I wish I could have saved this for April Fools day:

How Does One Breed a Basilisk the Bottom Line by Christopher Stern. The site has lots of...interesting journalism, to say the least.


At roughly the same level, a sermon from a church wrestling with the spirit of the cockatrice! Kevin Bailey from Touch of the Master Healing Industries leads us in prayer to deliver us from this spiritual enemy!


Thanks to the efforts to translate the King James Bible into almost every language, I was able to find that Moʻo pepeiao hao is Hawaiian for cockatrice. Now you know!

From MyMiniFactory, a Rhacos Cockatrice shown confronting someone riding what may be a...sort of stork type bird with a long tail? In the other views, the first thing that came to mind was Joust, specifically player two. I really admire the cockatrice's tail and the head design is great, but those poor, naked wings. I feel vicarious embarrassment.

Harry Potter Basilisk never killed anybody! A theory about Tom Riddle, the basilisk, and some good spin!

Something that starts out so promising! The character, Cara, starts to win me over with lines like The beast was magnificent, a small corner of her mind remarked. The darkness muted the bright colors...brilliant reds and yellows into muted shades of black and gray that somehow gave it a gravity, a villainous appearance that its normal, silly chicken walk couldn’t undo. Started out great but then got insulting. And of course, Cara ends up bagging it to sell to an alchemist or something. Thanks, Cara.



I've mentioned Cockatrice Nuggets before; just a signal boost for them and their D&D adventures.

And yet another party taking on a cockatrice: part of a series, Unbalanced Party volume 2, Fool Me Cockatrice. Has an interesting cover, looks to be a translation.


Expecting any cockatrice youngsters? Check out this List of Cockatrice Names. I wish I'd seen this earlier!



The Witcher Netflix series has brought out basilisks at last, and they look pretty good. A list of all creatures appearing in season 2.

https://youtu.be/rxQUcyraOuA



A suiter who identifies as a cockatrice. Standing by a Christmas tree.. I'd think if Hauke ever stepped out into the suiting community, he'd look a bit...different?



The passing of Lina Wertmüller who directed The Basilisks which the IMDb compared to "an Italian American Graffiti". I haven't seen the movie but I'm a bit curious now--despite it not looking very mythologically bent.



The Savage Bear Podcast episode 36 has an interesting point about 20 minutes in where the party agrees on a secret signal to let others know they've found something: a cockatrice caw. I know I'd come running if I heard some of those.


I wonder if I should switch these to quarterly? Bimonthly? It might save me when the occasional vacation comes up. I couldn't upload this since I was out of town and didn't get around to it in the rush to get ready.

Slim pickings for November, but there are some interesting things here and there.

3d printables: Cockatrice Mount from Epic Miniatures. A 3d model of "Mount Cockatrice" would be interesting too. Maybe someday...



After the Good Mythical Morning cloaks sold out, I guess a few other vendors took notice and jumped onto the bandwagon.

Etsy "Getsy" Premuim neon shirt

Same thing from LovingShirt

Same thing from ForAllShirt

And probably in a few other places.

Also ran across this from RedBubble? They say it's a "t-shirt dress"; an old design that is probably in the public domain..



Ever since the show Robot Chicken began I've wondered if there'd be a robot cockatrice. Maybe not a robot, but apparently there was an appearance! Seth Green voice acting credit for "Cockatrice". Looks pretty good!



History lesson about How the Turducken was hatched, and mention of the cuisine style cockatrice. Tasty.



A podcast, Bred to Perfection, about breeding chickens. Naturally, they had a cockatrice episode. It's about 23 minutes in, and they discuss various myths, appearances, and the awesome breeding program. :> It's why there aren't all that many of us running around...they brought up the poison version, but said it was saturating the feathers. Petrification came up later. They have a lot of stories about both male and female cockatrices, with in-depth details and a love of gold (sounds like dragons?) except if you mess with the gold trinkets they've arranged around a nesting area, they just abandon it and won't come back--you've "spoiled" it. They can't petrify you until full grown, but can poison you from hatching and they live to 30 (ulp...I'm way past over the hill).

