Weaponized Cupcake

Crow / 31 / WARNING! contains nsfw and untagged spoilers / Twitter may or may not be burning to the ground so i'm back just in case

[screenshotsofdespair]

[writemeasandwich]

[krakenartificer]

Image Description: A screenshot from a software program's error message that reads "Can't delete, tool has children" with an OK button at the bottom.

(Second image description in alt)

[notatzimisce]

I will never shy away from the word goon. goon is the only way to describe a particular type of henchman, lackey, or thug. look at these guys. they're goons.

[randomencounters]

Encounter: skategoons

[usernamedgaia]

I was working for big corpo when I got my brain injury. A lot of things changed but what I didn’t think about was how it would affect my art. Fortunately my drawing ability didn’t suffer too much, but my ability to write was damaged to a degree that it took me about 15 minutes to write this sentence.

Writing used to come so easily for me, but I was determined to make the project I had been working on a reality, despite the brain trauma. So I wrote what I could, slowly. Very slowly.

Eventually I had enough written for a few pages. I have difficulty parsing information, and I can’t really tell if what I’m writing makes any sense unless I receive confirmation from an outside source. So I went online to get feedback. I got back one of the best comments I’ve ever read.

”I know a brain injury is a very frustrating thing--needing to relearn a skill you had before and being forced to do it in a new way is incredibly difficult and sometimes scary. But I think working on this sort of thing will help that process a lot. Even if your new writing has a slightly different voice or a different feel than your old writing, you can develop that voice and make it into something just as effective.”

There was more to the comment, but this section in particular was something I needed to hear at the time. It gave me the hope that I could continue, and possibly recover a little of what I lost. And even if I can’t, I can still use what I have to make the things, despite knowing they’re different than how things used to be.

With that said, here are the story boards for the opening of AETU

[miss-americanbi]

grace you gotta lock in

[skelettflickan]

Okay, I took a quick scroll through my doc to check dragon sizes/lengths and here's a quick few notes from the books: Yellow Reapers are normally 50 feet long, with an 80 foot wingspan. Temeraire is noted to be 20 feet shorter than Maximus, who as a Regal Copper is at most 120 feet long, but also that's mentioned in the second book and I'm pretty sure Temeraire is noted to have grown longer after? As of the second book he is also 30 feet high, but I'm not sure how that's measured. In the fifth book he is also mentioned to have eyes half a foot across, and his (serrated) teeth are the size of a man's hand at smallest. I would link the Google Doc as future reference but I've been intending to update it for years because I definitely missed some notes on my last reread.

oh thank you!! i'll try to use the measurements to see what that'd look like. and if you ever finish up that doc i'd love to see it!

[mist-the-wannabe-linguist]

if it might help, after a quick search a yellow reaper would be roughly equal in size to a Boeing 80 (56ft length and 80ft wingspan)

A regal copper is close to a Boeing 737 Classic (102-120ft length, weight 32-35 tons)

(note the door size)

[skelettflickan]

oh, we are fully aware of how unrealistic the weights are. dragon biology is very clearly not novik's strength. this fandom is full of nerds, we know. i was just trying to figure out their sizes so i would know how to draw them. i am also a bit of a paleontology nerd, so i do know about the biggest pterosaurs and that they weighed waaaaayyy less. we weren't even talking about the weight, but the length in this post.

i hope you didn't mean to come off as rude/annoying, because this comes off as if you think we don't know anything about the subject. i'm a know-it-all in recovery myself, and now it's time for me to be a bit of an annoying know-it-all;

it would have been more appropriate to make your own post to complain about the dragon weights, and we would probably have complained with you. it's fandom etiquette to not be negative on other people's posts

[weaponizedcupcake]

I know it's not the point, but honesty the easiest Watsonian explanation for me is that the characters in the novel are simply vastly overestimating their dragons weight. Weighing something that big is very difficult and the infrastructure to build a scale that big very expensive. So it's likely that the weight was calculated based on measurements and data from smaller creatures and guesswork initialy, and over time this "weight" became common knowledge passed down as the truth. Something that big being very heavy also feels right and intuitive to people - even if it's wrong - so most people wouldn't question it. That also makes it less likely for updated more accurate models to catch on - it just feels wrong.

