#and i guess 5 years is less than half the time the game's been around so... proportionally speaking...

[shoechoe]

and wizard101 isn't even a very good game at least certainly not better than other MMORPGs... it's crazy

[mazikeenhyde]

Less than a minute...

(Ive decided to be brave, I always wanted to try my hand at writing fan fiction so here we go! If i got anything wrong, like warnings for example please let me know so i can fix it! )

WARNING – 

A Poly!Judgment-Day fanfiction containing themes and mentions of DEPRESSION, LONLINESS, SOME SMUT, ANGST, SADNESS, ALCOHOL etc 

Overall, I’m just trying to make you all cry… 

READER X JUDGMENT DAY/POLY! – Rhea, Damien, Finn, Dominik x READER- Written in first person with Y/N (Reader Female)  

Italic font – flashback, speech or memories

Less than a minute 

The hotel room was quiet, the cheap TV fixed to the wall showing Monday night Raw on a low volume mixed in with the sounds of footsteps in the corridor, each sound filling the hot humid air. Outside the rain lashed down, heavy rainclouds hung low in the night sky blocking out the starlight, yet the full moon powered through, illuminating the streets, reflecting in the puddles that ran along the gutter line. 

 It was late, most of these anonymous guests rushing around just outside our door would be returning from busy work days to catch up on sleep or be heading out for a fun night on the town.  A blissful life for most, a chance to escape their homes and stay in a bed with room service, maids to clean up after you and a reception for any assistance required! I hated it though; it wasn’t my choice but when you are on the road traveling for what felt like 300 days of the year with your partners there isn’t much of an option. A different country every month, a different state every week, Christ a different town every night. I longed for those one-off days where we were all free to do nothing. Something many people take for granted is the ability to do nothing, and I missed it. 

Life felt far too chaotic, and despite being in a 5-way Polyamory relationship, I’d never felt so alone. I longed to go home, back to our own little house, we had been away for so long now. I could picture it, the front room shelves filled up high with my collection of books. My own little library I had spent a lifetime building now just collecting dust. The cabinets filled with Dominik’s board games that had bought about so many nights of endless laughter and equally some rather extreme arguments over winners, losers, cheaters and a half empty liquor cabinet that had been drained dry after a game of Scrabble. I still laugh now thinking back to when Rhea would demand the Alexa to define a word, we were sure Dominik had made up. Still, you could always rely on Finn to settle the score with a round of tequila shots and an accidental knock of the board. 

“Oh no!” Finn would laugh as he ‘accidently’ kicked the board off and onto the floor. 

“The board fell… guess we will have to play something else aye lass” he stated sarcastically, winking at me as he passed over one of the shot glasses. 

“I wouldn’t say No to a game of Twister” Damien suggested, raising his eyebrows as he took his shot and ran his fingers down my back. I swear that man would give me goosebumps from the top of my head to the center of my core with just a passing look and that fiendish glint in his eye! 

Rhea was quick to move herself over towards us resting her head in my lap, turning her view point to a more favored position. “I’ll second that” she smiled gently kissing the inner of my thigh, my breath was hitched, excited and on edge all at once. 

“Well I’m calling it!  I won..” Dominik stated with a huff as he began to pick the letter tiles up off the floor. Smirking over at him we each adorned a loveable gleam towards the boy. A little brat at the best and worst of times, but we wouldn’t have changed him for the world. 

Moving Rheas head onto Damien’s lap where the two of them began their own little make out session I crawled my way round to Dom, helping collect the remaining tiles off the floor and boxing his board game up. 

Smiling into his eye line I whispered ‘Never change who you are Dom Dom, We will always be here and we will always love you”

“What about when they break us up though?” he asked, I could hear the anxiety in his voice, his eyes. “I have to turn on Rhea and…and..” 

I held him close, his hands holding tightly to my back and I could hear his gentle muffled cries. 

“You’ll never be alone Dom, I love you so much. Even if I’m not always there to hold your hand, ill never be far away” I whispered in his ear. 

“Less than a minuite?” he smiled. 

-----

I couldn’t deny how much love I felt for each of them, work life had been tough for the four of them after the WWE had stated they would be splitting the group up to start a new storyline involving the likes of Liv Morgan, JD & Carlito. It didn’t stop the love we had for each other, but it certainly made traveling together difficult! I often reminded them that unlike myself none of them exactly blended into a crowd. 

Sitting in the middle of this king size bed I pulled my knees up to my chest, I had stolen Damien’s hoodie and a pair of rhea’s gym shorts in the hopes of being comfortable enough to focus while I studied my textbooks, but alas tonight my mind was elsewhere. I had been studying Law for some time, it had always been such a passion of mine and thankfully no matter where we slept I could bring my books and get my head down while my partners entertained the world. It also came in quite handy when certain members of the group had one too many drinks on a night out and needed some help in escaping the police without legal prosecution. Dominik can tell the world he did hard time in jail all he likes, but it was me that got the little brat released early after a dramatic night with Rhea at his parents’ house on thanksgiving. 

The WWE had offered me a position on their legal team once I had passed all my exams, yet that was over a year ago. I had deferred my exam date twice already, I wasn’t sure what was wrong with me but I didn’t feel the love, the passion or the joy I had done surrounding myself in plans for my future dream career, I was starting to worry I had wasted all these years for nothing.

Finn was always the voice of reason; he would often sit and help me revise while Rhea and Dom would shower together after the gym and Damien would take a nap. He was the voice of reason in the group, the glue that held us all together when things got tough. It was Finn that supported us all the most when our relationship went public, none of us had wanted to hide how we felt and the WWE were supportive, but that didn’t stop the online hate. The four of them were use to random strangers throwing insults due to the nature of their job, and thankfully I wasn’t of much interest to the fans. We had done our best to keep me away from the public eye, almost everyone just assumed I was part of the WWE teams supporting the group. There were a few fan speculation pages online who loved to play the guessing game but the majority saw me as nothing, as no one. 

Finn always knew when something was wrong, he hadn’t wanted to leave me this evening but I had persuaded them all to go on the promise when they returned we could order in and cuddle up to watch a new release on tv if we connected Damien’s laptop. 

“Chicken tenders! Ooh and nuggies?” Dom said, looking around the room in minor disbelief as we all looked at him with smiles. “What?” he asked. 

“Really Dom? Chicken tenders, I’d never have guessed that bro. There’s me thinking you’d want Sushi!” Damien stated sarcastically with a smirk as he zipped up his duffel bag. 

“Ew, raw fish? Bleugh! That’s gross!” Dom was genuinely disgusted at the idea. 

“Hey! Don’t knock Sushi you little squinnie! Just because the rest of us have some foodie culture, your mother should have had you expand your pallet better!” I replied as I walked over and flicked Dom on the head. He was quick to wrestle me up and onto his shoulder, spinning me round onto the bed where he climbed on to pin me down. 

“Uh Excuse me! I think you’ll find…Mami! has expanded my pallet just fine hermosa!” He stated, daring his lips closer to mine. 

“Oh I bet..” I whispered to him closing the gap between us, our lips aching to touch. “Your pallet has had its fair share of tasting sessions aye Dom Dom” 

Before he could respond Damien wrapped his arms around Dominik’s waste pulling him off me and planting him back down to earth, ruffling his hair upon release. 

“Alright you two, break it off!” Damien patted Dom on the chest as he tossed over his rucksack from the chair. I bought my chest up leaning back on my hands winking at Dom as he scowled at me with a mix of frustration and cheek. 

Rhea walked out from the bathroom with Finn following in tow, slapping Dom on the ass and wrapping her arm around his neck. 

“Behave yourself Dom Dom” Rhea said before looking over at me on the bed, “You too Bunny, Brats be warned there will always be consequences.” She laughed and pulled Dom towards the hotel door blowing me a kiss as the two of them headed out to work. Damien followed suit leaning down on the bed to kiss my forehead. 

“Te amo, Hermosa” he held the back of my neck touching foreheads before following Rhea and Dom. 

“Ill catch up with you three downstairs” Finn said and Damien gave him a thumbs up as he headed out the hotel room door and closed it behind them. 

Finn took a seat next to me on the bed as I sat up properly and moved to the edge, adorning one of those fake convincing smiles that had worked so many times before. 

“A night of studying then? We won’t be back too late I promise, you can pick the film tonight. I dread another of Rheas slasher films aye. We will be up all night watching the door” Finn said with a gentle nudge to my shoulder. I just nodded, unsure of how to respond. It was strange, I could hide myself in the love and laughter I felt for them all, the never ending flirting and sexual frustration that would build when we were in a room. But a reminder of the real world, of the real life we were living was enough to shatter my dreams back to reality. Every day was blending into one, the repetitive endeavors were tearing my soul apart. Tears began to fill the corners of my eyes as I was quick to stand and rub them away taking a sharp breath. I knew inside I was breaking, I was like a ticking time bomb and I needed to protect them all. Finn leapt up to his feet spin me around and face him.

“Y/N, listen to me lass, you know we all love you. No matter what, no matter how hard it all gets, whether you sit the exams and pass or fail.” Finn held his hands to my face cupping my cheeks. 

Finn had suspected something was wrong for a while, he and Rhea had sat down with me before to talk. They knew about my past, the scars I had whilst silver and faded now were a window into a past life I had battled for so long to break free from, always terrified it would find me again. I was like a rabbit in headlights when it all got to much, I would freeze in fear of my mind running away with my sanity. Hence the nickname Bunny. 

“I don’t know what is wrong with me..” My voice was fragile, broken. 

Finn held me in a close hug, his warm embrace relighting the fire inside my chest, a willing to keep going forward. The serenity was quickly broken by a car horn beeping outside followed by a text alert on Finns phone. 

BRAT NO.2  -

“Oi! Save some of her for the rest of us Finn >_< get your ass down here! We’re gonna be late!”  

Finn shook his head, “That boy tests my patience to its limit at the best of times, ive a good mind to put him over my knee’ 

I laughed wiping my eyes with my sleeves “Only if you let me watch” 

He smiled and held me close, “I can stay, if that’s what you need?” 

I shook my head and released him from the hug, “No. its okay, you go kick ass! I’m gonna jump in the shower and try to get in a quick nap before I crack on with those books, can’t defer the exam forever!” 

“We will be back before you know it” Finn said softly 

“Less than a minute?” I half smiled

“Less than a minute” He returned the all too familiar phrase. Finn kissed my forehead before getting his bag of the chair and reaching into his pocket to get his phone that had started to ring. He answered the call whilst slumping his bag over his shoulder and nodding his head goodbye to me before heading out the door. 

“Dominik, I am telling you now! I swear to god if you don’t…” Finns voice faded out as he continued down the hotel hallway, the door closing behind him. 

Taking a deep breath I shook off the heavy emotional cloak weighing me down and headed for the shower. 

4 HOURS LATER   - 

Looking around the rather large hotel room we had booked for the night I came to wonder; anyone would have thought we would have been used to this horrendous decor by now. No matter where we stayed every room felt much the same, whether it was the dismal wall art, low pressure shower heads or dull painted walls that felt like they were closing in. Though I knew the others were not fazed by it, they very rarely spent a lot of time in these rooms, aside from catching up on missed sleep or dancing the devils tango with any sparing energy the four of them would be in the gym or at the WWE training centers for live shows or TV. 

Sitting here I couldn’t steady my mind, I felt lost, lonely, empty even. It wasn’t their fault, they showered me in affection, I could want for nothing but more time with them. Yet it wasn’t that either, no amount of time in the arms of Rhea could fix the damage, she was the only woman I could love with the entirety of my heart, but as incredible as she was, even Rhea Bloody Ripley couldn’t fight off the demons inside me. 

The deeper I looked the more the world felt wrong. It all felt alien, uneasy, I wondered if it was just me, was I the problem? I checked the time, just after 10pm, they would be back soon enough, why did that bring about such panic, an anxiety drowning my heart, my breathe hitched and I felt it. You just know don’t you, it could have been years, weeks, days, hours or minutes that you had been fighting the voices in your head, the devil on your shoulder, but I was so lost in it all I just wanted to be alone. 

Slipping  off the bed I pulled on my socks and trainers and headed for the door. Pausing in the doorway I felt my heart sink a little, maybe this was it, maybe I wasn’t what I had promised I would be. 

A single tear fell down my cheek as I closed the hotel room door behind me, leaving my phone and keys on the nightstand. I needed to break free, only time would tell how long for, but I needed to feel. I needed to escape the War inside my head and the only way I knew how to do that, was to run. 

1 HOUR LATER   - 

Rhea and Dom walked through the carpark with his arm wrapped around her waist as they headed towards the rental car. It had been a hard night for them and all they wanted was to climb into bed with their girl and sleep. Damien followed just behind the both of them carrying the groups bags. Finn bringing up the rear of the group was locked into his phone, his face filled with concern for their girl who hadn’t responded to a single text all evening. They had received a message from the WWE management team that they could leave early to limit fan interaction ahead of SummerSlam. 

Climbing into the rental car Dom, Rhea and Damien waited for Finn. 

