#sorry if it looks weird graphic design is my weakness

[shinydragon94]

updated my GLaDOS design after two years. it’s mostly the same as before but it just looks better now

#arte party #portal #portal 2 #GLaDOS #android GLaDOS #human GLaDOS #sorry if it looks weird graphic design is my weakness #portal fanart #valve

[kisskissbanggang]

The Sabotage of Simkung House - Part 1

[Stray Kids Multi Fic - 5K Words/20Min. Read - Lee Know x Female Reader - Non-Idol!au, Variety!au - NSFW/Smut, Plot - Reverse Harems, Variety Shows, Secret Hook-Ups]

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Masterlist | Feedback

This was your weirdest casting call yet. The assistant was taking the longest time looking back and forth from your headshot to your CV, and it was making you anxious. You could be doing better things on a Thursday night than get scrutinized more than usual. Finally, after an agonizing fifteen minutes of near silence on your end, the assistant motioned for the casting director to come over. This new person looked from the CV, to the headshot, to you, in a repeated loop until they ultimately asked you to stand up, turn in a circle, and walk around the room. You felt like a show dog, but relief finally came as the casting director motioned for you to follow, not leave. Was this your weirdest casting call ever? Probably. Would you pass up an opportunity to sign? Of course not. 

Yet another eager assistant trotted up to intercept you as casting led you down the hall.  “I got this,” he explained, politely shooing away the casting director and redirecting you into a new office. 

“Hi,” he greeted as he sat you in a chair, “so we’re glad you're here. I’m Felix,” he introduced himself, offering you a hand to shake before he sat you in a chair in front of the big desk in the room. He remained standing as he animatedly explained himself. “I’m the assistant for our executive producer. We know this has been a little unorthodox.”

“That's fine! I know some AV producers have really high standards,” you shrugged with a polite smile. You hadn't been shooting adult videos long, but in the time since you started you’d definitely had some weird auditions. None as weird as this, still, but weird nonetheless. 

“Right,” Felix nodded, “we were impressed with your materials. I'm already familiar with your work--” he blurted out before cranking back, biting into his lip as he blushed. You modestly nodded for him to continue. “--but I never realized you had such credentials otherwise. You have a very nice acting resume.”

“I've never needed both before,” you explained apologetically, “so I just left everything on there.”

“No no! It’s better than I could've dreamed of. I had no clue you went to school. And you’re bilingual? I thought I recalled you using English once or twice in streams, but I never realized--” Felix paused again, realizing his continued admission. You nodded for him to get going once again. 

“Don’t be embarrassed,” you kindly encouraged, “I’m glad you’re familiar with my work.”

“I am,” he eagerly nodded as he pulled some materials out from a folder sitting on the desk , “And we want you. So can I explain?” He waited for your approval once more before he launched in. We’re casting a new variety show. It’s called Noesengnam House.” The first piece of material he slid across the desk was a logo: a cheesy, bubbly text in front of a silhouette of a chiseled man with a graduation cap on. You raised an eyebrow. However, being enthusiastic was key to landing any gig, so despite any doubts you put on a smile. 

“Alright. So we’re focusing on smart, sexy guys?”

“We’re making smart, sexy guys,” Felix clarifies, and he’s so proud as he passes five headshots across the desk. You’ve always been puzzled by these overenthusiastic assistants, like they have a stake in every good idea so they have to be good. “This is like charm school, but for guys. The catch is they have to get equal marks in all their subjects by the end of the season in order for all of them to win their prizes.”

You got the smallest bit distracted looking over the faces of these five men, wondering how charm school worked as a concept with porn actors. “So the subjects are…?”

“What,” Felix suddenly halted, “not interested in the prizes?”

“I assume it’s money,” you flippantly shrugged, “so what are they supposed to be getting high marks in? I assume I'm working with them, so I'm interested in what they’re doing.”

It was Felix’s turn to shrug. Somehow, he apparently hadn’t predicted this. “The usual: manners, fitness, home economics, academics. They’re all secretly cast to have a specialty, so they have to work together to figure out each other's strengths and weaknesses.”

You finally held up your hands to formally stop him. “I'm sorry,” you politely apologized, “but I think I'm missing something. Where do I fit in?”

“Ah, that's the fun part. We cast them for variety, not for adult content. This will be their first venture.”

“For all of them?” You dubiously marveled, starkly curious how this would affect their performances. Almost no one was ever proud of their first time for more than sentimental reasons. 

“Yes, all of them,” Felix proudly nodded, “in our counterpart series, Simkung House.” He slid a new logo across the desk, the first crossed out and a bubbly pink text replacing it, with the silhouette of a -- no, really -- french maid tickling her duster under the chin of the man in the original design. The cartoon male even had blush added. You raised a sharp eyebrow at Felix. 

“Simkung? Who's the heartthrob, me or them?”

He jokingly waved you off, as if you could dare be so modest. “You, of course. They’re the stars of the daytime show, and you're the star of the nighttime show. Every good dormitory needs a housekeeper.”

“Daytime show?” You asked, backtracking. Your head was starting to swim with details.

“Yes. We actually have a daytime slot for Noesengnam House.”

“And so this--” you tapped on the gaudy pink logo in front of you, “is airing? On television?”

Felix slowed down a second. “Not quite,” he admitted, “it’s an online subscription for a well-negotiated price. Our clientele are loyal, and word of mouth has been our biggest asset.”

“So I just sleep with everyone.”

“Of course not,” Felix grinned, wagging a cheeky finger at you. “You’re working for a prize as well.” He slid a new graphic across the desk, this one a table of information. One row had a heart, the one below had a broken heart, and the one on the bottom simply had a question mark. The zeroes populating the prize side of the infographic made your pulse race. “Our five budding bachelors are all yours for the taking, but they can’t find out about each other. They each have to think they’re the one you chose. If you bed one of them, that’s 50 million won.”

Felix’s grin grew more wicked as your eyes widened.

“If one of them finds out about the others, you’ll lose 60 million won each. So control of information is key.”

“And what’s this?” You asked suspiciously, pointing at the ominous question mark. 

“That,” he explained, “is for added drama being incited. You’ll find out later.”

“So what if I get all five?” You asked, feeling a bit foolish for getting excited.

“Then you get the prize,” Felix said seriously, “There's 500 million won at hand here, but you don't get to earn any of your penalties back for anyone finding out.”

You felt a little nauseous. That much money could get you a modest house, and maybe a car, and maybe all sorts of things. 

“Where’s the contract?” You cautiously asked, not wanting to sound too eager. 

“Of course,” Felix nodded as he pulled out two packets from under his pile of promotional material, one for each show, “I figured you’ll want copies for your manager--”

“I manage myself,” you firmly replied to Felix’s surprise, taking the copies from him and grabbing a pen from your bag. You flipped through, immediately crossing out any transfer of representation and exclusivity clauses. You had to be able to work after this, and you had to be able to keep up your own streams on the side during production if the schedule allowed. Your pen paused as you hit something interesting. 

“What’s this about accommodations?”

“We’ve leased a house for production instead of making a studio more habitable for the cast. You’ll need to be accessible at all times given our schedule.”

“So my stream…?”

“Sadly, you’ll need to take a hiatus,” Felix pouted a little in sympathy, “but we’re confident you’ll find new fans. Now, are you going to use that pen to sign? Or do you want time?”

A miniature war broke out in your head over the prospects, but you quickly tried to decipher why -- the contract practically led in with the fact you’d get five million up front. That would help pay the bills in advance and settle some debt that had sat while money was tight. If you said no, someone else would say yes. You would meet new guys and network, and possibly come out with more money than you had going in. 

You signed. 

---

Felix wasn’t around on your first day on set, but you had his card in case you needed him. You wheeled your one suitcase to the front door of the handsome house, and an assistant immediately herded you to your room, further away from the chaos currently happening in the main living space. The bottom floor of the house mostly contained the impressive home gym, but appeared to also be where the laundry room and your room were located. You noted cameras tucked into all sorts of corners and crevices, some more obvious than others. 

Your room was modest, with a small bathroom attached and its own fair share of cameras around. It was cutely decorated, a little feminine with warm string lights and soft textiles, but not very personal. It could've been any girl's room, but for now, it was yours. Felix had assured you that the cameras in here would only ever be on at night, and always with a signal of one of the bulbs on your string lights blinking. You opened your closet to get a feel of the space and where you could put your things when you saw your uniforms set out for you. A number of soft blouses with coordinating skirts hung on padded hangers, ready for you to mix and match. When you opened the drawers beside them, you found pairs of sensible tights and delicate pantyhose, some patterned and some not. Thankfully, the costumes were pretty sensible. You didn't want to be parading around in a french maid costume, swishing petticoats in boys’ faces or bending at the waist to show off some frilly panties. If the show wanted you to actually seduce these men and do it with some romance and dignity, the modestly cute uniforms would work just fine. You did also bring some of your own clothes, something Felix so graciously insisted upon, so you had options should you grow tired of the same look. 

You unpacked and changed into a pale pink blouse with a black pencil skirt and some grey tights before heading upstairs where you were immediately intercepted by another assistant. 

“Noona,” the younger man politely greeted, “you must be our housekeeper.” You nodded with a smile in return, popping the first button on your blouse when the assistant held up a lavalier mic to clip on. He quickly averted his eyes as you threaded the cord down and around to your back, endearing you, but just a little. 

“What's your name?” You asked, watching for some sound tech to signal that you were fine or needed adjustments. 

“I’m Seungmin, noona. You can let me know if you need anything. For now, we'll get you to a stylist and get you today's pages.” Seungmin showed you upstairs to the attic of the grand house, a de facto control center just above the main floor. A stylist swept you up and sat you in a chair while Seungmin fetched your pages. As the first episode, you would really only get a short introduction with the other staff: a cook, and a valet. For some reason, these cast members didn’t also reside in the house, but you didn’t need to question the producers at the moment and cause trouble. The main cast appeared to be downstairs already getting set for their first takes, their voices muffled through the thick rugs placed on the floor on this level. A text beeped through your phone that you had stashed in the pocket of your apron, and you opened it. 

>How's my star? Ready for your first day? Can I get a picture? I have the big boss here. 

You rolled your eyes at Felix’s antics, but took a reluctantly cute selfie anyhow, even winking for the camera.

>Perfect. It's like your first day of school and I'm so proud lmao. Big boss says to tone down the sass. Clients are more into Hidden Charm. 

A heavy sigh fell from your chest. You were already nervous for your first real variety debut, let alone with the show tonight lurking ahead. Seungmin appeared right next to you, ready to lead you downstairs as the stylist set your hair one last time. 

The lights in the living room were a bit irritating and took a second to adjust to, but the room itself was great. The home was impeccably decorated, modern and smart and just cozy enough to not feel sterile. You were sat next to your other Staff cast members while the main cast finished up in the dining room, your introductions awkward and brief. An errant bead of sweat traveled from the nape of your neck down your back when the rest of the cast were led into the living room, tempting you to shiver until the crew was done setting up. 

You watched, distracted in the middle of rising from your seat when the cast filed in from the dining room down the hall, stretching and chatting as they took a quick break. The boys all had on some coordinating iteration of the same uniform, capitalizing on the ‘college boys in their dorm’ concept the show was toying with. First was Minho, a perfectly pressed crease undisturbed on his slacks despite filming all morning, and his sleeves bundled up over his hands as he nonchalantly entered the room and immediately took a seat on the couch. Next came Jisung, glasses gradually sliding too low and one end of his necktie a little too short. Changbin followed, looking down his long nose at a loose thread on his sweater vest, with Hyunjin right behind stopping him to fuss over it himself. He stooped down to see better and brazenly reached under the material to pull the loose thread back through before being prodded along by Chan pulling up the rear. Hyunjin straightened up, smoothing out his blazer and adjusting his beret before joining the rest of the boys on the long sofa, Minho now having scooted off to sit on a tufted ottoman. Chan casually rerolled his shirt sleeves and brushed a hand through his ashy blonde hair, opting to stand until the crew was ready. The assistant director stepping in to run down the scene finally pulled you out of your reverie. Clearly, your co-stars’ headshots didn't do them justice, but did they think the same of yours?

The scene was simple: following the round-table of introductions in the previous scene, the cast meets the staff before picking roommates. That was it, that was your big debut, and for some reason it was nerve-wracking. You and the staff all nodded greetings before filming even began, before you took your marks off camera. The boys were all polite, but none of them treated you with any familiarity. You would have to remember to ask Felix if they actually had seen your headshot before coming to set. 

Finally, cameras rolled. As the Seniors of the group, Minho and Chan led the discussion, but Chan was clearly filling his role as the show’s host. He spoke well, and with plenty of charm, but something definitely struck you as odd about him. You just couldn’t pinpoint what. Your cue snapped you out of your train of thought and you suddenly remembered you were nervous, just as you walked on set and into the irritating lights. The valet introduced himself first, and then the cook, and, to your horror… You forgot your cheesy intro line. 

What was it?

Amazing. Your first shot would require a reshoot, and it would be because of a flub. 

You momentarily floundered, opting instead to roll with it and improvise. 

“Hello, boys,” you beamed as you greeted them, “I’m your housekeeper. Keep a good home while you're here, since I'll be the one cleaning it. I hope you have nothing to hide.” You topped it off with a wink, and the boys all shared a momentary air of surprise. You didn't blame them -- it was awkward, cringy, and too ‘sassy.’ The Big Boss probably hated it. 

But the boys laughed. Actually laughed. The take finished without any more problems, and the stylist ran up to reset your hair between takes. 

“Was it bad?” You whispered as she touched up your makeup. 

“No, I liked it!” She smiled, reassuring you a little. In fact, the AD asked you to run it again the way you had, surprised you could improvise at all. The retake went more smoothly, and you finally allowed yourself a sigh of relief as the scene cut for transition. 

As the boys finally wrapped up, you set about your other duties. When the cameras weren't formally set and manned, the planted cameras caught plenty of action from the boys. The valet had it easy; he was come-and-go as the plot necessitated, but you and the cook actually worked. Your contract outlined that while the boys were usually “on” from eight o'clock to eight o'clock, that you were an actual part-timer during the day and working at night. You could “work” your show during the day, but you couldn't interfere with the daytime activities. If you were needed as a housekeeper during the day, then that was priority, and these bookshelves apparently came with dust on them. You set about dusting as the boys transitioned from their scripted work to more casual filming. They each gave you a look as they filed back out of the living room to get set up in their rooms. Some expressions were cryptic, Hyunjin and Chan especially, but some were clear, like Minho’s small grin as he subtly looked you up and down as you reached for a tall shelf. Not wanting to shy away from an opportunity, you smiled back. 

The rest of your day was pretty simple, all things considered. You dusted and swept and tidied up a little, but since all five men had just started living in the house, there wasn’t much else at the moment. The house calmed down considerably as the huge crew dispersed for the day, now resembling just a mostly normal home. You hung out and snacked in your room as you heard everyone eating upstairs, only emerging once you heard their chairs scooting free of the dinner table. At that moment, one of the bulbs on your string lights blinked three times and then turned off. 

You immediately straightened up where you sat in bed and cheerily waved at the camera. Felix had outlined that you would never have to do much talking if you didn’t feel like it. You rose from your bed, turning to fix the bow in your apron before heading out of your room, giving the camera an extra wave. As you turned to ascend the stairs, a figure landed right on the bottom step in front of you, making you jump with a startled laugh. 

“Chan--!” You gasped into a giggle. “I'm so sorry, you surprised me.”

“I’m sorry, noona, I’ll be more careful,” he nodded cordially as he briskly moved to step around you. You quickly took note of the basket in his hands. 

“Wait!” You jumped back in front of him. “You don’t have to do your own laundry, you know. Besides, you already have some on night one?” You held your hands open for him to set the basket into and he hesitated before reluctantly giving it up to you. 

“It’ll take some getting used to, noona, thank you. I just wanted to take care of my uniform and my street clothes from before I got to set.”

“Fair enough,” you smiled warmly despite his stiff demeanor, turning heel back towards the laundry room as Chan hesitated again before heading back up the stairs. Working quickly, you set about separating the meager pile of laundry and getting them started on washing before you returned to your original plan and headed upstairs yourself. 

Through the living room was the dining room, and beyond that was the kitchen down the hall. You peered in, spying a sink full of dishes from dinner. You pulled on some gloves and got to washing when your ears perked up at the sound of the kitchen door swinging open. Just like that, your assumption was right: someone had to be a late-night snacker in the cast. And, of course, it was Minho. 

“I'm sure you could’ve eaten with us if you wanted,” Minho slyly grinned as he pulled open a cabinet and peered inside. His uniform was swapped out for a much comfier number, a simple henley shirt and pajama pants. The thin layers hugged the subtle outlines of his figure and suggested that despite his casual nature, he still put in effort for his looks. He came away from the cabinet with a box of cookies and offered it to you. You smiled and silently declined. 

“I appreciate that, Minho, but I'm just the help.”

“Yeah, but you’re pretty,” he said bluntly, quietly picking the box open, “and I feel like we could be friends.”

You watched, quietly impressed with how cool Minho could be. He silently, nonchalantly took a bite of a cookie and offered you a bite of the same. Could you really say no to an advance like that? 

Sure you could. Where was the fun in making it easy? You spied a camera in the corner of the kitchen, tucked under the hanging cabinets. Stepping aside, Minho instinctively circled with you, opening your conversation up for the camera. 

“It’s only the first night, Minho,” you teasingly scolded as you leaned forward and took a bite of the proffered cookie, “you shouldn't be so eager.”

Minho surprised you again, his thumb instantly at your lip and cleaning off a crumb you hadn't even felt. 

“Are you sure you're just the help?” He laughed quietly. “You don't act like it.”

“I can act however you want me to,” you teased back, enjoying the way his eyes lit up at your little repartee. You locked gazes as you let his thumb caress your bottom lip, watching for his reaction when dipped your chin to take the digit between your lips for just a moment. You took a step back, leaning back against the counter. His turn now. Minho set the box of cookies down, a devilish grin tugging at his lip as he stepped closer. 

When the door swung open once again. You both rapidly turned away from each other, your hands plunging back into the sink and Minho turning back to the cabinets. Changbin blinked at the two of you. 

“‘Sup,” Minho cheerily greeted, “I'm making myself something to eat. Want anything?”

“Nah,” Changbin shook his head as his eyes darted between the two of you before settling on the box of cookies on the counter. He stiffly reached between you both and grabbed it. “I'll be just fine with this. Unless you wanted--?”

“No, thanks, that's fine, like I said, making myself something,” Minho enthusiastically prattled on, making himself look busy as he started facetiously searching for pans in the bottom cabinets under the counter. Changbin raised an eyebrow before shrugging, popping open the box of cookies and digging in as he left the kitchen. 

A beat passed in the silence as you both waited for Changbin’s footsteps to disappear, but you didn’t get a chance to say anything before you felt Minho press up behind you where you stood at the sink. You let yourself have a small smile as he reached his arms around you, grabbing a kitchen towel and pulling your hands out of the sink to dry them. His head leaned down over your shoulder, his breath tickling your neck as he took his time before you grew impatient. You leaned back against his chest, opening up your neck for him. Minho breathed you in and brushed your hair back, the impression of his smirk pressed into you as his lips brushed against the delicate skin. 

You turned in his arms, playfully pushing him back a couple inches by the hips, and he instantly stepped closer, getting on with it already and driving his lips against yours. His flannel pajama pants did next to nothing to hide his growing erection he was currently grinding into your thigh. You kissed him deep, readily spreading your legs for him as his hands searched you and played with the hem of your skirt. 

“Right here?” You asked coyly. 

“As if we weren't pushing for that this whole time already,” Minho chuckled as he kissed you up and back against the counter. He spun you back around, pressing your hips against the sink as he kissed and nibbled at your neck. “Say it,” he implored. 

“Fuck me,” you replied breathlessly, gasping as Minho immediately pulled your skirt up around your hips and bent you over the sink, his fingers dipping below the waist of your tights and tugging them down. His fingertips probed your dripping entrance from behind and you gave an encouraging moan for him to continue. “What,” you grinned back over your shoulder, “chickening out?”

“Sorry, I wasn’t expecting this,” he teased, “you sure you want it? You did say it's the first night.”

“Give it to me,” you said adamantly. Minho smiled back as he pulled out his hard length. One hand gripped your hip as he guided himself in, groaning as your depths took him deep. You squeaked out a surprised moan when he bottomed out before both his hands were on your hips now and pulling you deeper around him. 

You clapped a hand over your mouth to keep from getting too loud as Minho fucked you over the sink, his hips bucking hard against you as his length filled you up. Once he set a reliable rhythm, one hand crept lower, between your legs to caress your clit as he fucked you.

“I want to make you cum,” Minho gritted behind you, “tell me how and I'll do it.”

“Keep doing what you’re doing and you will,” you taunted. 

Minho seemed pleased with your answer, his fingers still rubbing firm circles on your clit as his cock drove in and out of you even faster. You pushed your hips back against his, gripping the counter hard as the refined angle helped hit your spot more consistently. Minho let out a deep groan at the sound of your quickening whimpers, the sound of you approaching your orgasm making it difficult for him to keep up his own pace. 

“Minho,” you gasped, “I’m gonna--!”

