#Sublimation Hack

[meelsport]

Another happy customer! I love it!

[bulkmockify]

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[designmindsstudio]

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[subliprintpalace]

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[vadapega]

My screen's been looking like this for the past Month, help.

[itadoraki]

The Cook of Dreams.

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Night Raven Colle Leaders x R.femele

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She's not only good in the kitchen - she's an artist. Transforming random ingredients into irresistible delights, she exudes charm and passion when cooking, as if each dish were a declaration of love. She spins knives gracefully, tries sauces with a finger on her lips and smiles with that sensual confidence of someone who knows she will conquer by the stomach... and by the heart.

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.

.

Riddle Rosehearts (Heartslabyul)

You showed up in the dormitory with a strawberry pie so perfect that even Heartslabyul's rules trembled.

Riddle, when tasting the first bite, is silent. The second makes him close his eyes. In the third, he is visibly excited.

"This... this is better than the royal afternoon tea!"

You, with a provocative smile:

"I made it especially for you, my little red-hearted king."

Riddle shes to the soul.

"You... have no idea of the power you have when you enter this kitchen... and in my heart."

⸻ ———————————

Leona Kingscholar (Savanaclaw)

You enter the dormitory with a pot of spicy curry that could revive a dead lion. In a few minutes, the smell takes over the environment.

Leona appears, sleepy and grumpy, but stops at the door with her ears standing up.

"Is this... curry? With smoked meat, nutmeg and... tamarindo? How did you get this here?"

"Culinary magic, my king of laziness."

He pulls you by the waist:

"You may be dangerous... but you're the only person for whom I would get out of bed to eat... and maybe for something else."

⸻ ———————————

Ashengrotto Blue (Octavinelle)

You prepared a feast only with seafood ingredients - grilled octopus with citrus seasoning, seaweed dumplings and a secret sauce that would make anyone addicted.

Azul looks at you with an enchanted look.

"You... could easily command the Monster Lounge."

You lean over, whispering:

"I prefer to be your exclusive chef. Feed you... and provoke you with every bite."

He clears his throat, but it's clearly melting inside.

"You conquered me with flavors... and dominated me with intentions."

⸻ ———————————

Vil Schoenheit (Pomefiore)

You prepared a complete gluten-free, lactose-free, and still delicious meal - including an avocado dessert with dark chocolate and edible flowers.

Vil proves with delicacy. Stop. Face you.

"It's... sublime."

You, proud:

"Beauty begins from the inside, doesn't it, my prince?"

He smiles:

"And you... is the definition of aesthetic perfection, inside and out. If you want, I can become your main course tonight."

⸻ ———————————

Idia Shroud (Ignihyde)

You improvised a ramen with homemade broth, cured egg and chashu made with meat from a forgotten kitchen of Night Raven College.

Idia smells, tastes... and paralyzes.

"I-That... it's better than any dish in the 2D world! You... are you a legendary NPC?!”

You laugh:

"No, I'm your private chef, otaku of my heart."

He hides behind the tablet, blue-pink hair on fire.

"Be careful... with this kind of seduction... you'll end up hacking my sanity."

⸻ ———————————

Malleus Draconia (Diasomnia)

You took a black tea cake with lavender petals and a mysterious liquor made by you. When Malleus tastes it, his gaze lights up with real surprise.

"This feeling... is like savoring an old dream that I had forgotten."

You smile, leaning over the table:

"Do you want me to teach you how to do it? Or do you prefer me to cook just for you... every night?"

He holds your hand, serious and charming:

"You don't need to conquer me with food... but know that with every bite... I feel more yours."

⸻ ———————————

Kalim Al-Asim

You surprise him with a sweet and spicy curry, full of spices and delicate details.

“This looks like... something my family would do!”

“I wanted to remind you of home... and show you that I can cook better than all the chefs in your palace.”

Kalim hugs you with euphoria:

“You’re perfect! Marry me! Now! Today! I can give you a golden kitchen if you want!”

