#barbules

[fph2]

[emotional-support-gummgumm]

"Hey. Hey Barbul. Guess what?" As he turns around Kat grinned, holding a massive fish over her head the same size she is. "Did I win yet?" someone told her about the fishing game, though she misunderstood the finer points of it. Like throwing Barbul into the water to catch said fish.

The quilled troll gives an amused chuff

“Considerin’ I ain’t been tossed inta the nearest body of water fer it, seems like a pretty irrefutable win ta me.”

He is grateful for the misunderstanding at this point.

[k3igol0ve]

˚₊‧꒰ა˚PREENING ⁀➷ KEIGO. Takami GENRE: FLUFF ᯓᡣ𐭩 [Keigo x GN!Reader]

' It was infrequent, almost rare that you had Keigo for the whole day, unbothered by society and his duties. A rare occasion where he was Keigo and not Hawks. '

Naturally, like birds Keigo loves to be upkept and tidy especially when it came to his wings and not anybody was allowed to touch his wings, well except for you. His love, his darling, his everything. Soft amble lofi music trailed in the air, as the sky set in the background; hues of pastel purple orange and yellow intermingled beyond your shared penthouse. Though, nothing compared to the sight of him seated, back faced towards you with fluffed up wings. You were seated on your own legs behind him as your hands dutifully and gently ran through his wings; lightly tugging on loose feathers. Keigo almost groans at how gentle you are being with his wings, almost melting into your touch alone. He has this fuzzy feeling in his heart at times like this. His hands are occupied with your pillow on his lap, he's hugging it tightly. His face buried in your pillow as he inhales your scent, driving him into oblivion. God, you were driving him insane. Your touches were enough for him to harbour a strong urge to cuddle and hold you tightly. You made his heart feel warm. You're patient and focused, searching through his wings to realign the barbs and barbules. Keigo soft cooing makes your heart melt in adoration for him. He happily chirps from time to time, letting you know you're doing such a good job. You're so good to him, too good for him. He's addicted to your light touches, he's addicted to you. His feathers feel incredibly smooth under your touch as your hands expertly weave through his wings. He was unable to form words, his system completely eased under your touch allowing his whole body to relax into you. His avian mind feeling nothing but adoration for you. Gentle trills emitting from him, his wings ruffling slightly. He almost whimpers under your touch, it just felt soo good. By the time you're done, his tense posture is absent and he's in a state of euphoria. The first thing he does is crash fall onto you, holding you tightly as he peppers kisses all over your face and neck. I mean, how could he not? His mate had taken care of him so well, it was only fair to him that he reciprocated. Keigo found you absolutely endearing. "I love you so much." He murmurs, his head on your neck as he eased his hand into your hair to ruffle it slightly. He's incredibly clingy, holding onto you as his wings surround you both. "Love you too Kei." ' Keigo has never felt so loved and cared for, he was never letting you go. '

He'd never preen on his own again because nothing would compare to your touch.

[meebles]

I don't have anything new to share currently, but @codywancomfort is such a cute event and I'd like to share a couple of my older comfort fics:

and the stars, like a loved one

Codywan / Rated T / One-shot / No warnings

Summary:

“These wings are your lives.” Cody watches with a keen eye, same as any other training exercise— the way Seventeen arranges and slots any wayward feathers back into place, carefully realigning the barbules, removing any molted feathers trapped between the various layers. “They will save your lives, but only if they’re properly maintained for optimal flight. And unlike a blaster, broken and useless ones cannot be tossed out and replaced… ” Alpha-17 turns and gives the lot of them one of his most severe looks. Cody looks up and meets it, unwavering. “Not without replacing the entire unit. So don’t give them a reason to.”

Or: Cody, his wings, and carving out comfort in the middle of a war.

