#and most of it is just kinda tedious? its not hard

[chipjrwibignaturals]

ive been not looking forward to going to work and ironically i think it’s because im NOT doing much work. bestie im fucking terminally bored. and when im not it’s just a little 🤏 bit excruciating

[xiao-come-home]

Thinking about post-story Jiaoqiu trying to find himself in the new situation.. and getting even more clingier 🤧

warning: spoilers for jaoqiu's story if you havent played the new quest. possible ooc jiaoqiu?

Word count: 1k+

a/n: its been a while from writing and even tho im not disabled in any way, i hope its alright bc im kinda nervous to post this. i just think hed be a lovely pain in the butt to get more love </3

The new reality has been a true challenge for Jiaoqiu - trying to navigate through the house was already a tedious task, let alone cooking, but he wasn't going to give up so easily. While yes, he did miss doing things by himself - which, once in a while brought dark clouds over his head - the foxian managed to find enjoyment through doing tasks together, with your help.

It's quite known that Jiaoqiu isn't afraid of craving affection from you anywhere and anytime - especially now, considering he's limited in what he's able to do safely without hurting himself. Now that you're welcome in the kitchen to assist him, the pink-haired foxian can't help, but pull you flush against him while you carefully guide his hands to cut vegetables in even slices.

The healer slowly trails the tip of his nose down your hair until he recognizes the familiar shape of your neck - Jiaoqiu nuzzles happily into you, ever so slightly tickling you and giving you goosebumps; he smiles against your skin when you let out a comically fake, tired sigh, only fueling him to continue pestering you further.

He purposely takes his chin off the top of your head and searches for your ears so he's able to whisper, but when you decide to playfully confront him, Jiaoqiu only plays dumb and tilts his head to the side, asking you a seemingly innocent question, "Hmm? What do you mean, love? I'm not doing anything, the kitchen is not a playground, remember?"

There's a chance you'd probably believe him if you two were mere coworkers - but his twitching ears always give away his attempts to lie to you.

Jiaoqiu is clingy. Absolutely no news to anybody. That's when you finally get done with cooking, it's time for the cunning foxian to get a break; he stretches his arms to you, waiting until you put his hands on your cheeks. He cups them gently, rubbing the soft flesh with his thumb, and softly moves it to find your lips - his mind paints a picture of your figure, the shape and every crease his fingers feel; he smiles at you yet again, with a glimmer of mischief.

He wants to kiss you.

He also knows he will most likely miss your lips more or less.

But instead of feeling hopeless, he uses it to his advantage.

Jiaoqiu begins to pepper your face in kisses until he feels you try to get away from him and hears your angelic giggles; he kisses your left eyebrow - oh no, that's definitely not the place he's aiming for! He moves more to the right and kisses the bridge of your nose - oh no, not yet! The softness of his lips meets the apple of your cheek - oh, that's closer, but still not the goal he has in his mind...

After a while of Jiaoqiu purposely changing directions (and probably missing some anyway, but it's not like he complains about it, since he can kiss you more this way), with a little help of yours, he places a kiss on the corner of your lips, barely giving you time to breathe and finally, finally reaching his awaited destination, pressing his lips on yours; he gives you a few quick kisses if he feels like he still misses the exact place to change the angle, melting into a puddle with butterflies in his stomach.

Is it hard sometimes? Yes. The heavy weight travels straight to his heart, leaving him clenching his fists; the foxian hates the helplessness that hurts twice as much, much worse than the wounds Hoolay has inflicted.

Nowadays, his ears pick up your step way better, even letting him guess correctly what jar of herbs you're opening from the mere sound. He uses his tail as some sort of object detector - but he only waves his fan innocently when it makes you yelp in surprise, as Jiaoqiu runs the tip down your spine all the way down.

"Ah, I wonder what that was?" Jiaoqiu wonders, the fluffy ears twitching and the pink tail swishing behind him, "Is something wrong, beloved? Did you mess up the measurements? No worries, we'll fix it right away."

Well, if you decide to leave the house for supplies, you now have to hold his hand all the time. Just to be sure, he also wraps his tail around you, so he knows you're by his side and he doesn't bump into anybody. Hey, he's just thinking about the civilians around him! As a doctor, there's nothing else that matters more than keeping them safe and healthy... Right?

Even though he's been braiding his hair for years and could probably do it by himself again - being only a tiny bit off on one side, he cuddles up to you in the morning and presses kisses onto your neck, silently asking you to help him once you get out of bed - you certainly can't miss his hair getting all up in your face... and therefore, what he's asking for.

Does he feel a liiiitle desperate? Mmm, a bit.

Does he feel like he's feeding the helplessness in the back of his mind? Sometimes.

But it's worth to look for happy moments regardless of the situation - and you being perfectly aware he's doing it solely to get even more of your attention - makes him feel a little better with it.

Though, he knows when to stop and give you space; he doesn't want to actually become your burden, even if he lost his sight, he's still trying his best to stay as independent as possible in terms of daily tasks as possible.

If you're tired, Jiaoqiu waits until you hand him the brush and he's the one combing your hair; if you're too sleepy in the morning, he's the one helping you put on your clothes with verbal help, even if it takes a bit more time than usual. Along with you, he organizes medicines so neatly, it takes a blink of an eye for him to bring a full tray of medicines when you happen to catch a cold.

Does he miss being able to see? More than he'd admit.

But the more he thinks, the pink-haired foxian always comes to the same conclusion - it'll probably be harder to unlearn the clinginess once his eyesight comes back...

But for now, maybe it's alright to indulge a little more?

[violight-ghost]

I had a dream about a videogame called "Lady in hell" or "Magdeline in hell" or something like that & on the surface level it was just one of those "getting over it" type games where its just super hard and frustrating and grindy to play but it was actually mechanically really easy just super like. Upsetting and tedious. It was marketed all silly but then when you play it its about this old woman who lived a good life and died a peaceful death waking up in hell & being told that she had sinned so she has to crawl her way out of hell if she wants to be resurrected & doesn't want to stay in hell forever. And like the first few minutes you're stuck with Magdeline (sticking with that) crying and begging for forgiveness before you're allowed to move & she slowly hobbles around bc shes a fucking old lady & she's in the same statethat she was when she passed & the first task is getting off of the pillar that you're on &its like. Most of the gameplay was just sorta feeling out what keys to press and when but it was so depressing watching her barely holding on as she tries to climb down & when she reaches the ground it's sulphur that burns her skin (idk if it actually does that but dreamlogic) but she's too weak and tired to go on her feet so she just has to crawl and drag herself across it & let most of her body get burned. The dream kinda cut away for a bit but when we came back she was just making her way out of a warzone-looking scene and into a reef with stinging coral and tight underwater caverns and she had to drown but not die repeatedly to get through long stretches underwater then resurface and have to cough it all out until she had to do it again. Last we saw of her she was climbing up a waterfall cave thingy trying not to slip.

[vasito-de-leche]

a little prompt, if you don’t mind

what about mercenary!reader and symbiote!Pavia? it’s just Pavia’s ult/wolves kinda remind me of Venom and i think it would be fun to imagine him being something like Venom

;R1999 PAVIA - "under your skin"

Symbiote!Pavia x Mercenary!Reader 2.5k words body horror What you and Pavia have is nothing more than transactional—you need him to make a living, and he needs you alive to ensure a comfortable life. It's taken some time to get used to these changes, to share everything you have with him for the sake of convenience: your home, your food, your job. And most importantly, your body. Perfect symbiosis, or dysfunctional parasitism? You've yet to figure out where you two stand. One thing is clear, though; he's the best at getting under your skin.

i just want you to know that this prompt speaks to MY SOUL bc i love venom and pavia so fucking much. you dont understand how hard i think about the concept of a symbiotic relationship between symbiote and host. so I went extremely self-indulgent with this one <3

as usual, this is written to be read as platonic or romantic, whatever floats your boat!

Bang!

A clean kill.

The only reason you watch as the body drops to the ground is out of respect for the work you do, nothing else. You've done this a dozen times, and you will do it a dozen more -- the gun in your hand has become a reliable friend rather than a tool for mindless murder, its familiar weight a fleeting comfort in the tedious routine. A shame it came from the most annoying person you know.

Screaming ensues as everyone surrounding your target runs around in panic. You remain, eyes locked on the target. When someone moves their body, attempting to cradle that lifeless corpse, you see it; a bullet right between their eyebrows, the perfect shot.

