"And I know it's true that visions are seldom all they seem... but if I know you, I know what you'll do..." (x)
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New Dog's Life chapter today! ~ 3rd Life series fan-season
Chapter 29 - “Melt (Jimmy, Pearl, Sniff)”
❤️ Read on AO3
💛 Start from Chapter 1
💚 More Pixels Imperfect fics
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Jimmy's NOT about to lose this game. He takes the slimes' turf war banner where no one will ever find it... outside New Star Station's perimeter. Meanwhile, Pearl and Rhetoric visit Mumbo's flat to borrow his llamas. Scar and SnifferMyFeet unwind after a long evening of glitchy code.
(First 1,000 words under the cut)
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SolidarityGaming - Canary (Ex-Cockatiel)
Status: Not losing
Event planner & health teacher at New Star Station Education building
🖤 🧡 💚
They'll never find him. Never, ever, in a billion years. Jimmy muffles his giggles in the crook of his sleeve, snuggling up in the sky blue wrinkles of his jacket. Overworld's sky, anyway. Voices echo outside the cave, half drowned in the noise of the moat from up the hill…
This is fun. Everyone's looking for him. They think they'll catch him - think he'll make a mistake - but they're not going to win. Nah, not him. It's like playing Decked Out all over again, except this time he's without Tango or Etho shouting encouragement in his ears. Jimmy wedges his shoulders back against the bedrock blocks, keeping every breath slow and even. His fingers curl more tightly around the banner in his hand. It's blue and green, marking slime territory. It's not a real rule about borders and where different species can go. Everyone's just having fun. It's a game. It's a point system. It's currency. It's play.
And I'm winning. He's staying alive. He's not getting caught; he's not the first one out. He hunkers in his long-legged ball of limbs, fluttering his wings, and listens with a tight-lipped smirk to the people walking around outside.
"Do you think he's hiding in Tango's room?"
"They'll be exes by morning, then. Can you imagine walking in on your blaze boyfriend with a slime border flag? What do you do- Thump it in front of the toilet so he can't use it this month? 'Babe, c'mon! Don't be like that!'"
Uproarious laughter. Jimmy breathes softly in his sleeves, smiling only to himself. It's not his place right now to correct them on the whole "boyfriend" thing. See, they'd catch him then. That's how he'd lose the game. He stays on the other side of the bedrock wall, rolling his thumb across the banner wool.
"Maybe they had a fight," chimes in a third voice. "Maybe Jimmy wants to bother Tango. Maybe he's breaking up with him."
"Didn't see him with a token tonight."
"I don't think he's seeing anyone."
New voice: "Yeah, he- I guess he thinks he'll be waking up betrothed any day now. Urges must be getting pretty serious. Not sure why he bothers, though. The chances his partner's in New Star must be astronomical."
"Didn't he use to date the mayor?"
Jimmy's fingers twitch. He doesn't open his eyes. Doesn't answer. He is winning this game, no matter what they say about him. It's the most important thing in the world. Everything pulsing in him is screaming for it. To burrow. To win. To stand up and fight, though he's trying to keep that urge tamped down.
"I think ZombieCleo's dating him now."
"Yeah, what happened to his ex? Wasn't he married to a bat girl?"
"I think so- I heard they divorced." The voices start moving away, heading farther along the border road. Someone kicks a rock. It bounces, smacking, and the last speaker lifts their voice again. "Say he is in Tango's room. Does that mean we own the turf all the way out here?"
"If it does, he's wrecked the borders. It's going to be a pain to manage a huge spike in the path."
The words fade out. Jimmy loosens his grip on his limbs, breathing deeper breaths. His foot comes down with a thump, heel pressed tight to bedrock. He unfolds his wings. The banner's soft and squishy in his hand. He gets off the block he's been sitting on and starts to stretch. It's dark in the cave, even with his brightness settings turned all the way up. But…
… It doesn't look so dangerous. Scott always made it sound, well… like this place was a death pit crawling with mobs. Jimmy turns his head, gazing farther up the path. He's definitely win the turf war if he took the slime flag all the way up there. The other slime hybrids are fussy tonight, but they'll appreciate this when everything is said and done. War isn't about who's right, but about who's left, isn't it? And there aren't any mobs. Jimmy pulls his britches up a little higher for the show of it, sticking his thumbs in the waistband. He's got the belt, though he could really use a cowboy hat and some boots with spurs. It's too bad Ranger's off the clock tonight. It'd be fun to get a little recording done.
