A fiction blog for a fandom-unspecific dragon OC, currently resident in the Journey (PS3 game) universe
(( The Mod says: I'm open to asks/submissions, anon or otherwise, though I'm a writer rather than a graphic artist so you won't get any pretty pictures in response. Spontaneous RP starters are more problematic, and not too likely to be answered; see the "Why I'm Hesitant to RP" page below for more info. Also, I reserve the right to ignore obvious trolls, pointless bits of random weirdness, and/or anything written entirely in chat-speak. ))
:> Friend Thunder! It been so long! So many adventure! In interim, I think I forget how big you be! You like Ancestor! Thank you for greeting and gentle head-pat! I no think I could survive not-gentle head-pat!<:
Thunder gives a little rumble of laughter. "I am always careful with Wayfarers, friend Best. They are indeed rather fragile, compared to me, and I should not like to injure a friend." Then, after a moment's pause, she adds, "Do you still live in that enormous library?"
(( And from me, the mod: You actually were the first artist to draw Thunder at all, but you're right, it wasn't in this particular style. Thunder and Best never actually interacted much IC back in the day, if I'm recalling correctly. ))
(( So, bit of backplot to start: Years ago, a longtime friend gave me this ILLEGALLY adorable ornament for Christmas, see pics below for what I mean:
I absolutely fell in love with this little guy as soon as I saw him (I mean, how could you NOT?) and asked my friend where on Earth sheād found such a perfect gift. And when the answer was āEtsy,ā I immediately asked if sheād send me a link to the sellerās shop.
Thus began an enduring love affair with pretty much everything made by Claymore Sculptures; Iāve since acquired many more tiny, adorable dragons from the same galās shop, both for myself and to give as gifts. (The owner also has her own independent site where she sells figurines and other merch, Lurking Quirk.) Many items are VERY ālimited editionā types of things, though, where she only makes a small number of a particular piece, and if youāre not in the right place at the right time to catch one before they sell out, youāre just out of luck. There had been such a point when I saw in my Etsy notifications that she had added some figurines of teeny dragons perched on books that I would have loved to get my hands on, but theyād gone fast and no more were available by the time I went to look, alas.
So, when I spotted these vinyl stickers in her shop a week or so ago, it was very much a case of, āShut up and take my money!ā LOL
I mean, come on--a red and gold dragon with a book? Of COURSE I had to have one (though given the relative scale, thatās either a very tiny version of Thunder, or a very large book!). Still, it was awfully cute and pretty much perfect, and I thought seeing it might give the handful of folks who still follow this blog as much of a smile as it did me. ))
(( Well, what a lovely surprise! I received this drawing as a gift from @mikaiink, who I met via our mutual friend @askthescarfedsilhouette, and it was such a nice piece that I asked if I could post it here, with proper credit given to her as the artist, of course.
She also has an Instagram where you can check out more of her work, BTW! ))
((Edited to add proper links to Mikaiink and Scarfyās Tumblr blogs--I thought just tagging them above would do that, but I guess not. ))
[ID: Digital illustration of a red dragon surrounded by their colorful hoard of books. A worn, blue scarf wraps around their neck, and a pair of gold glasses sits on their snout, held in place by a gold chain. The dragonās lair resembles a huge, airy library with multiple levels of bookcases, tall mountains of books, and floor-to-ceiling windows revealing open sky. Decorative gold chains drape across the space. The dragon smiles as it holds a small book in its mouth, stretching to offer it to a distant human standing atop a book tower. End ID.]
I love your mouse character! From colour to design, I love it all Xx āļøš§”
QwQ ah did you comment because of my vent post?
Well... Honestly thank you so much. I was feeling a tad bit sad about getting theĀ āEw furry art, disgusting!ā comment on a chat app instantly.Ā
Iāve been having trouble drawing (Getting harassed by my own bad memories playing over and over in my mind, general depressed thoughts, having the sense of doom while drawing). The mouse art was one of the first arts Iāve actually enjoyed drawing AND coloring for a long time. (As youāve noticed that all my current arts are either lineart only, or base-colored).