You threw your head back as you cried out, quickly muffled when Minho pressed his own hand over your mouth. He kept it there, his other hand still holding firm onto your hip as he fucked you through your orgasm and on his way to his own. You whined and moaned into his palm, the way his own desperate groans combined with his stuttering grip on you making you lightheaded. He came hard, suddenly, emptying himself inside you as he gritted out hushed curses and panted breaths. 

You both stayed there, connected at the hips before Minho pulled out and brought you back up from the ledge of the sink. It was sweet, the way he helped put you back together and kissed your cheek. 

“Thanks,” he panted with a grin, still catching his breath, “hope this won’t make anything weird.”

“Of course not,” you smiled back as you brushed your fingers through your hair, “we can even do it again some time if you’d like.”

“Yeah?” 

“Yeah. What’re friends for?” You winked, and Minho’s laugh was almost bashful as he playfully nudged your shoulder. His hand lingered on yours before he gave a cute wave and finally walked out of the kitchen. 

You waited a beat for Minho’s footsteps to disappear before you found the closest camera in the corner of the kitchen and gave it a wave and a smile. You finished the dishes and left them to dry and exited the kitchen, nearly screaming in surprise as you ran right into someone. 

Another assistant, blinking in surprised relief and taking a deep breath. 

“Well done, noona,” the assistant laughed quietly. 

“Who are--”

“Jeongin, noona, sorry.”

“Where have you been hiding?” You asked, bewildered. 

“Upstairs in the control room. I come in when the day crew leaves to help supervise in case you need anything.” He handed you a bottle of water and you nodded your gratitude, uncapping and taking a sip as you looked him over. He was an actual infant. He must've gotten roped into the industry right out of school. “Any other plans tonight?”

“Don’t think so,” you chuckled. “The show won’t be much fun if I get everything done in one week.”

“Sounds good, noona. You’ll be getting some rest then?” 

“Sure will.” You waved goodbye to the assistant as he crept back up the stairs and you headed down towards your room, making a quick stop to make a change over in Chan’s laundry for him. 

You stripped down in the comfort of your room, waving as the camera blinked on and you pulled on your pajamas. The sheets were welcoming as you crawled into bed, blowing a kiss to your viewers before the camera blinked back off. Your phone buzzed with a text from Felix as your eyelids grew heavy. 

>Good show tonight. Great start. The big boss loved it. Can you wear the dark blue blouse tomorrow? I want to see if it looks better than the pink. And don't make tonight a habit. We gotta keep things interesting. ;)

You sighed, now suddenly curious how you would “keep things interesting” between all five boys and wondering who would be next. 

#skzsmutnet #stray kids smut #stray kids fanfic #stray kids fanfiction #lee know smut #lee know #lee minho #stray kids minho #kpop smut #kpop fanfiction #stray kids scenarios #stray kids imagines

[blackevermore]

x Secrets of The Lake: The Company of Misery and Pain

{ Chapter 4: Slight Nsfw }

Summary: Vladimir Masters’ family tree has always been tainted by secrets swept under the rug. From generation to generation there have been countless reasons the Masters’ family had seemed to keep private from the public. Even to this day, Vladimir was no exception. But what was one to do when a restless spirit from the settlement years finally breaks free from restraints and demands you answer for your ancestor’s crimes? Vladimir doesn’t know. However, Clockworks does.

Notes: We just having fun, rewriting some of the canon, new adventure new characters. I will apologize now for any grammar, spelling, weird sentence structuring in advance. My brain writes faster than my fingers and even when I go back through to reread it I still miss things. Sorry about that!

Word Count: 3730

P.s: the nsfw is only in the beginning but it ends in stabbing like nothing graphic. Also would anyone like to be tagged when i update?

He doesn’t remember how he got here, or even where here was but it was familiar and felt like home. It was warm by the fire that lit up the room in feverish reds and oranges. He could feel his body gaining back its energy and his core being restored the longer the warmth surrounded him. In the comfortable bliss, he didn’t notice the pair of arms snaking across his torso until they were wrapped around his neck. His eyes shot open but he was quickly buried in the shallow of someone’s neck in a strong embrace. That’s when he felt the pressure of a body on top of his pushing down. He hadn’t registered the rocking motion against his hips until he heard the broken moan in his ear. Who? It was like a siren's call that made him clasp his hands on the body atop of him. He doesn’t remember how any of this started nor did he care to stop it. The pleasure he felt was intoxicating and drowned out all of his logical senses telling him to stop. He clung to her breathlessly as he felt his chest start to burn, he was now chasing this ghostly high throughout his entire body. 

“Vlad…” The voice called his name in desperation, begging him to continue and singing for all those to hear. Her voice was all he ever wanted to hear, yet he had never heard her like this at all. What? Nails dug into his shoulders and down his back leaving trails of red tracks and intricate designs. It stung like lashes but it fueled him even more as he shifted to bite her neck. Her cry sounded more surprised than pleasurable which worried him for some reason. Before he could pull away to ask if she was alright she pulled him in again and slammed down at just the right angle to distract him once more. 

“Fu-fiddlesticks,” He caught himself saying and pulled her down against him as close as possible. He hadn’t felt this in god knows how long and he refused to allow it to fade away. Once again her nails found his back and circled around his left shoulder blade. It tickled a bit and he chuckled into her, daring to take another bite of her lovely dark skin. 

Vlad had very much given in to this fantasy of whoever he had with him. Surely, there was no harm in enjoying a fit of passion in comfortable privacy. The hands around his neck now played in his hair combing out soft tangles. But when their hand pulled back with a few loose strands he peeked and saw how dark they were. ‘My hair hasn't been that way since-’ his thoughts were cut short as he felt the jerking motion of his body as the hilt of a blade buried itself inside him. Then followed a burning, searing heat pooling and dripping down before pain came from just under his left shoulder.

Vlad shot up from the bed choking back a scream of utter pain as his back still felt attacked. He was sweating and panting as he stumbled to get out of the bed and head towards the adjacent bathroom. He made it to the mirror and looked himself over. He looked exhausted, his long silver hair was a mess as it hung into what was left of his ponytail and his eyes were lifeless. What left him speechless was a small patch of hair towards the right that had now turned jet black. He fumbled with the strands mesmerized and very confused. He hadn’t seen the darkness of his hair in almost 24 years, yet here it was. Vlad’s head began to hurt as everything that had happened flashed across his mind. He was nearly torn apart and crumbled down to nothing, Vlad knew what it was like to be badly beaten but never to the brink of existence. He gripped onto the sink to steady himself when he felt the sudden weakness in his legs. 

He knew he passed out which meant Danny was the one to drag him all the way back home. Vlad felt embarrassed having to think about the young hero having to do so. After a moment of finding the strength to stand on his own again, Vlad pushed off the sink and headed towards the door of the room. He much preferred to be in the comforts of his own bedroom than the guest room. At this moment, Vlad cursed himself for being a rich bastard, the halls seemed to almost go on for miles. He had thought about trying to turn into Plasmius to hurry the journey along but he knew his powers were still in recovery. He was stuck in his normal human form until otherwise. When he finally made it to his room he heard talking coming a few doors down where Danielle’s room was. Who in the world was in his house? That’s when it hit him he was supposed to pick up Dani from Danny’s. Had Danny brought her home? Vlad slowly made his way towards the door and slowly pushed it open. Expecting Dani to be on her bed doing whatever she liked doing. Vlad found Danny instead looking out her window on the phone.

“Yeah no, Dani has to stay with me until all this is dealt with, not that she minds it. But Vlad still hasn’t woken up and it’s been three days and when he does I don’t think he’s going to be in the best of moods.” Three days? He had been unconscious for three days? Vlad swore it felt like a couple of hours from the time he fainted to now. He gripped his head when it started to pound again. Danny's ghost sense flew from his mouth and he turned around. “Hey, I gotta go, yeah he just woke up and the last thing I need is him dying on the floor. Talk to you later guys.” Danny hung up the phone and crossed his arms.

He gave Vlad a weak smile, “Welcome back to the land of the living, feel like shit?”

“Language,” was all Vlad could retort with before he pulled back out of the room and headed towards his. Danny followed but had never actually been in Vlad’s bedroom before. He felt like he was invading privacy but if this was where they were going to talk, fine by him. Danny should have known it would be a mini apartment but he wasn’t expecting the gothic-like interior. Sam would feel like the dark goddess she was in this room and it made him snicker. Vlad sat in an armchair in front of an unlit fireplace and slumped down to get more comfortable. Danny frowned, sympathetic to the situation, he had been there before, he took the chair next to Vlad and waited for the other to speak first.

“Where do we even begin?” Vlad grumbled before dragging a hand down his face.

“Maybe with what Clockwork told you,” Danny answered. Vlad only nodded and forced himself to sit up straight and take a more proper position before he told Danny everything. Danny really wanted to crack a joke, tell Vlad that’s what he gets for all the years going after his mom, mock him for breaking a heart he knew nothing about, however, Danny kept silent and only nodded along. Vlad took long pauses between his explanations and side rambles when he felt himself getting worked up. It was just a lot to take in.

“So… do’ya know which ancestor she might be linked to?” Danny could see it on Vlad’s face the man was just as clueless as he was back at the lake.

“No idea, like I told you my family stayed in Europe the whole time then settled in Russia. I'm a second generation American, there would be no point in my family owning a servant of African descent in the German empire then losing everything and going to Russia. None of this makes sense.” Vlad’s brows knitted together and he mumbled a few curses under his breath.

“Maybe there was an ancestor that came overseas during the Mayflower or whatever and they never went back. So like now you have this distant relative that your family never kept up with and they did something bad and BAM angry ghost.” Danny could admit he was a bit dramatic with his explanation, the hands in the air waving back and forth near the end was a bit much. But he had a point, a strong point, those that went overseas tended to be forgotten by the main family if the root of the tree stayed put. Vlad had many cousins he knew nothing about simply because they lived in other European countries. This didn’t feel like a distant cousin ancestor problem though, Vlad could feel that it was heavily tied to his main bloodline.

“I would agree with you, Daniel, but something tells me this is more within my family than some twice removed cousin.” Vlad looked up at the boy weakly. Danny huffed and nodded before propping his chin upon his hand. “I have access to my complete family records,” Vlad began again which made Danny perk up a bit. “I could try to trace back and see if anyone had travelled over during that time and had maybe gone back. I heavily doubt it but right now that’s all we have.”

“Better than nothing.” Danny tried to sound optimistic but he knew it failed. Vlad only nodded in agreement before staring off into the distance once again thinking. His thoughts were clouded between checking his family records but also the dream he had earlier. Danny felt the room become uncomfortably silent and knew it was time to leave Vlad alone.

As Danny got to his feet he scratched the back of his head and asked, “So do you need anything? I’ve kinda been babysitting you while you've been out, but don’t expect me to wear some butler outfit.” Vlad lightly chuckled and it made Danny feel a bit better.

“You can’t even tie a tie without throwing a fit, but anyways no I’m fine, you may go, Daniel.”

“M’kay. Let me know what you find.” Danny turned ghost and shot through the floor to get to Vlad’s portal so he could get back home. Vlad watched him leave then sighed before snapping his fingers for a ghost maid to appear. 

“Yes, Master?”

“Something heavy, no ice.” Vlad gave his order and the maid was fading away to retrieve it. A drink, a drink was what he needed even if his body was still in recovery.

#📖Ghost Stories👻 #vlad masters #danny phantom #my writing #self ship community #Secrets of The Lake #dp fanfic

[cara-terra-pace]

Rich Neighbors Au Part 3: Bye Bye Miss Parisian Pie

Part 1 Part 2 The Gabrieling Procrastination Art Rich Neighbors Vine Animatic

-Oh my watermelon kids

-they are finally in America!!!

-First stop: Trash City!

-oops sorry NYC, sorry, they just sound the same when I say them out loud so I get them confused sometimes :)

-(I’m kidding New Yorkers don’t kill me please)

-okay, okay, getting off topic.

-so they’re in New York

-they’re just kind of wandering and they end up running into the Elmos.

-Mari was almost pulled into a hug with one and Felix had to drag her out of the way, saving her from the creep

-they then immediately booked it to a restaurant, hoping that would give them a bit of a reprieve.

-Hard Rock Cafe was the one they picked, Nino’s choice, obviously.

-Marinette gushed over the mini milkshakes for like ten minutes.

-someone ended up recognizing them. They took a picture, posted it on twitter and now BOOM

-every single one of their fans and customers know exactly where they are.

-but ANYWAY

-they’re in nyc, why not go to a broadway show?

-Six. They go to see Six. Don’t @ me, I like six and I thought Marinette and Nino would both enjoy it

-Mari is LIVING for their outfits.

-Nino is also loving every minute.

-They’re in the front and Nino is basically grinning the whole show but during Heart of Stone you can see him tear up a bit.

-Felix actually enjoys it. He shoves all the thoughts of historical inaccuracies out of his head and mostly just listens to Mari ramble about the outfits.

-Adrien vibes with Seymour honestly. And Parr. And basically all the queens.

-Nathalie likes the show too, mostly because it’s a nice break for her and the songs are pretty catchy too

-for Mega Six, Mari is filming and all the queens look directly into her camera

-they also take it and dance on stage with her phone, filming everything

-Mari is about to faint. Doesn’t matter that she’s technically famous, she is DEAD

-they don’t see her face when they take and give back the phone so when she comes backstage afterwards with the gang, at first they just recognize her hair and see her as the girl who was filming the Mega Six

-then they see her face and the costume designer is trying so hard not to squeal, oblivious to the fact that she’s doing the exact same thing.

-Mari is absolutely gushing to them about how great the show was

-She tells Parr that her song was what kept her going in school, since she’s listened to the Broadway and West End soundtracks about a billion times. (Pretend like the broadway one is already out time is a construct with rich people)

-side note, they post the pictures and video and suddenly A BUNCH of Six fans are now following Mari and now Mari is designing outfits inspired by the queens because AH THE COSTUMES ARE GORGEOUS I COULD TALK ABOUT THEM FOR DAYS I LOVE THEM SO MUCH

-fun fact, they are all wearing a “If Found, Please Return to Nathalie” shirt

-Felix is adorable and bought Mari some hair pins with watermelons because Watermelon Kids

-yes Nathalie has a shirt that says “I’m Nathalie”

-they actually did lose Adrien and these two girls were able to return him to Nathalie and they all took a pic with them and followed the two on Twitter

-they don’t know what else to do in New York, so they just make their way down to...

-New Jersey!

-Seaside Boardwalk!!

-they mostly stick to the arcades, Mari sticking to casino pier, and them getting fries and lemonade as a snack.

-they spend the night at the boardwalk, going on a few rides like Moby Dick, and Pirate’s Cove.

-they spend the night at a house of a friend of Tom Dupain’s and the next day, they go to the Ocean County mall because it was close to the house.

-Adrien complained a bit about going to “the least cool mall in the state” but stopped when he found a five below at the plaza.

-five below is his weakness.

-mall, fun, yada yada yada

-bath and body works is inside? Mari’s in heaven.

-Friendly’s for lunch! Ice cream all around my friends!

-that afternoon they go to laser tag and completely dominated.

-Twins on one team, Watermelon Kids on the other.

-for some reason (the reason is called because I said so) they decide to go down to another boardwalk further south.

-on the way they go to lobster house for lunch (lobster house is amazing I don’t even really like it for the food it’s just the VIBES. they are. immaculate.)

-they go to Wildwood and ohhh

-Nino and Adrien are living it up on the rides

-rollercoaster, log flume, submarine ride slash game thingy!

-they’re doing it all

-and Felix and Mari are being so cute and domestic winning each other things at the games

-and then the arcade, where Felix is hopeless at Skeeball and ends up slipping and Mari helps him up while trying not to laugh

-can I just say that I think Mari is probably really good at claw machines?

-she has some weird sort of luck when she’s playing and she’ll always end up winning a prize

-they spend the night at a cute little hotel and the next day they go mini golfing

-now this is where Felix for some reason shines

-Mari keeps losing her golf ball and having to go search for it

-Adrien and Nino are both mediocre at it.

-Adrien got a hole in one and he and Nino screamed and Nino picked him up and spun him around

-they also got ice cream at said mini golf place

-Khor’s is just...*chefs kiss*. They all got the orange and vanilla swirl because I said so and it’s a Khor’s classic

-Felix picks an Italian place for dinner that night. It’s called Little Italy and it’s pretty good.

-and, that’s a wrap for New Jersey! Next...

-alllll the way down to.... North Carolina!

-they spend only a day in North Carolina, but they do go to these caves.

-and also, this place with food that’s mainly made of... alligator?

-basically, it’s a rest day.

-Mari gets SUPER inspired and buys fabric to make a jacket inspired by the caves and honestly it’s gorgeous because she used not only the tan of the rocks, but the beautiful blues of the water.

-NATHALIE BREAK

-she’s so tired but she’s having so much fun with her boys!!!

-she actually feels pretty well rested a few days into the trip.

-Nathalie can’t help but fuss over the kids

-and coo at their cuteness when they do cute things

-She and Mari always share a room

-and the three boys share a room

-Nathalie helps Mari do complicated braids because she’s super good at those and Mari can only do a basic braid.

-next!

-South Carolina!

-specifically Charleston.

-ghost tout ghost tour ghost tour

-“and this is the building where a dude saw the ship that held all his crops sink. He then proceeded to-“

-it gets graphic in that moment and Marinette is having fun but also isn’t a fan of thinking of... uh, head not being on body???

-pirates!!! They go into this cave thingy and see piratey stuff, which is entertaining for everyone because it’s creepy in the cave, which Mari enjoys, PIRATES, which Adrino enjoys, and history for the grumpy Felix

-it’s quiet and everyone’s happy, which Nathalie is living for.

-they mostly just walk around looking at pretty things the next day

-rainbow row rainbow row

-Mari is so inspired that she buys a cheap sketchbook from target just so she can get all these ideas down

-she desperately wants to sew but she has to wait since they don’t have access to a sewing machine.

-so, they eat at a sandwich shop before hitting the road.

-they make a quick stop in Georgia, laugh at a sign that lists the marvel movies made in Georgia, then leave.

-(sorry Georgia. I’m sure you’re a very nice state but I’ve had limited interaction with the state besides passing through and sometimes stopping to eat lunch.)

-this is the thing they’re very excited for!!!

-Florida!

-specifically, Orlando

-that’s right, DISNEY WORLD.

-they are spending a whole week here.

-that’s right, 7 days of fun.

-day 1, animal kingdom because they get there in the afternoon and there isn’t as much they want to see in animal kingdom. They have loads of fun though and are planning on dropping by another day for the first half of the day.

-next day is Magic Kingdom

-they go on so many rides.

-small world is Adrien’s favorite ride, don’t @ me.

-Casey’s Corner is where they get lunch because Mari loves the aesthetic.

-MINNIE EARS ALL AROUND

-Marinette has a different one for every outfit

-Aristocats ears!!!

-she can’t explain why she loves it, she just DOES.

-for their last day (yeah this is out of order but who cares) they park hop, ending in magic kingdom and staying for the fireworks. Our favorite designer wears these lovely light up ears

-when they went to animal kingdom on the first day you KNOW Mari had some cute ears

-shh don’t tell the boys and Nathalie but Felix actually asked Mari to be his girlfriend when they were in Hollywood studios

-they walked off together, and sat on a bench somewhere sharing a snack

-our extra boy asked if she could be his girlfriend with matching beauty and the beast rings

-Mari said yes and she smiled soooo much.

-it’s kind of hard to explain everything so let’s just talk about the interesting stuff!!

-Marinette VIBES with the princesses oh my god

-TIANA INSPIRED OUTFIT PLEASE

-Disney is V fun but... sorry boys, it’s time for Marinette to get some sewing done! (Also I’m kind of bored of writing Disney this took several weeks bc I would write like a sentence a day lol)

-CALIFORNIA TIME

-they do go for one day in Disneyland but most of it’s spent going to get some inspiration for Mari.

-fabric stores fabric stores.

-that girl is sketching and coming up with ideas like her life DEPENDS ON IT

-inspiration explosion

-also some normal Knick knack shopping, so Mari gets some time away from staring down at her tablet and sketchbook.

-resting and just going to try all different sorts of normal, causal restaurants

-living the life

-also, Felix and Mari go on their first date. I say first date Very Loosely because it’s actually them sitting in Mari’s hotel room eating pizza and watching a movie and though they both consider it a date, they want to have a cute, cliche first date when they back home.

-Speaking of home...

-They are about to fly back to Paris when they get a message from Jess, one of the girls who found Adrien in NY.

-It was a message from her asking if she could check her latest tweet.

-it was a recording of Jess playing guitar, the song (an instrumental version of Miraculous but slightly modified) being wonderfully sweet. Aeon, the other girl, was also in the video, humming along to Jess. At the end, Jess dedicated the video the them and they both gushed about how nice they were in person and that both of them had waited until they had the arrangement ready before they posted it on social media.

-it thawed even Felix’s icy heart.

-and as they flew back to Paris, Nathalie couldn’t help but think of what a perfectly wonderful trip it had been. Minus... the accidents.

-But there’s no need to talk about that here.

-They reach Paris safe and sound, and Marinette takes a long, long nap right before she goes into creative mode and sews all the outfits she had sketched. Advantages of being rich, you know? You don’t have to worry about fabric price.

-While Mari was sewing, everyone else was also slowing down.

-And gearing up to go back to school

-*dramatic music*

-What will happen next? Even I have no idea!

.......

