#just added a bunch of good cards to this deck too

[dravidious]

You're more amazing than Propagator Primordium

What the fuck what the fuck what the fuck this is a 2-drop 3/3 that's also a reanimation spell that makes its own reanimation targets what the fuck

In related news about perfectly balanced cards, I was inspired by cards like Bitter Triumph, Cast Down, Devour in Shadow, Doom Blade, Feed the Swarm, Go for the Throat, Heartless Act, Infernal Grasp, Malicious Affliction, Power Word Kill, Terror, Victim of Night, and Walk the Plank to make my own removal spell

[portgasdwrld]

Hello! I read older posts where you mentioned you weren't a fan of your writing. I think you're awesome though! Love your work. c:

I have a suggestion, if you happen to like it. Could we get Zoro (and any other characters) with a shy and aloof female reader who can't figure out they're being flirted with, even though they share the same feelings?

👩🏻‍💻Hey!! Thank you so much for your sweet words it means a lot to me🫶🏻✨ I’m super happy you love it! And yes ofc no problem!! I love the idea 🤭

📂 Zoro+ oblivious shy/aloof reader to his flirting

Featuring: Zoro+ f!reader Warning: none, fluff Note: I rewrote it and very much prefer this version, I hope you do as much as me

Zoro was never the type of man to be outspoken about his feelings

His flirting is somewhat a bit clumsy and he gets frustrated with himself easily. He gets embarrassed by being open with how he feels.

It doesn’t help when you are clearly not reading in between the lines...

He even wonders if you are doing it intentionally to mess with him, but when you just give him a confused look or go on about your day like nothing happened, he questions himself 😭

A sigh leaves the swordsman's lips as his back leans against the railing of the deck. His thoughts wander and they always come back to one thing bothering him: you.

He starts to doubt himself as most of his flirting attempt were fails. A week ago, he complimented your outfit ,but you simple threw a short thanks with a smile as you walked away. Wednesday when he sat next you for dinner and brushed his arm against yours, you just apologized with a blush and slightly took your distance. Yesterday, when he asked to talk to you, but you stuttered a bunch of words and got away from him by grabbing Nami's arm.

He knew better than abandoning. In fact, ever since his feelings for you were revealed to him, all he could think of, was you. You occupied his mind when it wasn't focused on training, he found himself longing to hug you and smile when you do. Although, he thought about not pursuing you, scared it would ruin his focus on his goal. It was in vain, as he realized you were always very supportive of his goal and even cheered him to train harder and achieve his dream. He appreciate it a lot.

The sun is slowly setting on the Sunny, the golden light illuminating the boat. He looks far away, a hand on his swords and his head turns in your direction as your laugh echoes through the ship.

You are playing a card game with Robin, killing time before its time for supper.

His lips naturally curve into a discreet smile as he observes you complain about some move Robin did. You were accusing her of cheating with her ability, sulking over your lost as she quickly denies it with a chuckle. As he watches you, he notices that you did something different with your hair and decide to use it to his advantage.

He approaches you with his usual blank expression, but he slightly hesitate in his steps which caught Robins attention. You smile noticing his presence.

-What brings you here! Wanna play?

You ask him as you show him quickly the pack of cards in your hands with your infamous grin.

-Nah, I’m good. You..you did something new with your hair?

-Oh, yeah! You noticed? Robin said it looked good.

You reply in an excited tone as you touch your hair.

-Yeah, you’re pretty.

-Thanks! I appreciate it

You say with a slight blush due to the compliment, but an awkward silence falls. Zoro stays silent for a moment as he thinks of what he could ad to the conversation but you open your mouth first.

- By the way,..umm I'm sorry about yesterday, i hope it wasn't something important?

You trail avoiding to stare at him as you remember how you embarrassingly ran away too nervous to talk to him. When he pulled you to the side, his eyes staring deeply into yours, you felt like you couldn't breath for a moment. You didn't want him to obviously figure out you like him...

Robin gazes at Zoro before looking at you a small teasing smirk appearing on her lips.

-Oh...Yeah...I was hoping to talk to you, but...uh.

He says as his face gets red. He clearly hates the facts that Robin is here enjoying the little show while you are still oblivious to his advances.

-It can wait

-We can talk now if you want. We were done with our game anyway.

-I have to do something first, but you can meet me in the crow-nest in about 5 minutes?

He lies trying to give himself some time to think about what he's going to say. You nod agreeing with your usual smile that he loves so much.

-Alright then see ya

You watch him leave, curious about what he wants to speak with you. You shrug your shoulders ready to leave too, but Robin is looking at you with a small teasing smirk.

-What?

-Nothing~

She retorts sweetly before waving you off.

++++

The dark sky slowly sets over the head of the Strawhats as the delicious smell of the food fills everyone nostrils. You enter your room to put away your card and as you are about to leave, you take a moment to breath. You didn't notice how nervous you are until you felt your breath getting a little shaky.

Arrived at the location, you open the door and see him sat not too far from the window. He’s looking away but as he notices your presence, he invites you to sit besides him.

-The food smells good

You say breaking the silence. He nods and looks outside again. At around the same moment, an insect fly inside and run directly in your face, making you panic a little. Zoro is quick to catch it and throw it away, making sure you are fine at the same time.

-You’re okay?

-Yeah, it’s just a small insect, I'm good.

-Wait

He gets closer to you and clumsily fix your hair with the use of his fingers.

-Cool

He concludes with a small satisfied smile as he finishes placing your hair. You look up at him with a blush, eyes connecting with his. Zoro clears his throat as he leans back while you stare at your nervous fingers. Your heart is pounding in your chest as you stare now at your friend.

-So, what did you want to talk about?

You see him hesitate as he opens his mouth but close it quickly. His gaze shift from you to the view outside. He sighs and with a blush spread on his tanned cheeks, he finally speaks.

-I like you

Your eyes widen at his sudden confession, not expecting this at all. You furrow your eyebrows as your hand naturally covers your pounding heart.

-What??Since when!?

You ask completely confused. He chuckles a little astonished to your true shock to his confession. You really didn't notice his flirting tactics.

-I thought I made it obvious

-No?? How??

-Uh...with compliments.

-Zoro...

-I don't compliment anyone like the cook, I genuinely think you are pretty.

You gasp a little hiding your face in your hands, half of you not believing this is real and half of you realizing the cause of his strange behavior. You let your hands fall on your laps as you giggle.

-You're so bad at flirting

You joke to try to calm yourself down. Both of you start laughing as he admits it with a nod.

-You are so dense though

-Pfff, not at all

-You clearly can't take a hint

-Wha-

-Y/N SWANNNN, It's time to eat!

You are interrupted by Sanji's scream that startle you a little.

-Look like dinner is ready

Zoro concludes as he prepares himself to stand up, but you quickly grab his forearm pulling him down. You close the distance and give him a quick kiss on his cheek. He looks at you surprised, but he slowly start to smile.

-I like you too

[niuttuc]

My Favorite Cards of 2024: Bloomburrow

The year is pretty close to over, so let’s go back over the sets released this year (with new cards at least), and go through a few of my favorite cards from that release. I’ll group together stuff released together, in this case it’ll be the main Bloomburrow set, and the commander precons. Extra reprints as courageous critters or special guests might also get a mention. I’ll probably go through one set a day for the next week, though I might skip some days for personal reasons.

I'll start with a bunch of talents that I like, a stellar second outing of the Class type in this set, outshining even their first appearance in D&D. In constructed, limited and commander, they impress and have a range of different designs, and I like them very much.

Offspring was also a very neat ability, and it's always nice when we get something to extend new abilities in a more open fashion, to older cards and sets. Of course, Zinnia goes infinite with Palinchron, but so does a worn down half-tire. Maybe someday I'll even build a deck around Zinnia, but we'll see, I tend to come back to sets a year or two down the line.

I love creative clones, and Mockingbird delivers! And a one-mana clone that can scale definitely hits the mark, a clone you never overpay for is a really good concept, and this was a good way to execute on it without shirking color.

Staying with birds for a bit, Scrap Trawler is a fun design that unfortunately breaks in half with a look. Adding colored mana certainly helps Jackdaw Savior lot, and restricting to flying creatures also narrows down what can enable it significantly. The dream of combining this with a Broodmoth or Valkyrie's Call to create oodles of value out of dying creatures is also a neat addition.

A new Wood Elves always deserves a mention, and one that can grab nonbasics definitely solidifies its role. Clifftop Lookout will stick around in commander decks of mine for years to come, at least until they print much better cards. Plus, it has sneaky reach, gotta respect the sneaky reach that will save my life at some point.

Still on frogs, Dour Port-Mage is here to exemplify the "leave the battlefield without dying" ability that was granted to frogs and was an excellent way to make an ability that's both narrow and a bit open-ended. There is some play in how to achieve that, yet it's pretty unique, and happens to play well in the colors with bouncing, which ties it well with Frogs, but also blinking, exile removal, tucking, and more. Overall, it allowed them to mostly do regular creature things, having ETBs and all, yet still feel like they belonged to the Frogs' synergies.

Gift is a fun ability that works well in both 1v1 and takes a new political dimension in multiplayer (mostly commander). Cruelclaw's Heist is a nice version of the two mana hand attack spell with upside, allowing it to be hand attack that isn't dead when the opponent is empty-handed, lowering the downside of its gift, and gift becomes even more fun in multiplayer when you can gift a separate opponent you're targeting.

Sunspine Lynx is costed fairly, punishes greedy manabases, and looks incredible in foil. Price of Progress can be a bit too brutal, but stapling half of one on the back of a creature that has a solid rate makes for a fun card in commander and constructed both. I've domed a Domain player for 13 damage with this in Standard, and I can tell you that felt very good and would have earned this cat a spot on this list by itself.

I've already said a few times in the past week that I love to have options, and Fountainport as a pseudo-trading post on a land gives me just that. For sure, I love selling my Offsprings for knowledge, my life for fish or my mana for mana. A lot more tokens around these days for this to incidentally draw cards from, and generally a useful card to spawn surprise blockers.

