#Should probably do that again at some point just to get myself into spriting

[last-sprout]

Last Sprout Dev Diary - Jan 10, 2025

Hello, and welcome to the new year! After the break, I'm here for another dev diary - this one being a bit more about something conceptual. If you want to read the last dev diary from December, you can do so here.

If this is the first one you're reading, I'm @oneominousvalbatross, and I'm the tech side of the sprout team! This week I mostly worked on status effects, but I want to take some time to talk about a broader, more conceptual topic, and save the full breakdown for next week.

My poor boy, who has every disease.

Something I don't think I've really specified before in these dev diaries is my background in game dev, or, rather, my lack of background. I started seriously learning how to code a bit over a year ago, and entered my first game jam in February of 2024.

(The game was barely functional, but it did exist so like, there's something.)

My academic background is in philosophy (simultaneously the best and worst thing tbh), and apart from being pretty good with computers in a broad sense I didn't really have much to go on for this project. I'm bringing this up because I'm going to be talking about something that I had to figure out for myself, but that might be like, compsci 105 or something if you went through school for it. That said though, if you have always kind of wanted to make games, you can absolutely make games! I didn't think I was a math person, or a coding person, until I started doing it.

Game Development is Hard

I'm going to assume that software development in general is hard, but I haven't really done that, so I'm talking about game dev. I spent around two weeks not touching the game, and when I came back, the first thing I noticed was just how hard it was to get my head back around something with this many systems! This was also something I ran headlong into when working on that game jam, I reached a point in like, a week where I couldn't touch any system without potentially breaking every other system.

The solution I use, and the reason why I could come back to this without completely losing my mind, is to reduce the number of access points into a system to the absolute bare minimum. For example, we can look at the animation system. It's really complicated! It needs to be able to swap the sprites out on a variety of different renderers, it needs to be able to adjust animation speeds, control shader parameters, and it needs to be able to queue up multiple animations in sequence, plus it needs to send out events on animation end so that I can use them to time up other game actions.

If I was to condense all of this into a few sentences: A system can be as complicated as it needs to be, but try to envision it in its own little box, with precisely one entrance/exit. If you need to spawn a projectile, you should really just be able to go, like, SpawnProjectile(projectile), with as little external work as possible. This means if you need to completely rewrite how spawning projectiles works, you can do that, and all the other classes that spawn projectiles can still just do their thing.

A helpful diagram

The way I would've done this originally would have been to have, like, a SpriteAnimator class with a 'speed' field. I'd set it to one by default, and then whenever I need that speed to be different, I'd have whatever object needs to change the speed go in and set the speed to whatever. If you've done a lot of programming, you probably immediately realized the tons of problems this could cause - problems into which I ran headlong.

What do you do when you want one animation to play at a certain speed, then go back to the previous speed when it's done? If you do, do you assume that the speed was set to 1 before, and just reset it, or do you have one of the two objects involved store the previous speed to go back to it? If you do, what happens if, halfway through an animation, another object butts in to adjust the speed again? Say you're playing an animation at half speed, and then a speed buff gets applied that's supposed to last for a minute. Your speed buff goes in, sets the faster speed, the animation suddenly starts playing faster, then when the animation is finished, the object that was waiting to reset the speed goes back in and sets the speed to 1, leaving the animation playing at the default speed when it's supposed to be faster.

These kinds of problems will always be a risk, but in my specific case I split the speed at which an animation plays out into three places. First of all, an animation has a frame rate, which is meant to never change. We do most of our animating at 12 fps (on twos, I think is what you call it in the traditional animation world? idk, not a 2d animator), and each animation object keeps track of its frame delta (1 / frame rate) so that the controller can progress through the frames at the right speed.

However, we don't submit the animation to the controller in its unaltered form. Instead, we have a data structure called a PlayableAnimation. This contains the animation itself, but it also has the speed at which the animation should be played, as well as some other useful info that might change between two instances of the same animation. A controller maintains a stack of playable animations and can look at the individual speed of each one as it progresses through.

On top of that, there's a final speed modifier that can be submitted along with the playable animation, without changing its values. This way, if I want to play an animation at double speed for whatever reason, I don't necessarily have to set the value for the entire controller, I can just say this animation should be faster, and nothing else. Some animations have different frame rates, or are re-used with different speeds for different purposes, and I can do all that configuration without having to put all that weight on one field.

All of this sounds wildly complicated, and it kind of is, but importantly, if you're playing an animation from any other system, all you do is type in "Controller.PlayAnimation(animation)". You can also go like, "Controller.PlayAnimation(animation, speed: 1.5)" if you want it to play faster, but all of that stuff is handled completely without additional input. This is what lets me come back to the game and keep working on it when it's been months since I've touched a part of it.

Why This is Relevant Right Now

Status effects seem simple, but they kind of need to touch every other system at least a little bit, which is why I spent all that time talking about making systems. A status effect needs to be able to do things like apply damage, but it also needs to be able to play animations or sounds, and it doesn't always want to play those things on the source of the effect.

Some demos for the animations different status effects will use.

Plus, this is a roguelite, so we need to be able to add and modify status effect stuff within the upgrade system, which might mean modifying the magnitude of the effect, changing colors on animations, or tying other things into the effect when it goes off! As long as each of those systems has the cleanest possible entry/exit points, this is doable, but it's been a long battle making sure the game can keep moving forward and not get mired in constant bugfixing and complexity management.

I have a lot of cool game design thoughts on the effects themselves, but I think I'll leave that for a later week. As per usual, thanks for reading, feel free to send any questions or thoughts here or to @oneominousvalbatross, and I'll see you next week!

[kinokoshoujoart]

cora’s bad time hell simulation steps or how to play “sprite station for girl” “harvest moon ds cute” the wrong way

(all ways are wrong this game is Accursed)

ok so here’s what my disorganized “guide” to myself for harvest moon ds for girl (aka indecipherable notes i wrote to myself as i played and revised as i tested various things and restarted due to mistakes) looks like. at some point when i become a real gamer i will write a legible guide meant for eyes to look at but uhhh this is how i play this accursed game personally

i’m not sure if anything i wrote will make any sense since i wrote it as notes to myself so probably definitely use fogu and fc2 jonason wiki (may not work but some pages should be archived) instead

ALSO if you’ve never played or barely played the game it won’t make sense at all! hmds was my first harvest moon so i am used to various horrors!

my play style is probably not fun in general HOWEVER if you are a grinding hell goblin like me then it’s GREAT!!!! if not you may still find it amusing that the game gives you permission to play like this

(it’s a great background task game while doing like productive stuff but otherwise playing this way would probably be unbearable)

(image limit)

anyway after that the days go a lot faster, you’ll get the island on summer 1, so on spring 30 i put all my money into million G tickets and sell 200 of em, do the 5x money thing, and save the rest. so when thomas comes the next day to sell you the 900 million G island you can just sell 180 tickets and do the 5x money thing again with like ~600 million G tickets left over. it takes up inventory but you’ll get the shelf in a few days. basically you just need to remember to order from the TV shopping every saturday and place orders with gotz and gray whenever they finish stuff.

random tips

after unlocking the fuckass hot spring sprites (the ones that require you to spend a total of 700 1 hour sessions in the hot springs) i usually grind grazing points— if you put your animals outside for 5 hours you get a “Love Point”, but if you interact with them after they earn that LP then the timer switches over and you can get another LP after 5 more hours. if you wear the time ring the whole time it’s 2.5 hours. i’m not very good at explaining this but basically if you’re super efficient you can get way more animal LP than you realistically should, which is great because the touch glove petting minigame is Bad!!!!

i usually wait on getting the rest of the purple sprites (the ones that require you to hire the purple team and ask for healing) until i’m totally done with the indigo team, cuz i wanna get HG’s purple heart event asap, but you can switch the order if you want

by summer y1 you’ll basically have a feel for everything. aside from Skye, Leia, HG and WP everyone can be married early-mid autumn if you want

if you want to Gay (in the japanese version only) keira is the quickest to marry. leia is the quickest to max affection but it’s impossible to get leia year 1 because the bottle you need to fish up can only be caught in spring. you have to wait until at least year 5 for WP and iirc year 6 for HG.

[itsu-saragi]

Devlog #3 - Revisions and Indecisions.

Sjdjfdhs hi. Apologies for letting the “see you in a month” turn into several months. Work got busy, then I caught Covid, after recovering I went on vacation, and then work got busy again… But I did work on this VN all throughout.