(( Hey, sweetie--I just wanted to pop on and send some love to both you and your art as well, because both are truly beautiful. <3 I always see and admire the stuff you post here, just to note, even though I don't "officially" follow this blog. (Well, ok--I admit I do usually skip over the gorier stuff, just because it's not my thing, but that's a personal preference and not a general value judgment.) I don't often comment because, one, I'm pretty busy with my own doings most of the time, and two, much of what you post these days relates to games I've never played or fandoms I'm not familiar with, so I tend to figure that the kind of generic appreciation I could offer is probably secondary to praise from people who actually know the characters and get all the references, etc. Plus you already know that words are my artistic medium of choice, and I really don't know very much about the finer details of all the work that goes into visual art. So it's hard for me to make what I'd call intelligent comments on technical aspects like shading and so forth, but I will say this particular piece was definitely up to what I've come to think of as your "usual standards." That is, all aspects of it are executed with what seems to me an impressive amount of skill and sensitivity, and it's obviously something you felt strongly enough about to go to the effort of creating and sharing, and I totally honor and respect that.
And, since I'm here, I'm just going to toss something else out for consideration as well, but itās kind of long so Iām going to put the rest under a read more tag.
One of my favorite intuitive development teacher's most often-repeated maxims is that when something triggers you, it's an opportunity to love yourself more. Or to put it another way, it's not about reflexively yelling "Ew, gross!" and making the outside stimulus bad, wrong, and altogether to blame for your own reaction. It's about taking a moment to stop, turn your focus inward, and admit, "Wow, that really touched on something--what's going on within me that makes me feel so strongly about this?" There could be any number of reasons; perhaps there's old pain or unacknowledged emotions which need to be felt so they can finally be processed and released. Or maybe there's some kind of shadow material which is ready to be brought back into conscious awareness so you can accept and re-integrate it. Or there could even be an inner belief which at one time was helpful or protective in some way, but now is in need of some honest examination and revision, lest it keep you stuck in a pattern you've outgrown. I could go on more in this vein, but I think you probably get the idea.
Now, am I making a judgment about the person who failed to do this, and actually DID yell, "Ew, gross!" and etc.? No, actually not. Taking responsibility for one's emotions is a learned skill, not an inborn trait, and if no one ever taught or modeled the process for you, well, of course you're going to go right on blaming the stimulus, rather than stopping to look at what needs tending and compassion within yourself. That's just where some folks are at in their journey and their development, and making THEM bad or wrong really isn't helpful, either. As evolving souls, we've all been where they are at some point or other, and had to learn all the same lessons (often the hard way!). Yet no matter how many mistakes we've made along the way, we're all still beautiful, complex, multi-faceted and multi-dimensional beings, an infinitely varied expression of a force and a presence much bigger and more amazing than human understanding can truly encompass just yet. The catch is that different people are in different stages of realizing this particular (important!) truth, and thus sometimes their perspective aligns with yours and sometimes it just doesn't, and itās really no oneās fault.
Whether someone reacts well or badly to a given piece of art, then, is not about the artist's worth as an individual, nor really even an indicator of anything about the art itself. It's a function of something going on internal to the person having the reaction--and I guess I just felt like it was worth pointing out that you as the artist have no control over that. And no obligation to take responsibility for it, either, even if that person still happens to be at the stage of tossing their emotions around in not-terribly-constructive ways. You see, sooner or later they're going to have to figure out how to deal with their own "stuff," and that process won't proceed any faster or with any less struggle and upset if you treat their opinions as somehow more true or valid than your own. Now, I'm not advocating that you get into confrontations with people like that, of course, and end up trying to shout one another down over who's right and who's wrong or something like that; again, truth is always relative to your own perspective, and sometimes yours is just incompatible with someone else's. My point is that in the long view, it really doesn't serve anyone for you to internalize someone else's opinions and/or criticism to the point where you can't take personal joy in your own creative process any more. We all have lessons to learn and spiritual/emotional baggage to sort out during our lives here on planet Earth, but you can't heal what you don't realize is even an issue in the first place--and for better or for worse, sometimes the shortest route to awareness of our own wounding is to have it reflected back to us through another person's behavior, or something in the material world we can't ignore, over and over and over again if necessary.
As I said above, then, people project their own negative emotions and critical beliefs into the world (and onto others) because they themselves don't know what else to do with those emotions and beliefs. But as much compassion as I have for folks in that position, I also know that no one else can do their work for them. Ultimately, growth and healing are very personal tasks; no matter how hard you try to push something uncomfortable away, in the end the energy is still yours and you are the only one who can choose to heal and transform it into something better. You may get help and support from others along the way, of course, but you are the one who has to show up for and direct the process; anything else is really just a delaying tactic. And when you allow someone else's judgments to make you doubt your own abilities, or feel as if you have to give their truths priority over yours, you're effectively trying to shoulder a burden that was never meant for you to bear. If that other person says hurtful things, it's because they're hurting inside themselves, sometimes so deep down they don't even realize that theyāre in pain--but regardless, trying to take that pain on and process it for them within yourself doesn't work. I mean, believe me, I understand the impulse; it was my own modus operandi throughout all but the last 18-ish months of my 40-some years on this planet. But I've finally come to understand that itās an approach which really doesn't help anyone concerned. All it does is exhaust you to no good purpose, and enable the other party to remain out of touch with their own inner wounds, which in the long run just prolongs and increases THEIR suffering as well.
