#Threaded Bar And Nuts

[fixdex-fastening-technology]

👍 Wedge anchor All production processes are inside our factory

[san8ny]

STILL GOT IT !

?: While you continue reign over your niche internet kingdom, Ellie finds herself consumed with thoughts of you, you and you! So much so, her fans are staring to notice. Joining your livestream, which she’s been trying to abstain from, you quickly remind her on why you’re so addictive in the first place! / E.W / 18+

!: too lazy to write all warnings but pretty tame when it comes to smut. s

Her heart initially falls to her ass when she sees the plethora of comments underneath her latest video, usual adornment of little heart emojis which now turned into discussions of twitter threads. How had a clipping of her rubbing herself inside a public bathroom stall, the usual shtick before she clocks into a boring 9-5– garner this much negativity? What changed?

“Eh, you don’t seem as passionate after the collab tbhhh”

“lost her touch lmfao”

“does this mean we get another video with you and—

She shuts the laptop closed, unable to further stomach her unsatisfied audience with thoughts running rampant in her mind.

Lost..her touch?

Surely these comments were satirical and just baiting her for another video with you, right? I mean, it’s not like she hasn’t gotten hate comments before, though rare for a small homemade creator like herself, but that was besides the point!

it irked her.

Since when has Ellie ever needed anyone for a platform she grew and built, huh? So what if you had given her the best fucking of her life? Genuinely, what about it? It’s not like she goes to sleep with you on her mind, just to awaken the next morning with her pajama bottoms absolutely drenched because she had the most delicious wet dream about you! That’d be crazy..

She rubs her temples a bit to soothe the pounding of her head, she needed a quick fix to this issue and fast! Opening the device back up, she seeks answers.

⌕ [“How do I get horny again without looking at the hot girl who had sex with me’s page?”]

Holding her breath, she types into the search bar. They do say google holds all the answers.

aaaand..nothing.

God, maybe she was dealing with an original experience? 8 Billion people and all useless.

What if you’ve ruined her to the brink of no-return? She can’t even orgasm anymore on her page without watching you, which makes the climaxes lackluster. She can never go back after you’ve given her a taste of the real thing.

That night, she props her laptop up with you pulled up on the screen. You’re wearing a pretty lingerie set, too pretty of one Ellie thinks. It’s the little fancy-pancy one’s you had in your closet that night you graciously let her stay over. Post-nut delirium, but Ellie could still see you liked lace alot, it being the main choice of material inhabiting your wardrobe.

Hot.

Her eyes scower the screen as donations roll in and as per usual, you thank the viewers with a pristine smile, like you didn’t turn Ellie back into a fuckin’ virgin.

She hasn’t been on one of your streams in a while actually, too caught up with work but now, she really remembers why she use to.

You were a guilty pleasure. Addictive, and Ellie didn’t even have a knack for sweets; you just always managed to pollute her head with the most vile of scenarios she could envision recreating with you and fuck, did she hate herself for it— hated herself for becoming so obsessed with someone who only saw her as a collaborater, a co-worker.

She couldn’t complain however, not with the way you manage to talk everyone through it in your streams in a low shaky voice, and especially, not with the way you capture everyones attention with your movements.

and, like a moth to a flame, Ellie finds herself, unaware, cupping her breasts..kneading the flesh like soft dough through her bleach-stained band tee, relapsing back into a place she thought she wouldn’t want to return to; she can’t help the moans that steadily escape her when you let one of your own out, and God, Ellie might really be the worst person because she hasn’t had this good of a masturbation sesh in forever. It’s been feeling so cold and robotic lately with her trying to appease her few followers, but we know how that turned out.

“Ellie’s in the stream?” You whimper out, reading the explosive chat when you slap the silicone toy messily against your puffy clit, swollen under it’s hood but sitting so pretty like an pearl would on its’s oyster, glistening in both your own liquids. “Hi Els..” Your whiney voice calls her out.

Oh God.

Ellie’s eyes roll back abit when she sees your crinkled eyes, lip pulled in between teeth and your flushed cheeks. She practically punches the ‘Co-Host’ request button with her camera off so only her pathetic pants of your name are heard, “H-hi doll..” She hisses out softly, “You l-look so pretty r’now, ah!..’m sorry haven’t been o-on your—mmh!— streams..”

You giggle at this, and the viewer count doubles in amount. Somehow, the stream becomes what seems like a steamy facetime call between two creators, with the rest of the viewers witnessing and prying in on the salacious moment, “‘s okay..just w-wanna hear your noises, Ellie.” It’s like you knew she couldn’t speak to you without a hand busying itself down there..

The girl groans, dropping her camera inbetween her legs to the echoing sounds of squelching and heaven. Though you couldn’t see her in the dark, 2:30 AM lighting of her bedroom she lounges in, you could feel it. She doesn’t even remember the last time she’d secrete this much arousal without the assistance of lube.

“A-ah, me baby? Gosh, ‘jus wanna watch you f’ a sec. Hear me well?”

You nod, eyebrows furrowing and your eyes growing more heavy when you prop your legs up on the gaming chair, displaying your drenched pelvic area— all so messy and for everyone to see. Mainly the broad on the other end of the stream..

You squeal when you curl your fingers into a specifically spongy spot, lips parting and your head thrown back a bit— you’d long ditched the dildo for something a bit more efficient, something to really capture the moment between you. Strands of hair stick to your forehead when an orgasm arises, and you seem a bit upset for cumming too quickly, not when Ellie has just got here!

Prolonging it a bit, you heave and retreat from your digits, rubbing your thighs imaptiently with your sighs stuttering, all while the other girl slaps at her cunt from what you can hear. Painslut

Ellie looks up back at you when she, herself, feels a tight coil in her stomach beginning to loosen, “B-boutta’ cum, dollface. Cmon..put them back on ‘er. Need my girl to do it with me.”

You nod ever so slightly to her voice, though you cannot see her, the raspiness of her voice takes you to a whole other level, “Ellie..” you cry out when your fingers make contact, it seems to be hitting you harder than usual, hypersensitivity of edging yourself all stream. Is it so wrong her green-eyed gaze trains on you intently while you whine and bitch for her?

The muscles in her abdomen tighten when she particularly notices a dumbed out look on you, saliva seeping past your glossy lips and dribbling to the lacy outfit you had on, rubbing her clit as fast as she can, she eggs you on, “Ah! Ah! J-just there w’you..wanna do it ‘wif you.”

Ellie gasps when your legs twitch uncontrollably, and on-cue, as promised, she meets the point with you— biting her knuckle when she spasms through the waves of orgasmic pleasure.

A few moments go past when Ellie picks her phone camera up to see you’d already went past your donation threshold. She can hear your hiccups, hair all messed up and covering your face— sweet baby..

She quickly ends the live-stream for you, a co-host accessible option you’d enabled incase you couldn’t end it from your own screen.

just to run to her bathroom to clean herself up before heading to your place.

Was she invited? No. Was she likely pushing a boundary? Yes, but, was she going to start a ‘no-aftecare’ streak in her entirety of 23 years? Fuck no.

Whether you liked it or not, she was on her way.

@san8ny: “alr she still got it ig”

[theteasetwrites]

Pay Attention

❧ Pairing: Daryl Dixon x Female Reader ❧ Era: Season 5 ❧ Pronouns: she/her ❧ Warnings: a bit... suggestive, sexual innuendos if you squint, implied dom Daryl ❧ Word Count: 2.3k

❧ Summary: While Daryl works on his bike, you can't help but pay a little too much attention. Not to his bike, though.

❧ A/N: Hiiii I know this oneshot came out of nowhere, but... yeah. Also thank you to @ivuravix, @okaycocoal, @devnmon, and @weretheones for brainstorming (aka drooling over Norman in that new video of him getting his bike) with me!

As he loosened the sprocket nut, cranking the breaker bar with a strained grunt muffled through tight lips, you watched with a languid gaze, only once in a while mustering a hum or two whenever a gruff voice of velvety sandpaper threatened to tear you from your stupor.

But the words were no more than ambiance, a vague collection of obscure sounds that only provided the score to a dizzying display of skilled, smooth movements, the sight of which you had the distinct fortune of beholding. 

With the clatter of metal hitting the concrete, you blinked and felt your senses return to you for a moment, so those indistinguishable sounds turned into words on his breathy, gravelly voice. 

“Now we got the transmission cover off…” He took a breath as he tugged the faded red rag from the back pocket of his old torn-up jeans, in which you had made various stitchings to patch up the holes with new fabrics. Sitting cross-legged, you tilted your head with a barely noticeable little smile on your lips. He wiped the sweat from his brow, raising his right arm until you could see the faded ink of the tattoo on his inner bicep, exposed by the black sleeveless button-up shirt he wore, with the little loose threads from where he’d cut it still dangling from the torn fabric. 

Now your eyes were glued to that spot, where the taut, lean muscles under his tanned, sweat-shined skin flexed and twitched with each movement as he attempted to wipe the grease from his hands. That poor rag had seen so much―grease, sweat, blood, dirt… You’d tried to get him to use something a little less worn, but he always came back to that old rag. He was stubborn about those kinds of things, or maybe it wasn’t so much stubbornness as sentimentality. It was one of the things you loved about him.

Kneeling as he shook his hair from his face, a few sweaty strands still sticking, he huffed another deep breath. Thank God he was so intently focused on his bike, lest he notice your lack of… attention. Well, you were paying attention, but not to the bike. 

When you said you wanted to help him replace the chain on his motorcycle, you did not anticipate he would give you a step-by-step tutorial on the matter. But that was just him, your Daryl―he had a few things he was particularly interested in, and one of them was mechanics. He’d always be the first to volunteer to prepare the cars for the runs, and he was good at it. It came naturally to him, you always knew that. He once told you that he liked to put things back together again, to fit parts together like puzzle pieces. It only made sense that he would build his own bike, and fix it himself. After all, it was hard to find a professional mechanic these days. 

You didn’t mind. Though you had to admit that you weren’t terribly engrossed, you found it quite endearing, his passion as he narrated each movement of his hands, each part of the bike, each tool he used so skillfully. He was always so good with his hands, those deft, yet thick and heavy, fingers. You knew those fingers quite well, quite intimately… 

If only he’d stop fiddling with that hunk of metal and start putting those strong, nimble hands to better use.

