#he's a magpie in human form | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

diejager · 8 months

Text

Crow

Pairing: Monster TF 141 + Horangi & König x Eldritch horror!reader

Cw: blood, gore, canon-typical violence, injury, mutilation, tell me if I missed any. Wc: 1.9k

They hadn’t expected to have another specialist join them, none of them even knew what Price had in mind when he brought you in. You were normal in every way - as normal as a soldier could be - and unassuming under your dark clothes and gear. You smiled and waved when greeted, you took orders well and you spoke when spoken. You were like a ghost, there but also not there, invincible unless you made a sound or movement. Excluding all they saw in you, you were simply uncanny, with weird mannerisms and habits that made you seem inhuman - as inhuman as you could be to hybrids.

The only words Price had given them before you landed were: “They’re good at what they do, just don’t cause any trouble, understood?”

They were vague and as unassuming as you first seemed, like any warning for any person that could easily become annoyed or mad. Ghost certainly hadn’t put much thought into it as he should. Gaz had elbowed Soap in an attempt at reminding the werewolf to heed their captain’s words. Rudy and Alejandro wouldn’t have to worry, they knew and learned the limits of any man’s patience, smart and intuitive. Horangi was as weary as he would with any new addition, eyes narrowed in annoyance and curiosity. Unlike any of them, König hid any emotions from his stoic face, shoulders broad and back ramrod that emphasised his height and broadness, he couldn’t be sure if you would be easy to ignore or irritable.

Granted, they all had expectations for you since Price seemed so proud and confident when you first joined them, acting like a child given his dream, famished to have you by his side as professionals as possible. Yet here you were, normal looking, of average height and average weight, and simply there. Although there wasn’t anything inherently abnormal to you, the simple presence of your being made their hair stand on end. There wasn’t any reason to be so frightened or chilled about you, you hadn’t done anything deserving of such fear and suspicion, and Price trusted you with his life. If he trusted you, then the rest could, no? After all, dragons are the most protective of monsters.

As Price promised, you were good at what you did, never a flinch, never any hesitation, never a moment of weakness. You were too normal and good to be a human, especially not with the way corvids flocked to you. Ravens, crows, magpies and jackdaws followed you everywhere you went, simply standing or cawing around you as if you were a memener of their murder. Going to London would be dreadful with how many corvids called the British Isles their home, which - coincidentally - was where you lived.

All but Price had a hard time forming a bond with you, your eerie presence made it difficult to relax, and apparently, you knew it as well, since they had an equally difficult time finding you on the base. If you weren’t beating a sand-filled punching bag, you would be at the shooting range, and if you weren’t there, then you’d be somewhere on the roof of a structure, taking in the cool, stormy air of the UK with your bird friends.

You only smiled when they all blew up in cackles and jokes, never laughing with them or cracking your own jokes. Your voice never raised over a certain point, a murmur or a raspy growl. It was either human or inhuman to you. If Soap, Gaz and Rudy were having a hard time making you open up to them, then the rest would have an even harder time doing so. They were failing miserably.

That was until Soap caught an airy chuckle from you when he passed Price’s office, the older man having probably said something amusing to you which had you laughing. And as loud and rowdy the werewolf was, he couldn’t stop himself from telling the others, his excitement and enthusiasm bleeding into the rest. It had somehow made them more determined to bond with you, you were, after months of work, a permanent member of Task Force 141.

Unfortunately, the most they got were snorts and huffs, snorts from Ghost’s dark humour and huffs from Soap and Gaz’s poorly made-up jokes, theatrical performances of failures and defeat in the face of an unflinching and unusual being. Questions started piling up on Price’s desk, wanting to know if you were human, if you were a hybrid, if you were a monster, if you were even a living being seeing as you hadn’t taken a single breath or eaten (not that they’d seen you eat.).

“That’s classified, ” Price stopped their musing with two simple words. “Unless they tell you themselves, I don’t think it’s any of my business divulging that to anyone.”

Price’s secrecy and respect for you only sowed the seeds of curiosity and intrigue deeper. What had you hidden from them that was so classified that Price couldn’t tell them? Even Alejandro didn’t have the clearance to dive into your files - not that there were any. The question lingered in their minds, unanswered and famished for one: What were you?

Somehow they’d gotten separated from you, being caught under heavy fire from Russian ultranationalists and backed into a building with most exits blocked or surrounded by the enemy. They worried about you, being left to yourself in a situation like this one was dangerous for even the most skilled and wary soldier. Whereas they all had their backs, one watching for the other, you were alone. And whereas you had the possibility of using your powers of shifting - if you were a hybrid or monster, they still hadn’t found the answer to that question - they were in the confines of a restricted building, letting loose would either damage the already-damaged-building or become a danger to their own teammates.

Ghost’s fog was deadly. Soap could come under fire from them shooting. Gaz couldn’t fly freely in a tight place. Price’s fire could be devastating. Rudy couldn’t risk getting tired. Alejandro could be unknowingly shot by them. König was uncontrollable and unpredictable. Horangi was a danger to himself in the secret of darkness.

They were fucked, caught in a dire situation that could mean the end of them, but regret and panic wouldn’t be of any use to them, they had to concentrate and wait for backup.

“Backup from what, Price?!”

What could possibly reach them in time to support them? They were too far in for any help to arrive quickly enough. The closest naval ship was thousands of miles away, the closest ocean was hundreds of miles away and any military support even farther. What would they even be waiting for?

“Cap! We can’t-”

A scream shattered the skies, howls of pain and panic filling the once booming sound of foreign guns. The sound of bodies being broken and bones cracking brought their attention elsewhere. The Russians weren’t aiming at them anymore, shooting at something bigger and more dangerous than any of them. They were looking at a creature that picked them off one by one, the shadow of a monster covering the white snow. The fear in their eyes tainted the sky as their blood sullied the fresh snow, turning white into red and pink.

Whatever that was was dangerous. The ability to rip men apart and incite terror into well-trained and hardened soldiers was anything but amiable, safe and good. Their bodies were tense, muscles contracted to move at the flicker of movement from the monster outside the building. Their weapons aimed towards the entrance, fingers laying restlessly on the trigger and shoulder screwed with suspense as the screams and cries slowly died down to howling winds in the night.

Price raised a hand, holding them back from firing at the entity, they lowered their guns, following the captain as he walked towards the door. He hadn’t flinched or froze when clawed fingers gripped the wide opening, a giant, black hand cloaked with feathers. Another landed on the ground farther away, letting them see the blood staining the show, seeping from its fingers and dirty feathers. With a low rumble from the beast, it lowered its head to the doorway, where Price had stopped.

He smiled at the gigantic head of a crown, its black beak sharpened with pointed teeth, as black as its skin and feathers. An oval eye blinked at them, white as the snow and piercing as the cold. It sent chills down their spines, ready to jump away if it attacked, but Price patted the skin under its eye.

“Thank you,” Price spoke your name so reverently, thanking it - you - with a grateful smile and proud eyes.

That monster - it - was you, the unassuming, perfect and eerie human. You, who was always around corvids, were one yourself, albeit a gigantic, crooked version of a crow. You crooned at Price’s touch, soft and loving like he was. You moved away from the entrance and they left. It was as if they walked into another world, blood, bones and guts littered the ground, as if a cat had had its fun with something breakable. Ghost and König thrived in this scene, the blood and gore feeding them. Unlike the rest that either recoiled or stared off, preferring to look at your bird-like form than the ground.

In all your glory, you stood high and mightily, toppling over the trees by hundreds of metres. Covered head to toe in black skin and black, glistening feathers, you held your head high to look at the Russian field. Four horns curled over your head, sprouting from your crown and curling at the tip, they mimicked a crown of bone. Bones also grew from your back, the protrusion of your vertebrae growing along your back like a ridge, sharp and deadly, like the sharp-looking feathers that protected your back. If any of that were shocking then your second pair of wings would be frightening, an equally big pair of wings help support your weight on the ground, besides two legs, clawed perfectly to inflict lethal damage. And at the end of your back, a flared, serpentine tail with feathers curled upwards.

