#i opened docs and poof

[nixoon-again]

do u ever sit down to write and then immediately forget how to write or is it just me

[sytoran]

if you ever feel like your procrastination, just remember that i started the milf!nat x mechanic!reader fic in FEBRUARY and i haven't completed it yet

[kth1fics]

so my job scheduled me a handful more times than i expected so imma try to bang out this fic by halloween. it may be a little rushed sksk im sorry haha

[catscidr]

my wifi went poof for a hot second nd i couldnt open any of my word docs to write so Of Course i drew dottore x y/n again who do you take me for

[maximwtf]

“Did I win?”

       Pearl  x gem reader

words: 1300

google docs pages: 2

warnings: Sword fight, think that’s it?

opening: You’re training with Pearl, but an accident happens and you end up getting poofed. 

AN// Reader can be any gem! They/them pronouns used!^^ Ugh this one is a little short, but I didn’t even assume this idea would make for a long one :”D

                                       “Did I win?”

Pearl had taken you to the ancient sky arena for some training. You both knew how to fight and had a lot of experience, and since today seemed to be calm enough, you thought it would be fun to spend time with her. You remember doing this type of training with her in the past more often, but as time passed on the tradition of coming down to the arena for fights died down. You hadn’t been sure if Pearl ever missed doing this, but after building up the courage to ask her, you were surprised to know that she had missed it too. 

You stood on the other side of the floating arena, watching Pearl’s sword. Neither of you were using your personal weapons, but instead normal swords. Before this, you had both warmed up by fighting off a couple of holo pearls. After finishing them off, you prepared to take her on next. You knew she had more experience with swords than you, since close combat wasn’t your forte. That though, didn’t mean you weren’t going to try. Someone might have called you insane for that, but this wasn’t serious. You were doing this for fun, and both of you knew when to stop. 

A gust of wind blew past the two of you, causing your hair to move with the wind. Pearl took that as a sign to start, as she took a couple long steps towards you and clashed her sword against yours. The power of the first hit caused you to move backwards a little, a heavy wave of wind blowing up some loose sand from the ground. You smirked at the sight before lifting your sword and hitting both sides of Pearl’s once as you moved forward, making her back away. You didn’t want to get too close to the edge. She landed a couple other hits which you blocked. You soon saw an opening, and took that as a chance to try and kick her off of her feet. She seemed to saw that coming, and flipped over elegantly, landing on her feet. She had a serious look on her face, but you knew she was enjoying this. She was able to move so swiftly that it was hard to land any actual hits. While you were caught in your thoughts, she placed her sword against yours, but this time it was tilted upwards. You gaped your mouth a little as she pushed the sword out of your hands.Your eyes widened as an echo of the sword hitting the ground behind you rang for a moment, before your eyes returned to Pearl. “Oh, this isn’t over yet.” You laughed slightly, gritting your teeth a little as you thought how you’d get your sword back. Pearl’s eyes were keen, stuck on you to follow any movements. You took a step back, seeing how she followed along. You knew she wouldn’t attack if you were unarmed, but the second that sword was in your hand again, she was ready. Letting out a quiet huff, you turned your back to Pearl and ran up to the sword. You knew she’d be right behind you when you turned around, so instead when you had confirmed a good grip on the sword’s handle, you ducked down. A gust of wind went over your head when Pearl’s sword missed. You slid further away and stood up again, getting a better grip of the handle this time. She wouldn’t be able to pull that trick again. 

Your mind was focused on something else again, when you saw Pearl take a high jump and clash her sword back against yours with force. You slid back a little, still staying up. She lifted her sword again, but there was a gap of time between that and her next hit. You took the opportunity and almost swiftly hit her, but you realised just before the hit that it would actually hurt her if you finished the fight like this. This caused you to pause the movement and drop your sword. A dumb move. Pearl didn’t have the time to take back her attack, and the sword landed on you. You felt air leave your lungs as your eyes widened, the sword going through you. “OH- Y/n! I didn’t mean to-” Pearl’s cracked voice said as she tried her best to keep you on your feet. You gave her a quick look, but before you could say a word, you poofed away. Some wind blew against Pearl’s face, and as the clouds around your gem disappeared she saw it laying on her hands. Her mouth hung open a little as she began to blame herself. What was she going to tell the others? 

Pearl had taken care of poofed gems multiple times in the past, but seeing your gem in the house every time she was there hurt her, a reminder of the events from before. She hadn’t meant to do that, she would never! But even with the regret, she knew there was no use in talking to your gem now, she would have to wait until you were ready to reform. It had already been a little over a week, but Pearl knew how long this could take and she was going to give you all the time you needed. 

As gems didn’t need to sleep like humans, she would spend some nights watching over your gem. Steven would sometimes try to stay up as well and hide from Pearl, since she would tell him to go back to bed otherwise. As much as she tried to go on with her days normally, the other gems could see that she was upset, but all of them knew that there was nothing to be done. Waiting for you to reform was up to you. 