Catch-up cards that are good enough to be played are generally pretty neat, and Beza being a mythic legend version of that effect delivers on it. Stabilizing with life and bodies against aggressive decks, but not a dead card in grindy games, Beza does stellar work and left me trying to see if a commander deck could be viable with more opponents to compare to to make it more likely to get the full suite of effects.

Between the snazzy art and the flashy effect, Cruelclaw makes the list alongside his heist. Look at this guy/weasel! He casts spells for free! My main nitpick about the card is that given his story and flavor, I expected him to be casting those spells for free from the opponents' library, not my own. But I can forgive that, it makes the card stronger, even if slightly less fun imo.

Scavenging Ooze is an excellent design, and Keen-Eyed Curator being a variation on it plays great as well. It was neat to get it right before a delirium set, and the slight differences don't detract from its power much. It was a bit hurt by actual Scavenging Ooze being in Foundations only a couple months later, but it still manages to split the deck time with Scooze in some archetypes in Standard, and that's exactly where it should be.

That Jeskai precon was good enough to get BOTH its commanders on my list. Temporary creatures to get their etbs or other effects early is my jam, as well as attacking for value, and Arthur does both in a nice package. We were missing on neat Jeskai commanders, but with its half dozen of Jeskai precons, the year definitely delivered!

Similar to Cruelclaw's Heist, Long River's Pull makes use of the Gift mechanic. This allows a rate well above what we see in standard, a clean Counterspell, while being an interesting political tool in Commander where actual Counterspell is legal. Giving cards to people can buy an ally very quickly in commander, or make sure a player missing land drops is in the game, and this actually makes me consider this card over the classic counterspell in more than one deck.

The Calamity Beasts have a good hit rate of unique and powerful designs. The Viper has spawned a few decks around it in standard and beyond, and that's impressive considering it's a punisher effect that warps your own deckbuilding to enable. As it turns out, a 6/6 that basically wins the game if you untap with it is pretty good if you can get it for two or three mana, even if it's not on turn 2 and it dies to removal.

Making bats relevant in standard and being a pseudo-sun titan for half the cost, Zoraline handily makes it into my list. When she's around and not asleep, she's a card with a very good rate by herself that does something I like. And then she also enables the main mechanic of bats in the set enough to be one of the best card in their deck too.

Prosperous Bandit is the kind of unusual ramp I like. Creating that many treasures whenever it deals damage on a three drop captures my attention. Getting through for damage on a 3 mana 2/2 sure ain't easy, but buffing it isn't that difficult and the payoff is definitely there.

Finally, the art corner, Bloomburrow had some incredible art that struck home for me. Which isn't to say other sets in the year didn't, but these marked me a bit more, particularly as a new setting for Magic that felt richer than the other stuff we got. With art and story, Bloomburrow felt both rich and yet a small part of something bigger that could easily be expanded later on. Plus, there is a bonus category that'll be in a reblog in a few minutes, I'm running out of image slots on tumblr.

[thecommandertable]

Keystone Commanders and How to Avoid Them

I think most Commander players realize that there are some decks that just fold in upon themselves when they can't keep their commander on the battlefield. I like to call these kinds of commanders "keystone commanders".

A keystone is that large, wedge-shaped central stone at the top of an arch. The idea is that if you remove that one piece, the whole thing collapses. If you've studied ecology or conservation, you're probably familiar with the term "keystone species"; a species that plays an integral role in sustaining an ecosystem. Likewise, a keystone commander has an integral role in a deck's strategy; without it, that deck won't be able to execute its gameplan.

Keystone commanders are often very powerful! I have an Arcades, the Strategist deck, all about attacking people with defender creatures.

Arcades draws a bunch of cards and lets me attack with an ever-growing squad of large-toughness creatures like Shield Sphere, Wall of Shards, and The Pride of Hull Clan. Take Arcades off the battlefield, though, and I'm left with a bunch of creatures that can't attack. Savvy opponents will just kill and counter Arcades until I can't cast him anymore due to commander tax, or use something like Darksteel Mutation or Kenrith's Transformation to turn off his abilities. Powerful keystone commanders tend to make for these hot-and-cold strategies. Either your commander sticks and you win handily or it doesn't and your deck does next to nothing. That might not be a big deal if you've got a wide variety of decks, but if you've only got a handful and most of them fit this mold, the polarizing gameplay can get tiresome. It can happen pretty easily, too; keystone commanders are enticing to build around for less experienced deckbuilders, as their designs tend to provide a clear roadmap to how to build the deck. It doesn't take a veteran Commander player to look at Arcades and realize that the deck should be chock-full of defender creatures, but it does take experience to foresee the consequences of building a deck that's so reliant on its commander.

Well, what to do?

Sometimes the solution is swapping in a different Commander. One of my earliest Commander decks was a White/Blue flyers & blink deck with Isperia, Supreme Judge at the helm, but when Brago, King Eternal was printed a couple years later, I eagerly swapped him in over Isperia: his ability was on-theme, after all, and he was on the whole a much more powerful commander. I added Strionic Resonator, which can go infinite with Brago's ability and some mana rocks. As I kept playing with Brago, it became more and more obvious to me and my friends that whether I won or not depended entirely on whether I could keep Brago on the board long enough to start attacking with him. Classic keystone commander.

I cut value flying creatures for more counterspells to protect Brago and more mana rocks to ensure that I would be able to combo with Strionic Resonator. At one point it stopped being about flying creatures altogether—it was just about Brago. And after a decade of Brago's despotic ghostly grip on the deck, I decided to depose him. I replaced him with Yorion, Sky Nomad. Yorion still gives me good value even if an opponent kills it right away, its ability doesn't threaten an infinite combo, and the cards it works well with, creatures with enters effects and flicker spells like Ephemerate, also work well with each other in case Yorion's not on the battlefield.

Other commanders provide a little more flexibility in how you build around them, and the degree to which they are keystone commanders can vary. For instance, many players who build Feather, the Redeemed will build her as a Voltron deck.

Voltron Feather recurs spells like Titan's Strength and Psychotic Fury to grow Feather and crack in for big chunks of damage. As you might imagine, any deck looking to kill people with commander damage is going to have a keystone commander regardless of what it is. Voltron Feather, though hard to kill due to repeatable protection spells like Loran's Escape and Boon of Safety, like any keystone commander, will leave the deck in the lurch if she can't do her thing. Fortunately, there are lots of different directions you can take a Feather the Redeemed deck. My personal build mixes a creature token theme with a devotion-to-white subtheme and has lots of ways to recur small creatures. I use Feather primarily as a card draw engine—letting me reuse cantrips like Bandage and Crimson Wisps—and the deck as a whole is a lot more powerful when she's in play. But if she gets killed in the mid-to-late game, assuming I still control my other creatures, I can still get over the finish line without her. You can consider many commander deckbuilding decisions in this light. Not every card choice will make the difference between making your commander keystone or not, but they'll shift the needle a little bit. For example, putting background cards in the 99, such as Guild Artisan, will push that needle towards keystone-ness; or at least make your commander a juicier target for opponents' removal. Same goes for Lieutenant creatures like Skyhunter Strike Force.

In general, you'll want to be careful about cards that require your commander to be on the battlefield to function at all; say Well of Lost Dreams in a Dragonlord Dromoka deck that doesn't have many ways to gain life outside of Dromoka's lifelink: it might be a decent way to draw cards, but it's also further incentivizing opponents to aim their removal spells at Dromoka. If you're looking to build a new commander deck and want to get away from keystone commanders, here are some criteria to look for:

Low mana-value commanders that you can play early for value, either by ramping you or drawing cards: Ruby, Daring Tracker; Azusa, Lost but Seeking; Jori En, Ruin Diver

Commanders with "enter" effects, like Gonti, Lord of Luxury; Sharuum the Hegemon; Prime Speaker Zegana

Commanders whose abilities have a lot of redundancies among their 99: Sythis, Harvest's Hand; Nekusar, the Mindrazer

Alternately, as you're building a new deck, ask yourself these questions:

Can my deck win without its commander on the battlefield?

If I were playing against this deck, how highly would I prioritize killing its commander?

Hopefully this will help you diversify your commander portfolio a little bit. I want to reiterate that having the occasional keystone commander isn't a bad thing, it's only that it's very easy to fall into the habit of exclusively building around powerful keystone commanders—and when your playgroup gets in the mindset that your commander always needs to die, well, they tend to kill your commander a lot.

[apomaro-mellow]

S1E07: Go Fish

S1E06

Jim was in the cereal aisle, pushing his cart around. He stopped in front of the chocolatey cereals and was pretending to look at them. He picked a box up and without missing a beat-

“I know when I’m being followed, Joyce. Whatever it is, just spit it out.”

She slid her cart next to his, looking a little sheepish. “I didn’t mean to stalk you in the store. I just didn’t need you turning tail when you saw me.”

“I wouldn’t ‘turn tail’. I’d walk away, like a man.”

“And this man is gearing up for a fishing trip this weekend with his son, right?”, Joyce asked.

“Yeah, me and Steve have plans for it. Why?”

“Well I was thinking… that you could bring a couple other guys. Like Will and Jonathan.”

“And just why would I do that?”

“Because they could use some male-bonding time”, Joyce said, looking very intently at the contents of her cart.

“See, the thing is, I was planning on having a little…talk, with Steve. Just me and him.”

“You can talk to my boys too.”

Jim cleared his throat. “It’s gonna be uh, well a sensitive topic.” He started pushing his cart in an attempt to leave the conversation.

Joyce kept pace with him. “I think Jonathan and Will could use that talk too.”

Jim stopped suddenly, then looked Joyce over. “I think we’re talking about different things.”

“I don’t think we are”, Joyce said.

“And why should I be the one to do it, huh?”

“You’re the one who decided they needed someone to teach them how to throw a ball or mow the lawn. So you can get this too.”

Jim hung his head. “....They bring their own poles.”

----------------------

At 4:30 in the morning, Jim was already packing the car away. Steve was yawning as he leaned against the passenger door. Jonathan was carrying Will, fully dressed but still mostly asleep. Steve opened the back door so he could be put into the backseat.

“You and Hopper fish a lot?”, Jonathan asked.

“Only when he wants to talk”, Steve said. “Last time we went fishing he told me about us moving. This time I think he’s gonna tell us he’s getting married to your mom.”

