#ornithological notebook

[thecountryfoxprintco]

Created in the image of the mischievous little blue jays that hang around the back yard (and squawk at me if the bird bath hasn’t been freshened by 10am) - this print is perfect for any birdwatcher! 💕🦊

[asteryote]

Some drawings for an ornithology field notebook assignment.

[burnt-outtransgender]

Update to the FSMP secondary school AU ideas:

-Centross does wrestling and plays rugby for the school and is really good at both

-Athena has successfully pressured Rae into joining the Gardening Club that Strawberri runs and is spending a lot of time with Jamie now

-Caspian invites Rae to his house to do their homework together almost weekly and it’s becoming more regular now.

-Rae felt really awkward and out of place at Caspian’s house at first, but is starting to feel more comfortable and Caspian’s mum is really nice to him

-Icarus is doing work experience at a local apothecary and taking chemistry and doing an online ornithology course

-Caspian is asking Rae to proofread his stories because he wants to impress him and he trusts him not to judge

-Strawberri and Icarus have crushes on each other but are too nervous to do anything about it yet

-Rae has started doodling in his notebooks but most end up relating to Caspian in some way (hmm, I wonder why?)

-Caspian is trying to understand the science stuff Rae rambles about but he’s mostly content to just listen

I’ll keep updating and if anyone has any other ideas, feel free to add them!

[lacenvs3000w24]

Interpreting Nature for Me and (maybe) for You

The connection between this week’s prompt and the concept of learning styles really guided my thought process for this one. The idea that people learn in different ways is not novel, but it shouldn’t be cast aside, either.

Initially, in my imagined life as an interpreter, I envisioned myself outdoors, delivering nature-oriented activities to a variety of audiences.

The more I thought about it though, I came to some realizations.

First of all, even if I think a particular activity is engaging and worthwhile, there is no guarantee that everyone in the audience would agree. There is a huge chance that some people engage way more than others with the activities, and there are many reasons this might be.

Think of a bubbly kid with a big personality — they are likely to present the thoughts and questions that pop into their head. In contrast, a timid but equally as interested kid might not have the same inclination to voice their ideas, despite fostering a seedling of grand enthusiasm within them. I can relate to the quiet kids in the corner who may be hesitant to push their way to the front, where the “best view” might be.

images from Pinterest

While I think offering something tactile, something auditory, and something visual is a decent catch-all strategy, it doesn’t entirely solve the problem. Beyond that, my learning style shapes the way I see the world, and the respective value of the ideas I have.

I tend to fall into the category of “auditory learner” — having someone explain things to me has always felt the most effective. Along with that, I think I understand things best when they feel like a sort of story — that kind of logical flow just makes sense to me and sticks with me the most, especially when I’ve also had time alone to reflect.

This had me rethinking my ideal role, because ideally, I would be able to offer a personal, individual experience to everyone in the audience. So, instead of focusing on trying to accomplish everything all at once, I think we can approach things differently.

I understand, somewhat, the way in which I learn, the types of activities that feel engaging to me. As such, if we each focus on honing that understanding and translating it into our work as interpreters, those who learn and engage similarly will have access to a truly valuable experience.

Personally, I really love the idea of combining my love for nature with my love for the visual arts. For example, in Lab Studies in Ornithology (course code is ZOO 4920 and I highly recommend btw), I loved the field notebook assignment. In short, we were asked to get outside, find some birds, observe them, jot down thoughtful questions and include sketches, then go home and do some research to answer the questions that came up in the field.

a collage of some of my field notebook entries from ZOO 4920

The general premise is one that natural historians employed, before snapping pictures and googling things on the spot was possible or feasible. It leaves you with a record of observations and information about the things that you are personally interested in.

My ideal role as an environmental interpreter, then, would involve developing a guided nature journal or field notebook, complete with relatively general (but also creativity-sparking) prompts and blank spaces to fill with observational sketches.

📜For example... Go to your favourite outdoor space and make an entry about a plant or natural feature that you tend to overlook. or Make an entry from an urban area near you. How is nature incorporated into this type of space? Try to spot and identify 5 species in this area.

In my mind, this fulfills my ideals offering others the chance to:

🌿get outside

✌have a personalized experience

📚capture experiences and observations, such that they can be reflected upon and shared with others if desired

A challenge I anticipate coming up would be parsing through my ideas to pick out the gems among the rubble, figuring out which ideas would actually be interesting to a wide enough audience while still being sort of niche. Either way, I think the fact that almost anyone, anywhere could pick up the journal and fill it with their own interpretation of their own surroundings.

