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LEONA X READER

Where you start to ask him to use his UM for you

Where Leona, always insecure and determined about the patheticness of his UM, begins to change after meeting you, an artist who creates glass and crystal figures, and asks him to use his UM to transform glass remains into sand

loved this one <3

Leona hated his Unique Magic. Always had.

Sure, people said it was impressive. The ability to dry anything, to strip it down until it crumbled to dust in your palm? Sounded like the kind of magic suited for a king. Ruinous. Untouchable.

But in practice? It was destructive. Useless. Unoriginal. All it ever did was reduce things into sand. Turn lush greenery into withered husks. Sap water from soil, drain warmth from food, crack even the air with its dryness.

He’d never found a good reason to use it unless he wanted something to disappear.

And Leona Kingscholar didn’t like being reminded that he was good at getting rid of things.

So when you first approached him about it, out of the blue and way too bold for someone who barely knew him, he looked up from the grass in the greenhouse with a deep, annoyed grunt.

“You want me to what, herbivore?”

You stood over him in that stupid art-stained apron you always wore, holding a cracked chunk of smoky, burnt glass in your gloved hands.

“I’m not asking you to blow anything up, geez,” you said lightly. “I just… need some sand.”

He squinted at you, ears twitching slightly. “What, the beach too far for you?”

You smiled. “Yeah, and your sand is better.”

He blinked. “Come again?”

“The sand you make. From your UM.”

You lifted the shard to show him its jagged edge.

“See, this one’s ruined. The shape’s off, and it’s scorched. But if I grind it down, melt it again, I could maybe salvage it. But if you could just—turn it back into sand, I could get a cleaner rebatch.”

Leona sat up slowly.

“You want me to use my Unique Magic… on your garbage?”

You didn’t flinch at the edge in his tone.

“I want to try turning it into something new.”

Leona almost told you to piss off. Almost.

But you looked at that broken glass with such purpose in your eyes, like you believed something beautiful was still hiding in it.

And for some reason—maybe the sun was too hot, or he was too tired—he flicked his hand lazily and muttered under his breath.

King’s Roar.

The shard crumbled instantly, dissolving into a fine, pale gold powder. Clean. Almost sparkling in the sunlight.

You crouched to scoop it into a container with a small, satisfied hum.

“That’s perfect,” you said, like you’d just watched a flower bloom.

He raised a brow. “It’s just sand.”

“No, it’s potential.���

Something shifted in his chest at that. Uncomfortable. Hot.

You came back the next day. And the day after that.

Always with cracked glass or ruined sculptures.

Always asking, softly but with certainty, “Can I borrow your magic again?” And Leona always acted annoyed, always rolled his eyes like he was being inconvenienced, but he never said no.

And eventually, you started bringing things back to show him.

Bowls blown in spirals of color, where specks of sand were like desert stars.

Sculptures that caught sunlight just right, making tiny rainbows on the greenhouse walls.

Or delicate little trinkets—a lion’s paw, a flower blooming in a dish—that you swore were just “practice,” but he caught you smiling when he lingered on them too long.

“Couldn’t’ve done this without you,” you said once, holding a jar filled with a swirling, amber-hued hourglass.

“Your sand’s smoother than anything I could get from crushing it myself. It melts cleaner. Glows brighter.”

Leona grunted. “You’re the one doing all the work. I’m just breaking things.”

“You’re not breaking anything,” you said. “You’re giving me a chance to start over.”

He didn’t know what to say to that.

Because no one had ever said that before. Not to him.

Weeks passed like that. And slowly, Leona started to wait for you. Subtly. Not that he’d admit it.

He’d lie on the grass and tilt one ear toward the greenhouse entrance, pretending to nap while secretly hoping for your footsteps.

He found himself pocketing little broken pebbles on walks, wondering if you could use them. Once, he even caught himself thinking about what kind of glass he would be, if you ever sculpted him.

(Probably dark. Sharp. A piece that refused to be molded.)

One afternoon, you showed up carrying a bundle in cloth.

“This one’s for you,” you said, unwrapping it.

“I made it from the first batch of sand you gave me.”

It was a glass lion—small enough to fit in his palm, all sweeping mane and proud curve. Not flashy, but warm, like the sun on stone.

Leona stared. His mouth went dry.

“…Why?”

You tilted your head.

“Because I wanted to. Because I thought you deserved something that stayed, instead of just slipping through your fingers.”

That—hit something. Deep and buried. Something fragile.

He closed his hand around the glass lion slowly.

