#and hopefully probably I'll be living somewhere else by then

[florida3exclamationpoints]

My dad is really seriously planning this trip to Washington in the summer of 2026 I'm !!!!! Gonna see orcas !!!!!

[orcelito]

I do find it so funny that I will graduate college days away from my birthday. Like my birthday is literally in between the end of the semester ("graduation") and commencement

It really will be like a joint graduation & birthday party for me lmao

[montammil]

June of Doom Day 3 - "Well, well, well..."

| Hiding | Ambushed | Stalking |

Characters: Lawrence, Marshall

CW: Parental/yandere whumper, failed escape, manipulation, forming stockholm syndrome, minor injuries, infantilization

...

Marshall didn't know how he managed to do it, it was probably just pure luck on his side, but he managed to slip out of the house while Lawrence was asleep.

It was the perfect time to finally run away, especially since the older man would be groggy and confused in the morning. And hopefully by then, he'd be long gone from Lawrence's clutches.

The rain beat down on him for hours, but he didn't take shelter or more than a five minute break.

He needed to get as far as he could from Lawrence before the sun rose. Marshall shoved his hands deeper in his pockets to protect them from the icy cold, feeling the water seep through the thin fabric of his shirt.

This was a bad idea, a really bad idea.

But if it meant his freedom, he'd suffer through anything. He'd endure any torture to escape him.

He had no money, no way of getting any, and nowhere to stay for the night. Everything was dependent on a miracle now. It wasn't the smartest plan, but he had to take advantage of the only window of opportunity he was given. As long as Lawrence couldn't find him, he'd be fine. He could figure everything else out in time. Maybe he'd get a job, go back to school, start fresh somewhere else...

Despite his excitement, his heart weighed him down with guilt. He really shouldn't be abandoning Lawrence after everything he's done for him.

The blond loved him more than anything, and he betrayed that love by running.

Yet this was for the best, he told himself. It's the only way he'd be able to live his own life independently. And that's what he wanted.

Or so he insisted to himself.

It was past sunrise when he noticed a tiny gas station ahead of him. He rubbed his arms to bring some warmth to his skin. He was hungry, cold, and exhausted, which was an awful combination to have.

The rain had eased up to a slight drizzle, which provided little relief from the frigid weather. He trudged along, trying his best not to get hypothermia.

"I need help," he breathed to the man at the front, who only looked the slightest bit concerned. "Do you, um, have a phone? It's urgent."

The man opened his mouth, and then paused to look him over. "Sorry, only employees can use the phone. Do you want me to call someone for you?"

Marshall was baffled from his reply, but he didn't have time to get angry right now. He didn't want the police involved, he just wanted a ride to get out of here. He was glad he memorized his father's number--his real father--and gave it to the worker. He made a hand gesture for him to go sit down on one of the chairs a few feet away, and he reluctantly obeyed.

He noticed the man's voice was almost hushed, but he made out the words, "your kid is here", so he relaxed. He stared up at the clock above the counter, watching the seconds tick by.

He bounced his leg to keep himself from nodding off. His eyelids felt like a thousand pounds, threatening to close.

All he wanted to do was sleep. Sleep and forget about all this bullshit.

Marshall didn't know how much time had passed, but then he saw a familiar car pull up at the gas station, but it wasn't his dad's car.

Lawrence got out of the car, looking every part of pissed. He was dressed in nothing but a sweater and sweats, obviously not prepared to come out here.

The blond stormed inside the shop. Marshall straightened and gulped, wanting to shrink back further into the chair.

The bell rang loudly over their heads. "Well, well, well," Lawrence seethed. He stood in front of Marshall, glaring down at him. His body trembled. "Where did you think you were going, hmm?" He reached down and grabbed his wrist. Marshall squeaked in protest. Lawrence glanced over at the employee. "Thanks, Colin, I'll take it from here."

Colin nodded. Lawrence pulled him up, who fought him the entire way. He was frozen, unable to form a single word as he dragged him outside.

Marshall managed to squeeze his wrist out of Lawrence's grip and staggered backwards. Lawrence stepped towards him in attempt to grab him again, and Marshall's hand acted on its own, punching him right in the jaw.

A few painful moments went by before the reality of the situation hit him. Lawrence cupped his chin, rubbing his sore jaw. Marshall covered his mouth with his hand. That was probably a bigger death wish than running in the first place.

When Lawrence growled, somehow more rage evident in his eyes, Marshall bolted to the nearby trees.

He ran as fast as he could, ignoring his body's protests against the exhaustion. His head ached, his lungs burned, his muscles throbbed...but all he could focus on was his impending doom.

He jumped over bushes and logs, dodging branches and rocks as they flew by. The thudding of Lawrence's shoes followed him from behind.

At one point, Marshall tripped over a branch hidden beneath the leaves. He screamed as he went down, clutching his ankle in pain. He could feel blood trickling down his cheek as he turned, spotting Lawrence stalking forward. Marshall got back to his feet and ran again, screaming when the pain shot through his ankle once he put pressure on it.

There was no winning this race. He wasn't fast enough or strong enough. This was always how it'd end.

He ducked behind a tree and crouched low behind the bushes. He listened to the sounds of the forest, hearing Lawrence call his name. Marshall wrapped his arms around his knees and hugged his legs to his chest.

"This isn't funny, sweetie! Just come home already, it's too dangerous out here."

Yeah right, Marshall thought. It was safer out here than being with him.

"Marshmallow!" Lawrence sang. He sounded more gentle now. Lawrence knew how to get to him. Nathan responded best to his anger, Sadie responded to his worry, and Marshall responded to softness. "If you come out, we can just go home and talk this over. We'll watch a movie and snuggle, I'll even let you pick. We can make a blanket fort and have some hot cocoa. And I won't be mad, I promise."

His head throbbed. His stomach dropped as he heard the crunch of Lawrence's footsteps getting closer. It's been so long since he's heard anything other than his voice.

"You know," Lawrence continued, "it isn't very nice to hit me. I'm willing to let it go since I know you were just scared, but only if you come out right now."

Lawrence knew how to play him like an instrument. Each sentence was calculated and precise, knowing exactly what buttons to press.

Logically, Marshall knew he could only hide here for so long. Lawrence knew he was in the area and he wouldn't back off until he found him. He'd rather just give up now than prolong this agony.

He wiped his eyes, the fear spiking each second he waited. Finally, he called out, "I-I'm over here!"

Lawrence found him crouched next to a large pine tree. The moment his eyes met the older man, the tears poured down. He could hear Lawrence sigh with relief. He bent down on one knee.

"Oh, kiddo, there you are." He pulled him into his arms. Marshall tried pushing against his chest to get away, but Lawrence's embrace tightened. He choked on a sob. Lawrence cooed to him, rocking him in his arms. "Shh, you're alright, don't cry. It's okay, I got you now. Let's get out of here, okay? You must be freezing."

"Are you mad at me?" he croaked. He pulled away and cried harder when he saw the forming bruise on his face that would no doubt look much worse later. He had no idea he was capable of such strength, and neither did Lawrence.

"I'm not mad. You listened to me, so there's gonna be no punishment, I promise," Lawrence told him. He cupped his cheek to bring their eyes together. "I've just never been more worried. What if something happened to you? Did you ever think about that?" Marshall remained silent. Lawrence sighed. "We're going home. And then we'll talk about it more after we get you warmed up and that ankle taken care of."

It was useless to argue. He let the blond carry him to the car and closed his tired eyes. It was times like these that Marshall started to wonder if Lawrence was really that bad.

[max1461]

I think the straightforward truth is that literary criticism has value for the same reason video games or DnD or whatever have value: people enjoy them and that's enough. I don't buy the argument that lit crit is really vitally important for making the world a better place (except insofar as people want to do lit crit, so them getting to do it makes their lives better) or solving political problems or whatever.

Yes, you can complain that society spending its resources on lit crit is therefore immoral, because there are hungry people to feed instead. But of course if you were going to make this argument you would also have to complain about the immorality of spending our societal resources on video games and so on, which STEM nerd lit crit dislikers rarely seem to do, otherwise I think you're being hypocritical.

For my part I think that probably convincing people to give up all their worldly pleasures to help the poor is not feasible, and in light of that it's cool that lit crit and video games and so on exist, because people like those things. And ideally enough progress can be made in uplifting the poor (either within or without our current economic system) that these kinds of trade-offs become a memory of the distant past, and I'll be able to endorse frivolous public funding of the humanities or million dollar blockbuster video games or whatever with no caveats. Because I'm not that worried about optimization, and as long as all the mouths are fed I don't care so much about society "wasting money" on fun.

At present I can probably only endorse these things provisionally and selfishly: first off I like video games, and I like reading media analysis, so I'm glad they exist. And second off, it's not like the money that goes to humanities departments would be going to feed the global poor anyway, it would be going somewhere else which I'd naively wager would be either equally frivolous in this narrow sense (pure math, econ, paleontology) or actively harmful (weapons development). Maybe not, who knows. Anyway I'm not terribly aggrieved that it's going to the humanities instead. If the alternative really was feeding starving people I would support that in a heartbeat, but it isn't.

And, as I said, hopefully in the socialist future we'll be able to waste all the money on humanities and non-essential sciences and cool video games that we want. One can dream.

[bluestar22x]

Finding Eden: Chapter 5

Summary: You and Zach seek shelter and realize your feelings

Pairing: Zach Wellison x F!Reader

Rating: 18+

Warnings: Pining, romantic revelations, smut (unprotected/pull-out method), mentions of cum, fluff, fowl language

Word Count: 4,250(ish)

Author's Note: This took me longer to write than I wanted it to, but I'm so excited about this chapter for obvious reasons.

xxx

You thought it was a mirage at first, the distant cabin a brown blob that appeared and disappeared with the snow that was being wildly blown every which way by the whirling wind.

Caught in a snowstorm for days, despite the winter gear you'd collected over the last few weeks, you and Zach were unbearably cold and starving, the seasonal weather making it more and more difficult for you to keep comfortable and find enough food.

Athena fared better than either of you did in the elements, but inside the tent, in the middle of the night, you could hear her stomach rumbling just as loudly as yours was.

Signs of human civilization, or what was once, had been few and far in between since December began, and it only got worst as you entered the pristine wilderness along the British Columbia/Yukon border.

When you realized the cabin wasn't in your head you grabbed Zach's arm by the elbow and pointed it out. He was as relieved as you were to find it, but apprehensive. You wouldn't be able to stay long if you couldn't find food in the area or the cabin itself.

"At least we'll have shelter from the storm," you said as you approached the front door.

"At least," he agreed, twisting the handle.

The door didn't budge.

"It's locked."

Zach took a knife out of his pack and shattered its window without hesitance.

"Hopefully there's some nails around to help repair that," you commented.

"It was that or spend another night freezing outside," Zach told you as he walked into the cabin. "And there's a fireplace."

You barged in, gaping at the fireplace in the center of the decently sized cabin. "Holy shit! Now I'm convinced I'm dreaming."

Zach chuckled. "Want me to pinch you?"

"You'd better not," you warned, wandering around the place to examine the rest of the interior.

The cabin had a three room set up, the main room acting as a kitchen and living room combined, the second smaller room a bedroom with one twin bed, and a tiny bathroom that was squeezed between them. It wasn't anything to brag about, but it was much better than the tent.

"Looks like we can stay a while," Zach declared over his shoulder and you turned to join him in the kitchen, finding him standing by the cooking stove, pantry open. Over two dozen cans of a variety of foods were lined up inside.

"Unbelievable," you murmured before breaking out into a grin. "Dibs on the beef stew."

"There's more than one," he pointed out.

"I know."

He huffed. "Fine. I'm not big on it anyway."

He headed for the door and you frowned. "Where are you going?"

"There must be an axe around here somewhere," he replied. "I'm going to collect some wood and get a fire going so we don't have to eat cold food. Could cover the broken window with some of the pieces."

You nodded. "I'll see what else I can find in here while you do that."

He tipped his head back at you and glanced down at Athena, who was still standing on the doormat, shaking lingering snow off her body. "Stay here. Blijf."

She woofed quietly and let him by, watching him go just as you did.

Once he'd left, you started rummaging for supplies in the kitchen. There wasn't much besides the cans, some old water bottles and a twelve pack of beer that was probably too old to be any worth drinking. You'd smelled expired beer before. It had been truly awful.

You had better luck with non-kitchen items. There were several throw blankets in a storage bin by the two person couch that was facing the fireplace, medical and grooming supplies of all kinds in the bathroom, and a pocket lighter in the night stand alongside...

A pack of unopened condoms.

