#I will not be a fish or a bird I will be a person

[sparks-chaotic-cove]

Guys we should really do that think that Hermitblr is doing with the fanon/canon trait swap. (like deer!Cleo, cyborg!Joe, etc)

Here's my list of traits so far- (plus who they came from) (tell me if I missed any!)

Bear (Jamie/Bruin) Telchin (Ulysses) Olm(Aax) Fish (Ocie) Creeper (Jerry, Terry) Bird (Icarus) Nether (Piglin, Ghast, etc) (Athena, Soul, Netherum) Dragon(-adjacent) (Rae) Wolf (Fenris) Spider (Addie) Allay (Arisanna) Ghost/Resurrected (Haley) Enderman (Enderian, Rae) Skulk (s2 Rae) Corrupted (s1 Easton, Centross, Sherbert, Momboo) World/Ocean person (Momboo, Ocie) Faun/Satyr-ish (Deltavera, Bruin)

#fablesmp #fsmp #fsmpblr #fable smp #sparksilly #fablesmpblr

[atthedugouts]

What pets would the Gallaghers have?

Mickey and Ian have a cat. A black cat that hates everyone but her daddies.

Carl is the dog person. Remembering his time at the “vet” he would definitely adopt an older dog that are harder to find homes for.

Debbie is a bird person, I feel it in my bones. You go over to her house and she would be chilling with a bird on her shoulder. Franny will put tiny hats on the bird.

Fiona I’m going to pretend she took Rusty with her. As much as she’s done raising kids I think she still needs something to care for.

Lip does not get a pet.

Liam gets fish. One of those big tanks that he can decorate. It’s a hobby he really gets in to and he’s very responsible about the type of fish he gets and the type of environment they should live in.

#shameless hc #mickey milkovich #ian gallagher #debbie gallagher #lip gallagher #fiona gallagher #liam gallagher

[meetinginsamarra]

mayprompts2024, #30 journey

Chapters 1 to 6 here on AO3

If you like the tattoo AU give it some love on my AO3, please. It would mean a lot to me. TYSM!

+++++

White Pony Tattoo - Part Ten (journey)

Eight days later, once again, John found himself hovering in front of 221 Baker Street. He wondered if there would ever come a time when he would be able to simply just walk inside because he was sure about it like every other normal person would probably do.

The days since he had last seen Sherlock had flown by, with John barely noticing the passage of time. He had thought a lot about what Mrs Hudson had said to him in her kitchen. Not the threat she had uttered. But the thing about Sherlock having had a hard time in his past.

John had pondered about what might have happened to him, what had hurt Sherlock so much that he had needed to put up that wall of protection around himself. To build an armour around his heart.

Of course, John wouldn’t ask. He also promised himself not to stalk Sherlock on the internet any further. If Sherlock wanted to trust John with telling him anything about his past, it was solely up to Sherlock to take the first step into this direction.

Calais Reno, the movie star, whom John had begun to follow on Instagram out of sheer curiosity, had posted a picture of the newly acquired tattoo yesterday. It had been placed on the outer side of the right calf and reminded John of a mixture between HG Wells’ steampunk-inspired time machine and Doctor Who’s Tardis. It was intricately detailed and although it was very close to a technical drawing, the image seemed three-dimensional. Given that the movie star was known to be a fan of stories about time travel, it was the perfect choice.

John would have expected nothing less, coming from Sherlock.

Which made him more and more curious about the phoenix Sherlock would put onto him this afternoon. Excited. Also, a bit anxious. What if he didn’t like Sherlock’s design after all? Sherlock had only texted John, giving him a time and a date when the tatooing would take place but he had not given the tiniest hint concerning its design.

John remembered very well the part of Sherlock’s shop sign that demanded no arguing. He would just have to trust Sherlock, John supposed.

Into battle. John opened the door.

Sherlock, dressed in a deep green shirt today, was already waiting and welcomed John with a radiant smile. This time, he reciprocated John’s firm hug with much more comfort and surety.

Without further ado, John was led into the tattoo parlour behind the curtain and Sherlock wordlessly gestured at the computer screen. It showed a black-hued phoenix. In a realistic 3D view that turned from side to side in an endless loop as if John was moving his arm. The firy bird totally eclipsed the Virgin Mary tattoo, depicted in faint red hues underneath, leaving not even the least bit of ink uncovered.

John stared with his mouth hanging open and didn’t know what to say.

“Given that you just perform the perfect impersonification of a gold fish, I take it that the design pleases you.” Sherlock deadpanned.

“Holy cow, Sherlock, this is,” John’s voice was hoarse as a multitude of feelings rushed through him, “this is… perfection.”

