#also a few other games I have for different consoles for some reason

[link-of-asgard]

I have James Pond 2: Robocod on PS1, PS2, DS, and Switch.

I do not regret this.

Include ports for different OS/consoles, anniversary editions or similar if it's still essentially the same game, etc.

–

We ask your questions so you don’t have to! Submit your questions to have them posted anonymously as polls.

[literalgrill]

Do NOT Support Hard Drive On Patreon

You might see friends today suggesting you support Hard Drive on Patreon today. You know, the funny video games version of The Onion? As a journalist, I will firmly tell you DO NOT GIVE THEM A DIME.

The CEO has pushed out all former staff that have built the site up to its current greatness and has been pushing the use of AI. The staff begged to have a Patreon before basically all being pushed out, but the idea was refused until now, when it will only line the pockets of a single person instead of hard working writers.

I know they might have provided laughs before, but Hard Drive is a shell of what it was once. Let it die and support the people who actually made those moments of joy possible. Don't believe me? Check out what former employees are saying below:

Kevin Podas: Okay you know what, I would feel bad saying nothing about this, so here goes:🚨SAVE YOUR MONEY🚨

We passionately advocated for a Patreon at Hard Drive & were aggressively shot down. The talent & people who built the site were pushed out. To see this now is beyond upsetting. For the past few years or so I put a lot of myself into this website. I pitched a ton of jokes, got over 120 articles published, & met a lot of great people. I'm sure if you've been following me for some time you could easily see this.

However, there is a lot of misinformation. I was eventually promoted to Managing Editor of the site & was ecstatic. Grateful for the opportunity. Felt like all of my hard work in the comedy mines was finally paying off. But things took a turn for the worst, & each day there were new surprises that affected our livelihoods. These were all very avoidable surprises, mind you.

A patreon was going to be our hail mary, but alas, for some reason, the power that be did not want it. Causing us to leave a dream job behind. "At least we did all we could," we consoled ourselves afterwards. I put a lot of myself into this project. I pitched all sorts of ideas that could have helped-- we all did. Merch collaborations, Patreon-integrated YouTube content, so much more. And most of them were shot down out of sheer stubbornness and nothing more. To see lie after lie spread, and multiple big publications and YouTubers that I am a fan of promote this Patreon under these pretenses is incredibly upsetting. There are so many receipts.

Please share this and consider pulling out if you've already put money into this. On Hard Drive using AI, also from Kevin Podas: I can't personally confirm that part aside from some of the recent header images for articles on both Hard Drive and Hard Times are being made with AI. As far as writing, it's been mentioned in the past, but I personally do not know. Maybe others do, maybe not. MORE From Kevin Podas suggesting the owner denying a Patreon being set up earlier cost an artist a job that was replaced by AI: We had a social media person who was awesome! He made the images until this AI implementation. He had to leave because ad revenue was low and a Patreon was aggressively refused.

Luca Fisher: at the risk of burning some bridges, i have to back up kevin here. i've only been part-time, in-and-out of hard drive since i got in last year, but i can corroborate that management doubled and tripled down about not hosting a patreon/crowdfunding and that many other suggestions and ideas, including mine (and ones much smarter than mine!), were shot down in really long, apocalyptic threads of everyone left on deck desperately trying to come up with ways to keep the lights on. managerially it has been messy and sad

i've written for multiple publications that have long since died, ones that were in the process of dying, and ones that, in this case, are soon to be put in the ground. it is sad and sucks every time. i don't know what could have been done differently, but i do know that a lot of great writers and content creators were left shorthanded and unhappy by the way things have gone. and it is sort of puzzling to see the sudden championing of patreon after we were all told plenty of times that it couldn't work and we should move on also, just to add my own personal two cents here, i was really disappointed by the shuttering of many different article sections on the site over the past 6-8 months. i understand cutting corners in a deficit, and i know it had to be done. that said���

all in all, i'm really sad to see this all happen. i don't fault anyone, if only because i don't really know enough about how this all can happen to make sense of it. games journalism is in a sad, sorry state, and will likely no longer be a thing in the next decade

VideoSealMan: I'm gonna say this because I think I deserve to. For months, MONTHS on end I was bugging Hard Drive management about a Patreon. Often I got ignored for a week+, but when I actually got a response I was encouraged to - of all things, write up a Google Doc pitching the concept I did it regardless. I wasn't the only one trying to sway management on a Patreon, but so fiercely was I fighting for it that last night, I was accused of making this comment directly by the CEO! With no evidence whatsoever! After I'd been gone for over a month.

I vouched so hard for Patreon because I wanted all the writers and creatives working with Hard Drive including myself to get paid better. When I actually got a response, the idea was often shut down. Eventually due to the state of my company, my pay was cut for a second time I confronted management alongside a couple other important figureheads at the org and told them that if we couldn't do a Patreon - I could no longer financially justify staying there. The answer was still no, so I left. Baffled at the decision, but whatever.

It is unendingly frustrating to know that myself and many other people who put their soul into Hard Drive LEFT because of management's absolute refusal to compromise on a Patreon, to then see them launch one anyway a month later and get over 1000 people pledging money. I'm seeing a lot of things float around about greed and people being fired. No one was fired. Everyone who left, left because they were sick of management's decision-making. And honestly, management is a lot of things but I would not call them greedy. (From my experience.) They did genuinely make an effort to pay people as much as possible. I found the pay very fair for a while. I am not disputing that I was paid what I was owed - yet management frequently feels the need to remind critics of that. Lmao, yes. I was paid what I was owed. No one is disputing payment. You did the bare minimum a business owner should do and paid everyone their due, very well done. I make no allegations of greed, cheating or foul play. I make allegations of poor management and incompetence that has fucked over other people.

Basically the only people left at Hard Drive have been there for about 2 months. They will reap the rewards of this successful Patreon I and so many others passionately fought for for so long. We will not see a dime.

I do not know the new people at Hard Drive, But I feel bad for them. They were haphazardly thrust into Hard Drive's workplace with little to no explanation on how anything works, or given any context on the state of the place. Even now managements feeds them half-truths and misinformation about other people's grievances. I am broke and have been for a while. I had to move out of my flat in Reading and back with my family because of how little money I was making. This has basically doomed my flatmate to moving back in with abusive parents, which is something I feel guilty about every day. If we had gone with the Patreon I worked myself hoarse over back then, this could have been avoided. Some of my other good pals could also not have been fucked over.

It was a bad judgment call, but it's not a crime. It's just management getting it wrong.

So should you give to the Hard Drive Patreon? I don't know! I don't think any of the new people working there to patch up the holes left by the recent mass exodus have any bad intentions. Maybe they deserve it! But it is not the same site you knew a year ago, or even a month ago. Myself and many people who were there far longer than me and did far more for it than I did are all gone now because we could not deal with management's terrible decision-making and dogass communication any longer. That's what you should know, imo

I had an agreement in place with management that I would receive the next 8 months of revenue from the Hard Drive YT channel from my leaving in November. This was a deal I appreciated, and thought was very fair on management's behalf. So far, the deal has been honoured for 2 months. However as of last night I was removed from the Hard Drive Slack without warning, and as an editor for the YouTube channel. This means I no longer have any way of verifying how much I am owed, I just have to take their word for it. I'm sure management will make their own statements full of half-truths and weird language on the many cases being brought against them - I'd take everything they say with a pinch of salt if some of the screenshots I've seen of them talking about me are any indication lol

To management; I do not want to talk to you. I want you to DM me a screenshot of how much I'm owed every month and then send me the money per our agreement until June, then we can go our separate ways. Do that and admit to your mistakes, and maybe you can recover your reputation! That's it from me, lol. If they pull out of the deal and fuck me over I'll have more to say, but most of what I know is other people's stories of incompetence and poor decision-making, lol. I genuinely get no pleasure out of doing this; I do not think management is evil - I just think they're really bad at what they do and it's cost other, more talented people, lol. You should believe the writers imo

One last thing I wanna say btw, management did often stress that no one should try to make Hard Drive a full time thing. They were transparent about that, and that is fair. I was working on it because at a few points, I was lead to believe we actually were doing a Patreon. Many other ppl have similar stories of being strung along by management changing their minds and stop-starting shit every 2 weeks. We all made the fatal mistake of overestimating our manager - who would tell you one thing one day and something totally opposite the next week lol

Hunter R. Thompson:

I'm not your dad, but speaking as a Hard Drive writer, I don't know that funding Hard Drive on Patreon is worth it

The driving talent on the back end—behind the kickass site I joined in 2019—have peaced out over the years as the site's been (in our view) increasingly mismanaged. Mismanagement like, not setting up crowdfunding before the ship sank and all its best crew failed; or publishing a screenshot of Andy Ngo pedojacketing a trans writer, complete with her deadname; or a disgruntled ex-writer getting falsely accused of shit-talk, by actual staff. I'm grateful for the writing I've gotten to produce for HD (and will forever be kicking myself for not writing even more, in the four years I've had to do it!! i'm a dumbass!!!) but it is very much no longer the site I signed up for.

I don't want to resign as a contributor altogether, because I'm open to the idea of the site recovering and bad practices being retired as finances level out-- it would just be dishonest for potential backers to not be Aware Of The Circumstances, I think.

Jeremy Kaplowitz: i truly don't want to start shit, but feel compelled to say: i want to see Hard Drive succeed w/o resorting to throwing former writers & editors, myself included, under the bus. surely there's a way to save the site without building it over the corpses of those who left. my $0.02 i don't blame anyone who wants to sign up for the HD patreon and i support the website, but that includes those who worked on it for years, have complaints, and don't deserve to be treated like bitter assholes like this kind of stuff is just objectively true, meanwhile there's these new writers who joined the site after i left (meaning, in the last ~3 months) claiming people are liars. decide for yourself if you care, but this is what happened! [Quotes this Tweet]

Seth Finkelstein: Writing for Hard Drive has been a privilege the past few years, and it makes me so angry to see people I looked up to get jerked around behind the scenes. The amount of grenades the editors jumped on our behalf is immense, and I don't think the way they're being treated is right.

Other Bits On AI: We do know for sure however that AI art has been used by the site. Its fucking owner confirms it here:https://twitter.com/MattSaincome/status/1743040541603123622. Seems the owner pushed AI written articles as well! TayFabe: My vaguetweet is making the rounds & these made me apoplectic. - owner regularly lobbied using ai. Once he tested it & said ai was writing better satire than 25% of the HT/HD writers. - ai images were used on the site & socials w/o consulting the team or disclosing it publicly I found the ai bit relevant to include bc 1) it illuminates a stark change in HD's current direction & leadership, 2) ai images have previously been used on the site and (since deleted) ig posts, 3) ai content fucking sucks, and repeatedly pushing to use it is a telling quality The "handful of writers who chose to leave" includes 2 editors-in-chief (both cofounders who wrote a combined total of >1,000 articles & defined the voice of HD), & at least 3 other editors. These guys put in WORK since 2017, so cool to be corrected by ppl who joined in Nov 2023 [Link to mentioned vague tweet from post.] More from TayFabe: owner continuously lobbied for using ai in every possible way. No one else wanted to do it, but he kept on, saying ai was writing better satire than 25% of the HT/HD writers. Also, ai images were used on the site & socials without public disclosure or consulting the team.

The owner has responded now multiple times in a private discord... Thank you for people sharing screenshots! First Screenshot:

Kevin's Response: He banned me from the server for speaking out, so no, I didn't see it. And he gave no indication of a timeline, it was just "we'll do one when *I* say so" and gave every inclination he was totally against it. It bred an environment that pushed our hands to have to leave. Screenshot Round Two:

Kevin's Response: "Starting one in 3 months" is an absolute lie. He denied it, I have screenshots and others who can confirm. No timeline was given. Just "this is what it is now" and like, I couldn't live off of that. I wanted to do more but he was allergic to good ideas from others around him.

Matt, owner of Hard Drive, responds publicly on Twitter.

Matt: Kevin, the patreon launch was delayed because I didn't think it would work. Everyone is happy that it did work. Everyone who left the site because we didn't have money to pay for creative content which didn't revenue is welcome to return home. But unclear why the hostility.

Hard Drive paid out literally every dollar it had, then a bunch more, to creative people who worked on the site. When we ran out of money, we couldn't pay anymore. We did our best.

Kevin: Right, and my point of this thread was that it was completely and totally avoidable. This is reasonable to be upset about. How could I have been any more clear?

Matt: If we knew with 100% certainly that the community would have supported us via patreon, we would have done that. We didn't know. We had tried 4 years ago and got no support. We were wrong this time. We did our best to figure it out. We paid all the money we could.

