#are ''games'' and not real games. i hit funny buttons in time to music and it makes my brain go Hee Hoo

[cozylittleartblog]

i thought naming myself this would be really funny. and it Is. every time i get into a match i think about gabriel playing Miku Rhythm Game

[pretzel-box]

Tags: Comedy, Some Fluff, Streamer AU, GN!reader x Human! Sebastian

Words: 1,9k

"Pressured_Solace has started a stream. Click here to watch."

The blue notification button caught your eye as it popped up on your desktop, the usual alert signaling that your favorite streamer was live. A thumbnail of the game he was about to play accompanied the message, and without hesitation, you clicked to join the stream.

“Jellycatfished joined the stream!”

“Is that the real one??”

“Bet it's another faker looking for donations.”

A grin spread across your face as you slid your headphones over your ears, adjusting them for comfort as you leaned back in your gaming chair. Solace hadn’t noticed your arrival yet, too focused on setting up the stream and chatting casually with the early viewers. Hearing his deep, familiar voice through your headphones sent a pleasant shiver down your spine, filling you with a warm, giddy excitement. Pressured_Solace was your absolute favorite streamer—witty, thoughtful, and with a voice that could melt butter. Like you, he streamed without a face cam, leaving his appearance up to the imagination of his audience, which only added to his charm.

“I think… yeah, I’m all set. Everything’s good,” he mumbled into his microphone. You could hear the sounds of items shuffling around and the clatter of coffee mugs on a wooden desk in the background. Then he leaned closer to the mic, his voice dropping to a playful tone. “Test, test, 1-2, 1-2. Can everybody hear me?”

The chat lit up with eager replies—greetings, questions, and a flood of emotes scrolling by at high speed. The sound of his chuckle was like music to your ears as he tried to keep up with the barrage of messages. You could feel his excitement; it was the same rush of emotions and adrenaline that coursed through your body when you streamed.

“Alright, just a heads-up,” he continued, his tone teasing. “I got a new microphone, and I haven’t fine-tuned all the settings yet. So if you hear anything other than my voice… well, that’s just proof I’m not a robot.”

His joke made you laugh out loud, and without a second thought, you hit the like button to show your support. This was classic Solace, always with that sassy vibe and the funny comments right up his sleeve.

You moved your cursor again, hovering over the donation button as you carefully selected the amount, leaning forward with excitement as you typed a message to accompany it. Money wasn’t an issue for you—you had sponsorships, collaborations, and a well-paying side job as a secretary at a company called Urbanshade. So you took the liberty of spoiling yourself a little by supporting your beloved streamer.

“Jellycatfished has donated $1000. ‘You're telling me you are not an AI that will take over the world, Solace??’”

The automatic voice read out your donation, and Solace burst into laughter, probably shaking his head in amusement. “Welcome back, beloved Jelly. How many times do I have to tell you not to donate so much, silly?” His words were playful, but there was a certain softness in his tone, a hint of affection that made your heart flutter. Knowing that your favorite streamer had noticed you always brought a smile to your face. “But seriously, thank you, Jelly, for the donation,” he said warmly. “I appreciate your support—although I’m starting to think you’re secretly trying to buy my loyalty.”

You laughed, quickly typing back into the chat, “Maybe I am! How else would I get the attention of the coolest streamer online?” A quick moment of embarrassment filled you as you suddenly regretted your message, was it too cringe? Too much?

Solace chuckled again into the microphone, and you could almost hear the smile in his voice as he replied, “You don’t need to buy my attention, Jelly. You’ve always had it.”

The chat exploded with a flurry of reactions, hearts, and playful comments. You could feel a blush creeping up your cheeks, even though you knew he couldn’t see you. This was the magic of streaming—the hidden identities, the mystery, the fun banter. It was your little escape from reality, and you loved every second of it.

Just then, a notification popped up on the screen.

“Pressured_Solace has invited Jellycatfished to a private match!”

It was an invitation to a combat pvp game that grew popular in the past few days, blowing up on social media. It became one of your favorite things to stream, and Solace knew that.

Your heart skipped a beat as you glimpsed at the sudden invitation. A private match? With him? You quickly accepted the invitation, feeling a rush of adrenaline and excitement. As the game loaded, Solace spoke again, his voice filled with that familiar teasing tone. “Alright, Jelly, let’s see if you’re as good in-game as you are at throwing money around.”

You laughed, feeling a surge of competitive spirit. It wasn’t the first time you played with him and surely not the last. “Bring it on, Solace. I’ve been practicing.” This was the last message you typed before the loading screen disappeared.

The game started, and the playful banter between the two of you continued over the ingame voice chat, filled with laughter, friendly taunts, and unexpected plot twists. The chat was loving it, spamming comments like “OMG, this is the collab we didn’t know we needed!” and “Ship them already!”

As the game loaded into the next round of the PvP arena, the tension between you and Pressured_Solace crackled like electricity. The map was a sprawling labyrinth of narrow corridors and open spaces, perfect for ambushes and quick escapes. You took a deep breath, fingers flexing over the keyboard, ready to bring your A-game. The chat, that was open on your second screen, was buzzing with excitement, filled with a mixture of support and playful taunts.

"Let’s go, Jelly! Show Solace who's boss!"

“Team Jellycatfished for the win!"

“Pressured_Solace may be good, but Jelly's got that magic touch!”

You couldn’t help but smile at the encouragement flooding in. The support from your fans always gave you that extra boost of confidence, especially when it came to facing off against someone as skilled as Solace. You knew he was good—really good. But you weren’t about to let that intimidate you.

“Alright, Jelly,” Solace’s voice came through your headphones, smooth and teasing. “Let’s see if you can keep up.”

“Oh, I plan to do more than keep up,” you shot back, your voice light and playful. “I’m coming for you, Solace. How about a bet?”

“A bet?” He chuckles. “Sure.”

You started to smirk as an idea came to your mind. “If I win, I get to wish something from you.” It took a moment for Solace to reply, he was definitely teasing you by pretending to think. “Fine, but if I win, you're the one that has to fulfill a wish.”

“Deal.”

The match began, and you immediately took off, sprinting down a side corridor to grab some resources. You knew the map well enough to anticipate the power-ups and health packs that would spawn in certain locations. If you could get to them first, you might stand a chance.

But Solace was a step ahead. As you rounded a corner, you were met with a hail of bullets, forcing you to duck behind a crate. You could hear Solace chuckling through the mic.

“Nice try, Jelly, but you’re gonna have to be faster than that,” he taunted, his confidence evident.

Your heart raced as you peeked out from behind the crate, firing off a few rounds in his direction. He dodged easily, taking cover behind a wall. The chat was going wild, cheering you on, urging you to give it your all.

“Come on, Jelly! You got this!”

“Don’t let him intimidate you!”

“Use the power of the Jellycatfished!”

You grinned, feeling the adrenaline pumping through your veins. You quickly reloaded and made a break for it, dashing toward the nearest cover. You had to stay on the move—staying in one place too long would make you an easy target. Solace’s aim was deadly accurate, and you needed to keep him guessing.

But every time you thought you had a plan, he was already two steps ahead. He moved through the map like he was born there, seamlessly transitioning from offense to defense. You managed to get a few hits in, but he was quick to recover, always staying just out of reach.

“Having fun yet, Jelly?” he asked, his tone light but focused.

“More fun than you can handle,” you retorted, launching a surprise attack from above, dropping down from a higher platform. Your ambush caught him off guard, and you managed to land a few solid hits before he rolled away, retaliating with a well-placed grenade that forced you back.

The chat erupted with excitement.

“YES! Go, Jelly, go!”

“That was epic!”

“Don’t let up, Jellycatfished!”

Despite the cheers, you could feel the pressure mounting. Solace was clearly better, his skill evident in every move he made. He was precise, calm, and knew exactly how to control the flow of the game. You, on the other hand, were running on adrenaline and instinct, trying to keep up with his calculated strategies.

And then he made his move. In a swift, decisive maneuver, he cornered you in a dead-end alley, cutting off your escape routes. You fired desperately, but his shots were faster, more accurate. Before you knew it, your health bar was dwindling down to nothing.

“Looks like this is the end, Jelly,” Solace said with a hint of amusement in his voice. “Any last words?”

You grinned, a surge of determination flooding through you. “Yeah… don’t underestimate me.”

With a final burst of energy, you lunged forward, launching one last, desperate attack. It was reckless, but you had nothing to lose. You managed to land a few more hits before Solace finished you off with a well-placed headshot.

“Defeated! Pressured_Solace wins the match!”

The screen flashed the results, and the chat exploded with a mix of cheers and playful groans.

“GG, Jelly! You put up a good fight!”

“Solace is just too good!”

“Rematch! Rematch!”

“That was intense!”

Breathless, you leaned back in your chair, a smile tugging at your lips. “Not bad, Solace. Not bad at all.”

“Not bad? I’d say that was a pretty solid victory,” he replied, his tone teasing. “But you did put up a good fight, Jelly. I’m impressed.”

You laughed, feeling a warm flush of pride despite the loss. “I’ll get you next time, Solace. Mark my words.”

“I’m counting on it,” he said with a grin you could practically hear through the screen. “I always enjoy a challenge from you.”

The chat continued to buzz with excitement, fans from both sides celebrating the epic showdown. Even though you didn’t win, you couldn’t help but feel a sense of satisfaction. You may have lost the match, but you had fun, and more importantly, you had earned Solace’s respect. And that, in itself, felt like a win.

