#and my game ALWAYS took 3 seconds to load

[cinamun]

MY GAME SHOULDN’T TAKE LONGER TO LOAD JUST BECAUSE I MOVED EVERYTHING TO A BIGGER DRIVE!

[that-sarcastic-writer]

A Love Game

DI!Single!Dad!Leon S. Kennedy X F!Teacher!Reader

Summary: You hear a glimpse of Leon's relationship with his daughter. And later he makes you a proposal you just can't refuse

Warnings: mild sexual content, still minors dni, brief phone sex, allusions to sex, Leon has a mouth on his as always, bit of soft!dom leon, mostly Leon being a soft dad on this one, foul language (as always), no use of y/n

WC: 3k

A/N: so I'm totally in love with this dynamic! And yalls support was insane. I literally wrote two separate drafts of a continuation of these two and whichever I finished first was gonna be posted, so the light smut one won bc I'm tired atm and didn't feel like sitting in front of my computer for 6 hours🙃 so this short part will have a second part to it with full spicy time. And another standalone part with these two (coffee and other things) having some more spicy time is also in the works, so stay tuned. Besitos <3

Universe Masterlist

Leon blinked slowly, his eyes now starting to grow sore from staring at the bright computer screen for so long. But he just hadn't had time to finish this stupid report. Sure, he has had two whole days to get it done, but with a tiny human clinging to his arm every waking minute, it was a bit more complicated than he thought. But he couldn't possibly ignore his little girl when he barely had the time to be with her without having to worry about stopping some mad scientist with too much time in their hands. He didn't mind though. His little girl was more important than anything else. 

Still, he took advantage of the little window of time he had now. He had given Isabella dinner a little over an hour ago. Then left her in the dining room to finish her homework. She had always been a smart girl, responsible with her homework, she never fussed when he asked her to do it, so it didn't worry him in the slightest to leave her to do her own thing. She tended to get distracted when he was around anyway. 

Though, maybe an hour had gone by when he heard tiny feet pad bare through the wood floors and he saw a mess of chocolate brown strands sticking from its bun peek above his computer screen. He slowly lowered the screen until it was almost shut and he was met with a pair of sapphire eyes that were a replica of his own. He raised an eyebrow at her. 

"Daddy." She took a step closer to him, her eyes big like she wanted to ask him something. 

Leon sat up fully, setting his laptop aside and nodded at her, giving her his full attention now. "What's up bee?" 

"Can I.. uhm.. I can play with your switch now?" She asked, dark lashes batting as she fiddled with her hands. As if she had to give him puppy dog eyes for him to say yes. He kept his face serious though. 

"You wanna play on my switch?" She nodded. He ran his fingers over his light stubble as if he was thinking real hard, he pursed his lips in thought. "I dunno hun, did you finish your homework?" 

"How did you know I had homework?" She asked with an adorable frown on her face, it took Leon all of his willpower not to break then. 

"Well I do now." He slipped a smile and she pouted. He couldn't help but chuckle at his little girl. He took her in his arms and sat her on his lap. "Well I knew before. Wanna know how?" 

Her head perked up. "How?" 

Leon leaned into her ear with a smile, "'Cause dads know everything about their little girls." He pressed a kiss to the side of her hair and set her back on her feet. "But yeah, Miss Pretty Teacher told me." 

"That's cheating!" She whipped her head around with a gasp and glared at him. He again couldn't hide his laugh. 

"Yeah alright, you caught me," he raised his hands up at her in surrender. "You can play on the switch for a bit. Do you remember how to turn it on?" 

Izzy proudly nodded and skipped over to the large TV hooked up to the living room. The TV had been on, nothing playing, but just on, since Leon had intended to play some white noise in the background but never actually loaded up anything. He switched to the right input as he watched Izzy turn on the Switch. It took her a second to remember how, but she was happily skipping back to the couch with the controllers as the loading screen came up before Leon could get up to help. He shook his head to himself, but he puffed out a breath when Izzy jumped on his lap, rather hard, the little girl giggling when he groaned. 

"Jesus Christ, when did you get so big?" He chuckled, fixing her on his lap so she wouldn't fall and watched as she scrolled through the games until she found Mario Kart. 

"I turned seven in October, remember?" She piped up, genuinely reminding him of such an important date, as if he would ever forget. He nodded. 

"I know, Izzy. I took you to Dave and Busters with Amara, remember?" 

"Oh. Yeah, you're right. That was fun. We should go again sometime! Please daddy?" She turned her head to look at him with this smile on her face and her big blue eyes. 

God, what did he ever do to deserve this kid? 

He pressed his lips to her forehead and nodded. 

"'Course. I'll talk to Amara's mom, okay?" 

He watched as Izzy excitedly nodded and cheered happily before she got lost in the game in front of her. He didn't mind her having screen time. It wasn't like she had an iPad glued to her face twenty-four-seven. He let her play once or twice a week, and maybe a third if he was feeling like playing with her. And she was more than happy to spend that time with her dad. 

Tonight he wasn't really feeling playing, so he watched her do her best. To her, she was the biggest winner there ever was, throwing turtle shells and bombs at practically nothing and hitting the wall with every curve, but she had fun with it, so he let her be, cheering her on whenever she finished a race, even if it was in ninth or eighth place. 

Maybe thirty minutes had passed when he felt his phone buzz beside him. He took his eyes away from the colorful screen to look at his phone. It lit up with a text, and his smile grew wide at the name. 

My pretty teacher. 

He grabbed his phone and quickly opened the conversation. You had been texting back and forth all day, for days now, after what he considered a perfect first date, but he just hadn't gotten around to match your schedule to plan another date. So you had resorted to texting and maybe calling once here and there. But God, he was really missing you right about now.

My pretty teacher: sorry, I went to dinner with my mom and sister. And I just got home. Hru? 

He bit his lip as he attempted to type into his phone one handed. 

Me: It's fine. I'm ok. With izzy. 

My pretty teacher: awww🥰 

Me: Can you call? I'm texting with one hand at the moment. 

You saw the message, and he could see the three text bubbles appear and disappear. Until they didn't come back. He mentally grimaced at himself, maybe the idea of talking to him while Isabella was there made you uncomfortable? Shit. He hadn't thought about that. Christ, he hadn't dated in so long he had forgotten that being a single dad wasn't exactly the biggest turn on. No matter how much one liked kids. 

His anxiety riddled brain stopped racing when he saw your contact name pop up on his screen as his phone started ringing. He grinned to himself. He glanced at Izzy— her full attention was still on her game, he shrugged and answered the call. He set his phone down, still having one ear bud in from when he was working on his laptop. 

"Hey Miss." He spoke first, his heart racing in his chest a bit. 

"Hi Leon." He could hear the smile in your voice. That shy smile he thought was the prettiest thing. 

"You busy?" He asked, still a bit worried he was interrupting you in the middle of something. Though the indistinct sound of TV playing in the background let him know that maybe you weren't that busy. 

"Not really. I got home a little bit ago so I was just about to run myself a bath." You answered, walking back and forth between your bedroom and the bathroom connected to it. "You?"

Leon tried his hardest not to think about your words too much. Not right now. 

"Nah. Just watching Izzy play on my switch. She's kicking ass in Mario Kart." He heard you blurt out a giggle, which made him chuckle, but what made him actually laugh was Izzy shooting him a frown over her shoulder. 

"Daddy, that's a no-no word." 

Leon snapped his head down at Izzy and he frowned, not sure if he heard her correctly, "What's that bee?" 

"I said that's a bad word."

"What is?" 

"Ass." 

Leon almost snorted at the way she said the word. With a frown and her lips pursed. He didn't care if she said bad words or not. He sure as hell said them all the time, but he encouraged her not to repeat what he said, in front of other people, at least. He narrowed his eyes at her. 

"So don't say it. I'm an adult. I can say them." When she kept looking at him, he placed a hand on top of her head and —gently— turned her head back towards the TV screen, despite her protest. "Keep playing your game, Isabella. Or you can't sit on my lap anymore." 

All Leon could hear was you attempting to muffle your laughter, but he could hear your giggles loud and clear. He only rolled his eyes, but he had a tiny smile of his own. 

"C'mon don't laugh, being a parent is hard. Are you the one teaching her this no-no bull— B.S?" He caught himself, closing his eyes when you laughed even more, now not even bothering to hide it. 

"I have to! I have a swear jar, I'm sorry. I gotta set an example." 

He actually laughed at this, remembering the mouth you had on you when he had you on his bed. 

"Yeah, well, you weren't so pure and innocent when you were screaming—" He caught himself again, his own eyes widening when he remembered Isabella was right there and he sighed out softly. "Give me an hour and I'll give you the answer you deserve, Miss." 

You stayed quiet for a second, not because he offended you, but because you needed a second to breathe and control the heat that flashed between your legs at his insinuation. You exhaled deeply before responding. 

"You're what again? Playing Switch with Izzy? 

Leon hummed in response. "She is. She's sitting on my lap so I'm being forced to watch." 

"I'm not forcing you!"

"On your game, Isabella. Stop listening to my conversation." 

"Does she have her own Switch or something?" You asked, now sitting on the edge of your bathtub as hot water poured from the faucet. 

"No. It's my Switch. But I leave it in the living room so she can play sometimes." He answered you with a shrug you obviously couldn't see. 

You chuckled softly, "How old are you again?" 

"Thirty-eight, but that's besides the point. I barely have time to use the thing. I mostly bought it for Izzy." He wasn't lying— entirely. He sometimes played, late at night by himself when he wanted to drown himself in a bottle of whiskey. He would choose to play a game to blow off steam instead of getting drunk with his little girl sleeping in the next room or passing out drunk at some shitty bar. 

"I'm very convinced by that." You snorted, making him sigh out at you.

"Hmph. Whatever. You wouldn't understand how cathartic throwing green turtle shells at tiny cars can be." 

"Oh I bet." 

"Daddy?" You heard Isabella's voice through the phone and your heart warmed.

Leon looked down at Izzy, "Yeah?" 

"Who are you talking to?" She asked with genuine curiosity, her very glorious race tournament now over and her attention was on him. 

