#and both were criminally shorter than the other two games at around 3 hours and both were undoubtedly the worst in the series

[scarlettfevor]

Just started watching this video of someone who played through the flipside and not even 30 minutes in I'm realizing that everyone on twitter was right and this game is ass

[nebraska-is-a-myth]

innocence never lasts - crime au

I’m back boys with another part, were getting closer to war time now dudes. This takes place before part 3 just if you wanted to get a better understanding of the timeline. 

part 1 & 2 & 5

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Wilbur came to town on an invitation from the masked man himself

Dream had enticed the brit with promises of riches and power, and he already had connections within the city so really what had he to lose

Wilbur was supplied with a small team, he was in charge of one of the larger drug trades and production companies on the east side of the city. His job was to eliminate any competition and regain complete control of the eastern drug exchange, how he did that was completely up to him. 

However, when dream sent a duo of teenage criminals to his door, Wilbur was less than impressed

“Dream, how do you expect me to run a drug cartel when two thirds of the cartel are fucking children”

“You'll figure it out dude, I believe in you.”

“No this isn't an ‘I believe in you’ situation dream, they aren't even allowed to drink in this country let alone kill a bunch of drug lords that by the way, are probably predators!”

“Admittedly, yes, they are a little young. But Tommy is one of the best kids I know, everything he knows he either learnt from me or the blood god himself.”

“Wait?” Wilbur moves his eye in front of the peep hole in his front door to inspect the blond on the right. “This Kid is technos?” He watches him pull a face at the shorter boy before punching him in the arm.

“Yup.”

“And you're okay with that?”

“It's a long story but yes.”

Wilbur looks back through the peephole at the smaller of the two and distantly hears “What if we just stab him” through the thin wood of his door. The older brit shakes his head and turns back into his living room

“And who's the kid threatening to stab me”

“Friend of Tommy's, I think. And don't worry about the stabbing, it's probably his way of saying he likes you or something.”

“If any of these kids die it's on you green man.”

“I can live with that.”

When Wilbur opens the door again, Tommy has his head in his hands and sighs as Tubbo puts a knife to his throat.

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It's a week in and Wilbur has considered shooting the both of them more than he would like to admit.

He's not really one for killing children, but he's not a fan of being outnumbered by the little fuckers. So to make it even he calls up some of his contacts in the city.

He almost regrets it immediately when Tommy asks who the furry is

Wilbur tries to hide his laugh when the blond boy says this, but in the child's defense, Who the fuck wears a fox mask

Fundy and Eret get along fine after their first meeting and Wilbur is just happy he doesn't have to sit around and listen to Tommy and Tubbo argue over who can fit more breadsticks in their mouth without breaking any on his own anymore.

The drug business continues under Wilbur's power and surprisingly, no one dies. They take down competitors and pump out more and more supplies to companies that are willing to pay higher prices than ever. He hates to say it, but maybe he's glad he took this job from Dream

That is until Tommy almost punches his front door down at 1am covered in smoke and blood, Tubbo barely breathing on the porch next to him.

Wilbur panics and shoves the both of them in the back seats of his car, instructing a shaken Tommy to put pressure on Tubbos wounds as he floors it to the nearest hospital. He can deal with the repercussions of running red lights after he comes up with a plan to get through the hospital without being noticed. Sure maybe Wilbur wasn't on anyone's radar yet, but Tommy definitely was, and who knows how many people Tubbo has actually stabbed.

Dream has to have some sort of protocol for something like this, a secret entrance or a codeword or something. He reaches to grab his phone from his jean pocket and swears as he realizes he left it on charge on his night stand, looks like he's on his own for this one. He can do this, just focus and fucking drive Wilbur

When he gets to the hospital he parks right out front in a place where he definitely isn't supposed to be and helps Tommy and Tubbo out of the car and practically has to carry the brunet through the front doors. As soon as he walks in he knows people know, they've been on the news more than once and it's not difficult to keep up with the city's most wanted list these days, but Tommy's limping now and he knows the adrenaline is wearing off so he drags tubbos bleeding body up to the front desk and swallows his pride.

“Help them, please.”

The woman at the front desk looks Wilbur directly in the eyes, sees the way tears are building there and switches her gaze between the two younger boys.

“Please.”

The woman takes a breath and nods. “We need help here.”

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

A few hours later when both boys are patched up and on the mend the doctor lets him in the room. Tubbo is out and hopped up on pain meds, recovering from smoke inhalation and a shrapnel wound on his left side. Doc said it looked worse than it is, he was only out to let his chest ease up a little. Tommy's wounds on the other hand were a little more permanent.

He’s sat on the bed next to Tuboos watching his chest rise and fall. There were bandages wrapping around his left leg, a mix of shrapnel and soft burn marks underneath, and his right arm is in a sling meaning he wouldn't be able walk on his own for a while. Wilbur sits next to him but Tommy doesn't stop watching Tubbos breathing.

“They almost put him on a ventilator.”

Tommy says it so softly, Wilbur almost doesn't recognize it was him at first. He's got a few stitches on his forehead where a purpling bruise blooms underneath, he almost doesn't want to know what happened. Almost.

“What happened Tommy.”

“What, not even gonna compliment my wheels.” He gestures to the right where Wilbur sees a small black wheelchair next to Tommy's bed and he tries not to choke on his breath. He hates being right sometimes.

Tommy sighs and closes his eyes, his head droops and Wilbur rests a comforting hand on the young boy's shoulder.

“It was one of the warehouses on the outer perimeter of the east side, Tubbo had asked me to help him take stock, it was already late and he thought if we both did it we could catch the last bus home together.”

He imagines the two of them dancing to stupid music and running around the warehouse playing tag or something stupid, it wouldn't be the first time.

“We weren't even halfway done before one of the alarms went off, didn't think much of it, smoke alarms go off all the time for stupid shit right. Didn't even reach the office before the first blast. Was a Molotov I think, probably what set the alarms off, no idea what turned the warehouse into a fucking bomb though.”

“Something exploded, don't know what but it got both of us. Landed on my shoulder real good. We ran to the back entrance, or as close as we could get before another blast went off, fucking ceiling came down on me. Hurt like a bitch but at least it's nothing permanent. Think I was out for a bit, not for long but long enough for Tubbo to hurt himself trying to get shit off me. ‘Rest is a bit of a blur to be honest, don't remember much between getting hit and ending up at your door.”

Wilbur takes a deep breath and shakes his head, it's not gunna help anyone if he starts getting emotional right now.

“Who would have done this.”

“That's the thing, I got a call about two minit's before the alarm went off from the master arsonist himself asking where I was. He never calls me will, not once. I didn't even know he had my fucking phone number.”

“Wait, why would sapnap want to blow up one of our warehouses.”

“I don't know, but Will, I lied. He asked if were were out on any jobs and I fucking lied I don't know why but I told him me and Tubbo were playing fucking video games at home, and not two minits later the place where I told him we weren't goes up in fucking flames.”

Wilbur sits in silence and looks between the two injured boys. He can't help but feel fury building in his chest, he doesn't care about the thousands of dollars lost in the fire, couldn't give less of a shit about Dreams fucking money. He’s angry that two teenage boys had been ambushed in an attack at a warehouse that his employer had promised were protected. God only knows what would have happened if Wilbur hadn't been home. He tries not to think about what would have happened if Tommy hadn't been there either, he stands and tries to get the image of Tubbo being trapped in that warehouse out of his head.

 He grinds his teeth together in confusion and anger hopes to god Tommy's wrong.

“Where are you going.”

Tommy looks up and meets Wilbur's eyes, the young boy sees the fury burning in them, he knows the older brit is mad and to be honest, he doesn't blame him. He watches Wilbur walk round to Tubbos bedside and picks up his cracked phone, he doesn't mention the way he’s sees Wilbur's hands shake.

“Ill be back okay, I've got a phone call to make.”

[ibuki-loves-you]

AHHH OKAY OKAY, THE CHARACTER CREATOR'S LINK:

https://picrew.me/image_maker/390379

AND I'M NOT GOING TO GO INTO TOO MUCH OF DETAIL OF THEIR BACKSTORY(and kinda what it did to them in the game) FOR BOOK SPOILER PURPOSES BUT UHH- HERE

Taiyo Hinode-

This man grew up in the hq of an evil organization. He was molded into a cold-hearted, careless, person. His parents both neglected and abused him, isolating him from society too. He never knew literally anyone else existed. When he was a child, he often had to curl up in extremely small places for hours on end to avoid being found, making him shorter than he was already destined to be. He also never got many proteins or vitamins, and was quite a sick child. He would run around the hq, shoving hand-made chocolates into their hands before running off once more. Taiyo never fully understood why everyone looked at him with a sort of pitiful look. He didn't need pity! He was practically a prince! Taiyo was the only surviving member of the organization he was the “Prince” of after an unnamed criminal killed them off.

This caused Taiyo to go on uh- a small killing spree? But, later helped him stay calm during the events of “Danganronpa; Descending Chaos!?”. He was often accused of being the blackened, solely for his talent. His only response was, "If I truly did kill *victim name*, you would have absolutely no clue I did it."

Many of his classmates paid little to no attention to him—even if he was probably the best person to befriend during the killing game. With the help of the one and only Ultimate Sailor, Minato Ichibangase, he was able to get people to listen to him during trials.

Taiyo has always been subject to Minato's teasing, too. From waking up to his shoes tied on the campground's tree's, to his white shirts dyed rainbow, and occasionally a (joke, as he guessed) love confession.

A quote- “If you want my assistance, I'm not going to do it for free. Do you really want it? Then get down on your knees and beg for it.”

Minato Ichibangase-

Something has always been wrong with him. When he was young(about the age of a toddler), he severely enjoyed to process of gutting fish. He had 3 older brothers, and a sick mother. As he grew older, a sort of bloodlust grew. He eventually killed off his family, and got away with it. Every once and a while, he'd let his bloodlust take control and just...go on a killing spree???(why were so many of my danganronpa ocs murderers??)

Minato's murderous side slowly became something much more tame. He's always been quite a loud, extroverted person. He is the opposite of Taiyo, basically. Except he can still be rude occasionally... Somehow, he managed to get close to the two closest people in the campground. Even with his obvious show of affection, though, Taiyo's got no clue how gay this guy is for him bahahahahahahahahshahdjjf-

In the end, Minato ended up being the reason as to why everyone didn't die.

“If this place doesn't have a lake, wow I'm gonna get maaad!”

Kana Jinja-

Kana grew up in a traditional Japanese temple. Her family was a family of prophets, yet she's always been the strongest of them. Her family was quite traditional, and always reminded her how she was “superior.” Kana's always been quite salty, rude, making it clear as day that she thought she was better than everyone.