While Price acted with such ease and comfort around you, the rest simply couldn’t. If they were bothered by your presence before, now, after having shifted and showed your true skin, it grew tenfold, becoming unbearable and suffocating. You saw their discomfort, cooing at them before you shrunk, bone and feathers sinking back under your skin, your beak turning into the face they knew, but your white eyes remained. It was all knowing and powerful.

You were an Eldritch being, an all-knowing and powerful creature, perhaps one of the last horrors that lived. It made sense why Price was so trusting of you, believing you to be unable to betray them. Why he warned all of them to never stray into your hate and annoyance. Eldritch horrors, after all, were the strongest beings alive (if they could be called alive), old as aeons and unmoving by time. Dragons were second to them, the proud and respectable monsters knowing the worth of Eldritch creatures and respecting them.

Everything fell into place. It clicked, why everything was simply so. Perhaps, after knowing your secret, you’d open up to them, let them in your colossal and dark and unbeating heart.

Taglist: @saelkie @yeoldedumbslut

2K notes · View notes

marlynnofmany · 9 days

Text

Secondhand Solutions

Mur gave me a smug look, curling and uncurling one tentacle like a yo-yo. “Told you it was a waste of credits,” he said.

I sighed. “If those human ships were here, it wouldn’t be. This stuff is prime Earth nostalgia.” The small pile of items on the hoversled had seemed so full of promise when I’d bought it at our last stop: cat posters, harmonicas, and a dozen packs of googly eyes.

“Pity we’re far from Earth,” Mur said.

“Yeah,” I agreed, eyeing the locals of this alien marketplace. Lots of scales and exoskeletons. Not many hands that would appreciate the softness of a cat’s fur, and very few mouthparts that would be able to do much with a harmonica. The merchant I’d gotten the stuff from had been a Heatseeker all too happy to unload her stock of cut-rate human nonsense. These folks would likely have similar opinions. I said, “At least it doesn’t expire.”

Mur straightened the individually-boxed harmonicas. “And it shouldn’t take up too much space in your quarters until we meet up with more humans eventually. The captain won’t want to hang around here waiting for them to show up.”

“True,” I admitted. It was gossip from our last stop that had told me they’d be here now. I should have known better than to trust it.

“Well, back to the ship,” Mur announced. “Maybe you can cheer yourself up by decorating your quarters with eyeballs.”

I had to smile at that. “Maybe.” He was already walking back to where we’d parked, on the far side of an over-cultivated garden area. I towed the hoversled after him.

Then I caught sight of some locals who’d run afoul of multiple birdlike beasties, and an idea started to form.

The locals, a half-dozen Heatseekers whose scales ranged from red to pale yellow, were trying to eat a nice lunch at the dining section of the garden. The squawking bird-things, which were half-lizardy with speckled brown feathers and wide beaks, had apparently claimed the bushes for their own. They were contesting this claim by spitting at the Heatseekers every time their backs were turned. These looked like pretty gross spitballs, impressive for birds.

It occurred to me that I’d seen those feathery characters all over the place here. A look behind confirmed it; they lurked in nearly every tree I could see. And judging by the way the locals were abandoning this picnic table, they were a known hazard.

They still only spat at fleeing enemies, hiding or freezing in place when pinned by eye contact.

And that was my idea. “Hey Mur,” I said. “I’ll bet you one shanty sung on a table that I can sell some of these googly eyes right now.”

He stopped and looked around, full of skepticism. “To who?”

“Do you take the bet?”

“Ah, sure. There’s no way anyone here is interested.”

“You say that now,” I said, grabbing a pack and waving down one of the hurrying locals. “But you don’t know how we deal with tigers and magpies.”

“With what?”

I didn’t answer, busy as I was explaining to the local that the false eyes were adhesive, and would give the impression of eye contact from both directions. They were just as interested as I’d thought they’d be.

After a demonstration, during which I strolled through the picnic area and didn’t get a single spitball on me, the birds were unsettled and the locals were more than happy to buy everything I had.

This was a new colony town, you see, and no one had come up with a good solution for the annoying fauna that came with the territory. But these folks were prepared to make everyone’s day.

They certainly made mine. That was five times as much as I’d paid for the stuff in the first place. And they didn’t even want the posters and harmonicas.

I waved goodbye, but they weren’t paying attention, so I turned my grin on Mur instead. He had draped a tentacle around his pointy squid head in exasperation.

“I knew I shouldn’t have taken the bet,” he declared. “But I was so sure it was pointless.”