The sun had gone down once again, and like for the past few days Pearl had stayed in the house with your gem even after everyone else had left and the house had quieted down. She sat silently on the couch, mind fogged with mixed thoughts. She could hear Steven’s calm breathing which calmed her mind a little, knowing that he was asleep and couldn't see her like this. But then suddenly, a bright light broke the darkness of the house when your gem rose up. A gasp left Pearl’s mouth, as she watched the white mass begin to take a form. It didn’t take long before you were back to your normal self. You fell on the floor,  a lot less elegantly than you would have hoped for. “Ah-” You gasped before looking up, one hand placed on your head. Pearl sprung up to hug you. “I’m so sorry, Y/n.” She said, letting go of you a little to see better. You began to laugh silently, realising what time it must have been. “Pearl, it’s okay. I’m fine.” You then said, looking around. “How long has it been?” Your voice then asked, eyes settling back on Pearl. “Almost two weeks.” She quickly replied. You noticed how her eyes were going over your form, as if she was making sure you were truly okay. You knew if you’d let her she’d be all over you, making sure you were actually in one piece. “You like the new look?” You broke the silence, getting Pearl’s eyes to come back to yours as a blush creeped on her face. “So…” You mumbled, gaze wandering again. “Did I win?”  A grin formed on our face when you looked back at Pearl. She smacked you shoulder gently before replying. “Yes. Yes, you did.”

[bubblergoespop]

EA Thoughts (this one’s pretty long lmao)

i can already tell i’m gonna struggle to articulate my thoughts enough to write them down but here goes

the description saying “more and less (and more)” YES HES MORE THANK YOU

“doc i need you” SAY LESS i am at your beck and call, i am at your service, i am at your disposal.

hush genuinely freaking out over what he did PAINED ME and it reminded me of caelum’s audio directly after his encounter with vega where fl had to help heal him up. with the way doc comforted hush after he poofed in randomly. the similarity but also contrast there is crazy, with one in which vega had done the harm upon the speaker and the other in which the speaker had done the harm towards vega. idk how to word this 😭

i’m thanking doc so hard for hugging hush bc I COULD NOT TAKE IT ANYMORE i wanna protect him from the rest of the world istg everyone needs to shut up

“what kind of magic is this?” HUSH YOU ARE KILLING ME ugh this one’s gonna stay stuck in my mind for a good while i’m telling you now. hush’s whole being and purpose are related to magic, i wonder what it’s like for him to embrace the non-magic aspects the world has to offer

aight so what are anacruses and why tf was vega one of them??? im done with hush’s audios constantly introducing new terms (im not); articulate, anacruses and i’m sure there’s more but i’m too caught up in the most recent audio rn

THE “touch me. please” AND THEN FOLLOWING IT UP WITH “why does that feel so good?” ERIK I AM AT YOUR DOOR OPEN UP

I KNEWWWW ITTT demons don’t die in the same way humans do. they don’t go to death like humans, so it’s possible for vega to come back. im struggling to be happy about this tho bc hush basically also said it’s impossible for blake to come back 😞😞

hush is now taking doc with him?? we’re going on a little adventure 🙈 i hope doc gets to meet other characters and we get to see how they interact with speakers other than hush through this. but also it’s worrying bc hush obviously would not be able to handle anything bad happening to doc and now he’s bringing them into a position that very clearly endangers them? mkay

[tanadrin]

i fired up civ 5 recently bc i wanted to see how it compared to my memory of it, and if anything it's actually much, much worse.

one unit per tile just... does not work with the idiom of the civilization series! units are not like armies in a GSG, they're like units in an RTS game: grist for the meatgrinder. you build them and throw them at your enemy and if they lose combat, they die. they don't retreat and recover morale, you don't get a chance to reposition and try again, they just go poof. but now in addition to that, you can only fit one unit of a type on a given tile, which means combat is forcibly spread out over a huge space. it's slow, slowed down further by the fact that it now takes a couple turns to fully resolve a fight--i guess the idea is that you can have your injured units fall back, except because of the way units get blocked in now, no you can't!--but you still need tons of units to take cities.

which means they didn't get rid of doomstacks. doomstacks are still logistically necessary to win wars! they just made them really fucking annoying to move around the map.

and on top of that, because OUPT applies to all units, it means you are also constantly having your scouts and workers and other civilian units being blocked in by your own units of the same type, or other players' units of the same type, meaning if you sign an open borders treaty with the AI you are frequently signing up to having your own units' movement being jammed up in the worst way by computer players. and on top of all THAT the units cancel their movement orders if the destination tile is blocked, even if the destination tile is on the other side of the map and you can't see it--which means, basically, any long-distance movement order is liable to be randomly canceled if an AI unit ends its turn on your destination tile.

it feels janky at every single level. the worst possible fix to something that wasn't even really a problem--and if they really wanted to they could have implemented some kind of very basic attrition mechanic. or some other kind of soft cap.

and and and on top of all that, it makes roads and railroads substantially less useful, bc frequently you cannot actually fit all your guys on one road or railroad--but you can't just carpet your territory in roads now like you used to do, because roads cost maintenance per turn. just. ugh. fractally bad decisionmaking! like different people were working at different ends of the design doc and not communicating at all!

the global happiness system means expansion is soft capped early in the game, which makes it feel less like an empire management game than a game of managing four to five cities. since very many units are now hard capped by resource availability now, and expansion is limited, AFAICT in most normal games this means you get like.. two swordsmen? ever? mainly it's strong attack units that are capped in this way, but their defensive counters are uncapped, which means actually playing strategically with your army composition is more annoyance than it's worth. in practice, what this incentives is just building the best trash unit you can afford en masse and throwing them at the enemy, but, of course, see the problems with OUPT.

they took out civics and replaced them with Social Policy trees. but everybody has the same set of social policy trees. and there's a bit of a tradeoff here in which trees you choose to fill out first, but you never then switch those old trees out for new ones like civics. they're just permanent bonuses. so there's no sense of, like, choosing your government type.