When Minato took her in as a "sidekick", she got a bit angry, but didn't object. Kana was always extremely oblivious to others feelings, so she never picked up that Kazuko severely wanted to befriend her. She ended up being sort of moral support for the survivors, keeping their sanity from decreasing more.

Now I don't have much of a back story for Kazuko and Hotaru but uh here dkdjnffn

HOLY CRAP DUDE I LOVE THEM-

IK I MUST SOUND LIKE A BROKEN RECORD BUT OH MY GOD I LOVE HOW DETAILED THE BACKGROUNDS ARE - MOD IBUKI

[daleisgreat]

Batman: Dark Knight Rises

I picked up the BluRay for today’s film, 2012’s Batman: Dark Knight Rises (trailer), shortly after it hit video way back in 2012. I have neglected it to the backlog for so long because by the time I saw it in theaters I overdid it on the caped crusader’s films and needed a break. I say this because to get hyped for director Christopher Nolan’s final Batman film I watched the four Batman films from Burton & Shumacher in the weeks leading up to Dark Knight Rises and our local theater was doing a release day special to watch all three of the Christopher Nolan Batman films in a row which a friend and I did after I got done helping him move earlier in the day. It made for a long day, and while it was an unforgettable experience, it was still spending nearly half a day in the theater and I kind of associated the Nolan films with that memory for a period of time and so I needed a break from them for a bit. Nolan was riding high after the critical and commercial success of his previous two Batman films, so expectations were through the roof for Dark Knight Rises. This picks up in the aftermath of The Dark Knight’s ending where Batman indirectly killed a rogue Harvey Dent, but him and Commissioner Gordon decided to cover-up Dent’s darker half and celebrate Dent as a fallen hero that Gotham needed to absolve its crime dilemma. It is now eight years later and both Batman and Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) have disappeared from the public eye. The first act helps establish a new evil is on the rise going by Bane (Tom Hardy), who quickly accumulates power and establishes a base in Gotham’s sewers that prompts Wayne and Batman both to return to Gotham and meet his biggest foe yet.

Dark Knight Rises introduces a few other new players to Nolan’s films with the biggest standout being anti-hero master thief, Selina Kyle, aka Catwoman (Anne Hathaway). This was my first major exposure to her and she is flawless as Batman’s off-and-on ally. Officer Blake (Joseph-Gordon Levitt) is an up-and-comer for Gotham PD, and is one of the more proactive members of the force to react to the Bane threat and quickly gains trust from both Batman and Commissioner Gordon (Gary Oldman). Miranda Tate (Marion Cotillard) is trying to become a player in Gotham by establishing a future clean energy source. Upon this re-watch I was flabbergasted I completely forgot about Detective Foley (Matthew Modine) who is an incompetent cop who wants to bust Batman. It would be criminal if they were absent, but Nolan knew it would not be a Batman film from him without the returning affable Batman allies in tech-man Luscious Fox (Morgan Freeman) and his loyal butler Alfred (Michael Caine). I loved the first two acts of Dark Knight Rises. Nolan does a great job at establishing the new characters with Selina taking advantage of her stealth and cunning to keep me guessing which side she is really on and Bane gradually amassing resources and power to become a legitimate threat to Gotham. I loved how it plays off the consequences from the aftermath of The Dark Knight in a big way to set up the present-day Gotham. There is a fine balance of action and exposition sequences that constantly kept me glued in for the next big set-piece sequence. There is the nice gradual build in pacing in the first two hours when there is this sudden shift into overdrive I was never fully able to settle in with to the film’s detriment.

A nice side-effect from holding off nearly eight years to re-watch Dark Knight Rises is that I recall some negative press from critics on how Nolan’s trilogy wrapped up and I wanted to distance myself from it to go into this again with a fresh set of eyes. The chief criticism I recall was there being not a lot of fans for the voice used for Bane. The Elephant Man-esque voice has been the butt of many Internet jokes in the years since. I will admit, it does not sound all that menacing, but it grew on me throughout the film and that combined with Tom Hardy’s excellent use of body language resulted in it not coming off as a hindrance all these years later. A qualm I vaguely remembered is that even though Dark Knight Rises is two hours and forty-five minutes long, it flies by because it tries to crunch in about four hours’ worth of cinema into that timeframe. This is not knew from Nolan, and as a matter of fact he is usually pretty good at this type of filmmaking and making longer films breeze by with his brisk cinematography in mind-benders like Inception and The Prestige. However, I do not know whether if it was due to a poor script, clashes with corporate officials, budget or filming restraints, but something happened with the filmmaking here that results in many ‘straighten-your-tie’ moments. Minor-yet-pivotal points of the plot happened in a blink-of-an-eye, and there were several points where I found myself rewinding to pick up on some of these little details. This mostly breaks down in the final act where a lot happens in terms of events and time passing by. Bane pulls off a power grab at a football game in a big trailer-pleasing moment (featuring one completely unaware of his surroundings Heinz Ward) while Batman is banished to a mysterious pit. A lot of time goes by while Gotham succumbs to martial law, but the way it all plays out seems haphazard and confusing to keep up with. It felt like Nolan was told he had a half hour to forty-five minutes of cuts to make to keep the film under three hours and he chose the all-important final act to take the brunt of the cuts.

The last stretch of action also comes off clumsy and rushed. It requires a lot of suspension of disbelief where the seemingly unstoppable Bane established in the first three quarters of the film all of a sudden comes off as easy pickings for Batman and Catwoman. I get the whole ‘Batman does not kill’ edict from DC comics, but this once again leads to Nolan having to find another way for Batman to indirectly kill off a major villain for the third film in a row, but it comes off incredibly weak on-screen. Finally, there are convenient lines of dialogue thrown out for Batman somehow surviving a severe stabbing and escaping a six mile nuclear bomb blast radius…..sorry Bats, but I simply could not buy it. The BluRay has a bonus disc that has nearly three hour of bonus features on it. Far and away the marquee extra is The Batmobile. It is an hour long, in-depth look at the history of the Batmobile from its humble beginnings in the comics and early TV serials, until it started to really pop in the Adam West 60s TV show and evolved into the elaborate designs from the last several movies from Burton, Shumacher and Nolan. They interviewed designers of the cars from nearly all eras, have a great showcase of all the Batmobiles next to each other at a vintage drive-in and it wraps up with a touching tribute by bringing the Batmobile to a children’s hospital. Definitely do not skip past The Batmobile.

The rest of the extras are divided up into three areas: Ending the Knight, Gotham’s Reckoning and Reflections. Ending the Knight is comprised of about a dozen smaller features mostly highlighting an individual action sequence or set-piece moment and how the production team pulled it off. Gotham’s Reckoning is character profiles of Batman, Bane and Catwoman and is where we see the most interview time of Bale, Hardy and Hathaway. Reflections is only a couple quick features touching on the crews memories from making three films together and putting a bow on their trilogy. I am a sucker for these, and a lot of these are well made and do not come off as quasi-trailers like a lot of other shorter, thrown together behind-the-scenes pieces on other home video releases. From this two hour lot of extras I would say the half hour of character profiles and the Gameday feature detailing the football game bomb sequence stood out to me the most. A superb collection of extra features all around; I would have been bummed with the lack of a Nolan commentary, but he is featured prominently throughout these extra feature interviews so much that it more than makes up for it. I know it sounds like I bagged on a lot of the film, but it is mostly the last act of Batman: The Dark Knight Rises where things fall apart. Again, this is purely speculation on my part, but it mostly boils down to feeling like Nolan being told he had to cut a half hour out of the film and he decided to sacrifice a good chunk of the last act. The strong first two acts combine to make this a quality comic book movie and despite being a couple notches down from Nolan’s previous two Batman films, I would still rank it in the top third of comic book movies all things considered. Other Random Backlog Movie Blogs 3 12 Angry Men (1957) 12 Rounds 3: Lockdown 21 Jump Street The Accountant Angry Video Game Nerd: The Movie Atari: Game Over The Avengers: Age of Ultron The Avengers: Infinity War Batman: The Killing Joke Batman: Mask of the Phantasm Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice Bounty Hunters Cabin in the Woods Captain America: Civil War Captain America: The First Avenger Captain America: The Winter Soldier Christmas Eve Clash of the Titans (1981) Clint Eastwood 11-pack Special The Condemned 2 Countdown Creed Deck the Halls Detroit Rock City Die Hard Dredd The Eliminators The Equalizer Dirty Work Faster Fast and Furious I-VIII Field of Dreams Fight Club The Fighter For Love of the Game Good Will Hunting Gravity Guardians of the Galaxy Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 Hercules: Reborn Hitman Indiana Jones 1-4 Ink The Interrogation Interstellar Jobs Joy Ride 1-3 Major League Man of Steel Man on the Moon Man vs Snake Marine 3-6 Merry Friggin Christmas Metallica: Some Kind of Monster Mortal Kombat National Treasure National Treasure: Book of Secrets Pulp Fiction The Replacements Reservoir Dogs Rocky I-VII Running Films Part 1 Running Films Part 2 San Andreas ScoobyDoo Wrestlemania Mystery The Secret Life of Walter Mitty Shoot em Up Slacker Skyscraper Small Town Santa Steve Jobs Source Code Star Trek I-XIII Sully Take Me Home Tonight TMNT The Tooth Fairy 1 & 2 UHF Veronica Mars Vision Quest The War Wild Wonder Woman The Wrestler (2008) X-Men: Apocalypse X-Men: Days of Future Past

[darcy137]

So my lovely @whalien27​ tagged me in this a long long time ago but I was in the middle of getting a new laptop (’cause my old ones heroically broke down right after my finals and after almost 5 years of loyal service to someone who is like the female version of Namjoon when it comes to destruction power), moving between my school and Boston and my internship place, and of course the start of my internship. Thus I had no time, until now, to do this.

Rule: Finish these 92 questions and then I’m supposed to tag 20 people. However my loser self don’t even have that many people I can comfortably tag so I’m gonna leave it open - you can do it if you see this on your feed and feel like doing it.