As the stream continued, you and Solace bantered back and forth, the playful rivalry only fueling the chat's excitement. It was moments like these that reminded you why you loved streaming so much—the thrill of the game, the support of the community, and the chance to connect with someone like Pressured_Solace, even if you didn’t know him outside of this virtual world.

But there was always tomorrow, and another game to be played. And who knows? Maybe next time, the outcome would be different.

A message plopped up at last, Solace texted you privately over the streaming platform.

“Alright Jellykitten.” He obviously joked by giving you such a silly nickname. “Time for my wish, prepare for your doom!”

“What is it, Solace?”

“Share your discord tag with me.”

[seattlesellie]

Can you write an ellie fic where she's getting off to photos of reader and moaning readers name and reader walks in on her

million times yes <3 ☁️🤍🐚🌫️

warnings: mdni!, masturbation, ellie’s a little bit of a weirdo, ellie gets caught.

Oops ♡

For you, being Ellie’s roommate was... hard. Unwashed dishes, the occasional sight of her boxer briefs messily laying around on the living room floor (“They fell from the laundry basket” she told), old crumpled yellow papers on the fuzzy carpet, an unwashed ashtray and a shit-ton of disorganized cards and pins adorning every single corner of the apartment.

But for for Ellie, oh, for Ellie it was even harder.

She always had a soft spot for things she’d never get. Your empty shampoo bottles never bothered her, neither did your habit of constantly forgetting to blow out the vanilla scented candles you lit once in a while, even after she told you they could be a fire hazard every. single. time.

What bothered Ellie, weren’t your complains, and neither were the repeating sounds and buzzes of your alarm clock followed by exactly eight hits on the snooze button (she counts, the walls are pretty thin).

What bothered Ellie, is that you didn’t give a single fuck about her. Or at least, that’s what she had convinced herself of.

When you’d lounge pretty on the couch, nestled within a cozy woolen blanket, your fingers tirelessly swiping and swiping and swiping through every single dating app known to man, she’d watch you intently, and stare.

It wasn’t because she was judging you, god knows she had a tinder phase herself (Amanda was her last straw. she said Ellie talked about her roommate “too much”, that she “needed to figure that shit out”, and then added a huff and a sigh followed by a “fucking lesbians, man”)

It was because she didn’t fucking get it. Could you not see what’s right in front of you? you didn't seem to... grasp the obvious. Don’t get it wrong, Ellie was not overconfident, and neither was she cocky. She just… noticed. She was observant by nature, and she knew, she was convinced shed never heard you laugh the way you do with her, with anybody else in the world. When your best friends were over for a girls night— even then, she would hear muted laughter and the occasional screech (barely audible over the backdrop of "The Smiths" blaring through her headphones) but never, ever, did that breathy, real, borderline on wheezing sound escape your mouth when you were with them. It was idly saved for her.

She’d take her earphones out— because perhaps she’d missed it, maybe she was delusional, maybe you did laugh like that— and then, plug them back in when she was met with silence or the gentle symphony of peaceful snores, and return to the solace of her music. She’d hollow in deep slumber, and have incredibly bizarre dreams of her pretty roommate roaming and floating around the apartment only in her underwear— and for some reason, a horn on her head. Dreams were fucking weird, man.

⋆｡ ﾟ☁︎｡ ⋆｡ ﾟ☾ ﾟ｡ ⋆

“The Truman Show” played on tv. Jim Carey just made a funny face, and Ellie shoved another slice of greasy, brooklyn pizza in her mouth. She chewed, loudly (you sighed) and wiped her lips on her shoulder.

“I’d literally lose it if I found out my life was a tv show” you remarked, your eyes shifting from the remaining pizza to the flickering television screen.

“Meh” Ellie shrugged.

“I’d lose it if it was a video game though. Imagine if like— someone controlled every single movement you made… scary, man”

She huffed, and threw the pizza crust on the table. It fell on the floor. These fucking ants would come again, you knew they would! you gave her a stern look.

“Sorry” she softly sighed, and bent down to pick the crust off the pavement. Her boxers poked through her sweats, you looked across the room, and then you looked again. God.

“Plug you on their PS5, and go… ham and stuff” you giggled.

“Wild shit…” she shrugged. “Wild shit”

Jim Carey’s character just met the deepest corner of its own little world.

Ellie’s eyes were glued to the screen, even though she’d seen that flick about a million times.

You scrolled through your phone mindlessly. You know she hated when you did that while watching something with her— but you did it anyways. Something about the way her eyebrows scrunched together when she peaked at the screen through the corner of her eye always made your heart flutter. She pouted, and you tried to hide the way your lips curled upwards into a small smile.

“Should I post this on insta?” you questioned, handing ellie your phone. She took it in her hands, and the brightness was so high her eyes twinkled.

She bit her bottom lip, and then her top one.

“You’re like… half naked in that” she huffed. She wasn’t wrong, the bikini was so so tiny and the salt water covering your body, making it practically glisten in the sun, didn’t help the sensual undertones of said picture.

“I know” you stated.

She looked at you, and then looked at the screen again. Don’t look too long, she thought to herself. She handed the phone back to you, and stared at the television. Great, she just missed the best part!

“Is that a no?” you quipped.

“That’s a… who are you posting that for?” she tried asking casually, and mask her jealousy with curiosity.

There must be someone. there just must. Perhaps it’s for that girl you talked to on Bumble… shit, maybe its for that blonde from work or the one with the long braids that waved to you for too long who Ellie had made her arch enemy. Or maybe it was for that fucking ex girl—

“Why would you think I’m posting it… for someone?”

Ellie sighed, and rolled her eyes.

“Cause you look good in it.”

She gulped, and moved a hair strand from her face. it itched, all of a sudden.

“Or like— you look naked or something.”

You rolled your eyes back, and yawned.

“Is that a no?” you questioned.

“No what?” she snickered.

“Is that a no i shouldn’t post?” you removed a microscopic piece of lint that landed on her hoodie, it made her shiver.

She let out a shaky breath, and toyed with the string that hung loose from her black nike socks.

“Why are you askin’ if you’re gonna post it anyways?”

You smirked. For some reason you couldn’t quite put your finger on, sometimes, conversations with her weren’t exactly easy.

“Who said i’ll post? I asked you because I needed your advice”

“Sure” she stated, and slid off the couch.

“Post it” she crossed her arms.

You nodded. post!

You already had one like. Oh, it’s that blonde girl from work. fire emoji, winky face emoji, red heart emoji. Nice!

“M’going to bed” she groaned, and shoved a tiny mushroom in her mouth.

“Ugh. gooey”

You looked up from your phone, and shut it off with a click.

“But you’ll miss the best part!” you pouted.

“Tired” she shrugged. Her face scrunched together. how is she so fucking adorable.

“M’kay… night!”

Ellie dragged her body across the dim lit living-room, and almost slipped on one of her socks.

“Mmmmight” she mumbled.

“Say it nicely!” you yelled across the room, it echoed.

“Good nightttt”

The door slammed shut. Ellie sat down on the bed, and stared at the wall. She cracked her knuckles, one by one, and threw her head back on the mattress, wrapped up by green flannel sheets. Her head landed on the pillow with a soft thud, and she took a long, deep breath. She wasn’t even tired, why did she lie?

That image just took over her brain again. She had only glimpsed it briefly, not truly absorbing its details, before reluctantly handing the device back to you. If she stared any longer— her cheeks would burn a bright pink.

The screen of her Android glowed in the darkness, so she grabbed it. Always on silent mode.

A message from Joel; “Got Maria to iron some of your clothes. remember Janet from across the street? She passed away last week, LOL (lots of love).”

Ellie scratched her eyes, chuckled, and took a screenshot. no fucking way.

A message from Dina; “can u send me some lives on candy crush?”

Followed by another one;

“send them right now or die”

So she scrolled some more.

Instagram; “dinawoodward, jessethekinggglol, courtneycameron and others liked this post!”

She tapped, and thats when her eyes popped out of her head. she suddenly felt parched. She looked around the room— that water-bottle she kept from two weeks ago after a trip to the local bodega must be around there somewhere.

It was not, so there you stood, almost half-naked, a playful smile gracing your lips, the sun-kissed sand partially covering your stomach, and the gentle touch of saltwater caressing your chest. A pair of brown sunglasses adorned your face, with the serene sea standing still in the background.

Ellie blinked once. And then once more, and then she zoomed in.

Her face twitched, and her breath hitched inside her throat. It felt as though her breath had been captured and confined, held hostage within her, struggling to find its release.

She double tapped, and began typing;

“If I could, I’d fuck the shit out of you”

She stared at her keyboard, and breathed deeply. What would happen if she, actually pressed send. Would you come barging inside her room and throw something at her? the green colored vase, maybe? or would you delete her comment, pretend it never happened and move on? perhaps you’d think she was just fucking around, and scold her for typing something like that where everyone could see. “You’re such a creep, el!” she could almost hear you say it. And she could almost feel the way your palm would slam right into her shoulder and nudge it her the side. It made her ears feel warm.

She zoomed in on your tits. Ellie’s face flushed a pretty, dusty pink.

Then, she zoomed in on your stomach, and her nipples perked up inside her hoodie. They grazed the material softly, and she let out a shaky breath.

When she zoomed in on your smile, she smirked at the screen. it made her feel warm and fuzzy and happy and she hated every minute of it. “Never gonna get it” echoed in her ears, a reminder of the "truth" tugged at her heart.

When she zoomed in on your covered cunt, she nearly went cross eyed. She could almost see the outline of your lips— or was she tripping?

Her cunt clenched around absolute nothingness inside her boxers. Was she… getting fucking wet over this?

