023: The Wild Dragon
Neopronouns: shey/shem/sheir/sheirself which follow the same rules as they/them/their/(theirs)/themself.
Replace they with shey
Replace them with shem
Replace their with sheir
Replace theirs with sheirs
Replace themself with sheirself
EX:
"They are going to adopt a new puppy soon, as soon as they get a fence set up around their yard so the puppy can go outside without them having to walk it. Their uncle is going to help set up the fence, since he has a set of power tools he’s letting them use, since they lost theirs.”
Becomes:
"Shey are going to adopt a new puppy soon, as soon as shey get a fence set up around sheir yard so the puppy can go outside without shem having to walk it. Sheir uncle is going to help set up the fence, since he has a set of power tools he’s letting shem use, since shey lost sheirs.”
023: The Wild Dragon part 1
= = =
Lore crouched at the edge of the forest, holding as still as shey could, trying not to startle the tiny dragon that had alighted just a few feet away, perched on a low branch of a tree, preening itself. It hadn’t noticed shem yet, and shey wanted to keep it that way for as long as possible. This wasn’t the first wild dragon shey’d ever seen, but it was the first time shey’d ever seen this close to one without any fences or other barriers between shem.
Shey breathed as slowly and quietly as shey could, wondering how long it would take for the dragon to notice sheir presence. Sheir grasp on sheir mental abilities was weak, to say the least. Shey’d never been any good at reading other people’s signs, not even when they were apparently making them as bright as possible. Shey didn’t know if it would work, but shey were aiming sheir thoughts at the dragon as much as shey could, trying to create an aura of welcoming calmness despite the way sheir heart felt like it was going to burst out of sheir chest in excitement.
Wild dragons were notoriously hard to befriend, even more difficult than feral ones. Most people didn’t think it was worth it, since wild dragons didn’t get as big and weren’t as adaptable or as house-friendly as common ones.
Shey didn’t know how long shey sat there, practically holding sheir breath, trying to mentally tap the dragon on the shoulder so shey could tell it “HI! I’m friendly! Want to be friends?”
But eventually, sheir legs got tired from the way shey were crouching, and shey had to move, shifting sheir now-pained legs to a better position.
That got the dragon’s attention, and it snapped upright from where it had started to curl around the branch to sleep, and its wide, startled eyes turned directly to where shey were sitting.
Lore froze for a second, then gathered sheir courage, and said as calmly as possible, “Hi.”
The dragon stared at shem, not moving, its eyes locked with sheir own.
Was it talking to shem? Was it trying to send shem signs? Could it read what shey’d been trying to tell it now that it was looking at shem?
Hoping against hope, shey started to say, “My name’s–”
In a flash, the dragon was gone, shooting off further into the woods and disappearing out of sight within a few seconds.
“…Lore…” shey trailed off, disappointment warring with the shock that shey’d even been lucky enough to get so close in the first place.
Finally, the sheer fortune of the entire encounter beat out the disappointment of not accomplishing a miracle, and shey laughed as shey pushed sheirself painfully to sheir feet, still scanning the trees, hoping to catch a glimpse of the dragon again.
Mentally, shey was cataloguing the details of the dragon as shey reluctantly began to continue on sheir walk, listing out its noticeable characteristics so shey would be able to recognize it if shey saw it again. This had been a very young dragon, so it was likely that this was an area it was in often, since younger dragons had smaller territories.
And where there was one, there were more, so even though shey hadn’t had much luck with this one this time, that didn’t mean sheir luck would be just as bad the next time shey saw it, or if shey encountered a different one entirely.
Maybe, just to be safe, shey would start carrying a bag of dragon treats with shem.
Technically it was cheating, but shey figured it was fair, since shey couldn’t read or send signs the way other people could.
* * *
Three days later
* * *
“Hey, Lore, didn’t you say you saw a wild dragon around here a few days ago?” Becui asked, suddenly stopping so she could stare into the trees, craning her neck back to look up into the branches.