—————————————————————————

[quitealotofsodapop]

This idea would probably be for soft Boiled and slow boiled, basically any au where Wukong is MK's teacher and not his sibling or parent. Kaiju forms.

I personally headcanon the kaiju forms and projections in the show (Mei's dragoon and Macaque's giant war form) are more... projections of one's soul/true self. So... for those who are not aware, Wukong does canonically have one on the book. It's a giant limbed monkey and with multiple heads and arms. It so is canonically so terrifying that it had frightened both his enemies and his own people so badly he had been utterly heartbroken by the event.

Sometime between s4 and s5, Wukong is working with MK to help him get used to his new monkey form and trying to help him control it. The kaiju form MK took dueint the battle with Azure comes up and MK asks about it. When Wukong explains what it was, MK gets super excited to learn and wants Wukong to teach him except...

Wukong: Sorry kid, I can't teach you how to control your kaiju. You'd actually be better off asking either Mei or, ugh, Macaque!

MK: WHAT!? Why not!?

Yesss

Wukong canonically does not like his War/Kaiju Form.

The clearest idea I could gt of how it might have looked was from a toy site, I imagine in LMK verse its lot more solid-coloured and vaguely shaped;

In Jttw he loses all interest in his victory against Heaven when his Kaiju Form scares his own people - and if we add in the Brotherhood, Macaque as well.

We discussed in dms how Wukong's anger under the mountain was likely a mixture of despair (they lost and couldn't save their bros from punishment), pain (fresh from the Furmace yo), and self-hatred.

This newly unlocked form of his - this manifestation of his inner self, was so terrifying that his own people, his allies, his own mate fled at the sight of it.

Macaque did "run off" that day, hence part of Wukong's anger. But afterwards, after the fight, Macaque had to admit to himself that while Wukong's kaiju-form was terrifying it had also been beautiful. Beautiful and sublime like a star going supernova.

Macaque's own Kaiju can be separated from him as a shadow of himself, but he's secretly ashamed of his reaction to Wukong's all those centuries ago. When he does let his Kaiju form take over his real body, it becomes primal, impulsive and brutally honest. Something that honestly helps with how quick he is to dodge confrontation.

Mei's (and by extension Ao Guang's) "dragons" are literal manifestations of what their true forms may be. Mei could have her own American-Dragon-style dragon form she could flaunt if she worked at it. That or the energy is literally Ao Lie's spirit coming in clutch as a power-up.

Ao Guang's dragon-energy meanwhile looks like his lego set colouration, suggesting homebody just a big lazy to waste his true massive form on them.

So when Wukong and the gang sees MK's own Kaiju/War-form for the first time during his fight with Azure....

Wukong is like "NOPE! Not my expertise!" cus he literally only used his War Form twice in the entirety of the book - the Battle of Flower Fruit Mountain, and when him and DBK had a Kaiju vs Kaiju battle together later in the Journey.

When MK prods him about it, Wukong becomes... kinda cold and closed off, telling MK that he's better off talking to Macaque about it.

Macaque is still barely in the "anti-hero" category, so MK is a little hesistant to ask him for help (especially since one of Macaque's teaching methods included a rom hack).

MK even tries going to DBK on the matter first, but the retired-demon king has a similar negative reaction. Seems that even he didn't like the Bull he became when him and Wukong truly fought. It's why he even refused to transform when he was under true duress from LBD or the Brotherhood.

DBK does give MK advice on what a "Kaiju/War form" is though. DBK's mind had been clouded with anger when he was a younger man, so his became a pure-white charging bull that destroyed all in it's path. Sun Wukong does not care for his War Form since it truly scares him to use.

MK thinks that impossible! Why would the Monkey King be afraid of his own super-cool power?

Until DBK asks him something important; "Aren't you afraid of yours?"

MK's complex over learning that he's a "Harbinger of Chaos" hits immediately, and he runs off to seek Macaque's guidance.

Macaque is amused, if not a little surprised that MK ultiamtely went to him for help with his Kaiju form.