You feel a tug, but it comes from within your chest cavity. Something squirms inside you, pulling you back, and you understand this as your cue to slide back into the shadows. It begins with a single step backwards, then another, until you feel the texture under your shoes shift -- what was once solid ground is now a dark, velvety mass, floating upwards and fading away like smoke. It licks at your ankles, providing an initially cold sensation that permeates your clothes, and then it continues upwards to your calves, your knees, your thighs. The gun slowly dissolves into slime, taking the shape of what you assume to be a hand, horrible and sticky fingers intertwined with yours, pulling you downwards.

By then, you feel that burning sensation, and then you're dragged into the abyss.

"That was a lousy shot."

A voice echoes in your mind, it is not your own. It feels like a thousand ants marching alongside your cranium. Or rather, what you assume to be your cranium -- in this current state, you can't separate yourself from the embrace of the void. The voice might as well reverberate all around you.

You scoff and insist. No, it was a perfect shot.

"Perfect my ass. You were off by 2 centimeters," the biting remark makes you clench your jaw. You don't reply. The voice does the same, it remains still, only a semblance of white noise, but you understand its silence as a smug victory.

Suddenly, vertigo takes hold of you. It only happens for a split second, always unannounced, but you know better than to brace yourself. Doing so, as you've learned, would only make you nauseous, dizzy and weak -- instead, you let go and the shadows gently coax you back into the light before dissipating in the air.

You find yourself in front of your apartment door, an odd and anticlimactic way of ending a productive day. What, no snack run today?

"Not feeling it today. So you either open the door on your own, or I'll do it myself. Get a move on."

Some of these threats tend to hold more water than others, but more often than not, they're just empty words and loud, useless barking. And so you've learned to ignore them all -- however, you feel a faint prodding inside your back pocket, like a tentacle in search of something. Right, your keys. The roll of your eyes and the slowness in your movements are the only means of rebellion you have against this annoying entity in your head, it continues to breathe down your neck, impatient as ever, until the door opens and you step into your safe haven.

"Finally! Guess there's some activity in that brain dead head of yours."

You're forced to make a bee-line for the kitchen and the fridge, puppeteered by a force much more stronger, much more ancient than every insignificant emotion you've ever felt: the damn parasite inside of you is hungry.

As you both scan the leftovers -- your leech of a roommate seeing through your eyes, smelling through your nose -- the voice returns, this time in a more playful tone, less grating than before.

"Scusi, what's with the silent treatment today?" You bite the inside of your cheek and it laughs at you. "Don't tell me, wolf got your tongue? Are you mad that I saw right through your poor, shitty technique?"

A suffocating presence crawls inside you, starting from somewhere below your rib cage and making its way upwards through your esophagus and trachea, shifting until you feel the prodding of cold, slimy fingers in your mouth. They are tasteless and you can still breathe, your body not even bothering to perceive this as an obstruction or an intruding force that must be coughed and spat out. They are careless in their movements, pinching the tip of your tongue and pushing against your clenched teeth in an attempt to get you to open up.

And the worst part is that this is nothing but a mocking gesture, you've come to understand this over the years. To you, this is no different than someone poking at your sides, childishly asking for your attention. You obediently open, enough for a single digit to slip out, one you recognize as the middle finger. It presses down on your lower lip.

And then you bite down, hard.

It dissipates instantly, it is absorbed back into your body through every inch of skin it makes contact with. There is a new sound in the back of your mind, one you weren't quite expecting. Your parasite laughs, amused, no trace of that usual condescending tone.

"Good, you still know how to use that petty mouth of yours. I don't have to worry about teaching you how to chew down your food."

This makes you stand up straight, turning your head and glaring at an empty space, where you assume this presence would manifest if it chose to stop taking residence in your body, "I'm not eating while you're still in there. If you want dinner, then get out."

There is a beat, a momentary silence. You don't give the parasite any time to bargain, "I'm serious. Use your own damn mouth if you're so hungry. I already have to do everything on my own, I'm not going to start spoon feeding you, too!"

The reply comes out faster than you expected.

"Fine."

For a moment, your vision doubles and your body feels like it's being painlessly torn apart. For a moment, you have two sets of eyes, two sets of arms, two sets of legs and two minds. You are both yourself and him, simultaneously. It is like someone is cutting your soul in half, shoving each part into two different bodies.

It is over in the blink of an eye, and there is a presence looming behind you, made from the same material that took you here, the same material that often travels in your veins and every other crevice, nook and cranny available between your organs and bones. The lights of your apartment flicker, and you take notice of his shadow cast over you.

His predatory gaze burns holes in the back of your head, and in the stillness of it all, you hear his steps, the sound his leather pants and the shifting of his shirt fabric as he steps closer -- until you feel his chest against your back. An arm slides into view, closing the door to the fridge and resting there, preventing you from escaping. It is decorated with all the useless, silver jewelry he's taken from your targets, a hand covered with tattoos you've often traced with your very own fingers in the past.

Oddly enough, you do not feel like prey. Not anymore. Your instinct tells you that you should, but truth be told, you could not care less. Especially when you feel his chin dig into the top of your head, his weight pressing lazily on you.

"…But in exchange, I'm cooking tonight. You got 10 seconds to get outta here." He shifts, and his cheek nuzzles into you as he yawns, like he's ready to move on from this conversation.

"Huh?" You slide from under him, finally looking at the parasite concealing as a man -- one you recognize as the bane of your existence, Pavia. "Uh, like hell I'm trusting you with the food! I've seen the stuff you put on your pizza."

"Like you're one to talk! You add too much salt to everything you make. If you wanted to ruin your liver, you should've just let me eat it from day one. 5 seconds left before I throw you out. C'mon."

"Do you even know how to cook? Any actual recipes that don't require winging everything?"

"Does pasta with a side of 'mind your fucking business or I'll make us eat rat poison' sound good to you?"

"I swear if you put anything funny in the food--…"

"Time's up. Out!" Pavia picks you up, manhandles you even, and tosses you out into the living room. As soon as you land on the couch, the door to the kitchen closes and you're left all alone.

It's easy to forget that you have no fucking clue as to who or what Pavia even is.

No last name, no records, no personal information at all. You've touched him before—he looks and feels just like any other person. If you didn't know any better, you could've sworn he bleeds the same way you do. But there are times when that outer layer of normalcy is peeled back just enough to remind you what you're dealing with. Sometimes, the outline of his form darkens, as if the light around him couldn't affect him in any way, and his eyes go dark, so very dark.

You've seen him in this form, unhinging his jaw to uncomfortable degrees and revealing endless sets of saw-like fangs and teeth. His nails have grown longer, thicker and sharper than expected in many occasions. You would find those on the ground, like a wild dog who has never known, let alone needed, a trimmer.

And most importantly, you've allowed him entry to every pore of your body, every piece of cartilage, every muscle, every vein.

That's when you get a small glimpse into the eldritch monstrosity living under your roof—sometimes, he's a thick fog. Sometimes, he's an oozing pile of slime. Sometimes, he's the big, bad wolf. Sometimes, you can't even understand what you're looking at when he manifests in front of you. Regardless, you're certain of something.

Pavia is darkness, eternal and haunting as the night.

He is also a huge, ungrateful, bastard.

"Hey! Where'd you leave the gelato!? This freezer's a damn mess!" His voice is heard, muffled. It doesn't carry the same cadence and weight as it does when you hear it from within your mind. He sounds more annoying, in fact.

It's a strange experience, to have him coexist right beside you as if he weren't some sort of parasite, one hair away from eating your organs. But at least like this, he cannot read your mind nor attempt to puppet your body like a moron in broad daylight. You don't answer, fully aware that he's only trying to piss you off and lure you into another argument -- as if he'd ever lose sight of his precious dessert, anyway. Instead, you busy yourself with the usual routine; finishing what is left of your work, contact your employers and whatnot.

Soon enough, the kitchen door opens and Pavia slides into the room with a single plate of warm food. You look at him, eyes wide in indignation. Oh, he wouldn't …

"Huh? What, I thought you didn't trust me to cook, so I just made something for myself. There's some leftovers from your poor excuse of a lasagna, though." The smarmy expression plastered all over his face as he licks the sauce off his spoon is unbearable, and you rush to the kitchen either to find the biggest knife to drive into his chest or to resign yourself and eat those leftovers.

And then you see it, another plate resting by the counter. Full of delicious looking pasta.

Son of a bitch.

"Bring me some of that orange juice you bought yesterday while you're in there, yeah?" Pavia never gives you time to settle down, demanding your attention and your frustration time and time again, unable to form a single coherent thought nor opinion about him.

He's annoying, that's all you've been able to figure out so far.

