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waitimcomingtoo · 4 years

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Where We Start Again 2

Pairing: Peter Parker x Reader

Synopsis: how do you fake date someone you have real feelings for?

Series Masterlist and Regular Masterlist

Playlist by @tiny-friggin-human

“This is my room.” Peter weakly gestured to his bedroom as you walked through his door. His eyes were immediately drawn to everything he needed to hide as you began to look around. He kicked a pair of boxers into the closet and threw a hoodie over the vials of web fluid on his desk. When he looked up at you, a smile dawned on his lips. You stood out in your mini skirt among his nerdy ambiance, but you didn’t look out of place. You noticed him staring and tucked your hair behind your ear nervously.

“What?” You asked, feeling a little self conscious under his gaze.

“Nothing. I just like looking at you.” His lips moved faster than his brain and he was defenseless to stop the words from coming out. Luckily, you found it sweet and gave him a small smile.

“Star Wars bedsheets?” You nodded towards his unmade bed where tiny green Yoda heads dotted his sheets.

“Those aren’t mine.” He scoffed playfully, watching as you took a seat on his bed. His throat tightened at the thought of your bare legs on his sheets. The skirt he’d fawned over so many times was on his bed right now, and he was beginning to panic.

“Uh huh.” You humored him and ran a hand over his pillow. “They’re very soft. You should thank whoever they belong to for taking care of them.”

“I have your laundry- oh! A female.” May was startled by your presence when she came to Peters open door. Peters eyes widened when he noticed she was holding a few pairs of his boxers in her hands and prayed you didn’t notice too. Unfortunate for Peter, you had manners and got up off his bed to shake Mays hand. You shoot Peter a look when your eyes fell on the pile.

“Hi Mrs. Parker. I’m Y/n.” You said politely as you shook her hand. May looked between you and Peter with a surprised expression.

“Y/n L/n?” She asked and you nodded.

“Yeah, that me.” You told her. Peter looked up at the ceiling, silently cursing God for what was happening in front of him.

“It’s nice to finally meet you. Peters been telling me about you since freshman year. You’re the one with the skirt, right? Oh, you’re wearing it now.” She laughed spritely and handed Peter his boxers. “You were right, Peter. It is a nice skirt. And please, call me May.”

Peter knew a nail in the coffin when he saw one. There was no coming back from what May just said. You were gonna think he was a creep and your fake relationship would end before it began.

At least you sat on his bed, though.

“Thank you, May. It’s from H&M and I hear there’s a sale right now. It kinda matches your nails. They’re so pretty.” You told her and she looked down at her nail color. Peter did a double take between you and May. For some reason, you weren’t running out of his apartment in fear.

You were giving his Aunt shopping tips and nail compliments.

“Oh, wow. It does. And thank you. I just got them done but of course this one didn’t notice.” She gave Peter a pointed look before returning her attention to you. “I think I’ll go check it out. I’ll leave you kids to it.” She winked at Peter before closing the door.

Peter braced himself for an abrupt end to your newfound relationship as you turned around. Instead, you had your arms folded and a surprised smile on your face.

“Have you been talking to your aunt about me?” You put yourself hand over your heart like you couldn’t believe it. Peter opened his mouth to apologize, but decided against it when you didn’t show any signs of disdain.

“However did you know?” He replied sarcastically and got a laugh out of you. So you didn’t want apologies, he thought. You wanted humor. “I hope you know, you just witnessed the most embarrassing moment of my life.”

“Well if I know anything about women, she’s gonna be at H&M for a while. You don’t have to worry about her coming in here to embarrass you and drop off your Scooby Doo boxers.” You picked up a pair from the pile he was holding and dangled it in front of his face. He snatched them away from you and quickly stuffed them in his drawer.

“Give me those. They also aren’t mine.” He lied and you held up your hands in defense.

“I believe you.” You insisted and walked over to his LEGO Ferris Wheel. He joined you, standing next to you in silence for a moment as you admired it.

“Ruh roh.” You muttered and his head snapped to you.

“Hey.” He whined. You leaned into him as you laughed, making his breath hitched in his chest when you touched him

“I’m sorry. How does this thing work?” You returned your attention to the Ferris wheel. Peter took a moment to admire the wonder in your eyes as they trailed over the bricks. He pushed a button on the side and it began to move.

“Effervescent.” You said flatly at the anticlimactic way it worked. Peter watched you fondly as your eyes followed the LEGO man and woman in one of the carts.

“What made you want to come over?” He asked suddenly. “Do you have to do community service or something?”

“No.” You said like it was a crazy thought. “I wanted to hang out with you.”

Peter was taken aback by this answer and thought for sure you were lying. He looked at you skeptically as you watched the Ferris wheel.

“Why?” He asked. “And how has nothing you’ve seen so far made you want to stop hanging out with me? You know, the boxers, the bedsheets, the aunt.”

You leaned against his book self and looked down at your boots as you shrugged.

“The boys in our school show up hung over, smelling like mango juul pods and hotdog water. They sleep through class and pelt spit balls at each other at lunch. And I’m pretty sure half the football team hasn’t made the full transition from monkey to human yet.” You said as you kept your eyes down.

“These are all things I already know.” Peter said when you didn’t answer his question. You looked up at him and shrugged slightly.

“You show up in button downs and cute sweaters, smelling like apple shampoo. The one that can get in your eyes and won’t sting. You pay attention in class and build LEGO desk lamps for the science fair. And you give people your gogurt.” You said timidly. The corners of Peters mouth turned down as he fought a smile, as well as the urge to scream into a pillow.

“Well she packed me an extra one.” He reminded you and you rolled your eyes. You walked away from his bookshelf and over to where he had set the LEGO lamp down.

“Can I help you glue the legos down?” You changed the topic. “It’ll go faster with two people.”

“Sure.” He nodded and joined you at his desk. He took a vial of web fluid from under the hoodie and handed it to you. “Here.”

“What kind of glue is this?” You asked as you examined the vial.

“Oh, uh, I made it myself.” Peter stammered as he pulled up a chair for you. You gave him a grateful smile and took a seat.

“You made your own glue?” You asked him once he sat down next to you at the desk.

“Yes?”

“You’re incredible, Peter.” You shook your head and started glueing pieces down. “Out here making your own glue. Elmer’s is quaking.”

Peter took a moment to collect himself before he started glueing the pieces together. Everytime he thought he did something lame, you liked it. And not only that, you praised him for it. All the things that made him unpopular were the things you seemed to enjoy. He was curious about your intentions and could only hope they were good.

“The fair is this Friday, right?” You peered at him through your lashes as you focused on sticking a piece to the base.

“Yeah, right after school.” He replied, freezing momentarily when your pinky touched his.

“I’ll be there.” You said definitively. He stopped what he was doing and looked at you to see if you were joking, but you looked completely serious.

“You don’t have to. It’ll be really boring.” He said softly but you dismissed him.

“Then I’ll hang out by you the whole time.” YIU said simply. “What kind of fake girlfriend would I be if I wasn’t there to watch my boyfriend win the science fair?”

The tips of Peters ears turned pink when you called him your boyfriend. As much as he’d love to have you cheering him on at the science fair, he didn’t want to make you do something you didn’t want to do. He was about to insist that you didn’t have to go when he stopped himself. Something about all the impossible things that had happened today made him want to go against his normal behavior.

“It’s every boys dream to have his fake girlfriend watching him awkwardly tell judges about his science fair project.” He said instead of telling you you didn’t have to come. You seemed like you wanted to, and he’d love to have you there. Why not let it happen?

“I know, right? How’d you get so lucky?” You tossed your hair off your shoulder and winked at him. Peter has gone from never speaking to you to you winking at him three times in one day. You were right. How did he get so lucky?

“Are you sure about committing to this whole fake dating thing? If you’re at the science fair with me, more people are gonna know. It won’t just be between you and me and Flash anymore.” Peter warned you. You stopped glueing legos and looked at him.

“I am sure. I want to do this. It’s just until the dance right? I can dedicate two weeks of my life to mess with Flash.” You insisted as you put your hand on top of his. He tensed up so you quickly drew it away and cleared your throat. “We should probably come up with nicknames for each other to really sell it. What do you want to be called?”

Still recovering from the hand holding incident, his mind was blank.

“You pick.” He said blankly.

“Thank God. I thought you were gonna say “my lord” or some shit.” You laughed and went back to glueing. “How about baby? Nice and simple.”

“Sounds good.” He smiled shyly. He wasn’t even on your radar this morning and now you were calling him baby.

“What do you want to call me?” You asked. The hope in your eyes made Peter determined not to disappoint you.

“Daisy.” He said confidently. You raised your eyebrows at his quick response.

“You had that prepared.” You remarked and he rubbed the back of his neck.

“I see you drawing daisies on your notes all the time.” He admitted. “And then you color the center with yellow highlighter. It’s cute.”

“Good eye, baby.” You emphasized the pet name for effect.

“I just have a good view, daisy.” He did the same. You pulled your tongue between your teeth and giggled. The sight of it made Peters knees weaken as he glued on the final piece.

“You should give me one of your shirts or something so I can wear it to school.” You said as you got out of your chair. “Do you have anything that says your last name on the back?”

Peter got up from the desk and dug around in his closet for his decathlon hoodie. He made sure not to touch the area where his suit was hidden.

“Would this work?” He asked as he held it out to you. You traced your fingers over the bold white block letters and smiled.

“That’s perfect. And here.” You slipped your scrunchie off your wrist and gave it to him. “Wear this on your wrist. I wear it a lot so people will know it’s mine.”

Peter put it on his wrist and thought of all the times he’d seen you wearing it. He loved it when you wore your hair up. And down. He loved it all.

But so did the rest of his school.

Guilt bubbled in the pit of his tummy at the thought of what the fake relationship could do to your reputation.

“You really don’t have to do this, Y/n.” He said softly. “You’re committing social suicide.”

“That’s not a thing.” You stated as you tied his hoodie around your waist. “And I told you, I’m happy to do this. Flash needed to be put in his place. I always hear him picking on you over nothing.”

“Yeah. He’s a real piece of work.” Peter shoved his hands in his pockets and blew out a breath.

“You pronounce “dick head” funny.” You smirked. “Why do you let him get away with what he says to you? How do you resist the urge to punch him in the face?”

“He’s not worth.” Peter shrugged. “I want to get out of here and go to a good college. I’m kinda depending on scholarships and I hear schools prefer kids who don’t get into physical fights with other students.”

“Well you’re very patient.” You complimented him as you stepped closer. “I see him beating up on you all the time.”

“Are you stalking me?” He teased and you shoved his shoulder.

“Says the boy who tells his aunt about my mini skirts.” You shot back before pulling your bottom lip between your teeth.

“Touché.” He squinted at you. “You know, you could’ve just told him to back off. Now you’re stuck pretending to be my girlfriend.”

“Would you stop?” You pouted as you sat back down on his bed. “I don’t feel stuck. I think this is gonna be fun.”

“Not that I’m not enjoying looking at legos with you, but wouldn’t you rather be spending your time with your actual friends? Not your fake boyfriend?” He asked as he took a seat beside you. You took a rubix cube off his nightstand and toyed with it, solving it almost immediately.

“Wanna know a secret?” You asked him as you handed him the solved rubix cube.

“Tell me.” He urged.

“I hate those people.” You laughed sadly. “All of them. Everyone who cares more about what brand you’re wearing than how your day was. I don’t think I’ve ever had an intelligent conversation with any of my “friends”.”

“Then why do you hang out with them? And how was your day?” He added to make you laugh.

“It’s a lot better now.” You said as you drew your knees up to your chin. You had shed your boots at some point and Peter could see your mismatched socks. “And I hang out with them because they count on me to. I don’t know when I became the cult leader around here but now they don’t leave me alone. It’s like, you have to be at this party and you have to wear a dress by this brand unless you got it from this store because that’s cheap. And you must wear your hair this way and drink this alcohol and know this song. It’s exhausting. That glue smells like flint stones vitamins, by the way. It’s all over my hands.”

“I didn’t realize being popular was so trifling.” Peter replied as he reached for a bottle of web dissolver (disguised as hand sanitizer) on his desk and offered it to you. You held out your hands and he squirt some in.

“I know how it sounds.” You said lowly. “I know that people would kill to have my status. But no one in my circle is happy. They’re running on 10 shots of expresso and fake smiles.”

Peter took what you said into consideration as he watched the solemn expression on your face.

“Are you unhappy?” He realized. You had said no one in your circle was happy, and he worried that included you.

“Sometimes. A lot of the time, actually.” You admitted and his heart sank. “I know it looks like I have a lot of friends, but I don’t have a single one. Not one who cares about me or checks on how I’m doing, anyway. I would give up my dozens of fake friends for one real one.”

You kept your eyes down as you spoke to hide your emotions, but Peter couldn’t ignore it. He tried to redeem himself from earlier by putting his hand over yours.

“I care about you.” He promised. “And I may be your fake boyfriend, but I’m your real friend…friend.”

You gave Peter a half smile and flipped your hand so you were holding his instead of just under it.

“You know, this is the first time I’ve done something after school that I actually enjoyed.” You told him.

“We could hang out more, if you want.” He suggested, not thinking you’d actually say yes.

“Yeah, totally.” You agreed, much to his surprise. Your smile seemed different to him, more genuine.

“To convince Flash, I mean.” He added quickly. Your face faltered a little and you took your hand away from his.

“Right.” You gave him a tight smile. “Flash.”

“I need to talk to you.” Peter whispered harshly the next morning when he found Ned at his locker.

“Is this about you walking home with Y/n? Everyone’s talking about it. People are saying you took her to an alley and killed her.” Ned recanted the rumors he heard with excitement.

“What? I didn’t kill her.” Peter defended. “She wanted to come over to see my legos.”

“Oh wow. And I had Tia and Tamera over to bake me a loaf of bread.” Ned said seriously.

“I’m being serious, Ned.” Peter sighed. “Flash was making fun of me and she just-“

“Peter!”

As soon as Peter turned around, you jumped into his arms and wrapped your legs around his waist. He quickly wrapped an arm around you to keep you from falling as you hugged him tightly. When you let go, he could see you were wearing his hoodie over a jean skirt. It reminded of of his sleepless night as he couldn’t get over the fact that his bedsheets now smelled like you. He tossed and turned all night with a smile on his face, too giddy to go to sleep. He didn’t even care when he heard the birds chirping, signaling that he had never fallen asleep. Nothing could break his smile.

“Good morning, baby.” You cooed as you kept your arms around his neck.

“Baby?” Ned sputtered. “Big confused.”

“Haven’t you heard? Peter and I are dating.” You smiled brightly as you linked your arm through Peters. A huge grin broke out on his face at your display of affection as Ned’s eyes bulged out of his head.

“Fake dating.” He said to calm his friend down.

“Semantics.” You replied quickly. “If anyone asks, we’re together.”

“That’s what I was trying to tell you.” Peter explained when Ned still looked shocked.

“Look! I’m wearing your hoodie.” You pulled the hoodie forward so Peter could see.

“And I have your small headband.” Peter held up his wrist to show you where the scrunchie was.

“It’s called a scrunchie.” You giggled. You took his hand and held it to your chest. “We look so convincing. Ned, don’t we look like a couple?”

“I’m having network connectivity problems.” Ned mumbled as he struggled to understand what was going on.

“Wait. I forgot I have to talk to the student council about the dance decorations.” You remembered. “See you at lunch?”

“Have a good day, s-sweetheart.” He stuttered out a new nickname he had always wanted to call you.

“Sweetheart? I like it.” You twirled yourself under his arm before walking away. “Shaking things up.”

Peter and Ned watched you walk away, Ned with his jaw slacked and Peter with his eyes soft.

“Dude.” Ned breathed.

“I know.”

“You have a fake girlfriend.” Ned said in disbelief. “And it’s Y/n.”

“I know.”

“You’ve been in love with her for years.” He whispered.

“I know.”

“She is way out of your league.” He looked at his friend.

“I know!” Peter exclaimed. “Do you think people are gonna buy it?”

“I don’t know.” Ned answered honestly. “Why did she agree to this? You didn’t try to kill her in an alley did you?”

“No, Ned. This was all her idea. She asked for my hoodie and gave me this little skirt for your hair.” Peter held up with wrist with the scrunchie again.

“It’s called a munchie, Peter.” Ned rolled his eyes.

“Well she gave me hers so people would know she’s my girlfriend. Or fake girlfriend. I don’t really know the details.” He sighed but broke into another smile. “She came over yesterday and God, she’s so much better than we thought. She’s funny and a good listener and everytime I thought I did something lame, she liked it. She liked me! This might be the greatest thing that ever happened to me, Ned.”

“But is this really what you want? You’ve liked her since the first day of school when her dad almost hit you with her car and she started crying.” Ned reminded him. “Do you really want your first relationship with a girl, especially this girl, to be fake?”

“MJ was right, Ned. A girl like that will never be interested in someone like me. This is the only chance I’m gonna have with her. And yeah, it’s a fake relationship. But it’s a real friendship. I’ll take what I can get if it means I can be close to her.” Peter decided.

“I don’t want you getting hurt, Peter. If this ends badly, it’ll crush you.” Ned said sincerely.

“I know what this. I know she’ll never actually like me. As long as I keep reminding myself that, I’ll be fine.” Peter insisted.

“Okay.” Ned patted his back. “If you say so.”

“Don’t-“

“Didn’t even notice. No punches there to roll with.” Ned began to sing as he walked down the hall. Peter kept his distance as he followed him to class, already thinking about the next time he’d get to see you.

Peter waited a lifetime for the lunch bell to ring. The best parts of his day were when he got to see you. Those parts were the morning if he got to his locker on time, lunch, 7th period, and after school when you had Volunteer Club. They met right across the hall from the Decathlon team and of Peter angled his chair correctly, he could catch a glimpse of you.

He kept his head up as he headed to his table, always on the lookout for you. He spotted his hoodie a few seconds before you made eye contact.

“There you are, baby.” Your eyes lit up as you made your way over to him. “Come on. Let’s eat together.”

Peters heartbeat quickened as you lead him towards your usual lunch table. It was already full of popular kids, the very popular kids that Peter feared.

“Your friends won’t like me.” Peter protested to save himself from 40 minutes of torture.

“No one at that table likes each other, Peter.” You laughed but he sensed a sadness in your voice. “Let’s sit with your friends then.”

You pivoted away from the cool kids table, earning yourself a glare from every inhabitant. It struck fear in Peters heart, but it didn’t phase you. You linked your arm through his again and led him towards Ned and MJ’s table.

“Are you sure?” Peter asked nervously as he made eye contact with an angry quarterback.

“Yes. Come on.” You tugged him harder until you got to the table.

“Hey guys.” You greeted Ned and MJ as you sat down. Ned looked up in shock and the water he was drinking fell out of his mouth.

“Girl?” He asked Peter, reverting to his inability to speak around you.

“Yes, girl.” You chuckled. “Come sit with us, Michelle.”

“Fine, but only because this cannot end well.” MJ picked you her stuff and slid next to you. You handed her her daily granola bar and she took it with a sly smirk.

“Flash is coming.” Ned whispered and you quickly took Peters hand. You leaned your head on your other hand and stared at him with a dreamy smile as Flash walked by. He shot you guys a look and pretended to gag before walking away.

“He totally bought it.” You squealed as you watched him sit down. “We are so good together.”

Peter nodded stiffly, his full attention on the fact that you were still holding his hand.

“Are you in the science fair too, Ned?” You changed the subject but began to trace patterns on Peters palm. It took him a moment to realize you were drawing daisies.

“No. I’m not.” Ned replied and everyone perked up.

“He just said a full sentence.” MJ realized.

“Yay!” You released Peters hand to clap softly. His hand felt cold without yours holding it and he felt disappointment sink in. He thought he’d be okay as long as he reminded himself that the relationship was fake, but he wasn’t. He wanted to hold your hand all the time, not just when Flash was around.

“Why not?” You asked as you opened up your lunch bag.

“I usually just hang out by the snack table until Peter wins. Then we go to Delmars and order a sandwich with every single ingredient on it.” He explained. “It wasn’t that bad until they added tuna to the menu. Tuna really doesn’t go with peanut butter and hot sauce.”

“Haha, he’s kidding.” Peter lies and shot Ned a look. “We don’t do that. That would be absurd.”

“I have this really strong feeling that you do do that-“

“Do do.” Ned chuckled.

“-and it sounds fun. Is it cool if I tag along this year?” You asked Peter, slipping your hand back into his. Peter looked at your intertwined hands before looking to Ned for approval.

“Girl welcome.” He nodded until he realized he was doing it again. “Damn it.”

“Of course you can come.” Peter made the decision when Ned was no help. “But I have to win first.”

“I’ve seen your picture in the display case the last three years. Come on, you had the robotics arm, the homemade spinneret, and the thing with the flies.” You surprised Peter by listing his lady entries. “This solar powered LEGO lamp is gonna blow the judges away. You’re gonna win. My boyfriend is the smartest guy in school.” You gloated as you moved some hair off Peters forehead.

“You know your don’t have to call him your boyfriend around us, right? We’re not the ones you’re trying to fool.” MJ cut in. Peters has tightened at MJ’s interruption.

“I know.” You said timidly and took your hand away from Peter again. He huffed out an angry breath but kept his mouth shut. If you could take his hand, he could take yours.

“She can do what she wants.” Peter said decidedly and laced his fingers through yours. You smiled proudly at him and squeezed his hand.

“Thank you, baby.” You said, happy he was taking initiative. “What are you doing after school today?”

“You’re in luck, Y/n. You chose the best possible boy to fake date. His schedule has been open for the last 18 years.” MJ jeered.

“Haha. Don’t you have a chicken to ritualistically sacrifice or something?” Peter shot back.

“Ooo. Witch joke. Original.” She whispered and twiddled her fingers like she was casting a spell.

“I’m not busy, daisy.” He ignored MJ and kept his eyes on you. “What did you have in mind?”

“I’ve been so busy planning the dance that I never got a dress.” You told him. “Would you come with me to pick one out?”

“Do I want to spend my afternoon watching you try on dresses?” He repeated your question back to you and you realized how boring it sounded.

“You don’t have to-“ You began.

“Hell yeah I do.” He cut you off and you smiled. “Where do you want to meet?”

