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listlessdionysian · 5 months

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Short Fiction (Fantasy): Grimm, Rudd, and Deorwine

Morning all. Here's a little story-building vignette for my next novel. I've taken to writing these lately as a way to piece together pieces and fragments of the world, test out characters, and dramatize its history. The original document used footnotes and Tumblr seems to have moved them to the very bottom.

Grimm, Rudd, and Deorwine

To call them killers and thieves would be to do them a disservice. The soon-to-be masters of Pyllwic’s criminal underworld, housed in the Burrows beneath the city, were more than that – and many disregarded them before their rise to power. Grimm was of below average height and stockily built. Possessing the kind of build where fat and muscle are easily confused. Rudd, meanwhile, was taller, rangier, with quick fingers and a disarming smile. Rudd was the younger of the pair and yet quickly became Grimm’s indispensable partner.

I have spoken to eyewitnesses from that time, before the city itself collapsed in a smoking ruin – finally surrendering to the forces of entropy and decay – and none could swear to knowing either man before they appeared as a pair. It was as if neither existed until they came together. Both manifesting in early adulthood, perhaps rising from the sea foam of the unsettled eastern sea beyond the city’s bay. No one can be sure of their parentage or origins. But many assume they were Burrow-born, because why else would they be there?

The Burrows were all that remained of the original Aos Si settlement. A vast network of tunnels and caves carved by the roots of the Great Tree planted by the city’s founders, in imitation of their ancestral home in Freimhe. These Aos Si had been born out of season – Freimhe's Great Oak had been in a fallow season, but their parents had coupled anyway – and were required to leave. The story of Braddock arriving with some of the survivors of Old Aurora’s fall are commonplace, and his clash with the Aos Si and their eventual ejection from that place are recalled in legends and tavern tales. Neither of which are our concern.

Grimm and Rudd appeared some eleven-hundred years after Pyllwic became a human settlement (its original name is long since lost, sadly). Just as they manifested as a pair, they seemed immediately in demand with the various small gangs residing in the Burrows. The Cutter, Gripes’s, and Mad Nell’s gangs were frequent and notable employers of theirs. Tasking them with odd jobs that required a defter touch and, above all, discretion.

‘They was like ghosts or something,’ one eyewitness told me, ‘The Tanner’s Guild was late with their donations[1], and Nell weren’t patient. But her lot were a bunch of cadhacks[2], not good for quiet work. She knew the boys were good and asked them to collect – but they had to do it right. Particular. They had to get what was owed, not get caught, but also let them that owed know something had been took.’

So it was that Grimm and Rudd left the Barrows, supposedly with a satchel gently oozing blood, and disappeared into the city. The Tanner’s Guild was in the south of the city but west of Bellows Row where most of the city’s workshops called home. An opulent building in total contradiction to the disreputable work it represented – dark timbers and bright smooth limed walls, a sign above the door wrought in filigreed gold emblazoned with a golden animal hide. The Guilders represented the tanners themselves – whose tanneries were set outside the city walls and considerably down wind, to contain the smell. While the Guilders themselves had once been tanners, or at least their parents and grandparents had been, they were in a class of their own in the time of Grimm and Rudd.

They succeeded in avoiding the city guards and whatever security the guild had hired. It is believed at that time they employed a small company of mercenaries from Searden – a harsh and resilient people, used to cold stone and harsh winters, completely out of place in a coastal city. A violent and impatient group, if Grimm and Rudd had been discovered they were unlikely to have survived the encounter.

How they executed their plan is unclear, but at the time was a common topic of conversation – with much of the criminal underworld treating it as a puzzle or parlour game while they drank through the night.

Here is what is known: they took down the guild’s sign (its weight in gold far outstripping the late fees owed the gang) and replaced it with a stretch of still fresh goat hide. The story goes that the work was so expertly done that the exchange was only discovered when one of the Guilders stepped outside and complained of rain, only to find his fur mantle ruined by fat globules of rancid goat blood.

The sign itself was considerable in size and not easily disguised. Some supposed they dismantled it: the backboard was of the same stout dark wood that served as the building’s timbers, but the gold itself could be broken into pieces and shared between them. But – as others have pointed out – the golden hide was not sold. In fact, it hung in pride of place in Mad Nell’s hideout before her gang was subsumed into Grimm and Rudd’s larger, more complicated network. The hide disappeared but, so the story goes, it remained in their possession until Pyllwic’s destruction.

However it was done – they removed the sign in total silence, transported it through the city undetected, and finally presented it to Mad Nell who rewarded them handsomely. It also earned the awe and admiration of their fellows. Before they had been respected – now they were legends.

Now, it was around this time that the city’s master – Lord Goddrickson – dismissed his councillors. While a port city, Pyllwic was far to the north of the Auroran capital and well away from other towns and cities with which it could trade. So, while it saw a great deal of legitimate trade – its craftspeople were well respected, if nothing else, and their work was valuable – its wealth largely came from smuggling and piracy. One of the peculiarities of Pyllwic is that this was common knowledge: many of the goods that passed through the hands of the traders were stolen, or the boon of piracy, and yet none accepted or acknowledged it.