He heard you go silent, most likely having heard the little girl and he sighed out, his eyes landing up on the ceiling for a second as he thought of his answer. 

"Just a friend, bee." He ultimately decided on that answer. It wasn't that he was ashamed of being with you, not at all, but Izzy was still young, and even he knew there had to be a proper introduction of you outside of your teacher role. He actually wanted to do this the right way.

"You fuck my brains out last week and I'm just a friend now?" He heard you comment in his ear and he groaned out. 

"C'mon, that's not fair." He leaned back into the couch, his forearm over his eyes now as he basically had two women all over him, pressing him with way too many questions for his liking. 

"I'm just giving you a hard time, Leon. I get it." There was humor in your voice, lightheartedness and even though he couldn't see you, he had a feeling you had that gentle smile on your lips. That eased the pressure on his chest. 

"Listen sweetheart, it's almost Izzy's bedtime," His eyes were on Izzy now, and with his eyes he was nudging at her to start wrapping up her game. She pouted, but didn't otherwise fuss. "Call you in an hour?" 

You both had this dumb, lovesick smile on your face, if only you could see the other.

"I'll be up."

The warm water, the foaming body wash and the intoxicating smell of your favorite candle had done wonders to relax you. When you left the bathtub you felt like a whole new person. Though there still this tug of butterflies in your stomach as you anxiously waited for Leon to call you. 

You sat on the edge of the tub, warm and fluffy robe wrapped around your naked body as you mindlessly scrolled through your social media for a little while before you decided to check out for the night. You nearly slipped right off the tile when your phone buzzed and you felt a cold shiver run down your spine. 

"Hey, sorry about, y’know, earlier. Izzy and I are like that." You smiled at the sound of Leon's voice, now a bit hushed but more relaxed and carefree, like he now could say whatever the fuck he wanted. 

"It's okay. It was cute, hearing how you talk to her. You're sweet." You smiled to yourself, and you could hear him breathe out a soft laugh, most likely a bit flustered by your words, but he otherwise didn't show it. "You put her to sleep though?" 

"Yeah, I stayed with her 'til she fell asleep. I'm in my bedroom now, about to take a shower." He said the words slowly, with purpose, like he wanted you to think about it like he had been thinking about you, taking that bath. "So, you take your bath yet?" 

"Yeah, it was nice. I definitely needed it. I could've used some company though." You bit your lip, testing his reaction. There was silence, then he hummed. 

"Yeah? That so?" Now it was your turn to hum in agreement, your legs instinctively closing as you tried to soothe the ache between your thighs. "I'm sure you could've. Would've been nice to have someone hold you, right? Have someone leave kisses on your wet skin, say how good you're doing while getting your pretty pussy fingered?" 

You couldn't hold back the moan that left your throat at his words, and your free hand instantly traveled down, stopping at your belly. 

"Oh, that's a sound I'll never get tired of hearing. Fuck, you're already moaning for me and I'm not even there to give you a reason." He exhaled out a chuckle, his hardening cock starting to press against his sweatpants. 

"Fuck, I really wish you were here." You sighed out, your hand itching closer towards your already wet cunt, but you knew it wasn't your touch you ached for. It was Leon's. 

"Yeah? Why's that?" 

You whined softly, your phone almost slipping off your grip as your head fell to the side. "Leon…" 

"Tell me." 

"Because… I really, really, need you to touch me, hold me, ugh— I just need you to fuck me, Leon." 

Leon clenched his fist as his side, teeth digging into his bottom lip as he listened to your desperate words, and the sound shot straight to his cock. Fuck, he'd be lying if he said he didn't need you, too. 

"Goddamn baby," He grunted softly, his hand now brushing the front of his sweats, where his cock strained against the material, and he tried to muffle the sound between his teeth, but you heard it anyway. "You have no fucking idea how much I've been wanting to ruin that pussy of yours again. It's actually driving me crazy." 

You shuddered, the ache between your legs starting to become unbearable. "I really want to see you too, baby." 

Leon closed his eyes, biting his lip raw as he thought fuck it. He could explain in the morning. 

"Fuck it, just fuck it. Wanna take the drive here? I swear I'll give you exactly what you need and it'll be so worth it." 

You'd like to think you were a rational person, you always thought things through twice, three times if necessary. You didn't take risks, much less acted in a way that could be considered immoral, but for Leon? Fuck, for that man you would become the biggest whore in this world if it meant he would take you just one more time. 

"Be there in thirty." 

Fuck it. 

Sneak peek of A Love Game Part II, coming soon

His lips were hard on your own, messy on your jaw, like he didn't know which part he wanted to kiss more. Your fingers were entangled in his perfectly soft honey brown strands, already melting under his touch. His hand came up under your jaw to grip your face in place, long fingers sprawled out over your neck. He pulled you back by your face and his eyes were hard on you, with this mixture of authority and utter need to fuck you. He could be both. 

"This is how this is gonna be. I'm going to throw you on that bed and fuck you the way you deserve. But I better not hear a single fucking sound leave those pretty lips of yours. Not tonight. Got it?"

Stay tuned for upcoming parts lovelies. Besitos<3

[x-hotoke]

hey sweetie!! I saw request open and..

Megumi streamer x reader

STREAMER megumi x male reader

writer's note: I'm unsure whether this was platonic or not so I assumed this was platonic and my blog is all about writing male readers, if it's not then you can check my pinned post for more details on what I write :D either way thank you for this wonderful request anon<3

synopsis : after a long day of streaming, megumi spends the entire night watching movies with you.

₊˚ʚ ᗢ₊˚✧ ﾟ. a short one shot

“Yuji — I swear to-” Megumi takes his eyes off the monitor, glancing at his phone on his desk. It has been buzzing for quite some time now. “Megumi?” A voice rang from his headphones.

“Wait a second.” Megumi muttered, muting his microphone off in the stream. He picked up the phone, seeing messages from y/n — loads of them.

'are you donw streaming?'

'come over, i made some fpod'

'do u srsly not hear the notifications'

He chuckled at the last message, quickly responding to all of them before setting his phone down. “What are you laughing at, megumi?” Yuji's voice spoke up, making the black headed male freeze. He forgot to mute himself on discord.

“It's nothing, let's finish this round and call it a day aight?” Megumi said, speaking to his viewers also. He was one of the streamers who rose up to popularity quickly and it's all thanks to his friends — Yuji, nobara and satoru — he can't believe that old white haired dude who adopted him was in his late 25's considering he has white hair. He was the one who got him into streaming.

After finishing up, he quickly did his outro — thanking his viewers for watching him before ending the livestream. It wasn't a full time job he committed himself to, he had other businesses after getting endorsed by popular brands, and let's not forget about Satoru who showers him with all the money he can offer to his adopted son. But he does make a sum of money from doing gaming livestreams with his friends.

Megumi took off his headphones, standing up to stretch. He took his phone off his desk, checking if there were any new messages from y/n.

'gosh when are u gonna finish'

It was sent an hour and a half, making megumi sweatdropped. He hoped he wasn't angry at him.

'omw dummy'

'geez took u ling enough to reply'

seen

Megumi grins at the typos his friend made, chuckling to himself before going to his closet and taking out a pair of hoodie and a baggy black sweatpant.

A few minutes later, y/n hears a knock on the door to which he peeked out of the hole on door to see who it was. He perked up, opening the door. “Megumi!” He greeted the male with a hug before ushering him in.

“Took ya' long enough.” Y/n said, rolling his eyes as he grabbed a bowl of popcorn and some coke. “What can I say? I'm a busy man.” Megumi replied, shrugging as he sat down.

“It's movie night, right?” He tilted his head, asking the h/c headed male who responded; yes in return. Y/n placed the bowls on the coffee table before pulling out his remote controller. He threw it on megumi's lap who picked it up.

“You choose.” Y/n said, grabbing his bowl and began eating. Watching as the tv showed different kinds of movies to which megumi chose a kid's show; peppa pig.

Y/n deadpanned at him. “Seriously?”

“You said I get to choose.” Megumi grinned at him, slumping on the couch as they watched the opening of the show. He glances at him hesitantly before sighing. “Hey- I know I don't say this much but-” The words he was trying to find were caught in his throat.

“I- thanks for being my friend.” He mumbles, not daring to look at the other male's face as his face flushed with red from embarrassment. “t'is the only time I get to relax- when I'm with you, really. I appreciate you a lot.” His tense shoulders relaxed. “I mean it — thanks for supporting me throughout my journey.” He whispered, a soft smile creeping onto his face.

Y/n laughs lightly. “It's nothing, megumi. You're always welcome here kay?” He smiled at him, turning his attention back on the tv. Knowing it took a lot of courage for megumi to say that, he appreciated it — It's hard to find people who thank him for something he does for them and he was lucky enough to find a friend like him. It made him smile knowing someone appreciates him.

“If you ever need someone to talk to, I'm always here aight?” Y/n added, his tone softening into a whisper — enough for megumi to hear. “Yeah-.. yeah. Thanks y/n.”

[sweetiepoison]

Famous Baby (Social Media Blurb)

It all started with posts you added to your instagram story. Your fans immediately began flooding your dms with questions about why you’re in Toronto.

You of course have friends that live in the city but since speculation has begun about you and a certain NHL player, it’s hard to believe you’re there just visiting friends.

Some news outlets started reporting that you were in Toronto with Shawn, “rekindling” your relationship. They used the fact that you went to his show months before and pictures taken of the two of you at the Drew House party.

You post two more pictures to your insta story during the leafs game which had everyone going crazy.

Fan#1: (y/n) really said let me make it clear who my man is

Fan#2: No fr, the Matthews jersey in the second pic she posted like girl….you aren’t being subtle

Fan#3: (y/n) as a wag is what 2024 needed

-> Fan#4: Can you imagine being a wag for the leafs and now (y/f/n) (y/l/n) is also one and you get to hang out with her!

->Fan#5: She would be the ultimate wag!

Fan#6: Steph Marner posted a picture of the game to her insta story and she tagged (y/n)

->Fan#7: STOP! Mitch and Auston are best friends and now we’ll get (y/n) and Steph as best friends!

