#aside from small guys like mice or frogs

[catspinach]

my dog is pissing blood in his diaper and we gotta take him to the vet tomorrow.. hopefully its just a bad UTI but he's an old man and his time is coming....

#i never really lost a pet before #aside from small guys like mice or frogs #hes so disgusting and old and smelly and cant control his bladder or bowels and he is well past expired and needs expensive meds #and so having him has kind of become... a chore.... ik dogs already are a lot of work but this guy is So Much Work and im so tired...... #he's well past his expiration date and ive had plenty of time to mourn his inevitable loss #so like. i feel bad but im almost hoping that its cancer or smth. i dont want him to leave me but #it's time for him to go #:'( #am i a bad person?

[kissjane]

ANIMAL COMPANY / (Not so) Short fic

#13 from this prompt list

Guys! That’s it! This is the last one from the list! I did it! The file for these is 64.5k words, and I did them all in two months. It was super fun, but not gonna lie, I’m glad to be done with it. And as promised to a certain evil mastermind, “Mouse AU” is the last one posted. 

Both going to grab the same thing and touching hands, then making eye contact

For all Lucas’ lamenting about wanting to live alone, so he could walk around naked, eat pizza at every hour of the day, and never have to listen to any of his roommates get it on ever again, now that he actually was living out that long-desired dream, he was… lonely, for lack of a better word.

When he had realized he was talking to himself, and replying, he had figured he needed something alive to keep him company.

And so he had decided to go to the pet store, to see if he could actually commit to the immense job of keeping an innocent animal happy, healthy and alive.

It was, however, not an easy task. He’d had a staring contest with a black-and-white cat, and he’d been playing for a while with a cute Pomeranian, but he hadn’t fallen in love. The birds had been entertaining for a while, and he actually felt a connection with this yellow puff that kept flying into the cage and seemed to love taking baths and ruffling its feathers, but when the store clerk had started explaining about shells to sharpen their claws and different grain mixes and fake eggs for the bird to breed on, he’d given up.

The fish were pretty, but boring, and the tortoises had a temper. Lucas didn’t feel like sharing his flat with a snappy, mean animal – he was perfectly fine filling out that slot all by himself, thank you.

He had tried to find the walking sticks between the non-walking ones, and given up after a few minutes. The ant farm reminded him too much of a middle school science project. A chicken sounded good in theory – a fresh egg daily was a big boon – but the idea of a chicken in a flat was preposterous. And while he was all for recycling and taking care of the environment, a worm composting station just sounded dirty.

So he was getting a bit desperate, wandering further down the aisles. He turned a corner, and suddenly found himself in front of a cage with one single white mouse in it.

The animal was sitting up on its haunches, looking at Lucas, its whiskers trembling as it sniffed. It looked kinda cute, and Lucas wanted to pet it, to see if maybe he could take this tiny thing home. He opened the cage and reached out for the tiny animal, when suddenly a large hand, with silver rings on multiple fingers, carefully grabbed the mouse right before Lucas could.

“Hey!”, Lucas protested without thinking, turning towards the intruder. “I was going to pet him!”

“Well, I guess…”, a male voice replied, and the hand was extended towards Lucas, not letting go of the mouse.

Lucas gingerly extended a finger towards the animal’s fur, and touched it, trying hard to stroke the frightened little thing, who was now squeaking loudly. However, the hand of the guy was kinda in the way, and so Lucas looked up, and – promptly forgot all about the mouse.

The hand with all the silver rings appeared to belong to some sort of ethereal creature right out of Lucas’ gayest fantasies.

“So did you pet him enough?”, the god in front of him said, but Lucas suddenly had difficulty understanding French.

“Huh?”, he croaked out, undignified, sounding rather like the frogs he had given wide berth earlier.

The guy laughed, and fuck, if it wasn’t like the sun broke through the clouds and lit up the whole store.

“Did that satisfy your urge to pet him? I mean, I don’t mind if you want to do it again, but I promised Brian a mouse soon, so, yeah…”

His voice died off apologetically, and Lucas swallowed back a lump.

It was stupid, really, to get disappointed. Men like this weren’t put on earth for Lucas, as much as he might wish it to be otherwise. Of course this guy had better things to do than stand in a pet store with a mouse in his goddamn sexy hands, being drooled over by a total stranger.

“Oh! Oh, uh, yeah,” he said, praying his cheeks weren’t as red as they felt. “Sorry, uh, yeah, sure. Wouldn’t want to keep Brian waiting.” He chuckled in embarrassment.

The guy nodded emphatically.

“Yeah, my baby boy gets a bit impatient sometimes, so…”

Oh. Lucas hadn’t given too much thought as to who or what Brian might be, but it made sense. He pictured a cute toddler with the same messy hair and grey eyes as his dad – fucking adorable, there was no other word for it, waiting anxiously for its new pet. His vivid imagination played the scene out with full-colour detail – a spacious flat somewhere in Paris, a pretty wife holding on to Brian, the guy stepping through the door with the mouse in a small cage, Brian escaping his mom’s hold and hugging his dad’s legs, jumping up and down in excitement.

He had to swallow down another lump.

“Oh, yeah, I understand,” he said, while stepping aside so the guy could pass him on his way to the register. “Does he like mice, your son?”

“They’re his favourite,” the guy said, putting the mouse in a small box and moving past Lucas. “And it’s been two weeks, so you can imagine he’s pretty hungry. Have a nice day!”

Wait. What? The scene in front of Lucas’ eyes changed screeched to a halt, and then picked up again, this time with a creepy toddler biting into the mouse, blood smeared around the corners of his mouth, while the pretty mom wiped the back of her hand around her own lips, stained red, as the guy looked on proudly.

“He’s gonna… eat… that mouse?”, Lucas squealed in horror. The guy, who had almost turned the corner, slowed down and looked over his shoulder at Lucas.

“What else would he do with it?”