Kevin: So you knew with 100% certainty this time? Or you took a leap of faith?

Matt: It was a last gasp panic effort after ad rates got cut in half on january 1st due to seasonal spending changes. We didn't know it would work. We were embarrassed to ask for support. We wanted to figure it out.

Kevin: Every site has a Patreon. Every YouTuber, comedy group, etc. But you insisted that nobody cared about Hard Drive. Which is wildly untrue. I know you see that now, but again, I think you can see why I and many others are pretty upset. A last ditch panic effort was long overdue. A couple more things from Matt:

It was about the size of the hole we needed plugged budget wise, the time I had left of personal resources, and the past data I had about us trying a patreon (which turned out to be a bad indicator). I didn't think the Patreon would help us fast enough. I made a bad estimation

aka "if we make $1000 more dollars a month via patreon, which would be 10x what we got last time, we will not solve any of our problems. If instead we try to plow down path B, we might make it out in time." That was the thinking. I chose the wrong path, but didn't mean to Kevin also retweeted this comment from the user Matt was responding to: So you're saying that you're bad at running the business, didn't listen to any of your employees until after they were forced to leave their jobs, and now you're going to get more of the money from the Patreon that was their idea in the first place? Matt's Response: Respectfully, I made a mistake delaying the patreon decision. But keeping a comedy site alive for 9 years is not easy, there are lots of potential ideas, and think overall we've done a good and honorable job. Will leave this thread in peace now to allow people their space.

Sorry for linking to Elon's hellsite (derogatory), but sources need links so...

[zeawesomebirdie]

Superbat Fake Dating + Identity Porn Rec List

Thanks to @jourquet for asking for this!! I hope you find something here to read!! (And paging @steine-druff as promised!)

These are in no particular order, but generally organised by trope. I tend to read longfic as a general rule, so these recs will reflect that :) the titles contain links to each fic.

Fake Dating

1. A Common Misconception by rotasha; rated T; no archive warnings apply; 91,114 words; 21 chapters; complete

Summary:

When Bruce Wayne comes out, he accidentally becomes the poster child of bisexuality and realizes his lifestyle of sleeping around needs to come to an end. Clark, being the supportive friend that he is, volunteers to pretend to date him for a year.

You know the rest.

This fic has everything that one could want in fake dating: idiots in love, mutual pining, one bed, fake vacations, miscommunication. It also really captures the superbat dynamic of trusting and yes and-ing each other, even when they probably didn't need to be!

(And if you like this fic, any of rotasha's other works are just as good! I've got a few more of them in this list too)

2. over this threshold by orphean; rated T; no archive warnings apply; 59,283 words; 7 chapters; complete

Summary:

'I don't understand how tax evasion relates to you going on a date with, do I need to remind you, Bruce Wayne.'

Clark bit his tongue.

'We're going to get married. It's a tax break, not tax evasion.'

'Are you kidding me.' Lois stared. 'That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard.'

———

Bruce asks Clark to marry him for tax reasons. Clark, against his better judgment, agrees.

Exactly what it says on the tin. Some highlights include Bruce buying Clark ridiculously expensive suits, Clark taking forever to tell his mom what's going on, and of course the wedding itself which was just delightful, with speeches from Lois, Alfred, and Dick that had me crying.

3. A Rich Man's Game by malicegreres; rated T; no archive warnings apply; 63,942 words; 13 chapters; complete

Summary:

The editorial staff of the Daily Planet, currently owned by Bruce Wayne, is trying to organize a labor union. Clark can't explain to his coworkers why he can't participate without jeopardizing the campaign—or tell Batman why he's been so cagey around him lately. When Bruce finds out what's been going on, Clark recruits him to resolve his conflict of interest in the only way Clark can think of: by pretending to date him.

This fic is truly glorius. Of all the ways Clark could have solved this problem, he chose the most convoluted. And surprise surprise, it works!

4. mission parameters by shipyrds; rated E; no archive warnings apply; 33,394 words; 6 chapters; complete

Summary:

"Bruce." Clark turns towards him, leaning back against a bank of consoles. "We're not actually going undercover. We don't need an elaborate backstory– if anything, it'll be harder to keep straight. It doesn't have to be complicated." He spreads his hands. "Here's a story: we're members of the same elite fighting force. After years of saving each other's lives in the field, we fell in love. That's it."

Bruce swallows past the almost-truth of it. In Clark's warm smooth radio voice, it sounds plausible. It sounds like something that could happen.

—

Bruce and Clark pretend to be married for diplomatic reasons. When they return to Earth, things are a little different.

Of all the things that normally Bruce says, Clark is the one to insist on a simple coverstory. And of course, from such simple things spirals out a whole entire adventure that doesn't stop just because the mission is over! This fic features a domesticity that neither of them knew they needed until they had it

5. tell all the truth (but tell it slant) by susiecarter [@susiecarter on tumblr]; rated M; no archive warnings apply; 33,007 words; 1 chapter; complete

Summary:

It takes a while for Batman and Superman to work things out, once Clark comes back from the dead. Pretending to date each other in order to explain why Bruce Wayne and Clark Kent are in the same place so often? Doesn't help as much as you might think.

*slapping this fic like that one meme with the car* this fic can fit so much miscommunication into it, it's truly delightful to read!! Also, yet another fic where Clark fails to mention what's going on to his mother. And of course the constant worrying about each other without actually expressing it, which is truly such a golden trope when it comes to these two!

I'm adding a cut here because this is already very long and we are still only just starting, so click the read more to see the rest ^.^

6. there ain't no star that shines by amosangius [@amosanguis on tumblr]; rated E; no archive warnings apply; 11,713 words; 1 chapter; complete

Summary:

“I'm not the same person I was back in high school,” Clark says, “and I doubt they all are, either. What would be the point?”

“Oh, Clark,” Bruce is suddenly holding Clark's face with both of his hands, “the point is that I'm going to land us in a helicopter somewhere for all your classmates to see.”

Clark sighs and closes his eyes.

“Say 'yes', Clark,” Bruce orders.

Clark doesn't open his eyes, just says, “Yes, Clark.”

If you thought Bruce buying Clark expensive suits just for their fake dates was excessive, you ain't seen nothing yet!! This fic also features casual bed sharing (and so many references to casual intimacy oh my goodness it's lovely), Bruce Wayne being Rich As Fuck, and Bruce casually being overprotective of Clark in social situations

7. my heart is an open wound by yukla [@yuebings on tumblr]; rated T; no archive warnings apply; 13,367 words; 1 chapter; complete

“—I’ll see you kneel again,” Luthor is hissing, eyes hungry, and Clark is swaying back in discomfort—and as Lois checks their surroundings again, she notices that Wayne is still standing across the room, staring uselessly, as though he believes the sheer force of his murderous gaze would be enough to laser-blast Luthor into oblivion.

Jesus Christ, Lois thinks. I have to do everything around here.

5 times a Daily Planet employee protects Clark Kent, and 1 time Clark Kent protects the Daily Planet.

Or: Clark's coworkers watch as he fake-dates his crush with limited success.

It is probably obvious by now that miscommunication and Bruce's emotions getting in the way of everything are two of my favourite things to read. All of Clark's coworkers are the best, and once again Clark is a self-sacrificing idiot (affectionate)

8. flash in the pan by shipyrds; rated E; no archive warnings apply; 15,951 words; 3 chapters; complete

Summary:

Here’s the thing. Clark does understand. Superman and Batman are fucking. Clark Kent and Bruce Wayne are not. Clark can handle this. He keeps parts of his life separate all the time.

It’s possible, Clark thinks, as he glares at a lurid tabloid cover of Bruce’s latest scandalous yacht party in the grocery store checkout aisle, that he can’t handle this.

—

At the Wayne Foundation's annual holiday party, things come to a head.

Okay there is so much I want to say about this fic and yet there are no words that could possibly express just how incredible it is. Bruce coming up with the worst case scenario for literally everything? Check. Clark agreeing to fake date even though he's majorly head over heels and this will likely end in flames? Check. Ma Kent giving the best relationship advice ever? Check. Dick yelling at Bruce when he tries to self sabotage again? Check. Truly one of the best fucking-but-still-pining fics I've ever read!

9. Operation Sponsalia by Brenda [@brendaonao3 on tumblr]; rated E; no archive warnings apply; 13,610 words; 1 chapter; complete

Summary:

"When did you first realize you were in love with me?"

Bruce coughs up his wine.

"I mean, in this...whatever this is," Clark clarifies, blushing to the roots of his hair. "I don't think you're really — I mean, I know this isn't —"

"It's alright." Bruce's voice is raspy, but steady. "I know what you mean."

Clark's glad one of them does.

Or: Bruce and Clark have to fake an engagement for ~reasons — featuring a metric ton of very romantic dates, enough floral arrangements to start a flower shop, SO MANY puns, and Clark finally getting to know the real Bruce. :D

Clark doesn't find out that Bruce said to the press that they had been dating long enough to be teasing enagagements until after it's already been said. Was there a better way to explain why Bruce just happened to help save the Kent family farm? Absolutely. And yet they follow through on it anyway, and I love it for them

10. Sham-pagne by ChrisLeon; rated T; no archive warnings apply; 8,248 words; 1 chapter; complete

Summary:

Superman is spotted visiting Wayne Manor, prompting speculation about how exactly he knows Bruce Wayne. To protect their secret identities, they need a plausible explanation and it seems easy enough to go along with the tabloid theory that they’re sleeping together. All they have to do is pretend to be in a relationship until the speculation dies down and then they can break up move on.

Or: Superman fake-dates Bruce Wayne, we all know how this ends.

This one was fascinating to me because instead of Clark and Bruce dating, it's Superman and Bruce dating, and let me just say I'm so incredibly hinged about it!! I think there is so much potential in that particular version of their dynamic, and this fic was such a beautiful exploration of it!

11. Speaking in Code by Mithen; rated T; no archive warnings apply; 7,459 words; 1 chapter; complete

Summary:

Clark and Bruce must go undercover at a newlywed resort to try and stop an assassination attempt. Hijinks, UST, and reluctant making out ensue.

First of all, Mithen is a superbat master. Pick any fic of theirs and it will be delightful. Second of all, I could write an entire essay about how much I adore the way they go from irritable about this mission to incredibly enthuasiastic over the course of their two days at the resort, but then we'd be here all day so: if you like banter, one bed, and a case fic this is a brilliant read

12. Kind Truths by Mawiiish [@superbattrash on tumblr]; rated G; creator chose not to use archive warnings; 6,478 words; 1 chapter; complete

Summary:

Bruce needs help with an undercover mission. Clark can never say no to him even though he probably should before he does something stupid. Like tell Bruce he's in love with him.

--

“Why me?” Clark can’t help but ask. He tries his very best to keep his voice level, to not sound as desperate as he feels.

“Because I need someone there to watch my back,” Bruce says, a little exasperated. He really shouldn’t have to explain this to Clark of all people, it’s not like they haven’t been on missions together before.

“I get that, but what about Diana? Shayera?” Anyone who doesn’t have a big fat crush on Bruce would do.

Is it obvious I have a thing for Clark agreeing to fake dating despite his big crush on Bruce? This fic is glorious, and features delights such as Bruce metaphorically putting his foot in his mouth, Clark wanting nothing more than to defend Bruce's honor, and one of the most beautiful confession scenes I've ever had the pleasure of reading

13. where i come from by soetry [@soetrys on tumblr]; E; no archive warnings apply; 52,494 words; 11 chapters; complete

Summary:

Bruce doesn’t have a soulmark, and Clark doesn’t have a soulmark, on an Earth where everyone has a soulmark. Somewhere in there is a simple solution. Somewhere to that solution is an overcomplicated journey. Surely two of the world’s leading superheroes will not take the overcomplicated route?

Surely not?

This one is a little bit of both. The identity porn in this was really well done - Dick is a massive Superman fan, Bruce is unimpressed with both Superman and Clark Kent, and it all goes downhill from there (affectionate). Highlights also include Bruce using a dubiously legal site to crossreference soulmarks, him getting the Superman crest tattooed on his wrist using Kyrptonian tech, and Clark being a self-sacrificing idiot. This is also one of the best soulmate AUs I've ever read!!

Identity Porn

1. Get Over It by rotasha; rated T; no archive warnings apply; 32,378 words; 3 chapters; complete

Summary:

Bruce needs to get over his inconvenient feelings for Superman and he meets an attractive reporter who he thinks can help him do just that. Little does he know...

Of all the identity porn I've read, this is one of the best! Bruce dating Clark to get over Superman is one of the best things ever and this fic really does a good job of their dynamic!

