#birdie hours

[snowpuff79]

Golbetty bird doodles on my ap textbook and a single peice of digital art let's gooo

(Giant bird with teeth !!! Bad ending Simon gets eaten oops lalala )

Me x cross hatching

+ my iconic pulpy orange juice canvas

[lylahammar]

I sometimes see you reblog cute birds (which, thank you for brightening my dash with them) and I thought you'd like to know about the existence of booted racket-tails - in case you haven't heard of them before, they're hummingbirds that look like they're wearing little pantaloons!

UR SO RIGHT I LITERALLY JUST SHARED A PICTURE OF ONE OF THEM ON BLUESKY THIS MORNING

I'M ALWAYS OPEN TO HEAR ABOUT MORE COOL AND FUN AND CUTE BIRDS

[damagedcoda6669]

ableist ppl after watching my comeback video

[birrdify]

Heya!, Soni here!, I am not sure if you take requests, but, I'd love to see your Kinito interacting with mine!; (USB!Kinito)!! alsoooo, I really adore the way you draw your kinito :O!!, they are freaking adorable, just a little pink gumball guy!! Since I really like your artstyle a lot!!, one artist to another!! Also, also, make sure to take plenty of breaks and drink water, or I will throw cheese at you, this is a threat!!! >:) /pos

aaand a very messy doodle ;

soni check tags pretty please i have many kind words to sa-

[jukudol]

anna has cannoncally hooked up with virginia woolf and i think you all need to know that

[the-lightning-strikes-again]

Lotura Week 2024: Day 1, Fairytales and Mythology

The Jinni in the Bottle

Rated: T

Lotor sits upon the beach, the waves crashing over his bare calves as he holds the strange bottle in his trembling hands. Behind him, makeshift living quarters out of his prison pod gleam in the three suns. “Come on,” he breathes desperately.

His lavender skin is darkened from many days of little shade, his skin scarred from grappling with the sharp bark of the planet’s trees and the fanged sharks of the waters.

“I sense the power within,” he says. His voice carries an unsteady edge as he struggles to open the bottle. “Perhaps you are a lost belonging of other previously stranded souls on this gods-forsaken planet. A civilization like mine that knew quintessence.”

He has grown fond of speaking to inanimate objects. The nearby rock structure is now named Varzax, and the bottle itself is quickly cruising toward a name of its own.

(But if he cannot open the bottle, he may end up naming it Annoying.)

With his Galran strength, he crunches the metal top and wrenches it away, tossing it into the tide. But as he peers into the bottle, instead of seeing a Balmeran crystal or other quintessence-based artifact, all that flies in his face is pink smoke.

Lotor coughs, then his eyes widen as the smoke storms out more intentionally.

The next thing he knows, a warm and hard body slams him down into the tide, lithe figures crunching in on his throat.

His claws protract.

He swings to attack his strange new opponent—only for another hand to slam his arm down above his head, splashing the water hard.

Lotor stares up into purple and blue eyes from a beautiful, feminine face as soft thighs press against his hips.

His cracked lips drop open as his cheeks flame.

(Surely, he has lost his mind.)

The woman’s white curls tumble down her shoulders, her flowing shirt and pants glittering with royal finery. “A Galran,” she hisses, alto voice twisted in fear and hatred. “With the eyes of Zarkon. You must be of his blood.” She looks up in paranoia. “Are there more of you?”

Lotor struggles for words as the magical woman holds him down, the tide washing over them. “Ah,” he says in mild disbelief. “Apologies, I’ve only had conversation with rocks as of late. I thought you’d be a stone, a fragment of quintessence.” With a wily move and twist of his unnatural joints, he slips his wrist away from her sharp grip, only to pat her face. “And you are far too tangible to be a hallucination.”

She sputters against his fingers, jerking her face away.

With a huff, she grabs for his hand and forces it back down. “I am no hallucination,” she declares haughtily. “Emperor Zarkon imprisoned me in that cursed bottle after overrunning my planet, and I have sworn to annihilate his blood for it.”

A little at a time, Lotor’s sun-addled mind catches up with the blush across his face. “A jinni,” he whispers. “That is what you are. A demon who must grants wishes for the one who releases you.”

The magical being holding him down tilts her head, her eyes swirling with the power of entire universes.

Her lips quiver. “And you are blood of Zarkon.”