She gulped, as waves of guilt washed over her. and then, she zoomed in on your tits again, and she felt so turned on she couldn’t even remember what the word guilt even meant.

She heard the echo of your giggle reverberating through the corridor, filling the space with a sound that made her stomach turn. the rhythm of your footsteps grew louder, gradually approaching your room situated just across from hers.

Perhaps you chuckled at something amusing one of your fucking bumble buddies had to say. She lightly bumped her forehead against the screen of her phone, her lips pressed together, forming a thin line.

Your door slammed shut, and a tune began.

“you’re so gorgeous… i cant say anything to your face, cause look at your face…”

How fucking ironic.

“Shut up alexa!” you groaned at the device, causing ellie to stifle a giggle, before she felt the pool flow down her boxers.

The apartment descended into a profound silence, save for the sound of Ellie’s labored breaths echoing in the stillness. she leaned in closer, scrutinizing the image on the screen, alternating between zooming in and zooming out, and crosser her legs together.

When the imagination of your bare tits popped up in her mind, your nipple poking through as you held them together on the screen, it ached inside of her.

Would it really be so wrong if she…?

There was no real harm in it, she thought. It was either this, or close her eyes and rub one off in the darkness, and even then— she had a nagging intuition that you would somehow find your way into her thoughts.

Woudl it really make her that much of a fucking pervert?

Ellie groaned, and brought her knees up to her stomach. Her phone was still in her hand, and that picture teased, and teased, and teased till she couldn’t handle it anymore.

Fuck it. if she did this, she was going to do it right. And she needed to see it close up— and not through her cracked fucking screen she wasn’t bothered fixing for two whole weeks now.

She opened the screen of her laptop, and when she sat on the black leather rolling chair, It felt fucking uncomfortable down there. It was sleek, and she could feel her cunt slide off on the fabric of her boxers.

“Fuuuuck me” she hissed under her breath.

www.instagram.com

Right click.

Your profile, right click. Her hand held a tremor.

You were the focal point, the star of the show, illuminating her old, black HP laptop. The screen, adorned with a thin layer of dust, caught her attention. She leaned in and blew gently, causing the particles to disperse and float away.

She swallowed hard, her throat constricting as she continued to gaze intently. Taking a deep breath, she attempted to steady herself, but the inhalation felt jagged and uneven.

She brought a veiny hand to graze the fabric of her grey colored sweats, just above her clothed cunt, and she felt so fucking relieved.

And it still wouldn’t stop fucking pulsing.

she stared at the bikini, and rubbed her finger up and down slowly, cupped her cunt forcefully, slapped it and whimpered.

“Goddamn” she huffed.

She began tracing big, deliberate circles, her touch slow and steady, causing the fabric of her boxers to cling to her wet cunt.

She had to take them off.

Swiftly, she inserted her thumbs into the edges of her boxers, right at the level of her hipbones, and pulled them down in one fluid motion. The fabric gathered messily around her ankles. She felt so fucking nasty.

Ellie spread her legs, and gasped as the cool air hit her most sensitive place. She waited for a minute, mouth agape, teasing her cunt before she touched it. She swore she could cum with just squeezing in and out while staring at your face.

However, she could not tease herself anymore when those thoughts began forming clearer and clearer.

She brought a long finger and caressed her slit slowly from her hole to her puffy little clit. "Oh fuck yes" she hissed.

It started with thinking about your tits. Her mind wandered, and her hole leaked into the leather chair, forming a small droplet to lay down on it. She breathed heavily.

The thought of you, taking off that bikini top in front of her went through her mind. Slow, deliberate process of undoing its strings, so so agonizingly slow. When they spilled out, ellie let out a high pitched moan.

“Touch them, Ellie” you whispered in her ear.

“Please touch me…” you whined.

She gasped, took two fingers, her middle and her ring, and formed tiny, slow circles on her wet clit. Ellie spread her legs wide, and placed them on the table.

It looked absolutely obscene.

In reality, Ellie was touching herself to a picture on a slightly dusty old screen. In her imagination, you stood pretty begging her for more. Your fucking whines did it for her, and she didn’t even know what they sounded like for real.

You circled your nipples, pinched them and spat a glob of saliva, letting it streamline down your tits, teasing ellie so bad she was already panting. They glistened, and ellie latched on to them, sucking and spitting and whimpering groaning.

“So good Ellie...” you moaned, holding the back of her hand and pushing her deeper.

“I want you so fucking bad”

“Holy fucking shit” she hissed, and slapped her clit. one slap! two slaps! she was desperate.

“Fuuuck yes” she whimpered, and plunged a finger inside her aching hole. It sucked her completely in, clenching around her fingers. She gasped, and slid off the chair.

She was staring at your fucking cunt with her eyes half shut. she swore she could see those fucking lips.

Now, Ellie’s mind took a turn. You laid pretty on her bed, chest heaving up and down, legs spread completely open with a pink vibrator buzzing on your clit.

“Ellie!” you moaned.

“Fuck me... please please please"

She plunged a second finger, and bucked her hips inwards and backwards. She whimpered, and a shaky breath followed by the sound of your name escaped her quivering lips.

“Need you in my pussy… p—pretty please”

She swore she could hear you say it.

Ellie pounced on her bed and savored you whole. she bit your clit, sucked on it and got her entire face wet with your juices.

“God yes” she groaned, wet, squelching sounds filling the room. She pumped them in and out, and in and out again, whilst the other hand was circling itself fast on her needy, pulsating clit. Every few seconds, she’d slap it again, open wider and wider, bucking and riding them so hard she could almost see a supernova right in front of her.

The dull ache in her pussy grew bigger and bigger.

“You need me? fucking whore” she whispered under her breath.

Thin, shiny, sticky drool flowed from the corner of her mouth, it landed on the top of her hoodie.

“Yes Ellie… please Ellie need you in my pussy” She pumped them profusely, feeling your walls take her in like she needed to. When she pumped them inside of herself— That’s what she liked to imagine. It was you, who took her in. They were your walls, your wet cunt begging and screaming for more.

She felt it coming in the pits of her stomach. It grew bigger and bigger, like a wave, or a volcano, threatening to erupt and make her cream all over her chair.

“Ellie yesyesyesyes!” you moaned.

She circled faster and faster, her perky tits bouncing up and down with every movement of her hips. The chair squeaked, but she couldn't be bother to take it slow.

“Ellie?” your voice echoed through the corridor.

“Yeah baby s— say my fucking name, fuck” she hissed, her eyes completely shut.

“Ellie?”

God, it felt so fucking real. Almost there. She bit her lip, and it drew blood.

The door collided with the wall, hitting it with a loud thud.

“Ellie?”

“N— fuNgh”

She almost screamed so loud the gods could hear. she shut her laptop off before even pulling her fingers out.

She was going to fucking faint.

Her face flushed a deep shade of crimson, intense embarrassment radiating from her form, hands trembling uncontrollably, and the expression on her face was one of sheer horror— wide eyed.

She got caught.

"What..." you uttered, your voice trailing off as you stood frozen in place, your mouth agape. Your knees threatened to give way beneath you.

You shut the door.

Ellie, her chest heaving, struggled to catch her breath.

“Oh my—“

“God”

[light-wolf]

I want to start doing mini-reviews for games I finish, hopefully to help motivate me to go through my immense backlog. Might also expand it to other media later but for now I'm focused on just videogames. Please keep in mind this will be entirely subjective based on my personal enjoyment with each game and it's not meant to be a "professional" review at all.

So here's the first one!

Title: Murder by Numbers

Platform: Nintendo Switch (also on PC)

Genres: Visual novel, puzzle

Publisher: The Irregular Corporation

Developer: Mediatonic

Release year: 2020

Murder by Numbers is a visual novel set in '90s Los Angeles. You follow Honor Mizrahi, a TV actress who co-starred in a successful detective show before suddenly getting fired for no apparent reason. While struggling to deal with this turn of events, Honor finds herself in the middle of a series of murder mysteries, and partnered up with the amnesiac robot SCOUT, she'll attempt to solve each case as she goes from playing a detective to being a real one.

If you've ever played an Ace Attorney game, the structure of Murder by Numbers will be very familiar to you (except for the lack of courtroom action). You investigate crime scenes, interrogate witnesses, collect evidence and present that evidence to characters to unlock more conversation options and advance the story.

What makes Murder by Numbers unique is that each piece of evidence takes the form of a nonogram puzzle that you need to solve. As a huge fan of nonograms who has wasted hundreds and hundreds of hours of his life in Picross games, this was one of the main reasons I wanted to play this game in the first place. And I have to say that, while it's a strange mix, it somehow works pretty well, at least for me. The puzzles are a bit on the easy side compared to something like the Picross S series on the Switch, but that's understandable since not all visual novel fans are hardcore Picross veterans like I am, lol. I do wish it had some of the QoL features of the Picross S games though, like the ability to count numbers by holding a button, or mass-erasing all marks, but it's not a big deal.

Of course, a visual novel is only as good as its story and cast, so let's vaguely talk about that (no spoilers). The two main characters, Honor and SCOUT, are both great. Each of them has their own struggles and character growth, and I became quite attached to them by the end. The supporting cast is more hit and miss, with some of them being very flat and/or annoying, but there are some very funny characters as well. While none of the cases gets as crazy as something from Ace Attorney (the comparison is inevitable), they're still interesting, with some nice plot twists, and there's an overarching plot across all four cases that also gets quite intense toward the end. The focus on Hollywood means there's a bunch of pop culture references that didn't really do anything for me, but they can just be ignored with no problem.