Add in the fact that dragons are highly politically important and a source of national pride and there is probably litte actual desire to admit that your dragons are a lot smaller that previously expected. And in the end it doesn't really matter that much to most people working with dragons anyway, everything has already been calculated and built with the inflated weight in mind and based on experience everyone knows what a "6 ton" vs a "30 ton" dragon looks like so why change it. Later on when the real weight is conclusively found it probably only causes the weight to split into something like "Actual Dragon weight" and "Dragon Ton class" or something.

[skelettflickan]

yeah, i've been thinking along the same lines! it's funny way to explain the problem.

i'm not sure how, or if, they weighed things that big back in the day. i guess water displacement would be a possible way? if you have a big pool with a known amount of water.

[skelettflickan]

Okay, I took a quick scroll through my doc to check dragon sizes/lengths and here's a quick few notes from the books: Yellow Reapers are normally 50 feet long, with an 80 foot wingspan. Temeraire is noted to be 20 feet shorter than Maximus, who as a Regal Copper is at most 120 feet long, but also that's mentioned in the second book and I'm pretty sure Temeraire is noted to have grown longer after? As of the second book he is also 30 feet high, but I'm not sure how that's measured. In the fifth book he is also mentioned to have eyes half a foot across, and his (serrated) teeth are the size of a man's hand at smallest. I would link the Google Doc as future reference but I've been intending to update it for years because I definitely missed some notes on my last reread.

oh thank you!! i'll try to use the measurements to see what that'd look like. and if you ever finish up that doc i'd love to see it!

[mist-the-wannabe-linguist]

if it might help, after a quick search a yellow reaper would be roughly equal in size to a Boeing 80 (56ft length and 80ft wingspan)

A regal copper is close to a Boeing 737 Classic (102-120ft length, weight 32-35 tons)

(note the door size)

[skelettflickan]

oh, we are fully aware of how unrealistic the weights are. dragon biology is very clearly not novik's strength. this fandom is full of nerds, we know. i was just trying to figure out their sizes so i would know how to draw them. i am also a bit of a paleontology nerd, so i do know about the biggest pterosaurs and that they weighed waaaaayyy less. we weren't even talking about the weight, but the length in this post.

i hope you didn't mean to come off as rude/annoying, because this comes off as if you think we don't know anything about the subject. i'm a know-it-all in recovery myself, and now it's time for me to be a bit of an annoying know-it-all;

it would have been more appropriate to make your own post to complain about the dragon weights, and we would probably have complained with you. it's fandom etiquette to not be negative on other people's posts

[weaponizedcupcake]

I know it's not the point, but honesty the easiest Watsonian explanation for me is that the characters in the novel are simply vastly overestimating their dragons weight. Weighing something that big is very difficult and the infrastructure to build a scale that big very expensive. So it's likely that the weight was calculated based on measurements and data from smaller creatures and guesswork initialy, and over time this "weight" became common knowledge passed down as the truth. Something that big being very heavy also feels right and intuitive to people - even if it's wrong - so most people wouldn't question it. That also makes it less likely for updated more accurate models to catch on - it just feels wrong.

Add in the fact that dragons are highly politically important and a source of national pride and there is probably litte actual desire to admit that your dragons are a lot smaller that previously expected. And in the end it doesn't really matter that much to most people working with dragons anyway, everything has already been calculated and built with the inflated weight in mind and based on experience everyone knows what a "6 ton" vs a "30 ton" dragon looks like so why change it. Later on when the real weight is conclusively found it probably only causes the weight to split into something like "Actual Dragon weight" and "Dragon Ton class" or something.

[yuumei-art]

First of my glass animal mask series! This was so fun to paint, what other animals should I try? So far I'm thinking owl and deer for a woodland theme🦊🦉🦌

This painting and more have just been added as a print to my webshop :)

[smallestreeee]

It's been a while since I got to draw a good dragon 🤭

[monstermonger]

All day the stars watch from long ago my mother said I am going now when you are alone you will be all right whether or not you know you will know

look at the old house in the dawn rain all the flowers are forms of water the sun reminds them through a white cloud touches the patchwork spread on the hill the washed colors of the afterlife that lived there long before you were born see how they wake without a question even though the whole world is burning

Rain Light - WS Merwin

[print]

[dogposts]

if you touch my feet i will do it..