“What?”, Jonathan hissed in a whisper.

“Why else would he bring you and Will along?”, Steve shrugged.

“They’re not getting married.”

Steve grinned. “Wanna bet?”

“I thought you learned not to bet against me?”

“Saddle up, boys. We gotta get there before the fish wake up”, Hopper said as he got in behind the wheel.

------------------------

Hours later, El’s Saturday morning cartoon marathon was interrupted by the sound of knocking at the door.

“Good morning!”, Dustin, Lucas, Max, and Mike greeted.

“Good morning”, El waved. “Were we supposed to meet up today?”

“Your dad and your older brother are both out of the house all day. Of course we’re hanging!”, Dustin exclaimed while letting himself in.

“We brought some movies and some games”, Lucas added.

“This is okay, right El?”, Mike asked.

“Y-yeah it’s okay. Totally.”

Max gave her a knowing look before making herself comfortable on the couch. Lucas took out a deck of Uno cards and began to shuffle.

“As the reigning champion, I’ll deal”, he said.

“Since when are you reigning champion?”, Mike questioned.

“Since I beat you back in second grade and you never recovered.”

“That’s BS you never beat me!”

“Well how’s about a friendly game to settle it?”, Lucas suggested as he dealt everyone a hand.

------------------------

The waters of the lake were calm and mostly still. In the boat, Jim and Will sat on one side, while Steve and Jonathan sat on the other.

“Look at us”, Jim said, trying to keep any nerves from his smile. “Just a bunch of men, earnin’ their meals today.”

Jonathan was the only one to respond. “Heh, yeah.”

“Your dad ever take you boys fishing?”, Jim asked.

Will shook his head as Jonathan spoke up. “He took me hunting, a couple of times. I didn’t really…enjoy it.”

“Well fishing’s different from hunting. For one thing, you can just shoot the breeze with your fellow fishermen while waiting for something to bite.”

“Does it take a long time?”, Will asked.

“Depends. We could be out here for hours and catch nothin’. You just never know.” Jim rolled his shoulders and cleared his throat. “But uh, speaking of catching, or uh”, he shifted it gaze to Steve. “Pitching? Or you know, whatever you’re about. Um-”, he cleared his throat. “I wanted to talk to you boys about something.”

“Here it comes”, Steve said. 

“Are you really marrying my mom?”, Jonathan blurted out at the same time Will asked, “Are you mad about the baseball game?”

Jim looked between all three of them. “Marry-what?! The game?? And what do you mean ‘here it comes’?”

“Every time you take me fishing, you’ve got some big news, or you wanna talk about something serious”, Steve said.

“We’ve been out fishing like, twice”, Jim said.

“But it’s true, right?”, Jonathan said. “You have something important to talk about? Is it about our mom?”

“I’m not getting married to Joyce.” Then Jim put a hand on Will’s shoulder. “And I’m not upset about the game. We raised a good amount of money and you kids played your heart out.”

Steve’s eyebrow raised. “Then why are we out here at the ass crack of dawn?”

“Watch your language. And we’re here because…” Jim got fidgety as he tried to lay it down gently. “I’ve noticed-well I guess Joyce has too, I wanted to talk to just Steve but if our suspicions are correct, you two boys need this talk too.”

“Um, if this is the talk I’m thinking about, my dad already had it with me”, Jonathan said, eyes shifty.

Steve raised a hand. “Yeah, same here. It’s a little late for the two of us, but maybe Will?”

“I-I don’t need that talk!”, Will said quickly. “I heard high school has a really good health teacher so, yeah.”

Jim rolled his eyes. “Not that kind of talk. This one’s a bit more…specific.”

------------------------

“This is exactly what happened last time”, Lucas beamed.

“Shut up!”, Mike shouted.

All five of them had cards in their hands. Lucas was down to two while Mike had about a dozen in his hand.

Lucas kept going. “I was about to win, while you were stuck with all these cards.”

“How’s this for ‘about to win’? Draw four!”, Mike slammed it down like the card had wronged him personally.

“....This means war Wheeler.”

“Did any of you guys see this epic game?”, El asked Max and Dustin.

“Nope”, Dustin replied, placing down a card when it was his turn. “It happened before I moved here, which means it happened before Max moved here.”

“I’m starting to think it didn’t happen or neither of them won”, Max said. She then grinned at Mike. “Draw two, you goober.”

“You’re the worst”, Mike complained.

--------------------------

Silence lulled over the boat. Jonathan’s head was in his hands and Steve had his arms crossed. Will was gripping his pole like a lifeline. Jim released a breath.

“Feel free to, you know, say anything.”

Steve pinched at the bridge of his nose before leaning forward. “What are we supposed to say? Besides ‘you’re dead wrong’? Or ‘you have no idea what you’re talking about’?”

“I know a thing or two about it.”

“Then let’s focus on you being dead wrong”, Steve said. “We’re not-”, he quickly looked around the lake but there was no one else on the water but them. “We’re not queers”, he said a bit more quietly.

Jim sighed. “Steve…”

“I’m sorry, our MOM asked you to talk to us about this?”, Jonathan finally looked up from his hands.

“Joyce has noticed some things. And so have I”, Jim said.

“I don’t know what you think you’ve noticed, but you’re wrong”, Steve said.

Will was very quiet, but Jim’s eyes still went to him, trying to gauge his expression. It reminded him of a scared, cornered animal.

“Look, gay or not, we just wanted you to know…well that we know.”

“And what? You’re gonna kick me out? Or send me to boot camp?”, Steve got up suddenly and jostled the boat.

“Watch it”, Jim said in a warning tone. “No one’s doing any of that.”

“Steve”, Jonathan grabbed his sleeve and pulled him back down. “I think he’s trying to tell us that he’s okay with it.”

“It doesn’t matter if he’s ‘okay with it’ when it’s not true!”

“Even if you’re not gay, you might have a friend that is”, Jonathan said. “And if you ever bring that friend around, it’s nice to know Hopper won’t just toss ‘em out, right?”

Steve settled, and for a moment, he thought about Robin. Then he looked to Will, who still hadn’t said a word.

“Yeah…okay, fine. It’s…nice to know that, I guess. But where do you get off just assuming I’m gay? I’ve literally gone out with half the girls in this town.”

“Two words”, Jim said as his line began to go taut. “Eddie Munson.”

Steve sputtered while Jim began to reel in something. He was still trying to explain himself when Will’s line did the same and he started to reel in a fish.

-------------------------------

“This is inconceivable”, Mike said as he looked down at the stack of cards.

“Well, conceive it”, Max said as she placed down her last card.

“That’s two wins for me, three for El, and a whopping five wins for Max!”, Dustin announced with great exuberance.

“How is this even possible?”, Lucas lamented.

“Maybe we were just lucky”, El offered.

“Or maybe you two have never played against anyone with actual skill”, Max said just as the front door opened.

“Welcome back! Did you guys catch dinner?”, El asked.

“Fried fish is on the menu”, Jim said while patting the top of her head. He took the cooler full of fish into the kitchen.

“So how was manly-man fishing time?”, El asked Steve when he came in, carrying the poles.

“It was…enlightening.”

S1E08

[cpunkwitch]

do you have any witchy recommendations for newbie who's mostly in bed? stuff to look into or do when spoons allow :0

Yes yes (also we love the lil wooper)

There's a bunch of things you can do that are low effort and spoon saving, and I have all kinds of tips for beginner witches.

There's a lot of "tips for baby witches" posts out there but pretty much none of them have disabled folk in mind

I'm more than happy to write a post if people would like.

But as for things you can do from bed for now

Chants, verbal spells. You can say these in your head, it doesn't have to be out loud, you know you've said it and that's enough. Just about anything with intention can be a spell of you want, such as affirmations. It doesn't have to rhyme, you can simply state that "today will be good, my pain will be less" and you've casted a verbal spell.

Something as simple as tea or coffee can be a potion, taking a sip with an intention in mind, stirring one way or the other with your intent in mind and even steeping, are all acts you can do to that are a bit witchy. (I can create a whole seperate post on this subject alone)

If you're able, placing sigils (or runes if you prefer) on your walls nearby can help too. I have 3 next to my bed for healing, protection and cleansing, I first added sigils around my room when we moved in and I'd gotten the flu. Any symbols you feel are significant can work so long as you put your intent behind them

Cards. I actually do all my tarot from bed, if I can get myself to sit up then I can use the surface to cut the deck and help me shuffle before laying them out. It doesn't have to be tarot specifically, you can write or draw on a set of playing cards to have anything on them you'd like, from symbols to spells. You can even use any variant of the cards against humanity game if you have one, or uno if you want. Any cards work if you would like.

Wearing things like certain colours, symbols, accessories etc can be witchy too. Each colour right to the shade has a different meaning, corresponding intention and use. Symbols like animals, shapes, words and other graphics can have meaning as well. I often wear jewelry for different intentions. My name necklace I wear for Loki, I often wear dark shades (because that's what we have and) because I find them calming and comforting as well as deterring. Black is best for banishment and protection for example.

If scents aren't bothersome, you can light a candle as long as you keep fire safety in mind, or incense or you could use different oils or creams etc. essential oils can be put of tissue and placed in different spots for a desired effect, wearing perfume or creams etc can help too.

Just like tarot being primarily about interpretation, witchcraft is about intention. Both are left up to you on how you go about it.

Just about anything can be witchy if you do your research.

[pokemon-card-of-the-day]

Pokemon Card of the Day #3127: Light Machamp (Neo Destiny)

Light Machamp had some interesting traits. Getting a minor heal and a free switch with Evolution could be pretty useful if enough Energy was in play to attack right away, and the hit against Dark Pokemon and Darkness-types was nice when it worked. This was all put on an attacker with decent power. There was already some competition for the Fighting-type with interesting traits role, most notably with Donphan due to an equal base damage output, so separation would be needed to get this to see use.