Can’t wait to read about everyone else’s amazing aspirations!!

[flipchild]

They targeted bird watchers.

Bird watchers.

We're a group of people who will sit for hours, days, even weeks on end performing some of the hardest, most mentally demanding tasks. Over, and over, and over all for nothing more than a note in the local ornithology bulletin saying we did.

We'll punish our selfs doing things others would consider torture, because we think it's fun.

We'll spend most if not all of our free time looking at birds to maximize our bird knowledge by a little bit.

Many of us have made careers out of doing just these things: slogging through the birds, all day, the same birds over and over, hundreds of times to the point where we know evety little feather such that some have attained such bird nirvana that they can literally identify these birds blindfolded.

Do these people have any idea how many binoculars have been smashed, notebooks scored to shreds, pencils broken in frustration? All to latter be referred to as bragging rights?

These people honestly think this is a battle they can win? They take our binoculars? We're already building new ones without them. They take our ornithology books? Bird watchers aren't shy about throwing their money else where, or even writing the books our selves. They think calling us racist, mysoginistic, rape apologists is going to change us? We've been called worse things by boy scouts. They picked a fight against a group that's already grown desensitized to their strategies and methods. Who enjoy the battle of attrition they've threatened us with. Who take it as a challange when they tell us we no longer matter. Our obsession with proving we can after being told we can't is so deeply ingrained from years of dealing with big brothers/sisters and friends laughing at how pathetic we used to be that proving you people wrong has become a very real need; a honed reflex.

Bird watchers are competative, hard core, by nature. We love a challange. The worst thing you did in all of this was to challange us. You're not special, you're not original, you're not the first; this is just another stake out.

[13flowersandfoxes]

My friend said something about cassowaries today, and since I didn’t hear him clearly I asked “What about cassowaries?”

He misunderstood, so he started telling me to look them up, to which in response I just flipped to the page in my notebook where I’d been sketching one for an assignment for our ornithology class lmao.

[graywyvern]

( via / "ornithological notebook" via )

To hear a black hole.

"Ecagcy, n. the state of being outside of driving" --@fantasticvocab

Creepy Clown Congregation.

"confided"

our pressing task to seek the pith & walk that path trembling & brisk

not hero’s mask each candle-moth you do the math in Iblis’ mosque

O mingled musk & parted breath lays this mammoth in ice-arabesque

Forsaken Deity.

“You German fool, you would not know the difference between chance, double-chance, co-existence of phenomena in Euclidean space, co-existence in time, co-existence in space-time, and coincidence.” –@HarrySKeeler

Kraken Sea Monster.

[musiclovingmoth]

told my dad about one species of bird i liked this morning and he immediately put his knowledge to the test after class when i sent him pictures of a virginia rail

[jhfrench]

Ink / bird practice. 🌚

[peitalo]

do you have any tips for coming up with things for ocs? like backstory or just facts about them. ive made my first one recently and it's very fun :]

ABSOLUTELY YES !!!!! i am so passionate about character writing and story building it is so so fun to me i have notebooks upon notebooks of oc & story info i pace around my house talking to myself planning things

https://writingwithcolor.tumblr.com/ is a VERY good & important resource first and foremost- character creation is very fun, but educating yourself is an essential part of it (go further than just this blog too for specifics, but it’s a vital starting point)

for backstory & character traits, a lot of things are connected & intertwined! backstories can stem from little character facts & traits, and looking further into them and fleshing them out more is VERY fun.

ie, my oc Perth started off as just an oc i made in middle school who loved birds, and his development went: loves birds -> studying ornithology -> thus, studying biology -> moves to the town the story takes place in (where the two other main characters live), placing them all in the same location -> the other two characters are in a marine biology class together -> place perth in the marine bio class with them -> they all have an opportunity to know each other, story can begin

and then once you have set characters to start with you get to see how everyone in the story interacts! my best advice is always look at them as individuals, even if they have close relationships or bonds with other characters- figure the pieces out first, and then contemplate why they fit (or if they even fit at all; character relationships are so interesting to explore and write and watch develop over time, but that gets more into negative/positive character arcs and the consequences those have on other characters)

generally, a fun way to start is to take something you’re interested in and give it to a character! a LOT of my ocs are focused on different branches of science because through doing research for them i get to learn about things i enjoy and it’s a win-win B) (ex. caelum - paleontology, oliver - botany, perth - ornithology, maisie & barry - marine biology)

generally my advice is to make your characters diverse, write them with care, DO RESEARCH and have fun!