You felt your cheeks heat up, not because you were prudish, but rather because your first thought seeing them involved Zach. That he could probably use them.

With who? It's not like he's interested, you reminded yourself for the thousandth time.

You quickly snatched up the lighter and shut the drawer, heading back to the living room to throw yourself down on the couch. It was cold despite being made of fabric, but it was comfortable, well worn in a good way.

You'd have helped Zach outside, but you were wiped out, and what was supposed to be just two minutes of rest on the couch turned into something much longer when you dozed off and only stirred when he reentered the cabin.

"You won't believe what I found outside the shed out back," he said as he stomped snow off his boots at the door.

You rubbed your eyes and stood. "You found multiple axes?"

"Better."

He reached out for the main light switch by the door and flicked it on. To your astonishment the yellow light fixture above you activated.

Zach beamed at the stunned expression that formed on your face. "We have electricity. And running water, as long as the pipes don't freeze."

"How?"

"There's a generator," he told you, some excitement, hope, seeping into his voice. "And there's propane to refill it once it runs out. Enough for most of the winter if we're mindful of how much we use it."

As if to lead by example, he shut the light back off.

"I'll shut it completely once we're all settled in here."

"Are we thinking of staying the whole winter?" you inquired, raising your eyebrows.

He shrugged. "There's a lake out back. Fishing poles in the shed. If I can find some success in ice fishing, maybe. It would delay us, but it would be safer. If Eden exists, it'll be there in the spring."

You nodded. He was right, and you weren't in a rush. Time was one of those few commodities you had, after all.

"Anything else in the bag?"

Zach smiled a little mischievously and pulled an artificial spruce tree out of his pack. It was barely a foot tall and ran on batteries, seeing that he was able to turn on the multi-colored lights without plugging the decoration into the wall. There were only ten lights and they only came in red and green.

"No way!" you laughed. "That is the saddest Christmas tree I've ever seen outside Charlie Brown's! It's kinda cute."

"You mentioned last week that you miss Christmas," Zach said. "I found this in the shed in an insulated storage bin. Figured since we'll be at the cabin through the rest of December, at the very least, why not bring it inside?"

You beamed at him, warmth spreading through your chest at his thoughtfulness. "Thanks. Let's set it over the fireplace?"

"Right in the center of everything," he noted approvingly. He centered the tree on the stone top of the fireplace and stepped back so you could both take in the view.

"Perfect," you declared at the same time as he did, leading you both to glance at each other then laugh off the tense moment.

Tense because you'd both let your eyes wander to each other's lips, and you'd both noticed. There was no question.

You backed away, needing time to absorb the new information you'd just gathered. "I'm gonna go check if the water's working. Cause if it is, I'm showering."

Zach nodded. "I've got to start the fire, so I'll wait. But after I get that going and I stack the extra logs I cut up, it's my turn."

"Won't get argument from me there," you said teasingly as he walked back out, knowing full well you smelled just as bad as he did, though not as bad as Athena.

You ripped your least offensive clothes out of your pack, a navy blue sweater, a pair of jeans, and undergarments, then charged for the bathroom, shutting it quickly behind you. Athena, who had slipped in with you, watched with a curious look on her face as you turned the sinks' handle and jumped for joy when water started flowing out.

It wasn't long before you'd stripped down and stepped into the shower. It was lukewarm at best, but it was running water, and the pressure wasn't even half bad. You took a minute to soak in the shower head spray then hesitantly hurried to shampoo your hair and scrub your body with a proper wash cloth and body wash. It was Old Spice, but you didn't care. It smelled better than you had in a long time. It felt amazing to get that clean again.

While you were rinsing yourself off you even dragged an unsuspecting Athena into the stand up shower and washed her off with some of the shampoo, something she didn't appreciate very much, whining and trying to get away the entire time.

"Big, bad, military dog," you teased as you struggled to keep her in the shower long enough for the water to wash the suds out of her fur. "Who knew you'd be scared of a little water?"

After you both were all set you released her and wiped yourself up with a towel before drying her off as well.

"Don't go rolling in shit tomorrow, okay?" you said sternly. "This is the only towel getting dog fur on it, you hear?"

Athena barked like she understood and you turned away from her to focus on getting dressed and brushing your teeth with one of the spare toothbrushes hidden in the top sink drawer before opening the door back up.

Your eyes immediately found Zach standing by the lit fireplace, observed how he waved his strong hands in front of the flames and you were struck by how handsome he was once more, especially in the orange glow of the flames, even with the scruffy beard he'd been sporting since winter had begun.

You really needed to talk to him soon. Clear things up between you two, even if it was awkward. Knowing he felt something too, having seen the desire in his eyes as he studied your lips, it changed things.

You had to know if he wanted more than friendship with you. If he was interested in taking things to the next level, and if it wouldn't be just a brief physical act. You couldn't be a no strings attached person. You weren't built that way. Either you'd be a couple or you wouldn't be.

It wasn't time to ask though, not yet.

"Your turn."

Zach looked up at you quickly then down at the dejected wet dog at your heels. He smirked. "I see Athena wasn't spared."

"She sleeps with us," you told him. "No way she was escaping it."

"Just glad I didn't have to do it," he said as he passed you to enter the bathroom, his pack in hand.

"You should be grateful," you called over your shoulder. You reached down and scratched the top of Athena's head. "But it was worth it, right, girl? Don't you feel better?"

The dog glanced up at you with an almost incredulous expression on her face.

You chuckled. "Come on, let's go warm up on the couch together."

x

The shower was more refreshing than Zach could've hoped, remembered, really. The last time he'd used one had been in his trailer back in California, and he'd started to forget what it was like to freshen up indoors rather than in a river or lake.

The warm water running trails down his body relaxed him, let his mind wander. But ever since he'd met you, whenever it did, all he could think about was you.

He finally had his answer, the look in your eyes had been undeniable, but he didn't know what to do with that. It wasn't like he could ask you out on a date. You were already living twenty-four hours a day with each other, even shared the same sleeping quarters. And yet he didn't want to dive straight in for a kiss. He just had to wait for the right opportunity, he figured. Let it all happen organically.

Zach stepped out of the shower and dried off, clawing at his beard after he'd done so.

It was time to shave the damn thing. He'd kept it for wind protection but if they were going to stick around the cabin for a while, and since they had so much supplies on hand because of it, it was no longer useful in his eyes.

He'd let it get too long for the razor though, and the bathroom mirror was missing. He'd have to ask you to trim it with scissors before using one of his razors on it to keep it from dulling. It wouldn't be the first time you'd done him that particular favor, so no big deal, right?

Dressed in the cleanest plaid shirt he had, maroon and white checkered, and blue jeans he exited the bathroom with damp hair he'd yet brushed down and a pair of scissors in his right hand.

He found you sitting on the couch with Athena by your side, sharing what was left of a can of beef stew you'd heated up in the microwave with her, allowing the dog to eat from the bowl once you'd had your share.

"Oh, I see, I can't have the beef stew but the dog can," he teased.

You rolled your eyes at him, but you were smiling. "I left you a bowl of your own on the counter, big baby."

His expression turned grateful. "You didn't have to do that."

You shrugged. "It was a big can. I'm not used to eating portions like that anymore."

Zach knew it was more than that, but didn't press. "Before I get to that, can you trim my beard?"

"Getting itchy?" you inquired knowingly.

He nodded and you patted the spot next to you on the couch that had been vacated by Athena in her search for the water bowl you'd put out for her.

He took the offer, sitting down and turned slightly towards you so you had easier access to both sides of his face.

He avoided your eyes as you worked, not wanting to be tempted, drawn in by them. You were doing him a simple favor a friend would do, nothing more. He didn't want to take advantage of your close proximity; it didn't matter that you shared feelings for him.

He didn't expect you to reach out and tug at his wavy hair almost absentmindedly midway through the process.

His eyes met yours questioningly when you did so.

"While I'm at it, do you want me to trim your hair?" you asked. "It's getting over your ears."

He cleared his throat, it suddenly having gone dry. "Uh, yeah, that would be good."

It took a few extra minutes, but was worth it. In the end, even without having yet shaved his face smooth, he was feeling a whole lot more like himself and not so much like the caveman he'd felt like he was becoming.

"Thanks."

"No problem."

The tension between you was almost palpable.

He broke it by standing up and returning to the bathroom to finish the job, leaving you alone with the scissors still in hand.

x

Once Zach had disappeared back into the bathroom to finish his grooming, you stood to bring the empty bowl you'd shared with Athena into the kitchen to rinse it out and label it as her official food bowl, not keen on the idea of using it after she had, no matter how cute she was.

You had time to shove Zach's cooling bowl of stew into the microwave before you heard her whining at the door and had to let her outside to do her business.

Waiting for both Zach and Athena, you busied yourself in the bedroom by unpacking some of the items you'd need that night and shaving your armpits, the only place on your body you still shaved even after the world ended. It just didn't feel right to let it grow out, even after having gotten used to your legs being unshaved.

Zach reappeared before Athena, clean shaven for the first time in weeks, just as you returned to the living room.

"How does it look?" he inquired, arms spread out in that what-do-you-think gesture.

"Good," you replied, giving him a thumb up. You secretly thought Zach looked good no matter if he had facial hair or not.

He approached you and rubbed his cheek. "Did I miss any spots? I didn't take my knife out to use as a mirror."

Without thought you boldly reached out to grab his face and examine it.

"No rough spots," you concluded, your eyes happening to meet his again.

His gaze was more intense than you’d ever seen it before. Your breath caught. "Zach..."

His lips were on yours without a moment's notice, already moving against them, needily. You responded in kind, thrown by the suddenness of it, but excited that it was actually happening. It felt a little surreal after all the time you'd spent around him, fantasied about him, all while assuming he did not feel the same way.

Zach deepened the kiss languidly, savoring the taste of you as his hands wandered up the length of your clothed spine, and you hummed happily, completely and utterly focused on his pleasant touch. His hands were so warm and broad like his shoulders, his mouth soft.

When you eventually dared to break the kiss, you grinned at him. "I've wanted that for a long time."

He ran his hands up your arms to hold them at the elbow and nodded. "Me too."

"Really?" you questioned, head tilting back slightly. "It's not just because I'm the only woman you've seen in months?"

He shook his head and caressed the edge of your lower jaw with the fingertips of his right hand. "Far from it. I've been admiring you from the start. Always thought you were strong and beautiful."

You scoffed. "Strong? You've had to protect me from the moment we met."

"You survived alone for a time before that," he pointed out, "And you refused give up when those men attacked you, even though you were outnumbered. You also took care of me when I got shot, and you have never complained once about your feet being sore the entire time we've been traveling together, even when you got that blister on your toe."

"Only cause I didn't want to slow you down or give you a reason to leave me behind," you admitted.

Zach traced your lips with the pad of his thumb and his expression turned dead serious. "I would never."

The deep tone to his words sent heat coursing through your body. You crushed your lips against his and pulled yourself to him as he lead you backwards towards the couch, to the nearest comfortable spot to lay down.

You pressed a palm to his chest when you felt the back of your knees brush against the solid furniture and gazed into his bright eyes, searching them for intent. "Zach, if we do this," you said a little breathlessly, "I won't be able to keep my feelings out of it. I can't..."

He cupped your chin gently, interrupting you. "I won't either; I don't want to," he promised.

You believed him, heard the sincerity in his voice, saw it in his dark yet expressive orbs. You bridged the gap between you two to kiss him again and what came next was a blur as you almost frantically peeled off each other's layers of clothing before letting yourselves fall onto the couch, Zach hovering above you, supporting his upper body with one hand as the other slid slowly down your bare skin, making its way between your thighs.

You parted your legs readily as he felt you there, pressed his thumb against your sensitive bundle of nerves and crooked two of his other thick fingers inside you, the sensations you felt from the contact making you buck into his touch, urging you to seek more contact, more friction, harder.

You stared up at him as you fell apart by his calloused hands alone, and he covered your mouth with his greedily. You could feel how tense his body was against yours, could feel his stiff length brushing against your center, and a thrill passed through you knowing how much making you feel good had turned him on.

You embedded your fingers in the hair at the back of his head and you folded your legs over his lower back, securing them around his waist and tilting your hips up invitingly. "Zach..."

"You want me?" he asked.

You nodded feverishly. "Yes." The desperate tone in your voice had him groaning and he wasted no time lining his body up with yours, eyes still on your face.

With a gentle roll of his hips he buried himself inside you, stretching you out so perfectly you whined, a sound that compelled him to seek out your mouth again as his free hand found your lower back. He helped you arch up towards him as he began thrusting into you, eyes scanning your face for every micro reaction you had to his movements.