I didn’t make as much progress as I wanted, but some progress was made nevertheless.

So what exactly did I do? Let me count the ways.

Story Revisions

Changed the premise from magic academia to magic uhhh small business? Workshop? Something like that, I'm not sure what to call it.

My original story followed the player character and their love interest as they explored their university campus. This came to be because I was tinkering with the concepts of "group partners to lovers" & showing the player character as non-humanoid to allow for reader-insert and immersion, like the Obey Me games and the pink sheep MC. But the story stopped being appealing to me, plus the scope started to become bigger than I had anticipated. Multiple CGs in different locations across a giant campus? Yeah that's a nightmare to draw.

I'd still like to explore the idea of a non-humanoid MC though, so maybe that'll be a future game, or at least another brain dump post!

But anyway, I shrunk the premise. One store, one LI, and the customers that enter the little workshop. I'm still sticking to the idea of mundane modern fantasy though.

Because of the location change from university to workshop, I've had to revise the LI a lot. He's shaping up really well though! His name is Fen, I hope I can introduce him here sometime soon.

Building Frameworks

I'm not sure what to call it, so for now I'm calling it frameworks.

Basically, instead of tackling each aspect of the game separately from drafts to completion (ex: drawing all sprites right now and then moving on to writing the script), I want to create rough versions of everything.

I think this will help me because then I'll have an idea of how much work each aspect will entail, and I can hopefully spot and remedy any holes or glaring skill issues.

This is especially important for coding. I'll be using RenPy, the classic engine for visual novels, but I have very little coding experience. I'd like to gain some before I start creating the writing and assets meant to be incorporated into the platform.

By creating the framework (or I guess prototype is the better word in this case), I'll get some understanding of how RenPy works and once I have the assets complete I can insert those in.

For plot frameworks, I'm trying not to go into too much detail. Lots of bullet points cause I fuck with those.

For character frameworks, I must admit I'm putting a lot of thought and detail into Fen, but I think I should as he's the core of this game. I'm reminding myself though that much of him can still be altered if the story requires it.

There's definitely more frameworks I need to think about, like sprites, backgrounds, and music too.

But to sum it up, I'd like to create a rough draft of the entire game, and then only afterward do I start going in and changing details and adding colors to the big picture. I hope that makes sense.

Next Step: Character & Coding Frameworks

For the rest of April and probably the entirety of May as well, I'll focus on fleshing out Fen and putting together the coding framework.

I think figuring out Fen's character arc will help me get an idea of the overall story, which is incredibly daunting yet exciting lol

I'm not planning on making the coding look pretty, I just want to make something that functions. I have no clue how well that will go so please pray for me or something.

Personal Thoughts: I am Afraid

I think the reason why I didn't make a lot of progress is because lately, I've been afraid of doing so. I've never made a game before, or written an original story. I don't know what I'm doing, and instead of directly addressing things I've kept working around them. And because I haven't made much progress, it stresses me out. And then that stress makes me do less work.

Hellooo feedback loop.

I'm an indecisive person who likes to look for the right or most optimal answer. But in a creative project like this, it's hard to know what the "right" answer is cause it can be subjective.

I'm trying to remind myself to enjoy the process and to take small steps, and everything is still changeable as I'm still in the beginning stages. It's hard, but as I'm writing this update I think I'm feeling better.

I'm sure this gamedev journey will be me enjoying the ride and then immediately hating it, so for anyone reading: thank you for your patience. I appreciate you.

I'm going to try and post an update, no matter how small it is, once a month. So. Cheers to me being able to post this in April.

I'm still trying to figure out what to post and how to get my thoughts across. I've never done anything like this before, so please bear with me. If you have any feedback, please feel free to share!

And again, thank you to whoever's reading this. I hope you have a great timezone :)

[blazehedgehog]

Is it possible to make a game like Sonic 3 today within the deadlines it had back then? Pixel art, physics and all.

Why wouldn't it be?

It was the third game in the series. They already had a very strong idea of what they were trying to do with the character, they already had proven technology under them that they could easily extend and upgrade. They had been doing this on Sonic for three years already, and some of the people had been working for Sega even longer than that.

These were talented, experienced people. Professionals. Having the prior knowledge to be able to say, "if we do X, then we get Y" allowed them to work quickly and efficiently.

So I would compare it to, say, what I did with OverBite. OverBite was a game I made for a Clickteam Fusion Game Jam in 2016. We had from like, September 30th or even the 29th up to October 31st to make an entire game. It came out to something like 33 days.

So I made this game where you play as Dracula. I wrote all the code, designed all the mechanics, made all of the sprites, and built all of the levels. Alone. By myself. A single person. The only other person to help me with anything was my old friend Malcolm Brown, who handed me some music.

I had JUST bought Clickteam Fusion 2.5 on Steam, which means it had 0 hours of usage registered. I used it to make OverBite, which means I could track exactly how many hours I spent working on the game, and though I don't remember the exact total, I remember after doing the math it ended up shaking out to between 9 to 11 hours a day, 7 days a week, for 33 days. It was more than 300 hours total.

Again. For one person. I'm not saying it's the greatest game ever made. The level design in particular was extremely last second -- literally, I was down to the last day, only really had finished the gameplay engine, so I cobbled together four levels in a few hours and put it up seconds before the deadline at midnight. But the point is that I had worked in Clickteam Fusion for a decade and a half and could execute on my needs very well. I knew the software and the process like the back of my hand.

Now imagine having two people like that. Or five. Or ten. "300 hours of work in one month" suddenly turns into 3000 hours in one month. Using tech they already have, and proven gameplay concepts they have a lot of familiarity with.

It still wasn't easy, mind you. But the concepts that made it work back then not only still work today, they probably work even better because you aren't fighting to squeeze things down into such limited hardware. Like, the entire reason a game jam can even exist as a concept at all is because at a certain level of development, things are just easier now.

A game jam in 1994 is an impossible concept to think of because the tools had to be so super specialized to an incredibly narrow kind of work environment. You had to be a genius computer scientist to get something like Sonic the Hedgehog to function, never mind how much money it would cost to get something like a development kit.

Today, literally anyone can pick up a copy of Godot or Unreal 5, watch a few Youtube tutorials, and make a game from their bedroom with consumer tools. And those tools are faster, easier, and more intuitive to work with than anything that came before. It cannot be understated what a huge concept that is, and how that used to be totally impossible 15-20 years ago.

(And before some British dude rolls up like "yeah well you could always do that with the amiga" -- that's true, but it's also still different, and the fact that you can just give Microsoft $20 to unlock "Developer Mode" on an Xbox and start pushing Unity and Unreal games you develop on your PC to a console is still mindblowing in context.)

And it trickles down, too. If you know the conversion process, you can use these nice amazing modern tools to make proper retro games that run on real retro hardware.

All of this is to say that just because it's easier doesn't mean it should be done. OverBite absolutely slaughtered me. 11 hours of game development a day, 7 days a week, for almost five solid weeks was deeply unhealthy, physically and mentally. I haven't come close to finishing any game project, ever, since OverBite. It fried me.

And on Sonic Team's side, Sonic 3 was so massively stressful for them that they quit making Sonic games for almost half a decade. Crunch time development like that hurts in many ways, both visible and (mostly) invisible.

But yes, it could still absolutely be done.

[sundslime]

Another Object Comic Blog 2

Back at it again with another name change! This one’s probably the last one for a bit though.

A good amount of progress has been made on the idea of the comic since my last post in March. That is, I hunkered down with some buds and actually made a kind of rigid outline of how I want the plot to be structured. A good amount of ideas were leftovers from Exclusion Delusion but more fleshed out with a cleaner idea for a possible ending in mind, which makes me happy! Every time I’ve taken a stab at a comic like this I usually drop the idea because I don’t know how I’d end it, so having that in mind has been reassuring.

Here’s a mostly redacted look at the outline of the story, mostly for the sake of keeping things a surprise! Who doesn’t like a good surprise? I will leave a synopsis of the beginning of the story though, so here! Objects of many different locations live on a planet with only them and are all aware of/ friends with each other. Ornament is the main character of the story, who on their (TBD)th birthday travel around the world in search of artifacts warning of an impending doom. After a year, the end of the world takes the form of a competition in which each challenge takes place on a different planet.

