#I like birds was that clear

[wrenby-enby]

The crowd roared and its inhuman voice crashed over her like unending waves. She could see, from the corner of her eye where she could look if she craned her head just right, someone bearing a torch. To bring to her. To the pyre. Her stake.

Eilanore knew why she was there. Of course. The church had found her way of living and the beliefs of self-sufficiency and living together with nature a threat and had thus spun a story of witch craft and devil worship. No need to go into the details of the arrest and the questioning, the grimy and damp smell of the cellar would be haunting her forever.

Although maybe the fire would finally dry up the fluid that had gathered in her lungs, she thought. Or maybe it would make the fire burn slower, taking her life in a more agonising and drawn out fashion.

The torch bearer was taking his sweet time. Of course, one had to make a spectacle out of these things. Had to set an example. It was all so obvious, so clear, how could these people not see how the church was using them. It must be the fear, she thought. Fear of their god, fear of what came after. Fear of her.

Eilanore’d never preached much. Mostly lived by herself in a modest little house, single story, two rooms, one bed and one living room with a hearth she used for cooking. Her most prized possession though was her garden. Filled with vegetables, hardy thorn bushes filled with sweet berries, and a rather sizeable herb garden. She lived her life according to her own principles, and that appealed to some of the people from town. The way she was unmarried. The way she didn’t want to marry. The way she was happy.

That probably was what got her here, Eilanore reasoned. Which, to be fair, was true but not a very helpful thought.

“No, you fools, she can control the flames!”

Through the waves came this high-pitched scream, cutting through it like a knife and piercing her heart.

She’d never done any devil worshipping. She didn’t feel the need to. The earth, now her she worshipped. Loved even. But the whole god and heaven and angels, and demons, and the devil, she found far too farfetched. The earth she could see. The earth she could smell.

The earth she could feel.

She could feel the humming energy of nature all around her.

She often felt it while taking a walk through the forest after cleaning her house. She liked those little walks, they cleared her head, and she loved looking at the birds. She found the impish magpies funny, if a little brutish, the crows intelligent but not book smart, more of a life-experience-learned. The robins sung the most beautiful songs and she quite liked talking to them. The little wrens always looked so feisty yet so small. But her favourites, although she never admitted this to the others were the jackdaws. They were like the crows’ younger cousins, little rascals, but much smarter than you would think. One moment you’re laughing at their silly little looks, the next one of its friends has nicked your fresh baked pastries and is making off with it, you running after it.

Eilanore heard not so much as saw the torch light the fire. The waves were replaced by a wind. A whirl that tore at her dress and aimed to devour her.

She thought again of the jackdaws. Of the robins and the crows. Of her little clearing where the magpies always nagged on the sparrows. And of the feisty little wrens, looking like they were fuming on the sidelines.

The fire licked her dress but it didn’t feel hot. Warm, yes, but not that hot. Comforting. As if, the fire didn’t want to hurt her. She opened her eyes and looked down at the fire. It climbed up and towered over her, obscuring the faces of the roaring crowd behind, as if it was shielding her.

It seemed to ask a question. Not that she really heard a question, although… maybe she did. It certainly felt like one. And so she nodded.

And as she did the flames enveloped her, wrapping around her like a woollen blanket, and she closed her eyes. She felt her body start to tingle, the energy that had been humming around her suddenly collapsed in on her and she gasped.

She’d give them what they want. They wanted a devil, she’d give them one.

“You!” came a thundering voice from the roaring flames, which seemed to be pointing, in so far as flames can do such a thing, at the clergymen, who’d been getting more and more antsy in the back.

“Did you honestly think someone who worships He Who Rules Over That Place With All The Fire would be hurt by your pitiful little matchstick fort? Please. Now this is a real fire.”

The fire leaped over the crowd, giving them a spirited shower of hot embers, just to get them all riled up, and crashed through the stained glass window of the church on the South side of the square. Immediately the flames filled the cavernous halls with its light and heat, breaking out through the other windows with its long tendrils.

“Now this is a real fire. Look closely, maybe you’ll learn something.” The fire roared

It tore through the building, eating up walls and roof panelling, and yet it stayed away from the other houses on the square. Eilanore knew some of the families. She wanted to give a show, but she didn’t want to hurt them. They were nice. They cared.

As the church roared and groaned and started to slowly collapse inward the front doors opened and Eilanore walked out, framed by the bright light of the fire, which looked almost holy. She strode up to the clergymen, who had by now grabbed their rosaries and were fervently praying, not that it would help much.