THE LAST: 1. drink: water 2. phone call: mom - which is funny, since I don’t call home that often 3. text message: with my group of roommate complaining about some projects I’m doing 4. song you listened to: Tomorrow - BTS. This is my motivational, my go to when I need a pick-me-up song. 5. time you cried: A few weeks ago - I watched The Ark’s The Light MV for the first time :/ 6. dated someone twice: yeah 7. kissed someone and regretted it: when I was in middle school and played a game where the game master would say things like “three arms” and you are supposed to make exactly 3 arms touching each other (you can join with other people). The game master said “two lips” and everyone thought it was a kiss, and since it was a kiss it would be better to do it with someone from the same gender so this girl grabbed me and kissed me before I could even react. Turned out by “two lips” the game master meant to press your lips together (a kiss would have been “two pairs of lips). I didn’t like the fact that the kiss was forced and it was to win a game, not for any romantic purpose - and we didn’t even win in the end, and it was completely unnecessary. So yeah, that was the only time I kissed someone and regretted it. 8. been cheated on: no 9. lost someone special: yeah 10. been depressed: yeah 11. gotten drunk and thrown up: no. I don’t like drinking, nor do I have high alcohol tolerance so I usually quit after one or two sips, and even I wouldn’t get pissed drunk that quick 

LIST 3 FAVOURITE COLOURS: 12-14. blue, pastel pink, purple, silver

IN THE LAST YEAR HAVE YOU: 15. made new friends: yeah 16. fallen out of love: yeah 17. laughed until you cried: yeah

18. found out someone was talking about you: yeah, but in a positive way: my Korean tutor (in our school for languages we usually have this system were we pair up a native speaker with a learner, so my tutor was a fellow student) told me her friend, who was a TA for our Korean teacher, told her that I did my homework well 

19. met someone who changed you: no, not during last year 20. found out who your friends are: yeah 21. kissed someone on your Facebook list: no. I didn’t kiss anyone last year, period

GENERAL: 22. how many of your Facebook friends do you know in real life: about more than half of them - the other half are people I works with on projects, so while I don’t really know them in real life I have talked to them in some way before or right after adding them 23. do you have any pets: no. I wish though - my dream is to have two dogs, one must be a German Shepherd, and may be a cat 24. do you want to change your name: no. I have grown to love my name over the years 25. what did you do for your last birthday: enjoyed school, hanged out a bit with my friend, applied like crazy for internship, had a minor quarter life crisis even though I wasn’t 25 yet 26. what time did you wake up: these days usually 6-7 am  27. what were you doing at midnight last night: trying to use internet. Ok so for my internship I was assigned a room in a student dorm nearby, which is super nice and convenient. However, since it’s a high school dorm, they cut off all internet connection at 1am exactly, so these days at 12am I would be crazily trying to savour the last hour of internet :))))) 28. name something you can’t wait for: going to LA after I’m done with internship 29. when was the last time you saw your mom: August 24th last year - that was the day I left Vietnam to return to school. 30. what is one thing you wish you could change in your life: nothing. I sometimes wishes things like to be born in another country (because I’m always curious about what it’s like to be citizen of another country), or to know certain people (like, imagine what it would be if you are best friend with BTS!!), but ultimately, everything - both good and bad - that I have experienced in my life makes me who I am today, and that’s why I don’t want to change a single thing 31. what are you listening to right now: nothing. I’ll probably play something from BTS after I’m done with this though 32. have you ever talked to a person named tom: yes 33. something that is getting on your nerves: rude people 34. most visited website: tumblr, youtube, facebook, these days twitter as well since KCON is near 35-37. there was no question here so...  38. hair colour: very dark brown, like close to black brown, and the lower layer used to be dark bluish purple but it has faded a lot so it’s more purple mixed with light brown 39. long or short hair: long, like touching the middle of my back long. it’s the longest my hair has been in a while 40. do you have a crush on someone: normal people, not at the moment. celebrity, yes. 41. what do you like about yourself: my eyes and these days, my hair 42. piercings: ear piercings (the standard ones) 43. bloodtype: B, I’m about 60% sure it’s B positive but I don’t know 44. nickname: Darcy (yes it’s my English nick name - I don’t have it anywhere in any of my official paper), Huaiqiu, Gaeul, chubby cat, puppy, shrimp (apparently I sleep in curling position like a shrimp when it’s cooked so...), Mom, Aunt, Greatgrandma, Mama Bear 45. relationship status: single 46. zodiac: aquarius 47. pronous: she/her 48. favourite tv show: Criminal Minds 49. tattoos: none, though I sometimes flirt with the idea. If I ever do it, I would probably get a blue butterfly (something highkey reminding me of HYYH) or the sentence that I like the most from Tomorrow: Because the dawn before sun rises is the darkest). 50. right or left handed: right handed 51. surgery: does minor incision when they remove my wisdom teeth count? 52. piercing: wait does this question repeat? 53. sport: why do you think I was called “chubby cat”? Gym to me is like dance to Namjoon and Jin - something I can do if I need to, but probably not something I enjoy that much 55. vacation: I’m looking forward to my getaway to LA in August baby 56. pair of trainers: a blue runner pair

MORE GENERAL 57. eating: popcorn 58. drinking: water 59. i’m about to: read some fanfic 61. waiting for: the weekend 62. want: some motivation to study Korean, start learning case study and prepare my resume for consultant firms’ position 63. get married: I will think about it when my life and career are more stable 64. career: ideally HR, but I’m actually open to anything related to management, HR, development, customer services and even marketing

WHICH IS BETTER 65. hugs or kisses: kisses 66. lips or eyes: eyes 67. shorter or taller: for my partner, taller would be better but I don’t really care that much 68. older or younger: ideally older, but my ex was younger (though he’s probably as old as me, if not older mentally),so I don’t care that much I guess 70. nice arms or nice stomach: for others - I don’t really care. For myself, nice stomach - I’m a fatty especially around there :( 71. sensitive or loud: I’m more sensitive, and I would prefer people who are sensitive too unless you are Hobi then you are welcomed to be loud af my February Friend ~ 72. hook up or relationship: relationship, definitely 73. troublemaker or hesitant: hesitant

HAVE YOU EVER: 74. kissed a stranger: yes. ^see my story above 75. drank hard liquor: I don’t think so?? I might have accidentally drank something when I was a kid but honestly I can’t remember 76. lost glasses/contact lenses: I don’t even wear glasses nor contact lenses (10/10 eyesight here) 77. turned someone down: yeah 78. sex on the first date: eh... I have never gotten pass first base with anyone so... 79. broken someone’s heart: ... unfortunately yes 80. had your heart broken: yeah... 81. been arrested: hell no 82. cried when someone died: yes 83. fallen for a friend: yes, and man I fell hard

DO YOU BELIEVE IN: 84. yourself: not really... it has been a struggle for me, though I think I start to be able to do so a little bit these days 85. miracles: nah 86. love at first sight: definitely no. I believe in attraction at first sight - like, you can feel attracted to a person at first sight. However, to love someone means to learn about them, understand them and grow together in a positive way, so no way you can achieve that at first sight. I feel like people who claim they fall in love at first sight probably are attracted at first sight, and because they believe it is love they try their best in getting to know the other person and improve the relationship, which then turn it into real love.

87. santa claus: no. I even act as someone’s Santa Claus before so definitely no. 88. kiss on the first date: I don’t mind, but I also rather get to know the person well before kissing them  89. angels: no

OTHER:

90. eye colour: dark brown 91. favourite movie: I probably have a list, but the one I can remember right now are Conjuring 1 & 2, Insidious, Guardians of the Galaxy, Boss Baby, Pirates 1, 2 & 3, The King’s Speech

92.????? Is this question lost too??

[the-bookler]

85 questions

Rules: Answer these 85 statements and tag 20 people.

I was tagged by @honoraryshadowangel thank you so much! Honestly i’m still getting to know people so tagging uuhhh @quillbit-reads @coffeebooksorme @happybibliosaurus honestly i’d tag more but it’s 2am and im tired sorry!

the last 1. drink:omg pink lemonade with tamova vodka, not good. Kids, drink expensive vodka it makes the world of difference 

2. phone call: A friend at 1am last night via FB messenger because my dog escaped and was heading her way 

3. text message: uuuuh i dont use my phone’s intrinsic functions ie calls and texts so last person I messaged via FB messenger was my friend Jack about an award ceremony we were both at 

4. song you listened to: haven’t the foggiest, I didn’t listen to music today

5. time you cried: I was drunk and upset over a friend who committed suicide in April I believe, would have been in June

6. dated someone twice: lmao i’ve dated one person properly and wouldn’t go near that person again with a ten foot pole if I was at gunpoint so sorry nope 

7. kissed someone and regretted it: bahahah march i got into a fight with him he was demanding and i don’t care for people i barely know demanding large swathes of my time seeing as im so busy but apparently he’s cursed so i haven’t kissed anyone since it’s awful

8. been cheated on: November 

9. lost someone special: April, RIP Rafa <3 

10. been depressed: It was last bad in November, guess why

11. gotten drunk and thrown up: June it’s the second time i’ve ever been that drunk I hate it so much I usually just have a can or two and float around smiley and fun tbh 

3 favourite colours 12. Green 13. Lilac 14: Pink

in the last year have you 15. made new friends: oh god yeah, at least 100 new people in my life and i’d count at least 50 of them as very good friends now 

16. fallen out of love: hmmm not love i don’t think 

17. laughed until you cried: yepppp

18. found out someone was talking about you: people always talk about me i’m great ;D no but like... of course people talk about you? not maliciously probably in my case 

19. met someone who changed you: Yep!

20. found out who your friends are: totally 

21. kissed someone on your Facebook list: ahahaha yes a lot of them, we had a game of spin the bottle in November some time. I’m also a bit of a devilish rake by American standards but that’s just how youths in Ireland are.

General: 22. how many of your Facebook friends do you know in real life: I know of them all but i’d say there’s about 30 i’ve never met in person or been introduced to 

23. do you have any pets: Sascha the cat and his brother Charlie the Jack Russell!

24. do you want to change your name: I kinda instigated a change of it from megan jane to megjay but other than that nah

25. what did you do for your last birthday: went to a silent disco, had several complimentary jaegermeister shots, stayed overnight in my uni city instead of going home like i usually do, oh also a drama society quiz we failed spectacularly

26. what time did you wake up: this morning was about 12.30pm D: i’m bad in summer...

27. what were you doing at midnight last night: running around my neighbourhood and the surrounding roads and fields after my runaway dog in the lightning. I wish I was lying 

28. name something you can’t wait for: To move to my uni city and get started on my second year of college!

29. when was the last time you saw your mom: like two hours ago

30 has vanished? mysterious 

31. what are you listening to right now: nothingggg other than the cars on the road

32. have you ever talked to a person named tom: huh. not that i’m aware of, they’re all tomás or thomas here.

33. something that is getting on your nerves: people chewing loudly, people expecting me to help them without asking or being roundabout in the way they look for help like just being sneaky 

34. most visited website: not sure tbh

35. hair colour: blonde

36. long or short hair: mine is mid length it’s growing, I usually keep it short for practicality but im a poor college student who cant afford cuts and i have mad curly hair so my friends cant do it for me, so it’s gonna be long soon lol

37. do you have a crush on someone: kiiiinda? im suppressing it, it’s a Bad Idea.

38. what do you like about yourself: everything, i’m glorious 

39. piercings: i’ve two in each lobe 

40. blood type: No idea, I waited 4 hours to donate blood and find out once but turns out my veins are too slim and i’m banned from giving blood now :) :) :) 

41. nickname: megjay, megs, meggy, nutmeg

42. relationship status: single af

43. zodiac: Virgo

44. pronouns: she/her

45. favourite tv show: I don’t watch tv,.... maybe criminal minds? i like Reid

46. tattoos: not yet!

