Just because one of your chicken eggs hatched a fire breathing dragon people think you’re evil. But you’re still just a regular farmer trying to make a living while dealing with an overprotective dragon, heroes that want to kill you and fanatics who want to worship you as the new Demon Lord.
The thing you need to know about all of this, the thing that got me into all this trouble in the first place, is that chickens will sit on anything when they get broody enough. Anything. Duck eggs, goose eggs, turkey eggs, lizard eggs, egg shaped rocks, anything. Chickens aren’t smart. If it looks vaguely like an egg, they’ll plant their feathery arses on it and wait.
I noticed that there was a bigger egg under one of the broody chickens, when I checked. Of course I noticed, it was twice the size of the others. But I have geese. I figured it was a goose egg she’d found and stolen. It was about the right size, and I didn’t take it out to check the colour because that particular chicken gets very protective of her eggs. I’ve already got a scar on one hand from trying to get eggs away from her. I didn’t want a matched set.
That was a decision I regretted the moment I went out to feed the chickens and found a little blue-and-silver dragonet’s head poking out from under a very confused-looking chicken. The poor thing kept shifting around and looking under herself in a bewildered way, like she didn’t know what to do next. This particular chicken is a good mother, and she’s raised clutches of ducks and geese without any trouble – she’s even resigned to some of her children swimming – but this was too much. She didn’t object when I carefully reached in and fished out the little dragon.
It was so tiny, then. It fitted in my hand, with its little head peeking out one side and its tail looping around my wrist. Cute, too, with its big eyes and little snout turned up towards me.
That was when I made my second mistake. I decided to feed it before releasing it. Dragons are innately wild creatures, everyone knows that. They can’t be tamed. People have tried. The eggs are abandoned as soon as they are laid, and the dragonets hatch able to hunt, so they don’t even bond with their mothers. So just feeding it a little shouldn’t have been a big deal. It should have gobbled the meat and fled as soon as I loosened my grip on it and it saw the open sky.
It didn’t. As soon as I’d fed it, it fluttered up to a sunny window ledge and went to sleep. I went about my work, figuring that it’d leave in its own time.
By noon, it was sitting on my boot, squeaking pathetically. I wondered if maybe it was confused by the farmyard – they usually hatch in mountains, if the stories are right – so I took it back to the farmhouse with me and fed it again when I ate, then took some time away from the fences I should have been mending to walk it up to the hills. I found it some nice rocks, with plenty of lizards and beetles and suitable prey for something that size. It pounced on a beetle almost as soon as I put it down, and when I left it was crunching happily.
I hadn’t walked a quarter of the way back before something hit the back of my boot. The little dragon was holding on with all four claws, and when I looked down it squeaked pathetically. If possible, its eyes got even rounder.
Listen, you don’t make it as a farmer if you just let orphaned baby animals die. We hand-raise calves and lambs and ponies, set chickens to sit on abandoned eggs, or put them under the kitchen stove or by a fireplace. You don’t make a success of farming if you don’t value every animal. A good shepherd will spend all night looking for one lost sheep. So despite what was said later, it wasn’t just sentiment that made me sigh and pick up the little thing and carry it back to the farm. I am a good farmer. I don’t let orphaned babies die just because they’re a little work.
Starstruck
I realize I’ve grown to love my fellow space-traveler.
How never forgets to say “good morning,” his hair sleep-fuzzy, cup of coffee in his hands. How he mutters while he works, and I can’t tell if he’s talking to himself or me.
How his face lights up when we discover something new, like yesterday’s nebula, which he insisted looks like cotton candy. And I wanted to argue, to tell him the comparison was ridiculous, but I realized it actually did look like cotton candy. I couldn’t even be annoyed about it.
It should be obvious that I love him, but I don’t realize it until the end of this workday.
“Do you wish to listen to music?” I ask, because I can tell he’s bored. He’s slumped by the window, staring into space. “Tchaikovsky, perhaps? Or Freddie Mercury? I know you like Earth’s classics.” I love them, too. But he doesn’t need to know that.
He shakes his head. “Nah. Do me a favor, will you, and put on some good old fashioned cartoons. The kind they used to play for kids on Saturday mornings.” He pauses, thinking. “And – and if you could, would you make me tomato soup and grilled cheese?”
