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sazorak · 5 years ago

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Every Game I Played in 2019, Ranked

2019 sure was a year that happened where I happened to play some video games. Here’s the ones I played enough to form opinions, in a rough ranked order of preference.

It’s kind of weird that I’ve done this for five years now, but hey. I like to talk about things that I like / dislike. Hopefully you’ll empathize with my complaints, and give ones I enjoyed a try.

As a bonus, I also tweeted about the anime I watched and enjoyed this year.

2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018

Orm & Cheep: Narrow Squeaks – 1985 – ZX Spectrum – ★

How far would you go for a joke? For the sake of a joke, I spent an hour beating an incomprehensible, shitty ZX Spectrum Game about Orm & Cheep, an 80s British children show I only know about from a Trash Night video making fun of it.

Orm & Cheep: Birthday Party – 1985 – ZX Spectrum – ★

… and also this one, though Birthday Party is marginally better than Narrow Squeaks. Marginally. Extremely marginally. Congratulations to Orm & Cheap: Birthday Party.

16. River City Girls – 2019 – Switch – ★★★

The style of River City Girls is great. I like a lot of what it’s doing in terms of look and sound. It’s just that… well, River City Ransom’s gameplay was interesting something-like 30 years ago. Gameplay wise, this game hasn’t evolved that much from OG RC Ransom. The combat certainly feels better, but as far as it controls… I can’t tell if it’s not taking advantage of modern controllers and just sticking too close to the original’s control scheme, or if side-scrolling beat-em-ups are themselves just so staid and dated these days that there’s not much to be done. I just wasn’t having much fun, and the RC Ransom progression of new techniques and stat boosting didn’t exactly make me want to keep going.

It’s a real shame because in terms of pure aesthetics and concept, the game is amazing. I just don’t actually enjoy playing it. Oh well!

15. Baba is You – 2019 – Switch – ★★★

The core gameplay concept of Baba is You is fantastic. The way you manipulate nouns and verbs to construct phrases that operate as equations in a physical environment is super interesting. The early goings of the game were quite fun.

The problem I have with this game is that when you hit a wall in it, that wall can sometimes be impenetrable. I found that Baba is You is at times too subtle with its attempt to “teach” you tricks or onboard you into approaches to puzzles; it’s possible to come to solutions without taking away the lesson the designer intended, which can make later puzzles basically impossible.

The difficulty curve feels all over the place; I was extremely high on this game early on, but after getting completely blocked moving forward for hours on end, with the only real recourse being to either look stuff up or stare at past puzzles to try to figure out what apparently crucial lesson I missed despite coming to my own solutions, I ultimately decided to just do something else.

14. Cadence of Hyrule – 2019 – Switch – ★★★

Zelda has great music. Crypt of the Necrodancer has pretty good rhythm-game action. Combine them, and you get… well, it turns out you get a pretty OK procedurally generated Zelda-game with Necrodancer mechanics, I suppose. The appeal is easy to understand, though I’m personally not sure I care much for the final product.

I enjoyed the original Necrodancer well enough as a simple run-based, short-ish rhythm dungeon crawler. The brevity of each given “run” (stemming in part from my own inadequate skill, I suppose) worked well with the style of gameplay, in that it never really became much of a chore.

Meanwhile, I enjoy Zelda as an extended puzzle adventure game where there’s an innate unthinking flow to the actions. I’m not typically thinking much about the moment-to-moment about the actual mechanics of the action; the brain’s desires flow directly to the motion on the screen, as it were.

Combining the two results in a Necrodancer experience that’s way too long, and a Zelda experience that is way harder to control. Add the fact that the procedurally generated world isn’t that interesting and I’m just rather lukewarm on this. Meh!

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13. Super Robot Wars T – 2019 – PS4 – ★★★

It’s fantastic that Super Robot Wars is finally getting proper, high-quality localizations again. It felt like a dream to finally be able to play this franchise again after being forced to stop after the DS era. Playing through the rather roughly translated, and somewhat monotonous SRW OG: Moon Dwellers was good because the OG games tended to have the highest production values and narrative quality (missing out on 2nd OG may have also helped). SRW V was my first foray into the more recent non-OG games, and so shined as something rather fresh to me.

Two years on, and two Super Robot Wars releases later, it’s plain to see that Super Robot Wars’ current annual release cadence is not great. It results in incredibly repetitive, monotonous games that rely heavily on asset reuse— both between games, and even within the same game. Part of the problem is that the derivativeness doesn’t feel additive. It’s not like SRW T is SRW V + SRW X + New Stuff; it’s more that SRW T is a reskinned SRW V, with some heavy series-asset reuse to boot. I think it’d be a bit more tolerable if it felt like these games were building on each other, but every single one feels exactly as slight and mechanically weak.

Super Robot Wars’ combat have not been particularly good from a tactical sense for a long time now. The original OG games were probably the last time the combat was particularly interesting for me, as it presented an actual challenge and difficulty curve. Nowadays, they are entirely fanservice cakewalks, even on the hardest modes. Hell, they’ve apparently decided that increasing the difficulty of the game means you don’t get to chase the special challenge goals, which actually can paradoxically make portions of the hard-mode actually easier than the normal. Bizarre!

I guess the idea is “well, folks are playing this to see the bits, so if it’s hard they won’t!” Which… I disagree? If the gameplay is deeply unsatisfying, why wouldn’t I just watch the damn series? Crossover shenanigans don’t mean much whey you don’t do much with it. Fanservice talking heads ain’t enough!

The addition of Cowboy Bebop and the return of GaoGaiGar and Gunbuster should have had me onboard. The series list for this game is fantastic. But what they do with it is so flat that about 30 chapters in, I just… stopped. It wasn’t worth it. I’d plainly seen all that it had to offer. Easy, slow, and repetitive gameplay isn’t appealing to me, even if I do get to see Spike Spiegel doing sky donuts to take out a Zaku.

Additionally: stop putting Nadesico in these games. The units are boring, the plot is boring. Stop devoting so much time to it! It sucks!!

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12. Ape Out – 2019 – Switch – ★★★★

Ape Out is a game where you’re a big ol’ gorilla murdering guys with guns while dope ass percussive jazz drums play to the action. It’s cool, it’s short, it could honestly probably do with being somewhat shorter, but whatever. I enjoyed it.

BattleTech – 2018 – Steam – ★★★★

Despite being famously a “mecha guy”, BattleTech has never really been my thing. While I’m not opposed to mecha-as-tank-analog, it’s not my primary focus in the genre; I like my robots to be fast, really. I like mecha getting into melee and fucking shit up. Mecha for me is a power fantasy. That’s not really BattleTech / MechWarrior’s thing. That all being said, I quite enjoyed my time with BattleTech, the PC-game rendition of the tabletop thing. It’s a neat turn-based tactical robot combat RPG with an interesting overarching campaign structure… to a point.

The first issue I had is pacing. While the game is turn-based, the combat and movement plays out in real-time. And given how lumbering these robots are, this means that a single mission can take aaaages. Think 45 minutes to an hour for a single mission. It took me about 20-30 hours to get to the campaign’s halfway point, which is when the game really started to sour on me.

The second issue is one of variance. Let me run you through the fundamental loop of the game. You are a mercenary captain that has a ship of mechs and mech pilots, and you fly around from planet to planet taking on jobs. You need money to pay for your ship to keep going, as well as to pay your pilots. It’s expensive to outfit your mechs, and severe damage to them can both REALLY eat into your budget and also take weeks in-game to repair. Missions are rated based on difficulty, and you are expected generally to field a greater “tonnage” of mechs in excess to that difficulty. This all plays out pretty well.

The game starts with you possessing mostly lighter mechs, and as you progress, you’re presented more and more missions in the campaign that require increasingly beefier mechs with more armor and more guns. Whereas in the tabletop game there’s presumably a kind of “point” system by which players are given a limited amount of tonnage that they can field on any given mission (for purposes of balance), there’s no such limit in the game; as such, you’re encouraged to field the four-ish beefiest robots you have, as they’re the most likely to kill everything fast while coming out with the least damage.

How do you get these beefy mechs? Well, you don’t buy them; instead, you’re aiming to kill opposing pilots and leave their robots as much intact as possible so that you can salvage or steal them. It’s kind of amusing; your entire gameplan after a point becomes “how the fuck do I shake this robot around a bunch such that its pilot dies???” It makes sense in practice, but if you think about it for even a second it comes across rather silly. Given you need good mechs to progress, you don’t have much other choice other than just running tonnnsss of missions and hoping you eventually get enough mech fragments to reconstruct some of your own. But beefy-ness isn’t the whole story, as some of the robots you can get just plain suck, regardless of their tonnage. You’re basically rolling dice again and again hoping a robot worthy of stealing shows up so you can kill its friends, and try to kill its pilot as gently as possible. You go through this cycle four times, across the four different weight-classes, until you’ve got what you need in terms of a team of class-appropriate mechs.

The fundamental lack of variety in what you field combines with every single mission really being “how do I kneecap everyone” instead of the given mission objective to make the game quite samey. Mission types don’t vary much, and the environments don’t constrain you all that much, either; the only ones that are particularly interesting are moons and Mars-like planets where your mechs’ ability to regulate their heat become much more constrained, which can necessitate loadout changes.

I enjoyed the story enough for what it was, but honestly? After 30 hours, I was pretty much good. I had a good time with BattleTech, but I’d had my fill.

Mortal Kombat X – 2015 – Steam – ★★★★

In my ongoing adventure of playing the Mortal Kombat games for their goofy plot / story modes and nothing else, I played Mortal Kombat X. I’m not sure there’s much to talk about these other than “Hey I enjoy their dumb ongoing narrative; I wonder where they’ll go from here!”

11. Mortal Kombat XI – 2019 – Steam – ★★★★

Ditto. The plot for these games are getting sillier and sillier, and the ending of XI may be the most ridiculous yet. In a good way.

10. Devil May Cry V – 2019 – Steam – ★★★★

Character action games are heavily predicated on the question of “How do we spice the game up over time so that it stays interesting… without overwhelming the player?” Devil May Cry V’s answer is “well, we’ll slowly give them more characters with their own expanding skill sets, that’ll be neat!”

It is neat, but I’m not sure it was actually a good idea. The three protagonists all have extremely different move sets, meaning that the forced switches between them on a chapter-to-chapter basis results in you never really mastering any one of them. Each character has a ton of depth, but… take, for example, Nero, the “main” protagonist. He has a sub-mechanic involved with revving his motorcycle sword to boost damage. I never actually figured out how to get to work. Never really had to, because he had so many other mechanics that were also effective, and I never had much time with him alone to dial in the weird motorcycle thing.

DMCV also does probably my least favorite gameplay gimmick of “introduce new mechanics in a boss battle!” Like great, you gave me a whole new move set here, and are now going to rate me on my performance when you’ve never given me a chance to learn these skills? Oh wait, you’re giving me new mechanics in the final boss battle!?! Fuck off. That sucks!

Also, I think I’m an outlier, but I actually preferred playing as V, the control-three-characters-at-once-while-reading-a-book guy. Just felt like I dialed his move set in easier. Weird.

9. Untitled Goose Game – 2019 – Switch – ★★★★

I’m not going to pretend that this is a deep game, or an enduring game, or even necessarily a great game. But I had a lot of fun with it, I have a lot of good memories thinking about it, and I am glad that so many people out there are now wrestling with the fact that birds can be both terrible and also good. Untitled Goose Game carries a powerful message about avian kind. You would do well to learn from it.

8. Super Mario Maker 2 – 2019 – Switch – ★★★★

Mario Maker 2 is such an incremental upgrade to Mario Maker that it hardly feels like it earns that “2”. That being said: Mario Maker 1 is pretty darn good so it’s not like that’s all that bad. The additional mechanics and story mode are good, granted, but like… I had been wanting more than just Mario Maker 1.5.

As is, it was pretty easy to get bored with Mario Maker pretty quickly, given it was mostly a game I’d already played quite a bit before. The addition of the campaign held my interest for a fair amount of time, but I’m not exactly coming back to this all that often. Hopefully the content updates they seem to be rolling into it keep up.

7. Kind Worlds: Lo-Fi Beats to Write To – 2019 – Steam – ★★★★

This is less a video game and more a sort of vague pen-pal application masquerading as a game, but man… the existence of this thing is neat. It’s just a program where folks write letters about their problems, and people send them stuff back. That’s it. It’s kind of a sweet thing to just exist.

I’m not a person with what would one term especially Heavy Problems, but just going through other folks letters and giving them an encouraging word is itself nice.

6. The Outer Worlds – 2019 – Epic Game Store – ★★★★

Having been deeply disappointed with the quality of Fallout 4, I was very happy to see Obsidian come back to do their own Fallout-a-like. The Outer Worlds isn’t perfect; I wish it had a bit more of a bite, the gunplay was… fine, the environment design was kind of dull, and the gameplay loop did not outlast the length of the game itself. But I had a fun enough time with it.

That said, I think the dearth of me having much to say here sort of speaks to how… rather unambitious the writing and design ended up being. There’s not a ton to say about it. It’s more responsive than a Fallout 4, to be sure, but even that caps out at a point. It doesn’t necessarily offer much in the way of RPG-style different “paths” to develop your character in terms of who they are or how they behave, beyond the sort-of four-way axis of “grouch to nice” and “corporatist to socialist.” The skill tree ends up being pretty flat, and you can basically become a master of everything by the end.

Shruggo.

5. Pokémon Sword – 2019 – Switch – ★★★★

Pokémon Sword/Shield is a bizarre thing— its design is constantly fighting against itself. There are tons of ease-of-use improvements– but it somehow has some of the worst online in the series. It gives you dozens of complex, half-explained systems— but also feels the need to hold your hand lest you get lost in its incredibly linear, dull story. It adds challenging Pokémon raid battles that you largely need to team up with other players to beat— but also has one of the most trivial progressions in the series. It has a huge and varied open “Wild Area” where you can catch hundreds of Pokémon before ever facing the first gym— but that wild area largely exists as a world unto its own separate from the traditional Pokémon “routes”. It doesn’t want to have a plot up until the very end when it decides that gee, I guess we have to, even if it makes no sense.

Let’s go into these in more detail.

Sword/Shield introduces a ton of gameplay improvements. Auto-saving, while problematic in places, is super useful. The ability to move Pokémon directly from the box to your party is great, and removes a lot of process headaches. Single hand controls are a godsend for both improved accessibility and general ease of use. Items are way easier to get, Pokemon are easier to raise, and this is probably the easiest game in the entire series to breed and raise “high tier” Pokemon for online battling.

On the other hand: despite your friend list being loaded into the game, you are forced to use a bizarre password system and request system that is super confusing and prone to issues. You cannot directly trade or battle or play with friends except through this, which occasionally results in headaches anytime someone uses the same four-digit password as you and your bud. The Max Raid battle system is super poorly explained in-game in terms of how you find and join others raids— I only divined it by a tweet someone made. They did away with the “GTS” trading system they had used for the past decade that allowed global Pokemon bartering, presumably in favor of encouraging more natural trades— but didn’t give any way to actually communicate with people in game what you want to trade for. It encourages more in-person interaction, but that’s once again playing into Game Freak’s obsession with the Japanese mode of gaming.

