#*writing on the wall starts playing*

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

The Dungeon Meshi crew 'leap' into action!

[foxstens]

andrew always being at kevin's side because kevin needs it and andrew driving kevin to night practice and andrew patting kevin down to check for injuries and andrew promising kevin it'll be fine and andrew looking awake, interested because of kevin and andrew conserving his energy for kevin's quiet meltdown and andrew smiling for the first time without the drugs because of kevin and andrew always picking up when kevin calls

[kimmie2me]

Level up

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀𓂅⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀Bakugou Katsuki x AFAB!Reader

.....

You’ve been practically living in TerraSim these past few months, pouring countless late nights and weekends into building up your little virtual world. The game has its claws deep in you, thanks to its blend of addictive life-sim elements—a mix of Sims customization, Animal Crossing terraforming, and Club Penguin socializing that could easily keep anyone hooked. And while your elaborate cityscapes and sprawling islands are a thing of beauty, there's one mission you've latched onto with laser focus: getting your character into "dating status" with Bakugou's avatar.

It was a goal that bordered on ridiculous. Sero had introduced you to the game months back during a casual hangout in the guys' dorm. He’d been casually recreating UA’s Heights Alliance in the game, building out the dormitory floor-by-floor, with every detail painstakingly placed. From the second you saw his screen, your interest piqued—and when you started playing, your obsession was instant. It became routine for you and the BakuSquad to grind away at the game during downtime, each of you building up your worlds, designing houses, and taking over one another’s islands.

The only one who’d abstained was Bakugou. At first, you assumed he had no interest, which made sense—gaming didn’t exactly seem to be his thing, aside from the occasional fighting/shooter games he dominated when dared. But in passing, during one of those late-night hangouts, he’d mentioned he already had TerraSim, that he’d been “roaming around some goddamn desert wasteland for practice.” You immediately begged him to join your world, but he just gave a rough grunt that could’ve meant anything, then dismissed you with a “Maybe, if I feel like it.”

Your goal took shape then and there: to coax him into joining and eventually leveling up your in-game relationship to unlock TerraSim’s latest update—the elusive “dating” feature. It was no small feat. For starters, if you were lucky, Bakugou logged in once every two weeks. On top of that, he seemed impervious to your digital generosity. You’d flood his character with cute, carefully chosen in-game gifts each time he showed up, and each time, he’d react with the same annoyed bark.

“Quit sendin’ me stuff. I’m not broke, dammit,” he’d scoff, his avatar recoiling as if the bonsai trees, vintage armchairs, and rare wallpapers you’d gifted him were beneath him.

Of course, you only saw it as encouragement to keep trying.

You were determined. And as with all the best grind arcs, yours became an elaborate, all-consuming routine. Every chance you had, you logged into TerraSim, meticulously building up your land, ensuring your avatar was stocked with rare, hard-to-find items to impress Bakugou with. You were going through caffeine-fueled all-nighters at this point, with mornings spent half-asleep in class, barely keeping your eyes open. The BakuSquad teased you relentlessly—Mina claiming you were “seriously down bad for a video game character.”

If only they knew.

But as each week passed, Bakugou’s elusive online presence continued to be a thorn in your side. By the time he logged on, your gift vault had practically doubled. You tried it all—stylish furniture, hard-to-find armor, imported rugs for his in-game lair. You even went as far as to max out your crafting skills, just to create exclusive, handmade items with painstaking detail. Each time he logged on and received your gifts, though, his response was the same, and each time he accepted with a sigh, you secretly thrilled. Your relationship points were crawling forward… but slowly. Too slowly.

“Stop givin’ me this crap,” he’d grumble through your headset. “I don’t even want this stuff, ya’know?”

“Oh, sure, sure,” you’d laugh, clicking to send another rare item. “One of these days, you’re going to need these.”

“The hell I will,” he’d mutter, but he never outright rejected your offers.

.....

Weeks bled into months, and you swore you could’ve become an in-game billionaire with the amount of rare loot you farmed for him. But it was all worth it the day you saw your relationship meter finally, finally, hit the dating threshold. You blinked at the notification in stunned disbelief. Was this a fever dream? You hovered over the confirmation message, breath catching. It had taken everything you had—sleepless nights, countless gold coins, and so much shameless digital groveling—but you’d done it.

With hands trembling in a mix of excitement and pure vindication, you clicked “accept,” and the game’s screen flashed with a pop-up: Dating Status Reached With Dynamight! It was all you could do not to scream out loud and wake half the dorm.

