#it's the living with him y'know?

[rowenabean]

On the one hand, opportunity to play D&D in a casual fashion (series of connected one shots so you can just come once or bring the same character back several times, at the local board game shop). On the other hand, person who told me about this is my former flatmate who I just don't really like that much

[somegrumpynerd]

I like the idea that Cross realised Killer was touchstarved (he didn't have the words for it but he noticed how much Killer would settle down from it) and started giving him very small basic affection. Pat on the back, hand on the shoulder, maybe a quick friendly hug, all things he probably learned through royal guard training and thinks of as normal friend/coworker stuff.

But as they both got more comfortable in the routine of it, Killer started instigating touches and he was not shy about it (like not just leaning into Cross's side during movie night, he looks like he's trying to get into Cross's jacket with him)

And that this more intense affection made Cross realise he might also be just a little bit touchstarved

Bonus:

[uncanny-tranny]

Death to the trope of rewarding disabled characters with an abled body. Death to the trope that a disabled body is a punishment, a sight, something to shame and be ashamed of.

[where-the-water-flows]

like on the one hand, obviously di feisheng wouldn't have been at all surprised when the first (second third however many were sent after him to their deaths) di assassin came for him, because he's im/ex-plicitly doing what he's doing (best at sword/founding the alliance etc) to keep himself safe from di fortress, and you don't do that unless there's, y'know, something to keep yourself safe from.

on the other hand. killing other di fortress kids clearly fucked him up! it was not something he wanted to do or enjoyed doing, it was something he was grimly doing because it was that or die, and also under threat of the mind control bug/ringing bell torture. even when he has amnesia, his nightmares feature him begging to know why they have to kill each other.

literally as soon as he physically can, he goes back to di fortress to free the other orphans, and when he's storming the gates, he very clearly uses nonlethal tactics on everyone between him and master Di. He bowls those kids standing guard over, but they show up at the end at the back of the crowd getting freed like everyone else, not really looking that worse for wear considering the second most powerful man in the jianghu just rolled through them.

so. how fucked up you think he was when he had to fight - and presumably kill - another di fortress orphan, after he'd escaped. after he thought he was free of it, after he thought that he was out?

the later ones, sure, it's awful but at that point it's sort of a numb horror of 'never quite free'; the first one, though, after however long of not having to do that, after maybe even convincing himself that he can just bide his time and get strong enough and no one will ever make him do that again, that between his skill and his (in)famous identity and maybe even the fucking alliance he's formed he's almost safe, that he's as free from the fortress as he can possibly be with the bug still in him....

and then he finds himself locked in combat, again, with another kid who knows the feeling of ringing in his bones and who knows that the only way this fight ends is with one of them dead at master Di's command.

(bonus round: how grimly grateful was he to be able to free the ones sent after him, even if it was through death - he at least could make it fast, make it...clean, ish, for a death in combat.

make it almost kind.

how long has he spent his life with that as the shitty back up/consolation plan - if he can't find a way to deal with the bug in him somehow, the knowledge that at least maybe he can get a few of them out from under the control of the fortress, even if it's just via the edge of his dao)

[gingermintpepper]

As usual I read your tags always and so you said Apollo did not ask for resurrection of Asclepius and Hyacinthus so i just wanted to share this. About Asclepius death I read it on theoi.com, that earlier authors don't make him resurrect as a god but that's a later development mentioned only by Roman authors like Cicero, Hyginus and Ovid. But still Apollo has a role in Ovid's version

Ovid, Fasti 6. 735 ff (trans.Boyle) (Roman poetry C1st B.C. to C1st A.D.) : Clymenus [Haides] and Clotho resent the threads of life respun and death's royal rights diminished. Jove [Zeus] feared the precedent and aimed his thunderbolt at the man who employed excessive art. Phoebus [Apollon], you whined. He is a god; smile at your father, who, for your sake, undoes his prohibitions [i.e. when he obtains immortality for Asklepios].

So here it is actually because of Apollo the decision was taken to resurrect him as god. And with Hyacinthus, I don't think I've read about Artemis playing the primary role. I know in Sparta there was a picture of Artemis, Athena and Aphrodite carrying Hyacinthus and his sister to heaven.

This is not on theoi.com but I saw on Tumblr it's from Dionysiaca by Nonnus

Second, my lord Oiagros wove a winding lay, as the father of Orpheus who has the Muse his boon companion. Only a couple of verses he sang, a ditty of Phoibos, clearspoken in few words after some Amyclaian style: Apollo brought to life again his longhaired Hyacinthos: Staphylos will be made to live for aye by Dionysos.

So since he is singing inspired by amyclean stories it probably means in that place it was believed Apollo was the one to bring back his lover to life.

Apollo as god of order was very important so i think it shows how special these people (and admetus too) were to him that he decided to go against the order for them 🥺

ANON!! Shakes you like a bottle of ramune!! BELOVED ANON!!!!! I'm littering your face with kisses, I'm anointing you with olive oil and honey - you absolutely made my night with this because, not only did I get the pure serotonin shot of having someone interact with my tags (yippee, wahoo!!) I also got to have that wonderful feeling of "oh wow, have I misunderstood something that was integral to my understanding of this myth/figure this whole time or is this a case of interpretational differences?" which is imo vital for my aims and interests as someone who enjoys mythological content and literature.