100 HP was a very solid number, though one that was kind of needed on a Stage 2. Only the biggest hits would get a KO right away, such as a well set-up Feraligatr or a Blaine's Arcanine. More likely you'd see this go down in 2, which meant trading blows was rather doable. A Psychic Weakness meant that you were relying a ton on coin flips against Dark Gengar and were in trouble if Espeon showed up. The Retreat Cost here was 2, and the goal was to get Energy in play well enough to let another Light Machamp take over so you never needed to worry about it. In practice, you'd probably retreat at least once during a game.

Tag Team was a fun Pokemon Power, but did limit when you wanted to evolve. If Light Machamp was played from your hand to evolve a Pokemon on the Bench, you removed 3 damage counters from your Active Pokemon. You then switched Light Machamp with your Active Pokemon. There was no choice here, so you had to only evolve when ready to attack. The possible exception was if you just wanted to use it as a pivot using Balloon Berry, which wasn't usually what you wanted to do but also gave a chance to conserve Energy or get a desperate heal in. It was nice to have some of these plays available even if it was also awkward at times.

Beatdown, against most Pokemon, did 50 damage. This was pretty solid against most things, taking most opponents down in 2 hits. IT should be noted that it fell a little short against important Pokemon like Feraligatr and Steelix, howver, which was a problem. The side effect only came into effect if targeting a Darkness-type Pokemon or a Pokemon with Dark in its name. This got you a coin flip, and heads added 50 more damage. 100 for 3 was absurd in this era, and was a KO against the likes of Dark Feraligatr, Umbreon, Dark Vileplume, and even Dark Gengar through the Resistance. This was, of course, if you got the flip, which made it less nice than you might expect it to be sometimes.

Light Machamp was all about match-ups. It was quite good at messing with Dark Feraligatr if it got even decent luck, and the healing and pivoting could be really annoying for any deck trying to run Murkrow. On the other hand, it was atrocious against Feraligatr and wasn't too good at facing Steelix or Crobat either. If you really expected to see those good match-ups a lot, Light Machamp was a very capable deck. If you expected some other sort of mix and still wanted to go with a Fighting-type, Donphan could be way more annoying to deal with due to being able to hide behind a Baby Pokemon a bunch, so that was worth considering instead. Giovanni's Machamp was also worth looking at as well, but Light Machamp had its good moments.

[sparklepocalypse]

🥑☁️🐝🎨 please.💜

🥑 ⇢ you accidentally killed somebody, which mutual(s) do you text for help?

I'd get in touch with @cha-melodius for her anatomical knowledge (y'know, maybe I can resuscitate whoever it is?) and @happiness-of-the-pursuit for his legal expertise, in the likely event that the resuscitation doesn't work.

☁️ ⇢ what made you choose your username?

You know, I've had this username since about 2010, and I honestly can't remember the backstory. I'm fairly sure it has something to do with some sort of arts and crafts project and then-untreated ADHD, though...

🐝 ⇢ tag your biggest supporter(s) and say one nice thing about them

This might get long, so I'll come back to this one and toss it under a jump. 🤣😅

🎨 ⇢ link your favourite piece of fanart and explain why you like it

You know, prior to the latest RWRB zine being published, I wouldn't have been able to narrow it down to just one, but this JC Leyendecker-inspired piece by @artofobsession is possibly my favorite piece of fanart that's ever been created. It's just -- even nearly a month after it was first posted, it causes beauty aggression in me and I just want to bite it because it's so pretty and glowy and ethereal and lovely and they're just so blushy and so into one another. It's the first fanart print I've ordered in years, and it's going to go on my wall of ephemeral pretty things with my Lindsay van Ekelenburg art and my various tarot card prints from Kickstarter decks.

[Send me emoji from the Writers Truth & Dare Ask Game and I'll answer the corresponding questions!]

Aight, back to 🐝 ⇢ tag your biggest supporter(s) and say one nice thing about them

I mean, obviously I'm tagging you first, @ad-astra13, because you're the Most Excellent of Doc Gremlins and your flailing in my Google Docs has been so, so motivating. Your fiber work is really cool and creative! I'm always intrigued to see which project you'll take on next.

And then there's @hgejfmw-hgejhsf, who even with a bunch of stuff going on IRL still takes the time to DM me a screenshot when someone has recced one of my fics, which -- warm fuzzies just everywhere. Val is one of the sweetest, most deeply passionate RWRB fans I have ever met, and her encyclopedic knowledge of all things book and movie have come in handy on like, dozens of occasions in the few months since I've gotten to know her.

@kiwiana-writes and I basically have the same brain in different bodies on different continents, the vibe is so consistent. Half the time I read his work it feels like it could've emerged from my brain instead of his, and now it turns out he's a pretty gifted songwriter too? Incredible, awe-inspiring, iconic, etc.

@artofobsession and I have a Spider-Man meme thing going on where I yell at Hann about their art, and they yell at me about my writing, and it's just a never-ending cycle of yelling. Pretty amazing to consider that I was Too Scared To Say Hi ™️ for awhile there, because I'm a big ol' introvert. Regardless of what Hann's got going on, I've never read an unkind word that's emerged from their keyboard, and they're super well-spoken and yeah, really glad I started making unhinged bulleted lists of art reviews as a way to break the ice, because they're good people.

Speaking of Spider-Man memes, @seanchaidh7 and I have also been Spider-Manning back and forth these last few months. She's created some really, really incredible art for my Big Giant AU, and just genuinely seems like a cool person. I'm happy we stumbled across each other in this fandom!

@duchessdepolignaca03 is one of the best unhinged idea riffers I've met. She deserves at least partial credit for the idea for my RBB fic, because a simple "fic where [x]" message can lead to a thread of dozens (or hundreds) of messages back and forth just flinging ideas out there to further the prompt. Half the time the riff is all that happens, but occasionally, the riff spawns something way bigger.

And there are folks who either I haven't found on Tumblr, or who left Tumblr behind in like 2013 and haven't looked back -- super grateful for everyone who's enabling my weird little brain to do the thing!

[devilkittydeckbuilding]

hewwo everyone!!!! today im going to be talking about my favorite dimir deck i have made and why i think its really strong and cool!!!!

the commander is...

UKKIMA, STALKING SHADOW

(drawing is by my gf @goqmir )

this is a dimir deck built around loading up the unblockable commander with equipment and +1/+1 counters and swinging face until i win with commander damage!!!! this deck tends to kill in a few good swings if im allowed to set up due to the sheer amount of equipment that gives at least +2 to ukkimas power.

this deck is not playing the green partner commander in cazur, ruthless stalker because he isn't quite good enough in this shell (he at best gives a +1/+1 counter every one of my turns starting on turn 4) and adding green imo really changes the core idea of the deck. it probably gives me more good protection and i would love to try this deck with more good protection but ultimately it just didnt fit my vision lol

this deck has only the one creature in ukkima, and the majority of the deck is equipment, enchantments, and instants. every spell in this deck other then board wipes (which btw are mass bounce that keep ukkima on the field usually like wave goodbye and raise the palisade, also am interested in kindred dominance possibly) is built to make ukkima bigger or to protect ukkima from any potential removal. this deck runs about 14 or so counterspells, several blink spells to protect as well as blink ukkima and take advantage of her second ability, and lots of ways to give hexproof as well as phase out my commander.

this deck runs lots of utility lands that help it play the long game. some cool ones are witches clinic which is amazing and allows you to gain life while putting your opponents really close to death, cathedral of war is funny because it pumps my creature with exalted, malakir rebirth is death protection, and command beacon makes ukkima more resilient against command tax!!!!

some of my favorite cards in this deck are...

teferi's veil - this card i havent actually gotten to play with, but this deck does not block. it doesnt care about creature combat cause i want to win in a few swings with ukkima and therefore phasing my commander after combat leads to it being impossible to board wipe or hit it with sorcery speed removal. this card makes instant speed the only way to interact with my commander and that is pretty insane lol

unspeakable symbol - this is one of my current favorite cards and makes any creature that can get in into a one shot threat for only three mana and a lot of life. if you arent in danger of dying to damage this card is insane. it makes ukkima one shot starting on the turn after ukkima etbs so that it can attack unblocked versus the most threatening player or the one with the best removal and then the rest of the table isnt far behind. also if ukkima dies after the counters are placed you gain a bunch if life back lol

hatred - this card plays very similar to unspeakable symbol in that you pay a million life to one shot someone but is a little more efficient at doing it (although it does cost more :/) these are not that fun in a casual setting but they make this deck win out of nowhere if you have protection held up and thats important sometimes!!!!

homocidal seclusion - this is the reason i built the deck cause its really cute and funny with only one creature in the deck and also buffs ukkima to a 5 power creature with lifelink which is a pretty good unblockable clock!!!!

feast on the fallen - this card seems kinda crazy in multiplayer cause on my turn i deal damage which triggers this on the next upkeep and then my opponents have to deal combat damage at some point (at least in my playgroup) dotot theoretically grows ukkima every turn with a counter.

this deck overall is pretty insane and lets you play a control deck with a voltron win con and its a very fun mix of playstyles. this list could be improved further and i could probably make a green version and test that one out too but im very happy with the current state of this pile!!!!

there are a couple weird picks for cards that are my playgroup specific like unsubstantiate which is only there for bouncing thassas oracle on the stack cause my friend plays that but overall the deck is just built for speed!!!!

also my headcanon is that ukkima is a fucking girl baby!!!! she/it pronouns wooooooo!!!!

thank you for reading!!!!

[iwitch-plus]

Online Grimoire/journal Page 2

Page 2 is yet another tarot reading. I feel like tarot is maybe the first step that is easy enough for me to do in my witchy practice and then post here. I find it beneficial to journal, but sometimes journaling is hard because without knowing what I'm feeling, how am I supposed to write about anything? I succumbed to that Zenful Note Tiktok shadow work book. Not as bad as I thought it was going to be, but still not entirely helpful from a current self-care place. Obviously it's a shadow work book, so it's more past focused but right now I don't think I need to try to understand my past. Not quite yet. I will eventually, but to be able to understand my past self I need to understand my current self.

4 years ago, I thought Tarot wasn't super necessary to self care or witchery in general. It seemed hard, and it kind of is, but now that I've taken a couple days to actually consider it and try it, I think it's going to be extremely beneficial for me to be able to help myself, as someone just now coming back into things.