“If you walk me home after school we can go from there.” You suggested. Peters mouth dried out at the thought of going to your house but he forced himself to nod.

“Okay.” He squealed.

“Shoot, I almost forgot. I have to meet with Mrs. Carlisle about the DJ.” You packed up your lunch and cupped Peters chin. “I’ll see you later?”

“I’ll be at your locker.” He nodded as your thumb slid off his chin.

“Good boy.” You smirked. “Bye Ned. Bye Michelle.”

Ned waited until you were out of sight until he freaked out.

“Dude! She invited you to her house! She totally wants to jump your bones.” He whispered loudly.

“Why would she jump on my bones? Like my skeleton?” Peter asked innocently. “You think she want to kill me?”

“How is the hottest girl in school interested in you?” MJ shook her head. “Especially when you ask questions like that.”

“Shes not into me. We’re fake dating.” Peter reminded them.

“And who’s idea was it to do that?” MJ cocked her head. “Because she called me yesterday to tell me all about your little plan.”

“Yesterday you were saying I’d never have a chance, and today you’re insisting that she’s into me?” Peter asked in confusion. “Wait, she called you? About me?”

“I hadn’t seen you interact before yesterday. She was doing girlfriend shit when no one was watching. Not even you! Check your notebook.” MJ grumbled and angrily took a bite out of her granola bar. Peter curiously opened his notebook and found a pink slip of paper inside. He opened it up and read it out loud.

“This is my favorite color on you. Have some sweet tarts, for my sweetheart. See you after school.” He read the note and held up a fun sized packet of Sweet Tarts.

“She put that in there when you were too busy staring at the jocks.” MJ told them. “Now tell me, why would she sneak candy into your notebook entirely out of Flash’s view? Who does that convince?”

“I love sweet tarts.” Peter muttered as he stared at the note. Even your handwriting was pretty.

“Everyone knows that. Remember when you had to go to the nurse freshman year on Valentine’s Day because you ate 18 packets?” Ned brought up.

“I don’t remember that.” Peter mumbled, trying to think of what Ned was talking about.

“Because you were sent home for going into a sugar coma.” MJ snorted.

“Wow.” Peter raised his eyebrows. “I never knew that.”

“Well she did. And now she’s sneaking you candy.” MJ said and laughed in disbelief.

“What’s so funny?” Peter laughed defensively.

“I think Y/n actually likes you. And I think that hilariously paradoxical.” She laughed again.

“What? No.” Peter didn’t allow himself to have hope, even for a minute. “She doesn’t like me. She’s just faking.”

“You’re going to her house today right?” MJ raised a single eyebrow. “See how she behaves. If you acts like your girlfriend when no one is around, you’ll know she isn’t faking.”

“Okay.” Peter decided, figuring he had nothing to lose. “Okay. I’ll do that.”

Peter stationed himself at your locker directly after school. He kept MJ’s advice at the front of his mind as he waited for you to arrive. All he had to do was observe you. He did that all the time anyway. Only this time, it counted. He wiped his sweaty palms on his jeans and let out a breath.

“Baby.” He heard your sweet voice from behind him. He turned around and saw your equally sweet smile.

“Ready?” He asked as he took the books from your hands. You gave him a puzzled look and he explained. “I’m carrying your books for you. My uncle told me to do this when I got a girlfriend. I figured he’d still appreciate it, even if our relationship is fake.”

“He sounds like a smart man.” You said kindly and Peter nodded.

“He was. I’ll tell you more about him on the walk.” He offered and you smiled like you liked the idea. “Lead the way.”

Tag List 🏷

@a-villain-vying-for-attention @wendaiix3-blog @dorbiksbitch @t-monosapiens-h @badhollandfluff @silteplaittais-toi @thisisthebiplace @seasidecrowbar @spideygirl2003 @5-seconds-of-mendes @bitchylittleredhead @oh-whatabeautiful-parker @everydaymj @write-from-the-heart @blackpetalsmeandeath @electraheart-3174 @shawni-h @peterparkoure

#peter parker x reader #peter parker x y/n #peter parker x you #peter parker fanfiction #peter parker imagine #peter parker x popular!reader #peter parker fake dating #tom holland x reader #tom holland x you #iron man #tom holland fluff #tom holland fanfiction

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fanfiction-funtime · 3 years

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Spritefather and Selene Interaction

A fan drabble for @clouds-rambles, I hope I characterized Selene right

Without much prompting it's a tad hard to write like this, but I hope it works.

Also I hope you don't mind me mentioning Cael amnesia anon.

(Selene was hanging out with Cael when Venti makes trouble, bringing the night to a close)

(Selene pov)

Yet again, I had to drag Cael's boyfriend out of the bar. This time because he thought someone was insulting his father and punched them, but he was just talking about some mythological person called 'Spritefather'.

I haven't thought about that story in a long time, not since I was a kid. Something about him being able to "use all elements" or something and how he "taught Barbados about freedom", maybe I'll ask Lisa about it.

"Excuse me madam, my father needs to speak to that man you're carrying. Please, hand him to me." I heard a voice from behind me say, the accent was a thick Schneznayan one.

I turned around to meet the person, a woman in an outfit that wouldn't look out of place in a family portrait of old Schneznayan nobility, they also held a vision.

A cryo vision.

I three Venti into a hay pile and summoned my spear, "your a pretty bad liar, LA SIGNORA!"

"No wait! You've got it all w-" I jabbed at her with my spear, using conduct to increase it's power, "I said wait!-"

"I don't bargain with people who hurt my friends!" Hehe, that was a cool line, nice one Selene.

"W-WHAT!? HOW DARE YOU INSINUATE THAT I WOULD HURT MY OWN BROTHER!" The woman gasped and pointed behind me.

I looked back and saw an abyss mage sneaking away with Venti.

"HEY! THAT'S MY BROTHER/BEST FRIEND'S BOYFRIEND!"

The mage noticed and bolted away. We chased it all the way to star conch cliff, where it threw Venti over the edge.

"Haha! Do your worst human! I have already completed my mission! Now without your precious archon, mondstadt will-!"

A tornado of water sprouted up from the sea, then froze in place. From the newly formed spiral of ice rose a cloaked man, and around him were 6 wisps of every element but cryo.

The mage turned around, and were it not for the dendro tendril crushing it's windpipe they would have screamed in horror.

"First you threaten to kill my son," the cloaked man stepped off the spire, the air polarizing itself with electro to form a step, "then you kidnap him while my daughter is trying to retrieve him," another step, this time the air simply pushes him up to form a step, "and now you have followed through on that threat. It tried to," the man took one last, powerful step, to which a geo platform met his feet and lifted him to the hanging abyss mage, "how truly foolish must you be."

He man then lit the tendril on fire, burning the mage like a furby in a campfire.

The man lowered himself down, Venti in his arms, and said, "I'm sorry Barbados, I should have gone to get you myself. Viktoria, what happened?"

Then he noticed me.

"EEEEP!" He shouted as he dropped Venti with a thud.

_____________________

(3rd person limited, Spritefather pov)

'Oh celestia, a person! No no, keep it together. You love interacting with humans in a controlled manner. This is just as controlled, just...a suprise.' Spritefather thought.

"By Barbados' hairy nostrils! You're the Spritefather!" The human Selene shouted.

Spritefather straightened himself out and cleared his throat, "y-yes, I am. But I am not 'the' Spritefather, I'm just Spritefather. Saying 'the Spritefather' is like calling you 'the Selene'. But now isn't the time for such trivial bickerings," Spritefather gave a gentlemanly bow, "thank you for attempting to rescue my eldest child, and for taking him home everytime he indulges a bit to much on vices."

Viktoria facepalmed, "dad! They aren't supposed to know that!"

"Well why not? They're friends with him, and best friends with his boyfriend. Which by the way I STILL need to meet-" he noticed Selene was seeming kind if pale, "you ok?"

*thud*

"Oh dear."

_____________________

(3rd person omniscient pov)

(There's no good point to explain this, but they're in a serenitea pot)

Selene woke up in a very confused state, and on a cloaked woman's lap.

"Please do not be alarmed, neither me nor my daughter did anything to you." The woman said.

Selene, in response, punched the woman and scrambled away, "who the abyss are you!?"

"Well I'm not particularly loved by celestia but I'd hardly say I'm abyssal.."

"Father, people here are not as accustomed to the divine as Liyue or Inazuma." The woman from before, who Selene thought was La Signora, said as she approached them with some tea.

"Wait, fa-no, no. Don't do that Selene, it's rude."

The cloaked woman shook her hands to dismiss Selene's concern, "it's fine, however I thank you for your accepting nature. Though it is to be excepted given your personal identity."

"How do you know me?"

"Heh, have you forgotten already? Though I suppose the change in form is not common among you humans. And nonexistent in the way me and the wisps can do."

The woman got up and started twirling, then surrounded themself in elemental power, and when it cleared stood the cloaked man Selene saw in her dream...

*wait*

"That wasn't a dream...holy shit that wasn't a dream! You're the Spritefather-I mean-you're Spritefather! Your real!"

"Indeed I am. I would think everyone in mondstadt believes I'm real, but atleast that leaves less for that misconception."

"What misconception?"

"Ask Barbados, shouldn't be too hard since you two are close."

"Barba-wait Venti is actually Barbados!?

"Oh dear I'm making this worse."

The still unnamed woman sighed and shook her head, "how about we focus on why my dad decided to be a woman? Surely that would be a far more easy thing to understand."

"It's because she likes women, and I don't blame her. World cold and hard, titty warm and soft."

"Dad who taught you that!?"

"You do realize I can hear the lives of all in my home yes?"

"I guess I'm at fault." Selene laughed.

"I will have my revenge upon you for this." The woman responded.

Spritefather chuckled, "oh? And how about you get your revenge over a date. Anastasia."

"F-FATHER!"

"What? She's single, friends to someone who can teach her proper tea ceremonies, and uh....they have....hmmm..." Spritefather was trying to think if what he could say to convince his daughter, "look I just want to see grand kids!"

"FATHER"

"K-KIDS!?"

"Look I'm pushing fifty million! If one of you doesn't get me kids in the next ten million years I'm going to grow grey hair!"

Anastasia starts forming an ice throwing knife, "REBEL'S-"

"Papa, what happen?" Came a childish voice.

Selene gasped, they were looking at probably the cutest thing EVER!

"Oh my ARCHONS! IS THAT A PYROSPRITE!?"

"Yes that's my child Flameo-"

Selene, already having picked up the the baby, "they're so CUTE!"

They hugged the little flame close to their face and nuzzled them, to which Flameo quickly responded to with their own.

"Smell like..." they thought for a moment, "big Bro Bardos!" They flew around Selene excitedly, "friend!"

Spritefather sighed, "Oh dear, now the rest will be coming out. And I just got them to sleep aswell."

It wasn't long before Selene was surrounded by six Sprites.

The Electrosprite landed on her vision and started vibrating happily.

The Geosprite asked, "are you strong!? I think I could be you!"

"Oh I'm sure you could." Selene said to appease the little Sprite as she chuckled chuckled.

The Anemosprite and Pyrosprite flew around her head like children.

The Hydrosprite was inspecting her clothes, "how utterly bourgeois, has my Brother and father been teaching you how to dress? Honestly, the people of mondstadt should learn from the reconnaissance captain of the knights. Now there's a woman who knows how to dress."

"Oh you mean Eula?"

"You know her?"

"Oh yeah, she's invites me to tea every now and then."

"SHE...invites....YOU...out for TEA!?-"

Anastasia puts her hand over the Hydrosprite and tries to hold her back

"Sorry about that," the woman replied, "kids and their crushes."

(Agua, muffled: I'M SIXTEENTH HUNDRED YEARS OLD!)

"Ha-haaa...."

Selene couldn't respond to that as they felt a prick in her spine, causing them to yelp.

A Dendrodsprite slinkied up her back and put it's head on her shoulder, "just sampling...never seen blood like yours...so intertwined with the...divine....yet so distan-"

Spritefather picked up his child, "please forgive Leafy, they're in their...adventurous stage. And their adventure is to learn things. Often things that involve pins and needles."

This was going to be a looong night

_____________________

The next day, Vanessa's tree

Selene yawns and falls on the statue, Venti doing the same. The difference between them is one is hungover and waiting for his boyfriend to take him home after the fifth assassination attempt this week, the other has to deal with the consequences of being loved by children and being there to try and stop the most recent assassination

"Holy shit....this hang over....I thought Decrabain's hailstorms were bad..."

"You shouldn't try watching after Leafy.....but I think half the pains are from Agua's jealousy bites......"

"You think that's bad?.....you should have seen them when they realized Cael and I....were dating....."

"...archons I hope I was never like that as a kid...."

"Oh cherry up you two!" Spritefather said, a bit too loud for the two, "it's a new day and-"

Venti hit his father with a clump of grass using anemo

"YOUNG MAN!-

"Ohheythere'sCaelgottagobye!" The archon said as he ran off.

Spritefather sighed, "he's always like that, running from responsibilities. But he always means up when it counts, so I can only say I'm proud of the man he's become," he thought for a moment, "except for when he turns into a woman for whatever reason, then I'm proud of the woman she's become...you know, after being around single form life for so long stuff like that feels so strange. I mean you humans are born with one form and cant naturally change it. But if you feel it's wrong you'll go through so much trouble just to get close to what us shape changers can get. While to humans it is inspiring purely because of the person's determination to take the form they so deserve, that they were truly meant to have. But for me it's so much more! The human spirit and will is oh so inspiring, but the amount humans go through! So much money, so much time, and in many places simply enduring life! Why even I couldn't get the...uh...transphobia is it?...out of Inazuma!Terribly sorry human language changes so much. Oh and on language! To think that I was there when the first cave man was trying to mimic the grunts of the gods, only to make something so much superior to them to the point that the gods copied THEM! And speaking of copies have you ever heard of the time Dainsleif-" he paused as he saw Selene's bored face, "sorry. One little thing and I start ranting and rave...no, it's info dumping. And I should thank you humans for making that term, and all the other wonder words you've made, and the medical advances. They've helped me understand myself....ah but look at me, rambling on again. You know what? For entertaining my kids the whole night, and listening to an old man's ramblings, I'll give you a boon. Anything you want, if I can get it you shall have it."

Selene thought for a moment. She thought about asking him to bring back her father, but they knew he couldn't raise the dead. She even thought...of her mother, to see her again, but they knew that it wouldn't help. A selfish part of her even wanted someway to reignite her's and Rosaria's relationship, after all that part of her life was, but she knew it would be wrong and that they both agree they just didn't work.

Perhaps just ask for mora? She did need some for a good night's rest, but that felt wasteful. What was one night's rest for what could be a lifetime of amazing power. But maybe it would be wrong to ask for something like power. Ah! She's got it!

"How about a spear? A really powerful one that compliments my powers perfectly! Oh! And make it look really cool!"

Spritefather blinked, then laughed, "well, that's rather simple isn't it? So amazing you humans. You expect them to make something big and/or selfish, like taking control of a country, or killing someone. Yet never once has one of my boons been used for anything bad. Even when they're selfish. Like one time I met a very selfish person who I granted a boon, and all he did with it was ask me to make sure the kids of Inazuma were never hungry. Ah, now that. That was ranting, sorry." Spritefather walked over to the statue's base and knocked three times, "hello Vanessa. It's been a while since I last called you, but I was hoping you could give me a hand? And perhaps a very sturdy branch off your tree?"

"Uhhh-"

A light shown down from the heavens and the ground shook, causing a skeletal hand to rise from the depths.

Selene would have screeched if she weren't so tired, "I'd prefer my weapon to be less...body part-sy."

"Nonsense! Everyone knows that bones make the best weapons! You know why it's called a prototype rancor?! BECAUSE NOONE WANTS TO ACCEPT THAT THE PERFECTED VERSION I, THE INVENTOR, MADE INCLUDES THE SHINBONES OF MITSCHURLS! YOU EVER SEEN A-*ahem*-sorry, rambling."

As he was ranting, a branch handed Spritefather a sturdy branch from the tree.

"Perfect, now a bit of magic and-" the two items blew up in Spritefather's face before reforming into a purple and black spear that ended in a feathery sleeve like pattern that was attached to a sharp blade that looked very much like a hand made into a spear blade. Mainly because it was.

A brilliant light shone down on the Spritefather as he floated up and presented the spear to Selene(mumbled: thanks Venessa)

"SELENE OF MONDSTADT!"

His voice became that of s god's, filled with power and compassion, booming across windrise.

"YOU HAVE SPOKEN YOUR WISH, AND BY MY HONOR AS THE ENTERNAL FATHER, I AM DUTY BOUND TO GRANT IT!"

He leans imup to Selene and whispered to her, "do you like the eternal father moniker? I thought it up myself."

"Oh yeah, 10/10, really keeping with the Inazuman background."

"Thanks."

"TAKE YOUR GRAND BLADE, AND GO FORTH TO CARVE THROWS DESTINY AND TILL YOUR OWN FUTURE!"

Selene took the spear, "uh...thanks?"

"Oh your very welcome. By the way how was that delivery? I've been working on the whole 'I am a powerful being' delivery for a few centuries."

"A bit hard to understand, but overall gets the vibe across. Maybe 8/10? Low seven probably."

"Yeah, I kind of expected that. Wonder how else I could get that effect, you know without the whole can't understand thing."

"Well, I've got teo other immortals to meet. Ones I need to question."

"Ah yes, I'm sure Cael and Barbados have much to answer for to you."

"Yes they do. I don't suppose 'see you around' would be appropriate here?"

"On a sense? It's appropriate. After all I'm your friend now aswell, and I prefer a life without isolation. So...see you round?"

"Sure, see you around."

_____________________

Admittedly didn't know how to end this. I like it but I'm a tad worried I made it to focused on my character and didn't give Selene enough attention.

Regardless I hope you enjoyed it cloud! I really tried to get Selene right. And sorry it took so long, sleep kept getting messed up, and then covid shot+forgetting to hydrate kicked my ass.

(Tagging: @storytravelled, @golden-wingseos, and @clouds-rambles)

#genshin #genshin impact #Spritefather #genshin oc #venti #genshin fanfic #genshin fan character

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plainbrunettelbl · 4 years

Text

(Shifter AU) Panther Aizawa Shota x Bobcat Reader x Lion Yamada Hizashi (Chapter Two)

Word count: 4465

Warnings: None

Title: (Shifter AU) Panther Aizawa Shota x Bobcat Reader x Lion Yamada Hizashi (Chapter Two)

Summary: You get started at your new job and hang out with the duo a bit more.

(gif not mine)

💤🎤-You had been nervous going into the interview. You put on your best clothes and walked your way into the interview room. As soon as you pulled up to the building you instantly knew why their previous assistant was throwing themselves at them.

💤🎤-The building was huge and elegant. The blue glass building sparkled brilliantly against all the other stone ones. They clearly had money lining their pockets. You felt a little intimidated now that you knew they had money.

💤🎤-You had exchanged numbers with them when they dropped you off the other day but you hadn’t texted with them much. Hizashi would text you songs that he really liked and wanted you to listen to. Shota would constantly ask if you were eating enough.

💤🎤-They were both sweet. You were glad to have met them, they seemed to be looking out for you. It was comforting considering you had no one else in this town to talk to.

💤🎤-You walked into the interview and gave it your best.

💤🎤-Now, a few days later, you were waiting by your laptop to see if they emailed you telling you got the job. The stress alone was gonna cause a shift. You were lounging in a soft white shirt and pajama shorts.

💤🎤-You were laying on your bed on your stomach refreshing your inbox every few minutes. You really hoped you got the job. You tried to distract yourself with reading comics on your phone but it was no use.

💤🎤-Finally, your laptop chimed. We are glad to inform you that...

💤🎤-You squealed, excitedly bouncing around on your bed. You quickly shot off a text to your new bosses saying you were looking forward to working with them. They congratulated you and wanted to see if you would like to go to dinner to celebrate.

💤🎤-You were more than happy to agree. Your bobcat missed the big felines.

***

💤🎤-They had picked you up thirty minutes after they had texted you about getting dinner to celebrate they had pulled up to your apartment complex. It was in a decent neighborhood so they were both relieved.

💤🎤-They didn’t get to come up and get you at your door. You had walked down your two flights of stairs before they could get out of their expensive black car. It was a shame. They wanted to sniff out what shifters lived there.

💤🎤-They shot you smiles when you climbed into the car.

💤🎤-“Hey, Y/N! I swear thought Shota would bite my head off before we found your place. The man gets grumpy if he doesn’t get fed every few hours.” Zashi leaned over in the driver’s seat ignoring his mates glare.

💤🎤-“I was not about to bite your head off. I was simply telling you that we could have gotten here faster if you took the turns I was telling you to take.” He grumbled, shooting his mate a look before turning around to greet you.

💤🎤-“Hello, Y/N.” He calmly greeted, sending you a gentle look.

💤🎤-“Hey guys! I am so happy to hang out again. I was going crazy in my apartment.” You chuckled, leaning up against the leather seat and buckling yourself in.

💤🎤-“We were talking about that. We were wondering if you wanted to spend the night at the cabin this weekend to shift a bit and show you the ropes. I may not be the best at tree climbing but Shota is an expert at it.” Zashi pulled out of your apartment complex and headed towards the restaurant they had picked out.

💤🎤-You made small talk the rest of the drive but soon you were pulling up to a burger joint. It was not something you expected them to bring you to considering their wealth but you were glad.

💤🎤-You didn’t want to make a fool of yourself if they took you somewhere fancy and you didn’t know which fork was the right one to eat with. Soon you were sat in a big red booth looking over the menu.

💤🎤-“What do you usually get?” You asked, peering over the big menu to look at them.

💤🎤-“I usually the deluxe cheeseburger with a side of fries. They have onion rings as well. They have a great dipping sauce here for them.” Zashi hummed, sipping on the cola the waiter had already brought over.

💤🎤-You had a Sprite, Shota ordered a sweet tea.

💤🎤-“That does sound good, I could go for some onion rings right now. And you?” You turned to the dark-haired male, his obsidian eyes met yours.

💤🎤-“I usually get the mushroom Swiss burger with onion rings. Zashi is right, the dipping sauce they make here is really good.” He agreed, leaning back in his booth and stretching.

