#fantail postings

[knightmare-fantail]

i have been curating a beautiful tableau of Wyll posts in my likes for a while now

[fence-time]

Pīwakawaka jimmy. If you even care /silly

[respect-the-locals]

Daily Ray Fact:

The Blotched Fantail Stingray is a slow reproducing species. Females bear litters of up to seven pups, each measuring 13–14 in across and 26 in long. This beautiful ray is, unfortunately, threatened by commercial fishing, as it is targeted as bycatch, and suffers from habitat degradation across much of its range. This species has been labeled vulnerable.

[ratgingi]

finally designed more ginglings . have children baby daughter edition murrey's, outis', and kara's, respectively

[insteading]

I voted! The hoiho (aka yellow-eyed penguin) got my first vote last year, too-- something about their combination of apparent social anxiety and raucousness really speaks to me. Loudly.

Tara iti (aka fairy tern): I mean, they had me at Aotearoa's rarest bird. I don't want species to disappear, and if a bird getting a boost from voting helps, then thanks, I'll vote for the little buddies who are in particular trouble.

Karure (aka black robin): ahhhh little goth songbird! How cute are you?? Also I find their song charming.

Kaikōura tītī (aka Hutton's shearwater): per Forest & Bird, a substantial amount of this species' population died post 2016 quake. Also they have a daily commute from the mountains to the sea and back, and as someone who spends three hours each workday on transit and on foot getting to and from my job, I respect that.

Kakī (black stilt): that plumage! That spearlike beak! Those striking orange legs! That journey back from the brink of extinction!

Anyway: I am not going to tell you how to vote, just letting you know voting is open.

[lemonbubble]

there's so many of them

New Zealand, home of the orbs

[nonasuch]

Miss Universe National Costume 2024, Part 2!

Splitting this off into a new post so I'm not clogging up everyone's dash quite as much.

Miss Malta is some sort of environmental protection Sailor Scout. I think the giant bow would look better on the back of the skirt but otherwise this is solid.

It has just come to my attention that I skipped over Miss Albania and several other A/B countries, back at the beginning. I sincerely apologize! She went to all this trouble putting together a Fifth Element cruise ship passenger costume, and I nearly missed it.

Miss Armenia, in what even I have to admit would be a legit Princess Leia fit.

Miss Bahrain, adding some green to her Gold And Vaguely Historical look, along with what is either a comically large prop chalice or an upside-down lamp.

Miss Bangladesh appears to believe that adding two plush tigers from the toy store around the corner from the pageant venue will conceal the fact that she is just wearing a tiger-print evening dress. Miss Bangladesh is incorrect.

Miss Belgium. Girl. No.

Miss Belize let the seventh-grade art class do her whole costume, which was a bold choice.

Okay, I think that's everyone I missed! Back to alphabetical order. And I should have to rely less on shitty screenshots, now. Some countries were benefiting from the low resolution, tbh.

Kind of feel like Miss Maldives had a luggage mishap and she's just wearing the outfit she packed for a slightly dressy dinner.

Miss Martinique's costume would honestly have looked better in the shitty screencap version. The construction is... bad. It's bad.

Feel like we're in a little bit of slump here. Miss Mauritius did not stick enough butterfly appliqués to her gown to conceal that it is, in fact, just a regular evening gown.

Slump officially over! We are so back. Everyone say thank you, Miss Mexico.

I would like this better if it had just committed to the giant skirt and not felt the need to make it a Sexy Miniskirt look. Sorry, Miss Moldova.

Miss Mongolia wanted to stand out from all the other gold armor on stage, so she decided to a) wear cooler armor and b) bring a bow and arrow instead of a sword. Great work, Miss Mongolia.

Starting to feel like I'm picking on the smaller countries that probably don't have a huge pageant culture or the budget for really elaborate costumes, but on the other hand Miss Montenegro's costume is super low-effort AND the fabrics look cheap, so what am I supposed to do?

Okay, this looks like a pretty standard Miss Universe Sexy Bird, yes? Well, THIS is how Miss Myanmar entered the stage:

She had to fight her way out of that thing! God only knows what the visibility was like in there.