“And I am sure that whichever song you choose to regale us with at dinnertime will be delightful,” I said, tugging the hovercart around the bushes. The birds watched me carefully, noting the eyes still stuck to my hair, and leaving us both alone. “If it’s a song I know, maybe I can play a backup melody with a harmonica.”

~~~

The ongoing backstory adventures of the main character from this book. More to come! And I am currently drafting a sequel!

#my writing #this one's relatively short so I'm going without the read-more #The Token Human #humans are weird #haso #hfy #eiad #humans are space orcs #googly eyes #I do enjoy some good be-googling #just made up that word; like bedazzled #it may not catch on #but that's okay #I'm still having fun

156 notes · View notes

tourettesdog · 2 years

Text

DP x DC prompt where Danny is a young adult living in Gotham.

He's 24 and has been Ghost King since turning 18. Danny has been estranged from his parents ever since he destroyed their portal. It was his first act as king.

Danny shares an apartment with Sam and Tucker. Sam works with nonprofits in the city, while Tucker gets involved in WE with his genius programming skills.

Danny makes ice sculptures and sells them around Gotham for fun. He sometimes helps out with crime when he thinks he can do it quietly, but otherwise Danny lets Batman and the police handle it. He has enough work to do in the Ghost Zone as it is.

In his free time Danny likes to explore the Ghost Zone. He’s long-since given up dreams of exploring space. Danny can always fly to space if he wants to, but being able to rip open a portal to the Infinite Realms offers even more exploration opportunities than his child self could have dreamed of.

It’s during one of these explorations into the Ghost Zone that Danny finds a teenager sitting on a floating island. Danny rushes over to investigate, noticing that the kid looks very much alive, but as he draws near the kid’s arm turns invisible and he begins to panic.

Danny quickly realizes he’s faced with another halfa. The kid is a wreck. He looks barely older than Danny was when he died-- hell, he even looks like him with his black hair (with a shock of white) and blue eyes. It’s like looking into a mirror for Danny, and he immediately decides to take the kid under his wing.

It’s slow going at first. The kid, Jason, doesn’t remember much of his life, let alone his death. He’s scared and confused, with far too many questions. It takes Danny showing him his human form for Jason to trust Danny enough to go with him.

Danny takes Jason back to the apartment and introduces him to Sam and Tucker. They don’t pester him for answers, and instead jump at the chance to answer any questions Jason has. They help him understand his situation and learn about his new powers.

Over the next year, Jason becomes their kid. The trio homeschool him, with some help from several of the ghosts in in the GZ. They offer to help Jason figure out who he was, but he asks them not to. All Jason can remember of his death is that it was very violent and he’s hesitant to fill those memories in.

If Jason ever remembers more than that, he doesn’t tell them.

Jason’s a handful, but he’s their handful. He spends a lot of his time in the Ghost Zone (annoying Danny’s ghost friends, his adopted aunts and uncles) while they’re at work. Whenever Dani’s in town, the two are a force to be reckoned with.

Danny spends a lot of time visiting WE to annoy Tucker. He also becomes somewhat well known around town for his little ice sculptures. More than once, Danny finds himself in the accidental company of Bruce Wayne.

Bruce is curious about the strange young man. He has a lot of scars, and Bruce can’t make heads or tails of the strange ice he sells. He starts talking to him-- Danny-- to try and figure out if he’s a meta and/or potentially dangerous.

What Bruce figures out instead is that the kid is surprisingly quick-witted and funny. He’s also apparently a dad, raising a kid with his partners. Bruce still suspects that Danny might secretly be a meta, but he develops a pleasant rapport with him. They commiserate together about raising kids over coffee. Two unlikely friends.

Danny never mention’s Jason’s name. He has about a hundred nicknames for the kid and often calls him Magpie (partly due to his black and white hair, and partly due to his habit of bringing home random shit from the Ghost Zone). He’s very wary of using the kid’s real name around Gotham, in any case. They try to keep a low profile where Jason is concerned.

Bruce also never mentions Jason. His loss is still too much of a gaping wound and he doesn’t want to unload that on his young friend, let alone wallow in those memories.

One day Danny is wandering Gotham with Jason in tow, running some errands. They stop by WE to drop something off for Tucker and he spots Bruce. Danny decides it’s about time he introduced his kid to the man.

Time seems to stop when Jason and Bruce lock eyes.

#dp x dc #dp x dc prompt #danny phantom #dp #prompt #dpxdc #dogposts #ficlet #dp fanfic #everlasting trio #dogprompts

4K notes · View notes

gierosajie-art · 8 months

Text

Venti AU Colorwheel | Ko-fi link

After months of drawing on and off...I have finally done it. The Color Wheel Challenge but with a different Venti for every color

AU guide under the cut because I have A Lot

Red: Boiling Isles AU - Witch Venti where he is part of the Bard Coven, but still manages to get away with messing around with Oracle magic due to Bard magic's range in spells

Orange: Vessels AU - Bodysharing au with Nameless Bard because gods need vessels to be able to walk among mortals and hide their divinity

Yellow: Possessed concept - that one concept I had about a god from Celestia possessing Venti out of nowhere and he like, keeps the outfit afterward because screw them

Green: Starfall AU - Ghost Trick AU where Venti's a dead magpie that sometimes takes his friend's form in the ghost world

Cyan: The Nameless AU - Honkai Star Rail AU where Venti is a prior Trailblazer of The Nameless on the Path of Harmony

Blue: Gathering of Cloudy Days AU - BlazBlue AU where Venti is an artificial human. Too much to explain but he's in his armor in the art instead of his regular outfit. He has a bunch of swords and keeps having to witness the timeloop

Violet: OG Cryo Archon Venti AU - Basically Venti dies and gets brought back wrong after 600 years or so in this scenario so he's just kinda in the process of crumbling like ice

Magenta: Roleswap AU - Corrupted Venti au where he is the one that's more severely poisoned and Dvalin manages to get through the Cataclysm unscathed. He is Not having a good time

You can also refer to this post for summaries for most of them

I'm also kinda realizing most of them can be grouped together in terms of similarity like, orange, yellow, and green have something to do with possession; cyan and blue are both sci-fi; and then there's purple and magenta being corrupted Venti AUs. Witch Venti is an outlier

#genshin impact #genshin impact au #venti genshin impact #color wheel challenge #the art drawer #digital art #Genshin TOH au #vessels au #possessed concept #starfall au #the nameless au #gathering of cloudy days au #cryo venti au #genshin roleswap au

506 notes · View notes

aimportantdragoncollector · 11 months

Note

Ask game:

LoV turned into pets and class 1A adopts them

1. It all started because Tomura was rude to a witch online. (Yes, the magical kind of witch. Even though this is a canon-adjacent quirks AU.) The witch cursed his entire family to turn into animals. Tomura thinks of the League of Villains as family, so...

2. Class 1-A is sent on a community service assignment at a local shelter, where they encounter adorable and grumpy animals they simply fall in love with at first sight and have to take home.

3. Tomura is an cute corgi who gets adopted by Izuku. Actually Tomura becomes astonishingly chill after turning into a dog and decides he likes lazing around all day. He has no interest in ever turning back into a human.

4. Toga turns into a yellow canary. She immediately starts following Izuku around after he arrives at the shelter and trying to peck him. But she gets adopted by Ochaco, who always wanted a bird. Toga continues to glomp Izuku at every chance, which Ochaco misinterprets as her pet trying to help her out with her crush.

5. Dabi is a gray-brown cat who gets adopted by Shouto. (Shouto believes he has a pet raccoon because of the markings under his eyes.) It was love at first sight for Shouto because he saw Dabi urinating on an Endeavor poster. Dabi tries to dislike Shouto but his fire side is just so comfortable. Shouto names him Phoenix because of his love of heat.

6. Spinner turns into a gecko lizard (of course) and gets taken home by Fumikage. Spinner is slightly terrified of birds in this form but Fumikage loves lizards.

7. Twice is a nervous chinchilla who got adopted by Kaminari and named "Pikachu." However, Bakugo ends up taking over primary duties caring and feeding for the chinchilla. Bakugo pretends to complain about it and cooks him gourmet meals.

8. Kurogiri turned into a black cat who got immediately snagged by Aizawa. Yamada and Midnight also dote on him. Sushi acts like he met an old friend.