💤🎤-Shota was wearing a black turtleneck shirt with matching black jeans. Zashi was wearing a white band t-shirt with ripped jeans. It was not something you expected to see them wearing taking into account their wealth.

💤🎤-You thought it was refreshing that they didn’t flaunt their money.

💤🎤-“Mmm. The cheeseburger sounds good. I’ll get that and some onion rings.” You put the menu down and looked over at them.

💤🎤-“So how are you guys doing?” You asked, taking a sip of your soda.

💤🎤-“Work had me running wild this week. I do some of the designs for our company and things kept getting messed up and delayed.” Zashi sighed, rubbing his head.

💤🎤-Shota scoffed, twirling his straw in his drink.

💤🎤-“You only had so many problems because your office is a mess. I swear every time I go in there it is a even bigger mess.” He scolded, siding eyeing his blond mate.

💤🎤-“It’s an organized mess! Just how I like it!” Zashi defended, moving his hands around to get his point across.

💤🎤-You just smiled at their loving banter. They made a nice couple. Soon the waiter came by and took your orders. Even sooner a huge burger and pile of onion rings were sat down in front of you.

💤🎤-Your eyes couldn’t have gotten any bigger.

💤🎤-“You could have told me the serving sizes were huge! I don’t even know if I can finish half of this.” You gasped, looking at your mountain of onion rings. There had to a least be two full-sized onions on your plate for you to have that much.

💤🎤-The burger had to be held up by a wooden stick so it didn’t collapse onto itself.

💤🎤-Zashi had already taken a fry and started munching on it. His golden eyes taking in your shocked face. He suppressed a grin that wanted to crawl on his face. He imagined your bobcat making the same expression when you saw his form.

💤🎤-You still didn’t know what type of shifter he was.

💤🎤-“We already told you that you should be eating more. This seems like a lot but once you start eating it disappears fast. Even if you can’t eat it all, I am sure me and Zashi would be more than happy to finish off what you can’t.” Shota reassured, holding his big burger with two hands.

💤🎤-You meekly nodded before picking up an onion ring. You bit into it with a crunch and it was like your plate was suddenly half empty. You were down half a burger and onion rings.

💤🎤-Once again your eyes widened.

💤🎤-“Sho, she is too cute. She reminds me of when I was a teen and my appetite had just started to pick up as well.” Zashi nudged his stoic mate.

💤🎤-You had caught his words and lifted your head.

💤🎤-“You both were born shifters right? What’s it like growing up? Do you have any pictures of when you were cubs? Oh, I bet you were adorable when you were little!” You excitedly rambled, already picturing Shota as a panther cub.

💤🎤-Zashi’s mood immediately dampened, he scowled at his mate. Shota already knew why he was getting a dirty look from his mate.

💤🎤-“I wouldn’t know. Sho refused to show me a picture of him as a cub. Even though I showed him a picture of me when I was a scrawny cub.” Zashi huffed, he reached over and stole an onion ring from his mate just to irritate him.

💤🎤-He didn’t even like onion rings.

💤🎤-“What is so important about seeing me as a cub? I don’t see a reason in showing you.” Shota rolled his eyes, letting his mate take more onion rings off his plate.

💤🎤-“What’s the difference between a shifter and a turned one like me?” You asked, taking a sip of your Sprite.

💤🎤-“There is not really much of a difference. We are born and can shift when we turn about eight or so. Since you are turned that is a bit different. Right now your bobcat is still in its early stages.” Zashi explained, taking on a serious tone.

💤🎤-“It is a bit dangerous for someone to be turned. For one, not everyone who is bitten lives through the change. A lot of genetic makeup is twisted around so some people can’t handle that and die.” His golden eyes took on a metal-like coldness.

💤🎤-His lion was unsettled at the thought of never meeting you if your body had not accepted the change.

💤🎤-“Shifters are not supposed to turn humans because of the chance that they might die. You are only allowed to change someone when you are taking them as your mate.” He paused, looking over at you to see if you were understanding.

💤🎤-Shota picked up from there.

💤🎤-“Since Hizashi is already a shifter I didn’t need to do this but a shifter would have to bite their human mate in order to turn them. It is a bit more detailed but basically a mating bite is unique since has a zero percent chance of the person dying while their body undergoes the change.” Shota continued, eyeing his mate, love clear in his eyes.

💤🎤-They still carried each others mating bites on their necks to show other shifters that they are mated. A little of their scent mingled in each others just to push their status as taken.

💤🎤-“So I was bitten and since my body was about to handle the change I survived. What do you mean when you say my bobcat is still in its early stages?” You asked, putting your elbows on the table and leaning on your clasped hands.

💤🎤-“It basically means that your animal half is not fully mature yet. You seemed a bit on the smaller side when we found you so that is why we assumed you were a cub. Your mannerisms also led us to believe you were a lot younger than what you are.” Zashi answered, remembering the way you rubbed up against him without a second thought.

💤🎤-He shuddered at the thought of you rubbing up against a bear shifter you just met. A certain temperamental blonde he knew would have eaten you for lunch. He shoved the image of your small cat standing under a big brown bear away.

💤🎤-“Don’t worry, it doesn’t take too long for your animal to mature. With a bit of socializing with our animal halves and more experience shifting you should be well on your way to becoming a fierce female feline.” Shota acknowledged, swiping a fry from his mate’s plate.

💤🎤-“Speaking of fierce female felines, we were planning to introduce you to a friend of ours. She is a panther shifter like Sho, she should be able to answer any questions we can’t when it comes to being a women shifter.” Zashi hummed, bring a napkin up to his face.

💤🎤-Even though they had been talking they still had enough time to finish everything on their plates. You looked down at your plate. You ate way more than you thought you would but there was still a decent amount of onion rings on your plate.

💤🎤-You would have asked for a to-go plate but they would lose their crunch by the time you went home. You slid your plate in Shota’s direction, he was more than happy to get to work on the plate.

💤🎤-“So is that why you invited me out this weekend? So you can help me mature my bobcat?” You questioned, looking at Zashi.

💤🎤-“For the most part, we knew that starting a new job can be stressful so we figured after your first week you could use a shift to release a bit of stress,” Zashi explained, pulling out his wallet.

💤🎤-“Oh, that’s smart.” You agreed, reaching for your purse. “I’ll pay for my meal.”

💤🎤-Shota had just polished off the last onion ring before cutting in. “Nonsense. We invited you out so we will pay. Plus this was to congratulate you on getting the job. It wouldn’t be right to make you pay.”

💤🎤-You felt a little uneasy about having them pay but they had a point. You would treat them to something when you got the chance. Just because they had money didn’t mean they had to spend it on you.

💤🎤-You would return the favor.

💤🎤-After some light conversation and playful banter they dropped you off at your apartment. You had fun hanging out with them. They cleared up a few things which was nice.

💤🎤-Now it was time to prepare for your first day at work.

***

💤🎤-In truth, you didn’t really think you would get a job that required formal wear. You had only seen a little bit of the building and workers when you had came in for your interview so you were unprepared for their fancy skirts and button-up shirts.

💤🎤-You worked at the library in your old town so you had an abundance of soft sweaters and comfy slacks. You quickly realized you looked out of place among everyone else.

💤🎤-You tried to keep your confidence up but it was quickly dwindling.

💤🎤-Luckily, the lady at the front desk was waiting for your arrival and sent you on your way with directions as soon as you walked through the revolving glass door.

💤🎤-Soon the elevator you were in opened up to the top floor. You didn’t see anyone at the front desk to greet you but then you remembered that would be your job. You saw two wooden doors behind your huge desk.

💤🎤-You assumed Shota and Zashi were behind them.

💤🎤-You sat your stuff down and walked over and knocked. An excited voice yelled to come in. You opened the door and tried not to gasp. Shota was right, Zashi’s office was a mess.

💤🎤-You supposed it was your job to organize everything. You found a hyper blond drawing away on a digital art pad. The top portion of his long hair was pulled back with a clip while the rest flowed down his back.

💤🎤-He wore deep emerald slacks with a half buttoned-up white shirt. He had a suit jacket to match his slacks but it was tossed over the leather chair he was sitting in.

💤🎤-He looked up and smiled at your entrance.

💤🎤-“Hi, Y/N! I am glad you found your way here just fine.” He grinned, setting aside his pad and pen.

💤🎤-“The lady at the front desk told me where to go.” You said, shuffling around stacks of papers on the floor.

💤🎤-“I’m sorry about the mess. I tried to clean some of it up before you got here but it seems to be a two-man job. Since our last assistant was more focused on Shota’s ass than doing her job my office got a little out of hand.” Zashi sheepishly explained, twirling his thumbs.

💤🎤-His lion still wanted to claw the tall red-head apart. Never trust a tiger shifter.

💤🎤-“It’s okay. You are paying me to work right.” You smiled, loving his shy expression.

💤🎤-“Before you got started on my office lets get something from the break room. We have one to ourselves up here so don’t worry about being shy when taking the donuts.” He chuckled, leading you out of his office and down the hall into the break room.

💤🎤-“Shota should be answering his emails right about now. I’ll show you how he likes his coffee so you can take it to him. You can never add enough sugar packets for him. The more the better.” He smirked, leading you to the expensive coffee machine.

***

💤🎤-The week had gone by before you knew it. Shota and Zashi were on their way to pick you up and take you to their cabin. You had asked them if they lived there since it was so far out of town but they said they had a house in town and just used the cabin when they wanted to shift and get away from the hustle and bustle.

💤🎤-You were only staying for the weekend so you packed light. You were standing on the sidewalk outside your apartment complex with your overnight bag slung over your shoulder.

💤🎤-You didn’t have to wait long before a familiar black car pulled up. You climbed in with a happy grin. You were excited to hang out with them again. They were your only form of friendship in this town.

💤🎤-You had gone out to cafes and even checked out the library but no one seemed interested in befriending you. You knew it probably wasn’t the best idea to hang out with your bosses but they didn’t seem to think anything was wrong with it so you didn’t either.

💤🎤-They were just showing you a bit of guidance when it came to being a shifter so you didn’t see the harm.

💤🎤-“Hey, guys! How’s it going?” You chirped, settling into the back seat and putting your bag on the floor.

💤🎤-You noticed Zashi had a pair of yellow sunglasses on, they really brought out his golden eyes and blonde hair. He looked at you in the rearview mirror, his smile just as dazzling.

💤🎤-“Hey, Y/N! Glad you are joining us today. Are you ready to find out what type of shifter I am?” He teased, putting the car in drive.

💤🎤-“I am surprised you weren’t insulted when she asked if you were a sand cat.” Shota cracked a grin, shooting you a look in the rearview mirror.

💤🎤-Shota hadn’t gone against his mate’s wishes and told you what type of shifter he was but he made sure to give you guesses to ask him that he knew would tick off his blond mate.

💤🎤-It was payback for the tooth-achingly sweet coffee you kept on giving him. You always had such a bright smile when you handed it over so he couldn’t quite tell you he found the sugary beverage repulsive.

💤🎤-He grinned and bared it. Every sip he took making him internally wince.

💤🎤-“I take it as a compliment. Those things are adorable.” He boasted, sticking his tongue out at his mate.

💤🎤-“We were gonna stop by the store before we headed to the cabin,” Shota informed, turning in his seat.

💤🎤-“Yeah, someone forgot to pick up coffee last time we went.” Zashi teased, playfully nudging his mate.

💤🎤-“Whatever.” Shota scoffed.

💤🎤-“Sounds good to me. I can pick up a few snacks while we are there.” You hummed, looking out the window and watching the building pass by.

***

💤🎤-You went off to the snack aisle while Shota and Zashi went to go get the coffee. You were eyeing the vast array of chips when someone stepped beside you. You looked over nearly gasped at the hulking man.

💤🎤-He had to be at least 6′4. If his height wasn’t intimidating enough he had muscles stacked on muscles. He looked like he could crush you with his hand, his grey hair and fanged teeth made him look even more intimidating.

💤🎤-He gaze was still focus on the chips in front of you but it was clear he was talking to you.

💤🎤-“I didn’t know we had any bobcat shifters in town.” His voice was deep.

💤🎤-You instantly stood straighter. “I just moved here so you wouldn’t have seen me around before.”

💤🎤-“Welcome to town, it’s always nice to have more feline shifters in town. The bears and wolfs take up most of the population here.” He growled, his eyes narrowing.

💤🎤-“Oh, well I am glad to be here. Everyone has been more than welcoming.” You gave him a fake smile, wishing he would pick his chips already and leave.

💤🎤-“Glad to hear. Us feline shifters have to stick together.” He advised, finally taking a bag off the shelf.

💤🎤-“Hey Y/N! Shota wanted to know if you wanted shrimp Alfredo for dinner or spaghetti?” He walked towards you, not fully noticing who was next to you until he was close enough to smell him.

💤🎤-Cougar.

💤🎤-Zashi hid his distaste for the man standing beside you. His lion snarling at the slimy feline next to you.

💤🎤-“Oh spaghetti sounds nice but whatever you want is fine.” You answered, plucking a bag of salt and vinegar chips off the shelf before turning back to the ashy-haired man.

💤🎤-“It was nice talking to you. See you around.” You polity said, beginning to walk off with Zashi.

💤🎤-“See you around.” He sent you a sly grin.

💤🎤-You walked down a few isles before noticing Zashi’s tense shoulders.

💤🎤-“Everything okay?” You questioned, lifting a brow.

💤🎤-“Yeah, I just remembered I needed to send an email before I left the office today but I forgot. It can wait till Monday though.” He recalled, scratching his head.

💤🎤-You could tell it was something else but you didn’t press him on it. You hoped whatever was bothering him would go away though. You didn’t like the tight look on his face.

💤🎤-Zashi was glad Shota had sent him to find you and not the other way around.

💤🎤-“Oh, that’s good. So what do you want for dinner?” You changed the subject hoping to put him at ease.

💤🎤-“I am a sucker for spaghetti and meatballs so looks like we are having that. Shota just wanted to ask you in case you didn’t like it. He knows if it was up to me we would eat it all the time.” He responded, losing some of the tightness in between his brows.

💤🎤-You chuckled, walking with him to find Shota.

💤🎤-You hoped this weekend went okay.

***

💤🎤-You had gotten to the cabin and helped unload all the groceries before going outside and getting ready to shift. You had your back turned while Zashi and Shota got undressed.

💤🎤-“You ready to finally see what type of shifter I am?” Zashi called, pulling his shirt over his head.

💤🎤-“I am betting on cheetah shifter.” You theorized, thinking of how fast he can talk.

💤🎤-He chuckled before shifting into his big cat. The first thing his lion did was stretch and yawn. Once he got that out of the way he padded over to you. He brushed his head against your open hand.

💤🎤-You were quick to turn around and gasp. He was a lion!

💤🎤-“Wow! I should have guess you were a lion considering your long hair! Your mane is so pretty. Can I touch it?” You asked, looking the lions golden eyes.

💤🎤-He nodded his big head, giving you permission.

💤🎤-Your fingers threaded through his thick fur. It was coarser than you imagined but it was still pleasant to touch. You petted him for a minute before he walked off and nuzzled against Shota.

💤🎤-They looked so cute together. Like night and day. You wished you had some to be with. You pushed your lonely thoughts aside. You made sure they had their backs turned before quickly taking off your clothes and shifting.

💤🎤-Your bobcat was all too eager to dash towards the big felines and nuzzle against them with a purr. It wasn’t really appropriate if you were a regular bobcat but since your bobcat was still young they allowed it.

💤🎤-You only really nuzzled or rubbed your scent on family or close friends. While you fit the friends part it was much too soon. Zashi had no problem with it and went straight to lightly nipping and batting at you.

💤🎤-He hadn’t played with a cub-sized feline since he left the pride. He forgot to hold in his strength since his big paw dwarfed you and sent you tumbling a few feet away.

💤🎤-He dashed towards you, letting out concerned moans.

💤🎤-Shota was a bit concerned but didn’t think the tumble did you much damage. His mate was just a worrywart. He thought of the future pups they might have and how he would turn into a major mother hen with them.

💤🎤-His panther purred at the thought.

💤🎤-For now he watched you hop onto your feet and pounce on his mate. You wrapped around Zashi’s neck like a scarf before falling down on your back. You happy chirps made his panther rumble.

💤🎤-The panther turned and headed off into the forest.

💤🎤-Your bobcat had immediately noticed his departure and bounded towards him. The lion was quick to catch up, playfully nipping and rubbing up against his mate.

💤🎤-Soon you were in a large clearing. The sun was still up in the sky but everything had started to take on a yellow color.

💤🎤-Shota had nudged you with his bulky shoulder and led you to the trees on the outskirts. He gave you a look that said he wanted you to watch him while he climbed and jumped down.

💤🎤-You watched him for a few minutes observing him scale the tree before leaping down it. You tried to replicate what you saw and you seemed to get the hang of it after a few times of crashing face-first into the dirt.

💤🎤-After you were sure you had gotten it down you nuzzled up against the dark feline and gave him a gentle purr. Then you shot off and went to play with Zashi, who was stalking a butterfly.

💤🎤-Now that Shota got his teaching out of the way he laid down in the middle of the clearing and started cleaning himself before laying back and taking a nap. His panther was a lazy one, he liked soaking up the rays while drifting off to dreamland.

💤🎤-Once you guys got all your energy out you and Zashi strolled over to the sleeping panther. Zashi leaned down and gave Shota a big long lick right over his face.

💤🎤-Shota didn’t even opened his eyes and just lazily swatted at his mate. Zashi plopped down behind him and started grooming him even more. You felt like you were intruding so you curled up in a ball not too far away and dozed off as well.

💤🎤-Your chest was light and fluffy. You hoped every weekend would be this peaceful.

💤🎤-You didn’t realize that the next morning would be the last time you shifted for a while.

I had so much fun writing the dynamic between Sho and Zashi. They are a trip. Don’t worry the reader will get added into the mix soon enough. What do you think is going on with the cougars? Why do you think the reader won’t be able to shift for a while?

This chapter was a little longer than I normally write so I hope you guys enjoy! Please reblog my work if you enjoyed it. It really helps me stay motivated to write more for yall.

Don’t forget to leave a note too! 🖤💛

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currywaifu · 4 years

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𝐭𝐢𝐭𝐥𝐞: barbie movies as troupe plays part 1 𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠: sfw

𝐚𝐧: if you think i won’t do all 36 barbie movies, you’re wrong. regardless of whether people want this or not. i have barbie brainrot 24/7. i’m just separating it into parts so it’s not too long *this isn’t meant to be that serious y’all my reasons vary from legit to just jokes

𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐥: i won’t go in-depth with any plot differences from movie to play, or how the characters would work out... for now *chuckles in future ppt*

𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝟏: nutcracker, rapunzel, swan lake, princess and the pauper, fairytopia series, magic of pegasus, barbie diaries, island princess, three musketeers 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝟐: coming soon 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝟑: coming soon

𝐭𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐩𝐞: mixed troupe! spring x autumn. one of the seasonal events/scouts for A3! has a nutcracker theme, and to avoid spoilers that’s all i will say :3

𝐩𝐨𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐜𝐚𝐬𝐭: since this is based on barbie’s take on the nutcracker, changing up the cast from what tsuzuru had in plan:

clara/sugarplum fairy: sakuya. i want to see him go through a costume & hair transformation sequence, not gonna lie.

nutcracker/prince eric: juza. obviously he has to be the ruler of the land of sweets.

mouse king: sakyo or chikage. i want one of them to wave around a sceptre and say quotes like “i’ll reduce the Nutcracker to a pile of splinters"

pimm: taichi... pimm is a spy :O who has to do dirty work :O but the real reason is i just want taichi to follow around sakyo again or maybe even chikage this time lol

major mint & captain candy: tsuzuru and citron respectively. mint is pretty serious and awkward, candy is a lot friendlier- i just think it’ll be a good way to insert some humor in the play

𝐭𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐩𝐞: mixed troupe! summer x autumn.

𝐩𝐨𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐜𝐚𝐬𝐭: rapunzel in this one actually is the “servant” of gothel. also, rapunzel has a magical paint brush and also there’s dragons. who are purple.

rapunzel: kazunari. obviously. actually, kazu has a lot of similarities with her: a good artist, patient, adventurous, quick thinking, hardly ever complains- also he’d look good with long hair i think ><

gothel: omi. there is an action fighto scene + also just the theme of omi playing villains lol... also THERE’S A SCENE WHERE GOTHEL PRETENDS TO BE RAPUNZEL BY WEARING A LONG WIG AND BOI- KAZU AND OMI’S BODY BUILDS ARE SO DIFFERENT BUT IT’D BE FUNNY IF THE PRINCE FALLS FOR THE TRAP ANYWAY

penelope: kumon. a PURPLE funny and clumsy dragon- fight me, the only answer is kumon especially once you see who’s next.

hugo: juza. a PURPLE dragon who’s penelope’s dad but he’s gonna be the older bro in this one (i wonder why...)

hobie: a passive and worrisome rabbit... Tenma.

prince stefan: he also has a couple fight scenes... ngl bc stefan has blue eyes, light brown hair + described by the wiki as “fierce”, he’s banri.

𝐭𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐩𝐞: winter troupe. i will stand by this forever.

𝐩𝐨𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐜𝐚𝐬𝐭: this is like one of the ones i’ve had figured out for a while already...

odette & odile: tsumugi. i’m just saying, tsumugi’s duality- he can do both the white and black swan because he has power. impact.

prince daniel: not tasuku bc spare him the prince roles he’s sick of it. guy. why guy? because he obviously has a good idea of how to act like a prince :3

rothbart: HOMARE! I WANT! THIS MAN! TO PLAY THE ANTOGONIST! GO OFF ABOUT DARK ARTS! TRANSFORM EVERYONE TO ANIMALS LIKE THE EXTRA BEING YOU ARE.

fairy queen: azuma. ugh just- imagining how ethereal he’d look.

erasmus: tasuku. he’s a troll that can act mean, but is genuinely kind and helpful... also, the VA of erasumus is also the VA for “unnamed burly villager” and i’m just saying-

kelly the cygnet: hisoka. there’s too many animal children, so hisoka is gonna be the baby swan. uwu. also, kelly has a quote, “I can't sleep.” and wOW THE IRONY

𝐭𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐩𝐞: WE’RE GOING FOR THE COMEDIC ROUTE WHAT’S UP SUMMER. reason: i went “wait... no actor really looks super alike though.”