I think the hat is doing most of the heavy lifting to keep Miss Namibia's costume from being Just An Evening Dress, sadly.

Oh, yikes. It's more obvious in motion but Miss Nepal's bodice looks like it's made of craft foam and it fits real weird. The rest of it looks a little like she got together with Miss Cyprus and a pile of tablecloths for a sewing bee last night, I'm sorry to say.

Miss Netherlands has chosen a Tribute to Delft. I think if I were in charge of this costume I would do a much fuller skirt that falls from the waist, instead of the weird trumpet-skirt-with-hoop we've got here. And, obviously, I would make the windmill on the bodice actually spin.

It looks like she's having some issues keeping the wings and peplum in place, but I really like Miss New Zealand's costume from a design perspective. It at least slightly resembles the bird it's supposed to be (New Zealand fantail) and I think the feather pattern is meant to be in a Maori art style.

Miss Nicaragua is a Sexy Cathedral, which I think might be a Miss Universe first and is definitely a big old step closer to drag.

Okay, pausing here to get the next batch ready.

[darkmodechaoticlight]

Avivos being good dads: 2?

I had some more floating hc's while writing for yesterdays post as well as some backstory for Evie, so here is more info (Also here is a rough sketch of baby and dad:

-Fen is very cautious, even if Bael looked like Beel, Fen could tell the poor devil isn't his father. Which breaks Bael's heart since he adores Fen. Bael can't even hold Fen if hes not being bottle fed, since the food is distracting him. Though nap time is best time for them -For the first time after Fen was born Beel left his vicinity, Evie had a heart attack since the baby literally teleported to his father. Beel was in a tavern when a infant still swaddled appeared on the bar counter. Everyone was stunned at the childs appearance. Beel sobered up enough to take his baby back to the palace. Evie was not amused but was happy to have Fen back. -Fen is a HUNGRY BOI! Once he starts eating solids nothing is off the table. He is a child fueled by food and spite. Beel is banned from trying to make something for Fen since the last time toddler Fen was found eating an alive squid that Beel was too slow to grab. -Stolas loves meeting the baby in the form of a Crow. hes like a little guard for the Prince. Something that confuses the devil is that he always finds little round Fantails when he is on guard. These birds weren't native to Hell, though Stolas thinks he knows what Goddess they belong too. -Naberius may or may not be turning into a three headed puppy and playing with the Prince when he is able to walk around. He takes doggy naps with Fen. Naberius loves Fen since he is named Fenris, another three headed dog. -Fen REALLY loves seeing uncle Amon. And Amon on his part really enjoys looking after Fen, even through being covered in puke or really bad poops. Amon takes him on daily walks, giving Evie a bit of a break from the Prince.

[iwritenarrativesandstuff]

I'm probably going to do a terrible job of articulating myself here but every time I think about the worldbuilding in Hatoful Boyfriend, I think about the implications of having the birds simply have adopted the structure and policies of human society and go insane.

It's clearly originally just for the ridiculousness of it all for the players, but AGH it explains so much regarding the extremely rampant classism/racism/speciesism and how apparently normalized it is. It also, to me, adds a bit of moral nuance to the Dove - Hawk Party conflict.

(Long post under the cut. I'm so sorry I just kept going.)

First off, I'm obsessed with the concept of the birds becoming sapient and simply... taking over a society that was not structured for them. It leads to difficulties in universe! Bird wings are not made for doing tasks that human hands can do naturally - there's a couple instances where the characters ask for Hiyoko's assistance or express envy since she can just do the task more easily than they can. The birds are outright disadvantaged in certain areas of life, and yet, the society is in such turmoil due to the newness of it all that there still aren't really any workarounds for stuff like this.

Not that there haven't been any suggested solutions, such as the Labor 9 series, put forward initially by the Dove Party. Yeah, you know, that one throwaway line about how the party that up until this point have been the "good guys" wanted to take still semi-conscious human brains and make robotic slaves out of them Cyberman-style? What the hell. And what gets me is that Shuu was able to find the initial proposal, which he really only made tweaks to, which means that the project was at least close to being finished on the conceptual/planning/design phase before somebody went "hey this is a little fucked up actually".

