#sparrow's shorts

[writing-ceiling]

Summer 2023 Shorts #1

Neo Shorts #1

Title: Loki Has A Couple Of Uncharacteristically Philosophical Realizations

POV: Loki

Context: This short takes place somewhere between Loki joining the crew and them rescuing Maiju

Loki was in the back of the jeep (as per usual; this crew certainly spent a lot of time in their jeep. To be fair, though, it was a good jeep). He was leaning against the window and the door, which vibrated against him, but he’d learned to get used to it. Besides, what was he going to do, not lean against the door? He certainly didn’t have good enough posture for that. 

Pixel sat next to him, behind Ron in the driver’s seat. Beacon was in front of him, in the passenger’s seat. It struck him then: the silence. It wasn’t like the silences he normally knew, the tension that normally permeated what he knew as silence was notably absent. Instead, there was a calmness, like an anesthetic kicking in, or sunset on the beach of an abandoned planet. There was a serenity, a comfort that he didn’t know if he recognized. 

He contemplated it for a minute, which was difficult, because Loki wasn’t very good at contemplating, but it seemed to pay off, because after that minute, he realized what it was about the silence that seemed so unfamiliar. This crew, these people… they were different from everyone he’d met at the Federation: everyone always trying to scale their way bare-handed to the top, or knock it down from the bottom like a goddamn lumberjack. No, these people were certainly different. Neogalactic Vagrant Crew 47-K were at home with each other. They knew a peace so rare Loki could probably sell it on the black market for more money than he needed to make this plan work out (which was saying a lot, because that was a lot of money.) Still, even if he could bottle up this extraordinary interpersonal peace, find some way to quantify and distribute it, he didn’t think that he would. This crew was something special. They’d built what they had: whether intentionally or not, and Loki had a feeling that it had something to do with Maiju: the crew member he’d never met, but probably knew the most about. 

Her impact was profound, and Loki found himself in awe. 

As he observed the serenity, he found himself wanting, for the first time in his life, more than just the lofty goal of taking down the Federation and changing the world for the good. No matter how off-puttingly bratty and selfish he came off as, this was the first time that he truly wanted for himself. 

Which was probably why he found himself doing what he did next more easily, less hindered. An object in motion will stay in motion unless acted upon by an outside force, and Loki was living on a frictionless plane. He pulled out his phone from his pocket, and texted the girl. 

Hey. 

She responded in a few minutes. Supposedly she was leaning against her own door in her own new crew’s car (which certainly couldn’t be better than this jeep.), and supposedly, she didn’t give a shit about him. But also, supposedly, she gave enough of a shit about him to send him threatening text messages when all he wanted to do was get close to her. 

They had been close before, but Loki didn’t know what had happened. She’d turned cold (well, she’d always been cold, but she’d turned cold towards him, too). There was a time when they had been a dynamic duo, inseparable and always acing every assignment. He annoyed the hell out of her, he knew, but there was a part of her that loved him, too, he trusted. But one day, it was like that part of her had evaporated, and she left him in the dust. Her devotion to the Federation had become less being-manipulated-by-a-huge-government-like-corporation-into-doing-their-bidding-because-she-was-vulnerable-and-they-took-her-in-to-make-her-basically-a-child-soldier and more this-was-a-cult-and-she-was-trying-to-be-God’s-loyalest-disciple-for-some-sort-of-cosmic-gold-star-sticker. 

And no matter how bad she got, she was still Loki’s first real friend, and he wasn’t the kind of person who let go of things like that. He wanted her back, and that probably wasn’t smart, because she would rip him to shreds (definitely metaphorically, and maybe also literally), but he wanted her back anyway. He wanted to build what this crew had, but with her. 

In short, he was down bad (but, like, platonically. (Probably)).

But apparently, Thorn either didn’t understand that or didn’t care, and she was definitely mad at him about the whole helping-the-people-who-wanted-to-get-back-their-crewmate-who-murdered-a-federation-officer thing, because her text back was disturbingly threatening. 

You don’t seem to realize this yet

But I will find you 

sooner or later

and when I do, it won’t be pretty.

Author’s Note: I used this quote from pinterest as inspiration, which I had saved on my Thornki board:

(Yes, it also applies to that one snail)

[heuheu-art]

au where they never make it home, somehow they're happier

[keepin-it-on-the-d-l]

Kiddads Lineup! Aka the designs for them that I promised and never posted!