They play a 15 minute skit, "The Farmer and the Cockatrice", at about 40 minutes in. Instead of a Deus ex Machina, there's....Deus ex Wikipedia. :>



Chaos Basilisk Boss Fight from some game called Fantasian. I have to say, that one guy is pretty chatty for someone who got taken out by "Death Stare".

3d artwork

How could I say no to a huge cockatrice with eggs! Good one to start out with, I think! By Epic-Miniatures. There are some interesting variations on the sizes in there...I wonder if a cuckoo is pranking that parent, there.


Available on Etsy! It reminds me of other poses I've seen and have possibly shared before but...it looks so good, I'll share it again.


Accessories!

Good Mythical Morning swag.
They had some pretty neat cloaks but they of course sold out almost instantly. In Black and "Solar Dye", a sort of wannabe tie-dye type.


And someone else getting into the act, "SquidsNthings":
a shirt and an iPad case and presumably other things. Feel free to browse!


One of those "NFT" products? Items? Events? I'm not sure what to call it but it seems to be a story of some kind but who knows?


Media!

A game writer, The Original Cockatrice. I'll have to trust that he's actually the original...I have my doubts.

A few mentions of basilisks in Poland; firstly, a superhero that may be on a mission to stop...COVID?


Secretive slithering seductive and scary! PBS special
about Basilisk mythology. King of Snakes, Mighty Basilisk! And the Cockatrice connection? It can still be killed by weasels, the source of these DELIGHTFUL illustrations 5:30? It gives a really nice summary of the mythology for those who are interested.


And last, a short film that I felt had a sad ending. A tragedy, in fact. But, that's how the rock crumbles sometimes. I found this looking for more info about that Polish comic book, so this is a true bonus, accidental find. Bazyliszek, over on YouTube: https://youtu.be/qS2xTGLCu-M

Miniatures and RPG's

A little D&D miniature that follows the classic look that I remember from the monster manual, coming to tabletops near you! It has a similar tail tip "puff" that my husband adds to my tail...fancy.


And I always knew that I'd be a great assistant or a familiar in the RPG world. I definitely could do better than that guy.


The News
A little article to raise awareness of the old Is he a basilisk or is he a cockatrice debate, this one's pretty light reading but had good references for anyone to go read up on later.

A slight variation of the myth...a cousin of mine perhaps has some duck in his ancestry instead! I've even heard of variations involving storks, so a duck (should be a drake!) laying an egg that is incubated by a toad isn't so off the wall.


An exploit named Water Basilisk has been set up to phish for Bitcoin and Ethereum theft. The article I found didn't explain the origin of the name. They have a Chinese water dragon as an illustration, too--not a basilisk. Is this slander or libel?

An update to the Basilisk mouse that I currently use for work. Flashy and colorful now...but beware, the colors are meant to draw in your attention for a good long look.

And finally, Artwork:

This link probably won't work for very long, as it's an auction. I have mixed feelings about it for several reasons...I guess it's based on the Witcher, a cockatrice, and Pepe the frog. Pepe Witcher Killing Cockatrice. I think it's one of those NFT things...non-fungible tokens...I don't get it, but whatever. If I can't turn it into a rock, what good is it?

And an album release from Toom, Behold the Basilisk. Haven't listened to it yet but the cover art makes me wonder...is that victim wearing a floatation device tube, or is that one of the basilisk's serpentine coils? It looks like he's getting pretty friendly with her.

That was about it for September!

Starting out with a 3d printable cockatrice. There's more at their Patreon page

Speaking of Patreon, is this post good or not so good? Hard to tell! Patreon might be more effective if you advertise it with some stuff that's clear and viewable by anyone...

I had to put this neverending argument about names towards the beginning of the list. It's some sort of drink from "The Potions Cauldron", never heard of them. Probably for the best if they're harvesting basilisk blood!


On to artwork.

Rabbit girl tending to a small cockatrice flock. It's listed as a wallpaper, I'd think about it!

Some pictures found here. I like to put them into a certain order that may not be the artist's original intent, with part one of a change to a rooster, a handsome snakey tail erupting, and part two where he's perhaps a bit self-conscious!