Lucas’ mouth fell open. He pinched himself, convinced he somehow entered a fucked-up horror dream, but he flinched at the pinch, so he must be awake.

“What… fucking parent lets his kid eat mice?”

The guy stared at him for a long beat, and then suddenly, that sunshine smile broke through again. He stepped closer to Lucas, who recoiled in disgust.

“Oh, I’m so sorry!”, the guy said as Lucas kept backing away from him. “I guess I did call him my baby, didn’t I? Brian is not my son, though, he’s my pet snake!”

Lucas’ head spun.

“First of all,” he spluttered, “who the fuck calls his snake Brian? What kind of a name is that?”

The guy shrugged.

“It suits him. If you saw him, you’d know.”

Lucas shivered visibly.

“Oh, come on,” the other man said. “Don’t tell me you don’t like snakes. Brian is cute, I swear.”

Lucas wasn’t convinced.

“If you say so… But anyway, more importantly, you can’t just let that tiny mouse be eaten by a snake! Look at him!”

The guy did look at the mouse, and then back at Lucas.

“But Brian needs to eat.”

“But I wanted to buy that mouse! I wanted a pet!”

It was a lie, because Lucas had in no way committed to the wretched thing, but he couldn’t just let it be taken to an early, gruesome death.

“Ah.”

The guy seemed to understand the issue, as he looked from Lucas to the mouse with his piercing eyes, biting his bottom lip. Dammit, Lucas really couldn’t look too closely at that, because he felt his resolve weaken. He might just agree to be fed to Brian himself, if only to keep the guy’s eyes on him.

“What if I helped you find another pet?”

Fuck. Suddenly Lucas didn’t give a damn about the fate of the poor little mouse – it seemed to look at him with hurtful eyes now, upset at Lucas’ betrayal – if the alternative was staying close to this guy while they wandered through the pet store together, discussing the pros and cons of each animal.

“Uh… well, I would have to warn you. That mouse was kinda my last hope.”

“I will take the risk. For Brian.”

Lucas dithered for only a few seconds, in which the mouse didn’t deign him worthy of another look, before he caved.

“I guess.”

“Okay, let’s go then! I’m Eliott, by the way. Brian’s dad.”

He laughed, and the sound of it made a shiver roll deliciously slow over Lucas’ spine. He managed to keep himself mostly in check though, rolling his eyes as he extended a hand.

“Lucas.”

And they set forth on another tour of the aisles, Eliott trying to emphasize all the advantages of the creatures they came across, and Lucas nixing them all with a sad shake of his head. Eliott had to agree with lots of Lucas’ arguments – spiders were too creepy to keep willingly in the house, hamsters were smelly, and chameleons sounded cool, but all they did was lounge around under a heat lamp.

So when they found themselves back where they started out, they both looked at the small box in Eliott’s hand.

“I mean, maybe Brian could wait another day to eat… He did seem very hungry but I’m reasonably sure it wouldn’t kill him…”

Eliott looked at Lucas with a pout and honest-to-God puppy dog eyes, and Lucas couldn’t help but laugh.

“I guess I can survive without a pet, too… It might be a close call, though.”

“Yeah,” Eliott nodded, suddenly serious. “Not a risk I’d be willing to take, though.”

Lucas’ breath hitched. Eliott was watching him intently, and Lucas was pretty sure this time he wasn’t succeeding at keeping the blush off his cheeks.

Suddenly though, Eliott jumped.

“Oh, Lucas! I know! I know exactly what you need!”

He grabbed Lucas’ hand, and for a dizzying second, Lucas was too distracted by the contact to move. But Eliott tugged, and Lucas had no choice to follow him, and before he knew it, Eliott was showing him an enclosure with a grand flourishing gesture.

“What’s that?”

Lucas peered in, and then –

“A rabbit! It’s perfect, Lucas!”

Inside the cage was a tiny grey rabbit with floppy ears, and Lucas felt his heart melt.

“Oooh, you’re cute! Look, Eliott, he’s so fucking cute!”

“He is,” Eliott said, his voice low, and Lucas looked over his shoulder to see if anything was wrong, but Eliott just smiled, his eyes sparkling.

“What do you think, then? Worthy alternative for a mouse?”

Lucas pondered for a minute.

“Yeah. Come on, help me flag down an attendant so I can take him home.”

Together, they listened to a tired-looking clerk enumerating the important points in rabbit care, and loading their arms with the necessary equipment and food before finally taking them to the register where Eliott paid for his mouse and Lucas for the rabbit and all its accessories.

“So,” Eliott said, as they stepped outside. “What are you going to name him?”

“I don’t know yet,” Lucas truthfully replied, looking at the ball of grey fur. “But it’ll be better than Brian, I know that. I’m a way better pet dad than you.”

Eliott laughed brightly.

“I feel like I’m kinda his dad, too. I mean, I helped pick out his house and his toys and everything.”

Lucas was inclined to agree, but sadly, this was as far as things were going to go. Eliott would go home and feed Brian the mouse, and Lucas would pour all his affection into his new roomie.

“Maybe, uh…”

Eliott hesitated.

“What?”, Lucas asked curiously.

“Maybe I could come visit him sometime? And you, too, obviously.”

Lucas whipped his head up in surprise.

“And, you could come see Brian, too, I mean, if you wanted…”

Lucas smiled widely.

“Is this your way of asking my number?”

Eliott mirrored Lucas’ smile.

“Yeah. After all, don’t you think our pets would be better off with two dads?”

And as he punched in his number into Eliott’s phone, Lucas’ imagination got kickstarted again, showing him vividly another flat somewhere in Paris, with a rabbit enclosure next to a glass aquarium in which Brian was leisurely devouring a mouse, and two boys cuddled up in front of them, kissing each other. It beat living alone, for sure. 

