#<- is that even a tag?

[vivianquill]

Okay. so. basic breakdown of the dragonfrost au goes as such.

You have Tango, a young adult dragon (young in dragon years, not mortal years) who lives in the deepfrost citadel-- or more specifically, below it. his hoard is below the burning dark, in a room that takes puzzles to get to. (think the control room puzzle).

He likes people, but has that dragon lifespan and semi-alien morals due to being. well. a heckkin dragon. He's lawful good, and while he doesn't seek out 'bad' people to do vengeance, he will test and judge and 'play' with anyone he comes across. He believes that adventurers are primarily greedy and selfish and will do anything for their own gain. proven time and time again by people trying to steal his hoard. No one has succeeded. ever.

The he visits the village at the bottom of the mountain a lot, and sees it as part of his 'domain' and under his protection. Mostly cause the people there are nice to him and just people trying to live and be good people, yah know? They have the Tango stamp of approval. The people there know 'Tango' as a odd wanderer who is the only one to survive going up to the Citadel, for some reason. They know there's something up there, and while some people suspect it's a dragon, but other people think it's other things, and what do they gain by angering whatever it is? Tango knows more than he lets on, surely. He's gotta be like, a spokesperson for the dragon or something.

Anyway. Jimmy is a canary Avian, and the little scraplet i wrote is more of a prologue-ish bit. Jimmy has a slight magic that lets him sense immediate danger, but the troupe he adventures with always underestimated him and never trusted his danger-sense. He was traveling with them because his family ended up in debt to some powerful people. He was the one who took it upon himself to work off as much of the family debt as he could manage, and as such-- adventurer. He sorta acts like 'the party npc' a lil bit. Jimmy isn't really a fighter, and is instead more useful for his connections and survival knowledge.

Jimmy caught Tango's eye because of his golden feathers and his danger sense magic and his high perception and insight. he also, after getting to know Jimmy more, despite his mistrust, and ends up convinced that the rest of the troupe is standard adventurer fair-- not worth much more than food for his dungeon. But he let them get all the way to the hoard as a test for Jimmy, and Jimmy passed. Tango murdered all the rest of the troupe, and took Jimmy as part of his hoard.

Because of this, Jimmy is now 'warlock', and Tango is his patron. It took a long while for Jimmy to sorta-- get over the murder thing. but that's fine! Tango's dragon magic, when forged through a warlock-patron connection, lets him slow Jimmy's aging, as well as give him other magic powers too. It wouldn't do to lose the only good adventurer he's ever met, after all.

After Jimmy finally comes around to being Tango's-- something. Friend? Ward? Treasure? Something. Whatever it is. Jimmy takes on a similar role to Tango. They take care of the town, and the citadel, and if any adventurers come by, Jimmy takes on the guise of being their guide. He whistles to Tango each night, telling songs of how he's being treated. If they don't treat Jimmy right, they get to be dungeon food. If they keep Jimmy safe and listen to his instructions all the way through the dungeon to the hoard, and only take what they truly need of the treasure, for good reasons, they get the chance to leave alive. But they have to get out on their own. Most people never do. But some do.

It brings stories of glory and treasure, attracting more adventurers, more players for the game. More business for the village. Tango changes the games and puzzles, keeping it forever new and challenging, but he never collects any more warlocks. he offers it, to a select few he's deemed as good as Jimmy, but none of them take it. Yet. Most of them have family to get back to, people they need to save. (like Jimmy did, once.) (They're surely all dead by now.) (He's lived for so, so long. Tango is the only one who knows him anymore. (The least he can do is soften Tango's edges for everyone else.) (Jimmy might be a canary in a cage but he can sing to protect the miners, right?)

It's fine. The village is thriving, and the adventurers get a chance, at least.

[valkyrieandstrangeridingaragorn]

I continue to think Wanda should've left the Compound after this moment.