“Maybe she fell asleep studying?” Dom asked as Finn sat in the back passenger seat. 

Rhea had her phone up to her ear listening to a never ending ringing on the other end, Voicemail again. “Bunny? please call me back.” She ended the call and looked up to Damien in the drives seat. 

“Priest, Floor it!” 

--------

Reaching the hotel all four of them raced from the car inside, adrenaline fed through them as they reached the hotel room. 

Hands shaking Rhea swiped the card multiple times before holding it still long enough to enter. The realization. The Silence. It was deafening.

Damien rushed in to check the bathroom as Finn scrambled around the room with Dom, looking for something, for someone they knew wasn’t there. Rhea stood frozen in the doorway, in silence, her eyes locked in. 

“Rhea?” Dom hastily rushed over, hand on her shoulder as he turned to her eye line. There it was, on the bedside table. 

Finn edged his way over to the bedside as Damien came back into the room. Hands shaking nervously Finn reached down and picked up Y/N phone and hotel keycard. 

They all shared a look between each other, a look of fear and confusion. What were they meant to do now? Where did Y/N go? 

“I shouldn’t of left her…” Finn held the phone tightly pacing the same two steps over. “I could see it, I saw it, I shouldn’t of left her…” Finn repeated again. 

“Finn?” Dom hesitantly questioned his actions. 

Rheas demeanor quickly turned and she slammed her hand against the doorframe and rushed out followed by Finn and Damien desperate to find their girl. 

“Dom stay here! In case she comes back!” Damien yelled, he paused in the hall before rushing back to the room and holding Dominick’s face in his hands. “We will find her, I promise, we will all be back before you know it” Damien kissed his forehead before turning and running back out the door. 

Dom was frozen on the spot, he couldn’t move, he looked around the room at abandoned study books, half unpacked suitcases and clothing discarded on the floor. He felt smaller than ever before, his heartbeat felt cold, his chest filled with butterflies and his hands cold to touch. 

Walking over to the window that stood from floor to ceiling he held his hand to his chest tearing up at the rain lashing down outside . “Less than a minute?” 

[morganbritton132]

So does eddie ever realize that Steve's moment of "maybe I should retire" was based around the fact that he was getting death threat letters? Or is he just too excited by the prospect that he just focuses on how much fun it would be to have Steve w him all the time?

He does eventually make the connection, but it takes time.

Steve mentioned retiring before Eddie had any inkling of the letters so it’s not an obvious connection for him. Especially because Steve still talked about retiring after Eddie found out.

He’s clouded by the possibility of having it all.

Eddie loves touring. He loves every aspect of it and he loves the possibility of being able to do whatever they want whenever they want. The best times of Eddie’s life were when Steve joined Corroded Coffin on the road, and like. Eddie gets it.

Steve was meant to be a teacher. He’s good at his job and he loves it, and the world is better off because Steve was a teacher. Eddie knows that.

It’s just… it’s just that they got together and then Corroded Coffin went from playing to five drunks at The Hideout to an opening act to headlining their own tours so fast. In those early days, Steve had all these health issues that they were learning to live with and then was in school, and then was working.

And yeah, he would spend the summer on the road with the band but then it was half the summer because he had to work to pay for school or because he was teaching summer school, and then it was even less. Then it was not at all.

The idea that Eddie could have it all made him blind to what – upon reflection – was so obvious.

Eddie would make a joke about how Steve won’t be blowing him off to write lesson plans next year and miss the way that Steve would cringe. He’d point out that Steve didn’t need to buy the funny encouragement stickers at the store because this was his last year teaching and then miss the hollowness in Steve’s voice when he says, “Yeah, I guess.”

It’s not until one day when Dustin’s over. They’re planning to play some new video game that he bought and Eddie’s trying to figure out how to connect his PS5 to the tv in his studio when Dustin asks, “Is Steve okay? Like, no bad test results or anything?”

“He’s fine,” Eddie says and then after a beat, “Why? Did he say something to you?”

“No, but you always bug him until he sets this shit up for you,” Dustin points out. “And I know that he’s in bed right now. At 5 o’clock in the afternoon. On a Saturday.”

“Yeah, thanks for that, Captain Obvious,” He replies sarcastically, waving some cords at him until Dustin takes them and plugs them in the back of the tv. “He has a headache.”

“Okayyyy, so he’s been having a lot of headaches then?” Dustin asked, matching the sarcasm in Eddie’s voice. “I’ve been here a lot since the – you know, death threats. He is either in bed or laying on the couch. I haven’t seen him exercise in-“

“He’s working on that,” Eddie says. “Would you go on a run when someone knows where you live and threatened to beat you to death? Nope. He’s just… working through it. Processing and shit. He has a therapist.”

“I thought that was for his mom?”

“A therapist can have more than one purpose.”

“I’m just saying, he seems depressed,” Dustin says after a bit, completely unwilling to let it go. “He barely hangs out with Robin, he didn’t come to D&D last week, and you were literally just complaining that Steve hasn’t been – gross – in the mood lately. It seems like he’s really checked out and he only gets like that when something is wrong.”

“He’s got that make up MRI coming up,” Eddie replies, but it feels like he’s reaching. His mind is slotting together how many times they’ve eaten pizza this month or how many times he’s woken up before Steve. Last weekend, they watched Star Trek: The Next Generation and Steve didn’t even complain. “I’m sure that’s it.”

Eddie confronts Steve in the morning.

They’re eating cereal at the kitchen table and Eddie watches as Steve picks the marshmallows out of his Luck Charms before asking bluntly, “Are you dying?”

A little too bluntly because Steve startles like he’s been shocked, “What?”

“So, that’s a no?” Eddie asks, and then to Steve’s bewildered look, “Dustin’s worried that you’re dying. He says you’re acting weird, and you are. I can’t trust that you’ll tell me things anymore so… So, I’m asking, and I will take your word that you’re not going to lie directly to my face. Are you dying?”

“No,” Steve says. “No, I – Ed, I’d never keep something like that from you.”

“Then what’s wrong?”

“Nothing.”

“But you ARE acting weird,” Eddie insists. “I know that the letters were a lot and they were scary, and it’s completely normal to not be okay about it, but this seems like it’s something else. You’re not doing any of your normal Steve stuff so… what’s going on?”

“I don’t – Eddie, I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Okay,” He says. “You don’t have to tell me.”

“Don’t do that,” Steve tells him. “Don’t say it like you think I’m lying to you. I’m not. I – I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about the letter. I didn’t know what to do, so stop… Stop treating me like you can’t trust me.”

“You’re hiding something, Steve! How can-“

“Do you know what I’m giving up?” Steve snaps, somewhere between sad and angry. He drops his spoon and pushes away from the table. “I would give up the world for you, Eddie, and I – I am! If you can’t trust me then what are we doing? I don’t want to be in my parents relationship and that’s what it feels like. I feel like I’m giving everything up so I can be here and you’re still unhappy.”

“I’m not unhappy, Steve, I’m – I’m confused! I don’t know what’s going on. What are you giving up?”

“It doesn’t matter.”

“It matters to me!” Eddie exclaims, tugging on his hair before getting up and following Steve. They’re standing in front of the kitchen sink when Eddie says, “I want to understand. What’s going-“

“I don’t want to stop teaching.”

Eddie stops, and it’s like every conversation they’ve had for the last month slots into place with brand new context and he’s – god, he’s an idiot. “Steve, baby. You don’t have to.”

“Yes, I do,” He says and he tries to smile like everything is fine. “We’re going to travel and it’s going to be really fun. It’s just hard right now.”

“I didn’t – god, Steve. I’m sorry if I pressured you into thinking that you – we travel during the summer and on spring break, and we go on dates on the weekend, and that’s enough for me, babe. I don’t need you to give up anything for me.”

“I want to.”

Eddie takes a breath and he squeezes Steve’s hand, “Would you ever make me stop playing guitar? Would you ever let me break up the band and stop making music so we could spend time together?”

“It’s different, Eddie.”

“No, it’s not,” He tells him. “It’s your life and it’s your passion, and I’m a really shitty husband if I take that from you.” 

[staylovesmiley]

Collision— Chapter 5

ᯓᡣ𐭩Pairing; Stray Kids x afab!reader

ᯓᡣ𐭩 ᯓᡣ𐭩Summary; You’ve known him for years but you never would have guessed the charming guy you’ve been online gaming with has been an idol this whole time. (masterlist here)

ᯓᡣ𐭩 ᯓᡣ𐭩ᯓᡣ𐭩Warnings; implied afab reader (only they/them pronouns used for reader), mild angst?, pls I haven’t written fanfics since 2018 patience and kindness is appreciated

You weren’t sure how long it had been since you made your way down the corridor of the JYPE building after leaving the practice room. After retrieving your drink from the vending machine you sunk down to sit beside it on the floor, taking small sips as you got lost deep in thought. It must have been long enough for the boys to start to worry since you saw Han coming into view as he bent down to meet your eye level where you sat criss cross against the wall. “There you are! You okay? We were starting to think you got lost.” He said with a soft smile before noticing an off look on your face, his smile falling. “What’s wrong?” You shrugged, fiddling with the hem of your baggy tshirt and making a conscious effort not to meet his eyes again. “The lights in there were starting to make my head hurt and there were so many sounds-“ you spoke only telling half of a lie. Yes, you were starting to feel a bit overwhelmed in there but it wasn’t from the lights and sounds alone but from all the thoughts racing in your mind. “Oh! You should have told me….it’s kinda bright out here too here follow me.” Without waiting for your response the rapper took your hand and pulled you down another hall and into a room. He flicked one of the lights and only the light inside the recording booth turned on to provide a dim light in the studio. “You can stay here until you start to feel a bit better, okay? I sit in here some times too when I get overwhelmed.” You couldn’t help but smile at his thoughtfulness, wrapping your arms around his neck and hugging him tightly. “Thanks Ji- gosh you’re so sweet.” He blushed, hugging you back before giving you some space. He gave a soft nod before heading for the door. “Wait- could um…can you sit with me for a bit? I’ll be okay in just a second but I’m afraid I’ll get lost trying to go back on my own.” His eyes widened like he hadn’t thought of that before he nodded and sat with you on the black sofa against the wall.

You both shared off into the distance, sitting in silence for a while before he spoke up. “You figured it out….didn’t you.” You sighed softly, for a member of paboracha he really was too clever for his own good sometimes. “Yeah-“

Jisung took a deep breathe before playing with the sleeves of his hoodie. “And?”

You furrowed your brows, staring down at your feet. “Why did none of you tell me? Not even Felix….I just- if you guys trust me enough to allow me to stay with you and had me over almost all the time before that, why couldn’t you trust me with this?” You were hurt, upset and afraid you did or said something that gave off the impression that this was something they had to hide from you. Han’s head raised as he looked at you, placing a hand on your knee to get you to meet his gaze. “Hey, it’s not what you’re thinking. Get out of that head of yours for a second, Star.” He chuckled airily, trying to lighten the mood as you looked into his soft brown eyes. “Then what is it?” You poured at him, making sure to hold eye contact. “Ah don’t none of that- don’t give me that look.” He whined, your cute pout too much for him as he started to fluster. “We wanted to tell you but- I know you’re from America and everything is different there but here people are less than not understanding about this sort of thing….” “And what exactly is this thing?” You questioned, wanting him to admit it now they you knew and he knew you knew, for the most part. “We are together, all of us. Since- well since our second anniversary as a group. Some of us longer than that but that was when we all were officially with each other.” He cringed slightly, like he was waiting for you to scold him or be disgusted. Instead you wrapped your arms tightly around his middle with a soft smile on your face. “I’m sorry you guys have to hide it, but I’m happy for you all. If you’re comfortable, now that I already know, you don’t have to hide around me anymore.” You assured him, your eyes meeting as you pulled back from the embrace. “Especially with me staying with you all while my apartment is being fixed….it could become suffocating to hide especially if it’s for my sake or the fear of me not understanding.” Han just blinked at you for a bit before hugging you again, fighting the urge to cry at hearing your support. “I told them you’d be chill about it- Lix too, so you know….he really wanted to be honest with you since the beginning but some of us were hesitant.” You sighed a bit in relief at this, giving the man a squeeze with reassurance. “Thank you for letting me know. Are you ready to head back?” He pulled back with a nod, standing and taking your hand. “Let’s go.”