But you knew you had to take it a step further. There was one action in particular you’d waited for, that single, pixelated interaction that would bring your late-night conquest full circle. And, so, the next time you found him online, you spammed his messages telling him to join your world. After being left on read for a few minutes, you finally got his invite to join your world.

You accepted the invite and seconds later, Bakugou’s in-game avatar appeared in front of you, materializing with a small puff of digital dust. For a few seconds, Bakugou just wandered around, taking in the over-the-top, pretty pink world you’d painstakingly crafted. Everything in sight was cute and whimsical—flowers that seemed to bloom just for him, pastel-colored furniture, and adorable, quirky decorations scattered around, all meticulously placed to make him squirm just a little.

He moved around in silence, his avatar occasionally glancing at an oversized plushie or some tiny, glittering accessory, as though trying to figure out what to do next. His character in front of a giant heart-shaped fountain you’d made in the middle of the town square, looking completely unimpressed.

You couldn’t resist anymore. You sent a game call invitation, knowing full well it was the only way to get his attention.

“Yo,” he grumbled as the call picked up, his voice already thick with annoyance. “What the hell is all this? ”

You smirked, hearing the edge of frustration in his tone as he tried to process the overwhelming cuteness of your world. There was way more stuff than he remembered from the last time he joined, which had been about a week ago.

“Well, don’t just stand there. Check out the new features!” you teased, ready to see how he’d react. His avatar was still stiffly standing by the fountain, looking like he wanted to leave immediately.

"Quit sendin' me invites. I don’t need to see all this stupid stuff," he muttered, but his voice was already a little softer, like he was at least partially curious about whatever you’d done. His avatar shifted toward a pink gazebo with twinkling fairy lights, the atmosphere oddly peaceful in contrast to his usual fiery demeanor.

You grinned. "Just wait. I have something special to show you. C'mere." He loudly sighs, walks his character toward you, and stops in front of you. You clicked the little “kiss on cheek” option, holding your breath as your avatar leaned toward Bakugou’s. His avatar’s cheeks flushed bright red, a little heart animation popping over his head.

A beat later, Bakugou’s voice came through the headset, loud and utterly bewildered. “WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT?!”

Your laugh echoed through the room, so loud it practically rattled your headphones. “Oh my god, calm down. It’s just the new ‘kiss’ action!”

“The what action?” His tone teetered between horror and rage, as if you’d committed a criminal offense against his character’s dignity.

“It’s cute! Look—” You sent another cheek-kiss, chuckling as his avatar’s blush only deepened and two hearts popped this time.

“STOP THAT,” he bellowed. “I didn’t sign up for… for this! What the hell kinda game update even does that?!”

“Maybe if you’d read the patch notes, you’d know,” you teased, sending one last kiss for good measure. Bakugou’s furious grumbling was music to your ears, and his embarrassed fluster was as satisfying as the months of grind it had taken to get here.

“I KNEW this game was weird!” Bakugou snapped, his avatar stomping away dramatically, a small puff of virtual dust swirling around him. “Why the hell do you keep doin’ this?! This isn’t a dating sim, it’s a goddamn build-your-own-world game! What the hell does kissing have to do with anything?!”

You snickered, watching his character angrily pace in circles like a toddler who’d been deprived of their favorite toy. “It’s an update, crybaby,” you said, barely containing your laughter. “They added a bunch of new features. Just because you’re too stubborn to try them doesn’t mean I’m not gonna take advantage of it.”

“I’m not tryin’ that crap! No one even reads the patch notes!” His tone was half defensive, half... well, half like someone who was genuinely confused but also slightly flustered despite himself. “Next thing you know, you’ll have my character doing some stupid dance routine or makin’ it cook me dinner or somethin’!”

“You know what? That sounds like a good idea,” you said, clicking away before he could protest. “Maybe I’ll make him start doing all the work around here in a cute outfit, or better yet, I’ll get him to cook me a five-star meal, or, oh—how about a slow dance with my character? Yeah, I’m definitely making him do that!”

“No, you—stop it right now,” Bakugou growled, as if you’d just threatened to burn down his precious in-game house. “I swear, if you make my character embarrass me like that... I'm gonna make your character regret it.”

You burst out laughing, already picturing Bakugou’s avatar furiously stomping around your island. “Oh please, you’re too late. You already lost the battle when I got that kiss, remember?”

“Shut up,” Bakugou snarled, clearly having no idea how to process what just happened. “This game’s messed up. You’re messed up.”

“I know,” you said smugly, loving every second of his flustered misery. “But hey, you’re the one who’s dating me now, so guess you’ll just have to get used to it.”