9. Mr. Compress transformed into a magpie and latched onto Momo because she is always wearing shiny jewelry. He steals items from all over her house, and she thinks that it's adorable.

10. Magne turned into an energetic German shepherd and got adopted by Mina, who has plenty of energy for a big dog.

11. Gigantomachia got turned into a tiger. Hitoshi adopted him and brainwashed everyone into thinking that he's just a large cat.

12. Nezu is not happy to have so many cats in his school. Through his information sources, Nezu also realized what happened to the LOV so he's forced to tolerate them in order to keep them under his supervision.

12. Mineta is allergic to cats.

13. Shouto comes up with a conspiracy theory that these animals, who seem unusually intelligent, are actually manifestations of the ghosts living in Izuku's quirk. He thinks that Tomura is Yoichi and Dabi is En.

14. Unfortunately for AFO, Tomura thinks of him like family. So he got transformed into the world's ugliest hairless blind cat with a scarred face. Even more unfortunately for AFO, All Might takes one look at the most pathetic and unadoptable animal in the shelter, and his hero instincts activate. All Might adopts Cat for One and names him Nana. (Shouto convinced All Might to use the name even though All Might does not seriously believe his conspiracy theory.) No matter how AFO tries to attack and claw him, All Might only thinks that he needs more love and affection.

15. The witch's curse wears off if the villains sincerely reform. Which means that there is hope for the rest of the league, but All for One is going to be stuck as a cat forever.

#5 headcanons game #closed ask game #Cat for One

306 notes · View notes

oshawottarchive · 4 months

Text

What are the Hermits?

Hermit species list! Might expand on this in the future

I also made up species cause I have no idea what “Voidwalker” or “Blazeborn” mean

Bdubs: Human / Dreamer / Shade

Technically human but has inhuman properties and is pretty uncanny valley! Was a sun god that one time

Cub: Vex

Has illusion magic that allows him to disguise himself as human, and occasionally as other players. Was infected by Skulk for a bit

Doc: Creeper / Goat / Robot

Exactly what it says on the tin! Also grows tomato vines around his horns sometimes

Etho: Phantom / Glitch

Most obviously a Phantom, and has bony wings. He’s also a glitch in the game and will warp himself and his surroundings a little bit. The part of his face covered by his mask is skeletal. Might also be a failed clone?

False: Eagle

Gem: Not-deer

Seems like a normal deer player at first glance, but there’s something a bit uncanny about her

Scar: Human / Vex

A Vex, although he’s not a full one like Cub. He usually stores his magic in crystals

Grian: Magpie / Watcher

A pesky bird to his core. He’s also pretty eldritch and very powerful when he wants to be

Hypno: Beetle / Hypnotist

Normally keeps his wings hidden, and most of the time he looks human enough. Has strong magic and is another resident of the uncanny valley

Jevin: Slime

Impulse: Imp

Has magic, although it’s not very strong

Skizz: Angel

Can switch from humanoid to biblically accurate, and likes to use that ability to mess with his friends. Quite a bit more powerful than Impulse

Iskall: Cyborg

Joe: Poltergeist / Eldritch

Not really undead or technically a spirit, since he was never alive or had a spirit in the first place. Can basically do whatever he wants, he is Joe Hills after all

Keralis: Puppet / Eldritch / Body-snatcher

Puppet possessed by an eldritch entity. He’s capable of taking over bodies and effectively banishing the host into the nothingness, although he hasn’t done so in a long while

Mumbo: Human / Vampiric

Despite being a vampire, he doesn’t drink blood, he just gets really bad sunburns sometimes

Pearl: Moth / Lunar

Has a strong connection to the moon and the markings on her wings change with its cycle. She was also a Glare while she was the cleaning lady

Ren: Werewolf

Stress: Butterfly / Fae

Very powerful, although she doesn’t use her magic for much more than helping plants grow, although those plants usually turn out pretty weird

Tango: Fire being / Lunar

A being originating from fire itself, and was connected to Decked Out 2 for a while, which was some sort of eldritch parasite. After Season 8, he became a Lunar, although he’s not very happy about it, and most of the others don’t know about it. Has four arms sometimes, but no one knows how the extra arms get there or where they go afterwards

Beef: Minotaur

xB: Sarcastic fringehead

A type of fish! He might also have a few soul stealing properties

Xisuma: Undead / Robot

Spirit inside of a robotic suit. He’s had multiple forms, including being a bee, an axolotl, and a dragon

Zedaph: Satyr / Moth

He can summon himself some cool rosy maple moth wings

Cleo: Undead

As her name suggests, she’s specifically a zombie

Wels: Possessed knight

A possessed suit of armor covering a mannequin

87 notes · View notes

ruanbaijie · 1 year

Photo

LOVE BETWEEN FAIRY AND DEVIL

@userdramas event 01 favourite ✧ 2022 release @userphotoshop event 7 genres ✦ romance ➻ arcs and names are self-coined + name explanations below cut

初逢 (chū féng) for episodes 1-9 (shui yun tian arc): “first meeting”

望月 (wàng yuè) for episodes 10-19 (cang yan hai arc): one way to say “full moon”, literally means “to look up at the moon”

梦蝶 (mèng dié) for episodes 19-26 (human realm arc): “butterfly dream”. A reference to Zhuang Zhou’s (philosopher from the Warring States era) Dream of the Butterfly: where he once dreamed that he was a butterfly and was very happy and carefree, with no knowledge that he was Zhuang Zhou, but upon waking up, he didn’t know if he was Zhuang Zhou dreaming he was a butterfly or a butterfly dreaming he was Zhuang Zhou. It’s related to the philosophical questions of the difference between reality and dreaming, and the whole nature of our reality to name a few - think Matrix, think Westworld. This arc name came automatically to me for the human realm arc especially since the human realm in the show is called 云梦泽 (yún mèng zé) “Lake of Clouds and Dreams”, and the whole arc is about the human realm and their lives there being a complete façade. Additionally, the scene of human!CDNZ dancing is FULL of butterfly motifs.

兰花一现 (lán huā yī xiàn) for episodes 26-31 (return to cang yan hai arc): a pun on the idiom 昙花一现 (tán huā yī xiàn), where 昙花 “queen of the night” (a species of cactus that blooms very rarely, and when it does, only does so and night and wilts at dawn) is replaced with 兰花 “orchid”; 昙 and 兰 rhyme in Mandarin Chinese. The original idiom means that good and beautiful things after appearing for a moment, do not last long and disappear completely. A reference to XLH trying to prove herself worthy of being the Moon Queen and also wanting to stop the war (“let the wheels of hate roll over me”) and ending up sacrificing herself.

忍顾鹊桥归路 (rěn gù què qiáo guī lù) for episodes 32-36 (goddess of xishan arc): “when we part and return our separate ways, we can’t help but gaze back at the magpie bridge”. A line by Song Dynasty poet Qin Guan about the Cowherd and immortal Weaver Girl. It is about the Qixi Festival (the seventh day of the seventh lunar month), when the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl, banished to the opposite sides of the Milky Way for their forbidden love, are allowed to reunite for one day, meeting again on a bridge formed of magpies. A reference to the star-crossed love between DFQC and XLH, and also that scene with the bridge that made me cry like a water fountain.

512 notes · View notes

icyxmischief · 6 months

Text

NOBODY MOVE, IM GONNA WRITE SOOOOOOOO MUCH ABOUT THIS TOMORROW.

It's gonna pivot around the MAGNIFICENT development around the two times Loki has said to loved ones, "For you: for all of us" and the thematic significance of his personal development from "desperately bartering, suicidal, and jealous, defined by everything he isn't and loses being" to "I know what sort of God I have to be," the God of Narratives, of Stories, literally taking poached and enslaved timelines and the precious souls within who are also trying to self-author their destinies, in his bare hands, literally illuminating the multiverse green (the hue of life!) with new freedom JUST TO BE, TO EXIST, WITHOUT CENSURE! Loki, seated now at the epicenter of ALL of material existence, allowing an infinite web of could-be's and will-be's to radiate outward and outward, infinitely scaling, holding their newer, better source together like Atlas or Prometheus or indeed the Ouroboros at the roots of what, to me, REALLY resembled Yggdrasil.

Loki, smiling a small, bittersweet smile, because his glorious purpose ended up the opposite of vainglorious notoriety. It ended up being known solely by the number of people you can count on one hand. His golden throne, his highest form and his ultimate victory are to bring and to sustain life, to allow life to choose its own path without any candle-snuffing "predestiny," and no one will know he is arguably the most important force for good in all of existence. But he's happy because he has grown into the fullness of himself. He's happy because he is defined by who he IS, not who Thor or Odin or Asgard or Jotunheim are. Not by who or what is good or evil or "worthy." Not even by who other Lokis are. He has his reflection in the mirror. He exists: not absence, but unconquerable presence.

