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peaceoutofthepieces · 4 years ago

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Sink Or Swim

tag list: @cleocc @feeling-kinda-so-so @hopelessromanticvirgo @dreamy-slytherin @adora8 @lockerfivethreefive @painfully-oblivious @poeticinemaa @jjustonemorething @saraben00 @wedarkacademia @coolguyssyndrome @hischbabe @suckerforsobbe @tayspots @starmansander @theah0lt @zoenneforever @invisibleme @chibibanane

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Monday, 12:03

Song: Petit Biscuit - Sunset Lover

Lucas scrambles out of his chair as soon as the teacher dismisses them, three minutes after the bell signals they should be allowed to leave. His stomach had started grumbling embarrassingly a few minutes into the class, and he’d tried to muffle it for the following half an hour. He’s pretty sure no one had noticed, though, or they’d at least been kind enough not to give him any funny looks, but he’d still spent the class with his head down, trying to ignore the vague dizziness there.

He may still be avoiding his father, just a little, and it may have led to him skipping out on breakfast.

He’s anxious now to get up and leave, shoving his books halfway into his bag and shaking it to get it zipped. He tosses the strap over his shoulder and cringes at the screech of his chair as he pushes it back under his desk. He shrugs his bag higher onto his shoulder and slips through the desks and lingering students to rush out the door, hand pressed to his stomach and taking a deep breath to stave off the small head rush. He only makes it two steps out of the door, however, before crashing into someone and stumbling back.

Hands reach out to steady him, one lightly taking hold of his arm, as a very familiar voice says, “Shit, sorry.”

Lucas whips his gaze up to find Jens standing in front of him, fixing his own backpack as he keeps his hand on Lucas’s arm until he steadies. He looks much the same as he had at the party, though he’s switched his tee and jacket combo out for a heavier red hoodie, still paired with tight blue jeans. His eyes are just as bright as they meet Lucas’s. When he takes Lucas in, a bright smile spreads over his face and Lucas’s heart flutters in recognition.

“Hey, Utrecht,” Jens says cheerfully. “Fancy seeing you here.”

“Uh,” Lucas stutters, head suddenly feeling lighter than before. Then he smiles slightly. “I would say the same, but honestly, I’m not that surprised. I’m starting to feel like you’re stalking me.”

It has the unexpected effect of making Jens blush. He rolls his eyes just the same, pulling a face at Lucas. “Says the one who went looking for me first.”

Lucas works very hard to not let a blush of his own form, but his cheeks feel a little warm. Still, he doesn’t really think he should be embarrassed. He’d seen Jens yesterday. Typing and stopping. Typing and typing and stopping again. He’d been trying to pluck up the courage to text the other boy, himself, when he’d first noticed it, and then Jens had stopped for longer, and Lucas had attempted to draft something. Had considered teasing him. Then the typing bubble appeared again, and he froze up. And waited. And nothing happened. “You weren’t that hard to find.”

Jens’s smile widens. “Neither are you, apparently. I’m surprised we never ran into each other before. Especially if you’re friends with Amber and Luca.”

Lucas huffs a small laugh, smirking. “I’m pretty sure Luca was trying to avoid letting me run into you, actually.”

“Yeah it did kind of seem like that, didn’t it,” Jens laughs. The sound sends warmth sweeping into Lucas’s stomach. “She’s just worried I’d steal you away. Which is fair enough, I guess.”

Lucas raises his brow, heart thumping a little faster. He’s a mess. “Why?”

“Well, I am kind of hoping to steal you away,” Jens grins, “as long as that’s okay with you.”

“Oh,” Lucas says, eloquently. He’s not sure what to make of that. Now that he’s completely sober, and stood in a crowded hallway, it doesn’t seem as easy to interact with Jens. He feels a little out of his element, and a little awkward, and a lot obvious.

Really, how is he supposed to react to that?

Jens’s face falls as a sudden insecurity seeps in. “Unless you already have plans, of course.”

Lucas’s eyes widen. “No,” he blurts, then gives a small, nervous laugh. “I mean—I mentioned how I don’t really have any friends, right?”

His heart melts as Jens softens. He looks different, in person, to what he does in the vlogs. There’s simultaneously a more aloof and gentler air about him, something about his presence that makes Lucas feel twitchy and comfortable all at once. It may possibly have something to do with the fact that he is both stunningly beautiful and surprisingly kind, all at once. It may have something to do with the way he looks at Lucas, like he’s something that actually should be seen.

“Then, do you want to come with me and hopefully change that? My friends can be dumb, but I think they’re smart enough to like you. Robbe will, at least, I think, and Aaron kinda likes everyone, and Moyo doesn’t show it as much but he’ll like you, too. Trust me.”

Lucas shouldn’t really trust him. Barely knows him. He wants to go with him all the same.

He really is a mess.

“Okay, Antwerp,” he waves a hand. “Lead the way.”

Jens grins and nods his head down the hall. Lucas turns around and follows him, sticking close as they wind through the mass of students. The corridor is alive with chatter, students lingering at lockers and bustling around them, but it doesn’t quite cover up the rumble of Lucas’s stomach. He stiffens just slightly, hoping, but Jens squints over at him, lips slowly curving up further. Lucas elbows his side and shushes him without looking over, though he stops walking. “I was actually going to go get some food in the cafeteria.”

Jens stops with him and raises a brow. “The cafeteria? Have you actually tried the cafeteria food?”

Lucas slowly shakes his head.

“Okay,” Jens snorts. “Let’s go then, I’ll tell you what’s safe and what isn’t.”

It’s an offer that sends Lucas’s heart fluttering, and he’s unable to stop his lips from twitching up in another smile. He has been having a rather uncomfortable time attempting to adjust to this new environment, and it feels a lot easier with Jens by his side. He’s too focused on how easily their steps sync up and how they’re so close their elbows keep accidentally bumping together to wonder if anyone’s looking at him. He wouldn’t even care if they were, not with how Jens is looking at him, with a bright and easy smile, posture relaxed and natural. He doesn’t hold any of the same tension as Lucas, none of the familiar fear, and it’s enough to have Lucas smiling back and allowing his own shoulders to droop. He has mentioned his inability to make friends a few times, and it had sat uncomfortably in his chest, but since Friday he’s felt a lot better about it. He has just known, since then. He had just been waiting for Jens.

Jens bumps their arms together purposefully as they slip into line in the cafeteria, nodding towards the hidden array of food. “To be honest, if it looks okay it probably is, but you’re still better getting one of the packaged sandwiches or something.”

Lucas nods to himself, figuring that’s probably his best option indeed, considering they’re a little late now and most of the acceptable options have already dwindled. He’s stuck between wanting to take it as the easy option and get out of here quickly or to prolong this moment alone with Jens. At least now he feels comfortable, and pleased, even with the nervous tickling in his stomach. He’d wanted nothing more than to wiggle his way into this friend-group, watching them at the weekend. He still wants it. He’s just a little more nervous than he thought he would be.

“Any specific recommendations?” Lucas thinks to ask as they near the counter. Most of the people in front of them are also going away with a sandwich packet, and a few are simply there for snacks, but there are the brave souls carrying trays with suspicious looking meats. There are more people than he expected buying lunch and settling at the many cramped tables, seemingly used to the raucous laughter and overlapping conversations and dull lights. It’s a bit too much to appear enjoyable, for Lucas, and he’s glad that Jens apparently isn’t a fan, either.

Jens shrugs. “Not really. I haven’t actually tried out much. It just depends on what you’re into.”

He smiles down at Lucas, casual, and Lucas can’t help the way his throat closes up. He knows it isn’t what Jens meant, but he can’t help but find a deeper implication there, a harder question to answer. He finds himself looking away as a flush crawls up into his cheeks and hopes Jens doesn’t notice.

When it’s their turn, he snatches up the first item he sets his sights on, in a sudden haste to escape. He only scrunches his nose up at the odd salad mixture slapped between the bread slices after he’s made his purchase and Jens is raising his brows at him, unable to hide his amusement. Lucas elbows him again.

Nerves tie a knot in his stomach as Jens finally leads him outside, and Lucas does his best to act clueless when he catches sight of the boy’s friends first. He falls slightly behind Jens and watches as Robbe takes notice of them, raising his hand in a slight wave.

Jens grins as he gets close enough to greet them, and Lucas lingers as Robbe shoots him a small smile and Moyo’s eyes trail over him, calculating. Aaron, however, is the one to tilt his head and speak to Lucas first, completely ignoring Jens as the boy nudges at his feet. “Hey, aren’t you that new guy Amber was talking about? From...Utrecht, or something?”

Jens rolls his eyes and succeeds at making space for himself on the bench next to Moyo, Aaron’s feet finally out of the way. “Lucas. I met him at the party on Friday. Lucas, this is Aaron, Moyo, and Robbe.” Jens points each of them out in turn, and Lucas does his best to seem like he doesn’t already know.

“So he’s who you ditched us for,” Moyo nudges his friend. He’s still considering Lucas closely, but his posture remains relaxed and there’s a slight upward curve to his lips. “And here I thought you were off hooking up.”

Lucas’s stomach clenches as Jens rolls his eyes, shaking his head at the comment as it bounces around in Lucas’s head. Of course, that option has disappeared at the revelation that Lucas is a guy. He shouldn’t be disappointed—he’s already more than aware of what the ‘norm’ is and how far he is from it.

Then Jens says, “Unlike our friend here–“ he juts a thumb at Aaron “–I don’t think it’s necessary to hook up with someone at every opportunity.”

Robbe snorts, but nods his head in agreement. “It’s true that Jens has more emotional tact than that.” At Moyo’s incredulous look up at him, he mends, “Most of the time.”

“He does?” Lucas can’t help asking, dubious.

Jens looks at him with his mouth dropped open in betrayal. “Hey. I thought we shared something special.”

Lucas very valiantly ignores the storm that kicks up in his stomach. “Belgian weed really just isn’t as good.”

Jens snorts, shaking his head at him as Moyo finally cracks a smile of his own. He slides along the bench, shoving Robbe’s feet away as he goes, and pats the newly created space between him and Jens. “Sit the fuck down and tell us what’s so special about you, then,” Moyo orders, and Lucas automatically obeys.

The space is smaller than he expects, and he finds himself thigh to thigh with Jens to leave a tiny gap next to Moyo as they twist around. Robbe and Aaron clamber off the table and round it to sit on the other side. When Moyo looks at him expectantly, he shrinks slightly in his seat. “Oh, there’s nothing actually special about me.”

“Amber and Luca think you’re cute,” Aaron offers, and Lucas can’t help but smile slightly.

Jens turns his head to smirk at him. “Ahh, okay. Now I get why Luca is so possessive of you.”

Robbe shares a look with him and then shakes his head, giggling slightly as he shoots Lucas a sympathetic glance. “She’ll get over it eventually. Unless you’re interested?”

Lucas leans his elbows on the table and gives a small shrug. “I think she’s already gotten over it. She seemed to have her own fun at the party once you took over her babysitting duties,” he nudges Jens.

“She knew I was going to have more luck with the cute guy,” Jens nods solemnly, and Lucas nudges him again with a little more force.

He relaxes as he digs his sandwiches back out of his bag and the boys continue poking fun at each other, leaving Moyo cursing and Jens laughing in his ears. He allows himself to smile as he imagines this, sitting with this group everyday, teasing and laughing and getting to know them. Making friends somewhat similar to those he has at home. People to go out with, to smoke with, to message when the loneliness begins creeping back in. Jens there to show him the ropes.

“How the fuck did you get a salad sandwich?” Moyo suddenly asks him, glaring at his own chicken mix.

Jens snorts from his other side. “I don’t think he knows himself. Why do you have cafeteria food though? Where’s your usual fancy lunch your mom sends with you?”

Moyo shrugs. “She didn’t get a chance to make it for today and I couldn’t buy anything on the way ‘cause I slept in.”

A more serious tone seems to fall over the table as the boys give an understanding nod, and Jens looks around Lucas to ask, “Everything okay?”

Moyo nods, and that’s that. Lucas understands that he has been left out of something and accepts that he isn’t quite a member of the group that easily. He’s going to have a little more work to do, of course, as they’re going to have to put in the time with him.

“If you’d prefer it, I have no problem with switching,” Lucas offers, doing his best to be just as casual, giving a small shrug of his shoulders.

The calculating look returns, though this time it appears pleased. Moyo gives a grateful nod, smiling as Lucas switches their lunches around. “I’m beginning to see why they like you.”

Lucas gives him a mock-offended look. “Not because I’m cute?”

Moyo scoffs, but he’s smiling as he rolls his eyes. “The position of cocky pretty boy in this group is already taken, I’m afraid.”

“Aww, Moyo,” Robbe says, “don’t tell him lies. You’re not that pretty.”

Moyo tosses what appears to be a piece of lettuce at him as he giggles again, leading to Jens letting out a chuckle alongside him, while Aaron rolls his eyes. “We all already knew Robbe’s opinion.”

“And Robbe’s opinion is the only one that matters,” Jens butts in, stretching his arm across the table to fist bump his smallest friend. Another inside conversation, Lucas realises.

Lucas huffs, shaking his head amusedly. “I’m guessing he’s talking about you then,” he raises a brow at Jens.

Jens bumps their shoulders and grins. “You agree then?”

“The cocky part gave it away.”

Jens gives him that same jaw-dropped, mock-offended look, complete with a hand pressed dramatically to his heart. He can’t quite smother his smile though. “Need I remind you who asked you to join us in the first place?”

Moyo makes a small sound of protest, shaking his head around a bite of his sandwich. “Doesn’t matter, he’s ours now. I like him.”

Lucas smiles, feeling a pleasant, easy warmth slip over him that had been absent for the past week, since moving here. He’s beginning to feel a little less out of place just with this one simple interaction, just because it’s simpler than he could’ve hoped for. He allows his expression to turn a little smug as Jens catches his gaze, and Jens’s smile simply widens. With another joyous kick in his stomach, Lucas realises the other boy is just as pleased.

“It’s weird that we’ve never actually seen you around before,” Aaron agrees, frowning.

“And that your girlfriend refused to introduce us,” Jens raises his brows.

“Well,” Lucas decides to speak up for the poor girl. “Amber was actually going to introduce us. Luca wasn’t so sure. I would’ve introduced myself, but I wasn’t really sure where to look.”

“So, you’re welcome,” Jens concludes, taking a mini bow to himself, and Moyo rolls his eyes again as Robbe huffs a quiet laugh.

Lucas’s lips quirk up at the corners as he turns to Robbe, and he’s unable to hold back. “I actually have seen you before, though, I think.” Robbe tilts his head curiously and Lucas continues, “That’s you on that mural, isn’t it?”

Robbe blushes instantly as the others laugh at him, even as Jens groans and covers his face with his hand. “Yeah, that’s me.”

“I saw it last week and I didn’t realise how good it actually is. It looks so much like you. How’d you get one of those in the middle of the city?”

“Sander’s like some kinda art ninja with serious apology skills, that’s how,” Moyo snorts, shooting his friend a teasing smile as Lucas absorbs the information.

“Sander?”

If possible, Robbe blushes even more. Still, his voice is casual, infused with an easy warmth as he explains. “My boyfriend. He painted it last year.”

Lucas’s brain short-circuits, just for a second. He suddenly wishes he’d thought to look into Jens’s friends a little more after finding his account, imagining it would have been fairly easy. He probably could have avoided this small moment of shock, that way. This momentary lapse in coherent thought. “So you’re…”

Robbe raises a brow, smiling slightly. “Taken? Or gay?”

Before Lucas can regain function, can smile and joke back, Moyo is turning to him with his most grave look so far. “Is that a problem?”