Once you arrived back inside the practice room Han gave your hand a slight squeeze before raising it up above your heads. “Cats out of the bag, guys. Sorry-“ they all stared at him in disbelief, about to argue over how he shouldn’t have told you before you put your hands out in front of you in defense. “Don’t be mad at Han okay? I figured it out. You know, you aren’t as subtle as you think you all are.” You said with a slight smirk, taking in their shocked expressions before Seungmin spoke up with a dry tone. “Well? You know now….what does that mean?” You raised an eyebrow at him, trying not to be offended at the lack of trust they seemed to have for you in this moment. “You could have told me sooner and saved yourselves a lot of headaches.” There was an audible sigh of relief from the entire room and you walked up to your close friend and smacked him lightly on the chest. “Especially you. I can’t believe you thought so little of me.” You gave him a pout, Felix going from looking like he saw a ghost to looking like he was a child being scolded by a parent. He returned your pout and looked down at his feet with shame. “I’m sorry, Star….I wanted to- but we couldn’t be sure.” You rolled your eyes playfully before hugging him tightly. He recovered from his sulking quickly and hugged back with a squeeze, Hyunjin soon joined to hug you from behind as well and then the rest of the group followed until you began to shout about being claustrophobic and shimmied out of their hold and to the ground where you then crawled out from what felt like a forest of their collective pairs of legs. They all laughed at the display, you included as they all settled down comfortably. “For all of your information, by the way, I myself was in a poly relationship in highschool. Not like this- we didn’t all date each other but it was an open relationship situation.” Now they all stared at you in shock for completely other reasons. “Why didn’t you ever tell me?” Felix gasped, looking at you with mock offense. “You never asked?” You shrugged, laughing at their expressions. “Anything else we should know?” Minho questioned now, ever the curious cat. “Yeah” you started, the sound of your stomach growling echoing in the practice room. “We should probably get something to eat soon.” Everyone laughed and Jeongin pulled out some take out menus from somewhere in the room. The air felt lighter and they seemed even more relaxed than you had realized before that something was causing a tension, that something being them trying to hide their affection for each other.

It was a month and a half later and things were becoming blissfully domestic with living at the dorms. You had never gone to college, choosing to start working straight out of highschool instead for a family friend, but you assumed this is what it would have been like if you ever got to live with roommates on a campus somewhere. Your free time was spent buying groceries with Seungmin and Jeongin, watching dramas with Hyunjin, being a taste tester for whatever recipe Minho decided he wanted to try or for Felix baking endeavors, or sitting in the studio curled up on the couch while 3racha worked on new projects like you were now.

It was pretty late in the evening and you felt yourself dozing as you leaned against an already sleeping Han, whose body was twisted in a way you thought had to be uncomfortable as he snores lightly into your shoulder. You never paid much attention to what they were working on unless they asked for your opinion on something, usually keeping your headphones in while gaming or scrolling through various different social media platforms. You were enjoying your time living with them so much you felt a small pit in your stomach fill with dread every time you remembered it wouldn’t be forever. They had been more openly affectionate with one another ever since you finding out about their relationship, kissing and cuddling in front of you like it was nothing because well- it wasn’t.

You began to open up to them as well, your introverted walls crumbling as you got closer with the group to where you began to be more affectionate with them also. It was healing a part buried deep inside you being able to express yourself how you wanted, your family and others always shunning you for being too emotional. When you would give one of the boys a hug as greeting, or cuddle up during a movie night it was immediately reciprocated and it caused your chest and face to warm instantly at the acceptance of your touch and presence. As you scrolled, trying to stay awake as long as you could, you heard Changbin push his chair back and stand abruptly. “Ya- we’ve been working at this for too long, Hyung. I feel like my eyes are gonna fall out of my head.” He whined, nudging the older with a pout. “Why don’t you take Han and Star home, then? I’m good to keep working for a bit longer…I wanna finish this up before I can stop.” The muscular rapper sighed and shook his head, knowing Chan would likely be there till well into the early morning hours. “Come on, Hannie time to go home.” He said softly, poking the younger’s cheek causing him to whimper slightly in his sleep and reach up to bat his hand away. He chuckled, leaning down to kiss his forehead while looking to you for help. You giggled a bit and reached over to tickle at the young rapper’s side causing him to jolt awake. “Ya! Star how could you- that’s such betrayal!” He whined, pointing a finger at you accusingly. You just laughed and shrugged your shoulders. “You guys go on without me, I’ll stay and keep the old man company.” You teased, standing up and stretching before stealing the spot in Changbin’s rolling chair beside Chan. “Oh woah that was so uncalled for- you’ve been spending too much time with Seungmin.” He laughed, shaking his head at you while you smiled at him sweetly.

“As long as you’re sure….don’t let him stay here all night, yeah?” Changbin begged you, patting the top of your head. You nodded towards him in a silent promise, wishing them a good night and a safe drive home as the door closed behind them.

You started to doze off again soon, almost falling out of the chair causing Chan to chuckle at you. “You sure you wanna wait up on me?” He asked, raising an eyebrow at you. You nodded, covering your mouth as you yawned. “Mhm I gotta make sure you leave before dawn.” You teased, stretching your arms up causing your crop top to raise slightly and show the bottom of your bra which caught his eye and caused him to bit his lip and force himself to look away. “Why don’t you take a nap on the couch and I’ll wake you in an hour and we can go home, yeah?” You felt a slight blush creep up your neck and face at his words. Home, that’s definitely what it was starting to feel like staying with them. Though you mainly stayed in Felix room with him, you had slept over with the other plenty of times while having been staying there for various reasons. Tonight you had texted the younger Aussie that you’d be crashing in the 3racha dorm since you’d been with them so late and didn’t want to wake him up by coming in. He had sent a round of pouting emojis and a message about his bed being too cold without you but that he would manage.

You had blushed like crazy at that, your mind reeling any time he said something of the sort making things feel all that more intimate between the two of you. You weren’t going to lie to yourself, you had realized you had feelings for the other gamer after about two weeks of staying at the dorms when you caught him slow dancing in the kitchen with Leeknow and felt yourself longing to be the one with your hands on his waist while you spun around with him looking into your eyes longingly. It wasn’t so much that you were jealous and didn’t want him to be doing that with one of his partners, but that you wished that title included you and that night you couldn’t help but cling a little tighter to him as you cuddled in your sleep and dreamt of him calling you as such.

Doing as Chan had suggested, you curled up on the sofa and hugged one of the pillows to your chest as you allowed yourself to finally drift off to sleep. It wasn’t for long, it felt as you were being lightly shaken awake by a lightly amused Bangchan. “Ya, Star- it’s been a little longer than an hour but I’m ready to go now.” You grumbled and shook your head, refusing to get up. “M’no way it’s been longer-“ you groaned, causing the older to laugh. “Do I have to carry you to the car? I can if you make me but I’m giving you the choice now cause it’s late and if the others found out I kept you here this long they’ll kill me.” You huffed, only holding turning over as a response. “Alright then, here we go.” He chuckled before lifting you up into his arms bridal style. You nuzzled your face into the crook of his neck, wrapping your arms around him to hold on as he carried you down the hall and out of the building towards his car.

After arriving back at the dorm you fully woke up and rubbed at your eyes sleepily. “Are we home yet?” Chan smiled warmly and nodded. “Yeah, just pulled up. Think you can walk in or do I need to carry you again?” Embarrassed slightly, you chuckled and got out of the car. “I’ll walk this time, thanks for earlier though.” The two of you made it in and you cursed slightly when you made it to his room. “I forgot to ask Lix to drop off some pajama’s for me tonight-“ you cursed yourself mentally and cringed at the thought of sleeping in your jeans. “You can just borrow something of mine, it’s fine.” The Aussie reassured you, going over to his drawers. “Do want sweat pants or shorts?” He asked, rummaging around as he pulled out a pair of sweats for himself. “Um- shorts please?” You asked, remembering from previous sleep overs with the oldest member how much of a human furnace he tended to be. Tossing over a baggy black tee and a matching pair of shorts he turned around to give you some privacy and you did the same as you changed. You had done this a few times, not caring to make the walk down the hall to the bathroom to change and just turning to give each other privacy. You both settled under the covers and you could feel him stare at you for a while before you poking him in the chest. “At least try and get some sleep, yeah?” He smiled, chuckling lightly as he shook his hard. “I’m trying but it’s so hard when I have someone so cute in my bed, wearing my clothes.” He teased making you blush and hit him lightly on his bare chest. “Not funny, Chris. Sleep, now.” You turned around so your back was facing him and felt him drape an arm over your side and pull you flush against his back. “Wasn’t a joke, but good night Star.” He said before you soon felt the deep rise and fall of his chest against you signaling that he was drifting off to sleep. His words flustered you more than usual, being so close and in such an intimate setting with him. That was another thing you had come to realize over your time being here with them was how you seemed to have blossoming feelings for each of them, their charms and humor brightened your days beyond imagine and you felt completely blissful in their presence. Still, you held back those feelings to yourself for fear of interpreting their teasing for something more than it could be and ruining what you had going on as it was, even if you felt they were being obvious about the possibility of them feeling the same way. That little voice in your head told you not to be stupid, that they wouldn’t like you back and that it was all in your imagination and they were just being friendly.

Soon, you too fell asleep feeling the rise and fall of Bangchan’s chest behind you and hearing his snores.

In the morning you woke before Chan, smiling at his sleeping face before slipping out of bed and going next door to shower and get ready for the day. You were met with your four temporary roommates sitting and eating breakfast. “Morning, Star!” Jeongin said with a smile that you returned as you slipped your shoes off at the door and made your way over. “Morning! Sleep well?” The all nodded, all except for Felix who looked at your appearance and huffed. “Lix?” You tilted your head in confusion and made your way over to him. “Missed you.” He said with a pout before reaching for you and pulling you down into his lap to nuzzle his face into your neck. “Hey- I missed you too but i really need to go wash up, yeah?” He whined, but let go nonetheless and you leaned down to place a kiss on his cheek. You weren’t sure why you made the gesture, but something told you he needed the extra affection. You watched as his cheeks heated up and Minho immediately spoke up. “Ya! Why does he get a kiss? I want a kiss!” He shouted, causing you to roll your eyes and approach him as well. Smirking, he turned his cheek to you for a kiss only for you to give it a quick little pat before running off in a fit of giggles to get your clothes and take a shower. “No fair!!” He screeched, causing everyone else at the table to erupt with laughter.

While I’m the shower you heard a knock on the door. “Star? Do you mind if I grab something real quick? I promise I won’t look-“ you heard Felix familiar deep voice call out to you. “Sure! I think I actually left the door unlocked anyways-“ you reply, hearing the door open and soon after close. “I locked it back for you!” He said, and you quickly called back a thanks as you heard his footsteps walking away mixed with the water hitting the tile of the shower.

When you got out and dried off, starting to get dressed you noticed the shirt you had picked out had been replaced and you raised an eyebrow. Holding up the shirt that had been set with your other folded clothes you blushed a bit to see it was one of the young aussie’s shirts, his cologne still clinging to the fabric and causing a soft blush to tint your cheeks as you slipped it on over your sports bra before pulling on your loose fitting jeans. Why he switched your shirt with his own you weren’t really sure, fighting with yourself mentally over the meaning behind his actions. When you exited the bathroom and made your way to the kitchen to grab something to eat before class you felt all of their eyes on you and turned to catch Felix smirk before he turned away and took a sip from his mug. You ate quickly before grabbing your bag from the hooks by the door and slipped on your sneakers. “Bye guys, I’ll see you later!” You called, throwing them all a smile and wave as you started to head out. “Have fun at class!” They all called, starting to get ready themselves to head to JYPE for work.

After class, you made your way to JYPE with the takeout the boys had requested for dinner since they were practicing late that evening. As you were making your way into the practice room you heard a bit of commotion. “You’ve gotta be more careful, Chan! Really, I thought you’d know that better than all of us.” It was Minho, raising his voice as he gave the oldest a look of disappointment. “It was late at night and I was just carrying them to my car it wasn’t like we were caught hooking up or anything!” He shouts back, throwing his hands in the air. You weren’t sure what to do, awkwardly standing behind the door with the bags of food in your hands. “Guys, just calm down we can sort this out but we need to get it together before they get here it will be any minute now-“ Hyunjin said to try and ease them down from more of a fight. “Actually their location is showing they are already here.” Felix spoke up, holding up his phone for everyone to see. You decided to open the door slowly, wincing a bit as all eyes shot to you. “S-Sorry um….I can drop the food off and go back to the dorms if you need some privacy?” You said, walking cautiously towards them and setting the food on the table in the back. Chan sighed, shaking head head. “No, don’t go….some- uh, unfortunate events happened that just have us a bit on edge.” He said, looking back over to Leeknow. “I’ll say. A fan, or reporter one it doesn’t really matter, saw Chan carrying you to the car last night and got plenty of photos that are now all over the internet. Dispatch is having a field day.” He said as he crossed his arms over his chest.