𝐩𝐨𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐜𝐚𝐬𝐭: tafahfuoahoaf it’s my favourite barbie movie... OKAY SO THE RUNNING GAG OF THIS IS THAT THE PRINCESS & PAUPER DON’T LOOK ALIKE, BUT EVERYONE KEEPS GOING “Wow! you two look so identical!” no they don’t

anneliese: muku. first of all please look at the sprite i used in the header. anneliese = pink = muku. she’s the sweet princess archetype... but in this version she also goes on tangents about rocks and mineraLS AND HOW THE MINING INDUSTRY SUX AND THE ABSOLUTE AUDACITY OF-

erika: kumon. first of all, the sprite in the header again. erika = blue like ugh this is perfect. ALSO erika has a cat who BARKS and i just imagine kumon talking to her cat like: WOOF WOOF WOOF GRRR GRRR and the dog responding and everyone in the palace going wtf

king dominick: i had such a crush on him anyway he’s tenma. rich, young, talented king who disguises himself as a page so he can find love for realsies. im just saying. he won’t be tenma’s only role tho ><

julian: kazunari. the wiki went “he’s the only bestfriend a barbie MC ever married” really shook me like ugh friendship dynamic between muku and kazu roles??? also kazu’s genuinely smart so him as the tutor was just gucci in my eyes

preminger: misumi. FIRST OF ALL PREMINGER IS ICONIC? WHEN HE SANG HOW CAN I REFUSE I WAS LIKE UGH KING. i just wanna hear misumi play an antagonist that’s also funny and do things with his voice.

madame carp: yuki. a bossy and rich woman who owns a dress emporium. pretty much it.

nick & nack: YUKI AND TENMA. THEY WILL DOUBLE ROLE FOR THE SAKE OF BEING MISUMI’S DUMB UNDERLING DUO

𝐭𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐩𝐞: spring troupe. i wanna see them have wings uwu.

𝐩𝐨𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐜𝐚𝐬𝐭: just gonna combine the whole fairytopia series into one

elina: itaru. first of all, pink motif. also i just like the idea of itaru being this recurring protagonist.

bibble the puffball played by kamekichi

laverna: recurring villain citron. for no reason other than i think it’s cool when he plays power hungry villains

enchantress: i just want sakuya to play a role that’s more of a “powerful character” but still really kind uwu. another recurring good guy.

azura & glee: tsuzuru. elina is azura’s apprentice, and glee is a friend who’s generally really happy... ngl, i wanna see tsuzuru play someone more energetic for funsies

nori: masumi. nori is kind of a stubborn and jealous person at first, him and elina won’t get along right away BUT DAMMIT THE ENEMIES? TO FRIENDS IS GUCCI!!!

merman prince nalu & linden: chikage... yeah i just gave chikage the guy roles ngl... but i wanna see chikage as a handsome merman AND handsome fairy so *shrugs*

𝐭𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐩𝐞: cross troupe. spring x winter.

𝐩𝐨𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐜𝐚𝐬𝐭: partially based on the ice-skating cards (i have yet to read the event story, unfortunately).

annika: tsuzuru. i thought it’d be fun to cast tsuzuru as a more sheltered character due to annika’s parents’ protectiveness. the contrast y’all.

shiver: sakuya. shiver is a polar bear cub sidekick who’s friendly and likes shiny things and that’s just... really cute... put bear ears on sakuya...

brietta: guy. brietta is annika’s older sister... who got transformed into a pegasus by the villain... i wonder how they’d change the pegasus thing lol

wenlock: tasuku. NOT GONNA LIE- i want tasuku to play the villain for all these wonderful one-liners: "Oh, smile! You didn't lose a daughter; you've gained a pet!", and "I thank my lucky stars I didn't marry you!"

prince aidan: masumi bc i want more roomie interaction on stage i mean their friendship keeps getting cuter and cuter.

cloud queen: azuma... that’s all. i just remembered her bc her hair has a braided crown, and i went “azuma braided hair brainrot”

𝐭𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐩𝐞: mixed troupe! summer x autumn.

𝐩𝐨𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐜𝐚𝐬𝐭: i was gonna make it full autumn, but then the age casting felt awkward since they’re in high school...

barbie: taichi. barbie here is shy but wants to stop blending in the background! i just went “damn that do be resonating”. also i wanna hear taichi sing more y’all and barbie is a singer/guitarist here

courtney: azami. i like the idea of azami playing a spunky character who’s more of a tomboy, but still does like fashion and accessorising and... lip gloss?

tia: misumi? tenma? idk the intelligent and passionate archetype is very broad... especially in a high school setting

kevin: kazunari. just the whole best friend thing + kevin being a goofy person who loves to make ppl laugh ugh

racquelle: yuki. i know racquelle’s a bully here and say not to bullying... but sharp tongue.

todd: honestly? todd was so boring in the moving. we need someone like banri to give him CHARACTER!... yes that’s my reasoning ugh

𝐭𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐩𝐞: sUMMER SUMMER SUMMER-

𝐩𝐨𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐜𝐚𝐬𝐭: AHAHAHA WHAT IS THIS CASTING? MY REASONINGS FOR THIS ONE IN PARTICULAR ARE SO SHALLOW LMAO

ro/rosella: “a 16 year old girl who can talk to animals! adventurous and brave” me: *gasps* mISUMI-

prince antonio: “prince antonio loves travelling and exploring-” okay yeah it’s kazu...

queen ariana: i just want yuki to sing to me “love is for peasants which we’re obviously not” and i’d go :O also ngl... i wanna see yuki in like darker palettes and plotting to poison all the royals

princess luciana: queen ariana’s daughter... played by muku. because i wanna hear muku counter yuki with “all the shoujo mangas books i’ve read, all the poems always said, that the heart is made to share...”

sagi the red panda & azul the peacock: honestly, just basing it off of colour matching but tenma is sagi and kumon is azul lol

𝐭𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐩𝐞: AUTUMN x SPRING

𝐩𝐨𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐜𝐚𝐬𝐭: AHAHAHA WHAT IS THIS CASTING? pt 2

corrine: i keep wanting to put sakuya in these roles oops. i just... let him sword fight on stage again :>

viveca: purple musketeer, artistic, designs clothes... fights with ribbons... you know, for the sake of banri being a fAshIoNisTa... it has to be banri y’all "Don't mess with the animal print dress!"

aramina: green musketeer, fights with fans, romantic and loves ballet... pfft, for the sake of “wouldn’t it be funny-” it has to be azami. poor bby, having to swoon over romance on stage- he can’t relate

renee: chikage. purely because of that scene where she threw a feather duster (?) at a flying shard of glass and perfectly hit it. yeah.

helene: the old and strict instructor that teaches them how to be musketeers... sakyo.. duh.

philippe: the main antagonist... it has to be omi again. and since philippe has a goatee, we’re bringing back facial hair omi~

prince louis: itaru, lol. he’s like the one significant non-action oriented character in the film. he has just enough moments where itaru still looks princely, but mostly? he just wants humans to fly y’all.

want to order again?

#a3!#a3! act! addict! actors!#a3! act addict actors #a3! headcanons #cafe: dessert menu #serving: barbeQUEUE #nathya stans barbie ✌️💖#a3! game

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bigskydreaming · 4 years

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One of the biggest problems with refusing to give much acknowledgment to young Dick Grayson as having been very traumatized rather than just ‘cheered up within a couple of months after coming to the Manor, all on his own, cuz Dick’s just like that, now on with the cute Bruce and young Dick Feels with the occasional light angst of a nightmare’.....

Is fandom is really missing out on a ton of opportunities to actually explore the idea of Good Dad Bruce Wayne that so many people try to instead superimpose on his shittier moments.

Because yeah, there’s a lot of cute headcanons and fics out there about how adorable Dick was as a kid and he and Bruce being so close and Bruce being like the ideal parent and guardian to Dick.....

But like....its easy to be or at least come across as an ideal parent and guardian....when your kid is this happy, plucky, cart-wheeling spirited boy always running around full of light and laughter.

And that’s not who Dick was, when he first came to the Manor!

He was a traumatized eight to ten year old, who’d had his whole world ripped away and replaced entirely with an unfamiliar one he didn’t want.

So many people cite the line about how he didn’t want Bruce to replace his dad and that’s why Bruce waited so long to adopt him....but follow that thread back to its source.

You think grieving, has-every-reason-in-the-world-not-to-trust-strange-adults, tiny little spitfire Dick Grayson was graceful about accepting Bruce’s attempts at comfort at first, when all he wanted was his parents back, when he likely didn’t want hugs from this weird rich guy he didn’t understand, because all he wanted were hugs from his mom and dad?

Everyone’s so quick to point out adult Dick Grayson’s poor coping mechanisms and repression and tendencies to self-isolate and attempt to deal with his various traumas in less than ideal ways.....

You think those behaviors all just popped into existence for the first time on his eighteenth birthday? That he didn’t do similar things with his very early traumas, because those tendencies had already formed or were in the process of forming because of those very traumas?

My point is...

Dick Grayson was not an easy child when he first came to the Manor.

He couldn’t have been. No one could, in his shoes, and anyone who appeared otherwise would just be faking.

And hey, doesn’t that sound an awful lot like Dick Grayson behavior too?

So, the pun-slinging, mischievous, fun-loving sprite that Dick Grayson was as Robin and in his and Bruce’s most heart warming canon stories....

Was either a total cover-up job plastered over all of Dick’s trauma from the very start, meaning none of it ever got addressed or was something he ever moved past to any degree....

Or else, that happy, laughing young Dick Grayson was who he BECAME. After an actual hard, angsty, angry, occasionally self-isolating, irrational and otherwise Dick Grayson-esque road to recovery.

BECAUSE OF BRUCE.

THAT’S what this fandom is missing more than anything, if you ask me. Actual looks at the HARD early times with Dick and Bruce, where this young, inexperienced, totally in over his head Bruce Wayne who’s fast realizing he doesn’t have as much insight into this grieving child as he naively first assumed...

FIGURES IT OUT.

Day by day.

BY DOING THE WORK.

By being there for this kid through all the ups and downs. By refusing to be pushed away and shut out no matter how many times and how many ways Dick tried. By passing every test put before him by the untrusting kid betrayed by the system nominally there to protect him, who needed PROOF that there were still good people out there, still good adults, and that Bruce was one of them, that Dick could trust him, count on him, HE WASN’T GOING TO LEAVE HIM, no matter if Dick tried giving him reason to because he figured it was going to happen anyway and he wanted to get it over with.

Nothing frustrates me more - and you all know a lot frustrates me, lmao - than this implicit INSISTENCE so many people have that a young, traumatized orphan was the magic nightlight that came into Bruce’s life and transformed its drab darkness into a Disney scene as he smiled again for the first time since his parents died, at the sound of laughter....from this...young...traumatized...freshly orphaned and mistreated kid.

I’m sorry.

What?

Like, this is what it all traces back to. This is where the idea that Dick is never traumatized himself, or at least never enough so that it prevents him from doing what he’s really there to do, which is brighten everyone else’s life....

BECAUSE SO MANY PEOPLE ACT LIKE HE SOMEHOW MANAGED TO DO THAT FOR BRUCE, EVEN IN THE RELATIVE IMMEDIATE AFTERMATH OF HIS FAR MORE RECENT TRAUMA.

NO.

That is not how that worked, lmao!

That was never going to be an option for how that worked!

When you think that a recently traumatized orphan is the magic cure-all for the FIFTEEN YEARS PAST trauma of a grown adult....

SOMETHING IS NOT CLICKING THERE.

So much of fandom has it completely backwards, I maintain, and so much of what we complain about and criticize about Dick’s writing in both canon and fanon is all just ripple effects emanating out from that.

Because Dick did not brighten Bruce’s life by just being his bubbly, cheerful, adorable sunshine-y self.

Dick brightened Bruce’s life by giving Bruce a reason to CARE about having brightness in it as much as he was surrounded by darkness.

Because Bruce had spent the last fifteen years neglecting to prioritize including any brightness in his own life, for his own sake, because as far as he and his immutable survivor’s guilt were concerned, he didn’t need it, perhaps didn’t deserve it.

BUT HE REFUSED TO LET THAT BE TRUE FOR THIS KID TOO.

He may not have been willing to fight to keep his own life and outlook bright and cheery all these years, but this kid who’d endured so much tragedy in so short a time, was so lost, was so quickly fading away into scraps of nothing compared to the bright, vibrant, larger than life figure Bruce had only briefly caught a glimpse of that night at the circus BEFORE tragedy struck and the world started piling on the darkness and trying to douse that kid’s light....

Bruce was going to fight like hell to keep that from happening, to keep that child he’d only seen for the briefest of times from turning cold and aloof and bitter.

Because maybe the problem had always been that when it came to himself, he didn’t remember what it had been like before his parents died, what he’d been like. He couldn’t see, couldn’t imagine, what he was supposed to look like when he was happy, what that even was...couldn’t picture it to even have a goal that the always goal-oriented Bruce Wayne could strive towards.

But a happy, bright, beaming Dick Grayson.....

Bruce knew what that looked like. He’d seen it once, the night they first met. HE KNEW WHAT WAS POSSIBLE FOR DICK, what he could be, because he knew and remembered seeing Dick be that before...and there was a clear picture for that, a goal, something that could be aimed for, something to keep aiming for even when it seemed impossible to reach at times.

But it wasn’t impossible. Not for Dick. No matter how hard it got at times, no matter how much Dick pushed him away or tried to drown himself in darkness and shut off all feelings, armor up all his vulnerable parts where the world might sneak in and hurt him.....Bruce wasn’t going to quit because that happier Dick Grayson was out there, was still a possibility. He’d seen it, captured it in his mind, held it up in his memories as proof of purpose whenever he started to doubt himself, or Dick’s ability to recover, or his ability to be the one to help Dick recover...

But if not him, who else was going to do whatever it took to be whatever Dick needed? As far as Bruce could tell, especially in takes where the system already had its shot at doing right by Dick and demonstrated an appalling lack of giving a fuck before Bruce stepped into the ring.....nobody else but Bruce seemed to remember that happier, brighter Dick Grayson. Nobody else seemed as invested in preserving THAT version of him, keeping it alive, fanning the last dying sparks of that bright spirit as long as it took to reignite back into a blazing bonfire that would become a beacon of brightness for Bruce himself, and a whole city and at times even a whole world.

So when you can’t trust anyone else to do a job right, you do it yourself. That’s ALWAYS been Bruce’s philosophy. Hell, its the whole nature of his control freak tendencies.

So that’s what Bruce did. And nobody does stubborn like him, not even Dick Grayson, and eventually, even the angry, bitter, untrusting and totally traumatized version of himself Dick had every possibility of turning into, instead gave way to Bruce’s far more determined refusal to let that happen, and Dick was like, well fuck it, guess I’ll be happy again if you’re gonna be like that about it.

I mean, lol, not really, but you get my point.

Dick didn’t save Bruce.

BRUCE SAVED DICK.

And not by just opening up his home to him. Not by just being someone who nominally, casually, as though that’s all there was to it was just ‘there for him while Dick grieved and recovered’ like it was as simple as that.

There was nothing simple about it. There couldn’t have been. Because there’s nothing simple about that much grief, that much trauma, that much upheaval, that many reasons to give up on the world and refuse to let anyone in or ever really trust anyone again.

Y’know. Like happened for Bruce, over a course of fifteen years, because this stuff is a JOURNEY not an anecdote like ‘well that happened but then they got over it and became superheroes, the end.’

No. Putting a roof over his head and food on his plate and even giving him a mask and a cape, those were just actions. Those were just pieces. Those were just thumbnails of the big picture.

None of those saved Dick. Made him the man, the hero he became.

BRUCE DID THE WORK.

Its that simple, and its also that complex. It was a process. It was a journey. It was a long hard road full of pitfalls and self doubt and second guessing and frustration. It was a million reasons to give up or turn back and only one reason to keep going, but one reason was all he needed. To save this one child. Not just by catching a bad guy or punching a Rogue. But to save him FULLY. His spirit as much as his body.

There’s a saying that goes something like “save one child, you save them all.”

Because the thing is, no matter how much Bruce might want to at times, he couldn’t do that for every single orphan out there. BE THERE, to the extent needed to actually bring Dick back from where his traumas had taken him.

But that didn’t mean he couldn’t do that for this one, for whatever reason Bruce latched on to him as the one he just couldn’t shake, couldn’t stand to see this way, HAD to do something, anything, everything to stop that. Maybe because Dick did remind him so much of himself in that one crucial moment. Maybe because he felt guilty for not doing more sooner, when he found out what CPS had actually done instead of helping him. Maybe for reasons Bruce himself could never explain, so he just grabbed at any explanation he could think of for why he felt such a bone-deep certainty that this kid, this one specifically, needed him in specific.

Doesn’t matter. But what matters is you can’t save every traumatized child, but you save one kid, you save them all.

Because every single child matters as much as all children, to the right pair of eyes.

And you save one child by proving to them they’re worth saving, proving you want to save them, make them believe it....

That child grows up caring about proving to other children they’re worth saving, proving they want to save them, make them believe it. And on and on it goes.

You raise heroes by being their heroes. You save their world by being their world.

And being a hero, saving the world, that’s HARD FUCKING WORK.

You work and you work and you work at it.

And then you work some more.

And through all the times you feel like giving up, you willfully just refuse to and you KEEP. DOING. THE. WORK.

And if you do it long enough, do it well enough, do it so thoroughly and consistently and fully that in time you forget that its work at all, that its not just a fundamental part of you, a basic fact of your being, a reason you exist and breathe and get up in the morning....

Maybe eventually, hopefully, there comes a morning where you look up and realize somewhere along the way, that kid you saved has become a hero. Maybe he’s saving the world now himself.

And then you get back to work.

THAT. Is how you get Good Dad Bruce Wayne.

And I’m here for all the Good Dad Bruce being that, proving all that to Jason, saving him that way. And the same with Tim, and Cass, and Damian, and Steph, and Duke and Harper and Cullen and Colin and whoever you want to throw in the mix.

Its just.

That has to start with Dick.

It just has to.

Because a happy, cheerful, pun-loving, wise-cracking Robin like Dick Grayson was even after all the tragedy he’d endured so early in his life....

As well as THROUGH all the tragedy he endured as Robin...

That doesn’t just HAPPEN.

Kids aren’t just LIKE that.

You don’t get to expect them to just BE like that, all on their own. To just bounce back to their factory settings after enough time filling their grief quota.

Even a kid like Dick, hell, especially a kid like Dick, needs HELP to get to that point after where they’ve been, what they’ve been through. Needs a REASON to get to that point, a reason to try, to care, to get back up and fly again. Needs guidance, a road map. A guiding light through the darkness, a lighthouse that pierces through the fog.

You don’t get to expect them to just make it there on their own if they just spend enough time stumbling around in the dark, getting even more banged up as they trip and fall and crash into things with no idea what to look out for or a clue they might be headed down an even more dangerous path.

Saving people is hard work. There are no shortcuts. And it never stops.

Bruce Wayne knew that when Dick was younger. He proved it, time and time again.

Dick Grayson the hero IS the proof of that.

You only actually get Bad Dad Bruce Wayne...when he forgets to do the work. Stops doing it, stops trying. Maybe thinks he doesn’t have to do the work anymore, or at least not do as much of it. Thinks maybe he’s done now, its all up to Dick now.

No. Taking a kid in, raising them, making yourself their world until they feel safe and comfortable enough to look beyond you to see what else is out there again....that’s a job you don’t ever get to stop doing, once you willingly start. There is no clocking out. You don’t go home at the end of the day and not expect to see them there, because its their home too and if they feel otherwise or aren’t sure of that, that just means you have more work to do.

So you want to nip Bad Dad Bruce Wayne in the bud?

And not just in terms of Dick, but all or any of his children?

You still have to START with Dick and KEEP BRUCE DOING THE WORK with Dick. Putting in the time, the effort, the care, not taking him for granted, and never letting there reach a point where Bruce thinks Dick’s old enough that Bruce doesn’t need to do that anymore.

Because a Bruce that stops doing the work with Dick is a Bruce that’s going to stop doing the work with all his other kids in due time as well.

Especially since the more you treat Dick Grayson’s early years with Bruce like they were all carefree and trauma proof, just laughter and puns and Saturday morning cartoons....

The more it begs the question....

If Bruce can’t even make it work with a kid that ‘makes it that easy’....how the FUCK do you think he can make it work with all the kids you guys all so much more easily regard as more traumatized, more difficult, harder to reach or get through to?

Like....the more you accept Bruce had to do actual WORK to help Dick heal, the more Jason and all the others benefit by extension....because it makes Bruce that much more intuitive by the time he gets to them, that much more aware of his own actions and choices and impact.

This fandom wants more Good Dad Bruce Wayne content so bad, well guess what, I actually do too.

But if you want Bruce to never forget to keep doing the work, to keep caring, to keep making an effort and making a point to BE there for his kids...

Then as content creators....it doesn’t work if you forget to make Bruce do that work, make those efforts.

And not just for some of his kids, but ALL of them.

Because if you can justify him not needing to do the work with one of them, you’re only kidding yourself if you think your version of his character could never justify giving up on doing the work for any of the others too.

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askkrenko · 4 years

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Krenko’s Guide to Pokemon: Pichu Line

Ah, the main character. Let’s bitch about it! DESIGN: Pikachu is scientifically proven to be the perfect design. Simple but expressive, cute but cool, round and jagged, Pikachu is the the mascot for Pokemon because they knew they’d struck gold when they designed him. He’s some sort of rodent, but also some sort of lightning bolt, and there’s nothing out there that’s really like Pikachu. Sure, there’s other adorable mascots, but Pikachu is its own thing.

Raichu, then, is... good. Raichu is still cute. Raichu is still badass. Raichu has a soft but tough design that a lot of pokemon try for and only a few really perfect. However, Raichu is incomplete. It’s starting to become more but still feels so... small. And there’s a reason for this: It’s a middle form. The final evolution, Gorochu, got cut from Pokemon Red and Blue for space, and for reasons I will complain about shortly, never returned. While we don’t have full imagery for Gorochu, we know its back sprite, and vague descriptions of it, and it would’ve been the normal final form ‘angry badass’ style... Though fan interpretations still tend to make it rather cute. This isn’t really the place to talk about what could have been, but take a look HERE for a great interpretation of Gorochu. My point is just that Raichu wasn’t designed as a final form and you can kind of tell by looking at it.