2. Lost Time Without You by rotasha; rated T; no archive warnings apply; 68,792 words; 21 chapters; complete

Summary:

In a universe where your soulmate’s injuries show up on your skin, Bruce is convinced he doesn’t have a soulmate, and Clark is seriously concerned for his soulmate’s well-being.

This was my introduction to soulmate!AUs and oh my goodness it was spectacular! The build up to the reveal of their identities was brilliantly done, and the chance encounters that pepper through the lead up to that point were captivating. This fic also features Bruce being a good parent and I really love that for him

3. the cost of being a good dad by Mawiiish [@superbattrash on tumblr]; rated T; creator chose not to use archive warnings; 95,533 words; 10 chapters; complete

Summary:

Dick, Jason, Tim and Damian are all tired of watching Bruce struggle with the stress of trying to handle the newly formed Justice League. He needs an outlet, he needs to relax, he needs to get out of the house, he needs... he needs to start dating. And what he doesn't know won't hurt him, right?

--

“Excuse me, I don’t know who you think I am, but I think there’s been a mistake.”

“Bruce, right?” the guy says, albeit less confidently this time. He looks slightly concerned and if Bruce is not mistaken… a tad embarrassed. “Bruce Wayne? You look just like your pictures.”

“My pictures?” Something finally clicks in Bruce’s mind, and he takes a small step back and plasters a smile on his face as to not rouse suspicion. Stalker. “Ah, of course, I’m sorry but I’m late for an appointment.”

This fic features the batkids catfishing Clark on Bruce's behalf, Bruce being a good parent, and the utter chaos of miscommunication that can only come from these two being idiots! It was a delightful read, and of course the batfam in action is always a joy!

4. ship-to-ship combat by pomeloquat; rated M; no archive warnings apply; 62,737 words; 12/13 chapters; incomplete

Summary:

"Clark. What the hell is this," Lois asks, staring at Clark's Bruceman WIP folder. Clark's first instinct is to fly away, but that would still leave his fic on display for her to see. His second instinct is to blast a hole straight through his laptop screen with his heat vision, which isn't much better.

Clark, in an attempt to make some spare cash, unintentionally stumbles into the world of superhero fanfiction, becomes a prolific writer for Gotham's OTP, and tries his best to fend off rival fans who want him to convert to superbat instead.

Oh my goodness okay. Where to start with this fic. First of all, Clark writing Batman/Bruce Wayne fanfiction is such a brilliant concept. Then add to that the fact that Clark is secretly crushing on Batman at the same time, and the entire comedy of a trainwreck is a delight to witness!

5. I'm Not As Think As You Drunk I Am by Mardiaz173; rated T; no archive warnings apply; 12,920 words; 3 chapters; complete

It was like living in the Twilight Zone. Everyone else believed fervently in Bruce Wayne’s reputation. He was a flirty, stupid, and entitled drunk whose only redeeming quality was his bleeding heart. And yet every time Clark spoke with Wayne, the man was clever, mischievous, and sober with an indecipherable ulterior motive.

And no one believed Clark. Not Lois, not his parents, not even Batman.

Clark insisting upon defending Bruce to everyone much to everyone's dismay is one of my favourite superbat tropes ever, and this fic really does it well! And of course, this fic also features Batman shit talking Bruce, which is always a joy to see!

6. Don't Quote Me by metropolisjournal [@metropolisjournal on tumblr]; rated E; no archive warnings apply; 77,131 words; 20/21 chapters; incomplete

Summary:

Bruce Wayne has weathered scandal before, and Wayne Enterprises can handle another publicity crisis. What Bruce can’t handle is one crashing up against his plans to infiltrate Lex’s estate. Set during Batman v. Superman.

This was the fix-it for Batman vs Superman that I didn't know I needed until I read it. The identity reveal was so incredibly well written, and the whole fic was stupendous from the very first chapter!

And that's all for now! I hope you find something in here to read, may you enjoy!!

[ancha-aus]

RealAgeAu - A Step Forwards

I am back! And After some thinking I have decided how I wanted this drabble to go :3

We are back with a Dream centered one <3 Boy is going through a lot.

First Drabble Prev Drabble Next Drabble

No beta or edits <3

@spotaus welcome back :3

*------------------------*

Dream wants to cry again as he looks around the very empty and abandoned living room.

So many things just.. left behind.

Cabinets full of movies and games and all kinds of different game consoles, some very exclusive versions from other universes.

Dream rubs another tear away as he looks around. The pictures on the walls also hurt. They are all of the gang and a few of them has Nightmare in the background. Looking confused with his skull slightly tilted. Killer is often the one who clearly took the picture selfie style.

Dream pauses at another picture. It is Nightmare but he is reading. Clearly distracted. He is sitting on a large chair, tentacles just laying all over the surface of the chair. Nightmare fully distracted as he reads a book while sitting cross legged on it.

Dream remembers that Ngihtmare would always sit cross legged. Spine in a curve as the read.

He had once asked how that could be comfortable. Nightmare had just said it felt nice...

One day he stopped sitting with his spine curved and instead would lean heavily against their mother.

Dream slowly removes the picture from the wall and hugs it close. How could he not have seen that his brother was still there? Just within reach? But Dream had once again not seen it...

A hand on his shoulder shakes him out of it and Blue looks worried at him "Dream?"

Dream leans against Blue "How can I just... not notice? Be so blind and stupid and..."

Blue frowns at him "Dream..."

Dream stares at him "Why didn't I just listen?" No wonder Nightmare left as soon as he could... With them no longer being gods of balance... Nightmare is actually free to do whatever he wants... Why did Dream think Nightmare would still want to be near him after everything?

Blue frowns at him "Becuase you believed it was the right thing to do."

Dream glares down "That is the problem isn't it? That is always what happens. I thought heloing the villagers was the right thing to do but ti wasn't. I thought spreading positivity was the right thing to do but it wasn't. I thought that Nightmare needed help and changing him was the right thing to do. And guess what?! IT wasn't!"

Blue just keeps looking at him "You were a child."

Drema shoots him a glare but Blue continues "You were a child. A child who had a mother who was, I am gonna be honest here, not a good person."

Drema feels bad as he shakes his skull but Blue holds up a hand "Dream. I read that book. I can see the clear favouritism a mile away. But that? That isn't your fault. The way the villagers acted? Wasn't your fault. You were a child. A child who trusted his mother. Who trusted those who were nice to him because why wouldn't you? Why would you think someone would hurt your brother? That idea probably hadn't even come to mind as even a possibility."

Dream glares at the ground and hugs the picture closer "And what about me making the disbalance worse? Me acting as if i knew better when i didn't know anything? When i didn't even realise what my actual title was?"

Blue tilts his skull "Well... who taught you those things?"

Dream opens his mouth "That woman who broke me out of stone and lied- ... oh..."

Blue just smiles sadly "You were surrounded by people who used you for their own needs and wishes Dream... People who hated your brother for no real reason... I am not surprised those some people would tell you lies and poison your ideas on how stuff works."

Dream shakes as he leans against his friend, his best friend. Maybe his one true friend in the multiverse. Mostly as he doubts Nightmare ever wants to be friends again.

Blue rubs his shoulder "She raised you right?"

Dream gives a slow nod "broke out of stone the same way i was when i went in... She got me out and... well... raised me... made sure i trained and would keep repeating how nightmare had caused all the pain adn that they had always known it would happen..." That Dream shoudl ahve stopped Nightmare sooner. that Dream's lack of worry and saying that Nightmare wasn't that bad caused the pain. That it made Nightmare able to destroy their home.

... okay Dream is starting to think Blue may have a point on this.

Blue looks at him "What now?"

Dream stares at him "What?"

Blue gives him a look "You need to make a choice Dream. Because from the looks of this?" he waves around "The gang has moved ages ago. THe fact we haven't heard about any raids or any sus things? They are probably doing something else. Nightmare must have figured out he was successfull in rebalancing the balance and decided to leave it behind."

It only stings a little to hear that. But Blue is right. It had been Nightmare who rebalanced everything. They had seen his office. Files upon files and reports upon reports and so many schedules... all to keep track of the tiny shifts in balance.

Drema had just been running around the Omega universe and doing chores to help people...

Blue continues looking at him "What do you want to do now? Do you want to continue looking for Nightmare?"

Dream does want to continue looking for Nightmare but... He looks around again. Sees the home that had been made... A home for his brother... a home he hadn't been welcome in.

Dream looks at Blue and thinks "I want... I want to see him again... But I don't think he wants to see me..." he looks at the many pictures. and then to the crown they had found tugged away in a drawer "I don't... I don't think he even knows I love him... And that is on me... Even if other stuff isn't completely my fault that is my fault." his failing as a brother. As older twin.

Blue puts an arm tighter around him.

Dream looks at the picture in his hands. the one he is already planning on stealing and keeping for himself "I made a mess of so many things... And when he tried to explain I let lies others told me get to me instead of being brave and trying to understand... I made everything so much harder." he looks at Blue "I want to fix that first..."

Blue frowns "You mean...."

Dream nods "I am going to tell the council. Explain that I had been wrong."

Blue stares at him before smiling brightly "I will be there with you! I am so proud of you Dream!"

Dream smiles as he looks around the cold room. They will do one more search around this place. Look for anythings that Dream can keep save in case Nightmare wants them back... and maybe, like this picture and the crown, a few things that Dream wants to keep.

--

Dream set up the council to enable more universes to talk and interact. To help each other and to spread messages in case of emergancies.

Turns out that hadn't been the best idea.

Well!

At elast this way this should spread quickly!

Dream waits nervously before shooting Blue a look. Blue sees him look and smiles as he gives him the thumbs up.

Dream takes one more look around the table and is happy to note that Error and Ink are both here as well. This is good! Their truce will help set everything to be calm!

Dream rises to his feet and the group quiets. It is okay. He practised this. He smiles brightly "Hello everyone. Thank you for coming this quickly. I know it was shot notice."

Some mutters and someone asked if Nightmare did something again. Error huffs but remains quiet. Ink shoots him a curious look but Error jsut flips him off. Clearly a familiar interaction between them.

Dream takes a deap breath before speaking up "It is connected to my brother yes. Mostly. The balance has been restored."

Silence and Error actually sits upright.

Some mutters and someone congradulates him for his hard work.

Dream shakes his skull "You misunderstand. There is a balance between everything. including emotions. I may hav ebeen spreading positive emotions but All I was doing was unbalancing things. I was making the problem worse. For this I am sorry and we are very lucky my brother did know what he was doing and fixed my mess."

Silence before someone asks how him bringing happiness could be a bad thing.

Dream shoots them an annoyed look "Go you want to laugh and cheer the next time your human kills your brother?"

A long silence.

Dream huffs "That is the start what a multiverse without negativity would cause. I did not realise before I was making it worse and I apologise."

Some uneasiness around them as someone asks the question that most are not asking. If that means that what the gang had been doing had actually been helping the multiverse at large.

Dream nods "It was. And now we are talking about it. I was never a god of positivity. I was a god of balance who very much misunderstood his job." then lastly "Not that it matters anymore. With the balance restored I am no longer a god of balance. I will eventually get, pick or find a new calling but it won't be emotions again." fuck he hopes it isn't emotions again.

Some people keep trying to ask if they really need negativity and can't just get like a negative corner or the bare minimum.

Error grows annoyed and speaks up "This si why this shit is useless. It is like destruction and creation. Like life and death. YOu want your world to get overpopulated until you can't make enough food and everyone will starve? That is a world wihtout natural death. You want the multiverse to get so full with half finished and glitching universes? That is what happens when ou want destroy stuff and do clean up. You want to laugh manically when someone you love dies? That is what happens when you don't have negativity. It isn't that hard to understand." Error sees that everyone heard and lays back down.

Dream shoots him a smile but Error jsut continues to glare at him. Right. Error nad Nightmare had been friends. Dream turns back to the group "Error is right. THis is bigger than one of two universes. This is bigger than all of our worlds combined. But foremost it is important that everyone knows that my brother was never the villain."

Some people try to go against it but Dream just keeps repeating the same message. His brother is the reason things are stable and everyone can still feel normally. He is the reason the balance is fixed. He wasn't the villain.

And he will repeat it as many times as needed until the message sticks.