“See this nut here?” 

He gestured to a metal protrusion nestled amongst the gears near the back wheel. Though you lacked the knowledge of what a nut was in this context, you nodded with a small, “Mhm.”

“That’s the axle nut. Gotta loosen it, then unscrew this bolt.” He did the actions slowly, careful not to move too quick lest you lose track of him, but it was of no consequence, anyway, because all you could look at were the flexing tendons in his hands, and the bulging squiggles of veins that protruded beneath grease-stained skin. Those little rivers led up into his forearm, where defined muscles tightened and twitched as he clenched his jaw, a few grunts slipping between his tightened lips. He turned the wrench on the axle nut, loosening it with each movement. 

When he’d unscrewed the bolt, he relieved the tension by pushing the back wheel forward, loosening the chain until he could get a grip on the master link that kept the old linking metal pieces together. 

Now admiring the glistening sweat that gave shine to the chest that was exposed by the buttons undone near the neck of his shirt, you did not notice his eyes on you, watching you with a furrowed brow as he spoke.

“Can ya hand me those pliers, hon?”

His voice seemed to shake you awake with almost a startle. In a slight haze, you only blinked at him, your lips quivering without your own awareness, your mind drawing a blank as his sudden attention had hit a reset button on the back of your head. Rebooting, you took a few moments to catch up to speed, but even then, you had become lost in a gaze of ocean blue. 

“What?”

Daryl lifted his chin to nod towards somewhere close behind you, though even your own surroundings were a mystery to you. 

“Can ya gimme those pliers, right behind ya.”

“Oh.” 

You turned swiftly, as if taking your eyes off him for a moment would free you from your stupor. It did not. 

But at least you could locate the tool―nestled atop the other gadgets and gizmos scattered inside the toolbox behind you. 

“These?” You held the red handled tool out for him to see. 

He looked up from the chain that he fiddled with in his grease-stained fingers. “Yeah, that’s it.” He took the pliers to remove the master link from the chain, finally freeing it from the bike. “A’right,” he huffed with a slight satisfaction in his voice. “Now you see this thing ‘ere?”

Leaning forward, you focused your sight on where he was pointing—the long metal rod near the drum brake. “Mhm.”

“We’re gonna take that apart next.”

With the brake assembly dismantled, you watched as he removed the back wheel from the bike, carrying it to his workbench while you dutifully followed, entranced by his confident sway. There weren’t many things Daryl was secure about, but when it came to mechanics, he was assured of himself. In fact, he may have gotten a little cocky, having noticed that each time he instructed you on a new step, you responded either with an absent-minded hum or a dazed stare at his biceps. 

After he replaced the sprocket, much to your confusion with each procedure he explained, he replaced the wheel on the bike, this time adding on the new chain. 

And as he tightened the chain, he cranked the wrench on the locking nut, securing it into place. Again, his arms flexed with mesmerizing strength, the intrigue of which was only matched by the muscles bulging in his neck, the low grunts and redness that pooled in his cheek. It was all too familiar, the way his body moved and the way his muscles contorted in the strain of the activity. 

Though you desperately wanted to squeeze your thighs together, just to momentarily relieve a bit of tension between them, you could only sit still as you watched him, now totally unable to hear a word of what he was saying, despite your admiration for his passion.

But the longer you seemed to be in a distracted state of stupor, your mouth nearly hanging open enough to start drooling, the more he caught onto your lack of attention for the bike, and your excessive attention for him.

“Now… Don’t wanna screw this too tight, it’ll wear out faster, then I’d have to change this chain again. But ya want it just tight enough, and not too loose.”

If you’d been able to concentrate at all on what he said, you might’ve blushed.

But all you could do was watch his fingers work, nimble movements reminding you of how those calloused fingers would tickle your skin in your intimate moments, how he knew just how to touch you and make you shiver until that shiver became a deep, penetrating chill of pleasure. 

He’d always had that effect on you, even in the most innocuous moments. How could this man affect you like this, send a shiver down your spine, without even touching you? Not only that, but he was working on his bike, trying to educate you, and yet, you were still thinking about his filthy, grease-stained hands leaving prints all over your body.

And when he cleared his throat, you were back again, only with no clue what Daryl had just said. All you knew was he seemed to know what he was talking about, based on the assuredness in his voice. 

In a slight panic that you’d missed something important, you replied—“Mm… That’s nice, sweetie.”

His eyebrow arched in slight amusement, your words and the dreamy lull in your voice having confirmed his suspicion—you weren’t paying attention at all. 

Now he looked you in the eye, keeping your gaze with his intense stare, only weakened by a glint of playfulness, with a sparkle of mischief. There was an upward lift to one side of his mouth as he spoke, a smirk so charming that you found your breath getting caught in your chest.

“You payin’ attention?” he asked, though not with any kind of disappointment. 

Back straightening, you nodded as you hummed. “Mhm.”

The man narrowed his eyes at you, studying you with amused suspicion. “What’d I jus’ say?”

You sank a little, your posture weakening as you cleared your throat, buying time to keep you from admitting that you were less interested in the mechanics of his bike, and more interested in the mechanics of his arms.

“Well, uh… You were talking about…”

There was a shakiness to your voice as you lowered your head, focusing on your fingers which fiddled with each other in your lap. With your eyes averted, and your brain being ramped suddenly into third gear, you hadn’t noticed that Daryl scooted closer across the cold concrete, his own focus having separated from his beloved motorcycle completely.

“Hey,” he said, and from the mere vibration of his voice, traveling through the small space of air that existed now between you, you knew to look up at him, as if he had commanded it. And to you, he did.

When you looked up, he broke into a bigger smile, with a flash of faded white from the bottom edges of his teeth, the same ones that had left faint marks on your neck many times before. 

It was your innocence that amused him, made him huff a small laugh under his breath. You matched his laugh with your own nervous one, though you knew not why he made you so anxious, after so long of being his. Well, maybe he just had that effect on you, and maybe he always would. 

You knew he always would.

“You ain’t payin’ attention, are ya?”

Now, out of the corner of your eye, you caught a glimpse of his stained, greasy hand, raising to grasp at your chin. His touch was soft, yet deliberate. He knew. Daryl was always observant, after all. Besides, you’d unintentionally made it rather obvious. 

When you failed to answer him, he narrowed his gaze again, just enough so he could hone in on your lips. They quivered now, just like they always did for him. He liked it—how your body reacted to his touch. It was always so predictable, so safe. Everything about you was, and he knew you so well now, that he had no problem making sure you answered him.

“Are ya, sweetheart?”

The very quiet, nearly undetectable whimper that slipped subconsciously from your lips could’ve gone unnoticed if he weren’t so attentive to your every action, but he was, and he heard it. How easily you crumbled for him, and how perfect your mouth looked—split open and plump, wet and aching. 

“No… I…” His fingers rubbed the curve of your jaw as he held your chin with more pressure, as if to punish you with the most affectionate touch. “Sorry.”

But the word went without reply as his grip pulled you forward. No movement on his part other than that pull, bringing you to him, your lips softly connecting as a sigh got caught between wet flesh, your mouth was forced open just enough by his tongue. 

The kiss was ended much too abruptly for your liking, though he punctuated it with small bursts of pecks upon your still quivering lips. On his own lips, a cocky smirk, taunting you. Rarely did Daryl tease you quite like this, though he could never pass up the opportunity. 

“S’all right.” He was still close enough for the vibration of his gruff voice to tickle you. “Long as you just sit there lookin’ all pretty for me.”

Just like that, you melted again, your head only propped up by his hand still caressing your chin. 

“Okay.” The word came out in a dreamy giggle, of which you may have been embarrassed if he hadn’t broken out into his own little snicker. 

It took him a few drawn out moments to peel himself from you, intent on finishing replacing the chain before his recruiting trip tomorrow, but eventually, reluctantly, he removed his hand, your chin now blotched with his oily fingerprints. 

Another huff of laughter escaped from his smirking lips, to which you tilted your head in confusion. 

Loosely, he gestured to his own chin. “Ya got a lil somethin’.”

~

Thanks for reading! Likes, reblogs, and comments of any kind are always appreciated!

Masterlist

[hell-drabbles]

I don’t think companion isn’t one for drinking until they’re drunk but I like to think that if they were to actually be drunk, they become not aggressive but instead the opposite.

Like, giving praises and just giving affection towards anyone they know. Ex, cuddling, cheek kiss, playing with their hair and just straight up looking like a lovesick fool.

Heck, they even notice small details and quirks that makes them praises whoever is near them.

Yeah when they get fully into the haze of being drunk, the anger is just not there. It's not as if they're a naturally aggressive person, all that anger comes from a place of genuine care after all. Frustration that needs to be expression, but is often not taken seriously or is dismissed.

Hmm, a fully drunk companion… well, moments like that are certainly rare, but to say they never happen would just be me lying. Though, I'd say they act less like a lovesick fool and more… seductive? Intimate? Ah, let me write it out so you can see what I mean.

(Also sorry for the long silence, my family and I are in the process of moving and it's a lot to deal with. Almost done though, just need to wait for the damn water to turn on and it's off with all of us!)

You… had a little too much to drink, that much was clear to Ra-on. While you weren't the most conscious of manners, but you were of sounds. Your own sounds, specifically. You don't step too loud, you try to not raise your voice so much as you solidify it when you need to, and even when you're at your busiest, you don't go through the streets or house like a tornado.

So when you knocked back another shot of alcohol and let the glass clatter loudly against the table, Ra-on knew you had too much to drink, and all he could do was tense up the moment your gaze landed on his rather… exposed figure. He really should've picked something that hid his nipples more…

Ra-on nearly bit through his cheek the minute your fingers threaded through his hair. You weren't quite focusing on him, so much as you were lost in your own head. From your silence to your lazy carding through his loose hair, you were practically petting him. The tingles that raced down is spine was driving him nuts and it took all the will he's been slowly building up to keep his blood from traveling south. Didn't stop it from coloring his face red as an apple.