47. right or left handed: right

48. surgery: nothing yet but i feel like i’ll need work done to my knees sooner or later

50. favorite sport: volleyball! i’m hopeless at it despite being a spikeball coach lol

51. favorite vacation: Denmark or London

52. favorite pair of trainers: The pink ones i stole from my sister ;) 

MORE GENERAL

53. eating: nothing 

54. drinking: nothing

55. I’m about to: sleep

56. waiting for: second year of college wooooop

57. want: sweets 

58. get married: idk i don’t really want to but i might change my mind

59. career: stage manager or actor or playwright or something related 

WHICH IS BETTER:

60. hugs or kisses: both, i’m a slut for human contact come kiss and hug me i love it 

61. lips or eyes: eyes

62. shorter or taller: taller pls 

63. older or younger: older

64. nice arms or nice stomach: love makes you blind ie you dont really care like im not gonna pick someone to love based on their anatomy

65. hookup or relationship: relationship

66. troublemaker or hesitant: troublemaker, im a bit shy i need someone to get me into my mad situations 

HAVE YOU EVER:

67. kissed a stranger: yea lol i got to know him later though

68. drank hard liquor: i dont even know what qualifies as hard... jaeger?

69. lost glasses/contact lenses: no

70. turned someone down: yeah tinder is rife with... interesting folk

71. sex on the first date: nope 

73. had your heart broken: kinda

74. been arrested: no

75. cried when someone died: yes

76. fallen for a friend: yep! it ended really poorly i do not recommend!

DO YOU BELIEVE IN

77. yourself: 100% 

78. miracles: nope

79. love at first sight: kinda 

80. santa claus: no

81. kiss on the first date: lol yep im loose with my affections 

82. angels: nope 

OTHER:

84. eye colour: blue 85. favourite movie: Kingsman!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[mrbananny]

Breakdown

Crie s I'm done with this aaaa. I think this might be the longest fic ive ever wrote omfg. I'm actually pretty proud of myself, because i usually never finish things this long. But thanks a lot to both @uf0-toast and @cartoons-behind-blogging for listening to me scream about this for two days ;v; a cookie for whoever can guess the three songs I referenced !

Summary: GCBC gets invited to a party.

TW: anxiety, possible ptsd, minor blood

Rating: T

It was at a party. Well, not exactly a ‘party’, more of a festive get-together as Bad Cop called them, considering the fact that he didn’t want to be there in the first place. Especially not at Cloud Cuckooland. The lights were too bright, music too loud, and even voices were gosh-darn annoying. The only reason he had been there was because of a certain someone wanting to go.

  ‘Hey, buddy, why don’t you go n’ dance? Make some new friends!’ Good Cop had spoken up, speech still a bit slurred.   The cop gave a sigh. “If you wan’ a dance n’ make friends so bad, why don’t you come out n’ do it yourself?“ He mumbled back.  ‘You know ’m scared t’ come out like this. B'sides, you need t’ work on your social skills, Bad’ Good Cop held back a laugh at mentioning this.   Ever since the events of TAKOS Tuesday, Bad Cop’s other half hadn’t exactly… been himself, in more ways than one. It’s been about a week since then.