When I tell you that I have never been prouder of a character's actions in canon in my ENTIRE LIFE....it is no exaggeration. Do y'all KNOW how many YEARS I've hoped for this? Argued the validity and redemptive potential of this character? Loki didn't die pointlessly at Thanos's feet. Loki devoted CENTURIES of learning and endurance...LOKI became THE engineer of tens of trillions of lives SAVED. There is NOT ONE OTHER muse in the MCU who has saved lives on THIS SCALE.

Magpie, Wolf Mother at the roots and branches of Yggdrasil, I love you so much. You have this heart and this human imagination forever.

#loki season 2 #loki 2 spoilers #meta #loki meta

54 notes · View notes

theresattrpgforthat · 8 months

Note

May I request some recs for games where you play as a dragon? ::D Thank you for your time!!

THEME: Dragon Games

@foggedover and @vanderlyon both of you asked this question so I am killing two birds with one stone this time around! These games were so much more cute and wholesome than I expected Dragon games to be.

Hot Gay Bro Dragons, by Riverhouse Games.

Bro, he’s your whole world. He makes you feel fabulous. His body is smoking hot, and when you look into his eyes they sparkle like gold.

He’s a dragon. So are you. You’re in love.

This is HOT GAY BRO DRAGONS, a gay game about telling your boyfriend you love him.

This is a silly goofy game about dragons in love, that can work for 2 players but can also play with more! What I really love about this game is when you choose how big of a dragon you are, you also tell your dragon boyfriend about how you feel about him based on his size relevant to yours. The game also encourages you to use phrases like “oh my god bro” and “bro you’re so smoking” and “that’s bro-lliant my dude”. If you’re just looking for a fun goofy time with someone you love, this game can do that for you.

Dragonhearts, by FractalDragon.

You get to be a dragon

You get to kiss dragons

Need I say more?

This Tabletop RPG is about about the clash of over-sized personalities between shapeshifters who can assume human or dragon form, or anything in between. It's GMless—meaning everyone has equal narrative authority—and plays best over one or two 3-4 hour sessions, with 3-4 players.

As a Firebrands hack, Dragonhearts is rather poetic in its character creation and plays through a series of mini games. These mini games include fights, rituals, moments of intimacy, competitions and more - and most of them can be played in whatever order makes sense for your story. This game also comes with a solo game, which each player will play as they set up their characters but might be interesting to play if you want to explore this game by yourself. If you are interested in short, segmented forms of play that can be mixed and matched as your dragons wrestle with emotions and learn about who they are, I definitely recommend Dragonhearts.

Epyllion, by Marissa Kelly (at Magpie Games).

Dragonia faces a threat we dragons have all but forgotten. Inside each of us are seeds of Darkness waiting to take root in doubt, anger, and sorrow. You and your fellow dragons— although small now—must protect Dragonia from the growing Darkness…and learn what it means to be a true friend. -- Tass the Gigantic, Councilmember

Epyllion is a tabletop role playing game about young drakes who investigate rumors, solve problems, and discover the truth of a growing evil in Dragonia. While you play, you and your friends tell awesome stories, explore what it means to be a drake of Dragonia, and discover the value of friendship through magical, whimsical, and heartfelt adventures.

This is an adorable game about young dragons, perfect for all ages. You are young dragons trying to save their home from evil. It gives me the same vibes as Land Before Time, although others have described it to have the same tone as Spyro, or My Little Pony. Epyllion has received many accolades in the gaming community, and its author, Marissa Kelly, is also one of the brains behind the gorgeously haunting game of Bluebeard’s Bride. If the kind of dragon you want to play is cute and trying very hard to be a hero, then this is the game for you.

Hearth Dragons, by M. Davis.

With powerful magic, someone has created you, a dragon. Not a true dragon, no, but one crafted with care and love and given a purpose: to protect your home. With a special ability you were crafted with and a dragon's flame within, many adventures await you and your fellow hearth dragons as you strive to be the best caretakers one can be. And you don't even need to leave the house!

Hearth Dragons is a Lasers & Feelings hack inspired by The Last Dragon Chronicles by author Chris d'Lacey and the Pennykettle Dragons who made the stories as magical as they were. With friends and a game master, you'll make your own clay, paper, or other kind of handcrafted dragon and work together to solve problems and tell stories using your own imagination or the random adventure generation table within.

This is a quick little game with easy-to-generate characters and goals. You’ll create a house together and then do your best to protect it from forces such as an ominous neighbour or a a dangerous creature, from doing things such as ruining brunch or capturing the family pet. This is a great little game, perfect for one-shots and pick-up games.

If you like this creator's work I also recommend their solo journaling game, called An Afternoon As A Dragon, a game about someone who's become a dragon because of a curse.

Baby Dragons, by Litza Bronwyn.

In this game, you are a fierce baby dragon, hatched amongst a variety of other dragon eggs and left to discover the wonders and dangers of the world with your draconic siblings. You must choose if you are better at mental or physical, and go out in search of food, loot, more minions, and/or a better lair.

A simple one-page game that is easy to pick up and play with little to no prep! This is also inspired by Lasers and Feelings, but rather than manufactured dragons, you’re just babies, and you’re more likely to cause trouble than prevent it. If you’re interested in Epyllion but you want something that requires less commitment, you might want to check out Baby Dragons.

#tabletop games #indie ttrpgs #dnd #game recommendations #asks #dragons

68 notes · View notes

mybeingthere · 1 month

Text

Travelling Tales

Kalīlah wa-Dimnah and the Animal Fable

By Marina Warner

Influencing numerous later animal tales told around the world, the 8th-century Arabic fables of Ibn al-Muqaffaʿ’s Kalīlah wa-Dimnah also inspired a rich visual tradition of illustration: jackals on trial, airborne turtles, and unlikely alliances between species. Marina Warner follows these stories as they wander and change across time and place, celebrating their sharp political observation and stimulating mix of humour, earnesty, and melancholy.

Kalīlah and Dimnah are two jackals, wily and ambitious, one virtuous and the other rather less so, who give their names to the eponymous cycle of animal fables in Arabic that is framed by the stories of their friendship, adventures, and mishaps.1 The collection bears a family likeness to Aesop’s Fables and to other classics of moral exempla, but the volumes vary one from one another and even when the stories coincide, they aren’t identical. They share certain generic features: animal protagonists above all (lions, wolves, monkeys, asses, mice, magpies); a narrative of braided tales passing between speakers, often imbricating one story inside the other; and a prevailing tone of tragi-comic moralising coupled with world-weary wisdom about the folly and the treachery of humans.

Most of all, the story of the two jackals Kalīlah and Dimnah, and the tales told in the course of their adventures, are travelling tales, which have been travelling for a long while, migrating from language to language, culture to culture, religion to religion. The Arabic stories’ rich history ranges from Benares to Baghdad and Basra and Rome and beyond, appearing in numerous iterations over centuries, moving across borders, carrying the sparkling hope and mordant cynicism, the canniness and the wit of a form of wisdom literature that originated in the Sanskrit Panchatantra (The Five Books, or Five Discourses) and the Mahabharata, sometime in the second century BCE. Two significant branches grew from this trunk: first, a collection often attributed to a legendary Indian sage, known as Bidpay or Pilpay, and second, the Arabic branch, beginning in the eighth century with the work of the scholar Ibn al-Muqaffa‘ (d. 139/757), who translated and compiled Kalīlah wa-Dimnah. Ibn al-Muqaffa‘ worked from a lost Pehlevi (Middle Persian) composition by a writer called Barzahwayh, which he treated freely, mixing into the Panchatantra’s original fables four more tales, and a highly circumstantial and persuasive explanation of how the manuscript was obtained; he also added a crucial dramatic chapter about Dimnah’s trial, self-defence, and ultimate punishment.