Despite the sire of the Goddrickson line being regarded as a legendary warrior and leader, his descendants were considerably less grandiose. It was said, at the time, that they were dangerously out of touch.

‘We used to joke about it,’ another eyewitness said, ‘We were all living in one world and they lived in another. Being up on the hill in that big house, with their parties, and the gardens, and all the rest of it. Everyone kept trying to tell his lordship this was how the city worked but he never listened. Always telling the guard to come down Below and kick us out. Even the guards thought that was funny.’

His councillors were more pragmatic and had entered into a series of delicate agreements and understandings with the Burrow gangs. The councillors did not interfere with them, and the gangs returned the favour. At times matters would need to be dealt with discreetly and in a manner well outside the purview of court politics and edicts, in which case the gangs were a useful resource. Lord Goddrickson became aware of these exchanges rather late in the game and was, apparently, incensed.

The old councillors were ejected, with their homes and fortunes forfeit, and a new generation was brought in. Amongst them was the man known to history only as Deorwine – his role in Pyllwic’s downfall was considerable, but that’s outside the scope of this document. Here is what is known: Deorwine was the son of a sailor and grew up in the eastern docklands. Poor, but a hair away from the kind of poverty that would have seen him and his parents living in the Burrows. At some point he caught the attention of some of the port clerks as an intelligent boy, and a quick learner. He began as an errand boy but quickly learned their trade and became a skilled negotiator and administrator.

How he caught Goddrickson’s attention is uncertain, but his appointment came as a shock. The rationale, at least publicly, was this: Deorwine, born into a poor household, showed the level of aspiration needed to elevate the city out of its unseemly reputation. He had a head for business and numbers and was seemingly incorruptible – having resisted the overtures of the various Burrow gangs who tried to skim from the warehouses under his remit. That the gangs had not killed him was a further mystery, but only convinced Goddrickson further of Deorwine’s virtue and suitability for the role. Here was a man who could both resist and control Pyllwic’s criminal elements.

The old councillors, homeless and penniless, drifted down to the Burrows where all such people eventually gather and accumulate. Several resorted to begging – surfacing during the day and withdrawing at night to drink and complain of their ill fortune. Others, of a more enterprising spirit, began to foment. They ingratiated themselves to the gangs they had once employed and began to fill their heads with visions of glory. Goddrickson’s government was unstable – the new councillors not yet embedded deeply enough, their powerbase still too young and vulnerable. The Lord himself was a fool and did not command the respect of his own forces. It would not take too much effort, or risk, for one of the gangs to supplant Goddrickson and take the city itself.

Pyllwic would then, truly, become a city of thieves. Confirming and then surpassing its reputation.

This appealed to the larger gangs, but the smaller declined. They lacked the numbers and the resources for such a coup and did not trust the larger gangs. They gambled that – without their help – the larger gangs would either give up on the notion or would fail in their attempt with their position in the pile available for usurpation.

In all of this Grimm and Rudd remained unusually quiet.

Mainly because, during this time, they spent little time in the Burrows and a great deal of time above ground with Deorwine. Goddrickson had miscalculated: Deorwine’s ability to resist the gangs threats and entreaties without was not due to some unusual genius (although this not to diminish Deorwine’s obvious qualities which are recalled elsewhere), but because he had already entered into an agreement with two of Pyllwic’s more notorious criminals, whose reputation forbade poaching. For years he had worked with Grimm and Rudd, skimming from the warehouses, and concealing the losses with deft accounting. In turn the pair kept the warehouses safe from other poachers and occasionally lent their diverse skillset to Deorwine’s uses.

And this is the key to both mysteries, both Grimm and Rudd’s sudden appearance in the criminal underworld and Deorwine’s meteoric rise to power: they had grown up together.

‘The legends and all that guff came later, and people just assumed Grimm and Rudd were Burrow boys because why else were they there? Anyone who had a choice wouldn’t sink that low.’

Grimm, Rudd, and Deorwine were of a similar age and from the same neighbourhood of the docklands – a set of shacks a row behind the warehouses. They grew up playing in the dim and rank back alleys, watching the wealth of the city pass in and out of those docklands. Learned the language of the docks, the sailors, and the criminals that took their cut of both. Grimm and Rudd idolised the thieves they encountered and dreamed of becoming legends themselves. Deorwine’s ambitions were more grounded, but loftier still.

In the end – as it later proved to often be the case – it was his idea.

He helped them plan their first few jobs, how to carry themselves, who to speak to and how to handle them. Deorwine helped them build their reputation – although all the art of the execution was their own. Grimm and Rudd had incredible talents and insights of their own, but Deorwine had the edge when it came to planning – especially for the long term.