#I write things #50 cliché prompts #Elu #skam france fanfic #☯ #I AM DONE

[gotbangvixx]

GOT7 as Supernatruals

Mark

Empath

It is not easy being able to feel the feelings that everyone around you is feeling. It is also not easy not being able to do cool things like changing into a giant panther or flying or even showering someone with glitter when they do something stupid. But it is worth it when someone is hurting and doesn’t know how to say it. He can feel their pain and he can help. There is a difference between empathy and telepathy. No he can not read minds but sometimes the emotions he picks up is just as good as picking up thoughts. At school he has been known to quietly take someone aside and speak with them softly. But if he is around to much pain it can make him physically sick so he normally seeks out Jackson and BamBam to hang out and recharge his “positive batteries”.

“Your magic is like batteries in a vibrator. In order for the vibrator to work you need to have one battery facing the positive and the other facing the negative. Then you can go have have fun with it!” “... Jackson did you just describe my empathy using a vibrator?” “Yes? Is there something wrong with that?” “You know what? I can not even argue that there is because your analogy is absolutely right..”

Jaebum

Familiar of the feline variety

So yeah when most people think of witch familiars they naturally think black cat. And they would be correct... to an extent. Jaebum didn’t expect to be Jinyoung’s familiar. If fact he, nor anyone else for that matter, expected Jinyoung to be any kind of supernatural. He was just the childhood friend that he befriended over a game of kickball. As a descendant of a long and powerful line of familiars Jaebum always looked forward to meeting his witch so that he can change for the first time and bond. He just didn’t necessarily want to do it in the middle of charity event. Because when Jinyoung walked in after being sick for a week and met Jaebum’s eyes, Jaebum immediately shifted into a giant black panther. So yea the black cat part of the superstition was right. But he was no house cat. So here they are witch and familiar for seven years now. They started attending school together and watched for each other eventually however they gathered a group of friends and allies so most people leave them alone except for a snide remark here and there. It is still fun to shift and scare the shit out of assholes who snicker about a witch and black cat missing their broom.

“Okay so yes I am a feline. Which means I hold grudges and I am not above putting dead mice in your bed because you think a laser pointer is fun way to tease me!”

Jackson

Pixie

It took Jackson centuries to get over the stigma pixies have. Just because ONE Pixie got caught in their natural form and was seen by the humans does not mean that all pixies look like that! Jackson is perfectly a natural height and there is NOTHING wrong with having glitter fall from your wings when you get excited. You can consider it a stupidity baptism if you want. But one thing he does resemble pixies have is that he is mischievous as hell. He is often spotted with BamBam with their heads bowed down talking in hushed voices. Jaebum often regrets allowing BamBam and Jackson to join their ragtag group but it is normally just for a few moments. Because despite Jackson’s pranking nature he is actually the most caring person anyone had ever met. Jackson has been known to search out people who look lonely or sad and befriend them. This is actually how he ended up with the group. One day while he was walking home he spotted a young boy sitting alone on a bench in the school courtyard with rain pouring down around him. It was so sad that Jackson couldn’t help but go over to him and offer to buy him a cup of hot coffee until the rain stops. After they had sat down in a small secluded cafe the boy introduced himself as Yugyeom who was a blood mage and was tired of being prejudiced against. Yes he had friends but he still craved acceptance from other people too. Jackson was quick to inform him that he did not think badly of Yugyeom and would gladly be his friend too.

“Trust me. I know all about dealing with ignorant preconceived ideas that people have about you. But that does not mean they are right! Your species does not define you!”

Jinyoung

Fire Witch

Whoever knows Jinyoung would not be able to describe him without mentioning his rapid fire wit and wicked sense of humor. They could also not forget to mention his hair bursting in fire when he gets mad. Or when he is bored. He was adopted when his parent’s died in a car crash so he was raised not knowing one day he would walk into a church and his best friend would immediately change into a giant panther. It did not help that Jaebum was unable to shift back human until he bonded with Jinyoung. Of course neither of them knew how to bond and they were still standing in the middle of room full of humans who were freaking out because surely the giant animal was dangerous and was going to eat them all! Thankfully Jaebum’s mother arrived as soon as she sense her son’s shift. She was able to calm down the room with Jaebum’s father who was her witch.  Together they walked Jinyoung and Jaebum through the bonding process and Jaebum’s father taught Jinyoung the basics of his power. However to this day he still uses the excuse of not knowing how to control his fire sometimes when Jackson’s favorite hoodie yet again goes up in flames, even though it HAS been seven years....

“Oh no your hoodie is destroyed again? I wonder how that happened...”

Youngjae

Mermaid 

Being a mermaid is really not all that it is cracked up to be. The amount of shit from other people he has to put up with from other people is ridiculous. His group and a few others are really the only ones who don’t make snide remarks. “Who’s legs did you steal so you can walk on land, Youngjae?” “How can you talk Youngjae? I thought you sold your voice for your legs..” Stupid shit like that. They even give him crap for wearing the pearl necklace he had gotten from his great-grandfather when he became of age. Which was a very important ritual where he was finally shown how to transform his tail into legs and his GiGi gave it to him to protect him as he took his pilgrimage. People don’t understand that he chose to stay on land. He gave up his legs, except for summer solstice where he is granted his tail back so he can visit his family, so he can stay on land. He is lucky to have his group. His group who will stealthy go find the jerks who are making Youngjae feel so bad and they... deal with them. Keep in mind that when a trickster gets mad they tend to get vindictive. Add a pixie to the mix well lets just say that the assholes who bother Youngjae leave the school very quickly.

“Hey guys so remember that asshole the other day who was bothering me? Well evidently he left the school in the middle of last night. He just up and left. Even left his shit behind, that is so weird...”

