#(I'm making my dragon species more “believable” like this not because I feel like I have to but because I want to)

[galaxythedragonshifter]

I'm doing research so I can make my dragon species more believable, and HOLY MOLY

I'm learning a LOT about some of the most powerful and fastest animals in the world-

Who knew world building could be so educational LMAO-

[weiila]

About posturing in Helluva Boss

I made a joke post a few days ago about Satan being an angry crier and that's why he needs Yogirt, but I'm only half joking.

A very prominent theme in Helluva Boss is characters putting up a facade of toughness and strength when they're actually close to a meltdown or trying to fake it until they make it and being terrified of being found out.

Blitz is the prime example of course, because he's the main character - his anger and insults hide a very caring and desperately lonely interior.

Fizz is very much the same, a loudmouth who truly believed he could not be loved without earning it, and for years played the role of the sassy jester while in constant fear of losing everything he had worked so hard for.

Loona had to pretend to be a savage, violent beast in the pound to protect herself, but broke down the second she thought nobody was looking. She still has trouble showing Blitz she does care (until Mastermind).

Ozzie is very different when he's working - which is how he's introduced in Ozzie's - compared to how he is in private, which we see later on in Oops.

Millie is an unstoppable murder machine at work but a sweetheart as soon as she can clock out (and sometimes during work as well).

Bee MIGHT be the most honest character we've seen that has been on screen for more than one episode, but there are probably more layers to her as well. I'd say Striker too, BUT he tries so hard to be cool yet can't keep his head on straight when things go bad.

For a minor character, look at Crimson. He seems like this scary, imposing mob boss, but he buckles the second he's out of subordinates and Millie heads towards him. He manages to play it cool as he surrenders Moxxie, but there's zero resistance despite what he's painted himself as. Oh yes, Crimson has absolutely killed people, but if he was half the badass he pretends to be then he'd at least try do deal with Millie himself. But he doesn't. Most likely he can't fight for shit and has only managed to take out people weaker than him or with tricks. Without his underlings he's got nothing.

Now Hell as presented as very much a dog-eat-dog place, so them putting on this air is absolutely a way to survive.

And then there's Satan.

Satan created a whole species to specifically be obedient. Why? Because it makes him feel superior.

Satan flat out lies about being the first ruler of Hell, but Lucifer isn't around to correct him. Would he say that if Lucifer was? Probably not. But he says it because he knows nobody present dares to correct him. (This was vague in the episode with Ozzie and Bee just looking annoyed but confirmed by Viv in case you haven't seen that tweet being reposted.)

I have zero doubt that this dude has self-confidence as sturdy as a gnat. He can't handle being questioned or called out or worse of all, have his power being doubted.

And about Yogirt: Satan can't even keep his own Sin under control - he needs a support demon to do that. None of the other Sins we've spent time with, including Lucifer, are ruled by the Sin they represent - not even Mammon. Even if Mammon is absolutely greedy, he's enjoying himself and more importantly he can control himself and realize when to back off without needing outside help. Satan cannot do that. He needs a lil' dude to flutter up to talk about him about breathing and gemstones, or he loses it.

Every Sin, plus Charlie and Ars Goetia, transform when they get angry, and it seems like it's involuntary to a large degree (angels also seem to have this issue). I believe that the Satan we saw in Mastermind is actually his full demon rage form, BUT he desperately wants everyone to think that's his casual form (and that you wouldn't like him when he's angry!). If he lost his temper too much, it would become obvious that he doesn't change to become even scarier and then everyone would know that the imposing, godlike dragon man isn't what he really is.

My humble conclusion, dear reader:

Satan is nothing but a master fraudster, the ultimate faker-till-you-make-it and he's scared spitless of losing that image. Satan is the weakest Sin because he's controlled by his Sin instead of the other way around, but over millenia he's managed to con everyone into thinking he's the biggest badass in the land.

... except possibly Belphegor since she must have been the one to assign Yogirt to him. Keep a few eyes on that sheep, people. She knows things.

Anyway Satan is probably on the road to having a breakdown of epic proportions because Blitz is about to become his worst nightmare and it'll be glorious.

[talon-dragonbeast]

hi! can you talk more about the significance of the biological concept of species? I'm a nonhuman who currently believes that species can't exactly be interpreted the way gender is, but I lack the vocabulary and knowledge in ecology to properly communicate that lol, so I thought I would ask you as an alterhuman in science! no worries if you don't feel like answering this ask :3

ooh i can definitely talk about that, yeah!! i was meaning to make a post like this since forever, so thanks for giving me the excuse!

so, i want to begin by emphasizing that species identity is a very real concept that should be always respected. of course, im an otherkin myself, so i dont think anyone ever doubted it in the first place, but i wanted to make myself clear anyways. species-diverse folks are the species they say they are, regardless of ones own beliefs. if a dog therian says theyre a dog physically, i believe them. if someone who looks like a human to me insists theyre not human at all, i believe them. if someone tells me, an atheist, that theyre a god or an angel, i believe them. and if someone says they can transform into a unicorn-dragon-zombie with robot wings through fucking magic, i believe them. so, now that that is clear, lets begin.

traditionally, species were classified based on their morphological characteristics, that is, their physical appearance. while this method was effective at first, it quickly became too unreliable (as evidenced by the many bird species that look almost the same, and dog breeds that, despite their physical differences, belong to the same species), so scientists began categorizing species based on their reproductive compatibility, specifically whether they could interbreed and whether their offspring were fertile. so, for example, iguanas and monitor lizards are incapable of interbreeding (different species), whereas donkeys and horses can produce mules, which are sterile (different species, same genus). finally, dogs and wolves can interbreed and they produce fertile offspring (same species, Canis lupus). nowadays, we classify species via phylogenetic analysis, which looks for similarities in DNA chains, though this method also presents its own problems as described by @nisaetus-nerd in this post.

now, why is species identity different from gender identity? well, for starters, species is more akin to biological sex than to gender. aside from the fact that the majority of the population takes species identity to be some kind of hilarious joke, species, just like sex, has some physical characteristics that (for now at least) cannot be changed. the category that we know as sex is actually a combination of chromosomes, reproductive organs (internal and external), external characteristics, hormones, (not relevant to humans but) pheromones, and reproductive cycles; similarily, species is a combination of many things, including DNA, physiology, morphology, diet, ecology, and behavior, among others.

its also important to point out that within the different sexes that exist in the human species there arent that many variations from one another; humans dont actually have a ton of sexual dimorphism (at least compared to freaks of nature (affectionate) like birds of paradise) and many of the differences between sexes that society highlights don't actually exist (think "female brain vs. male brain"). sex, at least in my opinion, isnt that important outside of reproductive health, so not many problems arise from simply throwing it out the window.

meanwhile, we do use species for a lot of things! as a vet in training, this is especially important when treating different animals; you wouldnt use the same drugs for a dog as you would for a horse, nor would you give the same food to a cow as you would to a pig. species are too different from each other, especially the further down the phylogenetic tree you go. you can actually use similar drugs for a dog and a human being, because we evolved together and have a similar physiology, but the same cant be said about chickens. most mammals heal their bones in a similar way (only difference i can think of, aside from the drugs, is the fact that you have to protect the bandages so they dont rip them off), but when it comes to, say, a bird of prey, thats an entirely different story. not to mention bees! they dont even have bones!!

(species have other uses outside of health of course, thats only what i specialize in. someone who studies ecology, or zoology, or genetic engineering, or any other field of biology would give you a different answer than mine. this is only my point of view, which i admit is kind of limited)

so! to wrap up this extremely long post, i want to stress once more that we need a term to express the experience of species identity, similar to how gender is discussed in transgender communities. species identity is not the same as biological species, and its crucial to be able to freely describe this experience with our own vocabulary. the way things are, biological species is too important of a concept to dismiss its meaning entirely, which is why we often face ridicule and skepticism when discussing it outside of alterhuman circles. the way we define "species" in our community (in which species = identity) is quite different from how most people usually understand the term (in which species = biology), and i think this misunderstanding is in part what leads to doubt when we talk about our experiences with others. so by changing the way we talk about species identity, we could get more people to understand what we really mean, instead on assuming based on the words we use.

[fantasy-anatomy-analyst]

i dont send asks often and am kinda nervous but i discovered this blog after starting a fantasy worldbuilding thing ive been doing and i want to ask, should i be considering like, physics and the square cube law? it feels silly but i want my designs to feel plausible and biologically accurate, with my own twists on fantastical creatures.

dragons, specifically, are usually very large creatures, they also often fly. these are traits i want to keep, and have it still feel fantastical, but here are obvious issues here. there is magic, and it is connected to the world, and i could do something like changing gravity or atmosphere, but just saying it's magic feels like lazy cop-out, and changing the laws of physics is too drastic not to be explored, which feels to extreme for one creature. am i overthinking things? can i just handwave this sort of thing? i often don't see fantasy settings explore that sort of thing so idk im kinda lost here

You can hand wave a great deal of things and still also make fantasy creatures that feel plausible. My centaurs have the unusual biology of being born with extra limbs and ribs because they're all chimeric twins. I'm pretty sure it's genetically implausible for an entire species to be born with such remarkably consistent fused anatomy like that. But it's just enough of an explanation to make it feel a little more believable.

For dragons, I like to remind myself that humans have created airplanes at least as big as the average dragon and they work just fine. So maybe you can research how planes work. There are engines, certainly, but planes stay in the air despite being giant heavy metal tubes because of the way their shape interacts with air currents, essentially. So instead of flqpping a lot like a smaller animal, maybe your dragons are more like long distance soaring animals. Albatrosses come to mind. Getting off the ground is another problem, which can be solved by having the dragons soar from high places like cliffs and mountains.

You can also look to prehistory! The quetzalcoatlus was a pterosaur roughly as big as a giraffe and as far as science has determined, it could fly and even launch itself into the air from flat ground.

