#tex flamingo

[cowardlysimon]

hello Fortnite fandom

[ultrawelo]

yeah. it’s Fortnite fanart 😔

[bogglebeam]

Birds of a Feather

Finished Fortnite fanart of Budge, Tex Flamingo, and Sgt. Drake!

(Ink lines colored digitally.)

[thenumberfives]

i got bored

[nuclearboi256]

Fortnite kinda based for making those birb skins ngl

[thegalleonsnest]

Bird of the Feather, stick together! Absolutely love these bird guys, I wanted to draw them since they came out! I also plan on turning these into stickers real soon, so keep an eye out on my ko-fi!

[magic-is-beauty]

Sweet tooth head cannons part 2

I'm just going to put part 1 of my headcannons here as well since there might some continuations/more details from part 1

The first five animal army members were in order Bear,Tiger,Rhino,Pony,and Flamingo ; At first they had a blood oath ceremony to induct you into the army but that soon stopped after Flamingo since her finger wouldn't stop bleeding and the rest of animal army did NOT want to go through that disaster again (they all have cool matching scars tho from that).

Flamingo's parents were a chef and baker so she grew up around cooking and baking so when I say she can make good food I mean it ; Her ability to make decently good food from what the army was able to get is astonishing.

Rosie,Ginger,Tex,the wolf boys and ginger's son all stay in Texas for a while to monitor and oversee the farm but they eventually leave to find a place closer to where all the hybrids are and so they can have a place to stay that isn't crawling with bad memories.

The farm is still in Rosie and Ginger's hands but they now look over it from the sidelines trusting the people who are there to keep it in order and up to the new standards they've created.

The animal army get stick and poke tattoos of the animal they were while in the army to commemorate their time in the army ; They're still a army but they retire their old outfits for stuff that's more comfortable and recenter their focus on helping hybrids using other means that are not killing ; Bear gets a bear,Tiger gets a tiger,Rhino gets a rhino,Pony gets a pony,Flamingo gets a flamingo,etc.

Tiger before the crumble had a younger sister that was killed by the sick along with their grandparents who she was close with ; Tiger's father eventually joined the last men but both of her parent's soon were killed because of sick which is when they ran away.

Tiger before the crumble learned sewing and embroidery from their mother and was just starting to learn photography from their grandparents ; Tiger kept the camera from their childhood and started getting back into photography during the animal army days and continued it when living with the hybrids (Bear was one of their favorite things to capture) ; Rhino,Pony,Flamingo and Wendy do like to steal it in order to get photographic evidence of Bear and Tiger acting like a couple (but Bear and Tiger don't entirely know that yet).

Bear didn't sleep much when Tiger was injured like she tried but she eventually gave up and just continued to be by Tiger's side as much as she could.

The hybrids and Wendy could sense that Bear wanted to be by Tiger's side so they mostly found ways to entertain themselves with both Wendy and Jepp offering to take up watching and entertaining the hybrids ; Jepp trusted Becky to look over Gus as well since she was in there but still periodically checked in on them.

Bear,Tiger and the rest of the animal army kept the fallen members memory alive by telling stories to the hybrids about them and created a book that honored not only their memories but also Pubba,Birdie,Aimee,Louisa,Dr Singh,Bruno,Roy and many others lost.

The hybrids for some reason really love hammocks so now they have a shit ton around the place in order to decrease arguments of who gets a hammock ; No one touches the hammock towards the outskirts of the woods tho since that's the one that Bear and Tiger share and is the place they go to when they need a break or just want to be alone.

Rosie after everything chills out finally is able to do her art again and now she gets to share this with her boys who are very eager to enjoy something that makes their mother so happy ; Rosie is a really good painter and loves crafting things with Ginger also loving painting (both did it during their pregnancies to help relax them) ; their home is now covered in both Rosie and Ginger's art but also the boy's art pieces that everyone in the house cherishes.

Ginger's son absolutely loves being the water and gets super smiley and happy when bath time comes around ; Rosie jokes that the only time she ever saw that same exact smile is when her boys are running around.