Read the whole essay https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/travelling-tales/

22 notes · View notes

scrivenger-grimgar · 6 months

Text

buckle up folks, its a long one

the Hatake turn into an animal during puberty, any animal and any Hatake-by-blood. after 24 hours, they turn human again and can then form contracts with bonded animals of their type.

adoption by blood is the Hatake's most coveted jutsu, though entirely unknown by other clans. the adopted lack the Hatake white chakra, but their children will have it!

Kakashi turns into a samoyed dog and this sparks great joy for Team Minato. this is why he has a bunch of dogs.

Sakumo is an arctic gray wolf and could bond with Fire Country's wolf packs.

Orochimaru is a blue coral snake. he adopted Anko, who is a boomslang snake, as well as his other kids; Kimimaro is a pangolin, Suigetsu is a leopard seal, Jugo is a tiger, and Karin is a giant river otter

Touka is a grizzly bear. she has several sun bear friends just to freak out the Senju elders.

Tobirama is a clouded leopard, and specifically took on missions to new places to look for leopards of different kinds, along with Touka for cousin-sibling bonding time!

if Kakashi starts using the blood adoption jutsu on his friends/students, well... that's clan business.

Sasuke turns into a nightjar! Itachi is a crow (obvs), and Shisui is a raven.

now, Kakashi didn't adopt Shisui. Shisui is Kagami's grandson, and Kagami was adopted by Tobirama, meaning Shisui has the Hatake white chakra! Kagami is a magpie.

Naruto becomes a maned wolf, which... well. Kakashi helps him find as many bush dogs and falkland wolves as possible, but they're rather rare critters.

Sakura becomes a lynx. she enjoys scaring the shit out of people with her calls.

Genma becomes a Komodo dragon, Hayate is a raccoon, Yugao a stoat

Sai is a burrowing owl, Iruka is an hourglass dolphin, Izumo is a sea eagle, and Kotetsu is a leopard shark.

Ino becomes a secretary bird, Shikamaru turns into an elk, and Choji is a giant salamander

Asuma is a gecko, Kurenai is a mocking bird, Tsunade is a bison, and Tenten is a porcupine!

Kiba is a borzoi and Hana is a newfoundlander

Hinata is a flemish giant rabbit and Neji is a badger

43 notes · View notes

moorishflower · 1 year

Note

a fic I'm reading in a different fandom references the Chinese fable of the Magpie Bridge a lot, and while reading, I couldn't help but think, okay, but this could also be a great concept for a Dreamling fic 🤔

Two lovers, one a goddess, one human, so their love is forbidden. Separated by the Milky Way, they can only meet once a year when a flock of magpies form a bridge across for them.

Swap in 100 years for 1 year and ravens for magpies and there you have it!

oh this is a GOOD one

there are so many good bird-related fables and folk tales! I've been tooling around with the idea of a Dreamling AU of the Crane Wife story, especially because it's one of my favorite songs/series of songs by The Decemberists.

Like, imagine Hob, poor, humble, a mercenary in a time of peace, laid down his sword, and he's glad of it, he's SO glad, but his sword was what brought him coin, and now he has nothing. He has a little house that was gifted to him, and a little copse of woods in which he can hunt and cut wood, but winter is coming on, and the house wants for repairs, and he has no money to purchase supplies. He's doing the best he can and winter is so cold.

The stars fall like streaks of rain on glass, the twilight sky a scattering of silver and bruisy blue, and it is December 1st, and Hob Gadling chops wood for the fire. Stupid, to let the embers dwindle, and he with no logs to feed it, and the sun sinking deep below the horizon. It's bitter cold in daylight, and already the chill bites into his fingers, and numbs his hold on the axe.

Dangerous, to chop wood at night, in the dark, in the cold. Dangerous, too, to fall asleep in a cottage that's more holes than thatch, where the wind whistles at him through the timbers, with a dead hearth and thin blankets.

So Hob chops wood, and tells himself he's grateful for the chance the king has given him. For services rendered to the crown, a home and a plot of land in times of peace. A princely gift indeed. And perhaps, when winter thaws, they will find his body curled upon the bed, frozen stiff, with a dead hearth and empty pockets. Firewood, he thinks, does not buy food. A run-down cottage does not put clothes upon your back.

He sets the axe down to blow into his hands, and the stars blow like milk across the sky, a beautiful line of white that he tracks with his eyes, as though he could navigate by that curling stream. The temptation to return to his cottage, to bundle up beneath his few blankets and await the dawning, is sorely tempting.

The winter is bitter cold, and Hob reaches for the axe again.

The third sapling is not yet even half-felled before he's interrupted by a shout. Hunters come, sometimes, to his little copse, to flush out partridges and hares, and sometimes he is too heartsick for company to deny them, but tonight he is freezing, and his chest is heavy with anger. He swings the axe upon his shoulder and goes towards the noise, wading through the underbrush, following the bay of a hound, and the sharp whistle of its master.

"Oy!" he calls out, and hears the noises stop. "These are my woods, mine by gift of the King, and if you've felled some hart or hare I'll take my share of it!"

"Fuck off!" comes the answering call, and laughter, and the retreating sound of footsteps. The panting of a dog, disappearing into the brush.

He wants to return to the cottage, where at least he has the illusion of warmth. But he heard the crush of the branches, and the hound's eager signal. The hunter had found something, and he needn't even fully butcher it tonight. The cold will keep it well so long as he bleeds it and takes out the entrails, and, heartened by the thought of a warm meal come morning, Hob pushes through the darkening woods, following broken twigs by the light of the rising moon.

When he comes upon the clearing, the silver gleam of the tumbling stars casts it all in shades of cream and starkly alarming shadow, but even in the dimness he can make out the small body in the center, and smell the hot tang of blood.

"Oh," he says softly, and lets the axe fall from his hand. No hart, nor hare, nor even a fat partridge. Only a raven, glossy and nacred black, thrashing weakly in the rotting leaves of winter. An arrow through its wing. "Poor thing. Sweet little thing. It's all right."

He could snap its neck, he thinks. The meat would be gamey and thin, but even leather, boiled long enough, will make a tolerable soup. And surely it would be a blessing, to put it from its misery. A raven with a single wing cannot fly. A raven that cannot fly is not a raven.

Still, when he goes to it, and kneels beside it in the dark, he reaches not for its neck, but for its tiny, heaving breast. "Hush," he croons, and strokes a finger through its downy feathers. "It's all right. Let's get that out of you."

The arrow is black-fletched, perhaps the reason a hunter would bother to shoot a raven in the first place. Needless fancy, when goose feathers fly straight and true, and afterwards one can eat the goose besides. But the shaft of the arrow is wood, the same as any other, and easily snapped. The raven writhes and croaks, miserable, pained, and blood dampens Hob's hands as he pulls the broken arrow from its seat. He can see the white flash of bone, and the blood that slicks the ground turns dark as the loam of the earth under the rising moon.

"Christ's nails," he says, and the raven turns its head, its eye a perfect, black little button, its mouth open and panting. It makes no attempt to flee, not by wing and not by foot. The ravens in London are uncommonly clever, he thinks -- perhaps this is one of them, blown far off course. Perhaps it senses that he tries to help.

He has no healing salves, nor needle and thread to try and stitch the wound closed, and no knowledge of birds' wings, besides. But he has his tunic, worn but clean. Hob takes up his knife from his hip, and begins to cut long strips from the bottom of his tunic, until he has a loose coil of woolen cloth, and a hole that bares his belly to winter's bite. Gooseflesh raises on every inch of his arms, and he shivers.

"This is my only tunic," he tells the raven. "I hope it brings you some comfort." He puts back his knife, and peels the raven's wing apart from its body, stretching out the pinions full and beautiful, long and slender as fingers. Blood oozes sluggishly from the wound and, one-handed, Hob begins to wind the strip of wool around the shape of the raven's wing, tight as he dares, until red spots it through, but, at least, no longer waters the barren earth.

When he ties off the cloth, the raven yanks its wing back, and tilts its head at Hob. Birds cannot have expressions, but if he were to label it so, he would say the thing was confused. Alarmed. Considering.

Then it shakes its sleek little head, the ruffed beard at its throat puffing out. When it croaks, it almost sounds like a word.

Name, the raven rasps. Name, name, and Hob laughs.