I'll preface my response with this: Hyacinthus is by far the hardest of these to get accounts for because his revival itself, as you very astutely point out, is generally accounted for in painting/ritual format which muddies the waters on who interceded for what. I wasn't actually familiar with that passage from the Argonautica - and certainly didn't remember it so thank you very much for bringing it to my attention!

That said, what I've come to understand, both about Hyacinthus and about Asclepius is that in the accounts of their deaths, Apollo's position is startlingly clear.

For Hyacinthus, it is established time and again that Apollo would have sacrificed everything for him - his status, his power, his very own immortality and divinity. Ovid writes that Apollo would have installed him as a god if only he had the time:

(Ovid. Metamorphoses. Book X. trans. Johnston)

Many other writers too speak of how Apollo abandoned his lyre and his seat at Delphi to spend his days with Hyacinthus, but they also all agree that when it came to his death - he was powerless. Ovid gives that graphic account of Apollo's desperation as he tries all his healing arts to save him to no avail:

(Ovid, Metamorphoses Book X. Apollo me boy, methinks him dead. trans Johnston)

Bion, in one of his fragments, writes that Apollo was "dumb" upon seeing Hyacinthus' agony:

(Bion, The Bucolic Poets. Fragment XI. trans Edmonds)

Even Nonnus in the Dionysiaca speaks constantly of Apollo's helplessness in the face of Hyacinthus' fate where he writes that the god still shivers if a westward wind blows upon an iris:

and when Zephyros breathed through the flowery garden, Apollo turned a quick eye upon his young darling, his yearning never satisfied; if he saw the plant beaten by the breezes, he remembered the quoit, and trembled for fear the wind, so jealous once about the boy, might hate him even in a leaf...

(Nonnus, Dionysiaca, Book 3. trans Rouse)

And the point here is just that - Apollo, at least as far as I've read, cannot avert someone's death. He simply can't. Once they're already dead - once Fate has cut their string - all Apollo's power is gone and he can do nothing no matter how much he wants to. And this is, as far as I know, supported with the accounts of Asclepius as well!

Since you specifically brought up Ovid's account, I'll also stick only to Ovid's account but in Metamorphoses when we get Ovid's version of Coronis' demise, he writes that Apollo intensely and immediately regrets slaughtering Coronis. He regrets it so intensely that he, like he does with Hyacinthus, does his best to resuscitate her:

(Ovid, Metamorphoses Book Two. Apollo's regret)

And like Hyacinthus, when it becomes clear that what has happened cannot be undone, Apollo wails:

(Ovid, Metamorphoses Book Two. Apollo wept.)

Unlike his mother, Asclepius in her womb had not yet died and so, with the last of Apollo's strength, he does manage, at least, to save him.

(Ovid, Metamorphoses Book Two. Apollo puts the 'tearing out' in Asclepius.)

But it goes further than even that because Ocyrhoe, Chiron's daughter, a prophetess who unduly gained the ability to directly proclaim the secrets of the Fates, upon seeing the baby Asclepius, immediately prophesies his glory, his inevitable death and then his fated ascension:

(Ovid. Metamorphoses, Book Two. Ocyrhoe's prophecy. trans Johnston)

Before she too succumbs to her hubris and is transformed by the Fates into a horse so she can no longer speak secrets that aren't hers to share.

These things ultimately are important because it establishes two very important things: 1) Apollo can't do anything in the face of the ultimate Fate of mortals, which is, of course, death and 2) even when Apollo is Actively Devastated, regretful, yearning, mournful, guilty or some unholy combination of all of the above, when someone is dead, he accepts that they are gone. Even if he is devastated by it, even if he'll cry all the rest of his days about it - if they're dead? Apollo lets them go. In Fasti, when Zeus brings Asclepius back, he does not say Apollo asked him to - Zeus, or well, in this case Jove, brings Asclepius back because he wants Apollo to stop being mad at him.

(Ovid, Fasti VI. Apollo please come home your father misses you. trans. A.S Kline)

Even Boyle's translation which you used above in your findings hints that Zeus made Asclepius a god because he wanted Apollo to stop grieving. (i.e 'smile at your father', 'for your sake [he] undoes his prohibitions')

And like, Apollo was deeply upset by Asclepius' death - apart from killing the Cyclops in anger, in book 4 of the Argonautica, Apollonius writes that the Celts believe the stream of Eridanus to be the tears Apollo shed over the death of Asclepius when he left for Hyperborea after being chastised by Zeus for killing his Cyclops:

But the Celts have attached this story to them, that these are the tears of Leto's son, Apollo, that are borne along by the eddies, the countless tears that he shed aforetime when he came to the sacred race of the Hyperboreans and left shining heaven at the chiding of his father, being in wrath concerning his son whom divine Coronis bare in bright Lacereia at the mouth of Amyrus.