After finally being away from her mother Rosie and her boys can finally grieve the death of Bruno and remember his memory while also grieving the childhood she wished her boys should of had with her making sure that her boys live a safe and happy childhood that she wished Bruno was also allowed to have.

Parenting at first comes not so easily to Rosie,Ginger and Tex but they eventually get the hang of it with the help and advice of Jepp and Becky ; The wolf boys love howling especially when they're happy or excited and it seems like Ginger's child is also quite vocal when it comes to things that make him excited and happy as well with Rosie,Ginger and Tex not minding it at all but instead encouraging it.

Parenting the wolf boys isn't entirely easy since they were taught so much terrible shit that needs to be unlearned but Rosie wouldn't trade it for the world because now she knows that she teaching and parenting them herself instead of somebody else ; It takes time to get them to unlearn the bad habits taught to them but since the boys are still fairly young they respond well and are able to learn and be around their mother who adores them ,their cousin who they love to be around and a whole bunch of others who are not only like them but who are not scared of them and want to be around them.

Rhino,Pony,and Flamingo are now overseeing the new animal army with the help of both Bear and Tiger and visit the cabin fairly often to see their favorite people : the hybrids ; The hybrids do visit the animal army HQ once in while and they always end eating too much sugar,playing games,being spoiled and staying up way too late much to the dismay of Jepp,Bear,and Tiger.

However when Flamingo finds all the homegrown food at the cabin has it's over for everyone with Flamingo at first freaking out since she hasn't had this much to work with in years and then ends up making one of the best dishes anyone has ever had making the hybrids flock to poor Flamingo with food requests ; Flamingo in the span of a few months lovingly makes all the hybrids their food requests because she can't say no to those faces.

Rosie,Ginger,Tex and the boys manage to find a quaint farmhouse about 30 minutes away from the hybrids to settle down in and with the help of Jepp,Tiger and Flamingo manage to start growing their own food but they still spend a decent amount of time hanging out in the woods with everyone not just to socialize the boys but because the boys seem so happy being in an environment surrounded with kids like them and who was Rosie to take away what made her kids so happy.

The hybrids,Jepp,Wendy,Gus,and Bear are all pretty light sleepers with everything that has happened so they usually wake up with any slight noise but then go back to bed if not anything to be worried about. Tiger and the animal army on the other hand sleep like the dead unless they hear a actually concerning sound which is when they really wake up.

The hybrids share tree houses not only because they like sharing a space but it's because in case someone has a nightmare or a bad memory there's always going to be someone in the tree house to help them and be there for them ; Jepp,Becky and Tiger always tell them to come to them when that happens and they do when it's bad or when they want too(Gus goes to Jepp,Wendy goes to Becky,the other hybrids will go switch between Jepp,Becky,and Tiger) but a decent amount of time it can be helped with just being around one another and being reminded that they're alive surrounded by friends and in a safe environment.

A lot of the time the hybrids sleep under the stars being able to see the sky and hear the sounds of the woods around them but they do also sleep in the tree houses (that are equipped with nightlights) since it's their space and they love it.

Bear and Tiger enjoy climbing onto the roof of their tree house and stargazing or just talking or they climb onto their designated tree and sit there enjoying the view or again just talking about anything and everything.

Rosie,Ginger and the boys eventually meet the animal army who immediately love the boys ; Rosie comes with the hybrids when they visit the animal army HQ since the boys still get a little anxious when they're away from their mother and Rosie doesn't think she's ever heard them howl so loudly or seem the light shine so bright in their eyes.

[vanlegion]

More Birbs!

Okay yeah this is been kinda fun and endearing... Tex - Secretary Bird. Dedicated Hunters. They have a super deadly kick that can instantly (hundredth of a second) transfer like five times it's weight into its prey (135 Newtons of force). Bad ass bitch. Grif - Shoebill. This thing looks creepy as fuck and at first I was like leaning towards Caboose for it, but then I saw how this thing eats and was like, nah that's Grif. Also it makes a noise that sounds like a machine gun, oddly enough. Also their Give No Fucks attitude. Can fuck you up if you mess with them enough. It's bill reminds me of the Grifshot. I . . . can't really explain why. The curve and hook at the end? Mmhm. Tucker - Superb Bird of Paradise - A Black and Teal bird that likes to dance his swagger for the ladies. Donut - FLAMINGO! HOW DID I MISS THIS BEFORE?! Caboose - Hyacinth Macaw - Largest Parrot, Blue, affectionate and Loves to cuddle and play.

