#knowledgeable bird

[askshivanulegacy]

[todaysbird]

[eggwishing]

[ao3-crack]

(x)

[muffinlance]

Oh so the clown ads are over? Too late Tumblr I already cancelled ad free uninstalled your app and discovered the power of ublock in mobile FireFox. AND tags are editable in the web version?

There's no going back

[tim-per-tantrum]

What's my favorite pastime you ask? Absorbing the plot of a show I've never watched via fanfiction osmosis. You think I've watched that show? Wrong bitch.

I read a convoluted fanfic, looking up characters as I went and then binge read half of AO3 and determined the plot based on what stayed consistent.

I will join every fandom and not ever interact with the source material and nobody can stop me

[vintagewildlife]

Gilded flicker nesting in a saguaro cactus By: Unknown photographer From: Disney’s Wonderful World of Knowledge 1986

[revelingrexan]

pre-fallen tiny little itty bitty body Lucifer? YES PLEASE

this was SO FUN to make

modeled by me for an assignment, design originally by @diabloku in their "ALASTOR'S VICIOUS MOCKERY" video

(some more angles and a bonus cursed alternate version under the cut)

_______

some more angles to answer a question some people might have, like "HOW DID YOU EVEN GET THOSE WINGS TO FIT ON HIS BODY" (a few people asked me that lol. or at least one person did. i think a second person--ANYWAY)

answer: curve the wings out A LOT away from the body and give them tiny bases

BONUS: I HAD TOO MUCH FUN AND FORGOT THE ASSIGNMENT WAS ACTUALLY TO CREATE A BUST (HEAD AND SHOULDERS), NOT A WHOLE BODY, AND I DIDN'T KNOW HOW PEDANTIC MY PROFESSOR WOULD BE, SO I MADE THIS VERSION TOO

i wish i remembered to include his collarbone and some neck muscles. it would have been even more cursed

(more bonus info: i'm new-ish to the program we're using [ZBrush], so i didn't realize there's a torus -- a ring -- object i could have used for the halo. so i squashed a sphere and tried to cut a circle out from the center, but the program didn't cooperate. so i instead gave him a semi-halo thing lol)

[just-your-average-cryptid]

most of us have heard of the red car game. you’re on a road trip, you’re bored, you start looking for red cars to do something.

and then they’re everywhere. you notice them nearly every few minutes.

there aren’t suddenly more red cars now, of course. you were seeing them already, but you weren’t noticing. you weren’t looking.

I am noticing things.

there is a plant I notice everywhere now, a small bushy plant in suburbs, along streets, by shops on the highways. dwarf umbrella bush is what the internet tells me when I look for it’s name. I did this because I wanted to know why,

every time I ever saw it, every place,

it was always dying. always the leaves turning yellow, the branches small and scraggly. inside out - nitrogen deficiency. their soil drained.

I am noticing how many of these landscaping plants are yellowing, how small and sickly they look in just a few years. I am noticing how often the grass outside the house is replaced when it once again turns brown and dry, how the type never changes and the cycle starts again. I am noticing how the unmowed, unkempt spaces on lakesides and roadsides look more alive than this. how the preserve I grew up next to was miles of “messy” unmanicured nature and the ground was covered in leaves instead of grass and there was life.

I am noticing the birds that come by the lake. there was a flash of blue wings and red chest - eastern bluebird, male, relatively common. I had never seen one before. there is a family of ducks that appear every spring; i cannot say if it’s successive generations or different ducks, but I can always look forward to ducklings. there are little brown birds with white heads whose names I do not know - are they some kind of piper? why don’t I already know?

why is it so hard to learn about my native plants (accurately, that is)? why are so many gardening sites littered with people who think a plants value is based on how pretty or useful it is to them, who think a tree shedding leaves is “messy”?

why is knowing about the world we live in so… odd? why is it a hobby and not vital knowledge? I learned about polar equations. I taught myself about mycorrhizal networks and species of insects.

(did you know there are shiny green bees? a special species of wasp pollinating figs? that white flowers bloom at night for moths? do you know? have you looked?)

I cannot look at a lawn and see life anymore. it is a wasteland, devoid of life, dying slowly itself. everywhere is grass, grass, doused in water that runs over into storm drains, soaked in fertilizer and pesticides and a hundred other poisons and sending one clear message:

this is a place of death. life is not welcome here.

I do not think I could live in a city. too loud, yes, too busy, yes, too many people, yes, but the plants would bother me. a tree allotted only a convenient square, surrounded by dead stone and metal.

a forest cleared for this, for burning asphalt streets and racing cars and shops whose bathrooms are “for paying customers only”.

this is a place of death. life is not welcome here.

and now I am noticing.

[effen-draws]

OKAY it's going to take a while to get to the point with this one but-- de meta time. You see I realised just now that the skua which is referenced throughout the game is a y'know a skua. Like Great Skua skua, like Stercorarius Skua.

And ALRIGHT that might be my bilingual brain that's slow on the uptake (all my bird knowledge is in Danish so forgive me) because perception literally points it out:

BUT HEY. HEY. I DON'T KNOW HOW MANY OF YOU KNOW WHAT THE GREAT SKUA'S WHOLE DEAL IS BUT IT IS NOT NICE. SO LET ME TELL YOU A LITTLE ABOUT THEM BEFORE I GET INTO THE MEAT OF THIS META:

Skuas are a type of predatory bird that primarily lives off of stealing other marine bird's food. Basically they're very good at outmanouvering and bullying other birds until the unsuspecting gull or tern (for an example) drops the fish it had caught. But The Great Skua takes that a step further as the largest of its kind. Becuase it will straight up kill to rob another bird, while also consequently getting the other bird as a meal in the process. Like, killing gulls and puffins are just a regular part of its diet along with the theft.