Tonight was my first tarot reading in very long time, aside from my Getting To Know Your Deck reading. (<-link if you're curious)

Let's get right into it! <3

I looked up some self care Tarot spreads but none of them seemed right for my personal needs currently, so I created my own little three card spread. I'm using the Antique Anatomy Tarot deck for this!

At what point did my life [get to where it is now] and less caring for myself?

The Moon - Pisces - 9 - Blue

Key words: Preparation, mastery, wisdom, introspection, dreams, calm, sadness, grief, boredom, illusion, unknown, deception.

My interpretation: By the looks of it, it seems like by pulling the Moon, the deck is trying to tell me that there are many things that have happened over the past couple years that could've contributed to the way I am today, but that I shouldn't place blame on one singular thing, especially if me asking this question means i'm trying to put majority blame on anyone who isn't me. But aside from that, in 2021 I had a friend commit suicide, and for a very long while I grieved that. Not too long after, I got into a relationship with, you guessed it, a Pisces. The relationship did cause me a lot of personal sadness, he wanted things I wasn't ready for, and I did things I regretted out of boredom in the relationship. Both of those are things I could pinpoint of where it sort of started, between grieving and friend, grieving a part of myself I lost because of a relationship I was in, and then grieving a part of myself I wasn't proud of/never knew of because of that same relationship.

Interestingly enough, the word "mastery" came up, which only stuck out to me because I agreed to join a team of people to "master" a hobby I enjoyed, which has inevitably added even more stress into my life and caused me to fall a little deeper than I would've if I hadn't agreed to do that.

2. If I continue the way I am, what can I expect from my future?

3 of Elixirs - Water - 3 - Purple

Key words: expansion, groups, growth, nurture, mystery, dreams, prophecy, high power, connection, social pleasure, gathering, good times

My interpretation: Ha Ha Ha. You know this isn't what I meant. Or, maybe you genuinely didn't know, maybe next time I'll have to be more specific. If I continue the way I am, of course I'll gain more "friends", be in a bunch of different groups of people, have more social pleasures, connections, and good times, but at what cost was the real question? Maybe by not giving me an answer directly, the deck is trying to tell me that I haven't put anything at risk quite yet. Maybe I am overthinking, or I have anxiety, or I believe I've hit a level that I haven't yet. Maybe I really will just have fun and a good time.

3. What, if anything, needs to change for me to better care for myself?

Knight of Blades - Air - 6 - Black

Key words: fairness, solution, values, witty, fair, inventive, fear, power, mystery, pain, assertive, arrogant, quick witted, severe, impatient, argumentative.

The Knight, as a person: Assertive, [manipulative?], typically friendly but if insulted, temper can be severe.

The Knight, as a situation: Rapid change, "seize the day", easy to get swept into the madness. You can do anything as long as you keep a clear mind. Be self-assured, but try not to cross into arrogance.

My Interpretation: Yeeeeeah. This is about me. It's gotta be, I can't think of anybody else in my daily consistent life who is like this except for me. Also, the element here is Air which I have a very air dominant chart. It only makes sense that this is me. Which, given the question I asked, makes sense. What needs to change for me to be able to take better care of myself? I need to be able to practice my assertiveness without being aggressive. The 2 go hand in hand for me. To be able to continue to do the things I'm doing that I'm scared are hurting me, I need to be able to keep a clear mind, keep my values in order, keep my power over these things or else I'll just continue to hold on to this fear and become worse than I already am. I don't exactly know how I need to do that, but it seems like when I figure it out, it needs to be rapid. No more being patient and slow with myself, rapid changes seem to be the way the deck is telling me to go...as long as I don't get swept away into the madness of what I already have going on, or swept away in the madness that rapid changes may trigger if I go that route...hm.

This reading was necessary for me to be able to confirm things I was already halfway considering. While I didn't get a lot of help on the roads I need to take, I have a clearer idea of why I may need to go certain ways than others. Granted, my questions were slightly open ended, less asking for direct guidance and more asking about why things are the way they are. Maybe the next time I come back to the topic of this reading, I'll ask better questions about more specific guidance. Also, the deck said it was going to be real and not sugar coat things to me and I see what it means now. Very nice, Antique Anatomy. Well played and thank you <3

Thank you to anyone who read this as well. See you next time! I promise not everything I do will be tarot related, but right now this is the easiest way to get back into my practice. <3

[bihanspookies]

Another brain blast from me in this random hour

Summary: The BD gang try to unwind by playing a nice game of Uno when Alora and Kabal suddenly get into it about the rules.

Alex: @chadillacboseman

Kate: @thesingularityseries

When Kate asked Alora if she wanted to join them for game night, she automatically declined because she knew just how competitive the others could be when it comes to certain games. Not to say that Alora herself wasn’t competitive but she was very strict on playing games she already knows, finding it annoying to have to learn new rules for a game she most likely would not enjoy.

When her and Taron were younger (and when she was much more open to learning) they’d play board games all the time and Alora very quickly found out which ones she liked and disliked. Games where the rules were straightforward and simple, not too complicated and not any kind that had you do ridiculous things were her cup of tea.

Uno was one that her and her family would play a lot of and Alora more or less always won because she eventually figured out a strategy in how she placed her cards down.

When Kate had quickly added that they were going to play said game, Alora stopped and actually pondered on joining. It had been a while since she’s played and honestly, it would probably do her some good to socialize for something that wasn’t job related.

“Fine.”

Kate smiled in glee and started talking about how excited she was to finally have her join, that she ‘promised promised promised’ Alora would have a good time.

Tonight’s game night party consisted of Kabal, Alex, Kano and Kate, the group just finishing a quick round of Go Fish to warm up. Alex’s face lit up when Alora took the empty seat adjacent to him, reaching out to give her a quick pat on the arm.

“Savaşçı! You’re joining tonight?” Alex grabs the Uno deck and starts shuffling when Kano reaches across and suddenly snatches it out his hands.

“You shuffle like shit, last time you somehow kept ending up with all the skips,” Kano snarks, separating the cards in half before splicing them together, tapping them hard against the table to get them even. Alex rolls his eyes but quickly turns his attention back to Alora who is already nursing a beer.

“Unfortunately. Kate ‘promised promised promised’, I’d have a good time so,” Alora shrugs and takes a sip from the bottle, looking at Kate who simply gives her a huge grin in return.

“You will! Scouts honor!” She even holds up the three finger sign and uses her free hand to make an ‘X’ over her heart. Alora gives a short laugh, shaking her head and grabbing her cards as Kano passed them out.

And for the beginning of the round she did, genuinely having a nice time (even though her expression lacked to convey it). Beer bottles clacked against each other and chips kept continuously falling onto the floor, making a salty crumby mess. Alora sat at one end of the small square table with Kate and Alex to her right, Kano to her left and Kabal straight across. It was Alora’s turn, Alex having just put down a +4 and giving her a smug look. He taps the top of card pile, sliding four cards towards her when Alora grabs her own +4 and sticks it right over his.

“The fuck are you doing, you can’t do that.”

Kabal’s voice cuts clean across the table, his eyebrows bunched together as he glances between Alora and the pile.

“Yes. I can.” She states, relaxing back in her chair and looking at Kano to see if he’d be unfortunate to pick up eight cards. Kano sighs dramatically, reaching over to start picking up when Kabal suddenly leans forward and takes Alora +4. He tosses it back to her with a scoff, sitting back down and shaking his head.

“You. Can’t. Stack.” He argues. “I may be a little buzzed right now but I can still remember the official rules of Uno.”

Alora gives Kabal a long and hard stare, maintaining eye contact as she replaces her +4 back on top of the pile. She slaps it down a little harder than necessary, narrowing her eyes at Kabal whose expression turns sour at her action.

“I’m telling you, you cannot stack a +4 on top of another +4—!!”

“You’re actually fucking stupid, it’s the rules—.”

“The fucking rules say you can’t stack!—!!”

While Alora and Kabal argued and yelled over one another, the rest of the Black Dragon watched in silence as they glanced back and forth between the two. Alex remained still as his gaze kept shifting between Alora and Kabal, wanting to interject but knowing he should wait for a moment to do so. Kate however, was joyfully watching the fight, especially when she agrees with Alora. Meanwhile Kano holds his cards in his hand, his other hovering other the grab pile and wondering whether or not he should grab even though he also was on the same side as being able to stack.

“So am I grabbing or…”

“Yes. Grab.” Alora snaps not backing down in the dispute against Kabal. By now they were both standing up, leaning towards each other with a fire burning in their eyes.

“The rules say: you cannot stack. Are you fucking thick in the head or something?” Kabal makes it point to rap his knuckles on side of his head which makes Alora rolls her eyes so painfully hard that she actually feels a faint thud in her skull. It’s usually the sign that a migraine was on its way and she’d be damned if she let Kabal of all people cause her a fucking migraine.

“Has your fucking mask been squeezing your little pea brain too hard?” Alora pinches her thumb and index finger together, her voice condescending as she snaps back at him. It was at this time that Kate interjects, bridging her fingers under her chin and looking between the two with wide eyes.

“You can stack, you guys let me do that last time.” Now it’s Alex’s turn to speak up, pulling out his phone and beginning a search.

“No Katerade, you can’t. You tried that and we told you no.” Alex gives Kate a knowing look, the half celestial crossing her arms over her chest and turning her body more towards Alex and Alora to say something but Alora beat her to it.

“You can stack +4’s and +2’s. You and you? Are playing wrong.” Alora points a painted nail at Alex and Kabal, the latter groaning in frustration as he hangs his head over the back of the chair. Kano at this point sighs and gets up from the table, going to the fridge to grab a few more beers.

“No savaşçı, look—“ Alex had found a tweet made by the official Uno account, even brightening up his phone and holding the screen up to Alora’s face for her to see.

“If someone puts down a +4 card, you must draw 4 and your turn is skipped. You can’t put down a +2 to make the next person Draw 6. We know you’ve tried it.”

Alora’s blue grey eyes narrowed as they zipped back and forth over the text, reading it over and over and over again. She lowers Alex’s hand who goes to show Kate the same thing, her own expression morphing into shock. Kano, having returned to the table and finally happy to get an official ruling, starts grabbing four more cards while Kabal sits back in his chair with a shit eating grin.