[grave-avis]

Okay so, anyone who ever so slightly knows me knows I like birds. Like, really like birds. Like I’m organizing my life plan to hopefully be able to dedicate my life to ornithology levels of liking birds. One of my hobbies is birdwatching/ bird feeding and it’s really really fun! So I decided to make a little post about some of my FOs and birdwatching.

Note: if you’re going to be rude about my hobby please leave, I’ve been bullied for liking bird watching before and I just don’t want to deal with that before school starts. Yes it’s an old person hobby, but I enjoy it :)

With Jester I feel like she’d be very enthusiastic to join me, happily sitting next to me to doodle the birds we see. After a bit I’d notice that I’m seeing fewer birds than usual and realize that she’s talking very loudly and making a lot of sudden movements and it’s scaring away all the birds. After a brief conversation about it I decide to take her to visit my less timid bird friends: I’ll introduce her to all the geese I’ve gained the trust of and tell her all their names and help her feed them out of her hand and I’ll take her to visit all my crows and seagulls. I think she’d really like seeing all my friends and would appreciate the beauty of them, she wouldn’t find my enthusiasm about them obnoxious because she’s able to match my energy.

Yasha and I have travelled separately from the nein together in the past, and she’s kind of joined me accidentally. Sometimes I accompany her to pick flowers and I’ll spot a family of sparrows and point them out to her. She’s not very talkative but she doesn’t mind sitting with me and watching them, usually taking the time to write in her notebook as they warble and play. She finds them fascinating and she appreciates cute animals much more than you’d expect from an intimidating woman like her. Sometimes she brings me feathers she finds on the ground, she understands collecting things from nature. When we’re with the nein Beau will sometimes join us just to see what we’re up to. She likes to tease me about it but she’s chill, she gets very into my hypotheticals about what birds would beat each other in a fight.

Caduceus is a member of the nein who I can see genuinely enjoying birdwatching, and he probably adopted the hobby long before we met. He enjoys my enthusiasm and although he doesn’t know much about birds on an ornithology level, he appreciates my info dumps. When my insomnia acts up and he’s up late as well, sometimes we’ll sneak off together and try to find owls. He finds them a bit annoying because of how loud they are but they’re some of my favourites and it’s fun to watch them hunt.

Fjord and Caleb are a bit indifferent to them, Caleb appreciates my bird facts and knowledge (He especially likes my information on vultures and how acidic they are) and was kind enough to buy me a bird guide from a bookstore after noticing a lot of my guides don’t cover the regions we travel to. If I ever invite him out with me he doesn’t pay much attention to them but takes the opportunity to read and study, I don’t mind. The most birdwatching I’ll get out of Fjord is pointing out the seagulls around the ship, he finds them annoying as hell but even he admits seagulls can be fucking hilarious.

Nott and Molly are a bit too chaotic to take out birdwatching, I am worried that either they will accidentally harm the birds (or well,,, intentionally in Nott’s case) or they will accidentally piss off a bird and get mauled. Although one time they wrestled a living seagull back to camp after misunderstanding me talking about how I didn’t have many seagull FEATHERS in my collection.

Percy sometimes comes down to the ocean with me, he’s well acquainted with my geese and seagull friends and even the one crow that lives down there. He mostly likes to feed them with me and laugh about their mannerisms. He’s one of the people who kind of makes me remember how fun this hobby is. It can be very boring when you’re alone or take it too seriously but it’s hard to take much of anything serious when Percy is goofing off and cracking jokes with you. Sometimes when I meet up with him he’ll tell me about the birds he’s seen around because he knows I’ll appreciate it.

What’s the point of birdwatching with Alex around? She gets enthusiastic when I ask her to turn into different types of bird and enjoys the challenge, she never wastes an opportunity to show off her shapeshifting talent. Of course if I ask her to, she’ll happily chase the ravens through the hotel’s halls, trying to get a better look at them. Sometimes they pity us and perch for a few seconds so we can get a better look. When we meet up to work on art together she teases me about the amount of birds I incorporate into my art but I know she doesn’t mean it. Sometimes we’ll even collaborate and she’ll ask me to paint ravens and other animals onto her pottery. One morning I woke up to a small statue of an owl in front of my door, she never mentioned it to me but I recognized her stamp at the bottom of the statue.