It’s almost like.... I exist??? Haha, but seriously, sorry for sort of going MIA??? I finally finished this, mostly by getting lazy towards the end. Yes, before you say it, I don’t hate NYC. It’s cool there, I just love making fun of it and the fact the special cam eout a few days ago is just pure irony. All of those links should work, so you can actually buy the Disney things I’m talking about! If they aren’t, please tell me so I can fix them. Next up is the Nathalie mentioned “Accidents”. That should take way less time because I’m going to go with the tried and true method of “Make stuff up and hope it makes sense”. I say should because you never know with me, I’m a mess ❤️❤️❤️

Tag list: @bigpicklebananatree @kris-pines04 @animegirlweeb @akana-sama @insomniac-nerd-posts-things @virgolioness @goblinwhoships @toastlover21 @buginetye

#rich neighbors au #miraculous ladybug #miraculous #adrien agreste #marinette dupain cheng #chat noir #chloe bourgeois #alya cesaire #ladybug #nino lahiffe #carapace #felix agreste #watermelon kids #adrino #ml felinette #adrien and felix are twins #felix x marinette #Adrien x Nino #nathalie sancoeur #Nathalie is tired

[jvnghxope]

I put a spell on you (m)

drabble/short story

◦ pairing: Jimin | reader (ft. Namjoon)

◦ genre: halloween themed, smut

◦ word count: 3.7k 

◦ warnings: sexual themes, dry humping, dirty talk

◦ abstract: Your best friend managed to convince you to go to the Beta Tau Sigma Halloween party and things get an interesting turn...

Never, in your most crazy dreams, you’ve imagined you’d fell in love with Park Jimin. The greatest playboy in town.

This is going to sound cliché, but you are a normal girl. You have good grades. You never break the curfew. You enjoyed going to parties (although you hated crowds) but never got wasted enough to do indecencies. You were good. But that didn’t matter when Jimin allured you to not fuck him not once, but twice. Like you were under a spell. Maybe that’s the same reason you accepted being his fuck buddy for the last 3 months until feelings got in between and you decided to end things for good.

"You are crazy if you think I'll go to that party."

"Oh, come on!"

"No," you repeat, glaring at your best friend, Lisa.

"Please, ___. It's just one party. It's The Halloween party. You know Beta Tau Sigma throws the best parties. You can't let a certain blonde guy affect your social life!"

"He has nothing to do with it. I’m just not in the mood..."

“Right,” she gives the ‘I don’t believe your bullsh%t look’.

“Okay, fine. I don’t want to see him.”

She tsks. "You can't just avoid him your whole life," she points out. She dishes up the scrambled eggs she made for breakfast and hands you your cup of coffee. 

"Not my whole life. Only until we graduate and I don't need to see him again." Yeah, you know you sound kind of pathetic.

"Sweetie, it is a Beta Tau Sigma party. There will be hundreds of people. You could meet a cute guy, dance a little, have some booze and get laid. You'll forget that blonde by the end of the week!"

Lisa has a point. Since you ended things, he is the only thing you could think about. You are a breakdown away to go nuts. After the ‘breakup’, you kept yourself busy with a personal project. But now that you have finished it, you desperately need a distraction. The party indeed offers it, but then again it is a party at his frat house. He will be there and you are not sure if you are ready to see him again. In the end, you accept, because no one says 'no' to Lisa and you need to forget Park Jimin.

It took you all morning and half of the noon to find the perfect costume. You and Lisa arrive at the Beta Tau Sigma frat house around eight. You are not surprised it is already packed with people. Seeing many people having fun and the music blasting from the inside makes you buzz with both excitement and anxiety. 

“What are you wearing again?” Lisa asks you and you do your best not to roll your eyes. You both are walking towards the main entrance.

“I told you earlier, I am K/DA Akali. You know, from the videogame.”

“Right, I’m sorry,” she giggles. You know Lisa is not very fond of video games.

“Why didn’t you put on the angel costume? You look bomb with that.”

You blush a little with that, “Thank you but I used it last year…”

Your friend is dressed as Gamora. It was a pain in the ass to help her paint her upper body green, but she looks stunning.

Your friend’s inquisitive eyes scan you one last time, “Well, you look bomb with this one, too.”

“Well, I am not using it because I look bomb; I am using it because she is my…. Nevermind.”

Your friend stopped paying attention to your conversation the moment the both of you entered the front door and saw Jung Hoseok, a mutual friend, waving at you. She isn’t even trying to hide her crush on him. Not a little. She flew immediately to greet him. You couldn’t blame her. Hobi looks handsome dressed as Leon Kennedy. With a smile, you follow after her. 

A bunch of your friends are hanging out near the kitchen and Hoseok gently poured drinks for you and Lisa. Then, he kidnapped her to the improvised dance floor with the biggest of smiles. They look cute together. You like Hoseok. He is one of the fewest boys at the frat who is genuinely gentle and friendly. Before leaving, Lisa winks at you as if saying 'It's your turn to look out for your man" and she runs holding Hoseok's hand before you could even glare at her.

You glance at your male friends. First, there was Seokjin. An art and theater major. He is really, really handsome. The type to make your knees weak every time he smiles at you. The bad thing is he has the tendency to date his co-stars and has an ego bigger than this house. So, he was a 'no'.

Then, there is Yoongi. A music production major. He is the mysterious handsome; the type to not let anything out (or anyone in) until he trusted you enough. He's been dating one of your closest friends for over a year.

And there is Hoseok, of course.

For the next couple of hours, you hang out with your friends; chatting, drinking, even having a couple of rounds of Beer Pong. Nothing out of the ordinary. After a while, Lisa dragged you to the dance floor. You are not very good at dancing but you don't care. It is fun and you are with your friends.

You are already a little tipsy and maybe that is one of the reasons you accidentally bump into someone, spilling the contents of his cup in the process, thirty minutes later.

"Oh my God! I'm so sorry!"

"Nah, don't worry. This is probably a sign to stop drinking tequila," he jokes and you can't help but laugh. He's cute. The dim light of the room doesn't let you see how he looks like but his voice is deep and sultry. "I'm Namjoon. Are you all alone in here?"

Your eyes go slightly wide and you just hope he didn't notice. How you managed to meet the leader of the fraternity beats you. Then you remember Lisa's words and the whole purpose of coming to this party in the first place.

"I'm ___ and no, my friends are…" When you turn around, Lis and Hoseok are gone. "...nowhere to be seen."

He chuckles, "Do you want something to drink?" He offers with a smile.

What’s the worst that could happen?

You shrug. "Yeah."

10 minutes later, you are both in the kitchen.

"So, let me tell you: I admire how you manage to lead 30 young men where many of them only care about how many times can they get their dicks wet,” you wiggle your brows and lean your arms against the counter.

Namjoon laughs out loud and your chest swells with pride.

"Yeah, it is hard most of the times but they have become my family. My brothers. I’ll do anything for them."

“That’s so sweet,” you comment with a smile. Now that you can look at him properly, you notice how handsome he is: tall, ashy brown hair, dimpled smile…

“What about you? What is your major?” he asks as he poured another drink for you. “Do you want tequila? or do you prefer something else?”

“Tequila is fine,” you reply. “I’m majoring in graphic design. My biggest dream is to design and create video games.”

“Wow! That’s so cool!” he exclaims, displaying his dimples. He handed you your drink and you take a small sip. “I hope you can achieve your dream.”

You look at your hands so you can hide your blushing. “Thank you. What about you?”

Suddenly, the kitchen gets packed with people looking for something to drink. Namjoon, to your surprise, notices your discomfort right away.

“Do you want to go someplace quieter?”

You nod and follow him out of the room. He leads you through the house. You've been a lot of times at the frat house, but Namjoon leads you through a hallway you've never seen before. He opens a pair of mahogany doors and what you see inside surprises you.

It looks like what you've imagined a secret society room would look like. Inside, you visualize a decent amount of people. Between 20 and 30 in comparison to the hundreds of people outside. There is a pool table in the corner and enough liquor in the minibar to satisfy everyone in the room.

"I couldn't help but notice your costume. Is that… Akali?"

Wait...

Your face illuminates as a Christmas tree. "You recognized it."

He chuckles and takes a sip of his drink as he takes a sit in one of the many couches.

"Well. One of my frat brothers is obsessed with video games. So I knew I saw her somewhere."

You nod. You know exactly who he is talking about.

"Jeon Jungkook. My Nemesis. Smart and talented, but he is not going to get my scholarship."

He laughs at your outburst and god, you love his laugh. It is then when you notice he is wearing a costume too. You were too busy drooling over his good looks earlier.

"And you are…?"

He is dressed like a Victorian boy but you don't recognize if he is supposed to be a famous character or not.

"I am Shakespeare! Or at least, I am supposed too."

You face-palm internally.

"Is that weird? I wasn't planning on showing at the party but my roommate convinced me. This was the only costume I had…" He scratches the back of his neck.

"No! You look good!"

He smiles shyly, "Thank you."

For the next hour, you discover it is so easy to talk to him. The conversation flows smoothly as if he is an old friend you’ve not seen in ages instead of a stranger you just met. It is like you could tell him anything. It turns out Namjoon majors in Literature, which explains the choice of his costume. You could discuss with him any topic. Literally. First, you start to talk about movies, and it ends deciding each other's top five based on argument, character, actors, and directors. Then, the topic changes to music and Namjoon confesses his biggest dream: being a lyricist. Then, the topic changes to Global Warming (god knows why), which leads to a Namjoon's speech about how we help the planet more not having kids rather than just recycling.

Another thing Namjoon was really good? Kissing. You know it the moment your lips attached to his. Or his lips attached to yours? At this point, you don't know who kissed who first and you don't care.

He starts slow, tasting the waters. There is no rush. You are content with the way his lips brush gently against yours. He is intoxicating. He tastes bittersweet, the combination of liquor and soda.

You are merely conscious about the song playing in the background but you swear you'll remember the lyrics forever.

But darling just kiss me slow, Your heart is all I own…

At some point, you end up sitting on his lap. The mood between you two changes. You start to caress the nape of his neck, running your fingers through his soft hair from time to time. He starts to massage the exposed skin of your thigh, sending tingles all over your body.

"Do you want to take this to somewhere more… private?" He asks, his voice deeper than before.

"I'd love that," you already feel the excitement starting to feel your veins. But of course. Your body also has to embarrass yourself in front of the handsome man. "Don't laugh, okay? But I need to go to the bathroom first."

Of course, your body chooses this exact moment to pee.

He starts chuckling, his whole body vibrating underneath you. "I swear is not just an excuse to run away," you promise him. Your cheeks are burning.

"You are sure something else," he murmurs against your neck. "Okay. I'll wait for you here."

Once you finished your business inside the bathroom, something really strange happened. Just as quickly as you opened the door, someone enters the room (as if they were waiting for the perfect opportunity to do so) and avoids your escape.

Your heart starts hammering rapidly inside your chest.

“Wait!” you yell. “Let me out first you perv!”

The newcomer doesn’t pay any attention to you and closes the door.

“I am going to call the police, you-! ... Jimin!?” you can’t believe what your eyes are seeing. “You scared the hell out of me, you idiot!” You punch him in the arm with all the force you can muster.

"Ouch!" He exclaims as he rubs his arm. "I wanted to talk to you but you have had company all the time!"

"Why you didn't come to me in the first place like normal people do!" You yelled again.

"I don't know. I panicked, okay? You've been avoiding me since summer and I didn't know what else to do…"

You sigh, trying to calm your nerves. You take the opportunity to look at him. He looks handsome on his pirate costume. With his leather tight jeans, white shirt, and boots. But that's something Jimin always does –he will always look handsome.

"What do you want, Jimin?" You finally ask him.

"I miss you," he confesses looking straight to your eyes and making you gulp. “I miss us. I miss what we had… Why did you leave?”

He takes a few steps forward, dangerously close to you. Instinctively, you take a step back. If he touches you, you are doomed. You are weak when it comes to him.

“I-I wanted something more and we both know you can’t and don’t want that. Compromise. Strings.”

Your words sound bitter and you don’t know with whom you are angrier: with Jimin because he made you fall in love with him or with yourself because you fell with a player in the first place.

“Didn’t you miss me?” his voice is low.

“No,” to your surprise your voice doesn't quiver. He knows you are lying. He knows you too well.

“You are lying,” a little smirk appears on his lips. He is so used to be desired. He takes another step closer to you. To your misfortune, your back is already pressing the wooden door of the bathroom. There’s no escape and he is so so close. His face is mere inches away from yours. His breath brushes the skin of your lips.

“I’ll ask again. Did you miss me?”

He doesn’t wait for your response though. He is already kissing you. Jimin is good at this. He knows how to brush his lips against yours with enough force to make your head spin and your knees turn to jelly. He knows the amount of time he needs to wait before he can leak his way inside the crevice of your sweet lips, taking your breath away.

“You look stunning with your costume,” he whispers against your lips. To prove his point, his fingers caressed the exposed skin of your abdomen. You shudder at the sensation. His hands snake down your legs and he lifts you. You instinctively place both legs around his waist and you both sigh when his half-hard member touches your clothed core. 

“Ah, I can feel you are already wet. Is it for me only or you’ve been having fun with another man?” He tugs your earlobe with his teeth.

“What I do or don’t do with other people is not of your business.”

“Hmm, is that so?”

He squeezes your ass with both hands as he thrust his hips hard into yours. You tug the locks of his blonde hair as you moan softly against his lips. You hate the control he has over your body. He drives you crazy.

“Then why are you here with me instead of going back with your friend?” You hate to admit it but right now the only thing you can think of is Jimin and how good he is making you feel.

“Shut up,” you say before tugging him by the neck and attaching his lips with yours.

This time, the kiss is more sloppy. Hungry. Teeth clashing, tongues fighting over dominance. Licking and biting. His hips keep rolling into yours.

“I’ve missed this so much,” he whispers against your neck, biting and kissing the spot that makes you moan loudly. “I miss how your sweet and wet cunt feels against my cock. How you moan underneath me when I hit spots inside of your no one else can. How hard your walls squeeze my dick every time I make you cum. I bet you’ve missed that, too.”

He builds a merciless pace, rubbing his member against your core hard and fast. It doesn’t matter you both are still with your clothes on. You can feel everything. Until now, you’ve never thought you’d be into dry humping. You didn’t see the point in that. But Jimin is good at anything and he exceeds any expectations.

“Moan for me, baby. I want to hear you,” Jimin murmurs as his lips start a trail down your neck. Jimin knows you are not that vocal. That’s why he loves every time he makes you scream his name.

He pushes your jacket aside to expose your shoulders. He licks and bites the skin there before arriving at your chest. With one finger, he moves down your top so he can have some fun with one of his favorites of your body.

You are so wet right now that your underwear is ruined. At some point, you start to meet his hip-thrust with yours midway. He is hitting all the right spots. Even your clit is having some delicious friction. Your hands find purchase on his hair, tugging the locks hard every time he bites hard your sensitive nipples.

His warm hands are resting on your waist, his fingers caressing the soft skin. His hips rolling against yours. His lips and teeth attacking your chest. Everything is making the knot inside your belly get tighter and tighter.

“Jimin, please don’t s-stop. I-I’m going to cum soon…” you manage to say between ragged breaths. 

He kisses you hungrily one last time, putting all his energy on his hips to make you fall over the edge. It only takes another hot minute before you do so. Spams overtake your body as you see starts behind your eyelids. You dig your nails into his scalp and he grunts. Jimin rolls his hips harder against your own. You bite your lower lip to avoid moaning too loud. You are in the frat bathroom where anyone could here you. And you didn’t lock the door! You stay in the same position while you calm down. Then, Jimin helps you until you can stand properly. Your legs are still shaking with the aftershocks of your orgasm. You even sit in the toilet to regain your breath. 

It takes the rest of the toilet paper and half an hour to clean yourself up. You look yourself in the mirror. Your pupils are still blown, your cheeks are flushed and your lips bruised with so many kissing. Your hair is a mess and your hat is somewhere on the floor.

“The reason I wanted to talk to you is…” Jimin starts behind you, rather shyly. “I want to be with you.”

His voice is too low you don’t think you heard him right. You stop arranging your makeup to turn around and look at him with wide eyes.

“What?”

“I want to be with you,” he repeats, louder. You haven’t seen him like that before. He seems… worried that you’d turn him down. Men like him don’t deal with rejection many times in his life.

“Why?”

"B-because I can't stop thinking about you. About us. And I-" he's having a hard time getting the right words to say. "You are not going to help me with this, do you?" Jimin runs a hand through his hair, frustrated.

You shake your head and lean against the sink, giggling. It is something new seeing him like this. Park Jimin, a man of words, is speechless in front of you. It is kind of cute. You clear your throat. You need to get serious.

“Jimin, a relationship is not a game. You can’t run away when things get difficult; or when you find a prettier or hotter girl. A relationship is a commitment.”

He takes your hands in his, “I understand that. Call me crazy, but I feel like what we had was everything but just physical. I felt like I could talk to you about anything and you wouldn’t judge. Like I could be myself in front of you instead of the persona I built for other people. I liked how that felt. I am willing to stop the games, the lies, and the one-night-stands if that means I have an opportunity to be with you.”

“Are you talking seriously? You want that?”

“Yeah.”

You try to look at any sign that could tell you he’s lying. But you find any. A part of you feels like you’ll end being heartbroken. But another part of you is willing to take the risk. Brave ones probably don’t live that long, but cautious don’t live at all.

You just hope you won’t regret your decision.

“Okay.”

“Really?”

He pulls you to give you a soft peck as a big smile spreads across his face. The type that makes his eyes turn into beautiful crescent moons.

“Really.”

He holds you tight. “What you have done to me?”

“I put a spell on you,” you joke and you both chuckle.

You give him a peck before opening the bathroom door.

“Wait! Where are you going?”

“I need to apologize to someone first,” you answer. “But we can meet at your room in 20... for round two.” You wink.

His bright smile is the last thing you see before you close the door behind you.

TO BE CONTINUED?

#jimin #park jimin #bts scenarios #bts smut #jimin smut #bts fanfics #jimin x reader #bts #story: I put a spell on you #jvnghxope

[kinsie]

Game Impressions from PAX Aus 2019

Wake the fuck up, samurai. We've got a city to burn.

Every year I go to PAX Aus with some close friends to check out the Incredible Future of Games that everyone else already checked out six months ago, along with some cool weird indie shit and some awesome retro stuff. And every year, I write a little diary of what I saw to share my impressions with my friends. This is that diary.

Doom Eternal

Okay, let's get this out of the way. I played Doom Eternal pretty much as soon as I got on the show floor. It may shock you to know that it is, in fact, good.

No pictures of the demo units, sorry, so have this big logo.

The demo started with a little grey-box tutorial map just to teach you what you need to know for the demo level, since it was taken from the middle of the game. It looked very Snapmap-y and had some Doom 2 MIDI music playing. After that we were given about 25 minutes to acquaint ourselves with the lengthy "Mars Core" mission they've been showing since E3. I was at the start of the first arena of the hell bit when I ran out of time. :(

Here are some scattered thoughts from playing:

Your standard running around and double jumping feels much the same as in Doom 2016. The dashing feels great, although I think it might reduce your air control a little afterwards as I had some trouble overshooting a platform in the floating debris bit.

Climbing walls felt a bit weird to me. You have to press E on the wall manually to grab onto it, which feels a bit unintuitive when you're plummeting past it. Also feels a bit odd considering mantling up walls is automatic. You can auto-grab onto walls if you dash into it, but I think it's only for the first bit of the dash? Maybe I'm just bad at videogames.

I think the Combat and Super Shotguns now use different ammo types? I could have swore there were situations where I could select the Combat Shotgun but not the SSG.

The Chainsaw now no longer has even the slightest pretence of being a "real" weapon. It's now just a swing animation when you press the button, like a melee attack, before bringing your weapon back up.

When you have the SSG's Meat Hook attachment, a little meathook icon appears below the crosshair. When you're close enough to an enemy to grapple onto them, the icon floats over them, indicating that it has some kind of auto-aim mechanic to reduce frustration.

There was a monster with swords on its arms that acted an awful lot like the Baron of Hell (might have been the Hell Knight, looking at the Quakecon footage of the same fight) but it looked quite different. Looked fuckin' cool, whatever it was.

The platforming but in the debris section with the giant floating red barrels was actually kind of frustrating. It wasn't always clear where you needed to go, and the climbable bits tended to blend in with the rest of the world. Then again, keep in mind I have a frankly abysmal sense of direction. Thankfully falling into the void just whacks you for a paltry five health and teleports you back onto safe ground.

The locational damage stuff is really fun. Breaking a monster's guns has a satisfying metal "PING" sound to it to inform you that the dude got fucked up and is weaker now, and that you should keep doing it.

When I picked up one of those "?" secrets, the pop-up box told me that they unlocked "collectable dolls" and "cheat codes". The former is vague, but I suspect they'll be like the mini-Doomguys but of more characters. I'd imagine the latter will be like in Rage 2.

Oh, and it looks a million bucks, too. Though you probably didn't need me to tell you that.

All in all, I'm pretty happy with what I saw and it's even more of a pity it's not coming out next month.

Not Indie Games, But Also Not Doom Eternal

The Vive Cosmos felt really comfy - the lack of cabling and the decent display resolution made it feel a lot more natural than the Gen 1 Vives I've previously used. The game they were using to demo (Audica), however, was pretty lame. A rhythm-target shooter that didn't really take advantage of the medium at all.