Pichu... is a waste of time. Look, I get it, Pikachu’s cute, and breeding is showing up in the next game, so time to make babby Pikachu, but let’s be honest: Pichu’s not actually cuter than Pikachu, it’s just “less cool Pikachu.” It doesn’t look softer, it doesn’t look more huggable, and it sucks in Smash Brothers. Also, the idea of a ‘baby pikachu’ is sort of silly when Pikachu’s already one of the smallest, weakest Pokemon there is. And I don’t say this to disparage it, but it’s a very early game pokemon that you find in the wild as low as level 3 or that you get as a starter. There’s no need for ‘pikachu but small.’ Pikachu’s already small. Pichu shifts the potential line from “Pikachu, Raichu, Gorochu” to “Pichu, Pikachu, Raichu” and while I respect the idea of moves that it can only learn if raised as a Pichu, the only one that mattered when it was introduced was Charm... So it was a really roundabout way to let your Raichu know Charm. At least Nasty Plot was added later. I don’t inherently mind the concept of the Pichu as the first form in the PIkachu line, and if it was well implemented in the games I could really respect it, but Pikachu has always been such and early game pokemon that Pichu feels entirely redundant to me.

And then there’s Alolan Raichu. Alolan Raichu is soft, round, golden brown, and looks like it’s fresh out of the oven. I just want to shove it in my mouth and OMNOMNOM. It’s soft, adorable, and yet because of its rounded edges and unique tail-surfing manuever it looks far more complete than Raichu ever did. Don’t get me wrong, I still love Kantonian Raichu- hell I used to date a Kantonian Raichu- but Alolan Raichu just looks so much more like it’s right in being its own thing. I also love the idea of making a Surfing Raichu after Surfing Pikachu was a thing, and making it Psychic so it can surf on air instead of water is just a stroke of brilliance. I just love this fluffy pancake monster so much. EVOLUTIONS: Pichu can evolve twice, and has two final forms, but I have to say I think its method of doing so is a hot mess. First off, Pichu only evolves into Pikachu via friendship with the trainer, but all baby Pikachu are Pichu, so how are there ANY Pikachu in the wild? At the very least why are there so many more wild Pikachu than Pichu? Friendship evolutions are great, but anything that needs Friendship to evolve should be RARE. And Friendship should really be the last stage of evolution, not the first. Pikachu to Raichu is a Thunder Stone, and sure. I have no problem with Stone Evolution. I do think we’ve got a few too many stones these days, and not enough evolutions for each, though. Thunderstone has been around since Red and Bue, and yet only evolved Pikachu and Eevee until Gen 5, which only added Eelektrik, and now in gen 8 it only gained two more Pokemon. Hell, Fire Stone still only works on four pokemon, three of which are gen 1.... But this is about Pichu, and Pikachu to Raichu with a Thunderstone is fine.

What’s weird to me is that the way to get Alolan Raichu is still with a Thunderstone, but in Alola. I love regional variants, and when they’re a whole line like Rattata, that’s great, but it’s weird to me that Alolan Raichu is only available in Alola, and it seems like an oversight that’s already come to bite them in the ass as both Let’s Go and SwSh have had to include randos who will trade you Alolan Raichu for Kantonian Raichu. You know what would’ve worked better? Everything in its dex entry says the reason it evolves that way is because of too many pancakes. So why not a pancakes item that just happens to be much easier to get in Alola? Sure, it’s another new evolution item, but if every game’s going to have Alolan Raichu anyway, might as well. Or make it something like “Feed your Pikachu 10 Big Malasada.” Of course, Alolan Pichu and Pikachu could’ve been an option, but that seems like going a bit crazy.

The availability to turn your Pikachu into an Electric type OR an Electric/Psychic type is great, but the fact that there’s no actual way to make the choice with a given Pikachu in a given game is a pain in the butt.

There’s also a Gigantimax Pikachu for SwSh players who have Let’s Go Pikachu save files, which is cute, but as it’s still using Pikachu stats, you’re better off with a Raichu.

TYPING: Pure electric type’s actually a solid type to be. Resistant to flying, steel, and electric, only weak to ground, and STAB on electric moves is entirely decent. Sure, ground types ruin your day entirely, but other than that you just have to watch out for grass and dragons resisting... but they’re not super-effective against Raichu so you just need coverage for that.

Alolan Raichu’s typing is more wild. Four weaknesses, five resistances, two types of STAB. It can use Psychic against Ground types and Electricity against Dark types just fine, but it’s not exactly covering its own weaknesses. Still, it’s hardly a problem.

STATS: You know, for all the people who think PIkachu’s so great, people don’t seem to realize that outside of Let’s Go, where it got a major stat inflation, Pikachu is not significantly than the other starter pokemon. In fact, it was weaker until it got a defense buff in gen 6. With a stat total of 320, it’s just an early game pokemon, that even with Gigantimax, Light Ball, and all the other special Pikachu love, you should just evolve it. Yes, technically Light Ball gives it an attack and special attack higher than a Raichu (110 and 100 compared to 90 and 90 or 85 and 95) but the Raichu can more than make up for that with, say, a Life Orb, which brings its damage up over Light Ball Pikachu’s while not bringing it’s defenses down nearly as far as Pikachu’s.

As a catch there, did you notice where I said 110 and 100? Pikachu has higher physical attack than special attack. And Kantonian Raichu’s are equal to each other. You’d look at this thing and think it was a special attacker, but no, Pikachu was built to throw down. Alolan Raichu does have the edge toward special, but not so much that it can’t use a physical attack if it wants to.

Like most electric types, these boys are fast. Pikachu’s speed is a whopping 90, and Raichu’s is 110.

Pichu is a pile of garbage with a stat total of a mere 205, which only compares favorably to Caterpie if you’re really impressed by Pichu going first. The only reason Pichu should exist is for use as a trash mob on first routes, but the only game that’s done that is Sun and Moon and even they made it super rare.

Raichu and Alolan Raichu have an overall stat total of 485, which is on the low end of good for end-game. They do have a lot of ‘redundant’ stat points in that they have both good physical and special attack and really don’t need both, but their attack stats and speed are high enough to compete, even if they’re rather frail.

ABILITIES:

Kantonian Raichu (as well as Pichu and Pikachu) generally knows Static. Static is an entirely useful ability that gives a 30% chance to paraylze the enemy whenever they use an attack on Raichu that make contact. The problem with this ability is that most attacks that make contact are physical and physical defense is Raichu’s poorest stat. It’s not a useless ability by any stretch of the imagination, but it has a 30% chance to work when things are going poorly for Raichu. Its Hidden Ability, Lightning Rod, is far more useful. LIghtning Rod grants full immunity to electric attacks, increases Raichu’s power if struck by an electric attack, and, in double battles, means that enemy electric attacks can only target Raichu (though this doesn’t stop multi-target electric attacks.) In single battles, this ability is mostly used to switch Raichu into an electric attack, steal the stat boost while protecting another pokemon, and then start sweeping with a relatively potent special attacker. Despite Raichu’s equal attack stats, this is one of many reasons it tends to be used as a special attacker. In double battles, it’s even better. Setting a pokemon with Lightning Rod down next to a pokemon weak to electricity covers its weakness perfectly, and many battles have been won by pairing a Lightning Rod pokemon with Gyarados. Lightning Rod takes strategy to use, but any successful use of it can really swing a battle in your favor.

Alolan Raichu has a unique ability called Surge Surfer, which doubles its speed in Electric Terrain. As there are NO pokemon with more than twice Alolan Raichu’s speed, this means in Electric Terrain, Alolan Raichu will always go first if there’s no other effects in play. Now, actually getting Electric Terrain up can be difficult, but Max Lightning sets it up, Raichu can learn the move to create it by TM, and a few other pokemon can set it up just by existing, making it a lot more reliable in double battles. MOVES: By virtue of being the main character, the Pichu line has a LOT of good moves. Pichu learns Nasty Plot, which is the best reason to raise your own from an egg. As with Lightning Rod, Nasty Plot is a reason Raichu wants to use its special attacks more than its physical ones.... Which is a shame because a properly bred Pichu is the only thing that can learn Volt Tackle, a 120 Power, 100 accuracy electric move with recoil damage and a chance to paralyze. So Kantonian Raichu just uses good old Thunderbolt as its electric attack.

Alolan Raichu might want Thunderbolt as well, but if you are building for Electric Terrain, it has another option as well: Electro Ball. Electro Ball’s damage is based on how fast your pokemon is compared to the opponent, and with Surge Surfer it’s not difficult for an Alolan Raichu Electro Ball to have a base power of 120 or even hit its max of 150.

Now that we’ve got our sweep setup (Nasty Plot or Electric Terrain) and our electric attack (Thunderbolt or Electro Ball) it’s time to look at what else these mice can do.

Kantonian Raichu only gets a few non-electric special moves, none of which it learns naturally. Surf and Grass Knot are both potent special attacks against the dreaded Ground-Type Pokemon, enabling Raichu to try sweeping right through them, with Grass Knot generally better against high-powered ground types. Focus Blast is a hell of a drug at 120 power, but 70% accuracy makes it incredibly unreliable. Volt Switch is a decent option for switching out, but once you set up a Nasty Plot sweeper you really don’t want to ever switch out. Maybe take Surf AND Grass Knot so anything immune to Lightning Bolt knows you really mean business.

Alolan Raichu can get all the important special attacks Kantonian Raichu can, but is also a Psychic type. This means it can learn Psychic, but I’d actually suggest learning Psyshock over that. Against the majority of Pokemon, Thunderbolt or Electro Ball will do quite well after you’ve set up, and while Psyshock is slightly weaker than Psychic, it has the benefit of targeting SPecial Defense instead of Physical Defense. This means a Special Wall, like Blissey, won’t stop you cold. This does work a lot better with Nasty Plot than Electric Terrain, of course, as Electric Terrain only boosts electric damage, but of course that’s the trade-off. Either way, still take Surf or Grass Knot. Gotta show those ground types whatfor.

Alolan Raichu has its own unique Z-Move, Stoked Sparksurfer, which is just a better version of Gigavolt Havoc, doing the same damage when used off Thunderbolt and paralyzing the target if it manages to survive. This is particularly powerful, but whether or not Z-Moves return will remain to be seen.

Pikachu also has two of its own unique Z-Moves, Catastropika and 10,000,000 Volt Thunderbolt, but as Z-Crystals and Light Ball both take the item slot, using either of these moves means you’re back down to 55 attack and 50 special attack, and thus wasting everyone’s time even with a 210 power move.

In Double Battles, Raichu gets even more utility. It can learn both Charm and Eerie Impulse, Fake out, Protect, Encore, Nuzzle, and all sorts of other solid moves for messing with an opponent. Interestingly, many of these attacks require it being a Pichu first... or at least they did. I think in SwSh you can just move relearn them even as a Raichu, making Pichu even more useless. Double Battles also let it take advantage of Thunder, which gains perfect accuracy in the rain, if your other pokemon is, say, a Pelipper with Drizzle or another water pokemon that really wants to hide behind Raichu’s Lightning Rod.

OVERALL: I love this stupid little thing and everything about it except for Pichu which is dumb and awful. I own multiple Pikachus and I like to hug them. Alolan Raichu is one of my favorite Pokemon ever. I used a Raichu back in Blue and her name was Amanda and I loved her bunches. Raichu’s an entirely solid pokemon to just have in your lineup, but really shines in double battles as both Lightning Rod and Surge Surfer have more utility there, and Raichu can combine its utility with its ability to just end someone’s life with Thunderbolt.

And in doubles you can even use Volt Tackle because it’s not like you’re going to Nasty Plot a special sweeper out of this marshmallow in 2v2. You’re just gonna keep ruining an opponent’s ability to do stuff until you have an opening to hit with a 120 power electric attack.

#Krenko's Pokemon Guide #Pikachu #Pichu #Raichu #Gorochu

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moonlightreal · 4 years

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Winx Club season 8/24

In which we get to the prize in this cereal box.

24 Dyamond on Ice

At last, at last, at last! I have waited all season! Squeeeeeeee! And if it weren’t for Evergleam finding me a site to watch these on, just because she wanted to do something nice for me and read my episode reactions, I wouldn’t be watching now! Evergleam, you are the greatest!

Ah, I’m so excited!

Ok, I kind of know what’s coming, and from what I‘ve heard it sounds… it sounds dumb. So yes I am vibrating with excitement about something I will likely snark the heck out of once I see it. But that’s the joy of fandom too, isn’t it?

Alfea! Wizgiz and his Scottish voice! Pop quiz nobody was prepared for! Tec and Musa are not prepared. Aisha says it isn’t fair. Stella is more concerned with sneaking carrots from Flora’s snack basket. Oh wait, no those are Stella’s snacks, perspective made it look like they were on Flora’s desk.

The test is, “Animal metamorphosymbiosis. All you have to do is turn into an animal of your choice!” Wizgiz poofs into a mouse, a dachshund and a hippo. Girls are worried, except Stella who’s chowing down on carrots. Is this a healthy eating PSA?

Bloom goes first and successfully poofs into a kitten the same red as her hair. Aisha becomes a butterfly, Tecna a lamb, Musa a songbird and Flora a tiger.

Everyone runs away from the tiger, even though it’s talking with Flora’s voice.

Wizgiz smells a rat. Stella is not what she seems! It’s Kiko! Stella poofed Kiko into a copy of herself so she could stay home and sketch fashion, which is what she’s doing when the girls get back, each carrying a pile of heavy books.

But let’s take a minute to ponder transformations. Those are some random animals the girls picked! Flora’s not the tigery sort and it seems like Aisha should have been an otter. I also wonder if she was showing off; wouldn’t insects be harder than mammals, since you have to transform more? I wonder what was going through the writers’ heads when they chose each girl’s animal, and what was going through the girls’ heads when they chose what animal to do! maybe all it proves is that transformation is actually not effected by your personality even though it seems like it should be!

Anyway, the girls are mad. So is Kiko. I wanna see the scene where Stella bribed him to do it! Hah! Stella isn’t actually sketching fashions, she’s getting caught up on her homework. ‘there’s so much to study!” she’s behind.

Tecna says that as punishment Wizgiz gave them all a lot of homework, so now they’ll have to study even more! Hang on, that’s not fair! The girls didn’t know Stella was cutting class, and Stella did manage a successful transformation after all!

Stella: I wish I was somewhere far away from here!”

The star case appears! “If that is your wish young fairy, it shall soon be granted. What you seek is a world frozen and battered a place where an ancient bond was shattered. This realm is called Dyamond, to be precise. Covered with crystal and mysterious ice. There you will find the seventh star you’ve awaited, follow the secret of a sister separated.”

Stella: “Sister? Whose sister?”

“Whoever completes this final (hollar? Haul?) will get the stars and keep them all.” so whoever gets this last star will get the others. That’s handy!

Stella’s still curious about the secret of sisters but Bloom says one step at a time.

Nobody mentions Daphne. If I hadn’t been spoiled my first thought would be Bloom and Daphne, they’re the sisters separated in Winx, and on the frozen planet Domino back in season one. Definite parallels here!

Tecna pulls up Dyamond’s stats on her phone. “It’s a world of crystal, and the surface is covered in magical ice.” Cool looking planet, it has a… I don’t even know how to describe it. Floaty geometric outer shell? You’ll have to look at a picture.

Off we go! We have to stay ahead of the Trix!

Cut to Icy’s grumpy face. She’s watching with Darcy and Stormy. Icy says, “Dyamond...” in a way you could tell the voice actress was trying for emotional while still doing Icy’s voice.

The other two are ready to go, to get there first.

Icy: “No.”

D&S: “No?”

Icy; “We’re not going to Dyamond. It’s too dangerous.”

Stormy: “But we have a mission. The last prime star is there.”

Icy: “So we’ll let the Winx risk it all and find it. And once they get the star we’ll take it.”

disappointed Trix. Darcy wanted a trap, Stormy was hoping for some good old fisticuffs. I love you two, don’t ever change.

Icy: ‘We’ll stay here and track their movements in the dark hologram. That is all.”

Oh, it has a name. Heh.

Valtor floats dramatically down from the ceiling and reminds his minions of their place. Icy actually looks scared! Valtor asks what she’s afraid of.

Icy: ‘I’m afraid of nothing.”

Valtor orders her off to Dyamond then. Icy clenches her fists. Valtor makes the mark glow on the Trix’s hands and reminds them he can dump them back in limbo anytime. Valtor’s voice actor is having so much fun.

Icy bows and says, “As you wish.” but when the three go to fly out Icy tells her sisters to go on without her, that she’ll catch up. Darcy and Stormy shrug and fly away.

Alone, Icy lands on the balcony of the asteroid and finally makes that thoughtful face I’ve been watching for for half the season. She summons a sphere of glass with a lavender crystal flower in it. Sad music plays. “Dyamond… how long… it’s not meant to be like that! The timing’s all wrong.” sad music and the winds of outer space blowing Icy’s hair and her cape.

Well that was sudden! Also, “timing’s all wrong’… did Icy have a plan? Dare I get my hopes up that there will be an explanation for why all this was never hinted at for seven whole seasons plus all of this one up until right now?

Back to Alfea! The Winx are ready to leave, after they make sure Stella is the genuine article. But then Sky arrives in a new ship, the “single seater Crow.” I like the design, reminds me of a sled. Sky is bummed that he got here just as Bloom’s off on another mission. He has tickets for the Technomagic arena for tonight! But his date might not be back in time.

The girls leave to save the universe.

Disappointed Sky: ‘Sorry… wait, what am I saying sorry for? Well if there’s no other way to see you tonight, I’ll go with you!”

Dyamond from space! I like.

Winxboarding over cool waves of ice, as if a stormy ocean froze all at once. Good music.

Tec’s still looking for information. “Bloom, I haven’t found much information about Dyamond, only it was once pretty populated.”

They see the remains of buildings under the ice.

Bloom: ‘It looks totally deserted now.”

Flora: “Something serious happened here.”

Stella: “Someone left the fridge open?”

Again, no mention that the same thing happened to Domino so the Three Ancestors or a similar type of being could be the cause here.

And with nothing but crystal and ice as far as the eye can see there’s no hint at where the prime star might be hiding. The music turns sad as the girls board past broken buildings and these giant totem-pole type things. The girls wonder what happened to the people who lived here. Long scene of destruction.

Bloom: “A deserted world… no life at all. it’s a real mystery.”

Which gives me plotbunnies because there must be people who investigate magical disasters like this.

Through the ice we see crystal flowers like the one Icy had growing on a tree. More good sad music.

A sign of life! A little creature! Stella thinks it could be a sprite or an animal. Tecna says it means there must still be life on Dyamond. Bloom asks Flora if she can talk to the trees. Flora does this light-up-pink spell, and the other Winx are impressed but Flora can’t sense anything. She says the trees are asleep.

It’s a white fox. After it! Through very cool frozen thorn plants. Interesting conversation, Bloom is surprised the fox is running away and Tecna agrees. Flora wonders what the little critter must have gone through and Aisha says she wouldn’t want to stay on this planet.

The fox makes the giant thorn bushes break apart and collapse, and the Winx have to board away or be squished. They escape and look down to see the fox glaring at them.

Bloom can tell something is up, but she doesn’t know what.

The Trix are here, all together again. Darcy and Stormy are ready to find the Winx and battle. ‘this place is so boring! Give me something to hit with my lightning.”

I dunno, I’d think the ‘Total destruction’ aesthetic would appeal to witches!

Stormy sees the white fox and thinks it would be a good target for lightning! She strikes a pose, ready to throw lightning when Icy ices her hand. Stormy and her suddenly heavy hand fall to the ground.

Stormy: “Icy, what’s your problem?”

Icy: “Leave that fox alone!”

Darcy and Stormy look at each other in confusion.

The fox comes up to them and Icy looks down at it with a tragic expression.

And… flashback!

Silver-haired moppet in funny shorts skipping over a pile of pink crystals towards a river and a crystal-flower tree. Blonde girl following worriedly. They’ve found a mother fox with three cubs.

They look royalty. they’re both wearing really pretty very detailed peacock blue clothes, the younger girl in weird short-shorts and the older in a gown. The older girl has frizzy yellow hair tied up in an elaborate style with a bunch of braids and a many-layered bead crown. The younger girl has masses of wavy silver hair up in a singly ponytail, and she’s wearing funny shorts with leggings underneath. she’s much the braver of the two, clearly dragged her big sister out here.

Silver runs around with the foxes while her sister makes a crown of crystal flowers that have fallen from the tree. They cute-hug.

Back in the present Darcy says their mission is more important than the fox. Go find that prime star!

Back with the Winx, they’re boarding along when the star case appears then vanishes again. Guess we must be in the right place! The girls walk along what seems to be the traditional “narrow path along a steep cliff” which seems like exactly the place for using winxboards, but ok. The path threatens to crumble beneath their feet. The fox seems to be on a higher path, shadowing the Winx. she’s also in danger of crumbling ice-path.

We get a wider view, the Winx are walking up a path around a mountain that is basically buried under a huge frozen waterfall. We see this because it’s what the Trix see as they watch from afar. Darcy and Stormy are again keen to fight, but Icy sees that the fox is following and tells them to wait. Stormy calls her out again, ‘What’s wrong with you?” but Icy blusters, ‘I’ll decide when it’s time to strike!

This is feeling really tragic suddenly. The three of them have been always together for YEARS and had so many evil adventures but they don’t trust each other at all. Icy can’t trust her sisters not to jump all over even as small a sign of weakness as, “There’s stuff, ok? Don’t hurt the fox.”

Winx walk along path/semi-cave. Fox watches.

Stormy: “I’ve had enough of your floundering, Icy!” she shoves Icy and blasts lightning at the mountain. Icy yells, ‘No!”

Avalanche! Winx run for it!

Icy panics. “What have you done! what have you done!” Stormy looks concerned suddenly, seeing Icy freaking out this much.

They see the fox crying in the midst of the avalanche.

Incoming big damn hero! Sky lands and immediately rescues the fox. He chatters happily about how he’ll take the fox to Bloom, ‘I’m sure you’ll like her, and you’ll have Kiko to play with.”

