#a canary in a coal mine
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my gender? the fool in her wedding gown. pronouns: strangler/fig
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A Canary in a Coal Mine
“Screw the library. Man, I hate coming here even more than I hate going to exams.”
“Shhhhh!”
The sound of Ms Bedford, the prim and proper campus librarian, shushing us echoes from across the dilapidated shelves of the old library.
“See, Melvin, you can’t even complain about how boring it is here” Garrett hisses, flicking his pen against his nearly-blank notebook. “Why’d you have to drag me to this friggin place?”
I raise my head from the thick textbooks I’ve been poring over and push my glasses back up my nose.
“I told you, friendo, you need to study for once. Do you really wanna repeat any more classes?”
Garrett clears his throat and sighs.
“Ugh, you’re right.”
“Here’s a fun bit of trivia from my history paper to keep you entertained” I excitedly whisper. “Did you know that back in the early 20th century, coal miners used canaries to protect themselves?”
“Oh and how was that?” my friend asks, uninterested.
“Well, in underground mines, there was a huge risk of carbon monoxide being present in the air” I recount enthusiastically. “These miners, unable to detect the odorless but lethal gas, would die from exposure to the hazard before even realizing it was there. So what did they do?”
Intrigued, Garrett takes a deep breath and listens on.
“They started bringing caged canaries into the mines with them. Those fragile songbirds were far more susceptible to gasses than humans, succumbing to their effects quicker and more severely. The second a canary dropped, the miners had a clear sign to evacuate or put on breathing masks.”
“Woah…that’s so…sad for the birds though” Garrett wheezes, now inhaling deeply between every word.
“Better the birds than the miners” I reply. “In the 1920s, they had to do what they had to do.”
“Crazy….I think I’m…can you reach into my bag and grab-”
Before he can finish his sentence, however, Garrett starts to hyperventilate uncontrollably. He doubles over the desk onto the floor, panting for air.
Witnessing this furore, I call out to Ms Bedford.
“Help, miss, my friend can’t breathe!”
As onlookers watch in concern, the librarian rushes to my side. Taking one look at Garrett, she turns and announces to the entire hall.
“Attention students, the library is closing! Please leave in a calm and orderly manner!”
Ms Bedford and myself both pull dust masks out of our pockets while the procession of people exit. A cold smile forms on my face beneath the mask.
“Good work, Melvin” Ms Bedford tells me once the building is empty, passing me a roll of cash.
“I told you bringing him here would be cheaper than doing an asbestos test on the building” I whisper back, retrieving my barely-conscious friend’s inhaler.
“Who better to test the air quality than one of the most sensitive asthmatics I know?”
#a canary in a coal mine#short scary stories#short scary story#horror#short story#fiction#jeremy c. north#guyawks#writer#author#story#writing#narrative#flash fiction#microfiction#twist#twist ending#reddit#canary#bird#carbon monoxide#gas#library#librarian#coal mining#asbestos#coal miner#asthma#asthmatic
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Current mood:
I'm a canary in a coal mine.
#relatable?#mental health#mental illness#college#relatable#me af#i learned what this meant today#i hate how much its true#a canary in a coal mine#i'm the canary#life is the coal mine
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TMA begins with a lure, but TMAGP begins with a warning.
#that's fucking me up a little ngl#the anglerfish and the red canary statements.... im losing it#the anglerfish is a trap. the moment jon reads that first statement he's caught in something he can't yet comprehend#the red canary is the opposite. its death is a warning to sam - stay aboveground. don't dig too deep. it's a canary in a coal mine#and yet it has the effect of dragging him under regardless#tma#the magnus archives#tmagp#the magnus protocol
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i honestly think toddlers with ipads are one of the most pressing issues facing US society today lol. our children are being made neurotic, distracted, and addicted to screens before they’ve even learned to speak. this will have devastating longterm consequences on their ability to develop normal social skills and learn new information. it feels like these tech companies and their financial backers are trying to create an underclass of people whose experience of life will be almost entirely online. they’re setting our future generations up to be unskilled, anti-social, and intellectually stunted
#gen z is the canary in the coal mine for how bad this is going to end up being#i believe the us empire isn’t long for this world and certain agendas will be forced to fizzle out#but we will still have to live with the cultural consequences for a long time
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Many people who had come to know Rincewind had come to treat him as a sort of two-legged miner's canary and tended to assume that if Rincewind was still upright and not actually running then some hope remained.