…you had a rare, easy lean to you. Resting your weight right over the chair, not caring for the way your collar dipped down and exposed skin, or the way your sleeves were rising up past your elbows. For once your face was settled into something soft, like you were watching a creature worth cherishing. And when you were truly trying to catch your lost thoughts, your lips had this…captivating habit of moving. He couldn't take his eyes off of them.

Perhaps it was the buzzing fog over his senses, perhaps it was the thrumming music etching itself into his every crevice, but it took a bit for your words to hit his ears.

"Come here," you said, with a light beckon of your hand, looking at him as if he was a delicate little star cradled in your palm.

To be protected. To be savored.

And he froze, like a deer in headlights. Because suddenly, you made that standard bar chair look like a throne. He can't 'come here,' because if he does, he knows his knees are going to give in and if he so much as sees your shoes he's going to--

You grabbed the back of his chair and dragged it until you couldn't get it any closer. Your legs pressed against one another, and to add onto his misery, you sighed into his ear as you wrapped an arm around his shoulders. You could bite into it if you wanted to, and the thought had every part of Ra-on shivering in want.

Lost in his fantasies as he was, Ra-on didn't even notice when another set of shot glasses were placed on the table. Only when you shook the ice within in front of his face did he snap back into attention.

"Hey, I said you should try this." Shame climbed down Ra-on's spine when he realized he missed your words again, caught up in his daydreams. "It's pretty sweet. I know you like fruity tasting things."

"…a-alright. Hey!" He would've grabbed it, but it was snatched by tight jawed Satan. Chugged it right down, throat bobbing in such a way that tempted Ra-on to like up his vein. Angrily, Satan crunched on the ice before throwing the shot glass right near your head.

"Aren't you getting bored, just sitting there? Come on, let's dance!" Satan grinned, already taking Ra-on's wrist to pull him right out of your embrace. The attention, the sheer need to have him by his side made warmth emerge from his chest.

But now wasn't the time, because Ra-on noticed you didn't flinch. You weren't paying attention, entirely focused on him because everyone else around you was still just a pack of strangers. He can't just leave you alone.

So he harshly yanked himself away and settled his face into a glare just like yours. Well, tried at least. He can't make himself as scary as you are, but he tried. And that was, shockingly, enough, because that got a blink out of Satan.

"Fine, we'll 'dance' later then." His eyes glittered with amusement, like a cat ready to play a prank, but he left anyway.

…Ra-on's pretty sure he's even more angry than before. He's not a devil that hides anything, so that much was easy to see. Either way, Ra-on sighed, grateful for this momentary relief.

Then, your fingers skimmed over his stomach. Without warning, you lifted his shirt, exposing his feverish skin to the cold air. You didn't say a thing, your face in a quiet, drunken daze. You didn't care for the way he twitched when you grasped him nor did you snap out of whatever daze you're in to the way he stifled back a squeak when you rubbed circles below his ribs. He squirmed, ticklish as he was, and he knows he should be fighting back, but he knows you, and he knows you're nothing like the devils.

"Stop moving," you grunted, annoyed. As if Ra-on was nothing more than an impatient pet, you tightened your grip and pulled him firmly into place.

He didn't want to see the look on your face, so he covered his eyes as if that'll hide him away from the world. His skin has practically become purple. Can practically feel steam rising off of his ears, and he just knows it's only going to get worse. He'll shut up, he'll keep mum and soon it will all be over. You won't remember, and that's fine with him. It's better that way even.

Besides, your touch was something he always yearned for. Isn't he allowed this moment? It'll be fine, because you won't do anything bad, and Ra-on won't do anything bad as well.

"Mm…" you idly sighed as you felt over the flair of his hips, "you're getting too thin again." You flicked at his hipbones and Ra-on jumped.

"I'm sorry," he instinctively said.

"But that's fine, I know you're trying your best," you smoothed a palm over where you flicked, "been eating more, I noticed. That's good, that's good." Then, you rested your hand on his cheek, guiding his attention away from your hands to your dreamy face. You pressed your forehead against his, and Ra-on forgot how to breathe. "Don't fall away from me, please? I know I get angry, but I could never hate you."

[ask-nurse-curly]

I see.

You're right. It does work both ways. Only fair that I remind you of him, too.

Don't you dare fucking apologize, though. You had a right to ask.

...

Anyway. About the fight... It wasn't anything too serious. Wasn't supposed to be, anyway. The old fool got pissy with me while we were working in the utility room because I made one small JOKE about his intern. Asked if Curly knew how much of a shitbag I was; said if he did, maybe he had a 'damn good reason to try crashing the ship'?!

It made me want to fucking hit him. I really, really wanted to.

Obviously, I didn't.

I'm not- I know I'm not a good man, but damn it, cut me some slack . But telling me, over a little joke I made, that- that Curly was right to try to kill us all, because of...

...Did I... did I really? Did I bring him to that point? No, I couldn't have, right? That's- that can't be true. I'm not that awful. I've made mistakes, and- I've tried my best to atone for them. I've taken responsibility.

Because I've seen the other Jimmy; the other Jimmy's; and I know the mistakes they've made. And the mistakes? They're haunting. Following me everywhere I go. And... I've cut them loose. No. Made attempts to, at least, within the few weeks or so of this whole... tragedy.

A few days ago, even, I apologized to Anya for my comments. Tried making small talk with Daisuke, listened to his whiny voice yap on and on about some stupid fucking club back on Earth and smiled and nodded my head, because that's better than what I did in the past. I was... kinder, to Swansea. Was more complacent with him, like Curly was. Did my due diligence as a new captain and made my weekly rounds across the ship, checked on everyone, tried to keep morale up during game nights. Washed the blood off my hands and scrubbed it raw, until my skin hung on by a loose thread. Tried washing myself free of the guilt, and when I couldn't do that - because of course I fucking couldn't - I turned to everyone else to wash theirs.

To fix it. To fix all of it, with this new responsibility that Curly's shoved onto my shoulders. It's like he's shoved one of his dumbbells at me, but it's weighed down by even heavier sacks of his stupid protein bars, and I'm the idiot who let him do it - damn it. I miss him. If he were reading this right now, he'd laugh at that. Tell me I'm nuts.

I wish I hadn't done that.

I wish he hadn't done that. Maybe we'd be back to how we used to be. Friends.

(But if.... if I was the one to drive him insane, maybe we deserve to never meet again. I'm sorry, Curly. I'm really sorry. When you're awake, I'll fix all of this. I promise.)

...Sorry for unloading that on you. Felt nice, though.

-SG

I don’t know if you are asking me what his reasoning was, and if you are I don’t have answers for you. I can’t even imagine wanting to crash the ship, so I don’t know…why would he…unless…

He…didn’t appear off to you, did he? In a… ‘too tired to be alive’ kind of way? Not that it justifies trying to take the crew with him, but…

I don’t know. This is probably all a load of rubbish, don’t listen to me.

Keep trying, Jim. People’s relationships don’t change for the better overnight, and it might be tempting to give up on your crew, but please don’t. You need them as much as they need you, especially now.

Other Jims, you mention — how many have you heard of? Were they all… God, was the crash inevitable somehow? Has anyone ever avoided it? Do you know?

Don’t apologise for ‘unloading’, it’s…it’s nice, to talk about it. To be able to.

[byenycfm]

Where: Entire Atrium Level When: April 1st, 7pm

Dinner rations having been held early at 5pm-6pm for the entire building, the next hour was spent furiously setting up the tables that had already been previously set out for goodies. Every room off the Atrium and the Atrium itself are all strung with the Christmas lights and battery operated fairy lights, streamers hung from and across everything they could be, and balloons not only covering the floor to just bounce around as they please, but taped to the walls in random scattered patterns to fill the space. In the middle of the Atrium in the place where the Christmas tree had just been taken down stand a chair next to the piano which had been rolled out of the common room. The muffled sounds of music are already filtering out from seemingly every space, and the colour changing lights from The W's dance floor are spilling out from the open double doors. By 7pm, everything is set up and ready for the guests. Activities include:

The W:

@farew3lls Alice - Karaoke DJ

@ashton-ryder - Bartender (shots, simple cockails ie. Rum and coke, beers, coolers, ciders)

Bowls of Chips (Regular, Doritos, and Dill Pickle)

Bowl of Mixed Nuts

Large bowl of popcorn with scoop and paper bags

Dance Floor

Balcony

Atrium:

@sarahshercohen & @rhianwells - Musical Entertainment

Piano

Dance Floor

Photo Station with props and found polaroid camera

Bulletin board with pins for polaroid collage

Table with cake

@hannahxinterrupted's caricature portrait station

Rosie's Diner

@survivalxofxthexfittest Emily - Serving

Champagne and wine

Craft beers (limited one per resident)

Table absolutely covered in macaroons of every imaginable colour

Bowl of Mixed Nuts

Bowls of Chips (Regular, Doritos, and Dill Pickle)

Large bowl of popcorn with scoop and paper bags

Plates of peanut butter and jelly quarter sandwiches.

Cheese and cracker platters

Saltwater taffy plate

Games Room:

Video Game console and four (4) controllers and Rock Band/DDR set ups

Pool Table

Ping Pong Table

Chess/Checkers Tables

Game Tables (1 x Jenga, 1 x Uno)

Twister Mat

Common Room:

Ocean's Marathon on the TV

Calm space

Media Room:

Supervised by @farew3lls Maddie

Disney Movie Marathon

Ember's old Barbie Mansion and TUBS of barbies and accessories

About fifty of Ember's old stuffed animals.

One very large bin of clothes for dress up.

Bowls of M&M's, Jelly Beans, Chips, Popcorn and Macaroons.

Unlimited Soda from room's bar's soda gun.

Back room set up with kid friendly CD's and small dance floor

The Event will run until Friday, December 13th. There is NO thread pause, though we do ask for priority to be on event threads during the duration of the event. Event threads can commence as needed pas the conclusion of the event itself.

Have fun everyone, and don't forever to wish Mr. Wexley a happy birthday!

[overland-defender]

04/07/2024: Flap Differential

Annoyingly one day Amy came home… and I’d noticed the rear near side mud flap was missing, wtf!? This was a long time ago and it was in fact it a new mud flap that appeared to be stolen! Now I’m not one to throw accusations around but it seemed odd to me and they (bolts) were loctited in.