The Dove Party wants peaceful coexistence with the humans, while the Hawk Party wants to eliminate humanity entirely. But we don't really go into how these two lines of thought evolved. I believe I have a suggestion for at least one part of the puzzle though.

Of all the birds in Hatoful, who enjoys the most privileges and the highest status? Fantails, it would seem. A breed of pigeon that is popular as a pet, considered beautiful and sought after, and achieve high accolades in shows and competitions - for clarity's sake, fantails were valuable in human society, and this status appears to have transferred when birds became sapient and took over. Conversely, which birds are ranked lower and often blocked from entering certain higher class places? Rock doves, who, in human society, are given an unfairly bad reputation, and considered anything from unclean and dirty, to nuisances, to pests. Again, this status transferred over when the birds took over.

So, while we don't know too many of the birds who make up the agents of the Dove and Hawk Party, let's take a look at who we do know of.

Fantails (Yuuya, Dove Party) are considered valuable over other doves and pigeons for being specially bred for their striking tail feathers

Cockatiels (Leone, Dove Party) are some of the most popular and beloved companion birds, kept as pets and considered very friendly

Rock doves (Ryuuji, Hawk Party) are considered unclean pests who receive a bad reputation, and are generally not treated with respect or appreciation <;- notable thing to mention here is that Ryuuji actually does like humans - I think he was only Hawk affiliated for the grant money and research facilities, which... fair enough man.

Chukar partridges (Shuu/Isa, Hawk Party) are game birds, specifically bred and released to be killed and eaten, and considered a delicacy

...do you... see what's going on here?

(I haven't mentioned Tohri as he's a special case. Give me a minute and I'll get to him!)

The birds we see in the Dove Party are those birds that were already viewed in a more favourable light by humans, a favourability that transferred over to their new society. Of course they are more likely to advocate for coexistence! They have less to lose, overall. And the Labor 9 series, and how that could've ever been suggested in the first place, suddenly makes a lot of sense. For many of these birds, society the way it exists now benefits them. Some of these high ranking Dove Party folks may be less about actual peace and justice (like Yuuya or Leone) and more about maintaining the current order of things - humans coexisting under their control, while they get to maintain their status... which is itself a product of human invention.

The birds we see in the Hawk Party, by contrast, are looked down on or hunted. Historically, even before bird sapience, they did not have a harmonious relation with humans - and it's likely this status carried over to their new society also, with many of these birds being more likely to have been disenfranchised. Their goal of elimination is therefore reactionary towards perceived threat. After all, the people who suffer when things go wrong aren't the ones at the top - it's all the people who sit at the bottom of the social rung; the vulnerable members of society who do not enjoy the same advantages as others.

Of course, the Hawk Party has built itself up into such a powerful group that they may have lost touch with this starting foundation - the only thing that remains is likely that reactionary fear. After all, people caught up in the actual conflict - Nageki, Hitori, Ryouta, and Hiyoko - see this kind of horrible bloodshed firsthand (firstwing?) and just want it to stop.

Again, it's not usually the people in these political factions who are the ones caught up in their conflict. It's the individuals who lack power or influence.

But that's just the political groups themselves. On an individual level, it's kind of interesting to look at and theorize where along the spectrum our core cast falls based on their species/breed.

Ryouta (rock dove) is actually rather indifferent towards humanity as a whole - he just likes Hiyoko. However, his witnessing of the Heartful House tragedy led him to abhor violence and unnecessary loss of life, and I'd imagine his mother's later illness solidified this. Ryouta doesn't seem overly interested in political struggles or the broader implications of a lot of things - he's actually a rather self-oriented character when it comes down to it (this is not a judgment, nor a bad thing! I love my boy!). Ryouta just doesn't want to lose people, really. A conflict would mean more loss, and rock doves seem to have to struggle enough as is.

