#and then ant fairies

[dumbassacademia]

you like to say you’d help the old woman in the ones who begs for just a moment’s rest at your fire, and perhaps just a morsel of food, if you could spare it, she can’t pay you back with money nor jewels but it would be awfully kind if you wouldn’t mind

you like to say that you’d be the one to help her, to split your sandwich in half, but that is because you already Know that she is the witch or the fae or the empress or the goddess in disguise and you know that at best you’re getting a pretty sweet gift out of this encounter, and at worst things could go Very wrong for you if you are not polite at least, you and i Know this already and so we say that yes, yes, of course we’d be the one to help, of course we wouldn’t make the mistakes of the stories because we wouldn’t be cruel, it’s about mercy really, helping a person in need if you have enough, that is merciful

but did you have this same mercy when you lit ants on fires with magnifiers and stomped on their castles (hills) with bare feet on hot summer days, did you have this mercy for the roach in their motel (prison) who’s family lineage probably has more generations who’ve called that place home than you, did you have the same mercy for the hornets who’s apartments (nest) you drenched in poison in the wee morning hours, when you couldn’t even face them with dignity?

did you?

i didn’t think so

[neosatsuma]

[irrealisms]

i've seen a lot of people talk about mcyt as a constantly burning library of alexandria recently, and to some extent that's true. people are constantly deleting their blogs, going scorched earth with animatics, fanfics, etc., that they made. but i've also seen people (three in the last few days!) make this claim about VODs, when talking about large fandoms like DSMP and QSMP, and.... guys. that was true in 2020. that's not true anymore. archivists have been working tirelessly for years now to make sure that isn't true.

the dsmp VOD masterlist is here. in november 2020, it's missing 16 VODs, if i am counting correctly--which is still a fairly small minority, but it's a lot, and it sucks!--but in november of 2021, it's missing one, and that's because the cc of that VOD does copyright takedowns, not because the archivists didn't save it. no one in the archivist project is deleting VODs off youtube with no backups the way people are deleting fanfics. three months ago, one of my dsmp archivist friends finished coding a tool that let them reconstruct VODs out of twitch clips, and reconstructed six tubbo dsmp VODs from 2020. not only are we basically not losing VODs anymore, we are actively gaining VODs that have been lost for years, that were thought to be lost forever. the library isn't burning anymore; it's being rebuilt.

the qsmp VOD masterlist is here. it is usually a month or two behind the present day, to give creators time to archive their own VODs, but... look at it. in january of 2024, every single qsmp vod was archived. the same is true of december of 2023, and november, and the vast majority of months for the past year.

i'm not going to say that there isn't a problem. just a few days ago, i realized that a lifesteal VOD from last year was missing--that its youtube upload was messed up somehow, and no one noticed and it wasn't mirrored on the internet archive and the person who uploaded it deleted the original file. and now it's gone forever. this made me super sad! like i said: i'm not going to say that there isn't a problem.

but... look at the lifesteal VOD masterlist here. lifesteal's a smaller fandom than qsmp or dsmp. open the 2022 tab and you'll see months and months of lost VODs, of no one's VODs being saved, because there weren't any archivists saving them. then open the 2023 tab and see: they lost four VODs, over the course of a year. even in smaller fandoms, archivists are working. they're making progress. they're saving VODs. in 2024, lifesteal archivists screenrecorded five streams on tumblr live to make sure they would not become lost media. mcyt may be a constantly burning library of alexandria, but the people with fire extinguishers are dedicated. they're making incredible progress. i know people with petabytes of VODs saved, who have spent money on extra storage for this. i know people who are constantly running up against their storage limits as they download/upload to the internet archive/delete for space/rinse and repeat. a decent fraction of the time, my internet at home is slow because it's downloading VODs.

and these aren't the only mcyt fandoms with archiving projects! the outsiders smp VOD masterlist is here. origins smp VOD masterlist is here. smp earth VOD masterlist is here. rats smp VOD masterlist is here. there are so many others that i just don't happen to know about. the older and smaller a fandom is, the more likely it is to not have an attached archiving project, or for the archive to be missing a lot of VODs. but... guys, we've saved a lot. there are people out there, working tirelessly to save even more. yes, mourn what we have lost--the archivists i know are also the ones mourning the most for the VODs that are, in fact, forever lost media. but don't dismiss how much people have saved. we are making progress. we are losing less and less every month. the vast majority of the dsmp and qsmp still exist, i am not going to say they're the same experience as watching live because they're really not, but.. they're out there. people have put in a lot of work to save them.

if you have publicly available VOD masterlists or other mcyt archiving projects that aren't on this post, please add them in a reblog. i want this post to serve as a reference for how much archivists have saved in this community; unfortunately, i'm not super connected to every community. but i know that--for every person deleting things, there are people working, tirelessly & with little external reward, in so many different mcyt fandoms, to save things. and we should appreciate that more often.

