Dragon doing dragon things

Hello! Hello! I’m dragoneyes and this is my main blog. If you’re searching for my fanfictions and fanarts blog, it's right over HERE.

[nixvintro]

Smoking Hot Stanley

[ravna-resta]

How to take care of your tired knight.

---

I'm so proud of the result, aren't they cuties?? The cutest criminals ever.

[writersisland]

Commonly Confused Words (3): Who vs. Whom

Who functions either as the subject of a sentence ("Who told Jason that?") or as nominative pronoun in the predicate ("I met the one who was told by Marie.")

Whom functions as the object of either a verb ("Marie saw whom?") or a preposition, such as for whom, by whom, to whom, ... ("Jason talked to whom?").

Generally, if you can replace the word with he or she, use who ("He/Who told Jason that?"). If you can replace it with him and her, use whom ("Marie saw him/whom?") In some cases, you may need to restructure the sentence for this to work: "Who told Jason that?" — "She told Jason that." ✓ "Whom did Jason tell?" — "Him did Jason tell." ✗ → "Jason told him." ✓

"Why does whom sound weird in the beginning of the sentence?" The usual structure of an English sentence is Subject, Verb, Object. Putting "whom" (the object) in the beginning can sound off. To avoid this, you can restructure the sentence: "Whom did Jason talk to?" → "Jason talked to whom?"

End Note: Though it is not grammatically correct, it is generally not considered a big mistake to use who when whom should be used, especially in casual speech. Sometimes, it may even be preferred as it sounds more natural, even though it is technically incorrect: "Who did Jason tell?"

[dragon-scribbling-scribbles]

The drop that fills the vessel (19972 words) by dragoneyes Chapters: 3/4 Fandom: Dr. STONE (Anime & Manga) Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Stanley Snyder/Xeno Houston Wingfield Characters: Stanley Snyder, Xeno Houston Wingfield, Xeno Houston Wingfield's Parents, Ibara (Dr. STONE), Ishigami Byakuya, Shamil Volkov, Connie Lee (Dr. STONE), Darya Nikitina, Yakov Nikitin, Original Characters Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Magic, Demons, Curses, Demon/Human Relationships, Demon Xeno, Pre-Relationship, Original Character(s), Fluff, Childhood Friends, Childhood Trauma, ibara being ibara, Implied/Referenced Child Exploitation, Devotion, Loyalty, Codependency, Eventual Interspecies Relationship, Stanley is a lil yandere but he's channeling it through fanatical commitment so good for him?, no beta we die like my sanity, Discord: The Kingdom of Shipping (Dr. STONE) Series: Part 2 of Vice Summary:

"Stan," both his hands were being squeezed in his friend's, and Xeno's constellation-like gaze had risen to stare at him once more. Their faces were so close, it would take very little for their foreheads to touch.

"Stan," he repeated, voice dripping with the same joy Stanley felt, "you're the most interesting person I've met in my life: I want to learn everything about you, like I want to learn everything about magic; let's be friends for a long time!"

Stanley tightened his hold, unwilling to let go of this odd yet wondrous friend of his, and he corrected with a wide grin, "Let's be friends for the rest of our lives."

[seeingteacupsindragons]

I understand calling Stanley a "queen" has...implications (that are frankly correct, but regardless), but Xeno referring to him as a knight on a chess board is genuinely so insulting.

Stanley is definitely the Black Queen on a chessboard.

Senku doesn't have a queen. He has loads of knights and bishops and rooks. But he doesn't have the kind of massively overpowered piece that can go anywhere and do most things with an absurd range the way Xeno does.

Xeno only has like one or two bishops/knights, really. He doesn't really have a rook. He's got people like Brody and Charlotte and Maya, who are great and all, but the most useful piece he's got is Stan. He just is.

And Senku does not have anyone comparably powerful and dangerous. And I mean, the series admits that; that's why they wake Stanley back up. Senku still wins the initial chess match because lots and lots of rooks and bishops and knights will still corner a king even with a queen still on the board.