It all paints a very clear picture to me. Apollo did not ask for either of them to be brought back. Though bringing them back certainly pleased and delighted him, they are actions of other gods who are moved by Apollo's grief and mourning and seek to mollify him. Him not asking doesn't mean he didn't want them back which I think is a very important distinction by the by, but it simply means that Apollo knows the natural order of things and, even if it hurts, he isn't going to press his luck about it.

Which, of course, brings us to Admetus. And I'm really not going to overcomplicate this, Admetus is different because, very vitally, Admetus is not dead. Apollo can't do a thing once Fate has been carried out and Death has claimed a mortal but you know what he absolutely can do? Bargain like hell with the Fates before that point of inevitability. And that's what he does, ultimately for Admetus and Alcestis. He sought to prolong Admetus' life, not revive him from death or absolve him from death altogether and even after getting the Fates drunk, he's still only able to organise a sacrifice - a life for a life - something completely contingent on whether some other mortal would be willing to die in Admetus' place and not at all controllable by Apollo's own power.

All of these things, I think come back to that point you made - that Apollo's place as a god of order is very important and therefore these people are very special to him if it means he's willing to go against that order but, I also wish to challenge that opinion if you'd let me. Apollo's place as a god of order is very important and therefore, I would argue, that it is even more important that it is shown that he does not break the divine order, especially for the people that mean the most to him. The original context of my comments which started this conversation were on this lovely, lovely post by @hyacinthusmemorial which contemplated upon Asclepius from the perspective of an Emergency Medical personnel and included, in their tags, the very poignant lines "there's something about Apollo letting go when Asclepius couldn't that eats my heart away" and "you do what you can, you do your best, but you don't ever reach too far" and I think that's perfectly embodied with the Apollo-Asclepius dichotomy. Apollo grieves. He wails, he cries, he does his best each and every time to save that which is precious to him but he does not curse their nature, he does not resent that they are human and ultimately, he accepts that that which is mortal must inevitably die. There is nothing that so saliently proves that those who uphold rules are also their most staunch followers - if Apollo wants to delight in his place as Fate's mouthpiece, he cannot undo Fate. And, if even the god of healing and order himself cannot undo death, what right does Asclepius, mortal as he is, talented as he is, have to disrespect it?

The beauty of these stories isn't that Apollo loved them enough to bring them back. The beauty is that Apollo loved them enough to let them go.

[puppetmaster13u]

I’ve been thinking about this a lot and basically Danny is Beelzebub from Hellva boss with his own casino performs and the entrance defies reality and all his ghost rouges come in and go as they please and some humans and or mortals stumble in and think it’s just some place where metas party their fucking asses off which wouldn’t be that bad if this wasn’t FUCKING GOTHAM. Danny doesn’t know how they got in Gotham but they just want to party but unfortunately for him the bats hear a rumor some meta trafficking ring has been planning a big raid on a certain casino that’s new ish and they have to stop it so they go in disguise and they get to witness Danny and his rouges beat the every loving snot out of some traffickers

maybe Danny is a clone, maybes he’s reincarnated, maybe he lost a bet, maybe he moved to Gotham for fun, maybe he got tossed across the universe into Gotham

who knows certainly not Danny

but to add even more maybe he travels around the casino on trapezes and circus rings that he just flips around it and has a pole it the middle that reaches the ceiling and at the top there’s this disco ball thing that he can activate to make a small nebula or stars surround the casino and make it pretty

oh oh and maybe with him having the title of beelzebub is like gotten after he beat them as in right of conquest, or maybe beelzebub is kinda like a shared name so Danny fuels them and they go around getting mortal action without having to do work, or maybe it was given to him as a present with a bow on top idk

I have no words for this and just had to draw because the idea of a casino or whatever with like, everywhere looking like galaxies and auroras that shift to the music was such an amazing visualization lol

[skrunksthatwunk]

kinda thinking about how the women who serve as maternal figures/raise kids in yyh are never quite ready for it. genkai's an arguable exception, but like.. atsuko had yusuke at 15, shizuru's basically in charge of kazuma full time in her early 20s/late teens (depending on version) with very very absent parents, and even shiori is given a kid she wasn't expecting, in the form of an old, old demon rather than like. a regular, blank slate ass human baby. and although shiori seems to do quite well with kurama, kurama can never be honest with shiori about who he is, or much of what he's seen. if he was, it'd probably make things far more complicated and overwhelming. atsuko, no matter how much she cares for yusuke, Could Not Have Been and thus wasn't ready to have him at 15. her attempts to make the most of that situation have had middling success at best. shizuru has also been placed into a parental role. we don't really know how long she's been raising kuwabara, but that's.. probably still parentification anyway. she shouldn't have to do that, and she shouldn't have to do that so young. and i think some of her coarseness with kuwa is out of frustration with her own inexperience + inadequacy + uncertainty, his not cooperating, and their parents for putting this on her in the first place. the ones who know the full extent of their situation grow desperate and it squeaks out in unpleasant ways, and the one who seems unbothered by it is the only one who has no idea that she's in way over her head. and i mean. ok. gonna preface this by saying keiko is NOT yusuke's mom in any sense of the word. but she does take care of him in a way atsuko couldn't manage to. she's often looking after him and cleaning up after his messes and stuff. she takes him on as a responsibility, and that is, in a way, a caretaker role. not to say that it SHOULD be her responsibility, but it's how she ends up being.