.... Still debating the rest. This is still so silly but a lot of fun.

[pongonn]

INTRO POST💪💪

I'M HERE, I'M QUEER, AND I HATE THE FUCKING GOVERNMENT!( -_•)▄︻テحكـ━一💥

hellooo! I'm Pongonn! You can also call me Casey or Melanie :)

I'm a teen minor, They/he/she, genderqueer🏳️‍⚧️

I'm pretty sure I'm bisexual, leaning towards women

HIGHLY suspected AuDHD

I also have mental issues, be wary- I do get suicidal at times, sorry☹️

Yes, I'm a yumeshipper, but I'm not open abt it🤷 SORTA non-sharing tbh but not really,,

(MAINLY NON-SHARING WHEN IT COMES TO MEDKIT AND COIL)

Series I like!

(Bolded = current hyperfixation)

Sonic(HUGE FAN SINCE I WAS LITTLE OMGG)

FNAF

Omori

Pizza Tower

Block Tales

Object Shows

MLP

Hello John Doe

ROBLOX MYYYTTTHHHHHHSSSS

The Stanley Parable

Wii Deleted You

Bugbo

Helluva Boss

Sugary Spire

Forsaken

Regretevator

Pressure

Phighting!

Dream Game(Roblox)

Dave And Bambi

Rayman(every game)

Ultrakill

Lethal Company

TF2

Deltarune

Undertale

Smiling Friends(omfg I love Smiling Friends sm)

Sam & Max

Lethal League(and Lethal League Blaze too)

Murder Drones

Raggedy Ann and Andy:A musical adventure

Toilet Bound Hanako-Kun

OFF

Law of Talos(OMG OMG OMG I LOVE LOT SM)

Endzone(I LOVE ENDZONE SM TOO)

Welcome Home

Spooky Month

Sally Face

NITW

Newsies the musical(underrated movie fr)

All Mean Girls movies

Gregory Horror Show

Castle Crashers

ENA

Wander Over Yonder

DSAF

Tattletail

ENA

ENA Dream BBQ

BattleBlock Theatre

DHMIS(I started tweaking when they posted a whole season)

South Park

Neon Genesis Evangalion

Vs.Sonic.exe(IM STILL PISSED IT WAS CANCELLED IT WAS AND STILL IS MY FAVORITE MOD EVER)

Sonic.exe in general

Mandela Catalogue

The Walten Files

Dialtown

Cuphead

Shovelware's Brain Game

Lucky Star

Gravity Falls

aannd that's all I can think of!

/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

Musical Artists and people I like!

Will Wood(IM A HUGE FAN OMGCXG)

Oingo Boingo(RRAAAHHHHHH I LOVE OINGO BOINGO SM THEY'RE SO UNDERRATED)

Rio Romeo

Whitey

Destroy Boys

Gezebelle Gaburgably

Alex G

Tyler The Creator

Goreshit

Sacristuff

Mitski

Go Hang Music

Korn

WillyRodriguezWasTaken

That Handsome Devil

Kendrick Lamar (KENDRIIICCKKKK!!! DROP ANOTHER DISS TRACK,, AND MY LIFE,, IS YOURS!)

Jschlatt

Kwite

Flamingo

Mitski

Stomach Book

Graham Kartna

Jack Stauber

Lemon Demon

Weezer

AJJ

Caravan Palace

Crystal Castles

System Of A Down

They Might Be Giants

H!tex

6arleyhuman

Odetari

Prodkaz

Kets4eki

Nuvfr

ICP

Vertigoaway

Malice Mizer

Tv Girl

MSI(I DONT SUPPORT WHAT JIMMY DID)

and that's also all I can think of!

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Character's I love!