He realises belatedly that Jens has also tensed on his other side, and that Robbe’s smile is unsure, and he hates himself for a little moment. “Of course not,” he shakes his head, smiling softly at Robbe, hoping it portrays his sincerity. If they only knew the real reason for his stunned reaction, he thinks. “Unless you think he’d mind me taking a few pictures of it. Or unless you yourself mind.”

The tension dissipates instantly as Robbe’s shoulders relax and his smile brightens. “Are you into photography?”

Lucas shrugs, feeling a blush of his own creep in. “A little bit. But I don’t have an actual camera or anything. I like art in general. That’s why I paid so much attention to the mural in the first place.”

Robbe’s expression lights up even further. “Sander will like you, too, then.”

Jens lets out another groan, but he wears a soft look as he gazes at his friend. “Yeah, Sander will definitely love that. Another ego boost.”

Robbe shrugs him off with a roll of his eyes. “You love Sander. I don’t know why you bother pretending.”

“Yeah, man, it’s not like it’s a secret, we all love Sander,” Moyo points out, lunch already halfway gone, completely at ease again. “And now we know Lucas probably will too, so it’s about time you give in man.”

Jens rolls his eyes in response, but heaves a sigh. “Sander understands our relationship. It works.”

“Cute,” Robbe hums, and Lucas finds himself smiling again.

He jumps, then, as hands fall on his shoulders from behind.

“Sorry, bud, I did try to save you. See, Amber, look what they’ve done now.”

Lucas tilts his head back to grin up at Luca as Amber squeezes into the spot next to her boyfriend and kisses his cheek. Luca shakes her head at him in faux disappointment, and Moyo lets out a disgruntled sound next to them.

“You did try to keep him to yourself, is what you mean,” he says. “As if you’re better company.”

“My right hand alone is better company than you,” Luca retorts, and Lucas can’t help the surprised laughter that leaves him. Aaron’s laughter is loud, Robbe’s giggles clear, and Jens’s laughter quiet and breathy. Still, it’s where Lucas finds most of his attention drawn.

Luca squeezes his shoulders and points across the table at Robbe. “That one is sweet, I can respect you being friends with him.” Robbe grins and blows her a kiss as she sets a hand on Jens’s head, causing him to jump as well. “This one has a few kinks that could be worked out, but he’s acceptable.” Jens offers a sarcastic smile as she drops that hand back onto Lucas’s shoulder and sets the other in Moyo’s curls, who instantly tries to shake her off. “This one is super easy to make fun of, so that’s a nice trait.” Moyo finally manages to bat her away as she gestures across the table at Aaron. “And that one just...well he’s just a ball of amusement on his own. You don’t even have to put in any work there.” Aaron flips her off, and Lucas waits for Amber to protest, but the girl does nothing more than give a tiny shake of her head and fail to give Luca a disapproving look.

Lucas grins as Luca squeezes his shoulders. He looks up at her again and she says, with a heavy sigh, “Voila. The Broerrrs.”

#van der stoffels #vds #wtfock #skam nl #sink or swim #vds season fic #sos clip #what do you all think so far? 🥺

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forasecondtherewedwon · 4 years ago

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The Stripping Point

Pairing: Peter Parker x Michelle Jones (Spideychelle) Rating: E (explicit sexual content) Word count: 6387

Happy Birthday, @spiderman-homecomeme!

Summary: Peter's ready to turn his new hobby into a profitable sideline. Unfortunately, he writes down his very first client's address incorrectly and shows up at the wrong house.

MJ opens the door to find some guy dressed as Spider-Man and decides the best way to mess with him is to let him stay. Almost immediately, she loses the upper hand.

Quarantine puts people out of work. A lotta people at first, then less, but never Peter. He keeps shooting for the Bugle, lugging his camera all over the city (instead of squeezing onto buses and subway cars that never really get that much less crowded) while he breathes heavily through his mask. He only takes pictures at outdoor spaces to try to avoid both crowds and loners who hassle him for taking preventative measures during the pandemic. They’re stressed, he gets that, but Peter doesn’t wanna be anywhere near conflict. Spider-Man, on the other hand… Well, when he puts on that mask, it’s pretty much business as usual. He appreciates his face covering more than ever and, hey, it’s cool to do a job with social distancing built in.

His gratitude for the web-slinging side-gig only increases as the weeks of pandemic life stretch into months and Jameson starts ordering him back into situations that are just plain stupid from a health perspective. Never mind that he got kinda accidentally stabbed the other week. It’s a totally different set of dangers. Peter resists the new assignments and because Jameson’ll be in deep shit if his number one Spider-Man photographer makes a fuss about working conditions (and because people are getting so desperate for employment that he can pay a new hire even less than Peter’s paltry freelancing rate), the Bugle shells out for another photographer to cover the work Peter won’t do. Good for Peter’s health, bad for Peter’s bank account―which is already whimpering with hunger pangs from sitting near-empty after paying rent. This gets him thinking. It might be time to turn his early-quarantine hobby into his mid-to-late-quarantine money-maker.

Yeah, pandemic hobbies! By April, it seemed to him like everybody was picking something up. Bread-making, yoga, sewing masks for healthcare workers left criminally under-equipped. The hobby Peter picked up, well… it’s a little different. He began practicing it indoors (obviously), by himself, and with skills gained from reading and watching material on the internet. In those ways, it’s a lot like other people’s hobbies. In some other ways, it’s very, very different. Like, instead of putting on specialized clothing like an apron or yoga pants, Peter’s hobby requires taking clothes off. It’s stripping. Peter’s hobby is stripping.

A few things led to him picking that over sourdough or Sun Salutations. Peter loves not only old movies but also old music. Old movies with iconic dance scenes? That’s, like, the perfect combo. He spends a lot of his downtime playing music in his apartment and, when he’s not wiped or injured, dancing along. He figures it’s good for his mood as well as his fitness. Seriously, he can only do so many chin-ups on the metal bar braced in his bathroom doorframe (which is starting to crack). Patrick Swayze’s solo routine from the end of Dirty Dancing is way more fun, even if Peter did tear the knees on a couple pairs of sweatpants because of it. The more music he listened to, the more he started freestyling his own moves in between those of leading men. It was that―trying to create something good of his own―that helped him understand the routines he watched. He figured out the balance between precision and sex appeal and somewhere in there, he realized he was performing for an audience in his head. And what this imaginary audience wanted wasn’t always the goofiness of acting out Risky Business and sliding across the short strip of bare floor between his kitchen and living room in socks, underwear, and a white shirt. Sometimes, the audience wanted him to lose the shirt.

At that point, Peter was once again wandering out of what he knew. He was comfortable with movie dances, had a little of his own repertoire, but he lacked this extra element of storytelling; it was the one that took him from fully dressed down to boxers and socks without tripping and struggling and falling into his meager possessions. That was when he turned to the internet and confronted the fact that he wanted to learn how to strip. If he happened to stumble into related tutorials on how to give a lap dance, who would know? Who was there to judge Peter as he performed for an empty kitchen chair, dragging his hand along the back and body-rolling to buck his hips towards where someone’s face would be? Yeah, it was kinda embarrassing while he was learning, but he had the endurance to try a move over and over until he nailed it, the strength to draw out isolated movements like twitching his hips to keep his butt drawing circles on the lap of his invisible patron, and the overall coordination of, well, Spider-Man. Which ends up being the most important piece of all because, when Peter decides to take his show on the road (or at least out of his tiny apartment), his ‘stage’ name requires about a second of thought. Spider-Man. He’ll go by Spider-Man. He laughs his ass off when he thinks of it. It’s fucking genius! Spider-Man stripping as himself is the last thing anyone would ever suspect!

Naturally, Peter can’t use any of his actual Spidey suits. Those would probably give him away. Also, he’d feel weird about having Karen’s voice in his ear while he flexed his abs next to somebody’s head. Fortunately, after a little digging―which turns into a lot of digging and leaves his room a mess of comingled clean and dirty clothes―he finds his original suit. The zip-up hoodie plus sweatpants one. Yeah, its technological capabilities are basically zero, it’s a little grimy, and too tight, but he doesn’t need it to do anything besides come off. The wear-and-tear will lend genuine-fake authenticity to his character and the snugness around his more developed muscles (it’s been a decade since he wore it last) will make it… sexier? He guesses? The most important thing is the mask, which is the only part of his costume he won’t strip off. Apart from his underwear, obviously. He’s not that wild.

He gets to work cutting a vertical line up each leg of his sweatpants, then sews in snaps. Boom, tearaways. They look kinda shitty, but if he’s any good at all, whoever he dances for shouldn’t be staring at loose threads.

So Peter has his moves, his costume, a few songs in mind, and no engagements. Oh, he thinks he can figure out how to get jobs, it’s just that he somehow keeps coming home, sitting down to compose his ad, and then doing something completely different instead. He’s truly scared witless. Nobody’ll see your face, he chants in his mind to psych himself up every time he’s heading home to his apartment. Still, he freezes at his laptop. There’s nothing about his body that he’s ashamed of―he uses it every single day to help people as Spider-Man. Maybe it’s that, this time, he’d be using it to help himself. Is he a monster for making a buck off his superhero persona? Peter holds onto that question for about a week until the date to pay rent is approaching and his bank account shudders in horror. Ok, money’s tight and he hasn’t been hit by a car lately, so he won’t freak anybody out with road rash or bruising or more of his hand-sewing to close gashes. With a little self-pedicure here and hair-removal there, Peter looks at himself in his bathroom mirror and decides this is as good a time as any.

He advertises online and his hands are still trembling when he gets a call from an unfamiliar number ten minutes after his ad goes live. The ringing phone actually makes him jump. It’s probably a telemarketer, or a wrong number. Nobody would call him with a job this fast. He was counting on having at least a day to sit with the choice he made. Peter fumbles for the phone and answers. For the next minute and a half, he struggles to hear the woman’s voice over the blood rushing in his ears. She thinks he’s the Spider-Man Stripper. He is the Spider-Man Stripper. This is hilarious and terrifying and oddly similar to the brief moment of freefall between slinging one web and the next as he darts around Midtown. Her friend’s birthday party, she tells him, two days from now. Something else she planned (Peter’s adjusting his sweaty, slipping grip on his phone and misses the details) fell through and if he can be the entertainment for a half-hour or so it would save both the party and her friendship. Not to add extra pressure, she jokes, laughing. The sound Peter makes is a weak echo. So can he be there? Is there space in his schedule? He pretends to check that ‘schedule’ so she doesn’t think he’s a total amateur. Yep, yep, he has an opening for her. She has an opening for him, she flirts back, making his eyes go wide as he clutches the phone. God, why couldn’t his first gig have been for some 22-year-old’s bachelorette instead of this middle-aged-sounding woman who possibly wants to eat him alive? By the time she’s telling him her address, Peter’s hands are shaking worse than ever, he can’t immediately find a pen, and she reels it off to him way too quickly. He’s scrawling the address on his arm and right as he opens his mouth to ask her to repeat it, she hangs up. He peers at his arm doubtfully. Should he call her back for confirmation? No, he doesn’t have the guts. Anyway, he can figure this out. The street name was Woodman, right? Or was it Woodlawn? And the number was 712. Or 271. There was definitely a 7 in there somewhere. And his client’s name was… Lisa? Lana. Maybe Linda?

Peter cradles his face in his hands and groans. When his phone starts ringing again―different number―he frantically declines the call, then deletes his ad. One job at a time. Even that, he now thinks, seems ambitious.

―

MJ’s glad she’s not the one throwing this party together. As Liz’s best friend, it’s Betty who took the reins, organizing and then scrapping everything more than once as New York moved from phase to phase during this pandemic. The end result is still less than what MJ knows Betty wants; ideally, there would be more than a handful of guests and things like shiny helium balloons and fancy desserts would be hand-delivered to Liz’s front door on the day of the party. Instead, MJ sits on the arm of Liz’s couch as she inflates yet another latex balloon the good old-fashioned way: blowing it up by mouth until she’s dizzy.

Cindy stomps over and plops down next to her, snatching a balloon from the party pack of 50 (and Betty insists they need them all). She’s been banished from cupcake decorating. MJ would offer a word or two of sympathy, but balloon duty has the prior claim on how she spends her breaths. All she can do is toss Cindy a plastic tiara (Betty bought one―just one!―reading ‘Mom-to-Be’ for Liz, but the online shop screwed up her order and sent two dozen ‘Birthday Girl’ tiaras in its place) after tying off her finished balloon. MJ’s already wearing one. Meanwhile, the tiara-less Mom-to-Be is being driven around the block a million times by her cousin because they’re having the party at Liz’s place and Betty wants the decorations to be a surprise. Liz’s husband, more simply, was banished for the entire day. MJ originally thought they could’ve put him to work, since it’s pretty hectic, but she’s too oxygen-deprived to worry anymore.

Finally, Betty declares from the kitchen that she’s frosted her final cupcake. MJ begs for a reprieve from balloon-inflating and Betty, feeling accomplished and generous, agrees they probably have enough balloons now. Cindy casts her half-inflated one away in disgust before going to help Betty clean up baking ingredients and do dishes. MJ does her best to shoo the balloons to one side of the living room, then carries spare chairs in because their couch won’t fit everyone. Fortunately, they’ve all been recently tested for illness and been vigilant hand-washers and mask-wearers since then, so at least she doesn’t have to find a way to keep every seat six feet apart. She’s just positioning a final chair, still a little out of breath from the balloons, when the doorbell rings. In the kitchen, Betty screams.

“IT’S STILL A MESS IN HERE! STALL HER!”

“’K!” MJ agrees.

She kicks a couple stray balloons out of her path and goes to get the door. They weren’t supposed to come back to the house until Betty texted, but maybe they got tired of driving around, or Liz started feeling carsick. MJ knows she’s been pretty delicate her entire pregnancy with twins floating around in her uterus like a pair of nausea-inducing astronauts.

As she opens the door wide, she sucks in a deep breath to call out a sarcastic ‘Surprise!’ But it’s not Liz and her cousin. It’s… a guy? In a red and blue costume. She thinks it’s a guy. She can’t even see the person’s face, but when MJ reaches up to self-consciously adjust her ‘Birthday Girl’ tiara, they tilt their head and seem to follow her movement.

“Oh! I’m here for you! You’re… not what I was expecting.” It’s a masculine laugh. Young. Nervous.

She crosses her arms suspiciously.

“You’re not what I was expecting either,” she accuses.

“Shit,” he mumbles. “I guess it was supposed to be a surprise.”

What? Betty might have planned a few surprises for today, but MJ does not recall a dude in a mismatched sweatsuit being one of them.

“Guess so,” she says slowly.

“Sorry, I’m, uh, Spider-Man.” He gestures to the costume. Well, she can kinda see the very distant resemblance to what the real Spider-Man wears; there is a crudely-drawn spider on the chest.

“Uh huh.”

MJ’s suspicion is shifting into amusement―this guy really seems to think he has an invitation―when Cindy comes up behind her. MJ darts a look at her friend and is glad Cindy’s no longer sporting her own tiara. No need to confuse this poor… Spider-Man impersonator.

“What’s up?” Cindy asks, poking her chin over MJ’s shoulder, happier now that she’s fled the tasks Betty continually assigns.

“Hey,” says ‘Spider-Man’. “I, uh, I was hired to, uh, dance for the, um…” He gestures at MJ’s tiara. “…birthday girl.”

At ‘dance,’ MJ’s eyebrows shoot up. She looks quickly at Cindy and realizes she’s going to say something. Cindy will handle this how she handles any inconvenience or anomaly: with forthrightness and concision. She’ll have this faux-venger hitting the road before MJ can blink. With a short, friendly laugh towards Spider-Man, MJ angles herself to block Cindy from view and locks eyes with her friend. Cindy’s face says, What are you doing? We don’t know this guy. MJ’s counters with, Let’s see how this plays out. Cindy rolls her eyes, but nods, so MJ steps away from her again.