He's annoying, and he's made a mess out of your kitchen to cook this meal for both of you. He's annoying, and stingy when it comes to sharing his favorite snacks and desserts, but he never attempts to steal your own. He's annoying, and he offers you a power beyond your wildest dreams, to get rid of inhibition and embrace the abilities of an eldritch beast. He's annoying, and he hogs all the fucking blankets at night, planting his cold feet against your legs or back to add insult to injury.

He's annoying, and he's calling out to you once more, telling you to hurry or else you'll miss "that one stupid show" you like, that he'll switch channels if you don't sit down with him to eat. You sigh. The nerve, the hypocrisy. You know the things he likes to watch -- he has no right to criticize your taste like this.

"I'm coming, calm down! Christ …"

You notice that he never lingers nor invades any of your usual places, always picking the same spots for himself, and this is ironic in every way possible given his fickle nature. There's no doubt that as soon as you two retire for the night, Pavia will make a show out of sliding back into your body, to rest with the warmth of your blood and the soothing rhythm of your heart. And you will tell him to fuck off and sleep on the couch, reminding him of that one time he got a little too comfortable, clutching your heart in his claws, causing you to believe you were having a heart attack. Then, morning will arrive, and you will find Pavia either sprawled out or gone, but never truly leaving you alone. You will feel him, that inky slime, both cold and warm in your veins. You will go to work, and you will return home to start all over again. This is the routine, one you stopped questioning a long time ago.

This parasite who gets under your skin, both figuratively and literally, is annoying. He's annoying when he teases you, forcing you to admit that he can cook a mean pasta. He's annoying when he laughs, loud and boisterous, at those stupid moments he often criticizes in all of your favorite shows. He's annoying when he gets clingy, using you as a pillow because he can't be bothered to reach out for one of the many other pillows scattered around.

He's so very annoying when he looks at you with a curious gleam in his eyes, obviously noticing the way you've chosen to rest your head in the crook of his neck. Time stands still as you simply look at each other, as you lose yourself in those bright, sharp eyes.

You stick out your tongue at him, and Pavia blows a raspberry at you. Sure, he might be plenty annoying on his own, but together you're both insufferable and unstoppable.

[milktei]

When you write angst/fluff one shots, I love how you indulge more with your character's feelings and not just straight up jumping to the good part where everything's alright. Specifically during "Again" and "Fine". Would you mind writing the same stuff but with a bit of hostile management of actions whilst in a disagreement with the reader? Will writing for Kuroo or Ushijima okay? ( I think you've taken a liking to Sakusa so I'm not sure if you want the first two captains.) Anyhow, I'm frankly talking about a bit of viol3nce. In this view, how would they speak up their mind and resolve the matter maturely?

Of course when you're available, thank you for your time:3

Love Sealed in Gold

Ushijima Wakatoshi x gn!Reader

Genre: Angst, tiny bit of hurt/comfort

Warnings: Violence (not towards reader), Possible oocness again. Not edited :P

The pace that i managed to get this out is surprising even to me :o But i had an idea the moment i read the ask!! Isn’t that crazy???

the fact that it’s obvious that sakusa is my fav is kinda embarrassing ngl HAHA BUT i just enjoy writing for haikyuu so don’t worry about requesting people i haven’t written on!

hope you enjoyed this anon! i couldn’t in good conscious add anymore “violence” than i did. what i wrote is really tiptoeing the line for me.

That being said anyone who reads this please don’t take this as me saying to forgive everyone who acts like Ushijima does in this, of course every situation is different but i don’t want it to seem like this is acceptable behaviour and something a person should have to deal with and accept. Violence is a scary and serious thing especially in a relationship so stay safe!

Anyways the idea of using Kintsugi as a metaphor in writing isn’t exactly new but i hope you guys enjoy my take on it and how i wrote it :)

The Japanese art of Kintsugi is a method of fixing broken pottery that has been popularized all over the world, romanticized even. Something about using the precious material that gold is (among other materials), to put something back together seems to tear into the hearts of people all over the world. So much so that companies even sell their own Kintsugi kits where you can break the provided pottery and put it back together yourself.

How ironic, to buy something only to break it and go through the tedious task of connecting all the broken pieces back together again.

Many hold the belief that kintsugi hold its own deeper meanings. Some say it shows that something breaking and being repaired shouldn’t be covered up, but instead embraced, as it is a part of that objects history.

A more pessimistic view on the subject could be the fact that no matter how beautiful the broken pottery looks, it will never be the same again.

As you stand looking at your boyfriend with only horror filling your body, you could only think about the same could be said for your relationship.

You knew from the get go that getting into a relationship with the Ushijima Wakatoshi was going to be a tough mountain to climb. Anyone from family, friends, colleagues, and even complete strangers had warned you of that fact.

From his personality, to his schedule and the demands that came with being a professional athlete; it seemed that everything was put against the two of you.

But he was the one to ask you out, to court you, the one who crossed the line from friends to potential lovers. That was something that no one could deny being surprised about.

Yes your boyfriend was intimidating, seemingly expressionless and emotionally constipated. But you loved him, and he loved you.

You could work around schedules, you understood why he works as hard as he does, and learning who he really was something that came with time.

As your relationship progressed you could really begin to see what kind of person he was, and how the most subtle changes in his demeanour could signal a change in mood.

But this behaviour was not subtle, it was pronounced, loud, it filled the entire room and made it difficult to breathe properly.

You could barely remember what you two were arguing about this time. Perhaps how you acted during a charity event? How he was running late to a date and didn’t text or call to let you know? it seemed to be a trend for you two in the last couple of weeks. Pick at every little thing one found less than pleasing and then getting mad when the other tried to defend themselves.

This cycle had been going on for far too long and both of you were tired of it, but at the same time too stubborn, too proud to admit defeat.

It was late, far too late for the both of you to be awake, it was far from an appropriate time for you two to be arguing at the volume you were, but whatever exhaustion either of you felt was smothered by a whirlwind of emotions and stubbornness.

Ushijima wiped a hand down his face in frustration from where he sat at the dinner table. Across the room you paced, ranting about your point in the argument that had only been going in circles at this point.

“I-it’s like you can’t even bring yourself to care anymore!” you exclaimed frantically.

A piercing glare was sent your way and it took everything in you to not shrink away from it.

He stood up, with his size, the action in itself felt extremely intimidating, but you felt the way he talked down on you much more severely.

To further articulate his words, a palm would slam down on the surface of the table, so hard that you could feel the vibration in the floor. Each slam was louder and each time you flinched.

His words grew harsher, louder, and more pointed with each sentence. The look of pure, searing anger and hatred on his face kept you frozen in your place.

The man in front of you was unrecognizable, the man in front of you was not the gentle giant you loved. If anything, he was exactly like how many people would describe him upon meeting him. If not worse.

His words, which had now become shouts swirled in your mind, your eyes began to sting as tears began to well in your eyes. All you could think about was how you wanted this to stop, how if only your body would listen to you and move so that you could begin to ask for forgiveness. How you would give anything right in that moment for him to stop yelling and to stop looking at you like you were dirt on his shoe.

Your prayers were soon answered by the sound of shattering ceramic.

The gasp you let out was visceral, uncontrollable, you couldn’t hold it back if you tried.

The fire in his eyes seemed to die out all at once, his gaze moved to his outstretched arm and he look at it as if it had a mind of its own.

His arms were his prized possession even if he never said it out loud, some would go as far to say that they were something to be celebrated. His arms that can hit a volleyball with the utmost precision, arms that brought him to victory and through loss. Strong arms that held you at night and provided you with a great amount of comfort some could only dream of.

Arms that now only served to fill your body with dread.

A vase, along with all its contents was shattered on the hardwood floor.

It had chipped the paint on the wall beside him where the impact initially happened, water that splattered the surface had begun dripping to the ground.

You both recognized the vase, how could you not?You had gone out together to buy it when he had brought you flowers for the first time and you had realized you had nothing to put them in. After moving in together, you used it as a center piece for your dining table.

How sad that an item so fragile and small could hold so much meaning, and that it now lay broken, it was almost as if it were mocking you.

The room was silent as the both of you stared at the scene before you. Minds reeling as you both tried to process the events that had just unfolded.

Ushijima had thrown the vase at the wall in a fit of anger.

“y/n-“

“Don’t”

You looked up at him and wondered if the conflicted emotions that flickered across his face mirrored your own.

You looked away and took a shaky breath. “An apology won’t fix it. You can’t throw and break something, especially not that, and just expect me to be able to hear and accept an apology, not now, not for this.”

His mouth snapped shut and the tension that filled the room was suffocating. Every time you glanced at the broken ceramic the urge to cry grew and grew.