So it was that while the underworld looked ready to stage a coup, with the backing of disgraced councilors and some of the more terrified guilders with their modest mercenary companies, Grimm, Rudd, and Deorwine put together a plan to thwart them. There is a value in holding a great deal of power and respect, and never using it. A greater value still in using them judiciously.

The plan was this: to take the city, both above and below, in a single stroke.

Deorwine had the ear of Goddrickson, and was too unknown a commodity in the city for the guard to hate him too much. He had grown up with some of the petty officers and they were all too familiar with his intellect. Through Grimm and Rudd, he learned all the backways into the Burrows: the discreet openings and tunnels found in the basements of taverns, beneath loose paving stones, at the bottom of gardens. The ground had always been unstable, ever since the Great Tree had been felled, and such small openings were not unheard of. Deorwine had them watched, discreetly. Any member of the gangs who, in trying to filter into the city and assume their positions in anticipation of storming the Lord’s manse, were quietly captured and held. Because of the secrecy of the gang’s operations – word never reached the Burrows that their agents had been intercepted.

In the minds of the gangs, all was going to plan – all while the jail cells filled near to bursting.

Deorwine lent on the dissatisfied guilders, offering proposals and protections of his own. They needed little convincing – the guilds held no real affection for the gangs, and prized stability and predictability over all. Each one fell into his hands at the asking. The gangs’ above-ground support evaporated.

Meanwhile, Grimm and Rudd returned below ground – ostensibly with goods to fence and distribute. They were in a generous spirit and, as it appeared, keen to ally themselves with those poised to become the new powers in the cities. Ingratiating themselves with the gangs’ various captains and lieutenants. Drinking and cavorting. Passing on gifts emblematic of their respect and admiration for these officers of the underworld. And – yet – they wondered aloud with their new friends: was this wise?

‘I remember,' one such surviving lieutenant later told me, ‘Grimm came to me with this bottle of wine. Good stuff, not the rancid vinegar we usually stole. This one came from some nobles cellar. Had a label and everything. He came to me with the wine and a new knife, and we talked about the time we framed a guard officer for fraud. All these fake letters, prettiest handwriting you’d ever seen, all right there in his trunk and right in time for inspection from his lordship.

‘The prick had been leaning on us too much. Always with his hand out. He’d roughed up a couple of the lads to put more pressure on us, and that was too much. He wound up down there with us, few weeks later. Nothing to his name. Then we gave him the Burrows’ justice.’

Grimm and Rudd had, over the years, worked with everyone of note within the Burrows. Tales of capers, heists, near-misses, and death-defying scrapes. With this held firmly in mind, it becomes easier to grasp what happened.

On the fated day of the gangs’ various coups[3], Grimm and Rudd stalked through the Burrows with knives in hand. They targeted the gang leaders and those they knew would never be brought to heel. They did this openly. At first with clean knives held at their sides, but after the first few – they moved with an increasing number of stains. Blades dripping in the dark tunnels. People moved aside to let them go. Some even followed.

They arrived at each cave, each hideout, with a crowd of onlookers – most with nothing more than a casual connection to the criminal underworld. The crowd never went in with them, but rather waited in taught silence, awaiting their increasingly gory return. Many of the lieutenants and captains granted the pair access to their own leaders and fellows. Leading or clearing the way. Watching, dispassionately, as their own bosses were butchered.

In a single night – the various leaderships of the Burrows collapsed. No gang was spared – the great and the small were all purged, in this strangely ritualistic fashion. Grimm and Rudd and Deorwine gambled on spectacle entrancing any who might be moved to stop them. The bold openness of it proved to be the masterstroke. The crowd followed them everywhere – until finally Grimm and Rudd led them to one of the largest chambers of the Burrows, which had once been the home of the city’s former Aos Si community. It sat directly below the central market.

There they addressed the crowd. Informed them of what they had done and why: Grimm and Rudd had saved them all from disaster. The gangs had been entranced by visions of grandeur that would have seen them, and everyone in the Burrows destroyed. Goddrickson only needed an excuse to come down and exterminate them himself, and such an ill-fated and clumsy coup would have been all the excuse he would have needed. But there was more:

The gangs were too divided. There was wealth for the taking, but it passed into the hands of a meagre and unreliable few. Though all struggled and suffered – only the leaders profited. There needed to be organisation – there needed to be solidarity and communal effort within the Burrows all they would all starve and fail. The pair presented themselves as leaders of a single, united gang, and all were invited.

The stories from that day say no one opposed or dissented, but I doubt that’s true. Many would have disagreed – quietly, perhaps to a neighbour – but the writing was on the wall, inked with the blood of the old order. There would be no great resistance. Any who might have stopped them were already dead or in a jail cell above ground.

Grimm and Rudd took total control over the Burrows. Deorwine solidified his grip over the city. He revealed all to Goddrickson, both the plot and its resolution. Except – his version held that the gangs had been disbanded, and peace had finally come to the Burrows. Goddrickson, like many lords before and after him, saw the opportunity to consign a problem to a dusty backroom where it could be forgotten and ignored – and accepted it without much thought or objection.