“As long as you haven’t traveled outside the country in the last fourteen days or experienced symptoms of fever, etcetera etcetera, come on in,” Cindy invites, gesturing Spider-Man through the doorway. “I’m so sorry, but we were running a little behind with the food, so I have to disappear back to the kitchen. But why don’t you get started for her?”

“Cindy,” MJ hisses as she closes the door. “You have to stay.”

“I believe the man said he was here for the birthday girl.”

Cindy smirks and they both glance over to see that Spider-Man has found the speaker and connected his phone. Something catches MJ’s eye and her gaze skims down his leg. What’s up with the side of his pants?

“I’m not the birthday girl,” she reminds Cindy in a panicked whisper. “There is no birthday girl.”

“Well, in her absence, it looks like you’re the one getting her presents. Careful with that one.”

“Because it seems fragile?”

“Because I feel like it’s the kind that comes with a big package.”

Cindy pokes MJ hard in the side and flees when she squirms away. MJ glares after her. Yes, she’s curious about what the hell this impersonator’s doing here in that crappy costume, but it’s so much easier to be curious when she can observe something unfolding without actively having to participate. What she was thinking was that he’d come in and the three of them―Betty, Cindy, and herself―would see how far this went before something either gave them away as not being the people who ‘hired’ him (so he claims), or the guy crumbled under the quavering weight of his own anxiety. Nothing about his look or his manner announces experience. Now, MJ’s on her own as she takes a seat in one of the chairs she brought in. She crosses her legs, bobs her foot, and hopes to hell that Spider-Man’s a breakdancer.

“Listen…” she begins to say, leaning forward to address him, but as she speaks, he turns up the volume and her uncertain voice is drowned out by chimes tinkling above throbbing bass. Oh no.

It’s the tempo that scares MJ. She thinks she could deal with a rabbiting drum intro or the bright squeal of quick fingers on an electric guitar. This song is tauntingly slow and it’s obvious, by how Spider-Man turns in her direction and walks to her with measured steps, that what she’s about to experience will look nothing like handstands or the worm, nothing youthfully, recklessly acrobatic. It’s also clear that she’s in this alone now because the guy putting his back to her and swirling his hips with agonizing slowness as the gravelly vocals come in is in some kind of zone she can’t follow him into.

When I look in your eyes… the song goes. …I can feel the fire.

Nope, MJ’s outside of this, in the real world, where she hears him lower the zipper on his sweatshirt. When he rotates to face her, taking his time, she finds her hands are gripping the seat on either side of her thighs.

A see-through disguise can’t conceal desire.

Spider-Man’s disguise is hardly see-through―seriously, he must’ve been sweltering in those sweats on his way here―but it’s open now, from his clavicle down to where the band of his pants grips his taut abdomen. He probably can’t hear the groan that pushes out of her mouth when she’s just trying to exhale. God, please let the music cover it, MJ thinks. His hood’s still up as he steps even closer to her chair, subtly twitching his hips in her direction, and the ends of his sweatshirt dangle, flashing glimpses of more chest, more abs. MJ swallows and reminds herself that this is all kind of a joke. That she’s the one indulging him and they’ll laugh when this is over. She’ll apologize for the mix-up and he’ll shrug it off as he accepts monetary compensation for his time.

I’ve been readin’ your lips… the singer announces in a louder growl. Spider-Man abruptly strips the blue sleeves from his costume, leaving his torso bare beneath what’s now just a hooded red vest. He’s a fake superhero, but those arms are the real deal. Wow. …they don’t need no translation.

He widens his stance, drawing her eye down to his solid-looking thigh, then slides his hand across her shoulder to grip the back of her chair. His hips roll forward and she instinctively uncrosses her legs. With the extra room, Spider-Man briefly presses his thigh to hers. It scrunches the hem of her dress up before dragging it back down as he retreats. It’s reasonably innocent, likely not even intentional, but heat flares up MJ’s face like one of the candles she might blow out if this were actually her birthday. Honestly, she keeps forgetting it’s not.

They want more than a kiss, I come to make my donation.

Ok, she feels more than just thigh when he glides higher on her lap. MJ automatically flicks her gaze lower, because he’s a stranger and right in her space, and it lands on his groin. Spider-Man bucks suggestively and MJ immediately raises her eyes from the bump in the front of his close-fitting sweatpants. Jesus, is it warm in here? Somebody should do something about that before Liz gets home, fiddle with the thermostat or, or something…

So turn out the lights! the singer’s voice rockets up and goosebumps ripple up MJ’s arms as Spider-Man’s hands smooth down them in his fingerless gloves. He bounces low into a crouch and can’t be more than an inch away from the fabric of her dress as he rolls up her body, face in her lap for, I’m goin’ down slowly. Her pounding heart and rapid breathing almost push her boobs into his forehead when he reaches her chest.

Don’t tell me what’s right, just tell me you want me.

When their heads are level, Spider-Man surprises her by sitting lightly on her lap, nearly chest-to-chest. He takes her hands in his―MJ’s sufficiently stunned to allow him to break her grip on the seat―and guides them to his head, making her push his hood off. It’s strange to feel the mask under her palms. Wondering what his hair looks like really shouldn’t be a main concern right now.

Oh, tell me you want me. Just tell me you want me, want me, want me!

The more insistent the song becomes, the more persuasively Spider-Man gyrates in her lap. Sliding a hand over his head shouldn’t be this seductive without visible hair to push his fingers through, but the way his arm bulges with the motion makes up for it, in her opinion. MJ doesn’t know what to do with her hands. They hover in the air between their bodies.

Let’s make it, baby! the song explodes as he thrusts forward powerfully, throwing his head back.

Well, let’s make it, baby!

His hands go to his shoulders.

Well, let’s make it, baby!

He works his vest off, revealing the rest of his chest.

Let’s make it, baby!

He flings the vest toward the sofa. MJ doesn’t know whether or not it lands there. She doesn’t turn to look. This is… more muscle than she’s ever seen in person on a single human body. Once more, he takes hold of the back of her chair, but it’s with both hands now and his forearms squeeze her in, compelling her to lean forward as he grinds across her lap, forward and back, to, Come, come, come a little bit closer. His face angles into her neck; she feels his nose brush her skin through the mask. She can hear him breathing and it electrifies her. The only reason she clamps her thighs together like she does is to give him more room to straddle her. Really, it’s for his comfort, as a professional. Because this is all just… very professional.

She hasn’t determined where to lay her hands, which is fine because he has another use for them.

I wanna play doctor, the singer drawls while Spider-Man brings her hands to his pecs. Is his heart beating as hard under there as hers is right now or is she imagining it? He effortlessly takes gentle hold of her wrists and encourages her hands down his body. She doesn’t even notice when he lets her go to peel the gloves from his hands and push his sneakers off, leaving MJ to trace the thick, defined ridges of his abdomen.

It keeps gettin’ harder, harder, harder to keep it away!

With the end of the line, Spider-Man rips the sweatpants off―a series of metallic popping sounds too close together to count. Not that counting’s on her mind. Eyeing the cherry-red boxer-briefs that are even tighter than the sweats, she swallows. She can’t remember how to exist on the outside of this. She can’t find the door. Believing that this guy―who’s not really Spider-Man, just like she’s not really a birthday girl―understands, that they’re sharing the scorching intimacy she suddenly feels, is naïve. MJ is not naïve. She just can’t exactly explain why what should be an obvious (skillful, but obvious) pantomime of sex is working on her like real foreplay.

I wanna taste the sweat…

She swears he’s breathing harder than the dancing alone can explain when he palms her knees and pries them apart. Her legs are slack and willing. She is sweating.

…that’s runnin’ over your body.

Tucking his fingers into the backs of her knees, Spider-Man jerks her forward on her seat. It raises her hem to mid-thigh and her pulse to low orbit. He hikes her legs around his hips and she crosses her wrists behind his neck without guidance as he stays in what has to be a strenuous squat to body-roll. Everything comes forward in a delicious wave, from his shoulders to his crotch. From lots of angles, it probably looks like he’s fucking her into Liz’s kitchen chair.

In actuality, there’s no contact between them―not anyplace interesting―until…

Get the sheets all wet!

MJ doesn’t know if his hips nudge between her legs accidentally or intentionally on an overzealous roll. She’s never been given a lap dance before! Is this right? Is this permitted? He seems ready to run with it, repeating the action with greater certainty.

Yeah, I wanna make ya feel nau-nau-nau-nau-nau-nau-nau-naughty!

When the singer quits stuttering out the word, Spider-Man lifts MJ right off the chair into his arms. She inhales hard, desperate for air as the song returns to, Let’s make it, baby! And let’s make it, baby! Well, let’s make it, baby! And let’s make it, baby, baby! He has one hand grasping the underside of her thigh, the other clutching the middle of her back. He thrusts toward her through the chorus, shy of nudging the way he did before. The motion sways MJ fairly gently, thanks to his sure grip and ability to carry her weight with ease, but she might as well be tumbling around inside a washing machine for all she currently knows of up and down.

The animal urgency of the chorus drops down to the slow lull of instrumentals and Spider-Man sets MJ on her feet. She just about rolls her ankle and plans to never admit this made her weak in the knees. As irregular drumbeats keep her on edge, he sneaks around behind her and takes her wrists, raising her arms over her head as she fights the instinct to turn and stare at this guy’s mostly-naked body. She hasn’t dated anyone since before the pandemic, but it’s more than that. While she holds her arms up there, Spider-Man rocks against her from behind, the inside of his thigh rubbing the outside of hers, messing up her skirt, confusing her heartbeat. His hands clamp down on her hips and work them in a circular motion with her ass pressed directly against him.

Wait.

―

Peter’s hard. Of all the things that have definitely gone wrong (having to make up a routine from scratch after blanking in the face of a woman 20 years younger and 500 times more beautiful than who he expected to find) and probably gone wrong (he hasn’t shaken the exhilarating feeling that he’s almost certainly at the wrong house), this is the most serious. He’s in so, so far over his head and sinking deeper, metaphorically, as the woman he’s wrapped around cautiously returns the pressure, pressing his erection.

He was so nervous after meeting her that he went straight to setting up his music and forgot to ask for her name. It’s not like he can casually ask now. It feels like things have gone too far for that. Wasn’t he supposed to feel some layer of detachment, doing this? Stripping’s supposed to be a part-time job, like taking pictures for the Bugle. Maybe he’s too used to caring about people to set himself apart from this. Maybe it’s the shock of her youth and the feeling of touching a real-live person after practicing with an empty chair over months of physical distancing.

Maybe he’s just horny.

The instrumental section goes on and on and Peter yearns. This is a job, he thinks, running his hands up to her waist and back to her hips. As the musical intermission’s finally drawing to a close, he improvises again, scooping the woman up into his arms in a bridal carry just to eliminate the sweet friction against his dick. Where does he go from here? He knows what the tutorials told him, what really gets the target of a lap dance/strip show going. Could go with the couch and push his red vest aside, but the soft rug underfoot beckons.

Now turn out the lights! Bon Jovi rasps as Peter moves gradually to his knees and nuzzles his masked face into the woman’s chest because, at this point, why the hell not? She smells so good. He hears her gasp, then her fingers dig fleetingly into the back of his neck like she wants to hold him there. But she lets go and he lays her on her back in the valley created by leisurely-migrating silver balloons. The light refracted on the woman’s face is crisp and ethereal.

Don’t tell me you love, love me, no… Just, just tell me you want me.

Peter springs on top of her, arms braced and locked, and performs an exaggerated horizontal roll, his hips close above hers. This is the million-dollar (or, like, twenty-dollar) move. The one that unambiguously mimics sex. Though it’s so overstated, so dramatic, the tutorials claimed that, by this stage, the person being performed for would be so wound up, so aroused, that they’d just about believe it was the real thing. He watches the woman’s shaky breathing and flushed cheeks, feels her hands caress his abs, and thinks he’s doing pretty damn good. Too bad he can’t count this as a performance. The desire he feels when he lowers himself closer to her is not an act.

Don’t tell me you love me.

The skin-tight front of his underwear skims her dress. And, though she should really keep her legs out straight to do her part in preserving the distance between them (because he’s fucking failing), she slides her foot along the floor, raising her knee. Peter snatches hold of that knee with the feeling that they just signed some kind of contract and grinds himself against the fold of skirt between her legs. The woman’s chest heaves as she pants. His balls ache for him to stop playing.

Oh, tell me you want me, want me, want me, want me, want me, want me, want me! Bon Jovi and Peter’s sex drive demand, from a rumble up to a scream. Let’s make it, baby!

The woman beneath him tosses her head and bats away a balloon that clings to her hair. Her birthday crown’s askew.

Well, let’s make it, baby!

Peter’s hand is on her ribcage, too near her breast.

Well, let’s make it, baby!

He huffs, loud inside his mask, as he thrusts against her like she’s not some accident, like she asked him to meet her here. For this.

And let’s make it, baby!

Distinct lyrics burst into a high, expressive shriek of noise that sounds enough like a woman being pleasured to send a tingle up Peter’s spine. He grinds down hard, gripping the woman’s hip. By the second shriek, her back’s bowing, her hands commandingly squeezing his arms. By the third, she’s moaning as she rocks against him, tearing an appreciative grunt from him in response. The fourth shriek finishes her right before the song. Peter’s breathing hard on top of her, on the jaw-clenching edge of climax himself, feeling her writhe as the music fades out. It just leaves the two of them here, damningly entangled.

After a long silence, his playlist moves on. Peter stares down at her another few seconds as she strokes her fingers across her mouth, then her eyes snap to where she can’t see his through the goggles.

“Oh shit,” he mutters.

The woman laughs awkwardly like those two words are an understatement for the degree to which this has not gone as planned. She didn’t even know the plan, but anyone would know this was not the intended conclusion―a stripper dressed up in a novelty Spider-Man costume should excite, entertain, inspire lust. But he should stop short of dry-humping his client to completion. Yeah, that has to be an unwritten rule someplace. Peter really shouldn’t have needed to read it to know better though. This has just gotten incredibly out of hand and he has no idea what to say or do.

“LIZ IS ON HER WAY!” a female voice yells from the back of the house, maybe the kitchen that the other woman vanished into earlier.

Peter jerks to his feet, still rigid in the front of his underwear. He thinks the woman he just, uh, danced for is requesting help up, but she’s actually pointing. He looks and sees the bathroom just off the stairs.

“I’m good,” she says. “Go before Cindy sees you.”

Snagging his pants from the floor and the vest portion of his sweatshirt from the couch, Peter bolts for the bathroom as the woman sits up from the rug. Inside, his hands quake with adrenaline as he zips his sweatshirt and refastens all the snaps on his pants. He does his best to adjust things so his waning erection’s not too obvious. For a minute, he yanks the mask from his head and stares at himself in the mirror as he breathes. This is not the side-hustle for him. This was his first and last gig as the Spider-Man Stripper.

Mask back on, he returns to the front room to find the woman he was grinding all over standing with her arms crossed protectively as her friend appears to grill her under her breath. They both look at him as he stuffs his feet back into his shoes and grabs his gloves and the blue sleeves of his sweatshirt. He’ll just carry them. If he stood here and began redoing them, he’d probably die from mortification before he got the last snap snapped. He collects his phone, stopping the music mid-song. He doesn’t know what’s playing. Could be his favourite song in the world and he wouldn’t be able to hear it right now over the volume of the look his ‘birthday girl’ is giving him.

“I’ll just, um, show you out,” she offers, shepherding him away from the woman he takes to be Cindy. She doesn’t volunteer anything about the other person, Liz, who they seem to be expecting.

“Great.”

He’s thankful that Cindy gives them a little space and doesn’t follow. They pause in the entranceway. The woman presses two fifties into his hand, avoiding eye contact. Peter clears his dry throat and nods, closing his fingers over the money because he’s more uncomfortable about the idea of prolonging this with a back-and-forth over him saying it’s too much while she insists than he is about the idea that she’s kinda paying him for sex, even if thinks she doesn’t mean to.