Please ignore the captions

BamBam

Trickster

Historically speaking the Trickster shows up in tons of stories in mythology all across the globe and about 90% of them are because of BamBam. This kid can just not resist causing trouble. It’s worse when he works with Jackson, the last time the teamed up there might or might not of been mass sightings of random clowns... Because of that Mom and Dad (a.k.a Jinyoung and Jaebum) forbid them from ever being alone again. Which works in theory but in practice... not so much. BamBam tends to sneak off and Jackson being able to fly does to not make it easy. You would also think that the teachers at school would be able to keep an eye on them seeing as they are older and supernatural beings themselves. You would be wrong. They are just as baffled as everyone else when they go to Jaebum or Jinyoung to ask why there is panic in Busan.

“Jackson lets go cause some mayhem over in Busan... It’s been awhile since we made mass hysteria. I think we need to involve frogs this time.”

Yugyeom

Blood Mage

If there was one thing in the world he wishes would happen was that people would stop automatically assume he is evil. Okay yes for the past well... forever, blood mages have had a bad reputation. The ability of being able to change the world with your own blood is a HUGE power trip. But the consequences of that act is so much worse. He had seen entire civilizations destroyed just because a blood mage decided to change the life of one person. It was so horrible. Because of that Yugyeom swore he would never write his with blood to change the existence of anything. He instead spends time learning book magic and is often seen with Namjoon pouring over ancient scripts. When he isn’t there he is seen with Jungkook who also understands what it is like to be hated or feared on sight. Joining Jaebum and his friends was literally life saving. He was alone for so long... he just did not want to exist anymore. He was ready to give up when Mark’s empathy abilities picked up on his desolation. The group worked together to help Yugyeom accept who he was. Not saying there weren’t .... misunderstandings in the beginning but they overcame them. Thank the gods for Jackson and BamBam who were not afraid of him from the beginning and he will never admit it but he is thankful for the pranks they pull. They make him feel important to the group as oddly as it sounds. 

“... You do realize the only way I can actually hurt people is if I write with it... Right? It doesn’t matter if I got a paper cut you do not have to take me to a healer as if the world or I am dying. My blood doesn't work like that...”

Hi!!!

So I got with Prussia and we both really really like this warlock school idea she had on her other blog. It is an amazing post and can be found here 

This is an AU GOT7 so there are some things that are not exactly copacetic with cannon GOT7 like with Jinyoung’s family. 

-Starfish

#GOT 7 #GOT 7 reaction #Jackson #Jinyoung #Jaebum #Youngjae #Yugyeom #BamBam

[silvermp]

Flock Together - Part 3

(part 1) (part 2) (part 3) (part 4) (part 5) (part 6)

After catching a small, harmless little snake and tearing it to tasty ribbons, Kuroko didn’t get much further than the ‘First a meal’ plan.

The sun had already begun to set in earnest, and her eyes - no matter how much chakra she poured into them - were not built for the night. It was too overcast to fly by moonlight, and she was already anxious from the idea of being on her own. The world just seemed so much bigger than she wanted to really think hard about.

Also, owls were nocturnal assholes.

As night fell, Kuroko found herself in the nest she was born in, hunkering down in the familiar curve of woven branches. She guiltily tucked her head down, resolving herself to setting out early in the morning to make up for time lost.

She couldn’t help but try to tune into the shadows, listening to the murmurs of familiar croaking voices, all calling out to each other in the night.

Sometimes she thought she could hear Kokoro’s decisive call.

--

After dawn broke, and Kuroko set out in earnest, she had come to realize that “As the crow flies” should not be a measure of straightforward distance. She didn’t know what crows that person had been watching, but it seemed suspicious. Between the wind, natural updrafts from warm spots in the forests, and the weird turbulence around the many rivers of Fire country, there was no way in hell she was traveling in a straight line.

Still headed generally ‘West’ though. Good enough.

--

Before the sun had even reached noon, her wings were already starting to get tired. Even her neck felt like it was going to cramp into knots.

Sue her, she’d never just straight-up marathoned before. Did her mother expect her to just fly straight there, or was taking a break okay? How long was that, anyway… 4 hours? 5? She was supporting her entire body weight on just her wings, and balancing in the turbulent air on top of that.

Screw it.

Kuroko landed with a thumph in a pile of thick river grass, laying in blissful relief for a few glorious minutes. Her chest and shoulders throbbed in time with her heart, wings sprawled across the flexible stalks. Moving after that felt almost sinful, but she managed to drag her overworked body to the edge, dipping her beak in for several long gulps.

Yeah, that was good.

She absently pecked up a spider as it crawled through the grass beside her, crunching it with the tip of her beak before tossing it back in a little gulp. She kept an eye out for any frogs. Those were tasty.

Something moved out of the corner of her eye, and she tilted her head hopefully. She almost missed it, until a slight movement betrayed a forked tongue. A thick brown snake was sitting still, neck coiled up in preparation to strike. Bright yellow eyes stared her down, deep pits on its nose ringing several alarm bells.

Nope.

Nopenopenopenopenoepnope nooope!

She burst upward in a flurry of feathers, ignoring her muscles screaming pain in favor of not dying, thank you very much . She looked back, once she was safely in the skies again, but the snake had already vanished into the long grass.

Right.

Crows aren’t exactly apex predators.

She took a deep breath, pushing through the ache and trying her best to ride currents for a while. She trudged on westward, wondering exactly how long she was expected to fly.

--

Hours later, that question had grown from a weary comment to an incredulous repetition, as each beat of her wings brought her lower and lower to the treetops.

This was insane.

She landed clumsily, letting her wings hang uselessly on the branch as she sucked in gasping breaths. Apparently her stamina sucked. A curling growl in her stomach reminded her that she hadn’t exactly eaten much, aside from breakfast and a random spider. Her body was not used to going without.

Using Chakra to enhance her ears only made the hunger worse, but it allowed her to pinpoint the shrill peeping of some baby birds in a neighboring tree.

…. No, she wouldn’t….They were babies… and birds. Wasn’t that cannibalism?  Should she even have morales about eating another bird? She’d never done it before - surely, her mother had the opportunity.