A quiet moan slipped from you and you squeezed your eyes shut, focusing on the glorious friction he was generating. It was like second nature for you to move your body in time with his, taking him in satisfyingly deep.

Being connected to him that way, so intimately, that was why you had followed Zach, why you had ignored your blister and kept putting one foot in front of the other. It wasn't just because you had hope for tomorrow, or because you simply refused to give up and die. It was also because even without Eden's existence, life wasn't void of good things, stolen moments, even after the apocalypse.

The friendship you'd had with Zach had been good, would have ultimately been enough, but having something more with him, to be the one he desired, the one who got to see him slowly fall apart, neck straining as he fought against giving into his ecstasy before you could come a second time, that was dreamy. For the first time in a long time you didn't feel like you were just surviving.

You canted your hips even more and your breath hitched when the new angle allowed Zach to nudge the special spot inside you head on, making your toes curl.

In the past, when you'd been intimate with other men, it had taken a fair amount of time before you got anywhere close to your breaking point, but not that night, not with Zach.

Maybe it was because of the dreams you'd had, maybe it was because of all you'd been through together, or maybe it was because he was really that good, but whatever the case, Zach's steady pace wound you up at an intoxicating speed, the pleasure overwhelming you, causing you to desperately claw at his smooth back with your blunt, chewed up nails.

You dug them in when you finally crested, a drawn out moan accompanying the waves of bliss.

You opened your eyes back up in time to see Zach quickly remove himself from you to find his own release, clenched jaw going slack as his body shuddered, as he called out your name, voice raspy, his heaved breaths tickling your neck. He took a moment to wipe up the cum that was dripping down your thigh, his, with the undershirt he'd discarded earlier, then molded himself back to your body, resting his head on your chest.

You weaved your fingers with his and he stared up at you, eyelids drooping, heavy now that he was spent. Your stomach flipped at how sweet he looked, his expression soft, more relaxed than you thought him capable of.

"It's been a long time since I had someone like you in my life," he admitted drowsily. "It's nice."

"Just nice?" you questioned playfully.

He chuckled lightly. "More than."

He was about to dose off in your arms, your hands roaming his lean body absentmindedly, when whining and persistent scratching at the front door startled you both out of your peaceful trances.

You'd totally forgotten Athena was still outside. You were immediately grateful she hadn't interrupted beforehand.

Zach groaned loudly and pushed himself up onto his feet. "I'll get her."

He strolled over to the door in all his naked glory and wrenched it open, letting in a blast of cold air he made sure to avoid by hiding behind the door. "Come on in. Hurry up."

Athena shot inside, shaking her body furiously as soon as Zach shut the door behind her, trying to rid herself of the melting snow in her short coat.

"Glad you didn't run into anything bad out there, but you couldn't have waited a little longer?" he asked her, eyes narrowing.

"Better now than a few minutes earlier," you reasoned as you tugged the couch blanket over your body to keep warm.

He pursed his lips. "True."

"Besides, you have soup in the microwave," you added. "You need to eat it before it rots. And you need to turn off the generator for the night before we waste too much fuel."

"And what are you going to do?" he inquired, lips pulling back humorously.

"Clean up the sticky mess that you left on my thigh."

You were pretty sure you heard Zach growl at your statement.

You smirked. Mission accomplished.

xxx

Dutch to English Translation:

Blij = Stay

xxx

Tagged: @morallyinept @harriedandharassed @love-affair-with-fandoms @captain-jebi

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Series Masterlist

Main Masterlist

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[veebs-hates-video-games]

It's that time again where I make an entirely too long summary of every game I played this year. There were far too many of them this time around (well over 100, but some of them I only played long enough to know they're not my thing, and a bunch are weird short little things), so I'll try to keep it to a sentence or two for most of them. On the off chance anyone's interested in more of my thoughts they should nearly all have at least one other more detailed post on here somewhere, hopefully all properly tagged at this point and everything.

Also hopefully the formatting makes it easy to skim through, broken into categories and with each individual game bolded, because I would be astonished if anyone actually reads the entire thing. It's over 180 games and 7500 words, so, uh...good luck?

I think I'll just stick with the same categories I've used in the past couple years. On average the categories further down the list have things I liked more, but there are things in one category that I might've liked more or less than some things in the categories next to them, and they're mostly not really ordered within each category.

So with that said, let's start with the worst gaming experiences I had in 2024:

Bomb Dolls: Probably more fun with other people, but it was borderline unplayable for me so I didn't want to subject anyone else to it.

Sayonara Wild Hearts: Anything that feels like it was designed in a lab to give me seizures and migraines simultaneously isn't allowed to place higher than this.

Gwenblade: It tries to do something interesting, but it has a pretty profound lack of polish that makes it just not work.

Survivors of the Dawn: It must get better later on, but it felt so sluggish and unsatisfying at the beginning that I couldn't be bothered to find out.

Neverwinter Nights 2: I guess I still really don't get along with RTwP and most CRPGs.

Persona 5 Strikers: This finally convinced me to give up for good on the SMT/Persona games, because I clearly do not click with their pacing or storytelling conventions in general.

Mouthwashing: The most profound sensation of boredom I experienced all year. Extremely not my thing, but I'm pretty picky when it comes to horror.

On to games that weren't the worst but still completely failed to live up to whatever (possibly incorrect) expectations I had of them:

Strawberry Vinegar: Weird miss for ebi-hime, with characters that felt awkwardly written and like they didn't suit their ages.

Scanner Sombre: Incredible tech demo, frustrating game.

CrossCode: I liked most things about it except for the actual gameplay, which was really not my jam.

Nier: Automata: Somehow feels substantially worse to play than any other Platinum game I've ever played, and the story and characters completely failed to grab me in the first half dozen hours.

Death end re;Quest 2: Huge let down after how surprisingly interesting but flawed the first was. They dropped almost everything I liked about the original, and even though they thankfully toned down the visual fanservice, the character writing was enough worse to counter that.

Dead Cells: Seems like probably a pretty good game, but having pretty obvious influences from Dark Souls in your gameplay mechanics is usually a good way to make me not have a good time.

Owlboy: It's pretty? Not much else going for it.

Night in the Woods: I did genuinely like a lot of stuff about it, but it just felt like it wasn't really going anywhere, and some of the night scenes were impossible for me to see with my weird/bad vision without turning the screen brightness to retina-searing levels.

Her Name Was Fire: What if 20 Minutes Till Dawn except everything was slightly worse?

Final Fantasy XIII-2: The first half was great and felt like a weird hybrid of Radiant Historia and Pokemon with a Final Fantasy skin, but the closer I got to the end the worse everything about it got until I quit in the final area. A contributing part of why the entire FF series is now banished.

Muse Dash: It's alright? The UI is a nightmare about a trainwreck though.

Final Fantasy VII Remake: I love the metanarrative of the story commenting on itself and how much more fleshed out the characters are, but as a game I didn't have a very good time playing it, and I continue to not vibe with the way Nomura/Nojima tell stories. The other main reason FF is now banished.

God of War: I was pretty hopeful about Dad of Boy, but I just don't like how it feels to play. A contributor to why I'm increasingly skeptical of giving most AAA games a shot.

It gets so lonely here: Second person is not a valid POV (for me personally).

Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor: The mining mechanic is pretty neat, but otherwise it's one of the less interesting/satisfying things I've played in the genre.

Spider-Man: Most stuff about it is...fine? But aside from the great movement nothing else really makes it above fine other than the typical stuff that comes with throwing lots of money at making a game. Another major reason why I'm increasingly wary of buying or playing most AAA games.

Vampire Survivors: Ode to Castlevania: The least fun I've ever had playing Vampire Survivors, almost entirely due to it not having its own separate adventure mode to introduce stuff on its own terms in more digestible chunks.

Neva: Not bad, but basically everything about it that's different from Gris is different in a way I don't personally like as much.

Once on a windswept night: see: It gets so lonely here

Stray: I only lasted a couple hours before getting bored. I don't even mind that it's mostly a walking simulator since I've enjoyed plenty of those since they were first a thing, but aside from the novelty of being a cat nothing about it really clicked with me.

Next we have games that I liked what they were doing overall but they're just not really my thing:

Gorogoa: Good art and a clever way to structure the puzzles and how you navigate them/between them, but it's not really my kind of puzzle game.

Ender Lilies: Quietus of the Knights: Probably the closest I've come to liking a game with Souls-like influences. Well put together metroidvania that feels good to play, but the combat got exhausting the further I went.

Snakebird: The addition of gravity and puzzles make Snake a lot more interesting, but I wasn't into the flow of it enough to want to finish it.

Please, Touch the Artwork: Good framing device and clever way to turn recognizable art styles into puzzles, but the individual puzzles didn't stay interesting enough to me after a while.

Super Mario Bros. Wonder: It does some really clever stuff, but I think I just don't really jive with how movement feels in modern 2D Mario games anymore compared to the ones from the 80s and 90s (but I still love the 3D ones). Also maybe kind of a victim of how sometimes Nintendo polishes their games almost too much, and the removal of any rough edges ends up detracting a bit from things I personally like.

Toodee and Topdee: The dimension/perspective swapping is neat, but it wasn't quite enough on its own to pull me through the entire game.

Tens!: Reasonably satisfying, and a pretty polished presentation, but this one also didn't hold my interest all the way through.

The Shape of Things: Another one with good presentation and decent (but slightly janky) puzzle mechanics that didn't quite hook me.

OscarWildeCard: Excellent name, and card battles to determine who has the gayest dinner party is a fun idea, but it's not really my style of card game in the end.

From Ashes, Bloom: I really like the creature and how it moves and interacts, but in the end it's a tower defense game, and those have never been my thing.

Cypher: I really like Matthew Brown's puzzle games in general, and I liked this too at first, but once I got to the point where I couldn't mostly hold the puzzles entirely in my head anymore I lost interest. I probably would've had a great time with it when I was younger and had more patience for taking my own notes though.

Manifold Garden: It looks good and has some good ideas, but kind of like Antichamber I feel like it'd be more interesting to me if I didn't instantly already wrap my head around the way it messes with space. The burdens of having an intuitive understanding of unusual geometry, I guess.

Burly Men at Sea: Seemed like it had potential, but the UI is awkward enough on the Switch that I didn't feel like finding out.

Railbound: Another puzzle game where I liked learning how it works but didn't feel like sticking around beyond that.

Rabi-Ribi: It seems cute enough, but I didn't click with how movement feels and the pacing was a bit off for me.

Cureocity: Has a good premise, and I liked the idea of the combat system, but I felt like I wasn't getting enough out of it for what I was putting in.

Parallax: The core puzzle concept is solid, but it gets a little tedious having to run around the map to actually put solutions into action. Also the most broken default controller layout I've seen in a long time.

Kero Blaster: Nothing really wrong with it, but it didn't hook me. Definitely not another Cave Story.

Nora: The Wannabe Alchemist: There's almost something there and the art's pretty decent, but the Switch version is Not Great, and it feels like it could use a bit more work in general.

Psychopomp: Seems like there could potentially be something interesting going on there, but it's borderline unplayable with a controller.

Press Any Button: This one also might eventually go somewhere interesting, or at least it definitely hints at it, but the gameplay segments started getting pretty tedious before I found out.

stitch.: Great presentation of the puzzles, crappy mobile game presentation for the menus, and solidly average actual puzzles.

Thumper: Pretty unusual aesthetic and music style for a rhythm game, but I don't have the reaction time to keep up with it when brain no worky like lately.

The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom: I can appreciate what they're going for, and it definitely addresses some of the issues I had with BotW/TotK, but I'm still having a really hard time getting as into it as older games in the series.

Spitkiss: I'm into the idea, and the presentation is really fun, but I bounced off somewhere in the middle as the levels got more heavily focused on tighter timing of actions. Seems fun for someone more into that sort of thing though.

After those we have the ones that are the most "fine, I guess" of the year that I had mixed feelings about:

Townscaper: More of a toy than a game, but I got it in a game bundle and messed around with it on a Steam Deck. It's fun briefly to see what you can make with it, but that's about it.

Little Noah: Scion of Paradise: Most of my time with it wasn't actually this year, but this is the year I concluded that even though the characters are cute and the way you build combos is kinda neat, the game itself is only ok. Also the Switch version doesn't run great.

Star Ocean: The Second Story R: The first 2/3 or so of it is great. The art style used in the remake is gorgeous, and the characters and running around doing typical JRPG stuff feels like all the things that made 90s JRPGs great. Then I got to what previously would've been disc 2 and it all fell apart into what makes 90s JRPGs so hard to go back to sometimes.