One thing that I liked about Murder by Numbers is that it touches on some unexpected themes like sexism, divorce, abuse, identity and free will. There's also a big focus on queer characters, with an entire case centered around a gay bar and drag queens. I wouldn't say it's anything groundbreaking, and it felt a bit preachy at times, but overall it was nice to see.

There's one aspect of the game that's very small but I was really bothered by it, and it's that the puzzle music often felt very out of place. The themes themselves aren't bad, but some of them are way too cheerful and often completely kill the mood. Sure, they're fine in the more lighthearted moments, but imagine you're in the middle of a dramatic scene, finding a dead body or something, and then the happiest music possible starts as you get to solve a nonogram puzzle. This doesn't always happen, with a few puzzles at key moments keeping the same music from the previous scene, but that just made me wish that the whole game was like that, or at least had more fitting puzzle music for the more somber and dramatic moments.

My other issue was that the game was quite buggy at times. The game often got locked when trying to access the map screen too quickly and I had to reset it, which usually didn't take too long thanks to autosave but it was annoying that it happened so many times. There was one time though where I went somewhere that I wasn't supposed to go (and the game didn't stop me) and then it wouldn't let me go to the correct area to progress the story, and the damn thing autosaved there so I was completely locked and had to restart the entire case and do all the puzzles again, which was very frustrating.

Despite those issues, I really enjoyed Murder by Numbers. It's basically a hybrid of Ace Attorney and Picross, two things that I love, so it's like it was made for me. The visual novel side isn't as good as Ace Attorney, and the nonogram side isn't as good as Picross, but the game is more than the sum of its parts and the overall package is quite nice and worth playing, especially considering that I got it for like US$5. Honestly it was quite a steal at that price, and I definitely recommend it if you're a fan of visual novels and/or nonogram puzzles.

[toastedspades]

Uh this post is kinda long and about Deepwoken

Deepwoken's setting is one of my Favorites Ever, but it's being poorly served by some of the decisions that have been made.

I'm going to first talk about some decisions I like. For example, the character loss and high-damage attacks from monsters convey excellently how unforgiving the environment is, and the lack of any recognizable real-world fauna give a sense that the environment is alien and inhospitable. Chirping birds in the ambience that plays in Etrea and the occasional nest with eggs are the only evidence of any non-hostile terrestrial life. Deepwoken is at its best when you are in a strange unfamiliar land not knowing what sort of alien creature will be around the next corner or perched on a cliff out of sight, with the very real risk of losing your character and having to make a new one.

This tension is undermined completely by the fact that this is a multiplayer Roblox game. The fact that you can run into other people on the same journey as you sounds, on paper, like a strength. It sounds like it'd make the world feel so much more alive having actual people in it, but that's almost the opposite of what Deepwoken is going for. Deepwoken is set in a world that's been flooded back to basically right before the industrial revolution, technology-wise. Remaining settlements are tiny and barely scraping by and the islands without human settlements are populated largely by eldritch horrors. The underworld level you're sent to when your character dies is a giant city carved from stone that's been dragged to the bottom of the ocean by a cult seeking power of sleeping gods that, the last time they nearly woke, destroyed the world. So imagine you're doing some scavenging in some ruins, fighting off horrible crabs with swords for legs (real monster you can fight), and you run into someone while you're there. His name is Jimbo Ashi. He's made his character look like Goku Dragon Ball. He hits the griddy and then sends you flying off a cliff into the ocean where you die of fall damage and have to remake your character. This sucks.

Another way the tension of the game is made meaningless is player-made Guilds. If you go to any settlement and fork over some cash, you can place down a door to your Guild Base. This completely sucks all tension out of any exploration. Who needs to manage their inventory space and adequately prepare for extended journeys when you can place a merchant down in the dungeon that'll buy all your garbage off you and sell you all the food and water you need whenever you need it? Who needs to bring wood for a campfire or a flint to light it with when there's a campfire that's always available and doesn't weigh anything a button press away? Hell, there's like a bounty hunting system where players can be teleported to other players with the express purpose of killing, but they can't get to you in the almighty Guild Base. The bounty system has its problems, sure, but it's meant to be a punishment for having negative reputation with the factions of the world. A punishment that can be entirely circumvented by placing down the funny door. Guilds also have a few different leaderboards, one of which is "PvP Score". This incentivizes people staking out entrances to popular PvE activities like dungeons and world bosses with builds geared towards annihilating their fellow players as quickly and efficiently as possible so they can make the Number Go Up. This also sucks.

In recent memory, playing Deepwoken has felt more like playing Fortnite. Fortnite's a fine game, but it's not what I want to be playing when I log onto what is supposed to be a completely different experience. I want to be able to recommend this unique open world rogue-like RPG with its excellent music and aesthetics, but I can't recommend the anime fighting game the devs clearly wish they were making instead.

the music is really good though, look:

[oodlyenough]

aa4-1 turnabout trump

alright i finished the first case of aa4 last night!

despite my efforts i think i'm more spoiled for aa4 than i realized, or at least most of the hanging mysteries from the first case are ones i think i already know the answer to. kind of a shame but i don't think there was any way to avoid it. oh well, this case was fun anyway. i think 3-1 is my fave tutorial case still but this one was great even if i embarrassed myself by hitting the wrong button. also after banging my head against the wall through aai for five months it was nice to play a case where i could just use my brain and solve it because all the logic made sense and clues progressed naturally lmfao. i know first case are usually the easiest, but still.

apollo seems fun enough but the real draw of this case for me was FINALLY getting to meet beanix, whose characterization i know to be somewhat controversial lol. i've enjoyed him so far although fandom primed me to expect a weird secretive asshole -- will see if that changes as the game goes on. i missed phoenix a lot playing AAI so i am clinging to his ankles. was very exciting when his musical cue started in court. get his ass nick

the forgery ace stuff is... hm. i'm reserving judgment until i finish the game. also, lmao not to reference AAI for the thousandth time, but the conclusion of its grand finale was "illegal evidence is good sometimes" so i guess we already crossed this moral event horizon.

i've also been eager to meet trucy, who didn't do much in this case but have a bug-eyed stare. one thing i'm glad to be spoiled for actually is trucy and her approximate providence because the game trying to tease that as a mystery would've bugged me so much LOL and it's very funny to play when everyone is like "you have a DAUGHTER?!" and phoenix is just like :) yeah and as the player i am probably meant to be asking all kinds of questions about what happened there when i know the truth is just

i think the biggest hurdle this game is going to have with me personally is the level of suspending disbelief i have to do that maya and edgeworth are just totally uninvolved and unhelpful while phoenix is embroiled in whatever kind of conspiracy plot is going on. on a real-world level this is almost certainly the result of the franchise wanting to pivot to new characters, so there's not much explanation beyond that. but it's a bit hard to rationalize in-universe, especially because i also know the franchise immediately goes "lol lmao nvm" in 5&6 anyway. phoenix said something in this case about needing a lawyer he could trust, in reference to apollo, and i was like yeah if only we... knew one of those....

but whatever i guess. the true gift aa4 will give me is finally being able to read all the 7yg fics i have marked for later on ao3. onwards to 4-2!

[hannahssimblr]

After doing that 'top posts of 2023' or w/e post from yesterday I was asking myself what my absolute favorite moment was from Lucky Girl

I can usually tell by looking at the stats what are the most popular chapters (the ones with sex - nobody is surprised that y'all are coming back to re-read those 2/3 times each lmao I see you) and this one is up there.

I was so happy with it when it was completed, because I thought it caught Evie and Jude at their best and most themselves in the whole thing - those moments where she's worried about asking him for what she wants for fear that he'll get too excited and intense, and him trying to hold himself back for fear of overwhelming her. Both knowing each other well enough by now, while doing this silly little dance around each other instead of just admitting what they want. - They're still doing this in the epilogue. They've learned to be indirect with one another in their relationship and they know that they'll always have to do this little dance with one another to make things work.

Anyway, you've guessed it, it's 3.16 - the Arcade chapter <3

“Good game, Evie.” He concedes, after a long, anguished pause. “But I’m not playing against you again.”

“Good. I absolutely hate your play style, and you’re a sore winner.”

“From now on we should only team up”

“I agree, we’d be horrible and unstoppable.”

“Do you still fancy me after witnessing me at my worst and most toxic?”

I grin. “If that’s you at your most toxic then I think I fancy you more, actually.” I push past him towards an old jukebox by the wall. “Which probably says something about me, I don’t know. Maybe I should be psychologically assessed.”

“For liking bad boys?”

I snicker. “You think you’re a bad boy?”

“I think that you think I’m a bad boy.”

“No, I think you’re very sweet and kind and quite soft, actually.” I dig around in my pocket for a spare coin or two. “Sorry.”

He leans against the wall next to me like a quarterback against some cheerleader’s locker in a high school film, and it shouldn’t make me feel girlish and shy, but it does. My whole body tingles even though he’s not even touching against me. “Is that really what you think?”

“Are you flattered or insulted?”

“Well I’m flattered. I think that about you too, coincidentally.” 

“Pick a song.” I tell him. “Let’s see if this thing even works.”

“Give me the old classic, Surfin’ in the UK.”

“What?” I chuckle. “I think you’ve got that wrong.”

“No, look.” He points to the song selection at the front and I run my eyes down the most egregious list of knock off hits I’ve ever seen. There’s Hotel Florida, Puppy Dog, Nine Days a Week, Free Tumblin’, and somewhere near the middle is Surfin’ in the UK. “This is ridiculous.” I say as I hit the button and the speakers crackle to life. “Why don’t they just get the real songs?”

