#also banning all tags related to the game as soon as it's out

[magpie-countess]

Truth is, as much as I bitch and moan about everything in the trailer... I'm still incredibly excited about the game and all that's getting revealed! Really curious about everyone being introduced and super hyped about creating my Chara.

[davekat-sucks]

Doujin anon here, i think i was confused about what "Doujin" means since i had presumed it had just meant "fan manga" for awhile. While thats technically true partially, upon looking at the definition again it could also apply into other mediums as well. Does this mean all of those mspa fanadventures technically count as doujinshi or no? Idk, i didn't even know the proper terminology of the word for awhile correct me if im wrong I'm not savvy with Japanese terms. Like the other anon said, i was one of those people who didn't know what Japanese people meant by "cp" like i knew it didn't have any relation to you know what, but due to the language barrier i couldn't figure it out on my own. Ex: rkgk means sketch right? should probably look into a guide about the Japanese abbreviations and definitions for this stuff.

In a way, yes. Doujin itself means a group of people who share a hobby or interest. It's their word for fandom. Not to be confused with circle, which means a group of people (or even an individual person itself), selling doujin works as a team. Though not all Japanese people on places like Pixiv tag fanarts, as doujin 同人 when they upload it. Doujin also refers to works that started out as original comics, games, and more sold in Comiket that soon became professional works. Things like Touhou or Higurashi started out as an original game that was sold in Comiket, blew up in popularity as time went on. You can even think doujin games sold at Comiket like the ones mentioned here, as indie games. RKGK is the abbreviation for rakugaki, which means doodle or scribble in Japanese. Japanese artists tag this when they drew the art as said doodle or scribble to pass the time that it's not considered as art pieces to them. Most of the time though, I think said doodles make a great art piece alone. If you try telling them that, they get embarrassed and try to be humble. But please give them praises to let them know they are amazing! I don't blame you on the language barrier thing. Eastern fandom culture is different from the Western. When Japan does consume Western media, they take it as it is, a fictional media work. Compared to Western, who would think works from the past that were made in its time period, is problematic and should never be brought up again. Japan would know about the dark histories for some, but they also believe the intent for similar themes or topics that would be shown for upcoming or future works, is not out of maliciousness most of the time. The past is past and they would rather move on. With some exceptions based on country's personal history, but that's a whole other can of worms. The Japanese fandom also tend to be only exclusive to themselves. The relation between Eastern and Western fandom were not on good terms back then due to things like people reuploading Pixiv art and putting Nico Nico Douga videos on sites like YouTube, without permission. They even have applications for private community groups to make sure the person they are speaking to is Japanese and not some Western using a translator to sneak in and do things like download MMD models before releasing them back into public. Recently, Pixiv states that whatever country you are in, some content will not be shown there, to comply with other country's laws such as Europe's. Sites like Twitter/X already are banning stuff that's fine in Japan in order to follow Western standards. It's why sites like Misskey state that Japanese customs and beliefs towards certain media is different from America and Europe. If these bad communications and censorship keep going on, it won't be long until Japan finally decides all their works will only be Japanese exclusive and isolate themselves again. To the point they might even see if Western users are might be using VPNs to sneak in and block them. We really got to acknowledge the different fandom customs and cultures in various countries and languages. A Spanish community fandom will be different from something in English speaking ones. Not all groups have dark intentions. Only speak up if a person or group starts to get harmed because of it. And I don't mean like getting offended over a drawing someone stumbled upon by accident. I mean like someone harming themselves or anything truly legal involved.

[claire-starsword]

The Guardiana Magic School Run - Part 1

Let's do this thing. Seeing @shiningforcegirlpower got me inspired to do Shining Force challenge runs myself, so I'm finally starting the magic users only run in GBA that I had wondered about some months ago, maybe many? Ah, time.

All posts will be tagged as "#guardiana magic school run". We've got a lot of rambling and RPG starting setup to go through, let's get to it.

The rules:

-I can only use characters who start with spells or learn spells at some point. So Max and Arthur are valid despite knowing only Egress and nothing at the beginning, respectively. Mawlock however is banned, I'm treating the card gimmick as something completely different that honestly deserves its own challenge one day. Also excluding him gives us exactly 12 characters to work with which is very convenient as it means I'll never have to worry about the team composition.

-I must have every character who fits the rule above on the team, no giving up on any of them. If a character dies, I must revive them as soon as I have the money needed instead of saving the money for something else.

-Enforcing character bans is super easy in this version as you can remove any characters except Max from the team any time. The exceptions however are the Narsha interludes. Frankly, I'm not too concerned about these as I'll likely just die on them lol, but yeah, I can't use Zuika and Mawlock for anything on them. But if they do attract enemies or do a counter or anything like that it's out of my hands and I don't care.

-No resets (unless I accidentally break a rule and have to undo something), we die like men who enjoy funding the churches of Rune. This also means I can't reset for good boosts from stat boosting items, if I decide to use those I get what I get. Also means I can't reset for good item drops, which are a thing in this version.

-Also in the spirit of not exploiting things, I can only check the deals section of shops once before each battle. From what I've heard the deals section rolls to generate stuff each time you open it so you could abuse it by just opening it a lot. I want to ride on the silly waves of the RNGods instead.

-No Egress or Angel Wings, I don't want to just overlevel on easy battles and then wipe out the rest of the game. I can however use the Retreat command at the start of battles.

-I just remembered a Bank exists in this game and would make these money related restrictions trivial so, that's banned too. I don't think I've ever used that thing.

-Also on the topic of money, I can use/sell the items of banned characters, I'll give myself that.

-No using magic through items, I want to see the character's own magical skills. Also the Sword of Light and the Chaos Breaker tend to destroy the late game with their magic.

-It's hard to enforce this as a rule but, again, the point of the challenge is to not overlevel, so dying on purpose to go around the Egress ban shouldn't happen either. I should play trying to minimize losses and even characters deaths to the best of my ability. So I will be counting these metrics, with two caveats: Narsha deaths on the interludes get a separate counter, and Mawlock and Zuika's deaths there don't count at all since they shouldn't even be there. The interludes are a beast of their own and kinda don't mash well with challenge runs.

The rules have been set, let the games begin.

Queen Anri's dream has come true and the Guardiana Magic School is a success. To celebrate and promote its teachings, we are gathered here today for a perhaps not very historically accurate reenactment of the war against Runefaust, with only the Shining Force members who can showcase the wonders of ~*~magic~*~. Hans weeps tears of joy at not going to battle this time, and vows to never get anywhere near magical talent, which might be the opposite of what this expedition is trying to achieve here, but that's okay this isn't about him.

Between the starting money and what we get from selling Hans, Ken and Luke's equipment, we get 385 gold for our first provisions. And I know some if not all of my Shining followers haven't played this version, so I'll try highlighting differences when I remember. We already have big ones when it comes to items and equipment.

First, as my rules implies, the deals section have a random chance of coming up with some special equipment, sometimes very overpowered for the chapter you are in. But I did just check it once as I'm allowed to and there's nothing yet.

The amount of items you can carry has also changed. In classic SF games, each character can carry at most four items total. So if you have a weapon equipped, that's one less slot to carry an item on, and same if you have a ring on. Also, you can only equip one ring at a time. Here instead we get four slots for items, and separate four slots for equipment. So everyone gets to carry more healing items or whatever else we need. We also get to equip more rings at once, and the game will incentive us to do that by putting a lot of new rings in this version (also weapons but I'll bring them up as they come later).

The Steel Ring can only be bought in Guardiana by a whooping 500 gold, and offers a mediocre +1 in defense. Stacking three of them however can make a good difference, especially in a gameplay full of squishy wizards. I would love to buy as many of these as I can before we leave Chapter 1, but sadly that sure won't happen now. Or before Battle 2 which happens before we can get back to Guardiana. Oh well. Max does start with one, so we aren't ringless at least.

The fact that we can't get back to a shop for a while does make me paranoid so I buy sixteen medical herbs to fill up everyone's bags. Of course I don't have four valid characters but we'll get to that in a hot minute. Let's get our carriage and head to the Gate of the Ancients already.

And then let's immediately retreat, I allowed it in my rules for a reason. We return to the world map and go to the Mountain Hut to pick up Gong. With this frankly silly move, our four first spellcasters are finally assembled.

Our great leader Max is for now only in this playthrough by technicality due to knowing Egress aka the run button which is a spell in this series for some reason. This is the GBA version though so he will learn something else eventually, but it will take quite a while so it's not worth talking about it now. For now he's a welcome melee fighter in this spell based team, but he's also the man we can't let die at all costs so there's only so much he can do in the front lines.

Tao the Blazing Woman is our first squishy wizard, you can see even with these small numbers she's the frailest member. I would love to shower her with Steel Rings in the future but for now I'm letting Max keep his because I hope to not let her get hit at all in the next battles. She's also my favorite of the wizards in this game and the first to get high level spells, so I'm expecting her to carry this run honestly.

Lowe and Gong are our healers, as of now there's not much difference between them in offense and defense. Lowe has way more MP, allowing him double the amount of Heal 1, while Gong has better movement, which will definitely matter for Battle 2.

You can also see two GBA exclusive things in these stat screens. One is Magic Resistance, a new stat that reduces the damage the character takes from enemy spells. Usually only characters that know magic get this, so basically everyone in this run, which should be fun to show off. The other thing is the CTR OK in the top right for some characters. In this version only characters with this have a chance to counter enemy attacks, non-combat oriented classes like mages and healers can't. It doesn't make much of a difference honestly but it's a neat detail.

After this long ass prologue that you should have expected because I can't be brief to save my life, let's get some action in this party.

Every battle until Chapter 8 in this version has some sort of bonus for clearing it in a certain amount of turns, usually either money or a special weapon. I do want those Steel Rings, and this one is not too hard, so let's do our best to get it (you can check the turn count in battle btw, along with the character order within the turn, it's one of the many QoL improvements of this version).

Again, this battle shouldn't be hard even with less characters. The goblins are weak and tend to stay spaced out instead of rushing us together, and the dwarves and the knight, which are bigger threats, stay still in the back. I'll try to keep Lowe and Tao safe while Gong and Max tank some hits, but Lowe might need to attack at times if we want the clear bonus. Also the AI loves to hit Max through any means possible so we gotta be careful with that.

I get counterattacked on my very first action of this run and hope this isn't some sort of omen. If Gong is taking 3 damage per goblin then in theory all goblins here could kill him next, so it's time for Lowe to do some healing, even if it feels like a waste.

I immediately give up on letting Tao stay safe because I'm a reckless idiot and she gets hit for 4 damage, while doing double that amount on the guy first, so you can see why I do that. She's just great.

Gong gets swift revenge (counterattack that i failed to screenshot). One of the goblins wasted their turn just lining up with their friend, because even though this version has much better AI than the mega drive one it is still silly sometimes.

Turn 3 is chill. Everyone kills a goblin except Lowe, who heals Tao. I began to fear that I should be saving her Blazes for the tougher enemies, but alas. Self control is apparently not a thing I have, but that's okay, who needs good strategy to do a challenge run of the strategy game.

Turn 4. Gong could reach those guys but I'm scared so I stay a little away to heal and see if the goblins advance first. Only one of them does, and that's fine I guess. Max seems to be the slowest of the team right now and that's currently good as he can score a hit once the enemies have already moved.

oh no they had not all moved. Max tanks it well though, so all the better that the dwarves are now separated.

-_-

This asshole survives at 1 HP but I'd rather Tao burns the dwarf.

She does great and Max finishes the job, earning the first level up of the run. Look at that attack boost, this man is so overpowered. The next dwarf comes at him because he's irresistible like that, but with this +1 in defense he's tanking even better than before.

We start turn 6 and I'm like everything is going so well :) I figure Lowe can heal Max a bit later and would rather Gong just punch someone (the dwarf). This unfortunately gets the knight's attention.

MOM I'M SCARED

THAT'S NICE I GUESS BUT STILL SCARY.

Plans are out the window, Lowe, fix this. This is Lowe's last heal but we do have a squad of Medical Herbs so it's fine.

Tao is out of MP but can still kill that 1HP goblin. She gets a level up as she deserves, and +3 MP, which means her amount of Blazes just went from 3 to 5 in a flash. Love this woman.

Meanwhile Max has to heal himself with a Medical Herb because I'm scared. He's taking like 2 damage from the dwarf which is great, but I don't want at half HP when the knight is Like That.

We get to turn 7 which is getting tight for the clear bonus but Gong's super punch did leave the knight on death's door already so there should be no need to rush, let's get the exp from the other enemies before ending the boss. I am terrified of Gong getting double attacked or critted which would end him, but also scared of taking him out there and opening a path to Tao. We're on the hands of the gods.

We get a kinder damage roll this time I guess. Turn 8 arrives and there's a half dead goblin on the field yet because Lowe and Tao couldn't finish the job, but I don't wanna risk losing the bonus, let's finish the knight already. And hope he doesn't counter Gong with that big roll because Gong's at exactly 7 HP.

The asshole survives at 1 HP and counters but thankfully does only 5 damage. And then gets to their turn and attacks Max, because I moved Max next to them before finishing dwarf, and the AI just loves Max so much. Lowe finishes them, getting a level up that I barely pay attention too because I'm bad at that, and a Bronze Lance drop? Extra money I guess.

Man that was stressful. But we won. The anticlimatic town theme starts playing as we move immediately to more war, except we don't because I retreat and save the game. The parade of Guardiana spellcasters shall continue some other day.

Also reviewing this hours later before posting I realized there's no damage rolls in this game and I've just been watching too many pokemon runs. Gong leveled up at some point and got +2 defense, and I didn't notice at all, probably because I was busy crying in fear.

Losses: 0 Deaths: 0 Number of Hans mentions in a run not about Hans: 2 (see the tags)

[squiddlysq]

Sun & Moon Throughout the Pizzaplex

I recently got ahold of Security Breach & played through it for the first time last night & was kind of obsessed with alot of the environmental details I was finding, specifically in relation to Sun & Moon.

I feel like in fic it’s always implied that the daycare is super closed off & there’s like no mention of the attendants anywhere else in the plex & that their merch is confined exclusively to their gift shop cause they’re sort of cringe or unpopular with older kids. HOWEVER their stupid little faces were basically everywhere I looked & I wanted to show both that and a couple of really cute unique props I found. I know there’s like basically no crossover between the sun & moon fandom and People Who Have Any Intention of Playing Security Breach so I wanted to just compile a bunch of the stuff they have around the Pizzaplex here for easy access by anyone who (understandably) doesn’t want to play the game. I’m putting under a readmore so I don’t clog the tag with a giant ass photo post but I think these things are cute as hell & some of them I’d literally never seen, in the tumblr fanbase OR in any of the playthrough’s I’ve watched through so take a peep if you wanna see Sun & Moon appreciation throughout the Pizzaplex.

First I just wanted to show that they’ve got multiple stands to themselves for merch in the main lobby gift shops ! Like as SOON as you enter the game proper you’re basically immediately hit with these guys;

And these cute little Sun shirts that are scattered throughout the plex giftshops;

These I think people are more likely to have seen but I still think the bathroom decals are so cute & I personally had only ever seen the Sun one in game footage so ! Here’s both;

Onto the more exciting stuff look at this ARCADE MACHINE !!! It’s looks like a regular clawgrab machine except it doesn’t have any prizes loaded into it, the design is so cute though;

Again I’m sure most people have seen this but I love Sun’s shit ‘BANNED >:(’ poster so much & it is ALL OVER kid’s cove;

This one is my absolute favourite I’ll be real, snooping around the backrooms of Roxy Raceway I found Sun & Moon themed go-karts and absolutely lost my mind;

At first I just found two tucked in a dirty corner and I was like ‘Welp guess homophobia strikes again’ BUT there were several of them scattered around with the other karts & several (^^^ in the pic) laid out ready to go on the track.

& just a couple other miscellaneous things, like this cute little logo I found in the backroom of the theatre that I don’t think I saw literally anywhere else;

& this tiny shit 3 pixel art of the boys on their section of the pizzaplex map lmao. I think they’re literally just in their poses from the daycare statue but it’s still a cute doodle;

There’s also these Moon faces up on the Faztheatre sign which I’d never seen before ! (Ignore me visibly wandering around taking screenshots of the environment when I’m supposed to be running for my life)

& lastly I just wanted to show these like, dedicated merch counters they seem to have in the prize counter room cause they’re cute as hell & Moon even has a collectible figurine on sale which. Canon confirmation of an adult nerd fanbase for the daycare animatronics in universe I guess;

It’s repeat textures so I won’t bother with pics but they’ve got posters and plushies and pictures literally ALL over the Pizzaplex it really sweet. Like they are not neglected in the plex marketing literally at all. I even found a Moon screen inside one of the arcade karaoke rooms for some reason. Bonus this note you can find made me heehee. Moon scaring the shit out of children like it’s his job;

[spaceumbredoggos]

Updated Masterlist

So; here's my updated masterlist.

