#but no we have to fucking 'modernize' the game. come back in 20 years and the entire point of this endeavor will have been moot

[skaruresonic]

SH2 remake defense posts are giving me actual flashbacks to IDW stans going "don't ruin my enjoyment, you're personally harassing me and this is why we can't have nice things" and making strawmen of your concerns while also missing the point of the criticism by a mile. The wording and sentiments are exactly the same.

I wonder if this is just how fandom is now, where criticism is considered toxic regardless of what you say, how you say it, or in what quantity. Shut up and enjoy Product(tm), you're harshing my buzz.

[hoshigray]

𝐏𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐞 𝐋𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐌𝐞 [𝐍𝐎𝐓]!! | a JJK series

𝐒𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐒𝐲𝐧𝐨𝐩𝐬𝐢𝐬: “GO FUCK YOURSELF, SATORU GOJO!” “BETTER THAN FUCKING YOU!” It’s no secret to anyone on this Earth that you and Gojo cannot stand each other. Despite that, the world seems amused to put these two star-crossed lovers haters in the same space. Or worse, have them dwell deeper into their feelings for one another…

𝐖𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬: Gojo x fem/afab! reader - explicit content; minors DNI - modern + college AU - frenemies to lovers + mutual pining - fluff + angst + misunderstandings - first kiss - virginity loss - Gojo and reader are at least age 20 - secret relationships; implied friends-with-benefits - sex in shared rooms; college dorms + hotel suite - college parties - use of party games (seven minutes in heaven) - confessions - mention of drug/alcohol abuse - humor bc Gojo and college, lol - Gojo is a cocky, tactless sweetheart, nothing new - cameos of other characters + explicit content will be listed in their respective fics (within the contents).

𝐀𝐮𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐫'𝐬 𝐍𝐨𝐭𝐞: when I say that I had this series planned out, I mean like mid-October last year planned out, lmaoo!! I'm honestly so psyched to do this series, as it's one of my favorite tropes + relatively short as I'll be busy irl, but we'll do what we can!! i was lowkey feeling this concept when i was re-watching Ranma 1/2 and figured it would work great with Gojo. So, here's to hoping i can properly execute my thoughts with this series, hehehe~

reblogs + comments are appreciated wholeheartedly ❤︎ gif header made by me + fic dividers used are provided by the wonderful @cafekitsune and @animatedglittergraphics-n-more!!

𝑳𝒐𝒗𝒆 𝑰𝒔 𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑨𝒊𝒓...

All the material below contains explicit 18+ content, so minors do not interact.

₊˚⊹♡ 𝐒𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧 𝐇𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐡 𝐌𝐢𝐧𝐮𝐭𝐞𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐇𝐞𝐚𝐯𝐞𝐧 (Feb 1st)

The start of the spring semester is supposed to be fresh and new, not be cramped up in a closet with your frenemy at a party! And what's worse: you actually like the feeling of his lips on yours!?

₊˚⊹♡ 𝐇𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐋𝐢𝐤𝐞, 𝐋𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐇𝐨𝐥𝐝 (Feb 7th)

Is it possible to wish to be in the embrace of someone who makes you want to throw them off a cliff? You seem to think so, and the same goes for Gojo. But alas, good things always come to an end, even when not meant to be...

₊˚⊹♡ 𝐒𝐮𝐝𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐥𝐲, 𝐈 𝐇𝐚𝐝 𝐚 𝐕𝐚𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐞 (Feb 14th)

Going on a date with the guy who broke your heart is something you’d never thought would happen – especially on Valentine’s Day! But it’s just for him to be in your good graces again, nothing more…Yeah, go ahead and tell yourself that.

𝑨 𝑳𝒐𝒗𝒆 𝑳𝒆𝒕𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒀𝒐𝒖!

Would you like to be tagged when these pieces get released? Lmk in the replies, please, and thank you!

𝑻𝑨𝑮 𝑳𝑰𝑺𝑻 𝑪𝑳𝑶𝑺𝑬𝑫!!! Have made a list of the first 50 ppl who asked, but don't worry!! Check back for the stories when they're posted on their respective dates!!

© 𝐇𝐨𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐲2024 ❤︎ These stories have been written by the original poster (me). Do not steal, edit, copy/plagiarize, or post any of my works on your own accounts, in or out of this app. Please and thank you.

[magicdustsworld]

Redemption

Levi Ackerman x Fem!Reader

Synopsis: For you, freedom comes in the form of college life. However, soon you come to realize that tethering liberating steps for way too long will get you to situations you don't want to be in.

Tropes: Professor/Student, explicit smut

Warnings: profanity, age gap (Reader is in early 20s, Levi is in his early to mid 30s), drug abuse, smoking, alcoholism, implied nudity and blackmail, body shot, toxic college life, toxic friendship dynamics, college/modern AU, no mentions if y/n.

Word count: 3.6k

Event: submission for levievent under the prompt of day 10 - age differences.

A/N: after a lot of contemplation, I have decided to let it be a two-shot series. The next part will contain filthy smut, hopefully updated by tomorrow and pls excuse any mistakes on this part, my laptop broke down so I had to type it on my phone. Hope you enjoy!

Divider credits - @cafekitsune

|NEXT|

This isn't supposed to be happening.

You aren't supposed to be bend over your professor's desk, skirt raised up and have your cunt pulsating over his cock like a damn virgin.

He clicks his tongue, "Filthy brat," tightening his hold over your binded wrists as his pelvis smacks against yours in a uniform rhythm. "Don’t tell me you're cumming so soon. We haven't even started yet."

Your cheek rests on the hard mahogany desk, polished and clean as your eyes roll back from the way his cock just hits your g-spot with every thrust. The drool runs down your lips, too lust drunk to care and too traversed beyond reality to give him a verbal answer as he continues to assault your puffy folds with his shaft. Slick runs down your thighs, dripping on the floor as the room reeks with the combined juices of your arousal. He reaches down, pressing his thumb on your swollen bud and you're sent over the edge.

Shit!

How did this happen?

.

You have been caged your whole life.

Therefore, when freedom came knocking at your door, you didn't have any second thoughts from breaking free of the chains that binded you to a gilded cage. For you, freedom came in the form of college life.

If anyone from your highschool years saw you now, they wouldn't be able to recognize you with the 180 degree turn in personality, makeover and peer choices. A complete change. The most significant change could be your schedule. While you were living under the stern gaze of your parents, you had a timetable to maintain which prescribed when and how you should be present at particular places. That timetable was taken, crumbled up and thrown in the trashcan as soon as you got the gist of dormitory life. Besides, with your peers indulging in situations they shouldn't be, why should you hold back? (Like c'mon, you need to live your life as well)

Previously, you'd spend Friday nights in the confines of your bedroom while blasting your favourite playlist in your earphones and doing your homework. Now, the same music would boom but you are swaying your hips to it, bopping yourself and getting lost in the game of dance under the neon lights of the frat house. Red cups and beer pongs would escalate, which you readily partook in with the addition of forgettable one night stands. You told yourself that you liked the air of random hook ups while you were high, for it left you guessing that which brother of the fraternity you had fucked or not. While vodka and a night of reprieve was one thing, you looked forward to the coke. The very coke which once inhaled, made the euphoria burst in your system while ecstasy took over and you'd find yourself falling under the spell of intoxication.

Mind blank as a canvas and too high on serotonin levels, the fog of inebriation would cloud your eyes and you'd get lost in another midnight rhapsody. Can you blame yourself? College is meant for trying out all the pleasures of life, right? A hub for fuck boys and girls seeking validation from each other by fucking their daylights out. The minority who inclined themselves to academics were clearly missing out on all the joys life had to offer.

However, you didn't know that your favourite coke would be the reason of your downfall.

Maybe, you should have known better.

No– of course, you should have known better.

What were you thinking?

You should have stayed inside that night instead of going out to the same frat house, when you had an important physical chemistry exam the next day.

As far as you can remember, you were paired with a jock of the football team for flip cup. Although, hazed memories you noted the strawberry blond hair styled back and amber eyes. Maybe his name was John? Or Jean? Whatever, you only remember winning the game and getting your hands on the coke. Sooner than anyone had the time to comprehend, you were lining the powder on your finger edge and inhaling it generously.

Did it not raise a series of ooh's and aah's from the onlookers?

Like all the previous nights, your eyes were open wide with the crimson tint staining your sclera as you got lost in the ebullient maelstrom. Combined with the alcohol already running in your system, it didn't take long for the waves to crash ove. In this reverie you didn't realize when you were situated on the table, with grains of salt being sprinkled over your navel by your partner. He dipped his head down– mouth filled with tequila– swirling and lapping the warm muscle over your skin, feasting on the granules and you didn't even care with all your senses falling numb.

Anyone can guess what would be the outcome of attending an exam when the after effects of the powder fails to cease. With a pounding headache and being unaware of most of the answers, you can't say you were surprised to see your grade.

The capital F beside your name stares back at you from the mark list.

.

"Can't be that bad."

"It is."

"Not so," Your friend giggles, raking her fingers through her ash-blond hair. "It's only one exam, cheer up."

You bit your inner cheek, heaving a deep sigh. "This exam marks forty percect of my overall grade, Hitch. And with the way, my marks have gone down the drain, I don't think I'll even be able to pass this year."

That's an honest concern on your part because the final report would be sent to your parents as well and if they ever saw you failing one class, you don't know what hell they'll raise. Besides, the excuses of sickness and tougher lessons can only be used so far. (Plus, your heart thumped in your chest with the thought if they ever find out about this new lifestyle of yours... let's not think about it).

"You know," Hitch muses, leaning back on her Chair as she blows a strawberry bubblegum in her mouth. " You can ask for extra credit."

"Yeah sure," You don't bother to hide sarcastic tone, rolling your eyes and choosing to rest your chin on top of your palm. "There's no chance."

She raises an eyebrow, "Why not?"

"It's professor Ackerman," That almost comes out as a whine. "He is ruthless as he is, always with the poker look on his face and I can swear he won't even smile at a clown." 

A sheepish smile curls up her lips but before she can speak, you start again.

"Plus, I am already on his bad books. Do you think he'll be all unicorns and rainbows when I ask for credits?" You fold your hand over your chest, gritting your teeth as if the cause of your predicament is the man in question; he isn't but you need something to get off your vexation. "That's straight up walking in a lion's den and I am sure he will come for my head."

"Oh, girl..." She sighs, interlocking her fingers together and perching them over the tabletop. "But why would he even do that when you will give him a show?"

That catches your interest, "a show?"

"A show," She nods, the upper pair of her teeth is revealed as she smiles, waving her finger in a circular motion in the air. "Just follow my advice."

.

You have never heard an advice as bad as that.

Correction:

You have never found yourself following an advice as bad as that.

Still, you find yourself here. Outside your professor's office, gazing at the ivory sign engraved with the obsidian lettering – Levi Ackerman, while you contemplate on how much this plan can go wrong. (In your opinion, 100%).

However, you are desperate and your desperation has brought you here. So why not...?

You knock on the door. Once. Twice. Stating your name as you suck in a deep breath, squaring your shoulders.

Please don't let it be long.

A deep voice reverberates from inside, "State your business."

"I would... like to discuss about my grades. May I come in, sir?"

"Yes."

You breath in, the knob turns and you set a foot inside.

"Remember," Hitch says, crossing one of her leg over the another. "You gotta look desperate." The tilt of your head and parting of your lips, garners her to explain more. "The first two," She snaps her fingers to the collar of your shirt, "Unbuttoned."

"What?!" On instinct, you fold your hand over your chest, twisting your torso in the opposite direction. "Are you out of your mind?"

"You want to increase your grades or not?"

"I do but–"

"No buts," The girl shushes you with a finger over your lips. "You want to get your way through college, you follow me. Got that?"

Left with no choice, you find yourself nodding.

The clicks of your heel seems to echo in the vast expanse of his office. It's almost afternoon and the orange glow of the setting sun pours into the space marring it with the similar hues. Late classes are adjourned for the day as the marks were announced. On top of that, its Friday. Therefore, regular classes would be starting after the weekend. The campus is almosy empty except a few staff and students lurking around the corners; a perfect opportunity to follow the plan.

Your find your professor to be seated across his desk, engrossed in reading a file while a pen is nestled between his thumb and pointer. As soon as he is aware of your presence, he looks up at you.

Instead of halting, a good distance away from his desk, you are walking up to it. Letting yourself stop within a meter of his proximity.

"What do you need to discuss?"

Prompt and straight to the point—as expected.

Lips breaking into a grin, you spin a strand of your open hair around your fingers. Leaning forward–it's apparent, what you're aiming at–you speak, "I was wondering... if I could get some extra credit in your class, sir?"

"He is your professor, that's your minus," She states with a lilt of her mouth. "But you're his student, that's his minus."

Levi raises an eyebrow, "Extra credit, you say?"

"He is a man, after all. And all men are perverts, give them a show of your assets and they'll be dancing on your drums."

He continues with a twitch of his lip, "And why would I do that?" 

"Give him all the performance he needs," Her eyes darts south, she tugs on the fabric of your skirt."The shorter this is, the higher your grades will be."

"You seem to know all about their psyches." You comment, pinching your lips and smoothening the material over your knees.

That evokes a laugh,"Babe, how do you think I keep my grades up?"

By following the same advice she has given you.

In accordance to her, a face full of makeup with tits on show and the skirt raised enough to give a generous view of legs—one can make the professor's their very own puppets. So, once the same advice and opportunity is presented to you, why should you back down?

"Well," You start, plopping yourself on the chair across him, crossing your legs one over the other–hiking up your (already)shortened skirt. "I am sure we can work something out like..." arching your elbow on the table, you let your manicured fingers drum against your cheek; a seductive approach. This should work. "You don't want one of your students to be held back now, do you, sir?"

He stares at you for a solid minute. A blink of his eyes follow.

You shift in your position—offering him a rather salacious view of your cleavage. Come on. Your visage holds innocence akin to a child learning the first steps of the world.

One thing about Professor Ackerman that enthralls you is just how attarctive he could be despite his age. Probably a decade older than you but he certainly carries the enigma of a young man charmed with the maturity of someone his age. Gray eyes, dark bangs in an undercut and he just dresses so much better than all of the male peers you have encountered. And a lot better than all of your filthy hookups.

Even then, he is a man. Just look at it. The silence is stretching for a minute too long and dare you say, its almost suffocating.

While Levi's eyes are on you—something which you do want—he rather seems to be scrutinizing your behaviour than satisfy his inner perverse attitude.

Maybe he keeps this face even while jerking off.

That thought alone raises a cinch of chuckle to escape your mouth. His eyebrows furrow. At last, he speaks. "How long have you been in my class?"

Seriously? Is he so keen on continuing this game of back and forth. Shouldn't he be asking you how much grades you require by now?

"Patince is the key."

Hitch's words ring in your mind and you follow her again. "Since the start to second year?"

