#and look. give credit where credit is due. they are funny sometimes
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moonsidesong · 1 year ago
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ive been groaning at aa spirit of justice's extremely over the top on the nose character names but i also just remembered tgaa runs around with a curio collector named. kyurio korekuta. so. maybe im being too harsh AHAHA
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crab-people-overlord · 4 months ago
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Re: Post-COVID Stan and his Job, a Kind-Of Defense:
Soooo I know a lot of folks aren’t too happy about the fixed/final timeline’s Stan’s future job in the Space Force, and I get it. But I’d like to argue that it isn’t as far off base for his character as many folks give credit for. I’m not saying it’s the perfect job for him, but it’s not completely off-base, and I really do think the creators gave careful consideration to his job here.
Before I explain, first let me say that I do understand some of the frustrations and wish they would do some type of episode about the Space Force with Stan as a kid to establish his interest in it, or at the very least in a government job. It’s not like Stan hasn’t been to space before or had Space themed episodes (pinewood derby being a very underrated episode), but the Space Force is such a ridiculous concept that it could be a funny episode and parody and could help the ending of Post-Covid feel more well-rounded. They could have an episode where Stan has to get rid of the Space Jail his dad had created and dealing with the Space Cops or some shit like that.
I’ve seen some discourse asking why Stan couldn’t have been a musician or a vet due to his love of animals. To answer that - I think it’s very realistic that Stan didn’t end up a musician. I’m just going to leave it at that. Most people don’t make it in the music industry, and I really don’t think Stan would take it that seriously as an adult to try to navigate that. He’s not that naturally passionate. I think he’d more likely keep it as a hobby. It’s just the reality of things (though I think a fic in that direction would be valid and interesting. Lmk any fic recs for that).
As far as being a vet goes - look, I love animal lover Stan, but let’s think this through logically. He loves animals, and it’s adorable. But that’s exactly why he would HATE being a vet. It’s canon that Stan doesn’t do well with blood, and it’s canon that Stan does not do well with animals being in pain. Being a vet literally combines those two things together that Stan viscerally hates. He’d love being able to be around animals, sure, but he would hate having to perform surgeries/see animals suffer. It would deepen his depression, and he would be too queasy to handle it according to canon. Again, it’s one thing to see this in a fic and I think that would be cute. But in a canon episode? That would make no sense and would be contradictory to several established character points.
So if being a vet or a musician are off the table, where does that leave us? What are some of Stan’s strengths, or some things we know about him that would translate well into the professional field?
Well, we know he loves board games (this is not a one-off from an episode, there are SO many instances of Stan and his complicated board games, whether they being showcased in the background of his bedroom, or him playing them)- and these are not surface-level board games like Settlers of Catan (which I can totally see him looking down on as a ‘way too easy and therefore boring game’). We���re talking about games that take grown adults years to master, let alone learn the complex rules. Not sure how many of you have delved into these types of games he likes, but some of those games are almost like learning a whole new language, and the amount of strategizing you do in the types of games he likes is very high (and we know that Stan can strategize/think quickly on his feet well).
His skills in board games translate into how he navigates the world pretty well. We also know that he shows high critical thinking skills (sometimes to the point of being too critical. Him being diagnosed a ‘cynical asshole’ by a doctor wasn’t just because of the depression- he kinda always has been one to an extent, even before that episode) and very easily sees through bullshit. He also is very adaptable with natural leader skills and is good at adjusting to his environment physically, so I have no doubt that he would be able to learn about, say, working a spaceship.
Basically, a lot of Stan’s strengths that I think are often slept on in the fandom overall are all the things that would translate quite well into some type of military or government intel analyst role. The ridiculousness of the Space Force also aligns with the ridiculousness of South Park in general 100% (there’s so much satire potential there). It also just went well with the political climate of the time the episode aired.
Fun fact: according to his uniform, he appears to be a Chief Master Sergent, which is the second highest enlisted rank possible. He also has an insane amount of awards on his uniform.
One of Stan’s weaknesses is that he has a lack of motivation. I can absolutely see him being unsure of what to do in life but not wanting to be like his dad and joining the military to help at least give him guidance/something to make of himself in his life when he lacks the motivation/structure to think of something himself. And then I can see it evolving from there as he joins the military/how it adapts to his own natural skills. I also think he would secretly like the status he would gain from ranking high up.
Btw this is kinda off topic but I completely head-canon that Craig also works in the Space Force with Stan. Also, Stan is not short (look to the screenshots). . Looks to be the tallest of the main four, followed by Kyle, Kenny, then Cartman who is quite short.
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the-s1lly-corner · 1 year ago
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hello hello!! can i request a jax x reader who is ballerina?? i feel like i'm addicted to this kind of dynamic, gives me avril lavigne's skater boy vibes!!
🌻 anon!!
Jax x ballerina!reader
imma be so real i know next to nothing about ballerina stuff, all i know is the outfits and dancing and all that so bare with me SOBS this one is on the shorter side i hope thats alright </3
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he throws a bowling ball at you while you're practicing/j
im sorry i think its funny that he just THREW the ball at kinger i cant get over it but like, also, how?? strong is he?? do they all have similar strength where they can just *do* that sort of thing or is jax just strong, granted idk how heavy bowling balls are or if there's such a thing as weight in the digital world
tangent aside and out of my system for a joke that probably won't land: if your digital body also looks like a ballerina and you happen to have a tutu or any sort of frilling just know that hes going to smack it, poof it, whatever, hes going to fiddle with it just to annoy you or get your attention
while i think he would be more likely to keep his whole "being an asshole and nuisance" thing a one man act, i feel he would probably ask for you to help him with something
be it working as a distraction or as a part of the shenanigan itself
he likes watching you practice in your spare time, before things like this wouldn't interest him but you got him hooked on you and you alone
do not ask him to dance with you, in general. i feel like he would immediately pass
new hc that jax cant dance for SHIT!!!
sometimes he'll listen if you start talking about your experience and training in ballet, actually he's kind of impressed because it sounds like something that requires years of dedication and focus
hey hes an asshole but i think hes still capable of giving people credit where credit is due
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freckledjoes · 1 month ago
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(In)sanity
Steddie Christmas fic! Summary: Eddie returns to Hawkins for the holidays and stumbles upon a very detailed snowman that resembles someone familiar... Warnings: Don't read this if you hate Christmas. And cute shit. Author's note: Be gentle <3 I don't really post things I write. I'm sure it's flawed in more ways than one. I focused on the cuteness, not the UD plot, so if that's vague, it's because of that. This came to fruition because of this post. Word count: 7299
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Alright, fine. The rumor’s out: Eddie Munson had returned to Hawkins for the holidays. To his credit though, he had in fact gotten ‘the hell out of there’ once Higgins had finally been forced to hand him his diploma. It was just that, when he arrived in New York, things had been… difficult. You don’t just up and leave and suddenly make it with your band, apparently. Especially not when said band actually decided to do weird shit like going to college. But… It was fine. He did have a good time, found some people that did in fact enjoy his presence (some mostly preferred him inside their beds, which was new) and he enjoyed skipping from roommate to roommate duty all around town.
And yet… here he was. Eddie claimed he had gone back for the holidays. To see Wayne, the Hellfire kids, and yeah. Part of that was true. The other part was just that he couldn’t find his footing in New York, not by himself. As fun as it had been to discover the New York version of Eddie Munson, it hadn’t really been… him. No one really bothered to get to know the real him and in all honesty, he had been enthusiastically hiding him anyway. He had pretended to enjoy mainstream music (It was fine, just not really his jam to dance to until 5AM - which he had. Several times too many. Shudder), drank fancy coffees that he couldn’t really afford and hadn’t mentioned Dungeons & Dragons ONCE after he received a funny look from his second roommate.
Which is why it felt like a breath of fresh air to be back in Hawkins. Where people thought he worshipped Satan, attended virgin sacrifice ceremonies and was an obnoxious good for nothing waste of space. 
It was familiar.
And honestly? He wasn’t even sure who he was anymore sometimes. Getting rid of the super senior title kind of forced him to go do something with his life.
But what?
His trusted van greeted him in the parking lot he had left her at and he was surprised it hadn’t been towed yet, in all honesty. At first Eddie hadn’t been sure it was his van considering she had almost become one with the parking lot due to all the snowfall. To no one’s surprise though, when Eddie had wiped off most of the snow and turned the key, she didn’t have more in her than a splutter of her engine before she went back into hibernation. 
And so, Eddie walked. He knew Wayne wouldn’t be home yet, so he decided to take a detour. The quiet streets carried as much of a negative familiarity as a positive one. He’d been out on those streets for many reasons, taking long walks either high or sober, contemplating pretty much everything about his life long enough for the sun to come up.
Tonight though, he had different things to think about. Or maybe not that different. He had to decide whether he was going to go back to New York (probably not) or if he was going to stay in Hawkins (probably not) and if neither of those, then what? Nothing kept him in either place anymore. Wayne was doing just fine without him and although he missed him, he also wanted to give him some well deserved time for himself. 
Well, him and Claudia Henderson, apparently.
Wayne acted quite funny about it. Claimed the woman didn’t take no for an answer and kept bringing food over, kept inviting him for dinner, and at some point, he had grabbed her hand and kissed her cheek and that was that. For a man who wanted to pretend that he wasn’t smitten with her, he surely needed to work on keeping his smile out of his voice during their phone calls.
Eddie was genuinely happy for him, though he had deliberately avoided thinking about what it might mean for him and Dustin. The idea of a smartass little step-brother wasn’t exactly appealing—not that it would be all that different from how Dustin acted already.
That being said… he hadn’t heard from him at all lately. Or any of the other kids, for that matter. It wasn’t exactly surprising, considering they had their own friend group going on and didn’t need Eddie to entertain them, but a small part of him had hoped that maybe, they at least missed him as their DM.
He fiddled with his lighter and tucked his hair behind his ear before lighting his cigarette (he had learned to keep his hair out of the way after burning some of it… four times). He had barely realized he had wandered into the forest until his elbow hit a tree and he apologized.
“Shit, sorry,” he mumbled, looking back at the tree as if it was going to respond. He was about to face forward again when realization kicked in that it wasn’t a tree he had just walked into. Instead it was some kind of snow sculpture, or an ice sculpture? It surely was really fucking sturdy if it survived that elbow clash.
He walked a few steps backwards to properly observe the statue and noted that it was quite an odd placement, here, in the middle of the woods. Honestly, where did someone even get that much snow? The trees did a good job at shielding most of the ground and it didn’t look like any snow had been scraped whatsoever either. Weird. Eddie looked at the statue, which was surprisingly about his own height and he wondered how he had missed it. Ironically, the snowman was quite a looker. Flowy hair (how did they even manage that?), a strong jawline, muscular but not too muscular. Hmm. He took a step closer to inspect the statue some more and scoffed when he realized something.
The statue looked… familiar.
It reminded him of someone he wanted to forget all about, actually. The amount of time this very person spent at the forefront, sides and back of his mind was actually embarrassing. He didn’t even like the guy. He was just—
“You remind me of someone,” Eddie declared out loud, nodding along to his own statement. “Yeah, some asshole jock I used to go to school with. Didn’t really have personal beef with him, but his friends were fucking awful and well, by association… so is he. Plus, being popular and a jock basically means you’re a dickhead anyway. It’s written in the fucking stars, just like I’m a good for nothing lo—anyway,” Eddie cleared his throat and finally took a first drag of his cigarette.
“I guess someone must really like this guy though, if they make a snow statue of him in the middle of the woods like it’s their dirty little secret. Shame, actually. Bet he’d love the ego boost. Last time I checked his casanova days seemed to be practically over. Not that I care. It’s just obvious when a loud, obnoxious guy like that suddenly isn’t.”
Eddie knew he was talking out of his ass at the ‘loud and obnoxious’ part. If anything, he was talking about his past self there. However, he wasn’t totally wrong about the change of Harrington’s lady magnet wearing off causing some suspicion.
“Anyway… dunno why I’m even talking to you. I’m bored, I guess. My car broke down, had to walk all the fucking way so I figured I’d give myself a nostalgic route through the forest and there you were! Doubt you get a lot of visitors, huh? What am I even saying, maybe you’re like, a day old. Who knows when the fuck they made you, huh?”
He gazed up at the statue again as if expecting a response, but of course none came. Three cigarettes and some nonsensical rambling later, he finally bid the snow statue goodnight and walked home.
Home.
Wayne would always be his home, he figured, whether he still lived there or not. A part of him wasn’t entirely looking forward to seeing Wayne again. He had missed him terribly, but he wasn’t ready for the conversation to lead to New York and what he had been doing over there. Not much to tell really, other than the usual: he had failed to make anything of himself.
The small light on the porch was on when Eddie finally arrived at the trailer and he wondered whether Wayne left it on for him or if he was actually home. He used his key to get inside and let the familiar scent of the trailer hit his nose. It carried a mix of emotions with it, however the good ones always prevailed. He gently closed the door behind him in case Wayne slept, but noticed the door to the bedroom was slightly ajar. Moving closer, he carefully listened for a sound, but there was none. His hand blindly found the lightswitch and to his surprise, the room looked just as he had left it, except with clean sheets.
Eddie walked to the living room and found Wayne’s sofa bed, clearly recently used. It made him wonder whether Wayne had used the bedroom at all ever since he left. Back when Eddie was getting ready to leave for New York, he had reminded Wayne of the fact that he could finally use the bedroom again at last, to which Wayne had joked that his joints might not be ready for the comfort of an actual proper mattress. Now, Eddie just wondered if he had that little faith in him? Expected him back within a month? He never seemed to doubt Eddie’s resolve to move to New York though, at least not back then. Eddie let go of a sigh and walked back to the bedroom to drop his stuff there. Wayne had his habits, and breaking them by sleeping on the couch instead wasn’t gonna be pleasant for him, even if Eddie thought he really should use the bedroom already.