The three of them, together, joined the worlds above and below. While the order of the city seemed largely undisturbed – the poorest and the most desperate still dwelled within the Burrows, while those above ground did their utmost to ignore the existence of that mirror city below ground – Pyllwic's fate had been irrevocably altered.

While they bought a little more time, time in which Deorwine hoped to avert disaster, the city’s downfall was inevitable.

It awaited them, ten years after their greatest victory.

[1] I take this to be a euphemism for extortion. The guilds, traders, councillors, and various craftspeople knew about the gangs in the Barrows. More than that – they knew how bad for business they could be. It was agreed by all that anything that came from the Barrows should stay there. Hence the extortion.

[2] Barrow parlance for common thugs or killers. Mad Nell tended to work out in the open and was unused to subtlety. As such her gang were more likely to bludgeon or hack a man to death out in the open.

[3] Even the bigger gangs were unable to collaborate, and the former councillors, hedging their bets, hatched several simultaneous plans with each gang independently. If they had succeeded the chaos and bloodshed would have been extraordinary as each gang fought the other for control.

#writing #writers on tumblr #writeblr #writer stuff #fantasy writing #fiction writing #creative writing #worldbuilding #fantasy short story #short fiction #fan fiction #fantasy worldbuilding #fantasy fiction

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petnews2day · 2 months

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Top 10 birds spotted across New York

New Post has been published on https://petn.ws/bKaxI

Top 10 birds spotted across New York

Rockland/Westchester Journal News Braddock Bay Bird Observatory bands migrating songbirds prior to their departure Braddock Bay Bird Observatory bands migrating song birds for about a six-week period before the birds continue their journey. Tina MacIntyre-Yee, Rochester Democrat and Chronicle Across New York state, from the skyscrapers in NYC, to the high peaks in the Adirondacks […]

See full article at https://petn.ws/bKaxI #BirdNews

#Bird News

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kom-poetry-channel · 6 months

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All right, all right, I'll translate the patriotic doggerel and get it out of the way!

I was, actually, working on translating some fairly serious poetry when this minor verse of Kipling's came to my attention and insisted on taking up all the lyrical parts of my brain. I ended up translating it out of sheer self-defense just so I could be thinking about some other words than "England's sword unsheathed / put half the world to flight". Kipling wrote this literally as schoolboy history, for "A School History of England", but for all I call it 'doggerel' you can't say he didn't put his best effort into the thing; that repeated bitter "not while" is really quite memorable. One hopes nobody in the Foreign Office in, say, 1956 (or 1941, or 1947, or 1973…) had learned their Atlantic history from the book and allowed it to influence their attitude to the hegemon. Churchill's quip, about the US always doing the right thing after all alternatives have been tried, comes to mind; but he was in school twenty or thirty years too early for the "School History". Kipling's opinion on the colonial rebellion may have been widespread among the British elite - indeed for all I know he got it from his own schoolbooks. At any rate the position that the colonies had been defended at extreme expense and the colonials ought to pay was the core of the whole conflict, and Kipling naturally takes the strongest version of the English side of the dispute. Adam Smith, contemporary to the rebellion, took the opposite side that if the colonies couldn't be made to pay, they should rather be made independent - in which case, presumably, they'd be paying for their own defense whether they liked it or not. But Smith was an economist and thought of incentives and efficiency; Kipling was a patriot and thought of loyalty and duty. Economics be damned, the colonials had a duty to the Crown and ought to pay for the Royal Navy the same as every other subject; and by the evidence of the first two verses, he's genuinely angry, more than a century later, that they chose otherwise.

The switch from that anger to the elegiac calmness of "After" is a little startling; in the "School History" these verses were separated by the narrative text describing the war, and Kipling may not have thought of them as being two parts of the same poem. It does seem that being angry brought out his best effort; "worshippers at Freedom's shrine" is heartfelt if sarcastic, "too busy to think of war" is conventional.

The illustrations for "Before" are mostly paintings of scenes from the Seven Years' War (presumably the specific conflict Kipling had in mind, with "Frenchman gone from the North" and "shattered Spain"); in order, they are:

"Half the world to flight" - scenes from the most famous battles in each major theatre: climbing the cliffs to the Plains of Abraham, advancing with fixed bayonets at Minden, and following Clive into the attack at Plassey.

"New-built cities" - contemporary map of the English colonies.

"Pole to Line" - Battle of Quiberon Bay by Richard Paton.

"Did not quit her then" - Washington at Monongahela, organising the rear guard after Braddock's disaster.

"Foes were driven forth" - Battle of Quiberon Bay, the Day After by Richard Wright.

"Frenchman from the North" - capitulation of Montreal.

"Clean-swept oceans" - Bombardment of El Morro Castle during the Capture of Havana, Raphael Monleon.

"What they owed" - Join or Die, showing eight colonies as pieces of a snake.