He crosses his arm over his chest, muscles flexing under his dress shirt as he leans back on his chair. You mark how there's a gleam in his eyes before he continues, "And how many exams have you taken until now?"

"Three? Why are you... asking that?"

"You'll know soon enough," he pauses, letting a string of tension to seep in through his body language. And as much as you don't want it to bother you, it is bothering you. "In which of those exams have you got a grade over sixty percent?"

"Um, uh sir–" You fumble over your words, raking your brain for any suitable response and while your grades is actually being discussed—a pang of exposure swirls in with the way you are dressed. "I don't remember..."

"Never."

"O-oh," Unease ripples through you, crumbling the calm veneer you are trying to maintain.

His gaze hardens, a tick of jaw and the creases on his forehead just shows he isn't in the mood for your performance. "Why?"

Only a low chuckle is released, attempting to depress the palpable tension."My bad... ah– you see, I don't have a good memory and that's why my grades are... well, you know."

"When have you ever cosulted me with the problem regarding your memory?" He cocks his head to the side, inverting the hourglass on his table. Shifting his attention back to you, he asks, "Besides, have you ever truly followed through my lesson in class? Ever tried to do your assignments by yourself?"

"Of course, I did," a clear cut lie but he doesn't have to know that. "But they are too difficult. You can't blame me, college is tough on its own and I have so many subjects to study–"

You wish to continue with your rant but the terse call of your name stops you on your tracks. His lips are curled down and he looks at you with utter disdain as if you were a bug. "If you have even paid a bit of attention in my class then you should know that I mark half of your grades by your attentiveness and student conduct. Something–" You swallow a lump in your throat, slumping your shoulders and hiding your chest from his gaze. "–you clearly lack and with the absolute shit you write on your answer sheets, you should know better than to expose your body in the name of discussion."

Blank.

You are completely blanked out.

What is there to say even?"

You chew on your lower lip, eyes flickering to anywhere but him. Clutching the mesh of your skirt in your hold. This meeting isn't unfolding like anything Hitch said about. You manage to exhale a breath, trying to hide your with your hairs, "Sir... I guess, I should take– I should leave now."

Only slightly you raise yourself from the chair, Levi speaks again, "So soon?" You sheepishly nod, giving way that this encounter wouldn't be to your favour. "We were just getting started. Besides, there's something more I need to discuss with you."

You look at him from beneath your lashes. It's funny how timid you are now. "Like what?"

"I've heard rumors of students getting their hands on question sheets by– let's say, means," He opens his drawer, pulling out a folder. "So... I played a little game with y'all. Changing the question paper, last minute was tedious- but doable." He twists his lips, picking out a A5 sized paper with contents hidden from you. He keeps his eyes on it while speaking again, "Humorously, you seem to answer only those questions perfectly which were leaked–"

"Excuse me?" You intervene, quickly. "I have no connection with this paper leak mess."

"Then how do you explain your tardiness with the paper, this time?" Steel eyes have shifted to you, "As much of a bratty student you can be, you aren't the type to completely fail unless–"

"You're just accusing me or something, I haven't done. When I say I have no connections with paper leak, I mean it."

"Then how do you explain your–"

"I don't fucking know. Just a coincidence or– whatever!"

"Coincidence? You really expect me to believe that?"

"It's not on me if you believe me or not. I have gave you my statement and you should know better than to accuse me of something just because you hate me."

"Very well, then" He tilts his head, shrugging his shoulders. "I will just have the dean rusticate you–"

"You can't do that. I didn't even know about all this."

"You want to tell me that you weren't cursing out loud while writing the paper? Don't try to lie, Zacharius told me about your indency in exam hall."

"That was because I was high on coke not— no, I–" Your eyes widen as soon as you realize your fumbling. Lips parted, you are more apprehended as the blood drains from your cheeks. "No, I- uh... I didn’t mean that, j-just a slip of tongue."

As for Levi, he merely stares back at you and... is that a smirk on his lips? It sure is. A triumphant ghost of a smirk directed at you while you began to drown in the whirlpool of despair. "At least, you remember that."

He flips both the paper to you and if your heart wasn't beating with a 10x speed before, it sure is now. Your jaw hangs open, shoulders becoming rigid and the air knocked off your lungs like you've been punches to the gut.

Pictures.

They are pictures, yes and it would have been fine of it was just that but it isn't. In the very pictures, you find yourself. One with a cigarette between your lips and from the background it is starkly evident that it's the college campus. The second is more precarious for you're clicked with some of your pals but it's shot in a way that only your face is visible while the group blows on a pot of Marijuana.

You wrestled with a deep-sated fear, eyes thoroughly scrutinizing each speck and corner of the photos—something, anything to prove that it isn't you. That it's framed, that all of it is a big misunderstanding. The dread of facing your professor overshadows all the protests stringing on your mouth; they won't even be let out if you try.

"It's a shame really," His voice echoes, the screeching of the chair is heard before he is sauntering over to the other end of the room. "I had better expectations from you."

You don't register the mocking call of your name, physically unable to. The adrenaline surges through your veins, goosebumps arising on your body with each passing second.

You need to leave. Run. Soon. Now.

You find yourself frozen in your place.

"I wonder what your parents would have to say–"

"No, sir." Instantly you crane your neck over to him, nails digging on the armrests of your chair. Your shoulders rise and fall as the hypertension settles in you. Your heart is thumping in your ears, fingers are trembling with anticipation and to add insult to the injury, darkness has started to commence. "Not my parents, please sir. Th-they– I don't know what they'll do to me. Plesse sir, j-just not that."

He leans against the door of his office, gazing at you with mere casualty, "You think you are in the position to make requests?" His irises flicks to the corner of the room. "You've made your bed. Now lie on it."

"Sir, please–" You are on the verge where you wouldn't have a second thought before begging on your knees. Something's pooling in your eyes and it stings as bad as your nails on the wooden armrests. "Anything but that. I will complete all of your assignments and I'll personally improve my grades without anyone's help. Sir, just one chance, please."

He huffs, twisting his lips as if a mirthful play is being presented to him. "Why should I believe you? Have you ever given me a reason to know you're reliable?"

"Sir, I have to try." Instantly, you stand up, marching over to him. "And– and I know I've been indecent–"

"Irresponsible and obnoxious, as well."

"Yes," It's painful but you have no other choice. "I know and I am sorry. Really sorry, just give me another chance."

He tips his head towards you, narrowing his eyes, "You think, you're redeemable?"

"Yes, sir. Of course, I am ready to do anything to prove it to you."

His eyes sparkles with something you can't decipher, "very well," He straightens up, taking a singular step towards you—only now, you're aware of how limited proximity but before you can contemplate, he speaks, "Let's start your first lesson on redemption."

[dr-spectre]

So.... This game is 2 years old now huh?

Honestly... I don't think i have a TON to say about this game. It's just a great ass fucking video game that has given me a lot of fun and great memories!

This game came out during my final year of school, which is kinda funny considering that Splatoon 3 acts like a "finale" to a trilogy. It's interesting how those kinds of things work out eh? Splatoon 2 came out at the start of my secondary education, and Splatoon 3 came out at the tail end of my final year.

I remember thinking before the game came out, "why do we need a Splatoon 3? This is pointless, it's just more Splatoon 2." And then my mind was quickly changed once i got to play the Splatfest test fire and the actual game itself.....

I completed ROTM in such a short amount of time and i documented my reactions to my friends. Although i was spoiled in that Deep Cut had boss fights and Mr. Grizz was the final boss, ROTM still gave me a giant smile to my face all the way through. It was so fun, so charming and just a really good single player experience.

One of the things that i LOVE about Splatoon 3 is the vibe. I just love the location of Splatsville, i love the aesthetics, the lighting, the model improvements from Splatoon 2, the music, it's my favourite art style/aesthetic out of any of the Splatoon games by far. It just feels so polished, i don't know how to exactly describe it.

Also the fact that this game won best multiplayer game of 2022 over CALL OF DUTY! OVERWATCH 2 AND MULTIVERSUS MAKES ME SO GIDDY AND HAPPY!

PEOPLE GOT MAD ABOUT THIS AND THAT MAKES ME WANNA EVIL LAUGH! All of those fucking depressed and sad Call of Duty players who whine and complain about how "wahh modern gaming sucks!! There's no good games anymore wahhh!! It's all microtransactions wahhh!!" BITCH! SPLATOON 3 IS LITERALLY THE GAME YOU'VE BEEN ASKING FOR!! Yet you won't play it because it's on Nintendo huh? Yeah... You're a fucking PUSSY!! YOU'RE WEAK!! You're SCARED to be seen as less of a manly man!! You only wanna play games with oily dirty buff men.... Yet you call others who play games like Splatoon gay? Hmm..... Sounds like you're a wittle insecureeeeee!!!!

Have fun rotting in microtransaction hell you LOSERS!! GAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anyways.... uh.... sorry....

I also fucking love Deep Cut too. I thought i wasn't gonna like these guys and i remember thinking when i first saw them "oh... okayyyy..."

But now? I love these bastards.

I love their dynamic and how they are bandits but they actually wanna help the people back in Splatsville. That is such a cool and unique take to have for Idol characters. The Squid Sisters are very cutesy and so are Off the Hook, but Deep Cut aren't. They are loud, messy, chaotic, in your face, rude, etc. They are about contrast and the character designers did a phenomenal job at conveying that theme via their backgrounds and looks.

Another thing that i love about Splatoon 3 is that it also acts as a celebration of things that have come before, Inkopolis Plaza and Square return as hubs, old colour combos from previous games act as loading screens, most of the music returns in the jukebox, it rewards long time fans for sticking around and for a long running franchise IT'S SUPER IMPORTANT to have that stuff!!!

Seeing the improvements in the model quality from Splatoon 1 to 3 genuinely makes me kinda emotional, it shows how far we've come in just a little under 10 years...

It really homes in on the point that... These characters, have grown up with us.... The Squid Sisters are about to reach their mid 20s, Pearl is nearly 30 fucking years old!!!

And the last thing i wanna bring up before i talk about the Grand Fest...

...Is Side Order.

This fucking DLC... My god... Being able to experience it by myself and just enjoy the stuff i was seeing, being able to SCREAM AND CRY AS MUCH I WANT WAS SO IMPORTANT TO ME DUDE!

When i got to the 10th floor in the tutorial and i saw Marina Agitando staring me down.... I did the loudest gasp a human could possibly do and my jaw was hung to the floor for a solid MINUTE!

Marina's first fucking dev diary made me cry and scream, THAT IS NOT A JOKE!!!! THESE CHARACTERS ARE THAT IMPORTANT TO ME!

And the final boss.... Made me cry, it broke me down, i was singing along to Ebb and Flow as best as i could, it felt like i was brought back to 2018, being in my room, listening to that song on repeat... I feel like a kid again....

I love this song... i love it so much... Like it's not the most hype finale song ever, but, the emotion behind it, the build up from Splatoon 2... The power this song has in it's meaning... It's some good shit man...

So yeah! I love Splatoon 3!!! It's my favourite game out of the series and anyone who is gonna jump into this game now is gonna have a LOT to chew on.

And... It's both sweet and sad that we're at the end. This is it... The moment we've been waiting for. The final Splatfest to end them all. The event 9 years in the making.

The Grand Festival...

I am extremely excited and so FUCKING NERVOUS for this Splatfest!!!! I know i am going to cry and be so overwhelmed with joy. Seeing the Squid Sisters and Off the Hook perform their old songs again after all of these years is gonna make me sob so loudly it's not even funny.

These characters genuinely mean the world to me and it's gonna be so fucking hard for me to watch their final major appearance and say goodbye. Cause after this, we don't know what's gonna happen. I know they will come back, they have to but... In what capacity? That's what I'm scared about...

So yeah, let's savior this moment when it eventually arrives, take all the time you need to be engulfed in the Grand Fest.

Thank you Splatoon 3, you have given me so much.... It's not time to say goodbye just yet but, i wanna watch you as you walk into the sunset with your head held high....

[callmelola111]

color me purple ♡ part one

 ✄ - - - -   part 1 , part 2 , part 3   - - - - soundtrack - - - - ♡

synopsis: it’s summer and you’re back at camp stillwater. as a counselor you mean serious business and you’ll do whatever it takes for your cabin to come out on top. the only thing in the way of that; ellie williams and her crazy antics. 

      | 𓆣 | pairing & wc: ellie williams x reader. wc: 3.3k

      | ❀ | cw (by part): 18+ themes (MDNI), modern au, fem reader, some fluff + some angst (for now), marijuana use, pet names (doll, princess, hun), light sexual themes, swearing, mentions of blood (reader gets bloody nose), mentions of age (reader and ellie are both said to be 20 but feel free to change it in ur head lol)

a/n: feeling so summer lately i just had to write this. living vicariously through reader cause like why tf am i not having a summer camp gay awakening. this series is just 3 parts but it is sweet as pie so pls enjoy!!! i love you all dearly ♡~ lola

The blinding sun beamed down on your bare skin. Normally the sweltering heat would bother you more, but the excitement of your first day back at camp was more than enough to distract you from the outlandish temperatures. You barreled down the grassy hill, duffle bag in hand, revealing the large wooden arch that spelled out the words CAMP STILLWATER.

The grounds were bustling with counselors and caretakers preparing for the arrival of campers later that evening. Everyone was dressed in color coded garments that signaled what cabin group they belonged to. You were dressed in red, head of cabin 12. Your sheer, white ringer tee read “Staff” and was hemmed with strips of crimson. To match, a pair of red booty shorts with white stretching down the sides. They were just long enough to cover your plush cheeks until naturally riding up as you walked to reveal the crease where ass meets thigh. To top it off, knee high socks striped with the same exact red. You were fucking adorable.

Nature crunched under your sneakers as you practically skipped down the trail headlining it to your cabin. As you reached the steps a very familiar voice called out your name.

“Well, well, well, look who it is. Cabin neighbors, once again. Did ya miss me doll?”

“Ellie fucking Williams, don’t flatter yourself. I’ve been praying all week that I wouldn’t get stuck with your dumbass again. But, here we are.�� You rolled your eyes in a dramatic fashion putting an emphasis on your obvious sarcasm. This would be your 3rd summer bunking next door to your biggest rival Ellie Williams.

Although you and Ellie weren’t truly enemies, she did get on your nerves, and you got on hers. This fed into a mutual sarcastic bit that you guys have continued to carry out for years. You’d think by 20 years old the two of you would’ve grown out of these childish antics, but it was secretly one of your favorite parts of the summer. 

Ellie gave a half-assed chuckle, “you can never escape me.”

“Oh yes I can!” You whipped your head around, excusing yourself from the conversation and climbed up the weathered steps of your cabin. Ellie gawked as she watched you depart, your thighs giggling with each step. Her piercing green eyes always found their way to your body, but only when she thought you wouldn’t notice.