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The next morning, Eddie woke up from sounds in the kitchen. When the smell of eggs and bacon hit his nose, he dragged himself out of bed and staggered out of his old room in sweats and a t-shirt. Wayne didn’t look up from the stove, but a smile was evident on his face.
“How come you’re not using the bedroom?” Eddie asked while he rubbed the sleep out of his eyes. Wayne gave him a short glance before putting the eggs and bacon on their plates.
“That’s one way to say hello,” Wayne mumbled as he turned and sat down at their kitchen table. Eddie joined him.
“Hello,” Eddie said pointedly, “so? Why not?”
Wayne shrugged.
“Been used to sleepin’ on the sofa for so long. Don’t need the extra room.”
“Your back would appreciate it, you know.”
With a roll of his eyes he gestured at Eddie with the nice he was holding.
“Eat your breakfast, son.”
They ate in silence after that. Neither of them were very talkative just after waking up and it was a common agreement that breakfast was meant for eating and less for chit chatting. It felt nice, being back home. Listening to the way Wayne huffed at the blunt knife not doing its job, the creaking sound of the floor whenever he shifted, the inconsistent barking outside from the dog of one of their neighbors.
“So, how’s New York?” Wayne asked. It wasn’t as if they hadn’t talked about it on the phone before, but it had been a year since Eddie had been home. If Eddie was honest, he wanted to hug the man. He had missed him so much. But that wasn’t a common thing. Hugs. They hugged when it mattered. It wasn’t much of a casual thing.
“It’s alright,” Eddie replied casually. “I’m staying with a guy currently, his name’s… Theo. Short for Theodore.”
“A recent thing?”
“What do you mean?”
“Since you had to think about his name.”
Right. To be fair, Eddie had only moved in with him last week. It was part of the reason why he hadn’t left anything valuable back there, just in case. Theo seemed like a chill guy, however, many people in New York seemed chill at first. Anyway.
“It’s a recent thing, yeah. Kinda been couch hopping for a while now.”
“I see. You like it there?”
“It’s alright. Just can’t really find my footing yet. It’ll take some time I guess.”
Wayne gave him a look. It had some concern etched in it, and Eddie did not like that one bit. He didn’t want Wayne to worry about him.
“You can always stay here, if you need more time figuring things out.”
“I’m fine, Wayne,” Eddie mumbled, making sure to look at his uncle as he spoke. “I promise.”
He knew he hadn’t convinced him when Wayne stayed quiet and continued to finish his food, but there really wasn’t anything else to say. He was fine.
He was fine.
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Later that day, Eddie decided to check on the Hellfire kids. He knew Gareth, Jeff and Doug were out of town, so that left the others. However when he tried to phone their homes, no one picked up. At least not until Dustin.
“Hey, man. What’s up? It’s Eddie. I’m back in town for the holidays and I thought—”
Dustin quickly interrupted him, sounding distracted.
“Oh, hey Eddie, uhm— I’m kinda in the middle of something right now. Is this important?”
Eddie frowned, feeling a pang of disappointment in his chest at Dustin’s indifferent reaction. He knew he wasn’t exactly at the top of anyone’s friend list, but part of him at least thought he was liked enough to be greeted with a little more excitement.
“Uh, no, not really I guess.”
“Ok, cool, I’ll talk to you soon, yeah? Bye!”
Before Eddie could even respond, Eddie heard the dull tone on the other hand signaling that Dustin had hung up already.
“Okay…” he sighed to himself. “Whatever, man.”
Eddie spent most of his afternoon trying to fix his van, partially to have something to do and partially because she deserved better than being neglected in a random parking lot. He hadn’t really thought it through when he parked her there as it was the closest parking lot to get to the bus he needed to get on back then. Thankfully, after about two to three hours, she was gently rumbling again and he could take her back home to Wayne’s.
Wayne had left him a note that he left early for his shift, which for Eddie was code for ‘went to visit Claudia before work’, because Wayne never left a minute earlier or later than he had to when it came to work. Bored out of his mind, Eddie decided to play music for a bit, indulge in some beers and eventually, he figured it was time for a nightly escapade. He rolled a particularly strong joint and set off to find out whether the mystery snowman was still there or not.
It had been stuck in his mind all day, for some reason. He was still curious who had sculpted it, and he wondered if maybe he’d run into them. Or perhaps it was already destroyed. Or some animal peed on it. On a whim, he draped a large red scar around his neck and he set off for the woods. There had been a bit more snowfall during the evening, meaning that the forest path was dusted in white again. He felt it crunch underneath his boots and while he enjoyed it for the first ten minutes, he quickly got annoyed with the strain it put on his legs as he walked. Soon enough though, he came to the clearing where the snowman still stood as he had found him the day before.
“I’m back,” Eddie announced before softly chuckling to himself. He had tried to save the joint for when he arrived but instead had already smoked up most of it on the way out of pure boredom. Safe to say, he was feeling a pleasant buzz already. “Did ya miss me?”
He glanced at the statue and wondered why he hadn’t noticed before that whoever made this snowman hadn’t bothered to give the poor man clothes. In fact, it was awfully detailed, at least until the snowman’s waist. Anything below that was just one big piece of snow. As Eddie leaned in closer, he noticed how his chest actually seemed sort of… textured? A great representation of Harrington’s chest hair, not that he’d known much about it. It even had nipples. The only thing missing, probably, were his distinctive moles. What a wasted opportunity. Those freckles and moles were the best part of the damn guy.
“You know, I said you looked like someone yesterday, right? Asshole jock, that one? The name’s Steve Harrington. Whoever made you is really obsessed with the man because the details of that chest are way too accurate. I mean— anyway. I wonder if this girl’s gonna show him. That would be awkward. Funny, but awkward…”
Eddie took a last hit and flicked the roach somewhere in the snow.
“Don’t think he’s dating that Wheeler girl anymore, so who knows. Maybe she’s got a shot. The one who made this, I mean. Like, I’d be pretty flattered if anyone took the time to recreate me like this. Also creeped out though. Cause… It's pretty insane, right? Fuck I’m rambling. Why would you care? You’re a fucking statue,” Eddie groaned at his own inability to shut up and sat himself down on the ground. He let his hands sink in the snow as he leaned back on them, which he immediately regretted as an icy cold feeling crept up his fingers. He kept his hands there for a good minute before he put them in his lap and rubbed them warm.
“I honestly thought people would be more excited to see me, ya know,” Eddie sighed, unsure why he was still rambling to a damn snowman. “None of the kids picked up and the one that did said that he didn’t have time. I literally was out of town for almost a year. And there wasn’t even a hint of surprise at me being back. It’s like… I mean, clearly he doesn’t give a fuck. And I shouldn’t give a fuck either, but what the hell, man. It kinda sucks.”
Almost as if to prove to himself how stubborn he was, he let himself fall back on the snow and moved his arms and legs around to make a snow angel until he once again remembered that snow was cold. And wet. And he wasn’t wearing enough to handle wet clothes in more places than his butt at the moment. Speaking of his butt, he realized at that moment that it had gone completely numb.
With some effort, he lifted himself off the ground and wiped off some of the snow wherever he could reach it.
“Well, I’ll leave you to it then. For some reason I wanna thank you for listening, which is so fucked up. How starved for human contact am I, really? Jesus Christ.”
He waited for a moment, as if he expected the snowman to respond. He adjusted his scarf a little and grimaced at the itchiness. He looked at the naked torso of the snowman and hummed to himself.
“Actually,” he started as he took off the red scarf, “you can have this one. For your modesty or whatever,” Eddie added with a soft chuckle. He draped the scarf around the snowman’s neck and gently secured it at the front. “There. Gorgeous as ever.”
Eddie nodded as he walked away from the snowman.
“Yeah, you heard me. Asshole jock is annoyingly handsome. Too hot for his own good. Such a waste of pretty features.”
Between him and the snowman, he was pretty sure no one believed him at that last part.
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Christmas Eve had been wonderful. He had a good talk with Wayne about New York, finally got some more info on Claudia— and apparently Dustin got along well with Wayne too, which filled him with both relief and some envy. Though, when Eddie asked if Dustin had been around when Wayne went to see Claudia, he had said he was out with friends. So at least he was as busy as he claimed to be, in some way. They also played some cards and enjoyed a few too many drinks. Which was why Wayne was already passed out on the couch while Eddie gingerly sipped from another glass of whiskey, enjoying the quiet of his head a little too much to stop.
If only his mind had been quiet enough to not be compelled to go to the snowman again. Really, he had no business there. But for some reason it was nice to just talk to an inanimate object that still represented a human. He’d been smart enough to bring a plastic bag to sit on this time while he rambled on about his failed life in New York. How he wasn’t sure what he was doing, what he wanted, what his next step would be. He talked about anything and everything.
So naturally, Steve Harrington was a topic Eddie couldn’t avoid, one he just had to mention. Again.
“Don’t think I’ve forgotten about you, Frosty,” Eddie teased as he rounded around the snowman and prodded his pecs. “Y’know, if you were real, I’d probably flirt with you,” he admitted gingerly. “If you were real and not Steve Harrington, that is. I’m not that stupid.”
He sat down with a huff and squinted up at the statue as if he was looking into the sun.
“I feel like we’re on a level where I can be honest with you, right? Those people in New York? Not all girls. Guys too. I’m into both. Which brings me back to you and your insufferable look-a-like. ‘Cause you’re the OG now. I’ve had more conversations with you than I ever did with him. Pretty one-sided still, but you get what I mean.”
Eddie paused for effect, letting it hang in the air for a bit to keep up the suspense.
“He was like, my first guy crush. I’m pretty sure anyway. I used to daydream about him and his stupid hair and how I wanted to grab it and make him look at me with those goddamn beautiful hazel eyes before I’d kiss him. I had never kissed anyone back then, by the way. But strong fantasies do the trick. And well, daydream about the same guy too often and you realize you have a problem, I guess. At least, it was a problem back then. Didn’t love having yet another thing about me that didn’t fit the mold.”
He absently kicked against a branch, which barely moved an inch so he left it at that.
“Now I’m cool with it. I mean, it’s fun. But back then it was torture because it felt like a waste to spend so much time thinking about a straight guy. Like, there was no way this dude was ever gonna be into me. Even if he was into guys. He surely wouldn’t be into me. So yeah. Uh. No one knows about this by the way. I hid this one pretty well if I may say so myself.”
He grimaced and pulled his knees up so he could wrap his arms around them and rest his chin on top of it. It felt good to say all of it out loud for once. Even in New York he had made up a different story, because being into Steve Harrington was something he simply hadn’t been ready to admit out loud. Apparently, now he was. From his inside pocket, he grabbed a flask that he had filled with the remaining whiskey and took a ginger sip.
“Kinda pathetic, isn’t it. Christmas Eve, and I’m sitting here talking to you.” A beat. A soft sigh. “Kinda wish you were real.”
Eddie let his fantasies get the better of him as he sipped from his flask, looking up at the handsome snowman who, by the way, still wore his scarf. With some effort he got back up on his feet, wobbling a little as the alcohol made its way to his brain and slowed him down. He paused when he was right in front of the snowman, staring into its eyes which seemed to stare right back at him, even if the pupils were missing.
“Ah, what the hell.” Eddie leaned forward and pressed a quick, teasing kiss to the snowman’s lips. There. Now he could—
At first, he thought it was raining. He felt droplets land into his hair and on his cheeks, and his clothes felt a little damp until the feeling suddenly evaporated entirely.
Eddie stumbled backwards and blinked his eyes rapidly, wondering if he’d really gone too far on his alcohol consumption this time. But, that couldn’t be, this wasn’t even half of what he would throw back on a good weekend. Or a bad one, depending how you’d look at it.
“Eddie,”
Fuck. Eddie blinked again. Fuck fuck FUCK. His voice was hoarse, sounding a mix of relieved yet confused, and mostly tired. His voice, belonging to Steve Harrington.
Eddie stared at him, took notice of how the snowman was definitely gone and how there was now an actual human standing there. And not just some human. Steve Harrington. Alive. Barefoot. Bare everything, really, except for the red scarf still draped around his neck. Surprisingly it was long enough to do all the way down to his junk. Not that Eddie was looking.
Eddie did the only sensible thing. 
He screamed.
The silence that followed Eddie’s scream was deafening, save for the soft sound of snow falling around them. When did it start to snow again anyway? Steve flinched, his hands covering his ears not long before his hands started to do a complete body check, all while Eddie looked like he had seen a monster.
They stared at each other in silence for a moment, their breaths coming out in visible puffs of air. Eddie felt like laughing, crying and straight-up bolting and never looking back altogether. Steve visibly shivered and wrapped his arms around himself.
“You were the statue,” Eddie muttered under his breath, and Steve nodded.
“Yup,” he responded, with a weak pop of his P.
“There’s no way. There’s no fucking way. I must have accidentally just ate an entire tray of edibles and not remember or I don’t fucking know—”
“I can explain— sort of. I think. I don’t know the details yet.”
“Yet?! What?”
“It’s uh… kind of a long story,” Steve winced.
“Kind of a long story?” Eddie’s laugh came out shrill, almost hysterical. “You can’t just magically un-snowman yourself and then just say that! Kind of a long story?!”
“Hey! I didn’t magically un-snowman myself! That was your doing! And by the way, I’m not fucking thrilled about this either, alright? I’m freezing my goddamn balls off here.”
Steve tried to let the scarf cover a larger portion of his body but failed to do so. Meanwhile, Eddie had already shrugged off his winter coat and threw it in Steve’s direction.
“The fuck? What do you mean I magically un-snowmanned you?” Eddie almost sounded offended at the mere suggestion, but Steve didn’t have time for that as he quickly put the coat on. It didn’t do much for his lower half, but it was much better than nothing. He sighed contentedly. When Eddie’s eyes met his, he realized he hadn’t answered his question yet.
“You kissed me,” Steve said matter-of-factly.
Eddie felt like his heart stopped. “What?” he asked weakly, “no I didn’t.”