Fan#8: apparently some fans went up to her during the game and she was super sweet and took pictures

->Hater#1: people were saying she wasn’t wearing his jersey like that’s so unsupportive

->Fan#9: She doesn’t need to wear his jersey to be supportive like gtfo 😤

@yourusername: Lover girl 💙🤍

Load more comments….

Fan#1: I know ya’ll also saw Auston’s post 👀

->Fan#2: They aren’t even trying to hide it

->Fan#3: fr the matching captions, the hearts being the leafs colors…might as well just tell us

Fan#4: I’m so happy that she’s happy!

Fan#5: I know that tattooed arm!!

Mitchmarner: Just move here already

->yourusername: Can I stay at your place?

->Mitchmarner: yeah you can sleep between Steph and I

->stephmarner: she’s actually taking your spot in our bed 🤷‍♀️

-> yourusername: say less…bags are packed

Fan#6: NOOO!!! It should be you and Harry!! If you ever loved him you would get back together

->Fan#7: Can people move on and accept reality like it’s so weird

->Fan#8: I loved her and Harry, but obviously it wasn’t meant to be and we can’t bash her for moving on with her life

Yourbff#1: It’s giving soft launch

Youbff#2: It’s giving my man my man my man

->yourusername: You two will always be my #1’s no matter what 💖

@AustonMatthews: Lover boy 😮‍💨

Load more comments…

Fan#1: Alexa play that should be me

->Fan#2: Idk who I want to be more Auston or (y/n)

->Fan#3: No bc you are so real for that

Fan#4: It has to be (y/n), she’s worn those sweats before during tour rehearsals

Fan#6: oh he’s down bad for her

->Morganrielly: horrendously bad

Mitchmarner: World’s biggest simp

->Fan#7: the confirmation we’re getting from all their friends in the comments is crazy 🤯

->Fan#8: no literally there was probably a pr meeting they were supposed to attend and obviously no one showed up 💀😭

Hater#1: this is gonna be terrible for his game, she’s just gonna be a distraction

->Fan#9: she literally has a whole life and career outside of him. Like she doesn’t even have the time to be a distraction

->Fan#10: she’s the best distraction to have

->Fan#11: tell me your a hater and desperate without telling me your a hater

Fan#12: Kinda random, but I love that their styles compliment each other

->Fan#13: I was thinking the same thing! I love the lowkey matching

Fan#14: I love that (y/n) was trying to be subtle and Auston was like “no I’m showing off my girl”

Fan#15: hand her back to @harrystyles

Multi-Grammy winning pop star, (y/f/n) (y/l/n) and NHL superstar, Auston Matthews have fans speculating (and fangirling) about a possible romance between the two. While we haven’t seen a picture of the two together, back and forth posts across social media platforms have fans suspecting there might be something more than friendship there.

It’s believed the two met through mutual friend, Justin Bieber. And while we don’t know exactly when it’s clear they started becoming closer at the beginning of this year, starting with the NHL all star games. (Y/n) attended the weekend in Toronto with friends to support Bieber who was a celebrity captain alongside Matthews.

The 7 Rings singer who has been on her world tour since the summer took a break before going overseas and seems to have spent a majority of that break in Toronto.

(Y/n) posted on her instagram story at a Toronto Maple Leafs game this past weekend as they took on the Edmonton Oilers at Scotiabank arena. One post in particular caught fans eyes. At first glance it’s simple enough, a glass of wine at the game, but fans focused on the fact that also featured in the picture was a fan in front of her with a Matthews jersey on, possible a tribute to her new relationship.

When asked about (y/l/n)’s attendance following his 2 point game, Mathew’s gave up very little info. “Yeah she decided to come to a game, but so did a few thousand other people.” Auston continued, “She’s an extremely popular celebrity who is insanely talented so I’m not surprised she received a lot of attention.”

He shut down further conversation about the pair’s relationship status by saying, “I’m not going to talk about my personal life. I know what you want me to say, but it’s not my place to speak for or about her without her permission.” When asked by another reporter if (y/l/n) reached out to him about his goals or the teams win he responded, “And that’s gonna wrap it up here” ending the press conference altogether.

Later in the week the two posted to Instagram within hours of each other and fans pointed out that many of the pictures are similar. (Y/n)’s post included a boat ride featuring the Toronto skyline. Auston was a little bit more bold as his post also included a boat ride with the Toronto skyline and kissing girl but her face can’t be seen. They also had similar captions with (y/n)’s being “lover girl” and Auston’s being “lover boy”.

While they are giving away very little, we along with the rest of the world are excited about this possibly new couple.

[mountttmase]

The Do-Over - Part One

Note - happy new year 💙 also my asks are open if you would like to send any feedback or requests. Part two can be found here and Part 3 here.

Pairing - Mason Mount x Reader

Word count - 3.9k

Warnings - angst and fluff

‘Come on, you have to come. It’s already all booked’ your best friend Ava pleaded, her big eyes trying to work their magic on you but it was going to take a lot more than that.

‘Oh I don’t know’ you mused, stirring your straw around in your glass with your head resting on your hand.

‘Look I know last year wasn’t great’ she started and you gave her dumbfounded look.

‘That’s the understatement of the century’ you murmured and she gave a sympathetic smile.

‘It’ll be different this year, I promise. Just us girls. If you’re lucky I might even let you be my midnight kiss’ she told you with a wink and you couldn’t help but laugh. ‘At least think about it’ she reasoned and you nodded to let her know you would. ‘Listen I better run, text me yeah?’ she told you and with a kiss to your cheek she was gone

You loved Ava, she was your best friend and had been for the last three years after meeting at work and clicking straight away. You quickly became a big part of each others lives, and that’s how you’d met Mason.

Ava was cousins with Masons best friend, Declan and the three of them were like peas in a pod. Always together when they could be and once you’d met the other two, you seemed to be invited everywhere with them.

You should of known from the offset that Ava and Dec were trying to set the pair of you up, but it wasn’t until you were invited to lunch expecting it to be all of you and then only mason turned up that you realised something must be going on.

Mason seemed nervous the whole time, and to be fair to him, so we’re you. You’d always found Mason attractive and easy to get along with, but you figured he was so out of your league you never gave being with him a second thought. But at the end of lunch when he told you he’d enjoyed his time with you and said he’d like to hang out again just the two of you, you were eager to accept.

He was quick to invite you to his house for dinner after his next game. A place you’d been loads of times before, but never on your own with him. You ordered food and sat in-front of the tv whilst you spoke for a while about what Ava was like to grow up with and what’s she’s like at work now before he wanted to know all about you. Considering you’d known each other for just over half a year, you’d never spoken to each other like this. He sat and listened, taking in everything you told him and when he kissed your cheek at the end of the night you drove home hoping next time you saw him you could kiss him properly.

It took another two weeks to get to that point. In that time he’d held your hand and kissed you on every other part of your face, but it was after the game where he scored his first goal of the season he finally planted his lips on yours. You both confessed you’d been waiting a while for that and agreed to keep whatever was going between the two of you on the down low for now, knowing you’d never hear the end of it off Ava and Dec. You managed to hang it out for three months until Ava caught you in a heated make out session in her kitchen when you thought no one was looking.

You’d made it a whole year together when things took a turn for the worst. His schedule becoming packed to the point you barely saw each other. This lead to silly arguments that turned into big ones and it all came to a head last new years at a club that Dec had managed to book a table in. You were both stood in the corner of the smoking area outside, close enough to midnight that there weren’t too many people to see you but you made sure to keep yourselves quiet.

‘Why do we keep doing this to ourselves?’ He sighed, crossing his arms as he looked to the floor. ‘You can’t tell me you’re happy being like this with each other all the time? We haven’t been ourselves for ages and I don’t think I can do this anymore’

You knew if you spoke you’d start crying so you just shook your head as your heart broke inside your chest. Truth is it had only been three weeks of it being like this and you knew things would be better in the new year once everything calmed down. He didn’t seem to think this though, wanting to chuck your entire relationship away over a few silly arguments because you were both feeling a bit stressed. All you were hoping for is that he would fight for you a little bit but it seemed he’d given up at the first hurdle.

You could hear everyone counting down to midnight, and as everyone started shouting happy new year, you looked up to find Mason staring back at you with his big sad brown eyes. You had nothing else to say, no fight left in you, so you kissed his cheek and walked away before he had time to do anything else.

Almost a whole year on and you thought things would be better, and to the outside world you’d managed to convince everyone you were happier than ever, but you missed Mason more than anything. He hadn’t tried to contact you at all and you’d be lying if it didn’t sting a bit. You told yourself the two of you ended for a reason and it wasn’t working but it didn’t make it hurt any less. Seeing his face everywhere you turned also didn’t help.

Later that evening, you heard your phone ping, looking down to see a text from Ava.

You read it over a few times before messaging her back agreeing to go. She was right, you needed to make new memories so this night wouldn’t always be tainted and after a quick discussion about what to wear, you promised to meet her at her house tomorrow evening.

The club was busy, but thankfully the table Ava had booked was out the way so you weren’t bumping into people constantly and you were surrounded by all your favourite girls from work. Ava had stuck to her promise of no boys, besides the one you could see her hanging from, but you really were having a great night. The thoughts from the year before a distant memory as you surround yourself with good people.

Half an hour later you could see Ava on the phone outside, telling whoever was on the other end no repeatedly but soon enough she was storming back in and making a beeline for you.

‘I’m so sorry, I promise you this isn’t my idea’ she told you, but before you could ask her what was going on, you saw Declan’s face appear over her shoulder. You knew what that meant instantly and you felt your heart drop into your tummy. Ava saw by the look on your face something was wrong and turned to find Declan making his way to the table. She stormed over to him and they exchanged a few words before she walked past him, grabbing another man’s arm and dragging him away and out of sight.

Declan came straight over to you, his face looking slightly guilty but you pulled him into a hug as soon as he got to you. You hadn’t seen him in a long time but you’d always made sure you kept in touch with him through messages. Just because you and Mason no longer spoke you didn’t want the relationship with him to suffer.