 John must have chosen the right word because Sherlock’s face flushed red.

“It had to be. More than any tattoo before.” Sherlock swallowed, fiddling awkwardly with his hands. “I made it for you, John.”

“Sherlock, I…”

But Sherlock launched into a flurry of rapid movements, starting to set up everything for the tattoo session. It looked like a meticulously rehearsed ballet performance and John was transfixed by the lithe beauty and grace.

“Get comfortable in the seat,” Sherlock said whilst putting various needles, phials and two tattoo guns onto a tray, “I estimate that it will take three and a half hours to tattoo the phoenix. If you need a break, to move or stretch, just say so.”

John did as he had been asked and then Sherlock took off his dress-shirt to put on sterile surgical gloves. Underneath it, Sherlock wore a skin-tight black t-shirt where the short sleeves had been cut off. For the very first time, John saw Sherlock’s arms and the sight made him grateful that he was already sitting.

Sherlock’s arms were nothing short of spectacular.

Beautifully muscled, like a dancer’s, skin milky-white and smooth like marble. His right arm was not tattooed, but the left was wholly covered with intricate lines of deep black and brilliant red. From John’s point of view, they looked like dancing flames.

Sherlock apparently felt John’s eyes on him because he suddenly kept still. He turned, stepped up to John and held out the tattooed arm so that John could take a look at its front side. He carefully watched John’s reaction.

“You also have a phoenix on your arm!” John gasped. “A huge phoenix surrounded by flames!”

“Brilliant observation, John.”

John realized that every time Sherlock had become sarcastic before, at least when he had talked to John, it had been an indicator of Sherlock being nervous. Something that he would never openly admit.

But what should Sherlock be nervous about?

The tattoo was beautiful and perfect and then John remembered what Sherlock had said about perfect tattoos. That they had to connect to their wearer’s personality and history. The implications of Sherlock’s professional credo in connection with chosing a phoenix for himself made John dizzy.

Did that mean…

“Are you a survivor, too?” John blurted, overwhelmed by his sudden epiphany.

Sherlock sighed. He fought an inner battle, the pros and cons of the choice he was about to make clearly written on his face.

John didn’t say anything, knowing Sherlock needed time for what this was. To find the courage and the trust to tell John about it.

When Sherlock had made his decision, he straightened his back and carefully wiped every emotion off his face, but his eyes stayed wary and apprehensive and he looked right over John’s head.

“It’s been a long journey before I’ve arrived where I am now.” Sherlock gestured with his hand to the tattoo parlour. “It’s not been a joy ride for a very long time. I’ve literally died, John! My heart had stopped and I’ve been brought back to life.”

John simply nodded one time. He did not dare move another muscle, lest Sherlock might get spooked and retreat back into his shell.

Sherlock took a deep breath, gathering his strength. He slowly searched for John’s eyes. After finding them, he asked silently.

“Have you ever wondered why I chose the name White Pony Tattoo?”

++++++

tagging some people @totallysilvergirl @peageetibbs @lisbeth-kk @raina-at @calaisreno

#mayprompts2024 #number 30 journey #my sherlock fanfics #white pony tattoo #no beta we die like (wo)men

[manysketchbook]

Firffels: the Wuzzles Competitor That Disappeared

Recently, I found this toy at my local thrift store. I thought it was an oddly cute nativity toy, but upon closer inspection the tush tag read "FIRFFELS. I'm glad to be a SHAMEL." I did a quick search online and the first result was this page on Ghost of the Doll, a toy collector's site that archives information about 80s/90s toys and includes a forum where anyone can seek help with identifying toys. This lead me down a rabbit hole of figuring out just what Firffels were: a failed line of toys promised to be the next hot phenomenon, with minimal documentation online and a handful of toys floating around in thrift stores.

Other than Ghost of the Doll, I found info about Firffels in this 2010 blog post by Trish Babbles (written in an edgy, mean-to-be-funny style that I think is too uncharitable, but it was a different time to be online lol) and this blog post by AF Blog. My other info comes from Othello Bach's website dedicated to the book itself (her personal site is no longer functional) and from a handful of youtube videos I found of a Firffels commercial. Many thanks to these sources, without them there'd be like, nothing online about these creatures.

