#or possibly space magpies

[marlynnofmany]

Just a Rock

For all the time I’ve spent traveling through space, I haven’t spend much of it actually out in space. It’s unsettling. Inside the ship, I can forget how close the airless void is, how small our precious bubble of air. But outside, everything is black like some vast creature ate all the color in the universe first, then the air, and is now hungering for life forms too.

Sometimes those distant stars look like teeth.

These are the thoughts that tend to pop up when I’m in my exo suit, hoping that my thruster pack doesn’t run out of fuel before I make it back to the ship. But then an empty pack of chips will float by my visor, and I can refocus on business.

That’s how it happened today, at any rate. (And yes, “day” is a silly concept in the blackness of space.) We’d made a detour to see if we could pick up some extra funds by gathering salvage from a museum ship that had gone kablooey, but so far all we were finding was trash.

Paint jetted past in her own exo suit, upside-down to my frame of reference, then stopped to pull apart a jumble of carpet fragments. “They really did clear out the good stuff already,” she said over the radio. She swatted aside a drink cup with her tail, looking like a little space-suited dinosaur, a thought that kept me entertained for a good few seconds.

Captain Sunlight’s voice said, “Keep an eye out for scrap metal. That may already be gone too, but it’s worth a shot.” She was somewhere else in the drifting junk pile, or maybe back near the ship; I couldn’t tell. There was too much stuff in the way. This was a mildly alarming thought — out of sight meant out of safety — but I caught a glimpse of the Frillian twins posted as safety guards at the edge of the cloud, and my heartbeat settled a bit.

“Do you think anyone will buy some mildly used carpet?” Paint asked the captain. “It’s only in several pieces.”

“Let’s go with ‘no.’”

“What about some very exotic — what is this — napkins? Made with authentic Earth wood fibers!”

I looked over at that. “How can you tell?”

“Oh, I have no idea,” Paint said. She held up half of a wall placard. “But this is from the Earth exhibit, so maybe the napkins are too.”

I looked around at the trash in a new light. “Man, it’s a pity we weren’t here for any of the good stuff.”

“Yeah, and all these food packages are empty! We can’t even get you a slightly exploded taste of home!”

I waved my hand through a cluster of soda bottles. “I appreciate the thought.”

Paint jetted over to a different pile of whatever. “Hey, do you think any of this food trash was actually an exhibit? Packaging from olden days?”

“Uh, maybe,” I said. “Probably not. That’s not the sort of thing I’d expect on a multi-species museum ship. A janky little humans-only one, maybe. But even then, most people aren’t going to care.”

Something clunked against the back of my helmet. I hate that. Nothing like a reminder that I can’t see behind me like some species can. I toggled the jets to rotate in place, so I could find the offending object.

It was a rock.

“What’s this doing here?” I asked, closing a gloved hand around it and bringing it in for a closer look.

“What’d you find?” Paint asked, sticking out sideways from behind a twisted bench.

“A rock.”

“A meteorite rock?” she asked. “Oh hey, do you think it pierced the hull?”

“No, it doesn’t look like a space rock,” I said, turning the small gray-and-white lump over. It was mostly smooth, with a divot that would have fit a fingertip if I hadn’t been wearing the gloves. “Weird. I wonder if it was part of some Neolithic exhibit or something.”

“Can I see?” Paint jetted over to park herself in roughly the same orientation as me. She was very good with that jetpack.

I showed her the rock. “It doesn’t look like any gemstone I know. Maybe some kid had it in their pocket, then threw it away.”

Paint cocked her head. “Is that normal, for your young to carry rocks around?”

“Sure. You never picked up something you thought was neat as a kid?”

“Not a rock,” Paint said with exaggerated disdain. “A sweet-smelling seednut or herb, absolutely.”

“But look: it’s even got a little finger groove,” I pointed out. “You could stick it in a pocket and rub it for luck.”

“Could you?”

I smiled. “You could. You probably wouldn’t, but…”

“Why?”

I looked at the rock again, already fond of it. “I get the feeling that I couldn’t explain this to a point where you’d agree.”

Paint shrugged. “Probably not. But hey, we found you a souvenir after all. From probably the Earth section of whatever museum this is.” She grabbed a handful of colorful pamphlets drifting by. “The ‘Galaxy in a Bottle Museum Tour Ship.’ Who named that?”

My smile turned into a wide grin. “Humans.”

Paint grumbled about the unflattering comparison of an elite starship to a simple bottle. When she moved to toss the pamphlets away, I held out a hand.

“What’s that white one?” I asked. “It looks like a display sign.”

Paint flipped over the stack and separated the one I meant. “You’re right. Hey, it’s about a rock!”

I reached out a grabby hand. “Gimme.”

She passed it over. “Is it that rock?”

I read the title, then was gut-punched by familiarity. I’d heard about this. “Yes,” I managed, skimming the rest of the sign and holding the rock close. “This is Bethan’s Rock.”

“What?”

I fumbled to explain. “Ages ago, a kid visited a museum — a human kid — and learned what museums were for, then offered her favorite rock as a donation, so other people could appreciate it too.”

Paint cocked her head in the other direction. “And they took it?”

“Yes!” I must have looked a little wild at this point, but I didn’t care. “The adults agreed that it was a fine thing to donate, not to mention adorable, and the only one of its kind that I’ve ever heard of. More museums should house the occasional favorite rock, though I suppose they wouldn’t be as special if they did.”

“So just to clarify,” Paint said. “There isn’t anything valuable about this rock, except that one of your youths decided there was. And all the adults played along.”

I smiled down at it, careful not to let it drift away. “It’s the most precious non-precious stone I’ve ever seen.”

Paint stared for a moment. “It’s not even one of those shiny ones you like.”

I laughed. “I know!”

The captain called us back in at that point, having found one decent chunk of metal among the mountains of trash. We had a schedule to keep.