‘I promise he won’t come anywhere near you’ he told you as you pulled away and you let out a chuckle at his cheeky face. ‘I didn’t mean to crash your evening, but it didn’t feel right spending the night away from you guys’

‘I know Dec, I’m sorry it’s like this’

‘Don’t be silly’ he smiled, throwing his arm around you. ‘It sucks, but that’s life sometimes. Hopefully it won’t always be this way’

You nodded and out the corner of your eye you saw Ava emerge from where she went, coming straight over to you. You soon saw Mason follow her, briefly catching his eye and your tummy dropped. This was the first time you’d seen him in a year and you felt your heart beat in your chest rapidly increasing.

‘Don’t worry, I’ve given him a talking to’ she told you and you shook your head with a laugh.

‘Guys I’m honestly fine. Let’s just enjoy the rest of the night yeah?’ you told them and they both agreed with you. You made your way back to your work girls and mason slowly made his way over to the group, making sure to keep away from you as he’d been told to.

Whilst you told them you would be fine, you couldn’t help but glance over at him from time to time. He looked broader than the last time you saw him and he had a lot more facial hair. You liked what he’d done with the hair on his head too, remembering how it felt when you ran your fingers through the length on top but how he loved it when you stroked up the short sides.

He kept to his promise all night, and thankfully for you he didn’t seem to be in the mood to talk to any girls so at least you didn’t have to suffer through that. It was half eleven when you snuck off, wanting to get some air before the big countdown and you’d only been outside for a few minutes when you heard the door open besides you and Mason stroll out.

He hadn’t seen you as you were sat near the door and his face was buried in his phone. He kept on walking until he reached the railing of the balcony, resting his arms on top and looking out at the skyline. You sat there for a few moments and thought about what to do. You could stay there and ignore him, or get up and walk inside but before you had time to think he’s was turning, his eyes on yours immediately.

‘Shit, sorry. I didn’t know you were out here’ he told you in a rush and you stood up, averting your eyes to the floor.

‘It’s fine I was just going inside’ you mumbled and you saw his shoulders deflate and you went to walk away.

‘Wait’ he called and you looked up to see him looking at you nervously, his hands stuffed into his pockets as she shrugged his shoulders. ‘Can we talk?’

‘I don’t know’

‘Please? I won’t keep you long. You don’t even have to say anything back, I just wanna talk to you’

‘Ava said you promised not to say anything to me’

‘Well I guess you could say I don’t always mean everything that comes out of my mouth’ he murmured and your eyes shot up to meet his, wondering if his words had a double meaning.

You were in two minds about whether to hear him out but you eventually walked over to him, taking a seat on the table he was stood closest to and he joined you a second later on the seat opposite you. You heard him take a deep breath before he started.

‘I just want to apologise. I was a dick to you and you didn’t deserve any of that’ mumbled. ‘If I could go back in time, I’d do it all differently and I wouldn’t of given up at the first sign of trouble. I should of fought for you and I didn’t.’ He huffed, rubbing his hand across his forehead in frustration. ‘I’ve wanted to talk to you every day since but Dec and Ava told me not to. Said you weren’t ready and it was for the best to just leave you but fuck, I’ve missed you’ he eyes flew up to finally meet yours. Both were full of unshed tears but you refused to let any fall. You felt him wait a beat to see if you were going to say anything but when you were silent he just nodded gently before standing up. ‘Sorry, I’ll go. Have a good rest of your night’ he murmured before walking away. He made it halfway to the door before you finally found your voice.

‘Mason’ you croaked, standing up to walk towards him but you became rooted to the spot when he stopped and turned to you. You wanted to tell him you missed him too but the words refused to leave your mouth. You stood there in a silent stare off until your eyes finally gave up on you and all the tears you’d been holding in tumbled down your face. You had to look away from him when you felt the sobs begin to rack through you but you heard him rush over, pulling you into him without a word.

You sobbed into his chest, and even though he was trying you comfort you, you could feel him crying too. Both your heads now nestled into each others necks to muffle your cries but it was no use. He still smelt the same and the familiarity only made you bawl even harder. After a minute or two, he pulled away and held your face between his hands. Your heart breaking as you looked up to his tear stained cheeks.

‘Please talk to me. Please tell me how you feel. I need to know if you still feel anything for me cause if you do I promise I’ll make this right’ He told you with, his bottom lip trembling as he tried to hold it together. You’d never seen him like this before and you wanted to comfort him too, but you were no use to him in your state, both clinging to each other like your lives depended on it. When you didn’t speak he rested his forehead on yours and shut his eyes. ‘But if you want me gone I’ll go, whatever you want I’ll do it’

‘I don’t want you to go’ you whispered and his grip on you tightened as he let out a breath. ‘Im just really scared and I don’t know what to think’

‘I need to be honest with you’ he said, and he waited a second before carrying on. ‘I love you. Still. And I know you love me too or it wouldn’t hurt this much. If things were done and you’d moved on then you’d be able to look me in the eye right now but you can’t cause I know you still feel like I do. Please, just let me in’

‘Of course I still love you, Mase.’ You breathed and he let out a tiny whimper at your words, almost like he couldn’t believe what you were saying. ‘But you really hurt me’ you told him as you freed yourself from his grip. His arms fell at his sides and he watched you walk to the edge of the balcony before he sat back in his chair, his head in his hands. ‘You just threw everything we had away and didn’t even try to talk to me about it. I didn’t even get a reason why’

‘I know I know. But if you let me I want to try and fix this’

‘Tell me why then?’ You asked, turning to look at him hunched over the chair. ‘I need to understand what happened cause I didn’t even get an explanation. You just told me it was over I never heard anything again. ’

‘i know, you didn’t deserve that and I’ve felt like a massive dick. I wish I knew what the problem was’ he laughed, but there was no humour in it. ‘I’ve had so much time to think about it but in my head at the time it just made sense’ You furrowed your brows when he looked up and you and he shrugged before looking down. ‘I know it’s only been a year, but fuck y/n I feel like I was just a kid back then. I was so pissed off with everything at the time, the way the games were going, all the shit people say about me that I try and ignore but can’t. You were my comfort person and I relied on you so much to the point I thought I should take a step back. Maybe I needed to be shown what life was like without you to realise what I had. It was so selfish and I’m so sorry’

You walked over to him, his head still in his hands as he let out a few sniffles, not wanting to look at you whilst he was emotional. You stopped in-front of him, standing between his slightly parted legs and put your hands around his shoulders to bring him into you. His arms wrapped around your waist and his face got lost in your body and he clung to you. One of your hands now combing through his hair to comfort him and you felt him relax into you whilst he whispered how sorry he was over and over again.

You didn’t know what to do, on one hand you were scared of letting him back in again and getting hurt, but the sincerity in his eyes made you weak. The way he’s eyes had such an effect on you was scary to say the least and you were pretty sure with one look from him he could probably get you to do anything. You obviously knew he was sorry and you clearly hadn’t let go of what the two of you once had but the thought of letting him in and getting hurt again made you hold back slightly. Your head and heart were at war and you really weren’t sure what way you should swing.

‘Come on Mase, look at me’ you whispered, and he hid for a few more seconds before looking up at you, his big brown eyes looking at you full of sorrow and you felt your heart break for him a little bit. ‘I can’t stand here and say everything’s forgiven and we’re gonna go back to the way it was’ you told him, and his eyes dropped to the floor. You knelt down and caught his eyes. He looked so sad and you didn’t know what to say to make it better. You took his face in your hands, gently wiping the tears away and your heart throbbed in your chest at the soft smile playing on his lips.

‘One chance?’ He whispered, his hands coming to your arms as he stood up and pulled you with him. ‘One chance is all I need. Let me prove to you that you’ve got nothing to worry about’ his hands made their way back around your face so he could make you listen to his pleas. ‘If it doesn’t work out then fine, at least we can say we tried. But if it does work out I promise I’ll make you the happiest girl on the planet’ he promised, his hands settling on your waist and you placed yours on his chest. It felt so good to feel him under your hands again and the familiarity of it all made your eyes sting. ‘One chance. Please baby?’

As much as you wanted to be practical and think about everything rationally, your heart was winning over your head as you looked up at him. The fact he called you baby melted you a little bit more and if one more chance was all he was asking for then you figured it would be stupid not to give it a go. After a few seconds of making him sweat, you put him out of his misery.

‘One chance, Mase. I mean it you only get one’ you told him and you smiled as a look of relief washed over him.

‘Really?’

‘Yes, Mase. This years been hell without you and I don’t wanna keep putting myself through crap if we can turn this around’

‘You won’t regret this I promise’ he told you, pressing his lips to your forehead. You both stood in silence for a few seconds before you heard the DJ inside announce it was one minute to midnight. ‘Do you think I could get a do-over?’ He asked and you gave him a confused look.

‘What do you mean?’

‘I never got to give you your new years kiss last year, do you think I could maybe try again now?’ He asked and your breath got caught in your throat as you thought of what to say to him. ‘I know I’ve got a lot of making up to do, and this years been utter shit, but a new one starts in less than a minute and I’d really like it if we could begin this one how we mean to go on’. He explained and you felt your face heat up. The thought of his lips on yours made you dizzy but you nodded at him as you couldn’t think of anything better. He smiled down at you before pulling you impossibly closer and bumping his nose against yours.

The countdown began, you both giggling like school kids as the anticipation built up, and as soon as the clock struck midnight, his lips were on yours. You moaned into his mouth instantly and your whole body shivered as he delicately kissed you. Your hands moving from his chest to around his neck so he didn’t break apart from you. Slowly but surely, all the cracks that you’d felt form a year ago began to fill as he poured himself into you and you were soon both smiling into the kiss.

‘What the actual fuck’ you both suddenly heard, turning to find Dec and Ava at he door, both with shocked looks on their faces. ‘I knew this would happen’ Dec laughed as Ava crossed her arms.

‘I thought I was supposed to be your new years kiss’ she whined before you all laughed, Dec pulling on her arm to take them both back inside, leaving you and Mason alone again.

‘You wanna get out of here?’ He questioned and you raised your eyebrows at him. ‘Not like that’ he chuckled, taking your hands and walking you back over to the door. ‘I just thought we could talk some more but somewhere a bit more comfortable rather than stood in the freezing cold’

‘Okay’ you agreed, squeezing his hand as he lead you into the packed room. ‘Let’s go’

[phenomenalgirl9]

Comfort: Kwon Soonyoung x Reader

I'm ready to love, 내게 말해 줘

Can we stay together? Can we stay together?