MK: "Trust me bro, you're like my third choice. I can't ask Mei cus not even she knows how her's works." Macaque: "Eh. I'll take it. I am curious why yours is so much more taller than mine though."

Hint: it's a self worth thing Macaque developed whilst under the Brotherhood that he needed to "limit the space he took up", he's still working on that.

Some fun mentor-and-son-figure kaiju training occurs, and MK eventually asks a bombshell question;

MK: "Hey when Monkey King said you ran off, what did he mean?" Macaque, stiffens: "I didn't run from the celestial army if thats what you're wondering." MK, remembering what DBK said: "Were you afraid of Him?" Macaque, pauses and sighs: "At the time yes." MK: "At the time?" Macaque: "MK, in that moment, I hadn't known Wukong even had a War Form or even knew what they truly meant. All I saw was this... demon where my best friend once stood." MK: "OH... I mean... that sorta explains why you guys were fighting under the mountain." Macaque: "Yeah. You can see why I called him-" MK: "I mean, I wouldn't know how bad I'd feel if Mei ran away from me cus of my power up..." Macaque: "...what?" MK: "You ran away from your best friend. That's not cool. Scared or not, that was your buddy in there. And if he saw you running or I dunno shadow portal-ing away, I'd get why he was so salty when you popped up later with a peach like nothing had happened. From his view, he was going through something new and terrifying for him too and you abandoned him. Twice if you never came back to check in on him." Macaque: "... you're a smart kid MK. Way too smart for me." (*Macaque portals away to make a long overdue apology*)

Macaque himself seemed to be having a similar revelation when he saw the fight in 3rd person in the Memory Scroll. That his own reaction was more of a build-up of frustration from his treatment in the Brotherhood rather at Wukong specifically.

In Short; these bitches needed a relationship referee to call a yellow car when they tossed their unrelated anger at each other.

Bonus: I love the idea of Wukong's kaiju form being HUGE, and MK's being the medium between him and Macaque. Also, cuddly giant monkeys made of light and shadow.

[helix-enterprises117]

Spill the deets on Redux.

AN ACTUAL ASK AND ONE FROM A FREND!!!!!!!!!!

Okay. Here we go.

THE EPOCHS OF HUMANITY: A HISTORY OF FIRE AND RESURRECTION - In the lightless gulfs of Primordial Space, long before time was counted by men or stars bore names, a war raged beyond mortal comprehension. The Jjaro, an ancient precursor species—tall, godlike, and bearing the unmistakable genetic fingerprint of humanity—stood as the last defense against extinction. Once caretakers of the galaxy, the Jjaro faced annihilation by a parasitic intelligence: The Flood. The Flood consumed thought and identity, reduced civilizations to biomass, and mocked the very idea of free will. Desperate and outnumbered, the Jjaro forged a final solution: The Halo Arrays. Ringworlds. Planet-killers. Built not just to destroy the Flood's biomass, but to starve them of what they needed most—sentient hosts. The Halos were 2,000-kilometer-wide toroidal megastructures, lined with Forerunner-tier weaponry and the raw elegance of Stanford-Torus design, constructed in the silent ruins of forgotten solar systems. And when they fired... Life across the Milky Way died. The Jjaro vanished. The Flood were imprisoned. The galaxy was sterilized. But life... finds a way.

REIGNITION (6000 BC - 2552 AD) - Civilization sparked once more on Earth. Slowly, over millennia, life returned—flora, fauna, and eventually, mankind. But the memory of the Jjaro was lost. Technology, once sublime, was now myth. Humanity crawled back into the stars, this time not as heirs, but as wanderers. From 2070 to 2552, the Earth sphere was plunged into a century-long Interplanetary War. Superpowers, megacorporations, and rebellious colonies clashed across the void. Mars burned, Titan was glassed, and Europa floated with debris fields larger than continents. It was the crucible through which mankind was reforged. Only after this dark century did the factions unify. A new age dawned.