[fake-married-my-dead-fiance]

Dongfang Qingcang is so bitchy when he's saving Orchid from the fairy council. He never rolls his eyes, but his expressions are almost exclusively found in the most exasperated of teenage girls.

He doesn't look at the fairy emperor while he's threatening him. And then that jab when he walks by Changheng, is just the peak.

[sun-stricken]

Erza, to Lucy: Please, picking locks is my specialty.

Erza: *throws a brick through the window*

Erza: Okay, let’s go.

[bumblebee-boy]

[anthenasikes]

i love drawing ashe

[overlyimmersed]

Are Fairies like bees?

I was talking with @juiceyobsessionist about headcanons and they said that since the Fairy Kings look rather different than the average Fairy they might classify as a kind of subspecies. I suggested it was more like how queen bees look different from the rest of the hive and we agreed on that.

But that got me to thinking a little deeper. Because the Fairy Kings aren't the only ones who look quite like they do, they certainly have distinguishing features, but there are other Fairies that look similar. Fairies like Elain and Gerheade. But they're princesses so maybe that just counts the same in Fairies. Still what about Fairies like Helbram? He's not born from the Sacred Tree as far as we know, he's just a Fairy.

The point is, maybe it's like in bee hives there's the queen, workers and drones. And all three types look different from each other and serve different purposes in the colony.

Of course it's not 1:1.

Fairies don't really have "work" so there's no need for "workers" and Fairies don't typically breed so there's no need for "drones". And, obviously the Fairy King doesn't serve the same literal purpose as a queen bee.

Though looking at Harlequin and Diane, you could have fooled me ;P

The Fairy King's job is to protect the Fairy King's Forest, the Fountain of Youth(while it was a thing) and the Fairy Clan as a whole.

The average Fairy would be like the workers? Or maybe it's more like drones since they don't really have much a social purpose, beyond existing as a population.(Again, not 1:1)

And then there's third kind of Fairy. The kind like Helbram and a number of other Fairies we see in the Fairy King's Forest. They have a more human-like appearance and seem to be stronger than average Fairies, but are still smaller and weaker than fully grown Fairy Kings. Perhaps these are meant to be sort of like soldiers in ant colonies.

Something I've observed is that between Fairy examples we've seen from various locations(The Fairy King's Forest, Benwick, Echo Gorge, and Alpa Forest) The Fairy King's Forest has the lowest percentage of "drone" Fairies. Though that wasn't always so. Prior to Helbram's "human incident" there were a lot more of this smaller, weaker type of Fairy. And the other locations listed have few, or even zero "soldier" type Fairies observable.(Data on this is provided by animated sources wherever possible. If an animate source is not available the manga is used. Note that factors regarding Fairy physical traits is harder to parse and compare, and has reduced consistency in the manga. This is why animated sources are favored.)

I don't know that any of this actually has anything to do with social structure. Since Fairy don't really seem to have that for the most part. But it's interesting to see the physical differences and wonder about why those differences exist.

[aricastmblr]

fairy cake jimin

[dragoninahumancostume]

Hey stop here and read for a second. Broccoli guy (Skylanders Academy), Elfo (Disenchantment), Mookey (Atomic Puppet), Throk (Race To The Edge), Cosmo (Fairy Odd Parents), Luis (Ant Man, also the voice they use for Carlos Peña often), Captain Man (Henry Danger), Tobias (TAWOG), IT, Ben Tennyson (Ben 10) and Kai Smith (Ninjago) all have the SAME goddamn voice actor

Like seriously man I knew Latin dub repeated a lot of actors, but this is like not even half of all his characters

[toadyscorner]

cute cute cute cute cute

insta | comm info

redraw,, of sorts        [04/22]below        [02/23]above

[incorrectrotgquotes]

Alright, princesses. Let's get back to work.

Tooth to her Mini Fairies

[jazz-dude]

another rng guy

[cheesydelphox]

i'm cryign my mom saw my bracelet and asked "is that a taylor swift thing"

[steampunkbunnysworld]

have you drawn a grasshopper?

Sure, but are you okay with a locust instead of a regular grasshopper. I was originally going to make them a guy but I decided to make them non-binary.

Anyways, this is Clover (he/they), they're a totally-not-suspicious librarian who is buddies with my orchid mantis warlock.

[sun-stricken]

Avatar knew nothing about devil slayers so Gray decides to do more research on his own (his previous research was stopped because of the mission)(AU Julia didn’t follow him and make them share a house). When ft gets back together he decides to ask Levy if the council had any information, but gets nothing. He asks Freed and even goes to saber to ask Rufus. Nothing.

