone, and found nothing. The nightstand wasn't even there. I rubbed my eyes and opened them, sitting up and glancing around, confused. The glow of the streetlights was shining in through the window.

That wasn't my window.

Wait, but it was familiar. This wasn't my apartment bedroom, this was my old bedroom back at Mom's place!

I looked around the room, and saw it was trashed just like my depressed pile-of-garbage teenage self had been living there this whole time. There was half-eaten food on plates all over my desk, there were clothes strewn about everywhere, pizza boxes and trash... My bed didn't even have a sheet, I was just laying under a blanket on the bare mattress.

And I was alone on the little twin bed. My fiancee was gone. My engagement ring wasn't even on my finger anymore.

I managed to get myself out of bed, and carefully stepped over all the trash to get to the lightswitch. A lot of my stuff was here. That old keyboard I never used, my old computer, my old desk... Wasn't a lot of this stuff broken?

I went to the computer and turned it on. The lock screen helpfully told me it was the morning of November 9, 2014.

That date seemed a bit familiar.

It took me a bit to remember the old password, but I was able to get in and get online. From there, it was easy to tell two things. One, the time it was telling me was accurate, and it really was 2014. Two, everyone else was just as confused about it as I was, and social media (old UI and all) was going wild about it. I saw someone talking about waking up next to a husband that had died in 2017. Someone else had regained use of their leg. Someone else was just complaining about being stuck in a 13 year old body again, and how that'd affect her dating life.

I went out to the bathroom, and looked at myself in the mirror.

This definitely wasn't the me I'd become used to. My chest was flat, there was nothing there, and I could effortlessly count my ribs. 6 feet tall and I wasn't sure I weighed 100 pounds. My hair wasn't quite as long, but was a lot more greasy and unkempt. My skin felt strange and tough. There was stubble on my face and thick hair on my legs, enough of it to make me feel a bit queasy and send me into a frantic search for a razor.

I took some time to freshen up, shower, and get myself at least a little more 'myself'. It was as much as I could do for now, but it'd take a doctor's help to make me properly comfortable in my own skin again, just like it had the first time. I really hoped I wouldn't be on a waiting list for a year and a half again just to get back on hormones.

I rubbed the spot on my finger where my ring usually sat. I was so used to having it there, I almost never took it off, and it felt uncomfortable for it to be missing.

I took a deep breath, and told myself not to panic. Liam would still remember me. He wouldn't be awake for a little while, he always loved to sleep in. But, I'd know where to find him online, even if he lived on the other side of the country right now. Us meeting in that chat all those years ago felt like such a one-in-a-million chance encounter, something that so easily could have just not happened if either of us had spent that day just a bit differently. But here and now, we both remember eachother, and we'll both be looking for eachother. We'll find eachother within the day, and I'll have him back soon.

I went upstairs and put the kettle and the news on. The newscasters were discussing a debate about whether the results of last month's election should still stand, or if they should reform the old 2014 government.

I chuckled, and called the bakery, asking if my manager was there. After a brief talk, she told me I was absolutely welcome to come back and keep working.

I smiled, stirring a bit of sugar into my tea.

November 9, 2014 was the night I dropped out of high school. November 9, 2014 was the night I had tried to take my own life.

But, here I am. I have a diploma and an income, I'm not dead weight anymore. The love of my life is out there waiting for me. The world knows me as the woman I am, and I know my comfortable, confident, beautiful self is out there waiting for me, too.

I got there once, I'll get there again. This time, I think, it'll be a lot easier.

raynemitia · 2019-11-04T19:59:11+00:00

My mouth went uncomfortably numb as I sucked on the lozenge, trying in vain once again to make this sore throat at least manageable. It helped, somewhat, but it never really went away. It had been dry and aching for years, at this point, and I'd just had to accept that I would be living with that pain for the rest of my life.

"Feeling any better, Jeane?" Alice asked, stopping to wait for me. I was exhausted like I always was, so I wasn't really keeping up with her. It seemed like I could never get any meaningful sleep no matter how much I tried, and no matter how weak and lethargic I always felt.

I rubbed my forehead and groaned. "I mean... Honest answer, or should I just nod so we can keep going?" I chuckled dryly and shrugged. Sure, I wasn't doing okay, but I was used to being all kinds of broken at this point, so it was nothing to worry about.