A few from ArtStation

Pondering artifacts

Action scene of underprepared adventurers.

A dinosaur interpretation. A bit of gore, there.


Got some free time and open travel plans?I'd go the Wherewell if I felt like a pilgrimage of sites of great defeats.


A band, Polar Cockatrice. Any good? Again, hard to say--I won't pay to listen to it without some sort of hint about what it's like.


And on to gaming!

I think I've linked to this podcast, Cockatrice Nuggets, before. RPG nuggets served up just for you.


This had a very promising name: The Cockatrice Breeding Room Is it a board game? An RPG? I couldn't tell but I'm really interested in finding out! (*smooths down his comb, flops his wattles around, and puffs up his plumage.*)

And last, some video!
Over at YouTube, some game footage. Originally found on here it has in game footage of some familar fellows winning (unlike in Wherewell).

A few days late for the July list. I'm getting ready for work to start gearing up again. I'm going to try to get involved with some of the Thursday Prompts while I still have some free time, so I'm juggling quite a bit.


First, a few miniatures and 3d printing things:

A little bit of plumage in this fellow. Price may change: act now!


A beautiful project spotted on Reddit, The death-darting eye of the cockatrice: a skeleton under glass!

Found another podcast this month, once again on mythology and not so much the RPG angle.

From Featured Creatures we have an episode about Cockatrices. Quite a bit of the mythology is discussed, including weaknesses to weasels, having the egg thrown over a house before hatching (yeah, that probably works on a lot of oviparous creatures) and mirrors, as well as the rooster crows ("If its dad yells at it, it immediately dies!") and Isaiah 11 in the good ol' King James Bible.


And in other news:

A mysterious anime named Fuukuchibashi no Cockatrice which defied a few attempts to translate. Anyone care to take a try at it?


An exam about Gruesome Beasts. I slightly object to being included in that category, but it contains some pieces for you to color in so that's nice.

From Salamander Brewing Company in Bradford we find cockatrice which might be a limited time link since it's for sale on eBay!

A few days late this month. Not a lot of new material was put out there into the swirling chaotic mass of the web, it seems.

Starting out with something I'd never heard of before: the Shahmaran/Sahmeran, queen of snakes and also possessing great medicinal knowledge, as well as being a remedy herself. This is the article that came to my attention but there is also an article on Wikipedia about her. Eating her cooked flesh cured a king of a disease, but drinking the extract from that cooking pot kills the vizier who tricked a boy into revealing the location of the Shahmaran. Not quite a basilisk but there's a snake connection.


More basic mythology about herbs: Basil is the king of herbs. Get some if you're worried about me being in your neighborhood!


Figurines, unfortunately out of stock here. I think this one has been listed before. Strong tail there. Maybe it's like a yoga pose?


And an interesting find, from Kingdom of Stonetree Broadcasting. Sir Gwythir Owain vs. The Cockatrice of Brastondell!

"I had to learn (and fast) to use my other senses to fight. Admittedly smell was a little hard to use for battle, and I wasn't very well going to lick the monster, so taste was out of the question. So I fought using just my hearing."

Perfect for a radio show! They also seem to indicate that the severed head can continue to petrify, much like Medusa's head weilded by Perseus. (I'm gonna go buy some decapitation insurance....)

Starting out with miniatures...well, one miniature. For use in D&D adventures, it looks like the action's been captured in mid-pounce.



Several variations on a theme by Joe Ferrari on Artstation.



Also mentioned in March: more about the Basilisk comic from BOOM! studios, in two different reviews!

CBR.com

HorrorNews site



Mythical creatures guide entry about the Cockatrice that looks like a work in progress, that mentions the confusion between cockatrices and basilisks. The picture there is featured on a nice coffee mug I got from  BruceBadger for a present a few years back.