Here are a few more tips for making large dragons believable:

- bird bones. Contrary to popular belief, they're not completely hollow and they're not actually much lighter than mammal bones. But the open spaces and the mesh-like structure inside them give them a different sort of density and strength that helps them fly, as well as providing more space for internal air sacs that actually help them breathe more efficiently. (I'm on my phone right now, I'll add a source for that later) and we have evidence that this sort of air sac also existed in large dinosaurs like the diplodocus. Dragons probably would need similar structures in their bones.

- hot air balloons. Hot air rises and dragons breathe fire. Make use of those extensive air sacs and fill them with hot air! How dragons manage to have so much heat inside as reptiles is something you can hand wave with magic or find various science-type explanations for doeending on your mood. I like the idea in dungeon meshi where the dragon has a second stomach-like sac for the indigestible parts of its prey and uses that for fire fuel! It's very clever. Dragons may not be as thin and soft as a balloon, but having a body full of air sacs that carry hot air is a reasonable explanation for how dragons fly despite their size.

- wing shape and body shape! Long distance fliers that soar more than they flap usually have very long, narrow wings. And most flying animals also have shorter, rounded bodies. The dragon wing membrane should cover their whole side, from the shoulder to the hip, with a really big wingspan. Their tails probably shouldn't be all long and whippy and full of dense muscle, but maybe they can be flat and broad to catch air or maybe the wing membrane extends to the tail. Maybe you have tailless dragons! Just don't let the tails add too much weight or they'll make flying a lot harder.

- propulsion. One magic explanation I think would be interesting is if dragons used magic like airplane engines. Trying to work out magical gravity fields and atmospheric magic is cool and fun. But it seems like it would be easier for dragons to just have magic jet engines if you want to use magic to explain their flight. And it's fun!

I hope those are all helpful ideas! Dragons are cool and I love to see people messing around to make them more believable. There is nothing wrong with using a little magic fudge in fantasy worldbuilding either! It wouldn't be very fantasy if it always had to follow a hard science system. You can leave that to the scifi genre haha. But if you're going to dive into realism in fantasy, it is more fun to see people really dive deep and get weird with it and explore all sorts of interesting extra details, rather than just dipping a toe in and hand waving the rest. Maybe it's just the neurodivergence in me, but I always have more fun with fantasy stories if it feels like the creator had a real passion for the weird details and didn't just follow a standard fantasy template.

[kerubimcrepin]

Liveblog: Wakfu Season 2 (episodes 1-5)

Episode 1 - Monsters and Chimeras

I didn't mention it in the liveblog of season 1, but I think it is probably common for a person in a group of adventurers to be a scribe/quest journal keeper.

(putting on a crepinjurgenite tinfoil hat) We know that Kerubim keeps one canonically, and that as a child Joris liked scrap booking, so my headcanon is as follows:

While travelling alone, Joris keeps a private travel journal nobody is allowed to read (it has: drawings and photos of views he found beautiful + quick sketches of maps and notes on environment to refine at home (HE'S CANONICALLY INTO CARTOGRAPHY, BESIDES PHOTOGRAPHY) + he gets sappy&mentally ill about it all, so it's cringe to him.) (Unsurprisingly, it never contains any sensitive political data or his objectives, and if he does need to write something like that down, he tears that page out asap)

Atcham doesn't keep journals as a rule (having a literal paper trail might reveal to the investigators the location where he hid the bodies)

While travelling as a group, Kerubim keeps the journal, and it's a pretty pragmatic one (for him. He writes down the most random things, from important info, to actual fucking recipies he learned and personal notes à la "NOTE! next morning after we exit the tavern i should buy tangerines. i think Joris is beginning to suffer vitamin C deficiency but is keeping silent about it as usual"). Unlike Joris, he isn't into photography or doodling, HOWEVER, he will purposefully ask Joris to take photos and draw maps/landmarks in that journal. Because Joris is good at it. (And because he has had a folder of Joris's art through ages 4-600 in a hidden room in the house, all framed and sorted alphabetically, and he NEEDS more items in the collection.)

Episode 2 - Rubilaxia

It was mentioned at the end of the previous episode that Eva would be making her way through the Cania plains, and I am glad the series shows us at least one of the unique rocks found in Cania.

I don't know why, but it feels nice when the games and the cartoons represent the same place the same way. That's why I'm pointing that out.

Episode 3 - Remington Smisse

(coughs) This sword appears in episode 1 of the critically acclaimed (and worldwide-beloved) show under the name "Dofus: Aux Tresors de Kerubim"

Once again, the show has been planting seeds for Adamai's joker arc for its entire run, and still managed to squander it during season 3.

I have never seen a show fumble the bag that bad, I'm sorry.

Episode 4 - The Return of Percedal

Big believer in rubitristeva. A family can be a dad and swdad (sword dad) and a mom.

Episode 5 - The Dragon Pig

Wakfu Cannibalism Counter: 1

The reason I point this out is that, with every instance of inter-adventurer cannibalism in canon, the chance that Joris, Kerubim, and Atcham have tasted human flesh (outside of Waven) grows.

On the topic of Waven Cannibalism Lore, strangely, porkassess, AKA the pig people who are stuck in a mutual cannibalism war with Bonta under Joris's rule (technically not cannibalism because they are a different sentient species from twelvians, similar to goblins and bworks, but I doubt it's much better...) worship the minor god Ougah (who is a mushroom)

It is unknown (at least, to me) what the hell the Dragon Pig is.

But he is definitely tasty.

While they were busy grinding their professions and doing pizzlarva quests, he was dungeon crawling with his guild.

Also, let me be real, the whole conflict of "boo-hoo, nobody respects Tristepin" is random, mean-spirited, and out of character, inserted into the show simply to create conflict. Tristepin got resurrected after weeks of them thinking he was dead. They should not, logically, treat him this way (at least yet).

Reasons I think Dragon Pig might be an immortal, perpetually reincarnating/perpetually killed porkass: Does this to a person who lives in areas surrounding Bonta.

[bengiyo]

Get to Know Me Tag :)

I was tagged by @telomeke and shaded by @lurkingshan.

do you make your bed?

Not usually, but I don't have a partner right now. I find that I'm actually really good at cleanliness when I have people in my space regularly. I am better about taking care of things when I'm doing them for the ease of others.

what's your favourite number?

14, but I couldn't tell you why. I think it has something to do with a girl named Ciara who I sat behind in elementary school.

what is your job?

I fix things for a government agency.

if you could go back to school, would you?

Probably. I didn't really know what I wanted to do when I went to college, and was far too much a mess at the time to study what I really should have. If I could do it and maintain my expenses, I'd retrain for my preferred profession.

can you parallel park?

Yes. I am the gay who drives.

a job you had that would surprise people?

I was paid for over two years to be really good at D&D.

do you think aliens are real?

So... I gotta be honest... I hate this question. This feels as loaded as the "Do you believe in God?" question. We are not aware of the existence of life on other planets, let alone sentient life. There is nothing for me to believe in. Do I hope that there are other intelligent beings out there? Yes. I think it would be really cool to engage in communication with a species that also crawled their way out of the muck and made it to space. I think there's much we could learn from each other about life and the universe itself. But belief is such a loaded term for me as a lapsed Catholic. I do not believe in aliens, but I hope that we'll get to meet some in the future.

can you drive a manual car?

Nope! Never needed to learn.

what's your guilty pleasure?

Hmm... Nothing really anymore?

tattoos?

Nah, I've always worked in the public sector in a way that hasn't made it an advisable choice, and I've rarely cared enough about something to mark my body with it.

favorite color?

Purple most of the time, but my wardrobe would say I'm in my green era.

favorite type of music?

I'm a soft rock 90s kid who embraced a lot of 2000s and later alternative. I've been on a huge synthwave kick lately. However, because I grew up in the 90s and remember the era of radio, I have a deep affection for Soul and R&B, classic rock, and pop.

do you like puzzles?

Yes? But not in a way that makes me yearn for them.

any phobias?

Probably falling, but that seems like a normal one for survival purposes.

favorite childhood sport?

Baseball! I was a shortstop.

do you talk to yourself?

Not often. I don't actually have an internal monologue, so I don't need to talk to myself often to get through it.

what movies do you adore?

This is...so difficult. I'm just going to name a ton of films: Pooh's Grand Adventure: The Search for Christopher Robin, Pacific Rim, Ghost Dog, Master and Commander, The Man From Earth, The Sum of Us, Big Eden, Kill Bill 1 and 2, Knives Out, Muppet Treasure Island, Gattaca, C.R.A.Z.Y., Weekend, First Blood, Robocop, Starship Troopers, Drive My Car, Nine Days, Really Love, Set it Off, Make the Yuletide Gay, Shelter, Pig, Kiki's Delivery Service, The Digimon Movie, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Star Wars IV and V, Isa Pa With Feelings, The Way He Looks... and probably many more.

coffee or tea?

Coffee. Tea does so little for me.

first thing you wanted to be growing up?

A train conductor or an astronaut! Trains are so cool, and space is the final frontier! We have to boldly go where no one has gone before!

I'll tag @shortpplfedup, @negrowhat, @chicademartinica, @so-much-yet-to-learn and @happypotato48

[genopaint]

Slightly less late but still late is week 49! LET'S GO!!!

As always you can follow me on twitter where they’re posted daily

And read more info on each of them below the cut

Daily Dragon #343 - Silver Comet

The Lord of Dragons. A serious, no-nonsense dragon with an unyielding sense of duty in his role to protect all dragons no matter what. He will work with other species to protect his own, but wont hesitate to destroy ANYTHING that harms his people

Another dragon redraw, this time from 2018! I've always been pretty fond of his design, and yet I never really came back to draw him again! I think I've made improvements, but even looking back on the odd choices of the old design, I think it's a very strong design for me in 2018

Daily Dragon #344 - Rainforest Dragon

These slippery dragons love humid conditions and thrive because of the toxic food that grows there. Depending on what they eat, their skin might secrete poison with different properties such as burning or paralyzing!

I'm actually kind of surprised I haven't done a dragon in this style yet for the challenge, but this is a crayon style I used to do a LOT in Clip Studio Paint! I think it looks very cute, and I actually understand CSP more now than I did before. I should use this style more.