So cut a long boring story short, I had a spare used flap in the box of spares, ordered stainless steel brackets and fasteners. The brackets went for powder coating and eventually (today) I fitted it all.

Top tip: Scour pad and some washing up liquid with warm water is the recipe for getting the weathered mud flap back into something presentable, plus with the addition of a plastic enhancer - not bad aye!?, just a shame it makes the rear cross member look like turd.

Now onto the D110, a leak on a truck is like it shedding a tear of disrepair… I mean if I was leaking fluid I’d likely be pretty upset as well. So, we focus our or my attention to the rear differential input seal, which has had a moist casing for a while.

How to….

1. Mark the propshaft position on the drive flange for correct refitting.

2. Remove the propshaft bolts using a spanner/socket, then secure the propshaft out of the way.

3. Use a socket and breaker bar to remove the pinion nut.

4. Slide off the drive flange – a light tap with a rubber mallet may help.

5. Remove the Old Differential Seal, by carefully prying out the old seal using a seal puller or flathead screwdriver.

6. Clean the seal mating surface to remove any debris or old sealant, inspect and grease bearing if necessary.

7. Install the New OEM Differential Seal, by lightly coating the outer edge of the new seal with gear oil for ease of installation.

8. Carefully press or tap it into place using a rubber mallet or a seal driver, ensuring it sits flush and even.

9. Reinstall the drive flange onto the pinion shaft.

10. Apply thread-locking compound to the pinion nut threads and tighten it securely (refer to manufacturer torque specs).

11. Reattach the propshaft, aligning it with the marks made earlier.

12. Check the seal area for any gaps or damage.

13. Refill the differential with fresh oil if it was drained.

14. Test drive and inspect for leaks.

Final Notes:

- Using a genuine OEM seal ensures longevity and a proper fit.

- If you don’t have the correct torque values, tighten the pinion nut securely but avoid overtightening.

- Regularly inspect for leaks after installation.

Parts for Rear Mudgaurds

RH Mudflap Bracket 90: MUC3986

LH Mudflap Bracket 90: MUC3987

Mudflap Support Plate 90 (both sides): MUC1512

Parts for rear differential input seal

Flange Kit: NSTSTC3124G

Rear Propshaft Bolt Kit: DA1424

[dadsbongos]

chapter 1 - two of hearts

2.2K words

warnings - bi reader (just because i felt like it)

masterlist / next chapter

Eddie squints, fingers tightening around the plastic bag of devil’s lettuce in his palm, “You came here for what?”

Mike sighs, a hand threading through his tangled hair as he reaches out for the weed, Eddie yanking the bag back before he can snatch it. Laying his hands flat on the wooden picnic table, Mike looks up tentatively at Eddie, as if approaching a wild animal, “So.”

“Uh oh?”

“Just listen - so, the deal is that my girlfriend, Jane- “ Mike reaches up and gestures between the both of them, “You remember her, right?”

“Yeah,” Eddie nods surely, stuffing the bag of contraband into his black, metal lunchbox, “Nice girl.”

“Well, she’s got this strict dad, right?”

“Hopper?” Eddie hums, “He seems nuts.”

“He is, he’s got this rule that Jane can’t date unless her sister does,” and this is when the shoe drops - Eddie’s eyes widen, “Which is where you come in,” he watches Eddie’s expression carefully, “I wanna hire you to take out my girlfriend’s sister.”

Eddie’s response is trapped in his throat, then his head shakes - before he can even think straight, he’s waving his hand in refusal, “No. Her? No! You could not pay me to take her out.”

You’re a renowned tempestuous young woman - or as he hears muttered between his peers, a “heinous bitch”.

“What if I actually pay you?”

Eddie tilts his head, knuckles rapping against the wood bench, “Well how much?”

“Thirty per date. Upfront.”

He knows Mike can afford that with his comfortable family in their lofty, two-story house.

So Eddie punches up.

“Forty,” and he internally rejoices when one of Mike’s hands outstretches to shake his - but instead of relenting this excitement, he asks, “What kind of stuff does she like?”

Mike blanks. That airheaded stare people get in their eyes when they have no clue what you’re saying but try to appear as though they do. Mike gets that look a lot.

“You don’t know?” Eddie’s brows raise, he grins and blows air through puckered lips, “You’re a terrible brother-in-law, Michael.”

“She’s the older one! It’s her job to get to know me.”

“Bad excuse.”

“Whatever,” Mike rolls his eyes and pushes himself up from the table, swinging a leg over the bench, “Thanks,” before he can wander too far, he pauses, “Actually, there’s this club - The Sunset - she goes Wednesdays and Saturdays.”

“And tomorrow is Saturday,” Eddie blurts.

Mike hums, over-exaggerated and nothing except sarcastic, “Tomorrow is Saturday - so have fun at The Sunset, Munson!”

The Sunset is a popular spot just outside Hawkins - particularly favored by women in outfits from Molly Ringwald’s closet and kind hearts from a Miss USA interviewer’s daydream. Definitely not the first place people would search for Eddie “the freak” Munson if he were a wanted criminal.

But forty bucks is forty bucks.

So Eddie “the freak” Munson drags a hand over his face and groans, loud and tired, “Sounds like a date.”

From the outside, The Sunrise is an average bar. Few and far windows, plain paint with a red neon sign plastered across the top half of the building. Another neon sign, royal purple, animates itself to spell ‘OPEN’ glass tube letter by glass tube letter.

Based on the inside, Eddie can tell that men typically don’t visit these parts. If he were to speak plainly, he thinks men - specifically, the men that visit bars - are usually insufferable. It’s in the rose pink, rose painting-speckled, peachy-lit hallway that he comes to completely realize this. Even with the same cheesy checkerboard tiled floors, The Sunset with all its shifting lamps and bulbs that paint its women in oranges, pinks, purples, and blues - is far more aesthetically pleasing than The Hideout. But The Hideout has always been safer for metalheads.

And judging by the beloved Stacey Q’s Two of Hearts that he can hear all the way from the hallway, this place is not so tender to his particular breed of outcast. It’s more loving to your brand - the brand that dances with Barb Holland and Robin Buckley under princess pink lights. He decides to linger by the bar’s white counter that, aside from a couple of copper rings, is nearly sparkling clean.

When your throat suddenly cinches and your skin beats a little hotter between soft dresses and softer skin in the crowd, you lean into Barb and raise your voice for her to hear, “I need water!”

“Get me one too?”

Robin perks up and despite your suspicion of her not knowing what you’re talking about, pitches in, “Me too!”

And despite the rolling of your eyes, you nod and meander to the bar.

As you wait, a voice crawls over the back of your neck, “Woah, fancy seeing you here.”

It's one you recognize damn near instantly, not that you’d ever let him know that. So when three bottles of water are in your hands and the bartender is paid, you quirk a brow at the Eddie Munson, “Do I know you?”

“Eddie,” he sticks out a hand, smile glittering like cartoon pearls in the dim lights, “Eddie Munson.”

You don’t take his hand - part by choice and part by how full your own are - but you do say your name back, “What’re you doing here of all places?”

His hand falls against the counter when you make no move to shake it, “Oh, you know, just heard this was the spot to be.”

Taking a peek at the thin Slayer shirt sagging off his sinewy arms, you turn him around by the jean-vest shoulder and trace the DIO patch in the center of his back. He almost jumps at the feather trace that sparks through his spine. It’s bizarre. Spinning him back around, you grin - snarky and critical and all disbelieving, “Yeah, this sure is your spot.”

Through shifting crowds and bumping elbows and shoulders, you still manage to catch how Barb and Robin stare at you so bewildered and wide-eyed. You pay Eddie no mind - you don’t even look back. So Eddie resigns himself to a sigh before leaning across the counter to a woman with inky black coils and ‘NIA’ printed across the top corner of her uniform top.

“Is there a phone I can use?”

She jerks her head to a bubblegum phone on the wall, “Press ‘1’ before dialing.”

Eddie forgets to press ‘1’ and so calling his woodland princess friend takes two tries.

“Cunningham residence - Chrissy speaking.”

“Chris! It’s Eddie, I need a favor,” his back straightens, and he leans against the black sparkly wall, “Is there a party you know about that the general population doesn’t yet?”

He can hear the gears in her head click as she hums, “Stacey Bennett is planning something for this weekend, why?”

“I need something to bring Hopper’s daughter to,” and slams the phone onto the candy pink hook.

Diana Ross’ I’m Coming Out falls down over the floor and the lighting shifts a little more blue and purple. His back sinks into the wall and that’s how he realizes it's foam - that’s also how he comes back to how utterly wrecked a foam wall would be in The Hideout. The lobby and outside hallways would be stained, too.

He finds your eyes through the crowd and can’t yet determine what his fascination with the dark lights reflecting off your skin means. He shoots you a wink. You shout into Robin’s ear before squishing through the people - a plastic water bottle crinkled in your fist.

With narrowed eyes, you ask, “You stalking me?”

“No, but there’s a party at Stacey Bennett’s this weekend,” he leans closer so the both of you can hear each other, “I’d just about die to take you.”

“What’s your sudden obsession, Munson?” you eye him from head to toe warily.

With folded arms, he shrugs, “You just look drop-dead gorgeous tonight.”

“Only tonight?”

“Yeah, usually you look hideous.”

You giggle at that and he likes to imagine the good sum his guardian angel just rolled for that to happen. Nudging Eddie in the ribs, you squeeze the plastic bottle closer to your chest, “This really isn’t your scene, Eddie. You might wanna scram.”

“I will,” he untucks his arms just to put up his hands as if they’re tied at the wrist, “but you should definitely come to the party with me.”

Mimicking a slice against his bound hands, you nod, “You can take me, if you agree to drive Robin and Barb too.”

The rush of success almost makes him hop and heel-click right in front of you, “Gladly.”

By the time you return to Diana Ross’ now fading song, Barb leans into you as Eddie did - but this feels less exciting than when Eddie did it, “What was that about?”

Cyndi Lauper’s I’ll Kiss You consumes the dance floor and Robin snickers in that cute way to make you question why people don’t flock to her as they do to Chrissy Cunningham. She punches you on the arm, “Looked like true love or something.”