Lotor huffs at her, half-amused. “Are you to kill me then, or will you grant me a wish as the one who has freed you?” He searches her eyes. “Admittedly, a death by your hand would be far lovelier compared to life on this planet.”

Water crashes against her, spinning her white curls as she sits in the water beside him. “Is that a wish, then?”

Lotor sits up, rubbing his abused throat. His face remains flushed by the memory of her heat upon him. “No. I wish only to know your name.”

The word wish revs up the power that emanates from her, of its own accord.

She hesitates before whispering, “Allura.”

He leans his elbows on his knees, not quite caring that he sits in his underclothes before her, having long lost his shame. “Why did my father also abandon you here to die forgotten, Allura? I wish to know it.”

Allura grows more apprehensive the more he uses the word wish. “I was a princess once,” she says, voice halted. “When he—when he invaded, I…gave up my mortal life in exchange for great power. But it came at great cost and with unusual weaknesses.”

Lotor searches her face again. “Yes, jinnis are easily captured and manipulated, according to legend.” His head tilts. “And yet also devious and wily."

She scoots away from him, as if suddenly realizing he is a man. “You will not wish for me to perform any sordid acts for you, son of Zarkon,” she demands in fear. "For the legends are true that jinnis make many regret their wishes."

He quirks an eyebrow at her.

And then tiredly, he leans his long arms on his knees and says, “Allura of the Djinn, I release you of the conditions that bind you to me. Your presence alone has given me my heart’s desire, which is simply to hear a voice besides my own.”

In that moment, the universe resettles around her, markings upon her face and arms lighting a bright pink before softening once more. She closes her eyes, her throat tightening with deep emotion. “You would release me so easily? Am I not some…some asset that your father wanted you to find?"

Lotor turns to glance out at the horizon, placing a hand over his eyes to block out the sun. “My father marooned me here after I turned against him. I suspect after his many years of pillaging planets, he forgot that he also left you here.”

Allura stares back at the crashed prison pod and clothes hanging to dry from a makeshift wooden structure. She swallows hard and repeats, “You turned against him?”

His wide mouth splits, revealing fangs, but humor does not light his eyes. “I tried to kill him. But I am not sure who is the weakest between us—my father for not killing me, or myself for not successfully completing my mission.”

It falls silent between them.

The demon princess eventually stands, the silver and gold strands on her pink clothes flashing in the light. “The Galra still reign, then.”

“Yes.”

She places a hand on her hips, pressing her full lips together as she paces in the water beside him. “You are a strange Galran man for returning my freewill to me,” she says. There is a sudden, demonic darkness in her eyes. “Now, I will decimate your father’s empire with the power of ages.”

Lotor quirks an eyebrow. “Oh, Allura,” he says in delight. “I’m afraid he’s still protected by his favorite little witch, who no doubt was the one to imprison you. If you are captured again, who will be there to reopen your bottle and free you from a lifetime of granting wishes?”

The woman steps back, face tight.

Lotor stands from the waters, his own white hair a tangled straggle. “Allura of the Djinn, I propose an alliance to take down my father once and for all,” he says. “So long as no one but me sees you, we could corrode his authority from the inside out—obtain the revenge we both desire.”  

She eyes him now with genuine, wary curiosity. “In what way, son of Zarkon?”

There is a wildness and slight insanity in Lotor after a year of solitude. “Make me a prince once more,” he pleads. “With your infinite power, you can manipulate quintessence in ways that not even the witch can. You can build spaceships with a snap of your fingers and change my very appearance so that my father does not recognize me. Through me, you could wage war once more, without fear of your weaknesses being used against you.”

She is actively considering him now, softening. “What is your name, strange man who desires to be my marionette?”

“Lotor of the Galra.”

Her eyes lower to the tides, and then she glances back up, the power of the stars swirling in her gaze. “Very well,” she says, voice echoing. “I will raise you a throne, Lotor of the Galra, and I will provide you the weaponry to kill your father when he least expects it.”

She reaches out, her fingers kind as they press against his cheek.

The instant they touch, his lavender skin bleeds a soft brown, his white hair darkens to an inky black, and from his broad shoulders streams the clothes of a rich and powerful Altean prince.

“Just like this,” Allura whispers, before pulling away in admiration of her work.

Power fades from Lotor as he stares down at his brown hands, his sharp wrists lined with gold. For one brief tick, an aching revelry lights within him, for his entire life, he had been denied finery.

