Finally got around to drawing @kangals character, Kirn. He was one of the first OCs I really fell in love with when I first joined DA, and I’ve been meaning to draw him for a very long time. Just pretend the scarred eye is on the other side. A miscalculation was made.
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Not part of the tag, but I was curious, what about rotties do you dislike? Health or temperament? Not confrontational at all, BTW, just wanting to hear more. Also, what breeds 'fan base' do you dislike the most? Huskies are my favorite, but listening to people gatekeep the breed will drive you to drink. Even people going so far as to say they should only live in an arctic climate. Like what? Armchair animal 'experts' are the worst.
Eh my dislike of rotties is a personal thing, a few years back one attacked me completely unprovoked on the street and would have sent me to the ER had it not happened to be winter and I was wearing several layers of thick clothing. So I can’t really be close to them any more without alarm bells going off for me, although I know that there’s plenty of nice dogs out there, they just make me uncomfortable. I also just generally don’t like the large, molosser-type, aggressive dogs much i.e. presas, corsos, etc (I know, ironic coming from someone who loves LGDs). And yeah their health issues are 😬
Pretty much any breed can and will have an annoying fan base, I’ve seen people gatekeep everything from small companion breeds to mutts to working dogs and beyond, it’s just part of the territory. I feel like BC and GSD people tend to be extra dramatic but that might be because there’s just more of them.
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Darkstalker knew his mother was dead. He had known that first time he saw her form on the enchanted map travel into the Ice Kingdom and grow still. She was gone. That was why the IceWings had to pay. That was why Arctic had, had to die. His mother had been taken away from him, and it wasn't fair.
Except now she was here, unchanged, as though his last memory of her had been plucked from his mind and made real. Her eyes shone with all the love she still had for him, and when she put her talons on his he knew she could be no one but his mother. He needed her to hold him, to tell him it was going to be all right, to tell him that he wasn't evil and he hadn't lost his soul.
But she didn't. Not really.
Darkstalker thought back to the soul reader, and the tiny grains of black sand showing just how much goodness he had left. He had taken every precaution, done everything right, and yet it hadn't saved his soul. He thought back to the holes he had sensed inside his father, and wondered now what it must look like inside him. Was there anything left now but a vast, empty chasm where his soul should have been?
But that couldn't be right! It just couldn't be! He wasn't evil! He did all of those things to avenge his mother and protect his tribe. Isn't that what any dragon would do? What any dragon should do?
Besides, he had always known that the future he was heading for would be worth it. When he was king of Pyrrhia there would be no war, no killing, and no one would ever have to feel scared or hungry or in pain ever again. He could fix all of that, and when he did no dragon would care what it took to get there. They would be grateful to him and love him and want him to be around forever to watch after them. That thought had always kept him going, always reminded him that the light at the end of this path would be worth any darkness he had to pass through.
Yet as he looked down at his mother, he was reminded again of the fear and disappointment in her eyes that told him she knew exactly what he had done to his father. She didn't seem to care at all about what Arctic had done to her, and what he might have done to their tribe. She blamed herself for getting captured, and scolded him like a petulant child for offering to avenge the torture she had been put through. She still loved him, but she didn't trust him, and he couldn't yet see a future where she would support him as king. And if he didn't have her, who did he have?
He looked at Moon. His dearest friend, in fact his only friend while he had been trapped in the mountain. It had meant so much to find her, to have another dragon he could communicate with, and have hope that one day he might be free again. But she, like Foeslayer, would never stand by his side as king. She hadn't understood at all when he tried to tell her he'd only cast the spell on the IceWings to protect the tribe, and she'd plotted with her friends to sabotage him. Did she just not need him anymore, now that she had them? Did she even care about him at all?
He needed Clearsight. He missed her so much it hurt, but no matter how hard he tried he couldn't bring her back to him. She was gone of her own volition, to live and die without him thousands of years ago. Without her, he had no happy futures. No dragonets. No great love. He was alone.
Darkstalker felt a hole inside of him so great that he began to wonder if his soul truly was gone, and it was at that moment that Moon told him about her vision. She described an ordinary dragonet growing up in the rainforest, with friends and family and a deep love of strawberries. This perplexed Darkstalker; what did any of this have to do with him? It was only when his mother passed him one of the jewel-red fruits that he finally started to put the pieces together.
"Wait," he said. "You think the dragon in your visions is me?"
"You without your powers," said Moon. "You without your memories. A new you, with a chance to start over."
Darkstalker snorted, little puffs of flame shooting out of his nose. "Why would I ever give up my powers?" he said. "I'm the most powerful dragon Pyrrhia has ever seen! Everyone wants to be me!"
"I don't," said Qibli.
"Me neither!" said Kinkajou. "Evil and smug and fat-headed and evil, no thank you!"
"I'm not – " Darkstalker started and then fell silent. His mind went back to the soul reader.
Seeming to sense his distress, Foeslayer settled her tail over his and patted one of his free talons gently.
"You could be happy," she said to him. "You could be loved."
"But you have to choose it," Moon said. "You're the only one who can make it real. Imagine it, Darkstalker. If you turn yourself into a different dragon, you could actually do good things for the world."
He shook his head vigorously. "That's ridiculous. Without my powers? What do I do, make pie? You must be joking. Couldn't I do more good things with my powers intact?" he asked. "Like take Pyrrhia into the glorious future I've seen?"
"I'd rather have pie," Kinkajou said.
Moon shook her head. "The future of Pyrrhia is not your own personal scroll, waiting for you to write it, Darkstalker. The only future you control is yours. And you have not brought happiness to the dragon tribes. We don't want that future you see if we have to travel your dark path to get there."