“…You’re weird, you know that?”

You smiled. “You’ve mentioned it.”

But when you turned to leave, he spoke again, quietly.

“Hey… next time you’ve got something to ruin, come find me.”

You paused, a little smile blooming on your face. “Yeah?”

He shrugged, looking away. “Might as well make some use outta this busted magic, huh?”

Your voice was soft. “It’s not busted, Leona. It just needed the right hands to show what it could become.”

His tail flicked.

For the first time in years, Leona Kingscholar didn’t think of his magic as something to be ashamed of.

He thought of sand in your hands. And glass glowing gold.

And he felt—maybe—for once—

Useful.

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Are there tales in those walls ? finally finished colouring my Cinderellas castle tribute piece and I'm so happy with how it turned out. This will be debuting at MCM London comic con next weekend with some other goodies

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when Brennan said "The first rule of existence is: as above, so below. People are fractal images of the universe. You are as we are. In the same way your heart feels and your mind thinks, you, mortal beings are the instrument by which the universe cares. If you choose to care, then the universe cares. If you don't, then it doesn't."

when Brennan said "It is a horrifying responsibility to think because things cannot remain the same, each and every one of us must shoulder some responsibility for how they will become different."

when Brennan said "Sometimes decisions are not difficult. Sometimes they are just hard."

when Brennan said "There is no moral. The Wolf eats you one day and until it does, the forest is beautiful."

when Brennan said "I always felt the fundamental substance of the universe is creation. None of this makes any sense, when you really break it down. It's like, none of this had to happen, but it's beautiful and art is the definition of 'this didn't have to happen, but it's beautiful.' [...] It resonates with the universe because the universe is consciousness playing with itself."

when Brennan said

when Brennan said

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Ruggie has got my back this week, woah.

After failing to get an SSR in every single roll the past four-five banners (even the anniversary banners), Ruggie has come home on the first ten rolls in each of his birthday banners for me.

And I still have ten free rolls coming up soon, Ruggie it's your birthday but I'm the one being spoiled.

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the starkid kickstarter profile changed

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The good news is, there's nowhere to go but up. I love that attitude for you.

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meet the righteous wrestlers: bayley

hi d20 fans! as both a ttrpg lover and a wrestling fan, I thought it would be fun to do mini-histories for each of the righteous wrestlers appearing in titan takedown! I did a little poll and none other than BAYLEY had the most votes, so I'll be starting with her!

disclaimer: wrestling has a lot lot of silly terms! that jess ross presentation is, of course, a great primer, but I'll try to explain words as they pop up. when in doubt, assume any "heat" (aka beef) between wrestlers is purely fictional, and all these folks like each other when the cameras aren't rolling, even if they hit hard in the ring :) BAYLEY !!!!!

bayley (no last name) aka pamela martinez, is from san jose (she's from the Bay Area, hence the name "bay-ley") and has been wrestling with wwe since 2012, and is one of the most decorated women in the company's history. she's the first triple crown winner and women's grand slam winner in wwe history, which means she's been the first to hold a fuckton of titles (including the NXT women's championship, raw women's championship, smackdown women's championship, women's tag titles (but we'll get to that) and wwe women's championship) as well as winning money and the bank and the royal rumble, two of wwe's most important pay per views.

*sidenote, as you will learn, wwe has so many titles that go through so many arbitrary name and brand switches. it is kind of a headache to try and keep track of them all, especially without a working knowledge of what shows existed and when.

wrestlers cycle through characters/personalities (called "gimmicks") for their in-ring personas, and when bayley debuted, she had a "hugger" gimmick — a high ponytail, bows and headbands, bright colors, inflatable balloon people, the whole nine years. think jojo aiwa, but endearing and like-able. she was bubbly, she was happy, she was squeaky-clean and very kiddish in a sea of divas, and a very athletic performer to boot. she eventually nagged her first title, the nxt women's championship, in an iconic match with her longtime rival and real-life best friend sasha banks, who played the mean girl to Bayley's lovable underdog. if you've only got time to watch one match in Bayley's career, this one wouldn't be a bad choice:

As Bayley's career progressed and she continued to rise, she made it to the main roster, eventually ditching the ponytail and inflatable dancing guys (in a very iconic segment where she destroyed the bayley buddies) and going from a "face" (good guy) to a "heel" (a bad guy). New, edgier bayley continued to win titles and maintain an on-again-off-again friendship with Sasha Banks, which included a gruesome hell in a cell match during the "off" part and a women's tag team championship reign in the "on" parts. they were called "boss n hug connection" as tag champs, which isn't an important detail, but a stupid one. this video of bayley and sasha on commentary is a good encapsulation of their friendship outside the ring.

