#cuckoo chicks

[hometoursandotherstuff]

[stiltonbasket]

can we have a snippet from the qijiu baby sy au?? i love that au so much omg

here you go, anon! ____

“And you?” Su Yongchen asks. “What of your parents?”

Shen Yuan draws his knees up to his chest and stares into the fire. 

“It is not a tale I enjoy recounting,” he admits at last. “There is nothing good in it, save that I came into existence as a result of their entanglement: and though I am grateful for it, my birth brought nothing good to anyone else.”

“I would like to hear the story, nevertheless,” Su Yongchen says gently. “I told you all I know about my parents—of my mother’s capture and her death, of my father’s unjust imprisonment and the wreck I made of my own life when I was a youth—and I found myself unburdened when the telling was over. You might find that it will be the same for you.”

“Perhaps,” replies Shen Yuan. “Very well, then.”

He takes a shallow breath and wraps Su Yongchen’s borrowed shawl closer about his shoulders.

“From what my uncle revealed to me, my parents met when they were quite young," he says. "They grew up together, and were educated together; but at some point—when they were about sixteen, I think—they fought, and were estranged from one another. As for the cause of the estrangement—Uncle never knew what it was, but the two of them were on ill terms for the next thirty-odd years. 

“From the way Father treated her, it was clear that he held a grudge against my mother. He could not speak more than two sentences to her without insulting her, and drove her from his house whenever she tried to visit him. She was in love with my father, you see, so she kept trying to reconcile with him. And he knew that she loved him: but whatever the old wrong was, in Fuqin’s eyes, it was so grievous that it killed any feelings that he might have held in return.”

Su Yongchen frowns. “But then—if you will forgive my asking—how did you come to be?”

“His grudge only kept him from returning her love,” Shen Yuan replies. “It did not prevent him from—from bedding her. He told me that she would have done anything for him: and that he was sick of looking at her, knowing that her heart was pleading for his forgiveness when he had no intention of granting it. So, then…”

His voice dies away. 

“I—I hope it was only the once,” he says, as Su Yongchen bends closer to hear him. “Fuqin told me that he could, because Mother would permit it—so he did. He hoped she would realize that her love was hopeless, afterward—and that she would see that he did not love her, only pitied her, and held her in contempt for her weakness. He wanted to hurt her so badly that she would withdraw from him completely—for he did not offer to marry her, or give her any tenderness that might raise her hopes. But then I was conceived; and regardless of how cruel my father had been, my mother chose to keep me.”

“And then she died?”

Shen Yuan nods.

“Yes. My father was not there when it happened. It was swift, from what I heard; if she had died five minutes earlier, my mother and I would have been buried together. But after Father returned and found her dead, he was never the same again.

"He took up drinking; and after my mother’s funeral, he behaved as if she had been the great beloved of his life. He hated to have me near him, because my birth had killed her, but he would often watch me sleep when he was drunk—for I resemble my mother exactly, save for my eyes. They are his, you see: and when I had them closed, he could imagine that she was still alive. 

“I did not grow up under my father's care,” he explains, upon glimpsing the concern on Su Yongchen’s face. “There was an incident, when I was about three years old—I don’t remember exactly what happened, and Shushu would never tell me, but I once heard the servants saying that Father had nearly killed me. After that, I was taken from him and raised in my uncle’s house.”

“Good heavens!” Su Yongchen cries, wrapping his arms around Shen Yuan’s shoulders. And then, tentatively: “Did you have to see him again after that?”

“Once every month, to curb his drinking,” Shen Yuan admits. “After I left, he drank enough to drive himself into delirium thrice each week, so that he could conjure up my mother's image in his dreams. My uncle said that it would grieve my mother in the afterlife if he came to her untimely, even though he had proved unfit to raise me; so it would be better if I sat with him once a month and let him pretend that Muqin was still with him.

“But I was happy, in spite of all that. I rarely saw my father; my uncle brought me up and loved me as his own, and I wanted for nothing in his care.”

He had a wonderful childhood, now that he thinks about it. He still remembers the afternoons he spent at his Shizun’s side, grinding seeds for medicine in his own tiny mortar while Wei-shishu fed him warm shoutao with soy milk—for he received nothing but kindness from his adoptive fathers, and when he was with them, he could almost forget that Shen Qingqiu had any relation to him at all.