Hiyoko (human) is the daughter of two diplomats, but interestingly, we don't get to see much of her political views on things - perhaps because even if she expressed them, it wouldn't really matter - she's not herself a diplomat, and humans are the lowest of the low - her going to a fancy school doesn't really change that. Social-wise, except with her friends, she is tolerated, not accepted. Yet, it's safe to say that Hiyoko strongly disapproves of people who flaunt their status - she's quick to not take crap from Sakuya, to get angry on behalf of Ryouta and herself over the gull clerk's assholery, and also to defend Miru and Kaku as living beings worthy of respect. Interestingly though, she also uses Okosan's status as a fantail to get Ryouta to let go of him and let him do whatever he wants so... it's kind of unclear what her firm beliefs are. Perhaps, as a human, she still values fantails more highly. I don't know honestly. Implicit bias?

Sakuya, Yuuya and Okosan (fantail pigeons) may share the same breed, but their experiences are highly different. Sakuya is largely separate from the human-bird conflict, as he is unlikely to be directly affected by it. As such, a lot of his story and development has to do with actually learning and un-learning about the world outside of the limitations of his "father's" classist views, which he simply mimics without understanding the larger implications. Yuuya and Okosan, on the other hand, may be fantails, but are also looked down on and often treated as inferior - Yuuya for being a "half-breed" and for his reputation, and Okosan for being closer to feral than a lot of other doves. Interestingly, these two show more interest and respect for the individual than Sakuya does, who often makes sweeping generalizations based on status - which makes sense to a degree, as they've been on the receiving end of this kind of treatment, whereas Sakuya hasn't. Okosan believes that each person has their own "wonderful names" (read: identity outside of breed or status), while Yuuya is a genuine fighter for justice who is able to get to the heart of people, especially in Holiday Star. However, even though they have experienced classism, they still have certain privileges with regards to species/race - take Okosan's shock when Hiyoko and Ryouta are barred entry from his favourite store. None of them are quite as out of place in everyday society as some of the other birds here, and it's notable that "diverse" St. Pigeonations still apparently has a significant fantail student population.

Shuu (chukar partridge) is really interesting, as he doesn't particularly care for the politics of the Hawk Party, and yet his role as a killer/hunter of both his fellow birds and humans is an interesting reversal of the chukar being a game bird. Shuu also has a disability (his semi-paralyzed right side) which hinders him in bird society even more than most. His extreme, yet coldly logical solution to kill all humans to stop the fighting between them, could be as much his rationality, as his joy in the sadistic, as a reactionary survivalism (remember he was caught up in a human terrorist attack as a child - while overall he considered this beneficial to him, he also did lose much of his colour vision and the use of his right side, so it did leave him weakened). Shuu attains control by "flipping the script" as it were.

Tohri (golden pheasant) starts out in the Hawk Party, but much like his colleagues, doesn't seem to care much for their politics. Golden pheasants are game birds whose eggs can be eaten, but are more often bred and kept for their plumage - they're not prey, but they're not exactly pets either. All this puts Tohri in this interesting position of being somewhat in the middle of this conflict, and indeed he goes on to be a part of (found?) the Crow Party - an opportunistic group that seeks to benefit from the overall conflict. Golden pheasants are birds intended to be admired for their beauty and intelligence more than anything else, benefitting in some ways from humans without a strong connection or a reliance, and Tohri's opportunism fits nicely with that. (As an aside, our sole crow character, Albert, is also something of an opportunist, being an assassin on the fringes of society.)

Hitori and Kazuaki (button quails) are somewhat interesting. It would be both expected and understandable if Hitori held hatred for humanity after the Heartful House incident, or even before then, considering they were all war orphans. Instead, he doesn't seem to harbour any particular ill-will - he seems totally fine around Hiyoko, and her being a human has nothing to do with his reticence with letting Nageki hang out with her in the shrine universe. Kazuaki, too, doesn't seem to mind Hiyoko being human and isn't afraid of her any more than he is anyone else. While quails are game birds, with both meat and eggs being eaten, button quails are too tiny for that and are mostly kept as pets - they are considered cute, silly, and entertaining, though a bit too jumpy to be outright companion birds. The quails don't seem to experience too much in the way of speciesism (except arguably with the whole mistaken identity of Kazuaki's corpse... there may be a bit of an "all quails look the same" thing going on perhaps). At the very least, they are able to occupy teaching positions at a renowned school as respected intellectuals, and did go to university. Still, it's kind of a known thing that you don't put button quails with bigger, more dominant birds, since larger birds will often pick on them or even outright try to kill them simply because they're small and shy - this may, in hindsight, explain some of Kazuaki's demeanour.