“That’s stupid!” Kate announces.

“It is stupid, why the fuck would you not be able to stack +4’s?” Alora barks, slapping the back of her hand into the palm of her as she spoke her last two words.

“+2’s go on top of +2’s and +4’s go on top of 4’s.” She adds, crossing her arms over her chest.

“Yeah if you can stack skips why not 2’s and 4’s?” Kate chimes in, going to search in her deck to see if she had any +4’s or +2’s.

“First of all missy, you’re a god damn cheater in any game we play so you have no say. Second of all, just admit you’re wrong so we can finish this round already.” Kabal chirps in a sing song voice, cracking another beer open with the edge of the table. He grabs the cap and tosses it towards Alora, who catches it mid air and slams it down onto the table. She ignores the way the edges prick into her skin, her eye twitching ever so subtly.

“Why don’t you kiss my ass.” Alora retorts, getting ready to sit back down and bitterly accept defeat.

“I mean—“

Kabal doesn’t even get to finish the sentence before Alora lobs the bottle cap toward him. He manages to react in time and block it with his beer bottle, the cap scraping against the side and leaving thin hairline marks. Kate makes a very quiet ‘ooooo’ under her breath, nudging Alex who suppresses his own smile and picks up his cards again. Kano groans dramatically, slapping the palm of his hand repeatedly on the table to get everyone’s attention.

“Can we hurry it up? Next time we’re all playing poker! Fucking Christ…” He mutters lowly, shaking his head in disappointment at just how childish his employees could be.

“I am never playing with you all ever again.” Alora hisses lowly, finishing the last of her beer and begrudgingly grabbing four cards to add to her deck.

————

Here’s the article if anyone wants to actually read it LMFAO

[alexissara]

Card Games Fail Women

I've played card games since I was a little girl. As a trans woman at first I blended in, I didn't really get as much direct aggression for my femineity. However, I've always had problems with the TCG community from how they talked about women to how they threated them to many other issues that make these kind of games less welcoming to the marginalized. Many card game players ask why women aren't playing their games and today I want to explore the reasons why less women play TCGs, a little bit of what is changing and the barriers that exist.

Card Art

Before anything else, before you step into a shop when your buying a game, the card art is the very first thing you'll see before you even learn rules for a card game. When you see a card like the one I posted above, which is a core card to a fairly good deck in Cardfight! Vanguard, do you really think that this card was design to make a woman feel like they could be the hero of the story? I love a big tiddy woman but they are so massive and in focus that they become the focal point of the card. The design is consumed by them. When the game itself is sexualizing women it is also socializing the audience to see women as something to sexualize. It's also giving the cosplay scene less options on the kind of cool women they can dress as if they don't want to display a lot of their bodies [I don't personally mind but a lot of people are uncomfortable with showing too much skin].

It goes beyond tiddy art though and goes into general art design, the kinds of cards made, the styles of art put down. We're all massively diverse with diverse taste but it is also true that we are socialized to enjoy different kinds of aesthetics and to appreciate different kinds of power depending on our gender. If all the best cards in your game are very cool masculine dragons even if the women who are depicted are depicted respectively it may be that this game simply glides past women or the adults who buy products for their kids in the case of the early entry ages for many TCGs. Allowing cute designs or cool women or very pretty designs be top level cards can work towards bringing in those audiences. It is actually easy to make characters people are horny for without having to make them over the top.

Even when it's feminine coding on a card sometimes it can be clear that it is not for women though the thematic positioning. Like if you make a bunch of decks about women all the decks about men are warriors with swords or guns or big monster dudes and all the women are pop idols going to a school with no drama or stakes, just cute girls doing cute things. Some of that diversity is good but doing too much is going to speak to the kind of thing they either think women only like or say "these are here to pander to a particular kind of man". The art should be diversely spread around, a character with big giant boobs in a smutty little outfit isn't a big deal if the game has women in armor and shit leading decks as well.

Marketing

What you might see before you even see your first card is marketing for a card game. Marketing is a massive concept to dig into so we're keeping it basic here. The art on a pack, the commercials that are run, the other media made about the IP, all of these add to an impression of what a game is. When all the pack art features a man looking angry while playing cards it says "This is a dude game for dudes." When the ads center the male characters of the story or focus on boys playing the game then we're running into a problem.

The reality is that the majority of card game animes are targeting boys and this is reflected in that the main protagonist of almost every card game anime is a man and most the active players of the games in those animes are men. These are a primary means of marketing, very few Japanese TCGs that aren't tied to a license refuse to take a swing at making an anime. We have a more recent card game anime with groups of women as the protagonists but that's 1 anime and many would argue that despite all the card game players being women they are also sexualized in ways that clearly are intending to bring in adult men to play the game.

This marketing trickles down into the online space where the content creators these people chose to work with very often don't include very many or any women. The companies don't want to build up anyone and since the communities are already sexist they further the issue by instead of highlighting women just focusing on popular men. This varies with game to game but on average even the best companies are choosing more men then women to be the people making sponsored opening content or exclusive card reveals and shit.

Narrative Positioning

Most card games have some kind of story or lore they are covering. Sometimes the story is just in some anime, sometimes there is several story lines being told through multiple series of cards, sometimes there is a bigger narrative being told in every set, sometimes it's fairly simple but builds over time. Whatever the case may be it is true that in any non licensed TCG people do get invested in the stories of the card games they love. These stories are wonderful places to make a card exciting even if it's effect sucks because the moment depicted on the card is so special or the character on the card is so special.

So, when we are telling these stories how important are the women in these stories and where are they at in terms of screen time and do they do anything other then talk about men or support men or motivate men? Women in these stories should matter, they should be able to be top level players in the animes and not just defeated to prove some boy is very strong but be able to be the hero of these stories. In world lore characters should be able to be saviors of their realm, unitors of the multiverse, queer, radical, evil, heroic, every flavor whatever it is they leave a mark on their worlds and the events that happen with those characters aren't things that you can just brush over.

When a new set is coming around what is happening with the women characters should be on people's mind not just what is happening with main boy and main evil boy. Magic The Gathering has done a relatively good job of late pushing women forward in their plots but it's still got room for improvement too. Still it's tragically probably the top TCG in terms of narrative positioning for women that isn't like Pokemon or some other license.

Community

The gathering of players is one of the most important part of card games for TCG players but it can also be one of the most alienating elements to others. It is common to have men instantly think of women as potential girlfriends as opposed to opponents. This happens in person and online so long as communication. Way back in the day when I would play on Ygopro I would have men hitting on me just for my name online being Sara, asking for my number, to add them online when I was just trying to jam out some games of yugioh and at the comic shop when I was there with my partner multiple was hitting on them even though their understanding of us was that we were monogamous and happy in our relationship because they perceived them as a woman. We were teens and adult ass men were trying to hit them up to get them to fuck them in private texts.

I have no idea if this is still dominant at local scenes but what I can say is I feel pretty unwelcome by a lot of card games at the floor of it whenever I see youtube videos of people talking about new cards that have a woman on them as "new Wafius". It makes me feel like the cards aren't for me but for some horny guy on the internet and it diminishes that feminine cards might be designed actually to get women into the game. It doesn't create an environment that I think I'll be respected when I know many men see a woman and think "new waifu".

In the Japanese side we've seen several companies try to actively build community for women by running women only events which is a model that can build community and solidarity between women playing the game and lead to them feeling more comfortable. However, it's not the only thing that companies can do to help women feel more respected and cherished in the spaces. Improving any of the other sections here should trickle down on the community. Also just reaching out to women who play the game, helping highlight them, helping build up platforms of up incoming women playing games.

LGS Model

Local Comic and Game Shops can be amazing spaces of community, friendship, engaging in hobbies and more but they can also be places full of sexual harassment and toxic gatekeeping. Most money is owned by cis het white men there for most stores are. Comics and games are thought of as male dominated hobbies and have been in the nerd deep end side mostly dominated by them over the years. That means we have a top level issue with these spaces while some very good shops exist even the best operation is going to struggle with cultivating a space if they don't have experience with that community.

On the LGS side obviously we can support diversly run shops and the ones already owned by allies can work to make their spaces more inclusive by hiring diversly. The shop can run events that particularly promote women coming in with solid prize pools or events that are just social that include community building. Outside of special time though something very important is weeding out bad eggs from the spaces, taking seriously people who are being sexist or homophobic or racist and telling them they aren't welcome will make the space more welcoming and improve the LGS's ability to host women.

On the card game side I believe the games can actually expand outwards and look to find new audiences in new spaces. There is no reason an indie book shop couldn't host a game night or a little small run queer coffee shop couldn't sell cards. The main thing is giving them the prices and incentives to get them to give your a game a shot. There can be more direct to consumer attempts and digital card games. A lot of women play yugioh but they mostly play on Master Duel and Dueling book, digital planforms one of which is unoffical so Konami won't even talk about it but it is the one that has a social element and therefore women can actually make friends. Fostering these digital approaches is a great way to get women to be able to feel more comfortable and safe. especially given the present danger to disabled women that is Covid.

Historic Context

Even if we can move past these issues the fact that these things have been happening over all this time. There will still be a public perception of these things being the case and there will be a reactionary move against any improvements made outside of the local level because people hate when things get better for people who aren't them even when it's not affecting them in any real way.

Beyond this though we have the very real thing called Nostalgia that exists. I think at this point we are all aware of the concept. The longer that games go on ignoring women or unminding them or whatever then the less we can bring back elements from parts of a games history without also bringing back harmful elements. Much like comics want to increase diversity while putting marginalized people in new roles we all know that things go back to the status quo to appeal to people who want the version of the hero to be there from when they were a kid.

To get over the history we need to see long term investment, people need time to know their not going to get stabbed in the back. So a lot of it is not giving up on something because it's not working right away and giving it more time then you would normally give other projects. Like you need time for word of mouth and trust that these things are good and consistent.

The Core Of The Games

The final hurdles for card games to get past is core the the way TCGs work. TCGs so long as the random pack format exist will be dangerous for people who have gambling additions to play. LCGS are a model that can be a viable alternative but there is types of play that an LCG can't provide and other models can exist TCGs have only existed for around 30 years this is a very very new concept. Literally as old as I am.

