#kat replies

The Rule Piece is the sequel to The Maverick fic I wrote back in 2016 instead of studying for an exam lol. The Maverick is a coffee shop AU where Obi-Wan is a student, Qui-Gon owns a coffee shop, there's some shenanigans and I managed to include an entire subplot of murder and mayhem.

The Rule Piece is the sequel I started in 2018 which is still unfinished and has a load of material partly written for it, an obnoxious amount of notes hand-written researching a plethora of topics (of which I've lost track of maybe half over the years) and what I've wanted to try and work on and finish since I started it.

Where The Maverick was set within a relatively short period of time, its sequel covers a broader range of time with some of it being based almost 30 years prior to when The Maverick was set. I discuss some heavy topics and have parts of The Rule Piece set during time periods where tensions were very high, specifically in Northern Ireland. It is part of what makes The Rule Piece a much more labour-intensive fic to research and plan out than The Maverick was.

I actually plan to sort the notes and research for The Rule Piece out so I have it archived digitally instead of haphazardly spread across multiple notebooks. Once I've got that sorted, I should be able to actually seriously look at the fic and maybe get to writing the rest of it.

Oh that's a challenge! Just ten favourite sharks?? Oh this should be fun! Lets do this in reverse order, so from number 10 to 1 :D

Ten: Greenland Sharks!

Greenland sharks are one of the most long lived species of shark out there. They live in such cold waters that they age incredibly slowly and can live for literal centuries. Idk what others thing but I find that amazingly neat.

Mentioned here and here.

Nine: Basking Sharks!

I think the main reason I love Basking Sharks is because of where you can find them (around Scotland) as well as the fact that they're plankton-eaters who are huge af and ten times as chill as they are big. Idk, I've just always liked them. Whale sharks too but Basking sharks seem to get less love than Whale sharks so that's why I picked Basking sharks here.

Vaguely referenced here.

Eight: Blue Sharks!

I remember watching a David Attenborough documentary when I was a kid (twenty+ years ago) that had footage of Blue sharks and it absolutely locked me in. I ended up so fixated on the show that for Christmas that year my mother got me David's Blue Planet book and it legit had my brain explode from the sheer joy. That sense memory is forever tangled up in my love for Blue sharks and why they're on this list. I also love them because of the way they look and the fact that I always have a little giggle when Blue sharks get mistaken for Great Whites ngl.

I mention them here and also here.

Seven: Wobbegong Sharks!

These shag rugs from the 70s are absolute abominations to look at but I genuinely am delighted by that fact about them. A kind of carpet shark, they honestly spend most of their time chilling out on the sea floor in mid-shallows so the biggest danger for people is accidentally touching them because you think it's just part of the decor lol.

I talked about them here and also here.

Six: Short-Fin Mako Sharks!

I don't think I've really talked about these sharks before but I love them because they are so speedy! It's the fastest species of shark out there and shares a lot of similarities with the Blue Shark. They're not prone to attacking humans but there's been 10 recorded attacks in about 40 years, though only 3 were fatal.

I actually have one ask I've found where I mention them so that's something!

Five: Goblin Sharks!

They look so... Weird and ugly but like, in a way that also makes them oddly cute and adorable. To me, at least. They're such a rare species to see because they're deep-sea sharks but I love them anyway lol.

I've answered asks about them before (here) (and here) and I made a post about the new, amazing information we've learnt about them too!

Four: Great White sharks!

I've always loved seeing photos and videos of Great Whites because they're such power houses but, also, they're actually kinda chill. The main danger from them is their geographic range and how that puts them in contact with humans who are big enough for them to mistake for seals. They're incredibly beautiful, however, and I find them to be very majestic even with the 'scare' factor popular media has saturated them with.

Here's some asks I've answered where I talk/mention Great Whites btw: (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6)

Three: Lemon Sharks!

The thing about Lemon sharks that I love is that they're surprisingly possessive of divers they're familiar with. Like, they will bully Tiger sharks away from their favourite diver! Lemon sharks are, in all other ways, incredibly chill and there's (afaik) never been a recorded attack on a human by a Lemon shark. They're just sweet.

I talk about them here actually.

Two: Thresher Sharks!

The reason why I love Threshers (and why they're so high on my list) is because of their amazing evolutionary adaptation that has given them a literal whip for a tail! It fascinates me.

Mentioned here.

One: Small-Spotted Cat Sharks!

There's no real competition really for me in the end to have these sweethearts as my favourite shark, ngl. I've loved them since I was a kid and first saw them at the Blue Planet Aquarium lol. Think I always will tbh.

I've actually answered asks about my favourite shark before (here) (here) (and here) (also here if I didn't link it already) but I'm always happy to reiterate that my most beloved shark is this adorable baby :D

.

Send me asks!

Carpet sharks are so fun tbh, so like, 10/10 for being a fan of them but especially for liking Zebra sharks most! They're so.... OwO looking. Like, that's literally the only way I can describe them lol.

I mean, look at their adorable little faces!

image source

Anyway! To be Serious™ now because I'm a grown-up and grown-ups are serious... apparently-

Zebra sharks are the last surviving member of an entire shark family within the larger species of carpet shark. The Stegostomatidae family (the other member being the extinct Stegostoma Tethysiensis btw). Zebra sharks have the fancy Latin name of Stegostoma Tigrinum (Steg-o-stoma Tig-ri-num).