Sword/Shield perhaps has the most sheer amount of systems in any one of these games. It’s not necessarily all good, but in terms of “wow, you’re not babying us huh” it is at least interesting. There’s Pokemon that evolve based on absurd, never-explained conditions like “number of crits in a single battle”, “pass underneath this specific rock when they’re at low health”, “spin baby spin.” The wild area has tons of mechanical stuff that they let you explore without forcing your hand much, and they let you explore it freely without really railroading you. There’s a separate wild-area specific currency system based on raids / dens that you just stumble upon unprompted, really.

On the other hand, the core story progression of the game though… is perhaps the most infuriatingly patronizing thing I’ve experienced. Cutscenes happen every 15 seconds, often-times forcing your movement, and are almost of zero consequence beyond someone going HEY YOU SHOULD GO THAT WAY. The game is completely unwilling to let you get lost when going through the story. It’s constant, it’s unrelenting, it’s maddening. It literally made me mad.

Pokémon Raid battles are super interesting. The battles themselves aren’t necessarily hard, but the kinds of things they present— in terms of providing access to unique Pokémon, rare items, and the fact that they’re not as “rinse-and-repeat” as normal battles— gives the system and game increased longevity. It’s a pretty deep system, with meaningful rewards. A five-star battle is time consuming and you run the risk of failing, but if you pull it off you can get items like TRs, EXP candies, even bottle caps (super useful items that let you increase the baseline stat “DNA” of your Pokémon), and the captured Pokémon can have unique moves you’d normally have to breed and possess extremely high baseline stats. You can even get hidden secret abilities! Nice!

On the other hand: the core game progression is so piss easy and straight forward. The game’s leveling curve is all out of whack, in part because their introduction of a forced “always on” EXP share. In older games, you’d only get EXP from actively battling and beating a Pokemon in a fight, or having participated in a fight. Now, your whole team gets EXP just from being around, and you also get EXP from catching Pokemon, making curry, and all sorts of other small activities. All of this is fine or even good in the abstract as it makes raising stuff easier, but the game isn’t well balanced around it. Encounters don’t scale, which can result in you steamrolling the game if you engage with any of the game’s other systems prior to beating the game. I had to compensate by stretching my normal party of six into a party of 10, constantly swapping members out to keep the average level across the party down. Additionally, the only non-PVP reason to train and breed pokes, the Battle Tower, is so trivially easy this time that… why bother??

The wild area system is brilliant. A big criticism I’ve had with this series in the past is that the kinds of Pokemon any given player is bound to encounter and capture tend to be pretty similar. The limited amount of Pokemon that tend to be put on a traditional Pokemon route, and the limited means you have to encounter them (“hey I walk through the grass, we’ll see what pops up”) doesn’t trend towards players ending up with very different party compositions, just because there’s not a ton of options at any given point. The wild area completely tosses that out the window. As an open space, the types of things someone encounters will vary wildly— and it’s further varied by player-specific weather conditions that dynamically change the encounter tables. It completely opens up the kinds of Pokemon one can encounter early on, presenting hundreds of appropriately leveled options for players. It’s brilliant. The intermixing of both grass-only, overworld-visible, and raid-specific Pokemon also increases the range of encounters. It’s the accomplishment of the core Pokemon concept of “explore and find everything.” Finally.

On the other hand: the wild area is actually kind of boring to explore, visually speaking. It’s basically the Ocarina of Time field with sporadic patches of grass. There’s little actually diversity or mechanics to its exploration, especially when compared to the fact that… the game still has normal routes. They still behave as they always have, except that by the total remove of “Hidden Machine” mobility moves, the ability to explore geographically has been severely hampered. There’s no “gee, I can’t get there yet, guess I’ll have to come back later” except for a single mobility mechanic (the ability to go over the water, introduced very late in the game). It makes revisiting past areas mostly a box-checking exercise, and in general feels like an odd juxtaposition. They either should went all-in on the wild area or better merged the concepts together, because as is it feels… weird. Especially because the wild area could have done with being bigger and more diverse looking.

The game spends most of its time having no story at all, which is kind of boring. Juxtaposed with the railroading stuff where there’s still constant cutscenes with their mostly mediocre characters who don’t do all that much, it almost comes across as padding than anything. There are good characters (Piers and Marnie are the best, the gym leaders in general are good) but man do they try too hard to put Leon over.

But then at the end they introduce the story super quickly and it’s very dumb in a way that made me laugh out loud so congrats I guess.

All in all, I rather liked Sword/Shield. It’s no Sun/Moon— which innovated in tons of places and had an extremely charming story, cast, and progression— but the places that it innovates, and the ease-of-use improvements that they’ve put in the game, are great improvements to the baseline formula. While it’s caused a ton of drama online, the Pokédex and Pokémon Bank stuff are not huge impacts on my personal enjoyment of the game. It kind of stinks a bit, but the overall package is still quite good and fun.

The Legend of the Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Master Mode – 2017 – Switch – ★★★★★

Breath of the Wild was my favorite game the year it was released. The harder Master Mode is something that had interested me as something to check out for a replay, but I decided to wait until the shadow of my previous playthrough loomed somewhat less. Breath of the Wild is, after all, both a monumental game and also a monumentally large game. Going back to it for Master Mode would mean (by way of my own obsessive brain) 100%ing it all over again, which is extremely time consuming, even if I don’t go after the all the Koroks.

There was also this sort of reticence in my behind to confront the creeping suspicion I’ve had in my mind that some of the DLC additions have made the core game worse. Which, I would say… is probably somewhat the case. Certain DLC gear items extremely imbalance standard play and really fuck with the exploration of the game (specifically, Majora’s Mask basically making you not have to fight multiple enemy types). Still, I knew I could ignore those, and just focus down on the core experience of Master Mode: harder enemies, regenerating enemy health, and the introduction of floating platforms.

Turns out, BOTW is still fucking amazing, and while the additions Master Mode make aren’t essential, they do make for a fun second run of a fantastic game. The harder enemies make the early parts of that game WAY HARDER (making you really have to get good at using your bombs and stealth), and while that difficulty ramp doesn’t keep up throughout (which, honestly, the platforms are somewhat to blame as they make getting certain bits of higher-level loot earlier easier), it’s still just a great game to go back to.

Breath of the Wild remains my all-time favorite game. Hyped for BOTW2.

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4. Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice – 2019 – Steam – ★★★★★

Sekiro is in a sense the purest expression of the Souls formula. Stripped away of the jolly co-op, the PVP, the stats, the equipment, and most customization to speak of, Sekiro asks the simple question: can you do this? Can you learn all the systems in this quite challenging game, and engage with it on its own terms?

In its mechanical simplicity, I found Sekiro to be my favorite game of that lineage, as it has allowed them to really polish the gameplay by its singular focus. It just feels amazing to stealth around and backstab dudes, parry everything, and triumph in nail-biting sword duels. While you do gain new skills and equipment (in the form of the ninja tools), they are just supplementing the fundamental systems of the game, rather than acting as diverging ones. So really, most of your time is spent not learning wholly new methods of combat, but instead improving your mastery of the core one.

And the feel of mastering that combat is incredible. By the end you feel unstoppable; normal enemies that would have been challenges early on are nothing. Even a lot of the bosses become trivial as-time goes on, bar the few ‘mastery test’ bosses interleaved throughout the progression. This isn’t some “hey I got more EXP and now over-level for everything!” thing, either; this is me, the human holding the controller getting skilled enough to become a Sekiro master. It’s an amazing feeling.

I beat every single boss in the game, including the hidden ones, and enjoyed the hell out of it.

3. Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night – 2019 – Steam – ★★★★★

I’m very much on the record as being a huge IGAvania partisan. I fuckin’ love the core loop of that permutation of the Metroidvania formula. Koji Igarashi no longer being able to make Castlevanias hurt me. A lot. Over a decade of time spanned between the last IGAvania game, Order of Ecclesia, and the release of Bloodstained. I was a bit worried.

Thank god Bloodstained is really, really, really good.

Bloodstained is extremely “one of those.” You move about a 2D interconnected world, collect items and abilities until you find the stuff that let you move forward in a new area. It’s kind of an eclectic hybrid of IGA’s past titles. The castle design feels very Aria of Sorrow. The shard mechanics feel close to Aria/Dawn of Sorrow’s soul system. The weapons feel very Symphony of the Night meets Portrait of Ruin. The overall mechanics of movement feel most akin to Order of Ecclesia. All in all: a good mix.

The game is massive. There’s so many weird one-off mechanics (something I appreciate), bizarre callbacks, goofs. There’s an in-depth alchemy system (mostly used for cooking, which is funny). The shard system is a bit boring in places— some shards are extremely simple and forgettable mechanically— but the shard leveling system is kind of hilarious in how broken it can become. The familiar system from SOTN is back and has been essentially perfected by making it a dedicated slot so you can just hang with a fairy or sword pal.

I wish the game had more enemy diversity, and the story left something to be desired. Many shards just aren’t very interesting. But the game is just so dang fun. The core gameplay loop is just so compelling, and the game just feels so dang good. I’m glad they took all the time to polish the gameplay feel because hooooooooooo boy.

Looking forward to those DLC characters for some additional playthroughs.

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2. Outer Wilds – 2019 – Epic Game Store – ★★★★★

“Space exploration”, “cosmology”, “archeology”, and “sociology.” While these are certainly not the only fields that dominate much of my attention, they are some big ones. The Outer Wilds is a space exploration game where you explore the structure of a strange but exquisitely constructed solar system, and dig through the remains of a mysterious vanished alien species. Also, you’re stuck in a Majora’s Mask-like apocalyptic time loop ‘cuz the sun keeps exploding. Should probably find out why that’s happening.

I went into this game completely blind, entirely based on the way Austin Walker was raving about it on twitter. Austin’s interests in heady space shit is pretty similar to my own, and turns out? Worked out quite well for me. I blindly explored this solar system for about twenty hours over the course of a couple weeks, and came away from the experience misty eyed at the ending. Outer Wilds is fantastic.

It’s a surprisingly touching and cozy for a game that mostly about you going off into space on your own, all alone. And that’s because you’re not, really. Outer Wilds is less about the science of exploration and archeology and the meaning of it, why it matters even in the darkest moments. Why do we explore? Why does science matter, divorced from the parasite of industry and markets? What value does it give to us, to future generations?

The game is built on the notion that even as we individually wander, explore, and discover, we’re all together collectively building on something that may outlive us, even outlive our species, the pursuit of a collective knowledge that transcends personal enrichment and individual accomplishments.

You are but one a few alien explorers, each on their own adventure. As you adventure, you catch their signals as you cruise across space. The things you learn and do are further built on the relics and messages left behind by the Nomai, the species that came before. This sense of a personal and emotional connection in the act of discovery is the heart of this game. We’re not standing on the shoulders of giants; we’re holding hands with those before us and those after us to build a bridge to a future that we may not live to see.

It’s a positive message of hope in the face of oblivion.

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1. Fire Emblem: Three Houses – 2019 – Switch – ★★★★★

I’ve been really on-and-off on Fire Emblem over the years. I first got in on the franchise with Awakening, which I rather liked for its anime-ass sensibilities— though not without criticism. I found the combat kind of obnoxious in its tendency to get muddied down in the Oops You Done Fucked Up, Time To Reset junk. It was too anime-ass in some places, not the least of which being its incredibly one-note characters who had little bearing on ongoing events so as to support the permadeath system without too much wasted effort on the developers’ part. Fates, the follow-up on Awakening, only amped up these criticisms, becoming convoluted, stupid, and kind of obnoxious to play.

I had hopes that Three Houses would be an improvement. Initial impressions made it seem way more serious, way more grounded, with a lot of improved systems. Turns out: it was better than I could have dared of expected or hoped. Three Houses isn’t improvement, or even innovation; it’s a revolution.

Three Houses is great. It’s long, it’s got so many different systems going on that I hardly know where to begin with describing it, but… it’s great. It’s the platonic ideal of what I’d like out of a Fire Emblem. Things feel like they matter. The setting feels weighty, the plot is actually good, and the characters are absolutely marvelous.

No, it’s not perfect— its handling of representation could DEFINITELY be better. Some of the narrative is hokey as hell in places. Certain routes seem to have gotten more attention than others. The class-based specialization systems could do with more depth such that so many characters don’t end up mostly identically specialized to each other.

But… I found the combat extremely enjoyable. The charge-based rewind mechanic removed the feel-bad gotchas of unanticipated troop appearances and bad rolls etc. The characters are fun, and they’re kept relevant all the whole way through via creative framing of events. The ability to roam an actual physical space via the monastery made the world feel more alive, and made everything feel more real.

The writing was actually interesting and nuanced, exploring things like faith, race, social classes, feudal politics, and romance. While the three routes are largely similar, it’s interesting just how different the underlying messages of each of them ends up being. I appreciate that in this game where you otherwise spend most of your time hanging around with nobles in a church ends just short of you rolling out the guillotines by the end.

This is a tactical RPG in 2019 that I have put something like 150+ hours into, having beaten only two of the four routes. I was, and still am, deeply invested in everything that is. I’ll probably go back to the other two routes when the final DLC is out next year.

SAKURAI, PUT EDELGARD IN SMASH

#GAME OF THE YEAR #2019 #GOTY #nonfiction #thinkpiece #fire emblem: three houses #outer wilds #bloodstained #sekiro #pokemon sword/shield

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thinkingaboutyoungroyals · 6 years ago

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Who Waits For Love (Chapter 7)

Summary: T.J. Kippen lost his chance to tell Cyrus Goodman how he felt when they were in the 8th grade. Now, they are in their junior year of high school and Cyrus is on his 3rd relationship. Is it time to give up… or continue to wait for love?

A/N: First, I’m so sorry because of how horribly delayed this chapter was, due to the unexpected occurrence of me getting sick! I’m still a little sick but I’m getting better! Thank you to everyone who sent their concerns my way! And, second, this chapter feels rushed cause a lot of things are happening at once, but trust me, I’ve had this setup planned from the beginning because I didn’t want to drag the story on and on, especially with all the upcoming angst.

And with that final note...Enjoy!

It had been days since T.J. and Cyrus last hung out. Sure, he would pick him up for school in the morning and drive him home after and they would have lunch together with their friends. But other than those, they haven’t spent much time together…alone.

Aidan had been hanging around him a lot more ever since their date. The brunette would wait for him in the mornings with some kind of treat, and sometimes, T.J. would drive him home, too. During these times, Cyrus would disappear.

He wondered if his friend had an issue with Aidan but Cyrus had always given people chances and get to know them (like what he did with T.J.), so this behavior was a little off-putting and strange.

And, furthermore, T.J. just missed him. So, he was thrilled when Cyrus agreed to come over his house after school to help him study for his upcoming Trigonometry test.