Fandoms:

Warrior Cats

Survivors Dogs

Pokemon and Pokemon Mystery Dungeon

Henry stickmin

Gravity Falls (mainly Bill or my self insert OC.)

Undertale

Wings of fire

Stranger things

Cobra Kai

Wander over yonder

Hazbin Hotel

Helluva Boss

The Owl House

The Bad Guys

Puss and Boots the last wish

Kung Fu panda

Madagascar

Dreamworks and Disney in general

Sing

Zootopia (anything furry at this point is fair game.)

Fandoms I may write/draw about, but don't expect it to be regular:

The Lion King

Star Vs the forces of evil

Skylanders (up to swap force. I haven't played the games since I was a kid.)

Amphibia

Harry Potter

The amazing world of gumball

Phineas and Ferb

Steven Universe

My little Pony (Friendship is magic.)

Five Nights At Freddy’s (may be more frequent.)

Fandoms I want to get into, but just lack the time (don't expect me to write any time soon on these):

Percy Jackson

Star wars (Okay, I have seen most of the recent stuff and a new hope)

Marvel

DC (I apologize for some of the normie stuff)

Spyro the dragon

Divergent

The Hunger Games

Earth's Children Series (Clan of the cave bear is all I have read.)

What I will write/draw:

NSFW (will be marked)

Yandere

headcanons

Platonic relationships

Crossovers (heavily encouraged)

Pokemon teams for fictional characters (a fav of mine)

Fakemon

OC's (self insert for the most part)

Statements other than fandom related

What I will not write/draw:

Anything NSFW to a minor. It's hard to tell for sure, and tumblr doesnt have an age rating. This is why I mark it.

Billdip. or bill X any of the pines family. Just not my taste.

Incest (that's really the only nsfw thing I won't draw/write. But anything nonconsent-ish may not be drawn/written if it doesn't make sense for the character's base canon. If you want a character to act somewhat out of character, then you must clarify that it is in an au. I don't want to do canon characters dirty.)

Yandere x Yandere because come on, that's boring.

Political statements about ableism (a statement may be made here or there, but these are for acceptance purposes and are not meant to criticise the other side too much unless for cases of bullying and prejudice.)

I also occasionally post pictures of natural things (animals, plants, fungi). Note: this is not a horny blog; though at times it may seem like it. Expect posts to be sporadic and random, and expect me to take weeks to months off, as I have a busy schedule.

I will also make statements about being autistic, but due to a recent turn of events, these will be strictly non-political.

I may start hosting MAPs now, but don't expect me to do it frequently. Like one every few months. Expect them more towards the end of the year when I have learned how to animate better.

Note: I will tag any of my Kenz posts with their respective AU’s. Base Kenz is So Much For Stardust, my fanfic. Tumblr Falls Kenz is an AU I developed with my moots just for fun. IRL Kenz is me. And Any other Kenz’s will be tagged as such.

Bill sometimes hops on my blog. Ignore him. He is that voice inside my head that gives me all my intrusive thoughts. I’m used to it to the point where I don’t bring it up to my therapist or psychiatrist because it’s prolly internal dialogue. IDFK.

I have a YouTube channel and instagram of the same name. I used to have a TikTok, but with TikTok being banned, I made the regrettable decision to delete it. If the ban is averted somehow, I’ll bring it back.

Update 7/10/2024: I have a Redbubble and patreon. Will link. Commissions will be open soon.

[matwith1t]

A/N: ‘Tis been a while 🤧 But life has slowed down a bit for me to finish my attempt at a 4+1 fic! Yay! I treasure all of your thoughts so dearly 🥺 Whether it be in the tags, an ask, or a reblog 🥺 I love them 🥺 I hope you’ve all had a wonderful day so far!! Sending everyone good vibes 🥰 I also like to think the ending of this fic is the ending to the 2021 season we deserved  🔪

Summary: The four times you watch Mat lose a hockey game, and the one time you watch him win // 4+1

MASTERLIST | LET’S CHAT 🥂 | Mat Barzal x Reader

Warnings: Few Swear Words  // WC: 11.3K // Fluff

ONE

“You’ve never really watched a hockey game?”

Settling in your seats, you shrugged your shoulders and took a sip of your drink, “I’ve watched hockey, just not…actively.”

Your friend, Grace, blinked at you, “That makes no sense.”

“Like, I’ve seen bits and pieces of games if I’m at a sports bar or I’ll have it on as background noise,” you let your shoulders fall and let out a sigh, ”but I haven’t actively sat down and paid attention to a game.”

Grace rolled her eyes and bumped her shoulder against yours, “You’re insane. At least the Isles have been on a winning streak so it’ll be a fun one.”

“How many have they won?”

“Fourteen,” Grace smiled as she turned her attention toward the ice to watch the players in white jersey’s skate around, “My cousin said that they’re so close to breaking a franchise record.”

You followed her gaze and stared at the ice, “Which one is your cousin again?”

“Number eighteen,” she lifted her hand to point on the ice with a smile on her face, “Tito.”

Just like you followed her gaze on the ice, you followed the invisible path of her pointer finger to where her cousin, Tito––number eighteen––was rapidly passing the puck back and forth with another player; a number thirteen.

From your seats, you didn’t have a clear view as to what the person Tito was warming up with looked like. You couldn’t see him clearly, but you could make out his general attributes. He looked taller than Tito, had a strong jawline, a youthful smile that you just knew was contagious, and flecks of brunette hair stuck out from the back of his helmet.

“Who’s that?”

Grace had her drink raised up to take a sip, but stifled out a laugh into her plastic cup before answering, “That,” she raised an eyebrow and smirked, “Is Mat Barzal.”

Your stare lingered on him as you saw a sparkle of light reflect the chain on his neck, “Mat…”

“I was banned from getting with anyone on the team,” Grace’s voice held a devious undertone, and when you broke your gaze away from Mat to look at her, her eyes matched her voice, “But you’re not related to anyone on the team.”

“Grace…” you said her name in a warning tone, but her eyes glistened even more as she plotted in her head.

She held her hands up in defense and snickered, “We’ll watch the game, go out for drinks after and then Mat––”

“Grace.”

“Whatever happens, happens!” She let out a laugh as the players skated off the ice and to their benches.

You glared at her and soon enough, the puck dropped, and the game started.

With shoulders touching for the whole game, Grace gave you a play-by-play of the game like she was your own personal announcer. While you appreciated Grace’s hockey crash course, you admittedly enjoyed the sound of the skates gliding across the ice and the puck slapping between sticks more. Captivated by the game, your eyes never left the ice, and as your eyes followed the puck, they also scanned the ice for a number thirteen.  

“What the fuck was that!” Grace yelled as she stood up with the rest of the fans in protest.

You were too lost in your head to know what had happened, but after you blinked a few times, you saw number thirteen––Mat––angrily exchange words with a Bruins player. And with a referee between them to ensure they kept their distance, Mat was off to the penalty box.

Grace sat down with a huff and crossed her arms, “Such a bad call.”

You wanted to ask her what exactly happened, but you felt the anger radiating off her. Instead, you averted your gaze from your friend and stared at Mat. He took off his helmet, shook out his hair and ran a hand through it.

“So now Anders…” Grace started off with another explanation, but your vision was solely focused on Mat breathing heavily from inside the penalty box.

The atmosphere of the arena, and being surrounded by a sea of orange and blue, was an exhilarating rush that you missed the moment the game ended. Instead of the excited cheers from when the game first started, fans exited the arena with disdainful words at the Islanders loss. You let Grace sit in silence, allowing her to collect her thoughts, and with one last deep breath, she faced you with a painful smile.

“Come on, we’ll go to a bar and wait for them.”

You nodded and blindly followed her out of the arena.

“Them?” you asked as you made it out of your section and into the concourse.

Grace’s painful smile turned into a mischievous smirk, “Yeah, I texted Tito and told him to bring along Mat.”

“Grace––”

“He had a tough game,” she covered up her plan with an excuse just as phony as her voice, “He needs a drink, or two…Or someone nice to talk to and––”

“Grace.”

“He’s a nice guy!” She defended herself as she opened the door for both of you to exit, the October chill hitting you extra hard with it being toward the end of the month, “He’s fun, carries conversation well, is very pretty, and painfully single.”

You snorted and followed her down the sidewalk, “Painfully single?”

Grace nodded her head admittedly, “Hasn’t a real relationship in quite some time.” You hummed in response, a hopeful feeling in the pit of your stomach rising, as Grace turned her head towards you with a smirk, “Hm indeed.”

You shoved her shoulder and changed the topic of conversation as you walked toward Grace’s car. And when Grace tried to casually bring Mat up on the drive to the bar, you shut her down. It wasn’t until the two of you got to the bar, and Grace received a text from her cousin saying that they were on their way, that you faced her and asked about him yourself.

Grace laughed, “He’ll be here soon to answer all of your questions about him.”

With a deep breath, you circled your hands around your water glass and glared at her. The whole night she was very clear with her intentions on teasing you about Mat. And now when you wanted to talk about him, she was the one who shut you down. But you followed her lead and chatted about a new restaurant that popped up in her neighborhood the other week.

Grace was in the middle of detailing the wine menu of the new restaurant when she abruptly stopped, stood up in the booth you were sitting in, and waved her hands above her head, “Tito!” Your eyes widened, “Mat!”

Your heart dropped down deep into your stomach.

You sat frozen in your seat when Grace left the booth and hugged her cousin, “What a tough loss,” she patted Tito’s back.

Tito shrugged his shoulders, “It’s just a hockey game,” Grace shoved his shoulder and he rolled his eyes, “Okay, fine, yeah it’s shit.” Tito’s eyes momentarily glanced down at you still sitting, you knew Grace said that she was with a friend, but you thought it’d be best to actually introduce yourself.

“Sorry for the loss,” you smiled sympathetically at Tito and stood up, “Grace told me you guys were on a winning streak.” Your eyes shifted over to Mat to see him intently staring at you, “I’m, Y/N.”

“I’ve heard about you from this one,” Tito slung an arm around Grace’s shoulder and pulled her in close, “It’s nice to finally meet you. I’m Tito, and this––” Tito lightly kicked the side of Mat’s calf, who blinked a few times to regain focus, “Is Mat, he also plays hockey on the Islanders.”

“Oh, she knows Mat.”

At Grace’s comment, your mouth dropped, Tito tipped his head back in laughter, and Mat’s face flushed as he let out a small laugh with his eyes falling down to the ground. But when he looked back up to your eyes, he bit the inside of his cheek to contain his smirk.

You glared at Grace, “Not before today.”

Mat’s face was the one to drop now, as he tilted his head with eyebrows scrunched in confusion. Tito let out another laugh––this one louder––as Grace joined in. Tito wiped tears away from the corner of his eyes and excused himself to go buy a round of drinks for the table.

Grace slid back into her spot, you sat down in yours, and Mat slid in next to you. You felt your body stiffen and moved your hands from the cushion to on top of the table.

“How’ve you been, Mat?” Grace rested one of her elbows on the table and leaned her cheek against her palm, “Any girls?”

Mat chuckled, and when he rolled his eyes, you saw him glance at you from the corner of your eye, “Always skipping the small talk, Grace,” Mat shook his head, “But no, just hockey.”

“You and Y/N are so boring,” Grace let out a playful dramatic sigh, but you saw the glint of teasing in her eyes as she glanced at you, “Both painfully single.”

Your mouth dropped at her bluntness and Mat laughed.

“Hockey looks like a commitment in itself, Grace,” your eyes narrowed in on your friend, trying to cover up her obvious set up attempt, “Where’s your boyfriend?”

Grace flipped you off and rolled her eyes, “You haven’t watched a game before today, don’t act like you know what kind of ‘commitment’ hockey is,” she raised her fingers to put air quotes around commitment.

Embarrassment was the only emotion you felt take over your entire body. And you felt yourself drown even more when you heard a hearty laugh from the person next to you.

Tito came back and put a tray of drinks on the table, “Did I hear that correctly?” He passed drinks around the table and raised his eyebrows at you, “Or was Grace lying?”

“Well, like––It’s not––I mean, I’ve seen hockey before but––”

Grace nudged her shoulder against yours, “I’m joking,” she offered you a supportive smile a–-you got this––message hidden beneath her tone, as she turned her back to you to catch up on the latest family drama with her cousin.

That left you and Mat alone.

With a deep breath, you circled your hand around the pint glass that Tito brought over and took a sip of the beer. And you didn’t stop siping your beer until Mat let out a soft chuckle.

“Have you really not watched a hockey game before today?”

With one last sip, you set the glass down on the table and fully faced Mat. He had a small smile on his face as he awaited your answer, “Yes and no,” he raised his eyebrows, silently asking you to explain. So you gave him the same spiel you gave Grace earlier about how you had never actively paid attention to a hockey game.

“So that’s why you didn’t know who I was,” Mat smirked, his ego seemingly repaired, as he took a sip of his own drink.

You scoffed, “You all look the same with your helmets on, I wouldn’t have recognized you even if I did watch hockey.”

Mat had his glass up to take another drink, but he laughed into it instead and set it down on the tabletop. He ran a hand through his hair, “That just means you should watch more games.”

“That depends,” you said as you felt Grace tap the top of your foot with hers, silently telling you that you were doing a great job. You felt excitement brew in the pit of your stomach because it looked like Mat was enjoying himself just as much as you, “Will you win the next one I watch?”

Mat scratched his nose and dramatically took in a deep breath as a joke, “I’d like to hope so, but I think you might need a new shirt,” he slightly leaned forward and took the material of the sleeve of your shirt between his fingers. Your breath caught in your throat as he rubbed the fabric between his thumb and index finger. And when he dropped your short sleeve, his knuckles grazed your bicep for half a second, “How can you go to an Islanders game and not wear any Islanders gear?”

With your brain still shut down and only thinking back to the way his touch felt on your skin, you tried to think of something quick.

“Grace asked me to go last minute,” the excuse flowed easily out of your mouth for your brain completely void of any thoughts except for the feeling of Mat’s touch that still lingered on your skin, “I didn’t have enough time to get a shirt.”

Mat hummed and kept his confident eyes locked on you as he took a sip of his beer, “We’ll have to change that for the next game.”

–––

TWO

You heard the seething rain pelt against the window as you made your way from the kitchen of your apartment to the living area. With a steaming cup of hot tea in between your hands, and a blanket hung over your shoulders that dragged on the ground behind you, you scurried to the couch where you heard your phone ringing.

With your socks shuffling along the hardwood floor, you moved fast to catch your phone before it went to voicemail, but tried to move as carefully as you could with a hot beverage.

When you reached for your phone on the couch cushion, you saw a selfie of Mat––his morning hair sticking up, one eye squinted shut, with a smug smirk gracing his lips, as a sliver of his collarbone was barely visible on the screen. The selfie of him in the morning took up your screen, and you fondly gazed at it for a second, but then slid your phone and lifted it up to your ear.

“Hey,” you smiled as you slowly sat down on the couch. But when you reached over to set your tea down on the coffee table, some hot water spilled over the cup, “Fuck,” you muttered under your breath and shook out your hand.

You heard Mat’s chuckle on the other end, along with a smile, “Everything good?”

“Yeah, yeah, just spilled tea on my hand,” you said as you wrapped the blanket further around your body and tucked yourself into the arm of the couch, “Ready for tonight’s game?”

Mat let out a sigh, “A little nervous.”

“Where are you?”

“Sitting on my bed in the hotel room,” you could picture him running a hand through his hair, “Alone.”

You scrunched your eyebrows together, “Where’s Tito?”

“I told him to head over without me,” Mat breathed out softly, “Wanted to call you before the game.”

You felt your heart swell in your chest as an immense smile lit up your face and caused your cheeks to hurt, “Are you in a suit at least?” Mat hummed in an affirmative response, “What are you wearing?”

Mat’s loud laugh caused your already enormous smile to widen, “If you ask me that, expect the question to be turned around to you.”

Your laugh mirrored his as you leaned the side of your head against the back cushion, “Well, I’m not wearing anything too exciting,” you played into his last comment.

“I’m all ears,” the smugness in his voice was as loud as the rain pouring down, and you could just picture him putting an arm behind his head, a shit-eating smirk on his face as he rested his head against the headboard.

You chuckled, “I’m only wearing shorts, a t-shirt, and wrapped in a blanket.”

“What shirt?”

“The one you bought me,” you rolled your eyes, “The blue Islanders shirt with your name on the back.”