Fallow: I like most stuff about it except for actually playing it, which was kind of frustrating. Her music's still great though.

Ape Out: It's alright. I'm not very good at it.

Downwell: It's fine. I get what they're going for, and it feels like they succeeded, but I didn't stick with it super long.

Looking Up I See Only a Ceiling: This one gets an award for suffering the most from a bad translation or not being written in the creator's native language. It'd probably be pretty decent if that was cleaned up.

Astronomical Club for Queers: Dialogue's a bit awkward, but overall it shows potential for making something decent in the future.

Hardcore Cottagecore: This one has serious student project/game jam vibes. With some polish and balance they could make something alright though.

A Little to the Left: Deserves an award for "game that most makes me want to go replay Unpacking instead". Fine, but I lost interest after a while.

Twilight Survivors: I've definitely played worse bullet heaven games, but at least when I tried it this one didn't have much unique about it good or bad.

Geometry Survivor: It's close to being pretty decent, but it just doesn't quite feel good enough to play to me to stick with it too long.

Ikenfell: The characters are good and the story is ok, but I could've done without the gameplay. The "instant victory" button was one of my favorite buttons I pushed this year and saved the game enough for me to actually finish.

Star Ocean: First Departure R: It probably would've been more fun if I'd played it in the 90s. Significantly less compelling than SO2R but not actually bad or anything.

Cats Organized Neatly: Presentation's alright, but the process of solving the puzzles isn't the most satisfying for me.

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom: Fixes a lot of the issues I had with BotW, and the abilities feel a lot more polished and like they complement each other better, but I still ultimately don't love the way these recent Zelda games play and am probably done with them until the next major franchise overhaul.

The Average Everyday Adventures of Samantha Browne: It's fine. There's just only so much it can really do in like ten minutes.

Jewel Match Solitaire Summertime: It's a perfectly competent solitaire game, just like all the other Jewel Match Solitaire games. Good for when brain no worky, but it doesn't stand out in any way.

Xenogears: The first time I tried playing it was before Xenosaga was even out. I tried going back to it to finally finish it, but I forgot how rough the translation was and how janky some stuff like the camera is. At least now I remember why I've never finished it.

One Deck Dungeon: It plays out in an interesting way with the way everything is built around dice rolls, but it just didn't grab me enough to get me to keep playing.

the static speaks my name: It was just strange enough to be a little bit interesting, but not strange enough to stick with me at all for more than a day or two.

Stray Cats in Cozy Town: Might be my least favorite Devcats game I've played because the different angle makes it harder to come up with a good search pattern.

TREE: Another ten minute free one. I liked it more before replaying it to get the last achievement.

Witcheye: Pretty unique movement and fun for a while, but the difficulty increase later in the game didn't feel like it fit as well with what the controls let me do.

RYB: Some pretty good puzzles, but the more mechanics are introduced the less well it reads visually.

Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia: I've tried more than once to go back and finish it, and while I still like most things about it, the map design and a couple enemy types annoy me enough that I finally had to accept I'm not going to beat this one.

Graceful Explosion Machine: Surprisingly well balanced and an interesting gameplay loop swapping between weapons, but sometimes I lose track of enemies in the visual clutter. Also it's physically painful for me to play some of the later levels.

Frincess&Cnight: Good pixel art and fun interactions between the two characters' abilities, but the increasingly tight timings and need to start levels over for any mistake got a little annoying at some point.

CARS: More interactive art than a game. Fun to poke at for a bit, but probably not leaving a lasting impression.

VOYAGER: Slightly more of a game than the previous one, but mostly it's just tracing out fun patterns with your orbit while pretty good music plays.

Dragon Quest XI S: I played the demo on Steam a while ago and loved it, but having to replay the entire opening dozen hours when I got the full game on the Switch was painful enough to make me lose interest. There's so much stuff it does well, but It sure does start slow.

Project X Zone: I do enjoy a lot of stuff about it, but there are so many levels that each take so long to finish that after a while it got kind of tedious.

A Slug's Dream: Pretty good puzzles and presentation, but at some point I drifted away and never went back.

Puddle Knight: Same as above.

Please Fix the Road: Also same as above.

Atelier Ryza: Ever Darkness and the Secret Hideout: The most atrociously paced intro ever before suddenly becoming very good a few hours in, but the tediousness of needing to replace all my stuff at once toward the end of the game instead of stuff opening up more gradually killed my enthusiasm before finishing it.

Otoko Cross: Pretty Boys Mahjong Solitaire: A friend gifted me Pretty Girls Mahjong Solitaire years ago as a joke, so I impulsively got this on sale in memory of that. Totally fine but nothing special as a game, and if they toned down the horniness a bit some of the character designs/outfits would actually be pretty cute.

Death Becomes You: Some decent ideas and an interesting world, but some of the writting is kind of off-putting and some of the endings feel kind of abrupt and unearned.

this morning I decided to die: I get what they were going for and can appreciate it, but it didn't entirely land for me.

Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age: One of my favorite mainline FF games since the 90s, and I did genuinely have a pretty good time with it a lot of the time, but every time I got back into it it would pull some annoying crap to pull me back out again.

Tales of Berseria: I liked a couple of the characters enough to keep me playing for a while and the story is fine, but I got bored of the actual gameplay eventually and gave up.

Tales of Arise: Feels better to play than Berseria, but even though it hints at something interesting going on nothing in the first couple hours hooked me enough to get me to keep going.

KarmaZoo: I love the idea, but it doesn't get to go higher than this because it requires other people to play and I couldn't find any when I tried.

Margo: Definitely a fan of the art style, but the overall experience was only ok. It was probably somewhat negatively influenced by it being a pain to get it to run on the Steam Deck and still running terribly when it did, a very rare experience for me.

Berserk and the Band of the Hawk: It continues the pattern of most Musou/Warriors games that aren't affiliated with Nintendo in some way just not really being as good these days. It's ok, but it's noticeably more clunky and less polished than even the original Hyrule Warriors was and just doesn't feel as good to play.

Moving on, next we have games that were pretty good and generally met my expectations:

Luna's Fishing Garden: I didn't love either difficulty option for the fishing minigame, and it dragged a bit toward the end, but overall it's pretty cute and chill. Special mention to the "you got a fish" animation for being great.

Kuukiyomi 2: Consider It More! - New Era: I apparently never mentioned this in a post anywhere, or at least I can't find it. Anyway, it's more of the same from the first one, which is a good thing for the most part. It's basically WarioWare, except the minigames are about being considerate (or being a jerk if you'd prefer) in various situations. Cheap, short, and a decent way to be amused for a little while.

TET: Cute, funny, includes recipes. A good use of ten minutes and $0 if preparing food for Vietnamese Lunar New Year sounds like a good time. Also feels much better with a touchscreen.

Clickolding: Like I said earlier this year, it's the most about sex work anything's ever been without explicitly stating it's about sex work, and it will do its best to make you vaguely uncomfortable about that. Didn't leave quite as much of an impression on me as their other game I played last year, Can Androids Pray, but still pretty good.

An Arcade Full of Cats: Not my favorite Devcats game ever, but still enjoyable. As someone old enough to remember arcades it was fun seeing all the terrible cat puns on old games, and they did a pretty good job of capturing the general feel.

Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE Encore: Most of my time with this was before this year, but I finally made it through the last third of it. I have some issues with the dungeons dragging on too long and the almost non-existent quest tracking, but the characters and story and combat are mostly fun, and it's the only SMT/Persona-adjacent game I've actually enjoyed other than BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle.

Glitchhikers: The Spaces Between: It didn't hit me as hard as the original over a decade ago, and a couple sections just didn't really land for me, but when it does work it does some interesting stuff. The train section was probably my favorite because it actually gets to expand on its ideas a bit more there.

The Fairy's Song: What if La Belle Dame sans Merci but make it yuri? Nothing revolutionary, but it does everything well enough to be enjoyable, enough that I'll probably get through the sequel one of these days too.

Bury me, my Love: Manages to capture both the surreal horror and mind-numbing mundanity of being a refugee seeking asylum and does a fairly effective job of it. The lack of typical VN QoL features kept me from going through again to see stuff I missed though.

Takorita Meets Fries: Fluffy nonsense about merpeople in search of french fries, and I mean that in a good way.

GOODBYE WORLD: The story and art were just enough to keep me going through the annoying platforming sections (which make narrative sense to be there, and even for them to be bad, but still), and the way it all came together in the end is what bumped it up as high as this.

Blackberry Honey: Yuri that's mostly cute and fluffy and fun while it lasts. I have Questions about the way the main character's boobs are drawn though. What's wrong with your boobs?

Voxelgram DLC #1: One one hand it's good because more Voxelgram is good, but on the other the larger puzzles are mostly just more tedious. Still good enough puzzles to get my poor ADHD brain to focus on something while listening to podcasts or whatever.

rat chaos: A replay of something I played many, many years ago. Not my favorite of the Twine boom back in the day, but having an "unleash rat chaos" button makes it memorable.

Theatrhythm Final Bar Line DLC: Still not my favorite style of music/rhythm game so it doesn't go higher, but there's some good music in there, and it was still enjoyable enough that I had fun going through everything.

A Hero and a Garden: Cute, fun characters, good music (including the unlockable remixes after you finish the game), and somehow made in Ren'Py, which is not intended for this genre at all.

Hide & Dance!: I like it for similar reasons to the other games I played by hap (which will be further down this list), but it doesn't have quite as many opportunities for the silly humor that makes their games work.

Subsurface Circular: "You are a robot detective solving robot crimes by talking to other robots on the subway" is a great premise, and I was not expecting Thomas Was Alone (still my favorite Mike Bithell game I've played) to be canon.

Kirby and the Forgotten Land: It was genuinely great for a while, and they did an excellent job translating what makes Kirby fun into 3D, but I kept finding more minor annoyances the closer I got to the end, and I gave up entirely on the postgame stuff pretty quickly because it wasn't doing it for me.

Clear Skye Thinking: More cute yuri fluff that won't leave a lasting impression, but it was a good palate cleanser.

Regency Solitaire 2: Basically just Regency Solitaire again, which is fine with me. These always feel a bit more substantial and more polished than the other solitaire games Grey Alien publishes, so it's nice to have another of these after years of mostly just Jewel Match Solitaire.

Zenzizenzic: Good bullet hell game with good music, and everything is so many squares. Sadly not available anywhere anymore, and neither is the soundtrack. Also sadly I'm not very good at it.

Wedding Witch: I got it mostly as a joke after it popped up in a Steam friend's activity, but it's actually pretty competently made. I wouldn't mind seeing some of the stuff from this in a little more substantial game that's somewhat less horny.

A Park Full of Cats: More Devcats hidden cats. If you're into it you're into it, and this is more of it.

Gordy and the Monster Moon; One of the more recent entries in the Frog Fractions Cinematic Universe. A successful attempt to see what would happen if you made a traditional Zelda game without most of the things most people think of as making something a Zelda game.

Art Sqool: I've seen people complain that it's janky and gives you bad tools for drawing, but the whole point feels like that even if you only can make "bad" art you still did something creative and made an art. Fun to mess around with if you can engage with it on its own terms.

Fire Emblem Engage DLC: I played the main game last year, but I didn't get around to doing DLC stuff like the Fell Xenologue until this year. Not quite as good as the main story (which was one of my favorite games last year), but I still overall had a good time with it.

Super PSTW Action RPG: Replay of something I played years ago, so it can't go any higher, but if it didn't break my own self-imposed rules it would be GOTY every year.

A Tower Full of Cats: More Devcats? More Devcats. See every other entry for them.

Shovel Knight: Really well put together platformer inspired by old 8-bit ones on stuff like the NES and clearly made by people with a deep love for and understanding of them.

Milk inside a bag of milk inside a bag of milk: This and the next one go together. They didn't completely win me over, but I'll give them points for managing to nether glamorize nor stigmatize trauma or psychosis and avoid having an ending that's either tragic or fixes everything. Not perfect, but they at least tried to do something interesting with it.

Milk outside a bag of milk outside a bag of milk: See above

Meet Her There: Does what it's trying to do pretty well even if the writing's a bit stiff. Content warnings on this one aren't messing around. Also it's funny how many people totally missed how full of gender it is.

Florence: Effective storytelling with almost zero text or dialogue, and they actually manage to do some clever things to tie the very minimalist gameplay into that to enhance it.