She pulls the door open and Peter jumps aside for two women, one very pregnant. There’s a flurry of voices all of a sudden and when he slips outside onto the step before someone can ask who he is and what he’s doing here, he doesn’t expect the birthday girl to come after him.

“MJ,” she blurts out.

He grins under the mask.

“Peter.”

He never gets to tell people that when he’s in disguise, but she doesn’t know he really is Spider-Man. The honesty feels good.

“So, that was…”

“This wasn’t supposed to be… Um,” he starts again, swinging his arms slightly. “That was my first time. Doing this. I’ve never done a routine for anybody before, so I want you to know I haven’t, like, done that with a bunch of people. I’ve never done this. And I think, uh, based on what happened in there, that I probably shouldn’t.” Peter’s laugh is strained. “I really don’t―”

“Do you want my number?”

He chokes.

“What?”

“I… thought I might as well ask,” she says, clearly self-conscious, looking prepared for rejection.

“No, of course I do,” Peter tells her quickly, holding out his phone. “Please.”

“Ok.” MJ gives him a quick smile, then looks at his screen as she adds herself as a contact. He’s grateful she’s the one putting the numbers in. He really can’t be trusted with that. Peter’s not nervous now, just excited as he thinks about using the money she gave him to buy her dinner.

Though he’s pretty sure he knows the answer, he says, “This isn’t the right house, is it?” as she hands his phone back. She laughs.

“No.”

“Yeah, I… kinda had a feeling.”

“Hey, whoever she was, her loss was my gain,” MJ says bluntly, then blushes hard. Peter chuckles to himself, looking down.

“Ummm…”

“Well, I should get in there. Baby shower.”

“Right, yeah, sure, you gotta.”

“But call me.”

“I will. I definitely will.”

“Maybe you can even show me what you look like without the mask,” she says.

Peter nods, body nothing but a cage for a butterfly swarm, then turns. Behind him, he hears Cindy’s voice as MJ steps back inside.

“Did you just give him a hundred bucks?”

“Yeah.”

“That’s what you owe me for going in on the stroller!”

“I’ll go to the bank and take out another hundred right after the party if you want,” MJ offers, sounding unconcerned.

“But a hundred bucks? MJ, he was here for ten minutes!”

“Trust me, Peter earned it.”

“Peter?! That’s Spider-Man’s name?”

“Cindy, come on, he’s not actually Spider-Man.”

The door shuts. Of course he’s not. Peter could no more be Spider-Man than he could fall half in love with a woman simply because of the way she smelled and the fact that she wouldn’t let him off the hook for a lap dance. He starts down the sidewalk with a skip, smiling wide beneath his mask.

#my writing #spideychelle #spideychelle fic #spideychelle fanfiction #peter parker #peter x mj #peter x michelle #peter parker x michelle jones #michelle jones

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umbry-fic · 3 years ago

Text

A Palette Full of You (2)

Summary: Glimpses into Colette and Lloyd's lives as they grow up together, learn who they are, and fall in love with each other.

(Written for Colloyd Week 2021)

Fandom: Tales of Symphonia Characters: Lloyd Irving, Colette Brunel Relationships: Colette Brunel & Lloyd Irving, Colette Brunel/Lloyd Irving Rating: G Chapter: 2 of 6 Word Count: 4212 Mirror Link: AO3 Original Post Date: 10/06/2021

Chapter Title: Save the Children!

Chapter Summary: Lloyd and Colette take a break from studying and decide to play a video game. Colette starts to ruminate a little on how she's different from the rest of her classmates...

(Colloyd Week Day 2: Sidequest)

Notes+Warnings: Chapter 2 of my multi-chapter Colloyd week fic! Colette and Lloyd play a bunch of Kameo: Elements of Power. Lloyd is bisexual. This chapter might have a bit of internalised acephobia so beware.

Chapter list Full fic Previous chapter Next chapter

~~~

12-years-old

"There! Over there!" Colette shouted, dropping the Xbox controller onto her lap and gesturing frantically towards a corner of the television screen. In her frantic excitement, she completely forgot that Lloyd was sitting right next to her on the sofa, her elbow banging straight into Lloyd's arm.

Lloyd, startled, pitched to the side and pushed the joystick on his Xbox controller in the same direction.

Major Ruin, who Lloyd had been controlling to charge up a Bolder Rush, executed the move at this exact moment as Lloyd let go of the right trigger.

And so Major Ruin careened right off the edge of the platform, as per the directions Lloyd had just inputted into the game. The tragic end to a glorious adventure. Kameo would never rescue her father from her sister’s evil clutches, for she had fallen to her death from a high height... by complete accident. Or maybe it would be better to class this as incompetence?

Oops.

"Oh, no," they both muttered at the same time, staring with their mouths open in horror. Colette reached out uselessly towards the TV, as if she could reach into the game and stop Major Ruin’s fall.

As if.

The armadillo look-alike Earth elemental (except a lot spikier) continued to fall while flailing their stubby limbs uselessly, eventually hitting the ground with the familiar and resonant "thud", accompanied with the dreaded snapping sound that had populated much of their playtime in the Snow-top Village. The thin and winding ice paths throughout that area had led to many a death from fall damage as they had tried to get their hands on the elemental fruits hidden away among various corners. Now that they were in the Ancient Tower, with its dark, foreboding, narrow stone corridors lit only by the sparest of torches sitting in sconces, where there was only one path forward and they were caged in by walls, Colette thought their falling episodes would be over. It was a bit claustrophobic, really.

It appeared that was not the case. Fall damage was eternal, and it would haunt them always, following them everywhere and showing its face at the most inopportune of moments.

Major Ruin morphed back into Kameo's petite, winged form, collapsing to the ground with a pained groan. Lloyd's side of the screen faded to black before he respawned at the last checkpoint, erasing a full 20 minutes of progress. The Kameo that Colette controlled was now completely alone in the chamber, performing her idle animations as Colette’s controller went untouched. Lloyd dropped his Xbox controller into his lap as well, leaning back against the sofa as he let out a groan of his own.

There was no sound apart from the whirring coming from the Xbox under the TV, the game music, and the "whup-whup" of the blades of the ancient standing fan in the corner of the living room, struggling in its job to blow "cool" air at them and combat the viciously hot weather.

Lloyd had every right to be frustrated with her; she had a tendency to kill him in-game. It wasn't murder, just manslaughter: knocking him off the cliff, setting both of them on fire, or startling him in general. It wasn't just in Kameo. Her clumsiness and butterfingers translated to every genre. No matter the game - Mario, Minecraft, Maplestory - she always found some way to cause a game over.

But he'd never directed any frustration or anger towards her. These are just silly games, he said every time. Much easier to laugh over the mirthful consequences together than get mad. Whenever they had the time to play video games together, the air was filled with nothing but laughter, a few frustrated grumbles from when they were struggling at a particular level, and the occasional rib from Lloyd’s end when she messed up. That's what made it incredibly fun. What the two of them had termed "game-time" never failed to put a smile on their faces.

And it was an effective destresser! It was a great relief to be able to channel all the stress from studying for PSLE into beating up trolls in Kameo. That appeared to be Lloyd's favourite part of the game - racking up combos with his favourite character Pummel Weed. Though she had to say her favourite part of the game so far was watching the cutscenes that played after rescuing the baby elementals from the prisons created by the nefarious shadow trolls. The wacky transformation from adorable blob to full-fledged elemental, complete with the blob sprouting arms and growing claws or shells, was… interesting to witness.

"Sorry," she sheepishly said, still feeling the need to apologise as she patted his hand. "Didn't mean to startle you. It's just that I found the last child!"

"Oh, really? Where?” Lloyd asked eagerly, attention turning back to the TV. “I couldn't see anything. It's all so dark."

"Over there." More calmly this time, Colette pointed out the child encased in a translucent ice crystal, tucked away in a corner of the platform hidden in shadow. She’d forgotten the name of this species, and could only describe them as cuttlefish that had taken human form. What were they were doing so far from the Mountain Falls? Weren't they native to that location? "We need to free them quickly! This is the last child."

“The last - you’ve been keeping count?!” Lloyd asked, voice rising in volume and shock written clearly across his face.

“Yeah! The mother said there were three, and we’ve rescued two. She must have been really worried, or she wouldn’t have begged us to save her children. I want to reunite them as soon as possible!”

"Alright. Ice, huh? It'd be similar to the other crystals we got rid of in the snow area. So just turn into Ash!" Lloyd suggested.

"Oh, you're right! Thanks for the reminder!" Colette opened the transformation wheel with a quick press of a button and proceeded to fumble with the joystick for a full minute while Lloyd slowly crawled his way back up the tower. She kept pushing too far to the right and overshooting Ash's dragon head on the wheel to land on Thermite, before overcorrecting to the left and landing on 40 Below. Frustration slowly piled up until she groaned, burying her head in her lap. This was embarrassing. She couldn't even navigate a simple menu like this, even after months of playing this game. Butterfingers, once again.

"Lloyd, can you open the main menu? I'll just pick Ash from there."

"Nah, we don't need to open Wotnot. Let's give Ortho a break for now," Lloyd replied. She knew that wasn't the real reason. Lloyd just didn’t want to hear from the eccentric wizard trapped within the paperback book that doubled as the main menu. "Here, let me help. But you need to get up first!" She straightened up, still sulking as he smiled at her, looking like he was holding back laughter at her predicament.

Lloyd stretched out his hand and placed his index finger over her thumb, gently guiding her thumb on the joystick so that the selection square landed right on Ash's head. Colette watched as Kameo hunched over and transformed into the red, clawed, scaly dragon that was the fire elemental Ash, tail slowly swaying from side-to-side as his wings flapped.

"You're so good at this..." she muttered, glancing down at her controller where Lloyd's hand was still placed over hers. They were only 12, but his hands were already slightly bigger than hers. He'd gotten his growth spurt in the earlier part of this year and shot up in height; now half a head taller than her. It was a slightly startling change after being the same height for the six years they'd known each other. He would likely only grow taller as time went on. As for herself... Maybe she'd gain another 5 centimetres by the time she was 18, if she was lucky. Given the actual state of her luck, she'd probably stagnate at her current height. Tallness was just not in the cards for her.

Not that she minded. The added height made him rather comfortable to lie on. If he gained just a few more centimetres, his shoulder would be the perfect height to rest her head on… That would make movie nights all the more comfortable.

Plus, the height change was just that. A physical change. Inside, Lloyd was still the same person - the boy who loved playing with Noishe but hated doing his homework, and would do everything in the world to avoid it. He hadn't changed. Not a single bit.

"Don’t sweat it. There are so many things you’re good at too! If it weren’t for your keen eye, I would’ve missed the kid entirely… So don’t be too bothered!” Lloyd gave her hand one squeeze before removing his hand, returning to his quest of returning to Colette's location. "Now, melt the ice!”

Colette did exactly that, leading the lumbering Ash over to the entrapped child and unleashing his fire breath. She watched with bated breath as the ice slowly melted, causing more of the child to be exposed to the air. They had previously used this exact same technique to unearth elemental fruits in the icy caverns filled with those icky bugs that exploded when defeated and obscured the screen with blue juice. It had been exciting then, to stumble upon secrets because of their penchant for exploration. But watching the child slowly be freed, watching their tentacles slowly start to move as they came into contact with warm air, was an entirely different experience, one that filled her with joy.

When was the last time the two of them completed a side objective like this, one that had direct effects on a citizen of this magical world? Casting her mind back informed her that that would be the starting town, when they returned to water the farmer’s crops with Deep Blue.

Now that the last child had been fully freed, all the children went running back to their worried mother, who proceeded to pull them into a giant group hug. Colette dropped her controller, clapping her hands together at such a sweet sight. Lloyd did laugh, then, a chuckle that she could feel rumble through her as well from where their shoulders touched. "What are you so excited about?" he asked.

"We did it! We saved all the children!" she exclaimed, watching the mother pull out one of the large elemental fruit in thanks. "Doesn't that make you happy? That we were able to help someone... That's what makes these side objectives fulfilling, right?"

"Yeah, I guess. It's just like you to get like this over a video game,” Lloyd replied, watching Kameo hoist the elemental fruit into the air, where it magically shrunk in size to fit in her bag. Colette wondered how Kameo’s bag even worked - how did it store Wotnot and dozens of elemental fruits? It was like a black hole. Just like Noishe's stomach.

“Though..." Lloyd frowned, staring up at the clock that hung on the wall, whose hands indicated that it was 2 pm. "Time’s up. We should get back to revising before Mom gets home from the vet with Noishe."

"Oh, you're right..." That was a downer. Time had flown so fast; their 20 minutes were up already!

The moment had come to return to the dining table and the assessment books that sat open on it. Studying was never fun, but it just had to be math today, and the chapter just had to be nets. Her most hated subject, combined with the topic she hated most. It was a headache all around.

But Lloyd was surprisingly good at nets, and he'd been a great help the whole day. Even if he still hated math with a passion and always got stuck on algebra questions, where it was her turn to assist him. That was why studying together was effective! They could fill in the gaps for each other, and motivate each other to keep going. Just three months left to go until it was all over! They could do this, and they would get through it. Together, just as they would every predicament that came to pass in the future.

"Um, and before you go home today, could you help me with something else?"

"What is it?" Colette asked, reaching for the TV remote on the coffee table. Lloyd was staring at the carpet, his hand absent-mindedly pulling at the hem of his singlet, separating the fabric from sweaty skin.

“Ellum’s birthday present,” Lloyd muttered, his voice getting softer with each word he spoke, until she could barely make out the words. “His birthday is in two weeks, and I…”

Ohhh.

They had a habit of telling each other almost everything, for any secret was always safe with the other. So she knew why Lloyd was clamming up. Ellum was his current crush, after all.

“Say no more. Of course I’ll help you! We can do whatever you want!” she replied with enthusiasm. She'd be happy to help.

"Thank you," Lloyd replied, meeting her gaze again with a tiny smile lighting up his face. "Now, let's get back to studying."

They made the short walk to the dining table, taking their seats across from each other. Lloyd's face was already starting to twist into a grimace, resigning himself to another few hours of torture at the hands of the twisted people who made their livelihood setting math questions.

Clearing away the Kit Kat wrappers on her assessment book, she glanced down at a question about nets she'd been working on before the break. Yet not a single word on the page was being absorbed. They were all running away from her.

The downside of Lloyd confiding in her for all of his crushes was that it was a stark reminder that she hadn't had her first one yet. And then, inevitably, her mind would drift further to all the little ways she stood out from her classmates.

It was like everyone around her had changed drastically overnight at some unknown point in time. The jokesters of the class had just started making dirty jokes one day, prompting scandalised glares from the rest of the class but also prompting snickers. She herself didn't get the joke half the time, just laughed to go along with everyone else.

Then there was the shift in daily conversation. Instead of discussing their favourite Pokémon, more often than not the other girls would now discuss in hushed voices while giggling which celebrity was the most attractive. She herself would sit quietly, trying to melt into the wall as she observed without interjecting, half fascinated and half horrified. Weren't they all too young for this?

Things got even more awkward when she was forcibly pulled into the conversation when someone directed a question at her. She had no idea what to say whenever someone showed her a picture of a celebrity and asked her to rate them. The only thing she ever managed to stutter out was that their eyes were a nice colour, and so was their hair. That... was how you judged a person on how attractive they were, right? Everyone else, though, seemed to think she was weird. But how was she supposed to be feeling? No one had ever taught her. It felt like everyone was keeping a secret from her on how these things were supposed to work, then making fun of her for not getting it.

She only got more confused every time something like that happened. All she wanted to do was go back to talking about her favourite cartoons, but that didn't seem to be an option. Lloyd wasn't in the same class as her, so she couldn't even sit with him and ignore everyone else. The only time she could meet up with him during school hours was at recess. She didn't know what Lloyd talked about with the rest of his friends. Maybe the same stuff. But she didn't really care, because, with him, she could just be herself. There was no need for tiring pretence.

All she could do when the girls were in a mood to discuss celebrities again was sit a little outside of their circle, counting down the seconds remaining for class to start while she tried to look as occupied as possible. She couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief every time the topic of conversation turned back to something a little easier to understand, like video games.

But surely, someday, she would understand.

She was waiting. For that day. For her to finally catch up to everyone else in the race she hadn’t even known she’d entered until everyone had left her in the dust, still standing with her mouth agape at the starting line. To finally be like everyone else, to be able to fit in seamlessly. But there was no use getting down about it!

She just had to meet The One. Then everything would change, everything would fix itself. That's what happened in all the stories, the shows, the movies, after all.

Because everyone, in the end, learned to feel the same way, right?