Halfborn also isn’t that into birdwatching but he’ll be sure to tell me when birds are mentioned in littérature and loves to discuss poetry with me and will show me any bird themed ones. He appreciates the symbolism behind them more than anything. Sometimes when we can’t sleep we’ll spend the night in each other’s room and tell stories of when we were alive, although he’s a bit tired of me harassing him for any stories about the seagulls in his old fishing village.

Aragorn and Legolas are both fairly into my bird obsession but most of all they like it when I explain falconry to them, they enjoy seeing my owl around the camp and find any facts about her interesting. They find nature and all its creatures simply delightful. Gimli’s a bit indifferent to it but sometimes he’ll point out any birds he sees to keep me entertained on the road (I don’t think he likes birds that much :/).

[ahtsumu]

Nothing by Bruno major. I go by her/she Congratulations on your milestone!!!! You fucking deserve it my dude. Your writing is bomb

Hey sorry. I'm the nothing by Bruno major person. I forgot add Kuroo. My bad fam.

[nothing]

“Today's forecast calls for rain, rain, and even more rain. Folks, we’re gearing up for an intense, all-day downpour…”

10:25 AM

You wake up to the sound of rain tapping lightly against your window. Kuroo holds you in his embrace with your face nestled into the crook of his neck, arms wrapped around his waist, legs interlocked like a completed puzzle. His chest rises and falls with each steady, slumbering breath.

“Tetsu,” you say after checking the time. “We should get up.” You’re about to reach out to gently shake him awake when his grey eyes flit open on their own. A sly “no” slips through his lips.

“Have you been awake this whole time?”

“… Maybe.” He doesn’t let you remind him that there are things to do today, Testsu!, choosing instead to tighten his arms around you. “It’s Sunday,” he whines into your hair. “And it’s raining. If you make me run errands I might just cry, babe.”

12:47 PM

Kuroo cries.

Not because of the list of errands you’ve moved to tomorrow’s agenda, but because you’ve reached the rain scene in The Notebook where he always cries.

You catch him trying to disguise the act of drying his eyes as a stretch. “You can cry, y’know,” you tease, snuggling closer into his side.

He looks appalled. Slings his arm over your shoulder anyway.

“Over this stupid movie? I was just yawning.” Kuroo sounds perfectly offended, but you look up and see his lash line glimmer with more tears. Per usual.

A crash of thunder suddenly echoes through your apartment. “We could go and recreate that scene right now,” you offer. It’s the first time you’ve actually watched The Notebook on a rainy day.

Kuroo snorts. “Keep dreaming.”

4:33 PM

“Tetsu, can you try to fight me?” you growl, knocking his Princess Peach off the Castle Siege stage for the seventeenth time.

“I’m trying!” He’s not.

“I can literally feel your eyes on me and not the screen.” Kuroo laughs, running a hand through his messy (and slightly damp) hair. Suddenly, he thinks that it’d been rather productive of you to take two showers together, even if the first was outside. In your clothes. Recreating that stupid scene from The Notebook. It was so romantic he nearly enjoyed it. At least, that’s what he told you.

“Earth to Tetsu?”

“Oh, wha–– you make it sound like my attention is my problem?”

11:16 PM

“Where do birds go when it rains?” he asks from the bedroom floor. Beside him, you furrow your brows. “Do you ever feel bad that they get caught in the rain and don’t have a place to hide?”

“I’m sure they’re safe. Maybe under some thicker leaves in a tree?” you reply, turning to face your grey-eyed boyfriend. “Why?”

“I was thinking about that bird we saw on the windowsill the other day. Paul?”

“We named him Prince.”

“I wonder if Paul has a place he can go when it rains,” Kuroo says, staring up at the ceiling. “This isn’t a metaphor. I’m genuinely curious.”

“Aren’t you a scientist?”

“Chemistry is NOT the same as ornithology!”

11:40 PM

You’re about to doze off when you suddenly remember all the errands you have to finish tomorrow. “Kuroo.”

“Hmm?”

“Your hot take on lazy days?”