You wrapped your arms around yourself and took a step back, “I’m…” You swallowed roughly as your voice cracked, “I’m going to the bedroom, you need to clean that up and it’s obvious that we need time to cool down.”

With one last glance at the scene, you turned on your heel and made your way towards your shared room, not seeing the look of anguish that Ushijima held on his face as the watched you leave his sight.

You softly closed the door behind you and as it clicked shut, the realization of what had just transpired fell upon you like waves during a storm.

Despite popular belief, Ushijima had never been an intentionally violent man. The only harm he had caused was on the court, where it wasn’t uncommon for athletes to get injured no matter how good or bad they played.

But tonight, he had no reason to do what he did, there was no excuse even if it was the nth argument of the week. The Ushijima you knew was emotionally intelligent enough to know that he did not have to go through the actions of picking up the vase and throwing it at the wall in order to let his anger be known. He did not need to do that to show you how angry you made him.

His anger had been shown all throughout the night. It was practically palpable.

Your legs shook underneath you as you tried to make it to your bed but your efforts were in vain, you crumpled to the cold hard floor, feeling like you were in pieces, much like the ceramic on the floor of your dining room.

You desperately tried to hold yourself together as you replayed the what had just unfolded again and again in your mind. Not understanding why you felt so conflicted.

Fear. You realized.

Fear is what you felt, refused to believe. How could you fear the one you loved?

And yet every part of your body rejected the idea of your boyfriend and urged you to be afraid of him. Afraid of the only man who could make you as happy as he did.

The man who was supposed to make you feel loved, protected, and safe was the same man that made you feel the complete opposite.

Your chest ached and you breathing quickened, now fully aware of the situation you found yourself in. You were afraid of your boyfriend and didn’t know what that meant for the future of you relationship.

He was- is all you ever want, you couldn’t imagine spending your life with anyone but him, but how were you supposed to move on from this? You now knew how he could react in times of great anger, what if it only got worse from here?

It was then that you finally allowed yourself to cry. After all that had happened you didn’t know where your relationship stood.

It was only after a couple minutes that the door to the bedroom began to open ever so slightly, at a pace so slow you couldn’t even see or hear it through your sobs.

“y/n?” His voice managed to spit out. He was quiet, uncertain, he feared for what your reaction may be at him being there at that moment.

You didn’t respond to him but he knew that you knew he was there, even as sobs racked your body and you pressed a hand to your mouth in a feeble attempt to quiet them.

Slowly, as if not to startle a deer in the forest, Ushijima sank to the floor from where he stood. Keeping an eye on you as he sat down, angling himself so that he was looking at the far wall and you wouldn’t be forced to make eye contact if you could find it in yourself yourself to look up at him.

This was far from ideal to him. He wanted nothing more than to scoop you into his arms and bring you to bed, quiet your cries as he held you tight and told you that it would pass and by the morning it would be a thing of the past.

But he knew better. He knew that he was the reason for your tears and the last thing that you needed was for him to wrap his arms around you.

He was aware of your fear before you were. The horrified look you gave him would be something that would stay engrained in his mind for years to come.

He was only used to you looking at him with love and happiness in your eyes and he had managed to ruin that in one night.

“I know that you don’t want an apology right now.” Ushijima started, he looked down at his hands and clenched them together to prevent them from trembling. “But I just wanted to let you know that… I am fully aware of how unacceptable my actions were tonight, that was no way to take out my anger and I should know better than to display my anger in the way that I did.”

Your cries had stopped at this point but you still trembled, still it brought him the smallest amount of comfort knowing that you were likely listening to him now.

“You deserve better than my misplaced anger, and you have every right to be angry with me, to not want to even be in this room, in this house with me right now. If you wanted to leave-“

His breath hitched and he found himself looking down at the hands in his lap with disgust and sadness.

“If you wanted to leave right now I would understand, but that doesn’t mean I’m giving up on us, I’ll do whatever it takes to earn your trust again.”

Your head lifted ever so slightly and it gave him the confidence to keep going,

“I’ll get help, I’ll find other ways to channel my emotions. Along with that I’ll ask you for your feedback on how you think I’m doing, if what I’m doing makes me worthy of being with someone like you. It won’t start more fights I promise.”

He smiled at himself sadly “You seem to know me better than I know myself at times and that’s one of the reasons I fell in love you. I don’t think I could forgive myself for losing you if I didn’t put as much effort into trying as I could.”

The room was filled with silence once again as Ushijima finished talking. He sighed to himself. He hated this, he hated what he had done to you two, he hated that he was the reason for your tears and he hated that he was feeling completely helpless at the moment, and that you were well within your right to end everything, and there would be nothing he could do.

Your hand grazes his shoulder and he has to do a double take to ensure that you were there. Right at his side like you always had been for the years you had been dating.

Your smiled was coupled with sadness and exhaustion, and he couldn’t hold back the sound of surprise that left him as you wrapped your arms around him and let yourself press your weight into him.

He let out a shaky breath he didn’t know he was holding and allowed his arms to finally reach for you, the next thing you knew, you were being pulled into his lap and he held your head close to his chest, you could hear his heart pounding and could feel his entire body tremble. He kissed the top of your head and let his head rest on top of yours. When he realized how instinctively he was acting, he froze.

“I’m sorry I didn’t mean to act so suddenly I-“

You shushed the man and ran your stroked his arm soothingly in an attempt to calm him.

“I understand.”

Quiet filled the bedroom and for the first time in a long time, it didn’t feel oppressive, or hot with anger. It felt comfortable as it always should have.

Ushijima was the first to break the silence. “We’ll be okay y/n, right?”

The question was almost childish, naive, and ignorant of how many more questions would be raised answering it.

But it was purely Ushijima. Something that only Ushijima would ask in a time like this, he knew about the complexities, knew it would be hard to answer, but he asks anyways.

You ponder for a moment, knowing that no matter how you answered, there was still always the chance that everything could still turn out very differently that whatever you two could imagine.

“We’ll have to work towards it Toshi, and it might be a slow process, but from the bottom of my heart. I believe in us.”

Strong arms hug you tighter, filling you with that familiar warmth

“Thank you.”

Kintsugi is the art of repairing what was once broken by adding something precious to the mix. When used as a philosophy it encourages the acceptance of fragility, coming back from hardship stronger than before, and being proud of something imperfect.

Something that is repaired using this method will never look the same, but that doesn’t take away from the fact that it still holds a unique beauty to it and will continue to function, as long as it is done properly and handled with care.

[incorrectelswordquotes]

Do you remember when the job progression quests had dialogue cutscenes and difficult quests? Each town had its own gear and you'd have to drop blue-background items to upgrade it. And it was character-specific too. Ice statues had to be crafted, and the ingredients would just pile up in your inventory. There was Unique equipment for every region you had a chance to drop after a boss battle, and it'd be shown in the chat. Plant Overlord's accessory was the top trending thing. Rena was blonde and did a flip when she double jumped. The first field introduced was the one between Hamel and Velder. The level cap was 40 and it was *hard* to get there.

I sure don't miss a lot of this stuff, but looking back, it feels like a wholly different game.

i played around when the game was still like this for the most part, except the level cap at the time was 70? and then over time it jumped to 90 but my middle-school/high-school ass couldn't keep up. actually, i remember seeing the new UI the game has for the health bars and that was already enough to throw me off. not that it looks bad, but i remember seeing this UI for the longest time:

vs this:

like as much as i miss the one i got acquainted with, this new one is a lot simpler and cleaner? yet it retains that cartoony vibe with the slanted bars so thats neat. and then there's THIS:

i'll admit i havent played during this era but man this looks busy af. it was simple yea, but something feels off about it. like i love the look here too but it kinda clashes colors-wise. there's not too much of a difference between the original UI and the one after it but i could tell it needed slimming down.

while i was gone i also learned that the previous privately-hosted server VoidEls was shut down but was eventually replaced by another, which is fair enough i guess.

"Each town had its own gear and you'd have to drop blue-background items to upgrade it. And it was character-specific too."

this was both cool and annoying, for me personally at least. it's cool in that every town having gear gave you a way to progress before getting even stronger gear. sort of like a jumping-off point for every town you got to as they handed you their own version of stuff you could use. and you could emulate their aesthetic by wearing their gear. the annoying part is that constantly switching gear means item management is necessary to prevent your inventory from maxing out, and not every item looked good on you. if you didn't have skins? tough luck. (my memory might be wrong here so please correct me if i messed something up)

"...job progression quests had dialogue cutscenes and difficult quests?"

