#the soaps also look slightly darker/more saturated bc it’s getting dark!

[queenofnohr]

Mei soaps completely done!

The lotus flowers are so cute 🥰

Now for a question - do you like the clean look of the attached flowers better? Or the “messy” look with the visible soap drips (seen on the closest soap in the top pic)? I thought I’d messed up while attaching the flowers but to me it least it looks kinda cool/fitting…… 🤔 especially considering Mei’s sugar baby status 😳🥵💦

[mithsrising]

Big 'ol list of scrying tips

Putting them under a readmore bc oh boy is this long:

A lot of the fest genes in general are both great to use and often dirt cheap on the AH, provided you have the right ancient.

Crystalline is the king of tert savers. The ice is all clear and faded, so it dials down the saturation of the color a lot. It can even make some colors like driftwood look white.

Trickmurk is another good option because of the darkness, but the color’s a little more obvious with that one.

Rockbreaker can also be a great gene, because it changes drastically depending on the color.

Greenskeeper looks great with a lot of colors too!

Another way to see if unsalvageable colors can be saved is to look at genes with more than one color. All colors have one main secondary color that shows in genes like blend. But that color can change depending on the gene. For example, lemon fade gives the dragon red accents, but lemon noxtide gives blue instead!

Some genes can introduce different accent colors than the typical secondary, and radically change what the color looks like. You can take advantage of this by matching accents to main colors, or accents to accents to tie the whole dragon together.

Sailfish and marlin tend to make things paler with accent colors.

Boa/saddle gives these big spots of color that can be very striking.

Metallic and alloy can make things much darker.

Poison and toxin can have a lot of dramatic color changes, with the bonus of being cheaper than most genes if you have the brewing resources.

If you’re willing to try it, then mosaic usually has more unique accent colors.

And sometimes flair can make a color go absolutely insane, like with iris.

If you have the gems, iridescent and shimmer can drastically change the color. Just remember that since the gradients are hand drawn, the effect changes depending on breed.

Black and white go with every color. So piebald/paint and pharaoh/sarcophagus could be useful. If gem genes are on the table and you have a dragon with a primary and secondary that are close but just don't match like you want them to, then pharaoh/sarc can create the illusion of a double.

Harlequin and jester in general just go nuts with colors.

Of course there’s always stained and spines, but a lot of people consider that the easy way out. You could also try soap since it dyes the body like stained, but also gives a tinge of color in certain regions. That, and it's pricey.

Most of the eyespots on Peacock are taken up by the secondary color, which is useful if you want to obscure the main tert color.

Capsule is a great one since, like irishim, it has a gradient that can completely change how a color looks. Plus it's a baldwin gene, so if you have the mats then it's cheap to get. Opal too, for the same reasons (except price).

One I discovered while making this is that for some colors, orb/weaver makes only a small gradient the base color while the rest is a secondary. Orchid weaver makes the wings almost entirely blue, for example.

There are a few “special” colors who have unique effects on genes.

One of the most famous is radioactive, which will make a lot of genes look like lisa frank grew up and became a scene kid. Tons of eyeburners get a lot of mileage out of this color

Magenta (and to a slightly lesser extent fuchsia) and orchid are also very eyeburner-y colors. They both introduce intense blues, pinks, and purples.

Banana gives genes like pinstripe and flair a very cool rainbow effect.

Orca makes almost everything stark black and white, and imo orca tiger is a good look at what tiger should’ve been.

Metals pairs gold and silver for a lot of genes, like wasp.

Lapis really likes to include yellow with its genes, like with boulder and myrid. Gives it a starry night look.

Sunset likes to include a lot of purple and red gradients.

Obsidian gives red accents to a lot of genes.

The accent colors of Rose, fuchsia, and pearl are great for lesbian, bis, and trans flag dragons.

Don’t always give in to new breed hype. Sometimes the staff will give you a pair of eggs when a new breed releases, so you can have two of that breed for free. And a lot of people will only scry them as that breed. So often times if a color combo doesn’t look good with the genes that breed has on launch, the dragon will be sold off at a lower price on the AH.

My favorite example is dusthides. I have a dusty that's ultramarine/carribean/driftwood, and the best I can do with her as a dusthide is stained, spines, and maybe veil, wavecrest, or pachy.

So I scried her as an auraboa, and guess what? She’s stunning.

And the dragon was 60 freaking gems, with matching eyes. She would make an incredible water rep (if I didn't already have Riptide).

Auraboas in general are basically a cheat code when it comes to scrying. They have incredible genes that can completely change how a dragon looks, plus a lot of tert savers. Boa, mochlus, paradise, I can go on.

And the number one rule: never, ever scry as an imperial. You'll just make yourself sad.