“Ah,” Mat made a tsk noise in the back of his throat, “That’ll definitely give me motivation for the game.”

“Shut up,” you felt your stomach churn with embarrassment, but you couldn’t help but smile when you heard his sweet-sounding laugh.

Once Mat’s laughter died down, he cleared his throat, “Is Grace coming over to watch the game?”

You shook your head, “Just me tonight.”

“Will you know what’s going on?”

You scoffed at his comment, “With the games I’ve watched so far this season, I can follow along.”

Mat snickered, “If you say so…”

You let out an airy laugh, the conversation dwindling down as you knew he had to leave for the arena soon. And in the few months you had been seeing each other, you knew Mat would sit peacefully on the phone in silence if he truly wanted to avoid something.

You circled back to his early statement from when he first called, “Why are you nervous?”

He let out a deep breath, “I haven’t been playing well.”

“That’s not true,” you tried to encourage him, because even though you thought he was an excellent player, when you watched the games with Grace she did say how Mat was having a mediocre season. “You’ve set up great plays, your team is second in the eastern division–-You have nothing to worry about.”

Mat let out another deep breath, not convinced of your words, “Have you ever seen us win a game?”

You bit the inside of your cheek as you thought back to all of the games you’ve watched on T.V. and in person. But you couldn’t find a specific memory of either the stadium erupting in cheers at the end of a game, or the sound of content broadcasters recapping an Islanders win.

“I’m sure I have…” your words weren’t as convincing as you’d like them to be.

“What was the last game you watched?”

“The Saturday game,” you answered him.

“Did you watch the game on Tuesday?”

You shook your head, “Got held up with work. Why?

Mat hummed, “Just wondering.”

The two of you fell back into silence, and while hearing him breathe on the other end was just as calming as hearing him talk, you knew he was cutting it close with his time. You didn’t want to leave him, but you knew he had to go. And it seemed like he had the same thought as you as he let out an exhausted breath.

“I should probably go soon.”

You fiddled with the corner of the blanket, trying to keep your dismal voice to a minimum, “Probably.”

You heard Mat get up from the bed as he let out a yawn, “I miss you.”

A delicate smile tugged the corner of your lips upward, “I miss you too.”

“We fly back early tomorrow morning.”

You knew he was coming back to New York tomorrow, but you still felt excited when you heard him detail his travel plans to you, “I can pick you up?”

The sound of a door closing on the other end clued you into how Mat left his room, but he didn’t leave your phone call yet, “There’s a shuttle picking us up and dropping us off at the arena. My car’s there.” You nodded your head, tightening the blanket around your shoulders, “But I have the day off,” Mat quickly added in, “I can head right to your place.”

“If you’re not too tired,” you wanted to spend time with him, but with how exhausted he sounded, you wouldn’t blame him if he wanted alone time.

“Trust me, there’s no place I’d rather be right now than in bed with you,” Mat said as you heard the ding of the elevator, “I’ll call you later?”

You nodded your head against the couch cushion, “Yeah that sounds good,” you could hear the exhaustion in his voice, “Good luck!”

Mat tried to let out a small laugh, but it sounded more pitiful and self-loathing than anything else, “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

When the call ended, you spent the rest of your time until the game started mindlessly scrolling on your phone. The TV was on the channel for the game, and when the commentators talked about how the Islanders played on their Saturday game versus their Tuesday game…your interest piqued.

Your thoughts went back to Mat asking about the previous games you had watched. You had watched the Saturday game…and they lost. But you did not watched the Tuesday game…and they won. You knew how superstitious some hockey players were. But in the three months you had been dating Mat, he never gave off the aura of needing to have certain practices in place to play a good game…but he loved to win.

He loved to win almost more than anything in the world.

You unwrapped the blanket from your shoulders and walked to your room to pull out a pen and notepad. Once you had those materials, you sat back down on the couch and opened up the NHL app. You documented every Islanders game you’ve attended in your camera roll, and did your best to remember which ones you watched on TV.

And when you finished organizing the games you’ve watched into columns of WON and LOST…there were no dates in the WON column.

A nervous feeling bubbled up in your stomach, but then the rational part of your brain weighed in and said no. Your mind told you there was no correlation between you watching and them losing. So you got comfortable on the couch and turned the volume up.

The first period was fine, the second period was bad, and the third period was a tragedy.

You debated on turning off the game, but you wanted to prove to yourself that you weren’t the problem. But that confidence dwindled away with each goal scored against the Islanders.

You waited a few hours until you figured Mat would be back in his hotel room. Biting a piece of loose skin by your nail, you sent a text to Mat: Are you up to talk tonight?

It took nearly twenty minutes for Mat to respond: Feeling exhausted, already in bed about to fall asleep.

You felt your heart drop into your stomach. It already sounded like he had an inclination that he lost a game whenever you watched.…Your thoughts only spiraled more negatively until you received another text from him.

Can’t wait to see you tomorrow :)

You crawled into bed feeling the tiniest bit better, but still had a queasy feeling in your stomach as you fell asleep with your mind circling about Mat.

It could have been twenty minutes, or ten hours later, you wouldn’t know. But what you did know was that there was a knock at your door. You thought it was something from a dream, but the knocking became progressively louder. Bleary-eyed, you kicked off your sheets and rubbed your eyes with your fist as you made your way to the door.

Peeking through the peephole, you saw a very exhausted looking Mat. Unlocking all of your locks, you opened the door and tiredly smiled at him.

Mat let out a soft chuckle, one that made you fall for him even more, and took your hand in his when he stepped into your apartment, “You look as tired as I feel.”

You blinked a few times, trying to wake up so you could fully appreciate the warmness of his hand in yours as he led you to your bedroom. Once you saw your bed, you dropped his hand and slid back under the covers. Mat wasn’t too far behind. He kicked off his shoes and took off his shirt, so that he was only in his sweatpants, and crawled in right next to you.

Immediately, he wrapped his arms around your waist and pulled you into him so that your back was firmly pressed up against his chest. He let out one of the biggest sighs of relief that you had ever heard, and it eased the doubts that swirled around your mind the previous night before you fell asleep.

Mat pressed a kiss to the top of your head, “I can’t tell you how happy I am to be here.”

“In a bed?” You mumbled, still feeling half asleep, as you picked his hands off you for a second to adjust yourself. Once your body was facing him, and you nuzzled your head into his warm chest, Mat’s arms wound back around your body.

“With you.”

You smiled and pressed an innocent kiss to his chest, “Sorry about the loss last night.”

Mat took in a deep breath, and you felt him hold it in for a few seconds before he let it out, “Let’s not talk about that. I wanna sleep.”

Without giving him a response, you nodded your head against his chest. And with one last kiss pressed to your forehead, you fell asleep with the one person who always brought out the best in you.

–––

THREE

“Let’s turn the game on.”

“No.”

“Oh, come on,” Grace whined as she took a sip of her wine, “I thought I was coming over to watch the game.” She gave you a pointed look, “But you have me looking at kitchenware.”

You pointed back to your laptop that was on the coffee table, an assortment of kitchen plates and glasses pulled up on the screen with full brightness, “Mat’s moving and I want to get him nice plates!”

Grace scoffed, “You do know why he’s moving, right?”

“Said he wanted a bigger place,” you shrugged your shoulders.

With a snort into her wine glass, Grace had to set it down as she threw her head back against the couch and cackled. “He is one person, why do you think he’d want a bigger place?” You shrugged your shoulders and waited until all of her laughter was out until she continued, “He’s going to ask you to move in with him.”

Your mouth dropped and eyes widened, “No, that’s––No. We’ve only been dating for like six months. He still likes his own space after a game, and––No. There’s no way.”

Grace’s smirk only widened at your denial, “Well, maybe not now, but give him a year or so and I bet you’ll be out of your shoebox of an apartment.”

You glared at her, “I like my shoebox.”

“He took you to see this new place before he bought it?” Grace asked and you nodded slowly, “And he made sure you liked it?” Again, you nodded your head, “He’s so far gone for you.”

“Grace.”

“I’m piecing together things you’ve told me of Mat and from what Tito has told me!” Grace held her hands up in defense, “It’s a good thing he’s seeing a future with you in it.” And with her earnest words, she moved toward you on the couch, and placed a hand on your thigh, “So why don’t you want to watch the game?”

With a sigh, you shut your laptop and faced her woeful eyes, “He always loses when I watch.”

“Ha,” Grace let out a single sound, thinking you were joking, but when she saw your eyes downcast on your crossed legs, she gave your knee a squeeze, “I guarantee you that that’s impossible for them to have lost every game you’ve watched.”

You held up your index finger, signaling for her to wait, as you hurried into your room and pulled out the notepad you started keeping track of three months ago. You dropped it on her lap and she looked down at it, looked back up at you, and then flipped a few pages over.

“Shit,” she chuckled, “They really do lose every game.”

You groaned, “And they’ve been doing so well recently, I don’t want to mess them up!”

Grace waved you off and placed the notepad on top of your laptop, “I can assure you Mat is not superstitious about that stuff,” she offered you a soft smile, “He would want you to watch the game.”

You shook your head in protest.

“I’m turning it on.”

“No you’re not––”

Grace swiped the remote from the coffee table before you could reach for it, and turned on the Islanders hockey game. And right when she turned it on, the camera was on a close up of Mat––who was smiling ear to ear––as the television screen went to a replay of the goal Mat just scored.

“See!” Grace gestured toward the T.V., “He’d want you to watch so you can tell him how nice of a goal he scored.” You flipped her off as you felt the insides of your stomach grow hot, but Grace didn’t pay any mind to your embarrassment, “It’s the third period, they’re up by three––The Flames have no goals––and there’s six minutes left in the game.”

Wringing your hands together in nervousness, you glanced up at the television, “I guess we can watch.”

Grace let out a satisfactory smile and moved right next to you to lean her head on your shoulder, “They’re a good hockey team, there’s no way they’ll blow a three nothing lead with barely any time left.”

But Grace had spoken too soon.

A minute after you tuned into the game, the Flames scored a goal. You turned your head toward Grace with a grimace, but she waved you off. Then Tito got a minor penalty for hooking, and the Flames scored again on a power play.

“Turn it off,” you buried your head in your hands, “They’re up by one, turn it off before they lose.”

“You’re being dramatic,” Grace chirped, “There’s less than two minutes, they can’t possibly––”

“And the Flames tie it up!”

You let out a groan and lifted your head to peek through the slits of your fingers to see the Flames celebrating the goal. The camera panned to the Islanders’ bench, and they all looked dejected, but also confused as to how they let the lead slip away that quickly.

You got up from the couch, “I’ll be in the kitchen for the rest of the game.”

“No you’re not,” Grace grabbed onto your forearm and pulled you back down on the couch, “It’s not your fault that they can’t keep a lead.”

“Explain to me how we’ve been watching for five minutes and the Isles blew it?” you whined pathetically, heart clenching in your chest because all you wanted was for Mat to succeed and be happy. But it was hard when you wanted to watch him succeed, but whenever you did watch him, he lost.

She dropped your arm and tried her best to comfort you, “Go to the kitchen and I’ll tell you what happens in overtime.”

Jumping up from the couch, you sped into the kitchen with your arms crossed over your chest. Pacing around in a small circle in your kitchen, you heard Grace shout at the television whenever the Islanders did something she liked and whenever she thought a poor play was made. But there were a few moments of silence, and then she walked into the kitchen.

With wide eyes, you awaited for the verdict of the game. She winced, “It’s going to a shootout.”

“Jesus Christ,” you swore under your breath, “See! I can’t watch the games––”

“At least watch the first shot,” Grace tilted her head with a sympathetic smile, “It’s Mat.”

You didn’t want to watch it. This game only solidified your belief that the New York Islanders lost every game you watched. But if Mat was up first, then you could turn the game off after him. Reluctantly, you nodded and Grace dragged you into the living area just as the commercial break went back to the game.

Holding your breath, you squeezed your hands into a fist as you watched Mat skate around in a circle before taking the puck. He skated from the center line, handling the puck well, and when he bought his stick back to shoot, the puck went wide. The camera zoomed in on him after his failed goal, and you could clearly read his lips yelling out, fuck, in frustration.

“I’m turning it off.”

“No!” Grace went to steal the remote from your hands, but you held it up over your head, out of reach from her, “I think Tito might do a shootout.”

“I can’t––”

“He’s my cousin,” Grace pleaded, “Family. I have to be supportive.” She dramatically batted her eyelashes at you, pleading for you not to turn off the game.

You knew it was a ploy for her to get you to watch the rest of the game, but you still easily fell into her trap. You wish you hadn’t listened to her because Tito didn’t get a chance to shoot in the shootout.

And the Islanders lost.

“Damn,” Grace side-glanced at you, “You might really be a bad luck charm.”

–––

FOUR

The Islanders had made it all the to the second round in their journey to the Stanley Cup.

And since the start of their playoff run, you’ve successfully steered clear of watching a full Islanders game. You would either always call, text, or see Mat off before a game to wish him luck. Before the first game of the first round, you promised him to watch––and you did––but it was the last time you made that promise after they were demolished by the opposing team. But you got along fine talking to Mat about the games he played…you just had to stay away from specific details.

Grace helped you out a bit and would fill you in if Mat had any stand out plays. And you always read every game recap and watch every post-game media availability. While you did try and watch at least a few minutes of every period, you never wanted to watch for too long in fear of whatever curse you had would come up.

But there was no way to escape this game.

You fixed Mat’s tie around his neck as the two of you stood by the door of Mat’s new apartment. After you were done fiddling with his tie, you placed both hands on his chest and looked up at him. He placed a hand on your hip and smiled, “I’m excited for you to be there tonight.”  

You let out a nervous chuckle and tried to conceal your painful smile as much as possible, “I’m glad my schedule has cleared up a bit…” you told him a little white lie, “You’ve been playing amazing.”

Mat wiggled his eyebrows and you swatted his chest. But before your hand made its way back down to your side, he caught it with his free hand and laced your fingers together, “And you’ll get to see me live finally.”

With a roll of your eyes, you squeezed his hand, “I won’t get the nice closeups of you like I do with the ones on my T.V. though”

“You’re having a close up right now,” Mat whispered as he leaned his forehead against yours, “And you can have one again tonight.”

“Oh, can I?” You raised an eyebrow.

Mat smirked and let out a single breathy laugh through his nose, “You can have all the closeups you want.”

You raised a hand and let your fingertips softly graze over Mat’s facial hair. With it being game five of the second round, his beard had grown out quite nicely and was now past the stubble phase. You cupped his cheek; and Mat closed his eyes as he nuzzled against your hand, his beard tickling your palm.

Leaning in slightly, you pressed a kiss to the corner of his mouth, “Good luck,” you whispered.

Mat cleared his throat, an ahem sound coming from the back of his throat as he moved his face in front of yours. You blankly stared at him and he intentionally stared back at you.

He pinched your hip, “If you’re getting a close up tonight I want a real kiss.”

A monotonous laugh escaped from your lips, and you let the hand that was cupping the side of his face trail to behind his neck. You also let go of holding his hand, and brought it up to the side of his neck. An easy smile lit up Mat’s face as your fingers played with the strands of his long hair.

And this time when you leaned in, you pressed a gentle, but lingering kiss to his lips. You felt Mat smile as he received a kiss exactly how he wanted. And you felt yourself begin to smile too as you felt his fingers creep around your waist. With your arms wound around his neck, you urged him forward, holding him close as he deepened the kiss. Mat made another noise in the back of his throat––a sound of content––as his hand inched its way under your shirt until his palm was flat against your lower back, pressing you even closer into him.

Just when Mat parted his lips against yours, you slowly broke away from the kiss.

Mat breathed heavily and you patted his chest, “You don’t want to be late.”

Groaning about how the kiss was cut short, Mat tucked his head into the crook of your neck. Starting at your collarbone, his beard tickled your skin as he peppered kisses all along your neck to just below your ear, “I’ll score a goal for you tonight.”

You stifled out a laugh because he promised you that before every game. And like the first game of his you watched after he first asked you out, you felt an excited swarm of butterflies in your stomach.

“I’ll be watching.”

With a sigh, and one last squeeze of your hips, Mat pressed one last chaste goodbye kiss to your lips before straightening up, “Make sure you wear the jersey I got you.”

You scoffed, placing both palms on his chest to push him out the door, “I’ll wear what I want.”

Mat tipped his head back and laughed loudly; he had a foot out the door, but still had his head leaned in towards you, “I love you.”

The phrase was still new––only having exchanged the words for the first time a couple weeks ago––but you still felt as giddy as the first night Mat told you. You bit the inside of your cheek, and tucked your chin into your chest to ease the glowing feeling you felt in the pit of your stomach.

