#modern dragons

[freadomrises]

We're all born with a dragon. They help us and guide us. But man do they sometimes get fed up with our nonsense, and not all of them get along. Ever wonder why someone gives you the ick? Their dragon probably makes your dragon uncomfortable. Ever hit it off super well? You dragons are prolly besties.

[mckitterick]

Cultural complexity surrounding billionaires' sub loss

a friend wrote this on another social media site:

"A terrifying way to die.

"How people were and are reacting to this is a reflection of society and society’s attitudes about — well, society. Would we make such a massive manhunt (or even know about it) if it wasn’t billionaires down there? Would we care more if it didn’t cost $250,000 per ticket (what the average family earns in 5+ years)? Would we find irony if the ruins weren’t the Titanic, a luxury ship specifically made for the wealthy? Would such extreme tourism even exist if there wasn’t a societal chasm between the ultra-rich and the barely-getting-by? Can one be critical and caring at the same time?

"I wish they had been found in time. These are good questions to raise, but it shouldn't be at the cost of human life."

my thoughts:

I feel sorry for the billionaire's son who was pressured to go down there. And the pilot, who had to use an Xbox controller to navigate this largely uncertified vehicle. In both their cases, this feels almost criminal.

As for how the world is reacting to the loss overall:

On average, billionaires only get to be that way by hoarding wealth like Smaug, taking wages that, in a just world, would go to the working people who earned that wealth for them. So I understand how it's hard to care when they cause their own deaths doing a dumb thing after having contributed to such widespread suffering.

Perhaps these guys were the hen's teeth of billionaires and had empathy for others, only growing wealthy through patent royalties or such. I seriously doubt it, because wouldn't people who care about others not sleep on a mound of gold? But I appreciate your perspective, that we ought to give them the benefit of the doubt, just in case, to retain our own humanity.

Even so, in an age when most of humankind is suffering under the yoke of very few greedy dragons, it's difficult to feel sympathy for those we perceive as our oppressors.

[fifi-in-the-new-world]

Mm retro dragons.

this is a digital mock-up for a screenprint I'll probably post later.

[primedoverlord]

I can imagine the twins calling Hiccup “Chief No-fun” after a prank intervention once he’s become chief. 

[rrrawrf-writes]

modern dragons

KASMIRA

Kasmira is on the larger end of the lightweight scale of dragons. She is almost pure white, but for single scales here and there that are jet black. She gets very self-conscious when they are pointed out to her.

Kasmira has not bonded to a human, but she is very possessive and protective of the emergency medical team she works with in Phoenix, Arizona. They work as a medivac crew for the city, one of three dragons employed as such. Kasmira spends her work days flying over the city, her human crew with a radio and a police scanner waiting to be called to the scene of an emergency.

She is a common sight in the city, often landing directly on an overpass, rising head and shoulders above the cars backed up after an accident with red and white lights flashing from the traps on her back. Kasmira has a very special stretcher she can carry, used to ferry up to four injured people back to a hospital at once, along with her crew of five or six humans on her back. It’s packed up on her rear haunches when not in use, but folds out and slung from her shoulders and chest when needed; Kasmira uses her foreclaws to steady it during flight.

One time, while she was sleeping before a shift, her humans painted her with red stripes and AMBULANCE backwards. She was not amused, but had no time to clean it off. One girl they pulled from a mild T-bone wreck had a concussion and spent the entire trip to the hospital laughing her head off at the paint job.

reblog and add your own!

[primedoverlord]

4 years old tiny child. 

I get bizarre cravings to draw at night. 

[primedoverlord]

I just had a random thought that made me smile. 

“What if Snotlout came from a large family of all sisters?” 

So not only would his personality stem from his father treating him the way he does, but also because he feels emasculated and therefor takes his issues out on the nearest person. That being Fishlegs and Hiccup. Especially if his sisters are better at many things than him. 

Although my brain did a derp on me with this as I remember him having one or at least two older brothers. As Spitelout put pressure on Snotlout in the thawfest games stating that his older siblings won every match. 

Although I could still technically apply the same logic in this to his relationship with Helga as a form of sibling rivalry thing going on. I could technically see her besting him at everything, and she’s only a couple years younger than him. 

[primedoverlord]

Okay but Eli’s anxiety is exactly how I picture my bab Renee.