Bleeding Edge was not inspiring. It was basically the control point mode from TF2 or Overwatch, except every character was a third-person brawler with little emphasis on projectile weapons beyond the occasional special. It felt like someone making a claim at TF2 or Overwatch's throne several years late while bolting a weak character action game on, which is fairly odd considering how innovative and critically acclaimed Ninja Theory's previous game was.

Dreams is fairly fascinating in its potential. The creation tools weren't available in the demo build so I can’t really judge them, instead there was a choice of eight developer-made experiences ranging from Mario-inspired obstacle courses to videogames as art.

I didn't get the chance to actually play MediEvil, but I watched some folks play it and it basically just looks like the PS1 game with more triangles, with all the slightly wonky 32-bit gameplay that entails.

The demo unit for Monkey King: Hero Is Back had some utterly bizarre graphics settings for some reason that made it look like I was playing a JPEG file, with big whopping compression artifacts surrounding each character. Weird!

Not happenin’.

Indie Games

Grabimals is a brilliant local co-op puzzler where players roll around as shapes and link together to solve puzzles like catching a falling water droplet, crossing a gap or casting a shadow that matches an example image. Supposedly it's still a ways off from release, but it's already impressively polished (disregarding one hilarious crash bug we found by accident!)

Hamster Scramble is a really fun take on Puzzle Bobble, with platforming elements, team play and the ability to jump over to your opponent's screen and fuck their plans up directly. It's an absolute blast and didn't feel like it was almost a year away from release.

Fork Knights is a platform fighter with an emphasis on one-hit kills. The character designs are cute, but I can't really say the gameplay itself struck me, to be honest.

Baron is an eight-player single-screen local multiplayer dogfighter. Fairly simple mechanically, but pretty fun all things considered.

Broken Roads had some lovely hand-painted art assets and some interesting ideas like a literal moral compass, but the demo build showcased was waaaaay too early to be shown off to the public. Of the eight or so areas present in the demo, only two had any characters, interactivity or really anything other than wandering around set up, and the combat side of things was extremely rough and sequestered off to a side area as a "well, if you insist..." kind of deal.

Misadventure In Little Lon is a true-crime adventure game for mobile with a unique mechanic - each "scene" is integrated into the real world via AR, with characters (that resemble Poser models more than a little bit) speaking to you directly. Not sure if it holds up over an entire game, but it's attention-garnering at least.

Speaking of true crime, The Black Window tasks players with using an Oujia board to question Australia's first female serial killer, with responses taken from court records and letters from the time. The well-acted performances of the actual individual in question's words lends it an impressive atmosphere, which the booth added to with a big wooden oujia board type thing you could "type" on. Sort of.

ACID KNIFE is real, real early, but the aesthetic is awesome and the pixel art is great. Hopefully it grows and expands into something special.

The Vigilante Proclivities of the Longspur is an oldschool Lucasarts-inspired point-and-click adventure with a custom demo scene set at an oddly-familiar videogame convention. Pretty promising so far, but could do with a good bit of polish - I'm pretty sure there was only one sound effect in the entire demo, and dialogue was often lacking in punctuation.

I didn't get to play Hot Brass but I watched over shoulders and talked with the developers, and it looked pretty cool. It's basically a take on SWAT 4's rarely-imitated brand of tactical copwork, but with a Hotline Miami-style top-down perspective, but with all the characters abstracted down to simple board game like tokens - a circle with a coloured outline denoting attitude towards the player, with a weapon icon if armed.

Blood Metal... Blood Metal is not good. It is extensively not good. Development seems to have only started in July, so one can still hope that the bad AI, unsatisfying gunplay, buggy collision detection and complete lack of damage feedback (outside of some ridiculous, sight-obscuring gouts of blood) get fixed over time. The 80s action movie aesthetic and low-poly artstyle forces it to be compared to Maximum Action, which is at least a fun kind of jank...

This Starry Void is a real-time, tile-based 3D dungeon crawler set in an abandoned spacecraft. It seems pretty cool so far, but it could probably use some UI/UX tweaks. The attempts at a "graphic novel inspired" visual style for the environments could probably benefit from looking at how Void Bastards did things, as well.

Lethal Lawns and Beam Team are fucking arcade games with massive cabinets. In 2019. Granted, they're also on computers and coming to consoles and stuff as well, but still! They're both pretty simple games, and therefore best played in cabinet form.

Unpacking is a "zen puzzle game" by the developers of Assault Android Cactus about the second-worst part of moving house, unloading an unseen character's packing and getting a glimpse into their lives as a result. I wasn’t able to play it due to an unexpectedly-crowded booth, but the pixel art is quite lovely.

Feather is a chill game about being a bird and flying around an island trying to find its secrets. I tried the Switch port, which played alright but obviously (and understandably) toted a lower framerate than the demo PC.

Topple Pop is a cute puzzle game that blends together elements of Tetris, Puyo Puyo and that one joke game that was Tetris but with a proper physics engine. Looks cute, with a fun gimmick!

Shooty Skies Overdrive is an VR spinoff of the popular mobile shmup, and basically similar to that one shmup minigame in Valve's The Lab. Weave your plane, which is attached to one of your hands, through incoming bullets and enemies like a toy! The 3D effect on the incoming projectiles looks great, but they can tend to get in the way of the action sometimes.

Dead Static Drive has been at like the last three PAXes and it looks better every time I see it. I hope it comes out this decade.

Snow Mercy is a third-person shooter/strategy thing where you hunt down icecubes to spend on an army of snowmen to crush your opponent's base before they crush yours. Not a common genre combo, reminds me of C&C Renegade a bit.

The Adventure Pals has graphics straight out of mid-2000s Newgrounds and level design out of pretty much any european platformer, but it didn't seem too bad from my brief prodding at it. The player character is perhaps a bit too small for my elderly eyes in Switch portable mode, but that's about as far as my gripes go.

#gaming #paxaus2019

[rational-mastermind]

I’ve been meaning to make a review about Breath of the Wild for a while, but at least wanted to wait until after I finished the shrines.

SCREW. THAT.

I’m gonna just say it up front; it’s not one of my favorite Zelda games. I mean, yeah, I have a personal history with Majora’s Mask, but that’s not the only thing. I’ll start at the beginning, under the cut. Cause this is gonna be long-winded.

I’m not gonna make a lot of complaints about how it sucks in comparison to Ocarina of Time or make too many mentions about the timeline issue, cause we all know that it was bullshit since the moment they said anything. But there are just...so many things that bother me.

I will say that Breath of the Wild has a lot of great thing going for it and it’s easy to be impressed when you first sit down to play it. The graphics are gorgeous and the voice acting was done very well. There are so many wonderful little bits of lore, call-backs, and even general mechanics of the game that just made everything amazing. (I was so fucking excited to jump without running off a ledge.)

However...there was a lot of the story itself that bothered me. Not to mention a few other things. One of which, was the music. Or....serious lack thereof.

One of the things I loved the most about Zelda, was the music in nearly every game. Background music is very essential in making up the environment of any level. From your typical fire temple, to underwater, to creepy ghost town. And for Zelda, it wasn’t even just that, but that song itself had a large to-do with a lot of the lore and story. Song tells others you have something to do with the Royal Family. It changes the universe around you. It soothes the dead. Not just in Ocarina of Time either. So it was really weird to...not have any of that in Breath of the Wild.

Yeah, we have some soundtrack but..it felt so..threadbare. When you go into a shrine/town/battle, I barely register the music. Walking through the open field...nothing. When I’m galloping on the Lord of the Mountain, the fast-paced piano feels more high-tech than race-horse and makes me feel uneasy about a guardian lurking nearby. Then when you DO face a guardian, or any mini-boss of a monster, it gets so fucking intense, so damn fast, I was worried about challenging a Hinox for the longest damn time. (Geez, I felt stupid for that after I realized how easy they were to beat.) Everything just felt...off. And it was weird that you didn’t have to repeat any song 10 fucking times. I mean, yeah, I was really sick of Elegy of Emptiness after going through the Stone Tower in Majora’s Mask, but I’ll listen to the 50th remix of Song of Storms. It was like...one of the few things that kept the whole timeline thing connected. It was that there was always a harp, there was always a song, there was just...something that connected us to the higher powers. And it’s kinda cool for a game to give something like music, so much power.

But I’ll stop bitching about that and get to my real problem. The story.

Now the basic crux of it, I’m fine with. They attempted to beat Ganon, failed, and had to pay the price 100 years later. Cool. That’s interesting. A nice premise. But gosh DAMN if the details don’t fucking trip me up! Let’s run through this chronologically.

Okay so Zelda, being the nerdy princess that she is in this life, discovers that yeah, they reincarnate every several hundred years and beat an evil known as Ganon. There’s supposed to be her, the physical embodiment of the goddess Hylia, and Link, a young knight sworn to protect her. Hooray, self-awareness.

Apparently, she also discovers that, what was it? 1,000 years ago, the Sheikah... the shadow people who are skilled ninjas that protect the family...built 120 shrines, robots, and massive weapons of terrible destruction...just to help beat this one guy that two kids and a magic sword handles on a regular basis. Actually no, I shouldn’t just say it’s two kids and a magic sword.

It’s a knight with a magic sword, three pendants, six sages, and the final seventh sage (aka the fucking goddess-child) that defeat the Evil.

It’s already upsetting enough that the Sheikah are stupidly advanced in technology (cause ancient magic tech from the gods is always the way to go...), and that the 1,000 year span makes the whole timeline thing confusing as FUCK (even if it is in the broken world timeline), but that they just...do that. They just fucking dissed the fucking premise for like, so many of the games. You find three pendants/orbs/stones/things, the master sword, six sages, and then help Zelda. Thanks for reducing everything else to nothing. Thanks for making 6 sages fucking nobodies. And yeah, I’m gonna harp on that.

One of the things that was nice about Ocarina of Time is that the 6 Sages became one from each race. In Link to the Past, it was the descendants of 6 powerful wizards. In Wind Waker, it was at least the last 2 other species left alive after the whole flooding incident (cause those three gorons are gonna fucking die and I wanna cry thinking about it). It just...it made sense.

So why. The fuck. ARE WE RELYING ON ONLY THESE FOUR????

We still have the Sheikah and the Koroks. What, just cause Impa’s old now? Cause the Korok’s are tiny as fuck? That never stopped anything before. We could’ve had Purah, or Paya take up the mantle. If size was an issue, how about Hetsu? Koroks can choose their shapes and try to put on brave faces. Saria was willing to help with the fight. Makar was willing to go through a whole temple to help. I don’t see what makes this generation a bunch of pussies! What the great and all-knowing fucking Sheikah just..FORGOT about the other sages???

Like, don’t get me wrong. Again, there’s a lot of good. I wouldn’t say gorons would be my favorite race but dammit I love Daruk and I love his grandson. They’re just sweet and adorable as fuck. (and I have a weakness for soft-hearted big-guys. ^//^) I’m glad they fixed the Rito’s appearance (though I hate Rivali’s fucking attitude). I liked their stories and their powers. But you could’ve at least rounded it out to be EVERYBODY. And further more, as great as it was to see their spirits put to rest, it doesn’t make a lot of sense for ghosts to pilot giant robots. It could’ve made a bit more sense for maybe the later generations to take up the mantle and help out. (Since that’s what a lot of them seem to imply.) It would’ve been kinda cool to go through the Divine Beasts with the Next Gen and let them help us fight the blights and let them take control.

Also on a fashion note: WHY THE FUCK IS EVERYTHING BLUE?? Thanks for dissing Farore. I guess she wasn’t a very important Goddess! Certainly not the one that LINK correlates to. Yeah, I get it, he’s supposed to get his signature outfit later, but I’m gonna get back to that problem in a bit. You could’ve at least kept the design and made it fucking GREEN.

Cause yeah, I get it, it was supposed to signify their unity and shit and that’s great and all, but BLUE had a purpose and that was WISDOM. Link isn’t WISDOM. He’s COURAGE. That was the whole rite of passage thing in Wind Waker!

Also, Zelda. Zelda, babe. Hon.

Zelda... What the FUCK ARE YOU WEARING???

Like, DAMN girl’s got hips for DAYS but do we really need the thicc shown in fucking leggings?? I mean, okay, her normal princess outfit is fine. Would’ve liked it to be a liiiiitle more traditional, but whatever. You look the part. And her normal adventure outfit is...okay?? It doesn’t look very practical nor comfortable for travels so it seems a little weird?? It just looks really uncomfortably tight and really draws attention to the thighs. But see, it’s the fucking Goddess getup that I have the most problems with.

Like, I’m just gonna start with saying that she looks fucking pregnant.

The empire waist wasn’t a good choice, especially cause she’s already just so damn thicc. And then you mix it with a sleeveless top and you have these fucking layers that just exaggerate the hips in the most unflattering way possible. I’m not saying she needs to look sexy but for a goddess, she could’ve looked more elegant? I’m sure with some kinda alterations, this would’ve looked great, or maybe on a different body, but like! I don’t like the dress for Skyward Sword either but at least she looks more goddess-like than this! (and that was a VERY boring dress...) She looks like Ariel putting on that sail cloth when she turned human. I mean, she could’ve had like, three-quarter sleeves with a v-neck or sweetheart neckline and then let the skirt flare out with the Hylian buckle around the waist. But this looks.. it just looks uncomfortable. I wouldn’t wanna practice goddess magic in this either.

So aside from forgetting about important races and a lack in fashion design, then you move on with the story. So since Zelda’s such a nerd and cause she lost her mother when she was younger, I guess that means I should feel sorry for her long-ass struggle with her goddess powers but um... I’m not. I don’t feel sorry for this woman. I just feel annoyed. I feel very annoyed every time I run all over Hyrule, trying to find these fucking memories, only to get five minutes of her bitching at US for her own failure.

Link is a soldier. And on top of that, he’s burdened with the heavy duty of carrying the Master Sword. HE is the one who has to fight Ganon. And instead he just runs around escorting Princess Twilight Sparkle while she geeks out over learning and frogs and then insults him, yells at him, and pushes him away from doing HIS FUCKING JOB. Unlike her, LINK IS DOING HIS JOB. I don’t blame him for shutting the hell up while she bitches and cries. I’m gonna side with Zelda’s father on this one, she found out about the prophecy, but SHE NEEDS TO DO HER JOB. Not for the sake of reputation (which seemed unusually dickish for him to say....) but because that’s her damn job. Everyone else knew what it meant to be a soldier. They knew when to dig in their heels and get ready to fight. WHY. DIDN’T. SHE?? Or at least why didn’t we see her trying like she kept talking about?? Yeah we saw her pray to ONE FUCKING FOUNTAIN. And it wasn’t even supposed to be her damn goddess! The whole mess wouldn’t have happened if she had just SHUT THE HELL UP and thought about someone else besides her own problems.

Also, if you were gonna show the tender moment where she finally does unleash her powers, maybe you SHOULDN’T make that a “secret ending” after you run around and try to guess where the rest of the memories were based on poor-quality pictures. And yeah, Zelda. you took a lot of shoddy pictures with that damn tablet. HOW ARE WE SUPPOSED TO DIFFERENTIATE ONE FOREST FROM A THOUSAND OTHERS??

Maybe I would’ve felt more sorry if I didn’t have to climb through a fucking castle full of guardians, avoid tripping the cut scene, and THEN read in a long-ass diary about her mother dying, but you know, that just didn’t happen. I don’t feel sorry for her. I don’t feel excited for her to unleash her powers. Actually, I’m rather sad that despite the games being called “Legend of Zelda”, I REALLY didn’t wanna focus on THIS incarnation of her. The idea of it would’ve been fucking fantastic, but did Nintendo really have to make her such a whiny bitch?

Okay okay okay. Now before you send me hate mail, I will point out some things I like about her. She had a nice voice. She was cute (in a good outfit). And she wasn’t a total bitch. It was a good idea for Nintendo to try to focus on the titular character for once. I just don’t see this excusing all the other problems though.

Moving on, I mentioned earlier how I hated Rivali. That was the understatement. I am so glad he fucking died at the hands of one of the easiest damn bosses. I know some people may have liked him but I can’t stand ego. It’s an immediate turn-off and the sad part is that he had a sexy design and voice. He could’ve been redeemable if he showed some kinda humility after being dead for 100 years, but no. They just...didn’t give him that. Not willingly at least. Again, this is where I would’ve LOVED the next generation to take up the mantle instead, but... Yeah. No. We didn’t get that. (And I swear he was jealous that Link had Mipha and Zelda’s affections. Especially Zelda’s.)

Urbosa was good, but I felt like we didn’t get to know her personality too much? And the same goes for her grandchild. Also even though the Gerudo are known for hating men, they HAVE accepted men into their clans before. What happens if these women marry?? They have to leave town? Link was genuinely accepted as one of the Gerudo in OoT and was free to walk around! And that was just for debunking their strongest warriors. BotW!Link saved the whole fucking town, saved one from dehydration and another’s husband, and is a renowned champion! You think that would give him a get-out-of-jail free card!

I already talked about how I liked Daruk cause he’s definitely a strong leader and a gentle-soul. I do like the Goron City but it feels a little weird how....corporate they became. I mean, it makes sense. They can make a good profit from the gems they harvest but it’s still a little weird considering how tribal and relaxed the gorons were before. Still, they were a cute bunch and I really liked going to Goron City again.

And Mipha was sweet and I really loved her one-sided relationship with Link. I felt really sad thinking about Sidon growing up without his sister and I see why everyone shipped him with Link. Sidon himself was pretty good but....personal preference dictates that a super excited, extroverted, supportive type...doesn’t suite me. Don’t get me wrong. He’s very sweet and cute and I can see why a lot of fangirls were into him. It’s just the over-exuberant extrovertedness that gets to me. Also I was really surprised that this game made the ZORAS racist, out of all of them. I mean like, fucking damn... I know your princess died but fuck! Finally, last note, I...really didn’t care for their designs. I know the Zoras have been through a hell of a lot of redesigns over the years and they’ve certainly improved, but I think Ocarina of Time’s era was just enough of Fish and Human to make it a good hybrid? Rather than making...a shark..humanoid...with another shark...on his head?? And somehow related to a whale??? With a...manta ray...for an advisor.. I mean, I get it, he was suppose to look old, but it’s literally just a stingray on his head.

I liked Hetsu too, though collecting korok seeds is kinda annoying. I hate it when games make you have to gather more for just one thing, it’s just..not a fun mechanic to have? And the koroks themselves are still cute, though it’s taken me a while to accept that they replaced my beloved Kokiri and Dekus. (I only had OoT/MM growing up, so when I finally played Wind Waker as an adult, yeah I was pretty upset about the change in the species.) I still wish they had a bigger role to play in all of this.

Lastly, Ganon had a pretty great design, though it was a little weird he was like...semi-solid for this game. Like.. What? What was with all the...”malice”? (Which is an actual word, guys. You could’ve called it something besides that...) I really liked how he merged himself with the technology and it was interesting that he was controlling the guardians, but honestly when she said “Given up incarnation” I was a little disappointed he still went by Ganon cause you know... His original form wasn’t called Ganon. It was called Demise. Also for having a giant smoke-pig with a huge gaping mouth hovering around the castle, it would’ve been a little more interesting for him to...still retain that when you walked in? But design aside, fighting Ganon wasn’t actually all that hard after you freed the Divine Beasts and it’s...a little disappointing. I mean, I’m running around, fighting lynels and dragons and guardians and really, I had more trouble with THOSE than I did with HIM. And that’s REALLY disappointing when Ganon is the long-standing Ultimate Bad Guy (tm) and I was REALLY looking forward to feeling more accomplished beating him than I did when I beat a silver-maned lynel.

Finally some last complaints:

I wish the Sheikahs didn’t have their hands in everything. Who said that THEY should determine who Goddess Hylia’s chosen hero should be? Why were THEY the advanced race when you have one that harvests iron on a regular basis? And I hate that they don’t have any actual temples cause one of the things I liked about the whole thing is that there was a running religion and the Sages and Temples actually had some significance? Even though it’s pointless, I like history and archeological search in a game, even if I’m the only one doing it for my own amusement, cause it just helps me to connect more to the world that I’m playing in but I don’t get that when I walk into a weird-ass abyssal room with small puzzles or fights.

Also there are seriously WAY too many fucking shrines. None of them make any sort of callback to old games. The spirit orb system is confusing cause if that’s a callback to Skyward Sword, then at least say it was by Link’s own doing and not these dead monks that have been preserved in suspended animation for 100 years. Why didn’t Link do the shrines to start with 100 years ago? Also I HATE that you have to collect 4 spirit orbs for hearts or stamina. I mean, we all know stamina sucks, but this just making it REALLY obvious? And seriously it was so fucking easy to die early on into the game, especially if you ran out of stamina or were still fumbling with the new controls.

Why didn’t he ask more questions in this game? If you have voice acting, why didn’t you actually give Link any dialogue? I think that would’ve made a stronger impact for Zelda to get her powers or something.

Seriously the three dragons bug the shit out of me. I know they were supposed to represent the goddesses and it was really cool to first come across them and shit but 1) it’s really hard to keep up with any of them. 2) they don’t really add anything to the plot. 3) was Zelda supposed to pray to a dragon?? 4) Did the dragons from Skyward Sword just like...de-evolve? (devolve?) Cause they spoke and wore clothes??? Why didn’t these??? 5) (and this goes to Skyward Sword too) why is the one who represents the fucking forests, you know, FARORE, have lightning powers? I think Pokemon already took the cake with mythical creatures representing Fire, Ice, and Lightning. This would’ve been better with Fire, Water, and Grass, y’know?