For more confusion, a podcast about the same issue! Is it a basilisk? Is it a cockatrice? It depends on who you ask. The hosts have been discussing things for a few years now at The Third Space! They discuss the mythology, and bring up the possiblity that it was all a PR slander campaign to exterminante snakes...but also chickens. And toads. "You know, toads are ALSO dickbags...I heard toads also steal children and turn them into their eggs. And I also heard toads attack storks when they're coming to deliver children."

Chickens get a pass because a rooster crow causes them to "thrash" themselves to death (getting some headbanging ideas here). "Do we keep the chickens around? We know they make basilisks but they also make roosters, which kill them!"

As to why we're so rare these days: have you noticed so many people have ferrets for pets?

They offered a nice twist to prevent a basilisk/cockatrice from hatching, bringing up the story that throwing the egg over the house (without touching the house) will prevent it...bring a team to stand on the other side of the house, and throw all of the chicken farm's eggs over the house and hope the team catches enough of them to turn around and sell and make a profit!

They go into great detail of other legends or policies they'd like to see spread, like open hand slapping a horse to prevent it from turning into a hippocampus (which I found amusing).

Random artwork finds:


A rather nice virtual statue on Artstation by Marius.

A nice collection of impressions of a cockatrice, including really bad breath, by Vansaltando at Artstreet.


Collectables:

Want a stuffed cockatrice or a few other cute versions of favorite mythological beings? Check out this Etsy shop, owned by DrippingMoon. They're in Germany, so take that into account for shipping! I think they're using a pattern I've seen somewhere before.

A miniature with quite the tongue there.

Another little mounted miniature for use in visualizing your campaign.


Gaming:

Speaking of D&D: a gaming module for D&D. Seems it's for low level adventurers, which might mean that they'll lose handily!

And other gaming environments: The Chamber of Secrets Basilisk comes back as a boss in a gaming event. Wizards Unite is the game, but your timing might have to be right to run across this event chain.


I don't always get musical entries but this month there are two!

Brass Flask, a group I wasn't able to find much about, put out an album Cockatrice with several suggestively titled tracks: Death Darting Eye, Rooster's Head, Pedro Tafur (a Spanish traveler who seemed to be writing about crocodiles, not cockatrices), Snake Bird, and others. I need to play around with my Pandora membership to listen to more than just the first track or two.


And then there's Basilisk by Like Moths To Flames which you can listen to here and here.
According to this article it was one of two tracks cut from an album released in 2020 that the band felt deserved a release.

I know, I know, the whole of 2020 was tough on everyone. And 2021 wasn't a whole lot better. But...

This spring hasn't been great. I've had extra work piled on because someone at work who did some specialty things that not very many others can do passed away a week before things got rolling, and I had to pick up some of the slack. Nobody else was there to do it, and hiring someone with 3 days notice wasn't going to happen. It was COVID-19, he went downhill very fast.

He was a good guy, I didn't know him super well but it was still a shock. Many people who he was in contact with came out of the woodwork and talked about stuff he had done with them and for them, and it made me feel like I missed out on knowing a very intelligent, active and motivated man.

Then over this past weekend, another coworker passed away. He was only about 4 years older than me, I've known him way back since 1994 when we were in grad school. He was always the "cool guy" three or four steps ahead of where I wanted to be...graduated ahead of me, got hired at the same place a couple of years before I did.

He had an awesome family and home that I was lucky enough to visit several times over the years, and I was amazed at the environment at that home. It made me feel a mixture of admiration and self-consciousness; it was centered on being engaged with other people, doing things with them. I don't know if he had a TV, I never saw one there. There were all kinds of games, from a billiards table inside to ping pong tables outside. His oldest kid had made a kiln and furnace and made glass and molten aluminum sculptures in the back yard. I didn't know the other kids very well, but I hear they all felt very well-supported and loved. He was with his oldest daughter on a snowboarding/skiing trip when he had a heart attack.

Spring's the time for new beginnings; I'm hardly in the spring of my life but maybe new things can happen if I try to make them happen.

Miniatures and artwork!

A painted miniature!


Very neat miniature on ArtStation, spotted by  Zeromus

Thanks for the find!


A very nice print for sale: by Baroquegothik.



Comics, stories, and publications:

A cockatrice supervillian!? Why not. There should be a hero version sometime...