Firffels are based on the children's book Who ever Heard of a Fird? by Othello Bach, first edition published in 1984 by Caedmon Childrens Books (upon Googling, it appears that Caedmon is owned by HarperCollins now and focuses on audiobooks). The story follows Fird, a fish-bird hybrid, as he travels the world to find other firds. Along the way he encounters a goofy, lovable cast of other hybrid animals who have all never heard of a fird. The story ends with fird learning to love his uniqueness and find peace with being who he is. As is apparent in the Amazon link above (not sponsored, just showing my work), a used copy is $86 dollars right now. An audiobook narrated by Joel Grey (an actor that I'm unfamiliar with who is apparently known for his role in Cabaret) was also released on cassette, listed on Ebay for $75+. Luckily, there is a youtube video of someone doing a complete read through of the book, but the camera angle is poor. This is the only visual record I could find online of the interior illustrations by Michelle Dorman, other than a brief look at a few in a low quality VHS promo rip I'll get to in a minute, and the image below from an Ebay listing. There may be a few more photos in some Etsy listings that I missed.

In Trish's blog post they complain that Shamel is an ugly monstrosity and there were a few comments on Ghost of the Doll's forum of the same nature about Shamel, but I think Shamel is the cutest one! It just looks like a new breed of camel, meanwhile Fird in the background here is...he's so cartoonishly goofy. Idk how else to describe him. He's so fuckin' goofy. He'd make squeaky Spongebob-esque sound effects when he walks, I imagine.

The book was allegedly a hit and Remco bought the merchandising rights. They went all in, as is detailed in the 5 minute promotional video below. Based on a cast of 6 characters, plush toys and posable action figures hit the market with a promise that Hanna Barbera would develop an animated tv show starring Firffels, housewares would be made, there'd be a clothing line, and Design-a-Firffel contests would be held. A few housewares seem to have been made and plush toy sewing patterns were released, but I was unable to find evidence that anything else moved forward.

Absolutely fucking insane fact: according to this video, Caedmon Publishing was owned by Raytheon at the time. Thanks Raytheon for these cuddly children's toys and also, uh, horrific weapons of war?

After I bought Shamel, I went back to the store to see if there were more. There were! I found Bertle and Elephonkey, who still had the original tags. I swear the day earlier I had seen a frog toy with butterfly wings but it wasn't there anymore. I remember passing over it and thinking "eh, butterfly wings on a frog aren't cute," and did not bothering even looking at the tags. My mistake. Turns out that toy was worth a decent amount of money and was part of this whole story.

Bertle's pink belly super bright in real life, like neon. There is a sunbleached spot on it's front.

Elephonkey is the only one with original tags. I also included an image of the tush tag. For each toy the tush tag is the same but displays the character's name.

Hybrid animals are not a unique concept. Wuzzles, a line of plush toys that were animal hybrids with wings and likely made to compete with Care Bears, are brought up in most posts and forums where Firffels are mentioned--usually to disparage Firffels as being knock off, less successful Wuzzles. Wuzzles weren't exactly successful either, though they definitely lasted longer and had more reach, likely due to the backing of a Disney/Hasbro budget. AF Blog in 2015 makes a good point that I agree with: it's unlikely that Wuzzles and Firffels were ripping each other off due to production timelines. Toy lines can be in development for years before any information is made public. It takes a long time to design toys, then get them to a manufacturer, then go through the revisions process. Not to mention the time it takes to ship things out, negotiate contracts at every step of the way, etc. And, as AF Blog notes, Whoever Heard of a Fird? was released in 1984, a year before the first Wuzzles tv episode aired, and Firffels hit the market a year later.

People draw hybrid animals all the time. For example, furry adoptable artists draw hybrids all the time (take a shot every time you find a closed species that is a feline with a fish tail or deer feet or some other animal's defining trait), the Lego movie had Unikitty, and I literally went to Walmart today and in the toy section there was a miniature rabbit-like rainbow animal with wings and a unicorn horn there. The thing that makes these toys potentially appealing, in my opinion, is that they choose safe and popular traits: sparkly horns and feathery wings, for the most part. Things that are easily marketable.

The thing with Firffels is that they combined animals with traits that are less immediately appealing. Image below from Ghost of the Doll.

Some of them are cute but the others miss the mark. Personally I like Shamel and Bertle (the plush version only tbh).

Worth pointing out is that the character illustrations do not match the toy designs. If you go back and watch the commercials included in the 5 minute promo video, you can see that the Bertle plush and action figure are brown and green rather than pink and blue, and that Shamel's hair is brown instead of purple. I saw varied photos of the Butterfrog plush: some were lighter green while others were darker. Could be an issue with differing cameras, but I don't know for certain. And then there's Elephonkey, who is the most inconsistent of the bunch:

The first image is the prototype toy as it appears in the commercial. It is grey and flesh colored, with odd looking plastic hair. The second image is from Ghost of the Doll, of how the Elephonkey action figure actually appeared in stores. Third is a photo of my Elephonkey plush. Compare it with the official character art...well, he's not my favorite design in any incarnation.