  The day prior to the festive get-together was one of the Cop’s first days back from working under Business’ strict rule. After leaving the Super Secret Police that Business had them working in, they had instantly gone back to working as a normal cop. They knew they should take time off after what had happened in those last 3 short days, but they couldn't just laze around their home all day. For them, normal patrol work was a vacation, compared to the work Business had them doing. It was a good break, Bad Cop returned to the normal car chases he loved, and Good Cop went back to crossaint and donut breaks, which he oh-so loved as well.   "PULL OV'R N' COME OUT WITH YOUR HANDS UP!" The cop had shouted into the megaphone, head halfway through the window. The criminal was persistent, and it took hours upon hours to finally catch him. And after that was Good Cop's croissant break.   Bad Cop had to order the croissants and coffee, of course. The other still had a bit of a doubt of how people would react to his new face. Bad paid and thanked Larry before rushing out the coffee shop door.   The cops had made their way back to the police cruiser before meeting a familar furry face.   "HIIII, BAD COP!!" Unikitty had shouted in her high pitched, hurting-Bad-Cop's-ears voice. The cop gave a shout, being startled by her sudden appearance, nearly dropping the hot coffee in his lap. "GAH! DON'T SNEAK UP ONE SOMEONE LIKE THAT!" After attempts of trying to calm his heart rate, he continued, putting his hand on his forehead. "What d' you want? I thought the Master Builder's wouldn't want anything t' do with me." Unikitty's excited grin faltered a bit at that question. "Yeah, that's what I thought, too. Buuut! I am throwing a party tomorrow night to celebrate the defeat of the Kragle," that word had caused Bad Cop to flinch a bit, "and Emmet, Wyldstyle, Benny, Metalbeard, and myself thought it would be great for you to come stop by and join us!" The cop opened his mouth to say something-   "There'll be CAKE, and ICE CREAM! Oh, and MUSIC," He had been interuptted as she continued to list off things she had planned, "and GAMES, because who doesn't love party games?! Of course, we're still doing reconstruction on CCC, or C3 for shorter, but we were able to make one party room for tomorrow-"   "Unikitty."   "And it should be good until we get the other 23 up and running-"   "Unikitty?"   "But we REEEALLLY think it would be great for you two to meet new peop-"   "I can't."   Well, that just made her stop dead in her tracks. "W-Why not?" Bad Cop picked up his keys, as a way to hint at her that he wanted to escape from this conversation. "I jus'... think that it might be better if I wasn't there. After all, I was th' one t' ruin... C3," Man Upstairs, he didn't want to call it that. "Look, I appreciate the offer but I just can't."   Unikitty looked defeated. Her ears folded back and she looked toward the sidewalk. "Alrighty. Well, if you change your mind you can always come anyway! Bye, Bad Cop!" And with that, she was off, sparkles and glitter and every other bright shiny thing you can think of trailing her.   'I think it would be fun.' Good Cop had spoken up after a short period of silence.   Bad Cop had ignored what he said. "Do you want your croissant 'r not?" He heard a mental sigh come from his other half as their head spun and suddenly his scribbled face was in control. He picked up his croissant and hesitated.   'You're okay.'   Ever since the... 'incident' with Good Cop and Business, several things have been harder for Good Cop to do with his new face, replaced by scribbled features. Eating, for one, was an issue, considerjng his mouth was nothing but a cross between smooth and jagged edges. Sight, another. Without his glasses, Good couldn't see very far, and adding that to his new eyes, several problems could erupt, which is usually why Bad does all the driving. And of course, speech. He didn't sound like he used to, which is something he could ignore, but his speech pattern had become slurred, which led to some misunderstandings. "I know, I jus'- Maybe we should go?"   'No one would want us there n' you know it.'   "We don' know that. We won' if we don' go."   He took a bite from his snack. "I think it'd be good fer you."   Bad Cop had been so busy thinking back to the day before that he hadn't even noticed the unicorn/cat hybrid and a familiar blue spaceman walk (or rather, float, in Benny's case) up to the punchbowl where the cop had been hiding out since he arrived. "Hey! Bad Cop! Wassup! It's me, Benny, remember?!" Ben had shouted at the top of his lungs, over the loud music playing, snapping Bad out of his thoughts. He jumped back a bit, startled by the new set of loud noises. "Uhm...?" He started, making an attempt to actually remember who Benny was. Good Cop spoke up.   'Remember when we were stuck at th' tower? 'N all the Master Builders escaped, buddy?' Bad Cop thought back. He did remember a blue-clad astronaut among the other Builder's. "Vaguely." He mumbled to Good, just enough to where the music drowned it out. Benny tilted his head a bit when he noticed that he had said something. "Hmm? You gotta speak up, dude, it's LOUD IN HERE!" Bad Cop shook his head in annoyance and opened his mouth to repeat himself, but next thing he knew Benny was already off on another tangent. "Hey! I just wanted to thank you for letting me build a spaceship last week! It really meant a lot!" The confused cop made sure to speak up this time. Benny was right, it WAS loud in here. "'m not th' one you should be thankin'! Good was the one who-"   "OH, YEAH!" Benny had interrupted, "Unikitty and I wanted to know how Good Cop was doing!" Bad flinched. "He's f-fine." He mumbled, forgetting that the music automatically drowned it out.   "WHAT?!"   "I said he's FINE, Ben!" He just about screamed that.   "OH-KAY!"   Unikitty felt as though it was her turn to speak, just trying to keep Benny from being in the hospital due to possible death by chair. "I'm so glad you could join everyone, Bad Cop! I was kinda worried you'd miss the party!" The only response she got was a quiet grumble from the cop standing in front of her. "C'mon Mr. Grumpy Pants! Lighten up a little and come dance!"   Man Upstairs, why does everyone want him to dance so bad?! "No, thank you. Not happenin'."   Unikitty raised one eyebrow and put on a fake innocent smile. "I bet Good Cop would come out and dance!" This caused her to receive a glare from Bad Cop, which was hidden behind his aviators. So Unikitty's expression didn't falter in the slightest. "He doesn't wan' t' come out right now."   Unikitty's smile disappeared, and was soon replaced by an expression of 'the opppsite of happiness'. "Okay... I won't pressure you anymore, sorry!" Bad Cop sighed in relief. As the two Master Builders went to the other end of the snack table, where all the cookies and cake and cookie cakes where. Something told Bad that the last thing those two needed was more sugar.   'B-Buddy?'   "Hmm?" Bad Cop had responded, quietly.   Good Cop had been silent for a few short moments. He did a mental inhale before saying,   'I want t' come out."   Bad Cop froze for a few short seconds.   'Bad?'   "I heard you." He looked out across the sea of dancing Master Builders and 'Party Animals' as Unikitty called them You really wan' t' come out?"   'Yeah. I haven't... been out... much.'   Bad Cop sighed. "I know." He looked back over at Unikitty and Benny before calling for them.   They were in a smaller, separate room. A dress up room. With a mirror and a large closet stuffed with party costumes.   "You wanted t' know how Good was doing?" The cat and spaceman nodded. "You look a little nervous, Bad Cop, is everything alright?" Benny was the first to ask. Bad Cop had been gripping at his shirt with his right hand, left on his cheek. "'M fine. It's jus' that he hasn't been out in public much since..." He stopped himself there.   'Bad, I'll be okay... breathe.'   "Bad Cop you don't have to do this if you don't want to. Not if it makes you uncomfortable." Unikitty reassured. Gosh darn it, why were these two being so nice to him? It's a question he hadn't even thought of asking, he's been so distracted with literally everything else.   A new song had started up and could be heard from through the walls.     Even if it makes me blind     I just want to see the light     Breath in, leave it all behind     I just want to see the light   Unikitty's expression changed from concern to excitement in a matter of milliseconds. She squealed with delight. "Ah! This is my favorite song! C'mon Benny!" And with that she ran out the door, the spaceman following. Ben turned back around to face the nervous Cop. "Hey, just chill, dude! You'll be okay. If not, just give us a shout!" And he left.   A shout. Right.   He turned to look at the mirror, taking his hand off his cheek, other hand still gripping at his shirt. It was a good thing that he had been wearing a normal button up shirt rather than his leather police uniform, or those wrinkles he was creating would've been there forever.   "You sure you wan' t' go through with this?"   Good Cop's only reply was a simple word.   'Yes.'   Next thing Good Cop saw was his scribbled face in the mirror. He was starting to have second thoughts.   'You don' have t' do this if you don' want t', you know this, right?'   Good noted Bad's repetition of Unikitty's words. He shook his head.   "I need t' work on my social skills jus' like you do." He laughed a bit, making a light-hearted joke to ease the anxiety between the two. Good Cop stopped laughing and took deep breaths before walking out of the room and into the main party hall. He felt his heart skip a beat as he took one step foward, then another. Some partygoers had started to notice him, and the room went quiet, save for the loud music and chatting of people who were clueless to what was happening. Good Cop's heart started to race, which Bad Cop took note of.   'Good, calm down.'   He could hear comments about his face, and more and more comments about his presence overall.   'Stay calm.'      'Ew, what happened to his face?' 'Wasn't he the one that destroyed Cloud Cuckooland in the first place?' 'He's probably just here to spy on us, so we can just do this whole shebang all over again.' 'Business better not have followed him here.'   That name. Business. Good Cop started to focus on that name.   'Good, breathe in n' out. You're not breathing, Good! Snap out of it!'   He was right. He couldn't breathe. He was frozen to the spot like a deer in headlights. Why couldn't he move? He could've moved if he wanted to but-   Emmet was walking over. Wyldstyle, Metalbeard. Why were they walking over? He tried to hide his face, arms merely twitching. Emmet walked up to him. "Heh, hey, uh Good Cop? Everything all right there, pal?" He placed a hand on the cop's shoulder, which caused him to step back. He opened his mouth to say something, but couldn't find a lie to tell him. Bad Cop was so much easier at lying to people's faces, gosh, why couldn't he?     He closed his eyes and held his head, blocking out any noises around him. Man Upstairs, if he could just move he could run back into the room. Why couldn't he move?!   He opened his eyes. Presi- No. It was Lord Business. He was wearing his Power Suit and everything. His helmet, his cape, his boots. Where did he get them?! He had told everyone he had gotten rid of it. Good Cop's eyes went wide as he started spitting out apologizes left and right, hoping he wouldn't punish them again.   He didn't mean to let the Special get away, it was that darned Master Builder's fault. Business said something, which Good Cop couldn't seem to make out. Robots came over. He felt hands grab his shoulders, cold and firm, and he desperately thrashed about to get away, eyes glued shut. Through much struggle he pulled his arm free and clocked whoever he could reach. The hands leg go. After several short moments, he opened his eyes to where Business had been standing, ready to apologize once more for punching one of his robots. Although, when he opened them...   He was still at the party. Metalbeard- goshdarn his size- was standing in place of where Business was, Benny to his left, holding his nose, blood dripping from it and down his chin, under where his space helmet had cracked, Wyldstyle and Emmet at his side. Oh.   Oh no. Oh no, no, no.   He could hear Bad Cop shouting at him.   'SNAP OUT OF IT! IT'S NOT REAL, GOOD!!'   Good Cop shook his head. His mind cleared. The whole room had gone into shock, only the music left playing. The cop just stared with wide eyes. He didn't want this to happen. Why did this happen?! All he wanted was to be more outgoing than he had been. All of this was just a mistake. Mistake. Suddenly, he could breathe easily again, though he felt as though the room had been getting smaller. Metalbeard leaned over to him and said, as quiet as he could, which isn't very, "Ye be alright, laddy?"   And there they were.   Tears. Tears had started to fall down Good's face, mixed with the ink of his eyes and mouth, staining the shirt he had been wearing. Everyone stopped short and took a step back, allowing him some room. Darn it all, first he clocks Ben in the face, causes a scene, then cries in front literally every Master Builder? Bad Cop would have his head, if they didn't share the same one, for showing all this vuberability of the two. Biggest mistake of Good Cop's life, considering he felt awful bad for everything that had happened in the span of 5 minutes. Benny looked up, ignoring his now broken face (he could worry about that later), and floated over to Good Cop, who was doing his best to hold in sobs.   "Hey, man? Are you okay?"   That was all Benny had to say before Good let it all out. These people really cared about him and he just didn't understand why. His legs gave out and was soon on the floor, crying inky tears into his white (now gray) shirt and onto the floor. Unikitty must have noticed because the music had been shut off. Everyone stood still looking in the direction of where Good Cop had been sobbing. The room was absolutely silent now, save for the few hiccuping sobs coming from the cop.   Good had made an attempt to reach out to Bad, considering he needed him now more than ever. But he received no response from his other half.   Everyone had been staring. Good Cop expected them to laugh, to use these weaknesses against him and Bad. But they just stood there, concern across everyone's faces. Emmet exchanged glances with Benny. No one knew what they should be doing. They had never seen the two like this. Emmet had walked over to him on the floor and sat down. He said nothing and put his hand on the cop's back, starting to rub it. He looked back at the crowd with an expression of 'This doesn't leave this building', then back to Good Cop with sad eyes. He had gone quiet, save for the occasional hiccups. Emmet didn't know how long he sat there, Benny didn't realize how much blood had gotten on his suit, and Good Cop didn't realize how many were staring.   Bad Cop had finally spoke up through the silence of their mind.   ''m sorry.'   Good Cop wanted to say something back, but his throat had felt like it'd closed up.   He couldn't say anything. He didn't know what to say anyway, so it wouldn't make a difference.   ''m sorry.' Bad Cop repeated.   'I knew you were too nervous t' go out there. I shoulda stopped you.'   Good Cop took in a breath. "I-I'm okay." He said with a shaky breath, both to Bad Cop and the crowd around him. Bad just about screamed.   'Good, you're NOT OKAY. YOU'RE ON TH' FLOOR, STAININ' YOUR SHIRT. I THINK THAT'S A WEE BIT FAR FROM 'OKAY'.'   He tried to stand up. He needed to escape. To leave. To forget this ever happened. He was embarrassing himself. Emmet and Unikitty helped him onto his feet, his gaze locked to the floor, finding the little bit of space between each brick in the makeup more exciting then what had been currently happening. Once he had gotten to his feet, he crowd began to mumble things under their breaths. Good Cop refused to look away from the floor, hands covering his face. "Good Cop? You feeling better?" Benny had asked him. Through his hands, he responded with, "'m f-fine." He lied. "I- I jus' wanna leave."   "Okay. Unikitty and I'll see you out, i-if that's o-okay?" The cop nodded and started out the door. The spaceman looked back at Emmet, Wyldstyle and Metalbeard, as a way to say, 'Everything's okay,' and allow them to resume the music.   Good Cop had already been in the car he drove to the party, which is actually the opposite of what you would expect him to drive. It wasn't a police cruiser, more of a normal everyday car, one much like what Emmet would drive. Benny had floated over with Unikitty and found the cop sitting in the passenger seat. Although, it had been Bad Cop who had taken over, mumbling quietly to himself. The vehicle had been dead silent, but the two still couldn't make out what he had been saying.   Benny opened the driver door. Before he could open his mouth to say something- "Get in. Both 'f you." Bad Cop had demanded. Although the Master Builders were confused, they got in anyway, Benny, in the driver's seat, Unikitty in the back seats. "What are w-"   "You're drivin', Ben." Bad Cop informed him, looking away. Benny said nothing, gripped onto the steering wheel and started the car.   The cops had lived a long ways away, and the ride had been silent, save for occasional mumbling and grumbling from Bad Cop, the spaceman barely able to make out what he had been saying. Apologies, how much he hated how bright C3 was, the sort. Benny looked at Unikitty in the rear mirror. She had been looking out the windows, a bit of a bored, yet regretful expression on her face. The blue astronaut put his eyes back on the road, remembering that he needed to be more careful with this car and not cause a crash. After all, there were two things it wasn't: his, and a spaceship.   He took a look at the car radio. He hadn't noticed how quiet this ride was until he took a glance at the buttons and bells and whistles to his right.   "'m sorry all this happened, Good." Bad Cop whispered under his breath.   ''s okay.'   "No, it's not okay. We shoulda given you more time t' recover. All this is my fault 'n 'm sorry."   'It's not your fault.'   The two stayed quiet after that. Benny spoke up, breaking the two from their conversation. "Bad Cop?"   He grumbled.   "Look, I-I'm really sorry that happened to you, dude." He meant more than just the party incident. "But, if you ever need to talk to someone about this, we're your buddies, man, we'll listen to anything you gotta say."   Buddies. Right.   "Emmet, Wyldstyle, Uni and I, even Batman-" Unikitty shook her head. "Okay, maybe not Batman," he still had that whole tax evasion thing going on, "but everyone else, we'll be here for you okay?"   Bad Cop said nothing. It was a few more minutes of silence before Unikitty whispered something to the astronaut, just enough to where the cops couldn't hear. It would've made a difference anyway, he hadn't been listening to anything but the sounds of the engine running.   "Could I play some music? I think it could get your mind off things for the night." Ben asked.   Bad Cop shrugged. "Sure, but we're almos' there anyway. It's jus' about fifteen minutes."   Benny rolled his eyes. "C'mon, dude I'm trying to help you out here. Look, I'll try to see if I can find, like, an 80's music station or something."   After about a minute, Bad Cop heard a song playing. "Oh, my gosh! I love this song!" Benny shouted. A few seconds in, Unikitty perked up from the back and agreed. Bad Cop listened to the lyrics as Benny and Unikitty sang, quite bad, if you wanna put it politely.     I stopped an old man along the way   Hoping to find some long forgotten words or ancient melodies   He turned to me as if to say, "Hurry boy, it's waiting there for you"   Bad Cop recognized this song. It had been a song he and Good always started road trips off with. It was never an official trip without it. The chorus came along.   It's gonna take a lot to take me away from you   There's nothing that a hundred men or more could ever do   Benny and Unikitty had been singing at almost the top of their lungs (not enough to bother Bad Cop), that they almost didn't notice the quiet, slightly slurred voice that had joined in.   Keyword: 'Almost'.   I bless the rains down in Africa   Gonna take some time to do the things we never had   Benny and Unikitty shut up before he was finished singing the second half of the chorus. Good Cop noticed that it had been unusually silent from them, despite the song still playing. He looked over, revealing his still-runny-inked face, which didn't seem to phase either of the Master Builders. Benny had a huge grin on his face, almost literally stretching from ear to ear and Unikitty's eyes were sparkling like they've never sparkled before. "See? I told you you'd feel better with some music! Just some singing and you're back in the groove of things!" The cop made an attempt to pretend that he didn't know what he was talking about. Of course, Benny wasn't believing it.   "You should sing more often!" Unikitty cheered. Good Cop's face flushed at the compliment, which was very crontrasting to the ink smears that made it up. Bad Cop quickly switched in, their head spinning around. "Th-Thanks, but we jus' wanna get home n' forget that tonight ever happened." After that, he quickly fell silent again, Benny and Unikitty still grinning.   The song ended and another began.   Darling you got to let me know   Should I stay or should I go? They had soon arrived at the cops' apartment complex in Bricksburg. Bad Cop jerked a bit in his seat and looked up out the front window. He groaned and put his face in his hands. "Ugh, 'm sorry, I didn't even consider th' fact that you both need a ride back." Unikitty got out of the car through... the window. "Pssh, it's okay Bad Cop!" Benny undid his seatbelt and turned off the car, opened the door and soon floated right out like a balloon. "Yeah! I have a spaceship hangar close by, dude! I have them all over the universe just in case!" Bad gave him a look through his hands before promptly placing them in his lap. "It's only been a week. How've you had time t' build so many spaceships in seven days?" Benny looked nervous.   "W-Well, I never said that..." He waved his hands. "ENOUGH ABOUT THAT. Look, dude, Unikitty and I'll find a spaceship to take back to Cuckooland. And again, remember, that the rest of the Master Builders and us are here if you need to talk to anyone about anything okay?" He handed the cop a phone number. In messy handwriting, it read:      The DOG          270-4730   Bad Cop nodded. "G'night, Ben. Unikitty."   "Good night, Bad Cop. Tell Good Cop 'night for us too!" Unikitty responded.   Their apartment. That old, messy apartment. The one Business had reserved for them while under his rule. After TAKOS Tuesday, it had become more and more filthy and dirty. Bad Cop didn't mind, he had a place for everything, but Good Cop hated it.   He walked into the bathroom. The mirror, which desperately needed a cleaning (Man Upstairs, give him a day off to clean this place), showed his face, his tired, tired face. It then switched to a scribbly face, ink stains running down the cheeks and chin.   'D' we need to fix it?'   "... yeah."   ''m still sorry about what had happened back at 'Kitty's place.'   "'S not your fault."   'I know.'   It had been about a month later. Bad Cop had been sitting in his police office and Business payed him a visit, another attempt to apologize for Good Cop. Gosh, he wanted to punch him. However, by a cruel miracle, he was still the president, and the cops knew all too well that if you threaten the President, you threaten your life. No matter if he's 'reformed or not' (extra claw quotations around reformed). After the president had left, Bad Cop grabbed the nearest, replacable object he could, and gripped it as hard as possible. It broke. It was a ceramic dog, much like one that you would buy for $2 at an arts and crafts store and paint it yourself. A gift from Emmet. The ears, paws, and tail were blue and pink, while the rest was orange. The colors contrasted a bit, but Bad Cop didn't mind. He felt awful for what he did to it though, but then again, you shouldn't give anything breakable like that to Bad Cop.   He cleaned off his hand, pieces from the dog making his hand white from the powdery material, and rainbow colored from the paint.   He sat there a moment, recollecting his thoughts before looking over at a strip of paper taped to his computer monitor. He contemplated something for a few quick moments.   He picked up his phone and dialed the number.   It rang a few times before a cheery voice picked up on the other end.   "Hello?"   "Hello, Ben. Sorry t' bother... but I need t' vent." 