THE FORMATION OF THE UESC - Out of chaos rose The United Earth Star Coalition (UESC), a constitutional republic formed by Earth and her strongest colonies—Mars, Titan, Luna, and the orbital nations. The UESC wasn’t a government. It was a declaration: “We are united, we are armed, and we are done kneeling to tyranny.” The UESC’s navy became the most powerful military force in known human history. And for a time—there was peace.

THE PHFOR WAR (2553 - 10,019) - That peace shattered when humans encountered the Phfor. An alien coalition of scavengers and bio-engineered war-slaves, the Phfor roamed the galaxy pillaging old Jjaro vaults, seeking artifacts of power and secrets of immortality. They found humanity instead. What followed was seven thousand years of brutal, attritional warfare. Entire star systems were lost and reclaimed. Humanity, outgunned and outnumbered, began to reverse-engineer Phfor tech—warping it, hacking it, merging it with their own innovations. Starships became smarter. Soldiers became faster. Planets became fortresses. The war ended only when the UESC shattered the Phfor homeworld and drove the survivors into the edge of the galactic core. But the void abhors a vacuum.

THE RISE OF THE COVENANT - Out in the dark, the Shaan’Shyuum, self-proclaimed Prophets of Unity, rose from the ashes. They rallied the shattered remnants of the Phfor, bolstered them with new warrior species—Elites, Brutes, Jackals, Drones—and baptized the new alliance under one purpose: To find the Jjaro’s legacy. To awaken the gods. Thus began the Covenant War—a crusade unlike any other. Faster. Smarter. Religious. Where the Phfor wanted power, the Covenant wanted revelation. The UESC, desperate to stem the tide, turned to forbidden sciences: The Spartans – Genetically engineered from birth. Born on heavy-gravity colonies. Trained in war, discipline, and loyalty. The ultimate natural warriors. The Battleroids – Dead soldiers reborn in chrome and neural-gel. Human minds inside technological monsters, designed to kill, then kill again.

THE MARATHON LAUNCH - The war raged on. In secret, the UESC spent 64 years building a new vessel from the ruins of Mars' moon Deimos: the Marathon. A massive colonial starcruiser and weapons platform, it was meant to house a new generation of Spartans and scientists. General Malcolm Keyes, a decorated veteran and war tactician, was placed in command. His orders were simple: Explore uncharted systems. Find answers. Come back alive.

THE BOY WHO KNEW THE STARS - In the shadow of the Covenant's empire, a child was born in chains. John Reyes—orphaned by war, enslaved by the Covenant. Not to mine. Not to fight. But to operate Jjaro Reclaimer tech—devices that only a rare human genome could interface with. He was a freak to them. A tool. A means to an end. But fate had other plans. Rescued during a covert raid by the megacorp Traxus Global, John was taken in—not out of compassion, but potential. Traxus was known for backroom deals with black-market tech, both alien and human. They rebuilt John into something new. Reclaimer. Mercenary. He became their blade. Their ghost. A child-soldier who fought in more ops than most ODSTs see in a lifetime.

THE HALO IS DISCOVERED While scouting deep-space anomalies, The Marathon discovered what no one had seen since the time of the Jjaro: A Halo Ring. A toroidal construct that dwarfed planets. Jjaro craftsmanship, untouched for eons. But the Covenant had already arrived. A massacre followed. Most of the UESC crew was slaughtered or captured. The Marathon was taken. Only fragments of a distress signal escaped.

THE MISSION - It's the year 30,000 AD. Now a grown man, John Reyes operates under ONI’s command. Officially, he doesn’t exist. Unofficially, he’s the most valuable asset the UESC has ever recovered. His mission: Infiltrate the Halo. Recover the survivors. Secure the artifact. And if necessary... Destroy it.

