#flashwings

Top: Silk/Dart hybrid

Bottom: Hive/Dart hybrid

Dart/Hive hybrid, based on the common picturewing dragonfly

Hive/Silk, based on blue mud daubers

Left: Flash/Silk hybrid

Right: Flash/Dart hybrid

Silk/Hive hybrid, based on the glasswing butterfly. The ref I found might have been a camera error/specific lighting or angle for the wings to turn pink and blue but it happened enough times that was like “hold up, I can use this”

Top: Dart/Hive hybrid

Bottom: Flash/Hive hybrid

And last but not least, the Dart/Leaf hybrid, using my alternate LeafWing design. Oh, there we go, next art I post will be them (even tho I kinda already did).

I got a really good idea, though it’ll take some time to finish. Hopefully you’ll like it!

Also, everyone seemed to really like the AntWings! I wanted to include them here but felt their food magic would often mess up the secondary wings (unless…)

You get to see their capitol city tho right next to the Dart/Leaf’s tail :)

It’s also in my blog banner!

I think these were requested by my sister too? They were a bit easier to make ideas for than the DartWings, but if I remember correctly it took a bit before I realised how I could actually use them.

I looked up images of fireflies, using both adults and larvae as inspiration for the scale patterns. I admit they're not the best in some places (not just because this is a quick sketch) but it's the vibe that counts and they get like 90% of it. I might show the bases I made for the Pantalan tribes after the AntWings so you can get a sense of the colours I used, though I might want to redo them!!!

"Antenna used to sense changes in electric currents"

It took embarrassingly long to arrive to electricity being their thing but I kept being dissatisfied with the FlashWings' main thing. For a long time all they had was their light which didn't have any combat uses (besides communication or distractions like Tsunami in book 2).

I knew they didn't need to be a combat-heavy tribe, that isn't their vibe but I wanted them to have some sort of natural weapon that could keep up with the other tribes. Bugs are so awesome and BUG DRAGONS have to have cool abilities.

So when I landed on incorporating electricity into how their light works... well, let's just say it was a lightbulb moment-

"[referring to the rattle-like growth at the end of the FlashWing's tail] contains a biochemical that glows when stimulated by electric pulses"

Most common colours: Yellow, yellow-green, green Common colours: Red, orange Least common: Blue

"Electric organ at base of tail; interior placement, but can affect others with physical contact"

Yeah, fireflies can glow blue. They're called ghost fireflies! And if any of you read AAA... :)

This was my lightbulb moment. Technically one of two. I liked the idea of FlashWings being as unassuming as RainWings (not as big as the other tribes, not very scary-looking) but very deadly if they have a reason to be via their electric organ. Low pulses simply make the chemical in their tail organs glow but a strong enough pulse can stun or kill dragons if placed correctly.

Leftmost: "Beetle-winged; primary wings are opaque & secondary are transparent resembling beetle carapaces"

Rightmost: "FlashWings were the first to discover how to revive "dead" dragons"

Both of those statements are my loaded guns in this post. That and how FlsshWing tails work/why they evolved them. It's not what you'd expect! That being said, to keep myself from writing a giant essay I'll keep it brief.

In my AU, though it's not mentioned in the current fanfic (I could write another essay on this) "due to the term "beetle-winged" is a term to describe dragons like FlashWings that have a see-through pair of secondary wings. Even if Clearsight could have had enough children to breed her black scales into an entire tribe, the HiveWings and SilkWings are simply too evolutionally/visually different to come from the same tribe. I'll elaborate in a later post but, for now, in this AU BeetleWings were never a thing and instead a term to describe a dragon's looks-.

The second statement could be a story all on its own. Sensing electrical pulses with their antennae lets them do so many things with them, chief among them being sensing brain and heart activity. In the time period AAA is set in a lot of FlashWings are in the medical field and are essentially walking defibrillators. But they do CPR first cuz oxygenated blood shouldn't go to waste!!

A closer example of the term beetle-winged in action.

The left and and two images on the right are all examples of how FlashWings like to keep their tails between themselves and any threats (a trait they share with AntWings). In the top middle is an example of courtship/nuptial flights, something I didn't include in my fanfic but I thought was a nice addition here. This pair has chosen each other, symbolised with their entwined tails :)