#346 words

[reallygroovyninja]

I'm on a high after your sweet drabble. How does Lexa feel after she sees her baby in the ultrasound for the first time?

The fluorescent lights buzz softly overhead, but the exam room is quiet except for the faint rustling of paper as Lexa shifts on the padded table. She stares at the ceiling, one hand resting on her belly, the other gripping Clarke’s.

Clarke’s thumb strokes the back of Lexa’s hand in a slow, grounding rhythm. She doesn’t say anything, not yet. She knows Lexa’s on the edge of spiraling.

The ultrasound tech enters with a warm smile. She introduces herself, explains what she’s going to do, but it’s all background noise to Lexa. Her eyes flutter closed for a moment, her breath shallow.

“You okay?” Clarke whispers, leaning in close.

Lexa swallows hard and nods. “Just… scared.”

Clarke leans down and presses a kiss to Lexa’s temple. “I’m right here. Whatever happens, we’ll face it together.”

Gel touches her skin — cool and slick — and Lexa tenses.

Then the wand moves. A flicker of sound, a shift on the screen.

And then — there it is.

That soft, rapid rhythm, strong and steady.

Thump-thump-thump-thump-thump.

The heartbeat.

Lexa gasps. Her eyes fly to the monitor, and her whole body stills. The tech glances at her, then smiles gently. “That’s your baby’s heartbeat.”

Lexa’s free hand flies to her mouth. She doesn’t sob. Doesn’t speak. Her eyes just well up with tears and spill over silently.

Clarke is already crying. She squeezes Lexa’s hand, pressing her forehead to Lexa’s temple. “You did it, love,” she whispers, her voice thick with emotion. “We’re okay.”

Lexa nods, trembling. She watches the flickering shape on the screen, so tiny, so real. She didn’t realize how tightly she’d been holding her breath until now.

“I was so sure…” Lexa whispers, her voice breaking. “I didn’t think... I’d get to hear that.”

Clarke turns to her, brushing a single tear from Lexa’s cheek. “You get to hear it. You get to feel it. This is real. And I’m so proud of you.”

The room is quiet again, except for the heartbeat echoing softly through the speakers, the sound of a little life, of a new beginning.

[sanderssidesstuff]

Verge Angst

Can i write? No I can’t

It’s darker than he thought.

Wandering in the night gets easier as the night goes on. The shadows grow and shrink as he walks but he isn’t scared.

“I wonder if they are worried about me.” He ponders, “Patton’s probably scared, Logan probably has his nose stuck in a book, and Roman… he’s an a*****e anyway.” Continues walking down the road losing himself and his thoughts and only snaps back to reality when his name being yelled.

“ Virgil! Virgil! Where could he be, Logan?” Virgil! Virgil!” Patton sounds close to tears.

“Pat, look at me… Look at me. He will be OK. We will find him. Now say it" nothing is heard so Logan says it again, but with more force. “Say it.”

“We… Will find him” Patton answers shakily.

“Now let’s go find Thomas and Roman hopefully they have had more luck” the two boys footsteps slowly grow faint.

Virgil of steps out of the bush he was hiding in, “They care?” He thinks, “they actually care, they’ve never cared about me before” These words keep running through his mind as he runs in the direction he heard the voices.

“ Patton! Logan! I’m right here,” his voice breaks “I’m right here.” The boys turn around at the sound of their names. Relief is so clearly shown on Patton’s face as he runs towards Virgil.

“I’m so sorry. “ Virgil starts to cry his words become incoherent, “I don’t know what happened. I don’t know what I was thinking. I –” his sobs grow louder as Patton and squeezes him tighter.

“ Stop that kiddo, you should not be apologizing. I should’ve never done that. I should be apologizing.” Patton says rubbing his hand on Virgil’s back. Virgil feels another set of hands joining their hug.

“ Patton is correct, we should be the ones apologizing.” Logan starts, “I cannot imagine why I would think it was a logical idea. Will you accept our apology?”

“Of course,” Virgil says wiping away tears, “Join in the hug circle, Logan.” At that notion the logical side grimaced, but obliged his request.

Is it good? (its not done yet)

[multihearted]

🤝 + 11 weiss > blake

you meant 10 and you’re getting 10 bc. stares at 11. no

Golden irises lock onto the Grimm that stands before them, narrowing as she readies her blade. Though it doesn’t immediately seem like anything too threatening, they’re halved in number, having decided to tackle this mission together while Yang and Ruby went on ahead to the next. 

Despite the odds, Blake has faith in her battle partner, and their teamwork in this fight proves as much. After all, they’re family now, aren’t they? All the earlier talk of camaraderie and how friendship in a team should be unavoidable after everything they’ve been through… part of it causes a sense of unease to grow within her, but that hadn’t been caused by Weiss’ words. No, those brave words replace the ones prior that had caused anxiety in her mind, and her hand reaches out to Weiss once more— this time to be passed Fire Dust as she launches herself forward into the enemy’s path, leaving behind a shadow clone of herself. An explosion swiftly rings out upon enemy contact, serving as the final blow to the Grimm.

Ears prick up a little in surprise when the other takes hold of her hand, and she half expects to see the same expression on Weiss’ face that she’d held when faced with her father’s manipulation. However, that had been different. Whereas then, Blake had held onto her hand, the opposite is now true. Not only that, but neither of them wear any expression to be concerned about— rather, they’re happy. Revelling in a victory that hadn’t been as easy as it may have appeared at first glance. 

“This is just another victory to add to your battle count this week, Weiss.” How many battles had there been? Who knows. But the most important one hadn’t been physical, in Blake’s opinion, even if far from over. “Really. I… couldn’t have done this without you. Thank you.”

Her small smile lingers. While this certainly won’t be the last battle they fight, Blake knows. She knows that they’re ready to face many more. They won’t run. In both blade and heart, they’ll fight. Together.

[oldtumblhurgoyf]

4. R&D has recently been looking at rules in the game that aren't pulling their weight. If you had to remove an existing rule from the game for not being worth its inclusion, what would it be?

The maximum hand size rule most often punishes players who kept a hand they shouldn't have (or occasionally those who just  legitimately got bad draws). Getting mana screwed already feels bad enough and means you are missing out on valuable early game land drops, meaning you will be behind for the remainder of the game. The additional presence of the maximum hand size means players also get punished again by losing out in card advantage for every turn this continues.

There are only limited circumstances outside of this when a player will have more than seven cards in hand (since you usually want to play them, not hold onto a bunch of them) and card draw is fairly expensive. The actual mana value Development seems to have set unlimited hand size at is zero. Spellbook and Reliquary Tower cost a card slot and nothing more (and Reliquary Tower is more like half a card slot since it can also generate mana). For those decks in eternal formats that do care about hand size, cards could be introduced that re-establish that rule only when in play, which provides more interesting interactions anyway, both in game and when deck building. Or alternatively, the hand size rule could be eliminated from Standard and Limited, the formats I feel it is most oppressive in.

As is, hand size mostly only functions to punish players who are already being punished. And then in only a handful of games that player is playing. Maximum hand size is mana burn in card form. There are decks which could exploit this to vastly increase their hand size, but such decks are already likely somewhat interested in running “you have no maximum hand size” effects, ways to make sure they can play what they draw, or are just concerned about running through as much of their decks as possible. Viable strategies and cards exist to counter excessive draw, but there is little to be done when you are forced to discard and simply aren't drawing lands. Card draw has answers in game; mana screw doesn't.