*------------------------*

First Drabble Prev Drabble Next Drabble

[radioactivereads]

bros cuddles (hlvrai)

summary: the science team is Tired and they Cuddle . thats it . lol

a/n: im a tommy kin and i was having a hard time sleeping so i wrote this a few months ago . its all platonic. also bubby is hard to write

----------------------------------------------------------------------

The dripping sound of the pipes was pounding in his head. Every noise felt elevated to the highest degree. Tommy stared at the ceiling, sitting against the wall of the Black Mesa floor, the chill of it feeling like it sunk into his bones. Around him the rest of the crew slept.

 In his brain’s constant quest to identify patterns around him, the science team's sleeping habits were now familiar.

Gordon always slept curled up on his side, tense in his sleep. Tommy had hoped his dreams would allow him an escape from how on edge he always seemed to be, but after noticing that he wasn’t so sure. 

Dr. Coomer and Dr. Bubby often stuck close together, and they were no different now. Coomer liked to sleep on his back, even if it did make him snore, which Bubby complained about, but he also liked to prop his head up on Coomer and lie next to him, resting his head on Coomer’s stomach and muttering in his sleep.

Tommy wasn’t quite familiar with Benrey’s sleep patterns, only catching them napping in the middle of other conversations, or once when he woke up and they were still asleep. They seemed to sleep wherever was most convenient, which was often just wherever he was when they got tired.

However, none of these patterns soothed him in this moment. He found himself struggling to sleep more and more. The sounds of all the weapons echoed in his mind. Each day he was dealing with much louder sounds than what he’d become accustomed to.

He wished Sunkist were here, if only for the selfish reason he wanted to hug her. Her soft fur always helped him fall asleep, and she’d often curl up next to him or by his bed, guarding him from threats, real or imaginary.

But it would be dangerous for Sunkist to be here. Despite her immortality, Tommy always worried that the exact moment she got hurt would be when she suddenly would stop being immortal, or maybe she’d forget she was immortal and maybe that would make her not be anymore.

His dad was nearby, he knew that. He’d been watching more closely these days. Whether that was because of Tommy, Gordon, the ‘incident’, or maybe a mix of all of them, he couldn’t be sure.

He- again selfishly- hoped it was because of him, though he knew deep down that was probably not the case. 

His feelings about his father, the ‘Gman’ were complicated at best. They’re his dad, and he loved them, sure, but the recent reappearance after many years of absence was a big thing to get used to.

His father was busy, yes, but Tommy had always hoped they’d have more time for him someday.

But they never did, and Tommy had stopped hoping.

Tommy didn’t exactly want his fathers “comfort” at the moment. His dad was not very good with emotions like comfort, and Tommy knew it’d likely make things worse.

Tommy was only startled out of his thoughts when someone snapped their fingers in front of him. He scrambled back quickly, but realized it was only Bubby, who was squatting in front of him.

“Jeez loueez no need to be so jumpy!” Bubby scowled, but Tommy had learnt he often did that, and it was not indicative of his mood.

“Sorry…” Tommy muttered. His gaze flicked to Dr Coomer, who was still lying on his back, pawing at the air in his sleep and muttering something about a championship and some sort of gaming console.

Tommy wondered what he was dreaming about before turning back to Bubby.

“You look terrible kid, you should sleep”

Bubby was quite blunt.

Tommy bit back a retort, knowing Bubby was much better at that than him, and it wouldn’t be very smart to start that kind of fight.

“…I can’t sleep” Tommy complained “it’s too much- I-it’s way too loud in here. Even if- even when it’s quiet”

Bubby sat, thinking seemingly

“I usually use Coomer as a pillow” he began, Tommy didn’t inform him he already knew this information

 “but when I focus on his snoring it helps me drown out the sound of anything else”

“But how do you- how are you sure you’re gonna be safe all night then? If nobody’s keeping watch over you”

Bubby waved a hand

“You all are very loudl. If something happens I’m sure I’ll wake up to Gordon yelling his head off”

“…I guess so…” Tommy still didn’t feel convinced.

“Why don’t we try to find a noise that you can focus on?” Bubby offered. Tommy sighed but nodded

“Yea… Usually I have Sunkist a-and she helps me feel safer…” Tommy hugged his knees, and Bubby was lost in thought.

“...Say, you like Wikipedia right?” “The- The free online encyclopedia that anyone can edit?” Tommy looked up hopefully

Bubby grinned. It wasn’t like how people were supposed to grin, Tommy thought. It was more like a chimp bearing its teeth, but he’d learned that was just how he smiled.

Bubby walked over and nudged Coomer with his foot. Coomer muttered about gloves and Bubby rolled his eyes (Or, Tommy assumed he did. He couldn’t quite see behind his glasses.)

Bubby picked up Coomer and carried him over, dropping him on the ground. Coomer jolted and yelled something about ropes, but Bubby tapped him and he calmed down.

“Oh, Hello Dr. Bubb-” “Shut it! That one’s still sleeping” He jabbed a thumb towards Gordon, who stirred a bit.

Coomer’s voice was quieter, but not like a whisper, more like someone had used a remote to turn the volume down.

“Coomer, recite the boy a wikipedia article!” “Wikipedia, The Free Online Encyclopedi-?” “Yes, yes that!!”

Tommy tried to get comfortable on the floor, but it wasn’t working very well. Coomer lied back down, resting against the wall, and Bubby lied down next to him, resting his head on Coomer’s side.

Coomer noticed Tommy’s struggles and kindly patted the spot next to him, offering Tommy to share the space. Tommy was hesitant, he wasn’t very used to any sort of physical contact. He hadn’t had many friends, let alone ones who wanted to be affectionate with him. 

He hated to admit it, but he still flinched whenever Gordon put a hand on his shoulder.

Coomer was the exact opposite however, constantly poking, hugging, and messing with other people, so Tommy suspected it was very normal for him.

Awkwardly, Tommy scooted closer, resting his head on his side, and Coomer put an arm over him. It was very comforting, he had to admit.

“A Chair Is A Piece Of Furniture With A Raised Surface-” Coomer began reciting, and Tommy felt himself relax. 

It reminded him of his dad. Gman would recite OSHA guidelines, rules, and encyclopedias to get him to sleep, whether because he thought it would bore Tommy into tiredness or because he genuinely thought it was interesting was beyond him, but Tommy had grown a liking for them regardless.

As he listened to Coomer ramble on, his mind wandered.

His dad was nearby, and he was safe. He shouldn’t worry about that. Even if it wasn’t as direct as Sunkist’s guarding, Tommy doubted his dad would let him get hurt.

But he didn’t just have to worry about himself anymore. He willed his tired eyes- which he hadn’t realized had closed- open, and his gaze tiredly flicked to Gordon, who was still curled up. He looked to Coomer, who was still reciting the entire page, reading out each resource link letter by letter.

“Hey Dr Coomer?”

“Yes, Tommy?”

“...Can we uhm- Can Mr. Freeman join us? He’s- he looks… cold” 

Coomer’s eyes squinted in a strange sort of smile. “The More The Merrier!”

Tommy stood and walked over to Gordon,  and very gently reached down, tucking his arms under Gordon’s, and lifted him up, careful to not wake him. Gordon stirred a few times, but ultimately Tommy was successful. 

He sat down, moving Gordon to be close to the pile. Tommy curled up by Dr. Coomer again. Bubby was already asleep, and contrary to what he said, he was the one snoring it seemed. Tommy hadn’t noticed that before.

Coomer continued reading out the link he was on, while Tommy’s eyes slowly closed. The dripping of the pipes was merely a background sound now, and easily filtered out. And though he felt the cold of the room threatening to chill him, he felt so warm next to his friends.

This was nice. Tommy appreciated the group's company, of course, but as of late it’d felt… Better than before. Tommy realized in this moment that they were his friends. They cared about him, and they’d help him.

Tommy smiled tiredly, curled up by Dr Coomer and Mr. Freeman.

The cold had passed, and only warmth remained.

He hoped it would last a long time.

[piracytheorist]

So with that out of the way, I'll share some screenshots and my experience from the little I played from the Spy x Family game.

Note/reminder that I openly don't recommend buying the game for a computer, as the controls are clunky, and since that version is half-baked it's not worth your money, even if you plan on using a controller. Different case if you buy it for a console, though.

So the graphics are actually pretty cute, and I think they translate the feeling of the 2D characters into a 3D game environment pretty well! The music stands between an inspiration from the original anime soundtrack and typical day-in-the-life simulation game soundtrack, though mostly the latter. I wasn't impressed that much but it wasn't something that annoyed me. It's just a bit of a pity because they could definitely get some inspiration from the original soundtrack, but oh well.

Playing the game, Anya starts at Eden College, and you get a tutorial showing you how to move and interact with other characters and objects. First it instructs you to talk to Becky, then to Damian.

And as I saw that I was like "... Do I have to?" XD Luckily, he wasn't annoying that time, just distant.

Then Anya comes back home to tell her parents about her Diary project, and I had her explore the house a bit.

In the manga and anime there's this small separate space on the hall right by the entrance, and I actually just realized that, but in the game's version of the house that area doesn't exist.

From what I remember, in the game there is just a wall where the opening to this space is. Since this space is rarely used in the manga/anime and it would have taken memory space, I understand why they didn't add it. From the little I played Anya could only move around the main spaces, kitchen, dining/living area and hall, but those parts were pretty accurate.

And according to my post about the Forgers' kitchen, here it looks accurate to the anime, though with a two-door fridge instead.

I mostly took this because I found it funny how atrocious his posture was XD he's probably tired, the poor man.

One of the few minigames I tried was bowling. I like how each characters game traits actually fit their characters XD

Like, Yor is Strong™ but with the least dexterity, Anya is the luckiest but also the weakest, Loid is the most dexterous... and also the unluckiest. I'm telling you, I can find opportunities for angst like it's my job.

Anyway, that minigame was actually nice, it took me a bit to get the hang of the curveballs but I'm sure I could get better at it if I trained more. I played as Loid, too XD

I liked the characters' responses to their throws, either going like "This is hard" or "This is harder than it looks" (even Loid, lmao, with me controlling him he actually became bad at something) if they threw only a few pins. Funny thing is, when Loid was first about to throw his ball, he said something like "Child's play" but then because it was me controlling him he only threw a couple pins and was like "This is hard" 😂 Poor Yor said "Was this good?" a few times right after throwing her ball, then Anya did a strike, and Yor and I as Loid did a spare (when you throw the remaining pins on your second go). For each of those, the other characters cheered for the one doing the strike or spare, and that was cute. Funniest responses was when a throw wouldn't get a single pin, Anya did her "Shock" face, Yor looked embarrassed, and Loid cringed back with a drop of cold sweat on his face (I was the reason for that, sorry man XD) Loid ended up winning and even though he had missed a couple of throws, at the end he was once again like "Child's play" like, my MAN, stop embarrassing yourself and me.

Anyway. Back to the story. There were some cute moments of banter, I feel they captured the characters pretty accurately!

Then I could go into character customization and. Some interesting choices there.

"Just going to work". Yes. That work XD

And then this... item.

MAXIMUM CHARISMA

I'm still laughing about it XD

Then it was ooting time, and I actually really loved the loading screens!

They have a cute feel to them :)

One of the few pictures I took for Anya's album. Whatever is happening on that Spy Wars issue Anya was reading, it must be interesting!

Anya later mentioned she'd sleep with Agent Penguinman that night, and Bond did not like that XD

When I FINALLY managed to hit the required score for Yor's fruit chopping minigame, Anya looked very smug about it 😁

As I mentioned, it took me a lot of times to get the gist of when exactly to swing to cut the vegetables, and every time Yor missed a vegetable she would say something... but there were no subtitles for those lines XD judging by a few lines I've picked up from the anime, I think she was just saying things like "I missed" or an exclamation of disappointment, and one single "I'm sorry, Anya-san". I wanted to hug her!

Then it was back to school the next day.

I'm right there with ya, girl XD

Then Anya asked Yor to train her, and Yor started giving her some advice on how to throw punches... and then Loid slipped in and was like uhm wut O_o

This next part was a little weird, because Anya was supposed to be drawing (like she did in Episode 3 in the museum kids room) and Loid was going like "Oh this is Bondman and a princess, right? That part is a little graphic, though" but... she wasn't drawing? Loid was just standing in the kitchen and I approached him to talk to him and they just said lines similar to the scene I mentioned above from episode 3. It didn't seem like it fit, and only added it so they could have Anya do that expression, which, okay, fair enough XD

This was Anya's expression when she realized Loid had completely misjudged what she was drawing and her powers weren't at risk of being exposed XD

A quick Handler cameo!

That was the intro for a minigame of Twilight sneaking into an art gallery and having to swap paintings for forgeries. I just found her appearance quite cool!