In all other regards than chess, Stanley is certainly Xeno's knight.

But as far as that quick and dirty chess metaphor, it's honestly just rude.

(This series does not actually care how chess is played and that is deeply obvious which is fine because chess appears for approximately five seconds for this exact comparison for Stan)

[seeingteacupsindragons]

Oh, right, it's Aro Visibility Day.

Well, it's tradition to forget about it anyway.

I'm in an aromantic anthology. It's good. I particularly like my own. Just saying.

Nineteen SFF stories and poems with aromantic MCs exploring the depths of platonic relationships.

Common Bonds returns in this second volume of speculative short stories and poetry featuring aromantic characters. Housed within this antho

This is terrible promo. I'm aware. Maybe I'll reblog some of the better ones later.

[eldr1tch-cr0w]

number one rule! never believe ur thoughts after 10 pm . unless its about The Character then believe all of your thoughts wholeheartedly

[chimaerakitten]

So we all talk about being in fandoms for things that are charmingly bad, and being able to acknowledge that they’re charmingly bad. But of course some people are in fandoms for things that are Actually Amazing. There are people out there who write fanfiction for The Best Science Fiction Novel Of The Twentieth Century. Or who draw fanart exclusively of The Best Movie of All Time. And there are even more people who are in fandoms for things that are Actually Pretty Good, which is not quite amazing but is closer to it than to Charmingly Bad.

And sometimes, you have a string of fandoms that are Actually Pretty Good. And the danger of this—the very great danger—is that when you have a string of Actually Pretty Good and even Actually Amazing obsessions, you start to believe that maybe you have taste. Perhaps you are now immune to the indignities of losing it over something mostly bad.

And then it is shattering to discover that no, bad things can still stick a fork in your brain. 😔

[chimaerakitten]

So I understand why the “transformative fandom gathers around things that are not good because there being a problem makes people desire to fix it” model is popular. I even agree that it’s accurate in many if not most cases. However it is not what this post is about. Plenty of people do transformative and creative fandom activities for things that are very, very good. Simplified models do not encompass everything.

And frankly, it’s starting to really get on my nerves when people read “I think this thing is good. I wouldn’t change a thing about it and frankly I don’t even think there should be more canon added to it, but I am still going to write thousands of words of fic, make a cosplay, and draw fanart” and then completely misunderstand and respond with “yes I agree—I like things that are good too. But I never feel the transformative/creative fandom instinct for them because they are too good.”

Some people do not feel it. Other people do. Stop misreading me to avoid having to adjust your mental model of how fandom works.

[blessphemy]

one of the ways a Canon work can be fandom bait is by missing something that fans want to fix, i.e. "it's bad", but i think this is only one way out of multiple that something can be fandom bait.

compelling worldbuilding (invites interaction with the setting)

interesting gimmick (see: daemons, drift compatibility. subcategory of compelling worldbuilding)

shipping bait (duh)

original character bait (in-universe categories/factions and design elements that make it fun for people to create their own characters)

compelling narrative (invites interaction and tweaks to the storyline: AUs and fixits and so on)

basically anything that invites interaction and recombination. but fandom also has a sort of multiplying effect: the larger the interactive audience of fandom is, the more likely it is to generate ideas and works that draw in more participants. so:

network effect (the larger the established fandom, the more likely it has subfandoms and infrastructure that appeals to niche audiences)

[chimaerakitten]

Yes this exactly, thank you bless.

Things that have space to play in are fandom bait, but space to play in does not equal holes.

[gatesofminrathous]

there will never be anything as funny as the mutual disbelief between long form and short form fic writers about each other's style.

short form writers look at people writing 100k+ fics as though this is some sort of talent given as part of a fae bargain, that the commitment required shows some sort of ungodly mental fortitude.

meanwhile long form writers look at people writing 1000 word one shots like god I would cut off my left nipple to be able to say anything concisely. i would love to play with multiple ideas. free me from the shackles of this child I have birthed. i love them but I now must take them to t-ball and doctor's appointments and they're going to destroy everything I own.