[cure-icy-writes]

"art is dying, no one appreciates art" well i do, actually. i think the problem is that no one has the money to appreciate art.

today i bought a gorgeous print of a sandpiper. it was twelve dollars, and i'm going to hang it on my wall. it reminded me of a certain short film, and it spoke to me about the whimsy and realism of life. i liked the artist's other work, i liked the idea of a beach that isn't so aestheticized but is nostalgic. here is the moss on the buoys and the reflections on the water. here is a tangled mass of rope.

if i had more money, do you know how much more art i would buy? i could make an entire room into a little gallery. I could have some couches and a coffee table with some books of photography on it. I could put a landscape sublimation printed onto aluminum on my wall. I could keep a catalogue of business cards and a printed binder of information on each and every piece of art I bought, how it was made and the story of the artist. I could invite my friends over to chat there, and we could play silly board games or curl up on the couch with hacked 3ds collections to play something nostalgic together.

I could get a print of van gogh's sunflowers. To remind me that there's joy in life when you take your antidepressants. I'm not kidding; that's exactly what the painting means to me. He was on antidepressants derived from foxglove and he saw the color yellow more intensely because of them. he was in the hospital for depression and he was being treated and he painted flowers full of light without shadows because he saw hope and joy and a life worth living.

I'm just saying. If the government decided to give me a universal basic income or something? I could dedicate so much of it to making and sharing and curating and collecting the art that I like. idk if there's a big point to be made here and I genuinely sympathize with anyone who's trying to make it as a professional artist. but i think art would probably do better and be more lucrative if we had like. the human right to survive not on bread alone.

[manorpunk]

Teach Me, Maria-Sensei! 2️⃣

The beginning of vtuber-sensation-turned-president Sunny Roosevelt’s administration was marked by the building of an unofficial inner circle populated with a rotating cast of minor celebrities, provisional government holdovers, and general oddballs, which Sunny allegedly nicknamed ‘the mod squad.’ Multiple members of the mod squad have anonymously stated that Sunny would contact them by appearing unannounced on the screens of their electronic devices, utilizing an exploit in the Usonian emergency broadcast system that allowed her to hack any registered internet-connected device and force it to accept her calls. Sunny’s physical appearance and location remain a mystery to this day, as she is only seen in her vtuber form, even to the mod squad.

+++++

Maria: You’re wearing a schoolgirl outfit. You’re the president and you’re wearing a schoolgirl outfit.

Sunny: Okay first of all, this isn’t just ‘a schoolgirl outfit.’ Do you not recognize Sunny-Senpai #C37? That’s like saying the Sistine Chapel is ‘just some painting.’

Maria: The Sistine Chapel isn’t a painting.

Sunny: You’re right, it’s not just a painting. It’s more than a painting. It’s sublime. It transcends the limitations of the form. Just like how Sunny-Senpai #C37 does.

Maria: No, the Sistine Chapel literally isn’t a…

Maria: [several seconds of spluttering]

Maria: …and how, exactly, does a skimpy schoolgirl outfit ‘transcend the limitations of the form?’

Sunny: By bringing in absurd amounts of money! [giggle] This sexy little number is worth more than Belgium.

Maria: You can’t achieve the lofty heights of the gesamtkunstwerk just by being commercially successful, and furthermore, you leave the Belgians out of this.

Sunny: I don’t know what that means so I’m getting back on topic. See, I’m not just wearing this outfit because it’s popular, it’s because it’s also a gesture of my goodwill. You said I wasn’t taking these lessons seriously, and you know what? I took that seriously. So I’m returning to you in the form of a student. I’m dressing for the role. I’m wearing something that says “teach me, Maria-sensei.”

Maria: That’s, well, that’s… not how I would phrase it, but I suppose I can appreciate the gesture. Franklin’s ghost, five minutes in and this conversation is giving me vertigo.

Maria: [suspicious] Wait, so you’re trying to butter me up?

Sunny: [chuckles] Don’t worry, it’s just because I want something from you. It’s not because I like or respect you as a person.

Maria: Ah. I am simultaneously relieved to know that our relationship is purely extractive and also concerned that someone in a position of power such as yourself would want something from me.