Eilanore stopped in front of them and cast a long hard stare at each of them.

“Let he who has not sinned cast the first stone.” One by one they averted their eyes, unable to bear the piercing look of someone who had been touched by holy fire.

At least, that’s what they thought it was.

Really, she was just having a really good time.

And she was just getting started.

“Burn the witch! Burn the witch!” shouted the crowd, drowning out the distressed warnings of one person. “No, you fools! She can control the flames!”

[feyinvestigations]

Red Hood's one man war against his Twitter verification continues

(heads up: drugs+graphic threats of violence)

First //// prev //// next

Masterpost

++Plus a bonus I forgot from Jason's previous escapades

[cubbihue]

Does Timmy have any regrets about becoming a fairy? Does he ever wish he never done it? Or at least wait until he was older?

The closest Timmy's ever gotten to wishing he had never done it was when his wings were growing out. He immediately felt guilt when he remembered about Peri. Timmy doesn't believe in having regrets. The only way through is forward, and the only way out is up!

If presented with a redo, Timmy would do it all over in a heartbeat.

Bitties Series: [Start] > [Previous] > [Next]

[stankworth]

after many years of being strong // may you have the chance to be gentle again

[bunnieswithknives]

hey in ur peri animatic: (https://youtu.be/OCqlRuDaXYU?si=K52WDu_vw9rg7chz) that I have been permanently obsessed over since today and have watched about 20 times by now so much that I have drawn & posted stuff based on it what was that partial bug form peri had?

I haven’t watched either of the show btw so if it’s explained in the show please tell me plsssss

OK, SO the bug thing is not technically canon to the series. It's based on my own headcanons for fairy biology, but i do have justifications for it!! Fairies have very strong shape-shifting abilities, so it would make sense that the form they show to humans isn't necessarily their true form(not to mention extreme that mimicry is very common in insects). And you want to know the visible traits almost every fairy has in common? Being very small with Insect-like wings.

The fact that their humanoid form isn't their true form in actually confirmed in the show! Cosmo and Wanda are revealed to look like biblically accurate pseudo-angels in the museum episode. (I say pseudo angels because the Flaming Sword of Eden is only debatably sentient and I don't think is considered an angel. Ophanim are also debatably not angels because they don't have wings (sorry for the angel tangent I like angels))

So wouldn't their true forms be angelic then? Well, yes. But I like bugs so. Also I have more headcanons to justify myself. I like to think that they have both a true-true form (incomprehensible to the human brain, probably exists mostly in a dimension invisible to us, that looks how we imagine biblically accurate angels), and a fairy form (which is visible to humans but is naturally very insect like and tends to scare people). So, in order to interact with humans, they have to learn to shapeshift into a humanoid form but will occasionally slip if they get too relaxed/aren't careful, hence the mandibles coming out when he yawns!

The reason they struggle so much more with human forms than the animals or objects they typically turn into is that, well, they aren't trying to convince those animals or objects. The more human they try to look, the harder it is to keep up convincingly. If you turn into a really uncanny squirrel, only other squirrels will notice. If you turn into a really uncanny human, they form a lynch mob and burn you at the stake.

[firestorm09890]

do you love the city you live in

[aerequets]

my friend was telling me about this movie she watched and the context around the first time she watched it.

she said "I watched it when my bird died". I heard "I watched it on my birthday".

I replied "oh cute!"

her face..

[q--uee--n]

It doesn't quite sit well with me when parts of the fandom act as though they don't understand why, exactly, people become so hyper-defensive/are so hyper-sensitive when people bring up Mel being manipulative. It's because this trait has been weaponized to demean and disparage her at the expense of acknowledging any other nuance/facet about her character, and this also often goes hand-in-hand with ignoring the faults of other characters as to emphasize hers. The fact that Mel is a Black woman can not be put aside as a definitive factor as to why and how she's perceived the way she is—by both the fandom and the writers of the show. I would even argue that one of the show's original sins is a lack of understanding of the real-world intersections between race, class, and colonialism.

In regards to both Mel and Ambessa, this lack of understanding is evident in the writing. Writing that ignores the real-world implications of the Medardas and their social position relative to whiteness, which is one informed by socioeconomic and sociocultural disparities as a result of racism and misogyny. Yes, I understand it's a high fantasy show where things like racism don't exist, so to speak, but Arcane, like all media, is informed by the state of affairs of the world we live in. With classism—classism, which Black people are disproportionately victims of—being a core theme of the show (ostensibly), it's disingenuous to disregard the, from a Doylist perspective, haphazard nature of Mel's function in the narrative as a wealthy Black woman in a classist society juxtaposed against poor, oppressed white main characters (this also applies to Ambessa as a warmonger).