and when the stress of trying to make someone take care of themselves or be kind or good or Whatever goes awry, again, the violence and arguing and distance and ugliness of caring for someone reveals itself.

and i wonder about that. for a series dedicated to physical fighting as a form of communication, what does it say that this extends to the complicated, quietly desperate situations of so many of the women/girls it depicts, whom our more central characters were shaped and raised by?

hell, even hiei touches on this, because hina loved hiei, but there was no way she was prepared for him, obviously, nor for the pain of losing him. rui (whom i also see as a sort of caretaker figure to hiei, inasmuch as either of them were caretakers) literally throws him off a cliff because she couldn't face down the village elders, and out of some mixture of care for hina and, likely, fear for her own survival. and the guilt and pain of that killed hina and deeply wounded rui.

it's like motherhood, this thing that's so often treated as sacred and beautiful, is a kind of stitched up, painful, eggshell-walking thing that hurts parent and child and it's just. oughh

[all-that-jazz-93]

Okay confession time I guess, but...I like Frank.

I know we're not supposed to like him. I know he represents everything reprehensible about the war and America and blind fervid patriotism. I know at worst we're supposed to hate him, and at best we're supposed to feel sorry for him (and I do), but like...I actually like him?

I can't help it. He's just so deeply vulnerable and broken and lonely and I just...

I want to help him. I want to fix him. I want to take him by the hand and gently show him that he doesn't have to be this way, that his parents are never going to love him no matter how much he tries to parrot the toxic ideals they drilled into him, and he would be so much better off just leaving all of that behind and following his own path.

Frank Burns had so much potential, and I'm sad we never got to see it realized.

[bonefall]

Firestar getting treated to a character assassination after The Darkest Hour is my villain origin story tbh

You can see the EXACT moment where the brain worms go terminal when Tigerstar dies in front of him, and he starts going "oooga booga he was strong and noble and had good traits... well need him to fight all these evil foreigners..." Just ceremorphose already, this is #NotMyFirestar

[soaked-ghost]

I made graphs for dream's and nightmare's entire lives up until the story actually starts. I thought it would be fun ^_^

[everypanelofizuku]

Chapter 83 - Loss

[coconut530]

[nguyenfinity]

[slams this on the table] HAPPY MOTHERS’ DAY

Extra:

[hood-ex]

What are 6 things you want to see happen for Dick in the new year? Dickolas 2024

New writer on his solo title (maaaybe Waid) and artist (Mendonça, Mora, or Reis).

Have him go through an arc that actually makes me think, "Shit, how the hell is he going to get out of this/how is he going to achieve this?" I'm sooo tired of him getting easy solutions to his problems.

More interactions with Damian.

I'm still deciding whether I want this or not but maybe give him a Bludhaven bestie. Someone who can actually stick around even if the Titans eventually move out of Bludhaven.

His sister to just... disappear... (she's kinda already done that though aslkdja).

I want Dick to double down and find Heartless. If we're still dealing with Heartless in 2025, I'm gonna lose my freakin mind.

[soumarhea]

So I watched Disney's Planes: Fire & Rescue some months ago and I found the characters and their dynamics so interesting that I've been thinking about them ever since. (And by "thinking" I mean editing the TvTropes character page for months now.) And then I found a post here about Wings of Fire au and that's my final straw. Two of my favorite things together?? Planes F&R Wings of Fire au had been living rent free in my brain for nearly a month now and I'm blaming @amethyst257 for it.

I'm gonna be honest, I read WoF Arc 1 nearly ten years ago, there's not much I can recall (aside from Clay is an adorkable himbo, Tsunami killed her dad and her mom is a helicopter, Glory is a sass queen of two tribes, Starflight went blind, and Sunny gave herself princess status). I haven't even start with Arc 2 but at least I know those exist, because I only know about Arc 3 this year. And I have not the time to refresh on Arc 1, much less start with Arc 2 and/or 3. But! I have read Wings of Fire: A Guide to the Dragon World to completion. It may not be entirely flawless info, and I still have zero idea about Arc 3, but now I at least understand that Jewel Hive is the best Hive to live in if you're a SilkWing (I confidently claims without actually knowing). So! Zero idea about 66% of the story and a very hazy 33%, this headcanons will have so many lore holes and may not even fly, but I'll be damned if I didn't try. I'm shoving all this headcanons off a cliff, so it better fly. "Planes" and "Wings" are literally in the name, that's double the flight power!