A pause. The sheets ruffle. He presses a kiss to your bare shoulder. “Love ‘em.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. Wouldn’t have it any other way. There’s nothing like doing nothing with you.”

what’s on the menu for c0wisland’s feast?

[fanfoolishness]

a world for the birds (1/10)

Andy DeMayo took up birding years ago, but his favorite hobby takes on new meaning when shared with his nephew Steven.

A series of looks at Andy and Steven’s growing family relationship.

Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4

***

Chapter 1: learning how to see

Andy breathed in the salt air.  Another visit back to Beach City in Delmarva; a good place.  He’d forgotten how good, somehow, years of flying on his own and watching folks move away.  But there were new reasons to come back here, Greg and his kid, their weird space family.  He liked having a home base again, even if still he only visited once a month or so.  Some habits died hard.

Andy and Steven sat on the porch, watching the waves as they waited for Greg to come on over. They had dinner plans at the crab place down the street.  Andy was looking forward to it. He’d seen Greg last month, but it’d been a while since he’d gotten a chat with the kid, who’d apparently been spending an awful lot of time in space lately.  It was still hard to wrap his mind around sometimes, though Steven seemed to take it in stride.

Andy let out a sigh, watching the laughing gulls on the beach fighting over a crab.  He found himself asking a simple question.

“Hey Steven, you ever been birdwatching?”

Greg’s kid wasn’t quite as open and excitable as he used to be.  Typical teenager, Andy supposed, especially since the kid had finally started growing.  He’d been weirdly tiny when he met him the first time.  Maybe now that he’d hit that growth spurt, he’d figured out how to get moody, too.  Or maybe it was all the space stuff.  Andy wasn’t sure.

Steven shrugged.  “Uh, I mean, I’ve seen birds…”

“Nah, I mean, you ever actually watched ‘em?  Like those laughing gulls out there?”  Andy rummaged through the knapsack at his feet, pulling out a battered copy of Sibley’s Guide to Birds of Eastern North America.   He waved the book at Steven.  “I see a lot of birds when I fly, and after a while I got tired of not knowing their names.  If, uh, you ever want to give it a try, it’s pretty fun….”

Steven’s face lit up.  Oh, there was that excitable kid again.  “Sure!”

***

Andy mulled over the destination for their first birding foray for a few weeks.  The weather had been crummy for the rest of his stay last time, so they made tentative plans to bird the woods around Beach City and the local marsh nearby.  Andy sorted through some of his old books.  Was Sibley better for a beginner?  Peterson?  Maybe he’d throw in the National Geographic guide.  He went back and forth about it for longer than he would have liked to admit.

He knocked on Steven’s door bright and early, having landed the plane well above the high tide mark.  “You ready, kid?”

Steven opened the door, strapped to high heaven with binoculars, a camera, and a bulging messenger bag.  He was also wearing a bright pink jacket over a blue shirt. Not exactly nature colors, but it would be fine.  “Oh, I’m ready, Uncle Andy.  I was born ready.”

“I… admire your enthusiasm,” said Andy gruffly.  “Here ya go.  Take your pick.”  He held out two different guides.  Steven grabbed the Sibley’s, leaving Andy with the Nat Geo.

“So I just look up the bird I think it is?”

“Yeah, but you gotta have an idea of what type of bird is, or you can get confused real easy.  There’s like seven hundred birds in that book.”  Andy nodded to a pair of terns flying over the water.  “Any idea what those are?”

“Uh, seagulls?”

Andy tried not to grimace.  “Ain’t no such thing as a seagull.  Just gulls.  There’s lots of different species.”  He showed Steven the right section of the book, and the kid’s eyes widened.

“Whoa.  I had no idea!  I just thought they were all seagulls, and that they like to steal my food.”

“Well, yeah, that they do.  But those there are terns.  Caspian terns, you can tell by the size of ‘em.  And that bright red bill.”

Steven raised his binoculars, struggling with adjusting them for a moment.  Then he grinned, lowering them.  “I see the red!  That’s awesome, Uncle Andy.  I can’t believe I never noticed those before.  Are they rare?”

“Not really, no.  Now that you’ve got an idea of ‘em, you’ll see ‘em all over.  See the thing about birding is, it teaches you how to see birds instead of just looking at ‘em.  It’s not the same thing.”  

“What do you mean?”