Soonyoung has been very busy for the past few months and it’s nothing out of normal but you do feel lonely at times. So you have also been taking up more work load to kind of fill the void. You and him still text every moment of the day though. You were kind of shocked when you returned home to Soonyoung making Ramen for the two of you. “You’re home?” he said with the cutest smile and you wanted to squish his cheeks. “Hey, baby” you cooed at your boyfriend. “You go get freshen up and we can eat” he said and you nodded. The two of you finally sat down to have dinner together after a long time and like always conversation flowed like a river. “How was your day?” “Did your boss give you a hard time” “The weather is really getting cold” “Did you see that video I sent you”. Suddenly you remembered something and you told Soonyoung, “Soonie I won’t be there this weekend, we have a conference in Busan so I’ll be leaving on Friday and I’ll be back by Sunday evening” you said and Soonyoung’s face fell. “I-I thought we’d spend the weekend together” he said with a pout, “It’s okay work is important” he immediately said and stood up to clean the table and you helped him. You didn't think much of it. You had to do packing as you were leaving the next day. 

It was Saturday evening when Mingyu opened the door to a pouty Hoshi. “Hoshi hyung, are you okay?” Mingyu asked as Hoshi simply walked in and took a seat on his and Wonwoo’s couch. “Wait I’ll get Wonu hyung” Mingyu said and pulled the Game boi out of his den. “What happened Hoshiya?” He asked. “I brought drinks and snacks” he said and the three sat down with their glasses discussing their daily life and anything and everything in general. They were 3 pegs down when Mingyu realized that Hoshi is in fact very upset and he seemed to be lost in thoughts as Wonwoo told them about the new update in animal crossing. Wonwoo noticed it too, “Soonyoung-ah, are you okay?” he asked and the tiger boy started sniffing and tears started rolling down. “Y/n and I are drifting apart” he said, “Where is she? Weren’t you going to spend the weekend with her” Wonwoo asked, completely invested. “Yes, but-but she’s in Busan. What if she doesn’t love me anymore?” He cried into Mingyu’s shoulder. “Did she say something?” Wonwoo asked and Hoshi shook his head no. “Did she know your plan?” Mingyu asked and Hoshi again answered a no. “Then how could you come to this conclusion, dummy” Mingyu said and Hoshi sat there pouting. “When will she return?” Wonwoo asked, “Tomorrow evening” he said, “Then you talk to her when she returns” and the three decided to call it a night. Mingyu went on to cook something, as Wonwoo told him to call when he’s done, while Hoshi was lying down on the couch. 

It was around 8 and Seungcheol was about to call it a day and sleep early when he received a call. “What?” he said, “What do you mean you lost Hoshi!” he said and left his shared apartment, closing the door, leaving a very confused KKuma, waiting for him. “Should we call Y/n?” Seungkwan said and Wonwoo shook his head a No. “She’s out of town, let's call her when we’re sure we can’t find him anywhere” he suggested and the others agreed. “Why isn’t he picking up the calls!” Seungcheol said in frustration. 

You just returned to your room after the dinner and sat on your bed, ‘Mingyu calling…’ you looked at the time, it was past 10:30pm “Hello?” you answered the call and you heard his voice. “Umm.. Y/n, did Hoshi hyung contact you?” he asked and you said “No. Why?” you asked. “Um.. we were drinking and he was drunk, and we kinda might have lost him” Mingyu said and you stood up. “YOU LOST MY BOYFRIEND! Mingyu IT’S A HUMAN BEING, that TOO DRUNK!” you exclaimed, when your phone indicated another incoming call. “Wait a second Mingyu”. You received the call “Soonie?” you said and you heard his voice “Baby…. I-I’m so sorry….” You heard his voice which appeared to be a crying one. “Babe, where are you?” you asked. “…in the Busan station” he said. “You don’t move an inch, I’ll go find you” you said, and hung up. You immediately called back Mingyu “He’s here in Busan” you informed them as all of them sighed in relief. You took a cab and rushed into the station as soon as the car came to a halt. You found him sitting with his head down on a bench and you rushed and hugged him, he immediately hugged your waist. “Babe! I would have returned tomorrow, why did you rush in this situation and that too without telling anybody” You told him and he was mumbling something. You shot Mingyu a quick “found him” text. “Babe? Are you okay?” you asked as you watched him sitting silently with his head down. Suddenly he almost jumps you and hugs your bed and starts sniffing loudly. “Babe, why are you crying?” you asked and he started sobbing loudly. You know Hoshi gets emotional when he is drunk but this seems a bit different. “Please don’t leave me” he suddenly said and then you realized what Wonwoo meant by that text “He thinks you two are drifting apart”

“Babe, are you crazy? I’d never leave you” you said, bending down to his level and cupping his face. “I am so sorry that I didn’t realize that I was hurting you” you said and he shook his head vigorously “No. It’s not your fault! I’m so sorry” he said and hugged you again. 

That was when you realized, Hoshi always needed your comfort. It doesn’t matter who or what hurt him. Even if it’s you, he still needs to be comforted by YOU. 

----------------------------------------------------

You laughed as Hoshi opened his eyes, groaned and shut them again. “Wake up tiger, we’re gonna spend the day together” you told him as you stood beside the bed where he was lying down. He immediately wrapped his arm around you and pulled you into him. “I missed you. I’m sorry” he murmured. “I love you too, my Horangi” you said and pecked his lips. “HORANGHAE!” he screamed and the two of you started laughing. 

All I wanna do is run away 'cause you are my escape,

Love has no limit 대답을 원해, hey

----------------------------------------------------

Other Works

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[arrowmaker15]

Headcanon: Jason "I don't care about anyone and I hate everything" Todd threatens people that have any relation to his friends and family whatsoever. Whether it be a relationship, or hurting them, he has probably threatened them. Sort of a sequel to my last headcanon.

For example, Cass? Despite who her parents are, Jason has tracked both of them down, and had the balls to threaten them. Hell, for her dad he pulled out everything he knew and beat his ass to a pulp, just for the way he raised her. Shiva, all he said was that if she showed up in Gotham, it didn't matter where Jason was, he would be there within that week, and she would not like him.

Tim, oh Tim, Bernard got a visit not from vigilante Red Hood, he could handle that if it happened, but instead got a visit from overprotective big brother Jason Todd, and that guy was scarier than the vigilante.

Dick? You can fucking bet that Jason goes overboard with that one. Finding out what Tarantula did to that him sent him off the rails, and Tarantula paid the price dearly. Everyone took that as a warning to "stay the FUCK away from Nightwing."

For Duke all he does is send a picture of himself behind Duke who is looking at a street during the day, pointing a gun at the camera with it titled as "Hurt him, I will be out during the day regularly" to every corner of Gotham's underworld, everybody coming to an understanding.

Then there is Stephanie, problems with both parents. The first night he let Steph crash at his place, you can BET he went to her house and paid a visit to ol' Arthur Brown, aka Cluemaster. 9 broken ribs, a concussion, a fractured arm and 2 black eyes is how he returned to prison, the man walking down the road to where he was kept with a sign wrapped around his neck saying "Take me in, I escaped." When Steph heard the news, she knew who did it but never mentioned anything.

The way he handled talking to Jon after Jason got reintegrated was downright awful for Jon. Jason made it known he had kryptonite, and somehow managed to sneak it onto or into Jon without him knowing, Jason sharpening knives and cleaning guns in the same room he was in, always loading his gun with a lead encased clip, glaring at him the whole time.

Then there was Kate, the first person to reach out to him after he made his return, he obviously got protective considering she was "the cool aunt". Naturally, Maggie and Alice got a visit, not playing games.

He talked to Selina calmly about Bruce. They came to an understanding quickly, but only after he got reintegrated.

Finally, the unlikely friendship is Jason and one Harleen Quinzel. All he did was walk into Ivy's greenhouse and talk to her, making sure she knew exactly what would happen if she were to mistreat Harley, just like the Joker had. Ivy, for the first time in her life, just shut up and nodded.

The best part, nobody knew he was doing this. Shiva stopped showing up in Gotham without explanation and everyone was confused, David Cain was nowhere to be found (he was in a coma), Bernard got out of the same room as Jason as fast as possible and outright refused to go to the Manor for 3 months afterwards with nobody knowing why, Tarantula was never seen again (Dick was glad, though confused when people stopped hunting him down in Blüdhaven), Duke was at a loss for why crime was so much lower in the daytime than one would expect, Cluemaster served his sentence without complaint, Jon always got sweaty around Jason and Damian thought it was because of himself, Maggie was extra careful not to hurt Kate while Alice seemed more docile than one would think, Selina was normal, and Ivy made sure to check her actions and review them with thought sometimes right in front of Harley.

Absolutely nobody knew it was Jason (minus Steph with Cluemaster) and thought it was just weird occurrences. Jason proceeded like normal, and he would take what he did, and what he will continue to do in the future if necessary, to his second grave.

[sencubussubs]

Let’s talk VISION BOARDS

hi lovelies <3

I am a little late to the start of the year but let’s talk VISION BOARDS!

oh my gosh i LOVE vision boards. Every. Single. Thing. i put on my vision board last year manifested - and boy i was NOT good at manifesting (i was overthinking, spiralling, constantly dipping out of believing in manifesting and myself.)

Low effort and loads of fun i absolutely recommend vision boards.

I mentioned in a previous post that part of how vision boards work is by familiarising your brain with seeing the people/places/objects etc on your vision board and partly with emotions! feeling like its all yours now.

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So, how can we put an effective vision board together?

Well first, what do you want your year to look like?

your vision board can be for any amount of time, but i think year long ones are most common <3 (it doesn’t mean the manifestations will take a whole year!)

You can start with a pen and paper (or notes app) and write down what you want the next year to look like:

It may help to have some headings to organise sections of life. for example:

Career

Relationships

Travel

Experiences/ events

Material Goods

Then you can find specific people/places/things you want to manifest such as a specific career, car or ipad. A specific type of love language e.t.c.

