thedegu

[thedegu]

If you dare come at me about banning straws, I will throw you into the sun cannon. I’m disabled, I’m crippled, I need disposable plastic straws, and all those pricey ridiculous alternatives aren’t working as well. Plastic straws were invented for the disabled.

Way to shit all over a vital access need because you think straws are worse than corporate greed.

We all care about the turtles, the seals, the oceans, obviously. Notice how the easiest thing to yell about was something that would barely affect anything but appealed heavily to emotional discourse.

The disabled community is huge, and it can be joined by anyone. Most of those As Seen On TV products were invented for us. Society still mocks us and ignores us, and often outright harms us in multiple ways.

Communicate better. Listen better. But stop putting us out in the cold because you are inconvenienced by our simplest needs.

#rebagle

[thedegu]

The US military emitted 640 times as much CO2 as Taylor Swift last year

#rebagle

[thedegu]

Latias

#rebagle

[thedegu]

solo jazz suicune

#rebagle

[thedegu]

i saw your art on twitter, it's very good but the fact you have minors following you while you draw literal witches ("creatures" practicing m*gic) is REALLY iffy

it's over. 17th century puritan philip wittebane has found my tumblr at last. sorry i failed you general

#rebagle

[thedegu]

ID 📸

#rebagle

[thedegu]

normalize having more than one best friend. "best friend" shouldn't just be a title reserved for one person... best friend is a species...

[thedegu]

Honorary bad kids!

[thedegu]

rolling badly is something that can be so good for developing your character, actually 

[thedegu]

"is this too cliche?" who cares? bro, write what you have fun writing. stuff your manuscript full of your favourite tropes. the same themes you love. all inspired by things you grew up with. do it all. go off. load. it. up. be freeeee

[thedegu]

[thedegu]

[thedegu]

[thedegu]

my name's cougar but my friends call me mountain lion and my mama calls me puma and today's my first day at big cat high. i'm so nervous i hope they don't realize i'm not panthera >ܫ<

[thedegu]

[thedegu]

Hey you

Yeah you!

Do you like weird fantasy?

Do you like delisabled queer Austic characters?

Do you like the found family trope?

Do you like dnd shenanigans?

Well I might just have the story for you!

Tales of Vaistra act I: a Confluence of Inconvenient Circumstances. Is up on ao3! Check out the first chapter here, then click the link in my pinned post!

It updates twice a week, I have all of act I written act II is just being wrapped up now and act three is in the outline stage.

You know when something bad happens to you, and you aren't even surprised or upset anymore? Because that day was already shit. Like you go out for a coffee, and at first you can't find your wallet; then you see your cat pissed in your shoes; Then, you step in a muddy puddle on your way. So, by the time you pick up your order and immediately drop it on your way out, you aren’t even all that upset. You can lie down and cry or just laugh at the ridiculousness of everything and move on.

Now, imagine that, but literally every day of your existence.  That's how my life has been for all of the twenty-three-odd years I have been on this green planet. I'd say right now, I'm at my second lowest after someone I trusted tried to murder me. On this second-worst-day of my life;  fire rained down on an inescapable prison island I was working through a life sentence on for some light human trafficking and less light murder.

Now, I know that sounds bad, but the human trafficking was moving people over the border of Totsi and Surakarta. People who would have had a difficult time taking that vacation otherwise, and I just so happened to be in ownership of a cart with a false bottom.  The murder, well, when the guards checked the cart I was using, people panicked, swords were swung, guns shot, and spells cast.  Honestly, it was a miracle only one of those cops died, and that’s just because he tripped and ate shit cracking his head open.   

More likely, I’m only on Maru over some normal maximum security prison on the mainland because I’m a Binder. And you see, dear reader, binders, as a profession, especially in Totsi, are a bit illegal.  Excuse me if you've never heard of the job; even on Vaistra, we’re few and far between, maybe one or two per quarter million, give or take. If you have heard of us, it’s probably with the concept that we are thugs, drug dealers, pimps, and the like. I mean, I don’t personally fall outside of that description, working plenty of security and moving products during my tenure, but being a binder doesn’t mean you work illegal jobs.  A binder is just as likely to own a pawn shop or run a horse stable as any of our better-known exploits.

What makes a binder a binder isn’t our additional work. It is how we get the power to do said work, and that tends to be the part that makes the people in power nervous.

We're folks who temporarily contract great forces beyond our comprehension. Beings that exist outside of space and time, not gods, or at least living gods, but spirits, archfae demons, and even great Heros of the past.  People don't become binders unless they are already royally fucked, because you’re more likely to get yourself killed or imprisoned than improve your life once you start using this particular type of magic. So, only people who are already desperate become binders. Correlation versus causation and all that. That same desperation tends to lead people down illegally traveled roads.

That's too much of a tangent, fuck where were we? Oh yeah, the fire is raining down on Maru. Well, let me backtrack further than that for context.