Read on Ao3

--------

the harvest of a lifetime (real bad tea)

Codywan / Rated T / One-shot / No warnings

Summary:

“Well, how do you like it?” He sets the cup down, and turns to Kenobi. The look on his face is vaguely hopeful, but mostly one of genuine curiosity. Cody has no doubt in his mind that if he tells Kenobi he doesn’t like it, the other man won’t take any offense. It is, after all, just a drink. But Cody thinks of how passionate Kenobi was when discussing the tea, how entirely happy he seemed. A true moment of joy that Cody doesn’t know if he’s ever really seen from his General. It’s such thoughts, swirling in the back of his mind, that compel him to do something completely unnecessary and entirely stupid. They compel him to lie.

Or: Cody and Obi-Wan often share a cup of tea while they work. The fact that Cody hates tea is inconsequential.

Read on Ao3

[sass-squat]

Part 6 of the Linked Universe Winged Au! After many requests this time around we've got our Veteran, Legend!

<<< Previous Next >>>

As always we have to start off with a bird fact, so did you know that male White-Winged Crossbills have unpigmented barbules that mask their red color and are what make them appear pink in the fall? However, as these barbules wear off, the bright red is able to show through leaving them a brilliant red in the spring and summer!

Anyways, I found this fact to be very interesting especially considering Legend's adventure throughout Oracle of Seasons. Just the mental image of his plumage slightly shifting with the constant changing of the seasons was very funny to me and I couldn't NOT make it canon. Plus, I enjoy making his life more difficult than it already is because I also headcanon that when he was younger, his wings were constantly stuck in a half molted state because white-winged crossbills usually molt in the fall. In other words, turns out messing around with seasons and time has consequences so he was a very scruffy, fluffy looking kid growing up.

As for how he looks and acts now, he has many similar characteristics and behaviors of a White-Winged Crossbill. For example, he is a very strong flier, and his unique way of flying has given him a very aggressive and abrupt fighting style both on the ground and in the air. His style of fighting is especially effective in forests with a lot of trees because it allows him to dart between foliage and foes alike.

While his flight and fighting styles were influenced by the sheer number of quests he has gone on as well as his young age when he began, other characteristics and behaviors of his were also influenced as well. For example, when he was still just a kid thrown into his first adventure where just about everything in the world was bigger than him, he learned to bristle and fluff his feathers to appear bigger and more threatening to enemies. While somewhat effective at the time, nowadays it means he still has the unconscious habit of doing it whenever he is irritated or embarrassed.

In addition to his tendency to "poof" when upset, he also has a habit of picking at and pulling out his own feathers when especially stressed. He picked up this habit mainly because of his constant molting as a child but then continued it as he was went on more and more adventures. Doing it is second nature to him now, but it's a bad habit he's actively trying to break by fiddling with his rings instead. It's also part of why he's so insistent about preening the others because helping them quite literally stops him from pulling out his own feathers.

Anyways! I could go on, but that's all for now folks! Thank you again for all your support and kind messages! I really treasure them and they are always the highlight of my day! As always, feel free to let me know who or what you would like to see next! Thank you all again!

Bonus Doodle Feat. Wind taking a photo of Wild taking a photo of Legend inspired by this masterpiece:

[lucienne-my-beloved]

Hello my love! I have a prompt for you which will hopefully be a good one!

Due to a certain situation involving the key to Hell, the Dreaming is hosting a vast party of Gods and Goddesses, Angels and Demons, and strange beings of Order and Chaos, to name a few.

Lucienne, being second in command, has been busy making sure everyone is comfortable, putting together the preparations for a successful banquet, and making sure no unwanted guests mess up her precious library.

Finally the days events have come to an end, and the guests have settled down in their chambers (although Lord Morpheus will be busy throughout the night). Lucienne just wants to put her feet up and read a good book - Roses latest novel looks quite thrilling! - but her night isn't quite over, as someone has come to visit the library out of hours, and Lucienne is perhaps in for more thrills than just Roses book!

Ooh, thank you for the excellent prompt! Who could it be?