Cyrus was a good teacher. He was patient and had no problem repeating things until T.J. understood. If he was certified in specialized tutoring for dyscalculia, T.J. would have insisted that he be his tutor instead of the one provided by the school. (She was nice and all but he wasn’t her only student. There were 3 others in the whole of Grant who also had dyscalculia so she had to divide her time between them. She couldn’t always give T.J. her full attention.)

It had been two hours since they started studying. Sitting with his legs underneath him at his desk, T.J.’s head was filled with nothing else but sine, cosine, and tangent functions. He was starting to doze off. Cyrus’ voice started to sound like a soothing buzz in his ears. He wanted to just lie his head down and nap.

“T.J., what’s the answer?”

He blinked and looked down at the equation he had been trying to solve. He was pretty sure he messed up somewhere.

“Um… 42?”

From his spot on top of T.J.’s bed, Cyrus sighed and put the textbook down. “Let’s take a break.”

“Thank you!”

Relived that he could rest his exhausted brain, T.J. plopped his head on top of his arms on the desk and closed his eyes.

He wanted to drift off but knew that he shouldn’t. He still had a lot of ground to cover. So, he would just rest.

“So… how are things between you and Aidan?”

T.J. opened his eyes and peeked at Cyrus, still sitting on his bed, watching him.

“Um… fine, I guess.”

Cyrus cutely pursed his lips. “Have you gone out on your second date?” he continued to ask.

“No. He’s asked me a couple of times. But, I’ve been too busy.”

Plus, he figured it was best not to get Aidan’s hopes up. But, he had to admit, the guy was determined. Not to brag or anything, but it wasn’t the first time T.J. had been pursued. However, most gave up fairly soon. Aidan, so far, just kept asking, never deterred by T.J.’s polite refusals.

It was cute and yeah, it felt good. But, he knew that he had to be firm with him one of these days and reject him properly. He wouldn’t feel so bad about it if Aidan wasn’t so nice.

T.J. flashed Cyrus a smirk. “Why? Are you jealous?” he teased.

To his surprise, the brunette just coughed and abruptly changed the subject. “So, did you see the posters for the Spring Formal? Andi made them.”

Chuckling to himself, T.J. raised his head and nodded. “Yeah. She’s in the committee, right?”

“Yeah, she figured since Amber’s not around, she might as well do something productive for the Dance. She’s handling PR and some of the décor.” Cyrus pursed his lips. “Are you…thinking about asking Aidan?”

T.J. didn’t even think about that so he just shrugged. “What about you?” he couldn’t help but ask. “Are you asking anyone?”

His heart thundered against his chest as he waited for Cyrus’ answer.

The brunette also shrugged. “Still thinking about it.”

T.J. tried to ignore the way his heart fell. “Oh.”

Whoever that guy was, he was a lucky bastard.

He forced a grin. “In that case, try not to step on his feet when you’re dancing.”

Cyrus’ mouth fell open in offense at the jibe. “Excuse me?! I’ll have you know, I’m an excellent dancer! I took dance lessons!”

T.J. snorted. “Oh, really?”

“Yes, really!” Looking determined, Cyrus jumped off the bed and flashed T.J. a challenging look. “I’ll show you who can dance!”

Then, to the blonde’s amusement, he began to dance. And he was using the term quite loosely. It involved a lot of jazz hands, shaking his hips, flailing his arms, and spinning.

“You can’t do better than me!” he gleefully cheered.

That sounded like a challenge and everyone knew that T.J. could never resist a challenge.

Getting to his feet, T.J. also began to move his body. A few body rolls here. Waving his arms there. Spinning. He wasn’t entirely sure if his made up routine was any better than Cyrus’ but the boy was laughing and amping up his own moves so it must be pretty good.

There was no music but by some miracle, they were still moving to some kind of beat.

Playfully, T.J. reached out and grabbed Cyrus’ hand and twirled him under his arm. The brunette let out a delighted squeal, spinning himself back into T.J.’s arms.

T.J. spun him again and brought him close, his hands instinctively meeting the smaller boy’s waist. Cyrus giggled, his own hands moving up to wrap around T.J.’s neck, his cold fingers meeting the little hairs there. It made the blonde shiver but he didn’t let go.

They were suddenly swaying to the unheard music.

“What are we doing?” Cyrus asked, still giggling.

“Slow dancing? It’s a must for every Dance, Underdog! You’ve slow-danced before, right?”

Cyrus shrugged. “I danced with Freddie at the Winter Formal last year… but, he stepped on my foot so we stopped.”

T.J. laughed, remembering.

He had been standing on the side of the school gym, a cup of punch in his hands, silently jealous as he watched Cyrus dance with his then-boyfriend…until the foot-stepping incident, anyway.

“Oh, yeah,” he teased, grinning. “He ruined your shoes.”

“They were pure, 100 percent Italian leather!”

“Well, then, hopefully, whoever you slow-dance with this time won’t step on your foot and ruin any expensive leather.”

“Or I can just dance with you.”

He was sure it didn’t mean anything, but T.J. still felt his cheeks turn red.

“Yeah,” he managed with a soft smile. “You can do that. I’ll dance with you all night, if you want me to.”

Their swaying had slowed and the distance between them had somehow become non-existent. He wasn’t sure if he had pulled him closer or if Cyrus, himself, stepped closer. But, they were now practically chest-to-chest.

The brunette raised his chin and met his eyes, peering at him from under long lashes as he bit his bottom lip. T.J.’s gaze flicked over to them, biting his own lip and swallowing the lump in his throat.

“T.J.?” came the soft call, making him look up again to see Cyrus watching him.

“Cyrus,” he breathed, feeling himself lean in as his resolve weakened.

He loved him so much and wanted to be with him, so badly. He held off on his feelings for so long, putting Cyrus’ own happiness before his. But, it didn’t change the fact that he wanted to hold him in his arms like this…to kiss him…

It felt like time was slowing down. Cyrus’ eyes were fluttering, almost as if he wanted to shut them but didn’t want to miss what T.J. was doing. Meanwhile, T.J.’s heart was speeding up and wondered if it was loud enough for Cyrus to hear.

Their lips were only mere millimeters away from each other. It was so easy for T.J. to just take the plunge and go for it. Just plant a kiss right there on those pretty pink lips...

“Boys! Take a break! I made cookies!”

Just like that, T.J. felt himself jump away from Cyrus, his hands leaving the latter’s waist. His heart still wasn’t calming down and he could feel his face practically burning. Nonetheless, he was a half-disappointed and half-relieved at the interruption.

Disappointed because he didn’t get to kiss Cyrus like he wanted. Relieved because he didn’t want it to happen like this. He didn’t want to force a kiss on him.

“U-Um… we should go,” was all he could say.

In front of him, Cyrus had his gaze trained on the floor. “Y-Yeah… Um… Can you give me a minute? I just… uh… I need to check on something… on my phone.”

“Yeah… yeah…”

With a nod, T.J. quickly left, leaving Cyrus still standing there in the middle of his bedroom.

In the hallway, he leaned against the wall and sighed. Whether it was from relief or frustration, he wasn’t really sure, anymore.

And his heart still refused to calm down.

They didn’t talk about it when they were eating his mom’s cookies and drinking juice. They didn’t talk about it when they went back to studying. And not a word was mentioned when Cyrus said goodbye and T.J. watched him walking to his dad’s car from the porch.

As the taillights disappeared, the longing in T.J. only grew.

……........

“Wow, Andi really outdid herself,” Cyrus said, sounding impressed.

T.J. had to agree as they both stared at the giant pink banner hanging from the banister, with the words “Spring Formal This Friday At 7pm!” emblazoned in glittery blue letters and surrounded by paintings of flowers, birds, and hearts. Around them, posters announcing the Dance were tacked onto every bulletin board and taped to every wall.

It was like they were trying to nudge T.J. into asking Cyrus since the brunette didn’t say anything about having a date, yet.

“Have you asked the guy you wanted to ask?” he casually brought up as Cyrus walked him to his locker.

The other boy shook his head. “Not yet. I was thinking about how I’m gonna ask. Like, should I do a promposal, like what everyone else is doing? Or should I just go for it and ask? What do you think?

T.J.’s chest ached as he replied, “I say go for it.”

They finally reached his locker.

Cyrus flashed him a smile. “You think so? I’m kind of scared he’d say ‘no’.”

“Who would say ‘no’ to you, Underdog? I wouldn’t.”

Cyrus’ face flushed. “R-Really?”

T.J. returned the smile as he opened his locker. “Yeah. Why? Are you asking me?” he couldn’t help but tease.

Cyrus visibly swallowed. He looked a little nervous all of a sudden.

“Well… actually, there is something I wanted to ask…”

A seed of hope blossomed inside T.J.’s chest. Was Cyrus really going to ask him?

“Hey, guys.”

Trying not to be so obvious with his irritation at the interruption, T.J. flashed the newcomer a friendly smile.

“Hey, Aidan,” he greeted.

The other brunette boy stopped in front of them.

“Got you an apple fritter,” he said, holding out a paper bag for T.J. to take.

He didn’t want to accept but he also didn’t want to be rude so he took it.

“Well, I’m gonna head to my locker,” Cyrus announced.

“Wait, weren’t you going to ask me something?” T.J. blurted out in a panic, not wanting him to leave yet.

Cyrus flashed him a strained smile. “It’s not a huge deal. I’ll see you, guys, later.”

And with that, he walked away.

Disappointed, T.J. continued to watch him from afar until he disappeared in the crowd. He was so caught up in his own inner turmoil that he almost didn’t hear Aidan’s question.

“Do you have a date for the Spring Formal, yet?”

He turned to him. “No, not yet,” he replied, honestly.

Aidan brightened up and it made the dread pool in T.J.’s stomach. He had a feeling he knew where this was going.

“So… would you like to go with me?”

T.J. swallowed. It was time. He couldn’t put it off any longer.

“Aidan…”

He locked eyes with the brunette. The other boy looked anxious with the way his hands tightened around the straps of his backpack. Yet, hopeful at the same time because he was practically bouncing on the balls of his feet in anticipation, beaming that bright smile.

T.J. felt awful. “I’m flattered, I really am. But… I can’t go to the Formal with you. I… don’t feel the same way.”

Slowly but surely, the sparkle in Aidan’s eyes dimmed as his smile disappeared. “Oh…”

“It’s not you!” T.J. added, quickly. “Honestly, you’re a really great guy. You’re sweet and nice and funny and…I bet you any other guy or girl would have no issue going out with you. But, I…”

He trailed off, unsure about going further.

But, Aidan appeared to understand. “You like someone else, already, right?”

T.J. swallowed again and nodded.

“It’s Cyrus… right?”

T.J.’s eyes widened. “How did you…?”

Chuckling, Aidan shrugged. “I wasn’t sure, at first. But, the more I got to know you and your friends, the more it became obvious. I should have backed off when I realized but I just really liked you, T.J.” He sighed. “I’m sorry if I made things awkward for you both. I think I’ve been upsetting him by hanging around you too much.” He smiled in a friendly way. “You should ask him.”

T.J. hung his head. “I don’t know. I want to. God, I really want to. But, I don’t know how he’ll react.”

Aidan reached out and patted his arm. “Well, you won’t know unless you ask.”

For someone who just got rejected, he seemed to take it well. And he was fine with giving T.J. dating advice? Aidan really was a great guy. And he had to admire his guts, too. He liked T.J. and he went for it.

Maybe he should take a page from his book.

By the time they bid each other goodbye (Aidan had now fully accepted defeat and told him he was backing off), T.J. was determined.

With his head raised high and his steps sure and confident, he made his way to Cyrus’ locker. From a distance, he could see him there, talking seriously with Jonah.

Gathering every bit of his nerve and summoning all of his so-called boundless confidence, he walked closer.

“… and I’m wondering if you’d like to go to my Spring Formal with me?”

T.J. froze in his tracks, his body going cold at the words that just left Jonah’s mouth.

Surely, Cyrus wouldn’t say ‘yes’? Surely, Jonah wasn’t the one he was going to ask. He was over his crush on Jonah. He told T.J. that many times.

He watched as Cyrus smiled and said, “Sure, Jonah. I’d love to go to your Spring Formal.”

He could practically hear the ensuing crack and crash of his heart, like a vase that someone accidentally knocked over.

He was too late again.

Turning on his heels, T.J. ran off.

……........

The ride home was filled with nothing but Cyrus’ chatter about his day. T.J. hummed in acknowledgment so his friend knew he was listening, but otherwise, he allowed Cyrus to talk. He knew that he was just waiting for the boy to bring up the Formal and Jonah.

And it made him tense. His hold on the steering wheel was tight but he was surprisingly calm. When it came to being heartbroken, he had gotten very good at hiding his true feelings.

“You okay? You’ve been quiet all day,” Cyrus asked, sounding worried.

T.J. flashed him a smile. “Yeah. Just a long day. My Trig test was pretty hard, but I think I did okay.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah. Really.”

Cyrus was silent for a few beats before saying, “Alright."

He didn’t say anything for a while, the only sound was the radio playing.

“So…did Aidan ask you to the Formal?” was suddenly asked.

T.J. swallowed, not taking his eyes off the road. “Yeah, how did you know?”

“Wild guess. He looked serious this morning.”

“Yeah.”

Another beat of silence.

“So… are you going with him?”

“Uh… I haven’t decided. Maybe.”

“Oh…”

No word was said for the rest of the drive.

……........

Suffice to say, things between him and Cyrus in the next few days were…awkward.

T.J. didn’t mean to make it awkward. It was just, every time he looked at Cyrus, he would remember the way he said “yes” to Jonah’s invitation with no hesitation. And, furthermore, neither of them said a word about being each other’s dates. It was like they didn’t want anyone else to know.

Meanwhile, the rest of their friends were looking forward to the Formal. Marty and Buffy were going together, of course. And Andi was going stag but she proudly boasted about how hard she worked on her decorations.

When T.J. casually mentioned that maybe he was going to skip out on it, he had gotten a gasp of horror from her and was then made to feel guilty because he wouldn’t see her beautiful decorations. So, obviously, he now felt obligated to go.

“Hey, are we okay?” Cyrus asked him that Friday, at T.J.’s locker, hours before the Formal.

“Yeah, why?”

“It just… feels like you’re avoiding me? Or you don’t want to talk to me? Did I do something?”

T.J.’s eyes widened. “What? No! You didn’t do anything! I just…” He sighed, feeling exhaustion seep into his bones and guilt for worrying his friend. “It’s just been a long couple of days. But, things are fine, really.”

Cyrus frowned. “Are you sure?”

T.J. stepped forward and pulled him into a hug. “Yes. Things are fine.” He wanted to keep holding him but eventually, he forced himself to break away and step back. “A little fun tonight will probably do me some good. I’ll see you later?”

Cyrus, along with Buffy, was going to Andi’s to get ready and they were sleeping over, too.

The brunette still looked unsure but nodded. “I’ll see you.”

T.J. drove home alone. His mother was working until 8 that night so he got ready alone. He figured it was better, so she wouldn’t fuss over him and his hair and he could contemplate in peace.