I fucking cringe looking at the map cause it feels like so much it just out of place... Like, how do you move a whole Forest from the south to the north? Why is the volcano moved like, way far to the back? The WHOLE Lake Hylia was moved like, so far from the original spot. Really the only things that stayed in place was Hyrule Castle and Gerudo Desert.

Also don’t give us giant skeletons and then NOT ACTUALLY EXPLAIN WHAT THEY REALLY ARE. Leviathan is not just a blanket term for Giant-Ass-Monster. Was that the Dodongo King at the volcano? The Sky Dragon from Skyward Sword?? What the fuck froze to death? Why was that and the one in the desert more similar the one at the fucking volcano??

Seriously your mini bosses shouldn’t be harder than the Ultimate Bad Guy. The blights were harder and I especially had trouble with the lynels and guardians. And seriously WHY was there a fucking guardian on the fucking Plateau?? I was fucking terrified of these killer robots and it’s seriously unfair that I barely ever get any proper armor or shields to deal with them! Also seriously, why did there have to be a whole graveyard of them right underneath a stupidly challenging maze??

Also I don’t mind teleporting everywhere in a game, but when there’s literally secrets over every last inch of this game (from shrines to korok seeds to weapons, food, and needed pictures) it gets REALLY boring to travel on foot. Especially when climbing mountains in freezing conditions. I mean, I love that it’s so open-world and I love that we get to go exploring whatever we want, but there are a few problems with that. The other being that it’s hard to follow the plot of a game when you hardly have any reason to go do it or to follow any intended order. I did Rivali last, not because I wanted to, but because I didn’t bother to explore that side of the map until it was all that was left. I WISHED SOMEONE SAID SOMETHING EARLIER IN THE GAME CAUSE THE GALE WOULD’VE HELPED TREMENDOUSLY.

Finally I swear someone on the staff has a giant fetish, and not that there’s a problem with that? But can we have ONE game where the Great Fairies aren’t horrifying to look at?? Like, if some people like it, fine, I guess? But gosh damn these bitches just look so GAUDY. There’s too much glittering, there’s too much...just too much everything. Also you should be able to up all your armor, not just a few things? It would’ve been awesome to walk around as Shadow Link and have it upped to be at least decently protective.

Okay.. I think I’m done complaining. Now I’ll stop my own bitching and actually give the game its proper praise.

The game does have some amazingly gorgeous graphics and it blows me away every fucking time. When it does want to intimidate you, it does so very well. And so many things were designed so well. Despite earlier complaints, I love how the dragons were designed to vary from one to another. I love how all the baddies were designed. I love the large array of wardrobe that you get for Link and it’s so much fun to change his looks and dye them different colors. (though, again, you should be able to dye the Champions tunic to GREEN.)

Some of the characters were fun and had some great personalities. I liked the bits of lore this game generated. I also loved whatever small callbacks it did make (like mentioning Naboru, and Makar’s island). I liked that you could catch and ride so many things and it’s fun that there’s a motorcycle (I haven’t unlocked that yet, but I’m sure it’ll be fun ^^). It was fun exploring different worlds within this game and just really see some of these beloved races expand and grow and see how the world is affected by such an apocalypse.

I like hunting for your food and surviving that way rather than random hearts coming out of the grass. The whole sense of survival is pretty awesome and thrilling. It’s fun to discover things in this world and it’s fun to just go around, explore, and make up your own adventure. (I just wish there was a bit  more guiding for the story...)

Some of the reactions in this game are so much fun. Like walking up to people naked, or riding the Lord of the Mountain to any stable. Actually that entire story about the Lord of the Mountain is really sweet and heartwarming. But the actually dialogue that’s written into this game is really fun and pretty spot-on.

I really liked the side mission of buying your own(old?) house and creating an entire village from the ground up. It was such a sweet side-story to the whole thing and was a lot of fun to to. The other side mission of helping the korok through the woods was super cute. ^^ It was little moments like these that really did make me enjoy the game. And I did like being able to stumble into Zelda’s room or study and read about her life in the past, seeing her figure out Link and such.

And the challenges of conquering the Divine Beast was actually fun, but again, would’ve liked a bit more direction. Actually getting through this game was kinda fun, but it was easy for the magic to get sapped out of everything with stupid shit.

Overall, I wouldn’t say this was the worst Zelda game. Heaven know Skyward Sword did much worse. It could’ve been better though and that’s what really makes me sad. I was really looking forward to playing something new and amazing, especially having just finished Wind Waker for the first time before it and was honestly, disappointed after the magic of the new features wore off. It wasn’t the best. But it wasn’t the worst. It just really needed some work on in a few areas. Over all I would rate it 7/10.

#Zelda #Legend of Zelda #Breath of the Wild #Link #Zoras #Gorons #Rito #Gerudo #Sidon #Mipha #Urbosa #Rivali #Daruk #Ganon #Triforce #Din #Farore #Nayru #Hylia

[wxldchxld]

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Unpopular Opinions as Told by Mary

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Ummmm Daenerys’ dragons look really fuckin stupid. Yeah. Sorry. This one isn’t going to be super in depth or really even justified by any arguments. I respect the Game of Thrones developers for going for it, and like the execution of it graphics wise is actually really impressive given its a TV show and all, but the model is so bad. Did GRRM make it? I really fucking hope not. From a distance when I see them in shots I’m like “yo cool” and then I see their faces and they look so stupid to me and it just ruins it. I’m really picky about dragons so this probably doesn’t come as a surprise. 

Also side rant, why is it so popular to give dragons a weird bottom jaw where it like, protrudes. They did it with Smaug and to a lesser extent they do it with Dany’s dragons. What the fuck is that modeled after? It’s not a snake. It’s not crocodilians. The only thing I can think is maybe some species of monitor lizards? And I’m only granting that bc I really don’t know due to the fact that there are a lot of monitor lizard species. Including this dope one that I’ve modeled dragons after on my dragon blog. 

I guess what drives me nuts is like I feel like there’s no originality in the design. I haven’t read Dany’s parts in the books but from what I have been told at least the coloration is more intense. There are so many species of reptiles, real and extinct, that they could have pulled from to make something that looked really cool…but they didn’t.

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The words “alpha wolf” need to die in a fire. And I’m not trying to come at some of the people I know follow me that use that term. It’s just become this really huge thing that infects so much of lore that has to do with modern day werewolves (such as in The Originals) and even bleeds over into things like the Game of Thrones/A Song of Ice and Fire fandom and just about anywhere you see wolves you eventually hear the term alpha.

The term in and of itself is annoying because it’s not a thing that exists. Wolves don’t live in a pack where they just automatically submit to the strongest wolf, nor do they live in social structures that cause them to battle with one another to see who is on top. Wolves live in family groups usually run by the breeding pair and the offspring of the last few years. The only reason we ever really thought that “alpha wolf” was a thing was because a couple of researchers massively popularized its usage after studying primarily (in fact I think it was exclusively) captive wolf packs where individuals were brought in from various places in the world and forced to live together. And while I’m not saying that all studies should be thrown out if they’re done on captive bred wolves, I think it’s poor practice to say “this is how all wolves are” when you haven’t taken into consideration what natural family groups do. 

So it’s annoying, because it’s not a thing, but it’s also—-really boring to me. We miss the fact that these incredible animals have evolved to have things like a sense of fairness and the ability to cooperate, but the thing that we focus on is that “this is the alpha and its very important to them.” Family is important to them. I’d love to see more media that involved wolves that represented not only how their family groups actually work, but also didn’t make that such a central point for their plots. 

I’m not going to go into uses of the term outside of fiction or address the A/B/O fanfiction. My point is that I personally as a reader find it overused and boring. I understand that since its fiction, there will be inaccuracies in order to fit your narrative. Hell, I have some with Beck and the animals that pop up on this blog. My problem isn’t the inaccuracy alone, it’s the inaccuracy being used to beat a long dead horse (and occasionally as a method of god modding but—I won’t go further into that either). 

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And since I’m just going all in on the GoT shit tonight (sorry guys) Also this is going to make an already very long post massive, and I’m sorry.

… Yara Greyjoy is actually a good character and her book counterpart isn’t nicer nor is she just “better” for some vague undefined reason. She’s not a perfect character, she’s not a necessarily nice person, but Yara Greyjoy is arguably one of the better characters on the show IMO and I wish that she would have gotten way more screen time than she really did.

The worst part of this weird like #notmyAsha argument (and I’ve seen that tag used before it was hilarious) is that people complain that she’s not nice to Theon and that because she either doesn’t have or cannot convey compassion and empathy regarding his trauma, that it’s somehow a valid plot point for her to be tortured so they can bond over mutual trauma. This is gross and I hate it.

Full disclosure Theon Greyjoy is one of my favorite characters in show and book canon, but he is kind of a garbage human being and I love him in spite and often because of that. Now onto our feature presentation: 

Yara Greyjoy doesn’t owe her brother shit. Not even a little. She has zero reason to do anything other than perceive him as unstable and a threat to the position she hopes to claim. Don’t complain to me about how mean Yara is to Theon while simultaneously ignoring the fact that he only stopped treating her like garbage once he’d been horribly traumatized. He was TEN when he was taken from the Iron Islands, and she was older than him and he—didn’t recognize her. So yeah she manipulates him, but he could have very easily put a stop to it if he remembered her or if he just wasn’t such a horny prick in general. He tries to demean her in front of their father, insults her, and shouts at her. Not saying she didn’t deserve it, but you can’t exactly paint him as the saint in the situation either.

I could go on with a million reasons Yara is actually a lot nicer to Theon in the show than the books, and why she’s not obligated to do anything for him at all, but I’d be here for hours. 

What bothers me is the conclusion that because Yara has been mean to him that she somehow deserves to be punished by being tortured or that she needs to be tortured in order to ever like understand her brother. Both of those things are like the craziest logic in the world to me. 

First off: no. Yara tried to save Theon. It’s not Yara’s fault he got in that situation, it’s his own, and she tried to rescue him. Then she allowed him back into her home at a critical time, and rather than being ashamed of him for being “weak” she brings him with her to political meetings and presents him as what is essentially her version of a “hand.”

Second: y’all that’s not how mental health works. Theon’s not ok, and if they write him as ok they’re bad writers. You don’t get over trauma that fast. Especially not because of like one conversation you had with your sister while she made out with a topless hooker in a brothel, and a fight on the beech where you got kneed in the balls you don’t have. Theon is still traumatized and he deserves a plot where his sister learns to see that, acknowledge it, and try to understand him. You don’t throw two traumatized people together and just say “well they have both been horrifically abused… they understand one another.” and then things get better. If anything those people are more likely to be self destructive and dangerous because neither of them are in a good place mentally to make sound and rational decisions. 

So yeah, the point I was trying to make but got really distracted from because I’m very salty about all the Yara hate I see is that she’s actually a good character in comparison to the others in the show and it’s not ok to wish she would be tortured just for the sake of making Theon ok bc a) that won’t work and b) for the millions time: it’s gross.

#ooc #agentharrisonofshield

[ryouverua]

Chapter 4 Investigation (Part 2)

Things are never boring with this lovable scamp as your partner!

Man that was a quick turnaround, Himiko! Though I have to say, your avatar is quite cute...

also seeing all the icons against each other makes me laugh because Shuichi and Himiko have the most defined lashes omfg and Miu... programmed/designed them all to be that way...

Yeah, I really do think someone snuck here to log Kaito out. Tsumugi was distracted or something? Maybe? Kokichi would have had access to it, being that he was right near by in the salon...

And then, about an unexpected yet surprisingly hilarious interlude involving maps - 

NO SHIT, NOT-SHERLOCK

So the Kaito-centric dynamic of our little three-person group is that obvious, huh...

MORE OF GAMER SNOB TSUMUGI KTHNX

mystery solved she was filled with such potent angry nerd rage that she murdered Miu over the graphics you can’t tell me that isn’t plausible

I’m. Baffled???? 

also of course, more hilarious exchanges

Okay, uh, I.... was not expecting to find this? And I’ll be honest, I have no idea how it would fit in at all. Or why it’s over here. I’m just... gonna... put that on the back-burner for a bit.

I feel like me not knowing why it would be there is still better than K1-b0′s theory. 

Oh right, Kaito was logged out before it came back. And now we’re talking about the direction of the river, and how the sign got washed over against the river flow, but I’m not too worried about that? Like I said, I feel like from a game design standpoint it would make sense for the river to loop right-to-left so items and/or people wouldn’t be accidentally lost if they fell in and went off-map.

DO IT! DO IT! DO IT! DO IT!

.... then the avatar stays ‘active’ in the VR world. I suppose it’s a somewhat poetic ending for Miu in that sense - her avatar’s presence will be an immortal legacy in here, or at least until the VR world itself ends. 

Ooooh...??? We’re going to hear about this before the trial?

WHERE KAITO WAS....

I think some of the pieces are starting to come together a bit in my head.

Probably to give her a chance to sneak off and find a way to the other side - and I bet since she modified the world, she knew ways to do that. Maybe that board beside her?

OH WELL FUCK MY ORIGINALLY THEORY OF SOMEONE GOING BACK TO THE MANSION TO LOG KAITO OUT

goddamnit Miu just casually throwing a cellphone into the mix

HOW

DARE

YOU

MADAM

oh oops I guess I shouldn’t speak ill of the dead huh

OH and also she had a hammer which you know, should be a very pressing issue considering the implications of Miu having a weapon-like object on her when everyone else was defenceless but I AM STILL STEAMING ABOUT THE CELLPHONE

bOYFRIENDS god they’re so cute look at their blushing sprites i’m dying.....

Ah good, at least that part I got right.

.....

Um. Shuichi. Did you, uh, give him a heads up about what you were going to do when I blinked or....?

SHUICHI COMMUNICATION IS VERY IMPORTANT TO ASTRONAUTS AND FOR HAVING A GOOD RELATIONSHIP

AND ESPECIALLY FOR HAVING A GOOD RELATIONSHIP WITH AN ASTRONAUT

“It’s easier to ask for forgiveness than for permission.” Somehow I think it’s still going to be hard...

Oh man imagine being thrown out of the game when you’re sick the way he is 8′D The vertigo, the sudden potential nausea/lung pain, etc...

A-Aaaaw! Poor Kaito - he keeps getting logged out, left behind and just generally tossed aside - for that matter, he’s been called an idiot for a decent amount of the game and spent half of chapter 3 stuck in his room, sick and terrified. Shuichi didn’t mean to leave you behind, Kaito! He’s just an awkward introvert who doesn’t know how to communicate, promise!

Oh man, is that salt I’m detecting in our Ultimate Astronaut?

Anyway, we already knew that the lattice was from the roof so when he talks about something being missing, it wasn’t hard to figure out what it was. Also, the lock can only be done from the outside, so you can’t get locked out of the roof, but you can get locked/stuck on the roof itself.

Aaaw Himiko 8′D You get attached to things quickly too, huh? I can relate a little too well. are your tabs and room a mess too

Alright, Maki’s here on Kaito’s behalf because Monotaro wanted to show us more info. It’s kinda weird having him on our side, even if it’s temporary, but hey, any help at this point is good!

Damn, Maki’s still here with those back-handed compliments. Still, that might be one of the nicest things she’s said to Shuichi so far. Baby steps! yeah you might not want to sound like Kaito but he’s definitely rubbing off on you

OMG HE’S STILL SALTY ABOUT THE LOGGING OUT THING

Man it’s really weird to see that icon with Maki. But hey, at least she’s trying to help them fix things rather than stew in jealousy like earlier/stay mad at Kaito about leaving her in the chapel. 8′D

Aaaaand back to the real world!

“For example, there’s me, your beloved!”

"SOMEONE GET ME A HELMET, I’M GOING BACK INTO THE VR WORLD.”

“Turn around so I can put a ‘Kick Me’ sign on your back! It’s what you deserve!”

“Wait, that doesn’t say ‘Kick Me’, that says Saiouma is endgame OTP -”

“Oops! I lied. Still putting it on you, though.”

Interesting pause and neutral face here...

..................

Oh. But.... it can only be locked.... from the outside. So there’s no way he was locked out unless he was physically blocked.

I think I 100% caught him in a lie here.

Schrodinger’s Kokichi Ouma....

“LIFE PARTNERS! EMBRACE ME, AIBOU -`”

“Ouma I swear to -”

Oh fml I’m starting to get an awful feeling - p-please stop referring to it as sleeping, it’s.... really feeding into my theory that I thought was wild but is starting to become less and less crazy-sounding in my head...

D-Don’t you trust in your sidekick, bro? D:

Omfg you just know Miu is the type to put a ton of aside comments in her code and it’s all vulgar...

Yup, true. Confirmed.

Either for defensive... or offensive purposes.

Apparently the cellphone was another object she choose not to delete as well. Man Miu, your post-humous impression on everyone is looking kinda bleak! Now that I think about it, I remember noting her panicking after that flashback light. I’m starting to think she might be the person I was looking for who would fit the ‘desperate to get out of here’ bill.

That’s an odd detail. 

Yeah, I guess I did originally figure that was the case. So there was probably another point of entry on the ‘outside’ edge, like the looping river.

Wait what?! Doesn’t that mean she is unbreakable?! Did she think it would make her impossible to kill or something???

I mean... it’s gotta be the one acting as a barrier to ‘outside’ the map, right? I guess it makes sense that if the river can loop, maybe the whole map itself does. That explains why we could hear K1-b0. Was there a secret entrance along the wall that everyone ignored because they thought there was nothing beyond the wall on either side?

MIU LIED SWEETCHEEKS, THAT AIN’T JUST SOMETHING KOKICHI, YOU AND KAEDE CAN DO

OoooooOOOOH

OH

OH..........

MIU...

Girl I think you played yourself

Whelp, that just solved a huge chunk of the questions I had!

Wait what??? Now that is pretty unexpected. It’s starting to raise some interesting possibilities though. 

Yeah, that’s the face I would have if I found out I had been unwittingly sabotaged. 8′D Oh Miu, what in the world were you up to... 

Oh?

.... No

no no no

no no no no no

no

no

no

NO

NO

NO EXPLAIN THE ERROR EXPLAIN IT RIGHT NOW

WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU MEAN ‘BING BONG’

NO

EXPLAIN THE ERROR

DON’T LEAVE IT AS A MYSTERY

WE HAVEN’T MADE ANY REFERENCE TO THE WIRES CROSSING IN THE HELMETS

NO

NO NO NO NO NO

FUCK YOU I THINK I KNOW WHERE THIS IS GOING AND I WON’T STAND FOR IT

BECAUSE THERE MIGHT NOT HAVE BEEN AN AVATAR ACTING STRANGELY IN THE GAME, BUT THERE IS SOMEONE USING VAGUE ENOUGH LANGUAGE AND REFERRING TO THE WORLD AS A ‘DREAM’ AND THE ACT OF LOGGING IN AS ‘SLEEPING’

AND CONVENIENTLY DID NOT LOG IN THE SECOND TIME

DON’T

YOU

FUCKING

DO IT

DANGANRONPA

NO FUCK YOU MONOKUMA LOOK AT ME WHEN I’M CURSING YOU OUT

First Miu’s schtick, now Himiko’s - is there any persona you won’t steal this chapter?

GONTA................ GONTA, NO I’M SUDDENLY DEATHLY AFRAID FOR YOU AGAIN.......

FML Kokichi has the right attitude that no one aside from Shuichi seems to have and

and

fuck

I.... if I’m right, this is not going to have the triumphant ending the last one had... not at all -

omg Himiko you sound like me

uHH

OMFG -

IT’S WAVING IN THE WIIIIIIIIIIND

BRB guys I need to temporarily find a way into the DRV3 game so I can give Himiko a huge high five.

Man I don’t know if Kokichi knows who the culprit is, but I think he is way too excited about the idea of harassing Kaito...

And Kaito knows it.

Ugh, there really is, huh? That’s why I find the vibe i so weird after the third trial. You just get used to feeling how they all interact with each other, there are all these different personalities and - poof. Gone. And suddenly you get a lot more from fewer people, and the world just seems so much larger and emptier.

I-I MEAN.... YOU’RE NOT WRONG, BUT....

Man, the way they’re all cheering him on should be heartwarming and encouraging but it’s kinda freaking me out a little bit? Is that weird?

give him a back massage. you know, between bros.

omg Kokichi are you Shuichi’s agent now or something?

“SORRY KAI-WHATEVER, MR. SAIHARA IS A VERY IMPORTANT MAN AND IS TOO BUSY TO BE BOTHERED BY THE LIKES OF YOU ~ “

Kokichi my boy, you really need to work on your flirting game.

“BRO!”

“BRO....!”

