#yes the dragons are autistic

[leahfrog]

My new fantasy novel, The Viridian Dream, releases March 5th. I'm excited to share it with you! It has autistic dragons, reversed gender roles, and Nova's biceps.

The series will be released on https://www.leahfrog.com in weekly chapter installments and is entirely free to read! All chapters come with artwork by either myself or Aiole Sauce.

First chapter preview available on my patreon, and concept art is up for view on our discord server.

[saturnniidae]

Hiccup is a prime example of that specific type of autism where you were ostracized for being different as a kid then later in life struggle to empathize with other people and are better at relating to and connecting with animals.

Like that scene when they were on the ship they found the dragon eye in??? They see the bones of dragons and Hiccup is visibly disturbed and upset that Toothless has to be seeing this, then like less than a minute later he pries something out of the hand of a human skeleton and has little to no reaction to seeing it other than 'ew'

[vaguely-concerned]

the things it adds to both of the characters involved that lucanis used to have a thing for viago could not have been more tailor made to be for me. literally the ideal thing to come out of this game for me personally and specifically and spiritually. I mean I'm teia x viago trash until the day I die and nothing will ever change this (and with the best will in the world and even the power of lucanis' big beautiful soulful eyes, that would never have worked out even if viago DID somehow understand he was being propositioned. which I'm not convinced he did. the mutual 'so. snakes are pretty cool huh. and. knives. also' awkward energy without someone of teia's charisma and people skills involved to mitigate it... it would have been dire), but on so many levels I find it so incredibly charming for what it says about them both that the (one-sided) attraction was there once.

what's more, it means the man about whom this legendary paragraph was written:

Viago was not a typical Antivan. He liked facts—checklists, numbers, precise measurements. Heart palpitations, clammy hands, tight pants—Viago did not like these things. In fact, he would go so far as to say he hated them. Mild curiosity was his favorite mood.

has got some of the hottest coolest deadliest people in thedas down so catastrophically bad it's got them acting unwise. teia had to wait a UST-drenched decade for him to be ready to take his fucking gloves off for her. and she did!! the tetchiest most neurotic least approachable little vetinari knockoff of a man you ever saw has game for days and days and lives rent free in heads for years. in eight little talons viago consistently feels so inadequate up against dante and it's like. man I'm shaking you by the lapels you have what he'll never have. the ability to bewitch body and soul with your terrible personality and long thin legs. do not waste the gift you've been given go get her she's waiting!!!

(lucanis is really good at reading people, so I wonder if maybe he saw through all of that to some of the steadiness and incredible capacity for warmth and tenderness in specific interpersonal relationships you see viago have with teia when he finally opens up enough, and maybe that was part of it. either way it's so perfect that both he and teia have regarded viago with this affectionate intrigued amusement. lucanis still seems pretty fond of him in a 'viago continues to be exactly himself no matter what else happens or goes wrong. comforting universal constant' sort of way, he brings him up quite a lot in party banter.)

you've seen lucanis' game in this day and age, arguably or at least hopefully older and wiser -- can you imagine how catastrophically bad it must have been back when he presumably handed viago, most paranoid man in thedas all years running, a knife like this expressed everything it needed to. people give him so much shit for the cake moment being his big romantic lock-in, but considering where we started that is GROWTH and I for one am so proud of him fhsdkjaf.

also I wonder at what point vis-a-vis that whole Situation teia and viago met for the first time, leading us to ask... just how much was it a matter of lucanis simply being ignored out of a lack of interest on viago's part (tbf, not entirely unlikely). how much was it lucanis truly not managing to make himself understood. (all but certainly. literally how would one understand that. I think it says some sweet things about rook and lucanis' dynamic that they -- somehow -- DO pick up what he's putting down in a similar scenario presumably b/c they know him pretty well by then haha.) how much was it viago interpreting the romantic move as a death threat from one of the most dangerous people alive and freaking out. (1000% and indubitably.) and how much was it andarateia steal-your-girl cantori turning up and thus setting off whatever spectacular, volatile, awesome-in-the-original-sense chemical reaction between the substances of her and viago's souls that goes on to this day and makes everything else kind of a side note at best. a gentle mix of several of these things, perhaps. ...god I love all these characters so much

[littlemissgeek8]

The Winter Palace has to be a bit of an uncomfortable experience when you're easily overwhelmed by so many people and noises and smells. (And everyone's taller than you too.)

This took a bit of time to finish, but I really wanted to design a Halamshiral dress for my Cadash, because honestly the uniform look isn't doing it for me. 😆 Basically I took one of the noble outfits from Origins and did a bit of a mash-up with Orlesian gown shapes, and I think it came out pretty well! Maybe if I have the energy I'll even color it!

