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Any other birds, apart from cassowaries, that look like dinos?

thick-billed ravens rank pretty high on the "jesus christ a dinosaur" scale imho

The duality of "If you even imply that being aro or ace condemns someone to a sad and lonely life I will fucking fight you"

and

"being aro and ace is the most isolating thing I will ever experience"

part 1

~

A CROW TRIED TO GO IN OUR CLASSROOM AND HE HAD A PEN

Me in fourth grade: I am a god above you all. I have a twelfth grade reading level. I'm one of the two biggest readers in school and everybody knows it. This book? Yeah, I started it yesterday. I finished it today. Yeah it's 600 pages, what about it? You fools are nothing compared to me.

Me now: I can only read fanfiction and comic books. I can't even reread my favourite books. Actually starting a new book? Not happening. Reading is still my favourite activity but I can't do it. I am physically incapable of reading more than ten pages. I had to google how to spell twelfth. My favourite books are all over 1000 pages send help.

Hallo, Aro

Is it “aay-romantic” or “arrow-mantic”? What if she hears “I’m a romantic” instead of “I’m aromantic”? What if she says “isn’t that just friend…

Hallo, Aro is a series of flash fiction stories about allosexual aromantic characters navigating friendship, sexual attraction, aromanticism and the weight of amatonormative expectation.

I’ve now got twelve allo-aro short fiction and creative non-fiction pieces in this collection!

Folks can download PDF, EPUB and MOBI files for free from my Patreon, read individual stories on my WordPress site or view them all here on Tumblr:

Unspoken

Leaving

Friendship

Lucky

Attraction

Existence

Neuronormative

Loveless

Monstrous

Pressure, Side One

Pressure, Side Two

Abrasive

No story is longer than a thousand words. Please expect sex references in various degrees of explicitness and sundry depictions of amatonormativity.

Part of being aromantic, at least for me, is always being the third wheel. Feeling awkward and left out whenever my friends leave to go on a date or whatever and I have no one to hang out with. I'm not saying that I want to intrude on someone's date or whatever, they deserve to have time to themselves. I get that. I just wish I didn't feel so alone when everyone around me has someone special to them and I don't.

And it's not like I want to be in a partnered relationship, either. I actually feel pretty squicked about the concept of being the recipient of romantic feelings, and I feel completely neutral about having a qpr (aside from the knowledge that I don't feel any sort of attraction and don't particularly want to have to make personal decisions only with the help of someone else).

I guess it just makes me feel a little like I'm not anyone's most loved, if that makes any sense. No one loves me more than anyone else. I'm nobody's best friend, nobody's dearest individual. And partly that's freeing, because I don't have to figure anyone else into my future, but it's also sad, too, because I'm nobody's favorite and I'll always have to take a backseat to other people.

Ugh, idk. I shouldn't be complaining. I have great friends who I love dearly and who care about me. I just have to constantly be aware that I'm never going to be the first one someone thinks of when they think of home.

. . .

RECORD BREAKERS

Life on earth, as magnificent and versatile as it is, is seemingly tame compared to the weird and wonderful creatures that once existed. All categories of life have reached unimaginable sizes, here are just a selection of prehistoric record breakers!

MEGALODON The biggest shark known to have existed, ruling over the oceans as recently as up to a million years ago. A length of almost 20 metres and weighing in at an estimated 48 tonnes, Megalodon could deliver a crucifying bite of up to 110,000N. It is no surprise that the Megalodon was dubbed the “whale killing shark”.

MEGATHERIUM Our early ancestors would have been quite familiar with Megatherium as they existed up to 8000 years ago, they were in fact the largest sloths to have existed. Sloths have a reputation as being lazy, slow and docile, but Megatherium was a 6 metre long, 4 tonne monster with a killer instinct and knife-like claws. Megatherium’s discovery came before that of the dinosaurs. Skeletons of these prehistoric beasts were a delight to the Victorian public and paved the way for the science of palaeontology.

ARCHELON Literally meaning “large turtle”, Archelon certainly was just that. Existing during the cretaceous, the time of the dinosaurs, Archelon could reach 4.5 metres long and may have lived to over 100 years old. Archelon could not compete with other cretaceous beings in speed and agility, but its blade-like beak was able to slice through flesh and crush though the toughest ammonite shells. Unfortunately Archelon appears to have been a popular snack for other marine dwellers, skeletons are frequently missing flippers or heads and covered in slashes.

TITANOBOA When the dinosaurs reign ended, a new era saw the rise of new super-predators, one was Titanoboa, the largest snake ever with a body up to 13 metres long, standing a metre off the ground and weighing up to 2500 pounds. Titanoboa was 30% longer than even todays largest species. Scientists believe this humongous snake hunted like its modern relatives, the boa constrictors, by winding around prey and suffocating them.

IRISH ELK Owner of the largest antlers of any animal, up to 3 metres wide, the Irish Elk gets its name from its frequent discoveries in Irish peat bogs. Existing up to 10,000 years ago, these would have been a common sight in grasslands for our ancestors. Many fossils indicate the animals died of starvation which is why the antlers are thought to have been part of elaborate mating contests between males, often resulting in one being fatally injured and unable to feed itself.

DEINOTHERIUM A distant relative of the elephants and mammoths, Deinotherium was more sinister, its name translates to “terrible beast”, they would have most likely caused trouble for our ancient ancestors around 1.5 million years ago. Deinotherium is actually considered to be the second largest land mammal of all time, behind Paraceratherium and is iconic in appearance due to its sharp, downward facing tusks.

ARCTODUS Known as the short faced bear, they were the biggest bears on record and one of the largest mammal carnivores to have existed. Whilst their skull was short, they were packed with piercing teeth that could deliver a bone crushing bite. Existing up to 11,000 years ago, out ancestors would have stayed well clear of this 900 kilogram predator, with slender limbs and knife-like claws, Arctodus was deadly.

SARCOSUCHUS One of the most infamous fossil discoveries in history, Sarcosuchus was the largest crocodile to walk the Earth up to 112 million years ago, this was a crocodile capable of killing dinosaurs. Sarcosuchus was twice as long as a saltwater crocodile, that’s 11-12 metres long and could reach over 8 tonnes. Its jaw was packed full of 66 teeth either side of its jaw and would have clamped down on prey that wandered too near.

ARGENTINOSAURUS One of the largest lifeforms that has ever stood on the Earth, Argentinosaurus could grow up to 30 metres long with its hind limbs standing 4.5 metres off the ground. They existed between 97-94 million years ago and at adulthood would have been virtually indestructible to predators. Its weight is estimated at a staggering 80-100 tonnes. There hasn’t been another land mammal on the same scale as Argentinosaurus since and it’s unlikely there ever will be.

SPINOSAURUS The largest discovered therapod ever, a group that includes Allosaurus and Tryrannosaurus. Spinosaurus remained an enigma to scientists for decades, the only discovered specimen was sadly destroyed during World War 2 and was not rediscovered until the 21st century. Spinosaurus is thought to have reached up to 16 metres long and weighed in around 12 tonnes, that is almost double the weight of a T-rex!