THEY GOT RID OF THOSE!? maybe im jaded but as a writer, i liked seeing the player-characters' personal struggle as they progressed through a job-specific mission. those short cutscenes let us see what they're really like. even if some of the requirements really were trash. i still remember spamming the same dungeon over and over hoping for a quest drop (or multiple) so i can move on. but after hearing the story was consolidated to be one singular, linear path regardless of who you played, maybe they streamlined the job class progression system too?

update: yea it seems you still have to spam dungeons to upgrade to Master Class but it looks less tedious than before for previous class ranks.

"Plant Overlord's accessory was the top trending thing."

boss accessories were the bane of my existence so this makes sense. it seems like it's unobtainable, as many overworld zones and dungeons have since been removed based on what i just looked up

im assuming Plant Overlord isn't fightable anymore or only shows up in some elite zone now so rip

"Rena was blonde and did a flip when she double jumped."

i didn't know this. in fact when i checked her wiki page, the change was because her hair wasn't green enough despite her class art showing her as having green-hued hair.

speaking of the wiki,

holy fucking shit thats a lot of classes

[scottathann]

The YouTubers don't want you know that MM&B is actually one of the best classic series games and is the better of the 2 snes games between it and 7. It's not really that hard of a hard game either. People who act like it's one of the most unforgiving games in the franchise are just bad at Mega Man games.

Each character has their pros and cons (although Bass is definitely easy mode overall), and you can buy upgrades over time to decrease the difficulty. Even a game over doesn't mean all is lost since you can spend the bolts you got in the level you died in to get upgrades. Playing as Mega Man makes bosses easier to defeat because his shots do more damage and the slide is a great and quick way to dodge attacks, but levels are more difficult because he can't double jump or skip entire sections with giant leaps. Bass can, which is why levels are piss easy when you play as him, but bosses are initially tough because his buster does shit damage until you get an upgrade for it. Bass also has Treble boost which lets him fly over entire screens. And people say this game is brutal?

The level design is actually pretty good I think, more fun than half the games in the classic series and far more stimulating than most X series levels. Bosses actually force you to use your brain, even when you have their weaknesses (excluding a few). For the longest time I thought Astro Man was unreasonable for a starter boss but now that I don't totally suck at Mega Man games it was actually possible for me to beat him buster-only within a few tries, and it was satisfying to learn how.

There's no e-tanks, but you do have:

-An ability to increase how much you gain from health and ammo pickups

-An ability to receive less damage

-An ability to increase damage output when you're low on health (very good against bosses)

-Rush search which digs up ammo and health

Which is quite frankly way more forgiving than Mega Man 1, while still not giving you the ability to bypass challenge with a stock of health refills. I think this is great.

The biggest problem with the game is that the King Mechs are very tedious, and sometimes enemy placement is cheap (which is not unique to this game at all lol).

The soundtrack is one of my favorite game osts, the graphics are in mm8's arstyle which is great cause I love how 8 looks, the special weapons are all pretty useful and fun to mess around with, and the robot master designs are totally sick.

I don't give a fuck about the gba version btw as there's literally no reason to play that version. If you use that port as a complaint against this game then you're stupid.

Anyway nobody gives a shit probably but I feel like this game has always been kinda overhated, and its difficulty is way overblown. I would choose this game over 1-3, 5-8, 10, all of the gameboy titles including V, X3, and X5-8. I haven't beaten 11 yet and I don't think it's fair to compare the ZX or Legends games here.

[kaasiand]

I played through Color Splash for the first time this past week, the last paper mario I hadn't played yet (I had watched a full playthrough back when it came out but hadn't played it for myself so I thought now might be a good time right before TTYD remake comes out) and felt constantly frustrated and left thinking to myself "wtf Sticker Star did this better" over and over. Like there were some good moments in there but a lot of the time it felt like the game wasn't taking itself seriously and trying TOO hard to be funny, to the point where it felt like it was making its own world less believable. Most of all though.. it only really made me want to revisit Sticker Star again. So... I'm doing that right now and man I'm actually having such a great time?

Sticker Star is MADE to be replayed and fucked around with. It rewards exploration AND experimentation, and it actually somehow manages to make the most of its lack of a proper exp system thanks to its nonlinearity. In the final level of World 1, I grabbed the stuff I needed to access the rest of worlds 2 and 3 without actually fighting the boss (I just backtracked my way out of the level lol) and just continued in W2 and W3. I have now finished like, only half of those two worlds but have defeated the big cheep cheep anyway and moved on to world 5. It's really cool how the game LETS you do this without having you be underlevelled, since you're always as strong as the stickers you hold. And you DO permanently become stronger, but it's through exploration rather than battling/grinding, using those max HP hearts found in the overworld!! I found one of them in W5 today in a secluded spot I had never even found before, which kinda made my jaw drop lmfao. And I suppose the album pages make you stronger through letting you hold more powerful and bigger stickers too

^ really funny stuff from the battles that I missed in Color Splash. Also in Color Splash's battles, the card list & steps to colour them in made everything so goddamn tedious; it was impossible to see a lot of your cards at once. Even the perfect action commands I'd often avoid because of the dramatic slow-mo effect (which got REALLY annoying real fast) which Sticker Star thankfully didn't have

Also in Sticker Star you get to upgrade your stickers which is fun!!!!!! Color Splash feels like a Sticker Star sequel that keeps all the wrong things and changes exactly the things that acted as like, Sticker Star's problems cancelling each other out. And don't get me started on Color Splash's one billion loading screens and extremely tedious gameovers compared to what's always basically instant in Sticker Star

I think the three things that would best improve Sticker Star are

Allow Fling-a-Thing from anywhere in the world, possibly as an upgrade of sorts (Things shouldn't turn into stickers immediately when you grab them like in Color Splash though! Otherwise it turns a currently infinite stash into a finite one)

The enemy summons from Color Splash!! This was the one thing I think was a straight improvement to Sticker Star's systems. But put Sticker Star's spin on it where they work together with the sticker upgrading system, with shiny enemy stickers and such. And add action commands on them, like how Sticker Star had those on the shell/shuriken/boomerang/etc attacks

Change Scuttlebugs to be based on their original Super Mario 64 design. I don't mind the other changed enemy designs in this game as much, I only really hate the modern Scuttlebug design

[kiminachi]

Lewandowski smut??🙈

Lewandowski x Reader SMUT

Warming Sensation

A/N: Im sorry that this took a while to publish, but Happy New Years! I hope you enjoy <3

Continue With Caution 🫣

Includes: Slight swearing, sex, slight foreplay, honestly it’s kinda vanilla

The warm shower dampened your body with richness as you lathered yourself with soap. There was music that hummed through your ears, making the steamy moment just right. You were excited for your lover to come home from a long interview. You missed him dearly, wishing to collide your body with his. It has been a while since the last time you guys made love.

Robert was a man of elegance, but a fun, elegant man. After sometime, you shut off the water, feeling well-cleansed enough. The healthy minerals have been absorbed by your body, leaving you soft for tonight.

Stepping out the shower, you grab the most luxurious towel and dried your body off. You then take off your shower cap. You did not have the time to dry your hair, but you also washed it yesterday. It still had its pleasing smell from the shampoo. You wrapped the towel around your body, exiting the bathroom and into you and Robert’s bedroom.

“There you are, (Y/N).”

Startled, you turned to look at Robert, who was sitting on the bed. He was dressed in his white collared shirt that hugged his firm abs, with a black tie that hung from the collar, along with his dress pants that fit snug on his legs. “Robert? I didn’t hear you come in,” you walked in your closet to go find clothes, “how was the interview, dear?” you questioned.

“It was tedious, but I couldn’t stop thinking about you,” He confessed, then getting up to walk towards you, “you don’t have to get changed (Y/N).” You stopped reaching for your clothes and faced Robert confused to what he was saying, but turned on at the same time. You were about to speak until Robert put you in his arms, and carried you to the shared bed and laid you down. “Let us have some fun butterfly, it’s been a while” he deeply said into your ear. His polish accent made you turned on even more as you rubbed your legs together, agreeing to his words.

Robert then softly grabbed the towel that was wrapped around you and unwrapped it slowly to reveal your tender body, one step at a time. He loved your luscious body, and handled it with grace. He looked you up and down and smirked, “you’re so beautiful” after saying that, he takes ahold of your lips and kissed you lovingly. The back-and-forth lip locking was up to perfection. The two of you were flawlessly rhythmic, despite the long break of sex. You mindlessly grabbed onto his tie, pulling him down to further deepen the kiss. Robert sneakily took one of his fingers and entered it in your vagina. He curled it in ways that sent blood rushing throughout your entire body, but then eventually he let go. You were a little upset to the sudden stopping, but you let him do whatever he desired.