... This, however, was the minigame that proved this game doesn't work well with a keyboard. Controlling the character AND the camera with keyboard buttons is very tricky, and while I could manage moving Anya around, I had a lot of trouble moving Twilight around while I was on a timer and I had to avoid the guards seeing him.

So yeah. It could have been fun but for a computer user it can be frustrating. I tried twice and failed to complete the minigame, and at that point I was tired; it was more stressful than satisfying that way, so I just quit the game, uninstalled it and had it refunded.

Anyway, as I said, it looks like a fun game, but one that can only be appreciated through a console that already includes controllers with joysticks. Computer users shouldn't have to need external controllers to enjoy a game for the computer, so I definitely don't recommend buying it for the PC, if nothing else, for the moral of it. They could have optimized it to move the camera with the mouse, which is how the grand majority of such games work, but they half-assed it and as such I don't think they deserve anyone's money, especially at the price it's at (50 euros for us to need an external controller? no thanks).

[s1ndle]

Unique PC Appearances for Console Sims

6 months later and I have another bit of fun about The Sims for Console! And with a weird title to boot!

If you want to see more, read below!

In my previous post I had mentioned that I was able to open the .IFF files for the sims themselves. The reason that I was able to do that in the first place was because the console version and the PC version are, for all intents and purposes, the same game!

In fact, you can take sim .IFF files from the console version, plop them into the PC version, and they will function flawlessly! Except for their appearances…

In the PC version of Create-A-Sim, you were only able to change the whole head and whole body. But the console version featured a much more elaborate system, with the player being able to change the sim’s hair, face, and clothing independently, as well as do other things like change the color, as well as add and remove accessories at will.

The PC version uses a resource within a sim’s .IFF to keep track of their appearance, these are called bodystrings. 

Sims from the console version still have this resource within their .IFF as well! However because the sims’ appearances are vastly different between the two versions, the bodystrings inside a console sim’s .IFF go unseen. However when a sim from the console version is forcibly brought into the PC version, these previously unseen bodystrings can be seen! But most sims, like the GOTH family pictured above, use a set of default heads and bodies for their respective age groups, see below.

However! There are a few exceptions to this rule, and a handful of sims have uniquely defined appearances in their body strings, despite never being used by the game. So… here they are!

Freeplay Sims:

Interestingly enough, only the unused sims get to have unused unique PC bodystrings. Not even Betty Newbie!

Get a Life Sims:

Some interesting notes and observations about these appearances though:

They don't correlate to their proper appearances within the console version, like at all. They also only use light skin for whatever reason, not sure why. I do think it's a little funny that BETTY ROOMIES ended up with the same head that Betty Newbie from the PC version uses though! I also find it to be rather interesting that several sims use heads or bodies from the House Party Expansion Pack, what, if anything, that means though, I don't know.

As mentioned before, every other sim, apart from these select 17 sims use the same bodystrings. Even the duplicates of the Get a Life sims that exist within the neighborhood used for Bonus Game lots don't have this quirk.

I'm honestly not sure why these are even a thing. They could potentially be early development leftovers, but what purpose they served, if any at all, is a mystery to me.

[worldseer]

A list of random HCs about Jason Todd because I have brainrot~

THESE ARE MY PERSONAL HEADCANONS! IF YOU DISAGREE, THAT'S FINE BUT DON'T LEAVE HATE! Headcanons are separated by catagories: Random, fluffy, angsty, and NSFW. MDNI!!!! The different colors are just to break up the hcs a bit and not look like pure walls of text-

Random:

Has tapetum lucidum after being in the pit, causing his eyes to glow green in low/no light.

Has hazel eyes, which causes them to look brown or green at certain times.

Built sturdy and more like a boxer. I refuse to believe that this man isn't wide. Getting a better diet since being adopted + Robin training + Lazarus Pit = BIG. FRIDGE OF A MAN.

Has vitiligo, hence the white streak in his hair. It just so happened to show up after being resurrected.

Known to sleep walk and talk after resurrection. If he ever sleeps at the Manor, Bruce has cameras and sensors in place to make sure he doesn't do anything stupid.

Mostly talks shit to the houseplants while sleepwalking.

Canonically eats fast food alot. However, he always manages to burn off the calories. And the fat just makes him bulkier.

Bisexual but he doesn't tell anyone. Not that he's trying to hide it. He just doesn't label himself.

Wears eyeliner regularly, just because he wants to. Look I just love the concept, ok?

Considering getting his ears pierced, just debating on what exact kind of piercing

Has tattoos but not many, most notably small tattoo of a flower on his wrist to honor the death of Catherine, his step-mother.

Has prominent scars: Autopsy scar (died, obvi), scar stretching from the left edge of his left cheek and then up into his hairline (from crowbar), cut in his right eyebrow (from fighting as a child), lip scar that runs from slightly above the skin of his top lip and down over his lips to his chin on his left ( also from fighting as a child). Any other "scar" he receives since resurrection often fades away due to effects from the pit. The others do not fade.

Almost as tall as Bruce, maybe shorter by about an inch at most.

Fluffy:

Has cried watching the Titanic movie. Was inconsolable for a week. Refuses to watch it ever again.

Laughs at horror films these days. Also will talk about how cuts and bullet wounds are anatomically incorrect like its casual conversation. It's one of the few activities he actively enjoys doing with Damian.

Calls Dick an old man just to spite him.

Never passes on an opportunity to tease Tim and call him a huge fucking nerd.

Loves all animals, but prefers cats. No real reason. He just always liked them more. Used to leave cans of food out for the cats to eat from as a kid.

Mostly likes Nu Metal, since it allowed him as a kid to get anger out and all the cool teens in his neighborhood blasted it a lot. But he's not picky about music. Secretly a snob for classical music though.

Strong relationship with Barbara, thinks of her as a sister he never had.

Always helps Alfred cook when he's at the Manor, and is good at it. Obviously works a knife well in cooking, but secretly prefers baking because the kitchen smells better afterwards.

As I've said before, I would not be surprised if he brings a stray home from either a shelter or the street. If he could, he'd help all the stray animals in Gotham and keep them.

Cares deeply about Tim. Tries to act like a big brother and be a good example to the best of his ability.

Not really a gamer, but he had some old consoles when he was a young kid under Bruce's care. Loved Wii Sports; boxing was his favorite. Nowadays, he doesn't play video games much. When he has time and feels like it though, he will play a game or two. Doom Eternal and Red Dead Redemption II are the top favorites after being resurrected.

Spends a good amount of time around Cass when at the Manor. They probably understand each other on almost a psychic level. They also train together a lot too to sharpen skills they both are weaker in.

Angst: (sorry for the pain)

Volunteers often at shelters and soup kitchens as a way to cope, makes him believe that he can offer comfort instead of just pain and being a burden.

Prefers to not talk out feelings after being resurrected; usually drives around to clear his head. Depending on how bad the situation is, it ranges from a few minutes to over an hour.

Loves classical literature because it was the first thing that allowed him to escape reality.

Has weird as fuck dreams, thanks to trauma and the pit. Never says anything about them to others however.

Never lets his stubble grow out too much because it makes him think he looks too much like Bruce, and he doesn't want to look like him.

Picked up smoking because what the hell are they gonna do? Kill him again? Always tries to avoid smoking around the others though, especially the members who are younger than him.

Rarely drinks. Reminds him too much of his birth father. Only does it for times when things are really bad.

Is so close to Barbara because she's one of the few who understands what it's like to be traumatized by the Joker. Often seeks her out for some comfort if his PTSD acts up again.

Hates crying, never cries in front of others unless he really trusts them. People who have seen him cry include Barbara, Dick, Alfred, and Bruce (on accident).

Grew up Catholic. Stopped believing the moment right before he died. Now has immense Catholic guilt and occasionally questions his morals a lot. (Might be self projecting but fuck it)

Zones out a lot. Happens the most during off time. If he's not doing anything, he's likely zoned out. Usually zones out when he thinks too hard about what the Lazarus Pit did to him, his death, and resurrections.

Copes in brash and self-depreciative humor. Also will make fun of others to draw attention away from his own problems.

Tried to help Catherine as much as he could, even if she wasn't the best mother to have.

NSFW: (Minors look no further!!!!)

A switch, dominant-leaning.

Softer dom, surprisingly. Sure, he can be a hard dom if he asked, but that's not what he wants. Coos sweet words while teasing.

Grunts and groans. Not vocal, but he'll talk through it sometimes. Grits his teeth if he's really into it.

"Oh, look at you on my cock. So tight and taking all of it, do you feel full? You look good when you're full of me."

He needs foreplay before subbing. Sometimes he's still wary about letting his guard down, so he needs lots of prepping and reassurance. Once he is into subbing, he's very obedient and eager to please.

Softer noises and gasps when subbing. He doesn't dare be loud, and often tries to cover up his noises. Doesn't beg often, takes what he gets without much complaint.

"Mmph- ah- hah- fuck- I'm close- I'm close baby. Can I finish?"

LOVES dirty talk, giving and receiving. He's already a bit of a cocky lil shit, so he'll tease you and talk you through it. Supportive about his dirty talk usually.

"That's it. Just like that. God- you're perfect. So fuckin' perfect- keep goin' baby, I gotcha."

Not experienced, sorry. With a combination of being bad at expressing emotions, trauma, and being busy as a vigilante, he does not get many bitches.

Has had hookups here and there, but that's all they were. He left the moment the other was all settled or asleep.

Experimental. Because he's low on experience, he's not entirely sure what he does or doesn't like.

Would not use a weapon in bed. That's a hard line. Weapons make him think of violence, and that's the last thing he wants to think about when in such a vulnerable moment.

Hates degradation, on both ends. Won't do it even if asked. The only time he'd ever get close to degrading is if you allow him to fuck while he's still working through some anger. Would apologize profusely afterwards though.

Not big on being tied up himself, but likes tying someone else up a bit. Nothing crazy besides handcuffs. Any further and he feels like he's taking advantage/being taken advantage of.

PRAISE!!! Loves to receive it, especially if he's being focused on or on the more submissive side.

A giver. He's not selfish, and feels bad if the other is not feeling good as well. Would most likely give more than he ever receives.

Not picky. As long as you are clean and consenting, he'll eat out if offered/allowed. Hair? Doesn't matter. Menstruating? Good thing he's low on iron. And you best believe that he is not stopping until you either push him away or are begging.

Thick, as expected. A little bit over 6" long. Prominent veins.

Trimmed, not shaved. Yes there is a difference.

Has a bit of a happy trail, and veins appear on v-line when hard.

Aftercare game ranges on how much he and his partner did, and their relationship. Hookups are usually left to take care of themselves and he leaves quickly. If Jason is serious about someone, he'll grab a washcloth, urge the other to use the bathroom (and maybe carry them if they're tired), and stay for cuddles.

[multi-fandomsfreak]

MX x Reader Prompt

Hey, it’s me again! I hope you had a great a Christmas (If you do celebrate.) and an even better new years also did you like Mario’s Madness V2? Also what are your favorite song(s) from the mod. Personally I liked Last Course and Starman Slaughter the most.

Anyways I’m getting off track… 👀 😅

So, imagine this.. Boyfriend, Reader and Girlfriend are all dating (Or they can be friends if you don’t like poly relationships.) but when we they get the cartridge for the cursed Mario game. (Mario’s Madness..) They go through mostly everyone but then they get to MX’s stage. MX is looking to kill the group but he takes interest in Reader and tries to take them away from Boyfriend and Girlfriend and claim them as his own but Boyfriend and Girlfriend ain’t having none of that so they try their best to keep reader away from MX.

You can decide how the ending goes.. (Please use She/They pronouns..)

Anyways that’s it.. I hope you’re doing okay and please remember to take care of yourself. 🫶🏽🫶🏽

MX Taking An Interest In Reader

Hey there thanks for the ask!

I did have a great Christmas and New Years (besides my injury of course). Honestly I really loved Mario’s Madness V2. It’s one of the best mods out there. My favourite songs from the mod is MX’s 2nd song Demise (totally not bias or anything lol) but I also like Paranoia and Dark Forest.

Also I did friendship for this ask hope you don’t mind. Don’t have anything against poly relationships I just thought it would be best for this scenario. ~Blaze/Dawn

Pronouns: She/They

Warning: ⚠️Kidnapping + Harm Done To Reader + Mentions Of Murdering⚠️

Requested: Yes/No

Characters: MX + BF + GF

Proofread: ❌

Credits: Art by Deadtos on DeviantArt + Banner by Kaileyfln on Pinterest

———————————

- Honestly, how the fuck did you get yourself in this situation? Well I’ll tell you how. You see your friends BF and GF invited you over to hang out and how could you resist saying no to the lovely couple so you immediately headed over. At first it was a bit silent due to the three of you not knowing what to do, then eventually one of you brought up playing a game. So you decided to order a random Mario game and just like that it immediately arrived. Being full of excitement, BF immediately opened it only for the three of you to find a cartridge which had some substance on it and had the word 'MARIO' in all capitals.