You could hear him grumble in frustration, his character awkwardly swiveling around on the screen, refusing to acknowledge your victory. “I’m not dating you. This is stupid. None of this is real,” he muttered, but his voice wavered in a way that said something had shifted. You knew you had him, even if he didn’t want to admit it.

You smirked, leaning back in your chair, letting the silence hang for a beat before responding. “Sure, sure. Keep telling yourself that. I'll took a screenshot of the kiss and I'm sending it to the group chat. Have fun defending yourself in there. And I'm gonna say you told me to do it!”

Bakugou’s avatar froze, his pixelated expression twitching in annoyance as though it couldn’t process the level of frustration he was feeling. “Don’t you dare.” His voice was low and gruff, but there was a crack of vulnerability there—just enough to make your grin widen.

“Ah, but you’re my boyfriend now, Katsuki,” you teased, not letting the moment pass without pushing just a little more. “And boyfriends get gifts, don’t they? I'll spoil you and you're cute avatar, don't worry.”

There was a long, tense pause before Bakugou’s character spun around on its heel, stomping off to the far corner of the island as though to flee from the situation. You couldn’t help but laugh at his reaction.

“I’m gonna kill you when I see you,” he spat, though it lacked its usual venom, and you could practically hear the flush in his voice.

You leaned forward, your heart racing with victory. "Yeah, well, that’s what you get for being so stubborn. Consider yourself stuck with me now."

Bakugou’s final response was an explosion of curses—loud, heated, and full of frustration. He abruptly left your world with a furious slam of his controller, then cut off the game call, leaving only his angry muttering on the other end. But even in his rage, there was a hint of something softer—something that told you, despite his protests, he was starting to come to terms with the whole situation.

And in that moment, it was all you needed to hear. You were dating him. Even if it was just in the world of TerraSim, it didn’t matter. You’d made it. You'd won.

[carlyraejepsans]

HELPP i found out about character AIs and im losing it over calling deltarune sans "a more manipulative personality" 😭😭 like whatt we've only seen this man like 2 times

sorry im being a hater hgfjdks but you're the sans understander

lmaoo character.ai, look where the fall of ai dungeon got us, smh. thank you for the compliment though!

[kelocitta]

It's nothing super worrying (As in its not likely any specific physical damage) but lately my hand has been acting up with a very low pain/stiffness whenever I put my hand brace on. Kinda sucks and its making me a little more fickle about drawing time :/ It starts up basically as soon as I put the brace on so its not a case of strain sensitivity/less endurance...

[maddieandangel]

Had a weird Hollow Knight-related dream a couple days ago, so I decided to draw a major scene I remembered from it dgsgshf

More context will be in the tags, for those interested!

[raininyourblackeyes]

My cousin, a published writer, a well-known poet in my country and a literature professor, for whom I've always been no.1 support ever since her first attempts at writing in high school, told me that I must stop writing as a hobby because that's her thing and since I'm writing fantasy mostly my writing could never have any important artistic value anyways.

[lavellane]

what the fuck does this mean. what did they mean by this

[yepthatsacowalright]

In a platonic and intellectual way I am gnawing at the bars of my enclosure right now. The Danels (Daniel Kwan & Daniel Scheinert, creators of Everything Everywhere All At Once) just did a talk at SXSW. It's called 'How We Pulled Off Everything Everywhere All at Once.' Except as soon as they got on stage, they announced that they've already given that talk several times elsewhere, showed QR codes to watch those on YouTube if you're interested, and then pivoted to talking about so much real shit about humanity, inequity, climate change, the past, the future, now, storytelling, art, paradoxes, self-care, religion, addiction, AI, etc. instead that I still feel my brain vibrating about it. Some highlights (that I probably transcribed poorly but tried my best): "The earliest cultures, a lot of them, all around the world, believed in animism. And for those who don't know, [animism] is this belief, this story that they told themselves, that every living creature, rock, tree, river, had a soul, had a life. And a lot of modern people...kinda laugh at that, and think it's a little silly. But regardless of what you believe, that story was actually really beautiful, because it kept things in balance, right? There was this really beautiful relationship with the world around them. When we invented agriculture, we couldn't just force an oxen to drag a plow, because that oxen had a soul. And so we changed the story of the oxen and said, 'Oh, actually we're not all beautiful, soulful things. We're gonna lower the value of this one thing.' And you see this happening slowly throughout history, every new achievement. We've done it to the trees. The trees are incredible, beautiful things that provide food, water, shelter, cooling the Earth, giving us the oxygen we breathe, and we've reduced their story to $70 of lumber at Home Depot. And, like I said, some of this is necessary. Even the oldest cultures who believed in animism would kill, would chop down trees, but there was a narrative where there was grieving, and there was respect, and there was gratitude, and that has been lost. And we have slowly created an entire world where everything is disposable. Our shoes, our cars, our phones...we're all culpable, we're all responsible for this. But the worst part is we've done it to the people. And these devaluing stories, they become normalized and compounded through generational amnesia. And we slowly move the threshold of who is valuable and who isn't.