Cockatrice publishers and their virtual book launch. The owner also runs Cockatrice Books. He seems to be committed to bringing more attention to Welsh folklore.


Basilisk from BOOM! studios. Might have some potential, mention is made of some sort of vision based attack?
Geektyrant for a review and a bit more about it.



General sightings

A reddit quote that caught my attention: Make it so that everyone can produce cockatrice eggs

Yes, I'm in favor of that.


The Renwick Cockatrice song, from the Bard of Cumberland. I thought finding that hymnal online was a great find, this is even better.

"But as soon as the pace of work had increased
A frightening spectre from below was released
The workmen downed tools and all fled from the site
As the cockatrice flew out, causing all a great fright.


And last but not least, possible future relations of mine! Filmed evidence of the myth in action!

3d printable things and miniatures:

Very tiny cockatrice designed by Harrison Baere.

More colorful fellow from VoideRealm Minis.



A comic!

A chapter from Nigel the Littlest Knight. I've linked into where a huge guy makes his first appearance. Looks like he's the boss of a dungeon!


Gaming:

A forum post about the design of a cockatrice addition to ARK, about which I know very little. But adding something like that can only improve it, right?



Travel:


An article about a hotel in Devon that is haunted, but also referred to "sightings of an unholy part lizard, part rooster creature". Hmmmm!



Not many other pieces of art but some writing:

A collection of stories by someone named Cockatrice, creating "gay transformation and NBM stories" on Patreon. I don't know much about these either but the name got my attention, and one of the more recently added stories' blurbs was "When you're fated to become an object, you want to make sure your future owner is just right." I've known many guys who could relate to that! If you'd like to meet some of them someday, they're in the basement....



And other product news! There's a Basilisk browser, which I use from time to time; a Basilisk mouse, which is vital to my job. And now:

The Dodge Viper Basilisk, a design for a new generation of the Dodge Viper cars that created by Guillaurme Mazerolle. I bought the Basilisk mouse a while back just for brand loyalty...but I don't think I'll be able to purchase this anytime soon. One, because...it's a fancy car. Two, its existence in the real world is a bit questionable, just like any good mythological thing should be. But that makes driving around in one all the more urgent, somehow...More pictures, different angles.


βασιλίσκος out.

Miniatures and 3D art is becoming more common!

A beautiful trophy fit for any display case! Though I guess you get it by hunting cockatrices, so...don't let me catch you displaying it.

A miniature! Who could get tired of those? Not me.

So here's a few more: C is for Cockatrice! I thought I had heard that C was for cookie, but that might be old news.

Sort of related to 3d but all about games:Minecraft cockatrice skin Do people really run around in costumes that much in Minecraft?

A game I don't know much about but I've seen mentioned in articles is Cyberpunk2077. Is it good? Is it bad? I don't know but they've got a [urlhttps://www.dbltap.com/posts/cyberpunk-2077-queen-of-the-highway-side-job-guide-01ew91dtfcan]supposedly sweet ride[\url] called the basilisk. A walkthrough? Always helpful.

I wish I could say I used the Basilisk Browser to browse all of these sites but...a shameful secret is that my brand loyalty only goes so far. Anyone else used it much?

Some traditional art:

Perching on a lava lamp? Ouch.
From ArtStation (I should look into that site a bit more closely, I've found some interesting pieces there), by Jenny Lynn.


Traditional art that's been commercialized!
A nice little sticker. "Roostersnek", yeah, I know what that really is.



And finally, another performance art piece put on a podcast. It was mysterious and hinting at a lot more going on! A "controlled burn" sounds like something you'd do if there was a whole clan (a statuary of cockatrices) moving in to a campground, but this was just a small part of a bigger whole.

I'm a little late this month...had some cable connectivity problems that were finally solved when a technician tried everything to convince me it wasn't their company's modem at fault until finally it turned out it was the company's modem. Since he threw in a free differently colored ethernet cable so I can color-code all the plug-ins now with their own distinctive colored cable, I didn't make him put in any lawn ornament duty.