I folded the sign and tucked it into my suit pocket, but held the rock tight in my fist as I jetted toward the ship, working the controls with one hand. I was already thinking of the safest place in my quarters to keep it until we got ahold of the proper Earth museum authorities. Other humans would want to see Bethan’s Rock, after all, but it would be my honor to watch over it until they could.

~~~

(Inspired by this post. Long live Bethan’s Rock.)

These are the ongoing backstory adventures of the main character of this book. More to come!

#my writing #the Token Human #humans are weird #science fiction #haso #hfy #eiad #humans are space orcs #or possibly space magpies #pack bonding #you'd think I'd run out of ideas for this series of short stories #but nope! #not even close #it's fun #and while it was definitely not the original plan #now I may just end up writing a sequel novel that features The Old Crew #these were meant to be little throwaway moments #but THAT didn't last more than a single story #love these guys #anyway now should be safe to tag without spoilers: #Bethan's Rock

[mstormcloud]

More fankids!! Both because they are genuinely fun to make and give lore to but also because I made Mirai and then wanted to make sure she had friends!

Aster is designed by my friend Duetland!! (The last art is by them!!) They aren’t on tumblr but you can find him on Instagram @duetland :)

Lore for each of them under the cut! (LONG POST WARNING!!!!)

Gold and Aster:

Shadow and Sonics kids. They’re twins (with Aster being older). Both were babysat by Tails a lot and ended up picking up a lot of stuff from him as well as their parents. Gold became more responsible and significantly more polite (far more than either of his parents lmao) meanwhile Aster became interested in robotics. Specifically those related to space like rockets or planet rovers.

When the two were born there was immediate concern about their power imbalance. Aster was born with no powers at all, meanwhile Gold’s chaos energy was so high Shadow feared he would burn himself up unless something was done. Due to them being twins, it essentially ended up where instead of two moderately powerful hedgehogs - Gold got enough power for two while Aster has none. This leads Aster to resent Gold, less because she actually wants superpowers but more because Sonic and Shadow are always fussing over Gold (to make sure his powers aren’t harming him) and she feels like her parents don’t care for her. Causing her to push them out even more. She listens to Shadow more than Sonic, but they don’t end up talking through all this properly until Espio gets involved since unlike Sonic and Shadow who had powers all their lives - Espio had to teach himself his abilities and is able to empathize with Aster more.

3. Rhine

Rouge and Knuckles’ child. I’ve thought about her way less WHOOPS but!! Despite not being an echidna he looks up to his father a lot and promises to be the best guardian of the master emerald he can possibly be. Has a habit of just picking up shiny things like a magpie and will turn them into jewelry. Is blunt and gullible like her father but likes thinking things through before she moves. Uses the shovel claws more as weapons than actual shovels - he’s a bit of a neat freak.

Mirai and Gummy:

Mirais story is on my previous post! Not much has been added since then other than that I’ve decided she’s a bit of a troublemaker and very energetic, sarcastic, silly and kinda stupid. As for Gummy he’s about 7 years younger than Mirai, and I haven’t quite figured out what he’d be interested in yet haha

Eli and Anchor:

These two are half siblings! Eli’s parents are Amy and Metal. While investigating the ruins of a disaster, Amy and Metal find a child who who had been incredibly injured. They happen to be closer to Eggmans new hideout (where he has retired and is just kinda pouting by himself forever) than anywhere else - the two break in and force Eggman to help them save the child. Since the current Metal is Amy’s size, there were several smaller models for when he was “younger” - Eggman uses one of these scrapped smaller Metals to give the child cybernetic parts and saves their life. Amy and Metal then take the child back to their house and raise it as their own, with Eggman forcing them to bring Eli over frequently so he can see his grandchild.

Anchor is the child of Blaze and Amy! I’m just letting Amy be poly I think she has a lot of love in her heart and now she has two wifes. Anchor lives the Sol kingdom, and takes after her aunt Marine quite a bit with her love for adventure and especially sailing! When she was young, much like Blaze, she was brought before the Sol emeralds and blessed with a power. I feel like she’d be able to control / harness winds rather than fire though - to help with her sailing.

If you read all of this - thanks!! You didn’t have to but it was very nice of you!

#sth #sonic the hedgehog #shadow the hedgehog #sonadow #sonadow fankid #gold the hedgehog #aster the hedgehog #silver the hedgehog #espio the chameleon #espilver #espilver fankid #sonic fankid #Mirai the marten #gummy the chameleon #rouge the bat #knuckles the echidna #knuxouge #knuxouge fankid #rhine the bat #metal sonic #amy rose #metamy #Metamy fankid #Eli the hedgehog #blaze the cat #blazamy #Blazamy fankid #Anchor the cat #sonic fanart #long post

[marisiss]

Well, the hour has come when I will finally post my ahit AU (which a bunch of other artists have already done, and in short it's no longer original). But, still, my AU differs from the rest in the concept of characters (half different. The main characters could have been more original)

Okay, I won't waste time, here's my reference of hat kid!

I tried as much as possible, roughly speaking, to copy the official style of ahit. I think I quite managed to do it. Her pseudonym is Hat Pirate, Pirate hat or longer "Pirate hat kid".

As you can already guess, this is a swap AU. Where Hat Kid becomes the antagonist of the game, and the antagonist becomes the protagonist. Yes, she doesn't look like a pirate with her appearance, and even more so I was inspired by another universe where Hat Kid looked the same (I hope I'm not violating the rights of that person, the original design). In general, as I said, she does not look like a pirate, but with a soul, a mind that is traumatized and spoiled, for sure.

To put it simply, she is a space pirate and her mania is like a magpie, stealing all sorts of shiny trinkets, jewelry, gold. But she didn't become a pirate right away. But, the post has already come out so long, so I will tell her backstory in the next post:)

(Who's going to read this at all, lol)

#a hat in time #ahit #art #drawing #hat kid #ahit au #ahit art #ahit hat kid #swap au #artists on tumblr

[ant1quarian]

Different kind of Avians, and lore

Simplified :]

(Avians = Violence Mentioned)

Lore

Humans are dumbasses who wanted to kill all of the Avians

Thing called "The Unsettling" forced the Original Avians (Ancestors?) to flee.

Different Avians went to different places, since they're a highly adaptable species.

Humans burned Avians with fire.

Original Avians - Also known as "Ancestors"

Rumoured to have been completely massacred and/or fled and changed to become a different subspecies

Is actually still a genuine species- they're just far more stealthy, and far stronger.

Wings and tail and resemble different birds.

Live in flocks, with a Pastor as their leader.

Ignis - Fire Avians

After The Unsettling they left to an island that humanity has not touched

Can control fire to a degree

Are practically made of fire- their SOULs let off flames

Higher-than-normal body temperature

Extremely territorial

Live alone, but are stronger than Ancestors.

Cosmos - Space Avians

After The Unsettling they broke all possibilities and left to the stars

Mainly solitary creatures

Made up of literal stardust

Very pretty

Wings and tail covered in stars and nebulae

Have their own magnetic fields, gravity, and atmosphere.

Their SOUL is their CORE- and is referred to as their "CORE"

Different Cosmos have different kinds of atmosphere- not all are human-inhabitable, so don't get too close until they've told you you'd be fine

Break through other planet's atmosphere when they enter it, often letting a small amount of solar radiation peek through.

Can fly faster than the speed of light on the "Stellar Currents" of space

Tend to live around the edge of black holes