Norwegian text:

Før

Ikke mens Englands sverd påny drev halve verden på flukt ikke mens nybrøten bygd og by pustet bak hennes tukt ikke mens England til forsvar ga hen gull, og skip, og blod - disse Frihetens svorne menn: da var de henne tro!

Ei før hver uvenn fra kysten fór og England vant deres sak ei før franskmannen rømte fra nord og spanjolens rike lå vrak ei før på ryddet og trygget hav intet fiendtlig flagg å se husket de Frihetens strenge krav og tok til motet for det!

Etter

Snø ligger tykt over Valley Forge isen på Delaware men de som falt her for kong George de bryr seg aldri mer.

Ikke skjønt kusymra smått om senn bryter ut der solstrålen når og knuffende kråkereir kunngjør igjen at vårt England på ny har vår.

De rører seg ikke for smeltet fonn eller isen som tiner i fjorden; og de som falt for Washington ligger like stilt i jorden.

De rører seg ikke når blomsterflor fordriver furuskogs dis, og i alle steinete beiter gror akeleie og filtkongslys.

Hver for sitt land, i åpen strid, kjempet og møtte sin død; og den gode jord, fri for hat og nid, dekker dem i sitt skjød.

Hun har ingen tid til menneskers hær; mot vinter og is hennes slag; og se, de årlige blomstene er hvor de var i fedrenes dag!

Gullris hvor beite mot skogen lir når kongslysets blomst har falt fra og sumak-løv som høsten gir fargen til blodet de ga.

#poem #poetry translation #english to norwegian #rudyard kipling #the american rebellion #amerikas opprør #norwegian language

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rocpaintsip · 2 years

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Gourd-ous night out at Braddocks Bay, painting and celebrating fall.

#painting #autumn #community

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9oodshots · 2 years

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'𝗨𝗡𝗖𝗛𝗔𝗥𝗧𝗘𝗗’ 𝗜𝗦 𝗢𝗨𝗧 𝗡𝗢𝗪 𝗜𝗡 🇦🇺⁣⁣ 𝗢𝗡 𝟰𝗞 𝗨𝗛𝗗, 𝗕𝗟𝗨-𝗥𝗔𝗬, 𝗗𝗩𝗗 & 𝗗𝗜𝗚𝗜𝗧𝗔𝗟⁣⁣ 🎬 𝗦𝗬𝗡𝗢𝗣𝗦𝗜𝗦 & 😎 𝗡𝗢𝗡-𝗦𝗣𝗢𝗜𝗟𝗘𝗥 𝗥𝗘𝗩𝗜𝗘𝗪:⁣⁣ ⁣ 🎬: When Nathan Drake [Tom Holland], a bartender & small-time hustler, crosses paths with Victor 'Sully' Sullivan [Mark Wahlberg], a fortune hunter with questionable intentions, Drake discovers that Sully had been working with his older brother, Sam, in search of Ferdinand Magellan's lost treasure of gold worth billions.⁣⁣ ⁣ After Sam had disappeared, Drake agrees to work with Sully to find his brother & the fortune - but they must compete with Chloe Frazer [Sophia Ali], a fellow fortune hunter holding a vital clue, while avoiding Santiago Moncada [Antonio Banderas], a ruthless descendent of the family that originally financed Magellan's expedition, & Jo Braddock [Tati Gabrielle], Moncada's mercenary sidekick.⁣⁣ ⁣ With no one to trust, will Nathan find his brother & the lost gold?⁣⁣ ⁣ 😎: Action/adventure fans of the 'Indiana Jones' franchise, 'The Mummy' movies starring Brendan Fraser, the 'National Treasure' films &/or the 'Da Vinci Code' series won't find anything significantly different about the plot, as there still are all the expected elements - ancient keys, secret tombs, lost treasure & underdeveloped bad guys.⁣⁣ ⁣ Yet, despite treading this well worn path, 'Uncharted' gets the execution right by managing to be both light-hearted & entertaining with exciting action sequences relevant to the original games.⁣⁣ ⁣ The filming locations are stunning, particularly Barcelona & The Philippines [although it could easily be Hạ Long Bay in Vietnam].⁣⁣ ⁣ The exchanges between Drake & a henchman with a thick Scottish accent [Steven Waddington] are hilarious.⁣⁣ ⁣ As far as adaptations of video games go, this definitely sits towards the top of the list in both quality & enjoyment - mainly because of the chemistry between the 2 male leads who bounce off each other in a similar fashion to Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson & Kevin Hart. Fans of the videogame franchise will enjoy this from start to finish.⁣ ⁣ Thanks to @ownyourkicksau; 'Uncharted,' rated 𝗠, is available in 🇦🇺 now. ©️ #ownyourkicksau #ad (at Uncharted) https://www.instagram.com/p/CicFiTgu8lD/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

#ownyourkicksau #ad

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bird-advice · 3 years

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Happy National Bird Day!

Today, January 5th is National Bird Day in the United States. Don't forget to give your feathered friends, inside and outside, an extra treat to celebrate the occasion!

In addition, here are some great foundations to support!