+ All three of you gave each other a confused look wondering what was up with the cartridge “Maybe it’s some new design?” You spoke up although it was a weird reasoning it was the only thing you can think of “yeah I guess so?” BF said in response to which GF shrugged her shoulders “Let’s just get this shit over with” she sighed as went back to sit on the couch with you joining her while BF went to set up the console and honestly that’s all you remember. The next few seconds happened so fast. First you saw BF next to you then he was gone then the same happened to GF then eventually you felt a hand roughly grabbing onto your shirt and dragging you into the TV to which you managed to find both of your friends there.

- That’s how you got dragged into this mess, meeting a range of disturbing people based on the classic super hero Mario and his friends. Luckily thanks to BF and his rapping skills he managed to get all three of you out of the situation however something worse was about to happen.

- The three of you had recently beaten the previous EXE and were on your way to go face the next one you were faced with a Mario look-alike and with everything that has happened so far the three of you knew what was going to go down. You were already facing another one however something felt different. Obviously you could tell he had insane bloodlust for all of you but you started to notice something. You couldn’t tell if it was your eyes playing with you but you could swear that whoever this was, he was staring at you. Like he was curious about you. Eventually both BF and GF had started to notice this thing being oddly creepy around you. Obviously they were both worried because they didn’t know what may or may not happen to you.

- Eventually shit hit the fan as the being then revealed his true self as MX and to say you were overwhelmed with fear was an understatement. Like sure the others had something that set off some fear in you, you didn’t know why but you felt like this is different. Maybe because for some reason he had an eye on you but you trust BF and he managed to get all three of you this far so you paid no attention to it. MX on the other hand you’ve caught his eye. The only thing that is going through his head is “I’m taking them”. He doesn’t know why but that doesn’t matter to him.

- Even though he knew you were on GF and BF’s side so obviously you were up to something but at the same time he had a feeling you didn’t have anything special going on, just someone who just so happened to get roped into their business and had to suffer the consequences of it. For some strange reason he liked that. He figured he could use you as some sort of bait for the two of them, maybe using this to get to know other things about you and keep you forever bringing despair onto the couple over being responsible for losing a friend of theirs. So with quick thinking and reflexes he managed to quickly snatch you before the rest of you could react.

+ You couldn’t help letting out a slight noise as you felt MX’S tight grip around you, holding you like a doll before bringing you close to his face. That damn sadistic smile on his face as he eyed you up and down causing shivers being sent down your spine “…well aren’t you a fascinating human” he eventually spoke up paying no attention to BF and GF who now started talking to him demanding that he let you go “Hey, leave her alone she’s not the one your fighting here!” BF stood in front like he was going to physically fight him despite the massive size compared to him and MX “Yeah you heard him let [Name] go” GF preparing herself to save you not caring about what might happen to her “[Name]…so that’s what your called” MX chuckled to himself “I’ve got to say it definitely suits someone like you” You feel yourself physically getting disgusted at the way he was talking to you as finger dragged itself from your face down to your chin forcing you to look at him. Eventually he had enough of being in BF & GF trying to give you back so he took you to a place, planning on keeping you away till he gets rid of the two himself.

- You confused as fuck as to why the hell he wanted you well besides getting rid of the couple but besides that you honestly don’t know why. Should you feel glad that you’ve been chosen? Well to him you should but honestly you didn’t feel it. But you were just glad that he wasn’t trying anything with you, not yet at least. You did try your best to escape from his grip however it felt impossible due to his death like grip on your body, you could feel it almost crushing your body. You couldn’t tell if he actually was trying to kill you or not despite showing some interest in you.

- But surprisingly he actually didn’t try to kill you but it didn’t really change the fact that you didn’t really want to be around him. But luckily for you after a while you couldn’t really tell how long due not being able to tell the time. Eventually both GF and BF managed to find you much to his dismay. He desperately wanted to murder the two of them but at last he finally managed to go along with the gang's little game of rap battle offering you as a sacrifice to him if they lose. However, just like how it went in the game and with the earlier exe’s BF manages to defeat him not only once but twice, getting you back and escaping with some help from GF only to face more exe’s but honestly they didn’t care they were just happy to have you back.

———————————

[karla-the-elemental-dreamer]

🪢 KH-OC Week 2024 🪢 - Day 2 Package

Prompt: Design keyblades for Natasha and Erika.

In Day 1, you were introduced to two new teddies:

Miss Natasha Avalenka

Miss Erika Tapalados

Who are special guests for KH-OC Week 2024 under Dinh-Yu.

Here are their keyblades if they were to traverse / reside in the Kingdom Hearts realm.

Natasha: Aura of Enigma

The ? graphics are inspired by how Sora or any other KH player gets confused by an enemy. When she swings, ?s will come off the keyblade. The N in the background does not stand for Neo-Cortex, it stands for Natasha, though she seems to adopt a similar if not identical style/taste, in terms of science slash robotics/mechanics, or even archaeology. Hence some nicely shaped bones for the outer handle, with an 'Alice In Wonderland'/'Dr. Seuss' bush over the top. I believe in Kingdom Hearts, she'd fit in to being a researcher or may teeter on the edge of darkness at times.

The main reason Natasha gets this keyblade is because despite me being her creator (obviously), I don't even know the true facets of her personality. Like she is so hard to flesh out, hence she's an 'Enigma' waiting to be discovered, if anyone can work it out. That's what the E at the end of the keyblade stands for... Unless she had dealings with Ephemer or Eraqus that I know nothing about...?

---

Erika: Flower Garden

Erika would be teaming up with the guardians of light, and may even get involved in the company/surroundings of her sister. Erika would get Riku to 'like' her / get used to her quicker than both Selvian and Sierra combined. Consuls (ESFJs) have a knack for that.

With Erika's design, she just screams flowers and pretty petals, and other pretty things as well. In a sense she's like Kairi, but only in tastes. She's not as rambunctious as Kairi. Just for comparison, think of Erika as a Princess Peach type; only not getting kidnapped.

I think of Erika as a 'delicate flower', whereas Kairi is a 'Wild Flower'.

Kairi likes a sharp pink, Erika likes pastel pink and pastel green as a secondary.

---

As Day 2 here is on the topic of more/additional keyblades:

As I was setting up some things for this event, I was psychically gifted a keyblade for my inventory by Dinh-Yu and his crowd!

---

Day 2 edit: Dinh-Yu subsequently caught me out for not putting keychains on the back of the handles. I always forget those 🥲

'Aura of Enigma' would have a bright red N OR a ? of some sort.

Not sure about Erika's.

'Warioware Inc.' would have a garlic OR a mini console thing like what they use in Game&Wario.

---

Subsequent Day 2 edit: Am doing the week mostly blind due to Dinh-Yu's challenge, advice and instructions, but when scrolling through ppl's work, I saw a prompt.

I realise I have hilariously coincidentally addressed Natasha's ABSENCE OF past or at least knowledge of it 😁

So here's something else about the past. Where does Selvian come from? IRL, I have had what happened to be my favourite coloured trddy bear for a few years, until it was no longer useable for some reason. The ears were blue, but the fur was rainbow. Since the base colour was green, that's the digital skin colour because I'd spend forever with rainbow. Selvian is the unaltered version of how the teddy looks like IRL, without clothes obvs, and also therefore consequentially bald. The rest are altered to give them hair and different personalities.

The bear may have been tossed in the trash, but the spirit lived on, for that many years, and has transformed into an interdimensional entity/carryable character in the name of Selvian who appears to be the leader of everything but has a specific bridge to Kingdom Hearts. And oop! I was also calling him Selviana as a child, hence I've now taken the last A off.

---

Sierra and Erika being sisters is a fairly new concept after Erika was rolled in for Dinh-Yu. May try to address tidbits of the sisters (or just Sierra because she's KH) in future days IF I can flesh them out more. These teddies sometimes start their jobs before we even get to know them 😅

Sierra was always intended to have a sister, we just didn't know who it was.

[squid-ink-symphony]

f1sh and chips headcanons?

IVE BEEN PREPARING FOR THIS MOMENT MY WHOLE LIFE

HARMONY:

Nonbinary and kinda indifferent on their gender. Goes by She/They. Doesn't really care if you use other pronouns for them tho.

Aromantic and a lesbian. Is still ok with labeling a relationship as dating even if she doesn't experience romantic love the same way as other people.

Autistic, and doesn't always function super well as an adult on her own. But she's doing her best.

Collects stuffed animals and small toys.

Likes cute things, but some people would label their definition of cute as weird.

Loves bright colors. Crank that saturation up!

Very blunt.

Gets along pretty well with her bandmates. They aren't SUPER close but they are friends.

Knows she is different. Doesn't care. It probably used to bother them more when they were younger, but now she has come to terms with it.

House is very messy.

People are just drawn to her, she doesn't particularly like it.

A lot of people think that because she is blunt and speaks her mind that she doesn't ever lie and take everything she says at face value. He is very capable of lying and will do so for various reasons if needed. Or sometimes just cuz spreading misinformation is funny. Will tell you the sky is bright green with no hesitation and a deadpan expression.

Depressed. Is on medication for it and handles it ok ish...

Video game addict. You can usually find her at home in her pajamas playing some new game surrounded by empty instant ramen cups.

Mostly enjoys creative or cute games like pokemon, animal crossing, or minecraft. Doesn't play them often, but she is the absolute best at fighting games. Could beat anyone blindfolded. Is good at a lot of hard games, but doesn't really like that kind of stuff.

Plays a lot of things as they come out and probably has a blog where she reviews them.

Knows every skip and speedrun strat ever.

Likes platformers, especially 2d ones.

Collects old nintendo consoles/games.

Stims a lot with any object nearby. Likes to play with her bracelets a lot. Will just pick up random things and fidget with them.

Seems to be tired a lot, has bags under her eyes. Stays up late a lot but doesn't mind the lack of energy.

Very clumsy and has poor motor controls for a lot of things. Has to take frequent breaks when playing games or music. Gets hurt a lot bumping into random objects.

Issues with her wrists have been a problem for most of her life due to her hobbies, and she is surprisingly good at taking care of them nowadays. Used to not care but then some serious injuries happened and she realized she couldn't afford to do that.

DEDF1SH:

Bigender! He/She/They probably. Would maybe be open to neos if he found the right ones.

Demiromantic, Bi, and Asexual. Both Acht and Harmony are aspec(not for any reason what no i'm not biased as an aroace person noooo-)

When first getting out of the metro he was VERY malnourished and had a hard time eating food. He has a lot of texture issues and finds most foods unbearable to put in her mouth.

Has since gained her weight back and is looking more healthy.

Is very sensitive to sunlight, and burns very easily even in normal weather with minimal exposure. This is part of the reason she spends so much time alone indoors.

Eyes are also very sensitive to light after being sanitized and living in the deep for so long. This is why he wears sunglasses everywhere.

Is also autistic like harmony. (again, as an autistic person i am in no way biased towards headcanoning characters as autistic ok?) Is sensitive to sounds and wears noise canceling headphones a lot.

Goes nonverbal if overstimulated.

Doesn't talk that much, is more the type to say as few words as possible to get their sentence across.

Likes eating cereal with no milk. It's one of their favorite snacks.

LOVES fruit. They are that meme of the person covered in mango juice.

Just like harmony, his face isn't very expressive. But while harmony always looks like she's daydreaming, Acht often looks angry. This is especially true when she has her glasses on since you can't see her eyes.

Really likes fashion. Likes very femme alternative stuff specifically.

Is already naturally tall, and wears heels everywhere. Towers over most other octolings/inklings.

There are many lasting effects from the sanitization. Including physical and mental symptoms. Acht is slowly recovering tho!

Can play piano, just doesn't. Doesn't remember where they learned to, but it makes them feel slightly sad to play it.

Has amnesia due to the sanitization. Can remember things like skills, but not where they learned them or from who. Doesn't remember much of her past. Doesn't remember much family or friends either. Can picture some blurry faces, but not names or how they knew each other.

Tartar told her about her decision to be sanitized, and she has no choice but to have taken his word for why she decided to due so as she has no memory of it.

Has a hard time adjusting to life on the surface.

Has some trauma surrounding medical equipment, and doesn't like to go to doctors.