Daily Dragon #345 - Bogeyman Dragon

A bogeyman who was born with draconic features such as wings and a prominent tail. However, instead of traditionally elemental breath, this Bogeyman can summon and spit out large orbs made of a sticky substance that stops foes in their tracks!

this was originally a different dragon i decided and didn't like and almost scrapped but figured i could repurpose into a bogeyman :)

bogeymen are my own original species btw if you dont know, i still need to make that ref sheet / style guide for them

Daily Dragon #346 - Bahamuknight

And of course, this funny circle dragon knight guy is the dragon for the day. And I'm finally caught up again! I'm gonna try to keep on top of this for the rest of the challenge since we're so close to the end :)

Also for some more insight, originally I wanted him to have a sword similar to Sol Badguy's, but thought having ANOTHER metaknight with a sword was a bit too easy. Then I tried claws today, but didn't like how they looked on his short arms.

Ultimately I settled on a hook because, hey, Bahamut used to be a fish right? Maybe it'd be cute if the Kirby version of him was also a giant fish or something. Idk

Daily Dragon #347 - Drupesaurus

Also known as Fruit Dragons. These are kind and docile creatures that naturally grow fruits all over their body! The quality and taste of the fruits increases based on how well they're kept and treated! They're very popular in kitchens.

This is a redraw of a dragon from 2019! That year I did a big dragon a month challenge! How far we've come lol.

I actually still think this is one of my strongest dragon designs ever. And this original art might still be better than the new one in some ways

The original was done in MS Paint, if you can believe it! The new one is done in fire alpaca cause it's easier and I'm kind of pressed for time. But I hope you all like the new one regardless :)

Also also, this dragon is 1 of 2 redraw dragons I really wanted to get done in this challenge. The second one, if you can believe it, is somehow more complicated and may be the most complex dragon I've ever made. Oh god...

Daily Dragon #348 - Gaia, the Dragon God

A being incredibly in tune with the planet, feeling all its pain and providing life and protection to it. However, Gaia is an incredibly stubborn and easily angered creature. And will destroy civilizations it deems a threat to earth.

yet ANOTHER redraw dragon (I've got a lot of these for the end of this challenge lol) This is another one from 2019! I think it's a very interesting and unique design even still, with the thick geckolike tail, the bird wings, and the weird throat crystal? But damn its complex lol

Also UGH feathers are so hard to draw, I may never get good at them

Daily Dragon #349 - Wyvern Trout

These large fishes are born with draconic blood. And as such have thick scales, a hardy helmet with horns, flame breath, and fins that double as wings to fly in the air! They're famous for their taste, their flame sack being a particular delicacy

[girldragongizzard]

Epilogue 7: Egg

The burden of being a person is that you can look around at the situation of the world at large, your own circumstances, and the instincts and drives that push you toward certain reactions to that situation, and you know that as a person you have the willpower and agency to make a choice. So you feel the responsibility of trying to figure out the right choice and to push yourself through to do it, even if it's against those instincts and drives. And then you watch yourself follow those instincts and drives anyway.

It's how humanity got here.

I was born in 1974. I was conscious and building memories before Reagan was elected, and I remember one of his debates with Carter. I don't remember it well, but I remember it was important to people. And after that, things got dark and scary.

I was raised during the end of the Cold War, during a time when no one who took it seriously thought it could or would end in any way but nuclear holocaust. And on top of that, I was educated by my teachers and parents about just how imminent and deadly global warming would be.

And then I watched as seemingly everyone forgot about all of that.

But, there are still way too many nuclear weapons on the planet, and way too many close calls with them. And, oh, look, there's that climate change. And the predicted conflicts and genocides as a result of that climate stress have been ramping up for the past several decades, becoming a backdrop a lot of us take for granted. The world's forests burn while militaries bomb the shit out of civilians and cut off their routes of escape.

And, lo and behold, the sixth global mass extinction has begun, and we dragons are, according to the Artists I've spoken to, the final confirmation of it. Never mind that seventy or so species of life form go extinct every day. Gone. No more. Something weird and alarming has happened as a result of the chaos and now the world has us dragons.

Except that we might turn it all around.

When I look back on my life, before dracomorphosis, I don't remember ever thinking that I would have children. I figured I'd die single and unmated. And that if I ever did find a partner, I'd never be able to support a child. I couldn't support myself. And, I had this weird unfounded suspicion I was sterile or something, which I think was an emotion rooted in fatalism and self loathing, really. But, you know, it's hard to have any sort of hope or sense of self worth when you're raised in a world that's obviously been doomed from before the start of your own life and nothing you ever do measures up.

I also certainly didn't see bringing a child into this world as any sort of ethical thing. I resented being alive, myself, and I saw all birth as a profound cruelty.

Though I mostly kept that to myself, because I didn't want to make anyone else feel more miserable for any reason.

I think that when I was freed from my prison of a previous body, my personality did change pretty fundamentally, though. I'm way more aggressive and fearless than I have ever been in my life. Impulsive beyond my own belief. And despite having fewer words, I talk to way more people way more often. I'm outgoing, and I'm enjoying life, and I recognize myself.

And now I'm proud to be having a child.

I feel like I'm making the world a better place by doing it. And I don't believe my child is going to suffer. I think they are going to thoroughly enjoy whatever life they have, in a way I don't think other lifeforms can ever be sure of.

It isn't fair at all. But, it's what I'm doing.

And I may not have even had a choice in the matter, except to eat my own egg after laying it, effectively aborting it. That is an option that did briefly occur to me and repulse me. But, if I hadn't bred with anyone, I'd very likely have produced a parthenogenic clone. Which would have been sort of a disappointment, but I'd still have been so proud and protective of her.

Instead, I got to experience a whole variety of sex this Spring, and then lay this precious, wonderful egg.

An egg with a surprise in it!

And laying that egg was a trip and a half.

It's about the size of my head, and almost oblong. It's nearly cylindrical, with straight but tapered sides, capped with rounded ends. Clearly shaped to roll in a circle, and to have as much interior space as possible while still being able to pass out of my cloaca without tearing anything.

I woke up in the middle of the night to contractions that felt an awful lot like an urgent shit, and I knew I couldn't make it to the outdoors fast enough. It felt like shapeshifting would have just squeezed it out faster. But, then, what started coming out wasn't soft feeling in any way, so I knew exactly what it was.

I stood up and arched my back, lowering my haunches to the ground and looking back between my legs with my head upside-down. And I got to watch it come out!

And seeing my own cloaca stretch like that was weird. Humans who give live birth can sometimes see that kind of thing when viewing it in video afterward. Or, their partners get to watch sometimes. But seeing your own body do that in real time feels like it's extra alarming. The egg came out big end first, and it is quite a bit bigger than a human baby's head. So, there was this red and yellow smeared mottled green surface in the middle of my stretching vent, and it just kept getting wider and wider, and I had no idea how wide it would have to get.

But, what you have to understand is that my haunches are much, much wider than any human's hips now, and my body is bizarrely, magically malleable.

It didn't hurt much.

It felt, at most, like being badly constipated with explosive diarrhea behind it. My gut was cramping and burbling and roiling, and I realized I also hadn't really had the sense of being pregnant before this. I'd just thought the mass was all part of my growth, and was worried I didn't even have an egg to lay. But now that it was moving, I had a sense of where it was and what it had been displacing.

Arching my back like I was doing then felt like it was helping to keep the rotated egg from pressing against my stomach and diaphragm. Which, I'm not sure makes sense compared to other vertebrates, but that's how it felt. And resting my head against the floor made it feel like I had something to push against during a contraction.

And then my cloaca got as wide as it needed to be and slipped around the bulkiest curve of the egg, and my butt went up in the air as the rest of it fell out and rolled to the floor in less than a second.

What followed was that feeling of needing to push more of something out of my gut very urgently, but having nothing there for the muscles to work on. And I felt so much lighter.

And then I really wanted that little sucker and my own ass to be as clean as possible, and I made that happen.

No need to tell you how. Though, it settled my gut to do it.

And now the egg sits on the least used cushioned chair in our living room. Green against green, at least to my eyes.

I put it there, carrying it slowly and carefully in foreclaws, before shrinking myself down enough to go wake Rhoda up and tell her what happened, to drag her out and show her our greatest prize.

That was about a month ago.

I'm not a mother quite yet, but I sure do feel like one.

—

It's a summer evening. I'm digesting three seagulls with the help of some rocks while I watch Joel snooze in the middle of his park. A family is eating takeout dinner at a picnic table near him and the kids keep trying to get up to go over and bother him, but their parents keep telling them to finish their food first. I can't hear them, of course, but their body language says everything.

I'm wondering if Joel would let our child play on him, too.

I also idly wonder if Astraia will teach them how to play D2R and other computer games.

And will Anurak go flying with them and teach them about the spawning habits of salmon?

I have this weird mix of draconic and human child rearing ideals in my head, and I don't know which ones are relevant. And, in part, that's because so much of it gets to be cultural, apparently. The dragons in the Southern hemisphere are each having their own experiences, and it's different by region as well as culture. And really, truly different dragon by dragon.

The draconologists who've started compiling the data have identified a few trends, similar to with human children. Like I said before, dragon whelps mature faster in some ways. But whether they stay with their parents or strike out for their own territories, or mingle with humans or other dragons really varies a lot.

I just don't know what my own whelp will be like until they hatch, so all I can do is daydream and make contingency plans.

And the way that Joel tolerates strange human children really makes me hope he'll do the same for a little dragon.

I know I would. But the more dragons that can socialize with my child, the better for everyone, I think.

And then I hear a familiar voice. One I haven't heard for several years, accompanied by the sound of a couple of children, and two other, deeper sounding familiar voices.

Familial voices.

They're right below me, where car doors are now slamming.

My body shudders and rumbles. And I pull myself closer to the edge of the building, so that I can hang my head over it and look down. My claws sink into the stone trim.

I can't clearly identify my emotions.

I'm maybe startled, excited, scared, anxious, and eager. I feel like when I'm hungry and I see a particularly doofy and vulnerable seagull below me.