Also uh. Are technically immortal. Murder-able, but won't die until something takes them out.

.... at least 13ft tall

Aquavian - Sea Avians

After The Unsettling they went into the sea

Seawing (WoF) kind of wings and tail

Webbed hands

Territorial, live in schools

Can still fly

Has some degree of water manipulation

You don't see them until too late

"Ancestor" Sanses:

Classic - Carrion Crow

Red - Golden Eagle

Axe - Harpy Eagle

Killer - Australian Magpie

Dust - Peregrine Falcon

Blue - Blue Jay

Milord - Black Swan

#avians #undertale fandom #space avians #sea avians #fire avians #Aquavian #Ignis #Cosmos #Ancestors #Sans x reader #classic sans #Undertale Sans #Aviantale #Avianverse #Underfell Sans #Horrortale Sans #Killer Sans #Dust Sans #Underswap Sans #Swapfell Sans

[irondiotallica]

Magpie

Man, I forgot how much I actually like to write. Here's a little blurb because I am on a roll. I might write more later, who knows? I'm feeling a bit creative today. I hope you enjoy this little blurb. -Silas

[Steddie]

Steve looked at the eclectic, overflowing arrangements of knickknacks and collections. It was overwhelming in one of the best ways possible. For as long as he could remember he was surrounded by blank, beige, boring interiors and horrific floral wallpaper. Yet, here he stood surrounded by loud, lived-in, and utterly comforting chaos. 

Brick walls were mixed with pops of burgundy and black. The sofa was loved and worn; already having been used before it made its home here. The hand-crafted coffee table was lovingly covered with metal magazines, ashtrays, lighters, and law cases that served as precedent. A pair of reading glasses lay next to a copy of The Hobbit. VHS tapes lined the walls with Top Gun front and center. 

Swimming medals were lovingly hung on the wall and Steve grinned. He hadn’t hung them up and was still struck with love at the precision it took to make the frames as ornate as they were. Metal posters signed by different bands hung on the wall as well, framed with less precision and finesse, but solid enough. Steve wasn’t the best at using power tools for more than surprisingly effective improvised weapons. Besides, he had waited the hours it took to get the signatures.

Steve felt his eyes water a little at the space before he shook his head a little and wiped the tears before they could fall. He was happy. He sat back down at the thrifted table and mismatched chairs that accompanied it continuing the work he had started. His hands remained steady as he used the small, thin brush to paint the features on the little figures. They were figures of monsters that he didn’t know the name of, but he could follow the way they looked in the books surrounding him. He took a break from the monsters to work on another little figure. He grinned as he painted the little fangs white before adding the appropriate shading. He heard the front door open and a voice call out in a joking tone.

“Oh honey, I’m home.”

Steve turned to the voice, making sure to hide the vampire figure before trodding to the kitchen to plant a kiss on the curly-haired man. He kissed Eddie with fervor before reluctantly pulling away. He couldn’t get too carried away, they were having dinner with the group later today. Eddie pouted at the loss of plush lips against his own, but he grinned as Steve’s chuckle filled his ears. Steve planted a kiss on the tip of Eddie’s nose before dragging him to the couch.

“How was your day, Eds?”

Eddie fidgeted with Steve’s hands and grinned. 

“It was good,” he answered, smirking as he continued,” even better now that I'm here with you.”

Steve flushed and knocked Eddie slightly with his shoulder.

“Oh hush you.” 

Steve gave Eddie one more kiss. He grabbed his waist as Eddie’s fingers tangled in his hair and around his neck. 

Steve was more than glad to be living with Eddie in this Chicago apartment than in that big house back in Hawkins, alone, with sterile loneliness polluting the air.

#steddie #eddie x steve #steve x eddie #steve harrington #eddie munson #stranger things #blurb #fluff #im bored

[wlw-webcomic-bracket]

Trans Webcomic Character Tournament: Group Stage

It's taken... uh... we won't talk about how long it's taken, but the Trans Webcomic Character Tournament is ready to begin!

This tournament will be broken into two stages: a round-robin group stage followed by a sixteen-character single-elimination bracket.

For the group stage, characters are divided into ten groups of four* and members of each group will face each other in a round-robin format. The group winner will be the character who wins the most matches in the group (an exact tie counts as a win for both characters). If two or more characters win the same number of matches, then the total number of votes each character received will be used as a tiebreaker.

That gets us to ten characters advancing to the elimination stage, but we still have six more slots in the bracket. Those slots will be filled by the six characters who received the most total votes* without winning their group. Seeding for the elimination bracket will also be done by total number of votes received in the group stage.

This means that (for example) being in the same group as an extremely popular character won't automatically doom your favorite. It also means that collecting as many votes as possible matters, even if a character gets a bunch of those votes while losing.

Polls will last one week and will happen when they happen; I can't promise any particular schedule but I'll try not to post an overwhelming number at once or go too long without posting any. Groups are listed under the cut.

*Since 41 characters qualified for the tournament, Group A has five characters instead of four, and each character will be in four head-to-head matches instead of three. When comparing the total number of votes received, I'll adjust the Group A totals to take that into account. (Functionally, I'll be comparing the average number of votes per match, but total votes sounds more impressive.)

GROUP A: Rain Flaherty (Rain) Kylie Coven (Rain) Elle Argent (Heartstopper) Lucas (High Class Homos) Luck (Tiger, Tiger)

GROUP B: Eddie Kaspbrak (Out of the Blue) Lucy Marlowe (Never Satisfied) Fenic (Goodbye to Halos) Johnny Summer (Lavender Jack)

GROUP C: Space Dread (Val and Isaac) Max Owen (Magical Boy) Knife (Feast for a King) Claire Augustus (Questionable Content)

GROUP D: Zoe Blecher (Sleepless Domain) Rosemaster (Cucumber Quest) Bacon (Cucumber Quest) Julie (Charity Case)

GROUP E: Cheryl (I Want to Be a Cute Anime Girl) Maggie (Clover & Cutlass) Eliza Swift (Widdershins) Sulla Pinsky (O Human Star)

GROUP F: Penny Spender (Paranatural) Vermillion Gacutan (Earth 2068) Gaueko (Nasty Red Dogs) Xada (LoveBot)

GROUP G: Tedd Verres (El Goonish Shive) Ellen Dunkel (El Goonish Shive) Merlow the Rose (Court of Roses) Chau Le (Shootaround)

GROUP H: Dainix (Aurora) Zhusen (Experience Boost) White Chain (Kill Six Billion Demons) Lupe Jara (Four Leaf)

GROUP I: Teige Carroll (White Noise) Yoshi (White Noise) Vaarsuvius (The Order of the Stick) Eri McCure (Friends With Benefits)

GROUP J: Carla Rutten (Dumbing of Age) Davepeta (Homestuck) Fleet (Rectify) Magpie (Sister Claire)

[scifimagpie]

Writeblr intro

Last Updated: Mar 2024 So, I realised I hadn't actually written one of these, and I had to fix it!

Name: Magpie, or Shelle, or Michelle.

Pronouns: she/her or xe/xer/xis.

Who: both a writer and an editor!

The Writing: I’ve been publishing since 2011, and I have a bunch of free and paid anthologies I’ve organized, but these are my most important/favourite works.

Except for The Meaning Wars series, all of my books are set in Canada!  

The Meaning Wars (complete; And The Stars Will Sing, The Stolen: Two Short Stories, The Meaning Wars, Poe’s Outlaws, A Jade’s Trick, The Meaning Wars Complete Omnibus)

Similar to: Becky Chambers’ A Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet and Ruthanna Emrys’ A Half-Built Garden

Vibes: Space opera! Found family! Mature (30s) protagonists! Best friends! Sapphic and queer m/f romance elements! Friendly space raptors! Space pirates! A beach episode! Antifascism! Colonization (and inequality issues)! Fighting stuff with democracy and direct action!  

The Underlighters (Book 1 of The Nightmare Cycle; Book 2, Monsters and Fools, is complete and in edits. Book 3, The Foundling City, is a current WIP!)