The color drained from your face and you felt a bit faint. “What?” Was all you said, Hyunjin was by your side in a second, placing a hand gently on your lower back as he guided you to a seat. “I’m so sorry I- I don’t know what to say.” “It’s not your fault, so you don’t have to say anything.” Minho huffed, keeping his gaze locked on the oldest member. “Don’t blame Chan either then- it was really late and Star looked so tired in those pictures I’m sure they were out cold.” Changbin spoke up, standing to be beside the leader. “When we left they were already struggling to keep their eyes open and that was way before they got home. “This all goes back to why you shouldn’t be staying so late in the studio, then. Or else this wouldn’t have happened.” Minho spat back, pointing an accusatory finger at the producers. “Please stop-“ you said, looking at them all with worry. “Is there anything I can do to make it better? We could say I’m staff and I wasn’t feeling well?” You suggested, sitting on the edge of your seat now. “That could work- stays would eat that up since Chan is already so kind to our staff.” Seungmin spoke, pondering the idea for a bit. “No.” Felix said, glaring at the floor. “We should just tell them the truth. Star is my friend and they’ve been hanging out at the company with us but stayed too late and fell asleep. It’s the same as if a staff member got sick, Chan is the gentleman he is and was giving them a ride home.” Everyone stared at the blonde, concerned and skeptical faces among them. “It would be less lying and then we don’t have to feel like we are sneaking around…..it’s not like anything scandalous is going on anyways.” He said that last bit with a little huff of annoyance, almost as if he wished there was. You looked down to where you were still in his shirt, blushing a bit. “I’ll talk it over with management before we make any statements but- that isn’t an awful idea…” Chan said, Minho actually nodding in agreement. “It could work. If you’re okay with that, Star….people will inevitably find out who you are and you’ll most likely be pushed into the public’s eye to a degree.” You say and thought it over for a bit, biting at your lower lip as you contemplated the possibility. “Well- if I know anything about fandom culture they probably already know who I am if they saw my face….as in like- my name and stuff. So I can’t see the harm it would do to be honest-“ you shrugged, looking at Felix before leaning into him for comfort seeing he still looked a bit upset. “Then it’s settled….I’ll talk with management once we finish dinner.” Chan spoke, nodding over to the food and everyone made their way over to make a plate for themselves besides you and Felix who stayed in your spots on the couch. “Lix….are you okay? Somethings been off today-“ you questioned him, rubbing his back softly as you looked into soft brown eyes. “It’s nothing- I’ll talk to you about it later, okay? Before we go to bed..” you nodded, biting your lower lip again before rising. “Okay. Let’s go get some food before it’s all gone, yeah?” Smiling up at you he nodded before taking your hand.

The whole rest of the evening you felt your stomach twisting in knots with the anxiety of what it could be that he wanted to talk about when the two of you were alone.

author’s note: ooohh what do we think Lixie is gonna have to say to Star?? ૮꒰ྀ���∩' ᵕ '∩꒱ྀིა thank you so much for all the lovely feedback I’ve been getting I try to reply to everyone but sometimes I’m either not sure what to say or I just forget to and then feel like it’s been too long to say something when I do remember to and just- I’m a very anxious person if you hadn’t guessed already heh but anyways I hope you enjoy and look forward to the next update soon ᕱᕱ⊹ ࣪ ˖

tag list (if your name is pink it means I was unable to tag you); @softkisshyunjin @coastinglove @palindrome969 @amara-mars @whiteghostt @ihrtlix @queen-in-the-shadows @soaplickerrr @skzswife

[hannahwatcheshorror]

CHILD'S PLAY 3 (1991)

Chucky is back again and ready to steal another child's soul. “Just think, Chucky’s gonna be a bro.” Yeah, about that. This movie takes place at a military school so be prepared for heavy military influence. Interesting take on a Chucky film but certainly a downgrade from 1 & 2. Less of the good special effects we’ve come to know and laugh at, I mean, love. But really this feels like more of a grab on the name of Chucky than an inspired movie.

⭐��.5

Trigger Warning Mild Racism

8 years in the future, Chucky is somehow melted back to life? And he still wants Andy? Even though it was established in the last movie that he is stuck in his doll body, I thought? Okay, even Chucky notices this and picks a new kid (Tyler) to tell his secret to because he thinks he can steal his soul even easier (since this kid doesn’t know Chucky is so fucky, ya know?) But he still wants to go after Andy because he hates that kid (now teen). 

Some Military school bully finds Andy and Chucky fighting and assumes it's just Andy playing with a doll so makes fun of him then steals the doll. Andy sneaks into the bullies room at night so carefully not to wake him but all I can think about is watching out for Chucky who will literally murder everyone without hesitation, seriously, what are you doing, Andy? Chucky catches him by surprise then escapes.

Chucky is able to kill two military dudes (one by heart attack and the other by surprise throat slash, decent enough) before the War Games where he replaces the paint ammo with real bullets! Our bully gets shot through the heart and Chucky is to blame (he gives love a bad name!) and Andy’s roommate bodies a grenade for the group. Rough going all around but then Tyler is able to escape to the carnival for like half a second before Chucky is on his case again.

They go into the haunted house attraction which is also a ride and honestly if I want to watch a stressful romp through a functioning ride against a creepy villain I’ll rewatch The Bob’s Burgers Movie. This was a little too fantastical for my tastes, everything up until this point I bought with a big grain of salt but these kids would have been squashed flat by these ride mechanics

After a lot of fucking around, Chucky dies by turning into (still patent pending) Chucky Chunks again but this time they are much more bloody and don’t get all over Andy. It appears that the kids are safe again as it ends with people cleaning up the absolute MESS the carnival left behind in complete darkness? Like they couldn’t leave a light on for the cleaning crew? This movie tried to be too deep with the military kid sacrificing himself for his friends, I mean, it’s Child’s Play 3 for goodness sake, no need to jump the shark or throw yourself on the grenade but I guess it happened.

[mahou-furbies]

Once again it is time for

This year's event will be hosted by mahou Zeldas, because I've been spending a lot of time in Hyrule this year.

Mahou anime of the year:

(Futari Wa Precure Splash Star, Yes! Precure 5, Yes! Precure 5 GoGo, Smile Precure!, Mahou Tsukai Precure!, Hirogaru Sky Precure!, Otona Precure, Tokyo Mew Mew New s2, Magical Destroyers, Zettai Bouei Leviathan, Petite Princess Yucie, season movies for Splash Star, Yes5, Yes5 GoGo, Smile & Delicious Party, Crossover movie for Fresh Precure!)

Then the stuff I read:

(Saint Tail, Stellar Witch Lips, Magical Girl Tsubame, W.i.t.c.h. reboot, Smile Precure novel, Null Magical Girl, Magia Record Scene Zero)

I also keep up with what kind of designs Magia Record releases though I don't play it or otherwise follow the story.

Extremely Precure year this time around though that was not intentional, usually I only manage one backlog season per year. But I started with Smile, and then we were hit with the news that we'd have a Yes5/Splash Star sequel in autumn, and in preparation for that I had to power through some 150 episodes for the original series. And then I somehow ended up watching all of Mahou Tsukai in less than 2 weeks. And then there was Otona as well of course.

Now there's only three backlog seasons left, and they should be doable in a year if the Mahou Tsukai sprint is of any indication, though we'll see how that goes. I'd like to take a look at other similar shows too (like Doremi and Sailor Moon) but I want to clear Precure first before moving to the next thing.

The W.i.t.c.h. reboot was also a thing this year, which seems to have come and went with a thud. Which is a shame because I was looking forward to it, but... well it wasn't particularly good. I guess it can pick up of there's more to the story.

For the first time I've followed a Magia Record (game) story, with Scene Zero. The format is difficult but I am interested, so it's possible I'll look into more MagiReco stories once Scene Zero is over. The game has so many cute characters so I'd certainly like to know more about them.

This year I also took part in ArtFight and did some mostly mahou themed OC art, which was a lot of fun. I'm looking forward to doing the same next year as well if they host the event again.

Now onto the awards!

Best henshin design goes to Cure Sky! Blue lead Cure aside this is a top tier magical girl design, and that is mostly thanks to the cape, especially the red inside and yellow fringe. It looks so majestic! But being a half-cape prevents her from looking too stuffy. The thin twintails also look great with the cape in action shots. And of course she is also stupidly cute.

Also a shoutout to Saint Tail's simple but very effective look with a rarely seen colour scheme.

Best team design goes to Stellar Witch Lips! Similar enough to be a team but everyone has their own take on the theme, black makes for a good base colour and the sparkly tops look amazing.

Best powerup design goes to Cure Felice's Alexandrite form! She looks so regal and powerful, truly a nature goddess!

Best civilian design goes to Cure Sky in general! I just like her practical style and the clothes look all comfy.

Best hair goes to Junia! It looks so soft and poofy and her pastel colour palette makes everything even cuter.

Best magical item goes to the tiara and amulets in Petite Princess Yucie! They aren't that special to be honest but I'm always ready for magical items that don't look like cheap plastic toys.

Best henshin scene goes to Cure Sky! A lot of dynamic animation, the tinted split screen at the end is fresh for Precure, the modulation in the middle amps up the power, the dark background makes everything a little bit cooler, and the cape flip and wings at the end just look amazing.

Best fan creation goes to ArtFight in general! It was my first time participating, and getting to draw other people's ocs on a low threshold was great, and obviously receiving a ton of art of my own ocs felt amazing.

Best relationship goes to the group in Petite Princess Yucie! I really like how the side characters have distinct relationships with each other and not just the main character, and how not everyone gets along all the time (or most of the time with Glenda and Elmina). The fact that they're also rivals makes things more interesting and everything culminates successfully in the power of friendship in the end.

Best mascot goes to Saki's cat Korone! Not exactly a traditional Precure mascot but he does become more mascot-like towards the end. Absolute unit of a cat, gets a funny deep voice and even lands a hit on the final boss, and most importantly isn't annoying.

Best supporting character goes to Kintoleski from Splash Star! He's a pretty simple character but I like villains who are honourable and polite, and he managed to be consistently funny as well.

Best visual goes to Stellar Witch Lips! The story wasn't really anything to write home about but the ultra cute and sparkly art is just magical.

Best audio goes to Updradft Shining bgm! It's surprisingly epic for such an early series attack and it'd be cool if the franchise used music like this more.

A honourable mention to Tsubasa's eagle sound effect in the Majestic Halation attack, Mabayu's (MagiReco) silly "nuwawawa" scream of pain in a decidedly serious scene, and every "Haa!" from Ha-chan.

Best scene goes to the separation and reunion scene from Mahou Tsukai Precure! Or I guess that's more like half of an episode. Really impressive how they spent so much time on pretty low-key character stuff like this.

Honourable mention to the big battle towards the end of Petite Princess Yucie.

The Innovation award is given to a magical girl work that I think does something fresh for the genre. This year it goes to Hirogaru Sky! Precure for having a boy Cure, an adult Cure and most importantly a non-pink lead Cure! Which isn't particularly notable for the genre as a whole but a gigantic achievement for this franchise. Hopefully it wasn't just a 20 year celebratory fluke and we'll see more variety in the future too.

The Golden Mana award is the prize given to one thing I didn't like.

This year it goes to the henshin forms in Otona Precure, or more specifically the way it did absolutely nothing about them. No adults-as-magical girls, no new looks as 14-year-olds, and not even a new powerup form for the final finisher. Boo! I'm not really saying that the show is required to include new forms just because I wanted it or because it's common in the genre, but that would definitely have made me a lot more forgiving of its many other flaws. And this is my list so I get to complain about my preferences.

Dishonourable mention to Nozomi's catchphrase in Yes5 and GoGo for exemplifying the selfish and pushy aspect of pink heroines like this that often goes uncriticised.

Best character goes to Cure Sky! In addition to the excellent character design she also has a fun personality, "earnest dumbass" is a great combo, and her determination is just great. I also like that she isn't super girly for once. The story of Hirogaru isn't that good so Sora too is held back from having a truly awesome story, but as a character she is still enjoyable enough.

Best work goes to Petite Princess Yucie! It has fun characters, great designs, good group dynamics, interesting world and a really strong ending. It's a shame they don't seem to do kids' anime like this nowadays?

Plans for 2024

Onwards to 2024! I swear this year I'm going to continue with MagiPro, I've been stuck at volume 7 for several years.

[8bitsupervillain]

Higurashi When They Cry Hou Ch. 7 Minagoroshi pt. 11

Rika and friends have a nice lengthy chat about how they need to force the Children Consultation Service into helping Satoko out of her nasty situation. Rika becomes a lot more passive, because she's seen this scenario play out before and she's become overcome with depression over the fact it's happening again, and she just doesn't see it ending any other way than it usually does. She also becomes a lot more cavalier about mentioning events from other timelines (they eventually settle on calling them worlds) mentioning point blank to Shion that she's surprised she cares so much about Satoko this time around. After school they go off to the Child Consultation Service, where they're more or less given the brush off. It's only been one day since Teppei came back, and surely they're overreacting.

So Keiichi starts forming the plan to gather various townspeople together to help them show up to the CCS and show them how serious the situation is.

Remember, Teppei is a bad guy because he would sexually abuse Satoko if she were a few years older. Kameda is a goofy fun guy because he's a bit of a creepy loli weirdo. Or would Irie be the better contrast here?

You ever read a scene that you can feel it in your bones that if this had been translated even a few years earlier it would be rife with "edgy" jokes? I seem to remember reading somewhere that the MangaGamers version is a re-translation so I don't doubt that there's one that just is peppered with the occasional slur randomly in the dialogue. I would like to point out that to this day the version of Final Fantasy VII you can buy digitally still includes the scene where Tifa uses the r-word. Also, I just want to say this is a really weird tangent for Ryukishi07 to go on in the middle of this arc.