With that said, and harkening back to the beginning of this post, even if you're not bringing attention to Mel's flaws and complexities to demonize her, you have to acknowledge them in the context of her as a Black female character being written with little understanding of intersectionality and how they've been weaponized against her, which are the reasons people—specifically Black woman fans such as myself—are compelled to defend her (or even pretend these flaws don't exist. After all, it's never been a problem in fandom when non-black and male characters' flaws are erased/diminished. It can't suddenly become one now). It's easy to say Mel is a multi-faceted, three-dimensional character, thus, that's why downplaying her flaws is a disservice to her charcter, and this isn't an unreasonable point. However, it's harder to admit that the reason people point out these flaws is not always in the service of acknowledging her complexities but instead in the service of demonizing her due to internalized/unknown biases against Black women. In the end, no one has to like a character. No one even has to defend a character they don't like on principle. No one has to not be annoyed at the sanitization of a multidimensional character. But if those things are being done without an acknowledgement of how the perception of that character is mired by racism and misogyny—knowing or unknowing, from the writers on down—then maybe it's time to address some oversights or unpack some internalized biases before wondering why people feel the need to defend that character.

[bestanimal]

Round 2 Final Stats:

Previously I said any group to earn over 900 points will move on to Round 3, however, I’m going to make it the Top 10 just to make it even. Plus, what’s an extra two species?

For the final stats, I’ve made a little graphic with some doodles to remind y’all what each class is. (Couldn’t use emojis for everyone because, alas, there are not enough unique ones to represent all these animal groups!) The full list is typed out under the read more though, as well as the extra stats for this round!

The top classes (or phylogenetic equivalents) have been ranked thusly, listed here from highest ranking to lowest:

🦈 Chondrichthyes ~ 1,509

🐀 Mammalia ~ 1,437

🐍 Reptilia ~ 1,183

🐙 Cephalopoda ~ 1,175

🐸 Lissamphibia ~ 1,002

🐠 Actinopterygii ~ 983

🦀 Malacostraca ~ 954

🕷 Arachnida ~ 913

🐞 Insecta ~ 908

Actinistia ~ 853

🐌 Gastropoda ~ 796

🫁 Dipnoi ~ 598

🦪 Bivalvia ~ 507

Myxini ~ 492

Chilopoda ~ 479

Branchiopoda ~ 443

Polyplacophora ~ 427

Petromyzontida ~ 412

Pycnogonida ~ 405

Copepoda ~ 308

Ascidiacea ~ 394

Diplopoda ~ 393

Ostracoda ~ 278

Collembola ~ 272

Thecostraca ~ 253

Pauropoda ~ 246

Appendicularia ~ 229

Leptocardii ~ 222

Remipedia ~ 194

Symphyla ~ 166

Solenogastres ~ 164

Tergomya ~ 158

Scaphopoda ~ 142

Tantulocarida ~ 139

Cephalocarida ~ 134

Mystacocarida ~ 115

Caudofoveata ~ 110

Diplura ~ 94

Protura ~ 83

Ichthyostraca ~ 83

Our Top 10 Classes are Chondrichthyes, Mammalia, Reptilia, Cephalopoda, Lissamphibia, Actinopterygii, Malacostraca, Arachnida, Insecta, and Actinistia!

This means Chondrichthyes, Mammalia, Reptilia, Cephalopoda, Lissamphibia, Actinopterygii, Malacostraca, Arachnida, Insecta, and Actinistia will be moving on to Round 3, and broken up by Order (or some other phylogenetic equivalent).

Extra Stats:

Arthropod Class Pycnogonida (“sea spiders”)

~ was the first group of Round 2

~ was the first arthropod group of Round 2

~ had the highest amount of dislikes at 20

~ had the highest amount of hates at 5

Arthropod Class Symphyla (“garden centipedes”)

~ had the highest percentage of likes at 45%

Arthropod Class Ichthyostraca (“fish lice” and “tongue worms”)

~ had the highest percentage of dislikes at 9.1%

~ had the highest percentage of hates at 2.6%

Arthropod Class Mystacocarida (“mustache shrimp”)

~ had the lowest amount of loves at 13

~ had the lowest percentage of loves at 7.9%

~ had 0 hates

~ had the least reblogs at 8

~ had the least notes at 21

Arthropod Class Ostracoda (“seed shrimp”)