Similar to: Jean DuPrau’s The City of Ember, Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere, the Fallout series

Vibes: Coming of age/new adult themes. Spooky monsters. Post-apocalyptic. The importance and warmth of community. Friendship. Struggling with teen problems. Polyamory. Nightmares. Mental health issues. Trauma. Hope. Recycling.

After The Garden (Book 1 of the Memory Bearers Saga; Book 2, Within the Tempest, is also one of my WIPs)

Similar to: Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake, The Wachowski sisters’ Sense-8, the Fallout series

Vibes: Found family. Gentle romance. Polyamory (m/f/m). Superpowers without superheroes. Sinister cults and religious extremism. Reincarnation. An alternate future. Adorable giant spiders. Silk-weaving and fiber arts. Post-collapse societal reorganization and politics.

The Loved, The Lost, The Dreaming: A Horror Anthology includes an alternate-ending version of The Underlighters, the novella A Shot of Vodka, and a dozen or so genre-crossing short stories. All of them have spooky elements.

Similar to: Neil Gaiman’s Smoke and Mirrors, Roald Dahl’s Skin and Other Stories (this is not an endorsement of antisemite Roald Dahl; I am antifascist)

Vibes: Underground living. Spooky dolls. Abandoned houses. Queerness. Sinister fey. Nightmares. Lovecraftian eeriness. Here be monsters.

Bad Things That Happen To Girls (Book 1 of the Memory Bearers Saga; Book 2, Within the Tempest, is also one of my WIPs) Possibly my most underrated work, this New Adultish story is a standalone novella about trauma and what happens when life breaks down.

Similar to: Emily Danforth’sThe Miseducation of Cameron Post and Miriam Toews’ A Complicated Kindness

Vibes: Broken family. Abusive mother. Being queer in a small city. Religious trauma. Forbidden cross-cultural love. Teen heartbreak. Coming-of-age. Sisters.

The Hell series (Unpublished WIPs; Dark as Hell, Uncharted Hell, Hope in Hell)

Similar to: Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag, Andrej Sapkowski’s The Witcher series

Vibes: Grumpy/sunshine romance! Mature protagonists! Queer f/m romance! Thriller elements! Immortal pirate! Marxist/anti-billionaire politics—with a billionaire protag! Lovecraftian ocean horror! Historical fantasy elements! Lots and lots of boat stuff!

Prairie Weather Trilogy (Unpublished but complete, in submission; Chinook Phase, Tornado Warning, Brushfire)

Similar to: Douglas Couplands’ Jpod,Nick Sagan’s Idlewild trilogy (without the sci fi stuff), Love Actually, Heartstoppers

Vibes: Aggressively Canadian! Found family! Cozy academia! University! Set in the early 2010s! Queer romance! Ensemble cast! Aggressively queer, diverse, and inclusive! Coming-of-Age/New Adult issues! Friendship! Drama! Sex work-positivity!             

The Editing: I've been a professional freelance editor since 2013, with Top-Rated status on Upwork (a freelancing website) and several hundred books under my belt. (I don't know how many things I've worked on at this point. I've lost count!) Primarily into sci fi, fantasy, horror, and literature (and associated subgenres); enthusiastic about #ownvoices and all kinds of diversity/marginalised representation in fiction.

You don’t have to go through Upwork unless you want to; DM me if you’re looking for an editor who’s knowledgeable, enthusiastic, and gentle. I’m also budget-friendly!

Age: in my 30s.

Queer?: yes. Also poly! Happily married to two people; also have a girlfriend. Not looking for more partners.

Disabled?: yes.

Languages: English mostly, but some conversational Spanish (rusty), scraps of French, tiny bits of German and Irish. All my writing is in English, though.

Location: Southern Alberta, Canada. (Texas + Kansas + Colorado = Alberta, more or less.)

Other hobbies: Knitting, making jewelry, playing Dungeons and Dragons (and other tabletop games), singing, reading (obviously), learning stuff; playing cello, clarinet, and violin

Interests: Jewelry, gems, metalworking, fiber arts, queer issues and social justice, environmentalism, drinking quite a lot of tea (usually black; I like an assam, Ceylon, or breakfast blends, though Golden Snail absolutely slaps when I’m in the mood for it, and I love Earl Grey Cream as well)

Other internet profiles: *Website * Mailing list * Magpie Editing * Amazon * Tumblr * Mastodon *Facebook * Medium * Twitter  * OG Blog* Instagram * Paypal.me * Ko-fi

#writeblr #writers of tumblr #published #indie author #self published #science fiction #sf #sci fi #horror #anthology #queer #lgbtq #bi #sapphic #indie #editor #scifimagpie #about me #intro #intro post #who is this person #writer #writing #author #authors #publishing

[duckprintspress]

Meet Aether Beyond the Binary Contributor ilgaksu

Wondering what Aether Beyond the Binary is and why you should care? It’s Duck Prints Press’s latest anthology, currently crowdfunding: 17 stories, modern aetherpunk settings, outside-the-binary main characters! Help us reach our funding goals by checking out the campaign now!

About ilgaksu: Full-time fandom cryptid, Furby enthusiast, and the human embodiment of that one gif of Elmo on fire, ilgaksu was born and raised in an  undisclosed location, living in several others, and now currently residing in [REDACTED]. Their interests include collecting haunted toys, using their artistic practice as an excuse to forget to do their laundry, and playing with fictional men like Bratz dolls. They have not unclenched their jaw yet today, but they do remember to drink lots of water. 

Link: personal webpage

This is ilgaksu’s first publication with Duck Prints Press.

An Interview with ilgaksu

What is your “dream project” – the thing you’d see as the culmination of your work as a creator?

I have a list of dream projects – a big queer space opera trilogy, a series of detective serials, I want to pastiche all of the genres I adored growing up – but I think I’m never going to find the culmination of my work. I’m going to have to make do with whatever I do while I’m alive, and other people can argue about that for me or something. The work is the work. It has to speak for itself without me defending it.

When you look at your “career” as a creator, what  achievement would you most like to reach – what, if it happened or has  already happened, would/did make you go “now – now I’m a success!”?

Does any writer actually get to the point where they fully believe they’re a success, and the feeling lasts forever? This is a genuine question. Where are they hiding? I want their advice.

What are your favorite snacks and/or drinks to consume while creating?

I have to have at least three emotional support beverages, and one of those will always be a form of iced coffee, then usually bubble tea, and then usually water. These are because I clearly run on three separate hydration systems. Snack-wise, I don’t tend to eat while I’m actually making things, but I like churros and loaded fries and ramen and salmon on bagels and, listen, I just really love food.

Describe your ideal creation space.

I like writing somewhere near a window, ideally when it’s raining outside, with three emotional support beverages and my favourite headphones and the very specific song that works as white noise in that moment on repeat. Possibly for the next five hours.

Do you like having background noise when you create? What do you listen to? Does it vary depending on the project, and if so, how?

I have to have background noise or I can’t focus to write, and it’s usually music with lyrics. I tend to have a mix of current songs I’m fixated on in a huge Everything playlist, and then I often have a smaller playlist for the project itself. Like I said before, I can also easily listen to the same song on repeat for as long as it takes to finish the necessary section, even if it that takes hours, because after a while I stop hearing the music itself – it functions as white noise.

Share five of your favorite books. (You can include why, if you want!)

Wolf Hall Trilogy (Hilary Mantel, technically 3 but)

The Dream Thieves (Maggie Stiefvater) 

Evensong’s Heir (L. S. Baird)  

Daughter of Fortune (Isabel Allende)  

The Magpie Lord (KJ Charles)

Share five of your favorite (blanks). 

Five favourite current bubble tea flavours: Earl Grey, Snow White, Rose, Lavender, Honeydew

If you could give one piece of advice to a new creator who came to you for help, what would that advice be?

You don’t want to write like me. 