You can come across Zebra sharks throughout the tropics of the Indo-Pacific region, especially around coral reefs and sandy flat plains about 200 feet below sea level (62 metres).

The fun thing about Zebra sharks is they're actually kinda... well, not unique in their design but definitely pretty distinctive and easy to tell apart from other sharks that you'll find in the same geographic region.

They're kind of... rotund but like a cylinder instead of a ball. Their caudal fin (aka their tail) is low compared to other shark species and actually kind of accounts for about half their total body length. Actually, the way the caudal tail looks on a Zebra shark isn't too dissimilar to how the caudal tail of a Thresher shark looks! The difference is that the Zebra shark's caudal tail doesn't really have any height to it compared to that of the Thresher shark.

The Thresher shark just has a much, much longer caudal tail because that's what they use to hunt by whipping that bad boy and stunning (or outright killing) their prey.

Zebra shark caudal tail

image source

vs

Thresher shark caudal tail

image source

The difference between the caudal fins of the Thresher shark and the Zebra shark is, essentially, that the Thresher shark's caudal fin has height to it whereas the Zebra shark's remains essentially the same height as the rest of its body.

Anyway!

Another neat thing about Zebra sharks is that they're nocturnal. They also are one of several shark species that can remain motionless without drowning which is cool (Great White could never lol). They don't really eat anything that big so they're not a danger to humans either; mainly molluscs, small bony fish, and crustaceans.

Unfortunately, the World Conservation Union has rated Zebra sharks as ENDANGERED because Zebra sharks are used for their meat, fins, and liver oil by fisheries across most of their geographic range. Except Australia actually because of their Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act of 1999. The EPBC protects several species of shark including the; Shortfin Mako; the Porbeagle; the Great White as well as many others.

What is kind of good at least is that, even though Zebra sharks are listed as Endangered currently, there's been some conservation work to try and increase their numbers in areas where they have declined due to over-fishing. One example is the StAR Project. The StAR project essentially is about trying to 'rewild' sharks into regions where their numbers have declined. With the Zebra shark, this is being done in the waters of the Indonesian Raja Ampat islands. With 19 countries working together on this project, it's kind of amazing.

The Sydney Sea Life Aquarium is part of a breeding project where, once the eggs are confirmed to have live embryos in them, are flown to Raja Ampat and placed into hatcheries so they can acclimatise to where they will (hopefully) hatch and become part of the biome. It's honestly amazing and I really recommend reading the news article about it here.

And speaking of young Zebra sharks, did you know that Zebra sharks typically grow to about 8 feet in length (8.2ft actually which is about 2.5m)?

Adult Zebra sharks have quite a distinctive coat pattern as well. In Australia they're also called Leopard sharks because of their light colouring with black spots.

Baby Zebra sharks however look completely different!

Up until they're about a metre in length (approx 3ft), Zebra sharks are brown with light vertical stripes and also lack the distinctive five length-wise ridges that adult Zebra sharks have down the length of their bodies.

See!

Oh this snippet is gonna be fun! It's from a part I think I've posted before but it's been re-worked and edited so it's not the same. Enjoy :D

Snippet:

Actually... punching the Metatron in the face isn’t good enough. Introducing the Metatron to a crowbar to the face would be better. Now, that’d be nice. The problem with all of that, however — beyond the obvious clearance issue — is that plan would be, ultimately, nice and Crowley is a Demon now. He can choose to be nice but he was an Angel before he became a Demon and there’s no part of Crowley — before or now — that can really be described as ‘nice’ when he’s been crossed.

Gotta have some angst for this snippet lol

Snippet:

What the fuck is Crowley meant to do with that? He’s alone now. How can one Demon do what took the Antichrist deciding to be a better person than every Angel and Demon put together? What the fuck is he going to do?

It's not been three entire years since you asked this so it's fiiiiinnnnne *handwaves* not a problem! Honest!

Since I'm editing this fic as I'm working to finish it tho, bits of the snippets I post for the WIP Wednesday asks may partially repeat.

.

God… when She made Angels She didn’t make them in Her Image. No. Angels were more… more like a test run for Her. A draft attempt that She decided to keep around because oh, these have turned out pretty good actually, it’d be a shame to throw them in the bin. Crowley sometimes wishes She had up and thrown Angels in the bin, just tossed them right out and wiped the slate clean before going on to make humans. Maybe all that happened after wouldn’t have happened then?

So I think this is the oldest ask in my inbox for Crowley is [CENSORED] and it totally hasn't been *checks date* almost three years, nope!

Anyway. Here ya go! (I've been editing as I go so some of the snippets may be partial repeats)

.

It shouldn’t surprise him as much as it does to stand there and watch his Angel leave him behind to go and do exactly what they’d both promised they wouldn’t. Aziraphale is enough for Crowley to turn his nose up to every offer, every threat, every poison-laden promise and say no thanks, I’m quite happy with what I’ve got right here actually. Is it really so inconceivable for Crowley to have — mistakenly, it turns out — thought Aziraphale would make the same choice as he did? That they were enough for each other to endure?