i really love the idea of ryker being a "neutral" antagonist, just a guy working in the family business, has a wife and kids at home, accepted that he wasn't the best choice to become the chief/leader of the hunters so let his younger brother handle that, a "just doing my job" kind of man, a "i don't get paid enough for this" type guy.
the dragon riders start ruining operations and he's at home setting the table for dinner while complaining to his wife about work. he sees the riders in person and he gets a headache from how young they all are, bunch of toddlers on dragons. insufferable.
dagur joins the crew and ryker wants to file a workplace harassment complaint. he just wants to catch some dragons, earn some money, but now he has to deal with dragon riders and some maniac who's obsessed with one of them. why is he involved in this again??? they manage to capture some of the riders, but now he has a bunch of teens in the cells, and no idea what to do with them. they escape, so whatever, not his problem anymore. wait, they have the artifact? dammit.
i especially love if he's the only "normal" one in the room, like yeah of course he's pissed about the riders attacking his business, and he'll try to stop them, but he's nowhere on the level of alvin, dagur or krogan. he has hiccup captured and hiccup is very cagey around him, extremely wary, double snarky but hunched shoulders like he's expecting a punch. ryker is a bit confused about that, but hey, hiccup is a prisoner so of course he's gonna be wary, but then dagur tells him stories of what he and alvin used to do and ok yeah, he'd be cagey too if he was hiccup, because what the fuck.
i can just imagine the conversations between these two so well,
ryker: about the prisoner, any ideas?
dagur: we can toss him overboard near an island and watch him struggle in the cold water as he tries to swim to shore before dragging him back up like we're hunting him for sport
ryker:
ryker: i meant whether we would put him in the cells or the chambers, what in gods name is wrong with you
it's just we already have so many insane violent villains i just want someone to be Normal and have a stunned reaction to the shit the other bad guys are getting up to, and i feel family man ryker would fit that job perfectly.
Cut fast fashion - buy used, learn to mend and/or make your own clothes, buy fewer clothes less often so you can save up for ethically made quality
Cancel subscriptions - relearn how to pirate media, spend $10/month buying a digital album from a small artist instead of on Spotify, stream on free services since the paid ones make you watch ads anyway
Green your community - there's lots of ways to do this, like seedbombing or joining a community garden or organizing neighborhood trash pickups
Be kind - stop to give directions, check on stopped cars, smile at kids, let people cut you in line, offer to get stuff off the high shelf, hold the door, ask people if they're okay
Intervene - learn bystander intervention techniques and be prepared to use them, even if it feels awkward
Get closer to your food - grow it yourself, can and preserve it, buy from a farmstand, learn where it's from, go fishing, make it from scratch, learn a new ingredient
Use opensource software - try LibreOffice, try Reaper, learn Linux, use a free Photoshop clone. The next time an app tries to force you to pay, look to see if there's an opensource alternative
Make less trash - start a compost, be mindful of packaging, find another use for that plastic, make it a challenge for yourself!
Get involved in local politics - show up at meetings for city council, the zoning commission, the park district, school boards; fight the NIMBYs that always show up and force them to focus on the things impacting the most vulnerable folks in your community
DIY > fashion - shake off the obsession with pristine presentation that you've been taught! Cut your own hair, use homemade cosmetics, exchange mani/pedis with friends, make your own jewelry, duct tape those broken headphones!
Ditch Google - Chromium browsers (which is almost all of them) are now bloated spyware, and Google search sucks now, so why not finally make the jump to Firefox and another search like DuckDuckGo? Or put the Wikipedia app on your phone and look things up there?
Forage - learn about local edible plants and how to safely and sustainably harvest them or go find fruit trees and such accessible to the public.
Volunteer - every week tutoring at the library or once a month at the humane society or twice a year serving food at the soup kitchen, you can find something that matches your availability
Help your neighbors - which means you have to meet them first and find out how you can help (including your unhoused neighbors), like elderly or disabled folks that might need help with yardwork or who that escape artist dog belongs to or whether the police have been hassling people sleeping rough
Fix stuff - the next time something breaks (a small appliance, an electronic, a piece of furniture, etc.), see if you can figure out what's wrong with it, if there are tutorials on fixing it, or if you can order a replacement part from the manufacturer instead of trashing the whole thing
Mix up your transit - find out what's walkable, try biking instead of driving, try public transit and complain to the city if it sucks, take a train instead of a plane, start a carpool at work
Engage in the arts - go see a local play, check out an art gallery or a small museum, buy art from the farmer's market
Go to the library - to check out a book or a movie or a CD, to use the computers or the printer, to find out if they have other weird rentals like a seed library or luggage, to use meeting space, to file your taxes, to take a class, to ask question
Listen local - see what's happening at local music venues or other events where local musicians will be performing, stop for buskers, find a favorite artist, and support them
Buy local - it's less convenient than online shopping or going to a big box store that sells everything, but try buying what you can from small local shops in your area
Become unmarketable - there are a lot of ways you can disrupt your online marketing surveillance, including buying less, using decoy emails, deleting or removing permissions from apps that spy on you, checking your privacy settings, not clicking advertising links, and...
Use cash - go to the bank and take out cash instead of using your credit card or e-payment for everything! It's better on small businesses and it's untraceable
Give what you can - as capitalism churns on, normal shmucks have less and less, so think about what you can give (time, money, skills, space, stuff) and how it will make the most impact
Talk about wages - with your coworkers, with your friends, while unionizing! Stop thinking about wages as a measure of your worth and talk about whether or not the bosses are paying fairly for the labor they receive
Think about wealthflow - there are a thousand little mechanisms that corporations and billionaires use to capture wealth from the lower class: fees for transactions, interest, vendor platforms, subscriptions, and more. Start thinking about where your money goes, how and where it's getting captured and removed from our class, and where you have the ability to cut off the flow and pass cash directly to your fellow working class people
Mischievous hand follower. Was very playful during my visit to the not-so-local zoo
op
Venti never really got the chance to personally meet the storm god before like this. The few times Carmen ended up alone with the god, Venti was safely hidden away. So all the questions the wisp had, all those times he wondered why? –Why did he treat his people the way he did?-- Were left unanswered… Now he gets to see the truth up close and it's still as frightening as it was when he saw the god from afar, safely hidden in Carmen’s cloak like a child hiding under their covers.
Windwheel Aster: Adored by the wind by @imari4444 updated and Decaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! its the GUY!!!!!!!
"But do we have enough bread making vikings-" BAKER HICCUP AU WHERE HE AND TOOTHLESS MAKE BREAD ALL DAY
Glad to see that everyone is collectively going apeshit for Progenitor!Kaveh
WHAT'S THAT PUPPET BOY?
I need help finding a Xingyun fic. I last read it in November 2023. The basic premise (what I remember) is that a clan invaded and took over Liyue. Xingqiu (as with apparently many other "upper class" Liyuens) was taken as a hostage. Then for some gross reason, was taken a concubine (🤢) by either the main bad guy or his brother. There is plenty stabbing and burning of things. Pls, I will do a free fanart commission for the person who finds it! (NO NSFW)
he needs to dissociate for a brief moment during missions to not lose his mind trying to find the form truth and reason while dealing with humans
This blog is for me and you all are just the audience
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