Sunny: Just how I like it. [winks] So anyway, here’s the thing. These past couple decades, they’ve been pretty bonkers, right? Everything since 202X has been weird and bad and frankly stupid.

Maria: Not inaccurate.

Sunny: And like you said, we’re trying to distance ourselves from all that. And by ‘ourselves’ I mean me. We’re Usonia now! Under new management!

Sunny: [peace sign gesture]

Sunny: But if I’m gonna do that, then I need to know the deal, you know? I want the deal, the whole deal, and nothing but the deal. But when I ask people around me about stuff like the Polycrisis, or the Sheriff’s Rebellion, or Zombie Covid, do you know what they say?

Maria: Go on.

Sunny: They go ‘ohh, you know, it’s so complicated, we still don’t know the whole story, I don’t want to get the details wrong.’ They’re so scared of giving the wrong take. But I get the feeling that’s not a problem for you, Maria.

Maria: Of course. I’ve never been wrong about anything in my life.

[bulkmockify]

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[designmindsstudio]

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[vinylspinning]

Mad Season: Above (1995)

Proof that sobriety isn't the only positive outcome of rehab, the group that would become Mad Season was concocted by Pearl Jam guitarist Mike McCready and Walkabouts bassist John Baker Saunders while they convalesced in just such a facility.

And when the pair recruited Alice in Chains singer Layne Staley and Screaming Trees drummer Barrett Martin, plus Trees singer Mark Lanegan in a limited capacity, one of the greatest grunge supergroups was born.

Well, at least according to this hack!

Their sole studio LP, Above, arrived just over 30 years ago into a marketplace that was still hungry for any product even remotely associated with Seattle, but it would test flannel-clad fans with a sound that wasn't entirely familiar.

In fact, "I Don't Know Anything," with its grinding, down-tuned riffs, hypnotic droning, and spikes of distortion, is the only real grunge prototype on hand; though I suppose "Lifeless Dead" deserves consideration based on its haunting atmosphere and morbid lyrics.

Everywhere else, though, Mad Season appear bent on confounding expectations (and good for them!) via surprisingly mellow ruminations like "Wake Up," "River of Deceit," and "All Alone," or the dragging blues-rock of "X-Ray Mind" and "Artificial Red."

McCready unleashes all his fretboard-shredding firepower on the instrumental "November Hotel," and Lanegan makes his first appearance on "I'm Above" (which sort of recalls Temple of the Dog), but the album's pièce de résistance is "Long Gone Day."

Here, both Lanegan and Staley lend their sublimely desolate, funereal tones to a startling escape into some form of psychedelic jazz, backed by Martin's subtle bongos and topped by alternately fluid and biting sax lines from session man Eric 'Skerik' Walton.

By and large, these are not immediately digestible, but rather challenging songs that only reveal their full greatness over time, and that's why Mad Season's music separated dedicated listeners from impulsive grunge consumers, like wheat from the chaff.

Trust me, I'm a farmer ... not!

This two-LP, 180-gram reissue unfortunately fails to restore the CD cover art to its full size, but tacks on five outtakes with a focus on Lanegan, who takes the mic for the driving "Locomotive" and the mournful tandem of "Black Book of Fear" and "Slip Away."

Rounding things out, McCready's solo acoustic "Interlude" is anything but a throwaway and Staley returns for a cover of John Lennon's "I Don't Wanna Be a Soldier," which also appeared on that year's Lennon tribute album, Working Class Hero.

In due time, Above went on to sell a half-million copies, but Mad Season never did reconvene for a second LP due to its members' primary band commitments and -- you guessed it -- persistent substance abuse.

Tragically, these relapses ultimately proved fatal for both Staley and Saunders (Lanegan followed them in 2022 of apparently natural causes), which reinforces Mad Season's fate as perhaps the most obviously doomed supergroup ever assembled ... but a great one at that!