Unable to resist his charm, you leaned forward once more, and pecked his lips, “I love you, too.”

There was no doubt Mat’s smile shinned just as bright as the feeling you felt in the middle of your chest. You were positive there was no greater amount of happiness you could ever possibly feel in your lifetime after he said those three words to you.

“If you love me, wear my jersey.”

And with that, he swiftly walked through the door. His happiness left you high in the clouds, but with his comment, he left you speechless. Even though you could’ve swatted his chest one last time, or provided him with a remark that would slash his ego in half…you still stood at the door with a blinding smile on your face.

––

The ride back to Mat’s apartment was silent.

You knew how the game would end as you fixed Mat’s tie before he left his place. You knew how it was going to end as you slipped on his jersey he asked you to wear. And you knew the night wasn’t going to hold as much banter like it did earlier after the Islanders were down by four points heading into the third period.

Unsurprising to you, the Islanders had lost a game you watched.

You had carpooled to the game with Grace, not wanting to have two cars in the arena, but now you were questioning if you should’ve brought two cars. You had been with Mat all day up until he had to leave for the game, and you knew that he liked to have time to himself after a game; whether they won or lost. And now you were driving his car back to his place, as he stared at the street lights in silence with a clenched jaw.

The overthinking churned in your head just as bad as the overwhelming negative nerves in your stomach. Did he even want you at the game? Did he want you back at his place? Did he even want to talk to you? You couldn’t help stop the insecurities that easily seeped their way from the depths of your mind, so you tried to take every short cut you knew back to Mat’s place to make the drive faster.

When you finally parked in Mat’s spot at his place, and he let out an agitated sigh, you looked over at him the same time you lifted up the emergency break, “Do you want me to leave?”

Mat unbuckled his seatbelt and turned to you with furrowed eyebrows, “Why…Why would I want you to leave?”

You shrugged your shoulders and gnawed on your bottom lip, avoiding eye contact with him, “I know you sometimes like to be left alone after a game…”

Mat’s stare continued to burn through you the longer both of you sat in silence in his car. And when the automatic lights on the inside dimmed to darkness, Mat placed a hand on top of yours, “I want you to stay.” You tore your vision away from your lap to look up at him. And even though it was dark, you could clearly see his earnest eyes the same way he clearly saw your uncertainty, “Okay?”

With a nod, you unbuckled and exited the car the same time as Mat. He met you at the trunk of his car and immediately slipped his hand into yours as the two of you walked to his apartment. The sound of the key echoed through the silent hallway just as loud as the insecurities that swirled around your head. And just as quiet as the drive back from the arena, the two of you did your bedtime routine in silence.

Mat was done before you, and when you closed the bathroom door behind you, you expected him to be curled up under the duvet. But he was sat on the edge of the bed––in just his sweatpants––with his elbows resting on his knees, head buried in his hands.

Carefully, you walked over and sat next to him. And when you placed a comforting hand on his back, you felt him shakily suck in a deep breath.

Your shoulders fell as you recognized the uneasy breathing, his usual prelude to burying his emotions until they got the better of him.

You moved closer to him, your thigh pressing up against his, as you leaned your head on his shoulder. You continued to rub circles along his back and pressed a featherlight kiss to his shoulder, “It’s just one game.”

You heard him gulp as he nodded his head that was still buried into the palms of his hands.

It broke your heart to see him this way; hiding away from you because he was ashamed of his emotions. But you loved him. You loved every fiber of his being so much that it almost pained you.

“You have Wednesday night,” you whispered, and again, he nodded silently to himself, “You played amazing offense tonight.”

Mat breathed out the deep breath he held in, and you felt his muscles contract under the tips of your fingers. Unlike all of the times Mat nodded his head to agree with you, he shook his head no in his hands.

Your hand tailed from his back up to his shoulder that you squeezed in reassurance, “Mat––”

Again, he shook his head no. But instead of hiding away from you, he lifted his head, and his broken-downed face caused your heart to clench. His nostrils flared as his chest heaved in the slightest as he failed to even out his breathing, eyes bloodshot, and he gulped.

“I played like shit,” Mat ran a frustrated hand through his hair, “And don’t tell me I didn’t, because I heard the crowd yell at me.” His voice dropped down to a whisper, as he looked down at his hands, “You were there tonight…I wanted to play well.”

Your heart squeezed at his defeated tone of voice, and you had no doubt that the thoughts in his head were beating him down more than you could ever imagine.

You circled your arms around his waist and hugged him tight. Even with the shirt you were wearing, you could still feel the warmth radiating off his skin, “I know you’re an amazing hockey player,” you placed your head into the crook of his neck and Mat rested a hand on your thigh, “You’ve made it way further than anyone thought you guys would this season. And you’re not out yet,” you pressed a lingering kiss to the base of his neck.

Mat squeezed your thigh as he leaned his cheek on your head. From the far off undertone in his voice, you knew he was blankly staring at the wall, “I feel like I never play good enough whenever you watch.” Your body tensed up, “And it––I feel like such a loser.”

What were you supposed to say to him? How could you say that you agreed with him without totally hindering his already waning confidence? And it wasn’t like he was the one who played poorly whenever you watched…The Islanders, as a team, never played consistently when you watched.

You took in a deep breath of Mat, and he traced unrecognizable shapes on your leg, “Want to know what I think?”

His fingers on your thigh paused, almost like he debated with himself if he wanted to hear your thoughts. But when he breathed out a small, ‘always,’ and continued to trace patterns on your leg, you lifted your head to look up at him.

With his eyes trained down on your thigh, you removed one of your arms from around his waist and cupped his cheek. You felt his jaw tighten ever so slightly, and you had an inkling that he probably didn’t want to look at you in this moment, but you wanted him to know how sincere your words were.

“Mat…” you softly murmured his name as you turned his head to face you. And while his head moved, his eyes didn’t pick up. Your thumb traced along his jawline, his beard scratching against your hand as he closed his eyes; seeking liberation from his thoughts in your touch.

“I have seen you play great hockey,” his eyes glanced up at you for a moment, before he looked away. You let out a sigh, “You’re still leading the series––”

“But did you see how many turnovers I had––”

“––And while tonight’s game didn’t go as planned, you still have more chances to prove yourself,” you interrupted him so he couldn’t tear himself down more than he already had, “You continue to keep proving people wrong. You continue to impress people with your talent.” Again, he picked his eyes up to look at you, and this time, he kept your eye contact, “I’m always so in awe when I watch you play. You’re so happy on the ice, you love your team, and you always go into a game wanting to put your best effort forward.”

A faint smile made its way onto Mat’s face, which in turn, caused you to smile as well.

“We don’t have to talk about it anymore because I know you’re tired, and you lost a game––” his smile dropped, but you kept your hand firmly in place on his cheek so he couldn’t move away, “But, if my opinion means anything, I’m always proud of you when you play.”

Mat offered you a minuscule smile as he pressed the softest kiss to the inside of your hand, “Your opinion is the only one that matters to me.”

Your shoulders relaxed, and you tilted your head to gaze at him with a smile that shined bright with adoration,”So please know that I’m proud of you.”

Mat mirrored your love-sick smile and brought both of his arms around you in a strong hug. Always feeling the safest in his arms, you let out a sigh and squeezed him just as tight. Mat rocked you back and forth until his fingers sneaked under your shirt and tickled your sides. With a laugh, you flinched at the feeling, and Mat only held you tighter against him when you tried to escape his embrace.

And with Mat’s chest rumbling with laughter whenever you tried to pull away from him, the two of you fell back onto the mattress. Mat had stopped tickling you, but his hold on you hadn’t lightened up. You stayed on top of the covers with Mat for a few more minutes until he complained about being too cold and wanting to get under the sheets.

“How are you cold?” you scoffed as you slid under the covers. You pulled them up to your chest as you moved onto your side to face Mat, “You’re a literal furnace.”

Mat rolled his eyes at you and hooked an ankle around yours and tugged it towards him, silently telling you to move closer to him. You scooched over a few inches until the tips of your noses were nearly touching each other. He slung an arm around your waist, as his hand inched up your back, under your shirt.

“I bet this wasn’t the closeup you were expecting after the game,” Mat’s breath fanned your face, “Sorry.”

You rolled your eyes as you felt Mat’s fingers play with the elastic of your shorts, “That doesn’t matter,” you shrugged your shoulders, “I’m happy with this close up.”

Mat breathed out a laugh through his nose as the corners of his lips softly turned up in a small closed-lipped smile, “I love you.”

Every part of your body felt relaxed whenever those words passed through his lips. When you heard those words; no thought of yours felt trivial, no problem you experienced felt inconceivable, and you felt reassured that you put all of your trust in the right person.

Leaning forward just an inch, you softly touched your lips to Mat’s. Neither one of you initiated anything further, it was just the two of you enjoying being close to one another. When you pulled away, Mat readjusted himself on the bed so he was laying flat on his back. And he curled an arm around your shoulder as you stayed on your side, resting your head just below his collarbone, as one of your palms laid flat on his chest.

You pressed a gentle kiss to his chest, “I love you, too.”

Beneath you, you felt Mat let out a deep sigh of content. You imagined that he felt all of the same wave of emotions that went through your mind and body when you heard him say those words to you; Safety, acceptance, and an unconditional support system.

“Your arm will fall asleep if you keep it under me like this,” you whispered into his chest.

Mat hummed in acknowledgment, “It always does. But then you always move on your other side, and then I follow, and put my arm around you.”

And when he noticed minute details like that, you could hear that he loved you just as much as you loved him.

–––

+1

“I think I’m going to be sick,” you clutched Grace’s arm as the two of you walked into the concourse of the Coliseum.

It was reminiscent of the first Islanders game you attended with Grace. Fans were decked out in their best Islanders gear, the cheers and chants were louder than you had ever heard them, and the game hadn’t started yet. But this game had more on the line than the measly regular season game you first attended back in October.

Because it was now the month of June and it was game seven of the Stanley Cup final.

“Stop overreacting,” Grace glared at you as the two of you stood in line to get drinks before heading out your seats, “I swear Mat picks up on whatever nerves you feel.”

Your eyes widened, “You’ve seen my list––”

“And that’s why we’re only going to think positive thoughts,” Grace sternly said as she ordered two drinks; one for herself and one for you. When both drinks were poured, Graced handed over yours and you smiled, “Mat would never let you miss this game over a conspiracy theory you created for yourself.”

You sighed and fell into step alongside Grace as you made your way to your seats, “But did you see Tito last night?” Grace slowly nodded, “There were only a few people left after the team dinner. And when Mat mentioned I was coming, Tito’s mouth dropped, and Mat had to glare at him as if to keep him quiet!”

And just like how her cousin was last night, Grace remained silent.

Showing your tickets to the user, they directed both of you to your seats that weren’t too far behind the Islanders’ bench. And when the two of you were settled, and Grace sipped on her drink without taking a break to keep silent, you had your confirmation.

“See! His best friend even thinks I’m a bad luck charm,” you slumped down in the seat and pouted, “I’ll take a nap. That way I’ll be here, but I won’t watch the game so that way––”

“No,” Grace set down her plastic beer cup in the cup holder in front of her, “You’re watching the game.”

“But what if––”

Luckily, your drink was also placed in a cup holder when Grace slapped your wrist, “They’ve played well enough to make it this far, it’s like you have no faith in your boyfriend.”

You glared at her, “I do have faith in him,” you quickly picked back up your drink, seeing it as an item of safety because Grace wouldn’t dare cause a drink spillage on something she paid for. With a sigh, you took a sip of your drink and glanced up at her, “I’m so proud of him for making it this far, and all I want is to see him win. This game is a big deal to him.”

Grace offered you a closed-lipped sympathetic smile, “You being here is more than enough for him.”

“Grace, I’ve never seen him win a game,” you turned your head slightly to look at the players warming up on the ice.

Like the first game you attended with your best friend, you saw Mat and Tito rapidly passing the puck back and forth to each other, getting closer together with each second. But this time, you knew who he was. And even though he was still a distance away from you––and you couldn’t see him clearly under his helmet–– from the amount of time you spent learning to love him, you had every inch of his face memorized.

As you felt a soft smile slowly creep on your face, you felt an agonizing tug on your heartstrings, “I just want to see him happy.”

Grace placed a hand on your shoulder and squeezed it in reassurance, “They’ve been playing well––Mat’s been playing well,” she said with a serious voice, “He’s on a goal scoring and assist streak.”

“I know,” your voice sounded as vacant as the thoughts in your head as you continued to concentrate your stare on Mat warming up.

“You know because I told you,” Grace snorted as she followed your eyesight to the ice, “And now you can know from seeing it yourself.”

Nervously, you took a prolonged sip of your drink and nodded your head.

As players skated back to their bench, and while you should’ve looked toward the flag as the National Anthem was sung, all you did was continue to stare at Mat. He stood in front of Tito, swaying back and forth as he rested an arm on top of his hockey stick. He shook his hair out a few times as he continued his unsanitary habit of biting his glove.

Enchanted by him, you jumped when Grace elbowed your side.

“The Anthem ended,” she smirked, “Everyone is sitting.”

You bit the inside of your cheek and tried to ease the embarrassment floating about in your stomach. While you probably looked foolish continuing to stand, there were other fans in the arena who were on their feet, ready for puck drop. But this was Grace; she knew why you were distracted and still standing.

Grace opened her mouth, but before she could make another remark at your expense, you glared at her, “Not a word.”

“I wasn’t going to say anything!”

“I know you––”

“––I wasn’t going to say anything about how that could be what’s waiting for you at his place when they win––”

“Grace.”

“Whatever happens, happens!” She held her hands up in defense with a shit-eating grin plastered on her face. She then pulled down on your arm for you to sit in your seat, “Let’s watch some hockey.”

The Islanders played the first period well; they played aggressively, skated hard, and set up successful plays. The second period was fine, The Islanders scored two goals, with Mat receiving the sole assist on a goal made by Tito. But the third period…The third period was where the Islanders let their lead slip away. The game was tied up at two and Grace clutched your hand so tight you thought it would fall off.

She squeezed your hand out of nervousness, but she also saw through your lie when you tried to excuse yourself to the bathroom when there was thirteen minutes left in the third period.

“Don’t even think about it,” Grace sneered as she kept her eyes on the ice.

And while she gripped your arm, you anxiously bounced your leg. There were a few times the other team had come close to scoring a goal, but the puck had either bounced off the sidebar or Sorokin had caught it in his glove. But no amount of saves could ease your nerves. You would only know peace at the end of the game.

With two minutes left, and nearly everyone in the arena on their feet, you were still in your seat, not moving an inch. And when the puck was passed to Mat, he skated through two defenders, and it left him with just the goalie. The bile in your stomach churned as you felt the shouts in the arena vibrate through your body.

Grace’s hold on you dropped when she jumped up in her seat to get a better look at the action on the ice.

With your hand now free, and when you saw Mat wind his stick back for a shot, you buried your head in your sweaty hands, holding your breath.

There was a millisecond of silence where you didn’t know what happened. But when you felt the floor shake from people jumping around, screams so loud that they would break a decibel reader, and Grace pull you up by one of your hands into a bone crushing hug, you had a fairly good guess as to what happened.

Even though you were right next to Grace, you had to raise your voice to speak in her ear to make sure she heard you, “He scored?”

Grace pulled back from you, both hands gripping onto your shoulders as she nodded her head, “He scored!”

Her smile was wide, but you would bet all the money in the world that your smile was wider than hers. You broke her eye contact as you tipped your head back to look up at the arena’s screen that showed Mat’s goal on repeat. You saw the goal in slow motion, sped up, and in different angles… but nothing made you happier than seeing Mat jump up into Tito’s arms as the rest of the Islanders on the ice circled up for a hug.

As the entire arena still celebrated Mat’s tie-breaking goal, you stood still as you admired the pure glow of happiness radiating off him. As he high-fived the players on the bench, you saw him yell out a “Let’s go!”

The energy from the packed arena was contagious as the Islanders continued to fight hard for the remaining two minutes. They played smart, not drawing any penalties; played strategic, making sure they cleared the puck if it ever got too close to their net; and best of all, they played with smiles on their faces, savoring the last of their playing time on the ice before the end of their season.

And when the horn sounded, signaling the end of the last game of the Stanley Cup finals, gloves and helmets were thrown in the air as players excitedly skated over to Sorokin. You couldn’t hear them on the ice, but from the camera angle the screen was showing, you could tell they were shouting just as loud as the fans in the stands.

Everyone on the ice blended together, but you were still easily able to pick Mat out from the celebrations. The smile on his face and the gleam in his eyes was unparalleled to anything you had ever seen.

You leaned your head on Grace's shoulder as she wrapped an arm around you, “He’s so happy,” you mostly said to yourself, but Grace picked up on your words.