And then he makes a strangled noise as Allura grabs onto his collar and pulls him out of the tide. “Come along, marionette,” she says merrily. “Let us take down an empire and break a few hearts with your new face. We’ll have to think of a new name for you, of course. I once had a mouse named Chulatt, but I do not think that is the name of a prince.”

Water sloshes against his royal boots, his golden robes streaming behind him. “It is not,” he agrees, voice strained.

Allura’s grip is strong, even beyond that of a Galran’s.

And then just as quickly as she had conjured his new clothes, she waves her hand, and in the distance of the beach, a sharp-looking golden spaceship builds itself before Allura’s form itself wavers out.

Before he knows it, a little pink bird settles upon his broad shoulder, chirping at him merrily and preening his dark hair.

Lotor scratches at the golden circlet upon his forehead, his fingers blunt without claws. “Do you not think it is rather ostentatious for all things to be gold?”

The little bird chirps at him petulantly, and Allura’s alto voice echoes in his mind.

Oh, son of Zarkon.

If we are going to kill an emperor who also happens to be your father, then we are going to do so in style.  

@loturaweek2024

[pearl-kite]

blp

[twetterbirdy]

First  •  Prev • Next • Usernames • Masterlist

[nerdalmighty]

hey! so, i just recently started playing baldur's gate 3 after seeing people put it all over my dash for months--and you're one of the people i've seen reblogging a lot of posts about it LOL. so if you don't mind me asking, i was wondering what kind of character do you/did you play as? and do you have any sort of backstory for your tav that you'd like to share?

Hoooooooooooooh my god thank you so much for asking. I have a friend who comes over to watch me play on Thursdays and I make a powerpoint every week to catch her up on what she missed - this week's powerpoint literally has slides about my Tav's background (more on those later). This is about to be long, I'm about to drop ALL my lore so buckle up! AND THANK YOU FOR PUTTING UP WITH MY BG3 BRAIN WORMS!!!!! I'm glad they convinced you to play 😈

So to begin, I've been in my first ever dnd campaign with a group of friends for a little over a year now. I didn't know much about Baldur's Gate except that it was a dnd video game and that you could romance people. Me, being a Big Fan of Romance And Fantasy was like "okay well I'm in" and my friend actually let me start a game at his house. Through that, I met Shadowheart, Gale, and Astarion.

Backing up a bit to my character; I decided I'd put my character from my irl dnd campaign into the game since I already knew her whole deal. I get pretty overwhelmed with making decisions, ESPECIALLY with big open world games like bg3, so knowing who/what I wanted to be really helped me out.

In the campaign I'm in with friends, it's pirate themed, and I play a half-elf bard named Birdie Harp who's secretly half-siren (murder mermaid). To make a long story very short, she was born in the arctic and escaped her murderous pod during a coming-of-age trial where she also lost her siren abilities (hypnotizing voice, breathing underwater, etc).

I've watched a ton of Dimension 20 which is an actual play show on Dropout.tv (an "actual play" is where you watch other people run a campaign of dnd - like Critical Role, which a lot of people have at least heard of - HIGHLY recommend Dimension 20, as I find it incredibly funny and easier to get into than CR because of the episode lengths), and I knew that I really liked the silliness and theatricality of the bard class. I also loved the bards from The Owl House which helped influence my decision as well.

To be honest, Birdie is my first ever dnd character, so she's basically a self insert but with a MUCH more traumatic backstory than me (this IS dnd after all). As for the half-elf aspect, it was more of an "I want to be half mermaid, what's similar to that?" as opposed to a love for half-elves or something.

BACK TO BALDUR'S GATE - knowing I wanted Birdie to be in the game, I felt a lot less overwhelmed to come up with something entirely new - I knew a lot about the bard class having played one so I wanted to CONTINUE playing one (and I've learned even more since playing bg3!).

When I finally got my own game (I no longer play at my friend's house, but in the comfort of my own home), I recreated Birdie and started on my journey in earnest. I'm VERY MUCH someone who likes to be in control and know what to expect, so I've had guides and walkthroughs to help me the whole time - SUE ME! When it came to first meeting Shadowheart, Gale, and Astarion back at my friend's house, Gale actually immediately stole my heart - a kind, witty wizard who likes books and cats? Literally say less. I went home from that session with my friend fully thinking I'd be a Gale girlie until I really looked into the other options and saw The Vampire.