“No talking about boys at The Sunrise,” you’re surprised they even let Eddie’s ass in, “But we’re going to a party this weekend, so plan something nice to wear.”

Mr. Kennedy is an English teacher from a John Hughes movie and as much as you appreciate his grounded teaching style with students - he also has bizarre ideas for final exams.

“You’ll be making a yearbook with the partner I’ve written on this slip of paper - your yearbook will have to show how your relationship has changed from now until the end of the year and how you’ve gotten to know your partner.”

A slip of folded paper is dropped on your desk with a scitter and you peel the folds apart to see a chicken scratched Eddie Munson. You raise a hand as the boy jingles over with his chain loop and dented lunchbox. Mr. Kennedy pauses mid-stroll down the aisle of desks on your left and sighs.

“Yes, Ms. Opinion on Everything?”

At that, you deflate, body wilting entirely, “I don’t have an opinion on everything.”

“Yes?”

Eddie never really noticed how Mr. Kennedy would speak to people besides himself, but when he sees you try and perk up despite his annoyance - it’s like his eleventh-grade hallucigenia-induced ego death all over again.

“Is there a page limit for the yearbook?”

Mr. Kennedy nods curtly, in the blunt way that usually got people to giggle until it was aimed at them, “Maximum six pages - full offense, I don’t feel like reading a hundred essays.”

That’s when you turn to face Eddie, brows raised and arms folded across the desk, “Dickhead, am I right?”

“Precisely what I was thinking.”

You were the one to pitch a section structure. Hobbies and interests. Favorite things. Academics and extracurriculars. And the future. Eddie could hardly say what exactly he liked about your plan but he knew it was good - something about the categorized neatness. The way he could peek at how your brain would operate.

“Wow,” he leans on one hand while you’re already jotting ideas for your yearbook, “you’re so smart and you don’t have a boyfriend yet?”

Automatically, as if he’d flipped a simple light switch, you’re groaning and drenched in sarcastic giddy, “Noooo, nobody’s even asked me out yet.”

“Now, I find that hard to believe,” he should be writing what he knows about you - Robin and Barb and the colors pink, blue, and purple - but he’s too busy trying to have you admit he’s something akin to a date.

“Well, you better get to believing it because there’s nobody in my court,” just as you’re pulling back and he’s decided to get at least some work done, you sigh, “Well…”

Eddie shoots straight, bats his eyelashes and leans forward, “‘Well’? Pray tell.”

Shaking your head, there’s a small smile on your lips - something Eddie has to search for, “Some super suave sucker asked me to Stacey Bennett’s party.”

He bats your arm like you’re lifelong friends, “That’s exciting!”

As if he isn’t talking himself up.

“Mhm,” you finally put down your pencil, both hands souped in your lap as you look into Eddie’s baby cow eyes. You find them bizarrely cute. That makes you sick, “But I’m really unsure because even though we’ve technically known each other for years, he’s only just now expressing interest,” he presses his mouth thinly and it's a crime to hide those plump lips, “It’s weird.”

“I dunno,” he drums his fingertips against the desk, “The sucker seems like a nice guy.”

But his tummy twists in knots because he knows you absolutely have a reason to be suspicious. All the same, though, you shrug and he watches a couple bricks fall out of your wall.

“Yeah… maybe.”

You two return to your yearbooks after that. Walls a little shakier than before as you jot down things you know Eddie is ostracized for and adding small oddities you’ve noticed. Metal, D&D, chains and a black bandana, pushy nature, and a strangely comforting aura. Eddie clicks his pen a few dozen times before putting down a bulleted list that looks nothing like your categorized paper.

Robin, Barb, the colors pink, blue, and purple; and a good intuition.

He wishes he had more - but he’s never claimed to be the most observant guy in the room. Briefly, he considers asking Mike if that’s something you look for in a partner.

[fixdex-fastening-technology]

❤️FIXDEX produce hardware such as wedge anchorthrough bolt, threaded rod...

[peemanne]

rgg game osts ranked Yeah.................

LONG ASS POST AHEAD!!!!!! BAH!!!!!!!!!!!

for context awhile back a yakuza discord server i'm in had a music discussion thread open up and we were invited to make simple little tier lists for the game osts to start it off. it was supposed to be just the tier list but i eventually spiraled into a whole ramble. whoops. so i might as well just paste it here with a few additions so the rest of you can see it yippee!!!!!!!!!!!!

will be providing my reasonings and then my highlight tracks. i'm gonna provide convenient youtube links to all the songs mentioned so if you wanna check one of them out feel free to just click the hyperlink

and yes this is ordered in tiers. the personal highlights aren't though

>Yakuza 5 is my personal top 1 OST overall, but it's seriously close. I can't tell you enough how much of a nut I am for this series and its music. Yakuza 5's ost is, in my eyes, the most consistently hard-hitting amongst all of RGG's catalogue. The street fight themes are all amazing, the boss fight themes hit hard and pump you the hell up, and this also has the one of the best B-sides out of all of them, with stuff like Baka Mitai (fun fact, Saejima's is actually considered the original version, Kiryu's "Taxi Driver Edition" actually uses a different key to fit Kuroda's voice), the songs from Haruka's section, and even the jazzy bar themes. 5 hits that perfect balance of quantity and quality, and also happens to fill like half of my workout playlist.

Personal Highlights:

The place where I used to be

Daigo's western theme

Victory Road

and of course The Battle for the Dream

>I am such a sucker for Yakuza 4's music direction. As Tehsnakerer said in his Yakuza 4 video, this is the first truly GREAT soundtrack, and I'd have to agree. The jazzier style of music on showcase here fits this series- and this entry ESPECIALLY- like a glove. This is such a quality collection of sounds. Featuring the best panic themes, the best chase themes, and some iconic street battle themes. 4's direction makes it stand out even more amongst RGG's catalogue, and I couldn't be happier about it. Also, this game gave us Machine Gun Kiss and Pure Love in Kamurocho, which are two of my favorite karaoke tracks in the whole series.

Please bring back Pure Love in Kamurocho for a modern title, RGG. I'm begging you.

Personal Highlights:

Solitude

Receive and Bite You

Infinite Handcuffs

yeah yeah fine For Faith

Why couldn't they use this for the actual cover instead of the weird one we have now like come on this looks so much better

>Is anyone gonna disagree with me when I say Lost Judgment is easily the best out of the more techno-focused soundtracks? They handle it perfectly here, with tracks that grab you by the throat like K.O.G. and Dig In Your Heels, utilizing the electric sound with effortless grace, while still having enough variety throughout to keep it from getting stale. I also found the B-sides here surprisingly strong alongside the main game, with the school stories giving us a nice variety of music to work with. The boxing ones and Toward To The Skyline are what I'd highlight in that selection.

Personal Highlights:

In the Groove

Unwavering Belief / Dig in Your Heels

Final Destination

1811

>Gaiden oh my gah......... Despite the shorter game, I seriously dig the tracks on display here. It's so consistently amazing, and does a great job of servicing both the legacy of Kiryu, and giving us some Good Shit™️ for the newer faces. This is also when I really came to appreciate the cutscene tracks: Wounded Beast is such a kickass track that you'd be forgiven for thinking it plays in an actual fight, and Psycho's Prelude is an amazing hype-up track for an even more amazing boss theme. Also worth mentioning there's like a gajillion coliseum tracks in this one. Have no idea why but y'know I appreciate it. It's cool.

Personal Highlights:

Psycho's Anthem

Deadly Struggle / Fleeting Dream (HAKANAKI YUME)

Bring It On (best street fight track to date i'm not taking notes at this time)

Un altro appassionato

>0 has One-Eyed Assassin so it automatically goes here. The rest of the tracks are decent too ig 🙄 There are a few sort of those "eh whatever cool skip it" tracks in here which hold it back a teeny bit in my eyes, but this is still a really solid collection overall, and also gets props for being Kiwami's soundtrack if it was good. I'm kidding of course but 0 handles it pretty well for the most part. I find 0 is at its best music-wise when they either go all-in with the techno, or shy away from it almost entirely.

Personal Highlights:

Make You Free

Both Receive You remixes (The Subtype and ~Tech Trance Arrange~)

Interplanetary Spark

Reign

>Yakuza 6 has Lots of Lights so it automati I think 6 does a really good job at telling a story through its music. You have tragedy being painted in Fist Law and DESTINY, you have sheer anger and brutality being portrayed in Body and Soul, and you can even find it in the street themes with the feeling of "I am completely done with all of this bullshit" in KAMURO again. I also wanna say this has some of ZENTA's best work, which I really really REALLY appreciate.

Personal Highlights:

Lots of Lights

DESTINY

Bloodstained Philosophy (coolest name for a track i can't lie)

Theory of Beauty

>Judgment immediately does a great job of differentiating itself from the Yakuzas, and it's apparent as soon as you get into the street fight tutorial. The OST does a great job of painting Yagami and the overall bleaker picture of the game. Where some battle themes in the main series feel like a victory lap, JE instead sometimes has you feel like you're on the backfoot. Lambda, Hyenas Wheezing, and Rake Your Inside are all tracks that make you feel like an underdog, and give you that strength to power through what seems like impossible odds. It also has Flower of Chivalry so it aut

Personal Highlights:

Encounter ~ Keihin Alliance

Hyena's Wheezing

Penumbra

Destination

>Like a Dragon (/7) is another heavily techno leaning OST. If you asked me about it a few months ago, I probably would have put this higher. But now with IW out, I've started to see more of 7's OST's flaws. There are few tracks that are either weirdly low-energy, or feel a little generic and mesh together with the rest of the soundtrack, or at worst, both. But 7 still has quite the number of solid tracks, and those that stand out REALLY stand out. Shoutout to one of the most unique long battle tracks in Enter the Tiger.

Personal Highlights:

Brutality

Receive You The Hyperactive

REIWA LABYRINTH

ism

>Yakuza 3 acts as a sort of bridge between the rough, almost grunge-like sound of the PS2 era and the cleaner compositions of later entries. And I think it does both of those styles pretty well! It also starts to experiment with electric sound a little more, while still keeping the heavy guitars 1+2 are known for. The best are obviously composed of the tracks that do both. They even keep the unintelligible English lyrics in some tracks, what's not to love?