“Cheap,” Jude explains, and bobs his head as though he’s enjoying the strange song that almost, almost sounds like the Beach Boys, only for its weird, tuneless melody that never quite progresses to the expected or most obvious chord. 

“My God, this is awful,” I say, and he’s already doing a silly little shuffle dance across the worn out carpet. “What are you talking about? It’s a certified banger,” He reaches out his hand to me and sings in falsetto “And all the blokes are surfin’, surfin’ in the UK.”

“Don’t make me dance to this.”

“What? Nobody is watching.” He takes my hands in his while I laugh, and he laughs too, because it’s just funny. There’s always something funny about being together, even when I know that everyone else would think we’re being stupid, but when I’m around him I always feel just a little less embarrassed of myself. The same kind of childish, light headed giggliness I get when I breathe helium from a balloon.

The arcade machines and the neon on the walls blink and flash bright colours against his skin and his sleek, glossy dark hair, and everything is noise, light and sensation. Beeps and bings and 8 bit graphics and electronic chip music, all blend discordantly with the tinny music from the jukebox, but when he holds my waist and kisses me slowly everything else fades away. 

My body surrenders to him immediately, but this is what he does to me. This is why I feel afraid of the ways that I feel, because with him, as with nobody else, I feel like I can understand better why people do insane things for sex. How a person can just forget where they are and do it wildly and indiscriminately in cars or public bathrooms or in other kinds of places that used to make me feel confused and disgusted. I always knew, as I know right now, that it wouldn’t take much convincing on his part to get me out of my jeans. 

Lucky Girl, 3.16

[syrupspinner]

Hi Zigzag!!!! Would just like to ask since you're such a gamer, what's your favorite genre of games to play? (And have you played Citizen Sleeper? I just started playing it today because of a friend x3)

hello beloved mutual autisticnari! i adore citizen sleeper, i go into my thoughts about its writing and gameplay here (the last paragraph spoils some quests).

i have pretty diverse tastes when it comes to gaming. i can only think of a few genres that i dont care for, like beat em ups or puzzle games (ive reblog patricia taxxon's writing on the genre, this doesnt include 'riddle games'). still, here are a few i find myself playing the most often!

Roguelike the perfect combination of "i know exactly what to expect" and "different every time" to keep me engaged while making my autism tingle. if you spy on me with a crystal ball 9/10 times im gonna be doing a run while listening to video essay or pirating aqua teen hunger force on my other monitor

Metroidvania this together with roguelike figuratively makes about 95% of the indie market. the longest games take about 20 hours if youre taking your time, which is a pretty perfect length for a video game adventure. plus i just love the palpable growth your character goes through, its like if leveling up wasnt just numbers

Strategy RPG ive only recently started rekindling my love for the genre but oh what a love it is. i love moving little dudes around a map and slowly wiping everything out with teamwork and creative ability use and ooooough its good stuff. im not gonna show a steam screenshot cuz im kinda embarrassed by how few real srpg games i own on pc, so ill just show you this

(Detective) VNs i have 100%'d every zero escape game, every danganronpa game, and every somnium files game. i will purchase every Too Kyo game once i have an income big enough to justify a $20 purchase without giving me a looming sense of gnawing dread. hypnospace outlaw and paradise killer are some of my favorite games of all time, and the only thing keeping me from saying the same about the silver case games is that i refuse to play a suda51 game without paying the man and im a cheap bitch.

Rhythm/Music what do you expect me to say about this, i listen to a funny song and hit a funny button

Special Mention: Action this is one of those tags thats like 'roleplaying' or 'adventure', in that its so applicable its basically meaningless. but im talking about a specific kind of action where its brutal, fast-paced, violent, flashy and stylish. neon white, hotline miami, katana zero, furi, pizza tower, ultrakill, that kinda thing. if it at all makes you think "this was built to cater to speedrunners but people who speedrun this are fucking insane" then ill dig it

thank you for the ask! i loooooooove sharing my opinions and talking about games and showing off my gaming achievements and ehehehe gamer gamer gamer

[catnip-feathers]

Omori headcanons I felt like sharing lol

Basil’s height is because of genetics, Sunny’s height is because he was a shut-in. Some point after the good ending they realize Basil is just barely one inch taller than Sunny and they both freak out over it.

Aubrey’s weapon of choice is a bat specifically because Mari used to play softball. It has emotional significance to her and she carries it around more as a comfort item than to fight or be intimidating.

Mari’s the kind of person who’s fine with any music. She does have favorites, but doesn’t particularly hate anything.

Hero is very big on safety and organization, and he keeps lists and double-checks everything that might be risky.

Basil tried playing some games because his friends liked it, but couldn’t really get into it much. However he loves Ace Attorney.

Kel loves cartoons, and he would absolutely participate in the brony era, no shame whatsoever. Present-day Kel would have a Rainbow Dash bumper sticker.

Aubrey writes fanfics but she keeps them to herself. She’s actually pretty good at writing, and sometimes shares it with Hero (supposedly to check her grammar but she actually just likes how he genuinely finds it interesting).

Sunny’s voice is just slightly deeper than Kel’s voice. Not sure why but I find it kind of funny.

Mari is actually super competitive. Softball kind of started that for her, and the need to be a good player fed into her perfectionism which affected her other hobbies.

The first couple of photos of the truth album were real. Basil brought his camera with him (yknow how some moms like to take pictures of their kids before they go to some notable event? He had a similar idea) but he did not expect to see what he saw and his shaky hands hit the button a couple times. That’s why they’re blurry, angled oddly, and pointed down. But those photos are long gone, thrown away because why would anyone want to keep that?? Plus, it’s evidence. The truth album itself isn’t real but it was based on those first two photos as a way to make the recollection more coherent.

Aubrey loves fireworks. Kel and Hero’s family always let her set them off during holidays when they were younger. If she invites someone to set off fireworks with her that definitely means she enjoys their company.

Hero never tried to improve at anything athletic because he knew Kel was good at it and wanted him to keep that spotlight. Sometimes he regrets not trying to be a little more active when he can’t keep up with the others, but since his brother has a natural talent for it, he’s perfectly content accepting that one weak spot among his talents.

Sunny knows sign language, but he’s not great with non-manual markers (for anyone who doesn’t know, those are the non-hand movements that are paired with some signs. Stuff like facial expressions, mouth morphemes, head movements, shoulder raising, eyebrow raise/lower, etc.). He’s especially terrible at having to match facial expressions to signs so he just avoids signing emotions other than “fine” and it does not help his case lmao

Mari has a chaotic side and would undeniably win in a prank war. If she had lived through high school, her senior prank would’ve been legendary. And she would never even get suspended, she wouldn’t do something harmful but it would be insane.

[youngerfrankenstein]

force you say something nice... how about game recommendations! Or just games you like?

You got me into ghost trick, psychonauts and to finish the great ace attorney! Currently go through the curious village again thanks to you as well!

You got great taste in games!

Oh! Interesting :D

(Which reminds me I really need to get back to Bug Fables it was really cute I’ve just been doing a lot of game-hopping recently 😅 Which is nice in its own way!)

Hmm. I’ll try to think of games a liiiittle less well known.

First off!

Shadow Hearts is a bit of a strange game in that it is both one of the most stereotypical JRPG’s ever made and one of the most distinctive (at least from what I’ve seen)

A lot of this comes from the setting; Europe shortly before WW1. Albeit in a world very different from the one we live in, since this one has quite a few more monsters. In fact it takes quite a bit from the horror genre, and a lot of its enemy encounters are pretty horrific. The whole game is a blend of creepy and silly, which could easily go bad but it balances them pretty well! The game also plays fast and loose with real historical events and people (one of your party members is technically Mata Hari. No really.) And you travel around fighting demons and trying to protect a young woman being pursued for unknown reasons. (Like I said, JRPG.)

The combat system is also pretty neat! Basically every character and ability hits based on button presses timed to a line swinging around a ring:

Closer to the edge gets you more damage but also if you wait too long you miss the hit. Sort of a risk/reward thing. There are also a bunch of debuffs and items that mess with the ring which can make things easier or harder for you. You also have to manage Sanity Points, which go down every turn and can be used on abilities, but if you run out that character becomes incapacitated.

That’s not even mentioning the music, which is… I’ve heard it described as a mix of Final Fantasy’s music and Silent Hill’s. Somehow both melodic and discordant, but definitely interesting. I may replay this in October actually, it’s a good spooky season game.

There’s definitely some humour that.. isn’t great as well. (Oh boy! I sure do love pervert jokes!)

It’s technically a follow-up to the game Koudelka, and a couple of characters from there show up here. But it’s its own thing and not necessary to play that one at all. I haven’t, though I may try someday. From what I gather it’s a surprisingly well-written and well-acted game with an ungodly mashup of turn-based combat and survival horror for gameplay. There are also two sequels. I’ve played the first which… I still mostly enjoyed. But while I know a lot of people like it better I was not particularly fond of how it went much farther into silly territory and less creepy (though the spider made of human fingers was a neat boss) and as much as I LOVE Joachim and find it funny to have Anastasia Romanov on the team the cast felt weaker. I have not played the third and I hear it is bad.

There is also a spiritual successor coming out… sometime (supposedly next year) called Penny Blood and I’m curious how that will turn out. But overall I really like this one!

Next!

…I am going to be honest, I still do not really understand a lot of the story with this one. It’s here on atmosphere alone.