Terry Pratchett, Sourcery
#rincewind#sourcery#discworld#terry pratchett#character description#survival#survival of the fittest#warning#early warning signs#canary in a coal mine#hope#oneliner
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hey you know that internet fear of a face popping into fullscreen on your computer with no prompting?
what if jon did that to sam with his entire watcher's crown getup, full eldritch horror-style
#i think it'd be so funny#martin would scold him about scaring the new guy#when ultimately jon knows sam is going to be that canary in the coal mine#and he wants to help stop him anyway he can#anyway!#tmagp#tma spoilers#the magnus protocol#magnus protocol#magnus protocol headcanon
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CHIRPIT [Chirp + Pit]
Flying
The Canary Pokemon
Abilities: Gale Wings - Early Bird (HA)
Dex: "They live inside caves and mines, where they form large flocks, they constantly chirp to communicate with one another, using the cave’s natural acoustics to amplify their sound, making it reach further.”
This pokemon is highly sensitive to the quality of air, avoiding air pollution at all cost, thanks to this, they were often used by miners to help detect possible gas leaks."
Moveset:
-Drill Peck
-Chatter
-Echoed Voice
-Perish Song
SPELUKAGE [Spelunking + Cage/Ribcage]
Ghost/Poison
The Poison Gas Pokemon
-Evolves from CHIRPIT when taken to the 3rd sublevel of the Ironteeth Cave
Abilities: Gas Leak* - Neutralizing Gas (HA)
Dex: "It wanders inside abandoned mine shafts, its bones glowing softly in the dark, its soul faintly visible inside its ribcage.
It constantly produces a very volatile gas that has no smell nor visible color, so it is recommended to keep it away from any flame or spark”
Moveset:
-Shadow Bone
-Cross Poison
-Corrosive Gas
-Poison Gas
*This Pokemon fills the field with a highly flammable gas; any pokemon who tries to use a fire-type move will explode and take damage.
Now that the 5 lake pokemons are finished, I had to finish this 2 as they are somewhat related to one of them, as Ironteeth Cave is where you can find HAGABABA, inside the acid lake
While the lake is in the 4th sublevel of the cave, the toxic gases it produces have started leaking into the level above. When you enter this level a message will read "The air in here has a weird smell" and if CHIRPIT is in your party, after a few steps it will evolve into SPELUKAGE
This pokemon are inspired in minig canaries
#pokemon#fakemon#fake pokemon#flying pokemon#flying fakemon#ghost pokemon#ghost fakemon#poison pokemon#poison fakemon#minig#miner#canary#skeleton#canary in a coal mine#ribcage#cage
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maybe next time, okay?
#limited life smp#limited life#jimmy solidarity#solidaritygaming#solidaritygaming fanart#limited life fanart#mcyt#limited life spoilers#traffic spoilers#my art#jimmy’s dead! alexa play canary in a coal mine by the crane wives#ik it’s not original to use these lyrics for him but i’ve literally had the song on repeat while drawing this so#if u saw me post this earlier no u didn’t#trafficblr
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noooo joel was going to sacrifice his time for jimmy's so he wouldn't have to be the first out. that's why joel's been so reckless, because it didn't matter how much time he had so long as it was near jimmy's. so that when the time came he could give jimmy his time and he could die first.
and then jimmy fell and joel couldn't do it.
#jimmy solidarity#joel smallishbeans#canary in the coal mine#i'm going to scream jimmy why#limited life#limited life smp#limited life spoilers
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Fullbody for CiaCM Lisia finally! Yahoo
#pokemon#contest idol lisia#lisia pokemon#coordinator lisia#lisia#canary in a coal mine au#hall superstar lisia
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The fact that the episode where Arya assists Tywin and famously says “most girls are stupid” corresponds directly with the chapter in the books where she overhears Chiswyck laughing about how the mountain and his lackeys (him included) gang-raped a 13 year old child, and this harrows and angers Arya so much that she adds all of these people to her prayer kill list and uses her one of her three precious death-wishes with Jaqen H’ghar is the reason I will be personally beating the bloody shit out of d&d.
