Montage de photos

Once again randomly remembered this story about a couple who had a small parrot - pretty sure it was a budgie - who didn't talk but learned to communicate with people in its own way. Once it figured out that people always turn to check their phones when the notification sound comes on, it started making the text message notification sound to request human attention. The parrot also liked to follow people to the door whenever guests were leaving, and would use its wings to pantomime the motions of a person putting their coat on. A very clever, charming bird.

And every once in a while it just randomly hated some people. Not for any real reason, or even reason to suspect bad vibes, but by deciding "fuck this person in particular" for shits and giggles alone. And one time when the owners had invited a new friend to their home, the bird decided that it Did Not Like Her.

So in the middle of polite conversation, the bird - who was free to roam around the apartment at the time - hopped onto the living room coffee table, right in front of the unwanted guest. And in that moment, the owners put two and two together and understood that whatever mischief the bird had decided to do, it was now too late to stop it.

But instead of unleashing the absolute hell that even the tiniest displeased parrot could be capable of, the little budgie made its little "may I have your attention please" cell phone notification sound, and once the guest was focused on the bird, looked at her dead in the eye while doing the putting-my-coat-on wing motion.

The guest did not recognise the pantomime for what it was, but she was nonetheless delighted that the parrot would do a little wing-roll dance for her. And the host couple were at first too stunned and then too polite to tell her how impressive that gesture truly was. Their bird had shown both remarkable restraint and cleverness by using its entire vocabulary of human communication just to say

"I have an important announcement: I think you should leave."

I found a piece of onion skin that looks like a mermaid tail, and that feels like half a story idea about a fairytale where someone tries to call up fantasy creatures in the river. What would a tiny onion mermaid look like?

Didn't want to lose those tags!! This is an awesome prompt for a story!

@crystalshard also has good tag ideas:

Little onion mermaids shedding tailskins, trailing onion scent in the water; that sounds fascinating.

Onions are healthy for fish! Onion mermaid, to me, is a very important part of the ecosystem. The scales they shed are eaten by other fishes, as it helps them grow faster than other foods do.

Maybe it works similarly to garlic for them as well- helping fight against parasites, promoting growth, decreasing mortality rates.

Maybe the little onion mermaids shed very regularly, and are protected similarly to those spiders that keep small frogs around- perhaps certain predator types protect them from danger, let them feed on scraps and extras they have- because it helps the growth of their main food supply: the fish in the area that feed on the shedding.

Are they? The search results I'm getting make it sound like food onions may be different from "water onions," but I've never looked it up before. And in fantasyland, anything goes!

I wonder if the onion mermaids would have scales in wild warning colors, so the predators don't bite into something they'll regret.

Arboreal Species

We had plenty of options for ways to keep occupied while waiting for the client to show up and collect his delivery. Several of the crew were playing card games with the captain, using a delivery crate as a table, and she was beating the pants off all of them. (Though none of these particular aliens wore pants. You know what I mean.) Some of the others waited inside the ship, declaring boredom with this particular patch of exotic wilderness.

The rest chatted with crew from the ship that had arrived after us, which was also delivering cargo for the same late-to-arrive local. They had plenty to complain about. They also had food to share, and a decent chance that it would be edible by those they shared it with.

While Alien Food Roulette was always exciting, I’d found a much better option.

“Hey, they tell me your species climbs things,” the stranger from the other ship had said, long snout curling into a smile. She looked like a mix of 3/4 baboon and 1/4 crocodile.

“They’re right!” I replied easily. There weren’t many climbing opportunities on our little courier ship, and I was curious where this was going.

The alien pointed at a huge tree on the edge of the landing pad, which boasted smooth orange bark with branches every couple feet. “I’m gonna go climb that. Care to join me?”

“Would I ever!” I said, already heading toward it. I called back over my shoulder, “If you guys need me, I’ll be up a tree!”

Guess what just got narrated!

Love how tumblr has its own folk stories. Yeah the God of Arepo we’ve all heard the story and we all still cry about it. Yeah that one about the woman locked up for centuries finally getting free. That one about the witch who would marry anyone who could get her house key from her cat and it’s revealed she IS the cat after the narrator befriends the cat.

Might I add:

The defeat of the wizard who made people choose how they’d be to be executed

The woman who raised the changeling alongside her biological child

The human who died of radiation poisoning after repairing the spaceship

The adventures of a space roomba

Cinderella finding Araura (and falling in love)

I don’t know a snappy description but the my nemesis cynthia story certainly lives in my head

hilariously, these are almost all in my fic tag. so, a compiled list from the notes (and some extras):

I am in love with you /p

Adding Faceblind Prince Charming and Cinderella

21. The human who died of radiation poisoning after repairing the spaceship

22. The defeat of the wizard who made people choose how they’d be to be executed

adding the Doctors Without Borders one

I LOVE tumblr storytime, so here’s a bunch more your weekend reading. Enjoy!

24. The Queen with Three Cursed Children

25. Tiny Dragon with one coin hoard

26. Haunted house

27. Shark hero was about to go rogue

28. Grandma lives in the woods comic

29. A Different Aftermath comic

30. Battery (microstory but I love it so much)

31. It’s A Date comic

32. Supervillian kidnaps rival’s kid and they want to stay

33. Narrative Town

34. I have been hired to clean the wizard tower comic

35. Robot Apocalypse

36. The Statues That Do Not Weather

37. Kushiel

38. Tooth Fairy

39. Alien abduction

40. Felonious wish-granting

41. When humans met actual space orcs

42. Space cousins

43. How to Bury a Gentile

Love how tumblr has its own folk stories. Yeah the God of Arepo we’ve all heard the story and we all still cry about it. Yeah that one about the woman locked up for centuries finally getting free. That one about the witch who would marry anyone who could get her house key from her cat and it’s revealed she IS the cat after the narrator befriends the cat.