Personal Highlights:

Lyricism Without Tears

Clay Doll On The Cradle

Fly

D2A BABY YEAH BEST THEME EVER MADE D2A D2A D2A D2A

(2!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

>Atmosphere is a large part of the PS2 era of Yakuza games' identity, and the music is a pretty large part of that. Yakuza 2 has an aggressive, grungy sound that pairs perfectly with the brutality of the game. You'll find some of the most of the most rough sounding songs in RGG's catalogue in here, and it's just so good in a way that isn't really replicated in the more modern entries. Also one of the tracks (Block Head Boy) samples Wu-Tang for some reason and I find that very funny.

Personal Highlights:

Evil Itself

North Menace

Hit & Kill

Outlaw's Lullaby (I still think the Kiwami 2 remix is the better of the two but this one's still SO good please listen to it if you haven't already)

whatcho beautiful ass staring at kaito my king >Kaito Files has like 6 tracks. They're all pretty good tracks, but that's like 6 tracks. Come on. Anyways, it's basically just more LJ music, so uhhhh yeah peak

Personal Highlights (plural would be like all of them)

Blood-Drunk Master Theme

>Kiwami 2. Yeah this one falls into the same trap as 7 does, but with less of those "This is the greatest thing to grace my ears" tracks. It still has some of them, though. The best remixes here are the ones that touch up and make completely sure that what the original has is intact: Lullaby of Outlaws and A Scattered, Eternal Moment are both fantastic in that regard. This also has a decent chunk of completely new tracks, presumably because they couldn't get certain composers back. You have stuff like the amazing triple-part track that plays in the Kamurocho Hills segment, Rebellious Phase which is decent, and the randomly amazing Break Off. Still a crime Evil Itself was snubbed like that smh.

Personal Highlights:

Lullaby of Outlaws

A Scattered, Eternal Moment

Kamuro Hills

Update with Gunfire

(1!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

>Unfortunately, like with most aspects, Yakuza 2 does everything the first game did better. Still though, some quality tracks here. Yakuza 1 doesn't have too much to work with, but it still does utilize its few track slots well. From long-standing iconic tracks like Receive You, to Funk Goes On, and even the off B-side tracks like Singin' Bass, there really isn't a miss in here, just moreso a lack of super standout tracks. There's still quite a few to love despite that, of course.

Personal Highlights

son of a gun

Turning Point

Receive You The Prototype

Funk Goes On

>kiwami 1 ost snorkkkkkk mimimimimimimim snorkkkkkk mimim Alright I'm exaggerating, but I still think it's pretty weak in comparison to the rest. There's a lot of tracks that just feel kinda butchered to me? And it's not like the new tracks are particularly standout or anything. The tracks that do work are genuinely really good: Ideal For Violence is uhhhh perfect, Get Over It is a really strong long battle theme, Pray Me ~Revive~ is on par, if not arguably better than the original, and For Whose Sake Kiwami matches the sorrow of the original pretty well. But then you have stuff like Funk Goes On 極 which feels weirdly weak, Receive You the madtype which feels sorely outclassed by like, every single other Majima Receive You, and what would be arguably the strongest track, Receive You Reborn, doesn't even show up outside of Japanese versions. Kiwami isn't all bad, hell, there are some really good standouts here, but it just can't really compare to the rest in my eyes.

Personal Highlights:

Ideal For Violence

Get Over It

Amusing Octagon

Everlasting Spirit

>Infinite Wealth sits in haven't listened enough of solely because I haven't finished the game and thus haven't touched any track past Kooky (UPDATE: now any track past Impregnable Triangle. I'm planning to do the finale by this weekend). By any other metric this would have shot UP. I ADORE this OST. The cutscene tracks, the generic battle themes, the boss themes, the B-sides, they're all so excellent. This inadvertently made 7's OST worse for me because of how much better it handles the techno.

Personal Highlights:

Brutality ~Rebuild~

Impregnable Triangle (Fun fact: this track uses the time signature of 3/4, which is a waltz. I'll let you fill in the blanks for what that means for the theming.)

Kooky

Slugfest (Yamaniacs stay winning what can i say)

ok so uhhh apparently i hit the character limit lmao. didn't even know this site had one. uhhhhhh will continute in a reblog it's just kurohyou and ishin anyways

[wordspin-shares]

Word Search Tag Game

I was tagged forever ago by @darthnell. Thank you so much for the tag!

Rules: Something along the lines of "find the four assigned words in your WIP(s), post the relevant snippet, and assign new words to those you tag."

My words are growl, weave, bone and leaf.

From my TVD fanfic From the Sidelines:

"He feels you're a threat to him," Claire said. Cicero growled softly.

From the latest draft of my LotR fanfic Edged in Silver:

As the open tent-flaps were drawn closed when the grand pavilion filled with people, Idrin took her place on the bench beside her brothers and watched serving-maids weave their way between the long trestle tables, bearing trays of meat pies, eels fried in lemongrass, salads of rocket and leaf-chicory and pine-nuts, fresh bread-buns, spiced wine and ale.

Again from From the Sidelines:

Claire moved toward the bar, watching. His words made her intrigue give way to a frown. What bone did he have to pick with Ric?

From my Grishaverse fanfic Thread of Twilight:

She clasped her hands together to stop them from moving. A cluster of fallen leaves by her feet slid towards the base of the nearest tree.

Tagging: @thecharmedburrowspn-files @arrthurpendragon @darknightfrombeyond @bibaybe @bisexualterror @bi-ologistofthehills @bluebell-winter @themaradwrites @mabonetsamhain @asirensrage @ginger-grimm @foxesandmagic @anqelwiithhxrns @come-along-pond @bobfloydsbabe, and anyone else who wants to join in the fun!

Your words are blue, knife, wait and dress.

[clownfishie]

finally decided to look into whether or not my favorite flavor of clif bar (caramel toffee and sea salt!!) was actually discontinued or I just never see anymore.... well, it is discontinued, and apparently so are a lot of others. Found a whole reddit thread of people listing their favorites that are no longer made— most of the coffee flavors, some of the filled ones, even the like seemingly staple nuts and berries one? Why are there only like chocolate and peanut options now?? Ended up on clif's website under FAQ, and they have this *really* brand loyal inspiring message:

the hell good does this do me. Feels so condescending 😭

[moon-blanket]

My world is forever changed by the Cataclysm. Here is my descent to madness.

There's So Much More in my notes app, but that would make this post MILES long. So i've condensed it to the highlights :3

It's That Time of Year Again

Reminds me of the Prologue of the first Vaxis album from Coheed and Cambria for absolutely no reason at all. This is probably something only I will understand. And this is okay.

Light the Match

I just realized that Asher has taken over David's low, rumbly voice :((

Milo's "who you callin' a runt" had me on my knees. And Asher whispering to him afterward YEAAAAAAAH.

Alexis "shared a bed" with Quinn for FORTY YEARS ??? LMAO ??? The way Vincent drags Alexis's name through the mud is a little hilarious though, so bold.

One Misery for Another

I cannot get over how drastically different Imp!Lasko is from Prime Lasko. It's an entirely different person. I'm into it though.

Lasko wanting to continue their conversation when the "normal business hours" are over is a little unnerving !! That's a little icky sire !!

----

VINDEMIATOR MY BABY MY BABY I COULD CRYYY !!!!

He sounds so relieved to see them. I'm going to go Nuts.

Him hating that Freelancer has to put up with so much just to be able to See Him, and them saying that it's all worth it :(( He sounds so SAD. He just wants them SAFE :(((

THE RETURN OF "My Love" YEAAHHAHAHAAA.

Holy shit the Demons are gonna take over the Academy. Just the idea of all of the Demon Boys knowing each other makes me giggle though :3

Vin doesn't want Freelancer in any more danger than they already are just to help them in their cause :(( and he Knows that they would do it in a heartbeat regardless :((

ooough my freaking GOD Vin reminding them that they don't owe any of them to do this, He's the one that owes his life to THEM :(( HE JUST WANTS THEM HAPPY AND AT PEACE, AND HE WANTS TO GIVE IT TO THEM SO BAD. WAAAAH.

God the acting in this video is SO GOOD ROOOOOAR.

Was Anton in this before he was introduced in the Prime Universe ? bc that's Cool if that's the case.

The Luxury of Morality

WE BACK WITH ASHER YAAAA I'M SAT AND I'M LISTENING.

He already sounds like he's warmed up to Babe a significant amount. He sounds so soft. I'm shaking the bars of my cage about this.

Asher mentioning Avior is So weird to me. My worlds are colliding.

Once again he sounds So Much like David and that makes me So Sad.

"I'm already dead. We all are. I'd rather go out knowing I tried something. Anything." i'm tearing UP.

"You want to know so bad ? Sit." AAAAAH OKAY !!! OKAY !!!

Alexis killed the Keaton Pack all by herself ?? Oh my god ???

OUGUGHHhhash Asher saying that Babe gave him and his Pack something to fight for :(( A way for his anger to actually Mean someething. To make something Good of his life for once.

He's forever grateful to them WAAAH. OUCH DUDE. Okay yep he's my Imperium Favorite. We have a Winner !!!!

What You Deserve

Oh, it's Imperium Vega !!! he's actually very sweet, I see the appeal now. This is so nice.

----

OH we're picking Right Back Up with Freelancer and Lasko. This seems.... kind of normal right now. I feel Dread.

Asking about partners... saying "That body..." TO them... HEY. Leave them alone >:(

"You're with your own kind" is a CRAZY thing to say Lasko !!

VIN HAVING TO WATCH THEM DO ALL OF THIS ? OH MY GOD. VIN WANTING TO JUMP IN AND SAVE THEM I'M GOING CRAZY !!!! Hearing him this heated has me kicking my feet !!! and giggling !!

Dude i'm scared while Freelancer is doing this !!! the door rattling is frightening !!!

HE TOOK ALL THE AIR OUT OF THE ROOM ??? WHAT THE FUCK ??

Lasko these pain sounds are So Interesting !!!

"Get your Pet to Safety" / "They are Not my Pet." / "You and I use different words for the Same sentiment. Get the "human that you care for" out of here"-- EATING THIS UP WITH A FORK AND KNIFE.

VEGA CUT LASKO'S THREADS LETS GOOOO.