“Yeah, he’s happy now,” Grace let out a laugh, “but that smile is nothing compared to how he looks at you.”

You bit the inside of your cheek to conceal your smile, but there was no use. And you stopped trying to hide your happiness when Mat was interviewed for his game winning goal and said, “I have a few people here that I love a lot, I'm just glad I can share this moment with them.”

As the Stanley Cup was brought out, and team pictures were taken, you and Grace stayed in the crowd to soak up all of the celebrations. But soon enough, with the crowd clearing out, and the islanders leaving the ice to no doubt continue their celebration in the locker room, you and Grace slowly walked up the steps and into the concourse.

Looking up from her phone with a smile on her face, Grace looped an arm around yours, “They’re all having fun in the locker room.”

You tipped your head back in laughter, “I can only imagine.”

“Tito texted me saying they’re going to a bar later to celebrate,” Grace smirked as she pulled you closer into her side, “The same one we went to after the first game you came to with me.”

A nostalgic smile easily made its way onto your face, “Lead the way.”

The car ride to the familiar place was full of laughter and singing along to the radio. The laughter and smiling continued as you walked into the bar. Grace saw her Aunt and Uncle sitting at a table with Mat’s family, so the two of you made your way over to them. Grace caught up with her family and you greeted Mat’s family with hugs. You sat in a free chair toward the back of the table, and so when the first of the Islanders started to trickle in, you had a clear vision of them.

Mat had texted you saying he was on his way with Tito, and you told him you were at a table in the back with his family and Tito’s parents. And only moments later, the bar erupted in boisterous cheers as Mat––the star player with the game winning goal––walked in with Tito. Mat thanked people who clapped his shoulder in congratulations, but when his eyes met yours, a small smile graced his lips as he moved through the crowd.

Mat’s dad was the first one to get up, bringing Mat into a tight hug before he even reached the table. Mat’s teary eyed mom was next to hug him, and his sister was all smiles as she poked fun at him for falling two times on the ice this game. Once you were sure Mat’s family was done congratulating their son, and they were sitting back down in their seats, you stepped around from the table to greet him.

Immediately, Mat’s arm curled around your waist as he brought you into the tightest hug. With your arms around his neck, you scratched his shoulder blades as he pressed a few kisses to the base of your neck. His beard tickled your skin, and while you preferred him with a clean shaven face, his beard was grown out in hopes of a Stanley Cup win… and you couldn’t be happier that the beard served its purpose.

With your arms still locked around his neck, you slightly pulled away, and offered him a blinding smile, “Congratulations.”

Mat chuckled as he dipped his head to give you a quick kiss, “I’m happy you were there.”

You nodded your head, and right as you opened your mouth to say something, Tito was quick to add his opinion, “The bad luck curse of you watching games is finally broken.”

You let out a loud laugh, hearing the humor behind his voice, but Mat whipped his head around to glare at his best friend, “You weren’t supposed to tell her that.”

“She already knew,” From the table, Grace shook her head with laughter, “You should ask to see her conspiracy chart.”

Mat scrunched his eyebrows together as he looked down at you. With a shrug of your shoulders, you playfully smiled at him, “You thought I was bad luck too?”

His eyes widened, “I uh––Well, not exactly––But there was this feeling––And you––”

You kissed his cheek as you took hold of his hand to lead him to the table. Mat pulled a chair up next to you and placed a hand on your thigh as he joined the conversation around the table. You sat next to him with a content smile, occasionally jumping in where appropriate, but you were just happy to be in his presence.

As the night went on, Mat slowly shifted in his chair to face you.

He slightly leaned forward and ran his finger along the 13 patch on your shoulder. He was silent as he traced his index finger over it a few times before looking up at you, “Glad you finally have an Islanders jersey for a game?”

And just like the first time you met at this bar nearly eight months ago, you felt your breath get caught in your throat as he trailed his knuckle down your arm. But unlike the first time, where he only grazed your arm before removing his touch from you, he let his knuckle trail all the way down your arm until he reached the tips of your fingers.

And unlike the first time you met him, instead of wishing he would touch you more, you flipped your hand over so your palm was facing up, and Mat slid his fingers between yours; holding tightly onto your hand.

“I look like a real fan now.”

Mat rolled his eyes as he let out a small laugh. He looked around the table, and when he saw his parents engrossed in a conversation with Tito’s parents, and Grace talking with his sister, Mat leaned forward and pressed a lingering kiss to your lips.

“I love you,” Mat whispered as he gently pulled away from the kiss.

And with a smile that mirrored his, your tone of voice held just as much fascination behind it as Mat’s did when he told you those three special words, “I love you too.”

[cartoonfangirl1218]

More hcs cuz it’s my blog and I have a terrible memory of what I have or have not posted.

Specific nightmares that the couples comfort each other

Elena's worst reoccurring nightmare is that she is stuck in the amulet. Only the amulet doesn't belong to anyone, it's just a ancient artifact buried in the dirt so it's very unlikely that she will be released again any time soon. And in the amulet she experienced the same claustrophobia and isolation as before only with a clear image of Shuriki killing everyone she loves. Over and over and over.  Mateo's worst would be probably related to his dad or grandfather and failing. His worst would be like a vital moment in battle where he is supposed to do a spell and he just freezes, or messes up. Causing the battle to be lost and everyone dies, Avalor is brought to ruin and magic is banned once more. The guilt and shame eats him up as he thinks of all those who trusted him and believed in him, like Rafa and Alcazar and most of all, Elena and he failed them. Or alternatively his over-ambition causes the same results. 

Gabe's worst reoccurring nightmare would probably just him as captain leading his troops into a massacre. Simply having his friends and comrades dying is enough but being the one who made the decision that led to it..worse. Probably just to rub it in would be the familiar disappointed look in Roberto's eyes and then Blanca turning away from him too. For once not on his side.  Isabel's is very similar to Elena in that she is just stuck in an endless loop of seeing her parents death only it's worse. Since she didn't get to witness it, her imagination takes it to all the worse routes Shuriki could have done. Then always ending with an heart pounding chase where Shuriki is close to her heels, always closer and cornering her. 

Naomi's worst nightmare would have to be something like being ignored and cast aside while someone who is more qualified and royal than her takes her place as Elena's friend, and in the council. But the kicker would be that she is speaking but no one is listening, it's like she's invisible. 

Esteban's worst nightmare is depending on the big secret reveal. Pre-secret revel would be the family finding out about his secret and since we already discussed, their painful reactions of sadness, anger, confusion and betrayal at his treason. Compounded by the rest of Avalor shunning him. Pre/Post-secret reveal would be just the memory of him hiding like a coward as Shuriki invaded the palace, killing his aunt and uncle.  Doña's worst nightmare is being poor again. Alone and slowly painfully starving to death.

Favorite game Eleteo: A kiss off! No no I'm joking. Maybe tag or hide and seek. But no, not just any. But a magical version where they use their skills in order to find each other. There is also a lot of running and flying around as the two try to escape each other's grasp and tease the other. Of course, the winner gets a kiss and whatever they want but the chase is just part of the fun.  Gabenaomi: Olaball. Those two would have a blast running around trying to get each other's goal and showing off their sweet moves. Of course, it also involves a lot of tackling, shoving and joking around and the winner gets to choose the date or the number of goals is the number of kisses the winner gets.  Estenaomi: Charades surprisingly. They are very good at deciphering what the other is attempting to say. Like Naomi's odd looking "dance" is her playing Pete with an eyepatch and a monkey.  Gababel: Board games of any sort. Usually scrabble or some sort of monopoly that they switch off for more romantic questions or prizes.  Estoma: Pool. It can get pretty intense what with their need to destroy each other. It can also be pretty hilarious when they have a "no holds barred" competitions and try all manners of distractions and cheating so they can win

Who curses when they argue?  Eleteo: Neither. They very much prefer actually talking out their problems than yelling and screaming in anger at each other sinc that is counterproductive. Also I can't see Mateo having a cursing bone in his body and Elena wouldn't use that kind of harsh language to someone she loves.  Gabenaomi: Naomi. Blame the sailor's tongue but she can start cursing up a storm. And though Gabe tries not to do it in a girl's presence (yes, Mama Blanca drilled it in) he would start too. Gababel: Again neither. For the same reasons as Eleteo. 

Who wears the other clothes sometimes?  Eleteo: Elena sometimes wears Mateo's oversized shirts on a lazy Sunday morning without shame and sometime teasing that she should just wear it to her meetings. She also puts on wizards robes (Yes yes yes basically it's your fic. You are totally right in that Elena would put on Mateo's wizard robe. It's just so comfy and warm and smells just like him.) I couldn't resist. Gabenaomi: They don't really do that. Although Naomi has nabbed Gabe's guard jacket once or twice on a cold winter night at sea. As well as shirt:) She says he has to practice his ability to withstand cold temperatures but Gabe thinks it more has to do with his gazing at his pecs.  Gababel: Neither would. Just the size difference between them, it's ridiculous to try. Although Gabe's shirts make nice nightgowns lol Estebaomi: A few times, Esteban has tried Naomi's clothes on account of her dares much to Naomi's personal amusement. Naomi does the same and dresses in Esteban’s fancy suits and shirts. Usually for fun.  Estoma: Very rarely, though once Esteban went out in Doña's robe which he staunchly insists was a traditional Satu kimono. 

Who gives piggybacks rides?  Eleteo: Mateo tries to give Elena some but upper muscular strength isn't one of his fortes. Besides doing it with magic isn't the same. Sometimes Elena gives him some and there is just a lot of awkward fumbling, falling and laughter.  Gabenaomi: Uh Gabe duh! Oftentimes Naomi will come running and hop on Gabe's back when he least expects it and then insists on a piggyback ride to whatever destination. Or joke that he is like her own Fuego.  Gababel: Gabe again, but he is the one who usually offers to ride her around and makes it a fun bumpy galloping ride.  Estenaomi: Both. Naomi more often that not thanks to Esteban’s drama king ways on hiking trips or when he is sick.

Who arranges for a day off Eleteo: Elena arranges for special days off from work in the kingdom and work for the wizard so they could spend time together. Usually the dates vary between exploring the kingdom more, horse/Jaquin riding, swimming, picnics on the palace grounds, a day at the fireplace, fancy dinner and waltz. As long as they are together, they're happy. Elena is usually bounding with more enthusiasm and happiness than usual and Mateo just adores her smile.  Gabenaomi: Naomi does with some help from Elena to get Gabe away from Captain work, and they spend the day doing whatever comes to mind first. They tend to be more spontaneous in that sense.  Gababal: Once more, Isabel does since she can easily figure out a break in her schedule and see abiut guard duty. They spend more time at home, sometimes with one of their families just enjoying each other's companies and talking about their day. Also the occasional exploring. Who takes the covers? Eleteo: Covers? What covers? They go on body warmth alone. Lol. I don't think either would since it's more of a cocoon they wrapped themselves in but I'm going to go with Mateo. I feel like Elenais just more of a body person while Mateo can sleep with tons and tons of soft blankets and it reminds him of his wizard robes so it is extra comfy.  Gabenaomi: Naomi, she gets easily cold at night and likes to bundle herself up with all the covers. Gabe tries to shrug off, that he is too macho to get cold but sometimes he tries to tearing them away from Naomi's iron grip when she's sleeping and that almost made her fall off.  Estenaomi: Esteban!! The guy is a Duke, he is used to being a hundred percent comfortable. Forbid that he gets cold at night, it is the one thing he won't relent. He takes the covers he wants. Naomi usually wrangles it away but then she has to endure his complaints of how cold he is and equals it by lots of kisses. Gababel: Isabel take the covers. Moreover Gabe would gladly give it to her she use gets grabby when she's asleep so it doesn't matter if he gives it beforehand, she gets more and they end up hugging a lot. Most interesting date?  Eleteo: This is hard since I bet Eleteo had a lot of interesting dates but I'm going to go with the one where it was after they were married and just had Julian. They decided to take a night off to themselves and relax with a simple dinner. But Julian wouldn't stop crying unless he was in his mother's arms so they decided to take him to the restaurant. But they couldn't just leave Ana and Bianaca alone so they came with. It was a bit harder to have any flirtations when there are two toddlers around. Not to mention how Bianca wanted to look at all the pretty decorations and Ana wanted to hold baby Julian. So the night wasn't what they expected but it just reminded them how lucky they were to be having such a family, and how adorable it was to see the other parent.  Gabenaomi: It would have to be the time they almost lost the boat. They had went to the island from The Gecko's Tale but the rope snapped leading their boat out to the water. So they took a row boat and rowed to it until Gabe jumped out to garb the rope himself so Naomi followed and the two tried to figure how to pull it in since it was rather large. They managed to do it, and spent the rest of the date resting on the beach with a firm eye of the boat and talking about all the other things that could have happened like the return of Chiloya among others.  Estoma: They decided to pretend to be strangers meeting at a bar and get to know each other all over again. At first it was awkward with some patrons staring, and doing their best not to reference any past event or figuring if they were meeting as themselves or their teen selves. A few drinks in, the two forgot all that and tried to be themselves. It spiraled on to dancing in clubs, Esteban re-enacting some of his youthful adventures and the Royal treasury, she taught him to ride bareback and the next morning they had to explain why a majority of food was found staining the guest bedrooms.

Who feeds the other?  Eleteo: Both. Elena starts it at first in the beginning stages of the relationship since she is much more impulsive and Mateo is still very self conscious and aware of how it may appear to others. But then of course, he starts doing it too. Anything for his lady love.  Gabenaomi: Gabe feeds Naomi after giving up trying to stop her from stealing pieces of food. Naomi secretly thinks it's cheesy but she loves it.  Gababel: Gabe again. He loves Isabel. He would do anything and that means pulling all the stops and being a totally inner romantic just as Blanca encouraged.  Estenaomi: At first, Naomi does it as joke usually mixing in purpose to make fun of Esteban’s pampered upbringing. Then attentive, changed man Esteban would do it similar to Gabe.

Who plays footsie? Eleteo: Elena!! Elena, Elena, Elena. She can't help herself. She loves to show any kind of affection to her boyfriend/husband and will mischevious do it under the table if need be.  Estenaomi: Esteban, he is such a flirt and knowing him, he woudkd do it when he gets bored at meetings. Or sometimes he would do it just to get Naomi distracted.  Gababel: Isabel. She's like her sister in being more public about her affection. Just because he has a reputation as captain of the guard doesn't me she particularly cares.  Gabenaomi: Naomi to Gabe. Similar to Isabel, she doesn't care that Gabe has a reputation to live up to and just wants to be with her man. Also she's mischevious in that sense too.  What kind of couple class would they do together?  Eleteo: I feel like cooking (??) Totally unimaginative but there is a certain domesticity with cooking. It's a nice break from their crazy, magical work a day lives. Plus it gives plenty of opportunities for food fights, finger licking and food sharing. Gabenaomi: Mountain climbing. Can that be a couple class? I feel like it would be a good couple class for them. Working out, adventuring and sharing trust at the highest height possible. Estenaomi: A dance class of some sort. If it was a modern AU, probably hip hop. Delivering every move with grace, style and a hint of the heat between them.  Gababel: Yoga. It combines the use of Gabe's muscular strength and always being there to lift up and catch Isabel while Isabel calculates the bets way to get into position without straining any muscles. 

Estoma: Pool. They get extremely competitive trying to distract each other.  Who slips innuendos?  Eleteo: Elena. Because she can and she doesn't mince words when it comes to how much she loves her husband in every sense. Usually when she's bored or in a particularly flirty mood. Mateo does too but he'd rather do that in the privacy of his room.  Gabenaomi: Naomi. She had heard quiet a few from days in sailor bars and often conveys them to Gabe especially after he comes from home after battle or on their dates.  Gababel: Neither really. If it does happen it would be accidental or out of context. But I can't really see it happening.  Estebaomi: Is this a question, Esteban. Only he would think his are incredible witty and charming and sexy.  Not the result all the time but when it falls flat Naomi just laughs and shakes her head at his attempts.

[arcanaeventhub]

ASKBOX || EVENT SUBMISSIONS The Arcana Event Hub is a blog dedicated to hosting and promoting events related to the Arcana game fandom. We’re happy to kick off with our first event:

✨ ARCANA GIFT EXCHANGE 2021: SIGN-UPS OPEN CLOSED 🔮💖

12th October - 14th November

Before joining, take a moment to check out the guidelines!

SIGNING UP

Who Can Join?

Are you an Arcana fan? Would you like to be part of a gift exchange? Then, congrats, you’re 100% eligible for the event!

Click here or the link above for the form

How Long Are Sign-Ups?/Can I Still Sign Up After This Is Closed?