Unlike the plot, the biggest point of contention has been the actual characters to appear in the comic! Truth is, there’s been dozens of characters that have had the possibility of appearing in the comic. Some as main characters, and others as more comic relief side characters. Sizing down the original fifty plus characters has been no easy task, and I’ve joined a bunch of calls with some buds trying to decide which characters should stay or go has been a struggle. I’ll probably come to this decision on my own since these are my characters and only my most cherished of children will make it in..

The spreadsheet above was originally where I listed out all of my ocs and we went through them all and talked about how which characters could act and little quirks they could have. I’d be a liar if I said it didn’t help give me an idea on the characters I FOR SURE wanted in.

Ornament’s a character I’ve wanted in the comic since day one, they’re GUARUNTEED to be a main character. I used them in this enviornment as a test of how I’d draw backgrounds in the comic.

As another small experiment, I tried to go back to my last comic Sunburn and redraw it with the skills I have now in a style I might’ve liked back then, I’m pretty happy with how it came out!

Below is another character with a similar style. She’s also guaranteed for the comic, her name’s Inkwell!

More onto the look of the comic...

I’ve also been messing around with a potential style for the comic. It’s another one of those things that I’ve been putting a lot of thought into, but at the end of the day I think I have a good idea for what I want to do.

My biggest inspirations for this comic have always been my favorite object shows (ONE, Battle for Dream Island Again) and their saturated colors and simple designs, and Homestuck and the many many MSPFAS out there (Vast Error, A Guy Gets Revenge). Drawing objects in this style consistently has been a bit of a struggle, but I’ve found myself gravitating towards big and round hands, and tiny lil’ feet.

I don’t know if I’ll lean as heavy with the gradients and blurs though, since they’ve given me mixed results. I think I like the look of them when minimally used so I’ll probably stick to that.

Another art related thing I heavily debated on using was sprites. At first, I wanted to completely opt out of using any sprites for the sake of simplicity, but with the help of some really nice people I not only re-sprited old characters, but decided that I might go with this sprite style for the new characters. They’re so silly that it’s been hard for me to say no!

Another thing I want to note before ending this post is that just like all of my other comics, I do not mean for this to be the job of a crew where I’m only a writer.

This is my comic, and something I’ve wanted to make. Chances are that just like Sunburn, I’ll be writing a large part of the comic and drawing a large chunk of the panels. I wanna carry the weight of this because its my story!!! With that being said, anyone’s welcome to help! If you’re interested, feel free to DM me on Discord @sundSlime#2003.

TLDR?

Progress on the comic has been underway, but there’s a lot of stuff left to iron out. Hope you guys like what I have so far! Have a good day :)

[rinamohn]

My reactions to Danganronpa The After Episode 18 below!

I watched this part in 3 parts which is why I had some hellish cliffhangers lol

Part 1:

I'm at minute 24 and... Seki that motherfucker!!! I see what he did!

Of course his plan had to involve tricking Hatami into unknowingly killing Kirigiri😭

Let me pray for a miracle quick so that my heart won't break 🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏

...the amount of self control it takes to not skip forward to reassure myself that Hatami will survive...

I will stay strong but 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

Lemme just curl up and die🙈

The only thing that could save him is if Kirigiri actually commited suicide (her little smile is quite sus).

But in true thematic fashion, I'm quite afraid of having hope right now.

Killing Hatami here would be an incredible bummer and super unsatisfyingly, but from a story standpoint not impossible. Proving Hatami's despair right would be an incredible painful blow.

My girl Konoe is suffering immensely right now and this could very well be an event which breaks her light.

She would need to regain it in the following chapters then.

That would be an interesting development, however my heart is clear that I do NOT want Hatami to die here! I WILL cry!

Konoe... Please create a miracle with your Ace Attorney powers...

One small thing I forgot to say cus good god.

Hatami was so cute😭😭😭

He did not look like a murderer who was lying to his friends tho.

Part 2:

Can you believe how much my heart dropped when the part started with a Closing Argument?😭

For a second I really thought: This is it. Hatami will really die.

I'm SO SO glad that Konoe, Marin and Koin managed to convince everyone to continue the discussion.

Konoe clocked Hatami absolutely right in him just looking for a place to die.

Her listing all the ice cream she wants Hatami to buy her when they get out is so cute🥺✨

That blushy sprite too!

Let's not forget that we are still in chapter 2 tho! My hope of Hatami surviving for long are now stronger than ever! But chapter 5's don't care about our feelings.

God knows it might end with Seki and Hatami dead a la Process of Elimination chapter 5!

I WILL cry!

I remember wondering about the body announcement too but then forgetting about it. Bless Marin for bringing it up again! It wasn't the key to solving this for good but it paved the way~

Of course the camera function came in clutch! Like we jokes about lol

That photo is quite interesting too.

Wasn't that time when Seki was already supposed to be downstairs?

Weird that Kirigiri was able to make a photo of Hatami at this point. They should have had a door between them after all!

But yeah Kirigiri woke up early 100% and probably commited suicide after realizing what she was used for.

That's why she was able to smile like that!

Please Kirigiri give me this🙏✨

Save my boy 🥺

Part 3:

WHAT

I interpreted the Photo completely differetly. And WHAT. Dave?!

I was not prepare for freaking Dave swooping in to raise a metaphorical middle finger to Seki.

I did greatly enjoy how this turn of events bullied Seki. All his distressed sprites are pieces of art✨☺️

But really Dave?! I'm not prepared to say goodbye to Dave. I like this weird guy 🥲

And I wonder about his reasons too. But I guess we'll have enough time in the next part for that.

Loved the part of Konoe handing over the torch to Hatami🥺 For him to end this.

He showed that he can understand others pretty well too!

Overall feeling for the trial:

That was a lot!!

A rollercoaster of emotions!

I'm so glad we could reach a conclusion where both Seki and Hatami could survive (but we will still lose Dave...).

I feel now even more insane over Hatami, I want watch Seki have a bad time and a lot of interesting dynamics were born!

I love the potential we have gained now~

By far the craziest chapter 2 in Danganronpa history lol

[dedicatedfollower467]

Game Dev Log #2 - 5/2/24

so for the past two days, i've been mostly working on audio. for some reason, i decided that, again, instead of using free assets and the like, i wanted to make all the sound effects myself.

so i did that!

of all the sounds shown off in this video, my favorites are definitely the various wind sound effects and the wall slide. i'm really, REALLY happy with the wall slide, it sounds pretty much exactly like what i wanted. the wind was also a lot of fun, i think it sounds surprisingly good for me making swooshy wind noises into my cell phone mic.

you can also see me demonstrating a few of the physics things i forgot to show off in the previous video - at about 1:20 you can see the short jumps, and throughout the video you can also see a couple points where the wall slide sprite flips the wrong direction or the player just gets slightly stuck. that bug should definitely be my next highest priority... but i really can't figure out a good way to deal with it. theoretically a raycast or shapecast check to look for the wall should work, but my test raycasts didn't detect the wall accurately enough to make it any better than the system i've currently got. i might have to dig into the gdscript documentation a bit to see if i can brainstorm a better solution.

however, the other main bug i had for entering/exiting crawling was easily solved, and i even managed to optimize the crawl handling a bit so that it would be less stressful on the godot physics engine. at least, in theory. it's probably not that much more optimized, but it makes me feel better.

next steps going forward - on the audio side, i'd like to get some actual music going for the background. i need to keep reminding myself it doesn't have to be final, it can also be placeholder music just like the art is placeholder art! i also wanna adding some creaking in with the wind. on the programming side, i gotta try fixing that wall sliding bug, as well as just generally doing some physics tweaks. i think next i'd like to try adding a dash/air dash mechanic. also, i swear i'll try to show off the double jump next time (if i remember it). i might also need to build up this demo level "playground" a bit, so that i have the proper room to experiment.

that's a lot of "to dos" on the list so probably not all of them will be complete by the next time i post, but they're things for me to keep in mind!

