#i was so fucking sad

[beamwrites]

a foray into dndads fic writing(?) got caught up with s2 a week ago and i'm. still recovering from it and today's ep ended with something that absolutely killed me dead so i wrote this... i take no responsibility for psychological damage sustained from reading

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ron's voice is small, smaller than any of the boys have ever heard. even when they were kids, ron had always been a little eccentric and soft spoken, and working at d.a.d.d.i.e.s. hadn't changed that. but this...

"terry's... dead?"

none of the boys can look him in the eye, least of all grant. a burning shame engulfs him as he averts his gaze, not wanting to see the effect his actions had had on ron.

"what do you mean, he's dead?"

none of the adults wanted to explain. scary's mouth opened and closed silently, tears welling in the corners of her eyes. finally, link stepped forward.

"he was shot, sir. he... he didn't suffer. i'm so sorry."

ron fell to his knees, the gravel beneath him rustling. he was silent for a long, long time, as was everyone present. the only noise they could hear were ron's tears sliding off the tip of his nose, falling to earth, disturbing the gravel.

finally, with one last sniffle, ron dragged his sleeve across his face and stood up. and there, for the first time in all their lives, ron stampler showed immense, unabating rage.

"who did it?"

the air around him crackled with purple energy, daddy magic coalescing into a maelstrom of grief and anger. the kids held their tongues; this was grant's responsibility to own up to alone. the boys, in turn, stayed silent. they knew this intensity of magic would kill grant, no matter how benign the spell would be. and even though none of them were terribly happy about what he'd done, they still didn't want him to die.

"who the fuck killed my son?"

the boys flinch; ron never, ever swore. his quiet anger seared them more than anything they'd ever felt in their lives. sparrow sat down on the ground, burying his head in his knees, beginning to sob. nicky patted his erstwhile friend on the back, kneeling down to whisper to him.

"i asked a fucking question. someone ANSWER ME!"

the crackling of the magical storm grew louder and louder, and those closest to it started feeling ron's emotions leaking through to reality.

his fading joy at making it back to the real world. his horror and grief at the knowledge that his son had been shot dead, killed by some unknown assailant. his rage, oh his rage, at the person who had killed his son.

and above all, the desire for vengeance, to avenge his son, his beloved boy who had always been so full of life, and was now gone.

grant starts to move, but link sees him, and grabs his hand. their eyes meet, and grant can see in link's face that even his own son, the one who had just days before said that he never wanted to see him again, wanted him to keep quiet. but he just couldn't. he'd wanted an out for so long, he was so tired of living. the only things keeping him alive were his husband, his work, and above all, his son. the husband he'd been lying to for years. his work, that willy had now taken over.

his son, who never wanted to see him again.

if letting ron kill him to avenge terry jr. would make ron feel even a little bit better, it would still be better than holding on, he reasoned.

grant beckons to link, who leans in to hear him whisper in his ear.

"link... i love you. i love you so, so much, and. i'm sorry for everything i've done. tell marco i love him... and i'm sorry about this as well."

link feels vines wrap around his arms and legs, holding him in place as grant pulls away and strides towards ron. desperately, he begins to struggle against the restraints his dad put on him.

"dad! you stay right there, i'm not letting you do this. scary, taylor, get me out of these, help me-"

even as scary and taylor start hacking away at the vines with their blades, grant comes to a stop in front of ron.

he takes a deep breath, and opens his mouth.

"ron, i... it was me. i'm so sorry."

a crackling ball of purple lightning forms in ron's palms as he turns his furious gaze on grant. grant's feigned calm cracks slightly at his burning rage, but he continues.

"do whatever you will. i deserve it."

his eyes close as the ball grows and grows. just as it looks like ron is about to send it flying at his head, link rushes to put himself between grant and ron.

"wait! he didn't mean it!"

ron grits his teeth and bites out, "he didn't mean to shoot my son?"

link spreads his arms, guarding his father. "willy was controlling him, look!"

he gestures to the collar around grant's neck, and ron can see the inscription.

"where the fuck does that say for him to kill anyone?"

grant quietly replies, "i... i didn't know that was what i was going to do. i'm sorry, i really am. link, get out of the way."

link turns his head to look at his father. his hero, his idol, his role model in life. reduced to... this. he shakes his head.

"i'm not going to do that."

ron, processing the information that willy had once again taken something precious from him, finally lets out a guttural shout of grief, and turns around to hurl the ball of lightning into the trees. a gigantic bolt of energy comes crashing down from the sky, obliterating every single tree within a 10 meter radius, and setting fire to more around them.

he marches over to grant, who falls to his knees and bows his head. ron grabs him by the collar, and coldly spits, "you don't get to die that easily, grant. you're going to help me bring my son back, and then you're going to help me kill that son of a bitch. get up. get the fuck up!"

the boys flinch particularly hard; ron, in all their years of knowing him, has never looked more like willy in that moment.

[illithiddies]

i did it, i found the worst option in the game

[artkaninchenbau]

Crocodile finds a strange stray cat an 11-year old Nico Robin (AU where they met 13 years earlier. Robin's been on the run from the World Government for 3 years. Crocodile's 27 and has not set up base in Alabasta yet)

It seems like I have become possessed. By some sort of demon.

Bonus:

[tofixtheshadows]

I've been thinking a lot lately about how Kabru deprives himself.

Kabru as a character is intertwined with the idea that sometimes we have to sacrifice the needs of the few for the good of the many. He ultimately subverts this first by sabotaging the Canaries and then by letting Laios go, but in practice he's already been living a life of self-sacrifice.

Saving people, and learning the secrets of the dungeons to seal them, are what's important. Not his own comforts. Not his own desires. He forces them down until he doesn't know they're there, until one of them has to come spilling out during the confession in chapter 76.

Specifically, I think it's very significant, in a story about food and all that it entails, that Kabru is rarely shown eating. He's the deuteragonist of Dungeon Meshi, the cooking manga, but while meals are the anchoring points of Laios's journey, given loving focus, for Kabru, they're ... not.

I'm sure he eats during dungeon expeditions, in the routine way that adventurers must when they sit down to camp. But on the surface, you get the idea that Kabru spends most of his time doing his self-assigned dungeon-related tasks: meeting with people, studying them, putting together that evidence board, researching the dungeon, god knows what else. Feeding himself is secondary.

He's introduced during a meal, eating at a restaurant, just to set up the contrast between his party and Laios's. And it's the last normal meal we see him eating until the communal ending feast (if you consider Falin's dragon parts normal).

First, we get this:

Kabru's response here is such a non-answer, it strongly implies to me that he wasn't thinking about it until Rin brought it up. That he might not even be feeling the hunger signals that he logically knew he should.

They sit down to eat, but Kabru is never drawn reaching for food or eating it like the rest of his party. He only drinks.

It's possible this means nothing, that we can just assume he's putting food in his mouth off-panel, but again, this entire manga is about food. Cooking it, eating it, appreciating it, taking pleasure in it, grounding yourself in the necessary routine of it and affirming your right to live by consuming it. It's given such a huge focus.

We don't see him eat again until the harpy egg.

What a significant question for the protagonist to ask his foil in this story about eating! Aren't you hungry? Aren't you, Kabru?

He was revived only minutes ago after a violent encounter. And then he chokes down food that causes him further harm by triggering him, all because he's so determined to stay in Laios's good graces.

In his flashback, we see Milsiril trying to spoon-feed young Kabru cake that we know he doesn't like. He doesn't want to eat: he wants to be training.

Then with Mithrun, we see him eating the least-monstery monster food he can get his hands on, for the sake of survival- walking mushroom, barometz, an egg. The barometz is his first chance to make something like an a real meal, and he actually seems excited about it because he wants to replicate a lamb dish his mother used to make him!

...but he doesn't get to enjoy it like he wanted to.

Then, when all the Canaries are eating field rations ... Kabru still isn't shown eating. He's only shown giving food to Mithrun.

And of course the next time he eats is the bavarois, which for his sake is at least plant based ... but he still has to use a coping mechanism to get through it.

I don't think Kabru does this all on purpose. I think Kui does this all on purpose. Kabru's Post Traumatic Stress Disorder should be understood as informing his character just as much as Laios's autism informs his. It's another way that Kabru and Laios act as foils: where Laios takes pleasure in meals and approaches food with the excitement of discovery, Kabru's experiences with eating are tainted by his trauma. Laios indulges; Kabru denies himself. Laios is shown enjoying food, Kabru is shown struggling with it.

And I can very easily imagine a reason why Kabru might have a subconscious aversion towards eating.

Meals are the privilege of the living.

[kylejsugarman]

only thing i know for certain is that if "breaking bad" took place during modern times, jesse would've used his cash to buy a drone and there would've been a sick ass sequence filmed from drone perspective and one episode cold open would've been all scary and sinister and it would end with an ominous shot of the drone laying all crushed and fucked up on the floor to imply harm done to jesse. and it would be really sad

[timelessbian]

actually that ao3 post about calculating kudos-to-hits ratios to decide if a fic is worth reading has me so pissed off. someone put real time and energy into something they are SHARING WITH YOU FOR FREE on a site where you can quite literally filter and search by anything you want and you're STILL trying to find a foolproof method to find stuff that's "good enough to read"???

YOU ARE NOT THE TARGET AUDIENCE FOR EVERYTHING

you don't have to like or read everything in a given fandom or tag, but you also don't have to be a cunt about it and imply that it's not worth reading. this is the kind of shit that moves people to stop creating altogether, and to see people agreeing in the tags is so disheartening. absolutely unserious behavior.

[wtfforged]

my campaign hiatus has gone on for too long so to cope ive combined my interests at their maximum potency and had some dnd-strawhats thoughts

thoughts in depth under read more... :)!

this is SO self indulgent. their designs literally did not change. but i am a firm believer that dnd doesnt have to be european high fantasy. and also one piece literally IS fantasy. no changes are necessary to fit into dnd. ive already imagined plenty of campaign/oneshot ideas inspired by one piece. so this was basically just an exercise of trying to replicate their canon abilities in dnd 5e as much as possible without totally homebrewing everything. well. aside from luffy. you just cant take away or change his stretching.

LUFFY: (human monk. drunken master subclass. outlander)

the only plain human of the crew to balance out with the fact that he still has rubber powers. obviously a monk. but drunken master subclass specifically because i think the flavor(not the fact that its about being a drunkard) and abilities both fit him really well. this line in the subclass' flavortext especially fits him: "A drunken master often enjoys playing the fool to bring gladness to the despondent or to demonstrate humility to the arrogant, but when battle is joined, the drunken master can be a maddening, masterful foe."

ZORO: (tiefling fighter. samurai subclass. bounty hunter)

a fighter with the samurai subclass is so very incredibly obvious... but i actually had a lot of fun geeking out while comparing the abilities to what he can do in canon; Fighting Spirit, Rapid Strike, and Strength Before Death especially! tiefling is also pretty on the nose for his demon pirate hunter shtick and asura form, but i thought he'd be really human-passing for a tiefling and theorized about his tail getting cut off at some point or another before joining the strawhats. initially wasnt gonna give him a feat, but i gave sanji a feat so i thought itd be unfair to not give him one as well, so sentinel fits the bill pretty well i think!

NAMI: (tabaxi rogue. arcane trickster subclass. criminal)

cat burglar -> full grown literal humanoid cat. this one is INCREDIBLY self indulgent... i love... cats... theres nothing deeper to this and no other reasoning. i took cat burglar and ran with it. can you tell that i love izutsumi dungeon meshi? rogue for the aforementioned burglar-ing as well, and the arcane trickster subclass for when she picks up climatact! the mage hand will be very useful for her pickpocketing. in the future as she levels up with timeskip, i can totally see her multiclassing into wizard as well! weather wizard!

USOPP: (lightfoot halfling artificer. artillerist subclass. urchin)

I HAD SO MUCH FUN THINKING ABOUT HIS CHARACTER SHEET. halfling's Naturally Stealthy ability lets him hide behind his crewmates since theyre (almost) all bigger than him, so its perfect for hiding behind zoro or sanji all the time. Lucky is also perfect for him, and I think Brave fits pretty well too when he puts on the sogeking mask. artillerist artificer is also very fun! tinkering and making magic items for his crew, and i think Eldritch Canon or Arcane Firearm could both be easily reflavored as kabuto or any of his inventions. for emphasizing his sniper-ness, the spell sniper feat was also necessary. i think hes my favorite of all the concepts. big ears and long nose combo is so cute to me.

SANJI: (half-elf monk. drunken master subclass. guild artisan (cook!))

race was mostly based on vibes i wont lie. squints. and that vinsmoke balogna or whatever too ig. but mostly vibes. along with the idea that i think a dwarf zeff raising him would be really funny and cute. monk is also obvious, and same subclass as luffy for mostly the same reasons. though the flavor fits him much less, i think the abilities still fit him perfectly, and this blurb specifically; "Your martial arts technique mixes combat training with the precision of a dancer." i really wanted to give him a different subclass from luffy, but i dislike all the other monk subclasses a lot and i found none of them fit him as well anyways, so to try and give them SOME differences, i gave him the crusher feat.

CHOPPER: (awakened deer(shifter statblock) cleric. life subclass. hermit)

this ones definitely a mouthful im sorry. awakened deer for obvious reasons, but due to magic instead of devil fruit stuff. when i was struggling with his race, i looked a lot at shifter because of his forms, but it occurred to me that itd be super cool if he could shift between all of the different shifter options instead of being stuck with just one to replicate his rumble balls. something like heavy point/guard point=beasthide, horn point/arm point(?maybe?)=longtooth, walk point/jumping point=swiftstride, and brain point=wildhunt. hed definitely need some kind of nerf though to balance out that homebrew... and cleric for class. duh.

ROBIN: (high elf wizard. order of scribes subclass. criminal)

robin is definitely the one i struggled the most with just because of her class. elf came pretty easily- shes very elegant and i think shed look cute with super long ears- and i landed on high elf instead of wood elf for the int-based abilities. i was really on the fence between sorcerer and wizard for her because i knew shed be a full spellcaster, but i didnt feel that any of the subclasses really fit her. i ended up going with wizard for order of the scribes since it focuses on texts and knowing everything. but also because robin with a flying talking sentient book would be crazy cool. it could also be similar to how she spawns mouths and eyes places to talk to or watch people. my "fuck it, why not. this would be rad. its my house" mindset kicked in with her i will admit. also the One with the Word ability made me cackle out loud when i read it. thats the funniest ability ever. anyways, i cant really think of a way to replicate her powers, but maybe we could just reflavor a bunch of spells to be her limbs or clutch; hold person, maximillian's earthen grasp, or evard's black tentacles. thatd probably work okay, and theres a handful of spells to replicate her ability to spawn eyes or mouths. unrelated, but i imagine nico olvia to be a drow. why? her hair is white. i am a simple man!

[colorfulgloves]

she kissed me on my fucking head. i know because i was there. it was thoughtless, surely. just me, spiraling in the dress i wanted her to tell me i looked pretty in. and she kissed me on my head where those thoughts pushed up against my skull.

and i ached. and she left.

[mintybagels]

I’d give anything to hear

You say it one more time

That the universe was made

Just to be seen by my eyes

[bixels]

Posting a sneak-peak of this now because I'm about to be In The Shit school workload-wise, so this'll take me a while to finish.

Doing some character design exploration/expression sheets for Celestia and Luna. Figuring out Celestia's weird ass anatomy while I'm at it.

[sporesgalaxy]

its so important to me that artists remember they can fuck around. you never have to use tools as intended. you can always skip steps. you dont have to be organized. you dont have to be neat. you can put as little effort as you want into the parts of the process you dont find fun. maybe if youre making products you cant do these things but on your own time you can do literally actually whatever the hell. it doesnt matter how long you spend on it youve made art and its complete when you decide to quit. yee haw

[idonthaveanyurlideas]

the first time the rat grinders realise they're in too deep / all they have is each other / they've trusted the wrong teachers / the first night without her

[nosnexus]

Case Closed.

[lazylittledragon]

hey idk which anxious pre-t babe needs to hear this but i didn't get to when i was younger so. testosterone will not make you ugly. it won't make you a horrible person. it won't 'mutilate' or ruin your body. if you want to go on testosterone then literally all that happens is it makes you really fucking hot and REALLY fucking happy.

[ewwww-what]

You are not a coward. You have a goddamn medical condition, alright?

[zombie-bait]

i cannot conceive of a universe without you in it

Fellas is it gay to give yourself a lobotomy to possibly preserve the soul of your one and only companion who died to save you? Asking for a friend