Nageki (mourning dove) and Anghel (luzon bleeding heart dove) are the two who are uncommon bird species in Japan. Nageki is another war orphan, who would be forgiven for harbouring resentment for humanity, but instead is appalled at the violence and made a huge sacrifice to get it to stop. It's kind of unclear how Nageki fits into this society, as mourning doves are not prey or pets - they're wild birds. They live on the outside of the human world, and while Nageki exists within current bird society, he likely doesn't have a designated status within it. Nageki is unfortunately also alienated from much of the action due to his illness and later his untimely death - this is why a lot of Nageki's thoughts are somewhat from an observer's perspective, with his most emotional moments being derived from his rare direct experiences - specifically the Heartful House tragedy and the human killings he was forced into, which solidified a really firm stance of not wanting anyone to suffer like that. Anghel is another outsider, this time genuinely a foreigner, as opposed to Nageki. Again, Luzons are wild birds, not prey or pets, and so it's a bit unclear what his status is. This might explain why Hiyoko repeats Sakuya's remarks towards him without apparently realizing they're actually insults - Anghel is removed enough from the conflict she is familiar with that it seems she doesn't quite... get it. Again, Anghel's role is as this strange kind of omniscient observer, whose perspective is closer to the player's than to the rest of the cast. He definitely frowns on the Hawk Party's overall goal - the Demon Spores are evil to him, and his main objective is to stop them from spreading, as they would cause damage to both birds and humans. I attribute his morals to his mother having raised him right lol. The lack of a clear status for both of them may be why they appear to take the stance of judgment based on individual actions, but are not heavily involved in the conflict itself - while humans tend to like mourning doves and luzons, there isn't much interaction that goes on between them. Nageki and Anghel are simply less embroiled in bird society's human-derived status conflict, which makes them both outsiders and observers.

As a bonus note, Azami, Rabu and Kenzaburou are all species of birds that can be kept as pets (java sparrow, budgie, parakeet), which may account for some of their friendliness towards Hiyoko, and Kenzaburou's willingness to hire her. Kenzaburou is even a bit old-fashioned it seems - he sleeps in a cage, which implies his ancestors were probably pet birds themselves. It's likely he, in particular, has more positive views on humans.

...Please tell me I'm not the only one who spent ages thinking about the implications and workings of a fictional post-apocalyptic bird society. Also I hope this made sense I kind of went off the rails here.

[usafphantom2]

SR-71 #974 sleeps below the fish’s in the deepest part of the ocean the Mariana Trench there will not be any communist spying in that area.

Since the end of the Cold War, more information has come to light, with many official documents declassified. My friend Paul Crickmore sent me the following email last year with some interesting information.

I just read the piece you wrote about the loss of #974 a couple of days ago and thought you’d like a ‘sneaky-peek’ at part of the piece that’ll appear in the new book covering the subject…

“Side‑scanning sonar imaging of the crash site took place on 29 and 30 April, and it was not long before the debris field of ’974 was located. The 280ft‑long salvage vessel USS Beaufort was dispatched to lift the wreckage with its 10‑ and 15‑ton cranes, fitted on the bow and stern, respectively, and to find the sensors and defensive systems (Coincidently, the ship was built by Brooke Marine, in the author’s home town of Lowestoft, Suffolk).

Due to the proximity of the communist New People’s Army, a number of Navy SEALs were on board to provide protection to the divers and crew.

One morning during the search, an order for General Quarters was sounded at 0400 hours. Crew members rushed to their action stations in readiness for an immediate confrontation. They saw a large number of small vessels (which had been detected on the Beaufort’s radar) making for the ship.

