#let's get ALL THE BIRDS

[rainofaugustsith]

the bird bonanza

'So today @tishinada and I took our characters through Minstrel: Nidhogg for Wondrous Tails. A lanner whistle dropped. We then went into Minstrel: Thordan. Another whistle dropped. And so we went on. And by the end of about 10 runs through various Heavensward extremes, five whistles had dropped in total. We picked up lanners in Sepiroth (TWICE so we each got one!), Sophia, Thordan, and Nidrogg. I went back through Zurvan alone for S&G a little while ago. And another whistle dropped. Holy hell, it's been Bird Day. Rigel previously had the Ravanna and Bismarck lanners, so now all she's missing is Sophia. @tishinada and I had some really lucky runs with the ARR horsies - I think there was a day we got three or four, including a NIghtmare - but this was unreal.

[stromblessed]

Mizu, femininity, and fallen sparrows

In my last post about Mizu and Akemi, I feel like I came across as overly critical of Mizu given that Mizu is a woman who - in her own words - has to live as a man in order to go down the path of revenge.

If she is ever discovered to be female by the wrong person, she will not only be unable to complete her quest, but there's a good chance that she'll be arrested or killed.

So it makes complete sense for Mizu to distance herself as much as possible from any behavior that she feels like would make someone question her sex.

I felt so indignant toward Mizu on my first couple watchthroughs for this moment. Why couldn't Mizu bribe the woman and her child's way into the city too? If Mizu is presenting as a man, couldn't she claim to be the woman's escort?

However, this moment makes things pretty clear. Mizu knows all too well the plight of women in her society. She knows it so well that she cannot risk ever finding herself back in their position again. She helps in what little way she can - without drawing attention to herself.

Mizu is not a hero and she is not one to make of herself a martyr - she will not set herself on fire to keep others warm. There's room to argue that Mizu shouldn't prioritize her quest over people's lives, but given the collateral damage Mizu can live with in almost every episode of season 1, Mizu is simply not operating under that kind of morality at this point. ("You don't know what I've done to reach you," Mizu tells Fowler.)

And while I still feel like Mizu has an obvious and established blind spot when it comes to Akemi because of their differences in station, such that Mizu's judgment of Akemi and actions in episode 5 are the result of prejudice rather than the result of Mizu's caution, I also want to establish that Mizu is just as caged as Akemi is, despite her technically having more freedom while living as a man.

Mizu can hide her mixed race identity some of the time, and she can hide her sex almost all of the time, but being able to operate outside of her society's strict rules for women does not mean she cannot see their plight.

It does not mean she doesn't hurt for them.

Back to Mizu and collateral damage, remember that sparrow?

While Mizu is breaking into Boss Hamata's manse, she gets startled by a bird and kills it on reflex. She then cradles it in her hands - much more tenderly than we've seen Mizu treat almost anything up to this point in the season:

She then puts it in its nest, with its unhatched eggs. Almost like she's trying to make the death look natural. Or like an accident.

You see where I'm going with this.

When Mizu kills Kinuyo, Mizu lingers in the moment, holding the body tenderly:

And btw a lot of stuff about this show hit me hard, but this remains the biggest gut punch of them all for me, Mizu holding that poor girl's body close, GOD

When Mizu arranges the "scene of the crime," Kinuyo's body is delicate, birdlike. And Mizu is so shaken afterward that she gets sloppy. She's horrified at this kill to the point that she can't bring herself to take another innocent life - the boy who rats her out.

MIZU'S ONE MOMENT OF SOFTNESS AND MERCY, COMING ON THE HEELS OF HER NEEDING TO KILL A GIRL TO SPARE HER THE WORST FATE THAT THIS RIGID SOCIETY HAS TO OFFER WOMEN, AND TO SPARE A BROTHEL FULL OF INNOCENT WOMEN WHO ARE THE CASTOFFS OF SOCIETY, NEARLY RESULTS IN ALL OF THEIR DEATHS

No wonder Mizu is as stoic and cold as she is.

And no wonder Mizu has no patience for Akemi whatsoever right before the terrible reveal and the fight breaks out:

Speaking of Akemi - guess who else is compared to a bird!

The plumage is more colorful, a bit flashier. But a bird is a bird.

And, uh

Yeah.

I like to think that Mizu killing the sparrow is not only foreshadowing for what she must do to Kinuyo, but is also a representation of the choice she makes on Akemi's behalf. She decides to cage the bird because she believes the bird is "better off." Better off caged than... dead.

But because Mizu doesn't know Akemi or her situation, she of course doesn't realize that the bird is fated to die if it is caged and sent back home.

Mizu is clearly not happy, or pleased, or satisfied by allowing Akemi to be dragged back to her father:

But softness and mercy haven't gotten Mizu anywhere good, recently.

There is so much tragedy layered into Mizu's character, and it includes the things she has to witness and the choices she makes - or believes she has to make - involving women, when she herself can skirt around a lot of what her society throws at women. Although, I do believe that it comes at the cost of a part of Mizu's soul.