AND IN CASE THIS ISN'T ALREADY OBVIOUS: THE GREAT SKUA IS AN INSANE BIRD TO HAVE AS A HERALDIC/SYMBOLIC BIRD.

But then I thought; well yes of course the first bird that the nations of Mundi would find as a proof of reality would be the Great Skua. Of course the colonisers would have their first proof of discovering "the New New World" be this bird. Of course the people who after seeing this skua, this living proof that there was more out there to exploit, would then go to other isolas to steal and kill to sustain themselves. Of course the people that established the Suzerain of Revachol, which was (to quote Joyce) "the greatest concentration of wealth mankind has ever seen", would be justified by a Great Skua.

Of course the future foundations of the capitalist world in Elysium would see a skua, the bird that lives of off kelptoparasitism, as their proof of a New New World and new new oppertunities.

And then it only makes sense that The Great Skua became the symbol of the discovery of Insulinde; Mundi's most "promising" steal.

[catadromously]

Spotted Towhee, the dapper fellow who makes everything more cheerful this time of year.

[arkiwii]

Learn to take care of your Liberi partner

[reality-detective]

Bird Flu Engineered to Infect Humans Could Be Lab-Produced ‘In Months,’ Former CDC Director Says

Bioengineered bird flu souped up via gain-of-function lab work could be developed in a shockingly short period of time, former CDC Director Robert Redfield told News Nation recently. 🤔

[haunted-xander]

Song of Oblivion

[thespectral-wolf]

Here's a fun fact about owls:

they are. silly

[kosssich]

whoa! Big post! Scary! But still, please check it out! It has pictures :)

So before I continue my papa Adam staff and sisters exorcists I want to settle some of my headcanons on them + heaven in general (including some redesigns)

Birds of prey AU

How were exorcists created.

- Hell was growing. So was its power. Heaven began to feel threatened by Lilith and her kingdom.

- So they decided they needed protection. Seraphims wanted to create an invincible army to protect the citizens of Spheres. Army that would consist of utterly loyal soldiers.

- Exorcists were created in the likeness of birds of prey - beautiful, vicious and smart.

- Exorcist weren’t exactly a heavenborns. Technically, they were never born. They were created. But still, they’re not robots. Actually, all of them have personalities. Their own wishes, dreams and thoughts. But one thing they have - never doubt Heaven and orders. Never doubt Adam. They can question a lot of stuff in their lives, but never Heaven.

- They don’t have compassion, they don’t show mercy. They are supposed to be baby soldiers.

- Magic of Lilith can slip through Pearly Gates. And one of the newfound army was affected by that. One of the nestlings - so different from others - was created with a curse and a blessing - it was given the free will. A will to question, a will to show compassion, a will to seek knowledge and a will to have soul.

- Sera and Adam had their doubts about Vaggie, but decided to keep her, so the only thing left was to keep an eye on the broken child, preventing her from turning against Heaven.

Exorcists species.

For exorcists were created in the likeness of birds of prey, they vary from each other.

They have their own strengths and weaknesses. Their wings are different as well, they may look alike, but they function differently.

There’s only three exorcists who have different necklaces from the others - Vaggie, Lute and the killed one, so I decided to go with this number three.

I chose these three different orders of birds of prey:

1. Falconiformes - different species of falcons - really fast, agile, perfect eyesight.

2. Accipitriformes - hawks and eagles - strong, fast, vicious, perfect eyesight.

3. Strigiformes - owls - not as fast as other birds, but they can fly completely silent, perfect assassins, agile, perfect eyesight and perfect hearing as well.

No Cariamiformes, because they can’t fly, sorry birdies 😔

Vaggie is the only specie of Tytonidae, just to prove how different she is.

Other exorcists belonging to owls is species from Strigidae family.

- I have a headcanon, that Heaven is very technically advanced (we saw a glimpses of Heaven architecture and they had this cool looking microchips on the floor, LED masks, cool stuff). Whatever Vox is doing, Heaven is steps ahead. So I wanted to recreate this headcanon in exorcists redesign (don’t get me wrong, I like the original design, I do get that they supposed to look like demons with their horns, all grey and black, and like crusaders with this chain mail, yeah yeah yeah, but I like birds more).

- So, the exorcists army divided into three squads - hawks and eagles under Lute’s command, owls under Vaggie’s command and falcons under Dead exorcist command. And Adam is Harpy Eagle - the largest eagle and one of the kind.

- Exorcist are used for service in Heaven - babysitting, escorts to the other Spheres, guards, it’s not like Heaven needs guards, but my imagination ends here lol. It’s just, not like they need to train all 365 days a year.

- Winners know about exorcists, but not about the extermination. They know Hell and its threat, so Heaven never hides the information about its army.

- Exorcists can be killed and they know that. But they still act like they’re invincible, because in some way, they really are.

- An exorcist can be killed in two ways:

1. By other angels with angelic steel.

2. By sinners and hellborns with angelic steel.

3. But the difficulty - to kill an angel you need to rip off their halo. If the sinner or a hellborn touches a halo, they will just burn alive, killed by holy flames. (They tried to kill exorcists, didn’t work). Exorcists always fly. They never step on Hells ground. Always in the sky, deadly and unpredictable.

- They’re not stupid. They don’t leave their weapon in dead bodies. They don’t need sinners to have angelic steel. But still, steel can be gathered from arrows and bullets mostly - it’s a hard and dirty work to dig through all the bodies just to find a few bullets. This is exactly why Carmine’s angelic weapon is insanely expensive and difficult to get.