Tension mounted until it was discovered that the would‑be attackers were fishing boats that had come towards the bright lights of the naval vessel because a very large shoal of fish had congregated around it. 🐠

When ’974 impacted the water inverted both engines, the main undercarriage and the aircraft’s sensors smashed through its upper surfaces.

They were scattered on the ocean floor at varying distances away from the main wreckage field. On the evening of 1 May, wire hawsers were attached to one of the J58 engines. The late evening movements dislodged the TEB tank and caused a small leak, which released tiny amounts of the chemical throughout the night.

TEB CAUSED GREEN PUFFS

As the volatile chemical bubbled to the surface, it mixed with ambient air and exploded in small green puffs. The ‘magic’ of the ‘Yankee’ engineers caused quite a stir among the native fishermen who saw the eerie ‘TEB‑bubble show’. The next day both engines were lifted and brought aboard the Beaufort’s fantail, and two days later, many of the sensors were also recovered. When the ship’s crew attempted to lift the main section of the aircraft, the crane operator found that the large delta‑shaped wing planform greatly exceeded the lifting capacity of his crane, and the wreckage refused to budge an inch. A yard derrick was sent from Subic Bay, and the forward fuselage section was recovered on 7 May, while the main structure was lifted aboard the Beaufort’s fantail the following day. The black wreckage was a sad end for a once‑proud airplane, despite Dan’s skillful ( Dan House, the Pilot) and valiant efforts to save it.”

This post is by Linda Sheffield

With Paul Crickmore

@Habubrats71 via X

[knightmare-fantail]

Miku Miku oo ee oo Teto Teto oh ay ohh

[fence-time]

Silly guyz

[hollosene]

"Fogbow" & "Fogbow Seen Off the Back Deck" were shot aboard the Okeanos Explorer as part of the Voyage to the Ridge 2022 expedition series:

A fogbow seen over the fantail of NOAA Ship during the transit to the first dive site at the start of the second Voyage to the Ridge 2022 expedition.

NOAA Ocean Exploration published the images (with 200+ others) to the project's online gallery. Also see the Expedition Overview & additional project docs/datasets like Okeanos Explorer (EX2206): Voyage to the Ridge 3 (ROV and Mapping):

Operations during this 28-day expedition included the completion of 9 successful ROV exploration dives in the vicinity of the Azores, the Mid-Atlantic Ridge south of the Azores, and Puerto Rico. ROV dives were conducted in water depths ranging from 250 m to 6000 m for a total of 41 hours of bottom time. EX-22-06 also collected 56,769 square kilometers of seafloor bathymetry and associated water column data using an EM304 multibeam sonar. All data associated with this expedition have been archived and are publicly available through the NOAA Archives.

Somewhere along way, the gallery linked me to Fae Sapsford’s blog post about high seas governance. She’s a Marine Research Fellow at Sargasso Sea Commission & pulled this graphic for her post:

This schematic shows the legal boundaries of maritime zones of the ocean and air space. Image courtesy of Tufts University, Law of the Sea: A Policy Primer, Chapter 2: Maritime Zones. 

When I followed the trail to Law of the Sea: A Policy Primer (2017), I found Mehar Kaur’s lovely map designs & uploaded them in separate posts (see here & here).

[kittanimo]

Gonna try posting again because of Instagram's stupid new disgusting AI policy :")

The first two are customs, I wanted to experiment with big ref sheets and I'm feeling pretty nice about them

All of these are my species, and the last one is a new one I've bought and redesigned. I call them Starfrilled Fantails (someone came up with this extremely lovely suggestion)

[lilliancdoodles]

Merfolk Fobo for @tastytoastz's Fitpac Mer AU fic 'Life is like the ocean, it goes up and down'. Click for better quality!

Design notes below the cut.

Master post of all designs for this fic

HOLY SHIT OK. So i know I did this to myself but Fobo was ROUGH to draw. Everyone gave me some trouble.