#how can you turn such a pivotal moment such a delicate scene with systemic gendered violence#into mOsT giRLs aRE stUPiD#get a hold of yourself#the show was bad before s8#so bad#and I would love to say that this was the canary in the coal mines#but that was actually s1e1#game of thrones#at the club beating the shit out of d&d#you are free to join me#got rewatch#arya stark#acok#asoiaf#the misogyny is really popping up with these guys#<- edit
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Most people discover their soulmate through hopeful shoulder punches, or tumbles in the same vicinity, or process of elimination.
But Jimmy?
Jimmy meets his soulmate through death.
He supposes it's only fitting. He has never been connected to the Watchers in the same way Martyn or, void forbid it, Grian is, but he is aware of them on a vague level, and he assumes Pearl is the same, though he's never had an opportunity to ask.
He is aware of them enough to know that he is the butt of their jokes. He must be, because he knows death follows him like a dark shadow, gnawing at his heels with an unnatural persistence. He knows he is their canary, their harbringer of doom, that his life is a mere waypoint towards inevitable destruction. He knows that, but he doesn't like it, so he chooses not to believe it.
But Jimmy is, despite his denial, an omen of death, so it is only right for him to meet his soulmate through a mutual end.
Tango was blown up by Creeper.
SolidarityGaming died.
Knowing that doesn't curb the frustration, though. For once a death of his cannot be attributed to his own fault, and Jimmy can't tell if that makes it worse or not, but it is easy for him to turn his anger towards Tango, who he has never been close to before.
It doesn't last, not when Tango is sheepish and apologetic and frazzled and his soulmate. He clearly didn't want to meet at the cost of a life any more than Jimmy did, and seeing his embarrassment reminds Jimmy remarkably of himself. It reminds him that it is a miracle the life they lost wasn't his own fault, and that he will certainly be responsible for the loss of one of their remaining two, if not both.
He supposes, again, that it makes sense. They are two halfs of one whole, now, and that means they must have something in common. What a pair they make, accident-prone and death-marked as they are.
They don't have a chance of surviving this. Not with how poor they are, not compared to everyone else, not with the universe itself working against them. Neither of them want to acknowledge that, so they don't.
Instead, they scrape together a little home. They find that, if nothing else, they are both very good at gathering chickens and cows alike, and perhaps that will be enough.
They may not live for long, but for now, they are alive.
("Have you ever heard about the canary in a coal mine idiom?" Jimmy asks Tango one sleepy night, when they're both exhausted from herding animals and setting up a wheat farm during the day. "The one where miners brought a canary with them to the mines, because it was more sensitive to dangerous gases than them, and when the canary died, it meant it was too dangerous for them."
"Sure." Tango replies with a yawn. "Why'd you ask?"
"People seem to think I'm a canary, too. Since I'm always first to die. Proof that there's no going back, or something." Jimmy admits quietly, and hesitates. He doesn't blame himself for what he says next, but he does feel a little bad. "If we're soulmates, that means you're cursed to be a canary too. Sorry 'bout that."
"That's a sacrifice I'm willing to make." Tango says easily, as if there aren't people who would recoil at the thought of sharing Jimmy's soul. He turns to him with a tired grin. "And hey, I'm the one who got us killed first. If you're a canary, that makes me a coal mine."
Jimmy can't help it. He laughs.)
#please take this little rambling drabble of my boys. i adore them#jimmy solidarity#solidaritygaming#tangotek#double life spoilers#double life smp#percy writes#not sure how coherent this is but it is what it is#the canary; the coal mine (and other hopeful metaphors of doom)
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A coal miner’s canary
Inscription reads “In memory of Little Joe. Died November 3rd 1875. Aged 3 years.”
In the 19th century up until the late 20th century, canaries were used to detect carbon monoxide as well as other toxic gases.
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canary, your cage is now open, you’re free to go,,
#jimmy solidarity#solidarity gaming#solidaritygaming#double life smp#mcyt fanart#:)c#canary in the coal mine#the ranchers
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