You entered the barren room and didn't even take the time to unpack before you started adorning the walls with themed decor and tying red ribbons in your hair. Cabin 12 always thrived with spirit when you were there. You took your role as camp counselor seriously and took the competitiveness even more seriously.

Camp Stillwater ran on a point system, and at the end of the summer the cabin with the most wins a trophy. The girls from your cabin were always finishing first in the tournament games, but when they didn’t, it was Ellie’s stupid blue campers who were swooping in to steal the victory. It drove you crazy. Last summer you came second to her and you were determined to never let it happen again. You began speaking to the empty room as if trying to somehow manifest these dreams into reality.

“This year cabin 12 will finish the summer with the most points.”

“Talking to yourself again?” You jumped at the sound of Ellie, not noticing that she had been lurking in the doorway. She was only there for a moment, but didn’t feel like announcing herself, too busy enjoying you running around like an excited puppy, spouting off about victory. Ellie had always admired your high spirits and go-getter attitude. A ray of light emitted from you constantly and she loved to bask in its glory. But, of course, she’d never let it be known.

“God Ellie you can’t just sneak up on me like that!”

“Sorry princess but the warden wants everyone at the mess hall like now. Come on slacker!” You noticed the change of clothes on Ellie, she was now adorned in a T-shirt just like yours but with blue details rather than red. Her auburn hair was pulled into a messy half-up, half-down, she always wore it like that when it started getting hot.

“Shut up, I'm not a slacker!! I’m just busy going above and beyond for my campers.” you argued, a pout forming on your lips. Ellie always knew how to press your buttons.

“You really wanna win this year huh?” She moved into your space, tilting her head with a cocky smirk. 

“Yeah, yeah I do.”

“And you really think I’m gonna let that happen?” she teased.

“You’re so annoying Ellie. You can do whatever you want, but I will be winning” You jutted your head forward dramatically in an attempt at intimidation. Ellie rolled her eyes.

“Right… let’s just get going before we’re late and they don’t let you counsel at all” Ellie grabbed your hand and pulled, urging you to follow. Feeling her warm, calloused hand in yours, you almost didn’t want to let go. But, you did.

The mess hall was lined with strings of wooden picnic tables, all connecting to create a sense of community when it was filled with campers. Flags cascaded the walls, each a different color with a number, representing the teams. A large case expanded across the back wall, filled with trophies from years before. The corners of your mouth upturned with anticipation of the summer to come. Your thoughts were soon interrupted by an amplified voice booming from a megaphone. Holding said megaphone was the warden, Mrs. Campbell.

“Alright ladies! Tonight is the night! You all know what to do so go ahead and file out to find your campers!!” You and Ellie exited out the back of the building, heading to the camp entrance. A swarm of girls’ chatting and screams grew louder as staff united with them. One of your favorite parts about Camp Stillwater was the lack of boys. You felt safe, and you loved the idea of getting to empower all these young impressionable women.

You held up a sign signaling your cabin number and a single file line began forming in front of you. You handed each of your girls red ribbons (matching the ones in your own hair) as a personal touch, trying to foster a bond right from the start. Meanwhile, Ellie stood around for her campers dapping them up, giving off the perfect “chill counselor” vibe. You found the lack of discipline a little obnoxious but to each their own. 

That night Stillwater kicked off camp with a bonfire complete with goodies for smores. You sat, knees together on the rough log, feeling as it left imprints of the bark on your bare thighs. Ellie sat just one log over goofing off with some other staff members, shooting an occasional glance at you.

The plastic bag of graham crackers crinkled as you ripped it open to begin assembling your late night snack. The hot air had turned cool with the lack of sun, but the preceding heat lingered in the melted chocolate you attempted to pass out. You stared as the sticky mallow and sweet liquid coco coated your fingers, inviting golden crumbs to join in. Ellie observed you deciding how to handle the mess, and with just a few seconds of thought, watched you stick your sugary soaked fingers straight in your mouth. A surge of guilt hit Ellie, noticing how much your licking troubled her. She clenched her thighs together and decided sweets just weren't for her.

With your hunger satisfied, the bonfire burned bright and you droned off getting lost in the flicker of the flames. Just then, you see a familiar Ellie in your peripherals wandering to the woods. Curious, you peeled your sticky legs from where you sat and got up to follow. You trailed behind her struggling to conceal your presence due to the snapping twigs under your feet. Ellie snaked her body back to acknowledge you and your obviousness. She loved to tease.

“Stalker much?” 

“God, you wish I was stalking you, Williams.” 

“So why are you following me then? Trying to catch me breakin’ the rules?” she questioned, half joking, half not. Continuing your follow, the two of you reached a more secluded part of the forest and Ellie halted.

“If you don’t want me to catch you, then maybe you should stop breaking rules. Ever think of that?” you taunted.

“Whatever Nancy Drew.” And with that, Ellie reached into her pocket pulling out a freshly rolled joint.

“You gonna bust me?” she teased before you quickly slapped the drugs out of her hands and into the moist dirt below.

“ELLIE!!!” you scolded her like she was a camper.

“Hey what the hell dude?!” she reached down to retrieve the now dirty joint and began to light it. A panicked look washed over your face and your eyes darted around, surveying for any possible company. God forbid you let this girl get you in trouble.

“I should be saying what the hell to you! Smoking on the job? So much for setting a good example… God, Ellie!” You palmed your face not sure how to proceed. In spite of your make believe beef, Ellie was your friend and you didn’t want to tattle. On the other hand though, the goodie two shoes and competitive freak inside wanted so badly to expose Ellie's naughty behavior. With her out of the picture, you could finish this summer out with a win. But, if you were being honest with yourself, camp wouldn’t be the same without her.

“Sorry, sorry. I know” Ellie shook her head at the ground pretending to be ashamed but she couldn’t have cared less. She knew you’d never tell, so on she went with her scheming.

“You wanna hit though?” 

“Ellie!!” This time you gave a blow to her exposed bicep, really trying to lay the guilt on thick.

“Come onnnn. This is your 3rd year here, you’ve gotta loosen up at some point. Just one hit? Please, for me?” Ellie flashed you the most annoying puppy dog eyes and a devilish smirk already anticipating your answer. Growing up you found it easy to resist peer pressure, you’ve always thought of yourself as a rule follower, but when it came to Ellie she always knew what to say to push you to the edge. She was such an instigator and you fell for her act every damn time.

“Fine… one hit.” She practically shoved the weed in your hands in excitement as you reluctantly gave in. Ellie always had so much fun chipping away at that good girl exterior you worked so hard to uphold. You then took a slow drag and passed it back to her. You fixated on her wet lips as they placed themselves around the joint. She took a quick inhale before an amused look spread across her face.

“Cherry?” Already feeling the high, you gave Ellie a puzzled look, not understanding what she meant. 

“Your lipgloss hun” She gestured to the pink stain rimming the tip of the joint.

Your face flushed red, “shit sorry.” You dug your foot into the ground and gave your lips a lick, recalling the fruity flavor.

“S’all good, I liked the taste” She replied, making your face turn a shade redder, almost matching the shorts that hugged your curves. Ellie would remember this moment, the taste of your lipgloss felt like a brush with destiny. Already assimilating the flavor to memory, she imagined her lips on yours and that cherry taste lingering in an exchange of saliva. God Ellie!! Stop being a perv and shut the fuck up!!

As one of the few masculine girls at camp, she was practically drowning in women, but her fixation with you prevented anything past a casual hook up. And casual hook up she did- with at least a fourth of the staff. Understandably, things got desperate being stuck at camp for 2 months straight. It’s not like you had the privacy to rub one out while sleeping in a room full of occupied bunk beds. But, with Ellie being a known player, you personally hadn’t thought twice about getting involved, despite the occasional butterflies. Bullying each other was more fun anyways.

Finally, Ellie finally finished off the joint, letting you take a couple more hits in between hers. She stomped the roach out into the moist ground making sure to put out any remaining embers. Her long stride pointed in the direction of the light filled cabins before you stopped her. With weed now rampant in your system, you weren’t ready for the night to end. 

“Waitttt, stopppp, we can’t go nowww!” You grabbed Ellie’s wrist leading her back into the darkness, straight towards the lake.

“What? You wanna hangout with me all of the sudden?”

“I- I wanna swim…” you mumbled, almost afraid to hear it come out of your mouth. One of the most important rules at Camp Stillwater was no swimming after dark. Ellie almost gasped hearing you propose such a mischievous idea. 

“Rulebreaker! Rulebreaker!” she chanted, almost falling over with laughter. Inside though, Ellie was kicking her feet at the thought of having a late night swim with her favorite girl. 

“Come on Els, you’re the one who told me to live a little. Pleaseeee!!” You bat your long lashes like a cartoon character but there was no need to beg as Ellie was already on board. She loved corrupting you.

“I’ll race you!!” She shouted before dashing through the trees, kicking up dirt with each long stride. Of course she turned it into a competition, and you bolted right after her trying to catch up.

Neither of you even stopped to breathe as you reached the edge of the lake. Instead shirts, shorts, and shoes all flying off your bodies landing amongst the greenery, desperate to get your sweaty bodies into the cool, evening waters. As you dived in, a sense of euphoria washed over your body along with the deep blue ripples of H2O. Ellie’s head rose out of the water 2nd. She slicked her wet hair back and gave you a toothy smile that was to die for. You giggled at the sight, everything seeming a bit more silly while under the influence. 

“Having fun princess?” she questioned, cheeks full.

“Yeah I am,” you smiled back, “I don’t think the fact that I’m breaking like 5 different rules has hit me yet.”

“Enough with the rules, let's have fun!” Ellie dove back into the water circling around your smooth legs. She took ur skin between her pointer and thumb, giving you little pinches like some sort of sea creature. You kicked and squirmed in reaction causing Ellie to shoot back up from her underwater adventure.

“Fuck off!” you shoved her bare shoulder with a teasing force. She put her hands up surrendering to your irritation. Her veiny arms glistened with lake water and your eyes wandered before getting stuck on the large tattoo adorning her forearm.

“Hey, that wasn’t there last summer.” you gestured to her.

“Yeah, uh, I got it a few months ago”

“It looks good,” you paused, “can I touch?” Ellie offered out her inked limb to you. It rested in your left hand and you used your right to trace the linework. Water droplets collected with each gentle brush of your fingertips. Goosebumps followed your delicate touch and Ellie's face turned red with enjoyment. 

“S’pretty” you said, noticing a blush growing across your own face. You glanced off into the distance at the silence. The thick forest trees and bright stars urged you to take in a deep, pollution free inhale. Ellie broke the moment of zen to speak.

“Turn around.” she demanded. You obliged immediately despite her unknown intentions. You felt her hot breath on your neck and sudden skin-to-skin contact. She hooked her long fingers around your wet locks of hair, moving them across your back to one side. A chill radiated down your spine

“What are you doing Ellie?” you whispered. The closeness you shared and the now still lake, cloaked with haze, sent a hush over the both of you. 

“Guess what I’m drawing” she whispered back. You scrunched up your shoulders in response to her vibrations hitting at your pulse. The feeling of her rough fingers met your back and began tracing symbols. You attempted to focus on her movements but it proved hard to decipher the message when she felt so close. Despite knowing Ellie for a long time, the two of you had never had this much prolonged touch. It ignited a feeling that you weren’t sure how to get control of. The silence hinted at your cluelessness.

“Here I’ll do it again,” she said, drawing out "I ♡ U” once more across your back.

“Fuck, I dont know. A dick?” You turned back to face Ellie questioning her with a giggle. Her face was littered with disappointment before quickly concealing it from you with a big splash of water. The tender moment was lost. She went along with your answer, lying through her teeth. 

“Fine, you got me freak! It was a dick.” You splashed Ellie back harder, amused by her childish humor. The water slinging continued until you both became absolutely winded and ready to climb in bed. Oh fuck, bed...

“ELLIE, OH MY GOD, CURFEW!” you practically squealed before switching to breaststroke and heading towards land. Ellie snapped out of this little dream and followed after you.

You frantically threw on your clothes over your now soaked bra and panties. Wet spots began seeping through your shorts as you fiddled with your sneakers. Your wet feet swirled in the dirt below, caking them with the mud of your making. You vetoed the shoes and bolted towards the cabins completely barefoot. You were so focused on getting back that you hardly even noticed the branches and rocks assaulting your skin.

“FUCK WAIT UP!!” Ellie yelled, just feet behind you. As you looked back to acknowledge her request your ankle caught on a huge log that littered the forest's path. Your balance was thrown and your face went plummeting straight into the ground, hitting a dull rock on its way down. Ellie’s pace doubled as she jumped to your rescue. She fell to her knees by your side giving you support as you lifted yourself up. Looking down, your hands were dirty, stuck wood chips pressed into the skin. You dusted them off against each other, seemingly fine.

“Bro, oh my god, are you okay??” Ellie pestered, worried out of her mind. 

“I think, yeah. It was honestly more embarrassing than painful.” you gave a light chuckle before looking up from the ground when suddenly a gush of liquid escaped your nose. Your finger dipped into the steady flow and you took note of the deep red now covering them.

“Just great.” you rolled your eyes. Ellie had the most concerned look on her face despite your injury being a simple bloody nose.

“We’ve gotta get you to the nurse like now!”

“Ellie chill, I’d rather not have an encounter with authority while I'm high as fuck and out past curfew.” You never thought you'd be saying that sentence.

“Fine, at least take this.” Ellie handed you a crumpled up tissue she had retrieved from her athletic shorts and you shoved it up your nose halting the flow.

Returning to the main area of the campgrounds felt like a walk of shame. You were drenched, muddy, and decorated in your own blood, and Ellie looked just as bad. Eventually the two of you reached your neighboring cabins and there waiting in between the steps of 11 and 12 was Warden Campbell. Fuck.

 ✄ - - - -   part 1 , part 2 , part 3   - - - - masterlist - - - - ♡

[thankskenpenders]

Sonic Superstars!

Superstars is out! And guess what? It's good! It's a worthy new entry in the series, and I mostly like it. Mostly. Except for the handful of parts I don't. As usual, allow me to share my thoughts.

(For the record, I got the PS5 version of Superstars. I can't speak for how it plays on older hardware like the Switch, or how the weird Steam version that seems to make you log in with Epic runs. But I encountered zero performance issues, personally.)

General thoughts

The thing is, aside from two notable flaws I'll discuss in greater detail below, I can sum up my feelings on most of Superstars quickly. You see, it's... a Sonic game. This will either be a blessing or a curse depending on who you ask. It's not a bold new take on the series that'll blow you away, but they also didn't fuck it up. There's no catch this time! There's something refreshing about that straightforwardness, given how rare it is to get a regular-ass New Sonic Game from Sega. It's just a new classic-style game where you can play as Amy, set on a new island with all new zones, and Fang is in it! This might be damning with faint praise, but that's what it says on the tin, and they did a good job overall.