She immediately begins packing the moment she learns that Stank wants her confined. Vision tries to stop her from leaving, she puts him through the floor, and then leaves, and hides with Clint for a day or two. Wanda's words hit a chord with Vision, and make him realize "Yeah, it's wrong for me to be Wanda's jailer, and Mr. Stark is wrong about everything". Then he tracks her down, apologizes profusely to her, they reconcile, and Vision makes it up to her by helping Team Cap during the airport battle.

Frankly, I still don't understand how Vision would be on Stark's side in the first place. From a meta POV, sure, they needed both teams somewhat balanced and having Wanda and Vision in the same team would have rendered the others completely useless and the movie would have ended in 10 minutes, but in-universe?

He was quite clear in AoU that he understood the risks of holding too much power and how much damage and suffering that could cause so he joined the Avengers to stop Ultron, so what's the difference here? I'm assuming the Accords must have been uploaded somewhere, he should have been able to read through them in less than a minute and he would have seen them for the outrageous violation of civil rights that they are.

And yet in CW he's all about rules, strict guidelines and blaming the heroes for the shit the villains do? "Our very strength invites challenge. Challenge incites conflict", sure mate, that's how it works. You don't stop and let the UN take over because that only makes matters worse, he should be able to see that.

I prefer him switching sides because he realizes that they're wrong rather than changing his mind out of Wanda's plight though. I do agree however that Wanda should have been given more screen time here because the way they treated her was so weird... Stark is talking shit about that American guy dying in Sokovia as if Pietro hadn't died as well, she's illegally kept hostage in the compound and nobody asks why the hell does Stark have any kind of authority over that when he's retired at that point? They're talking of Wanda being dangerous and then handing her internment protection to the guy who had the entirety of Sokovia destroyed? Is that a joke? 😂😂🤦‍♀️

[no-fxn-club]

Enchanted Arms has 3 main characters

-himbo

-painfully gay dude

-cute nerd

[theredtours]

why yes I AM making boop gifs from screen recording

[butchfalin]

the funniest meltdown ive ever had was in college when i got so overstimulated that i could Not speak, including over text. one of my friends was trying to talk me through it but i was solely using emojis because they were easier than trying to come up with words so he started using primarily emojis as well just to make things feel balanced. this was not the Most effective strategy... until. he tried to ask me "you okay?" but the way he chose to do that was by sending "👉🏼👌🏼❓" and i was so shocked by suddenly being asked if i was dtf that i was like WHAT???? WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY TO ME?????????? and thus was verbal again

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

License to Kitty.

[zytes]

this manatee looks like it’s in a skyrim loading screen

[reblogforsamplesize]

🐛 caterpillar - the returning champion of the 2023 race at 41.6% of the votes

🐌 snail - runner up of the 2023 race at 38.3%, only 3.3% behind the caterpillar.

🪱 worm - placed last in 2023, with only 20.1% of votes

🪲 beetle, 🐞 ladybug, and 🐝 bee are new competitors!

[noelledeltarune]

EVERY SINGLE DAY there are MILLIONS of characters in their late 20s who get falsely accused of being father figures to teenagers when in reality the description of "weird older cousin" or "step-sibling that moved out before you were born" is 1000000x more apt

[drakenathan]

[lestatscock]

You wouldn’t last an hour in the asylum where they raised me

[wildbasil]

things haven't been great but i think they will be. eventually 🌻🌼🩷

[luckyladylily]

So a few months ago there was the discourse about would you rather meet a man or a bear in the woods. I didn't want to touch it while the discourse was hot and everyone dug in hard because those are not good conditions for nuance, but I waited until today, June 1st, for a specific reason.

I'm not going to take a position in the bear vs man debate because I don't think it matters. What is really being asked here is how afraid are you of men? Specifically, unexpected men who are, perhaps, strange.

People have a lot of very real fear of men that comes from a lot of very real places. Back when I was first transitioning in 2015 and 2016, I decided to start presenting as a woman in public even though I did not pass in the slightest.