[yorkscoffee]

played fae farm during the trial week on switch ... the npcs are made of cardboard and there r some weird bugs and quirks in the game but i had a good time. may or may not have gone a lil insane and completed the whole story and made it to almost the end of summer year 2

gonna write out some thoughts

one of the weird quirks is that u can't name ur character. they will just simply be named after like ur steam or switch or whatever profile. unless u make a phoenix labs account then u can change ur name that way, but if u go offline at all it switches back to the profile name until u log in again (pause > multiplayer > login button; u don't have to actually do multiplayer just log in). very annoying when i do not like to play as myself in these games & also just a strange decision in general imo

character creator is decent but i would recommend going to the voice selection and hitting "silent" before actually getting into it LOL the noises the character makes get so annoying after a bit... the pronoun selection is nice (he she or they) & u can go back into the character creator using a craftable mirror so u can switch all that stuff up whenever u want

the storyline was cute; not exactly deep but the artwork was neat. i liked all the rhymes and the storybook-y feel. the sprites have nice designs. wisp mother should be a romance candidate but she is not

gameplay felt nice; i liked the auto tool switching and the double jump a lot, & having spells and potions that helped with farming was cool. very light on tutorials but if ur experienced with the genre its not too hard to figure out (idk how it is w/o experience bc i cannot un-experience things). having year-round plants that u use magic fertilizer on to change them into seasonal varieties was funky

animals are pretty quirky and a lil buggy. sometimes i would try to water a plant or something and a chicken would teleport to me from across the farm and get pet. or they would just wander away from the Sign That Is Supposed To Keep Animals Near It and get in the way. fences cannot stop them they will simply walk thru it. also in my experience my cows and sheep would stop giving milk and wool if i didnt enter the barn the day before, even if they had food? weird lil quirk there but once i figured it out it was fine

u can pretty much ignore the animals and their affection will still go up & theyll still produce things as long as u feed them, and also the only punishment for not feeding them is they don't produce things. very forgiving. something i thought was really interesting tho that they dont actually point out in game is that petting ur animals gives u some regen on ur stamina and magic and probably hp, which is Super handy and a neat mechanic that got me to continue paying attention to my animals anyway

decorating ur house with specific furniture gives u a "cozy home" bonus; basically this is how u increase ur hp/mp/stamina, which i think is also a pretty neat lil mechanic

also flower breeding is a mechanic. 6 types of flowers, 6 different genes, 12 unique colors. works pretty much like acnh but also u can breed 2 different types of flowers (so like a rose and a tulip) and u'll have a 50/50 shot at getting one or the other. i got almost every color and i will be haunted by the white zinnia until i have an actual copy of the game. also the genes are actually displayed in a lil tooltip when the cursor is over the flower which is really really cool and good and i love that feature so so much it makes everything so much easier and less frustrating

the game doesnt tell u this iirc but crops and flowers can be moved if u go into the uhhhh build mode. like u can just pick up a whole plant and move it wherever. very handy for both flower breeding and just organizing things in general. u can just pick up and move almost anything, & if u can't u can tear it down and get all materials back. u cannot do either thing to a crafting station that has items in it though u have to get the items out first if u want to break it down or move it

flowers r very important if u like customization also. u unlock 2 color palettes (a grand total of 6 colors) automatically and u have to buy the rest. most of them cost like 30 of a particular flower + some other item + money. u can recolor furniture and outfits with ur unlocked color palettes which is nice

combat was fine, bonus points for the potion of i just want to mine please don't perceive me. also bonus points because there is actually a storyline reason for the monsters to be there; always hate it when a game is like "videogame... have combat. videogame Must have combat. i put monsters in cave. now this is a real video game :)" like nah tell me where those slimes came from. in this case the monsters are objects animated by wild magic and they have cute designs and goofy lil names like cannot (a cannon) and skello (a cello)

there are 3 dungeons in the game & the latter two have funky lil puzzle mechanics. if u aint like that then theres things u can make to skip most of em. i thought they were neat & being able to remove them pretty easily meant they didnt overstay their welcome. they also require specific potions so u don't like "die" (get teleported out of the dungeon, which is also what happens if u lose all ur hp) which would probably be cooler if pausing the game would pause the timers on the potions. i assume that sort of thing is because the game was made with multiplayer in mind; this is presumably also the reason why having anything pause time at all in singleplayer was added in an update after launch

(pausing also does not pause monsters. they will murderize u with the pause screen up. on switch u can just go to the home menu 4 a proper pause at least)

the npcs are as mentioned largely made of cardboard; most of the ones u can't befriend (most of the merchants) have the same pool of lines, and the ones u can have a few personal lines and a bunch of lines referencing things uve done in the game even if its been like 10 years since u did it (common in the genre). there are no events with the non-romance npcs or interactions between any npcs except for like some animations; every conversation witnessed is an npc talking to protagonist. the only events are the dates with the romance characters, which are just them and protagonist sitting around and talking with absolutely nothing happening. the dialogue is cute at least

romance npcs' statuses will sometimes get stuck for some reason (this happened to 2 of them when i played) but that i think should be fixable with the "reset relationship" button, which is a pretty cool feature (tho my understanding is it's also a bit buggy sometimes so ymmv)

festivals are just decorations in town and a shop in town hall (including the fae festival, which one would expect to happen in the fae realm). characters have a few unique lines referencing the festival. sometimes they reference... the Wrong festival. goofy lil oversight i think. birthdays are on the calendar but have no impact in-game

marriage is also very nothing; u get a cute wedding scene and then ur spouse just vibes around the farm sometimes. there is no dialogue about this. also other romance npcs' relationship status change to "past sweetheart" or something like that and u cant progress with them at all since ur not allowed to be friends with them

gift giving is also only for romance npcs and each one has a random item that is the only thing u can possibly give them that day. but like talking to them gives good enough points regardless

job quests (questlines related to each skill u have, given by npcs related to that skill) are neat lil "challenges" but u can only pick up one at a time for some reason. weird design choice imo. they give u a hat for doing all the quests and an outfit if u do all the quests And some 100% requirement (like getting every crop at least once for the farming quests, making one of each polished gem variety for mining, etc) which i think is pretty neat

overall i think i would compare it to story of seasons: pioneers of olive town (particularly in its initial state) in that the npcs are very nothing but the gameplay loop is very good and fun; between the two i would say fae farm has the better story tho lol

[skinni-girls-eat-books]

Thursday, November 16th

8:30am I have one more big assignment and two more small assignments. It feels impossible and I'm so tired. All I want to do is call my best friend but he won't answer. Just have to do this myself again. I'm extremely strong and resilient and I can't believe I made it to this point.

3:30pm I survived Verbal Defense! I did it! I am really proud of myself for everything I have survived this semester! It's raining really hard which is fucking up my vibe and shit but the rain will stop eventually! I'm like shaking from all the overflow of emotions. This semester took so much from me, out of me, really just beat me tf up. My life has been a trainwreck for so long. I just want peace. I just want to calm the persistent anxiety that's been propping me up for months. I just want to rest my mind. I'm literally shaking from the release of stress. Stress is so undeniable physical and just wrecks your body in so many ways. It's time to rest and heal. You've been through so much trauma the past few months and here you are, still alive, still strong. Don't ignore the trauma you experienced but it's time to heal and grow and begin another chapter, not ignoring the previous chapters, but building off of the lessons learned. We go on.

4pm Just remember that most people don't gaf what you do bro just don't hurt anyone and ur good. I just put fish sticks in the oven and popped open a mojito and I'm chilling until I change my mind and want to do something else.

4:20pm I feel like I can finally process what has happened to me. School put me in survival mode and now I'm free to heal. Yeah I'm crying when I should be feeling nothing but joy. I'm crying bc I didn't get the chance to when I was just trying to survive. I went through so much having my trust broken and my life ripped out from under me. I am traumatized but I'll heal. I know I will. This will pass and then I'll feel the joy of my success. It was all mine and all my hard work. I'm seriously proud of myself and I'll say it 1000x ❤️

4:40pm added image of my fish sticks bc it makes me happy that I'm feeding myself

5:00pm intrusive thoughts but wow I can't believe I didn't kll myself this semester I'm so proud :)

5:10pm I made green beans sauteed in the pan instead of the microwave 🥰 I love myself and I know I am worth so much and I know I can take care of myself when I'm not insanely stressed with school. I'll find myself again in no time ❤️ it's like a dark storm cloud has lifted from above my head

7:47pm I woke up from a nap and my stomach hurts lol I think I made the green beans too oily/buttery but it's ok! Haha. I need to clean out my fridge and get some me foods in here. I haven't gone grocery shopping in ages. Everything is probably freezer burnt tbh but that's ok! You were just trying your best ❤️

I have rented Silence of the Lambs and I think I will take a Tums and have some Sprite and some ice cream and rest some more ❤️

9:25pm ok so I had a finish an assignment that nobody wanted to do so I took one for the team and did it 💕 the Tums helped tremendously and now it's movie time :) I'm glad I don't feel like I'm about to shit myself anymore so that actually worked out 😂

9:49pm physical feelings/ sensations have such a profound impact on my mental status. Seeing something gross or feeling physical pain just send me into a spiral. I would like to know how to work on this more. I think the best thing to do for now is to focus on what I can control in my surroundings.