This is possibly the most likeable moment Sky has had all season. I just love it.

Icy still in a panic attacks Sky. She ices his suit wings and sends an avalanche to crush his scout ship, sending it crashing through the ice into water down below. (And having played Subnautica Below Zero, I know all about the fish in that water!)

The Winx watch in horror and Bloom goes to help Sky, who is by now hanging off the cliff with his suit wings frozen.

Bloom: “Sky, you should not be here!”

Sky: “I agree, but can we talk about this later!”

Two likeable Sky moments!

Icy goes in for the kill! She sends tons of ice crashing down on Sky, sending him down to join his ship in the water. Yikes!

Sad music again, Icy hovers holding the fox in her arms. She flies away, leaving the confused Darcy and Stormy to follow after her.

Bloom: “Magic Winx, Sirenix!”

Oh my gosh Crystal Sirenix is beautiful. I knew it was, I have pictures, but… it really is. Love the crystal headdresses. Love the way it takes from the original “gothic sirenix” design, incorporating the long skirts that eventually ended up in harmonix with the scale leggings. Everyone’s in their correct colors. Of course Aisha’s teal and purple is my favorite but Bloom’s almost-no-pink is also looking good.

And they comment on it! “Our Sirenix form is different! what happened?” Tecna says, “It’s Crystal sirenix! Our powers are reacting to the magical ice, to protect us.”

They immediately dive down to find Sky, and discover that they glow in the dark water! Tecna says their Crystal Sirenix “has a high degree of adaptability.” It’ll do whatever they need, that’s cool. But it does muddy up… well, I thought of Sirenix as being a transformation that exists for the purpose of protecting the Infinite Ocean, so how many past Sirenix fairies would have to deal with magical ice? Maybe the adaptability wasn’t a known thing, it’s just… magic. Since magic does everything by magic, you don’t know what else it might do.

And that’s all! Whew, what an episode!

So Icy’s backstory is… Bloom’s backstory. Writers just went, “Well this was a hit the first time, let’s use it again!” Or, since I want to believe the best of these writers even when they make it really hard, the writers thought it would be cool to have the main hero and main villain’s stories mirror each other. Bloom and Icy have suffered similar things, being torn from a beloved sister and had their world frozen, then each of them went to school and ended up with close friends. But they ended up as two very different people, which I think we can put down to Bloom being young enough that she didn’t remember Domino and then she ended up with super loving parents while Icy ended up with nobody until she got to cloud Tower and met her roommates who told her the legend of the three Ancestral witches...

#winx club season 8 #winx club

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nalufever · 5 years

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Opportunity

Chapter Two of The Night Shift, a collaborative work between myself and @hidetheremote

AnS fandom, Obi x Shirayuki, hopelessly late posting for ‘Trope Madness’

One of Obi's faults is that he's gallant, always wanting to help those less fortunate - and some people (Torou) take advantage of his foolish, soft heart. Good thing Shirayuki is always in Obi's corner.

Read Chapter One HERE

Fifteen years ago…..

Garbage whipped by a bitter wind skittered past a cold and shaking Obi. Winter had hit hard, the snow was piling up fast. If he’d had free time and the urge he’d have made a snowman - but he didn’t and couldn’t waste energy on such a frivolous activity. Obi needed to find shelter and he was running out of time.

Tall for his age and thin, most people assumed he was an adult and left him to his own devices. Obi was barely able to feed himself, let alone clothe himself. His jacket was half as old as he was - and badly patched. It didn’t keep him warm from the snow that threatened to freeze his bones as he scrounged for work. Not wanting to burden his few friends with overstaying his welcome, Obi refused to take advantage. He moved from friend's house to friend's house, keeping his secrets close to his chest.

A newspaper carried by the strong wind hit him in the chest with a wet thump, startling Obi into reflexively grabbing it. An article jumped out at Obi, one that mentioned a food kitchen looking for volunteers. It was close - and that was the best news he'd had all day.

The first person to greet Obi was a short but bouncy, red-headed sprite of a girl. “Hi! I’m Shirayuki, what’s your name?”

“Doesn’t matter.”

“Manners are very important!”

The young girl pouted and Obi couldn’t help but tease. “On second thought, you’re right. Manners are what separate humans from animals, Miss. Please accept my apologies for my lack of priorities. My name is Obi.”

Shirayuki smiled and Obi’s worries and fears started fading. He’d have a hot meal and maybe start to rebuild his life; this girl was beaming at him so brightly he felt invincible - his guiding star had to be on the rise. Obi accepted a tray from the girl and portions of everything available, waving goodbye to the little Miss and then searching for a good spot to sit and eat.

In the far corner away from the door (which every time it opened sent more cold snow and air swirling into the room), Obi sat with his back to the wall at a table with another girl of roughly his own age - also with her back to the wall. Intent on feeding himself, Obi tore open the bun and slathered butter on it, ripping a big portion off with his first bite. He chewed and did his best to keep his appreciative moans and smacking lips to a minimum.

“Oi! Keep it down!”

“Sorry-not-sorry.” Obi shoved a giant spoonful of stew into his mouth and turned his head to look with suspicion at his table mate. “Mrff sppr anfry.”

“Gross. You always talk with your mouth full?”

Obi swallowed and sighed at the girl. “I’m super hungry.”

“Nice to meet you, ‘super hungry,’ I’m Torou.” The girl - Torou - flicked her long brown hair over her shoulder and batted her matching brown eyes at Obi coquettishly. “First time in a place like this?”

“Is it that obvious?” Obi sat more upright and pretended to not be guarding his food. “I’ve been doing alright for the most part. I don’t like to have to accept help, but I-I’m having a hard time.”

“We all are, every person here has it tough.” Torou pulled out another bun from her pocket and a couple more packets of butter, pushing them at the thin but cute teen. “What about a real name?”

“Ugh, yeah - sorry. You can call me Nanaki.” Obi crammed the rest of his bun into his mouth, grabbing the offered bread to shove it into a pocket for later. He chewed and swallowed. “Thanks, Torou, I haven’t eaten since…I’m not sure.”

“I could tell.” She giggled, twirling strands of her hair around one finger, leaning closer. “Well, maybe we can help each other.”

“You got more food in your pockets? Don’t you want to eat that?”

“Silly boy, I’m talking about taking opportunities and turning them into cash.”

><><><><><

Present day….

Obi checked his phone and again Torou had texted him, begging for one more chance. Enough was enough. He’d done lots of stupid things when he’d been young and homeless - and now Obi was poised to finally have a date with Shirayuki. There was no way in hell he wanted to screw his chances.

He sighed, about to shut off his phone, but it chimed - this time a phone call from Torou. Voice pitched low and aggravated, Obi growled, “What do you want?” The hallway was too full of distractions so Obi sped to the stairwell and slumped against the far wall.

“I still want what I was asking from you at the Greenhouse.” She was clearly amused. “I’m gonna keep working on you until you cave. One little, tiny favour is all I ask - you could do it in your sleep!”

“Maybe fifteen years ago, but I’ve changed - and I thought you had too.”

“What’s that old saying? A leopard doesn’t change its spots?” Torou’s laugh was high and shrill. “I’ve shed some of my spots - but there’s one big one that just won’t budge. Tomi won’t let me escape so easily.”

“Tomi, still?” Ire and disgust coloured Obi’s tone.

“Don’t say it like that, I gave up most of that when he got sent away.” Torou’s voice got thin and small, in direct contrast to how she’d laughed only seconds ago. “I wouldn’t ask if I had any other choice.”

“Ugh… Dammit.”

“I knew I could count on you.”

“I’m not saying yes, but it looks like I can’t say no.” Obi rubbed his forehead. “My shift is pretty well over. Where are you?”

“I’ll text you the address. And Obi...don't end up like me.”

Obi heard Torou sniff and end the connection. Stomach roiling with old fears, new doubts and a fair amount of anger for Tomi, Obi shoved his phone into his pocket and made tracks for the parking lot.

><><><><><

“Pssst!” Torou yanked Obi’s arm as he walked past where she’d been lurking. “Come here often?”

Obi grimaced, turning to face Torou as she started giggling. He growled, “I didn’t come here for my health or any of your lame jokes. Why don’t you come with me and we can discuss your problems in my car? It’s too cold out in the open.”

“Didn’t know you wanted to get cozy.” Torou batted her eyelashes and licked her lips. “Giving up on Shirayuki? ‘Bout time.” She held onto his shoulders, almost leaning against him.

“As if. Your antics leave me even colder than the weather.” Obi shrugged away from Torou.

“Spoilsport.”

“Yeah, well -”

Torou’s phone chirped and she shushed Obi to look at the message she’d been sent. The blood drained from her face and she gasped, shivering, absently rubbing her gut. All her previous flirtatiousness behaviour died. “The job is a go - right now.”

Obi watched Torou shrink in on herself. As much as he didn’t want to assist her - he felt obligated. He’d never seen her so distraught before, not even when she’d been threatened with juvie. “And never again.”

“Sure, sure.” Torou pulled herself together, turning back into a capable thief in the space of a heartbeat. “Joint’s been cased thorough, I need you to get me inside, my talent will crack open the safe.”

“Fine, I open the door and leave.”

“Not so fast, two heads are better than one, right? I could use an extra set of eyes and ears - just in case.”

“Sounds like it hasn’t been cased proper.” Obi folded his arms and glared. “You need me to help search for the safe, don’t you?”

“Tomi stops digging once he sees what he wants.” Torou shrugged, jamming her hands into her pockets. “Especially if he can send someone else to do the real work.”

“Fucking unbelievable.”

“I promise, never again.” Torou gave a subtle head nod to the garish green house on the corner. “C’mon, time’s a wasting!”

><><><><><

It was regretfully easy for Obi to bypass the electronic locks on the back patio door; fifteen years hiatus on his break and enter skills hadn’t been enough to set any rust on them. Dammit. One more careful motion and the physical lock popped open. Obi slid the door open and motioned to Torou. “Hurry.”

“Don’t get your panties in a knot.” She blew on her gloved fingers. “We both search - upstairs first - there’s only three bedrooms on that floor. Behind big ugly paintings first and closets second.”

“Tell me something I don’t already know.”

“You’re cute when you’re angry.” Torou blew Obi a kiss before tiptoeing down the hall and running up the stairs, knowing her unwilling partner would soon follow once he explored the main floor. His habits were part of his charm.

Obi scowled as he stalked through the house, finding nothing out of the ordinary - it was well maintained and decorated nicely - if a bit old-fashioned. He shuddered - lots of big floral patterns and an excessive amount of plaid where they’d run out of room for roses. There was a wood burning fireplace too - currently unused - flanked by an antique set of wrought iron tools.

Obi met Torou leaving the bedroom closest to the stairs; she shook her head. “A kid’s room. It’s gotta be the second or the master bedroom.”

“You take the master then, most likely it’s not the second - but I’ll check it out.”

“Okay.” Torou gave Obi a mock salute. “You haven’t missed a trick even after all these years.”

“But I’d like to,” he muttered, “forget all about this and the dumb stuff you pulled me into.”

“If wishes were horses, beggars would ride.” Torou taunted Obi with a wink and another blown kiss.

“That’s only if Tomi didn't steal them first.” Obi rubbed his forehead and walked towards the second bedroom, slipping inside. Nothing on these walls except more giant, ugly, cabbage roses on the wallpaper. Ugh! So old-fashioned. Was this the house of a grandma from the 1950’s? The closet door was in contrast overly new looking - and the right size for a custom walk-in. Could be the safe was here instead of in the master.

Only one way to find out - Obi drew open the closet door and did his best to staunch a horrified gasp. No safe, but lots and lots of adult...gear. Whips, chains, what had to be porn magazines, several squirt bottles of lube and items he thankfully could not easily identify. He shook his head and shuddered. Fucking hell.

Suddenly aware he’d zoned out, standing in front of what could fully stock an orgy, Obi made to shut the Pandora’s box of porn - but a heavy tread stumping up the stairs made his flesh crawl and his blood chill. Too late to run to warn Torou… A split second later, Obi made up his mind and jumped into the closet, sending a frantic text to Torou. <>

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

He anxiously watched his phone, expecting Torou to text him back - but no answer. Shit. Was the homeowner bludgeoning Torou as he cowered amongst the pleather outfits and massive battery driven toys? Shit. Obi held his breath - the carefree, loud footsteps were getting louder. His stomach plummeted. Somebody wanted a little something-something before getting some sleep.

Shit. Fuck. Damn. Obi secured his phone and waited in the farthest corner of the closet, poised to take action. The door was yanked open and a hand rummaged inside - through long familiarity no doubt - reaching with unerring grace for the flesh pocket - and shut the door. Obi slumped backward in relief. Thank all the unholy sex gods and goddesses.

Shit - now did he try to save Torou from the horny homeowner or escape? Shit. Fuck. Damn. Obi strained his ears - nothing. No horrid buzz of an adult toy - no heavy footsteps - no screams. He said a little prayer and pushed the closet door open the smallest amount he could to see out of - and about felt his soul leave his body.

The horny homeowner was sitting on the spare bed looking through his mail - the waiting lurid plastic lips of the fleshlight leering at Obi. Jesus, lord love a duck. At least the guy's head was bowed and he’d missed seeing a surprise visitor pop out of his closet. Obi didn’t know what to hope for - the horny guy going to town on himself, or sudden merciful death.

Torou texted Obi. <>

Several things happened at once. Obi’s phone signalled itself with a snippet of Lady Gaga’s Bad Romance, horny homeowner bolted off his bed, still holding his mail, looking around wildly. “What the fuck!”

Shit. Fuck. Damn. Obi yanked his balaclava down to obscure his face, blindly taking the closest item to hand and bolted out of the closet. Fast, so fast - sprinting like the wind - but the horny homeowner managed to tackle Obi. Obi felt a sharp, burning pinch and then he twisted, bucking off the guy who was screaming bloody blue murder. Slamming the door behind himself, Obi used the bullwhip he'd grabbed, jamming it like a doorstop to keep the irate man a little occupied while they escaped.

“Go, go, go!” Obi ran past Torou who was cradling her ill-gotten goods in a nondescript gym bag.

“I’m going!” Torou hissed. “New much?”

“Never again!” Adrenalin kept Obi and Torou running outside into the bare glimmer of dawn - Obi towards his car and Torou - she jumped into a waiting white van that zoomed off before she’d even fully landed in the passenger seat. Fuck. Shit. Damn. Obi ran into the semi cover of a bush - slowed his headlong rush into an ambling power walk and uncovered his face. Nothing said ‘up to no good’ like a balaclava pulled down on a guy fleeing in the dark. He’d fucked up but he could repent at leisure once he was safe.

Obi hustled down the alley to his car, unlocking it, smiling at the cheerful chirp and slid inside behind the wheel. His back spasmed - fire erupted in his nerves. What the fuck? He felt his back as best he could, fingers coming away sticky - with something god-damned familiar.

><><><><

“Gimme a damn minute!” Shirayuki pulled on her bathrobe and belted it tight - the idiot pounding on her door was obviously drunk - and she’d have to kick his ass to curb without her pajamas. Barefoot, she stomped over to her front door, quickly checking that her door was on the chain. “What the hell is wrong with you? Some people are trying to-” she yanked open the door as much as the safety chain allowed, her angry tirade dying as she met Obi’s glazed eyes in his pale face.

“Mostly, what’s wrong with me, is I’ve been stabbed.” Obi gurgled a listless chuckle and collapsed.

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sailor-cresselia · 5 years

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Zi-O 38: The sun is a powerful thing

Here we go! Time to watch a show~!

Last time: Timeline snarls, the bad sort of Meteor, and worms. So many worms.

This time: … Hell bro’s if I know.

Spoilers for Zi-O 38 and Kabuto below the cut. Rest in piece, horizontal line - sections are divided by tildes now. ~

When last we saw our hero, he was Rocket Drilling a meteor into non-existence. And then the bigger one showed up. On the plus side, at least Sougo knows that “OH GOD THIS CANNOT BE ALLOWED TO HIT THE EARTH.”

Also, apparently the Faiz Phone X works in space! Good to know!

Junichiro. That. Is not how you make emergency ration onigiri. You. You don’t need to include all the extras with them. Also, evacuate to where, exactly? It’s A METEOR.

Kudos for taking Woz’s comment about Sougo being in space in stride, though. (How much do you know, old man?!)

…Wait a minute. Does Junichiro not know Woz’s name? He didn’t use it when asking when Sougo was coming back.

Uncle, ffs. You’ve lost your name privileges again.

In the recap vault… Woz has what are presumably replicas of the three remaining watches – Drive, Kabuto, and Den-O.

(Why is Drive the last arc? Wouldn’t. Wouldn’t Den-O be more appropriate for the last Legend Rider? I mean, we’ve already gotten Yu Inaba back for the Brain special, so they could have filmed his section then, if he’s the guest appearance. But Den-O would just. Make more sense for the final watch, wouldn’t it?)

(wouldn’t it?)

We’ve got the Kabuto OP reference again! I really wish they had started using old musical cues sooner, as opposed to not doing so until Agito, because that would have helped make the earlier Legend arcs just a little better.

WOZ DID YOU DRAW THIS PLAN UP? This doodle is CUTE.

“Okay, so, you have a rocket, so get me into position, and I’ll use my Super Mode to blow up the asteroid.”

Sougo just. Goes with it. Doesn’t even ask if Woz’ll be okay. Can’t tell if that’s because he’s being dumb, if it’s because he’s preoccupied, or if it’s because he trusts that it’ll work out.

(Also, Woz having clearly made and eaten the ramen that the Hell brothers left behind with their ransom note is all sorts of hilarious.)

Sougo: “Wait, where’s Kagami?”

Woz: (shrug) “He might’ve been captured. Also, here’s this note we got from the edgelords.”

Note: (is a ransom letter)

Kagami: (IS VERY MUCH CAPTURED)

Geiz, no samehatting with the murdermen. Yaguruma’s “If it comes to it, I’ll be the one to take him down” is very different from your “If it comes to it, I’ll be the one to take him down.”

Also, good use of archival footage there.

Hey, does anyone know what Geiz’s ringtone is? It’s familiar, and I feel like it’s one of the belt jingles, but I can’t place it.

But anyway, Geiz hears that Kageyama’s done… something, and Yaguruma takes this opportunity to knock him down and zoom the heck out of there.

Cut to… oh. That’s. Fine. Kageyama has Arata chained to a post, with some suspicious piles of rocks placed nearby.

(That feel when Toei doesn’t quite hide the mortars for the explosions)

So… you guys are really just going to toss your space powers to the Worm, huh? That’s what we’re doin-

AHAHA YES

IT’S THE SUIKA SPRITE! I love that little guy’s machine gun. And then using the Search Hawk to cut the chains around Arata!

I like seeing the older gadgets and tech used again.

Also, RiderTime has decided that the jingle they’re going with for the Search Hawk is “This hawk can gawk,” which… Well, they’re not wrong!

Arata is loose, and goes straight into the cast-off version fo Gatack. Looks like he was going to go grab the watches using Clock Up, but Another Kabuto has other ideas.

He does not fair well at all, and is very quickly knocked out of this transformation.

At 9-to-5, we’ve got an after-fight debrief and patch-up session. Arata blames himself for not being good enough to stop the edgelord murdermen, but nobody else holds him to that.

I agree with Geiz, what are the Time Jackers thinking in contracting with this guy? I mean, not that Heure and Hora are usually thinking that far ahead in their choices, but I’d expect this one to be Swartz –

OH RIGHT. I just remembered that theory Miyuko and I came up with last week that the meteor – which is very, very red – is why 2068 is so messed up in the Oma Timeline. And since Swartz pretty clearly intends for Sougo to become Oma Zi-O…

Oh, and there’s a mention of Arata’s timeline and ‘our’ timeline getting ‘mixed up’, with a flashback to Tsukasa mentioning time and space getting distorted.

Keep in mind, Arata remembers Shibuya not exactly existing anymore, but it’s very much intact right now.

…Onore Time Travel.

AND IT TURNS OUT THAT HEURE IS JUST AS DISPLEASED WITH THE WHOLE METEOR THING AS THE GOOD GUYS!

“Making Hell on Earth is one thing, but we need to actually have an Earth, dude.”

Also, I love this? Heure pausing time in the rain – with a nice matching umbrella, too – is a good callback to not just the fact that TIME FREEZING IS OP, but also to Kabuto, what with the disrupting the raindrops as he moves. Which – oh man, it’s really cool to see that!

Heure is pissed to have to give the Fourze and Ginga watches back, but. Y’know. He’d rather not die to a giant meteor.

The thing is.

I don’t think that’s where Swartz is going with them.

Over to 2058, with Tsukuyomi and Tsukasa! Hooray! Lore time!

The very red 2058.

Seriously, that ‘worm meteor is what hecked up the lighting’ idea is looking more and more likely.

Looks like Tsukasa landed them outside where Tsukuyomi might have grown up. Aaaand has been cast as the chef.

Tsukasa: “Eh. I’ve had weirder. I should tell you about the time I wound up being a salaryman the time I went to the world my husband came from. That sure was a day. And there was that time I was a head chef for BOARD. And the time I was a lawyer. And – okay, look, I have seen and done some things, kiddo.”

(My Decade watch is going well! The Kabuto arc was! Absolutely devastating! And so was Daiki’s!)

((I wonder what the odds are of the Den-O watch being as useless as the Den-O cards?))

So, once they reach the second story – a small girl in white starts questioning them.

A small girl in white, who looks an awful lot like Tsukuyomi.

And is calling them ‘interveners’. I kind of think ‘meddler’ might be a better term here, but. Idk. She can tell they’ve traveled through time. And has an incredibly powerful Time Stop ability.

And calls a teenager in a black outfit her brother.

An outfit that looks awfully familiar. Almost as if we’ve seen it before, in, say, 2009?

When they leave, and incidentally resume time, guess who’s coming up the stairs? Nah, not gonna make you guess, it’s our current Swartz. This is fine.

NOPE NEVER MIND THIS IS NOT FINE IN THE SLIGHTEST.

Swartz knocks Tsukasa into the yard – and that looked painful, Decade’s a veteran rider and he didn’t take that hit well – and…

Swartz… tosses the two stolen watches to Tsukuyomi, saying that without her power, they can’t stop the meteorite.