and then in BNW i guess they realized people missed that, and created Ideologies, which are just a bonus extra-big social policy tree where you get to pick between liberal democracy, communism, and fascism. but of course there's only three. and this isn't unlocked until the late game.

what they really should have done is added more civics and rather than just having you progress from early game civics to late game civics made all civics contextually useful. and maybe given you some extra civics that were unlocked early in the game so you could strategize around them.

as a part of this change culture is now more load-bearing, but cultural victory is just... weird and stupidly complicated. you have to build tourism, and do archeology, and build wonders that provide slots for great works that your three different kinds of great artist create, and all this other crap. versus domination, where you just conquer the other guys. or science, where you just build your spaceship. it's dumb and bad and awkward.

there's no conquest victory now. only domination. but because of the way domination works, it's now not possible to move your capital manually. this is awful and i hate it! let me move my capital, damn it!

buildings no longer go obsolete, which means that if i am founding a city in the year 1973, i still need to build a City Walls in it before i can build a Military Base. this feels ridiculous. and the series already kinda has this problem where it feels like late game it takes forever to get a city really up and running--don't make it even worse by making me build shit from classical antiquity before i can build modern facilities!

the AI is not very bright. they don't expand very much. on big maps, most of the map will remain empty most of the game, at least up through mid-level difficulties i usually play at (that are supposed to be "standard", so I assume the game is balanced around them)

diplomacy is irritatingly primitive. there are few ongoing agreements. declarations of friendship all last a fixed amount of time. the AI is constantly interrupting you to tell you it doesn't like you or it does like you or you and another AI player all like each other. just expose an opinion modifier and be done with it! harun al-rashid and i don't need to pass notes like it's grade school!

they nerfed the range of air units and especially nukes. which feels really weird. the 20th century saw the invention of strategic bombers that had a range of thousands of miles. why can mine only reach cities right next to my own? why do my nuclear missiles have a pathetic range? sure, sub-launched nukes are a thing, but they're only one part of a proper nuclear triad. there's no MAD anymore!

especially because the world congress can order you to stop building nukes and there's nothing you can do about it. you can't defy world congress bans and suffer a penalty. international law has some kind of magical force that even if you are the undisputed hegemon you cannot help but obey. this is very stupid! especially because they could not think of anything interesting for the world congress to do, so it's all shit like banning random luxury goods.

all the stuff i do like--the city-states, the hex grid, the core idea of the trade route system--is swallowed by annoying bullshit. to take the trade route example: you can make money by setting up trade routes. it can be quite lucrative! and you have to protect your trade routes from bandits and shit. but the menu for issuing trade route orders is a mess--way too much scrolling, you can't sort by lucrativeness of destinations, you have to constantly re-issue trade route orders, and the last trade route a unit was on isn't highlighted, or sorted to the top or anything like that. so it's lots of scrolling around, it's very annoying, and it's repetitive as hell.

the real stick in the eye is that this game was not only reviewed well, it was reviewed glowingly when it came out. which is bizarre to me! yes, it looks nice. the art is good and the music is pretty. but it feels awful to play! it is on almost every single metric less fun than civ 4! civ 3 is more fun, and civ 3 was terrible. i hope to god firaxis was bribing people left and right for good reviews because the only alternative explanation i can think of is that everybody who was reviewing strategy games in 2010 was also in the grip of a brutal glue-sniffing habit.

[gremlinaristocrat]

Overthinking Sylvie’s Strategy

So, I know the Gio&Molly vs Sylvie fight in Ep2 was mostly about getting the protagonists to show off their personalities and powers . . . but I think if you read (way too far) into the strategy Sylvester uses it tells you a surprising amount about him.

Start at the start. Sylvie overhears our heroes talking about how they’re villains. Instead of sneak attacking them while he has the drop on them, he starts a dialog, to confirm they’re actually bad guys (and maybe to satisfy his own desire for drama and/or indulge in his sense of invulnerability). Gio responds by confirming he’s a criminal, calling Sylvie a kid and initiating combat.

It’s kind of overshadowed by what he does later in the fight, but the doc is pretty reasonable early on; I get the feeling he’d have been even more willing to talk things out if dealing with Indus’ stupidity and Mera’s manipulation hadn’t shortened his already-short fuse and made him Done with Trying To Talk To People.

Sylvie’s first move is to use sleep pollen like he did with Indus earlier; unlike all his other attacks, he doesn’t call its name when he uses it, probably to minimize the chances that his targets will figure out what it does in time to stop it. This is a 10/10 opener, with the potential to harmlessly incapacitate enemies and end fights before they start.

When that fails thanks to Molly’s quick thinking and Gio’s creativity, he follows it up with Counting Sheep. This is another solid decision, and unlike the last one, it actually works out for him: his minions swiftly swarm and overwhelm his opponents.

Pictured: Flawless Victory.

Note that – as far as I can tell – Sylvie has basically won at this point. Molly and Giovanni have no way to stop the sheep before they nibble and poof them into unconsciousness; all he has to do is stay the course.

And then our boy screws up. He banishes his own army – or maybe incinerates them, the animation isn’t clear on that point – in order to confront a twelve-year-old girl with her worst nightmare, while having no idea what that nightmare is or how he’d be able to use it.