(It also has co-op. That's nice. I didn't play it in co-op.)

It plays exactly how it should. At no point did anything feel Wrong. The graphics might not have the absolute highest fidelity, but I think the character models look really nice, and the levels look appropriately good with vibrant color palettes. A couple zones like Sky Temple gave me Klonoa vibes, which I like. One zone is an absolutely incredible homage that I won't spoil. The story here is minimal (as expected), but there are a few good moments of telling the story through the gameplay, particularly one very cute sequence with Trip. I did find a couple stage gimmicks moderately annoying (Speed Jungle 2 and Press Factory 2, looking at you), but like... I could say the same thing about Mania, and also damn near every other Sonic game ever made. There's always That One Level. Superstars may not raise the series to new heights, but it generally executes well on the standard beats of the series. It's an easy recommendation for all fans of 2D Sonic.

Really, aside from the two big flaws (we'll get to them), this game's greatest crimes are simply not being quite as good as Mania, and also coming out the same week as the more creative and polished Super Mario Bros. Wonder. If we hadn't gotten Mania, I would easily be calling this my favorite 2D Sonic game since... what, the Advance trilogy 20 years ago? I like the Rush games, but if you asked me to replay one or the other, I might have a better time with Superstars. And, yes, it beats the hell out of Sonic 4. It's not even close. Anyone who says this game is exactly like Sonic 4 is just being a hater.

...I guess I would say that $60 is a bit steep for this, but you know it'll be on sale for a more appropriate $30-$40 in a few months. This isn't a Nintendo game we're talking about here.

Nice little tweaks

Superstars also features a number of welcome quality-of-life updates over Mania, bringing it more in line with the design ethos of modern platformers.

You have infinite lives! No more getting a game over on the final boss and having to redo the whole final zone - or, god forbid, the entire game

Time overs are gone! It'll warn you before you go over ten minutes, but I have no idea why because it doesn't kill you anymore

The game features a hub from which you can easily replay previous levels, rather than needing to beat the game or put in a cheat code to unlock the level select

This means you can easily go back and hunt for any special stage rings you missed. However, as a tradeoff, it seems like you can only get one Emerald per zone now, rather than being able to get Super Sonic by the end of the first or second zone

You can swap characters between levels! No more having to start a whole 'nother save file to play as Tails

And those characters even have optional little movement tutorial rooms available from the hub, which is great for new players who may not know about things like the Drop Dash

And, finally, checkpoints now feature arrows pointing in the direction you were supposed to be going, in case you forget upon respawning

Of course, while you might not be getting game overs, Superstars certainly compensated with some bosses that kicked my ass.

Bosses

Here's what I would consider notable flaw #1.

I have mixed feelings on the bosses in Superstars. I don't think many of them are poorly designed - in fact, a lot of them are good, and offer fun moments of spectacle. But for a 2D Sonic game, they're REALLY long and drawn out, and by the late game this was starting to get draining.

Bosses tend to be the type where you have to dodge their attack patterns for a while until you get the chance to hit them exactly once, MAYBE twice. A few bosses seem to have quicker options if you abuse your post-hit invulnerability or play as a character with a double jump, but many will either be completely invincible or run away to the background for long periods of time, making it impossible to damage them outside of the allotted windows. And even if it seems like you'll be able to get in a second hit, many bosses turn invincible and skip ahead to the next attack pattern as soon as they take the first hit. Again, most of these fights aren't BAD, but because of this behavior they sometimes take almost as long to beat as the entire levels preceding them. This didn't bother me much early in the game, but against the more challenging bosses towards the end that kept killing me several minutes into a long fight, it got tiring. The final boss of Story Mode probably took me like an hour.

While this certainly isn't an uncommon style of boss design, part of me suspects they did this for the sake of co-op players. For one, playing in co-op means that you don't necessarily have to start the entire fight over if one person dies, so I assume the length is less of an issue. But in particular, true classic-style Sonic bosses that you can just hit repeatedly with good timing would go down in a few seconds against a team of four players. Likewise, the swarm of clones from the "Avatar" Emerald power would probably obliterate every Genesis era boss with one button press. So I get why every boss needs all these invulnerability periods, but still. I at least wish they'd made some of those attack patterns shorter and given you more frequent opportunities to deal damage.

Emeralds and their powers

Speaking of the new Chaos Emerald powers: they're neat, I guess? They're fine. I didn't use them much. Actually, I kept forgetting I even had them - although the game will play a noise and show an icon in the corner of the screen to remind you any time you reach a spot where a specific power is useful. Avatar, the first power you get, is at least good for getting a couple free hits in on the trickier bosses. Yellow's ability to slow time is obviously good, but, again, I always forgot I even had it and made it through just fine without it. I was also pleased to realize that the swimming power is useful for the water levels and not just for climbing up waterfalls.

Oh, and the new grappling-based special stages kind of suck, but they're not the worst, and I'll at least give them credit for trying something new. (Motion Sickness Zone from Sonic 1 does return as a bonus minigame, but I only did it once lmao.)

Battle Mode

I haven't played Battle Mode. Couldn't tell you if it's good or not. It did, however, give us official designs for Metal Tails and Metal Amy after all these years, and also it let me make this:

...Okay, enough beating around the bush. Let's talk about the thing that REALLY drags down the experience.

The soundtrack...

(This lengthy section on the music will feature some light spoilers for things like zone names and themes.)

Now, don't get me wrong. There are some bangers in here that I've been listening to on loop. But this is one of the most inconsistent soundtracks I've ever heard, and I'm not sure I've ever played another game where the music has such a sharp dip in quality in the back half.

As anyone following this blog knows, prior to release I was a little obsessed with trying to gauge what the soundtrack would be like. "Jun Senoue" and "new Classic Sonic game" naturally evokes the memory of Sonic 4, but from the start we knew Tee Lopes was involved as well, and almost all of the music previewed before released leans more towards the sound of Sonic Mania than anything else. I was hopeful! I was excited! Jun deserved another chance at doing another classic Sonic OST, and Tee is one of my favorite game composers of all time between his Sonic material and other works like the TMNT: Shredder's Revenge OST. I frequently thought back to this Sonic 4 remix medley by Jun and Tee as a reminder that these two could really be the dream team, bringing out the best in each other's work.

Sure enough, the front half of the game is largely dominated by the Mania sound, whether it's a track by Tee himself or one by an in-house Sega artist that's compatible with his style. Pinball Carnival Act 1 by Rintaro Soma (an up-and-coming composer who wrote a bunch of the Cyber Space themes in Frontiers) takes obvious inspiration from Mania's Studiopolis Act 1, to the point that I was shocked when Sega posted the track and revealed it wasn't written by Tee. Act 2, however, forges more of its own sound by leaning into the act's spooky haunted carnival theme. And despite being the music lead, the only level theme that I know for sure was written by Senoue in the front half of the game (Bridge Island Act 1) was actually arranged by Tee Lopes to give it more of that Mania sound. Hell, the level clear jingle is literally just the one from Mania. A few level themes by other composers don't quite match that style, but they fit in well enough.

But there are early signs that this sound won't be consistent throughout the game. Our first warning of things to come is the boss music:

When early copies started floating around and the soundtrack leaked, many, many people hoped that this was merely a placeholder, like the literal Sonic 4 Episode II music used in the earliest previews of Speed Jungle, and that it'd get replaced with a day one patch. Oh, those poor, innocent fools...

Even if you don't mind the poor production with the returning Sonic 4 faux-Genesis sound, this is a very simplistic thirteen second snippet of music that then plays a second time in a higher key before it loops. This wouldn't be the end of the world if the bosses were as short as the ones in the Genesis games, of course, but they're not! This theme is used for a ton of lengthy fights throughout the game, including an EXTREMELY long and tedious autoscroller boss at the end of Golden Capital Act 2. Maybe I would've enjoyed the bosses in this game more if they were paired with some earworms that'd get me hyped up and sell how cool and exciting the fights are supposed to be, but grating songs like this just made the minutes spent fighting those bosses feel like an eternity.

Still, boss music (and menu music) aside, all of the level themes in the front half of the game ranged from decent to great, with the peak easily being the phenomenal Lagoon City Act 2 by Tee Lopes. And then... I got to the back half of the game. And the Mania style completely disappeared, replaced largely with the dreaded Sonic 4 sound. That isn't the style for EVERY song in the back half, but even the ones that try something different tend to be weaker than the material from the first six zones, with less engaging melodies and less intricate arrangement. Many sound straight up unfinished, leaning on extremely basic synth patches with no personality. And there isn't a single track from Tee in the back half. He just disappears from the project altogether.

What this means is that we go from this absolute banger by Tee Lopes in zone 6, which elevates what's otherwise a bog standard desert level to a thrilling adventure:

To... this, in zone 7:

It's EXTREMELY jarring!

The thing is, this is actually one of the better tracks in this style. I have to assume this is by Senoue, because you can totally hear a good Adventure or Heroes era Senoue track in there once you get past the crude synth replication of the Genesis era Sonic sound. Senoue is still a great composer, as you can hear clear as day with Bridge Island, but he's working with a restrictive sound palette that doesn't play to his strengths at all. If only he'd bust out that damn guitar, or at least pick some better synths.

(And no matter what people will tell you, no, this is not an accurate recreation of what the Genesis's YM2612 chip really sounded like, nor is it representative of what it CAN sound like at its best. Go back to the Streets of Rage 2 or Ristar soundtracks if you need a reminder.)

While I can at least see what the Press Factory tracks were aiming for, some other faux-FM synth tracks are just really bland. They don't have anything interesting going on, and they also don't seem particularly tailor made for the levels they accompany. They're just attempts to mimic what Sonic 1-3 sounded like on a very literal level. Take, for instance, the Golden Capital Act 1 theme, AKA "we've got Sky Sanctuary at home." While the better level themes in this game enhance the mood or even completely carry the vibes of a level, the weaker tracks can really suck all the air out of the room and make a level feel like more of a slog.

What kills me is that there are, in fact, a couple examples of how to do throwbacks to classic Sega FM synth music well on this very soundtrack! They're just not the Sonic 4 type tracks. I love the Frozen Base Act 2 theme, presumably composed by legendary Sega composer Hiroshi "HIRO" Kawaguchi, who's responsible for all-time classic arcade soundtracks like Fantasy Zone, Out Run, Hang-On, After Burner, and more, as well as the hacking and pinball themes from Frontiers. Maybe to an untrained ear this doesn't sound all that different, but it has a catchier tune, better instruments, and stronger production overall. I'm also a fan of the track for Sky Temple, which isn't perfect, but it blends a few Genesis-esque instruments like the Sonic 1+2 snare with other instruments for a richer sound. If the whole soundtrack sounded more like these examples, I'd definitely be complaining less.

I really just have to wonder... how did this happen? How did this end up being so inconsistent? Many fans on social media are jumping to the conclusion that Senoue is just extremely stubborn and refuses to ditch the style from Sonic 4. I can't deny this possibility, but some things just don't add up. The almost complete lack of "retro" style music in the promotional material. The fact that the style just suddenly shifts halfway through the game, then disappears for the final zone, as if that's not the note they want to end on. The complete lack of any tracks by Tee Lopes in the back half. The focus on the Mania-style tracks in the bonus "mini soundtrack." And most perplexing of all, the fact that three of the first tracks you hear in the game were Senoue compositions that were given extra attention with arrangements from Tee Lopes.

This is pure speculation on my part, but it almost seems like they straight up ran out of time.

Perhaps Jun wanted more of his tracks to get full arrangements from Tee, or for Tee to contribute more songs, but things were down to the wire and they chose to leave in some of the raw Sonic 4 style demos. The soundtrack being crunched out in a matter of months at the end of development would certainly explain why Speed Jungle had to be demoed without its music a mere four months ago. It'd also explain why a game that's only a few hours long needs NINETEEN composers listed in the credits. And also the fact that multiple zones just have completely different, unrelated music by different artists across their acts. Did they need multiple artists working on different acts simultaneously, completely independent from each other with no time to cross reference each others' work, due to extreme time constraints? I'd buy it.

Ah well. It's not the end of the world. I've heard worse Sonic music. But I'll always think of what could have been...

At least the final battle with Eggman at the end of Story Mode has a pretty kickass boss theme, which ALMOST makes up for how bad most of the preceding boss music is (and the fact that that very difficult fight doesn't have a checkpoint between phases and took me like an hour to beat lmao). It even seems like it might be written by longtime Phantasy Star Online composer and recurring Sonic contributor Hideaki Kobayashi. That's the guy who wrote NONAGRESSION!!!!!!!

The postgame

Speaking of beating Eggman! It turns out Superstars has a good deal of postgame content, as merely beating the last zone with all the Chaos Emeralds doesn't take you to the true final boss. In order to do that, you'll need to do something else.

Before we hit the big spoiler warning, I'm going to give any future players who are still reading a warning. If you value your sanity... don't force yourself to do all the postgame stuff. Don't make the mistakes I did. It's not worth it, and it may very well knock your personal score for the game down a couple points.

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

SPOILERS FOR THE STORY, UNLOCKABLES, AND THE POSTGAME BELOW THIS POINT

YOU'VE BEEN WARNED

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

The bonus scenario

Sonic Superstars has a big surprise in store for anyone who beats the main story. For the first time since... what, Silver? In 2006? We finally have a brand new playable character in a new Sonic platformer! (I wouldn't count the player avatar in Forces as a full-fledged New Character.) Yes, after the credits roll, you unlock Trip as the super-secret fifth playable character. I was really excited to see this. Trip is cute, even if her masked appearance from early in the game is perhaps a more unique design than a Sonic-ified lizard girl who can only vaguely look like a real sungazer lizard. She IS the first new Sonic character Ohshima has designed since the '90s, though, so she gets points for that - and she gets even more points for literally turning into a dragon when she goes Super. We love a girl who can turn into a dragon, don't we folks? And her playstyle is fun, too, with a double jump and the ability to roll along walls and ceilings.

But Trip isn't just playable. Like Knuckles before her, she gets an entire alternate story mode of her own, which somewhat remixes the level layouts, generally makes things more challenging, and swaps out Eggman for Egg Robo. I was so excited to see this! It really felt like the game had so much more in store for me than I'd anticipated.

...Then I spent probably around three hours attempting to beat the new final battle with Fang at the end of Trip's Story. And it made me regret doing Trip's Story at all.

Once you learn the patterns, a lot of them are actually piss easy. But the difficulty comes down to a few misguided factors:

The fight is LOOOONG. On a successful attempt the whole thing will probably take the average player about, like... seven or eight minutes? Maybe longer? This is where I really started to get pissed at the game for making me wait through these stupid attack patterns before I could attempt to hit the boss once.

The fight is divided between two phases, one with Fang in a vehicle and another with him in a giant robot, with no checkpoint between them. Dying to one of Fang's bullshit attacks on the second phase means having to redo the ~5 minute first phase all over again. And, worst of all...