Lucienne’s feet were finally up, and she’d just opened her book to the next chapter, when she heard unfamiliar footsteps in her library. It was not Gault, whose footsteps were as familiar and beloved as the dimple when she smiled, nor Morpheus, whose footsteps were silent when he visited as a cat and only barely less silent in his other forms. And it was definitely not Mervyn, whose footsteps were always accompanied by muttered swearing and the clatter of ladders or buckets. (He didn’t work this late anymore anyway, since Matthew introduced him to the idea of unions and time off.) Lucienne sighed and resigned herself to putting down her book. One of the guests must have wandered into the Library, or perhaps there was a dream or nightmare who needed counsel, but in any case, her day was not quite over yet.

Page number memorized, she put her book down on her desk and stood, facing the sound and pulling on her suit jacket once more. Might as well look official.

It was not hard to find the visitor. The grace of their steps made it apparent that they could tread silently if they wished, and only made their footsteps audible to give her warning. The slave of Lord Kilderkin, Manifestation of Order, approached carrying the cardboard box that was the current incarnation of their master.

“Welcome to the Library,” Lucienne greeted them with a slight bow.

“I thank you,” answered the slave. “I have an interest in Order, as you might imagine, and wondered if I might see how you manage to effect it here, in the Dreaming.”

“Of course! I’ll give you the tour, shall I?”

“Wonderful! I’ll just…” and the slave set their master (the cardboard box) down on Lucienne’s desk. “It’ll be safe enough here, right?”

“Certainly. I get very few visitors at this time of night.”

“Excellent. Now, I’ve been very curious about the categorization system you use in this Library. Surely it must be very difficult to find things back.”

“It’s actually not a problem, generally.” Lucienne waved her hand at the nearest corridor as they began to walk. “You see, early on I realized the recursive nature of categorizing information, how every branch divides into smaller and smaller categories, becoming more and more precise. And having recently been a raven, at the time I became librarian, I was reminded of the design of my feathers — one main shaft, with barbs coming off it and barbules off those. So I designed the Library in a similar way…”

“Fascinating! And that works well for you?” The slave didn’t seem sceptical but inquiring, as if he might try to implement a similar system somewhere.

“In fact, it does! In almost all cases. This section here, the Tumblr section, is a bit of an exception. I can never seem to find what I’m looking for here. But I have a feeling that’s a characteristic of Tumblr and not an issue with my system.”

“Ah. I would not know. The Lords of Order have no familiarity with Tumblr.”

“I would expect not. It seems to belong more to the realm of Chaos.” The slave nodded sagely and seemed to almost regretfully put aside their curiosity about the Tumblr section.

Just then, Morpheus streaked past them in his cat form. (Lucienne secretly thought of him as Meowpheus when he was in this form. But she’d never tell him that. Maybe she’d tell Matthew one day, if only she could trust him to keep it to himself.)

“Oh! A cat!” The slave was obviously startled to find an animal in the Library.

“Yes! It is not uncommon in some places for libraries to keep cats. In fact, here is the section on library cats and other cats who have jobs.”

“Fabulous!” Lucienne waited attentively as the slave browsed the shelves and eventually chose a couple books to borrow for the night. One was on library cats, and the other on library design and information categorization.

“Let’s just bring those back to my desk to enter in the Ledger, and you can pick up your master as well,” she suggested when they were finished.

“Of course. Thank you for the lovely tour, you’ve given me much to think about.”

“You are very welcome.” Lucienne smiled warmly but then turned to follow the guest’s eyes at the sudden shocked look on their face.

On her desk was the cardboard box, Kilderkin, Lord of Order. Sitting in it was Meowpheus. He stared at them with his haughty cat gaze (well, his normal gaze), obviously perfectly content with his place and in no mood to move.

“I. You. Um.” The slave looked at Lucienne in panic. “The Library Cat can’t just sit in the Lord of Order!”

“I’m so sorry,” she apologized smoothly. “I’m sure he will find his way to another comfy spot, Quite Soon Now.” She glared at Lord Morpheus, and he glared right back. But then he deigned to stand and saunter out of the box, shaking his back leg to show his disdain of her before leaping off the desk and onto the nearby window reading nook where his cat nest was.