Blah blah blah, he's hot and funny, but he can also be incredibly soft, which really won me over in the end. So I've been romancing That Guy.

Through Acts 1 and 2, I wasn't all too sure about this version of Birdie's background - sure she COULD still be that half-siren from the arctic, but the game kept suggesting she was FROM Baldur's Gate. I LOVED the inclusion of the harpies in Act 1 and thought maybe that was a viable entry point for her backstory, but so far, she was kind of just... me? She was making the choices I wanted to make (and a few that I knew Astarion would like lmao), but she wasn't really her own entity apart from me except for her name. She also felt vastly different from that character I'd created for my friends over a year ago. For instance, my irl Birdie currently has a crush on a Gale-type character, but this Birdie is ass deep in Astarion (hey, sorry I said "ass deep in Astarion"). The thing I love about Baldur's Gate 3 is how you can really come up with your own backstories, since the in-game one for your Tav is so vague. It's totally fine to ignore tiny details in the game and mold them to your own headcanons for your Tav, but I was so unsure of what I wanted for this Birdie that I kind of internalized that she was from Baldur's Gate.

HEADS UP! The following has some spoilers for Act 3 and some side quests, so STOP reading if that's something you'd care to avoid (the last 3 paragraphs of this post are SAFE from spoilers):

When Act 3 finally rolled around (which is where I am currently, I only have the one playthrough so far because I become INCREDIBLY attached to things), I stumbled across the Water Queen's House in Baldur's Gate. Ah ha! Now this felt promising.

A temple dedicated to the Vengeful Sea Goddess, Umberlee, and her loyal Wave Servants to serve her. It's ocean themed, it has mermaid undertones, and their goddess is basically evil. Seems like the perfect place to FINALLY insert this version of Birdie. I wasn't 100% sure until I completed the Iron Throne mission and was faced with either handing a (mostly) innocent man over to the Wave Servants, or fighting to defend him.

Here are a few of the slides from this week's powerpoint that I mentioned all the way back at the start, starting with SOME background on the Wave Servants:

Ass and Shart are what I affectionately call Astarion and Shadowheart (Also I got this beautiful "Birdie" art on Pinterest which originated from someone named Dantrelium on Reddit):

Apologies for the small text here, but there are some more details about THIS Birdie here, which I literally made up/figured out earlier this week:

Essentially, this Birdie was born at the Water Queen's House as Kittiwake Crest - Kittiwakes are common arctic birds, which I thought would be a nice little homage to the original character she was based off of. She was raised by the collective of Wave Servants there, the main one being Flood Tide Allandra Grey who seems to be head honcho at the Wave Mother's House (in this reality, she is).

Since Umberlee is such a vengeful goddess, I imagine she asked her Wave Servants to commit unspeakable acts in her name, mainly drownings, which THEY see as merciful, but I think Birdie always saw as horrifying. Who were they to decide the fates of others? I also think that the Wave Servants themselves were abusive during her upbringing to keep her in line (but much like how Nocturne was a light in the darkness for Shadowheart, I don't think EVERY Wave Servant was evil). GOTTA have a classic tragic backstory.

Upon researching Umberlee, I learned that most of her servants are clerics, so in my mind, that means Birdie was raised to eventually become one, with her official title eventually going to be "Seawind Kittiwake Crest." Is she still half-siren/mermaid though? Not entirely sure. This IS a magical world though, so I'd be inclined to say yes, probably.

But when we first meet the Wave Servants, they're singing beautifully for their drowned sister, Holli. I think Birdie REALLY loved music and singing with her sisters and secretly trained herself in bard magic when she should have been learning to be a cleric. It's also a classic trait of bards to hide their pain through humor, so I often imagine the type of stupid things Birdie gets up to to bring herself joy (my favorite headcanon being when you meet Skittle the Rat in Wyrm's Rock prison - he's a rat merchant who speaks exclusively in puns. I think Birdie and Gale would excitedly throw puns back and forth with Skittle while Astarion and Shadowheart begrudgingly (and affectionately) roll their eyes in the background).