Robert tried to steady his breath as he let his tie loose and unbuttoned his shirt, he let it fall off of him revealing his prominent abs. You leveled your hand to his collar bone, and ran your hand down till you reached his v-line. “Take my pants off, don’t be shy” he caressed your cheek and bent down his head to kiss your neck. You hurried to unbuckle his belt, unbutton and unzip his pants; you pulled his pants down as he kicked it off. You could see his hard cock shining through his boxers. As if it was a gracious snack, you helped yourself by rubbing your hand against his bulge. Robert groaned and bit your neck, making you moan, “R-Robert”. He loved hearing you moan, especially his name. He then positioned his clothed cock and grinded on your wet area. You quivered in pleasure, moving your hips to fit his motion. The warmth that you felt from his made it feel even better. You could stay like this, however you wanted more.

“Robert.. I want- no need you inside of me, you turned me on well enough, please, I don’t want to wait anymore.” You said with a heavy breath. He let go from your neck with a bruise left on it. He kissed your forehead,

“Don’t cum too quick when I enter you.” He could tell that you were in a very horny state. Robert stopped grinding and you shifted your hands to pull down his boxers. His stiff cock appeared out his boxers; you missed seeing his great length with a girth that satisfied you pleasurably. It was also slightly curved which enhanced the pleasure. Robert grinned, feeling confident and rested his tip with pre-cum onto your clit. “Condom or no condom?” He questioned,

“It doesn’t matter, I have Plan B in the cabinet.” You replied. Robert was happy to hear this as he could fully feel the pleasure from your insides. He took the opportunity and slid his cock down to your entrance. You wrapped your legs around his body and he slowly entered his hardened cock, making you adjust to his size again. You clinged onto his back, gently digging your nails into him and squirming in delight as he now fully entered your pussy. “F-fuck, Robert, oh my goodness, start fucking me, please.. please” he complied and slowly began to thrust inside you. Each thrust was divine and sent jolts of electricity through your body. He picked up the pace and you tensed up with sensational pleasure. His curved cock smooched your cervix making you scream in glee.

“You feel so good (Y/N), you make me feel so fucking good” groaned Robert. Your moaning and his soft groans mixed in the air. Your head was thrown back into the pillow and Robert began to suck on your tit, while fondling the other. The stimulation made you dizzy, but it felt amazing. You could feel him thrust faster as the bed was now squeaking. You rolled your eyes back, almost having your limit be reached.

“Robert, I’m going to cum,” it was hard to talk being bewitched, “c-cum inside me”.

He was now ramming into your pussy and his groans got louder. You guys were on the same brainwave,

“I’m cumming, fuck! (Y/N)!” He yelled out your name, pushing 3 last thrusts and cumming into your vagina. You climaxed with him and felt his warm cum deep into your body. You twitched with each breath, relaxing your muscles. Robert couldn’t support himself and rolled off of you, “Hah, (Y/N), you’re magnificent” he turned to look at you, running his fingers through your hair, “I love you my dear” he expressed.

“I love you too,“ you tried to get up, but you were too sore, “uhmm, could you get the pill please Robert?”

“Sure thing my love.”

[wandringaesthetic]

13, 20, 21 for choose violence game

oooh, I should have maybe asked to specify fandom I don't know what fandoms I share with you offhand I'm just going to do what I feel strongest about

13) worst blorboficiation:

Because it's really the only such case I have any kind of problem with: Emet-Selch. Like, I get it to an extent. Best Final Fantasy villain and it ain't close, and that's coming from someone who has a lot of leftover teenage psychosexual feelings about Sephiroth.

Um, what was I saying?

I hate this man. I have even less sympathy for him than the game wants me to have, I think. FANTASTIC character, I want to kick him down a flight of stairs. And I think that's a pretty normal way to feel until I happen upon some art or fic from someone who hardcore ships him with their WoL (or honestly with anyone I do not want to think about this man fucking) and they are just picking up frequencies I cannot receive and don't want to. No moral judgement because I live in a glass house, but I shudder.

20) part of canon you found tedious or boring

I find this one difficult because honestly nothing sends me out the door faster than "boring." I'm having trouble coming up with non gameplay examples, and even there, level grinding is kinda soothing in the right mindset. thhhhbbth FFX sphere puzzles and those were okay the first time they're just a roadblock to slow me down on all replays.

OH oh oh real answer: Homestuck first Intermission. The ONLY part of it that entertains me is Spades Slick murdering clocks. I've tried to reread homestuck like 3 times and every time I hit this like a brick wall.

21) part of canon you think is overhyped

Berserk Conviction arc: idk that it's all that overhyped but it's fairly popular with the fandom. It's probably the segment with the best art but it's also the segment where I question the narrative choices the most. The Farnese stuff is good and Lost Children is good and the rest is either third hand Satanic Panic stuff or so miserable I have a hard time taking it seriously and I just kind of wish someone who had more of a relationship, positive or negative, with Christianity was writing this? Really where Berserk comes closest to its reputation of being mindless grimdark. I find its shortcomings kind of comforting, though? As in, Miura had shortcomings and was still one of the best to ever do it.

evil answer: FMA 2003. It's not hyped in the sense that most people do agree that the manga and/or Brotherhood is better, but imo overhyped because I just do not think it is good at all.

alternate evil answer: The Empire Strikes Back. I mean it's good but nothing is that good, folks. It's the meat in the Star Wars sandwich but without that which comes before or after, does it matter? No.

[fever-project]

Twilight for my Pokémon AU! Been seeing other people make Pokémon AUs, which is great because I love them. Twilight here has been posing for the camera for 30 minutes :) I’ve haven’t been able to draw Twi’s wolf form yet, but it’s a shiny Dusk form Lycanroc, hence the blue coat. People wanted Epona to be a Mudsdale, so I made her one but adjusted the colors and hair to match her normal horse self. She also gets a Luxury Ball, as well as the Cosmog, and those are the only two Pokémon he keeps in balls. The rest are just on his farm. Anyways, Lore (and the reason why a Cosmog is here) under the cut.

Okay so mostly everything from Twilight Princess’s story is the same. I intend to keep everyone’s story mostly the same, with changes here and there to account for the Pokémon. For here, the Twilight Realm can be accessed via Ultra Space, with the Mirror of Twilight being part of Necrozma’s body or something. Maybe it replaces or is just similar to Ultra Megalopolis. They both have blue skinned people. The Twilight invasion had a lot of Ultra Beasts scurrying about. Midna got turned into an Ultra Beast instead of an imp by the Fused Shadow, and Twilight got cursed into a shiny Dusk Lycanroc.

Cue Mystery Dungeon-type vibes. Kinda, lol. Also, Rockruffs and Lycanrocs are not at all native or even around in Hyrule at this point, and with all the Ultra Beasts, it’s very reasonable that most people are scared of Wolfie.

After Minda shattered the Mirror of Twilight, Twilight was devastated, it was hard for him to move on and return back to his former life. Some days after, he found an odd little Pokémon being attacked by other Pokémon. He saved the odd fellow of course, the shiny (I like shines okay) Cosmog that I drew up there. Their name is Nova. Twilight had an odd feeling that Nova could be the ticket to seeing Minda again, no matter how slim the odds would be. However they are already past level 20 and still hasn’t evolved or has been able to do anything but Teleport, Splash, and Supersonic(it’s an anime only move). Rare candy are hard to find and very expensive, so it’s been a very tedious process. Once Twilight meets the other Links, however, Legend was able to reveal some-key word here, some-truths about the Cosmog. It needs to get to level 43 to evolve into its next form. Twilight wanted to cry right there and then before getting into a trade agreement with Leg, in which Leg would give him Rare Candies in exchange for bottle caps. Now Twi diligently searches for bottles caps for him. Also, Legend here got the nickname “Legend” here for a reason. I can’t wait to draw him. Maybe I should write something? Idk, I’ll try to get Twi’s wolf form done soon.

[fulgursmediaanalysisdrama]

Hot take, but after replaying it again I think Majoras Mask kinda sucks

The three day time limit feature does not aid it very well, the game is too large making the time insufficient, but the time is also too much and too long for you to wait out the times where you can do nothing not even explore.