(♥️=yume)

(❤️‍🔥=non-sharing)

Medkit(Phighting!)♥️❤️‍🔥

Slingshot(Phighting!)

Skateboard(Phighting!)

Coil(Phighting!)♥️❤️‍🔥

Steampunk(Phighting!)

Rocket(Phighting!)

Boombox(Phighting!)

Katana(Phighting!)

Subspace(Phighting!)

Noobador(Block Tales)♥️❤️‍🔥

Sebastian(Pressure)♥️

P.AI.nter(Pressure)

Reginald(Pressure)

Pandemonium(Pressure)

NULL(Regretevator)♥️(kinda)

Falliay(Kaleidoscope)

Dummy(Kaleidoscope)

C00lkidd(Forsaken)

Cupcakes C00lkidd skin(Forsaken)

Chance(Forsaken)♥️

Elliot(Forsaken)♥️

Mafioso(Dream Game)♥️

1x1x1x1 (Forsaken)

John Doe(Forsaken, Hello John Doe FNF mod)

Doombringer(Roblox)

Telamon(Roblox)

Griefer(Block tales)♥️

Cruel King(Block tales)♥️ I want that old man

ENA(Dream BBQ)♥️❤️‍🔥 (MY WIFE)

Sunny(Omori)

Basil(Omori)

Rayman

Ramon

Pinkie Pie

Applejack

Twilight Sparkle

Fluttershy

Rainbow Dash

Sapphire Shores

N(Murder Drones)

Mari(Omori)

Home(Welcome Home)

Barnaby(Welcome Home)

Poppy Partridge(Welcome Home)

Streber(Spooky Month)

Ethan(Spooky Month)

Leon(Spooky Month)

Bon(Walten Files)

Sha(Walten Files)

Banny(Walten Files)

Henry(Wii Deleted You)

Pico

Infected (Regretevator)

Randy Jade(Dialtown)

Wally(Welcome Home)

Oliver Swift(Dialtown)

Karl(Law of Talos)

Climber(Endzone&Law of Talos)

Chimbley(Endzone&Law of Talos)

Cat Butler(Omori)(I LOVE HIM SM)

Glamrock Chica

Hanako-Kun(TBHK)

Mitsuba(TBHK)

Dave(DnB)

Sonic

Amy Rose

Knuckles

Scorbunny(Pokémon)

Blaziken(Pokémon)

Goh(Pokémon)

Sally Face

That fucking robot on Caravan Palace's MVs and Album Covers

Cuphead

Red Guy

Benzene (LoT)

Shadow the Hedgehog

Dipper Pines

Pest(Regretevator)♥️

Bill Cipher

Mae(NITW)♥️

Gregg(NITW)

Angus(NITW)

Bea(NITW)♥️

Phone guy(FNAF)

Dave(DSAF)

Crem(Regretevator)

and that's about it!(there's more I can't think of)

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DNI and INT!

DNI:

Andy and Leyley fans

JustAMinx fans

Trump supporters and MAGA bsf

Period cramps😕/silly

basic dni

INT:

if u like any of the stuff I like!

[rubykgrant]

If your family of Reds and Blues were in Sing, what animals would they each be and what's one or maybe two songs they'd each sing?

Ah, this is tricky one to answer... I've seen the first Sing movie, and while it was fun, I wasn't super into it, and I haven't watched the second one yet... in terms of animals, I've played around with giving the RVB characters daemons (from the Golden Compass/His Dark Materials), and I also drew some of them in fancy/elegant outfits with different animal themes. Mixing those together, and changing up a few, I think-

Church; a barn owl

Tex; a black swan

Tucker; a fox

Caboose; an ox

Kai; a lion

Wash; a cheetah

Carolina; a maned wolf

Sarge; a red panda

Simmons; a deer

Grif; a lion (he's technically a mountain lion, or a PUMA)

Donut; a flamingo

Doc (and O'Malley); a badger

(Felix is a possum, and Locus is an alligator)

As for songs, I've talked about what might be fun for them to sing karaoke together before (Church and Donut doing "Escape/the Piña Colada Song" by Rupert Holmes, Grif and Simmons singing "If I Had a Million Dollars" by the Barenaked Ladies, Church and Tucker singing "I'm Blue" by Eiffel 65), but I think in terms of it being in the Sing universe, the characters would be in two teams that are eventually going to compete against each other. They would all have different solo songs they audition with (I can't think of ones for everybody right now, but Donut does "Hit Me Baby One More Time", specifically the cover by Bowling For Soup. Tex does "Get Off of My Back" by Bryan Adams), and then do two big group performances in the final show!