-

Second lets get some useful apps:

- Pinterest (of course!)

- Picsart (or any photo collaging app or website)

(OR ALTERNATIVELY you can print out individual photos, cut, organise and glue down your photos on a piece of cardstock/paper or poster board- the world is your oyster baby!)

-

Apps in tow we can move onto the Third step

finding good pictures!

In my vision board from 2023 i didn’t think too hard about pictures - i found pictures that represented what i wanted, i whacked em where i thought they looked good, printed that baby out and slapped it next too my desk where i looked at it all the time. Not purposefully because i took the time to, but rather just because i would automatically be pulled to look at the bright colours whenever i went to sit down at my desk (and when i would die in my games and need to look away from my screen :P ).

While deciding to do a vision board for 2024 -only during this process did i check my 2023 vision board and realise everything manifested- i watched lots of youtube videos from people whose vision boards were successful. it gave me motivation and enthusiasm to make my vision board and i learned a couple handy tricks along the way:

due to my copy and paste not working on tumblr for some reason, i am going to list the youtubers at the end rather than linking them.

- Using pictures from YOUR point of view

select pictures where it looks like you are already in it - e.g. wanting to read loads in 2024? pictures of someone (with your skin tone) reading with the book in their lap (example pics at the end)

You can also take this further and cut out your own face and put it over people in pictures - sounds silly but it worked for Tam Kaur! (check her out)

- Find pictures that truly invoke the emotions you want to feel

want to be given flowers? don’t settle for any picture of someone giving flowers, find the one that makes you feel the way you feel when you imagine it happening. The one that makes it feel real and heartwarming.

- Make sure you enjoy looking at the pictures/ layout you use!

you are gonna look at this and ingest it subconsciously all the time, so make sure it looks nice! Hopefully the emotions you feel from the pictures will already help this - but we wanna make sure the underlying subconscious message is “this is all already mine” not “oh god i hate this thing”

- Putting it somewhere you often look

if you’re like me, you might not have a manifestation routine and don’t want to consciously decide to spend five minutes staring at the vision board. I placed the vision board next to my desk and schedule, i looked at it every time i sat down - especially because i liked the photos so much it always caught my eye - and whenever i looked away from my screen. This allowed me to subconsciously familiarise myself with all the people/places/things on there! I also had a wallpaper on my phone with another small vision board so i looked at it even more often :)

- lastly, your vision board is yours - you don’t have to share

Honestly i truly believe in keeping my manifestations to myself till after they materialise in the 3D, mostly because of the stress of having other people think you’re crazy - i know that this is also my fault due to everyone is you pushed out, but i feel like for a lot of baby manifesters this is a familiar feeling. Manifestation is your own journey - do not let anyone take away your belief or chip at your self concept!

I am going to make a post soon about addressing people asking about manifestations! <3

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Final step: HAVE FUN

Enjoy the process and embody the version of yourself who is receiving all of this, It is done, this IS your 2024!

-

the list:

Here are all the youtubers whose videos i watched while creating my vision board for 2024 <3

- Tam Kaur

- Anila Sita 101

- Hailey gamba

- The Gem Goddess

I hope this helped and enjoy making your vision board!

bye lovelies!

Seeing people’s successes really motivates me so i might also make a post on the things i successfully manifested in 2023 with my vision board <3

[yae-energy]

╰┈─✩ ˚ ‧ random thoughts : 2 ‧ ˚

✧˖° synopsis : more random hc’s cause why not (the manga is crushing my soul)

✧˖° cast and crew : yuta okkotsu, maki zenin

.ᐟ content warnings : cursing (cause when am i not)

⤑ .𖥔 ݁ ˖ authors note : idk yall i just wanted to post 😭 i got at least 3 more ideas i wanna do.

~

yuta <3

- really good at math for absolutely no reason at all, mental math specifically cause istg this man is like a fucking calculator

- was a nightcore kid (BADDDDDDDLYYY)

- used to be a really big harry potter fan for a while

- loves musicals. like, LOVES musicals

- will say a lot of stuff ironically to the point where it actually becomes unironic and it annoys everybody to hell and back. but he genuinely cannot stop 😭

- vocal stims with the most annoying tiktok audios

- loves carrots and hummus and doesn’t like celery

- he love’s halloween and always matches costumes with inumaki

- his biggest pet peeves are gum popping and squeaky noises. like he will genuinely get so pissed off if he hears either of those things

- is really good at board games & card games, like he’ll really whoop your ass in some uno tbh (which is why no one plays with him) and pls don’t let him get his hands on them draw 4’s or it’s absolutely over for everybody. (and it’s even worse if they’re playing train. like he loses friends afterwards)

*before each turn he’s like “😬 sorry guyssss” (he’s in fact, not sorry)

*also is unnecessarily good at monopoly, like he racks up all the properties so quickly and everyone always thinks he’s cheating

- has really bad eczema (mainly gets it on his neck and it’s reallyyyyyy bad in the winter)

—

maki <3

- lactose (and still consumes dairy but like…at what cost girlie ☹️)

*also has horrible indigestion

- likes strawberries but hates strawberry flavored things. do NOT give her no strawberry flavored NOTHING or she will fight you

- is a sparkling water enjoyer (inumaki and panda clown her for this everyday and have been since they met her)

- doesn’t like bananas, she has a visceral HATRED for them i tell you. nobody knows why either but that’s just the way it is.

- COFFEE LOVERRRR (loads that shit up with creamer and sugar)

- loves doing crossword puzzles (and puzzles in general)

- really good at chess and ESPECIALLY checkers (she’s just really good at most games tbh, she doesn’t know how either)

- her glasses are always dirty LMAO (same girlie, same)

- really likes baseball, like really really likes it 😭

- adding onto the coffee one: she is an ice coffee FANN. everytime she’s mad one of the second years brings her an iced coffee and she’s completely ok again.

- she’s a dnd girlieeee !!! and she plays with yuta and inumaki when they all have time

- hates reading anything because she just doesn’t feel like it (and she’s impatient) so she gets yuta to read it for her 😭

- is one of those people where if you ask her to do something she’ll instantly say no but do it anyways 💀

- really good at mimicking people’s voices and copying signatures (like it’s actually terrifying)

⤑ .𖥔 ݁ ˖ tags : @morosis-haze @jogeto @mypimpademia @zairene @planetlunaa @cosmiles @milesmolasses @chinieh @romiantic @stqrriichiigo

if you wish to be tagged in any future works, here’s my tag form to fill out <33

if you wish to submit a request, here’s my ask box :)

⤑ .𖥔 ݁ ˖ closing notes : took wayyyyy longer than i needed to finish this ! (just the life of being an adhd girlie 😋‼️) but pt.2 to this will come out shortly

also notice how i cannot SHUT THE FUCKKK up about these two like they did NOT need to be this long, do i care though? not really !!

now i’m onto these fuck ass tags 🙄

anyhow, love y’all 🫶🏽

update as of posting : it did take me over a month to post this i won’t lie…mb 😭

- xoxo, yves <3

[rainbowcrowley]

for the good omens ask game— a lot since you said you’re traveling! 1, 3, 9, 11, 16, 19, 23, 24!

oh, what an honour to get an ask from op! :D thanks! strap yourselves in this is gonna be a looong one!

1. when did you first watch/discover good omens, and how did you find out about it?

i actually first heard about it after the first or second trailer for s1 dropped! idk how and when exactly that was (it's been a while) but i remember thinking 'oh i gotta watch this, it looks funny and has david tennant in it'. guess what. i didn't watch it until s2 came out and the entire internet was screaming about it. so i finally caved, asked for my friends amazon account (bc she had a prime account) and gave it a shot – the rest is history.

3. have you created any fanart or fanfiction, or really any content for the fandom?

i have created some gifs! you can find them here

9. have you seen any other work by david tennant and/or michael sheen?

oh yeah LOADS. i've been a fan of DT since i first watched doctor who back in 2011? or 2012? and i've seen the twilight saga films lots of times (aro was always a fave).

now, After-GO, i've seen/listened to a lot of davids stuff (like idk, 50 or 60%? which is a lot bc he has done soo much things) and i'm currently "working on" michaels filmography :) 'm watching masters of sex atm and i just bought tickets for the cinema run of Nye, since i wasn't able to see it in person when i was in london 2 weeks ago, sadly.

11. what is (if you read) your favourite type of human au for good omens? (ex. coffee shop au, surgeons au, plant store au

i adored almost every human au i've read so far!! but the two i'm obsessed with are that one actors au everyone and their mother knows and read (Slow Show on ao3, don't have a link rn sorryy) and the formula 1 au (idk how that happened, i don't even watch f1, it's just so good) i'm currently reading.

16. do you know anyone irl who has also watched good omens?

UHM YEAH but that's because i made them watch it lmao. a few of my close friends, that is. but besides them... nope.

19. have you ever read the crowley therapy fic (the most-read fic in the fandom)?

yep! i took me a while bc it was... A Lot but i finished it a few weeks ago. let's say it fucking destroyed me yup yup ✌🏻

23. what's a good omens headcanon that you considered canon?

idk if this is considered a headcanon but... they kissed in 1941. 100%.

24. what's a theory for season 3 that you NEED to be included?

hmm i'm not sure. like, i really like all those theories going around, but i'm traumatised by bbc sherlock so i'm trying not to get my hopes up lmao. again idk if that's considered a headcanon or theory, but i think we're likely gonna see (parts of) crowleys fall and i think it will also play a part in the plot. also: book of life shenanigans. and bamf aziraphale dismantling heaven (and hell). OH and a part 3 of 1941. (maybe a kiss...? 👉🏻👈🏻). yeah.

ask game for people in the good omens fandom!

[baticeer-sims]

A couple of experiments with TS2 loading time

I wanted to test out some things I've commonly heard around the Sims 2 community as ways to affect your load times. Disclaimer: I have a powerful gaming computer so my game loads fast anyways, so there might be small differences that I won't notice that are more obvious on other machines. I don't know how much of this generalizes to everyone's computer! I run the UC with Sims2RPC as my launcher on Windows 11.