Sign-ups officially close on 14th Nov and it’s unlikely we’ll accept any applications after, as we want to start match-ups right away to give everyone enough time to work on their gift

I’ve Signed Up...But I Don’t Think I Can Do It Anymore 🥺

That’s perfectly alright! However, please inform us early so we can account this for match-ups

GIFTS

What Gifts Can I Make?

Art and writing are both accepted. There is no minimum requirement in regards to art detail or word count, as effort differs from person to person, but do try to put your best effort forward.

All gifts must be 100% new, meaning it has not been posted before. They cannot be plagiarised or stolen.

What About Other Types of Gifts?

Other types of gifts can be included, but they should be as add-ons, not the main gift. Only art and writing will be accepted as main gifts.

Are Physical Goods Allowed? 

The event itself will not be allowing shipment of physical gifts due to the need for addresses and the sensitivity of such information.

However, once the event is over, participants may discuss between themselves if they wish to carry out physical shipping privately between them. 

How About 18+/Adult Content? 🔞🔞

18+ content is allowed! Don’t forget to tag your gift appropriately.

HOWEVER, this is only allowed between adults ie the gift-giver must be an adult and the gift-receiver must also be an adult. Content must be tagged appropriately.

If any minors are caught falsifying their ages and claiming to be adults, especially in order to obtain 18+ content, they will be banned from the event and possibly from joining any other events hosted by this blog.

DEADLINES AND PINCH-HITTERS

When Is The Deadline For My Gift?

The deadline is from 25th Dec 2021 to 1st Jan 2022.

An extra 1-week extension from the final date may be requested, which your partner will be informed of

What Is A Pinch-Hitter?

A pinch-hitter is a back-up contributor. In other words, if someone’s gift is missing, a pinch-hitter will step in and create a substitute gift.

If you haven’t received your gift and there is no news from your partner/your partner dropped out, a pinch-hitter will be assigned to you

I’m a Pinch-Hitter, Do I Have A Deadline?

Unfortunately, yes. We don’t want people to be left waiting for too long after all

Pinch-hitters will be given a deadline of two (2) weeks to complete their gift.

ANYTHING ELSE?

If you have more questions, feel free to drop them in our inbox! Hope to see yall soon~

[cinnamonest]

Inbox Reopening! (Important details below)

So with that last one, I am FINALLY done with those profiles and can move on to other things (and thereby more frequent posts again). I was hoping to be able to do them all in one month time but failed that, but at least they're done now. Irl life has been insane for me recently but thankfully it's dying down, and I'll have some free time for about two weeks until it ramps up again. I've queued/drafted the remaining asks from last time so those can roll out too.

I've updated the masterlist, and more importantly, since the rules page was super outdated, I'm scrapping it and made a carrd (I made it in like 5 minutes so it's very simple right now, I'll make it prettier later lol). This was easier bc I could have multiple pages and thus address some common questions I get here a lot. I get a lot of asks on how to block tags, so I made a place for that, and a transparency note to avoid discourse in the future. It'll also be in the pinned post from now on, but I'll provide you the link here as well.

Finally, I have a few longer things to work on, but I'd like to go back to posting smaller posts throughout the day while I work on those, so for about 24-48 hours I'm opening the askbox again!

Then I'll take those and get smaller posts out while working on bigger stuff. Basically same as last time, just general smaller reqs are fine, also feedback on/asks about things I've written especially since last time is much appreciated. However, note that I updated rules and tags (available on the carrd and on this post below). Also if you don't see something you asked answered by tomorrow feel free to ask again, sorry I know I can be bad about missing things.

I realize I've been a bit inconsistent on tags and whatnot since the tag ban for apple devices, I'm still not sure how that works and all so I'm changing the tags for good. I know I've been a bit inconsistent since I kept forgetting, sorry about that, I should be good now. Tags are on the carrd.

Furthermore, I've made some rule adjustments. For now I wanted to make some important notes on changes and additions to the rules of things I won't write, and just some important changes/notes. I've realized I'm uncomfortable with or just don't feel I can write some things well, hence adding some. Some of it is sensitive, sorry for not tagging this one, but it’s important to not tag it because the people who need future content tagged need to see this in order to do so.

I said this once in the masterlist and forgot to put it into practice, sorry about that, but from now on I'm separating normal incest and momcon, because there's a lot of momcon and some people wanted to just sort by the more sibling-oriented stuff. So the tag "#in.tg" will be all other incest, "#.momcon" is mom-son stuff specifically. This means that mother-son content will not have the normal incest tag and you need to block both tags if you don't want to see any incest!

I didn't have this on the rules before, but suicide content. This rule may change with time, but that is my ruling for right now. I thought I would be okay with it by now, but I tried to fill some reqs related to this and found I'm not capable of it yet as it just brings up some old things. Sorry to change rules so late into this.

Another thing I'm adding to "will not write" is basically content focusing on reader being a virgin. Mentions or aspects are fine, just not if that's like the whole and only focus of the post/ask. Basically this is just because 1) I can't really relate to that very well/don't remember what that mentality is like so I feel like I'd write it badly, and 2) I want to avoid attracting kids to this blog, and that sort of thing is popular with young teens.

Also just fyi I haven't gotten to play the game in a little while, so I don't know anything about any of the new content other than logging in for like 5 minutes for commissions and leylines 😅 I'll probably get to that soon.

[rurpleplayssims]

3, 5 and 11 for the ask game!

📝Thank you for the Simblr Asks @coriel-muroz! 😀

3) Where do you get inspiration?

There is the simple fact that anything I see, hear, learn will more often than not, end up in some shape or form in my writing.

There are sometimes when I browse through tumblr and I might be inspired by other people's stories/gameplays. I try hard to not copy someone's work word to word, that isn't fair and I'd be annoyed if someone did that to my work. But obviously (as I learnt the hard way with writing fanfiction as a teenager) that none of this is protected by copyright. I accept that as that is part of the deal I tell myself with using this platform.

It was also part of the reason why I was so scared that all my blog would be deleted when I thought I was shadow-banned earlier this month.

I downloaded several copies of my backups because I'm over 500 posts with Campbell Quay and I put a lot of time and effort into writing it.

My account was only like it for a week but my mood plummeted and things in my personal life were stressing me out as well and writing this BaCC is my escape (as well as my quiet walks on my days off).

5) What's your favorite kind of content to see?

Anything Sims 2 related. If your bio has Sims 2 mentioned in it, it's an instant follow from me. I also like Sims 3 content and occasionally Sims 4 stories.

I love reading/watching and then recommending content to others, so they can enjoy it as much as I did.

You can see my recommendations page here.

11) What post did people love that surprised you?

I LOVE it when I get replies/comments on a post.

It isn't because I want all the attention on me and me alone, far from it. I am a friendly and open person but too much attention on me, sometimes stresses me out. It's nobody's fault and I think it's because I naturally struggle with compliments.

But compliments on my writing is always welcome in any amount.

Many people on tumblr who come across my work do not know me in person. You are all reacting purely going by how I am writing, and how my writing has made you feel.

The greatest part of being an aspiring writer for years is getting people to react, to feel involved and caught up in a character's life. I know I've done my job well when you all respond with shock/laughter ect at certain posts.

So saying that, there are two posts that I enjoyed most and it was because I knew I was going to get reactions in the replies!

The first is this one, when Ellen's first appearance in town is to kiss Jasper in the park when he was still 'with' Roselyn.

I will admit that I was at work when I saw the comments coming in when I checked my phone. I burst out laughing, pleased that you all were so involved and kind enough to comment on what would be the best/not best way to proceed forwards for my sims.

The second post is this one, when Tyler proposes (autonomously, corsetry of ACR) to Zoey right after their first Woohoo.

I loved the GoT reference @pixeldolly as I thought the same thing at the time it happened!

This answers a little of my previous question with how I find inspiration. Because it's a TS2 gameplay story and autonomous things happen, I then have to figure out how it would've happened in real life. And making the sims all swingers isn't an answer I want to give! 🤣

The whole deal with Ellen kissing Jasper I soon linked to Jasper's magical bloodline identifying Ellen as his soulmate, which is why she reacted spontaneously to meeting him for the first time.

Thank you for asking me questions, I'm sorry for the essay I replied with! 🤣📝 Thank you also to @phoebe-twiddle and @potentialfate-sims for commenting, I thought I would tag you to thank you for your comments too. ALL comments and likes, reblogs ect are welcome and appreciated by me! By all means, if any of you want to ask me questions, there are two simblr asks here and here.

[sorry-but-we-have-moved]

🌟✨𝓑𝓵𝓸𝓰 𝓜𝓪𝓼𝓽𝓮𝓻𝓹𝓸𝓼𝓽✨🌟

Hi and welcome! I’m Lillian, and this is my main blog. I used to run @j00nkr4t before it was flagged for sensitive media (i protested the NSFW ban). Since my older blog represents a time when i was much more bigoted, and i’ve grown as a person, i opted for a fresh start. With that out of the way...

🛑 D O  N O T  I N T E R A C T with me if you are: 🛑

Under 18

MAP/Pear/pedophile

MAGA/Trump supporter

Anti-BLM

LGBTQIA+ exclusionist

Aphobic

Terf/Truscum/Transmed/Transphobic

Pro-life

Fatphobic

Pro-Blue Lives Matter

Panphobic

Proana/thinspo/meanspo

LGB/Trans-exclusionist/THAT kind of radfem

Enbyphobic/Non binary exclusionist

Pro Autism Speaks

Ableist

Anti MOGAI

Some stuff about me (I’ll try and update this as regularly as possible. Bigger sections separate blog info from personal info):

⚪ Anon? ⚪

I never go on anon to be honest. I’m gonna say what i say and show that it’s me saying it. However, i allow anon asks, so if you’re a little shy or whatever go ahead!

🎂 Birthday 🎂

March 11, 1996.

🐱 Cats or dogs? 🐶

😻 Cats! I love dogs too (Huskies especially!), but i’m a certified crazy cat lady. Currently caring for a calico, her name is Fornia. Like California. (’cause we live here)

🟪 Discord/Twitch 🟢

🄰🄽-🄸🄶🄼🄰 #2173

In addition i run a couple discord servers, Memescene and ArticleArchive.

ArticleArchive: https://discord.gg/z6jtvhKQRA - For educational purposes. We archive images and articles from Wikipedia, Wikimedia, and other sources to compile free information for people in studies. - Subjects like LGBT+, biology, topography, world cuisine and more are discussed and archived! 13+ MemeScene: https://discord.gg/nY4EpSe - Purely for sharing, creating and consuming meme media. Was started on April Fool’s day 2019 and has gained a small following! 13+ MyMOGAI: https://discord.gg/Y54C3Pae25 - I’ve recently started a new blog, @my-mogai​, which aims to represent little-known or little-supported branches of the LGBTQIA+ community, while also giving fandoms a boost of inclusiveness. 18+

https://www.twitch.tv/zourcherri

🎬 Favorite Film Genres? 🎬

Horror, Animation, Sci-Fi, Paranormal and some Romance and Comedy. Oh, and be sure to recommend me any good Musicals you find as well!

👾 Favorite Games? 👾

Terraria Final Fantasy 12 Borderlands 2/PreSequel Team Fortress 2 Nier: Automata Kingdom Hearts 1 SimCity

🐾 Furry? 🐾

🐾 Furry, 100%! (And it doesn’t mean i want to do anything inherently s*xual or gross. It just means i really like anthro character designs!) I have alot of furry OCs as well, which i’ll eventually get around to introducing.

🎮 Game Fandoms? 🎮

Borderlands, Animal Crossing, Kingdom Hearts, Nier, Final Fantasy, Gex, Monster Hunter, Terraria, Halo, Crash Bandicoot, Driver, Telltale, Team Fortress 2, Portal, Rhythm Heaven, Ace Attorney, Gosh there’s alot of ‘em to name here. I also love to discuss game lore, so feel free to send asks or DMs related to that stuff!

Hobbies

🎨 Art - Some traditional, but mostly digital and 3D. - I now have two side blogs i use, specially made for posting artwork and sharing other’s art. (l3m0n-l4dy, strawberry-scented-psx-logo) 🍴 Cooking - Started small, but now i have over 50+ original recipes. I’ll share one every now and then. - I’ll also share cooking tips and hacks. 🔊 Micspam - Be careful if you use Discord servers like Fortnite, Rainbow Six Siege, Valorant, PUBG/PUBG Mobile or Black Ops; i frequent these. I’ll post compilations of my micspam escapades from time to time. - I’ve also recently begun doing audio mashups and edits. 📷 Photography - I take out a digital camera sometimes to snap a pic of something outside i find neat, film some clouds, or take photos of animals. 📄 Writing - Another hobby i’m insecure about. I have a ton of drafts i add onto and add onto, but hardly ever share with anyone. Hopefully soon, i will. - I recently started an AO3 account, so this is picking up some steam at least.

📝 Nicknames? 📝

I’ve decided to start going by Cherri/Anigma.

But you can also call me Crystal, Krystal, or cry/krystie.

💞 My Besties 💞

Let me know if you want added to/removed from this list!

@kamkairo @handsome-jackoff @silverdashipper @angiethewitch @rust-4-life @gofficangel @of-faunsandyellowflowers @moniiirose @redback-phoenix-the-raptor @ginger-the-espeon​ @handsome-jackoff​ @michellespenscratchz​ @trans-bloblobber​

💌 My Favorite Blogs! 💌

Let me know if you want added to/removed from this list!

@snowysaur @dp2282 @fairy-space @shitposts-from-the-borderlands​ @politijohn @p4radox99 @cort3d​ @handsomepeacock​ @mens-rights-activia​ @sleepypotatostudio​ @captainshivers​ @holographicai​ @bastardfrog27​ @97tysons-trans-rat-emporium​ @fairy-space​ @mspareader​ @yinx1​ @thecutestdinosaur​

💕 Partner 💕

@p0rtalmadness is everything to me. I feel what a puppy feels when their human comes home to them with you. Love you, want you, need you. All the way.

We’re an open relationship, but we normally don’t bring it up until both sides are comfortable!

🕚 Queue 🕚

I didn’t use the queue that much until recently. It works, but i have to fight the queue menu sometimes to get it to work properly lol. Expect some posts and reblogs to be automatically posted from 3 - 7 AM, or 1 - 9 PM. There may be a few odd-hour posts here and there.

Sexuality

Pan all the way!

Side Blogs:

@strawberry-scented-psx-logo​ (Stims) @lime-psx-logo​ (Games) @l3m0n-l4dy​ (Fandoms)

...In closing...

Content posted is highly inconsistent, and a majority is just reblogs. In order to navigate my original works, use my URLs as tags.

Right now, i don’t have submissions enabled (on strawberry i do, just not this blog). I just don’t see what COULD be submitted as content. But, if i figure out something in the future, then you’ll see the option appear on my blog.

[jaybug-jabbers]

Pokemon Uranium Review

So! I finally completed this game. (have not done post-game yet) I started it ages ago, and then took breaks from it for a very long time. In fact, I almost gave up completely on the game out of irritation. It absolutely has a lot going for it and some awesome strengths, which is why I returned to it and finished it. But it also has some big downsides, and I’ll go into both here.

(Note: expect mild spoilers, especially during plot discussion. I tried to be very spoiler-light though!)

Prelude - DMCA Takedowns

This fan game was in development for quite a long time (about nine years), and is probably best known for having the dubious distinction of being one of the few pokemon fan games targeted specifically and pressured to stop distribution. This is because it suddenly gained a ton of public awareness when it was nominated in the 2016 Game Awards for ‘Best Fan Creation.’ The devs received DMCA takedown notice letters from lawyers soon after. Another pokemon fan game with a large development period has recently met with a similar fate, Pokemon Prism, also in response to a sudden spike in public visibility. Obviously the lesson to take away from all of this is that fan games need to be careful about staying out of the spotlight. The larger and more popular a fan game gets, of course, the harder it is to do that, but hopefully future projects can avoid meeting this unfortunate fate. In the meantime, these “banned” games are still distributed by other players on the down-low.

The discussion of how Nintendo and Game Freak relate to their fan community, the legal details of where fan games fall under, whether or not the owners of the IP “must” legally crack down on fan creations or not when they notice them, and other such details are really matters for another post. For now, let’s just say that I hope in the future, Nintendo alters its stance and learns to relate better to its fans. Fan creations are an expression of creativity and love for the franchise, and the ‘corporate overlords’ would be wise to encourage it, not stifle it, and follow the example of other companies who relate better with their fans and with the creative fan community.

Ok. On with the review.