Every step he takes up the bedrock path sends a shower of bedrock down behind him. It isn't steep, though sometimes it's easier to grip the walls and pull himself along that way. Luckily he has wings. His aren't too big. The tunnel's narrow, but flapping them helps him keep his balance. He wrinkles his nose, crumpled fingers pinching, and moves step by step up the path. At one point his foot skids. His hand scrapes the wall- he nearly lands on his wings. Jimmy hisses. He adjusts himself, bracing his palm against his knee, and starts moving again. And you know why?
"I'm not going out first. I have to do this. They're never going to find me now."
The cave doesn't smell damp or moldy. It's quite dry, actually. Almost unnaturally so. No dripstone. Jimmy listens for throaty witch cackles, ravager grunts, or passing wardens. None echo back at him. Maybe they're not real. Only the whirr of the bullet path. It hums and crackles with snapping white energy. Leaping. Guzzling. I didn't know the bullet path reached all the way out here. Is this a different one?
It only takes a minute or two of walking before he's at the top of the bedrock path. The ceiling's not as high as he'd like it to be, but it's high enough. The cave glows. The bullet path gushes, spraying data stream particles in the air, and rubs against its banks. There are no rocks in its center. Nothing but pure, empty energy. Jimmy takes every step with smothered breaths, dangling the slime flag from his hand.
4. What’s a word that makes you go absolutely feral?
36. They say to Write What You Know. Setting aside for a moment the fact that this is terrible advice...what do you Know?
Hi Rae! Thanks for the ask. These are fun!
4. What’s a word that makes you go absolutely feral?
Ooof. Irregardless. Like, setting aside the “sounds fake but okay” of it all… While it is technically an actual word, this clumsy, ridiculous double-negative mess means the exact same thing without the discordant “ir-”. Which is nonsensical! Just say “regardless”! But wait, what’s that? Most people who use this word actually think it means the opposite?
I just, I can’t.
36. They say to Write What You Know. Setting aside for a moment the fact that this is terrible advice...what do you Know?
I don’t actually think it’s always terrible advice! You certainly shouldn’t be constricted to writing what you know, or let it limit the stories you tell. But I think there’s a lot to be said for bringing some aspect of your own knowledge or history or experience into what you write, as long as it’s used as a tool to strengthen characters and serve the story.
But to actually answer the question… I know birds. African and South American parrots, specifically. Is that weird? My dad was a breeder for my whole childhood, and I basically grew up in an aviary. He specialized in Congo and Timneh Greys (and for a long time was the go-to Grey breeder in the country), but Meyers, Senegals, Caiques, Capes, Indian and African Ringnecks, Amazons, whatever. You name it, we raised it. We belonged to a regional bird club that had meetings and shows. I learned how to handfeed baby birds at 11. We all had our own pets — my mom had Poncho, who was exactly like every African Grey you’ve ever seen a special on, my sister had a peachface lovebird, Romeo, and I had my childhood cockatiel, Tango (who was a Lutino, a big sweetheart, and a pretty good talker but loved to sing). It’s been years, but I can still tell you what dominant and recessive genes you need to pair to get a whiteface pearl pied cockatiel or an albino ringneck.
I have no idea when any of that would ever be helpful in terms of writing, but there it is.
Just finished rewatching Avatar by James Cameron ( just to refresh the old memory box and let me tell you ,nine year old me definitely did not have the mental capacity to appreciate said movie) and I'm just over here buzzing with a new au for the hermits/empires crew and if you can't already tell it's 100% inspired by said movie.
The Hermits and emperors would be like the Na'vi while the watchers/listeners would take the place of the "sky people"/humans.