Another thing I love about the game is how you can string together your own ideas of how companions react to things between big cut scenes. For example, in my head, in my game, Astarion has really become a Big Softy thanks to how fucking Stupid (affectionate) Birdie acts in life and has drawn him out of his shell, but also runs a tag team scam with her where she plays her lute to distract people while he loots an entire place. Gale is Birdie's partner in crime when it comes to tomfoolery and loves to joke and fool around with her (so long as it goes easy on his knees). And Shadowheart is basically a sister figure who flip flops between sassing with Astarion and joining in on the fun. THEY'RE JUST THE BEST, OKAY? OF COURSE I'M GONNA WALK AROUND WITH A BUNCH OF IDIOTS. I LOVE THEM.

Anyway, back to Birdie's backstory: she always hated the atrocities that were asked of her, and she was looking for a way out, but was too scared to take that step and leave since the Wave Mother's House is all she's ever known. One night, while stepping out to quietly dip her toes in the water, the Mindflayers captured her, and that's where we start Act One, all the way up on the Nautiloid. She changed her name to Birdie to distance herself from her previous life, fully took up the bard class, and the rest is history.

Back to that dilemma with handing over that (mostly) innocent guy or fighting the Wave Servants: with encouragement from the party, they convince Birdie to face her traumatic upbringing and fight the Wave Servants once and for all. At this point in Act 3, she's basically helped every single person with their problems except her own. Here's another slide featuring Ass and Birdie:

That's right folks, Birdie faced her past! But the bad news is we don't get to see Astarion in this (audio from The Adventurous Adventures of One Direction):

(Video description - Astarion from Baldur's Gate 3 wearing the Wave Mother's Armor with the following audio:

Guard 1: Whoa, check it out.

Guard 2: Hubba hubba hubba.

Gaurd 1: Nice. I love dudes in skirts.

END VIDEO.) I don't want to tell you how many times I recorded that until I felt like I got it right lol. Also yes, I DID do a scum save where I handed the guy over ONCE just so I could see Ass in this outfit, but Birdie did canonically save Redhammer in my actual save file.

And honestly, that's BASICALLY it for now! My most recent save was after that battle, so I need to figure out if Birdie's going to go back with her party to confront the rest of (or most of) the Wave Servants, or if this chapter of her life is closed.

In an ideal world I'd LOVE to make one of those artsy gif edits of my Tav like this and this, but PS5s make it hard to download clips without uploading them to YouTube first which I don't really want to do.

Thank you SO MUCH for this ask, I had a blast writing it!! Sorry it's so long, I just love this game so much and LOVE talking about it. Please feel free to ask more questions OR chat with me about YOUR Tav! I'd love to hear all about them :)

[golddustdyke]

something: fucked up happens in america

nancy pelosi, without fail, in my email (she thinks my name is gary btw): Gary, I am absolutely speechless. It's outrageous that this is happening, Gary. Gary, I am livid. we need to stop this before it happens again, Gary. Also, Gary, can you rush $15 before midnight so i can defeat evil. I need 1,136 gifts before midnight so i can defeat evil. Gary, i had to reach out. Gary. Gary, I'm floored. Gary? Can you send $15 by midnight? Gary, I'm stunned. Mark my words, Gary, this will never happen again. Gary.

[snowpuff79]

I love them RRAAHHH !!! 💖💥🚨✨

*Turns them in to birds continuously🪶👐*

Recap: Simon is a wren & Betty a tucan

As iceking Simon is a snowy owl cause ofc that just fits the most but with a few subtle wren leaning design features like his stance I'll prob add something to his pattern laterz

I also came up with a tiny manticore design yay (3 !!!💖 His human half is now a Canary so I can make my obligatory "canary in a coal mine" references when he's stuck with Betty & Magic/kingman (I made sure to keep his design far away from how I draw griffins :D👍)

*** I made a peacock magicman design and kiwi Finn but I got no drawing I want to show off yet! If you got AT bird ideas pls tell me ^u^ (I'm only transforming more humanoid characters)

[lylahammar]

I have a cute bird for you! the cuban tody! I love their coloration :D

OMGGGG WHAT A LIL GUMDROP OF A BIRDIE IT WOULD FIT RIGHT IN ON A GINGERBREAD HOUSE

[urwendii]

Eönwë having the heart of a golden retriever most of the time but turning into a lethal apex predator in wartime is still my fav interpretation.

[birrdies]

needs

last life fic (1.8k words)

Etho was good at mostly being alone. 

Silences were easy things to fill with simple nothings: tinkering with faulty machinery, tearing his latest project down to its barest bones and starting all over (just for the hell of it), exploring as far as his tired legs would carry him. When hands are busy and a mind is occupied, it’s difficult to notice the nothingness close in on him. 