The bombers handbook is kinda helpful, but the timeframes given in it are unhelpful without clear objectives. And all objectives are purposely unclear. I know I can always run back to the Sheikah stone, but I wanna be able to play the game not have another Rotomdex. At least the handbook notes when something is finished, but mostly I wanna reset my days quick which just seems like a waste of time. Generally I don't appreciate having quests split into three parts separated by nothing but waiting, unless you know what else to do. I'm sure if you know everything that's to do and how the game is quite satisfying to optimize, but figuring it out is awful for me. I never finished it as a kid after getting stuck with the Gorons

The map is horrible to navigate, large and mostly useless. You can't even find hints for when exactly to come back later to get into inaccessible areas.

The Witch in the woods requires a healing item, but there's no way to gain any heals.

All the minigames are frustrating to outright unfair, even beyond the waiting to do all three instances of them element, like at least don't make me do them on the same cycle if you can give me the handbook without catching the bombers a second time already. The bombchu one sucks and is unskillful as the bombchus can just veer off and move randomly, the fishing one is useless, the deku one with the moving platforms is hard to practice burns through your money fast as the 3D isn't great so it's easy to miss platforms as you don't cast a shadow on the stones. And it's not just time intensive through retries or like all the other games because it suffers from not giving more money than you earn so you have to keep farming but your rupee bag is also small so you can't carry many tries and- but also because its gameplay is waiting. Waiting is never good gameplay, it makes tedious tasks full of trial and error feel even slower than they already are, and once again this one is already hard to practice. Falling down would mean the end even without the time restriction, it does not make much sense to pretend like it's carnival game where you have a loss condition. The loss condition is not getting the time, you need to play again.

And the one with the "maze" of walls that move up and down. Terribly disorienting, you end up boxed in by three walls all the time and if you ever need to backtrack it means you've lost, the timers to short and there's no strategy to employ. (Yes hugging the wall and always turning the same way, like any other maze, but that's too slow you can't finish this way)

Another thing is I have notes about when to speak to Anju, but I can't. She doesn't react.

I have info about that madams missing son, I don't have info for her because apparently the only info will be having found him? I have been given a deadline but I can't interact with him in that deadline despite having talked to any npc I can find with the mask on. Including the shopowner of the place where he's hiding.

I can't reach any spirit, I can't reach any dungeon, nothing. Idk maybe I can use the bombs in the ice area? But that one had the strongest enemies, it should be last, haven't yet tried this though.

I've been playing for 6-7 hours, I should be much further, like fr it sucks. There's no wonder, no fun, it's just bad. Nothing I have "figured out" so far has felt smart, it's definitely not challenging and it doesn't feel rewarding. The most fun I had so far was getting the heartcointainers from trade quests and such, because they didn't waste time beyond the actions I had to take and aren't limited to very specific time frames or other anti-gameplay-limitations

I'll come back if I find a dungeon and they're better. Or worse, then I'll come back too.

I don't think playing the ds version matters, I can only think of upsides the different hardware would have. And I will not purchase a GameCube just to reexperience this game

[parab0mb]

So, now that I finished the game (again) and the DLC chapters, I'm going to ramble about Crosscode C:

This game is really bizarre in the sense that, to be completely 100% honest, there isn't any particular part of the game that I think is all that mind-blowing. But all the individual elements (heh) of the game come together so well that the resulting product ends up being so much stronger and memorable than the sum of its parts.

Like, most indie games have one or several notable flaws or shortcomings (and understandably so) but this game is such an airtight experience that I can't help thinking about it and just being like "the how HECK is this game so GOOD?!"

...I am of course just getting started, I've got a wall of text of things I liked and thought were just "meh" under the 'keep reading' if you're interested (you've been warned (also spoilers obviously)):

The combat is definitely one of the strongest elements of the game and probably one of my personal favorites; its brutally difficult and sometimes feels like bullshit (and maybe there is one or two instances where it actually is just bullshit) but once you get the hang of it is really is flashy and satisfying and makes you feel badass to pull off. Plus its got the whole easy to learn, hard to master thing going on (like most of it is just charging SP and pressing the space bar, but knowing what moves to use and when def play into things).

I dunno how much of a hot take this is, but I really liked the puzzles in this game! I won't deny that they can sometimes drag on and interrupt the pacing of a temple, but personally I didn't mind. And just like the combat they're so well constructed that, while you'll spend minutes staring blankly reminded that you're a simple-minded creature and that the human mind wasn't made for this and you should be foraging for mushrooms in the woods and risking death over your next meal, they rarely feel impossible to solve without having to resort to a playthrough and are really satisfying to finally figure out (not to brag but there was exactly one puzzle in the game where I had to look up the solution and another where I did solve it on my own but then looked it up cause I thought I cheesed it by mistake). At first I wasn't a huge fan of how fast/precise you have to be for some puzzles on top of just finding out the solution in the first place, but after a while you kinda get used to it (and there is an option to slow things down which is really nice of the devs to include).

The story is... pretty alright. Yeah. I honestly don't have much to say about it. Bit of a slow pace, does the job, and has it's share of twists and emotional moments, but the narrative itself doesn't really do anything mind-blowing either so... you know. I definitely think it's the characters themselves that are memorable and prop up an otherwise average story. I mean every single one of them is just the hugest goober and even characters who initially seem forgettable or one-dimensional end up subverting your expectations and being super endearing/compelling/layered. Oh yeah, and Lea is a character that can only say like 10 words and SHE DESERVES THE WORLD I WOULD KILL FOR H-

Also, since the DLC is brand new to me I do wanna say that the ending was the tiniest bit underwhelming. Like you break into Vermillion Wasteland, fight a (surprisingly easy) boss, and that's... just it. Like 20 minutes top. I dunno, it feels like... something was missing. Still thoroughly enjoyed the entire thing and it is nice for the cast to get their happy ending (not quite as emotionally impactful as the base game's end imo, but still great and I'm glad they gave us more time with these dorks).

The platforming and navigating the overworld is tedious, which sucks a bit since that makes up a good chunk of the game. Idk man, having to scale different elevations of platforms is made frustrating by the fixed camera and the fact that the different "levels" of platforms aren't distinct from each other at all, so its easy to get duped by the perspective and jump to something you can't actually reach (yes you can use projectiles to check but it still isn't fun). Even without everything blending into each other visually, trying to find which obscure paths from four rooms ago will bring you to a chest just isn't all that enjoyable (some of the later maps like Sapphire Ridge were okay though, if only cause they started to have actually interesting puzzles to do). Basically they're just... there, between the actually fun stuff.

The trading system and farming for resources is confusing and kind of a chore. That's all I got.

Guess I'll touch on the art/music since I don't have too much to say about them. To be perfectly honest I'm not actually super crazy about the artstyle (blasphemy!), but I won't deny that the sprite-work and overall aesthetic are still super-well done, even if they aren't my personal taste (tl;dr I'm neutral on it). The soundtrack isn't something I'd put on my phone and listen to in the car, but like the art it's still well-made and perfectly suits the mood of/drives the emotional impact of the game, and there are still a handful of standout bangers (Lea's theme will live rent-free in my brain of course).

One last thing I'll say (that I mentioned before) is that as fun as this game is, it feels like a commitment to get through at times. Even when I first played it and had more free time, sometimes this game just felt "imposing" to pick back up after a break. Idk its hard to describe, but at least for me it was hard to play any other games alongside this (especially with my limited free time) which kinda sucked a bit.

To wrap things up, if I had to give the game an arbitrary number rating, I have to give Crosscode a 0/10 because its an indie game that doesn't have a fishing game (smh honestly how could they make such an obvious mistake 😔).

[ironicsoap]

I wanna be able to make custom avatars for Vrchat of some of my more uncommon species characters but tutorials for how to use blender absolutely kill me (I do better learning if it's written down with some pictures, or entirely hands on with someone guiding me in person) how did you learn to make your own models? Do you have any recommendations for instructions or any YouTube videos that might be easier to grasp and follow along to? I really love your work and I'm actually saving up for one of your bases for my kitties <3 my only experience with avatars right now is texturing, and even that is subpar unfortunately.