Tower of Druaga and Dragon Buster won't come out for another year Keiichi! You're being nostalgic for games that don't even exist yet you time traveling weirdo! Man, Keiichi is going to be in for the time of his life when the MSX or PC-88 becomes a thing. There's going to be so much pornographic mahjong games out there for him. Assuming he hasn't already seen them since, again, he's a time traveler reminiscing about the arcade games of 1984 he shouldn't have been able to play yet.

Please forgive the repetition for half of the screenshot here. Also, if you're not super loyal to Metal Gear Solid, the answer to the question is both. Although I think you should just grit your teeth and bear the burden of owning a PS3. You'll get some better games. The Yakuza franchise, for a start! Hell if Dead or Alive is really that big of a get for you, just wait, DoA 5 will come out on PS3. Although I guess you're missing out on DoA Xtreme 2. Anyway, I think Ryukishi forgot he wasn't posting on 2ch and accidentally wrote his "kids these days don't appreciate the classics" rant into his murder mystery.

Oh god, would Keiichi be that gamer? You know the type.

I kind of love how everyone's knee-jerk reaction to the Teppei situation is to just go immediately to violence. Except for the "reasonable" adults, everyone's reaction has more or less just been "let's kill the fucker."

Rika is being much more open about her desires to drown her sorrows. I think she might have a problem. (I'm quietly mourning my lack of photo editing software, or drive to edit Rika onto Stone Cold Steve Austin.)

Lighthearted silliness aside now it's time to get back to talking about the Satoko Houjou cruel abuse hour. During a meeting for the festival Keiichi and Ooishi talk about how they plan to go to the Child Consultation Center the next day and make them see their resolve. Ooishi talks about how hey maybe don't, cause it might cause issues if you know what I mean. Keiichi says nuts to that and he's going to do it anyway. He's gonna be the biggest, loudest, most persistently annoying thorn in their side, and no one can stop his manly resolve! Ooishi basically applauds this resolve, and the two have a manly fist bump affirming their manliness across the generational gap.

[coolgreatwebsite]

Happy 1 Million Views to the Video That Broke Me

This is a repost of something I wrote over on my Cohost, but I figured a year later it should also probably live on the domain I pay money to have. Better late than never!

This is the most successful piece of content I have ever created. At one million views it is the thing I've made that people have seen the most. It is the thing that the most people have seen my name attached to. And it's total trash.

It's 2017 and we're a week or so out from the release of Sonic Mania, a game that I'm, at that point, pretty damn excited for. A kindly poster from the Something Awful forums (that I have known from many forums previous) poses a challenge: be the first to beat his short kaizo Sonic the Hedgehog 2 ROM hack and he'll gift you a copy of Sonic Mania on Steam when it comes out.

I was already getting the game on PS4 but I figured whatever, everyone else seems to be having trouble with it, I'm bored, I got nothing better to do, I'll give it a shot. I load up KEGA Fusion, start a low bitrate and resolution OBS recording because it'll probably take a few hours and who cares it's a forum contest verification video, and get to work. A hour and half-ish goes by and I'm finished with the hack. I upload the video to YouTube, post it in the thread, win my free copy of Sonic Mania, and that's the end of the story. Thanks for reading.

Except of course it's not the end of the story. A few months after I got done thoroughly enjoying Sonic Mania, I realized that I'd been getting a weird amount of new subscriber emails from YouTube. I decided to actually look at my metrics and noticed a uh, highly localized spike of activity. Give you one guess on which video (hint: it's the one this post is about). "The Algorithm" had suddenly taken it and was running away with it at lightning speed.

In the timespan between posting the video and this spike, YouTube had announced they were drastically raising the bar on the metrics you needed to hit to have your channel monetized. I was by no means a large YouTuber at the time, but I was meeting the old requirements for monetization just fine. I wasn't anywhere near meeting the new requirements until now and this video was blowing the hell up for whatever reason, so I decided to do what any good opportunist would do and made it an unwatchable experience.

I set the ad frequency on that thing to the maximum that it'd let me. I forget exactly how frequent that was but it was something absurd like an ad every 5 minutes. Maybe even more than that. I figured I'd either get rich or maybe it would make people stop watching and leaving the worst comments in the world. Seriously the comments on this thing are their own nightmare, a bizarre soup of people ascribing meaning to nothing, trying to suss out emotions where there are none, saying complete gibberish, I'd need an entire second post to unpack whatever the hell is going on there.

Well, I wouldn't quite say I got rich. The money you get off what most people would conventionally call a popular YouTube video is just not much in the grand scheme of things. But holy shit they didn't stop watching. If anything they were watching more. Why didn't they stop watching? This video was less than nothing. It was an ordeal to watch all the way through. Why were they doing this? Why was the algorithm showing this to everyone? Why this and not one of the things I put effort into or something that was at least meant to be entertaining at all? I didn't have the answers and I still don't.

Before this I personally wasn't lamenting the possibility of losing monetization on my channel as up until this point I had made around $40 total on YouTube in the decade or so I'd had a channel. But I had been spending a lot that time watching friends with channels around the size of mine who were actively hustling to, and unfortunately failing to, meet the new hurdle. They were putting out some really good shit. Way better than my stuff, frankly. And here I was getting launched to the finish line by... a throwaway, blurry, hour and a half long, commentary-free, save state abusing playthrough of a crummy Sonic ROM hack? That I had made as a means to a completely separate end?? That got promoted by a computer program for seemingly no reason???

It felt shitty. One of the friends I mentioned in that last paragraph was my longtime friend Fotts who was in the middle of getting their (sadly now dormant) series TAS Force off the ground. They were constantly tweeting about the ordeal of trying to meet the new monetization requirements and it was a damn shame because they were putting in a ton of effort and it was great. The kind of thing I'd watch even if I wasn't friends with anyone on it. It was a million times funnier than anything I was doing, and the complete opposite of my shitty contest video. If there was any justice in this world the views I was getting on this dumpster fire would be going to them. But as it turns out, there is no justice online.

I recalled a conversation I had with them a few years back while they, I, and a group of about 7 or so other friends were all wandering around an Orlando Wal-Mart wearing identical black t-shirts that read "MARVEL CAN SUCK MY COCK" in big block letters (long story). They had actually kind of gone through this sort of thing before. See, they're the uploader and one of the voices of this video you may or may not have seen with 6.5+ million views on it.

They lamented to me many of the laments I was currently lamenting. "This was just a stupid throwaway thing", "why is this so much more popular than the stuff I put effort into", "it's just me making PaRappa the Rapper say the word 'Chinese' over and over". Ok maybe that last one was a bit more specific to them. Anyway, I responded with (and I admit a lot of the reason I felt this way was because I thought and still think the video is funny) something along the lines of "you can't pick what hits for people, it might have been throwaway but at the end of the day you posted it because you thought it was at least a little bit funny, try and focus on the fact that you have a popular video at all rather than the fact it's not one of the videos you're particularly proud of".

But yeah damn turns out that advice is easier said than done when it happens to you, and it's even harder done when it happens to a factually not entertaining video. One you could have uploaded as unlisted and achieved your intended result with. The runaway success of this thing genuinely broke me on this whole "Internet" deal.

I should stress I mean this in a good way. I realized that it's not so much that you can't pick what hits for people, it's that you physically cannot pick what gets put in front of people. The people cannot pick what hits for them. A computer does. You can try and promote and affect what gets seen in your own small sphere of influence, but ultimately we are, on YouTube and on all of our social platforms, at the mercy of a black box of computer programs that I'm not even sure the people who created them understand anymore. I'd obviously known this on some level prior to this video existing, but bearing witness to it all happening firsthand to this video in particular was another thing entirely. Anything prior that I had achieved marginally similar success with (there were a couple that had broken 100k) was meant to be entertaining. It was meant for people to watch and go "I liked that", not for one guy on a forum to see and go "good work solving my maze Superman". I could classify the success as "neat, people liked that one" in my brain. This defied classification.

The only logical conclusion was that it truly didn't matter what I uploaded. It's all decided by a random machine picking things at random to serve random amounts of people, and the people click on it and watch it simply because it is there. You can poke at the machine, prod at the machine, try to guess what the machine likes, try to iterate on something the machine has previously demonstrated that it likes. It's all an effort to get the machine to put it in front of the people who will click it because it is there. That's what all the bigger capital-C Content Creators do. From the high level stuff of "what kind of things do I upload" to the low level minutia of "how many curse words can I say in the first minute", making it Big On Line in any capacity is about trying to appease an unknowable mechanical entity and nothing else. It's either that or you're "old money" in a sense, established before this all became the case.

And again, the bigger names do this. Entire companies do this. If I were "smart" I would have pivoted my entire YouTube channel to nothing but hour and a half long commentary-free bullshit hard ROM hack playthroughs. Maybe another one would hit like this did. But for the life of me I could not and cannot think of anything more soul crushing.

I wouldn't say I had aspirations to be a Big Time YouTube Man, but at that time I would have maybe liked to be a Moderate Size YouTube Man. Or a moderate size Twitch man. Someone who had people watching but was still able to have fun with it and do his own thing. This newfound realization that it was truly a random lottery, even beyond the random lottery that most of human life is, that becoming any size bigger than Small Time was literally decided by an actual factual random number generator, freed me from the desire to do anything that I didn't want to do. If actively chasing success on these modern, algorithmically-driven platforms, actively going after "Kaizo Sonic 2 Full Run" numbers, meant putting aside the things I like and reinventing myself and the things I do down to the minute details in order to appease a literal ghost beyond anyone's understanding or control that changes what it's looking for on a whim, then I did not want to do that. I did not want to keep a timer for when I could talk normal, I did not want to announce my streams on Twitter with the link in a separate reply one day, in an embedded image the next, and in my display name the next. If there is absolutely one thing I do not want to do in my life, it's dance for a robot.

But the most freeing thing about realizing this is that it also meant if I just kept doing stuff I liked, maybe, someday, I could get lucky enough to where the unknowable internet robot would push that in front of a million or so people. In the grand scheme of things it's about an equal chance of that happening on something I like and am proud of versus something I made in a desperate cloying attempt to placate an algorithm.

Anyway damn this got long and rambly sorry about that lol. This was initially meant to just be a little toast to the 5 year-ish anniversary of me fully becoming an Internet nihilist. Remember folks, it's meaningless to chase success in an algorithm dominated landscape. In the words of a certain extremely Normal-type man, "real life isn't all just being true to yourself", but I reject the notion that the Internet is not or should not be, in spite of the legion of ghouls and freaks at the top of the chain actively trying to make that the case every day.

Be true to yourself. Do what you love, make what you love, post what you love, and maybe if you're lucky a computer somewhere will decide it's your turn, because that's the single deciding factor in all of this. In the mean time, you'll end up slowly and naturally surrounding yourself with cool people who get you, if only a little bit. At least that's what's happened for me so far. I've been pretty alright with it.

[nabaath-areng]

I feel so strange thinking about how I considered myself "new" in FFXIV for the longest time, as when I started playing there were so many legacy players around. I saw their mounts and their titles, I talked to them, played with them, and to me they were the experienced ones teaching me how to play my first MMO. For years I considered myself a newbie.

And then, just the other day, I see in the chat of an FC I was invited to on an alt, people talking about having played for a long time, and their longest playing member having been around for 5 years. It hit me just how long of a time that is, and how much longer passed before I'd even realized it.

I ask others if they remember various things from the past, and I can count on one hand the amount of people I meet in recent years who do. So many things I still consider new and flashy, like Gpose and job gauges for instance, have now been in the game far longer than they have not. It's a strange situation caused by me losing about a decade's worth of memories and life (due to mental health issues that practically broke me) as well as the normal feeling ot time passing without me really thinking about it. Less and less did I see the legacy titles and mounts, but I didn't pay much heed. Until one day I suddenly stop and look around, realizing that I haven't seen any legacy players at all for a while. I'm certain they're out there, but most likely not in the same sheer abundance as before.

It's a bit similar to real life, where my home was once just an old, secluded village that have now become geographically closer to the city without ever moving. Where the others I used to surround myself with have all moved on in slow trickles over the years, and where I cannot expect everyone to remember the same things that I do. So many new people everywhere, some that cause lines in the grocery store that can afford to keep running after all these years, and some that fail to load in on my weak little laptop's screen.

It's like I have two homes mirroring each other, and obviously that means I age in both of them. I bought this game as a gift for myself on my 18th birthday... and here I am 10 years later, turning 28 today, and realizing that I'm still here in both places despite everything. Waiting for another expansion all over again, just like when I was staying alive just because I wanted to play Heavensward so bad.

I can't even begin to count just how many people I've known and interacted with throughout the years in this game. There are memories that my years of paranoia and psychosis stole from me (something which I only shook off the last remnants of half a year ago), of people who I know were important to me but who I'm also unable recall much about beyond their names, which is something which fills me with both deep shame and sorrow. Some I remain in touch with to this day, and some I am mutuals with on various sites, even if we don't chat regularly anymore.

There's a lot that I don't remember, or that I even memorized in the first place. Things have changed time and again for both better and worse. But FFXIV has remained a constant throughout it all, even when I've been unsubbed due to lack of a PC and just on a general break.