The Pittsburgh National Aviary

World Parrot Trust

Braddock Bay Raptor Research

Ventana Wildlife Society

East Ridge Wildlife Rehabilitation

American Bird Conservancy

Feel free to add more as this crosses your dash! Birds are an incredibly important part of the ecosystem and many species have had their numbers damaged by illegal imports and the pet trade. Keeping foundations like these supported and keeping in the know of what's going on in the world of conservation and aviculture is key.

(Picture ID, a black and white photo of juvenile Crimson Bellied Conures lined up on a perch with text "National Bird Day". Photo taken be me)

#national bird day #birblr #bird facts #bird advice #conure #world parrot trust #fundraising #signal boost

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dailyadventureprompts · 3 years

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Adventure: The Curse of Captain Bledheart

“ You are marked, Pirate” spat the priest, clutching his symbol to the wound, even as his heart’s blood welled up to stain his cassock. “ May the waves be stained by your passage, so that every beast and brigand on the seas may know your cruelty no matter how far you try to flee from it. May you drown in the blood you have cast your life to shedding.”

-Tales of Captain Bledheart, volume 3: The Gutting of port Garth

Setup: No recounting of infamous pirates is complete without Captain Ruford “Bledheart” Braddock, the so called “Vampire of the Lapis Sea”. While not in fact undead, the Captain’s love of grisly cruelties was legendary, attacking targets without the promise of plunder and leaving behind mutilated victims to spread his dread even further.

The greatest of these savageries culminated in the sack of a temple full of townsfolk that had taken shelter from one of his raids. Bledheart cut down everyone inside, but not before suffering a terrible curse at the hands of one of his victims: whenever he set out to sea, the hull of vessel would begin to bleed, befouling the waters and causing all manner of misfortune to befall his crew. Sickness plagued the ship as the bilge and lower decks filled with blood, which also trailed out, attracting all manner of predatory beast which harried the already weakened pirates. Finally, the blood itself refused to disipate on the water, creating a miles long trail that could be followed by rival ships or navies looking for revenge.

It was a flotilla of these vengeful vessels that finally did Bledheart in, tracking him back to the cove he was sheltering in and overwhelming his fatigued crew with righteous ferocity. Since then, the Captain and his curse has lived on only in stories, a literal and thematic stain on the legacy of those who’d seek glory and adventure under the black flag.

Adventure Hooks:

While traveling along with a trading vessel (either as passengers or crew), the party awakes one morning to find that their wake has turned red, staining the sea behind them and already attracting hungry sharks. The curse of Captain Bledheart has struck them without explanation, and they must find the cause before something worse than sharks finds them. In truth, one of the packages carried by the ship contains the splintered remnants of Bledheart’s flagship: the Dirge, salvaged from the ocean bottom and smuggled aboard to be sold to a collector in the next port. If the players fail to identify the source of the curse by sundown, the ship will be attacked by a sea monster, forcing them to beach themselves on a nearby island to repair and give them time enough to sift through the red-stained hold.

Since his infamous defeat, the heart-and-droplet crest used by the sanguine captain has been used as a brand of shame by the brethren court of pirates. Those who commit heinous deeds against their fellows, or deemed to savage, too bloodthirsty to trust on a crew are branded with such a mark, showing their untrustworthyness to any employer. One such marked is Cossetta Corvo, an aspiring seaborn sadist who’s hit upon the idea of recruiting the outcasts into a crew full of killers and reclaiming Bledheart’s legacy for herself.

The Cove where Braddock and his crew met their end is today known as “Lamprey Bay”, both for the numerous bloodsucking creatures that live there, and for the fact that at low tide, the waters still turn red with the remnants of the old captain’s curse. Rumors of Bledheart’s great treasure persist, and though the area was picked mostly clean by fortune seekers long ago, there’s still a chance the party could find something by discovering some hidden seacave, or diving down to the wreck of the Dirge, far below the hungry waters.

Future Adventures:

Cossetta is already taking steps to cast herself as the new Vampire of the Lapis Sea, beginning with butchering enemies in the same way as her predecessor did, and working up to attacks on innocent settlements for blood and plunder. Such activities will likely cast her as a key villain in the party’s naval adventures, whether as a rival captain among pirates, or a vicious marauder in need of capture.

One of Cossetta’s plays for fame involves a raid on the inland noble estate where Captain Bledheart’s stolen banner hangs, a trophy of the naval captain that took him down so many years ago. With this flag in her possession, the most villainous pirates and outlaws would flock to her cause, an omen that she may one day overthrow the brethren court that exiled her and her bloody forbearer.

While Bledheart may have not been an actual vampire, that won’t stop the aspiring Corvo from doubling down on the myth. Her dealings with the maritime underworld have brought her word of a coffin containing a vampire’s corpse, which she plans to use as a component in a necromantic ceremony to grant herself undeath. While her crew hunts this casket as others might a treasure chest, Cossetta studies the dark arts, never once imagining what might happen should she accidently awaken this vampiric ancient and unleash it on the world.