I don't know how much sense that will make; goodness knows parts of it were foreign and pretty incomprehensible ideas to me when I first encountered them. But I promise you, just because someone tries to hand you something on an energetic level doesn't mean you have to accept and/or hold onto it, and outside judgments really do only have as much power as you yourself choose to give them. You have every bit as much right as anyone else to express your truths in whatever way speaks to your heart and makes you happiest, and make no mistake, your ability to create art out of your own inner essence is an awesome, amazing power. And one you have for a reason--remember the song which plays over the ending credits of Journey, "I Was Born For This"? That's true of you as well, and of all of us, really. Who you truly are inside is who you've been meant to be from the beginning, no matter what anyone else has ever wanted or told or taught you, and staying true to yourself is an act of great love and service to the entire world--even if there are always going to be people who aren't (yet) able to acknowledge the fact.
So, I don't know whether that will help or not, but I do hope it at least gives you something to think on, and perhaps a fresh perspective to try on and see if it suits. Take good care of yourself, hun, and I send hugs, peace, and blessings of all kinds your way. <3 ))
If I could have your attention for one minute I want to talk about an upcoming game Iām REALLY excited about
Itās called Draconia and itās an open-world survival sandbox RPG game where you play as a dragon.
If youāre like me you probably love video games and such that feature dragons BUT get frustrated that often the focus is on slaying dragons, or on human political intrigue, or some other non-dragon nonsense.Ā Have no fear.Ā Draconia is going to give us everything we crave.
It looks SUPER prettyĀ
Choose one of several dragons, hunt to feed yourself, find water sources to drink from and develop your character through various tasks and events.
Draconia features:Ā
Character Customization: Give your character a custom name, change its pattern, colors and body parts, such as horns or tail tips or choose from pre-made textures.
Character Leveling: Complete tasks, quests and events to level your character and make it stronger. Spend talent points to increase your dragonās traits.ā
Optional PvP: Play on servers without being afraid of being attacked by other players. Simply disable PvP in your character profile and enable it if you want to have a battle with someone else.Ā
Group and Clan System: Go on your journey and bring your friends with you by inviting them to your group or creating your own clan, which allows you to announce events and keep track of your members progress.Ā
Create useful items: Ā Build a hoard to hide all your treasures in, create objects which improve your dragons stats or add temporary buffs.
Nesting: Build and defend a nest and raise your own dragon hatchling.
Questing: Find and complete several one-time and repeatable quests.
āInteractive Environment: Ā Interact with several objects in your environment to gain useful buffs or uncover more parts of the story.
Dragon Dens: Earn yourself a place you can call home. Unlock and upgrade your own den to live a more comfortable dragon life.
It will have a single-player offline mode and an online mode where you can interact with others, either with or without PVP.
Your character is customizeable and if they meet their stretch goals, new players could even start out as hatchlings.Ā If you pledge enough money on their crowdfunding campaign, you can get custom decorations, items, even another species!
You will be able to play as many different species, 6 species of dragon and various smaller wildlife.Ā Another stretch goal is to build a humanoid species that has mechanics for farming and dragon breeding and riding.
Draconia is currently trying to fund its project through Indiegogo. (Link)Ā Ā They are not offering exclusive content as a play-to-win system and nothing will be behind a paywall.
This game looks extremely beautiful, well thought out, and fun to play.Ā The creators clearly care a lot about this and have put their heart and souls into it.Ā I want to see this happen.Ā It will be released on Steam.Ā If this seems like something you would like to play or exist, please consider contributing to their Indiegogo or Patreon, or reblogging this to get the word out!Ā Thanks :)
IVE LITERALLY WANTED A GAME LIKE THIS MY ENTIRE,LIFE ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME. ISTARIA IS LIKE THE ONLY OTHER GAME THAT HAS PLAYABLE DRAGONS BUT THEY WERE BEHIND A PAYWALL
PLEASE support this game, they have great devs that have shown a lot of promise.
On a similar note do NOT support a similar-looking game scam called Day of Dragons, which notoriously got over $500,000 from a fundraiser (that Draconia deserves instead) and has some of the shittiest, scammiest dev practices Iāve ever seen