The slave shakily picked up the Lord of Order, reaching inside the box for the note which had appeared.

“Get this cat out of me,” it said. “We are done here.”

“I’m sorry, Lucienne, I must go,” the slave apologized, bowing deeply.

“Of course. I’ll hold onto these in case you can come borrow them later.” She set the books aside on her quick reference shelf and escorted him out of the Palace to ensure no other offences would occur on the way.

Back in the Library once again she hesitated before picking her book up, looking at Meowpheus in his window nest.

“Really, my Lord,” she chided.

He blinked his cat eyes at her, looking smug and extremely proud of himself. She sighed and picked up her book, hiding behind it to roll her eyes. She might never fully understand the King of Dreams, but they had a good understanding.

[ktempestbradford]

Ancient Egypt and Ostrich Feathers

Have a question for the Egyptologists and knowledgeable fans of Ancient Egypt about ostrich feathers.

(btw is there an Egyptologist Tumblr community? I follow @thatlittleegyptologist but don't know of any other accounts. HMU!)

When I was in Egypt last month I went to the Grand Egyptian Museum to take the very limited tour of the atrium they offer now. It... wasn't worth the money. Anywho, our tour guide did his best to make it seem valuable by talking a LOT about each thing he showed us.

Next to the colossal statue of Ramses II that dominates the atrium there's a table showing the emblems of royal iconography. The sun disk, the nemes headdress, cow horns, and a feather. He asks us if we know what that last one is and I or someone says it's the feather of Ma'at. Correct! Do we know what bird it comes from? The ostrich, someone else says. Why did they choose ostrich feathers for Ma'at and also certain crowns?

On this trip I had gone to the Nubian museum and thus had just seen several pieces of art from pre-historical peoples that utilized ostrich eggs, including a famous one that had three pyramids etched into it along with some animals. So I said something like: The ostrich has been an important animal even before the pharaohs. They relied on it for food and made art with the eggs. The tour guide (Mark) said: That's an awfully materialistic view. No, that's not why.

Now... I know I'm not an expert even though I know a lot about ancient Egypt. But "a materialistic view"? Like somehow it's not enough that ostriches provided food and probably were used in other, important ways? Why do you think Hathor is represented as a cow and there are cow horns incorporated in crowns? Because they look cool? wtf?

Mark then goes on to tell this story. Back in the dawn of civilization in Egypt the Egyptian man didn't have much to do during the day. (eyebrow raise) So he started collecting feathers from all the birds that flew above him in the sky. (...um... wait...) He would collect and then count the barbules and do you know what he discovered? Only the ostrich had the same number of them on both sides. That's why this is the feather of balance and justice.

Friends. I have never wanted to scream SHENANIGANS or at least CITE YOUR SOURCES so much in my life. Like... what?

Leaving aside the implication that ostriches were somehow flying above ancient Egyptians or that there was some point where men didn't have a dang thing to do all day but count the little hairs on feathers, I feel like this explanation is complete hooey. I mean, it could be that all or some of an ostrich's feathers have the same amount of barbules on either side of the middle bit. You might even be able to convince me that this isn't true for any other bird that someone from the Nile valley 6,000+ years ago had access to. But I'm going to need a ton of supporting evidence that this is the sole reason why the feather of Ma'at is an ostrich feather and not for the "materialistic" reasons I cited.

Also, I'm sorry, but I'm real sure predynastic Nile valley dwellers were far more concerned about food and shelter than coming up with complex reasons for using a certain kind of feather to represent a metaphysical thing.

However, I could be wrong! So I'm asking: is there evidence for Mark's version of events? Is this, you know, written somewhere in a papyrus or on a temple wall or another place? I would honestly love to read any papers on this subject, whatever the background on it.

As to the Grand Egyptian Museum, I really hope that whoever they hire to give tours when the whole thing opens are better at this than Mark. I wasn't impressed with his tour overall and eventually gave up listening to him once I saw that there was a gelato place open for business inside.

