Been thinking on and off again about my hoard, and what it should consist of.
For context, dragons where I come from do need treasure - precious metals and gems - but that's not necessarily a hoard, although it can be. Metals and gems are primarily for "eating" - breaking down into magical energy called Breath, which we need to survive in the modern world. (This wasn't always the case, but that's a long story.) A hoard is something else entirely - the dragon who actually does hoard metals and/or gems is in a truly unfortunate conundrum, constantly torn between consuming and hoarding those things. Hoards are cultural status symbols and, to some extent, representations of yourself; it's an instinctive drive that's hard to fight.
Having been a dragon for less than a year in-source, in-source me hasn't quite figured out the hoarding thing yet (I'm not actually confident she's aware it is a thing yet), but out-here me has been contemplating it for a while. I do have an instinctive sense of what qualifies for my hoard, but I still haven't managed to put a nice, concise name on it, which is a little annoying.
My hoard is (should be, anyway) of fabric items - blankets and rugs, mostly, but a very nice pillow might sneak in once in a while as an accent piece. The feel is more important than the function. The material has to be thick, soft, in deep and rich colors (rich reds and blues are dominant when I try to imagine my ideal hoard, with some deep greens and violets, and gold is a nice accent color. warm blacks might show up now and again), ideally with a nice, fairly ornate pattern. Some examples, at least for color and pattern:
Worth noting that I also intend to keep a pseudo-hoard of bones in-world as a decoy for anyone trying to mess with my hoard - because that's what one might expect me to hoard, given my whole necromancy thing, but I'm honestly just not drawn to them in the same way. They're interesting, sometimes beautiful, and useful tools, but they don't feel like home the same way as my actual hoard does.
I just wish I had a word for it, one that encompassed all the possible variations of Actual Item without including a bunch of things that my instincts deem unsuitable for my hoard. >:\
Our dad, knowing nothing about our plurality *or* alterhumanity as far as we know: “Have you ever considered that you’re a dragon?”
Raie, a dragon fictive who identifies as a dragon therian, stuck alone in front and unable to lie: “I mean, I am, but how does this come up?”
Dad: “Well, if you sneeze and it knocks the paint off the wall, y’know…”
Raie, heart having started beating again: “Fair enough, I guess that would be true. I wasn’t going to disagree with you, I just needed context for how this came up”
Dad: “True, you always need your dragon to be in on the joke, don’t you?”
…
I mean, very affirming in an accidental fashion, but how on earth??? That was so weird. Neither I nor Miriam if I was able to front-trigger her can intentionally tell lies, so it’s not like I could say no, but also he wasn’t aware of any of the things that make me actually identify as a dragon, soooooo… glad we were able to play that one off as just playing along. Mom knows *about* therianthropy, though not our experience as such, and Dad’s certainly never heard of it in his life. Definitely very weirdly affirming though, lmao. 🐉🐉🐉
Dragon Kin Care Ideas you can do during Social Isolation
Here are some ideas for caring for your dragon self (that are also safe and helpful to your human body too)!
Start a collection of gems (they can be real or plastic! Both are pretty, and if you can’t afford actual gems that’s totally okay! They’re still valuable and lovely!)
OR start a collection (hoard) or something else you absolutely love! You can keep it in a special hidden place in your room, or display it for all to see!
If you miss being able to fly, feeling the wind in your face can be a VERY welcome feeling. Closing your eyes and imagining yourself in the sky while laying down in front of a fan can be a good way to do this indoors.
Create a makeshift treasure chest to store your favorite things in!
Work on turning your den (bedroom, or any other space that’s yours and that you can make look however you want) into one that gives off a super great, super comfy dragon feeling! Whatever that means to you- be creative! Make it feel like home based on whatever speaks to you the most!
Get in touch with your element. Fire, water, ice, etc. It CAN be hard to do when you can’t go outside, but you can bring those elements inside too! Light a candle and keep the flame where you can easily see it. Run a bath. Get yourself a cold drink with ice. Listen to music/sound effects that reflect the nature you’re most connected with. Surround yourself with things that match the color of your element. Make art based on that element! Again, get creative! Make it unique and completely yours!
Write a story about what you would do in your dragon form while outside! Or just jot it down in your journal if you have one (or use any paper lying around!). Imagination is a gift, as is storytelling, and they can both help you live your dragon-life vicariously. Share them with others if you like, or keep them to yourself (maybe they’ll become a part of your hoard!). Don’t worry about it being “perfect” either! As long as it speaks to you and makes you happy, then it’s as wonderful as it can be!
Build yourself a dragon nest of pillows and blankets to spend your time in! Bring all of your favorite pastimes and keep them nearby for MAXIMUM comfort!
We hope you feel safe, happy and totally yourself during this time! Remember that you’re strong, resilient, smart and deserve all the good things!!
This one’s not majorly system-focused, so it’s going on main. Disclaimer: this post is about an alter in a disordered system, but syscourse will not be tolerated on this post or blog. Do not send death or rape threats to anyone, never mind minors, no matter what they say on the internet. That is our public stance whenever we bring things into main tags, and we expect it to be understood as the most we will say on non-syscourse posts outside of the system stuff sideblog. Visit @too-many-cooks-in-the-headspace if you want to get bitten by the dragon about syscourse shit, or if you want to have a nice friendly discussion about system stuff. Singlets, plurals, all are welcome to chat.