He also picks this point to sacrifice his vantage point, achieving no obvious gain. I don’t think Jello did this on purpose, but it fits very well that Sylvie literally gives up the high ground for no reason – while forcing his opponents onto a different patch of high ground – at the same time he’s metaphorically doing that.

Let me psychoanalyze the psychoanalyst: what the hell is the good doctor thinking when he unleashes (almost literal!) hell on the adorable cosmic brownie? What’s going through his head when he passes up sure victory for the chance to re-traumatize a child?

Well, it’s possible that Counting Sheep drains stamina faster than it appears to (though he doesn’t seem winded after using it). It’s also possible that he’s worried about one of them using ranged attacks on him, and feels the need to end the fight ASAP. The magic system in EE is intentionally kind of loose and vibes-y, so there’s an endless list of possible excuses.

That said, I think the most likely answer to “what was he thinking?” is “absolutely nothing”. This whole thing looks like a (legitimately!) clever synergy-exploiting strategy he thought up a while back, rarely or never got to see in action, and is just unreflectively executing on even though a more humane approach would have straight-up let him win.

I didn’t notice this until the Youtube comments pointed it out, but I think it’s neat Gio never calls Sylvie a kid again after he finds out the doc has issues with it (except that one time he does it to signal that he’s putting on a show for the cops). He’ll mock you mercilessly, and maybe steal your stuff, but our glorious pink-haired overlord will not use That Word You Dislike to describe you once he knows you dislike it.

Anyway, back to the fight. Sylvie tries to negotiate with his prisoners in the Flame Vortex, since apparently his Psychology PhD never taught him that confronting people with their literal worst nightmares might make them unreasonable and/or push them to extremes. Gio escapes with Molly; Sylvie doubles down on the Nightmare Fuel; Gio responds by thwacking a ball of yarn at him.

This is another point at which – again, as far as I can tell – Sylvie has basically won. The fact that Giovanni resorted to such weird and desperate measures suggests Gio & Molly don’t have any better ways to attack or escape from their current position. All the alleged genius needs to do is take cover behind an exhibit and let his summons finish the criminals. Instead, he cancels his own winning move (again!) so he can summon Dr Beefton, escalating (again!!) in a way that doesn’t actually help him (again!!!).

Like, seriously, what was the plan here? There are a lot of words you could use to accurately describe Sylvie’s colleague/alter-ego/fursona, but ‘agile’ and ‘nimble’ aren’t among them; if Gio and Molly had decided to hold onto their high ground on general principles after Sylvie (apparently) fainted, or if they’d sprinted off in different directions instead of trying to stand their ground, what would he have done then?

From here on out, the beef revolves around Beefton. This tells us very little about Sylvie, except maybe in terms of how much frustration he’s repressing, and what being powerful means to him.

Pictured: What Peak Performance Looks Like

So, what does all this say about Sylvie? He’s clever, willing to hear people out, and merciful when he can get away with it; however, he makes dumb or pointlessly cruel decisions under pressure, and follows a prescribed plan instead of adapting to the enemy; will escalate when surprised or provoked, even when it’s counterproductive, choosing moves which feel strong instead of ones which make sense. In summary, he’s the world’s smartest dumbass, and (at least in this part of the story) acts more like a stereotypical cop than the actual cop character.

He’s getting better quickly, though. I think a lot of this is symptomatic of him being new-ish to fights, and especially new to fights where people get hurt and/or which last more than one move . . .

Yeah, it shows, and not in a good way.

. . . since he gets more flexible and responsive when fighting Mera . . .

Pictured: Character Growth

. . . though, uh, apparently not enough for him to realize that he could demoralize her and/or broker a truce by offering to remove her Epithet with the amulet if he wins.

Out-reasoned by the tweenager; that’s embarrassing.

[1-khxna-1]

:･ﾟ✧:･ﾟTԋҽ ɾҽƚυɾɳ σϝ ɳҽρƚυɳҽ:･ﾟ✧:･ﾟ

Pearl x gem reader ⋆ ˚｡⋆୨୧˚⋆ ˚｡⋆୨୧˚⋆ ˚ words: 751 google docs pages: 2

part : 2/4

·͙̩̩͙˚̩̥̩̥̩̩̥͙　✩　̩̩̥͙˚̩̥̩̥̩̩͙‧͙·͙̩̩͙˚̩̥̩̥̩̩̥͙　✩　̩̩̥͙˚̩̥̩̥̩̩͙‧͙·͙̩̩͙˚̩̥̩̥̩̩̥͙　✩　̩̩̥͙˚̩̥̩̥̩̩͙‧͙·͙̩̩͙˚̩̥̩̥̩̩̥͙　✩　̩̩̥͙˚̩̥̩̥̩̩͙‧͙·͙̩̩͙˚̩̥̩̥̩̩̥͙　✩　̩̩̥͙˚̩̥̩̥̩̩͙‧͙·͙̩̩͙˚̩̥̩̥̩̩̥͙　✩　̩̩̥͙˚̩̥̩̥̩̩͙‧͙·͙̩̩͙˚̩̥̩̥̩̩̥͙　✩　̩̩̥͙˚̩̥̩̥̩̩͙‧͙