[writerwhowritesao3]

my current brainrot is supernatural, specifically when jack comes into the picture, and i'm obsessedddd with the idea of castiel and jack bonding as angels (or as an angel and his nephil son). like:

cas and jack grooming/preening each others wings? (in this hc, the angels have their wings restored) cas teaches jack how to groom his own wings, but also does it for him because, like, that's his kid. it's akin to a human parent brushing/braiding/styling their child's hair. but jack has some innate angel behavior/mentality, right? so he wants to preen his dad's wings, too, especially because cas mentioned that allopreening is something angels do as a social/bonding activity.

so they set aside a chunk of time every week to allopreen. they set up in jack's room, bring their wings into the physical plane, and take the time to wipe away dust and dirt with a soft cloth, zip up separated barbules, reposition displaced feathers, and release pin feathers.

they both have a lot of feathers, so it's a process that usually takes a couple of hours. they almost always talk while allopreening. they'll talk about movies or tv shows they watched with sam and dean. jack will ask endless questions about everything from human pop culture to lore to world history, and cas will do his best to answer every single one of his questions. cas will entertain jack with stories about the mischief he and his siblings would get into during their fledgling years.

sometimes they don't speak at all—they just enjoy each other's company and comfortably share the silence.

[officiallordvetinari]

Below are 10 featured Wikipedia articles. Links and descriptions are below the cut.

The election in 1860 for the position of Boden Professor of Sanskrit at the University of Oxford was a competition between two candidates offering different approaches to Sanskrit scholarship. One was Monier Williams, an Oxford-educated Englishman who had spent 14 years teaching Sanskrit to those preparing to work in British India for the East India Company. The other, Max Müller, was a German-born lecturer at Oxford specialising in comparative philology, the science of language.

Adolfo Farsari (Italian pronunciation: [aˈdolfo farˈsaːri]; 11 February 1841 – 7 February 1898) was an Italian photographer based in Yokohama, Japan. His studio, the last notable foreign-owned studio in Japan, was one of the country's largest and most prolific commercial photographic firms. Largely due to Farsari's exacting technical standards and his entrepreneurial abilities, it had a significant influence on the development of photography in Japan.

Girl Pat was a small fishing trawler, based at the Lincolnshire port of Grimsby, that in 1936 was the subject of a media sensation when its captain took it on an unauthorised transatlantic voyage. The escapade ended in Georgetown, British Guiana, with the arrest of the captain, George "Dod" Orsborne, and his brother. The pair were later imprisoned for the theft of the vessel.

Abu Muhammad Hasan al-Kharrat (Arabic: حسن الخراط Ḥassan al-Kharrāṭ; 1861 – 25 December 1925) was one of the principal Syrian rebel commanders of the Great Syrian Revolt against the French Mandate. His main area of operations was in Damascus and its Ghouta countryside. He was killed in the struggle and is considered a hero by Syrians.

Marjorie Cameron Parsons Kimmel (April 23, 1922 – July 24, 1995), who professionally used the mononym Cameron, was an American artist, poet, actress and occultist. A follower of Thelema, the new religious movement established by the English occultist Aleister Crowley, she was married to rocket pioneer and fellow Thelemite Jack Parsons.

Maya stelae (singular stela) are monuments that were fashioned by the Maya civilization of ancient Mesoamerica. They consist of tall, sculpted stone shafts and are often associated with low circular stones referred to as altars, although their actual function is uncertain. Many stelae were sculpted in low relief, although plain monuments are found throughout the Maya region. The sculpting of these monuments spread throughout the Maya area during the Classic Period (250–900 AD), and these pairings of sculpted stelae and circular altars are considered a hallmark of Classic Maya civilization.

The North Norfolk Coast Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) is an area of European importance for wildlife in Norfolk, England. It comprises 7,700 ha (19,027 acres) of the county's north coast from just west of Holme-next-the-Sea to Kelling, and is additionally protected through Natura 2000, Special Protection Area (SPA) listings; it is also part of the Norfolk Coast Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB). The North Norfolk Coast is also designated as a wetland of international importance on the Ramsar list and most of it is a Biosphere Reserve.

