#birrdies

[fishbloc]

oh hey my favourite hotguy anime is on

based on the vigilante au fic by @birrdies

[trafficblrpositivityproject]

Shoutout to some of my favourite writers in this fandom!

@sillyfairygarden - insanely talented (and imo actually underrated) author and artist, and pretty much the sole reason I check my mail inbox first thing every morning.

Also. Scarpearl. Shaky thumbs up. Reading “no number exists for griefs like these” was honestly a delight! Glad I decided to check it out after asking for a favourite work ("But oh, the bloom" still leaves rent free in my head though)

@silverskye13 - I’ve reread Redstone and Sculk a number of times now (and I will again). Whenever I see a dandelion I’m reminded of Tanguish - there’s a screenshot of it sitting on my desktop, but I absolutely adore this line:

“It gave him the look of a sleepwalker, and Helsknight didn't like it. He was used to the wide, curious, cat-like gaze, glittering in dandelion yellow”

Reading “This Place Is Not A Place  of Honour” for the first time had me with my jaw on the ground. Incredible

@violet-fire-cat - Spring Blossoms is maybe the cosiest fic I’ve ever read. Giggling and kicking my feet. Had actual tingles in my fingers when they finally got their act together :)

@birrdies - the lifeline au is SO intriguing and I absolutely adore the storytelling through all the different media elements. I am so excited to see where it goes - listening to the podcast aspect of the story is such an experience!

@definitelynotshouting - the hunger au. Need I say more. Hand on heart it makes me want to curl up in bed with a hot water bottle while I Feel Things. Slightly dangerous to read/reread in the middle of the night though I’m incapable of putting writing that good down and actually sleeping.

I believe the tag limit is five so (absolute tragedy /s) I’ll probably have to send another ask about more talented writers! :D

@sillyfairygarden + @silverskye13 + @violet-fire-cat + @birrdies + @definitelynotshouting !!!

[picusviridis]

since it was MENTIONED....did i ever post this guy eeeeeeeeverrrr. i forget. sorry if i did prior

[taigarrryen]

POV: your heroic bf doesn't realize he's your bf yet

@birrdies 's lovely lovely vigilante AU, it's so soft I want to wrap myself in it like in a warm fuzzy blanket (with a couple of needles loose somewhere in it, sure) and just.. sink. It's not The Scene, but one of those nights, I imagine

(Tumblr once again doesn't feel like importing audio files so here's a youtube vid of a song I wanted to attach here: )

[birrdies]

'SUNBLEACHED' (1.6k words) Our collaboration piece for the Flowers in the Desert zine! writing by me (birrdies) art by @fishbloc

Sunflowers. 

Over the flat, endless plain they stretch as far as Scar can see. Roots and leaves branch like veins and arteries through the soil on the verge of something alive. The sunflowers face the limitless blue above— no beginning or end— the stretch so vast that time itself feels as inconsequential as a marble rolling around in his hand. 

Scar doesn’t understand it.

One second his feet had been on the stone where Pearl had fallen, where lightning had struck with finality, and the next he’s up to his waist in sunflowers. Each golden petal stands on edge. As if they know something he doesn’t. He reaches out to touch one of these petals; they tickle the pads of his fingers. Shy, pretty things. 

It’s quiet here and Scar isn’t sure if it’s a silence he finds comforting or damning. He thinks he should be afraid, but how can he be? It’s warm here. The earth smells of freshly fallen rain beneath his feet, despite not a single cloud in the sky above. The fresh, dewey scent that soothes him, almost convinces him that this is a good place to be. 

“You’re here,” a voice says behind him.

There, enveloped by the countless sunflowers, is Grian. His hair is pale, sunbleached, and his cheeks are pink. Everything about him has been touched by the light in some way, down to the faded red poncho draping his shoulders and the speckling of freckles across his nose bridge. 

He’s drowning in it— this light. He’s made of it. And Scar’s eyes fall to find the sunflowers around him withering and decaying quickly. The yellow petals curl and desiccate into gray husks, breaking off their buds and fluttering to the ground. They’re dying. Not by lack of sunlight, Scar realizes, but by an excess of it. Burnt to a crisp. 