But what I see is my sister, her husband, their two kids, and our parents walking toward my coffee shop from their cars.

For a very silly moment, I imagine bullseye targets on the tops of their heads, like that Farside comic with the caption, "How bird's view the world." And my rumbling stutters like a laugh.

I feel a sudden growing affection and a hope that I don't trust is well placed. But they're here!

Why are they here?

Do they even know who and what I am, now? I haven't messaged any of them. I've been too scared.

I can't go down there and appear to them as I used to be. It's the one shape I absolutely cannot bring myself to take. It's not even that I can't stand the dysphoria of it. I just can't do it.

But I know that shouldn't actually matter.

People who know me will always recognize me. It's like a little weakness. A flaw that sometimes comes in handy. Bewildering and strange, but reassuring.

I've gotta go down there.

They're here for me. They have to be. There's no other reason they'd come all the way up to Fairport and my coffee shop. And they look happy, and I need to see them, even if it goes badly.

I push myself away from the edge and pull myself up into princess form to quickly message Rhoda, "My family are here! At the shop! You can meet them!"

Then I message Chapman, too, realizing sie might like to see them as well.

And then I slip into my smaller natural self and leap off the building.

—

Sometimes, as a person, you've got to grapple with your instincts and drives, even as you watch yourself following them, and steer them in a new direction.

Like, making the decision between hunting a living scavenger or eating grass fed beef.

And sometimes, you can call a halt to them. Like, after a long, lovely dinner with the Artist of Being A Dragon where nothing went wrong, you might still be able to decide, "Nope. My child is going to have only the people I love to draw their traits from."

And sometimes when you've made a choice like that, it helps you face the harder things.

Like telling your seventy-six year old parents that you still think of them, even though you haven't said anything to them for years.

You hold the pride of having stuck to your principals in your gizzard, and you digest it along with your seagulls, and it nourishes you as you do the hardest thing you've done since October.

—

As I cross the street toward the shop from where I landed, I can see my family clustered around two of the big rectangular tables pushed together in the dining area. There's six of them, and maybe they're expecting me, so that makes sense. The audacity of them to rearrange the furniture pricks my secondhand embarrassment a little, but I ignore it. Nobody's bothering them about it.

The shop isn't terribly crowded, either.

Nathan is working alone, but I see Bri and Miriam hanging out doing the books on another table near my family and talking to my Dad and Mom.

It's my nibling, Rika, who sees me first, pulling on my sister's sleeve to point me out to her. Emelie lights up and smiles.

Everyone else looks and I get a mix of half viewed expressions through the windows from them, and feel myself under scrutiny. It's too much for me to tell how each person seems to be feeling, and I've never been great at that anyway. But I definitely feel put on the spot in a way I haven't felt since my first interview with the Mayor.

I feel my body stiffen up and start to strut, and I try to make it stop. I want to be relaxed, like this is normal.

I can't really manage it directly, and I feel like various parts of my body are the wrong size or misshapen or something. But I'm not shapeshifting, thankfully. I do almost balloon out to my full size, but I manage to focus on the door handle as my goal well enough to calm down and get there without doing so.

But just before I press the door latch with my nose to open it, I remember something.

I haven't even come out to any of my family as trans.

My hatching and transition was just all so sudden, and then followed by so much stress, I never messaged any of them. At least, I don't recall doing so.

I've daydreamt about doing so. I've made lots of different tentative plans that I've never followed through on.

And I know that, because of Rika, they're probably cool with trans people. Apparently. Now, at least.

But, I didn't communicate. And I should have.

And if they're looking at me now, because of the way the dracomorphosis worked, the way it resonates in the minds of the people who know us, they can already see.

That might explain some of the expressions.

I push down on the latch. And then I push against the door with the top of my head. And I walk inside.

And before I look up, I can already see that my Mom is coming into the lobby, arms out for a hug, looking sideways and the other way to figure out how to do so, and saying something about hoping to see her new grandchild.

I'll need to get my tablet out to tell her that it's too early for that, but that they can all see my egg if Rhoda invites them up.

I do briefly wonder how she knows that much.

—

It turns out that I've been memed.

There've been a few news sites, some of them garbage AI clickbate sites, that have run copycat articles on me, taking words from the Weekly's and Daily's articles. And screenshots of those have gotten around the social media sights I don't frequent. But that Rika does.

One of those articles deadnamed me, because the police did, and a bunch of trans people jumped on that to write corrections, and that got spread around. And that all happened nearly overnight, so it was one of those little corrective memes that Rika first saw. And it still had my deadname on it, so they knew it was me. Then, when they dug a little further, they found a photo of me that the Weekly's photographer had taken and that clinched it for them, and they got excited.

The first thing they told my sister was, "Your sister is trans!"

Not that I'm a dragon, but that I'm trans.

It turns out that being near a billionaire when he gets swallowed by a nightmare, and being the last person seen flying around the sky with him, kind of makes you an icon, apparently.

Weirdly, my Tumblr blog has not yet received the fallout from that. No one's found it yet, except the handful of followers I already had. So I didn't know.

I think, maybe, Rhoda's no bullshit field is still at work, since I also have yet to experience any legal trouble from any of this, either.

Is that also having an effect on the mood of my parents?

I don't know.

Possibly.

They are being way more understanding than I feared they'd be.

—

The hallway in front of our apartment is really crowded with us, and soon, the apartment will obviously be too small. I've been subtly shrinking myself to fit better.

At first, I was deluged with so many questions that I couldn't answer them even if I had taken princess form for the thumbs. Dragon's blood boon of universal language would have helped, but I still don't want it. And I don't want to shapeshift in front of my family yet. I want them to get used to me being truly me, even if I'm now smaller than I was when I first walked in the door of the coffee shop.

Shapeshifting would spur so many more questions, too. So many more.

Nathan had had to intervene, with his strong voice, and remind everyone that I use AAC to talk, and to slow down for me.

Then Rhoda showed up, and then Chapman, and it got a little easier, because both of them could talk for me.

But they both inspired even more questions.

I settled a lot of them by finally remembering this blog, and pulling it up and shoving it in front of Rika, who smirked because they've already been reading it. Natty leaned in to get an eager look, too. And then when everyone else saw my pinned post with the table of contents they realized just how much I'd already written.

And shortly after that, it was decided and agreed upon by everyone, including Rhoda, that they needed to see the egg.

So here we are.

I like to visualize the egg sitting in that quiet, empty apartment in silence just before the flood of humanity about to hit starts filtering in through the opening front door.

As Rhoda unlocks and opens it, the noise of a couple of excited children and their equally excited but hushed parents washes over the space and finds the egg. And maybe the fetus that's inside is already complex enough to recognize a few words. Maybe it knows, somehow, instinctively, that it's about to be surrounded by family.

And then Rhoda pushes the door wide, walks inside just far enough that there's room, and Rika and Natty jostle their way around her and start rushing to the living room. But Emelie calls out to slow them down, reminding them that this is Rhoda's apartment, not theirs. Justin, her husband, apologizes, and Rhoda dismisses it.

"I am so glad to be in the presence of children," she says. "With my cane, I'm not as unstable as I look. And I don't get enough of it. Please, come in."

"It should be safe to touch the egg, if you don't jostle it," Chapman says. "If Meghan and Rhoda are OK with that."

"Yes," I say, feeling apprehensive but wanting that contact to happen anyway.

"I'm OK with it, since Meghan is," Rhoda says.

That quiets the kids down significantly, as they start whispering instructions to each other while crouching down to look at and touch the egg before the rest of us can even see it.

I'm taking up the rear, because I've already seen the hell out of that egg. I shoved it out of my ass. I know what it looks, smells, tastes, and feels like.

And, also, being at the door allows me to guard the entrance, to make sure no rival dragons are coming through it to eat my egg. Not that that would happen here, or in that way. My brain just insists this is a reason, so I let it think it's a good one.

Rhoda stays in the kitchen as she watches my family file by, one eye on the too small tea kettle.

"Don't worry about it," Chapman says to Rhoda. "We've all had drinks downstairs anyway."

"I know," she replies.

And, I make it into the apartment and turn to close the door by the time my parents make it into the living room to see the egg.

There's a pause of quiet. It makes me wonder what they're all thinking. I listen carefully to see if I can catch anyone whispering or something.

I feel a little tense.

Then my Mom exclaims, "It's so small!"

And I turn to face the wall and bonk it with my head. Maybe a little too loud for the neighbors.

[eldritchamy]

Hello darling. After that one post. May I ask what your solution to the Abundance Of Hypercarnivores problem in DND style fantasy settings is?

So the "Abundance of Hypercarnivores" problem exists for a specific reason: DND is a very combat-heavy game. Most of the mechanics of the entire system are dedicated to combat encounters.

And as such, DND type settings tend to focus on "things you can fight". Even more so "things that want to fight YOU." And the problem is made significantly worse by how POWERFUL player characters get, which requires more and more absurd encounters to give them a believable threat to overcome.

The worldbuilding for the natural world is a 'bestiary' of things that have 'challenge ratings' because you're playing the "I kill things and become a hero of the realm" simulator, not the "I'm wood elf David Attenborough and welcome to Mutual of Gnollmaha's Wild Kingdom" simulator. Exploration in DND is not very fleshed out.

If you can't fight it, they don't bother describing it.

Are there things like weird flies and beetles and harmless snakes and rodents and songbirds and fish and lizards and frogs and other animals in DND settings that just don't come up in a monster manual?

Well. Rules as written? No.

Because they're not written.

Realistically? There sure as hell would be. An ecosystem can't exist without having multiple trophic levels to it, but in DND you don't care about any trophic level that isn't a combat encounter. Which is .... FINE, I GUESS, it's what the system is built for, but it also means the worldbuilding is pretty limited in terms of fleshing out The Nature. There's less of an ecosystem and more of a hit list.

First point of fixing this problem is to just mention that there are other things in the world that don't exist to be fought. There's a balance to this for a book, because you're not writing a wilderness survival guide; you still have a story that you need to get to. There's also a balance to doing it for a TTRPG setting, because you gotta pay for the pages you want published, and it's expensive to waste pages on anything not relevant to the game mechanics.

