kiya

I got an attack story.

So I wrote it over the last couple of days, and in that time I have done for research:

* measured a cardboard box
* looked up how crime scene evidence is labelled and stored
* looked up crime scene photography
* looked up how to document blood spatter
* looked up a bunch of stuff involving children's literature
* looked up which of the Lang Fairy Books a particular story could be found in
* owl anatomy: feather structure and coloration; talons; general shape
* how to store powder evidence (accidentally discovered, really, but I used it)
* that tooth numbering system
* what the fuck is that thing that hangs around the bottom of the bed called, anyway?
* handwriting analysis
* miscellaneous Arthurian names, actually, though that bit's almost 100% invisible in practical terms
* hand size by age
* shoe size by age
* conversion of various measurements to metric

I did not look up what trackers can do because I know ivy, I could just footnote what the tracker spotted without having to look up what was plausible.

All of that digging up details and stuff? Was for a story that is, after revision to be longer, 2171 words long.


In unrelated news, Mo the Noodle has finally eaten something. We are relieved.

KJ has been spending the quarantimes researching things that interest her, and has, as a result, turned herself into a font of Snake Facts. After becoming a font of Snake Facts, she then started trawling Craigslist for rescues/rehomes. (With permission.) Several people did not even respond to us, we got a couple bites that didn't work out, and finally we made arrangements on Monday to pick up a snake Thursday.

Time gap because artan had recently acquired a new tank for Jian Chi, his turtle, and so there was upgrading the turtle tank to do so the previous tank could be refitted for snake habitation. Tuesday KJ and I went to a herp-specialist pet store to get the gear needed, chatting with a very amiable extroverted man as we assembled Many Thing and carefully transferred it out to whispercricket's car.

Various things were done to get things ready* (still in progress; one of the things we picked up was basically a one-use tank heating pad so we could pick him up before we had everything 100% ready) and then KJ and I puttered down to Everett to obtain the big beautiful boy from an I'd guess twenty-something young man who is "more into boas now". He is currently living in a rather featureless tupperware and came with four frozen rats, which should last him a month, month and a half.

KJ's sisters are very excited and the snake was very chill about them, which is good (but ball pythons are sweet tempered and easygoing). She videochatted some of her socially distanced friends to show him off; after much deliberation and discussion she has named him Mahogany, Mo for short. (The junior monkeys call him "Snakie Donuts" because his pattern has donut shapes in it; we will see if that sticks for them, heh. "Or alien faces!" KJ points out.)

Mo has also accidentally nosebooped one of the cats, and been stared at by other cats; both of the blacks have napped on top of his tupperware. (Noseboop story: Robin, oblivious to anything other than "there are hands here that are not petting me", tried to coax pettings out of KJ, who was holding the snake at the time. Mo, curious about what was making his branch shake, peered down, and there was nose-to-nose contact, from which both animals flinched back going, "WTF IS THAT THEN.")

Tank cleaning continues apace; Mo is going a bit blue so KJ wants to take him up to play in the bath later. Vet appointment on Tuesday, which is conducted on spy drop principles. (Drive to vet, contact with secret passcode, someone comes out to obtain the animal and take inside, wait for return.)


* I had complex nightmares Tuesday and Wednesday night which I suspected vaguely at the time were stress about going to meet a stranger off Craigslist in a pandemic and, indeed, last night after obtaining Mo I did not have nightmares.

The mouse is dead. Holding it underwater won't make it any deader, sweetie.