[weepynymph]

Hiccstrid really are that perfect combination of autistic guy who literally cannot stop talking even when he wants to, and autistic girl who is so irritated by people breathing near her that she is driven to violence.

[strawberry765]

I tried to draw something

Uhhhh... But it's all i could do

Oh snap i forgot to add a watermark

Okay noone gona steal it. Why do i even care 🤔

[knife-eared-jan]

Varric, stop interfering in how Solas and I raise our autistic son!

We are not going to teach him masking, thank you very much.

[url-is-url]

Headcanon: Paulina likes/liked Winx Club (past or present tense depending on if you set your fic in the 00s or move it closer to the present) and her favorite character is Bloom because a) dragons cool and b) Bloom's temper and violent streak are relatable to her. (This is the girl who sucks at the cheer part of cheerleading and this fact is SO important to me.) Secretly, her inner child still wants to be a fairy princess when she grows up. After the events with Dorothea's amulet, Paulina's inner child is very willing to settle for being a dragon when she grows up.

However. Up until now, Paulina has been conditioned to believe that being NORMAL is the key to being a cool kid. And leaning into, say, some latent dragon-themed superpowers would be cool, but it would also be objectively weird and this does not compute. Insert existential crisis here!

[youdelight-itolerate]

This may be why I wondered what both that painting and that photo tasted like and wished I could have a little bite. 🥹

(it wasn't until we were adults that we found out that we both craved and snacked upon this paper regularly. It was so inky and soft. Melt in Your Mouth Printer Paper.)

(Yes, we are both autistic.)

[meg-does-art]

I finally nailed down some details for my Rook!

Foramina Ingellvar, (nn Mina) female elven mage, death caller. Late 20s-early 30s. Very wavy, messy, unmanageable red hair. Huge nerd. Especially with anatomy/the skeletal system/etc. Very comfortable with death/spirits/Nevarra’s ideas of all of that. Constantly forgets that almost no one else is. Vegetarian/pescatarian. She’s going to romance Lucanis.

Please tell me about your Rook(s) too!

[pleasejustletpercyrest]

Leo, after the first interaction he’s had with Frank where he actually laughed at his jokes and didn’t get mad once: omg I got a good grade in friends

Leo, leaning against Festus as he talks about it: which is both normal to want and possible to achieve

[leahfrog]

In a world where nature is struggling, a 'cursed' boy named Rowan discovers he's the key to restoring what was lost. Every night, he dreams of a silver warrior who will save him from the darkness that surrounds him. In a war where she must slay her own kind to save them, a half-dragon warrior named Nova learns 'duty' is something she can redefine. Every night, she dreams of a Viridian dragon who begs her to protect his legacy. A story about self-discovery, change, saving the world, romance, and of course, dragons.

The first book of my queer-friendly fantasy series starts in March 2024, and it will be available for free at leahfrog.com. Would appreciate reblogs if you or your followers might be interested in reading it!

[saturnniidae]

Interesting and, in my opinion, often overlooked thing about Hiccup is how he's like, not really a compassionate person by default. It was learned, not an innate trait like it seemingly was with Valka.

From things said in the first movie, we can presume he's always had a fairly intense interest in dragons, but it was solely with the intention of killing them – and very stubbornly his way at that, considering he hadn't even read the Book of Dragons yet – and it kind of makes sense considering, he's likely desensitized to violence with how often their village was repeatedly burnt to the ground then rebuilt. Like he got excited there was a raid, completely one-track minded on his plans to shoot something down for his own benefit with no regard for the danger everyone (and himself) was in (and yes! This is somewhat selfish, but he was also a child.) Again, a lot of people overlook the fact that while he was insecure about it, alienated by his peers, and looked down upon by adults, Hiccup is still a viking – or at least was raised as one. He still very much held the same, core dragon killing beliefs every one else on Berk did. The only thing that set him apart was his inability to follow directions due to his unwavering obstinacy when it came to doing things his way.

He had every intention of killing Toothless upon finding him, only changing his mind after seeing the dragons fear and realizing they're both trapped by circumstances outside of their control, and even then had no plans of seeing Toothless again after freeing him. He thought he lost his chance at killing a dragon, after uaving the realization he just didn't have the heart to look an animal in the eyes and take its life, he was fully prepared to return to his mundane routine of ignoring what adults want him to do in favor of his own, ironic and futile attempts at making his father proud.

He's never had any kind of 'natrual' connection with dragons, it was something he stubbornly worked towards. Like I said before; he was as set on killing one as any other person on Berk, I just think he had an easier time accepting they were wrong due to spending most of his life as an outcast.

