#birds are jerks

[cheapsweets]

The stately Raggfong

My response to this week's BestiaryPosting challenge, from @maniculum

Once more, I ask you to consider, are birds jerks? The authors of medieval bestiaries seem to think, yes, they are!*

Initial pencil sketch for the proportions, then Sailor fude nib fountain pen for the inking, with Rohrer & Klingner Sepia ink, on A5 paper (90gsm).

I'd already determined that for the next bird that came up, I wanted to try putting more detail on the feathers; unfortunately I fear this may have gotten in the way a little, as it makes it more difficult to see the chicks the Raggfong is holding in each of it's claws. Hopefully what I was trying to achieve comes across enough! :D

*except for coots; coots, apparently, are awesome.

Reasoning below the cut, as per usual...

"The Raggfong is so called because of the sharpness of its eyes, for it is said to be of such keen vision that it glides above the sea on unmoving wings, out of human sight, yet from such a height sees small fish swimming below and, swooping down like a missile thrown from a siege engine, it seizes its prey on the wing and carries it to land."

- That's quite some description already! My first thought was of some kind of dragon, soaring high above the seas, except that a) we've already had a dragon, and b) the description later states that we're talking about a bird. I tried to make its eye nice and big, to represent it's sharp vision, and we have the suggestion of waves down below (and a very worried looking medieval fishie...!).

"When the Raggfong grows old, however, its wings grow heavy, and its eyes grow dim. Then it seeks out a spring and, turning away from it, flies up into the atmosphere of the sun; there it sets its wings alight and, likewise, burns off the dimness in its eyes in the sun’s rays. Descending at length, it immerses itself in the spring three times; immediately it is restored to the full strength of its wings, the former brightness of its eyes." - This is all cool, but I couldn't work out how best to represent this without detracting from what else I wanted to do with it.

"It is also said of the Raggfong that it exposes its young to the sun’s rays, holding them in its claws in mid-air. If any of them, struck by the light beating down from the sun, maintains a fearless gaze without damaging its sight, this is taken as proof that it has shown itself true to its nature. But if the young bird turns its eyes away from the rays, it is rejected as unworthy of its kind and of such a father and, being unworthy of being begotten, it is considered unworthy of being reared."

- The Raggfong definitely seems to be an ocean bird; it doesn't read like a hawk, which confused me a bit at first, since how is it grabbing things (including its chicks) with webbed feet? However, after a little research I found that some waterbirds (including coots!) have lobate feet; lobes of skin on either side of the toes that expand when it swims, but probably wouldn't get in the way when it held things. I wasn't able to include enough detail to show this, but cool fact nontheless.

The legs were based on an osprey (just in terms of managing to hold something within its claws), and the general body shape and wings on a cormorant (mostly because I could find reasonably good references!)

We can see the Raggfong holding up two of its chicks, one in each claw; the one on the left of the picture stares defiantly at the sun (I'm not convinced this will help its keen vision...), but the one on the right of the picture is more sensible and is looking away... :(

"The Raggfong condemns it not in a harsh manner but with the honesty of a judge."

- Birds. Are. Jerks. :p

"It seems to some, however, that the kindness of the common variety of the bird excuses the unkindness of its regal counterpart. The ordinary bird is called [redacted], coot; in Greek, [redacted]. Taking up the young Raggfong, abandoned or unacknowledged, the coot adds it to its brood, making it one of the family, with the same maternal devotion as it shows to its own young, and feeds and nourishes the young Raggfong and its own brood with equal attention."

- The description of the Raggfong as 'regal' informed how I approached the head. I wanted to make it at least a little fancy, and considered a variety of options (including long, flowy eyebrows - and even a lyrebird/bird of paradise inspired tail before realising that would decidedly get in the way of catching fish) before I settled on a grebe-inspired crest, loosely resembling a crown.

Now coots, I know what they look like! In the bottom right we see a parent coot with three of its babies, as well as a young Raggfong it adopted. Its nice to know that some of these bestiary entries have a happy ending!

As an aside, I haven't managed to capture exactly how scrungly baby coots look; they are absolutely delightful! :D

[lullaby1000]

I miss him

[kedreeva]

[video description: a brown colored peahen stands on the camera person's lap, beeping softly. The camera person holds out a small breast feather from the bird, and asks "can I put it on your head?" in a soft voice. The bird tips her head as if considering, and the second time she is asked, the bird holds still and allows the feather to be placed upon her head. She holds still with it there until the camera person says "yayyy." The feather floats down and the bird follows the movement with her head until it lands on the camera person's lap]

Bug is very tolerant of my shenanigans.