Red Team; "99 Red Balloons" by Nena

Blue Team; "Mr Blue Sky" by Electric Light Orchestra

Thanks for asking~

[bogglebeam]

Finished my ink drawing of the birds Budge, Tex Flamingo, and Sgt. Drake from Fortnite! Will color digitally.

[hamtodaygames]

Birds of a feather squad together. Or maybe play trios. Budge, Sgt. Drake, and Tex Flamingo have landed in the Fortnite Item Shop!

[thenumberfives]

someone told me that corvus looked like they came from the sims and now i want someone to mod these birds into the sims 4 as fullbody costumes

[furryfortnite]

The original Birds of a Feather bundle, including Budge, Tex Flamingo and Sgt. Drake is also back in the Shop! There's also a sneaky release (it's not even marked as new!), the Budge Blaster wrap (not in the bundle). Use code FURRYBAIT to support us! #EpicPartner #FurryFortnite

[thegalleonsnest]

If you need to squad with others, why not stick to some feathery friends? New stickers are now up on my ko-fi! Based on my art piece, Includes all 3 birds separately, or in a big sticker variant in two sizes!

If you like what you see here, I have other stickers from other series and just more birds in general too! I still have plenty of ideas I wanna work on and add to the shop so if you wanna keep up, follow me on ko-fi to see what else gets added!

[hehhh1]

“Everybody knows, everybody goes”

Magnolia Cafe, at the corner of Lake Austin Boulevard and Veterans Drive in Austin, Texas, was not only an iconic place but an iconic environment. It was a true diner—inexpensive, greasy, and fast-paced, often catering to truckers, police officers, and other laborers with early-morning and late-night shifts. It was also one of the city’s few 24-hour establishments, with what some might call an “Austin-twist”: it served comfort food, such as oversized pancakes and tuna melts, with half-liter plastic cups of water alongside Tex Mex dishes. Its specialty was “Mag Mud,” a mix of canary yellow queso, black beans, avocado, and pico de gallo. 

In Texas’ capital, where the population has expanded ten-fold since the 1950s, Magnolia has been a constant since its debut as “Omelettry West” in 1979. Its survival for more than forty years alone granted it legendary status; in a city quickly gentrifying as a product of its tech sector boom, a business lifetime of more than a decade is an impressive feat. At the crux of the MoPac Expressway (posthumously named after the Missouri Pacific Railroad) and Lady Bird Lake (posthumously named after Lyndon B. Johnson’s wife, the architect of many public beautification projects), Magnolia acted as a common joint between the youthful central Austin, affluent west Austin, and bohemian south Austin. Convenient for the college scene, the local aristocracy and the hippies alike. 

The homely two-winged 1960s ranch-style structure was welcoming.  Unpretentious and familiar in the landscape of one-story monuments to outdated Texan architecture, and nestled in its ample parking lot with space for diesel pickup trucks, luxury imported sedans, and police cruisers. Two dining rooms were connected only by a kitchen; patrons in the east wing had to walk outside to access the overcrowded, single-stall toilets in the west wing. The near-constant wait created a social scene out of the front patio, its primary attraction being a gazebo-covered picnic table, carved with graffiti and cigarette burns. The booths were wrapped with a selection of flamingo, Hawaiian, and insect-themed laminates and the windows were filled with red neon signs alerting the public, “Sorry, we’re open.” From the ceiling hung what I imagine is a life-sized construction of a pterodactyl skeleton.

The clientele had no discernible makeup. You were equally likely to run into 16-year-old fraternity-stars-to-be, elderly Texan ranchers, and punks recovering after the shows taking place minutes away downtown. The staff withstood the test of time while constantly shifting; they were always young, always exuberant, and always off-kilter from the social norm. Their eternally gracious and sociable attitude created what was Austin’s most ubiquitous favorite eatery, encapsulated in its slogan: “Everybody knows, everybody goes.”