Andy thought about the kid’s question.  They walked along the sand to the plane, Andy pointing out a few willets and a lone killdeer as they went.  As they neared the plane, he came up with something, huffing and puffing as they hiked up the hill.

“I mean… so many people see a bird, and they don’t even think about it.  Or if they do, they think, ‘oh, it’s just a bird.’  But there’s more to it than that, ain’t there?  You look a little deeper and you start to see it.  A red beak on a bird you thought was just a gull.  Or the flashy colors of a hummingbird or a painted bunting.  Or a little peep, just digging and digging away until it comes out with a huge clam in its bill.  And it just makes you think, you know?  Like what else am I missing?”

“You mean about birds?” asked Steven as they reached the plane, not the slightest out of breath.

Andy wiped the sweat from his brow.  “Well, yeah.”

***

The birding went great.  Andy found a smooth field to set the plane down in on the edge of the Beach City woods.  It was no Magic Hedge out there -- not that he’d expected that level of activity-- but he was pleased with the different types of environments the little wood and field had.  The field itself, full of horned larks; the deep part of the wood, where a woodpecker lurked frustratingly out of sight; the edge of the wood, where the flycatchers perched and watched for passing bugs.  Steven almost looked like he was gonna cry when Andy showed him the pages of Empidonax flycatchers, all of them almost exactly alike.“You don’t have to get those right away,” said Andy gruffly.  “I’ve been doing this twenty years, I still mix ‘em up if they don’t sing.  People just call them Empids a lot in their notes because you can’t tell ‘em apart.   But I’d guess that one’s a least flycatcher, sitting here on the edge like it is, and that sharp little call.”  

Steven wrote the bird’s name down in a brand-new waterproof notebook in pencil, tongue peeking out of the corner of his mouth.  “So now I have… twelve birds for my life list?  How many do you have, Uncle Andy?”

Andy laughed.  “I don’t know off the top of my head.  I have a list back in the plane, though.  I think last time I checked I hit somewhere ‘round eight hundred?  Flying takes me all over, you see.  Picked up some great birds when I flew you and your dad to Korea.”

Steven gaped at him with eyes like dinner plates.  “How many species are there?  Now I wish I’d been paying attention when Dad and I went on that trip.”  He frowned.  “I guess I was thinking about other stuff, though…”

Andy looked curiously at the kid.  Pensive was an odd look on him.  “Uh, there’s a ton of species, almost ten grand.  A damn lot of them.  Always new ones to find,” said Andy.  “Ooh!  Look there!  Tufted titmouse.”

They ended the day with forty species, not bad at all considering it was the beginning of summer and migration was over.  Andy had managed to start impressing upon Steven the importance of birding by ear, especially for warblers, and Steven had immediately downloaded something on his phone that did bird calls, promising to study.  

Andy left him with the Sibley’s, Steven giving him a bonecrushing hug.  He’d hugged him back, awkwardly.  He still wasn’t sure what to do with his nephew’s affections, but he thought it was a good problem to have.

*** Bird photos: Cornell Ornithology Lab, Caspian tern; Empidonax flycatchers, Peterson’s field guide (was too lazy to take a good picture of my Sibley lol).

[tarotforsale]

If darkness and nature are more your style, dark fantasy artist Katie Whittle has created a major arcana tarot deck dedicated to birds! Katie incorporates nature, life, death, and occult symbology into all of her works and creates rich traditional print style artwork that is especially exemplified in this deck. For the Occult Ornithology deck, it's a 22-card deck with foil effects on the front and back of the cards, along with gold edges and guide book in a magnetic book-shaped box. The deck is fully funded on Kickstarter and comes with digital versions of the book and deck, and the physical orders come with an additional print of one of the cards. More stretch goals are available for foil notebook, pin, and upgraded 330gsm cardstock. This campaign ends on June 6th!

Kickstart the deck!

Visit Katie Whittle!

[fredheads]

wip wednesday round 2

parentdale it AU - chapter 2 

The three library books he had taken out last month were due. Two of them were hardcover volumes on Riverdale’s town history, which Harry had been taking careful notes from in his spiral-bound notebook. 

The third was a book on birds. 

It was a hardcover, illustrated for identification purposes, and had Harry flipped to the back and studied the borrowing card tucked into its paper sleeve, he would have noted the name Mary Moore written several times in a girl’s untidy hand.