It had been a while since you got un bubbled by these so-called “crystal gems”. The whole point of you being here was to be a teacher for this Steven.” it was a long and gruesome battle, my diamond had sent me down to earth to see how the war was going-” You had stopped speaking when you saw the boy asleep, completely drain out. It was midnight so it was bound for the human body to get tired around this time. You sighed and put the chalkboard back into its original placement. the sound of something hitting the ground ran through your head, and your eyes shut closed as your hands moved to your ears. Trying to block noise, when you opened your eyes… You were back on the battlefield..? You ran to your ship, trying your hardest to get back to your homeworld. You didn't wanna relive this over again yet you did. Pearl had tackled you to the ground and poofed you again. When you awoke from your 'dream land', Steven was looking at you with the other Crystal Gems, all wearing expressions of sadness except for Pearl, she still looked at you with disgust like you were some sort of vermin..” I'm going for a walk.” you stormed off, you had been stuck in that dismal place for far too long, and the air outside felt fresh and free. You took a deep breath and started walking, kicking rocks as you went. You felt a sense of liberation as you walked away from the temple, and the farther you got, the less it seemed to weigh on you. You wondered why the pearl hated you so much, you didn't fight her in the war so what's her problem with you?! As if on queue, she was standing right in front of you.” what do you want. Are you here to bubble me again.” you spoke but the pearl just look at you,” You're doing a good job teaching Steven.” she said.” mhm. Tanzanites are good at things like that.” walking past her. “Why didn't you attack me.” you stopped in your trails and turned to look at her, her voice was full of hurt.” do I reason why didn't do this or that.” your tone was different. It was full of curiosity. Why was she asking you this now..? Why did it matter to her, you just didn't need to. It wasn't an order from your diamond so why bother"I didn't attack you because I had no reason to," you said, your voice low and measured as if you were imparting a very important lesson. "I did not quarrel with you and had no need to take any action against you. I was just minding my own business, doing what I needed to do." You paused for a moment, your gaze steady and unflinching, before continuing. "I think it's important to remember that, no one needs a reason to do something.” The pearl gazed at you, its expression of confusion evident on its small face. "Right, yeah, you're right," it said, hesitating for a moment as if it was trying to process the situation. You stared back at the pearl, unsure of what to say or do.” I'm sorry.” her words felt like a slap in the face to you,” Steven likes you and, me and garn-” “Sorry? You're sorry. And what I'm just suppose to forgive and forget that you bubbled me for 5000 years?!” your hand balled up into a fist.” sorry doesn't give me 5000 years of freedom back!” she just stared at you, her face was full of anger all over again. How ironic. It was your turn to feel angry, hurt, and sad but she just overran your feeling like dirt.” well I'm sorry that I even came out here.” she turned back around and walked straight back into the temple. if all she wanted to do was come down here and brother you, she should have stayed in that temple. While in your train of thought, the amethyst came out,” Maybe you should you listen pearl, she's.. Trying and that's hard for me to say.” you looked at her,” she bubbled me for 5000 years, I just can't forget about that” you crossed your arms, it was true. You could never forgive and forget something like that, but you enjoyed stevens nonsensical questions in every lesson you taught him. Maybe just maybe you could put up with pink diamond pearl for him.

[murmel-malt]

gotta admit, i'm coping with the general sadness of the hedaera verse by thinking of her fleeing with a dragon + saera telling jaehaerys to fuck off when he tries to get her back

It is a bit sad/depressing in the beginning I admit (there’s a reason the Vizzy/Daera plot is labeled ‘the bad timeline’ in my google doc), but it’ll get better (or at least less sad), I promise.

Daera just fucking off when she somehow gets her hands on a dragon has definitely crossed my mind too. She would have left, no looking back, no second thoughts, just ‘poof’ gone one day, heading straight for Volantis. ‘Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it’s a 3rd grader on a sentient nuke running away from having to marry her brother!’

She bonds with her aunt over how shitty Jaehaerys is and just goes into witness protection as one of Saera's bastards. Alysanne keeps writing her letters and for once her daughter is curious enough to actually open and read them. Of course it is just her repeating Jaehaerys’ demands of sending Hedaera back. In a less demanding and more pleading tone ofc but still. They know Daera is with her. The reports of a dragon-sighting by Volantis is pretty damning evidence.

But Saera has taken a page from the ‘Targaryen Textbook of Gaslighting’ and is just ‘idk what you are talking about. there is no princess that fled a forced marriage to her brother, who is boring and far too old for her, and is much happier with her cool aunt and cousins that don’t have a stick up their asses anywhere near Volantis. there is just me and my sons and my recently adopted daughter who is far better off here than with the family that claims to love her but would knowingly have made her life absolutely miserable. also: fuck you <3’

I mean what are they going to do?? Nothing, that’s what. The only other dragonriders at that point are two senior citizens too old to even mount their dragons, the future king that Jayjay will not risk losing and the woman he passed over, who most likely even helped Hedaera disappear.

Are they going to learn from this? Absolutely not. Are they just going to move on down the line of potential victims of their nonsense? Yes, they are. The circle just goes on and on :(

[sft-chrry]

kagaya

pairing: k. ubuyashiki x fem!reader

warnings: swearing, repeating of words

song: jenny by studio killers (i just replaced jenny with kagaya because yes?😭)

a/n: this has been sitting on my google docs for 5 months now and i just want to post it because it had potential and now its poof.

“i don’t get why you can’t ask him,” ume complained as she had heard (name) overthink way too much. “he’s not going to reject you, well we’re not sure about that but still! if he is going to reject you, he'll do it in a gentle way.”

“you don’t understand, ume, kagaya and i have been friends since first year. if he does like me his friends, especially the one with 3 girlfriends would’ve teased him about it! plus he doesn’t even hangout with me anymore,” her eyes softened when she said that earning an eye roll from ume.

it was true though, he was busy being a student council whilst she was busy having fun with her friends.

an idea sparked on ume’s head.