[itstopplingdomino]

paper bird | fred weasley x reader

In which Fred Experimentalist Weasley convinces you to test his products and you, owed him a debt, reluctantly agrees. You don't get along with him but being in his debt is more irritating than his presence. Well, it's just testing products.. then he'll be out of your sight.

tags: gn!reader (usage of 'you' instead of specific pronouns), usage of pet/nicknames, strong language/cursing, potion mishaps, light angst, developing friendships.

"Ugh! What did you put in that? That tasted disgusting! " You cover your mouth, trying to suppress a gag. A moment ago you downed a bright yellow potion that is supposed to make you incapable of uttering any negative words; supposedly your subconscious will replace it with a nicer version of it.

Clearly it is not working.

"Another failure.." Fred says as he hovers over the cauldron. He takes the quill that's tucked neatly behind hIs ears and began to jot down something on his book. He mutters absentmindedly, "I wonder if I put too much Troll's snot-"

"YOU PUT WHAT?!"

You stand rigidly with your hands in fists, true disgust creeping up your spine as you watch the red-head idiot pretends he didn't just make you drink something awful.

But as he turns away, you could see his shoulder shakes.

This little shite.

He turns around wearing a shit-eating grin, taking in your red face and goosebumps along your arms with delight.

"Come on, I'll lose customers if I use ingredients like that." He says with a shrug.

You roll your eyes in chagrin. Ohh, one of these days he's going to get it.

"Whatever. Consider the debt's paid, Weasley. I've drank three potions, ate fifteen different pastries, and swallowed a pill. I am surprised I haven't vomited once the past two hours. What with your inventions tastes extremely-" You felt a hiccup coming but didn't quite release it.

Horrible.

"-unique." Huh? You try again, "I mean, tastes extremely-" Another rising hiccup that didn't pass. "-interesting."

You stand by the desk, confused, head tilted to the side as your eyebrow knits downward.

Fred looks up, eyes sparkling brighter than a muggle's fireworks. He ran to you and shakes you by the shoulder, "IT WORKS!"

Fuck. Great.

"How wonderful." You spat. Though the potion's effect makes your tone sounds sweet as if you are as happy as the creator of this potion. You shrug off his gripping hands. "How long will the effect last?"

Fred takes his book, forgotten for a moment on the floor, and flips through the pages. "Hm.. about an hour or two? Frankly I'm not sure," He shuts the book, a smug smile plastered on his face. "But that's what you're here for. I'll hang around you until the effect disappears."

"What? Not sure? It's your-" damn "-potion!" You hissed, yet again the potion's effect ensures your tone as soft as fwooper feather pillows.

"To be fair, you agreed to test it out. That includes finding out how long the effect lasts.." Fred raises his hands in surrender.

"Ugh. Fine." You say with the 'Ugh' sounding a little too close to Aww.

ꕀ ꕀ ꕀ

Gossiping has never been an interest of yours. There isn't anything worthwhile listening to anyway. All rumours bred from the same genre; romance - who's seeing whom, who had their heartbroken by whom, who's the most eligible dating partner, who's the most eligible sleeping partner, and the list goes on..

As you are stuck with the older Weasley twin, his younger twin (the one you could tolerate better) inconveniently away, you are drag into Fred Weasley's social life.

Which basically consists of bro-ly greeting between his quidditch mates, extorting money teasing the younger students and generally being friendly to everyone else.. Well, obnoxious Slytherins aside.

That's why currently you stand awkwardly behind him as he sips the latest 'dating theory', as he calls it, from three Gryffindor girls whose name you don't know - two blondes and one black-haired. Pretty sure they shares some classes as you but none of them ever exchange greetings with you and you aren't exactly the social butterfly of your year.

Obviously that title belongs to Fred Weasley.

"So.." Blonde One begins, "Who will you ask out this time..? I'm free for a night. I'm sure Andrew won't mind.."

Ah.. it's like that, huh.

Her friend, Blonde Two, lightly shove her. "You're terrible. How about me, Freddie? I learnt tricks from a scandalous muggle book. It doesn't have to be serious.."

The three of them giggles now. Quite honestly the sound is sickening. Personally what people get up to in their own time is no business of yours, like how some needs requires satisfaction, but you rather be spared from the details- and the proposition of it.