Preening is a maintenance behaviour found in birds that involves the use of the beak to position feathers, interlock feather barbules that have become separated, clean plumage, and keep ectoparasites in check. Feathers contribute significantly to a bird's insulation, waterproofing and aerodynamic flight, and so are vital to its survival. Because of this, birds spend considerable time each day maintaining their feathers, primarily through preening.

The Wells and Wellington affair was a dispute about the publication of three papers in the Australian Journal of Herpetology in 1983 and 1985. The periodical was established in 1981 as a peer-reviewed scientific journal focusing on the study of amphibians and reptiles (herpetology). Its first two issues were published under the editorship of Richard W. Wells, a first-year biology student at Australia's University of New England. Wells then ceased communicating with the journal's editorial board for two years before suddenly publishing three papers without peer review in the journal in 1983 and 1985. Coauthored by himself and high school teacher Cliff Ross Wellington, the papers reorganized the taxonomy of all of Australia's and New Zealand's amphibians and reptiles and proposed over 700 changes to the binomial nomenclature of the region's herpetofauna.

Wulfhere or Wulfar (died 675) was King of Mercia from 658 until 675 AD. He was the first Christian king of all of Mercia, though it is not known when or how he converted from Anglo-Saxon paganism. His accession marked the end of Oswiu of Northumbria's overlordship of southern England, and Wulfhere extended his influence over much of that region.

[solargeist]

Maybe,,, a neurodivergent hc for grian,,, he stims with feathers the way someone runs their hands through their hair or twirls their hair!! and he doesn't mean to but he does it so much sometimes a feather gets tugged out accidentally,,, or the barbules and barbs get split unintentionally,,, but preening and wing care is also nice because its part of a stim??

Omg I can’t tell if his wings would look super neat from him always brushing them, or super messy from the treatment 😭

I think Grian is super protective of his wings, so he preens often

I also like to think when his feathers fall out he sticks them in his hair

[sidhebeingbrand]

Look I am going to give you some evidence and you decide how much crack you want to smoke today.

Sith Race: red skin, white hair, beardlike barbules

Sith empire sigil: angular and six-pointed, like perhaps a water crystal

Sith hierarchy: included masterminds and minions

Sith religious practices: into the dark side, which is strongly characterized by attachment/avarice/possession

Sith history: turned Ziost into a frozen wasteland

PERFECTLY PLAUSIBLE CONSEQUENCE:

“Once an observation of respect for Sith’ari Claw, a tyrant of Ziost who offered irresistable gifts that nevertheless led to his enemy’s downfall, supported by his small army of craftsman massassi, Ziostmas has been diluted from a celebration of avarice and power into a weak secular celebration of ‘joy’ and ‘family’ and ‘surviving cold conditions’. Disgusting.”

[flock-talk]

do you know that thing parrots do where they shake just their tails real fast? do you know what that can mean?

Kinda depends on species and context

Shaking just the tail could be

Flinging excess water off the tail after a bath so they dry and are able to fly

Resetting the tail feathers if they’ve become ruffled

Realigns feather barbules that have come unhooked

Diffusing tension after a fight/ bicker to initiate preening behaviours and communicate a desire to redirect away from the conflict

Flare the tail out more to make themselves appear larger and more threatening

May occur during play as a result of stimulation and excitement, similar to a dog’s hackles (piloerection)

A single body language cue has a ton of meanings entirely dependent on the environment it’s occurring in, what lead up to it occurring, the individual bird, and what other body language cues are present in the moment

[fashionablyenigmatic]

Finding Tzeentch

She would be the first to find the missing god. It was only a matter of finding the right way to decay in the salty ocean. Oceanic fungi were microscopic and difficult to gather in large quantities, and the sea itself had vast areas devoid of life. Baba Yaga stood at the shore, staff in hand, grimacing as the salty water sizzled against her mold-covered flesh. She took a few steps back, drew a circle around herself, and raised the staff. Tzeentch's barbules, tied into a witch's ladder, dangled and waved in the wind. The old ways were always the best.