I don't know what my point is with all of this really, but I guess I just really wanted to get it off my chest. It's not all sunshine and rainbows these days either, but my mental health is better than it's ever been, I have a partner and friends and family who all mean the world to me, and even though some things will forever be less than ideal, I am so so so happy that I didn't give up. Staying alive really was the best decision I ever made ❤️

[annbourbon]

The Ssum Timeline

Before The Ssum:

♡ Zen. It is said during Teo route that we dated Zen sometime ago. But this is weird for many people if they don't know or forgot about Zen saying that the last time he dated someone was 5 years ago. Mystic Messenger is set in 2016.

2016 - 5 = 2011

So Zen was our first boyfriend according to this tl. Probably will not remember us because of the Reset Theory. It does have some flaws. I admit. Because of his dreams, be might as well remember us. But what if he doesn't remember us at the very beginning? Like, what if by the time he remembers we're already in another route so he doesn't always gets the chance to be with us unless we're in his route?

In some routes like Jumin he does say to have a dream about a cage (in a call) and tried his best to warn us. Not to mention that he's always dreaming about something happening to us as MC basically the day after we enter a route. Which would obviously leads into this theory that he does remembers but only when it's too late so he instead chooses to let us be happy. TBH I feel like he's also trapped. In a different way but, he is.

⋆ ₊ ﾟ ☽ * ₊ ⋆⋆ ₊ ﾟ ☽ * ₊ ⋆⋆ ₊ ﾟ ☽ * ₊ ⋆

During The Ssum:

* The Ssum seems to be set between the last months of 2011 and during 2012 extending its timeline till MC disappears in Another Story. Another Story is set 2 years before Mystic Messenger Casual Events.

2016 - 2 = 2014

This sets The Ssum In Between. From 2011 till the end of 2013. Perhaps beginning of 2014.

Around that time Rika disappears (commits "suicide" and "creates Mint Eye" but as I said before, she creates Mint Eye before the RFA. The Ssum is exposing how Mint Eye becomes a huge power behind the scenes during the first or second year of creating Mint Eye. And the beginnings of the RFA.) which also explains why Henri and June routes are so short. There's a lot of things going on in between.

⋆ ₊ ﾟ ☽ * ₊ ⋆⋆ ₊ ﾟ ☽ * ₊ ⋆⋆ ₊ ﾟ ☽ * ₊ ⋆

Now let's start with The Ssum Events:

♡ Dating Teo. 200 days.

This is around 6 months and a half. Let's say Teo Route starts between the lasts months of 2011 and by the time MOM is happening we're on Spring of 2012 (spring is often related to love season~)

♡ During this route it is said that we do not know who Harry is. Right? Then the right route and the first one to play is Teo.

♡ Jaehee, Mint Eye and even Elizabeth the 3rd are making their appearances every now and then.

♡ The cult ( Mint Eye) it's say to be around but it's barely starting so that's why we see them trying to reclute some people. I guess we can say even Rika had a hard time starting. And that it's difficult to start lol sometimes we have the opportunity to make fun of it. But they tried to have Teo in their lines. And apparently some other characters.

♡ You "accidentally" send him to Mint Eye after he gets a mail.

♡ Dating June?

The reason I believe June is first than Harry. At least the first season, it's because we start strong now cause thanks to June, we meet more of Jumin's world. And we even have some pics with Rika and V.

Please take into account that what I've been saying it's only without playing his whole route yet. I have at most one or maybe 2 weeks of game in his route. But I saw a lot of spoilers and people saying that the timeline is ruined or stuff so in a way I wanted to talk about my theory since some interactions are really interesting there, and I feel we as players have another look onto it. I might be wrong.

It's quite obvious Jumin hasn't reach his peak years yet but there are already a lot of people calling him a promise~ nothing but the best for him. Why then he doesn't mentioned to us his brother? I have 2 theories. The most simple one is June is a difficult topic to touch considering South Korea approach to people who are different, crazy or out of norm. Like, just having a wheel chair or a baby sets you aside. Let's not talk about being always sick or mentally ill, much less neurodivergency. They don't fit and they are treated as nothing. And maybe MC is not gonna talk bad about his brother, but there was a lot of drama in every route, please take into account that even though we play the game (Mystic Messenger) there might be even more content we are unaware of. If anything, it's great to have more of this world. (I don't approve what Cheritz is doing about AI and as a company, but that is that and this is this~)

♡ During June's Route, in an attempt to befriend his brother, June talks to Jumin and congratulates him on the charity work. Jumin explicitly says that the RFA is still a work in progress. That ties with the Cheritzverse timeline I'm working~

♡ Close Encounter with The Angel

It just not that, but we also begin to get closer and closer to Mystic Messenger Events. Yes, I believe it's the same MC. We don't date the angel. But we do have a close encounter with them (as far as I know) Maybe it's here were the Bad Ending of Another Route takes place? (The one with MC reporting the incident to the police)

Something that confirmed this was Jumin Han saying during the wedding in June's Route (first 20 days~) that the RFA is still a work in progress. This sets the Timeline around the second year of my Mystic Messenger timeline. If you're curious~ check it out!

♡ Date Harry. 200 Days.

After that close encounter, we meet Harry. We know him when he's quitting his career. He's also going to MOM but I really need to understand that part. I have yet to finish his route.

And then a couple of months pass by, we get information that might seem unimportant byt ties to other things:

♡ Harry's parents were pretty much involved in laundering money through art. Keep in mind that MC is close to Harry and knows the whole thing. That puts her in danger. Harry's parents do seem the kind of people that make others disappear if you're in the way. And MC seems to have been meddling in a lot if things. Plus if y'all remember~ V father is also art related. It goes beyond that however, it's implied Saejoong Choi (In this moment future Prime Minister and father of the twins) is friends with V father and Chairman Han. I need to find the screenshots.

This would set a momentum for Another Story Part 1 Events to eventually take place. Just not right now lolol And would tie it to MM Deep Story. After Jumin's route, Seven is photographed. But since things take time, Another Story Part 2 takes place here~

However I think Jumin's route sets in motion what happens in Saeran's AE, in which events lead to capture Seven, and in an attempt to eliminate both twins. Saejoong Choi is truly despicable.

Actually, art seems to be a theme in both games. Or if we go deeper~ the 4 games. Which is one of the reasons I had to come back to all that since inside the community there are a lot of things like gossips, secrets and stories. Anyway, back to V's father, and V of course~ this connects them with:

Keep in mind this has not yet happened. I'm just tying up knots. We first need to have Ray kidnapping MC via playing a game lol

Anyways the whole thing makes me think that MC is either way younger than the characters in The Ssum. It is heavily implied to be the same age as Zen though. Which is why when doing the timeline I looked up for Zen's age and not Jumin. Zen is also one of the characters that are most mentioned throughout the Cheritzverse. And rven if she did time travelled, her age seems close to Zen. After all the spaceship is there. And there's a couple of choices you can come with where it implies that MC is indeed a time traveller. I had some notes where I used the calendar to make sure the timeline fit but I lost them lololol so I'll update this as soon as I can with those notes and the rest of my theory♡ it's a promise!

So let's go back to Harry's route, ohh wait lol he breaks up with you so you start dating Henri.

♡ Dating Henri: 30 days. A month.

I swear I had the whole thing planned on and I even had how many days approximately he would have but beats me. I lost the paper where I wrote my timeline. Anyways~ we now have someone who knows Jumin and doesn't like him because he doesn't know him. It is said that his route begins after June's first season. I took the time to see everything, date included and it does match! Besides, Jumin gets Elizabeth the 3rd during his route. And The Second Season of June's. There are some discrepancies but I'm working around them. I'll show you as soon as I can get my notes back♡

Notes:

* Jumin goes back to mainland for Elizabeth The 3rd.

* June falls ill around D-42 (June, Season 2)

* Henri is contacted by Jumin D-14 because of his cat (Henri Route, The Day The Camel's Back Broke)

* And goes to the island on D-15 (The Island needs a doctor)

This will give you a very good idea of how timelines work with these three characters (June, Jumin, Henri) and an approximate of how Rika works behind the scenes with Mint Eye. Especially important because this island holds many secrets. I'll talk about this later~ but for more info on the drugs Mint Eye is developing, please check my post on Unicorn Drugs.

Then during those days it becomes a situationship: June AND Henri. Remember how one of the options inside Harry's route talks about MC trying to live in a polyamory situation? It connects with Henri's route and one of its endings. So I don't think I'm on the wrong track. MC dates Henri right after Harry breakup with us.

♡ We come back to Harry

(I have yet to play this but spoilers here and there let me know that around Day 245 or something?) However your discoveries keep playing a big role for you, so you tie everything up but eventually get kidnapped lol and who knows? Harry, Henri~ anyone!!! :'(( send help!

lololol

btw~ I have to confess lol

I haven't cheated on Harry. As soon as he asked me to be official, I stopped playing June's, Teo's and Henri's. As soon as he broke up with me, I took the storylines again lololol

So even the Angel cannot say anything about it :'(

My idea and first suspects are Harry's parents~

What do I mean with this? The entire game is set as a minesweeper lolol from drugs to art, cults, stalkers and embezzlement. Pick your poison~ you're gonna end in Mystic Messenger anyways♡

♡ The Angel comes back

I don't believe for one second that that guy is the Angel. Like, it doesn't fit at all cause we don't have interaction with anyone outside the chat. So I believe there's only one answer~

Finally Another Story (part 1)

It just not that, but we also begin to get closer and closer to Mystic Messenger Events. Yes, I believe it's the same MC. We don't date the angel. But we do have a close encounter with them (as far as I know) Maybe it's here were the Bad Ending of Another Route takes place? (The one with MC reporting the incident to the police)

⋆ ₊ ﾟ ☽ * ₊ ⋆⋆ ₊ ﾟ ☽ * ₊ ⋆˚₊·—̳͟͞͞♡

See also:

♡ Cheritzverse Timeline

♡ Connecting MM & The Ssum

♡ MM Timeline

♡ Teo is the rabbit~ follow the rabbit

♡ Tracking Drugs inside the Cheritzverse

[fountainpenguin]

"Their set time's far too early and I've never heard of them..." (x)

---

New Pixels Imperfect stuff today!

“No One Likes the Opening Band” || MCYT one-shot

Read on AO3 - 13k

@flufftober - Day 1 - "I've Got You"

---

Professional camera account sports get real competitive, especially when you’re the only team in the league with 4 cams and 1 player-born. No one ever thought they’d see the day Etho let a cam into his life. And, well... He didn't. Turns out, he just brought a friend.

AKA - More PiglinMyNose and SnifferMyFeet fluff because I live for the "ancient camera account boy takes his newbie friend under his wing" dynamic and I love them, your honor.

---

Canon-typical Minecraft violence (Fighting in a safe environment; immediate painless respawn) + anxiety and brief dissociation (Sniff reflecting on Joel and Grian possessing his body in his origin video) + Emotional hurt/comfort (Stressed by people looking down on you) + Mild flirting between Pig and TwoMuchGrian (and Sniff has a crush on BadTimeWithScar: world's sexiest semi-invisible catboy)

Also tagging for "Sniff's still coping with the fact that he's not married to either Etho or Scar even though his screwed-up memories tell him Double Life SMP was real and not roleplay," I guess... I love him.

---

(First 1,000 words under the cut)

Wait, THAT'S the guy Etho settled for!?

Team Jade Jaguars is the only team in the Competitive Camera league with a team of 4 cam accounts instead of 5. Everyone's been whispering about their player-born. Seriously, their team's tag started trending when the season began. That was weeks ago, and only rarely has it slipped from the upper spots. Half a dozen articles keep circling the portal hub like lions waiting for a kill. Even Pig knows that, and he gets most of his news secondhand from the rest of the team.

Wait their 5th slotter isn't even a camera?

"Guys, ignore them," TwoMuchGrian said the first time they passed a news page pinned up in town square. "They're just trying to get in our heads." And Two's team captain, so Pig did exactly that. They'd just finished their second practice, all of them with pixels sticking up funny and exhaustion dripping like raindrops from their code. Two praised all of them, even though Pig had a very bad fall and missed catching one of the best crossbow shots Joel's ever had. It didn't matter. Two insisted they all did phenomenal this early in the season. He took the whole team out for hot chocolate and sorbet.

😂😂 Bruh I'm crying WHAT? Who the hell is THAT???

Today is game day. The locker room bustles with chatter and banging iron doors. The room's had a makeover since last year. They've got lanterns instead of torches to light this place up now and their jaguar face logo snarls in triumph from a sea of gray carpet.

Are they tanking on purpose or something?

"Hey, Pig!" Two calls, jogging up behind him, and Pig turns his head. Two's not even changed yet, still sporting the tie-dye T-shirt he's almost always dressed in. His flower-spotted headband keeps slipping over his eyes. He pushes it up with one hand, tossing Pig a jade green jersey with the other. Pig catches it on one finger. Two's grin is crooked, but no less genuine than it ever is. "There ya go! I'm so sorry we cut it so close. I actually feel awful, but hey… we finally got your new shirt in!"