And like the sun, his skin blisters. The skin of his hands and the redness slathering them have no beginning or end. Gashes and swelling bruises and split knuckles. The blood never clots, a constant red drip falling from the fingers held limp at his sides. A quiet drip, drip, drip the only sound across the windless field. Not even so much as the sound of a breath. Just that blood.  “Grian,” Scar says. “I’m here.”

He doesn’t know why. He doesn’t know why Grian’s here either. But he’s grateful he is. Their nightmare— or, had it been a dream?— ended long ago, the desert gone and buried several games past. The Grian in front of him now isn’t the Grian he’d fought with moments ago. This Grian was younger. More afraid. More capable of burning. 

“Where… where is here, exactly?” Scar asks.

Grian curls those bleeding fingers into the nearest living sunflower. As if he’s unsure whether he wants to caress it or yank it from the ground, roots and all. His face is twisted, it’s always twisted when Scar’s around. But he yearns for the days when that twist had been of wicked delight, the way green-lit eyes exploded into starbursts at the sight of their mutual destruction. 

“You won,” Grian says simply, taking a sunflower by the stem and starting to pluck the petals. One by one. “Congratulations.”

Scar falters. A victory. A bolt of lightning striking the earth, the loud thud of a gavel. It’s over Scar, he hears, a constant echo in the back of his mind. You won. Grian’s anger burns. A second petal falls.  “You’re upset.” Scar will do anything to make it stop, to untie the knot tied between Grian’s eyebrows, to take those cracked, bleeding hands in his own and mend them until the skin is whole again. To take away the pain, the regret, the guilt. 

Grian never left the desert, no matter how much he wanted to. And Scar could never go back. No matter how often he wished he could.

“This is your dream, Scar.” Grian turns his face away. “It’s been a long time coming— a victory.”

“I don’t feel like I’ve won anything,” Scar says honestly. A victory implies the heavy yet welcome weight of a crown, the fleeting yet intoxicating rush of excitement. But all Scar feels is the emptiness in his chest, the air around his crownless head. Blood on his hands that he can’t see, but knows is there all the same. The same way it stains Grian’s. 

Grian plucks a third petal. He barks a cruel laugh, but it sounds more like he’s about to cry. “How do you think I felt?”  Scar frowns. “It’s still about the desert? After all this time?” 

Grian plucks another petal. Four. It flutters to the ground to join the others, yellow petals torn and crumpled, slowly turning gray. The edge of his mouth tugs into a knife-like smile.

“I’m sorry,” he says. It’s all he can manage, though he doesn’t mean it. Nothing can make him regret that day, knelt in a cool pond with the weight of a diamond blade against the junction of his neck. The hand he used to hold onto it, digging it into his own skin— asking for it. “You deserved to win.”

“I deserved this? To be alone?” Grian throws his arms out to the sides, to the endless curvature of sunflowers drowning the both of them. Nothing to shield them from the unrelenting sun above. “Because that’s what winning means. You’re alone, Scar.” 

Scar’s heart plummets into his stomach. “You’re here.” 

“Am I?” A fifth petal. “Or do you just want me to be?” 

Scar stares at Grian, uncaring if the scalding brightness gives him sunspots, or if the pain of looking at the spoils of his own choices burns him up from the inside. You won, Scar, his voice echoes again and again in Scar’s mind, a scratched record. His fists curl up at his sides, into the black cloak sewn with lilacs and poppies along the hem. 

Is that what this is? A cruel illusion to make him realize what it truly means to be the man at the edge of the world, to be the last man standing? If this is victory— Scar grits his teeth and twists his fists into his cloak— then he doesn’t want it. He’s never wanted it. It was never about winning, it was about— 

“About what, exactly?” Grian snaps, plucking the through straight from his mind just as he does with a sixth petal. “Is it about this? Sunflowers? You can’t hide behind them forever. Not here. Not from me. Not from yourself.” 