~ had 0 hates

~ received exactly 200 votes

Arthropod Class Copepoda (copepods)

~ had 0 hates

Arthropod Class Malacostraca (“crabs”, “lobsters”, “shrimp”, etc)

~ had the third most reblogs at 55

~ had the highest percentage of loves at 52.8%

~ had 0 dislikes and 0 hates

~ was the highest ranked Arthropod class

Arthropod Class Tantulocarida (tantulocarids)

~ had the highest amount of neutral votes at 91, along with Caudofoveata

Arthropod Class Cephalocarida (“horseshoe shrimp”)

~ had 0 hates

Arthropod Class Remipedia (remipedes)

~ had 0 hates

Arthropod Class Collembola (“springtails”)

~ had 0 hates

Arthropod Class/Order Protura (“coneheads”)

~ had the least votes at 125

~ had the lowest amount of favorites at 1

~ had the lowest percentage of favorites at 0.8%

~ had 0 hates

Arthropod Class Insecta (insects)

~ had 0 dislikes

Chordate Class Leptocardii (“lancelets”)

~ was the first Chordate group of Round 2

~ had 0 hates

Chordate Class Ascidiacea/Thaliacea (“sea squirts”, “salps”, “pyrosomes”, etc.)

~ had 0 hates

Chordate Class Appendicularia (“larvaceans”)

~ had 0 hates

Chordate Class Chondrichthyes (“cartilaginous fish”)

~ had the most votes at 415

~ had the highest amount of loves at 181

~ had 0 dislikes and 0 hates

~ had the most reblogs at 105

~ had the most notes at 235

~ was the highest ranked group of chordates

Chordate Class Actinistia (“coelacanths”)

~ had 0 dislikes and 0 hates

~ was the first single genus (Latimeria) to be ranked

Chordate Class Dipnoi (“lungfish”)

~ had the highest amount of likes at 104

~ had 0 dislikes and 0 hates

~ contained the first of my personal favorites (Australian Lungfish) to be eliminated 🥲

Chordate Class Lissamphibia (amphibians)

~ had the lowest amount of neutral votes at 1, along with Reptilia and Gastropoda

~ had the lowest percentage of neutral votes at 0.4%, along with Reptilia and Gastropoda

~ had 0 dislikes and 0 hates

Chordate Class Reptilia (reptiles)

~ had the lowest amount of neutral votes at 1, along with Lissamphibia and Gastropoda

~ had the lowest percentage of neutral votes at 0.4%, along with Lissamphibia and Gastropoda

~ had 0 dislikes and 0 hates

Chordate Class Mammalia (mammals)

~ had the highest amount of favorites at 258

~ had the highest percentage of favorites at 80.6%

~ had the lowest amount of likes at 4

~ had the lowest percentage of likes at 1.2%

Molluscan Class Polyplacophora (“chitons”)

~ was the first Mollusc group of Round 2

~ had 0 hates

Molluscan Class Solenogastres (solenogasters)

~ had 0 hates

Molluscan Class Caudofoveata (caudofoveatans)

~ had the highest amount of neutral votes at 91, along with Tantulocarida

~ had the highest percentage of neutral votes at 58%

Molluscan Subclass Tergomya (tergomyans)

~ had 0 hates

Molluscan Class Cephalopoda (cephalopods)

~ had the second most reblogs at 66

~ had 0 dislikes and 0 hates

~ was the only molluscan class to make it into the Top Ten

Molluscan Class Scaphopoda (“tusk shells”)

~ had 0 hates

Molluscan Class Gastropoda (“snails” and kin)

~ had 0 dislikes and 0 hates

~ had the lowest amount of neutral votes at 1, along with Lissamphibia and Reptilia

~ had the lowest percentage of neutral votes at 0.4%, along with Lissamphibia and Reptilia

Molluscan Class Bivalvia (bivalves)

~ had 0 dislikes

[quaranmine]

it is kind of crazy to me that we live in such a polarized, absurdly nationalistic, patriotic country and yet when evidence that nearly 50% of bald eagles, our national bird and icon of America, suffer from chronic lead poisoning and one third from acute lead poisoning there is not some massive outcry to fix this instantly. people are just like nooooooo but i wanna keep using lead fishing weights :((((( and the NRA is like over my dead body will you take our lead ammunition

like obviously this affects other types of animals too but i would've thought that the bald eagle would be THE charismatic species for the USA to take action on behalf of but. nope

[tekitothemagpie]

GUYS IT'S VIVI, IT'S VIVI- SHE'S TRYING TO TELL Y'ALL WHERE SHE IS- IT'S VIVI- WHERE THE FUCK IS THE EAST BLUE GANG- IT'S VIVI

ROBIN MY LOVE REMEMBER IT PLEASE 😭🙏🏼 WHY DON'T THEY TELL EACH OTHER THIS KIND OF SHIT!!!