I think the toys in the commercials were prototypes that were changed to brighter colors so as to appeal more towards girls. In the 30 second plush commercial there are 4 girl actors and 1 boy actor, with the camera shots getting closer to and focusing more on the girls' faces, so it would make sense. In contrast, the action figure commercial features 1 girl and 2 boys, and most of the camera shots are of the kids' hands playing with the toys, giving off a more boyish, gender-neutral vibe. Classics of gendered marketing, am I right? lol. But I think the change was a good one. I wouldn't have picked up Shamel if I hadn't seen the purple hair, and I definitely would not like Bertle if he wasn't pink. It gives the toys more of a cohesive style, a unique identity, and they fit in more alongside the Wuzzles/Care Bears visuals with the vibrant, happy colors. There's more of a toy-like quality to them, which increases the cuddle-ability and inspires more of an urge to play.

Discovering and logging all this inconsistency has been pretty fun. But it makes me think that these toys were probably doomed by a chaotic, unorganized development process behind the scenes. And given that the book was published in '84 and toys hit the market in '85...the signs seem to point to production being rushed.

To be fair to Firffels, it was probably a little harder in the 80s to hit it big with kids. You had to be lucky, you had to have connections with the right distributors, you had to anticipate what is universally appealing to children--one of the most unpredictable audiences out there--and you had to pay to air your commercials during prime child viewing hours. These are all things that are still true, but we have the internet now and the advertising power of the internet is scary. Going viral on TikTok has the potential to skibidi someone's toilet career. iPad babies are growing up into grade school kids who throw birthday parties every year and get toys as gifts. We are living in an era where mass-producing cheap little polyester plushies and plastic figures is easier than ever and corporations have massive budgets to pump into kids' eyeballs through every advertising avenue they possibly can. They don't even need to come up with the designs anymore, they can just partner with whatever Roblox game is popular right now and capitalize on that. Maybe Othello Bach should get on Roblox.

Actually, it appears that Bach was given the short end of the stick by the time Firffels were pulled. Though her personal website is no longer up, her other website dedicated entirely to Whoever Heard of a Fird? has some info:

At the height of Fird's success, with over 100 licensees cramming the store shelves with children’s merchandise and an animation contract with Hanna-Barbera, the book and all the merchandise suddenly vanished from the shelves.  Although she lost the rights to several other published children’s books at the same time, Othello has never received a reasonable explanation for what happened.

So this passage actually clears something up for me. This whole time something that hasn't really lined up is that I had assumed that Othello Bach published the book first and then was approached for merchandising rights after the book sold well. I actually think now it's possible that from the get-go the book was written with the intention for it to become a worldwide sensation. Not so much Bach's intent, though. I have some professional familiarity with licensing and other such creative publishing contracts, particularly with books. Based on what I know, I believe it's more likely that Bach pitched her manuscript to Caedmon Publishing and Caedmon, seeking to create popular IP, was like, "this has potential and we are going to sign you on not only for the book, but for more." That might be why the character designs are so strange: they were trying too hard to get famous quick and had instructed the illustrator (it is regular practice for publishers to pair authors with an illustrator and given how much was on the line for this IP, Bach might not've had much input here) to design characters that could also become toys. It's unlikely that Michelle Dorman, a kids book illustrator, had product design skills needed to make standout, awesome toy designs. Not a knock on her, illustrators just have niches within their field that they're best at it. It's why you see so many illustrators complain about how often they get approached to design logos--that's not what we do, thank you.

What's sad is that clearly Bach had signed a bad contract that gave away most of her rights as the writer to the publisher. She openly says so above. My guess is that Caedmon told her they needed more rights than usual to be able to conduct so much merchandising (like signing contracts with Remco, much easier to do when you don't have a third party also involved), and because they were pouring so much effort into it on their end. Bach is just the writer, so while the original idea is hers, Caedmon would have matched her with an illustrator and taken charge of all the licensing and merchandising. For a publisher this is a huge commitment financially and personnel-wise, so it makes sense why they would have put forth a contract that gave them so many rights. If Firffels had become as popular as they'd hoped, they don't want to not own the IP. They would have poured all those resources into it and not be able to reap all the rewards because that pesky author would own it. It's almost like contracts like these are predatory and only serve the interests of the publisher. Almost like publishers are companies existing in a capitalistic system and therefore only serve profit, not people. Almost like companies will never truly have artist's best interests at heart, and if you are ever to sign a contract with a big publisher you need to have a good lawyer by your side.

It makes me so sad to read that they didn't even give her a reasonable explanation as to why everything was cancelled. She does not even appear to have any of the merchandise on hand, as all the photos on her website are from Ghost of the Doll. In hindsight we can guess, obviously, why the cancellation happened but I'm in the moment it was probably upsetting. It's still upsetting, given that she has included this in her website for the...revamped book!