Related: Alice in Chains' Facelift, Sap EP, Dirt, Jar of Flies EP, Black Gives Way to Blue; Pearl Jam: Ten, Vs., Vitalogy, Riot Act, Backspacer; Screaming Trees' Buzz Factory, Uncle Anesthesia, Sweet Oblivion, Dust; Temple of the Dog’s Temple of the Dog.

[vigilskeep]

Varric said all the non romanced companions left for the sake of the sentence structure, the word flow, the atmosphere, the themes. You wouldn’t understand his sublime authorial vision

he’s a hack and i know more than him

[churchofthecomet]

one thing about Hardison in Leverage is, you can't convince me this man would be using Microsoft Windows Fucking 7 as his daily driver operating system:

all the real-life hackers, infosec people, and computer enthusiasts I know are running Linux. the only computer folks I know running Windows are establishment SWE types or those who do IT for Windows-centric organizations. Hardison is neither of those archetypes, and he should care enough about defensive privacy-mindedness to not let Microsoft telemetrize his shit. plus Linux is just... easier to hack from. and it has severe nerd cred, even more so in 2008-2013 when the show was made.

honestly with what we see of Hardison, i headcanon him as someone who either

runs Arch, won't stop letting you know the extent to which he runs Arch, switches desktop environments every two weeks (which means that nobody but him can keep up with his constantly-changing keybindings), types in Dvorak

runs something completely wacky like resurrected Plan 9, wrote a modern browser for it in a weekend, claims it's the "OS of the future" despite being one of five people currently using it, won't shut up about "distributed computing" and "new architecture for the 21st century" on programming forums

built the world's first big quantum computer (this is how he effortlessly hacks into securely encrypted systems!) and wrote his own OS for it. every time they abandon their HQ in a hurry, he has to build another one. he sinks 90% of his income into this project, but it's worth it because it ups his effectiveness as a hacker by like 100x

and to go along with that headcanon, I think they aren't showing us the OS that he's really using because it would "be too confusing" or "burn out our eyes" or something. like a mixture of "actually they weren't speaking English in Lord of the Rings, Tolkien translated it so we could understand" and "the angel does not appear to you in its true form because you would be struck down by its sublime beauty"

basically my ideal show is Leverage but the hacking and computer stuff is more accurate. with a little leeway for badassery of course! but please god not Windows... don't do my man Hardison like this please

[bbs-backlog-challenge]

Fin or Bin: Earthbound

Ugh, I am so sick of these stupid Undertale rip off games. This one, if you can believe it, is about the life of Sans before he became a skeleton, like anyone wanted that.

...Sorry. Just kidding. (If you got mad, you owe me a reblog.)

Having apologised for that, now let me make you mad by saying I am playing a heavily modded version of the game, in specific using the Better Controls and Double Exp hacks, and I have absolutely no apologies for that.

I have in fact played this before, making it a decent chunk through before getting too frustrated with the archaic controls and truly awful battle mechanics to get any further. It was a very difficult decision as everything going on around those problems was sublime and so very nearly worth putting up with it. What did me in ultimately was a boss fight in which the actual strategy was "hope you get lucky", the combination of incurable status effects and damage output it had being essentially a series of dice rolls to determine if you won.

But for every miserable boss fight dragging the game down, there's a Saturn Valley bringing it back among the stars, and that was why I stopped. I LOVED what the game was doing, and the terrible mechanics were ruining my enjoyment. Earthbound was doing far too much good stuff to allow that to happen so I put it off until I could return to it with save states, and rewind, and quality-of-life mods, and a guide in front of me.

Listen. No one has ever sold Earthbound on the strength of its gameplay.

Fin or Bin:

A second bite of the cherry then for this effortlessly funny and characterful experience that manages to be gloriously surreal and offbeat without congratulating itself for it. Thank goodness Ness is a silent protagonist so we don't have to deal with him looking into the camera and saying "um, wow, okay, THAT sure just happened" every five seconds, but that's an entirely unrelated complaint for another blog. I'm ENJOYING it, that's what matters, and though I failed last time, THIS time is definitely a Fin.