Written down resources for beginners on how to use blender are scarce, because it's such a big program with so many things, and you really need visuals to know where things are when you're learning (Very possible with written guides, but very tedious to put in Enough pictures to show everything) Every time I've used a written Blender guide, it was for some really high level niche thing I needed haha I learned how to make my own models by figuring out projects I wanted to do, then googling/youtubing every step/aspect on how to do them, and repeating! After the first low poly model I made though I just kinda went straight into attempting to make pixar models and they took me FOREVER and looked horrible but I had so much fun in the process of doing and learning I kept throwing myself at these huge projects and got better over time. Then I discovered toony models, and then vrchat, and I was like wow this is way easier and extra fun *permanently changes the course of my career and artistic style*

What I recommend to everyone who asks me how to learn, is pick a project you want to do (start small! very important so you don't lose motivation) and google/youtube how to do it I haven't kept up to date on newer beginner tutorials, there might be something better that's more recent than these! But I think they teach you applicable knowledge to making character models (vs the donut..lol) Froggy | Bunny | My 3D tutorial playlist | Great overview of the pipeline

Motivation is the most important factor on if someone learns 3D. Attempting smaller stuff before moving onto slightly bigger things, then slightly bigger, etc, means you don't spend a billion hours on 1 REALLY hard project only for it to suck and demotivate you so much that you don't wanna do 3D anymore. (Or have blender turn into an obsession like me and do that and not get demotivated, judge for yourself :P)

If a tutorial feels like its taking WAY too long to get to the point, it probably is, don't feel bad about needing to put it on 2X speed or looking for a different tutorial. (Donut tutorial sucksssss) Blender is probably the most heavily documented and tutorial'd 3D program out there so you're in luck x) most of the other ones you have to pay money to properly learn them

[thefactsofthematter]

this delancey brothers thing is so interesting to me because like,,, we get very little about their whole family life and backstory and the fandom has yet to come up with anything incredibly solid,,, anyways just thinking thoughts and i want to hear what you have to say

right?? i feel like for a while the fandom kinda shunned them bc of their role as villains… but a bad guy can be a compelling character too!!

i already gave a rundown of my backstory for them in the last ask i answered, so here’s my completely baseless thoughts regarding their personalities and relationship w each other!! @jack-kellys here’s the rest of my delancey nonsense 😙

- oscar is a deeply angry person. he doesn’t know how to feel anything else, when the world has been so cruel to him. he’s been trying to parent his little brother for years, in the shittiest of situations: from an abusive home, to jail, to their tiny bedroom at the newspaper office. wiesel is harsh with them, their job consists of long days of tedious work, and he often feels he has nothing to look forward to. he takes it out on everybody except morris, because he’s learned over the years that everyone is out to get him, so he may as well hurt them first. (hostile attribution bias anyone?? shoutout to all my fellow bitches who studied developmental psych 🤘)

- morris, on the other hand, strikes me as a little less angry and a little more scared. an odd hc of mine for him is that he’s on the fetal alcohol spectrum - he deals with numerous learning disabilities and developmental delays because of it, and it’s made all the trauma he’s experienced very hard to process. he finds his and oscar’s job frustratingly difficult: counting papes and keeping the numbers straight is hard for him, he hates how loud the newsies are (and how loud uncle wiesel is when he’s yelling), and he can’t focus for very long without getting the urge to jump and run and move around, which he knows he’s not allowed to do. he also knows he doesn’t speak very clearly— unless he’s very intentional with every syllable, which almost sounds worse because it’s so awkward, or using phrases he’s already practiced— so he’s given up on talking to anyone other than his big brother, for the most part. he lets oscar do most of the talking and is happy to back him up with his fists.

- oscar doesn’t really understand morris’s disability, but he tries not to think too hard about it. he doesn’t know why his brother needs help with certain things that seem easy— like knowing which shoe goes on which foot, or spelling the letters of his own name— but he’ll help him nonetheless, because that’s just what he needs to do. he thinks he might need to take care of morris forever, because it often seems like there’s some things the kid will just never get the hang of, but oscar doesn’t mind that, because at least it gives him some purpose. if he has to sit there every night and remind morris of the steps to getting cleaned up before bed (wash your face and hands, run a comb through your hair, fold up your clothes…) then at least he’s doing something helpful each day, and that makes him feel alright.

- a random anecdote that sorta sums them up (under the cut bc this is long already):

for morris’s 13th birthday, oscar steals a little stuffed dog from a shop, which morris names puppy and instantly clings to with all his might. at the time, oscar knows morris is too old for toys, but the way the kid lights up when the silly thing is handed to him makes everything worth it. he simply decides to accept that all the bullshit they’ve been through has made it hard for morris to grow up at the same rate as other people, so if babying him a little makes him this happy, that must be fine, right?

several years later, the first thing that ever compels oscar to lay a hand on wiesel is finding puppy in the trash on the front step on his way home from running errands, with its ears ripped off— he’s instantly sure that wiesel found it and took it from morris while he was gone. he charges inside and punches wiesel square across the jaw; he then spends the rest of the night barricaded in their bedroom, trying to messily sew puppy back together and simultaneously calm down his inconsolable little brother.

“you’re too big to cry, mo. you know that. you gotta cut it out before uncle hears you, alright?”

“but he took it. he took puppy away and wrecked it and said i can’t have it no more,” morris wails. “it ain’t fair, osc.”

“i know. i got it back and i’m trying to fix it, okay? i’ll get puppy good as new for you, i swear. you just gotta stop— you’re a big fella and you’re crying over a toy. you can’t be doing that.”

morris sniffles, obviously holding back a sob.

“you busted his head. why’d you do that?”

oscar shrugs. he finally manages to tie off a decent knot on one of the ears, which almost looks right again, despite his terrible stitches.

“i was mad. don’t no one mess with my brother without going through me, right?”

morris manages a smile, despite the way he’s still intently watching his beloved puppy be put back together, with tears in his eyes.

“right. and i’ll soak anyone who talks bad at you, i swear.”

wiesel beats oscar black and blue with his cane the next day, but oscar would take it a million times over for morris’s sake. when the newsies start wisecracking about oscar’s fresh cuts and bruises at distribution, morris starts beating on whichever of those loudmouths he can get his hands on until the whole lot of them have nothing more to laugh at.

the delancey brothers have each other’s backs at all fucking costs.

[dumbfinntales]

I recently completed a game that caught me completely by surprise. My Friendly Neighborhood. On the surface you might look at it and go “ugh another yucky mascot horror indie slop?” and trust me, when I initially saw the game I thought the same thing. I’ve fundamentally grown to dislike mascot horror, or kid friendly horror. So few games actually get it right, and most are really dumb. I’m not gonna name any so I don’t upset people, but imagine if you take Bob the builder. Okay, now he’s Frank the breaker and oh he has sharp teeth and red eyes. That’s how these types of games seem like to me.

So I kind of dismissed MFN when I first saw it. But lo and behold, a few days after the games release I saw a tweet on twitter of someone calling it a “survival horror” game and I couldn’t believe my eyes. I looked into it and by god, it really is one, and inspired by classic Resident Evil titles too. A fucking RE clone with muppets? I gave the game a chance and it blew me away. MFN is a genuinely fun and competent survival horror game with great atmosphere, fun combat and intriguing puzzles to solve.

The best part to me is that the game isn’t trying too hard to be scary. Sure it’s called survival “horror”, but it feels kinda light hearted and does parody of popular horror tropes like a bathtub with a body in it that you have to drain for an item. The puppets themselves are really charming and I enjoyed their demented rambles. My favorite line went something like “My friend recently really upset me. So you know what I did? I SHOVED them into the ground and STOMPED their face!” and they say all this in a very muppety voice which is hilarious. The point is that they’re not giving the puppets sharp teeth and demented lines like “I’ll eat your flesh” in order to be “scary”. The devs knew it would be impossible to make the muppets scary, so they leaned more on a parody.

Being inspired by classic RE games the game has a lot of familiar DNA like obscure puzzles, doors that require specific keys, backtracking, inventory management and even limited saves. Although on survival difficulty there was more than plenty of resources and save points so I never felt like I was running out of saves, or ammo or even health. The level design was also great and the world looped on itself in interesting ways and backtracking wasn’t as tedious and there was always some surprises waiting for you.

The game also seems plenty replayable and you can unlock different cheats by finding collectibles around the world. It isn’t overly long, which to me is a plus especially in a game that’s meant to be replayable, so I’ll definitely play through the game again on harder difficulties and maybe chase after some achievements.

But do I have anything negative to say? Well mainly nitpicks. The game could have benefited from more basic enemy types than just the puppets that chase after you and the small hand puppets. There’s also level specific “hazard” puppets, if you can call them that, but I dunno. It would have felt a little more interesting with some variation in what enemies you normally encounter. There’s also only two proper bosses in the game and the first one is way too easy as it goes down with just two grenades. I genuinely thought it had a second phase or I’d encounter it again, but nope. The last boss was alright, although really easy to avoid. At least it took a fight.

So yeah. How’s that for an indie surprise? There’s a lesson to be learned, never judge a book by its cover. But can you blame me for doubting? There’s way too many kiddie horror games trying to have deep lore and be all spooky and failing horribly. But MFN is a genuine gem, if you enjoy classic survival horror games do give it a try!