“why not confess to him with a song? so that if he does reject you, you have a reason. just tell him that you were singing through chat?”

“that's so stupid!”

“and it sounds like you would do it.” ume whispered but it was loud enough for (name) to hear it. she walked out of their shared dorm to attend her class.

(name) pouted for 2 minutes and decided she’ll do it. she huffed and grabbed on her phone to open their conversation. their last chat was 5 days ago when (name) was asking where muzan was.

-

(name)

kagaya, darling, you're my best friend

kagaya

hello, (name)

i think i’m very aware of that.

(name)

but there's a few things that you don't know of

kagaya

?

like?

(name)

why I borrow your lipstick so often

kagaya

whaat?

i don't think i had lipstick.

these are all yours?

(name)

i’m using your shirt as a pillow case

kagaya

so you had my missing shirts?

(name)

i wanna ruin our friendship

we should be lovers instead

seen

-

she started to sweat and tossed her phone on her bed just before she plopped she remembered she had class with him.

she cursed under her breath and changed her clothes. ignoring the text messages that were notifying her.

gasping for air, she sat on her chair and placed her books on the table. she was late but so was the professor.

curiously, she glanced at where kagaya would often sit with his friends and saw him looking at her with his soft eyes. her face flushed and she went to look at her textbook to her luck the professor arrived.

she was a girl in love so she couldn’t help stealing a few glances at kagaya who looked peaceful.

when the class ended the professor asked her to stay behind. he told her that her grades were failing and if doesn't do anything about it she’ll have to take it again next semester. of course, being one of the school's delinquents, she did not listen to a word he said but her heart dropped to his next words.

“i'm afraid you’ll need tutoring. im sure ubuyashiki won't mind tutoring you.”

she choked on her own saliva as her professor gave her a concerned look and asked her if she was ok. y/n gave him a nod and asked him when which he responded

“well im not sure, i’ll remind you if i have talked to ubuyashiki”

(name) walked out of class zoning out, ignoring that someone has been trying to get her attention. she snapped out of her thought when the person tapped her shoulder

when she saw it was ume and behind her was kagaya who was walking towards her, she quickly grabbed ume’s hand and ran to the building of their dorms. ume smacked (names) head and called her an idiot.

“we were supposed to get lunch! now we’re back here so you buy our lunch!” she demanded to her best friend and went to talk about what happened in chemistry. ume noticed that her friend was not interested in a word she was saying so she shut her mouth.

“no, continue your story i was listening” that caused ume to have a smile on her face and talked. she asked her what happened in economics and (name) told everything.

ume smacked her head again and scolded her for “wasting her chance with kagaya” she ignored the girl and poured herself a cup of water and drank it while going to her messages. one message had caught her attention and when she read it she choked on her water causing ume to panic and slap her back.

“jesus you don’t have to slap it that hard,” she coughed out before yelling “holy shit! holy-“ looking at her roommate while her roommate was looking at her all confused.

“he accepted it! my confession!” she twirled around, hugged ume, ran around, before diving on her bed to smack it, stood up to hug ume again to thank her, going outside, giving her roommate some money for food, going inside again and calmed herself which she failed as she continued to act like that for another 5 minutes.

when she calmed down she showed her best friend what he had sent her, causing the two of them to squeal for another 2 minutes.

eventually they both calmed down and ordered something. since (name) had a free period she decided to sleep for 2 hours and when the alarm went off she fixed herself and dressed up.

as she had a date with her long-time crush.

🍒 reblogs and notes are appreciated !

🍒 sft-chrry 2023

[duskkodesh]

Dusk Reviews: Lisa Trusiani 90's Morbius #2 (Issue 26)

Here we go again. Hopefully in reading these you'll get a nice overview of the plot without having to suff... read it yourselves.

So we open with Morb still standing with Lena post rescue. Getting wayyyyy too close to her despite her REALLY not liking him.

Oh ya'll thought I was joking. No, he goes full creepy stalker IMMEDIATELY. Anyways she tears into him about taking lives again, he says he was defending her, she realizes she's hurt, He follows her for a while despite her yelling at him to leave. The sun chases him off FINALLY after he says to go to Morgan Michaels for injuries (While touching her AGAIN. DUDE stop touching her!). We're all brushed up on that. Back at Morb's apartment Martine is sitting and thinking to herself that he must be late and that MUST mean he had a breakthrough in the lab with her condition. She decides to do something nice for him.

Guys at the club Lena escaped from get yelled at by their boss to find the missing girl pronto. Morb comes home and starts kind of acting like an ass to Martine now too.

So Lena finds food. narrates that the men at the club have her purse and that she put all else she owned somewhere safe. Guys at the club same page find a locker key. You know where this is going. Morb and Martine talk over breakfast. She eagerly asks about the lab. He admits he wasn't in the lab last night. They argue but Morb is tired AF and waves her off to crash. The scene is very waspy and awkward and just doesn't fit them and she's supposed to be dead inside so why so angry? Lena buys some clothes while a creepy dude sexually harasses her outside. These pages serve no fucking purpose and flow more like it's Lena's comic rather than Morb's. We could have easily just cut to her with 'Poof' new clothes. Guys are at the locker. Lena's now headed to the locker. WE GET TWO PAGES OF LENA BEING LOST ON THE SUBWAY and this 'darling' diatribe.