Fang has multiple projectile attacks that are guaranteed instant kills, even if you have rings.

Also there's a stupid desperation headbutt attack that can really easily catch you off guard and kill you, but I only got that far in the fight once.

It's the instant kills that got me. If those fucking immobilizing net attacks just made you drop your rings, or you could at least wiggle out of them by mashing buttons (EDIT: apparently you CAN do this but you literally have to button mash so rapidly that it's a crapshoot whether or not you'll physically be able to do it), it would have been totally doable! Kinda fun, even! Slow, but pretty cool in terms of spectacle. But nope! Three hours! Three hours on this! This is, without a doubt, the hardest boss I have ever faced in any Sonic game, period, and one of the hardest bosses I've ever seen in ANY game. All because of one attack pattern where making a tiny mistake means starting over.

The glitches didn't help, either. Something about the way the circular boss arena was set up in both stories' final battles seems to make the floor intangible sometimes for non-player objects. Occasionally my dropped rings, enemies I was supposed to knock towards Fang, or one of Fang's insta-kill projectiles would just fall through the floor randomly. This definitely wasn't my main problem, but it helped drive home the idea that this fight just wasn't worth my time.

After three hours of attempts, I gave up. I just went and looked up the ending of Trip's story, as well as the contents of the Final Story, on YouTube. Turns out I made the right call, because boy, that true final boss looks like dogshit. It's just a very dull fight against a big generic cartoon dragon. Apparently this is the thing Eggman was looking for. It appears and is defeated with little fanfare. I think I liked it better when I assumed the scary dragon being foreshadowed was just Super Trip.

...Also, hey, what's up with The End being very conspicuously visible in the background of the last zone?? I know it's just a cheeky cameo, but, like... isn't it supposed to be sealed away in Cyber Space right now? Should I be taking this literally? Does this have lore implications? This is one hell of a way to remind people that the timeline's been reunified, I guess

Closing thoughts

I really hate to part ways with Superstars on a sour note like this, because like I said up top, I mostly enjoyed my time with it! It's really just a small handful of particularly frustrating bosses and the inconsistent soundtrack that drag it down. Other than that, it's solid as a rock. Maybe wait for sales if you're not dying to play it, but it's definitely worth playing for any Sonic fan. Just... skip the true ending. I would have stepped away MUCH happier with this game if I'd done that.

I wanna try to end this on a more positive note but I'm tired, so, uhhhh... look, you can unlock a Metal Nights skin for your Battle Mode bot!!

Anyway back to jamming to about half the soundtrack on loop while pretending the other half doesn't exist, and looking forward to the continued Fang Renaissance with his upcoming IDW miniseries

[tiddykittylikesskittles]

There's something about a modern era Zelda game that eats at my brain bc. We're NEVER getting one y'know? Zelda takes place in faux-medieval fake kingdom and that's just what it is. but like! With botw/totk we have the sheikah slate which is basically just an iPad. That TELEPORTS YOU. It's just one of a kind. Like 20 years post totk we could have skyscrapers and email. You're telling me 10000 years later everyone would still be farmers in tiny villages???? Idk just imagine you're like, in college, and legend has it that This is the year that Ganon returns again and everyone's freaking out. You're not sure you believe it, but that guy in the back of your class that never talks vanishes one day, and his name is link, and you're like ah god ah fuck he's the hero ain't he. He's the legendary hero and I asked him for a pen last week. Well I hope he wins I'd really like to graduate before I die. Actually, scratch that, do you think they'd just give us the diplomas in case of the apocalypse? Maybe? Well then I hope that twink crashes and burns. But he doesn't he wins and he comes back and you're like, thanks man. For the whole saving the world bit. I definitely didn't wish death upon you because I was stressed about finals. Idk man the vibes are there

[terramythos]

MY TOP 25 BEST POKEMON

by popular demand, in descending order.

25. Galvantula

she is so fluffy. they somehow made an electric spider one of the most cuddly pokemon designs of all time. WOULD get a plushie of her if i am being fully honest.

24. Scyther

he's just some guy who is also a cool looking bug who also has swords coming out of his fucking arms. a rare example of a gen 1 pokemon design that is 'extremely based' and not 'extremely boring'.

23. Roserade

Roselia in gen 3 was such a meh pokemon, so giving it this unexpectedly cool Tuxedo Mask evolution in gen 4 was awesome. I will be fully honest that my favorite version of Roserade is the shiny because it gets black and purple roses. cool as fuck

22. Scream Tail

'what if we made Jigglypuff so so so so so so scary and it wants to maim and eat you now'. say no more

21. Calyrex (Shadow Rider i guess)

as someone who skipped pokemon sword/shield entirely, this design is actually some of the coolest shit i've seen. weird looking deer knight riding on the back of a ghost horse? actually stupidly cool they were really cooking with this one.

20. Grovyle

Every PMD fan on the fucking planet knows why I put this rando middle evo Grass starter on my favorite pokemon list. And they also know that i am objectively correct for doing so. no further explanation is needed

19. Decidueye

listen this is a fucking Ghost Owl Archer, what a fucking idea, it's cool as shit and we love Decidueye in this household. the best grass starter in the game and it isn't even close. despite me putting one immediately before it on this list. no notes.

18. Gastrodon

i love you gastrodon i love you sea slugs i love you having 2 different non-shiny designs/color schemes, i love you weird squishy suctiony cry/sound effects. gastrodon is maybe my best friend possibly ever

17. Ampharos

listen even if lighthouses were not a special interest of mine i would still love the weird electric lighthouse sheep. look at this guy. truly one of THE pokemon designs ever.

16. Chandelure

love this fucking thing it looks like a kingdom hearts boss. also ghost/fire is objectively one of the coolest type combos ever (foreshadowing is a literary device in which--)

15. Hisuian Zoroark

this is a prime example of how the regional variants in modern pokemon can completely improve on the original. the original zoroark is a pretty generic edgy dog. this is a new and much more interesting take in general, it makes its once gimmicky Illusion ability much more sinister and tied to its backstory/lore. also such a great color scheme, i love the weird almost fungal looking growths on it?

14. Furret

furret my friend furret. he is a tube and also my friend.

13. Noivern

this is a vampire bat dragon, potentially the coolest thing to ever exist ever. you agree. also i like the color scheme, purple/green/red aren't usually things i would put together but it works very well here

12. Iron Valiant

there is a tumblr post that calls this thing "so nonbinary it kills you" (or something like that) and holy shit are they right. what a cool mix of gardevoir and gallade's designs. plus making it a robot knight. cool as fuck, definitely the best paradox pokemon. and again, it isn't even close lmao

11. Mawile

i remember being a little disturbed and/or weirded out by this thing when i played gen 3. over the years it has grown on me so much. what a weird fucking design. i too want a giant mouth horn growing out of my head. bonus points to mawile for also getting a sick mega evolution that i am pretty sure broke the metagame for a while. lol, lmao even.

10. Clodsire

holy fucking shit it's clodsire. fuck yes. FUCK YES FUCK YES FUCK YES what an incredible re-imagining of quagsire i love it so much

9. Froslass

imagine you're Glalie, the world's most generic and boring ice type of all time, evolved from Snorunt and already forgotten the moment you're introduced in gen 3. then gen 4 comes along and gives female Snorunts one of the coolest pokemon of all time as an evolution. truly THE most insane evolutionary glow up in the history of the franchise. anyway i love this thing, i love that she murders hikers and displays their corpses for people that's so cool i love you froslass congratulations on your transition

8. Hawlucha

LUCHADOR BIRD LUCHADOR BIRD LUCHADOR BIRD LUCHADOR BIRD LUCHADOR BIRD LUCHADOR BIRD LUCHADOR BIRD LUCHADOR BIRD LUCHADOR BIRD LUCHADOR BIRD LUCHADOR BIRD LUCHADOR BIRD LUCHADOR BIRD LUCHADOR BIRD LUCHADOR BIRD LUCHADOR BIRD LUCHADOR BIRD LUCHADOR BIRD LUCHADOR BIRD LUCHADOR BIRD LUCHADOR BIRD LUCHADOR BIRD LUCHADOR BIRD LUCHADOR BIRD LUCHADOR BIRD LUCHADOR BIRD LUCHADOR BIRD LUCHADOR BIRD

7. Espeon

definitely my favorite eeveelution, i love its simple design, the gem really ties it together. this is really one of those pokemon that feels like it'll be on your team for life. i will not elaborate on this

6. Bewear

i fucking LOVE this thing it makes me so fucking uncomfortable to look at. it has the best lore of any pokemon ever: it hugs people to death. god what a cool pokemon if it shattered my spine i would probably just say 'ok'

5. Floette

THIS IS MY WHITE WHALE, DUDE. I WILL NEVER BE OVER THE SUPER POWERED X/Y MAIN STORY VERSION OF THIS THING BEING CODED INTO THE GAME AS AN EVENT POKEMON AND THEN GAMEFREAK NEVER RELEASED IT. despite my bitterness i love floette whenever i see it. one of the quiet joys of scarlet/violet was seeing this tiny thing chilling out in the wild. to me its face is like The representation of happiness. i have no idea why i love it so much but i'm just happy whenever i see it

4. Suicune

when i was little i was obsessed with this thing. i remember playing pokemon silver and being captivated by it. then i was THRILLED that of all pokemon they could pick they made it the mascot for crystal. when i went on road trips as a kid i would imagine this thing running alongside the car and had all sorts of mental AMVs with it. now that i am an adult and have had time to reflect on suicune, however, i have come to realize something: suicune is actually the coolest fucking thing ever and i was so fucking right all along about this

3. Hisuian Typhlosion

i loved typhlosion as a kid, and most of my attachment to the original one is probably nostalgia related. however, like hisuian zoroark, this is one of those designs that just genuinely improves on the original in every way. i have NO idea why they chose to glam up typhlosion so much in legends arceus but i am so glad they did. adding Ghost typing is such a strange concept on paper but they executed it SO well. i love its dopey little look. what a gem of a design to find so recently in pokemon's lifespan.

2. Alolan Raichu

the original Raichu has always lived in Pikachu's shadow-- it has a cool enough design, but no one is ever going to pay attention to it when it's prevo is literally the world famous series mascot. so i am THRILLED with what a great design Alolan Raichu has. it's so fucking cute, it looks unique while still being obviously tied to the original. i love that it looks like a pancake. i love adding Psychic type to it -- like with Hisuian Typhlosion, an odd idea in concept that works perfectly. i love that it surfs on its adorable, giant tail. GOD i love alolan raichu it is such a good pokemon

Flygon

i love flygon, it's a sand dragonfly that evolves from the world's most adorable antlion. this is an instant pick for my team in every game it's in. i love its dragonfly eyes doubling as sand goggles. flygon is so cool you can make the argument for Dragon/Ground/Bug triple typing, but Gamefreak are fucking cowards and will never do that. it is because they are afraid of what flygon would do with this power. YAY FLYGON

[catonator]

Funny heading to a blogpost on videogames that’s some sort of reference

Look, I already used the ctrl+alt+delete quote in a blogpost title. It’s February 2024, and it’s already a very wild year for gaming. We’ve had more layoffs than with the entirety of 2023, games shown off at events seem to be stagnating, interest in the art is waning. Youtube is filled with “modern gaming sucks” doomer blackpill videos. It’s a miserable time.

Is gaming just over?

Well, no. Of course not. The Sonic franchise has lingered for decades despite consistent failure. Games are more resilient than that.

Humanity’s relation to computing is still pretty fresh, and I’d say that despite the size and scale of a lot of it, we’re still going through major growing pains. Concepts like video games, the internet and special effects are still pretty new, despite being around for twice or thrice as long as most of the people reading this have been alive. Internal combustion engine -powered cars were invented in 1808, made mass produced in the 1910s, and even then it took until the 1950s for them to be common enough for the US government to bother designing cities around them. In the present day, many have come to resent the car-centric design mentality, even though the driving (no pun intended) factor behind them was mainly the same as with technology today: scientific and technological progression is unquestionably good, and therefore new and successful ideas should be pushed and relied upon as hard as possible. What could possibly go wrong?!

Video games are far from the only medium which is seeing similar problems. Movies have suffered greatly from a capeshit infestation, in which the abuse of VFX artists is valued over, you know, basics of good filmmaking, and the general public is clearly sick of it. On the internet, we’ve decided that megastructures like Twitter are better than forms of communication we’re good at, and it’s gone horribly wrong. We’re still learning the “do”s, “don’t”s and “who the fuck thought this was a good idea”s of tech.

Games as an artform are as alive as they ever were, but the sheer scale of the operations has grown to a point where nobody can really understand it. The numbers behind playerbases and the money traffic have so many zeroes that you can’t even fathom the number. Even if I used some metaphorical figure, like 20 000 cars. Shockingly, despite how console sales haven’t really increased in numbers (the top selling console of all time is still the PS2), most of the top-grossing games of all time are relatively recent. This implies that the behaviour of consumers has shifted from purchasing a variety of different kinds of games into purchasing fewer games of fewer different kinds. And I don’t think it’s a case of customers deciding to shift over naturally.

In the past decade or so, the gaming industry has decided sensible experiences are a way of the past, and the future is making games for debt and making back the money with horse armour and other garbage the general public doesn’t really want.

But we’ve seen this shit before. In the 90s, 3D was “the future”, and 2D pixel art or hand-drawn art in general seemed to go the way of the dodo for polygons and ““realism””. About a decade later, 2D art would see a resurgence and in some cases overtake the big lads in lasting impact. In the end, people crave personal stories, varying ideas, and interesting ways to tell them. Not much has changed since ancient Greeks, besides that the medium of storytelling has largely shifted from some guy standing on a stage, trying to explain another world, to electronic devices actually showing us the other worlds.

I think as we play out the Icarus stories in real time, we’ll also learn when boundaries are pushed too far, and the scale of the bullshit simply collapses in on itself. When that happens, the public is forced to step back and reevaluate the ways we thought were the future, and what really is better for all of us.

When a storm flattens a forest of dead, decrepit trees, the sun and rain can now reach the ground and cultivate a new generation of different plant life. Once hidden beneath the dead corpses, now able to grow and bloom in a way the old generation never could. You should just keep doing what you think is right. Now’s the time more than ever to be the backbone of a better industry, for many applications of tech, from games to communication. And it’s better, if the backbone comes from the grassroots, and isn’t defined by the megacorporations. Because those cunts will never learn from their failures.