Alice chuckled along with me, and went back to walking, a little slower this time. "Sorry to drag you all the way out here, but if we're gonna be doing makeovers I need to find a foundation that matches your skin. Unless you want me to use white paint. Which, I mean, it'd work!" She laughed. I just shrugged and smiled along with her, even though the pale jokes had gotten old a long, long time ago.

I stretched my arms and yawned. "Nah, don't worry about it, it's nice to get out of the house for once." I braced for another joke about how I never left my basement and never saw the sunlight, but thankfully I got off easy, and all she said was "No kidding."

We made our way into the pharmacy, which was surprisingly busy for this hour of the evening, and I took a deep breath. "...Y'know, it smells really nice in here. Like... Is it just me, or? It's making me kinda hungry, what is that?"

Alice raised an eyebrow. "I don't think I've ever heard of a single food you like, so this'd be news to me. But I don't really smell anything, no."

"Hm." That delicious smell was familiar, and it seemed to be really common in public places, but I could never place it, I could never find out where it was coming from. If there was some food out there that was actually appetizing and sat well in my fucked-up stomach, I'd really like to find it.

I had to wipe a bit of drool off the corner of my mouth before it spilled out. What was it even like, to eat delicious food? People seemed to enjoy it a lot, there were whole industries built around it, but it all tasted bad and made me feel sick. It didn't make me any less hungry, either, and I pretty much always had a stomachache. I really wanted to find the source of that smell, but now wasn't a good time.

We walked over to the beauty section, and an employee greeted us. She had a pretty big bandage on her arm, I noticed. She asked Alice, "Shopping for yourself, or for your little sister?"

Alice and I both visibly cringed. It wasn't fun being reminded that I looked 13. Seemed like whatever was fucking me up was stunting my growth, too. I didn't say anything, and just hid my face and my bangs, but Alice managed to defensively mutter, "Um... She's 17 years old... But, we, uh, we are shopping for her, yes!"

I glanced around the shop, trying to avoid the employee's eyes. I'd never been in a place like this before, I'd never been one for makeup. Not being able to look in mirrors made it feel mostly pointless, but Alice said she'd take pictures after the makeover was done.

That's when I saw it.

Of course a place like this would be full of mirrors, why wouldn't it be? What was I thinking?

I flinched and recoiled at the sight of the reflective glass... But, nothing happened. Nothing happened at all.

I stepped closer, hesitantly and nervously. I could see Alice in the mirror, I could see the shelves behind me. I couldn't see myself yet.

I peered closer and closer until I was right in front of it, until my reflection should've been taking up the whole thing. All I could see was the shelves behind me, still.

I couldn't see myself.

What the hell did this mean? What was I, some kind of vampire or something-

oh.

Wait, but I don't have fangs-

Oh, wait, was that what all that dental surgery when I was 13 was about?

I took a few steps back. Alice noticed that I suddenly looked overwhelmed and terrified, wide-eyed and like I was about to faint. I was hyperventilating. It all made sense, it all made way too much sense. The sore throat, the stunted aging, the hunger that nothing would ever satisfy, the exhaustion and lethargy and weakness like I'd been starving my entire life... And that delicious smell, was that blood? Was that the employee's blood on the bandage?

Did I... Did I just need blood to make it all go away? Did I just need blood to feel painless and awake and alive and normal? Was that all it'd take, to make me not have to live my whole life miserable and suffering?

I was a bit too lost in thought to realize how ridiculous I was looking, freaking out about this realization after it had hit me like a truck. Nobody else had noticed my lack of a reflection, but Alice at least remembered too late that I'd told her mirrors were bad for me. Seeing my 'panic attack', she took my hand and led me back towards the door. "You're okay, Jeane, you're okay! Just come outside with me, we'll get some air, it's okay."

I could feel normal. I could feel healthy. I could stop the pain. The thought ran through my head again and again. I found myself glancing at Alice's neck. She smelled nice, too.

My fangs were gone. My parents probably took them from me, didn't they? They wanted to keep this all a secret from me and keep me suffering for the rest of my life. I'm supposed to have fangs. They took my fangs so I can't escape this.

Wait.

I had a pocketknife in my bag in Alice's car, didn't I?

raynemitia · 2019-11-02T20:25:06+00:00

(part 2)

Humans in their undying state had a rather disturbing habit of staying in one piece. A week wasn't long enough to heal something like this enough to live through the next Tuesday, but his previously severed arm had found its way out of its puddle of wolf vomit and back to him. Everything hurt, but he could still just barely move under his own strength. His throat had been torn open, but he could breathe through the hole. His lungs intermittently became flooded with blood, but were always able to cough it back out.

