#streetdragon

I don’t think this ever came up in my rare mentions of Streetdragon before, but the endpoint of the first book is Trashfire the feral stray dragon that eats fries from a dumpster eventually becomes besties with a human kid who can talk to him. Dragons can’t talk to humans in this universe, not even humans who can talk to other animals and magical creatures, so this is kind of a big deal. Being able to “tame” an undomesticated dragon literally off the street is also kind of a big deal. Thus, the kid gets recruited into magic school. Whether he wants to or not. And man, if Streetdragon ever makes it to publication the way I have it in my brain, I can already see all the hot takes about the magic school with colonialist stank on it being a response/reference/call-out-post for Another Certain Magic School With Colonialist Stank On it. And like...I mean, subconsciously, maybe, but at this point ALL magic schools are gonna end up compared to That One no matter what. The residential school comparison is correct, but that was...mostly an accident. (I think.) If anything, Streetdragon exists to dunk on Bright. I don’t know if anyone remembers the movie Bright because it was forgettable and deserved to be forgotten. I really love the idea of an urban fantasy without the masquerade, the sort with a fully flourishing magical system and unicorns wandering around the suburbs but holy crabs, do I hate the way 90% of media goes about it. Either it’s mostly “lol what if unicorns were gross donkeys in the trash” parody or “lol what if we just threw an elf skin over Beverly Hills and everything is basically the same”. Like my guy, did you seriously bring bring magic missile to Chicago just to have normal ass Gangwars But With Sparkles? And you did all with with literally nothing to say besides the barebones Racism Bad metaphor??? A Racism Bad metaphor that also has normal racism in it anyway????? Wow, thanks for wasting my time! 

In the same vein, one could look at these plans for the conflict of You Must Do Magic This Way Only Or It’s Evil Not REAL Magic as taking inspiration from The Owl House but actually it’s leftovers from a My Little Pony fic about Earth Pony magic I never wrote because I never found the right plot. 

A hilariously large stable of characters I write for (fandom or original) never dream at all so this took a hot minute, heh.

So, this is a good excuse as any to expand some on Trashfire, of Streetdragon. (:

Trashfire, like all modern dragons, is small. The largest dragons can get as big as a Great Dane, but he isn't one of those. He's small-cat sized, just small enough to ride on someone's shoulder. He's a wyvern the color of asphalt and likes french fries.

6: Does your character have recurring themes in their dreams?

Not necessarily. Most of his dreams are of his life as it is: living in a dead mall, scrounging up food in the food court and the plaza, except in the dreams he finds whole pizzas with all the toppings in the trash instead of just old crusts. But sometimes he dreams about being big like dragons used to be. So big humans have to try not to get stepped on by him for once and he could eat a whole Pizza Hut in one bite. >:D

7: Does your character have recurring themes in their nightmares?

Trashfire has nightmares where all his teeth have fallen out, his fire sac is gone, and his claws are soft and dull. Nightmares of not being able to defend himself and completely at the mercy and the will of everyone around him. He'd like to think this as just a nightmare, but he's seen dragons who live this way. He's met dragons who live this way.

And he wonders sometimes if this might be a warning, or worse: a premonition of the future.

He also has bad dreams of being lost inside sterile maze-like buildings with nobody inside them. ....also now that I say this out loud I realize this description sounds a lot like The Backrooms but actually it's more like an empty art museum or that white void where Portal happens.

24: How quick is your character to suspect someone else? Does this change if they are close with that person?

On average? About two seconds, max. Trashfire goes by vibe check and nine times out of ten, you failed that vibe check. He wouldn't be alive as an urban feral dragon if he didn't. If he doesn't know you, you are here to rob or harm him, or else he's planning to rob or harm you instead. This applies less so to other urban dragons, but that's more because he's known those dragons in some capacity for thirty years.

https://streetdragon.com/blogs/news/january-23-2019