“Stop it.”

Grian’s in front of him now, bloodied hands shoving him by his shoulders. Scar stumbles back and barely keeps himself upright. This isn’t right. This isn’t Grian— not the one he knows, not the one he needs. 

“Why aren’t you angry, Scar?” Another push. “After everything that’s happened to you. All the people that have betrayed you. All the times I left you behind.”

Scar grapples for self control, to reign in the flash of anger burning the back of his throat. “What are you trying to prove?” 

“Stop lying. For once in your life, look me in the eye and tell me you’re angry.” Grian yanks a sunflower from the ground and shoves it, decaying leaves and all, against Scar’s chest. “Tell me these are just a sham.” 

It’s on the tip of his tongue: the truth. A terrifying, bitter thing that burns crawling up the back of his throat. Because it betrays everything he’s worked so hard to build, the masks he’s sported like second skins, the confidence which he flaunts like a shield. Without it, what does he have left? He’s stripped clean, Grier’s hands against his chest burning like sweltering charcoal. Sunflower petals slip between his fingers. 

He opens his mouth to let it up, to tell the truth, and then—

The sky above him changes. Only slightly. If he had blinked he would’ve missed it. But clear as day he sees them overhead: clouds. Slowly rolling across a blue sky.  And he’s on his back, blinking spots from his eyes as breath rushes into his lungs. The air tastes fresh, crisp, like seawater. Eyes fluttering, he tries to remember what he’d just been about to say.  “Scar?” 

Eclipsing the sun beating down on him overhead, a head peers down at him. Dark, wide eyes, a slanted mouth. A sporting of freckles across dusty cheeks. 

Something knotted unravels in Scar’s chest. “Grian.” Grian’s lips wobble into an uneasy smile. He wipes sweat from his brow, and Scar catches a glimpse of his hands: dirty, packed with mud, but bloodless. “Whatcha doing down there, pal?”  Scar’s arms lie limp at his sides. He’s not sure he could move even if he tried. If he wanted to. Something about this peace is fragile, uncertain. As if simply breathing the wrong way will make the world shatter in two and send him back to that place. One wrong move and he’ll be alone again. 

“Dunno,” Scar says breathlessly. Stalks of wheat tickle his arms as the wind kicks up, ghosting over his body. A sunflower stands over him, waving in the breeze. “Appreciating the view. Clouds. They’re nice.”

“Come on.” A hand reaches out to him. “Stop trampling my wheat.” Scar has to stare at it to remember that it’s not covered in blood. That it’s just dirt from a long day tending to wheat and sunflowers. That the Grian smiling down at him is the real one. Not the one made to torment him. 

Scar reaches for that hand, allowing their palms to slot together. Grian’s skin is callused and warm. He’s there. He’s real. Scar isn’t alone.

[swamp-chicken]

cleo cooing over etho for @birrdies

[twynte]

Boat Boys Fic Recs <3

just thought i'd consolidate a list of my favs... pls mind the ratings

✬ the first disciple by sillyfairygarden [T, 44k]

“I didn’t carry you out here to leave you to die, did I? You’re in no shape to go out there again, even if you are a stupid god.” He stands carefully, cursing at the noise his joints make. “So do me a favor: don’t die, mister Winter.” “It—It’s Etho,” the god says, feeling something settle in his chest that is not fear nor pain, not resignation nor the crushing cold of snow. “My name, it’s Etho.”

★ more powerful than fear itself is the will to win by smoothlikebutter [T, 21k]

After a devastating crash ends Etho's racing career with the McLaren Formula One team, ConCorp is eager to snap up a big name like Etho. But they’ve also signed Joel, a competitive pro endurance racer who isn’t about to settle for anything less than the top step of the podium and a champagne shower at the end of the race. And honestly? That’s exactly the kind of teammate that Etho needs.

✬ you are etho, and you are loved by ive_got_you_clovered [G, 3.6k]

Your name is Etho Slab, and you think, in a moment of blinding clarity, oh fuck.