After all, I'm gonna be haunted for the rest of this show by Mizu's very first prayer in episode 1:

"LET" her die. Because as Ringo points out, she doesn't "know how" to die.

Kind of like another bird in this show:

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

‘Poseidon left a party in Ethiopia because the sea vibes went rancid after Odysseus set sail’ feels like a bit I would make up, but no. That actually happened.

[puppetmaster13u]

Prompt 333

I once more believe Battinson Batman needs to be given a child. Or multiple. Multiple children. I am also once more rotating Ghosts Have Wings Au. 

So Batman, still early in his whole vigilante career ends up busting a shipment, nothing too surprising there. Pretty usual honestly. Except for what was in one of the crates already open. Because it looks like some sort of gemstones but… perfectly spherical. Strange. Suspicious. 

But it’s also late, er, early in the morning, and the GCPD is notoriously corrupt, so like, he’s not going to just leave the weird gemstones, each about the size of a plum or so. (Dear Gotham he’s apparently hungry, and might inwardly vow to never let anyone realize what his tired mind decided to use as measurement) 

So he, unknowingly spurred on by more than just a slight bit of ecto contamination, takes the strange spheres back home. Just puts them in his pockets and heads back to the manor that they moved back into after the whole Riddler mess. (He even found a cool cave! With a bunch of terrifying bats, but they made a glass separator! For safety!) 

But in Bruce’s defense of forgetting about them, he’s more than a little tired and hungry and just wants to sleep for a bit, y’know? So maybe he forgets about the gems as he falls asleep in the chair in the cave (Alfred was not pleased!) until he starts digging around for them. Erm. Did they fall out somewhere?? There’s no holes in his belt pockets… 

And maybe these sort of things shouldn’t slip his mind, the spheres had felt Weird with a capital W, but he gets forced to a circus and there’s an… accident. So maybe he pushed it away as not important because there’s now an angry grieving eight-year old living with him and he’s panickedly reading any and all sort of parenting books he can get a hold of because he has no clue what he’s doing. 

Yeah, maybe his back is itching like crazy no matter what he tries, and maybe he threw up the other day, but it’s fine. This is fine. 

….

Oh dear Gotham those are feathers, this is not fine- ALFREEED!

[ghost-bxrd]

Prompt:

Jason drinks alcohol for the first time ever post resurrection and makes some questionable choices in the form of plastered phone calls and worrisome messages/voicemails.

He wakes up the next morning to at least ten missed calls and dozens of panicked text messages.

[cyanorhis]

I couldn’t help it, yes

[yuwuta]

Nanami ver of bsf upstaging bf?? ❤️

listen… i meant what i said when nanami is just as bad, if not worse when it comes to driving your boyfriend away/upstaging him... maybe his tact makes him a better man than satoru, but you could also argue that it doesn’t; you could argue that kento is is only as respectful as necessary and consciously pushes boundaries, whereas satoru just does!! he just IS!! satoru IS overbearing and knows no consequence, but kento is not and he is very aware that evert action has a consequence, but he weighs it, determines it’s worth it, or—arguably worse—determines that the threat of your boyfriend getting mad or figuring him out isn’t high enough. kento is premeditated murder, he is going to drive your boyfriend so insane, to a place where he fully believes he cannot compete where he cannot compares, and kento will not feel bad about it. so, i rest my case, vice president of the not shit club, and their children are NO better!! 

also, having been friends with kento sets a bar that your past and/or current boyfriend must quickly learn to meet, and more often than not, they don’t even come close. why go on random dating-app dates when kento sends food to your house just because he had an inkling you were sad (you texted him in a certain way that tipped him off). dates meeting you halfway at a restaurant/bar isn’t nearly as flattering when kento drives an hour in heavy rain and traffic after work to pick you up, just to make good on seeing a movie you told him you were excited about. expensive dinner dates and bar hopping becomes mundane when that’s the normal for you and kento, when he regularly takes you out to dinner, if not weekly, then at least bi-weekly, because he’s intentional about your friendship and having time to spend and catch-up with each other in between busy work days. it’s hard to be impressed with a boyfriend when your best-friend takes you on his twice-yearly vacations and pays for everything, citing that even though getting a proper vacation is hard, he loves the time spent with you, so it’s all worth it. kento doesn’t even have to wait for some guy to become your boyfriend, he puts any potential partners out of the running by the standards he’s already set for you. 

[frobby]

list of haikyuu character with actual real world jobs

-oikawa (accepted player for san juan Argentina )

-hinata (accepted player for sesi san paulo + japanese tourism ambassador for sendai japan)

-kageyama (japanese tourism ambassador for sendai japan)

-kuroo (appointed as special chief of japan's volleyball association's PR department)

[genesis-quoi]

My big-brained friend @nortedwayfinder and I like to imagine that food shortage is a prominent part of aosth. Sometimes the children are on the run for a while and can’t stop safely, or simply run out of money or friendly faces to rely on for charity, and that means they sometimes go days without eating.