"Funny little thing," he says. "You've spent much time around humans, then. Maybe you are one of London's ravens. Hob Gadling is my name, for what good it does me. If the winter gets much colder, it will accompany me to my grave. No coin for food, nor clothes, nor nails to patch the king's cottage." His laughter turns bitter in his mouth, and he cuts it off before it can become a scream, or worse, a sob. "But I can help a raven. If I do nothing else in this life, I can do a few kindnesses before I go. To make up for all the men I've killed."

The raven tilts its head, back and forth, and back and forth. It fluffs out its feathers, and rights itself upon the ground. It's a fine-looking bird, he thinks. Thin, but so beautifully feathered that one can hardly tell at first glance. The down of its chest and wing had been softer than a woman's breast, and Hob thinks of his straw mattress, and his cold, thin blanket, and wonders if the raven will make it through the night.

"I'd keep you, if you'd let me," he offers, feeling foolish for speaking so candidly to a wild bird. The raven blinks its liquid eyes at him. "The nights are longer and lonelier than ever, and I've no wife to warm me at home. But a raven is a fine companion. And I've got some bread and salt beef left that I can share." He offers it his wrist, expecting nothing.

When the bird steps lightly up, spreading out its wings to balance, he feels some small ember kindle in his breast.

"All right," he says, and dares to try and stroke the raven's throat with his finger. It tolerates him for a moment, seeming as surprised as Hob, and then snips at him with its beak. "Cheeky thing. Pretty thing. Will you be mine, then?"

The raven tilts its dear little head. Blood has oozed through the bandage around its wing, a startling red exclamation against off-white wool.

Mine, it croaks. Mine.

And Hob laughs, and tucks the little thing against his chest to shield it from the wind. His axe he leaves buried to its haft in cold soil. He will return come morning to fetch it. For now, he will make do with the wood he's chopped, and hope it burns the night through. If not for his sake, then for the raven.

And if he passes in the night from cold, well. He hopes the raven makes use of him then, too. It would only be fitting.

The stars are falling still, when Hob trudges through the darkened woods towards his cottage. They gleam like specks of dew on morning grass; they fall like snowflakes in the depths of winter, and in the raven's eyes they reflect in silver splendor, a dozen times refracted into an endless night-blooming sky.

#dreamling #the crane wife #hob gadling #dream of the endless #ask response #the sandman #fanfic

209 notes · View notes

gomzdrawfr · 4 months

Text

Dragon!Price x Corvid!Raven AU

This brainrot has tAKEN OVER MY HEAD I SWEAR

bonus + some story if you're interested

bonus

okay so, the idea is that Raven is...predominantly a Raven hybrid(LMAO) but I figured to incorporate some of the Crow and Magpie habits into her

Basically, Raven's been travelling around after she was nearly killed by her kind(hence the scar on her face and the single wing - also a tribute to her actual lore where her back was stabbed), barely able to survive until she stumbled upon Price's den, and WOAH THATS A LOTTA GOLD

so it started off small, where she steals some gold, just enough to survive the week, but then the curiosity grew and she finds herself back to the den, over and over again

I mean there's so much more than just gold coins, there was a bunch of other treasures alike and they're all. so. shiny.

How could she resist?

and so day by day, she explores the den, it's absolutely massive, sometimes she might even slide down those piles of coins for fun

one day a glint caught her attention, it looked like a porcelain pale owl mask, and when she tries it on it was a perfect fit, she kept it afterwards.

the owner of the den seemingly never once appeared no matter how long she waited, and so she assumes it was a long lost forgotten treasure someone had.

she didnt had the intention to steal everything no, in all honestly the den was located somewhere far and dark, and it was only accessible by a very small hole that she squeezed herself through in her full bird form.

it was a safe place to stay and so she did.

until one day when she on her usual walk and picking up a crown that the pile of gold coins shifted, and it reveals......

bright orange scales.

and an eye, which opened once the gold coins stopped.

little did she know, the owner of the den, Dragon!Price has been hibernating beneath the treasures, and now he was awaken by a pesky bird.

YES think about that one scene in Hobbit this was 100% inspired by it

some Dragon!Price hc in this au:

used to take part in battles and territorial fights, which results in many scars, especial the one in his left eyes, one of those fight eventually results him to lost a wing(yes, bluegiragi with their single wing Price for credit)

prefer to be in his hybrid form where his half human half dragon, because being a big lizard boy takes up hella space and hard to satiate his hunger

but he does hibernate as a dragon cuz well he's home, and it feels great to be weighted down by all his treasures

very greedy, if he wants something he'll get it, also dragon hoarding tendencies

havent thought about this but I reckon this so call "den" is just a big hole underneath a castle maybe - ah well just yoinking Hobbit's Lonely Mountain

also possessive :]

Raven herself has shiny fur...and he loves shiny too....so..... :p

24 notes · View notes

themirokai · 10 months

Text

Hey there Emotional Support Raven fans. It's been a while without Matthew content from me. But after a big ol' writing slump, I'm back! This started as a quickie ficlet to break my creative log jam, and while it's still pretty short (~1,400 words) and pretty silly and pretty rough around the edges (no beta!) I'm actually kind of fond of it and I hope you enjoy it.

Inspiration included a post I can no longer find about birds with leg bands being more successful at reproduction, this post about magpies, @mashumaru's love of hooded crows, and her help on this post and subsequent patience with my inane questions via DM. Thanks, friend!

Not much Dream in this one, it's more of a Matthew adventure. I hope you enjoy!

The thing was, the crow looked really sad and for better or for worse, Matthew had a tender heart.

“Matthew,” Lord Morpheus had said to him, “a pod of undinės wishes to give me a gift in celebration of the summer solstice.”

“Do I want to know what a ‘pod of undinės’ is?”

“A group of rusalka.” Lord Morpheus had blinked. “Mermaids. More or less.”

Mermaids. Sure. It was far from the weirdest thing Matthew had seen since becoming the Raven of the Dreaming.

“While I am grateful to them,” Lord Morpheus had continued, “I cannot leave the Dreaming on the night the gift must be bestowed. You will go to the waking world and convey my heartfelt thanks, as well as my apologies for not being able to attend myself, and you will receive the gift on my behalf then return with it.”

“Convey thanks, give apologies, get gift, come back. Got it, Boss.”

Which was how Matthew had found himself alighting on the shore of a large lake in Lithuania to the sound of ethereal singing. The undinės were jaw-droppingly beautiful, and completely naked except where they were artfully covered by their long, flowing hair. Matthew noted with a flick of interest that the sight didn’t seem to have the same effect on him as he suspected it would have, were he still human. What did get him excited was one of the undinės presenting him with a very shiny blue shell, and telling him that it was just for him to keep. Matthew gratefully clutched it in one of his claws.

When it was his turn to talk, Matthew was quite proud of himself for listing at least five of the Boss’s titles in his introduction, and the undinės seemed perfectly satisfied with his thanks and his apology. One of them brought forward a glowing pink flower with a blossom nearly half the size of Matthew’s body. Each petal was shaped like a small fern and was an ombre of blush pink near the center to fuschia at the tips. She explained that it was a fern flower: a symbol of fertility that can only be harvested during the summer solstice. The undinės wished to present it to the Shaper of Forms in celebration of the fact that his kingdom was once again fertile ground for dreams.

Matthew gently took the stalk in his beak, gave a low bow to the undinės, and took off.

He had been about to fly up into the Dreaming when he saw the hooded crow hunched miserably at the base of a tree. Matthew knew this was not his problem. Knew that he had more than enough to deal with in the Dreaming without involving himself in the issues of waking world birds. But, well, there was nothing for it. He was a softy. The flower was glowing just as gamely as when it was handed to him: it seemed like it would keep.

Matthew swooped down to land in front of the crow, and gently put the fern flower down so he could speak.

“Hey. Are you okay?”

The crow blinked at him. “Are you real?”

Matthew shrugged his wings. He was used to this reaction from other birds. “I’m a dream, but I’m a real dream. I’m really here and I’m really talking to you, and I didn’t come from your imagination.”