[imagine-fairytail-dorks-blog]

Can I ask for Lyon Vastia getting confessed by girl from his guild.

Makes dramatic pose* YES YOU CAN ! ~

also apologies i think he’s a bit ooc ;A; i tried.

 Lyon:

Six years ago from now, Lyon and some of his guild comrades had gone on a mission to extinct the current local dark guild  out of a neighboring town; something you begged the mayor of said county more than a hundred times to supply aid for the citizens, often enduring a reprising time living in the fear of those who inculted it: often stealing their savings or food, menacing of blackmail or similar criminal acts. You, being a sole mage from a small group of wizards who surely had not much experience fighting said people nor combat or magic skills would rpove fruitless no matter how many times, even in the shadows, you tried to help the villagers. After all, in such a small town, almost a village, with little insight or instruction in magic what could you do?

Although that fateful day, 6 years ago, in that current timeline, you had the miraculous luck to be bestowed with Lamia Scale’s guild members crossing the town while heading back to their own formerly from an earlier mission. They had just stopped by aa local petite restaurant, filling up their stomachs after a well fought battle against a small monster in some nearby city as well, and you had the chance to witness their prowess upon a pair of underlings of the dark guild trying to force them to spill their belongings out to them.

Such strength which came out and repelled them easily however was what astounded you, but even more the beautiful magic which came in the form of crystalled water from a partiucarly unusual young man. nevertheless, it’s not difficult to guess you asked for their help on defeating the dark guild, which they succeeded and brought you to the decision of leaving the town and joining the lamia scale guild as well.

Leading us to the current timeline, and hesitant event you were about to unfold.

Now, you were particularly close to the god slayer’s cousin Sherry Blendy, being therefore however a rival of Cheria’s unrequited love for the ice mage, ever since the day he helped out with your hometown. Although cautious as you were, you tried to hide your feelings well around the guild members not wishing to stir up a fire which was not caled for and would prove to be difficult to light off, since after all even with other love rivals Chelia proved to be quite persistent and vicious, even if it was unrequited by either parts, as seen in the grand magic games.

However your hesitancy could also add to the earlier scenarios you proved witness to some occasions before and after the grand magic games: the ice mage seemed infatuated enough with Fairy tail’s water mage and that alone was enough to make you reconsider not confessing and leaving things as they were, not wishful to break your friendship with the ice mage as well as create a weird ambience within the guild. Although as far as it went, even Yuka, who was a great friend of Lyon could honestly notice how you felt towards the ice mage and even told you beforehand that Lyon had given up on that mage from fairy tail, in hopes of you making a move.

Truth be told though, nerves were getting to you well, as you kept eyeing from the corner of the walls at the imponent and almost intimidating figure of the mage from behind the scenes. You were hoping that whatever topic he was hitting off with Yuka and Toby could be cleared out quickly since going there by yourself amidst it, specially with the other two watching it all unfold would cause clear suspicions and look utterly obvious for what goal that was(!).

Do I go, or not? Do I go, or not?

“ Oi, ____. ”

You swore you had almost jumped 3 whole meters into the air once you felt a familiar hand touch your shoulder and a sickeningly sweet voice (at least in the heart of a enamored person it would seem) approach you as your back was turned to the main hall, frame still enveloped in the shadows of the room; teeth clattered and figure shaked with nervosity before you turned to face the ice mage painfully slowly, like a robot, your lips quivering to make a coherent sentence, your tone fearful.

   " H-h-h-hai? “

   ” why are you hiding behind this wall? you’ve been doing this for the past 20 minutes or so Yuka told me. You wanna tell me something? “

If your inner spirit could come out and strangle Yuka, specially with that ill grin of his staring back at both of you from behind, he would’ve dropped dead by now. Figuratively. You cursed inwardly at the anti-mage.

     KONOYARÕ!!!!*

Oh well, ______. You gotta thoughen up, prove them you’re no chicken and clear this once and for all goddammit!

” huh…well, right. Could i take you a minute of your time, Lyon-san? just.. the two of us, please?“

For a flash of seconds you could’ve seen the furrow of Lyon’s brows: most probably bdue to your constant use of that suffix when he told you hundreds of times to drop it, but he payed no mind to such at the moment, opting to instead follow your demise (although you could almost swear you had seen a hint of scarlet fading from his cheeks), thus opting for a more private setting of the building, as you climbed upstairs and occupied one of the currently vacant rooms of the guild.

Once inside, you promptly closed the door behind you allowing the ice mage to take a comfortable spot ( completely oblivious to the event that was about to take place, as he so comfortably sat upon a nearby chair ), his gaze seemingly impatient and reprehensive, his arms crossed as well as his legs; although his gaze did not leave your form even for a bit.

” So? what is it that you’ve been wanting to speak to me about? “

Averting your gaze to the side for once, and then changing it to the floor, gluing your (e/c) hues to the curiously brownish tone of it (which was not even remotely funny or interesting but you were beyond nervous to care!) you tried to project your voice as clear and reasonably loud as possible.

   ” Lyon-san… what I am about to say…. No matter the outcome I don’t want you to get upset at me or to break your friendship with me….okay? “

Those words issued a more careful gaze of the ice mage, as his lips parted lightly with surprise and an expression of puzzlement as well as contempt, hesitant to listen to what was about to come, although he deduced he could trust in you and what you were about to say.

   ” …I can’t promise something I don’t know if I can do depending in what you’ll say but …I think I can trust you, so sure go ahead. “

  You gulped deeply and dryly, braincells trying to put up together words and sylabbles before you had to echo those embarrassing and so sickeningly common and out of originality phrases you had countless times watched in movies and read in books, deep with feeling and aim. Trying not to go out of track or short of breath, your cheeks tinted with the most riped shade of red you could honestly feel yourself becoming hotter by the second and that was something you honestly tried to withstand while also hesitantly aiming to the  silver haired mage’s gaze.

  ” the…..the thing is… I… since a long time…have been

     in love with you.

Ever since I joined this guild that is…“

A deafening silence installed in the room, and you looked away from the ice mage fearing the worst, biting your lips as you tried to contain everything in; your body facing backwards the door, you were alrady boiling with emotions , considering this a bad decision and wishing the floor to suck you whole.

Although it did take you by surprise as the mage’s body was suddenly drawn to yours, your much more shorter form being held by strong arms; you dared to glance upwards wide-eyed, and witnessed a likewise state as the male was jaw dropped, cheeks flushed and holding the most adorable smile you had ever seen - comparable to a child’s in a snowy morning.

” You mean to tell me ….You have been feeling the same and never told me about it?! “

” WHY DID YOU HIDE THIS FROM ME FOR SO LONG, ___?! I COULD’VE MADE YOU MY GIRLFRIEND SOONER THAN THIS! “

A fit of chuckles escaped your lips happilly as you realized this dork you had fallen in love with had actually reciprocated your feelings. And here you thought you’d be flat out rejected, such a relief and such happiness you felt at the same time, you could not avoid but to actually engage in his antics.

It was not needed to say, the next hour you were climbing downstairs with Lyon hand in hand; and the wholesome of the guild cheering you on, as well as a defeated Cheria also accepted her destiny, to leave her precious ice mage to you.

_______________________________

NOTES:*konoyaro = you bastard! - often used in a light insulting way.