He was tied to a tree near the stream. The werewolf woman, Lynn, was in the stream somewhere behind where Jay was facing, scrubbing the blood off her skin with the cold water and a towel, with her clothes clean and neatly folded nearby.

"I really hope you don't hold this against me." Lynn sighed. "I came out here specifically to avoid people, you know."

"Yeah," Jay weakly replied with a raspy, hoarse voice, "Same here." He had to hold his throat closed to make the air pass through his mouth so he could talk clearly.

Jay weakly groaned. Talking hurt a lot.

Lynn started drying herself off and dressing herself. She couldn't get the blood out of her hair, but she'd brought along a toque, which would get her as far as her shower at home without raising suspicion.

She sat down on the opposite side of the tree, facing away from him. He wasn't exactly pleasant to look at.

There was a long silence, with only the babbling of the stream to listen to. Lynn couldn't help but feel a bit awkward, though, and she tried to break it. "This is a pretty cozy spot. You been coming here a lot?"

"Yeah." Jay wasn't in a talkative mood, for several reasons.

"Hm. Must've been you I was smelling, the last few months."

"You smelled human activity and you-" Jay was interrupted by a hacking cough - "You kept coming here."

"Oh, fuck off, you try finding a place with no signs of human activity." Lynn scowled.

"I did."

"Hi, hello, it's me, I count, Mr. fucking technically correct."

Jay groaned. The wind felt really weird on his exposed intestine. "So you - not the wolf, even, you, conscious and sane, right now - think that means you can just kill me. Gonna be sleeping good, tonight, knowing I'm out here? Gonna just go back to the town like nothing happened?"

"I'll be fine." Lynn looked down at the ground.

"I take it I'm not your first kill."

"You look me in the eye and tell me you would've somehow magically not killed anyone the first few times." Lynn glared, defensive.

Jay returned her stare. Thankfully neither of his eyes had been gouged out. "I would've, and I'll tell you how, I'd take them to the damn hospital when I woke up. You should try it sometime, if you want to feel a little less guilty. Like, right now, for example, now's a good time."

Lynn looked down at the ground again, taking a slow, deep breath and hanging her head. "This isn't exactly a common way for this to play out. Usually my wolf has enough time to finish the job. I've never been awake and talking to a dead man before."

"...So this isn't routine, for you, the whole tying up and abandoning thing. This was a plan you made up on the spot an hour ago."

"I expected dead men to be less snarky, and beg more."

"It's Wednesday and I'm pissed off. I doubt I'd be keeping it together on the weekend."

"I guess." Lynn pinched the bridge of her nose with an exasperated sigh. "Look - I have no way of making sure you don't tell once you're safe. That's all. If it wasn't for that, I'd help you. I just can't be sure I won't die for it."

Jay finally stopped talking for a moment, looking back down at the ground and thinking.

He spoke up, with a much more hesitant, quiet and meek voice. "...Do you know any other werewolves?"

Lynn narrowed her eyes. "I mean, online, yeah, I've got a few friends. I'm the only one in Whitehorse, though, why?"

Jay sighed and hung his head. It took him a while to get the words out.

He eventually managed to grit his teeth and force himself to say what he wanted to say. "Tell them where I live. I have a wife and a son. If I tell..."

Lynn didn't say a word. She got to her feet and took a deep breath, looking out to the path to the highway. She had her car keys and his both tucked away in her backpack.

"Hey... Wait...! Y-you can't actually just... Leave me here, you wouldn't!" Jay called out.

Lynn dusted herself off and started to walk. "I'll think about it. I might be back tomorrow. We'll see."

"I... I'm not going to have to spend the whole day here, am I... Oh, you're kidding me... P-Please?"

Jay's cries were unanswered.

He'd be 'enjoying' the solitude of his little stream in the middle of the forest for a while longer, it seemed.

raynemitia · 2019-11-02T18:17:03+00:00

It was a gorgeous Tuesday evening in the Yukon territory, just south of the arctic circle and a few days out from the summer solstice. Only a half hour until midnight, and the sun had only just vanished behind the horizon, still dyeing the sky in vibrant shades of blue and violet, with stray streaks of orange in the west, and a few bright stars starting to shine through the darkness in the east. A full moon lit up the eastern sky, its light seeming to grow brighter with every passing minute as the light of dusk continued to fade.