That probably sounds incredibly arrogant, but let me explain: the most common thing I’ve had said to me by a new creator, or a fan of my work, is “I want to write like you.” And I get where people are coming from, and I get it’s from a place of admiration – which is very very flattering, of course – because early on in my writing career that used to be a desire that consumed me to. But my point is this. I realised that it was futile to want something like that, because I would never be that creator, with their experiences in life and reading that had informed how they view the world and filter it into their own work. Even if I tried to mimic it, and maybe if I managed it on a superficial level, it wouldn’t be animated by the same mind moving through it, and so I’d be doing us both a disservice. So, I no longer want to write like other people. I want to write more and more like myself. And because of that, I try and advise people to redirect how they’re verbalising that desire. What is it about my work, or anyone’s work, that speaks to you? What parts of it don’t work for you? What is it you want that’s similar – the assurance of their authorial voice, their breadth of lexis or grammar, the themes they focus, how they make you feel as a reader in that relationship with them through the text? Identify those things. Start from there, and think about who you are and take these little ingredients from everyone you’ve read and loved, and everything you love in the world outside writing. Do that instead. Not only will it help you identify more concretely the goals you’re working towards in your craft, but you deserve a voice as a writer that’s solely your own.

What would you say to a demoralized creator to inspire them?

The same thing I said earlier but reappropriated: nobody can write like you.

ilgaksu’s Contribution to Aether Beyond the Binary

Title: chameleon trick

Tags: be gay do crimes, be gay solve crimes, established relationship, heist, manchester, non-binary, past tense, present tense, suicidal ideation (mentions of), united kingdom, third person limited pov, trans man

Excerpt:

Sasha turns on him; gleeful, sparking with it. It’s less a dropping of a mask and more of a perfect, total illumination as they ask, “How did I do?”

You would think they were an amateur at this, looking at their borderline puppyish excitement. They even tilt their face up, less in expectation of a kiss and more in certainty of one. But they are both working. Martha has read the codes of conduct at this factory: no fraternisation during work hours. And so:

“I don’t have time for your praise kink right now,” Martha says, and sidesteps them.

End-of-post reminder: check out our campaign on Kickstarter! It ends January 25th – we’re about half-way done.

#aether beyond the binary #aetherpunk #aether #modern with magic #duck prints press #anthology kickstarter #queer kickstarter

[writing-is-a-martial-art]

I would love Magpie the grunge space pirate angel actually—

:D

Some stuff about him that is neat:

He's the captain of a ship that runs on his blood, not because it hates him personally or anything but because there is a long history of spaceships running on angel blood and he just couldn't find a good alternative. It's mostly fine though it only needs a little (there are also times when it's very much not fine)

Magpie is more or less human passing, which he uses to just. Not tell people he's an angel as much as possible. His wings are brown and fold into his coat and it's not /that/ weird to have wings nowadays

(it's after the world technically ended and people got a little funky looking from divinity pollution)

The main reason he pulls the "I'm not an angel you can trust me dude" bit so well is because he's such a greasy little rat of a man. His clothes are like two shirts and pairs of pants in weekly rotation patched up so much they could very well just be a different thing at this point, The Coat, which he got from his parents and will rather die than leave, and every shiny thing he likes that he can wear on his body or stuff in his pockets. And the hat of course, can't forget the hat.

Of course he's transmasc. Just. Of course he is.

He's loud and decidedly not polite and outspoken and maybe on a quest to try to save the world. Cares So Much About Everything, he would rather jump headfirst into the engine than admit it, though.

I described him as angelfailure at one point and I think he would agree. He missed out on most normal angel-y stuff due to being raised by space pirates, hence the. Everything about him.

I just think he's neat :3

#oc: magpie #inara <3 #the greasy rat angel has been in my head for months thank you for the opportunity to inflict him upon the world

[ms-m-astrologer]

Planetary Hours

The first thing we have to learn is, which day of the week is associated with which planet, since that’s how we assign a planet to an “hour:”

Monday - Moon

Tuesday - Mars

Wednesday - Mercury

Thursday - Jupiter

Friday - Venus

Saturday - Saturn

Sunday - Sun

(It’s a little more obvious in different languages, eg Spanish. English is such a magpie language.)

Next, we take the time between sunrise and sunset, and divide the total daylight by 12. Results are going to vary hugely, depending on where you live and what time of year it is.

Where I live, for example, at 40°01’ north latitude: on the Cancer Solstice the “day” is 15 clock hours long; dividing that by 12 gives me planetary hours that are 1 hour 15 minutes in length. At the Capricorn Solstice, though, from sunrise to sunset is only 9 hours 19 minutes; that divides into 12 planetary hours of 46.583 minutes each.

We do the same thing with the nighttime hours: measuring the time between sunset and sunrise, and dividing into 12 equal “hours.”

To assign which planet goes with which hour, we consider what day of the week it is, and start by assigning the first planetary hour (beginning at sunrise) to that planet. For a Monday:

Moon

Saturn

Jupiter

Mars

Sun

Venus

Mercury

Moon

Saturn

Jupiter

Mars

Sun

(That “order” is based on planetary speed, from slowest (Saturn) to swiftest (Moon).)

At night, after sunset, we keep going in the same order:

13. Venus

14. Mercury

15. Moon

….and so forth. It works out beautifully and we start Tuesday, Mars’ day, with a Mars hour.

Now that we know the mechanics, and could possibly calculate this all on our own - there is a web site that will do it for us:

planetaryhours . net

Just remove the spaces. (It didn’t work at all on my admittedly ancient cell phone; worked quite well on my iPad 10th Generation.)

What do we do with this information? If we’re working a spell, we can use the best timing for optimal results. I would not want to cast (say) a love working during a Saturn hour, for example. If I bought a lottery ticket, I would pick a Jupiter hour.

This can also help us hone what we do with lunar phases. The 2023 Leo New Moon happens, in my locale, during a Saturn hour - so I’m going to focus on Saturn-type things with that energy. (The lunation is also exactly trine my natal Saturn, which makes it easy to feel that energy.) Somebody in Marquette MI, though, would experience the lunation during a Sun hour.

Sometimes (as with the Leo New Moon and my natal Saturn) the skies will poke at the natal planet which happens to rule that planetary hour. Other times, the ruler of the planetary hour is also the ruler of the Ascendant. That’s also going to strengthen your working. (Not sure it would be worth it to do the staggering amount of calculation involved, to ascertain when this happens, though.)

Pretty heady stuff! The main thing to remember is:

Other people get to have free will, too - it’s unethical to cast a love spell or healing spell or an anything spell, on another person, without their consent.

There are probably a few people reading this, who can help us learn more. Feel free to do so, please!!

#Astrology #Planetary Hours #Ms M astrologer

[corvusalbus93]

We all like to make fun of our favourite magpies, but then there this in DoW2 Retribution...

...Cyrus not only became friends with a Space Wolf of all people, back when he was with the Deathwatch, said friend sent him a high quality (possibly master crafted) sniper rifle. As a Rune Priest, Volund likely engraved those runes himself.

So.

Volund: best friend ever.

Cyrus: the one Blood Raven, who actually received gear from another chapter as a gift.

#warhammer 40k #40k #dawn of war #retribution #cyrus #space wolves #blood ravens #dawn of war 2 #warhammer