A few moments later, she was perched on the edge of their nest, looking down at the wide red mouths and eager little peeps, wondering if she had ever looked that lumpy and useless. (Yes, yes she had.) Thank goodness there was no swelling of maternal instinct. They were just birds. Noisy, limp baby birds.

She clacked her beak, not sure where to start. Mice always seemed like straightforward prey. They ran, you caught them. And then ate them. These little guys…

They continued to peep, reaching up toward her. They trusted her.

Damn.

Quite suddenly, her vision snapped sideways, and pain bloomed in her neck and the back of her head. Her ears were filled with the furious scream of an angry songbird. Her stomach growled, and the sparrow wheeled around for another run at her head.

Screw it.

She grabbed one of the babies in her claws, swooping away and dodging a very angry second songbird parent in its murder-dive. She pumped Chakra into her chest, sprinting through the air with her squishy prize. The sparrows eventually lost the determination to hunt her down, and she was able to land to eat it.

She couldn’t tell if it was still breathing, or if it was her own pounding heart warping her sight, but she was quick to snap its neck, just in case.

For all that effort and angst, the flavor was disappointing.

--

In the middle of rubbing bits of gore off her beak, Kuroko paused to grip her branch a bit harder as the forest seemed to rumble. A plume of dust rose above the tree line, buffeted by an unusual sweep of wind.

Since when did wind blow straight upward ?

Kuroko waited for a few long minutes, the active ache in her wings fading to a persistent tiredness. Good enough.

She flapped up into the sky again, heading toward the plume with no small amount of curiosity. She blinked open Chakra-enhanced eyes, scanning the leaves as she flew over the site. A flash of silver caught her eye.

Her wings almost missed a beat in surprise as a column of fire raced through the trees, swirling bright and fierce across the trunks. They were moving too fast for her to follow, but she caught the moments when they paused. Someone screamed, and she turned slightly to see someone falling dramatically to the ground, blood spurting in an arch as a long sword pulled out of them.

Someone leaped at the swordsman, but fell to the ground after their head jerked sideways with a gleam of dark steel. (Holy shit they were fast)

Several spikes of rock shot up, and one unlucky person didn’t get out of the way fast enough.

Fire consumed the area.

Kuroko felt herself buffeted upwards from the rising heat, and flared her tail to keep balance, closing her eyes against the bright flames. “Dual-core Humans may not be the majority, but they make up for their small numbers by sheer power and bullheadedness. They take the demon half of their heritage and use it to harness powers meant for our kind. Creative, but power-hungry and self-destructive.”

When she opened them again, the fighting had stopped. Only the green-clad people remained, walking around. She couldn’t see the detail on their outfits from this distance, but she definitely noticed when one of them looked up at her.

She quickly averted her gaze, carefully keeping her wings at a steady pattern.

I’m just a bird, flying around. Nothing suspicious here, ignore the perfectly normal crow, la de da~

Her thoughts were strained, forced lightheartedness belying the jolt of adrenaline racing through her veins. If they decided to hunt her down, she’d be officially out of luck.

A few minutes later, she still hadn’t been struck down, and allowed herself to relax a hair.

Up ahead, the forest parted to reveal a wide dirt road.

East to road, then north to follow it. Thank goodness.

She angled her tail, gently curving to begin following the dusty tan slice through otherwise endless green forests and shining rivers. (and the occasional battle, apparently) There was a faint updraft from the heated earth, and she thankfully used it to glide between wingbeats.

When the sun was just starting to set, and there was no river - or unusual pine - visible from the road just yet. Or maybe she missed it, and was screwed. Who knew?

So many possible bad endings with just… flying around with vague instructions to a final destination she’d never visited before.

A generous berry bush, a small nest of voles, and several grasshoppers later, Kuroko tucked her head under one wing and hunkered up next to the trunk of a tree with particularly thick foliage.

Before she fell asleep, she had a sudden, certain realization.

My body is going to hate me in the morning.

----

She woke in the morning with a low groan, resigned to the fact her prediction had been 100% correct.

Kuroko lingered to eat roadside bugs a bit longer than strictly necessary, opening and stretching her wings until she was sure it really wasn’t getting any better. A familiar cawing drew her attention, and she was in the air in a heartbeat.

Her heart lifted at the sight of wide black wings, and she hurried to head off the familiar bird.

”Have you heard anything about the Southern Roost? Or Kokoro? She’s my mother, I-” The bird wheeled away, cawing reproachfully at her.

Kuroko opened her beak, but the bird was already flying down into the forest again.

Oh.

“Just a normal crow…” she murmured, trying to ignore the way her heart sank, a bitter taste on her tongue. She didn’t realize how much it had been weighing on her, until she brought it up again. The way Kokoro had been favoring her leg - She had been injured, hadn’t she?

How long had she been traveling to the roost, before that day?

Since before I was born?

A small part of her wondered why she cared so much. She’d only been alive in this body for what, Four months? Maybe? How long did it take crows to learn to fly, anyway? Four months was nothing. Kuroko exhaled, focusing her eyes forward and keeping pace alongside the long road. It’d be pointless to insert herself into danger. Living day-by-day had kept her alive and well. She was just a bird…. If her mother wanted her help, she just had to ask.

The ache in her heart said otherwise.

A demon, Kuroko thought. With shadow powers. That’s something, right?  I could help… somehow.

At long last, she spotted a pine tree sticking up out of the regular variation of trees, and the glint of a river close by. She wished she could be more happy for making the journey, but her worries and aching muscles weighed down her mood.

The branches were uncomfortably prickly to land on, and hard to get into without getting poked to hell by blue-green needles. Still, she managed, settling down to wait for a fox to arrive and bring her to the next stage of training.

And waited.

And waited.

She flew off for a meal, and circled the tree before returning to her perch, beginning to feel a prickle of unease. Was she too late? Was she too slow? Was she supposed to have the stamina to just fly straight here, and the foxes got bored of waiting and abandoned her?