Bayley and Sasha are also part of an unofficial group called the 'four horsewomen' of wwe: four influential women's wrestlers who all came up in nxt at the same time and helped WWE take women's wrestling's more seriously. the other two horsewomen are Charlotte Flair (daughter of ric flair, for those who watched the jess ross video), and becky lynch, my favorite wrestler of all time.

But the four horsewomen isn't Bayley's only wrestling girl gang: she also started her own stable (wrestling group), recruiting Dakota Kai and Iyo Sky to form Damage CTRL, a heel faction whose hobbies mostly consisted of running around jumping people backstage. their formation at SummerSlam was a very gaggy moment. Damage CTRL were menaces and they made everybody's lives a nightmare, and Bayley was having a blast until IYO and Dakota ultimately brought other members into the fold, and the group turned on her.

Nowadays, Bayley is back to being a babyface (having learned her lesson with Damage CTRL) and is working on mending fences (in wrestling story) with the other women on the roster, namely Bianca Belair. Overall, because of her insanely decorated WWE run, her veteran status on the roster, her dedication to the art of wrestling, and her general chill, good vibes, Bayley is both a fan-favorite and a locker room leader in WWE.

I thiiiink that's all the big stuff, but wrestling fans, feel free to sound off in the replies if I'm missing any big stuff! If people want more, I think next up will be either Xavier woods or Chelsea Green :)

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currently going insane over Cinderella's Castle, sorry i wont be coherent for the next couple of weeks

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🎲It's the ultimate game night!🎲

Join host Becca Scott and *tons* of your favorite comedians for Dropout's new series Parlor Room - where strategy meets shenanigans!

Premieres April 18th, only on Dropout.tv!

Also shoutout to this Reddit thread posted EXACTLY ONE YEAR AGO TODAY, which includes this comment...

😉

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IM SO SO EXCITED FOR PARLOR ROOM I CANT BEGIN TO EXPRESS HOW EXCITED I AM

AND A THE SEVEN REUNION?? April is gonna be insaneeee

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It is so so painful to suffer under the actions of someone who'd never want to hurt you, and who you would never want to hurt.

The hurt is still there but you can't go "I hate you, my life is worse with you in it", cut them out and leave - because you don't hate them, you want them in your life - but that hurt is still there and its molded you as a person.

Fabian's dad only ever knew one way to connect to others, his son included. Maybe that's expected from a man like him, the kind of man whose proposal involved his eye getting stabbed out, and his greatest bonding moment with his son involving being killed.

And it's so easy to see how much Bill truly cared, lacking the tools or understanding of HOW to give that care properly. Someone who loves unconditionally but has never lived a life where anything was unconditional, so how in the world does one convey this to their small kid, that look to them and hear all these expectations?

And, of course, his mother that couldn't cope with how much shorter the lives of her husband and son was compared to her's.

Perhaps truly sinking in when she got a kid. After all, with how Bill lived, it wasn't a surprise if his lifespan would be cut short at any given point - rather, it was expected.

But a small baby in her arms? It wouldn't matter what this baby did, he'd die before her.

And when she swears to do better, she does better by someone else. Someone who didn't have the same lifespan of her first son and husband.

How can a kid whose always been so desperate to prove himself worthy of his parent's admiration, time, and love, someone whose always had to put so much effort into his relationship with them, not resent this a bit?

Wonder what it is about this new kid, that was so worth changing for - what inexplicit trait does this baby have to be given freely what he's always felt he needed to earn

And Gorgug - Gorgug who was so loved that his parents ended up ostracized by the rest of the family, his parents that never wanted to burden him with that but even so, Gorgug is left with the fact that something inherent about his existence, about being a half-orc, was enough to destroy the rest of his parent's family.

Gorgug whose bed would always break, and instead of getting a bigger, sturdier bed that fit him - they'd just repair the old one.

Gorgug who was always too big for his environment, always had to make himself small, emotionally and physically.

Gorgug who had parts of him and his heritage that his parents, for all their efforts, could not understand. And suddenly that becomes a part of yourself that you don't understand, and maybe the extended family was right about how scary and bad an orc's anger was, when all your parents' touch is repaired and all you touch accidentally breaks, when his parents teach him ways to stop feeling anger instead, "it's no good being angry".