I've always Acht having known Marina before coming to the surface, but with Side Order confirming they know each other somehow i will wait to flesh that out until we get more info.

Is confident and somewhat social(especially compared to Harmony) but needs a lot of time to recharge their batteries after being around others.

ParuF1sh:

They both like to make music, and often make silly little songs together. Acht likes to take whatever Harmony hums and turn it into short songs.

Both of them don't sleep much. Harmony doesn't like to because she prefers to spend her time on hobbies n such instead. She also has insomnia, but since she doesn't like sleeping it doesn't really bother her TOO much. Acht on the other hand has issues sleeping due to frequent nightmares. She ends up having terrifying nightmares of her time with tartar or things she can't fully remember from before she was sanitized. Harmony is always there to comfort him when he wakes up sweating and frightened.

Both of them are very picky about food and so their pantries end up being stuffed with lots of their prefered safe foods.

Acht tries to push himself to leave his apartment in splatsville from time to time to avoid being totally disconnected from the world because that's what she did when she first got to the surface and it made her very depressed. On one of those trips Acht ended up visiting Hotlantis because he was just exploring various shops. He really liked the vibes of the shop and the wide variety of items that rotated frequently had him coming back. This is where the two of them first met.

At first Harmony and Acht didn't even notice each other despite Acht becoming a regular to come buy and look at weird little items. But eventually after having to check Acht out so many times she finally started to pay attention to what Acht was buying and noticed they had similar tastes. Then one day Harmony struck up a conversation with Acht and they became friends from there.

I think they are both poly and wouldn't mind if their partner dated someone else. But neither of them have another partner right now.

While they both may struggle with a lot of things they help each other out and manage to get through life ok.

It took a bit for Acht to get back to making music after getting out of the metro.

They like to watch ghibli movies while cuddling for a lot of their dates. They will watch all of them and then just start over with the first one again. I think the movies are comfort media for them. Harmony's favorite movie is Spirited Away and Acht's favorite is Kiki's Delivery Service.

Acht chills with Harmony's fish a lot i think.

Neither of them know how to cook.

Harmony leaves her work spaces very messy, but Acht keeps hers VERY neat.

Acht and Harmony both take surprisingly long to get ready and pick out outfits, but Acht takes much longer than Harmony.

They do a lot of parallel play where they just sit in silence and do their own thing.

Acht hangs out at Hotlantis with Harmony a lot and just keeps their headphones on and chills.

Acht also runs the store when Harmony isn't there.

They both listen to a lot of video game osts and it's probably what Harmony keeps playing in the store as well.

Acht has asked why Harmony doesn't stream playing games, and Harmony just doesn't wanna. She would rather just post reviews.

They swap whos the little spoon depending on the day.

Both of them have terrible sleep schedules.

The first time Acht ever saw a splatfest she was enamored, and now she makes sure to always attend the concerts. Harmony insists on keeping the store open since people are everywhere during splatfests and love to shop. But the floats come through the same streets as the shop, so Acht makes sure to pull her away to watch them at least once. And Harmony loves seeing the music as well.

Neither of them really participate in turf wars. Acht is older than most players and finds it awkward to team up with random teenagers but isn't willing to put together an official team of players her age. But she still likes to take her trusty squiffer out to the practice range to keep her skills sharp. Harmony LOVES to watch her practice.

I was about to go into a whole thing of which team they would pick for each splatfest and why, but i think thats gonna have to be later/if anyone asks for it cuz it may be too long for this post lol

so yeah ill end it there for now. they are my beloveds and i could talk about them forever so feel free to ask questions/send in suggestions/talk about how you view them

here is a goofy doodle i did in 5 mins on my laptop for compensation for reading this far:

[thefandomenchantress]

My Headcannons About The Despair Time Cast Playing Super Smash Bros. Together

I randomly got this idea and decided I needed to post about it.

Xander has accidentally broken three controllers. He gets really into the game and forgets how strong he is. MonoTV bans him from the console for a few weeks every time, yet he never learns his lesson. He doesn’t know any of the characters’ names, but he does know he always plays as ‘the really cool sword guy!!’ (Link).

Nico always plays as the animal characters (If you count Pokémon as animals), and sometimes Kirby because they like how cute and gender neutral the character looks.

The cast thought David would play as a cute animal crossing character or something, but no. Ridley. Ridley every single round, and he has to fight the urge to laugh in the loser’s face every time he wins. Unless someone else wants to be Ridley, then he will grumpily gladly choose a different character.

Arei will not hesitate to laugh in your face when she wins. She plays as any cute character, because she thinks it’s hilarious when the buff, sword-carrying dudes lose to tiny, pink fluff balls. She will, without a doubt, resort to foul play if she starts losing and will knock the controller out of her opponent’s hand to win.

J refuses to play as any girly-looking character. It’s always some super buff guy, like Snake. Or at least she always played as a buff guy until she learned Samus was a girl who dressed up in a cool armor suit to beat up aliens, and started playing as her from that point onward. She will also laugh in the loser’s face when she wins.

Ace is pretty good, but only if he plays as a Princess character. Otherwise he sucks. And he’s too prideful to pick a Princess character most of the time, so he almost always sucks. The rest of the class didn’t know this until Arei made fun of him for being terrible at the game and challenged him to a one-on-one round. Princess Peach never looked more ferocious…Until Arei stole Ace’s remote and wouldn’t give it back until she’d killed his character ten times.

Levi doesn’t play most of the time, but when he does, he lets whoever’s closest to him pick his character. It usually doesn’t matter who he’s playing as, because he’ll probably end up accidentally running off the stage repeatedly or get the jump and punch button confused with each other (He doesn’t play video games a lot).

Teruko plays as Bayonetta, for no reason other than Bayonetta being cool and badass. She’ll usually get really close to winning, only for her controller to run out of batteries at the last second, even if they’d charged it five minutes prior. Or worse, the console overheats and completely shuts down (once it caught on fire). So she, like Levi, also usually just watches.

Eden sometimes plays as Ness, who seems small and cute and innocent until suddenly he’s shouting ‘EAT FIRE!!!!’ in your face over and over again and forever trapping you in his eternal flames. But despite her prowess as Ness, Eden usually chooses whatever characters no one else will pick, because she feels like those characters must feel left out and sad that no one plays as them. But she’ll make them feel better!!! Even if it means losing.

Veronika loves to play as the monster characters, especially Ridley, because Ridley is the scariest. She often will narrate her attacks and give extremely gruesome details about how many bones her opponents have broken and how many organs they’ll have to replace after the fight.

Arturo is often forced to play when Veronika does, and he will play as any hot, pretty character. If he loses, it’s not the beautiful, amazing character’s fault, it’s his. He’ll never understand why Veronika likes playing as the ugly monsters.

Rose likes to play as Jigglypuff, because Jigglypuff always makes characters fall asleep without warning, and looks like a fluffy pillow Rose would like to snuggle. She likes to jokingly blame her terrible sleep schedule on an invisible Jigglypuff that follows her around everywhere.

Min claims video games are a distraction from her studies, but eventually the class persuaded her to play. Before she did, however, she did a fair amount of research on which character would be best for her to choose, and eventually settled on Zelda because she read Zelda had a cool teleporting power.

Whit plays as whatever character he can think of the most puns for. For example, if he were to sneeze right before he picks? “Well, I guess this is a sign that I should pick Pik-achoo!! Get it? Because ‘achoo’ is the sound effect for sneezes in comics and stuff?” “Yes, Whit, now please pick your character already.”

Charles always plays as Dr. Mario, because the character has a respectable profession and therefore, must be the most talented. Charles isn’t very good, since he never played video games as a kid, but Whit calling him various doctor-related, punny nicknames makes up for it (Even if he’d never admit that).

Hu is often the supervisor, trying to make sure no one angrily throws a remote across the room or turns off the console when they’re losing (*cough* Arei *cough*). But when she decides to join a round, she plays as an Animal Crossing villager, because they carry butterfly-catching nets, and she really likes butterflies.

[hawke-jpg]

At @moominhands behest here is my game list thing! <3 Reasoning under the cut:

Favorite game of all time: If i absolutley have to pick one it'd have to be Shadow of the Colossus, tho runners up are definitely ICO, FNV, Okami, Windwaker and Twilight Princess. it's hard to choose just the one honestly there's so many more too, but this game was so influential and i sunk so many hours into just exploring the world and taking in every tiny detail, it and ICO really changed my perspective on games in general.

Favorite Series: Dragon Age, it's camp and has a lot of issues, but it gave me extreme brain rot and i love it a lot.

Best Soundtrack: ICO, this game has barely any music! But when it does, it really goes all out, the resting theme and the erie music before the final boss are my favorites.

Favorite Protagonist: Hawke, from Dragon age 2, this is surprising to absolutely no one.

Favorite Villain: Dormin from SOTC, I love this thing, is it even really a villan? who knows but it's very cool and i love the voice acting for it! runners up are the shadow creatures from ICO for similar reasons and The Master from Fallout 1.

Best Story: Night in the Woods. This was really hard to pick tbh i could've put a few in this spot but this is one of my favorite story focused walking sims and i love to revisit it.

Have not played but want to: Disco Elysium, I've attempted to play this game on console very briefly once but couldn't get used to the controls. Now that i have a PC I'm planning to play it but i need to be in the right headspace for big CRPGs as i find them hard to get into so, i just need to wait till the time is right to play it. I also want to play Hades.

You Love, Everyone Hates: The Last Guardian, everyone hated this game SO MUCH, especially at launch.. Heaps of streaming people who had only ever played Shadow all expected it to be SOTC again but when it turned out to be much closer to ICO with only some elements of Shadow people just hated it so much for what it wasn't. This game much like ICO can be frustrating at times but it's really good and had a lot of love put into it, the A I of the Creature Trico is especially cool as it learns depending on how you interact with it and becomes more responsive and easy to direct. It's certainly not a game for everyone but it didn't deserve the amount of disdain it received on release.

You Hate, Everyone Loves: (please don't kill me for these I don't actually hate them they're just not for me) Kingdom hearts, I tried multiple times to play these games and i just couldn't get into them, they're just not for me i think, i don't really find the gameplay or story elements particularly engaging. Sad! a lot of my friends really love these and seem to get a lot out of them. I never had the chance to play them as a kid though so i feel like i may have had different opinions if i'd started playing them earlier. Last of us 2, The weird opinion split when it released between bigots who hated it cause women and queer people were in it and then the other people saying it was the most profound piece of media ever was really frustrating because it kind of shut down a lot of good faith criticism. I think the main problems i have is that it came out in a really depressing time where something with such a bleak and unsatisfying ending came across as a bit gauche even though the devs couldn't have anticipated it. And that there's a bunch of good elements about it that just didn't really stick the landing for me, or were handled poorly imo. Personally the overall message it's going for via it's gameplay and story had already been done, and done better over 10 years prior (see Shadow of the Colossus; Ico was a stated main inspiration for the first last of us and i'm pretty certain Shadow was for part 2 considering the parallels), and it would've been quite ground breaking back then but now it's not so much. Again this is personal opinion of how it's just not really for me.

Best Art Style: Okami! Kind of self explanatory, even on ps2 this game's graphics still hold up because of that art style, and i love how it was incorporated into the gameplay.

Favorite Ending: Zelda: Twilight Princess, love this game, the climactic boss rush and the story conclusion is so good, it's such a long game and the characters go through so much it all really wraps up nicely even with it's melancholic tone. This was the first Zelda game i fully finished so the ending had more of an impact on me too because of that.

Favorite Boss Fight: Crimson Helm, from Okami, this guy is super fun to fight, cool design, great arena, always a good one to revisit.

Childhood Game(s): my first ever game was Duke Nukem DOS on the floppy disk on my dads old computer, it's a side scroller that's sound effects are drilled into my brain. Frogger i got later on the same computer once dad upgraded his for work, it was the first game i ever finished. and Nintendogs i got much later again with the old clunky silver DS, i played this game way too much.

Relaxing Game(s): Lil Gator Game, it's so fun and cruisey to play, really charming and great controls. Flock, I only played this recently but it's so fun, very pretty, you just fly about and spot new creatures to list in your encyclopedia! A Short Hike, really great chill vibes, i love revisiting this one every now and then. Proteus is also a good one.

Stressful Game: Mass Effect 2, I love these games but they're so stressful trying to avoid people dying from random dumb choices you make hours prior omg! 2 is especially bad for it off memory, i remember writing up a strategy sheet for that last big level so i could avoid people dying.

Game you always come back to: Drakan The Ancients Gates, I love this one, it's a bit janky but it's got a really weird and interesting world, with a weird plot and bizzare character design.