Introduction

This game takes place in Tandor, an all-new region, and features 150 fakemon, including new evolutions of real pokemon. It boasts some neat modern features like Mega Evolution, and when it first released had fully supported and functional online components, where you could trade and battle with fellow players and even receive Mystery Gifts. The maps and region are very extensive, there is much to explore, and there is a long and very well-developed plot. The game itself is not a ROM hack, but rather, was made with RPG Maker. Your task is to travel the region of Tandor, with your rival tagging along, not merely collecting badges but unravelling a gradually dawning mystery involving strange-looking pokemon and accidents that keep occurring at local nuclear power plants.

UI & Polish

I am not very familiar with the details of hacking pokemon games, but I do believe the main reason the devs chose RPG maker was because it gave them greater control/flexibility over their programming. And that’s quite understandable. But there are a few issues that I think are a result of this. The game itself has a very big lag issue. Even on high-powered machines, pretty heavy lag is very common. However, keep in mind that I played with version 1.0, the first release, for the majority of my gameplay. I believe there are a few patches that help increase performance in that area.

I suspect the reason some of the ‘feel’ of the UI as being a bit ‘off’ is also due, in part, to RPG Maker’s constraints or behavior. The UI is organized a little oddly, the main menu bar scrolling vertically on the top of the screen, the battle screen also scrolling vertically through the four moves. The whole thing feels very squashed at times and not the most efficient use of space, and it’s not easy to see what moves you have or quickly see all the options in the menu. It’s just kind of clunky and awkward to me. Another thing that stuck out for me was the period of time for certain actions. I know this is weird, but when you choose to attack, it almost happens too fast. There’s zero delay when you choose an attack and the battle animations are typically very speedy and with little fanfare. Indeed, the battle animations in general tend to be incredibly simple to the point of barely even being present, not visually appealing, and with very quiet, uninteresting or odd sound-effects. They lack any sort of feeling of ‘punch’ to them. I also notice when you save the game, it seems to occur instantly, when in the pokemon games, it always has a slight delay. Why the heck should this bother me? Isn’t fast saving BETTER? Well yes, haha, in theory, but oddly enough it added to the rushed feel of things. Healing at the pokecenter, too, happens incredibly fast. Normally there is a pretty lengthy delay in pokemon games.

I realize plenty of folks would love faster battle animations and saving and healing and would consider me crazy for noting it! They just want to get on with the playing! But I feel like pokemon is about the adventure, not the destination. You’re supposed to dwell a little. You’re supposed to feel the battles, feel the punch. And the delay for that healing? Well, folks have pointed out that it’s there for a reason, as annoying as it can be to wait sometimes. It’s the price for a free heal. It’s already pretty darn overpowered you get infinite free heals in this game pretty much whenever you want, so they made that teeny little price to pay for doing so. And, honestly, that way, it feels like something is actually being done. But with Uranium, things were so fast, it kind of felt like you weren’t really experiencing things. Is that weird of me to say? I dunno. But it’s the sense I got from it. And to me, that helps to make it feel a bit ‘off.’ It’s a subtle thing, I admit.

That said, there are tons of added features to the game that make for great polish and are very welcome options. There are multiple save slots, which is only a good thing in my mind, and I’m sure using RPG Maker rather than a ROM hack made this a possibility. There are independent volume controls for music and sound effects, which is fantastic when you’re grinding and want to listen to your own music. You can toggle perma-run mode on and off which is super nice. There’s even a Nuzlocke Mode built into the game! If the game didn’t have a ridiculously steep level curve, I would totally use the Nuzlocke Mode, but as the game stands now, I doubt I ever will. But dang, it’s an awesome idea, so props for that! Even the way you get your starter is a unique and cool idea– you take a mini-personality quiz and the professor matches you with a pokemon that best suits your playstyle. Finally, the choice of the player character is super neat because instead of the usual ‘r u a boy or r u a girl’ question, you have three characters to choose from, one of them being nonbinary. (all the characters throughout the game refer to you with gender-neutral pronouns if you make that choice) I thought that was a really nice touch. I ended up choosing them as my player character (at the time just b/c I thought they looked the coolest).

Maps

The locations in this game are top-notch. The towns are awesome; they’re laid out nicely, have good intuitive design, lots of detail, contain tons of interesting NPCs, and have lots of little touches. The tiles are lovely. Many of the towns are memorable and unique, and it really gives a sense of exploration. Also, the place is BIG! There is a ton in the main area and even more to see in East Tandor. You aren’t going to get bored in this respect, and it’s one of the biggest strengths of this game.

Music

Uranium contains a mix of pre-existing pokemon tracks and original music. While I do dislike a few of the original tracks, I love the majority. I admit some of the tracks feel somewhat ‘out of place’ in a pokemon game. It’s not that they’re bad or anything, they just don’t quite feel like they belong in a pokemon game. I realize that’s a very subjective sort of judgment, but there ya go. That said, it’s no big deal. Some of the final parts of the game have truly epic music, and it makes it all worthwhile.

Fakemon

Ok, so. This is a big section to discuss. The game contains a TON (150) of fakemon. I know some folks who play pokemon fan games don’t like fakemon. I, however, am quite happy with them, and in fact prefer them when they’re done well. Of course, doing fakemon well can be a tricky thing. Let’s take a look at how the fakemon fare in this game.

Designs

As professional and polished as the tiles and the locations are in this game, the spritework for the pokemon is a little inconsistent. Some of the sprites look great, while others look as though they could still use some work. This is unfortunate, because I suspect some of the fakemon that were really cool in concept suffered a little in execution. For example, the Frynai evolution line have a cool concept behind them, but I didn’t really care for how the sprites were actually made.

Other fakemon, errr, well, I didn’t really care for in both concept and execution:

There were also fakemon that looked okay but really felt “out of place” to me in the pokemon universe. I know that’s a pretty subjective thing, but I do think that pokemon has developed a pretty distinct style by now. It may be hard to pin down exactly what that style is, but fakemon like Owten (a cat with bird wings pasted onto it) look very cute but don’t really feel like pokemon to me.

Or, take this fish for example:

This is a fish with a humanlike brain pasted onto its face, and it just feels wildly out of place to me. Instead of animals with random body parts of other animals pasted onto them, I’m looking for a more cohesive design.

Because I felt very ‘meh’ towards a large number of species in this game, choosing team members was based more on “ok, what actually looks cool to me?” than on anything else. But then, that’s the joy of having such a wide range of species to choose from; odds are, there’s something for everyone. Take a look at my starter, for example:

Metalynx here is an example of one of the Uranium fakemon I think is very well-designed. I admit I feel a tad iffy about the random floral pattern on its back (seems to me it’s best to continue the leg/tail stripes throughout the body), but other than that, it’s a cool design and suits Pokemon well. The spritework is very nice, too. You can see the whole design feels way more cohesive and well thought-out than simply pasting random body parts onto an animal.

Names

Another issue I sometimes had with the fakemon were the names. You might think this is nitpicking, but I would argue names are actually very important. Pokemon follow a very clear tradition for their names, relying on portmanteaus, onomatopoeia and puns a lot of the time, or adding specific prefixes or suffixes to words. 

The thing is, you can’t blindly follow this structure. You need to exercise a fair bit of judgment. The actual sounds the pokemon name makes is important. In this game, for example, there is a Ground/Dragon named “Terlard.” To be honest, it sort of sounds like a mix between “turd” and “lard,” which obviously isn’t an appealing image. It’s actually supposed to be a cross between “terra” and “lizard.” But, well, I feel like a better-sounding cross could be made rather easily. “Terrazard” sounds far better to me. If that’s too close to Charizard, maybe drop the word “lizard” and go for “snake” or “serpent” as a base word. 

Other names sounded okay to me but they really don’t roll off the tongue; ‘Tofurang,’ ‘Fortog,’ ‘Eshouten.’ I feel like pokemon names that are easy and fun to say are the best ones.

But, again, with so many fakemon, of course I was bound to find some I didn’t like as much. There were also fakemon names I thought were really strong! ‘Tancoon,’ for example, is a great pokemon name. ‘Jerbolta’ is actually perfect, and one of my favorite fakemon names, period.

Cries

There are a bunch of fakemon in this game with original cries, which is cool, but the actual cries themselves often felt underwhelming to me. There also seemed to be an odd issue with the volume level, because most of the cries felt really quiet to me. However, creating original cries is no doubt very complex work. I commend anyone for even making any sort of effort at it.

There were also a lot of fakemon that borrowed cries from real pokemon. This is perfectly understandable and plenty of fan games do this; as I said, making original cries for so many pokes has got to be terribly demanding. It did lead to an unfortunate feeling that things were a bit mismatched, with some fakemon having original cries and others having borrowed cries. But overall, that’s a rather minor concern.

Conclusion

I have been pretty harsh in this section about the fakemon of this game. All of that said, I really do appreciate how ambitious it is to make 150 all-new pokemon in a game. That is a TON. I’m sure it’s a remarkable amount of work. I applaud the effort and creativity that went into it, and I certainly don’t claim I can make something better than the Uranium team did. Even if the spritework was occasionally a little wonky, and some of the designs were a miss for me, they’re all far better than my own skills could produce. I also want to reiterate there are fakemon in this game I really liked! So, seriously, even though I consider the fakemon designs and sprites to be one of the biggest weaknesses in this game, if you disagree with me, that’s totally fine. Everyone has their own tastes, and if you love these fakemon, more power to you. :)

Level Curve and Stats Balance

Ok, here we go. This is my biggest gripe of the whole game, and the reason I nearly quit it multiple times. The level curve in this game is poorly done, in my opinion. There is a difference between “challenging” and “ridiculous.” In order to even have a chance at fighting normal, ordinary, run-of-the-mill trainers, I had to grind. For. EVER. Part of why the grinding takes so long is because the wild pokemon levels are so low, they just don’t provide adequate EXP, and the trainers are relatively sparse in this game. So I cannot begin to tell you– actually, you know what? Yes I can. Here:

That is how much time I’ve put into completing this game. Almost 80 hours. I can assure you the vast majority of that was spent grinding. (this isn’t a ROM hack so no Gameshark, either)

I get that one of Uranium’s goals was to make a more challenging game for fans, because Pokemon has traditionally been too easy for its older players. That’s a fine goal. But I don’t think they achieve that here. The level curve should be designed so you don’t even need to grind extra levels. Instead, playing this game ended up being a miserble, boring chore the vast majority of the time, because most of it was grinding forever in the grass. I am not a super-competitive, extra-amazing skilled Pokemon player. But I am not utterly atrocious at pokemon, either– I’ve played it and fan games all my life. So I don’t think it was simply that I sucked at the game.

Sure, I could have split the EXP points fewer ways (and just had 1 or 2 overpowered ‘mons) or carefully selected the most OP fakemon I came across (I did not, because I chose based on whether I liked the designs or not). But I think at the end of the day, this game just requires a lot of boring grinding, and that sucks. It really holds it back, because it would be a truly fantastic game if not for this problem.

I suspect another issue is poor stats balance for a lot of the fakemon. This could explain some of the need for so much grinding. Of course, in pokemon, these creatures come in all shapes, sizes, and all ranges of statistics. Some have better stats than others. It’s just a fact. But I suspect the stats balancing in this game still isn’t done very well for a ton of the species. I say this because my team-members tended to drop like flies even when they were at levels equalling my opponents. Yes, I am aware of basic concepts like special and physical defense. I am not saying a pokemon weak in physical defense died at a physical hit and I was shocked at that. I’m talking about pokemon going down regardless. However, I didn’t spend much time researching it, comparing all the numbers, so I can’t confirm that suspicion at the moment. But I suspect there probably were a fair number of fakemon either excessively overpowered or excessively low-tier. 

Writing

And here we have what is easily the biggest strength of the game. Oh my goodness, you guys, the writing is so good. This is the reason why, no matter how frustrating and boring the grinding got, I eventually came back. I had to see how the story ended. Traditionally, the plot has been one of the biggest flaws of official Pokemon games. In fact, I’d say the story in official games tends to be pretty lousy, with a couple of rare exceptions. But, guys! Uranium has story! And it’s GOOOOOOD!

Not only is the plot deep and interesting, but the dialogue is excellent as well. I know plot is not a priority for some people when it comes to pokemon games, but to me, it makes an enormous difference. I love a good story, and to me, it seems like a no-brainer that an RPG should have a good plot.

I really don’t want to say too much about the actual story, because of spoilers and such. But in a nutshell, it focuses on a series of accidents at nuclear power plants. The local pokemon end up being exposed to the radiation and they turn vicious and savage. There is a focus on Pokemon Rangers, who act as local law enforcement in addition to environmental protection (well, very much akin to actual park rangers in real life), and it’s well-developed and so well-done. Your estranged father works as the work-obsessed head bossman dude of these Rangers and you eventually help them out as they try to deal with irradiated wild pokemon and solve the mysterious accidents at the power plants. It’s ridiculously spooky and exciting and fun wandering around exploring the old broken-down nuclear power plants and taking on the crazy pokes, which look all glowy and cool and have special nuclear-type moves:

In addition to this great main plot, your rival is perhaps for the first time ever an interesting character. He is so well-written and you see actual growth and change in his character over time– growth and change that is gradual and believeable, and not just the 180 that villians in pokemon tend to do at the last second (I am evil evil evil hahaha oh gosh the way you treat your pokemon has made me realize I was wrong I shall now repent The End). The lad starts off as an annoying kid that reminds you very much of a younger sibling that tags along with you everywhere you go that you just wish you could ditch. By the end of it, by God, you actually LIKE him, and watch him mature and grow, and damnit, I feel actual FONDNESS for him? Is this what actual characterization feels like?!

And there’s even MORE. I’ve hardly scratched the surface. There are side-quests and subplots and everywhere you look, there is rich dialogue from NPCs adding to the depth and complexity of the world. Gyms have folks who are actually interesting, the region has its own legendary pokemon, and there are even ninjas vs. pirates in this game, for pete’s sake.

Despite the relatively dark nature of the subject matter– nuclear meltdowns, irradiated pokemon, my mother having vanished and presumed dead from one of these accidents, my grieving father having abandoned me at a young age to let my elderly aunt care for me, etc. etc.– it was still kept nicely within the realm of Pokemon. It didn’t get too dark or feel out-of-place. And that’s really cool, and a major accomplishment. Even when major character’s lives were in grave jeopardy in a way official Pokemon games wouldn’t dare to do, it felt like it fitted Pokemon games just fine. That’s awesome. Even Pokemon Prism didn’t do this. Prism often felt too adult and grim and gritty to be a real Pokemon game, despite all its strengths.

The very endgame– specifically, the identity of CURIE– was admittedly predictable, and something I had guessed waaaaaay long before it happened. That said, it was still very enjoyable. I also noticed that it is possible to get a “bad ending” in this game (which I kinda got the first time eh heh heh *cough*), which I think is super cool! Admittedly, the foe in the final fight in the game is … well … a bit OP. By about a thousand billion times. (which is why I got the bad ending first :P) But, there was also a certain charm to it, and I think the whole point was the ridiculous hyperbolic stupid OPness of it. It made you feel like you were truly hopeless, which a Pokemon game never does. And that was interesting. Honestly, for a short time, I wondered if it was simply a scripted loss, where a scenario was intentionally designed for it to be literally impossible for the player to win.

There was one little point at the end that was very unsatisfying, when my rival declines to fight me and instead forfeits the Championship to me. It’s not so much the “look, what you just did, saving the world n’ junk, that kinda already proves your worth” bit that bothers me, it’s just … ehh the way it was handled, I guess? It just felt like when I was congratulated for being the Champion, it felt fake. I wasn’t the Champion. I wanted to have my final rival fight, damnit. I was really looking forward to it. I guess that’s my biggest complaint about the storyline. I did love the idea behind the Championship itself, though– not Elite 4 but rather, facing a series of trainers through semifinals and finals etc. Honestly, that way makes a ton of sense and is even more logical than facing an Elite 4. I mean, damn, those Elite 4 would get pretty exhausted fighting challengers all day every day. The fact that there was a huge audience too made so much more sense to me than the solitary, solemn battle the Elite 4 feels like.

Conclusion

I’m glad I played and finally finished this game. It was clearly a labor of love and it’s the best storyline I have ever found in a fan game, period. If you’re willing to put up with some questionable stats balancing and a savage level curve, as well as a bunch of wonky fakemon sprites, then I definitely recommend playing it.

This is a repost on a new blog. The original post was on Mar 6, 2017.

[tomco-week]

At long last, here it is! Tomco Week 12: Pride and More! A Tomco week themed around Pride Month and the series finale of Star Vs the Forces of Evil! Special thanks to @jess-the-vampire AKA @tacosandtomcos for the banner, and to those on Discord who helped me with ideas.