Worth Dying For

"Say hello to Scorpio !" / "It's Scorpius"-- this is so cute LMAO. WOOO !!!! HI GBA !!

ASH WANTS TO OVERCLOCK HIS CORE ?? WHAT.

----

JETT ?? COMISSIONER JETT ??? CONSUL JETT ??

DAMIEN EXECUTED ANGEL ??? WHAT THE FUCK IS HAPPENING.

Angel you are a Hero. Rest in Peace you will be So missed. I love you forever.

----

Milo is Such a good Beta. And a good Friend. He's so concerned for Asher :(((

Asher really is cookin' up a plan fr. I feel like it sounds good in theory, but i just Know that this shit is going to go south real quick.

Milo saying Asher's Full Name instead of "Ash" about all of this :(

I LOVE MILO SO MUUUCH I'M WEEPING HE CARES SO MUCH AND SO DEEPLY. HE'S BEGGING ASHER TO LET HIM BE ABLE TO HELP :((((((

MILO KNOCKING OUT ASHER ???? ASKING FOR HIS CORE TO BE OVERCLOCKED INSTEAD ?? IT'S THE INVERSION ALL OVER AGAIN ?? HE'S GONNA TRY AND TAKE ALEXIS OUT HIMSELF ?? MILO HONEY PLEASE.

Truth Will Out

Sam what the fuck are we doing outside of the academy right now sir !!

Now why do i think he's lying about really wanting to help out against the Imperium.

----

Starlight has officially earned their petname :')

After Avior pointed out how it never stops raining, I think i get why Gavin said that storms remind him of Aria in his one HBW audio.

----

"You're too gentle, Pet." yeah i'm going to go nuts about this.

The way Vega talks about them and the trust they put in him :((

Oooh Vega called in the Vampires. That's intriguing. General Vega sir yes sir o7.

THEY STRIKE TONIGHT ? WHAT.

----

VINDEMIATOR TAKING CARE OF FREELANCER WOOOOO.

Freelancer wants to run away with Vin and forget everything :(((

He wants to save the world specifically so Freelancer can live. What if I start crying again. Get them their little house in the woods NOW.

His little "but what if they fail ?" HURT. OUCH.

"Put your arms around my neck. Hold onto me. We're getting out of here." oh my god i'm INSANE. THE DELIVERY WAS PERFECT. The quiet reassured determination oh my god oh my god.

But it also !! Scares me !! What if he really IS what they need to save the world ! aahhah oh no !!

if i said i wanted more Sad Gavin would all of you be mad at me. Him professing his love in 500 little ways through tears Got Me. That was delicious. Can we have More of that please.

Tantum Tyrannus

This title goes So hard by the way. If google serves me right it means "Great Tyrant." I'm sure You All knew this already. But i did not.

Oh my god is this Sweetheart asking where Milo is. IT IS.

Sweetheart insisting they come save Milo too RAAAAH. They pulled the "I'm not letting my Mate die when i can Do something" card and it worked LETS GOOO.

----

NATE WEXLER IS HERE TOO ? No way this man is voiced by Erik. Man Damien said Fuck Global Warming.

----

ALEXIS VOICE !!! This was Groundbreaking when it released. I'm glad they got the same VA for the Summit. Hey girlypop. How are you.

MILO OH MY GOD. SHE BROKE HIS ARM DUDE ?

SHE FELL FOR THE BAIT DUDE LETS GOOO. That seemed too easy. What !! IS MILO OKAY. PLEASE LET HIM BE OKAY. Milo you are my Hero do not die.

----

Asher throwing Alexis's head down in front of Vincent is ICONIC.

"Impressive bite." / "Want me to show you ?"-- Yeah i'm on my knees about this.

MILO'S ALIVE WOOO !! ASHER KILLING VINCENT WOO !!!! SPITTING HIS BLOOD OUT !!! ASHER TALBOT THE MAN THAT YOU ARE !!!!!

Last Wish

All of my notes this section have :((( on them LMAO. I was SAD.

Milo's little "hey" when Asher opens the door :((( he sounds so exhausted this whole video :((

We're back to Inversion magic worries oh no. Asher reassuring Milo that he's still family regardless, just like David did in the Prime. I need to stop crying PLEASE.

Asher admitting to Milo that he couldn't have done it alone. Milo telling him how important he is to the Pack :((((

MILO ASKING WHY THEY'RE STILL CALLED SHAW PACK :((( BECAUSE THEY'LL ANSWER TO HIM REGARDLESS :((((

Oh my fucking god the reason being that Ash doesn't need to be honored with the name, David and Darlin' do... and he's not ready to give up David's name yet :(( OUCH.

WHEN HE SAYS DAVID WAS HIS MATE HIS CORE STAYS DARK :((( So the Shaw Pack is a way of keeping that feeling alive in a more Human Way.

ASHER CRYING IN MILO'S ARMS :((((((((

"I love you, Ash. Please come home." STOP MAKING ME CRY.

Asher saying "Take care of each other, okay ?" to Sweetheart and Milo. you know the way he meant it. I'm going to YELL.

----

Vega reminding Avior that he is needed to lead, but the strike is happening now-- so Vega will do it. Scary !!

Despite their arguing, Vega refuses to fight Avior because he respects him. That's nice.

VEGA CAN SEND PEOPLE BACK TO ARIA ?? HE CAN RIFT ?? You know. This makes sense giving that we know that Vega is as old as he is now.

Okay. Well. Goodbye Avior and Starlight ! I was about to wonder if they get stuck in Hell again, but immediately got my question answered LMAO.

The mentioned tears and voids, like in Prime. Are those holes in the Meridian ?? They have to be right. That's why Project Meridian exists. Wires in my brain are connecting now. I understand.

This Meridian is loud as FUCK.

"Child of Land. You are needed." RETURN !!! LETS GOOOO !!!

----

Asher hitting the door... kinda got to me !! that was a little hot !! I kicked my feet about it a little bit !!

BRACHIUM ????? What the hell are you doing here loca !!!

Finale | All Cruel Things

FIFTY ONE MINUTES ???

Vega is scary !! But the words he is saying are poetic as fuck !!

----

THEY BOUND ALL THE INVOCATIONS TO BRACHIUM ???

OOoh Brachium being the First exiled Demon. How interesting.

Asher talking about how there's No One Waiting for him. That there is no "Other Side" to get to. David isn't waiting for him somewhere :((( Everything he ever cares for keeps Dying. And are Gone. :(((

I am just sitting in awe at this whole interaction. I am Mystified.

----

Sam's evil laugh !! Hello sir !! Is this Sam and Vincent talking. Do you think they're besties :3

This whole conversation between him and Damien is. yummy.

----

E'LAETUM AND MIN'ARA !!! Hi guys !! Or you !!

"Let us speak through you" oh my GOD ? They got Blake'd. They stopped Vega's rift !!! I'm sure that's what happened in Prime too.

"Bring us a Sovereign" Do you think this is the solution in Prime also... do you think this is what Hush is for. Lots of things to think about this.

Once again this Meridian is loud as FUCK !!! OUCH !! i'm just trying to hear everyone Talk dude. Please be so nice to me.

THEY TOOK EVERY SOVEREIGN ?? ESSENTIALLY KICKED EVERYONE OUT OF ARIA TO FEED ?? FLOODING IT WITH DEMONS ??

ECHO ???

----

Sam turned Damien ... . . .. oh my god. HE MAKES HIM LICK HIS BOOT ?? CALLS HIM A BITCH ??? WHAT IS HAPPENING LMAO. Thinking lots of things right now. Lots and lots and lots of things.

----

SAM CROWNING HIMSELF KING ??? Okay that's kinda a slay. I see the intentions he had on wanting to help Vega.

This place is about to go fucking Crazy with all the Vampires. Asher and Avior you gotta get your people OUTTA HERE.

ECHO AGAIN ??? Ooough it's the ending !! Honestly what an amazing ending. What a great cliffhanger, even though it's not a cliffhanger at all-- it's an end. Ending two worlds just to save the divider. They did in fact Trade One Misery for Another, oh the cruel irony.

Surely this won't happen in the Prime right ? haha. . ..

----

THERE'S MORE ??? A POST CREDITS SCENE ?? I wonder how far into the future this is. Probably not too terribly far.

SAM GOT HUXLEY AS DAMIEN'S MEAL ??? OH MY GOD ??? Doomed Romance....

The tension is CRAAAZY. HE'S TURNING HIM INTO HIS PROGENY ??? HELL YEAH DUDE.

Final Thoughts: This was AMAZING !!!! Why did I avoid this for so long. How could you all keep this from me. Asher, Milo, and Vindemiator are my babygirls. I could literally think Forever about the Imperium Wolf Pack, and I hope Vin and Freelancer are able to keep their peace somewhere in the woods. I have a bunch of Imperium Fics that need rereading ASAP. The brainrot is Disasterous. You are my hero if you read ALL of this. I owe you my life. I'm so sorry lmao.

[rathologic]

sorry if you've discussed this in detail b4 but I'm curious how you feel about marble nest as a game/text especially compared to P2...