For instance, modern capitalism and the capitalist workforce only works if we are able to compel people to work, because we can't force them to work. And so we had to change the story we told ourselves, and say that your value is your job. You are only worth what you can do. And we are no longer beings with an inherent worth.

And this is why it is so hard to find fulfillment in this current system. The system works best when you're not fulfilled.

Which brings me back to AI.

There's gonna be a lot of people who are saying how amazing AI is, and it is. It's magic. It's probably going to solve cancers, probably gonna give us a lot of climate solutions. This is a powerful thing. But I'm really terrified of this new story we're gonna have to tell ourself in order to accept this new convenience, this new progress. ...to imagine what [AI] will do within this current system, within this current incentive structure...this is the same system that brought us climate change, income inequality, and the general lack of gratitude and understanding of our worth and the worth of those around us. And so one of the things I'm realizing we all have to be doing...is we have to really rewrite the system story, and center what is truly valuable." "We are addicted to a system. We know how to solve our problems, we understand what a lot of the solutions are, we just don't know how to actually have the will to do it. And so if you look at us, collectively, we are on step one. We are finally, after decades, admitting that there is a problem, specifically climate change amongst other things. And now we need to be actively thinking about, okay, what kind of stories are we gonna be telling to bring us into that second step?" HIGHLY RECOMMEND watching the entire 1-hour talk. I promise it does not feel like an hour, and it is 8000% worth your time:

[lightblueminecraftorchid]

The eternal tension between genuinely wanting to watch/read good horror media and wanting to sleep for the next week.

[citrus-blade]

I hate being sick

All I wanna do it write my silly little dreamnoblade fanfiction while being wrapped in my silly little blanket and chatting with my silly little online friends but NAH

[lakecoded]

okay honestly. and i promise i will stop thinking about the deeply mediocre film argylle after this. but people have been talking about how confusing and how meta it is. but it isn't even that weird or meta????? like grow up! watch weirder movies

[narwhalandchill]

ok not to randomly go off on a somewhat negative ramble But. (general genshin story direction worries basically)

while there are a bunch of stunts i fear the genshin story slash lore could end up pulling that would serve as not only disappointments but to varying degrees also just retroactively ruin a lot of games writing for me. i dont think theres anything that im as genuinely concerned about as the possibility of like. completely losing their narrative marbles to an overdone time travel/temporal manipulation in one way or another like just the thought of that shit haunts me

bc like. while i dont find them particularly compelling as an argument for that to be the case regarding Everything in the narrative in current lore/theory circles (like. makoto n ei teaming up w istaroth once doesnt automatically establish universal time travel). it is unfortunately true that in canon lore there are many of the kind of lore pieces present that you could use to set that kind of reveal and complete restructuring of the story up. istaroth and the sacred sakura and some shady things said by various characters and how you could argue Any time loop or travel adjacent is just hidden by the irminsul 5head (another piece of writing whose potential misuse seriously alarms me, mind you). and so on.

and i am just. Not about any of that shit. like. for me absolutely any plot device or element that has the risk of fundamentally fucking up a storys continuity and coherence sideways to the degree BOTH the

"genshins gonna turn out to be ALL time travel/time loop/simulation to make [sudden endgame twist X heavily at odds with what was established in the central lore prior] appear sensible"

and

"celestia just irminsuls away all evidence for [that twist X again] so achsually it was always genius and compatible with lore"

tier of nightmare scenarios will have. is just. Not fucking worth it. this shit has ruined countless stories with vastly better writing and way more competent authors because its just. not the kind of stuff you can just insert in a massive fucking story willy nilly to explain away the mystery box you didnt bother to set up together so it ultimately comes together in a cohesive way that Doesnt need to be broken on multiple levels to scrape together some conclusion. and its just hhhhhhhhhhhhhh

and like ive never expected some massive masterpiece out of genshin like at best its gonna be one of those stories that once finished gets some really fucking banger fanwork as its community expands upon and explores a solid but flawed canon groundwork. theres fundamental flaws and limitations to its storytelling and format and that cant be helped. so im expecting no miracles on that front.

