art stuff

Small bits written for the Canary concept bcs I was bored(surprise, surprise)

I've been halfheartedly writing small bits of the canary concept I put out and I kinda enjoy it. So far I've only made it to Limited Life(hence the slight crashout moment I was talking about in the announcement board as of writing this) and so I figure it won't hurt to put em here too. 

This will include my notes as well and an overall explanation of the general concept just in case someone reading this isn't aware.

Every Season, a canary visits the Server. It only goes to see two people–the first and last to die.

Of course, for most Seasons, the first to die was Jimmy. He knows about the canary, it's why he identifies with the Canary Curse and recognizes its presence for what it is: an omen of death. However, because there are multiple winners, the other Lifers haven't caught on just yet. Jimmy doesn't really talk about seeing the bird for fear of being teased or believed to be crazy, but he has alluded to it a few times and confided a bit in some people about the Curse.

This is gonna be short stories about the canary's visits, through each Season. I haven't decided if this concept extends to the Fool's Life shorts or not so I'll be sticking with the full seasons for the time being. Hopefully these will get better as they keep going–I'm excited for the DoubLife and SecLife ones in particular. I had definitely hoped to add some Rancher's angst to this and with any luck, I can still do so.

-Third Life-

Jimmy takes a deep breath, admiring the valley he and Scott call home.

They'll be fighting this week.

While Scott has gone to go confer with Grian and Scar, Jimmy has stayed behind to make more arrows, bows, enchanted things, and food–anything he thinks they may need for this fight. Well, at least he was–his levels are too low to enchant and he doesn't have the materials to make weapons anymore. Now, he's just wandering aimlessly through the flowers, waiting for food to grow. Despite everything that's going on, their base has remained untouched–for the most part, anyway. It's nice and peaceful, and helps distract Jimmy from the thoughts circulating around his head. Being Red comes with a strong urge for bloodshed; Scar had said the same of himself. Jimmy(somewhat) trusts himself not to succumb to these intents and hurt Scott, but it is tempting, sometimes.

He shakes himself out, then pauses at the sight of something small and yellow.

Too small to be a bee, and the color is too vibrant, anyway.

It's a bird.

It flits about, pausing to peck at the ground every now and then and eye him warily. Curious, Jimmy crouches, making sure to move slowly and quietly. What sort of bird is it? He'll have to ask Scott about this one when he comes back. It chirps, hopping to regard him with one eye and then the other. Jimmy pulls out some extra seeds from his inventory and puts them onto the ground before withdrawing. The bird hesitantly approaches the small pile, then begins to eat. "Hey, little guy. What are you?" Jimmy asks it, getting no response aside from flicked wings and some more chirps and tweets. He hasn't seen many yellow birds out in nature before. Actually, he hasn't seen any birds out here aside from chickens.

Maybe he's not been paying attention?

"Do you have any friends? Are there more of you around?" He inquires, adding a few more seeds to the now nearly empty pile. It looks up at him, and immediately something is wrong. Jimmy doesn't(or maybe he can't) move, maintaining straight eye contact with the winged thing for uncomfortably long.