You play as Ashley Riot, sent in to a dead town to take out a cult and what follows is… something of a hack-n-slash dungeon crawler, but a more slow and methodical one. Part of the game involves crafting your own weapons from the ones you find to best exploit enemy weaknesses and getting your timing right. It is not perhaps the most spectacular, but it can be satisfying.

But you really do play it for the atmosphere. The Shakespeare references, the melodramatic tone, the unsettling feel of the town.

It’s also technically set in Ivalice but that doesn’t really play into anything.

Next!

If I’m being honest, this is a really basic game. With basic gameplay. …But it has SO much charm! You play as a gang of Sky Pirates! Who find a mysterious girl and set off to find out why she had been captured. Again very much genre staples but dang if they ain’t being adhered to with joy. The characters are loveable, the palette colourful and the music lovely! It just feels like a nice world to be in.

You probably won’t be in for much of a surprise, but you’ll probably have fun.

I will say that personally I found the airship battles could get a little slow, but they are there to break things up a bit and, I mean, if you emulate it… (it’s uh. Expensive.) And at least on GameCube the skip button for specials is holding down “z” and you WILL be using it.

Also side note that the GameCube version has some stuff added, including most of the backstory for one of the game’s main villains. So maybe go for that one.

Also!

While I know you’re familiar with this one, still briefly bringing it up.

Don’t play this game while you’re depressed.

The gameplay is kind of neat in how it takes elements from shoot-em-ups in that you have to dodge waves of projectiles while hitting back (albeit much easier) but really this is a game carried by its main characters. The core group are just, really enjoyable to watch, even as worse and worse things happen to them and they do worse and worse things. You want to see them get through things even though this is very much a world where EVERYTHING FUCKING SUCKS. Also some very neat meta writing!

It’s odd because I normally hate things like this. Really bleak tones just lead to me not caring and if characters drop like flies why should I invest in them? …And yet.

But mostly I wanted to bring it up because I’m like 80% convinced that Papa Nier and Monkey from Enslaved: Odyssey to the West have the same character model. That one is a game which I’ll only really recommend to people who want to see Ninja Theory’s earlier work but it’s alright.

Lastly YES! The game propaganda is working >:D (I’m really flattered you think my taste in games is good!!!)

Edit: GRANDIA!

Honestly similar comments to Skies of Arcadia it’s just very fun and colourful!

[echthr0s]

tagged by @longeyelashedtragedy

1. Do you make your bed? Absolutely not. I also sit on my bed during the day, but even if I didn't I never really saw the point. Also, in my opinion a bed should have a chance to air out when it's not being used.

2. Favourite number? Nine and nineteen. Mainly nineteen, for Reasons. Those are the two numbers I use whenever I need a number for literally anything.

3. What's your job? Full-time dilettante, desire deity, and begrudging PR agent for the Earth-facing facet of the Laudarant Configuration.

4. If you could go back to school would you? Much like the person who tagged me, I am not at all suited for a school environment. I do love to learn and I could even love to learn in a small group setting with likeminded individuals (this would be nice for stuff like languages, which kind of requires the social element), but school is not for me. I do like it when other people go to school and then tell me all the stuff they learned, though. I get all the benefit and none of the bullshit!

5. Can you parallel park? Of the very few things I know about driving, how to parallel park is not one of them. And no, I am not at all interested, it seems awful. Driving in general seems awful, in this country in this day and age. Proud to be a passenger/pubtrans princess ✊🏿

6. Do you think aliens are real? Do I think life exists on at least one other planet? lmao of fucking course, like... statistically speaking, the math maths Do I think it's life like in Mars Attacks or The Day The Earth Stood Still or the MCU or whatever? Most likely not. But I also believe in the multiverse, which is immensely more complex of a concept than just the idea of sapient life on another planet in the same universe, so... you know, maybe. Maybe!

7. Can you drive a manual car? See #5.

8. Guilty pleasure? Guilt? In my me? It's not as likely as you think. Or likely at all.

9. Tattoos? The number 19 in Roman numerals with a spider on my wrist, the Mannaz rune on the back of my hand, and "scully, it's me" on the inside of my elbow. All on my right arm.

10. Favourite colour? Yellow. Pink is a close second. Really, I think they just share the first place spot, because I do what I want.

11. Favourite type of music? Metal is technically my favourite genre, since so many bands and songs I love fall under that umbrella. But there's so much music out there that gets me that it feels restrictive and reductive to just name a favourite genre and leave all those other ones out in the rain. I have no idea how to answer this question otherwise, though! My favourite type of music is my favourite type of music. You know?

12. Do you like puzzles? I like jigsaw puzzles and logic puzzles (not nearly as good at these as I was as a child, but they're still fun) and fill-ins (constructed like a crossword but instead of solving clues to find out what the words are, you're given the words themselves and have to figure out where in the puzzle they fit) and... that's about it, really. When I'm playing a video game, I hate puzzles, lmao. They're always so annoying (at best).

13. Any phobias? None.

14. Favourite childhood sport? I did not enjoy participating in sports, ever, but my favourite sport to watch when I was a child was figure skating. In fact, it still is. But I was super autistic about it back then, when I didn't know what masking was and wasn't bogged down with adult nonsense.

15. Do you talk to yourself? Occasionally, but mostly I talk to Can Calah and whomever else is hanging around in the Configuration. To other people, that'd just look like I'm talking to myself, so I guess it counts by way of perception.

16. What movies do you adore? laughing about the fact that prev said "I'm not a huge movies person" and then went on to name about 25 movies (I understand, it's just funny)

I am a huge movies person and I have a Letterboxd account, so here are all the movies I've hit the "Like" button on (my highest honour): Liked Films There are a few on there that are outdated, like I watched them in like 2014 and loved them then but I probably wouldn't feel the same way now (like, I see Chappie on there and I'm like "hm. really?" it's probably fun and all but I can't imagine it's Like worthy :V), but mostly it's accurate.

17. Tea or coffee? Tea. I do enjoy coffee, I just find tea to be the superior beverage.

18. First thing you wanted to be growing up? how on earth would I remember this 💀 I do remember wanting to be an environmentalist when I was a middle schooler, though. I used to badger my father about recycling batteries and shit like that.

[slapegg]

Some Thoughts About… Itorah

I knew almost nothing about this game going in. It looked like a Wonder Boy style game, it had great art, and it was affordable, so that seemed like a winning combination. This game is beautiful. The art, the colors, and the lighting! The animation is nice and smooth. The music is tranquil without being boring. It tells a good story and it’s dramatic when it needs to be but funny when it needs to be. It’s lovely to just exist in this game’s world.

The bad… man, this game does not control great. Movement isn’t fluid. It’s really hard to make fine adjustments in the air. Your character keeps trying to drop down platforms when you don’t want to her to. Sometimes you just...don’t dodge when you press the button. Sometimes she grabs onto rings in the environment and other times she just falls right through them. Sometimes you bounce off bouncy things and other times you pass through them. Sometimes you can grab platforms and sometimes you fall through them. The game has a problem with your character falling through the ground. You might just pass through a moving platform, causing you to fall into a pit, and then when you respawn, your character falls through the spot you respawned on and you have to respawn again. Your health can drop very quickly through no fault of your own.

Either the tutorial for sliding on ramps is wrong or it just rarely works (I can do it when landing on the ramp from a jump but that’s it, but the tutorial just says you have to press Down+R2).

You can’t use the Dpad to move so it’s a finicky platformer and you’re trying to control it with an analogue stuck.

There’s a delay from when you press the button and when the character attacks, and if an enemy hits you, it cancels your attack. So there are a lot of cases where you press the button, you expect to have hit the enemy but it keeps moving, so it bumps into you, you try to attack again, but it bumps into you again and you take extra hits. Plus, every so often your character does a critical hit, but it’s even slower so you’re just more likely to get hit by the enemy. I never found the crits useful since you can’t control them so I just wanted a way to turn them off.

The camera doesn’t move smoothly. It’s very juttery so turning around and jumping quickly are very unpleasant due to how the camera stutters. The camera moves out ahead as you run and then moves back to your when you stop, but that means the camera is almost always in a state of moving out or coming back and since it doesn’t move smoothly, it’s bad. Real bad. Like, strain your eyes and you need to take breaks bad.

The camera is in so close that you regularly can’t see enemies you’re trying to fight, coupled with flying enemies being designed to run away off-screen when hit, or you’re doing a lot of leaps of faith because you can’t see platforms under you. If you have to give the player manual control of the camera in a 2D platformer, your camera is too close.

Almost all of the tutorial messages are broken and don’t display the buttons for your new moves. So you’ll get a new ability and then just have to press every button to figure out how to actually use it. If you get stuck in the fire dungeon, the uppercut is Up+Triangle while in the air. Would have saved a whole lot of frustration if you game could tell you that because the move’s description does not make it sound like it’s an uppercut so you don’t have any clues about what the new move does or how to activate it.

You can’t mark your map and roadblocks don’t get symbols on the map. This makes it hard to tell where you’ve been/what routes are now open to you after getting a new power to find upgrade collectibles. There isn’t a fast travel system either, so if you missed an item, well, have fun running through the entire area all over again (hint: don’t do that, it’s not worth it).

The title screen has a version number on it, but it’s not even 1.0.0. Maybe the game is just... unfinished and that’s why all the control and camera issues are here?