[d00mbunnie]

Together again. chapter 1

I finished the writing weeks ago but, I took forever editing it because I decided part way through to change the story from past tense to present tense. this fic takes place after ff7 so they’re are spoilers. I can’t wait for the next installment of the game so I made a fic about what happens next.

We stood at the edges of Midgar waiting for someone to say something. Cloud spoke first

           “I think the best idea is to split up into two groups. It’ll be harder to track us that way.”

           “I dunno.” Barret says scratching his chin, “wouldn’t we be stronger together?”

           I was too tired and worried to argue. Either way works for me, both plans had merit. I stood looking up into the vast pink sky. Even at the outskirts I could hear the planet much louder. I knew the time had come to face my fears no matter how hard I try  I couldn’t avoid the future.

           “What do you think?” Tifa taps me on the shoulder.

           “oh.” I turn around to face everyone, “I think either is fine, but before we start shouldn’t we pick a leader.”

           “that’s already been decided.” Barrette says and smiled at everyone, “Of course that’s”

           “Cloud!” Tifa interjects, “he’s clearly the best person to do this.”

           Barrette frowns and crossed his arms, “Well I guess…”

           It was obvious it would be cloud, even if you didn’t know what would happen next.

           “so, who’s going with who?” I ask cheerfully.

           “I think you should stay with me, Aerith.” Cloud tells me his face was as stoic as ever but there was something different this time in his eyes. Concern or maybe it was it was sadness it’s always hard to tell what he’s thinking exactly.

           I smile, “Sure no problem. I’ll be okay if I have my bodyguard with me.”

           “I think red should come too. It’d be better if I could keep you too from being recaptured again.”

           “I can take care of myself just fine.”  Red-XIIII snorts.

           “I’m fine with just me and Tifa.” Barrette adds, “But where are we headed.”

           “We should split off and take two separate ways to Kalm the nearest town to Midgar. There we can resupply and ask around for any information about the area, who’s been through town. How dangerous the surrounding area is maybe even earn some money for the supplies we need.”

           “Sounds good.” Says Tifa, “we’ll take the western path and you take the longer southern path…it’ll be easier for Barrette and myself to take the shorter way.”

           Cloud Nods in agreement, “It shouldn’t take longer than a day to get there.”

           I wave good bye as Tifa and Barrette walk into the west. Red stands by my side, cloud a few yards away looking toward the south. He seemed lost in thought. Red spoke first.

           “It’ll be alright, Aerith.”  Red-xIII says comfortingly, “it may seem overwhelming at first, but you’ll get used to it. In fact, I think you’ll come to like it. There are so many wonderful things outside of Midgar.”

           “I know.” I say as I pat Red’ on the head, “Still it’s going to take some time to get used to hearing it.”

           “hearing what.” Red asks he looks like a sad puppy.

           “the planet.” I reply softly then walk over to cloud.

           “You ready?” Cloud asks looking at me if he was unsure of what to say.

           I push down the noise do my best to smile, I don’t want to worry him we’ve got a long walk, battles a head, there are still monsters roaming free, shinra will soon gather their forces and come after us. I don’t need to give our new leader something to stress about. So, I’ll do my best to be cheerful.

           “Ready!” I lift my hand up to giving him a high five. His face lightens and he slaps my hand back.

           We walk at a steady pace barely talking to each other Cloud walks a few feet a head of Red and I. His Amazingly blue eyes taking in every detail. His shoulders were tense and ready for whoever or whatever would jump out. Only a few wolves ever bothered us. They were easy enough to defeat. They ran away easily enough if you cast a fire spell. By midday I felt I should finally speak up.

             “Shouldn’t  we take a little break?” I ask.

           Cloud looks over his shoulder, surprised by the sudden break in the long silence.

           “Sure, why not?” He ssays and took his huge sword off his back and sat on a nearby rock.

           Red-XIII stretches his back then paces in a circle till he finally lays down with his head resting on his front paws. He yawns loudly and shuts his eyes. I Tuck my skirt underneath me and sat down on the green grass next to cloud. The sky was full of clouds, bright blue, the sun blazed in the summer sky. I turn to cloud and smile.

           “Too bad we didn’t have time to pack something to eat.” I sigh, “this is the perfect spot for a picknick.”

           “Not exactly the time for a picnic.” Cloud says, his stomach grumbling, “But something to be eat would be pretty good. Too bad we had to leave so quickly without getting supplies.”

           “Yeah, Kinda hard to pick up a sandwich or two when we’re wanted criminals.” I say looking down at my old boots.

                       “I’m hungry too.” Red-XIII adds, “I haven’t had a decent meal in ages. All Hojo fed me was dog kibble.”

           “Oh! How horrible!” I exclaim, “How long has it been?”

           “Months, at least I imagine.”  Red-XIII saiys without opening his eye.

           “Why don’t you go hunt something up then?” Cloud suggests a little annoyed. Maybe his hunger was getting to him.

           Red snorts but adds nothing more to the conversation. Perhaps he was too tired or maybe he just knew there was nothing edible to his species, whatever that was, around here. I scan the area; it was mostly grass land with a few bushes and even fewer flowers. It was greener than Midgar but still too close to be really fertile. I heard there were farms closer to Kalm, but nothing in this area. It was when my stomach was growling loudest that I notice one of the bushes had fruit. I quickly stand up and skip over hoping my eyes weren’t lying to me. They weren’t, it ‘s a blueberry bush. It’s early in the season for blue berries, but with all the Mako reactors close it might mess with the cycle of the plants close to Midgar that managed to live. I pluck one of the berries at tasted it. The berry is sweet and tart if not a little smaller than average.

           “Cloud, Red!” I shout as I turned around to wave at them. “I found blue berries!”

           Red’s ears perk up, then he opens his eyes. He walks over, cloud following him.

           “My nose must be broken to not smell something that close.” He says sniffing the air towards the bush.

           “Finally, something to eat.” Cloud says grumpily, “I thought I’d have to wait till we got to Kalm.”

           I hand a bunch to Cloud. He eats the handful in one mouth full. His angry expression slowly fades, I give him some more. I begin picking some for Red-XIII, but he goes straight for the bushes skillfully plucking them off with his cat like lounge. I wonder is Red-XIII a canine or a feline? Perhaps neither? He looks so much like a little lion to me.

           We were all starving. I couldn’t remember the last time I ate. Maybe when I was at shinra headquarters maybe it was even before that when I was at wall market. That was the last time I really had a rest. I couldn’t sleep in the lab no matter how hard I tried.

           When Cloud was finally satisfied, he speaks up, “We should probably get going now. The others are probably close to kalm now.”

           “oh!” I cover my mouth and giggle, Cloud has blueberry on his lips, “let me help you.”

           I took my thumb and whipped the corner of his mouth. He pullsback my touch, surprised, “let me help you it’s all over your mouth” I wiped the rest away. His skin is soft, smooth, and well shaven. He blushes the entire time.

           “Now your presentable.” I tell him.

           “thanks.” Cloud mutters and turns away.

           I guess he’s not used to people touching him. Even with Tifa he never gets too close.

           “do I have any on me.” Red-XIII asks.

           “Nope. You’re perfectly clean.” I said as I pat red’s head.

           “your hands are covered in it though.” Red begins  licking my blue fingers. His lounge was definitely like a cat's rough and dry. He cleans my hands not thinking that washing someone else with your mouth was odd. I smile at him and say “thanks”

           We begin walking. When are about a hundred yards from the blue berry bushes we hear a cry, “you’re gil or your life!” I grip my staff tightly, ready for action cloud is  already dashing towards the man, no three men who have come out of hiding from some scraggly shrubbery up a head. It became all too clear who these three were.

           “not them again.” I cry as a I rush after cloud.

           “you know these people?” Red asks running by my side

           Burke, Brute and Butch stood on the spot froze. They are whispering to each other, but we could all hear them.

           “Do you really try this again?” Cloud asks loudly his giant sword at the ready.

They did not reply or move an inch. Red got close enough to sniff them but still they did not move. The must have left the city hoping to rob people fleeing from it. Red-XIII snorts.

           “they smell of cowardice,” He growls, “and urine.”

           Their eyes go wide when they hear red speak, then they immediately fell down and act  like they are dead.

           “that was unexpected.” Red say as he sits on one of them and licks his paw.

           Cloud rolls his eyes then puts his sword on his back with ease. “I’ve had enough of this.” He walks on the head of butch or maybe it brute. I do my best to nimbly jump over them.

           When were just dots on the horizon I see the three get up and run towards Midgar. Hopefully that’ll teach them not to steal, but somehow, I doubt it.

           It takes another 3 hours to finally make it to the outskirts of Kalm. Farm land comes into view, then the farms themselves and a nice paved road that leads directly into Kalm. Once we hit the road old green trucks roll by, slowing down as they go past, a child in one over them waves at me. I wave back. I felt at ease as the blue shingled roofs of the town come into view.  I know there will be a roof over my head, a soft bed to sleep in, and a proper dinner tonight. I also know we are going to listen to cloud’s story. I know how hard it is for him to talk about himself. Still as painful as it must be, I want to know more about cloud. I wish I could ask more about the happy times, but not tonight. Tonight, we learn about Sephiroth.

           We talk very little as we enter Kalm. Red-XII sniffs things, he isn’t very trusting of the new place, but it doesn’t seem to  upset him to be there. He too must be happy to be free of Hojo.

           “This is the place.” I point to the sign that says Kalm inn, “looks cozy doesn’t it?”

           “Mmhm.” Cloud nods and surveys the area, “the others must be inside already.”

           “I smell them on the door.” Red said, his tail swishes behind him.

           “You been here before?” Cloud asks me

           “No.” I lie, or is it the truth, if you go back in time does that mean you haven’t been there yet, but you have because you did in the future, “My mother has been here before though. They make nice pancakes in the morning.”

           “I like pancakes.” Red adds

           I push the door open a friendly man with black hair is standing at the counter, “Welcome” he says. Then he notices red, “No…n- pets allowed.” Red glares at the man then replies, “I’m not pet.”            

           “No wild beast either?”

           “I’m perfectly civil.” Red-XIII tells them man the sniffs around, “They’ve definitely been here.”

           “We’re looking for our friends. A tall black man with a gun for an arm and muscular women with dark brown hair.” I smile at the man; I don’t remember him having this problem last time.

           “Upstairs…” he eyes red but does nothing more to complain about him. I hope he doesn’t charge us extra.

           I start up the stairs but then turn on my heel. Cloud is at the bottom.

           “don’t worry! We’re all here now!” I smile as the up the stairs, Cloud trudging up behind me. This will be hard for Cloud, but I know if I can get the answers I need when can change the future.

[aurimeanswind]

“I Feel Like I’m Going Crazy”—Sunday Chats (3-26-17)

So, I was going to, for the third week in a row, write again about how I’m just horribly depressed and unhappy.