“Yeah, you did.” Steve gestured vaguely at his mouth. “That’s when it happened. You kissed me, and then—poof. Back to normal. Sort of.”
“No fucking way.” Eddie shook his head vigorously, his hair getting even more frizzed in the process. “That wasn’t—it wasn’t even like, a real kiss!” Eddie protested. “How would that…”
“Beats me.” Steve looked around at the clearing, his breath fogging in the cold. “But… uh, thanks, I guess?”
Eddie’s face burned hotter than it ever had in this forsaken gold weather.
“Don’t thank me. I’m not—this isn’t—you were a snowman, Steve.”
Steve couldn’t help but smirk.
“You go around kissing snowmen often? Or just the annoyingly handsome ones?”
Eddie froze.
“Oh no. No, no, nope, I’m out. I gotta— Fuck this is so bad.”
He covered his face with his hands and turned away from Steve as he tried to recall all the things he had told the snowman—told Steve.
“Eddie,” Steve’s voice was soft, almost hesitant. “It’s not… that bad.”
Eddie’s mouth turned into a thin line and he shook his head.
“Forget it. Let’s get you uh, home, or something.”
Steve sighed and put his hands deeper in Eddie’s coat. It was actually pretty warm, thanks to Eddie wearing it prior.
“It’s fine, I can get home and I’ll just… I promise to drop the coat off as soon as I’m dressed, alright?”
He was surprised to hear a scoff out of Eddie and looked up, only to be met with soft eyes that were nowhere as loud as the indignant sounds his mouth made.
“I’m not letting you go home alone like this, Harrington. Don’t you know what happens to pretty boys when they show their ankles late at night?” Eddie asked rhetorically, happy to see that it got a smile out of Steve. The last thing he wanted was for Steve to think he was a bother. Which… was uncharacteristic of him in general, wasn’t it? Eddie nodded towards something that once resembled a path.
“It’s that way, right? To your place?”
“Forgive me if I’m a little disoriented right now,” Steve said dryly. Eddie smirked and sat down on the ground as he started to undo his boots. He put them in front of Steve and looked up. For a moment, he needed all his willpower not to look at something else that piqued his interest, only just hidden by the scarf and coat. It was a good thing the coat was a little long on him.
“Try them on?”
Steve wanted to protest, but one look at Eddie convinced him that it would just be a waste of time to have a back and forth with him and so, he picked up a boot and did his best to balance himself against the tree to put one on. Thankfully, it fit. After putting the other one on, he looked at Eddie’s feet. Two mismatching socks, a red and a green one.
“Festive,” Steve said with a nod to the socks.
“What can I say, I am a huge enjoyer of Christmas.”
“Right.”
They started to walk towards Steve home at a gentle pace. The streets were empty, mostly due to the fact that everyone was busy celebrating and that it was also kind of late already. Both of them were grateful for that. They didn’t want to know what people would say or do if they saw them like this. Neither boy said much on the way home. The cold controlled their thoughts more than they liked, with Eddie’s feet being soaking wet and Steve, well. He had never felt so small there. Part of him wondered if it would still work and not just fall off due to frostbite or something.
When they arrived at Steve’s place, he fished a spare key from inside a flowerpot to which Eddie tutted, saying it was too obvious. Steve ignored him and opened the door, only then realizing that the lights were on.
“What the—”
“STEVE! Steve! You’re— but how?! We searched all over for you but you were— Eddie?”
Dustin abruptly stopped talking to stare at Eddie, then back to Steve and back to Eddie again. Eddie noticed that Dustin wasn’t the only one in Steve’s house. In fact, it was an odd combination of people. All the Hellfire kids were there, as well as… Robin? Nancy? And Jonathan? While Steve had been away for at least three days?
“Listen— we can talk this through after I’ve put on some clothes, alright? I would say make yourself at home but… seems like you’re doing just fine,” he said, his expression one that would’ve made Eddie laugh if all of this hadn’t been the weirdest thing he’d ever lived through.
Without waiting for an answer, Steve ascended the stairs stiffly, only to turn around halfway and look at Eddie.
“You coming?”
And if that didn’t cause a great mixture of facial expressions, including Eddie’s. However, he nodded wordlessly and quickly followed Steve upstairs. He followed Steve right into the bathroom and then realized maybe he shouldn’t have, because Steve suddenly dropped the coat and took off the scarf and Eddie’s shoes without a second thought and jumped into the shower. Right in front of him. Like it was nothing. Must be a remnant of being a jock and being naked around other guys all the time, Eddie supposed. But wait—
Eddie had confessed that he was into guys, which apparently, Steve had been able to hear as well. And Steve wasn’t… weird about it? Yet? So what did that—
“Hey, Eddie, could you uh, maybe grab some clothes in my room? I was so focused on not being cold that I kinda forgot.” Steve was only a blur now, with the steam fogging up the glass wall between them. “Grab some for yourself as well, whatever you need.”
“Uh… okay,” Eddie said hesitantly, swallowing the question why Steve wanted him upstairs. Probably just to give him socks, he realized later. It felt illegal to be in Harrington’s (he needed to keep him at a mental distance) lair, though it hadn’t been the first time he had been up there. He remembered one party where he had gone up to this room after selling all his stuff and then laying down on Harrington’s bed for a couple minutes before a couple footsteps made him bolt right out again veeeery quickly. Anyway, back to business.
Eddie rummaged through the drawers to find some clean socks for both, a pair of underwear for Ste— Harrington, and managed to find a sweater (a Christmas one) and some black sweatpants for him. He took off his own wet socks and figured he’d just let them air dry while he waited outside of the bathroom. After about five more minutes, Steve emerged from the bathroom with a towel around his waist and looked startled when Eddie was right in front of him.
“Oh— Here you are. Why didn’t you just come in? Don’t you gotta dry your feet?”
Eddie shrugged.
“It’s fine. Uh, here.” He quickly handed Steve his clothes, who this time at least had the decency to go back in the bathroom to put it all on. Eddie took the opportunity to put on the dry pair of socks and was only a little annoyed with how good they felt on his feet. Rich people and their quality socks… Once Steve came back out, he had a funny look on his face and pointed at his sweater.
“Really?”
“I mean, someone’s gotta be festive, my socks are swapped now, so…”
“Right.” Steve looked in the direction of the stairs and bit down on his bottom lip. “Uh… about that thing that happened in the woods—”
“I won’t tell a soul.”
Steve frowned and waved at him dismissively. “Not that, I mean, the snowman thing. There’s uh… I don’t know how to explain this in under five minutes, but there’s this other dimension and there’s some weird evil shit happening there and now this, creature, whatever it is, started to turn people into statues. We have no idea how many people it has happened to, I mean, I froze shortly after Lucas did, so I don’t know much… Anyway, it’s gonna be a lot to take in, alright? But I promise you’re not going insane, it’s all real, we’ve all uh, kinda been here before.”
Steve had rushed out the words so fast that Eddie’s ears were ringing. He blinked a couple times, figured a nod would suffice and looked up at Steve again.
“Right… okay. And everyone downstairs is involved?”
Steve nodded.
“Kind of, not on purpose or anything. I’m sure you’ll hear the full story at some point from one of us. ‘Cause… you’re in this now. You can try to forget this shit but you won’t. Just be happy you haven’t seen anything severe.”
“Sounds ominous,” Eddie remarked.
“Yeah, well. It is,” Steve replied matter-of-factly. “Wanna go back downstairs?”
“Sure…”
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“So… what. It’s gone now?” Steve asked. Dustin had explained what he had missed out on the past week or so and he had brought Eddie up to speed with the remaining bits that were relevant for now. Apparently El (who Eddie hadn’t even noticed before) had used her superpowers (whatever that meant) to freeze the guy, creature, thing, in return and that was that.
“Yup, and I think everyone should be fine. I mean, Lucas immediately came to and I guess you must have too, since you’re suddenly back here?” Dustin asked. He glanced over to Eddie and he could tell he had a million questions about how him and Steve somehow became a duo, but he seemed to restrain himself.
“Uh, oh. Yeah, I guess so,” Steve replied vaguely, glancing over at Eddie briefly before avoiding his gaze again. “By the way, Eddie found me. So, that’s why he’s here. Which brings me to the question… how the hell did you guys get in here?”
“You don’t hide your spare key well enough,” Max shrugged.
“But it was right where I left it?”
“Well, duh. Where else would we put it?” Mike interjected, immediately making Steve want to roll his eyes. He glanced over at Nancy and Jonathan, who sat huddled close together on the couch.
“So everyone’s okay?” he asked, looking at Nancy, then Robin. The latter nodded.
“At least those that we knew of.”
“And… that monster or whatever isn’t gonna melt itself or something?” Eddie asked softly, glancing over at El, who shook her head.
“He won’t,” she said confidently. Man, Eddie wishes he was that confident about this all.
They talked for a little longer, but eventually decided it would be best if everyone would get some sleep, especially Lucas and Steve considering their situation. Nancy and Jonathan had come with separate cars, so there was enough room to take them all home. When Eddie tried to sneak out the door, muttering some joint goodbyes along with the others, Steve stopped him by grabbing his wrist.
“Your stuff’s still upstairs,” he said softly, although Eddie had a vague feeling that Steve cared very little about that right now.
“Oh, right…”
Dustin turned his head towards them suspiciously as Jonathan drove out of the driveway and Steve simply gave him a quick wave before closing the door behind them.
“So.”
“So…” Eddie repeated.
“Guess it wasn’t some sleeping beauty meets prince type of situation,” Steve mumbled, and he sounded almost disappointed. Eddie smirked and crossed his arms while looking at Steve intently.
“Yeah, no fairytale for us, I suppose.”
Steve hummed softly and moved a little closer. Eddie tried to keep his distance, but Steve was relentless and patient in his slow chase, moving closer until Eddie hit the back of the couch and grabbed onto it for support, less he’d topple over backwards and that would be way too embarrassing.
“You said that if I was real, you’d flirt with me,” Steve reminded him while teasing his finger gently along a lost strand of Eddie’s hair.
“I’m also pretty sure I mentioned I’m smart enough not to go for a straight guy,” Eddie reminded him in return. He tried to control his heart palpitations and failed terribly, especially when Steve smiled slowly, leaned in even closer to the point that Eddie could feel tiny droplets of water land in his neck from Steve’s hair.
“You’re into both,” Steve said. “Why can’t I?”
“I mean… you’re Steve Harrington,” Eddie said weakly.
“Mhm. And you’re Eddie Munson,” Steve said with a nod, “the guy who spent three nights in a row, or at least, I think they were nights, visiting a snowman that resembled me, Steve Harrington, and poured his heart out to him, it, whatever, and then kissed me—it.”
“Did you…’ Eddie started, and he looked over at the door. He was ready to run if he had to. Ready to escape the wrath that was about to be bestowed upon him if he spoke these thoughts out loud. “Did you like it?”
Steve cocked his head with a smile and lifted one shoulder casually.
“I don’t know. It was a little short, and my mind was kind of occupied with other things. I could be a better judge this time around.”
“This—This time around?” Eddie stammered.
“Unless you don’t want to, I mean, after all, you had a lot of things to say about me.”
“Harrington— I mean, Steve, I— I didn’t mean it like that. The things I said… I was just rambling. I would never say that stuff about you if you were within hearing distance, ‘cause it’s not… true. I know you’re a good guy and—”
“Eddie.”
“Yes…?”
Eddie looked up at Steve, who suddenly seemed a little taller for some reason, towering over him as his hand moved to cup his jaw, thumb grazing his cheekbone softly. He searched his eyes for anything, anything that would explain what was happening because surely Steve wasn’t about to kiss—
Steve was kissing him.
Steve Harrington was kissing him.
Steve Harrington was kissing Eddie Munson.
On the mouth, no less.
Eddie wasted about half a minute before he regained enough composure to kiss him back. It was hesitant, shy, almost. Steve giggled into the kiss and gave him a few pecks in between.
“C’mon,” he urged him softly, sweetly. “Gimme a real kiss already.”
Eddie did.
He grabbed Steve’s face with both hands, stood up straight, and nudged him back until Steve’s shoulders hit the wall. Their tongues danced, fighting for dominance, as Steve smiled into the kiss. Eddie shifted, planting his hands on either side of Steve's head and threading their fingers together, grounding them both in the moment.
Suddenly, Eddie pulled back. Steve looked at him with a dazed expression and when Eddie dropped his hands, he held onto his waist instead.
“Eddie…?”
“Wait—” Eddie said, even as he leaned into Steve’s touch. “I’m still kinda drunk, right? So I gotta know that this,” he gestured between them, “is real.”
Steve visibly relaxed and gently squeezed his waist.
“It’s real,” Steve almost whispered, thumbs circling Eddie’s shirt. “We’ve got some catching up to do, but it’s all real.”
“You don’t uh, hate me for the things I said?”
“You kept me sane in there. And a little humbled, but that’s alright,” Steve teased with a grin. “If it wasn’t for you being there… I think I would’ve gone insane.”
“Sorry for only visiting so little then,” Eddie mumbled. “In my defence, I thought you were just a very detailed snowman.”
“Oh, right. Something about my chest hair? You mentioned how accurate it was, or something.”
Eddie’s cheeks immediately turned visibly pink.
“Shut up,” Eddie said quickly, “shut up right now.”
Steve shook his head and smiled.
“Nah.” He paused. “Unless you make me.”
Eddie smirked as Steve wiggled his eyebrows cheekily at him. How could he ever turn down an offer like that? 
Of course he kissed him.
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Hope you liked it! If you did, a reblog would be most appreciated. :) That's how the work can travel to other eyes after all! Would love to hear your thoughts whatsoever. And uh, Merry early Christmas!
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earlycuntsets · 2 months ago
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A healthy and reasonable criticism of the mcr archive that i’m 0% scared to share. I didn’t sign and NDA and i’m a free woman.
I will express my criticisms with both their practice and their pr.
this is my opinion and how I received them. if you want to turn this around on me, may you remember that I'm not the one responsible for the mcr archive. i'm a fan and they're a professional organization not god or jesus or anything like that.
practice: 
how can I view and appreciate the mcr archives work?