1am lol ok I ended up not watching the movie and that's ok! MasterChef marathon ftw. Got both my little boys laying on the couch with me ❤️

Woke up and I started thinking about being in a relationship and about him or whatever but I'm not really sad. I think I'm asexual or like really minimally sexual. Idk what it is but like I enjoy people for so much more than sex? Like I want to have a connection with you first and then that will follow. Idk how people just be out here jumping and dumping 😂 it's just a waste of time for me. Long story short, I'm not seeking out another relationship rn so it's hard for me to even feel sexual really. Maybe it's a trauma thing or a stress thing, I really don't know. I do know I can't be the only one who feels this way and that's ok ❤️

2am I think I have autism and yeah I mean I thought of it before but then it's like 🤷‍♀️ ok and? And yeah I just think it explains a lot of things about me. But it's like I don't know what to do with that information lol.

[bahamutgames]

SAGE 2023 Postin'

Yay!! SAGE 2023 has started! Last year I didn't make the time to play much of anything despite having a year to do it lmao, and that really bummed me out so I really wanted to get ahead of the curve and go ahead and play some stuff! Idk how much I'll play from this year's showing cause there's a LOT of great stuff! But I'll make however many posts it takes. Here's what I played tonight that I think YOU should check out!!

Dotty Game - by Wootinaboot

A game from a friend of mine! This is a SUPER cute Megaman like where you play as an ADORABLE little bug and blast mushrooms! This demo is really neat cause it's actually a gameboy file that I had to play through emulator! Although, you can just play it in browser on their itch so that's nice too! Controls are tight, sprites are great, music is REALLY nice and I was surprised by how challenging it could get with some of the bosses. There's also a LOT of hidden stuff to find so be sure to play it all the way through! You do NOT want to miss the special surprise let me tell you!

The Wingless Bee - by Ryansil

Another game from a friend and famously, the creator of Pac-Man as you all know. This game I was not expecting at all, it's actually very similar to Frogger! Though it is kind of gloomy and sad. But it's cool and the demo really shows some neat stuff like perspective changes and boss fights. It's simple but I genuinely had an out loud "AHA!" moment when I figured out how to fight the boss. Cool stuff!

Sonic McOrigins Plus - by Difgue

FINALLY, GAMING IS GOOD AGAIN! I have SO MUCH nostalgia for these old Sonic McDonald's toys! I tried to collect all of them but obviously couldn't (I didn't even realize there were SO many!) But I can relive wonderful memories of Shadow Grinding, Shadow vs Omega Hockey, AiAi Banana Catcher, Amy and Rouge Tennis ect ect. I knew there were efforts to archive these types of game & watch styled games but I hadn't really tried any before myself. This feels great and even works great on my dinky phone!

F-ZERO POCKET - by Linky493

This was such a neat one! F-ZERO on Gameboy Color! It has a TON of characters and tracks, I was actually seriously shocked by how much was in here. It's a little difficult to play though but weirdly enough I feel like that's authentic to how a GBC F-ZERO would be. If you're a fan you gotta check it out the novelty of this one alone is so good!

Toree Saturn - by Siactro

Probably the least surprising thing I've ever said by this point: I love Toree! I've played the whole series and I think at this point I've S ranked every stage in the series??? Maybe? It's been a bit since I looked. So of course I had to try Toree Saturn! I hadn't seen gameplay prior to playing this so I figured it was just gonna be another level pack. But to my delight, no! It's actually a Toree Sequel! A brand new game! New models, new moves and mechanics! Now I am BEYOND excited for this game! I still have to play Kiwi 64 but it looks amazing and Siactro hasn't missed once yet. This was a lovely surprise!

Dono's Tale - by Super Item Studios

WOW! WOW WOW WOW! This one absolutely blew me away! I've had my eye on this game for a bit (I'm so sorry I missed the kickstarter, y'all, I WISH I HAD MORE MONEY I'D FUND SO MANY INDIE GAMES!) But I finally got to try it with this demo and just WOW! This game is SO good! Absolutely GORGEOUS artwork that looks so authentically SNES it's amazing. Super cute music and designs, this was an absolute treat! My favorite powers were fire + wings! I wish you had more use for the other powers, though I do assume a full game will have levels soley based around each of Dono's abilities. This game rules!

Bub's Big Blowout - by Miles' Games

DUDE THIS GAME LOOKS REAL!? FAN GAMES JUST STRAIGHT UP LOOK LIKE OFFICIAL GAMES NOWADAYS THIS IS NUTS!! Bub's Big Blowout is a 3D Platformer translation of Bubble Bobble and honestly, it rules! I genuinely think Taito should give them the resources they need to make this a real game cause this is SO high quality and it's just the demo! I don't even think the game is done. This seriously looks and feels amazing! Only issue is I couldn't get my controller to work with it, but if it did I think this would feel almost 100% official

Sonic Battle Rush - by FreeGilio

A 2D Sonic Fighter? Using Sonic Battle Sprites? And Shadow has a Mephiles alt? YES YES YES!! A 2D Sonic Fighting Game is basically one of my dream games, but surprisingly I haven't tried any of the dozen fan attempts at the concept... Until today! This demo only features Sonic and Shadow and 3 stages, but it absolutely RULES! Both characters feel fantastic and unique and have fully fleshed out movesets! I was even able to string together some goofy little combos by myself and overall it felt super satisfying to play. Also there's a ton of modes and even ways to loadout your characters such as having 2 at once or taking turns. So the demo has lots to do! I'll absolutely be keeping up with this game going forward!

---

Today I just played some stuff that caught my eye from the SAGE 2023 trailer but I will try to play some more stuff as the year goes along! So if you have anything you think I'd like or if YOU submitted anything to Sage that you want me to look at just cause you want people to see your game? Why not, send that to me too!

There's so many amazing indie games it's genuinely hard to keep up with all of them. But SAGE is seriously becoming my favorite place to just discover new stuff or finally get to try things I'm excited for! Again I'm bummed it just kinda slipped my mind to try anything from last year but already we're not repeating that mistake. I encourage you to go try some stuff too if you have the time! Or at least just take a look at what's available! Everyone put in a LOT of hard work on these games!

[thearchivistsjournal]

Day 276,

Now the mists are out.  Going to try to get back to the house before they get too thick.  I left the blanket there and I’d rather not go through tonight without it.

*******

Well, I was going to spend the day doing more analysis on the copy of Iole’s book, but wound up spending the past few hours sitting on the porch giant-watching.  I just so happened to glance out the window and see one - a bulking, lumbering hexapod - in the distance so I put down the book for what I meant to just be a few minutes.  And then once it had passed on to wherever those things go I told myself that I’d wait around “just a little bit more” to see if another showed up.  It’s funny, I find the sight of the giants - and to a lesser extent, the mists themselves so long as I’m not stuck out in them - to be oddly calming while simultaneously getting the impression stuck in the back of my mind that I should be having the opposite reaction.  

Staring out into the white as the world is rendered faded and indistinct, it’s easy to let my mind drift.  A drifting mind is distinct from a wandering one.  When you let your mind wander, it finds things and stops to pick them up and examine them.  Or runs into them, or trips over them, or gets snagged on them.  Sometimes the things are good; fond memories, old jokes, interesting questions, moments of inspiration, suddenly realized connections.  Other times they are things you’d rather do without; buried traumas, suppressed fears, unfortunate implications, spikes of doubt, dreadfully dawning understandings.  Either kind of thing can lead the wandering mind down paths, twisting, and turning, and linking to yet more things.  Sometimes those paths turn into spiraling loops and you find yourself returning to the same points over and over until you’re jarred back to the material present by some external influence.

When you let your mind drift, it may pass by those things, those thoughts, and may even brush against them as one might idly trail a hand along the edge of a table, but it doesn’t stop to give them focus.  At most the mind adrift might pause for an instant to take note for later, but in the moment it floats free, simply experiencing and being.  Little joy is ever gained from from such drifting beyond a sense of calm that may linger for a time after, but by the same token little sorrow is ever found beyond a regret after the fact for time lost.