The upgrade system is a bit half baked. To unlock an upgrade, you need currency and a unique collectible for that type (one item can be used to either give you more healing charges or stronger healing and the other can get you more health or more stamina). However, currency isn’t an issue until you’re about two-thirds of the way through the game. The good news is that chests give you enough currency that you probably don’t really have to fight most enemies because they drop really piddly amounts of monies. The bad news is that finding chests winds up being a disappointment for most of them. Oh hey, more money, that I already have thousands of but I need some collectibles so stop giving me crystals and give me a danged feather already! But once you hit the tipping point, you suddenly find yourself having collectibles but needing thousands more currency and no way to get it outside of grinding the piddly amounts enemies drop. I finished the game several thousand monies short for the final upgrades and your typical enemy drops 2-4 money.

Itorah is what modern platformers have become, but it’s not a good one of those. It’s mostly linear since you’re being guided to a set location and if you stray too far, your path is blocked by an ability you don’t have yet, but there are still little nooks and crannies to explore that award currencies used to upgrade your character. It’s less grandiose than your Symphony of the Nights but far more interesting than your New Super Marios.

I could only play it for an hour or so a day. Any more than that and the bad camera started to hurt my eyes and all the control problem just made me too frustrated to have fun. I think the slower pace helps the game actually. Just take your time, take in the sights, and enjoy inhabiting that world for a bit.

I’d say wait for fixes for the control and camera problems, but the developers put up an announcement before the game even came out on consoles that they were closing the studio, so who knows if any updates are going to come. I really, really want to encourage people to play the game for the art and atmosphere, but in it’s current state, it’s just not fun to play. It’s a real bummer to say it because I want to like this game, but I recommend people just stay away from Itorah.

[xhashaseed]

- Its meaningless to live, so live with meaning ...

[WARNING - PLEASE READ BEFORE CONTINUING -]

Before you continue to read this, please know that I am in a healthy place. It's because I am writing things like I am about to, that I am okay. I understand that this stuff can be disturbing to some people, so let me warn you now, this is a musing on nihilism, existentialism, and absurdism. It is not a cry for help but more of a trumpet of hope and love. Regardless of whether you are sensitive to such subjects, skip this post; I'll be back to my usual fare after this.

[WARNING OVER ---]

Why fucking bother?

What's the point?

I'm going to die.

I will be forgotten.

There are no, will be no, monuments in my name. I'm barely even a speck in the world. I didn't win the genetic lottery, I never got hit with that streak of luck. I will never be a superstar, world leader, famous artist, great warrior, or recognized philosopher. Everyone around me reaps more significant rewards and gains more fame for the same things I am doing, and I fall deeper into obscurity as every year rolls by. I am, by the world's standard, mediocrity incarnate.

I am nothing. But I was nothing to begin with. Before I lived, I was nothing, and to nothingness, I will return. Is that so bad? It's funny, to be honest. If immortality is being remembered after you are gone, this, too, is futile. The people who remember will die. My records will decay. All that finds me in the end is Oblivion itself. I am a scratchmark on a piece of paper drawn by an artist, who grew frustrated with it, crumpled up the paper, and threw it into the waste bin.

Would life be any better if it had an undo/redo button? I argue at the same futility. The outcome doesn't change. Let's say I DID become a superstar and lived a life of money, power, and fame. Let's say I became the most loved person on the planet. Let's say I "won" the game of life. Did I win the game of living?

Did the insect I squished the other day reflect on my cosmic social score? Am I a good person because I said "good morning" the other day to someone who looked depressed? I draw pictures people may find amateurish and weak. I write stories with questionable grammar. I compose music of possible quality. I contribute very little to observable reality. Yet here I sit. Trying to make sense of my loneliness and insignificance.

I can only perceive the world through my own eyes like I'm some sort of trapped god unable to bend reality to my will. I cannot honestly know if this world is real, and I cannot honestly know if the people I talk to indeed exist. I am alone in a sea of billions and billions more after I am gone.

So why do I exist? Why bother with the meaning of a game where there are no winners or losers? Why live a life of bland experience. If I cannot become "great" why not just cease to be?

Tomorrow ...

There is always tomorrow ...

And this isn't just some words of hope to myself. I am curious to see how this goofy little life I was given will officially pan out. In a constellation of stars, remarkable heroes, and villains, why was I chosen to see life through the eyes of "just some person" who means nothing? If forums and other social media are to be believed, there are people out there who seek out these types of games and stories.

"I don't want to be the hero, I just want to be some guy..." I will read it sometimes, and laugh. If I am the "not-hero" in my own story, and I can only read it, feel it, through my own body and eyes, like a very open-ended chose-your-own-adventure story, then why not just keep reading?

I should have died a few times I can count. I should have been in prison for a few others. I should be worse off as often as I should have been better off. Upon this thought, I laugh even harder because I am trying to figure out by which standard I am measuring this? The people who I cannot say if they too exist or not? Myself? Why should I feel discontent when nothing is meaningful to measure my success or failure?

There is always tomorrow. You don't know how this lousy movie might end. It could wrap all of this up with one conclusion. I can only watch it once. I can only celebrate successes and failures once. This is a hardcore, one-life-only, let' s-play, and I am the audience.

As self-absorbed as it sounds, I should only be entertaining myself. I like stories that feel good. I like stories where people laugh and cry, love is pure, and villains can be turned into friends. These are the stories I want, so I will keep living to tell that story until I run out of batteries. I may not be a rock star, but I'm still having fun. Even when I am sad and depressed, it is a sweet feeling. I want to see how my story ends, not because I switched off the power, but because I one hundred percent-ed it and got my special ending.

"Xhasha Seed" - 8/25/2024

[bosssmg]

How To Get 40 Kills & Victory In Every Game - Best Rebirth Island Loadout | Boss SMG

How To Get 40 Kills & Victory In Every Game - Best Rebirth Island Loadout | Boss SMG https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5y8uXlwKzrg Looking to dominate Rebirth Island? In this video, I share the best loadout to get more kills and secure the win! Watch as I rack up 40 kills and lead my team to victory with this unbeatable setup. First, I'll break down the optimal loadout, including the best weapons, attachments, perks, and equipment to maximize your kill count and survivability. This loadout is designed to give you an edge in close-quarters combat and high-intensity situations common on Rebirth Island. Next, I'll provide gameplay tips and strategies to help you maximise this loadout. From positioning and map awareness to movement and engagement tactics, you'll learn to outplay your opponents and dominate every match. Throughout the video, you'll see highlights from a high-kill game in which I achieved 40 kills using this loadout. Watch and learn as I demonstrate the power and effectiveness of this setup in real-time, offering insights and commentary on my decision-making process. This video is about How To Get 40 Kills & Victory In Every Game - Best Rebirth Island Loadout. But It also covers the following topics: Rebirth Island 40 Kills Rebirth Island Tips Call Of Duty Rebirth Loadout Video Title: How To Get 40 Kills & Victory In Every Game - Best Rebirth Island Loadout | Boss SMG 🔔Looking for non-stop laughs and epic gaming action? Subscribe to Boss SMG for side-splitting jokes, intense gaming showdowns, and the wildest moments! https://www.youtube.com/@bosssmg9615/?sub_confirmation=1 🔗 Stay Connected With Me. 👉Twitch: https://ift.tt/htoFO07 ============================= ✅ Other Videos You Might Be Interested In Watching: 👉 When Gamers Lose It: The Funniest Rage Ever Caught Live! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7tt-ryWxWo 👉 Just Logged In & Already Getting Trolled 😂 | Gaming Gone Wild! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4T_8Q8UGaNo&t=32s 👉 Epic Fails & Savage Clutch: Gaming With The Boys! Gaming Shenanigans https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXEwv2jlHJU 👉 CALL OF DUTY MW3 - watch me destroy this team callofduty https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-_vJIHFMNk ============================= ✅ About Boss SMG. Welcome to Boss SMG, your go-to destination for top-tier comedy and gaming content! Get ready to laugh till you cry with hilarious skits and dive into epic gaming adventures. From side-splitting jokes to intense gaming showdowns, I've got it all here! Remember to SUBSCRIBE for epic gaming content, funny videos, and my journey through the wildest gaming moments. Join me for daily entertainment, and remember to smash that like button. Get ready to boss up your day with Boss smg—where comedy meets gaming excellence! 🔔 Ready to level up your gaming entertainment? Don't miss the epic gaming content, fun, and unforgettable moments—hit that subscribe button now for this wild ride! https://www.youtube.com/@bosssmg9615/?sub_confirmation=1 ================================= #rebirthisland #warzone #callofduty #gamingtips #loadout #bosssmg ⚠️Disclaimer: I do not accept any liability for any loss or damage incurred from you acting or not acting as a result of watching any of my publications. You acknowledge that you use the information I provide at your own risk. Do your research. Copyright Notice: This video and my YouTube channel contain dialogue, music, and images that are the property of Boss SMG. You are authorized to share the video link and channel and embed this video in your website or others as long as a link back to my YouTube channel is provided. © Boss SMG via Boss smg https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVRXdRMk6p9kblfy5iqH77w May 20, 2024 at 12:57AM

[owlixx]

Games I’ve Booted Up Lately (GBA/Wii)

I’ve been kind of between activities since the road trip last weekend so I haven’t really haven’t gotten back on my Twilight Princess play through properly. Since I got a new old original GBA in addition to my modded GBA SP, I’ve been booting up lots of GBA games but also some Wii zapper games because of my arcade visit.

1. Nerf N strike - I remember playing this as a kid and I did try the multiplayer a few months ago but I wanted to see the story mode. Seems like it’s just a series of multiplayer mini games against the AI or a against a target score strung together by low budget cutscenes. Still, I find this game charming for what it is.

