ghostwalking

I spent several minutes just staring at them (and trying to convince them to bite my fingers.) When my sister’s violin lesson ended, her teacher came out to the yard and explained that these goldfish were the same small creatures that were often unfortunately sold in plastic bags at state fairs. They were only about two inches long apiece, when she bought them and put them in the new, empty pond. In essence, they were like every goldfish I had seen before, but they had been given a much larger, much richer environment in which to flourish. As a result, they had grown into some of the most remarkable, vibrant creatures my twelve-year-old self had ever met with. All because of a pond. 

My favorite spooky season is here! And I'm so full of ideas but I haven't had time to draw because of all the chaos of moving to Sweden 😭 Once I'm settled in my new home, I'm gonna make so much spooky art 🎃🎃🎃

art can be about taboo subjects. art can deal with something socially unacceptable. art can disturb and disgust. art doesn’t have to be for everybody.

tag your warnings so that people who might be triggered by your art don’t accidentally get exposed to it and you’re all good.

and if people try to shame you for the art you create because it’s “problematic” then you can tell them to fuck off and mind their own business. they read the warnings. they choose to read and engage with your art on their own free will. that’s not your problem.

dark fics and macabre art do not—have never, and never will—reflect artists’ in-real-life moralities.

harassing artists, real people, over fictional things will never make you “morally superior”. it only makes you a bully.

The reason I want to make it so clear that he was a friend to the community is because it makes this story funny instead of mean. He kept meticulous records of his pigeons, noting where each one was and who they were with and whose chicks were whose. It was not always the case that the chicks in a certain nestbox were the offspring of the parents in there. Sometimes, a mother hen would push a chick out because it was overburdened, or maybe a cock would push a chick out because wanted it dead (pigeons, like humans, can be monstrous assholes for seemingly no reason).

It is for this reason that it is very advantageous to have something rare like a gay couple in the loft. Pigeons are unique in that they make "milk" for their chicks, and cocks can do this as well as hens. So, because a gay couple can feed their young but never actually bear young, they are often the recipient of orphaned chicks.

All of that is to say this - when my grandfather passed away, my mom took over the pigeon business, as she had been helping him for years. And looking through his records, it was all very standard, very plain, well-documented minutiae about the birds and their pedigrees, save for one spot that looked something like this:

BOX 15

RED CHECK HEN

YELLOW COCK

BOX 16

BLUE SLATE HEN

DUNN BAR COCK

BOX 17

RED GIMPEL COCK

BLUE CHECK COCK