For Issliss, we do have things in the world that you can't fight, and the best example of it is something I came up with called Boneflies. They're swarming insects that feed on the undigested bits of other creatures' prey (including bones). They have a symbiotic relationship with large stationary predators (like carnivorous plants, of which we have several) in that they clean up the evidence of other dead things. Issliss has a lot more wilderness survival type mechanics than DND, so boneflies actually do serve a game function: someone trained in certain skills would notice them, and know oh, we have to be careful around here, because if there are boneflies, there's remains to feed on, which means there's a large predator nearby.

As a DM or a writer, you can help make the world feel more fleshed out with some minor scene building. Mention things like bird sounds or movement in the corner of your eye that turns out to be a lizard catching a beetle or a snake darting through the underbrush. And don't make everything VISUAL. Sounds and smells can build a more believable environment too.

BUT, that's the boring half of the answer that you could have figured out on your own. You asked for MY solution.

There are definitely some details here that I have to skip over, but in the most general terms? Dragons, as high fantasy tends to depict them, do not exist in the Uneiverse.

High fantasy dragons are GARBAGE worldbuilding.

An intelligent, aggressive, territorial creature that lives for hundreds or thousands of years and reaches kaiju size and has a huge range cannot reasonably exist in the world. It just can't. That's not a naturally occurring species with a breeding population.

So how do you have a legendary creature in your fantasy world?

Well, it's a magic setting.

A very ambitious wizard who sets out to become immortal will probably, either by intention or by accident, end up becoming a lich, a monstrous zombie wizard that lives forever but loses a large sense of self in the process. Instead of giving a prolonged life to THEMSELVES, they instead end up creating something NEW that goes on in their place. The LICH, of course, feels no remorse over this. Who they used to be is irrelevant.

Necromancy is only one flavor of magic.

What happens if BIG magic goes wrong (or tragically right) in some other direction? What if creatures on the scale of dragons only exist because Somebody Fucked Up?

You would end up with rare occurrences of super apex predators that allow for a legendary narrative encounter, but these things are isolated. They don't take hundreds of years to grow into small kaiju only to be taken down by a group of adventurers at the first sign of a dragon taking up roost a bit too close to a kingdom. There's no breeding population of them. There's no unexplained centuries-long gap in their existence until they just suddenly become a problem.

You can have a huge magical monster suddenly appear, but their SUDDEN appearance suddenly has an EXPLANATION. It has a start point that doesn't break the suspension of disbelief of the world.

For the Uneiverse, with my very "magic is the energy of creation redirected through the power and intent of the caster" style magic system, I have a classification system for large scale magical anomalies like this, but I can't talk about it in any meaningful detail (and it needs a lot of work and refinement anyway).

But the tl;dr is I have a couple acronyms that basically mean "somebody fucked up real bad" and "a massive dangerous organism just exists in the world now, congrats" and "this entire landscape or ecosystem has been irreparably magically altered and is now unnatural in some way, possibly affecting plant and animal life and creating new species in a localized area."

These events can vary a lot in scale, severity, and flavor.

I was actually just looking up different kinds of birds earlier to try to decide which ones would be cool if they were somehow turned into living stained glass. For instance.

There might be a place like that in the world. It's either relevant or not relevant. You don't know. (It's not relevant to the story.)

Kelp bed mirage in the middle of a desert, ghost fish, haunted coral, go nuts. Why not? It's magic, be creative with it.

Enormous magical monster that's causing problems? Well, that's one less unethical wizard in the world experimenting with scary magic. Better hire some adventurers to go kill it.

So the short answer is to do a bit more scene building to make it feel like there's a lot more LIFE in the world, and in the case of big monsters, have a good explanation for how they GOT there. At least often enough to fool your audience into thinking you've put in that level of work for everything. They WANT to buy into that illusion. Give them enough reason to believe you HAVE an explanation, and they'll believe you even when you don't.

Winged squirrels. Raccoon pigeon griffins. Feathered dragon lizards instead of hawks or vultures. Songbirds made of glass. An origami salamander that came to life when some magic ink got spilled on a scroll. Colonial organisms that float around in the low atmosphere feeding on the ambient debris of magical pollution.

A big fuckin flamethrower dinosaur that happened because a pyromancer REALLY should have double-checked that arcane symbol before doing a ritual that required a level of power they didn't have any real control over. A tarantulaceratops, I don't know. It's not BAD for there to be predators in the world. An ecosystem needs them to exist TO SOME DEGREE. Just make sure you're putting herd animals and herbivores and birds and insectivores and harmless things in the world too, the predators need a food source.

And maybe not that tarantulaceratops thing, the horns would really get in the way. That's stupid. Don't do that. Make it a giant crab and put it underwater instead, the horns could be coral.

There, it fits in an ecosystem now. Look how much happier it is. It's smiling! I think. Let's not go in the ocean.

Remember that magical monsters can have magical origins. And in some cases, they SHOULD. Hundred foot long highly territorial dragons that live for a thousand years just don't goddamn work. Too many carnivores in once place also doesn't work.

Put some magic ungulates in there for god's sake. Make your fantasy setting touch grass. Give it antlers and a weird mating call.

And look! A little bird that eats parasites off its skin. Three whole trophic levels just like that.

[penwrythe]

I have thoughts around the discussion of mature writing for adult media.

My project World of Relics is for adults, so it's good to see how this discussion goes since I really don't want to struggle writing WOR as an adult webcomic (Rise of Relics) and anthology (The Mundane Realm) series. I think the reason why Hazbin and TADC feels immature that they have the nostalgia of edgy kids and teens media with occasional mature themes being the inspiration, but not really fully embracing those themes from an adult's point of view. It would explain in part why they feel immature for something that suppose to be for adults.

Note: this is an underdeveloped thought, still processing it so critique is welcomed and good thank you.

This is not to say you cannot take inspiration from kids/teens media, this is more to say how does it effect how you perceive/write/create adult media. Is adult media "shocking fact that the characters are stuck somewhere unusual", "randoms s*e*x joke the 5th time in an episode", and "it's mature because shocking thing you don't see in kids media"?

Or is adult media about recognizing both the mundane and extremes of adulthood, with no escapism from certain extremes, understanding the moments of joy, pain, sorrow, etc has more to them than brief moments but instead history and context behind all of that in an adult's life.

Taking a moment to review what I been viewing and reading so that I can understand how to write World of Relics:

--Animated Series--

JJBA - Stone Ocean*

Arcane*

Primal*

Carol and the End of the World*

Blue Eye Samurai*

Blood of Zeus*

Dungeon Meshi/Delicious in Dungeon*

ONE

--Books (both YA and Adult/New Adult)--

The Rage of Dragons by Evan Winter*

The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin*

Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi

Legendborn Series by Tracy Deonn (YA, but still handles mature themes well)

Oathblood by Mercedes Lackey*

The asterisk is for media I'm not just reading for enjoyment but learning how to handle the form of storytelling it presents. Without making this post too long, I feel gravitated to these media not for ~what shocking situation the character is in~ but the familiarity of their experiences to mine or to other people's life experiences they faced. Some more extreme than others (especially Blue Eye Samurai, Blood of Zeus, The Rage of Dragons, and The Fifth Season), the extremes of trauma, strife, hardship, discrimination, and destruction in these stories have an weight to them beyond the shock of violence or death, or the existential crisis. Like, there's no cry laughing, but there is quiet moments of grief and pain, the yearning of better days, desires of vengeance and justice. There's a substance to them that feels more thought out than what I feel from TADC Hazbin.

Note 2: I'm sorry if I'm being harsh, I love TADC. Yes, there's only two episodes out right now, but like I want more than what it presents.

Note 3: Yeah, I'm comparing apples to grand pianos, but I believe there's no harm in asking for more. I believe adult indie animation can do better, for now we have stepping stones that will help build the foundation for the next generation of adult animation. ~looking at Lackadaisy here since I'm a reader of their comic, that will most certainly be the next step if you know how it goes.

In addition to this, I will admit with my project WOR, I have concerns it might not be taken seriously as adult media, not because shocking edginess (there's a sprinkling of that here and there), but ...my characters are mostly talking object people set in a fantasy world. I have decided on certain things about them: despite them having human souls, sexuality is nearly vestigial in their species so all attraction is romantically driven -they are an asexually reproducing species, and almost all cursing/swearing will sound mostly mundane to us humans -no one says M*therf*cker but will using Blazing Hell, Broken Blades, Rusted Hell, Dirty Rags, etc (similar swears to how The Fifth Season does swearing in relation to earth and fire, WOR handles swearing to the material makeup of Objectkind - as well how biases of Hardy objects have of Fragile objects), and other things.

But, I knew, after awhile of reading and watching, what kind of story I wanted and how it appears to other people. If you like, person reading this very long post, I welcome you to read the following:

// Mild Spoilers for Rise of Relics and a little for the Mundane Realm

Note 4: The characters in Rise of Relics were gods turned to their relics after their realm was destroyed by the Inversion Event. So, if you are familiar with my story, its all baleful polymorph, almost everyone gets turned. If you are uncomfortable with that trope (due to certain past depictions in media), I suggest not reading anything World of Relics please. ~also, I'm Black soooooo, its alright! Everyone's dead lol. I equalized it!

Note 5: Also in the old draft of Chp 3 sample (its updated rn, just look at the Worldofrelics tag), Nicodemus is a crystal ball, Nikey is a trident. The flashback was before the Inversion Event. Just want to put this there in case confusion.

Do these examples of my WOR project:

Feel mature?

Feel as though, despite maybe a shocking thing or too, there's more to what's presented?

What of the characters? How do you feel about them in the situation? What about the implications of the situation they are in?

Does the voice (narration of Altostratus or how the characters in RFR Chp 3 speak and behave) feel like they are adult characters, or characters in general regardless of age, exist in a mature adult setting?

How do you empathize with them in their situation? Do you expect them to just react constantly to the events in the story in one type of way? Or do you expect as they develop over time, they adapt, struggle, and grow beyond just where they started?