I live in a red state. I knew other trans women who had been attacked by men, raped by men. I knew I was taking a risk by putting myself out there. I was the only visibly trans person in the area of campus I frequented, and people made sure I never forgot that. Most were harmless enough and the worst I got from them was curious stares. Others were more aggressive, even the occasional threat. I had to avoid public bathrooms, of course, and always be aware of my surroundings.

I know how frightening it is to be alone at night while a pair of men are following behind you and not knowing if they are just going in the same direction or if they want to start something - made all the worse for the constant low level threat I had been living under for over a year by just being visibly trans in a place where many are openly hostile to queer people. You have to remember, this was at the height of the first wave of bathroom law discussions, a lot of people were very angry about trans women in particular. My daily life was terrifying at times. I was never the subject of direct violence, but I knew trans women who had been.

I want you to keep all that in mind.

So man or bear is really the question "how afraid of men are you?", and the question that logically follows is "What if there was a strange man at night in a deserted parking lot?" or "What if you were alone in an elevator with a man?" or "What if you met a strange man in the woman's bathroom?"

My state recently passed an anti trans bathroom bill. The rhetoric they used was about protecting women and children from "strange men", aka trans women.

Conservatives hijack fear for their bigoted agenda.

When I first started presenting as a woman the campus apartment complex was designed for young families. The buildings were in a large square with playgrounds in the center, and there were often children playing. I quickly noticed that when I took my daughter out to play, often several children would immediately stop what they were doing and run back inside. It didn't take me long to confirm that the parents were so afraid of "the strange man who wears skirts" that their children were under strict instructions to literally run away as soon as they saw me.

"How afraid are you of a strange man being near your children?"

I mentioned above that I had to avoid public bathrooms. This was not because of men. It was because of women who were so afraid of random men that they might get violent or call someone like the police to be violent for them if I ever accidentally presented myself in a way that could be interpreted as threatening, when my mere presence could be seen as a threat. If I was in the library studying and I realized that it was just me and one other woman I would get up and leave because she might decide that stranger danger was happening.

Your fear is real. Your fear might even come from lived experiences. None of that prevents the fact that your fear can be violent. Women's fear of men is one of the driving forces of transmisogyny because it is so easy to hijack. And it isn't just trans women. Other trans people experience this, and other queer people too. Racial minorities, homeless people, neurodivergent people, disabled people.

When you uncritically engage with questions like man or bear, when you uncritically validate a culture of reactive fear, you are paving the way for conservatives and bigots to push their agenda. And that is why I waited until pride month. You cannot engage and contribute to the culture of reactive fear without contributing to queerphobia of all varieties. The sensationalist culture of reactive fear is a serious queer issue, and everyone just forgot that for a week as they argued over man or bear. I'm not saying that "man" is the right answer. I am saying that uncritically engaging with such obvious click bait trading on reactive fear is a problem. Everyone fucked up.

It is not a moral failing to experience fear, but it is a moral responsibility to keep a handle on that fear and know how it might harm others.

[staruie]

where my fellow monster fuckers at 👅👅👅👅👅👅

[goldensunset]

a real blorbo is someone you can both write a lengthy and serious/sad analysis on yet also constantly and i mean constantly make stupid jokes about

[throesofincreasingwonder]

"A story doesn't need a theme in order to be good" I'm only saying this once but a theme isn't some secret coded message an author weaves into a piece so that your English teacher can talk about Death or Family. A theme is a summary of an idea in the work. If the story is "Susan went grocery shopping and saw a weird bird" then it might have themes like 'birds don't belong in grocery stores' or 'nature is interesting and worth paying attention to' or 'small things can be worth hearing about.' Those could be the themes of the work. It doesn't matter if the author intended them or not, because reading is collaborative and the text gets its meaning from the reader (this is what "death of the author" means).

Every work has themes in it, and not just the ones your teachers made you read in high school. Stories that are bad or clearly not intended to have deep messages still have themes. It is inherent in being a story. All stories have themes, even if those themes are shallow, because stories are sentences connected together for the purpose of expressing ideas, and ideas are all that themes are.