We have their mission statement
“My Chemical Romance community project whose goal is to collect & catalog MCR content for future posterity.”
linktree where you can see what they're sharing rn.
and what does the mcr archive so actively do? they share
2. sometimes a time sensitive drop box of files (from their link tree. files you dare not share, even if you credit them.)
3. barely (and sometimes just not) sourced social media posts that are kind of.. no different than what anyone else might share in terms of sourcing. the photos however seem to be really high quality versions of photos we’ve seen before and definitely some ones relatively no one has seen. They told me that’s because they pitch in to buy from photo agencies. and what the mcr archive posts is always excellent but it’s not everyone else’s problem you can’t find the info. I’ve dug up sources for ya’lls posts before when it takes two seconds to do. the places where you can add info, should have info. You should message other smart people in a group chat or something “hey can you look into this show for me, I can’t find the dang photographer” wheres the evidence of practice.
so It was an event/show. At the show there was a photographer. Look at their stupid haircuts, find out what 3 months in 2005 it was, check setlist fm etc
when I asked who took the pictures they told me “that infos actually not out there, we got it from a photo agency” who better than a f'n photo agency to know who took the picture I do not understand... you should have more info as a result
3. a mostly dead link list that credits back to themselves sometimes. seriously check it out you can’t do anything except the youtubes.
4. when they post a video, they haven't credited the yt a lot of the time. because they don't credit properly what ends up happening is they post and we're to believe the source is the mcr archive. which yeah no (credit where credit is due to them but sometimes you see it in funny places)
5. They informed me that they don’t check tumblr to see if the photos have been posted they just queue it when the time comes. It would save them a lot of time to reblog from someone.
maybe one of the amazing accounts that catalogue (thats what we’ll say to avoid eternal damnation) mcr extensively. Maybe all those blogs could be friends of the archive and we could all look forward to being reblogged by the great mcr archive
honestly they should reblog everything callmeblakes ever posted bc that shit is mcr history and archiving to me. just an opinion. in fact if you wanna know what I expect from the mcr archive, go to blakes blog.
6. It’s easy to have new mcr when everyone's falling all over themselves ready to give you their new mcr pics/video. But when there’s not it’s just this half effort mcr account It doesn’t do justice to those bits and pieces in between. The things that need to be saved still.
7. side note: I would like to credit the mcr archive as a bit of the inspiration for my website. I wanted to hoard everything and be excited about mcr. I needed the old important stuff I used to bleach my eyes with. So when I saw “the mcr archive” I was so excited to see well…
the archive????
I thought surely I wasn’t going to the right site. I thought for sure there was a “mcr archive” url, not a link tree, that would have all of this referenced content right? So fans can see the whole thing? no. Its always a limited time dropbox. That's why all the links are dead now. You can only get to what they have posted on instagram or tumblr.
The idea and concept and general execution of the mcr archive is good. it just seems they have fallen asleep on their laurels. And for the band I love, it should be better kept. Their content is excellent of course. photo agency quality scans.
For it being the “definitive mcr archive” I guess I just wanted more structure, more transparency and info and links where they apply. everything could be more accessible. it just seems to be run by not many people and they'd benefit from a larger team.
this is my personal critique that is 100% allowed to exist.
PR
I was recently messaged by an mcr archive member. their identity is protected but I will associate "mcr archive" to them because that's who they represent when they message fans about archival business.
(I’ve recently had some discourse with them that i'm sharing. they are the owner of an archive within the mcr archive (oo lala) -- from which I took and credited 20 of their files)
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below my defense to their claims. I don't like being misunderstood.
they say in the first sentence it was on my site uncredited. bull. the files that belonged to them were labelled. I had their contributors doc in every folder that even had their files.
but that's not enough for them to be civil? that's not enough to simply ask for your 20 files to be removed from a my chemical romance fan site.. huh
they then give themselves away as anon (which they denied) by using the same vocab. I "lifted" their files. who even says that. in their og anon ask, they say the same thing followed by a lot of hot air about how i'm apparently doing a shit job and only they understand hard work. i'm a lot but i'm not stupid.
then here we go with I "copied their whole archive into mine". that didn't happen. I had 20 files and she assumed I took her wayback screenshots. bc how could I possibly have the capacity to take my own. they described taking these screenshots as an obscene amount of work btw. so much COMPLAINING. you should be grateful to do it. they also say the screenshots they took might not be on wayback machine anymore. sure bud.
it was brought to my attention that them saying they want the convo private is telling as well. they should be salespeople for mcr of the utmost transparency i'm sorry. you are public figures that don't treat mcr fans with respect and to try to make them feel small.
then they call me unprofessional.
Interesting that they message me calling me “unprofessional” when I am just a regular mcr blog/site owner. I never claimed to be perfect, or the end all be all mcr curator. I’m not the one affiliated with the mcr archive. If the mcr archive has a problem with my site they can make their own and do it their way. I’m not burger king. next.
then they talk about feeling undermined. the irony.
then they say I lack “community awareness” when they want all the credit for everything. that's the message you send when you don’t credit the photographers or youtube accounts. (no link ever) Its like “idk doesn’t matter look I posted it” which is fine when you’re a regular mcr fan but when you claim to be the most official mcr archive account, you are held to a higher standard in this fanbase.
and this is all before I even responded. they don't know me and they're literally scolding me. ok hotshot.
then I got defensive and tried to express to them that i'm not as dumb as they seem to think I am. I didn't do the things I was being accused of. I was honest about how I felt. it was hard to respond to all that because it was these weird different attacks on my intelligence from a person i've never spoken to before.
then them and their mcr achive friend sending fucked up anon asks calling me a piece of shit among other things. those mcr archive accounts could not figure out how to get a life that night. some random mcr archive fan is so mad to call me a piece of shit bc I got mad at mcr archive is what i'm to believe. it was them. they try to gatekeep this fandom that way ig. what does it for me is the complaining and acting like they built the pyramids.
it's not my fault it was hard work for you to do your awesome job request to remove and be business about it. it was like .04% of my website I don't care.
I took their stuff off, I put their site at the top of my sources on ec. I wanted this to be over. so I was professional and did as they asked. I was not half as rude as they were in their initial message. and then they say "why are you continuing to undermine me?"
like i'm sorry are you beyonce??
so they say i'm "duplicating work" and I need to slow down my process to avoid future errors. I am so clear about errors and fixing them and having no problem listening to people that are right. I am reasonable but how they came at me was bonkers. duplicating? I steal everything on there I own 0. cept the dvds ig. if me posting old show pics on a flicker from 2011 is duplicating work. sure idgaf. this history needs exposure.
I’m just a blog like everyone else that posts things that mean something to them. My website isn’t worth much more than a reference. It is a place that points to other places. This blog is the same. I’ve never pretended to own anything. ever. 
then they say just because their whole archive is literally drag and drop easy to download doesn't mean my site is worth more than their archive.
why are you comparing my site to an official mcr archive period?
They don't want to be brief as indicated in their essay of a first message. they want to argue with me about a few things. because I didn't bend over backwards and kiss their ass seven different ways to sunday, after they came at me wrong, they think I am undermining their work.
according their messages, my archive is illegitimate because I don’t ask permission when my content is 2002-2012 old sites. I have never asked permission and never did anything to hide that. anyone of the 9287432 people who have their material on my site can ask to have it removed. I just link to the original source and credit. Just interesting because: how do they have permission to use the photos if they can’t even tell us who took them. 
I have tried to talk to them during the founding of my website. I sent them messages and asked questions and they don't speak to the public. community this community that. I did @ a member in march when I used and credited her whole of 20 files. I removed it because they didn't respond to it for 3 months and stopped thinking about it. I figured she would talk to me like a grown up one day request to remove sometime if she wanted it down. guess that was too much to ask.
what this message tells me is that I can’t possibly understand the work they do, it’s too specialized and complicated. Apparently lmao I misunderstand them and only they know the true meaning of putting together info and data entry.
And i’m sorry I said taking a picture or scanning something isn’t hard work. I just got tired of all their hot air. I’m sorry but It’s all about them and their precious stuff and taking pictures/scans of it. it’s like mcr influencers that post paid for pictures and they dress really cool but I can't help but think about how I would be in their shoes, how lucky so many people would feel to be a part of the mcr archive. and their lack of gratitude stinks to high hell.
And for the record, It’s the attitude for me
All they had to do was request to remove like any other human would.
I really needed to say my piece and now i’m letting this go. :) reactions be damned.
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pasta-in-the-pudding · 2 months ago
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helloooo!! i’ve read a few of your works, and i love the way you write the creeps! i was thinking of a laughing jack, candypop, and jason the toymaker x princess!reader (separately, not poly) the reader can also just be royalty if you want to make them gn :)
tysmm :)
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Summary: Jason the toymaker, Candypop, and Laughing Jack with a princess reader
Genre: Fluff
Warnings: None!
A/n: I heart the clown trio, but they're so rarely requested <//3 I especially love Jason though :3
Credits: Laughing Jack- Creepypasta, Candypop- Creepypasta, Jason The Toymaker- Creepypasta, Pictures- Pinterest, Divider- @ kidcorebuggy
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Laughing Jack
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He doesn't really quite grasp human politics
Like he knows what they are, but he doesn't understand all of the formalities
So when he goes to events with you (depending on what kind of princess you are, he will most likely be in a human disguise) he gets very confused when seeing people practically drooling all over themselves while acting like you're the most fragile glass vase
But he also thinks it is very funny, and likes to make some of your guests mess up in minor ways just to see them freak out over something he thinks of as so silly
He also likes to go with you to see you in all of your clothes
Watching you get laced up in probably the 12th set of underskirts and corsets, seeing your dressers help you into your shoes, and finally seeing the tiara placed on your perfectly styled hair
Something about it just fills him with adoration for you and makes him fall in love all over again
Of course, he always has to get dressed up too, being your plus one to almost every event
But he does have his moments where he doesn't like your being a princess
He is a very big jokester, he loves to cause mischief and crack up with you
But due to your position, you have to always be seen as prim and proper
Of course, when you are alone you can be yourself, but as for public appearances it is very strict
But he gets his little moments here and there where there can be some mischief
His favorite is pulling you behind a curtain and coming out 30 minutes later with lipstick marks all over his face >:)
Candypop
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Candypop sees your role as a princess as more of a character you play
Almost like a cosplay if that makes sense
And he likes to play the character too sometimes
What kind of character? The prince of course!
He acts like a whole new man when playing this role
Candypop is usually a pretty sassy, quick witted and confident guy
But when playing this role, he is the most princely prince you could ever hope for
He knows all the niche little mannerisms he has to adopt and oh baby, he DELIVERS
And when you're finally alone, he just goes back into his normal self like nothing happened
You like to tease him about it sometimes
"Aw, where'd my prince go?"
"I'm right here, doll" he'd say with a grin
Like Jack, he also likes to cause mischief
He might be playing a role, but he's still Candypop after all
His favorites ways to play little pranks is to the officials who consider themselves better than everyone else
Things like ripping their pants, whoopie cushions, etc make him giggle
And no one would ever suspect him because he's known as being so proper
Well, no one except you
And he can tell you know when you give him that little look out of the corner of your eye and a knowing smirk
Jason The Toymaker
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Jason gets very excited to accompany you on your royal duties
He insists on helping you sew your dresses
And if he can't make it entirely himself, whilst you are getting dressed you will be able to see him walking around you, occasionally commenting about how the seams aren't sewn tight enough or how a color change would have made the fit look better
Of course, he still thinks you look gorgeous anyways
He is just very picky in what he wants you wearing, only the best!
You can literally be giving a speech and you will feel his hand on your back, using his mini scissors he keeps on him to snip off a loose thread
Surprisingly, he is the only one you won't be able to get into a prince's suit
He's too busy making sure you look good
And I think he'd rather die than wear something he didn't make
Trying to get him into any princely attire is like trying to bathe a cat
But he is more than happy to be announced as "The Royal Stylist" instead!
He would much rather take the background than the spotlight anyways
Though, this does put a little bit of a strain on the relationship, because it would be most improper of the princess to be caught smooching up on her stylist
But it can make it a bit more exciting too
IMAGINE! He is lacing up your corset when a group of important advisors walk in to talk to you
And while they are talking, he continues his work
What your advisors see as him just doing his job, he is actually rubbing your hips lovingly, placing his hand on the small of your back as he reaches for a clip, gracing your shoulder with his hand, etc
giggles and kicks my feet and screams xDDD
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luvhu9hes · 10 months ago
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Everywhere, Everything (Analisa Au!)
ANALISA AUGILARS PROFILE
Basics-
NAME: Analisa Aguilar 
BIRTHDAY: March 7th 2003 '21'
BIRTHPLACE: El Centro, California 
HEIGHT: 5’5
PIERCINGS: 2 lobe piercings, bellybutton piercing, eyebrow piercing
HEALTH: Low Iron
MAJOR: Sports Management, she's always loved sports and has a scholarship for her lacrosse skills
FACECLAIM:  Darianka Sanchez (or others from pinterest)
LOVE INTEREST: Luke Hughes
Fun Facts-
She is the middle child, her older sister Lillia is 24, and her younger brother Silas is 16
Her older sister is her biggest role model, she used to copy everything she would do and it would drive Lillia insane
Her younger brothers friends always had crushes on her growing up (she thought it was sweet, but Silas hated it and threatened to fight his friends if they even looked at her funny)
She lived in California until she was 11
When her family lived in California, they didn't have a lot of money, so she spent a lot of time with the community center youth programs, where she found her love of art and learned how to play lacrosse
Her favorite things are; art, lacrosse, baking, Dominic Fike, her camera, raspberries, rom coms,  and soccer
Loves and I mean LOVES swimming, and the beach
Secretly made out with Mark Estapa in the bathroom at a frat party her first week of college, before her and Luke ever admitted their feelings for each other. The only people who know are Lillia, Ethan, Rosie (Ana's best friend) and Luke (He looked so betrayed when he found out about it)
She met Rosie her freshman year and they've been best friends since.