Heights: Grant is 5’11, Terry is 6’6 (tall mf), Lark and Sparrow are 5’8, and Nicky is 5’6 (short king)

Close ups under the cut:

[krembruleed]

bardic feature: song of rest

beginning at 2nd level, you can use soothing music or oration to help revitalize your wounded allies during a rest.

suo gân

[trainwreckgenerator]

sorry for what, bud?

hello hi um hey i just finished dungeons and daddies season 1 today. and uhh ummmmm uhhhhHHHHH

[mossfeathers]

may I please have and Etho and Bigb hanging out?

hi. yeah this was from january third. sorry about that. theres this cute thing called decision paralysis and also anxiety over not doing them justice so i froze and didn't know what to do. anyways if you wanna use this as a pfp or lockscreen or anything feel free just credit me somewhere somehow ok peace and love (closeups under cut)

[dragoncarrion]

Aheem hi. New gal ive been rotating in my mind. this is Cinnabar, a self exiled Predacon working in some fuck ass colosseum the evil walmart where they kill people she hates it so much. She met Rage Rush there which makes her hate it even more.

some extra sketches below the cut. theyre kinda ?? suggestive but its not too much, mostly for pose practice lolz

hi. they're smoking the yuri blunt

[y2ksnowglobe]

Sparrow walks into the kitchen to find a young Normal and Hero happily eating ants on a log while Lark is just laying on the floor with a thousand yard stare looking up at the ceiling.

Sparrow asks Hero what’s up. She holds the celery up and says, “Uncle Lark made us a snack! He called it ‘ants on a log a la Lark!’”

From his spot on the floor, Sparrow can hear his brother make the slightest whimper and whisper, “What have I become?”

[soup-child]

Whenever I think of the s1 kids I always picture them wearing their soccer jerseys but with accessories to make them look different so in my version of the visuals of dndads during the s2 episode where they play soccer glenn probably looks alot like s1 nick

[ailuridayze]

New Life! So excited for this series :D Definitely planning on drawing more of the members!

[queenburd]

“holding onto the other’s shoulders for support” ask game :3? and/or “‘not wanting to let go’ hugs”

“That’s thirty seconds you have left to struggle,” the narrator says, pacing the space behind the monitors that Stanley runs to and fro around. His voice is dark silk, the hint of a cruel smirk one can hear without seeing. “Thirty seconds until a big boom and then, nothing. No ending here, just you being blown to p-pieces!”

Stop: rewind. Stanley is running back from a monitor and he’s just about to pass by the fellow to get to the big button labeled 5. The room shakes viciously as the bomb powers up, more viciously than the narrator perhaps expected or was braced for, and Stanley sees him stumble and lose balance, and catches him by the waist and back just in time.

Arms stretch out instinctively to grab for support, clinging to his shoulder and upper arms. The narrator looks up at him, eyes round in the red light. “Oh,” he starts, completely off script. “Thank you, Stanley.”

Around them, the room shakes and the red light flashes, but the fellow doesn’t let go, and neither does Stanley. A few beats pass, and then the narrator seems to remember where he is. He doesn’t pull away, and there’s a strange tremor in his voice when he speaks again.

His gaze never, never leaves Stanley’s.

“And believe me, Stanley, I will be laughing at, at every second of your inevitable life, from the moment we fade in, until the moment I say h-happily—“

[leafatlaw]

in between npmd relistens I’ve become more and more fond of the barbecue monologues song and Ruth as a character.

Because, in the meta of things, the barbecue monologue is just the latest of StarKid reoccurring gags they do every show. In every Hatchetfield musical there’s one song that isn’t from the musical, but instead exists in universe. Working boys, Santa clause goes to high school, and now, the barbecue monologues. A silly overdramatic song from a high school production of a made up play. But there’s something about this song that’s sets it apart from the others and makes it more than a meta joke:

The song actually has an importance on the story. Look I love working boys as much as the next guy, but as a whole, it serves to be the one song that’s a normal song in cannon, aka not part of the alien parasite. But beyond that, it’s supposed to be a purposely cheesy corney musical written by a guy living alone in a bunker. It’s cool but not much else.

And then the Santa clause one from Black Friday, is a call back to the original. Fans loved it so much they did it again! And it’s good, as well, it’s a fun little song. And in addition to that, it complements the shows theme, being a cash grabbing soulless movie musical, that uses the holidays to sell tickets. It’s perfect for a show which is a critique of capitalize and all it inspires! It’s thoughtful but ultimately just something to show while our two main characters get together.

So that brings us to npmd, by now it’s become a staple of the trilogy, but now the series has changed as well. The world of hatchetfield has come alive with people and places, enough to fill two seasons of nightmare time! So the song changes as well. For the first time, the song being sung has an impact beyond being sung in canon. The barbecue monologue serves as our first and finale looking into Ruth as a real character. Before this she had been nothing, but a funny side character, a really really horney nerd. But in the span of one song, we find out so much about her. She wants to be an actor singing on stage but her anxiety prevents that. She belts out a song that has nothing to do with her own life but relates to it nevertheless. The emotion she puts into “the burning of the candle”, the love of attention her and the character both share, they’re both stuck in lives they hate but are trapped in, just for once-

And unlike the character in the play, Ruth doesn’t get the chance to be middle aged and unhappy. She’s dead, in the same moment we realized she was a real person, she’s gone. And that’s why I love this song so much. What could have been a silly gag is now one of the most emotion charged songs of the musical and lets us see the character in a whole new light. anyways

[risetherivermoon]

the oak-swallows-garcia's at the time of the epilogue!! this is also me working on revamping some designs..stay tuned, im planning on doing this with all of the families! tho idk if ill get to it...we'll see

i feel like hero looks a lot like the twins where norm looks a lot like rebecca, especially as she got older, i need to revamp my design for her or at least make a proper one lol, as well as one for s2 hero

started with these guys because i have not stopped thinking abt them since the finale, like oh my god...this family man.