[beifong-brainrot]

The (old) announcement for the new earth Avatar series in 2025 is making the rounds on twitter with so many reactions being wishing for a Bolin-like mankisser Avatar, which has led me & my maladaptive daydreaming to concoct this speculation/wishlist/fanfic, hope you enjoy:

Technology has evolved to be somewhat modern day tech with majority population no longer very spiritual & dismiss bending & spirits as being "old head" stuff & glorified pretty animals & weird martial arts, and now the Avatar isn't considered a big deal anymore. This is part of the main conflict with the new Avatar

Korra dies at around 80ish, mostly b/c I want old lady Master Jinora to be the new Avatar's main spiritual teacher

Show starts with Jinora copying her dad's lead and summarize the end of Korra's life before zooming in on her and the White Lotus going around the Earth Kingdom searching for the new Avatar. Unlike w/ previous generations, there's hardly any Avatar claims, which is nice b/c no random false claims, but Jinora gets annoyed at how un-spritual and downright flippant people are about the Avatar cycle nowadays.

This search goes really wrong though... b/c 20 years after Korra's death and they still haven't found the new Avatar 😨. WL members begin wondering if the cycle is broken, but Jinora doesn't give up hope in finding Korra's reincarnation.

Jinora may be an old lady, but she's very spry and agile and credits the Air Nomad lifestyle for how she doesn't slow down at all in the search.

Scenes begin getting interspliced during the Avatar search, cutting to some ”random” Earthbender (obvs the Avatar). He's some big buff brown athlete dude who is trying to make it to the big leagues of pro-bending... but he struggles a lot. Backstory: he's dirt poor and kicked out by his family after being such a failure in school, turning to sports to try to live out his dream is a last ditch effort. Very last ditch b/c if he doesn't win tonight's match money, he's not gonna make rent and end up homeless, so he's very stressed.

Cut to some of the younger While Lotus guys who pass by the local small-town arena and then ask Master Jinora if they can take a break this weekend and watch a local pro-bending match. Honors was at first gonna say no, but her gut/spiritual connection to the previous Avatar suddenly tells her that going inside might be a good idea.

They walk in to see a pro-bending match in progress, and it's pretty neck&neck with our Earth Avatar looking like he might be able to pull out a close victory..... until the enemy's team's earthbender sends him flying back, and instead of falling normally, our Avatar gets genuinely scared that he's gonna break his neck and experiences a slowmotion "life flashing before my eyes" near-death moment where he gets sad b/c.... he's kinda a loser and his life sucks!

That's when he suddenly airbends and catches his fall.

Jinora & the WL are overjoyed to see this and it's a big huge moment..... until they zoom out and it turns out nobody else in the arena gives a single fuck outside of the fact that airbending is cheating ”yellow fan! move back 1 zone!" even our new Avatar's teammates are pissed at him

Jinora gets really mad "Um, hello? That's the Avatar!" but nobody cares beyond the game. Jinora starts grumbling abt "young folks"

Our new Avatar doesn't even care much either and just pleads with the ref that he just did it on accident, but the yellow fan goes thru.... and it ends up costing the match!

new Avatar leaves the match dejected and kicked off the team "if you hadn't done that Avatar mumbo jumbo, we would've won the prize money!" and new Avatar leaves teary eyed and cursing this "stupid Avatar stuff"

Jinora & the WL drop in on new Avatar (literally, Jinora is too excited and just flies down from the sky) and new Avatar yells abt "I don't have any money, scary airbending Grandma-mugger! Please don't rob me, I'm already homeless!"

It takes a while for Jinora to convince him to come with her (turns out, he doesn't know much abt Avatar stuff either, Jinora really starts grumbling abt "young folks" now) but in the end the White Lotus win him over by pointing out that the Avatar gets free room & board from the WL.

scene break to the following day, preparing to take a Sky Bison to the Fire Nation, & the new Avatar asks why they're going there

Jinora explains that the WL has contacts with the traditional Sun Warrior pueblos who have agreed to train the new Avatar in Firebending (Jinora then wonders aloud if the offer still stands after being 20 years late in finding him)

new Avatar guy then asks why Fire first, & not Air. Then Jinora starts lecturing him abt having to go in the order of the Avatar cycle ”It's Earth Fire Air then Water. How do you not know this?"

While she's ranting abt this, some dude shows up and new Avatar tries to hide by earthbending a hole into the ground... it turns out to be his dad. Somehow, his dad found out abt him being a late bloomer Avatar (new Avatar bragged on corny Instagram-parody abt being the new Avatar, it wasn't as popularly received as he had hoped, most ppl called him a liar)

NA's dad, same dad who kicked him out of the house for being a jobless loser dropout, suddenly wants to schmooze up to the White Lotus, after confirming that his son wasn't lying

Argument ensues, but ends with his dad at least being concerned abt his son travelling overseas and insisting that the WL take his number and give him updates. While climbing onto Sky Bison Jinora takes some grandma-ly pity on NA and tells him that they won't update his dad if he doesn't want them to.

Fast forward to NA meeting a Sun Warrior Master (their people are one of the few civilizations still keeping the traditional bending and spiritual practices alive, part of why Jinora picked them) and NA begins his training... poorly

The SW Master gets very frustrated at how blockheaded this guy is and how little he pays attention (on more than one occasion, NA pulls out his phone and desperately tries to convince social media that he really is the new Avatar, but everyone keeps accusing him of using a greenscreen filter or something to look like he's on vacation)

Sun Warrior guy ends up dragging Jinora aside and having an outburst and saying some... not so nice things about this new Avatar. He starts asking Master Jinora if it's possible that intermixing between nations has somehow produced multi enders, maybe he just has an airbender & earthbender parent. Jinora tells the SW Master to stop being ridiculous, and then he escalates as says that even if NA is the Avatar, he won't teach him b/c he's ”a lost cause"

NA accidentally walks in and overhears this, and it hurts his feelings and he starts getting existential b/c "it's happening all over again! o sucked at school! I sucked at probending! now I suck at this too! my dad was right.... I should just go home" 😢

the Sun Warrior Master feels bad & tries to retract what he said, but Jinora says that she'll talk to the NA

Jinora decides to change up the schedule the rest of the day and train the NA herself. He gets excited at first b/c he thinks it's for airbending"at least know I can airbend!" but turns out Jinora just want to do some simple spiritual meditation stuff as something (hopefully) easier for him to help build his confidence

Meditation practice goes similarly awful (he can't concentrate or relax to save his life) but the conversation does turn to Jinora talking about the spiritual aspect of Avatars and asking him if he's ever connected to any past Avatars

Jinora decides to try something, and takes NA to a shrine that she had once visited with Korra in her later years. Jinora hopes that this place might help him connect to Korra (possibly for selfish reasons b/c Jinora misses Korra)

It's late at night at this point, and the NA just ends up falling asleep rather than meditating. Jinora sighs and reasons that it's only his first day.

But ... turns out that during his sleep, NA does make contact with the spirit of old gray Korra... and she slaps the NA's spirit awake

NA freaks out "Why are you blue & glowy? Wait why am I blue & glowy?"

Korra doesn't have time for his questions and starts getting into it "Finally! It's been 20 years! You're old enough to be a fully realized Avatar, so why is this the first time I finally made contact with you? You've gotta be a bigger spiritual blockhead than when I started out!"

NA confused and explains that he's not a realized Avatar, it's just his first day

Spirit Korra freaks out and starts shaking NA's spirit like a ragdoll "You just started!!? We don't have time for this! I need to warn you about something! Here, it'll be easier if I show you!"

Spirit Korra touches his forehead and shows him a vision of a worldwide apocalyptic event that's like a climate change fueled by the modern-tech world's disconnect & mistreatment of the spirits hanging around the material world.

After the vision Korra lets him go and yells at him to hurry up and finish his Avatar training. And then before she wakes up him again she asks him to send her regards to Jinora btw.

Cut to the waking world, Jinora is concerned over where NA's spirit went and shaking him. Then he wakes up screaming and asking if being an Avatar always means that "scary old ladies are yelling at me... Oh... she told me to tell you that 'Korra says hi'"

And that's where my maladaptive daydream decided the 1st episode of this hypothetical/speculative show would end, but here's also 2 other "scenes" I daydreamed where the new guy's Team Avatar forms.

1st scene is him perhaps going on a trip away from the Sun Warriors' remote traditional village and going to a semi-rural fishing town and ending up meeting some bronze-skinned rough-and-tumble looking firebender dude seaside restaurant that he flirts with.

The NA wonders if he could flex his Avatar status to help with flirting with the fellas, but his recent failures w/ Avatar training has him feeling down and ending up losing his nerve and goes to leave. But the firebender guy sees the depressed NA first and invites him for a bowl of this town's specialty noodles.

They hit it off well, and NA enjoys getting to forget abt Avatar training (Jinora will yell at him later when he ends up missing the whole day's practice). NA asks firebender guy what he does, and he says he works on his dad's fishing boat as the chef ”stereotypical, right? they always ask the firebender to cook. I'm good at it though" And when he in turn asks the same question, NA tiptoes around the Avatar stuff (after how everyone else in his hometown and his old probending reacted, he thinks it probably won't be "cool" to say he's the Avatar)

But turns out, firebender guy thinks it's awesome, and NA is like "You're the first person other than Master Jinora to think me being the Avatar is cool😊" "Who's Master Jinora 🤔?" "One of the old ladies who yells at me 😐"

2nd scene is the waterbender & Airbender girlies of the team being introduced.

the waterbender is a traditional southern water tribe student who's doing field research for her thesis on Sun Warrior culture. She doesn't use waterbending much for combat at first (she mostly just uses it to create ice magnifying glasses to read ancient texts)

But she ends up getting roped into Avatar business after running the airbender girlie, who is Jinora(& Kai)'s granddaughter!

She flies over to the SW pueblo to see how her old granny is doing

she has a sort of funny half-camaraderie half-antagonism relationship with Granny Jinora, b/c she's a master Airbender who genuinely cares abt Air Nomad culture, but she also likes new untraditional modern tech social media fashion stuff too, and that part kinda annoys Jinora since her granddaughter kind of runs a nomadic travel page and takes lots of pictures

Jinora's granddaughter and the water tribe thesis writer meet at the Sun Warrior village, and the water tribe student complains that there's practically nothing to make a thesis on since the Sun Warriors are very protective of their culture to actually let her study anything beyond some old statues at the gate. She rambles aloud that the other grad students were doing much more exciting theses, and that the only novel thing she could do was either try (and fail) to convince the secretive Sun Warriors to let her do a paper on them... or do a paper on the mystery fate of the Avatar in the 20 years since Korra's death

Jinora's granddaughter ends up being a big blabbermouth and spilling every abt why her granny is here with the Sun Warriors

They both get roped into Avatar destiny stuff as a result

Some other random thoughts I had: it'd be cool to do another southern water tribe festival arc at some point, except this time with nods to Korra and Katara in the festival and an update on the spiritual connection there far away from the big metropolises.

Plus, it'd be cool to see Tenzin's kids and grandkids at some point, with a joke about Rohan being forgotten, b/c he was just a baby while his whole family saved the world a million times, so a self aware jab abt Rohan being old and still salty abt missing out on the adventures w/ Korra 😤

OH my gosh i love that! Babe you've got some spectacular ideas, write a fic! Granny Jinora oml 😍 and I genuinely feel for the new avatar. Its easy to feel like a failure and i think a lot of us could relate lol

[nelvana]

Back at it again with another pokemon playthrough, this time going all the way back to gen 1 and playing yellow! I had been playing this on and off again for a few years now, but finally wrapped things up a couple months ago. Those old sprites are fascinating. Similarly, I thought it would be fun to shake up the usual team drawing doing this in the original Game Boy colors!

Team stats and general gameplay info under the cut:

"Sunnie", Pikachu, Thunderbolt - Quick Attack - Double Team - Body Slam

"Frumky", Primeape, Strength - Dig - Low Kick - Rock Slide

"Spesk", Parasect, Slash - Mega Drain - Leech Life - Spore

"Memoire", Mew, Earthquake - Metronome - Surf - Psychic

"Beast", Flareon, Fire Blast - Sand-Attack - Smog - Quick Attack

"Leece", Dewgong, Headbutt - Surf - Rest - Ice Beam

General Playthrough Notes:

Gameplay total settled at nearly 20 hours! One of the shorter ones, I'd say; though, then again, there isn't really much to do in this game aside from the gyms and Team Rocket stuff.

We went in to the E4 with the whole team at level 45! Something that didn't go well in my old LeafGreen playthrough, but was perfectly fine here. The E4 wasn't that bad at all, honestly.

Kanto is not nearly good enough to deserve all the times I've played through it. I am so tired of Kanto and I'm not even done with it yet (I'm midway through a SoulSilver randomized apocalocke which, of course, has Kanto in the postgame, and I'm doing another LeafGreen run for some reason).

Okay okay so look you can see the mew on my team, I thought it'd be fun to have a mew! I missed the spots you're ideally supposed to perform the glitch in. I had just finished Cerulean City and then realized that the trainers I needed for the glitch were in that city! And I had already beaten them! I ended up using a dugtrio in diglett cave instead. It wasn't very consistent, took me a few tries, but eventually I got it.

Fun fact! At one point I was going to do a yellow nuzlocke! I ended up getting bored and realized I just wanted to play through yellow regularly, so here we are. In that run I caught Frumky though, which is actually what won me over enough to want to use her again in my actual yellow playthrough. It was actually that save where I traded with myself to get an alakazam back in my gold playthrough.

Gen 1 is so funny with how broken it is. I got so much joy in describing to my roommate all the fucked up things that were happening in-game.

Hey. Come here. Listen closely: I don't think parasect is as bad as everyone says it is. Even with the multiple x4 weaknesses in gen 1. Spesk was the mvp in a lot of fights, they packed a punch. Lovely little critter.

...Wish I could speak high praises for gen 1 flareon though. I enjoyed using Beast! But they really just don't get access to a lot of good moves. Beast had their moments, but ultimately didn't get as much screen time as I had hoped.

Similarly, dewgong? Not as good as I hoped. It really isn't quite as beefy as I had in mind. Poor thing. Again, still had fun with them on the team!

Having pikachu following me around and checking in with them whenever will never not be cute. We've been robbed of quality following pokemon in the modern games.

[ijustwantedtobeoneofthestrokesuk]

Is That It?

New York

New York was energised, and it all coincided with a new ‘sound’. The Strokes had just released their debut album in Australia and the UK, September saw it come out in the US and the spotlight was on New York because of The Strokes too. The most hyped band in the world helped build a new movement in music that would last the decade.  

The Modern Age EP was 3 songs, the band had done 1 tour in the UK, they were the biggest band in the world, the pressure was on. Is This It came out, 11 songs, 36 minutes and 28 seconds but it could have easily been forgotten with 9/11. 

9/11 was unlike anything before, it happened live on TV, the first major moment in the age of 24/7 news. New York was mourning, everyone was empathic for New York and Is This It felt so New York (the USA release was pushed back and they replaced one song, New York City Cops with When It Started). The album could have been buried under the rumble of 9/11 but it was a tribute to New York, it made New York cool again. That band looked effortlessly cool, the messy hair, leather jackets, ripped jeans and Converse hi-tops, it was punk in the 21st Century and the album sounded just as cool, so different, so fresh and flawless.