It was the same old routine. He was always like this whenever Cyrus went on a date or got a new boyfriend.

T.J. would wallow in self-pity for a couple of days then pretend everything was okay until he got used to the fact that Cyrus was with some other guy and not him.

So far, it worked well for him...sort of.

After styling his hair and sliding on the black suit jacket over his green button down (Cyrus often said he looked great in green because it brought out his eyes), he took a quick mirror photo and sent it to his mom.

Then, he grabbed his keys and was out the door.

He drove back to school, where the Spring Formal was to be held at the gym. He parked, sent his mom a quick text saying that he had arrived, then made his way into the building. Surrounding him were other students, all dressed to the nines in formal cocktail dresses and fancy suits.

In the hallway leading to the gym, he finally spotted a familiar face.

“Jonah!”

The brunette waved at him, his smile and dimples in full force. Damn, he looked really happy. Who wouldn't be if Cyrus was their date?

T.J.’s chest ached.

“Hey, T.J.!”

They slapped hands and fist-bumped in greeting.

“You look great,” the brunette complimented.

“Thanks. You too.”

Jonah was similarly dressed in a black suit, his formal shirt a deep red, and his hair nicely brushed. He really was a handsome guy, T.J. couldn’t deny that.

“Where are the others?”

Jonah pointed behind him. “The girls and Marty are already inside. Cyrus, too.”

T.J. furrowed his brows. “Why aren’t you in there with them?”

“Oh!” Jonah blushed, sheepishly. “My date’s in the bathroom. He’ll probably be out soon.”

Now, T.J. was definitely confused. “Your… date? But isn’t-.”

“Hey, guys.”

Jonah’s face immediately lit up. “Hey.”

A familiar bright-eyed boy walked up to them, dressed in a maroon suit with a white undershirt and a black bow tie.

“Walker?” T.J. blurted out, eyes wide. “You’re Jonah’s date?”

Jonah suddenly looked shy but Walker was beaming, his hand reaching out to link with the boy next to him.

“Yeah,” the artist replied, excitedly. “I didn’t think he would ask me but…. He really surprised me.”

Jonah grinned. “I have Cyrus to thank for that.”

T.J.’s stomach flipped. “Cyrus?”

“Yeah, he let me rehearse on him. And a good thing, too! I could barely get the words out when I asked Walker.”

“It was cute,” Walker said in a teasing tone, turning to Jonah and bumping their shoulders together. “And really sweet.”

Watching them practically flirt and send heart eyes at each other, T.J. felt stupid.

He had jumped to conclusions.

Cyrus never mentioned going to the Formal with Jonah because he never was.

“So… Cyrus doesn’t have a date?” he ended up asking.

Turning his attention back to him, Jonah furrowed his brows. “Aren’t you guys here together?”

T.J.’s throat felt dry. “Why would you think that?”

“He told me he was gonna ask you…he didn’t?” Jonah’s eyes widened in shock and panic. “Shit…sorry….I… I wasn’t supposed to tell you…I just thought…Please don’t tell Cyrus! He trusted me!”

Cyrus was going to ask him? Was T.J. dreaming? Or maybe Jonah was joking?

No, Jonah would never joke about this. He was funny and oblivious, but he would never joke about this.

So… if Cyrus wanted to go to the Formal with him, why didn’t he ask him? He had all week to ask. But, why didn’t he?

Meanwhile, Walker was rubbing a hand over Jonah’s back, calming him down. The brunette flashed him a grateful smile before turning to T.J.

“I think you should go talk to Cyrus,” he said. “It’s not too late.”

Yes, it wasn’t too late. The Dance only just started. There was still time.

T.J. had a chance. He couldn’t let it slip by.

“I gotta go! Thanks, Jonah!”

With determined steps, T.J. ran down the hall and through the gym doors.

Tag list

@androgynouspoetrycollector

@tyrusmuff1n

@thedampjofangirl

@tjsmuffin

@alyssailovespuppies

@buffy-driscool

@r4anly

@delicatesleeper

@amazingpartytattoos

@unprofessionalart

@myrandom-fandomlife

@tjshoodie

@just-fic-me-up

@tjskipping

@completelysterling @theobligatedklutz

@justeilona @literally-just-for-fanfics

@turtle0verl0rd

@angel28716

@tjlikedhimfirst

@tyrus-endgayme-confirmed

@breadisticks

#tyrus #tyrus fanfic #tyrus who waits for love

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backtomylakearearootsstory · 6 years ago

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S1E17

[SUNDAY EVENING SUMMARY-The couples have checked out of the hotel and are reunited with their children, Clarissa is preparing her lecture for the following day and working on a new podcast. After dinner, Malachi manages to get in contact via IM with a cousin from Louisiana, while Aundrea is thinking about the rough draft that she’s submitted for her Reading class. She’s got a tryout for volleyball while Malachi is going to try out for track. QJ has already asked if Justin came come over at some point, he enjoyed himself at the sleepover with his parents happen he made it back in one piece]

Monday morning is going relatively smooth for QJ, however in the middle of class during the afternoon, he’s called in to the office. “The guidance counselor wants to see you" the Principal said with no explanation. "Why?" a concerned QJ asked to which the principal responded "You'll find out when you go in". Reluctantly, he walked over to the office where he was greeted by an African American woman. She had a dark to medium brown complexion, one could describe as Coffee. She was in her mid 50’s and dressed as a pants suit.

“Elaine August” she said as she reached out to shake QJ’s hand.

“Quincy James Martin Jr, My friends call me QJ”

“The principal, from my understanding, wants you to see me for one per week for the next two weeks. AI figured if you visit with me today for 15 minutes with Friday off. I know it’s probably the last place you want to be at this point, however I want to make this as easy and as comfortable for you as possible. Nothing we talk about will be discussed without your consent.”

“Okay…….”

“So tell me about yourself”

“Well, my name is Quincy. I’m in the third grade. I’m named after my dad actually, but all my friends and family call me QJ. I have an older brother and sister, they’re both in the sixth grade. Twins. “

“How about your parents?”

“Well, my mom is a teacher and my dad recently retired from the Airforce.”

“Your mother is a teacher?”

“Yes ma’am, she teaches English and History. She’s also writing a book, it’s supposed to be out next summer.”

“About what?”

“Reconnecting with her Louisiana family. My grandma, her mom, is from Louisiana. She’s from a town called Lake Charles? She went down there this summer for the first time in like years. I’ve been once in my life, but I was a baby so I don’t remember anything”

“I know of Lake Charles, are you familiar with the singer. Nellie Lutcher?”

“No ma’am”

“Well, she’s a soul and jazz singer who is from Lake Charles who later on moved to Los Angeles. You know, it wasn’t unheard of for black people. Particularly black creoles to head out this way for a better life. Black people fled the south to escape Jim Crow.”

“My mom is actually creole, she’s an Arceneaux. My mom is fair skinned, but not to the point that I’d mistake her for white.”

“Right, but you’d be surprised at the ones who tried to pass….any way I digress..let’s get back to your family”

“My brother is the golden child. He almost never gets in trouble. He’s been an A student since preschool. I like school, don’t get me wrong and if you talked to my teachers, I would hope that they’d say good things. My sister…….let me say that she’s the one who likes it least. We all pass. Our mom being a teacher and an English teacher wouldn’t accept us not trying”

Elaine then looked at her watch. “We’ve been in here 20 minutes. I need to send you back to class”.

QJ went back to class where they were in the middle of the reading lesson. Not quite understanding the point of the meeting he agreed for the sake of avoiding a suspension. He pulled out his notebook and began copying the homework assignment down. Afterwards he pulled out his reading workbook to catch up with where the class was. Later that evening at dinner he brought up that he had to see the guidance counselor.

“I’d actually like to meet her” Deja said as she took a bit of stir fry. “Is she nice”

“Yes, she is. She actually asked about you”

“What did you tell her?”

“That you were a teacher and that dad was retired Military”

“I have my first job tomorrow” Quincy said. “I am going to be mystery shopping while I look for work”

A curious Deja asked “Is this one of those bogus wiring money schemes?”

“Nope though someone attempted to fool me with that. I went to Volition.com and then applied at a lot of companies. I have to do an automotive shop tomorrow.”

Malachi asked what he’d have to do. “Well, I have to go to a dealership tomorrow and pose as someone looking for a new vehicle”

“What about you Aundrea?”

“Well I got a B on the rough draft of my book report”

“Good job”

“Thanks”

After eating dinner, Malachi went to his room and wrote a new journal entry.

[TUESDAY MORNING-QJ KNEW HE’D MISS PART OF THE MORNING, HE HEADED DIRECT FOR THE COUNSELORS OFFICE]

While QJ was meeting with the guidance counselor, Deja was lecturing in an English class.

“Today we are going to look at several pieces of literature and analyze them. I am still grading essays. So far, you all have some interesting things to say. I am not grading these overly tough; however, the literature essay will not be as easy. Do not worry about it right now, that’s later in the year. Today we are going to identify certain things that you will be quizzed on at the end of the week.” They defined terms such as simile, personification, iambic pentameter, imagery, diction, allusion, epigraph, euphemism, foreshadowing, metaphor, point-of-view, and structure. During that time Deja received a text from Quincy “I’m about to go complete this, pray for me”

At the car dealership, he managed to get the attention of a salesman with the scenario that he was planning a vehicle purchase within the next month. He spotted a navy truck that he like. “Wanna test drive” the salesman asked.

“Yeah I do!”

They drove for 15 minutes, around the block. He went inside with the salesman and obtained a business card and signed up for the dealerships newsletter. He went home and completed the report. He managed the complete his first mystery shop. He also managed to secure three gas station shops later in the week. He was happy to be working again even if it wasn’t a conventional job. If he could obtain enough shops regularly in the competitive market of Los Angeles, he could earn as much as $100 extra per week.

Meanwhile, Malachi and Aundrea were leaving ELA when running into Brianna in the hallway. “Hey, this is my brother, Malachi”

“Hey” Malachi said.

“Hey. I hear you like to read”

“Yeah”

“It’s a form a stress relief for me”

“She’s coming over today, we’re gonna work on our final drafts for our book report”

“Cool”

Malachi then headed to his math class where the teacher announced that they would be learning to solve equations. “Turn your book to page 30” He looked down with a blank stare as his classmates groaned. . While going over the lesson, she assigned some practice problems for homework. It was getting close to the end of the day and for some reason the last couple of hours seemed to drag. When they got to the end of the day, their dad came and picked them up.

“Guys, I managed to pick up a little work. I’m going to be going to certain stores and stocking products. It’ll be during the day. Tonight, we’ll be having brinner”

[TO BE CONTINED WITH EPISODE 18]

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honeyjimsfics · 7 years ago

Text

Deep End

Another installment for Danny and Dash, this one taking place after “A Little Further.” This is by far the most I’ve written. Lots of Dash still being a powervers and being very convincing. Also, I’m exhausted.

Danny let out a grateful sigh as he leaned against his locker. “I mean, it’s just nice, ya know? Getting in some quite time with the family gone?”

Tucker smiled, “I can believe that. Another Ghost-Con, huh?”

He shrugged, “I guess. This time in Wisconsin. It’s just a get together of weird ghost fans, both the local and far out variety. Mom and dad usually go just to try to sell their inventions and get more recognition in the ghost hunting community.”

“There’s a community?”

“I guess. Either way, it gets them out of the house for a few days. Plus, Jazz decided to finally have a sleepover with her friends at their place. Something about ‘enjoying my youth while I still can.’ Eh, I mostly think she’s just doing it so she has something to write about in her college essays. So now I get a whole night to myself!”

“Huh, so anything planned for tonight?” Tucker asked.

“Not much, might just veg out, get a couple hours in on DOOMED, maybe order in some food from-”

“Hey Fenturd!”

Oh no. Danny’s face winced as he heard the voice. He knew who it belonged to. The same guy that turned his knees to pudding. The same guy who’s face he couldn’t get out his head for a whole week after their last hallway encounter. The same guy he couldn’t believe that he’d been messing and kissing around with. He turned around to see Dash Baxter making a path towards him wearing his usual red letterman jacket and jeans. Danny gulped. Please don’t do anything weird in front of Tucker. Come on Dash, don’t be that cruel. “H-hey Dash,” he replied apprehensively.

“Aw why the long face? Can’t I see my favorite dork every once and a while?” he asked as he heavily patted Danny’s shoulder.

“Heh heh, yeah...” Danny said avoiding eye contact. Jeez, he’s just touching my shoulder, why the hell am I getting warm?

“Now don’t get your panties in a bunch Fenton,” he teased. “I’m just here to return your sister’s book, she left it at my place when she tutored me last week.”

Danny looked down towards Dash’s hands, there was indeed an algebra book in his grip. Oh thank god. “O-oh! I’ll make sure Jazz gets this back.”

The book immediately fell from Dash’s hands to the floor, slamming to the ground with an emphatic thud. “Oops, my bad Fenton. Hahahaha!” As Dash sidestepped from Danny, he grabbed Tucker’s hat and brought it down on his face. “Good to see you too Tucker. Heh!” Dash then left down the hallway, high-fiving a nearby jock who managed to capture their whole encounter.

Tucker angrily rearranged his hat, “God, what a jerk. Can’t you just zap him or something? Just once?”

“No Tucker,” he replied as he picked up the book. “No ghost powers on humans. Not even Dash.” Danny then noticed a bit of paper was sticking out from the algebra book, clearly a scrap from a notebook or something. Opening the book he realized it was a note.

It was from Dash.

Lamppost at 3:30 sharp. Don’t be late!

He wants me to meet him after school? Why? What? What??

“What’s that Danny?”

Tucker’s voice brought him out of his thoughts. “Eh-what? Oh, uh, just some equations my sister had him do,” he said, closing the book.

“Oh, hah, what, did he get most of them wrong?”

“Ha, yeah. L-like half of them.”

“Man, your sister has her work cut out for her,” Tucker said as they both began to make their way to class.

“Yup, heh.” Me too...

The rest of the school day seemed to flutter by in a breeze, Danny being mostly preoccupied by his thoughts of Dash. What could he even want from me? Danny quickly turned red and shook his head. Ugh, besides that. I mean, there is no way I’m doing anything in front of the school! Outside! That’s just, I mean, he would never ask that, right? As the school bell rang its final bell, Danny gathered his things and headed to the school’s library. Sigh, might as well catch up on the homework, it’s only 2:30, I got some time. As he entered the library he quickly settled in a nearby desk, pulling out several papers and books and tried to focus as much as he could at the non-Dash related problems at hand. Several pencil scribbles and page flips later, he stared in confusion at one particular passage. Confusingly trying to decipher what the author’s symbolism could be, he glanced at the clock on the wall. What?! It’s 3:38? Shit! Shoving all his belongings back into his bag he rushed to the front of the school and out to the front steps. Bursting through the doors he gasped for air. Scanning the air, he hoped to see no sign of a red letterman jacket.

He had no such luck.