Despite its iconic stature, this location of Magnolia closed in April 2020 due to financial challenges brought on by the COVID pandemic. Magnolia’s permanent shuttering was, for me, quite possibly the most hard-hitting news of the pandemic. Any long-term Austin resident becomes accustomed and resilient to frequent closures of important establishments, but rarely is it the ones that are so widely valued. Often, there is no satisfying explanation for the demise of local enterprises; the immense disconnect between the city’s long-standing residents and recent transplants means there is no consensus around which historical aspects of Austin are valuable or worth retaining. More often than not, the ultimate decisions are decided or informed by the newer occupants: the nouveau riche of the newly-created Apple, Facebook, and Google offices, those who have more use for a Tesla dealership or a rooftop bar or a luxury condominium complex than they do for a mere diner, regardless of its status as the most foundational site of my—and so many others’—teen years. Developers know this, and that sealed Magnolia’s fate. 

I had gone to Magnolia since early childhood, as long as I could remember. It was one of the few restaurants accessible from my house without taking a highway, a feature that gave it an added sense of comfort. However, the inauguration of Magnolia as a true staple in my life was April 11 2014, during the spring break of my junior year of high school. Max, my whirlwind first love-turned first heartbreak-turned-romantically-ambiguous-but definitively-close-friend, was visiting town from D.C., and after a failed attempt to have sex on painkillers and ecstasy, we departed home in a dark hour of the night to meet up with another common friend, Gillian. We met at Magnolia, of course, our only midnight option in a town only beginning its process of rapid urbanization. 

Before ordering, Gillian and I were deadlocked in one of our regular and inane arguments over whether or not we happened to have the same physician’s assistant. Both descriptively similar women named Beverly working somewhere in north Austin, I insisted they must have been the same person. As Gillian opened her mouth, surely to vehemently disagree, Josephine strolled to our table to take our orders. She stood tall above our booth with a slender frame, either to be described as gaunt or modelesque. Her thinned skin and eye bags suggested prolonged fatigue and years of smoking, but her demeanor, even in the middle of the night, was effortlessly jaunty and candid. She had an air of inherent familiarity and candor, so I demanded she act as a tie-breaker for this debate.

“Beverly is definitely a period name,” Josephine said, “like in the 1960s everyone was naming their kids Chandelier and Cadillac.” I quickly learned that Josephine always spoke the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. It was a repulsive quality to some, but attractive to others. I was instantly entranced. She had myriad unique tattoos, she had explicit photos that a drummer of one of the country’s foremost rock bands had recently sent her (a former flame from her high school days in California), and she afforded her rent and alcohol on 30 hours per week, exclusively after 9 PM and before 9 AM. She turned Magnolia from a home away from home into my home away from home. That night, nearly at sunrise, she scribbled her name and her schedule down on my receipt, both as a memento and as a way for me to plan my weekends around her.

From then on, I did. My friends and I desperately sought the independence to drink gas station Chardonnay and smoke menthol cigarettes that we were denied inside of the comfort of our parents’ homes, and the locations for our nightly escapades were severely limited. Coffee shops closed, parks had curfews, but Magnolia was always open. So every weekend, we went to seek consolation and counsel from Josephine and the other insomniacs at the diner. Josephine acted as a confessional, a diary, and a mentor to me. While she always listened to and advised me, she shared the gritty details of her life as well with little filter.

Her idiosyncrasies led us, as callous teenagers, to joke that Josephine seemed like she was on meth, though none of us yet knew that she’d actually gotten the monkey off her back and was only taking a cocktail of mood stabilizers and (legal) amphetamines. She brought forth the life experience of a one-time UCLA student turned routine patient at various Los Angeles and New York City addiction treatment centers. Despite her years of substance abuse, she had a youthful face which fit her 24-year-old body—though she attributed this to the Botox she received via facial injection, the only FDA approved single-serving treatment for her migraine headaches.