Boyfriend Dungeon post-launch content: I played the game itself right when it came out and had a good time with it, but it took me until pretty recently to go back and do the additional stuff added after it came out. I probably would've liked it more if I'd been able to do it all at once, but it was still enjoyable enough to be worthwhile.

Star Ocean: The Divine Force: Definitely an improvement over SO2R (which was great in the first half but kinda fell apart in what would've originally been disc 2). This one still stumbles a bit toward the end but holds it together a bit better. Enough characters I liked and satisfying enough combat/exploration to keep me going until the end, and the nyoom button might've been my favorite button to push all year.

Be My Horde: Or at least what of it is finished up until now. I like the idea of having your only resource being dead enemies you've killed and most abilities revolving around upgrades/enhancements of your resurrection ability. The voice acting is also surprisingly good/fun. Definitely has potential if future additions to it can build on its strengths, but we'll see how that goes.

Pesticide Not Required: Possibly the most unusual premise for a bullet heaven game I've played, crossing it with a farming sim. Somehow it actually works? Builds feel kinda samey after a while unfortunately, but it's cute enough and interesting enough seeing how farming/fishing/mining manages to work simultaneously with killing hundreds of bugs at once to be enjoyable for a bit.

Golf Club Nostalgia: I'm absolutely terrible at the actual gameplay (thank you story mode), but the story and worldbuilding told through the radio broadcasts were interesting enough and kept me going. Not subtle about its politics or who it's commenting on even though it doesn't name any names.

I commissioned some bees 0: Not really anything special on its own, but I'm a big fan of the idea of commissioning multiple artists to draw whatever they want as long as they can fit a hundred bees in it somewhere.

Point of Mew: Short enough that its cuteness and charm can carry it through to the end.

Locke(d): I appreciate that someone took a hypothetical scenario from an essay, interpreted it completely literally, and then used that setup to talk about the ideas of the essay.

The Great Voyage: Not nearly as good as their second game, Vengeful Heart (which will be further down the list), but you can see how they got from here to there and how some of that stuff was already here to begin with.

CATO: Buttered Cat: Some reasonably clever puzzles, and building your game mechanics off the idea of a cat with buttered toast strapped to its back is silly enough that I can't not like it.

The Knight Witch: It didn't quite win me over enough to finish it, but what I did play of it was pretty well put together and enjoyable enough.

Peglin: It has a pretty fun loop, and turning Peggle into a roguelike is a pretty neat idea that works surprisingly well. I could see myself going back to it for a few more runs now and then.

Words Can Kill: It has a pretty fun loop, and turning Scrabble into a roguelike is a pretty neat idea that works surprisingly well. I could see myself going back to it for a few more runs now and then.

Across-Stitch: The tweaks to the typical picross/nonograms rules are just enough to keep things interesting, and I probably would've spent even more time with it if it didn't have some unfortunate color palatte choices.

memories: Another little yuri VN, this time sad. I liked the way it tied different memories to different outfits, and it's reasonably well told for what it is. It desperately needs a way to adjust the text speed though.

Next but not quite last are the ones that exceeded my expectations in some way without necessarily being better than the ones in the previous category (although some are here because they were good). I could also just have gotten more out of them than I was led to think I would:

Seraphim Slum: A VN that isn't afraid to get weird with it, and by weird I don't mean rawrxdlolrandom, I mean surrealness and strange metaphors and corruption/destruction as a form of love. I can dig it.

9th Sentinel Sisters: Seems unfortunately abandoned at this point, but what they finished of it is a fairly enjoyable bullet heaven game with a bit of a different feel and aesthetic from what I'm used to seeing. Translation's pretty awful though.

20 Minutes Till Dawn: One of the better bullet heaven games I've played, with a great monochrome-plus-one-accent-color aesthetic (the character portraits are particularly good) and different builds that genuinely feel different to play. Play on anything but the Switch if you have the option though, because it has atrocious slowdown with certain builds (although it still remains remarkably stable even then).

DoraKone: More yuri fluff about four queer girls spending the summer playing the my OC do not steal version of Pokemon GO. It's cute, and I liked the way they managed to tie the developing friendships/relationships into playing the game together in a way that actually felt like it worked.

A Time Traveller's Guide to Past Delicacies: More surreal weirdness, but this time with sock puppets too. I'm still undecided on what it's trying to say, but I really enjoyed the way it said it, and it captures both the fun and the janky parts of 90s FMV games well.

Bayonetta 2: The main reason this counts as exceeding my expectations is that the first game was full of great ideas but felt really unpolished in a lot of ways, and I wasn't expecting something that's still an entire decade old to have really fixed all that. But they did for the most part, and all the potential from the original finally came together properly.

Vectronom: Aside from pure rhythm games, this might be the first thing I've played since 140 that integrates the music and gameplay as well as it does. Bonus points to whoever decided to include some stuff with odd time signatures and rhythms later in the game.

Vampire Survivors: Emergency Meeting and Operation Guns: I liked both of these as much as I disliked Ode to Castlevania. They're much more interesting than the previous DLC was and experiment a bit more mechanically, and the adventure mode does a great job of introducing all the new stuff and teaching you the new mechanics and maps.

Lies as a Starting Point: A good example of how this category isn't necessarily better than "worse" categories in my list. It's pretty decent and the three storylines come together in a satisfying way in the end, but the translation is awful. I still got more out of it than I thought I would though.

Before I Forget: Ironically for a story about memory problems I forgot a lot of it because of my own memory problems. This nearly ended up in the best category though, and I appreciated how they made the story about who the character is as a person instead of just what's wrong with her.

Mom Hid My Game!: This and the next two are basically three parts of the same game, which is the offspring of a point and click adventure and WarioWare. Pretty short with lots of little bite-sized puzzles and a silly sense of humor.

Mom Hid My Game! 2: see above

My Brother Ate My Pudding!: see above

Soulstone Survivors: Another of my favorite bullet heaven games I've played. The addition of an active dodge and a lot of layered interactions between abilities makes it a bit more involved to play, but in a good way if you're looking for that sort of thing.

Bio Prototype: Not my favorite to actually play and the UI isn't great, but you can do some absolutely wild things with what basically amounts to a programmable build system to DIY your own weapons with very few restrictions.

20 Small Mazes: A great example of something that takes a simple concept, explores it thoroughly, and then ends without wasting time or energy on anything unnecessary.

The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe: As someone who's been playing the different variations on this since the original mod, this was a more effective story commenting on its own (re)telling and its own audience's expectations than FF7R was, at least for me.

Halls of Torment: What's this? Another of my favorite bullet heaven games? The standout for this one might be how so many of the achievements/unlocks are really well thought out to get you to approach playing the game in ways you might not have tried otherwise and are often little mini-puzzles themselves.

SeaBed: Very slow burn VN that ultimately pays off in the end even if I liked the journey a bit more than the destination.

Everything is going to be OK: On the surface it's very coping with adversity through absurdity, but if you keep digging it has more to say about trauma and depression and misogyny and the value of artists and so on.

Will The Man Get Frog: Cute little PICO-8 game/toy for creating haikus using an extremely limited set of randomly chosen words. Fun to mess around with to try to come up with anything remotely coherent.

The Indifferent Wonder of an Edible Place: Interactive poetry about being a willing participant in the destruction of history and trying to explain or justify it while also being aware of the sense of loss.

Luckily, My Arm Is a Shotgun: Nothing revolutionary, but it's surprisingly polished for something so small and cheap, and the titular shotgun is very satisfying.

a completely normal dating simulation that is definitely completely sweet, innnocent and normal: SOMETHINGETH ANIVERSARY EDITION: It feels like someone in high school in 2011 dumped their Tumblr into Ren'Py while also feeling like a flash animation from the 00s. I'm not sure the humor would hold up for me if I did all the different routes, but what I did play of it was the kind of thing I haven't seen in years.

And finally we have the ones I enjoyed the most or felt I got the most out of, not really in any particular order other than vaguely the order I finished them and added them to my list:

The Witcher 3: Absolutely my least favorite gameplay of anything anywhere near this high on the list, but the world and characters are so interesting and well developed that it more than makes up for it. I know they had an entire series of novels and short stories to draw on, but they've added so much more on their own, and it's only gotten bigger and better with each new game. They do a great job of making it feel like the world is much, much larger with a lot of stuff going on outside the small corner you're seeing at any given time.

Ghost Trick: It has a ridiculous premise and clever puzzles and a good sense of humor, but something else that particularly stands out about it is that despite the relatively simple art style it has some of the most fluid and expressive animations that give a ton of personality to everyone.

Vengeful Heart: Possibly my favorite retro aesthetic in anything I've played recently and definitely the best anyone's nailed the PC-98 look in a while, but even more than that the characters and story are great. They do a great job showing people from totally different backgrounds with totally different approaches working together against an oppressive power structure, and rather than everything working out perfectly there are definitely problems, but it still shows hope for overcoming them and a path toward the future.

Unicorn Overlord: Unlike Vanillaware's previous game the writing is only ok, but the art continues to be excellent, and it's easily their best iteration on their RTS ideas to date. I don't think the story will leave much of a lasting impression on me, but I had such a great time with the gameplay for the entire time I was playing that I don't mind.

OPUS: Echo of Starsong: Definitely kind of a slow burn that took me a bit to warm up to, but I really liked how things came together in the end as I got to know more about the characters and what was going on. It's also good at showing restraint though, not neatly wrapping everything up, and it left me with more to think about than when I started.

We Know the Devil: Another one that's good at hinting at and suggesting things without explicitly coming right out and directly telling you everything, and some scenes hit differently when replaying to see the other endings when you know enough to be able to read it as commenting on itself.

Jack Jeanne: A strong contender for my favorite thing I played this year. Definitely my favorite music/rhythm game, the best music in general, and the most gender. So many things in it can be read on multiple levels at once as being about the nature of art and performance, what gender even is, and how (or even if) to engage with an audience.

Visions of Mana: It's a shame the studio got shut down right when it released, because they definitely understood what made the old games in the series so much fun, and they finally made a new non-remake Mana game that's actually pretty great for the first time in over two decades.

1000xRESIST: I'm undecided on whether it's my favorite thing I played this past year, but it's definitely my favorite piece of media in general that came out in 2024. It's another one where everything works on like 17 levels simultaneously, like generational trauma, the nature of language and communication, the protests in Hong Kong, the experience of being an immigrant or a child of immigrants, both biological and found family, memory and what we choose to forget or to pass on, and like a dozen more things.

A Highland Song: If you're noticing that most stuff in this category is here because it has great writing/storytelling you're not wrong, and this one is no exception. The way what's going on is gradually revealed is satisfying, and the way it's structured across different paths keeps things interesting. It also does a great job of seamlessly blending realism and history with myth and legend, treating them all as equally meaningful and important to the people and world.

Ys X: Nordics: Sometimes you just need to go on a wacky adventure though, and Adol's shenanigans continue to be fun. The gameplay continues to feel tight and polished, and they also keep managing to have a large cast of interesting and likeable characters. It's just a good time.

I guess this time I'll only be tagging that last category because I played entirely too many games in 2024 and don't actually have enough tags for the top two categories like usual. There were some huge disappointments, but there were even more things that I didn't expect to like as much as I did, and there was a bunch of really great stuff in general.

[tia-amorosa]

Episode 7: Last doubts

When Alexander came home that afternoon, his older sister and father were having a lively conversation. “And this Pascal can't come here?“/” No, Dad, unfortunately that's not possible, he have a lot of big appliances that you can't just pack into the car. That's why I want to go to them, it makes working together much easier"/, ‘You want to go away, Cassy?’.

“Yes, Alex, I have to go somewhere else for a few days for work"/ ‘To the alien city?’/ ‘You probably mean the city of the crazy…’/ ‘Dad!…yes, that's exactly where I have to go and work with a few other scientists’/ ‘Oh cool, can I come with you, I want to see an alien too’/ ‘No, Alex, you have to go to school’.

“Oh, that's mean!"/ ‘Hey, I'll take some pictures when I see one, okay?’/ ‘And you'll bring them with you?’/ ”Yeah, sure. Now go and do your homework, okay, I have to talk to Dad"/ ”All right. But don't get kidnapped"/ ”That won't happen to me there. I'm not leaving today either"/ ”o.k.. The tasks today are quite easy”.

“I've never seen you so determined. So you're really convinced… That your mother is out there somewhere? At least what's left of her…“/”Dad, we've waited so many years. They never found her here. Not even the smallest piece"/ ”I know… I know all that, Cassandra. But you know how suspicious I am of aliens. And they're supposed to live peacefully next door to them?”….