Danny saw Dash quietly leaning against the lamppost, arms crossed as he stared out towards the street. Oddly enough, he wasn’t wearing his usual red jacket. A duffle bag laid at his feet, with one of the sleeves of his jacket peeking though the zipper. With out the sleeves to cover him up, Dash looked bigger, his arms no longer confined beneath a thick fabric. Danny let the thought pass and trudged up to the lamppost. “Uh, hey Dash.”

Dash stared straight ahead. “You’re late.”

Danny’s stomach dropped, “S-sorry. I was doing homework in the library and lost track of time.” He hoped his excuse was reasonable enough.

Dash looked down at him for a moment, his brows furrowed in a knot. He grimaced, “Whatever Fenton.” He picked up his duffle bag and slung it over his shoulder. “Come on,” he said behind him as he started to walk away.

Danny just stood there. “Huh?”

Dash turned around, “What, you need me to hold you’re hand? Come on already Fenton.”

“But where are we going?”

“My truck, where else? Come on, I gotta throw my stuff into the back, hate lugging this stuff around,” he said as he shifted the duffle along his shoulders. “I’m starving, so hurry it up.”

“Uh, ok,” he said, shuffling along side Dash. Where the hell is this going? Starving? Wait, does that mean... Oh jeez. The two walked in relative silence as they made their way to the school’s parking lot. Few cars were around, save for a couple staff cars huddled in a far corner. Dash’s car seemed to be the only’s student car in the lot. Reaching the truck, Dash clicked open the driver side door, moving the seat aside to shove his duffle bag behind it. Danny stood silently in front of the hood. “Umm...”

“Ya know, the doors are open now. You can go inside,” he said not bothering to look at Danny as he moved his duffle around.

“Oh. Uh, ok.” Danny opened the car door and hoisted himself inside. The truck’s interior was relatively plain and clean, except for the papers and food wrappers scattered on the floor. Everything else seemed made it seem like a car fresh from the factor except for the little plastic football glued to the dashboard. Dash hopped into the car and slammed the door shut. He looked at Danny and said nothing.

Danny swallowed the saliva in his throat, “Um, what are we doing here?”

“What do you think we’re doing, Fenton?” Dash replied, his voice thick with intent. He swung his arm over the passenger side headrest.

Danny reddend, “O-oh. Uh, um...Ok.” Well, at least you’re sitting down this time. And it’s sorta private... Danny reached down and started to unzip his pants.

Dash burst out laughing, “Jeez Fenton! What, didn’t get enough of my mouth last week? Man, you should see your face! Priceless.”

“I-wh-what?” Danny stuttered.

“Relax. I ain’t gonna have you for lunch again. Well, at least not here. Pretty sure I pushed my luck to the limit last week. Surprised no one caught us with you being so loud.”

“I wasn’t being loud!”

Dash side glanced at him, “Sure you weren’t. Besides, I told ya I was gonna share with you, right? So I was thinking of more of a...home meal?” His smile widened.

“Wha...What?! You mean your house!?”

“No dork, I mean your house. My parents are home all the time unless it’s for one of my games. And the hallway has its charms, sure. But being able to fuck around with you in your own bed? Make sure that every time you sleep in it you can’t stop thinking about what you did? Oh, yeah, definitely your bed.”

The thought of Dash being under his covers, his bed filled with Dash’s scent burned him from the inside out. “N-no way! My parents are h-home all the time, just like yours! What makes you think they wouldn’t notice?”

Dash just let out quite sigh. “Fenton, I know you’re parents are gone for the weekend.”

Shit. “H-how did you-”

“Your sister, remember? She’s been tutoring me and during one of her insanely hard equations, she off handedly told me her parents were gone for the week for something about a weirdo convention and her one chance to regain her youth, or blah blah blah. Look, either way, your sister isn’t home. Your parents aren't home. You’ve got a house all to yourself.”

Darn it Jazz! “That doesn’t mean I want you to come over!”

The jock let out a groan. “Really Fenton? This argument, again? How many times do we have to do this? How many times do we have to make out in the hallways? How many times do I have to experience you sticking your tongue down my throat first and swinging your little arms my neck? How many times do I have to have your cock down my throat and you clearly pushing my head down to the frigging base?”

Danny shut his eyes. You don’t have to describe it like that...

Dash cupped Danny’s cheek with his hand. It was rough and warm. “You want me. Just as badly as I’ve been wanting you.”

“Dash, you, you want me?” Is he really saying these words?

The jock let his hand drop and sighed. “It’s been a long freaking week Fenton and I have been dying to kiss you and push you up against the lockers again. But we were pretty wild last time. Figure a couple of days to get your breath would be good. Gotta say, I’m pretty pent up. Pretty sure you are to. Seen the way you’ve been fidgeting in the hallways every time you see me.”

“Well, what do you expect? It’s not like I can act calm around you anymore.”

“Ha, exactly! I can’t either! I just keep wanting more and more with you and I know for damn sure you do to. That’s why you have a golden opportunity here Fenton. So what do you say? Want an after school snack?” Dash smirked.

Danny winced. Ugh, he’s so awful. But...Is it that bad to really just admit that I really having sex with him? He looked towards Dash, his eyebrows were raised as if he already knew the answer. To just let go and admit I want this jock of an asshole...ugh. I can’t believe myself. Danny let out a long sigh and looked out his window. “I guess some...food wouldn’t be too bad right now.” God, I really shouldn’t have said that, that was way too cheese-

Dash suddenly clasped Danny’s head in his hands and turned him towards himself. His lips met Danny’s in a rough grind before pulling apart an inch or two. “God, I’m so freaking hard right now, you have no idea,” he said in a low growl. He then returned back to the driver seat and took in a calming breath. With a twist of his keys, the engine coughed to life. “Alright then, food at Fenton’s,” he laughed.

Danny coughed, “Um, ok.”

“Oh and Fenton?” Dash’s voice was soft and quiet.

“Y-yeah?”

He smiled, “Put on your seatbelt loser. I’m not getting ticket because you’re busy daydreaming about my cock.”

Danny’s face reddened as he scoffed. He clicked the belt into place, “Jerk,” he said with a chuckle. Dash just laughed again as they drove out of the parking lot.

A few red lights later the arrived at Danny’s house, the red bricked building looking as obvious as ever with the ops center jutting out from the top. Dash parked along the side of the street and turned his car off with a click of his keys. “Man Fenton, your house still as crazy looking as ever,” Dash commented as he stepped out his truck.

“Yeah yeah, I’ve heard it all before Dash,” Danny quipped as he grabbed his pack and started towards the front door. He fumbled with his keys for a moment before opening it. “It’s not much but this is the living roommph!”

Wasting no time, Dash quickly shut the door behind them and immediately started kissing Danny. Darting his tongue inside Danny’s mouth, Dash let out a quiet growl as he stepped closer to him, closing the distance between the two to only a few inches.

Jeez, he sure is in a frigging hurry! Breaking the kiss, Danny caught his breath. “Can’t, can’t you slow it down for once?”

“Like I said. Long week. Where’s your room?”

“Ahh, it’s um, upstairs.”

“Well then, lead on Fenton.” Dash eased his grip on Danny’s arms and instead let his hand form a solid hold on Danny’s hand.

Danny blushed, “Gah, um...”

“God, you are so easy. Knew this would get you all flustered. You like that classic shit, huh? Well, I’ll hold on to your hand and you lead me to your room, how’s that?”

Danny just looked away, “S-shut up. Come on, it’s this way.” The jock snickered quietly as the two headed up the stairs. Danny couldn’t help the stray thought invade his mind. His hands are really warm. I mean, I’ve felt them before but this is...nice. Lord, I’m pathetic. Dash almost reading his mind gave his palm a light squeeze. Letting the need to let out a small squeal pass, Danny lead the way to his room’s door. “Uh, welcome to my room, I guess.”

Pushing open the door, Dash quietly stepped inside and took in the scene. A few space posters littered Danny’s wall, beneath which was a simple wire frame bed with a trunk at the foot of it. A mostly cleared desk was off to the side and despite a few clothing items scattered along the floor the room was clean. “Not bad, Fenton. Plain and simple. Like you.”

Ignoring the obvious jab, Danny turned around the close the door behind them. “Yeah, thanks for the compliment Dash. Didn’t think you could be so nice.” As Danny turned his attention back to Dash, the jock somehow managed to already get on top of his bed without making a single noise.

He was stretched out on his bed, filling most the space with his large body. His head leaned against Danny’s pillows which were propped up against the steel bars of the frame. He let out a sigh as his hand started to grope his cock through his jeans. Dash lazily glanced towards Danny as he stretched and wriggled into a comfortable position. “Well, what are you waiting for? Come and get it.”

Danny gulped. Seeing Dash taking up so much space on his bed, it made the jock seem so much bigger than he actually is. The way he laid on his sheets his black shirt had already risen up a bit revealing a light blond treasure trail that disappeared beneath his denim. Ok, that is way too much for me. He looks like straight out of some porno or something. Danny tentatively walked to the side of the bed, considering what he should do first. Biting his lip and hoping he made the right decision, he let his hand graze and feel Dash’s stomach, each of the jock’s wispy hairs soft the touch. Dash’s breath came out low and slow as he stared lustfully towards Danny. I don’t think I’ve ever actually felt him like this before. Usually my hands are wrapped around his neck holding on for dear life or pressed up against the lockers, I never get a chance to feel what he feels like. He’s so smooth...

“For fuck’s sake Fenton, how the hell are your hands so goddamn soft? Like silk, man,” Dash said through gritted teeth. The young man let Danny feel his stomach a bit more before becoming a bit impatient. “That all you gonna do, Fenton?”

“Um... I hadn’t really thought that far ahead.” Really, I hadn’t.

“Ya know, I think you can get a better feel if you were more like this.” The jock grabbed Danny by the waist and threw him over himself. Suddenly, Danny was straddling the young man, his hands on his pecs and Dash’s on his ass. “See? You can feel a lot more like this. Just like I can,” he said as his began to fondle his butt.

Holy crap, I’m on top of Dash Baxter. He’s in my bed. He’s grabbing my ass. How the hell are any of these sentences true? “Y-yeah, you’re right,” he said absentmindedly.

“Well, come on. Keep it up. Feels nice you groping me like this. Finally getting some in return.”

Danny’s breath was heavy, he could barely think straight with the well toned jock beneath him. Get a grip Danny! Just calm down and go with it. Steeling his nerves, he did his best to even his voice. “Dash, can I, um, take off your shirt?”

“Pssh, don’t have to ask me twice. Go ahead. Undress me, Fenton.” Dash’s last words were a mix between a dare and an order. Danny followed suit. Gripping the black fabric Danny lifted the young man’s shirt over his head and tossed it to the side revealing a well toned body. A few years of football and training and some added fine genetics had left Dash’s body in prime condition. His pecs were full and smooth and his shoulders were well defined, like he was chiseled out of marble. His nipples were two delicious looking pieces of flesh, both hard from excitement. Such definition had given him a strong V shape, as if his entire body was an arrow leading straight to his dick. There was hardly any hair on him save for his fine trail of hair coming from his crotch. Dash smiled, “Like what you see, Fenton?”

Danny could hardly speak, it was as if his mind was a dial tone at this point. He simply nodded his head. He let his hands continue to roam Dash’s chest, feeling every curve and mound. His fingers brushed up against the jock’s nipples more than once, eliciting a few winces and inhales from Dash. “Watch it Fenton, you’re gonna get more than you bargained for if you keep that up.”

Like I’m not already over in my head at this point. Danny took it as a challenge as he bravely pinched Dash’s nipples, giving each one a gentle twist. Dash let out a low groan as he shut his eyes and threw his head back.

“You fucker...” he said with a low growl. “It’s your turn Fenton.” Deviously, Dash grabbed the back of Danny’s shirt and hoisted it over his head, pulling him through and tossing the shirt across the room.

Embarrassed, Danny covered himself with his arms. “Dash! Ask first or something!”

“Haha, what? This is what gets you embarrassed? You’ve done far worse. Hell, I’ve done far worse.”

“It’s not that! It’s just, I’m not as impressive as you,” Danny admitted. You’re like a Roman solider or something, as if you didn’t already know.

The young man shrugged. “No you’re not. Doesn’t mean you aren’t still cute to me.” Dash propped himself up so Danny was straddling his lap.

Dash reddend at his words. Cute, really Dash?

“Wow, didn’t think your whole body turns red when you’re embarrassed. Now that’s cute,” he said as he played with Danny’s butt again.

“You are the absolute worst,” Danny spat as he wriggled from Dash’s gropes.

“Yeah yeah, I know. Now come on, you’ve seen me shirtless. Let me see what I’m working with.” Danny sighed. Reluctantly, he let his arms rest at his sides. Dash let out a small whistle, “Fucking hell Fenton, looking good. Small, sure, but damn are you smooth. And sexy.” Dash let his large hands roam Danny’s chest. His hands alone almost spanning the whole width.

Sexy, really? God, why does his voice have to drop so low when he talks like this, it’s too much. “You’re just saying that...”

“Am I now? Would I just say that if I didn’t want to do this?” Leaning forward and pushing Danny back a bit, Dash took Danny’s nipple into his mouth, flicking it and kissing it in a hungry attack.

Fuck that feels so weird! It’s like each lick is going all over my body! “Dash! Please, slow it down a bit! It’s too much! Ahh!” Feeling warm and lightheaded, Danny kept on letting out moans with every lick and every twist. The heat of Dash’s breath kept Danny completely on edge as he let out a warm breath on his nipple before giving it a soft bite. The slight twinges of pain sending signals straight to his cock saying I want more.

“Heh, told you were gonna get some.” Letting his hand drift to Danny’s crotch, Dash began to grope him through his denim, teasing and feeling the length of his cock. “Looks like you’re enjoying yourself, huh?”

“Unf, I g-guess you could say that.” Damn it, his hands feel just as good as last time.

“Well, can’t let you have all the fun now.” Reading Danny from his clutches, Dash laid back down on the bed, settling his head on the frame as Danny straddled him once again. The young man smirked as he unzipped his fly and let his crotch finally meet air.

Oh fuck.

HIs cock was securely in place in a white jockstrap, practically bulging from beneath the fabric. While not entirely hard like Danny, he was clearly at half mast, causing his package to look particularly hefty. Everything about it seem in proportion, albeit slightly big. His balls alone seemed like there were barely contained by the underwear. “It’s my turn Fenton.”

Jeez, does everything on him have to be big? It’s like he has a softball stuffed in there! Danny could feel his heart race as Dash gazed at him, his eyes telling him what to do. “You want me to uh, touch you?” Danny struggled to make sure his voice didn’t crack.

“Yeah, Fenton. I want you to touch me. I want you to feel me in your hands.” Dash’s voice came out soft and commanding, like an enchantment.

Danny could only obey. “O-ok.” Laying himself down between Dash’s thighs, Danny was only inches away from Dash’s crotch. Ok, ok, calm down you got this. Dash did this to you and it felt great. So how hard could it be? Gulping nervously, began by letting his hands glide up the jock’s thighs. Dash responded in a deep sigh as he closed his eyes. So far so good. Grazing his fingers up to the young man’s crotch, he let his thumbs brush up just behind Dash’s balls.