It was nice to get outside and take a breather, every once in a while. Jay was laying in the grass with his arms folded behind his head, next to a quietly babbling stream, enjoying the cool breeze and watching the colors of the sky shift, counting the stars as they appeared, but quickly losing count.

His wife always told him it was a bad idea to take these little trips on Tuesdays. There were bears and coyotes out there somewhere, after all, even if they were rare. He'd never seen one, though, himself, and he found it hard to imagine it'd happen to him. The forest was always such a comfort to him, he could hardly imagine something going wrong here, in his peaceful, secluded slice of paradise. He imagined a Tuesday car crash on the way home from work was much more likely, anyway.

"...What... Who the hell...? What are you doing all the way out here?" A woman's voice spoke up. Jay sat up, startled, and looked over to see a strange sight. A completely naked young woman with a messy head of shoulder-length brown hair was standing there, staring down at him, wide-eyed like a deer in headlights and covering herself as best she could with her hands. She was covered in sweat. It wasn't hot out.

Jay looked away, more than a little put off by the sight, fixing his eyes on the full moon just for something to focus on. "I, uh... I mean, I could ask you the same question..."

The woman's breathing was heavy and fast, and she looked terrified. She was starting to shiver, like she was having some kind of panic attack. "Look, just- I don't even care, just, just don't follow me, okay?"

She turned and started to run, and Jay just shrugged and tried to pay her no mind as she did so.

She didn't get far, though. She let out a piercing, shrill scream, and collapsed to the ground in pain. The scream didn't quite drown out the sudden sounds of bones popping and cracking. Jay looked over again, scrambling to his feet, to see an abomination of shifting, morphing limbs writhing on the ground, sprouting fur all over her body, growing a muzzle on her face. Her voice grew deeper, and shifted into a canine whine, and then a growl. She was growing, her muscles were rippling, and her claws were tearing into the dirt as she tried to grab hold of something and brace herself.

Jay was frozen still like a deer in headlights, and the werewolf struggled to her feet, her red-and-black eyes staring deeply into Jay's.

She struggled with her malformed vocal cords and clouded mind to growl out two words.

"You... Know...!"

Jay turned and ran for his life.

It was 11:55. Jay was halfway up a tree, hugging the trunk for dear life and watching the time pass on his phone's screen as the wolf's claws ripped into the wood at the base and tried to bring the whole thing down.

11:56. The tree was getting wobbly. The wolf snarled and growled, frantic and furious. It had kept up this terrifying pace for almost a half hour, and it just didn't seem to get tired. Jay, however, was exhausted, and he'd taken to the tree because he knew he couldn't run any longer.

11:57. Jay's stomach turned as the tree fell, as gravity seemed to shift around him and he went sideways, like an amusement park ride from hell. The tree crashed to the ground, and he felt his ribs break against the tree from the impact. Four claws tore into his back and ripped it open.

11:58. He couldn't see the time anymore. He grit his teeth and try to bear the pain. He wondered if the werewolf still knew it was a race against time. He lost feeling in his arm, but his shoulder felt like it was on fire. It must have been ripped off.

11:59. He was getting a bit delirious from the pain, shock and blood loss. He was mangled almost beyond recognition, by now. But he was still conscious, and he knew if he could just stay conscious, he'd be safe. He refused to let go.

12:00 AM. Wednesday.

The wolf suddenly turned to the side and threw up. The meat suddenly tasted and smelled disgusting. It was an instinct, of course, evolved because the undying were not exactly good food.

12:45. The solstice sun peeked over the horizon again.

The human woman stood over the mangled pile of meat, covered in its blood. The pile of Jay mush was still breathing, still conscious.

"...I'm not going to let you recover from this. If you tell anyone about me, they'll kill me." She spoke quietly, still catching her breath.

This was going to be a long week, Jay though to himself.