“Believe it or not, yes, it is. Besides, the whole town isn't populated by them, it's just one family. I know it sounds crazy, but it's not. Pollination also has an incredible amount of knowledge, he loves the earth and he loves humans“/”of course, so much so that he abuses them for his reproduction!“/”oh, dad, you're not up to date at all chuckle“/”I don't know if I even want to be it…"/…

“Please, Dad. He's an outcast, and he does really good work and specializes in spirits, especially the different planes…"/ ‘You know I don't believe that nonsense’/ ‘because you only know and believe what our dear family spirits know from the afterlife.’/ ”That's the way it is, Cassandra. But I… I don't want to stand in your way”.

“Believe me, Dad, I've never wanted anything so much. And if there's at least a glimmer of hope of finding her again somewhere, then I don't want to leave any stone unturned. She's out there somewhere. And… If I don't find her, then I've failed"/ ”I don't want to hear that… My child. Hhh, I just hope nothing happens to you”.

“Oh dad… Nothing will happen to me. I've got three bodyguards there to look after me. “/"That's only slightly reassuring, my dear. All right, then. But I want a call from you every day“/”That's fine, I promise“/”Have you spoken to Don yet?“/”No, I'll do that tomorrow, I wanted to speak to you first“/” that's very commendable“/”hn-hn. I love you”.

“Well, then it's not so bad that Mr. Ayres is back in town…"/ ‘who?’/ ‘oh, surely you remember the man who helped your mother around the house while i was at work and she pregnant with Alex?’/ ‘oh, yes, he was very nice’/ ”yes. And now he's back after a long trip abroad. I'm surprised he doesn't have a family…"/ ‘Maybe he doesn't want one’.

“Well, I've never met a man who doesn't want a family, and I have…. A wonderful family, with an intelligent son and a beautiful daughter who always wants to have her way“/”I'll take that as a compliment, hm? Hey, I've got a great team behind me, they may be a bitcrazy, but they take everything very seriously.“/”,I get it now”.

They went into the kitchen together to get dinner ready. “So the wedding is also postponed indefinitely. What do you think he'll say?“/”Not much, probably. He's having to work double shifts at the moment because there's a shortage of doctors at the hospital“/”I've heard about that. Hopefully he'll get some rest at some point.“.

„Did I hear a little ironic undertone? Dad, he's a really nice guy. I know he's not your dream son-in-law…"/,,But apparently he's your dream man. And it's ultimately about you“/”mhm, exactly…How is Dina?“/,,oh, good, she's very happy at the restaurant I recommended to her”/"Fine. Let's make dinner now, I'm hungry”.

While Cassandra and her father take care of dinner, Alexander does his homework.,,oh man, this task isn't that easy after all, but I don't want to keep asking, I want to do it on my own. I wanted to see an alien too, now all I get is a photo… But at least it's real and not like a poster…hmm, who was the third president of the USA?”…

The dinner passed without many words. Cassandra was glad that her father had now agreed to her pursuing her research and that she would have to travel to another city to do so. But she wants to use tomorrow to talk to Don again and spend more time with him.

9:45 pm. While her father and brother are already in bed, Cassandra wanted to do a little test in front of her mirror. She put on the new nightdress she had recently bought for her wedding night. “Don has never seen me like this before. Just with this knot in my hair…hh, I wish I could undo this stupid curse, but I'm not a witch…. And it's better not to mess with magic… But the fact is, it hit me and I'm going to stick to doing the right thing…. “. After looking at herself for a while, she changed back into her normal clothes to sleep. And her thoughts wavered between Don and her mother. But most of all she was looking forward to this trip.

@greenplumbboblover , @solorisims , @plumbobgothica 😊

(3rd President? Thomas Jefferson, Sweetie)

My story posts are also welcome to be shared.😊🙂

[radarsteddybear]

[For the Anastasia AU ask game] Back to the Future? (I mean, did you expect anything else from me...?)

Send me a piece of media and I'll tell you how I'd do an Anastasia!AU for it!

Oooooh, that's going to be tough because I've only seen the film once and that was probably...somewhere around 10 years ago? But let's give it a go. (I apologize in advance if this doesn't actually fit.)

In order to keep the royalty element, I'd stick Marty and co. in a fictional country that recently overthrew their monarchy and replaced it with communism. The country is buzzing with the rumor that the youngest of the king and queen's three children survived. Meanwhile, Marty, as above, has amnesia and is trying to eek out a meager living while trying to piece together who he is, only having bizarre flashes of memory fragments to go off of--fire, nearly being run down by a strange-looking car, blinding flashes of light, the sound of tires squealing against the pavement. He arrives in this fictional country's version of Twin Pines, where he finds himself drawn to Doc, former Scientist to the Crown, who's now working as...something that is definitely not science and is unquestionably beneath his ability/skill level. Doc, much like Marty, exists on the fringes of society as the sort of person that everyone else tends to avoid because they're different and weird and tend to say stuff that doesn't make any sense and are probably doing things that could probably get them in a lot of trouble with the law. Which Doc is, by the way. Doing things that could get him in a lot of trouble with the law, I mean. Idk what he's doing exactly (probably multiple different things), but he's doing it to earn money to fund his scientific experiments and hopefully get out so he can relocate to somewhere he can have the freedom to pursue his scientific endeavors.

Now, this next part's a bit tricky, because Doc is, at heart, a very kind person who would absolutely never intentionally do anything that would ever hurt his good friend Marvin (or whatever the heck's going by at this point in time), but let's see if we can make this work. Soon, what remains of the government in exile announces a monetary reward for whoever finds the Lost Prince, Marty McFly. This gets Doc's brain going, and he starts to put some details together in a rather "I've connected the two dots/you haven't connected shit" sort of a way. Dates line up, places line up, and the kid even sort of looks like the lost prince. And if he is the prince, the reward money is more than enough to get Doc (and Marty, because Doc doesn't really think through the idea that Marty being the prince would lead to their separation) out of this fictional country and set them up with the tools and equipment to do Science™️. Doc uses his knowledge of palace life to teach Marty how to be a prince as they make their way towards Fictional Country #2 where the government in exile is currently exiled. Marty slowly begins to regain more and more of his memories, though they don't paint the happiest picture.

After they arrive in Fictional Country #2 and start to prepare to meet with the Fictional Country #1 Government in Exile (which is mostly going shopping for snazzy new clothes), Marty starts to realize that, this whole time, Doc has been more motivated by money (and freedom) than by the idea that Marty actually may be the lost prince, that Doc has been twisting the facts in his mind to fit the picture he wants to paint. And Doc starts to realize this, too, and he is absolutely horrified because, again, he'd never do anything to hurt his friend, and now...he has.

And just before realizing this, Doc also realizes that, if Marty is the Lost Prince (which Doc hopes he is, after all this), Marty is going to stay in Fictional Country #2 to take his place as the exiled king leading Fictional Country #1's government in exile as well as take his place in Europe's royalty. Sure, maybe they'll still get to see each other here and there, but it'll never be the same; they'll never again get to live in the same world.

Marty is understandably angry and decides he needs his space. Doc decides that the best thing he can possibly do is respect this, so he wishes Marty the most genuine, heart-felt "good luck" he can and starts making arrangements to return to Fictional Country #1 (because without the reward money, he can't afford to start a new life in a new country; there also a definite element of some self-flagellation in there as well).

I guess Biff gets to play the role of Gleb, working as an agent for the government of Fictional Country #1, which has a vested interest in not having any of the members of its former royal family return from the dead. Biff's mission is to either bring Marty back to Fictional Country #1 to be made an example of (if he's not the lost prince) or kill him (if he is). So at this point, Biff has been following Marty and Doc for their entire journey, and this is the moment he chooses to make his move, having determined that Marty is, in fact, the lost prince, and therefore he needs to die.

Marty, of course, isn't going down without a fight. The ensuing fisticuffs somehow catch Doc's attention, as he's still nearby and hasn't left yet. He joins in the fight, probably with the help of an invention or two, and quite literally throws himself in front of Marty to protect him from Biff once Biff reaches for his gun. Biff doesn't get the chance to fire because Marty is able to use whatever invention Doc brought along to defeat Biff once and for all (he doesn't die, of course; he just ends up getting arrested by the proper authorities).

Doc and Marty hug it out. They don't have to say much to convey their apologies to one another. They decide to ditch the whole lost prince business and find a place for themselves in Fictional Country #2, starting from scratch, because they don't need much as long as they have each other.

[magnetarmadda]

For the last day of @tmaappreciationweek, I've done a Somewhere Else statement fic! It's okay, it's a happy ending 💜

[CLICK]

[MUFFLED MEOWS, MORE DISTINCT PURRING, FOOTSTEPS]

[VOICES INCREASING IN VOLUME]

JON

[excitedly] Martin, look at this one!

MARTIN

Jon, you've said that about the last four cats we've looked at!

JON

But this one is perfect!

[FOND LAUGHTER]

MARTIN

If you say so, love.

[SOFT MEOW]

JON

[quietly] You're so soft, and oh so fluffy. [louder] I think his fur is almost the same color as your hair.

MARTIN

[sighing fondly] We're taking him home then, are we?

[LOUD PURRING]

[FOOTSTEPS]

SHELTER EMPLOYEE

Oh, I see you found our newest residents!

JON AND MARTIN

[together] Residents?

SHELTER EMPLOYEE

Yep! They're a bonded pair. The orange cat is usually in front, hiding the black cat. The black cat, poor guy, looks like he's been through a few alley wars. But it's a good sign the orange one likes you—we've been calling him Marmalade, and the black cat Blackberry, one of our kid volunteers was on a toast-themed naming kick that weekend.

[LAUGHTER]

SHELTER EMPLOYEE

I know, I know. They don't yet seem very attached to those names, though, so you'll be able to change them fairly easily. I'm Tabitha, by the way—I'm just going to clean some of the kitten cages while they're out in the day room. Let me know if you need anything!

MARTIN

[distracted] Thanks. 

[PAUSE]

MARTIN

Is it just me, or does the shadow in the back have eyes?

JON

[snorting] That's probably Blackberry. Oh, Martin! He's coming toward us! Quick, put your fingers by the bars.

MARTIN

Yes, dear.

JON

No need to be rude in front of the cats.

[SNORTING]

[PAUSE]

MARTIN

[softly, full of concern] He's very skinny, and it looks like there's spots where his fur isn't quite growing right. 

JON

[equally soft] Just means we'll have to give him lots of love.

MARTIN

Well, we know you have plenty of that to go round.

[FABRIC RUSTLES]

MARTIN

H-hey! Careful there! Shoving me made Blackberry here unhappy.

JON

[muttering] Blackberry. [louder] We need to find them new names.

[LOUD MEOWING]

JON

[laughing] I think they agree.

MARTIN

So, we're taking them home? 

JON

[happily] Yeah, we are. 

MARTIN

I'll go get Tabitha, see what paperwork we have to do. Then I'll go get the carrier from the car. Hopefully, they'll let us get away with the one, since I wasn't expecting two cats. [voice gets softer] Although I probably should have, knowing you.

JON

He's a lot of bluster, don't worry. He's very happy with you both, too, I know. 

[RUMBLING]

JON

Tim will have a field day, though. I don't know how I'm going to live this one down, not on top of him being right about Martin and I hitting it off on a blind date. [laughing] It's been four years, you think he'd let it go. 

[MEOWING]

JON

Marmalade, you haven't even met Tim yet! Sasha will love you, though, she's always wanted a fluffy cat. Oh, and Georgie will be so jealous—she's still sad the Admiral never got as fluffy as she thought he would when he was a kitten.

[SOFTER, CROAKY MEOW]

JON

Why, hello there Blackberry. Yes, I'm more than happy to scratch your ears with my other hand. Four hands in our house means plenty of pets, that's for sure. And since both of our jobs have stayed work-from-home, there's lots of time for cuddling. Oh, well, you both seem quite good at that already. It's very sweet of you to clean Blackberry's head, Marmalade.

[CROAKY MEOW, RUMBLING]

[FOOTSTEPS COMING BACK]

JON

We really will need to give you better names. Don't worry, I've got a list—you'll just have to meow to tell me which ones you like. Sound fair?

[MEOWING]

MARTIN

Convincing them to go along with your plans already? Hardly fair, love.

[MUFFLED KISS]

JON

You know they'll love you more than me anyway. I've got to gain an advantage somehow.

[OFFENDED MEOW]

[LAUGHTER]

[FOOTSTEPS]

TABITHA

Ready to take these guys home?

JON

Absolutely.

TABITHA

Great! Let's get that paperwork done.

MARTIN

We'll be right back, and then, home.