So that tremendously fucked up intro aside, for which I probably should make a banner at some point, hi! Raie here. Temeraire introject, main protector, cataloguer of system stuff, you remember me. Anyway, as the only alter in here as far as any of us know who isn’t completely apathetic about pronouns, I figured I’d try out some things since I’m very not human and wanted to acknowledge that. Having sent an ask to another system for ideas (shoutout to @alicecorpseliddell, vorpal was very helpful), I’m thinking of trying out fy/fyr (“fee”/“fear”), dæ/dær (“day”/“dare”), and then gem/gems and claw/claws for nounself pronouns. She/her is still the collective pronouns, and I’m still happy with them too, I am female, I just wanted to diversify. So, she/fy/dæ/gem/claw are your options for me. Swapping them up is very nice, but also non-mandatory. Just don’t always use she/her. Also don’t call me a drake, major nope to that (idk why).
PS: If your device of choice can’t make the æ happen, dae/daer is fine, we don’t judge you for your keyboard problems because that would be shitty.
Actually you guys are getting multiple journaling posts today because I've remembered I made this blog for more than reblogging Catholic heresy, necromancy jokes, and hot furries and I'm going to process some things I'm dealing with about my source that aren't even relevant to me at this point. I'm going to be discussing death and corpses through the whole post, so if that's not your thing, probably skip this one.
So, a thing about my kind of dragon: when we die, our spirit remains trapped in our body until another dragon gives us our Last Rites, the Song of Tiamat. That rite destroys the body completely and frees the spirit within to go on to... whatever's next, I suppose, maybe being reincarnated into another dragon at this point.
It is... very, very strange to me to think about that. My family, for context, is what most people consider weird and a little gross about death and the dead. We have a strong tradition of necromancy, both in the mundane-religious sense and in the tangibly-magical sense, both regarding corpses and ghosts, which has led to traditions that some people find off-putting but to me are just... normal. How things are. My family keeps an ancestor shrine in the house, with photos or paintings of our dead. Some of those pictures are accompanied by objects important to the person in life - glasses, a necklace worn every day, etc. - but most of them are accompanied by bones, usually a finger bone or a carpal but occasionally teeth or other things. When we die, most of our body is laid in the family crypt (well, for my branch of the family at least; branches with a vampiric necromancer in them often bury their dead in the front yard so they can be raised to defend the home if needed), but a hand or foot will often be removed and the bones cleaned so that individual bones can be given to our family and close friends. It is how we honor our dead and keep them close - literally, in the cases of those who form wraiths; a body part makes an excellent anchor point for a ghost to return to.
This... will not happen for me, certainly not here but not even in-source. The Song of Tiamat destroys the body utterly, and to not perform it would be to leave me trapped. It is very odd to think about. It feels... deeply wrong, to leave nothing at all behind, no bones, no anchor point. Certainly, my hoard or other such items will likely be distributed similarly when I die (...if I die, I suppose), and it can serve the same purpose, but that's... less than ideal. My family will mourn even more for not having my bones to honor properly. I... don't know if dragons can form proper ghosts to return to watch over them. It wasn't a guaranteed thing to begin with - few people do form wraiths - but to not even have the possibility is... perturbing.
I suppose the best I can hope for is that my children and grandchildren inherit my gift for hearing ghosts, and that it turns out that gift can also hear the spirits of dragons left behind in their bones - something that I hope is true for several reasons, but this is perhaps the most personal. If that is true... well, then I suppose there's nothing stopping me from staying, having my skeleton put on display in the house of a child or grandchild and, depending how it works exactly, having them carry individual bones with them so I can watch over them, give them advice, still experience the world. I don't know if that's how this works, but I suppose if it turns out I can hear the spirits of dead dragons, then I will have the chance to experiment and find out. I rather like the idea of being an articulated dragon skeleton in the living room of a descendant, to be honest - and it would leave my bones present to be animated to defend them if need be. (Ordinarily animating and controlling a dead dragon is much harder than animating most other kinds of corpses, due to the spirit trapped within, but I feel like if said spirit is willing and wanting the animation to happen, the rules might be different.)
As far as out here goes... well, I think I might be outvoted in terms of what the system wants done with our body, ha. I feel less strongly about it here anyway, frankly - without that strong tradition of necromancy in this family, there would be little done with our bones anyway, and anyway we don't intend to have children here (again, I am outvoted by an overwhelming majority), so they would be going to friends, most of whom I doubt would be interested. Even for those who would, I don't even begin to know how one would arrange for such a thing without having a family member in control of the mortuary.
Becoming a dragon later in life, rather abruptly, has come with some rather odd experiences. At this point it's something I'm more used to, having lived with it in-system for... *checks notes* over a year now, jeez - but still, it catches me off-guard sometimes in a way that it usually doesn't for my headmate who's been a dragon its entire life, even if it didn't realize until early adulthood-ish. (It still does for drem too, occasionally, but not usually.) I'm flirting with my partner and find myself wanting to curl my tail and arch my neck and ruffle my wings on my dragon spirit's instincts, something that never would have occurred to me when I was just human. I finally found my first hoard item a while back and I'm a little stunned by how obsessed I can get with it if allowed to hold it for too long - not necessarily in a bad way, but in an "I should not be getting this much joy and pride out of Holding A Nice Silk Blend Scarf, what is happening to me" way. Things like that; not bad, necessarily, but just... odd.
I don't really have a conclusion to this. It's just... interesting.