Since I can't draw dragons to save my life, I'll just colors Joy Ang's line arts of the dragon tribes instead. Trying to incorporate elements from the Planes characters (like the three white stripes and chevron patterns that the Air Attack team had going on as their Non-Uniform Uniform) is one hell of a thing. Who knows trying to translate vehicles into dragons would be absurdly hard (evidently, I don't). They wouldn't be using paints, so maybe ink or henna as staining materials? Nail Scale polish?? Iirc tattoo is a thing in WoF right??? Maybe I should just give the dragons some T-shirts instead.

So far I only colored Blade and Windlifter. That would be 2/12 (not counting size comparison pic). Will edit the pictures in as I'm done with them.

Edit [31/07]: Updated Blade and Windlifter's picture, added Cabbie and the smokejumpers' pictures (that'd be 8 out of 12 now, wow). Everything written in green is new added info (except for Windlifter's name, duh).

Edit [05/08]: Updated all existing pictures, removed the "outdated" size comparison pic, and added Nick, Maru, Dipper, and Patch's pictures (12 out of 12!) Everything written in purple is new added info (except for Patch's name, ofc)

Kinda long post ahead.

Air Attack team from Pantala

Blade

Blade would be too self-conscious to look this aggressive tho. I would pinch his mouth shut if I could. At first I tried making his chevron pattern to look natural by the color arrangement of his scales, but then I thought it'd look better if I just said Maru paints it on with scale polish. I changed his chevron pattern again. I am indecisive sue me.

A HiveWing with color mutation; he have white scales and blue eyes. His HiveWing fight/defensive mechanism is the one where he can spray boiling acid from his stinger. I would give him the "horrible stench" one just for shits and giggles, and for the smokejumpers to call him stinky, but nah Upon further revisions I decide to also give him nerve toxin (that he didn't even know about, since he never stab other dragons for shits and giggles), and you can't stop me. So now he can spray boiling acid from his tail stinger and inject nerve toxin from his wrists stingers. (Isn't that overkill? No its not.)

Grew up in Vinegaroon Hive, moves to Jewel Hive later on for a change of pace. This is where he met Nick and Maru. (He didn't know he already saw Nick before, when Nick performs at Vinegaroon Hive.)

Elaborating on the point above, while still living in Vinegaroon Hive, he dabbled in all sorts of professions; he had joined and led successful hunting trips, joined research expeditions as a research assistant and conducting studies on Pantalan wildlife species, and even took up culinary. It was fulfilling for a while… until it wasn't.

He moved to Jewel Hive after he heard about the lavish parties thrown every now and then from one of his acquaintances. ("So you're telling me, everyone partied all night long and woke up the next day, at midday, with a massive hangover? Alright, sign me up.") He just wants some excitement in his life at this point.

Nick and Maru spotted him at one of the parties, actually. Everyone else was ridiculously glamoured up, and Blade… was sorely underdressed. He sticks out like a sore thumb, and Nick wasn't about to let this crime go unpunished. The rest is history.

His entire life he's been taught about how great HiveWings are for winning the Tree Wars, and how the SilkWings should be thankful to them for protecting their "defenseless" tails against those "barbaric" LeafWings. Blade approach that topic very differently. ("Doesn't that just means we should keep protecting them instead of treating them so poorly?") He very much is in the "unpopular opinion" group and bullied by his peers for it.

After Queen Wasp's dethronement, he followed Maru and moves to LeafSilk Village. And later, among those who flew to Pyrrhia. Presumably, for another change of pace.

He just wants to be alone, but Maru have a different plan… And Windlifter have even more of a different plan. He got dragged to school against his will, and his life will never get anywhere near lonely after that.

How did he ended up as chief of Piston Peak Air Attack (PPAA)? (it wouldn't be called Piston Peak, there is no pistons in Pyrrhia and I might not even stationed them at any Peak here. But "Pyrrhia Peak" doesn't sound too bad. hmm...) I haven't come up with anything for that yet, but they're going to build their own Hive in Pyrrhia (its nowhere near as big as the Hives in Pantala). Its somewhere between Jade Mountain and NightWing Village (for reference), and the team calls it the Air Attack Hive, their base of operation.

Nick (I'll just sneak him right here)

Not sure if I manage to live up to the "most beautiful/prettiest SilkWing" description with this, but my reference is literally a helicopter with police livery. Also, Nick wouldn't look this submissive. If I could crammed him full with cheeky confidence and flirtatious charms I would. Also also, WoF canon of SilkWing can't have black scales is dumb. Most if not all butterflies have black in their palette, what do you mean SilkWings can't have black??

A typical SilkWing... and one of the most beautiful around. Even gets himself nominated as the prettiest SilkWing multiple times. And more often than not, wins.

Grew up in Jewel Hive. One of the best artisans, but well-known particularly for his charms and theatrics. Upon revisions;

Grew up in Jewel Hive, he's well-known for his charms and theatrics, which lands him the profession as a performer. He puts on plays and concerts for the HiveWings and travels from Hive to Hive. Nick had performed in every Hive and comes to the conclusion that; he's never going to travel to the other Hives anymore. Like, "damn, those Hives don't deserve me tf". (He's not impressed by how those Hives treated SilkWings.)