[FOOTSTEPS RECEDE]

[RUMBLING, TWO SOFT MEOWS]

[CLICK]

[themculibrary]

Family Masterlist

A Little Bit of Mischief (ao3) - asgardianavenger M, 59k

Summary: Loki's kids were monsters. Odin made sure that nobody knew that. A curse was put in place but since Odin's passing, the curse has been lifted. Two of the four children would stop at nothing until they find their younger siblings and make things right. (During Thor Ragnarok)

And All the Vegetables Too (ao3) - Chiauve G, 3k

Summary: At first, Frigga paid little mind. Afterall, boys grew at different rates. It wasn't until Loki was a good head taller than his elder brother that she began to worry.

Bouncing Baby Sniper (ao3) - vain_glorious clint/natasha, peggy/steve T, 5k

Summary: Clint Barton is Peggy Carter's grandson.

Congratulations, It's a (Spider) Boy (ao3) - tony_starked pepper/tony T, 6k

Summary: When Maya Hansen shows up at Tony’s mansion over a decade since they last met, she isn’t exactly lying about that thirteen-year-old kid in the car.

Don't Touch A Pregnant Man's Snack (ao3) - catnip_coffee steve/bucky T, 4k

Summary: Bucky's learned to let go of things that he's particular about. Except for his late night cravings. Those are not something to be messed with or forgotten. Especially when it comes to Steve's stubborn baby.

Even a Miracle Needs a Hand (ao3) - victoria_p (musesfool) clint/darcy G, 11k

Summary: When Darcy takes Clint home for the holidays as her fake boyfriend, he charms his way into the family, and into her pants heart.

"Have you ever gave yourself you time to suffer?" (ao3) - lonieine T, 4k

Summary: Peter has lost a lot of people, but he never really gave himself time to process that pain, and that has consequences.

him without his dad (ao3) - iron_spider T, 3k

Summary: Peter wakes up before his alarm goes off because the door slams open. He was in a dream somewhere but it disappears as soon as the door opens because Happy is rushing in and grabbing him up.

“Wait wait wait,” Peter says, feeling dizzy and sleepy as he reaches down and grabs the phone from the charger. He doesn’t remember plugging it in, and he guesses someone else did that for him. “What’s wrong? What’s wrong?”

Happy doesn’t say anything and just holds onto him, carrying him out of the room.

“Happy!” Pepper’s voice yells, and she’s there in the hallway and her face is all red and Peter is starting to get scared. “We—we don’t think there’s any threat to him—”

If One Be Gone, We Carry On (ao3) - the_sentient_duck G, 4k

Summary: Rebecca Kaplan is an ordinary woman living through extraordinary times and trying her best to deal with a son who seems like an entirely different person sometimes.

Ikaris and the Dumpster Flerken (ao3) - Sternenstaub_Orca ikaris/sersi, druig/makkari, gilgamesh/thena, phastos/ben G, 49k

Summary: Instead of flying into the sun after the failed Emergence on Earth, Ikaris wanders across the universe in self-imposed exile until the Flerken Distribution System finds him.

A bit of chaos ensures.

I'll Call Your Mom (ao3) - SkyeRomonoff N/R, 11k

Summary: Officer Melinda May just wants one day where she isnt dealing with stupid petty crimes, unfortunately thats not possible because as soon as she meets a teenage girl named Daisy every single call is about her

I'll do all I can to heal you inside (ao3) - Velocity_Owl87 T, 3k

Summary: Loki's left his dysfunctional family life behind, or so he thinks. Then his little brother Thor shows up on his doorstep, badly injured and Loki ends up taking responsibility for his little brother to raise him properly and hopefully give him a better future than he otherwise would have had.

Just a Million Little Gods (ao3) - orphan_account T, 4k

Summary: Loki responds with a level six glare and, “Arcade Fire.” Upon Thor’s bemused face, Loki sighs so hard he almost feels out of breath and adds, “You’ve probably never heard of them.”

Memories That Never Fade Away (ao3) - Peridot_Garcia agatha/rio, teddy/billy M, 179k

Summary: A purely self-indulgent fic about Agatha and the coven learning how to work through their trauma even if they tend to get on each other's nerves.

Never or Forever (I can’t remember) (ao3) - That_other_koi N/R, 8k

Summary: What if Thor handed Loki over to HYDRA?

Paper Planes & Playground Games (ao3) - Barkour loki/sif G, 14k

Summary: When Sif was but a girl, she met two princes, one like the sun, the other like the moon.

Take It All, It's All Yours (ao3) - LilaLuna agatha/rio T, 104k

Summary: After a lifetime of suffering, young Wanda finds an unexpected haven with Agatha and Rio. Bound by their love for each other and their commitment to Wanda, Agatha and Rio create a sanctuary for healing, determined to help Wanda face her deepest wounds. Together, they become the family Wanda never thought possible, fiercely protective of her—and each other—as they navigate the painful layers of trauma she carries.

OR: Agatha and Rio take in a young Wanda in and do everything to help her heal from the layers of trauma she has endured in her life. Slices of life, established relationship and found family.

these things, they were promises (ao3) - Mira_Jade frigga/odin G, 4k

Summary: "In her visions, she sees two sons born to the Allfather; it never occurred to her that one would not be of her womb." Three moments that the future struck deep.

the smile that's on my mouth (it's hiding the words that don't come out) (ao3) - pouringinsheets G, 1k

Summary: Six months ago Sam walked back into the Wilson family house for the first time in two years. Except it hadn’t been two years, it had been seven.

Sam tries to find his footing.

Viduidae Child (ao3) - RunRabbitRun frigga/odin G, 4k

Summary: When her husband presents the babe to her, Frigga's first thought is He doesn't look like a Frost Giant.

[player-void]

[UNTITLED] S4 - WEEK #1

Ok so either this is gonna be a fun little weekly thing i do. Or I immediately Forget this whole blog exists again. Hopefully the first !!!

Last week we started a new season of [Untitled] SMP, so I'd like to make posts about what I did each week! I mean these will probably be paced out more as time goes on, but for now I'm playing almost every day so, there definitely will be weekly updates!!

˗ˏˋ ִֶָ࣪☾. ˎˊ˗ Am I squatting

Me and Oliver were originally going to live somewhere else, but Oliver found this cool valley with a village surrounded by cherry trees. Its sooo pretty auauauauhg . so much potential

˗ˏˋ ִֶָ࣪☾. ˎˊ˗ This took more time than id like to admit

I wasn't really planning on making a villager trading hall this early but . Something possessed me ig . I don't have any armor but i sure do have mending and efficiency V trades at less than 20 emeralds. I'm planning on making a bigger one soon yay

˗ˏˋ ִֶָ࣪☾. ˎˊ˗ ROLEPLAY WEEE !!

I'm SO excited for rp, I've already participated in 3 sessions which is so surprising it doesn't even feel like it LMAO. But yea !!!! I got to rp with some of the new members, it was very fun to have new characters to interact with yau <3 here's to many more !

˗ˏˋ ִֶָ࣪☾. ˎˊ˗ It's kinda uncanney to me

Lil extra thing, Ceph told me to add the just expressions mod and I am still trying to get used to how the eyes move LMAO

I REALLY wanna use figura for extra details, but it's more likely I'll be using it for cOllie's later / actual season outfit

˗ˏˋ ִֶָ࣪☾. ˎˊ˗

I planned on posting this on sunday but </3 Did not get the time to do so I was too busy spending the free time I had playing . But hopefully next post is more on time lol

[accio-victuuri]

5/27 candy round-up : fan-meet clues, denying drama rumors and everything else. 💋

happy saturday! it’s time for some treats care of mostly wyb @ chunzhen fan meet. it has really been some time since he did one of these. hopefully, he does more before he gets stuck in filming his new movie. we will be getting a new endorsement from him tomo so that’s one to look forward to!

sharing the compilations link of media from today’s event both from cpf & solo fansites!

moving on to the candies…. ⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️

• The most obvious and probably in your face with today’s event is WYB’s look. Aside from the 🦴 necklace chain peeking from time to time and how his hair brings us back to 2019 WYB. The clothes remind us of that striped top he wore in the l’oreal event where he drew the heart with a mole. It’s also maison kitsune, a brand that ZZ wore in a live event recently too. The glasses for his photoshoot also brings us back to WB night 2020. These things could all mean nothing but to us, it brings back memories. The glasses are particularly sus, cause while i do think it may have something to do with his HK glasses endorsement, i don’t see it on their site as a style he is endorsing currently. It surprised a lot ( if not all ) of the fans cause why is he suddenly 🤓??

2. The Camping CPN is at it again. I don’t usually follow other artists so idk if other mention this too specifically but it’s so interesting how these two decided to pick it up at the same time. Or is this some sort of trend in China too? Either way, during the fan meet he said that he does Camp during his breaks. Plus he mentioned that he did go camping somewhere close to the beach.

He also said something that confused people, when they were talking about “moving camping” and wyb explained it’s like moving your house to the camp because of how one brings a lot of things. the he says: “it means he likes to moves many things...a lot of things...then..” so who is he? why so specific as he? Do you camp with someone who brings a lot of things it’s as good as bringing his house along? I don’t wanna judge XZ lol. cause when we see him, he prefers small bags so you would think he’s okay with not carrying too much. but i also have the feeling that ZZ would bring a lot just to be “ready” when they go camping.

3. When choosing the number for the lucky fans, he picked zone A row 2 number 30 and then when he was asked to change it cause there is no #30, he picked row 3 number 20. 2 & 3. His favorite numbers. This is not new, even @ summer surf shop this was noticed. It’s nice to see that it didn’t change. 23 ( Ai Zhan / Love Zhan )

4. As for some food CPN, WYB said again that he can’t cook and that he can only prepare simple dishes. One day, we will know what these are. I’m thinking he’s being humble about it and if he says he “can cook” people may expect more complicated dishes.

When “spiced beef ( or sauced beef ) was mentioned, he smiled. here is the reference to that if you don’t get it.

In one segment of the show, he was mixing fruits with the yogurt drink and he was asked why he chose lychee. He said it’s because he likes it and likes to freeze it to eat. This reminded cpfs of an LRLG post that said WYB peeled lychees for XZ. It’s so specific of a fruit and then it gets “confirmed” like this!

Xiao laoshi thinks the lychees are too high in calories and doesn’t eat them, but Wang laoshi has already peeled them.

WYB: "Didn't you say you wanted to eat it a few days ago?" Brother X specially went to buy it for you."

🧔‍♂️: “The owner of the stall said that this batch is sweet, try it."

XZ: “Then I'll take it later”

WYB: “Eat later”

• WYB shared about what does when camping and he said what he does is drink coffee. “yes, space out, finish the coffee, and then make another cup, then drink again.”

someone please get him a coffee endorsement! hahahahaha! and the commercial for it will be a scene like this. i really feel for him cause with the statement today from yuehua, this is really a way for him to relax. to camp somewhere quiet and just chill. where no one is following & harassing him.

anyway, it’s cool to see him loving coffee now when in the past he wasn’t seen much drinking it. but at the time of cql filming, xz was the one who loved coffee. is this another way of them adapting each other’s likes?

• While talking about Qingdao ( where the fan meet is taking place ) he was asked if he went there before.. and he stopped and replied, they know better than me. and like he doesn’t even know sometimes what city he is flying to. CPN is that he didn’t want to say when he last went to QD. that’s because there were some talks before that he visited the ADLAD cast ( XZ ) in QD. 🤫

but this could also be him calling out the sisheng fans who “knows” his itinerary and private schedule. 💀💀💀💀💀

There is a new fake story about XZ collecting blind box figures and he complained to WLS that he cannot seem to complete the set he wants. So WLS helped him get it all. This is the set he allegedly wanted :

based on the drama empresses in the palace.

=====================================

The second part of this is Patrick ( XZ counterfeiting account ) refuting the rumors of a drama collab between XZ & Y@ngzi. Whether the account is purely a fan account with contact to XZS or WJJW. An XZS employee or a WJJW employee, the sus part here is how quickly this rumor was denied in XZ’s part. There are so many drama and movie melons coming out and putting XZ’s name on it and they don’t address it. If they do, it’s not as quick as this. 30 minutes from when that melon account rumor started getting traction.

This “speed” of denial is not new, some artists / fan accounts do this too ( like ZLY fan when she was rumored to star in mermaid came out lol ) but it’s uncharacteristic for XZ.

There is also a ! on it, this is the only one with that since the account started posting in 5/2020 where that was used. it’s added for emphasis looks like. you can check the account to see for yourself.