And that when hers and the god of times powers resonate, ‘a new era will arise’.

RiderTime, I’m pretty sure he was just saying ‘king of time’, not ‘god’. But still. NOT GREAT STUFF GOING ON HERE.

Swartz what are you planning?

…

Well, at least he does not, in fact, want the meteorite to hit. Taking the watches to Tsukuyomi, as opposed to the boys, makes sure that they won’t try stopping it without her.

Tsukasa warps the two of them back to 2019, and OH RIGHT. They left WELL before the HUGE meteorite showed it’s ‘face’.

RUN TSUKUYOMI, RUN!

…

And. Oh.

HUH.

Tsukasa think’s he’s got what’s going on with her.

And Swartz isn’t quite certain that she’s his little sister.

Implying that his little sister disappeared, and he only suspects that she’s Tsukuyomi.

oh no.

And here we have Arata getting incredibly down on himself, for not having been Kabuto, for having never beaten Souji. Sougo, sweet boy that he is, asks him to protect people for him when he becomes King.

Of course, the intent was to reassure Arata, but, well. Even Souji never went the ‘king’ route, so laughter is what ensues.

Now, to a random rooftop, where Geiz and Woz are fighting against Another Kabuto and Punchhopper. …in their base forms.

Come on, guys. Really?

Well, at least the matched attacks knocked everyone out of their transformations, not just the good guys.

And here, some more exposition from Worm!Kageyama. Because he is a Worm, don’t forget that – and there’s a whole bunch more of them on the meteorite.

The others show up with the watches, and Sougo asks Arata if he can entrust the fight on the ground to him.

Arata: “Of course! My king!”

LIKE HE LITERALLY SAYS “OU-SAMA.”

THIS IS WHERE DEALING WITH SOUJI TENDO GETS YOU.

HE’S FINE WITH GOING WITH SOUGO’S ECCENTRICITIES.

Arata, no…

gasp.

GROUP TRANSFORMATION IS A GO!

And it’s not just a team transformation! It’s everyone, circling around the 6 combatants.

A call of ‘Henshin’ as we cycle by each in turn…

Arata starting his transformation, starting the Gatack Zecter.

Yaguruma starting his transformation, starting the Kickhopper Zecter.

Kageyama with the Punchhopper one.

Geiz going into Revive Fury.

Woz going into Ginga Finaly.

Sougo going into Fourze.

Then it keeps circling…

The Gatack armor forming, then Kickhopper, then Punchhopper. Geiz’s mask ‘label’ attaching itself. Woz. Zi-O Fourze.

Cast Off.

UCHUU IKUUUUU!

Ahahaha, Woz got in on the second half of that, too! Nice.

So, they’re in space now, right? And they have to drill into the meteor to get Woz in there, so he can destroy it.

So Sougo goes into Build armor.

Now, you might be thinking, “Mr. Mouri, but now he’s not in a space armor! Rider or not, that shouldn’t work!”

Except you’d be forgetting something.

We saw that Build – proper Build – can be used in Space.

Remember, Evolt warped him to another planet one time, proceeded to ‘absorb’ said planet, and Sento was breathing just fine in his armor.

So we’re actually still keeping true to the abilities of the Legend Rider’s technology.

Besides, he needs a drill.

YO, INSIDE THE METEOR, IS THAT THE KABUTO OP? OR AN INSERT FROM KABUTO?

I MEAN, IT’S GOTTA BE FROM KABUTO, RIGHT?

Okay, Rider Wiki says that Geiz’s ringtone is the standby music for Geiz Revive, but doesn’t say what the song used when Woz is switching into Sun Form is. It’s definitely not Next Level, though … did Woz just get an insert theme? Because it does sound a little like Keisuke Watanbe, now that I think about it.

Alright, alright, back to the episode.

FFS WE GET IT, KAGEYAMA. YOU’RE EDGY AND HATE YOURSELF.

“This is all I am...” Calm your studded tits, my dude. You got Rider Kicked once. It didn’t even knock you out of your normal transformation, you went into Another Kabuto on your own.

Oh-hohohoho niiiiiice.

Souji called himself the ‘man who walked the path of heaven’, and often, the heavens are represented by the sun.

The meteor moves past the sun, letting its rays shine down, as Arata proclaims that he’ll still fight, even though he’s just been kncked out of his transformation, and the Gatack Zecter has flown off to where ever it is they go when they’re not in use.

A buzzing can be heard coming from the sky.

A mechanical red beetle zooms down out of the sun, flying around Arata’s head before landing in his hand.

The Kabuto Zecter.

He’s not being transformation-blocked by Souji anymore.

Geiz is still calling Kageyama out on his unwillingness to take Yaguruma down. The guy says ‘we will wander this earth together’… so Geiz takes matters into his own hands, and knocks Punchhopper out of his armor himself.

It takes a single Rider Kick from Arata – now finally allowed to be Kabuto – and the Another Kabuto Watch is destroyed.

Woz still hasn’t been able to burn through the meteor. It’s just TOO BIG. And they’re out of time.

Except that Time isn’t exactly a one way street in this season.

Time can be meddled with.

It can be stopped.

And Tsukuyomi’s already been shown to be able to stop just one thing… be it an Another Rider… or, potentially, a meteor.

With a gorgeous shower of lights, that’s exactly what she does.

And with the combination of her powers and the power of Zi-O Trinity, the meteor is shattered.

Yaguruma’s a mess. ‘Kageyama’ was never Kageyama, despite everyone using his name, and everyone was well aware of it. He doesn’t give Yaguruma the closure he wants.

“Please… call me aniki one more time…”

“I’m not Kageyama. I’m not your brother.”

And he goes out in green flames – having turned back to his true appearance. Having reverted to being a Worm.

…He sounded a little sad about not being Kageyama, actually, not just about his fellow Worms having all died. He sounded… resigned, almost.

Yaguruma wants them to laugh at him, for being so foolish to cling to the imitation of a dead man.

Geiz just apologizes.

He knows what it’s like to lose people. He knows that he can’t fulfill his promise of ‘if it comes down to it’, either.

This is not a person you want to be relating to, but… well, Geiz can’t really help it right now.

The Kabuto Zecter transforms into the Kabuto Ridewatch.

The triumphant instrumental version of Toki no Ouja plays as Arata entrusts Sougo with the ridewatch…

And as Geiz asks what Tsukuyomi and Tsukasa found out.

She doesn’t answer – says that they didn’t find anything.

That’s fair.

Of course, the music cuts out as we find out that Uncle got a little carried away with his onigiri. To the point of making 16 each.

Sir. Sir, please.

A train whistle sounds.

Sougo recognizes it.

Sounds like HeiGen Forever’s canon, after all.

The preview… has arrived!

As has Momo!Geiz!

Man, Momotaros doesn’t even have to change anything about Geiz’s appearance other than the hair, does he?

RYUUTAROS GET OUT OF UNCLE. YOU ARE A CHILD. HE IS AN OLD MAN.

…The Another Den-O suit is back.

Which, well, it makes sense – we usually need to have the Another Rider present to make the ridewatch, and we already knew that different people can be turned into pre-existing Another Riders. (Thanks, Another Zi-O. Whatever happened to that watch that refused to break?) But it’s still unsettling.

We’ve got both the Core Four Imajin and the Yuuto and Deneb team!

Nice.

They’re here to stop the Worst Future.

Sougo’s not letting someone stop something.

AND GRAND IS THE MOST GAUDY FUCKING THING. THAT WATCH IS APPALLING.

GRAND IS A MESS. MAYBE I’LL LIKE IT BETTER IN MOTION. MAYBE I WON’T.

(I probably won’t.)

#kamen rider zi o #sailorcressy says

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unmeiokaemasu · 2 years

Text

I felt bad about all the salt I spilled about radiant dawn, even though I said I was still enjoying it and I still think all of my complaints were valid, because I am enjoying it. (oh god this went on a long time again. okay readmore it is)

Last night I was playing a map with the climbable ledges and thinking what a neat mechanic that was, I was actually kinda getting into the map, and then! there was also the story beat where Muarim gets poisoned with the feral drug, and I was actually genuinely concerned, idk it seemed like a pretty ballsy move to actually put one of my units out of commission, and then Rafiel comes in and sings the galdr...that song man. hits me right in the feels every time. I wanna sleuth out who all the vocalists are bcs they’re freaking gorgeous. I keep thinking I wish the song was longer but actually, I think it’s so powerful because it’s so succinct. (I know there’s like, a version at the end of PoR, but that’s got like instruments and stuff.)

AND THEN. THE GODFORSAKEN MAP WITH MICAIAH AND THE BLACK KNIGHT.

🧂🧂🧂🧂🧂🧂🧂🧂🧂🧂🧂🧂🧂🧂🧂

all told it didn’t take me that much time, and probably didn’t take me as many tries as the desert map in PoR, but like...I buffed Micaiah all to shit and she still got doubled by everything, I only passed because I googled some advice and someone suggested moving counterclockwise around the map, she still took a hit that left her with 2 hp but managed to dodge the second one, and how was I supposed to figure out “counterclockwise” on my own anyway??? Also is the Black Knight saving Micaiah supposed to be a way to make you think “oh maybe he’s not such a bad guy after all”? Are we supposed to forget he murdered Greil in cold blood? I’m asking from a writing level, because I think that is what they were going for. I have a general idea of what the rest of the story is, I...actually I don’t super well remember what Zelgius’ whole deal is :/ I intentionally didn’t reread the story because I wanted to experience it in the game. But quite frankly, I’m glad I know the broad strokes of the whole story, because it’s incredibly frustrating and I think would’ve been profoundly unsatisfying to experience doled out bit by bit.

And then, after I said I’d softened on Micaiah a bit because the writing in the game in general is bad, it flips over to Elincia and shows her very real struggle to do exactly what Micaiah did so effortlessly, i.e. win over a group of people she needs to lead using the cred from her accomplishments and perseverance as well as the strength of her personality. I find Elincia a thousand times more charismatic than Micaiah. Are Daeinites just that much easier to please? I mean I guess Micaiah has the buffer of Pelleas between her and This Week’s Evil Advisor, so Izuka can’t bully her directly...but yeah. once again, the story completely, utterly failed to show me why everyone adores Micaiah. It’d be one thing if this were its own story, but having just seen a similar thing play out with Elincia, and the game then reminding you that it was a similar story, but with totally different results, it just highlights the weaknesses in the storytelling.

OKAY SALT OVER.

Anyway glad to escape from the Dawn Brigade for a bit. Quite frankly everyone piling onto Elincia and trying to isolate her from her supporters made me really feel for her. She keeps her head in the meeting and then admits to Marcia that she’s basically coming down with imposter syndrome...and then Marcia gives her a very heartfelt pep-talk. So yeah, there’s good writing in here. Uhhh other good things....

Oh yeah, going into it Rafiel was the least interesting of the heron sibs to me, but he definitely won points for healing Muarim. Also it’s incredibly tragic that he can’t fly, BUT. His transformed sprite is so cute. It’s so cute to see a bird sprite just chillin’ instead of constantly flapping its wings. And then when was untransformed and I had him climb a ledge, he still gives a little wing flap to help him climb up, just...d’awwww. Speaking of sprites, it’s cool how you can kinda see the wolf sprites going for the throat on some kills.

Also kind of sideways good thing but I’ll include it anyway, it’s again frustrating to me how much Micaiah hates Ike even though Sothe has told her all about him, and presumably at some point was like “I mean we were kind of going through exactly what’s happening right now, and also I knew Ike and he would not have condoned any of this, and was literally only acting to protect people”” but. BUT. It was fun when Tormod was also like “yeah Ike’s the best!” and Micaiah just silently fumes. deal with it micky.

Oh yeah and the conversations between the former allies meeting again are very cute.

Welp, once again, despite my grousing, can’t wait to keep playing, esp now that I’m out of Daein.

#catfishchat #fe talk

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ryouverua · 6 years

Text

Miu and Co’s Stimulating Virtual Adventures (Part 1)

is this going to be a normal field trip?

WITH KOKICHI OUMA? NO WAY ~ !

insert shuichi groaning

Oh cool we got a whole animated sequence!

I FUCKING KNEW IT

AAAAAAH!

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!

THEY’RE SO FUCKING CUTE WHAT THE HELL

THIS ISN’T WHAT I EXPECTED AT ALL!!!!

Yeah, seriously! I guess I was expecting sprites similar to Hajime’s from last game, or at least an island setting - this really does look like a murder mystery manor! good god we aren’t on rokkenjima are we

I’M SENDING A STRONGLY-WORDED LETTER TO THOSE IN CHARGE

Aaaaw, it’s played off for laughs but it really is sad for K1-b0 to be constantly disparaging himself like that.

But there is good and bad about the new sprites, which someone who has been incredibly aware and sensitive of the changes in his own body probably clued into immediately...

See now that the audience knows, he can slip and say stuff like this out loud, huh? It... almost makes me wish the scene at the end of the last chapter had taken place at the end of this one. That might just be a pacing thing though...

PUSH HIM DAMN IT

PUSH HIM ON IT SHUICHI I BEG YOU

... DAMN IT HE’S NOT PUSHING HIM.

I just realized, we’re going to see a lot more of people’s emotions thanks to the way the sprites work. I wonder if they directly translate to mood? Does that mean Maki and, hell, Kokichi will be more transparent here?

Omfg the literal first thing Kokichi does to K1-b0 is punch him!!! The robophobia never ends...

Wait, question though - how is it connected to K1-b0? I mean blah blah blah, brainwave technological voodoo etc is connecting all the other kids to the helmets, but what about for K1-b0? How does that work? I... guess it’s better not to think about it too hard? 8′D

Man, Iruma’s a lot cuter here too. Also, seems like a good time to mention I’m totally in love with their little headshots at the bottom left with the little animated dialogue bubbles. The others might not like the sprites, but I like it, Miu! Maybe it’s just different when you’re in a 3rd person POV vs 1st person POV?

I love it when Tsumugi goes off like the total fucking nerd she is.

DAMN WE’RE NOT EVEN ON A TROPICAL ISLAND AND PEOPLE ARE STILL GETTING BURNED

LEAVE K1-B0 ALONE KOKICHI JEEZ

So basically they’re leaving the door open for someone to be killed in here. I figured that would be the case...

Kaito is pretty quick on understanding too which I appreciate, considering how they’ve been playing up his ‘brash dumb’ character type up lately.

You are way too happy about that.

Though it also means that if someone dies in here, we’re not going to see any marks left on the body in the real world or here? That’s not good either!

Yeah, that’s... honestly what I’d like to know. Seriously, wouldn’t Miu have found it when recoding everything if it was in here already? And if she did, why wouldn’t she tell them?

I’m telling you, Tsumugi being a snobby nerd will never get old to me. You know she’s got a N64, Super Nintendo, and maybe even older consoles like Atari and Dreamcast tucked away somewhere!

It’s funny - Kokichi doesn’t reference games nearly as much as Tsumugi, but he’s clearly a gamer too. Makes sense I suppose - I always think of a chessboard when I look at his scarf.

I’m sure this info will come in handy, but not sure how yet.

THAT WILL DEFINITELY BE IMPORTANT FOR GONTA-RELATED REASONS

NO DAMN IT STOP DEATHFLAGGING HIM BY NEUTRALIZING HIS ADVANTAGES DAMN IT

This... really sounds like they’re setting up the rules for a murder mystery game...

Maki made an interesting note about the game - when you take physical advantage away and talent in general, it’ll completely change how a killing game would potentially go down. But I mean... wouldn’t that just be battle royal-type slaughter? Not that any kind of killing game can be considered ‘elegant’, but I can’t help but wonder why a brutal option like this is available at all..

Also can I just say the remixed music and the cute little noises when they waddle around... I love this. I love this, guys. Also watching Shuichi run is hilarious tbh.

A wild rarepair Kaito x Tsumugi appears???

I’m telling you, we’re going to be seeing more of everyone’s genuine emotions on their face here! Man, I’m really liking this set up already.

Kokichi is desperate to ship Kaito with anyone other than Shuichi so he can have Mr Detective all to himself

I think it means he falls for Kokichi’s verbal bait way too easily. 8′D But hey, Tsumugi doesn’t seem to be against Kaito’s interest! Not... obviously, anyway. just gonna casually that pairing to the question mark pile...

Yeah, that’s a pretty classic Kokichi move and... that’s... also a really bad idea. Maybe this is a good chance for Shuichi to get to know him in the context of the game as opposed to FTEs?

Okay, is it just me or is he trying to piss Kaito off especially right now??

NO GONTA YOU’RE TOO GOOD FOR THIS WORLD AND THE ABSOLUTE WRONG CHOICE TO WATCH KOKICHI

fml if Kokichi gets Gonta killed which is where I feel like this is going I will be so upset - but I feel like Kokichi won’t do it himself??? Maybe someone attacks Kokichi and Gonta puts himself in harm’s way instead and dies instead? Like, Kokichi is basically turning Gonta into a goon of his, and we all know what happens in movies and games to the henchmen of ‘Supreme Leaders’...

Honestly guys, how soon do we forget? Are we really going to let them go off together like this? The Bug Meet-and-Greet was literally just a week ago! I know a lot has happened since then, but still!

I do like that both Maki (not included) and Kaito caught on that Kokichi pulled that trick on purpose to have Gonta with him - I just wish they followed up!

On the other hand, we could just as easily get Tsumugi murdering Miu lmao. I’m telling you, if Miu shows up dead...

I didn’t need this in here but I kept it because he’s adorable like this

SHIT THAT’S RIGHT THAT’S HOW MY DOG REACTS WHENEVER HE JUMPS IN THE SNOW I-I mean don’t call Kaito a dog, Maki! That’s not very nice even if it is accurate

Man, I’m starting to wonder if Tsumugi is going to kill Miu here for real 8′D

Always a ray of sunshine, our Sweetcheeks. I’m leaning towards them having some sort of incident happen by the end of this, if not an outright murder. They’re talking too much about how the brain and senses experiencing ‘death’ and causing the body to follow suit for them not to do anything with it. I mean, I guess the exception would be if it’s talking about an overall VR experience like the last game!

So the storage room is pretty much empty and the binoculars can only see as far as the line on the map which Miu is going to explain too. Man, the more things get set up, the more convinced I am that someone isn’t going to make it to the end of the chapter...

Next K1-b0 has an interesting bit of dialogue about how there’s nothing beyond the walls of this world, and how it makes him think about the academy walls. Which... again, I think is leaning towards an apocalyptic world/space scenario? It certainly seems that way to me. It’s interesting to have him point it out though, for some reason. 8′D

I’m 99% sure that’s her default setting, but okay.

weird tangents like this is why I love shuichi

It’s like, a legitimate thing to fixate on and worry about and I totally relate to it but at the same time I’m sure he recognizes how ridiculous it sounds in his head

Isn’t that you? 8′D

oMFG WH A T

WHY ARE YOU DOING HIM WRONG LIKE THIS MIU

MAKI NO I THOUGHT YOUR ROASTING DAYS WERE FINALLY BEHIND YOU

HIMIKO I THOUGHT WE WERE BONDING EARLIER

WE WERE BONDING DAMN IT

I’m shocked that the sprite is able to capture the absolute betrayal on it face but somehow, it does

whispers this is getting its own special post

“Look at my glorious self, doing you the favour of allowing you to prostrate yourself in front of all your classmates!”

Miu you’re making a lot of enemies this chapter, including the sub (lol) protagonist. We've already had one first POV murder - do we really want another one?

That’s going to go missing at some point. If the murder happens, maybe the murderer will grab it and hide it or something?

"Oh, I’ve been lurking here for a while! But I needed some time to come up with my best masochist!Shuichi jokes and lines. You’re not going to hear the end of this for a long time, Masoichi Subhara!”

... or that. could be that too.

Hm, so I guess it’s on the other side of the map. It would be one thing of Kokichi is by himself but Gonta is with him and I trust him way farther than I’d be able to throw him and Kokichi for that matter

KAITO NO YOU’RE MAKING THINGS WORSE

OMFG SHUICHI IS JUST A COMPLETE WRECK AFTER WHAT JUST HAPPENED

And you know Kokichi is totally trying to figure out what he missed, and why all the other classmates are giving the two of them weird looks/snickering...

Oh, and now we’re finally getting to the line shown in the map.

Kokichi are you just trying to cash in some Saiouma chips because you realize how much Saimota happened when you were away with Gonta? 8′D

H-Hey don’t look at me, look at Miu! She started it!

Okay at this point I will be shocked if there isn’t a murder here or some sort of incident causing a murder in the real world.

Also Kokichi you’re way too happy about this...

What are you playing at here man???

And you! Shouldn’t you know where it is since you reprogrammed the whole thing?!?!

Miu and Kokichi are conspiring about something??? Again???

Please don’t fall for it...

..... Yikes. 8′D I-I’ll give it to him because I have a feeling his failing health and the events of last chapter regarding the occult probably have him feeling emasculated.

Yeah, seriously. So Kaito is on the roof, Kokichi is in the salon and... free for all for everything else. Uh, okay....?

IF GONTA FUCKING TURNS UP DEAD KOKICHI I SWEAR I WILL DUEL YOU IN A SHADOW GAME MYSELF duel links has upped my skill somewhat I should be able to hold my own...

Thank goodness for Tsumugi’s odd affinity for Gonta oTL

a) Maybe this is the chance for us to get to know Tsumugi a little better in-game since we’re going to explore the rest of the mansion together

b) Kaito really has no bloody idea how he and Shuichi’s relationship comes off to the rest of their classmates (or maybe he does and he’s a-okay with it)

c) MAKI......

oh no

THAT’S.... NOT..... QUITE IT.....

nothing like the sting of figuring out you’re third-wheeling

This is in no way the game trying to establish groups and/or alibis. Got it.

Left side: Kokichi, Gonta, Kaito, Shuichi, Tsumugi

Right side: Miu, Himiko, Maki, K1-b0. Alright, good to know.

I really don’t need this to be here but the fact that Kaito is so woefully oblivious and also apparently just... completely into Maki as a friend only is hilarious to me. I mean, maybe the game will push more romantic feelings on his side in the last chapter but he’s just coming off as so gung-ho about their friendship without taking it to the next level - it’s just.... so refreshing...