My method: I loaded the game and timed how long it took the game to load from the end of the intro movie, to the neighborhood selection screen. I did it 5 times in a row for each different thing I tested and averaged out the times, just to reduce variance as much as I could.

Test #1 - Control

First I just loaded my game with my downloads folder the way it is right now (8.2 GB of pretty disorganized CC) to get a baseline value. Result: 55 seconds average

Test #2 - Do special characters affect loading times?

I used a bulk file renaming program to replace the letter "S" in every filename in my entire downloads folder, with š - if you can't see that character it's an S with an accent mark on it. (I picked S because it's one of the most common letters in English and it's also in some words common in cc filenames like "sims" and "mesh" so I thought it'd be one where I'm hitting almost every file even if I only replace one character.)

Result: 55 seconds average Conclusion: This one surprised me because it's such a piece of repeated common knowledge around the TS2 community, but I think it's unlikely that special characters affect loading times? If nothing changed from turning the vast majority of my CC from files that don't have special characters into files that do.

Test #3 - Do non-CC files in your downloads folder affect loading times?

I remember hearing you shouldn't keep preview pics in your downloads folder, because it'll slow down the game, and I was confused because I always thought it won't even try to read non-.package files at all. So to test this one, I temporarily moved 17.5 GB of photos, videos, and audio files from elsewhere on my hard drive, into my sims downloads folder.

Result: 55 seconds average Conclusion: If tripling the size of my download folder didn't change load time at all when the new files were all non-sims files, I think it's almost certainly fine to keep preview pictures (or zipped-up backups of something you don't want to use all the time, or whatever) in with your CC if it helps you keep track of your downloads.

Test #4 - Merging your CC

I knew this one was going to actually make a difference because I've directly experienced it before (on an older, worse computer where my load times were longer) but I thought I'd give it a go anyways just to see how much difference it made for me. So I merged some of my CC subfolders I knew would be the biggest (clothes, buy mode objects, & hairs) with CC Merger. According to the logs, it went from 4,308 individual files to 148 merged files.

Result: 46.5 seconds average Conclusion: This definitely makes a difference but it will make a lot more of one for people who already have long load times. For someone like me it might not be worth the amount of time it would take to be bundling every little thing I download lol.

A few other things I've heard that I couldn't think of an easy way to test

1- "Default replacements don't affect your load times as much as if you had a custom version of the same thing" - It feels to me like this doesn't make sense because surely the game still just has to read the files but I have no clue how to test this, I'm not about to spend hours gathering up the custom versions of all my defaults just to try it.

2- "The game will load faster if you have shorter file paths / fewer subfolders within the download folder" - I heard of and started doing this long enough ago that all my downloads are already only one or two subfolders deep already. I couldn't think of a quick way to make my folder structure a lot more complicated lol, and I think even if I found out this wasn't true I wouldn't change how I organize my downloads, so I didn't spend time on it.

Everyone draw whatever conclusions you want from this post, I'm not telling you to change how you organize your CC or anything, just wanted to share what I found is true for me specifically, I would be interested to hear other people who have longer load times repeating my tests and see if you get the same results, or to hear people who know more about the programming side of this weigh in, maybe something like the special characters is dependent on your computer or operating system!

[bluegekk0]

Ok do you have any favourite games, that are not ran world or hollow knight?

I myself like slavic game series stalker :]

oooh there are so many games from my childhood (and more recent ones) that i'd love to mention

the first one i can remember is rayman. i love the first three games, especially 2 and 3. i have so many great memories connected to these games, and i wish 3d rayman made a comeback. after the mario and rabbids dlc, and the recent netflix show, i'm a little more hopeful about that

zoo tycoon 2 is also one of my favorite childhood games, alongside two other, far more obscure zoo games: marine park empire and wildlife park 2. i've always loved zoo games, i think it started with wlp2, it was sold as a part of a collection of animal related games. a similar one was jurassic park operation genesis - similar premise, except it's based around creating a jurassic park. the newest game in this genre is planet zoo, and i like it, but it can get very overwhelming with all of the modular building. it's time consuming and requires a lot of creativity, which isn't something i usually look for when i want to wind down and play something

another childhood series is the sims. the sims 2 specifically, though i also have many fond memories of the sims 3 (though i remember it more for the absurd loading times hahaha). while i like the sims 4, i find myself returning more to the sims 2 these days. it's very dated in some areas, but it offers a much deeper experience which i appreciate. and the lore can get batshit crazy sometimes which is great in on itself

i remember playing a lot of spore, especially the creature stage since i didn't understand the civilization and space stages at that point. i do enjoy them now, especially the latter, though i've never reached the ending of that one. i guess i just like exploring and trading with different planets too much

from some more modern games, i suppose, minecraft is one i like a lot. i started playing a few years after it's official release, and i remember starting with a pirated copy from a likely very sussy launcher. these days i usually just play it with friends from time to time

another series i'm a big fan of is the horizon series. horizon zero dawn and forbidden west. i know many people consider their gameplay nothing spectacular, but it's a big comfort game for me, especially the sequel. and the music, god the music in the second game is incredible

i mentioned assassin's creed, so i guess i'll talk about the series a bit. my favorite game is probably unity, i even named one of my cats after the protagonist. but i also love assassin's creed 2 and origins, both are great games. not too happy with the direction the series took, though, they feel too bloated and unfocused

i don't play that many multiplayer games these days, but team fortress 2 and (unfortunately) overwatch are my favorites. i like team games, even if they're often very frustrating. but the cooperation aspect generally really appeals to me

other games i can think of are patapon, subnautica, the yakuza series, both ori games, bugsnax and stardew valley

dang this is far longer than i thought it would be, but it's too difficult for me to pick one or two favorites hahah

also, i've heard about the stalker games before, though i've never played them myself. not too big on horror games haha

[emeraldcatears]

Making a Grass Autotile (part 3)

It's time to see how the tiles look in the game.

The first thing to determine is where to put them. I made a grass tile and a dirt path that are intended to be ground autotiles so those should be put in the game as part of the A2 block - the second group of the A tab.

The full image for this needs to be 768x576 pixels in size. I'll go ahead and open a new picture for this step.

The RPG Maker assets standards page shows how this is meant to be laid out.

These can be further adjusted in the database to be designated field or area type. If I'm reading this correctly this can determine how they interact with other tiles in the A2 portion of the tileset.

If Block A is "Field" then the transparent parts of the second and fourth tiles will autofill with the first and third tiles respectively. Otherwise, these designations seem to refer to how the tiles stack on the layers when mapping with auto-layering.

I believe "Field" is outdated and changed to "World" type in the most current MZ version I have.

Since World Type seems to be used for, well, overworld maps I'll go ahead and just make this Area Type and lay the tiles out without worrying about how the transparencies fill in like I would if I used World.

In short all that is to say I'll just paste my two tiles in next to eachother in the first two slots.

They look so lonely!

The beauty of things here is that I don't need a full set of tiles to start testing how they look in-game. I just have to have the ones I've made so far and can always save over this with a larger set later.

I'll go ahead and save this as Custom A2 and put it into the project.

Simply go to wherever you've got the project you're adding a your tiles to saved and open the img folder and find the tilesets to add your own. Make sure it's a PNG file.

Then open RPG Maker and open the project you saved the new tiles into and open the Database.

From here go to the tilesets button and the available sets appear. In this case I'll create a new set rather than just adding mine into an existing one.

At the bottom of the screen I can make room for a new set by changing the maximum and increasing it as needed.

Then find where you want to put the tilesheet. In this case I want it in A2 (Ground) so I select the image from the dropdown. Instead of appearing as the full image I made it displays the two tiles as just their representative pieces (the 48x48 section in the top left of the six-tile pattern that makes an autotile).

I honestly don't need to do much else at this point since this is just about putting them into the game to see how they look, but this is also the part where things like passability and terrain tags are set. They don't matter at this stage of the learnalong, though. I could also put other tilesheets in teh A1-E slots but I'm not worried about that at the moment.

Next I go to a map (in this case MAP001) and select my custom set for the tileset.

From there I can just draw the tiles I made into patterns the way I would the default assets!

Now, that took a while. While I know part of the time came from pausing to explain each step for the sake of the learnalong and that I'll get faster with drawing tiles with practice, it is important to take time to consider how long an original tileset takes to put together.

In other words, it takes hours upon hours to make a workable set of original tiles. If that's something you find doable then this post is also an appreciation of the time and effort that goes into it! It's "simple" in theory but it takes time and making them look good is a skill honed by practice. To everyone who puts the effort in: seriously, you all rock.

If you're not the type to put your own set together there are loads of other options for both free-to-use and paid tilesets made by others. Please appreciate the work put into each and every one of them and credit them as you use them.

[an-aussie-button-masher]

2023 Gaming Wrap-Up

   Welcome back to what is apparently a yearly tradition on this blog: the Gaming Wrap-Up! As we drag ourselves to the end of 2023, it’s always good to take a look back at the last 12 months and try to figure out just what was going on there. And well, this year…kinda sucked. It had a lot going on - it was stressful and exhausting at best for so many of us, but there’s always a bit of good within the bad (for example, on a more personal note, this was the year where I actually got a few of my articles purchased by publishers! Now I can, by definition, call myself a professional writer! Go me!), and video games are always an excellent escape from reality.   2023 had loads of great game releases, including some highly-anticipated sequels and remakes, while the business side of the gaming world had a fair few blunders and foot-shooting (Unity, anyone?). Before the end of the year, let’s all take a moment to remember all the highlights of the gaming world of 2023 - enjoy!

JANUARY-MARCH    Let’s get started with a bit of the old and a bit of the new - a pair of high-quality remakes of some classic survival horror games, Dead Space and Resident Evil 4, set a new bar for gaming remakes, with RE4 even being nominated for GOTY! Meanwhile, Pizza Tower took the indie genre by storm with its deranged animations and surprisingly catchy music, and Hi-Fi Rush ambushed us with a sneaky release and some toe-tapping rhythmic combat.   Fans of classic Nintendo games had a bit of a sad start to the year however, with the announcement that Nintendo would be completely shutting down all online services for the 3DS and Wii U, basically pulling the life support plug on the two platforms for good. Additionally, the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) continues its streak of rough years; with X-Box, Sony and Nintendo all foregoing attendance, this years’ E3 was announced to be cancelled. With a rise in developers and publishers preferring digital and social media announcements over live shows thanks to the impact of COVID, could this be signalling the end of live gaming conventions like E3?