“Unf, fuck Fenton. Knew your hands would feel good there. Keep on going.”

Hey, maybe I’m not so bad at this. Feeling encouraged, Danny crept closer to Dash’s cock and groped it with his hands. He could feel the heat emanating from it and the pure heft of it in his palm, it made Danny whimper with lust.

Dash just let out a quick huff and smiled, “Fucking finally. Like that feel, Fenton?”

Danny nodded diligently as he placed a small kiss on the cock just before giving it a slight lick. While the fabric of the jockstrap was rough against his tongue, he could not deny the excitement building up in his chest. Millions of thoughts were running through he mind at that moment but only one seemed to stand out among them.

I really want to see his cock.

Giving in to his lust, Danny pulled aside the jockstrap freeing the cock beneath. While the same length as his own, it was easily twice as thick with a pair of balls to match. The head was a nice light pink color and it already had a small drop of pre coming at the tip. Let his thirst overwhelm him, Danny pressed his face along the length of Dash’s cock, breathing in Dash’s scent and letting his tongue lap at his balls.

“Holy fuck, Fenton! Didn’t realize how fucking hungry you were.” Dash then placed his hand on Danny’s head, his fingers running through his hair. “Though this isn’t a bad look on you, I gotta say.”

That feels...oddly nice. Comforting, even. Relishing the moment, Danny moved his attention from the jock’s balls to his dick. Brushing his lips along the length, Dash tensed from his touch. He then trailed his tongue from one side to the other, lapping up the precome that was already leaking from earlier. It coated his mouth with a slightly salty film, but it only made him want more. Dash was now fully erect, his cock laying stiffly along his stomach. Gripping it slightly, Danny began to stroke the young man, his other hand gently playing with his balls. Dash moaned in response, grinding his hips in time with Danny’s strokes. Seeing him feeling so good, it feels...rewarding somehow? Like, I want him to feel good. I want to know that I’m the one who makes him feel like this. Is this what he felt last time? After a few more strokes, Danny began to lick at the head of Dash’s cock, squeezing out a few more drops of precome in the process. Taking a deep breath and steeling his nerves, Danny took the head into his mouth, guiding it as best he could with his tongue.

“Fuck that’s warm. Feels real nice, Fenton. Real nice.” Dash’s body seemed to completely relax in Danny’s hands, as he settled into the bed more.

Only taking in a few inches, Danny began to bob up and down, savoring the taste of the young jock as he let his hand make up the rest of the work. God, does he have to be so freaking thick? My jaw already is getting sore and it’s only been a few minutes! Letting it pop out of his mouth for a second, Danny focused on the base, letting his tongue trial a circle following the hairs gracing it. “Dash...” Danny moaned as he began to touch himself though his pants.

“Yeah, you like that don’t ya? The taste of my cock in your mouth, the scent of my crotch?” Dash’s voice was filled with smugness.

Danny helplessly nodded his head. Has me in the palm of his hands, literally. I don’t think I mind that anymore now. Taking the cock back into his mouth, continued his motion from earlier, only now trying to take a little more each time. The furthest it seemed he could take was three inches into his mouth.

“Come on, Fenton. I know you can take more than that. What, need a little encouragement?” Dash then tightened his grip on Danny’s hair and thrusted forward, jamming his cock down his throat. He held him firmly in place for a few seconds.

Danny slapped Dash’s leg repeatedly. Air damnit! I need air! Finally releasing him, Danny gasped and gulped for his breath. “D-damnit Dash...”

“Hah! Need a break already, Fenton? I was able to deep throat you just fine last time. What, my cock too big or your skills too weak? Which is itmmmph!”

Silencing his insults, Danny quickly kissed him causing Dash to taste his own precome which still coated Danny’s mouth. “You’re such an asshole” he said through gritted teeth.

Dash smiled, “Heh, yeah I am. Now how are you gonna shut me up?” he dared.

Accepting the challenge, Danny shimmied the rest his body up to Dash’s chest, resting his legs on either side. Saying nothing he unzipped his pants and took his cock out from his underwear and presented it squarely in front of his face. With this, you jerk.

Dash smiled deviously, “That’ll work.” Greedily, Dash took the cock into his mouth, eagerly slurping it down his mouth.

The sensations ran all over Danny’s body, his entire being feeling like static. With every movement of Dash’s head, he could feel himself getting closer and closer to the edge. God, it feels just like last time. So warm and inviting. I just wanna go deeper and deeper. Steeling himself and closing his eyes, he gripped the head frame of his bed and began thrusting into Dash’s mouth. A muffled “Fuck yeah” escaped from Dash’s mouth before being replaced by more slurping noises. Dash began to stroke himself as his mouth continued to get fucked by Danny, pre dripping down the side of his cock. Holding onto the back of Dash’s head, Danny upped his speed, thrusting faster and faster. Beads of sweat began to fall from his forehead as his body trembled and ached for release. Barely opening his eyes, he glanced down towards Dash. His face was flushed with lust as he saw him hungrily take in his cock. The sight was too much. “Dash, I’m gonna! Fuck!” He let the word hand in the air as he thrusted one last time down Dash’s throat, unloading his come. He held Dash’s face close to his crotch as felt his cock spasm, once, twice, then finally letting go as the final white rope spurt and filled the young man’s mouth. “Dash...” he moaned weakly.

Gulping down the cum in one go Dash licked his lips. “We ain’t done yet, Fenton. I’m fucking close and you are not missing one drop. So get back down there,” he commanded.

Still hazy from the release, Danny obeyed and brought himself back to Dash’s cock. Opening his mouth, he panted as he waited for Dash’s release.

“Here we go, Fenton! Take it all in fucker!” Gripping Danny’s head, Dash brought his open mouth right over his cock. Suddenly, thick white ropes of cum shot from it, spattering Danny’s cheek. Quickly maneuvering, Danny took the cock into his mouth and it was then thoroughly coated in white. Pulling him down, Dash thrusted a few times into him, each time another shot of cum. Danny gulped down what he could before releasing Dash’s cock from his mouth. He cursed, “Fucking hell, Fenton.”

Exhausted, Danny rested his head in Dash’s lap for a moment. He looked up at Dash to see him totally lost in bliss. Huh, not bad for a first time. Pulling himself together, he brought himself back up to Dash’s face, pausing only for a moment before kissing him. It seemed to break the young man from his stupor as he laughed.

“Looks like you missed some.” He then licked away the shot of cum still on Danny’s face and gave him a small kiss. “So, what do you say? You still hungry?”

Danny just laughed as he settled into Dash’s chest, cuddling closer towards him. He’s still an asshole. “No, I’m full thanks. Also, can we drop this metaphor now? It’s been stupid for awhile.”

Wrapping his arm around Danny’s slight frame, he brought him closer. “Oh a cuddler, huh? Figures. And sure, no more food innuendos.”

“What, what’s wrong with this?”

“Nothing. Nothing at all,” the young man replied.

Danny scoffed as he nuzzled his face into Dash’s neck, “Well alright then.” Maybe this isn’t so bad. Maybe this will be just fine. The two closed their eyes and shared a moment of exhausted bliss. Which was then immediately broken.

“Danny my boy! We’re home!” Jack’s voice yelled.

Danny’s eyes bursted open. Shit! The hell are they doing here so early?!

Dash’s whole body tensed, “Fenton, what the hell.”

“Ghost convention was bust, had to leave early. Just a bunch of fake ghost researchers in jumpsuits. But hey, look at this new gadget we made on the way back!” The voice boomed from below but stomping footsteps up the stairs didn’t make it seem it was staying down there.

Dash was in panic, “Fuck! Fenton, what are we gonna do?!”

Well, we’re half naked in my bed, our cocks are still out, and I’m pretty sure there’s nothing we can do...except... Swearing a thousands curses in his head, Danny calmly took Dash’s face in his hands. “Don’t make a sound.”

“Wait, what?”

Danny immediately turned the both of them invisible the second his dad threw the door open. “Danny! Huh, he’s not here. Eh, maybe he’s at Tucker’s. Jeez, kid needs to clean up in here. His shirts are just on the floor and it reeks of sweat. Told him to keep tidy while we were gone. Ah well.” Jack then left the room with a slam of the door.

The two of them kept as quiet as they could as they heard a few pairs of footsteps fall further and further away, presumably into the basement. Letting their breath go, Danny dropped the invisibility cloaking the both of them. “That was a close one, huh?” he said trying to calm the mood.

“Fenton. Why couldn’t your dad see us?” Dash’s voice was quiet and controlled.

“Um...”

“Fenton, your dad isn’t blind, I know that for sure. So why couldn’t he see us.”

“Uh...”

“FENTON.” Dash’s eyes were livid.

Well, fuck. This is gonna be fun.

#Danny Phantom #danny fenton #dannyxdash #Dash Baxter #dashxdanny #swaggerbishie #fuck #this took a few days #well really a few weeks #but i only can write on weekends so meh

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bluephoenixdruidicprincess · 7 years ago

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Shadowhunters Season 3 Episode 5 -- Stronger Than Heaven -- Review

Welcome to another Shadowhunters review. In other words, that time of the week where I'm reminded that as bad as a Supernatural episode written by Bucklemming is, their episodes are still masterpieces compared to the overall writing of Shadowhunters...and that's saying something. This week we have season 3 episode 5, Stronger Than Heaven. And it's recently dawned on me how unsubtle this show is with even its episode titles. Most tv shows will title an episode normally as a double meaning. It'll have something to do with the plot but it'll also typically coincide with a theme the characters are exploring in that episode. Not Shadowhunters though. They literally tell you what's going to happen in the title. When you hear the title, "Stronger Than Heaven," you think epic romance most likely. We equate heaven to love a lot of the time but no, this title is in reference to an actual event in the episode. Subtlety...the Shadowhunters writers' achilles heel.

So some weeks back, I made a post about my thoughts and opinions on the Dom Controversy and I got a lot of new followers because of that. Apparently, some of you think I'm really wise and mature for saying the things I said in that post. And whereas I'm honored that you're showing an interest in me, I would like to preface this review with saying that I am NOT a huge supporter of this show. I do enjoy certain elements of it but I'm not what would be classified as a devoted fan. For me, Shadowhunters is not a good show and I do get very critical of the show in my reviews. Honestly, for me, I watch the show because 1) I'm too curious not to and 2) I find that this show can be so bad its funny and that's how I reap enjoyment out of it. I am not at all invested in this show or its characters anymore. If you're a die hard fan and you lash out at everyone who has a different opinion than you, you might want to skip these. I'm just saying. My reviews may not be for you. If you do decide to be a total troll, well then pay attention to the below disclaimer.

This is going to be an honest review of my thoughts and feelings regarding this episode. If you're the kind of Shadowhunters fan where you only want to hear positive things about the show, this is not the place for you. If you decide to stick around and get offended by what is said, then that's on you. I warned you. Just know that if you send me any rude comments or messages, I will 100% ignore you. I find that's the best way to deal with bullies. I work 14 hour days. Do you really think I want to waste my incredibly valuable free time dealing with derogatory comments? Hell no. This review will consist of my honest opinions. Opinions are never right or wrong. I'm not telling YOU how to think and feel. I'm telling you what I, quirky and socially awkward me, think and feel. So please, lets discuss with dignity and respect. If I'm critical about this show, it's only because I want it to get better. There is, in fact, a difference between hating a show and being critical of it. I do not hate Shadowhunters, I am being critical and analyzing the flaws as I would with any other show. There are positives but there are also negatives. It's great if you want to promote positivity with this show (and I encourage you to do so) but that doesn't mean I'm not going to point out the things that are legitimately wrong with it. Also, keep in mind that despite the fact that I do like the books, me being critical of this show has nothing to do with my fondness for the books. I don't really care if the show deviates from the source material as long as the changes are good, it makes sense, and it doesn't create plot holes within the confines of the world the show has created. My problems with this show are problems I would have with any show or book for that matter. I think it's perfectly reasonable to take issue with a show that has plot holes, shoddy world building, and inconsistent characters. There will be spoilers for the books and movie.

I will admit I was feeling this episode a little more than I was feeling the previous ones. We actually had some fleshed out plots. Not well fleshed out, but fleshed out enough for me to note the improvement. I'm still not invested in most of the plots, I think they're dull and are being executed in a very bland way, but hey, at least the show is spending a more equal time with the plots. The dialogue, once again, is also hurting me, like really bad. I'll come back to the dialogue later. We also had some weird very strange music cues. Intense music scores were inserted in scenes that weren't all that intense and they made me laugh. I also am so close to deciding to start a petition to get Freeform to change their opening credits song. That song slows down the pacing of the beginning of the episode so badly. This episode's opening scene was already pretty slow and uninteresting and then it turns to the theme song which had even slower pacing than the dialogue delivery in the previous scene. Seriously, I almost fell asleep within the first 5 minutes of this episode. But let's crack this melon that's supposedly stronger than heaven.

Jace/Simon/Jordan -- The Second Place Hotly Trinity of Bromance

I'll start with the good stuff. I loved anything to do with Jace/Simon/Jordan in this episode. My second place hotly trinity of bromance has at last come together. First place hotly trinity of bromance of course goes to Sam, Dean, and Cas from Supernatural -- with some sexual Destiel subtext thrown in the mix. But hey, if the show never goes the Destiel route, I'll be a little bummed but I'm fine with reading them as a bromance, as well.

So in this episode, Simon is going through some rough times. He supposedly has a gig at the Hunter's Moon but is having problems as someone seems to have cancelled the gig. He's betting it's the Jade Wolf pack. But Simon runs into Jace and in some extremely clunky dialogue, tells Jace about the Mark of Cain. We get some great Jace/Simon banter that I've missed. It was cheesy but the actors made it work. Jace decides he's going to figure out who's after Simon not because he cares about Simon but because he knows Clary would want him to. Jace goes to Simon's apartment and after a brief meeting with "Kyle" Jace is instantly suspicious. They break into Jordan's room and Jace realizes that Simon is roommates with a werewolf. Jordan also walks in on them invading his privacy and Jace goes all shadowhunter mode and demands Jordan tell them who he really is. And I really liked this part. Seeing Jace get all fierce and protective of Simon was something I never knew I wanted until I got it. So I will give you that, show. It reminded me of the 2A finale...so many Jimon feels. Jordan reveals he's a member of the Praetor Lupus and Jace backs off recognizing that Jordan means no harm. Simon is understandably hurt because he stumbled upon this guy who only pretended to be his friend. We also find out that Jordan is the one who cancelled his gig. He's trying to keep Simon in the apartment where he'll be safe and no one will try and hurt him and by default hurt themselves. Simon decides to move out but Jace gets Simon to agree to move back in. Simon tells Jordan that he's not going to spend his life cooped up in an apartment. He does have an immortal life so that would suck. Simon has a successful gig and he gets paid, supposedly. I still have no idea how he paid for half of his equipment. He has no steady job with a steady income. Those instrumental synthesizers cost a lot of money. And the upkeep of them? Equally expensive. Also, his style of music keeps on changing, I've noticed.