She met Luke her first day of 8th grade in michigan, they bonded over being nervous, Luke was always nervous because he thought people would realize he wasn't like his brothers and wouldn't like him because of it, and Ana was nervous because it was her first day at her new school.
The minute the Hughes family met her, the immediately fell in love with her.
She became a big part of the Hughes’ lives after they met her, always going to games, and having family dinners together, they were practically her second family 
She was there for Quinn and Jacks draft days (the internet went crazy)
The boys try to keep her out of the spotlight and away from the hate that comes with it, but she still always finds herself blowing up on social media 
She spends every summer at the lake house with the Hughes’ and their friends (they let her invite Rosie and her siblings so she's not alone with a bunch of hockey guys all summer)
Due to her summers at the lake house she's gotten very close with Trevor and Cole (her and Trevor are absolute menaces)
She is a certified party girl she loves how they give her an opportunity to just let loose, they also give her an extra sense of confidence 
Her love languages are physical touch and acts of service, she's never been the best at putting her feeling to words, so she uses the two to show how she feels
Ana loves reading, it's hard for her to sit down long enough to enjoy books sometimes, but when she can it's like heaven.
Considering her camera is one of her favorite things she is CONSTANTLY taking photos on it, she actually has 2, she has a camcorder, and a polaroid camera
She has a box of polaroids in her dorm room that she likes to go through at the end of the year to look back at her memories
Luke introduced her to the UMich hockey team, and they're all besties at this point (things were awkward between her and Mark at first, but they're so close now)
Ana shares a dorm with Rosie, but spends most of her time at the hockey house 
Because of her friendship with Luke, Silas always credits Ana for him getting into hockey
Ana can sleep anywhere, like she could be at a party and fall asleep standing up (Luke has a collection of pictures in his camera roll just of all of the weird places and positions she's fallen asleep)
Ana loves board games/video games, and has forced all of her friends to have game nights every Wednesday (everyone pretends to hate it, but she knows they all love it)
Ana is the most competitive person ever, whether it's from lacrosse or her love of games, she's always been so competitive.
She honestly has a shopping addiction (she'll never admit that though)
She loves coffee and tea, iced in the summer and hot during the winter
She is an avid poster on social media, mainly tiktok and instagram, but she's certainly considered starting a youtube channel a time or two
Ana takes after her sister and if very protective of those around her and can easily stick up for herself
She's a passenger princess, driving scares her if she's being completely honest 
Only gets called Analisa when she's in trouble
She has two instagram accounts @/anamaguilar is her main account that everyone follows, and @/anabannana is her private account with only her friends and family
She's 100% the type of person to just randomly get at tattoo on impulse
Notes:
ahhh okay I'm glad to finally get this out, im not sure what took me so long to put this together, but everything for this series will be found under the tag "Everywhere, Everything Au!" Analisa has some similarities to me but otherwise she is my fictional baby and i have so much love for her, and i hope everyone else will love her as much as i do. I would also like to address that in certain pieces I will be writing about Ana and Lukes past because i just have so many thoughts floating through my head about baby Ana and Luke!
All love - Chaela
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signanothername · 1 year ago
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Hi! I love your rescue bots art and I was wondering who your favorite bot was?
Hello!! Thank you sm! <333
Ngl the show’s characters are so amazing that it genuinely is hard to say for sure, but I’d say Heatwave!!
Prepare for a ramble >:)
I already have a soft spot for grumpy characters and he falls into that category, but i genuinely love how the writers balanced his character so well that you don’t hate him for his gruffness, he’s that trope of “asshole with a heart of gold™”
The thing is, Heatwave isn’t fully a jerk either, he respects authoritarian figures, gives people credit where it’s due and has a sporting spirit and you can tell he cares deeply about the people he loves, but loves to put on a front (especially when it comes to kids)
He does have a bit of an ego but he knows when to keep it in check (basically doesn’t let his ego get in the way of his rescue work or uses it as an excuse to hurt people’s feelings)
In fact i’d say outta the rescue bots he’s the one who has faith in his family the most when it comes to knowing they can handle themselves, he’s the only one who doesn’t think Dani’s test pilot work is a big deal and explicitly states she knows her job and can handle herself, not that the others’ worries are out of place, it’s just that, for someone like him who’s overprotective, it’s nice to see him have so much faith
We can also see how much of a worrier he is in the “changes” episode, he doesn’t wanna leave the team cause he’s worried about them (and to me, it seems as tho he really doesn’t wanna seperate from them) but i believe that worry is less about him believing they can’t take care of themselves and more tied to his overprotective nature, he was worried they’d get hurt and he wouldn’t be there to protect them
He takes his job seriously both as a rescue bot and as a leader and takes responsibility for any shortcomings or reckless behavior that could’ve endangered people and i actually respect that a lot, cause most hotheaded characters are written in a way that they always think they’re in the right, which Heatwave doesn’t, his character breaks away from that usual writing and you’re presented with a hothead who actually takes responsibility for his actions which is really refreshing to see
The only times we see Heatwave acting recklessly is when he’s sure no one would get hurt, so it’s really funny to see for a hothead like him, cause he actually stops and thinks twice most of the time
All that aside, I do love when he acts like a jerk at times, they’re usually comedy gold moments, that one scene of him making fun of Blades cause of the scoop claw and when Cody gets upset with him, Heatwave literally tells Boulder and Chase “you guys never know when to stop do you?” Like MY MAN THAT WAS MOSTLY ALL YOU DHHDGDGDHHD (we here at signanothername do not condone bullying, we do however find it hilarious /j)
His character contrasts so well with Kade’s too and the two’s relationship is honestly so amazing aaaahxhdhdh
But what i love the most is the fact you can clearly see he grows as the show goes on, most his moments of him being a jerk are at the beginning of the series, later down the line he’s a lot more considerate and gentle, still acts like a jerk sometimes (cause he’s HW come on) but it’s a lot less than when in the beginning of the series
Not only that but how homesick he is and how Earth and Griffin Rock grow on him overtime, he starts very (and I mean VERY) angry, very not on board with staying, hell, he wants to leave in the first episode, but it’s so nice to see his struggle with accepting earth as his new home, and while I wholeheartedly believe everyone struggled through the same thing, they were prepared to look for their peace in their new home, Heatwave wasn’t at peace and he was very vocal about it
That’s why, the episode “Space Bots” is one of my favorites in the entirety of the series, aside the fact it’s a fun and unique episode, it’s the episode Heatwave finally calls Earth “home” and ngl it actually made me tear up a bit
Just THIS SCENE MAN (I love Blades’ big smile at Heatwave at the end, Blades is so proud of HW chhcc)
Obviously to someone who never watched the show the scene seems mundane at best, but to someone very invested in the story and characters? (Cough me cough) it was such a heartwarming scene, Heatwave finally finding some internal peace and calling it home??? 10/10 crying and screaming
Of course, he still struggles, as we clearly see with the Allspark day episode in S3, he refuses to celebrate it cause he doesn’t see himself as part of the community yet, yes he accepted Earth as his new home but there’s still that dissonance between him and the people in Griffin Rock
So it’s genuinely interesting to see his journey towards finally feeling at peace and finding himself among the community he lives with
I love when the bots finally revealed themselves as aliens rather than robots in S4, Heatwave was very apprehensive about it, really scared to do so even when he’s grown fond of the community, so you can imagine my absolute joy at the absolute shock Heatwave displayed when the people of Griffin rock immediately accepted them and were very excited about it
LIKE LOOK AT HIM HE CANT BELIEVE HIS OPTICS
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And much, much more I can talk about but we’d be here for days hdhxhdhhd
Anyway I’m done rambling have this Heatwave sketch <3
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goatcheesecak3 · 8 months ago
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Lawrence Gordon red flags? 🥺
Red flag headcanons
Lawrence Gordon x gn!reader
Fic type: headcanons, whatever the opposite of fluff is
Warnings: anger issues, emotional manipulation
Context: this is post trap, but in an au where Lawrence doesn't become an apprentice, because I'm not too sure apprentice Lawrence would even be in a relationship lmao
A/n: thank you for your request!! I'm glad this red flag series has been so well recieved so far hehe <33
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He almost never clears his schedule, so while the date nights you have are lavish and thoughtful, they almost never happen. He always seems to have time to go to fancy wine bars with his colleagues after work though...
Even before the trap Lawrence had occasional angry outbursts, but after the trap, the divorce and his lack of going therapy for any of it, he's got a much shorter temper. He rarely gets angry directly at you, but he's easily frustrated by minor inconveniences. He craves complete control and stability, so little things set him off, like the time the microwave broke and you found him yelling and smashing a plate on the floor in a fit of rage. It's not directed at you, but you still find it scary.
After his angry outbursts, he becomes overwhelmed with guilt and begins to sob and plead for your forgiveness. You understand why he acts like this, but it's frustrating that it seems he cares more about clearing his own conscience than comforting you.
You notice certain things about his relationship with his daughter that rub you the wrong way. He doesn't really show affection by being an active parent in her life, but by showing up out of the blue once in a while with exorbitant gifts and trips to disneyland. She's too young to be upset with him buying her love at the minute, right now she just sees her dad as this superhero who swoops down to rescue her from her strict mother and shower her with gifts, but you get the feeling that she'll end up resenting him in the long run. You've tried to talk to Larry about this before, feeling especially worried that someday she may think that you were the one keeping her dad away from her, but Larry brushes it off every time.
He works long hours, so you're apart for most of the day. Occasionally he comes home, sceptical that you might have had another man over while he was gone. You can't help but think, maybe he suspects you'd do that because that's exactly what he would do in your situation.
When you get invited to dinner parties with his rich friends, he often coaches you on what to wear, how to talk do as not to come off as abrasive, and general etiquette. It feels somewhat like he's looking down his nose at you for not having the same upper class upbringing as him.
Sometimes complains that he's "too tired" for cuddles after sex, which really hurts your feelings. Credit where it's due though, once he realised why that makes you feel so unloved, he very rarely does it.
He gets you expensive and fancy gifts, but none of them are really things that you like, moreso things that he'd want you to like, to seem more classy. Diamond earrings and silver bracelets are pretty, but you'd much prefer a box set from your favourite TV show, or a cool tshirt with a funny design. He has a hard time distinguishing displays of wealth from acts of love.
He can be quite patronising about your interests, you tried showing him your favourite series, thinking it would fun for the two of you to watch out together, but he burst into laughter and asked "do you honestly watch stuff like that?"
Early on in your relationship, he joked that it's a relief that you've never met his ex wife, since she wouldn't exactly give him a glowing review. The only problem is, it felt more like him telling on himself that a joke, and the thoughts of what he might have done wrong in his past relationship - and what he may yet do to you - eat away at you.
Bonus: Comes home smelling like axe body spray and cheap beer (his friend Adam's signature scent) suspiciously often 🤨🤨
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gamebunny-advance · 4 months ago
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Sus.
I just need to get this story off my chest because it's been bothering me since it happened. It's nothing really relevant to what I usually post or anything that's happened here, so feel free to skip this "story" if the subject matter offends you.
Content Warning for minors in implied sexual situations.
So, Youtube likes to recommend cartoon review/analysis videos to me, even of shows I've never watched. Sometimes I watch them because I like watching people be passionate about any given subject.
But other times they can be a little cringe because it's still grown adults yelling about cartoons, ya know? I'm happy that they've got something they're passionate enough about to sink so much time and effort into a video, but that doesn't automatically make me share their enthusiasm, especially if it's coming from a place of a bad faith criticism.
For the most part, I just move on from videos that give that vibe, but I recently came across one that disturbed me in a way that no one in the comments was really pointing out because they were too busy agreeing with the sentiment that the cartoon in question was bad.
The video was about some reboot for Tiny Toon Adventures (I literally know nothing about it other than what the video told me, and at this point I'd rather not learn anything more about it).
The video had pretty high production values all things considered, with a lot of original animation and art, like actual lip-synching on the avatar and detailed backgrounds as opposed to the static sprites on single colored/patterned backgrounds I usually see among cartoon critics.
I didn't stay long enough for the credits or check the description, but presumably all the art was done by the speaker/creator. Due to this, I was impressed enough to stick around to see what he had to say. Generally speaking, you just don't put that amount of effort into something that you're not passionate about, and I'm here for the passion first and opinions second.
The first talking point was about how the show apparently changed the relationship between the lead characters, Babs and Buster Bunny, from friends/lovers to siblings. This was gotten across in the usual way of the speaker overacting how angry/shocked they are about what is honestly a mundane change in the grand scheme of things. This was turn-off number 1 because I don't find the "caustic critic" to be that funny, especially when it's in service to bad faith criticisms. But, that wasn't what really disturbed me.
What set off a red flag to me, was the "skit" that followed.
The speaker detailed a situation where children, illustrated as a young girl and young boy, who were fans of the new reboot would eventually go back and watch the original show and be corrupted due to them misunderstanding the characters' relationship as being incestuous. I thought that this point was heavily exaggerated (as bits of this nature tend to be), but it's still not what disturbed me.
What disturbed me was how one of the sight gags to illustrate this point was to show the children wearing character themed underwear.
I'm not saying the underwear was drawn as a separate prop that they were implied to be wearing. I mean that as a part of the gag, I was forced to briefly look at two children standing in their underwear for no good reason. And to get to that gag, the characters were first fully dressed in merch before revealing their underwear underneath.
So not only was I forced to look at two children standing in their underwear, but they were literally undressed in front of me to make that "joke".
And immediately following that, I'm also forced to look at the girl child wrapped up in a spiderweb about to be eaten by a giant spider to illustrate the point that the kids are now trapped in some sort of "mindweb" from the confusion.
So me, knowing that tying people in spiderwebs is an uncommon but real fetish, felt deeply uncomfortable by this scene occurring right after the children were shown half naked.