Like all previous weeks, if you wanna modify any prompts into Stomco, you are more than welcome to and I will absolutely reblog those here too.

So our prompts for this week will be as follows:

Day 1 - 23 Jun - That Can’t Be It

Let’s start the week off with something that I’m sure all of us Tomco shippers are thinking. That everyone who watched the finale thought, I’m sure. Is that seriously it? That can’t be it. And yet, it was. Leaving all personal opinions aside I think we can still all agree the ending of the series was quite messy and rushed. We’re not fully sure what happened or why, but as it is, it seems all the dimensions have merged together. So what do you think is going to happen next? Where’s Tom? Who might have simply gone away due to the magic being destroyed? How do Marco, Tom, and Star all deal with what happened? Let’s explore the inevitable post-show chaos!

Day 2 - 24 Jun - Confessions

So yeah, I guess Star and Marco are a thing now. But this IS a Tomco (and Stomco) blog. How does Tom react to this? Did he possibly have a crush on Marco? Will the three of them try to talk this out? Will he try to win him over, join their relationship, or just move on because he wants him to be happy? Plenty of room for angst, but also for a happy ending for all three of them! Do what you will.

Day 3 - 25 Jun - Happy Pride!

Come on y’all, it’s Pride Month! Let’s show a little Pride. What headcanons do you have for Tom and Marco? If they were to dress up, which flags and icons would they go for? Or perhaps they simply discuss their identities with each other and learn more about each other in the process?

Day 4 - 26 Jun - Pride Events!

How does our favorite pairing celebrate Pride? Do they attend parades or rallys? Go out to eat? Shopping? Or perhaps they just hang out together at home and play games or watch movies? Maybe they don’t really care for celebrating Pride at all, which is totally understandable. I wanna know what you see them doing. :D

Day 5 - 27 Jun - Love Sentence Concert

Tom was freakin’ robbed in Just Friends, like WOW he absolutely deserved to go to that Love Sentence concert with Star, Marco, and Jackie. He and Marco bonded so much over liking the band and he doesn’t even get mentioned? smh. So let’s make up for that! Tom finally gets to go to a Love Sentence concert with Marco! Which songs do they rock out to the most? What souvenirs do they buy? Do they get any autographs?

Day 6 - 28 Jun - Meeting Parents

Honestly, it’s time. Tom and Star’s parents know each other, sure, but Marco’s and Tom’s don’t. But now that everyone’s in the same dimension together, there’s really no better time. How do you see a meeting between Rafael and Angie, and Dave and Wrathemelior, going? Is there tension or do they take to each other immediately? How do they feel about their children dating? And most important... does Wrathmelior just immediately gush over adorable Mariposa and insist on babysitting her?

Day 7 - 29 Jun - Summer Vacation

Well hey, the series ended around summer time, didn’t it? So why not have the final prompt be what you think their first summer vacation in the merged dimension is like! Where do they go, what photos do they take? How have famous landmarks perhaps changed? Is Marco’s favorite taco restaurant still there or is it now merged beautifully (or perhaps disastrously) with a Mewni or Underworld restaurant?? Perhaps they head to the beach and surprise, huge sections of the ocean are inexplicably replaced with lava, lookin like some ridiculous Minecraft map. Gonna get a little weird, gonna get a little wild this summer y’all.

So those are your prompts! I will be reblogging everything relating to it and using the relevant tags for searching later. Now, the rules, which can always be found in the About page!

1. Please use the Tomco tag on everything you post for a week. You may of course use main show tags, such as svtfoe and Star Vs, since they are from the show, but just make sure Tomco is also tagged for blacklisting purposes.

2. You may also want to use ‘Tomco Week’ as a tag as well, just to make it easier for me to find your work. I’ll be reblogging everything on the relevant days.

3. You may post entries early, they just won’t be reblogged here until the relevant day comes up. Feel free to shoot me a message but odds are I’ll like it so I can find it later.

4. If you miss the day, don’t worry. I will reblog them as soon as you get it posted. Again, shoot me a message if I miss it. I’ll be tagging things by day for searching purposes.

5. No explicit works. I don’t tend to reblog them any other time so I’ve decided I won’t share them here. If you want to draw something suggestive, go for it, just make sure it has the appropriate tags on it and I will also tag as ‘suggestive’ for those who want to blacklist that. Put it under a read more if you can. But again, PG-13. No explicit works. ESPECIALLY now that Tumblr implemented a ban against such things. I don’t want to make anyone uncomfortable. If you’re unsure, send me a PM and I’ll let you know how I’d rate it.

I’ll accept fanart, fanfiction, cosplay, videos, heck, songs, whatever you wanna share.

As usual, no ship bashing. Teasing is fine, outright hostility toward other ships is a no. We’re all here to have fun, let’s keep things respectful.

So there’s the week, I’ll reblog this a few times in the weeks leading up to it as a reminder, and I can’t wait to see what y’all come up with! :D Lemme know if you have any questions.

[tekthetek]

Swap Meet Rules!

The island of Hanako is set up as a self-guided tour where you can swap furniture, clothing, and DIY’s as you wind along a beautiful path across my island! I have hundreds of items available to swap, as well as lots of freebies and pretty sights to see. I am constantly renovating and adding new swap areas. I host events several times per week, so follow me for notifications about future events!

Please read these rules from start to finish. Anyone not following these rules will not be invited back to future events. I don’t charge an entry fee for any of my events, so please be respectful of my island and the rules I have created for it!

1.       I use Turnip Exchange to organize my queue. I will send out a link to the queue shortly before each event, so join the queue as soon as you can to make sure you get a spot! As amazing as the app is, it will occasionally give me trouble, so don’t hesitate to reach out to me on Twitter or Discord if it isn’t working properly! I have the settings set so it only gives one person at a time the dodo code so we hopefully won’t overwhelm the server, so please come in promptly when it’s your turn!

PLEASE NOTE that the way I control how fast people come in is by “kicking” each person from the queue once they are on my island. Nobody is in trouble, I promise! This is the only way that I know of to control how fast people fly to my island, because if too many fly in a row, the server crashes and everyone’s inventory resets, which is frustrating for everyone. Thanks for understanding!

2.       Feel free to catch bugs, go fishing, and visit the shops! Also feel free to take photos of anything you like! If you want to make my day, post them and tag me on social media!

3.       There are freebie stations set up all over the island; feel free to take one item from each station!

4.       You can take as many items as you like as long as you leave as many items as you take. Take one, leave one! Anyone not following the 1:1 rule will be banned permanently from my events. Please be respectful to both myself and fellow players and follow the 1:1 rule!

5.       To ensure a good experience for everyone, the ONLY items that you are allowed to leave during swap meets are furniture, wallpaper, flooring, and DIY’s. Do not leave clothing, shells, crafting materials, tools, fruit, etc in swap meet areas. Please don’t bring those types of items to my island. I want to make sure everyone has a good experience and has a wide variety of quality items available to them!

6.       Please be respectful of my island! Don’t pick or run through any flowers, don’t attempt to get into any of the the areas that are gated off, and please stick to the path that is laid out for visitors.

7. In order to make sure we have a nice variety of items available for everyone participating, the following items are NOT PERMITTED to be left during swap meets:

- Cardboard boxes of any kind, including cardboard box-related DIY recipes

- Tape Decks and cassette players

- Clothing, fruit, tools, crafting materials, or anything that isn’t a DIY recipe, a clothing item, or a furniture/floor/wallpaper item.

I’ve noticed that these are often left behind and stay behind, so in order to provide the best possible selection for all of my swap attendees, please don’t bring these items with you. Thank-you for understanding!

8. I do not charge an entry fee for participating and I do not plan to do so for the foreseeable future. I don’t use these events to make bells; I do them because I enjoy the social part of the game! Tips are appreciated, but not required. I take all tips that are left for me and treat them as donations towards the island. I usually match 100% of all tips given from my own bells and use the combined funds to add a bigger variety of items to my swap meets and to expand swap areas and add more interesting features to my island.

9. When you’re ready to leave, PLEASE do so by leaving through the airport rather than using the minus button to ‘leave quietly’. When people do this, it crashes the game for everyone else around 75% of the time.

10. Additional rules to be added as needed.

[pidgieee]

The Weekly Roundup 03/06/20

Hello hello! This post marks the first Weekly Roundup, a reflective post where I go over news within the Yu-Gi-Oh trading card game - this includes any unique tops, techs, card announcements and my thoughts of the format. That being said, I understand this post can get quite lengthy and many fans of the show may not be interested in the actual game, so please feel free to blacklist the tag #roundup if you don’t wish to see this kind of thing. Without further ado, let’s break down the past week of the TCG.

Banlist Hype It’s banlist season once again in the TCG, and no card is safe. Everyone has their personal predictions of the cards getting hit, be it wish list or something causing genuine issue within the meta, so let’s break down some of the more frequently discussed cards.

[ID: The card art for the card “Block Dragon,” depicting a dragon made out of several pieces of Lego.]

Block Dragon: This is a card that’s been evading banlists for quite some time. While it used to be popular in Gem-Knight FTK, the rise of the Adamancipator meant Block Dragon was going to be abused for its Dragon Ruler-esque effect. Personally, I think Block Dragon should go to 1 if anything - still around for the decks that need it, while hitting Adamancipator, which may not survive this coming banlist. Mecha Phantom Beast O-Lion: Very unlikely to get hit, as a reprint of this card has recently been announced. Limiting would do nothing as it’s currently run at 1 in most decks anyway. Jet Synchron: This is the card that I’m most certain will get hit. It evaded the last list barely, with glow-up bulb and the like being hit for being Halqifibrax targets, but given its frequency of use and ability to revive itself, the card is most likely to be banned completely. Dragon Buster Destruction Sword: The union carrier buster lock is, being blunt, awful to deal with. It doesn’t help with how generic and easy Union Carrier is to bring out, but given how recent both Halqifibrax and Union Carrier are in terms of set release, this card is likely to get the boot to substitute. Maxx “C”: Oh boy, this is the part of the banlist hype where people speculate which cards will return. Maxx C brings out the worst in people - you either never want to see the card back, or you don’t understand why people hate the card when both players can run it. I have my own thoughts on the card, being very against its return, but I will save the word count for a different post if anyone is interested. Card should absolutely stay at 0. These are the most popular discussed cards by far. I wouldn’t be surprised if Tour Guide of the Underworld returns to 3, or Drident goes to 2 since the Barrage hit was quite a pre-emptive hit. A key thing to keep in mind is that the list states “no sooner than June 1st” - it could be tomorrow, or July. With most competitive play being suspended with Covid-19 until June 30th, I can’t see the list coming too soon. Remote Dueling

 Konami has once again reinvented the wheel; the old “skype dueling” is now seeing a return through discord as a sanctioned event. 

[ID: Yu-Gi-Oh playmats with the phrase “Remote duel” in the center.]

To participate, you need to join the Konami Remote Dueling server, then find your local tournament store discord server on the list provided. Not all stores are participating; mine isn’t, so you may be out of luck if you wish for an official event. For non-sanctioned events...

Tops of Interest

Unfortunately, without any official events, it’s harder to keep track of what decks are doing well. 

Although this was roughly 10 days ago, Sky Strikers have won the third LCS in a surprising twist, winning over Synchro Eldlich. Despite all the hits, engage gone, the deck still seems to maintain its place as a somewhat competitive deck. Looking at the breakdown of the decks in the third LCS: 

[ID: Poster of the Luxury Championship Series featured alongside a pie chart, displaying the percentage of each deck. Image provided by LuxuryGamingLLC.]

It’s no surprise the top played decks are synchro eldlich and adamancipator, but the 22% other decks is quite interesting, especially with a Sky Striker top by Ryan Yu. I would recommend looking up his list if you’re interested in seeing how exactly Striker made it to first.

[ID: card art of Dante, Traveller of the Burning Abyss]

The weekly Pro Play Tour saw a Burning Abyss player Franco Persano reach first place, in a tournament with over 100 participants. The full deck profile can be found on youtube, but he had also provided some commentary in the Burning Abyss Facebook group, explaining some of the cards he had used. Chaos Hunter was an interesting side choice; the card was sided for adamancipators and Dinos, and the Lancea effect of preventing banishes while discarding for cost seemingly pairs well with the deck’s playstyle.

Other news

 Recently, the trademark for Yu-Gi-Oh sevens has been filed for the U.S. and Italy, indicating that the anime may be making its way to the west through a dub. Hopefully this means Rush Duels may come over, even if it is as a small format like speed duels, as the difference in rules make Rush Duels seem much more refreshing. The youtuber and streamer Farfa will be doing a full set reveal for Toon Chaos midnight June 4th (UTC) I would recommend checking out the reveal, as it should give an idea of whether the set is worth it.

Plenty of new cards have been announced in the past few weeks; Appliancers are making their debut soon in the OCG, many DM based decks are getting new support, such as Jinzo and Harpies, and a card used by Aporia in 5Ds has been announced for Collection Pack 20.

Afterthoughts

As the banlist looms over us, I’ll be posting weekly updates about what cards I’ve seen pop up in discussions of it. My DMs are open for anyone who wishes to discuss anything Yu-Gi-Oh related; be it the TCG, or any of the series. 

Keep safe and Duel well.

[for-ests]

Masterlist ✞

This blog is more for my one shots and requests, if you’d like to read my longer pieces, please check out my wattpad and ao3 accounts, the links are in my description!

Haikyuu!!

Love It If We Made It: Oikawa Tooru x Reader (Also posted on my ao3!)

Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3 / Part 4

You are Karasuno’s volleyball manager, and when you tag along to their first match against Aoba Johsai, you reconnect with your childhood friend, Oikawa Tooru. A relationship soon develops, along with feelings that weren’t present before. Problems soon arise though, because of his reputation, and your troubled past that he didn’t know about.

Late Night: Kuroo Tetsurou x Reader 

Part 1 smut 

Kiss Me Again: Bokuto Koutarou x Reader

Part 1 fluff 

Admit It: Kuroo Tetsurou x Reader 

Part 1 fluff

Please Don’t Go: Kageyama Tobio x Reader 

Part 1 / Part 2 angst

Mine: Sugawara Koushi x Reader 

Part 1 fluff 

Her Way: Terushima Yuuji x Reader 

Part 1 smut

Surprisingly Soft: Tsukishima Kei x Reader

Part 1 fluff

Headcannon / Request list!

Akaashi Keiji w/ fem s/o

Bokuto Koutarou w/ fem s/o

MY HERO ACADEMIA

Valkyrie: Hawks x Reader x Dabi

Link to series on ao3, wattpad

Betrayal. Lust. Power. Rising from the shadows of her hidden life to save a stranger, Y/N L/N, a young woman with an overpowered quirk, is swept into the limelight when a video of her confronting gang members goes viral. Because of the savagery in her ways, interest from both sides is peaked. Before she can fully process what is happening, Y/N's life is turned upside down- caught between two men with conflicting ideologies that will soon change the society she knows as a whole.

Watch Me Burn: Dabi x Reader 

Part 1 angst 

Request / Headcannon List!

Domestic Shoto Todoroki headcannons 

Other anime related one shots :-) 

Dosage: Gojo Satoru x Reader

Part 1 smut

Waiting Game: Ban x Reader 

Part 1 angst / smut

TOM HOLLAND & PETER PARKER

Always Enough: Peter Parker x Reader 

Part 1 angst  & fluff

Falling For You: Tom Holland x Reader 

Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3 fluff & smut 

The Most Beautiful Sunset: Tom Holland x Reader 

Part 1 fluff

Request List!

Tom Holland Thanksgiving Request

Where Tom is scared of horror movies 

Pregnancy Request 

Tom Holland x art! student reader

THE MAZE RUNNER

Turn Away and Return: Gally x Reader

Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3

Separated by what you thought was Gally’s death, you tried to move on from the love you once held closest to your heart. You were haunted with the memory of his lifeless body and heartbreaking last words. You couldn't move on, losing yourself more and more each day-until you come face to face with him once again. 

Safe With Me: Next x Reader 

Part 1 fluff

BANDERSNATCH

Come Undone: Colin Ritman x Reader 

Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3 / Part 4

“I don’t have one night stands…” “Yet,” A smirk appeared on his lips. “you were destined to have one with me.”

The Tulips That Nobody Asked For: Stefan Butler x Reader 

Part 1 mood board

Dizzy On The Comedown: Colin Ritman x Reader 

Part 1 angst 

To Make You Go: Colin Ritman x Reader 

Part 1 / Part 2 angst & fluff

Request List!

NSFW Colin Ritman request

OTHER

Let Go: Connor x Reader (Detroit BH) Blurb 

Shaggy vs Thanos x Reader this was a big fat joke 

All My Heart To You: Bobby Love Island Game x Reader (1) (request)