As I said, all of this Simon/Jace/Jordan stuff was great but I do wish that the show had spent maybe one more episode building up Simon and Jordan as roommates so when Simon understood that he met Jordan on purpose, that hurt would've resonated more with me, as the audience. From our perspective, it only feels like Simon has been rooming with Jordan for one, two days at the most. It was a little hard for me to believe that Simon would be as hurt as he was.

Malec Drama's Back...and unlike Backstreet Boys, not sure if I want this back

So Malec drama is starting back up again. Basically it's the fight from the second half of the TMI books. Alec being insecure with the relationship and all that jazz. Which is good, I didn't necessarily hate this aspect of the episode but the show has a tendency when they let Malec drama fester, to turn it into this childish, horrible thing. But I'll keep my fingers crossed and hope the writers don't screw up this plot as I actually do like this plot point in the books. Basically, Alec wants to progress their relationship by moving in with Alec which freaks Magnus out a little as they've only been dating for a couple of months. Now, ordinarily, I might understand Magnus in this but also, they've been spending nearly everyday together. I think they're well past that initial dating phase. Moving in would be a logical assumption and besides Alec is a shadowhunter. It's not harped on all that much in the show because apparently all you need is Clary to stab a demon once and it'll go poof, but shadowhunting (theorietically) is legitimately dangerous. There's a moment in the books where one of the characters talks about how shadowhunters live their lives. They accept they're going to have short lives, that they're probably not going to die of old age and as a result, they go through life's milestones very quickly. They fall in love quickly, they get married quickly, they have kids quickly because for them, today may be their last day. They don't waste time. So it makes sense that Alec wants to move this relationship along. He loves Magnus and wants to be in a position where he can spend the maximum amount of what time he has left with him. For all Alec knows, he could die within the year.

But Alec ends up sneaking a glance in Magnus' Secret Box of Past Loves and Magnus gets angry about this. Alec comes clean, apologizes, and Magnus forgives him. So Alec does something wrong, Magnus gets vindictive, Alec comes clean and then apologizes, Magnus forgives him. Sound familiar? Oh right! That was the exact same recipe for pretty much every Malec conflict this show has ever done. It's nice to see the writers switching things up. They're not repeating dynamics or anything.

The thing is with this Malec conflict, it's essentially the same conflict Book Malec has but I don't think it works as well with Show Malec. At least in the case of Show Alec. Show Alec, I feel would've just asked Magnus outright, "What's in the box?" He wouldn't have snuck around about it. Unfortunately, Magnus being vindictive is nothing new. That's how he always gets when he feels Alec has wronged him. That's one aspect of Show Magnus' personality I'm so over with. His childishness in conflicts. It's not as pronounced here but I have a feeling it's going to get pretty damn bad because the writers most certainly will not be subtle with it. Magnus is clearly their favorite to write for which means Magnus is always written in a way we're meant to feel sorry for him. Honestly, at the end of 2B, I was rooting for Alec to break up with him permanently because I know I wouldn't have put up with that shit. I'm thinking there's probably a reason for why Magnus has had 12,000 relationships and it's got nothing to do with immortality. Magnus being angry is not the issue I have, it's his complete lack of wanting to compromise I have an issue with and he never learns or even acknowledges his mistakes. And the fact that Alec apologized for everything and Magnus apologized for nothing still leaves me seething in anger. But back to the task at hand. Whereas I'm always happy to see book elements in the show, Malec is in the same boat as Clace with this. We have the same Clace dynamic from City of Fallen Angels but there was no build-up to that dynamic in Season 2, so it feels forced. This immortality conflict was ripped right from the pages of book 4, and I just don't think it's going to work as well because Show Alec is so different from Book Alec. But we'll see.

And I know I riffed on you Magnus a little bit so if I offended any Show Magnus stans out there, well too bad. I’m not apologizing for it. I have my own opinions and you don’t have the right to invalidate me as a person just because you don’t agree with them.

Izzy and Charlie Sitting In A Tree...K-I-S...I Don't Even Care Enough About Them To Finish The Song

Izzy has a date with Doctor Charlie, accompanied with some more clunky dialogue and I felt absolutely nothing. I really don't care for this storyline of Izzy dating Charlie. Charlie I feel is going to get lumped in with Ollie in regards to how I feel about him. He's just not interesting, he's very bland, there's nothing about him that I want to learn more about. I'm all for Izzy getting her own storylines but this honestly feels a little forced. I feel like we're supposed to feel like she's having a good time and is completely enamoured with this guy but all I'm feeling is cringe.

You know what I would've liked to have seen with Izzy? Her going to those addiction meetings. While working through her own addiction issues, helping these people with theirs. I feel like Izzy is desperately trying to find her own identity. Her own worth. That maybe she wants to be more than just a shadowhunter saving humans from the shadows. Fighting her own demons, both physical and psychological, while helping these mundanes fight their own personal demons might have worked really well for her as a character arc. That's something I would like to see. Give Izzy some layers. Which is actually why I enjoyed the yin fen character arc when it first started until the show, as it always does, ruined it. When she was in that character arc, we were seeing layers of her. Her desire to be strong but never feeling like she's strong enough, her desire to love but never feeling like she's truly loved. I want to see more of that Izzy. I want to see that Izzy grow.

And we got a fight scene with the staff this time around. Perhaps the show has been clued in on how dumb the whip looks. And the staff fight was badass. I really liked it. Of course Doctor Charlie comes running in and I don't know about any of you but I think I'd be slightly alarmed if I had told a guy I needed to end the date and go home only for him to follow me. Just a tad bit creepy. And also, I don't know what kind of doctor Charlie is but he should no be allowed to give stitches. They should revoke his medical license, those stiches looked so bad. No way would those stitches have stopped an actual wound from bleeding not to mention, it would've left a huge scar. I really hope Izzy used an iratze rune to heal that wound afterwards.

Guess We Should Talk About the Main Villain Arc

This is always my least favorite thing to talk about. Whenever Lillith is on the screen, I tune out. I just don't find her interesting and I also find her rather cringey, too. She has no emotional connection to the main characters so I have a very difficult time feeling for her in any capacity. She's just evil, that's all there is to her. And whereas that's an easy villain to write, it's also a very boring villain in the audience's eyes.

Lillith is all about using this love potion to get Jace to fall out of love with Clary but she needs a piece of Clary's soul to finish the potion. She sends demons after Clary but the demons get Izzy instead because Izzy was wearing Clary's dress. Don't ask me how Izzy and Clary can share clothes when I highly doubt they wear the exact same dress size but whatever. Lillith decides to go full demon and go after Clary herself.

Meanwhile, Clary comes clean to Luke about what's going on with Jace. That Jace was dead and she compelled Raziel to bring him back. Clary feels like they need angelic intervention and asks Luke if Cleophas can talk to the angels for her. I'm not sure when it was ever established that Iron Sisters could talk to angels. It's just the writers making up rules for their world as they go along. It's bad story-telling but this is what the writers do. They meet with Cleophas -- which by the way, I don't understand. So Maryse gets de-runed but Cleophas who once betrayed them in 2A lives on an isolated farm presumably not de-runed. I will never understand Show Clave's punishment system. But Cleophas tells them she hasn't been able to speak to angels for a while but believes Clary can summon Ithuriel. Cleophas takes Clary out into the woods and shows her how to summon an angel and I'm going to be nit-picky again -- why does this show have the ability to summon and talk to angels? Why would any angel besides Raziel care enough to show up or even talk to them? But Cleophas and Luke leave Clary alone in the woods as Ithuriel may not show up if they're there. Ithuriel shows up in all of his laughably cheesy glory and confirms to Clary that Jace is not different because he was brought back from the dead, it's because he's vulnerable now. And just as Ithuriel is about to tell Clary about Lillith, Lillith kills him and at that point I could not hold in my laughter any longer. This plot was so bad and so cheesy and then it culminated into yet another cheesy trope (villain killing their victim right as they're about to give away the villain's identity), the whole thing was entirely ridiculous to me. Then Clary suddenly forgets how to be the world’s best shadowhunter and Lillith gets her sliver of Mary Sue soul she so coveted.

Lillith meets Jace at the Hunter's Moon and gives Jace the potion and now Jace has supposedly fallen out of love with Clary. It's a shame because I really wanted to see the dynamic of Jace dealing with this possession while still in love with Clary but that's the show for you. It's either black or white, left or right with them. There's no middle ground. Complexity is not their thing.

Honorable Mentions

So I did enjoy the scene where that random shadowhunter voiced his appreciation to Alec about coming out. It was really nice to hear and nice also in the sense that at least one of these nameless shadowhunters aren't complete bigoted douches. I do wish the show had done more with Alec's struggles though to make this victory mean a little more. After he came out, it was brought up so infrequently, I'd find myself forgetting that the Clave doesn't think highly of that sort of thing. And really, it kind of seemed like they had a bigger problem with him dating a downworlder than anything else.

There was a nice parabatai scene as well. I still don't like this whole dynamic of Jace not telling Alec because he's afraid Alec is going to say something. We know Alec's not going to say anything. I think it’s really offensive to Alec’s character that the writers think so low of him. I think it's much more believable if Jace was keeping the secret because he didn't want to put Alec in a position where he had to lie. If they do get caught, he doesn't want Alec to be dragged down with them. I'd be much more satisfied with something like that, but oh well. This is what we've got. The parabatai feels were in this scene so I did enjoy that.

Now, let's talk about this dialogue. It dawned on me why I dislike the dialogue so much. There's nothing "human" about it. Basically, it feels like a sociopath writes the script. The writer has the character say the things he/she believes the characters should say but at the end of the day, the dialogue is so devoid of emotion that something just feels off. It feels like there's a robot that the sheets of paper are inserted into and that robot writes the most bland and generic dialogue to move the scenes along. That's where my issue with the dialogue lies. There's nothing interesting about the dialogue. For the most part, it's also devoid of a lot of personality, as well. Let's take Supernatural for instance. If you were to give me a list of random lines from an unaired episode of Supernatural completely devoid of context, I would be able to tell you, "that's a Sam line," or "Dean line, of course, " or "pfft, only Cas would say something like that." These characters have very clear, differentiated personalities and as a result they each have their own flare of dialogue. That's not the case most of the time with the Shadowhunters cast. A lot of times, their dialogue can be used interchangeably with each other. Their dialogue doesn't have an individual flare. I don't think these writers are character writers. I don't think when they write these scripts, they get inside the heads of the characters. They just move the characters around to however the plot dictates it and that’s a really bad way to write. Characters are the foundation of a story. If you don’t like the characters, your story is nothing.

I'd probably give this episode a B-. It's a little better than last week in the sense of the plot's being fleshed out better but at the same time, most of the plots are wildly uninteresting and bland and in the case of the main plot, straight up ridiculous. The dialogue is horrendous. It hurts my soul. I feel like I would have a much better experience with watching these episodes if I did not have the sound on. The show actually looks halfway decent as long as you don’t hear the dialogue. As always, I'll hope for better next week. I’m forever the optimist.

If you have any thoughts on the episode, I'd love to hear them. Just be respectful of everyone's opinions. You don't have to agree with them but you should still respect that person as an individual.

#shadowhunters #shadowhunters review #shadowhunters season 3 #shadowhunters season 3 episode 5 #shadowhunters 3x05 #shadowhunters S0305 #shadowhunters stronger than heaven #stronger than heaven

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fountainpenguin · 8 years ago

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So... In your "Zone Swap" idea, does Jazz figure out Danny's secret like she does in the main series? And if so, does she try to help keep his secret without letting him know she's figured it out?

Heh heh. It’s not much of a secret, really. I’ll jot out some AU basics here because I’m still trying to figure them out myself and decide where Jazz fits best in the AU. This is kind of a rough draft, so details may change later. Skim to the bold parts if you want to see the answer to your actual question; this first part is just some “ChalkZone” babble as I gather my thoughts on secret identities.

My goal with ZoneSwap is to swap some signature parts of both “Danny Phantom” and “ChalkZone”, but still keep the characters as in-character as possible where I can while taking into account all the ways the worldbuilding has been flipped and taking creative liberties as necessary (like making Tucker a ghost to give Danny motivation to visit and protect the Ghost Zone).

As a result of this swap, Rudy can now “go chalk”, turning into Snap, and even use the magic chalk in the RealWorld (though the effects only last as long as he stays in chalk form, and erase when he switches to normal). I’ve said that he can switch at will, but really, he needs to be standing inside a closed chalk shape like a circle or a square or whatever. If he can’t find one and he doesn’t have chalk of his own on hand, he’s stuck.

He can no longer create portals at will, and has to find them instead. I think they pop up on certain chalk surfaces at random, kind of like the Ghost Zone ones do: for example, instead of drawing the underwater portal in “Water Water Everywhere”, it would have opened itself, flooding the quarry, and Rudy only would have known about it once it started attracting attention.

I can’t decide yet if he would have tried to repair the breach while in regular form or chalk form. Hmm. I’m thinking the ZoneSwap version of this episode would share some similarities with “Life Lessons” from “Danny Phantom”, by which I mean that Reggie would go chalk and try to help Rudy save the town.

Ooh, yes. They go chalk and have to act like they get along in public because the whole town sees them and thinks they’re superhero and sidekick or something, even though they can’t stand each other. Then when the rain finally arrives, he and Reggie end up stuck under a ledge or something in the quarry / nearby area and have to watch the water rise while Penny runs frantically off in search of an umbrella, heh heh.

As much as Reggie doesn’t care for the wonders of ChalkZone, he still appreciates the world as his escape from reality, and he doesn’t want to see it found or destroyed. Presumably, he’d use his cape like a scarf to hide his face and better conceal his identity. Gotta have secret identities! (So, for the most part, it’s Rudy who has the secret identity now, not Danny).

Rudy also has to deal with dangerous Zoners escaping into the RealWorld, and Reggie the Red, Vinnie, and Terry are bigger threats too. Finally, he’ll dissolve in water if he’s in chalk form and it will hurt a lot.

Danny, following his being zapped by his parents’ basement portal, still has ghost powers, but in this AU they only work in the Ghost Zone. Even though the Phantom look doesn’t carry over, he still calls himself by that name when addressing other ghosts, because they feel more comfortable with him that way.

He still has ghost enemies, but makes lots of ghost friends too, including Tucker, who’s been dead for the last two years. He can also create portals into the Ghost Zone through the thermos at will, but only so many before the thermos has to be recharged. Probably by dipping it in the portal in the basement and filling it with “ghost soup”.

ZS!Danny’s entire deal is, whereas Rudy is a fighter now, Danny becomes a lover kind of by default. For some reason or another, ghosts can’t survive outside of the Zone for longer than a few hours or days (not sure how long yet, but preferably hours for plot reasons). This might be because they can’t breathe, or they can’t maintain their connection to the world (the assumption being that the Zone is the only thing that keeps them grounded) and they fade away permanently.

