minkydinks

[minkydinks]

@minkandstink

More than anything else, fish stores are looking for these qualities:

Taking initiative. It's better to do something and do it wrong, than it is to not do anything. In the fish keeping hobby, a lot more can go wrong if you do nothing because you're afraid of accidents.

Information sponging. If you find aquariums and fish and all that stuff extremely interesting (more than that, if you're autistic or otherwise neurodivergent about aquariums or marine/aquatic life), you're probably able to absorb and retain MUCH more information related to the hobby than other people. You'll be able to relay that information to others much more easily as well. Even if you don't know very much, but you're incredibly willing to learn, they LOVE that. Probably don't mention autism on the resume though. That's not me being internally ableist, that's me trying to say there are legal loopholes you shouldn't risk until your position is safe.

Physical strength, sometimes. Occasionally, part of the job may include carrying water here and there. Buckets, jugs, whatever. Usually it's not more than 5 gallons at a time, but you might have to move a lot of water overall. 5 gallons of water is roughly 40lbs. If you're incapable of carrying at least 15lbs by yourself, be sure to clarify that. They don't usually mind if you can't, as long as they have someone who can, or a cart to load things on.

Pattern recognition. Being able to recognize different species of fish, species of coral, species of plants, genders of fish etc. You should be able to subvert the expectation that the average person won't know the minimum care requirements. Trust me, I meet a lot of people working here, and it's SHOCKING when someone knows the comfortable minimums for care.

Fearlessness, creative thinking & problem solving. Being able to think quickly and come up with unique (but good!) solutions to problems in the hobby, with maintenance, or the technical/mechanical side of things is important. You might have to emergency-DIY a lid for a tank with a fish that insists on jumping to their death, or you might have to quickly patch a leak on something. You might have to stick your hands into dirty, gross filter shit and not be scared of it. Be prepared to smell things you don't like, and be even more prepared to see beautiful and cute fish die, especially at the hands of irresponsible owners, BUT ALSO at the store in the display tanks! It happens often, and sometimes there's nothing you can do.

Being really, REALLY prepared to deal with incredibly ornery people that don't like being told what to do. It's classic retail. People will argue with you, people will bring their young children who scream and beg for a fish, so the parents can't say no without causing a scene (and they know it). People won't understand why things are different now compared to 20 years ago when they "just had a fish in a bowl and it was fine", and people will walk out on you to go to Petco or Petsmart instead, leaving a bad review online because they didn't want to wait for their nitrifying bacteria to establish before adding the fish they're so desperately impatient for. It's bad, and it gets worse, and people can be inexperienced to SUCH a ridiculous degree that you'd think they're just flat out stupid. Patience is incredibly important. If you have previous experience in ANY amount of customer service & working a register, they'll appreciate that a lot.

Finally, Your own experience in the hobby, fish or not. Fish stores like applicants that have their own aquariums at home, even if they're small and seemingly insignificant. You might think that a tiny little snail/shrimp aquarium isn't impressive, but it's the opposite! I'm always, always impressed to hear someone talk about their nano/pico tank being established and thriving, because those tanks are actually the hardest to maintain long-term. They're much more work and dedication. Fish stores also appreciate any experience with non-aquatic exotics. If you have reptiles, birds, or anything other than a dog or cat, and you can confidently say you've had them thriving for a long time, they'll hear that someone understands the needs of a more complicated type of pet, and is capable of learning or knowing more.

It should also be important to scope out the place before applying! Shop around, interact with your potential coworkers, get a feel for their vibes and see if you'd get along with them well enough in a work environment. If they like you before you even apply, you've got better chances! Even if you have to fake it, for the most part.

I will say, I cheated the system. They hired me because they only had one woman on staff and I, conveniently, am a woman with extensive foodservice experience and neon green hair. They didn't even interview me. They called me 2 weeks later asking when I can start just because I'm a woman with colorful hair. So.

Also... unethical life hack, it's okay to lie a little on your resume. Embellish your life experiences and emphasize how much you're willing to learn about the things you don't know.