#D&D #D&D adventure #Homebrew Adventure #Adventure #DnD #Press Start #low level #sailing #seaside #pirates #curse #mystery #treasure hunt #villain #bandits #dungeon #cave #vampire #mid level

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obscureoperations · 3 years

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ok so

to fufil my dream of killing cuda, how abot martin manages to survive bieng stabbed, and we find him, and then comfort him and tell him hes loved as he goes to bed

You and me both anon. The old man is gonna have to pay.

Bit of a blood tw. I just went off on a tangent here. I kinda missed the point, but not really. Hey, there's comfort... and he survived!

Realistically speaking, unfortunately I can't come with any scenario in which Martin could have survived the attack. Perhaps Cuda's hands were too shaky and feeble, he misses his heart completely?

The tip of the stake piercing his breastbone, barely grazing the organ itself. There was a lot of blood and screaming, mostly coming from from Cuda himself. He cursed the young man as he hammers the stake further into his chest. Latin prayers as blood splatters across his nightdress. The sickening crack of broken bones, the hiss of blood spraying from broken arteries.

I imagine, Martin might have reach for the phone for help only to end up knocking over the nightstand entirely. The ruckus alerts Christina. She barges into the room to be met with the horrific scene. In her shock and horror, she does the only thing she can think of. She grabs the stainless steel paper weight on the counter, bashing it into her Grandfather's skull.

A strange sort of catharsis, she continues to hold Martin's hand as she speaks to the medics. She keeps urging him to open his eyes, focus on her face until they get there.

"E'everything is so co-ldd."

His voice was barely a whisper. Tears begin to steam down her face as she urges him to hold on. She had to phone you, she only hoped she could keep her sobs at bay.

Pleas... y/n... just get here in time.

The longest three minutes of her life, she continued to speak to him and prompt him to answer. "Y/n is on their way.. they can't wait to see you Martin... please just hold on okay."

The whole ordeal in itself left him with a form of ptsd. The nightmares were unrelenting, he would often wake up in a haze. Sobbing uncontrollably into the pillow, as memories of that morning swirls through his mind. It always felt like someone actually stepping on his chest. His entire body grows cold and he starts to shiver. During the worst of it, you would awake to him pinning you to the bed, with his hands poised around your throat.

You managed to 'talk', him through it, even in moments where he seemed unreachable. The yellowish glow overtaking his pupils as he whispers through gritted teeth "Never...never again.."

That was when he decided that he needed to get help. It was the final straw, the incident had already hurt you enough. You were there with him every day in the hospital... temporarily taking a leave for work. You picked up his medication every week-- the attack left him with an abnormally slow heart rate.

The therapy seemed to help for the most part... he never imagined himself willingly doing to a 'head doctor'. He refused to talk about the sickness, in fact he left that part out entirely. First things first. He just needed to work through his trauma from the attack. He couldn't believe that he had nearly hurt you.

Nearly three months in, there were no more night terrors. No more sleepwalking in the middle of the night. He no longer found himself ambling down the steps, in a daze only to end up at the local cemetery. Tada Cuda ended up being sentenced to life, and coincidentally suffered a heart attack three days later. It was all over the news. "Local Braddock supplier snaps and attempts to murder cousin in his sleep."

Now, there were just the occasional nightmares, they were manageable, mostly because of the pills. They kept him subdued just enough for his brain to realise that the horrific scenario was nothing more than a dream.

The weight on his chest was crushing, it felt as though his ribs might actually snap in two. The sharp point of the steak piercing the skin, ripping through tender arteries. A near outer body experience, there was so much blood--it nearly made him sick. He could see it spattered all over the walls--feel the coldness spreading through his limbs. The old man's voice appears twisted and warped as he continues to condemn him--twisting the stake with a renewed vigor.

All he could picture was your face. He had so much to say to you. Due to his moods, he had been exceptionally cold to you all week. Now, he might never get to apologize. Please... not yet.

You continued to attempt to get his attention for the past few minuets. The small sniffles turned to whimpers--outright anguished sobs into the pillow.

By this time, you knew just how to drape yourself across him to get him to withdraw from an attack. Your limbs sprawled across his slight frame as you embrace him with your entire weight. Whispering words of affirmation into his ear. "Martin, you're completely safe. He cant hurt you anymore."

You'd hold him so close, in an attempt to get his heartbeat to mirror your own. His breathing slows, fingers entwine in the sheets as tears seep into his hairline. Pillow soaked with snot and drool as you weave your fingers through his dampened locks.