When Maru was stationed at Jewel Hive, he decides to work for Nick instead of his employer. The second Nick gave him the opportunity, Maru quits his old job and moved in. (I'm giving these SilkWings too much power, they're going to unionize atp)

Nick caught glimpse of Blade during his short stay at Vinegaroon Hive. They didn't get to interact since Nick was performing on stage and Blade was all the way at the back seating. By the time the play was over, Blade was already gone.

How did Nick manage to notice Blade when they were so far apart? Blue eyes are not only uncommon for HiveWings; they're unusual. Nick had always wanted a closer look, and boy did he get it. When they spotted Blade in one of Jewel Hive's parties, Maru had to practically peel him off of Blade. ("What's the matter with you? SilkWings have blue eyes more often than not." "Yeah. But have you seen his??") Nick thinks they're very pretty.

From Nick's experiences with HiveWings, they're generally rude and condescending towards SilkWings. Even in Jewel Hive, SilkWings would sometimes get objectify to sit around the shops and look pretty to attract customers. He was ready to be disappointed, but when they approached Blade and he treats them no lesser than himself, Nick was pleasantly surprised. They were inseparable since, until... y'know.

Maru

Just imagine his tail is prehensile. Also, Maru wouldn't look this submissive either, if I could give him shit-eating grin I would. Also also, I am still not satisfied with the lifeline pattern, so I might change it to something else. Maybe as part of clothing article or something. Stealth edit is stealthy ;p

SilkWing with major mutation; his tail is prehensile. (Presumably inherited from the RainWings who fled to Pantala along with the BeetleWings, the LeafWings, and the SeaWings all those centuries ago. Don't ask questions! He need this because;) He uses his tail like an extra arm, specifically to hold his coffee while he work.

I would give him flamesilk ability but then he'd be one of Queen Wasp's flamesilk production slaves, locked in a dungeon somewhere, so nah.

Studies in Mantis Hive and moves to Jewel Hive after he graduates. (Heavily assuming Maru even gets to enroll into the universities since, y'know, he's a SilkWing. Probably Definitely not but shut up. I'm keeping this.) He's not only good with works, he went above and beyond. But he was still assigned as web workers (a "lowly SilkWing" profession) despite being one of the best inventors in the Hives. (This is an exaggeration; you can hear him exclaiming "It's better than new!" even if you're in TseTse Hive while he's in Mantis Hive. For reference.)

Despite getting his profession assigned to him, he still do whatever tf he wants, much to the disapproval of his HiveWing employer. They told him to fix the webs, he did… and make them better! And he got yelled at for it. So he ditches them to work for a fellow SilkWing instead (it is, of course, Nick).

Once Blade enters the picture, Maru spends more time trying to get Nick on schedule. Why's that? Nick just wants to spend time with Blade instead of doing his work.

After Queen Wasp's dethronement, he moves to LeafSilk Village together with Blade. And later, among those who flew to Pyrrhia… along with Blade. Personally, he just wants to be there for Blade.

Windlifter dragged them both to Jade Mountain Academy. And by "them both", I mean Blade. Windlifter dragged just Blade specifically. Maru would be eating popcorn or honey drops (if he packed any) watching it all go down.

He built the Air Attack Hive with the team's help and made it even better than the Hives back in Pantala.

Windlifter

I might tweaked his design a little bit more. I'm still not satisfied with this. Alright, I change the white chevron patterns to yellow-ish, hoping it look like it's stained using henna instead of painted on with white paint. Did I changed anything? I did tweaked something, I forgot what.

A LeafWing with leafspeak ability, just like his parents.

Grew up in the SapWing Village. He was just a little dragonet when the Tree Wars starts warring properly. Which means he's around 50 years old. (Dragons live up to over hundreds years old right? So about time Windlifter having mid-life crisis.)

After the Tree Wars conclusions, he moves to LeafSilk Village. And later, among those who flew to Pyrrhia. Personally, he wanted to broadened his worldview and to learn more about all the other tribes at Jade Mountain Academy. It's "life long learning" after all.

Despite being in the same continent, in the same village, and in the same group when they flew to Pyrrhia; Windlifter officially meets Blade and Maru only upon arrival at Pyrrhia. He dragged them along to Jade Mountain Academy, much to Blade's annoyance.

Windlifter's justification for dragging Blade along is due to his own prejudice against HiveWings, he wants to know them better. And Blade was (unfortunately) within his reach at the moment. The two did have a rough start, and Maru is there as the peacemaker with popcorns making sure they don't kill each other.

Windlifter sets out to understand other tribes, especially the HiveWings, better. But ended up understanding Blade, as his own person dragon, better.

Cabbie was an enigma at first, but doable (mainly because they shares some common grounds). And Dipper... took him the longest to understand. By the time he finally gets her, Dipper calls him her best friend, which he agrees.

(This point is entirely inspired by C130's fic on AO3, specifically Q is for Quarantine Chapter 48) By the time Dusty joins Air Attack, Windlifter already found himself a partner and have two dragonets. His partner is named Tulasi, a LeafWing who grew up in PoisonWing Village. They first met at LeafSilk Village when everything on Pantala started to settle down. Their relationship begins on a friendly terms and they maintained that even when Windlifter went to Pyrrhia for studies (only returning home for a short time whenever possible) but they manage to make it work.

Air Attack team from Pyrrhia

Dipper

Dipper wouldn't look exactly like this, this is a typical SeaWing line art. Dipper's dorsal fin would tapered off to a SkyWing's spikes; her tail is slightly narrower than a SeaWing's but still thicker than a SkyWing's; she wouldn't have the barbels on her lower jaw or the webs between her talons; and her wingspan is greater than the typical SeaWing's but are still inferior to the SkyWing's. And as mentioned below, her bioluminescent stripes doesn't function. She put more effort to her chevron patterns than her three white stripes.

A SeaWing/SkyWing hybrid. She looks like a SeaWing… maybe a little funny-looking here and there… and a little too yellows and reds instead of greens and blues (did I say a little? I mean a lot). She have gills, but not the webbed talons. Her bioluminescent stripes are non-functional, and she can breath fire. (not underwater though)

Since she looks too different than the regular SeaWings, she grew up alone in one of the many islands in the Bay of a Thousand Scales. Being all alone by herself made her a bit loony… and socially stunted.

She did try living underwater with fellow SeaWings but since her bioluminescent stripes doesn't functions, she simply can't converse in Aquatic even if she knows a word or two.

So her next best move is to live on one of the islands and hoped fellow SeaWings would surface and socialize with her above water. But after a few attempted socializing, her visitors dwindles out until none for months. She'd be lucky if she even gets a visitor within a year.

By behaviour, you'd think she'd be on the young side… She's older than Windlifter. (Between a few years to a decade older.)

One day, she got word about Jade Mountain Academy, and was interested to see "what's up with that? sounds fun!". She was apprehensive at first, but it's worth a shot. She thought it would just be a short trip; just a little visit and then go back home. "No need to overstay your welcome". The risk she took was calculated, but damn, was she bad at math.

This is where our Pantalan trio just picked up strays whenever they could. Windlifter, Blade, and Maru thought she's a norm, and by the time they realized that she's an outlier, Dipper is already a part of this "not quite, but not so dysfunctional famil—I mean, group".

Cabbie

This is where I took even more creative liberties with the lore. sue me

Cabbie wouldn't look this friendly. Maybe a bit more aloof. Also, this is a typical MudWing line art. Just imagine he have the SkyWing's wings instead. That red thing on his backside isn't a scar (though I should give him some scarring from his wartime) or the blood of his enemies (honestly, he would have some on him just because), it's his red chevron pattern painted on with scale polish by the smokejumpers (its' messy, and they waste bottles of scale polish on it) and so does the three white lines on his hind legs. Gave him some scarring, and the smokejumpers insist on painting the "51" on his face as part of their bonding activity. Someday, Drip and Blackout would paint "PP" on his right wing and Avalanche would (unhelpfully) adds "F" to it. That's how Cabbie got his PPF 51 call sign. A lot of scale polish will be wasted that day.

A MudWing/SkyWing hybrid. Bred for war in the past. He's built like a MudWing with the SkyWing's impressive wingspan. Easily pass off as a MudWing. You know volcanic mud? That's his coloring. (see picture above lol) He can breath fire without the MudWing's "need to be warm enough" rule.

~120 years old. Lived through wars and he didn't want to live through another one so he sits out the SandWing Succession War. One war in a lifetime is more than enough for any dragon really.

He lives in a cave somewhere between the Sky Kingdom and Mud Kingdom's borders, somewhere close to Diamond Spray Delta.

One day he went down to the Mud Kingdom for some mud bath; unintentionally discovered several MudWing nests; and noticed some of them contains blood-red eggs. Long story short, "no thoughts, head empty. ooh shiny!", he took all the red eggs with him and by the time he flew back home, he realized he have five blood-red MudWing eggs to look after now. Why didn't he just leave the eggs? Being a hybrid, he's wired differently than purebred MudWings. And, they're his now so shut up!

Being a single da— I mean uncle to five very loud, very messy, very energetic, young dragons tire him out really fast. So he went to drop them off at Jade Mountain Academy for the weekend. And what an adventure that would become.

The smokejumpers

From top to bottom: Dynamite, Drip, Blackout, Pinecone, and Avalanche. I tried so hard to not make them look related but still maintains their vehicle coloring, and also stick to WoF canon of MudWing coloring, which means Dynamite, Drip, and Avalanche all have eye color mutation. Dynamite and Drip still looks like they're related fml. I'm going to add the smokejumpers' team logo and their call sign numbers later. The logo would be their tattoo and the numbers will just be painted on. So I also added reflective scale polish on their wings' scales to evoke those reflective safety vest. If they could get their way, the jumpers would be painting themselves head to toe with it. Maru made sure they don't waste a single drop of it, that scale polish was costly.

All of them are MudWings, hatched from blood-red eggs, so they have fire resistant scales. And quite the bunch of daring little dragonets. They even make a game out of jumping over bonfires. Cabbie lovingly calls them "smokejumpers".

Since Cabbie egg-napped them from their original nests, they're not actually blood-related. But that doesn't make them any less siblings than the blood-related MudWing siblings.

Dynamite is the big wing. She wouldn't have been the big wing of her original siblings. So in the siblings of smokejumpers, she turns out the smallest. From smallest to biggest; Drip (only slightly larger than Dynamite), Blackout, Pinecone, and Avalanche.

Pinecone and Avalanche would've been the big wings of their respective blood-related siblings.

If you think "Avalanche" doesn't sound like a MudWing name, it was either that or "Mudslide". He picked "Avalanche" because it sounded better and badass.

How did they get their names? Dynamite suddenly sneezed fire once and gave Cabbie a heart attack. Drip always dripping with mud and trailing messes everywhere, and Cabbie clean up after him of course. Blackout accidentally put out their bonfire once. Pinecone collects funny shaped pinecones as a hobby. And Avalanche caused a landslide once, he pleaded not guilty. (Saving these from tag limbo, should've been included in post proper from day one.)

Cabbie sent them to study at Jade Mountain Academy so they'd stop giving him more mess to cleanup. They made messes along the way anyway.

At this point in the story (of them going to Jade Mountain Academy), they're tween to young teen dragonets, so 3-4 years old (6-7 is the dragon age of maturity iirc). By the time Dusty joins Air Attack, they'd be somewhere in their mid-late thirties, still as energetic, playful, and daring as they were.

How did they determined who get what number to paint on their faces? They roll two dice; Dynamite got 22; Drip got 36; Blackout 25; Pinecone rolled 1 and lost the second die, so she got 10; after they search for the lost die, Avalanche rolled 55; and they got Cabbie to roll 51. And then they get to painting the numbers on each other's faces. It's part of their bonding activities.

Patch

WoF canon: NightWing can have dark green eyes, Me: lime. Same as Maru, I might change how I want the lifeline pattern to look, maybe as an arm band (leg band??) instead. xp

A small NightWing, due to genetics but mainly, malnutrition. She have future vision, but she can only see as far as… 2 hours into the future.

Grew up in the volcanic NightWing Kingdom. She's somehow lucky enough to manage to hatched under one full moon… even through all the soot and smokes from the volcanoes, and the clouds. Everything just lines up exactly right for her to be under one full moon when she hatched. How did her egg got out in the open instead of safely in the caves with the other NightWing eggs? Well, some dragon manage to misplaced it somehow idk.

Currently lives in NightWing Village of the Rainforest Kingdom.

One night, she dreamed about going to Jade Mountain Academy… and interesting things happens. So she went. And interesting things did happened. It's a fated assembly.

WoF headcanon; the respect that HiveWings and SilkWings have towards NightWings borders on reverence (all thanks to Clearsight). Therefore neither Blade nor Maru will argue with Patch. If they didn't know any better they'd worship the ground she walks on. The two would eventually grow out of this blind respect to actually respects her for who she is.

Size comparison is its own post now.

I have plans for the Propwash Junction peeps too, they'll have their own post. Dusty won't have his picture here (he's not counted in the 12 pics at the start of this post) but I need to include some info about Dusty here before I forgot anything. So,

Dusty

A small RainWing/MudWing hybrid. (I haven't come up with anything else)

Suffers a serious, near-crippling, wings injury due to Ripslinger (I haven't come up with what the injury is, or whether Ripslinger is responsible for it directly or indirectly) so Dusty needs support equipment to help him fly (I haven't come up with what invention Dottie made to support Dusty yet). So anyway, by the time Planes F&R events happened, that support equipment starts to fail, and they're out of materials to make a new one. And that's how he joined the PPAA team.

[mayasaura]

When it comes to John, I have zero interest in condemning him. First of all, it's boring. You mean destroying the world and lying to your friends about it is bad? Shocking. Groundbreaking character work.

Second of all, I'm just not all that comfortable with condemnation in general, not when it comes to whole-ass people. Actions, for sure. I am ready to wholeheartedly condemn pretty much every decision this man has ever made, but I'm only comfortable doing that with a side of compassion for the man himself. Tamsyn said once in an interview that some of the discussion she's seen about Harrow is unintentionally very cruel to people with mental illnesses, and I feel similarly seeing a lot of the discussion around John. If I'm going to try to figure out where he's coming from, why he did the things he did, and what he thought he was accomplishing by doing them, I'm not at all interested in coming at those questions with contempt or disgust.

To me, the main question when it comes to John is: What do you do when you feel that you're unforgivable? That you've fucked up so completely no one will ever love you again, unless you lie and trick them into it? How do you deal with shame? And while part of the answer is definitely "Holy shit, not like that," what I'm most interested in is: what should he have done instead? At what points in his narrative could he have changed his course? And at what point, if ever, did he become right about it being impossible for him to dial it back and turn around?