(HUGE descs of post-canon/epilogue hcs below cut, as well as closeups!)

first off: Hero! (i posted a wip/close up of her a bit ago but that was before i realized i got the ages wrong,) she's 40, working for NASA after going to college, she's currently single, living with her two best friends she met in college and their cat, Momo. She's living her best life, still in therapy, and is finding it to be very helpful. She hasn't spoken to the Twins and Rebecca in about six or seven years, but keeps in contact with Normal regularly, after everything that happened while she was a child and years of therapy she decided it was best to go no contact with them, they respect her decision. Her and Normal call every few weeks just to catch up.

Normal! not too different from what was already described in canon, he's 38, living alone outside of California, he attempted to go to college after graduation and ended up dropping out in his Sophomore year, after a mental health crisis got him way off track. Now he's working a retail job in Boston, while attempting to go back to school and graduate. He hasn't exactly put in the effort to keep in contact with the rest of the teens, though Scary and Linc call or text him every now and then. Normal was at there wedding, and attends every one of Gerry's birthday parties. He's in contact with his parents, though mostly only Rebecca. He's in therapy, but he's still struggling. He is also still talking to Henry, and he visits Oakvale every now and then, just to say hi to him and his Aunt Birdie. (screw yall shes real to ME)

Rebecca! At 60, She and the twins are still living in San Dimas, she's only just now retired officially, though living comfortably with the money from Swallow's ice cream. Her marriage with Sparrow has always been rocky, but they're at a point where it's easier to live together and stay married. Though they more so are living as friends other than a married couple. Her relationship with Lark has always been weird, though she'd consider them good friends as well. She texts with Normal practically daily, because she worries about him a lot. After she died for a brief amount of time, she started to rethink a lot of things in her life, one of those things being the amount of time she spends focusing on her kids and making sure they're alright. If Normal was anyone else he'd probably say she was being too clingy. Shed attempted to revive her dying relationship with her daughter as well, but inevitably respected her decision once Hero decided to go no-contact. She still asks Norm about her though.

Sparrow!! this one is interesting! At 31 (pre-s2), he hits a specific point as a druid where he gains the Timeless Body ability, where his aging slows as he gets older, Sparrow wasn't aware thats what was happening until he realized around his mid forties that he wasn't looking any different. After a long conversation with Henry, he figures out that's what's happening. He doesn't tell anyone besides Lark for a while until it's too noticeable to hide. at 59, he's living at home with Rebecca and Lark still, and is spending most of his time gardening and painting, or attempting to keep his mind off of...everything. Sparrow isn't living happy or comfortably, though it seems that way from an outside point of view. He finds himself trying to ignore everything going on around him, the fact his life is in shambles, and the inevitable of his loved ones dying before him. He throws himself into his art, to the point where Rebecca has to drag him out of their art studio (their garage) to eat and sleep. He barely leaves the house, because people around town had already started to notice how young he looks.

Lark!! agghgh if you thought my sparrow description was a bummer get buckled. Lark never really recovered from the aftermath of The Doodler and Code Purple, he had really been solely living off of his dedication to fixing everything. So once everything was fixed, he crashed. Badly. For about seven months no one knew where he was, he ran off to the other side of the country and basically went on a self destructive spree, driving around aimlessly. Once he came back home, Sparrow and him had their first heated argument. Sparrow wouldn't let Lark out of his sight, and pushed him to do something other than wallow in self hatred. So Lark started working at a mechanic shop down the road, and without his usual purpose, he threw himself into the work.He worked there for 12 years before an accident involving his right knee happened, leaving him immobilized (hence the mobility aid/cane). Sparrow forced him to leave the job behind after that, at 59, Lark's basically been in a weird stasis, waiting to die.

[acklum]

Unexpected guest -

I have no crumbs to share

With sparrows today.

-acklum

[dansnaturepictures]

Bempton Cliffs and Flamborough June 2024

The head iconic, the cliffs tall,

Covered in white, Gannets galore,

Kittiwakes too, with their soothing call,

Guillemots, Razorbills and more,

You have to examine the crevices for the sea clown,

Exotic billed Puffins that can hide,

Entranced by elegant Fulmars one could never frown,

As in the wind they effortlessly glide,

Tree Sparrows chatter, Swallows and House Martins attend the nest,

Short-eared and Barn Owl a captivating sight,

Seeing which can excite you best,

Yellow, pink and white meadows awakened by sunlight,

The sea an uplifting shade of blue,

Like seeing a marsh orchid, in the water is a treasure,

The intimate moment to have a Grey Seal stare at you,

Painted Lady and other butterflies add to the pleasure,

Silver Y, Sedge Warbler and Whitethroat,

Chiffchaff, Stonechat and Reed Bunting bringing more elation,

So relaxed I could almost float,

Vising Bempton Cliffs and Flamborough I feel a gratifying sensation,