There would need to be a definite negative association with fading for Danny to react the way he does, so perhaps instead of just fading, a ghost becomes “corrupted” when away from the Zone too long. They might start to dissolve, losing pieces of themself and some of their sanity. Ghosts who were once friendly, helpful spirits might transform into bitter nightmare creatures and act like feral or even rabid animals. Yes, now we’re getting somewhere.

Anyway, unfortunately, lots of ghosts either don’t know this, or believe it won’t happen to them (Imagine the stories that get in the news sometimes about parents putting their kids in risky situations at national parks, such as by spreading honey on their children to attract bears. Or compare it to teens who regularly have unprotected sex but don’t consider the possibility of getting pregnant or contracting STDs. That sort of mindset. “This is the kind of thing that happens to someone else”, “I’ll be careful”, “I know what I’m doing”, etc.)

Let’s face it: The Human Realm is attractive to ghosts. Technus wants to get his hands on all the flashy electronics that Walker doesn’t allow in the Ghost Zone. Skulker wants to hunt. Box Ghost wants to add to his collection. Ember wants to play her music in front of adoring teen crowds. Tucker wants to hang out with his friends. Other ghosts want to explore, visit friends and family, or just simply cause trouble.

Danny has watched his parents chase down countless of these “rogue” ghosts that I compared to feral, rabid animals here. And they’re terrifying. After reuniting with Tucker in the “pilot episode”, I presume, he learns some missing pieces from Tuck and puts together this whole “being away from the Zone too long makes these ghosts lose themselves”.

So, he and Sam take it upon themselves to inform all the ghosts about such dangers / keep tabs on which ghosts are out and prioritize which ones need to be caught and returned first. Unfortunately, Danny probably gets pegged as a liar or something, so few ghosts are willing to go quietly back to the Zone and he has to lure them into the portals he creates with the thermos.

And there are some ghosts who are well aware of the danger, but come to him seeking aid, so he has to solve their problems, I guess. Something like that.

Basically Danny’s existence revolves around befriending the restless spirits he can and trying to better their afterlives while having a strict “ghosts are supposed to stay in the Ghost Zone” policy that no one listens to (especially a guy named Vlad who wants to exploit ghosts in some way, possibly by making them pay to leave the Zone? My original idea was that he firmly believed ghosts should be free, but I’m not sure how that will work with this “rabid ghost concept. And later in the series he’d start sending them Danny’s way by painting him as a villain for trapping him… I’m thinking Vlad had a daughter named Ellen who just recently died and he’s also trying to find her. Hmm… Thoughts?)

And of course, on the flipside, Rudy plays hero by keeping Skrawl, Craniac, and various other baddies in ChalkZone while at the same time keeping Vinnie and Terry out of it, and dealing with his school life and Reggie. He has to go chalk in order to draw stuff with the magic chalk, and he’d draw lots of things to fight for him (as opposed to attacking physically) while of course sticking to his oath to never again draw a living thing because he can’t handle the stress.

I’m loosely trying to imagine these two shows as if they were designed and written by the writers of the opposite show, therefore resulting in CZ being a darker and more actiony show and DP being cuter and more focused on world-building. That’s kind of tough though, because I can’t just remove all the awesome worldbuilding from “ChalkZone”, and a show about teenagers and ghosts tends to be angsty by default. I’m trying to find a middle ground.

To answer your actual question, everyone in Amity Park thinks ZS!Danny is a loon who runs around being a goofy ghost hunter like his parents. Since Danny can’t use his powers in the Human Realm, Valerie is Amity Park’s big hero. Instead of Phantom getting his name dragged through the dirt, the citizens of Amity Park by default attribute all of Danny’s good deeds to her, even if she only showed up at the very last minute when the cameras arrived. It’s equally as annoying to him as it was when everyone considered Phantom a villain.

Jazz would have to go into the Ghost Zone to realize that Danny has these ghostly abilities. In the Human Realm, he has to chase ghosts while fully human. Their parents would obviously be thrilled that he wants to join them in the family ghost-hunting business.

BUT Danny is trying to help and rescue ghosts, while his parents want to catch and study them. I think the big secret for Jazz to learn in this AU would be that Danny is using the portal despite their parents thinking it doesn’t work.

She would learn (possibly during that “Snap Out of Water” parody that I nicknamed “Tuck, Tuck, Loose”) that Tuck is a ghost now, and Danny and Sam are friends with him and regularly sneak off to visit the Ghost Zone. I think she would want to be helpful, but her helpfulness probably has its limits.

Jack and Maddie, I guess, would be very worried/upset with A) Danny for befriending a ghost behind their back, B) the fact that he’s been getting in their way and preventing them from catching ghosts, and/or C) having potentially dangerous adventures in the Ghost Zone, or something along those lines. Once Vlad becomes involved, that would add another factor into the equation.

OR! About a year ago, Bill Burnett (one of “ChalkZone”’s co-creators) confirmed that a human who spends 24+ hours straight in ChalkZone will turn into a Zoner permanently, and said that if the show hadn’t stopped airing, we would have met a “British aristocrat kid” who had suffered this fate, and who teamed up with Skrawl in a big special episode (and Bill hints that this is why Skrawl kept stealing magic chalk since only a human can use it, even though we never found out why he was doing this in the show itself).

So, I could take that detail and add it to this AU too- ZS!Jazz might find out through her parents (or probably Vlad) that the more time ZS!Danny spends in the Ghost Zone, the more corrupted and “rabid ghost-like” he’ll become (possibly because he’s half-ghost, so Sam might be immune). She might tell Danny this, but he would be upset, and they’d get into a fight over who knows more about ghosts, since he’s the one who’s visited the Zone more.

Maybe he would begin showing signs of feral/rabid corruption, and she has to keep this from their parents while she struggles to find a cure, despite Danny constantly snapping at her that he’s fine and she needs to get off his back. With him being partly dead, maybe he suffers the same way as the other ghosts when he’s not in the Zone, but his development was delayed. So like, he can’t stay in the Ghost Zone without negative side effects, but he can’t stay out of it without negative side effects either.

If ZoneSwap were a show then Danny would probably show subtle signs the whole season, but the topic of his corruption would probably be the Season 1 finale or something, or maybe Season 2 (Personally I like the idea of Dash building a thermos of his own - possibly with Vlad’s help - as the last scene of Season 1 so he and Danny have the same weapon as a nod to Reggie and Rudy both using magic chalk in “Reggie the Red”, so we’ll make it Season 2).

So yes, in a way, Jazz would discover Danny’s ghost side. Even if he doesn’t become the same exact Phantom he does in canon, he’s still half dead and would presumably be of interest to his ghost-hunting parents, so she does her best to keep him off their radar.

I’m still kind of working out the details, but I’m getting there! I have some vague plans for this AU already figured out, but most of this I’m making things up as I go and get to answer Asks like this~

#ZoneSwap AU #Going Ghost!#Rudys got the chalk!#Ghost Getter Number 1 #asks #Anon #Main Phantom trio #The Val gal #Chalkmeister

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junker-town · 8 years ago

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Football's over, so get caught up on the 2016-17 NBA season right here

The Warriors are dominating, there’s intrigue lower in the playoff picture, and a number of new stars have risen.

Been too busy watching football to keep up with the NBA? You’re in luck. In this week’s FLANNS & ZILLZ, we catch you up on what you’ve missed.

ZILLER: Football is officially over. (And how!) That means, per tradition, the wider sports world takes keener attention on the NBA as we roll toward All-Star Weekend and approach the stretch run. So we'll take this opportunity to talk about what more casual basketball fans need to know about what's happened so far this season.

There's at least one thing that is absolutely no surprise: the Golden State Warriors are terrifyingly good. They won't break the wins record again, but Kevin Durant and Stephen Curry have learned how to play off one another, Draymond Green and Klay Thompson have maintained their All-Star play and ... I can't be the only one losing faith that anyone can even compete with the Warriors in the playoffs. They are ridiculously good.

FLANNERY: From this vantage point in February, I think it's going to be a bloodbath come playoff time. Very few teams can match up with them and the ones that offer a tough counter (like say, Memphis) don't have the horses to win four games in seven.

I love the Spurs, but I don't see it. The Rockets are the best story of the year, but does anyone really think they can defend them well enough to win a series? The Clippers are still that X-factor team, but they're also still the Clippers. The one team that we know can give them problems is Cleveland, and the Cavs are kind of a mess right now.

Soobum Im-USA TODAY Sports

What do you make of the rest of the West? Take Golden State out of the equation and it's basically the East with a couple of better teams at the top.

ZILLER: The Spurs are better than anyone in the East (including Cleveland right now, in my opinion). I don't know that there's any real gap between the next few West teams and the better East teams, though. Boston is clicking behind Isaiah Thomas and Washington is surging. I'm not convinced the Rockets are better than those teams or Toronto. And Houston is clearly the third best team in the West due to the Clippers' maelstrom of calamity.

Briefly, considering the city's abysmal sports history, we should note that the Wizards are having their best season in maybe 30 years. After a slow start John Wall looks like an MVP candidate* and Scott Brooks is avenging his reputation. There is a small but legitimate chance the Wizards could make the NBA Finals.

I asterisked the MVP comment because there's no way John Wall is an MVP candidate because that race is freaking crazy.

FLANNERY: I think people are overthinking the MVP race, but that tends to happen around this time of the year. It's been a five-player race and it should stay a five-player race. Those five being James Harden, Russell Westbrook, LeBron James, Kevin Durant, and Kawhi Leonard. No offense to Wall or Kyle Lowry or even Steph Curry, but that's the list. (Also Anthony Davis, DeMarcus Cousins, Jimmy Butler, Giannis Antetokounmpo, etc. etc.)

And I'm sorry but Isaiah Thomas is not a top-5 MVP candidate when you consider the players above. Who does he bump: LeBron? Kawhi? That pains me to say that because IT is having a magical ride. There is no more fun NBA experience than Isaiah in the fourth. He’s absolutely one of the best stories of this season, but you can't win an MVP on narrative alone.

I still think it comes down to Harden or Westbrook, but there's a smart case to be made for Kevin Durant. I wonder if anyone will make it.

ZILLER: There is a case, and surely one of our friends in the Bay Area will make it, but there's just no way. I like to think we've come far enough since LeBron was basically blacklisted from a number of ballots, but Durant's decision was met with more hostility from even player liberty advocates like us. It's just not feasible. Best he can hope for is Finals MVP, which is one helluva consolation.

Benny Sieu-USA TODAY Sports

You mentioned Giannis. The rise of the young weirdo superstars (the unicorns, as some call them) has been a bright spot so far this season.

FLANNERY: That's been the brightest spot in the league by far and that group keeps expanding. If you've been away from a while, you ought to get hip to Nikola Jokic and Myles Turner, because they are now members of the crew along with Giannis, Karl-Anthony Towns, Kristaps Porzingis, Anthony Davis, and Joel Embiid.

(Quick aside: are we ready to grandfather AD out of this club? This will be his fourth All-Star nod, which is three more than everyone else here combined. I'm not -- he's still only 23 -- but I'm curious to see when that consensus gets reached?)

I'm a little concerned, however, that none of those dudes are going to make the postseason. The Bucks and Giannis seemed like a sure thing, but they've hit the skids. The Wolves are taking their time and the Knicks are ... so very Knicks. It would be a shame if the young'uns get skunked.

How do you like these playoff races? There's some intrigue in the East, for sure. The West seems pretty straightforward except for that last spot, aka the saddest pursuit in sports.

ZILLER: Anthony Davis is a 4-time All-Star. He's either the president of the club or he's graduated from the club. I can't decide.

The East is funky because there's a vast muddle in the standings from Nos. 7-13. Three of them will make the playoffs. Five won't. We have our guesses but it's messy. That's a version of intrigue for the fans involved but it's hard for us neutrals to get too hepped up about.

The West No. 8 race, as you mention, is just plain sad. Everyone wants it and no one deserves it. May I suggest a play-in tournament, except do it 2-on-2 NBA Jam style? I'll pass on 48 minutes of Pelicans-Blazers or Kings-Nuggets. But Anthony Davis and Buddy Hield vs. Damian Lillard and C.J. McCollum? DeMarcus Cousins and, uh, erm, Garrett Temple (I guess) vs. Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray? I'm there.

By the way, we should mention that the Jazz have officially arrived. The Timberwolves have, uh, not.

FLANNERY: Okay first, I LOVE that idea. Let's use NBA Jam rules to settle every minor positioning thing from here on out.

We never talk about Utah, but the Jazz are legit. I'm going to keep banging that Rudy Gobert drum from here until eternity. It will be fascinating to see what happens with Gordon Hayward this summer. If he sticks around and the young guys like Rodney Hood and Trey Lyles can take another step ... the Jazz have major aspirations.

And that's yet another reason why I am not concerned about the trajectory of the Minnesota Timberwolves. The Wolves on their schedule, not ours. We all wanted Utah to be that team last year and it took them another season to get healthier and stronger. The Wolves have been playing better and I am encouraged by Tom Thibodeau's public statements. He sees the big picture and they are not finished yet. Let Kris Dunn get his feet wet, figure out what you have with Andrew Wiggins and Zach LaVine, add a veteran or two to round things out and they'll be just fine.

I'd love to have them sneak into the playoffs. Of all the teams fighting for that spot they could really use the psychic boost as well as the experience.

Tommy Gilligan-USA TODAY Sports

Here's the obligatory Cavs question: You think they're vulnerable? (I do not.)

ZILLER: In the East? Not really, though Kevin Love has some back issues and given their depth and LeBron's heavy workload, that's a potential problem depending on what happens at the deadline. But as someone who picked the Cavaliers to win the title last year ... I'm not seeing it right now. The Warriors are too dope.

The trade deadline is up right after All-Star. We do not expect fireworks. But then, that's usually when we get those fireworks, huh?

FLANNERY: I guess? I think that's just where we are with the deadline. Teams aren't in a rush to acquire pending free agents, draft picks are even more valuable now, and there's a lopsided amount of potential buyers versus would-be sellers. That could all change, of course, and I can count a half-dozen players who would be mighty interesting from Paul Millsap to Goran Dragic, the Magic frontline, and even Jimmy Butler. Free Melo? Free Melo!

We've been advocating for teams to dump their losses and get right with the lottery guards for months now, but no one listens to us.

I am reminded that the Clippers traded a first round pick to get two months out of Jeff Green and that the Cavs stole Channing Frye last year, so we'll see some weird things happen, for sure. I would certainly like to see the Raptors make a deal and the Celtics really need a live body up front. As always, the best deals are the ones we don't hear about.

I've been enjoying this season. It's not the best one I've ever seen and I don't think the playoffs will offer much drama until the Finals, but it's been pretty good. That's enough to tide us over through the winter and into the spring, right?

ZILLER: Absolutely! And it's still a league where an amazing moment can happen at any moment. That serendipity is worth it all.

FLANNERY: Now bring back Vine and we're all set.

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