Ngl I can't follow the Jaguars' logic here. They know he's Etho, right? His sign-ups must have been a mile long

Pig flips the jersey around, searching for his name. The familiar number 8 blazes strong and proud on the back. Above it, in smaller print, is his current username: PiglinMyNose. It wouldn't have been a big deal to play the first match with last season's jersey, but… It's nice to shed the final tie to his old identity. LazyBeans26 is a guy of the past. "Pig" is a far more comfortable nickname than "Lazy" ever was.

This I have to see

He hugs the jersey to his chest. "No way! Two, you're the best… See? This man!" He punches him in the shoulder; Two flashes briefly red. "I knew you'd come through for me!"

Like I'm all for a player joining the team if they want, but they pair him with ETHO?

Two hums in approval, fluttering his wings. It's so weird to see Two off spectator mode. When he's not translucent, you really get an appreciation for the deep blue and bright gold feathers he's flaunting. Pig casts a glance or two over his shoulder as Two walks away, calling out to PearlescentMoo on the far side of the locker room. Dang. Two's been putting in hours at the gym even outside their practice time. That's undeniable. Those are good looking shoulder blades. He can probably even lift a llama on a lead with muscle tone like that.

Glad he's on MY team… If we're going up against the Sharks, we need every edge we can get.

lmao I love how #Jade Jaguars has been trending for a month xD

Sniff sits on the center bench, his face pressed in his hands. Pig keeps a mirror on his locker door. He checks it every couple seconds as he sheds his jacket and wriggles from his shirt. It takes another two minutes to unclip all his necklaces and drizzle them in the locket basket. Then he pries off his rings. They drop on the necklace heap with a clatter. Probably shouldn't have worn all the jewelry today, but hey… They're his good luck charms. He always has his necklaces.

Does this mean we're never going to see an Etho/EthoCam team-up? 😢

Sniff moves his hands to the back of his neck, fingers bent as though they're claws.

See the most frustrating thing is that it's not like he's played before. He's still a new account. It's not even skill that got him in good w/ Etho. Etho's only with him b/c he looks like Joel. They're Boat Boy baiting for hype :/

The new jersey smells like cedar wood. Pig's never seen a cedar tree in his life, but somehow… He can tell. He holds it to his nose, breathing in the scent of fresh-cut shavings. In truth? It still feels warm from the printer, even though that must have been weeks ago. It's a sign of a good season, that. When he slips the jersey on, it fits perfectly, like a life vest.

Like… idk. I'm not saying I know for sure or anything, but it feels like there's some kind of nepotism thing going on behind the scenes.

Their first game of the season doesn't promise to be easy. Team Cerise Sharks isn't known for their mercy. BadTimeWithScar is team captain, and Two's been reviewing old footage since the match-up was announced. BadTime always brings out Two's competitive overdrive. Two sees scarlet every time. Pig spent all of last night on Two's bed, preening his wings and chatting about this and that while Two stared (glaze-eyed) at match after match on his comm screen. He needs new chew blocks; he's gnawed through most of them and his rope tug.

I should get him a care package. He'd like to be fawned over this week, I reckon.

Oh, their relationship gets skewed badly in a one-sided way when the tournament is live. It's like Two always says: Captain Two is not your friend. But he always makes up for it. Two's an overly affectionate pest between seasons, pushy and playful, and Pig falls head over heels for him every time. One evening with Two gripping his wrists like handcuffs and teasing raspberries at his cheek is worth a million tournament nights, at least.

BadTime's not even the only one to worry about. The Sharks are rocking a strong roster this season, featuring AriesEva, WellsGlazes, HumanCleo and ImpulseCam. Last year, iCam went home with the title of Top Scoring Player overall… a fact that TangoCam has never shut up about. Pig glances three lockers down. Tea is seething, staring at the half dozen carefully compiled images of his long-time rival taped inside his locker door. He does the whole "anime glasses" thing, pressing his glasses up every time they slip down.

"I'm gonna bury him in the avalanche trap," he mutters. "That gold medal's mine." So saying, Tea bends the locker door slightly, reaching out to glide his fingers over iCam's face. He trails them down his cheek. They squeak against paper. "He'll be recording snow the whole match."

[thethistlegirlwrites]

At long last part 5 of 5 is here! (and is much cuter than the previous installments...and set several weeks later)

“Stop.” Shay puts an arm across the doorway. “They took your stitches out. That is not permission to go crawling around the wreckage of a car that will probably make you need more of them.” 

“I’ve got to put her back together too.” Sierra says.

“You will. Just wait a few more weeks.” Shay sighs. “She’s not going anywhere and neither are you.”

“Don’t remind me.”

She’s lucky it’s a six month unpaid suspension. Maira pulled the ‘extenuating circumstances’ card, insisting Sierra had killed Shay’s sire in a purely justifiable effort to prevent her from taking control of him again. Outside standard operating procedure on a distressing amount of levels, but something that, shockingly, the National Huntmaster’s Office was prepared to accept. 

And it probably looks bad on the books to be the hunter agency that fired a Stoker. 

“You’re just headed for the car to get out of the mandatory remedial policy course, aren’t you?”

Sierra grimaces. “Whoever picked the video narrator for that needs to be the one on suspension. He’s just droning on and on.” 

“You could watch it with the speed turned up.” Shay gently steers her back toward the couch. “It’s a formality anyway. Maira knows you know the rules, you just chose not to follow them.”

“It’s a formality with pop quizzes. I hate those.” 

They’ve fallen back into the usual pattern of playful banter. It’s nice to know that what that vamp (he still doesn’t know her name, they may never know it, her DNA didn’t match to anything in any records and they’re still working on dental, but given that they’ve had to try and contact Russian authorities for that, he isn’t sure how well that will go) did to their relationship wasn’t a permanent rift, but they haven’t talked about what happened that day since Sierra woke up in the infirmary.

He’s not about to bring it up. He wasn’t lying when he said what they have right now is just fine with him. If Sierra wants to talk about whatever it was she said when she thought she might be dying, that’s her choice.

She settles gingerly into the couch and picks up the laptop. “Alright, I guess I’ll finish this section. And then email Grandpa Stephen and tell him he needs to add about eight new apps to the ‘responding to vampires captured on social media’ subheading.” 

Shay nods. “I’ll start dinner. I don’t think I can ruin prepackaged ramen.” They’re on a shoestring budget right now with Sierra’s suspension. Shay can handle the rent and utilities with what Emma pays her staff, but food has always been Sierra’s responsibility and she refused to let him pay for something he doesn’t need.

“You let the water boil off spaghetti once. You set off the smoke alarm.”

“It’s not my fault I haven’t needed to eat in years.”

“Just keep your eye on it.” She picks up her headphones. “After this, do you want to look at paint colors? If I’m going to rebuild half the front end I think it might be time for Dad’s Camaro to get a new look.”

“I’m game.” He glances at the printout on the coffee table. “Looks like you got started already.”

“I got really bored in the section on appropriate footwear, and Pete is still trying to convince me to use Excel tables for everything in my life.” There’s a list of paint colors, codes, and interior combinations for the ‘67 model year, with photos of cars with each of the described color combinations next to them.

“I was thinking of going with the Nantucket Blue. It would still look good with the interior and be light enough to not get too hot if we road trip it to Texas again.”

“How about this one?” Shay asks, pointing to a light tan. “Sierra Fawn. It literally has your name in it. That feels like it’s meant to be.”

“If I want a car that looks like the military owned it first, sure.” Sierra says. “It shades olive, see?”

“That might be a good color in the desert. Make it less visible.”

“We don’t work in the desert often enough.” Sierra says, then looks up and sniffs. “Go stir those noodles.”

“I see what you’re doing. I’m not done trying to convince you.”

“I’m not painting my car olive drab, Shane Barrett.”

@catwingsathena @nade2308 @whumptober

You can read the whole five-part series in one place here on my WorldAnvil, as well as more stories from this 'verse!

[semi-imaginary-place]

more job quests

paladin: mylia got friendzoned and solkwyvewrbjn didn't shwo hsi face. a good day. wow they totally pretended the paladin quests just didn't exist (tbf they were bad)

warrior: did we ditch curious gorge who going to be stuck on a ship to the far east for who knows how long. is it me or have the warrior quests gotten progressively more goofy like the maurader ones were pretty serious.

dark knight: esteem totally wrote that letter. are we going to end up in whitebrim? was gundobald one of the one's to witness one of the pc's very public mental breakdowns? *slaps roof of wol* this bad boy can hold so many personalities. fray/esteem, myste, ardbert, the reaper demon, im forgetting someone

monk: oh yeah wasn't widergelt revealed to be a secret prince or something. "please wait for me half way on the other side of the continent" huh weren't they going back to ala ganna anyways. hi lyse. i thought we were setting up a provisional government. how's that going. YES YES YES I am so happy about this, was a little disappointed this didn't happen in sb but i guess it's the structure of the quest system. these are made to be done after 5.0 those were meant to be flexible enough to be done during 4.0. rhalgr's reach is THE temple of the fist of rhalgr and the Resistance is there and I wanted widergelt to go there so badly.

dragoon: baby orn kai

ninja: there's no way this works. karasu better not fake his death a 3rd time. or well tht could be pretty funny actually. spiderman meme. uhh i choose underpants boy. eyyy got that one right i wasn't sure. and the adventures continue. nin is different in that way in the others so way have been about wrapping up loose ends or more like an encore.

samurai: i forgot this storyline.

white mage: a alaqua the worst job questline in the game. what do you mean she wasn't able to take down a treant wasn't the whole thing about how powerful a mage she was. also e sumi still sus af for letting sylphie roam around and take charge of the gatty situation. sooo we're not gonna talk about her dead family at all?

scholar of all jobs is the only one to have combat. i forgot about setoto and h=may have gotten her confused with surito carito

astrologian: so between 3.x and 5.x is less than a year. i'd say this is a deviation from all the politics of 30-50-60 but this did all start with janne's crush on her dad. my aro queen. wish this had more to do with sharlayan as that shows up in 6.0 but well she did fake her death. hope grandpa is ok.

machinist: hilda! I wanted to her to show up in a mch quest. oh hey i have to kill something again remember the bad ol' days where ever job quest was to go kill something

black mage: i feel like the game usually forgets dewlala exists

did the writers forget that cocobuki is like half yayake's age. i don't exactly remember but buki's like 27 and yayake's in her 40s. because buki was never this rude.

summoner once again continues to be the most msq relavent job despite never being featured in the trailers. smh and with the ascian saga ended with ew the devs lost their chance for a summoner meteor. that is the question someone is born (or made in foldora's case also offies zenos also has that implanted echo) to do something well, should they do what they're good at or not?

red mage: still think arya should have minmaxed into thaumaturge/black mage. wow how come its all the magic jobs that get combat. what's to stop other tomb robbers?

wow we really did tell the whole realm that there's multiple worlds and we went to one.

did you know that if you rotate your character near a wall at just the right angle you can see that they are empty inside except for the floating insides of their mouth?

role quest capstone

doing the job capstone. see this is a weird take because up until this point we are led to believe that it was the decimation of the First's native dark aether that unbalanced the shard to light. but here the shadowkeeper is revealed to be from another world (the 13th?). yeh 13th, wasn't that like thousands of years ago tho, well source time who knows about 13th time but that doesn't explain how she's still alive. ah she's echo'd too and friends with unukalhai wonder how he's doing..

these 2 statements seem to contradict each other. is Cyella talking about a symbolic radiance because she was trying to lose. instead of Cylva's death the Flood was triggered by by ardbert killling mitron and longhrif. im assuming cylva was the bait so that the ascians could better control the flood and bring the shard "to the brink" instead of over it as she puts it. ardbert and co then killed themselves and jumped shards. ascians got vauthy to transform the party's corpses into cardinal virtues. time continues to be a mystery. why is she alive. huh her goal was to kill them... uggg i nned to think this over

hmm but the lightwardens didn't have that thrall effect. but then again everyone who came close died. cant tell if sin eater conversion is related or not. oh his dialogue predicts going to the first. should have talked to him earlier woops

[blackknight95857669]

"Finished" PC Build

Backstory: Starting 2023 I was still running a cobbled together mess of a PC, the heart of which was a Dell Studio XPS desktop from 2010. Yes, THIRTEEN YEARS old. I got 2 of them from a gaming company in 2012 for the price of a tank of gas, thanks to knowing someone working there that had been tasked with E-wasting all the Windows PCs. Company was switching to iOS dev.

Anyway, at its heart was the Dell Mobo, which featured a 1st Gen i5-920. By this point, the OG GPU was long gone and I had "upgraded" with a 1050TI. 16gigs of DDR3 RAM. This basic as hell setup had served me admirably for a decade, for a couple reasons.

I run Linux.

I have never been a HEAVY PC GAMER. Sure, I have gamed on PC since I first got one in 2005 (yeah, kinda late to the game, considering I was almost 30, lol), but I mostly used my PC for World of Warcraft, other similar MMOs, and what are now called Indie games on Steam. I've had consoles from like 6yrs old, and I tend to prefer them as they are the cheap option for gaming. I appreciate what a modern PC can do (esp lately with RT etc) but like, more often than not PC gaming can be as much of a chore as it can be fun.