THINGS TO KEEP IN MIND:

Some regions may allow large retailers like Petsmart and Petco (though not limited to these two) to have non-compete clauses in their employment agreement. What this means is, if you signed a contract with them, you may not be legally allowed to work for any businesses that compete with them, at least during your employment.

It's no longer legal for employers to enforce this on their employees POST-employment in the United States as of April 2024, but in other countries this might not be the case; meaning that outside the USA, if you choose to sign a non-compete clause to be employed at Petsmart (or some other large pet retailer), it may be several years post-employment before you're legally allowed to work for any businesses that financially compete with your previous employer.

But in the USA for example, if you have a job with Petco, you may not be allowed to simultaneously have a job at a local fish store due to a non-compete clause in your employment contract. Essentially, don't plan on being part-time with Petco and part-time with a local business. It probably isn't going to work out.

If you have any more questions feel free to ask!

I'm here all day <3 I love this part of my job lol

[minkydinks]

aww thank you 🫶 yeah I definitely want to go back over it and sharpen things and make it look more. pretty to my inexorably high standards

sorry for dying for a few months

sneak peek perhaps ? 🫶

[minkydinks]

I'd be a seawing because I havw this thing. the snail.

and her. a eel

[minkydinks]

sorry for dying for a few months

sneak peek perhaps ? 🫶

[minkydinks]

Source: laura_and_her_cats

[minkydinks]

I have family living in Appalachia and it's heartbreaking to hear all the horrific shit happening in that region. I wish I could do more but I will say PLEASE please reach out to local Appalachia fundraisers and donate to hurricane relief operations. So much has been irreparably devastated.

appalachia is devastated. towns i loved, towns i visited all the time, are gone. not damaged, GONE. they are leveled to the ground. there is nothing left but rubble and ruin. people are dead. appalachia is poor to begin with and relies on tourism for a lot of its income, and multiple of those tourist locations are just...gone.

my town is okay, but it's flooded and wrecked. trees are blocking all but one way out of our neighborhood. power lines are hanging limp in the roads. we've been without power for over 24 hours and will continue to be without power for likely another 24+. disabled people and poor people are GOING to die from this. gods save appalachia.

[minkydinks]

Storm Chasing Photography / Tornado - Mike Mezeul

[minkydinks]

I will say upfront that while I'm gonna argue my piece about Deathbringer here, it should be said that I'm not here to shit-sling or convince anon that they're wrong. You are entitled to your feelings about DB and I'm not going to sit here and say that you're evil or anything for not liking him. Nobody is invalid for thinking he's shitty.

Although I think a point should be made that literacy is very important and I think anon missed a key part of Glory & DB's relationship from start to end. So,

In defense of Deathbringer:

The thing with DB is that he's sort of almost the WoF fandom's Judy Hopps & Nick Wilde. He's a sly fox trying to survive and she's a person trying desperately to prove to the whole world that she's capable of, and worth more, than they think she is.

The issue with them, is that a LOT of their dynamic is heavily implied and not directly spoken in narration or dialogue. It's implied incredibly early-on in their meeting that Glory finds him attractive in some form, and this feeling is mutual between them; whether Glory appears as a RainWing or not, being disguised as an IceWing. Their banter isn't genuine animosity, and this is obvious to most people who understand their character archetypes. Glory is just as cunning as DB, if not more so. She is more than capable of accurately determining whether or not another dragon is a genuine threat to herself or her friends & family, and she had been on the fence when she realized that his original order from the queen was to kill her and a handful of the other dragonets.

She would have been perfectly content to file him away under "dragons that are undoubtedly going to ruthlessly chase down and attempt to kill us", but Glory in all her intelligence and curiosity watched and waited to see what he would do, and saw that he really didn't care for doing that.