"Honoured, truly." Fred lets out a chuckle, albeit you could hear the slight waver at the end. Whether it's from nervousness at the prospect of potential three way, or the uncomfortableness of it, you can't tell. He continues, a bowing a little, feigning chivalry. "But you know I have rules; no taken ones and certainly no one my dear friend fancies."

"Ugh, if only Lee knows when to shut up.." She sighs.

Then Fred gives them an excuse, something about meeting Professor McGonagall for transfiguration assignment; which you actually knows he had finished and submitted the hour before you two met.

So he's uncomfortable. Interesting.

Once you two are far enough from prying ears and eyes, you ask him. "Why did you lie?"

He plays pretend.

You ask him again, with a little push. "You could just reject them, you know. What, you're afraid of hurting their feelings?"

He ignores you, choosing to point out the owls that flew outside.

Another push.

"Or did you actually want to do it with them both but couldn't agree because I'm there?"

Fred stops in his track and looks at you. His lips stretches into a false grin. Fake smiles eerily settles on his face. "How low do you think of me?"

"It was never high, Weasley."

You continue to walk past him, he follows suit.

"Alright, I'll bite." He says, falling into step with you. "The only image I care about is being the best prankster Hogwarts has ever seen. Having a threesome is no-way helpful in achieving that."

You bark out a laugh. "Please, Weasley. I think you and your twin have done enough to leave a lasting imprint as mischievous-" sods "-duo."

A groan escapes you which fuels joy for Fred. "So the potion still works.."

It's been an hour, you note.

"You know, you're a good company when you don't swear as much."

"Bold of you to assume that I want to be a good company to you in the first place."

Fred stays silent for several beats, then he stops in his tracks again forcing you to shift around to look at him when he didn't continue following you.

"I've been wondering.. what exactly do you find displeasing about me? You seem to talk to George normally. I actually didn't believe him when he said you didn't curse once at him until I saw it myself."

"Are you.. sulking..?"

Fred looks away and back. "Humour me."

"I'm not one for jokes-"

He whispers your first name in a pleading tone. The tone didn't catch you off-guard, you'd seen him use it playfully during his interactions with other students, it's the fact he uses your first name - generally preferring ill-suited nicknames he deems worthy like dear, sweetheart, and crassy (usually when you throw a lot of curses at him than usual).

It is probably the first time he ever calls you that.

You sigh, "Remember third year? You and your brother pranked me."

"Yeah, we jinxed a paper bird to peck at you. And what? You hold a grudge since then..?"

"No," You say firmly, moving to close the gap. "The pecking as annoying as it is isn't the reason. It's what happen because of the prank."

Closer now.

"That paper bird attracts the attention of a stray falcon, gods knows how it was there, and dove in to hunt it. Subsequently, attacking me too."

Fred eyes widens, "I remember.. George said you got into the Hospital wing for that. But they say you were fine?"

"I don't know where you got that information but I was in the hospital wing for the entire weekend."

A beat.

"George visited twice each day. He even brought some sweets from honeydukes and all. And you? You were nowhere. Even when I saw you in the next class, you didn't apologise. Merlin were you-" heartless "-indifferent."

He stays silent.

"Whatever. I don't resent you at all, especially not for the falcon - nobody knew it'll end up that way. But the way you act like it didn't matter if a falcon pokes out my eyes were infuriating. I just couldn't help but get angry looking at your stupid face."

Fred opens his mouth to say something but the realisation of the potion's effect no longer taking place jumps into you faster than he could get the words out so you speak first, "It's gone."

You touch your lips as if you could feel the effect physically fall off. "Fuck you," You tested, smiling at the success. "Yes! Thank fuck! Right, see you never then, Weasley."

Then you turn in your heels, speeding towards your common room. Fred remain stuck his spot as if you just casted a stunning spell on him.

Gears turning in his head and instead of the usual product ideas, he's thinking of something entirely different. He hears the door behind him opens and see a couple of first years ducking into the corridor now. He moves towards the door as he recalls back.

It amuses him that you never fall for his charms. Certainly there are others that don't, too, but that usually comes from house prejudices or blood status thing and typically if he's disliked so does George. It only piques his interest further than you laugh and smile, genuinely so, around his younger twin but rarely him.