That digression aside, I did eventually see a second giant.  Serpentine and trailing ribbon-like appendages as it floated through the sky.  Or perhaps they were spindly legs connecting it to the ground.  It brought to mind another time sitting out on the porch giant-watching.  It was the first real conversation I ever had with Maiko.  I think that brought me down from my drifting reverie more than the sight of the giant itself.  I wonder, was it the same creature we saw that day, or just another of its kind?  Assuming the visions of giants in the mists are truly even creatures at all.  

Looking back, I wonder if some subconscious thought of Maiko was what kept me out there so long.  Some faint hope born of first impressions, associations, and stretched logic that with the mists she’d show up on my doorstep once again, safe and sound.

I’m not totally alone tonight though.  The nature sprite’s been haunting me again ever since I came back inside, constantly hovering just at the edge of my peripheral vision.  Now there’s a prime example of emotional reactions not always aligning with what I think they ought to be.  While I’ll admit I did, jump (and perhaps even exclaim) when I first noticed it, at this point I can’t seem to decide if I’m comforted by its presence and the old routine of benign pranks or still mad at it for… well, you know.  Either way, these days I can’t properly seem to really fear it the way I know I should, have in the past, and probably will again at some point in the future.

Maybe the thing to do with it really is to just treat its behavior more like natural phenomena than the intentioned actions of a person.  Analogous to the weather.  You’ve got the days like now that are calm but a little overcast, you’ve got the terrifying storms that threaten to blow you away or strike you down, and you’ve got the bright and sunny days with a cool breeze at your side.  And, rarely, you have those moments of blessed rain healing a drought and helping you put aside your cares and sleep with the soft steady rhythm of the droplets.

Terrible, terrible advice for dealing with human relationships, but how else does one stay sane when haunted by something so very not human?

I wonder what it thinks of my fitful, thrashing sleep on these nights?  There have been times that it’s tried to comfort me, so why never for the nightmares?

<==Previous          Next==>

[megamanrequests]

Very tiny robot boys, because you can’t go wrong with tiny robot boys.

EDIT: I also came across these two losers.

[wannabeschyulersister]

love bite

warnings: some spoilers and a lil suggestiveness at the end. 

gif is not mine. credit to owner. 

Sersi was the one that noticed it first. 

“(Y/n), did you hurt yourself?” She asked as she examined the small mark on the right side of your neck. 

“What? No, why?” 

“You have something right here.” Sersi pointed. 

You set your empty coffee mug down and grabbed your phone, turning the camera on and looking at what she was referring to. 

It was a huge love bite. 

That damn Druig! 

“Oh, I uh, I burned myself with my curling iron.” You lied. It wasn’t very original but it was the first thing that popped into your head. 

Sprite, who had been witnessing this whole encounter while eating her cereal, decided to chime in, “Your hair isn’t even curly.” 

You narrowed your eyes at her in annoyance, “Thanks for that, Sprite.” 

“Are you sure you’re okay?” Sersi was always the motherly type when it came to you and Sprite even though technically Sersi was a little bit older than you. 

“I’m fine. I promise.” You poured coffee into your mug and hurried out of the room before Sersi could ask you any more questions. You went into your bedroom where your sleeping lover was still sprawled out on your bed. 

If it were any other day, you would let him rest. Instead of being the nice girlfriend you normally were, you set your mug down on your nightstand, grabbed your pillow and whacked him on the head. 

“Wake up!” 

Druig groaned, “Why’d you just hit me?” 

“Because you left a mark on my neck last night, jerk!” You hit him again and he sat up to look at you. 

Druig rubbed the sleep from his eyes before he focused. He started smirking, “Wow, that’s a hell of a mark.” 

  You threw the pillow at him which he dodged so gracefully, “Why would you do that?!” 

“I don’t seem to remember you having any problem with it last night.” 

“I wasn’t in my right state of mind!” 

Druig got on his knees and moved to the edge of the bed where you were. He grabbed the middle of your shirt (well, it was actually his) and pulled you to him, “So, you’re saying I put you in a trance?” 

You slapped his bare chest playfully, “I’m so glad that you think this is funny. Sprite is never going to let me live this down.” 

Druig wrapped his arms around you, “You gotta admit that it is a little funny,” he chuckled, “I am sorry. I didn’t realize that I left this mark on your neck.” He rubbed the spot with his thumb lightly. 

You felt like your knees suddenly turned to jelly. The impact that man had on you was something that others wished they could experience. You were so lucky as was he. 

“I’m going to have to try and cover it up before the others come. I’m sure Sprite might spill the beans about it though so why bother, right?” The other members of the Eternals were planning on meeting at the apartment in London that you shared with Sersi and Sprite. It was sort of going to be a meeting of what’s next. There was a lot up in the air after the events that occurred on the beach not too long ago. 

It was the first time since everyone had split apart in the first place that no one knew what was going to happen. 

“I kinda like the idea that everyone is going to see it.” 

“Why?” 

“Because then everyone will know you are mine.” Druig winked at you. 

“Everyone already knows that. Even when we were separated all those years, they all knew who my heart belonged to.” You touched his cheek and he kissed the palm of your hand. 

“My heart belongs to you as well, love.” Druig said before capturing your lips with his. All of the anger that you had seemed to drift away. 

Druig’s lips left yours and immediately went back to the love bite. Before you could scold him, he kissed the mark lightly before kissing you again. 

“We should probably get ready for the day.” You said before things could get heated like the night before. 

“I’d much rather stay here a little longer.” Druig whispered into your ear before kissing the spot beneath it lightly. 

You knew that you didn’t have much time before you were completely under his spell. He didn’t need to use mind control to get you do what he wanted. 

“Druig….” You couldn’t even finish your sentence. His name came out of your mouth breathy and he smirked. 

“Don’t you think that we have a lot of time to make up for, my love?” 

You nodded as his hands slipped underneath your shirt and up your back, “Yeah, I uh, I think we do.” It was hard to try and formulate a sentence in that moment. 

“I can think of a few areas on your body that need some attention and also a love bite.” 

[bugboysgf]

Ramble

Warning: language.

Summary: when you first meet fez you're shy but the second time you talk too much. (i'm really bad at summaries sorry)

When you first met fez you were coming back from a class that you were taking at a community college for high school, on your way there you decided to stop at fez’s store. You walked right into the store and grabbed a bag of red vines and a sprite. You didn't pay attention to the cashier until you walked up to him. When you look at him for the first time you became really shy. You knew who fez was of course but you never saw him in person, the only time you saw him was when rue showed you a picture of him, the first thing you noticed was how fine he was.

“Just this?” he asked.

“Yup.” you handed him the money waiting for the change. He gave you the change and looked you in the eye more one time.

“Ain't you the one on Rue’s lock screen.” he said pointing at you.

“Oh yeah that's me” you smiled shyly.

“Why i never see you around here?” he asked

“Oh i don't know i don't come around here much.”you shrugged. Suddenly your phone dings, you look at your phone to see who text you. It was Rue telling you to come over. “umm .. I have to go, have a good day though.”

“Yea you too.” —

You couldn't stop thinking about fez, even when you were with rue you just couldn't stop thinking about him.

“What's wrong with you?” rue asked. You snapped out of your thoughts to look at her.

“What do you mean?”

“You're acting all weird and you keep spacing out.”

“Why didn't you ever tell me about fez.” you blurted out.

“I did tell you about him, what are you talking about?” rue asked, confused.

“I mean like how good looking he is, in the pictures he didn't look that good.”

“You went by the store or something today?” you nodded your head. “You didn't get all shy when you saw him right?”

“Rue come on you already know, i did.”

“I know,” she smirked. “You want me to set you up with him.”

“Fuck no rue.”

“Why?” she whined. “You guys would be good together.”

“I can't even talk to him without getting shy. Plus I just meant him.”

“You're going to the party tomorrow right?”

“ It's not like I have a choice, you and Jules are going to drag me there anyways.” you rolled your eyes.

Next day

You cant believe you decided to go to this stupid party iin the first place. Rue left you to go with Jules and now you're alone sitting on the couch looking for books to buy on amazon. You already had 3 in your cart.

You were too busy on your phone to notice that somebody just sat at the other end of the couch.