Competitive games while very fun aren't for everyone and that kind of gameplay has a harder time foster collaboration unless they can work on alterative formats that move away from the grind to be number one like Magic's move to have Commander as the star format as opposed to designing focused mostly on the competitive formats.

These two things effect everyone who plays TCGs we are seeing people take approaches to shift them so it will be interesting to see where we see things go.

[the-corset-witch]

Obsidian Vault Developments

I decided to move the individual Card Studies per Deck into the Deck Note, this seems a good way to keep my individualistic symbolism study per deck and also be able to keep it within the Grimoire. This can also allow me to eventually cross-reference, so that instead of my Card Database being based exclusively on RWS, I can cross-reference all of 1 card (ie, Fool) and compile that as the Main Card Page. The RWS has such a profound inspiration on what Tarot is that the symbolism will probably be there no matter what, though. That is what it is.

I've also nailed down what I want to keep as both my Monthly Log & My Month Review. I don't want to have a bunch of pages that I will want to condense at the end of the year, and as I found out with the 2020 Compilation, weekly/daily notes are too much and need to get just 1 note where it keeps getting added to with each date getting a new heading. This keeps it consolidated to begin with, so at the year end the job is already done (genius).

For the Months I miss, I will do a Review, but for the Months I am on top of, I plan on having the Log & Review in one note already in the template.

I've also decided to attempt to double my Goodreads Reading Challenge-- originally it was 24 books to read this year, I'm going to double it and go for 48. However, this is with the caveat that some of these will be re-reads. I want to go through books I've already read but not annotated into my Vault to do the annotating.

I'm still polishing templates. Mentioned before, it'd be rad to share them, but that means I have to kind of have them very tidy and share-able.

The Fun has Begun!

I've been adding, and doing tarot readings again. It's been very rad, I really dig the template, I love the aesthetics of it and the ease to revisit and review a reading within the template is built in (genius). This most recent New Moon was flush with readings, so when things slow down, I'll head back and review them.

[yourgamemasterthewhiterabbit]

A shitpost about cards that turned into a needed social discussion about "vibes" and intuition

To clarify I always thought the card guessing game was about being able to predict the near future, or one tiny detail about it. I didn't know about starship troopers so I didn't know it -was- about mind reading. I thought it was about seeing what couldn't physically be seen or picking out one small detail from the near future and seeing it before it happened. Something which my most natural inclination tells me should be impossible, but which I keep feeling compelled to test because I keep getting weird results ['weird results' see what I di-].

So after the last post about it I tried it on a whole deck of cards, got exactly 26 wrong and 26 right, side-eyed the deck because it shouldn't come out to a perfectly even split, sighed about it and moved on with my life.

Tried it again two nights ago out of boredom, got 17 correct, 9 wrong and even 3 correct about them explicitly being face cards the few times I guessed that.

9 cards in to the 'wrong' pile I noticed that:

The ones I got right were a mix of both colours

The ones I got wrong were all red cards, every last one and often high digits or specifically 4s.

This red ink is a really dark burgundy

I got them right more often when I was really distracted watching TV

I stopped and put them away. Annoyed. I am sure it would've evened out had I continued.

I still have zero good explanation for this except maybe the weight or friction of the ink on other cards. I know I make decent 'thin slice' type judgements and my ''predictive unconscious anxiety simulation'' that runs in my dreams often predicts what I will do the next day down to strange and specific unexpected details, but those are things I can easily be gathering information about unconsciously that my sleeping brain is trying to feed me conclusions about. I could make the same kinds of predictions if I bothered to think about things consciously or take conscious notes of patterns in my life, my life is not that exciting.

No explanation for the cards though, which bothers me. There -has- to be something I am picking up on, because I don't think cards actually give off 'vibes' made of unconsciously observed details the way people and places do. I'd love for it to be convincing that I am reading too much into random chance. [I have tried it with these cards 3 times, for context, they came with this apartment and are official casino cards]

On that note, I want to clarify something else. Something I think is highly relevant to the disc horse.

Listen, I know it may be alienating to some of us who are a bit more conscious about our internal functioning, but a lot of people go through life not consciously processing or examining very much at all. In addition to this a lot of people aren't particularly smart, or particularly good at certain kinds of thinking, or putting things into language. For the average neurotypical person, a lot of their social processing is done unconsciously [remember? It's intuitive to them]. For someone who processes every thought and impulse they have into direct and specific language in their heads that they can unpack and examine -my brand of autism- this is particularly alienating... But it is -in fact- normal.

You aren't -wrong- in that it is how unexamined bias gets in, but it also is where a bunch of things they recognize but never consciously process comes in, and for some people that takes up most of their thoughts and social functioning. We should realize this. We already know one 'autistic superpower' is a random bonus buff against social constructs.

So when some people say "vibes" what they are really saying is that their social brain is giving them an impression and they can't immediately -or at all- put into words for you all the little details that added together to make that impression. It should be understood that this isn't just a feeling they got out of nowhere, there ARE details they are observing that are creating this impression, accurate or biased or not.

Acting like this is -always, inherently- a bad thing that makes them inherently a bigoted person, is uh... Ableist. I know you don't want to hear it, and I am not going to be popular for pointing it out, but some people just don't have the raw processing power or the command of language to process everything they think and observe consciously all the time and put it into defined language for you, let alone the mental energy. That doesn't mean they should be encouraged to ignore their instincts about people or situations at all times lest they be a bad person.

There is a difference -and stick with me because defining this difference more, consciously and out loud would serve us- between following your 'vibes' when it comes to personal relationships and taking on risks with your personal safety, VS say, trying to persecute someone, deny them a job, or label them publicly in some way, or deny them access to shared spaces or to support.

If you sit there and assume that anyone who defines things as "vibes" ever, and maybe says they are really good at reading people, is _NECESSARILY_ running around thinking they are 100% correct about strangers they pass on the street and openly handing out public judgements... You are doing everyone as much a disservice as the people who are actively doing that.

Do you know WHY my brand of autistic is particularly prone to being socially overwhelmed and easily overstimulated? It is BECAUSE we are picking up on and processing a billion little details CONSCIOUSLY instead of that being handled by an unconscious social algorithm. Neurotypicals don't do this. We KNOW THAT. I find it strange we don't seem to be consciously recognizing what that naturally lends to. It also means they can't consciously process these things -in the same way we can- because they have no practice at it and often don't see the need to. They skate by without it so it is often an undeveloped skill. And the things -we- haven't learned to look out for? Well those fall under whatever social intuition we have, if any... Which is not a lot and is by definition not defined to us in concrete terms because it isn't something we have realized we need to watch for and keep conscious track of.

This is one of the things where the differences between neurotypes is best understood as two different ways of functioning that BOTH come with advantages and disadvantages, or ability and disability.

That person talking about 'vibes' might be doing it in the obnoxious way you are imagining in your head, OR they could be an autistic who is either learning to use conscious observation like a super power and feels good -and safer- about making accurate predictions now, or who is learning to use what little social instinct they have and so doesn't know what language to use to describe that experience, OR they could not have the command of language in general to put their observations and reasoning into words [some people don't think in clear words 24/7, weird I know but it is very common!], OR they could have defined reasons but KNOW the disc-horse won't make the distinction between not following someone down a dark alley, vs denying them a job, so they don't feel safe sharing, OR they are more neurotypical in their social functioning and just don't know how to define what they are picking up on in language.

I don't think the solution is to paint anyone working on any kind of social instincts to be inherently immoral somehow. Someone who is a little slow, or not good with language, or who doesn't do analytical very well being labelled as inherently a bigot strikes me as a thing we shouldn't encourage.

I think the solution is to remind people that processing things unconsciously and without defined language is how biases get in, and to VERY ACTIVELY MAKE THE DISTINCTION between categories of things done for personal safety that only impact you and your personal relationships, VS decisions and judgements that can add to systemic oppression. Basically, your business VS not your business.

If someone wants to not date me, not be my friend, or not follow me into a forest or let me approach them on the street, because my vibes are off and their instincts are telling them not to trust me, that is THEIR business, I am not entitled to them, they should feel safe stating that as their reasoning, if they want to give a reason at all. They should not be pushed or pressured into ignoring their instincts and doing something that makes them uncomfortable just because they can't define their reasons against it in a way -you- are satisfied with.

On the other hand, my manager at work shouldn't feel free to deny me a promotion because my vibes are off. A cop shouldn't feel justified stalking me around or ignoring a complaint from me because he doesn't trust my vibes. A blogger shouldn't feel justified sending their army of 'yes men' after me because they assumed I was a cis male incel due to the way I type. I shouldn't be denied service because the waitstaff in a place doesn't like my energy [unless that wait staff is one person working alone at close who doesn't feel safe personally alone in a room with me].

People need to learn what is their business vs what the fuck isn't. That is the part they are bad at. That is the part that isn't inherent to their neurological functioning/ability.

Unlearning human social instincts -or what we use to replace them- isn't going to happen and trying to demand it or police the language people use surrounding it isn't actually solving anything. Shaming people for their neurotype or lack of specific abilities isn't the same thing as addressing how they are treating other people!

Teaching people to recognize when they might be employing unconscious bias and in what situations it is appropriate or not, is a completely different question and would actually be helpful.

There are actually lots of social issues that could be resolved by people recognizing the difference between their personal space/field vs the public field or shared spaces. Their business vs not their business.

FOR EXAMPLE, If you have no friends left after repeat abuse cycles, and like me you are alone in the world and autistic, and one of the problems you face is that any irl friendship or relationship is too high risk to take on alone without someone else and their social judgement already in your corner, maybe letting your personal life fill up with cis het white able bodied men isn't the first safe step. Maybe actively seeking out people of your own gender and demographic, or someone roughly equivalent in social power and social perspective would be a lot safer for you to start with, and runs a much higher chance of giving you that one safe person in your corner to help you parse other people. Nobody is entitled to having access to you in your personal spaces, regardless of your reasoning.