"That is the whole of it," he says wryly, after a long silence. "But you must not feel sorry for me. There was only one person deserving of pity in this entire matter: and pity will do no good to her, so let us say no more about it."

[enigmaticpink]

On the topic of not assigning human morals to animals, I think we need to talk about how people talk about cuckoo birds is really anthropomorphizing

That's not an evil soulless creatin, that's a baby bird surviving the way it has evolved to. It's not up to you to decide that actually this baby bird deserves to survive and this one doesn't. This is simply how nature is and we should not be assigning our own morality to it.

[fishyfishyfishtimes]

you have good opinions and you seem like a really cool person. thank you for being awesome on my dolphins post I appreciate it !

Thanks! The pleasure is all mine, ever since I was a child I’ve really liked dolphins and other whales. Even though my favourite animals are fish now, it annoys me to see people call them all sorts of horrid things and say they’re evil creatures with malice-filled hearts! It’s, first off, wrong, and second, shows a kind of lack of understanding about other species, how they experience the world and how they think. Because they certainly do not think like humans! And I hate how these things are used to compare one species to other species, to show how they are more good, or more evil. Even if animals fill a similar niche you cannot compare whole entire species on this ethics scale!??? They are DIFFERENT SPECIES and have evolved COMPLETELY DIFFERENTLY. Is a rabbit more good than a fox just because the fox kills the rabbit, and killing is ethically wrong? No? Exactly. This is just like fitness (biology), fitness can only be used to compare individuals of the same species, NOT whole species to each other. Doesn’t work that way!

Ah, anyway. I just don’t really like seeing people be weird about animals. Fortunately many people are not!

[oysterie]

see I don't understand hate towards cuckoo birds... You don't like obligate parasites 🥺? You call yourself and animal lover but pick and choose what you think should exist based on a sense of human morality? Poor babies cannot help it why are you saying you hope they go extinct grow up.

[gauldframes]

more fakemon cause I may be secretly working on a fan region. based on the life cycle of chickens, clocks, and finally, baba yaga. names are onomatopoeia for clocks and clucks. kura being the slovak word for chicken.

Baclock > Kuraring > Bababacaw

[ranticore]

officially obsessed with the Plains Powercouple. can you tell wildfire that i envy him soooo bad

ghsjdg this seems to be the general consensus. wildfire better not catch you looking at his tiercel though stomp stomp stomp

[saan-vi-art]

attack for @themaybug

[rotclaw]

peeking peeper

this one's name is clove pepper 🧡 she's a mottled bantam cochin

[monsieurorlando]

happy mandy monday tuesday. comic about amanda's ghost/hallucination tormenting hoffman in the bathroom cell: in the making

[rearranging-deck-chairs]

i think pre-time kid-that-would-become-the-master used to have dreams about little sisters hell bent on murdering them with their bare hands

[fragglerockopinions]

You're supposed to ask for help. If you don't ask for help you're never going to get help and you will be condemned for being useless and taking no actions to help yourself. If you ask for help. no one is going to help you. you are not allowed to wish that anyone help you or expect anyone to help you or you are a selfish piece of shit. you are not allowed to wish things were better. You're not allowed to ask for help actually because you are selfish and you didn't think about how others might feel being put in the vulnerable and intimate position of being asked for help. your friends did not consent to being asked for help or explained why you've been having problems and you should have thought about the way they felt before you forced them to read your texts asking them for help. I'm not even joking I should just kill myself because there is actually genuinely no such thing as getting better or getting help or being a good friend ?

[kakushusband]

[wakes up from a fever dream] baby shhould have been a brood parasite. Instead. You see the vision.

[ihavea-natural-curiosity]

“what have you been up to these days?”

oh nothing really (crying over tragic symbolism)

[chickenor]

Blue Copper Marans: Powerful Chickens with Stunning Eggs

Engaging Opening Statement Learn about the appeal of Blue Copper Marans, a fairly unique variety of chickens that are known for their beautiful feathers and even more impressive ability to produce eggs! Popular for their bright blue plumage and the dark chocolate brown eggs they lay, these chickens are a novelty for the poultry and small scale farm growers. However as you browse through the pages…

[rainy-day-revelry]

The hardest Pokémon starter choice

(Put on the glasses)

This is the same picture.