“Hey” you look up at the other end of the couch and notice fez sitting right next to you.

“Oh hi.” you smiled.

“You were kinda space out whatchu lookin at?”

“I'm looking for books to buy.”

“Is reading like your hobby or something?”

“I guess so” you shrugged your shoulders. “I usually do it to disconnect from the world.”

“What you mean?” he turned his whole body to face you, he was interested in what you were saying.

“When I'm reading I feel so detached to this world, it's like I'm actually the main character for some reason I always imagine myself as the main character. I can like feel their emotions and shit, especially when I'm reading romance books. You know I read this article once that said the reason why people read romance books is because 79% i have never been in love and want to know what it feels like and thats why people get so attached to the love interest in the book. Like this one- shit I'm rambling, sorry I always do that.” you suddenly become shy.

 ‘Why do i always do that, he probably thinks i'm weird now.’ I thought to myself

“No you good.” he looked at you before speaking again. “You might wanna hang out sometime or something.

“Yea sure.”

“We should exchange numbers.” you nodded your head and handed him your phone. When he gave you the phone back, you looked at the contact for a second and smiled.

“Hey!” you look up to see kat. “Sorry to bother you but I need you to help me look for Rue, Jules can't find her.”

“Okay. umm.. See you later, fez.”

“Bye y/n.”

Wait, how does he know my name? Rue must have told him.

let me know if you want a part two. I also take request :)

[sapphirewolf100]

Hhhhhhh

[punkgrogg]

Doorway Duo pt.3

Pairing: Hybrid!Taehyung x Reader, Hybrid!Jungkook x Reader

Genre: Hybrid!BTS, Non idol AU, fluff

Warnings: Pregnancy

Summary: Y/n was abandoned by her long time boyfriend and moves back home to help prepare for the baby. She’s surprised to find two unfamiliar hybrids at her house.

Length: 3,074

Notes: Sorry I took so long! I had to split this update into several parts because I ended up typing out over 6,000 words so another part will be posted in a couple days hopefully I can fix my laptop by then.

Date Posted: 9/4/2021

“Share the heat,” Hoseok complained, tugging the blanket from my cocooned form.

October ‘s days were chilly but as soon as the sun set, it was freezing. I was propped up on the couch, surrounded by pillows and a king sized blanket tucked around me. Mom sat on the recliner to my left, the reason behind my assortment of pillows, and Hoseok was shoving his way into the occupied seat on my right. Well, my legs were occupying it.

“There’s a while couch right there ass hat.” I whined as he lifted my legs and placed them on his lap. This wasn’t so bad- he was warm- but the sibling bond between us made sure to complain.

“I don’t want to sit next to dad, he’s way too excited over the game.” Hobi pulled out his phone and scrolled aimlessly.

“When’s Namjoon gonna be here? His team is kicking ass.`` Dad was lively when it came to soccer. It was cute though and I loved how animated he’d get with each goal. But the kicker is that he and Namjoon rooted for other teams. Hobi, Jin, and I all sided with dad on the sports front but Joonie picked a shitty team that’s been coming up in the last couple of years. Maybe the heart attack he nearly gave dad ten years ago was worth it- if the pride in my dad’s eyes were anything to go by.

Joonie was our wild card, he seemed to pick the most difficult path just because he liked the challenge. He’d always do the opposite of what we expected, whether it was the sudden law school decision or boycotting Christmas one year. But today was probably the most surprising.

Jungkook apparently wasn’t a sports fan until this season started, my dad’s enthusiasm rubbed off onto him and now it was funny to see him white-knuckling a sprite over a bad call. Taehyung was taking a nap upstairs and mom was idly reading some seedy romance novel if the blush on her face was anything to go by. Well it was probably the shirtless man emblazoned on the cover that truly gave it away.

Hobi sighed and tossed his phone over onto the side table, he closed his eyes and melodramatically threw his arm over his face as he rested against the back of the loveseat. I rolled my eyes, “what’s it now buttercup?”

He huffed at my nickname, “Jimin isn’t responding.” He dropped his arm to pout at me as if I could help the situation at all.

“You know he’s probably working right now?” I nudged his arm with one of my feet.

His pout turned into a full blown frown as he made puppy eyes at me. “Yeah but that doesn’t mean i can’t miss him.”

“OH, so you’re going to finally admit that you’re dating him?” The delighted smile that ripped it’s way across my face made the frown completely fall off of his.

“Oh shit.”

His shock made me full bellied laugh, “Mom! Hobi finally sa-”

“Shut up! You tricked me!” he hissed as he covered my mouth, I smiled evilly as I licked the back of his hand to deter him.

“The baby.” Jungkook snapped, ripping Hobi's hand off my face. How did he manage to get across the room so quickly? Beyond me. There was a cloudy sort of anger in his face, one where he knew he shouldn’t be angry but couldn’t help it.

“Kookie, I'm fine.” I reached up to hold his wrist as he let go of Hobi's hand. He looked down on me tersely, his eyes colder than usual.

“Hoseok, how many times do your mother and I have to say to be gentler with your sister? You two are honestly getting too old for this.” Dad scolded, his hand on Hobi’s shoulder. I could see him curling into himself and suddenly I felt small.

“Dad, I'm okay, Hoseok and I were just playing. You know he’d never hurt me or the baby.`` I let go of Jungkook's wrist and tried to sit myself up more. It was hard this late into the pregnancy.

“You need to be more careful too, you’re way too rowdy these days.” he chastised me and I could feel the anger at being talked down to. I’m not a child anymore.

“No, this is my baby and my body, I get to decide when it’s too rowdy. We weren’t wrestling or fighting and I could easily breathe. We were doing nothing wrong, why are you acting like this?” My tone was cold and I forced myself up into a standing position. Jungkook stepped away from the couch so i could have enough room.

“y/n baby, you know i didn’t mean to hurt your feelings-” i cut him off; i was fuming.

“Well you did. You basically said that either my big brother is going to hurt me or that I'm incapable of judging how much energy I can exert. We’re all adults in this room, why did you two have to intervene?” my glare turned to Jungkook, he hardened his gaze.

“The baby’s hormones are-”

“No more baby excuses,” I cut him off. “I know he’s fine, he’s twisting and kicking just as he’s always been.”

“The baby’s hormones are-”

“Stop Jungkook.” I held up a hand, the anger bubbling up to the surface. I needed to cool down before I lashed out. I could feel the heat coursing through my arms and filling my chest.

“No, Y/n he’s right I didn't notice it till you stood up but the baby’s hormones have gotten really strong all of a sudden.” Hoseok chimed in. still seated, he reached out and touched my stomach. Mom crossed the room and shoved her way through Jungkook and dad to kneel in front of my stomach, accessing my state.

“What? What does that mean?” I cradled my bump, the fear seeping into my words. He felt normal there, my doctor told me if anything were to feel wrong then to trust my instincts and immediately go to the hospital. But this was different, nothing felt wrong.

Taehyung thundered down the stairs, “Y/n? What’s going on down here? I can smell the stress from upstairs,” he took a backseat to the worry on my mind.

“Is something wrong with him? Nothing feels wrong.” I turned to Jungkook, the worry overpowering the shame of the argument we had just had. He was the first to notice so maybe he knew what was wrong.

“I was wrong, holy shit, we should make a doctor’s appointment.” Hoseok suddenly exclaimed, he jumped up and held me at arms length by the shoulders. He looked down to my stomach with a shocked expression.

“Honey, get the keys we’re going to the hospital.” mom barked out. I didn’t even notice her leaving the huddle but she was back at the recliner as she tugged on some tennis shoes.

“No! It's okay! The pheromones are showing that she’s okay too.” Jungkook finally spoke up, he threw an arm around me and pointed at the baby.

“She?” The confusion in my father’s voice was only a mirror to the rest of the room.

“Yeah, the pheromones got so strong because there’s two.” Hobi explained as he crossed the room and relieved mom of her purse. He placed a calming hand on her shoulders. Shoulders that seemed to be leveled with her ears with the abrupt stress.

“You mean twins? It's a bit late to find that out don’t you think?” she all but hissed at her third son. Mom was visibly anxious right now, something I had never seen before. She was usually so calm and cheerful around us.

“Mom, you’ve said it yourself, y/n is bigger than most pregnancies.”

“I mean yeah but we’ve gone to the doctor twenty times over the summer and I think he’d find another baby in there.” I chimed in, coming to mom’s other side. I think it helped with calming her down because her shoulders lowered a bit.