[bohemiandeer]

Lifeweaver Headcanons Part 1: This man's fricking Home and living conditions.

Just, a couple o' headcanons I have on how this man lives. Don't mind me. I'm bored and going through brainrot rn, ANYWAY: ❧ At the Atlantic Arcology he actually lives in a modified greenhouse he more or less converted into an apartment where he usually does a majority of his research and biolight experimentation or just, hides out in periods when he needs to. But is usually very nomadic by nature, being prone to travelling out, usually on humanitarian aid runs on/off in between research periods when he starts feeling stifled from being confined to his residence for a long term period of time. Almost no one knows where on earth he even lives. He either never discloses his resident's location whatsoever or always gives false locations that change every single time he answers, if not a combination of both. For him to actually disclose the actual location to you is a MAJOR sign of trust in you on his part.

❧ Likes to collect and cultivate a variety of different plants and especially flowers that he regularly and religiously cares for, studies and documents down. To where a good chunk of his greenhouse's space is just, purely dedicated to his plants. Not to mention, he grows a majority of his own food. Also has one of the very few people he trusts enough at the Arcology come in to care for them in his absence.

❧Has a very strong penchant for collecting souveniers, souveniers from his travels pretty much everywhere, basically strewn around like shiny things in a Magpie nest. If they're not organized out on the bookshelf. He thinks it adds even more character to his living space. ❧ Detests Minimalist/Sleek Modern Day aesthetics with a passion, is very much a Maximalist in how he decorates his place. Not to mention since he doesn't really have much to spend on furniture to begin with, almost all his stuff is second hand or handmade.

❧ The actual living space of his residence looks like organized chaos in the most colourful way possible. He isn't so much of a slop as to end up on a TLC show but his living space is VERY, very disorganized. I'm talking Howl's Room from Howl's Moving Castle, but spread out all over the house as opposed to being contained to just one room. I'm talking about a place with the most random objects misplaced in the most out of pocket of places, especially his work tools. To where when someone visited him the one time they found his cordless soldering iron, in the fricking bathroom, and a misplaced spatula just, vibing in the fridge among his leftovers. More books OUT of his bookshelf and piled up on whatever nearest coffee table or surface area he just randomly put it down after he finished reading it, than IN the actual dang bookshelf. If anything the bookshelf's slowly getting repurposed as a souvenier display. Random piles of blankets and clothing piled up on the one side of the couch and the armchair he never really even uses. Unwashed dishes just, randomly left where he placed them and forgot about. ❧Also has a habit of leaving half finished projects everywhere including incomplete blueprints, WIP sculpting projects and half painted pottery he made for the plants just, all over the dang place. Not to mention, in regards to his actual research, a good chunk of his equipment everywhere.

❧Has a wooden board in his bedroom pinned up with photographs of friends, found family and places he visited, drawings and various little trinkets like pamphlets, travelling maps, postcards, letters, tickets, restaurant receipts, etc. That he has since dubbed his "wall of sentimentality". Namely because every single thing on that board is a piece of memorabilia of a memory and/or experience to him for him to look back to when he wants to remember moments that made him feel happy and are worth remembering. Has little to none in the way of photographs or any memorabilia whatsoever of his actual family, especially his parents. Pretty much no one both inside and outside of his house even knows what his family even looks like, that's how little in the way of a footprint he has on them. ❧The kitchen is the worst place in the house, largely because, growing up in a household where the kitchen was always tended to by house staff, he has no idea how on earth to properly tend to a kitchen, even as an adult. He tries to keep the actual part he cooks in as clean as possible because he's enough of a stickler for hygiene to know a unclean cooking space is where he doesn't want to make his food. But the rest is best described as a place of nightmares to most people who know how to tend to a kitchen just fine. A lot of people think he doesn't know dishwashers exists because the sink's the worst part of his house. It can't even be said that he presumably thinks the sink's just there for decoration because the sink itself is already partially a health hazard. Assuming a good chunk of his dish pantry isn't strewn all over the dang place in the rest of the house to begin with. ❧ Alot of people think he doesn't know how to use a laundry basket either and that the laundry basket is a decoration because he has more clothing dumped in the corner of his room, his bedroom chair and the aforementioned side of the couch and armchair, than he has in the laundry basket. ❧ Rarely makes his bed. Unless people come/stay over then he'd just, pull the blankets and covers over the thing. Doesn't see the point in it because he thinks it's gonna be reduced to a pile of blankets/covers either way.

❧Doesn't typically clean his place in the same way other people do for a variety of reasons. One being that he doesn't typically have the time, nor does he have the habit out of once again, having grown up in a house hold that routinely already did that FOR him. To where he just simply, forgets to clean up after himself, even in adulthood. But the main reason is simply that he just works best in a "disorganized" space, it gives him a sense of comfort to a degree and makes it feel like the space he inhabits is actually lived in.

❧ On a related note, is the kind of person who, where others see chaos, he sees an exact mental layout on where he put what and what he usually puts where. Even if they're not in the place they're actually supposed to be. To the point that if one were to move like, one object from where he placed it to where they think it's supposed to go, he'd immediately notice. God forbid someone cleans up his space and puts everything away because he will turn it into a cesspit of chaos again just trying to look for the thing he is looking for. Had this thing at the Academy too. He used to drive Satya NUTS in this regard.

❧ He keeps his biolight gear, including the petals, in a repurposed lab cabinet with a wooden stand in it that's security protected alongside the rest of his most vulnerable/important work. Anyway stay tuned for Part 2 of me rambling about my favourite gorgeous ass Pansexual Plant Pot of a Husbando.

#lifeweaver #overwatch #overwatch 2 #overwatch lifeweaver #overwatch 2 lifeweaver #niran pruksamanee #overwatch niran #ow2 #ow2 lifeweaver #ow #ow lifeweaver #overwatch niran pruksamanee #lifeweaver headcanons #lifeweaver hcs #overwatch headcanons #niran headcanons #my headcanons #headcanons #home headcanons

[flowercrown-bard]

for a prompt, if it catches your interest: jaskel reuniting after time apart?

It very much does catch my interest :D thank you!

And his heart is a bird

Jaskier's heart was a flighty one. That's what people always said. Just heart would jump from lover to lover like a bird leaping from one branch to the other.

Whenever Jaskier heard such rumors about himself, he'd laugh and wink and pray no one noticed how fake those things were. If Jaskier was a bird, perhaps he would be a parrot. Always mirroring what he saw, always saying what others expected of him.

He never said the truth to those rumourmongers. He never told them that his heard had already found its nest, where it wanted to stay for as long as it was allowed. His heart's resting place was by the side of a witcher. Curled up against him, when the nights got cold. Laughing and making jokes until Eskel forgot his fears and allowed himself to laugh as well. Dreaming, about all the things they would do together once they reunited for spring.