However, like Fird, Othello refused to give up. For the next 20 years, she tried to regain the rights to her work. Entertainment attorneys assured her it would never happen.  They said, "It can't be done!" But... it could be done and Othello did it, regaining the rights back to all her work.

Yeah, so, I actually think this is the saddest part about the whole thing. She managed to get some of the rights back and republished the book with...new art...that looks so fucking BAD. Image from her website:

Sorry to this illustrator, but got damn. There is no sauce to this art whatsoever. It is unseasoned, not even salt and pepper. This looks like ass and would never fucking fly with any editor worth their chops. It took me ages to figure out that the long yellow curved line is Fird's tail. Like, this is so unbelievably sad to me. I don't even really like the original art a whole lot, but compared to this...

My informed guess as to what happened is that Bach lawyered up and fought. As we know, Caedmon is now owned by HarperCollins. I can't say for certain but there was probably some case to be made that Caedmon being sold breached the contract, or nullified parts of it, or perhaps the contract expired. It could even just be that HarperCollins didn't care about an old, unprofitable IP and granted Bach her rights back. There is also Remco to consider: they also hold some of the rights, but probably just for the merchandise? Given how prominently their logo is displayed on the toy tags, they might actually own a significant share. Perhaps they were happy not to have anything to do with the book so long as the merch rights weren't touched. I don't know! There's no info about it on the site and this stuff is usually under NDA.

So Bach got her rights back, but she's just the writer. She doesn't own any of the art, so in order to republish the book she had to hire a new illustrator. She likely did not have a huge budget for it, maybe even paying for it out of her pocket because the Choice Books logo she has in several spots on the Fird website appears to be for a distribute on demand service, in place of a traditional publisher.

As the writer, she also would not have gotten the rights to use the original audiobook, so she had one re-recorded. It also appears like she does not have the rights to the name "Firffels" either, as the only places it appears on the site are in photographs of merchandise and in titles specifically referring to the work that is still owned by Caedmon. She carefully refers to her own work as "Fird" for short or the book's full title, probably because she cannot legally imply that she owns or made anything else.

I dug into this thinking it would be a quick look at some strange, forgotten toys from a bygone era. Instead I found a story about how an artist can so easily be shafted by publishers. Everything always loops back around to workers' rights, it seems. Stories like this about shitty publishing contracts (see: Webtoon if you want to get into something current) still appear so often, man. It's depressing, and indicative that the publishing industry needs some reforming ASAP. Like, Illustrators, when are we getting a proper union?

But I'm glad Bach got her rights back and got her book republished within her lifetime. I'm sad she didn't have the budgets for a better illustrator. Sorry to bring that up again, I work as an illustrator irl and I have opinions about craft, lol. Also I just think that given how hard Bach had to fight, she deserved to have better art made. That being said, here's another link to her current website. There's not much there but what is there is a monument to a battle she fought and won, and is proud of.

The lack of detailed, clear, centralized documentation of these toys frustrates me. One of the most frustrating things about the internet for me is that there are few easily accessible, publicly available archives of toys--even for modern toys. I've had to use Amazon reviews and Ebay listings and broken online stores to decipher publication years. With this in mind I decided to do a write up and provide clearer pictures of the toys that I have (I'll take hi res pics in natural lighting too someday). Archives are important to me and the internet kinda sucks for it, I say as someone who started this blog for that purpose. If Tumblr goes down, so does everything I've posted here. As an artist who works primarily digitally, one of the scariest things is knowing that I'm laboring over an ephemeral body of work. It's just not going to exist for very long unless I print it out on archival materials. Data is not the same as a physical object. My Firffels have survived for 39 years but the digital art I draw every day is unlikely to last past 10 years because websites die and files get deleted.

I bought the Firffels from my thrift store thinking I'd resell them. I'm low income so I sell many of the things I thrift. I prefer to buy the older toys or the ones that need cleaning because it makes me feel better about being a reseller (I don't want to take away options from low income kids in my area, ya know?). But I'm putting in the labor to freshen them up and I'm putting in the effort to make unavailable toys available again, at least for one person. And I don't have a whole lot of shelf space to display the toys in my collection...but for now I think I'll keep them.