~~~

19-years-old

"Right! I think that’s enough for now.” Colette’s voice shattered the serenity of her room from where she was sitting on the bed with her laptop balanced in her lap, cutting through the sleepy fog that was starting to fill Lloyd’s head. The peaceful Ghibli tunes that had been filling the room cut off abruptly as she shut her laptop screen, reaching a hand up to undo her messy hair bun.

Lloyd yawned, rubbing his eyes and hoping that would make his eyelids feel less heavy. Pushing himself up from his belly-down position on the bed, he caught one last glance of the back of Colette's neck before her hair covered it again. Doing prep for uni was not the most exciting way to pass the afternoon, and it certainly wasn't normal fare for a date. But it had to be done, so they might as well do it together, as they did all things.

Though he'd gotten distracted and started scrolling through YouTube about an hour ago.

"Are you going to change out of pyjamas?” Lloyd asked, stretching, his shirt hiking up slightly. He’d taken the lift down the three floors that separated his apartment and hers in the old HDB block that they’d stayed in all their lives, rang the doorbell while staring at the Chinese New Year decorations that were still hung up despite the month now being April, and waited for Colette to open the door… Only to be met with the sight of Colette in her favourite doggie pyjamas, the baby blue button-up ones that covered every inch of her skin. She'd shrugged and said it was cold from the non-stop rain, but he knew the real reason was the lazy post-A-levels haze, that affected him as well. These days, sleeping in until noon was the norm. Or sleeping in until one of his parents came into his bedroom to knock him awake.

“Yeah,” she replied, grabbing a towel and a few articles of clothing from the open wardrobe and heading towards the doorway.

“Alright.”

Lloyd closed his laptop slowly, not wanting a repeat of the time in Secondary 3 he’d shattered the screen because Zelos had sneaked up on him and caught him unawares. He rolled off the bed, making the small trip of barely a few steps to the study table, passing the various objects Colette had up on the walls - the Disney posters she’d gotten ages ago, and the random stickers she’d amassed over the years from school club sales and donations - and the bay window filled to the brim with cute and huggable soft toys, a familiar Siberian Husky that showed the signs of being well-loved sitting atop the pile.

Lying on the study table was Colette’s Nintendo Switch, plugged into a socket to charge. Right next to it was a jar holding paintbrushes of all sizes, all of them as clean of paint as possible, for he knew Colette took extremely good care of her art supplies. The sketchbook no one was allowed to peek into was sticking out of the table’s drawer, half-used pads of foolscap and sheets of paper with pencils rolling in them visible within. Files that he’d nearly kicked, containing lecture notes and worksheets, were shoved into messy piles under the table, unneeded after the conclusion of examinations but having no convenient place to be stored. The tiny shelf sitting on the table still had her Junior College badge housed on one of the layers, silver in colour and reflecting the light from the windows, despite her having no use for it ever since they had graduated in November. (Perhaps she liked looking at it? She was something of a magpie sometimes.) He could spot a familiar conch shell, placed among other knick-knacks, mostly birthday presents.

Picking up the handheld (with its lime green and cyan JoyCons firmly attached), he unplugged the charger and watched the screen light up - and frowned at what it showed him.

"Hey, Colette!" he yelled, cupping his hands around his mouth. He hoped he could catch her before she entered the bathroom. Uncle Frank was working in the master bedroom no more than five metres away and had been nothing less than incredibly nice, as he always was, providing tons of refreshments and snacks. Lloyd would like to prevent a shouting relay if possible.

If Colette had been walking, she shouldn't have reached the bathroom yet...

The fast pitter-patter of bare feet against the floor informed him that he was right. "What is it, Lloyd?" Colette's head poked its way into the doorframe, her golden hair reaching down towards the floor, her blue eyes wide and questioning.

"You left Animal Crossing on," he answered, waving the Switch in the air.

Her eyes lit up in understanding. "Oh. You know what to do, right?"

Control the playable character and put her to sleep, then save the game. He'd done it before.

"Yeah, but, I was thinking... I haven't taken a walk on your island since last year. How about I take another tour while you're in the bathroom? If you're okay with it, of course."

"Oh, sure! I trust you." Colette smiled sweetly, turning to leave before pausing and turning back. "But remember -"

"- remember not to step on the flowers." Lloyd finished her sentence easily, stating that fact very seriously. He knew about Colette's concerns about her precious flowers, which she’d spent hours arranging around her little island until they were in just the right spot - fields of rainbows to welcome any guests and guide them around. He hadn't known that the stems of the flowers could break from being trampled multiple times when he first explored her quaint world - the fictional flowers were just as fragile as their real-life counterparts. He’d kept that in mind ever since, adding it to the many rules to follow to ensure no harm came to all the hard work Colette had put in to make her island perfect.

"Yep. Um…” Colette wrung her hands together, bowing her head so her hair formed a veil over her face.

“What’s wrong?” he asked, taking a step towards her.

“No, nothing’s wrong!” Colette hurriedly replied, lifting her head again. She screwed her eyes shut, hands clenching into fists. “I - uh, just wanted to say… I love you!”

The last three words came out in a shout, so quick that he almost didn’t catch them.

Lloyd froze, trying to process what he’d just heard - and before he could reply, Colette was already gone, having fled down the corridor and out of sight.

He slowly shut his mouth, which he hadn’t even realised was open.

This was the first time she’d said those coveted three words since they'd started dating. Her voice had been dripping with uncertainty, her posture betraying her shyness, but no matter how contradictory, she’d said it with sincerity, with all her heart. And even though he didn't need to hear them from her to know she loved him, for it was actions that counted, and certainly didn't need to hear them from her for him to love her, it still made him smile, his whole soul filled with a light warmth.

They’d travelled such a long way from all the checkpoints in life that they'd passed together. They still had a long way to go, but they’d do it together. As they always had.

"I love you too, silly," he said into empty space, knowing Colette couldn't hear him but wanting to say it anyway.

Lloyd unlocked the Switch screen, staring down at Colette's intricate creation. Flowers filled the screen, black, grey, white, purple, that he found familiar but couldn't put a name to. Oh, well. He would just tour the island and check out any new changes while he walked to the living room and waited for Colette to come back. Maybe he'd visit the town centre as well.