2. Nerf N Strike Elite - I assumed this would basically be the first game, but it’s much more of a fleshed out rail shooter instead of a light gun minigame collection. I was honestly kind of impressed by the in depth gun customization. My main issue is that it requires a red lens decoder to solve some puzzles and I just have to guess those. This might be a decent time in coop, certainly more straightforward than the first game.

3. Golden 007 - I tried playing this with Wii zapper and honestly found it uncomfortable with how many buttons are involved in playing this game. The accessory really isn’t built for needing to hit any buttons on top of the controller. Playing with a knockoff pro classic controller wasn’t much better, but maybe it’s because my third party controller was cheap or the sensitivity was wrong. I’ve never seen another game tell me at the end of a level “sorry you didn’t do all the objectives so you can only continue on easy mode”. Seems like a bizarre game design choice, I wasn’t even aware of this other objective. Kind of funny that the original game was supposed to be a rail shooter.

4. Ghost Squad - saw this but didn’t play it at the arcade, but I had played just a short bit a few months ago. Definitely shines in coop. Died on the third (and final?) stage because my coop partner dropped out and I was trying to dual wield Wii zappers unsuccessfully. Excited to play arcade mode and level up to unlock new guns, and also to show my partner the very silly water gun and bikinis mode.

5. The Wii U menu played a special song for my birthday, and that honestly meant a lot

6. Okay I did play a bit of twilight princess - beat the temple of time and hoofed it back and forth between Hyrule castle and kakriko, which I am still in the midst of

7. Yoshi topsy turvy - I had this as a kid and was kind of ambivalent on it then. I think I still am now, but it was just neat to get to play it for the first time since then, even if reconfigured to use L/R instead of tilt controls (which removes some of the charm). Just the menus and music and UI really brings me back

8. Super Mario Advance 3: Yoshi’s Island - I had played the first level or two of this before, but playing it on a real GBA highlights just how impressive and expressive the graphics and animation are. This game looks and plays and sounds really well and I need to dive in further before too long.

9. CIMA: The Enemy - someone said this game had a good soundtrack, and I wanted to test my ability to hook up my GBA to speakers. The OST didn’t blow me away but I also saved and quit before I got to the first combat. Reviews for this game seem pretty mixed in the escort mission nature, so I likely won’t return too much.

10. Ultimate Card Games - again, OST came recommended and it delivered the goods. I’m terrible at solitaire, the game I decided to try, but this game’s UI honestly kind of impressed

11. Warioware - not unfamiliar to me, but all the more charming on a smaller, dimmer screen. Feels really tailored for the GBA and especially the original GBA, especially in contrast with the GameCube port.

12. Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance - again, not unfamiliar to me but the blue outlines on enemies and the player really pops on the dim screen. And that main overworld music is so good.

13. Konami GB Collection - just played this version of Gradius because of my new casual interest in shmups. Lots of slowdown but kind of cute.

14. Star Sigma Saga - this game was featured in my first ever Nintendo power issue, which I reread many times over the years, so it holds a special place in my heart for that. I never know it was way forward! I died on my first attempt at the tutorial so I was just happy to beat that part. Not super likely to return to this since I hear the whole game has pretty unforgiving checkpoints, but neat to finally play.

15. Donkey Kong ‘94 - funny, I was playing this just before Mario Vs donkey Kong got announced. Fun use of my GBA’s ability to display Super Game Boy borders/colors and just a fun game in general, especially as a long lost predecessor to my childhood fav MvDK.

16. F zero maximum velocity - played because of the OST recommendation, not because of the battle royale announcement actually. I like f zero alright but I need a second play to play more than a track or two at a time.

17. Kirby’s Dream Land - just been using this to test original GB games, feels right at home on my dimmer original GBA compared to my modded SP

18. Silent Scope - I just think it’s funny that they even made a GBA port of this. It’s surprisingly good honestly and I’d like to beat it someday but I’m honestly kind of bad at it once it starts to pick up. Definitely not a lot of discourse about this version of this game online so I like the idea of kind of adopting it as my own.

[whumpcloud]

Delicate - Games

masterlist

content: (institutionalised) pet whump, carewhumper, angst mostly?

"Sir, isn't that uncomfortable?"

Elio opens his eyes and the world swims due to all the blood that's rushed to his head from sitting upside-down on the sofa. Peter is standing above him, biting his bottom lip like he always does.

"Nah," Elio says. "I'm so bored."

"Maybe you could do something?" Peter suggests. "Instead of sitting around being bored?"

Elio grins, an actually genuine smile for once. "Usually your snarky shit annoys me, but that was pretty funny."

Peter blinks. "I… I wasn't being snarky, Sir. I was only making a suggestion. Please don't take my words the wrong way."

Elio rolls his eyes. "And then you make it less fun. Ugh."

Peter doesn't understand what Sir expects of him at all. He decides not to say anything else.

Elio rights himself, and leans back on the sofa. "Hey, Pete, have you ever played a video game?"

Sir has taken to calling him 'Pete' lately, which is nice in a way Peter isn't sure he can describe. It's a nickname, but it isn't like other nicknames he's been given. Peter isn't really sure what to make of it, but… it is nice.

"I haven't, but I know what they are," Peter says. "Master thought games were a waste of time, so I haven't had the opportunity."

"What did he do for fun then?" Elio asks, stretching his fingers. "You make him sound like the most miserable bastard."

"He… um, he played violin, Sir," Peter replies, fighting the urge to sink to his knees, knowing that isn't expected of him anymore and Sir will only be bothered by it. "And piano. He was classically trained. And he baked. And…"

Peter trails off, sensing the lack of interest.

"Ugh." Elio hits his head off the pillows. "He sounds boring."

"...I liked it, Sir," Peter mumbles, even though he knows it doesn't matter.

"I'm gonna show you something actually fun," Elio says, and jumps up from the sofa, shaking Peter off when he has to take a second to steady himself. "M'fine, just got up too quick."

Elio jogs over to the television, and turns it on, fidgeting with some machines and buttons that Peter doesn't understand. Eventually, the screen shows a brightly coloured menu and the television blares music.

"What's… Super Smash Brothers Ultimate?" Peter asks.

"It's a fighting game," Elio says, handing Peter a controller. "We pick characters and our characters beat each other up."

"I- I have to fight you?" Peter says, unsure. "I… I don't think I like this game, Sir…"

Elio groans and rolls his eyes again. "Come on. You're not fighting me for real. Get over yourself."

Peter fidgets with the buttons on the controller. "Sorry, Sir."

Elio doesn't give him a response and just sits back down. "Come on, I'll show you how to play."

Peter sits cross-legged at Elio's feet, and Elio flicks him on the back of the head, ignoring his little surprised whimper.

"Sit on the couch," Elio says.

"I think I'd like to sit here," Peter mumbles.

"Why do you always insist on sitting on the floor?" Elio sighs. "Seriously, Pete, you're not gonna get in trouble for being on the couch. Don't be stupid."

Peter bites his lip again and speaks a little louder. "I think I'd like to sit here, Sir."

Elio narrows his eyes, but just for a moment, before pressing a couple buttons. "Fine, have it your way. Pick a character. You won't know them but just pick one."

Peter opens his mouth to speak, but Elio interrupts him.

"I'm not gonna pick one for you," Elio says.

Peter shuts his mouth.

There's too many, and Sir isn't picking one yet, so he can't just pick one that's similar. Peter fidgets with the controller, figuring out that the left stick will make the little hand move from box to box, and he thinks that means he's doing it right. He eventually hovers over one, and presses buttons until it seems to select.

"Jigglypuff?" Elio says, and Peter isn't sure if he's saying it in a good way or a bad way. "Alright."

Elio picks Bayonetta and starts the game. Peter seems to be glancing between him and the television, and Elio leans down so that he can hold his controller close to Peter's.

"Hold it like this," Elio says, and watches Peter adjust his grip. "Okay, so…"

Peter clearly tries his hardest to listen as Elio explains what all the buttons do. It seems simple enough, though each time he tries to replicate something Elio does, he fumbles over it.

"It's not that hard, come on," Elio sighs. "Try again."

"It's hard for me, Sir," Peter says quietly, his nails digging into the controller. "I haven't done this before. I'm trying my best."

Elio sighs again, but it isn't a frustrated sigh, this time. "Fine. Sorry. I'm being pushy. You're trying. Just give it a shot, alright? Try to hit me."

It is a direct order, but Peter still turns to him for approval when Peter nervously lands an attack.

"Did- Did I do it right?" Peter asks, but Elio knows he's really asking did I do something wrong?

"Yeah, Pete, you got it," Elio says, offering a tired smile. "I'll go easy on you. You just gotta hit me until I fly off the screen, or knock me off the edge. Sound good?"

"Yes, Sir," Peter nods. "I'll try."

Obviously Peter isn't any good at it, but he does try his best, and Elio supposes he can't really fault Peter for that. Besides, Peter does seem to get more comfortable as they play, and stops hesitating when fighting. He even manages to knock Elio off a platform, once.

"Oh, hey, good job," Elio says, nudging Peter with his foot.

Peter looks up at Elio with desperation in his eyes. "I did a good job?"

Elio pauses. Is that the first time he's said something like that to Peter? The look on Peter's face seems to say yes.

"Uh," Elio stammers. "Yeah, uh, that was good. You're getting better."

Peter beams. "Thank you, Sir!"

Elio makes a mental note to try to… praise Peter more. He hates that word and that idea, but Peter has seemed absolutely fucking miserable lately, and it's the tiniest thing he can do to make this situation more bearable for the both of them.

Peter thinks he likes video games.

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