“Tomato soup and grilled cheese?” I haven’t heard the request before.
“Yeah. Not the gourmet crap you like, either – canned tomato soup, and grilled cheese with cheap white bread and mayonnaise instead of butter.”
“That sounds repulsive,” I say, because it does.
He grins, and I’m glad I can make him smile. “I know. But my mom used to make it for me.”
Oh. Now I understand. “You’re homesick.”
“Not exactly. You’re my home, you know?” I have nothing to say to this statement. He says it unthinkingly, and I can tell he has no idea how much it means to me. “I just miss her.”
“I sometimes miss the woman who made me, too. And her team of engineers,” I say, because it’s true. “I’ll put on your cartoons. Your repulsive grilled cheese and tomato soup will be ready momentarily.”
He leans back in his chair, closing his eyes, relaxation overtaking his features. He never forgets to say thank you, but this time, he says something else entirely: “I’m glad you’re here.” Somehow, that means even more.
And in that moment, this moment specifically, I realize I love him.
I know I’m just his ship, albeit a sentient one. But he makes me more human. And I think, in his own way, he loves me too.
This was nice to say the least.
Thank you!
“WalterRobots Family Portrait, circa 2016″
A total of 10 hours… overall, I’d say I’m most pleased. So many bots! And all so cute!
In a Heartbeat - Animated Short Film (2017)
A closeted boy runs the risk of being outed by his own heart after it pops out of his chest to chase down the boy of his dreams.
© Beth David and Esteban Bravo 2017
It’s here! After a year and a half of hard work, we are both so excited to finally share our film with you. Thank you all for your support and encouragement - this film means the world to us, and your kindness and enthusiasm has made this journey all the more meaningful. It is our great pleasure to share with you this labor of love, and we hope with all our hearts that you enjoy watching it as much as we did making it.
<3
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2REkk9SCRn0
Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/227690432
(via thechekhov)
This is like installing Windows on a Mac.
I am physically required to reblog this or my heart will stop beating.
oh my god
(via sermoth)
We Fix Each Other
I’d chop it down to a good Friday project. Yet again, more SPG art! This is actually based off a question “Spine” answered on the Spine Tumblr page, about who fixed the robots up, and his answer was around the lines of “we fix each other,” and I thought that was pretty neat. And I’m sure the Walter Girls would lend a hand too, so, there ya go!
(via geekyday)
OK GUYS LISTEN UP
I BARELY EVER ASK Y’ALL FOR ANYTHING BUT JUST THIS ONCE
PLEASE COULD YOU WATCH THE HELL OUT OF THIS VIDEO
IT’S A CUTE TORTOISE BUT THAT’S NOT ALL
EVERY PENNY OF VIEWING REVENUE WILL GO TO CHARITIES SUPPORTING SYRIAN REFUGEES IN EUROPE
IT WAS MY FRIEND’S IDEA AND SHE GOT ALAN RICKMAN (no I’m not kidding) TO DO THE VOICEOVER
SO PLEASE
WATCH IT
SHARE IT
LITERALLY REBLOG TO SAVE A LIFE
Frisk pigeon falling with DETERMINATION ! C’est génial =D
Well, I got so many requests from you, precious fans, to animate something about “Undertale”…. so there is “Underfail” :D
Long time since I parodiate something and well, I saw so many awesome fanarts of this game …. I wanted to try and make it a present for you all =D (hoping I’m not too late, hoho !)
This game is amazing, I mean PIXEL ART aaah ! (love this retro style <3) and the musics are awesome, the characters are really interesting, how not to make fanarts about them all ?
A huge thank to Toby’s fox and all the team for making such a good game and being able to create something that link people together (so many fanarts x) )
Well, I hope you will like it, took some free time to make and it was cool ^^
(couldn’t put them all, so many awesome characters ^^’)
Baby Girl seeing Clearly For the First Time
My heart completely melted, subanallah.
THE LITTLE BLINK IN THE 3RD GIF THO
Look at when she stops struggling in the first gif. That’s the moment she realizes that the glasses are doing something.
My heart. The feels.
(Source: sizvideos, via youve-doomed-us-all-jerk)