BUT, that is NOT THE SAME as thinking that shared queer spaces or women's bathrooms are for you as your personal field and that you should get to exclude people who seem cis or 'male' to you from queer spaces or try to exclude people with penises from using the bathroom that matches their preferred gender. This is the mistake everyone keeps getting hung up on, because they aren't defining properly what is personal and for them, vs shared spaces. A support group/meeting isn't your personal space, even if it feels that way. Your friend group at your dining table is. Stop getting the two confused. Warning your bestie who's autistic maybe that a guys vibes are off is not the same as going on twitter and saying you think he's probably a predator. A person in a shared public space that just seems 'off' to you doesn't need the cops called on them because you got uncomfortable, that is different from -say- someone coming to your front door at night and doing weird things to your door.

There is a difference between assuming you are objectively correct about a stranger, and opting out of the personal interaction because something is making you personally feel unsafe. If you can understand it being within a person's right to deny people access to their person because they don't like their taste in music, then you can understand this. Nobody owes other people access to their person or personal spaces as a moral imperative. No one denying you access to their personal home or body/person is oppressing you.

Some people, are just very confused about what is their 'personal' space, and -frankly- that's the part that needs to be corrected. I think THAT conversation would be a lot more productive than trying to convince them that averages don't apply, and their intuition is wrong.

This isn't a problem of people needing to ignore their instincts or not play the odds on demographics when they are in crisis, or owing it to other people to immediately get over any and all trauma. The issue here is a pervasive public/cultural confusion between what is personal to you and what is shared/communal. All the disagreements and unaddressed concerns or arguments i see all break down to people failing to define that personal relationships and private spaces should function on separate rules than public spaces and public/professional relationships.

There is a lot of back and forth screaming about whether something must have been a judgement based on bias, and not any addressing of how and when these personal judgements are appropriate.

And every time I see posts saying "My vibes/sense are correct actually" and someone going "No your vibes are evil bias and you are bad" All i can think is that they are both missing what each other is actually referring to and are both side-stepping the actual conversation we need to be having. Whether or not someone should trust their social instincts about another person isn't actually the problem here.

Who you allow to have access to you personally, VS how you treat people outwardly in ways that impact them in shared spaces are two separate things that should be discussed as two separate things and not unconsciously lumped together and brushed over because we're distracted by the word 'vibes' sitting next to it all.

Whether your instincts about people are correct shouldn't be the question for other people to determine, whether you can define what's your business vs theirs/public business is what should be called into question and checked on by your peers.

And anyway, I process everything so consciously all the damn time that the stuff that remains truly beneath my notice is so fucking abstract, and 'butterfly effect' in seeming relatedness, that it can only be processed as unconscious vibes and handed to me in dreams. It often directly conflicts with what I think I am observing and I have learned after 36 years that it is always right in the end [unsettling and on the nose]. If I chose not to date someone because they murdered me in a dream, that's my business. I'm not denying them employment about it. It is what I have in place of social intuition [consciously examining everything until I am too tired to think, and dreams]. Yes this is part of why I don't like to socialize at all when I have any level of brain fog, it means I am flying with zero social instincts and nothing to replace them and that is always bad for everyone involved and unsafe for me.

All that said. I have no idea what the fuck is up with the cards. Cards should not have 'vibes'. I find it unsettling. I keep trying to disprove it or explain it to myself. I am going to stop playing with cards [a lie, it compels me, I don't understand it so I have to keep poking at it, sorry].

[opheliajupiter99]

Kideon

(As the name suggests, this fanfic is about a potential 'Kideon' as Frost once put it, or in other words, a product of one of Gideon's many crossbow weddings. Also, fair warning; while my parents have played a crapton of DND, I'm a bit rusty in terms of some lore bits, so my apologizes if I get anything wrong.)

Amongst a thick wood sat a small town. It was the kind of town where hardly anything of interest really happened; same food, same stores, same families, every day playing out just as the day before.

Luckily for the townsfolk though, there -was- something interesting going on this particular night. Within the only tavern in the little town, a bard was visiting, a young human woman by the name of Moria Wormwood. She hated travelling, to be quite honest, but being as poor as she was, she hardly had an option.

Moria sat at the very back of the tavern, playing away at her worn lute, the notes ringing out with an extra clang to them due to the cracks lining its sides. The pay was bad enough, but the paltry tips would barely be enough to cover snacks, much less a room to stay in.

There was another reason she performed in such pathetic conditions, however; that reason sat by the fireplace, watching her mother perform for the drunken patrons - a little girl named Dahlia.

Dahlia was almost six years old, kicking her legs back and forth over the edge of the stone cobbles that surrounded the fireplace. She wore a patchy old shirt, handsewn in various places by her mother, a pair of ratty cloth pants, and her favorite part of her outfit; her skirt, which her mother had handmade her from a fancy tablecloth she'd stolen from one of the many inns they travelled to.

Dahlia was a curious, cheerful sort; she knew they were poor as dirt, but she didn't really mind. She had a lot of imagination, so she didn't need toys, or at least crafted ones. Once she'd gathered a bunch of twigs and stacked them up to look like a house, another time she found a rock that she thought looked a bit like someone's head and pretended to make it talk. Once she even scrounged a deck of cards and made up a game to play!

There were some things that upset her though, of course. She didn't like that her mama had to work, because she could tell she didn't enjoy it, and sometimes she even worried she was a burden; her mother could barely afford to feed herself after all, much less her. But her mother always assured her she wasn't a burden at all, in fact that she was why she kept on going.

There was one question her mother didn't help her on however, which she found herself pondering in this moment as she watched her perform; who her father was. She'd never met him, so it wasn't really that she missed him, it was more her curiosity than anything. She was born with a noticeably reddish tint to her skin, and most curiously of all, her long brown hair was always hot and fiery.

Before she could linger too much on the thought however, she watched a man emerge from the back of the tavern, a wide, stout man with a filthy apron draped over his huge belly, his thick mustache adding extra emphasis to the grimace he bore on his face as he approached her mother.

"What the hell is that shit?" The man scoffed, in reference to the poor-quality music emitted from the worn lute. Her mother kept her head hung down as she responded, and a neutral expression on her face, the way mother always spoke to innkeepers they visited.

"I'm doing my best. I cannot afford proper upkeep, you see, but I assure you, it will do well enough." To be honest, the patrons of the tavern were all so wasted by this point that one probably could've entertained them with windchimes, clearly not caring much about the music's quality.

"It's not good enough, that's what it is!" Huff and puffed the man. "If you're not going to properly use that wretched thing, it'd do better as kindling!" The man bellowed before reaching down and attempting to grab the lute right from her hands!

Dahlia hopped straight off her seat and rushed forward without thinking; if that big grump broke her mama's lute, mama would lose her whole livelihood!

"Put down mama's music!" She said, putting her hands to her hips and glaring at the man, in a way that she tried hard to make intimidating, but was really just cute.

The innkeeper looked down at her, his grip loosening enough for mama to keep hold of the lute, which she hugged protectively to her chest. Truth be told, nobody'd really noticed she was there; she was quite small still after all, and everyone was either highly intoxicated, busy, or didn't really give a crap.

"Piss off, ya little brat! Your ragdoll of a mother's lucky I even let her in, the least she can do is bother to try!" Dahlia gasped, even some of the drunken patrons silencing at the man's words. After a moment, she blurted out. "W-Well the least you could do is try to not eat so much!"

Her mother quickly rushed to scoop her up and run out of the tavern while the innkeeper was stunned by the pintsized backtalk, more than a few of the patrons heartily laughing at the man's expense as they rushed out.

"Sweetie...never, -ever- do that again." Her mother said when she felt they were far enough away, panting a bit as she tried to regain her breath.

Moria meant what she said, that was indeed a terrible idea...but, at the same time, she was rather touched by her daughter's efforts to stand up for her. She just hoped the next town they'd actually get some coin out of...

[serpiaxerma]

I'm so close to my limit on this fucking card game.

Greetings fellow duelists.

Picture this, okay. You're a Branded player. Hateful, I know. You want to play paper, build the deck in real life, test it out with other people. Great. Awesome. Fun for you!

You play some Master Duel, get a feel for the deck. Alright, yeah, feels good, feels powerful. Bit bricky, but who cares? Isn't every deck? (Coping.)

Grab a couple of Albaz Strike Structure Decks. $60 total, wow! Fit together something resembling your build, if a bit on the cheap side, but that's fine. You're just testing it out.

Boom! Wake up babe, new support just dropped. Time to upgrade! A trap like Branded Banishment, a clean $10, alright. Another Ecclesia retrain in Cartesia, a monster and a fusion spell? Sick, sign me up! So, how much we talking? $20? $30?

$60.

Oh. Alright, we'll just skip her for now then. No need to cash out so much for a one-of that only boosts consistency. What else is there?

Right, yeah, the Bystial monsters! A bunch of big asshole dragons who are also handtrap chaos monsters? Damn, pretty strong! Got some nice new continuous spells and traps like Regained and Beast for $5 each, yeah, sure.

The monsters aren't too terrible. Saronir for $5, Druiswurm for $10, Magnamhut for $20. Pricey, sure, but if it changes and evolves the playstyle so much. Oh, and Lubellion! So again, like $30, right? Or is this another $60 Cartesia situation?

$120.

Okay no. If we can't have all these nice pretty new Branded cards for under $300 when I'm only planning to mess around, I'm good, I'll pass.

Luckily, the tins are coming out later this year, so I'm sure the reprints will be a lot cheaper. And prettier, too. Then I can finally upgrade my deck and play like I've practiced in-game! Just one more month, right?

DING DONG!

Oh? Who's that?

IT CHANGED.

Hmm? What did?

THE WHOLE DECK. IT'S COMPLETELY DIFFERENT. NO MORE DESPIA. NO MORE BYSTIALS. NO MORE BRANDED SPELLS AND TRAPS.

... But I liked Branded Beast control. I liked Masquerade + Dramaturge pass. I loved bringing back Mirrorjade with Ad Libitum. I loved banishing my opponent's monsters with Magnumhut to +2. What happened? Where're my children? Where are we? Who are you?

WELCOME TO DUEL MONSTERS BITCH, IT'S TIME FOR CHIMERA BRANDED, FORGET ABOUT THE TINS.

E M B R A C E N O S T A L G I A