Now, starting around March 2023, that old PC began having strange errors with the RAM, which would cause Firefox to crash tabs/completely, among other things. Eventually it broke my Linux Mint OS badly enough it just stopped allowing me to login. Finally figured out the HDD I had was failing and got an SSD. Installed Garuda on it and pretty quickly realized I had Mobo issues as the RAM was still reporting less DIMMs than it had, half the time.

At this point, a friend that was aware of the issues offered to mail me an i5-6400, to build a "new" system around. Naturally I accepted and bought a Fractal Meshify 2, some new DDR4 RAM, DeepCool Gammax, and a used MSI Krait Gaming Mobo. Stuck the new parts in the new case, and moved over storage/GPU from old PC. Booted and updated the OS, then launched WoW. Still getting 10fps in Valdrakken. Shit. Guess I need to upgrade this GPU.

So I bought an RX 6800. Stuck it in the case and booted. Updated the OS, which brought the Mesa drivers on board. Launched WoW again. 10fps again. What the fuck. Thought maybe swapping from Nvidia to AMD might have left over some driver mess, so I fresh installed Garuda and got all set up. Logged WoW Main again. STILL 10fps. WTF. Took my Main to SW, stood in front of the bank, then logged an alt with NO UI. Holy shit, there's a 35fps difference between them. My UI was broken, lol. Spent a day fixing that. Now I get 20fps in Valdrakken, but 55ish everywhere else. This is good.. but... What if I upgraded the core to something current gen, say AM5?

Finally we arrive at the part the title of this post suggested, building the "new" PC. I went to Newegg and picked out a Ryzen 5 7600X, MSI Mag B650 Tomahawk WIFI Mobo, G.SKILL FlareX5 32g RAM kit, and a TFORCE 2TB M.2 SSD. I also got a "free" 1TB Sata SSD with the CPU, it was also a TFORCE. The following are the pics of the "build" process. There will also be an aside for a complication. ProTip: be real fucking sure everything you want to put into a PC is absolutely compatible. Some things say they are when they aren't. You'll see what I mean.

Here's the parts laid out and ready to be installed.

This Mobo has a ton of IO.

The iFixit "Pro Tech" toolkit. I got it on sale for I wanna say 80 bucks a few months ago, as of today it's listed for $75, and I think it's definitely worth the money.

Here we see the 3 M.2 slots. 2 of them have included heat sinks. Nice.

ProTip: Remember to peel the fucking plastic off these thermal pads, cause they don't really work with it on there.

Like a glove.

ProTip: it's real damn important to make sure you put the RAM in the proper dual channel config on an AMD system. On this motherboard there is a little diagram pointing out that the slots the sticks are in clearly say "first" on them, which is a nice touch. If you look closely, you can barely make out the very fuzzy diagram printed just above the heat sink bracket on the right hand side of the CPU.

Storage in place with the little "carder heat sink" strip in place. This SSD came with its own heat sink but I'm going to use the one that came with the board.

Like so.

And here's the board, ready to go into the case for further assembly.. however, it was at this point that i realized that the EVGA 650w PSU I had didn't have two 8pin(4x4) CPU cables. I got it open box, no manuals etc, and could have sworn it had 2 cables but I was wrong. Makes sense, really, 650 watts would be cutting it too close with this build. Bummer.

Ok, well I can at least move over my DeepCool Gammax heat sink. I looked at the listing from when I bought it and it says "AM5 compatible". I watched a vid that said "hey as long as your cooler doesn't use a back plate, it should work with AM5"

LIES, BOTH OF THEM. I tried to get the DeepCool on there but the brackets didn't quite line up, and then even if I could kinda fudge it a little to make that work, the screws were threaded differently. Fuck. So at this point, in the middle of a somewhat heavy storm, I had to make a run to Best Buy and hope the store really did have the things the website said it did. Thankfully, it did (and I guess yay for living in a decent area or something? cause I've heard stories about BBs having like 3 PSUs from one brand, so "my" store having 19 from 6 brands is luxury, it seems. I miss Fry's). Picked up an EVGA GT 850w 80+ Gold with auto Eco Mode and a Cooler Master Hyper 212 Halo, which was extremely lucky as it was the only one in the store.

That out of the way, the build can continue.

Coming along nicely. Sorry about the quality of some of these pics btw, I'm getting old so the eyes ain't what they were plus I had been dealing with this for several hours by now so I was also cranky and kinda rushing through the pics part. They looked good on the phone, less so once I moved them to the PC, heh.

Oh thank fuck, it posts. Ignore the slightly dirty desk, I been busy damn it.

That's looking clean as fuck. Yeah that old USB IO thing is old and kinda looks stupid but like, never can have enough ports, right?

I really do like this Fractal Meshify 2 case. It's laid out super well and is a breeze to build in. I mean just look at that cable routing, yo. And I was kinda rushing and not really being that finicky about it lol.

And it's home. Yeah, yeah, I know I need to clean up the cable situation on the left, there. I'll get to it. Also yes, there's some rust on that standing desk pole. I got it for free and it had been sitting outside. I've meant to clean that up but just haven't gotten to it, heh. Living in an RV as a not small dude (6ft1 240lbs or so) makes doing things like this just kinda suck, honestly. Add another person to the mix and yeah things can get tight. A 28ftx8ft box to live in just ain't the best time in the world, lol. We make do, though.

Finally, I figure I can give one nod to the RGB fans, so here you go. The Halo's fan in all its glory. I have since installed OpenRGB and managed, even on Linux, to gain access to the RGB controller and set the brightness to minimum.

I have run some benchmarks with Phoronix. I guess at least one person who might read this may be interested, especially Linux fans? So here's links to those:

GLmark2

Unigine Valley

Blender - this is an all tests, best of 3 run. Took a couple hours, which meant it was a great stress test for the CPU. I had no problems, which is impressive as the CPU sat at what I understand to be the throttle point temp of 95C. Yeah. I'm going to be looking into a better cooling solution or at least add another fan to the heat sink and see if that helps.

There's also 3 tests from when I was running the i5-6400 with the RX 6800.... if you wanna see what happens to a GPU when you severely bottleneck it, lol. If anyone actually reading this is interested you can just click "System Logs" on any of the links above, then "Show System Information" which will take you to a list of all benchmarks I've done so far.

Well, I guess that's it. Hope this was interesting and/or amusing to whoever reads this. Thanks for taking the time.

Edit*******

Oh and by the way, I launched WoW again after I finished, despite it being late and I was sore and tired. But I just had to see. I am now unable to get less than 35-40fps in Valdrakken, and I'm averaging nearly 100 anywhere else. I actually saw 130fps a few times. I'm not sure I've ever seen that high a number even when I flew as high as is allowed and looked straight up, lol.

In other words: yes, it was worth it. Especially if I can manage to baby this thing well enough it lasts me at least a few years before I "have" to think about upgrading it. Again.

[cyaniiiide]

[Pokemon Reborn] Replay Thoughts

I love this game so, so much. (Spoilers for Pokemon Reborn below so be warned!!)

I first started it back when I was in high school, and now, I've probably replayed it, like, 5 or 6 times by now? It's not a short game haha, but I love the story-based plot + the Pokemon gameplay formula itself is just so hard to beat. I've always wished the main series were more difficult and had a better story and characters, so this game is honestly perfect. <3

Plus, my shitty computers through the years have been able to run it perfectly. xD

Reborn recently released E19. I used an old save file which had finished E18 to play through the new content first a couple months ago. I had missed a couple of Anna points here and there, so I got the Lin ending. Which, I enjoyed a lot! Idk how the Anna ending stacks up since I haven't played through it in comparison. Anna is one of my least favorite characters... though I still like them all.

I started a new playthrough a couple of days ago out of boredom + to see what changes E19 brought.

Some thoughts so far in no particular order (just completed the Beryl Bridge scene):

A lot the main cast appears earlier in smaller one-off scenes in the game, so that's nice to see. I wonder what someone going into the game blind would think -- most of the time they say something cryptic and/or depressing and leave (except for Taka who is the best. And maybe some other characters I'm forgetting lol). I think it's nice to have more points of comparison with them at the start of the game to the end, though.

I liked the additional Corey scenes in particular. It really shows how he helps the community, as how torn he must've felt -- seeing the destruction Meteor causes, trying to help out where he can, and yet still loathing himself for continuing to work for the team. The extra dialogue between Corey and Lin, and Corey and Heather, as well as in Beryl Bridge scene also help to show how trapped he felt (and was), and why he chose to jump.

So far I'm not really sure what to think of Ace -- I think they have an interesting design, but I don't know a lot about them yet other that they like wordplay, and they don't like infighting. xD

Fern is significantly less of an asshole. I remember his dialogue in the old Beryl Bridge scene was way worse. It's still pretty bad, especially when "wow, what a moron" is what you hear right after Corey's heartbreaking monologue, but he at least acknowledges that he must seem rather callous, and from his point of view, yeah, I guess Corey was just "the enemy." His other scenes are also toned down a bit (granted, I didn't fall through the Nuzleaf pit so idk about that) but in the jungle, he at least tried to be reassuring lol.

Zel ordering Lin around like that... at this point in the story, is Lin still lower ranked?

Julia's fight was toned down a bit too. At least, there were fewer exploding Voltorbs than I remember. xD

Heather's characterization is also much better: in my first playthroughs I just remember her as "bratty and we spend half the game saving her" but here, she comes across as friendly, well-intentioned, stubborn, and very childish (which she is a child, so that's fine haha).

Corey's battle is also a lot easier than I remember.

I really, really like the new additions to the game with the Remote PC, early Itemfinder, and Magnetic Lure.

The updated areas of the game (Obsidia Slums, Rhinoceriousexpyaladocious Jungle, Obsidia Park, and some others I'm probably forgetting) all look great.

Victoria's dialogue in the slums in the little different (I think?) IIRC in the original she fights you because the slums are dangerous and she wants you to prove that you can make it through. Here it's more about training, though it might also be because she just wants to take her mind off things.

I got normal/flying from the type quiz which is kind of boring, but I'll take it. xD I like flying types anyways. I wonder if this quiz'll affect anything in the future.

The Underroot + Rhinendocrinesystem Jungle are also way more fun to explore than I last remember. I forget if we were forced into falling down the Nuzleaf trap to progress the story or not in the original.

Amaria's monologue to Corey is a lot more heartbreaking when I remember what she's going through, and how she probably tells herself the same thing every day...

[leatafandom]

15 questions, 15 mutuals

I was tagged by the wonderful @quicksilver-castiel. Thank you for thinking of me, dear! 

Are you named after anyone?

If we're talking about my legal name, which no one calls me, yes. My entire name is made up of other people. I've never liked it. I'm very happy that throughout my life I have been very nicknameable.  

2. When was the last time you cried?

I made my family's recipe for lasagna for Christmas dinner last year for the first time without my mom. It turned out really great, it tasted like hers and my grandmother's. It was very nice.

3. Do you have any kids?

Yes siree, I have one amazing child.

4. Do you use sarcasm a lot?

Overwhelmingly so. I will say I've been using it less cause it just doesn't translate sometimes and it's led to… awkwardness

5. What's the first thing you notice about people?

Well, normally when I'm around new people my brain is blanketed in panic and discomfort until I realize someone is talking to me. So, that they are talking to me? 

6. Eye colour?

Brown

7. Scary movies or happy endings?

Scary movies I guess? I like scary movies but not always. However, I enjoy happy endings where everything just worked out much less often than I enjoy darker themes with an unfortunate/bittersweet endings. 

8. Any special talents?

Uuugh. I have no idea. That I can spin a yarn? 

9. Where were you born?

In a manger with better doctors and my dad's shitty video recording. The floor was beautiful.

10. What are your hobbies?

*looks around* Pretty much this. I will say I do enjoy sewing and like building stuff (I’m workin on shelves right now) but at this point yes I like it but I also just need a bench or kiddo needs his pants fixed so its less fun.

11. Have you any pets?

Yes! Two adorable brothers, Garfield and Chip. Or as we now call them both affectionately and angrily, Chewbacca and Noodle Cat.

12. What sports do you/have you play(ed)?

Basketball. I feel like I did play something else but it's all basketball in my head. I was on some kinda basketball team until college.

13. How tall are you?

165cm or 5”4’ or more importantly one inch taller than my older half-sister. It is how I win our fandom/media/any argument. 

14. Favourite subject in school?

History. Loved it, still love it. It was always my favorite.

15. Dream job?

I have had many careers I’ve dreamed about having, and jobs I truly enjoyed but the time has come and gone on most of those dreams. I just like coming home to my family.  

Thanks again for thinking of me dear! I always love a good tag game. No Pressure tags: @ldrmas, @brattyangel69 @synesindri, @idabbleincrazy, @racheld93, @archangelgabriellives @datajana, @lorileopard,@pirate-captain-kaira, @fandom-space-princess, @supershanaynay1, @misha-misha, @sea-heaux, @meep-the-froggy, @neptunium134