I’M SORRY I’M WEAK FOR ALL THIS ‘BRO’ TALK

That seriously sounds like a threat. 8′D Gosh though, you’re really not having it with Kaito today, huh? Now that I think about it, with Miu gone you and Kaito are going to be the strongest personalities in the trial. This is gonna get interesting...

a;sdlkfja there’s so few of them... oTL

Yeah, she really did. And man did she leave a big impact. Even if she wasn’t my favourite character of the bunch, she had a surprisingly interesting dynamic with a lot of the others and she definitely wasn’t forgettable. It’s going to be weird not to have her around. To think that I originally thought she would get knocked off within the first two chapters... 8′D

Alright so, notes - and as usual I’ll transcribe because my writing sucks. I did doodle some stuff too though ~

Left side of the map (mansion):

Shuichi/Tsumugi (together)

Kaito - roof/logged out 1 hour before

Kokichi

Gonta

Right side of the map (chapel)

Maki

Himiko

K1-b0

Miu * - dead, but also with the ability to cross sides

So I drew out the map both ways - once, the way it is in the game, and two, with the left/right side against each other and the loading screen as the ‘walls’ on the outside. I’m guessing that was the original map. I’m guessing the added wall was the barrier on the edge of the game map.

In the real world, they were seated like this with the computer at the top of the semi-circle:

Gonta                     Maki

Himiko                   Kaito

Tsumugi                 Shuichi

K1-b0                     Kokichi (with poison in his seat)

Miu

So now that the stages are set:

First, the so-called obvious culprits and other red herrings:

Kaito

Man, someone was pushing to set Kaito up and I think that may have been Miu. It would be one thing if my original speculation about the lobby phone being used by the culprit to log Kaito out was one thing, but once the cellphone was found on Miu there really wasn’t any ambiguity left. He was definitely logged out remotely. It would have been interesting if she had logged him out via lobby phone and her wall-crossing abilities, but maybe the writers thought that could have been too hard to work out...

Kokichi

He’s been acting hella suspicious but once that paralysis feature got revealed, he was knocked out of the running. 

Miu being on the chapel side - solved by her avatar being classified as an object. Did the culprit know that too? I guess if Tsumugi could spot her through the window, Miu wasn’t exactly being subtle about her presence on the other side.

Poison - another red herring. No bloodshot eyes

Before I go on, you’ll note I circled a name on the ‘alive’ list, then drew a VERY unhappy face, and just kinda went NOOOOOOO in caps because

FML I THINK IT WAS GONTA...

Is he the one that got the error code? He thinks it was all a dream - did he accidentally switch the wires? It did say the wires were for ‘memory’ and ‘consciousness’, and what better example of that is a fading dream...

Anyway, I’m going to get back to that ^ because I’m still like..... ugh. I have logical reasons that point to him, but emotionally I’m a bit of a wreck. So honestly, it sounds like Miu tried to kill Kokichi. You can see I underlined it in caps in the bottom right corner. 8′D I’m thinking Kokichi knew it was coming somehow? I’m not sure if it was just when they agreed to meet on the rooftop or before then, but I’m wondering if he set up Gonta as his bodyguard, knowing full well that Gonta has been slowly driving himself mad because of his inability to protect the people around him. I love Gonta, but he can get irrational when he gets emotional aka a certain insect-related incident...

As well as that, we have confirmed alibis: Tsumugi was with Shuichi, Kaito was out of range, Maki/K1-b0/Himiko were together, and Kokichi would have been paralyzed on contact. By process of elimination (which is so, so cold), Gonta is the only person who could have done it in the game - and we even saw him alone at the end, didn’t he?

So I’m wondering if it went like this...

Miu makes a move against Kokichi via their meeting

Gonta moves to protect Kokichi out of desperation and grabs her by the neck

She was definitely strangled, aka her expression/body position - Kokichi couldn’t do it because of the paralysis though, so it had to be someone else

Maybe Gonta didn’t realize his own strength, because he was rendered as weak as everyone else and he took the fact that he was nerfed to heart?

and/or maybe he just didn’t realize he killed Miu because he didn’t know he could in this world

pushed her off the roof via, uh, rolling up that lattice.. fencing... stuff sorry I don’t know I’m picturing her little avatar being wrapped up in fencing like a sushi roll and it’s making me laugh and sent her to the other side where she hits the chapel wall

can ~lie~ to us so well because he can’t remember his time in VR - he keeps referring to it as ‘sleep’ or ‘dream’

So that would explain why Kokichi seems to be dancing around us like he knows everything, but man... he’s also seriously ragging on Gonta despite Gonta saving his life??? And him basically using Gonta as disposable protection??? I’m a little scared about exactly what that means for Kokichi and his character, damn...

B-But even still, I can’t... quite... reconcile this in my head. Kokichi is literally the only person I can think of that has any sort of antagonism with Miu. Honestly, anyone else killing Miu is hard for me to imagine - which I guess is maybe the point? And the reason they ‘equalized’ everyone’s strength wasn’t to make Gonta easy to kill like I thought it was when we first went in there, but to make a physical murder like strangulation more difficult for him when he’s at the same strength as everyone else. So I mean, on a meta level/technical level, it does make sense! But - but - Gonta! How can it be Gonta! On a cold hard logic level I feel like it’s all sound, but emotionally.... oTL

I.... don’t......... want to...........

fuCK IT I’M GOING BACK IN TIME PRECIOUS BUG BOY I’M GOING TO FINISH KAITO’S FTE’S THEN I’M DOING YOURS

#Kokichi Ouma #Gonta Gokuhara #Shuichi Saihara #Kaito Momota #Miu Iruma #Himiko Yumeno #Kiibo #Maki Harukawa #Keebo #Tsumugi Shirogane #K1-b0 #Ryou plays drv3 #spoilers #drv3 spoilers #Monotaro #Saiouma #Saimota

[mrnerdteacher]

4 Reasons Why “Crash Bandicoot: N Sane Trilogy” for the Switch is a Trip for Millennials

It’s been a rough year two for Switch owners, but for me personally, I’ve been looking forward to this title for months. Here are 4 reasons why this little cartridge will blow your mind if you’re an adult gamer like me.

#1) It’s Crash Bandicoot, and it’s on a Nintendo Console

Most kids don’t think of Crash Bandicoot as a Sony exclusive title since he’s been appearing on multiplatform games since 2002, but for folks like me who still remember those hilarious mascot-suit commercials, it always seems a little weird to see the big orange doofus venturing outside the Playstation. I was SO jealous of my PS1 owning friends every time these ads interrupted my Saturday morning cartoons.

#2) It’s Crash Bandicoot, and it’s Portable

The game works remarkably well as a handheld title, largely because of the way the levels are either side-scrollers or confine you to navigate one narrow lane or path at a time. This removes the need to constantly adjust the camera with the right thumbstick, which always felt a little unnatural to me in handheld mode. Plus, considering the size of 90’s era televisions and o.g. Playstations, it still impresses me to have it all in my pocket at a moment’s notice.

#3) It’s Crash Bandicoot, and It Looks as Good as Your Imagination

Back in the day, game programmers were limited to rather simple polygons and limited draw distances, often asking the player to imagine things like Crash’s fur or a foggy jungle scene. However, Vicarious visions has done an amazing job not just updating the graphics, but improving the animations and aesthetics without sacrificing an ounce of that Crash charm. Impressive on its own, but downright jaw-dropping as a portable title.

#4) It’s Crash Bandicoot, and It’s Way Harder than you Remember

I have beaten every Dark Souls title. I dashed my way to the end of Celeste and blasted the devil to bits in Cuphead. I like hard games, but nothing, NOTHING prepared me for the insane challenge of the original Crash Bandicoot.

Die-hard fans have lamented that the collision detection and jumping controls are a bit more finicky than the original, but what really makes this game an exercise in frustration is just how brutal and unfair the design is at its core. Let’s bullet point them super quick.

1) One-hit kills. Games used to do this all the time.

2) Even if you have a shield, getting hit still knocks you backward, usually off a cliff.

3) The floor of most levels are over 50% bottomless pit, with platforms as narrow as your foot.

4) Most jumps require maximum distance and perfect timing, often two dozen times in a row.

5) No double-jumps here, which means mid-air steering is at an absolute minimum.

6) The game only starts giving you extra checkpoints after you have lost over 5 lives. Each level starts with you 4, which means if you can’t find a bonus life or collect enough mangoes, you’re on your own.

7) Attacking a power-up can accidentally destroy it. So cruel.

8) Bottomless pits and other hazards are often hidden behind scenery or off-screen, and you can’t adjust the camera.

9) No stopping a level partway through. It’s one and done or none, son! (sorry)

10) No skipping a challenging level. The in-game “map” is a straight line, like it or not.

11) No in-game tutorials or hints pointing out a boss’s weakness. This is a relic from the days when you would learn tricks by reading the manual, skimming through a magazine, or calling a help-line.

12) At the end of the each level, the game literally beats you over the head with all the secrets you missed, because you suck.

Games just used to be harder. Decades ago (wow), video games were not quite the multi-billion dollar juggernaut they are today, so the industry hadn’t quite figured out that making a game that’s easy to beat is more lucrative (because people are more likely to buy the sequel if they’ve finished the previous release). This also predates DLC or online multiplayer, so the only real way to inject longevity is to actually make your games longer (and harder). Levels in Crash seem to last about 5 times longer than you expect, but the flip-side is that beating one feels OH SO SWEET. It’s a euphoria that actually, somehow, makes it all worth it.

Hopefully I don’t snap my Switch in half in the process. Cloud saves are still a few months away, right?

FINAL GRADE: B+

#Crash Bandicoot #nintendo #nintendo switch #mario #playstation #gaming #e3 2018 #n sane trilogy #remaster

[theoddcatlady]

Energy Potion

Alan: Oh my god I’m dying.

Alan: End me guys. Just take my body and throw it in a hole six feet deep.

Melody: Stop complaining, it’s not that bad.

Bruce: Shut the fuck up and pass me more coffee.

Alan: Coffee. All I consume, all I taste. Is goddamn coffee.

Cleo: I don’t know about you guys IM DOING GREAT :D

Melody: Oh god I think she found where I hid her Monster.

Melody: Cleo no do you KNOW how bad that is for you?! Spring water. Deep breathing. That’ll get you through finals!

Alan: … On what planet do you live on?

Melody: The one where nature provides rather than artificial chemicals and manmade poison.

Bruce: Oh man I haven’t laughed this hard since… I can’t remember. More coffee. More coffee. My fingers are shaking so much and I still don’t have this paper done. Spellcheck thinks I’m developing Parkinson’s.

Cleo: Your fingers only JUST started shaking? D:

Melody: Your kids are all going to end up with ADHD.

!~*~!

Melody: I have decided my earlier statements may have been naïve.

Alan: Nooo, really?

Melody: RIP. X.X

Cleo: Okay, after spending all morning in bed with a migraine maybe drinking that many Monsters in a row was a bad idea. Whoopsie daisy.

Bruce: I’m surprised you’re not dead.

Cleo: Same bro. Fuck finals.

Melody: We’re all doomed.

Alan: … hold on a sec guys I got this weird ad on the college website, lemme show you.

Alan: [IMG]

Alan: Ignore that it looks like every ‘graphic design is my passion’ advertisement ever.

Melody: Oooh, a natural remedy?

Cleo: No crash? I’m sold. How much is it, I don’t wanna blow my food budget.

Bruce: Thiiis sounds like bull. Don’t do it man.

Alan: Too late. Emailed the seller.

Bruce: Cocksucker.

Alan: You wish jackass.

Cleo: Shut the fuck up guys. I’m emailing Gus too. See if he’ll work out a deal. Jesus, a week’s amount of doses is over thirty bucks… hello Ramen cups and poptarts. How I missed you.

Melody: I have some extra quinoa!

Cleo: Errrrr…

Bruce: I mean. We only need a week’s worth. Then finals will be over.

Alan: Ooooh, changing your tune, mister skeptic?

Bruce: If I don’t pack in as much study time as possible I’m going to fail. I’m not gonna let that happen.

Alan: Awww yeah! Let’s try some kid’s science experiment!

!~*~!

Alan: I’m still laughing that it’s called ‘Energy Potion’. What sort of geeky ass bullshit?

Bruce: Taking the first pill now. I have to study.

Melody: All at once, readysetgo!

Cleo: …

Cleo: I didn’t expect it to dissolve. Thought it was like birth control.

Bruce: Literally tastes like piss. Literally.

Alan: Spend a lot of time doing that Bruce?

Bruce: Eat shit.

Alan: :P

Melody: Maybe it’s the color that brings on the whole urine sensation. So icky.

Cleo: Blergh. My mouth feels awful, how’s this supposed to work Alan?

Alan: ‘One pill and you’ll have bursts of energy throughout the night, a slow burn rather than a high followed by a crash.’ Taken right from the product description.

Melody: Oddly enough, I feel its working! Or maybe that’s the crystals I set up around my study place.

Bruce: Or placebo effect. That too.

!~*~!

Cleo: Bruce?

Bruce: What’s up Cleo? Any reason you’re not messaging with the group?

Cleo: … I took another pill this morning.

Bruce: Shit, are you feeling sick? I mean it does wonders don’t get me wrong, but I don’t think you can stay awake all day like that.

Cleo: I know I know I’m sorry, I’m just letting you know in case something goes wrong. And it did work. I didn’t feel tired until the sun went up. Still pretty sleepy.

Bruce: You wanna come over to my apartment to study? I know the dorm’s pretty rough on you.

Cleo: Well…

Bruce: I’ll have more Monster for you.

Cleo: Sold. Can we play a few rounds of Overwatch too?

Bruce: As long as I can be your pocket Mercy.

!~*~!

Melody: This is the best stupid idea you’ve ever had Alan!

Alan: I know right? You know how productive I was last night? Focused?

Melody: I know! I didn’t even feel buzzed! Just AWAKE!

Cleo: Slept through one of my classes though. The crash does come, just when the sun comes up.

Bruce: Whatever man, most of my classes don’t care about attendance except when it comes to finals. Two more days until it begins.

Cleo: I can’t wait for them to be over. I might take it easy. No more all nighters. I’ll save the rest of my pills for another time.

Melody: To be honest I haven’t even been taking mine.

Alan: … What?

Bruce: Sure Melody haha how the heck have you put in more studying time?

Melody: I just feel more awake at night. I think my internal clock is changing, a few sessions of meditation and I’ll be able to refresh myself.

Alan: That’s weird.

Cleo: You know, now that I think about it, I think I forgot to take the pill last night because of how awake I was? It just felt more natural to be awake at night rather than the day. I powernapped at midnight but that’s it. It’s probably just working its way out of our systems.

Bruce: god I hope so. I swear if you end up hospitalized because of this…

!~*~!

Cleo: TMI, I don’t care.

Alan: You too?

Bruce: Same.

Melody: I’m anti shaving but this is RIDICULOUS.

Bruce: …  How the hell did we get on the same wavelength so fast?

Cleo: I mean we’re friends. That’s how it is right?

Cleo: That’s beside the point. The point is my bush is thicker than a jungle, and I JUST got waxed as a reward for passing finals.

Alan: That is really TMI but same.

Melody: I might actually break out the razor.

Bruce: probably just get a weed whacker…

Cleo: Took the words out of my MOUTH.

Alan: Maybe it’s just a full moon, either way, finals are over, toss out the damn pills, we’re GOOD.

!~*~!

Bruce: I’m still not sleeping at night.

Melody: Neither am I. I’m back at my mom’s and she’s getting SUPER worried.

Alan: I keep nodding off at work. This fucking sucks. I’m gonna get canned at this rate and I don’t wanna go back to living with my parents.

Bruce: Have either of you heard from Cleo? I haven’t since she got home to her parents. I feel like she’s fine, but you know, I worry.

Alan: I know you two finally got together but relax, she’s fine.

Melody: She’s probably just organizing her room.

Bruce: … How the fuck did you know we were together?

Melody: …

Melody: I… don’t know. I just guessed I guess.

Bruce: Bull. We haven’t told anyone. Her dad’s racist as hell, you really think he’s cool with his princess dating a black guy?

Alan: Isn’t that beside the point anyway?

Bruce: No, not it’s not.

Bruce: I really didn’t want to say this.

Bruce: Alan, I know you’re bisexual. You were at the LGBT safe space the night before graduation.

Bruce: And Melody, you believe in this vegan hippie bullshit only to make your mom happy. Because she’d be horrified to find out you’re atheist. You were at Burger King yesterday and I know you weren’t there for the salad.

Bruce: I just know what you two are doing at any time, any place, anywhere. I know where to find you right now. I can’t put it into words but it’s like we’re connected.

Bruce: Do you realize it too?

Melody: … Yes.

Melody: I was worried last night because you weren’t safe. And when you got home and told me that you were nearly in a car accident I almost screamed. I don’t believe in this sixth sense bullshit. I don’t believe in any of it. I was a vegetarian because of logic reasons, not that I ‘feel the animal’s souls’.

Alan: But you’ve also been eating a lot of meat lately too, huh?

Bruce: There’s so many jokes I can make about the meat thing.

Alan: Time and a fucking place, Bruce.

Alan: I’ve basically become a carnivore overnight. I made myself three steaks last night because I just couldn’t get full. I’m blowing through my food budget like there’s no tomorrow.

Bruce: Damn. I’ve been getting by on chicken nuggets but nothing beats a rare steak right now. I could go get one right now. If I wasn’t so damn tired.

!~*~!

Bruce: Cleo? Are you there? I know you’re okay but I’m wondering for how much longer.

Bruce: Please tell me you’re okay.

Cleo: … I’m hideous.

Cleo: My new teeth are all sharp. I’m so hairy. The only thing I like to eat is meat. I only like being out at night, and when I do, I explore my territory.

Cleo: I’m not what you want.

Bruce: No no no, it’s all of us, Cleo. My teeth just started to get loose. The night is beautiful, isn’t it?

Cleo: Especially the moon. But I feel so alone. I’m not supposed to be alone. I love you, Bruce. So much. We’re meant to be.

Bruce: We are. All of us need to be together. It’s getting stronger by the day. What’s happening to us?

Cleo: The potion. The energy potion.

Cleo: That fucker turned us into freaks!

Bruce: Nonono, you’re not a freak. If it wasn’t for this new connection, I wouldn’t have made a move that night. Appearance or not, this isn’t… all bad.

Cleo: Not all bad?

Cleo: What is even the end of this? What are we turning into?

Bruce: Hang tight. We’ll be okay, I promise.

Cleo: … my dad’s banging on my door fuckfuckfuck I think he knows about us

Bruce: Cleo?

Bruce: Cleo?!?!

Bruce: CLEO PLEASE REPLY

Bruce: CLEO!

!~*~!

Bruce: She’s in trouble.

Melody: I’m already almost to her house. Alan’s with me. Meet us there.

Bruce: Keep her safe.

!~*~!

Bruce: Shaken them off?

Melody: Yes.

Cleo: They couldn’t keep up. They’re weak. They don’t have our senses in the dark.

Alan: I got rid of the body. And our clothes.

Bruce: You know where to go?

Cleo: We’ll meet you there.

Alan: You’re in charge.

Alan: We’ll get through this together.

Melody: Yes.

Cleo: Yes.

Bruce: Yes.

#horror stories #scary stories #sixpenceee stories #creative writing #writers on tumblr #the potion series #my stories

[beancables]

Howzit, my friends?

So, apparently, I’ve got a bit of a terrible news for y’all. Do not freak out. Here’s a photo of two Welsh corgis for you to smile and take a deeeeeep breath.

You ready for this?

Okay, here we go.

Last September 27th, I found out from my doctor that I was positive for TB (tuberculosis), and right now, as of this moment, I am in my personal room/workspace isolated because of that. Isolation means that I have to stay in my room with windows open and if I have to go out and talk to people I should wear a mask. It has been almost my third week, and I’m telling you my friends, there’s progress going on but I couldn’t get out of the house for long until I’m not contagious anymore. Sucks.

You might be wondering who/where I got it from. The truth is, I don’t even know. My daily routine consists of riding the bus early in the morning, getting to work for eight hours, and going home riding the bus again. The people that I live with here are actually pretty normal, and they were all tested negative. So the factors there would either be from work or from the people I ride with from the bus. I actually feel a bit traumatized from riding the bus right now because of this, and it got me thinking to get a car and just drive to work (Sigh, I will work on getting my permit! I’ve been trying to get that done, but I never have time.) But yeah, whoever I may got it from, I can’t do anything. I have acquired it from that person and there’s nothing more that I can do but just to stay home and follow doctor’s orders. I wish that person well, too.

Sidenote: I couldn’t drink alcohol until I’m done with my treatment. Sad, but yeah, I’m actually okay with that because I rarely drink these days and the only beverage I couldn’t live without is 8 oz of coffee. If my nurse wouldn’t let me drink coffee, I’d totes freak out and definitely would have caffeine withdrawals. Lol

The last time I heard from my nurse was I was a 3+ according to my sputum results. The contagiousness level of TB is from 0 to 4: 0 the lowest and 4 the highest. From a crazy 4+ (I was very contagious tbh), it went down for about two weeks of therapy and seven pills on weekdays! SEVEN. PILLS. OMG RIGHT? It’s been one helluva ride, folks. I’ve got to Skype my nurse every morning and drink all of these pills just to get better. I’m not getting any weird side effects though, so that’s cool. I just hate it every time I burp, I get that weird antibiotic aftertaste which is hyuck. Not gonna even talk about it.