It’s nice to see Kaede always being in his thoughts outside of general ‘I must do this for Kaede! Inspiration via manpain!’ stuff.

FUCK YES I THINK I’M RIGHT ABOUT THE ESCAPISM SECONDARY THEME we’re finally bringing it up in nearly identical words again! sorry tsumugi things aren’t looking good for you mastermind-wise

With that said, of all people, she dismisses it herself. 8′D Maybe if the game had better graphics engine - would that be good enough for you princess???

DANGANRONPA YOU ARE DANCING ON A KNIFE��S EDGE RIGHT NOW

Man I keep dancing back and forth between the idea of her being a victim this chapter and a killer and I just... can’t... decide on one. Ugh. The only thing that keeps me from thinking she’ll be a victim is having Gonta right there, raising just as many death flags as her. I-I guess we’ll find out shortly anyway...

Meanwhile while I ramble, K1-b0 has Priorities

#Shuichi Saihara #Kaito Momota #Miu Iruma #Ryou plays drv3 #Kokichi Ouma #Kokichi Oma #Kiibo #K1-b0 #Keebo #Gonta Gokuhara #Maki Harukawa #Tsumugi Shirogane #I don't know why these are taking so long but this has been haunting my dreams and waking thoughts for the past.... week #omg it's been pretty much a week #meanwhile my #saimota #loving ass cannot be stopped #spoilers #drv3 spoilers

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bynkii · 3 years

Text

Monk Life

play a lot of FFXIV. It’s a great game, great writing, etc.

This is me as a monk:

Also as a samurai, and every crafting class. Don’t ask about the name, I’ve been using that for D&D and MMOs and shit since 1989.

My minion is indeed a wind-up Sadu. Why? Because of this:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=LXZhoXvkLgo

I mean, holy shit, why wouldn’t you want to hang with Sadu after that?

And Y’shtola, and Alisaie. Like those are basically his favorite three people in the game. Y’shtola’s response to the shoes was to just shake her head because at this point, in my headcanon, she’s so used to him doing shit like that, she doesn’t even blink. Although the Murderous Moogle Mogfists glamour did get a raised eyebrow.

Alisaie actually says things like “Really? The sarong and the glamour that leaves burning leaves behind you wasn’t enough, you needed PINK SNEAKERS?” The Mogfists made her consider that maybe Thancred’s drinking problem wasn’t such a bad idea after all. I mean, a 9′ tall Roe with a multicolored mohawk and now his gloves look like he’s strapped a Moogle to each hand as some weird kind of boxing glove...

Sadu has decided he’s her big brother, who never tells her no, never judges her, is always down to fight spar, and will happily go on whatever adventure she wants, even though he is very annoying at “accidentally” playing living wall between her and the entire towns full of people she challenges to fight...before she gets drunk.

There’s no real amorous tension between him and any of them, because they’re all his besties, in the same way 12 year olds are besties.They go on adventures, get in trouble, and he inevitably leaves the bar with one over each shoulder and Alisaie under one arm, because he doesn’t drink and they all think of “Drink Eorzea Dry” as a challenge, not a weird Lala thing to get you to consume overpriced shitty alcohol.

They are his peeps, right? Someone once insisted he was trying to get horizontal with one of them, and all four of them almost laughed themselves into a coma. It’s not that he doesn’t think they all aren’t attractive, because he does. They do think he’s cute, in a very large, very goofy way. But it ain’t like that. Also, except for Sadu, they’ve all set him up on dates, and he’s done the same for them. Well, he’s tried to. He’s a bit clumsy though which lead to one Lala thinking he was...procuring for them. That was funny once ‘Shtola stopped whacking him in the head with her stick.

Their attempts to set him up fail for other reasons. They’re very protective of their big goofy buddy, and there are not a lot of women out there who pass the test. Sadu is especially overprotective of him. What has them all very worried is Fordola. Because every time they’re in the same room, her right eye keeps glowing at him. Fortunately, unless she literally bonks him over the head and tell him exactly what she wants, he will never figure it out. Also, there’s a small chance that Fordola wants in on the group for the friendship more than anything else.

No one has asked Fordola. For her part, she thinks he’s very cute and has more than a mild interest in the underside of the sarong, but he’s also one of the few people who will visit her in prison, bring good food, hang out and tell her stories. He doesn’t pity her, he doesn’t fear her (I mean, he doesn’t fear anything, not really), he thinks she got caught up in some fucked-up Garlean bullshit, and really who hasn’t? He also knows how fucked up life with the Echo is, so being around someone who gets it is helpful for him. He’s the only person she can feel calm around.

Lyse would be one of the crew, but she’s busy running Ala Mhigo. He still makes sure to come by regularly so they can spar. Her advisors really love him for that. Some of them cheer when he comes by.

He’s their big doofy buddy who is always down and never makes them think he is playing some long game to get in the secret garden. He’s put them all to bed and sat next to those beds making sure the puke went in the proper direction so many times they’ve lost count. Y’shtola regularly changes in front of him, other than the first time, he’s never had a problem keeping his eyes from wandering inappropriately. The first time she did it, he did actually turn away so she’d have some privacy, but she laughed at him and told him not to.

“You do indeed have a shapely backside (Roe have ass for DAYS), but it’s a bit awkward to talk to. I’ve no concerns about you being inappropriate, so please, let us not pretend you’ve not undressed me when I’m passed out covered in whatever it was Sadu was drinking.” (Sadu goes from sober to puking faster than anyone would expect. The worst part is, it doesn’t stop her. She views it as convenient, since now she has room for more. Sadu is very extra.)

Alisaie barely gets undressed in front of herself. They’ve agreed to just pretend she magically pajama’d herself after a night on the towns.

Sadu doesn’t care who sees her in any state. Then again, the last time someone said something inappropriate because she had gotten nekkid drunk, it took a water sprite to put out the fire she lit on his ass. Did I meantion Sadu is VERY extra? Because she is.

It’s probably a good thing monks don’t actually need a lot of money as a rule, and that he’s quite good with the investing, he spends a lot of gil on “let’s just take this large pile of shiny coins and forget about those pesky authorities” discussions.

There’s no reason a Lominsan Roe, a couple of Sharlyan scholars and a steppe berserker should be the bestest frens ever, but they are, and none of them would trade any of it for the world.

(He and Krile get along famously as well, but she’s older enough than he is, that she’s more of his big sister, even though she barely comes up to his knees. The other three have agreed that watching him kneel in front of her so she only has to stand on a chair when she needs to lecture him is terribly cute.)

My headcanon.

#ffxiv roe y'shtola alisaie roegadyn sadu frens

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the-nwah-embassy · 7 years

Text

The Daedra as schoolmates

Azura: The ultimate mom friend, to the point of total annoyance. Always nagging you about doing homework and paying attention in school. Perfect grades, perfect attendance, and has no time for frivolities like relationships. Although she’s extraordinarily pretty and caring in a maternal way, she’s also extremely terrifying when angered. You’ve seen her rip apart lives piece by piece in a calculating and cruel manner because someone bumped her in the hallway and didn’t say “Excuse me”, and then blame their lack of manners for their suffering.

Sheogorath: The random and uncomfortably loud class clown. He spends more time laughing at his own jokes than he does anything else. While occasionally entertaining, he’s also very unpredictable. He once knocked a kid out because he said “Oh yeah, I’ve heard that one before” to one of his jokes. He was also suspended for a month for putting a cherry bomb in the principals desk, which caused a minor fire in the office and caused a school-wide evacuation. Because of his crazy antics, he doesn’t have many friends, and the friends he does have are just as nutty as he is.

Namira: The girl with a greasy mop of hair who smells like mildew and body odor. You’re not entirely sure she even owns a shower. People avoid her in the halls, but she doesn’t seem to mind because she’s too busy picking her teeth with her fingernails and smelling it. During lunch, you can usually find her swirling all her food into a disgusting slop and putting it in people’s faces, or behind the school building picking up bugs playing with them. She usually wears the same two or three outfits every day, with the exception of her gym clothes, which you know for a fact haven’t been washed all year.

Hircine: The kid who is constantly wearing camo for no apparent reason at all. Camo jackets, camo hats, he even has camo interior in his ridiculous truck. Like literally all camo, all the time, for no reason. He’s the kid who goes hunting every single weekend and brags about the giant deer antlers hung up in his living room that his dad killed a few years ago. Needless to say, he’s president of the archery club and an NRA fanatic. He’s always bringing his own lunch to school, which looks eerily similar to a pile of freshly cut meat. You’re fairly certain he has a collection of animal skulls and organs hidden away in his closet ‘for trophy purposes.’

Boethiah: The infamous two-faced backstabber. She acts sweet and kind to your face and then talks shit about you to her ‘friends’ when you walk away, and the same thing over again when they walk away. However, whenever you confront her, she somehow always convinces you that it never happened, or maybe you heard wrong, or perhaps the other people were lying. She always comes out looking innocent. And Divines forbid you date someone who she takes a liking to, because you’ll find yourself with a nasty breakup on your hands and shortly after, her on their arm. At least for a few weeks until she gets bored. Then she’ll come to you and say how sorry she is, and that she genuinely thought it was true love and how she never should have betrayed your friendship for him. And when you forgive her, and you always do, she’ll walk away smirking, planning her next bitch move.

Peryite: This kid is always sick. Seriously, it’s always something with this guy. He spends more time out of class than he does in it, which you can’t say you’re not grateful for, because he’s also disgusting. He constantly sneezes without covering his mouth, and in the direction of other people. He sniffles all the time which sounds more more like snoring, and it makes everyone gag. You’d feel bad for him, but you know he does it on purpose. He’s also weirdly obsessed with learning about plagues. At first, you thought it was because he was so sickly and might be worried about himself, but now you’re not so sure.

Mephala: The school rumor spreader. You have no idea how, but this girl knows everyone and their business, and she has no shame twisting it to her pleasure. She’s ended relationships, friendships, and even scholarships. Somehow her tangled whispers find their way all over the school halls. For whatever reason, her word is taken as law, and she’s an authority on everyone else’s business. Maybe it’s because she’s cute, or maybe it’s because her skirts are a little too short, but whatever the reason, she has a way of convincing everyone else that her word is infallible. Most people try to make themselves invisible to her, but everyone finds their way into her web of lies eventually.

Mehrunes Dagon: Mehrunes is the quarterback of the school football team, but contrary to cliche, he’s very disliked, to say the least. Even the rest of the team can’t stand him because of his anger issues. While he has experience and ambition, he’s just an absolute jerk for no reason at all. Even the coach knows there’s something up with him, but won’t take him off the team because he’s so good at what he does. He’s fairly well known as a bully and an all around asshole throughout the school. Divine’s help if the school loses a game, because when they do, he ends up smashing in lockers and breaking sinks in the locker room. Seriously, this guy needs to be locked up because he can cause some real damage, and you have a sneaking suspicion he’ll be in jail less than a week after his 18th birthday.

Meridia: Meridia is the class president and voted most likely to succeed. She’s the perfect school princess who always does what she’s supposed to, and makes sure that others do too. You know that outfit you love that is just a tiny bit out of dress code? She’s the one that comes up and says “You know, that outfit doesn’t meet the dress requirements!” a little too loudly in front of a teacher, and then smiles and flounces off. She’s constantly making pointless, boring speeches at the school assemblies and deludes herself into thinking people she doesn’t know legitimately care about her plans for after college. The teachers roll their eyes when she’s around, and even the principal is tired of this chick.

Jyggalag: This dude is OCD as hell. He arrives at school every day at exactly the same time, sharpens every single pencil he owns so they are the exact same length, and reorganizes his notes before class. Every. Single. Day. Every notebook he owns is color coded and even page numbered so that he could make an index, and his handwriting looks like a typewriter wrote it. He’s been hall monitor for like two years now even though the limit is 3 months. He also absolutely detests Sheogorath, so much so that a rumor is going around that he switched schools just to get away from him.

Vaermina: Mean. Just mean. No rhyme, no reason, just mean. She never says a word to anyone, but everyone has a horror story involving this chick. New to the school? She’ll welcome you by tripping you in the hall. Have a new crush that you think is going to ask you out? Don’t worry, she’ll help you by making sure you sit in water in the class you share with them and don’t notice it until it’s too late. Having a bad day? That’s good, cause she’s going to make it worse, and she’ll enjoy every second of it. For real, this girl is a real nightmare.

Nocturnal: The school goth girl. You’re entirely certain she doesn’t own any clothes that aren’t black, and she’s always got her headphones in listening to bands you’re fairly certain you’ve never even heard of. No one ever sees her arrive or leave the school, and no one can ever find her unless she’s attending a class. No one really even knows her name, even the teachers. She doesn’t have any friends, but she does have a weird occult following that obsesses over her. She doesn’t seem to notice or care. Strangely, things constantly seem to go missing when she’s around, but it couldn’t possibly be her because she hasn’t moved from her seat all period... Has she?

Hermaeus Mora: Ah, this guy. The know-it-all. Why does he even bother attending? He already knows everything. The teachers hate him because he’s constantly showing them up. His most used phrase is “Well, actually.” You know that kid who is constantly yelling out answers in class without being asked? Yep, that’s him. When he’s not in the library hoarding books like a dragon, you’ll find him stalking various students around the school who intrigue him, and referring to them as his “subjects.” You have a sneaking suspicion that he’s the one that has been using the lab supplies without permission and also the reason behind why the school banned animal dissection in science class.

Malacath: This dude could use some help, like a therapy session or maybe a hug. He’s rude for no reason, but only because he assumes you’ll be rude to him first. He’s constantly trying to prove how tough he is by getting into fights over, well, everything. He and his group of friends are exclusive and reclusive, angrily calling themselves ‘misfits’ unironically, and will only accept you if they think you’re as outcasted as they are. The rest of the school either shuns or ignores them, so it’s understandable. Rumor has it that disputes in the group are settled via wrestling match in the parking lot after dark.

Sanguine: The walking leather jacket. Girls fawn over this dude, and all the guys want to be like him. He comes to school late on a motorcycle smelling like cigarettes and drinks vodka out of a sprite bottle in history class. Don’t worry, he’s always down to share. He is the walking embodiment of “Screw you mom and dad, my band is definitely going to get big!” He’s sort of friends with everyone, and he can’t walk down a hallway without being a part of at least 8 or 9 separate conversations. Teachers can’t stand him, mainly because if he’s even a minute late to a class, he says ‘fuck it’ and hangs out on the bleachers until lunch, and he’s always late. His yearbook quote was “Life is too short for school, so screw it and drink it down and party it up.” He also has his own ‘bachelor pad’ and wants to move to New York and play guitar in the street after graduation.

Molag Bal: So, you know that guy that you’re absolutely terrified will shoot up the school one day? Yeah, that’s this guy. This guy is angry as all hell, and you swear he can literally smell weakness. If he ends up making it through school without ending up in jail, you’re fairly certain he’s going to become a serial killer. He just terrifies everyone. The people who have tried to get on his good side (you know, just in case) ended up making things worse, and they won’t talk about why or what happened. Chances are, he has a manifesto saved on his computer. He has this weird thing with Boethiah and you don’t know whether they dated or what, but those two really don’t like each other. Or they just really need to tension bang.

Clavicus Vile: You know, you’re not sure this guy even goes here. He’s always hanging out in the parking lot with his dog that they don’t allow in the school. He calls himself ‘the hookup’ and seems pretty cool at first. He offers to get you discount cigarettes, beer, drugs, whatever you need for cheap. However, it’s probably better not to trust him. Maybe it’s just a feeling, or maybe it’s the fact that your friend said the weed he bought from him tasted funny and gave him a panic attack, or maybe it’s because the beer he brought to a house party once tasted strangely like the swill that bars throw out after closing. Either way, you don’t trust the guy. He’s just trying way too hard to get you to trust him. He tried to offer you a cigarette the other day, but why was the tobacco white and fuzzy?

#Daedra #Elder Scrolls #THE DAEDRA #AS CLASSMAAAATES!#Sorry i got bored #tag yourself im nocturnal #sorry for the long post

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pinksweatergettingbetter · 6 years

Text

alright mothers an fuckers lets get down to some PL vs AA

alright so the last person who owned this game has 2 save files, one in the first and one in the third slot, both named chucky. one’s just past the tutorial, the other’s hanging around at some place called ‘knights garrison”

unnerving

i feel like I'm running into a creepy pasta

a work of fiction eh

oh fuck

accent guy no

wee woo wee woo, here come the doll people of Layton Land

oh shit

it’s fully voice acted. i wasn’t expecting this...

aw. i guess i cant do my voices... that stinks.

“fuck you let me sleep forever”

i love him he's so grouchy

true wet blankie

voice wise i like Nick’s but I’m not as much a fan of Maya’s

oh its not fully voiced! great. this is actually kinda nice– i get to do voices, and the dramatic moments have their own dialogue track

ok now that I'm done laughing about the Puzzle memes being very accurate, it’s time to see if i can solve a fucking puzzle

ok. im. already totally mystified. welp.

I KNEW THIS WOULD HAPPEN

once again my inability to parse things renders logic puzzles a bitch

it isn't helpful that they didnt detail the way the witches interact with the paths before submission but

(sigh) i knew the Layton sections would suck

not objectively, just for me because i’m ass at logic puzzles

my expertise lie in point and click adventures

his name is CAR ACCIDENT

carmine: I'm probably fucking dead pls help

layton: well i never!!

layton: it is my belief that you are in quite considerable danger :)

OH GENTLEMAN

WE GOT ONE FOLKS

do towns have districts? i thought that was more of a city thing

THE BOOK

YOU FOOLS

now, once again, i do know some details about how this game concludes, and i must say I'm really curious about how the fuck this all works if its not actually magic

EVIL BOOK ADDED TO INVENTORY

ok so this stained-glass window place is kind of like the logic interface? it stores all the things we’re wondering about at present..?

very howls moving castle-y

also i appreciate the fuck out of these cutscenes

Layton: ,,,yes, that was careless of us

boy this guy has cucumber coolness out the wazoo

the Trunk eh

hint coins are so satisfying to find

aww moving is so cute

holy fuck

that was one helluvan accident

...i really hope they dont count how many tries you do the puzzles

BUT I DID IT

EAT SHIT

OH OK

JUST SOME FUCKIN CTHULU SHIT

THATS FINE

boy people sure like hiding money in lamps

luke!! dont fall into diagon alley!

Luke: this is bad professor!! theyre getting closer and closer!!

Layton: ...hmm................

thats a magic cloak right there

“Isn't this us, Professor?”

“Surely not– my ass is not that flat!”

BADGERS

OMENS OF DEATH

oh here we go

prologue to the AA part

ooh haven't heard that theme in a while

camera: [pans up violently enough to physically ruffle espella’s very short skirt]

oh thems drugged eyes

its in all the animes

hmmm. so is this like a dual world thing where we exist both in our world and the world of Laborynthia at the same time or

ooh english court is pretty

dghfgsh i love nick’s voice so much

much better than Reigel

he’s just got the general feel of Phoenix down better, i think

a cargo of badgers huh

calling it now the badgers are full of jewels

this is straight up The Chipmunk Adventure territory

also i dont blame her for wanting something to cuddle after the shit she’s been through

eee he’s doing his pick-up-quirks-from-other-people thing

oh hey the save sound is the exact same sound as the original.

also thats interesting– there’s a hint system in place in the court sections as well

whoa i wasnt expecting that epic an objection for the first contradiction

also im not sure if i like this remix of nick’s theme. it’s orchestrated but its not quite as crisp as i’d like...

your chocolate bar sounds like a mouthful of chips mr smiley

johnny just has a pile of bars behind him with one bite taken out of them

i love this game but the decision to make the text roll off in this weird, halting way is making it really annoying to read out loud

MAYA WHERE DID YOU GET THAT FUCKING PIPE

“I kind of like living, thanks”

its ok baby nothing can kill you

“in my long, six month career

im crying so many good jokes in this game

whoa phoenix’s shock animation is a lot more violent this game XD

“This is my work outfit. It gets very hot in the kitchen, you know”

it’ll be hotter when you spill soup all over your exposed midriff and arms, babe.

...also is it really ok for you to be toting a meat cleaver around in court

“I may be short, but I’m well-proportioned! And that’s what matters!”

oh maya

“What does it matter which way she held it?” well for starters it would be impossible for her to hit you with it if she held it the way she did

“So the defendant attacked the witness holding the pipe backhanded...”

no, that just doesn’t work out, especially with her being so short. she’d have to be above Aldente to strike her that way, and even so it’s still an extremely cumbersome way to do that. You can only really hold a knife backhandedly

wait a minute

they’re

they’re pointing it out

they’re saying it IS bullshit, they’re-–

s-something that makes no fucking sense, ACTUALLY makes no fucking sense!

its not a plothole! they’re calling it out!

i... i think I'm in love

that poor eel

also phoenix is a sea urchin again teehee

fuckin’ knew it

chipmunk adventure.

ok so wow. this is really amazing. maybe im being extra-complementary cause i just finished SOJ but... wow. everything from the soft colours and gorgeous lighting to the excellent cinematography to the fluid, interesting character sprites, to the pretty orchestral remixes to the fun and engaging writing, to the spectacular cutscenes... its all just so excellent it feels like a friggin gale of fresh air compared to SOJ

and this game came out in 2012. thats four years before SOJ, and just one before DD, and yet the difference is staggering. i don’t know if its a budget thing, or if its the director’s fault, but theres just something about the animation and camera angles thats so much better. everything is so smooth– no character ever jumps from animation to animation– they slide into it naturally

and the slow pan-up on Aldente as she got cornered was pretty good at conveying a real sense of anxiety

plus, the fact that we don’t find out who tried to kill her is genuinely unsettling. PLvAA doesn’t need to be bloody or gorey to convey a sense of uneasiness or fear– just that lingering mystery of a fourth person– and where they disappeared to– is enough to give me the shivers. ...although it is 1 am and I'm prone to being nervey

i have only 2 tiny nitpicks, these being the sequencing of the music (cuts off very abruptly rather than fading away) and the odd way the dialogue halts all over the place for no reason

otherwise, sublime first case

ps- still love nick’s new voice. dreamy, if a little stiff

pps- espella you cant just leave evil books lying around.

#perusing PL vs AA #ooc

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