[sh4wtycore]

[flowersforvax]

haha nooooo fandom don't sand off all the rough edges and pointy bits off of that character those are the parts I scratch my brain with

[probablyasocialecologist]

“Musk talks about Mars as a lifeboat for humanity, which is among the very stupidest things that someone could say,” says Adam Becker, an astrophysicist and author of the book More Everything Forever, which outlines the messianic, sci-fi fantasies of the tech oligarchs. “There are so many reasons why it’s such a bad idea, and this is not about, ‘Oh, we’ll never have the technology to live on Mars.’ That’s not what I’m saying. What I’m saying is that Earth is always going to be a better option no matter what happens to Earth. Like, we could get hit with an asteroid the size of the one that killed off the dinosaurs, and Earth would still be more habitable. We could explode every single nuclear weapon, and Earth would still be more habitable. We could have the worst-case scenario for climate change, and Earth would still be more habitable. Any cursory examination of any of the facts about Mars makes it very clear.”

What You’ve Suspected Is True: Billionaires Are Not Like Us

[wire-smith]

I really like sci-fi stories where people have to go off and terraform a planet, or figure out how to rebuild civilization after some disaster, or ideally both. "The last ark-ship leaving Earth right before it becomes uninhabitable" sort of deal. But lately I've been coming around to this same idea, that it will always be more practical to try to save Earth than to try to start over elsewhere.

I was reading one story where the apocalypse was impossibly-rising oceans. Like, water is appearing from *waves hand* the Earth's crust or something, and literally all dry surface land on Earth is going to become underwater in X years. Part of the story was about a giant research project to invent FTL to send a few hundred humans to a nearby star which might have a habitable planet. You know what they were hoping to find? A planet with liquid water. Their plan was to descend from their starship and restart civilization using just the tools they brought with them, on a world with no life and no breathable air and the wrong gravity and the wrong temperate and the wrong sunlight and the wrong day-night cycle, just because it had liquid water. You know where else has liquid water? The flooded Earth you just abandoned. Instead of researching starship technology, you could have spent that time loading up all the same civilization-restarter tools into boats.

And this is really true of any futuristic apocalypse scenario. If you can terraform Mars to have a thick oxygen atmosphere, why not just do that to Earth? Even if you smash an ice comet into Earth and destroy basically everything, Earth will still be more habitable than Mars! It'll still have roughly the right atmospheric pressure, and magnetic field, and heat balance, and it'll still have whatever life the comet didn't kill... Same with a starshade to cool Venus. Same with excavating asteroids into city-stations. Same with abandoning Sol System entirely and heading to another star. If an ark-ship arrived in a new star system and found Earth-but-choked-by-climate-change, the crew would be ecstatic. They would never have thought to get that lucky. So why bother with the trip? Just stay and fix the damn Earth.

[primarybufferpanel]

I always love the stories where the rich and important people get away from a 'dying' earth on arks etc, and go through all these pioneering struggles, and hundreds of years later somebody thinks to check up on earth and all the poor people who got left behind are doing fine actually, earth is recovering, turns out once you assholes were gone it wasn't so hard to make good climate and policy decisions.

[partywithponies]

Strange racists and homophobes on the internet seem to have access to an alternate way cooler version of TV than me. "every white character on TV is in an interracial relationship" "every show has a gay couple in it" "main characters keep having to secretly be bisexual and nonbinary" "every show has gratuitous full frontal nudity" like damn promise?? What channel???

[urlocalpyshcopan]

as a black gay person real like where y'all be finding this stuff pass the name

[brainsforbabyjesus]

for real though, those DO NOT WATCH OR YOU'LL CORRUPT YOUR CHILDREN lists put out by conservative christian family groups is where I find all the stellar tv shows. Like, shit I didn't know half of those existed, thanks for finding them for me, gonna go watch 30 hours of gay tv now!

