cobalt drgn (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
cobaltdrgn) wrote2020-10-17 05:29 pm
cobaltdrgn) wrote2020-10-17 05:29 pm
Entry tags:
hi im dergo
Hi! I'm Cobalt, a blue, wingless, quadrupedal dragon (drake). You may use they/them or it/its pronouns for me; you may also use he/him if you know me.
What does it mean to be a dragon?
It’s different for every dragon you ask. For me, it’s a combination of a few things: a sense of responsibility and stewardship towards the planet and all life on it, an early-age discomfort with the concept of humans and humanity as applied to me, and the strong feeling that I “should” be embodied as a four-legged lizard thing.
No, this is not a joke, mockery of transgender people (I am also transgender), or roleplay. Regardless of how strange it seems, this has been my life for36 38 years.
For more about draconity, see this DailyDot article, https://www.dailydot.com/irl/otherkin/ or check KaniS’ For Dragons page.
If you’re a wingless dragon, does that mean you can’t fly?
Nope! In my natural body I would use undulating movements to move through air and water alike. See also this video on flying snakes, which use the same trick. (Also they're just really neat.)
What do you look like as a dragon?
My mental self-image closely resembles these pieces of art, which were either commissioned by me or gifted to me.
As for a written descriptor: I'm a quadruped about 7' high at the head, with reptilian snout and facial features, and pale blue scales with a paler blue-white belly. Two parallel rows of greyish spines run down my back, and over each of my eyes is a grey keratinous ridge which continues to the top of my head, where it becomes two backward-pointing horns.
This thicker, "armour-like" keratin is also present on the top of my muzzle, and in the spines that jut from my cheeks, which can be flexed to show emotion. I'm unsure whether I have 3 or 4 main toes on each foot, but I know there's an additional dewclaw (which acts more like a stabiliser for running than a "thumb" of any kind). There is slight webbing, as with a crocodile.
My tail, which ends in a "club" of spikes (or, more fancifully, a thagomizer), is large and muscular, and is used for swimming in much the same way as crocodilian tails.
I have no idea what colour my eyes would be (not the kind of thing you look at as a feral beast), but I usually depict them as grey or white for Reasons. I don't know if I actually had any sort of "breath weapon", but I like to playfully speculate on an icy one. Given that I lived in colder regions, I was probably a mesotherm/gigantotherm, or a full endotherm.
"Was"? Do you remember past lives as a dragon?
Sorta? I have strong inclinations and fractured mental images that suggest I might have once lived as a dragon, or at least a large, reptilian creature, in a region where humans were also present. I don't believe that dinosaurs and humans coexisted, so I don't think I was a dinosaur exactly, though I share many traits with them. Either I was a dragon on Earth who was somehow camouflaged among humans, or I lived on some other planet; or else what I "remember" is a figment, or perhaps a backward echo of a future life.
(Content warning: reproduction, animal infanticide.)
Either way, I remember the following:
- Our species was solitary and met only to mate. Reproduction involved releasing sperm and eggs into a pool of water, like some fish species do. The resulting tadpoles would be left alone by the parents, and would consume their kin until one or more emerged as victors; these successful tadpoles would grow legs and turn into juvenile dragons.
- Despite this violent beginning, I was not of an apex predator species. We ate riverbed plants and fish, and were preyed upon by larger carnivores. Our defense was mostly running and hiding, and submerging ourselves in the water. If cornered by predators we would retaliate with teeth and claws, then try to get away while the predator was stunned. The tail could also give a good thwack to a predator's face, but the spines were primarily for intimidation; the meat of the tail would do the damage.
- As this suggests, we were semi-aquatic, capable of moving quickly through the water and air. On land we could run almost as fast, but swimming was our strength.
- I remember watching from a distance as a group of humans, dressed in brown fur hats and coats similar to these, cared for their reindeer herds and fished in holes in the ice. They taught their children how to fish and hunt from an early age; I remember young ones dressed in fur-lined hoods as they sat at fishing holes with their elders, squealing and chattering excitedly in a language I didn't know. I was interested in these creatures and why they cared for the reindeer, but could not let them see me.
How does your dragon nature manifest in daily life?
I've lived a couple of lives as a human, I think, but it still remains something that's hard to adjust to. I miss walking on four legs and rolling on the ground, smelling the wet earth. I miss powerful, snapping jaws and a tail that creates swimming thrust. I miss lying down in a cave by an underground lake, unbothered by the hard rock floor, and resting knowing that no one can reach me here. I miss wiggling my cheek-spines. I miss having big, sensitive nostrils with which to sniff things and detect other animals' subtle signals. There are lots of things I miss.
And yet I know that claiming the name "dragon" involves claiming a great responsibility. Though solitary by nature, I feel called to help others, and I feel that that is what makes me a dragon, rather than merely a scaly monster. I'm no angel; many's the time I feel inclined to retreat into simple, animal nature, wandering off into some stark and snowy land and never coming back. But I try, because this is what I have, and I'm presumably here for *some* reason. Might as well give it a shot.