Kuroko fluttered down to a fallen branch, looking around from ground-level.

She settled down, deciding to wait a bit longer before freaking out in earnest.

A faint crackle caught her attention.

She turned her head, perking up at the sight of a fox’s broadly furred face staring at her from the underbrush. She checked, and could sense the ‘presense’ of it. Thank goodness.

“I’m here to learn from the Foxes.” She called out, eager to get introductions over with. Her mother hadn’t really told her any sort of etiquette things, so she wasn’t quite sure why she wasn’t getting an answer. Was she supposed to introduce herself first?

“My name’s Kuroko?”

The fox prowled closer, shoulders moving smoothly under its thick coat. Kuroko shifted uneasily, the copper eyes focused with an unexpected intensity.

“My mother sent me - Kokoro - I…”

A presence behind her.

!!

She sucked in a breath, launching herself into the air and flapping hard to get up into a nearby tree with a distressed squawk.

She whipped around, heart racing, mind whirring with the idea that this was a trap - that she was going to be stranded here, or hunted like an animal.

Wait, she was an animal.

The second fox chuffed a laugh at her, sitting primly while the young crow bristled angrily and hissed .

“Aren’t you going to introduce yourself first, little one?”

Kuroko swallowed her hiss, watching the first fox lick a black paw.

“My name’s … Kuroko.”  She had already introduced herself, was he being dense on purpose?

“Kuroko, huh? It suits you. I’m Shun.”

She dropped down a branch, hopping a bit closer to the fox, but still wary about actually landing on the leaflitter. Shun seemed to notice, and flicked an ear in clear amusement.

“Paranoid little bugger, aren’t you? Slow, too. Kokoro contacted us days ago.” Well, that answered the ‘Fly straight there or not’ question.

The fox stood up, curling her tail and trotting away, the silent fox close on her heels.

“Come on, then. We’ll get you situated, and figure out a schedule so I don’t have to wake up so goddamn early all the time.”

Kuroko blinked at the sudden swearing, but figured her own mind was probably filthier.

Still, there was a sweeping feeling of relief, that she wasn’t actually abandoned.

Or maybe she was just relieved to have someone order her around again.

Neither dependency boded well for her.

----

Apparently, foxes in general were not pleased to wake up before sunset.

Several slinked out of a large burrow, squinting at the sky and retreating to slightly-darker patches of underbrush as the rest of them came out.

Shun slipped out from the burrow, two more foxes on his tail, and addressed the small gathering.

What was a gathering of foxes called, anyway? Crows were a ‘murder’... wolves were a ‘pack’. An Intrusion of cockroaches….

Where did she learn that one?

She decided to call them a ‘pack’, just to be simple. That’s what Koharu had called them, it was probably fine.

“This is Kuroko, daughter of Kokoro. She’ll be staying with us until she learns to shift her form.”

Oh? That sounded promising.

One of the foxes flattened their ears, speaking up with a note of incredulity.

“Why doesn’t she just go to a Roost?”

“Because the Southern Roost is being attacked” Shun replied smoothly, not even batting an eye. “Kuroko needs to learn the shadows before returning.”

“It’s not like here is any safer.” another murmured, but ducked their head away when Shun turned to them.

“It is what Kokoro has asked of us, and so we will proceed. Of course, since the lady sleeps at night, it’ll be up to you to wake up early.”

What…. What was the weird emphasis for?

Kuroko lowered her head as the foxes began muttering amongst themselves, clear expressions of resentment flickering across their sharp faces. The one who had spoken up in the beginning, especially, looked outraged.

She had a bad feeling about this.

Shun dismissed them, and ignored the groaning and huffing that the foxes didn’t try to hide as they returned to their burrow. She turned to Kuroko, stepping lightly around fallen leaves.

“Since there’s still plenty of daylight, are you well enough to begin, or should we stop to get something to eat, first?”

The fox perked up her ears and smiled in a canine sort of way.

Something about it… seemed fake.

She couldn’t tell how exactly, since every movement of the sleek fox practically glowed with friendly helpfulness. But… something about her… voice, or the quickness of her support, didn’t sit quite right.

“N-no, I’m fine. We can start whenever you’re ready.”

Shun nodded her head, still smiling that slightly-off smile, and turned to pad down a well-walked little grass tunnel through the underbrush.

Kuroko took a few hops after her, before taking flight and just following the fox from above. Copper eyes flashed up at her, and Shun broke into a quick trot, matching the speed of her slow flight through unfamiliar branches.

Her stomach grumbled at her, but she didn’t mention it.

--

They ended up at the edge of the river, in a shallow area that acted more like a quickly-cycled wetlands. Patches of long grass were interspersed with tall reeds, and wiry trees growing despite the waterlogged soil.

Shun hopped between the grassy little islands, before sitting down by a particularly calm patch of water.

“Your mother wants you to learn how to travel by shadow. Apparently, knowing how to shift your form around a bit helps with that, and there’s no better shifter than a fox.”

She wished she knew fox body language a bit better. That tail flick probably meant something, but Shun’s face and voice gave nothing away but pleasant conversation.

“So we’ll start with the basics.” She tilted her head toward the slowly-moving water. “You’re going to look at your reflection for a while. Get a good picture of who you are, What you look like, what you believe in.” That tail flick again.

“Feel free to let some of your shadows leak out, I’ve heard that helps. Let me know when you’ve got all your edges identified.”

The what does what in where now?

Shun gave her a nod, and slinked over to flop onto some grass. Copper eyes turned to her, and Kuroko hopped over to get a look at her reflection. Yeah… those instructions weren’t confusing at all.

Please note the sarcasm.

Her reflection was as-expected. A black bird, with a thick beak and black eyes. Black legs, black claws, black everything. Just like her mother, some of her neck feathers gleamed green, and her eyes seemed a little grey when the sunlight hit them just right. She’d seen her image hundreds of times before, drinking from little puddles or the slow-moving creek on the edge of her mother’s territory. Nothing new.