The most vital question to be answered was... Had Colette gotten those froggy chairs that she wanted for the townspeople?

~~~

Next chapter

#fanfiction #multi chapter #lloyd irving #colette brunel #colloyd #colloydweek2021 #day 2: sidequest #tales of symphonia

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scoutception · 4 years ago

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Ys VI: The Ark of Napishtim review

After the release of Ys II, and the conclusion of the original story of the Ys games, the series went through a bit of a rough period, as the next three entries were, less than ideal. Ys III: Wanderers from Ys changed the gameplay from the topdown, bump combat gameplay to a sidescroller reminiscent of Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, and rather fittingly ended up as the black sheep of the series. Ys IV went back to the bump system, but rather confusingly released as two separate games by two separate developers, neither of them Falcom; The Dawn of Ys by Hudson Soft for the PC Engine CD, and the far inferior Mask of the Sun by Tonkin House for the SNES. Finally, Ys V: Lost Kefin, Kingdom of Sand was released for the SNES, by Falcom themselves, and in its attempts to evolve from the bump combat, had become something that barely resembled Ys in gameplay, graphics, or music. While none of these games were outright bad, and The Dawn of Ys in particular is held up as the best of the classic Ys games, the series just couldn’t properly commit to a direction to take the series next, and Falcom put the series to rest after V’s release for a while, barring the Ys I and II Eternal remakes. Finally, though, in 2003, 8 years after Ys V’s release, the series was finally given a new game, one that would finally carve out the evolution of the series’ gameplay, and allow it to confidently continue even to the present day. This is Ys VI: The Ark of Napishtim, easily the most important game in the series other than the original two. As for how it pulled it off, and how it holds up, that’s what we’re checking out today. The version I played is the PC version, available through Steam and GOG.

Story: 6 years since the events of Ys I and II, Adol Christin, accompanied by his now long time companion Dogi, has since become a legend throughout the continent of Eresia for his exploits. One day, Adol is reunited with Terra, an ally of his from Ys V, who has since become a member of a pirate crew led by her father, Ladock. Adol and Dogi accompany the pirate crew to investigate the Canaan Islands, a mysterious set of islands surrounded by the Great Vortex, a perpetual vortex that destroys any ship that draws near (basically just the Bermuda Triangle). Unfortunately, the ship is attacked by the fleet of the Romun Empire (no guesses as to who they’re based off of), and Adol is swept into the Great Vortex while saving Terra during the chaos, once again proving Adol should never be trusted to get on a boat. Adol washes up on Quatera Island, which is inhabited by the Rehda, a race of long eared and tailed people who worship the goddess Alma, who is of the same race as the goddesses of Ys. Adol is saved by Olha, the priestess of the Rehda, and Isha, Olha’s little sister, but soon discover that outsiders such as him, several of whom have built a town on a neighboring island, are distrusted by the Rehda, and that leaving the Canaan Islands is impossible due to the Great Vortex. After saving Isha from a strange monster known as a “Wandering Calamity”, however, Adol gains the respect of the Rehda and is gifted a sword made of emelas, a magical ore used extensively by the Rehda. Setting out to the Eresian made town of Port Rimorge and meeting with Raba, a returning ally from Ys I, Adol sets out to discover the secrets of the Canaan Islands and find a way to dispel the Great Vortex, soon encountering three malicious fairies with control over monsters, and a mysterious mercenary named Geis, who seems to know far more about the islands than he lets on.

While it’s actually a pretty unusual plot setup compared to most RPG stories, it’s pretty lacking in execution, simply because the plot just isn’t present for most of the game. By the time the main antagonist, Ernst, makes an appearance, and things besides just running around collecting plot items are happening, it’s just too little, too late, which leaves the ending of the game more than a bit unmemorable. Still, the writing has the typical Falcom charm, and the various NPCs actually have a lot to say over the course of the game, if you care about that sort of thing, like me. There’s not much more for me to say, so let’s just move right on.

Gameplay: Ys VI, as the first 3D game in the series, plays quite a bit different from the games that came before, yet unlike previous games, finally makes it feel like a proper evolution from the original duology, though it’s actually based heavily on Ys V. The bump combat is gone for good, with Adol now having a dedicated attack button, along with a jump button for some rather meager platforming. Adol’s moveset isn’t very impressive at first, only consisting of a 3 slash combo, a jump slash, a down thrust, and a lunge attack, but over the course of the game, he acquires 3 different elemental swords, each with an additional move and magical spell after being charged up. While shields and armor can be bought or found as usual, the swords instead need to be upgraded at Port Rimorge with emel, a resource dropped by enemies. Upgrading the swords not only increase their attack power, but gradually unlock new abilities as well. There are also accessories, with effects ranging from a simple boost to attack and defense, to increasing the amount of gold or emel dropped by enemies, to providing immunity to status effects, and so forth. While Adol only has one accessory slot to start, certain treasure chests throughout the game will bestow additional slots, up to a max of 5.

Unlike the original duology, Adol can no longer regenerate health by standing still, barring the use of an endgame accessory, nor can you save anywhere. Instead, saving is done at monuments scattered out all across the different areas of the game, which also restore Adol’s health to max and cures him of any status effects. Beyond that, however, Adol can carry several different healing items of varying strengths, which can either be purchased from merchants or dropped by enemies, and you’ll be needing them. Even on nightmare difficulty, Ys VI is on the easier side compared to a lot of other Ys games, but it’s still a struggle in its own right, just for the exact wrong reasons, mostly due to the lack of the refinements found in the other Ys games that use Ys VI’s engine. There are many enemies that utterly obnoxious, whether from flying in the air and being difficult to hit, using projectiles, or dealing very difficult to avoid collision damage, and Adol’s moveset isn’t versatile enough to deal with this, meaning, in classic Ys fashion, you’re going to be doing a lot of grinding to get anywhere, whether it be grinding levels or emel. The grinding isn’t nearly as long or boring as in a lot of RPGs, but it can still be irritating, especially in nightmare mode, where you need to do an absolutely unreasonable amount of it to get anywhere due to how much health even the lowliest enemies have. Status effects can also be an annoyance. They consist of poison, which saps health over time, heavy, which severely reduces Adol’s running speed and jumping height, confusion, which reverses your controls, and curse, which reduces Adol’s attack power. All of these except curse fade over time, can be prevented or cured with accessories, and can be cured with certain items, but the problem is that enemies that can inflict these effects do so way too often, and most often appear at a point where you have a good deal of more useful accessories, and too few slots to really manage them on top of this. Hardly a game breaking issue, but still one you’ll likely feel, especially since heavy can outright stunlock you, depending on the enemy.

The areas and dungeons you go through aren’t anything special, for the most part, being pretty linear and basic in design, but there are a few that stick out negatively, namely the Ruins of Lost Time, with some very aggressive and dangerous enemies, along with items that can only be reached with the very finicky dash jump technique, something’s nearly impossible to perform using the mouse, with keyboard or controller being the only reasonable options, along with the overly long and mazelike Limewater Cave, containing many of the game’s most annoying enemies. Bosses, on the other hand, tend to be a much more enjoyable time, thanks to having actual, understandable patterns that make them much more reasonable to take on, and there’s some pretty interesting and fun concepts among them, from a giant hopping, spinning robot that gradually destroys the safe ground as the fight goes on, to an ancient statue that hangs out in the background and can only be significantly damaged by magic, to the difficult multi phase fight with Galba-Roa, and especially the duel with the empowered Ernst. They’re legitimately intense fights, yet rarely feel unfair, and are by far the biggest highlight of the game. There’s even some optional bosses that reward you with accessories, or simply give you a large boost in EXP, though they’re among the less well designed fights.

Finally, some of the changes made by Xseed for the English PC version are worth taking note of. Firstly, and most importantly, the item Alma’s Wing, which was formerly merely an item used for escaping dungeons, has instead been given the functionality of warping between monuments, something that saves a tremendous amount of backtracking, especially during the actually quite rewarding sidequests. Secondly, a new gameplay mode is available, separate from difficulty options, called Catastrophe mode. In Catastrophe mode, healing items cannot be kept in the inventory, and any normally found in treasure chests have been replaced. Instead, any that are dropped by enemies are used automatically on pickup, making the gameplay a bit more like The Oath in Felghana and Ys Origin. As compensation for this loss, stat boosting seeds are available to purchase from merchants in unlimited quantities, allowing you to boost your stats far past what you’d be able to achieve normally, if you have the patience to grind the money for them. While it’s an interesting mode in concept, the game really isn’t balanced around not having inventory healing items, which can make for a pretty frustrating time. Overall, though, while there’s certainly a good deal of flaws that were ironed out in later games, the gameplay of Ys VI is still quite a bit of fun. It successfully translates the simple fun of blazing through a bunch of enemies, and despite the annoyances, it’s surprisingly addicting.

Graphics: Ys VI uses a mix of prerendered sprites for characters and enemies and polygonal environments, a style also used in the Trails in the Sky games. While it’s hardly aged the best, it has a charm to it that keeps it appealing. Bosses, on the other hand, are rendered in surprisingly decent polygonal graphics. The artstyle used for character portraits isn’t anything special, but they’re well drawn nonetheless, and every NPC gets one of their own, which definitely adds some more life to them all.

Music: Ys VI’s soundtrack, composed by members of the Music Sound Team jdk, namely Wataru Ishibashi and Hayato Sonoda, at least according to the credits, is, in Falcom tradition, a blast. While on an overall, it’s not quite as memorable as, say, the soundtracks to the original games, or The Oath in Felghana, the tracks that stand out are fantastic. Some of my favorites are Quatera Woods, the titular theme for the first area in the game, Mighty Obstacle, the standard boss theme, Mountain Zone, the theme of the first dungeon, Defend! And Escape!, the theme for the game’s obligatory escort mission, and Ernst’s titular boss theme.

Conclusion: Overall, Ys VI makes for a rather odd game in the series, even to write about. In a way, it’s an odd jack of all trades, at least among the games using its engine. It’s not as difficult as most in the series, and is still much more accessible than the games made before it, but its lack of polish and plain frustrating design compared to later games can make it difficult to recommend in comparison, especially to newcomers. Overall, however, I’d still give it a recommended. It still manages to be a fun ride on its own that doesn’t overstay its welcome, and if nothing else absolutely deserves appreciation for putting the series on the right path forward. Till next time. -Scout

#game review #ys #falcom #jrpg #long post #xseed games

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gamex2020 · 4 years ago

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Saturn Games

12 Sega Saturn Games All Gamers Should Play

After the 16-bit console war between Sega and Nintendo, Sega started to noticeably lag behind. However, just because consoles like the Saturn and the Dreamcast weren’t extremely successful in sales doesn’t mean their library was lacking in awesome and weird genre-bending titles.

Not every franchise got to “graduate” from the fifth-generation of consoles, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t fantastic. Modern gamers might not know much about these, but these are truly memorable Games From Sega’s console-exclusive heyday. Get your hands on these games however you can; they’re really unique experiences on a very distinctive console.

Guardian Heroes

Before Castle Crashers showed off how fun a beat-em-up can be with RPG mechanics and simple combos, there was Guardian Heroes. This game was well-received when it originally came out on the Saturn, but now, it’s largely forgotten. The series has a spinoff on the GBA and a port to Xbox 360/Xbox One, but other than that, there’s been no word of a sequel or revival–not even a rumor.

The game controls like a fighting game with juggle combos, aerials, special moves, and a mana bar. There are only six characters playable in the story mode (two unlockable), but there are fun multiplayer versus modes to mess around with. After defeating a character in the story mode, they’re unlocked for use in multiplayer, and the combos can get pretty crazy with six concurrent players.

Dragon Force

Dragon Force is from an era where “RTS/Tactics RPG” wasn’t that unique of a genre. Nowadays, we have Fire Emblem, but Dragon Force was smack-dab in the middle of a golden age of Langrisser, Fire Emblem, Final Fantasy Tactics, and many other SRPG hits.

Something that sets Dragon Force apart from its peers is that it focuses on large-scale battles instead of small-scale ones. The fights aren’t duels like in Fire Emblem; generals can collide with 100 troops on each side, duking it out in skirmishes. Time passes in “weeks,” which lets the plot advance while you make out-of-battle decisions.

The game sold well at the time, but its sequel (also on the Saturn) never left Japan. No one spoke much about this game after the Sega Saturn kicked the bucket, which is a real shame; Dragon Force is a true diamond in the rough.

Astal

Action platformers were falling out of vogue by the time the Sega Saturn hit the stores. Astal, however, came out early in the system’s lifespan, and was still able to capitalize on the craze. The titular character Astal can grab and throw objects or enemies. He can also slam the ground and blow big gusts of air. On top of that, he has a super meter that commands his bird companion to bounce around, knocking out all enemies on screen.

This is a fun asymmetric co-op game, too. The second player plays as Astal’s bird companion, instead of just a palette-swapped version of Astal. The bird has his own unique set of attacks, making this game worth checking out with a friend.

Astal is short, but has challenging gameplay backed up by a unique hand-drawn aesthetic. Many indie games nowadays use hand-drawn graphics as a selling point, but it was really rare during the fifth console generation. The main character has had cameos in other Sega games since, but there’s no word of a sequel, revival, or crossover with another franchise.

Mr. Bones

At its core, Mr. Bones is an action platformer about a reanimated skeleton that can lose and regain limbs instead of using health or lives. That’s not totally accurate, though; certain levels were based on non-platforming genres, with rhythm game elements, Breakout-style gameplay, or perspective changes. It’s more like Lawnmower Man on the SNES rather than Castlevania.

The first run-through of the game is extremely silly and fun, especially going in blind. Getting used to the “skeletism” meter to replace the traditional health meter takes some getting used to, but it creates a fun sub-game of trying to hang onto all your bones. It really sucks not having your legs and being unable to jump in a platformer. Mega Man wouldn’t be as fun if he had to climb on the ground with his arms–but that’s part of what makes Mr. Bones so hilarious.

Mr. Bones had a very polarized reception, with some critics praising how much variety there was in gameplay while some others would have just preferred a normal platformer. This isn’t the greatest platformer of all time, but sometimes it’s just worth playing a game where the developers threw caution to the wind and put in every single gameplay function they felt like.

Policenauts

Before Hideo Kojima made Metal Gear Solid, he was making story-focused adventure games for a variety of platforms. After finishing the cult cyberpunk game Snatcher, he set to work on Policenauts, a sci-fi story about astronauts that are also law enforcement officials. It came to the PlayStation, the PC-9821, the 3DO, and of course, the Saturn.

Policenauts is like a cross between a point-and-click adventure game and a visual novel. It’s interactive, and requires the player to be a good detective and figure out the right dialog options to select and the right items to interact with. The Saturn version is also considered superior to other ports because it has first-person light gun segments not seen elsewhere.

There is an unofficial translation patch available for the Saturn, which uses dialog from an earlier fan translation for the PlayStation. If you want to see where Kojima honed his writing chops, play Policenauts. You’ll be the cool person that’s already played it once it gets an HD remaster.

Note that this came was never released in the U.S. and can only be played on Japanese Sega Saturn Consoles!

Princess Crown

Do you like classic beat-em-ups? How about collectible armor and items? Do you like a cutesy anime style backed up by serious gameplay? What about classic RPG enemies and locations with high-quality pixel art? If you answered yes to any of these, pick up Princess Crown.

Princess Crown is the brainchild of Capcom veteran George Kamitani. Because it was released near the end of the Saturn’s lifespan, it was a commercial failure, which led to Kamitani getting blacklisted in the games industry. He later went on to found Vanillaware, which re-established him as a developer.

Princess Crown’s core gameplay went on to spawn many spiritual successors, such as Odin Sphere, Muramasa: The Demon Blade, and Dragon’s Crown, all made by Kamitani. It’s great for the industry to have specialists like him.

Note that this came was never released in the U.S. and can only be played on Japanese Sega Saturn Consoles!

Mystaria: The Realms of Lore/Blazing Heroes

If you’re a fan of classic grid-based tactics RPGs, give Mystaria a try. The graphical limitations of the Saturn give it a unique, blocky, and vibrant aesthetic. There’s twelve special characters for you to get, and the story changes depending on who you want to recruit first. The story is not that complex, but being non-linear is a huge plus for keeping gamers engaged.

The menu system for navigating combat is cumbersome at first, but once you get the hang of it, it’s fluid and fast. Plus, there’s a first-person camera mode, which is novel and weird. Try to play it in that mode, because you can’t get that in many other tactics RPGs.

Take a look at Mystaria if you feel like seeing what was once considered “next generation.” The game might seem archaic or underdeveloped now, but when it was released, Mystaria heralded what RPGs were going to look like, with 3D spells and effects backed up by camera changes to create cinematic fights.

Mystaria was released in North America as Blaze Heroes; they are the same game!

Crusader: No Remorse

There aren’t many games by Western developers on this list, but Crusader: No Remorse has definitely earned its entry. It uses pre-rendered graphics with an isometric perspective, much like the original Fallout or Diablo games. The gameplay, however, focuses on shooting, action, and interactable environments rather than RPG mechanics.

The environment destruction and playability is really where this game shines. There are alarm switches, non-combatants, puzzles, and a perspective that supports tactical gameplay rather than run-and-gun shooting. Most of the objects you see can either be destroyed or turned on your enemies in creative ways. If there’s a trap set for you, you can set it for somebody else.

There’s a sequel titled Crusader: No Regret, but it is only on MS-DOS. The first Crusader is actually recognized as an inspiration to the Fallout team. If you’re a fan of post-apocalyptic Western games, No Remorse is worth playing alone just for its contribution to the genre.

Die Hard Arcade/Dynamite Deka

Die Hard Arcade isn’t extremely faithful to the movie it’s based on, but the liberties it takes are genius. To start with, it’s a beat ‘em up that focuses on fighting game-style combos and improvised weapons. It also uses texture mapping that gives it a realistic feel, not unlike the sports games of the era.

Beat ‘em ups were falling out of favor at the time (much like tournament fighters and 2D platformers), but Die Hard Arcade kept things fresh. It’s got classic mainstays of the genre, like end-level bosses and two-player co-op, and the game brings with it a simple 3D setting and a boatload of attack options.

It’s short, but you’ll be happy to play it again and again, using new weapons and trying new combos. It’s really hard to beat crime bosses on the head with a broomstick. (Plus, Dynamite Cop on the Dreamcast is a great sequel, even though the setting is obviously different.)

Last Bronx

Last Bronx is, in many ways, a distinctly Japanese game. The setting is an alternate-future Tokyo where gangs and criminals rule. It’s a 3D fighting game that plays a lot like Virtua Fighter, but without ringouts. All of the characters and locations are unmistakably Japanese, with little room for the “worldwide fighting” variety the genre usually features.

Even though gamers in North America didn’t give the game too much attention, it was an instant classic in Japan. Casual gamers loved the variety of modes, the weapon-based gameplay, and the fluid animation. The graphics are better on the arcade, but the Saturn version is no slouch.

