story sketch: diapering dragons [update: 08-30-2011]

[meeks]

This sketch is from aldersprig's suburban fantasy setting, dragons next door. Ten-year-old Juniper has offered to babysit the Smith's new baby, an adorable blue hatchling...who spits up acid and needs asbestos diapers.



cleaned-up sketch:


rough sketch:

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Comments

[aldersprig.livejournal.com]

Yay, logical thought! (Thank you)

I'm going to have to actually figure out scale for my dragons now. *grin* Accidental worldbuilding!

I just watched a bit of a special on TRex juveniles, and how the leg-to-body ratio changed as they got older.

[kelkyag]

<big eyes> meeksp can't draw the parent and child portrait she suggested if she doesn't know what the adults look like.

[aldersprig.livejournal.com]

Well, then, I guess you're just going to have to help me figure out what they look like! :-D

Hrmm. What if length vs. circumference is a function of age?

[kelkyag]

Do they grow their whole lives, or do they reach some maximum size and then stop? Do they grow in stages (as with the color change(s)), with major molts in between (like poor Jimmy is going through, or wrapping up), or is it more continuous? Is adolescent Jimmy close to full size?

Could Jimmy, or one of the adults, carry Juniper, her whole family, more? In his claws or on his back? And still fly? Are their wings (and the skeletal structure they're attached to) big enough for them to fly mundanely, or is there some magic/handwaving involved in that? If they fly mundanely, they're going to need a huge breastbone/keel for the flight muscles to attach to, and it would make sense to keep everything else as light as possible -- which could work with the length/circumference changes. Where do their wings sit/attach relative to their legs? It looks like Baby's wings are no further forward than his front legs, and could be well behind them, depending on how they fold -- and if he's going to fly mundanely, his wings are going to grow a whole lot relative to the rest of him.

On the ground, do they usually walk on two legs (t-rex?) or four? Can/will they do the other, or is it impossible/undignified (if sufficiently sinuous, walking on two legs could get awkward)? If four, how do they routinely carry things around? If they're outside/have space, do they prefer to walk or fly?

... I, umm, might think about things by asking questions, which does not work for everyone. Or I could try to ask more story-oriented questions. Juniper is imagining warrior-princess-and-dragon -- does she think the "and dragon" is a fellow warrior or a faithful steed? How do they travel? Do her storybooks/imaginings usefully reflect real dragons, or is she going to run into some "but all the stories say ..." issues?

[aldersprig.livejournal.com]

I actually work really well from questions, actually! (laughs at self... actually)

I think they grow in stages.
I think Jimmy is at, say, the middle of 5 stages (baby, child, teen, young adult, old adult).

Jimmy can carry Juniper on his back, and her dolly in his claws (not sure on that one)
Jimmy's parents could carry both of Juniper's parents on either of their backs and still fly.

They fly either mundanely or mostly-mundanely.

Perhaps they can't fly until early adolescence?

Not sure about the two/four. Thinking four, and now I'm picturing a dragon carrying a baby in its jaw like a stork.

They enjoy flying, but locomote comfortably in cities by walking.

Juniper's and-dragon fell in Telepathic Horse Who Fights when I was imagining the story. They travel by flying, and her imaginings are realistic, sometimes more than the stories, which can get a bit more fanciful.

C/P'ing this to my journal, if you don't mind.

[meeksp.livejournal.com]

I drew baby as more-or-less egg-shaped, if his limbs are tucked in, and assumed that dragons get bigger, longer, and more pointy(?) as they get older.

[aldersprig.livejournal.com]

Hee, reasonable!! :-)

[kelkyag]

How alarmingly reasonable.

And now I wonder how baby snakes are arranged inside the egg. <pokes google> I am asking very well, but what I'm finding so far suggests "all curled up". I wonder how that doesn't lead to asymetrical development.