Darkstalker spun the strawberry in his claws for a moment, thinking. Was this truly a chance to start over? He wasn't sure how it could be. His powers were a part of him, as much as his scales or his wings. Without them, what would be left of him?
"Do it," Foeslayer said quietly. "Become a dragonet again. I'll take care of you. I want to. We'll be happy this time."
"All I see this way is darkness," he said, touching his forehead. He'd been able to look into his future from the moment he hatched, and the idea of traveling a path he couldn't see was terrifying.
"Darkness is all the rest of us see if you do become king," Moon said. "But this way – "
"No," he said. "I can't. I can't do it. I won't."
Moon blinked, looking bewildered. "But my vision – I'm sure this is the path you choose."
Darkstalker’s tail lashed back and forth, throwing off his mother's. "I don't want to lose all my memories! I'd forget Clearsight ... she'd be even more gone than she is now!" He rose to his feet. "No, I'm going to be king. King of the whole continent. King of all the tribes! That's my future; I've seen it a thousand times!"
"Darkstalker, please," Moon pleaded. "I know there's good in you still. If you listen to it, you'll choose this for yourself, I'm sure you will."
Darkstalker's heart burned with hurt and anger so great it made his talons shake. His mother and his best friend wanted to erase him from the world! They wanted to take away his memories and his powers and leave him in darkness!
"You are a bunch of small-minded little lizards," he said, rising to his full height and spreading his wings. "What, did you think I'd taste a strawberry and decide, mmm, wow, that's worth giving up my magic for?"
He looked down at the tiny fruit in his claws and ripped off all the green leaves. They must think he was exceptionally stupid to fall for a trick like this. "Or did you have Turtle enchant this? Or perhaps another secret animus I don't know about? It doesn't matter, you boring, ordinary creatures. I can't be enchanted by anyone! I'm smarter now; I've made myself completely safe. Nobody's animus magic will work on me. Which means nobody will ever be able to stop me." He threw the strawberry in his mouth and swallowed it, casting a dark look at his mother.
"Actually," said Kinkajou, "there is one dragon's magic that will still work on you."
He glowered down at her. "You're wrong."
"I'm right," she snapped back.
"Oh, really? Whose?"
She glared right back, and her scales were the color of burning strawberries. "Your own."
Kinkajous upended her pouch and poured a tiny pile of scraps of paper onto the ground in front of her.
My scroll! But there shouldn't have been anything left!
"What?" Darkstalker said, choking. "But how – I didn't see – "
"I know," Kinkajou said proudly. "Never saw me coming! Taken down by a ball of fluff! Who's insignificant NOW, frogface!"
Darkstalker felt a shifting and pulling of his bones, and he realized suddenly that his whole body was shrinking.
He turned to look at his Foeslayer, the feeling of betrayal alighting in him like it had the moment Clearsight slipped that bracelet on him.
"You knew," he gasped to his mother. "You helped her."
"Of course I did," she said. "What else could I do? Send you to your room? Extra chores for a week? Somehow neither of those seemed particularly apt for this situation." She patted his shoulder, and he realized with a jolt that they were now about the same size. "It was this or leave forever and never see you again. I decided we'd both be happier this way."
Darkstalker tried desperately to counteract the spell.
I enchant myself – Darkstalker – to keep all of my memories! I enchant myself to keep my powers. I enchant the strawberry to have no effect. I enchant myself to never have eaten it. I enchant myself to never have agreed to come here!
None of it worked. He'd already lost his magic.
"But my powers!" he cried. He nearly choked on the words as his voice came out higher, his lungs shrinking in his chest. "All my magic ... can't I keep any of it? The mind reading? Wait – " Darkstalker held up his front talons, watching the claws get smaller.
"Sorry, Darkstalker," Qibli said. "You had more than one chance to use them wisely and well, and you chose not to."
Darkstalker realized suddenly that everyone's thoughts had grown quiet and far away, and after a moment he couldn't hear them at all. He tried reaching out to sense the future, but all he could see was what was right in front of him.
Without my powers I'm not me. I don't know how to be anyone else. I've never wanted to be.
"I really thought he was going to choose this for himself," Moon said, tipping her head at Darkstalker, who was still steadily shrinking.
"Oh, I knew he wouldn't," Kinkajou said. "But I couldn't tell you my awesome plan, obviously."
"You told her, though. Why didn't he see it in your mind?" Moon asked Foeslayer.
"You don't raise a mind-reading son without learning a few tricks about how to hide your thoughts," Foeslayer said calmly.
The anger and betrayal in Darkstalker's heart was being rapidly replaced by sadness. They were barely paying any attention to what they were doing! Did they even care? Was he really so undeserving of any compassion?
"Didn't I help you?" Darkstalker said in a lost, small voice, looking up at Moon. "Didn't I save dragons, too? I'm not evil ... I'm not ... "
Help me, please! Moon. Mother. Prove to me that you still care about me. Prove to me that you can still see my soul.
"Not anymore," Kinkajou said.
Darkstalker felt his mind growing fuzzy, parts of his memory going suddenly blank. He fixated on Clearsight and realized he couldn't really remember anything that they had done together. He could remember feelings, he could remember how much he loved her, and he could still clearly see her face, but the memories themselves were gone. He held onto that image of her as hard as he could, but even that was slowly being pulled away from him.
No! Don't let me forget! Don't let me be lost! Don't let me go into the darkness!
His sense of self was now a tiny pinprick, surrounded by feelings and desires he could no longer identify. There were dragons looking down at him that he thought he recognized, but he couldn't remember their names. He saw the face of a dragon in his mind, but he didn't know who she was. He knew he was desperately upset and afraid, but he didn't know why.