Like, I'm not accusing that creator of anything because none of this is proof of any wrongdoing or bad intention outside of the bad faith criticism of the show. But I will say that I was so disturbed by this that I literally couldn't watch the rest of the video, so I don't know if it got worse from there.
But to try and prove that I'm not trying to say this in bad faith, I'll grant a couple of "outs":
The children weren't drawn particularly realistically: they were stick figure-esque in comparison to the more detailed art in the rest of the video that I saw. If the artist really wanted to detail these children, they probably would have, so I don't believe the drawings were meant to be especially gratifying.
I also know that cartoon print underwear is a shorthand for the character wearing them to be obsessed with the cartoon on the underwear. It's literally a joke from the Spongebob Movie, so if this guy was old enough to have been a fan of the original Tiny Toons, then he probably would have been in the age range to watch that movie and internalize that joke (or seen it elsewhere in a different cartoon). So it's possible that he might not have considered the implications of showing a child in a similar situation.
Additionally, while I don't recall much of Tiny Toons, I know that it's one of those shows that while it's made for children/general audiences, has a lot of mature humor, so maybe he thought he was doing the same thing without considering the implications of what he'd done.
Which is basically the same justification as the last point, but really the only way I can imagine someone thinking any of that was okay is ignorance.
But your dear ol'Sammy has been around the block a few times. Even though I can easily make up reasons why all this could be completely innocent/accidental, I feel like I can tell the difference between someone who made an honest mistake, and someone that is incapable of hiding what they really are. And this is sadly falling under the latter.
I always hope that I'm wrong in situations like this. I hope that I'm just paranoid and there's no malice at play here because my goal is not to punish wrongdoing, it's to make sure that other people are safe. But I can't ignore a red flag once I see it, and it was driving me crazy that no one seemed to be acknowledging it.
I won't link the video here because I don't want it to spread around, but if you really want to seek it out, then I've probably given enough information for you to find it on your own and make your own judgement about it.
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krakenshaped · 1 year ago
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Tag Duel bios are so funny because they include so much dumbass trivia and a whole section on each character's love life for some reason? Trivia detailed below because it's SO funny.
(From Tag Force 2)
Judai: Apparently not only is Judai really disinterested in girls but no girl has ever hit on him before which is why Judai finds Rei scary ("It will be interesting to see how Jaden reacts to Blair Flannigan, who becomes really infatuated with him. No one like that has been around him before.") It's stated he's happy to eat everything. Not anything. Everything. Judai is an unstoppable gluttonous machine.
Sho: Honestly the funniest entry by far. Someone on this writing team just wants Sho to SUFFER and its lowkey hilarious. This kid exists to be in pain. Apparently he "tends to fall in love very easily. On top of that, he cares quite a lot about looks, making things even more difficult for himself." His favourite food is shrimp but can't stand spicy food. I don't know if this is a direct translation or a dub gag but apparently he changes his glasses on special occasions but nobody ever notices (lol)
Asuka: Asuka's crush on Judai is described as a mystery which is interesting. Apparently Asuka doesn't even know she has a crush on Judai which is so funny, I love you girl. Seeing Rei flirt with Judai apparently puts her in a bad mood. Apparently if she was to look for a partner, it would be someone who can put her mind at ease. ("More than maybe anything else, she needs a partner to give her peace of mind if they really want to support her") The bio makes a point of speculating whether or not she's good at cooking since Judai is Duel Academy's hungriest guy. She likes sweets! And healthy food and dislikes stuff with strong smells.
Manjoume: His bio is so funny. Like. So funny. The first paragraph basically calls him a tsundere (true). Canon use of bad language (whether or not this is cursing or just general Manjoume rudeness - LET HIM SAY FUCK!!!) He's described as being obsessed with Asuka - although not as infatuated as he used to be. Dude does NOT eat his veggies!!! He likes expensive food and hates vegetables!!! He is NOT growing big and strong!!!
Kenzan: Kenzan bio is really just contributing to sweet kid propaganda. I am a Kenzan fan and apologist he is one of my favourite characters. "Hassleberry stands out at Duel Academy due to his very muscular physique. Although he's probably very good in a fight, he's by no means a violent person. In fact, he's usually very kind and generous." YOU BET!!!! KENZAN IS A SWEETHEART!!! KENZAN NO.1 IN THE WORLD!!! He's apparently pretty fashionable, as on top of the bio rehashing that he modified his own uniform, it mentions that he would probably do the same to the Obelisk Blue Uniform. Which is interesting!!! Fun headcanon material! Apparently he has no dislikes but his favourite food is fish (another fishing enjoyer too)
Edo: This bio was the worst victim of dub translations as it reiterates the dub version where his father is kidnapped and not like dead LMAO. Other than that tho? Apparently he doesn't really show interest in romance since he was too busy hunting for revenge but now that it's been settled "Aster finally has time to look for love. It'll be really exciting to see he goes for it or not." According to the bio he's considered good looking in universe. His favourite food is steak and other meats.
Rei: Apparently Manjoume's entire room was just turned into a Red Girl's Dorm. Which is tbh. Hilarious. Not only did he get evicted by a toddler but his entire room that he stole his brother's credit card for was turned into a girls only space lmao. Apparently Rei is actually one of the best at dueling among the entirety of the first years (real I feel like people sleep on Rei's dueling abilities sometimes since she's. Yknow. Like that.) She likes sweet and spicy food.
Johan: Finally. Weirdo Johan propaganda. He's described as someone who's thoughtful but frank and says the craziest weirdest shit sometimes. His whole bio paints him as someone who's very composed but can be reckless or impulsive when he's in the heat of the moment or excited. Incredibly funny how the bio claims "Nobody knows what kind of girl he likes. If the right young lady does come on the scene though, we wonder if the Crystal Beasts will call a family meeting..." (LMAO.) His favourite food is... Bread stuffed with various unusual fillings. You know this guy makes the WORST, WEIRDEST sandwiches known to man.
Jim: interestingly, despite the game referring to Karen as Karen in Jim's dialogue, the bio calls her Shirely. More reasons why changing the name for the damn crocodile was so silly. We do not information about Jim's love life or favourite food in his bio :(
O'Brien: Not much is said about the non-Johan transfer students. Like. Nothing except information you could find the anime. Interestingly enough though, O'Brien likes cola and junk food.
Misawa: One paragraph. Mf gets one paragraph in his bio. Is described as having a good personality but isn't treated well by his peers. (I wonder why.)
Fubuki: "ALL THE WOMEN FLOCK TO HIM WHEN HE APPEARS!!!!" His bio also reiterates his friendship with Ryo and questions what it's like since "They seem like polar opposites"
Momoe and Junko have bios too!!! Although they're mostly described as growing apart a little from Asuka :( Although apparently Momoe hangs out with Judai's clique a lot. Junko on the other hand is influenced mostly by what Momoe does.
If I've missed anything, or somethings been lost in the English translation let me know! I love collecting trivia brbrbbr
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camerajerk · 3 months ago
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any time man! I empathize with um.. being apart of Jigsaw’s sick games.. it’s awful. and it’s all you ever end up being known for. it’s upsetting, and I don’t wanna make ANY other victims feel like that!
the Dead Kennedys are really cool! my friend likes em a whole lot and I think they make neat tunes!! im not big on the punk music stuff but I have a lot of punk beliefs.
speaking of beliefs— are you religious? do you believe in a god?
do you think it’s funny that god spelt backwards is dog? dogs are a godsend I think, but I’ve always been more of a cat person. cats or dogs, if ya had ta picksie?? :-)
you seem like a cat kinda guy. I think you and my cat would get along, his name’s Cyclops cuz’ he’s missin’ an eye!!
do you have any pets? do you want to? do you liek snakes? what’s your favorite mythological creature?
- 🐜🐜🐜🐜🐜🐜🐜🐜🐜🐜🐜
Ah, I take it he may have fucked with you too? Kramer's an asshole, but up give credit where its due, his work ethic is pretty damn impressive. He's got more victims than I've got crumpled up tissues under my bed - and I've got a LOT of crimped up tissues under my bed.
Jokes aside, hope it isn't messing with you too bad, it gets rough sometimes.
DK is awesome, I got a few posters of them around my apartment.
I'm not religious at all. I got nothing against what other people believe, but I think organised religion is a scam.
I like dogs, but I like cats more, they're not as high maintenance. If I were a more active person I would probably have a dog, but I don't think I'd look after it very well right now. I could handle a cat better, but I wouldn't wanna risk it at the minute. I'm pretty broke and I couldn't afford vet bills if it got sick.
I think I would really get along with your cat, I like cats much better than people lol. He sounds like a cute guy.
I like snakes, when I was a kid I really wanted a pet one, but there was never a good time. I like to think one day I'll be loaded and I'll be able to afford a bunch of animals, maybe I should cash in on this while jigsaw thing and write a book, try and make that dream come true lol.
My favourite mythical creature is probably the Keres. They were these spirits that ate people who died in violent ways, or something like that, and they were all women. I used to date this girl who was in a riot grrrl band, and she referenced them a lot in her lyrics, I always thought the concept was pretty cool.
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popculturebuffet · 1 year ago
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Little Retrospective of Horrors: Little Shop: Bad Seed: That's Not a Joke that's the actual episode title (Comission by WeirdKev27)
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Well here we are friends, at the end of my look of little shop of horrors. I may return for the comic adaptations of the films one day, but for now.. there's one last strange and intresting plant to cover before we close shop and count the bodies. Intresting may be pushing it i'll admit but it IS strange, so at least it has that.
Little Shop is a 1991 cartoon based on the musical and film, which mashes together the 60's do-wop themes of the musical, peanuts and Rap into one series.
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Yeah THIS happened. I knew about it for a long time but hadn't seen hide nor hair of it till a reviewer I used to watch covered it. What clips I saw really didn't inspire confidence. However Kev loves to watch me suffer and coudln't wait for me to cover this whenever I could, so he paid me money to watch this thing.
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So I decided to give the series a fair shake, look at the first episode. And i'm glad he did in the long run as it DOES feel more complete having this series in the retrospective. My soul will never entirely heal but hey, that's the price you pay sometime in this line of work. So join me under the cut as I talk about an Audrey Junior that raps. If that didn't scare you off, join me won't you?
We begin little shop with the theme song. And credit where it's due.. the hook for it is fire.
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It's a weird sandwitch of a song where the begining and end are great, a nice 90's style rnb hit. Problem is like many a 90's work they drop a piss take rap in the middle with lines like "get ready for a funny bone overload" "I'm comin atcha like toon style" "In full effect" and "the little shop posse's gaining respect"
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Look if you don't know how something works don't do it. It's why i stay far away from tik tok and why Little Shop shouldn't of tried to enter the rap game.
This decision.. will never not be hilarious. Eldrictch God Levels of maddening too, of course, but hilarious. See... you'd THINk from this decision Little Shop abandons the Do-Wop, 60's pop sound of the musical entirely. You'd THINK. Instead they have numbers in that style AND rap numbers with Junior that make Poochie look dignified. So the writers clearly GOT that the music was one of the most valuable, iconic and awesome parts of the movie and stage play.. but also failed to grasp that it clashed horribly with rap. Or execs did. Or roger Corman
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And the 60's style is still present for the most part as in their next baffling decision, they decided the best thing to possibly pair with little shop of horrors.. was peanuts
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Now this isn't something I've really had a chance to dig into on this blog.. but I absolutely LOVE peanuts. The specials, the films, and of course the comic that started it all. As my frequent use of Breaking Cat News and Bloom County panels shows I love me a good comic strip and I love the godfather of most modern comic strips. If it didn't come from peanuts it came from Bloom County or Calvin and Hobbes, which came from peanuts.
So I actually do understand the impulse to model little shop's style after peanuts: it's a classic style, it has roots in the 60's as the specials started there and A Charlie Brown Christmas is still played every christmas as gods intended, and it works well. And they do a good job styliistically: it's peanuts esque but has it's own unique style and I like the minmalist yet colorful backgrounds. it really pops and the show LOOKS good, even through the vhs rip I watched.
The big issue is that they go for the peanuts style.. but often don't actually match that tone. The start of the episode kind of does, Seymour is charlie brown now, talks about his bad luck, not being "smart" enough to be a nerd, and his constant bullying by Pain Driller
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Our DENNNTTIIIIST. The problem is LIttle Shop goes for a zanier universe. And it's not that Peanut's universe couldn't be rediculous. We've had things like Peppermint Patty being out of school for several weeks going to a dog obdience school thinking it was private school, Snoopy walking all the way to Kansas City when trying to get to Wimbledon and reuniting with his sister, Snoopy's awkward teenage nephew
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The Kite Eating Tree which is not Charlie Brown's imagination, the EPA trying to arrest charlie brown for biting the bastard tree, Charlie Brown having to wear a sack over his head due to a baseball shaped rash... Charles Schultz wasn't above getting weird with it, and I'm here for it. Weird peanuts is some of the best peanuts.
The diffrence is peanuts is more.. chill. There will be big events and weird shit but it has a relaxed tone. Even something as awful as Lucy throwing Linus out of the house... was mostly just Linus chilling with Joe cool at his dorm and their parents having not intervened because they were missing... and the reveal of WHY gives Lucy her commpuance in the best way possible.
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It's a fairly relaxed strip. There can be tense arcs and weird shit, but generally the stakes are just a setup for jokes or character work. So throwing a magical talking rappin plant into that kind of tone dosen't work. I get the impulse as the originla flim was also kinda relaxed.. at first. But it's hard to make "Carnvrious talking plant" work with "chill and relaxed"... so why do it? Why not just have them as teens at least? why? why/ Why?
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So we find out Seymour has a job at Mushnik's still because Child Labor dosen't exist in this universe and is still yelled at by him because Mushnik uses child labor you think he's above YELLING at his free child labor? Seymour, as you'd expect, has a crush on Audrey whose mushnik's daughter in this one so she has a reason to be around. In a series where almost none of the changes make sense, why is THIS the one that does?