Gorgug spent most of his life guilty and ashamed of his own rage, of something so personal to him as a person and an orc - so much so that even when mistreated or wronged, he didn't feel justified in being angry.

Gorgug's been trying to take up as little space as possible, be as little problem as possible - because he's inherently seen as more dangerous, he's inherently more destructive where his parents are inventive and repairing.

Gorgug's desperate chase for his biological parents, despite how good a relationship he have with his adopted ones, felt like a chase to understand a part of himself, the part there's orc, the part his parents can't understand.

Not being able to embrace the part of him there's orc, also seemed to have made it so much harder for him to actually embrace the part of him there's Thistlespring.

The part that loves to invent and tinker, the part that can repair, the part that uses music as a way of understanding and expressing himself - all of himself, rage included - it's first as he's beginning to learn to embrace all sides of himself, as he finds community in other people who understands and loves these parts, rage and all.

And Riz, oh this one is such a familiar struggle.

When you love your mom, a mom whose so great and would do anything to take weight off your shoulders, but you can see your family is in a tough spot.

How many of us can't recognize that? Watching a single parent struggle to make ends meet, the single parent who discreetly skips portions of food to make sure their kid gets to eat a full meal?

They never say you can't come to them for help, they'd never say or suggest that - but as their child, how can you put more weight on their shoulder? Riz is perceptive, he notices the little sacrifices his mom constantly makes, the eyebags, how tight money is.

But when you grow up trying to make things as easy on your family as possible, slowly you start to internalize a sense of being a burden, of your value being in what you can provide others to make up for your presence.

You become very independent, a kid that's always okay and can handle anything lobbed their way, even when you really. A kid that has to be so mature, so put-together.

This has gotten so long, I didn't even get to Fig. Though her journey with her complicated relationships to her parental figures has always been so huge a part of her character arcs, and how much all of it has impacted her.

And each individual relationship has so much to impact.

From Gilear's initial words of hurt that he so desperately tries to atone for to Fig's outright stating that she blames her very existence for all the misfortune in Gilear's life.

Fig's self-destructive behavior, including how much it mirrors Sandra Lynn's youthful (and even, to degrees, current) self-destructive behavior

Gorthalax as a figure in her life that so easily could have been the focus of her resentment, for being a pit fiend, for having come into the lives of Gilear and Sandra Lynn.

But she never has that vitriol towards him - because that's reserved for herself, those are her crimes.

i need to talk about the bad kids and the weight they carry from their parents. because all of them have baggage, whether they know it or not, and it's high time we had a conversation about it.

we all know kristen and adaine's parents fucked them up, but the truth, and maybe this is an immutable truth about the world and all worlds in general, is that every kid bears the weight of their parents' expectations on their shoulders. sometimes the burden is well-disguised; sometimes the pressure is mitigated by a loving relationship — but there's always baggage, and the bad kids are all so used to dragging it along that they don't even realize they're carrying it.

fabian's is easy to recognize. not a day goes by that fabian doesn't think of his father. of what his dad, his treasured papa, not only wanted but expected of him. fabian grew up under the pressure to write your name on the face of the world, to become not just good but Great, to be more than a man — to become a legend, maximum legend, to get it tattooed onto your neck so you never forget your goal, because this is the only way to make your father proud and maybe if you're just like him then your mother will decide to be your mother again. she promised to be better and then she abandoned you. she failed you completely in every way imaginable and her solution was to try again. maybe this child will grow up with a loving mother. maybe she'll get it right this time. but not fabian. fabian doesn't get love, he gets pride, and there's only one way to ensure that his parents are proud.

fig is staggering under the immutable knowledge that she was the catalyst to her parents' divorce. that all of this could have been avoided if she had just never been born. she has so much anger, and it started out directed towards sandra lynn, but now she knows it's anger towards herself, for daring to exist, for ruining a marriage and a life by the crime of being born. poor gilear, saddled with the knowledge that his only daughter isn't even his. and yeah, her mom is a fuckup, but at least that's because of choices she made. fig would have to be in control of her actions to be a fuckup - instead she keeps BEING controlled, from the Dominate Person that led her to nearly sacrifice riz down to the very simple act of being the unplanned child of an affair. she's worse than a fuckup: she's a curse. a plague. and all three of her parents would have been better off if she'd never existed.