“I can smell both, I can smell her all of a sudden alongside him.” Taehyung wrapped his arms around me, his head burrowing into my shoulder. His grip on me was tighter than usual.

“But Tae that doesn’t make sense.” I turned in his grasp, facing the snow leopard hybrid, my disbelief written across my face.

“He’s had a very strong scent and a very strong heartbeat, maybe he just masked hers.” Jungkook stepped into my bubble once again. He was on the other side of Tae but seemed to block off any others from joining in the clique.

“But the ultrasounds only show one baby.” I reasoned out, my right hand reaching behind me to rest on my mother’s shoulder. Accepting there was a second was terrifying, I was barely holding myself together for the one pregnancy. Adding on another? Was I eating enough? Taking enough precautions? Maybe dad was right in intervening today.

“Back in the day they couldn’t find Seokjin’s penis and told us we’d be having a girl. It was a bit of a shock when he came out.” Dad. Of course, I've heard this story before, ultrasounds weren’t always perfect.

“What should i do?” I was scared and it was evident in the shake of my voice, Taehyung only hugged me harder.

“Hey guys, what's going on here?” Namjoon’s voice shattered the tension of the room. Seeing him and the dark haired male next to him gave me a chance to breathe.

Hoseok flitted across the room, his excitement at seeing our older brother evident in the wagging of his feather duster of a tail. “Joon, you're going to be an aunt and an uncle.”

“What?”

“Hobi that’s not how it works and you know it.” Mom chastised with a small shake of her head. Hoseok was a blessing to us all when tensions were high. “Who’s this?”

Namjoon seemed to freeze up a bit before throwing an arm around the guy hovering behind him a bit. Said man flushed lightly at the attention turning to him and in the soft light of the living room I could barely make out a pair of silky black ears atop his head. “This is Min Yoongi, he’s my boyfriend.”

“Boyfriend?” I sputtered out, breaking the moment of silence that enveloped the living room. I could see dad from my peripheral making his way to the doorway with a smile.

“Yeah, problem?” Joonie’s eyes were narrowed at me but eased up at the grin I was sporting.

Pulling away from Taehyung a bit, I sneered at Hobi. “Hoseok- he told us about his boyfriend before you could. How does that feel?”

Hoseok groaned before stomping over to me to grind out: “Oh my god you're annoying and technically i said it first.”

“But you didn’t tell mom and dad.” I taunted, the faux misery on my brother’s face would fuel me for months. Taehyung sat on the loveseat behind him and tugged at the hem of my shirt for me to join him.

“They’ve met Jimin before though and according to you i’m not subtle.” Hobi argued, his hand on his hip. Jungkook followed Tae and I down to the seat and I was wedged between the two with my legs in Kook’s lap. He gently rubbed circles into my swollen ankles as Hobi and I glared at each other.

“Anyway, what's this about me being an aunt now?” Joonie interrupted the stare down with Yoongi by his side, our parents must have finally let them out of their interrogation.

“These three are suddenly claiming I'm pregnant with twins.” I explained with a flick of my wrist, the stress of the situation (that was only a few minutes ago) seemed as if it were twelve years in the past.

“Um, I can smell two scents too.” Yoongi’s soft spoken words brought back the fear.

“Holy shit, mom! What am I supposed to do? Should we go to the hospital?” I tried to push myself up into a sitting position but Taehyung held me gently to his chest.

“The babies are happy, I don't think they’re in danger. “He hummed softly into my ear. I could feel the sincerity behind his words. He rubbed a hand up my arm gently and started to purr. An attempt to ease my anxiety.

“Danger or not- we still need to confirm if there are actually twins. That’s a nightmare in itself. That’s double of everything I was sort of ready for. Wait, what if I give birth prematurely- don’t twins come early?” there was panic rising in my chest.

“Mom and Dad went to their room, they’re recovering from the unexpected news but Y/n it’s going to be okay. We’ll go to the doctor’s tomorrow, together,” Hoseok reminded me, he softly ruffled my hair as he leaned down to kiss the top of my forehead. Still I looked around the room for my mother. The one who holds all the answers to my pregnancy fears. Namjoon, Hoseok, and Yoongi, all stood above us three, all showing a different expression. Namjoon looked apprehensive, which was normal for him. Hoseok looked as if he were trying to tame a wild animal. Yoongi thought he looked stunned, his eyes blown wide.

“Hobi you’re banned from my ultrasound appointments. You almost broke the equipment.” I reminded him with a forced smile. I could still feel the panic but it was ebbing away. I wasn’t dying, I was safe. The babies were safe. Everything will be okay.

“That’s so rude, I apologized and everything.” he crossed his arms, generously taking the bait. Knowing that Joonie would laugh at his expense.

“We’ll go with you, we haven’t been able to go since Hoseok has been.” Taehyung declared, way too happy for me to decline, and I smiled softly at him. I was held up against his torso, his head just a few inches above my own. He leaned down and rubbed his forehead against my own.

“You’re going to scent mark my sister in front of me?” Namjoon sputtered indignantly, causing Tae to freeze all of a sudden.

“Namjoon, that’s not scent marking.” Hoseok laughed and shoved at his shoulder playfully.

“Actually, we feline hybrids scent mark like that instead of that mess you canine hybrids do. I scent marked Namjoon earlier in the same way.” Yoongi crossed his arms and seemed to glare down at Tae. I was a bit shocked to say the least.

Hoseok had explained it to me when we were younger, scent marking was a hybrid instinct, and it had two different connotations. There was a familial way and a romantic way to cover another person in their pheromones. Hoseok would hug us and hold our hands growing up to rub just enough of himself on us to comfort himself that we were his family. Especially when we were younger and playing with larger groups of children or when there was a big event. The familial way would only last a few hours and was more of a comforting thing for family and very close friends to help with bonding.

Hoseok had explained the more romantic way was to imbue another’s scent for a much longer time and it was done by stimulation to the scent glands which meant that they would lick each other’s scent glands. He had been tomato red explaining this to me when he had found another hybrid’s scent on me that was much stronger than his own. When I explained that I was just playing with a hybrid at recess and they hugged me he seemed to melt into the floor in embarrassment.

Taehyung was staring up at Namjoon with an indecipherable expression. The massage on my ankles had stopped at Namjoon's exclamation and my glance at Jungkook showed him to be in the same emotionless stare down but instead he was staring down Yoongi. He knew too, but why hadn’t he told me?

“She’s part of our pack, of course I would scent her.” Taehyung had no emotions in his words, the monotonous response seemed to aggravate my brother.

“Wait,” I held my hand up to the seething man before turning to his boyfriend. “I’m confused. Hobi said that licking my neck would be romantic scent marking and hugging was familial scent marking. Which would this be?”

My question caused all four hybrids to freeze up, Hobi’s face once again lighting up in embarrassment.

“Uh, he said that? Well, uh, that’s wrong.” Yoongi forced out, his face turning a light shade of pink.

“Hybrids themselves decide what the type of scent marking it is when they release the pheromones, and there’s a lot of different meanings that could exist. Typically a more familial scenting would be a hug- so that part is right- but also kissing the top of your head could work. Licking your scent glands isn’t a romantic way for scent marking, it’s more sexual.” Yoongi's face almost matched Hoseok’s at this point. “Romantically speaking there’s a lot of ways you can scent someone- like rubbing your necks against each other which is common amongst the canine hybrids. For us feline hybrids we rub our faces against the person, like he had done to you. The pheromones typically let us know, but he’s not releasing heavy enough pheromones for us other hybrids to notice, but rubbing his face against yours is claiming you as his in feline standards.”

“Oh,” I could feel the hybrid underneath me tense up as Yoongi's explanation came to an end. I glanced up at him to see him still staring down my brothers.

“I’m still a little confused but thank you Yoongi. Namjoon, Hoseok, I’ll take it from here, I don't need you hovering over us for this conversation. In fact, I think I'll take this conversation elsewhere, you three have fun watching the game. Joonie, dad recorded this and last week’s matches for you.” I worked my way into a standing position with Taehyung’s help and made my way to the stairs, both Taehyung and Jungkook glued to my sides.

“It was really nice meeting you Yoongi,” I smiled at him and waved my goodbyes as I made my way up. We made our way into my room, the two hovering in the doorway. Just like I had met them. I took a deep breath and settled onto the bed.