#80s #80s toys #vintage #vintage toys #firffels #whoever heard of a fird #thrifting #thrift finds #1985 #manys collection #toy collection #plush #plush toys #plushies #kidcore #plushcore #toycore #hybrid #hybrid animals #shamel #elephonkey #bertle #sheep #camel #bear #turtle #elephant #monkey #wuzzles #publishing

[windandwater]

some updates

music situation is fixed. my head is playing a loop of The Bleachers' "I Wanna Get Better" which like, if you listen to that song, you'll get why!!! still a slow process but it's a huge improvement

did myself a favor and started The Adventure Zone over from the beginning, I just finished Balance and will be going all the way through to the new episodes. this is important.

because I am uh. fixed now. I remembered that remembering someone you love even if it hurts is better than not having those memories at all. I'm okay with not walking into the ocean and never coming out. I want to be human still.

you know how sometimes there's a specific media you need at a specific time and you find it at the right moment? like. you need to process some stuff about a parent dying early, listen to a story told by people who lost a parent early.

"Our capacity for love increases with each person we cross paths with throughout our lives and with each moment we spend with those people. But too often we neglect that part of ourselves in favor of others, and by the time we realize just how important it is, we find ourselves with fewer folks around to practice with. But the seven of you have something that nobody else ever had. Time."

you can imagine why I had to stop the podcast for a while after that part.

I said it all more poetically when I was more sad and now that I feel better I just want to point to the words Griffin said and say "there you go, it's that." When your capacity for love increases it also means you might get hurt more deeply when you lose someone because you didn't have enough time with them. But I remembered that even when memories hurt it's better to have them.

I haven't figured out how to feel okay without feeling numb or distracting myself constantly. But I'm working on it.

#adventures in text posts #grief #death #I will not be a fish or a bird I will be a person #for as long as I can

[smilesrobotlover]

Team B do kotg plus the Royal family. Idk how I feel about Urbosa’s design, truthfully I didn’t put a lot of thought into it, all I know is that I reallly wanted to give her boots because the idea of the Gerudo running and fighting in the sand in HEELS hurts my ankles. Like OW?? But idk I don’t like her pants. It’s not a final design anyways… I’m excited to explore the champion’s dynamic more. They’re so fun. I also wanted to give Rhoam very light blonde hair instead of white cuz I hate how he looks like he could be old enough to be Zelda’s grandfather 😭😭

#revali will shamelessly make fun of Link and Daruk #he of course loves them but he also is annoyed by them #as one does #daruk and urbosa are the parents to the three children #legendofzelda #legend of zelda au #zelda au #king of the gerudo #age of calamity #I didn’t mean to give Daruk big fangs I just #I like fangs … #also I feel like link doesn’t like dogs #he’s not a dog person #nor an animal person for that matter #which is funny considering the fish… and birds…

[fiendishartist2]

guess who just watched this years fourth of footwerk

#idk why it hadnt occurred to me how easy it would be to make my own fin fin #i was watching the youtube upload of the stream and wayne started talking about how he wishes he had a fin fin plush #and i was like wait a minute......... #bc like its literally just a bird body with a fish tail. i just frankensteined like 3 patterns to make him #i love him <33333 #he looks better in person i just have a shitty phone lol #rtvs #fourth of footwerk #fin fin #teo the magic planet #amigurumi #man my wrists are not happy that i was crocheting oh my god. they're cracking and stinging like crazy #i was sewing the other day so they were already a little fucked up but doing tiny crochet projects like this are the worst for my wrists #its worth it tho like look at him :3

[carnivalcarriondiscarded]

a blatantly lying salesdrake. "imported directly from the Shallows", they say. sure, dude, sure...

#worldbuilding worldbuilding. kinda #either way twas a fun scribble #is this even valid worldbuilding??? do i want my dragons' culture to include pets??? #pets outside of eelings of course... #hm... maybe they train certain birds as mail carriers #would be useful for dens to have their own #then there could be a community mailbird for longer distances?? much to consider! #mailbirds for small messages & such and then maildrakes for super important stuff / packages #yes yes good adding it to the File #then this scribble Is valid worldbuilding! yay!! #vera crafting #scribble salad #dragons #oc #original character #not-fish <3 #< new tag to compile my dragon characters #tis a personal inside joke #its not a funny joke! i mean it is to me but it is Genuinely Unfunny!

[tj-crochets]

If I am going to experiment with making some kind of needle felted wall art thing, what do you think I should make? I'm thinking possibly fish, or a sunset, or something

#the person behind the yarn #one of my friends suggested I do it like the embroidered jacket #a bunch of small projects that come together into a bigger project #with like a field scene with birds and insects #or an underwater scene with coral and fish #which would be cool! idk how much I'll like needle felting #so I think I might start with like One Thing #and then do a more complex longer term project a little at a time

[some-teeth-in-a-trench-coat]

