Hello! If it’s not too much trouble, would you be willing to discuss how to describe a character with nonhuman features? Such as wings, specifically? Thank you!

Prompts for Describing a Character with Wings

-> @she-who-fights-and-writes made an in-depth post about writing a character with wings with many helpful tips to remember while writing. They also include a list of vocabulary to describe the movement of wings based on the character's emotions. Their post can be found Here.

-> @kedreeva made a post regarding the science behind a character having wings, including anatomy of the wings themselves and the feathers. They also dive into info about preening, molting, nesting, etc. That post can be found Here.

-> feel free to edit and adjust pronouns as you see fit.

He was a handsome guy with sharp features, but she couldn't keep her eyes off of his wings. They sprouted from his back like two extra limbs that he could control at will, with long, silky black feathers like a raven.

The feathers of her wings flared when she was angry, making her appear bigger than she was.

They had wings like a hummingbird that fluttered just as fast as his heart when he saw them.

He hated his wings sometimes. They were big and bulky and never useful to him when he was on the ground. He groaned as he bent to pick up the things his wings had managed to knock off the shelf, only to have them swipe a few more items from the counter and onto the floor.

Her wings were neatly folded behind her back, tucked close. At a sudden noise behind her, she jolted, her wings shooting out to display her full wingspan. Her heart pounded in her chest, her feathers twitching as she searched for the source of the noise.

The wings on their back gently shifted, hovering over her head to shield her from the rain.

His wings stretched out to their full wingspan as a last minute attempt to keep himself from falling.

She felt free when she was in the air, her wings finally able to stretch out to their full potential. She felt so trapped on the ground sometimes, forced to keep them folded so they don't get in the way.

God, he thought they were beautiful. They were an angel, had to be. An angel blessed with the prettiest wings he had ever seen on a person, sprouting gently from their back like a waterfall of feathers.

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Secretkeeper Drabble

Word count: 881

There’s probably a lot of mistakes in this wa…

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Secretkeeper had her doubts when she saw the egg, silver and glittery under the moonlight.

Maybe it was just an odd large stone, or maybe it was a rainwing egg that had rolled its way out of its nest. By all accounts she's never actually seen a rainwing egg before, but they had to be bright, right? She had scrounged around the area where she remembered leaving her egg in, no dark, sad gray egg to be found. All paths lead to this shiny silver thing being hers unless a predator snatched the real egg up or some dumb rainwing mistook hers for its own.

And her own instincts have been rather sure that it was hers, or it had just decided that any remotely egg shaped thing was something worth looking after. She had thoughts of this being a mistake, sure she wanted her child to stay away from all the brainwashing back at the island and stay even farther away from the constant looming threat of the volcano. But even so at least Secretkeeper would have the insurance of other nightwings, how at the very least the hatchling in some way would be safe from the outside world. There were at least no predators, or any tribes lingering around at the island.

And the child would have other nightwings there to look after them, they could have friends there. They wouldn’t be lonely.

Secretkeeper pondered and pondered as she held the ‘egg’ in her talons, staring down at it as she was weighing her options. Whether or not she should just keep it here or fly back to the volcano with it, tell everyone the truth and admit to all the lies she had told them. Admit that all the times she went to scavenge around the rainforest she’s actually been checking up on her egg.

But today was the day it would hatch. It wouldn’t be safe to fly around with an egg about to burst open at any second. But it also wouldn’t be safe to leave a little hatchling to be out on their own in a dangerous forest with beasts and other tribe dragons. Especially those little scavengers wrangling about. But they also would be fed all the time with all the little animals and fruit just lying around. They wouldn’t have to constantly worry about a volcano exploding at any second, they wouldn’t have to breathe in smoke for their entire lives. And if they hid well enough they wouldn’t have to worry about any animals snatching them.

The rainforest was far colder and likely more dangerous than the volcano but at least there were ways to work around the danger, there was lava everywhere at the island, and the threat of eruption was constant.

Secretkeeper’s thoughts had been interrupted as she felt the egg move in her talons, cracks forming as slowly but surely the shell split apart. She stared at it, wide eyed and filled with wonder. She’s been to hatchings before, but this one. This was hers.

As it continued to shake and break apart, chirps came out from it. Quiet, small little noises. As the shell continued to crack all around, the little hatchling inside fighting their way out. Secretkeeper continued to stare as the egg hatched in her talons, the cracks continuing to form around the side of the egg.

Until eventually, a little hatchling made its- her way out.

