#references to:

[phoenixyfriend]

Weird Egg?

Okay so in theory, Obi-Wan was plausibly on Mandalore when Anakin was born, right?

(this is technically a variation on a few other fics and AUs I've seen, and I'll list the stuff that came to mind at the end.)

While on Mandalore, Obi-Wan finds An Egg while hiding in a cave with Satine. And he doesn't recognize it, and Satine doesn't recognize it, and even Qui-Gon doesn't recognize it.

Which makes it weird, at the very least, and probably rare. It's the size of his HEAD and even though there's no parent around, the egg is… warm, now? He didn't notice at first, but it's definitely producing at least some of its own heat.

So Obi-Wan brings the egg with him, which is a pain in the ass in terms of maneuvering, but they do seem to have better luck avoiding Death Watch than before, which uh. Given that the egg feels warmer when they're getting lucky, and seems to glow in the Force, they think might not be a coincidence. A lucky rock, except it's alive.

Mission ends. Obi-Wan plans to take the egg back to the temple for study in case they just discovered Something, and as he's saying goodbye to Satine… the egg Hatches.

It is a dragon.

The dragon can project words into Obi-Wan's mind. It's not quite capable of complex thoughts yet, but it's a he (probably), and has a name (Anakin!), and considers the person who's been carrying him and protecting him and keeping him warm for the past six months to be his mom!

Obi-Wan protests at this. Qui-Gon decides to make his life harder with the 'correction' that Obi-Wan would be a dad, not a mom.

So now Obi-Wan has a small dragon which will be growing to the size of a house, that imprinted on him and is following him home and calling him dad and insisting on sleeping in his bed

Idk if you've ever read Septimus Heap, but… the MC of that found a Fancy Rock, put it in his bag, carried it around for a YEAR because he kept forgetting to take it out of his bag, and then it hatched into a dragon. And I kept thinking about that the whole time I wrote this.

In Obi-Wan's defense, he does Have A Plan.

Until the dragon hatches, turns out to be a sapient as a toddler (with promise of growth), and calls him Dad.

And now the plan is gone.

He just wanted to bring a cool egg back to the Temple for study!

And now the Mandalorians are pulling out old books about whatever the fuck this is because these things APPARENTLY went extinct around the same time as the underwater dragon-adjacent thing that is the Mythosaur.

Obi-Wan learns that supposedly the eggs are inert until something with the Force interacts with it in a Purposeful Manner.

Which includes "probing it a little to see if whatever is inside is actually alive."

Anakin's a standard western dragon that can breathe fire because Flyte. Also this post.

Weeeee okay small text for the references I mentioned.

Obviously, first up is the Septimus Heap series by Angie Sage, specifically Magyk and Flyte.

The fic series I was thinking of initially that kind of jumpstarted the AU process was Boga Service Varactyl AU, but specifically Kenobi Kafé Service Animal Boga AU.

I've been seeing a couple of dragon shapeshifter AUs, including that post I linked earlier from @ahsoka-in-a-hood, @bubblew0lf1's dragon shapeshifter AU, and @squad-724's Dragon Jedi AU has been all over my dash for the past few days.

Stubborn to the Bones by @tideswept, which was part of what had me connecting the various dots of Obi-Wan Finding Animal Anakin on a mission, though our outcomes are admittedly very different lol. (Their fic is shippy, and mine is more decidedly gen/familial with a slight nod to Obitine.)

[estarion]

²⁾ there’s technically two beds available, but it’s freezing cold and everybody knows body heat works best

REASONS FOR THERE TO BE ONLY ONE BED

He understands the limitations of human sight in darkness but she's so very far from where she belongs. “Your bed is in the opposite direction,” he hisses, intent on breaking her from whatever spell she's succumbed to. Astarion once laid with a man who walked, talked, did the oddest little things in his sleep; he assumes that's what this is.

She does not budge at his voice. In fact, the edge of his bed only dips further. “Hello?” He tries again, and she surges towards him in sudden answer, arms flinging perilously around. He grunts. “For the love of—I'm not your body pillow.” She mutters some sleepy nonsense about the cold. Impatient hands take hold of her, one palm against her forearm, the other gently clasping to her warm neck. The chill of his skin seems to do the trick.

There's recognition in her gaze, widened now. Maybe a touch of fear too. Astarion snorts, staring up into eyes that likely cannot even detect his. “What did you think would happen? Sneaking into bed with a corpse! Go back to your own. It's not that bloody cold…” No colder than it can possibly be with him (the heatless corpse) still holding onto her. He nudges her carefully off, letting go. “There’s a warm, cuddly pooch around here somewhere. Why not go look for him?”

[teddy06writes]

Reaching In The Dark

Have you ever been going up the stairs in the dark, -maybe to bed, maybe to supper, maybe to something else all together- and gone to take a step that’s not there, because you haven’t realized you're at the top? And you fall forward just a little, stumbling like your whole world is out of balance? So that you’re sort of just left, reaching in the dark. Reaching for something that’s not there. 

I’ve been thinking alot lately, about how heartbreaking it can be to have to carry on, to continue to be, when something so groundshaking, so world changing has happened. I’ve been thinking alot lately, about how it seems so impossible for the rest of the world to carry on as if nothing has happened, when nothing will ever be the same. Yet it still does.