Someone please explain empathy to me like you're explaining water to a fish

#sfw #personal #ok to reblog #what do you even tag something like this #idk man I'm pretty sure I have empathy and I think it's high but I don't know because I'm not sure what it actually is #and because I don't know what it is I don't know what its absence even means I don't understand what it means to be low empathy #I don't know what the difference actually is and I feel like I'm a fish seeing a bird fly and not knowing how that isn't just swimming #I know it isn't swimming but I don't understand the difference and I want to understand what it is #if birds are not bound to the solid bottom what is the difference between water and air it seems more effort but why? what makes it harder? #what is water and what does it mean to be outside of it #I'm gonna shut up and post now sorry

[actualbird]

if you had to assign tot biases to ur cats who is getting who

OBSESSED WITH THIS ASK, i love this. thank you for this question.

i must admit, after reading this i was a bit confused because...assign in what way? which cat is most like [insert nxx boy]? if my cats were humans that played tot, which one would be their fave nxx boy?

in the end, i decided to go for the route of assignment that my brain found silliest:

which of the nxx boys would make the most complementary owners for our cats, given our cats' personalities

bully = marius

bully is a Princess, but like if a Princess was constantly zooted on caffeine and sugar. she has high standards and a metric fuckton of Silly Energy, and thus she reminded me a lot of Berry from the Fluffy Fuzzy Time 2 event. like Berry, i think bully's mischievous personality would greatly complement marius' own playful personality. plus, marius would have more than enough money to spoil her rotten

-

gato = vyn

gato is, in many ways, the opposite of bully. he has no standards and is always just lazing around. he likes eating food off the floor more than he likes eating it in his food bowl. im assigning vyn to gato because i think vyn could help gato Have Better Standards for himself. also because gato is a Very Sleepy Cat, and thatd mesh well with vyn's own resplendent sleep schedule.

thank you for this ask <3

#vyn please. please reform my cat. put some manners into him. i beg #luke is a dog/bird person through and through so he got disqualified immediately. and artem will forever be a Fish Guy to me so hes out too #asks #anon #catbloggin

[theminecraftbee]

🌼 + Cleo

intelligent design - in which cleo, undead monstrosity, discovers she might sort of accidentally be a god. In her defense: she didn't know armor stands weren't supposed to work like that?

-

It isn't until Grian starts handing her what look like his weird idea of offerings that Cleo realizes that something is up with him.

Now, in her defense, it's understandable. Everyone on this server is deeply weird. Cleo's recently learned to reanimate beings using armor stands. Joe is periodically transparent. She's pretty sure that the other day she caught Xisuma eating seagrass like he was an actual turtle, instead of a guy in a - is it still called a fursuit? It's not furry, but it's basically...

The point is, the weird way Grian looks at her after she starts her pirate ship doesn't really register with her. He's new, and she's not good at faces, so sue her.

It hadn't been until now. Season seven. She's breathing life into more small people to populate her zoo. The cod-headed peopleare given their roles in the scene, the things they're supposed to take care of, the danger they're going to face, and, okay. Her cod people are also a little... weird... about her, but she'd sort of assumed armor stands just did that? Like, become people like that.

So she's working on her zoo, and some of the armor stands keep on showing up and handing her little tributes, and she pays them for them, because she's not rude. It's just that when Grian shows up, blinking his own big, black, soulless eyes, and tries to shove what looks like three sea pickles, fourteen diamonds, and some sort of weird custom explosive into her hands that she realizes that she has a problem.

Maybe. A little bit of one.

Grian runs off again before Cleo can even ask why he's handing her the same random assortments of items as the cod people, which is a shame, because he can talk. He could explain what's been going on. But nooo, he had to rocket away like he was afraid of her and the book in her hands for some reason.

She puts it out of mind until he does it a second time, this time with a better-constructed explosive. That's... That's about when she really starts realizing.

#answered #gardenergulfie #ask game #prompt ficlets #i need to use the 'grian is actually an armor stand fish person' one more often #like yeah the bird one is fun and standard but consider: weird cod man #who's scared to talk to cleo because GUYS SHE'S LIKE. THE CLEO. /THE/ CLEO. #anyway this is not the most coherent version of this snippet that could exist but this is for fun so ehhhh

[lightbulb-warning]

wip! based on the fte!! this was supposed to be a small doodle!!! It’s me and my compulsive urge to overcomplicate my life against the world!!!! (/exasperated!!!!!) /lh

#while doobling i proceeded to have an eureka moment about 2p perspective #because in usual maiora fashion between the easy way and the correct way i always find myself approaching shit in the DUMB WAY #<- which essentially means ive been shoving 'cool' fish eyes and 3ps and birds eye views because I DIDNT UNDE 2P PERSPECTIVE #*shoving them in my work #*UNDERSTAND #ANS IVE BEEN DOING IT FOR Y E A R S #anyway took me almost two decades but i figured it out: STOP PUTTING THE HORIZON LINE IS COMPLICATED PLACES THE MIDDLE OF THE PAGE IS FINE #aka 'don't overthink things you dumb fuck' #which is #yeah #buisness as usual lmao #im a very physically dramatic person too so when i figured it out i jumped in my seat and startled a half asleep guy so bad he snapped at m #we laughed it off it was fine #awkward as shit!!! i hated it!! but fine #anyway afterall this nonsense the perspective in the doodle is currently incorrect intentionally pfft #shut up maiora #wip