She ignores seymour because she wants to be a fire fighter
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She apparently has a diffrent new passion every episode, like Daphne from Be Cool Scooby Doo but not as endearing. Seymour can't get her to notice him, and unlike the previous two versions she dosen't SEEM to have a thing for him back.
So Seymour needs to turn his life around and as usual finds a strange and intresting plant.. or rather it's seed as that's how Little Shop thinks plant dormancy works. Granted i'm not a botanist, but one google tells me that's not how it works. A plant simply stops growing and strengthens it's roots and what not to survive. So the IDEA of how Twoey isn't fozilied depsite, as we'll find out, being from caveman times, isn't bad.
This leads to our first musical number as Seymour tries to raise Audrey Junior to impress Audrey who in this version is a jerk about it while Mr Mushnik talks about his bad luck as does Seymour and no one cares because Seymour is a blatant copy of a way more popular characte rinstead of a kidified version of rick moranis and Mushnik reguarlly bullys a child.
So while we saw Seymour's mom earlier, he's sleeping at the shop. Apparently Mushnik bought him for a wadded up five and a slim fit condom. He dreams of caveman times, and Audrey Junior, who orders himself a pizza. Because apparently having a childrens show about Rambo, Warrior for Piece is okay but you can't sell one about a plant murdering a child's enemies.
So instead Junior just eats a lot. Anyways Pain is the delivery boy because child labor laws can go fuck themselves in this universe, and plans to rob seymour. So instead of being a murderous manipulative monster Twoey.. is just an asshole. Or dosen't know how money works.
Twoey does as usual offer some quid pro quo: Seymour tkaes him home later,a nd Twoey gets Audrey to notice he's alive. He agrees. Mushnik plans to fire the child he shoudln't of hired, while Twoey needs to hold up his end. So he decides to plant the idea in Audrey's head that seymour's cool, by literally pulling a seed out of the plant equilvent for a butt. His aim is lousy though so he hits pain instead.
This works to their advantage though as it allows them to steal his dope ass moped. Unfortunatley Junior finds that his home.. is now a petrified forest. And we get the one joke that actually made me laugh "Petrified Forest, please stay off the petrified grass". And I'll give them credit, Juniors sadness over his family being gone and being stuck in an urban hellscape is great.
The problem is that Junior.. lacks anything that made his predecessor Twoey or his grandpa also junor work. The original junior was just a mindless plant that Seymour was stupid enough to get hooked on corpses. The film version was a creepy trickster who manipulated Seymour ot his ends. A comedic twoey COULD actually work: keep the big eater thing and simply have him manpiulate seymour to his own ends. IT's not as good, but it'd work for what hteir goin for here. Instead while they try that, what we've got is a character whose just a selfish asshole with no trickstery charm and whose also a walking fossil of the 90's instead of the jurassic.
Still as is law Junior DOES help. In trying to lead a plant rebellion against humanity, he instead just makes all the flowers grow. Seymour accidently floods the place trying to stop him, which gets Audrey's intrest thinking he was fire fighting. I'm too tired to think of the logic here. Mushnik is happy to not fire him as long as their's buisness so we have our setup: Junior decides to adjust to modern day, Seymour keeps him because it benefits him, Audrey actuallyt alks to seymour now and Mushnik is taking advantage of a small child
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Little Shop.. isn't very good. You'd THINK tha't dbe inherent in "Little Shop of Horrors Cartoon for Children'.. but the idea of one ISN'T as bonkers as it sounds. Little Shop of Horrors.. works for kids as while there's defintely a lot of muder and violence, most of it is pretty subdued. Only the feeding scene from the film really has a lot of gore to it. So as "selling this to children" properties goes, the film with a big awesome puppet, catchy songs, and a happy ending that also has mutilations and spousal abuse.. isn't the wildest swing you could take.
And adapting it for kids.. is really easy. As I said, just have Audrey II be a selfish trickster ala zack morris, doing things for his own benefit. Which they have here, just with an annoying rap gimmick. You age up the characters to high school, take away the unecessary attempts to copy peanuts, and it works. The franchise is already goofy, and while done well serious enoguh, even th efilm and musical still have wacky shit like Orin's entire musical number. The premise is goofy enough to work as a goofy over the top comedy, you just gotta let it. Little Shop ultimately dosen't work because it dose'nt know what it wants to be, mixing peanuts with a magical sidekick, rap and musical numbers more along the line of the original. It dosen't know what it is and that's why it only lasted 13 episodes.
Will I revisit this series? probably. It's pretty nuts and while I don't LIKE it, it was riffable as all hell. And it does sound like it gets more and more bonkers as it goes. For now though the shop is closed, but i was happy to finally give the full breadth of the franchise a looksee. It was certainly strange and intresting.
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c7thetumbler · 5 months ago
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Quick Game Reviews: August 2024
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Continuing on with August! A few days late because I was neck deep in the last game on here. It's very platformer heavy this month as well, but I was on a roll.
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image from Steam page
Earth Defense Force 6 (Steam)
EDF! EDF!
EDF is a series that knows what it's about. Having played 4 and 5 on Steam as well, this is just more of that. The game boasts half as many more missions as 5 had, which is astonishing because 5 had 100 and that felt like way too many. I'm playing with friends and still haven't beaten it, but I hope to sometime soon.
The main difference I would say between this and 5 would be the plot. It's still the same tacky, B-movie plot with funny stilted dialogue and crazy scenarios, but they introduced a new element to it that lets it get even crazier but also makes me interested in what's going on past "How are we going to win". Gameplay wise, there's new weapons and enemies of course, and some of those new enemies require much more specific ways of dealing with them, but it still usually boils down to "Shoot them all really fast, and if they have a weak point shoot that." It's good, near-mindless fun and I appreciate that.
If you've played an EDF game before, this is more of the same and definitely best with a group of friends. If you haven't, keep that in mind and maybe wait for a sale.
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Screenshot from my switch
New Pokémon Snap (Switch)
I didn't own Pokémon Snap on it's original release; I believe the first time I played it was on Wii VC, if not WiiU VC, so I had gotten far past 1st-gen hype that carried it a lot. It's a fun game, but it's pretty short and the lack of variety on each individual course wasn't doing it any favors. That's not to say I disliked it, but when this new one was announced I wasn't really in any hurry to try it out.
To it's credit, it's done a great job of adding features in a way that solves those issues with the original. You can level up each area as you get more points in it, which unlocks alternate routes and events in each one, and a number of them allow you to go at night which is a completely different experience as well. Your Pokedex also store 4 different rankings of pictures which have their own scoreboard, so you're encouraged to take pictures of the same Pokémon over and over again to get the best you can. I'll say this is a huge improvement, and worth the price of the game in terms of length at least, and that's without me going too far into the "post-game" content.
The game is a lot prettier than its current generation at the time, Gen 8, which is really funny given how poorly that game is run. It does a good job of showing you how expressive, interesting, and deep world that the Pokémon games have built but never have been able to explore upon fully due to the scope of those games and Gamefreak's... development practices. Pokémon's a franchise with a lot of incredibly unique gaming potential and side games like this do a great job of exploring that.
I did however find myself getting frustrated at some points. The Challenge system they have where NPC's give you tasks to try and get unique photos is very finnicky. I've often done pictures that I thought would fulfill their requirements, only for them to not even acknowledge it. I didn't complete a vast majority of them because of this; this kind of game benefits from not having to look things up online because the wonder and discovery is the point, but this could've used some work or an additional hint system for dumdums like me. Some of these challenges can also only be completed after unlocking levels and features and using them correctly, so it's especially frustrating to see the challenge pop up and attempt to do it several times only to discover that it's not possible until you hit level 3 and unlock the special glowy orb.
Overall though, this is Pokémon Snap but much larger and with a lot of great additions to the formula. If you enjoyed the gameplay of the original and want more, this will scratch that itch, but be prepared for some moments where you're confused on what to do next with little guidance.
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Image from Steam page
Kitsune Tails (Steam)
I 100%'d this!
This is an adorable, very well done game. It's very much a love letter to SMB3 with some smaller SMW elements thrown in, and they're not only aware of that they've fully embraced it. I'd recommend it for anyone that just loved those classic Mario platformers, as it'll check all those boxes you know and love.
Kitsune Tails also features its own support for importing custom levels or even minigames based off of Lua and its own internal assets, complete with documentation and examples inside the local files for the game. That's something you don't see a lot, and even though I never made anything for it it was fun to mess around with. I will say that they will do themselves some favors if they find a way to make that work with Steam Workshop just inherently so players don't have to hunt around for files or join a discord with no anonymous accessibility (like forums used to do), but I won't count that against them because I have no idea how complicated that is. Update after I wrote this, Steam Workshop is now supported! That's the third time time they've updated the game with design changes and fixes that I was counting against it, which is very rad.
My only real complaints with it come in some more specific issues. A few levels could use some work design-wise; a few vertical levels really enjoy having enemies off-screen jump down to the next available platform to the player which is never fun, and there are some jumps and challenges that just don't feel right. Some enemies have clearly been designed to exploit difficult jumps and player behaviors. Monkeys that throw down diagonally at unforgiving intervals, and then drop down at an unavoidable rate. Ninja raccoons throw 3 projectiles very quickly as opposed to the traditional single projectile from piranha plants, ghosts perpetually chase you rather than being more manageable about directions your facing. It can lead to a lot of frustrating, repetitive fails that don't feel as fair as they could be, but ultimately with enough practice and patience nothing is insurmountable. Midway through my last run to get the hardest achievement they updated some of the problem jumps to be a bit easier which is appreciated, but these enemy issues don't feel addressable in the same way.
The story is adorable and lovely and genuine. Don't let "SMB3 but with fox girl lesbians," while true, color your perception of how the game presents itself or should play. This is a labor of love from a group of speedrunners, Mario fans, and the community that has kept that alive and evergreen.
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Screenshot from my Switch
Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX (Switch)
I wanted to get a game I could chill with on the couch while listening to podcasts with a drink and my cat, so I picked this up again. I had played the original game on DS and remember liking it a lot, and I've played a number of Mystery Dungeon-esque games in various forms so I figured this would be a good fit. The amount of time between then and now of course (20ish years?) allowed me to forget most of the story beats and I'm not sure entirely of everything that changed, but I'll try and recollect as much as I can.
Visually the filter really works for it; the storybook aesthetic is a lot more interesting than just generic Pokémon cartoon looks, and they recreated everything in 3D very well. The inclusion of several Gen 4 Pokémon, something which at the time of the original release wasn't out yet, was fun to see again and made me nostalgic for when Gamefreak actually tried to do tie ins like that. In terms of changes, I wish they had kept in the Basic Attack that was in the base game, as without it PP management becomes a real chore. While it's cool to see some enemies Mega-evolve in the later dungeons as well, it's not really much of a feature because every Pokémon gets that stat bonus if the right conditions are met anyway.
So from my perspective, this is really just an HD port of the original game; if they added new Pokémon or dungeons to it then they're VERY late in the game and I never grinded enough to get to them. So now I have to jump back to my running bit with Switch remakes releasing at crazy prices. This is available for $59.99 digitally, full brand new Switch Game price, despite just being a rerelease of a GBA/DS game. That's criminal; something like this should release for $30 tops, and without any real new content to justify that price increase there's absolutely no reason it should be less. They really undercut my point here though because just after I picked this up, they released the GBA version of the game on NSO+, so like. Just play that. Or if you don't have NSO+, I'll fall back on my previous statement from last month that The value of these 20+ year old games is essentially free given that it's so easy to find them online, they've been iterated on so many times, and the original developers aren't getting a cent of that anyway. I'm not against remakes, but let's start being realistic about it: if pirating the original takes as much effort as buying it and gives you a near identical experience to the remake, then the remake wasn't needed.
Save your cash. If you want a great Pokémon Mystery Dungeon experience, Explorers of Sky for the DS is generally considered the best in series, and I'd like to see them actually make an effort to drastically improve on this side-series next time.
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Image from Steam page
Penny's Big Breakaway (Steam)
I 100%'d this as well!
I was super-excited for this when it was first announced. It was developed by Christian Whitehead and the team behind Sonic Mania, which is hands-down the best 2D Sonic game even still, and they proved that they could figure out and distill the formula down to one the best it could be. So seeing them do a 3D platformer that looked like it would build off of 2D Sonic momentum mentality in a way that 3D Sonic never did was exciting.
I may have over-hyped it. That's not to say this is a bad game; far from it! I had a lot of fun with it and enjoyed a lot of the challenges it brought. It's movement is well crafted and a lot of thought clearly went into the different ways a player could move around the world. But the game is less "3D, momentum-Based Sonic" and more "Mario Odyssey with a Yo-yo instead of a cap." There are a few ways to quickly build or gain speed, but overall most of your movement is going to be rolling on your yo-yo until you get to precision platforming, and then you need to take it slower to do your normal jump, swing jump, double jump, forward dive, etc. to get where you need to go.
The game has a combo system that reminds me a lot of Pizza Tower's combo system mixed with a skateboarding game's points. You do combos by doing tricks (any movement that isn't just walking and a normal jump), and the game feels like you can carry a combo through the entire level if you play your moves very precisely. In my experience however, that's pretty close to impossible and it's a little unclear what specifically breaks your combo. Often times I'm left trying to ride my yo-yo back and forth to figure out how to land on ground without actually landing on ground, and it didn't feel great in those moments. When everything worked out though it felt really fun, and I could see how a mastery of the mechanics could really make everything feel good.
Aesthetically the game looks great. Very heavily stylized in a way that reminds me of Sonic 3D blast and well-selected palette's and themes to bring it all together. Character design is a little wacky, but it fits within it and it's a very well executed look overall; something a lot of indies struggle with so it's great to see that they were able to carry over that skillset from how well they handled Sonic Mania.
So in short, if Mario Odyssey-style movement in Mario 3D land type linear levels appeals to you, then this is a good pick-up! It will however take a little while to get used to the movement in order to properly understand how the game wants you to traverse it.