I believe that while he ultimately contributed to the attempted genocide of the RainWings, he himself admitted that he was never one for the idea, and thought the NightWings could have placed their limited energy into much more valuable things. As soon as he felt confident & free in doing so, he helped Glory whilst barely knowing her as a person, freeing her and helping her free other RainWings. To the NightWing kingdom, that kind of treason comes with a hefty price if caught, and he still put his life on the line for a cause he thought made more sense to him. We have to also understand that the dragon world is much different than ours, and we would react differently than our soapbox morals would want, if we were in that situation ourselves.

DB says himself, speaking to Flame in the NW dungeon, that to be a successful assassin, you have to be able to kill dragons and not care, and that involves doing it for what you believe is an incredibly good reason. You have to believe in that reason 100%, or you'll care about the dragon whose life you planned on taking, and then you won't be capable of going through with it. Deathbringer finding every excuse to get around killing any of the dragonets is proof that he did NOT believe in the cause the NightWings had put upon him.

Glory is more than capable of dictating her personal space. She has full control over her bubble, and who's allowed in it or not. That's been noted several times throughout the series since the very beginning. The fact that DB is still alive & allowed to enter that bubble consequence-free, is implication enough that she doesn't actually feel like her boundaries are being crossed.

It speaks volumes especially because even the dragons she grew up with under the mountain, whom she loves very much, are not tolerated in her personal space for very long. DB understands personal space, implied by him clearly not invading the personal space of anyone else. His "invading" Glory's space is purely out of mutual enjoyment for each other's company, and if she really didn't want him there, he wouldn't be. Her mock-annoyance is just that; playful and unserious knockdowns that DB himself enjoys just as much as she does. He doesn't infantilize her, quite literally the polar opposite. He treats her like the royalty she is, revering her actions and words; but he treats her the way he's accustomed to treating royalty. Protecting and serving, offering council, and looking out for her when he thinks she might make a decision against her best interests (which is something Glory is KNOWN for doing, and something that she knows she needs to work on).

It never helps that these types of dynamics aren't explicitly written, because these are things that the average reader (especially young readers) will miss. A lot of readers will look at Glory and DB's relationship and think it came out of nowhere, and that Glory is out of her mind for not killing him for the way he treats her. But all of that is missing the whole... everything. There's an unbelievable amount of subtext to their interactions, which is heavily eluded to in the narration (and for some reason a lot in Sunny's internal dialogue during book 5?), but more than that, there's SO much subtext to the entire series. It's easy to miss a lot. I've read the series so many times over, it's almost second nature to think of the subtext, but I can see why readers who may have only read the books once before moving on to fandom content might not fully register all of it.

More than anything I wish people would realize that these character archetypes are real. There are real people in real relationships similar to this, and they aren't abusive just because you don't think you could be in the same position and be happy; we all have different needs. They're fine. Not everything has to be super uncomplicated. Its okay for relationship dynamics to be a little unexpected and a tad bit hard to understand for some people. That's just how life is sometimes.

Sorry for going on for fucking EVER but I don't see this talked about with much nuance very often. Again, not trying to press OP anon to change their mind, they're fine and I'm not trying to start any fights. I appreciate the prompt honestly! Fun to talk about

Deathbringer is an annoying piece of dragon dung who CONSTANTLY infantilizes Glory and doesn’t seem to grasp the concept of personal space. At all. He thinks he’s charming and magnificent but really he’s just another crappy NightWing who supported genocide against RainWings and him falling in love with one doesn’t make him get off the line scot-free. I want Glory to just venom spit his face one day.

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[minkydinks]

oh great heavens, a tie between rainwings and skywings. on-brand for WoF i guess!!

i put my own vote on skywings so tbh that means rainwings actually won. guess that's our winner!! look forward to some cute jungle noodles :D

i see that there’s tribe redesigns section in your masterpost, which i’m super excited to see! have you begun to work on any of the redesigns yet?

Yes! I have some older concepts on my main blog but I plan on redoing them or at least touching them up, and giving them some more material.

Several of the tribes already have their base redesigns done, and I just need to give them their extras and whatnot, like wingspan/wing design, babies/eggs, dimorphism, etc.