But I’m not going to. Not because I’m not, but because I am not a broken record. Good things happen in my life too, and even if I feel a little overwhelmingly depressed, it’s not all there is to me.

That, and as much as I appreciate all the texts and DMs reaching out after I post one of these things, I just can’t right now. Long day, long days ahead, and too much I need to focus on.

Thank you all, let’s talk about good things.

I Finished Zelda

I mean, there really isn’t much to this. I beat that Zelda game. I think my final time was around or close to 105-115 hours. It’s hard to tell on Switch, since it only gives you an idea of your time played, so I kind of had to track it in my head. It’s honestly incredible that all that time passed with such ease. Tales of Berseria, a game that I LOVED that came out this year took me 64-ish hours, and it felt like much longer. Zelda took me more time, and felt like much shorter.

I know the phrase of “it’s an easy 10″ has been thrown around a lot, and sure, yeah, but there is no easy 10. It’s a masterpiece, and when I review it, I’ll probably give it a 10 on our scale, but it’s not flawless. No game is without its flaws, but what Zelda sets out to do, and what it accomplishes along the way is something wholly unique that I have never actually see a video game do before. Ever.

And also that’s subjective. What that game did for me and for the way I look at and experience games is very much unique to my perspective. Other people I’m sure don’t like it as much as me, but for me, Breath of the Wild is probably the second best video game I have ever played. Second literally only to Person 4 Golden. And it’s close, which I never ever imagined I’d say ever in my life. But that’s also part of what’s so exciting. Games are changing and evolving and Zelda is a clear resultant of that. It’s a new benchmark and I can’t wait to see what people do from here out.

Whatever it is, it’s gonna be exciting as all hell.

Case Study Update

For folks who don’t know, I’ve been working on a new format of my video show called Alex Talks. It’s called Case Study.

It’s been a weird up and down with this show, and since my drive and passion had all but fallen away for doing video content, I had to find a way to bring that passion back. I decided to write a new first episode of this show that I am more passionate about. I wrote it on Persona 4.

It’s not good enough to encapsulate the feelings I have for that game. Nowhere near good enough, but the conclusion specifically really meant something to me. It was genuinely impossible for me to finish my cold read without it getting to me, and when I’ve written something that brings emotions out of me like that, I know I’ve done the thing write. And I say in the script that it’s impossible to really capture what the game did for me in one go at it.

I finished the script in three days, and it was over 3400 words. It’s in the editorial process right now, and I’ll probably chip away at it after I finish this, but when it’s ready I am gonna try and shoot it. Aiming to do so this Wednesday. I’m trying not to put a time constraint on it, since I want to take as much time as I need with it, but hopefully I’ll have it out before Persona 5. We’ll see. No promises.

It’s gonna look different so I have to do some test shoots. And I am probably going to go back to my old webcam to shoot it, and it probably won’t be on a green screen. We’ll see how it turns out.

What’s on Tap

Spectre of Torment

The only other thing besides Zelda I’ve been playing

STILL GOOD.

Zelda is really good you guys.

Questions

I used to be way into System of a Down. I know somewhere Tyler is laughing saying, out loud, “oh yeah, of course you were.” But I had this weird point in my life when I was into “metal”. I dug way into SOAD and Disturbed. And also Slip Knot? 

I mean, I was like 16 so of course. Like, what do you expect. But I stopped listening to them.

Honestly I still really like some Disturbed songs, but I’ve stopped listening to almost any and all guitar heavy music. Anything of that sound.

But the answer? I don’t know. That line never made any sense. I don’t think it had to.

Smash or Pass huh?

I waited until Nabeshin got to talk about it on the podcast, and it sounds like a hard pass. I was really fucking disappointed by Dragon Age 3, so I don’t know if I have it in me to have another Bioware series bummed down for me.

I have not, as mentioned above. I wanted to hear Nabeshin talk about it, which he did excellently on the podcast last night. It just sounds like a lot of the things I go to a Mass Effect for are absolutely not present.

And I’ve been playing nothing but SUPERB games all year, and I don’t know if I have time for a subpar one especially in a franchise that I have a very high regard to.

Seems like its a pass for now, but I may grab it on the cheap before the end of the year to at least know for myself.

Colin talks in pretty definitive sweeps, and while I don’t think he is wrong per sé, I think he himself knows that the pendulum swings all around. GiantBomb specifically living as long as it has tells me that there is still hope for all of us yet. Look at Glixel AND Waypoint, two absolutely fantastic video game websites that both sprouted up on 2016, thriving and growing. Not to mention stuff like UploadVR going big.

I think the big sites have a tough battle, trying to balance appealing to their niche, maintaining their appearance of girth, and also appealing to the largest common audience. That’s tough. All these little guys like Kinda Funny and Easy Allies and GiantBomb (none of which are strictly “little, either) have their audience that they have a relationship with and talk to. All of them are in some way subscription based. All of them do just fine.

I still think the Patreon bubble will burst at some point, but it’s going strong now, and I don’t think there is anything wrong, inherently, with that model. But the IGNs and the GameSpots might not be the same in the next few years. But I still think there are plenty of spaces to get hired into the industry and make really, really cool stuff.

But hey, everything will probably change in the next five years anyway. Think about it: when IP started, it was BEFORE streaming. We were on the ground floor with some of that stuff, and though we didn’t stick with it (when we totally should have) that just wasn’t around in 2010 when we began.

And the prize for most-creepiest Sunday Chats question goes tooooooooo

DAN JUAREZ

It’s not that easy. And I know that there was that reply to your tweet saying it is all about the money, but I just don’t think of it as strictly like that. Sure, it’s probably a big part of it. Microsoft wanted to make another Halo game, Bungie didn’t. They found someone to make a new Halo game. It probably wasn’t hard.

I think the better question we should be asking is who do we want to continue making these games? I think it really depends on who and what they’re doing it for.

I think of it in a lot of ways, but a big thing is if I were a creator in the games space, someone who had finally risen to a director, I’d want to get a crack at making a new entry in one of my favorite franchises. If the leads at 343 felt like they could tell a really cool story in the Halo universe with Master Chief, they were given the opportunity to do so, would you really ever turn that down? A big thing that gets left out of this conversation, criminally I think, is the fact that creators want to challenge themselves to surpass the work that comes before them. 

I’m a writer. I write every day. Every day I want what I write to be better than yesterday. Is it? No. So I keep writing and working every day. That’s a huge part as to why I still do this.

With that empathy in hand, I understand the need and want to make new stories, to build on what has come before, and to keep trying to iterate, even though sometimes we fail. So many amazing and talented teams went through the effort of creating not only worlds and cavalcades of lore, but mechanics, concepts, and design philosophies. Making new games not only challenges us on the story front, but also on the mechanical and design front. I don’t know personally, but I imagine that’s such an enticing and exciting idea to a developer.

I could go on and on about this, obviously, but also look at companies like Nintendo: they’ve iterated and reimagined the same concepts over and over again, and we still adore them. No two games in any of their franchises are quite the same. Except for the “New” Super Mario Bros games. And they’re a bummer. But think of all Nintendo has done with Mario alone. 

There is room to keep growing a franchise, but you need to have the right philosophy, and the right spirit behind it. But, it’s a complicated topic. Curious as to what you’re working on.

It’s probably the Lingering Will fight from Kingdom Hearts 2 Final Mix. Not only is that one of my favorite games ever, but that fight is intense and engaging in a way that only the best fights in that franchise are. And it’s hard as balls.

You can watch me attempt, and eventually beat the fight, here:

Part of what made that fight was the way it incorporated the combat mechanics of the game as a whole, and continued to challenge you to use them. It’s really fun and intense, and it totes the line of frustrating well. It never feels cheap.

On top of that, the Linger Will is this representation of the pain a character suffers through throughout an entire game in that franchise. It is the embodiment of Terra’s strength and determination. It’s a representation of the power that character stood for in his group of friends, and it’s really meaningful to that series as a whole, I think.

When you get that bit of lore and that bit of gameplay together just right, you can make something that is emotional and mechanical; that perfect serendipity.

Some of my other favorite boss fights do this too. Pretty much any and all of the bosses in Undertale, which also have the hook of being brilliant representatives of those characters. Roxas’s fight from Kingdom Hearts 2 Final Mix. Duke’s fight in Tales of Vesperia. The Sephiroth fight at the end of FF7. The list goes on.

I am drinking nothing right now. I had a lot of wine during the podcast last night so I am trying to not drink tonight.

Maybe some water?

Persona 4 is really good for this honestly. Honestly I don’t know. Maybe Breath of the Wild? Just because restarting that game and going in a different direction on a new play through would be super exciting.

Also: Tretris is great. But I get more from my games than gameplay. Sometimes emotion and gameplay can outweigh the other if they’re VERY good. For example, Breath of the Wild is so great on a gameplay level that few games can compete with it. But it’s really the balance of both that’s the best. See: Persona 4 Golden.

Tetris gets old after a while. It’s a game that’s great in short bursts though. Unpopular opinion I guess?

I have not! Should I? Jeff Gerstmann was talking it up on the Bombcast and it sounds pretty fun. I don’t know if I’m in the right mood for a weird and silly physics-y indie game right now, but is there more to that game than that? Going off everything I have heard, that’s all I’ve gleamed. But i’d give it a shot, for sure.

Too many for me to give a lick.

Wow, pressures on, huh?

I honestly don’t know. I don’t have a good answer for this. It’s gonna sound super dumb, maybe, but I go most of my days not feeling awesome, and not thinking I’m awesome, regardless of what other people think. I try and do things that I think are awesome though, and I try and challenge myself to be better and get better, and I think people are receptive to that.

I’ve also just been incredibly lucky. So, so, sooooo lucky. Being at the right place, at the right time. Talking to the right people, which has helped me leave more memorable impressions of folks, and so when I ask them to do stuff with me, them remembering who I am helps.

But bringing people together is basically impossible. I just ask, I try and be cognizant of being annoying, I try and engage with as many different people as possible, I try and be cool, I try and never get too worked up or excited to disappointed on the other end of things, and I be the best person I can be. Ask questions, dig deeper, hear the whole story.

I don’t think that’s advice, more of how I came to have so many amazing internet friends, like yourself Harold, and it’s worked for me so far.

Shoutouts

A massive shoutout to all the folks who have been super receptive to me bringing them on as guests for these next few podcasts. We are going to be short one Nabeshin for a few weeks to come, so all these great hosts who have been cool about me reaching out and inviting them on has been super great. Dustin, Cameron, Andrew, and more to be announced and revealed, all great people.

All the love to the amazing network of friends who I have gotten the opportunity to work with.

That’s it. It’s the end. I feel a little bit better, but not a lot. Staying strong. We out here.

Gonna go drink some water and get ready to podcast with Quinten Hoffman. Let’s goooooooo.