Guilty Pleasure: The Dog Island, this game is so silly but i played so much of it as a kid it was kind of ridiculous, so i really enjoy revisiting it every now and then, it's also kind of bizarre in terms of how the story is written.

Tons of Hours Played: Baldur's Gate 3, I've only played it through twice but it's stacked up a bunch of hours, really good tho! others that I've spent way too much time with is Dragon age Inquisition, Animal crossing NH and NL, and of course SOTC but i dont actually have the hour count for that one, i can only assume.

[silenzahra]

What's up Zahra? I have a question for you.

What's your favorite Mario RPG other than the Mario & Luigi series?

You can take as much time to answer as you want.

Take care!

What's up, Mugi? Thank you so much for sending this ask! 🥰 I'm sorry I took forever to get to it, but I hope you'll like my answer!

Actually, my choice is very clear:

✨ The Thousand-Year Door ✨

This game means EVERYTHING to me 😍 It was my first Paper Mario game and my second RPG ever (only after Superstar Saga), and oh God, I fell so in love with the characters, the story, the mechanics, the music! It's a game that's so full of surprises and charisma, and the fact that it was told as a play only made it cuter to my eyes 🥹

Honestly, playing this game again after almost 20 years of trying it for the first time on my Wii (I borrowed the original from my cousin as I didn't have a GameCube)... It hit hard in the nostalgia 🥹 When I tell you I couldn't stop crying when it was announced in the direct last year! And then, again, when I started playing it, especially with the soft and beautiful music as the book opens and the story starts...

I have to admit I'm getting emotional just by remembering it 🥹

It's really been so great to replay it! I've loved rediscovering again not only the story of the game itself, but also those of the different characters. Especially the partners! If I may, I wanna mention my three favorites!

Mini Yoshi and Goombella are simply amazing. Their personalities shine through! He's so bold and ready to fight, and she's so smart and sassy. I adore them wholeheartedly 🥹

And then...

My beautiful and beloved Vivian 💜 She holds a very special place in my heart. As a fun fact, she was always trans in the Spanish version of the original game, but of course, I was incredibly happy when it became something official worldwide! In this screenshot, she's actually telling Mario THE line: "It took me some time to realize that I was their sister... and not their brother." You best believe I've cried every single time I've read it, both when playing the game and on the internet 🥹

Also, the places! 😍 My personal favorite is Glitzville, because I love everything about that chapter in general. Having to fight battle after battle to climb the rankings in order to reach the top spot and being crowned champion? And in each battle you have to follow specific guidelines? Not to mention the different opponents you encounter and all the secrets hidden in this place! Absolutely AWESOME 🤩

Also: that Game Boy Advance on the wall does make the sound the console did when you turned it on. I'm a sucker for details like this as they hit nostalgia hard, so it was just another reason to love this part of the game even more 💖

Still, I also loved Twilight Town, the sea and the entire chapter that takes place in the train (can never remember its name in English 😅). I mean, just look!

Also. Mario going 👍 all the freaking time is a silly and adorable detail that made me giggle all the time 🤭❤️

I dont think I need to mention I cried my heart out when I finished replaying this game about a month ago 😅 Every single scene after I defeated the final boss just brought more and more tears to my eyes, and I just couldn't erase the silly smile from my face as I relived such a beautiful and touching ending (I'll add a few more pics under the cut so as not to spoil anyone). This game earned a really big place in my heart 20 years ago and it has only increased after playing the remake 🥹❤️

Thank you again for this ask, @megamagimugi! I hope the wait was worth it 🥰

⚠ SPOILERS BELOW ⚠

The Thousand-Year Door after you've collected every single crystal star reminds me so much of the one in Super Mario Land 2!

The moment of saying goodbye... You bet I was right there, crying with my beloved Mini Yoshi 😭

And Vivian about to tell Mario that she loves him! AAAAAHHHH my beloved shadow girl 😭💜✨

Also, loved how Mario's way of saying goodbye was, again...

Just brilliant 🤭❤️

And then... all this last sequence with Peach and Mario looking at Rogueport as they part had me UGLY crying.

As well as, of course...

I have just made myself emotional by re-visiting the ending of this game 🥹🥹🥹 The idea of them parting on a new adventure, and then celebrating the ending of the play on stage with all the partners, and Luigi being among the audience...

It's perfect. It's just perfect.

I just love every single thing about this game so so much ❤️❤️❤️

[alltimefail-sims]

Hi friends, happy Friday!

The Sims team recently collaborated with Ebonix and dropped the "Urban Homage" CAS kit on April 18th, so you guys already know I had to snatch it up and give my thoughts. I'm a week late, but I'll give you the TLDR up front: I like every item that came in this kit. Yes, I'm just as shocked as you are!

Sidenote: Don't worry, even though they aren't pictured above we will be looking at the male assets as well - they're in their own separate section under the cut!

With all that being said, let's jump into it! ↓

First, let me show you those masculine frame outfits I promised:

Okay, now I'm just going to get my minimal qualms out of the way:

I wish the female frame bodysuit labeled as a top could have also been in the full-body category. I love that it can be layered with other skirts and such, but it's soooo cute by itself and we don't have anything like it, especially for everyday or workout purposes.

Next, the joggers should have been enabled for both frames and same goes for the overalls. You can untick the "female" or "male" clothing preference in CAS and they both look fine on the opposite frame, but obviously there is some minor distortion in the chest area on fem frames when they wear the overalls.

I also wish the basketball shorts came in some simpler, sleeker swatches alongside the bolder prints and colors.

That's literally it: miniscule complaints really, and trust me when I say these complaints are nitpicky for a reason - I struggled to find critiques for this particular kit.

As for literally everything else not mentioned above: I love these clothes, and I think there are a few items that I will use over and over again.

All the bottoms are superb

The loose jersey is an item that we desperately needed in game

The dashiki swatches are stunning

The fit of every item across the board is immaculate on a wide range of body types.

The few simple items snuck into this kit - the cropped denim jacket, the tie crop shirt, the open button down, etc. are so versatile and beautifully executed.

The trendy butterfly top, the skinny pants with cutouts in the side, and the platform ankle boots (specifically the flame swatches!!) have all been tackled by cc-makers; these versions that come in this kit are right on par with the cc counterparts out there, a HUGE win for console players who cannot use cc.

Basically, these clothes look like clothes I could actually see real people wearing...unlike some items that have come in packs in the past that feel far too niche or look like leftover items that didn't fit in a different EP or GP. (I'm looking at you CAS items from Crystal Creations... I know those assets were 80% Realm of Magic rejects lmao. Not that I'm mad, I like a lot of the items, but they really aren't super versatile.)

Perhaps the most surprising treasures in this pack, however, actually lie within the accessory categories. Wild realization for me because when it comes to accessories in the sims I'm usually indifferent at best and confused if the devs have ever seen a real human out in the wild at worst (because let's be honest...that shit is usually so oversized and weird looking it's basically unusable). But I have to give these accessories their moment in the sun because WOW. I can't believe I'm uttering the words "I love" next to "kit accessories..." but Hell hath frozen over I guess. Here are some screenshots:

Every accessory (with the exception of the GORGEOUS headwrap) is enabled for masculine frame; this includes the rings (left & right), necklaces, earrings, facial piercing, and even the nails. The facial piercing shocked me the most as I've never used the piercings we've been given in other packs - they're always thick, bulky, and chunky in the worst way. But, much to my amazement, this nose piercing is sooooooo good and even come in a number of decent swatches outside of gold, silver, black! In fact, I liked it so much that I'm ditching the cc nose ring on my OC Ta'Nia and swapping it for the nose piercing that came with this kit. Even on a sim with a downturned nose tip and wider set nostrils (like the male sim I used in the screenshots) I felt like the piercing still looked great!

I only have one complaint about the accessories, and it's that I wish we were given more than one set of nails, or at least more color swatches for the nails. Black, red, and blue bases with chrome tips are just too limited to me, especially with all the vibrant colors we see in this pack! I would have liked a set of nails with intricate airbrushing/hand-drawn designs or ones that utilized gems and charms along with some variation in length and a shape outside of the trendy coffin or oval nails at medium length. I know this is picky, but cc nails are killing the game right now whereas the sims team continually plays it safe and, imo, it's boring; console players deserve to have glamorous works of art on their sim's fingers as well!

OKAY... time for my wrap-up thoughts!

Look at me saying this wouldn't be a long review... yet here we are, a whole ass Ted Talk later lol. Overall, I personally encountered zero major issues in this kit. (Please note that when I say "major" I am talking about hoodies that make eyes 3x their original size or jewelry that corrupts the body of a sim lol.) I will say that I saw some people saying they noticed some discoloration on the facial piercings that came with this pack (textures/colors bleeding from some other CAS items onto the piercings) but I didn't personally have that issue. If there are any other issues outside of the discolored piercings, I didn't encounter them and I haven't seen others talking about them.

TLDR: For me, this and the grunge kit are the standard of what a good CAS kit should look like. I think I'll be using several of these items often, and the content is easily worth $5.00 (unlike the party kit that dropped alongside this one... but that's a topic for another day). If you're going to give EA $5.00 for a kit, I confidently recommend this one.

Remember to use the creator code "EBONIX" at checkout so Ebonix can receive 5% of the proceeds when you purchase this kit!

I hope you all enjoyed my ramble. What are your favorite items from the kit? What do you think could have been better? Let me know in the replies or send me an ask; I always love hearing your guys' thoughts.

Talk to you all later! Hugs x

[yourbestpalpercy]

Fuck it

Have some pure Operator and Tartar trivia because I randomly thought of a whole lot of trivia. + Some bonus Everest trivia because she’s my favorite.

To start this off, how about some Tartar trivia!

* When all of humanity went extinct, Tartar retreated into the professor’s lab and set up base before it went out and started collecting up every game, book, movie, every kind of media it possibly could find. He even pirate- bought every online game, book, and movie he could. They did avoid online and multiplayer only games for obvious reasons. And before anyone can ask the haha, funny, unhinged question; yes, Tartar did in fact break into houses and other living quarters to make sure it got everything it possibly could get to keep itself entertained for the isolation it had already predicted it would go through. When Tartar ran out of things to do (which took forever), he started making sequels and giving endings to things that were left on cliffhangers. No, this did not stop Tartar from going crazy in isolation, it only helped them ignore it.

* When Tartar did all of that, it started replaying them and fully completing them. Eventually, when there was nothing else to do, he started watching the world change around him.

* So basically, the Resurgence AU Tartar is a gamer.

*Seriously, they will ramble about the things they did during that isolation period if you ask about them.

* I think Tartar liked the Halo games, the Bioshock games, and a few others but it doesn’t like the lore of Bioshock 1 and 2 (It reminds Tartar of Alterna and the professor) but it adores Bioshock Infinite, the lore that it knows doesn’t remind it of its isolation.

* Off page, Everest did once come across the room that Tartar stayed in and got curious. She started going through everything and collected up the things she found interesting (Wings of Fire, Warriors, mostly just books really). One day, Tartar passed by her room and found her reading Wings of Fire (I like to believe that Everest is a huge fan of the series. She loves dragons! Notably though, her least favorite tribe is SeaWings) and had a jolt of shock go through him before asking her where she got the book. Everest admitted and Tartar explained before leaving her alone, absolutely ecstatic that Everest discovered one of the many things he had from the time of the old humans.

Operator time!

* After Tartar’s reset, while yes, Operator did keep a lot of information about humanity and also (albeit now hazy) memories about its isolation, a lot of the older information about humans was erased thanks to the reset.

* He remembers a lot of the games he played during that isolation and after the reset, Everest found herself back in that room when she discovered Bioshock. Operator remembers the game’s contents and refuses to let Everest play because it’s graphic. Everest came up with a plan and dug out a different game, pretending to have interest in it. Operator was skeptical but eventually helped Everest fix and get the console working. Everest played the game she claimed to be interested in for just an hour (Operator was watching her) before putting in Bioshock Infinite the second Operator stopped watching her. Eventually, Everest got to the point where everything goes downhill and she pauses the game immediately after the scene. Operator reenters the room to find Everest crying, curled up on the ground. It’s immediately clear to him that Everest is having a traumatic flashback to her times in the cult. Operator looked at the game (Bioshock Infinite) which gave him a huge clue on what was going on because he remembered the contents of Bioshock Infinite. Operator begins to comfort Everest and soon puts in a different game. Once Everest is snapped back to reality, Operator gets her to start playing a game they would both enjoy and it’s honestly just a sweet scene of Operator comforting Everest.