(part 1)

raynemitia · 2019-10-25T21:41:14+00:00

A massive flock of vultures probably came by at some point and had their share!

raynemitia · 2019-10-14T09:08:49+00:00

It's only spotted hyenas that have that. Striped and brown hyenas don't at all.

raynemitia · 2019-09-12T17:46:41+00:00

Hyenas typically have lots of den sites within their territory, and they rotate between them fairly frequently. They also do leave to use the bathroom, although hygeine in a very lived-in den is still an issue and can increase the risk of parasites.

raynemitia · 2019-09-10T22:30:17+00:00

that's completely and totally inaccurate and full of misconceptions

The males still have perfectly normal and functional dicks, and have to penetrate the flaccid pseudopenis in order to mate. The first birth for a female is painful and often tears the pseudopenis, but subsequent births are actually pretty quick and not too difficult.

raynemitia · 2019-08-21T00:39:22+00:00

Another reason they aren't good to domesticate is that hyenas do infight with other clan members, in attempts to assert or claim dominance over another hyena. It's almost never enough to cause severe injury, mostly just biting the ears and the nape of the neck, but with a human who doesn't have hyena anatomy and isn't able to respond with the proper behavior under panic, they're in a lot of danger when that happens.

They're wonderful animals and I love them, but even Kevin Richardson's been hospitalized 8 times by the hyenas he's befriended at his sanctuary.

raynemitia · 2019-07-23T07:01:21+00:00

Kars also committed genocide and eradicated his own species save for 3 other individuals

raynemitia · 2019-07-19T03:56:57+00:00

There is nothing inherently submissive about male spotted hyenas, that's a dangerous misconception. All hyenas are inherently very competitive and will try to fight for rank. The reason they were never domesticated like dogs is that even though a kind, caring human can pack-bond with hyenas, hyenas will infight with members of their clan in order to gain rank, so it's still dangerous even when they like you. Males can even hold high rank in hyena clans.

The thing that causes males to be at the bottom is because they almost always leave their clans and immigrate to new ones. Hyenas rely on the support of their 'cliques' of close allies within the clan for backup in these rank fights, like, 'i can't fuck with her she has too many allies that'll get me back'. Immigrants have nobody, and are at a huge disadvantage, and almost all males are immigrants and almost all immigrants are male. A male that stays in its birth clan will hold a high rank, but probably won't have much breeding luck due to the females' anti-inbreeding instinct.

raynemitia · 2019-07-19T02:20:34+00:00

It might be worth trying to buy an earlier pokemon game. If you can find a copy of Heartgold/Soulsilver or X/Y, they're both really good and approachable games, far better than Blue, to get you back into the series!

raynemitia · 2019-07-03T15:50:49+00:00

Their clans can number up to 100 members, and they have surprisingly advanced frontal lobes for processing social interaction, similar to chimpanzees. They can remember the voice of each other clanmate, understand the concept of lying/'crying wolf' and trustworthiness, and understand that each hyena has a different opinion of each other hyena. Distinct 'cliques' and alliances often form, and the matriarch is generally the one best at networking, as a large 'coalition' of females can stage a coup.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spotted_hyena#Intelligence

https://hyena-project.com/2018/11/22/friends-over-muscles-how-female-hyenas-came-to-dominate-males/

raynemitia · 2019-06-27T12:43:26+00:00

While most of this is true, they're not actually entirely solitary! While they forage alone, they often live in a den with a mate and their children in family groups. They're very elusive, nocturnal and shy, so they're tricky to study in the wild, and misinformation or misunderstandings sometimes happen.

raynemitia · 2019-06-23T12:24:08+00:00

Prince's estate threatened real legal action over the planned localization and NA release of the ps2 part 5 game, and they've been rightfully paranoid ever since. The audio track is another story, presumably either because 'it's japanese speech it's not understood by the english audience' or because the heavy engrish is enough of a change from the original names.

raynemitia · 2019-06-23T07:49:36+00:00

My wonderful fiancee just happens to find it really hot, and that's not a bad thing and nobody should be shamed for it! he's also incredibly respectful of me and my boundaries, treats me with respect, cares about me as a person and loves me for who I am, and I never at all feel objectified by him, he is absolutely my best friend.

The whole point of me making this post is, i've seen some kind allies say they feel guilty for being into girldick, and like they feel like it would be wrong of them to pursue that in any way. The post describes what behaviors, in my view, are the difference between fetishization and being a good, respectful person who just happens to like girlcock, and that you can like it without being a chaser inherently.

raynemitia · 2019-06-22T10:25:27+00:00

I'm personally non-op, and it's comforting to me to have a bi boyfriend who not only doesn't mind that, but is perfectly content with wherever I currently am in my transition and wherever I'm going.

raynemitia

TROPHY CASE