She focused, needing to let go of her current form. She rooted herself into the sand, becoming as still as a statue, like strange driftwood. A seagull, curious, landed and pecked at her. Without hesitation, she struck, snapping its neck and tossing it into the ocean. The waves carried the offering away. Eventually, it would sink, and she could slither toward the next corpse being recycled. She wasn’t just rot and mold—she was part of the cycle.

Her search led her to a whale fall, the beauty of death transforming into a home for scavengers. She continued on, her hunt still unfolding.

@thefouraboveall

[thesiblingsoftheblackandwhite]

In 2012, there was over $100 billion in unpaid child support payments.

There are 15 million children right now that are being raised without a father.

Deadbeat dads account for 7% of the cases of child support not being paid. That translates into 1 out of every 14 families.

Although there will always likely be deadbeat dads out there, that doesn’t mean that kids must pay the price for their father’s lack of responsibility.

Feathers Can Weigh More Than a Bird's Skeleton.

Some Feathers Work Like Neck Warmers.

Downy feathers look fluffy because they have a loosely arranged plumulaceous microstructure with flexible barbs and relatively long barbules that trap air close to the bird’s warm body.

...I'm not sure whether to put a smiley face or not...

I see you think you’re clever.

There is no reaction other than the rotation of His eyes.

[meebles]

and the stars, like a loved one

Codywan / Rated T / One-shot / No warnings

Summary:

“These wings are your lives.” Cody watches with a keen eye, same as any other training exercise— the way Seventeen arranges and slots any wayward feathers back into place, carefully realigning the barbules, removing any molted feathers trapped between the various layers. “They will save your lives, but only if they’re properly maintained for optimal flight. And unlike a blaster, broken and useless ones cannot be tossed out and replaced… ” Alpha-17 turns and gives the lot of them one of his most severe looks. Cody looks up and meets it, unwavering. “Not without replacing the entire unit. So don’t give them a reason to.”

Or: Cody, his wings, and carving out comfort in the middle of a war.

Read on Ao3

--

My fic for the Codywan Week Discord's Coday Exchange!

A very happy @codyday2224 to all!!

[bittersweetresilience]

hi sunny!! what’s a line or scene (or a couple!) of yours that you find yourself thinking about? or are very proud of? 💘📝

HI AUTUMN!! you are the sweetest <3

i have a couple from omori and other fandoms i think about often but from miraculous, the first that came to mind was the scientist line from orbital departure i've talked about before. mostly because i am full of félix and émilie feelings. and in the same universe i am very emotional about a scene i haven't yet gotten to in watership down. just. yeah. bunny amélie.

if it's about quality of prose, i'd definitely say my favorite fic i've written is nothing ever stops you leaving. i really put everything i had into the reunion scene. i picked a few lines below in case the full fic is inaccessible due to content warnings.

Ornate eye feathers frame austere faces, drifts of barbules bleeding into each other, slowly spinning in a circulatory system of memory . . . The grief shocks him, a cold, familiar tide of it, hurting for relief. There’s a ghost on the piano bench, too, a hand over feverish eyes.

He sounds like he had in the bare streets of Paris, haloed by the claret red moon. The cracked stone beneath him had been the vertebrae of an exposed skeleton. His face had been young and just as open, as if he had no idea why Adrien wasn’t as happy as he was, why he didn’t understand.

Silence stretches between them, making the air feel thin, like the tissue paper crumpled on his floor. Félix looks away. Adrien breathes it in.

i'm also pleased with several lines in leave the whole world blind and the fic i wrote you, hehe

extra line from ghost félix au below the cut because it's. the ending

“Fin de la réunion,” Adrien says, and the hollow of his breath is his own answering confession, and then he is the only ghost who is left.