Grian, Jimmy, and Pearl would be the three with Avatars known as Shells who are sent down as spies for the watchers and listeners in order to gain information on how to take what they want from this new strange plant/server. In this au the watchers and listeners don't refer to what they are but to what they are allowed to know about combat by the void. The Void is the compound in which they work for whose main mission is to find planets with powerful energy sources so that they can take it and sell it to the highest bidder.
Jugavians are what the hermits and emperors species will be called and they are a bird like race that can't fly without the help of elytra ,another native species to Hermpier. Jugavians are tall beings with large eyes ,winglike ears, tails that fan out with feathers at the end with a pair of small wings on it right before it fans out, and a large blue gem in the center of their chests (lapis). They are generally kind and welcoming people but ever since the takers appeared have become suspicious and aggressive. Jugavians are all one species with the type of birds they are based off of as different types of subspecies.
Shells are the lab grown Void versions of Jugavians made specifically for their hosts in order to gain the trust of the jugavians so that they can figure out their weaknesses and take what they want. They appear to be exactly like jugavians but are missing the pair of wings that can be found on the tails of real jugavians.
Down below is a list of all the hermits and emperors. I've already decided what birds some of them would be based off of as well as the roles Grian Jimmy and Pearl each have working for the void. I'm open to suggestions for anyone without an assigned bird already. I'll also be drawing up an example for what Jugavians look like.
Grian: Watcher: Head researcher and the one who picked both Jimmy and Pearl to be part of project Shell. He has some combat experience due to his watcher status. Is twin brothers with Jimmy. His shell is a, you guessed it, Red Macaw variant.
Jimmy: Listener: one of the few Negotiators working within The Void. As a listener he isn't really allowed to know combat other than the bare minimum. Twin brother of Grian and is actually the younger of the two. His shell is a Canary variant.
Pearl: Watcher: Pearl is a soldier and the cousin of both Grian and Jimmy. As a soldier she has the most combat experience of the three and is meant to protect both Grian and Jimmy while they do their jobs. Her shell is a Snow owl variant.
In general, it's hard to determine your cockatiel's gender with 100% accuracy.
There are some signs that your tiel might be male or female, but in most cases, it's just a guess. Two giveaways of gender are if the cockatiel is singing a lot and mimicking sounds, which would make the tiel most likely male. Or if the cockatiel lays an egg, which 100% confirms the tiel as female. If the cockatiel doesn’t lay an egg, all you can do is look for signs and hope you get the gender right or go to an avian vet and let them do a DNA test.
It’s also important to keep in mind that some cockatiels may appear female as babies but lose their female appearance after their first molting.
Below you can see two picture of my Boy Bode at the age of 6 months.
As you can see, he wears a pearl kind of feathery outfit. He looks very much like his mother. Soon after he sadly lost his cute baby tiel looks and started puberty.
Now he's wearing his male feather fit.
Here’s a link if you want to get a bit deeper into the topic of sexing your Tiel
All in all we can only guess the gender of our tiels. So if the tiel doesn't lay eggs the best way to get an accurate answer is to go to an avian vet.
Ochre-backed Woodpecker vs Wilson's Bird-of-Paradise
sources under cut
Ochre-backed Woodpecker Propaganda
"like if a cockatiel was a woodpecker, except only the males have the cheek patches. these are one of the "pikachu" woodpeckers, but i particularly like these for the pearled look of their back and wing feathers"
This species was split from the blond-crested woodpecker in 2011. Because of this recent split and their more remote location, not much is known about the species itself. They do seem to nest in arboreal ant nests by carving out their own cavity.
Wilson's Bird-of-Paradise Propaganda
"bald in a way that looks like stained glass with a curly tail"
To add to the colorful visage, the male of this species also has spectacularly emerald green plumage along his throat and chest. This patch of feathers is used during the mating display, where the male will perch beneath the female on a branch and flash his green collar up at her, hoping to dazzle her with the display. Here's a nice video of the display.
I did not name him, he actually acquired the name from my sister, who has a very large cockatiel following while she was raising babies. Smaug is one of the names her followers voted for the babies, along with Gemme and Chicken Nugget!
Gemme is the darker baby girl, and Chicken nugget was even more pearl than Smaug was:
I dug this photo up from when my sister was first raising them! Smaug has always been proud of his wings.