Now, you’re probably wondering how I live my everyday life from now on. Well, still pretty normal. I still get to work (thankfully). I’m able to remote-in to my work computer and still work full-time, only in the comfort of my room. My Macbook, my mouse, and my phone are my very best friends atm. My co-workers have been texting/calling/chatting with me on what’s going on and I’m still able to help on whatever stuff. So, yay! It’s a good thing work keeps me occupied rather than just lying in bed watching Netflix all day (OMG y’all, I’ve already binge-watched most of the sitcoms/dramas/movies in their catalog and I even did reruns on shows that I really like!). I usually turn on my music and sometimes turn on my TV so it doesn’t seem quiet when I work. I kinda like this life. I really enjoy doing this to be honest. It seems like a good daily routine to me. Just not the part where I can’t get out at all. ;)

I mean, I can go outside and smell the freshest air, but I’m not allowed to talk to people which is my weakness. I AM LOUD AF.

I’ve also tried to keep up with my graphic design game and kinda did some work for my portfolio as well. I’m taking some freelance commission work from friends, and I’m happy to do some stuff for them! The good thing about this is, I get to do the things that I haven’t done in a while. I just basically treat this sickation (sick vacation) thing like my typical summer vacation in the Philippines. When I was a kid, I rarely go out of the house, watch TV all day and play video games with my brother. I was never an adventure freak (and now I am haha) and that’s pretty much how I became the nerd that I am now. HAHA. I miss the good old days though.

I’ve also decided to cancel my San Francisco trip when I found out about it, and yes, it was a bummer. Good thing I got refunds from my airline and Airbnb bookings! The concert tickets that I had to go to were sold mostly on Stubhub for about 50-60% of the original price, so it really didn’t hurt. At least I got some of my moneyz back! (I intently put the “z” in money because I’m a thug inside. Lol j/k) I’ve got plans to go to Colorado though next year! That’s something to look forward to. Just really have to make up to it. I’m also getting a camera soon, so that’s a birthday present to myself.

So, yeah that’s about it for me at the moment! Sorry to those who I might have affected (my mom wasn’t because her immune system is awesomesauce), my co-workers who I believe they were all (or most of them) negative from the results. Yay! I’m not really horrible. But still, I feel sad that this happened. Moral lesson: always be aware of your surroundings, and always take good care of yourself. You never know what happens to you in the future and when the moment kicks in, it’s either a good or bad one. 

Phew! This was a really long rant. I gotta hit the sack. Thanks for reading though! I think it took you about 5-6 minutes.

- B

#post #rant #tb #life #work

[animeniac]

Starbomb Ch. 4

Fandom: BNHA Pairing: Bakugou x Uraraka Genre: Romance and Comedy probably Chapter Summary: Bakugou and Uraraka start talking outside of class and happen to work out together. She learns to handle his explosive personality, and he discovers greater depths to her resilience. (See Chapter 1 for story summary.)

A/N: I think I’m getting good feedback. However, I hate posting stuff here because of the interface so I might slow down. -_- The people here are really nice, though. Thank you for reading.

[AO3][FFnet] Content Warning: Non-graphic and brief chikan scene.  

Chapter I Chapter II Chapter III Chapter IV Chapter V Chapter VI Chapter VII

Sometime before dinner one evening, Midoriya encountered Asui Tsuyu right outside the main building of the campus. She happened to be his partner for the sensitivity assignment.

What was interesting about Asui to him was the fact that no matter how nervous he became, she would react with her consistently stoic facial expression. Something about her insanely even temper put him at ease and brought him to a maintainable level of composure - almost. Would she be a good person to listen to his turmoil? Often, she said whatever came to mind, and so, she would at least be honest.

Before pouring out the circumstances in their entirety to her, he needed to recount what was appropriate for him to share.

"Midoriya?" she asked, and when he looked up, she continued, "I said that we should meet up tomorrow after class, ribbit."

"Oh, right, sure, Asui - I mean, Tsu. I was just thinking about everything that happened with Kacchan and Uraraka the other. It was pretty crazy, right?" Midoriya mentioned as casually as he could.

Asui tilted her head and asked, "Is that weird for you?"

He tried to look into her unchanging eyes and gulped, "I-I guess. I didn't think he'd ever be interested in a girl - especially like Uraraka."

She replied, "How do you feel about Uraraka?"

What? Where did that come from? Midoriya was unsure of how his feelings related to the topic at hand. Of course, he blushed, but he couldn't tell if that burst of emotions matched the general flutter of his reaction to other people. Oddly enough, he had yet to give much thought to how he felt about Uraraka. He knew her to be energetic and adorable and someone he could trust. However, after witnessing the fervor in Bakugou's eyes, he couldn't say his admiration could ever compare.

Uraraka and Iida were both his precious friends, too. He wouldn't want to jeopardize their dynamics for curiosity's sake. Or, was this more than just a simple curiosity?

Still smiling, Asui said, "You're already over thinking it, ribbit."

"Ah!" exclaimed Midoriya. "Sorry, I was just thinking about how Kacchan might feel about her."

"But, I asked how you feel about her."

Asui wasn't the first person that day to ask about his feelings for Uraraka. Iida implied that the romantic feelings might already be there. He got stuck in his train of thought yet again and put his fingers to his chin. "Uh," stammered Midoriya, "she's really fun to be around. I feel light-hearted whenever I'm with her, and she's always been there for me, too. I don't know what I'd do without her."

The fact of the matter was - Asui herself was not experienced enough with relationships to understand what it meant to have romantic feelings for someone. People of their class said that Midoriya and Uraraka loved each other, but if she were honest, she thought that was what they wanted to see as opposed to the truth.

Then, she had already heard the rumors that Uraraka had feelings for him. For her sake, she hoped that Midoriya reciprocated those feelings.

"If the feelings you have for her are unique, then you should tell her how you feel, ribbit," added Asui as she assumed that Uraraka would be satisfied with any level of adulation from Midoriya.

Midoriya scratched the back of his head and nervously chuckled, "Really? Well, I don't want to say the wrong thing. I guess I need to figure out how I feel about her first, then, right?" He saw all his friendships as unique. In general, he had a lot of difficulties talking to girls. However, sometimes he could easily share his feelings and thoughts with Uraraka. He had gotten accustomed to being with her. She had cut through his boundaries like butter with her bright smile and attitude.

However, that night, Asui did the same - only she armed herself with a blunt attitude and fixed curved mouth.

They talked for at least an hour. Midoriya's stammering and occasional stutters became less frequent as time passed. For the most part, they discussed the past events of class and exams. Maybe they mentioned stories about their past and future goals. Then by habit, perhaps, his mind jumped back to Bakugou's exhilarated smile after he found out Uraraka was his partner. "Do you believe in things like fate?"

"Sometimes we see the right things at the right time, and from there, we should follow our guts."

That idea would not leave his head for the next few days.

Midoriya excused himself, "Oh, I just remembered - I was supposed to meet someone somewhere! We'll talk later." He neglected to tell Asui that he planned to meet Uraraka. Perhaps, he did this to prevent her from over analyzing his relationship with his friend before he did. 

A few days after they met Kotone, Bakugou visited the gymnasium for a late afternoon workout before dinner. Uraraka was the only other person in the room when he entered. She listened to some pop song through her headphones as she continued her endurance run on a treadmill in the corner, so she probably didn't sense him enter. Although he had no reason to interact with her, he smirked at this chance encounter.

On most days and with most people, he would have completely ignored them and began his workout regimen. How could he? Her sweat upon her glistening skin caused a glare in the corner of his eye and distracted him. His big mouth allowed whatever surfaced to escape. "Where's your nerd?" he asked. His question had fallen upon deaf ears.

To selfishly pull her attention from her goal would have been sinful, but Bakugou specialized in sin. He approached her bubble, and when he neared the machine from the front, he suddenly halted to observe the intensity of her brow as she stared at the mirrored wall in front of her.

Bakugou jumped.

Fearless ferocity radiated from Uraraka's brown stare as the speed on the treadmill gradually increased by the second. For the first time in regards to anyone outside of battle, he thought - what is this person thinking? Was she running away? No, she chased something that wasn't physically there, but the way her fixated eyes stayed in place, her goal certainly lied on the horizon.

Then, she gasped when she noticed someone in the room. Her train of thought broken, she fell backward onto the floor. Unfortunately, Midoriya was not the guest that had appeared next to her. Regardless she smiled and carefully rubbed her sore bottom. Shame on her for letting her guard down to that level. "Oh, hey, Bakugou," greeted the girl as she got to her feet and dusted herself. Noticing his equally black and tanky tank top, she exclaimed, "We're wearing the same sweats! I guess we're fashion buddies."

Flowers had spouted in mid air around her face before Bakugou barked, "Fuck that! Black is my color. Start wearing something else."

"But, our costume designer is this same person, too, so you're gonna be trapped as my fashion buddy for a while."

Bakugou's eyebrow twitched in response, for he had no words to spit back at her.

Checking her phone, she realized just how much time had passed. She'd been training for nearly an hour! Midoriya said he'd be there around that time. However, maybe his absence benefited her, for she had a productive workout thus far. Again, she had to remind herself not to let Midoriya distract her from her goal. Instead, she wanted to only allow him into her thoughts when he motivated her.

Wait, was Bakugou ranting about something, or was he completely silent? She turned off the music to from her phone and beamed up at her project partner.

He wanted her to cut that smiling shit out, but he knew there was nothing he could do to stop her. "If you're going to be this fucking needy, then I might as well stick around. You can't talk about Deku, though," he complained as he jumped onto the only treadmill next to hers.

How did she seem needy? She glanced at the mirror behind her and blinked. In fact, she would have left if Bakugou hadn't shown up. Maybe she could get to know him a little better.

Taking a seat at a weight machine, Uraraka pulled down the lever and started reps to lift about 20 kilograms. "You're really strong and combative, you know," she began with a compliment as her fascinated gaze wandered to his sizable triceps and biceps. He would totally beat her in an arm wrestling contest. Most of her male friends could probably obliterate her based on their comparative muscle mass alone. That's puberty, though.

Every other aspect of her fighting style needed to be perfect if she wanted to climb the ladder to success and financial security.

She sighed and continued with a small frown, "Hand-to-hand combat and raw strength are still some of my weak points, but I think I'm gettin' a little better. I have a long way to go, though. If I ever want to be taken seriously as a pro, then I gotta try a lot harder."

"You're still lifting 20 kilograms?" Bakugou genuinely asked an easily condescending question in a flat tone. To increase the intensity of his workout, he bumped up the speed past his typical starting number.

He had been staring at her since he entered the room. When she had moved behind him, he watched her reflection gracefully leaned forward to lift the weights behind her. Her breathing - frequent yet controlled - pushed her chest out and retracted it as she spoke. Iridescent sweat still painted her pale skin and caught the fluorescent lighting in the room. Carelessly, he had voiced an observation.

"Oh," Uraraka laughed with a flustered blush on her cheeks and adjusted the weight to double it. "I guess I'm kinda tired now. I can do a lot more than this - especially if I lift stuff with my quirk. Let's do our best, Bakugou!" They could work well together.

She felt like she could handle the weight she added despite her fatigue.

This light-hearted, casual atmosphere unsettled Bakugou. He wanted to avoid feeling helpless like he did on that train a few days ago. If Bakugou allowed this to continue, he would say words that he never thought he would say to anyone. "If you want to learn how to be anywhere close to my level, then you should train with me."

Uraraka gasped then nodded, "Really? Sure!"

Wait, he said that out loud? Turning around, Bakugou snarled and widened his bloodshot eyes. He spat, "Shut up!"

"Bakugou," she whined at his dogged rejection.

The door slowly opened, and Midoriya stepped into the room. He apologized, "Sorry, Uraraka. I stopped to talk to Asui about our project on the way here."

Uraraka's heart leaped as she smiled and shook her head. "It's okay. I haven't been here for that long," she lied. Why did she say that?

If Bakugou hadn't have said something stupid moments before Midoriya walked into the gym, he would have probably begun some kind of confrontation. However, embarrassed by his own words, he stopped the treadmill and stormed out of the room with an empty feeling of loss. He saw the opportunity to flee as the only way to save face.

Uraraka noticed how Bakugou didn't say anything to her on the train the next day. By looking at his resting frown, she couldn't decipher if he was upset after her eagerness to spar with him or because Midoriya entered. Did she say the wrong thing? She wanted to get along with him.

This train trip, she decided to face him if she thought of something to discuss. Maybe she could talk about Kirishima or school or fighting. Then, maybe one day, she could bridge the gap between him and Midoriya. Maybe their project inspired hope in her that he had a soft interior beneath his volatile personality. That possibility intrigued her as she looked up at his permanent glower. Was he lonely?

She certainly didn't want to go as far as to project emotions with that level of depth onto him. After all, he was definitely mean and belligerent for most of his interactions. However, the wall that he had around him was as vicious as an injured animal's hiss. Facetiously and persistently, she wanted to prod against it until something interesting happened.

The marriage proposal could have been him trying to avoid eternal damnation under the guise of an advantageous legal agreement. As soon the thought entered Uraraka's mind, she had to at least ask, "Why," she began but could not finish.

The sudden squeak of a noise snapped Bakugou's attention towards Uraraka. He instantly sensed the terror that piqued in her lustrous eyes. From their proximity, he could hear her tremble as she slowly lowered her head to stare at the ground. Time stopped as he analyzed the situation between his tumultuous heart beat. For a fraction of a second, her soft whimper reached his ears. That was fear, but if she didn't fear him, then who?

Over her shoulder, he spotted an arm angled in a way that ended near the rear of her skirt and began at the shoulder of some indiscriminate salary man. His appearance didn't matter, for, within moments, he would be dead. Bakugou slowly reached for the balding man's preoccupied face. Up until that day, he had never killed a man, but he swore that the forces of the heavens could not hold him back.

Then, Bakugou noticed Uraraka's eyes sharpen with an acerbic intensity that sliced through his plan.

"That's disgusting," she casually complained without a hint of fear in her voice. "It'd be bad if you touched a defenseless girl like that! Luckily, I'm not defenseless." Grabbing his arm, she turned around and forced his wrists together. Of course, she could overpower him.

Suddenly, Bakugou dug his free hand back into his pocket.

"Could you call the cops while I have him?" requested Uraraka.

Bakugou growled, "Call the cops? I'll just blast him." How could she not feel the same rage that he did?

"You can't do that on a train! We don't even have a license."

Who gave a shit about licenses at a time like that? He wanted revenge.

They could have gone back and forth all day over how to handle the situation with their respective styles of justice, but fortunately, a security guard escorted the offender off the train at the next stop. He thanked her for handling the situation professionally and properly before he left.

As soon as the culprit departed, Bakugou wanted to continue their argument. That was until he noticed Uraraka's reddened pout as he radiant tears welled up in the corners of her eyes. She still trembled. She almost whimpered. She was still stunned. While he would have criticized her further, he didn't want her to think that he had invested in the emotions of the incident.

Instead, he could only ground his teeth in silence as he cursed the missed opportunity under his fiery breath. "Shit," he scolded. Was she stupid? He would have handled him and then she wouldn't be crying over that asshole. That fierce look in her eyes must have been empty.

No, that wasn't false bravery. Bakugou couldn't revoke her courage. She managed to apprehend her offender after all that. Adeptly and successfully, she had saved herself and left Bakugou forever thirsting for vengeance.

His hand twitched.

Without a doubt, if anyone put their lecherous hands on her again, no one would be able to hold him back from blowing their head clean off of their bodies.

After a quiet evening of homework and video games with Kotone, Bakugou noticed Uraraka's spirit bounce back like a spring. The stress in her reddened face had long since faded and a bright smile replaced any lingering distress.

On the train that night, as they went through a tunnel, she hopped over to Bakugou's side and sat centimeters away from him.

Simple and addictive like bubble wrap, she enjoyed pressing Bakugou's numerous buttons. Since he had yet to kill her, maybe that meant she could continue.

Recalling Bakugou's wild, red eyes from earlier that day, Uraraka wondered if he wanted to save her. While she initially failed to believe her vision, she brushed away her denial and began to realize that he wanted to kill that man. There was more in his eyes - fear, possibly. Open, dilated eyes of terror behind his glare. Albeit faint, she noticed the notion as soon as she glanced at the assailant.

"No, you, get the fuck back to the other side," Bakugou scolded as he pointed to the place she had originally sat.

Instead of obeying him, she only giggled - genuinely and playfully, "Oh, Bakugou."

How sick. Bakugou wondered if this buddy-buddy stuff was a game for Uraraka. She must have known how effortlessly she could knock him off balance and disrupt his tightly-wound world like her personal lot of firecrackers.

He jumped up and walked over to the other side instead of waiting for her to do so. This coy, cutesy act annoyed him. He wanted her to be angry or afraid of him. In an attempt to look away, he turned to stare out the windows of the train. "You're annoying," he lamented aloud as he narrowed his eyes. Before a few weeks ago, they hadn't interacted, and suddenly, she talked to him like they had been friends for the past year.

Sticking her tongue out, she nodded, "I don't get you, either, but that's okay. I can try." Pressing the back of her finger to her chin, she pondered his personality. "Hmm, you're pretty heroic, Bakugou. You're kinda a rough and tough guy. And, even though you're violent, you wanna use your powers for good. We might have different outlooks, but I hope we can be friends."

She believed that. Maybe part of her wanted to show off her strength. If she had been with Midoriya, would she have been as strong? Or would she have relied on him to save her?

"Another one of those stupid analyses?" thought Bakugou. He resented her attempt to placate and read him. "Friends? I already told you that we're going to get married," he groaned.

In that peaceable moment, he just impulsively cut through the calm atmosphere with his selfish intentions. Uraraka frowned and mumbled, "Bakugou." Right, his pride in becoming her partner and the fact that he paid her any attention at all was so that his future children could inherit both of their abilities.

"What? Did you forget? Did you think we were on a fucking date or something?" he snarled as he spoke. "The only reason I gave a shit about that pervert was so that he and everybody else knows that nobody touches what's mine." When he glanced back over at her, he expected tears or distress and hopefully a glimmer of panic in her wavering demeanor. In fact, he would have preferred fear or tears over the placid and intrigued smile that caught his eye.

Maybe her exhaustion muddled her judgment, or maybe she was too much of an optimist, but Uraraka suddenly didn't buy the tough guy act anymore. Besides, his words couldn't affect her too much when her heart belonged to Midoriya. "Yeah, okay, Bakugou," she yawned and stretched. Rule number one in Bakugology: disregard his claims of detachment or anything he says for that matter.

When she fell asleep, Bakugou was at a loss for the second time that day. For a time, he watched her softly inhale and exhale. Her mesmerizing rhythm hypnotized him into a drowsy state.

He could imagine himself approaching her and caressing the perfect, round edge of her cherubic cheeks. He contemplated whether or not she would feel as soft as she appeared. Mochi cheeks. The sweet aroma of her hair would probably complement its silky texture. Her soft snores caused the corners of his mouth to twitch, and once he realized the sensation, he averted his stare elsewhere.

The doors opened at their stop, and he got to his feet and back to reality. Easily, he could have and probably should have left her on the train by herself for facetiously snickering and smirking at him for most of that day. She deserved it.

But no, her parted lips and sprawled body gave off a vulnerability - the same vision that plagued him - that would attract others to attack her. Or worse. He kicked the seat beneath her and cursed, "Oi! Get the hell up before I murder you."

She wiped her eyes and looked up at Bakugou, "Okay. Wait for me, will ya'?"

"No." He walked towards the automatic doors with his backpack in his hands.

Uraraka whined, "Bakugou!" She hurriedly grabbed her belongings and ran out the doors after him. He woke her up so that she wouldn't be alone, didn't he?

#kacchako #bakugou x uraraka #kacchako fanfiction

[chiisana-sukima]

The One Where I Escaped an Attempted Rape, Bought a Gun, and Managed Not to Shoot Anyone

Genre: Weird, True Life Anecdotes as Meta Commentary. Characters: Me (an incompetent victim), and Some Random Dude (an incompetent perpetrator). With side appearances by a Cop and my Roommate. Warnings: What it says on the label. Nothing too scary or at all graphic though. Summary: Also what it says on the label.

When I was in nursing school, twenty-five years or so ago, I lived in a dangerous, rundown area in Boston, and I had no car. I was walking home from the subway station one night, and a guy grabbed my breast, mugged me, and told me I needed to go down some tiny deserted street with him because he had a gun and he wanted me to “be his girlfriend”.

I had always thought, partly because of my history with sexual violence as a kid, and partly because I just don’t see myself as a physically brave person, that in a situation like that, I would be compliant in order to get out of the experience alive and with the least amount of damage possible. But it turns out what I actually did was not that at all.

I told the dude, in a voice that somehow ended up dripping with scorn (but not with a wealth of logic), that of course I wouldn’t be his girlfriend; he’d just stolen money from me.

He said he didn’t.

I said then give it back.

(He declined).

I swore at him extensively. And stalled for time, while I thought about whether I’d rather be raped or shot in the back. And then I ran into oncoming (sparse) traffic and escaped. When I got far enough down the opposite side of the street that I was pretty sure he wouldn’t be able to hit me anymore, even if shooting was still in the cards, I screamed back at him to fuck off, motherfucker, fuck you! and then I walked home.

He didn’t shoot me. Maybe he never had a gun. He never showed it to me; we were in semi-public. it was allegedly in the pocket of his baggy pants, where he kept his hand through the whole interaction. Not seeing the (alleged) actual weapon probably entered into my decision-making some, though I’m not sure how much.

When I got home, I felt elated- high on adrenaline, unharmed. He didn’t even get my wallet or my credit cards, just twenty bucks. My roommate- who later installed a steel core door and a reinforced frame for it, in place of my old bedroom door, because I was incapable of sleeping without a lock anymore and why have a lock if the cheap-ass door could just be broken in- said shouldn’t you call the cops?