Jay McAllister (Beans On Toast) “The Strokes felt like they emerged out of thin air and became everybody’s favourite band overnight. I was at Reading the year they were supposed to be the small band tent and they moved up to the main stage as everyone wanted to see them, the music matched up to that.” 

They were young, good-looking poster boys, girls wanted to sleep with them, boys wanted to be them (as Alex Turner sings on Star Treatment). The Strokes brought skinny jeans back from the seventies paired with vintage tees, and a don’t give a fuck attitude. It was punk, it was cool. Our parents might have seen this before but we hadn’t.  

Tom Atkin (The Paddingtons) “Everyone was waiting for The Strokes to come out, everyone needed this movement. They gave birth to that whole era, such an amazing time.”

That debut lived up to the hype that the NME had generated. In 2001 that hyped saw the band be upgraded to the mainstage at the Reading and Leeds Festival,  a year later, they headlined it, playing after icons Pulp. 

MTV played a key part in distributing music in the early 2000’s, videos gave an insight into “who” the band was, in an era before they would share everything on social media. The Strokes made some iconic videos (Somedayshowed the band hanging about at a bar, taking on Guided by Voices at a TV game show and just being cool dudes with Slash).

It was their MTV $2 Dollar Bill Concert that “sold” the band as it captured everything special and exciting about them. Julian stumbled on the stage in the iconic military jacket, Nick stands out in a white blazer while Fab doesn’t miss a beat. It was filmed to look vintage at the time, over 20 years later, it looks like a classic. 

The question everyone was asking was, can they do it again?

Yes.

Initially, they returned to New York to work with Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich for Room On Fire however those sessions were scrapped, both him and Julian clashed as they are control freaks. They went back to the tried and trusted Gordon Raphael.

London

Gordon “There was more time and a big studio (my small studio was gone by then.. as I was living in UK) when it came to recording Room On Fire. The band had been touring for two years and were SO SO tight and powerful. Nothing could have prepared me for that happy surprise.”  

It still had that same feel that everyone loved from the debut but it was polished, cleaner, and modern. Julian’s vocals had gone from muffled to slightly digitalised and, it wasn’t recorded “live”, it wasn’t raw, instead it was slicker. It was the same, but different. The songs weren’t as instant, they didn’t hit as hard but that was ok, they didn’t need to have attention-grabbing singles this time. They had already proved that they could do it and, which album is better is always a great argument.

Unfortunately, after releasing the album, the band admitted they weren’t exactly happy with it, It was finished with sleepless nights, arguments and stress to reach the deadline RCA had given. Is This It might have been important, but it wasn’t a big seller, RCA put heat on the band to deliver on Room On Fire which came out just over 2 years after the debut. 

Between those 2 releases, the band toured the world a few times, playing over 200 gigs while living under constant pressure to live up to the hype. The Strokes tried to avoid being labelled as “rockstars”, but they lived like them, never shy around drink and drugs, they were in their early 20’s, it was inevitable.  Julian had been a drinker from an early age, the band might have been a 5-piece but Julian was more than a frontman, the songs were his. Every day was full with duties, interviews, promoting, soundchecks and gigs, the afterparty was the relief. There wasn’t time, or energy to write new songs, so, when the tours were finished and it was time to go in the studio, the only thing they had were hangovers. Still, a decent effort!

NEXT CHAPTER

[jeongyunhoed]

As seen on my FF.net Also seen on my Ao3

Following the events of fifth year, a new adventure awaits for Norah Lee. Boys, exams, school events, common room parties, and old foes outside of Hogwarts. Even battling pensieve guardians was easier than this.

Main Pair: OC / Ominis Gaunt Genre: Adventure/Angst/Fluff (it's a little of everything, tbh)

KEEP IN MIND: Characters are aged up (even if the story's got them in sixth year) to make it more appropriate. Time period is leaning towards the modern day so in case you might find anachronisms in the dialogue or references, this is why. This may also be quite a lengthy fic too.

BE WARNED: Social anxiety, mentions of blood and injury, grief, drinking, kissing but nothing more than that, death (this is Hogwarts Legacy, after all)

P.P.S: Hufflepuff partay! Spin the Bottle so there's kisses involved. Snuck something in for the Poppy/Imelda shippers too. Ominis and Norah being idiots part 2. Amit drinks his romantic troubles away.

Masterlist

Chapter 20

It's 2AM and the city is sound asleep But the scene keeps playing to the groove of my heartbeat

"Does everyone want to know what the rules are in Spin the Bottle?" Charlotte declared as many of them gathered in a circle. "Or do we need to refresh it for many of you?" A sly grin was plastered on her face, especially as she saw Norah, Ominis, Sebastian, and Amit taking their places after being coerced by Henry and Natty. Poppy and Andrew were already sitting across from each other in the circle, exchanging knowing looks. No doubt Poppy had told him the rules of the game, which they never got to play when it was first introduced.

"Alright then, remind us," Eric Northcott raised a brow as he sat down.

"This is an enchanted bottle," Charlotte brought out what looked like an ordinary soda pop bottle from the table behind her. "It'll spin, and whoever is on both ends of the bottle, well," Her grin grew wider. "Will kiss."

In real life, I would stutter With you in technicolor At 2AM in my head, we're bound to meet

Amit's cheeks turned a shade of pink, but he wasn't the only one. Norah suddenly felt anxious at the thought. She spotted Caleb and Adele come in, hurrying to join the rest of them that were already seated.

"I'll bet a few chocolate frogs Norah's going to get a lot of boys wanting to be on the other end of the bottle," Imelda was enjoying the spectacle that would unfold as soon as Charlotte would say it would. When Norah looked over, having overheard her, she gave a thumbs up.

"That seems like regular spin the bottle, doesn't it?" Caleb was confused.

"Revri, you need to pay attention," Charlotte blew a raspberry at him, making him shake his head. "It'll spin yes, but it won't just point to people sitting across from each other. It can also point to the others out of your line of sight. Ready?"

They all agreed, and Charlotte spun the bottle, getting out in time before the bottle started pointing at anyone.

I don't want anyone to wake me up I fall asleep, it's never been so fun I know it's wrong but it's true I like the things that we do in my Bad dreams, bad dreams Bad dreams, bad dreams

"Merlin, this is interesting," Natty looked on as the bottle finally pointed to a Gryffindor and Slytherin. Both of whom crawled to the middle to exchange a shy kiss followed by cheers and claps from everyone else. The pair sat back down in their places with ruddy cheeks.

Norah noticed Ominis fidgeting in his place next to her. "You okay?" His cheeks were a little pink.

"Yes, Norah, I'm fine," He said, almost in a whisper. "I didn't think this would be an outcome of the game."

"Muggles play this at parties a lot," Norah chuckled. "Especially muggles our age. It's a way to get close to whoever you fancy. At least for many of them."

I'm still on stage, and you're watching me count the stars Then I eat you up like milk and Lucky Charms In real life I'd be patient Fantasy adjacent So I indulge the sum to see the parts Fuck you, I love you, I need you

The bottle stopped to point again to Leander and Nerida, who gaped at each other and exchanged amused expressions. Leander reluctantly made the crawl toward Nerida, who took the initiative and kissed him. They also pulled away with red cheeks. "This never happened," Nerida pointed out.

"Agreed," Leander nodded, laughter erupting from everyone else. "Merlin, so this is what that game is about."

Sebastian looked over at Norah and Ominis, who were focused on the bottle that was spinning. The dilemma remained, even as he had overheard her conversation with Natty in the Room of Requirement. Norah was under the impression that Ominis liked Anne, but more importantly, that Norah liked Ominis. And he himself knew, that Ominis liked Norah too.

The cheers suddenly grew louder when the bottle suddenly pointed to Poppy, and, to the surprise of Andrew and many others, to Imelda. Norah gaped at the choice, grinning at her fellow Slytherin, who didn't seem to be phased by it. Oohs and aahhs erupted when the two girls had given each other friendly pecks and Poppy making sure to double the affection she showed Andrew, who was still shocked.

"That changes everything," Everett Clopton grinned, seeing everyone get increasingly excited when the bottle spun again.

I don't want anyone to wake me up I fall asleep, it's never been so fun I know it's wrong but it's true I like the things that we do in my Bad dreams, bad dreams Bad dreams, bad dreams

Everyone took a break from focusing on the game to the rest of what the Hufflepuff house had to offer in the party they hosted. The music grew louder, making everyone dance in their places while in conversation or while eating whatever snacks they could try. Garreth was preoccupied in giving everyone cups of his brew, looking pleased when people liked it and wanted more.

"Ah, Thakkar," Garreth eyed the Ravenclaw as he approached the table. "Care for some? You look like you could use a swig."

Amit suddenly noticed Samantha, who was talking to some of their fellow housemates in one corner. At the same time, he also noticed Nellie, who was already trying to climb up the mantel to the increased cheers of some Hufflepuffs, who had already consumed several cups of the strong beverage.

"Yes please," He said, reaching for a cup for Garreth to pour some of the alcoholic drink into. He downed it all in one go, to the surprise of the Gryffindor boy. Amit wrinkled his nose. "That is strong. I want another."

"Alright then, but too much can play tricks on your head," Garreth warned, pouring him another. "Probably get you drunk."

"That's what I'm counting on," Amit mumbled as he closed his eyes at the taste.

Relive the sin in REM And do it all again

Norah was helping herself to a few pasties at the very end of the table where the food has been on display. Several others returned to sit in the circle again to continue playing the game. Perhaps to wonder who they ever get to kiss if the bottle pointed at them at some point. She caught Garreth looking at her, and she waved as he gestured for her to have some. She shook her head, not wanting to get tipsy just yet.

"This party's different this time," Sebastian noted, his mouth still full of food.

"Yeah, who would've thought Imelda would get what she wanted," Norah chuckled upon remembering, making Sebastian stare at her. "Oh come on, you must have known."

"I did, but I didn't think it was Poppy," Sebastian grinned, looking over at the girl herself, who already excused herself to leave, passing by a few of the members of their house team. "Well, that might have knocked her down a peg."

Norah laughed. "Maybe, and also she's got a complete team for this year. I wonder when the first match is going to be."

"Possibly before the Yule Ball. I heard the teachers are already taking bets as to which house is winning the Quidditch cup this year," Ominis appeared, having overheard their conversation. He came after some prodding from Henry about Norah.

"Take this chance, Ominis," Henry reminded him as soon as he was sure Natty was out of earshot. "Otherwise, she might get kissed by someone the magic bottle's pointed to."

Norah chuckled. "Who are they betting on? Everett Clopton's got himself the newest broom, by the way."

The blonde took a careful bite out of the pasty he was holding. "That might be true, but it's on Gryffindor as usual, and Slytherin, of course. I heard Professor Weasley say it's going to be a battle of pride between Adele and Imelda."

Sebastian and Norah looked impressed. "Adele did tell me that her time was what Imelda had to beat before I beat Imelda's," She said.

The two boys hummed in confirmation. "Wouldn't expect anything less. If you were related to Alexandra Kang, you'd have big shoes to fill," Sebastian commented, glancing at the girl, who was talking with her fellow teammates. Norah and Ominis nodded.

"She must have a lot of pressure on her shoulders, but she certainly didn't seem like it when I talked to her before," Norah recalled, remembering the time she got caught coming out of the secret passage that led to the werewolf tapestries. She finished the last pasty she was holding and took a drink of butterbeer.

While the music had continued playing, Norah saw everyone simmer down in chatter when she realized the bottle was pointing to her. The enchanted bottle spun again in front of her, only for it to stop in front of Eric Northcott, followed by whispers and expressions of surprise amongst the students. Ominis felt his heart skip a beat, and a kind of sadness came over him when he realized the result. Sebastian had also felt even more crestfallen, especially as the Gryffindor boy - whom he remembers Norah bested in Crossed Wands - looked like he had won something.

Charlotte, on the other hand, looked slightly annoyed but defeated nonetheless. Nerida, who was actually dating Eric, looked intrigued and even exchanged knowing looks with Grace, who eyed Ominis. Natty and Henry looked shocked as well, the two of them breaking into clapping and cheering.

Norah laughed as she wiped her mouth with a napkin. "Better luck next time Garreth," She teased, with the freckled redhead grinning and giving a thumbs up. If Ominis wasn't going to be her first kiss, at least Eric would be, she thought as she approached him, calm as ever, to let Eric plant a soft peck on her lips. The two of them fist bumped as they pulled back, with Norah returning to her two friends, and Eric with his friends and Nerida.

"That seemed fun," She said, feeling even more calm. "Now that the bottle's already pointed to me, I'm just going to watch if you two get pointed at. Anne might've enjoyed this."

"She would have, but I don't want to see that," Sebastian cringed in disgust at the thought, while Ominis laughed.

"We might scare whoever it is away," Ominis added. "But parties seemed to be so much more bearable when she was with us. We'd be in the corner and Sebastian would be trying to flirt his way through the drinks table."

Sebastian glared at his friend. "I don't flirt with just anyone. Besides, it proved effective when I finally got them to move away from all the butterbeer and the food."

Norah took another drink of butterbeer, mentally kicking herself for having been the first one to bring up Anne. "I'll just get myself a pint of Garreth's fizz-beer."

I don't want anyone to wake me up I fall asleep, it's never been so fun I know it's wrong but it's true I like the things that we do in my Bad dreams, bad dreams Bad dreams, bad dreams

Norah managed to find a little corner in the midst of the merriment and sat down, suddenly feeling overwhelmed by their conversation. She looked on at the rest of the game that was happening, amused at the next set of people that the enchanted bottle was pointing to.

She was even more surprised when the bottle pointed to Adele, followed by it pointing to Sebastian. Both of whom looked completely shocked, but the initial surprise disappeared when the two of them confidently kissed each other. The Gryffindor girl, in particular, even cupping his face for good measure, and it was met with louder cheers. Sebastian seemed to enjoy making the spectacle as they pulled away, hitting high fives before going their separate ways.

"There you are."

She snapped out of her thoughts when she saw Ominis, his wand pointing at her. Norah cleared her throat and shifted a little when the blonde sat down next to her. "Enjoying the party so far?"

A smirk formed on his lips. "Especially as Sebastian kissed Adele? Definitely. She took him by surprise, reminds me of your first duel with him."

She nodded. "I didn't see that coming, but I'm not completely surprised. It's that Gryffindor courage."

"This is one of the rare times I wish I could see without my wand," Ominis said, stifling a laugh. "He must've been so red afterwards."

"Oh he was," Norah laughed, making him laugh as well. She took another sip of her drink then glanced at him. "You must miss Anne a lot, huh?"

"Hmm?" Ominis hummed, tilting his head toward her. "Oh, I do, from time to time. The adventures you had with Sebastian in fifth year definitely made me think of her a lot."