[limeartichoke]

purgatory fanart of that one scene where phil loses his wings for the second time

[breha]

claudia’s birth allows louis to believe that he and lestat have become The Parents (equal status) and so the teacher-student power dynamic has gone away, but really it’s just been repressed and it comes up again like wack-a-mole

[luvbloggingandreblogging]

Something About Jason Todd In The Future I Guess

Jason Todd, in the eyes of the world at large, is a mildly successful author who lives on his father’s trust fund. He is in the minority of his siblings to have a college degree, and he was missing for a significant period of time, presumed dead. He is 28 years old, and he spends his nights grappling from rooftops as part of a flock of colorfully dressed birds, striking fear into their lawless, beautiful city.

He is the Red Hood. He protects the parts of the city many glance over.

He is the only bird in this flock with fresh blood on its talons.

Two of his younger siblings are birds of prey who have learned to eat nuts and seeds. He is a songbird who has learned to hunt.

He does not do so carelessly.

It has taken him the better part of a decade, but he has learned the ways he is different to his siblings. To his father.

For them, killing would be easy.

For him, it is never easy.

He feels the blood of each body on his hands. He knows the story behind each one. This does not paralyze him, as it would his older brother, or deaden him, as it would his younger brothers.

Each person he kills has a life. Each bloody body tells a story.

He was one of those stories, once, after all. 

But every person he saves has a life, too. And every story has to end sometime. 

The Red Hood kills. It is a tool, one of many in his arsenal. Once, it might have been his tool of choice, but he knows better, now.

This flock knows better than anyone, after all, that there are worse things than death.

[starflungwaddledee]

It only just occurred to me now, but based on how you draw elegant things have you perhaps seen a certain owl movie about Ga’Hoole

i am unsurprisingly an enjoyer of this movie, for sure 🤣 absolutely stunning movie to look at as a bird enjoyer, and the flying sequences in that one were so lovely! while my guy is more swan than owl, i absolutely do think of him when the tytos do anything.

i've actually never read the books, because i think they were slightly after my Constantly-Reading childhood, so i don't know how the movie compares to them. but i really enjoyed the world building in that the problems faced by the non-human characters were relatable, but were typically non-human problems.

at least besides the like... the you know. the racial supremacy. very much a human specific problem, that one. but gizzard stuff and the moon-blinking; that's understandable world building, for owls, i think!

[kedreeva]

(disclaimer: I am not saying this from a place of hostility to geese)

how did 3-year old you survive feeding geese :( when I was 4 I was feeding ducks and geese (which I was about the same height as at the time) at a local pond and they chased me and tried to bite me until my parents picked me up and ran. I didn't try to scare them and I was a generally quiet child, do I just have Bad Vibes to them or something? or is it something to do with their past experiences/socialization as Pond Ducks/Geese? nowadays whenever a goose or swan so much as starts staring at me I'm like "ok time to go :)"

Without knowing more about the situation, I can't say what particular thing you did, but I can say that geese don't chase people for no reason at all. It's possible you got too close rather than letting them come to you, it's possible you were just plain too close to their nesting site, it's possible you performed a movement that (in goose) suggested your desire to start a dispute. It's possible you were feeding them from your hands and they associated your hands with food, and were simply looking for more food, or attempting to chase you away from the food.

And to be clear, I'm definitely not advocating for people letting small children feed geese, honestly no one should be feeding wild animals, mostly because it familiarizes wildlife with humans and that can be bad, but also because it opens too many opportunities for humans to do the wrong things and end up hurt or scared. As a 4yo, it wasn't your responsibility to know how to interact with geese- it was your parents' job to monitor your actions, the actions and reactions of the geese, and remove you from the situation before it became a problem (or not put you in that position in the first place). The geese are blameless for acting like geese and you are blameless by reason of being 4 years old.

I ALSO want to be clear that being SCARED of something DOES NOT equal HATING something. Hate can stem from fear, and fear can stem from hate, but they are not the same thing. There are PLENTY of people, for example, who are terrified of spiders but who will either remove them from a place with a cup and paper, or fetch someone to do so, to prevent a spider from dying for the crime of being small. You (general) can be afraid of something and still treat it with respect. You do not have to hate the things you are afraid of.