Secretkeeper has seen hatchlings before. They were always the color of rock or smoke, sometimes even lava. Various shades of gray with some red here and there. But out of all those hatchlings, out of all the dragonets of the tribe. She can't think of one that’s had even a single star on them.

Her little hatchling, dark scaled and round, tiny little wings that would flap in earnest as she squeaked up at Secretkeeper. Even with how dark her scales were they had swirls of color in them, most noticeably hues of greens and blues, not unlike a galaxy. Actually, as Secretkeeper glances up at the sky and back down at her hatchling, they looked quite alike. It was as if a piece of the night sky had fallen down.

And the stars, she harbored so many of them. Little specks of silver all across her body. With as much as she’s seen and known, stars were only present on nightwings who’ve ventured outside of the volcano frequently like the ones tasked with surveying the rainforest. But even then, none of them ever had this many. The stars they had were always sparse, few to the point where they would be easy to count in quick succession.

But her little one had so many, a freshly hatched dragonet with so many stars, it was almost mesmerizing to look at. A little galaxy in her talons.

Her little Moon.

Slightly related to my last point but not related enough to tack onto the same post

Why have we seen everything between aggressive "flirting" and on-screen sex between male characters yet Charlie and Vaggie haven't even kissed

Randomly thinking about how angry the way Winter is treated in the narrative makes me

They show the real Winter and acknowledge who he actually is JUST to once again present him as the mean stuck-up prince??? HE GOES THROUGH SO MUCH DEVELOPMENT IN WINTER TURNING JUST TO BE SHOWN AS THE SAME OLD 'ANGRY RACIST STUCK UP PRINCE'???? IN THE NEXT BOOKS LIKE WHAT. TUI. PLEASE. I KNOW THAT WE AREN'T SEEING IT FROM HIS PERSPECTIVE, SO WE DON'T KNOW WHAT HES THINKING BUT. HE BARELY CHANGES AT ALL... LIKE AT THE END OF WINTER TURNING HE REALIZES THAT THE WINGLET IS HIS TRIBE AND HE CARES ABOUT THEM MORE THAN A RANKING AND A FAMILY WHO (mostly) DOESN'T LOVE HIM. THEN IN THE NEXT BOOKS HE'S BACK TO THE SAME OLD 'WINTER'. TUI.

I've seen people calling Winter 'nasty mean racist man' HAVE YOU READ THE BOOKS. DRAGON RACISM WAS SO RAMPANT IN THE BOOKS.... LIKE ALMOST EVERY CHARACTER HAD A MOMENT WHERE THEY WERE BEING THE DRAGON EQUIVALENT OF RACIST. WHICH OBVIOUSLY, ISN'T GOOD, BUT TO JUST PIN IT ON WINTER??? WHAT??? HIS HATRED OF NIGHTWINGS WAS FUCKING DRILLED INTO HIS BRAIN GROWING UP, HE GETS PAST THAT AND LEARNS TO NOT BE DRAGON RACIST. HE REALIZES 'OH FUCK. MAYBE THE THINGS MY SHALLOW HIERARCHICAL SOCIETY TAUGHT ME AREN'T TRUE'. DID WE READ THE SAME BOOKS, WHERE APPARENTLY, NONE OF THAT HAPPENED?? MEANWHILE DARKSTALKER, THE FANDOMS 'PRECIOUS MISUNDERSTOOD BABY' TRIED TO COMMIT RACIAL GENOCIDE BECAUSE HE HAD AN ABUSIVE DAD WHO HAPPENED TO BE AN ICEWING??? (And when Winter is upset about this he is treated as unreasonable by the guy who KNEW WHAT WAS GOING ON (Qibli) )

I've been a Winter defender for so long, surrounded by a fandom who mostly hates him and now that I have emotional intelligence since I'm not nine (no offense to nine year olds 🙏) and I have a place to ramble where I'll be listened to I can finally defend my angsty ice dragon I will absolutely do so. This stupid ass garbagefire of a series has meant so much to me over the years and I'm passionate about so many of these characters. I adore Winter so much, reading through the books for like the 50th time is so amazing, like I used to immediately hate moon because she was called a Mary sue, Qibli because people find him annoying, Kinkajou because she was the 'annoying one', but now I love all of those characters. I can see traits of all of them in me, and they mean a lot to me. Turtle's anxiety, Qibli's Sociotropy, (needing to be liked by everyone) hypervigilance (I've never seen people talking about it, and to see it represented in my favorite book series makes me feel seen.), fierce loyalty, Winter's guilt, self-loathing, desperate desire to please his parents, Moon's social anxiety, nervousness, and love of reading, Kinkajou's desire to be a dragon others notice and remember.