At one point he did aim to find out, and found out he did. He isn't eased at all by the discovery of your animosity towards him. The real reason hits him harder than any bludger he took during Quidditch practices and actual matches.

Guilt trickles down and slowly enveloping him.

He groans audibly, surprising the first years that are passing by.

He looks at them with a half-smile.

Fred Weasley knows many sees him as a good friend, he's been made aware more than a couple occasions. Your crassness didn't bother him then.

But now?

Now he wants you to see him as one too.

Let's start with an apology.

--- A/N: There will be part two...

[necromancelena]

Review of the movie mayhaps?

It was really good! I'm gonna ruminate on it for the night before saying anything more in depth because i have post theater migraine though.

[burins]

like a week and a half ago @try-set-me-on-fire tagged me in several sentence sunday. it is not Sunday it's Tuesday but I finally have a little something to share bc I did a bit of writing on the plane. I read three volumes of birds of prey and am fully obsessed with the dinah/babs dynamic so here is a snippet from early on with them

The blood floats off her hands in little red streams. Dinah waits until the water is both tepid and gray before draining it all and filling the tub again.

Her back aches. One of her knuckles split on an arms dealer's jaw, and it stings in the warm water. Her hips are sore from pivoting and turning on all those kicks. She wonders what Oracle knows about pain, sitting pretty wherever she holds her base.

She doesn't even know what the woman looks like. The only piece of Oracle she has is that voice, and meanwhile Oracle has dug up secrets Dinah doesn't even know she's keeping. It's something she tries not to think about, and ends up thinking about too much, rolling it over and over in her mind like a loose molar, a little painful, a little dizzying. The Oracle in her mind looks down at her. She's got her legs crossed at the ankle, impractical heels. No muscle to her, really, just soft flesh. Not the kind of woman Dinah usually goes for. Oracle's eyes flash, like she knows what Dinah is thinking. But of course she does. She's in Dinah's head, and Dinah will never, never, be able to get into hers.

[cheapsweets]

The resolute Ilyecham

My response to this weeks Bestiary Posting challenge, from The Maniculum!

I've been vaguelly considering how to tackle this one all week (and trying to avoid seeing others' interpretations as much as possible). Again, we have a lot of behaviours, but nothing in terms of a physical description... Did the author just thing 'everyone knows what birds look like', was this just a bird that the reader was expected to be familiar with, or were they all like 'I'm not describing yet another bird... :p'?

It's a pen and ink drawing (dark sepia ink, and a sailor fude nib) over a pencil sketch; the fude nib is interesting as it's meant to give the impression of using a brush - the nib is bent to allow transition from thin to thick lines - I've got a lot of practice to go to get that transition right though (I'm tempted to try an actual brush pen for next week's challenge...)!

This time, I actually used some references! Well, I briefly glanced at some, anyhow... I feel like it has made a difference, particularly in terms of the anatomy (though there are several things I'd go back and change if I was doing this over), but I still need to work a bit more on consistency (and maybe not tackling any too-awkward perpectives...!). I had a lot of fun with this one :)

Reasoning below the cut...

"The Ilyecham is a bird armed rather with spirit than with claws, having great courage in its small body. [Etymology redacted]. For it greedily seizes other birds. [Etymology redacted.]" - So, carnivorous bird, emphasis away from it's claws... I had to double check this, but falcons kill prey with their beak (a sharply projecting 'tomial tooth' on their upper beak), whereas hawks use their claws. I tried to show this, but it's such a small details it might not be obvious. Did you know that falcons are more closely related to passerines (perching birds, like sparrows) than they are to hawks/eagles? I always find that absolutely mind-blowing :)

"It is said that the Ilyecham is lacking in parental care towards its young, for when it sees that they are able and trying to fly, it does not feed them but beats them with its wings, throws them from the nest and forces them from a tender age to catch prey for themselves lest, when they are fully grown, they should become lazy." - Hey, chalk up another one to that old adage 'birds are jerks'... I'm starting to think that bestiary authors were not the biggest birb fans... In the top right of the picture, we have a mama ilyecham pushing the baby out of the nest with her wing. Time to find your own way in the world, baby bird! I tried to distinguish the younger bird's plumage with a different pattern (spotted/dotted); the adult plumage was inspired by goshawks (I know, hawk vs falcon), more because it would show up as distinctive in black and white than any other reason.

As an aside, I really struggled with how to draw a slightly stylised bird nest!