wilma and digby thistlespring tried so hard to raise a happy kid. they didn't believe in the stereotypes about half-orcs. not our kid, they said. how could a child of ours be angry? but gorgug is so angry sometimes, and he barely has the language to explain that, much less the skills to manage those emotions. he was so loved, so doted upon, and he tried his best to be the gentle giant, but somewhere along the way he failed, and his parents had no plan for a system malfunction. why would they? wilma and digby never met a bad feeling they couldn't sing their way out of. gorgug could be like that, too, if he tried. if he put his mind to it. it's his fault that he can't keep his rage under wraps. and his parents love him, but they don't understand him, and that hurts them. gorgug is hurting them. the very nature of his being hurts them. he tries to mold himself into the shape of a perfect son, but like everything else in his life, it doesn't fit - he can't give them what they want; he can't become what they devoted all this time to nurturing. he is big and brash and bubbling over with rage sometimes, despite all of his parents' best efforts to teach him temperance and good-naturedness and how to be small, smaller than your body can be, how to tuck in your limbs and take shallow breaths so your bed doesn't break again (again, again, again) and he tries and he tries. it's never enough. he will never be the perfect son, so maybe there's no point in trying at all.

and riz. sklonda. look, how could he not be just like his dad? dad was a badass secret agent, the kind of person riz could only dream of being. he doesn't want to scare mom, but why shouldn't he want to be like dad? except sklonda is scared. she raised him, terrified of what would happen when he learned the truth. his rock, his confidant, his second-best friend (let's be honest, maybe first) — he can't worry her. she has enough on her plate; he can't be a problem for mom. so riz gets really good at taking care of himself. when she can't make it home for dinner, riz knows how many minutes the freezer dinner needs in the microwave. when she can't pick him up from school, riz knows where the nearest bus stop is. and he can't stop solving mysteries, but he can reassure her that he's safe, whether or not it's true — because she needs him to be safe, and riz can't be a problem. he has to be fine. he makes a living being fine. sure, he's in jail for months for a crime he didn't commit, but he's fine. he got kidnapped and almost ritually sacrificed, but he's fine now, mom. i saw dad and he was tortured within an inch of his celestial life and i was almost killed in Hell, but it's fine, mom, because dad is an angel, how cool is that? the important thing is that sklonda can always count on her boy. she can trust him to understand adult things, like the fact that they're poor, and that her demotion might spell bad things for riz's future, and his only shot now is to have a really beefed up transcript so he can maybe get good scholarships, and yeah, that's a lot — god, that's a lot, on top of the harrowing mystery unfolding this year — but. riz is fine.

there's a freedom in hating your parents, in knowing unequivocally that they were bad at being parents, perhaps bad at being people at all. everyone agrees that the abernants were vile, disgusting examples of people at all, much less parental figures. nobody is leaping to the applebees' defense. they failed their children, and their children owe them nothing.

but fabian, fig, gorgug, riz — it's harder when you love the people who raised you. it gets to feeling like the problem is you. like if you were different, if you were better, if you tried a little harder or did something a little differently, then things would be perfect, and that weight you stagger under would go away. if fabian weren't so sentimental. if fig weren't a tiefling. if gorgug weren't so angry. if riz weren't so reckless. you love your parents, and you owe them everything, and this is the least you could do. so why aren't you doing it? why can't you? why are you carrying this weight in the first place?

these four have parents who love them. but that doesn't mean their parents can't also have hurt them. it's inevitable; you grow past the expectations of your parents, and then into something new, something entirely your own, but the bad kids are still growing. they are loved. but they are burdened. both things can be true.

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Modern vampire who has spent the last 70-ish years of their immortality primarily being slutty in nightclubs and non-lethal snacking on hookups shocked and uncomfortable that most vampires older than the lightbulb are really into torture and cruelty and eating babies alive. Super excited to finally meet his own kind and then oh no. oh fuck. time out wtf are they doing. this is profoundly unsexy they bit that guy’s arm off and are letting him crawl around screaming and crying. there’s not even any kissing or grinding or club music. is this normal?? i am Going to throw up i’ve gotta get these poor ppl out of here. askjeeves how to smuggle 30 naked prisoners (assorted genders) out of vampire mansion time sensitive.

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macarons

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ここから出たい、出たいよぉ･･････!

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Absolutely Beautiful!~ 🍎👑

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🎉 GAME CHANGER SEASON 7🎉

📅 Premieres April 7th on @dropoutdottv

🎶 Some things never change...

10 episodes. No Game Samers.

The only way to begin is by beginning, so on April 7th - let's begin.

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[twst talks]

vil came home IMMEDIATELY when honestly i was just trying to get jamil lmao

AND JAMIL DIDNT EVEN SHOW UP!