I’m not saying he hates his former co-star. I’d like to think they have a professional relationship as what one would expect with a former co-worker and people who go around the same entertainment circle. But one thing is for sure, he doesn’t want to be associated with her in this capacity. A project using his popularity to get attention when he is already signed on with Condor Heroes. And the last time they went on HS together was about using the same car which last night — y@ngzi was on HS again because that same car was also used by Li Xian ( also a former co-star she is romantically linked with ) proving that the issue was so ridiculous! but somehow, some glass hearted cpfs had doubts. lol. please.

i don’t like talking about our boys and other cps associated to them but his connection with this woman seems to make a lot of cpfs nervous. which i don’t understand. 😂😂😂😂 so i hope those people get some sort of “comfort” with this.

END.

referenced source 📚

[esevik]

Chapter 5

One of the first things Seivarden asks after waking up is to have a cup of tea, Radchaai really is the empire of tea! (I'm actually surprised at how often they talk about tea or compare other drinks to tea.)

On a more serious note they meet with Strigan which leads to interesting conversations. There are still not really any answers but we do get a goal. So what we learned this chapter was:

-Protag uses an alias, Breq, which I'll be using now for them too until stated otherwise. -Seivarden is probably using he/him pronouns so that's what I'll do too. -Seivarden conscious is not that fun to be around, his aristocratic upbringing is probably partly to blame, and he holds firmly in Radchaai's propaganda that only Radchaai is civilized and that everyone else are a lower life-form. Hopefully he gets a "asshole gets humbled and becomes a better person" arc. -Radchaair citizens are able to live up to 200 years. -Strigan is fairly good at deducing things and has a fun dynamic with Breq. -Strigan is a doctor (can have been mentioned before but I'd forgotten). -Berq is looking for a gun Strigan is hiding. This is a gun that has been missing for 1-2 thousand years. It originates with Garseddai who were a culture obsessed with fives and had the technology to create guns that could shoot invisibly bullets that penetrated Radchaair's armor. In all the history of Radchaai it was the only time someone had managed to "sink" one of their ships. Berq wants the missing gun to sink another. It doesn't surprise me that Berq wants to fight the Radchaai since it was pretty well hinted that they were a deserter/traitor but now their goal is clear. Also, for all of the thousands of years they served Radchaai dutifully, what was it that happened with the Ors that was the last drop? What was the action of Radchaai that made Berq turn on them? -Just a thought I had with the other 24 guns Radchaai confiscated. What happened with them? Are they just stored somewhere? Destroyed? I feel like the logical thing to do would be to try to replicate the technology to use for themselves but there is no mention of that. It also sounds like these guns pose a threat. So what happened with them? Why isn't Berq trying to get their hands on those?

[danikatze]

Hello there!

I don't usually log into my Tumblr account, I downloaded the app again only lately to search for fanfiction and fan arts actually. I think one of the reasons I started following your blog (probably years ago at this point) was surely your art. Anyway, today I took some time to scroll through the posts in my homepage and came across the one in which you poured your sentiments about your dad's death.

First of all, what I want to say is that I'm very sorry, I know that even when the death of a person you love is something that you are expecting, it's not easy to accept that anyway. In those last 4 years it happened to me too, first it was my grandma, who was like a second mother to me, after that my aunt followed her only a year after. Last month, my uncle died too. We are a very close family, I grew up with them in the same house, and now it's just me and my mum here. She has a lot of physical problems too, and since when I was little I've always been thinking about how I would react when I would lose her.

I get your feeling, I hate the fact that people come to your house when a relative dies, and even though I know they don't do it with bad intentions, I always felt it's absolutely wrong. When my grandma died, I just wanted to shut myself in and not talk to anyone, but people kept coming and it was so exhausting to be strong for them.

Honestly, I don't really know if my words will make any sense in general, but I feel like I just wanted to let you know that I understand how you feel, I would really like to let you know how to bear with it, but sadly I don't really know. If I was you, I would simply take some time for myself, go somewhere where you can have some days of peace and simply grieve the pain you feel like you couldn't grieve up until now. People surely will understand, and if not, screw them. But I also know that not everyone can just go and take some days off, so I hope you can find the best solution for you. Trust me, I think it's best to let go of the pain as much as you can when the wound is fresh, because it won't completely disappear, but at least you would have to deal with a minor amount as the time goes on.

Please, really, take care of yourself, I don't know you personally but I feel like there's a deep connection between us, so even if my words can only make you feel slightly better, slightly understood, I'll be happy with that.

I'm sending you a really big big hug 💙 I wish the best for you 💙

💙💙💙💙💙💙💙💙

Thank you, anon, I'm sorry for your loss too, your uncle's death is very recent, but everyone else's must also hurt very much still. </3

The thing is, it's very difficult to find alone time currently. I live with my parents and my sister and her boyfriend have been here ever since the end of September to care for my dad and support each other. Which is wonderful, but it's also just a very full house, even without all of the visitors.

And tomorrow they're going back which creates a new problem, which is that my mum is often not great at being alone and I feel bad taking time for myself heh. Especially when it's just the two of us. And I'm the opposite: I recharge when I'm by myself lol.

Anyway, we're hopefully going to find a way to meet both of our needs.

[cryptidsurveys]

Wednesday, October 23rd, 2024.

What’s something you used to believe in that you don’t anymore? Certain conspiracy theories. I used to be pretty deep down the rabbit hole. A true tinfoil hat wearin' nutjob. I think it started with getting into lucid dreaming and things just spiraled out of control from there. I'm sure there were kernels of truth in some of the things I looked into, but other things were so outlandish and unsubstantiated. It's like I'm just smart enough to recognize a potential pattern, but not smart enough to realize when that pattern has left reality behind for crazy land.

What’s your favorite dinosaur? I don't have one. I do like learning about them, though.

Do you believe in reincarnation? If so, what would you like to be reincarnated as? I'll tell you in my next life. :') But in all seriousness - I think my body will be broken down and reabsorbed into other things; if you want to consider that a type of reincarnation, then sure. But if we're talking about coming back as a fully formed human or critter with all my past karma, etc, then no, I don't think I believe in that. I'm not even sure I believe in any sort of afterlife. I think death is death and that's it. You just don't exist anymore. A bleak thought, maybe, but I think the idea of being "eternal" scares me even more.

What are three scents that you like? Autumnal spices, pine forests in the rain, and coffee shops.

Do you ever use the grounding technique 54321? I've used it a few times. My therapist taught it to me during our first few sessions together.

Where would you relocate if you were forced to leave your place of residence? Realistically, somewhere within the same city. We'd probably rent a house, hopefully a pet-friendly one because we have three kitties. Ideally, though, somewhere like Rye or Beulah. Out in the mountains but close enough to this city that my life could stay intact (volunteering, therapy, grocery shopping, visits with mom…).

What smells better… fresh baked bread or fresh brewed coffee? Oh, both are wonderful, but probably coffee.

Have you ever met a president? Like the president of a country? No. But like a board president at the animal shelter? Possibly…? When I'm there, I live by this rule - be hospitable to everyone you meet, lest they be board members in disguise. ;D

Has anyone ever given you a gag gift? No.

Do you find smoking unattractive? I might find it attractive in modeling photos and the like, but when it comes to everyday people, I'm mostly indifferent. If anything, as a smoker myself, seeing someone else smoking just makes me crave a cigarette too.

Do you think flirting is cheating? I wouldn't consider it cheating, but I wouldn't feel comfortable with my partner flirting with other people.

Have you ever liked someone who had a girl/boyfriend? Yeah. I've had an ex-partner move on to another relationship while I still had feelings for them, and I've been in one polyamorous relationship (and I know now that is not the dynamic for me; I much prefer to be monogamous).

Would you ever take someone back if they cheated on you? I would like to say that's an absolute no, but…I just don't know. So much would depend on the circumstances.

What's a word that starts with the third letter of your first name? Literary.

How many wives or husbands do you want? One.

What's your favorite color gummy bear? Red or orange.

What's the last movie you saw in the theater? I saw Wild Robot a few weeks ago.

What color is your iPod? I don't have an iPod. I did have an mp3 player at one point, though, and it was black.

What’s a quality that your sister has that you absolutely can’t stand? Explosive and belligerent anger.

Have you ever dated a smoker? If not, would you? I have and I would. Maybe that answer would change if I quit smoking, but I'm fine with it for now.

Do you share a middle name with any of your siblings? I don't.

Name one of your psycho exes? I don't have any psycho exes. Sure, they had their issues (don't we all...), but I'M probably the psycho ex. :')

Have you ever been drunk at work? No.

Have you ever taken a pregnancy test? No.

How many bananas have you ever eaten in a row? I don't think I've ever eaten more than one in a row, but over the course of a day, maybe two…?

Do you have a protective father? He's protective, but not overly protective.

Have you ever had to choose between two people? That's what it feels like with the most recent family drama. Thankfully, no one is outright asking me to choose.

The last thing you remember dreaming about: Oddly enough, it was a dream about having to choose between two people. Nick and Michael, two of my ex-partners. I felt kind of guilty and confused and afraid of making a choice in case I regretted it.

The last place you went: I went to Chili's for lunch with my mom.

The last time you held a baby: I have no idea.

What’s the scariest video game you’ve ever played? I've never found a video game to be scary.

If you had the chance to slip through a portal, despite being unaware of any of the effects and/or consequences, would you do it? Nooo. That's one of my worst irrational fears.

When someone copies you, are you more flattered or annoyed? If they were picking up some of my mannerisms, then I think I would be flattered. Like hey, I'm cool enough to be copied - even if it might be only subconsciously. :') I can imagine other scenarios in which it would be frustrating or downright creepy, though.

Which is worse: Stale chips or flat soda? Ehh. Both are somewhat unpleasant but still tolerable to me. I guess if the chips were really stale, then I would say those are worse.

What health problems do you have? Migraines, fatigue, mental health issues.

Have you ever had an anaphylactic reaction to anything? No.

Do you have sensitive skin? Not really.

What would you name a baby boy? I have no idea.

What would you name a baby girl? Same.

Do people's rude comments bother you for a long time? Sometimes they do and sometimes they don't.

Name three things you find boring. Finance bro channels, the idea of staying in a hotel (I loved it when I was younger, but it would be so tedious to me now), and lengthy road trips once I've run out of distractions.

What excites you? Thunderstorms, randomly chaotic days at the shelter, upbeat and energetic music.

Would you send your kids to Sunday school? I don't want children, but hypothetically speaking, no. Not unless they wanted to go; then I wouldn't stop them.

What is the most interesting biography you have read? I haven't read many biographies…maybe just ones for Anne Frank and Hellen Keller. I do like listening to biographical historical videos, though. They're just interesting enough to keep my mind engaged and distracted while being boring and predictable enough to lull me to sleep.

Do you think your life story would make a good book someday? Naw.

Do you buy art for your walls? I bought a misty mountain tapestry for the wall behind my bed. I have a few other things on my walls as well, but nothing like "art pieces."

Would you ever decorate a room with a travel theme? No.

What insects do you think are pretty? Butterflies, moths, dragonflies, certain spiders (even if they can also be a bit unnerving).

Do you love God? Yes.

Is there an ice cream flavor that you strongly dislike? Which one? I'm not a huge fan of plain vanilla ice cream, but there aren't any flavors (that I've tried) that I strongly dislike.

Do you own any books with an image of a cat on the front cover? Yeah.

Does anything you own have an image of a bird on it? Yeah.

Does anyone you know own a spaniel? How about an Irish setter? No.

[princelylove]

Hey prince how u doing (I finally made my fyp scrumptious again)

-🦷

Logically there was a glitch somewhere because you sent this in twice, but I'd like to imagine that you just reaaally wanted to make sure I got it.

Good job, tooth anon. You did the horrible, terrible work of engaging with works that you love. How funny that you sent this in the day I made a new account somewhere else just to get a fresh start. It's genuinely a bit frustrating to get back into your niche- that's why I'll never, ever delete pinterest. Finally have a good feed after something-something amount of years of having it (likely nine or eight).

Honestly, I've been having a bit of a hard time adjusting to life with a chronic disease. I'm going to an objectively better doctor now though, so hopefully it works out. Fingers crossed.

The surgery I had done in the beginning of March was a surprise, they discovered my chronic disease while they were in there, so. Imagine you're just totally fine and then one day you have a looot of physical pain, and now you have to live like that and figure out how to keep living like that. That's how I'm doing lately. The last doctor I saw said I was still in recovery from my surgery, sooo... it's probably a mix of aches from someone opening me up and the disease that's made its home in my womb. Love that for me.

Pray for me if you're religious, please.