Shun yawned, a tiny whine escaping the back of her throat before she plopped her head down on the grass.

Kuroko took a deep breath, and exhaled.

She pushed some chakra around, not really sure what difference she was supposed to see. After a few long, awkward minutes of this, she spoke up.

“What did you mean by ‘Shadows leak out?’”

A slow blink.

“Mmm...No clue. Ask your mother.”

“She’s not here right now.” Kuroko stated, trying to contain the building frustration.

“I can see that.”

She couldn’t help the irritated bristling of her neck feathers, but exhaled slowly, smoothing them back down after the fact.

“I know what I look like.” She muttered, looking down to glare at the sharp-beaked reflection looking up at her.

Shun jumped to her feet.

“Great!” She chirped, “Onto the next step!”

What the fuck?

“Here, check out your reflection over here.”

Kuroko obediently hopped over, looking down at the distorted ripples that only sometimes formed a crow.

“Now, that’s still your reflection, right?”

Kuroko shot her a look, but nodded.

“So if that reflection is ‘You’ and the other reflection is also ‘You’, what’s different?”

That weirdly sweet teacherly voice was definitely starting to rub on her nerves.

Or maybe she was just hungry.

“Water pressure?”

That damn tail flick again.

“Hmmm~ Almost, not quite, but close. It’s the movement of the water, yeah, but also the light bouncing off of it. If you twist the surface a bit, the image changes. Both the reflections are ‘you’, but the real you doesn’t have four heads, does it?”

Kuroko was silent, waiting for Shun to get to the point already.

“Get it?”

Fuck you.

“Yes, I get it.”

“Good! Now you just need to let your form twist around a bit. It’s still ‘you’, but different!”

Oh, that’s all, huh?  

“Ohkaaaaaayyyy?”

Shun didn’t take the hint, or ignored it, and trotted back to her grass.

“Well, get to it. Keep an eye out for hawks. I’ll be taking a nap ‘till you get it right.”

Get WHAT right? You haven’t explained anything!

Kuroko exhaled slowly again, digging her talons into the grass and staring down at her rippling reflection. How on earth was she supposed to spontaneously become something else?!

Maybe it was about visualization?

She tried imagining herself as a fox. Probably all black, with nice white teeth to growl with. She wondered what it would be like, to have proper teeth. The sharp beak and talons were nice, but the wolves just seemed so effective with their jaws.

She blinked, trying to concentrate on the rippling reflection.

Boredom picked at her mind.

She looked at Shun, who looked convincingly asleep.

This… was going to take a while.

---

And it did.

She was getting pretty good with those predictions, she really ought to stop predicting such pessimistic futures.

The sun set, with still no idea what she was supposed to be doing. As crickets started chirping in earnest (and frogs - she was definitely going to eat one of those) Shun woke up from her ‘nap’ and asked if she had made any progress.

At her negative response, the fox didn’t seem surprised.

“You’re probably just tired. Go get some rest back at the den.”

Kuroko sighed, obediently heading back, and finally grabbing a bite to eat before nestling herself in a tall, white-barked tree.

The next day was no different. Three different foxes sleepily watched her glare at her reflection, basically repeating Shun’s words back at her whenever she asked for help.

You’re still you, just give up the outside and look like something else, Right, she’ll just DO that.  

With zero progress and mounting frustration, Kuroko slept the next night a bit closer to the ground, tucked almost petulantly against the pale trunk.

#naruto #smpwrites #fic rec #third mizukage #FlockTogether #Fanfiction #Naruto fanfiction

[canvaswolfdoll]

Am I a Reader?

I seem to somehow garnered a reputation as a ‘reader’, even though I don’t think of myself in such terms anymore. Others may see me as such because I am writer,[1] but, to be honest, I don’t really read voraciously as I once did.

But, hey, I’ve talked about my history with various other interests, why not add what my life with books has been to that list?

I grew up in a house of books, parents reading for entertainment, excited to get to first grade and finally learn to read myself. Literacy was always seen as an important skill to possess, something to grant you entrance to the full world, and even other worlds.

My parents weren’t particularly restrictive with the television, and there was no demonizing of watching it. They merely led by example with media, outside some reasonable policing of content, which is important.

Also, PBS growing up was airing Reading Rainbow (boring and dumb)[2] and Wishbone (awesome incarnate). So even before I could read, I was being introduced to not just the thought of being able to read, but literary classics! Simplified versions, yes, but Wishbone and his costumes were more there to give the general impression of the story and the sense of grandeur that literature carries.

One of my favorite childhood toys is a Wishbone plushie. The show really means a lot to me, and I am still massively disappointed I’ve never seen the Phantom of the Opera episode in full! Gah!

Anyways, everything growing up taught me that being a reader is a noble and admirable trait. There was nothing more insulting than hearing a friend, someone I was supposed to trust, claim that reading is dumb and boring!

So, I learned to read, starting with picture books, and working my way up as I felt comfortable. The first series that won my heart was Nate the Great, a series about a child detective giving noir-esque narrations as he solved mysteries over plates of pancakes. Good books, everyone should a read a few of them.

Of course, considering the era when I was a youth, Harry Potter eventually crossed the horizon, establishing the all-consuming franchise and consuming us all!

I’m reviewing those books!

Anywho, my older siblings started reading the books, and I soon followed suit by the promise of there being a werewolf in Book 3! There was!

I finished book 4, and I faced, for the very first time, the wait for a new installment. Up until then, book series weren’t something I had to express patience on. I never had to worry about a continuing narrative that I can’t immediately access, or the concept of stories not yet published. They’re supposed to just be at the library, waiting for you to discover.

And it was that big wait between Goblet of Fire and Order of the Pheonix. Small Canvas didn’t have the patience for that! So, I grew distant from the series, and didn’t pick it up when the next book finally came.