Harry Clayton had no interest in ornithology. He had taken out the book because he had been trying to better understand something that had happened to him that spring, when the warm weather had just begun and he and his father were waking the Clayton farm from it’s long hibernation. 

For no particular reason he began biking past the library, up to Bassey Park where the canal flowed under the Kissing Bridge. Across the bridge was Derry High School - in a few more years Harry would be a star player on their football team. But it wasn’t the sight of the school that drew him, it was the smell of Bassey Park: a salt-and-sea smell though they were miles from the coast. The mist and the smell made him think of photos of lighthouses, old capes and craggy rocks that he had never visited before. 

This train of thought led him to remember his dreams - he was reminded suddenly, like a curtain lifting, that he hadn’t woken peacefully after all. He had tossed and turned for a couple hours in the middle of the night, plagued by restless, unsettling images that floated just out of his memory now that he tried to recall them. 

In the cheerful farmhouse kitchen his list of the dead had seemed morbid: now he felt an eerie sense of unease as he remembered the murders. Betty Ripsom. Veronica Grogan. Oscar Andrews. Grown-ups weren’t sure if that last one was connected… but standing at the edge of the canal in Bassey Park, breathing in the salt air from forty miles away, Harry Clayton was very much convinced. 

It’s all connected, he thought, and shivered, thinking for some strange reason of the Black Spot again… and the Ironworks explosion. And the bird. 

[doeeyeddarlingxo]

Myriad Misadventures - Chapter 50

The Myriad Misadventures of a Midgardian Queen-In-Training - Chapter 50

AO3 | Previous | Next

Word Count: 1471

Pairing: Loki/Reader

Rating: T

Myriad Misadventures - Chapter 50

And so it comes to pass that you do return to the palace, after all. And it seems that people have taken notice. On Good Evening, America, they do a little rewind to some of the earlier moments filmed of the remaining contestants, and you’re surprised to see this included:

“Now, I’m not going to lie, Ashley—I’d almost forgotten about Little Miss (Y/N). As the only teen left in the competition, I didn’t think she was even old enough to be homecoming queen, let alone queen of an entire planet, but looking back, her interactions with the crowd at the train station really blew me away, let me tell you.” Footage plays of you with that little girl, and you’re shocked by how much younger you look on camera—was that really just a few years ago?—bending down to sign her notebook. “Isn’t that sweet?”

********************************************

You’d be lying if you said you didn’t fear things would be a bit awkward after your last conversation. But if anything, the opposite seems to have happened. Things are normal. Perhaps a bit too normal.

Like on your second day back, when he asks you for advice on a date with Irina. You must have stared at him for a full five seconds before shutting your jaw and thinking enough to give him a proper answer (horse-riding, of course). 

You knew he considered you a friend, but this? Really?

And then the day after that, he invites you into his office for tea. And you find yourself wondering if this is maybe a date of your own, until you end up talking again about a date for one of the other girls. You wonder: is he trying to make you jealous? Or is he really just that oblivious? 

Which option is worse?

There is a third option you’ve considered, which is that he’s giving you room to consider...well, consider the capacity in which you want to stay in the competition. Which, to be fair, is very sweet. 

But that means he’s probably expecting you to make a decision. Soon. 

So, again: which option is worse?

********************************************

On top of that, the return to the palace has done nothing to improve your friendships with the other girls. If anything, it just seems like it’s made them more conscious of the competitive element of the competition. Rosa’s outfits are more carefully coordinated than ever, and she’s perfected her already razor-sharp conversation skills. Rhea’s previously motherly air has taken on an edge that makes her seem even more formidable than before. Irina hasn’t changed much, actually—she keeps her head down and rides her horses and seems normal. But she’s here, and that alone is enough of a statement that she, like the others, doesn’t plan on going anywhere before the competition is done.

And you? You are determined to work harder than ever. Because if you’re going to choose to be here, you’re going to do this right.

 (What is “this?” And how exactly do you plan to do it “right?” Unclear. But it’s good to have a sense of purpose all the same).

Etiquette classes continue; and of course you attend. But you find yourself drawn more than ever to the library. You try to study the basics of a foreign language or two—for when you’re no longer under the protection of a language spell. With some difficulty, you begin to reteach yourself the math and science you’ve missed or forgotten since high school. And you find that, if you mention an interest in a particular topic, a slew of modern books on the subject will appear on your usual corner table, neatly stacked, the next day. Computer science. Literary analysis. Ornithology, ichthyology, other “ologies” you’ve never heard of— you do your best to dabble in a bit of everything. In case, you know, you want to go to college. Once all this is through. 