That's a wrap for everything that came my way in January!

Cleaning up some loose ends, and December had quite a few hits anyway. Here we go:


A few things picked off of Facebook for game content:

Pixel Pets Spotlight: Cockatrice. Described as "fearsome"! Don't know much about the game though.

He's right behind you and he's really curious where you're going to put that...interestingly shaped staff you've got there.

A miniature from Warploque Miniatures which is on Patreon.

Several other 3d printable items:

Attention-getting face he's got there. Pretty wicked looking tail, too.

A fellow who looks like he could pull duty as a gargoyle from Artstation. Maybe he perches up there and waits to turn and ambush new additions to the rooftop collection?

Think you have me cornered on the ledge? You fools. (Another from Artstation.)

Cute little stock art fellow for RPGs. If the 3d printed ones are out of your range, a $1 stock art photo might be more your speed!


A poem by StarBG. It's accompanied by a cool picture! And it's nice to run into folks who are inspired to verse by how awesome we are.

Why don't the Witcher cockatrices turn you to stone? A contrast to the aforementioned inspiration, lots of games just grab all possible mythological creatures they can think of and stick 'em into dungeons. Sigh.

Friends and Flayers gaming group, featuring the Killer Kiwis. In this adventure the Adventuring Killer Kiwis are stealing cockatrice eggs! It's apparently for a good cause, though. Do they have a good plan?
"There are chickenhawks that hunt chickens, right? I'll make the call of a cockatricehawk to startle the cockatrice." Sounds like a fun group to game with!

A diorama of stealing a cockatrice egg, yet again. It seems to be a big theme. sigh No wonder keeping up with supply has been rough. And the Killer Kiwis could probably learn a thing or two from this guy.

A One Piece crossover! This is Bartolomeo who does kind of have a rooster look to him, becoming even more awesome.

When it comes to karaoke night--of course that's a natural choice.

And on to our secret business side! Basilisk brand Self Healing Concrete! I've mentioned this concrete brand before in other updates. Cracks are sealed with bacteria...where do you think they came from, hmmmm? Hmmmmmmmmm? (gives you a knowing glance)

A pretty late collection, work's been keeping me busy!

A podcast about Cockatrices: Friend, or Fiend? The split tongue knocks off some points, charisma-wise? But they thought Cockatrices were cooler than what D&D let us be. Yesssss. I don't remember petrification lasting only 24 hours, though. That must be an update. "This is like if Donald Duck was a gorgon." And a cool alternate name: "Statue Chicken." Gotta get ourselves some gay rooster eggs.

More to listen to in the background: a group story performance, The Basilisk's Stare. It'd be a fun activity in lockdown, especially if you had a basement! It's by Sabrina Hahn, whose last name means rooster in German. Hmmmmmm. I feel the heroine was kind of rude in not even trying to find out the basilisk's name, and I question the wisdom of her father, leaving all those mirrors in easy reach of a minor!

And speaking of live performances, The Basilisk which seems about Roko's basilisk. Calling all actors, calling all actors...

Some sort of psychic blog post about a clairvoyant girl being pestered by a fae basilisk/cockatrice spirit thing? Another one with those mirrors, sheesh. There ought to be regulations about just how many reflective surfaces can owned by private citizens without some sort of permit!

Found on Reddit first, but it's also on YouTube? SCP Entries! I'm glad we made the list.

And another Reddit post: A kobold in a cockatrice costume!

My significant badger didn't have to go into work today so we were sitting around wearing robes, playing around with the Nindento Switch. An ad came up:

"New Games with DEMOS "

I read that as DESMOS the free online function grapher and geometry tool. "Free games...with Desmos? Wow, I wonder what they have, that sounds.....oh."

There should be some games with Desmos. In fact, there are--with various learning objectives. But I wonder if something more interesting could be done with it.

Like the time I wanted to make a TV show based loosely on Yu Gi Oh and even more loosely on algebra, where the protagonist draws a card and says "I have nothing to fear from your exponential tower now that I've drawn Log Ir Anthem, the song that summons the Mighty Woodsman! Log Ir Anthem, chop that exponent down to size where my PEMDAS Master can attack it directly!"