The thought had not even entered my mind.

I called the police, and one of them came and took my statement. He had me come down to the station the next day and look at the mug book. I didn’t see the assailant there, but I did see a couple other guys from the awful slum of a neighborhood I lived in.

So here’s the thing. During the event itself, clearly, from my behavior, I was angry. I argued, and swore, and sounded like I thought the dude was less than a bug under my foot.

But I had no access to any of that. I felt terrified. Every time I opened my mouth, what came out was completely unplanned and I was shocked anew that I could be so stupid. I did consciously decide on running. But that was it; the only part the consciousness that narrates, that I call me, had any control over. All the rest of it came from somewhere else.

Later, I got a carry permit and a gun. I was- not surprisingly- frightened by the experience of almost being raped, and also by the presence of my neighbors in the mugbook. People got shot not infrequently where I lived. The dude across the street from me got shot and killed in a drug deal. A little schoolgirl on her bike got shot and killed in broad daylight about two blocks away. People got knifed. Houses burned down from arson. Strangers on the bus randomly told me I shouldn’t be in the area, while I was on my way to my job, to save their sorry friends’ and relatives’ asses.

The process to qualify for carrying a handgun legally in Massachusetts at the time was somewhat onerous. I had to take a class that lasted a couple of months, have a certain number of hours on a designated range, and take a practical exam given by the cops at the police range. 

I came to love shooting. It’s meditative and grounding both. I love guns. They’re gorgeous. They feel solid in your hands. The concentration required to shoot skillfully feels wonderful in that in the zone way that athletics does. Even the recoil feels good- out of your control for just a second and then back in it again, like catching air in a car.

But I never did end up carrying.

Because the better I got at shooting, the more I realized that if I’d had a gun the night I didn’t get raped, there’s very little chance I wouldn’t have killed that dude. I’m competence-driven, and he was slow and stupid (and probably high), and would have had no clue I was carrying and given me plenty of time to shoot him, and we were standing right next to each other, and I would have shot him in the center of his largest mass, because that’s how you shoot competently.

And the part of me that I call me did not want him dead. But I think probably the part where all that other stuff came from did.

There are several morals one could take from this story. “Don’t give guns to crazy people who have PTSD” is obviously one of them. “He would’ve deserved it” might be another. But those aren’t my point. My point is that *I*- the me who is what I choose- didn’t want him dead and still don’t. And given a slightly different set of circumstances, I almost certainly would have done this thing- this horrible, irrevocable, unfixable thing, that was not at all what I ever would have wanted. My lifetime weight of grief and his family’s lifetime weight of grief and his unfixable deadness would not have been any different for the fact that I have problems I can’t fix from someone else’s violence decades ago, or because, technically, it would’ve been his own fault.

Even though I don’t think of myself as particularly brave, I do think of myself as strong. I think of myself as morally strong, and emotionally strong; a person who has made hard choices and done hard things, and works hard to be a net good in the world. But people aren’t strong every minute or in every way. It’s impossible. We all have weak points where, given the right set of circumstances, we’ll make really, really, really shitty choices. That’s just how it is.

People (/characters) do terrible things, and sometimes mostly what I feel is angry. Because like everyone, some things just piss me off. But underneath the anger, there’s often not really any moral judgement. And then people rightly wonder, “but how could you think [Thing X] was the person’s action and yet still like them”? “[Thing X]- if it’s what really happened- is unforgivable”.

I don’t want to be over-dramatic about the handgun (ok maybe the evidence here suggests I kinda do, I dunno- guns are like that; they invite drama). I didn’t- thank christ- come into even the same galaxy where shooting someone lives. I *have* made bad decisions about other things, but I made the call I wanted to when I decided to keep on walking my sorry vulnerable ass outdoors, at night, in my terrible neighborhood, without protection, rather than risk shooting someone in a moment of anger and panic.

But that decision I made was the real moment of choice, and that I did live through, and it was no fucking fun. In the theoretical later moment down the other path, where I would’ve had the gun and been angry and panicked and not in control, it would’ve already been too late, like the crash after you don’t pick out a designated driver. And it wasn’t obvious at my decision point what I wanted or what I should do. I could easily have gone the other way. I did go the other way at multiple steps along in the process.

In the end, I made some choices that were probably good and some that were probably bad, and then I got lucky.

There are several answers for me to the question about calling actions bad, but then not judging the actor. One of the most central though, the most personally real, is the oldey but goody. It dates me, but: There But For Fortune Go You and I.

#why yes this *is* about gadreel #of course it is #but i was actually in the process of writing it anyway #for the gender and ptsd in SPN series Im working on #because im gonna do 'externalizing symptomology' in the next one #which will involve saying critical things about dean #sam too #but dean gets the larger share of externalizing symptomology #and as a society we both judge it harshly #and dont do much to help with it #cw guns #cw attempted rape #autobiographical meta #long post for ts #my stuff #saved for reference

[postgamecontent]

The Legend of Oasis: SEGA Saturn Spotlight #2

Original Release Date: April 26, 1996

Original Hardware: SEGA Saturn

Developer/Publisher: Ancient/SEGA

During SEGA's tenure as a console manufacturer, they often found themselves trying to counter-program the biggest hits on rival consoles, often to mixed results. For every Streets of Rage and Sonic the Hedgehog, there was an Eternal Champions and Kid Chameleon. Not that those games were without merit, but they weren't up to the task of convincing people they didn't need Street Fighter 2 and Super Mario World. One game SEGA was constantly trying to find an answer for was The Legend of Zelda. It makes sense, as it has always been one of Nintendo's top brands, a real system-seller any hardware company would dream of having in their line-up. SEGA developed and/or published a bunch of great action-RPGs and action-adventure games, but none of them fared well enough in the market to fit SEGA's needs.

The most successful of the lot was probably Beyond Oasis, a 1994 SEGA Genesis title developed by Ancient. It's a gorgeous top-down action-adventure game with a nice mix of surprisingly deep combat and interesting puzzles. Its Arabian Nights feel capitalized nicely on the wave of popularity for such settings in the wake of Disney's Aladdin, while also helping it feel distinct from the countless games in the genre that adopted more generic Western fantasy stylings. Unlike most of SEGA's other efforts in this respect, Beyond Oasis didn't look like it was desperately chasing Zelda. It had its own style and flair, something I'm sure the audience picked up on.

As usual, let's give a brief overview of the game's developer. Ancient was founded in 1990 by Tomo Koshiro, the mother of famed video game composer Yuzo Koshiro. After working with SEGA on the soundtrack for Revenge of Shinobi, Yuzo Koshiro pitched the idea of developing games to SEGA. The company had big ambitions for their upcoming Genesis game Sonic the Hedgehog, and wanted a version of the game for their other active hardware platforms, the Master System and Game Gear. Either SEGA was thin on choices or Koshiro's charm convinced them, as they ended up assigning the job of developing the 8-bit Sonic to a 22-year-old musician. Yuzo Koshiro needed a company to make a contract with SEGA, however, and thus Ancient was born. Mainly a family affair, Ancient not only counts Yuzo Koshiro's mother among its tiny staff, but also his sister, Ayano.

Ancient's name pops up frequently in game credits, but mostly due to Yuzo's work as a composer. Still, they've managed to put out a number of games over the years. Besides the subject of this article and its predecessor, Ancient also worked on games like Streets of Rage 2, Robotrek, Car Battler Joe, and the superb Gotta Protectors. Ancient's small size has helped it survive some very hostile periods in the gaming business and should ensure that we will be seeing their name appear in games for a long time to come. To be honest, I find most of Ancient's games to be a little bland. They're never bad, mind you, but aside from the music, they seem to be missing a certain spark. Nevertheless, they developed one of the greatest beat-em-ups in gaming history, so I'm willing to forgive many of Ancient's shortcomings.

Before I go any further, I'm going to dedicate a paragraph to names. I'm using the American titles for both of these games, but they went by different names in each major region. In Japan, the first game was The Story of Thor: Heir of the Light. In Europe, they went for a straight translation and called it The Story of Thor: A Successor of The Light. I'm not sure why SEGA of America felt the need to rename it Beyond Oasis, but it might have been to avoid confusion with Marvel's version of Thor. At the time he was barely known outside of America, and even in America, best-known for being the superhero the kid from Adventures in Babysitting was imitating. Still, better safe than sorry. Anyway, the second game's title in Japan was Thor: The Legend of the Spirit King. In Europe, it was The Story of Thor 2. In America, SEGA kept the Oasis connection going with the title The Legend of Oasis. And now we're all confused!

After the success of Beyond Oasis, Ancient decided to follow it up for their next project. In the early stages, the game's title was Legend of Thor, and it was planned to release on SEGA's ill-fated 32X add-on for the Genesis. I can't even begin to imagine why. Fortunately, they soon scrapped that idea and got to work on making something for the SEGA Saturn instead. The Saturn was something of a 2D powerhouse, which meant that as good as Beyond Oasis had looked, the follow-up would really be able to turn some heads. Or at least, it might have if the majority of the active gaming population at the time hadn't gone ga-ga for polygons. Timing is everything, I suppose.

In any case, the development of The Legend of Oasis was relatively painless compared to some other Saturn projects, and the game shipped more-or-less on schedule in early 1996 in Japan and late 1996 in the rest of the world. Sadly, like most Saturn games, The Legend of Oasis didn't sell very well worldwide. With much of the success of Beyond Oasis coming from outside of Japan, the Saturn's weak status overseas did no favors to games like this one. Oasis was really swimming against the current, too. As I've mentioned, 2D games were not seen in a very good light during the 32-bit generation of consoles, which is funny because they've certainly aged better than the blocky polygonal graphics of most of that era's 3D games.

Looking past the visuals, it's perhaps less surprising that The Legend of Oasis didn't hit as big as its predecessor. On a fundamental level, it's just too similar to the first game. The majority of the powers you earn are the same and tend to be applied in similar ways. There's one new weapon, but it's not a very exciting one. Playing the game feels like you're going through the same motions from Beyond Oasis, but without any of the shiny novelty that helped that game stand out. It's not bad, and it's just loose enough with its physics and level designs that you can cobble together some really interesting solutions to problems. But there is a genuine been-there, done-that feeling to the game that never quite goes away.

A prequel to the first game, it has the main character doing basically the same things that the character in the original did. This time around, our hero is given the Gold Armlet rather than just finding it, but you'll need to go around and collect each of the spirits one-by-one just the same. Each spirit has an assortment of abilities you can use to solve puzzles or to help in more general situations. While there are some new abilities and applications for the returning spirits, you'll find yourself using them in familiar ways. The Zelda games have shown that returning items can work, but you really have to be clever about making the puzzles feel unique and interesting if you take that route. The Legend of Oasis also adds a couple of totally new spirits, but they're mainly used to solve specific puzzles. They're weird-looking keys, in other words.

The steady balance between action and puzzles has been disturbed somewhat, too. The Legend of Oasis tilts more in the direction of the puzzle-solving and platforming at the expense of combat. For all of the moves that hero Leon has at his disposal, you can get through most battles with his basic jump kick. It even works well on many of the bosses. The command-based, Street Fighter-style special moves make a return, but they're not all that useful beyond using them to knock down specific obstacles and such.

Like the first game, The Legend of Oasis is pretty easy once you know how to solve the puzzles, and even those aren't too tough. I'm of two minds when it comes to the platforming. While it's not as rough as Dark Savior, the camera perspective makes some of the jumps a real pain. Worse still, if you fall down, you usually land in another location. You then need to make your way back to wherever you were, which is a tremendous waste of time for misjudging the depth of a platform. On the other hand, I like that you can cheat a lot of the platforming with your various moves and the objects in the environment. It's very organic, especially for a game of this era.

Another balance disturbed is that between the dungeons and the overworld. You spend very little time outside of dungeons in The Legend of Oasis, and there's not a lot to discover in those rare moments. I can't put my finger on why, exactly, but it makes the game feel more artificial and claustrophobic compared to its Genesis fore bearer. Some changes are for the better, however. In Beyond Oasis, every weapon you could get had a limited number of uses before it would break. Weapon-breaking systems are always controversial, and it's an especially big gamble if the game isn't transparent about how close the item in question is to being broken. You don't have to worry about that in this game, as your weapons will survive any number of uses. It could be argued that The Legend of Oasis doesn't need anything to make it easier than it already is, but there are right ways and wrong ways of adding challenge to a game. Kudos to Ancient for realizing that their previous weapon system was one of the wrong ones.

Storywise, the game is fine. Nothing great, and Leon is as blank a slate as you're ever going to see in a game. But it does have some twists and turns, and being a prequel, there are certain things it needs to explain to set up the state that the world is in during the events of Beyond Oasis. It handles those aspects fairly well, even if you'll probably see them coming from a mile away. So yes, it's alright. Unlike Dark Savior, the narrative here isn't good enough to excuse the game's flaws, but then again, it has fewer of those to wallpaper over. Rather than being a complex beast of mixed qualities, The Legend of Oasis is just flat, solid, and largely unexciting. It rarely embarrasses itself, but in pursuit of that inoffensiveness, it never really tries for anything interesting, either.

If there's one place where it does rise above expectations, it's in the presentation. The art and character design by Ayano Koshiro is excellent, and the game does a fantastic job of presenting her work. Things sometimes get a little pixelated when scaling occurs, but that's reasonable, I think. Yuzo Koshiro's soundtrack is quite unusual, however. His music often steals the show in games, but here it's almost understated. The soundtrack is frequently quiet, even going to silence at times. The classic Kojiro riffs are nowhere to be found. Yet it's oddly compelling, this mysterious soundtrack that sounds very little like Koshiro's other work.

I guess what it comes down to is this: the Oasis series was too young to be coasting along like this game does. Had the brand been well-established, no one would blink an eye at a lore-expanding retread like The Legend of Oasis, but Ancient really needed to do something more exciting to properly take advantage of the momentum built by the first game. The Legend of Oasis is a decent enough game, and if you like action-RPGs or Zelda-style games, I'd certainly encourage you to give it a go. But I think even if the Saturn were in a better place, even if 2D graphics weren't at their lowest period in terms of public perception, The Legend of Oasis probably wouldn't have made much of a splash. It's just too safe. That's not something you can say about a lot of Saturn RPGs, but here we are.

The Oasis series would never be seen again after this, though Beyond Oasis has enjoyed a healthy retirement via re-releases on various Genesis collections and through Nintendo's Virtual Console service. Unfortunately, The Legend of Oasis seems relegated to the bins of history, like almost every Saturn exclusive. Maybe one day SEGA will give the system some love in their frequent trips to the retro re-release well, and if they do, I could see The Legend of Oasis being a welcome part of that.

Previous: Dark Savior

Next: Shining the Holy Ark

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#gaming #retro #sega saturn #sega saturn spotlight #sega #rpg #the legend of oasis #beyond oasis #the story of thor #ancient #yuzo koshiro

[honestgrins]

NikMik: also not to sound greedy, but a part 2 could totally work ;P i'd love to see what happens during their dance. & possibly flashbacks, especially klaus coming to her door. i'm just saying :P

Guys, you know I’m susceptible to peer pressure! ;) Hope you like it, NikMik!

Sequel to Best Wishes

To the Happy Couple || Klaroline

“A toast,” Klaus called, tapping the side of his champagne glass to gather the reception’s attention. He grinned at a blushing Freya as Lucien whispered in her ear. “To the happy couple, the oddest pairing no one expected to get here.”

Chuckles rose from the crowd. Caroline warily kept the head table in her peripheral vision while supervising the catering staff plating the cake the newlyweds had just cut.

The night had been a weird experience for her, both familiar and startling. Her work automatic, natural - she was in her element. But it was strange to realize it was Klaus’s element, too, especially with his eyes lingering on her so often.

He was with his family, celebrating with his business partner. She couldn’t remember a time he had looked so comfortable in a room full of people. Klaus was always on guard for something, his eyes scanning the area to get his bearings.

The only time he had that look during the wedding was when his eyes searched for her.

She felt his gaze heavy against her face as he finished his charming speech. “Don’t let this one get away from you, Lucien,” he teased, his eyes not moving from Caroline. “Second chances are a rare gift.”

Blinking, Caroline tried to catch the breath that stuttered in her throat. The waiters rushed past her to deliver the dessert, allowing her a small break from the rest of the hall. The commotion of the party’s renewed fervor gave a brief respite from Klaus’s words echoing in her head.

“Care to dance?

His low voice, murmured against her ear, made Caroline jump. "I’m working,” she answered, tone breathy and weak.

Klaus slid a hand to her hip, silently urging her to turn around. His head dipped to meet her downcast eyes. “Please?”

Raising her chin defiantly, Caroline was ready to call him out for trying to manipulate her with cheesy toasts and his big hands distractingly warm on her body. But his expression was nothing but earnest hope, a genuine desire she realized she had missed. “Just one,” she sighed, throwing up a severe finger.

With a brief nod, Klaus eagerly grabbed her hand and led her to a hallway just off the main ballroom. “Klaus?”

“Shh…” His shushing was loud in the deserted space, the music from next door muffled through the wall. “I just want this moment with you, without my nosy sisters, and Lucien for that matter - and my brother Kol - watching our every move.”

He pulled her closer, twining one hand with hers as he began to sway.

“Big family,” she pointed out. Latching onto the subject seemed the easiest distraction as his other hand spread wide over her waist.

Smirking, Klaus refused to take the bait. His lips settled against her hair, and he held her close as they danced.

“Where’d you learn to do this?” she asked, giggling when he spun her twice - her fuzzy socks were perfect for twirling on his tiled kitchen floor. What was supposed to be a late-night snack for sustenance had turned into an impromptu dance to no music.

They had been casually sleeping together for about a month, and it still surprised Caroline how easy it was to simply be with Klaus. Artists were great for a fling, but she had yet to grow tired of him like she had with the musician, or even the graphic design student. He could be a pretentious douche on his best days; somehow, she just found it endearing.

Klaus shrugged, his hand running up and down her back as they fell into an easy sway. “My sister fancied herself a princess, and Mother insisted upon letting her dream. I was often bribed into attending dance classes with her.”

Pressing her lips together, Caroline tried to stifle a grin against his chest at the rare mention of family. Her curious - nosy - self wanted more, but they weren’t that couple who shared pesky details.

They weren’t a couple.

The way his hand traced the band of her boyshorts, how her nose dragged along the skin of his bare chest - it was just a sex thing, clearly.

Still, she leaned her forehead against his shoulder and tried not to count his heartbeats as they danced in his silent kitchen well after midnight.

They weren’t a couple, but this was nice.

Despite the odd circumstances, Caroline couldn’t help but relax in his arms. “How is this not weird to you?” She turned her head, far closer to his face than she’d anticipated. Pulling back a smidge, she carefully watched for his reaction.

He only raised an inquisitive eyebrow, maybe his hand tightened around hers just a bit. “It is,” he admitted, his smile falling crooked in an echo of sadness. “But I have to say, I had always hoped we would run into each other again. Sweetheart, you can’t blame me for not wanting to waste a moment.”

Her face feeling hot, Caroline nodded. “You don’t hate me? For not letting you say goodbye?”

“I wanted to.” His voice was quiet, serious. “When I thought about it later, I figured it was for the best. I’m not sure what would have broken my heart more had you opened the door that night: you telling me to go without you, or you resenting me for agreeing to change your plans.”

“Right,” she said, just to have something to fill the heavy silence between them. The music changed in the ballroom, and the pop music was jarring to their slow dance. Reluctantly, she retracted her hands from him and stepped back. “Well, uh-”

“Thank you for the dance, Caroline,” he interrupted, smoothly reaching for her hand again, only to bring it to his lips. “I know you have to work, and I’m sorry for taking up so much of your time.”

Caroline frowned as he dropped her hand and turned to leave. “That’s it?” she said in disbelief.

Like it was rehearsed, he instantly faced with her with an evil smirk. “I believe the ball is in your court, love.” He leaned forward to press a soft kiss to her cheek. “You’ll be able to find me when you’re ready.”

Gaping in confusion, she watched him go. Frustrated at his dramatic declarations, at herself for finding the whole thing romantic anyway, Caroline quickly followed him into the ballroom to go about her duties.

It wasn’t until the end of the night, when only the wait staff was around to witness, that she pulled up the hotel confirmations Carol had collected for the wedding party. She knew the best man would have one, and a little voice in the back of her head pushed her toward the elevator that would lead her there.

Standing in front of his door, though, the little voice turned insidious.

Go ahead, knock. He won’t open it, it’s just to make you pay for doing the same to him two years ago. You broke his heart, didn’t you? Can he break yours?

He plays games, you know this. You used to like that about him, that you could play him, too. You didn’t exactly pour your heart out, you know.

But finally, the voice she needed drowned them out.

You won’t know until you try.

Caroline knocked before she could lose her courage. In an agonizing twelve seconds, she had changed her mind about fleeing at least three times.

Then, he opened the door. “Caroline?”

“Klaus.”

He smiled at the catch in her voice, and her brain just stopped. Like something had slid into place, she could breathe again.

With a deep sigh, she pulled his loose shirt until he was close enough to kiss. There was no hurrying as she finally pressed her lips to his, her fingers sliding into his hair.

They had all the time they wanted to figure things out.

#klaroline drabbles #klaroline #nikmik #to rely on the kindness of strangers #not so prompt prompt #fic: best wishes #my writing