At the time, the waitstaff at Magnolia knew more about me than anyone else. Whether with friends or alone, I would sit for hours. The hosts knew me and where to seat me, the waiters knew me and which predicaments to pick back up on each time I arrived, and the managers resented me for the amount of time their staff dedicated to talking to me. In the beginning, if Josephine was working, my meals were free. Over time, the rest of the staff caught on that I was not a paying customer—something I had never asked for, but made me feel infinitely adored. I came elated, depressed, or (more often than not) heartbroken.

I had supportive parents, a psychiatrist, and a therapist, but Magnolia Cafe was the support network that gave me what I knew I was missing. Josephine became the shoulder to cry on, the guru to snap us out of a bad trip, and the muse to inspire us to face our fears in pursuing the boys we all wanted, and who variably wanted us too, but were too afraid to confront such desires.

Magnolia was nearly always the final destination. A place I could go to at the end of a night of drinking—and knew I could stay until the sun rose. A place to celebrate: the first time I kissed my crush of many years at my 16th birthday party, my acceptance into college hundreds of miles away, my high school graduation. A place to grieve: when said love interest chose to date a juvenile girl over me, my final departure from my life with my parents and friends of many years and to said college so many hundreds of miles away, and the seemingly common but dramatic dissolutions of the friendships built throughout high school and childhood at large. Part of what made this diner so unique was that these experiences were not. It was the destination, oasis, and secondary home of so many with such soul-consuming but transient problems as mine. 

By the time Magnolia capsized, Josephine had jumped ship. When I arrived home in the summer of 2016 after my first year of college, as with every other break from school, I immediately went to Magnolia as a homecoming celebration. That evening, Josephine sat in the booth with me to make an admission. She spoke softly, completely uncharacteristically, so as not to reveal her words to her coworkers or manager. She informed me that she was pregnant after taking a gender-ambiguous model’s virginity in the West Texan desert. Pregnancy in and of itself had not been uncommon for her. What varied this time is that she had decided to keep it; not “keep it” in that she was sure she would carry it to term, but that she felt she had taken enough drugs, enough morning-after pills, and had enough abortions that she would roll the dice. She told me she would wait—it felt probable she would miscarry, and, if not, she would have a child. She was ready for either option. 

Once her daughter was born later that year, Josephine progressively cut her hours to naught. Truthfully, Josephine’s—and Magnolia’s—influence on my life began to wane almost simultaneously with my entrance into my 20s. As Josephine shed her debaucherous lifestyle in favor of motherhood, I discovered a powerful ability to compartmentalize more and share less. Magnolia retained its status as an integral meeting point for my increasingly infrequent trips back to Austin, as the importance of my childhood home itself faded as well. Nevertheless, to have the diner there, even for a biannual sojourn, brought me immense comfort and nostalgia. I’m familiar with her whereabouts due to social media, but I know that her role in my life, just as Magnolia’s, can never be reinstated—or replaced.

Since hearing of Magnolia’s permanent closure during the early stages of the 2020 pandemic, I still do not know exactly what I’ve lost. When upscale condominiums are inevitably constructed in its place, at the crux of Central, West and South Austin, will they sit on the ashes of my adolescence? I am torn between that prediction, and one far more devout; the destruction of a place so beloved to me, holding both my joys and my traumas, will serve to emancipate me from my past, to allow me to grow, knowing these memories have transcended in some sense, as if this eatery had been a journal I had written in to mitigate my lowest points and memorialize my highest. 

I fear the latter is a paradox, for as we watch the endless expansion of the divide between rich and poor in our cities, metropolitan sprawl engulfs those fundamental establishments to what we view as home —a phenomenon grieved not just in the U.S., but globally, and greatly abetted by pandemic—an ability to view the places lost as still a part of us is eclipsed by the sentiment that, instead, they are casualties of war. Although it may sound bleak, as a universal truth, virtually everything we know is ephemeral. Either everything we know and love will cease to exist, or we will ourselves; in the meantime, our minds are flooding with memories and sentiments—and ultimately, it’s not the physical places or people that stay with us, but the sentiments themselves.