Solitude. It didn’t matter the world or game. To Etho, it was as much a talent as it was instinct. To build a fortress up from the ground and pretend he didn’t care that he didn’t have enough to fill the empty rooms. To spend nights alone, because it’s for the best. Because he didn’t need it any other way. There was nothing he needed that he couldn’t wear nor fit in his pockets. 

There were things he wanted, sure, but need and want were different things. Want was frivolous; it was a thorn in his side that he never could muster the courage to pull out. Need, was permanent. Need was saved for when things went bad. When the thorn was ripped from skin, when he needed to staunch the bleed. 

This game wasn’t any different.

Want was a crumbling snowy castle resting like a tomb in the center of the end of the world. Want was a pair of twin staircases, a shield painted red and blue, and his name scrawled on the deed to his own freedom, handed straight into the hands of a madman. 

Need was a fence splitting their home in two, the ravine and impossible task that separated them. Need was a burrow underground, a set of new faces, a message of death written in red. 

Need was picking at the remains of what once stood as his home like a vulture. 

Only one of the towers still stood. The moon hung low in the sky overhead, a silver spotlight on everything that he once had. The ground was upturned all the way through to the stone underneath. Dirt and wood and remaining pits of soul sand sunk into the holes dug and blown into the groundwork of the castle. Like it had tried burying its own body but couldn’t quite get the job done. 

Etho skulked his way across the wreckage. This place belonged to the enemy now. It wasn’t his home anymore, no matter how much it masqueraded as such. 

There wasn’t much left. A few potions he’d tucked away underground days before. A beaten set of iron armor. Scraps of gold and stale bread. Less than he wanted and more than he needed. The rest he could recover with time buried underground. That, he was used to.

Burying himself underground, gathering what he could to fool others into thinking of it as strength, only to rise from the dirt with a sword, bow, and the need to be the one to walk out of there. Not enough to be a phoenix rising from ashes into flames, but rather a body climbing out of the dirt to fight and survive.

He’d played more games than he could count that way, in the solitude and protection the caves and earth below had to offer. When he was alone, there was nothing that could truly hurt him— not in any way that mattered. Really, he should’ve been relieved. He should’ve felt lighter on his feet, a burden shed from his back. 

But instead, he didn’t feel much like anything at all. 

It hurt less than it should have, but more than Etho ever anticipated. The thorn had been pulled clean and he bled, but he felt less the pain and more the uncomfortable twinge. The calculated knowledge that skin had been broken but the detached thoughtlessness not to feel it. 

He was alone again. But that was okay. At least he knew what to do with it.

“Find anything good?” Etho looked to the half-collapsed parapet above his head. Cleo leaned over the edge, her hair hanging in her face. Another need, if he wanted to survive. The more bodies the better. It didn’t make him any less alone, just more fortified. Etho wasn’t so prideful as to think that he’d last out there on his own. Not this late in the game. Not with the Reds out for his blood. 

With a sigh, he shut the chest he’d been rooting around in. “Invisibility potions,” he said, packing whatever he could away in his pockets. “Extra armor I stashed. Some iron and gold. I bet Grian and Joel already picked up everything else worthwhile.” 

Cleo hummed. Etho grasped the wrung of a rickety ladder to hoist himself up onto the parapet beside her. She stood with ease, hands on her hips and an amused quirk to her mouth as she overlooked what never belonged to her.

“We’re going to stick it out with Ren and his shadow freaks?” Cleo asked after a moment. He could feel her gaze on the side of his face, but he didn’t return it. “That’s our plan?”

We. Our. She was just as bad as Bdubs. Etho had the thought to be angry, but really all he could manage was confusion. Curiosity. How did they make it look easy? Like handing over trust was as easy and mindless as breathing? Meanwhile he was a machine short-circuiting between two ends of a binary: what his heart longed for and what his head demanded. The desperation to claw more out more lives for Bdubs from anywhere he could. Anywhere except himself. 

“The Greens and Yellows should stick together,” Etho said, detached and factual. “At least until we knock out the rest of the Reds. Joel and Grian are going to be a big problem… Tango, too, now that I think about it.”

“You’ve made a lot of enemies this go-around, haven’t you?” Cleo teased. He knew she was teasing, but suddenly he was punched by the first flare of something since he stood on the opposite side of that cliff face. 