Instead, I read a few other miscellaneous books, before coming upon Redwall.

This was, of course, spurred by my brother reading the series, and me quickly deciding to follow suit. It’s cute tiny animals waging bloody war! What’s not to love?

Redwall’s an… interesting series. It left quite the influence on me, both for what it had (rich and specific descriptions of food[3])and what it lacked (moral complexity). Because one thing that bothered me, even when I was young, was that the “good” critters were always good (mice, otters, squirrels, hares, and so forth) and the “bad” vermin were always barbaric evil (rats, foxes, and ferrets[4]). Besides voles, there were no grey areas, and that just seemed unfair. Why can’t a rat be a good guy? Why can’t a hare scheme to take the Abbey? Why did Veil get such a sour deal? Poor kid was actively despised by his adopted family, acted out because of it, went to meet his father, who then betrayed him, and then the mousemaid who raised him goes back to the abbey to preach about how unsalvageable he was! It was nothing less than a tragedy.

Plus, Swartt’s the only main ferret baddie the series ever got, so even that’s disappointing in retrospect!

Oddly enough, I’ve never actually read Redwall the book, starting instead with Marlfox and jumping around as I saw fit. In fact, I don’t think I’ve read any of the particularly big books of the Canon (Redwall, Mattimeo, Mossflower, and so forth). Just never could manage to get through, especially when the one time I tried to read the first book, it vanished under mysterious circumstances after I left it out during recess.

That mystery was never solved.

Soon, I tired of the formula of Redwall, and stopped reading the series. In middle school, I switched to comics (both web and print), and nudged at a couple fantasy books, but I don’t think I latched onto anything in particular. I did get through the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series, as well as Phantom of the Opera (finally), but no long running series.

I think I may also have tried Lord of the Rings in middle school, but it was unreadably dull and tedious, and to this day I cannot get through any rendition of the narrative.

Because Lord of the Rings is bad storytelling. Even had a friend who dreamed of being an author when he grew up, like me, and he loved the series, and tried often to get me to try it.

Nope.

An interesting thing I like to gloat about is how I got through school without once completely reading any book assigned to me, served mostly by taking in the teacher’s lecture on the assigned reading afterwards, and my own internal understanding of narrative. Now, I don’t actually suggest anyone do this, but the fact of the matter was I preferred to read by my own volition, read generally slowly, and have no fondness of the dead frogs that is the literary canon.

It's a comparison I often like to draw. A good story is an artistic expression, carefully crafted in hopes of invoking emotions from the audience, and, in doing so, creates a sort of magic.

But then there’s literature, or, rather, literature classes, which take books, once vibrant and engaging, and begin to dissect them, dissemble the pieces and analyze them, label them, and define terms and reverse engineer the functions. Sure, this can help give you an understanding of storytelling and thus maybe appreciate other stories more, but once you cut it open and dig around, even if you put it all back, you’re still left with a dead frog, the life gone and irretrievable.

Literature is just another name for dead books.

So I don’t tend to become invested in school-assigned reading for that reason. Besides, reading things that mock the literature is much more interesting!

To the point that I somehow ended up reading Wyrd Sisters as my class was covering Macbeth. So that was fun.

As previously discussed, during high school my attention came to the Discworld books. As they were very good, that’s almost entirely what I read, with occasional detours to the Haruhi Suzumiya books just to see what was happening there.

You can just read my essay on Discworld to get my full thoughts on the topic.

However, I was less thrilled by the Haruhi books that I did read.

I don’t know if it’s the source material, or the translation, or what, but the first couple books are a little tedious to read. A weird mixture of showing and not telling, while also being overly vague about certain things, as well as excessive use of the passive voice, makes the books very dull and uninteresting.

May not have helped that I felt obligated to read them to bridge the gap between the first season of the anime and the movie.

When I was in school, I’d always carry my reading book around, sometimes reading it under my desk instead of paying attention in class, though that became harder to do as I got older and teachers began to care if I was paying attention.

However, after graduating High School, I eventually stopped having whatever paperback I was reading in my coat pocket, and…

Quick aside, I prefer paperback books, at least when it comes to novels. They’re more comfortable to hold, take up less space, are lighter, and… I don’t know, it’s just my preference. I don’t bend the cover back or anything. I’m actually rather obsessive with the up keep of books, and try to keep them in pretty good condition (though spines are, admittedly, hard to maintain). It even seems blasphemous to write in the margins, or highlight. I can’t bring myself to do it, and it really irritates me when I see such things in books.[6]

Anyways, eventually it came that my reading occurred before bed, if I felt like it and am reading. There’s just so many other media vying for my time, that I can’t fit it all in. So many shows to try to get through, webcomics to follow, video games to play, and my own stories to craft and show no one.

So… yeah. I still read the occasional book. Making up for Harry Potter now, and between those books I’ve been making my way through the Spice&Wolf light novels (some of the same problems as the Haruhi books above, but not as bad)[7] and the Log Horizon Light novels are interesting from a world building perspective, though the formatting has a lot to be desired.[8]

However, it’s not as voracious as it once was, so I have a hard time to committing to the identity of “reader” anymore.

But, hey, it’s what people make of you sometimes.

Kataal kataal.

[1] As this post probably goes to show. [2] Yeah, I said it. I didn’t like it as a kid! I don’t care what random children had to say about picture books! [3] I am incapable of handwaving food. I’m compelled to specify what’s being eaten. [4] Am I still heavily associated with ferrets, or has that changed? I can’t keep track. [5] And I don’t recall if I ever bothered to talk about them in the CanvasWatches on it. [6] I bought a copy of Huck Finn specifically because the school supplied copy was just drowning in highlighter ink. Didn’t read it, of course, but still, what monster does that? [7] Also, I may be scheming to steal some of the plotlines for RPGs. [8] It rarely says who’s saying what! Come on, this is basic writing! 

#CanvasRambles #CanvasReads #books