He only went back to find Toothless after his first attempt at dragon training, it was with no intention to get closer, more of an almost childish curiosity, a fascination that grew out of hand, especially after Astrid yelled at him and forced him to confront what he was doing with the question: 'Whose side are you on?"

I know Forbidden Friendship is the moment we all talk about, but I don't think Hiccup and Toothless had any kind of solidified bond until they flew together, and from Toothless' point of view, the realization that Hiccup had now gone beyond just brief fascination and was actually invested enough to help him fly again.

And even then it wasn't until he met that Terror he realized that Toothless wasn't just a one off thing, that most dragons won't attack pointlessly unless pushed to. And even then his relationship with them is still very flawed, and remains that for a long time; I know we're mostly talking about movie Hiccup here, but would the 'do-no-wrong dragon whisperer' that some people act like he is really have trapped that Skrill in a glacier because it was the easy way out? (In his defense he was like sixteen and at least realizes it was pretty fucked up when he was older and did his best to fix things)

It took time for him to get to be the so called 'peace keeper' he is as an adult (though he always seems to prioritize dragons over people, especially Toothless which is a really interesting and fitting flaw but I digress).

tldr; Hiccup was kind of a selfish, maybe even insensitive kid in the beginning, his compassion took time to develop. I feel like people too often forget that, one of his best traits wasn't an innate thing; it was something he worked for.

[nazmazh]

Tonight's Mission:

Time to give some dragons (And a wizard) a bath!

So, I've had these statuettes since like, high school [My brother also has a set of his own, which was likewise dug out of storage this past summer, when my folks and I moved out to the farm - Lest you think I was alone in my coolness], but when I moved out east after my first stint in university for my first post-university job, they got packed up and put into storage.

And they've been sitting there, in the shop, since, like 2009.

But now that I've got more room (and found some decent bookshelves on FB marketplace for a reasonable price, so I have enough storage space), it's time to bring them back out into the world, I think.

But, yeah... 15 years of sitting in a box in the workshop hasn't exactly been great dust-wise.

(Seriously, the old beat-up box they were in was a Sears box, because Amazon delivery just wasn't as big of thing by that point).

And their individual boxes weren't exactly great to begin with.

So, like, there's dust deeply embedded in some of the grooves and such:

(I probably wasn't super diligent about dusting them thoroughly when I was younger, either, if I'm being honest).

So, we'll see if a quick rinse in the sink with some dish soap can shine 'em back up!

Thankfully, my pewter ones (which were better quality overall anyway) came in nicer boxes and seem to have been largely spared the extra dust. Which is good, because they probably are a lot more touchy about cleaning methods, and it means I don't have to cross that bridge today.

The Results:

Looks like the rinse worked perfectly, no weird effects because dish soap is pretty safe for most materials, I'd imagine resin/acrylic/whatever these were made of included. Got into those hard-to-reach nooks and crannies and looks like the dust has been rinsed out.

The one downside - I apparently have precisely one statuette (even including the pewter ones) that has a felt-lined bottom.

I only realized that once it was already in the water.

Ah well, as long as it dries properly, I can't imagine it being a big issue in the long run.

Once these bad boys dry, they're going up on my bookshelves and returning to their duties of being rad as hell.

Might even have to look through my dice bins and find some sets to pair with them all for some photos or something.

[clovisbrayai]

had a dream about a beautiful and demanding trans woman who could turn into a massive black dragon petting my head in her lap and infodumping while I tried not to fall asleep from the comfort of it all. um. um. 🙏🤲

[dilfkuza]

okay i feel like im going insane and making a red string board in my head but I've watched that Ichiban and Kiryu conversation way too many times and i swear Kiryu has to be lying to seem cool or the "proposal" he's talking about isn't a standard proposal. a man with nothing to hide wouldn't have his face shift from being this smug

to being this caught off guard when he's asked to give details

that's not the look of a man who's been asked to reveal something personal that might be emberassing or uncomfortable, that's the face of a man who got caught in a lie and doesn't know how to follow up.

i know Kiryu is pulling a story out of his ass to hold up a manly persona. he's looking around trying to come up with something believable because he didn't think through his gut reaction of "I need to seem cool in front of this younger guy who (maybe) looks up to me". man's looking around the skyline as if his childhood idea of a tough, macho yakuza is gonna float down and give him a story to tell.

I can't even think of who he could be referring to unless he's exaggerating his relationship with Yumi or Kaoru? or if it has something to do with the woman he's protecting in Gaiden but I wouldn't think so since that's just a side story. of course it's not impossible that he could have tried to have a relationship during one of the gaps in time between games (à la Majima having an ex-wife between games), but that would be a really cheap way to write themselves out of Kiryu being generally uninterested in women. in conclusion?