If you imagine these characters in real life, would they be like what the story presents them as (in both examples, characters are above the age of 18 - from 32 to thousands of years old (read late 60s -early 100s in human years in relation to this question)?

Does it feel like at any point this could appeal to children (not because talking objects, but other reasons)? How do I improve upon that to appeal to Adults (by not adding swearing or se*xual stuff, but mature themes without making light of whatever topic I'm trying to handle)?

Giant Robot Monster Hot or Dear god, this old girl Flammin went through so much I hope they are happy with their trident wife? (they won't be, lol, oh they won't be)

Do you interpret Nikey as an angsty teen/20s or someone in their early 30s just trying to make sense of the world that died around her? (Okay, not obvious in chp 3, but give me your thoughts anyway)

Sexy Tumblr Old Man or This old man was a criminal and may have hurt people deeply and wrestling with that fact, knowing that one day he will face someone who was hurt by his actions? (still writing out Gwenny's lore, just hinting at this point tho)

Okay, I ran my fingers on this too long lmao. But yeag, tell me what you think. May the discourse begin.

[draystersden]

Do you have Drayton hcs in terms of what parts of Unova he's seen/would like to see? Your take on his Dragon Tamer lineage is also super interesting and I'd lovelovelove to hear more thoughts on that!

👀!!!!!!!

Ok so!! I headc Drayton didn't really get a chance to explore ALL of Unova before going to Blueberry Academy, if only because Drayden was determined to teach him everything he knew, ranging from: the history of their lineage going back to the ancient twin kings (thusly being a part of Unova's history as a whole), the history of Opelucid, all aspects of their culture, how to be a trainer, how to connect with dragons... etc etc. Plus, he homeschooling his grandson for his elementary education.

Tons of stuff that would encompass multiple years, basically. Drayton spent nearly all of his time in Opelucid or in the surrounding Routes (including Route 10 before the landslide destroyed it).

Currently, the only places I envision him having been to are as follows (excluding his hometown ofc):

Icirrus City (For Dragonspiral Tower 100%)

Mistralton City (To pass through on the way to Driftveil)

Driftveil City (Going with Drayden, Iris sometimes joining, to run errands and do shopping)

Nimbasa City (Family outings to some of the amusement parks a few times)

Castelia City (I headc BBA uses ferries to travel to & from Castelia since it's the nearest city with piers; Drayton absolutely has taken breaks from the academy to go to it a few times)

In general, this is probably about 30-40% of the region he's been in? So the remaining percent is what he's never seen or visited, which...is kind of a lot!

This does bother him a bit if he thinks about it for too long. Unova's his region, it's where he was born, so he believes he should eventually take the time to see everything in it. Especially Undella Town and Humilau City, they seem like great places to chill.

However, Drayton knows he's lazy. The idea of traveling around for days on foot to visit the towns & cities he hasn't been to - with no other human companions at that - sounds like a MASSIVE chore to him. Plus, his feelings on Unova overall have been a little...soured.

The baggage he has regarding Drayden, Iris, and Opelucid as a whole makes him indifferent to it at the end of the day. This baggage of his does get tackled in my fic tho hehehe.

As for Drayton's lineage -

(Putting this under a readmore because wow can I ramble)

I'm in love with the idea that Dragon Tamer heritage exists in different ways depending on the region. As an example: the culture of clans in Kanto and Johto share many similarities together because of those regions having conjoined histories, but both are pretty different compared to Unova's clan in terms of origin story, traditions, values, and whatnot. Regardless, at their roots you'll always find one consistent detail: the strong attachment to Dragon Pokemon.

In some clans, dragons are even revered as otherworldly deities or spirits of nature given physical bodies. They believe Earth can't function or thrive without the existence of dragons (and of course, this line of logic has lead some onto the path of extremism, in regards to Fairy Pokemon...but that deserves its own post).

Drayton's clan reveres the Original Dragon, which split into the Three Great Dragons, as having been a guardian deity of Unova who bonded with the twin brothers.

His ancestors believed the Original Dragon split up as it did because its heart was corrupted by the brothers' anger and selfishness - so they emphasized the importance of treating dragons with respect & compassion, like they're fellow people. This belief still very much exists in the clan to this day, and is a driving force behind how Drayton treats his team - and all pokemon by extension because he is a good bean on the inside.

I do have a pokeworld-expanding headc that humans and pokemon did used to be the same species before transformative evolution happened eons ago. In some human bloodlines, the remnants of typings still exist, resulting in people in those bloodlines manifesting supernatural traits or abilities (we see it pretty often with Psychics like Sabrina, Caitlin, Avery, etc). I apply this to Dragon Tamers and the Dragon-typing, so anyone descended from at least one person having that heritage has "dragon blood", you can say.

Like Drayton! I love the idea of him possessing some physical draconic traits because his genes are literally Dragon-type coded. The same goes for his mom (Ria's the name I gave her, derived from an Iris species I forgot the name of whoops), Drayden, Iris, and the other members of his clan. So, their connection to dragons is a physical thing just as much as it is an instilled faith.

Tysm for the ask, and for the compliments!!

Lowkey made my day haha 👉🏾👈🏾

[cosmichighpriestess]

On my Mother planet, in a parallel reality, where I have lived many many lives on another planet I am very used to feminine energy and my planet is mostly all feminine energy with very little masculine energy, so much so, that our species couldn't reproduce anymore because almost everyone was in their feminine energy and we stopped reproducing.

We had to leave to other planets like Earth to evolve and keep our species alive. There was not an equal balance of femininity and masculinity on my planet, Arkurakura. This is a new download I received for a while now.

When I came to Earth, I felt very feminine my entire life, so much so I stood out because I did not conform into being masculine at all and I did not understand masculine energy here and I did not resonate with males. I just observed them for a long time from afar. I began to fall in love with men as I forgot who I was, even though I always felt alien like but many of these males were in their feminine energy masking as though they were in their masculinity which was very abusive, and using women. I grew up never having a safe provider, my father never cared to give me anything except a roof over our head and he barely even did that, I never knew any men who protected me, my brother was also my bully and I never met any male that wanted to provide for me unless they could use my body. So I was forced into being in my masculine energy to get away from everyone.

This felt odd at first, and exhausting but at least I felt safe with myself and I knew I had my own back if no one else did. I forgot who I was to survive here. I always leaned back into my feminine energy until another male made me feel unsafe, and not provided for. Once they were comfortable disrespecting me and taking me off their pedestal, they expected me to treat them feminine, give them everything I had, which was very little materially, but energetically I had a lot. Energetically they were draining my life force and sucking up all my natural abundance and light.

But I always knew and always felt like the feminine energy in our dynamics so I never understood when men or women would attack me so harshly for staying in my feminine energy or wanting to present myself as feminine. I always felt like I was a Goddess but I had to hide that side of me sometimes because it triggered others. Also for my otherworldly energy, they couldn't read me correctly so they labeled me as odd, even calling me an alien many times. We're all aliens. I was attacked all the time for just being in my natural state of being because masculine women would envy me, betray me, turn on me and feminine men were always in competition with me, all the men I was engaged to were in a silent competition with me, used me, abused me, traumatized me when I refused to be abused. I trigger people's demons, and I trigger people who refuse to grow. I defined this as a negative problem when it was completely neutral and served me & everyone I encountered.

I studied, observed and attempted to understand everyone's perspectives so I could understand why they were treating me that way. Some people freaked out on me because they accused me of being an alien, and they became afraid of me. But I am in a human body. Always have been. I'm just more aware of my multidimensionality. I don't make fun of my fairytale, alien, dragon, faery, mermaid energy because I don't have to hide anymore. I'm safe now. We've always been surrounded by aliens disguised as humans. I've literally met so many, and so many magical creatures who are all Source. You will hear about it whether you believe me or not, it does not matter. There are no myths, there is no fiction. Everything is half real until you decide to believe in it, then it's real, for you. There's no such thing as fiction. What we call fiction is an astral reality that has been brought forth into the idea of our physical reality experience. But we call it fiction because we can't see it and it doesn't line up with what we are experiencing on the physical level. That doesn't mean it's not real, it just means those things are taking place in a different level of reality. There was so many times I left my body to come join my star family because of how many times I was almost killed on Earth and my human body was so unsafe on the lower timelines.

First I had to place boundaries on them (even though narcissists don't respect boundaries) I isolated myself to the best of my ability, then I forgave them for myself then I found out. I had negative beliefs about men and women from my past bullies and abusive men in my family and partners. I believed most men were assholes to women and I believed most women were jealous and full of pain from men. Which is a very real reality for billions of people. But I realized I didn't have to make it my truth anymore so I removed the limiting beliefs creating these versions of people in my life and I believed the opposite then I raised my vibration to match the reality I wanted to live in. All men in my world are safe, all men want to provide for me, all men are loving and kind, all men are healthy minded, all men are gentlemen to me, all men are working on self improvement ect. I created safety within me out of nothing, out of nothing more than the movies I watched as an example to believe in.

For the most part I've seen the most incredible, smart, woke, unconditionally loving, kind men I've ever seen, and I just keep seeing more and more of them. They are absolutely inspiring and incredible. I'm meeting other versions of myself on this new timeline and they are absolutely jaw dropping, incredible men. I changed my beliefs about women too by believing all women are supportive, loving, and safe in my world but I'm still working on it because I don't think about women that much because I have been betrayed all my life by women, I don't date women, so i don't think about changing them to better versions I prefer. I don't mean to offend any gender.

We're all Source. We're all one. I just call them beings of unconditional love. Change yourself, change your beliefs. We're not supposed to stay the same. Don't worry, who you are at your natural core will always stay the same, but your perspective will change over and over. For the most part though I have seen so many amazing women who are incredibly loving, intelligent, kind, and even geniuses. I still see women who act offended by my presence but I try to change my beliefs about them too in the moment. They usually are just unhappy with themselves. I still give them love but keep my distance.

