Almost three feet of thick skinned stomach connected to five feet of esophagus within a broad and heavily built throat leading up to a large jaw hidden behind two rows of sharp teeth, up to eighty of them, capable to produce up to almost four thousand pounds by square inch pressure power. If that description is not intimidating enough, let’s add a frame of fat and muscles totalling a weight averaging two thousand pounds and a length of fifteen feet from snout to tip of tail. Still not convinced? How about adding a skin made out of rough scale, tough ridges along the spine, sharp claws at the tip of each digit and a prehensile enough tail to stun any large creature dumb enough to be slapped by it? That is how someone should view and think of SnapJaw, the crocodile, in a pure, natural sense.
Not devoid of intelligence
Now, this hulking beast isn’t just pure wild muscle and fat. Under the aqua and tan skin, the forest green ridges along the back and the navy blue spotty markings, behind the soft deep blue of his eyes, same coloration as his palms and feet sole, is hidden quite the intelligent critter. Known under many names, such as SnapJaw, Snap, Snappy and Oh-God-He’s-Eating-me, the big crocodile is a smart and devious creature. Whether he walks on all four, like his feral counterpart or on two legs, like the anthro he was born as, the croc will appear quite friendly, warm and outgoing. And he truly is even when his plan is to eat whoever he is talking to. The big fellow tends to let his hunger get the better of him and the issue comes from the fact that he is only not hungry when his stomach is full already and even then... When it comes to food, everything edible is good to go for him. Primarily a meat eater, he will not mind to stuff his mouth with vegetables, a steak, the plate they came on, the table, the waiter and the friend that came along.
Do not feed the animals
Able to appear just as feral as any crocodile to those who do not notice the glimpse of intelligence in his eyes or the opposable thumbs on his hands, SnapJaw started his life in a zoo where he happily led a life composed of feeding and sleeping. It was a wonderful time for him because his only duty was to lay there and look pretty while he was being fed as much as he wanted. Problems arose when he grew bigger and so did his needs. He started requesting a bed rather than rocks to sleep on. He started requesting proper meals instead of raw meat for breakfast and then there was the issue of caretakers disappearing while he got suspiciously fatter. It wouldn’t take very long before he was kicked out of the zoo under the fact that his maintenance cost was now higher than his revenue, but he knew the staff had grown afraid of him and wanted him out and knowing he was sentient, they simply sent him on his way, far away.
Looking pretty
Living in the wild was not his thing at all. He was a lousy hunter and he hated to sleep in the cold, in the heat, in the rain or in the suffocating humidity. He didn’t care for the fights when he tried to eat something bigger than a fish either. On his quest to return to civilization, he came across a travelling circus. Realizing it was exactly like a zoo, but with more music and action, he soon begged the owner to let him on the show either as a staff or as an attraction. He could forget the salary as long as he fed the croc and gave him a roof. Showing his skills, the reptile became both a heavy lifter and an attraction where he earned his name, SnapJaw. His show consisted in faking to be a feral crocodile, something he was really good at, and closing his maw at the last second as a “trainer” moved his head away. The crowd loved that. He’d spend the rest of his time packing and unpacking the tents, moving boxes around for the staff. He lived a slightly harder life than the zoo, but way cozier than the wilderness. On the plus side, there was also always a high turnaround rate in the staff in the circus and many simply up and left during the night. Since nobody ever asked any questions on where someone had gone, he became very well fed. The dream ended the day his jaw closed on his partner’s head one time and the crocodile being what he was, he couldn’t resist to swallow anything that ended up in his maw so the circus soon was down one staff, live on a show that surely traumatized many customers... Behind the curtains, Snap really put on a good show on how he was trying his best to... Expel his poor belly occupant, but he sadly couldn’t get him out in time for the squirming to stop and the guts to round out... And so ended his circus career!
A whole new adventure
Snappy, now left to his own devices again, soon found his way toward civilization again, gravitating from city to city, doing odd jobs to survive and staying just long enough so that the missing person count of a city didn’t become linked with his presence. He’d hike a ride on trucks in exchange of some handy work or the few dollars he had until his trip ended abruptly when he and his current voyage companion stopped for the night in the middle of nowhere. One bored crocodile and one sleeping truck driver later, the big beast ended up with no way to continue onward and nowhere to stay under a nice roof... That is, until he saw the lights far away in the forest, a lounge or a cabin of some sort. There was lots of noise coming from it... He would find his way there, filled with the strange feeling he had found his perfect home.
Played under A_Thousand_Alts