but the one fucking thing i dont want them to fall for is that misguided at best and outright pretentious and disrespectful at worst allure of. SEE! we outsmarted the audience! the theories! we broke our own story continuity to force a twist because our established worldbuilding technically makes it an option! isnt this smart!

like just please. no. no clue how unpopular this is but im already quite conflicted on the established use of irminsul in sumeru and how it arguably voided a lot of important characterization (nahidas inferiority complex) and narrative potential (scara literally becoming a non factor in the grander story more or less) for good but like. for now. fine. it hasnt become overused yet. i dont think its inherently bad as a factor of worldbuilding. i like how it recontextualizes fact and fiction and the significance of stories that appear mere fables in the world of teyvat. but as it stands the irminsul is still a deus ex machina. and thats a dangerous tool for any writer to have in careless use. and when combined with the sprinkles of lore involving the possibility of time manipulation and such to be further explored. its like powder and keg. two tools that can absolutely gut a story of its narrative cohesion and the weight of its stakes in an instant. its really fucking worrisome.

genshins writing is flawed but the one thing this game has going for it that i REALLY hope the writers will understand to respect is its world. how much the marriage between this massive and beautifully crafted immersive open world and the intricacies of lore and history afforded to all corners of it truly do in tandem to establish the world of genshin as more Real. as weightier. as a place you grow and remain attached to even when the main storys writing stumbles. the world is so important and to let it remain feeling real is just. i hope they understand how fragile of a gem that is.

featuring an artificial world order established by fraudulent divinity and that involving some degree of cosmic fuck-uppery of the natural order and all-encompassing illusion to maintain it is fine. this is a story heavily referencing gnosticism that theme is literally a given. but it needs to be an artificial world order imposed on a real world that remains feeling real the entire time through. and for that to be preserved it needs to remain grounded.

but the problem is that once a story truly commits to the "anything could be altered and fundamentally reversed with the right mcguffin at play with seeming impunity" there is no going back. it becomes very fucking difficult to keep the figurative feet of a narrative even touching the ground for even the most skilled of writers afforded absolute creative freedom to work with (which genshin does not have). and just that much more easier for the stakes to be lost completely. and i dont want to see that scenario become reality

[faerieorbitars]

im afraid the madness is setting in for me again (started thinking abt my conceptual fantasy crossover ttrpg setting based on that map where somebody put moominvalley next to middle earth)

[obstinaterixatrix]

also mom was running down some of the drama she’s been experiencing for years in her high school wechat group, and it is… astounding how terrible her self-proclaimed rival is at social chess. well first of all, they didn’t even know each other in high school? they weren’t in the same class? mom says they never talked before so she doesn’t know why this other woman is so obsessed with her, but this woman has been going to all of mom’s close friends and sending messages just slandering mom’s character and talking about how mom’s obsessed with attention and a terrible person and whatever ANYWAY. oh, warning for death, but like, a while ago one of mom’s close friends had a husband who passed, and this lady offered mom’s friend condolences, and mom’s friend was like ? I don’t know this person? and a little bit after this lady asked mom’s friend to have lunch and this lady was like ‘oh you shouldn’t be friends with that woman’ blah blah and it’s just. HER HUSBAND DIED????? YOU’RE TRASHING THIS WOMAN’S FRIEND TO HER FACE AFTER HER HUSBAND DIED???? AND SHE DOESN’T KNOW YOU???? AND HER HUSBAND *JUST* DIED????? and she keeps doing this too, like, going to mom’s close friends and trying to get them against mom but since they’re *mom’s close friends* they just send screenshots of the convo to mom and go like ‘hey so this happened’. she even, like, had a dinner or something with people and made them swear to never talk to mom ever again (one of the people there immediately messaged mom with a picture of everyone there and A DIFFERENT guy had lunch with mom on a trip to the US) (mom directly confronted him like ‘so what about the promise to never speak to me again’) (LMAO???) anyway this lady’s high school ex is apparently one of the heads of the organizers for the high school group (?) and mom had a dinner with him a while ago so she’s apparently holding onto a photo of them meeting up in case she, and I quote, “wants to toss a bomb into the groupchat”

[brainworm-blitz]

I cannot wait for Elder Scrolls 6 to drop I'm gonna be fucking *insufferable* for the rest of my life. You can't run from me forever, Todd. You have to answer for your crimes one day, Todd. I'm waiting, Todd.