On one of their missions together, Rogue asks how Gray is doing, because Rufus had mentioned he had visited. This prompts Gardel to remember Levy asking him if he remembers the council having any information about devil slayers. Laxus remembers a comment from Freed about his frustration towards lack of information about rarer types of magic. Together (mainly Wendy and Rogue) they put together that maybe Gray isn’t as sure about his magic as he seems.

No one’s heard of it + received from his reanimated father + had for only a year + not his original magic + played it up in a dark guild + absorbed a curse = lost and confused fledgling devil slayer. But just to be sure, they have a period of ‘Gray watch’ to try and confirm their suspicions. Gray watch= subtle (or unsubtle depending on the slayer) watching and questions. Gray’s probably confused, but it’s fairy tail so he’s not too concerned (plus the dragons have done weird things before).

Bonus: Gray being jealous of the slayers all having each other and hanging out, but with their weird behaviour starts to believe he’s dodged a bullet.

Thoughts? Would love to hear your ideas

firstly, anon, thank you for giving me an excuse to talk abt Gray + Dragon slayers again, second, im gonna take this and run

i love the idea of the dragons being protective/taking Gray under their wing so to speak, and i love the idea of them scrambling to try and help him in some way even more

Rogue, even though he technically set off everything, actually didnt know much other than what he observed himself, when Rufus told him Gray stopped by but didnt stay to chat with him or Sting (or Frosch!) he tried to ‘subtly’ interrogate Rufus

Rufus figured out what he was doing and shut him down, saying to ask Gray himself and that it wasnt his business to tell

Although, Rogue also saw Rufus carrying a book on different slayer magic types so he hazarded a couple guesses

When he does set it all off its like their collective braincell goes into overdrive

they dont all figure it put right away, its post mission that they discuss what they know

‘Gray Watch’ as you so beautifully put it, is their clumsy attempt at sussing out info and to help him

Gray noticed something was up fairly quick because, while they were trying, subtly isnt exactly their forte

he first noticed because Natsu was actively trying to get closer and the conversations he started didnt end up in fights

At first when all the questions started he just thought they were curious because he was another slayer, and when most of their questions ended in his lack of answers he thoight they would just stop and go back to normal but they didnt

They just kept coming, if they were asking questions they were giving advice, or even complimenting his new magic and how fast he figured it out

While the Dragons think hes totally lost and confused, he isnt really, Grays used to having to adapt quickly and at least it was ice devil slayer magic, he gets the big picture and the dynamics of it but he just doesnt know what the hell it is? and why isnt there any information on it?

Gray ends up convinced theyre all infected with some sort of virus, a virus that apparently makes them really social, with.. just him? (hes still working on the theory)

Their advice is kinda a hit or miss, they only know the stuff they found out pertaining to Dragon Slayers, and they assume what works for them will work for him too, sometimes it does but a lot of the time it doesnt

Dragon and Devil slayer magic, while under the same subtype of magic, are very different, but they dont have the resources to know that outright

other tidbits my brain came up with

Dragon slayers specifically have a naturally high metabolism and appetite

they assume thats its the same for Gray, Natsu told Mira to start adding extras to his plate when he eats at the guild, and also started offering the snacks he eats during the day

Gajeel would try to inconspicuously ask Levy abt dif slayer type and she happily did even though she knew exactly what was doing

Sting started to pester Rufus for any info on Devil Slayers constantly, while Rogue actually looked himself, they actually went to magic experts and various libraries around town and on jobs when they took them out of town

got a whole lot of nothing

When someone or Gray said anything about Devil Slayers you could literally hear their brains working in overtime while they listened

they probably took notes or something

Wendy would often ask Gray how he was doing with his new physical and mental changes and give tips on what she does when she got overwhelmed with all the sudden alterations to her person, which really confused him bc he hadnt noticed much actually changing about himself

Anything Laxus figured out himself he would relay to Freed to tell Gray, hes gotta keep up his persona hes got goin on yk?

Slayers in general have heightened senses AND emotions

Dragon Slayers, and slayers in general but its most extreme/prominent in the Dragons, have highly protective tendencies.

Devil Slayers have slight possessive traits and jealousy issues, again, slayers in general have this but its more prominent in Devil Slayers,

that being said, Gray being a slayer now means he wanted to spend more time with the others so he didnt try to stop the uptake in attention they were giving him. But since they had the plan to help him they were also spending a lot of time together, which in turn made him feel jealous and upset as if they were ignoring him

But as time went on and the dragons were getting more desperate for info Gray started believing that they were all crazy or sick

actual pictures of the Dragons trying to solve Gray

sorry its short! i didnt want to keep you waiting any longer🙏