Angsty, right? Haha (kinda) WRONG !!!

Because Sonic and Tails are masters of improv and being public nuisances alike. Tails gets nabbed?? He’s actually in the kitchen the whole time robotnik is busy monologuing, stuffing his face and stealing snacks to save for Sonic when he arrives.

Because if some dude is gonna burden you with the weight of growing up super fast and make an 11 year old and a toddler the sole guardians of the peace then you should be able to clean out his refrigerator. like fuck you and ur stupid shrink ray ivo im taking the thin mints

[nikonuee]

Hey DunMeshi gang, have we considered:

Falin has feathers now

Birds floof/puff up

Marcille kissing Falin and all her feathers puffing up

DO YOU SEE MY VISION, FARCILLE ARMY?

[pallanophblargh]

Color! Composition still wonky, but this was done mainly to see how I liked the colors and such. I can reposition and resize birds/leaves/etc another time. And get a decent proper hexagon drawn up.

This has been an exercise in not letting perfection hold me back. I have to start getting back into art somehow, right?

[cassandracain52]

Do you think Damian ever forgets he isn't adopted?

Because I've read some things about the other Batkids forgetting they are adopted. But I think in a family like this, the reverse may be equally true xD

Do I think Damian ever forgets he's not adopted? Realistically: No. He spent his first year at the manor making sure every conversation he had somehow ended in him mentioning he was "the blood son". It would take a severe amount of head trauma or smth to make that boy forget that

But in my heart?: Yes I think he does because that would be so funny and the concept positively delights me😭

-----

Just one scenario this made me think of:

[Tim scoffing while looking at his phone]: Pfft Look at this article the Gazette did on us [turns his phone towards Damian to show an article reading "Bruce Wayne's Adopted Children make a appearance at most recent Gala"] [Tim continuing with a laugh]: Can you believe that? I mean who's proof reading these things, right?

[Damian frowning while he reads the headline in slight confusion]: All they did was list our names? We were at that gala? What's wrong with it?

Tim: Well they listed your name too

Damian: And?

[Tim, waiting for Damian to stop messing with him]: ....

[Damian, genuinely confused]: ...?

[Tim poorly smothering an evil older brother smile as he realizes exactly what just happened & is about to lock it in his memories forever to be brought up constantly]: Damian...

[Damian, still not catching on & getting annoyed]: Yes??

Tim: You're not adopted

Damian:...

Tim: ...

Damian: Timothy-

[Tim immediately starting to sprint away]: I already texted everyone

[Damian cursing as he gives chase]: TIMOTHY I SWEAR-

----

Or just:

[Constantine doing a spell to break a curse a villain put on Bruce or smth]: Alright, all I need now is some blood from his next of kin. [glances at watching army of bat children] uh biological next of kin

[Everyone instantly turning to stare at Damian]

[Damian, who's been up for the last 42 hours with everyone trying to break this curse & has reached a new level of exhausted]: ...What?

[Dick, explaining hesitantly]: He needs someone with Bruce's blood..?

Damian: Ok? So give it to him?

[Dick now fully confused]: I'm adopted? I can't?

[Damian in full Dead Tired IncomprehensionTM]: So what do you want me to do about it then???

Dick: Damian. Bruce is your dad.

Damian: [blinks, no thoughts, head empty]

Jason interrupting because he is too tired to enjoy this right now & wants to wrap this up: You're the only one here with his actual blood, genius

Damian: ...

Damian: Oh right

Tim saves the cave recording to every possible file and hard drive he can get his hands on. Barbara helps him to ensure it can't be deleted. The entire family continues to bring it up for weeks that "the blood son" forgot about his blood. Damian never lives it down.

[thejakeformerlyknownasprince]

Wouldn't squirrels be a really god observation morph? As I saw a page point out for Squirrel Girl, Squirrels are pretty much everywhere.

Yes! We see the Animorphs use squirrel that way a little in #35 and #4 — their dexterous "hands" and banality come in handy. That said, I don't know that squirrel nets a huge advantage over seagull or housefly.

Gulls are everywhere outside (it being a beach town) and seen as uninteresting as squirrels, BUT they're better able to escape, more known for approaching humans, and eaten by predators less often. Flies are more vulnerable BUT they're one of very few animals that can move around inside without humans killing, evicting, or even noticing them much of the time. Which is why we see gull or fly morph used in almost every book, more than any other group morphs except maybe raptor.

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Lan Wangji might be an unstoppable force, but Xie Lian has 800+ years of practice of being an immovable object.

(poll results here for context)

[sleepdepravity]

A guy!!!!!!!!!!

[bonicedemandarina]

My piece for the @infinitytrainbigbang !!!!

I really missed drawing my guy Ryan, also I wanted to do that thing where there's like a comic or something going on in the frame(?) Of the drawing bc I saw it on pinterest once and thought it looked cool