Lore stopped too, mostly because if shey hadn’t, shey would have crashed into Becui, who had stopped in the middle of the path without warning. “It wasn’t here exactly,” Lore said, “It was maybe ten more minutes ahead.” Shey pointed in the direction they’d been walking.
Shey remembered where shey’d seen the dragon mainly because there was a conveniently fallen tree just a foot from where the dragon had landed.
Usually, shey had a horrible sense of direction, and wouldn’t have been able to even tell you how to get to the general area, let alone the exact location. Luckily for shem the fallen tree was eye-catching and hard to miss, an easy landmark amidst an otherwise confusing mass of greenery where all the trees looked the same, and the well-maintained path had few variations.
Becui turned to look the way shey’d pointed, looking excited. “Maybe we’ll see it again! I bet I could convince it we’re friendly!”
Lore had told Becui about sheir fear that the dragon had been trying to talk to shem, not realizing shey couldn’t see the signs it was sending shem, or that shey wasn’t even sure shey were sending anything to it at all.
Unlike Lore, Becui could send and see signs with no problem at all. For her, it was second nature, as easy as breathing. For Lore, it was like trying to breathe through a straw. Shey could never see anything people said they were sending shem, even when they insisted they were making them as bright and garish as possible.
For the first ten or so years of sheir life, shey’d actually assumed that no one could see signs, they were just speaking metaphorically or trying to be poetic. But no, they meant it literally. They could all apparently literally send and see messages and words and feeling to each other through patterns and shapes of color that shey couldn’t see or create sheirself.
Sometimes, when shey were feeling especially frustrated with sheir failings at communicating with others, shey wondered to sheirself if the whole thing was just some big, mean joke everyone else was playing on shem.
But shey knew what wasn’t actually true. The odds of shem being the butt of a joke that spanned the whole of history on the entire planet was just…not even remotely in the realm of possibility. Not unless someone who really hated shem was going to invent time travel at some point just to spite shem.
Well, shey couldn’t say shey didn’t have any enemies. The other kids could sniff out people who were different faster than shey could finish saying “hello”, and to them, different automatically meant wrong. No matter where sheir family moved, shey never had many friends, and more people seemed to hate shem just because shey dared to exist near them than shey’d even spoken to.
Becui was bullied too, though not because she had any problems speaking. She had burn scars on her face, neck, left arm, and part of her torso from an accident she’d been in as a baby, leaving her missing an eye, and with reduced strength and movement in that arm.
Thankfully, she had no memories of the accident that had caused it, and the scars didn’t normally cause her pain, but her face and arm were different, and for the bullies, that was excuse enough for cruelty.
Becui and Lore helped each other stand up to the bullies, though nothing they ever did actually got them to stop. It was a friendship formed by adversity, and cemented through shared interests in wildlife, reading, writing, and wondering why anyone would purposefully choose to be cruel when not doing that was so easy.
Lore wanted to sighed as shey thought about it, but smiled for Becui instead. “Come on,” shey said, remembering the thrill of excitement shey’d felt when shey first set eyes on the dragon, “I’ll show you where it was!”
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[ID: Ten circular half black and half yellow pronoun pins against transparent background that read, my pronouns are" across the top, with larger pronouns in the center, in first black, then yellow font.
The pronouns are in order:
rot/rots, ry/ryn, shay/shayself,
she/he, shey/shem,
sia/lia, singu/laer, star/stars,
sy/sky, tal/lyn
End ID.]
Feel free to save them to your computer/device to use for icons, headers, moodboards, edits, ect.
If you’re able to print out and make your own buttons, feel free to do so, as long as you aren’t selling them to make money!
Feel free to request more pronouns in this style, or with different examples sentences! Requests are always open! :)
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Designs are no longer available on Redbubble as of April 2023, as they’ve started actively stealing money from artists. Sorry for the inconvenience. You are, as always, encouraged to save these designs to use as icons or in other art, and you are encouraged to print them out and make your own shirts or buttons if you’re able to.
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