Foolish: - Great White Shark but gold - Foolish is always hard for me to draw cause everyone draws him differently. I decided to base him more off of the more human designs/ cc!Foolish for this to break up the yellow from the tail. - I didn't want to make him straight up metallic, so I gave him a goldish color

Tubbo: - Swordfish - Did you know that swordfish and marlins look very similar? Well they do, so i had to make sure that I was giving him a swordfish tail and not a marlin tail. (I redrew it so much) - I gave him a different shaped sail cause one big difference between swordfish and marlins are their dorsal fin. The tails are pretty similar, but the dorsal fin is different. (pic for ref further down) - The scars are from when he got caught in the ship rudder causing him to end up at Chume Labs ----------------------------------------- Marlin dorsal fin V Swordfish dorsal fin V

Sunny: - Fantail goldfish (I got more specific than just 'goldfish' cause i wanted to >:) ) - Flowy ruffled shirt with a cut out in the back for her sail. - This Sunny looks a lot different from my normal Sunny, but I like them a lot. - by far the easiest of Fobo Leo: - Purple Lionfish - Sail is like the spines of a lionfish but with webbing between the spines - Ears inspired by lionfish pectoral fin - The fin gave me so much grief... I wanted to have it face forward and not sideways, but I could not for the life of me get it to face forward and look good, so I gave up. - Red t-shirt with white collar. I didn't draw it here, but I imagine it also has a little white hood that has the Walter dog on it, but it might get in the way of her sail, so unsure. Also has a hole cut in the back for her sail like Sunny's

Also close ups of Sunny and Leo cause they're small in the group shot:

[okartichoke]

Welcome to the overly long text post for avian apollo and trucy :] (AA4 spoilers)

this is mostly just talking through a bunch of my thoughts ~

(link to my first drawings of them here) (i recommend looking at those first :))

Apollo-Brown thrasher explanation! (keep in mind i’m no bird expert! I am trying my best tho):

I personally think a small brown songbird just screams Apollo. I went with the thrasher for A) their looks, and B) some behavioral traits that fit Apollo:

Brown thrashers are often grounded. They fly low to the ground. This matches the flying habits I see Apollo having. (I envision him much less flight-avoidant than Phoenix, but still preferring lower heights)

They are foragers! This gives me “making the most with what they have” vibes. Reminds me of Apollo constantly adapting to new situations. Also reminds me of how defense attorneys are portrayed in AA

They are generally inconspicuous, but they’re very territorial of their nests. (They’re known to even attack things as large as humans.) This is real Apollo-coded to me lol. The territorial protectiveness shows up strongly in his arc in Dual Destinies, and some in Spirit of Justice.

This all being said, these behavioral traits aren’t super unique to thrashers. The European robin, just for example, acts very similar. So it really ended up coming down to the fact I liked the thrasher’s wings the most :3 But yeah, honestly, I can see most small brown birds fitting for him, and would be equally happy calling him any of them 

Now some honorable mentions for the both of them!:

For Trucy: Not many. I had a dove in mind from the start. A turtledove is an alternative. Also, a white pigeon or fantail pigeon.

For Apollo: guys there are so many 😭

Red-tailed hawk (or maybe an eagle): to lean into his eyesight (perceive ability). Decided against because he doesn’t really seem like a bird of preyyyy like that to me

White bellbird: LOUD BIRD!! The loudest, I think. AND LOOK IT HAS A HORN

As mentioned before, a bunch of small birds: sparrow, robin, wren, lark, warbler, reed bunting, yeah you get it

Sunbittern: suggested to me. it has a lot of Apollo traits (solitary, usually walks, camouflage hunting method (fitting in/adapting to his surroundings)). Sunbitterns have really striking red spots on their wings. Apollo learning to show off these spots would match his character arc over the trilogy very well. I only ended up not going with this one because I personally preferred the ‘common songbird’ angle.

Random extra notes:

I want to put it out there that doves (and pigeons, which are closely related), have been used as sort of pawns by people (don’t mind my charged language lol) but yeah, carrier pigeons used as a mail carrying method, and doves being a magician’s prop, yknow? This is pretty representative of the two of them during AA4.

Also doves have good eyesight hehe

also also i chose the bleeding heart dove was pretty much purely for cosmetics and symbolism, but honestly im okay with that

If you read this post hats off to you. i hope you enjoyed yet another straight-up essay 😭😭😭