I've shifted all my narcissistic family, ex partners by raising my vibration and I shifted them overnight into kinder, apologetic, more aware, more loving and more evolved beings by letting go of MY old beliefs and changing my beliefs about them everyday, changing myself, and how I perceive my reality. You think everyone has the same perception of reality? Everyone has different perspectives. You must stop saying, "all men are the same. All women are the same. All men are toxic, evil, bad, cheaters, all women are bitches, all women are mean, all women are jealous, annoying ect." Please stop, for yourself. You don't have to experience that life anymore. Trust in the opposite. You can shift to a world you love to experience with beautiful supportive people. You can also change your past through your present moment because memories are created in the present moment and are all happening now because time is just an illusion and everything is happening now. There is only now.

There are infinite amounts of Earths to experience. My Earth right now is moving to a higher plane, a higher dimension and my mother planet is finally able to reach Earth because we raised our vibration enough to receive all the higher frequency supporting energies they are giving us. No matter what, even if you aren't open to receiving these energies you will feel them and see the effects of these energies on your world. Our two planet's energies are merging together and we're receiving more of that energy here on Earth so now I will finally feel at home on Earth with more of my familiar energy here and people will finally understand me.

[mystery--mist]

Hey mist, if you watch Helluva Bosses' new episode You be in a surprise involving uhhh....New Sins?

Sorry for the late answer aaaah!! I always take my time to answer properly asks but again, so busy, sorry!

I watched the episode immediately and I enjoyed so much! Seeing all the sins together (except Lucifer) made me truly happy aaaah So far my fav episode!

I love seeing they have kind of "Royal Hellish Trial" with the 7 sins in Hell for this kind of things or serious matters. I guess Lucifer is the one who judges by default since he is the King of Hell. But since Lucifer is absent due to his depression issue, and Hazbin Hotel events I guess, Satan is the second in charge by their hierarchy of Rings. The Trial is so epic and cool how is set up. The big throne up there is hella epic and the rest of sins under it.

I guess Satan made his own "throne" to don't touch the Royal one due to respect. I mean, if you sit down in a throne not yours is disrespectful and insulting in this kind of hierarchy and society. Although Lucifer can care less in his current state :")

Also I noticed the Sins wear other different outfits (Asmodeus, Mammon and Beelzebub), I guess their royal outfits as princes/princesses of the sins (or Kings/Queens dunno). I think this alternative outfits represent the circus roles once more.

Lucifer, The Ringmaster

Satan, The Strongman

Mammon, The Clown

Beelzebub, The Animal Tamer

Asmodeus, The Fire Breather

Belphegor, The Magician

Leviathan, The Freak Show

Some are obvious, others are more ambiguous, still not sure about Leviathan but I'm sure Belphegor is related to magic.

Satan design is so damn epic and hot!!

No wonder why Bee mentioned he was hot and wanted to fuck him in her episode XD This dragon daddy looks and sounds truly sexy-hot. That deep voice is quite menacing and authoritative.

Dragons are majestic and threatening, it fits so great with Satan, quite powerful vibes. Also I like the detail he has another second pair of horns similar to male Imps, that says a lot of the character as creator of the Imp species. Dragons are lizards and Imps have a kinda demon-lizards aspect as well with the tail, horns and red skin. The same traits that Satan has. Quite wise design ^^

Also the good representation of his own sin, Wrath, he has anger issues so he has a lil demon to help him to manage and control them XD Yeah it's the best to stay calm, you can't judge someone and make decisions when your emotions control you.

Belphegor design is so pretty and adorable, so fluffy!

I thought she was a giraffe for the long neck and the candle reminded to a giraffe horn, but can be also a llama because llamas have fluffy hair :")

I always loved the fact she has a candle on the head. Candles can represent the subconscious or dream world, due to she represent Sloth sin and sleeps a lot, fits quite well, also candles can represent knowledge, and I believe Bee mentioned she had medicines, powerful drugs surely and ingredients. The field of medicine is known as a field where you must have enough/high knowledge about what you are doing and using to create said medicine. Once more fit with her. And of course, candles in christian mythology represent the Soul. The eyes partner also is related to the Soul or mystic symbols.

Can't wait to hear her voice and see her personality to know more about her ^^

Leviathan design looks rad!

I didn't expect 2 heads in her design but it doesn't bother me!

I love the marine aesthetic, well since is marine monster in the mythology :"D I like the trait of the 2 heads because I believe it represents well her sin Envy since it exists the 2 kind of Envies: Malicious Envy and Benign Envy. Unlike the popular tradition, Envy doesn't represent the typical angry jealous person, you can also feel envy without having bad intentions.

The Malicious Envy, represented by the snake head, more skeptical and stoic. The one that has negative connotations, the typical, bad wishes and toxic emotions (fury, resentment, frustration) toward the other person. Destructive behavior towards yourself and the other person.

The Benign Envy, represented by the friendly head, less toxic than the other and more positive. This envy feel admiration for the other person and wants to emulate it. For example, if someone wears a beauty dyed hair that you like, you want also that dyed hair, or when you want to emulate your idol and be like them of cool (typical in teens). This envy also want to surpass yourself, set ambitious goals and motivate yourself. Although benign envy also stems from a lack of personality because you only want what others have without stopping to think about what you truly want. But in general, is less destructive.

I also must mention, dunno which head has more control over the body, maybe both and sometimes one win to the other. But when Mammon tries to flirt with Levy the first time.

The friendly head seems to be ok with Mammon while the Snake one is annoyed and take the control of the body to avoid him which results in the other head look surprised by the sudden action and gets angry with her other head, she didn't agree with the action.

Can't wait also to hear her voice and know more about her when she has her own episode.

⊹˚₊‧──────────────❤Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ❤──────────────‧₊˚⊹

Side extra personal note: I like how Vivzie represents the Deadly Sins characters, not because of the design but mainly cause of their personality/behavior. People complains they are not the stereotypical Sins so no accurate and "bad design", "no original", which I disagree. It would be quite boring if they were like the typical design of each Sin, that YES WOULD BE NO ORIGINAL AT ALL. I like them because they are different in fact. And people who makes redesigns ONLY as degatory intention and play the card "I fix your design" are quite nasty, honestly. The great most of them create mediocre designs, very generic and without any personality. And of course, about people that genuine enjoys playing with the designs and want to redesign them to explore their skills, they are totally ok for me ♥

⊹˚₊‧──────────────❤Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ❤──────────────‧₊˚⊹

I must mention, finally they addressed something I liked, Ozzy and Bee enjoy hang out with the lowest ranks. It seems nobody else except Mammon has a "problem" with that (?) I mean, yeah big drama, both levels of hierarchy interaction like equals, but since they are quite poweful and one of the most highest ranks in Hell, nobody should give a fuck about it. Mammon just being a bitchy about it because stupid classist. But yeah I like it exists dramas between the same Sins, some get along and others don't.

Asmodeus and Beezelbub totally sibling team power hehe High Five!

I like seeing part of Levy shows care for Mammon in the same frame XD

Also Satan just facepalm-ing because these 3 are fighting.

They are totally Siblings Family core! ♥

I also want to address this fact as well since I find important to remark. It seems Mammon has a good feeling with Leviathan, and maybe mutuals (just from her friendly side).

I mean, she was still angry with her other head/side and Mammon goes back and call her, quickly she genuinely smiles at him XD

I ship them :"D Are they in love, your Honor?

But anyway, being Mammon an asexual character, canonized in the promotional art for Pride Month, I want to say that it’s amazing to finally see an asexual person showing romantic interest and even, perhaps, a subtle sexual implication by asking Leviathan out. This is something I needed to see on screen because people often have a misguided perception of asexual individuals, assuming they can’t feel love, romantic interest, or sexual attraction towards others, which is entirely false. An asexual person can fall in love, have a partner, and engage in sexual relationships if they choose to. The asexual spectrum is broad, ranging from little to no interest in sex and/or romance. Not all asexual people share the same tastes or interests, and like anyone else from any other identity, they have their own preferences.

I hope Alastor fans stop defending the character like white knights and treating him as someone innocent and pure... Alastor can have a relationship if he wanted, yes, stop harassing people who ships him with another character only because you don't understand what is to be asexual, thank you ♥

And yes, like 4 mentions/references to Lucifer in the episode :"D He "exists"

And of course, Satan, King of Lies, just bitching XD

And the last thing I want to mention here is the symbols of every Sin Realm. Truly precious all of them!

Lucifer symbol being shattered, so meaningful due to his current state with the depression, the loss of someone, his absence.

And here the Sigils of every Demon Sin

Source image link

Which are real symbols in the demonology. Goetia demons also have sigils. I think you can see Stolas or Paimon ones as well

And in the trial as well, in their chairs are their sigils

And I guess the big pentagram there it represents the Trial of Satan

I think these all my thoughts about the Sins only so far :"D

[thedandelionresistance]

Also maybe this is ironic after that long post about misanthropy being shitty, and maybe it's the NPD, but I don't actually think it's bad to think you're better than humans... specifically because I think I define that differently than other people.

I don't use better to mean "having more worth, deserving to live more, deserving to have power over those you are better than, deserving to have your needs met more, being better at everything".

I use "better" in two ways.

The first is conditional. Essentially like... an Olympian swimmer is better than swimming than me, full stop. I am better than plenty of people in a bunch of different conditional ways. I'm also worse than plenty of other people in a bunch of conditional ways. These are neutral statements, but because my NPD makes me have a need to be better than others, I back that feeling up specifically with the stuff that's more material and factual. Not only does this help prevent crashes and lessen their impact when they do happen, but it drives me to be better at stuff that's important to me.

This includes things like compassion, as one of my most important values, so it does actually make me a better person (see, that word again, this time in relation to myself). And yeah like, I do consider myself a better person than, say, a raging transphobe - but that doesn't mean the raging transphobe doesn't deserve compassion and deradicalization, or is less of a person than me, nor does it mean I am incapable of being transphobic myself. I actually frequently analyze my own behaviors just to make SURE I am in fact ACTUALLY not bigoted, because I'd rather find out that I wasn't morally better than a bigot than pretend like I was when I wasn't.

Morally better is still a type of conditional betterness, but it is actually almost the opposite of the second kind. Okay terrible segue, but the second kind to me is opinion or preference betterness.