Because that's the thing. If Jaskier's heart was a bird, it was one that left for the south come winter. And Eskel - Eskel went north, where Jaskier was not allowed to follow. He hoped, prayed, dreamed that maybe one day, Eskel would invite him to join him in the mountains. Until then, Jaskier was forced to stay where it was warm and people liked him only for his birdlike song and colourful plumage.

Waiting. Waiting. Waiting.

For spring, for the day when he would fly from the guided cage that was the court. For the day, when he could see Eskel again.

If Eskel even wanted to see him again. It was a nonsensical fear. Of that, Eskel had assured Jaskier many times. Yet it was a persistent one.

Because maybe Jaskier's heart was a cookoo. An imposter, who took up too much space and attention and resources. A distraction that would one day be the reason why those who cared about him didn't have enough space in their own nest anymore.

He couldn't be that for Eskel. He couldn't be the reason why life got even harder for him.

So Jaskier contented himself with waiting, instead of seeking out his witcher.

He would come.

If Eskel had spoken true and Jaskier really was no nuissance, then he'd come for him. And with him he would bring tales and days filled with laughter. All the days of spring and summer and autumn.

Winter too, if Jaskier had any say in it.

Because he was selfish and greedy like that. Because maybe his his heart was a magpie, always wanting more, never content with what it was given. Eskel was already giving him so much. And Jaskier's foolish, selfish heart wanted more, more, more. Above all, it wanted to steal Eskel's heart.

But that was one thing he could not take. Eskel's heart was too big. Jaskier could not claim it all for himself, when he knew how much love Eskel had to give for his brothers and friends and all the animals he cared for so sweetly.

Jaskier could not take this. So instead, he waited.

Ever so slowly, winter turned to spring.

And Jaskier waited. And he sang. Jigs and celebratory tunes turned into elegies and tragic ballads about all the terrible things Eskel had told him about. All the pain of the Path. All the loneliness Jaskier felt when Eskel got a little respite from the hardships and could get comfortable at his keep.

Maybe his heart was a mourning dove. Mourning the possibility of being abandoned and forgotten about, as he had been so many times before. Mourning the thought of Eskel being all on his own.

Eskel, who wanted nothing more than to help people. Eskel, who was so gentle and so hurt. Eskel, who -

Eskel, who pushed open the door to the tavern Jaskier was currently playing in.

Jaskier's heart fluttered and his fingers fumbled in the lute strings.

"Eskel!" He called out and flung himself into his Witcher's arms. Immediately, Eskel pulled him closer, cradling his head against his broad chest. Jaskier closed his eyes and felt the beating of Eskel's heart. "You came for me."

"You waited for me," Eskel replied softly, "my little nightingale."

A bird that sang when the night was darkest and coldest. Who gave comfort to those who were alone in the dark.

Jaskier's heart leaped - and just as he titled his head up to press his lips against Eskel's, he heard someone behind them shout, "Get a room, you love birds!"

Maybe. Maybe, Jaskier's heart was a bird. But if it was, then it wasn't one that sang alone.

#Idk #Is this even coherent in any way? #Idk but it was fun to write #Thank you for the prompt! #Jaskel #My writing #Witcher #Ficlet

[e17omm]

I have recently seen that signalis is on sale and don't know if i should buy it. I don't know much about the game and have seen that you like signalis, so would it be possible to explain a bit wht the game is about.

Space lesbians and eldrich horror done right. <- the short version.

The long version ->

You play as Elster, or rather, LSTR-512, a Replika. Basically a human android. You are on a ship called the Penrose, and your Gestalt (human) co-pilot (Ariane) is missing.

This is a game with a story you have to figure out. Its not hard. Its not hiding its story, but you will definitely have to pick up notes (in-game) and pay some attention to get an idea of whats going on.

It is a highly spoilerable game in terms of story.

In terms of gameplay, it is like a top-down, but you see it from an angle.

The genre is survival horror. Limited resources, tight rooms, limited inventory, and enemies. Ammo conservation and inventory management is the game, and about half the time you can try to sneak/run past enemies to conserve ammo.

Signalis recently got an inventory update that should make the inventory management MUCH better. (Basically some items gets special slots that only they can go in, and since you would basically need them on you at all times, it now saves slots in your normal inventory) (this was about the only complaint before from the community - the inventory was TOO small. This update fixed some of that while not making it too easy either)

Okay to recap because I rambled a bit:

Signalis is a Top-Down, Survival Horror game with an eldrich horror theme done right. A lot of messed up and confusing things happens in this game, but its not so vague or random that you cant make sense of it.

The start of the game goes like this:

You wake up. Search your crashed ship. You leave it. Go through an archway. Find a hole in the ground. Go down the hole. Find a hole in the wall. Go through the wall. End up in a regular-ish room. Listen to a radio broadcast. Next time you're in control of your character, you're in a bathroom in a mining facility.

That doesnt make sense, right?

It will.

I really want to talk about it in detail, but again, its highly spoilerable. Not fun if I go into detail about what the opening 5-10 minutes is, right? (What I talked about above).

The game is about 8 to 12 hours long (per playthrough), depending how long you take on puzzles and how long you take exploring. The game has a map, so its not like Haydee where you have to draw your own.

The gunplay is as simple as aiming your weapon, and as long as youre aiming close enough to an enemy, Elster will soft-lock onto it (aim assist, basically).

In terms of characters, most (and by most I mean that there is litteraly 1 guy) are females. And not only that, but they are tall androids (most of the time. Looking at you, 152cm (5') Kolibri's (Smolibri)) (This doesnt spoil anything really, just fun info you can find) (the rest of the androids are generally above 200cm) (there is stepladders in game and the files calls them "Kolibri steppy". The devs definitely had fun.)

Most of them are enemies, due to the afformentioned i̴n̴t̷e̴r̴g̷a̷l̴a̷c̴t̶i̷c̷ e̴̳͂ḻ̴̇d̴̳̑r̸̜͒i̷̦̓c̶̨͌h̸̻͝ ̷͇̐h̷͉͛o̵̞͋r̴̜̋r̵̺͝o̶̩͌r̶̳̄ i̴͖̖̘̝̘̙͉̅͒͜ṅ̶̼̮̮̻̥̱͍͊̎̀͘f̴̗͎͇̔ḙ̶̟͈̳̭͓̃ͅc̵̢͇̱̼̫̘̦̯̋͋͂̽t̴̗̬̬̥̂ͅỉ̶͍̗͔̱͎̲̩̞͗̅͗͐̈̓o̴̡̹̤̜̖̞͇̼̅n̵̼͖͂̈́́͊̏͑̌ͅ.

So to recap the story as spoiler free as possible: You are an LSTR (Elster) android (Replika) in search of your missing human (Gestalt) co-pilot called Ariane. All in order to keep your promise to her. What is that promise you ask? You better remember it.

For the bird enthusiasts: most (and by most I mean all) Replika names correlate to a bird! Elster correlate to Magpie's, for example.

Does that have a meaning to the story? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ play to find out.

The art style of the game is pixel (as seen in the screenshot), but also (to borrow the words of Bricky) "Its sci-fi, if all we knew were the 80's". Big blocky screens with big buttons and static on screens.

The music - oh the music is fantastic. Tracks like "3000 cycles", "Cigarette wife", "die toteninsel emptiness" and "Swan Lake" by Tchaikovsky (yeah this game borrows some music) fits the theme of the game so well.

(Couldnt find the artist :C)

In terms of horror, it is mostly the environment and story. The only form of "jumpscare" is enemies screeching at you, or you get a cutscene with some mildly disturbing imagery. There is no form of "big loud thing jumps in your face" jumpscare. You will never turn around a corner and get a fnaf jumpscare.

The fandom is also chronically insane. (Not calling anyone out - I am a part of it.)

They are all excellent memers and artists of wholesomeness shipping. (Meme by unblueable1 on Twitter)

(Gif by Teflonflak on Reddit)

#asks #signalis

[is-the-owl-video-cute]

Okay I 100% agree on the “general public with no clinical experience or proper legal licensing shouldn’t try to raise or rehab wildlife” thing but I will say there is a little more nuance to it