★ the revenant by birrdie [M, 81k]

revenant [noun] · someone who has returned, supposedly from the dead. Or, Etho's story continues.

✬ still, like a stone by glizzyanti [G, 2.4k]

Etho makes a deal with the Four Gs. Joel is a ticking time-bomb. Gem feels that maybe she shouldn't be here for this.

link to more recs

[hybbart]

Oh no! Tango! Jimmy! Please don’t kill them 🥺

There's this really good fic, idk if you've read it. It's called everywhere, everything by birrdie? Anyways, what were we talking about.

[ethosiab]

Do you have a favorite fic? Any recommendations?

Attempted to write descriptions for each of these but there's so many dfjslkds here are a few of my favs <3 i might come back and add more later

Tangotek Evil Incorporated - onawhimsicot (tango centric supervillain au)

Domains of Dread - RimeThyme (etho angst + team canada! check out Rime's other stuff too he writes etho rly well)

the revenant - birrdie (etho centric zombie apocalypse au - mind the tags its real heavy but birdie's writing is so good)

Stretching Endless Night - tunastime (ethubs having a grand old time in space. nothing bad happens. totally.)

Alternate Perspectives - boxmaker (etho centric superpowers au. possibly my fav fic! all of box's works are amazing)

I'm holding on, but for how long? - Rosemary_and_Time (vampire + werewolf whumpy boat boys au. i think it's the first fic i read when i got into the fandom. i almost walked into a light pole reading while walking <3)

Snuff the Fae, Hunt the Wolf - Ophelia_of_the_Woods (fae/knights/fantasy etho centric au. he is constantly going through it)

My Life for Yours - arbitersart (ethubs fantasy scifi royalxbodyguard au. the rest of the series is definitely worth reading too)

To Steal a Breath, a Gasp of Air - Anonymous (etho & bdubs centric scifi fantasy dystopian au?? its so good. check out anon's other works too they've got banger after banger)

ripped at every edge, but you're a masterpiece - oh_snapperss (etho centric, post limited life and skizz's sacrifice. i can't tell you how much i love this fic. READ ITTTTT)

And it's not tonight where I'm set alight (it's not tonight you hold me tight) - HitheePrithee, oh_snapperss (THE rentho knights au. made me cry. they're so gay dude.)

[setacin]

HEADINHANDS @swamp-chicken @birrdies this is for yall bsdjfhsb

[fishbloc]

"it doesn’t feel like much of a victory at all. there was room for love here. there was room for a lot of things. but none of it matters in the end. if it all goes to waste, i'll take my punishment for having loved."

[trafficblrpositivityproject]

Shout out to @lifelineau and amazing @birrdies who runs it!! It's so entertaining and mysterious!

@lifelineau + @birrdies !!!

[reflingthefox]

There's a fic, that I mentioned here once, that made me feel such deep pain it looped back into being one of the fundamental ones.

There's an ending to this fic, a winter pharmacy brimming with remains of warmth as world freezes to death.

I will never leave this memory, but I can let it out for the others to see.

Thank you, @birrdies. That's probably not the last time I remember this story.

[taigarrryen]

Before it kills you

@birrdies your mczu stuff is making me sick

[birrdies]

timesickness by birrdie 15.1k, one-shot ethubs time travel x immortal AU

[lunarcrown]

i had no idea you did tattoos!! I just went through your tag they look so incredible!! you’re very skilled at what you do :D

-- @birrdies (this is just my main blog sjfjgkg I still think it’s lame we can’t send asks from our side blogs)

Awww thank you!!! I post all my other tattoos over on my Instagram HERE !!

I still have years and years to keep learning and improving and knowing more, but I’ve been super happy to have clients who understand my vision and let me go WILD!!!!

And they bring me minecraft gifts and let me ramble about stuff they don’t even know about too which is a mad bonus~!!

(And IKR they might fix sideblog stuff one day but for now it’s just another hellsite quirk *affectionate*)

Also bonus here’s a few others I did semi recent~!