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Image from Steam page
Haiku, the Robot (Steam)
I nearly 100%'d this game! There's an achievement for going through it without repairing yourself or getting chips that help with that (ie, only healing at checkpoints), and I ruined that pretty early. I might go back and do that someday though.
This game is the "prequel" to Rusty's Retirement, which I reviewed last post. It's more that Rusty's Retirement just uses the same characters and some of the aesthetics. But it caused me to be interested in it, and I had a good time with it! It's very much a Hollow-Knight inspired metroidvania, right down to the healing ability and "chips" working like badges. It doesn't hold your hand for exploring, but to the game's credit I never felt lost, which is a problem I had with Hollow Knight itself.
The aesthetic is post-apocalyptic, rusty metal underground entirely inhabited by robots under attack from a virus that causes them to attack each other. The color palette is very muted; You're going to see a lot of Oranges, greys, and browns to match the very rusty look. It works well for it and a few bosses make a point to throw in other accents, but I can see some people getting tired of it.
Gameplay wise it's pretty solid! Everything feels pretty good, some of the traversal abilities are fun to mess around with, there's a lot of build options without feeling like some are objectively better than the other. Honestly, it's just a really solid title. If you like Hollow Knight or tried it and were a bit put off by its difficulty, then this is a great pick-up or alternative.
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Image from Steam page
Psychonauts 2 (Steam)
I also 100%'d this
I really, really liked Psychonauts when I first played it on steam over a decade ago. It had a few issues, but overall was a really fun and quirky 3D platformer at a time when those had fallen a bit out of favor. The story and visuals were wacky, it was funny, and had a lot of unique challenges. I did not back any Psychonauts 2 funding attempts though due to the things going around about double fine and Tim Schafer's inability to handle scope, so I was never expecting this to come out. When it did I bought it and it's been in my backlog ever since.
I do really want to like this game; the platforming is fun, the progression and exploration are like how I remember. But this game really seems like it doesn't want you to play it. It took half of my time with the game to start to feel like there's more gameplay than cutscenes. Over and Over again it'll remind you how incredibly linear it is as you get to a new obstacle, area, or just story beat and then just say "hey you need to stop right there and listen to the story." It feels like it inherently clashes with the collectathon genre it's a part of; you want time with yourself and the world to go and explore and find things, but you're not sure if you've fully explored an area before you're thrown out of it entirely and usually irreversibly for a long time.
The story itself is interesting. It too a while to get into due to its first half doing some poor setup of the previous game(s) that made me uninvested in the nuance it was trying to get me into. I shouldn't feel like I need to have played Rhombus of Ruin, the VR exclusive game that occurred between 1 and 2, to have an understanding of a lot of these characters, but I feel like I missed out on a lot having not played it. Eventually though it starts building it's own story with those building blocks, and that's when it gets really good.
After I unlocked the real hub world and done about 3-4 sub worlds related to it, it started to feel like what I remember. It'll still do cutscenes to contextualize the strange, psychedelic worlds and challenges you see, but then it will for the most part let you play in them without throwing you into a cutscene and then out of the level entirely again. As I approached the end the cutscenes interruption got a little more bare able as the story's various threads tied together into something that didn't feel like padding, but the rocky start is a big ask and I can see players who haven't even touched either of the original games not being able to get key elements.
Combat is still a little wonky. I find myself mostly sticking to ranged attacks and gimmick abilities that you need to counter with rather than using the melee abilities that much. The PSI abilities themselves really could've used an update in terms of how they're accessed; You can map them to any one of the 4 shoulder buttons, but you'll always want levitation and your hand abilities available because they're just incredibly useful in and out of combat. That leaves you constantly opening a poorly handled radial menu to swap between you fire, ranged attack, and more situational abilities they like to swap between frequently. Given the either contextual nature of the gimmick abilities vs the universal ones, it feels like they didn't need a swap menu at all and could've incorporated the movement ones more easily into a context-specific button. I'm only ever going to need to jump between thought bubbles when there are thought bubbles around, use clairvoyance when creatures are nearby, slow time when a platform nearby is moving too fast etc., and that would free up the remaining buttons for your way more present actions of jumping/rolling, grabbing things, and combat abilities. It would lower the amount of unaccounted for freedom in handling combat and traversing levels, granted, but the game doesn't feel like it has enough depth and isn't open enough for that to feel like a bad trade-off.
If you liked the original Psychonauts and don't mind your gameplay being interrupted, having to to go back to worlds way later to 100% them, and are interested more in story, this is for you. If you want a seamless 3D platforming collectathon experience, I'd stay clear.
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Image from the Gamebanana page
Super Mario Eclipse (Super Mario Sunshine GC mod)
This one surprised me; I had heard of a number of great Sunshine hacks that expanded on the game a lot more, but this one combines elements of a lot of them into one to make basically the most definitive Super Mario Sunshine experience + features and worlds that really bring it together well.
For the basics, the game starts out introducing new movement options and changes from vanilla, which is great. The hover burst, basically a double jump that sacrifices the length of the hover for an added boost, and it makes the game play a lot better. The hover nozzle course shows off dive boosting so you can fly crazy distances, and the turbo nozzle no longer has a charge up and controls much easier. Yoshi has also been updated to hatch automatically without fruit, and in this state he can enter water without dying until he eats a fruit, in which case he changes back to normal behavior. It all adds to the controls Sunshine really struggles with, and while the base layer is still there they're vast improvements.
The game contains the entirety of the original Super Mario Sunshine, including the tedious blue coin hunt, but adds quite a few additional levels. The levels are now interconnected, with physical paths between them being separate mini-rooms that add a lot of character to the game and make the world feel cohesive. Delfino also has 4 new levels that tie directly into the game and link nicely as well, though you can clearly tell what is new content and what isn't just because of the way Level geometry works out. Still, it really brings the whole game together, and with additions such as not kicking you out when you get shines that don't require a reload and a pause-menu Shine/Blue coin counter you're not left struggling as much as the original Sunshine had you doing.
Once you beat Bowser, you unlock Daisy Cruiser and a bunch more levels that, while smaller than the Delfino levels, are still pretty fun in their own right. I would've liked it if they had kept with the tropical + interconnected themes with these levels personally, as I think the best one of these levels is Yoshi's Island which actually does, but still it's a great amount of new content. Daisy Cruiser and Peach Beach are brought in directly from double dash, so there's some scaling issues and problems with layout that could've used some work rather than a direct port, but again they're still pretty fun. There's 240 Shines in this game, with 420 Blue Coins, and even after that there's still a large chunk of game for the 100% completion bonus, so you'll be spending a LONG time with this if you really love sunshine.
If you've not revisited Sunshine in a long time or have the itch to pick it up again, this is definitely the best way to do it. Really rounds out what was otherwise a pretty incomplete feeling game into a cohesive world and fun experience.
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foxtricksterwriting · 2 years ago
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Mata Aetara MC; Hayanori Kajiyama
Author's Note: 4 of 4, will link the others Below. I can't get over how freaky this boy can be like SHIT what have I done? Be warned, they'll stare straight through you lmao
| 1; Mao Amachi | 2; Eiichi Itani | 3; Aina Kubota | 4; Here |
Credits: This is a MC for the interactive fiction game/book Mata Aetara, found @mata-aetara-if. Check it out if you like Naruto!
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Preferred Name: Hayanori Kajiyama ("Nice to meet you....")
Alias: Nori
Gender + Pronouns: demiboy + he/they
Sexuality: gay
Chakra Affinity: wind
Summoned Animal: A raven
Weapon: kunai
Romance: Inoru/Ryoku
More About Him: It’s hard for Hayanori to express his emotions. People question whether he feels at all. Their speaking voice is monotone, not giving away their thoughts or feelings much to their dismay. This leads to them outright stating how they feel, with sometimes comedic timing. He often misses social cues and generally has a hard time reading the room. If he says something wrong he’s quick to apologize, but might not get why whatever he said is wrong and would ask someone to properly explain it. They can be a bit too blunt, which can also upset people. Nori often does things to show people that they care for them and ended up becoming a medical ninja due to the reasoning “What better way to show people I care for them than physically taking care of them when they’re hurt?”
When not worrying over people’s wellbeing, he likes to play pranks on others and generally be a menace. Notable examples are moving objects people put down to inconvenient spots, chasing people around with bugs and making noises to purposely annoy people. This tendency to cause trouble for others and his blank expression makes people think he’s quite creepy. They don’t mean any real harm to others. He just thinks it's funny to mess with people.
Fun Facts:
Pinterest here
First name can mean “Fast love/affection” and surname can mean “Key mountain”
Has really big eyes, like arachnidray on tiktok (Videos for reference)
Speaking of eyes, can go an excruciatingly long time without blinking and likes scaring people he doesn’t like by staring into their soul.
Idk but I have this scene in my mind where Nori is eating something and it gets smacked out of their hand. They stare at it for an awkward amount of time before just saying “sadness” and walking away lmaoo
Nori is inspired by Souichi from Junji Ito’s works and Sai from Shippuden.
If someone wants to vent to them, they’ll ask “do you want advice? Or do you just want to get it off your chest?” so he don’t accidentally give unwanted advice.
Uses writing as an emotional outlet; because their writing is like a glimpse into their mind, he’s very protective of his notebook and only lets close friends read whatever’s inside. ("No, you may not look in my notebook. Do not ask again.")
Has very colorful clothes and a surprisingly big closet. Will let people borrow or even keep his clothes, provided that they fit.
Eats because they need to, not because he wants to. Also doesn’t have a favorite food. They do have a favorite drink, it’s watermelon juice. ("For me? Thank you. This makes me happy...")
On the topic of food, his taste buds are fucking broken. Most things either taste bad or have no taste at all to him. If you give him a lemon, they’ll eat it like an orange. Same with a lime.
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poof346 · 2 years ago
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The Super Mario Bros. Movie: A Rollercoaster Ride of Thrills (spoilers inbound)
So, last Sunday I finally got around to watching The Super Mario Bros. movie in theaters. I feel like I should preface my thoughts by giving a summary of my history with Mario as a series. When I was a kid, my family got a Wii around 2007, and I played a bunch of Mario Strikers and the Galaxy duology with my sibling. I got a DSi sometime afterwards and played a bunch of the first New Super Mario Bros., SM64DS, and Mario Party DS. From there, I eventually went on to play...pretty much every platformer this dude has starred in, alongside the mountain of spin-offs. Needless to say, I feel qualified to talk about how much I fucking loved this movie on nearly every front as a representation of the series.
Do I think it was great as a film? Ehhhh, not necessarily, the pacing was a little fast due to how Illumination writes their films and I think a longer runtime might've helped them flesh out certain interactions more. But I only really noticed these flaws when reflecting on what I saw at home. In the moment, I was overcome by a feeling of childlike joy and wonder at almost every scene, seeing every element I love about Mario on the big screen. The colorful world and art design, the beautiful and upbeat music, the kinetic and fluid platforming action...all of it. Pretty comparable to how I felt when I watched Sonic 2 in theaters, funny enough.
That said, I'm not really interested in comparing the two films against each other to see which is better. I got a similar level of enjoyment from both and can accept they're going for different approaches, while also wishing they would've made some improvements. This is solely about the Mario movie on its own, which I feel already gives me plenty to talk about. So, I wanna start with my negatives first so I can get to everything I loved in an uninterrupted burst.
As I alluded to before, my main issue was the pacing. Particularly, I think the speed at which scenes moved caused some character arcs to feel a little undercooked, like with Donkey Kong. The movie wanted a moment where Mario and DK realize they're not too different in chasing after approval from their fathers, but this exchange gets like, 30 seconds dedicated to it before they're back into action. I understand that as a kid's movie, it's probably preferred by the staff to have a high volume of fun stuff on screen to keep the kids entertained, but I always feel like Illumination struggles with a good balance.
While this is a much smaller issue in comparison, I also wish the soundtrack had remained entirely original without the licensed songs. Mario has a very particular kind of sound that these song choices didn't quite fit with, plus it meant that they took the place of original tracks written for the movie. There was also the case of songs lifted directly from the games, like the DK Rap and Fury Bowser's theme, where the original composers weren't credited for their work. Proper credit is generally a big issue with productions like these, so I wouldn't say it was surprising to see, I was just a little disappointed.
That's about my main issues out of the way, now for the fun part.
Most immediately striking, this is a gorgeous-looking movie, but that's something I had no doubts about going in. If nothing else, Illumination has proven to me they know how to make visually appealing films. However, I need to give special credit to the artists and animators for capturing the look and feel of Mario's world so perfectly in every detail. The blocks, the hills, the girders, the karts, everything is colorful and exactly how I wanted it to be. Plus, the scenes of action have great kinetic energy that matches the platforming you'd do in Mario games, they were all fun to watch.
The music is also a particular highlight for me. I feel like a lot of video game movie adaptations don't properly pay tribute to the soundtracks of what they're adapting, so hearing all these iconic Mario tracks seamlessly fitting into scenes is a treat. And of course, Bowser's piano ballad about Peach, absolute classic already. I would've been very upset if they didn't use the casting of Jack Black as Bowser for a musical number.
Since I mentioned casting, I'll also address the voice cast for the main characters. While I'm still not totally on-board with the practice of celebrities taking voice acting roles, they did pretty well! My personal highlights were Charlie Day as Luigi and Jack Black as Bowser, they really fit those roles. And yes, I did actually warm up to Chris Pratt as Mario. Honestly, the commercials must've had something out for him, the takes they selected didn't give a proper impression of his voice throughout the movie (and some weren't actually used, like the "Mushroom Kingdom, here we come" line).
In general, I would say the Mario movie was a great experience as a first watch! I compared it to a rollercoaster ride in the title for a reason: it was exciting and fun in the moment, but there's also not a lot to analyze in terms of story or anything like that. The mixed reception from critics does make sense to me after seeing it, since if you don't have the prior attachment to the Mario franchise, would probably feel like a lot of spectacle with little substance.
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