Can we focus less on Lena and how 'hot' she is? Jeezy Creezy. It's like every damn page! We get it. She shows up at Port Authority and argues about her locker but has no key. The dudes go 'boo'. She runs. Morbs heads into St. Judes for work, Lena grabs a cab and evades the two doofs. Lacking anywhere else to go she goes to St. Judes. He promptly acts like a CREEP.

He x-rays her, she has a cracked rib. He presses her for details about her life then invites her to talk over dinner. She spills her tragic past and he lets her use the room in the hospital the docs nap in on long shifts. She gives him a peck on the cheek for it and thanks him. THEN HE IMMEDIATELY CALLS MARTINE TO TELL HER TO GTFO. He goes home, they argue.

It escalates when she rightfully deduces he's been hounding after another woman. Martine goes for the hits, like she does NOT mess around.

but an ill timed leap sends her flying through Morb's window.

Dude, she's a vampire! She's not freaking dead! Well.... you know what I mean. We get a to be continued and that's the end of the issue. You see what I mean about it being a crime drama and Morb being insufferable? It only gets worse from here.

[kindlingkeen]

Fic ask!

What scene so far was the hardest for you to write? Easiest?

How do you like to plan out and keep track of longer plotlines?

Thanks for the fun ask, anon! I enjoyed thinking about this!

What scene so far was the hardest for you to write?

This might be recency bias — but chapter 2 of Harm Reduction was like pulling teeth. After the emotional hit of chapter 1, I was really, really invested in getting the tone of chapter 2 right. But my original conception for the chapter just never panned out. Sometimes it’s hard for me to let go of my initial idea for something, even when it’s clearly not working. I spent hours staring at a blank google doc for that chapter, silently screaming in my head.

Easiest?

Chapter 1 of The Calm Inside the Storm was basically a fever dream. I had a really bad night at work, and in the last few hours of my shift my mind kept drifting to this vague idea I’d jotted down in my AW brainstorming doc. I got off work and instead of going home, I went to a cafe, put on my noise canceling headphones, and started writing. I had no idea where I was going with the story, and somehow the words just … flowed. Two hours later I had a complete draft.

How do you like to plan out and keep track of longer plotlines?

I have a brainstorming doc for each of my AUs where I jot down ideas, plot points, bits of dialogue, etc. (plus a collection of random pieces of paper from half a dozen notebooks that I’ve doodle on). Once I start trying to figure out a plot, the scenario just keeps turning around and around in the back of my brain, whether I’m consciously thinking about it or now. I’ll be doing random things—in the shower, walking to work, playing Zelda—and suddenly an idea will pop into my head. I’ve learned the hard way to write them down immediately—do not stop, do not pass go, do not collect $200—write them down. Or, poof, they’re gone again. Once I have enough starting bits and pieces, I start trying to fit them together jig saw style into something cohesive.

All of that said, I rarely (never?) have stories completely planned out when I start writing them. Keeping things open and flexible means more creativity and more fun.

For example, I initially had a different plan for AW Jason’s re-entry into Gotham. Then the TCItS fever dream happened, and all the reader comments asking about Jason and the Ghosts set my brain on fire, and, voilà, now Harm Reduction exits. And it’s so much richer and more complex than what I originally planned.

Thanks again for the ask, anon! 🥰

[gravedigest]

Attempt at writing Jeb.

“How did you end up in this wretched business?”

“I dunno, how’d you become an evil wizard?”

Jebediah regards the boy for a moment, a scruffy thing puffing on a cigarette, adjusting his grip on his firearm. He’s needed to pause here and there, acting as if he’s checking his malfunctioning communication system while Jeb can clearly see the fresh blood under his jacket, the way he only just favors a stance that keeps his arm from his ribs.

“What could I have possibly done that would make me evil?” Deimos’ laid-back manner of speaking has Jeb giving the man only a slim margin of leeway to not be stung by the label. He’s vulgar, but the stream of consciousness Jeb has been listening to gives the impression that Deimos rarely stops to think about what he’s saying.

So, he can entertain it while they remain on the same side.

“You keep ganking Hank.”

Even if that side may chafe like sandpaper.

“I really don’t think that counts.”

“Nah, the evil part of that is how I gotta go be the guy that gets his giblets stuffed in a bag,” Deimos kicks off the wall he was resting against, dropping the cigarette to stomp it out. “You know how gross that is?”

What a simple line of thought.

“I can imagine.”

They only move another forty feet forward before the boy is distracted by another filing cabinet, taking every opportunity to snoop through Jeb’s old workplace.

He’s surprised by how little he feels about watching someone digging through the old secrets, only sparking the vague interest here and there when he catches his own name on a document, a little flutter of remembrance, thoughts about a different life.

“You notice how all you scientists kinda turned into freaky wizards?”

“I don’t think I follow.”

Deimos waves around a document. “This guy was in the sewers spewing glitter on everything, kept poofing around.”

Jeb takes the paper when offered, adjusting his sunglasses to see in the low light, something that makes the boy snicker obviously.

Is he getting old?

“… Ah. Him.”

“Coworker?”

“Nuisance.”

“Welp. He’s dead, I think. Smooshed by the big bad.”

Crackpot died?

…

Crackpot was alive?

… In the grand scheme of things, it seems like it hadn’t mattered one way or another.

“You look like you just read the newspaper funnies.”

Jeb sets the document on top of the file cabinet, pushing his sunglasses back into their proper position. “I’m surprised you know what those are.”

Deimos only offers a shrug, his quota for wasting time reaching the limit.

He’s a strange man, at once lackadaisical and… Jeb wouldn’t say focused, but aware of how much he can get away with.

Like in their next encounter, while Jeb falls into the habitual use of dissonance, he watches Deimos operate with honed speed and a vicious accuracy, but leaving his back open with the clear assumption that Jeb will fill in the missing spots. He’s used to cooperation, where Jeb is not.

What an odd person to be in this world.

Or, perhaps that’s what this world is creating now, individuals that forfeit self-reliance for the strength of a team- a faction.

But by the powers that be, does the boy have such a foul mouth.

Between the heckling and self-amusement is a curse, when a weapon he grabs has more kick than he expects, he pops out a swear. When Jeb flicks his fingers to turn a man into a little smear on the wall as they’d attempted to take the opening Deimos left, the boy lets off a “Fuckin’ sick!” with more enthusiasm than horror.

It’s really not Jeb’s place to dictate what others might say in the middle of a life-or-death situation, but there could be a little more class.

He would’ve at least expected some from Doc’s people.

He would assume Doc is making due with what he has, but Deimos continues to prove himself more than capable time and time again.

Just different.

It nags at the back of his mind, the thought over what happens when their goals diverge again.

It makes Doc seem more dangerous, having different in his repertoire.

He hopes their paths don’t cross for some time after this.

He doesn’t mind Deimos. Watching him operate the robutler with an air of pride at getting to show his idea. It would be a shame to have to kill someone that may have been a promising young pupil, in a different life.

… But only if he would wash his mouth out with soap.

[kawaiidoodles95-blog]

The Stranger Stampy Circus: Chapter 8

The eighth chapter of a long series I am making!

NOTICE: This is 11+! Throughout this story, there will be light mentions of blood, death, war, darker humor, and violence. While nothing here is explicit, if this bothers you in any way, keep on moving. Trust me. I won't be mad.

AN: I am making this not only on here but on google docs. This is a crossover between Stranger Things, Stampy's Lovely World, The Amazing Digital Circus, and Wonka. Each chapter will have a name of one of the characters (or main POV's I refer to them as,) and whoever's name is on the chapter title is the person narrating the chapter.

Anyways, enjoy TSSC!

Chapter 8: Pomni

(A week later)

“So, Vecna. If you went on a date with someone in the Upside Down, where would you go?” I asked. “Uhm… I guess the Chupacabra Pub if you want to have a romantic date, but if you want a traditional date, I suggest you go to Nessie’s Seafood,” Vecna suggested. “Ok, thanks for the tip!” I grinned, and I ran back into my room.

“Pom Poms, did you find a good place for a date?” Caine asked. “Yep! Nessie’s Seafood or Chupacabra Pub?” I said, giving him the two options. He scratched his chin and looked at the ceiling. “The Pub sounds nice,” Caine smiled, “let’s go there!” I walked over to my closet because Vecna said he pre-set clothing, but when I opened it, nothing was inside.

“Pom Poms, I think I know how this works,” Caine said while walking over to me.  He proceeded to press a button. “Now, say into the mic the description of the outfit you want to wear.”

Clearing all of my thoughts, I only thought about the outfit. And seemingly, the words left my mouth as I thought of the outfit. “I’d like a purple skirt with white lacing and a waist bow… I’d like a wide light pink and blue shirt… white long gloves… and a dark blue and pink scarf with matching heels,” I said. Suddenly, the closet poofed, and there it was. The exact outfit that I thought of. “That’s incredible, how could the monsters here know how to do this?” I asked myself. I went over to the dressing room and put my outfit on. What’s also weird is that it was my exact shape; it fit perfectly. So, after putting it on, I already saw Caine in his fancy outfit. “What are we waiting for?” I asked. “Let’s go!

-+*~*+-

“What’s this?” I asked, standing outside of the pub. “What do you me- oh,” Caine said, bending down. A ‘demobat’ was crushed and glitching. An immediate flashback rushed through my brain.

The gloink that was crushed by abstracted Kaufmo.

“Caine, you know a week or so ago, we got the notification about someone who abstracted? I think he escaped the game,” I murmured nervously. I stared at Caine. “My dear, Pomni, what do we do? We can’t have it running around town if that is what it is,” Caine asked. “We need to warn Vecna and the others. They’d know what to do,” I explained. And with that, me and Caine ran back to the castle.

Thoughts were rushing through my head. The more questions that came in, the more questions that spawned. What if this Hit The Target guy killed more? What if he’s partially sentient? If so, how? Also, how did he escape the game? Why did he come here of all places?

I was so distracted, I realized we already made it to the castle. “What’s wrong? Date go wrong?” Vecna asked. “You could say that. You see…”

I proceeded to tell Vecna everything; the flashback, the demobat, where it was, everything. I could see Vecna’s face go pale through his vines. “And why did Caine not get a notification?” Vecna wondered aloud. “Isn’t he the boss?” I looked at him.

“Yes, but he isn’t god.”

[sesshy380]

I am going to scream. I haven't written in DAYS. It's not for lack of ideas either, it's just this damn brain fog. Or it was. Brain fog is gone (finally!).

Now I have encountered the problem of every idea wanting to push it's way to the front of the line, but then I open my docs to dump something...and then it's all just...*POOF*...

Like, a bajillion things are swarming in there, but the second I open a single doc and suddenly I'm just