I am the Six

- Neck of a snake

- body of a leopard

- haunches of a lion

- feet off a hart (deer)

So is it

Or….

these beasties. For a long time, science had them down as going extinct 200 thousand years ago, but then we found some bones from 36 thousand years ago. Which, y’know, is quite a difference. Since you can bet that any skeleton we find is not literally the last one of its kind to live, many creatures have date ranges unknowably far outside the evidence.

In South Asia there were cultures that described a man-beast/troll forrest giant  who’s knuckles dragged the ground, and everybody from the west was sure it was superstitious mumbo jumbo, but you know what used to live there?

And did you know that some of the earliest white colonizers of the Americas heard accounts that there were natives still alive who had seen and hunted and eaten a great hairy beast, shaggy like the buffalo but much bigger, with a long thin nose like a snake and two giant fangs… so, like, mammoths, you know? but they were totally discounted because europeans of the time were like, elephants live in Africa and aren’t hairy, you can’t fool us, pranksters!

And it’s not just living animals that were badly described, or which descriptions got exaggerated over the course of centuries or through translation errors. Sometimes, people finding fossil bones of extinct animals might have also influenced some myths!

By now this is pretty well-known but it has been theorised that the Greek myth of the cyclops was started when people found Deinotherium skulls. Now you might say, uh, how is it possible to think a cousin of the elephant is a huge human dude with one eye?

Well-

- the big nasal opening kinda looks like an eye if you have no idea what kind of animal had this kind of skull (you can read more about this theory in this old National Geographic article if you like).

Here’s a less well-known one; the griffin is a mythological hybrid with the body of a lion and the head and wings of an eagle. The earliest traces of this myth come from ancient Iranian and ancient Egyptian art, from more than 3000 BC. In Iranian mythology, it’s called شیردال‌ (shirdal, “lion eagle”). Now, it’s been the subject of some debate and it’s not confirmed, but there’s a theory that people might have seen some Protoceratops and Psittacosaurus fossils in Asia and might have interpreted it as “a lion with an eagle’s head”:

In asia, Dragons tend to look very long and snake like:

One of the most common dinosaurs that used to like in the asia region, so would have been the most common fossils found by people:

The Mamenchisaurus, this thing is just all neck and tail! You find just half a fossilised skeleton of this monster, you can easily end up thinking of a long snake-like beast.

South America also has legends snake-like dragons among some of its peoples:

What fossils from pre-historic south America could be found?

The Titanoboa, which can easily grow to be 40 feet long.

In North America there is the Piasa Bird

Which wikipedia tells me comes from “ the large Mississippian culture city of Cahokia,” it’s describes as

What fossils could have been found in that region:

Pterosaur, and Triceratops. Features of both sets of skeletons could have been merged into one legendary creature.

Then we get our European style dragon:

One of the most common fossils that could have been found was a Cetiosaurus 

which, despite being a herbivore, looked to have a mouth of sharp looking teeth, consistant with a dragons.

Dragons amongst the peoples of Africa are even more varied, but most revolve around some kind of giant snake-like creature. As a quick example, we’ll take Dan Ayido Hwedo commonly found in West African mythology.

Fossils in that area could have been included the Aegyptosaurus:

A quick google search tells me that most Sauropods: well known for being long necked and long tailed, are found in Africa.

If you found only a half complete skeleton of this thing; which is likely, because it’s rare to find a complete dinosaur skeleton, you could easily think of a giant snake monster.

Bard: can someone die of a weed overdose?

Dm, an EMT: no.

Me: you’re telling me that no one has ever died of a weed overdose?

Dm: nope

(Another session)

Me: do geese have a good sense of smell?

Dm: why the fork would I know?

Fighter: I’d assume not, birds typically don’t.

Me: so I looked it up, and they actually do. Comparable to humans actually.

Dm: *sighs* okay fine, the goose sniffs out the dude like a bloodhound.

(Yet another session)

Me: can sharks eat bread?

Ranger: considering they eat license plates and turn out fine, I’d say so.

(Different session, same chaos)

Me: IM SAYING, IS THE OCEAN A SOUP?

Druid: WHY THE FORK WOULD YOU NEED TO KNOW

Me: BECAUSE I NEED TO OUTSMART A WIZARD TO GET MY KNIFE BACK.

Men are more likely to be put off and thus, leave you alone.

Women who are also weird may be inclined to start up conversations with you and befriend you.

Little girls will feel safer around you because they are also weird.

Small children may ask you if you are a fairy/princess/mermaid, and that's just a really good feeling.

I gotchu, bro:

KATRINA’S REWATCH OF TOS IN THE YEAR 2021

Apparently this was a rehearsal for the scene, so the extinguisher was a prop one (hence the moment Miranda sassy looks at the camera/crew for how he was acting her in panic), so they went on to it.

But someone had switched the extinguisher to the actual fire thrower that would be used on the scene (I dont remember if was proposital or not or simply a mistake because they were meant to be identical).

So this is their actual reaction, cause when he pressed the valve, he really wasnt expecting to fire come out, neither was Miranda, so their reaction is 100% genuine and they did freak out as on tape.

This comic was inspired by @gyolove‘s post about Kurt observing Lent and what he might give up.  Huge thanks to @evilsnowswan for the German translations!