If you end up liking the game, there’s comics, a novel, radio dramas, and even movies to go along with it. Don’t bother watching the movie if you’re not a fan of the game, though…it’s pretty rough.

Magic Carpet

Peter Molyneux is popular these days for two things: over-promising on series like Fable, and getting mistaken for Stefan Molyneux. In his heyday, he was the king of making solid games with innovative aspects, like Black and White. Even before that, though, he worked on Bullfrog’s Magic Carpet.

The title describes it pretty perfectly. It’s a 3D flying game where you control–you guessed it–a magic carpet. The goal is to destroy monsters, collect their magic mana, and use it to build up a castle in each level.

The game is subtle, smooth, and some pretty simple fun. It’s great for zoning out with the lights off, flying around in the early-polygonal 3D environments and enjoying the sprites and spells. It probably won’t end up being your new favorite game of all time, but it’s a unique experience for the Saturn.

Theme Park

No one needs to be told that Roller Coaster Tycoon is a great series, and they’re undoubtedly some of the greatest games of all time. Before there was RCT, there was a game simply titled Theme Park, developed by Peter Molyneux and his crew at Bullfrog Productions.

The gameplay is self-explanatory for anyone familiar with the sim genre. Set up your rides and manage the logistics of the park. Try your best to keep it clean, keep it profitable, and most importantly, keep yourself from getting addicted. There are some elements in this game that aren’t seen often in other sim games, like managing the park’s financial stocks and negotiating business deals. Once you’ve made enough money on one park, you can auction it off and make another on a new plot of land.

Theme Park saw high critical acclaim upon release. Even though there were plenty of sim games sprouting during the fifth generation, Theme Park had a playful aesthetic and wasn’t as serious as Sim City or other competitors. Like many other sim games, it was developed with PC gaming in mind, but the console ports (including the Saturn) are just as smooth.

#Saturn Games #sega saturn games #Sell Video Games #Get Free Video Game #video games #gamex

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eunique · 5 years ago

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When I posted the unit art of Eun on my main blog, I completely forgot the other stuff so I'll just throw in all the details here. I won't be including stats because I'm super lazy.

Imperial Lotus Eun

Element: Water

Rarity: Omni

Summon: "Even if Elgaia is safe, I still have my duties as an Elder Summoner to fulfill. Summoner, how may I be of assistance?"

Fusion: "My head feels a little heavy... Oh! Don't worry about me too much! Just give me a minute and I'll be fine!"

Evolution: "A lot has happened. One big journey and I wouldn't have done it without them. I wonder what the next big adventure will be this time?"

Brave Burst: Ice Blade

Super Brave Burst: Lunar Wave

Ultimate Brave Burst: Imperial Blade - Lotus Blizzard

Unit Lore: After an incredibly long expedition and being dubbed the "Legendary Summoner", Eun took some time away from her duties to travel around different worlds with a certain goddess before returning to her duties as an Elder Summoner. Eventually, she also made peace with herself and her guilt over the loss of her parents which only led her to grow even more as a summoner and her skills flourished even more in the battlefield. Eun now spends the majority of her time balancing work on the front lines and office work, mostly taking care of the trainees that enter the Summoners' Hall. The trainees have yet to see Eun's prowess on the battlefield first hand and those who had the rare chance to see it tends to slightly over exaggerate her powers when in reality, it's simply a genetic mutation with her magic that causes her base magic to influx to around double the average summoner's.

BF2 Xbb's because why not?

And I also really can't be fucked making a whole new post :p

Imperial Lotus Eun + Goddess Tilith: Heavenly Blade

These two have known each other right from the beginning of the expedition and have remained very close ever since. A bond of friendship that is unbreakable and it shows on the battlefield. Despite the polar opposites of their position in the battlefield with Tilith being more support based while Eun is offence based, the balance between offence and support has made these two ladies essentially the yin and yang.

Brave Ice Karl + Imperial Lotus Eun + Code Archer Sky: Subzero

A combo bonded by family, this trio put together are a real force to be reckoned with. With Karl and Sky's demon powers paired with Eun's power influx, this is a combo that can cause some serious destruction. With Sky taking on her father's demon genetics as well as taking on the bow and arrow, the trio is able to achieve both ranged and melee attacks, constantly watching out for each other.

#bf2 #bf1 #sky #karl #eun #tilith #it only occured to me that i forgot all the other details whoops!#and while typing this ive FINALLY thought of a ship name for Karl and Eun #its gonna be Imperial Dragon since it plays on aspects from both. karls is straightforward but euns is more abstract #it plays into her cultural background hence the Imperial part #bf stuff #lyx rambles

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taww · 4 years ago

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Review: Valvet Soulshine Tube Preamplifier by MGD

Marty DeWulf passed away about a month after submitting this review. His work was always an inspiration to me and it was a privilege to share his thoughts on this hobby he loved so much. RIP Marty - you are missed.

There was a time when two high-end audio companies dominated the conversation and the market regarding tube electronics. In the 1970s, Audio Research and conrad-johnson were the first, last and every word when it came to valves. There were other small tube manufacturers around, but they were basically garage-based start-ups, poorly financed with minimal budgets and little business savvy. It was a world populated by solid state and companies carrying the flag for “modern” transistor designs. It seems ironic that back in the 1970s when transistors were so predominant, they sounded their worst… the format was much less than mature.

Related Reading:

First Take Review: Valvet Soulshine Preamplifier & A4 Mk.II Amplifier

Thumbing through a current audiophile publication today, whether it be online or in the pages of a magazine, tube products abound. They come with names from companies I’ve never heard of before, and from faraway places. Go away for a few years and the scenery changes drastically… I feel so old. Fortunately, I’m still friends with @taww, who sends me stuff to listen to and write about. When I first talked to him years ago he wasn’t a fan of tube gear. If I recall, he thought valves to be totally inaccurate and euphonic sounding. [Okay, maybe that’s a little harsh, but yes I strongly preferred solid state accuracy.] I too, was a solid state guy. The dynamic range, frequency extension and clarity of modern solid state electronics have had me on their side for many years. But then, I heard the Monarchy M24 tube DAC and saw it as a true head turner with its tube section. [So did I! I bought my Monarchy NM24 review unit and it was my reference DAC for years, tubes and all.]

The Monarchy wasn’t the first great tube product in my experience. I’d reviewed a tube preamp from Musical Designs that was a budget wonder, and over the years I’d heard a number of Audio Research products that seemed to bridge the gap between reality and sonic illusion in palpable ways. [Don’t forget Audible Illusions and Joule Electra, I remember you liked those too.] Some very fine tube products had served to weaken my wall of valve resistance and solid state preference, so much so, that I would eventually purchase an all tube preamp from SAS, as did fellow BFS writer Rich Weiner. Still, when it came down to absolutes; dynamic edges, front to back transparency, frequency extension and tonal trueness, my overall preferences always lead me down the road of the better solid state units, the Pass Labs XP10 for example.

When @miy-taww suggested that I audition the tube preamplifier from Valvet certain expectations immediately arose; it’s a tube preamp after all. In certain ways, valves are valves and they behave predictably, especially basic designs such as the Valvet. He gave me a rundown of the circuit employed and the choice of tubes. A picture of the unit’s performance was forming in my head even before my ears had heard it. The Soulshine preamplifier from Valvet (USD $5,890) was unique to me in several ways. Handmade in Germany, its parts selection was insanely high with premium resistors and exotic caps in abundance, all hand-wired with solid-core silver. It looked to be a new interpretation of an old theme.

[Note: An upgraded version, the Soulshine IIz ($8,890), is now available. The original Soulshine reviewed here is still available on order for $5,890 through its US distributor, Alfred Kainz of highend-electronics.]

Design & Operation

A few words about the physical construction of the Soulshine. Like so many quality preamps before it, the Soulshine has a separate chassis for its power supply and control sections. Constructed of thicker than the usual aluminum billet, the appearance is low slung, clean and high tech. I like the way it looks. The front face, following the theme of clean futurism, has a chrome knob for the stepped-attenuator volume control and another for input selection (four line-level inputs, one of which is balanced XLR). To the right of the volume control is a window with numeric volume level displayed with blue LEDs; with one number for both channels, there is no way of setting left to right balance. The tradeoff is one less control in the signal path.

The rear panel of the preamp allows for single ended as well as balanced operation, though @miy-taww informed me that the internal circuit is not truly balanced even when using the balanced connectors. [ On closer examination, it appeared that the inverting half of the balanced signal is referenced to signal ground internally. @miy-taww ] On an operational note, I consistently had to allow the preamp about 30 minutes warm-up time at the beginning of each listening session to obtain its best.

The Soulshine has a remote control for volume changes while its listener is firmly planted in a comfy listening chair. Unlike my last experience with a tube preamp employing remote volume control, the Valvet was quiet, responsive and easy to use. This is the way a remote should be configured – simple and easy to use. The lone problem I had with operating the Valvet came from trying to find the on/off switch…. which took me an embarrassingly long time to find (hint, it’s underneath the power supply).

Sonics

Having a pre-established vision of what the Valvet would sound like before it even arrived, I can now report that my expectations were only partially right. First off, let me mention the output impedance of the Valvet is 400 Ohms. Because of that, the input impedance of the power amp you are using is not going to impact the sonics of the preamp substantially. What I didn’t expect were the results obtained by using amps with high, medium and low input impedances; the preamp performed consistently regardless of the amplifier used. Frequency extremes stayed relatively consistent with each amp used. That was a big surprise. What did change was stage size as I went from one amp to another. With the Pass Labs XA30.5′s lowish input impedance (30 kOhms balanced, 15 kOhms unbalanced), the soundstage was somewhat smaller and a bit laid back. Going up in impedance resulted in a nominally larger stage and slightly deeper bass response, but little else.

Let me talk about the Valvet with the low input impedance Pass Labs amp. I didn’t expect these two products to work well at all, but the combo proved almost hypnotic sounding as my initial auditions with the two lasted far longer than anticipated. The performance with the Pass wasn’t so much like having the instruments and singers in the room, a phenomenon I’ve come to expect with my Pass amp and preamp combo. With the Pass and the Valvet it was slightly more distant, while still being super vivid, substantial and picturesque. It was almost like listening to an aural View-Master. Remember the toy from the 60s? It has two eye holes and a lever to press that advanced a round disc with photos that presented to each eye a slightly different version of a scene, usually outdoors, that resulted in the user seeing an almost unrealistically vivid, 3D, and real appearing vista. The sense of 3D depth was stunning using the Valvet and Pass with dense color tones and detailing that resulted in a reach out and touch it quality, a rare synergy between a solid state amp with a valve preamp. It was like being there, except on a smaller scale, a scale in which reality seemed to fit on a smaller stage. The Valvet preamp with the Pass amp was very much like the View-Master. It had a superbly grainless presentation with depth and dimension galore. I thought about how photos of Yosemite in my View-Master seemed like being there one frame at a time – just smaller. Listening to Red Norvo’s, Forward Look struck me as a less-than-forward look at the performance that was in every other way as alive and dimensionally solid as my old Yosemite View-Master images.

View-Master ad, c. 1955 (source: Santa Barbara Museum of Art)

Dynamics were proportional to image size with good edge and bite, though not to the extent I expect from the best solid state preamps. Interestingly, while large bass and kettle drums when struck with the Valvet didn’t have the visceral punch of my Pass preamp, the Valvet conveyed as much big drum volume as any preamp I’ve ever heard. Going to power amps with input impedances higher than that of the Pass, such as my rebuilt Dayton Wright 500 (75 kOhms), increased the size of the soundstage, brought it forward, while causing the same to be ever so slightly less dense.

Purity. Whereas solid state preamps seem to more easily engender the quality of transparency, sometimes to the extreme, the best tube preamps in my experience have a quality I prefer to call purity. It’s a feeling thing, a sensation that one preamp feels more like “transparency” and the other feels more like “purity.” Yes, that’s a cop out. Then again, I’m not sure I’m capable of defining the two in such a manner so as to come up with a better definition of the two terms. Presently, I use transparency and purity with the understanding that with time, the two might eventually define themselves with some clarity. I fear that the difference in the two terms is more of a gut feeling rather than something clearly tangible emanating from the Webster’s dictionary. Let’s work on this.

Listening to Judy Collins “Send in the Clowns” [Tidal, Qobuz], the Valvet swims in a feeling of humanity - a female life was in the room singing in a form and fashion that highlighted inflection and elemental emotion over power or presence. Not that power and presence were not there, they were, but those qualities were subservient to the sensation of un-hyped reality; a reality formed and fashioned around the sensation of the tangible. It’s a reality that the previous tube preamp covered by me missed in total. The midrange rightness of the Valvet makes all of the exciting details of the music come to the fore, while never seeming to observe the performance through a microscope. Extreme transparency, on the other hand, not only draws attention to itself, but forces the listener, on many occasions, to focus his/her attention on aspects of the performance that are sometimes less than musical. The performance takes on less importance than the sonic fireworks used to stimulate the senses of the listener. Take your pick; the Valvet, though transparent in the best sense of the word, is more pure in its intentions and performance than almost any other preamp I’ve auditioned.

Comparing the Valvet to my Pass Labs XP10 preamp ($5,250 before being replaced by the XP12) resulted in exactly the results one might expect. These two preamps are of unquestionable quality, each passing the signal sent to it as close to perfect as one could want. But they differ, and the careful listener has no difficulty telling the one from the other. I might describe them as saying that where they converge on a singular sound, neither sounds too much like the other; they maintain their individual characters while each seeks a somewhat different though idealized vision of reality. Yes, I’ll give the frequency extremes to the Pass, even the highest highs. Gross dynamics have a small advantage with the Pass also, though it is a minimal advantage. Where they differ, and where the Valvet will have an advantage to some ears is in the area of midrange coherence and that mystery word “purity.” And while the Pass also strikes me as having a high degree of purity in its reproduction, the Valvet goes there in spades, swooping up the listener in a tsunami of musical coherence. The lens of the Valvet is one of musicality, but also of great organic texture, heart and warmth. Now, these later qualities are also found with the Pass - it too delivers a wonderfully picturesque portrayal of the performance - but the Pass tends toward back-of-the-stage “air” and transparency, and the Valvet toward purity. A logical case can be made for either preamp, and I loved listening to both, but I feel the Pass appeals more to my mind as the Valvet harkens more to my heart. Combine the purity of the Valvet with its View-Master spatial qualities, and this preamp conjures up my first memories of auditioning the original SP-10 from Audio Research, so advanced it sounded and how it stood out from other tube preamps I had heard back then.

Conclusion

If you tend toward tube preamps and yet are unwilling to live with some of their greater failings, the Valvet is a marvelous place to go. The price is not unsubstantial, but when compared to some of the more insanely priced products out there that don’t sound as good, this is a fine place to end up. Thanks to Valvet distributor Alfred Kainz of highend-electronics and @miy-taww for allowing me the opportunity to audition this marvelous device.

#review #preamplifier #tubes #vacuum tube #audio #audiophile

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artificialqueens · 5 years ago

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learning to be silent (multi) — chapter five - Roza

[ summary ] : the race for the grand prix final continues as the free dance begins and winds down the competition in france for the ladies. brooke is praying to come back from a disappointing result and sasha can't help but let her emotions get to her.

[ author's note ] : this took SO long to update but I swear : I had school, I had my month and a half sold out musical run that I miss beyond belief already, more theatre, model un, crazy month. finally on break however and I can finally update!

(*˘︶˘*).｡*♡ / AO3 / My Tumblr

— *.✧

"Sasha, do you think you're going to beat everyone for the gold tonight?"

"How are you feeling going into the long program, we saw you holding back during your training!"

"Вы выиграете еще одно золото для России?"

Everything was beginning to melt into place as Sasha entered the doors to the arena, turning down the volume on her wireless headphones as she nervously questioned the utter bombardment of reporters. Her coach pushing them all aside, hearing the questions become louder and louder as they moved along.

"Sasha knows anything in this sport can change in an instant and I believe she absolutely as enough for the gold, that is all the questions we will take!" Her coach yelled as they made their way to the skater's area.

It was a good day of training and then some before the Russian realized that indeed, she still had the free skate. She'd never prayed so hard to win the top spot, it be the extra push and points she needed to make her end goal meet: qualify with the Grand Prix with thirty points or two gold medals.

Sasha began to lace up and tighten her skates as she made eye contact with Brooke who stood stern, arms crossed with her Canadian team jacket covering the top part of her costume which had a beautifully styled ballerina tutu. Her coach, Manila Luzon, stood idly by as she watched her spin in her sneakers, practicing her jumps on the hard surfaces knowing warmups still having some ways to go before hopping on the ice considering they'd be in the last group of girls to go.

The blonde huffed and breathed on to her hands before rubbing them together, gripping her laces together before finishing up the knots before standing and putting on her guards over the blades and blasting the music through her headphones.

She had warmed up a good three hours prior to driving over from the hotel, she felt both ready and yet absolutely horrified. The media pressure, the pressure from her coach— no matter what front was put on, she knew skating to them was about the medals and the prize money. The artistry and athletics came after that fact. Sasha couldn't lie to herself, the medals were what supported her family.

It would be 36,000$ USD if she won top spot at the podium this Grand Prix. Enough to send to her father and help him along. Sasha had enough sponsorships and publicity to make it through her own daily living and still enjoy herself.

"Sash!"

Wincing, she lowered the volume on her headphones as she heard both her name being called and the announcers beginning the presets to begin the free skate competition. Finally looking to her left she gasped and immediately ran over to Shea who had her arms wide open with a small laugh, a grin placed widely across her lips. The two held hands firmly as the first group was beginning to take to the ice and start warming up on the rink.

Another sold out crowd, for an arena of over 5,000 it was certainly pact out with lots of domestic and international fans. Shea adjusted the collar on her jacket as she took out an earbud, "I can sense you're nervous, your hands are very shaky."

The American gently rubbed her wrist as the Russian smiled genuinely, her cheeks flushed as she laughed nervous for the day that was to be ahead.

"You shouldn't be nervous, you'll blow us all away as you always do. I have no doubts."

Her fingers curled around her blonde hair as she giggled at Shea, the American seeming calm and confident in both of their abilities. Admitting to Sasha that she hoped they would once again be the top two.

"Expect maybe this time I'll beat you."

"We'll see about that."

— *.✧

Manila rubbed the Canadian's shoulders as she took a deep breath and threw her skate guards next to her duffel bag. The whispers from her coach only for her motivation and willpower, the white strands scattered throughout her black hair bouncing as she passionately spoke towards her skater.