[rockets]

________

You will be remembered as a hero. ________

For those wondering about the fox. Grace has a subtle motif with this animal throughout the movie, but especially this shot where they pack this toy fox with his belongings on the Hail Mary. The pose of it looked a little haunting to me, thus prompting this illustration. __________ (Small/large prints are also available on my etsy ❤️)

[sentennial]

sometimes the only thing standing between humanity and the apocalypse is an unethical girlboss and her woke dog

individual shitposts under the cut (i just liked how this canvas turned out all together lol) ->

really proud of grace’s second expression here. that’s all. it was a pain in my cojones but i think i got it

do russians wear cargo shorts? lmk. it felt right to me that dmitri would wear cargo shorts but im open to discourse on the subject.

[clottedscream]

fairness and equal treatment for catboys

[clottedscream]

the squeakuel

[foldingfittedsheets]

May I present: Leda and the Swan Princess! It's based on this post about a swan princess who refuses to go quietly in obscurity when cursed. (If you liked this one you will probably also like my other comics which you can find on my pinned post).

If you enjoyed and want to support a queer art student, you can tip me over on my Ko-fi! Tips help me out dramatically while I'm still in school!

Find this and my other comics on Tapas, Once Upon a Meet Cute!

[plumslices]

If we don’t microdose delusion we won’t make it through this reality babe….

[leebrontide]

So I remember reading about this study in grad school where they have a bunch of clinically depressed people and a bunch of non-clinically-depressed people a game that was partially chance and partially skill, and asked them to estimate how much control they had over the outcome.

The depressed people were far more accurate in estimating how much influence their actions had on the outcome of the game compared to their nondepressed counterparts, who consistently overestimated the effects of their own choices on their chances of winning.

Then I remember this other study (CW animal testing) where they put rats in a bucket of water that they couldn’t get out of, so they’d have to swim. There was a fairly consistent point at which the swimming rat would falter, and stop swimming, fated to drown.

Except that that’s when the researchers would pull the rat out of the bucket, give it a nice rest warmth and a meal.

When those SAME rats who had been rescued before were put in the same situation again, they swam much LONGER than they had before.

Why? The risk was the same either way- drowning. You’d have thought that the fear of drowning would keep them swimming to their maximum length no matter what.

The researchers conclusion was that the rescued rats had something they hadn’t had the first time- they had more hope. A miraculous rescue could come, and that let them swim for longer, just in case.

I think we do microdose delusion because sometimes that little overestimation of our chances, of our luck, keeps us swimming that little bit longer, just in case something good happens. And sometimes, that little margin really does make the difference. 

[vanwolffen]

“All right," said Susan. "I'm not stupid. You're saying humans need... fantasies to make life bearable."

REALLY? AS IF IT WAS SOME KIND OF PINK PILL? NO. HUMANS NEED FANTASY TO BE HUMAN. TO BE THE PLACE WHERE THE FALLING ANGEL MEETS THE RISING APE.

"Tooth fairies? Hogfathers? Little—"

YES. AS PRACTICE. YOU HAVE TO START OUT LEARNING TO BELIEVE THE LITTLE LIES.

"So we can believe the big ones?"

YES. JUSTICE. MERCY. DUTY. THAT SORT OF THING.

"They're not the same at all!"

YOU THINK SO? THEN TAKE THE UNIVERSE AND GRIND IT DOWN TO THE FINEST POWDER AND SIEVE IT THROUGH THE FINEST SIEVE AND THEN SHOW ME ONE ATOM OF JUSTICE, ONE MOLECULE OF MERCY. AND YET—Death waved a hand. AND YET YOU ACT AS IF THERE IS SOME IDEAL ORDER IN THE WORLD, AS IF THERE IS SOME...SOME RIGHTNESS IN THE UNIVERSE BY WHICH IT MAY BE JUDGED.

"Yes, but people have got to believe that, or what's the point—"

MY POINT EXACTLY.”

-Terry Pratchett, Hogfather.

[syn0vial]

hey, don't just leave the quote there! the last line is what MAKES it!

"YOU NEED TO BELIEVE IN THINGS THAT AREN’T TRUE.  HOW ELSE CAN THEY BECOME?"

[howling-wizard2]

carnivore on carnivore ccomfort

[cry-ptidd]

In Hellsing we have the opposite of this (they're all already bisexual)