“Oh.” The crow blinked at the fern flower. “What’s that? It’s shiny.”

“Magical solstice flower that some mermaids wanted to gift to my boss. King of Dreams. Don’t worry about it. Are you okay? You just looked… really not okay.”

The crow studied the fern flower for another moment then looked back at Matthew and heaved a sigh, letting his head droop further. “I’m hideous.”

Matthew cocked his head to the side. The crow… looked like a normal hooded crow: black head, wings, and tail, gray body. Nothing out of the ordinary. “Um.”

The crow held out his leg. Secured around his ankle was a tiny box on a black band.

“Oh!” Matthew gasped. “Did humans put that on you?”

The crow nodded.

“Does it hurt? Did they hurt you when they put it on?” Matthew felt anger bubbling in his chest.

“No, it doesn’t hurt,” the crow sighed.

Oh. Matthew took a breath. “Is it uncomfortable at all?”

The crow shook his head. “I mostly don’t feel it.”

“Does it make it harder to fly or walk?”

The crow gave another mournful sigh. “No.”

Matthew blinked. “Sooo, what’s the problem?”

“It’s ugly!” the crow cried. “Garagalar has been getting all the girls! The humans gave him a green band! Everyone just loves Garagalar’s green band! It’s so pretty! It’s so shiny! And - and this one just looks like - like a blah! Like I have an ugly, bumpy leg!”

Matthew - somehow - managed to swallow down his laughter before it emerged. “Let me guess, Garagalar is being a real dick about it too.”

“If he strutted any harder he’d dislocate a hip,” the crow grumbled, drawing a claw through the dirt.

Matthew did let himself chuckle at that. “Well, I’m not sure I can do anything about Garagalar and his strutting, but I can probably help you get that thing off.”

The crow perked up. “Really?”

“Sure thing. Happy to help.” Matthew let go of the blue shell he had been grasping in his claw and stepped gingerly over the fern flower to get closer. “Let’s see it.��

The crow held out his foot and Matthew inspected the plastic band.

“What’s your name, anyway, pal?”

“Cartagrawk. What’s yours?”

“I’m Matthew. Nice to meet you Cartagrawk.”

“Matthew? That’s a weird name.”

“Yeah,” Matthew agreed, “it’s a long story. Now, I think I can probably just bite this thing. My beak’s pretty strong.”

It took some maneuvering so that Matthew could bite the plastic without hurting Cartagrawk’s leg, and even then he wasn’t able to bite right through, but after a few minutes he was able to put a crack in the plastic and loosen it enough that Cartagrawk could work his foot out of the loop.

“Caw! Thank you!” Cartagrawk gave an excited flap of his wings.

Matthew fluffed up his neck feathers with pride. “You’re welcome.”

Cartagrawk looked out into the forest. “Garagalar will probably still get all the girls with that stupid green band of his. But at least I’ve got more of a chance this way.”

Matthew cocked his head. “Maybe we can give you an even better chance…” he looked down at the fern flower still glowing on the ground. “This thing has something to do with fertility…” Matthew picked up the flower in his beak and gave it a gentle shake over Cartagrawk’s head and back.

Cartagrawk shook his feathers and drew himself up taller. Maybe it was a trick of the light but it did seem like his feathers had more of a shine to them.

Matthew put down the flower and pushed the shiny blue shell closer to Cartagrawk. “Save that for someone special,” Matthew told him.

Cartagrawk’s beak fell open. “Really? You’re giving that to me? It’s beautiful!”

Matthew nodded. “Yeah, I don’t need it. And you have some serious wooing to do.”

“Wow! Thank you! How can I ever repay you?”

“Eh, ya know, pay it forward. Help out someone in need down the line. And don’t let Garagalar throw you off your game.”

“I will! I mean - I won’t! I mean - I will and I won’t!” Cartagrawk was hopping with excitement.

If he had still been human, Matthew would have grinned. “Nice to meet you, Cartagrawk. Good luck out there.”

Matthew gently picked up the fern flower and leapt into the air.

“I hope,” Lord Morpheus said as he took the fern flower from Matthew’s beak, “that you will not make a habit of using unfamiliar magical objects for your own devices, Matthew.”

Matthew could tell he wasn’t mad, not really. He resettled his wings. “There’s no devices, Boss. Just helping out a fellow corvid. One who got screwed by some humans.”

“Be that as it may, had this been something more powerful or nefarious things could have gone badly both for you and the crow.”

“Well,” Matthew said, shifting his weight from foot to foot. “I figured you wouldn’t have sent me by myself to carry the flower home in my beak if it was dangerous.”

“Hm.” Lord Morpheus pulled a glass bell jar out of thin air and placed the fern flower inside. “Your reasoning is not unsound. And the act was kindly done. Come.” He extended his hand and Matthew hopped on to be transferred to Lord Morpheus’s shoulder. “I believe Lucienne and Jessamy would enjoy seeing this.”

Together, they set out for the Library.

------

I hope any bird experts will excuse inaccuracies in hooded crow behavior and bird banding technology. Thanks for reading!

If you're new to the series (or if you're not) you can find my master post of all the Emotional Support Raven stories and fan art here.

#matthew the emotional support raven #matthew the raven #the sandman #the sandman netflix #dream of the endless #miro does sandman #mirokai writes

85 notes · View notes

pawtisserie-0022 · 11 months

Text

💙Obey Me Headcannons + OC💙

Lucifer

He has a peacock tail in demon form and I refuse to believe otherwise

He preens his wings regularly but you'll often find his black feathers littering the House of Lamentations during certain parts of the year

He resists the urge to pet every dog he sees, big dogs? Yes. Little dogs? Yes, he likes all dogs but Cerberus is his favorite ofc

Sometimes you'll find him outside after he's finished with his work in the late hours of the night, seemingly talking to himself, but it feels more like he's talking to the Moon

Mammon

Surrender all of your shinies to him immediately he wants all of them, that a new shiny bracelet? It's his now. New sparkly necklace? Gone. Pretty hair clip you go recently? Do you even need to ask

He has a shiny object from all of his brothers as a keepsake, even one from Satan, who knows how he got it

Kleptomania™ your items are not safe

HATES magpies, he doesn't know why he just doesn't like magpies. He thinks they're jerks

Leviathan

When he found out about the existence of Hatsune Miku trough a Ruri-Chan collab he became a Miku fan too (Ruri-Chan is still forever tho)

Handcrafted cosplays out the wahzoo, expert craftsmanship, Asmodeus seems to really like this side of him

He made his own Ruri-Chan plushie, spent like 3 days on it because everything had to be perfect

You WILL cosplay with him, no ifs, ands or buts, PUT ON THE DRESS.

Satan

All of his bookmarks are cat themed or cat related

Sebastian Michaelis' best friend™

Sometimes, he has an inexplicable urge to bask in daylight for seemingly no actual reason other than it seems like a really appealing, sometimes he'll join Belphegor when he's sleeping in the sun

If you throw a cucumber at him he'll jump at least 5 feet into the air before yelling at you

Asmodeus

Owns an abhorrent amount of makeup, all of which will be going on your face

Who needs acrylic nails with claws like that? Girl bye

Unironically listens to Barbie Girl while doing his makeup, everyone can hear it in the morning,

He's a Mettaton kinnie trough and trough, he's got the glamor, the confidence, the bloodlust, the power, I wouldn't be surprised if he owned a pair of thigh hight hot pink heeled boots

Beelzebub

A very large, hungry, affectionate puppy

When he found out that humans make popcorn bags almost the size of a full grown man he BEGGED Lucifer to please get one for the next movie night

He got his popcorn in the end and was extremely happy about it, insert happy bear noises here

He likes looking at the Stars, they make him feel happy whenever he's alone, and finds comfort in watching them before he goes to sleep

Belphegor

Sometimes he'll have dreams of everyone together back in the Celestial Realm. They make him sad after he wakes up knowing it was just a dream but he enjoys them while they last.

Hypersomnia™

Wanna see someone get dragged like a ragdoll from one class to another while they're sleeping?

Always drinks a glass of warm milk before sleeping for like a week straight, good luck waking him up unless someone is literally dying

Yingpei

"MC please sit dOWN-"

Please stop giving him heart attacks for three seconds he can only handle so much at a time-

He doesn't understand any typical human slang, living in a village cut off from most of society turns out to disconnect someone from from your typical human being

There's something off about him sometimes, as if he knows more then he should for someone supposedly so disconnected from regular people, strangely enough, Lucifer seems to trust him, Solomon fears him to an extent

Adorable borders can be found here!

(ignore the tags)

73 notes · View notes