And ...well.

Happy Thanksgiving!

A slightly above average month for cockatrice activity, and almost down to zero, as usual, for basilisks that doesn't involve self-repairing concrete.

A mention on a page about weasels, about how weasel pee stinks so bad it kills off everyone involved...a rumor started by Leonardo di Vinci, of all people!

Speaking of bad raps, apparently the cockatrice spirit infests many churches! Hyuk buk buk, sowing seeds, laying eggs, all that good stuff. (Here's the vid for the brave and/or patient. Pertinent things start around 16 minutes, maybe a bit before.)

And apparently we're a shadowy company now?

All this nasty talk and innuendo makes me long to lie back on a nice antique bench...like this one. Nice engraving!


Really neat pyrographic work here on Reddit. The kind of thing I'd like hanging up in the house...right above that bench.

Some nice and wholesome things this past month, as well:

A book that announces it will become a series, Cody the Cockatrice Book one. By Ra Anderson (any relation to this guy?), it's about a lonely cockatrice becoming the guardian of a kid who, lucky kid, can see him! Well sign me up. :> Already got a disguise for that sort of thing picked out.

And various games out there:

Fire and Ice Mod for Minecraft (I think?), which I know very little about, has some nice cockatrices. You can build a family even though it's said here they're hatched by throwing rotten eggs (YES!) and are sterile, being hybrids.

And the Roblox Feather Family Cockatrice, which seems to be exclusive and requires you to pay to be one. Well...I'll admit it's great and fun being a cockatrice, and everything, but....paying to be something you're not? Sounds a bit weird to me. But I suppose people will create huge fandoms about anything these days.

A shout out to  Sparhawk who found something for me: a puffy little fellow, very cute.

I forget if I've mentioned Dungeon Meshi before, the manga about a party that survives in a dungeon by eating a variety of monsters they run across. But here's their encounter with a cockatrice, the tougher version of their fight with a basilisk.. Almost the same monster, and unfortunately the awesome, beautiful guys who were minding their own business get killed but then prepared and cooked in such careful ways that I can almost forgive it. And in the cockatrice encounter, at least one of the party gets turned into a funny-looking, off balanced rock!

A blog post by one GG Paragati, featuring some rather nice artwork and one of the more recent legends....a hard tail rattle for the natural history reference there!

An impressive bit of origami over on Reddit. Lots of other neat stuff in that subreddit.

And that's it for now! Carry your mirrors close.

D&D vs mythology...I guess I should be happy mythology survives in some form.

"Have you ever been around a rooster? They're mean as hell!" Alcohol and Arcana podcast, episode 8: Cockatrices. "Are they just big scary turkeys?" No, they've got a whole lot more going for them. It led me to this article which has a pretty sweet picture. And they addressed the controversy of how to pronounce it. They hated the way I say it, with a long I sound...and re-branding the monster to give it a better name so people care about it more. (Maybe NSFW)

(post script: their conversation towards the end had me steamed! Would you F it...-4? To hell with you guys. At least someone out there is down for it.)

Art Station piece by Tiffanie Gray since this will be short otherwise...

Unless I bring up my awesome new purchase, the Basilisk X Hyperspeed mouse for use with my work-issued computer. I was all proud of myself until someone told me "Oh, you fell for their marketing? Mine lasted a year."

Sigh. Well, let's live fast, and petrify hard!

I....ooooooh..... shudders on the ground with longing


https://youtu.be/fZJTyYjczyg

We're pretty close to halfway through, and I've found some links! Someone asked me about linking to artwork on FA...if you want to find basilisk and cockatrice artwork that's on FA, search for it! That's what I do...and I put quite a bit of it into favorites. I like the journals to focus on things that are not on FA.

Like this somewhat ragged fellow who looks like he might be molting? Done by Yogi Rohim at dribble.com. I like the skulls; nice tongue, too.

I may have shared this stuffed cockatrice pattern before...they're adorable. I think I saw two that were made by the creator of the pattern for sale on Etsy a while back.