Honestly, it feels as though most things you do these days are on the assumption that you’ll be gone from the palace eventually. Definitely sooner, rather than later.

********************************************

“So the hair comb with the pearls for Rhea…”

He purses his lips, and walks around the board, frowning slightly. “You’re certain it won’t be overkill?”

It’s become a habit, this. Meeting in his office. Advising him on speeches, dates, and everything in between. And it’s easy, really. Light. Simple. Friends.

“I think love can take many forms. Friendship is one of them,” you always remember, and always you push the thought back. Sure, friendship is a form of love. He’s right. You know that.

It’s just not the form of love you’d hoped for.

“Overkill?” You look at him incredulously. “How so?”

“You yourself have told me numerous times that  you found the initial provisions of jewelry and clothing to be excessive.”

You roll your eyes at that. “It’s a palace. Everything is excessive. Besides, this is practical: she never leaves her room without her hair done up. She’ll get a ton of use out of it.”

He holds up his hands in defeat. “I defer to the wisdom of my superior.”

“Superior? I like the sound of that.” You launch yourself off the front of the desk to walk around and sit in the head chair behind it. “So tell me, inferior, what else is on the agenda for tonight?”

He looks at the board again. It’s like an old-fashioned blackboard, with gift ideas for the three girls scrawled across it in both your handwriting and his (and smudgy in places, where you wrestled with the chalk). “The anniversary ball is in a little over a month, Lady Amara has been sent the options for the decoration schema, the tokens for Ladies Rhea, Rosa, and Irina have been selected…”

You push out your lower lip in a show of faux-disappointment. “What, and no gift for me?”

Instead of the chuckle you’re expecting, a small smile rises to his mouth. “As a matter of fact…”

Wait, what?

You’d been joking about the gift. And even if he did have a gift for you, you’d expect for him to present it to you at the anniversary ball alongside the other girls. Instead, you see him reach into his pocket and produce a small, slim rectangular box. He presents it to you.

“You didn’t have to,” you say, feeling suddenly guilty. He laughs at your tone.

“You might want to open it before feeling too bad,” he teases. You hesitate. “Go on.”

You slip the lid off the box and lift off a layer of pale green tissue paper to reveal… “Oh my God.”

“Do you like it?”

“You’re joking.”

“I’m afraid not.”

“It’s incredible.” You lift the fish fork out of the box and turn it over in your hand, regarding it with no small amount of amusement. “Did you make this out of solid gold or something? It’s so heavy. No, wait.” You point the fork at him, preventing him from speaking another word. “Don’t answer that. I don’t want to know.”

His cheeks are slightly pink, and his smile, though small, clearly reaches his eyes. “You like it?”

You bring the gift to your chest and tilt your head at him. “I love it. Love it. You should have given it to me before dinner. I would have loved to see the look on Lady Amara’s face.”

He tsks playfully. “I should have known you’d use my gift for evil.”

“Oh, hush. I’m sure, if anything, she’d just be pleased to see how dedicated I’ve become to my studies.” A yawn escapes, and you clap a hand rather ungracefully over your gaping mouth. He smirks. “Shut up,” you warn him.

He shrugs, lifting his hands (though the smirk stays exactly the same). “Not a word.”

“I suppose that’s my cue. See you at breakfast?” He nods. You head towards the door, when you hear him clear his throat behind you.

“Although…” 

You turn to face him. “Although?”

“Well. Apparently there is supposed to be some sort of astronomical event happening tonight.” He jerks his head in the direction of the window. “A starfall.”

“What, like a meteor shower?”

“Is that the Midgardian term? Yes, I assume so.”

“Ah.” You pause, waiting for him to continue. “And?”

“And. Well, I wondered if you wouldn’t join me in the garden? Just for a short while, perhaps. Unless you wish to return to your room, which would be understandable, as well—”

“Yes.” You realize, with a burst of embarrassment, that you’re grinning. “A walk in the gardens sounds lovely.”

He stops rambling, then, and rewards you with a shy smile of his own. “Well, then. Shall we?”

He extends an elbow, just as he did that night on the beach. And you take it. "Okay."

You're both still smiling like idiots as you walk out the door.