[windandwater]

if buttons didn't really turn into a seagull I'm gonna be pissed

#adventures in text posts #we're not gonna touch the whole personal symbolism of 'I wanted to be a fish/bird' here but listen. listen. #if I could come back as a seagull I would I'm just SAYING there's one ofmd character I relate to the MOST #our flag means death #ofmd season 2 #ofmd

[keeps-ache]

mm i Neeed to go the beach

#just me hi #wauhuhh ! #something about just drifting around in water that i am slightly scared of that really makes my brain whir happily lol :> #i am slightly scared of it for two major reasons: 1) fish. lord the fish why are they so scary 2) sometimes i think i'll drown and they jus #won't find the body. which is less rational than the fish so that's why fish is my number 1 fear at all times lmao #/i think out of all the animals on the planet i am the most scared of ordinary fish. not even the deep sea stuff hfbshv #cuz look they're so far down there you Have to assume they look funked. and also they prolly don't like human meat. so it's cool #but regular fish?? some of them eat birds. they eat birds dude. what would they do to me if they knew how to use harpoons?? #also they for SURE eat corpses so we loop back to fear no. 2 really just being fear no. 1 hbfhs #/see i'm not even that scared of the animals my parents are determined on exploding. like man if i get eaten that was prolly bound #to happen anyway. i Know how that goes. i know what mauling is lol #i am the only person in this house who will walk around outside on a moonless light w/ no flashlight because if i was sposed to be dead i #can guaranteE there are much better opportunities. funnier ones‚ too #/just looked it up bobcats are SHY little guys. they are just shy babies. except for when they have rabies :) #shy rabies babies <3 #/anyway back to the fish. i don't like how there are some that specifically like to eat human skin. mmm no i have never liked that ever not #one little bit. makes my skin crawl hghfsh #i don't care what it does or can do that is NOT cool lil dude ;w; #/hang on i'm googling 'weirdest things fish eat' because i want to scare myself i guess hbfhvbsf :'3 #they're only showing me weird fish!!! no !! tell me about a fish that's living exclusively off of plastics!! or car tires !! come on !!! #these guys are just funky looking. and just Kinda funky looking. though this humphead guy is funny lol :) #he looks scary but with a charm that i can't deny #his forehead. and mouf. this guy is awesome #and of course he's endangered because the world is exploding. but it's so cool he exists :D #//anyway fish are scary. and miss humphead is Huge so goofiness aside he's also scary hhfbvs #also why do some of those motherfunkers swim close to shore and bite at you. those guys suck so bad #that's only happened to me so many times but enough for me to have a fear that has lasted for over half a decade lmao #//and anywho i'm running out of tag space lol :) #we're going ot the park!! i'm going to skate :DD !! #i wanna get good at my old stuff again hfsh - so bye! bye !! toodles !!!

[faithfromanewperspective]

okay guys so this is a thing?? and i hate to be bearer of not fun topics, but here's just something to be aware of. this is a slightly older article but it's having outbreaks in the US at the moment (all the more reason to boycott usamerica) and so. if you keep chickens over there i will strongly suggest getting them vaccinated if you can afford it! but also, just keep an eye on infection rates and be safe and also come together as a community, we don't need to be scared as long as we know what to do and there's always things to do. we're all part of a bigger system and our actions do have flow-on impacts even if we don't realise. and so whether you're being safe for yourself and your loved ones, rethinking whether you need to eat as much meat and if so where it comes from, raising awareness etc you're part of this bigger system and we can come together and do better. sending delicious vegan meals and healthy environments for you and your local birds and other mammals <3

#we know the drill. we did it for covid. we were good and responsible #this isn't just for chicken keepers btw. it's something to raise awareness of but please. if you've ever thought of eating less meat #now is the time bc we need to undensify all these populations that might get infected and it's mammals as well as birds #or idk. eat bugs or fish or whatever rn they're not the thing that's a threat to public health. and i don't mean never eat meat but #if every person halved their animal consumption we would basically flatten the curve yk?? a lot less infection less fast #it's not about doing it perfectly. just small sustainable changes make sure you remember that #like we can do this in a way that's healthy for us mentally. we have to and we will; whatever it looks like for each of us