Another pattern for sale if you have a 3d printer.

I was going to keep this for myself and slowly mine it for references in future Watch updates but that seemed fairly lazy of me. If you want to go looking for lots and lots of references and don't mind wasting tons of time at TV Tropes: A fairly comprehensive entry on my whole entire family.

I'm sure I'm not alone in having to look for things to do in the last few months, lots of spare time on my hands. I was digging through pictures and papers and making decisions about what to keep and what to toss, getting lost while reflecting and looking back at things from years before...yes, the time for hindsight is 2020.

Possible reaction here

Not much to share, but I kept forgetting to put this up:

General info page featuring a handsome fellow showing off the crownlike comb and a neat curly spiral tail!

Also The Cockatrice of Crowell by ort_smort

and Minecraft Fellows by Caramelkidding

over at Reddit.

A lot of material to get through this month! But first a word from our sponsor: Mythical Meats and their Basilisk Jerky.

And don't forget to accent your bathroom with this handsome cockatrice patterned bath mat. (They had quite a few patterns but this one was one of my favorites.)

If anyone out there is in Houston and can brave the pandemic to go to the zoo, and you get to the Dragon Display then please get some pictures!

Some cross-site sharing; Art Station seems to get quite a few nice pieces that get my tail rattling.

From Allie Briggs Got little eye trails. I can do that too!

From Tristan Alexander This'd make a neat wall hanging. And that is one magnificently long tail, there.


Last but not least, some words of ...uh...well, some thoughts from the Jehovah NISSI project from June 19:
Let the power of the cockatrice torment every unrepentant witchcraft (sic) and bite them to submission, in the name of Jesus.

Buk Bawk and Amen!

In some ways I can relate to what police are going through. I'm in education; I teach for a living. I'll stress that I feel a sort of empathy, but I really don't think their position is as strong as many others I've spoken to about this.

Educators have unions that sometimes work hard to keep people who are really not worth keeping. Can police officers be fired after they screw up? Doesn't sound like it happens all that often.

Education in general attracts people who are really not suited to the profession at all. They imagine what it will be like, find out it isn't like that, and instead of adapting they just do a terrible job, year after year, and nobody can do anything about it (see the first point).

A teacher can have a profound negative affect on the rest of a student's life. It isn't literally the same as dying, but when you're told "No, you probably don't have what it takes to do this," some people just stop trying. There are a lot of other little things, such as being reasonable about deadlines and giving people an F versus a D. "You wave a pretty big magic wand over people's lives," a former student said to me once. And police officers can do the same, in a much more final way.

Lots of armchair quarterbacking goes on when it comes to education. "A true professional would never let things get out of control" is something I've heard a lot. People who've never given schooling a second thought once they were finished with theirs suddenly seem to know a lot about how things ought to be run. Unlike police, who can get politicians to come to their defense, teachers are usually hung out to dry.

Teachers get more and more duties and responsibilities piled onto them year after year. Much like the police, we have to deal with people struggling with mental illnesses and other disabilities, are homeless, are abusing drugs to a point where they can't function anymore, confront and report abuse when we hear about it...I get a training that takes maybe 30 or 45 minutes, and now I'm suddenly an expert in whether something is a legally actionable Title IX violation? No...not so much. Can an officer become a social worker due to a 6 hour training day? Doubtful.

So yeah, I know how it feels to have a lot of these pressures put onto you. Teachers in K-12 got fed up with it and organized, you may have heard of it: Red4Ed. It wasn't just about their salaries, though that was the easy to swallow story that everyone thought made sense.

Some parents became furious about teachers striking, and some politicians have since then been trying to pass legislation that forbids instructors from discussing politics in any form in their classrooms (in my state, don't know about yours). Countering movements sprang to life (Purple4Parents comes to mind).

Instead of Red and Purple, we now are seeing Black versus Blue. It's unfortunate that it's come to "What side are you on" now, but that's where we are.

And in lighter news:

Rygas, a neat model made by Jayfa. Has a mechanical look that reminds me of my hero, Popla Cocapetri.

And this one again because it's adorable!