She nodded. "...Are you thinking of asking her to the Yule Ball?" There it was. Norah wanted to confirm it, no matter how much it might hurt.

The blonde seemed taken by surprise at the question. "Me? Take Anne to the Yule Ball? Sebastian would kill me, pun intended."

Norah stared at him, then poked his side. "Too dark, Ominis," She said.

The action made him laugh, and it prompted her to keep doing it, tickling him. The sounds of his giggles like music to her ears. It was rare to see Ominis laughing like this. "Alright, alright, that's enough, Norah," He caught her hand, slightly warm from the butterbeer she was holding.

His heart was pounding as his hand enveloped hers. Henry's prodding seemed to help. All Ominis needed to do next was to hold her hand properly, lace their fingers together. He could only hope she couldn't feel his heartbeat through his hand if it was possible. This was all he wanted to do, keep holding her hand and maybe let her rest against him.

"Really, Ominis," She said quietly, cheeks ruddy from how gentle he was in holding her hand. "Are you taking Anne to the Yule Ball?"

"No," He replied, clearing his throat. "I never thought of asking her in the first place even if I've written to her. As much as I care for Anne, I don't think of her in that way."

There it was. The answer she wanted, which took Norah by surprise. She looked down at their feet while taking a long drink of butterbeer. "So...there was something else I wanted to talk to you about, but I never got around to asking."

Ominis tilted his head toward her again, and he swore their faces were a little too close this time. "What?"

As the music grew louder when the group decided to end the game, it made Norah lean in to speak near his ear. "Those letters, when you summoned me, what were those about?"

Ominis could feel his cheeks heat up even more. It reminded him of his previous dream. But before he could answer-

"Hey, Amit's gotten sloshed, we should probably take him back to his common room or something," Sebastian suddenly came in, making Ominis let go of Norah's hand.

"The most we can do is bring him to the door, we can't exactly go inside the Ravenclaw common room," Norah said.

"I'll do it, he's had far too many of Garreth's fizz-beers to drink," Henry suddenly came over to them, followed by Natty, who looked just as concerned, but was holding the hangover tonic she took from the freckled redhead. "We'll bring him back to the common room to get some rest."

As Henry and Natty went back to fetch Amit, the Ravenclaw boy had already passed out near the Hufflepuff house chest. Nellie was sitting by him, fanning his face.

[autolenaphilia]

Comparing the original Resident Evil 4 and its remake really tells us a lot about how triple-A gaming has changed for the worse in the interim.

Like overall the indie market in the last 20 years or so has probably made games as a whole much better. Right now there are more good games being made, in a wider variety of genres than ever before. Things were worse overall in 2005.

But AAA has gotten so much worse. The original Resident Evil 4 is a great action third-person shooter game, very influential, I love it. But it's influence is not entirely positive. It popularized quick-time events (QTEs) in games, you know, "press x to not die", which was a major trend in the latter half of the 00s. It's an annoying gimmick and was hated by general audiences even back then. In RE4 it's a blemish on a really good game that otherwise holds up really well.

From what I can tell, QTEs never really went fully away, but there are much less of them now. And part of the hype for the remake was literally that they were going to get rid of the QTEs And it seems they did remove the QTEs, but guess what they added instead: microtransactions.It was even in an update sometime post-release, so reviewers wouldn't bring it up.

And that about sums it up. Nowadays major video games are fucking casinos, sometimes literally trying to get kids to develop gambling problems. The business model is no longer selling a game to you, a product for which you pay for once. It's keeping you hooked on a live service that milks you for money continuously. It's the internet enabling the worst tendencies among the game industry, and maybe it's the tendency for the rate of profit to fall, so the game companies feel the need to squeeze its customers for every drop.

The RE4 microtransactions are one of the milder offenders. But the fact that the iconic RE4 merchant now asks for real world money is so illustrative. It's enough to make you wanna cry "00s AAA games with QTEs, come back, all is forgiven!"

The original RE4 is so good, because the commercial motivation behind it was to sell a discrete product, and the developers at Capcom realized that making that product the best game they could make would make it sell more. So they put some soul and effort into it, and it shows.

Even the QTEs while a mistake had actually the quite reasonable motivation of trying to improve the experience for the player. Developer Yoshiaki Hirabayashi actually explained that in an interesting contemporary article.

"We thought that if we could facilitate a seamless transition between gameplay and the in-game movies, people would be able to stay involved throughout the entire experience without interruption....By incorporating an action button into the cutscenes, we made it possible for players to interact with the in-game movies."

Again, RE4 was a commercial game, but the developers realized that the best way to make their product sell was to make a good game. The QTEs wasn't milking people for money, it was genuinely thought that they were fun for players. It was an attempt to improve the experience.

And nowadays the motivation for AAA games is different. The goal isn't to make a fun game, a product that people will buy because it provides a fun gameplay experience. It's to create a shiny storefront that keeps people paying more and more. Many modern games serve the exact same purpose as the art and noises slot machines have.

[residenthesitant]

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

i just like hearing you talk about your fics. tell me more about any of them (=ↀωↀ=) <- giving u a stare like a cat

waow. thatsa lotta stars. i will do. three. my three most recent. because i have commentary about all of them.

i recently put up THIS FIC for the mcytrecursive. the title is from "whose eye is it anyway???" by jhariah (which i recently heard live!!!) bc that entire song is about revenge and what happens when you try to get it. important lyrics here are "If it’s an eye for an eye then we all go blind / If it came to it would you cross that line?" which generally just explains quackity's whole thing of getting revenge against techno for punching him out at wilbur's funeral (a fight which HE started, in the first place), and the lines "And the weight of your crimes weighing on your mind / Is it a knife or a lie is it in your back? / Is it all I need? Is it all I have?" which imo really is what eret's whole deal is in this fic. she's haunted by what she's done and is doing everything to try and not be that person, and maybe by helping others she can help! but. no. no, instead, her ex-boyfriend gets murdered in her living room and she has to call his CURRENT boyfriend to come pick up the body. lol.

i participated in the dsmp rare pair big bang and wrote a canon-setting courtly love au, because if there is one thing i have a special interest in, it's middle and early-modern english literature. the thing i want to talk about the most with that fic is all of the allusions to literature and all the characters eret gets compared/compares herself to. she is repeatedly compared to Tamora from Titus Andronicus for marrying her enemy's leader and becoming a pawn in his political game while also using him in return, which is kind of seen as a betrayal to her prior people; to lady macbeth for the way she is Fucking Haunted by her crimes; and to criseyde from Troilus and Criseyde for her role in her relationship specifically with quackity, in which she kind of winds up betraying him by not choosing to run away with him during/after manberg/pogtopia. she also gets compared to queen gertrude from hamlet for marrying the enemy king, at which point she fully just quotes the play because i love that trope.

and finally. ive been doing a sweeney todd au. the one thing i REALLY want to talk about most with this is a MAJOR spoiler for the final chapter, though i've been dropping hints here and there throughout (go 2 the comments comment on my fic read it please). instead, i will discuss why people are american in a fic that takes place in Victorian England and how everyone has a Full Name in that fic.

bbh: full name is b. addison halo, "bad" to his friends, and he stowed away on a sailing ship bound for london when he was a teenager

schlatt: actually he doesnt have a full name, but he came to london after running away from NYC 30 years prior to the start of the fic because he was doing Crime in his 20s

ranboo: full name is Ranboo Love, first name is chosen. in london because he decided to become a sailor at 16 and see the world. unsure if his surname is gonna come up, but if it doesnt, that's okay because neither does anthony's and he's the anthony character

dream: full name is reeve taken, "dream" to his friends. based on the french word "reve" meaning "dream." came to london 20 years ago after inheriting his grandmother's pie shop. originally from virginia!

quackity and foolish arent actually from north america in this fic but arent english - foolish is egyptian and q is spanish, neither of these things will probably come up Ever.

tubbo's full name is Tybalt.

[lord-pigeon]

The thing you're not getting about why genshin is worse is because events are not meant to be the primary source of quartz in fgo. It comes from your weekly log in, live streams, 50 day ten pull, ascending servants to their second last ascension, story quests, free quests and the ten quartz you get from doing ten of them, rank up and interludes and the quartz you also get for doing ten of those, and special occasions like anniversary and new year. If you do ten rank ups you get a ten pull and you can do this in maybe an hour or two, now try grinding a ten pull in genshin. It'll be a lot more time investing and taxing considering you're just pressing buttons in fate. Also genshin's odds are just lower and it bleeds whales way harder by making constellations do more than just damage and they make modern 4 stars suck without them. Yes genshin has a better pity but that isn't the be all end all, you need to get 5 copies to max a 5 star in fate where as genshin its 6 AND 5 copies of their weapons. I could keep going on about ways that it's worse all day long, especially when genshin has way more micro transactions and predatory practices like battlepasses and resin but take that fate is worse is utterly baffling tbh

Oh boy let's get into the math here because this is where the fun begins.

Don't get me wrong, I'll never defend Genshin's dogshit practices, but I have a personal grudge against FGO fans sucking on it when it's literally the bastard of the mainstream bunch. This argument is me pitting garbage against garbage to say which one is stinkier.

This gonna be long so I'm putting this under a cut:

Alright FGO dailies list (I'll use NA for FGO, since Genshin is a global server schedule):

Day 2=1 SQ, Day 4=1 SQ, Day 6=2 SQ and Day 7=Ticket (3 SQ equivalent)

Total: 7 SQ

Needed for a tenfold: 30 SQ

Weeks needed for a tenfold via Log-In alone: 4 weeks and 4 days. 32 days total.

It should be noted that if you miss a single day, it resets from the very start. You must log in no matter what. It might take but a few moments, but note, you have to.

Genshin dailies list:

10 Primos per Comm/action, total of 40, and a 20 Primo bonus for turning into Katherine

Total: 60 Primos

Needed for tenfold 1600 Primo

Weeks needed for a Log-In alone: 26 days total.

Genshin's big detriment is that while you never lose your place, you need to spend time on Commissions. It can be anywhere from 5-10 minutes, which is a bit of a serious timesink. It's a bit better with the Fontaine update but it's still a pain in the ass for those on the go.

Alright, but Lord, that's just raw Log-In, what about monthlies?

Monthlies are the same, since both give you 5 tickets/fates to use. Genshin is at the disadvantage here since you need to spend the stardust you get from summoning on it, but Fate also requires you to spend Mana Prisms. Fundamentally similar, it's just that Fate wins out by the small margin Mana Prisms are slightly easier to obtain.

What about pity?

Eat my ass, Fate's pity system just happened cause they were getting this ass beat monetarily and they gave up and did a base-tier QOL update. Six FUCKING years we waited for pity and its over 900 SQ??? ((330 pulls btw))

I saved a whole year and a half back for Musashi's inital release and I just barely had that shit. And that was events, dailies, so on and so forth. (I got her in three tickets so nobody come at me with the fact I'm just a bitter old bird who didn't get my cute girl.)

While there's the 50/50 mechanic with Genshin, that levels the idea of 180, and that's going to hard-hard pity. No matter what, you can, and will, at least get the character you want.

Now what if we include Weapon Banner, since people assume Weapons+Characters *must* go together rather than it just being BIS and disregarding the completely different game mechanics of turn-based FGO and action rpg Genshin (<bitter).

Weapon Hard Pity is 240 pulls. You get a Fate Point for 80 pulls if you don't get your directed weapon, and you get another one if you get screwed again. Two Fate Points guarantees the next 80 is what you want.

Now, that might equal 420 pulls, but there's a catch few people acknowledge: Soft Pity.

Genshin has a system that, the closer you get to that hard pity, the higher the rate goes up. Therefore, it's not often someone actually goes to the hard 80 or 90. I'm just using the hard numbers as a point.

FGO is a hard pity, nothing about the rates changes from Summon 1 to Summon 330. Plus no guarantee you actually even get something from those 330 pulls--at least in Genshin you get a Basic Banner character who has some measure of utility you can use to make progress.

Also FGO pity doesn't carry per banner, but Genshin's does, so if you get fucked over and wanna wait a few months, you have another shot instead of wasting all of it cause you got close but no cigar.

But what about upgrades? Constellations?

NP-bonuses are rather minor and not as key as say, Xiao C1 or Hu Tao C1, so FGO has the edge there. However, that leads me to the side point of:

Weapons.

Reasonably, everyone talks about how the 3-star weapons suck, yadda yadda. You get so many weapons from the game as welfare that are good and can be used by multiple characters. You don't need a 5-star weapon, just because you aren't hitting 300k a hit doesn't mean shit.

Genshin has a lot more versatility in team building than FGO tbh, since a lot of FGO's boils down to "Do you have Merlin/Skadi/Chen Gong/Waver/Tamamo/Castoria/Support Caster.png" that you can then use with any other character.

Not saying Genshin doesn't have that too with Qinqiu and Bennett, but due to the nature of Spiral Abyss, people have gotten smart about using others instead of just them cause it's a split up team system.

Citation: I didn't get a single 5-star Weapon until Year 2.5 of Genshin. Fun fact, I also didn't have a single DPS 5-star either (all I had since launch was Diluc and Venti), until fucking Cyno came out. I managed to play the game just fine.

Now in FGO NA, I was also there since Launch, and I didn't get my first SSR until the Solomon raids, in which I finally got Florence Nightingale. I was playing the game carried by Kiyohime, Salter, and throwing SQ at revives. And guides, christ, so many guides it made Arknights look elementary.

What about general SQ/Primo flow (the Anniversaries and whatnot mentioned)?

FGO, the year of 2023, had, according to a Reddit post which I can link if people want the source, is: 2571 SQ, tickets included.

This Reddit post involved Servant NP Ascension Quests, Events, Chunked Log-In Bonus, Live Streams, Bond Stuff, ect ect (also, stuff you can't do if you didn't roll them, the post was being generous with people getting what they rolled or had)

That is about 85.7 tenfolds. So, if you don't spend a penny and not miss a day of logging in, the average joe might get about 2, 3 hard pities on who they want. Presuming I'm doing the math right on that.

Genshin, in the year of 2022, had, according to another Reddit Post, roughly 100k Primogems.

That equals about 62.5 tenfolds, or over 620 Fates. Now, tossing that into the system with someone with the worst luck imaginable that wants a character, that's about the same amount of 3 to 4 guaranteed pities.

One might note that the numbers are about the same, and yeah, that checks. However, there's a lot of variables, such as Spiral Abyss for Genshin, and actually having the characters to do Interludes on.

Half-baked conclusion

FGO is a money sink, Genshin is a time sink. They both sink your serotonin. Nobody wins.

Look, I play both, I have grief with both, I have fond memories of both. I wouldn't have a stupid expensive Okada figurine sitting next to a custom Cyno plushie if I hated these games.

But they're gacha, they're both out for your money, it's just that one is just a raging cunt about the whole affair.

Reddit Post Citations: