#practice practice

[flightlessribbons]

RC9GN: 9RG Scene: "The Next One"

(I don't know why I started out this little writing scene/snippet collection with SUCH A HEAVY ONE, but regardless we move on.)

Also Kuni is First Ninja- I needed to name the man eventually

...

“Randy…Are you asking to be the next ninja?” Kuni’s voice was sharp and low; the question a suffocating hand on their throats.

The teenager held no hesitation, “Yeah I am. There’s no one else better to do this, and you guys know it. I was raised on this stuff; I know the temples and the records inside out, I know the yokai that come through the gate! You guys just need to teach me how to fight, and we’re back on track!”

He can’t do it. 

“No no, don’t do this with me, Randy.” The throbbing in Sasha’s head got louder; who knew the headaches stayed even when you were dead? “We need someone else–”

Frustration strained from her son’s voice, growing louder and desperate, “We don’t have anyone else! If you guys try and find and train someone, Norrisville’s gonna be run into the ground by the Sorceress by the time they’re ready to hold the damn sword; and you know that!”

He’ll get hurt.

“It’s a bad idea,” she hissed out, rubbing her temples.

“It’s the only idea! I have you and Kuni, Mom- I can’t get trained by anyone better.”

Sasha’s breathing was uneven, “Randy-”

“No one else has ever been trained by the First Ninja, I could have an advantage!”

They’ll rip him apart.

The anxiety that once simmered, now boiled over in her gut, the unease ripping at her from inside. Images of her boy toiling in the same fights she endured, cut and bruised from the enemies she was supposed to stop, flashed in her mind in a sick reel. Overlapping with his hopeful interjections, the last ninja reached her tipping point.

He’ll get killed in the fight you couldn’t finish.

 The words came out like bile in her throat, “Stop it, it’s too dangerous, Randy!”

Shock flashed across his features, a thick wool of silence settling between them. HIs expression shifted, the surprise gone in place of a wounded scowl, “I already know that, Mom! It’s Friday night, and I’m here talking to your ghost instead of sitting in our booth at The Pit!” a humorless, dry noise left him, steeped in bitter anger, “Yeah, it’s dangerous, it didn’t stop you though, did it? From doing what’s right?” 

He sounded so rational, more mature than his fourteen years should warrant. He was what they needed, a kid with a good head on his shoulders who could lead them well with more training. 

Yet amidst all the logic and sensibility, all she could see was the boy she raised.

The boy who always laughed too hard and danced like an awkward marionette; who had his goofy likeness immortalized in the Game Pit’s hall of fame for his winning streak; a creative kid whose smile stretched from ear to ear while he scribbled on any surface he could. 

Drowning in dark robes sizes too large, lanky limbs recoiling inwards in his defense; there was no fabled ninja protege- only Randy. 

Sasha stepped forward, braving the thick air to wrap her arms around her son.

Sweet, good Randy.

Pressing her face against his dark hair, she felt him return the embrace just as tightly as her own; hands shaking while he muffled his sobs into her shoulder. Grief and pleading bled from his fingertips against her now eternal uniform, a heavy reminder that she was no longer the protector of Norrisville– of her family. 

A pained chuckle left her after a minute, the mother pulling apart from her son just enough to hold his face in her hands. 

“No, I guess it didn’t stop me.” she gave a watery smile, her thin fingers wiping the tears from his cheeks, “My sweet, little boy…When did you get so wise?”

His laugh was an echo of the ones she knew so well, “Well, my nanny was a priest, so I’d blame him first.”

A smile graced her lips before she pressed them together in a line, her hands falling to his shoulders. 

He’ll be okay. We’ll be there for him.

“You’ll start training on Monday at 3 a.m.” 

Randy’s eyes widened as she looked back to Kuni, who still leaned against one of the temple columns, his arms folded across his chest. 

The man exhaled, nodding curtly at Sasha before addressing the boy, “ 3 a.m, on the dot.” 

[papita474]

Ok im literally very happy about this,doing this frame in my style is something I wanted to do a long time ago <3

Still needs some changes and of course the color

[boxyheadbry]

Cheezy Dragon chasing the sun.

[vooruitmariek]

Autumn is on its way

[nanah1989]

Still in progress ‘cause I’m trying to sketch my big bro Feng Xin 😅🤣

[booshbear]

[bigbrainbiology]

Attempted to draw someone vaguely more masculine and ended with a wet cat

h e l p

[blondebrainpowered]

Mouse Armor by Jeff de Boer

Etsy Mouse armor necklace and earrings available as well as other work by Jeff de Boor.

[bloodbending]

can’t believe tiktok is actually getting banned, twitter is infested with bots and brainworm-infested musk bootlickers, facebook is king of QAnon, instagram caught the plague from facebook and is dying a slow death in real time… and as the dust settles… only Miss Tumblr is left standing… failing upwards once again

[yourmajestybee]

EVERYONE NEEDS TO LOOK AT HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON UNTRAINABLE THE STAGE PLAY RN

[myriad-of-things]

my little brother tried to show me a "cool trick" where he entered my name and hometown into chatgpt and tried to get it to pull up my personal info like it did on all of his friends, then was absolutely shocked when it couldn't find anything on me

so. keep practicing basic internet safety, guys. it still works. don't put your personal info on social media, keep all your accounts on private, turn off ai scraping on every site that you can, enable all privacy features on social media apps. our info still can be protected, we have to keep fighting for control

[meanao3thoughts]

a feel like the new generation of fanfic readers NEED to understand that clicking on a fic (interaction) does nothing. ao3 has no algorithm. your private discord discussions of fic do not reach the authors. if you do not actively engage with writers they will stop posting. this isn’t social media this is community.

[clonerightsagenda]

I was rambling on the issue of museums and human remains and how certain populations are more likely to have their bodies put on display to be gawked at and then went "well I guess the Pompeii casts were of Europeans. there are bones in there right?" and Googled it to make sure, at which point I confirmed that yes there are bones in there, but more interestingly DNA testing revealed that a cast of an adult holding a child everyone assumed was a mother and child were, in fact, a man and a kid entirely unrelated to him. Honestly that's more moving to me. Maybe they were connected in a way other than blood, but maybe a stranger saw a child when the world was ending and thought the one thing he could do was hold them.

[gorjee-art]

a comic about cuddles

[squirrelmop]