I had landed on Maru about three weeks earlier, and I was already working on an escape plan as soon as my feet hit the sandy shores of the tiny, overgrown island off the coast of Totsi. There weren't guards outside the sleeping quarters and no fences or towers in sight, just the one U-shaped stone building that held the few staff and the few hundred prisoners. A deep rainforest rubbed against the back of the structure, and rough boat-smashing currents cut off only but the largest of the Totsi ships.

Creating a raft did cross my mind, a solution so obvious that I knew I couldn't work. Because 1: those previously mentioned boat-smashing waves, and 2: all of the fresh water on the island had to be imported from the mainland and was heavily tracked by the guards. It took the better part of four days to get to the island from the mainland, even on one of the Totsi’s powerful ships. So, to play it safe, I would need at least a month's worth of water saved up if I were to try the raft idea. Which would be difficult, to say the least. 

Unless I befriended someone who could purify salt water….

Enter Sashara, A.K.A. Sash. She was shipped in on the boat after me. She was small, slightly shorter than myself, and probably half my weight. Her skin was tan-brown, sprinkled with freckles, and framed by wavy brown hair kept under a black scarf. She looked so much like a lost puppy, tearily explaining to any guard close enough to her that it was a mistake, that she didn't mean to trespass, and that her charges were way out of proportion to her crime. 

It was surprising to see someone from Zabisrakh this far out. Zabisrakh is the newest desert nation on the western continent of Huabeth. While friendly, its people preferred to stay within their borders, though that would be more than a bit of hypocrisy from a Massuraman.  

Sash, herself, was bewildering to watch. With her nervous eyes and fidgeting hands. Saying the worst possible things to the worst possible people.

And they say I'm bad luck.

“Ah, is your skin okay?” she said as she bumped into the biggest guy on the island. To be fair, his skin was fucked; red scales jutted out of his cheekbones and ran from the crown of his head down his spine. Two horns projected from his forehead and back over his bald scalp. Sharp claws, teeth, and vestigial wings also revealed his draconic heritage. Revazi was a man of few words and the apparent personal bodyguard to one Eriana Rakena, a noble from Lucegon.  Honestly, she scared me more than Revazi.  I can take a punch, but I don't know how to predict a Necromancer.

Erina watched, sitting at a table nearby, her expression bored with her porcelain skin, perfectly dry in the humid heat. Her black lace dress was mostly disassembled, but she still looked ready for a gala. Erina’s expression stayed stoic as Sash stumbled over herself, and Ravazi's gaze burned into her like his draconic lineage. 

“You know what? Forget I said anything. Your skin is perfect—what's your routine? What products do you use?” 

Okay, this had gone from entertaining to pathetic. It was time to play Hero. I walked up, put my hand on Sash's shoulder, and gave Revazi one of my world-renowned grins. “Heat stroke, am I right? Let's get you some water, Sash.”

“Wait, who-” I pulled the girl along, away from Revazi and Erina. My grip was gentle enough that she could get away if she really wanted to, but my glances back told her not.

Once in a somewhat private area between two outbuildings, I finally stopped and let the girl go. Leaning on the wall, I looked at her as friendly and charmingly as possible. Which is to say very friendly and charming.

“Who are you-- how did you know my name?!“ Sash looked terrified, and her fingertips crackled with magic. I did not know how powerful she was, but I figured by her face she'd never taken a punch before. So, if worse came to worse, I'm not above hitting girls.

“My name is Omolale,” I explained with a grin. ”I'm just trying to help you out. I'm guessing this is your first time in prison, then?”

“Ah yes,” she says, looking more embarrassed than appropriate. “Look, I didn't know that those flowers were protected—I needed them for a spell!“

I nodded along like I actually cared.  ”hm, I'm sorry you went through that; listen, Sash- stick with me from now on. I'll keep you safe.“

Sash fidgeted and looked away. When her gaze returned to me-- her eyes stuck at the side of my face, caught in front of my left ear, where something was missing. She caught herself staring and met my eye, and I grit my teeth for the question I knew was coming next.

”You're Masuraman?“ she asked, skirting the actual question. It's not the worst way someone has put that thought; there was no accusatory 'Where are your beads' or 'What happened to you?' Though questioning my heritage outright was a bit of a punch in the gut in a different way.

You see, the Masuraman people are people of the land. No gods, just the spirits and fae, known as the Emi. Ask any kid to draw a Masuraman, and they'll draw a tall, thin, dark brown person with the beads of our heritage braided into their hair. Now out of all those things, I am just gifted with dark skin and the inherent magic of our people; I’m 5'5 on a good day and built like a brick shithouse; double chin, broad shoulders, and an award-winning smile that's all a part of my charm. 

With the missing beads and bum leg, I’m just about one of a kind.

It's still rude to mention it. 

“Yes, I am Masuraman,” I say, trying not to show how guarded I felt. Sash smiled then, a real bright smile showing all her white teeth. 

“Thanks, Ale,” she seemed to let go of some of the tension she was holding. “I ah really don't know what I'm doing here.”

no shit.

“Yeah, it's okay,” I laugh. “Stay away from that big guy, and you'll be good."

#writrblr #my writing #writing #original story #dnd #dungeons & dragons

[thedegu]

god i love making animatics in my head i wish drawing was real