[infamousbrad]

I think I know how this works.

For personal context, before I went to the '98 Burning Man festival, one of the things I'd read from a couple different journalists was that "everybody" runs around naked. Which, fine by me, I'd already spent a lot of time in clothing-optional spaces, I'm not fanatic about it but it's nice.

So I got there early and set up a public shade structure on one of Black Rock City's main roads and spent most of each afternoon just watching the crowds go by. I don't remember seeing more than one actually naked person the whole week. I think a topless woman passed by my intersection maybe every half an hour, sometimes once an hour. So why in the hell were people, normally pretty smart and observant writers, coming away with the impression that everybody was naked?

Then I remembered an unrelated passage from Joel Garreau's great book about the history of the outer-ring suburbs, Edge City. Mall developers told him flat-out that they tried to keep the crowds in their malls less than 5% black. Not because they themselves were racist, but because they had determined, experimentally, that if more than 5% of the people in the mall are black, the median white shopper will wrongly describe the mall as at least half black, as mostly black. And not a few of them would describe it, at 6% black, as a mall where "only black people go." Why?

Because, emotionally, they were still upset over the last one when the next one came into view.

Same as the journalists describing Black Rock City as all naked. Same as the right-wing religious culture warriors describing television as entirely mixed-race and gender non-conforming. Not because it's even vaguely true, we know that, but because they haven't gotten over their discomfort over the last one by the time the next one comes along. The anger, not the stimulus, is the part that's continuous, so their mind lies to them that it's "all" the thing they can't get over.

[kagedtiger]

Similar effect for the presence/proportion of women in things, by the way: https://health.howstuffworks.com/mental-health/human-nature/perception/how-17-equals-496-the-amazing-multiplying-women.htm

[jayalaw]

What’s the solution then? Or if there’s no solution, should we make things even queerer and more diverse?

[writerswritecompany]

[seeingteacupsindragons]

The Internet Archive is pretty memorably not legal.

[carnelianfoxx]

it’s been an honor serving with you all

[carnelianfoxx]

wait what the fuck

[catboybeebop]

[fforsythiaaa]

Once when I was in undergrad, someone described something as “problematic” in class and our professor was like, “That’s cool, but ‘problematic’ doesn’t really mean anything. It means that the thing you’re describing has a problem, and in and of itself that’s not bad. Art, especially, should always have problems, or else it’s not interesting and not art, either. It sounds like you’re trying to say that this is bad, but you don’t want to say ‘bad.’ Is that right?”

So from then on whenever one of us called something problematic, he would make us talk it out until we could name the “bad” thing we were hinting at. In this particular class, 7/10 it was some type of oppression, and the remainder was like, “I’m uncomfortable because this is very new/confusing/pushing boundaries that made me feel safe.”

Once we stopped calling things “problematic” and stopping at that, class got way more interesting and... we all had to say, like, “that’s racist” or “that’s misogynistic” or “ew capitalism gross” out loud, which a lot of us had never done in a classroom before. Or we had to be like, “Uhhh... I’m not sure what’s so bad?” and confront our own beliefs and that was maybe even more useful.

Anyway. Whenever I see the word problematic, I can’t help but think of this professor being like, “Good starting point, now let’s get specific.” I think when we have to commit to saying “that’s ___” it requires a lot more careful thought about the truth and impact and complexities of whatever we’re claiming. Sometimes there really is some bullshit afoot, and also sometimes it’s art, and it should be full of problems, because that’s what art is.

[hypokeimena]

#'this is present in the text' is often a good first step #but those second and third ones (naming it; describing its function) are vital (via @elucubrare)

[homunculus-argument]

Give a man a mask, and he'll show the world who he truly is. Teach a man to mask, and nobody can tell he's autistic until he has a breakdown.

[winters-r0se]

give a man half a mask, and he'll stalk the sewers of paris for 20 years or something then attack a fancy ball i think I wasn't paying attention