"Martin, you're completely fine sweetheart... you're here with me now. "

#martin 1977 #martin 1978

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petnews2day · 2 months

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What 'devil bird' sightings in NY tell us about migration, climate change

New Post has been published on https://petn.ws/v0osc

What 'devil bird' sightings in NY tell us about migration, climate change

Braddock Bay Bird Observatory bands migrating songbirds prior to their departure Braddock Bay Bird Observatory bands migrating song birds for about a six-week period before the birds continue their journey. Tina MacIntyre-Yee, Rochester Democrat and Chronicle Eagle-eyed birdwatchers noticed a solitary visitor along the Black Creek in Churchville in December of 2020. A lone anhinga, […]

See full article at https://petn.ws/v0osc #BirdNews

#Bird News

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marvelvsmarvel · 3 years

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Marvelvsmarvel Year In Review Pt III:

Must Read Comic Series: Dawn of X

Dawn of X is the latest X-Men run by Jonathan Hickman that launched October of last year with Howers of X. The image above is my favorite page of the entire series and is the very first page of Powers of X Issue 1. It currently has 10 main titles and just wrapped up its major event X of Swords. This series is easily one of the best things to come out of this year and it only promises to get better with the Reign of X on the horizon. In reviewing it I wanted to share a few of my favorite images and moments and share in my excitement on what is to come. I wasn’t always an avid comic book reader but my passion for Marvel movies and shows made eager for more. I didn’t know where to start and a friend simply said to pick one and go! I actually started with Matthew Rosenberg’s Uncanny X-Men (2019) and that carried me into this. If you have not gotten into the comics and have any interest rose do so I am telling you to get into Dawn of X. The X-Men have isolated themselves in a pursuit of becoming their own sovereign and unified nation on the living mutant island Krakoa. In doing so they have freely given gifts to human nations that willing recognize them as so while putting an economical stranglehold on the nations that won’t. As if this were enough with mutant kind united by this vision they have found a way to face death without fear. Brace yourself that these might be spoilery but consider them teasers of the greater story!

Favorite Dialogue: Apocalyspe (X-Men Issue 4) Ancient, powerful, evil, and Darwinistic am I right? Wrong! There is so much more to Apocalypse than we previously knew and yet all those descriptions remain true but clearly in a most badass way possible! What caused the end of the Bronze Age?! ME!!! Fucking Apocalypse taking names without even looking up from his plate! But again this historical context is just the surface of this mutant god’s being. The depth of his person runs as deep as his life has been long lived.

Favorite Illustration: Hellfire Bay (Marauders Issue #2) I am beyond glad that they included the Hellfire Club! The mysterious mutant Illuminati gets the opportunity to operate out of the shadows and onto the Quiet Council of the sovereign nation of Krakoa although every good deed in light casts a shadowy deed of its own. But if there was a thing they visually got about the Hellfire Club it is that they are elitists. There are not many scenic views of Krakoa but they definitely accomplished something here with these castles for the three figureheads.

Favorite Monologue: Cyclops (Excalibur Issue 15) Call me old fashion but I love a great hero speech! It finally seems that Cyclops is at peace and that is indicative of the state of mutant kind. Even while not taking the leadership role on the Quiet Council Cyclop remains a hero at his core. Krakoa trying to build itself as a nation trying to convince themselves as well as the world that they are good and they will not fail in this. With threats coming from all side Cyclops steps in to be the hero he’s meant to be nothing more and nothing less.

Favorite Protagonist: Kwannon (Hellions Issue 7) This isn’t Psylocke and it isn’t Betsy Braddock. Kwannon was once a tool of the hand and was again just a vessel for Betsy. Today she is much more from the leader of the Fallen Angels (essentially her own title) and now leader of the Hellions and man does she kick ass! What she is mostly however is a mother and with that there is much more we have yet to learn about her.

Favorite Antagonist: White Sword of the Ivory Spire (X of Swords: Stasis Issue 1) Antagonist meaning he opposed the protagonists but he clearly is no friend to the main villains either. White Sword is obviously someone you don’t want to mess with. Only time will tell if we will get more of what we see of him.

Favorite Scene: Ressurection of Melody Guthrie aka Aero (X-Men Issue 7) I know right. Who the hell is Melody Guthrie. Yes she is Sam Guthrie aka Cannonball’s sister and yes she had no powers prior to this moment due to the events of House of M. But this scene depicted by 4 panels of dark, to light, to the towering figures of leadership, to life, to the harolding defeat over death is so eerie, so chilling yet so damn epic! This moment is a moment I hope to see come to life on the big screen! A blacked out picture then BOOM a crescendo of heavenly cries as Aero bursts through the egg. The bass hums deep panning over the faces of these three. BOOM another crescendo as she writhes and fights and wills herself back to coherence as the voices lift then fade to a whisper and tears start to pour in realization of her fate. Then holding still on Storm’s face she declares...

Ultimately that is why I geek out over this. Yes it is an amazing story in and of itself. But it is also so epic and cinematic and truly different than any X-Men series that has come before it that I honestly believe that with Disney claiming the ownership of the X-Men from Fox that this will be the version that will be introduced in the MCU. Play close attention to the way Hickman lays out how this started and you’ll see how the MCU can do it without having to explain where they’ve been this whole time. Again this is a must read even if you just read one of the individual titles. And remember to look out for Reign of X dropping early next year!

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