"It takes care lest in their childhood they grow idle, or are given up to pleasure, or grow weak from inactivity, or learn to expect food rather than to seek it for themselves, or abandon their natural vigour. Ilyechams stop bothering to feed their young in order to make them bold enough to seize food for themselves." - Hang on, this is going to be some kind of inspirational virtuous animal thing, isn't is... :p I can imagine some medieval scribe writing 'and so, the ilyecham represents the cardinal virtue of fortitude' or something...

"It is the custom of Ilyechams in the wild to spread their wings when the south wind blows, so that their limbs are warmed by the wind to release their old feathers. When there is no wind, they create a breeze by spreading their wings to face the rays of the sun and beating them; and thus, as the pores of their body open, either their old plumage falls out, or new feathers grow in." - In the top left, we have an ilyecham spreading its wings, facing towards the sun, and doing just that! The feathers blowing away were fun to draw!

[angrybatgaming]

I always feel kinda bad when I see a random sitting on a bench in Sky, and my anxiety stops me from interacting with them. Either that or, like tonight, I don't plan on staying on for very long. I'm just there to do dailies and a quick candle run.

But today I had someone light candles with me and repeatedly honk at and follow me around. If I didn't have work tomorrow, I would have gladly stopped to say hello. Now I feel like an ass for walking away...

Just me being self-conscious, but are there any emotes I can use to say "I really can't stop right now"? Or is it just better to keep moving. They were attempting to follow me EVERYWHERE. At least until I apparently reached a spot they couldn't go because of the spirit gate. Maybe I should have at least stopped to see what they wanted? I dunno...

FYI I have to get up Fridays and Saturdays at 4:30 am for work. So I keep game time on Thursday down to an hour or so if I play in the evening. No more than 2 hours.

[lwieserce]

why is gi twitter lately obsessed with discussions on whether what hoyo does with their ships is queercoding under censorship or queerbait

[unbreakable-oaths]

I get the feeling Squonk doesn’t appreciate her dancing

[dontbotherwiththepronunciation]

wank, vindictive desires

I hope everyone who claims there was nothing wrong about an idiot unpromptedly going to an artists art and addressing a problem that wasn’t there to begin with, and then when getting called out for it twisted the narrative into presenting themselves as a victim even when the fucker was entitled enough to not only start this fire but also keep adding gasoline as it continued and by doing so got at least two people of color to feel so uncomfortable with the the fandom that they left, goes through the exact same thing one day and learns how fucking shitty their behaviour was.

[girl-monkey-odalys]

Sing/Sing 2 Inter-Species Dating

I just wanted to point out this monkey/bird ship to @picapicamagpie :

It’s a baboon and a……idk, a goose? lol

Their dialogue:

Goose: If you hadn’t squealed to the cops, I wouldn’t be in here right now. 

Baboon: Honey, when are you getting out?

Goose: I’m only gonna be in here for a few years. 

Omg that’s so classic. He’s blaming her for his jail time!! 

[angeltannis]

Brother that’s my objective in EVERY mission

[ask-uts-earthspark-au]

*gasps loudly* Nightshade, you haven’t watched Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole?!

Nightshade: :0

Nightshade: :D

— Transformation sequence and zooming —

“Nightshade, wait- I’m holding something dang- SHIT-!”

Crash!

“…well, paint me in lime and white and call me a fool, because I have clearly forgotten how excitable younglings are regarding their special interests…”

“OWL MOVIE!”

“Yeah, we can watch that next movie night. But we’re doing show-binge nights for a little while, first. You can also watch it on your own time if you want.”

Hashtag: yeah- they’re super excited about the idea. We’ll see about watching it at some point soon.

Tarantulas: too excited…

Hashtag: sorry. 😅

Tarantulas: I am both far too old, and far too sober to be dealing with overexcitable younglings anymore…

Nightshade: My apologies, Tarantulas.

Tarantulas: *sigh* Just- be more careful, please. I don’t want you or your family getting hurt.

Tarantulas: *muttering* “this is why the last time I had any kind of assistant they were an adult, and I don’t usually let little ones around my lab… Ostaros was enough trouble, and he could only climb, rather than fly…”

[lemonine]

bean is like a bird but also like a bunny and also assigned catboy and also a sheep and a butterfly and a pegasus and i think i might have assigned too much animal themes to my oc

[radialarch]

thinking about how the contents of jo yeong's camera reel is, canonically, two (possibly three) blurry pictures of birds and then: navy babies