This turned into a rant about a completely different thing I'm so sorry, I'm not even done I have so much to say about these guys

Please don't let this flop I poured my heart out about this book series for children

lalala various doodles I've made irl of kirby characters from memory lol

you always hurt the ones you love.

the ones you shouldn’t hurt at all.

yk i was having trouble writing tllr chapter 12 because Dew is sick with a fever in the beginning and i just,, idk felt uninspired or something because im not the biggest fan of sickfics or whatever

well now i’m sick with a fever and it’s helll so sorry Dew im gonna have to put you through this now my bad 👍👍 at least i am now inspired

if this post makes no sense it’s because my brain hurts and i’m tired 👍👍👍

not my previous opinion on firefly coming to bite me in the ass JAHDJSHJD

Fourth Wing was fucking awful 😭

You've done bird wings but can we get people with bug wings? The different anatomy makes it more annoying to write I feel

Prompts for Describing a Character with Bug Wings

-> feel free to edit and adjust pronouns as you see fit.

Her wings were almost see-through, with little designs and fractured shapes that reminded him of stained glass. The sunlight would sometimes catch them at just the right moment, and they would look like they were glowing.

He closed his wings, their colors still out on display. They were not very versatile, his only choices on what to do with them being opened or closed.

Their wings fluttered quickly, creating a soft buzzing sound that signaled their arrival. The noise ceased when they landed on the ground.

She huffed, opening her wings to their full wingspan. They were big, often too big. Reaching high over her head and nearly touching the floor. They were great at blocking doorways, though. Her friend paused in their retreat, fixing her with a glare as they were blocked from their exit by the wall of color.

He was often laughed at for his wings. After all, according to all known laws of aviation, a bee should not be able to fly. Yet, here he was, with his tiny wings that miraculously were able to lift him from the ground. (I couldn't help myself with this one lmao)

Their wings tucked nicely behind their back, almost totally concealed from view. They easily layered themselves, and would stay stiff against their back, keeping them out of the way.

Her wings shot out at the first sign of danger and lifted her into the air. She hovered, scanning the area as a soft buzzing noise filled her ears.

stupid ass wizard.......... I totally fucking lied about this being under 20k btw

thinking about adam's heaven takeover verse ...

i dont really care if something has bad writing like. im aware of that going in and if it does what it sets out to do then--as far as the general writing quality goes--its whatever to me, mostly, cause any other critique or gripe i have of it can rest on top of "but at least its hitting its own target (or doing its best to)" overall i tend to have an attitude of "everyone starts somewhere" and "even bad writing can be entertaining" and "art is art, creation is creation, etc" so like. even if i won't call bad writing good, im like. idc it can just Exist yknow.

what Really irritates me is when bad writing acts like its good with zero self awareness. when they have lost the plot of their own plot (if they ever had it to begin with). when bad writing acts like its reinventing the wheel or the best thing since sliced bread when it is in fact just a really shitty wheel and a stale loaf. and all my other critiques and gripes can thus boil down to "what are you even doing!! where are you going!!!" bonus irritation points whenever a fan(base) refuses to acknowledge all this as well.

i hate when characters are written out of character in fics unless it's people making anders and fenris be nice to merrill. i think that's good mischaracterization actually

wait- your name is 7oby (Toby) and you had a cat named toby- which came first your name or the cats name- who stole who's name ~pumpkin anon

The cat came first. I needed a name to sign my art with and didn't want to use my birth name so I borrowed the cat's. But then it started getting a little confusing because there was Toby (cat), Toby (me), and Toby (character), and I was super into Halo at the time so I swapped the T out for a 7 haha

Bungie, Halo's devs, used to hide references to the number 7 EVERYWHERE in their old games. Like map layouts would branch out into 7 directions, random numbers would add up to 7 or were a multiple of 7, characters would have 7s hidden in their textures, etc.

Somehow 7oby stuck. It's been 18 years. I'm indifferent about it at this point and honestly only still use it because Sol (character) and Sol (me) can get confusing. 5ol is out of the question, I've already laughed at that idea lol

Did i make a grian design??? I think i did! A loose one at that, and i will be stealing others', but i did it! finnalylly!! tried to experiment a lil with blue lineart; saw sthn that said it would make your drawing cool and sexy and you know what, they were right!!

i did a version with and without his lil cloak thing, this is kind of a reference for myself after all. Version with black lineart under the cut.