APRIL-JUNE    Moving on, 2023 also saw the release of some particularly exciting sequels - Dead Island 2 finally released after 9 years in development hell while The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom blew its GOTY-winning predecessor out of the water. Street Fighter 6 brought in Metro City veterans and newcomers alike, and Star Wars: Jedi Survivor continued the tale of Cal Kestis in his battle against the Empire in a galaxy far, far away.   From the small screen to the big screen, The Super Mario Bros. Movie joined the small-but-growing ranks of video game movie adaptations that are actually good, thanks to staying true to the games’ actual identity instead of trying to turn it into something else like so many other game-to-film adaptations. E3’s cancellation also wasn’t enough to stop the Summer Games Fest from being held, featuring a mix of live and digital shows and announcements. Also, this year was quite the mixed bag for game publishing companies - Embracer Group, a publisher for major development teams such as Gearbox Entertainment and Crystal Dynamics, went under some massive structural changes due to a major deal falling through, and was just one of many publishers that underwent huge changes in 2023.

JULY-SEPTEMBER    The latter half of the year didn’t see quite as many major game releases, but it was certainly a case of quality over quantity - Baldur’s Gate 3, an absolute narrative feat, practically overtook the entire second half of the year for both those familiar with the series or D&D and players entering the Forgotten Realms for the first time. Oh, and Starfield was released too.   Meanwhile, a cornerstone of video game voice acting, Charles Martinet, retired from voicing the Mario bros. Having provided the iconic voices of Mario, Luigi, Wario and Waluigi since 1994, Charles still works as a global ambassador for Nintendo in conventions across the world, while the superstar voice role would be taken over by Kevin Afghani later in the year.   Back in the business side of the gaming world, Unity - the group behind one of the most prominent game development engines in the industry - completely shot themselves in the foot this year as they announced an incredibly oppressive retroactive licensing fee to begin next year. This new fee would mean that every single developer that had ever used their engine would need to pay Unity for every copy of their game that has ever sold, even from before the fee took effect. Naturally, everyone disliked this, especially within the indie game community. The sheer amount of backlash caused Unity to rework the agreement to be “less aggressive”, but their reputation is beyond saving now.

OCTOBER-DECEMBER    2023 looks to be closing off with a bang - in yet another major simultaneous release, October 20th saw Spider-Man 2 expand the urban playground of everyone’s favourite web-slinging duo while Super Mario Bros. Wonder brought Nintendo’s flagship franchise in a fresh new direction. Meanwhile, another highly anticipated sequel, Alan Wake II, spun a terrifying new narrative just in time for Hallowe’en.   Of course, the biggest talking point for the end of the year was the Game Awards! Baldur’s Gate 3 beat out some incredibly tough competition for Game of the Year and swept the rest of the awards alongside Alan Wake II; a handful of exciting new games were announced, including a sequel to the classic World of Goo and a vampire-hunting action adventure starring Marvel’s Blade; and we learned that the Call of Duty developers can’t take a joke. However, the biggest announcement arrived just before the awards, bringing the entire gaming community together for one of the most anticipated sequels in video game history (besides Half-Life 3): Grand Theft Auto VI. Set for a 2025 release, 12 years after its predecessor, GTA6 returns to the sunburnt beaches of Vice City, introducing a modern Bonnie & Clyde as its’ pair of playable protagonists Lucia and Jason. 

LOOKING FORWARD    So, aside from the GTA fans that are probably cryogenically freezing themselves until 2025, what are your plans for next year now that 2023 is nearly over? There’s plenty of other games to look forward to - Star Wars and Marvel fans will be getting another exciting set of games with Star Wars Outlaws putting players in the shoes of the galaxy’s next big name in the galactic underworld, while Wolverine will be hacking and slashing his way through the neon-lit Madripoor. Taking our hands off the controller for a moment, a handful of other games will be taking their turn on the silver screen with a promising-looking Fallout streaming series and a somewhat more sketchy-looking Borderlands film. Can’t be any worse than the Halo series, right…right?

   I mentioned in last years’ wrap-up that 2023’s E3 is hopefully back on track, which has aged a bit poorly; well, there’s no need to worry about that this time as next year’s E3 has already been cancelled. At least that means saving on tickets, but is the age of big gaming conventions coming to a close? Time will tell, especially depending on if Summer Games Fest is still in the works. Maybe things are switching to a more digital-based platform for game announcements - as someone not fond of crowds, that suits me just fine.

   But, hey, that’s not until next year. Until then, I hope you enjoyed this look back at the gaming world of 2023, and I look forward to seeing you all again in 2024!   Happy holidays!

An Aussie Button-Masher

[heinousactszx]

Feeling curious, which is your #1 favorite pokemon game, and why? :3

it's close. it's really close. and it took me a long time to truly settle on a favorite

but it's platinum. it could never be anything but platinum

there's just something... magical about sinnoh. the way it looks, the way it sounds, it's got something about it that no other pokemon game is quite able to match. all of the myths really drew me in, especially as a kid, and made the whole thing feel so much bigger than just what we were seeing. plus the day night cycle hit harder here than in johto, especially with that beautiful nighttime music

And the pokemon are great too. I know the increased number of legendaries wasn't everyone's cup of tea, but in a region so focused on myths, i think it worked. plus the fact that so many old pokemon got extended families was great, and added so much to the world. i don't think misdreavus would have become my favorite if it hadn't gotten extra focus by getting an evolution. i wish they had added more, honestly. they all feel so integral to the pokemon now, when i go back to an older gen i get sad when i remember "oh yeah magnezone's not here yet"

and while diamond and pearl had their (significant!) issues, platinum fixed up almost all of them. better pokemon selection, better load times, better opponent teams, a more refined story, plus a lot more endgame content. i spent hours at the battle frontier as a kid, it's WAY better than emerald's. the fact that BDSP didn't bring forward ANY of the updates from platinum is mind-boggling

platinum is a game i'll always come back to and be able to enjoy just on its own merits. sometimes when i play an older pokemon, i'll mix it up one way or another, but platinum i don't need a thing to be different. just typing all this up is making me want to replay it again!

(close seconds on favorite pokemon game are black and white, which proved you could reinvent the wheel if you just executed everything perfectly, legends arceus, a breath of fresh air which managed to change so much for the better and defied all my expectations, and explorers of sky, which you certainly don't need me to tell you why it's up there)

[veebs-hates-video-games]

Ok time to go through some more small things quickly because I'm getting behind.

Will You Snail?

More fun and interesting than I expected. I wasn't really sure what I was getting into beyond it being cheap and having tons of positive reviews, but it turned out to be a precision platformer where you play as a snail (and can wear another smaller snail as a hat), and it's about the fear of AI literally taking over the world and whether reality is really real. Also the AI is an asshole and spontaneously spawns bullshit spikes and lasers and stuff exactly where it thinks you're about to go so you have to contend with that in addition to just making it through each room.

I had a good enough time to finish the story and get somewhere north of 50% completion, but I don't really see myself doing the optional stuff like beating everything on the highest difficulty. The auto-difficulty kept me somewhere in the 2-3 range out of 4 95% of the time with very rare spikes to 4, and with me getting worse at stuff like this over time as my reactions get slightly slower, my vision gets worse, and my brain just gets generally weird, I don't really see a point in pushing myself harder just to frustrate myself.

Lara Croft GO

It only took me forever to get around to this one, which I probably would've forgotten about if someone didn't gift me a copy a few days ago. Basically you, uh, raid tombs. Big surprise, I know, but this time it's a turn-based puzzle game. I liked the puzzles enough and different mechanics they introduced enough to finish it because some of them were reasonably clever/satisfying, but I'm not sure if I'll bother with the extra ones after the credits roll. Toward the end after I got the hang of it I tended to finish levels without having to retry more than a couple times, but just knowing I'd have to start over entirely for every mistake or misclick makes it less enjoyable.

I'm pretty sure it's my second favorite Tomb Raider game now, and one of only two I've ever finished. The other was the 2013 reboot, which I thought was great. I tried the sequel to that and didn't really like all the changes they made to the formula because they all made it less fun for me, and I always thought the pre-reboot ones were just bad. To be fair I heard the later ones did get better and I never tried any of those, but the PS1 era games were anti-fun for me.

I'LL KILL HER

More of a digital comic book than anything, like a visual novel with an extreme emphasis on the visual part and no decision making. The art style was enough to get my interest to try it, and that's probably the main thing it has going for it. The story is...fine? Not super deep or original and feels like it maybe has some translation or non-native English issues sometimes, but it all fits together well enough in the end I guess. All of the content warnings for this one for stuff like abuse and domestic violence and suicide.

Cris Tales

Somehow this is the only one of these that I gave up on before finishing it. A lot of stuff in it is absolutely gorgeous (go watch the animated intro, seriously), and I was getting into the setting and some of the themes it was hinting at, and the time shifting mechanics are pretty neat both for exploration and combat, but I just don't really enjoy playing the game very much.

Society has advanced beyond the need for random encounters, but Cris Tales has not. Good thing it has irritatingly long load times for each one, at least on the Switch, and it has to do it again going back from the battle screen to the main overworld. And I really am not into how the combat encounters are balanced. Even basic trash enemies a few hours into the game can do absurd amounts of damage, like 40+ when your characters barely have over 100 hp. You can reduce that with timed button presses like Paper Mario/Mario RPG games, but the animations while pretty are really bad at conveying the actual correct timing for stuff.

Basically I like most things about the game except for actually playing it. Well, it's fine in towns I guess, but there's too much other stuff I'm not into for that to make up for it. Oh, and the voice acting isn't terrible or anything, but it's definitely worse than most things I've played this year with voice acting and didn't really do it for me. Also it has the most basic and obvious bug that I'm mildly surprised I've never seen in anything else: it counts the entire time the game is suspended while the Switch is asleep toward your play time. I apparently spent 60 hours on the game, when really it was about 3.