I don't have a ton of thoughts on it really! I think it's frustrating that the "all a dream" nature of The Marble Nest makes it hard to connect into any discussion of how it reflects on "real" p2 - its being subjective to Dankovsky is kind of an excuse to retcon any of the game. its 2019 (bundled) release was a huge downgrade; beyond cutting out a lot of content including the House of Death quest, rats, and the "break marat's neck with your bare hands" cutscene, and making the lighting/shaders homogeneous with release p2's shaders, its addition of the stamina bar turns walking around from a necessity of motion where the player didn't need to worry about their speed into a pointless stamina management minigame that constantly diverts the player's attention. just visually and ludologically 1.5 stars worse and yet IPL asks you to pay for that version & also the 2016 one isn't downloadable anymore. 👎

I enjoy the focus on townsfolk/unnamed NPCs over the People list (and am excited to see this continue in the upcoming route), especially the portrayal of the major characters as chess pieces implying that they're seen in a strategic-manipulation kind of way, and how the same treatment extends to the NPCs you interact with in order to get the true ending. in short, the way that having to select specific actions and get specific endings for plot threads overrules the Bachelor's personal will and his care for people in the pursuit of "winning" / the truth, in the same way that his tooltip thoughts about the adherents are secondary to their roles and usage in the game he's been playing... very characteristic of him :-)

tmn is 95% of all characterization we have for p2 Georgiy so as a note, I love Georgiy's writing in the marble nest, he's awful but he's one of the only p2 characters who has a defined philosophy and will actually explain it to the player and attempt to achieve his own goals at your expense. it's literally not georgiy's fault that haruspex route copied his deal for its OWN antagonist. similarly, Aspity's great in it it's nice that she got to have a character and express her view of death at some point before being flattened into a mother figure for the haruspex. eva comes pre-fridged in this one so we don't get to see the hole generated by her absence, only how sad the bachelor feels walking past her house, which could've been at least mentioned in the cathedral part but my theory is the writers just didn't know what they wanted to do with her yet. other notes:

the graveman is one of the best and coolest game design features they could've added & fixes tmn's most annoying aspect in a way that adheres to the bachelor's constant themes about time

the meta aspect of being a video game played by the player is handled much more cleanly IMO by the time loop than by 2's theater play framing

even with unlimited sprint, walking is The weak point - while it's mitigated a little by having so much wandering NPC dialogue and frequent event changes, it's a lot of time and attention spent without even the reward of (having a use for) trash pickups, and I think the district's sound design could've been improved to add variety. boats fix this in the haruspex route

the graphics and mechanics don't take precedence over the narrative content / dialogue so it feels way more solid and put-together. including how every piece ultimately fits together... the use of limited characters and physical space works to ensure that each conversation brings in something unique :-)

AND the kids have a high measure of control over the game situation & ability to speak for themselves, as it were. & it even connects to and ultimately explains a piece of lore (the nuts) and introduces characters (marat and dora) beyond the bounds of what 1 had established, without breaking anything fundamental

in general I think it was excellent as a demo, pretty good as a game in the pathologic franchise, and definitely a worthy use of (checks notes) 8.15 gigabytes of hard drive capacity. and the important thing is that it's fun

[everydaydg]

37. Space Invaders Extreme 2 (DS, 2009)

(A bit of catch up, You can skip this whole part)

To start: You might ask what’s up with the number 37 there, well let me explain

Back on twitter I started a small thread with every game I’ve beaten and replayed this year to keep up with what I’ve played. Every game got a small review too.

I did 36 games, so I’m going to continue from there (if you don’t want to check the whole thread, here’s the link and if you are not feeling like scrolling through all that, here’s a simple list)

Anyyyyways, let’s get on with the small review.

(The Review starts here)

Space Invaders Extreme 2 is a great sequel to a really fun game!

While it’s not the most innovative sequel, it just hit all the right notes when making a sequel to a game like Space Invaders Extreme

To start! The audio is FANTASTIC

Taito's internal band, ZUNTATA came back to make another soundtrack on the DS after their incredible work (with SuperSweep on Arkanoid DS and the first Space Invaders Extreme on DS

Needless to say, the soundtrack is absolutely fantastic and its dynamic implementation in the game is fantastic, when hitting Fever, the music just GOES IN bringing more intensity to the short time fever lasts (same applies to the bosses!)!!

The soundtrack is fantastic but what makes it even better in game are the SFX, they all compliment the music brilliantly. Every shot and hit is like adding a new instrument to the music and it just... it just works man.

Here take a look!

with the game footage there I think it’s about time I bring up the visuals

It’s a HUUGE improvement over the original! Let’s start with improvements to the HUD

Everything is a whole lot more organized with the chain counter being on the bottom screen and the feature counter being horizontal (which leads to a cute animation when getting a fever UFO)

A lot of the space on the top screen is now taken up by the new bingo grid which ends up looking nice with the red green and blue (I will provide an explanation for bingo later)

it all makes for a HUD that’s easy to understand and looks nice.

onto another aspect of the presentation, the sprites and animation!

A lot more animation has been given to everything! The invaders have a new explosion animation (that looks a little better than the original Imo), every shot animation has been improved (Laser looks nicer and Broad Shot is now green, instead of the originals yellow, and has a nicer shoot animation), pickups spin now, the feature counter turns into arrows and moves away as a fever UFO comes in and the menus are way more lively now as there are more options on screen and there is a FMV (but I won’t deny that the simplicity of the original is great)

I’ve mostly focused on sprite animation there so I should mention the FMVs a bit.

The closest I can compare it to is DDR, where the foreground has nice flashy graphics while the background is going nuts with a video

The style the FMVs go for is so damm nice man, I don’t have the words to describe it, it’s timeless and unique. It reminds me of FMVs in the PS2 DDRs and by golly do I miss those visuals.

The first game did it and it worked so of course it works great here

(Not making a whole section for this but the main ship has a nice gradient now. I like it a lot).

So! gameplay! There’s a couple of improvements and a new system!

To start Fever is a lot less intrusive. It works the same way as before, fill both Feature bar completely (kill 4 invaders with the same color to fill half of the bar, do the same to fill the other and the bar resets when you kill an invader of a different color(for example let’s say you've killed 3 green invaders and then you hit a blue one, after hitting the blue one the bar is reset back to nothing) and then kill the rainbow UFO that appears.

Afterwards you enter fever mode. Anyway, the important thing is that they made it a whole lot more natural, In the original fever stopped the game a bit, you had to see a "Round Start" FMV that stopped the main game and switched you to a small challenge zone, after clearing said challenge you get booted back to the main course with fever mode.

So! SI EX2 doesn’t stop the gameplay, a small sprite appears on the bottom screen saying "ROUND START" and then most of the info on the top screen clears out to start the small challenge while the main course is still going on the bottom screen!! after clearing it, it goes straight into fever! Now UFOs appear constantly on the top screen while every enemy on the bottom screen drops a bunch of pickups that give out extra points. I really like this change! It uses the dual screens to great capacity and it doesn’t break the pace!

The new system is the bingo system!

I suck at explaining this so here’s an excerpt from Gaming Nexus’s 2009 review of the game:

"If you complete a Fever Time successfully, it fills in a slot on a 3 by 3 bingo card on the top screen—the slot color matches the color of the four enemies you killed to start the Fever Time in the first place. If you line up three colored squares in a row you get Bingo Time, an even crazier bonus round that grants huge score bonuses. This bingo card opens up a ton of score combo possibilities and if you’re good you can fill in the whole card, which needless to say nets you an insane amount of points."

This replaces the roulette system from the last game and I think it’s a more compelling inclusion overall, bringing a lot of opportunities to get HUUGEE scores.

Anyway, in terms of the main gameplay its good ol’ space invaders but with power ups

Move left to right and shoot a lot of invaders with power ups like a broad shot, a laser and a bomb that takes out multiple enemies per shot, it’s simple but effective and the game speed is undeniable faster than the original 1978.

So! In conclusion: Space Invaders Extreme 2 is a great game and I heavily recommend it if you are looking for a good schmup on the DS!

It’s a huge shame how it has never gotten a port to any platforms, not even making it to the Space Invaders Invincible Collection... I’m sure it’s because of the dual screen setup but it’s still a little sad.

yea good game. play it.

[ananka-fasteners]

High Nickel Fasteners: Properties, Applications, and Benefits

Introduction to High Nickel Fasteners

High nickel fasteners are specially engineered fastening components made from alloys containing a significant amount of nickel. These fasteners are widely recognized for their exceptional corrosion resistance, high-temperature strength, and durability in extreme environments. Industries such as marine, chemical processing, power generation, aerospace, and oil & gas heavily rely on these fasteners to ensure safety, performance, and longevity of their systems.

Nickel’s inherent ability to resist corrosion and oxidation makes high nickel alloys ideal for applications exposed to harsh conditions. When formed into bolts, nuts, washers, and screws, these alloys deliver unmatched performance that typical stainless steels or carbon steels cannot achieve.

Common Types of High Nickel Alloys Used in Fasteners

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Renowned for outstanding resistance to corrosion and oxidation

Maintains strength at elevated temperatures

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High mechanical strength

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3. Hastelloy Alloys (e.g., C22, C276)

Offers outstanding protection against highly corrosive and acidic media

Ideal for use in chemical processing equipment, including reactors and pressure vessels

4. Nickel 200 / Nickel 201

Commercially pure nickel with good ductility and corrosion resistance

Performs well in caustic and high-temperature environments

Used in electronics, food processing, and synthetic fiber production

5. Alloy 20

A nickel-chromium-molybdenum alloy with added copper

Excellent resistance to sulfuric acid and stress corrosion cracking

Preferred in chemical, food, and pharmaceutical applications

These alloys provide the foundation for high-performance fasteners that meet the demands of the most challenging environments.

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Nuts (Hex Nuts, Lock Nuts, Dome Nuts)

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Screws (Machine Screws, Self-tapping Screws, Set Screws)

Threaded Rods and Bars

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Seawater and brine

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Used in jet engines, exhaust systems, and aircraft structures where high temperature and stress are factors.

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Used in piping systems, reactors, and tanks where aggressive chemicals are handled.

Nuclear and Power Plants

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Pharmaceutical and Food Industry

Chosen for their non-contaminating nature and ability to withstand cleaning and sterilization procedures.

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Extended lifespan, minimizing the need for frequent maintenance and replacements

Reliability in extreme and hazardous conditions

Compatibility with harsh chemicals and high temperatures

High Nickel Fasteners Manufacturer – Ananka Group

At Ananka Group, we are a leading manufacturer, supplier, and exporter of high nickel fasteners in India and across the globe. With state-of-the-art facilities and a commitment to quality, we provide a wide range of nickel alloy fasteners tailored to your specifications.

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Conclusion

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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

What is the difference between Inconel and Monel fasteners?

Inconel offers better performance at high temperatures, while Monel is more corrosion-resistant in marine environments.

Are high nickel fasteners expensive?

Yes, due to the cost of nickel and complex manufacturing, they are more expensive but offer superior longevity and performance.

Can high nickel fasteners be used in seawater?

Absolutely. Alloys like Monel and Inconel are ideal for long-term exposure to seawater.

Do high nickel fasteners need special considerations during installation?

They may require torque adjustments due to their strength, and care must be taken to avoid galling or seizing.