What does it mean to be a dragon?
It’s different for every dragon you ask. For me, it’s a combination of a few things: a sense of responsibility and stewardship towards the planet and all life on it, an early-age discomfort with the concept of humans and humanity as applied to me, and the strong feeling that I “should” be embodied as a four-legged lizard thing.
No, this is not a joke, mockery of transgender people (I am also transgender), or roleplay. Regardless of how strange it seems, this has been my life for
For more about draconity, see this DailyDot article, https://www.dailydot.com/irl/otherkin/ or check KaniS’ For Dragons page.
If you’re a wingless dragon, does that mean you can’t fly?
Nope! In my natural body I would use undulating movements to move through air and water alike. See also this video on flying snakes, which use the same trick. (Also they're just really neat.)
What do you look like as a dragon?
My mental self-image closely resembles these pieces of art, which were either commissioned by me or gifted to me.
As for a written descriptor: I'm a quadruped about 7' high at the head, with reptilian snout and facial features, and pale blue scales with a paler blue-white belly. Two parallel rows of greyish spines run down my back, and over each of my eyes is a grey keratinous ridge which continues to the top of my head, where it becomes two backward-pointing horns.
This thicker, "armour-like" keratin is also present on the top of my muzzle, and in the spines that jut from my cheeks, which can be flexed to show emotion. I'm unsure whether I have 3 or 4 main toes on each foot, but I know there's an additional dewclaw (which acts more like a stabiliser for running than a "thumb" of any kind). There is slight webbing, as with a crocodile.
My tail, which ends in a "club" of spikes (or, more fancifully, a thagomizer), is large and muscular, and is used for swimming in much the same way as crocodilian tails.
I have no idea what colour my eyes would be (not the kind of thing you look at as a feral beast), but I usually depict them as grey or white for Reasons. I don't know if I actually had any sort of "breath weapon", but I like to playfully speculate on an icy one. Given that I lived in colder regions, I was probably a mesotherm/gigantotherm, or a full endotherm.
"Was"? Do you remember past lives as a dragon?
Sorta? I have strong inclinations and fractured mental images that suggest I might have once lived as a dragon, or at least a large, reptilian creature, in a region where humans were also present. I don't believe that dinosaurs and humans coexisted, so I don't think I was a dinosaur exactly, though I share many traits with them. Either I was a dragon on Earth who was somehow camouflaged among humans, or I lived on some other planet; or else what I "remember" is a figment, or perhaps a backward echo of a future life.
(Content warning: reproduction, animal infanticide.)
Either way, I remember the following:
- Our species was solitary and met only to mate. Reproduction involved releasing sperm and eggs into a pool of water, like some fish species do. The resulting tadpoles would be left alone by the parents, and would consume their kin until one or more emerged as victors; these successful tadpoles would grow legs and turn into juvenile dragons.
- Despite this violent beginning, I was not of an apex predator species. We ate riverbed plants and fish, and were preyed upon by larger carnivores. Our defense was mostly running and hiding, and submerging ourselves in the water. If cornered by predators we would retaliate with teeth and claws, then try to get away while the predator was stunned. The tail could also give a good thwack to a predator's face, but the spines were primarily for intimidation; the meat of the tail would do the damage.
- As this suggests, we were semi-aquatic, capable of moving quickly through the water and air. On land we could run almost as fast, but swimming was our strength.
- I remember watching from a distance as a group of humans, dressed in brown fur hats and coats similar to these, cared for their reindeer herds and fished in holes in the ice. They taught their children how to fish and hunt from an early age; I remember young ones dressed in fur-lined hoods as they sat at fishing holes with their elders, squealing and chattering excitedly in a language I didn't know. I was interested in these creatures and why they cared for the reindeer, but could not let them see me.
How does your dragon nature manifest in daily life?
I've lived a couple of lives as a human, I think, but it still remains something that's hard to adjust to. I miss walking on four legs and rolling on the ground, smelling the wet earth. I miss powerful, snapping jaws and a tail that creates swimming thrust. I miss lying down in a cave by an underground lake, unbothered by the hard rock floor, and resting knowing that no one can reach me here. I miss wiggling my cheek-spines. I miss having big, sensitive nostrils with which to sniff things and detect other animals' subtle signals. There are lots of things I miss.
And yet I know that claiming the name "dragon" involves claiming a great responsibility. Though solitary by nature, I feel called to help others, and I feel that that is what makes me a dragon, rather than merely a scaly monster. I'm no angel; many's the time I feel inclined to retreat into simple, animal nature, wandering off into some stark and snowy land and never coming back. But I try, because this is what I have, and I'm presumably here for *some* reason. Might as well give it a shot.