If I say I think pizza without pineapple is better than pizza with pineapple, that's just my preference (I don't actually feel strongly either way, but easy example). Similarly, if I say something like "dragons are better than humans", that's stating a preference. I'm liking an intensely magical creature with shining scales, powerful wings, and incredible breath weapons over a devoted and clever persistence predator who have developed incredible technology to achieve things they otherwise couldn't.

I guess it's just... I know I'm in the minority on this, but I guess to me "better" as a general statement about a whole species doesn't actually imply the other is "worse" or "lesser". Perhaps less interesting to me personally, though not even always, or less embodying the traits I most like and prefer, but good in their own right and even better to others or in other ways. If I believe, say, dragons are better than humans as a whole, there are still areas where humans are conditionally better, and people who disagree with me and even think humans are better who are entitled to their opinion.

This goes double if I think that my OWN species is better than any other, including humanity. This is something that I feel in part because of NPD, and sometimes is also tied to the species identity itself. It's actually because I saw a post about how as a dragon (one of our more prevalent identities) you're "supposed to" fight this feeling and... actually no, I don't think you are. Not only would it be extremely triggering and destabilizing for us personally to do so, but it's also okay to feel however you want about your species in relation to others, as long as you aren't hurting those of other species.

Idk, I just think calling a species "better" is a morally neutral statement, and isn't inherently putting the species (singular or plural) that it's being called "better than" down. I think there are multiple identities that are defined in some ways by being better than others in some ways - some godkin, for example. Better just... isn't about superiority in the sense of loaded beliefs about a species' worth or rights or deserving to be treated with dignity and compassion. It's not the opposite of "worse" - I don't actually feel that it has a strong opposite, but maybe "more neutral" would be the closest?

I think it's okay to combat dysphoria/embrace euphoria by accepting and celebrating that feeling. I think in expressing it, a small disclaimer just that you're not in any way insulting or putting down members of the species you feel better than can go a long way. After all, when externalizing internal feelings and beliefs, we do have a responsibility to our community and to others in general to try and reduce harm and act in ways that are kind.

Idk, maybe it would just help to reframe the whole discussion though. It's not "winning a free vacation is better than having cancer" but "winning a free vacation is better than winning a free massage session". Both are great! Some would even disagree - I know for a FACT my partner would and I love her for it.

Just, as someone for whom having and accepting and sometimes expressing these feelings with care for others is important, I think there's more nuance to it than "you can't feel better than any person or group, ever" because I just think feeling better than a person or group is itself morally neutral. I think that "better" itself doesn't have the implications a lot of people think it do. And again, maybe I'm the one using it atypically but... I do wish more people would use it that way, or be open to talking about it being used that way positively.

I feel really alone about this. Outside of my system we don't really know any people that do this. I understand why people are saying not to express these feelings (less so about telling people how to feel, but still), but I don't think negative ways are the only ways they can be expressed. I think these feelings can be really important to people, and so can expressing them. I think we can make room for things, people, species, etc to be better than others in ways that are kind and harmless.

I think that focusing on conditional and preferential betterness can do this, because there's nothing harmful about a person or species being objectively better AT a skill, nor about preferring one over the other. There's nothing wrong with feeling pride over being the thing you prefer. I even think, as long as you treat someone as if they are WORTH just as much as you, that feeling superior in other ways unrelated to worth is okay.

And I think I just figured it out. To me, being better than someone doesn't mean they are not your equal. I know that sounds contradictory, but hear me out: when we say someone is our equal, we mean that they are worth just as much as us. We mean they are just as deserving of rights and respect and dignity. In some cases, we also mean they are just as capable as us - but this can itself lead to bigotry, as in the case of ableism. Someone can be less capable and still be worth just as much, be just as deserving of rights and respect and dignity.

But "better" to me doesn't mean "not equal" in those ways, because it's not related to objective worth or deserving rights and respect. It's about other things - things like skills and my own personal preferences. It means that two equals can both be better than each other.

It's not the loaded word it is for others, because my NPD and other things have FORCED me to unpack those things and find a healthy and harmless way to use it.

It's okay to feel better than someone, even than an entire group of people, as long as you recognize them as equals. And that's not a contradiction, because those things aren't mutually exclusive or even about the same thing in the first place. It's just one of the complexities of life.

Also to be very clear: No, this does not justify any kind of bigotry or supremacy groups. Those groups are EXPLICITLY treating others as inferior and NOT equal, and purposely harming them because of it. When this occurs at a societal level, as with transphobia, not all harm from everyone is necessarily intentional, but it's still harm. I can't be clear enough that I am ONLY arguing that harmless uses are okay, and that harmless uses do exist.

[greatprotector-if]

Okay, I'm a bit of a medieval weapons nerd so I gotta ask for.... Something.....

What kind of armor exists in the world? Is there plate armor? Gambeson? Have craftsman figured out brigandine yet? Also is there some kind of ultra strong metal like mithril in this world? Can we have equipment made of this material if it exists?

Finally as a personal question for you, what is your favorite sword and why is your favorite sword the hand and a half sword (the best sword in existence)?

...... What? You didn't think I called myself weird for fun did you? Niche and obscure topics are part of the weird package

i'm gonna be so honest with you i didn't know what ANY of this meant so i googled it and i would just like to say... Thank You. sincerely. i've been missing out wtf!!!! later when i have more time i will dedicate myself to going down a full rabbithole ancient armour and weaponry is so fascinating

the story takes place in a warmer climate inspired by south asia (and a bit of east asia) so while other stuff exists in other places, for here i don't think we're in the gambeson era that shit looks too stuffy. i mean it could work because alchemy + magic reasons but idk. i usually envision varying degrees of plate armour (and i genuinely have no idea what's going on with brigandine feel free to enlighten me LMAO I JUST LOOKED AT THE PICTURES AND WAS SO CONFUSED)

i take a lot of inspiration from pre-colonial era filipino armour, chainmail & plates. but also colourful and fancier looking because my brain loves colours and fancy looking shit. for a lot of character design stuff i usually evoke the Anime Outfits Suspension of Disbelief because i do not understand anything sorry for this absolute mess of an answer!

there's some ultra strong metal that you can make stuff out of yeah!!! however i have not come up with a name for it. it's a huge player in the economy of a neighbouring empire, but it's also mostly kept within the empire and rarely shared with outsiders. other stuff is DRAGON SCALES (AWESOME) (but only the ones from full-blooded dragons) (very tough and there are different kinds of dragons so you can make your shit out of different dragons based on the climate in your region) (don't worry the dragons aren't being hunted for materials they just shed their scales) (ok they're hunted sometimes but the hunters never succeed because Dragon)

also the armour does vary by species and region (obviously) and there are. so many. species. a lot of them. a lot of the armour employed by non-humans is magical or enchanted in some way idk it's just lore stuff

also yes you're right my favourite sword is the hand and a half sword as of uhhh checks watch.. two seconds ago. i googled it and this versatility sounds pretty awesome. also if i believe an alternate name is the 'bastard sword' which is fucking metal. but magical swords that slowly suck out the life force out of its wielder also hold a special place in my heart

okay this answer was so rambly and i feel like i just used as many words as i could without actually saying anything substantial but this is the best i got for now! but i will definitely revisit this topic in the future, so thank you tumblr user that-wierd-guy! (+ this topic isn't weird it's awesome)

[vulpecular-draconic]

introduction

[ edit on march 26, 2024: i have a new intro post, here ]

howdy! this is my side blog where i'll ramble about my experiences being nonhuman. i don't feel comfortable linking my main blog yet, but i may sometime in the future. on this blog, you can call me vuldra. i'm genderfluid and i'll update my pronouns whenever they change.

i am a psychological therian – for me, i feel like a critter due to being neurodivergent. i tend to have pretty strong phantom limbs, and about average species dysphoria (although i don't believe those are necessary to be therian/otherkin). i awakened in the summer of 2023. i've figured out a lot since then, but i'm still learning about myself, and i'll update/rephrase this post every once in a while.

theriotypes:

– red fox [vulpes vulpes]; specifically, the pearl fox color morph

– bat-eared fox [otocyon megalotis]

fox shifts usually consist urges to bite things/ppl, roll on the floor, wag my tail, curl up in a little ball, run on all fours, or growl. i can tell the difference between fox species by which body shape most matches my phantom limbs, which coat color feels more like me at the moment, and which habitat i’d feel most comfortable in. most of the times i get fox shifts, i feel like an anthropomorphic fox. not quite like the way most modern furries are drawn – more along the lines of how an anthro fox in an old storybook would be drawn. i like having anthro shifts better, because it's less dysphoric than when i'm an all-fours fox.

i consider foxes to be my main types, so i’ll refer to myself as a fox more often than my other kintypes.

otherkin types:

– pocket dragon; i'm only about six or seven inches long from head to tail, with layered armor-ish blue scales. my mouth is slightly beak-ish and is sharp, with no teeth. my tail has a feather-like fan on the end, although it's made of scales. when i get pocket dragon shifts, i feel the urge to scurry up trees, talk less, and eat berries and beetles.

– bird person(??); i'm not sure if i want to count this as an official kin or if it's just a cameo shift i've had strongly several times. when this happens, i get feathery phantom wings and a long tail with a fan at the end, similar to my pocket dragon tail, but feathered instead of scaled. occasionally i also get digitigrade legs. other than that, i feel pretty much human.

– antlers; sometimes i just feel phantom antlers. i don't connect with deer/other irl antlered creatures at all, so i'm not sure what this is about. sometimes the antlers are by themself, and sometimes they co-occur with other stuff.

– cryptids; sometimes shifts mix-and-mash into creatures that i call cryptids. cryptid shifts aren't always the same from one shift to another, and sometimes include cameo shift elements. i've had cryptid shifts where i'm an anthro pearl fox with feathered wings and antlers, and i've had cryptid shifts where i'm humanoid with spines and a fan-tipped tail, shrouded in a shadowy energy. while i call most of my mashups a cryptid shift, some don't have the vibe, if that makes sense.

that pretty much covers it, i think. welcome to my blog!