Speaking of,

[minkydinks]

moon and rainbow at sunrise by mark ham

[minkydinks]

yippeee I got a new laptop!!! now I can be annoying while im in seattle too!!!!!!!

[minkydinks]

im crying

i don’t like that the jade winglet is called that. they’re at JADE mountain academy why is there a JADE winglet. it makes no sense like genuinely im trying to think of a reason other than needing people to know that this winglet specifically is super special, you guys. there is no in-universe reason for this that could possibly make any sense. if any group of dragons should be associated with jade it should be the academy staff!

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[minkydinks]

work that loaf girl

[minkydinks]

"Blah! It's me, the alien! I'm gonna getcha! I'm the alien!"

- the alien from Alien (1979)

[minkydinks]

oh my god im sorry whiteout i havent been the super most socially active, i hope youre okay :(

this feels kind of cruel though Tumblr 💀

random question but how are you bi & pan ? is it like, bisexual & panromantic, or like you feel both labels fit, or whatever?

I'm not both, I'm still deciding which I am so I'm identifying as either or for now

[minkydinks]

i should be allowed to have arapaima its only fair to me give me a small lake and my life is yours

[minkydinks]

The Besties

I'm giving Clearsight and Listener more history together in my rewrite. They meet years before Clearsight and Darkstalker ever cross paths.

More info + designs w/o accessories below:

Clearsight:

Clearsight is lowborn. She's the only child of Swiftwings and Dreamer and thus grew up with her parents' complete attention. She certainly needed during her earlier years considering her unusually strong prophetic ability. First she can only see a few minutes into the future, which stretches to hours, then days, then weeks, then months, then years as she grows. By the time she's in her elder years she can see up to a couple of centuries past her death.

This only gives Clearsight more and more anxiety as she grows. Due to this, she was a late flier and started school a year later than the other Nightwings at the age of seven instead of six. Clearsight is a highly organized perfectionist and an anxious mess. Luckily her best friend, Listener, is her anchor every time she spirals into a pit of possible futures. Despite her set backs, she's an excellent student and a talented flier.

She's just trying to get through school and navigate through her rapidly expanding prophetic abilities. Then one night she bumps (or rather, body slams) into the hybrid prince on the beach while chasing a vision and watches her every possible future dissolve and reweave itself right before her eyes. Fun.

Clearsight wears a friendship bracelet she fashioned from cheap iron scraps with Listener. Darkstalker gifts Clearsight her earring. It is very obviously worth more money than Clearsight could ever make in several lifetimes so Darkstalker enchants it to look cheap.

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Listener:

Listener was born into a large family, smack dab in the middle of eight other siblings. Due to this, She grew up navigating ten other voices in her head, while having ten dragons talking into her ears, and a sea of paws, tails, and wings to step around. Anyone who suggests the mind reader ocean method to her has clearly never had four younger siblings trying their best to annoy them.

One day, while looking from some peace, she stumbles onto a dragonet up in a tree. Said dragonet claims to be a seer, but, in Listener's opinion, she must really suck at having visions if she couldn't foresee getting stuck up there. After letting her know this, Listener helps her down. They hit it off and the rest is history.

Listener herself is an adventurous and excitable dragon. She's not interested in looking too far into the future, and would rather live spontaneously. She's looking into becoming an explorer once she finishes school. She loves hunting and gossip, and is very good at getting into relationships but not so much at keeping them.

She's very opinionated and has a bad habit of never thinking things through all the way, like the time she released the class pets. Or the time she accidentally picked all of her neighbor's primroses as a gift to her crush...who was said neighbor's son. Luckily, her best friend Clearsight always has Listener's back in whatever schemes she cooks up... and acts as damage control. Listener always has Clearsight's back in turn, even when she starts hanging out with very powerful, very scary dragons in her free time.

Listener wears a friendship bracelet she made with Clearsight.

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Designs w/o Accessories: