#obviously dragos are different because its not like. important rofl.

[bmofr]

heres my 2 cents on the eyes and people’s reactions to them since this is my blog and i’m not here to pick fights

1. LOVE the eyes im pissing myself holy guacamole!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2. i see people’s issue with the body horror and i hear them, but here’s the thing. a) there are ways around it/to avoid it in this specific instance, but b) this is the 5th anniversary of flight rising and prior to it’s very inception it has come with body horror. this isn’t just about plague flight existing and the inevitable shitstorm that comes with ROR submissions every year. i’m talking the bone fiend, kamaitachis waving around those bone stalkS??? (and the uhh the other ones too. the ones that walk on em. disgusting), the gods themselves (shademom drooling everywhere? close ur damn mouth??), emperors, etc. (also, Arcane is pretty body-horror heavy if we’re being real here!! and seriously kamaitachis have always grossed me out)

anyway yeah, i’m not trying to dismiss those voices whose feedback is negative. body horror issues, trypophobia, etc. are very real and concerning and it’s AWESOME when other people take that into consideration!! having said that, part of dealing with those types of fears and aversions - saying this as someone who has some myself - is knowing very, very well that whole thing about “life doesn’t come with a trigger warning.” people with phobias know that MUCH better than people without them, and part of that being in your life is taking steps yourself to deal with those triggers in situations where you know you can’t avoid them. on the internet that is much easier than elsewhere and no, it’s not at all unreasonable to try to make our corners of the internet a little more habitable, a little more friendly and welcoming, than maybe they otherwise would be. i’m not at all opposed to that.

but asking staff (and the multitudes of people who like and even adore these ~edgier~ aspects of the game) to change or remove those features for the sake of phobias is not rational, nor is it fair in the purest sense of the term. if you know you have a body horror fear and you are choosing to play a game in which body horror features heavily, it’s YOUR responsibility, first and foremost, to guide yourself through that. yes, it actually sucks that we can’t put a filter on dragon eyes the same way we can on search terms and such, but if you are bound and determined to stay in this game regardless, you need to consider other coping mechanisms for your own wellbeing. everyone’s coping mechanisms are different and only you can know what works for you, so I can’t tell you exactly what to do, and clearly, avoiding the trigger at all costs works most effectively; but you know as well as I do that that is not always an option, and it’s not always going to be an option in this game either.

it is AWESOME when other people hear your worries and say “that’s totally called for, and I will do my best to accommodate you by removing these fears from your periphery as much as possible.” That can include things like CWs/TWs wherever applicable and possible, or asking staff to implement other features that could work for you! but asking the creators of the game to change or remove major aspects, such as one of the very concepts the core lore revolves around (i.e. elemental magic changing physical features!!) is not a solution to handling your phobias.

fortunately, staff HAS thought of other solutions. we have eye-covering apparel which pre-dates the eye changes by years. we have the scattersights being dropped in coli and being brewable so that even if staff doesn’t continue to release them, they will be available as an option in the future. you can exalt or sell dragons with eyes that make you uncomfortable. you can breed them again to try for better, more normal eyes (which will be much, much more common than the creepy ones!).

likewise, you have lots and lots and LOTS of fair warning from other players that this game may contain things that make you uncomfortable - LOADS of people on this site are more than happy to use trigger/content warnings, even for stuff that appears repeatedly in canon lore. that is literally the best anyone else can do for you to accommodate your phobias, and when they can’t, they cant. but lots of people ARE doing it! once again, flight rising’s base lore revolves around weird anatomy and magical anomalies and it always has. you cannot ask them to change that 5 years into the game. there are lots of other dragon-related games out there that are cutesy and harmless and don’t have this stuff, and if none of those float your boat (admittedly FR is pretty unique even as far as petsites go!) maybe there needs to be a push for a similar petsite without the gore??? there’s clearly a market for it, but that’s another subject entirely.

all of you who take issue with this, and i mean this so sincerely: I commend you and praise you for facing your fears anyway for the love of this game and sake of your dragons. i understand that when you get invested so deeply in a game like this, to have your fears brandished in your face is an insult and it hurts to have to juggle that with your love of your dragons. you rightfully don’t want to face being triggered in a game/space that you love and which, under most other circumstances, is the opposite of stressful for you. i agree, that 100% fucking sucks. which is precisely why I say you should be prepped with other coping mechanisms if and when it’s not possible to avoid seeing it on occasion, again, for your own safety and wellbeing.

because this game has been “rated PG13″ or whatever the fuck since it began. body horror has never once not been part of the lore. you need to know and accept that going in, and perhaps assess whether or not it’s the right game for you, just like you’d assess a movie or a TV show beforehand and check to see online like, does it have my triggers? when/where are they so I can try to skip that part? or does it contain them, but in small enough amounts that I’ll be okay, and the benefit of watching the whole thing outweighs the potential trigger? yknow, like, all that stuff is ours to assess for ourselves personally before we ever do anything, including playing this game.

that DOESNT MEAN that people should be dicks to you and brandish your triggers in your face. it DOESN’T mean that you can’t ask for CW/TWs, or other accessibility features and solutions to these problems (I only listed a few, but that doesn’t mean that alternatives aren’t being discussed, and that’s also awesome!!!!!). it just means that you are playing a game that has been pretty open since it’s start about how it includes violence and body horror and once again, it is first and foremost your own responsibility to handle your triggers in a positive and healing way. im actually gonna go so far as to say that if you are staying, maybe FR is a good place to practice dealing with those triggers in a productive manner, as opposed to “the real world” or w/e, you know? idk roast me it’s just an idea.

anyway tl;dr i hear you and i’m one of you but it’s actually not cool to ask staff/other players to change major facets of the lore now that we’re this far in. handle your shit. offer alternative solutions on the forums, campaign for similar-but-safer games, work on your own coping mechanisms and so forth, ask for CW/TWs when applicable (I mean, maybe FR does need a better warning about the stuff the lore includes when you sign up???), all of that is amazing and fine, but this kind of stuff isn’t getting removed from the site/lore and we all need to be on the same page about that