#what else are the tags

[clockwards]

Have some Gempearl minific bits because I don't think I'll ever write a proper one (although I am writing a longer, weirder, Gem-centric fic)

Gem likes being a deer. She used to say it was because people underestimated her, but those days have long since passed. Her antlers hold her a little taller than Joel's curled horns, something she gleefully thinks about but does not say aloud when he forms hills to be higher - she'd rather blame his mountain goat instincts than listen to his blustering excuses.

They are out of their element with the current base of operations, anyway. Deer need trees to run between, goats need cliffs to scale, but this is a wide, open space. It screams danger on all sides, even with the little walls they'd constructed. None of which was helped by the swathes of people (friends, friends, something caustic and fearful) that gathered around her barn. A piece of her loves it: there is safety in numbers, safety in the herd when they hear the ticking clock. This time more than ever there is a tug of confusion on her heartstrings when they circle her, yellow and aching, mangy wolves around a faun.

The wolves kind of suck at killing her though, so she mostly ignores them.

And in her periphery, Pearl flits. It’s in her nature, as a moth. To circle around a light source and tempt fire, to see a beautiful spot of colour and want to suck it dry. She teases at the edge of her vision, goading death and friendship, pressing at the soft centre of Gem’s back and whispering.

“I want that life, doe. I bet it’d taste delicious.”

She rolls her eyes. “Come take it yourself, my dear.”

Privately, she thinks of the whole ordeal as a particularly bad Disney movie plot. Like Bambi, if his first interaction with the butterflies was to be mildly threatened. She’s generally easy to ward away, a soft shoo-ing off from herself or Scott. Out of earshot, she jokes about needing bug spray, and Joel cackles. Together they are a bright, glowing green and the whole world tastes like pepper and lemongrass under their tongues.

They’ve gotten rather collaborative in the past few hours, the flying trivia game causing people to run screeching for answers. She watches, a genial smile on her face, as Pearl’s alights in her yard.

“Who, oh, who opened the End portal in secret life?”

Gem blinks.

“I don’t know, I don’t know who put the last Eye in, I wasn’t-”

She stops listening. That secret had burnt the nerves from her hand to forehead, that secret made her who she was. It felt like water trickling the wrong way up her arm as she set it in the frame, cracking open a hole in the world and in turn, her body. She’d spent the rest of that life with a numb, twitching shield hand, the spots on her shoulder bright with some odd, false light. She hadn’t even won. She hadn’t won, because-

“I think it was me.”

Her head snaps back to the present. And truly, she could have corrected her. She could have shouted ‘me, me!’ the second the question was asked and saved them both a world of pain. Spite and hope hold her tongue like a hostage, and she finds spite has much better reason. Pearl is laughing nervously as the robot puts the microphone down, and Gem is reassuring her, Watcher knows why. She finds her vision is blurred a little, everything coming in and out of focus, until Joel laughs so hard and loud he bleats a little, calling,

“Gem! Gem, she sounds like a robot! Pearl, talk, say something, come on!”

She’s slapping her hand over her mouth repeatedly as if it will system reset her, words coming out as garbled beeps. She catches Gem’s gaze and speaks louder, as if she could solve this for her.

“You know.” She walks backwards and Pearl follows, beeping askance, gesturing wildly. She grins. “You know, I think we can finally have a conversation like this, Pearly.”

It’s a ridiculous punishment. She cannot help but feel it was hand-picked for her pleasure, though, watching those wings flare out in annoyance with every word.

“You’d do anything for me, I know.”

The frown on her face and bucket of lava in her hand say otherwise, but it’s just too easy to put words in her mouth this way. To hear what she wants to hear. It’s laughable, and pitiful, but her left shoulder aches with phantom pain and she remembered nothing of it.

“Oh, my…my poor red Pearl.” Schooling her expression, she turns to blink consideringly up at her. “When I’m red, and you’re still here…I’m sure we can have some fun. Again”

When she nods eagerly, glitching sounds of joy spilling from her, Gem smiles for real. It’s a promise. It is, maybe, a threat.

*

In the middle of the next (typically chaotic) day, Pearl drifts behind her calling plaintive compliments.

“You’re gorgeous, you’re amazing, Gem, come on,”

“Uh huh.”

“You- you’re like a flower!”

“And you’re a bug,” she snorts, grinding her heel over the freshly shoveled dirt. Pearl sputters, antennae flexing dramatically.

“That, that-” she mutters to herself, before jumping triumphantly, “that means, that we are meant to go together!”

Gem cocks her head to the side, smiling at the ground. From Pearl’s vantage, she's certain the moth cannot see it. It’s silly to be pleased at something like that, and anyway, she’s much too far into her game to give it up now.

“Uh huh, Pearl, if you say so,” she hums, tune ever sweeter with her companion competition’s indignation.

[everoutoftouch]

If you have Spotify reblog this and tag what your number one song on your “on repeat” playlist is.

[wdapteo]

hey everyone be careful

I don't know if anyone has talked about this, but lately this has been happening in other fandoms too. There'll be these bot accounts that straight up steals people's posts and adds "expand" "read more" "continue" as a link in the end of the post - DON'T CLICK ON THAT, it's most likely a malware or something of the like.

so if you see a post like this: no profile picture, something that looks reposted (I've seen this happening to artists too) and a link at the end, even if the post has tags, that's a bot. Block and report it.

stay safe, and I hope @staff finds a way to stop these bots soon!

[notnaruse]

thign that blew up on twt ig

[theboxfort]

Unstoppable Force (my love of seeing other people's takes/stylization on my OCs) vs Immovable Object (my gripping fear of not doing other people's OCs enough justice when I draw them)

[noelledeltarune]

EVERY SINGLE DAY there are MILLIONS of characters in their late 20s who get falsely accused of being father figures to teenagers when in reality the description of "weird older cousin" or "step-sibling that moved out before you were born" is 1000000x more apt

[papay0]

Not sure if anyone has done this yet

Spin the wheel and get a dungeon meshi character!!

Tell me who you got in the tags :D

[nocek]

And we all should be jelly.

(at least Miguel is so maybe they are closer to that dumb triangle than Wade thought XD)

[eric-bogosian]

Re-sharing this post I found on Twitter for people looking for alternatives to NaNo. I haven't tried any of these sites but they might be worth looking into.

[ramblesamongstardust]

I understand the "I will die for you" ship dynamic, but what about the "I will not let you die, I will not let myself die- we will, at any cost, survive" kind of couple?

[manquesit0]

VOCALOID CHIBIS 🌟

[girpgorp]

decided my fetal kwamis deserved a little lore

[lalalychee]

closer than you know

i've been working on this painting for over 3 months and i am exhausted 💀 so excited to be done with it. i'm really proud of it though!! it's definitely the most detailed painting i've done in quite some time.

(please be sure to zoom in to see all the little details i worked so hard on!)

[rosenkranz-does-things]

iwtv studies

[butchdarling]