- country/location: in some people’s countries or regions wildlife rehabilitation centers don’t exist or are too far away to reach

- closures (my facility closed intakes due to HPAI for a period last year, many others did too)

I spoke with someone last year who was in the latter situation and handled it excellently. She had found a baby magpie who’s family had been killed by a local outdoor cat (with evidence). All of the rehabbers in the region (very broad radius) were closed due to HPAI. She contacted her region’s (utah) department of natural resources and explained the situation. She had previous experience raising baby parrots, already had a household setup for keeping birds since she had a couple pet parrots, and she was in contact with the (closed) rehabilitation facilities and one of them was willing to provide her with instructions on how to raise a baby magpie. The department of natural resources worked with her to issue a special permit for this. Obviously this isn’t ideal and the magpie is an imprint, however he will serve as an educational ambassador. Like, if you’re going to raise a baby animal without proper experience, this is the best reason and way to go about it.

I also spoke with someone from Ukraine, who had found a hawk (injured in some way, I couldn’t visually tell) but wasn’t able to get it to a rehab facility (either not open or safely accessible cus,, well it’s a warzone) so they were stuck by themselves. Not sure how this worked out, but the situation was perplexing.

Like.. there are some situations where it is genuinely not possible to get an injured animal into an ideal situation. Obviously this isn’t most situations and people need to learn to leave wildlife alone. But there is a little nuance. Obviously it’s NOT ideal and it’s risky for both the person and animal in question but like. Not everyone who is stuck in that situation should be demonized.

I agree with your sentiment but just think it’s important to remember like. Not everyone lives in a well developed country/region where wildlife rehabilitation resources exist. So sometimes if this situation occurs the best thing to do is offer in good faith advice to the person in that situation for what they can do with their resources. Obviously stressing that if they can get em to a rehabber to do that first.

Of course there are many things the average person or anyone else just can’t help, I’m all too familiar with finding a long dead bone jutting out the wrist of a hawk, or pulling maggots out of a half dead owl. And most people wouldn’t handle those situations well. But with situations where a rehabber can’t be reached but something can be done, people will try to do something to help even if it’s a bad idea (that’s just how some people are) and it’s better to direct them to do it in the best way possible.

I agree with you don’t get me wrong, I just think it’s important to remember that there’s a TINY space for nuance.

None of this is really “nuance” though.

The magpie finder contacted fish and game as well as the closed rehabs for proper input and a placement for the imprint was easy to find because of close contact with licensed individuals and issuance of a temp permit for this 1/1,000,000 issue.

I am very obviously not talking about people in active war zones when I say not to take in a wild animal that’s been wounded or orphaned, come on now.

Yes, if every rehabber in a 10,000 mile radius spontaneously combusts and there’s a baby owl sitting on the dead bodies of its parents right in front of you but you conveniently have a freezer full of mice and Government Steve gives you permission, yeah? I guess you can raise that baby owl in that wildly improbable and very specific circumstance, but this reads the same as when Ben Shapiro said “if there’s a bomb strong enough to level a city and only you know about the bomb and no one else believes there is a bomb and no one is around and the only way the bomb can be disarmed is for you to say the N word and no one will hear you, is it ethical to say the N word to diffuse the bomb?” I mean yeah. I guess so. That doesn’t mean there’s “nuance” to the fact white people shouldn’t say the N word.

I mean yeah. Yeah. In very extremely specific circumstances I’m sure you can think up an excuse for it. That doesn’t change the statement that an unqualified member of the public should not attempt to rehab a wild animal and should instead contact a licensed facility.

#?????? I’m not even sure why you made this point anon #Because it’s so clearly outside the scope of what the sentiment is referring to #since there’s a very small handful of cases like the ones you describe #but thousands of incidents where people just see a baby animal and take it home without even looking up what to feed it

[jakesuit0]

Apple Thief Review

“Apple Thief” reestablishes Tree Trunks into the series after the mess that was “Crystals Have Power”. Unlike the season two episode, “Apple Thief” harkens back to “Tree Trunks” with the second of two Finn, Jake, and TT trio adventures and its a dynamic that proves just as enjoyable. 

Jake cooks some deliciously drawn Korean food, inspired by Bert Youn’s (who co-boarded the episode) love for Korean cuisine. Bert is Korean and it’s always nice when staff members’ cultures are put into the series. I love seeing Lady Rainicorn’s traditions influence Jake. Finn is too young to appreciate the delicacy so he suggests Tree Trunks’ apple pie. I like Finn and Jake’s relationship with their grandmother-figure, feeling they can stop by anytime they want. Tree Trunks’ apple pies have been stolen so the three of them have to solve the case. Raggedy Princess is the first possible suspect, and it’s nice seeing her play a supporting role. The episode later hints that the ne’er-do-wells are the candy criminals. Raggedy Princess’s nervousness raises red flags, but she always acts nervous. 

Jake’s past as a thief is confirmed, building on his actions in “City of Thieves”. He says he stopped doing it a while ago after learning it was wrong. My assumption is Lady Rainicorn showed him the error of his ways. Finn, Jake, and Tree Trunks visit the seedy Candy Tavern. Finn has to keep Tree Trunks out of trouble like he did in her debut episode. He even has to stop her from eating toilet paper, showing her sharp mental decline. Apples end up being a euphemism for drugs, and they get wrapped up in underground Candy Kingdom drug trade disputes. Princess Bubblegum definitely started cracking down hard on organized crime sometime after this episode, at least by the time she grows a massive surveillance apparatus in seasons four to six. Tree Trunks tells Finn that he can go home if he wants due to the danger, but that she must go through with finding her apples. While age has made her less capable, she still retains her spirit from her pirate days.

Jake uses his experience in criminal enterprise to track down the apple dealers. They are let in by Wormo, who is a hilarious character. He’s a giant worm that’s very stupid and speaks in a southern accent. Everything he says and does is funny, especially his nonsensical drug slang. Mr Pig is introduced here, voiced by Ron Lynch. He’s at his funniest in this episode, although he has his moments in later appearances. They snatch Mr Pig and leave, probably because the writers wanted to keep his character around as Pen has said. And we have no idea how long he’s been held captive or how many people he’s been forced to eat.

Mr Pig has a heightened sense of hearing for some reason, sensing scared apples in Tree Trunks’ pantry. Tree Trunks' senility shows and she turns herself in, thinking she stole her own apples. Two Banana Guards are called to the scene in their first speaking role. They are hysterical characters. Their voice comes from John DiMaggio doing an impression of Pendleton Ward’s performance as Lumpy Space Princess, and Tom Kenny mimicking it back. 

Finn puts his detective skills to use and concludes the magpies are the true apple thief. It’s not a fantastic twist, but ties the episode together well enough. Tree Trunks breaks off her handcuffs, another hint to her wild past. It wouldn’t be a Tree Trunks episode without some sexual aggression, and she slaps one of the banana guards on the butt. She celebrates by making everyone some apple pie. Finn and Jake must be starving. 

“Apple Thief” is unremarkable but a perfectly enjoyable episode.

Grade: B+

#adventure time #apple thief #finn and jake #jake the dog #finn the human #tree trunks