Etho scoffed and turned to overlook the rest of the hills. Lava burned far off, an orange glow that bled into the night sky. When that wither erupted from the heart of the snow castle, Etho thought that was the end of the world. But it was nothing compared to this: the damage left behind.

“I didn’t even do anything,” he said quietly. 

“You didn’t have to,” Cleo retorted. She rested a hand on Etho’s shoulder and he lacked the grit to brush it off. There were few people he both feared and respected in equal parts, and the person standing next to him was one of them. “Surviving this long always puts a target on your back. Plus, you’re the lucky guy who’s left to clean up all of Bdubs’ messes.” “You know a lot about that, don’t you, Cleo?” 

He didn’t know where it came from. The words were nasty and sharp but his voice was even and calm as ever; he wasn’t convinced he’d even said it. But Cleo only raised her eyebrows in surprise and turned her attention to the rest of the world. She pursed her lips. 

Neither of them said anything. The longer he stood in the bones of something he loved, the more he felt the ache start to sink in. Like pins and needles it started to spread from the pinch in his side, through his chest, up the back of his throat, and behind his eyes. It didn’t hurt yet, but he knew it could. He knew it would, when the worst of the numbness receded. If it ever did. 

He didn’t know if it would. He didn’t know if he wanted it to. It was so much easier to deal with like this. 

“It‘s okay if it hurts,” Cleo said finally. The hand on Etho’s shoulder never wavered, only squeezed the tense muscle there. “I’d be more worried if it didn’t. You’re more human than you pretend to be, Etho.”

The center of the snow castle's been caved in. A bomb detonated by Martyn. The walls to the east were crumbled and resorted to nothing more than dust. A fatal blow from the wither. A large, steep drop between the gap under the walls and the bottom of the hill. The last time they fought side-by-side. A single fence post remained in front of the door to their bedrooms. 

He was good at being alone. In fact, he was better off for it. 

He didn’t need Bdubs. He never needed Bdubs. It was convenient. It was easy. But then it wasn’t. Bdubs kept dying. Bdubs needed more lives. And suddenly it wasn’t anything about needing him and everything about wanting him. About doing everything within his power to keep him.

It was silver-tongued lies and trigger-finger betrayals. Scar coiled in fishing line, an axe through his throat before he knew what happened to him. The curse was easy to blame, but the truth was it simply provided him an excuse. A loop-hole. He would’ve done it either way. He would’ve made a way. 

Because he wanted Bdubs and his brain forgot where the line between want and need stood. 

“I could’ve given him a life.” A stab of remorse. The numbness started to fade as the sun threatened to rise and reality set in over the remains of what he had. “Things could’ve been different.”

“Maybe,” Cleo relented. She sat leaning against an old pillar of wood that supported what was left of the parapet, staring at Etho with an unusually soft expression that he had a difficult time feigning strength in front of. “But we both know Bdubs was dead either way.” 

“No.” Etho shut his eyes. He willed the burning behind them to fade. “I could’ve given it to him, Cleo,” he said again, because she didn’t understand. 

It was his fault. He fought tooth-and-nail to protect the single thing he was foolish enough to let in. Only to shoot it right down in the same breath. A punishment for his mistakes, doled out by his own hand. 

The wood beneath him creaked. Cleo shuffled behind him until he felt her body heat slotted against his back. Her arms wrapped around him, trapping him in her embrace and squeezing his shoulders and chest tight. He didn’t open his eyes. Because he feared when he did reality would come crashing down, and he’d be forced to remember that one of them would likely be dead by the end of the day. 

Cleo hooked her chin over Etho’s shoulder. The side of her head pressed flush with his. Shakily he laid his hands on top of hers, afraid she’d let go. 

“For what it’s worth,” she said against his ear. “I think he’s already forgiven you.”

[birdsribcage]

I need someone to take my brains out through my nose like they did to mummies

[jedi-bird]

The rainbow Darjeeling Tea Blanket from Red Teapot Atelier is finished. I used was two almost two skeins of Cotton Kings Sultan yarn in colorway #38 (minus about half of the purple from the last skein) and an E/3.5 mm crochet hook. I had to modify the ending because there was a fairly big chance of losing at yarn chicken. I had originally intended to use the yarn for something else but unfortunately I got sick and didn't make a note of what that was and still can't remember what it was, so this was the next best plan. Next up is my cardigan, because I can't keep putting it off.

@not-available-for-comment @bladelei