Sometimes, I sometimes think that maybe Wes Anderson said it best, when he had an actor playing an actor breaking character to ask a question like his life depended on it. When it felt like his heart, his own personal heart was breaking every night. I still don’t understand the play. 

Have you ever been driving, and seen someone doing something terribly reckless while driving in the opposite direction? So you brace yourself for the worst, -to slam on your brakes, to swerve out of the way- but instead they simply pass, and go on being reckless? And you watch as they turn into nothing but a blur in the rearview mirror. A spot of almost nothing, that could have been something. 

It’s a strange thing; grief. It turns your instincts into liars. Like when you reach for your water bottle, even though it is empty, because the instinct of thirst is too ingrained in you to disappear in a matter of minutes. Like when you grab for the handrail taken down a week ago, because before that it had been there all your life. It makes you start to call out to someone, before you remember that they have already left. 

It makes you search for something, while knowing that it’s not anywhere to be found. Sometimes, I sometimes think that David Conner showed it best, when he made his narrator go looking for the very thing that he had lost -the missing sun that had thrown his universe out of balance- only to remember it wasn’t coming back. 

Have you ever had a dream where you took a wrong step, and suddenly were falling? Falling impossible distances, at incredible speeds, until suddenly you’ve fallen so far that you wake up, back in your bed? And saw that the world was still dark, and that the world was still asleep? And realized that you were never really falling at all? 

I guess, what I mean, that is, what all this goes to say, is that at some point, the world will end. But it will also continue.

[amartworks]

had a fun experience on the subway the other day

[midwinterhunt]

hot artists don't gatekeep

I've been resource gathering for YEARS so now I am going to share my dragons hoard

Floorplanner. Design and furnish a house for you to use for having a consistent background in your comic or anything! Free, you need an account, easy to use, and you can save multiple houses.

Comparing Heights. Input the heights of characters to see what the different is between them. Great for keeping consistency. Free.

Magma. Draw online with friends in real time. Great for practice or hanging out. Free, paid plan available, account preferred.

Smithsonian Open Access. Loads of free images. Free.

SketchDaily. Lots of pose references, massive library, is set on a timer so you can practice quick figure drawing. Free.

SculptGL. A sculpting tool which I am yet to master, but you should be able to make whatever 3d object you like with it. free.

Pexels. Free stock images. And the search engine is actually pretty good at pulling up what you want.

Figurosity. Great pose references, diverse body types, lots of "how to draw" videos directly on the site, the models are 3d and you can rotate the angle, but you can't make custom poses or edit body proportions. Free, account option, paid plans available.

Line of Action. More drawing references, this one also has a focus on expressions, hands/feet, animals, landscapes. Free.

Animal Photo. You pose a 3d skull model and select an animal species, and they give you a bunch of photo references for that animal at that angle. Super handy. Free.

Height Weight Chart. You ever see an OC listed as having a certain weight but then they look Wildly different than the number suggests? Well here's a site to avoid that! It shows real people at different weights and heights to give you a better idea of what these abstract numbers all look like. Free to use.

[two-bees-poetry]

[pppuri]

say his name three times!

[necronatural]

Compiled some basic information I know about drawing fat characters for beginners since I've been seeing more talk about absence of really basic traits in a lot of art lately.

Morpho Fat and Skin Folds on Archive.org (for free!)

[astronnova]

yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

[knockknockwhosthereartistism]

I was inspired

[blueboxbeagle]

By LabradoriteKing on Pinterest

[prompt-heaven]

a list of 100+ buildings to put in your fantasy town

academy

adventurer's guild

alchemist

apiary

apothecary

aquarium

armory

art gallery

bakery

bank

barber

barracks

bathhouse

blacksmith

boathouse

book store

bookbinder

botanical garden

brothel

butcher

carpenter

cartographer

casino

castle

cobbler

coffee shop

council chamber

court house

crypt for the noble family

dentist

distillery

docks

dovecot

dyer

embassy

farmer's market

fighting pit

fishmonger

fortune teller

gallows

gatehouse

general store

graveyard

greenhouses

guard post

guildhall

gymnasium

haberdashery

haunted house

hedge maze

herbalist

hospice

hospital

house for sale

inn

jail

jeweller

kindergarten

leatherworker

library

locksmith

mail courier

manor house

market

mayor's house

monastery

morgue

museum

music shop

observatory

orchard

orphanage

outhouse

paper maker

pawnshop

pet shop

potion shop

potter

printmaker

quest board

residence

restricted zone

sawmill

school

scribe

sewer entrance

sheriff's office

shrine

silversmith

spa

speakeasy

spice merchant

sports stadium

stables

street market

tailor

tannery

tavern

tax collector

tea house

temple

textile shop

theatre

thieves guild

thrift store

tinker's workshop

town crier post

town square

townhall

toy store

trinket shop

warehouse

watchtower

water mill

weaver

well

windmill

wishing well

wizard tower

[wizardpotions]

Christmas as a cultural icon is starting to get really dystopian in a climate sense, december has historically been a time of year in which there would be snow in a significant portion of europe and north america, and the fact that its not even icy this time of year and all the christmas songs and decorations reference a time of year that will likely never exist in the same way again in my life time is so strange.

[starridge]

why did you do it

[gorjee-art]

Finally made a sheng reference! Now I won't make tiny continuity mistakes!