"I believe in you so much, this is what you were born to do and there's a reason I wanted you to do the program I first started with as a senior— you're a ballet dancer first and foremost and I wanted this music and gorgeous costume to reflect that."

The blonde nodded though her eyes must've shown nothing but absolute panic and fear as her coach groaned and jumped, clutching her shoulders, "Make yourself proud this time, think of all the effort you've put into this skate and this sport, don't let one stumble yesterday let you go down please. I rhinestoned the fuck out of this, please." Brooke had to giggle as she wiped her eyes and gave a kind gaze, gripping her hand before letting go and hearing the announcer, immediately skating on the ice.

"Next to skate, representing Canada, Brooke Lynn Hytes."

"À côté du patin, représentant le Canada, Brooke Lynn Hytes!"

The Canadian immediately waved as she heard the screams of what must've been her supporters as well as a distinctly familiar voice that screamed, "C'mon Brooke!" She turned and smiled widely at Detox who yelled and gave her two thumbs up, knowing that she had developed this program well enough for Brooke to skate to it.

Her hands ran down the red tutu that was perfectly sewn in with the rest of the costume, the details on the chest and gloves (her personal favorite part of the costume), she finally felt her full ballet fantasy and the fact she would be skating to Don Quixote only enchanted the pure joy felt within her heart.

Do this for Canada, it's all for Canada.

She crossed her legs forward as she bowed in position, letting her arms extend behind her back as she smiled: her eyes glimmering in anticipation as she waited for the music to begin.

The first notes of the program begun as Brooke jumped to the orchestra, placing her hands in front of her in the shape of an X as she then began to step around the rink, swirling into her left foot as she did a crossover— each beat a different ballet position, she felt completely at home with such a reflective program. This music, this costume, it was quintessential Brooke Lynn Hytes.

Her skates jumped as she landed on her left foot, turning back and stretching her arms before placing them on her knee as she began to float across the ice. Kicking her legs perfectly straight in the air as the music would slow. She started to transition into her first jump: a triple toe and triple loop combo.

Brooke let the music cue her as she started her forward approach on the inside edge, switching to a backward-facing position before she felt herself takeoff, landing on her right back outside edge. Hearing the ravenous applause certainly helped her confidence as she continued with utter poise and grace. She bent to the ground and her leg kicked up, her gloves holding on to her skate. Brushing the blonde strands of hair out of her face, she then stood again and jumped in the air with a split, coming to the ice once more as she continued.

Her quad flip was next and she felt the entire music burst with her as she prepped. Beginning to take off from a back inside edge she jumped and felt herself rotate what she prayed would indeed be four times and landed on the back outside edge of her opposite foot, giving a small smile to the positively delighted audience that awaited for more.

Nailing her triple axel was easy enough but her next jump would be a quad salchow, she had been working on it all of training— getting back up from the ground each time and cheering for the few times she managed to actually land it.

The Canadian heard the violins begin to come in as she slammed her skate's toe pick in the ground as she began takeoff from the back inside edge of her right foot and rotated four times in the air before landing on the back outside edge of the opposite foot.

Holy shit.

She didn't let the complete roar of applause and flags waving stop her nearly perfect performance so far as she reached for her straightened leg and pulled it up in front of her face in a vertical angle, completing her I-Spin in the center of the rink as she continued.

Two more triple combinations stacked up before she let herself breathe knowing all that was left was to show off her flexibility and let her step sequence do all the talking. She skated perfectly clean on the edge of the ice, the music was beginning to pick up again as she started to make the rounds to finish up her program.

One last push and her fate was completely up to the judges and her free dance.

She added more jumps and splits before beginning to spin on one foot with their other leg extended behind them and above their head, forming the iconic teardrop shape that came with a Biellmann spin. It was a required element for all the ladies and Brooke was best known for it, what better way to show her extreme flexibility.

The music picked up pace as Brooke sat with one of her final moves, in a squat position she led her leg out straight and in front, toes pointed as she spun with her sit spin.

One more jump and kick before she executed her scratch spin to the ending beats, hopping over two steps before ending with the exact same position she began with as she smiled and let the music end, fully embracing the cheers and screams most noticeable to Brooke from the Canadian section of the arena as she pumped her hands in the air and laughed wanting to just jump up and down and collapse on the ground.

"Representing Canada, Brooke Lynn Hytes."

"Représentant le Canada, Brooke Lynn Hytes!"

The blonde bowed as she felt her hands almost melt on her tutu, completely immersed in sweat she blew a kiss to her mother who she nearly couldn't spot before laughing and skating off being met with a tearful Manila who couldn't stop crying and wheezing every three seconds. The duo hugged and Brooke sniffled, feeling herself finally be proud of her own program after all the breakdowns and training that came with it.

Sitting at the Kiss & Cry couches she was bombarded with a bouquet of flowers from Plastique who ran over quickly and kissed her cheeks, proud of her skating sister before Brooke held onto the flowers and whispered a prayer staring at the screen replaying all the jump footage.

"I don't think anything has been under rotated or anything, it looked fantastic." Her coach whispered as the blonde took a bobby pin from her hair with a sigh of relief.

"The scores please."

The two held hands as Brooke stared at the results waiting and hoping it was enough, she was out of the gold medal for sure: there was no way Sasha would fall that bad however, she needed Silver or Bronze for even a chance at the Grand Prix final.

"Brooke Lynn Hytes has earned in the free dance a total combined score of… 248.30 points."

Manila screamed and immediately jumped up, "What!?" She yelled, in an utter state of shock as Brooke had broken the record. From being fourth best last time this was definitely a step up in the right direction.

"She has earned a new personal best and has set a new world record."

"Brooke Lynn Hytes a obtenu en danse libre un score total combiné de 248,30 points!"

The Canadian covered her eyes in her gloves and cried, biting her tongue as Manila jumped up and down and grabbed her for the tightest hug of her life as Brooke laughed, teary eyed, at all the gasps and screams that turned into applause.

I did exactly what I wanted, I am going to win a damn medal, so help me.

Manila running off after the next skater was called, Brooke taking the top seat that was being held by Adore who now moved down one seat. The Canadian tapped her thighs as Aquaria was next to be called down to skate. She clapped for the young american though she began to feel an uneasy cloud over her; she had beaten Brooke before, there was no reason Aquaria couldn't pummel her into the ground again and leave her without a medal.

Her program music was Sleeping Beauty, another classic ballet, and of course: she had a long and flowing pink costume to match with drapes for her arms: she was stunning and her long platinum hair was completely untamed besides two braids in the front to keep the hair from her face to not fall.

"C'mon Aquafina!" Screamed the distinctly recognizable voice of Alaska from the stands as she stood close with most of the American team, rooting for her training partner.

Brooke's eyes laid only on Aquaria, watching her skate to the ballet. Her footwork was excellent and she was beyond talented though she must've been extremely nervous, her heart wasn't in the piece as much as she had shown for her short program. Every jump was clearly done with force and there was no room for her to breathe and focus with the cheers and with her coach watching.

She prepped for her quad flip but once she rotated all four times the blonde couldn't keep her stamina up and fell on her side with a hard thud. Much to the dismay of her coach and all those around her who were rooting for the young girl, Brooke gasped as Adore groaned in horror.

"C'mon Aquaria…" the American grumbled beside her in horrific anticipation. The blonde quickly recovered and continued a smooth program though Brooke noticed the apparent mumbles when Aquaria must've underrotated her Quad into a Triple salchow. She was completely giving up, it was incredibly strange considering the utter fire in her eyes skating to Björk just a day ago in the short program.

The Canadian clapped when she nailed her quad flip, it was a beautiful quad as well and as she spun from her Arabesque into her Biellmann spin, Brooke had to wonder what had gone wrong. Aquaria's painful expression only ended with a shake of the head as the camera's caught while she sat completely defeated in the Kiss & Cry.

Patiently waiting for the scores, Brooke realized that if Aquaria's stumbles had truly added up that fast it would mean that the Canadian would be guaranteed a medal considering the only two left were the original short program medalists: Sasha Velour and Shea Couleé.

It was great for Brooke but a complete disappointment for Aquaria.

"Aquaria Coady has earned in the free program, a total combined score of 210.90 points. This is a new season's best."

Brooke gasped and covered her mouth realizing she was officially guaranteed a medal, no matter who slipped at this point. Shea or Sasha could knock her down all they wanted and she'd still hold on to at least a bronze medal. She applauded and stood up for Aquaria who shook her head and cried in her hands aware that she'd have no chance at winning.

"Aquaria Coady a gagné dans le programme gratuit, un score total combiné de 210,90 points. C'est le meilleur d'une nouvelle saison."

Adore and Aquaria exchanged places as the two hugged, the American trying her best to hold it together for the camera's though Brooke felt her exact emotions just a day ago and now she sat: at the top of the world, a gold medal. This was simply the world of Figure Skating.

— *.✧

Aquaria's result had come beyond unexpected to Shea who stood in a state of disbelief, possibly worse than Sharon. This was meant to be the defining dance of her entire career: everything down to the aesthetics was perfectly planned.

Tightening the laces on her skates Shea stood firm and took off her Team USA jacket, knowing she was next up to bat and had to keep this streak going. Maybe she could win against Sasha, in the back of her heart she knew it was a small chance but you never really knew with a sport this unpredictable.

"Listen to me." Bob said, grabbing her skaters shoulders as the announcer began to speak above them and in the arena. "Don't think about medals right now, think about your program and nailing your damn jumps because that and your attitude is what will get you medals and it is what will get you the satisfaction of winning. I'm proud of you regardless but if you fall on any jumps so help me God." Shea snickered before the two hugged, the American crossing her chest and letting out a deep breath before skating out on the ice.

Immediately hearing her corner of fans which included her American skating sisters and the large huddle of USA fans with their posters, their signs and flags waving proudly as Shea's name was announced. She had to make an impact and she had been waiting far too long to skate, every motivation was itching to get out and do what she did best for this medal spot, for first place.

"Next to skate, representing the United States, Shea Couleé."

"A côté du skate, représentant les États-Unis, Shea Couleé."

She adjusted the loose strands of hair from her face as she grinned and stood in the center of the ice, starting in a kneeled position as she held her hand on the ice with a deep exhale before silence came over the arena.

The piano notes played and Shea began what would he the longest four and a half minutes of her life.

She slid across the ice before easily standing and putting her entire body on the edge as she held her hands in the air, completely liberated before the singing had even started. Her skating slowing down once more until the vocals began, her skates picking up off the ice as she crossed over backwards into a spin.

The song was entirely in French and appreciated the distinctly loud cheers from the natives in the arena as the words began to flow out of the singer's mouth. Shea had learned after weeks, months of training to finally find the proper headspace to convey a song about hurt, sickness.

Hell, the song was called "Je Suis Malade" which would translate to "I Am Sick."

Shea turned on her skates prepping for her first quad, a salchow. Her takeoff from the back inside edge of one foot came with her four rotations along with a proper landing on the back outside edge of the opposite foot. She couldn't smile even if the cheers and screams from the arena were a large help and motivation, she couldn't ruin the intent of the piece.

Her first jump was a complete success and as she twizzled across the arena she couldn't possibly get distracted but the back of her heart was hoping Sasha was near and watching, she had to be! She was next up and had to be getting fully prepared. She kicked her leg out as she spun into an I-Spin, making sure every edge was clean and perfect as she then began making the rounds around the arena.

Completing her triple toe, triple loop was easy enough but there was still quad's waiting to be accomplished. Any boost in a score a skater could possibly get: an attempt would be better than just skipping it all together.

The music was building as Shea began to skate into the quad salchow, hoping for a decent result after practicing it so much on and off the ice. An entrance from a back outside edge lent her to slam her toe pick before completing her four rotations, landing on the back outside edge of her opposite foot as she timed her hands in the air to beat, applause shouting to her all around, from every corner.

Bending backwards she let her free leg hold on in attitude position as she spun into her layback spin. She flipped over and extended her hands over as the music only became more and more tense.

Another triple combination and an extra quad flip thrown in saw the movement into her triple axel, perfectly timed at the end of the bridge just when the music would completely explode— it was Shea's favorite section of the entire program. She entered with a camel spin before skating across the rink, beginning with a forward takeoff Shea approached with a series of backward crossovers in direction to the jump's rotation, followed by a step forward onto the forward outside takeoff edge, she jumped and rotated three times before landing on the right and inside edge of her blade.

It was perfectly timed and the American girl couldn't help but feel extremely proud of the work she had put in to make this program as authentic as possible.

She was officially moving on to her spins and her steps, there were no more scheduled jumps and her stamina was beginning to lower as the program was beginning to wrap up. She kept her energy forward as she accomplished her compulsory Biellmann spin. Her skates gliding across the ice as she let all her expression and emotion be completely exposed and poured out on the ice.

The final notes were approaching and she jumped into her sit spin as she held out her legs she transitioned into one final layback, extending her leg finally in the air as she turned with it: combining in one more I-Spin for a final push as the music stopped. Shea held out her entire body and almost immediately dropped to the floor as the music stopped, covering her mouth and laughing through her hands as she heard the energy from the crowd and saw all the gifts being thrown.

She picked up a stuffed bear and a rose and took off from the ice as she slammed into Bob who was waiting for her patiently off the ice, her coach groaning and smiling with pride as she explained that was exactly what she needed, what she had been looking for this entire season.

The two walked over to the Kiss & Cry with nothing but exhilarated smiles and utter exhaustion, all of Shea's energy was officially gone as she stared at the screen. Her eyes noticed a small clap and wide smile from the rink nearby, Sasha waved and clapped in her direction: the Russian was thoroughly impressed by her competition and so called rival.

Shea grinned and winked, holding back a thumbs up as she turned to the screen, Bob's arm stretching around her shoulders as she comforted her skater. This would be the score that sealed her fate and would tell her if she was guaranteed a possible top three finish. Shea believed in her ability but that didn't mean the judges would.

The music dimmed as the scores were to be announced.

"Shea Couleé has earned in the free program, a total combined score of 256.96 points. This is a new personal best and a new world record, she is currently in first place."

The American held onto Bob's arm in disbelief as she heard her peers completely screaming in excitement. She heard her coach simply whisper a small "wow" next to her ear before the two got up, teary eyed and hugging. She was guaranteed at least, bare minimum, a silver medal.

It dawned on Shea rather quickly beside the fantastic result that Sasha still had to go and would be the last to go: the short program gold medalist and Russia's own shining star to the ice.

"Shea Couleé a gagné dans le programme gratuit, un score total combiné de 256,96 points!"

Brooke clapped and stood to move as Shea and Aquaria embraced quietly, Shea whispering something to the younger girl who moved down to third, painfully aware that she would be moving down to fourth after the next four and a half minutes.

"Last to skate, representing the Russian Federation, Sasha Velour!"

"Dernier à patiner, représentant la Fédération de Russie, Sasha Velour!"

The blonde skated on the ice with her legs gliding across the ice as she traveled perfectly to the center of the rink, waving to the Russian crowd and all those in between who had come here to support her or those who were simply rooting for her.

She held her body straight and firm as she closed her eyes, waiting for the music to start so she could begin the program. Her heart pounding as the tension built up thick. A part of her didn't want to win against Shea, she wanted her newfound friend to have her moment.

But what would be the fun in that? She couldn't let her emotions stick to her career that easy: not every little thought could buzz around her stomach especially not during a competition where she needed focus and stamina.

I'm sorry Shea but I have to beat you today, I need that gold medal.

#rpdr fanfiction #sashea #shea coulee #sasha velour #brooke lynn hytes #manila luzon #aquaria #sharon needles #adore delano #bob the drag queen #jinkx monsoon #figure skating au #lesbian au #roza #concrit welcome #detox icunt

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satoshi-mochida · 11 months ago

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SaGa Emerald Beyond launches April 25, 2024

Gematsu Source

SaGa Emerald Beyond will launch for PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Switch, PC via Steam, iOS, and Android on April 25, 2024, Square Enix announced.

In Japan, SaGa Emerald Beyond will be available both physically and digitally for 7,480 yen. A Square Enix e-STORE-exclusive Collector’s Edition will also be available for 25,000 yen, which includes an art book, three-disc soundtrack CD set, two metal monster figures, and a bag. Pre-orders are available now.

Here is an overview of the game, via its Steam page:

About

The latest standalone entry in the SaGa franchise, SaGa Emerald Beyond brings together the very best elements of the beloved series to offer each player their own unique gameplay experience. Make use of glimmers and combos in battle; meet a diverse cast of races, including monsters, mechs, and vampires; and experience your very own story, created through your choices and actions.

Distant Worlds Woven Together

Travel to 17 unique worlds from the Junction, either led by the hand of destiny or by a path forged by your own choices. Discover the completely different cultures and landscapes, ranging from a densely developed forest of skyscrapers and a green and luscious habitat covered in plant life to a world governed by five witches, or one ruled by vampires—just to name a few of the distinct settings.

An Eclectic Cast of Protagonists

Six leading characters, all from diverse backgrounds and with vastly different goals, set out on their journey in five unique story arcs. They venture to the myriad of worlds for their very own personal reasons: One, a human on a mission to protect the barrier defending his city; another, a witch trying to regain her lost magic while maintaining her disguise as a schoolgirl; and yet another, a vampire lord out to regain his crown and reclaim the throne as the rightful king of his world. Even selecting the same protagonist for a second—or third or fourth—playthrough will lead to completely new events and stories, a completely fresh path and experience.

A Story of Your Very Own Making

SaGa Emerald Beyond has the greatest number of branching plots of any game in the SaGa series. The story branches abundantly depending on your choices and actions. Every time you visit a world, the story will evolve, allowing the protagonist and player alike to discover new possibilities. As the story unfolds in this way it becomes a tale all of your own, not only affecting the path you walk but also the multiple potential endings that await each protagonist.

Battles where a Single Choice Can Change Everything

SaGa Emerald Beyond further refines the highly strategic Timeline Battles the SaGa franchise has been long renowned for. With series mainstays such as the skill to spontaneously acquire abilities through the Glimmer system, tactical ally placement known as Formations, and United Attacks that enable individual skills to connect together to form devastating chain attacks, it offers the best iteration of SaGa‘s turn-based combat to date. The new combat system adds more drama than ever before, allowing you to support party members, interrupt enemy actions, and use United Attacks by strategically manipulating the order of ally actions. The characters that join you, the weapons you wield, your party formation, and your tactics in battle—everything is up to you!