Might I add:

The defeat of the wizard who made people choose how they’d be to be executed

The woman who raised the changeling alongside her biological child

The human who died of radiation poisoning after repairing the spaceship

The adventures of a space roomba

Cinderella finding Araura (and falling in love)

I don’t know a snappy description but the my nemesis cynthia story certainly lives in my head

hilariously, these are almost all in my fic tag. so, a compiled list from the notes (and some extras):

I am in love with you /p

What about the one with the princess locked in a tower learning to become a wizard? That’s lived in my mind for years and I haven’t seen it in a long time

Oh, love that story, adding it to the list: 20. Princess Talia and adding a few more contenders 21. Thyme 22. The Monster under the Bed 23. A Meaningful Death 24. Humans are unstoppable…until they aren’t 25. The Monster under the Fridge 26. Antler Guy 27. Cleric slamming healing spells

Adding a few more I remembered:  28. The Frog and the Scorpion 29. HSTHETE 30. The First Witch in the World 31. Imagine that Oceans were replaced by Forests  32. A Faerie taking a Name  33. The Dragon on the Farm  34. Synovus & Menace  35. Raising the Anti-Christ  36. Aliens vs. Flora & Fauna of Earth (pretty sure there are even more additions to the original post but I had this one saved)  37. Doctors without Borders…in Space!  38. The Villain-Wrangler  39. The Last Contact  40. The 100 Parent-Point Children  41. And the Heavens Wept  42. The Night Gentleman  43. The Serpent God and their Priestess 

44. No One Showed Up for the Last Storytime

Wow! @writing-prompt-s contributing to like half of these!

I can hardly take any credit for these stories! But I love sharing them. Unfortunately I cannot read all the prompt responses so please tag me if you want me to reblog a story that resonated with you so I can give it a little boost :)

i wish i could look at this… and feel Normal™️

Like when my... No.. i shant say

What's wrong with pineapples?

As someone said on a similar post, this is like talking about who's been at the devil's sacrament and the devil himself shows up.

Senshi and Uncle Iroh would be such good friends guys can you imagine

I have decided that if the Gaang met the Dungeon Foodies (Doodies) then the following would likely occur:

Oh wait I'm not done

17. Reverse "Half-Foots Look like Children to Tallmen" issue where Chilchuck learns Toph is the Blind Bandit and a master earthbender who invented metal bending and was once a champion fighter and just assumes Toph is a full-grown half-foot. Only learns otherwise after they have pulled off several drunken crime sprees

18. Toph, on the other hand, is fully aware that Chilchuck is a grown ass man and just figures he's cool

19. Katara and Marcille bond over Forbidden Evil Magic; Katara learns to use blood bending for not-horrific things (medicine, first aid, prepping wild-caught meat, etc) and Marcille learns to heal more efficiently

20. Laios can see and communicate with literally all the previous avatars but just kinda pretends he can't since nobody else has brought them up yet and he doesn't want it to be a whole Thing

21. Group runs into a platypus and each gang thinks it's an animal from the other's universe. Everyone proceeds to act as though they know exactly what it is in hopes of not appearing ignorant. Neither of them actually knows anything. Through a series of misunderstandings, it is given a nonsensical name and is believed to be an immortal, telepathic incarnation of a heavenly spirit. Laios is the only one to question this and is immediately stung by its venomous feet, which only cements the legend

22. (Always Sunny title card) King Buumi Defeats The Mad Mage

me: i'm adding realism to this medieval fantasy setting

what people think i mean: grime, gratuitous sexual assault and murder, misogyny, child marriage

what i actually mean: everyone reads out loud, women are spinning wool all the time, peasants marry at 20, people wear colors.

Well this is just annoyingly accurate...

And yet how many people consider that little pixel dinosaur to be a beloved part of their internet experience? The world would be poorer without it!

Like yeah I get the frustration of seeing something epic in your head and not being able to make it come out the same on paper. But the greatest gift you can give yourself as an artist is to “yes, and” your art.

The line you just wrote doesn’t sound as dramatic as it did in your head, in fact it makes your character sound sarcastic…. Well, what if the character WAS being sarcastic in that moment? Could that potentially bring something unexpected but fun into the story? Some new angle of character development you hadn’t considered? Maybe, maybe not. But once you start training yourself to give a fair chance to the possibility of being inspired by the ways the work is coming out differently than in your brain, rather than seeing that as a failure, then you open up a whole new world for yourself.

And no idea is ever lost. The epic realistic dinosaur in your brain that came out as pixel art, and then you rolled with it and made a whole bunch of related pixel art… well, the idea of the realistic dino didn’t come to fruition, but it’s not dead and gone. Either you will come back to it later once your art has evolved, or the idea will get mulched and mixed back into the creative currents of your brain, only to resurface in thousands of different ways in many other projects in the future. That’s great too!

I found a piece of onion skin that looks like a mermaid tail, and that feels like half a story idea about a fairytale where someone tries to call up fantasy creatures in the river. What would a tiny onion mermaid look like?

Didn't want to lose those tags!! This is an awesome prompt for a story!

@crystalshard also has good tag ideas:

Little onion mermaids shedding tailskins, trailing onion scent in the water; that sounds fascinating.

I wanted to put a more positive spin on the popular skeleton leaving meme

so… icecream trucks have those character Popsicle things that sometimes look ok but other times don’t look all that well right? draw one of those of one of your characters.

This looks worse the longer I stare at it. An unpleasant success, I say.